FLE

Border Agents Denied Bail

A judge denied bail Tuesday for two supervising Border Patrol agents accused of taking $300,000 in bribes and releasing illegal immigrants from custody. After an hour-long detention hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge William McCurine found that agents Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren, both of Imperial, were a risk to flee and a danger to the community. McCurine rejected requests by defense attorneys to release their clients on $50,000 bonds secured by property. The judge said Alvarez and McClaren were men of "considerable accomplishment," but had shown "a tragic willingness to put at risk the lives of their colleagues." An eight-count indictment alleges that the defendants, who worked in the Mexican Liaison Unit in El Centro and were assigned to administer the Guide Identification Prosecution Program, "unlawfully released or facilitated the unlawful release of numerous previously apprehended illegal aliens from custody and returned them to members of an alien smuggling ring in exchange for cash."....

Combating Southwest Border Violence

As the agency with the broadest law enforcement authority within the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is said to be uniquely positioned to combat vulnerabilities and threats to America from individuals involved in terrorism, organized crime, human smuggling and narco-terrorism at US borders. According to DHS officials, ICE has established aggressive intelligence and investigative operations at the nation’s borders, ports of entries, and between the ports and the nation’s interior. The southern border of the US is a region particularly vulnerable to cross-border criminal organizations and enterprises and the violence associated with them. In recent years, ICE has witnessed an unprecedented surge in brutality by drug and human smuggling and trafficking organizations along the Southwest border. Below are a few of the initiatives that ICE has launched to combat the criminal organizations behind this activity....

Barriers at border go up as debate on effects goes on

While politicians in Phoenix and Congress talk about building a tall fence along Arizona's border with Mexico, workers here are completing a shorter and more modest obstacle. This low-slung vehicle barrier will do nothing to stop people from walking into Southern Arizona illegally. But on public lands where the obstacles are popping up, officials say the devices have succeeded in stopping the so-called drive-throughs that can imperil law enforcement and scar the thin-skinned desert for decades. Homeland Security and other officials have disclosed plans to build similar barriers along most of the border between Yuma and Nogales, though the cost and timing of many proposals are unclear. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved at least 200 miles of barriers along Arizona's border with Mexico. To some, barriers that block only vehicles are Band-Aids on a hemorrhaging wound. Vehicles can still drive around the ends, and smugglers are already scheming ways to defeat the new obstacles. In a 2004 report by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, congressional staff reported seeing photos of a special truck that could park perpendicular to the barrier on the Mexican side, unfold a set of rails over the barrier and unfold another set of rails behind it. "Other vehicles could then drive up the back of the modified truck, across its top and down its front, over the vehicle barrier and into the United States," the report said....

Days of DeWine and Ruses? Reporters May Be Exempt from Eavesdropping Bill

Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration's eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in U.S. law. But an aide to the bill's chief author, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said that is not the intention of the legislation. "It in no way applies to reporters — in any way, shape or form," said Mike Dawson, a senior policy adviser to DeWine, responding to an inquiry Friday afternoon. "If a technical fix is necessary, it will be made." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft of the legislation, which could be introduced as soon as next week. The draft would add to the criminal penalties for anyone who "intentionally discloses information identifying or describing" the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted under a 1978 surveillance law. Under the boosted penalties, those found guilty could face fines of up to $1 million, 15 years in jail or both. Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified. "The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate....

FBI documents raise new questions about extent of surveillance

An FBI counterterrorism unit monitored - and apparently infiltrated - a peace group in Pittsburgh that opposed the invasion of Iraq, according to internal agency documents released on Tuesday. The disclosure raised new questions about the extent to which federal authorities have been conducting surveillance operations against Americans since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Previous revelations include FBI monitoring of environmental and animal rights organizations, scrutiny of anti-war organizations by a top-secret Pentagon program and eavesdropping by the National Security Agency on domestic communications without court authorization. Federal officials insist that the efforts are legal, although the Pentagon has admitted that the top-secret TALON program mistakenly retained in its database reports on scores of anti-war protests and individuals as part of an effort to identify terrorist threats against defense facilities and personnel. The documents released on Tuesday were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. They showed that the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI's Pittsburgh office conducted a secret investigation into the activities of the Thomas Merton Center beginning as early as Nov. 29, 2002, and continuing as late as March 2005....

