Patriot Act chalks up 310 arrests
By Robert
Jihad Watch
And 179 convictions. You won't be hearing too much about this until after the elections, if ever. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
The USA Patriot Act has helped federal, state and local terrorism investigators arrest 310 persons since the September 11 attacks, 179 of whom have been convicted, and has proved to be "al Qaeda's worst nightmare," the Justice Department said yesterday in a report.
Attorney General John Ashcroft, attempting to dissuade Congress from weakening the act, key provisions of which will expire next year, delivered the 29-page document to the House Judiciary Committee, saying it gave authorities access to new legal tools and technology to "hunt down al Qaeda, destroy their safe haven and save American lives."
"We are a nation at war. ... We have to use every legal weapon available to protect the American people from terrorist attacks," Mr. Ashcroft said at a press conference with Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican.
The report said the act helped secure six guilty pleas from an al Qaeda "sleeper cell" in Lackawanna, N.Y.; allowed the surveillance of a reputed terror cell in Portland, Ore., resulting in convictions of six persons in a scheme to travel to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces; and the successful prosecution of a money launderer for Colombia's leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
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