Friday, February 05, 2010

"300 Terrorists In Prison." Or Something Like That, Maybe

It's clear that Eric Holder is little more than an ideologue-with-portfolio.

"The Bush administration used the criminal justice system to convict more than 300 individuals on terrorism-related charges," writes Attorney General Eric Holder in a new letter to Republican critics in Congress.

Well, maybe. Maybe not. But you'll never really know.

...on June 17, Holder appeared at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Kyl is a senior member. Kyl asked again. Holder didn't have the information at hand, so Kyl sent another written request.

Weeks passed, and then months, with no response.

That happens to be Holder's favorite response: none at all.

...Then, last October, Kyl got an answer, of sorts, from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich. Citing federal regulations, Weich said he "cannot provide ... a list of Bureau of Prisons inmates," although he said the department could give Kyl "briefings about terrorism suspects housed in federal prisons generally."

As for whether the inmates' crimes are comparable with those of high-value prisoners at Guantanamo, Weich responded, "A number of individuals with a history of, or nexus to, international or domestic terrorism are currently being held in federal prisons, each of whom was tried and convicted in a [civilian] court. The attorney general considers all crimes of terrorism to be serious."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Taking a page out of the Alberto gameplan. Good for him.