A Culture Of Scandal, Lies, Misrepresentation & Misdeeds

Ex-Prosecutor in Terror Inquiry Is Indicted

It appears that the Bush administration has effectively instilled a culture where misdeeds, misrepresentation, lying, preaying upon the fears of people and scandal are the norm.

The fable of "The Boy That Cried Wolf" comes to mind when we see this type of lying, secretive behavior, misrepresentation and penchant for usurping the process. How long before we really have a national security incident where we are not prepared because we are so used to having false cases and false emrgencies thrown at us?

The Bush administration needs to go back to Aesop's tale about the boy crying wolf and review that lesson. The case discussed in this article and the Massaoui case (which Massaoui eventually blew on his own initiative) are reminiscent of the OJ, Michael Jackson and Robert Blake trials... the government can't seem to get out of its own way. While the Blake, Jackson and Simpson trials involved state cases and the case cited in the article is federal, the principle remains the same... Due process is a protected right and a necessity of law.

The culture of deception being implemented under the banner of "family" or "Christian" values is developing a hollow ring... and a stink that could gag a maggot.

A grand jury charged Wednesday that a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who led one of the Justice Department's biggest terrorism investigations concealed critical evidence in an effort to bolster the government's theory that a group of local Muslim men were plotting an attack.

The former 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 about photographs of a military hospital in Jordan that was the supposed target of a terrorist plot 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 dramatic 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.

After four Muslim men were arrested days after the Sept. 11 attacks in a dilapidated Detroit apartment, federal authorities charged that they were part of a "sleeper" terrorist cell plotting attacks against Americans overseas.

Two of the men were convicted on terrorism charges after a high-profile trial in 2003, with Mr. Convertino as the lead prosecutor. But the case soon began to unravel amid accusations of concealed evidence and government misconduct. The Justice Department ultimately repudiated its own case, leading to the dismissal of all terrorism charges against the men in 2004.

"I can't recall a case like this in recent memory where you have not only the collapse of the prosecution's entire case, but now the prosecutor himself indicted," said Brian Levin, a professor at California State University, San Bernardino, who has written on terrorism prosecutions.

"The government has made clear it's going to do everything it can to go after terrorism, but here you have a case where it appears that hubris might have intoxicated the prosecutor, and he might have taken one step over the line," Mr. Levin said.

Mr. Convertino, 45, who has left the Justice Department and opened his own law practice in the Detroit area, faces 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted. His co-defendant, Harry R. Smith III, 49, a security officer for the State Department who assisted in the prosecution, faces 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

The indictment lays blame for the collapse of the case against the terrorism suspects at the feet of Mr. Convertino and Mr. Smith. It said the two men conspired "to present false evidence at trial and to conceal inconsistent and potentially damaging evidence from the defendants."

But an investigation by The New York Times published in October 2004 found that senior officials at the Justice Department knew of problems in the case yet still pushed for an aggressive prosecution.