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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/us/20hosty.html?_r=1


James P. Hosty, Investigated Oswald, Dies at 86
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: June 19, 2011


Special Agent James P. Hosty had a few dozen cases in his portfolio in October 1963 when his supervisor in the Dallas office of the F.B.I. handed him another. It was the well-thumbed file on a suspected communist agitator and possible spy named Lee Harvey Oswald.
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Associated Press

James P. Hosty testifying before Congress in 1975.

Mr. Hosty tried to find Oswald during two trips into the field in early November, without any luck.

The two men met for the first time on Nov. 22, 1963.

Oswald was being held at Dallas police headquarters, charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the killing of a Dallas police officer. Mr. Hosty, taking notes as the police interrogated Oswald, was beginning the half of his life that would remain painfully entangled in the mystery and national trauma of the Kennedy assassination.

Mr. Hosty, who died of prostate cancer on June 10 in Kansas City, Mo., at 86, always said he regretted not having found Oswald in those weeks before the assassination. But he insisted it would not have made a difference.

Oswald had been on the F.B.I.’s radar since returning to the United States in 1962, with his Russian wife, after an unsuccessful effort to settle in the Soviet Union. He had been interviewed by other F.B.I. agents and described in their reports as an avowed communist, a potential spy and a heavy drinker, but never as a potential assassin.

When asked by a Congressional committee years later why he did not alert the Secret Service to Oswald before the president’s visit, Mr. Hosty replied: “The only thing that we could tell the Secret Service was a direct threat to the president. He made no direct threat to the president. Therefore we could not tell them.”

In fact, it was Mr. Hosty’s contacts with Oswald, rather than the lack of them, that came to haunt him. In 1975, testifying before Congress, Mr. Hosty admitted having received a letter from Oswald in the weeks before the assassination and destroying it on the day Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, Nov. 24.

He said the letter included Oswald’s sharp protest over Mr. Hosty’s having questioned Oswald’s wife, Marina, when the agent made two visits to their home while Oswald was out. Mr. Hosty testified that he destroyed the letter on orders from his supervisor, J. Gordon Shanklin. (Mr. Shanklin denied giving such an order.)

Mr. Hosty also figured in a deception involving Oswald’s address book. Mr. Hosty’s name and phone number appeared in the book, but F.B.I. agents in Washington, taking inventory of the contents of it for the Warren Commission, left his name out. (Commission lawyers later obtained the address book and discovered the omission.)

Both incidents made Mr. Hosty a lightning rod for suspicion about the credibility of the F.B.I. in the aftermath of the assassination, raising questions for some about what the agency knew and would not tell. For others, the incidents suggested darker possibilities.

Mr. Hosty’s name is ubiquitous in the conspiracy literature. Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie “JFK” has a fictionalized version of him at the center of a conspiracy of government operatives who kill the president and set up Oswald — an F.B.I. informant in the film — to take the fall.

“The irony was, my dad was a devout Irish-Catholic Democrat Kennedy supporter,” said Thomas Hosty, one of Mr. Hosty’s nine children, a lawyer, who helped his father write his 1995 memoir, “Assignment: Oswald.” They conceived the project after “JFK,” he said, to set the record straight. “Being portrayed as part of a plot to kill the president, it was just so hurtful to him.”

In his memoir, Mr. Hosty acknowledges some mistakes but contends that F.B.I. officials made bigger errors — first by trying to eliminate evidence that might make it seem as though the agency had any hint of Oswald’s plans, and then by letting commission investigators portray Mr. Hosty as a bumbler when the evidence emerged about his contact with Oswald in the weeks before the assassination.

“I came to understand that one of our jobs was to protect the bureau’s image at all costs,” he wrote.

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http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2011/06/21 ... ment-34379

Suhr sounds open to Portland-style FBI terrorism taskforce resolution
06.21.11 - 12:56 pm | Sarah Phelan |


When the Guardian sat down with SFPD Chief Greg Suhr last week, it was shortly after the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Julius Turman as the next Police Commissioner. Turman’s appointment means the Commission, which provides civilian oversight of SFPD’s policies and procedures, now has seven members, once again, and thus can get on with addressing important outstanding issues, including what to do about the FBI’s hitherto secret agreement around SFPD officers assigned to the FBI’s terrorism taskforce.

At issue is an agreement with the FBI that then SFPD Chief Heather Fong signed in March 2007, but the Police Commission never reviewed. Further complicating the issue is the fact that in December 2008, the FBI introduced looser surveillance guidelines that appear to clash head-on with SFPD’s tighter surveillance policies, which require reasonable suspicion before any spying can be approved.

