Ex-Prosecutor Accused of Concealing Evidence in Terror Case

[kpete]

Ex-Prosecutor Accused of Concealing Evidence in Terror Case

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: March 29, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 29 — A grand jury charged today that a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who led one of the Justice Department's biggest terrorism investigations concealed critical evidence in the case in an effort to bolster the government's theory that a group of local Muslim men were plotting an attack.

The prosecutor, Richard G. Convertino, and a State Department employee who served as a chief government witness were each indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The grand jury charged that they had conspired to conceal evidence from the jury about photographs of an American military hospital in Jordan that was the supposed target of a terrorist plot concocted by the Detroit defendants.

Mr. Convertino, once a rising star at the Justice Department who fell out of favor with supervisors in Washington, denied that he had ever withheld evidence, and he pledged that he would be vindicated. "These charges are clearly vindictive and retaliatory, and it's an effort to discredit and smear someone who tried to expose the government's mismanagement of the war on terrorism," he said in a telephone interview.

The indictment of the former prosecutor and one of his star witnesses marked a striking turnaround in a case once hailed by President Bush and John Ashcroft, his first attorney general, as a major breakthrough against terrorism plotted on American soil.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/national/29cnd-prosecutor.html?ei=5088&en=f6c4097df9f09306&ex=1301288400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1143685025-U/TIAlH8040wa30bLb0fJg

[bullimiami]

1. they thought of this themselves?

[kestrel91316]

2. Republican, by any chance???

[Catrina]

3. They falsely charged four Muslim men just to make it look like they

pursueing terrorists!!

An internal Justice Department memo prepared in Washington before the 2002 indictments of the men acknowledged that the evidence was "somewhat weak," that the case relied on a single informant with "some baggage," and that there was no clear link to terrorist groups.

"We can charge this case with the hope that the case might get better," a senior counterterrorism official in Washington wrote at the time, "and the certainty that it will not get much worse."

Not only should the prosecutor and his star witness be in trouble, everyone who participated ought to be! The charges were all dropped against the four men. They were just scapegoats in Bush's PR 'I'm the terror president' game. Playing with people's lives!!

Ashcroft, the article says, was admonished by the judge in this case ~

The only good part of this are the people who tried to stop it ~

Their whole nasty game is unravelling piece by piece. I wondered about those so-called terror cases. They were willing to do anything to please the Bush regime ~ no wonder the prosecutor is angry, he did what they told him to do and which he should have refused to do, and now he's taking the rap.

This makes it more understandable why Ashcroft refused Gonzalez and Andrew Cards' demand to go along with the NSA spy program, and to overrule Comey. Ashcroft was already involved in so much illegal garbage he had done for this administration. I guess he was beginning to realize he had done enough damage, and maybe to himself. It wasn't about principle after all. He just woke up and realized these were very bad people, and he had become one of them, imo.

The stories we will hear when all these people are free to talk ~ and I think it's beginning to happen ~

[KoKo]

4. Another one of Bush's Terrorist Apprehension cases bites the dust.

and who even mentioned this in the MSM? Maybe it's too early and the story just broke, but I've gotta believe the Neworks and Cables knew about this.

How many times have the Repugs and Bush gone around saying we were prosecuting the terrorists. What case has been a success. I don't know of any....but maybe I missed something. And what about the missing Osama who just turns up conveniently when an election is about to take place. :eyes:

Will the average American ever here about this? No... at least not in a way that a non "news junkie" could understand. :-(