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ARCHIVE2 CUSTOMS CORRUPTION
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WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Customs Service says its
considering changing its inspection procedures at the Canadian border so that
terrorists would be stopped before they cross bridges and tunnels into the
United States.
At 13 points of entry along the northern border, people entering the United
States are not stopped by U.S. Customs agents until after they cross a bridge or
tunnel.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said that could leave those bridges and tunnels
vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Levin has been pushing the U.S. Customs Service and its Canadian counterparts
to conduct reverse inspections, where the two countries would set up
stations on opposite sides of the border.
In a letter sent to Levin this week, Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner said
that he and Canadian Customs Commissioner Robert Wright have created a working
group to study northern border security, including the possibility of reverse
inspections.
The Customs Service supports this as a potential option to alleviate cross
border congestion and increased security along the northern border, Bonner
wrote.
Customs spokesman Jim Mitchie said it is not clear whether a reverse
inspection system would only be implemented at the 13 bridge and tunnel
crossings located in Michigan, Maine and New York or at all 129 points
of entry along the Canadian border.
Forms of the system are found at a few Canadian airports, but Bonner wrote
that expanding it to other points would probably require a change in U.S. and
Canadian law so the foreign officials would have the authority to operate in
each others country.
Levin and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., sent Bonner a follow-up letter
asking for more details about what changes to the law would be required. The
senators said they would work to pass legislation that is necessary.
If we are going to provide the kind of security that most Americans expect, it only makes sense to inspect vehicles before they enter the tunnel or get onto one of our bridges, Stabenow said.
Corruption Comment: Could it be that since Customs Corruption started exposing the gaping holes in US-Canadian borders, the "officials" have started actually doing their jobs?
``The enemy still wants to hit us,'' the president said. ``Therefore, this
nation must do everything in its power to prevent it.''
The Coast Guard would get a 10 percent increase to $2.9 billion under the
president's plan, its first big raise in years. Bush described the service's
personnel as ``a fine group of people who don't get nearly as much appreciation
from the American people as they should.''
800 NEW INSPECTORS
The agency would expand its use of passes to speed routine commerce across
borders, and buy more radiation detectors and X-ray machines to inspect
containerized cargo.
Shipping containers that arrive in U.S. ports and are put on trucks or
railroad cars without being opened are a special inspection problem,
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said earlier this week. A department
panel hopes to devise a new security plan for these containers by Feb. 1.
`SEAMLESS' BORDER
New money for border protection is part of the president's homeland security
buildup from $19.5 billion this fiscal year to $37.7 billion in 2003. All U.S.
counterterrorism initiatives would expand.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, traveling with the president,
acknowledged that better border security entailed a difficult balance: ``Our
air, land and sea borders must be open and welcoming, as well as safe and
efficient.''
The United States has a 7,500-mile land border and 12,383 miles of coastline.
Each year more than 500 million people enter the country, 330 million of them
noncitizens. Also entering are 11.2 million trucks, 2.2 million rail cars and
7,500 foreign-flag ships.
Randall Larsen, director of the ANSER Institute of Homeland Security in
Arlington, Va., a counterterrorism research center, agreed with Ridge.
``We have coming into this country $870 billion worth of trade that comes
through 361 ports,'' Larsen said.
``How can we possibly check that stuff and yet not shut down the global
economy?''
MORE TO INS
According to the president, 40 percent of illegal immigrants enter the United
States legally but overstay their tourist, work or student visas.
INS agents need ``to find that 40 percent to make sure they are not part of
some al Qaeda network that wants to hit the United States,'' Bush said.
The Agriculture Department's food inspection unit would get an additional $14
million to inspect shipments of imported food for terrorist tampering.
The president's plan also would expand the Coast Guard's role. Its crews
would track all ships in U.S. waters and guard potential coastal targets of
terrorism, such as nuclear power plants and oil refineries.
``We must make sure that our Coast Guard has got a modern fleet of vessels,''
Bush said at Southern Maine Technical College, a few miles from the airport
where terrorist leader Mohammed Atta boarded the first leg of the flight that
ended in the attack on the World Trade Center. ``We must make sure that port
security is as strong as possible.''
An Anonymous Letter To CustomsCorruption.com
Here is the text of a letter that was mailed to me anonymously from Texas regarding a recent change in I.A. personnel. There was no return address and it was assumed that the writer wanted to be protected for obvious reasons. The quote is printed in it's entirety without misspelled words or vulgarity.
CUSTOMS
By Sean Paige
CUSTOMS HOUSE IN NEED OF
CLEANING Tick them off - bribery, smuggling, theft, conspiracy, assault - and
you have a litany of corruptions that Americans long have associated with life
in the badlands south of the U.S.-Mexico border. But increasingly, driven by
drug dealing and dollars, similar kinds of corruption also are being found north
of that 2,000-mile boundary, perpetrated by our homegrown version of the dreaded
federales, who sometimes wear the badges of the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs
Service or U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS. All three have
been racked by an upswing in corruption cases in recent years. But the Customs
Service has come in for special scrutiny lately, following a report from the
General Accounting Office, or GAO, another by the Department of Treasury's
Inspector General and a series of Senate Finance Committee oversight hearings
that, while not dwelling exclusively on the negatives, hardly could avoid them
altogether. After reviewing 28 convictions of INS and Customs employees for
drug-related corruption between 1992 and 1997, GAO in part blamed the rot on the
slowness of both agencies to respond to the growing threat, as well as the lack
of serious attention they paid to integrity procedures, background
reinvestigations and training. Then, several weeks ago, Treasury's inspector
general reported that Customs' internal-affairs office failed to consistently
investigate complaints and lacked proper supervisory review. When misconduct was
substantiated, "disciplinary penalties were inconsistently applied,"
often due to cronyism, according to the report. This caused fear of reprisal in
officers who considered making allegations against colleagues. Internal-affairs
officers at Customs referred only 53 percent of such allegations to management
for review. Of those, 71 percent of the cases resulted in some sanction. During
oversight hearings, Vincent Parolisi - a former internal-affairs officer with
New York City police, recently brought in by reformist Customs Commissioner Ray
Kelly to help clean house - told senators that his initial impression is that
Customs' internal-affairs office has been "more reactionary than proactive
in combating corruption." Parolisi said, "The most formidable
corruption threat facing Customs is the illegal drug trade." Drug
trafficking also was cited by a Finance Committee analysis as the primary
catalyst behind the rising tide of corruption, which resulted in a tripling of
corruption allegations against Customs Service officers between 1996 and 1998.
