Another strong reason to boot Bush: Ashcroft's DOJ is a DISGRACE!

[BurtWorm]

This is a must-read article (rarer and rarer for the NYTimes, I'm sorry to say). Americans must not allow this gross incompetence to continue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/07/national/07detroit.html?oref=login&hp

TRIAL AND ERRORS
After Convictions, the Undoing of a U.S. Terror Prosecution

By DANNY HAKIM and ERIC LICHTBLAU

But the Justice Department's critics say that the prosecution was overzealous and that it demonstrated how the Bush administration's pre-emptive approach to fighting terrorists by disrupting plots before they materialize can clash with legal principles of due process and the right to a fair trial.

"This case became a poster child for the Justice Department in the war on terrorism, and it had no institutional checks and balances in place to really look hard at the evidence," said Peter Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island who has written extensively about terrorism.

The Justice Department declined to discuss the case publicly, citing a judge's gag order and pending investigations. But internal documents show that from its early days, the case never appeared as strong as the department's public enthusiasm for it.

In August 2002, just days after Mr. Sabin's internal memorandum expressed doubts about the evidence, the suspects were indicted on terrorism charges, prompting a supervisor in Washington to send the prosecutors in Detroit e-mail congratulating them on the indictment "and the nice media coverage."

"For what it's worth," the supervisor, Jeff Breinholt, wrote, "the higher-ups in D.C. are pleased."

[BurtWorm]

1. Willing a Sept. 11 Tie

...

Six days after the Sept. 11 attacks, just before nightfall, seven federal agents appeared at an apartment on the outskirts of Detroit looking for Nabil al-Marabh, an Arab immigrant on the terrorist watch list.

Mr. Marabh no longer lived there, but agents found three other Arab immigrants. They were detained after agents combing through the apartment found false identification papers, crude sketches that the authorities came to see as outlines of possible targets, religious audiotapes and a videotape that they believed held surveillance of the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, The New York Times headquarters and other sites.

Agents also found expired badges from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport belonging to two of the men, who had once worked there. A fourth suspect, a Moroccan wanted for credit card fraud, was arrested later.

The arrests received worldwide attention as part of a nationwide terrorist dragnet. But for almost a year, the only charges brought were for document fraud.

Mr. Convertino, the lead prosecutor, said the interest in Washington was swift. Senior Justice Department officials, he said, "must have asked me a hundred times" if the men had links to the Sept. 11 attacks. His answer, he said, was that though he believed the men had ties to terrorists, he had no evidence linking them to Sept. 11. Nevertheless, at a press conference on Oct. 31, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the men were "suspected of having knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks" before they happened.

...

[JHB]

2. Standard BFFE Law Enforcement Practice, apparently...

The same sort of "headlines first, facts later" thinking led the BATF to stage a showy raid on the Branch Davidians (planning for which was done during 41's term), despite less drastic options.

We all know how that turned out. Except Ashcroft wasn't still practically unpacking his boxes, as his counterpart was then. This is his baby.

[BurtWorm]

3. Don't miss this article

[BurtWorm]

4. kick

[proud patriot]

5. A lot of Fence sitter's that I know are voting for Kerry

Because they Hate Ashcroft .

[BurtWorm]

6. He's an asset we should use more.

A total waste of space!

[diamond14]

7. where is the ANTHRAX murderer???? a terrorist on the loose that

asscroft has IGNORED....attempted murder of several U.S. Senators (most recently, with ricin delivered to bill frist's office)....KILLED several United States Government Employees....and asscroft LOOKS THE OTHER WAY...doesn't even care....

[BurtWorm]

8. This is something Kerry should bring up in the next debate.

This is the most disgraceful DOJ in my lifetime, bar not even Mitchell's. (Well, it's close, come to think of it.)

[Skittles]

9. where the f*** has he been, anyway?

nt