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.
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“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.”