FBI WATCH MAKING CRUELTY VISIBLE

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http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/5823 ... s.html.csp




see link for full story



FBI agents threaten witness in OKC. bombing


(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lawyer Jesse Trentadue seeks documents and videotapes from the FBI probe of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — he believes the records will provide information about the death of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, in a federal prison.
Utah judge orders probe into why witness won’t testify at trial
Courts » Attorney claims FBI did inadequate search for Oklahoma City bombing documents and videotapes.

Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, is shown in his office with a picture of his brother, Kenneth. Kenneth Trentadue was found hanging from a noose made of torn bed sheets in a federal prison cell on Aug. 21, 1995. The death was ruled a suicide, but Jesse Trentadue believes his brother was killed after being mistaken for an Oklahoma City bombing conspirator.

A Utah lawyer suing the FBI over its alleged inadequate search under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for videotapes related to the Oklahoma City bombing said Tuesday that one of his witnesses has backed out of testifying after being visited by government officials last week.

On the second day of a bench trial in Salt Lake City, attorney Jesse Trentadue told U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups that he had just learned John Matthews would not be testifying. He urged Waddoups to order an investigation into who allegedly contacted Matthews with suggestions that he not appear at the trial.

"I think this is a serious matter," Trentadue said, adding that in 40 years of practicing law nothing like this had happened to him.

Waddoups agreed and told the Department of Justice attorneys representing the FBI to "get to the bottom of this" by inquiring into whether anyone from the government interfered with Matthews’ planned court appearance.

The DOJ attorneys indicated they had not known about the alleged visit or the man’s decision not to testify.

According to court documents, Matthews was expected to testify about a major government investigation known as "Patriot Conspiracy," or PATCON, and how evidence was gathered and records pertaining to evidence were prepared or maintained by the FBI at the time of the Murrah Federal Building bombing.

Trentadue filed suit in 2008 against the FBI and the CIA, which since has been dropped as a defendant, claiming the agencies failed to locate and turn over all the materials he requested, including a videotape that he believes shows bomber Timothy McVeigh and another man exiting a Ryder truck in front of the Murrah building and the detonation of explosives.

He is asking for an order allowing him to search for videotapes and documents at FBI locations, including field offices in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles, and requiring the bureau to produce the records he requested. He knows more tapes exist from public documents he already has and news reports, Trentadue says.

The FBI says it has no tape of the explosion and insists it has done a reasonable search for the videotapes and other materials. The agency says if Waddoups does conclude its searches were inadequate, he should allow the agency, rather than Trentadue, to conduct one or more additional searches.

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Just remind you that as voters and taxpayers you fund the electronic cesspool called the FBI which you inherited from your parents and
have no say whether you want to co-enable and continue funding
this corporate death squad.


You do know what to do?

see link for full story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/cri ... story.html

Federal review stalled after finding forensic errors by FBI lab unit spanned two decades

Cleveland Wright has asked a D.C. Court judge to clear his name after new DNA test results in 2012 exonerated his co-defendant in two similar 1978 murders. (Alexandra Garcia/The Washington Post)
By Spencer S. Hsu July 29 at 7:49 PM


Nearly every criminal case reviewed by the FBI and the Justice Department as part of a massive investigation started in 2012 of problems at the FBI lab has included flawed forensic testimony from the agency, government officials said.

The findings troubled the bureau, and it stopped the review of convictions last August. Case reviews resumed this month at the order of the Justice Department, the officials said.

U.S. officials began the inquiry after The Washington Post reported two years ago that flawed forensic evidence involving microscopic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people. Most of those defendants never were told of the problems in their cases.

The inquiry includes 2,600 convictions and 45 death-row cases from the 1980s and 1990s in which the FBI’s hair and fiber unit reported a match to a crime-scene sample before DNA testing of hair became common. The FBI had reviewed about 160 cases before it stopped, officials said.

