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How the FBI's Network of Informants Actually Created Most of the Terrorist Plots

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Trevor Aaronson - Oct. 10 (Investigative Report) - The FBI has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. But are they busting terrorist plots—or leading them?

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The FBI vs. Antiwar.com

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Justin Raimondo - Aug. 23 (Special Report) - The April 30 memo - which was issued to FBI counterrorism offices in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francisco - is prefaced with the following rather ominous 'administrative' note: 'This document contains information obtained under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 50 U.S.C., Section 1801. Such FISA derived information shall not be used in any criminal proceeding, including grand jury proceedings ...' Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com

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Justice Department Filing Casts Doubt on Guilt of Bruce Ivins, Accused in Anthrax Case

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By by Mike Wiser, PBS FRONTLINE, Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers, Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica This story was co-published with PBS FRONTLINE, McClatchy. WA - Jul. 19 (News Report) - The Justice Department has called into question a key pillar of the FBI's case against Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist accused of mailing the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and terrorized Congress a decade ago. Shortly after Ivins committed suicide in 2008, federal investigators announced that they had identified him as the mass murderer who sent the letters to members of Congress and the media. The case was circumstantial, with federal officials arguing that the scientist had the means, motive and opportunity to make the deadly powder at a U.S. Army research facility at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Md. On July 15, however, Justice Department lawyers acknowledged in court papers that the sealed area in Ivins' lab -- the so-called hot suite -- did not contain the equipment needed to turn liquid anthrax into the refined powder that floated through congressional buildings and post offices in the fall of 2001. The government said it continues to believe that Ivins was “more likely than not” the killer. But the filing in a Florida court did not explain where or how Ivins could have made the powder, saying only that the lab “did not have the specialized equipment’’ in Ivins' secure lab “that would be required to prepare the dried spore preparations that were used in the letters.” The government’s statements deepen the questions about the case against Ivins, who killed himself before he was charged with a crime. Searches of his car and home in 2007 found no anthrax spores, and the FBI’s eight-year, $100 million investigation never proved he mailed the letters or identified another location where he might have secretly dried the anthrax into an easily inhaled powder. Earlier this year, a report by the National Academy of Science questioned the genetic analysis that had linked a flask of anthrax stored in Ivins’ office to the anthrax contained in the letters. The court papers were uncovered by a reporter for the PBS program FRONTLINE which is working on a forthcoming documentary on the case with McClatchy Newspapers and ProPublica, the investigative newsroom. They were filed by lawyers in the Justice Department’s Civil Division who are defending the government against a wrongful death suit brought by the family of Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun. Stevens was the first to die from a tainted letter and his family has accused federal officials of lax procedures that allowed someone to make a germ weapon using anthrax from a government laboratory. In asserting that Ivins was culprit, criminal investigators pointed to his access to the specialized equipment at the laboratory. Officials drew up elaborate charts showing that Ivins’ time in the hot suites spiked in the weeks before the letters were mailed. But Ivins’ colleagues have said in depositions for the Stevens case that the powder could not have been made in the lab without sickening lab technicians and others who had not been vaccinated against anthrax. A Justice Department spokesman Monday shed little light on the seeming shift in positions, saying that investigators still believe Ivins produced the anthrax at Fort Detrick and are unaware of evidence that he did so elsewhere. The Justice Department filed the papers in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week. The lawyers were attempting to counter allegations by the Stevens family of negligence at Fort Detrick, including inadequate controls over anthrax controls, by arguing that the anthrax in the letters wasn't produced there. Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said Monday that the court filing did not contradict the government’s conclusion that Ivins sent the letters. Rather, he said, the lawyers merely argued that “Ivins’ actions were not foreseeable to his supervisors’’ because he did not have equipment to dry the spores in his containment laboratory. Boyd said this meant the United States should not be held liable for his actions.” “To clarify, this statement was intended to relate to the specific containment laboratory” where Ivins kept a flask of liquid anthrax with genetic markers similar to those found in the letters, Boyd said. In excerpts from one of more than a dozen depositions made public in the case last week, the current chief of of the Bacteriology Division at the Army laboratory, Patricia Worsham, said it lacked the facilities in 2001 to make the kind of spores in the letters. Two of the five letters, those sent to Democratic U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Thomas Daschle of South Dakota, were especially deadly, because they were so buoyant as to float with the slightest wisp of air. Worsham said that the lab’s equipment for drying the spores, a machine the size of a refrigerator, was not in containment. “If someone had used that to dry down that preparation, I would have expected that area to be very, very contaminated, and we had non-immunized personnel in that area, and I would have expected some of them to become ill,” she said. In its statement of facts, the government lawyers also said that producing the volume of anthrax in the letters would have required 2.8 to 53 liters of the solution used to grow the spores or 463 to 1,250 Petri dishes. Colleagues of Ivins at the lab have asserted that he couldn’t have grown all that anthrax without their noticing it. The government’s own summary of the case against Ivins, released early last year when the Justice Department formally closed its investigation, noted that “drying anthrax is expressly forbidden by various treaties,” and “overt use of any of these methods, if noticed, would have raised considerable alarm and scrutiny.’’ Paul Kemp, Ivins’ lead defense attorney, said Monday that the department’s concession that the equipment wasn’t available “is at direct variance to the assertions of the government on July 29, 2008,” the day Ivins died, thus “invalidating one of the chief theories of their prosecution case.” Kemp said that government officials told him and a colleague, Tom DeGonia, that the FBI could “prove that Dr. Ivins manufactured the dried spores used in the anthrax attacks, and would prove this by the records of his presence in the hot suites in August and September. Anthrax is one of the deadliest biological weapons. Once inhaled, the tiny spores germinate inside the human body, producing rapidly multiplying, highly toxic bacteria that, if untreated, typically kill a person within days. The anthrax mailings came as a second shock to the nation just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Beginning Sept. 18, 2001, the perpetrator sent at least five letters containing anthrax powder to three media outlets and to the offices of Sens. Leahy and Daschle. Two postal workers, a nurse and an elderly woman in Connecticut also died, some 32,000 congressional and postal employees took long-term antibiotic treatments and teams wearing moon suits spent months cleansing a Senate office building and large postal facility of the deadly spores.

