J.J. Green, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – If it seems like a lot of terrorism cases are popping up in Virginia, they are — and there is a good reason for that.
“The world is flat and the globe is shrinking,” says Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
MacBride says the Eastern District of Virginia has a long track record of dealing with high profile espionage cases, “but after 9/11 we’re a go-to district in terms of national security cases.”
The reason, according to MacBride, is that Virginia has “a stable of some of the most experienced seasoned prosecutors in the justice department.
“We have federal judges who’ve seen these tough thorny cases with classified information and international treaty requests, who know how to do these cases.”
In recent years, more than 50 terrorism cases have been successfully prosecuted in the U.S.
The Eastern District of Virginia, has prosecuted more than any other jurisdiction except the Eastern District New York and Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s offices.
Follow J.J. and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
