Pentagon establishes Defense Clandestine Service, new espionage unit

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May 062012
 

Pentagon establishes Defense Clandestine Service, new espionage unit

Washington Post

By Greg Miller

April 23, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pentagon is planning to ramp up its spying operations against high-priority targets such as Iran under an intelligence reorganization aimed at expanding on the military’s espionage efforts beyond war zones, a senior defense official said Monday.

The newly created Defense Clandestine Service would work closely with the CIA — pairing two organizations that have often seen each other as rivals — in an effort to bolster espionage operations overseas at a time when the missions of the agency and the military increasingly converge.

 

The plan, the official said, was developed in response to a classified study completed last year by the director of national intelligence that concluded that the military’s espionage efforts needed to be more focused on major targets beyond the tactical considerations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new service will seek to “make sure officers are in the right locations to pursue those requirements,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the “realignment” of the military’s classified human espionage efforts.

The official declined to provide details on where such shifts might occur, but the nation’s most pressing intelligence priorities in recent years have included counter­terrorism, nonproliferation and ascendant powers such as China.

Creation of the new service also coincides with the appointment of a number of senior officials at the Pentagon who have extensive backgrounds in intelligence and firm opinions on where the military’s spying programs — often seen as lackluster by CIA insiders — have gone wrong.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who signed off on the newly created service last week, served as CIA director at a time when the agency relied extensively on military hardware, including armed drones, in its fight against al-Qaeda.

Michael Vickers, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the main force behind the changes, is best known as one of the architects of the CIA’s program to arm Islamist militants to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s. He is also a former member of U.S. Special Operations forces.

The realignment is expected to affect several hundred military operatives who already work in spying assignments abroad, mostly as case officers for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which serves as the Pentagon’s main source of human intelligence and analysis.

The official said the new service is expected to grow “from several hundred to several more hundred” operatives in the coming years. Despite the potentially provocative name for the new service, the official played down concerns that the Pentagon was seeking to usurp the role of the CIA or its National Clandestine Service.

This “does not involve new manpower . . . does not involve new authorities,” the official said. Instead, the official said, the DIA is shifting its emphasis “as we look to come out of war zones and anticipate the requirements over the next several years.”

Congressional officials said they were seeking more details about the plan.

“My question is, why? What’s missing and what’s going on?” said a senior Senate aide who had been given a preliminary briefing on the new service.

In some respects, the broad outlines of the plan are reminiscent of Pentagon efforts under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to move the military into areas of intelligence that had long been the domain of the CIA.

But a second congressional official, who also was not authorized to discuss the program publicly, said the coordination behind the new plan, in which the DIA’s program will be more closely modeled on its CIA counterpart, has eased some of those long-standing concerns.

“If this were an attempt of the type we saw during the Rumsfeld years to consolidate human intelligence to have a better bulwark against what the CIA is doing, that would be a concern,” the second congressional official said. “But I don’t think that’s what’s going on.”

The plan was unveiled about a week after a senior U.S. Army officer with extensive experience in Special Operations and counter­insurgency fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan was nominated to serve as the next chief of the DIA.

While serving in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn published a harsh critique of intelligence operations in that country, criticizing collectors as being too focused on tactical threats and failing to understand the broader demographic and political context of the battlefield.

About 15 percent of the DIA’s case officers will be part of the Defense Clandestine Service, the defense official said. New, more clearly delineated career paths will give DIA case officers better opportunities to continue their espionage assignments abroad, he said.

The new service fits into a broader convergence trend. U.S. Special Operations forces are increasingly engaged in intelligence collection overseas and have collaborated with the CIA on missions including the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and ongoing drone strikes in Yemen.

The blurring is also evident in the organizations’ upper ranks. Panetta previously served as CIA director, and that post is currently held by retired four-star Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.

 

 

Direct Link:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-creates-new-espionage-unit/2012/04/23/gIQA9R7DcT_story.html

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Chinese Espionage: The Risks Within U.S. Companies

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May 062012
 

Chinese Espionage: The Risks Within U.S. Companies

FORBES
Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff
Guest post by Peter J. Toren
April 24, 2012

 

 


 

Peter J. Toren is a partner with Weisbrod, Matteis & Copley in Washington, D.C. Formerly a federal prosecutor with the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section of the Justice Department, he is also the author of Intellectual Property & Computer Crimes.

 

 

Over the past several months, Congress has heard from a slew of witnesses who have testified about the threat posed by foreign computer hackers, particularly from China, who penetrate U.S. companies’ computers and steal valuable data and intellectual property. FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that hacking could soon replace terrorism as the FBI’s primary concern. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the military’s Cyber Command, characterized the losses caused by cybertheft as “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

Less attention, however, has been given to an equally insidious threat from employees or other insiders, who steal trade secrets from their corporate employers and depart with the stolen information and provide the information to foreign governments or foreign companies, most often in China. Until recently, there has been no reliable public studies about the extent of foreign economic espionage, especially with a link to China. But the results of a detailed analysis of the prosecutions under the Economic Espionage Act establishes that economic espionage with a China connection also creates a great risk to the financial well-being of U.S. companies, and, in turn to the U.S. economy.