The investigation resumed after the Justice Department’s inspector general excoriated the department and the FBI for unacceptable delays and inadequate investigation in a separate inquiry from the mid-1990s. The inspector general found in that probe that three defendants were executed and a fourth died on death row in the five years it took officials to reexamine 60 death-row convictions that were potentially tainted by agent misconduct, mostly involving the same FBI hair and fiber analysis unit now under scrutiny.

“I don’t know whether history is repeating itself, but clearly the [latest] report doesn’t give anyone a sense of confidence that the work of the examiners whose conduct was first publicly questioned in 1997 was reviewed as diligently and promptly as it needed to be,” said Michael R. Bromwich, who was inspector general from 1994 to 1999 and is now a partner at the Goodwin Procter law firm.

Bromwich would not discuss any aspect of the current review because he is a pro bono adviser to the Innocence Project, which along with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is assisting the government effort under an agreement not to talk about the review. Still, he added, “Now we are left 18 years [later] with a very unhappy, unsatisfying and disquieting situation, which is far harder to remedy than if the problems had been addressed promptly.”

Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole this month ordered that reviews resume under the original terms, officials said.

According to the FBI, the delay resulted, in part, “from a vigorous debate that occurred within the FBI and DOJ about the appropriate scientific standards we should apply when reviewing FBI lab examiner testimony — many years after the fact.”

“Working closely with DOJ, we have resolved those issues and are moving forward with the transcript review for the remaining cases,” the FBI said.

Emily Pierce, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said: “The Department of Justice never signed off on the FBI’s decision to change the way they reviewed the hair analysis. We are pleased that the review has resumed and that notification letters will be going out in the next few weeks.”

During the review’s 11-month hiatus, Florida’s Supreme Court denied an appeal by a death-row inmate who challenged his 1988 conviction based on an FBI hair match. James Aren Duckett’s results were caught up in the delay, and his legal options are now more limited.
1 of 0

Revelations that the government’s largest post-conviction review of forensic evidence has found widespread problems counter earlier FBI claims that a single rogue examiner was at fault. Instead, they feed a growing debate over how the U.S. justice system addresses systematic weaknesses in past forensic testimony and methods.

“I see this as a tip-of-the-iceberg problem,” said Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor and expert on modern scientific evidence.

“It’s not as though this is one bad apple or even that this is one bad-apple discipline,” she said. “There is a long list of disciplines that have exhibited problems, where if you opened up cases you’d see the same kinds of overstated claims and unfounded statements.”

Worries about the l ...

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... en/?page=1



Obama’s FBI to hire firm to rate ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories about the agency

Officials mum on need for and use of such info
August 3, 2014

The FBI is hiring a contractor to grade news stories about the agency as “positive” “neutral” or “negative,” but the agency won’t say why officials need the information or what they plan to do with it.

FBI officials wouldn’t even reveal how they will go about assigning the grades, which were laid out in a recent contract solicitation. The contract tells potential bidders to “use their judgment” in scoring news coverage as part of a new “daily news briefing” service the agency is seeking as part of a contract that could last up to five years.

PHOTOS: Obama's biggest White House 'fails'

The move is reminiscent of a similar effort the Obama administration made to grade media coverage of its response to the BP oil spill. A separate defense contract rating reporters’ work was scrapped in 2009.

In a statement of work, the agency says its public affairs office needs a contractor to help monitor “breaking news, editorials, long-form journalism projects and the larger public conversation about law enforcement.”

But the lack of clear public methods and goals raises “troubling questions,” said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

“You would certainly worry this could affect access,” he said. “It might affect the way they’re going to approach your questions, whether they’re going to be extra careful not to make news if you’re on the ‘bad list.’”

Mr. Kennedy also pointed out that journalism can be nuanced and complicated, raising questions about what sort of guidance the agency provides to contractors to fit stories into positive, neutral or negative boxes.

“If you’re rigorously fair about it and you’re getting the FBI’s point of view out there, they would probably write that as a negative story, but it strikes me as neutral,” he said.

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http://www.latinpost.com/articles/18680 ... leaker.htm


The Intercept & Spying 2014: Website Finds New Leaker?


