Now the Justice Department's IG Follows the Pentagon's IG!

The Justice Department's Inspector General released a report yesterday describing, in detail, how the Justice Department, along with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI may have worked to inflate the numbers of terrorism related criminal cases in the US from 2001-2005. These numbers according to various sources include cases that were misfiled or originally filed as terrorism related and never changed.

The report suggests that there is no evidence to support claims of intentional inflation at this time, but given the stance of this administration towards facts, there is very little evidence to suggest that it wasn't intentional. At the very least, it would certainly be very convenient for the administration to ensure that the facts were never corrected if originally unintended.

So what's to gain by inflating the numbers, and perhaps more important, what's to lose?

Well, let's start with the gains: So-called "political capital," for one, fear-mongering for another. Basically, they go hand in hand, because by fear-mongering, the adminstration gains the acquiescence of American voters into allowing them to do what is "necessary" to curtail terrorism. Necessity can have so many definitions, among them "extraordinary rendition," warrantless taps, and the Patriot Act.

What's to lose? Well, for one, we can safely assume, given track records, that not even the people attempting to stop terrorism have a really good picture of what's going on. For another, what about directing Homeland Security funding? If "terror-related" cases are misreported, it could easily tip the scales in the wrong direction, for example, when nearly deserted mid-west states received more funding per capita than NYC did. If we actually have to weigh the likelihood of a terror attack in, say, Idaho, vs. NYC, hands-down NYC would win... or lose, depending on how you look at it.

There are a host of reasons that this, and other similar incidents are truly disgusting. But for now, let's suffice to say it's just more reason never to trust Republicans again.