Guys in Suits: on a Mission
OK, they may look like accountants, but this team of government lawyers is a key cog in the war on terror
That's going to be a tough fight on Capitol Hill, where similar legislation fizzled last year because of suspicions that the Justice Department was trying to use the proposed changes as a smokescreen to allow more warrantless wiretapping.
Keeping terrorism on the front burner remains the top priority, however, says J. Patrick Rowan, who heads the counterterrorism and counterespionage sections in the new division. But the big terrorism cases-like the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe-bomber Richard Reid-have been few and far between. Wainstein and his colleagues say that's evidence the Justice Department's counterterrorism efforts are working. But civil-liberties groups have criticized what they say are penny-ante prosecutions of small-time wannabe terrorists, relying on ancillary charges, instead of the more diffcult antiterrorism statutes.
With the passage of time since the 9/11 attacks and the absence of any big new terrorism prosecutions, at least some prosecutors, says Rowan, are refocusing their efforts on potentially more rewarding public-corruption cases. "We went out as a department and really got ready for battle in the world of national security and counterterrorism," says Rowan. "We can't assume our readiness level now is really where it was in 2004. Between turnover and the natural tendency of good prosecutors to go where the cases are, we've got to stay on top." A tall order, to be sure. And everyone will be watching.
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