First Posted: Aug 06, 2014 11:40 AM EDT
Glenn Greenwald NSA reporter Guardian US Edward Snowden
Greenwald at the the George A Polk award ceremony on April 11. The Guardian was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on April 14 for reporting on NSA revelations. (Photo : Getty)

The Internet site that gave Edward Snowden his fame by publishing his leaked National Security Agency documents may have found another whistleblower.

CNN reported Tuesday that based off of a report of classified documents -- which detail a list of terrorist suspects that are, in fact, not connected to any known terrorist groups -- it appears that The Intercept has found a new leaker.

The report shows that, of the about 680,000 listed suspects, at least 40 percent are not affiliated with a known terrorist group.

A former FBI special agent confirmed to The Intercept that the watchlist is outrageous, and has increased significantly since the 47,000 under George W. Bush.

"If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism," David Gomez told The Intercept. "You need some fact-basis to say a guy is a terrorist, that you know to a probable-cause standard that he is a terrorist. Then I say, 'Build as big a file as you can on him.' But if you just suspect that somebody is a terrorist? Not so much."

The new documents appeared a year after Snowden leaked his batch in June 2013, and U.S. officials suspected there were other leakers, according to CNN.

Glenn Greenwald, who launched The Intercept, hinted at the second leak in July and had previously told CNN it is likely there would be more Snowdens.

"I definitely think it's fair to say that there are people who have been inspired by Edward Snowden's courage and by the great good and virtue that it has achieved," he said. "I have no doubt there will be other sources inside the government who see extreme wrongdoing who are inspired by Edward Snowden."

The leaked documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center, which has yet to comment on the news, ac

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Ahmed Eleiba and Zeinab El-Gundy , Tuesday 12 Aug 2014



http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... ly-ov.aspx



Related
ElBaradei incited violence in 2011 uprising: Ex-interior minister's aides
Mubarak to address court from inside defendant's cell
UPDATED: Mubarak’s interior minister says US orchestrated 2011 revolution
Former head of information authority in the Egyptian General Intelligence, Major General Hossam Khairallah believes that what Habib El-Adly claimed in court on Saturday concerning Egypt's warning to the United States about 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks ‘lacked objectivity’.

Former interior minister Habib El-Adly claimed that he warned the Americans in 2001 about a terrorist attack twice but that they both ignored his warnings and plotted against his security apparatus in January 2011.

“There was cooperation in counterterrorism efforts between Egypt and the United States, there were warnings from Cairo that something may happen but we did not know what it was or how it would be or who would do it , nobody could have known then,” the former major general told Ahram Online.

In his speech in front of the court, El-Adly said that "In May 2001, we got a tip at the interior ministry in Egypt from a very well-connected informant inside Al-Qaeda that the terrorist group was planning for a huge attack inside the United States," Habib El-Adly said in statement during his retrial for killing protesters in the early days of the 25 January revolution on Saturday.

"I told president Mubarak after confirming this tip and he told us to inform the Americans so we told the CIA and FBI that there would be a terrorist attack in the United States soon," he added, saying that the Americans thanked him for the tip.

"Then in August 2001 we got a tip that Al-Qaeda’s attack for the United States was in process, again we informed the Americans and they thanked us for the information," he said.

According to Mubarak's longtime interior minister, when Mubarak was visiting the United States in 2002 he asked President Bush why the US ignored the tips allegedly given to American intelligence regarding Al-Qaeda’s threat. El-Adly claimed that Bush denied knowing that he was informed of such tips.

“He then confronted the CIA and FBI and they responded saying that the information was not communicated in a memo. What memo were they talking about?” he said in the court.

Khairallah on the other hand, questions whether Egypt really knew any details about 9/11 and whether the US would ignore such information even if it did. If Egypt truly had details on the attacks, he assumed it would have informed Germany where Egyptian Mohamed Atta was staying.

Khairallah also wondered why the former minister did not mention this earlier in the previous trial in front of the judge.

