Bovard in the Boston Globe:
“After the US Supreme Court’s recent decision limiting military tribunals, Congress is scrambling to pass a law regarding trials for detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere. Republicans are threatening to paint Democrats as soft on terrorism if they refuse to rubber stamp the Bush administration’s existing practices, whereby special rules make it far easier to convict “enemy combatants” in tribunals than in federal courts.”
But, before sanctifying the tribunals, Congress should recognize that the federal government has far more strikeouts than hits when it comes to terrorist suspects. …
Federal officials have charged 10 times as many people in terrorist investigations as they convicted on terrorist-related charges. [They were all innocent too. -SH] Bush declared a year ago that “federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted.” But only 39 people were convicted on crimes tied to terrorism or national security, a Washington Post analysis found. …”
