MASS. - US CORRUPTION = FBI- CoIntelPro -"Targets"

Feb 18, 2009 ... Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of ... in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. ...

In 1960 J.F.K is elected Pres. of the U.S. - (Son of a Famous Bootlegger "A Contraband King" & Inside Trader before the Crash of 1929 Joseph P. Kennedy, of Boston & Cape Cod, Ma. - who through his longterm corruption gained support of the Mafia to help get the vote out for his Irish Catholic son) & J.F.K appoints his younger brother R.F.K to the post U.S. Attorney General.

After winning against Nixon in one of the closest elections in U. S. History, brother Bobby as the new U.S. AG goes to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the IRS commisioner Mortimer Caplin with a "directive to infiltrate and take down the 39 Top Mafia (Organized Crime) Families". (Investigative Chronology) The ONE in BOSTON the head of La Cosa Nostra New England (LCN) was Raymond Patriarca.

A Literary Journal of Critical Thinking
In the Samizdat Tradition of Writing against the Machine
A Forum for Examining the Dark Side of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex

The Bulger Brothers by Howie Carr is a very disturbing account of the rise of two very corrupt South Boston brothers, Billy and Whitey. The latter, a serial murderer, is on the FBI most wanted list, currently on the lam, and will likely never be brought to justice because of instrinsic corruption in the state and federal police. The following are a few pages from Carr's book. They briefly describe what Billy was able to do at the University of Massachusetts... as its president. Today, Billy, known as the "corrupt midget," is on the board of directors of the Boston Public Library. Incredibly (or perhaps not), politicians including Teddy Kennedy (D), William Weld (R), George Bush (R), and the Clintons (D) still praise Billy (D) today. I worked under Vinny Mara, a similar character, at Fitchburg State College, also in Massachusetts. He too was indifferent to truth, caring only about loyalty, cronyism, patronage, and especially his fat state pension. Carr's book provides superb insight into just how corrupt a state can become.

The Bulger Brothers (excerpt)
As president of the University of Massachusetts, Billy tried to ignore the circus unfolding down in Post Office Square. Usually when his name was mentioned, his spokesmen-two former State House reporters-haughtily responded that "the president" had no comment. On occasion, he had to respond. Eventually, former FBI supervisor James Ring took the stand and placed Billy at that dinner with Whitey and Stevie at Mrs. Flemmi's house next door to his. Billy was asked to comment on Ring's sworn testimony.

"I never met the man," Billy said. "It never took place, but the business of denying such things is to make it appear as if something sinister had happened."

Billy remained secure in his UMass sinecure, even after the departure of Governor Bill Weld, who had lost whatever little interest he still had in the governorship once he was defeated by Senator John Kerry in the 1996 U.S. Senate race. In 1997, Weld resigned and was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Paul Cellucci, that good friend of Billy's whose primary political handicap was a $700,000 debt that he couldn't quite explain.

Despite those lingering questions, in 1998 Cellucci eliminated two more of Billy's longtime foes. In the GaP primary for governor, Cellucci crushed state Treasurer Joe Malone. And in the general election, Cellucci edged the attorney general, Luther Scott Harshbarger, who had issued the final not-exactly-exculpatory report on 75 State Street.

Still, election night 1998 was perhaps the last time that Billy could tell himself that nothing had really changed.. Cellucci's victory meant four more years of business as usual, and what pleased Billy even more was that Cellucci had picked as his running mate yet another malleable ex-Republican state senator, Jane Swift, a member of the Senate's GOP Class of 1990.

Billy could relax for a while now. Even if Cellucci moved on, Billy would continue to have a close friend, a former senator, in the Corner Office. And that. was what counted, because the governor appointed the members of the UMass board of trustees. And Billy quickly discovered that it was even easier to control the board than it had been the state Senate. Just as he'd renovated his own office at the State House, now he moved the president's office to a much plusher location, at One Beacon Street. From the twenty-sixth floor, he could look down, literally, on the State House.

He now controlled thirty thousand square feet of prime office space, which he filled with the same crew of yes-men who'd subsisted for years, if not decades, on his Beacon Hill payroll. Paul Mahoney was gone, and in his place was Paul Mahoney Jr. Billy also continued the old State House tradition of "taking hostages"-hiring relatives of the politicians who controlled his budget. One of his new vice presidents was the wife of his handpicked replacement as Senate president, Tom Birmingham. Mrs. Birmingham made $148,000 a year.

Others were hired simply because they were longtime lackeys Billy felt comfortable with. Just as he surrounded himself with aides of questionable talent, so did his underlings. His new $168,000-a-year chancellor of UMass Dartmouth appointed as her $140,000-a-year associate chancellor a woman who didn't even have a bachelor's degree. The pair of State House reporters Billy had hired to issue his "no comments" to reporters were both soon making over $100,000 a year.

As his trustees, Billy sought out yet more of his "friends." Andy Moes, the rotund ex-narc-turned-weekend-talk-show-host who had been so obsequious to Zip-his wife was a lawyer, and she was quickly appointed a trustee.

Once the board was stacked with similar robber stamps and nonentities, Billy decided it was time to renegotiate his own contract. The $189,000 had seemed like a decent wage when he first engineered his own hiring, but since then, he'd been to conferences with other college presidents, and he'd also brushed up on the various foundations' annual salary reports. Billy now felt he deserved a salary more befitting a man of his... caliber. The negotiations were handled by Bobby Karam, a businessman from Bristol County and a friend of Senator Biff Maclean's, one of Billy's oldest cronies on Beacon Hill, whose career had ended with his payment of a $512,000 fine for conflict of interest in the awarding of state insurance contracts.

Billy's salary skyrocketed to $359,000, including perks. State employees began talking about just how huge Billy's pension would be, should he ever retire. Soon the husband of Karam's cousin was hired by Billy's handpicked UMass Dartmouth chancellor for a $ 120,000-a-year job at the school. Billy and his friends then tried to buy a nearby unaccredited law school for UMass Dartmouth, even though less than a quarter of its recent graduates had been able to pass the Massachusetts bar exam. But even Billy couldn't close that deal; faced with a need to spend perhaps as much as $40 million to win accreditation for a school the state didn't even need, the Board of Higher Education nixed the purchase. Billy's clout was starting to slip, if just a bit.

As Senate president, Billy had long chafed at the fact that reporters could find out how much he was paying, say, his niece, or his sister, or his son-in-law. So as soon as he was able to manage it, he had all the university payrolls transferred from the state comptroller to his own office. If any "savages" from the press now wanted to scour his schools' payrolls, they'd first have to get his permission, and that would happen at about the same time he "deemed it appropriate," as he once put it, to explain 75 State Street, namely, never.

[…]

Despite everything, Billy was able to land one prestigious event for the University of Massachusetts.

Presidential debates are always haggled over and arranged at the highest levels, and Billy knew that in this election year, he had both sides covered. On the Democratic side, there was Ted Kennedy, his old foe, now a friend. Soon Billy would be negotiating with the senior senator to turn his papers over to UMass. And UMass Boston was next door to the JFK Library in Dorchester. Any debate in Boston, especially the first one, would entail a week of media genuflection at the memorial. Teddy's slain older brother.

On the other side, the Bush family still felt warmly about Billy, and his surreptitious tips during the 1988 presidential campaign against Dukakis. And so the first debate of the 2000 campaign took place at UMass Boston, and Billy enjoyed a brief moment in the national spotlight as he welcomed everyone both to his city and his school.

Unbeknownst to Billy, however, Kevin Weeks had just told his law enforcement handlers about another of the death pits, and as George W. Bush and Al Gore flew to Boston to debate the great issues of the day, just south of the campus on Columbia Point, within easy view of the candidates and the national press corps, the State Police were exhuming the remains of Catherine Greig's late brother-in-law (He's on the FBI's Lamb with her, living it up), Paulie McGonagle, whom Whitey had murdered a quarter-century earlier, with help from Tommy King, whose murder Whitey had ordered a year or so later, after which he was buried next to McGonagle.

In early 2001, Billy was subpoenaed to testify before the Boston grand jury. Once Weeks flipped, it had been only matter of time. It was Weeks who in January 1995 had arranged Whitey's phone call to Billy at the Quincy home of his longtime employee (and drive!), Eddie Phillips, whose was now on Billy's UMass payroll.

Billy admitted taking the call, but acknowledged little else.

"I don't feel an obligation to help everyone catch him," he said. "I do have an honest loyalty to my brother, and I care about him, and I know that's not welcome news, but it's my hope that I'm never helpful to anyone against him."

Did he urge Whitey to surrender?
"I doubt that I did because I don't think it would be in his best interest to do so."

It would have been devastating to Billy's career if his testimony had been made public and the taxpayers had learned that the highest paid employee of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not to mention an officer of the court, felt no compunction to assist the authorities in capturing a serial killer and cocaine dealer. But Billy made his admissions in the secret proceedings of the grand jury, and they did not leak, at least immediately.

Next it was Congress's turn to make a run at the Bulgers. Congressman Dan Burton was the chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, and what in the federal if government could possibly need more reforming than the Boston FBI office?

The committee members had been following the developments in Boston as far back as 1997, when Governor Weld pardoned Joe "the Horse" Salvati, one of the four innocent men convicted in 1968 of the murder of Teddy Deegan on the perjury of FBI informant Joe Barboza.

As the FBI began releasing documents from the files of' Stevie Flemmi, it became clear that the FBI had known the identities of the real killers hours after Deegan's murder in: 1965, and had in fact known before his slaying that he was about to be killed.

Burton subpoenaed still more FBI documents, but the Justice Department balked. When Burton threatened to cite Justice Department officials for contempt of, Congress, the administration quickly folded, and turned over yet more previously classified reports. In May 2001, in Washington, Congressman Burton's committee held its first hearings into the thirty-year pattern of FBI corruption in Boston. Joe the Horse was a particularly compelling witness, as was his wife, Marie. Soon they would be featured once 60 Minutes, like Billy Bulger before them.

The Bulgers' old neighbor, Congressman Joe Moakley, died on Memorial Day 200.1. During one emotional interview, Billy recalled how an ailing Moakley had made a point of sitting with him in a public place during some of the worst of the revelations about Whitey, as a way of showing his continued support for the Bulgers.

Another linchpin had been knocked out from under Billy's base of support.

Had Moakley lived, the congressional hearings might not have gone quite so badly for Billy. Moakley was well liked on both sides of the aisle, and although he couldn't have halted the hearings, he might have at least been able to ...guide the membership with some relatively gentle questioning of his old pal.

But now that was impossible. In a special 2001 election, five state senators-four Democrats, one Republican-squared off to succeed Moakley. The winner was Steve Lynch, of South Boston. Zip Connolly had expected to be represented at trial by R. Robert Popeo, who had successfully defended a number of local politicians, including Billy Bulger. But Popeo didn't like losing, especially when he wasn't being paid much.. Zip's dwindling band of cronies had organized a Friends of John Connolly group to raise money for his defense, but the dollars dried up as one death pit after another was excavated. Popeo handed off the case to one of his lesser partners.

[...]

As 2002 began, despite the controversy that now enveloped him, Billy still felt he could hang on a few more years. Even if the next governor was a foe, it would take him years to gain a majority on the UMass board, and if the next governor was a friend, Billy would be able to survive indefinitely.

But Billy's (D) luck finally failed him. Jane Swift (R) had succeeded Paul Cellucci (R) as governor a year earlier, when President Bush (R) appointed his longtime supporter ambassador to Canada.

But Swift had been buffeted by a series of minor scandals and it was obvious she could not be reelected. Enter Mitt Romney, a wealthy Republican businessman from Belmont, a graduate of both Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools. In March 2002, a poll showed Romney leading Jane Swift among Republican voters by a margin of 72-11, and three days later Swift dropped out of the race for reelection.

Billy was backing state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, a former state senator and the daughter of a governor's councilor who had served with Sonny McDonough. Shannon had an impeccable hack pedigree, but she ran a surprisingly inept campaign. She sealed her fate in the final debate against Romney when she tried to make a joke about, of all things, parental consent for teenage abortions. Wearing an all-black outfit that accentuated her weight problem, Shannon suddenly flashed a weird grin at debate moderator Tim Russert and said, leeringly, "Want to see my tattoo, Tim?"