The government has brought about 115 prosecutions under the EEA alleging theft of trade secrets. Nine have involved claims that the defendant acted with the intent to benefit a foreign government, while the remaining 106 concern allegations that the defendant intended to economically benefit a third party.  Although the government does not have to prove foreign government sponsorship to obtain a conviction in the 106 cases, an analysis of both categories of prosecutions finds a disproportionate share with a link to China.

In particular, almost 80% of the prosecutions that concern foreign government sponsorship involve allegations of direct Chinese government sponsorship. All of the thefts also involve sophisticated technology. Most recently, the government unsealed an indictment charging that a Chinese company, the Panang Group, with ties to the Chinese government, stole trade secrets from DuPont relating to the obscure but valuable technology on how to produce titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in paints and other products. Pangang allegedly paid over $12 million to U.S. individuals for access to DuPont’s trade secret secrets.

In another egregious example, Dongfan Chung was found guilty on July 16, 2009, of stealing trade secrets from Boeing. Chung worked at Boeing, with a few breaks, from 1964 until September 11, 2006, when federal agents searched his home and discovered a trove of Boeing technical documents stored beneath his house relating to the space shuttle, Delta IV Rocket, F-15 Fighter, B-52 Bomber and Chinook Helicopter. The court found that Chung’s theft of Boeing trade secrets was intended to benefit a number of Chinese government agencies and sentenced him to 188 months imprisonment.

The government alleged in 21% of the prosecutions that did not involve state sponsorship that the purpose of the theft was to benefit a company in China. Again, nearly all of the thefts involved sophisticated and valuable technology. For example, on January 19, 2012, Yuan Li, a former Sanofi Aventis research chemist pleaded guilty to stealing the company’s trade secrets and selling them to a U.S. sales and distribution unit of a Chinese chemical company. In another significant case, Wen Chyu Liou was convicted of stealing trade secrets from Dow Chemical and offering to sell them to companies in China. Liou worked for Dow for 27 years and after he retired in 1992 he conspired with at least four current and former Dow employees to misappropriate the corporation’s trade secrets. He was sentenced last year to 60 months imprisonment.

Further, 86% of the cases that were adjudicated in 2010 under the EEA involved a link to China. This emerging trend confirms a government understanding that, as part of the development process, China’s intelligence services as well as private companies and other entities, frequently seek to exploit Chinese citizens or persons with family ties to China who can use their insider access to U.S. corporations to steal trade secrets.

What can and should be done to stem this transfer of wealth before it is too late?

First, Congress must put aside its partisan bickering and enact a comprehensive cybersecurity law that addresses the risks posed by Chinese hackers. The current version of the bill, which has been stalled in committee, does little to address Chinese cyberespionage. Congress should also amend the EEA to increase the penalties and to address questions created by a recent court decision. In addition, Congress should finally enact a civil trade secrets law with a broad extraterritorial effect that would permit companies that have been victims of economic espionage to sue in federal court. State laws do not entirely fill the holes left by the lack of a federal law especially since state laws do not have the extraterritorial reach, which may be critical where the theft involved a foreign entity. It is past time that trade secrets be accorded the same status as patent, copyrights and trademarks.

While waiting for Congress to act, there are a number of steps that the executive branch can and should do.

 

  • First, President Obama, even without authority from Congress, can issue a finding that would authorize agencies to monitor the Internet outside the United States and to block the exportation of files containing information stolen from the United States.
  • Second, the government should increase the number of prosecutors and agents charged with investigating and prosecuting thefts of trade secrets.
  • Third, the Justice Department should consider what it can do to improve how it investigates and prosecutes EEA cases. Currently, the authority to investigate EEA cases is divided depending on whether or not the cases are state sponsored. If they are, they are handled by counter-intelligence FBI agents and prosecutors from the Internal Security Section of the Justice Department, whereas non-state sponsored prosecutions are the responsibility of FBI agents skilled in investigating financial crimes and are prosecuted by special IP units in U.S. Attorney’s Offices and by the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section. Whether agents and prosecutors, who normally handle investigations and prosecutions involving spying against the United States, should be assigned matters where the victim is a U.S. corporation is open to debate.

 

While the government has stepped up investigating theft of trade secrets cases, companies should not rely on the government for protection.  Corporations should carefully examine whether they are doing enough to protect their intellectual property. Tangible assets can be replaced, but intangible assets if lost, are lost for good. Even companies that have sophisticated and elaborate trade secret protection programs should consistently reevaluate their programs and learn from the mistakes of other corporations that have been the victim of trade secret thefts. Legal experts should be included in this process to ensure that the company is not running afould of any laws. In many of the EEA prosecutions the theft was only discovered through luck, such as where the defendant was stopped by Customs agents, while boarding a flight to China, who only found the stolen confidential documents she was carrying, after searching her because they did not find her answers to routine questions truthful. The corporation may have discovered what she was doing earlier if they had spotted a number of red flags earlier.

Companies should also reevaluate whether or not to report thefts of trade secrets to the government. Many companies are reluctant to report trade secret thefts to the government for fear of the damage to their reputations. However, while current management may save face, non-reporting is probably not in the best long-term interests of the company. A corporate policy of always reporting thefts to the government may be the best deterrent against future thefts.

