Conservatives like Andy McCarthy have been challenging Justice Department numbers indicating that more than 300 convicted terrorists reside in American prisons, convicted by the criminal justice system. The numbers undermine the conservative case against using courts instead of military commissions to handle terrorism cases:
Quite clearly, the 300 figure is a gross exaggeration if our focus is the number of international terrorists convicted since 9/11. As I show in my column, the Human Rights First report had to include all sorts of non-terrorism crimes just to get to 195. DOJ can't conceivably get anywhere close to 300.
Mark Hosenball reports that the numbers come from ... the 2009 Justice Department budget summary prepared by the Bush administration. Oops.
Human rights groups have been giving a smaller number, closer to 200, which McCarthy touts as inflated by the term "terrorism related" or because the suspects weren't necessarily convicted of "terrorism" charges even if the government suspected that they were convicted of being connected to terrorist groups. As I've written before, this is like complaining that the criminal justice system doesn't work because Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion. McCarthy's problem with the criminal justice system is that it's incapable of ensuring a conviction if the government is unable to prove its case. Which is to say, he has a problem with due process, period.
But let's accept for a moment that the number of terrorism cases is inflated. During the same period, the military commissions prosecuted three. McCarthy complains that Ali Saleh al-Marri got a "sweetheart deal" from the government when he received another five years in addition to the seven he already served without trial. Out of the three defendants tried by military commission, only one is still in custody, Ali al-Bahlul. The other two are free, having received five- and nine-month sentences, respectively.
McCarthy can play the numbers game all he wants; the facts still don't go his way.
-- A. Serwer
