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The Courts and the War on Terror
By Karen J. Greenberg
On the eve of his departure from office, Attorney General John Ashcroft boasted, “The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.”
…In fact, looked at with a cold eye, the administration’s record of convictions in terrorism cases is remarkably inconsequential. Although it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information on such cases, the facts, as best we know them, are these: Of the 120 terrorism cases recorded on Findlaw, the major information source for legal cases of note, the initial major charges leveled have resulted in only two actual terrorism convictions – both in a single case, that of Richard Reid, the notorious shoe bomber. </i>
Whew, I feel safer, don’t you?