Protection of intellectual property is critical to the economic well-being of the United States. When it is not protected, we lose not only jobs, productions and profits today, but also our ability to undertake the research and the investment that lead to further technological progress tomorrow.  This hurts not only today’s workers and investors, but also future generations of U.S. citizens.

 

 

Direct Link:   http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/04/24/chinese-espionage-the-risks-within-u-s-companies/

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Secret Terrorism-Espionage Wiretaps Increased in 2011

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May 062012
 

Secret Terrorism-Espionage Wiretaps Increased in 2011

ABC News
By Jason Ryan
May 4, 2012

The Justice Department sought 1,745 secret wiretapping warrants in 2011, an increase of 239 over 2010, according to correspondence sent to Congressional leaders and oversight committees posted on the Justice Department website.  The secret warrants are governed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and are used in terrorist and espionage investigations by the FBI. The secret warrants are prepared by FBI agents and prosecutors to present to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington.

Sent to Congressional leaders and Vice President Joseph Biden, the letter from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said, “During the calendar year 2011, the government made 1,745 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ( hereinafter FISC) …for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and/or physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes.”

A copy of the letters can be viewed here.

The letter says that 1,676 of the applications were for electronic surveillance. It is impossible to determine based on the information made available if the 69 other warrants were for physical searches during terrorism and espionage investigations.  Some FISA warrants can cover both electronic intercepts and physical searches when FBI agents secretly enter an area and pull information off of computers or documents they are seeking as part of their investigation.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment on any specific reasons for the fluctuations in the numbers.

“The number of applications that the government submits to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to conduct court-authorized surveillance in national security matters varies from year-to-year and depends on myriad of different factors.  The annual numbers have gone up and down and up over the past decade.”  Boyd said when asked about the change in numbers.

The number of FISA applications was highest in 2007 when there were 2,370 applications to conduct electronic and physical surveillance. The number steadily grew after the 9/11 attacks.

Changes to the law in 2008 by Congress changed parts of the law, and the numbers dropped significantly.  Before the changes were enacted a FISA warrant was needed to conduct surveillance on two foreign targets overseas if the surveillance was conducted for communications that passed on any U.S.-based circuits such as emails or Internet phones that may be routed through U.S. computer servers.

The Bush administration had established the controversial Terrorist Surveillance Program which allowed the NSA to wiretap terrorism suspects inside the United States if they were contacting known al Qaeda suspects overseas without a FISA warrant. The program known as Stellar Wind was eventually canceled and brought under review by the FISC.

The new Justice Department letter dated April 30, 2012 also notes that the FBI issued 16,511 National Security Letters (NSL) to obtain certain records and information in investigations. The letter asserts that the requests were for investigations relating to 7,201 different US persons. The number of National Security Letters declined dramatically from 2010 when the FBI had sought 24,287 NSLs.

In the immediate years after the 9/11 attacks the Justice Department Inspector General found that NSLs were overused by FBI agents to gather information.

The FBI submitted 205 requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the so-called “Library Provision,” which allows the FBI to obtain business record information. This number almost doubled when compared to the 2010 numbers when 96 section 215 orders were submitted to the court.

Certain sections of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are slated to expire at the end of 2012. Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter in February to Congressional leaders urging them to reauthorize the sections of the law that are set to expire.

A background policy paper prepared by the Justice Department and the Director of National Intelligence said, “It is essential that these authorities remain in place without interruption — and without threat of interruption — so that those who have been entrusted with their use can continue to protect the nation from its enemies.”

 

Direct Link:  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/secret-terrorism-espionage-wiretaps-increased-in-2011/

 Posted by at 17:41  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sex and espionage: A long and sordid history

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May 062012
 

Sex and espionage: A long and sordid history

 

CNN

By Tim Lister

April 18, 2012

 

U.S. Secret Service’s Colombian Hooker: Dania Suarez

 

Call it the flip-side to torture: using seduction to extract valuable information. It’s as old as the Old Testament – literally. Delilah used deception and seduction to find out the secret of Samson’s strength. His hair was never to be cut. So off she went to tell the Philistines – and his precious braids were shaved as he slept.

SEGMENT VIDEO

The lure of sex has been the stuff of both spy fiction and real-life scandals ever since.

“Let’s face it, historically women — and prostitutes in particularly — have been used to infiltrate or get information,” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said Tuesday, referring to the unfolding scandal over the conduct of Secret Service agents in Colombia.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) chimed in: “Who were these women? Could they have been members of groups hostile to the United States? Could they have planted bugs, disabled weapons or in any other (ways) jeopardized security of the president or our country?”

Nothing has been made public to suggest information about President Barack Obama’s visit to Colombia was sought or given during the encounters between Secret Service personnel and the Colombian women they met – either in the Play Club or subsequently at the agents’ hotel.

But whether from conviction or for profit, women – and men – have traded sex for secrets for centuries. The most (in)famous case of the modern era involved Mata Hari, the Dutch-born exotic dancer who took up residence in Paris after a failed marriage. She appeared virtually nude on stage in a jeweled bra and little else – and was soon the talk of the town, becoming the mistress of a wealthy industrialist and involved in many more liaisons, some with military officers.

