Shortly after I posted this two weeks ago, Slate issued the following correction:

Correction, 10/28: The authors originally stated that there has been no domestic terror conviction since 9/11. This was an overstatement, since there have been some convictions under a questionable new law prohibiting Americans from offering “material support” to foreign based terrorists. However, there has not been a single conviction for an act of domestic terrorism itself, including Richard Reid�who was convicted for an attack on a trans-Atlantic flight originating outside the United States.

This correction leaves much to be desired.

First, Slate is wrong when it describes the authors’ error as an “overstatement.” It was an error, not an overstatement. Slate itself concedes as much when it notes later in its correction that “there have been some convictions.”

Second, Slate is on questionable ground when it says the 1996 law prohibiting Americans from offering material support to foreign-based terrorists is “new.” The law was enacted eight years ago–the same year Slate began publishing.

Third, Slate misleads when it says that no one has been convicted for an act of terrorism on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. I can recall only one act of terrorism on U.S. soil since Sept. 11–the LAX shooting–and the perpetrator in that incident was killed at the scene. The nineteen 9/11 hijackers, obviously, also are dead. Slate insinuates that Ashcroft has failed to win prosecutions for acts of domestic terrorism since 9/11, but there were no such prosecutions to pursue.

Update: Reader Clinton Watson Taylor writes:

There have been at least three acts of terrorism on US soil you left out. The first was the anthrax mailer, who is still at large. The second was a young September 11 copycat named Charles Bishop in Florida who ran his
plane into an empty skyscraper, killing only himself. His suicide note
cited Osama bin Laden as his influence.

The third was the DC sniper shooting spree by John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo. I am uncertain why it isn’t recognized as Islamic terrorism since they called it jihad themselves…

I’m not sure I agree that all three qualify as terrorism, but maybe these are the acts of domestic terror that Slate had in mind. If so, Ashcroft can hardly be faulted for failing to secure prosecutions. Charles Bishop is dead; both John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo have been convicted. That leaves only the anthrax mailer, who, as Taylor notes, is still at large.

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