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Domestic Spy Agency? 5 Outrageous Examples of FBI Intimidation and Entrapment

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Kevin Gosztola - Jun. 30 (Special Report) - Here are five cases of FBI abuse that show the FBI deserves more scrutiny, not a free pass to continue fighting the so-called “war on terror.”

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FBI to Expand Domestic Surveillance Powers As Details Emerge of Its Spy Campaign Targeting Activists

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - Jun. 14 (News Analysis) - Civil liberties advocates are raising alarm over news the FBI is giving agents more leeway to conduct domestic surveillance. According to the New York Times, new guidelines will allow FBI agents to investigate people and organizations "proactively" without firm evidence for suspecting criminal activity.

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FBI seeks public aid in outing corruption

Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Tallahassee Democrat - By Jeff Burlew - May. 29 (News Report) - The FBI in Jacksonville is seeking the public's help in identifying government officials who use their office for personal gain. Of particular interest to the FBI is potential fraud involving federal stimulus money. The agency unveiled the Public Corruption Tip Line (1-888-722-1225) in February and said it would run advertisements in newspapers seeking tips. So far, the FBI has run one advertisement, which appeared on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat. Toni Chrabot, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jacksonville, said the FBI chose to run the ad in Tallahassee because it is the seat of power in Florida.

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New FBI Documents Provide Details on Government’s Surveillance Spyware

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Electronic Frontier Foundation - By Jennifer Lynch - Apr. 30 (News Analysis) - The documents we received were sent to us in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request we filed back in 2007 after Wired reported on evidence that the FBI was able to use “secret spyware”

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9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Michael McAuliff - Apr. 22 (News Report) - A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.

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How one man tracked down Anonymous— and paid a heavy price

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Ars Technica - By Nate Anderson - Feb. 10 (Investigative Report) - Aaron Barr believed he had penetrated Anonymous... But had he?

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FBI Rounds Up 100 Mobsters in Biggest Mafia Bust in New York History

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

NBC New York - By Jonathan Dienst - Jan. 20 (News Report) - The FBI calls it the biggest mafia round-up in New York history. More than 100 suspected mobsters were arrested this morning in connection with numerous federal investigations into New York area mob groups as first reported on NBCNewYork.com.

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FBI Illegally Collected Phone Records for Years

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

whistleblower.org - By Jesselyn Radack - Jan. 19 (Investigative Report) - (video)

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FBI Expands Probe into Antiwar Activists

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan G - Dec. 23 (News Report) - The FBI's probe into antiwar activists is growing. In September, FBI agents raided the homes and offices of activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. Subpoenas that were withdrawn have been reactivated, and a new subpoena was served to a Palestinian solidarity activist in Chicago. We speak with two of the people targeted and two former FBI agents.

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Fmr. Guyanese Politician Convicted of Terror Plot in Latest Case of Alleged Gov't Entrapment

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Dec. 16 (News Report) - The U.S. federal government is coming under increasing scrutiny for its use of informants in terror-related cases. On Wednesday, Abdul Kadir, a former politician from Guyana, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in an alleged plot to blow up New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. In Kadir's case and two others, attorneys have claimed that the bombing plots were largely the work of federal informants. We speak to Kadir's attorney, Toni Messina.

