Less Than 0.01% Of Homeland Security Cases Are Terrorism Related

[groovychk]

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

Less Than 0.01% Of Homeland Security Cases Are Terrorism Related
Records obtained from the immigration courts under the Freedom of Information Act show that only 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were terrorism related, despite the fact that the Bush administration has repeatedly asserted that it is the primary focus of the DHS.
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So now I need to find out who this TRAC group is that did the report.

Comments

[redlami.livejournal.com]

I work for TRAC, and while I didn't write the report I contributed quite a bit to it. What do you want to know about us?

[groovychk.livejournal.com]

Well - I try to take things with a grain of salt. I've developed a definite anti-administration bent and I'm trying to make sure I don't seek out information that only confirms what I already believe.
What's the background of your organization? History?
I hear a lot of organizations that call themselves non-partisan but under the surface have a definite agenda.
I just need to research you guys a bit.

It's good to be skeptical

[redlami.livejournal.com]

I encourage you to read up about us. TRAC is very well-regarded in the media and political circles as being non-partisan and forthright. The numbers don't lie, they are what they are, and our analyses tend to be equally unpopular among both Democratic and Republican administrations -- we've had to sue both to get information released that was supposed to be publically available under the freedom of information act (FOIA).

My bosses (TRAC's co-directors) are Susan B. Long (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/biography.aspx?name=sblong) and David W. Burnham (http://www.epic.org/epic/board/burnham/). Ms. Long is highly regarded in FOIA circles for successfully suing the IRS to release to the public information on who gets audited, over 30 years ago. Mr. Burnham is fairly well known in general as the NY Times investigative journalist who broke the "Serpico" story; he was also the reporter that Karen Silkwood was going to see when she died in a car crash.

Both were inducted into the FOIA Hall Of Fame (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=FOIA_Hall_of_Fame) last year, for their work in defending the public's right to know what its government is doing.

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see how you came to those conclusions as well... and I'd like to see some reports that corraborate the data. Not meaning to offend, but the article in which TRAC was mentioned is quite obviously biased. Any other media sources pick this up?

[redlami.livejournal.com]

The story was covered by CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/27/homeland.security.record/), the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/27/AR2007052701119.html?hpid=topnews), the Associated Press (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6664895,00.html), Time (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1625941,00.html), US News and World Report (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/blogs/news_blog/070529/report_very_few_immigration_ca.htm), and others (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1710261.php) - the AP story alone was carried by hundreds of news outlets. Check Google News (http://news.google.com/news?um=1&tab=wn&client=firefox-a&hl=en&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%22transactional+records+access+clearinghouse%22) and see for yourself!