A nice story by Michael Trackett in the Tribune unveils what Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Operation Flytrap accomplished. It mucked up the lives of hundreds of people who had no connection to terrorist groups and were guilty of nothing more than fudging a little bit to get jobs.

Naturally, Ashcroft had a big press conference to take credit for his
wonderful work. “Our response has been to weave a web of terrorism prevention that brings together all agencies of justice and every level of law enforcement,” Ashcroft said in April. “Let me be clear — there will be zero tolerance of security breaches at our nation’s airports.” Aw, that’s super. I just can’t wait when we have a whole cabinet-level department devoted to this kind of nonsense.