BRIAN ROSS REPORTS
TOP BLOTTER CATEGORIES
- Abramoff Lobbying Scandal
- American Al Qaeda
- Avian Flu
- Beirut Hospital Out of Gas
- CIA
- CIA Secret Prisons
- D.C. Madam Affair
- FBI
- Federal Air Marshal Service
- Homeland Security
- Hurricane Katrina
- Mark Foley Internet Scandal
- Millionaire Sex Scandal
- Nigerian E-mail Scams
- Norman Hsu, Clinton Fundraiser
- NSA: Wiretapping
- Osama bin Laden
- Payola
- Pharmacy Investigation
- Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert
- Terror
- Troopergate
- U.K. Airline Terror Plot
- U.K. Bombing Attempts
- Wen Ho Lee
- William Jefferson
- Zarqawi
Five Men Convicted for Plotting Terror in the U.K.
April 30, 2007 2:03 PM
Five British men have been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for their roles in plotting terror attacks on nightclubs, shopping centers and trains in the United Kingdom.
The investigation, known as "Operation Crevice," was one of the largest counterterrorism operations ever seen in the U.K.
"The threat posed by this group of men demanded an unprecedented response from the police and Security Service," said Peter Clarke of the Metropolitan Police. "It was imperative that the public were protected from these men and their plans."
Most of the men had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan where they were taught how to make explosives, police say.
In 2004, the men were picked up in a series of raids where police seized more than 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Clarke said that once the bomb-making materials were purchased and the men were taking targets, the police decided to move in.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"In this case we decided to arrest the plotters when we feared that they were getting closer to mounting their attack," said Clarke. "They had to be stopped."
A life sentence in the U.K. does not necessarily mean the men will be behind bars for the rest of their lives. Three of the men -- Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia and Waheed Mahmood -- will all serve a minimum of 20 years before they can be considered for parole. Jawad Akbar and Salahuddin Amin will each serve a minimum of 17-and-a-half years.
At the sentencing, the judge described the suspects as "cruel and ruthless men."
April 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
Look-alike Arrested Twice; Close But No Bin Laden
April 30, 2007 9:54 AM
An Afghan tribesman with an uncanny resemblance to Osama bin Laden has now been arrested twice, both times following reported sightings and massive manhunts for the al Qaeda leader, Pakistani intelligence officials tell ABC News.
Over six feet tall and with the same angular nose as bin Laden, Sher Akbar comes from an Afghan village, Bagh e Metal, in an area where U.S. officials believe bin Laden has been hiding.
Bin Laden is believed to be six feet four inches to six feet six inches tall and weigh 160 pounds. He is 50 years old.
The most recent arrest of bin Laden's near-twin came after Afghani officials reported informants saw bin Laden moving across the border into Pakistan, near the town of Chitral.
"We arrested this man as a result of this investigation, but it's not who you might think it is," a senior Pakistani intelligence official told ABC News, providing a photograph to make his point.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
The official said an extensive investigation involving Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers found that the look-alike has no connection to bin Laden, but that local residents had tried to collect rewards based on Akhbar's resemblance to bin Laden.
The United States has offered a $25 million reward for information that leads to the location of bin Laden.
April 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (67)
D.C. Madam Wants Washington Clients to Testify
April 30, 2007 9:36 AM
The woman charged in a federal indictment with running a high-class Washington, D.C. call girl service says she plans to call her prominent clients to testify at her trial.
Jeane Palfrey, dubbed the D.C. Madam, says among those she will call to testify are Randall Tobias, who resigned Friday as deputy secretary of state after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of Palfrey's escort service.
Tobias said he "had some gals come over to the condo for a massage" but denied any sex was involved.
D.C. Madam Affair Unfolds in Pictures.
Tobias is the second prominent man to be identified as a customer of the Palfrey's "sexual fantasy service." Two weeks ago, Palfrey alleged that military strategist Harlan K. Ullman, creator of the "shock and awe" combat theory and now a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was also a customer. Ullman has said that the claim was "beneath the dignity of comment."
Also on Palfrey's list of customers who could be potential witnesses are a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several lobbyists and a handful of military officials.
"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC News correspondent Brian Ross in an interview to be broadcast Friday on "20/20." "I'll bring in every last one of them in if necessary," she said.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Palfrey is due in federal court Monday morning to ask the judge to replace her current lawyer, a public defender, with a lawyer who she says "will be more aggressive in fighting the government."
The indictment of Palfrey alleges she used more than 100 women over a period of 13 years "for the purpose of engaging in prostitution activity with male clients, including sexual intercourse and oral sex in exchange for money." She made more than $2 million running the operation, known as Pamela Martin and Associates, according to the federal indictment.
Palfrey, who ran the service by phone from her home in Solano County, Calif., is the only person charged. None of her male customers is named by the government.
"That's very hypocritical," she says. "Why aren't these people under arrest? Why just me?"
Palfrey claims she ran a legal operation that offered sexual fantasy but not "illegal sex" of the kind described in the indictment.
She says she hopes her prominent clients will testify they did not engage in actual sex when they hired her escorts.
"This was a sexual fantasy service," Palfrey told "20/20." "Occasionally a client would want to go to the Kennedy Center or go to dinner, but generally speaking they went straight to the homes, or they went straight to the hotels," she said.
Palfrey provided ABC News with phone records from her business going back four years.
April 30, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (285)
Report: Corruption Investigations in Iraq Stopped in Their Tracks
April 30, 2007 12:01 AM
Investigations into government corruption in Iraq are being stopped in their tracks due to an antiquated law that has been reinstated by the prime minister, according to a report to be released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The report says that corruption in Iraq is a "major impediment to Iraq's development and growth." The special inspector general estimates that more than $5 billion a year of Iraqi government funds are diverted due to corruption and charges that some in the Iraqi government have been hindering ongoing investigations.
A large part of the problem, according to the report, is that Iraq's prime minister's office is using a law dating back to the 1970s to stop ongoing investigations in their tracks. The law says that no case can go forward without the approval of the minister of the affected agency. So far, the report says that various agency ministers have stopped the prosecution and investigation of 102 individuals involved in 48 cases.
The prime minister's office has also ordered that any case involving a minister or former minister must have the approval of the prime minister before it can be recommended to an investigative court.
One of the cases, which has been referred to the prime minister's office, involves eight ministers and 40 directors general who are accused of mismanaging $8 billion.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
A case against the minister of oil was also referred to the prime minister's office following the arrest of one of the oil minister's directors.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is not named directly in the report, admitted in an interview with al-Iraqiyah television last year that corruption in general is a problem, but he refused to name those responsible for it.
"We suffer in terms of security and administrative corruption," he said. "However, and in accordance with the government plan, we will use force and will be hard and pursue those who tamper with people's funds. I cannot reveal the names of those who were arrested, expelled or brought to account for their corruption."
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has appointed a director of the Office of Accountability and Transparency (OAT) to advise Iraqis how to investigate corruption within their own government. According to the OAT, the biggest problems hampering the investigations are "lack of security for investigators and the limited ability of ministers to stop specific corruption investigations in their ministries."
The Ministry of Oil, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense are the subjects of the most corruption claims, said the inspector general's report.
Meanwhile, Iraq has committed to establishing a Joint Anti-Corruption Council that will include representatives from the prime minister's office, the courts and representatives from both the U.S. and U.K. embassies. The report said a committee was scheduled to meet back in February to sign the charter establishing the council but that the meeting was postponed by the Iraqi government.
