Unsurprisingly, the number of prosecutions for terrorism escalated after 9/11. Before 2001 there were an average of 14 annually. In 2001 there were 57, in 2002 355. But then the numbers started to fall; for the first eight months of this year there have been 19 prosecutions. Does this decline say something about scare tactics?
Prosecutors do not have to prosecute all the cases brought to them by investigators. Before 2001, they prosecuted about half of the cases. In 2001 they prosecuted almost 60%. By 2006 they were declining to prosecute 90% of the cases.
The report has a lot of numbers and charts. Let me give you some:
- Before 9/11 the median prison sentence given to those convicted was 41 months. By 2006 the term had dropped to 20 days.
- The feds have received 6472 referrals and have convicted 1329 thus far.
- The Social Security Administration is the agency, after the FBI and immigration, that has the third highest number of convictions.
- By far the largest number of cases are referred to the Virginia prosecutors, although the district does not generate the largest number of cases by itself.
1 comment:
In response to your final question, it may well have been political motivation originally. Unfortunately, the debacle in Iraq has stirred up such a hornet's nest of extremism in the Middle East that it is now more likely to turn into a reality.
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