The Sears Tower and Holland Tunnel “plots” are not the first such prosecutions. “Freedom Watch” flagged the Justice Department’s unsuccessful prosecution of a Saudi graduate student in Boise, Idaho, in 2004, for lending “material support” to terrorists by operating a Web site linking to jihadist (as well as to anti-jihadist) sites. The jury, instead, viewed his Web-site activity as a form of free speech and acquitted him (see “Covering a Multitude of Sins,” News and Features, April 30, 2004). Because most of the Bush administration’s cases have failed, the government has now changed tack, stretching already malleable crime categories such as “conspiracy” and advocacy of “imminent lawless action” beyond recognition. Whether the Justice Department can fool and panic the courts as easily as it hopes to scam the electorate remains to be seen.
Related:
Ring of fire, William Lemmer: Coming home, MCLU worries FBI is watching peace groups, More 
- Ring of fire
An ugly squabble between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the nation’s biggest phone companies has, in one nasty blow, recast the image of all the entities involved.
- William Lemmer: Coming home
This article originally appeared in the July 11, 1978 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
- MCLU worries FBI is watching peace groups
The Maine Civil Liberties Union is fighting on two fronts to protect Mainers’ privacy against the government's efforts to intrude.
- Pressing the case
In the aftermath of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s perjury conviction last week, the journalistic fallout of the case remains a subject of intense interest for reporters and legal observers.
- Torture-tapes template
Did the Bush-administration lawyers, and the CIA operatives they advised, commit obstruction of justice by destroying the now-infamous CIA-interrogation videotapes?
- The Gray Lady in shadow
Fearful that his presidency could be swept into the same historical dustbin as Richard Nixon’s, an unrepentant President George W. Bush seems intent on prosecuting the sources who leaked to the New York Times the details of his administration’s warrantless domestic spying.
- The constitutional crisis no one seems to understand
The dolts in Congress let the imperial presidency get so out of hand that we are now faced with a truly nasty constitutional crisis.
- Trust me, baby
Readers respond to "Bush's Real Motive," "Liberty at the Library," and more.
- Home grown terror
Cathy Wilkerson, 62-year-old math teacher and mother of one, was famous long ago, as a member of the radical political collective Weatherman.
- Highway robbery
Not long ago, the path by which the recent Justice Department scandal traveled from tidbit to tsunami would have been seen as an exotic trip through an unknown land.
- He had his reasons
So why did Alberto Gonzales resign?
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trials, Terrorism, More
, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trials, Terrorism, War and Conflict, U.S. Department of Justice, University of New Hampshire, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Less