But she was also – allegedly – a German spy, code-named H-21. There are as many differing accounts of her spying as of her dancing – with some suggesting that she had an arrangement with the German consul in the Hague to pass on information about enemy war plans. British intelligence supposedly got wind of the arrangement and she was arrested in February 1917. Part of the otherwise flimsy evidence against her was secret ink found in her hotel room, which she said was make-up. Protesting her innocence to the end, Mata Hari was executed by firing squad. But her name has since become a byword for the seductress seeking secrets.

The Cold War provided plenty of opportunities for so-called “honey-pot” scandals. A Marine Sergeant – Clayton J. Lonetree – posted at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in the 1980s was convicted of espionage after giving secrets to a 26-year old translator who worked at the embassy. At his trial it emerged that the woman had introduced him to a man she described as “Uncle Sasha,” who inevitably was a KGB operative.

Lonetree’s sentence was later reduced when it emerged that some of the secrets he was alleged to have passed on were in fact betrayed by CIA agent Aldrich Ames, And in Lonetree’s defense, the commandant of the Marine Corps said his motivation “was not treason or greed, but rather the lovesick response of a naive, young, immature and lonely troop in a lonely and hostile environment.”

Using sex for secrets goes “both ways.” John Vassall was a British official posted to Moscow in the 1950s as a clerk to the Naval Attache. Plied with alcohol at a party, he was photographed by the KGB in a compromising situation with several men. He was blackmailed – and passed thousands of classified documents to the Russians in the following decade.

A British journalist in Moscow, Jeremy Wolfenden, got into similar trouble in the 1960s. But he told the British embassy that he’d been caught in flagrante, and was asked to become a double agent. The stress of having both MI6 and the KGB breathing down his neck is said to have led to heavy drinking and his premature death at the age of 31. Wolfenden’s short life became the subject of a book by Sebastian Faulks, “The Fatal Englishman.”

The East Germans may have been the best at using the lure of sex to gather intelligence, but in a unique way. The long-time head of the Stasi (East German intelligence service), Markus Wolf, deployed “Romeos” to West Germany and later wrote in his autobiography: “If I go down in espionage history it may well be for perfecting the use of sex in spying.”

In the 1950s, Wolf dispatched an agent called Felix to Bonn, who befriended a woman called Norma employed in the office of the German Chancellor – by waiting at her bus-stop. They even married, and he got to know many of her colleagues. Then one day, she came home and he was gone – pulled back to the East after Wolf got wind of an investigation by West German intelligence services.

Marianne Quoirin, author of “The Spies Who Did It For Love,” tells the story of another West German woman who as a former nun refused to have sex with her “Romeo” until they were married. So the Stasi staged a wedding, providing both priest and mother-in-law. The Stasi would do detailed research on targets, examining their previous relationships and hobbies.

One Stasi agent, Gerhard Beier, worked in West Germany for nearly 20 years before the Berlin Wall came down. “I was fulfilling my patriotic duty, and it wasn’t unpleasant,” he said later in an interview. Altogether some 40 German women were prosecuted for passing secrets to East German Romeos.

Perhaps the most dramatic case of seduction in recent times involved Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu. In 1986 he visited London and provided the Sunday Times with dozens of photographs of Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons program. But Mossad was on his trail and a female agent – Cheryl Ben Tov – befriended him (reportedly bumping into him at a cigarette kiosk in London’s Leicester Square.) She lured him to Rome for a weekend, where he was drugged and spirited to Israel.

Vanunu was convicted of betraying his country’s secrets and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Ben Tov later became a realtor in Florida.

Using sex for information or as blackmail doesn’t always work. When Indonesian President Sukarno visited Moscow in the 1960s, the KGB sought to take advantage of his renowned sexual appetite, sending a batch of glamorous young women posing as air hostesses to his hotel. When the Russians later confronted him with a film of the lurid encounter, Sukarno was apparently delighted. Legend has it he even asked for extra copies.

 

Direct Link:   http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/18/sex-and-espionage-a-long-and-sordid-history/

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Narcotic Honey Traps: Drug Cops Seduce Teenagers

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May 062012
 

Narcotic Honey Traps: Drug Cops Seduce Teenagers

 

Author: Julie Ershadi

Independent Correspondent

Posted: March 2, 2012

[Originally published on Reason]

 

 

(Photo is just an example of a hot girl aka Honey Pot)

 

An undercover 25-year-old female police officer maintained an ongoing relationship with a teenager in order to pop his pot-selling cherry— and then arrest him for it.

 

Last week, Alternet shared this story, part of a segment on NPR’s This American Life:

Last year in three high schools in Florida, several undercover police officers posed as students. The undercover cops went to classes, became Facebook friends and flirted with the other students. One 18-year-old honor student named Justin fell in love with an attractive 25-year-old undercover cop after spending weeks sharing stories about their lives, texting and flirting with each other.

 

One day she asked Justin if he smoked pot. Even though he didn’t smoke marijuana, the love-struck teen promised to help find some for her. Every couple of days she would text him asking if he had the marijuana. Finally, Justin was able to get it to her. She tried to give him $25 for the marijuana and he said he didn’t want the money — he got it for her as a present.

