Back to Basics

A bit of laughter amid the otherwise tense situation in Boston as an FBI agent scales a fence that he could have just opened:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahwSmcZxBAU

Was that Mr. Chow from The Hangover?

And here’s a rich piece of irony: The injured jihadi in custody is currently being treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Hopefully the hospital staff is reminding him of that several times an hour.

As far as the marathon bombing story goes, conflicting headlines:

#1 — Boston mayor: Bombing suspects acted alone

#2 — FBI hunting 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

I find it deeply disturbing that the FBI investigated the Treyvon Martin case as a civil rights violation and apparently found nothing … and now they are refusing to supply information, some of which could be exculpatory, after a Judge ordered them to turn over information to George Zimmerman’s counsel. Leading me to consider the possibility that the government might play the race card and go after Zimmerman federally if the State of Florida finds him innocent.

FBI to Zimmerman: We don’t have to give you our file, despite judge’s order

Lawyers for the FBI say the federal agency should not give George Zimmerman’s lawyers all the evidence from its case file, even though a Sanford judge has ordered it. The U.S. Department of Justice filed paperwork Monday, arguing that federal regulations trump a state court judge’s ruling. It’s asking that judge, Debra S. Nelson, to undo her Feb. 5 order. “This court has ‘no power or authority’ … to compel the FBI to produce the documents at issue here,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean P. Flynn.

In her order, Nelson agreed with a defense request and ordered the FBI to open its case file to Zimmerman’s attorneys. Zimmerman, 29, is the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, one year ago in Sanford.

A few weeks after the slaying, following protest rallies across the country, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the shooting to determine whether Trayvon’s civil rights were violated — whether he was killed because he was black.

It’s not clear what that investigation has turned up. The FBI, which has done much of the work in the federal case, has said the investigation is ongoing. Defense attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West have argued that they’re entitled to all evidence gathered against their client, be it by local, state or federal authorities. They’ve received a limited amount of FBI evidence – interview summaries that say three dozen people who knew Zimmerman told agents they saw no signs he was a racist.

In the FBI paperwork filed with Nelson in Monday, Flynn wrote that O’Mara had been told about but had failed to follow the proper procedures that might convince the federal agency to release the information. The supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, Flynn wrote, makes it clear that federal regulations take precedence over a state judge’s order. <Source: FBI George Zimmerman: FBI to George Zimmerman: We don’t have to give you our file – OrlandoSentinel.com>

Media and activist interference …

It appears to me that the media continues to portray Zimmerman in a false light while portraying Treyvon Martin as someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the most egregious media actions is using an old picture – something that does not reveal what Martin may looked like at the time immediately prior to his death. Or that the activists continue to pursue their race-baiting pronouncements without knowing all of the facts.

Photo most often used by the media.	From Trayvon’s Facebook Page

Autopsy results list Martin’s height and weight at 5’11” and 158 pounds.

A career law enforcement executive from Washington, Penn., pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of violating the Hobbs Act, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced on Friday.

Police Chief Donald Abraham Solomon pleaded guilty to three counts before United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that the 56-year-old Solomon was the chief of police of East Washington Borough, Penn. According to the FBI, he often called himself “the best police chief money can buy.”

He confessed to receiving cash payments from a purported drug dealer — who was in fact an undercover FBI agent — to protect large shipments of narcotics and other drugs. He also helped drug traffickers purchase restricted police equipment.

Judge Conti scheduled sentencing for May 3, 2013.

The law provides for a total sentence of 60 years in prison and a fine of $750,000. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the criminal history, if any, of the defendant, according to officials.

Pending sentencing, the court allowed the former police commander to continue to be released on bond.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of the disgraced police chief.

Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore’s website proudly features a video of MSNBC’s erratic and unstable commentator Lawrence O’Donnell referring to NRA official Wayne LaPierre as “blood-drenched” because the organization favors the Second Amendment right of self-defense. O’Donnell, one of several commentators on the channel who demonize conservative groups and individuals, was trying to somehow connect the gun rights organization to the mass murder at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. O’Donnell utterly failed to establish any kind of factual link between the NRA and that crime, which was carried out by a madman in violation of numerous “gun control” laws.