El-Adly accused the United States of orchestrating the 2011 Revolution to bring down the Egyptian state as well as his security apparatus.

"I warned you about a huge terrorist attack twice and you ignored it, yet you plot against my security apparatus and against my country," El-Adly said.

He also said that the Arab spring was a plot by the West to destroy Islam.

“El-Adly is using the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood were ousted and that people are still angry with them to claim whatever he wants without anyone paying attention.” Hossam Khairallah told Ahram Online.

Former interior minister, Habib El-Adly was sentenced to life in prison in May 2012 for killing protesters during the early days of 25 January revolution.

In March 2013 the conviction was overturned by the court of cassation and a new retrial was requested.

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see link for full story


http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-pl ... do-without

The Plan to Make Drones 'A Tool the FBI Cannot Do Without'
Written by
Shawn Musgrave
August 14, 2014 // 01:10 PM EST

The FBI has had an eager eye on surveillance drones since first experimenting with remote control airplanes in 1995. But budget cuts nearly ended the Bureau’s unmanned machinations in 2010, and it took a dedicated push aimed at making drones “a tool the FBI cannot do without” to cement their place in the FBI’s surveillance toolkit.

The near termination—and subsequent expansion—of the FBI’s drone program over the past four years is chronicled in hundreds of heavily-redacted pages released under a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington over the past several months.

The FBI’s Video Surveillance Unit took over the agency’s drone program in summer 2010. The Technical Response Unit, another component within the Operational Technology Division, had been overseeing the program since 2003. The FBI flew its first operational drone mission in October 2006, but documents suggest no operational deployments were flown in the next four years before VSU took over the program.

Two months after the handoff, the VSU chief outlined the program’s close brush with cancellation and the unit’s bold ambitions for unmanned vehicles.

“I know [this program] can be a huge benefit to the FBI if given the right support,” wrote the VSU chief in a July 2010 email. “I wasn’t present at a meeting two weeks ago where it was mentioned that folks in this Division was [sic] looking at cutting the UAS program out entirely to meet the budget cuts we’re facing next year.”

The VSU chief’s name is redacted throughout the documents. But this LinkedIn profile for a man named Robert Chong indicates he headed the unit through 2012. Chong’s profile is endorsed by at least one current FBI supervisory special agent, who also worked at Quantico at the same time as Chong, according to their posted employment histories.

The released FBI documents do not indicate what saved the agency’s drones from the budget hangman. But the VSU chief’s vision upon taking up the program was to make it “a tool the FBI cannot do without.” This would require building demand for drone backup from field agents, as well as drumming up support among senior FBI and Justice Department officials.

As it began a new fiscal year, the FBI drone team set a number of goals to advance the program, which included codifying a process for field offices to request unmanned technical assistance. The Quantico-based team spread word of their wares and protocol to request them by a variety of channels. In a May 2011 newsletter, the VSU boldly declared to agents from coast to coast, “The UAV Program is mission ready and fully operational” and is “actively pursuing additional [Federal Aviation Administration] approvals.”

The program manager also sent an email in July 2011 to top-ranking agents in “hybrid squads” along the southwest border and in California, including in Albuquerque, El Paso, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Jose.

“The time is now here and we are offering these services,” the email read, imploring field agents to request unmanned aerial assistance. “We have available several small Unmanned Aerial Systems available for deployment.”

These promotion efforts apparently paid off: the FBI flew at least two drone missions in 2011, and agency documents indicate that at least six unmanned surveillance operations were approved the same year. One April 2011 mission proposal was rejected in deference to the "safety of nonparticipating aircraft." The final memo noted that even the rejected request was “well written” even if it could not be authorized.

Where fiscal year 2011 was nearly the end of FBI drones, 2012 saw a considerable upswing in budgeted UAV expenditures. Even if it’s scrubbed of actual figures, a March 2013 email from the Operational Technology Division chief clearly conveys how much more money the program spent in 2012 over the previous year.

From the FBI’s sole redaction slip up, we know that the agency had three small drones as of December 2010, and the drone team filled out its inventory significantly in 2012. The department also made plans to continue to expand aggressively.