During Suhr’s first few weeks as Chief, the Police Commission and the Human Rights Commission held a joint hearing on the FBI’s hitherto secret agreement with the SFPD. And during that meeting, Suhr introduced a new bureau order which clarified that, under Suhr’s command, SFPD surveillance policies trump the FBI guidelines.

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http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20 ... ally-named
Jackson's new FBI building officially named
Site honors FBI agent, slain civil rights workers
8:57 PM, Jun. 21, 2011 |


Federal officials and family members linked by a 1964 slaying of three young men in Neshoba County unveiled a sign this morning for the new FBI building in Mississippi.

The name honors the three civil rights workers killed by Klansmen 47 years ago to the day as well as the FBI agent who headed the investigation.

The James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and Roy K. Moore Federal Building sits at 1220 Echelon Parkway in Jackson.

"The naming of this building for these four individuals is part of the continuing process of healing we have to have in the state of Mississippi if we are ever going to get off the bottom," 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said today.

Last October, President Obama signed the legislation to name the FBI building after the three civil rights workers killed June 21, 1964, as well as Roy Moore, who headed the FBI investigation dubbed Mississippi Burning.

2nd read
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/mlk-con ... posed.html
The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis

by Jim Douglass




According to a Memphis jury’s verdict on December 8, 1999, in the wrongful death lawsuit of the King family versus Loyd Jowers "and other unknown co-conspirators," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a conspiracy that included agencies of his own government. Almost 32 years after King’s murder at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, a court extended the circle of responsibility for the assassination beyond the late scapegoat James Earl Ray to the United States government.

I can hardly believe the fact that, apart from the courtroom participants, only Memphis TV reporter Wendell Stacy and I attended from beginning to end this historic three-and-one-half week trial. Because of journalistic neglect scarcely anyone else in this land of ours even knows what went on in it. After critical testimony was given in the trial’s second week before an almost empty gallery, Barbara Reis, U.S. correspondent for the Lisbon daily Publico who was there several days, turned to me and said, "Everything in the U.S. is the trial of the century. O.J. Simpson’s trial was the trial of the century. Clinton’s trial was the trial of the century. But this is the trial of the century, and who’s here?"

What I experienced in that courtroom ranged from inspiration at the courage of the Kings, their lawyer-investigator William F. Pepper, and the witnesses, to amazement at the government’s carefully interwoven plot to kill Dr. King. The seriousness with which U.S. intelligence agencies planned the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. speaks eloquently of the threat Kingian nonviolence represented to the powers that be in the spring of 1968.

In the complaint filed by the King family, "King versus Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators," the only named defendant, Loyd Jowers, was never their primary concern. As soon became evident in court, the real defendants were the anonymous co-conspirators who stood in the shadows behind Jowers, the former owner of a Memphis bar and grill. The Kings and Pepper were in effect charging U.S. intelligence agencies – particularly the FBI and Army intelligence – with organizing, subcontracting, and covering up the assassination. Such a charge guarantees almost insuperable obstacles to its being argued in a court within the United States. Judicially it is an unwelcome beast.

Many qualifiers have been attached to the verdict in the King case. It came not in criminal court but in civil court, where the standards of evidence are much lower than in criminal court. (For example, the plaintiffs used unsworn testimony made on audiotapes and videotapes.) Furthermore, the King family as plaintiffs and Jowers as defendant agreed ahead of time on much of the evidence.

But these observations are not entirely to the point. Because of the government’s "sovereign immunity," it is not possible to put a U.S. intelligence agency in the dock of a U.S. criminal court. Such a step would require authorization by the federal government, which is not likely to indict itself. Thanks to the conjunction of a civil court, an independent judge with a sense of history, and a courageous family and lawyer, a spiritual breakthrough to an unspeakable truth occurred in Memphis. It allowed at least a few people (and hopefully many more through them) to see the forces behind King’s martyrdom and to feel the responsibility we all share for it through our government. In the end, twelve jurors, six black and six white, said to everyone willing to hear: guilty as charged.

We can also thank the unlikely figure of Loyd Jowers for providing a way into that truth.

Loyd Jowers: When the frail, 73-year-old Jowers became ill after three days in court, Judge Swearengen excused him. Jowers did not testify and said through his attorney, Lewis Garrison, that he would plead the Fifth Amendment if subpoenaed. His discretion was too late. In 1993 against the advice of Garrison, Jowers had gone public. Prompted by William Pepper’s progress as James Earl Ray’s attorney in uncovering Jowers’s role in the assassination, Jowers told his story to Sam Donaldson on Prime Time Live. He said he had been asked to help in the murder of King and was told there would be a decoy (Ray) in the plot. He was also told that the police "wouldn’t be there that night."

