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Prosecution of FBI Terror Cases Drops, Report Finds
The U.S. Justice Department is declining to prosecute a growing percentage of terrorism cases developed by the FBI, according to a report released today (see GSN, Oct. 10). Charges were filed in only 19 of 150 cases referred by the FBI between October 2005 and June 2006, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at The rate of nonprosecutions has increased since the 2001 budget year, when the Justice Department rejected 33 percent of FBI cases, the Associated Press reported. The figures, collected from department records, “raise troubling questions about the bureau’s investigation of criminal matters involving individuals the government has identified as international terrorists,” the report states. The Justice Department disputed the figures, saying only 67 percent of FBI cases were rejected in the nine-month period cited by the report. Dismissed cases that were clearly terrorism hoaxes might have been included in the government figures, said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. Some referrals also might have sought subpoenas or other legal orders for cases that ultimately did not lead to charges being filed, he said. The low percentage of prosecutions largely indicates how the FBI has revamped its conduct of investigations since Sept. 11, 2001, said Assistant Director John Miller. Detection and information gathering on terrorist organizations now take up about half of the agency’s resources, but do not always lead to arrests, he said. “It’s not about the numbers and for TRAC to suggest as much is to be intellectually dishonest,” Miller said. TRAC co-director Susan Long said the results were based on Justice Department figures (Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press/Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 5).
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