A July 2012 slideshow looked forward to the not-too-distant “FBI UAV Future,” when the Bureau would establish “an East Coast and West Coast Operational Hub” to coordinate drone missions as well as maintain standalone drone programs in all major field offices with aviation units.

A recruitment email from fall 2012 predicted, “Within the next two years the UAV program will double in size and hopefully triple in the amount of requests for UAV deployments.” Another projection from September 2012 foresaw back-to-back doublings of the FBI drone inventory in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, and for “utilization to increase exponentially” along with expanded visibility.

Such drone-in-every-pot dreams are hardly reality two years later, and the VSU’s enthusiasm was reined in somewhat. In September 2012, for example, an FBI contracts officer refused to allow the drone program manager to play loose with purchase orders after a manufacturer dropped prices.

"It's hard to see the money let go, I know,” read the contract officer’s response to the UAV manager, “but I cannot violate Federal Appropriations Law."

The UAV budget was also cut in fiscal year 2013, presumably derailing the bold visions of expansion ushered in by the program’s handoff to the Video Surveillance Unit in 2010.

Even with the brakes pumped, though, the FBI managed to spend $3 million on drones from 2004 through May 2013, per figures released by the Justice Department Inspector General last fall. Seemingly paltry next to the FBI’s $8.3 billion annual budget, this figure looms much larger given that the Bureau flew a grand total of ten drone missions in that span, for a rough cost of $300,000 per operational deployment.

Even more significant than securing current funding, the FBI drone team’s efforts secured buy-in from field agents and headquarters officials alike, all the way up to the director’s office. In February 2013, FBI Director Robert Mueller, III, requested a personal UAV demonstration. Four months later, Mueller confirmed before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI had a small inventory of drones, but emphasized that “our footprint is very small, we have very few and of limited use.”

In December 2013, FBI senior leadership were treated to another “capability demonstration/briefing” which offered attendees “the chance to operate a system if they are interested in doing so.”

In a span of three years, the FBI’s drone program went from budgetary gristle to a matter for the director’s attention. Drones may not yet be indispensable to the Bureau, but they have generated considerable momentum as a low-cost, low-profile surveillance tool. We know precious few details about how many units the Bureau has, where they’ve been deployed or what privacy protections are in place, but one thing is certain: FBI drones are here to stay.

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Lawyers: FBI Removed Lead Agent in Corruption Case

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawy ... e-25002106
August 15 2014

A lead FBI agent in a sting that produced criminal charges against a state senator and 19 other people was removed from the case over unspecified financial improprieties, lawyers for one defendant said.

In court documents filed Thursday, lawyers for defendant Keith Jackson argued that the unidentified FBI agent showed "outrageous" behavior in the sting, including lavishing the probe's targets with tens of thousands of dollars for lawful actions.

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EXCLUSIVE: Accused stock fraudsters make FBI history with first recorded post-arrest statements
Matthew Bell and Craig Josephburg, who were arrested for a pump-and-dump stock scheme, made their statements to agents under a new Department of Justice policy of using electronic recordings.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.1903263


August 16 2014

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http://www.farsight.org/

Remote Viewing 9/11: Forbidden Questions, Forbidden Perceptions

Project Release Date: 11 September 2014 (expected)

This page describes the targets use in the 9/11 project conducted at The Farsight Institute. These targets are being published prior to the release of the project results (with an anticipated release date of 11 September 2014).

Trailers and Shorts[vimeo][/vimeo]

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http://fox6now.com/2014/08/29/report-sa ... ad-of-fbi/




Report says “highly inappropriate” conduct by former head of FBI
Posted 5:51 pm, August 29, 2014, b

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The former head of the FBI’s Milwaukee Field Office is the target of a condemning report. The report by the the Department of Justice mentions her handling of the Sikh temple shooting. The subject of that report is Teresa Carlson.