In that interview, the transcript of which was read to the jury in the Memphis courtroom, Jowers said the man who asked him to help in the murder was a Mafia-connected produce dealer named Frank Liberto. Liberto, now deceased, had a courier deliver $100,000 for Jowers to hold at his restaurant, Jim’s Grill, the back door of which opened onto the dense bushes across from the Lorraine Motel. Jowers said he was visited the day before the murder by a man named Raul, who brought a rifle in a box.

As Mike Vinson reported in the March–April Probe, other witnesses testified to their knowledge of Liberto’s involvement in King’s slaying. Store-owner John McFerren said he arrived around 5:15 pm, April 4, 1968, for a produce pick-up at Frank Liberto’s warehouse in Memphis. (King would be shot at 6:01 pm.) When he approached the warehouse office, McFerren overheard Liberto on the phone inside saying, "Shoot the son-of-a-bitch on the balcony."

Café-owner Lavada Addison, a friend of Liberto’s in the late 1970’s, testified that Liberto had told her he "had Martin Luther King killed." Addison’s son, Nathan Whitlock, said when he learned of this conversation he asked Liberto point-blank if he had killed King.

"[Liberto] said, ‘I didn’t kill the nigger but I had it done.’ I said, ‘What about that other son-of-a-bitch taking credit for it?’ He says, ‘Ahh, he wasn’t nothing but a troublemaker from Missouri. He was a front man…a setup man.’"

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http://www.suntimes.com/6068951-417/jod ... igned.html
Jody Weis received $76,308 in unused vacation when he resigned

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com June 21, 2011 12:40AM



Updated: June 21, 2011 11:43AM


Former Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis walked out with a $76,308 check for accrued vacation days when he resigned his $310,000-a-year job on March 1 — a lump-sum payment for 64 unused days that’s raising eyebrows at City Hall.

His former $168,438-a-year chief-of-staff Mike Masters left police headquarters with a check for $30,448. That’s the equivalent of 54 unused vacation days

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/ch ... lines-call

June 23rd, 2011
New Changes to FBI Guidelines Call into Question Proposal to Extend FBI Director’s Term
Deeplink by Jennifer Lynch

This month, the New York Times reported that the FBI has updated its internal domestic investigations guidelines to provide its agents with “significant new powers.” According to the Times, this update will provide agents with “more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.” These changes are especially troubling as they come on the heels of the Obama Administration’s efforts to extend FBI Director Robert Mueller’s term and on recent reports that the Bureau has once again engaged in controversial surveillance activities directed at “prominent peace activists and politically-active labor organizers.”

The FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (also known as the “DIOG”) is a collection of procedures, standards, approval levels, and explanations, created by the FBI, that implements current Attorney General’s Guidelines as they apply to Bureau investigations.

The Bureau most recently updated the DIOG in 2008, after then-Attorney General Mukasey introduced new AG Guidelines that reduced restrictions on certain surveillance protocols by allowing agents to open investigative “assessments” on Americans and American organizations. As we wrote in a blog post at the time, these assessments, which are still in use today, “allow the use of intrusive techniques to surreptitiously collect information on people suspected of no wrongdoing and no connection with any foreign entity.” Even though the DIOG impacts all domestic investigations, the FBI failed to release the 2008 DIOG publicly until EFF filed a FOIA request and later a lawsuit in 2009.

The recent announcement that FBI has once again updated the DIOG to further relax restrictions on invasive investigatory techniques follows the Obama Administration’s push to extend the 10-year term of the FBI Director, which is set to expire this year. The convergence of these two events—the amendment to the DIOG and the proposed extension of the FBI Director’s term—is important. Both were put in place 35 years ago in direct response to the extensive FBI abuses that occurred in the 60s and 70s during the nearly 50-year reign of the FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover.

In the last few years, the DOJ Inspector General found in several reports available here, here, here, and here (all pdfs) that the FBI engaged in significant abuses during Director Mueller’s term as well, including investigating domestic advocacy organizations and engaging in illegal electronic surveillance practices that resulted in what the DOJ IG described as "an egregious breakdown" in the FBI's responsibility to comply with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Last fall, the IG also investigated and uncovered “significant abuses and cheating” on an exam that all FBI agents, analysts, and technicians must take on implementing the DIOG, (See Investigation of Allegations of Cheating on the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) Exam, September 2010 (pdf) at p. 30), suggesting the Bureau does not take seriously the training of its staff on these important rules.