The analysis found no evidence of "systemic" corruption inside
Customs, though accusations of official misconduct and criminal wrongdoing rose
from 209 in 1996 to 677 in 1998. The most common allegation against Customs
officers during those years was bribery, amounting to 8.6 percent of all
complaints, according to the analysis. Sexual harassment and misconduct made up
7.2 percent of the complaints, followed by disclosure of confidential
information (5.8 percent), assault (4.5 percent) and drug trafficking (3.9
percent). The Customs office in Miami received the most allegations (accounting
for 11 percent), followed by El Paso and McAllen, Texas (with 9 percent each).
"Misconduct by Customs employees will not be tolerated under my
watch," Kelly told the panel. "We want everyone to understand the
rules as well as the consequences of any illegal or improper activities." A
GREAT BIG EDSEL IN THE SKY Say what, Yergy? The Russian half of the
international space station is so noisy, published reports say, that astronauts
visiting and eventually working there may have to wear earplugs just to keep the
din down to a tolerable roar. In parts of the Zarya capsule, which NASA
engineers are retrofitting with internal mufflers, the noise level registers
over 72 decibels - about the equivalent of standing beside a busy freeway or 10
feet away from a blaring television set. Aside from its fine Corinthian leather,
power windows and optional moon roof, the U.S.-made Unity module, by contrast,
offers the relative serenity of just 58 decibels. Astronauts still should be
able to hear any warning alarms that go off in Zarya even if their ears are
plugged, NASA says - a good thing, given the safety record of Russia's other
cosmic Corvair, Mir. Although bad, Zarya reportedly isn't as noisy as the
Russian-built service module, scheduled to be launched as the station's living
(and, one assumes, sleeping) quarters by year's end. The oft-delayed module also
does not meet NASA standards for protection against collision with space debris.
Other "bugs" already needing fine tuning aboard the space station
include a faulty U.S. communications system and Russian batteries that aren't
charging properly. NASA flight director Paul Hill says the station is like a new
car - no, he didn't say "lemon" - that needs to go back to the
dealership for fine tuning. "Only in this case, it's an extremely
complicated car that we can't get our hands on after we threw the thing up into
orbit," according to Hill. "We have what we have," said Frank
Culbertson, NASA's deputy program manager for space-station operations i
sounding a little like the guy who just plunked down his kid's college fund on
an Edsel. Is it too late for taxpayers to ask for a warranty on this thing?
Nothing Is Secret
By Kelly Patricia
O'Meara
Good morning, Mr. McDade. The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police has reason to believe that the national security
of Canada has been compromised. A trojan horse, or back door, allegedly has
been found in computer systems in the nation's top law-enforcement and
intelligence organizations. "Your mission, should you decide to accept
it, is to establish whether this is the PROMIS software reportedly stolen in
the early 1980s from William and Nancy Hamilton, owners of Inslaw Inc., and
reportedly modified for international espionage. As always, should you or any
of your associates be caught, the governments of Canada and the United States
will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This recording will self-destruct
in five seconds. Good luck, Sean." Sounds like the opening taped message
from an episode of the 1960s TV action series Mission Impossible. But just
such a mission was offered - and accepted - by two investigators of the
National Security Section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The
Mounties then covertly entered the United States in February of last year and
for nearly eight months conducted a secret investigation into the theft of the
PROMIS software and whether and by whom it had been obtained for backdoor
spying. PROMIS is a universal bridge to the forest of computer systems. It
allows covert and undetectable surveillance, and it and its related successors
are unimaginably important in the new age of communications warfare. In this
exclusive investigative series Insight tracks the Mounties and explores the
mysteries pursued by the RCMP, including allegations involving a gang of
characters believed to be associated with the suspected theft of PROMIS,
swarms of spies (or the "spookloop" as the Mounties called them),
the Mafia, big-time money laundering, murder, international arms smuggling and
illegal drugs - to name but a few aspects of the still-secret RCMP probe. But
the keystone to this RCMP investigation is PROMIS, that universal bridge and
monitoring system, which stands for Prosecutor's Management Information System
- a breakthrough computer software program originally developed in the early
1970s by the Hamiltons for case management by U.S. prosecutors. The first
version of PROMIS was owned by the government since the development money was
provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ), but something went awry on the
way to proprietary development. For more than 15 years the story of the
allegedly pirated Hamilton software, and how it may have wound up in the hands
of the spy agencies of the world, has been hotly pursued by law-enforcement
agencies, private detectives, journalists, congressional investigators, U.S.