Mitt Romney won convincingly, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for Billy.

Billy went to work on the new governor-elect immediately. He had co-opted the last four governors, so he had no reason to believe that Romney couldn't be brought around with a little blarney and bluster. But just in case he couldn't work his magic one more time, Billy wanted to make sure his pals were taken care of. Lame duck Governor Swift (R) found a Superior Court judgeship for Stevie Flemmi's-(WHITEY BULGER'S PARTNER & NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR-Now in Prison) lawyer , Ken Fishman. Billy's (D) $175,OOO-a-year top aide, Jim Julian, had a younger brother named John who worked as an assistant district attorney in Boston. Swift (R) appointed John Julian to an open district court judgeship on Nantucket.

But even as judgeships for his loyal retainers were being arranged, the U .S. House Committee on Government Reform was painting a target on Billy's chest. Chairman Burton would be holding his next series of hearings in Boston, and a couple of weeks after Romney's election, the committee issued a subpoena for Billy. Billy had researched the situation, and he knew that under the new rules of the House, Burton was term-limited as chairman by Tom Davis of Virginia, an Amherst College graduate who Billy was certain would be amenable to working something out privately.

So Billy decided to duck the appearance. He made no such pronouncements himself, of course, but his minions put out the word. Burton was nothing more than a "habitual headline fiend," as one of Billy's lickspittles in the press put it. But then someone asked Governor-elect Romney what he thought of the impending Bulger no-show.

"I believe," he said, "that President Bulger has a responsibility, as all citizens do, to respect Congress by responding to their subpoena."

That changed everything. Billy couldn't afford to alienate the man who would be appointing the trustees to the UMass board for at least the next four years.

Then Billy suffered a staggering setback, when transcripts of his 2001 testimony before the grand jury suddenly appeared or the front page of the Globe. All the devastating quotes about not wanting Whitey captured were suddenly on the public record.

On Friday, December 5, Billy appeared at the old McCormack Courthouse in Post Office Square. The press, including some of his most severe critics, sat in the jury box, just a few feet away. With C-SPAN broadcasting the hearing live, Burton began by reading a quotation from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Billy stared straight ahead. He was usually the one wha quoted Edmund Burke to great effect. Present that morning were TWO Republicans, Burton and Chris Shays, from Connecticut, and three Democrats, all from Massachusetts-John Tierney, Marty Meehan, and Bill Delahunt, the former district attorney of Norfolk County, whom Whitey had long ago disparaged in Zip's FBI reports. Neither Meehan nor Delahunt were members of the committee, but would be allowed to ask questions. The other Massachusetts congressman who served on the committee, Steve Lynch of South Boston, the Bulgers' recent nemesis, was running late.

Burton, a graduate of the Cincinnati Bible Seminary, looked down at Billy and asked him if he had anything to say for himself before the committee began questioning him.

"I believe," Billy said haltingly, "my attorney if it, if it, uh, if it, uh, is acceptable would like to make a statement." Burton.smiled wanly. "You may confer with your attorney, but we want to hear from you, so could you pull the mike close to you, sir?"

Then Billy read from some notes, citing Rule 11k(5), which allowed the committee to proceed in closed session if the hearing "may tend to defame or ridicule the witness."

In other words, Billy wanted the press expelled, so that he could take the Fifth behind closed doors. Burton smiled again. The hearing was not going to be closed. Burton ran his committee hearings much the same way Billy had run his state Senate deliberations-everything had been hashed out beforehand, behind closed doors. When the congressmen appeared in public, at least at these sorts of regional hearings, everyone was on the same page. The vote by the committee members not to close the hearing was 4-0, with the tardy Steve Lynch arriving just in time to join the two Republicans and John Tierney to make it unanimous.

Burton immediately asked Billy if he knew where James Bulger was.

"On advice of counsel," Billy said, "I am unable to answer any questions today. This position is based among other things on privacy and due-process rights and the right against being compelled to provide evidence that may tend to incriminate oneself, all of which are found in the Bill of Rights.

Burton adjourned the hearing, and Bill rushed for the courtroom door, several of his sons behind him blocking the reporters tumbling out of the jury box in pursuit. Accompanied by a flying wedge of beefy state court officers, Billy scurried down the back stairs of the courthouse toward a double-parked sedan out on Devonshire Street, like so many just indicted State House pols before him.

In the hallway outside the courtroom, Billy's attorney told UMass students watching on television that their president's refusal to testify in a congressional probe of organized crime was merely "a lesson in civics. ..[that] this constitutional protection exists to protect the innocent."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall, Burton addressed his comments directly to the oldest Bulger brother.

"If Whitey [is] paying attention today," he said, "he could have done his brother a real service by turning himself in. I'm sure taking the Fifth Amendment is going to cause Mr. Bulger a great deal of concern."

Billy had always been lucky. With a couple of exceptions like 75 State Street, everything had always broken right for him. Now nothing did. Every few weeks, it seemed, new lawsuits were filed by survivors of one or another of the victims of Whitey and Stevie. The families of John Mcintyre, Deb Davis, Brian Halloran, and both Wimpy and Walter Bennett all filed civil suits against the U.S. government, claiming that the FBI's protection of Whitey and/or Stevie had resulted in the murders of their loved ones. In almost every news story, Billy Bulger's name would be mentioned along with his brother's. But Billy had gotten used to that.

Then, in February, Will McDonough, Billy's childhood friend and 1960 campaign manager, died suddenly while watching ESPN SportsCenter. For Billy, McDonough's death was a crushing blow. Will was a contemporary, and, like Joe Moakley, he had always stood by the Bulgers, in good times and bad.

At the funeral Mass at St. Augustine's, Billy collapsed and had to be wheeled out on a stretcher. Moments after the videotape it appeared on TV, cynical talk radio callers began suggesting that "the Corrupt Midget" was setting himself up for a 72 percent tax-free disability pension -"white man's welfare," as Billy's constituentts always called it.

Billy and Mary flew to Florida. Ostensibly Billy was "fundraising" for UMass, but it appears that after forty years of taxpayer-funded junkets, he was enjoying one last "trade mission." He spent days holed up in the finest hotel in Palm Beach, The Breakers, where sixty years earlier James Michael Curley-(Boston Mayor) and Joseph P. Kennedy had been turned away as undesirables. Times, and standards, had obviously changed.

Back in Boston, Romney was laying waste to whatever little reputation Billy had created for himself as a university administrator. The UMass payrolls were leaked to the Herald, and soon they were posted on the Internet, available for perusal by faculty members who had gone years without a pay raise. The UMass payrolls had been larded almost beyond belief. There was layer upon layer of bureaucracy --entire new levels of Bulgerite hackocracy had been created in less than seven years. Everyone in both academia and politics, it appeared, had been allowed to hire or promote whomever they wanted. The husband of the state rep "from Amherst, a history professor, was being paid $128,000 year. An obscure former state rep was making $125,000 as an "associate chancellor." There were new provosts, chancellors, and deans by the dozen, all making more than $100,000.

In February 2003 came word of the first confirmed Whitey sighting in six years. On September 10, 2002, a British man and now sporting a goatee, and asked him how he'd been. The American, shocked at being recognized, told the Brit he had the wrong man, and then set off quickly in the opposite direction. The Brit thought no more of it until a few months later, when he was watching the movie Hannibal. When he noticed a brief shot of Whitey as the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List appeared on the screen, the Brit decided to tell Scotland Yard on their brief meeting.

Weeks later, the FBI discovered a safe-deposit box registered to James Bulger at a Barclays branch bank in Mayfair. Inside the safe-deposit box, police found more than $50,000 in various currencies and a key to another safe-deposit box, in Dublin. Then word leaked that Theresa Stanley had told the FBI about the Barclays box in 1996.

"I find that interesting," Congressman Burton commented on this latest example of FBI ineptitude. "There was either some sloppy work done or they didn't want to do it."

America's Most Wanted put Whitey back in the spotlight running segments on him February 22 and again on May 3.

[...]

Bernard Cardinal Law was the next friend of Billy's to go, after more than a year of newspaper accounts of pedophile priests running amok in his archdiocese. Law was "reassigned," first to Maryland, then to Rome.

Billy had lost yet another person with whom he could commiserate over the decline of morality in American society. Fortunately for Bill, John Silber, nearing eighty, still endured at Boston University. He urged Billy to hang in as president of UMass, that it was his "destiny" to lead.

Negotiating with the Congressional committee, the most Billy's lawyer could arrange was a grant of immunity from prosecution for his sworn public testimony. That meant that Billy could not be prosecuted for anything he admitted to under oath. But if he lied, he could be charged with perjury. The stakes were high as Billy reached Washington on June 19, 2003, to testify about an organized crime faction that had for all practical purposes ceased to exist.

Billy's position, he knew, was untenable. He had been summoned to Washington to be pummeled, humiliated. And if he lied, he would be indicted for perjury, like his brother Jackie.

He had prepared to some degree. His attorney provided a number of produced affidavits for the committee and the press. Harold Brown said no one, i.e. Whitey, had threatened him in the 75 State Street scandal. Mike Barnicle, the disgraced former journalist and longtime apologist for the Bulgers, said Billy had never told him that Whitey taped his conversations with FBI agents. An executive from Boston Edison, now known as NSTAR, wrote that Billy had never intervened to get Zip Connolly a job. And on it went.

The congressmen, though, seemed more interested in that morning's front-page story in the Herald, headlined "Whitey," in which it was reported that two perpetually destitute South Boston hangers-on had somehow scraped up the cash to purchase a ramshackle inn in the Caribbean. One of the buyers admitted knowing Whitey, whom he called Seamus, which is Gaelic for James. His name was Concannon and his brother worked in the probation office, with Billy's son Chris. The other buyer was a Boston police officer who had recently returned to active duty after twenty-nine years on disability.

Workers at the club said that soon after the place was purchased by the Southie men, a strange-acting priest took up residence.

"He was wearing a collar, but he didn't act like a priest," the bartender said of the strange, Whitey Bulger-like cleric, "He had a foul mouth and a bad temper."

Billy's lack of memory did not play well with either the congressmen or the public, The Massachusetts congressmen stuck mainly with specific lines of questioning--Lynch, for instance questioned Billy at length about which FBI agents he had known, and took pains to point out the well-paying jobs they
had landed upon their retirement, Chairman Burton, meanwhile, worked the broader themes, as in this exchange.

Burton: "There are people who say Whitey came up to them and said, 'Do you know who I am and if you don't leave my brother alone you'll regret it,' You
don't know anything about that?"
Billy, after a pause: "I don't know much about it, no."
Burton: "Do you know who the people were who were threatened? "
Bi,lly: "No."
Burton: "You had no connection or relation--"
Billy: "I can assure you, I would never never authorize or ask for such a madcap kind of conduct on his part or anyone's part."

At other times, Burton did inquire about specific incidents, such as a rider anonymously attached to the 1982 state budget that would have forced the retirement of several high-ranking members of the State Police, one of whom was Lieutenant operation. After word of the budgetary attack on O'Donovan got out, Governor King had immediately vetoed the outside section. At one point during the hearing, Billy suggested that perhaps a State Police union had managed to insert the rider. Later that year, congressional investigators would be dispatched to Massachusetts to pore over the ancient budgetary records and to interview the legislative leaders of the time, But no fingerprints--of anyone-were ever found,

Still, Burton questioned Billy relentlessly about the surreptitious attempt by someone to sack a cop who was hot on the trail of Whitey Bulger.

Burton: "You had nothing to do with it and you don't remember?"
Billy: "Well, the premise is not true that such people were penalized."
Burton: "Well, what did the amendment do?"
Billy: "I'm uncertain of that."
Burton: "To say it wasn't penalizing you must know what it did."
Billy: "But it never became law, Congressman."
Burton: "If you don't remember it, how do you recall it didn't take effect?"
Billy: "Because subsequent to that, it's been written about."
Burton: "Oh, I see, You picked it up from the newspaper."