None of these events inspire confidence that the Bureau is doing as much as it should to protect our civil liberties. Although Valerie Caproni, the FBI’s general counsel, has described the latest changes to the DIOG as “more like fine-tuning than major changes,” the changes would allow much broader FBI surveillance of our private and protected activities with much less oversight. In one of the most problematic changes, agents will now be allowed to search for information about a person in a commercial or law enforcement database without any firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity and without making any record of their search. Not requiring agents to put information uncovered from these searches into F.B.I. files unless they later opened an assessment will undoubtedly make it much harder to detect and prevent agents from using these databases for non-intelligence related purposes and may in fact overstep the AG Guidelines by creating a new “pre-assessment” stage.

The new Guidelines include additional important changes. For example, the Times notes “the new manual says an agent or an informant may surreptitiously attend up to five meetings” of any group, including those organized for political purposes, before the agent or informant is subject to any rules that would restrict such speech-suppressing activities. The FBI used these tactics recently to infiltrate activists’ circles in the Midwest and Arizona by posing as a lesbian mother to befriend lesbians with small children and by infiltrating political meetings to befriend anarchists. Further, the new Guidelines will relax restrictions on administering lie-detector tests and searching people’s trash and will also allow agents to use secret surveillance squads repeatedly to track targets..

Although the Times provides some information on the new Guidelines, the FBI has not yet made the 2011 DIOG available to the public. This was the same story three years ago, before EFF filed its FOIA lawsuit. At that time the Bureau repeatedly stated its interest in public and lawmaker comments on the 2008 updates, despite the fact that it never made a complete copy available to the public (even the 2008 version released to EFF (available here) was heavily redacted). The Bureau also stated at the time that it “had very substantial outreach to privacy and civil liberties groups”—as if to imply that consulting with these groups ensured the DIOG would protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties and thus these groups had added their stamp of approval.

We hope the FBI is not planning to repeat this charade in 2011. On Friday, Senators Leahy and Grassley sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, urging the FBI to provide an updated briefing to the Senate Judiciary Committee on proposed changes to the DIOG. Apparently, the Committee has not been briefed on the revisions since sometime last year.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also plans to vote on an extension to Mueller’s term within the next two weeks. It is crucial that these senators and the public at large have access to the new DIOG before that time so that Americans and their senators can fully analyze and debate the implications of the unprecedented (and perhaps unconstitutional) proposal to extend the FBI Director’s term.

Related Issues: FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government, Free Speech, Privacy, Transparency

Related Cases: FOIA: FBI's Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines

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http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailywee ... p#comments

Derrick Anthony Dillon, Former WSU Football Player, Arrested in Bank Robbery
By Jonathan Kaminsky Thu., Jun. 23 2011 at 6:02 PM


Dillon was arrested Wednesday in connection with a bank robbery earlier this month in Shoreline, reports The News Tribune. He's also a suspect in two other bank robberies, at a Bank of America in Milton on June 8 and a bank in Snohomish County on May 31, apparently with surveillance videos and other evidence linking him to the crimes.

None of the heists involved big money. The Shoreline robbery allegedly netted $3,400, and the Milton robbery $2,666. It's a shame, especially considering that Dillon, once listed by SuperPrep as among the top 20 high school receivers in the nation, majored in criminal justice and psychology at WSU, with dreams of becoming an FBI agent.

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http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/rog ... ure/nCy3P/
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Roger Wheeler's son reacts to Bulger's capture
David Wheeler wants the reputed mobster tried in Tulsa as soon as possible

By Paul Crockett


(Tulsa, OK) – As you might imagine, the family of Roger Wheeler is glad to hear James “Whitey” Bulger has been captured. As you might also image, Bulger’s capture dredges up painful memories of Wheeler’s 1981 murder in Tulsa.

It’s not just the killing that causes Wheeler’s son David pain. It’s also the knowledge that a member of the FBI allegedly helped plan his father’s murder and also helped shield Bulger from justice.

Former FBI Agent Paul Rico was brought to Tulsa for trial in the case but died before it could begin.

Because of that connection, David Wheeler is uneasy with the idea of a federal prosecution. He calls it a “blatant conflict of interest.” “The problem we have is it was the government that protected Whitey. They set him up, they protected him as he killed.”

David Wheeler would much prefer to see Bulger tried in an Oklahoma court. He’s also concerned about having that happen soon since Bulger is 81 years of age. “If we delay, the man’s old, we may never get the chance which is somewhat what happened to, if you remember, Rico.”