Read the inspector general's report.
Vote: Should the U.S. intervene in corruption in Iraq?
April 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (31)
Senior Official Linked to Escort Service Resigns
April 27, 2007 8:58 PM
Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation.
Tobias, 65, director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.
A State Department press release late Friday afternoon said only he was leaving for "personal reasons."
Photos Tobias: A Powerbroker in the Capital
On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage."
Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.
World News Video Senior Official Resigns After Admitting He Used an Escort Service.
Tobias' private cell number was among thousands of numbers listed in the telephone records provided to ABC News by Jeane Palfrey, the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," who is facing the federal charges.
In an interview to be broadcast on "20/20" next Friday, Palfrey says she intends to call Tobias and a number of her other prominent D.C. clients to testify at her trial.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC News.
Palfrey maintains she ran a sexual fantasy business that was legal and that if any of the women who were working for her had sex, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge. She says there are a number of other prominent Washington, D.C. men who will be on her witness list. "I'll bring every last one of them in if necessary," Palfrey said.
As the Bush administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized by some for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.
In a 2004 interview, Tobias explained his approach as "A and B and C. . . Abstinence works. 'Be faithful' works. Condoms work. They all have a role. But it's not a multiple choice, where there is only one answer."
As a top official overseeing global AIDS funding to other countries, Tobias was responsible for enforcing a U.S. policy, enacted during the Bush administration, that requires recipients to swear they oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. USAID adopted a similar policy in 2004.
At an April 18 speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Tobias' work. "Randy Tobias has indeed had many roles in his life, but none more important than the roles he's played in government, where he has been someone who has been most involved in organizing America's compassion to the world."
A biography of Tobias was removed from the USAID Web site, but an archived version shows that before joining the State Department, Tobias had been CEO of drug manufacturer Eli Lilly Co. and AT&T Communications and served on the board of trustees for Duke University, including three years as its chair.
In 2003, he co-wrote a book on leadership lessons with his son, Todd, entitled, "Put the Moose on the Table." Indiana University, whose publishing arm produced the volume, is also home to the Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence.
Along with his wife, Marianne, Tobias donated over $100,000 to Republican candidates and political committees, according to the campaign finance Web site OpenSecrets.org.
Tobias is the second prominent man to be identified as a customer of the Palfrey's "sexual fantasy service." Two weeks ago, Palfrey alleged that military strategist Harlan K. Ullman, creator of the "shock and awe" combat theory and now a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was also a customer. Ullman has said that the claim was "beneath the dignity of comment."
Palfrey is expected to appear in court on Monday, to request permission to replace her criminal defense attorney, currently a federal public defender.
This post has been updated.
April 27, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (309)
Honoring Those Who Died for Ole' Dixie
April 27, 2007 12:59 PM
This week marks the beginning of a series of state holidays celebrating those who fought and died for the Confederacy during the country's bloody Civil War, but not everyone is celebrating.
"We're opposed to that which touches upon celebration of a heritage which in its root had slavery and oppression of a whole group of people and treason in the United States," says Dr. Francys Johnson, the regional director of the southeast region of the NAACP. He says the issue is not whether to honor the dead, but whether to honor the cause for which the soldiers died.
At least 10 states including Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and Texas, observe some version of a Confederate Memorial holiday. In Georgia, government offices and some businesses close down the last Monday in April to observe its Confederate Memorial Day.
In Florida, there's a fight brewing in Hillsborough County to expand the largely ceremonial holiday to a Southern Heritage Month.
"I do not want to diminish or ignore our history," says Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higgenbotham, "but to memorialize it is just painful to too many people." Higgenbotham was one of four county commissioners who refused to sign the proclamation.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
But John Hurley, the president of the Confederate Memorial Association, a nonprofit organization that ran a Washington, D.C. history museum until 1997, says there is nothing racist about the holiday.
"We are in favor of memorials that provide historical perspective," says Hurley. "But we are not in favor of white supremacy."
History professor Gaines Foster of Louisiana State University says that it's impossible to honor those who fought for the Confederacy without acknowledging what the Civil War was ultimately about.
"You can never completely distance any celebration of the Confederacy from seccession and slavery," says Foster.
Foster says, however, that the holiday remains ceremonial in most states and isn't as divisive as the debate over state governments' use of the confederate flag.
"The holiday has always been less political than the use of the confederate flag," says Foster. "It's clearly about honoring the past and the dead."
April 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (134)
Facing Scandal, Will Lawmaker Resign?
April 27, 2007 12:16 PM
A little more than a week after the FBI raided a family business connected to Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., staffers and lawmakers privately speculate he could resign from Congress.
This week, Renzi stepped down from the committees to which he once belonged, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Financial Services Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. The moves fueled speculation the three-term congressman may soon depart Capitol Hill for good.
The Arizona lawmaker is reportedly under investigation for suspicions he accepted $200,000 from a business partner in exchange for using his official influence to compel the purchase of his partner's land at an inflated price. Renzi has said he is innocent, and that the money was repayment for an old debt.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
Renzi's fellow Republicans are urging him to resign, according to today's Phoenix Business Journal. The paper reports that anonymous sources say Renzi could step down as early as today. Renzi's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the questionable land deal, questions have been raised in the press about his top aide's decision to contact the U.S. attorney overseeing the investigation into his boss. Shortly after the aide got involved, investigators now say Justice Department officials slowed efforts to investigate the congressman.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
The U.S. attorney who had been overseeing the investigation, Paul Charlton, later became one of the eight top prosecutors fired under questionable circumstances in what has become known as the U.S. attorney scandal. Charlton's lawyer, Grant Woods, has called the reports "conjecture and false attacks." The Justice Department has denied meddling in the investigation.
If Renzi stays in office, he may face a separate inquiry from the House Ethics Committee connected to the federal probe. The congressman apparently failed to report the $200,000 income on his financial disclosure reports, as experts believe is required by law. An ethics committee aide recently reviewed Renzi's financial disclosures, according to information kept on file by the House of Representatives. The aide did not respond to an inquiry from ABC News.
If Renzi were to resign, he would be the first scandal-enmeshed lawmaker to do so since former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, quit his office in early November 2006. Ney resigned only after a court convicted him on two felony counts connected to the Jack Abramoff scandal.
This post has been revised.
April 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (29)
Massive Terror Bust in Saudi Arabia, Longtime Target of Al Qaeda
April 27, 2007 11:49 AM
Al Qaeda terrorists planned suicide missions on oil facilities and military bases in Saudi Arabia, authorities there say. More than 170 suspected terrorists, some of whom were training to be pilots, were arrested today by Saudi security forces, they said.
Terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri encouraged their followers to strike targets in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden, who is Saudi himself, has long seen the kingdom as a traitor to Islam for allowing U.S. forces on their territory.
Bin Laden encouraged jihadis to strike Saudi Arabia in an online audio statement back in 2004.
"One of the biggest reasons motivating our enemies to control our lands is to steal our oil," he said. "Spend all the effort you can to stop the biggest theft in history of the wealth of the present and future generations."
Later his No. 2 man Zawahri also encouraged his followers to strike in Saudi Arabia, also at oil facilities.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"I call on the mujahedeen to concentrate their campaigns on the stolen oil of the Muslims, of which most revenues go to the enemies of Islam," he said in an online statement.