At the end of his disastrous day in the District, only one or two new-breed Globe sycophants were willing to deny the obvious: that Billy had damaged himself beyond repair, Of course, he still had his handpicked university trustees behind him. Later the hearing ended in mid-afternoon, Grace Fey, the chairman of the UMass board, issued a statement saying she had "never been prouder" of Billy.

Both Republican Governor Romney and Democratic Attorney General Tom Reilly, a longtime Bulger ally who had once taken a $100 campaign contribution from Zip Connolly, expressed their disbelief that Billy would try to stonewall a congressional committee. Romney, moreover, decided to do something about it. Fey's husband had at least one contract with the university, so the Republican State Committee quickly filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, charging her with a conflict of interest. Embarrassing headlines appeared in both newspapers, and it would cost her thousands of dollars ln--Iegal fees to contest the charges. Billy had deliberately picked trustees who could be controlled, like the state senators he'd once dominated. With his shot across Fey's bow, Romney had made it clear that he was not averse to trashing the trustees' reputations or their bank accounts, if they were unwilling to vote to fire Billy.

When, on June 26, the trustees again gave Billy another ringing endorsement, the Romney forces decided to go a different route. They would pack the board with Billy's "foes."

Three vacancies were opening up in September. Romney's operatives began talking up three people: Alan Dershowitz, Judge E. George Daher, and a Herald columnist-the author of this book-who had sat behind Bulger at the hearings. All expressed willingness, indeed eagerness, to join the board.

One Sunday night in late July, Billy and his wife, Mary, dined at Baxter's in Hyannis, enjoying the same treat they'd shared on their first date, almost a half-century earlier, fried clams. When Billy spotted a former UMass trustee and his wife, he invited them over to his table, and talk quickly turned to the ongoing struggle with Romney.

"I think it's pretty well blown over," said Billy. "Don't you?"

"I don't think so," said the former trustee. He then named the three men Romney planned to appoint.

"He wouldn't dare," Billy said.

Two weeks later, in Lowell, Billy resigned as president of UMass. Ted Kennedy issued a statement saying that he was "saddened" by the news. Bill Clinton, who had phoned Billy a couple of the later St. Patrick's Day breakfasts, called from Chappaqua with his condolences. The settlement of the deal the trustees had negotiated with him cost Massachcusetts taxpayers more than $960,000.

And Billy got a pension too. He took the survivor's option, which assured that Mary would continue to receive the kiss in the mail even if Billy predeceased her. After taxes, his monthly check from the commonwealth came to $11,312.29 a month.

But even that wasn't enough for Billy. In his final hours on the job, he ordered one of his lackeys to send over more documents to the State Retirement Board, claiming that his "housing allowance" and his annuities, which amounted to another $40,000 or so a year, should also be included in calculating his pension, thus adding another $32,000 a year to what was already by far the largest public pension in state history.

The Herald led its next edition with the story and a photo of a grinning Bulger next to the headline, "Back for More." One of the few anti-Bulger trustees on the board told the newspapers, "[He's] going out the door, grabbing everything but the pictures on the walls. It's supposed to be public service, not self-service."

It was a concept the Bulgers never did grasp.

Attorney Victor Garo in his Medford office. To his right is a picture of one of the congressional hearings that investigated the FBI corruption that led to the imprisonment of innocent men, and behind Garo is a picture of him arguing in court on behalf of the client that introduced him to Joseph Salvati.
- Allison Goldsberry
Medford attorney Victor Garo first met Joseph Salvati on a raw, rainy day in the late 1970's at a Framingham prison. Salvati and three other men had been in prison for nearly a decade after being framed by the FBI for a 1965 murder they did not commit.
After a three hour conversation, Garo, a white collar criminal defense lawyer with no background in organized crime, decided to take on the FBI and help Salvati get out of prison pro bono.
Garo took on the case for one reason- because he was confident the facts would set them free.
"We depend on the FBI to protect the rights of innocent people but here they're saying they can pick and choose who they want to help. Thank God that is not the law," said Garo.
The facts eventually did set them free- Salvati in 1997 after Governor Bill Weld commuted his sentence and Peter Limone, formerly of Medford, in 2001 after thousands of pages of documents came out detailing FBI cover-ups and corruption that led to the wrongful imprisonment of the two men along with Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, who died in prison.
Garo's dedication to the case did not end there. The indefatigable attorney, along with Salvati, Limone, and Greco and Tameleos' families, went on to successfully sue the federal government and were recently awarded the largest judgment for wrongful imprisonment in US history- $101.7 million.
"It became a cause for me and I wasn't going to let the government beat me or keep hurting my client and his family…There are some things in life that are just worth fighting for and it's not just about the money," said Garo.
Garo's outlook was instilled in him by his hard-working parents that encouraged him to help people with his legal career. Garo's mother asked him to stay with the case until he walked Salvati out of prison, which is exactly what he did, on March 20, 1997.
On that day Garo, Salvati, Salvati's wife, and television reporter Dan Rea and his photographer Chuck Manning, laid roses on Garo's mother's grave, an emotional tribute to a woman that played a central role in Garo's life and who also became close to Salvati through hundreds of phone conversations.
That was 1997. Salvati, after serving thirty years in prison for a murder he did not commit, was a free man. Limone was still in prison. Greco and Tameleo had died in their prison cells.
Garo had not collected a dime from Salvati in twenty years and in fact returned a retainer the family gave him when he first took on the case after he found out it was borrowed money. Salvati had left behind a wife and four young children- 5, 9, 11, and 13- when he was wrongly imprisoned in 1968, and the family had little money to spare.
Garo encountered many obstacles in the twenty years it took him to free Salvati. With an unsympathetic public and crooked law enforcement officials and politicians, Garo knew he needed help. And that's where WBZ-TV reporter Dan Rea came in.
"I knew I needed publicity on this case because it was that dirty," said Garo.
Garo and Rea are both graduates of the Boston University School of Law. The law school Dean at the time, Ron Cass, brokered a meeting between the two in the early '90's. Rea was just the kind of reporter they needed- someone with an appreciation for and understanding of the law that could explain the case to the public, and a real bulldog reporter not afraid to do some digging.
Rea, to say the least, was skeptical at first. But after listening to the facts of the case, he became interested enough to do his own research, eventually unearthing a buried Chelsea police report that spelled out what really happened the night of the murder, including identifying the real killers, that never came out during the trial. Rea also helped bring forward three key witnesses that led to the unraveling of the FBI's case against the innocent men.
"I became convinced fairly early on that these people didn't get a fair trial," said Rea.
Rea was the first and only reporter who covered the case for years. Rea's integrity was called into question, and some people even thought he was being paid off by the Mafia. The Boston Globe ran a story on Rea in 1994 entitled "Dan Rea's Mission Impossible: Has Dan Rea gone too Far?"
Rea and Garo became close friends, recently enjoying a baseball game together. Judge Nancy Gertner gave credit to the duo in her 235-page decision.
"It took nearly thirty years to uncover this injustice. It took the extraordinary efforts of a judge, a lawyer, even a reporter, to finally bring out the facts. Proof of innocence in this democracy should not depend upon efforts as gargantuan as these," wrote Gertner.
Though the judgment is the largest one in US history for wrongful imprisonment, it's difficult, arguably impossible, to put a price on lost freedom.
"They could never give me back what I lost. All the money in the world couldn't give me thirty-three years," said Limone.
"We waited forty years for something that should have never happened," said Salvati.
The dramatic story will soon be the subject of a movie. Garo declined to give details on the upcoming flick, to be produced by DreamWorks, other than saying that the script is "very good."

Sheriff Tony Bumonte (from Breaking Blue, a true crime book about a cop-killing judge/ex-cop, America's longest-running "unsolved" prosecution for murder)

"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice." Lord Acton, quoted by US Federal District Court Judge Mark Wolf.-(THIS SAME JUDGE THAT HAS COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE US JUSTICE DEPT and MICHAEL J. SULLIVAN - BOSTON FED. PROS/BATF DIR. Appointed by Bush in the Spring of 2002 (He's a former Plymouth County DA - where Peter Manso's- Case has been passed off to by DA O'Keefe) while Congress was looking into Boston CORRUPTION - Just like MUELLER being appointed the FBI Director in 9-2001 considering he was the Boston Fed. Pros. for 1982-1987 which Congress has it's focus on starting in the Spring of 2001-2003.) It seems to me like Justice was stood on its head. In Boston, we had a group of FBI agents who decided to throw the rules out the window. They let a lying witness send innocent men to death row and life in prison. They had a group of mob informants committing murders with impunity. They tipped off killers so they could flee before being arrested. They interfered with local investigations of drug dealing and arms smuggling. We had a bunch of criminals running around killing people under virtual FBI protection. The FBI let innocent men die in prison. We cannot have the FBI winking and looking the other way when their informants go on a crime spree. As the people's representatives, we have an obligation to find out why it happened, and to make sure it never happens again." Chairman Dan Burton, Committee on Government Reform, US Congress, February 14, 2002

During the stalemate, I approached the FBI with information about this serial-killing international drug dealer walking the local streets. I was beginning to feel as frustrated as the victim's family, and snapped when I saw that the only portrait on the wall of the FBI reception room was none other than the previous FBI director Hoover who had ruled his government bureaucracy for nearly five decades. This long deceased individual has gone down in history as America's most crooked cop, who denied for decades that such a thing as organized crime even existed, while he vacationed with famous gangsters. The FBI agent did not care for my file on this particular local gangster, and denied that there was any "red-neck mafia" around here, nor did he care for my opinion regarding his Mafia-loving dead boss. The agent declared that the FBI would ignore any attempt by anyone within the government to have that portrait removed, including the president of the United States, ex-prosecutor Bill Clinton, or his general of the Justice Department, Janet Reno. The conversation was slightly heated in tone. This particular agent was later on the front page of the Sentinel for illegally bedding the girlfriend of a drug dealer under surveillance. In response to this incident, I fired off a letter to the White House alleging a lack of enthusiasm on the part of federal law enforcement employees. I also complained about the FBI portrait situation. I eventually received letters from both the White House and the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, stating, "Your concerns have been duly noted. If you have any information regarding federal criminal activity in your city, I ask that you again contact our. . . office furnishing complete details. We very much appreciate and depend on cooperation from the public in fulfilling our commitment to the American people."

Committee Holds Hearing on Possible Legislative Responses to Justice Department Involvement In the Mishandling of Boston Mob Informants. (Press Release)

The Committee heard testimony from several lawyers familiar with elements of the investigation (Additional Information) Investigation of FBI Misconduct in New England: In early 2001, the Committee began an investigation of misconduct by Justice Department personnel in Boston. Evidence indicates that innocent men were permitted to receive the death penalty for crimes they did not commit (some died in prison, one served 30 years and another served 34 years), government informants committed numerous murders, and murder and drug investigations were ruined in order to protect informants. Unfortunately, the Committee's investigation has been temporarily hampered by a claim of executive privilege over certain information. (Subpoena and Significance of Items Under Subpoena) The Committee will hold additional hearings on February 6, 13, 14 and 27. February 13, 2002 Hearing on "The California Murder Trial of Joe 'The Animal' Barboza: Did the Federal Government Support the Release of a Dangerous Mafia Assassin?": During the second day of the Committee's hearings on FBI misconduct in New England, former FBI agent, Paul Rico invoked his Fifth Amendment Rights. Mr. Rico decided not to answer the Committee's questions about his role in the support and release of a dangerous mafia assassin.