David Wheeler does have high praise for now retired Tulsa Police Homicide Detective Mike Huff. He calls Sgt. Huff the hero of this case. “No one would have ever broken any of this case without Sgt. Huff. He’s the one that drove this thing to actually have any arrests at all.”

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1st read
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html
James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s capture could cause trouble inside the FBI



By Denise Lavoie, Updated: Friday, June 24, 6:34 PM

BOSTON — James “Whitey” Bulger’s capture could cause a world of trouble inside the FBI.

The ruthless Boston crime boss who spent 16 years on the lam is said to have boasted that he corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 police officers. If he decides to talk, some of them could rue the day he was caught.


The Washington Post's Anqoinette Crosby sits down with reporter Jerry Markon to discuss the arrest of mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger and the $2 million reward that may go to the person who tipped off the FBI.

“They are holding their breath, wondering what he could say,” said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command of the Boston FBI office.

The 81-year-old gangster was captured Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., where he apparently had been living for most of the time he was a fugitive. He appeared Friday afternoon inside a heavily guarded federal courthouse in Boston to answer charges that he committed 19 murders.

Bulger, wearing jeans and a white shirt under a white unbuttoned shirt, was brought into court in handcuffs, which were then removed. He looked tan and fit and walked with a slight hunch.

He had back-to-back hearings for two indictments. Attorney Peter Krupp was appointed to represent Bulger on Friday, but Bulger asked that a public defender be appointed.

The government objected, citing the $800,000 found in his apartment and “family resources,” including money from relatives.

“We feel he has access to cash,” said prosecutor Brian Kelly.

In the second hearing, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler asked Bulger if he could pay for legal counsel.

“I could, if you give me my money,” Bulger replied.

The government is seeking to seize Bulger’s assets, which prosecutors said included the cash and 30 guns found in the apartment.

Prosecutors also asked that Bulger be held without bond. Bulger waived his right to a detention hearing Friday.

Bulger’s girlfriend, Catherine Elizabeth Greig, who was arrested with him, was scheduled to appear in court on charges of harboring a fugitive.

Bulger, the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang, Boston’s Irish mob, embroiled the FBI in scandal once before, after he disappeared in 1995. It turned out that Bulger had been an FBI informant for decades, feeding the bureau information on the rival New England Mafia, and that he fled after a retired Boston FBI agent tipped him off that he was about to be indicted.

The retired agent, John Connolly Jr., was sent to prison for protecting Bulger. The FBI depicted Connolly as a rogue agent, but Bulger associates described more widespread corruption in testimony at Connolly’s trial and in lawsuits filed by the families of people allegedly killed by Bulger and his gang.

After a series of hearings in the late 1990s, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf found that more than a dozen FBI agents had broken the law or violated FBI regulations.

Edward J. MacKenzie Jr., a former drug dealer and enforcer for Bulger, predicted that Bulger will disclose new details about FBI corruption and how agents protected him.

“Whitey was no fool. He knew he would get caught. I think he’ll have more fun pulling all those skeletons out of the closet,” MacKenzie said. “I think he’ll start talking and he’ll start taking people down.”

2nd read

Any discussion of the Boston FBI collaboration with Whitey Bulger must not be myopic but must extend its gaze at the rest of the country where a staggering amount of evidence exists showing how FBI agents collaborated with the Mafia in just about every major US city. In 1999 a Memphis jury determined FBI agents had turned to the Memphis mafia to help them assassinate Martin Luther King.
The Martin Luther King family has put the trial transcript up on their website. You can find out more if you Google james douglass mlk rockwell In 2009 New Jersey forensic investigator Angela Clemente was beaten to within an inch of her life after she successfully convinced the Brooklyn DA to file murder charges against New York FBI agent Lyndley DeVecchio . DeVecchio had collaborated with his informant Mafia boss Greg Scarpa
in committing murders according to the murder charges filed by DA Heinz. Scarpa committed so many murders that a book called THE MURDER MACHINE was written about him.
Google angela clemente jack cashill
Nobody has yet to look at how FBI Director J Edgar Hoover allowed the Mafia to infiltrate American unions
to destroy them on behalf of corporations. We now know as a fact that FBI Director Hoover collaborated with the Texas Mafia whose membership included Lyndon Johnson and oil billionaires Murchison and Richardson to assassinate President Kennedy. Quincy Mass native Ed Tatro helped produce a documentary for the History Channel called THE GUILTY MEN which details FBI Director Hoover's involvement in assassinating President Kennedy with the Texas Mafia. The History Channel banned the show from being aired and refuse to sell it Google
the guilty men youtube if you want to view the 45 minute version. Lets turn our gaze outward to embrace
all the variables when we discuss Whitey Bulger and the FBI. If I am correct about FBI agents helping to assassinate President Kennedy and Martin Luther King then our discussion should be focused on how to shut the FBI down.