Customs and assorted U.S. attorneys. Even independent researchers have taken
on the role of counterespionage agents in a quest to uncover the truth about
this allegedly ongoing penetration of security. But each new U.S.
investigation has failed fully to determine what happened. While the Mounties
encountered a similar fate, officers Sean McDade and Randy Buffam have been
the most successful to date. Last May, with the assistance of Hercules,
Calif., detective Sue Todd, the Mounties walked away with a package of
startling evidence that many believe will solve the case of the pirated
software and its reported continuing use for international espionage and a
host of other illegal activities. Insight has spent months retracing the steps
of the two RCMP officers and interviewing their sources, poring over copies of
documents they secured, listening to tape recordings of meetings in which they
were involved and reviewing scores of reports and depositions that have been
locked up for years. The result is this first installment of a four-part
investigative report about how the Mounties conducted their covert border
crossings and investigation that ranged across the United States and back
again before returning to Canada where they discovered their cover had been
blown. By late summer of 2000 the Canadian press was reporting not only the
existence of this secret national-security probe - "Project
Abbreviation" - but that if the reported allegations prove true "it
would be the biggest-ever breach of Canada's national security."
Confusing official comments about the probe added further mystery. But Insight
has confirmed many of the details, including the fact that the investigation
is continuing. And it's serious stuff. McDade began his extended trip into
international espionage early last year. It began at least on Jan. 19, 2000,
with an e-mail that said: "I am looking to contact Carol (Cheri)
regarding a matter that has surfaced in the past. If this e-mail account is
still active, please reply and I will in turn forward a Canadian phone number
and explain my position and reason for request." This communication, from
e-mail account simorp (PROMIS spelled backward), was the first of hundreds
sent during an eight-month period from "dear hunter," also known as
Sean McDade. It reached Cheri Seymour, a Southern California journalist,
private detective and author of a well-regarded book, Committee of the States.
Seymour became one of the most important of McDade's contacts during the
Mounties' continuing investigation. Although she had agreed to remain silent
about their probe until McDade filed a report with his superiors, she changed
her mind when news of the probe began to leak in the Canadian press. It was
then that the Southern Californian contacted Insight and offered to share what
she knew about the investigation if this magazine would look into the story.
And what a story it is. A petite, attractive, unassuming middle-aged woman,
Seymour looks more like a violinist in a symphony orchestra than an
international sleuth. But one quickly becomes aware of the depth of her
knowledge not only of the alleged theft of the PROMIS software, but also of
other reported illegal activities and dangerous characters associated with it.
Seymour's involvement with PROMIS began more than a decade ago while working
as an investigative reporter on an unrelated story about high-level corruption
within the sheriff's department of the Central California town of Mariposa,
near Yosemite National Park, where deputies reportedly were involved in
illegal-drug activity. The dozen or so who were not involved repeatedly had
begged the journalist to conduct an investigation. When she learned that one
of the officers had taken the complaints to the state attorney general in
Sacramento and within weeks was reported missing in an alleged boating
accident on nearby Lake McClure, she launched her probe. The owner of the
local newspaper, the Mariposa Guide, in time contacted ABC television producer
Don Thrasher and the story of the corruption within the Mariposa Sheriff's
Department ran in 1991 on ABC's prime-time television news program 20/20.
Seymour's investigation is chronicled in a draft manuscript called the
"Last Circle," written under her pseudonym Carol Marshall but made
available anonymously on the Internet in 1997. PROMIS then was only a sidebar
to the larger story, but it was this obscure Internet posting that led RCMP
investigators McDade and Buffam to Seymour's living room two years later.
According to Seymour: "Nothing [previously] came of the work I did. Even
though in October of 1992 I had sent a synopsis of my work to John Cohen, lead
investigator on the House Judiciary Committee, looking into the theft of
PROMIS and its possible connections to the savage death of free-lance
journalist Danny Casolaro. But by then the committee had completed its report
and published its findings. It was a closed case. Nothing ever happened with
the connections I was able to make among the players involved in the theft of
PROMIS and illegal drug trafficking and money laundering." That is, until
McDade sent his first cryptic e-mail. Within a week the Mountie had arranged
to meet Seymour at her home to discuss aspects of his own secret investigation
and begin the laborious task of copying thousands of documents Seymour had
collected from an abandoned trailer in Death Valley belonging to a man at or
near the center of the PROMIS controversy, Michael Riconosciuto, a boy genius,
entrepreneur, convicted felon - and the man who has claimed that he modified
the pirated PROMIS software. The documents provided specific information about
Riconosciuto's connections to the Cabazon Indian Reservation, where he claims
to have carried out the modification, but they also painted a clear picture of
the men with whom Riconosciuto associated, including mob figures, high-level
government officials, intelligence and law-enforcement officers and informants
- even convicted murderers. Before McDade focused on a three-day copying
frenzy, the Mountie gathered Todd, Seymour and an impartial observer invited
by Seymour to corroborate the meeting around Seymour's dining-room table and
began to tell a dramatic tale of government lies and international espionage.
"I sat there with my mouth wide open and my eyes practically popping out
of my head - you know, that deer-in-the-headlights look," Seymour
recounts. "I couldn't believe what this guy was telling us. It wasn't
anything I anticipated or even was prepared to hear." She says, "McDade
told us his investigation had to do with locating information on the possible
sale of PROMIS software to the RCMP in the mid-1980s. He had found evidence in
RCMP files that PROMIS may have been installed in the Canadian computer
systems, and he said an investigation was initiated by his superiors at the
RCMP." According to Seymour, "McDade said that the details of his
findings in Canada could conceivably cause a major scandal in both Canada and
the United States.i He said if his investigation is successful it could cause
the entire Republican Party to be dismantled - that it would cease to exist in
the U.S." Hyperbole, perhaps, but bizarre stuff from a professional
lawman. "Then," continues Seymour, "he said something that was
just really out there. He stood in my dining room with a straight face and
told us that ... more than one presidential administration will be exposed for
their knowledge of the PROMIS software transactions. He said that high-ranking
Canadian government officials may have unlawfully purchased the PROMIS
software from high-ranking U.S. government officials in the Reagan/Bush
administration, and he further stated that the RCMP has located numerous banks
around the world that have been used by these U.S. officials to launder the
money from the sale of the PROMIS software." Seymour was stunned.
