DES MOINES (AP) - Federal prosecutors claim they built 35 terrorism-related cases in Iowa in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but most of the defendants have questionable links to violent extremism.
Defendants who could be identified by the Des Moines Register were, in most cases, charged with fraud or theft and served just a few months in jail.
"If there have been terrorism-related arrests in Iowa, I haven't heard about them," said U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt. But Pratt himself presided over courtroom proceedings in at least six of the criminal cases that federal prosecutors had cataloged as terrorist in nature.
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The Iowa arrests were part of a national compilation of statistics by the U.S. Department of Justice to lobby Congress.
Lumping minor crimes under the terrorism label could wrongly heighten public anxiety and provide a questionable rationale for more anti-terror resources, critics say.
"When people read that they're doctoring the numbers, aren't they going to have less confidence in the Justice Department and the war on terror?" asked U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "You can't say that somebody's a terrorist when he isn't a terrorist."
Ashcroft sure is doing a great job, isn't he? Link.