Terrorism or Creative Accounting?

An internal examination by the Inspector General of Justice Department of terrorism prosecutions since 9/11 shows the government has labeled many criminal cases as anti-terrorism, despite having no connection to terrorist activity. The report mirrors findings highlighted three years ago by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

You can call an apple an orange, but that doesn’t make it so. Classifying routine criminal cases as terrorism cases lets the Justice Department tweak their record in the war on terrorism but does nothing to make Americans safer. The Inspector General’s report shows the Justice Department is attempting to mislead the public.

We applaud Inspector General Fine and his office for looking into this matter. The Justice Department has the awesome responsibility of enforcing our nation’s laws, and they should do so without distorting the truth. Congress must look into the Justice Department’s inflated claims on their terrorism record.