200,000 People in U.S. Terror Database

Police and other government workers in the U.S. have come in contact with terrorists or people suspected of foreign terror ties more than 6,000 times in the past 28 months, the director of the federal Terrorist Screening Center said Tuesday. The encounters in traffic stops, applications for permits and other situations have resulted in fewer than 60 arrests, said Donna Bucella, whose agency maintains a list of 200,000 people known or suspected to be terrorists. The list contains an additional 150,000 records that have only partial names, Bucella said. The vast majority of people on the list are not in this country, and many have only tenuous or inconclusive ties to terrorism, Bucella said at a briefing for reporters at FBI headquarters. The TSC list, conceived after the intelligence failures before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, combines about a dozen databases from nine agencies that any government official — from a Customs agent to a state trooper — can use to check the name of someone who has been screened or stopped. When there is a possible match, the screening center verifies the information is accurate and advises what steps to take. In most of the more than 6,000 incidents Bucella described, officials collected additional information and let the person go....

Barr Slams Patriot Act Renewal

The attempts to reform the national security letter powers that were expanded by the Patriot Act in 2001, failed as Congress renewed the Patriot Act without making meaningful changes. However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle did agree that more needs to be done to protect our fundamental freedoms while making sure intelligence agents have the tools they need to investigate terrorists. The botched reforms failed to make necessary changes, in fact, government agents are still allowed to look into ordinary citizens' private records without any evidence that they have any connection to a suspected terrorist or terrorist organization. Not only is this the case, but the provision which the President can declare any event a "special event of national significance," giving Secret Service agents expanded powers to exclude, expel and arrest persons not wanted at the event, remains as well. The Congress even snuck in a provision to include penalties regarding the trafficking in contraband cigarettes or smokeless tobacco – which, of course, is not a key factor in the fight against terrorism. The balance of government powers and the Constitution must be upheld....

U.S. Limits Demands on Google

After the Justice Department drastically reduced its request for information from Google, a federal judge said on Tuesday that he intended to approve at least part of that request. The government first subpoenaed Web data from Google last August, as part of its defense of an online pornography law. At a hearing in Federal District Court here, Judge James Ware said that in supporting the government's more limited request, he would nonetheless pay attention to Google's concerns about its trade secrets and the privacy of its users. The government is now requesting a sample of 50,000 Web site addresses in Google's index instead of a million, which it was demanding until recently. And it is asking for just 5,000 search queries, compared with an earlier demand for an entire week of queries, which could amount to billions of search terms. A Justice Department lawyer said at the hearing that the government would review just 10,000 Web sites and 1,000 search queries out of those turned over....

Government Lawyer's Error Upsets Families of 9/11 Victims

Yesterday was another day of frustration for families of the victims of Sept. 11, 2001. They have waited more than four years through delays and appeals for Zacarias Moussaoui's trial to begin. Satellite courtrooms, established by Congress, have been set up in Boston, Manhattan, Long Island, Newark and Philadelphia so they could watch the government make its case that the only person convicted in the United States in the terrorist attacks should be executed. Although the families might disagree about what role Moussaoui played in the attacks and what his sentence should be, many have said that they looked forward to the trial as a vehicle to gather information, heal wounds and, for some, seek some closure. Some family members said they were upset that the actions of a Transportation Security Administration lawyer, Carla J. Martin, could potentially derail the government's case. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema decided yesterday to exclude all aviation security evidence after Martin violated a court order by e-mailing trial transcripts to seven witnesses and coaching them about their upcoming testimony. Some family members questioned how Martin could have blatantly disregarded a court order -- or not been aware of it. Some wondered whether she was being used as a scapegoat for other government officials who did not want the aviation security evidence to be made public. "I don't think she is alone," Dillard said in a telephone interview last night. "I just don't think she could have gotten away with that. Somebody helped her or prompted her. It just makes me wonder whether this is one more thing where no one is going to be held accountable.... It's almost too clean. I wonder if there is more to the story than we know."....

Government case in Moussaoui trial hurt

The judge in the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing case decided Tuesday to allow the government to continue to seek the death penalty against the confessed al-Qaida conspirator, but she also barred part of the government's case, which she said had been riddled with “significant problems.” Exasperated by mounting government missteps, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that no testimony about aviation security measures would be allowed during the trial into whether Moussaoui is executed or spends life in prison. “I don’t think in the annals of criminal law there has ever been a case with this many significant problems,” Brinkema said. She ruled the trial could proceed after a daylong hearing into whether coming witnesses had been tainted by improper coaching by a federal lawyer. Brinkema added, “More problems arose today that none of us knew about yesterday.” She said that her order to isolate planned witnesses from trial transcripts and news reports had been violated. She also said she was troubled that one witness sought by defense lawyers was told by federal attorney Carla J. Martin that he could not speak to them and that Martin falsely told the defense that two others were not willing to speak to them. “I wouldn’t trust anything Martin had anything to do with at this point,” Brinkema said. The jury was not present for Tuesday’s questioning and ruling....Anyone who has read Constitutional Chaos by Judge Andrew Napolitano won't be surprised by this prosecutiorial misconduct. Looks, though, like they've run up against a judge who won't put up with it.