 

This is reminiscent of a story from September 2011, also featured on This American Life, where narcotics task force commander Norm Wielsch collaborated with private investigator and former SWAT officer Chris Butler to set up a high schooler who had been selling ecstasy in Contra Costa, CA. Butler hired two amateur actresses off of Craigslist to essentially offer group sex in exchange for the feel-good pill. When the kid came to make the deal, he was slammed against a car at gunpoint in an effort to “scare him straight,” according to the story. Listen to the whole podcast, or click to minute 25 for the bit about the high school ecstasy dealer known as the Candyman.

Unlike the Candyman, who appears to have been at least already selling drugs, Justin from Florida had a clean record before this incident and repeatedly claimed to have had zero interest in the drug world, or the people who deal in it, before this officer instigated the whole scenario.

Wielsch and Butler are both currently facing charges for their corrupt antics, including selling large amounts of methamphetamines and pot from Wielsch’s narcotics department evidence stash.

 

Yet these don’t appear to be isolated incidents. The Huffington Post article cited two other cases in which police went undercover and hung out with teenagers and minors for extended periods of time:

In Brooklyn, New York, a 19-year-old student was charged with receiving stolen property after buying an iPhone from an undercover police officer in December.

The New York Police Department set up the operation to target people buying and selling stolen electronics, NBC New York reported. The sting led to 141 arrests, with Robert Tester among them.

But Tester said he was tricked into purchasing the phone after the undercover officer told him he needed money to feed his daughter for Christmas.

Police defend the arrest, but Tester is planning on filing a civil counter-suit against NYPD, according to the report.

In January, police arrested ten students at a Texas high school for selling prescription drugs and marijuana.

 

When interviewed for the NPR story, the female undercover cop said, “These kids need to wake up. They need to realize they can’t be doing this.”

But it’s worth noting that in every one of the these stories, the undercover cops manipulated teenagers and took advantages of their vulnerabilities. In the end, it’s worth wondering whether Robert Tester or Justin learned lessons about selling and buying contraband, or whether they just learned to distrust people a little more.

When the operation concluded at the Florida high school, “the police did a big sweep and arrested 31 students — including Justin,” according to the Alternet article. Justin has been convicted of selling pot inside a school, a felony in Florida. He is no longer eligible to join the Armed Forces as he had planned to do upon graduation and is now attending community college.

 

Direct Link:  http://julieershadi.com/2012/03/02/narcotic-honey-traps-drug-cops-seduce-teenagers/

 Posted by at 16:53  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Son, 14, arrested in Calif. shooting of ICE agent

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May 052012
 

 

Son, 14, arrested in Calif. shooting of ICE agent

 

Associated Press

Published May 03, 2012

 

 

 

CARSON, Calif. –  A federal agent was shot and killed by his 14-year-old son who fired a single shot through a window from the backyard with his father’s gun then called 911, authorities said Thursday.

The victim was identified by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement as Special Agent Myron Chisem, 42, a Navy veteran who joined the agency in 2007.

The boy, whose name was not released, was arrested and booked for investigation of murder. No motive was released.

“Evidence gained from the scene and statements made by the suspect” led to the arrest, sheriff’s Lt. Holly Francisco said. The handgun used in the shooting belonged to Chisem and it was found in the front yard, she said.

Chisem was the second ICE agent killed in Southern California this year.

In February, agent Ezequiel Garcia was killed by a fellow agent after Garcia shot his supervisor at ICE offices in Long Beach. Garcia was being counseled on his job performance when the shooting occurred, authorities said.

The shooting of Chisem occurred late Wednesday in a two-story home in Carson, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, along a row of modest but tidy homes tucked into an industrial area.

Sheriff’s investigators said the boy had been in the house prior to the shooting and then fired a gun through a window, striking his father as he sat in the family room. The boy called 911 to report his dad had been shot, authorities said.

No further details were released on the shooting.

Chisem’s girlfriend also lived at the house but was not there at the time of the shooting.

Chisem’s friend, Shawn Butler, said the boy had moved into his father’s house about six months ago. Butler, who also has a teenage son, said Chisem never indicated there was any tension between him and his son.

“I have no answer to why or how” the attack occurred, said Butler, 41, a former ICE agent. “Everything was coming together. Everything was peachy, peachy, lovely.”

Chisem’s son did fairly well at a nearby high school and liked to play video games, he said.

“He has to go through all this now,” a tearful Butler said. “His father loved him so much. I’m in disbelief.”

Butler said he and Chisem became friends while they were in the Navy and Chisem also had two older daughters and worked at Los Angeles International Airport on contraband and smuggling investigations.

Chisem was the godfather of Butler’s kids and the two played chess and golf together. They also argued about football teams: Chisem favored the San Francisco 49ers, Butler liked the Dallas Cowboys.

“I loved him like my own brother,” Butler said. “He would do anything for anybody.”

Fellow agents arrived at Chisem’s house, lined the driveway and saluted as the body, covered by an American flag, was wheeled to a coroner’s van.