"First," she says, "I wondered if this guy was for real and,
second, did he have something against Republicans." Just when she thought
things couldn't get any weirder, "McDade detailed a December 1999 meeting
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico attended by the heads of
the intelligence divisions of the U.S. [CIA], Great Britain [MI6], Israel [Mossad]
and Canada [CSIS]. McDade said the topic of the discussion was UNIQUE
ELEMENTS, and that during this meeting it allegedly was revealed that all four
allied nations share computer systems and have for years. The meeting was
called after a glitch was found in a British computer system that had caused
the loss of historical case data." McDade continued with this scenario by
telling the astonished group: "The Israeli Mossad may have modified the
original PROMIS modification [the first back door] so it became a two-way back
door, allowing the Israelis access to top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos
and other classified installations. The Israelis may now possess all the
nuclear secrets of the United States." According to Seymour, he concluded
by saying that "the Jonathan Pollard [spy] case is insignificant by
comparison to the current crisis." This was pretty heavy stuff for a
foreign law-enforcement agent to be bandying with complete strangers. And it
made those present uncomfortable. Was McDade making up wild tales for some as
yet unrevealed purpose or was he, in fact, reporting what he knew to be true
based on information he had gleaned from his investigation? Insight has tried
repeatedly to contact McDade and his superiors to discuss the Mountie's
accounts of espionage and other crimes only to be rebuffed through official
channels. But in carefully assembling and independently checking disparate
pieces of the McDade story line Insight was able to confirm that there was
indeed a December 1999 meeting at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the
topic of the meeting was, indeed, code-named UNIQUE ELEMENTS. Seymour never
learned further details about that meeting, though she tried, alerting several
U.S. senators, including Charles Robb, D-Va., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and
Richard Bryan, D-Nev., about what McDade had told her in February - nearly
four months before the public was made aware of massive computer problems at
Los Alamos (see "DOE `Green Book' Secrets Exposed," Jan. 1).
Ironically, Congress was probing such lapses, but only Bob Simon, Bingaman's
staff director on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee,
responded. Simon advised that he would show the letter to the senator and
possibly refer "some or all of the information in the letter to Ed
Curran, director of the Department of Energy's [DOE] Office of
Counterintelligence." Seymour never had any further communication from
Bingaman's office, the DOE or any federal investigator seeking to discover
which "foreign agent" had told her of severe computer leakage from
Los Alamos long before it became public knowledge. How McDade knew what he
claimed may never be made public. But what is known can be pieced together
from the many contacts he had with individuals having historical knowledge of
the allegations surrounding PROMIS and a host of other seemingly unrelated
criminal enterprises and crimes. For instance, in January 2000 McDade
contacted PROMIS developers and owners Bill and Nancy Hamilton, explaining
what his investigation was about; what, to date, had surfaced; and what the
implications might be. "McDade said my government made two untruthful
statements in 1991 [the year congressional hearings were held on the theft of
PROMIS]," Bill Hamilton tells Insight. "The first was that they
[Canada] had developed the software in-house. McDade said that wasn't true, it
just materialized one day out of nowhere. The second untruth was that they
[the Canadian government] had investigated this. McDade said that his
investigation was the first." Hamilton further explained that "McDade
believed PROMIS software was being used to compromise their [Canada's]
national security." Needless to say, this was interesting news to
Hamilton, given that it was "the second time the Canadian government has
said they have our software, only to retract the admission later." The
first time was in 1991, he recalls. "They contacted us to see if we had a
French-language version because they said they only had the English version -
which, by the way, we did not sell to them. At first we didn't take it
seriously because it was before we were aware that the software was reportedly
being used in intelligence. We just knew that the U.S. Department of Justice
acted rather strangely, took our software and stiffed us. It never occurred to
us that the software was being distributed to foreign governments,"
Hamilton tells Insight. "When they [Canada] followed up their call with a
letter saying PROMIS software is used in a number of their departments - 900
locations in the RCMP, to be exact - Nancy and I said `Hey, wait a
minute.'" Of course, laughs Hamilton, "when one of our newspapers in
the U.S. got hold of that information and printed it, the Canadians retracted
and apologized for a mistake. They now said the RCMP never had the
software." It is important to note that the alleged theft of PROMIS
software was well investigated. However, no investigation by any governmental
body, including the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which made public its
findings in September 1992, the Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to
the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw,
Inc., completed in March 1993, nor the Justice Department's Review of the Bua
Report, which was published in September 1993, confirmed that any agency or
entity of Canada had obtained and used an illegal copy of the Hamiltons'
PROMIS software. A Justice report commissioned by Attorney General Janet Reno
concluded the same but did confirm that a system called PROMIS was being used
by Canadian agencies but claimed that this system was totally different - it
was just a coincidence that the two software programs had the same unusual
name and spelling. So what happened over the course of 10 years to lead the
RCMP's top national-security investigators to probe the matter anew and to do
so with such secrecy throughout the United States and Canada? Why would McDade,
by all accounts a seasoned and well-respected Mountie, tell whopping tales to
so many people, including not only Bill Hamilton but strangers Seymour, Todd
and others? The answers may be found in the pattern of people who were
questioned by the Mounties. The information for which they were asked and
which they reportedly provided, may reveal that the alleged theft of the
breakthrough PROMIS software was not, in fact, the focus of the investigation,
but was secondary to how the software has come to be used. In August 2000,
McDade told the Toronto Star's Valerie Lawton and Allan Thompson, "There
are issues that I am not able to talk about and have nothing to do with what
you're probably making inquiries about," which centered on PROMIS. Was
the Mountie revealing that his investigation had reached the level he had
unguardedly revealed to Seymour and friends? Surprisingly, McDade did not
focus his investigation on interviews with government officials who were
involved with the PROMIS software. Rather he focused on people who claimed to
have knowledge of the purported theft, many of whom also have been connected
to other illegal activities, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
And Michael Riconosciuto was at the top of McDade's list. With the help of
Detective Todd, who had facilitated the Mounties' meetings with the hope of
also obtaining information about the 1997 execution-style double homicide of
Neil Abernathy and his 12-year-old son, Benden, McDade was given access to
Riconosciuto and people and information that even few law-enforcement officers
in the United States have secured. In fact, the assistance the Mountie
received secretly from U.S. authorities was stunning and included access to
information from highly confidential FBI internal files and case jackets
(including the names of confidential witnesses and wiretapping information),
U.S. Bureau of Prisons files, local law-enforcement reports and reportedly
even classified U.S. intelligence data. It was with this kind of help that
McDade was able to walk away with what many believe to be key material
evidence in the PROMIS software legal case - material evidence of which only
Riconosciuto had knowledge. After extensive interviews with Riconosciuto in a
federal penitentiary in Florida, McDade in May 2000 made a $1,500 payment on a
defaulted storage unit in Vallejo, Calif., that belonged to Riconosciuto.
