Terrorists, terrorists everywhere!

Despite the claims of our right-wing friends here in Ohio that there are terrorists or pro-terrorist Muslims around every corner, a recent study shows that most terrorism arrests never actually result in terrorism prosecutions.

Six years of investigations and prosecutions have turned up little evidence of Islamic jihadists at work in the United States, according to a study released Monday.

The study, conducted by New York University’s Center on Law and Security, tracked 510 cases billed as terrorism-related when arrests were made.

But it found only 158 of those people arrested since al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks were prosecuted for terrorism.

In the past 6 years, there have been an average of just 85 terrorism arrests annually, and less than 31% of those cases end up in terrorism prosecutions. In other words, nearly 70% of the terrorism arrests don’t result in prosecutions for terrorism. In fact, just 4 people have been convicted of plotting terror attacks in the United States, and an overwhelming 58 have been convicted of plotting overseas terror attacks.

Now, don’t get me wrong – every terror attack we stop is a “win”. It’s a good thing. But the dearth of valid charges really undermines the flimsy claims that there are oh-so-many pro-terrorism Muslims in public roles here in Ohio. I need a heck of a lot more (and better) evidence than someone holding opinions counter to right-wingers to be convinced.