The lawsuit states [Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard] Convertino first complained to his superiors more than a year ago about Justice's interference in the Detroit terrorism trial, saying Washington supervisors "had continuously placed perception over reality to the serious detriment of the war on terror." The lawsuit includes excerpts of an e-mail from another prosecutor in the case that Convertino says "identified some of the gross mismanagement which was negatively impacting the ability of the United States to obtain convictions in a major terrorist case." The e-mail from the other prosecutor shows he complained at the time that efforts by Justice's terrorism unit in Washington to "insinuate themselves into this trial are, nothing more than a self-serving effort to justify the existence" of the unit. "They have rendered no assistance and, are in my judgment, adversely impacting on both trial prep and trial strategy," the e-mail cited in the lawsuit states.Isn't that special? For more on the utter horror show that is Ashcroft's tenure as AG see last month's Vanity Fair article. He comes off only slightly better than Bush does in The Price of Loyalty. Why is it that the leaders of the free world complain when they have to read briefing material that is more than a few paragraphs long? Both Bush and Ashcroft bring a messianic fervor to their jobs, but are unclear and uninterested as to what exactly those jobs are. It has been apparent for a long time that Ashcroft is far more interested in headlines about fighting terrorism than actually fighting it. Ashcroft's crowning moment was when he issued a statement from Moscow about the three-month detention of Jose Padilla, who was then being reclassified as an enemy combatant so that no charges needed to be filed. So over the top was Ashcroft's announcement of what was an illegal detention of a US citizen that the White House essentially yanked his speaking privileges. If Convertino proves truthful, it will show that Ashcroft's headline hunting has infected other members of the Justice Department to the detriment of the war on terror.
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