Your government puts people in jail on the
merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them
indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
The indictment of a former federal prosecutor in a high profile
terrorism case for concealing evidence is indicative of the blatant lies
this regime uses to justify round-ups and persecutions of Arabs,
Muslims, and South Asians, and whip up support for its so-called “war
on terrorism”. Richard Convertino was the Justice Department
lawyer prosecuting 4 Muslim men in Detroit, and has now been indicted
for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He and a Sate
Department employee (who acted as a main government witness in the
case) made up evidence and withheld the truth about the case. As
a result, 2 men were convicted of terrorism charges and held in prison,
until the Justice Department dismissed the charges in 2004.
The outrageous and illegal acts of Convertino did not take place in
a vacuum – they took place in the context of anti-immigrant and
anti-Muslim hysteria being whipped up, government round-ups, and new
laws like the Patriot Act allowing for new repressive measures.
Bush and then attorney general Ashcroft hailed the case as a
breakthrough in the “war on terror”, and Ashcroft even made false
public statements that the defendants were suspected of knowing about
the plans for the 9/11 attacks. And Justice Department higher-ups
advocated a tough prosecution of the case even though they new the
evidence was shaky at best.
As this incident reveals, the Bush regime’s “war on terror” has
meant the shredding of legal principles and government terrorizing of
Muslims and immigrants. That which you will not resist and
mobilize to stop, you will learn (
or be forced ( to accept.
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(Source: “Ex-Prosecutor in Terror Inquiry Is Indicted”, NY Times, 3/30/06)