But Moore’s opposition to bloody murder in Newtown, Connecticut, was shocking for another reason. It turns out that, on the very day of the massacre, he was appearing in New York City at a concert seeking President Obama’s release of convicted killer Leonard Peltier from prison. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the execution-style murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975.

If anyone is blood-drenched, it is Peltier and those who support him.

Joining Moore at the event, designed to raise money for a propaganda campaign on Peltier’s behalf, was Common, a black “rap artist” known for “A Song for Assata,” in honor of a convicted cop-killer who escaped from prison and is now hiding out in Cuba. Common performed at the White House in 2011.

Common told AP that he researched the Peltier case before deciding to appear on his behalf. “I did my own due diligence,” he claimed. This “research,” if really done, would have determined that Peltier’s conviction has withstood multiple appeals to different courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

An official FBI summary of the case notes, “Normally, a federal criminal defendant is entitled to a single court-appointed attorney chosen by rotation. Peltier received five lawyers—two as trial attorneys and three as investigators. All were chosen by Peltier, rather than the normal rotation process, and all were paid for by the government. The defense received almost double the normal number of preemptory challenges during jury selection. Peltier’s lawyers were allowed to personally question the jury, which is highly unusual in federal criminal cases. The trial court provided daily transcripts of testimony to the defense, a very expensive measure which is rarely allowed. After his conviction, Peltier was allowed to dismiss four of his five trial attorneys and hire new ones for his appeals. Peltier’s arguments have been presented repeatedly to a U.S. Magistrate, three U.S. District Court Judges, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice denied requests to hear the case after reviewing defense arguments.”

AP reporter John Carucci was clearly sympathetic to the cause of getting him released, noting that “Peltier’s advocates say he has been in poor health in recent years,” as if getting old and sick in prison is sufficient to get clemency from Obama.

The case of Megaupload, the file storage and sharing service started by the very strange self-named Kim Dotcom may reveal that cold war spy technology is being used to pursue commercial cases of copyright infringement on behalf of the Hollywood content creator/distributors.

If this is literally true, the spy agency that runs the greatest listening service in the world, the National Security Agency, may have its activities placed under further scrutiny by hyper-partisan anti-America politicians – thus compromising one of our nation’s most effective intelligence weapons against terrorism.

Unfortunately for the United States, the FBI may have improperly interfered with the Megaupload case in Australia – including causing a false and misleading search warrant to be issued, an illegal raid and premises search to be performed, an unwarranted physical assault on Kim Dotcom for intimidation purposes, illegal removal of property from the premises – and the illegal transfer of certain materials to the United States. The legality and appropriateness to be determined by the Australian high court which has already found improper police behavior.

On January 20, New Zealand police showed up in style at the mansion of flamboyant Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, swarming over the property and bringing along two police helicopters. They cut their way through locks and into the home’s “panic room,” where Dotcom was hiding in apparent fear of a kidnapping or robbery. They seized 18 luxury vehicles. They secured NZ$11 million in cash from bank accounts. And they grabbed a whopping 150TB of data from Dotcom’s many digital devices.

It was also totally illegal. That’s the ruling of New Zealand High Court judge Helen Winkelmann, who today ripped the “invalid” warrant and the subsequent search and seizure in a 56-page decision. The ruling marks a major win for the Kim Dotcom defense, which is trying to prevent their client from being extradited to the US on a host of copyright and money laundering charges. Still, it’s not yet clear if Dotcom will actually get his data back; the FBI already flew to New Zealand, imaged much of the data in March, and FedExed it back to the US. <Source>

What makes part of the story nonsensical is that the authorities were concerned that Kim Dotcom had a “magic switch” which would allow him to erase all of the computers instantaneously. Ludicrous, because the authorities had actually seized his servers, located in the United States under U.S. jurisdiction prior to the raid on the mansion. And, anyone familiar with the length of time it actually takes to securely destroy data on disks knows that short of instantaneous physical destruction, there is no instantaneous method of destroying disk data short of explosive or nuclear devices.