“This is a difficult time for ICE, especially for the family and loved ones of the agent. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers,’ ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 01:51  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Theresa May considers judicial review over News of the World links to suspects in 25-year-old axe murder case of private eye

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May 052012
 

Theresa May considers judicial review over News of the World links to suspects in 25-year-old axe murder case of private eye

 

 

Mail Online

By Suzannah Hills
1 March 2012

 

 

Daniel Morgan, 37, was found in a pub car park in Sydenham, south London, in 1987 with an axe embedded in his head

 

Daniel Morgan, 37, was found in a pub car park in Sydenham, south London, in 1987 with an axe embedded in his head

 

 

  • Five inquiries have failed to find the murderer of private investigator Daniel Morgan, 37, killed with an axe to the head on March 10, 1987
  • News of the World journalist accused of ‘undermining’ the murder investigation by putting leading detective under surveillance
  • One of the main suspects in the murder case, who was cleared last year, sold information to the newspaper
  • Scotland Yard to carry out a full forensic review into the unsolved murder case – similar to that carried out in the Stephen Lawrence case

Theresa May could launch a judicial inquiry into the unsolved axe murder of a private investigator 25 years ago after claims that the News of the World ‘intimidated’ detectives overseeing the case.

Five inquiries failed to find Daniel Morgan’s murderer after he was killed in a Sydenham pub car park in 1987 amid claims he was preparing to expose police corruption.

He was found with an axe embedded in his head while his watch had been stolen but his wallet had been left with a large sum of money still in his jacket pocket.

For two decades the case has been surrounded by allegations that Mr Morgan planned to reveal a circle of corrupt police officers selling information to News of the World and other newspapers through a private detective agency run by Mr Morgan’s business partner Jonathan Rees.

Police Minister Nick Herbert yesterday admitted a judicial inquiry was under ‘consideration’ during a parliamentary debate yesterday.

The move follows claims made earlier this week during the Leveson inquiry that the tabloid newspaper collaborated with suspects – at the detective agency previously hired by News of the World – by placing a senior detective investigating the Morgan murder case corrupt police officersunder surveillance on the pretense that he was having an affair.

Mr Morgan’s family – who have always believed he was killed because he was about to expose a network of police corruption involving his business partner Jonathan Rees, his friend the ex-Met police detective Sid Fillery and a string of corrupt police officers – have been pushing for a judicial inquiry into the handling of investigations into the murder. 

 

Daniel Morgan, left, with his brother Alistair Morgan, right, was thought to have found evidence of police corruption before he was killed 

Daniel Morgan, left, with his brother Alistair Morgan, right, was thought to have found evidence of police corruption before he was killed

Daniel Morgan's brother Alistair Morgan and his sister Jane McCarthy have been campaigning for justice since his murder in 1987 

Daniel Morgan’s brother Alistair Morgan and his sister Jane McCarthy have been campaigning for justice since his murder in 1987

 

 

And Labour MP Tom Watson yesterday accused the newspaper of trying to undermine previous murder investigations during an adjournment debate ahead of the 25th anniversary of Mr Morgan’s death in Sydenham, south London, on March 10, 1987.

 

Mr Watson said News of the World crime journalist Alex Marunchak was a close associate of Mr Morgan’s business partner Mr Rees – who became a main suspect in his murder – and regularly paid his company Southern Investigators for information.

 

 

Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames told the Leveson inquiry News of the World had put her and her then husband under surveillance to intimidate them

 

Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames told the Leveson inquiry News of the World had put her and her then husband under surveillance to intimidate them

 

He told fellow MPs: ‘Jonathan Rees and Sid Fillery were at the corrupt nexus of private investigators, police officers and journalists at the News of the World.

‘Southern Investigations was the hub of police and media contacts involving the illegal theft and disclosure of information obtained through Rees and Fillery’s corrupt contacts.’

And when Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cook started to investigate the murder, at a time when Mr Rees was still a suspect, it is alleged Mr Marunchak placed the police officer under surveillance.

Mr Rees was accused of Mr Morgan’s murder in 2008 but the case collapsed in 2010.

West Bromwich East MP Mr Watson told the adjournment debate: ‘The person who was investigating a murder was put under close surveillance by a close business associate of the man he was investigating.

‘A journalist tried to undermine a murder investigation.’

This latest claim follows Detective Cook’s then wife Jacqui Hames telling the Leveson inquiry that the suspects in the Morgan murder had encouraged the tabloid to watch them to ‘intimidate them’.

Ms Hames said she believed the News of the World had put them under surveillance because ‘suspects in the Daniel Morgan murder inquiry were using their association with a powerful and well-resourced newspaper to intimidate us and try to attempt to subvert the investigation’. 

In response to a request by the Metropolitan police to explain the surveillance, the paper’s then editor, Rebekah Brooks, said it was investigating suspicions Ms Hames and Mr Cook were having an affair.

But Ms Hames told the inquiry into press standards that Mrs Brooks’s explanation was ‘absolutely pathetic’, given that it was common knowledge the couple had been married for several years and had two children.

She said in a statement to the inquiry: ‘These events left me distressed, anxious and needing counselling, and contributed to the breakdown of my marriage to David in 2010.