The terrorists have listened to these calls. In 2004, terrorists stormed the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, killing five consulate employees. And in 2004, suicide bombers killed 34 people, including eight Americans at a housing compound in Riyadh. And of course, 15 of the 19 hijackers behind the 9/11 attacks were Saudis.
Saudi Arabia, however, has also been accused of turning a blind eye to terrorists on its own soil, especially Saudi-based charities that have been accused of providing terrorists with cash.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in a hearing last month described Saudi Arabia as a "problematic ally," suggesting that the Saudis still couldn't be considered full allies in the War on Terror.
"When it comes to fighting terrorism, the Saudis have again made some important progress, but more remains to be done," said Kerry. "But concerns remain, especially about the role of Saudi money in financing terrorist organizations and exporting an extremist ideology."
In addition to the arrests, police today seized weapons and more than $5.3 million in cash from several armed cells.
"One of their main targets was to carry out suicide attacks against public figures and oil installations and to target military bases inside and outside [the country]," said an Interior Ministry statement read on state television.
This post has been revised.
April 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
Top Al Qaeda Leader Captured
April 27, 2007 11:06 AM
A top al Qaeda leader has been detained and captured, the Pentagon announced this morning.
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is described as al Qaeda's top operational planner in Afghanistan. He was also reportedly planning an assassination attempt on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.
Officials say he was responsible for several attempted assassinations, including previous attempts on the life of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and cross-border attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has long-standing ties to the Taliban that go back to the 1990s and acted as a liaison between al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was captured by the CIA as he was attempting to travel back to his native country, Iraq. He was going to Iraq, officials say, to "manage" al Qaeda's operations, including plots on Western interests outside of Iraq.
He was captured by the CIA in late 2006 and held at a secret CIA detention facility until this week, when he was transferred to Gitmo and Department of Defense custody.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
During his time with the CIA, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was interrogated and revealed useful information about al Qaeda plots, which, officials say, have been disrupted as a result.
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi had met with al Qaeda members in Iran, officials also said.
April 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (73)
Big Business Dodging Toxic Cleanup Costs, Group Charges
April 26, 2007 5:12 PM
Corporations responsible for hundreds of the most toxic sites in the United States spent nearly as much money lobbying politicians and funding political campaigns as they did repaying the government for cleaning up their messes, according to a new analysis by a Washington, D.C. watchdog group.
As a result, the companies may dodge hundreds of millions in cleanup fees, charges the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Public Integrity.
Companies like petroleum giant Exxon Mobil Corp. or defense contracting giant Raytheon are among the roughly 100 businesses responsible for the vast majority of privately controlled polluted or contaminated "Superfund" sites throughout the United States, according to the new report by the Center for Public Integrity.
Half of all Americans live within 10 miles of a Superfund site, the group said.
Between 1998 and 2005, those companies repaid the federal government $1.3 billion for the cost of cleaning up their toxic sites. During the same period, those companies also spent $1.2 billion on lobbying and political donations.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
As those companies pumped money into the coffers of Washington's lobbyists and lawmakers, their cleanup fees slowed to a trickle. While in 1999 those corporations repaid a total of $320 million to the Environmental Protection Agency, which manages the Superfund cleanup effort, those same companies paid just $60 million in 2006.
"This is what goes on in Washington. It's no surprise," said CPI Director Bill Buzenberg, who explained that many companies hire former EPA officials to help them convince the agency to go easy on them. "It's cost effective. You pay a few million and get a few hundred million in savings."
ExxonMobil and Raytheon did not respond with comment for this story.
This post has been updated.
April 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
Thanks for a Great Year
April 26, 2007 4:01 PM
It's our birthday. And we want to thank our readers.
One year after the Blotter first appeared on ABCNews.com, we have logged more than 36 million page views, broken dozens of important stories and won several major journalism awards.
With your support, we have been able to create a site where investigative stories grow and evolve, often going to a new level with reader feedback and follow-up suggestions.
That's how we were able to break the story of the sexually explicit instant messages former Republican Congressman Mark Foley, R-Fla., sent to current and former pages of high school age.
Former pages read the first story and responded online, providing us with the messages that would lead to Foley's resignation and an investigation of the entire House Republican leadership.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
For that story and others that focused on what we call "conduct unbecoming" by government officials, we have been honored with a Peabody Award, the Walter Cronkite Award from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Online Reporting Award and the National Headliner Online Journalism Award.
Most of all, we are grateful to see that every day a growing number of people around the world are checking in to see what's on the Blotter.
April 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
U.S. Sting Busts Major Human Trafficking Operations
April 26, 2007 1:52 PM
An undercover sting operation called "Triple-X" has cracked a thriving network of Southeast Asian crime rings that trafficked in women and children and produced professional-grade counterfeit travel documents to smuggle their human cargo and other aliens into the United States, ABC News has learned.
The sting operation was run by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security and focused on the busy port city of Surabaya, Indonesia, which has emerged as a gateway for illegal travel into the United States.
The operation began in February 2005 and has since broken up 12 major criminal groups operating out of the busy port city.
According to Gary Gibson, Diplomatic Security's assistant director for International Programs, Triple X was one of the largest and most successful anti-counterfeiting operations in U.S. history.
Investigations by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security have led to 21 raids by the Indonesian National Police, which netted 84 arrests. According to the State Department, at least one Indonesian immigration official was arrested for aiding the criminals. All of those arrested were charged, tried and convicted under Indonesian fraud law.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"To have this number of fraudulent cases run through the system is probably unprecedented," Gibson told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
The State Department says more than 4,800 fraudulent documents were recovered as evidence during the raids. Those fabricated documents included U.S. visas and passports, fake identification cards, Indonesian passports and other false records.
Based on the evidence seized in the raids, including computers and other records, Diplomatic Security was able to identify more than 8,000 individuals who used these fraudulent document services and was able to determine that 100 individuals successfully entered the United States using fake documentation obtained from the Surabaya counterfeiting rings.
Gibson said that all of those individuals were apprehended, including one individual who attempted to smuggle automatic weapons into southern California. That individual was stopped before he could do anything, Gibson said.
Surabaya is known as a major transit point in east Asia for those who wish to travel to the United States, Australia and other developed countries. Because of this, the State Department considers Surabaya a "high fraud post," where visa applications are vigorously screened for fraudulent documents.
According to Gibson, operation Triple X began when some of the U.S. embassy's consular staff began to question the authenticity of some of the documents that were received on visa applications. Those documents were then passed on to the U.S. embassy's security officers who went through the visa application records and found a consistently suspicious pattern of a specific type of documentation. Those documents were able to be traced to crime syndicates in the city.
With the help of the Indonesian authorities an investigation was launched, and the counterfeiting rings were eventually shut down.
Despite the success of operation Triple X, the problem of counterfeiting documents is one that will not be getting any easier for the United States government.
"These groups are far more advanced than we are at counterfeiting documents," Gibson told ABC News.
The premier manufacturers of high quality printers capable of producing nearly indistinguishable fraudulent documents are located in east Asia, he said.
"It's easy to get them from China, Japan or South Korea for fairly legit purposes and then turn them around" for illegal uses, Gibson added.
According to Gibson the long-term success of Triple X may be the operational cooperation between Diplomatic Security and the Indonesian authorities. He said that relationship has led to new leads that have uncovered new types of document fraud.