Carlson is not being prosecuted, but may face disciplinary action. The report says her conduct was, “highly inappropriate,” and showed, “a troubling lack of judgement.”

“It appears that Page died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” said Carlson.

In the days and weeks after the Sikh temple shooting, Teresa Carlson was the face of the FBI.

“We’re looking for any possible motive, and right now we still don’t have one,” said Carlson.

At the time, Carlson was in charge of the FBI’s Milwaukee Field Office. Carlson has since been removed from that job, and now a scathing report offers one explanation why.

The U.S. Department of Justice says in the wake of the shooting, “There were both perceived and real communication issues between the Chief of the Oak Creek Police Department, and Special Agent in charge Carlson” as their departments investigated the shooter’s past.

“We’ve got leads going a lot of different places,” said Carlson.

Though Carlson and Chief John Edwards appeared to a press conference together, the chief confirmed to FBI inspectors, there were problems.

When those inspectors interviewed an agent who spoke candidly about Carlson, the report says Carlson admonished the agent — something the report calls, “highly inappropriate.”

Chief Edwards turned down an interview request from FOX6 on Friday, saying he thinks the report speaks for itself.

Edwards says his department has always worked well with FBI agents on the ground, and any communication issues have been resolved. He says the shooting investigation itself was never jeopardized.

An FBI spokesman will only say, “this is a personal matter so we cannot comment.”

The report also goes into depth about another case involving Carlson. It says she coached a special agent on how to testify in a lawsuit filed by Justin Slaby, a wounded war vet trying to become an FBI agent.

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http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-d7 ... s-struggle

Inspiring account of a black activist’s struggle
Sep
2014
Monday 1st
posted by Morning Star in Arts

Assata: An Autobiograhy

by Assata Shakur

(Zed Books, £8.99)

ASSATA SHAKUR remains an essential text for understanding both the prison-industrial complex and the state of race relations in the US, as well as providing a profound insight into the successes and failures of the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Born in 1947, Shakur — then Joanne Deborah Byron — grew up between North Carolina and New York, experiencing the intense racism that prevailed, and still prevails, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

As a black, working-class woman she became acutely aware of the special oppression she and others like her faced. When a college student, she came across activists — especially from newly liberated Africa --— who challenged her anti-communist prejudices and her internalised stereotypes.

They encouraged her to get involved in the struggle for black power and against capitalism and imperialism. This led to her membership of the Black Panther Party and, later, the Black Liberation Army.

The larger part of the book is devoted to documenting Shakur’s experiences with the US “justice” system in courts and prisons between her arrest in 1971 and her escape eight years later.

Few readers would fail to be shocked at the extent to which this human being, whose real “crime” in the eyes of the state was to be a loud campaigner for justice and equality, was tortured and abused in prison — often at the hands of openly fascistic prison officers.

Her account also serves as a crucial reminder that there remain many political prisoners in the US, languishing behind bars for decades on trumped-up charges and that international pressure must be maintained and intensified until Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore, Albert Woodfox and all political prisoners are freed.

As the book demonstrates, it’s a fight that must be maintained against a phenomenally unjust prison system which disproportionately targets poor and non-white people.

This is not restricted to the US — a recent study showed that black people in Britain are seven times more likely than their white counterparts to be imprisoned.

Shakur’s profound and thought-provoking reflections on the decline of the black power movement deserve to be studied and discussed, as they could help illuminate a path for the current generation of organisers and activists.

Apart from the FBI’s large-scale covert assault on the Panthers and others, she focuses too on subjective elements —adventurism, sectarianism, amateurishness, the failure to consistently raise levels of political consciousness and alienation from the masses — which hampered the movement.

Shakur’s continuing relevance is not lost on the FBI. Last year it added her to its list of “most wanted terrorists” and she is the first woman to enjoy this honour — good to see US imperialism doing its bit for gender equality.

Thankfully, she is safely in exile in Cuba, a country she describes as “one of the largest, most resistant and most courageous palenques (palisades) that has ever existed on the face of this planet.”