The FBI is involved up to its ears …

The warrant was executed in New Zealand under New Zealand law against a New Zealand resident, and [New Zealand] cops can’t simply act as agents for another country and then tell aggrieved parties that they have to go deal with that country if they want their irrelevant data back.

Earlier this week, goofball historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was longing for the days when excusing extramarital affairs was the only way to keep good people in public life. She referenced Roosevelt, who had a female mistress (as did Eleanor’s husband, Franklin), and of course Kearns Goodwin invoked Bubba and his magical graphite zipper. Also David Patreaus:

“I wish we could go back to the time when the private lives of our public figures were relevant only if they directly affected their public responsibilities….This man was a great general, a great leader, and for his career to come to an end because of a private matter that affects his family and him and evidently doesn’t have national security concerns.”

People’s Exhibit A of why Kearns Goodwin couldn’t be more wrong:

Paula Broadwell, the author who allegedly had an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus, is suspected of storing significant amounts of military documents, including classified material, at her home, potentially in violation of federal law.

A source familiar with case told ABC News that Broadwell admitted to the FBI she took the documents from secure government buildings. The government demanded that they all be given back, and when federal agents descended on her North Carolina home on Monday night it was a pre-arranged meeting.

I’m all for privacy, but with some public figures who hold sensitive government positions, the risk of being compromised is just too great. As for politicians, I always figured if you can’t trust them to uphold marital vows, how can they be trusted to uphold their oath of office?

The central figures in the David Petraeus sex scandal are not talking. That includes Virginia Congressman and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Yet, the decision by this top Republican to turn to the FBI rather than his colleagues in the House with inside information about the scandal has proven to be monumental, a development that enabled Barack Obama to win the presidency without getting tainted by the allegations of immorality and corruption that are now the subject of daily news reports.

The record shows that Cantor had knowledge of the affair from an FBI whistleblower before the election but decided not to go public with the allegations of high-level misconduct by the CIA director. He stayed silent as Obama campaigned for re-election as a foreign policy statesman and efficient manager of America’s national security interests.

Cantor understood the stakes. In an October 22 column, Cantor had declared, “The American people deserve a president who recognizes that the war on terrorism is not over. They deserve a president who is dedicated to maintaining American pre-eminence in the world and who will protect our military budget, not cut it. They deserve a president who will restore and grow America’s alliances, who will prove America to be a reliable partner and a fierce enemy.”

But when he was given the David Petraeus scandal on a silver platter by an FBI whistleblower, more than a week before the election, Cantor turned the information over to the FBI, the same agency which had been conducting the cover-up on Obama’s behalf. Indeed, this cover-up is why the whistleblower came to Cantor. The predictable result of going to the FBI, headed by Robert Mueller, who was re-appointed by Obama, is that nothing was done and Obama won the election.

If Cantor had gone public, the fallout from the scandal would have rocked Obama’s presidency just before Election Day. Because the allegations were based on inside information provided by a whistleblower and were true and could not be denied, Cantor’s revelations could not have been automatically dismissed as partisan or political in nature. The FBI whistleblower might have been persuaded to go public as well.

In one of the latest developments, which demonstrates the serious nature of the scandal, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News has confirmed that Petraeus mistress Paula Broadwell did release classified information in a public forum when talking about the CIA holding prisoners at a facility in Libya. It is likely that Broadwell got the information from Petraeus.

Cantor’s failure to go public or even tell his colleagues about the scandal in advance is starting to attract more interest from the press.

“House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has some tall explaining to do to the leadership on Capitol Hill,” notes Washington Post columnist Colbert King.