‘Given the impact of these events, I would like to know why the police did not investigate why we came to be placed under surveillance by a newspaper like this.

‘I think any reasonable person would find it difficult not to put them together and feel that in some way there was some collusion between people at the News of the World and the people who were suspected of committing the murder of Daniel Morgan.’

And a judicial review could now be in the pipeline after the new revelations this week.

Speaking at a Westminster Hall adjournment debate yesterday, Mr Herbert said: ‘It is important to consider what options are now available to identify and address the issue of police corruption and to bring those responsible for Daniel’s murder to justice.

‘The Morgan family have called for a judicial inquiry and this call has been endorsed by the Metropolitan Police Authority.’

He added: ‘We are considering very carefully if this is the right way forward. The Home Secretary and I haven’t ruled out ordering a judicial inquiry at this stage.’

Labour MP Tom Watson made allegations about Daniel Morgan's murder case during a parliament debate yesterday 

Labour MP Tom Watson made allegations about Daniel Morgan’s murder case during a parliament debate yesterday

 

Jacqui Hames accused the News of the World of putting her under surveillance while speaking at the Leveson Inquiry  

Jacqui Hames accused the News of the World of putting her under surveillance while speaking at the Leveson Inquiry

 

 

MP TOM WATSON CLAIMS NoW PAID OFFICERS FOR SOHAM MURDERS INFORMATION

Labour MP Tom Watson, who spearheaded the campaign to expose the phone hacking scandal at the Sunday tabloid, yesterday claimed the NoW may have paid police officers’ relatives for information about the murders of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

He claims the newspaper’s crime reporter Alex Marunchak bought details about the investigation into the 2002 killings and urged the Home Office to study secret reports relating to the probe in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Watson said: ‘I believe the Metropolitan Police are sitting on an intelligence report from late 2002 that claims a police contact overheard Marunchak claim he was paying the relatives of police officers in Cambridgeshire for information about the Soham murders.

Soham murder victims: Holly Wells, left, and her best friend, Jessica Chapman

‘These are allegations that as far as we know have not been investigated.

‘I don’t whether these intelligence reports are accurate, but I do know Alex Marunchak was involved in writing stories about how the Manchester United shirts of those young girls were found.’

The MP called on News International boss Rupert Murdoch to apologise for the conduct of staff at his paper during the investigations into the Soham killings

Mr Herbert said it was ‘a horrific murder, exacerbated by the failure to see those responsible held to account’.

He revealed that the Morgan murder is now being overseen by the assistant commissioner Cressida Dick and the Met will be carrying out a full forensic review of the case – similar to the one undertaken in the Stephen Lawrence murder which led to the successful conviction of two men earlier this year.

Mr Watson, who spearheaded the campaign to expose the phone hacking scandal at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid, made other allegations about the News of the World yesterday.

He also claimed during the debate that the newspaper may have paid police officers’ relatives for information about the murders of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

He cited claims Mr Marunchak bought details about the investigation into the 2002 killings which shocked the country – and urged the Home Office to study secret reports relating to the probe in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Watson said: ‘I believe the Metropolitan Police are sitting on an intelligence report from late 2002 that claims a police contact overheard Marunchak claim he was paying the relatives of police officers in Cambridgeshire for information about the Soham murders.

 

 

‘These are allegations that as far as we know have not been investigated.

‘I don’t whether these intelligence reports are accurate, but I do know Alex Marunchak was involved in writing stories about how the Manchester United shirts of those young girls were found.’

Mr Watson also claimed to MPs details on one of the girls’ parents were found in files belonging to convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire, who was previously jailed for illegally listening to voicemails.

The MP called on News International boss Rupert Murdoch to apologise for the conduct of staff at his paper during the investigations into the Soham killings and Mr Morgan’s murder, as the media tycoon previously apologised to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s family.

The revelation Milly’s phone was hacked by NoW journalists forced the paper’s closure last summer.

Mr Watson said today: ‘I think Rupert Murdoch owes the Morgan family an apology. I also don’t think he has made his last apology to the grieving parents of dead children.’

Mr Marunchak has previously denied having any contact with Daniel Morgan and all allegations of wrongdoing.

 

RIGHT HON NICK HERBERT MP
Home Secretary Theresa May

Judicial inquiry: Police minister Nick Herbert, left, revealed home secretary Theresa May, right, is considering launching a judicial inquiry into Daniel Morgan’s murder which has remained unsolved for nearly 25 years

 

 Posted by at 01:41  Tagged with: , ,

Witness Testifies How Plot to Kill Officer Was Set Up

 Articles of Interest, Crimes & Criminal Activity (Organized Crime, Narcotics, Predators, Cyber Crime, Cyber Stalking, UnSolved), FALLEN & INJURED HEROES, Law Enforcement  No Responses »
May 052012
 

Witness Testifies How Plot to Kill Officer Was Set Up

The New York Times
By MOSI SECRET
March 27, 2012

 

 

 

 

An admitted hit man for the Mafia recalled a ride he took with his boss through the streets of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

 

Thomas Gioeli is on trial for murder and racketeering.