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when you smell like sulphur you have to convince the public you don't stink

The show is called Hellboy Redux


see link for full taxpayer funded propaganda machine


http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/02/fbi-r ... f-serving/

FBI Radio: Public Service or Self-Serving?

September 02, 2014 /



Listen to the radio and you might run across a segment that sounds something like a news report. A newsy music introduction plays as woman’s officious-sounding voice begins narrating a story. In a stilted delivery that appears to mimic that of a news anchor, the woman states, “In a move demonstrating the FBI’s valuable role of protecting national security, Director James Comey creates a separate Intelligence Branch…”

It turns out this isn’t a news report at all. And the “news anchor” is actually a public affairs specialist.

How many tax dollars are being spent for the FBI to promote itself?

You might call the radio spot a faux news report brought to you by the FBI. It’s called “FBI This Week,” produced and distributed regularly on the radio, via podcasts and on the Internet along with three other FBI productions.

Is this a much-needed public service? Or self-serving propaganda? Are the segments masquerading as independent news reports? And just how many tax dollars are being spent on the FBI’s promotional efforts?

“[T]he programs that we produce are ultimately designed to aid and assist the public in protecting itself against crime,” says Susan McKee, the FBI’s chief of investigative publicity and public affairs.

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the reason no investigation...
Boston Marathon bombers are FBI. informants.



see link for full story

http://www.milforddailynews.com/article ... /140909712



Holmes: The Tsarnaev questions

By By Rick Holmes
Local Columnist
Posted Sep. 1, 2014

From the beginning, there have been unanswered questions about the Marathon bombing. Police and prosecutors avoided them by saying there was still an investigation in progress. Politicians and public officials resisted calls for a review of what worked and what didn’t in the days between the blasts on Monday and the capture of the second Tsarnaev brother Friday night, probably to avoid having something come out that might reflect badly on them.

It’s even been hard to find an opportunity to put these questions to someone who might know the answers, especially in a public setting. So when I moderated a debate in Framingham last week between the two candidates for Middlesex District Attorney, I took the opportunity to ask a Tsarnaev question.

"On Sept. 11, 2011, three men were murdered in a Waltham apartment," I explained. Their throats were cut – "the worst bloodbath I’ve ever seen," a veteran Waltham investigator said. More than eight pounds of marijuana was left behind, and $5,000 in cash was scattered on top of the bodies.

The Middlesex DA – Gerry Leone, at the time - held a press conference, but the investigation of the triple murder seemed to go nowhere. Years later, after an even deadlier crime, journalists learned that the phone records of the victims and the statements of their friends pointed to an associate of the men named Tamerlan Tsarnaev. For some reason, investigators working in the Middlesex DA’s office never questioned him.

Marian Ryan was appointed Middlesex DA a week after the Boston Marathon bombings, and five days after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown. She has worked in the DA’s office for 34 years, and is now campaigning for a full term. So I asked her what part she played in the triple murder investigation, what happened with the case and, as some have speculated, whether the FBI called the DA’s off the investigation.

Ryan’s response left much unanswered. She was plugged into the case as a senior manager in the DA’s office, she said, but she wasn’t in command. "Great progress" is being made in the investigation, she said, but she wouldn’t say anything more, because she doesn’t want to tip off the guilty. No one from the FBI had told her to cool it.

Implied in my question was the question her opponent, Middlesex Clerk of Courts Michael Sullivan, made explicit in his rebuttal: Did the DA's office drop the ball on the triple murder, and did that lead to the deaths of four and the injuries to hundreds at the Marathon finish line?

Ryan replied with outrage over irresponsible "speculation" that was insensitive to the victims of the Marathon bombings. Sullivan came back with outrage over her implication that he, a family friend of one of those killed at the Marathon, was being insensitive. Then he mentioned another victim: the suspect killed while being interrogated as part of the triple murder investigation.

