CAN ANYONE HERE PLAY THIS GAME? I’ve been pretty critical of homeland security before, but I do have to admit that I never thought we’d go this long after September 11 without another major attack in the United States.

On the other hand, then you get stories like this one:

In one of the most significant setbacks for the Bush administration’s war on terror, the Justice Department has asked a federal judge in Detroit to set aside guilty verdicts against three Middle Eastern men who were convicted last year on terrorism-related charges. . . .

The Justice Department decision came after a lengthy review of the Detroit prosecution, in the wake of repeated defense complaints that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped the defendants. In its filing, Justice officials acknowledged that prosecutors failed to disclose matters “material” to the defense, and “allowed an incomplete and, at times, misleading record to be presented” on key issues.

The department was harshly critical of the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino. Officials said they have provided Convertino with documents from their internal review, and that he responded to their questions with “information that is at odds” with the evidence and testimony.

In its filing, the government said that Convertino and his supervisor and co-counsel, Keith Corbett, had assured Judge Rosen that they would abide by his order to notify him of evidence that might be exculpatory to the defense. But, time and again, the government said, they defied his order and withheld evidence.

Withholding exculpatory evidence, sadly, is not all that unusual. And I guess the positive note here is that the management at the Justice Department has stepped in to try to fix things. But this is still disgraceful, and it bespeaks a problem with criminal prosecution in general. What’s more, convictions in cases like this one need, even more than regular criminal cases, to be obviously fair. This is a serious black mark.