King, a liberal, hit the target on this one, asking why Cantor only went to the FBI with the information. He asks, “Why didn’t Cantor raise the alarm? The majority leader needs to step up to the mic.” King notes that members of Congress are livid over being kept in the dark by the FBI about the scandal.

The only reporter to confront Cantor about his strange handling of the explosive allegations is WTVR CBS 6 Richmond, Virginia, reporter Joe St. George.

More than a week before the election, an FBI whistleblower went to a Republican member of Congress with explosive details about a national security scandal that could have stopped President Obama’s re-election campaign dead in its tracks. But the potentially devastating “October Surprise” was hushed up by Republicans.

Although all the details are not yet available and new disclosures are coming every day, it appears that the scandal involves the CIA director leaking classified information to his mistress and the FBI not holding David Petraeus accountable for his immoral and illegal conduct. In short, it is the worst scandal of the Obama Administration and makes the third-rate burglary in the Watergate scandal look minor by comparison.

Despite the explosive nature of the allegations, two Republican members of Congress, Dave Reichert and Eric Cantor, decided to pass on the information to the FBI director and take no action themselves. They didn’t even inform their colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee or in the House leadership. It was a terrible mistake on their part that enabled Obama to escape the damaging repercussions of the scandal right before what many conservatives called the most important presidential election of our lifetimes.

Major news personalities now seem to be in a rush to play down the scandal even more. Suzanne Kelly, CNN’s Intelligence Correspondent based in Washington, D.C., said on Monday, “It is not illegal to have an affair,” in regard to Petraeus admitting one. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer wrote, “Within the military, there are rules about adultery. But within civilian life, should there be?”

Retired Army Maj. Glenn MacDonald, editor-in-chief of MilitaryCorruption.com, told Accuracy in Media, “While Petraeus is a retired Army general and a civilian, most recently director of the CIA, he is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). According to regulations, if an officer is drawing retired pay, they can be called back on active duty to face charges at court-martial. Since adultery is a crime in the military, it is possible, although unlikely, that General Petraeus could face legal action.”

He added, “If he was charged, my guess is he would pay a fine and perhaps be reduced in rank one grade. Barring a finding of treason or leaking secrets, it is my educated guess Petraeus would not do any jail time.”

The leaking of secrets, however, has now become the subject of several news reports, with claims of classified information on his mistress Paula Broadwell’s computer. Broadwell herself publicly gave information about the attack in Libya that appears to be classified. What’s more, The New York Times reports that FBI agents went to Broadwell’s home on Monday night “and were seen carrying away what several reporters at the scene said were boxes of documents.” The Washington Post reports that a senior law enforcement official said the agents were searching for any classified or sensitive documents that may have been in Broadwell’s possession.

Because of Cantor’s failure to go public, the scandal exploded only after the election, as Petraeus submitted his resignation as CIA director and Obama accepted it. “I would like to congratulate President Obama on his re-election,” Cantor had actually said on his blog, knowing that Obama’s administration was engaged in a massive cover-up.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Wednesday raided a company in Houston, Texas accused of illegally exporting high-tech equipment to Russian military and intelligence officials, according to Justice Department sources. Eight suspects were arrested at Arc Electronics, Inc. and the owner of the company, Alexander Fishenko, was charged with operating as an unregistered agent of the Russian government, an FBI report said.

Fishenko was charged of obtaining microelectronics on behalf of Russia and allegedly exporting the technology to Russian military and intelligence operatives despite strict U.S. government controls.

The microelectronics shipped to Russia included analog-to-digital converters, static random access memory chips, microcontrollers, and microprocessors. These commodities have applications and are frequently used in a wide range of military systems, including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems, and detonation triggers. Russia does not produce many of these sophisticated goods domestically.

According to the court documents, the defendants went to great lengths to conceal their procurement activities for the Russian military. For example, on one occasion, defendants and the director of marketing at another Russian procurement firm, discussed how best to conceal the fact that certain goods purchased from Arc were intended for the Russian military.

