Dammit, we're trying to keep people afraid here!

New York University produces a study suggesting the country isn't, in fact, crawling with undercover BolshiNazoMuslimists and certain people, well:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Six years of investigations and prosecutions have turned up little evidence of Islamic jihadists at work in the United States, according to a study released Monday.

The study, conducted by New York University's Center on Law and Security, tracked 510 cases billed as terrorism-related when arrests were made.

But it found only 158 of those people arrested since al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks were prosecuted for terrorism.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the Justice Department said the report "reflects a serious misunderstanding" of anti-terrorism efforts and includes "wildly inaccurate" statistics.

Mind you, it was only a week ago that the White House reminded us that TEH BOOGEDYMAN was coming, including the dark forces of "Al Qaeda in Iraq" (who evidently aren't presenting much of a threat anymore even in their own country, much less half-a-world away).

"The vast majority of cases turn out to include no link to terrorism once they go to court," the report found. The analysis "suggests the presence of few, if any, prevalent terrorist threats currently within the U.S."

Well, cripes, go around telling people that kind of stuff and how is Bush supposed to justify spying on people?

Receiving applause, Bush said, "If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again."

Yeah, after all, you did your "sitting back" last time, Chuckles.

The report praised what it called the increased effectiveness of the FBI, which it credited with breaking up plots to bomb fuel pipelines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and attack an Army post at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

But it questioned the use of what it called "preventive arrests" by federal agents to disrupt plots rather than let agents continue watching suspects and gathering more evidence.

Since there was very little concrete about either of those specific two cases, praising the Feds seems rather hollow.

And I think the comment about "preventive arrests" versus long-term intelligence gathering is valid, but misses the point. It's not to seriously deter terrorism - it's to hold up idiots and incompetents like Richard Reid and and "Fort Dix Six" and remind us all that Big Daddy is protecting us and if we don't shut up about all this "civil liberties" booshwah and let the government do what the hell it wants WE'RE ALL GONNA GET KILLED.

(And isn't it a tad odd, odd I say, that NYU should publish a study saying "We're safer!" and the Justice Department should jump all over them for it?)