"For decades, federal law enforcement did terrible things up in New England, and they were successful in covering it up. I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me like Justice was stood on its head. But in Boston, we had a group of FBI agents who decided to throw the rules out the window. They let a lying witness send innocent men to death row and life in prison. Joe "The Animal" Barboza lied on the witness stand and innocent men got the death penalty. Only a Supreme Court ruling in another case prevented the death penalty from being carried out. Still, two men died in prison. They had a group of mob informants committing murders with impunity. They tipped of killers so they could flee before being arrested. They interfered with local investigations of drug dealing and arms smuggling. When people went to the Justice Department with evidence about murders, some of them wound up dead. We cannot allow this type of conduct. We cannot have the FBI or the Justice Department being complicitous in giving innocent men life sentences. We cannot have the FBI winking and looking the other way when their informants go on a crime spree. Joe Barboza was a cold-blooded killer. The Justice Department believed he had murdered at least 26 people. Barboza was described to FBI Director Hoover as "a professional assassin responsible for numerous homicides and acknowledged by all professional law enforcement representatives in [New England] to be the most dangerous individual known." Joe Barboza went on trial for murder in 1971. Here you had a known mob hitman. The FBI believed that he'd already committed 26 murders. The evidence against Barboza in the 1971 trial was overwhelming. The detectives and even Joe Barboza's lawyer testified yesterday that it was a slam-dunk capital murder case. And then the FBI pulled out all the stops to try to help Joe Barboza get off. They worked with the defense team. They gave him a new identity. After Barboza lied in the Deegan murder prosecution, the FBI created the Witness Protection Program for him. It was okay for Barboza to get away with murder -- literally. They put him into the middle of an unsuspecting community. They put him on the payroll. And he killed again. At that point, they should have locked him up and thrown away the key. They did just the opposite. They did everything they could to get him back out on the street. Santa Rosa prosecutors were able to indict Joe "The Animal" Barboza in spite of the opposition and obstruction of the federal government. Barboza's defense lawyer was helped by the federal government. The prosecutors were snubbed when they sought help. The murder weapon was given to the FBI for analysis. It was "conveniently" lost for a period of time. The FBI in Boston was told that two of the witnesses against Barboza were going to be assassinated. The FBI in Boston showed no interest in helping to prevent the murders from being carried out. Barboza ultimately took a plea bargain for the Wilson murder He served less than four years, even though he had committed dozens of murders and killed while he was in the Witness Protection Program. Everyone on this Committee understands that when you're fighting organized crime, you won't be working with angels. Well, we might have to work with the underworld, but we don't have to sell our souls to the devil. Thirty years ago, it would have been unthinkable for the federal government to knowingly try to put men in the electric chair for crimes they didn't commit. Just as it is unthinkable that the same thing would happen today. But it does happen. We had a bunch of criminals running around killing people under virtual FBI protection. The FBI let innocent men die in prison. As the people's representatives, we have an obligation to find out why it happened, and to make sure it never happens again."

Chairman Dan Burton, Committee on Government Reform, US Congress, February 13 & 14, 2002

FBI Recruited and Protected Violent Informants Nationwide for Decades - (STILL DO USE THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT ASSASINS)

For decades, in cities from coast to coast, FBI agents recruited killers and crime bosses as informants and then looked the other way as they continued to commit violent crimes. When the practice first came to light in Boston - unleashing an ongoing investigation that has already sent one agent to prison for obstruction of justice - FBI officials in Washington portrayed it as an aberration. But AP interviews with nine former FBI agents - men with a combined 190 years of experience in more than 25 bureau offices from Texas to Chicago and from Los Angeles to Washington - indicate the practice was widespread during their years of service between the late 1950s and the 1990s. The former agents, and two federal law enforcement officials who have worked closely with the bureau, said the practice sometimes emboldened informants, leading them to believe they could get away with almost anything. The degree to which the practice continues today is unclear; current FBI agents and administrators are secretive about the bureau's work with informants. However, a senior FBI official indicated that bureau rules designed to prevent serious crimes by informants may not always be followed by agents in the field. The nine former FBI agents spoke - on the record - not to criticize the practice of overlooking violent crimes by informants, but rather to defend it as a necessary evil of criminal investigation. "The bureau has to encourage these guys to be themselves and do what they do," said Joseph O'Brien, a former FBI informant coordinator in New York City who retired in 1991. "If they stop just because they are working with the FBI, somebody's going to question them." Gary Penrith, who retired in 1992 after a career that included serving as the bureau's deputy assistant director of intelligence, added: "Every one of the good ones are outlaws." The former agents said it makes sense to overlook an informant's involvement in robberies or beatings if the information he is providing helps solve or prevent worse crimes. But sometimes, they added, even murders were ignored. Several said they would never protect known killers, but others said it was defensible in some circumstances. "You have to weigh the odds of whether killing one or two people is better than killing a whole planeload," said Wesley Swearingen, whose service as an agent from 1959 to 1977 included tours in Los Angeles and Chicago. For example, he said, agents ignored the murder of a small-time mobster by an FBI informant in Chicago in the 1960s because "the information that the FBI was getting was more important. Somebody in the mob is going to kill that person anyway." The former agents interviewed were generally more forthcoming about their FBI experiences than the bureau might like. Four have written books that sometimes diverge from the official line, and O'Brien resigned from the agency in a dispute over his book's contents. However, the former agents remained faithful to the bureau's policy of protecting informant identities, declining to name even those who had committed murder. An AP review of court cases and published accounts identified 11 informants who are known to have killed while working with the agency or to have been shielded by their bureau handlers from prosecution for murders committed before they were recruited. Those 11 including three mobsters involved in the Boston scandal, are believed to have killed at least 52 people between the 1960s and the mid-1990s. Previously, these cases had been reported as isolated incidents, but in the light of the interviews with former agents, they appear to be a part of a wider pattern. Clifford Zimmerman, a Northwestern University law professor who studies informant practices, says it is immoral, and perhaps illegal, for agents to shrug off violent crimes. "They're doing their own little cost-benefit analysis and really not taking into account, in my opinion, the damage to society that these people are causing," he said. "Is a federal official entitled to make that decision - that one person's life is more valuable than another's?" Sometimes it amounts to that, former agents acknowledge. "What it comes down to is: Who's got the best information," said Robert Fitzpatrick, assistant director of the Boston field office when he retired in 1986. Informants who provided valuable information in major mob investigations "generally would be savable" even if they killed, he said. Several former agents expressed sympathy for John Connolly, the former Boston agent sentenced in September to 10 years in prison for his role in protecting two organized crime kingpins, James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. The two are now accused in 18 murders, including 11 committed while they were serving as FBI informants. The bureau's rules for handling informants specifically ban what Connolly did. The rules, in effect for the last 26 years, forbid informants from participating in violent crimes. Officially, informants are allowed only nonviolent crimes, and these only when authorized as necessary to keep the informants in a position to supply information. Connolly is by no means the only agent who has bent or broken these rules, the retired agents said. "I'd be the first to tell you that agents who were doing this (handling informants) every day pushed the envelope," said Dennis O'Callaghan, a former chief of the organized crime unit who retired from the bureau in 1991. Joseph R. Lewis, currently a deputy assistant FBI director in charge of criminal investigations and intelligence, said he is "fairly confident" that most field agents follow the rules. However, he added in a recent interview at FBI headquarters, "it probably happens" that some agents shut their eyes to unauthorized crimes committed by valued informants. Informants can be difficult to control, Lewis said. "The good ones are con artists, and they're going to try to get something over on you." Consider the case of Gregory Scarpa Sr. In the 1990s, while informing on the mob for the FBI, he also participated in gang warfare for control of New York City's Colombo crime family, killing as many as 13 rivals. Senior FBI officials knew that Scarpa was suspected of murder but let him keep working as an informant, Lindley DeVecchio, Scarpa's bureau handler, later testified in court. Scarpa subsequently admitted to a role in three of the killings and pleaded guilty to murder in 1993. In prison, he died of AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion. Murder provided Scarpa with a great cover for his work with the FBI, said Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer who defended some of the mobsters he informed on. "People thought there was no way in the world that the FBI would let this guy run around killing people." Most of those Scarpa had informed on were his gangland enemies. Informants commonly inform to eliminate rivals or settle grudges, the retired agents said. Just as the FBI uses them, they use the FBI, former agents said. "Do agents know they're not telling them everything? Absolutely!" said O'Callaghan, the former head of the bureau's organized crime unit. He called it a "don't ask, don't tell situation." Agents avoid asking - and if possible avoid hearing - anything that would incriminate their informants in violent crimes, several agents said. "You don't really want to know," O'Brien said, because if you don't know, you aren't breaking the rules. William Turner, who worked in five field offices before retiring from the FBI in 1961, said he "kind of intimated" to his informants that they should keep their unauthorized crimes to themselves. Occasionally, an informant might hint that he is planning a violent crime, hoping for an indication that the bureau will protect him from prosecution, the former agents said. "I wouldn't listen to it," said Joseph L. Schott, a former agent in New Jersey and Texas. The retired agents defended these evasions as necessary to keep information flowing, but they expressed concern about the human cost when informants conclude they can break the law with impunity. Valuable informants "know if they are cooperating with us, they're not necessarily going to be targeted for prosecution," said Joe Griffin, a former administrator in the bureau's organized crime unit. Turner added: "If I intimated to an informant that I didn't want to know about his own personal activity, for obvious reasons, that might be interpreted as a license to kill." Lewis insisted that top bureau officials will not tolerate violent informants. That's why field agents don't always tell Washington about them, Penrith said. "Do they always bring that to a supervisor? Hell, no, they don't," he said. And when he was supervising agents, he said, "I don't go and ask."

EDITOR'S NOTE - Jeff Donn is the AP's Boston-based Northeast regional writer. AP-ES-03-01-03 1614EST

The actual phrase, "Executive Privilege," was not a part of the common language until the Eisenhower administration. The first time the term was used occurred in 1954 when Senator Joseph McCarthy was investigating the Eisenhower administration. McCarthy had planned to subpoena Eisenhower's chief of staff, but Eisenhower told his advisers that Congress had no right to ask White House personnel to testify in any manner concerning conversations with the President "at any time on any subject."
Although the phrase "executive privilege" is not directly mentioned anywhere in the Constitution of the United States, the privilege itself stems from the accepted concept of a separation of powers, and it has a long history in presidential politics. Beginning with George Washington, presidents have claimed the right to withhold information from either Congress or the judicial branch. Because this means ultimately withholding information from the entire nation for whom the office of presidency is meant to serve, executive privilege remains a controversial power which strikes at the core of democratic principles. In essence it can be used to nullify the Founding Fathers' concept of accountability in government.
Although executive privilege is a legitimate presidential power, it is such only when the circumstances under which it is exercised are appropriate. Certain standards of acceptability must certainly be met, otherwise the privilege may be abused for self-serving purposes such as during the Watergate scandal. In that situation, former president Richard Nixon claimed that executive privilege was a power belonging to the entire executive branch, with unlimited scope.
President Washington, however, felt that the withholding of information was a legitimate process only as long as it was done in the service of the public interest. He determined that he could not withhold information merely for the purpose of concealing embarrassing or politically damaging information.
On December 13, 2001, president George W. Bush invoked executive privilege in order to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from a decades-old Boston murder to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe. This particular instance of withholding information from the nation may be cited as particularly controversial because it appears to block an investigation of grossly unethical practices within the FBI - an investigation that was already underway - and because unethical conduct on the part of any powerful branch of government has the potential to affect the lives of any and all citizens of the United States.
According to MSNBC News, "Representative Dan Burton of Indiana, the Republican House chairman whose committee sought the documents, decried the decision and said it wrongly handicapped Congress for overseeing the government. 'This is not a monarchy,' Burton said after hearing of Bush's block. 'The legislative branch has oversight responsibility to make sure there is no corruption in the executive branch.'"
Of particular concern regarding this case, is that it stems from revelations that Joseph Salvati of Boston spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence.
Salvati was freed in January 2001 after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati. They hid the testimony because they wanted to protect an informant. Salvati along with Peter Limone, 66, were in a group of six men found guilty of the underworld murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan in 1965.
In January of 2001, Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle threw out the convictions of both Salvati and Limone for the murder they said they didn't commit, stating that newly
discovered evidence raised doubts about the conduct of the FBI and fairness of their trials.
Justice Department investigators probing corruption in the Boston FBI gave the lawyers of Salvati and Limone FBI informant reports written around the time of Deegan's murder. The reports show that informants not only told FBI agents of plans for the murder beforehand, but they also gave the FBI a list of those involved. Neither Limone's nor Salvati's name appeared on the list - nor did two of the other four men also convicted. Two men died in prison.
Adding to the controversy of Bush's instructions to withhold additional information from Representative Burton and the other government officials attempting to investigate the activities of the FBI, is the timing of the Bush's decision, which came after members of the House Government Reform Committee apologized to Salvati and his wife, Marie, stating there is no excuse for what the government did, and apologizing for the government's actions.
"I want to express to both of you how deeply sorry we are for everything that was taken away from you and everything you've had to go through the last 30 years," said Rep. Burton, who happens to be the committee chairman.
Evidence indicates that not only did the FBI protect informants who helped them bring down top New England mobsters, but they also manipulated testimony in murder trials, as well as permitted mobsters to commit various crimes in exchange for information. Representative Burton called for the hearings after learning of the Salvati case and of federal indictments charging alleged mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi with approximately twenty murders and allegations that FBI agents covered up their crimes to protect their prized informants. Bulger, 71, and Flemmi, 63, allegedly were allowed to conduct crimes, including murders, while informing FBI agents about rival mobsters during a period of time spanning several decades. Flemmi is awaiting trial, and Bulger remains at large and is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Ex-FBI agent John J. Connolly has been charged with racketeering and obstruction of justice for his handling of Bulger and Flemmi. (He was convicted of those crimes in Sept. 2002 and given 10 years) (He's since been convicted of Murder 2 in Miami in Dec. 2008 and given 40 more years)