Similarly, on another occasion, defendant Fishenko directed a Russian procurement company that, when the company provided false end-user information, to “make it up pretty, correctly, and make sure it looks good.” On yet another occasion, a defendant instructed a Russian procurement company to “make sure that” the end-use certificate indicated “fishing boats and not fishing/anti-submarine ones….Then we’ll be able to start working.”

The U.S. Department of Justice said the equipment may be used in a “wide range of military systems, including radar and surveillance systems, weapons guidance systems, and detonation triggers.”Wednesday’s raid was part of a search warrant issued for a total of seven residences and business locations associated with the suspects, according to reports.

Despite this subterfuge, according to the documents, the investigation revealed that the defendants were supplying Russian government agencies with sophisticated microelectronics. For example, the investigation uncovered a Russian Ministry of Defense document designating an Apex subsidiary as a company “certified” to procure and deliver military equipment and electronics.

The FBI recovered a letter sent by a specialized electronics laboratory of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s primary domestic intelligence agency, to an Apex affiliate regarding certain microchips obtained for the FSB by Arc. The letter stated that the microchips were faulty and demanded that the defendants supply replacement parts.

This report is based on an unclassified version of a classified report the GAO issued in February 2012. The unclassified version was released on April 17 and it was immediately obtained for analysis by the National Association of Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Examiner. 

In the wake of the shocking September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation made counterterrorism its top investigative priority. Since that fateful day, the FBI has hired thousands of additional staff, increasing its total onboard workforce by 38 percent, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

In particular, the FBI has increased both the size and the role of its Counterterrorism Division (CTD) that is located in Washington, D.C., according to FBI officials.

In 2005, the FBI reported that nearly 40 percent of staff positions in certain parts of CTD were vacant, raising concerns about the FBI’s ability to fulfill its most important mission, and as a result the U.S. Congress requested that the GAO review FBI CTD vacancies.

The latest GAO report describes “the extent to which counterterrorism vacancies existed at FBI HQ since 2005 and the reasons for the vacancies as well as the impact of the strategies implemented by the FBI to address these vacancies.”

GAO analysts obtained data on CTD vacancies from fiscal years 2005 through 2011 as well as strategies the FBI used to address vacancies and their costs. GAO also interviewed FBI human resources and counterterrorism officials regarding vacancies and the FBI’s steps to address them.

“From fiscal years 2005 through 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s human capital strategies contributed to reductions in the vacancy rate for all positions in the Counterterrorism Division (CTD) from 26 percent to 6 percent. Most vacancies were caused by transfers to other parts of the FBI. While overall vacancies declined, trends in vacancies varied by position. For example, vacancies for special agents and professional staff generally decreased each year while vacancies for intelligence analysts varied during the same time period,” according to the GAO analysis.

The FBI developed the Headquarters Staffing Initiative (HSI) in 2005 to reduce special agent vacancies in CTD and other divisions, and primarily used workforce flexibilities, such as recruitment incentives, and targeted recruitment to reduce vacancies for intelligence analysts and professional staff.

Overall, FBI officials claim that these strategies have been effective in the overall reduction of vacancies. Specifically, HSI included two primary strategies to reduce vacancies: allowing special agents to come to HQ on 18-month temporary duty assignments instead of permanent transfers and providing relocation incentives to special agents to permanently transfer to HQ.

Since 2006, GAO estimates that the FBI has spent $50 million to staff CTD with special agents under HSI. According to the FBI, “HSI is the primary reason agent vacancies in CTD were reduced. In addition, FBI officials said HSI yielded other benefits.”

For example, officials from all sections within CTD stated that HSI helped to build a cadre of experienced counterterrorism agents both within CTD and in field offices. HSI has reduced vacancies, but a 2005 FBI working group report noted that while HSI may be effective in the short term, a long-term solution would require a more thorough analysis.

FBI officials reported that they are planning an evaluation of HSI; however, they have not established criteria, time frames, and other factors of the evaluation.