Terror Case Collapse Adds to List of High-Profile Bush Losses

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0907-04.htm

Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by the Associated Press

Terror Case Collapse Blow to Bush
Adds to List of High-Profile Losses

by Curt Anderson

WASHINGTON—The collapse in Detroit of the U.S. Justice Department's first post-Sept. 11, 2001, prosecution of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell has left the Bush administration with few high-profile major criminal victories in the war on terrorism — and a growing list of losses and questionable cases.

Justice department officials insist their record since the attacks on the United States reflects a successful strategy of catching suspected terrorists long before they can launch deadly plots, even if that involves charging them with lesser crimes. Yet some legal experts and Bush administration critics say many such cases are pumped up by overzealous prosecutors.

"There's been a tendency of the justice department to act overly aggressively, to hold news conferences, to seek headlines, but when the facts come out they are often shown to be exaggerated," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and frequent critic of Bush administration counterterrorism policies.

According to the latest available figures, since Sept 11, 2001, the justice department has charged more than 310 people in terrorism-related cases and won 179 convictions — many for such relatively minor infractions as document and credit card fraud and immigration violations.

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