Federal prosecutors in Iowa claim they built 35 terrorism-related cases in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Wow! Thirty-five terrorism cases? In Iowa? That’s surprising news to me. It also came as surprising news to the judge who tried some of the cases:

"If there have been terrorism-related arrests in Iowa, I haven’t heard about them," said U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt. But Pratt himself presided over courtroom proceedings in at least six of the criminal cases that federal prosecutors had cataloged as terrorist in nature.

Mmmmm. Apparently there is a disconnect somewhere.

Included among the 35 cases were:

• Four American-born laborers who omitted mention of prior drug convictions or other crimes when they were assigned by a contractor to a runway construction project at the Des Moines airport or when they applied for manual-labor jobs there.

• Five Mexican citizens who stole cans of baby formula from store shelves throughout Iowa and sold them to a man of Arab descent for later resale.

• Two Pakistani men who entered into or solicited sham marriages so that they and their friends could continue to live in the Waterloo area and work at convenience stores there.

Ah, yes, terrorism is EVERYWHERE, especially if every little thing counts as "terrorism" (and doubly so if you happen to be non-white!). Just the other day, a guy cut me off in traffic — that f**kin’ terrorist!

Actually, the reason for the jacked up figures (i.e., the "lie") is so that when Attorney General John Ashcroft lobbys lawmakers for continued support of the Patriot Act, he has some (bogus) successes to point to. Creep.

Anyway, read the full article.