Picture Courtesy of U.S. State Department's Visa and Passport Security Strategic Plan.
April 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)
GOP Hires Data Experts to Save White House E-mails
April 26, 2007 12:20 PM
Stung by the revelation that White House aides for years have sent -- and deleted -- e-mails about official government business using accounts controlled by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the organization has hired a top-flight data recovery firm to preserve what correspondence has not already been lost.
The RNC "has...been working diligently to identify and preserve all potentially relevant data that may exist," a lawyer for the group wrote Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chair of a powerful committee who has demanded access to the e-mails. "These efforts include retaining a leading, nationally known computer forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, LLC," states the letter, written by Robert K. Kelner of the Covington and Burling law firm.
Click Here to Read the Letter to Chairman Waxman.
The practice of sending (and deleting) official correspondence via private e-mail accounts may have run afoul of several laws, including one which prohibits the destruction of presidential records.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
Based in New York, Stroz Friedberg is led by a former veteran FBI cyber-investigator and a one-time federal prosecutor well-versed in technology issues.
Experts from the forensics firm have "imaged several RNC-owned computers and Blackberries that are currently being used by White House employees," the April 25 letter states. The letter identifies 37 White House employees who had used RNC-owned e-mail addresses, noting the group had gathered roughly 24 gigabytes of e-mail data belonging to those individuals.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
White House aides also may have conducted official government business with private e-mail accounts assigned to them by the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign, according to news reports. A White House spokesman told ABC News Wednesday that similar precautions have been taken with computer servers and equipment belonging to the former campaign.
April 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
Johns Hopkins Does Away With Preferred Lenders List
April 25, 2007 11:04 PM
In response to a probe by the New York State Attorney General's Office and the disclosure that one of its top financial aid advisors had been paid $65,000 by a student lender recommended by the school, Johns Hopkins University Wednesday canceled all lists of so-called preferred student lenders and adopted a new code of conduct governing its seven financial aid offices.
Hopkins made the announcement Wednesday evening in a statement by university spokesman Dennis O'Shea that noted the two actions were part of the school's response to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation.
To date 15 schools have arrived at settlements in the probe into questionable business practices in the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry. Despite today's announcements, Johns Hopkins has not yet arrived at any formal settlement.
The probe by Cuomo into the intensely competitive industry has exposed the warts of an industry that thrives by serving the majority of students in the nation's four-year colleges.
Several aid officials have been found to have accepted stock, cash and other gifts from lenders they recommend students use. Several schools have been exposed as sharing revenue with their lenders. None of the schools has admitted any wrongdoing, however, about half have agreed to make direct restitution to students from any money the schools earned from steering their loans to certain lenders.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Cuomo and Johns Hopkins were informed on April 9 by CIT Group, the parent company of Student Loan Xpress, that SLX had paid about $65,000 in tuition for or consulting fees to Ellen Frishberg, the director of financial aid at the university's schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and the person characterized in the past by university officials as the most prominent of the school's financial aid officers.
She has been on paid leave since the discovery of the payments.
"In a meeting with university attorneys last week, she (Frishberg) reported that she had consulted for other companies. The university is now investigating those relationships," the statement said.
It noted that Frishberg had not disclosed those relationships to the school. She had disclosed her role on SLX's advisory board and the portion of the SLX payments directly linked to advisory expenses.
CIT, meanwhile, has suspended the entire top management of SLX after this disclosure and the disclosure that other aid officers, including one at Columbia University, had received and profited from restricted stock and stock options and other forms of payment from SLX.
"Though the university's inquiry is not complete and Frishberg remains on administrative leave, the university has made initial policy decisions regarding future relationships with companies that make loans to students and their families," the statement by O'Shea said.
It quoted John Hopkins president William Brody as saying the university "is absolutely committed to a financial aid program that serves students' best interests and meets the highest ethical standards. The actions the university is announcing today are intended to ensure that we meet that commitment."
A key component of that initial response was the adoption of the College Loan Code of Conduct proposed by the attorney general. The code requires, in part, that university employees be prohibited from accepting anything of more than nominal value from lenders.
The second part of the response was to have all seven financial aid offices "that serve Johns Hopkins' nine schools and nearly 20,000 students" cancel all lender lists. The university said it would not "issue any new lists of loan companies until there is a national consensus on standards for lists that are free of conflict of interest."
Those potential conflicts, according to Cuomo, include revenue sharing between lenders and schools, gifts, financial incentives and other blandishments to aid officers and a failure to fully disclose to students why a lender was recommended to students by the institutions.
The nation's top two student lenders -- Sallie Mae and Citi -- have both agreed to place $2 million into an account to help educate students who are contemplating loans. Neither lender has admitted any wrongdoing.
Nearly two-thirds of the applicants to four-year colleges take out student loans to help finance their studies. In the past, nearly 90 percent of those loans were written by lenders on the short list of "preferred lenders" promulgated at the schools.
Cuomo's office had no immediate comment on the actions by Johns Hopkins except to note that the attorney general has not yet arrived at a formal settlement with the university.
In its statement, the university said it has found "no evidence to date that any student has been harmed by the inclusion of SLX on its lender lists."
The university also said it "has found no evidence of any lender payments to Johns Hopkins in return for placement on any lender list or as compensation for loans to Johns Hopkins students."
However, "the university did identify two contracts, one of which ended in 2004, in which a university financial aid office agreed to place a company on a lender list as part of that company's agreement to provide loans to the university's international students."
And the school noted, some lenders, including SLX, "have occasionally paid for meals or entertainment for employees of Johns Hopkins financial aid offices at professional conferences or for meals during campus visits."
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
Alleged Terror Leader Arrested In Queens
April 25, 2007 3:34 PM
A senior leader of the Sri Lankan terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was arrested Wednesday in Queens, New York, where he had been quietly living for the past several years while funneling money to fund an ongoing guerrilla war that has claimed over 62,000 lives, federal prosecutors said.
A federal complaint unsealed Wednesday identified Karunakaran Kandasamy as the head of the United States branch of the Tamil Tigers and alleged that he had orchestrated hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial and logistical support for the group.
"Financial backing, assistance with logistics, and other forms of material support have a direct bearing on the viability of a terrorist organization's lethal objectives. Karuna hasn't merely supported the Tamil Tigers' cause, he orchestrated U.S. support. We can no sooner allow terrorists to raise funds here than we would allow them to carry out acts of terrorism here," Mark Mershon, the assistant director in charge of the FBI New York field office said in a statement.
Since 1976 the group has used guerrilla tactics and suicide bombings to kill numerous Sri Lankan and Indian cabinet officials, ministers, defense officials and local politicians. On May 21, 1991, India's Prime Minister, Rajiv Ghandi, was assassinated by a female Tamil Tiger who approached him during a campaign stop posing as a well-wisher bearing a basket of flowers. She then blew herself up as she knelt before him. It was one of the first recorded instances of a female suicide bomber.
"For years the LTTE has covertly operated within the United States drawing on America's financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere," United States Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said in a written statement. "We refuse to allow this to continue."
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
The 32-page federal complaint states that since 1997 Kandasamy, also known as "Karuna," raised money, arranged meetings between Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger leaders and U.S. financial backers and smuggled technology into LTTE-controlled areas. The LTTE has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States Department of State since 1997.