 

 

 

 

Police Officer Ralph Dols was killed in 1997. A witness described it in court as a mob-ordered  murder. Photo: New York Police Department

 

“He pointed out a car. He pointed out a house. And he gave me a little piece of paper with a license plate on it,” the hit man, Dino Calabro, testified on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

That piece of paper, which Mr. Calabro said was from Thomas Gioeli, a reputed mob boss who is on trial for murder and racketeering, was as good as a death warrant, Mr. Calabro said. Not long after that ride, Mr. Calabro said, he staked out the house and was part of a crew that executed its occupant outside.

He said he learned a day later that the man he killed that day in 1997 was a police officer, Ralph C. Dols. Mr. Calabro said that he saw a newspaper and that Officer Dols was “on the front page.”

“First I was amazed,” he continued. “I was like, wow. Then I got in the car to go see Tommy,” because he knew that he had broken a Mafia code.

“You don’t hurt kids,” he said. “You don’t kill cops.”

Mr. Calabro, who has confessed to eight murders and is working with the authorities, was testifying against Mr. Gioeli, whom officials called the former acting boss of the Colombo crime family, and another of Mr. Gioeli’s alleged hit men, Dino Saracino, who prosecutors said was part of the crew that killed Officer Dols, and who is Mr. Calabro’s cousin.

Mr. Calabro said he and Mr. Gioeli had been told that the target was a Mexican man who worked in a Queens club.

Officer Dols had married a woman, Kim T. Kennaugh, who was previously married to three men associated with the Colombo crime family. One of them, Enrico Carrini, was killed in 1987; the most recent former husband was Joel Cacace, also known as Joe Waverly, described by officials as a consigliere, or top mob adviser.

Federal prosecutors have accused Mr. Cacace of ordering Officer Dols’s murder because it was embarrassing that Ms. Kennaugh would leave a powerful mobster for someone in law enforcement. He is awaiting trial on murder and other charges. The murder of Officer Dols disturbed Mr. Calabro so much that he said he asked Mr. Gioeli “if we should kill” Mr. Cacace.

Asked why, Mr. Calabro explained it was because he felt that Mr. Cacace had endangered them by asking to have a police officer killed. “Tommy said, ‘Let me see.’ It was never brought up again.”

After they killed Officer Dols, the men involved, always fearful they were being watched, used a code to refer to him: a hand motion mimicking a syringe penetrating the arm, because they thought they would be sentenced to die by lethal injection for the murder, which took place two years after New York reinstated the death penalty. But they did not stop killing, Mr. Calabro said.

He described the murder of William Cutolo Sr., a Colombo family acting underboss whose body was found in 2008.

The plan to kill Mr. Cutolo also started with a ride, this time to a church garden in Massapequa, N.Y., where Mr. Gioeli liked to pray, Mr. Calabro said.

Mr. Calabro said Mr. Gioeli touched his heart and made a gesture with his hand, signaling that Mr. Cutolo should be killed. The Colombo leadership was afraid that Mr. Cutolo would make a push to take over the crime family, Mr. Calabro said.

They set up a meeting with Mr. Cutolo. They decided that Mr. Gioeli would drive Mr. Cutolo to the home of one of his hit men, Mr. Saracino, and they would kill Mr. Cutolo there, Mr. Calabro testified.

“When the time came, we were sitting in the basement,” he said. “We seen one set of legs walking by, not two. I went outside to see who it was, and it was Billy Cutolo. I shook hands with him.”

“He asked me where to go,” Mr. Calabro continued in a choppy pace that characterized much of his testimony. “I showed him the stairs. He walked ahead. I pulled out my gun and shot him in the head.”

“I closed the door. I went outside. I seen Tommy. He said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘It’s done.’ ”

They hog-tied him and put him in plastic, and buried him in a wooded lot on Long Island.

Asked by a prosecutor, James D. Gatta, why he killed for the mob, Mr. Calabro said: “I wanted to be inducted into the crime family. And it was an order.”

 

 

Direct Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/nyregion/trial-witness-says-gioeli-ordered-officer-ralph-dols-killed.html

 Posted by at 01:23  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

REMEMBERING a FALLEN HERO & FRIEND… NYPD Officer Chris Hoban!

 Announcements  No Responses »
May 032012
 

REMEMBERING a FALLEN HERO & FRIEND… NYPD Officer Chris Hoban!

 

 

 

 

 

Bio & Incident Details

Age: 26

Tour: 4 years

Badge # 25547

Cause: Gunfire

Incident Date: 10/18/1988

Weapon: Handgun; .357 caliber

Suspect: Shot and killed

 

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Officer Hoban was shot and killed during an undercover drug buy. During the operation the three suspects began to suspect that Officer Hoban and his partner were police officers. When they searched Officer Hoban’s partner they located his service weapon. Officer Hoban immediately pulled out his gun and a shootout ensued in which Officer Hoban and one of the suspects were fatally wounded. The other suspects were sentenced to 25 years to life.

Officer Hoban had served with the agency for 4 years. He was survived by his parents and two brothers.

Direct Link: http://www.odmp.org/officer/6554-police-officer-christopher-g-hoban#ixzz1tsZVGEhw

 Posted by at 23:23  Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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