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http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/consti ... gun-owners
Does the NRA Support Gun Owners?
Written by Thomas R. Eddlem
Monday, 27 June 2011 19:00


"We have proposed two amendments that we will have votes on today. One of them concerns the Second Amendment. I think it's very important that we protect the rights of gun owners in our country, not only for hunting, but for self-protection. And that the records of those in our country who own guns should be secret."

— Senator Rand Paul, speech before the U.S. Senate, May 26, 2011

You would think that the National Rifle Association, the NRA, would naturally back the Rand Paul amendment on exempting firearms records searches under the Patriot Act. But you would be wrong. The NRA criticized Senator Paul's amendment to exempt gun purchases from search provisions of the Patriot Act in e-mails to Congress while apparently sitting on important information showing the need for Paul's amendment. And it continues to defend its opposition to the Paul Amendment after The New American published information about that betrayal of Second Amendment principles. The information the NRA was apparently sitting on shows that the FBI and the federal government's Joint Terrorism Task Force have already begun trolling the records of law-abiding gun owners, using the excuse of terrorism surveillance.

The NRA had received FBI/Joint Task Force flyers from gun shops and gun ranges in the Salt Lake City, Utah, and New Haven, Connecticut, areas, containing demands that gun clubs and gun shops submit law-abiding gun owners information to the federal government. The flyers demanded that gun information be proffered up to the FBI's Terrorism Joint Task Force if a gun buyer had an "altered appearance from visit to visit (beard shaved off, hair color changed, etc.)" or "insists upon paying with cash" or had made "racist" or "extreme religious statements" or issued "vague or cryptic warnings."

In short, if an American buys a gun and gets a haircut, dyes his gray hair, or shaves his beard, his gun records will be sent to the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force for a terrorism investigation. Other "suspicious" activities also raise questions: If a person says homosexuality is a sin, is that an extreme religious statement that would lead to the FBI investigating him as a terrorist? If a person is against affirmative action, is that a racist sentiment that fingers him as a terrorist?

see David Burnhams book ABOVE THE LAW for details about how the Justice department fixes cases for corporations.

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http://www.ticklethewire.com/category/milestone/

Sen. Confirms Dep. Atty. Gen. James Cole and 2 Others


By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

The Senate on Tuesday delivered the long awaited confirmation of Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole.



“I am pleased the Senate moved to confirm Jim, Lisa and Virginia, following their appointments by President Obama,” Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said in a statement. “I’m confident they will provide invaluable leadership to the department, and will play a critical role in protecting the American people, ensuring the fairness and integrity of our financial markets and restoring the traditional missions of the department.”

Cole first joined the department in 1979 as part of Attorney General’s Honors Program and served there for 13 years – first as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division, and later as the Deputy Chief of the Division’s Public Integrity Section.

He entered private practice in 1992, and became a partner with Bryan Cave LLP in 1995, specializing in white collar defense.

In 2005, he was appointed as an independent monitor at the insurance company AIG to review five years of transactions following a settlement with regulators involving allegations the company was setting up sham transactions to hide losses.

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http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/05/us/fb ... black.html
F.B.I. AGENT ADMITS HARASSING BLACK
By PHILIP SHENON, Special to the New York Times




A Chicago-based agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged that he and other white colleagues planned a campaign of ''retribution'' against a black agent, Donald Rochon, whose case has prompted a national debate over racism in the bureau.

Newly released F.B.I. documents also show that the white agent, Gary W. Miller, has conceded that in 1985 he forged Mr. Rochon's signature on an application for death and dismemberment insurance for the Rochon family.

Mr. Rochon has described the unsolicited insurance policy as a death threat. Mr. Miller, who was suspended without pay for two weeks as a result of that incident and others aimed at Mr. Rochon, has denied that he was trying to harass the black agent. Agents Admit Harassment

FBI Entraps Two More Muslims
by Stephen Lendman
Tuesday Jun 28th, 2011 1:11 AM

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/0 ... 683150.php

FBI Entraps Two More Muslims - by Stephen Lendman

By now, the familiar storyline sounds more like a film plot than criminal indictment, especially when Muslims are involved, and the most recent case repeats the same scenario used last December.

