Grand Theft-Auto, Uttering Bad Checks…
Spitting on the Sidewalk, Pulling Labels from Furniture Cushions, D & D, B & E and Crossing State Lines for the Purpose of Avoiding Prosecution.
Book ‘em, Danno!
Audit finds that immigration, fraud, drug cases counted among U.S. anti-terror statistics
The Associated Press
Published: February 20, 2007
WASHINGTON: Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite lack of evidence linking them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit reported Tuesday.
Overall, almost all the terrorism-related investigations, referrals and cases examined by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated. Only two of 26 sets of departmental data reported between 2001 and 2005 were accurate, the audit found.
Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department’s headquarters either accurately or underreported their data, which he said underscores efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics.
The numbers are used to monitor the Justice Department’s progress in battling terrorists. They are reported to Congress and the public and help, in part, to shape the department’s budget needs.
“For these and other reasons, it is essential that the department report accurate terrorism-related statistics,” the audit concluded.
Please find the entire article at the International Herald-Tribune.