Prosecutors Scramble to Salvage 9/11 Case After Ruling

Federal prosecutors yesterday implored a judge to reverse her decision banning key witnesses from testifying at the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying the misconduct of a government lawyer they labeled a "lone miscreant" should not imperil the case. Calling it unprecedented and "grossly punitive," prosecutors said her ruling devastates their argument that Moussaoui should be executed for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema on Tuesday barred seven witnesses and all aviation security evidence from the trial, saying the actions of Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin had tainted the process beyond repair. At a minimum, prosecutors urged Brinkema to let them present a portion of the disputed evidence through a new witness who had no contact with Martin. A veteran government lawyer, Martin shared testimony and communicated with the seven witnesses in violation of a court order and committed what Brinkema called other "egregious errors." After her ruling Tuesday, prosecutors told Brinkema in a teleconference that she had threatened the sentencing phase of the only person convicted in the United States on charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Spencer told her that resuming the proceedings, which began last week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria and are on hold until Monday, would "waste the jury's time."....

U.S. case vs. Hells Angels fizzles

A much ballyhooed racketeering case against Arizona's Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has all but ended in federal court with the U.S. Attorney's Office dismissing charges against some defendants and settling for lesser convictions against the rest. When the two-year sting known as Operation Black Biscuit became public in 2003, it was touted as the most successful infiltration ever of the notorious biker group. Undercover agents were feted in Washington, with Top Cop awards from the National Association of Police Officers. The government's case of drug violations, gun running, murder, racketeering and other crimes came to a close Wednesday, in part because of a feud between federal prosecutors and undercover agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives....

Rushmore to Judgment

America's judges would like to write off last year's anti-court orgy as a political spasm. Tom ("Judges need to be intimidated") DeLay is on the back bench, the testy Supreme Court confirmation hearings are over, and the judge in Terri Schiavo's case no longer needs a deputy to escort him every time he walks his dog. But better times aren't coming back soon. The newest front in the war on the courts is being fought in South Dakota, where, in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore, a group called "J.A.I.L. 4 Judges" is promoting one of the most radical threats to justice this side of the Spanish Inquisition. It's extreme and it's incoherent, but it's got more than 40,000 petition signatures—and it will go to the state's voters as a constitutional amendment in November. A national network of supporters is waiting in the wings, threatening to export the revolution to other states if they do well this fall. The group's proposed measure would wipe out a basic doctrine called judicial immunity that dates back to the 13th century, protecting judges from personal liability for doing their job ruling on the cases before them. A special grand jury—essentially a fourth branch of government—would be created to indict judges for a string of bizarre offenses that include "deliberate disregard of material facts," "judicial acts without jurisdiction," and "blocking of a lawful conclusion of a case," along with judicial failure to impanel a jury for infractions as minor as a dog-license violation. After three such "convictions," the judge would be fired and docked half of his or her retirement benefits for good measure....

Cost Concerns for F.B.I. Computer Overhaul

The long-stalled effort to overhaul the Federal Bureau of Investigation's antiquated computer system could cost another half-billion dollars to complete, and it runs the risk of continued overruns, a Justice Department report concluded Monday. The report, prepared by the Justice Department's inspector general, found that the F.B.I. had taken "important steps" to learn from mistakes that dogged the project. But it also identified what it called "continuing concerns" in budgeting and management. Moreover, the inspector general's office said it was not yet satisfied that the overhaul, even if successful, would allow the bureau to share information adequately with other intelligence and law enforcement agencies. If information-sharing is not built into the system, the report warned, a result may be "costly and time-consuming modifications" of the computer systems at the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department and elsewhere. The F.B.I. has struggled for more than a decade to develop a modern computer system to allow its agents to analyze data, follow developments in investigations and talk to one another. The agency was forced last year to scrap the final phase in a three-part computer overhaul after spending $170 million on its failed Virtual Case File system. Bureau officials would not discuss the contracting process or the expected cost of the project because the job has not yet been awarded, but the inspector general said the F.B.I. expected the system to cost $400 million to $500 million over the next three to four years. The inspector general promised to "examine in detail the winning bidder's cost estimates" once the job was awarded....