Interesting Statistics...

As Bush stumps about the nation pushing for not only a continuation of, but an EXPANSION of the so-called Patriot Act, he is quoting a batch of statistics which are (at best) inflated. He claims that due to the Patriot Act, over 400 people have been charged with terrorism, and over half of those convicted.

Even setting aside the "ends justify the means" fallacy in using this argument to support the act, this article in the Des Moines Register says that in order to obtain those numbers, the White House has greatly expanded the definition of "terrorism".

If there's a spurious accusations of terrorist links, no matter how tenuous nor how quickly dismissed, that investigation is counted as terrorism related, and any charges brought against that individual, even if they have no relation to terrorist activities, are counted as a terrorism charge. The number of categories of crimes considered "terrorist" crimes have risen from two to six, and allow terrorist hunting groups who make arrests on other charges to count those arrests.

In counting terrorist "investigations", any lead which comes in is counted, even if it is considered spurious and is not actually investigated.

According to the Des Moine article, of 35 "terrorism" cases in Iowa since 9/11, most were actually fraud or theft cases. Only 3 actually involved terrorism, one a mailbox bomber and two people who sold fraudulent documents to illegal aliens, and happened to have had among their many clients a terrorist cell in Detroit.

Now, Iowa probably isn't a hotbed of international terrorism, but the Washington Post followed up on the claims, and found that according to Justice Department numbers, there have been 39 terrorist convictions since 9/11, not the over-200 stated by Bush. The Post further found at least 180 cases of people charged as a result of terrorism probes where the people had no link to terrorism... but were still counted in the statistics.

Boy, it sure would be nice if this Administration had ANY concept of truth telling.

By the way, I just want to say with regard to the name of the Patriot Act, it is difficult to find a more UN-patriotic bit of legislation, although if the flag-burning amendment were to be passed, that would certainly join that august club.

Copyright (c) June 13, 2005 by Liam Johnson. http://www.liamjohnson.net