"This is a story that needs to be told," Salvati testified. "The government stole more than 30 years of my life." For the two men who died while in prison, the FBI stole their lives.
Rep. Burton's hearing and investigation included testimony from F. Lee Bailey (F. Lee Bailey is Represented by Joseph Balliro since his disbarment in 2001 from Fla. & Mass. Law - Robert A. George a former Assoc. of Joseph Balliro used F. Lee Bailey's Private investigative service to Investigate this Worthington Crime & Case) and one of the two former FBI agents accused of hiding evidence that would have proven Salvati's innocence. Bailey testified that he believes the FBI coached the prosecution's key witness to lie on the witness stand. (Same as Government Asssasin Shawn Mulvey by Prosecutor Welsh-(NOW 4th Gen. Judge) and the Mass. State Police Frauds in Fla on their second visit 9-30-06 (Two weeks before the trial for coaching) but maybe they did or didn't realize the FBI MOB was behind him all along even while they were here the first time in June-July-2005!)

"He told me he had quite a bit of help," Bailey said of the key witness. "I believe the testimony was furnished."
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., also issued an apology to Salvati, saying he was "profoundly sorry" for what happened.
No similar regret was shown by former FBI Agent H. Paul Rico, however. Rico, author of the secret, hidden reports that told of the informants notifying FBI agents beforehand of the Deegan murder, stated that Salvati's ordeal might make "a nice movie." As quoted in the Associated Press, Rico stated, "Remorse - for what? Would you like tears or something? I believe the FBI handled it properly." Rico said he was not convinced of Salvati's innocence until hearing him testify some thirty years after his imprisonment.
It is possible that the outspoken outrage over this case might have played a key role in motivating George W. Bush to halt the investigation thus protecting the FBI. However outspoken it has been, though, it is supremely justified.
"I think you should be prosecuted," Representative Shays reportedly told Rico, "I think you should be sent to jail."
Although the Salvati case was only the first of several hearings Rep. Burton's committee planned to hold as it investigated the FBI's use of informants and its other unethical and clearly illegal activities, Bush's announcement to withhold further information from the committee in mid-stream has apparently put a stop to the investigation. That he would block an investigation of government corruption raises numerous questions. That he would do so in mid-stream rather than before the information became publicly known, raises additional questions
Whatever the reasons, outrage over this act, as well as the inappropriate use of "executive privilege" continue to be supremely justified.
When branches of the government secretly take part in murders of the citizens of the United States, when they abuse the judicial system and without moral conscience send innocent victims to prison, when they hide information about known criminals, then that branch is corrupt. Moral principle alone calls for investigation of such activities.
For the president of the United States to announce "executive privilege" for the purpose of blocking investigation, blocking justice, and allowing corruption to carry on unimpeded, is not only morally unprincipled, it is egregious.

Works Cited
AP. The Associated Press. "Wrongly jailed man gets apology." Ken Maguire. Retrieved from http://www.truthinjustice.org/limone-apology.htm on 1/11/02
Hirsen, James L., J.D., Ph.D., "Executive Privilege (Right or Ruse)?" 1999. Retrieved from FirstLiberties.com; http://www.firstliberties.com/exec_privilege.html on 1/10/02
MSNBC. News article. "Bush invokes executive privilege doctrine." December 13, 2001. Retrieved from http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/672144.asp on 1/10/02.
Rozell, Mark J. Professor of Politics, Catholic University of America. Congressional Testimony, November 6, 2001. Retrieved from http://www.house.gov/reform/gefmir/
hearings/2001hearings/1106_presidential_records/rozell.doc on 1/11/02
USA Today. "Bush invokes privilege to keep documents secret." December 2001.
Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/dec01/2001-12-13-executive-privilege.htm
on 1/11/02.

UPDATE - October 10, 2003 Retired FBI Agent H. Paul Rico Charged in Mafia Hit What Goes Around, Comes Around
Wrongly Jailed Man Gets Apology
By KEN MAGUIRE
by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A House panel investigating the shady relationship between the Boston FBI office and its mob informants apologized Thursday to a man who spent 30 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
Joseph Salvati was convicted of the 1965 murder of Edward ``Teddy'' Deegan in Chelsea, Mass., and remained in prison until his sentence was commuted in 1997. He and a co-defendant were exonerated this year.
Members of the House Government Reform Committee told Salvati and his wife, Marie, there is no excuse for what the government did.
``I want to express to both of you how deeply sorry we are for everything that was taken away from you and everything you've had to go through the last 30 years,'' said committee chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind.
Salvati, 68, and Peter J. Limone, 66, were exonerated after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid evidence that would have proven their innocence. The FBI protected informants who helped them bring down top New England mobsters and manipulated testimony in their 1968 murder trial.
``This is a story that needs to be told,'' Salvati testified. ``The government stole more than 30 years of my life.''
The hearing included testimony from famed lawyer F. Lee Bailey and one of the two former FBI agents accused of hiding evidence that would have proven Salvati's innocence.
Bailey testified that he believes the FBI coached Joseph ``The Animal'' Barboza - the prosecution's key witness - on how to lie on the witness stand.
``He told me he had quite a bit of help,'' Bailey said of Barboza, who he briefly represented in 1970, when Barboza signed an affidavit recanting his story. ``I believe the testimony was furnished.''
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., told Salvati he was ``profoundly sorry'' for what happened.
There was no such regret, however, from former FBI Agent H. Paul Rico, who said Salvati's ordeal would ``be a nice movie.''
``Remorse - for what? Would you like tears or something?'' he said. ``I believe the FBI handled it properly.''
Rico, whose attorney advised him to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, said he was not convinced of Salvati's innocence until hearing him testify Thursday.
Secret reports written by Rico showed informants told FBI agents of plans for the slaying before Deegan was killed and provided names of those involved. Salvati and Limone's names were not included and the reports were never made known to defense lawyers.
``I think you should be prosecuted,'' Shays told Rico. ``I think you should be sent to jail.''
The Salvati case is the first of several hearings the committee plans to hold as it investigates the FBI's use of informants.
Burton called for hearings after learning of the case and of federal indictments charging alleged mobsters James ``Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi with about 20 murders and allegations that FBI agents covered up their crimes to protect their prized informants.
Bulger, 71, and Flemmi, 63, allegedly were allowed to conduct crimes, including murders, while informing FBI agents about rival mobsters over several decades. Flemmi is awaiting trial, and Bulger remains at large and is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
Ex-FBI agent John J. Connolly has been charged with racketeering and obstruction of justice for his handling of Bulger and Flemmi.
A Justice Department task force is currently investigating the Boston FBI office.

It may be the worst scandal in FBI history: Joseph Salvati spent three decades in prison for a crime he didn?t commit. He was put there by uncorroborated, false testimony from an informant under the protection of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There is compelling evidence that the Bureau knew Salvati was an innocent man and then conspired to keep him in prison for more than three decades. Knowledge of the Bureau?s actions seems to have gone right to the very top; documents uncovered recently show that then-Director J. Edgar Hoover monitored the case from Washington.
The FBI scandal was investigated for two years by the House Government Reform Committee, then under the chairmanship of Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN), who introduced legislation to remove Hoover?s name from FBI headquarters as a result of what he learned.
But the scandal gets worse than that. When Burton tried to acquire official records on the case from the Justice Department, he was stonewalled, and Attorney General John Ashcroft persuaded President George W. Bush to invoke "executive privilege" to block the committee's subpoenas. This was President Bush's first, and thus far only, use of executive privilege to withhold information from the Congress. Some think Bush is trying to protect current FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was in the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston during part of the relevant time period. The confrontation with Burton prompted columns on the controversy by William Safire (SEE BELOW) and Robert Novak.

A lawyer who spent nearly two decades working pro bono to free Salvati characterized this episode in Bureau history as a scandal greater than Watergate. The media used the cover-up of the third-rate burglary at the Watergate hotel to bring down an American president. But Watergate-style journalism has been sorely lacking in an ongoing FBI scandal that involves dozens of murders and a continuing cover-up.
The links between the Boston FBI and organized crime have been covered extensively in the Boston area, and have been the subject of two books by Boston reporters, Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI and A Devil's Deal, and Deadly Alliance: The FBI's Secret Partnership with the Mob. But writer and commentator J.D. Tuccille notes that it has been oddly under-reported on the national level, and network news coverage has been sporadic, at best.

Salvati told his story on CBS 60 Minutes and ABC's Nightline, and the scandal received some brief attention last December when University of Massachusetts President and former state Senate President William M. Bulger invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions from Burton's committee about his fugitive brother, James "Whitey" Bulger, one of the 10 most wanted fugitives in the country. James "Whitey" Bulger and his partner Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi committed dozens of murders while serving as FBI informants.

The coverage by the New York Times, whose parent company owns the Boston Globe, has been spotty. A Fox Butterfield story in the Times about Salvati suing the Bureau for $300 million for false imprisonment was carried back on page 16.

More recently, after the FBI found a safe-deposit box in London that belonged to James Bulger-six years after being given information about the box from a former girlfriend of Bulger's-the Times carried the story back on page 20. The belated discovery raises new accusations that the Bureau has not been aggressive in pursuing Mr. Bulger, noted Butterfield. But this is occurring in the midst of a scandal that is already several decades old and continuing to undermine public confidence in the effectiveness of the FBI and its director. The Washington Post has largely ignored the scandal.

Former Boston FBI agent John Connolly, who was sentenced last September to 10 years in prison for his role in protecting James Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, has been portrayed by senior FBI officials as a "rogue" agent.

But the scandal took another ominous turn when Associated Press correspondent Jeff Donn reported on March 1 that the recruitment of killers and mobsters as informants in Boston, then shielding them as they continued to commit murders, may have been widespread throughout the Bureau.

The AP identified 11 killers believed to have committed 52 murders while under the Bureau's protection from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. FBI Headquarters officials dismissed the AP's findings as an aberration, but former agents defended the practice.

On July 31, 1968, Joseph Salvati and five other men were convicted of murdering Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time Boston-area mobster. Deegan had been killed gangland style more than two years earlier in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston. Salvati got life in prison with no chance of parole; the other five men got the death penalty. All six were linked by the FBI with the New England branch of La Cosa Nostra, although Salvati had only one prior conviction for breaking and entering in 1955 when he was a teenager.

FBI agents Paul Rico and Dennis Condon had elicited Barboza's testimony in March 1967, while Barboza was in Massachusetts. Walpole State Prison awaiting prosecution as a "habitual criminal. They had targeted him as part of their campaign to develop insider informants on the New England mafia operations then allegedly headed by Raymond Patriarca (Joseph Balliro's client) (Peter Manso's former Lawyer and his former Law Assoc. Defending McCowen Robert A. George) of Providence, Rhode Island. Barboza traded information on several gangland murders, among these the Deegan killing, in return for immunity and protection from the FBI.