Poring through floor-to-ceiling boxes, McDade hit pay dirt when he found six
RL02 magnetic tapes that Riconosciuto said were the PROMIS modification
updates - the boot-up system for PROMIS he claimed to have created. Coupling
those storage-unit files with the thousands of pages of documents Seymour had
obtained some years earlier from an abandoned trailer Riconosciuto had rented
in the desert, McDade walked away with the whole kit and caboodle without so
much as a peep out of U.S. law-enforcement or intelligence agencies. At least
until now. Today, that evidence is in the hands of foreign agents - our
neighbors up north in Canada. When questioned about the magnetic tapes, the
RCMP would neither confirm nor deny that they were in its possession. Michele
Gaudet, the RCMP spokesman, did tell Insight that the investigation is ongoing
and it is very much about the PROMIS software - software that may or may not
involve back-door entrance into the most secret computer systems in the
Western world. ****OVERVIEW OF INSIGHT'S FOUR-PART SERIES**** This four-part
series is about how a foreign law-enforcement agency, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP), covertly entered the United States and for nearly eight
months conducted a secret investigation about the alleged theft of PROMIS
software and the part it may play in suspected security breaches in Canada,
the United States and other nations. In Part 1, Insight tracks the early
movements of two RCMP national-security officers - Sean McDade and Randy
Buffam - to contacts throughout the United States, including private detective
Cheri Seymour, an author and former investigative journalist. Seymour has
spent years investigating the alleged theft of PROMIS and illegal activities
reportedly associated with it. McDade outlined the nature of his investigation
and what is at stake. He described potential security breaches in his country
and detailed top-level secret meetings at U.S. national laboratories about
similar security problems in the United States. Here, readers also will learn
how with the help of a small-town California detective, Sue Todd, the Mounties
managed to leave the United States with material evidence that may be crucial
to solving a major espionage puzzle. In Part 2, Insight follows the Mounties
to the California desert in search of confirmation of allegations made by
Michael Riconosciuto, the boy genius who reportedly modified the stolen PROMIS
software for international espionage while working as research director of an
alleged Cabazon/Wackenhut Joint Venture on the Cabazon Indian Reservation in
Indio, Calif. It also is at Cabazon that other "characters"
reportedly involved in the theft of the software were revealed and
Riconosciuto's connections to them confirmed. It is a strange mix of alleged
players - the Wackenhut Corp., government officials, mob-related goodfellows
and murderers. Insight also will look at claimed arms deals and government
research at the Cabazon reservation, including a secret weapons demonstration
in Indio attended by many of the same cast reportedly key to the theft of
PROMIS. In Part 3, readers will watch as the Mounties begin a lengthy review
of a U.S. government official, Peter Videnieks, the Justice Department
employee overseeing the PROMIS contract, who allegedly made the theft of the
software possible. The U.S. Customs Service began an investigation of
Videnieks based on its suspicion that he committed perjury when he testified
at a 1991 trial of Riconosciuto. Based on documents obtained from federal
law-enforcement agencies, Insight looks at a U.S. Customs Service
investigation of Videnieks, which ultimately was dropped. The Mounties also
probed a Customs investigation of reported drug trafficking and technology
transfers over the Maine/Canadian border. In Part 4, Insight will review the
numerous investigations conducted by law enforcement, beginning with the
Mounties, concerning the alleged theft of the PROMIS software and individuals
reportedly associated with that theft. Readers will see how each investigation
began with review of the "theft" but quickly led into other
suspected illegal activities, including technology transfers. This last part
also will review how each new investigation has overlooked key evidence and
seen careers threatened. By Paul M. Rodriguez
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Police Yourself Policy
Here's just one more example of how Customs expects ALL private boaters to report in to them on the "honor system" after returning "home" from "International Waters" or a "foreign country". (I am sure that ALL the smugglers will report in as required too!.......Right? I don't think so. You have to be using narcotics yourself to believe that one!
Copy of U.S. Customs official private boat reporting policy along our nations waterways, harbors and entries from international waters along our coastlines.
DETROIT (AP) "Reverse
inspections" are needed at Michigan's border crossings
to prevent hazardous materials or terrorists carrying
explosives from crossing into the United States from
Canada, says a U.S. senator.