"The LTTE relies on sympathetic Tamil expatriates residing in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and several other countries to raise and launder money; smuggle arms, explosive, equipment and technology...obtain intelligence...and spread propaganda...Karuna is the head of the American branch of the LTTE," the complaint states.
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (10)
U.S. and Pakistani Generals Downplay OBL's Significance
April 25, 2007 3:04 PM
On the same day a top Taliban commander appeared on Al Jazeera claiming Osama bin Laden is alive and well and planning operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, two top generals from the United States and Pakistan downplayed his significance, saying it is more important to destroy the al Qaeda network than to go after bin Laden.
"It's more important to take down the network of al Qaeda," said Maj. Gen. Michael Diamond, "than it is going after any one single man."
Pakistani Brig. Gen. Ahsan Mehmood echoed that thought.
"Getting Osama bin Laden is one thing," said Gen. Mehmood. "It is more important to take out that network, to fight that network."
Despite recent testimony by Mike McConnell, the director of National Intelligence, that senior al Qaeda leadership is regrouping and trying to establish terror training camps in Pakistan, both generals denied any knowledge of the existence of training camps there.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"We're not seeing any evidence to that," said Gen. Diamond.
In response to critics that question Pakistan's will in standing up to militants on its own soil, Gen. Mehmood said Pakistan is a fully committed partner in the War on Terror.
"Pakistan today stands committed and has committed more forces, more troops, sacrificed more than the collective coalition sacrifices in Afghanistan," said Gen. Mehmood. "All this does not merit any doubt on commitment."
Mehmood also denied reports that Taliban leaders were operating from the city of Quetta.
"The Taliban is a problem of Afghanistan. Taliban leaders are operating from Afghanistan; some of their sympathizers are in Pakistan," said Gen. Mehmood.
Both generals said they were not aware of any intelligence to support the Taliban's claim that bin Laden is overseeing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (5)
Internal Army E-mail Asks Why Flag Lowered For VT Victims But Not Service Members
April 25, 2007 2:16 PM
"Why don't we honor our fallen servicemembers [sic]?"
That is the title of a commentary by a U.S. Army sergeant, which was accidentally released to the press last night.
Sgt. Jim Wilt at Bagram poses the question why the flags on base were lowered to half-staff for the Virginia Tech victims but isn't a regular occurence there when a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan dies.
The remarks weren't supposed to have been issued as a press release. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman has told reporters the commentary was an internal communication that was mistakenly issued for general distribution last night. Whitman wouldn't clarify what he meant by internal communication, whether it was for publication on a base newspaper or a note to a colleague.
Either way, the questions posed by Wilt's commentary have gotten notice, especially his mention of the recent passing of a soldier in Afghanistan.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"Is the life of Sgt. Alexander Van Aalten, a member of our very own task force, killed April 20 in Helmand province not valued the same as these 32 students?" Wilt asks. "Surely his death was as violent as the students. Aalten's death lacked the shock factor of the Virginia massacre. It is a daily occurrence these days to see X number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan scrolling across the ticker at the bottom of the TV screen. People have come to expect casualty counts in the nightly news; they don't expect to see 32 students killed."
His close reflects a growing sentiment that the military is fighting this war, not the U.S. as a whole.
"The U.S. flag is more than a piece of cloth. It is a symbol, a symbol which represents the people of America. Hundreds of thousands of men and women have died under our flag, preserving its people. When we honor the flag by saluting it, we are honoring what it stands for. We honor freedom, the people it represents and a way of life.
Isn't it time our flag saluted back when a person makes the ultimate sacrifice? Shouldn't the flag, which represents our society, tip its hat when someone dies to ensure it will fly another day? If the flags on our FOBs were lowered for just one day after the death of a servicemember, it would show the people who knew the person that society cared, the American people care."
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (28)
Congressional Democrats Spell Reform: CA$H
April 25, 2007 1:05 PM
Democrats in Congress appear to be taking full advantage of the "pay to play" system they said led to a "climate of corruption" under Republicans, an ABC News investigation has found.
"Washington looks pretty much the same as it always did," said Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation, despite Democratic promises of reform.
Campaign finance records made public this week show Democratic congressional campaign committees taking in substantially more in contributions than their Republican counterparts.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
According to the records, the Democratic House and Senate committees reported $32.7 million in contributions. The Republican committees reported $22.9 million.
One of the Democrats' biggest fundraisers, held at a private estate in suburban Washington, required lobbyists and other big donors to pay as much as $28,000 to have dinner and access to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic House leaders.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
During last year's campaign, Pelosi strongly criticized Republican fundraising efforts.
"The Republicans have turned Congress into an auction house, for sale to the highest bidder. You have to pay to play," she said as the Democrats announced how they planned to reform Congress.
Lobbyists say little has actually changed in Washington, other than with the Democrats in power, they are in a position to collect the largest share of the contributions.
"There's a cuisine and place to greet your favorite politicians in almost any hour of the day or night in Washington," said Tony Podesta, a leading lobbyist and Democratic party fundraiser.
Democrats say they have moved to change rules banning meals, gifts and trips from lobbyists and plan to introduce a more comprehensive reform bill in the next few weeks.
Wining and Dining Continues -- See the Slideshow
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (29)
The Case of Dorothy's Slippers; Oz Fans Obsessed With Who Stole Them
April 25, 2007 11:55 AM
Police in Minnesota say they are closing in on the thief who stole a pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz."
The bejeweled footwear, valued at $1 million, was stolen Aug. 27, 2005, from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., her hometown.
"The ruby slippers are the holy grail of movie memorabilia," said Brian Cummings, pop culture art appraiser and consultant.
The lead investigator on the case, Gene Bennet of the Grand Rapids Police Department, says the theft has provoked an outcry from movie fans.
"There are people all over the country obsessed with these slippers, an underground world more than I ever imagined," said Bennet.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Bennet says Judy Garland and Wizard of Oz aficionados have been throwing leads to investigators since the theft.
"Everybody's accusing everybody of stealing them," he said.
The museum alarm system had been shut off, and the thief broke a back window to gain entry. Bennet said his team has a very strong lead but does not yet have enough evidence to make an arrest. Other items from the movie, including a monkey's sword, the carriage in which Dorothy rode in Oz Land and Judy Garland's gold record for "Over the Rainbow," were on display but not stolen.
The shoes belonged to a Hollywood acting coach, Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum.
"When I heard they were stolen, it was like the earth fell from beneath my feet," said Shaw.
The shoes, one of four known pairs used in the movie, were insured for $1 million, but the museum's insurance company only paid Shaw $666,000 based on the most recent sale price of another pair sold at auction at Christie's in 2000. Shaw paid $2,500 for the shoes in the early 1970s.
One pair is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., another pair belongs to collector Philip Samuels of St. Louis and the third pair is owned by a memorabilia collector who plans to open his own museum in Hollywood and is represented by David Elkouby. Actress Debbie Reynolds owns a test pair that was made for the movie but never used.
Cummings, the memorabilia appraiser, said the collector community is small enough and close-knit enough that Shaw has probably crossed paths with the thief, perhaps many times.
"Given the level of obsession this group -- known as the Ruby Slippers Fan Club -- has with these shoes, I would not be surprised if one of them turned out to be the thief," he said.
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (26)
Veterans' Health Care, Disaster Relief and Avian Flu Funds Also Subject to Veto
April 25, 2007 11:19 AM
While the debate in Congress this week focuses on troop withdrawals and timetables, more than $20 billion of the $124 billion of funds provided in the hotly debated supplemental war funding bill will not be going to Iraq.
