14 Days in the Big House

So maybe al Qaeda exploited US jihad support prior to Sept 11, 2001, but since then the government has been kicking the terrorists' butts. Right? Maybe not. According to a new Syracuse University study, in the 2 years after the Sept 11 attacks the Justice Department resolved 2681 terrorism-related cases referred by investigators. Of these: - 1,554 were thrown out without charges being filed. Of the remaining 1127 cases: - 234 were dismissed. Of the remaining 893 cases: - 14 resulted in not guilty verdicts. Of the remaining 879 cases: - 506 resulted in no prison sentence. Of the remaining 373 cases: - 260 were sentenced to the time they had already spent in jail, and were released. Of the remaining 113 cases: - 23 were sentenced to 5 or more years -- as compared with 24 sentenced to 5 or more years in the two years before the 9/11 attacks. ----- "Terrorism cases fizzling out in US courts: study," LA Times: "...[W]hile 184 people have been convicted of crimes deemed to involve 'international terrorism,' defendants were sentenced to a median prison term of just 14 days."