Barboza told Rico and Condon that Peter Limone had initially offered him $7,500 to kill Deegan and that Salvati was to drive the get-away car. He said he had declined Limone's offer, but then named three others, in addition to Salvati and Limone, in the conspiracy to murder Deegan during a staged hold-up on the night of March 12, 1965. Barboza told the agents that Salvati, who had a full head of hair, had donned a wig with a bald spot in back. Other witnesses testified that a man with such a bald spot had been seen leaving the crime scene. Rico and Condon participated extensively in Barboza's preparation for the trial and agent Condon also testified at Salvati's trial in support of Barboza's testimony.

The Bureau's direct participation in a state-level capital crime case was rare, but the local district attorney praised the two agents work in preparing Barboza for testimony as instrumental to obtaining the convictions. After the trial, the Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge wrote Hoover that the agents, effort reflect[ed] great credit on the FBI.

Hoover had been closely monitoring the ongoing mob war in New England during this period and had taken a personal interest in the Salvati trial. The Bureau counted the convictions as a major victory in its war against organized crime and Hoover sent personal letters of commendation to Rico and Condon.

The Bureau was so pleased with Barboza's performance that it created the now-famous Witness Protection Program specifically to protect him from mob vengeance.

He was later relocated to California, where he allegedly killed three to five people while under the Bureau's protection before he was himself murdered in a mob hit. Salvati went off to serve his life sentence and the others went to Massachusetts, death row; their sentences were commuted in 1974 when the state abolished the death penalty.
Bureau Blocks Salvati Parole
Salvati proved to be a model prisoner and in 1986 his new lawyer began a campaign to have his sentence commuted in order to make him eligible for parole. But the FBI told the State Commutation Board that it had an investigation underway that would produce additional indictments against Salvati. Four more years passed with no further word from the Bureau, so the board met again to consider Salvati's request. This time, the board recommended commutation and that Salvati be made eligible for parole. That recommendation went to then-Massachusetts, Governor Michael Dukakis for action. By this time, former FBI agent Dennis M. Condon- (Lives in Waltham, but purchased a $1.7 Mil. Commercial St., Provincetown, MA Property with Robert Cummings, in 2007 - He was also named in the $101.7 Mil. Boston Corruption Lawsuit, won against The Justice Dept. & FBI, by Juliane Balliro in 2007.) was working for Dukakis, who declined to take up the board's recommendation.

In 1993, the board again recommended to a new governor, William Weld, that Salvati's sentence be commuted. Weld also refused to act on the recommendation, citing Salvati?s ?long criminal record.? Recall that prior to 1968, he had one conviction for breaking and entering as a teenager. The FBI later denied any attempt to influence Weld's decision.

And there the matter stood until 1997. By this time, Salvati had served nearly thirty years and two of the original six had already died in prison. But that year, Governor Weld changed his mind and allowed the Massachusetts Governor's Council to commute Salvati?s sentence. He was paroled shortly thereafter. Dan Rea, a local WBZ-TV reporter, is credited with gaining access to old police records that raised doubts about Salvati's original involvement in the murder. Rea's first report on Salvati aired back on May 17, 1993.

In 2000, a Justice Department task force investigating corruption inside the Boston FBI office turned up more documents that showed the Bureau and local police authorities knew the identities of Deegan's murderers in 1965. Salvati, Peter Limone and two others were not among those identified as Deegan's killers. On the strength of this new evidence, in 2001, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle exonerated Salvati of any involvement in the 1965 Deegan murder; two weeks earlier she had vacated Limone's conviction and ordered his release from prison. Two others convicted in 1968 were also exonerated; sadly, they had already died in prison.

The account that emerges from these documents and a two-year House Government Reform Committee investigation is shocking. The documents indicate that the Bureau knew beforehand of plans to murder Deegan, that it knew its star witness Joseph Barboza along with Vincent Flemmi were among those who killed Deegan, and that the Bureau had made this information available to local police authorities shortly after the murder.

Moreover, the Boston FBI SAC sent Director Hoover a memo, prepared by agent Rico, just six days after Deegan's killing that named Barboza and Flemmi among the killers.

Former Representative Bob Barr, a former District Attorney, later said that Hoover knew exactly what was going on in Boston during that period.

Although the full story is still murky, it now seems that the Bureau learned of plans for the 1965 killing of Deegan through illegal wiretaps on Raymond Patriarca, the then-New England mob boss (Joseph Balliro's client). Barboza and Flemmi were overheard requesting Patriarca's permission to kill Deegan. The information on the illegal tapes, however, was apparently corroborated by another FBI informant, most likely Flemmi's brother, Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi. (Vincent "The Bear" Flemmi made the call with Barboza and did the "HIT" - he was also represented by Joseph Balliro) Within days of the 1965 murder, police departments in Chelsea, the scene of the crime, and Boston, as well as the Massachusetts State Police, were informed of the identities of the murderers. Salvati, Peter Limone and two others of the original six convicted in 1968 were not listed in the documents uncovered 30 years later.

For reasons not yet explained, no arrests were made in the crime until 1967 after FBI agents Rico and Condon had approached Barboza to become an informant on mob activities. There is no indication that either Rico or Condon challenged Barboza's efforts to implicate Salvati, even though it was Rico (Joseph Balliro represented Rico while he awaited trial before his death in 2004) who had prepared the original documents in 1965 naming the true culprits. The potentially exculpatory 1965 documents identifying the real murderer were withheld from defense lawyers during the 1968 trial.
(One lawyer was Joseph Balliro representing Henry Tameleo who died in prison.)

Explanations for the Bureau's action vary, but most agree that the FBI was under intense pressure to crack down on organized crime. The Bureau was already conducting illegal wiretaps (Who's the REAL MOB?) on mob figures, but desperately wanted to develop informants from inside the mob's hierarchy who could provide details on its innermost workings.

It is also clear that the Bureau wanted to keep Joseph Salvati and the others in prison. The committee learned that, in 1970, Barboza had tried to recant his testimony. Still in Massachusetts at this point, he hired famed trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who agreed to take the case only if Barboza would submit to a polygraph.

Bailey said that Barboza had told him that he and another Boston-area hit man, Vincent Flemmi, had actually killed Deegan and that he had framed Salvati, Limone, and two others in the killing. He told Bailey that Limone and the others hadn't given him "proper respect" so he named them in the crime.

As for Salvati, he had borrowed $400 from a loan shark associate of Barboza and hadn't repaid the debt on time. Barboza told Bailey that he had fabricated the story about Salvati and Limone and claimed two FBI agents-Rico and Condon, had helped him in this. He told Bailey that he had made up the story about Salvati wearing a wig to account for the eyewitness description of such a man seen leaving the murder scene. Flemmi was about the same size and build as Salvati and had a bald spot on the back of his head. Records would later show that Barboza clearly told Rico and Condon that he would never incriminate his friend Flemmi in any crime.

Bailey had Barboza produce an affidavit and then he sent a letter along with the affidavit to the then-Massachusetts attorney general Robert Quinn. But nothing was done, according to Bailey, who said he received no response from Quinn. Bailey would later testify before Congress that when Federal prosecutors learned of Barboza's intentions, they and the FBI pressured him to fire Bailey and to cancel the polygraph examination.

The committee also took testimony from the two FBI agents who had recruited Barboza and Flemmi in 1965. Both suffered from what Burton characterized as selective memory loss, but former agent Rico admitted sending a memo to Hoover that described Barboza and Flemmi intentions to murder Deegan. Rico displayed no remorse over Salvati's thirty-year prison sentence saying, "What do you want, tears or something"?

He even impugned Salvati: "I don't know everything that Joseph Salvati has done in his lifetime."

The committee also deposed Dennis Condon, the agent who had testified at Salvati's trial. His memory was even worse than Rico's. He was asked why the two agents had not used the 1965 information to challenge Barboza's 1967 account of the crime that implicated Salvati, but Condon had no response.

Predictably, the entire committee erupted in outrage at this point. It issued subpoenas to the Justice Department for thirty-year-old documents on Justice and the Bureau's handling of Barboza, Vincent Flemmi, and other informants developed by the Boston FBI office in the war on organized crime.

The committee wanted to know why Barboza and Flemmi were not prosecuted for their role in Deegan's murder and why the Bureau had permitted innocent men to go to prison for acts committed by its two informants. But the Justice Department denied the committee access to these and other documents from the case.

When Burton and the committee refused to back down, the Justice Department persuaded President George W. Bush to invoke "executive privilege" to protect the documents. That led to another round of hearings, which further exposed the Bureau's malfeasance. There was testimony that the FBI had withheld documents from court proceedings in 1997 examining corruption in the Boston FBI field office. The committee learned that in 1997 the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility had also investigated, but had determined that there had been "no malfeasance whatsoever" in the Boston office's conduct in the 1960s.

There was bi-partisan outrage at Justice's stonewalling of the committee's investigation. The committee brought in constitutional law experts who testified that the administration's claim to secrecy in this case does not meet the traditional standards for a valid claim of executive privilege. Another told the committee that "precedent" stretching back to the Watergate case was clearly on the side of the committee.

Burton, in particular, was outraged by what the committee had learned. In a memo to his colleagues, Burton wrote that the evidence his committee had uncovered indicated that Hoover had closely supervised the actions of these [Boston] agents and was regularly informed of their activities.

Further, he charged, Hoover demonstrated a fundamental contempt for the rule of law. Throughout his tenure as Director, the FBI conducted illegal or unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens in Boston.

The committee is preparing a report detailing its conclusions and findings. The Boston Herald obtained a leaked copy of the report which it says is titled "

(*Note: I Read this entire report and was stunned that Robert Mueller and his superior for several of those years, Jeramiah O'Sullivan, weren't rounded up and brought in during this investigation. He was the head of the Boston Criminal Division for the Justice Dept. and head of the Boston Criminal Divisions Task Force before becoming the US Attorney. He didn't KNOW his Supervisor John Morris of the FBI Crime Task Force under him was accepting bribes in 1982, 1983 & 1985, from their own "Top Echelon Winter Hill Gang protected informants" Bulger and Flemmi, while the kids are out murdering businessmen that they were extorting while on his watch? Then having one of their own former FBI SA, H. Paul Rico actually ACTING as the head of Security for the Miami Fronton they were extorting, then setting up the owner to be murdered because he was on to them? I suppose Mssr's. Mueller and O'Sullivan were too busy prosecuting Joe Balliro's and Robert George's competative clients Gennaro Angiulo, Salemme and list of others, while keeping these men wrongfully incarerated for their own cause of becoming the "New Mob".) The story of the Miami Detective, Shelton Merritt (article below) and his experience with this scum outfit called the FBI and Justice Department, while he was investigating this murder of the Miami business man John Callahan, that they also set up to be murdered in Miami, took the prize in Connolly's 2008 murder trial in Miami.

The Herald reported that the committee had concluded that this represented "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement."

From 1982 to 1987, FBI Director Mueller served in the office of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, beginning as chief of the Criminal Division and ending as the U.S. Attorney. This has raised questions about what he knew about the Salvati case and suspicions that the stonewalling of the committee's requests for documents may be to protect him.

Send the enclosed cards or cards and letters of your own choosing to Rep. Tom Davis, WRAZ General Manager Tommy Schenck, and MSNBC President Erik Sorenson.

CLIFF'S NOTES By Cliff Kincaid

WHILE WE HAD SOME CRITICISM OF BILL O'REILLY IN OUR LAST ISSUE, HE HAS BEEN very tough on corruption in the FBI, the subject of this report. O'Reilly was angered when FBI director Robert Mueller blocked an appearance by Judicial Watch client Special Agent Robert Wright on his show. Wright was going to talk about the refusal of a Muslim FBI agent to secretly record other Muslims in a counter-terrorism investigation that led to Saudi Arabia. O'Reilly said that the Bureau had threatened to fire Wright if he appeared. O'Reilly covered the story three days running with other guests and challenged Mueller to come clean with the American people or be fired by President Bush. He concluded, Something is very wrong at the FBI. This report emphasizes the case of Joseph Salvati, who was framed on murder charges by a notorious FBI informant who himself went on to murder as many as five people before he was gunned down. Salvati spent thirty years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Director Mueller was a federal prosecutor in Boston during the Salvati case and he should have to answer for that, too. We suggest writing to Rep. Tom Davis, the new chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, about this.

