TRACking the War on Terrorism?

From a Denver Post story:

In a speech before the FBI Academy in September, President Bush said that since the attacks, U.S. prosecutors have charged more than 260 suspected terrorists, of whom 140 have already been convicted.

But critics say the new data—compiled by researchers at Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, using Justice Department reports—provide a very different picture, one that suggests the government is inflating its success by categorizing minor prosecutions as related to terrorism.

TRAC data shows that convictions in cases the Justice Department says are related to international terrorism jumped 7 1/2 times compared with the two years before the attacks—from 24 to 184—but the number of individuals who received sentences of five or more years actually dropped, from six in the two years before the attacks to three in the two years that followed.

The story, which includes quotes from the supporters of the Justice Dept., is online here. TRAC's FBI site is here.