Funding for veterans' health care, Hurricane Katrina relief, agricultural disaster relief as well as the majority of this year's avian flu preparedness funds will all also be subject to the president's expected veto.
One leading advocate for veterans says that vets are caught in the middle.
"We need the money for veterans' health care," said Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "This situation is a perfect example of how the troops and the American people are caught in the crossfire of partisan bickering."
Also on the bill are funds to help continue the recovery process from Hurricane Katrina.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"Unfortunately, the president has threatened to veto the bill because of 'excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending.' But I do not view the $2.38 billion for Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in this bill to be excessive or extraneous," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
About three-quarters of this year's avian flu preparedness funds, more than $600 million, is also included in the supplemental bill. Those funds would go to increasing antiviral stockpiles and vaccine development. Without the funds, those orders will have to be placed on hold.
"We can't make the order until we get the funding," said Bill Hall, spokesperson at the Department of Health and Human Services. Hall stressed that the goals of the HHS avian flu plan will remain the same, and when a funding bill is passed, those antiviral orders will be placed and contracts with vaccine developers will proceed.
Some argue that these items are worthy of funding, but that they do not belong in a war supplemental bill.
"While many of these are much needed projects," said Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., "they do not belong in an emergency supplemental for our soldiers engaged in the War on Terror."
Previous war supplemental bills passed under Republican leadership also included funds for hurricane recovery and bird flu preparations.
Rieckhoff says that while each side attempts to frame the debate on their own terms, veterans' health care and the other programs become political hostages.
"Republicans want to paint the Democrats as undermining the troops, and the Democrats want to paint the president as continuing to mismanage the war and endanger the troops in his own way," he said. "It's a dangerous way to do things."
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
'The Bishop' Bomber Suspect Arrested in Iowa
April 25, 2007 8:48 AM
Federal agents arrested a 42-year-old former postal worker in Dubuque, Iowa, this morning who they say mailed threatening letters and unarmed bombs to Midwest investment firms, calling himself "The Bishop."
Authorities told ABC News John Patrick Tomkins was taken into custody at first light this morning at his home in Dubuque.
"The Bishop" was the name used by the person who had been sending threatening letters and unarmed pipe bombs since 2005, according to homeland security officials. Two bombs were sent to investment firms in Kansas City and Chicago.
Read the Criminal Complaint Against John Patrick Tomkins.
Investigators say they were led to Tomkins through handwriting analysis and the purchase of bomb-making materials with a credit card they say was linked to him.
"The Bishop" also mailed a picture that had a car door in the background, identified as belonging to a 1990 to 1995 Chevy Lumina. Tompkins had been seen driving a 1993 Chevy Lumina, according to law enforcement officials.
Officials had sent out national alerts about "The Bishop," comparing him to the Unabomber, whose mail bombs killed three people and terrorized the country into the early 1990's. No one was injured by any of "The Bishop's" packages.
"The Bishop's" first letters, in 2005, demanded that targeted companies take steps to move certain stocks to a specific price, often $6.66.
Officials said the unarmed pipe bomb sent by "The Bishop" to Perkins, Wolf, McDonnell & Co. of Chicago, included a letter that said, "The only reason you're alive is I didn't attach one wire. There's nothing the police or anybody can do, so don't contact them."
April 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (27)
Terrorist or Child Soldier?
April 24, 2007 4:46 PM
Over the protest of human rights groups, the U.S. government has brought murder charges against a Canadian citizen, who was 15-years-old when he was accused of throwing a hand grenade at U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense said Omar Ahmed Khadr, who has been held as an adult by the U.S. at Guantanamo for five years, will be referred to a Military Tribunal there within 30 days.
Born in Toronto, Khadr's family moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, when he was four. He was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 after the hand grenade he allegedly threw killed one U.S. soldier and injured three others.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups say Khadr should be treated as a child soldier, not an adult enemy combatant.
"We have grave concerns for him," says Beth Britton Hunter of Amnesty International. "He's been in prison for five years without a fair trial."
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Khadr's attorney, Kristine Husky, says Khadr has been abused and mistreated at Guantanamo.
"He's been treated much like the other detainees have been treated," she says. "He's been in and out of solitary confinement since he's been there. He's had no education since he's been there."
Khadr was raised in Afghanistan in an active Taliban family, and his father was killed in a 2003 gun battle.
Jo Becker, the Children's Rights advocate for Human Rights Watch, says it's alarming that Khadr's status as a child when charged has never been taken into consideration.
"The fact that he was recruited at a young age and that he was 15 when he allegedly committed these crimes, in our view, that's very relevant," says Becker.
In 2002, the U.S. ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which "prohibits the recruitment or use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 by rebel or other non-governmental armed groups and requires states to criminalize such practices." As part of the treaty, governments have the obligation to extend rehabilitation services to children who have been caught up in armed conflict.
Becker says the U.S. government's handling of Khadr's case is in direct conflict of the spirit of the treaty.
"It says that the U.S. has been very inconsistent in how it deals with this issue," says Becker. "For example, the U.S. has provided millions of dollars for rehabilitation programs for children in Africa and other countries," she says. "But if there's a situation where a child soldier may be engaging with U.S. troops, then all of the sudden the U.S. approach is different, and it starts taking a punitive rather than a rehabilitative approach."
A spokesman for the Department of Defense told ABCNews.com that age is not a factor when determining detention.
"We detain enemy combatants who engaged in armed conflict against our forces or provided support to those fighting against us. The fact that juveniles have been used as enemy combatants is an unfortunate reality in many parts of the world," the spokesman said.
Khadr's lawyers plan to appeal the charge and have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the tribunal.
April 24, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (29)
Rove Investigator Faces Own Allegations
April 24, 2007 3:43 PM
The senior government official who says he is investigating Karl Rove for allegations he influenced government activity for partisan purposes is himself facing allegations of similar behavior.
In interviews yesterday with reporters, Scott J. Bloch disclosed that his Office of Special Counsel was opening a broad probe of the White House political office and its interaction with government agencies. The investigation will cover the use of private e-mail accounts by White House aides, the firing of at least one U.S. attorney and presentations of political data by White House aides to other officials in government, Bloch told the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
But government watchdogs have accused Bloch himself of similar behavior. In April 2005, they and others complained the White House appointee had allowed his office to "sit on" a complaint that then-White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice used government funds to travel in support of President Bush's re-election bid.
By contrast, they said, Bloch ordered an immediate on-site investigation of a complaint that Bush's challenger for the White House, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., improperly campaigned in a government workplace, which had been filed around the same time.
Bloch's obscure but important office investigates violations of a law banning the use of public resources for partisan political purposes, known as the Hatch Act. In January, his office said Kerry did not violate the act. It has made no statement on the Rice complaint. Bloch's office has called the allegation "old and previously addressed."
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
In late 2005, the White House-run President's Committee on Integrity and Efficiency opened an investigation into that charge and several others, including accusations that Bloch's office retaliated against employees who took issue with internal policies and discriminated against employees who were gay or members of religious minorities. The investigation is pending.
Those charges led the left-leaning group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to charge that Bloch is "the wrong choice" to investigate. In addition to probing Hatch Act violations, OSC is also responsible for defending the rights of government whistle-blowers and protecting government employees from discrimination and other prohibited practices.