WASHINGTON -- Stephen (the Rifleman) Flemmi is a gangster who spent a generation as a valued informant for the F.B.I. in Boston. He is now awaiting trial for 10 murders he is charged with committing while on the F.B.I. payroll.

Also charged is his F.B.I. handler, John Connolly Jr., accused of tipping off Flemmi and his mobster boss before police were dispatched to pick them up. The boss, accused of 19 murders, is still a fugitive. Six years ago the Rifleman claimed that the F.B.I. had promised him immunity from prosecution for his killings — allegedly including a couple of his girlfriends — but Federal Judge Mark Wolf, in a landmark decision, ruled that nobody in law enforcement had the power to sanction murder.

The New England F.B.I.'s long-running abuse of power is "the greatest failing in federal law enforcement history," according to James Wilson, chief counsel to the House Government Reform Committee. Evidence of this sustained miscarriage of justice was the 30-year imprisonment of Joe Salvati, whom F.B.I. officials are said to have known to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted — but they remained silent to protect Mafia sources.

John Ashcroft's Department of Justice does not want Congress to air out this long, shameful story. At the time J. Edgar Hoover belatedly began his war on the Mafia, civil liberty was set aside to meet the perceived emergency — abuses that lasted through three decades. The current F.B.I. chief, Robert Mueller, was U.S. attorney in Boston during the mid-80's and presumably did not have an inkling about the unlawful law enforcement going on around him.

Accordingly, the Bush Justice Department induced the president to sign an order asserting executive privilege over its "deliberative documents" that would inform the public of answers to questions like: Why did Justice decline to indict an F.B.I. supervisor who admitted taking money from Flemmi's gang? Why did Justice help defend a hit man in California who killed a man while in the witness protection program?

Much of this systemic perversion of justice took place decades ago, but the Ashcroft-Mueller crowd is determined to keep the embarrassing institutional history hushed up. That's why department lawyers recently adopted a policy of refusing all documents relating to its declinations to prosecute.

One reason for Bush's executive privilege claim, unprecedented in its sweep, is: Such decisions are never to be examined by Congress lest politics influence prosecutors' judgments. But this power grab would eviscerate Congressional oversight.

The other reason, spoken sotto voce, is that some of the documents Chairman Dan Burton's committee is requesting deal with other cases — such as Janet Reno's decision to abort investigations into Bill Clinton's overseas fund-raising over the protest of special counsel. Burton, some of these Bush G.O.P. appointees say, is just an old Republican Clinton-hater out to beat a dead horse.

That's a red herring. At issue here is Congress's responsibility and authority to examine the misdeeds of the executive branch in a thorough manner — with an eye toward legislation to make criminal those policies evidently adopted by a regional division of our F.B.I. to subvert the law in the name of the law. (Burton, with Ashcroft's thumb in his eye, is considering legislation renaming the J. Edgar Hoover Building.)

Is the White House counsel explaining to the president the scope of the powers being asserted in his ill-advised orders? "Executive privilege" was restricted by the Supreme Court in the Nixon case and further circumscribed by the courts in Clinton's frantic attempts to place himself above the law. Why is Bush, so early in his term and with little to hide, going down this road to upset our system of checks and balances?

Maybe it's hubris; popularity breeds contempt. When you're sailing up there around 90 percent, your advisers tell you that wartime is the perfect time to put those Congressional pipsqueaks of both parties in their place.

Maybe it's ultra-cleverness; by wrapping the latest self-levitation in the mantle of protecting a former administration's reputation, you dream of winning liberals' support.

It's another mistake that will come home to haunt the Bush presidency. Call me Cassandra, but history will not look kindly on those who let ends justify means — and let helpful hoodlums get away with murder.

Bush Claims Executive Privilege in Response to House Inquiry
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: Friday, December 14, 2001

President Bush invoked executive privilege today for the first time in his administration to block a Congressional committee trying to review documents about a decades-long scandal involving F.B.I. misuse of mob informants in Boston. His order also denied the committee access to internal Justice Department deliberations about President Bill Clinton's fund-raising tactics.

Mr. Bush's action produced angry criticism from the chairman of the committee, Representative Dan Burton of Indiana, a fellow Republican who has been known principally as a relentless critic of Mr. Clinton.

At the same time, several of the committee's Democrats agreed at a hearing today that Mr. Bush's decision was an excessive use of executive power. Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, even offered an unexpected tribute to Mr. Burton for his persistence in seeking the documents about the F.B.I.'s behavior in Boston.

Mr. Frank said he and others had misjudged Mr. Burton as a partisan Republican motivated only by a desire to hound Mr. Clinton. ''I see now a genuine intellectual integrity in his approach,'' Mr. Frank said.

''Most House Republicans have been very submissive to the White House,'' Mr. Frank said, adding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's problems with mob informers was a perfectly appropriate subject for Congressional oversight.

The subpoena the White House denied concerns a well-documented scandal in which F.B.I. agents had a close relationship with two mobsters long notorious in Irish-dominated South Boston, James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi.

The Justice Department has been investigating accusations that for decades, F.B.I. agents protected the pair while they committed crimes because they also provided information about Italian mobsters that helped virtually eliminate the Italian mob in New England.

In one case, the agents appear to have let an innocent man go to jail for murder to protect their informants. One former bureau official has been indicted and is awaiting trial.

In his order today directing Attorney General John Ashcroft to decline the committee's subpoenas, Mr. Bush said, ''I understand that you believe it would be inconsistent with the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers and the department's law enforcement responsibilities to release these documents.''

The president continued: ''It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee. Disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative processes by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions.''

Mr. Burton's House Government Reform Committee hearing today was confined to the administration's refusal to provide documents about the Boston F.B.I.'s behavior. Mr. Burton said it was the first time an administration had tried to block access to documents concerning an investigation of this nature.

Previously, administrations have threatened to invoke executive privilege, then negotiated with Congressional committees to avoid a court confrontation. When reports by two senior F.B.I. officials called for an independent prosecutor to investigate Clinton fund-raising issues, for example, committee staff members were allowed to review the documents at the Justice Department.

''We've tried to be reasonable,'' Mr. Burton said. ''We've confined our requests to information from investigations that have long since been closed.''

He added, ''It seems like the Justice Department is more interested in creating a new policy of secrecy than in accommodating our need to get to the bottom of the Boston mess.''

Committee aides said Mr. Burton would seek to call more Justice Department witnesses, including Mr. Ashcroft, and then decide whether to challenge the order in court.

Executive privilege is one of the most ambiguous concepts in constitutional law. The Supreme Court has recognized that a president must be able to speak freely with advisers without fear that those conversations will be disclosed. Legal scholars have called it a qualified privilege.

Michael Horowitz, chief of staff of the criminal division, said the Justice Department had given the committee many briefings and documents about the Boston case and had withheld only a small group of documents that were ''internal deliberative memoranda.'' He said disclosure would ''undermine the integrity of the core executive branch decision-making function.''

Boston Herald

Devilish deal:
Probers Unveil Memo Showing Boston FBI Protected Killer

by J.M. Lawrence
Sunday, May 12, 2002

Congressional investigators released a "smoking gun" 1965 memo yesterday showing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew informant Vincent "Jimmy The Bear" Flemmi (Joseph Balliro - Represented him too) murdered seven men but still protected him from the electric chair and let four other men go to prison for one of the murders.

"From all indications, (Jimmy The Bear) is going to continue to commit murder," the Boston FBI special agent in charge wrote to Hoover on June 9, 1965, but concluded, "The informant's potential outweighs the risks."

The memo names Vincent Flemmi - the younger brother of Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi - as the killer of six men and of Edward "Teddy" Deegan in Chelsea in 1965.

The Justice Department blacked out the names of the hit man's other victims and the FBI's special agent in charge before releasing the document.

"This is a matter not limited to a couple of rogue agents. This is an endemic problem that goes straight to the top," said U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem), making references to the on-going federal corruption trial of former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.

During a hearing at the McCormack Building in Boston yesterday as part of a yearlong probe, members of the Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House registered outrage over the FBI's handling of informants and vowed to lift the "veil of secrecy" to restore public confidence in federal law enforcement.

"This has nothing to do with who's in the White House," U.S. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Quincy) said. "This is a culture of concealment created over decades and we have to change this."

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton) remarked, "This is one of the worst examples of failure of people to do their duty that I've ever seen."

Investigators called the memo a "smoking gun" in their investigation of New England law enforcement and also released another explosive memo yesterday.

The document shows the Boston FBI's celebrated flipping of mob hit man Joseph "The Animal" Barboza in the 1960s against the New England Mafia was actually greased by Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

Seeking pay raises for former FBI agents H. Paul Rico and Dennis Condon, the Boston FBI's special agent in charge told Hoover the agents, "via imaginative direction and professional ingenuity," used Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi to get Barboza to turn against the mob.

Both agents each received $150 and a commendation for getting Barboza to testify against mob Boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca and underboss Gennaro Angiulo. (Both clients of Joe Balliro)

The government's cover-up for Barboza's fellow hit man Vincent Flemmi allowed Barboza to lie to a 1968 Suffolk County jury about Flemmi's role in the Deegan murder.

In his testimony, Barboza put Joseph Salvati (Joe Balliro's daughter Juliane won a $102 Million Dollar settlement in 2007 for Limone and the three others that were setup - Henry Tameleo was also represented by Joe Balliro - they have not collected one penny to this day because the Justice Dept. is tying this up in litigation by contesting the desicion against Congresses wishes - Limone is under harassment since the decision) in Vincent Flemmi's place at the Deegan murder and also accused three other men who are now widely believed to be innocent - Peter J. Limone, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo.
NOTE: This suit was settled in July 2010 - Paid in Full, plus interest.

Limone narrowly escaped the death penalty and was released last year after 33 years in prison when prosecutors dropped the case. Greco died in prison in 1996 and Tameleo died in prison in 1985.

"The Deegan case was never a quest for truth. The truth be damned. It was more important to protect informants," said Salvati attorney Victor J. Garo, who spent 25 years trying to free Salvati from prison.

Limone, 67, and his wife, Olympia, emerged from the session yesterday in shock.

"It gets worse and worse every day," said the former West End club owner whose lawyers are preparing a $325 million suit against the government on behalf of his family and Greco's family.

"They were all working together. The government went to bed with the devil," Limone said.

Salvati, who spent 30 years in prison before his sentence was commuted in 1997, also attended with his wife, Marie.

"It's a disgrace what they've done," Salvati said after seeing the documents. "I'm just glad we've got the support of the committee to keep digging and do what we have to do to get justice."

The young prosecutor who won the men's convictions in 1968 told the committee yesterday that the FBI hid information from him.

Now white-haired and guilt-stricken, Jack Zalkind apologized to the men and said he never would have brought the case had he known Barboza had vowed never to say anything that would allow his pal Flemmi "to fry," as FBI documents now reveal.

Zalkind's assistant during the Deegan trial, James M. McDonough, testified yesterday that the Deegan jury heard extensive defense arguments accusing Barboza of falsely tagging innocent men.

McDonough also pointed out that the Massachusetts Supreme Judical Court later ruled that a Chelsea Police report, which contradicted Barboza and was not shared with the men's defense, was not enough evidence to overturn their convictions.

The FBI memos released yesterday are fraught with "serious evidentary problems," McDonough noted, explaining the information is mostly hearsay.

But Delahunt, a former Norfolk Distict Attorney, maintained the government did not ask the "hard questions" in the Deegan murder because it did not want the answers and was bent on convictions against the four men.

Limone, Greco and Tameleo all had strong mob connections.

"I understand we have an adversarial system, but it's not a game. It's a search for the truth," Delahunt said.