Then it involved Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, accused of plotting to attack an armed forces recruiting center. An undercover FBI agent lawlessly entrapped him, supplying an inert bomb, then stopping him after he allegedly tried to detonate it by remote control. A previous article discussed him, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/12/f ... ictim.html

In fact, like dozens of others, he was maliciously ensnared by an FBI orchestrated sting operation, entrapping him to declare another war on terror victory. Innocence or guilt doesn't matter, just the illusion that America is now safer when, in fact, each conviction assures greater insecurity, leaving many to wonder who's next.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif (aka Joseph Anthony Davis) and Walli Mujahidh (aka Frederick Dominque) are the latest victims, a June 23 Justice Department press release headlining, "Two Men Charged in Plot to Attack Seattle Military Processing Center - Defendants Sought Firearms and Grenades to Attack Complex where Enlistees Report," saying:

Arrested on June 22, both men were "charged by criminal complaint with terrorism and firearms related charges....Unbeknownst to the defendants, the weapons were rendered inoperable and posed no risk to the public. (They) initially planned an attack on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, but later changed targets. (They) intended to carry out their attack with both grenades and machine guns."

Other bogus plots involved surface-to-air and stinger missiles, automatic weapons, bombs and other explosive devices, as well as other heavy firepower beyond the ability of ordinary people to obtain even with help. Yet indictments suggest it's simple for anyone to get them over the counter or by other means.

According to US Attorney Jenny Durkan:

"The complaint alleges these men intended to carry out a deadly attack against our military where they should be most safe, here at home. This is a sobering reminder of our need to be vigilant and that our first line of defense is the people who live in our community. We were able to disrupt the plot because someone stepped forward and reported it to authorities."

In fact, according to Seattle Post-Intelligencer writers Levi Pulkkinen and Scott Gutierrez, a convicted felon informant entrapped both men in a plot they may never have conceived without prodding.

However, the storyline goes that both defendants met with the unnamed man, explained the planned attack, then surveilled the recruiting station together. Why three were needed for a one-man job wasn't explained, other than for help to provide weapons no ordinary person could get.

According to the FBI, Abdul-Latif told the informant he wanted to obtain AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, other grenades, and bullet proof vests.

The Justice Department indictment said:

"Law enforcement (learned) of the potential threat when a citizen alerted them that he/she had been approached about participating in the attack and supplying firearms to the conspirators. The person then agreed to work with law enforcement, which began monitoring" both men.

Since early June, "the conspirators were captured on (easily manipulated) audio and videotape, discussing a violent assault on the Military Entrance Process Station (MEPS)....where each (military branch) screens and processes enlistees."

According to Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Todd Hinnen:

"Driven by a violent, extreme ideology, these two young Americans are charged with plotting to murder men and women who were enlisting in the Armed Forces to serve and protect our country."

Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh are charged with:

-- conspiracy to murder US officers and employees;

-- conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (grenades); and

-- possession of firearms to commit violent crimes.

If convicted on all charges, both men face up to life in prison. On June 24, they were arraigned in court, then held without bail. On July 7, a preliminary hearing is scheduled after which a trial date will be set.

Abdul-Latif's wife described him as loving man, saying she didn't believe her husband could be accused of a terror attack, adding:

"He's not that type of person. I don't know if he got involved with bad people or something, but I don't have any idea. (Investigators) told me they (were) looking for weapons, and I told them I don't have weapons in this house."

Calling her husband a good man and good husband, she explained:

"He goes to mosque. He works hard. I don't have to pay rent. I don't have to (buy) food. I don't have to pay (for) clothes. He's clothing me. He's housing me."

Neighbors also expressed surprise, including Mozaia Walton, saying:

"Well, he just seemed like a working guy, like he would come and he would go. His wife was really nice."

Another neighbor, Janice Ackman, said:

"It's an absolute surprise. As they say in the media, he's the last person I would have expected."

After entrapping victimized targets, the Justice Department disingenuously ends relevant press releases, saying:

"The charges contained in the complaint are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."

In fact, prosecutors have already convicted them by accusation, hanging them out to dry for being Muslims in America at the wrong time, imprisoning hundreds of innocent victims of Washington's war on terror.