"I don't have any hopes for the investigation. It's been our experience that Scott Bloch is someone who gives opportunism a bad name," said Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). His group has represented whistle-blowers who have struggled with Bloch's office.
Ruch's group and others have called on Bloch to resign, including several Democratic lawmakers and the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay and lesbian Republicans, have also asked Bloch to step down. Conservative publications have reported that even the White House has asked him to resign; an OSC spokesman told ABC News today he didn't "know of any truth to that at all."
"I think Bloch is in fact in trouble politically," Washington, D.C. lawyer Debra Katz told ABC News. Katz represents several whistle-blowers and former employees who have complained about Bloch. "If the [investigation into Bloch] concludes he engaged in misconduct, I think he would attempt to vigorously equate his work" against the White House with any effort to drive him from office, Katz said. Ruch and others concurred.
OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell denied that charge. "The reason we're doing this is that there's no one else in the executive branch who can investigate the Hatch Act," Mitchell told ABC News. "It has nothing to do with him being under investigation. It has to do with doing the job we're supposed to do."
This post has been revised.
April 24, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (17)
Federal Probes Target Intelligence Lawmakers
April 24, 2007 9:18 AM
When the FBI raided a business connected to Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., last week, the lawmaker joined a group that has sadly grown less exclusive in recent years: House intelligence committee members confirmed to be facing a federal criminal investigation.
Since 2005, four sitting members of the House panel entrusted with the nation's deepest secrets have come under FBI scrutiny.
The committee, known formally as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI, for short), reviews classified budgets and operational plans for the CIA, the NSA and other so-called three-letter agencies.
Unlike nearly everyone else who works with the nation's deepest national security secrets, lawmakers on intelligence committees undergo no background checks, no polygraphs and no lifestyle audits. They are automatically waived in to review everything from secret satellite data to nuclear weapons intelligence.
"That means the people who serve on that committee have to have the highest integrity possible," said Vince Cannistraro, a former senior CIA official and case officer.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Following the FBI's raid last week on the offices of an insurance company owned by his wife, Renzi stepped down from the intelligence panel.
Whether or not the FBI finds any evidence of wrongdoing, experts say the recent probes are troubling.
"Name the one committee you don't want any corruption on," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington, D.C.-based group which watchdogs congressional spending.
"There's a special obligation that comes with [serving on] that committee," Cannistraro concurred.
At least two investigations into HPSCI members have involved allegations of bribes-for-contracts schemes between lawmakers and intelligence contractors. Former California GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is in jail for taking millions in bribes in exchange for funneling government contracts.
Newly-elected Nevada governor and former Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., currently faces an investigation into whether he improperly helped a friend's contracting firm get business, payments and favored treatment from national security agencies and officials.
Through his lawyer, Gibbons has said he is confident "that all of this is going to be favorably resolved."
In Arizona, Renzi is suspected of taking a $200,000 payment from his business partner for using the power of his office to force the purchase of his business partner's land at an unreasonable price. Renzi has denied the charges and said the FBI raid on his wife's insurance business as "the first step toward getting the truth out."
In 2005, the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into whether Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., then the senior Democrat on the committee, cut an improper deal with a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in exchange for supporting her bid to head the committee. Harman has denied wrongdoing, and the probe has reportedly stalled since failing to find evidence of wrongdoing.
Cannistraro, who once served as a clandestine CIA case officer in the Middle East and elsewhere, said it's painful for those who make careers out of learning and keeping the nation's secrets to hear stories of the corruption, both proven and alleged, that have recently dogged the very lawmakers to whom they entrust their secrets.
"They get disturbed by it," the 27-year CIA veteran told ABC News. "They're not in a position to tell the committee they can't have [certain] intelligence. It's theirs by statute."
April 24, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (12)
Another Abramoff Crony Expected to Plead Guilty
April 23, 2007 6:37 PM
Another government official corrupted by lobbyist Jack Abramoff is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to charges he took bribes, including a golf trip to Scotland and $10,000 in cash, Justice Department officials say.
Mark Zachares, the former secretary of the Department of Labor and Immigration for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was named in a criminal information filed in federal court today.
According to the document, Zachares told Abramoff he "really could make things happen" if Abramoff helped get him a job at the Department of Homeland Security.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
The documents says Zachares tried to help Abramoff "adjust his business development strategies to build a homeland security lobbying practice that would eventually benefit Zachares when he ultimately joined Abramoff's firm as a lobbyist."
Zachares got to know Abramoff when Abramoff was working for garment manufacturers who opposed changes in the Marianas' labor laws, which permitted the companies to bring in low-paid women to work making clothing for leading American brands.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
According to the documents, Zachares received from Abramoff "salary enhancements, an overseas trip, meals, drinks, golf and tickets to professional sports events."
Zachares was treated to one of Abramoff's infamous Scotland golf outings in August 2003. Also on the trip, according to prosecutors, was Congressman Tom Feeny, R-Fla., who has not been charged with any crime.
The charging document says Zachares provided Abramoff with information about threat assessments which would help him establish himself as a lobbyist dealing with homeland security issues.
The fact that Zachares plans to enter a guilty plea suggests he will cooperate in the ongoing investigation of Abramoff and his connections to members of Congress.
April 23, 2007 in Abramoff Lobbying Scandal | Permalink | User Comments (3)
Security Breakdown at the White House?
April 23, 2007 5:20 PM
Security practices at the White House are dangerously inadequate say current and former employees of the security office there, according to a letter sent today from the House Oversight Committee to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, asking that he cooperate with the committee's investigation into the alleged security lapses.
"These security officials described a systemic breakdown in security procedures at the White House," wrote the chairman of the committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Among the lapses cited by the security officers, who spoke to the committee anonymously, are multiple instances of breaches being reported to the security office that were ignored and never investigated. Several of those instances allegedly involved the mishandling of SCI (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information), which is the highest level of classified information.
In one instance, a White House official reportedly left SCI material behind in a hotel room during a foreign trip with the president. The CIA did recover the highly classified material, but the security office did not investigate the incident or discipline the individual, according a security officer's account in the letter.
The letter states that the security officers were also very critical of the senior management at the security office, including James Knodell, the director of the White House Security Office, and Ken Greeson, the deputy director.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Officers reported that Knodell and Greeson "routinely violate basic security guidelines" themselves. In one instance, Greeson allegedly put classified material on an unsecured computer.
The letter also states that over half of the White House security officers have left the department in the past year due to frustration and poor management.
The letter states that many of the current and former officers came forward following Knodell's testimony last month on Capitol Hill during the Valerie Plame hearings. During his questioning, Knodell testified that the White House never conducted any internal investigation to identify the source of the leak.
Late today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told ABCNews.com, "I have to give Representative Waxman credit for persistence, if not creativity," said Fratto. "We haven't arrived at any new policies to make senior White House officials available to testify to Congress since Representative Waxman's previous letter. I also don't expect a new policy when we receive tomorrow's letter."
Card could not be reached for comment.
This post has been updated.
April 23, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (4)
Higher Education for Suicide Bombers
April 23, 2007 3:34 PM
The most spectacular and technically difficult Palestinian suicide bomb attacks are being assigned to older and better educated bombers because they are more likely to succeed, a new study shows.
Three of the deadliest suicide bomb attacks against targets in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank were carried out by bombers who had or were pursuing advanced degrees. One was a law school graduate.
