Hollow "victories" in terror war.

"Justice Department officials insist their record since the attacks on the United States reflects a successful strategy of catching suspected terrorists long before they can launch deadly plots, even if that involves charging them with lesser crimes," noted a September 7 AP story. "Yet some legal experts and Bush administration critics say many such cases are pumped up by overzealous prosecutors."

One illustration is the collapse of a case in Detroit involving two men who were convicted of offering material support for terrorism. In early September, the Justice Department reached an agreement with defense attorneys to drop the terrorism-related charges--thereby nullifying the first successful terrorism prosecution after 9-11.

"Problems have recently cropped up in a number of other high-profile cases," continued the report. Attorney Brandon Mayfield of Portland, Oregon, was held for days last May as a material witness in the Madrid bombings "after the FBI mistakenly said his fingerprint matched one found on a plastic bag connected to the deadly terror bombings...." The feds also lost a case against a Saudi student in Boise, Idaho, who was accused of giving material support to terrorists by hosting an on-line chatroom for Muslims. The reds claimed that the Web site "fostered Islamic extremism and helped [terrorists] recruit."

Notes Georgetown University law professor David Cole: "There's been a tendency of the Justice Department to act overly aggressively, to hold news conferences, to seek headlines, but when the facts come out [the charges] are often shown to be exaggerated."