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Prosecutor Says Man's Escondido Home Was 'Bomb Factory'

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego - Nov. 25 (News Report) - George Djura Jakubec, 54, pleaded not guilty to 12 felony counts of possessing destructive devices and 14 counts of possessing ingredients to make destructive devices, along with two bank robbery charges

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Investigators Continue To Collect Evidence In Bomb Probe -

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego - Nov. 25 (News Report) - More homemade explosives and bomb-making materials were found Wednesday by bomb and explosives experts during a search of a Escondido home rented by man arrested a week ago when an explosion injured his gardener and prompted the partial closing of Interstate 15.

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Raids on Activists May Indicate FBI Abuse of Power

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Yana Kunichoff - Oct. 09 (News Report) - On the heels of a series of FBI raids on anti-war activists, an FBI whistleblower and constitutional rights groups are calling out the agency for overstepping its bounds, fearing that its increased powers could infringe on First Amendment rights and silence dissent. Agents searched the homes of anti-war activists in Chicago, Minneapolis, Michigan and Durham, North Carolina in the last two weeks of September, along with the offices of the Minnesota Anti-War Committeeread more

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Entrapment or Foiling Terror? FBI's Reliance on Paid Informants Raises Questions about Validity of Terrorism Cases

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Anjali Kamat - Oct. 06 (Special Report) - Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their final arguments this week in the trial of the Newburgh Four, a high-profile case that has made national headlines as a potent example of so-called "homegrown terror." The defense has argued that the defendants were entrapped by government agents and not predisposed to commit a terrorist crime. For several months, Democracy Now!'s Anjali Kamat and Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films traveled through Muslim communities in New York and New Jersey to track the Newburgh case and two others. In all three, Muslim men were arrested on terrorism charges. In all three, no terrorist crime was actually committed. And all three cases relied heavily on hundreds of hours of surveillance recorded by a paid government informant. Today, a Democracy Now! special investigation. [includes rush transcript]

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FBI Raids Homes of Anti-War and Pro-Palestinian Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 27 (News) - Antiwar activists are gearing up for protests outside FBI offices in cities across the country today and tomorrow after the FBI raided eight homes and offices of antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis Friday. The FBI’s search warrants indicate agents were looking for connections between local antiwar activists and groups in Colombia and the Middle East. Eight people were issued subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago. Most of the people whose homes were searched or who were issued subpoenas had helped organize or attended protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, two years ago.

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Photographer Ernest Withers doubled as FBI informant to spy on civil rights movement

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Commercial Appeal - By Marc Perrusquia - Sep. 12 (Special Report) - Famed Civil Rights photographer Ernest Withers was also an FBI informant.

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Gagged for 6 Years, Nick Merrill Speaks Out on Landmark Court Struggle Against FBI's National Security Letters

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Nick Merrill, Amy Goodman, George Christian - Aug. 11 (Special Report) - For six years the FBI has barred a New York man from revealing that the agency had ordered him to hand over personal information about clients of his Internet start-up. Finally allowed to speak, Nick Merril joins us in his first broadcast interview to talk about how he challenged the FBI's use of national security letters. We also speak with Connecticut librarian George Christian. He and three other librarians also sued the US government after receiving a National Security Letter demanding information about library patrons.

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U.S. attorney, IRS and FBI investigating Florida GOP credit card use

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

St. Petersburg Times - By Jay Weaver, Beth Reinhard, Lucy Morgan - Apr. 21 (News Report) - Federal law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff, according to sources familiar with the probe. The U.S. attorney's

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FBI Investigating Extremist Group Letters Telling Governors To Leave Office

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Eileen Sullivan, Devlin Barrett - Apr. 02 (News Report) - The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence by others....

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The Road to Armageddon

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Vdare.com - By Paul Craig Roberts - Feb. 28 (News Analysis) - The paper reports that the architects and engineers have concluded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided "insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers’ destruction" and are "calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials."

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Bombshell Eyewitness Revelations: Confirmed FBI Cover-Up Of Flight 253 Attack

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

infowars.com - By Kurt Nimmo - Dec. 29 (News Report) - Detroit attorney Kurt Haskell dropped bombshell revelations concerning his eyewitness experience of the Flight 253 attack and how the FBI detained a second man after dogs detected a bomb in his luggage on The Alex Jones Show today. The FBI has not only ignored Haskell’s story, but they have launched a cover-up by refusing to even acknowledge the existence of another man who filmed the entire flight, including the aborted attack, as well as the well-dressed man who aided the bomber to board the plane even though he had no passport and was on a terror watch list.

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Attacks on the Press in 2008: United States - Committee to Protect Journalists

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

cpj.org - Jun. 06 (News Report) - U.S. government actions against journalists abroad continued to sully the nation’s image. Authorities finally freed two long-detained journalists, one in Iraq and the other at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without ever charging them with a crime or producing any evidence to support the imprisonments. But the military continued its alarming practice of holding journalists in open-ended detention without due process. At least one journalist was being held without charge when CPJ conducted its annual census of imprisoned journalists.

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