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin told a news conference on the Detroit side of the Ambassador Bridge today that it's imperative the U.S. government set up such a system. By searching vehicles for dangerous cargo before they cross onto American soil, the country would be less vulnerable to a terrorist attack, Levin said. Under a reverse-inspection system, U.S. and Canadian customs officials would set up stations on opposite sides of the border. Cars could be searched and suspicious people could be detained before they crossed the border. The move would also ease congestion on the border, by moving any traffic backups, he said. On Friday, Levin and fellow Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow sent a letter to the commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service urging the implementation of the system. Levin said that if he doesn't receive an answer by Jan. 18, he will convene a congressional committee hearing and call the commissioner of U.S. Customs to testify. "This is a matter of principle," he said. "Once we get an answer, there are a number of logistical issues, but I think we can solve them." The Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit and Windsor, is the busiest U.S.-Canada entry point, with more than 12 million vehicles crossing a year. There are three other major bridge crossings in the state including the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in Detroit and bridges in Port Huron and Sault Ste. Marie. Smaller crossings include ferries at Marine City and Algonac in St. Clair County.
In the first days following the Sept. 11
attacks, heightened security at Michigan's border
crossings caused delays of 12 to 15 hours. National Guard
troops have been helping to staff the border and move
vehicles across the border
|
Train
trouble
2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Five thousand to 10,000 unsearched, unchecked pressurized rail tanker cars are entering the U.S. every day from south of the border this amazing phenomenon may be the single greatest security threat facing our nation today.
While the feds are fumbling around putting on a great show of improved airline security, no one seems to know that all of America is completely vulnerable to the immediate threat that the railway system poses to every town across the country, every second of every day. If my recent column on the disastrous efforts to improve airline security bothered you, this column just may keep you up at night.
Every man, woman and child in our country is vulnerable at this very moment to deadly terrorist attacks due to the ongoing failures and corruption of the U.S. Customs Office. The facts are disturbingly simple: The rail yard in Guadalajara, Mexico, has been used for years as a major distribution center for drugs into the United States. This rail yard is controlled by the infamous Arellano-Felix cartel. An estimated 500 to 1,000 of the tanker rail cars that freely enter our country on any given day contain tons of narcotics and the U.S. Customs office, due to internal corruption, has failed to stop it.
Osama bin Laden controls the world's largest heroin crop which is located in Afghanistan, and he has used it for years to help finance his many crimes. His drugs, and other massive Middle East drug crops, have for years been shipped across the seas to train yards in South America and Mexico, and loaded onto trains headed our way.
Do we not realize that this same method may currently be in use for sending tons of chemical, biological or other warfare into the U.S.? At the very least, these highly pressurized tanker cars, designed to carry hazardous, explosive materials, would easily make the world's largest pipe bombs.
It's so very easy. Those who lease the tanker cars can set up their orders via the Internet or over the phone. No measures are in place to identify who the customer is get a fake ID, establish a phony front company and presto! Automatic access to America's railways is achieved. The tanker cars are then controlled remotely as they move through the maze of thousands of railroad tracks and "spurs" that snake through every major and many minor towns in the nation.
Virtually every center of economic activity, every branch of local, state and national government, every large population group is located within a mile of one of these spurs. Get in your car and drive to the nearest railway yard, depot or station and you'll see the long, oval-shaped, usually black (but sometimes white) tanker cars. Then, imagine what's in them you can bet a master-mind like bin Laden has been pondering their many uses for quite some time. Customs and railroad brokers receive no training in terrorist tactics or profiling, so even the honest agent-on-the-ground has been left helpless by the very system he or she is working for.
Allowing drugs to flood our nation through the railway system is one obvious reason we have lost the "war on drugs." It could very well be the reason why we might also lose the "war on terrorism."
My good friend Gary Aldrich of the Patrick Henry Center recently introduced me to a real American hero who was thwarted in her efforts to tighten-up our borders. An 11-year veteran of the United States Customs Service, former agent Darlene Catalan resigned her position in protest after blowing the whistle about the corruption and ineffectiveness of the customs department in halting the flow of illegal drugs into our country via the railways. As a review of her biography reveals, her credentials are impeccable, as is her record of service that is, until she became a whistleblower.
In the spring of 1998, she led a large undercover rail operation with the Union Pacific Railroad Police, the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad Police and the San Bernardino Police Department. A federal prosecutor was assigned to the project, and it was given the top-ranked OCDETF status. After having successfully seized 32 kilos of cocaine and 8,000 pounds of marijuana from a pressurized tanker car, this brave and amazing agent was able to uncover the huge distribution operation in the Guadalajara rail yard.
Just as she and her co-workers were about to nail the bad guys, the U.S. Customs managers torpedoed the efforts. Man-power was abruptly pulled, surveillance was halted and the same courageous agents that nearly broke the ring became the target of numerous frivolous investigations by their own agency. Subsequent other investigations into tanker cars were also halted, resulting in dozens of previously identified suspect cars being released into the U.S. population. The good guys resigned from the agency in protest, and these havens for drugs and explosives have been entering our country unfettered ever since.
In a recent conversation with Catalan she said, "The U.S. customs agency is the only agency that has the authority to search huge containers (and human beings) without a search warrant. It's called Border Search Authority. The obvious question we must ask ourselves is, 'What are they doing with this incredible power?' The disturbing answer is that agency individuals often use it for their own benefit."
Then she went on with a chilling summary: "Working for U.S. Customs was like working for the Mafia. If you kiss the Don's ring and are a 'yes person,' you will go far. If you refuse to compromise your integrity, you'll get nailed by internal affairs. Organized crime is effective because they always have an enforcement arm the enforcement arm for U.S. Customs is the Internal Affairs division. Its tremendous power is what usually keeps officers and agents from blowing the whistle."
Because the U.S. Customs Agency is the front-line defense for what does and does not enter or leave our country, our national security is severely weakened and U.S. borders are wide-open for terrorist business. Catalan has so many examples of customs corruption she's even authored a book called "U.S. Customs Badge of Dishonor." (Click here for more immediate information on U.S. Customs corruption.)
In the meantime, start screaming bloody murder at your elected officials and demand action. An unsearched tanker car is headed to a track near you.