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see link for full story

A JOURNAL SENTINEL WATCHDOG UPDATE
FBI mum on why former Milwaukee chief still holds top job
Teresa L. Carlson, formerly the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Milwaukee, remains in a high-ranking position despite the belief that she ​encouraged perjury and ​then lied to investigators​.
Mike De Sisti
Teresa L. Carlson, formerly the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Milwaukee, remains in a high-ranking position despite the belief that she ​encouraged perjury and ​then lied to investigators​.
By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel
September 4. 2014

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchd ... 49651.html


The former ​chief ​of the FBI Milwaukee office — ​believed to have ​encouraged perjury and ​then lied to investigators​ — is worthless as a witness ​and ​dishonors an agency that places a premium on integrity, according to bureau veterans and law enforcement experts.​

But ​Teresa ​Carlson ​remains a high-ranking FBI official in Washington, D.C., and the agency won't say whether she has been demoted, suspended or disciplined in any way.

A Justice Department report issued last week concluded that Carlson, then special agent in charge of the Milwaukee office, instructed a subordinate to commit perjury in the case of a wounded veteran who wanted to become an agent. Carlson then likely lied to investigators from the Inspector General's Office and the FBI as well as federal prosecutors, the report says.

An investigation into her conduct has dragged on for months, underscoring the perception among some agents that top officials are given special treatment.

Five years ago, the inspector general found that allegations ​of wrongdoing by top FBI​ leaders often were not pursued. A third of FBI employees surveyed for that report believed there was a double standard for top officials in the bureau.

"That is the basis of everything the FBI does — trust, integrity, honesty. Everything you do involves that," said retired FBI agent Jack Blair. "When you go to trial, the case is based on the testimony, many times, of the agent. If they are lying, you got a serious problem with the whole agency. That is one thing we get fired for."

Inspector General Michael Horowitz's office found Carlson "conducted herself unprofessionally and exhibited extremely poor judgment" when she coached Special Agent Mark Crider on how to testify in the case of Justin Slaby, a wounded war veteran trying to become an FBI agent.

According to Crider, Carlson told him to "come down" on the FBI's side in the case. Carlson denied she told Crider how to testify, but the inspector general staff concluded her version of events was not credible.

Carlson invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination last year after she was subpoenaed to explain the conversation. Likewise, she refused to speak to inspector general staff until she was forced to do so. She has not returned calls for comment.

FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce quietly moved Carlson out of Milwaukee last summer. More than a year later, Carlson remains in a high-level job as acting deputy assistant director of the Facilities and Logistics Division at headquarters in Washington — which manages FBI facilities and an $800 million budget.

The FBI will not say how much Carlson makes — but government pay scales show it is between $120,000 and $180,000 year. The agency also will not say if any disciplinary action has been taken against her.

[fruhmenschen]

September 5th, 2014, 8:50 pm
Retrial of FBI agent delayed

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http://news.fredericksburg.com/newsdesk ... t-delayed/

Much to the dismay of the presiding judge, the retrial of an FBI special agent accused of murdering his estranged wife won’t begin Monday after all.

Arthur Gonzales, 43, is charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the April 19, 2013, slaying of 42-year-old Julie Serna Gonzales.

Gonzales’ first trial in March ended after eight days with a hung jury. Sources said the jurors voted 10–2 to acquit Gonzales, and the two in opposition only supported a lesser manslaughter conviction.

At that time, Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen immediately announced his intention to try Gonzales again and his second trial was set to start next week.

But defense attorney Mark Gardner said he needed more time after being informed by prosecutors Wednesday of two new expert witnesses they intended to present.

Marcella Fierro, the retired chief medical examiner for the state, has examined the evidence and made conclusions that differ somewhat from those of the forensic scientist who performed the autopsy.

Specially, according to statements made during a hearing Friday in Stafford Circuit Court, Fierro has concluded that one of the shots that struck Julie Gonzales was fired while her back was against a hard surface, presumably the floor.

The medical examiner who testified at the first trial said the victim’s back being against a hard surface was not the only reasonable interpretation of the evidence.

Gardner said that if Fierro and a use-of-force expert he also just found out about were going to be allowed to testify, he would need more time to examine their conclusions.