Harvard University and RAND Corporation researchers used data collected by the Israeli Security Agency to review all suicide attacks from September 2000 to August 2005, a total of 151 incidents that killed 515 people and injured almost 3,500.
RAND economist Claude Berrebi, co-author of the report, said the findings show how intricate a suicide bomb attack really is. "The bomber has to decide in an instant whether to blow themselves up, to hide or to continue to a better target or to abort. There is a lot in trying to hide themselves in the local population without being detected. There is a lot to it, much more than a bystander would think," Berrebi said.
Berrebi and his team ranked the suicide bombers by the perceived value of their targets -- large cities and civilian targets more valuable than small cities and military targets -- and the number of people they killed or wounded.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
They found the five most educated bombers all blew themselves up in major Israeli cities and killed an average of 22.8 people per attack and wounded an average of 88, while bombers in the rest of the sample took the lives of an average of three people and wounded an average of 25.2.
Younger and less educated bombers were more likely to detonate too early, get caught by authorities or decide not to go through with the mission.
Harvard economics Professor Effraim Benmelech, the other co-author of the study's findings, said he was not surprised by the results. "We as economists believe that in regular labor markets people who are more talented, more educated, usually carry more sophisticated jobs. So we were not surprised that one can apply the rationale, unfortunately, of labor markets to suicide bombers," said Benmelech.
April 23, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (21)
Two States Join New York's Student Loan Reform Effort
April 23, 2007 12:22 PM
Two more state attorneys general have joined a growing crusade led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to clean up the troubled student loan industry as more schools agree to reform their student loan practices, officials said.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have signed on to the probe today, which has already forced major concessions from top lenders and universities to reform the way they guide students and underwrite billions in student loans, officials at the New York attorney general's office said.
Nearly two-thirds of the nation's incoming freshmen at four-year colleges apply for loans, creating a highly competitive $85 billion industry.
Also today, Cuomo's office announced that it reached settlement agreements with three more colleges, bringing to 15 the total number of schools who have vowed to reform their student loan programs in order to avoid costly legal battles with the state.
Washington University of St. Louis, Mississippi University and DeVry Technical Institute, a for-profit college system headquartered in Illinois, promised to modify their student loan practices, increase disclosure of their relationships with lenders and, in several cases, offer restitution directly to students affected by their past practices, Cuomo's office told ABC News.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
To date, the nation's top two lenders, Sallie Mae and Citibank Student Loan Corporation, have also reached agreements with Cuomo's office. The two will pay millions into a fund to educate students and parents about the student loan industry. Neither bank admitted wrongdoing.
The move by the Mississippi and Illinois attorneys general to join forces with Cuomo is similar to past litigation by public prosecutors around the country against handgun manufacturers and tobacco companies. As more states join the effort, they increase the legal pressure on banks and schools that have not yet arrived at settlements.
In addition to winning concessions from schools and lenders, Cuomo's investigation has exposed numerous cases of university student loan officials receiving "consulting fees," stock and other benefits from a small but aggressive lender, Student LoanXpress, which was trying to win a greater share of the student loan market. In the wake of those disclosures, the firm's parent company removed three of the lender's top managers.
April 23, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)
FBI: We're Not Protecting Shooter's Family
April 20, 2007 5:22 PM
Neither the FBI nor any other federal law enforcement agency is protecting the parents and sister of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, a bureau spokeswoman said today, disputing earlier accounts that the U.S. government was protecting the family.
"To the best of my knowledge, the Cho family is not under protective custody by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency," FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman told ABC News this afternoon.
South Korean embassy officials had earlier claimed that the family was receiving protection from the U.S. out of concern for their safety.
South Korean ambassador to the United States Lee Tae-sik told South Korean radio on Friday that U.S. law enforcement was providing security to the Cho family. "We have confirmed the fact that the family members are safely under protection by the U.S. investigative authorities [sic]," Lee said, according to a translation provided to ABC News by the South Korean embassy.
An embassy spokesman told ABC News that the embassy's consul general, Mr. Kwon Tae-myon, has been in touch with U.S. officials who know where the family is, but embassy officials have been unable to meet with them.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
The embassy's Minister for Public Affairs Yoon Sock-joong said that the consul general met yesterday with an FBI official who assured him that the family was safe. According to Yoon, the embassy's consul general was told by the FBI that the family is moving from place to place. While Yoon said that indications are the family was under U.S. protection, he was careful to note that there was no indication those movements were being controlled by U.S. officials.
Yoon said the consul general has been trying to set up a meeting with the family, but the embassy has been told that the family does not want to meet with South Korean officials at this time.
Embassy officials said they did not know the latest whereabouts of Cho's family, who have not been seen since the 23-year old Virginia Tech student shot to death 32 people and wounded several more before turning the gun on himself. Officials said the parents have not returned to their Centerville, Va., home to avoid media scrutiny, but investigators know how to reach the parents for investigative purposes.
Read the Cho family statement released today.
Since the family members are still South Korean citizens, the consul general has the right to meet with them, but so far it appears the family does not want to.
Cho's family came to the United States from South Korea in 1992 when he was just eight-years-old. They are permanent legal residents in the U.S. but are still South Korean citizens.
Cho's parents own and operate a dry cleaning shop in Virginia where they live. His older sister works as a contractor for McNeil Technologies at the State Department.
A spokesman for the Virginia Joint Information Center, which has handled media inquiries for the police and other agencies about the Virginia Tech massacre, said he had no information indicating Virginia state or local police were involved in protecting the Cho family.
Jack V. Date contributed to this report.
April 20, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (31)
Blackwater to Set Up Training Camp in California
April 20, 2007 2:36 PM
A controversial private security contractor is planning to expand to California, sparking outrage among local residents and lawmakers.
North Carolina-based Blackwater USA, which provides security personnel and training services to the U.S. military in Iraq and elsewhere, plans to set up an 800-acre training camp dubbed "Blackwater West" in a rural community east of San Diego, pending the San Diego County Board of Supervisors' approval.
Local residents of Potrero where the facility is to be built are outraged.
"This is totally wrong for the community and the county. It goes against the community character of Potrero," said Carl Meyer, a farmer and Potrero resident of more than 30 years.
Meyer, who founded the Residents Against Mercenaries (RAM) community group, said the vast majority of Potrero residents and several environmental protection groups are against the project.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
Community opposition has found a friend in Congressman Bob Filner, D-Calif., who said he is exploring legislation that would block Blackwater's proposal. In an interview with ABC News, Filner vowed to "get creative" if necessary to craft legislation that will block their proposed expansion.
Blackwater West vice president Brian Bonfiglio said the facility will be fulfilling the nation's need for more military training bases and will have no negative impact on the land or the community.
"We'll be replacing chicken coops with state of the art artillery ranges," Bonfiglio said.
Bonfiglio said the facility will be used to train military and law enforcement, not mercenaries headed to Iraq. The company is responsible for providing the largest security force on contract to the U.S. government in Iraq, according to experts.
In February, Blackwater executives were grilled by Rep. Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about its security work in Iraq, including testimony from the families of the four Blackwater contractors dragged from their vehicles and mutilated in a convoy ambush in Fallujah three years ago.
The company has a 7,000-acre training facility at its North Carolina headquarters. Earlier this month it opened an 80-acre training facility in Illinois.
Potrero would be Blackwater's first operation in the western United States.
April 20, 2007 |