September/October 2011 Issue

Terror Trials by the Numbers

Stings, informants, and underwear bombs: Digging through the data from federal terrorism cases.

Like these charts? Play with the full data set in our interactive database or read the story of our yearlong investigation. Click on the charts to see the data behind them.

48% were targeted with an informant 31% were nabbed by a sting 10% were lured in by an informant who led the plot 13% are pending trial 22% have been found guilty 66% have pleaded guilty

Federal terrorism cases have been filed in 36 states and Washington, DC.

Click the yellow circles to see all the terrorism cases in your state.

Map

Califonia: 34 Oregon: 10 Washington: 3 Alaska: 2 Arizona: 6 Montana: 1 Colorado: 5 Texas: 32 Oklahoma: 1 Wisconsin: 1 Iowa: 1 Tennessee: 1 South Carolina: 1 Maine: 1 Minnesota: 20 Michigan: 45 Pennsylvania: 41 Florida: 45 District of Columbia: 3 Indiana: 3 Kentucky: 3 Georgia: 3 Alabama: 2 Mississippi: 2 Arkansas: 2 Missouri: 2 Louisiana: 2 Illinois: 10

Connecticut: 1 Ohio: 13 Virginia: 37 North Carolina: 16 Massachusetts: 5 Delaware: 2 Maryland: 14 New Jersey: 18 New York

* Since 9/11, the federal government has prosecuted more than 500 people for plotting terrorist acts, trying to assist terrorists, or other crimes connected to terrorism. We reviewed cases involving 400 Department of Justice-designated terrorism defendants and another 108 cases that fit the doj’s definition of international terrorism cases.

Note: the count of “other crimes” does not include defendants who were charged with terrorism as well as non-terrorism crimes. (For example, the count does not reflect a defendant charged with material support and an immigration charge.)

Federal terrorism charges cover a range of offenses, from taking hostages to bombings. However, in many cases prosecutors choose to charge defendants only with non-terrorism crimes allegedly committed in conjunction with terrorism.

Charts based on data as of August 15, 2011. Data on the website has been updated since then. Research and design by Dave Gilson, Lauren Ellis, Carolyn Perot, Trevor Aaronson, and Jeff Berlin.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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