Title 18 U.S.C. Section 4. These are felonies under the following statutes:
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 111. Impeding certain officers or employees.
18 USC 111
- CITE
18 USC Sec. 111 1/03/95
- EXPCITE
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PART I CRIMES CHAPTER 7 - ASSAULT
- HEAD
Sec. 111. Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees
- STATUTE
(a) In General. - Whoever -
(1) forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes with any person designated in section 1114 of this title while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties; or
(2) forcibly assaults or intimidates any person who formerly served as a person designated in section 1114 on account of the performance of official duties during such person's term of service, shall, where the acts in violation of this section constitute only simple assault, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, and in all other cases, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 372. Conspiracy to impede or injure officer
If two or more persons in any State, Territory, Possession, or District conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof, or to induce by like means any officer of the United States top leave the place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such persons shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than six years, or both. This section also applies to former government agents.
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 1505. Whoever corruptly ... influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due the proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States ... shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 1505 applies to anyone who corruptly attempts by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States. They do not have to succeed to have committed a federal crime; the attempt or scheme (conspire) to do so is criminal.
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 1512. Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.
(b) Whoever knowingly uses intimidation or physical force, or threatens another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to:
(1) influence, delay or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding:
shall be fined ... or imprisoned ... or both. [1988 amended reading]"
Title 18 U.S.C. ' 1513. Retaliating against a witness, victim, or an informant.
(a) Whoever knowingly engages in any conduct and thereby causes bodily injury to another person or damages the tangible property of another person, or threatens to do so, with intent to retaliate against any person for (1) the attendance of a witness or party at an official proceeding, or any testimony given or any record, document, or other object produced by a witness in an official proceeding; or (2) any information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense ..."
I. Title 18 U.S.C. ' 1515. Definitions of terms in criminal statutes (as used in sections 1512 and 1513).
(a)(2) the term "physical force" means physical action against another and includes confinement; [including prison.]
(a)(3) the term "misleading conduct" means knowingly making a false statement;
(B) intentionally omitting information from a statement and thereby causing a portion of such statement to be misleading, or intentionally concealing a material fact, and thereby creating a false impression by such statement; (C) with intent to mislead, knowingly submitting or inviting reliance on a writing or recording that is false ... or otherwise lacking in authenticity; (D) with intent to mislead, knowingly submitting or inviting reliance on a ... object that is misleading in a material respect; or (E) knowingly using a trick, scheme, or device with intent to mislead;
(4) the term "law enforcement officer" means an officer or employee of the Federal Government, or a person authorized to act for or on behalf of the Federal Government or serving the Federal Government as an adviser or consultant. authorized under law to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of an offense;
(5) the term "bodily injury" means any other injury to the body, no matter how temporary.
(a)(1) the term "official proceeding" means ...
(C) a proceeding before a Federal Government agency which is authorized by law. [FAA included.]
18 U.S.C. ' 1515 (a)(3)(A). Misleading conduct means knowingly making false statements.
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|
Drug traffic off Florida
spikes as US turns its focus to terrorism Shift of antidrug resources to
guard against terrorists has increased the boldness of narcotics
trafficking. | Staff writer of The
Christian Science Monitor
HOUSTON - When the
Caribbean became a superhighway for drug trafficking in the 1980s, it
became the inspiration for a TV show - "Miami Vice." Today,
the azure waters of Florida are once again threatening to become a
major artery in the narcotics trade. As US antidrug authorities have
shifted their resources to the porous borders of Mexico and Canada
over recent years, drug smugglers have been prompted to once again
test the waters of the Sunshine State. Where's Crockett and Tubbs when
you need 'em?
Even more alarming is how Sept. 11 has opened the
floodgates in these pristine waters. With terrorism a top priority, no
longer are US boats so vigilantly patrolling the coastal waters in
search of drugs. Large amounts of antidrug resources and manpower have
been diverted to that effort. The result: a boomtime for drug peddlers
off America's coastlines. "We've got the makings for a real upsurge in drug
trafficking and an inability to cope with it," says William
Walker, a professor of history and international relations at Florida
International University in Miami. "They are seeing
[drug-running] speed boats they haven't seen in south Florida in 20
years." Indeed, the Coast Guard has seen its drug seizures
plummet since crews were sent to guard ports and oil refineries. Well
over half of the Coast Guard's anti-drug activities were redirected
after Sept. 11, causing a 66 percent drop in cocaine seizures from a
year ago, and a more than 90 percent drop in marijuana seizures.
Experts say that the redeployment of resources is even affecting the
Pacific coast, where drug traffickers are attempting routes they
haven't tried in decades - or even creating new ones. "One consequence of our shifting efforts is going
to be less drug interdiction on the oceans, which creates an opening
for traffickers," says Peter Andreas, a professor of
international studies at Brown University in Providence, R.I. FBI agents are now spending much of their time chasing
the money trail of Osama bin Laden instead of the money trail of drug
lords. Customs surveillance planes and radar, once used to detect drug
transit routes, are now devoted to counter-terrorism surveillance. And
many DEA agents have been reassigned to airport security or as sky
marshals. "Unfortunately, this is the way this game is
played," says Stan Furce, director of the Houston High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Areas. "The bad guys are always trying to get
drugs into the US where they think they will get the most payoff. They
know the Coast Guard has pulled back, and they are taking advantage of
that." But, Mr. Furce and other drug-fighting agencies are
optimistic that things are beginning to return to normal and that
agents will soon resume regular duties. Experts, however, warn that a number of international
factors were already wreaking havoc on the war on drugs before Sept.