On June 24, Los Angeles Times writer Kim Murphy headlined, "Pair accused of plotting Seattle attack," saying:

"A bankrupt janitor from Seattle who admired Osama bin Laden and a Los Angeles man who said he was going on jihad were accused of plotting (the alleged attack) as vengeance for violence committed against Afghan civilians, describing a storyline straight out of Hollywood, including:

-- obtaining automatic weapons, rocket-propelled and other grenades;

-- planning to use a truck with a battering ram "that looks like the Titanic;"

-- approaching the recruiting center; and

-- attacking "anybody wearing green or a badge," alleged conversations explaining their plan like a screenplay.

A Final Comment

A previous article explained how innocent Muslims are entrapped, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/06/e ... slims.html

It discusses a recent New York University School of Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) report titled, "Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the 'Homegrown Threat' in the United States."

It explains how innocent Muslims have been ruthlessly targeted, paid informants often performing services in return for reduced charges or sentences they face, a powerful incentive why they cooperate.

Several high-profile examples explained the threat all Muslims today face, entrapped for political advantage. Nearly always, Washington invents plots. America's media headline them. People feel safer, unaware innocent people face spurious charges. The pattern repeats regularly, often strategically timed.

Instead of pursuing criminals, Homeland Security, the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors embrace racist radicalization notions to entrap innocent victims despite no plot or crime except ones they invent. As a result, everyone today is vulnerable when government repressively works against people, not protectively for them.

That's today's America, besides wasting the nation's resources on imperial wars and handouts to corporate predators.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/ ... news-hour/.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

see link for full story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html
Feds say lawsuit against Holder and Mueller over warrantless GPS tracking should be tossed

, Published: June 28

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller over a GPS tracking device put on a student’s car without a warrant.

Below is the corporate media spin on a singular FBI event minus any in depth analysis.
We now know FBI Director J Edgar Hoover allowed the Mafia to infiltrate, corrupt and destroy
American unions by his refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Mafia
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoQzT3YfBpk

We also know FBI Director Hoover turned to the mafia to help the FBI assassinate
President Kennedy and Martin Luther King
see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWenoKK2 ... re=related
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9358544506#
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/mlk-con ... posed.html

see link for full story
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/opini ... .html?_r=1
The Judge Who Cracked the Bulger Case
Published: June 28, 2011

For anyone trying to fathom James (Whitey) Bulger’s long, pathological career on both sides of the law, a 661-page opinion by Mark Wolf, chief judge of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, tells the inside story.
Related


In 1998, the judge held a 10-month hearing on the F.B.I.’s failure to tell the United States attorney in Boston that Mr. Bulger and Stephen (the Rifleman) Flemmi were their informants against organized crime.

The judge uncovered that John Connolly Jr., the F.B.I. agent who was their handler, had protected Mr. Bulger, a 15-year informant, and Mr. Flemmi, a 25-year informant, as they committed murder and conspired with the Mafia, in exchange for leads about the Mafia. It was Mr. Connolly who tipped off Mr. Bulger that he was about to be indicted and sent him on the lam. Judge Wolf testified against the F.B.I. agent at a 2002 trial before another judge. Mr. Connolly was sentenced to 10 years for racketeering, obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators.


The Wolf opinion is famous in the world of criminal justice. It led to high-profile hearings in Congress on “The F.B.I.’s Use of Murderers as Informants.”

The only time Judge Wolf commented publicly about this saga was a decade ago when he sentenced Mr. Flemmi to life in prison for his part in 10 murders. He said that “the F.B.I.’s relationship with Bulger and Flemmi was not an isolated, aberrant occurrence” when it came to the Top Echelon informants program. He found “a long pattern of the F.B.I.” ignoring the Constitution’s requirement that it be “candid with the courts” and prosecutors.

Judges are supposed to dispense justice but rarely root out crimes. As a result of Judge Wolf’s courage and persistence, the government has paid more than $100 million in claims to families of people murdered by informants shielded by the F.B.I. There is no good evidence that the F.B.I. has set up independent oversight of its informants program like what the judge called for. It’s high time.

see link for full story
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... 4e19b5fa0f


FBI: Anti-gay group participated in training

By PETE YOST, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Wednesday that members of an anti-gay fundamentalist group participated in the bureau's training of police officers and FBI agents — a move the bureau says it will take steps to remedy in the future.

The bureau extended the invitations to Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., for training this spring at two bureau facilities in Virginia: Quantico and Manassas.

Westboro has stirred widespread outrage with raucous demonstrations at the funerals of U.S. military service members. The group contends God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

National Public Radio first reported the FBI's involvement with Westboro.

At FBI headquarters in Washington, bureau spokesman Paul Bresson acknowledged that Westboro was invited to the training sessions.

An FBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that in retrospect, the bureau underestimated how the involvement of the outside organization would be perceived.