Senator upset with study on terrorist arrests

A new study finds disturbing trends in U.S. arrests of terrorism suspects since the nine-eleven attacks. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the study by Syracuse University in New York “raises serious questions” about the effectiveness of the U.S. Justice Department and its claims of putting away people who are a threat to our freedoms.Grassley says the data finds most of the people accused of terrorism are getting little if any jailtime, adding, “The F-B-I and the Justice Department may be all bark and no bite.” Grassley, a longtime critic of the F-B-I, says he’s disappointed by the findings. He says “Our government still needs to do more to meet our national security needs. The new data should be helpful in getting the Justice Department to reexamine its strategies to see if it’s doing the right thing when it comes to prosecuting terrorists. The Syracuse study found about 64-hundred people were referred by investigators for criminal charges involving terror in the two years after the attacks, but fewer than one-third actually were charged and only 879 were convicted. Most only spent two weeks in prison. Only five people were sentenced to 20 years or more.