11, and will continue to do so even with beefed-up drug control. First of all, the price of coffee has plummeted on the
world market, leaving many farmers in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru to
turn to coca and opium-poppy cultivation. Compounding the problem is a
deepening recession in much of Latin America. And many of the
US-funded eradication programs are suffering. It's still unclear whether that has meant an increase
in production. For instance, the price of cocaine on the streets of
Houston hasn't changed since Sept. 11 - still running at about $1,600
to $1,700 a kilo - indicating a steady stream of supply. "It's just too early to tell," says Dr.
Andreas. "Because drug traffickers have large stockpiles of drugs
on both sides of the border, we won't necessarily see a change in
price this quickly." But one thing is for certain: The increased security
along the Mexican and Canadian borders is making traffickers nervous.
Many have been caught carrying significantly larger loads since Sept.
11, contrary to the most recent trend of moving a lot of little loads.
"It seems the smugglers are getting a little more brazen in
trying to pass larger loads at one time," says south Texas
Customs spokesman Rick Pauza. Tractor-trailers are the new method of choice.
Recently, for instance, Laredo Customs inspectors discovered a
2,349-pound load of marijuana in a truck. A day earlier, inspectors
found 49 pounds of cocaine in Eagle Pass. The combined street value in
seizures for that weekend was $5.6 million. As opposed to dwindling seizure activity in the
Caribbean and Pacific Coast, seizures along the Mexican border have
been rising ever since Sept. 11. That is due to the heightened border
security. The Bush administration says it won't have hard
narcotics numbers until sometime this month. But no matter what those
numbers show, experts worry that a greater focus on terrorism is bound
to mean a decrease in funding for counter-drug efforts. "Priorities within the Defense Department are
clearly shifting, as are the assets used to combat drug
trafficking," says Eric Olson, a senior associate in the
Washington Office on Latin America. "That is going to pose a lot
of questions." |
By
Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
Big
Island Police and US Customs Agents lead 10 suspects at Hilo Airport
to a National Guard helicopter headed for Honolulu. The suspects
were arrested during "Operation Island Pipeline."
Tim Wright Special to The Honolulu Advertiser |
HILO,
Hawaii Law enforcement officials conducted 17 simultaneous drug raids on
Oahu and the Big Island yesterday to conclude a 13-month investigation into
heroin trafficking from Mexico.
At least 16 people were expected to be arrested, officials said during a
press conference in Hilo. They are due to appear today in U.S. District Court
on a various drug and money laundering charges.
Information on the suspects and details of the charges were not available
yesterday as the search warrants and indictments in what has been dubbed
Operation Island Pipeline remained sealed. Those arrested include Hawaii
residents and Mexican nationals who are in the country illegally, officials
said.
"We have totally dismantled this organization," said Lt. Henry
Tavares of the Hawaii County Police Department's vice squad. "There will
be a lot of addicts looking for methadone soon or seeking out their doctors
for help."
Big Island police during the summer reported an alarming rise in arrests
and drug seizures involving black-tar heroin and crystal methamphetamine,
noting a corresponding escalation in violence. Police department statistics
show a tenfold increase in the number of people arrested for heroin possession
from 1997 to 2000. Crystal meth arrests were up 431 percent during the same
period.
Police said heroin and crystal methamphetamine had overtaken cocaine and
marijuana as the county's top drug-enforcement concerns, and that some drug
users had begun combining heroin and "ice" to ease the effects of
coming off a crystal meth high.
Operation Island Pipeline targeted first-level distributors. Officials
yesterday displayed photos of the suspected ring leaders in Mexico, but would
not name them. Whether the alleged kingpins are extradited to the United
States for prosecution ultimately will be up to Mexican government officials,
they said.
Over the course of the Hawaii investigation, 20 pounds of black-tar heroin
and $166,000 in cash were seized, along with smaller amounts of cocaine and
marijuana, said Mike Cox, supervisory special agent for Hawaii for the U.S.
Customs Service. He said that represents only a small fraction of the $2
million worth of heroin the drug ring distributed annually during the four
years it was in operation here.
Since the investigation was launched Thanksgiving weekend 2000, 18 people
had been arrested prior to yesterday's raids. Some of the suspects in the
earlier cases already have been deported, Cox said.
A dozen federal, state and county agencies were involved in the
investigation, including the Customs Service, the FBI, the Internal Revenue
Service, the U.S. attorney and all four county police departments.
Tavares credited Big Island police detective Marshall Kanehailua with a
major breakthrough in the case through his arrest of a suspect in March who
provided valuable information to move the investigation forward.
Yesterday's dawn raids were conducted at 10 residences in East Hawaii, two
in Kona and five on Windward Oahu. Fifteen firearms were seized at one of the
Oahu homes.
Big Island suspects were rounded up and taken to the Hawaii National Guard
Armory in Hilo and later flown by military helicopters to Oahu and transferred
to the federal detention facility in Honolulu.
Cox said the Mexican ring members brought the heroin into the
United States on foot and by vehicle through the Tijuana-San Ysidro border
crossing in California. The heroin was then hidden in waist belts worn by drug
couriers who flew from Los Angeles to Honolulu and on to Hilo on inter-island
flights.
The heroin was taken to rented homes in Volcano, Mountain View and Kea'au
in the Puna District, where it was processed for statewide distribution, he
said.
Profits from drug sales were sent back to Mexico via Western Union in
amounts usually less than $1,000 to avoid detection, Cox said. Any transfer of
more than $3,000 has to be registered with the IRS.
Tavares said local accomplices leased homes, rented cars and carried the
heroin from island to island. He said the alleged drug ring chose the rural
Puna District because it is isolated and quiet, and newcomers do not readily
stand out.
"These people do not want to attract attention. They drive their fancy
cars in Mexico," Cox said.
Containers holding the drugs were wrapped in black electrical tape and
stashed among yard plants. Correction: A previous version of this story
misspelled supervisory special agent for Hawaii for the U.S. Customs Service
Mike Cox's name as Mike Michaelcox.