News Analysis: Bush plays terror card
By David E. Sanger The New York Times
Published: September 7, 2006
WASHINGTON In calling for public war-crime trials at Guantánamo Bay, President George W. Bush is calculating that with a critical election just nine weeks away, neither angry Democrats nor nervous Republicans will dare to deny him the powers to detain, interrogate, and try suspects his way.
Until Bush's decision, Guantánamo had become a political liability, regarded primarily as a way station for outcasts.
By transforming Guantánamo instead into the new home of 14 Al Qaeda leaders who rank among the most notorious terror suspects, Bush is challenging Congress to give him the powers to put America's enemies on trial. But the gambit carries with it a potential downside, by identifying Bush even more closely with a detention system whose history has been rocky, marked by widespread accusations of mistreatment.
In making the announcement on Wednesday that the country should "wait no longer" to bring those charged with planning the Sept. 11 attacks to justice, Bush has more than one agenda at work.
He is trying to rebuff a Supreme Court that visibly angered him in June when it ruled that his procedures for interrogation and trials violated both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
And he is trying to divert voters' minds from the morass of Iraq, and to revive the emotionally potent question of what powers the president should be able to use in defending the country.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/07/news/politics.phpAnalysis
President Shifts Argument, Catches Critics Off Guard
By Michael Abramowitz and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 7, 2006; Page A01
With a series of forceful speeches on terrorism and a dramatic announcement that he has sent top-tier terrorism suspects to the Guantanamo Bay prison, President Bush this week has demonstrated anew the power of even a weakened commander in chief to set the terms of national debate.
All week, the White House has made plain its desire to refocus the attention of voters this fall away from a troubled and unpopular war in Iraq in favor of Bush's vision of a worldwide struggle against Islamic radicalism and terrorism. Yesterday, Bush sought to turn a legal defeat at the Supreme Court into a political opportunity.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/06/AR2006090602098.htmlStudy finds sharp drop in terror prosecutions
By Eric Lichtblau The New York Times
Published: September 4, 2006
WASHINGTON The number of terrorism cases brought by the Justice Department, which surged in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has dropped sharply since 2002, and prosecutors are turning down hundreds of cases because of weak evidence and other legal problems, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by a private research group at Syracuse University and made public Sunday, found that federal prosecutors have declined to prosecute 2 of every 3 international terrorism cases brought to them by the FBI and other agencies since 2001.
The rejection rate was even higher for the first eight months of the current financial year, with 91 percent of the referred cases turned down for prosecution, the research group said. Among the most frequent explanations cited by prosecutors, the study found, were a lack of evidence of criminal intent by the suspect and "weak or insufficient" evidence.
The numbers brought differing interpretations from legal analysts, prosecutors and government officials, many of whom said they were surprised by the findings. They are likely to add to the debate over the administration's legal tactics in prosecuting the fight against terrorism. The Justice Department immediately took issue with the study's methodology and its conclusions.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/04/news/secure.php
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