The committee agreed yesterday not to call former U.S. Attorney Jeremiah O'Sullivan, head of the Organized Crime Strike Force whose convictions decimated the New England mob.
(Robert S. Mueller III was the head of his Criminal Division Prosecuting most of these cases)
Justice Department prosecutors had asked the committee to hold off because they plan to call O'Sullivan as a witness against ex-agent Connolly, whose corruption trial resumes tomorrow in federal court.
(WHAT A SCAM-THEY PULLED OFF ON CONGRESS BY NOT CALLING O'SULLIVAN-They never called O'Sullivan in on Connolly's 2008 Murder Trial just Former US Attorney/Fed. Judge Edward Harrington)

The reform committee will hold additional hearings later this year on law enforcement in New England and will issue a report at the end of its investigation, according to a spokesman.

Unleashing the FBI
'There Would Be No Place to Hide'
Nat Hentoff
Tuesday, June 4th 2002

The [new] guidelines emphasize that the FBI must not be deprived of using all lawful authorized methods in investigations, consistent with the Constitution. —Attorney General John Ashcroft, New York Daily News, May 31
In reality, Mr. Ashcroft, in the name of fighting terrorism, [is] giving FBI agents nearly unbridled power to poke into the affairs of anyone in the United States, even where there is no evidence of illegal activity. —Editorial, New York Times, May 31

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As usual, television—broadcast and cable—got it wrong. The thrust of what they call reporting on the reorganization of the FBI focused on the 900 or so new agents, the primacy of intelligence gathering over law enforcement, and the presence of CIA supervisors within the bosom of the FBI. (It used to be illegal for the CIA to spy on Americans within our borders.)

But the poisonous core of this reorganization is its return to the time of J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence operation—pervasively active from 1956 to 1971—that so disgraced the Bureau that it was forced to adopt new guidelines to prevent such wholesale subversion of the Bill of Rights ever again.

Under COINTELPRO, the FBI monitored, infiltrated, manipulated, and secretly fomented divisions within civil rights, anti-war, black, and other entirely lawful organizations who were using the First Amendment to disagree with government policies.

These uninhibited FBI abuses of the Bill of Rights were exposed by some journalists, but most effectively by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities. Its chairman, Frank Church of Idaho, was a true believer in the constitutional guarantees of individual liberties against the government—which is why we had a Revolution.

In 1975, Church told the nation, and J. Edgar Hoover, that COINTELPRO had been "a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association." And Church pledged: "The American people need to be reassured that never again will an agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers a threat to the established order."

Frank Church, however, could not have foreseen George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and the cowardly leadership, Republican and Democratic, of Congress. (Notable exceptions are John Conyers of Michigan, and Russell Feingold and James Sensenbrenner, both of Wisconsin.)

The guidelines for FBI investigations imposed after COINTELPRO ordered that agents could not troll for information in churches, libraries, or political meetings of Americans without some reasonable leads that someone, somehow, was doing or planning something illegal.

Without even a gesture of consultation with Congress, Ashcroft unilaterally has thrown away those guidelines.

From now on, covert FBI agents can mingle with unsuspecting Americans at churches, mosques, synagogues, meetings of environmentalists, the ACLU, the Gun Owners of America, and Reverend Al Sharpton's presidential campaign headquarters. (He has been resoundingly critical of the cutting back of the Bill of Rights.) These eavesdroppers do not need any evidence, not even a previous complaint, that anything illegal is going on, or is being contemplated.

Laura Murphy, the director of the ACLU's Washington office, puts the danger to us all plainly: "The FBI is now telling the American people, 'You no longer have to do anything unlawful in order to get that knock on the door.' "

During COINTELPRO, I got that knock on the door because I, among other journalists, had been publishing COINTELPRO reports that had been stolen from an FBI office. You might keep a pocket edition of the Constitution handy to present to the FBI agents—like a cross in front of Dracula.

The attorney general is repeatedly reassuring the American people that there's nothing to worry about. FBI agents, he says, can now go into any public place "under the same terms and conditions of any member of the public."

Really? While the rest of us do not expect privacy in a public place, we also do not expect to be spied upon and put into an FBI dossier because the organizers of the meeting are critical of the government, even of Ashcroft. We do not expect the casually dressed person next to us to be a secret agent of Ashcroft.

Former U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter, best known for his prosecution of the Abner Louima case, said in the May 31 New York Times that Ashcroft's discarding of the post-COINTELPRO guidelines means that now "law enforcement authorities could conduct investigations that [have] a chilling effect on entirely appropriate lawful expressions of political beliefs, the free exercise of religion, and the freedom of assembly."

So where are the cries of outrage from Democratic leaders Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt? How do you tell them apart from the Republicans on civil liberties?

Back in 1975, Frank Church issued a warning that is far more pertinent now than it was then. He was speaking of how the government's intelligence capabilities—aimed at "potential" enemies, as well as disloyal Americans—could "at any time" be "turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left—such is the capacity to monitor everything, telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide . . .

"There would be no way to fight back," Church continued, "because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know."

Frank Church could not foresee the extraordinary expansion of electronic surveillance technology, the government's further invasion of the Internet under the new Ashcroft-Mueller guidelines, nor the Magic Lantern that can record every keystroke you make on your computer. But Church's pessimism notwithstanding, there is—and surely will be—resistance. And I'd appreciate hearing from resisters who are working to restore the Bill of Rights.

I'll give you a hint: it wasn't a liberal, a Democrat, a peace activist, an anti-war protester or Fidel Castro.
· Soj's diary :: ::
·
Give up? It was actually Republican Congressman Dan Burton. And he wasn't alone. Republican Congressman LaTourette called Bush's actions a bunch of crap. Democratic Representative Henry Waxman said:
"An imperial presidency or an imperial justice department conflicts with the democratic principles of our nation"
So why were these three men so angry in 2001? Why did a leading conservative Republican member of the House refer to Bush as a "king" and a "dictatorial president" just a few weeks after September 11, 2001?
In December 2001, the House Government Reform Committee was reviewing a number of old cases, some of which dealt with the FBI's actions in Boston over the past 40 years. From 1960-1995, the FBI had an extremely close relationship to a mob being operated in Boston called the Winter Hill Gang. The FBI had two "confidential informants" named James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. The FBI protected these two men from prosecution even as they continued to operate their criminal enterprises, including killing rivals.
Perhaps the FBI's most egregious actions were letting Joseph Salvati spend 30 years in prison for a murder committed in 1965. Salvati was released when a judge ruled that the FBI hid testimony that would've cleared Salvati because the FBI wanted to protect their informants. The murder of a gangster named John B. Callahan went unsolved also because of alleged FBI actions to protect their informants. An FBI agent named James Connolly Jr. was accused of tipping off his informants like Flemmi before impending arrests.
So in 2001, Burton's committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for files relating to these cases and suddenly Bush wrote a memo and instructed John Ashcroft (then the Attorney General) to not deliver the files to the House committee, invoking executive privilege for the first time:
"It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee," Mr. Bush wrote. "I have decided to assert executive privilege with respect to the documents."
Mr. Bush wrote that the "disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions. I believe congressional access to these documents would be contrary to the national interest."
It's worth noting here that the records that Burton wanted dealt with very old cases that were closed. Robert Mueller, the FBI director, had been a U.S. Attorney in Boston during the 1980's but he is not suspected of any wrongdoing in this case (it was strictly an internal FBI operation). So why the cover-up? Why invoke executive privilege?
Furthemore, Burton had also subpoenaed records concerning Bill Clinton's presidency, including why Janet Reno did not order a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton's overseas fund-raising. Any evidence Burton would've uncovered would've been damaging to Clinton, not Bush. So why did Bush do it?
At the time, Burton was absolutely incensed:
''You tell the president there's going to be war between the president and this committee,'' Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who heads the House Government Reform Committee, told a Justice Department official during what was supposed to be a routine prehearing handshake.
''His dad was at a 90 percent approval rating and he lost, and the same thing can happen to him,'' Burton added, jabbing his finger and glaring at Carl Thorsen, a deputy assistant attorney general who was attempting to introduce a superior who was testifying.
Burton also threatened to charge Bush with "contempt of Congress", the only resort he had when the administration blocked his request, but it never happened. After a lot of grumbling and negotiating, the Bush administration finally released the Boston FBI files to Burton's committee, but they weren't made public. Later, in February 2002, there was some public testimony about the long-running corruption in Boston.
At the time, writers were puzzled about why Bush would invoke executive privilege concerning files that couldn't hurt his administration and would potentially add more damage to the legacy of Clinton's presidency:
The refusal by Bush and Ashcroft to turn over the information to Burton is puzzling. Some think that Bush is getting very bad counsel in this matter. Others think that Bush seeks to protect the current FBI Director Bob Mueller who was in the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston during part of the relevant time period; or to keep intact the reputation of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who apparently was aware of at least some of the irregularities in the Boston FBI office's informant-protection program.

But it was actually none other than Alberto Gonzales who recommended to Bush that he invoke the executive privilege. As we all know now, at the time Gonzales did this he was busy crafting legal justifications for the torture of prisoners with John Yoo over at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. And Bush and Ashcroft (with Gonzales' input) were also devising their domestic spying program as well. It seems they had a lot of documents written by the Department of Justice to hide from Congress just after September 11, 2001.

At the time, journalist Timothy Maier seems to have taken an accurate guess as to what Bush and Gonzales were up to:
But more likely the Bush administration simply is testing the waters, something most administrations have done in their first months, says Jim Wilson, chief counsel for the House Government Reform Committee. "There is a desire for fewer documents out of the door because they are withholding on principle" to protect the executive decision-making process, says Wilson. "This is not well-founded in law. It's hard to roll back the clock to before the 1920 Teapot Dome scandal."

Unsurprising to me, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) also guessed right:
"This is a test of Congress to see how much the Administration can get away with," says Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "It is not at all surprising the executive branch would want to operate in secret. The question is, How much will Congress accept?"
Apparently a heck of a lot. But the most accurate guess came from Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore:

Why is Bush trying to stake a claim of executive privilege in two closed investigations in which there is no longer any threat to law enforcement or prosecution? Indeed, the political fallout from any revelations about Janet Reno's decision not to pursue an independent investigation of Clinton/Gore campaign finances could only hurt Democrats. Tiefer and others worry that this may be part of a far-reaching strategy. "President Bush will want to stake out his secrecy powers in cases like these where he can't be accused of covering up a matter of political or corrupt self-interest," says Tiefer.

And it wasn't just Justice Department papers that Bush was busy hiding from the public view. From early 2002:
Bush is blocking the scheduled release of documents under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which mandates that all but the most highly sensitive documents are to be made public twelve years after a President leaves office. Under the PRA, Ronald Reagan's papers were supposed to be released last year.

On January 20, 2001, the first batch (68,000 pages) of Reagan's papers, mostly notes from meetings with advisers and internal White House memos, came up for routine release. It should have come off without a hitch--after all, presidential libraries have for years been releasing documents informally. But the new Bush Administration, fresh from its own Florida election controversy, took advantage of a PRA clause allowing a thirty-day presidential consultation, and thus began what turned into a grand stall. By last August, half a year had passed and still nothing had been released.

This raised suspicions. Since the law already exempted the most sensitive documents from disclosure, why did the Bush Administration have to review the rest for what it said were national security purposes? "It's pretty fishy," says Anna Nelson, an American University history professor who works with a number of scholarly and historical organizations on presidential papers access. "The precautions on 'national security' are extreme. These are not Iran/contra papers."

Bush also got Ashcroft to change how the government handles Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests:
Four weeks after terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft fired off a memo to federal agencies that set the tone for how the Bush administration now would honor the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The memorandum created a level of secrecy unsurpassed since FOIA became law in 1966.

The Oct. 12, 2001, directive instructed federal agencies to stall on releasing documents until a "full and deliberate consideration" of the implications of the disclosure of any such information was conducted. It superseded former attorney general Janet Reno's 1993 FOIA policy that put the burden on the federal agencies to justify any withholding of "FOIAed" documents.

The Bush administration has also used executive privilege to shield Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force. It's worth noting that the details of that group, which likely involved heavy involvement from Enron, have still not been released to the public or

And it's no coincidence that Cheney is involved here. More from Tim Meier:
Bush's reluctance to release records may reflect Cheney's ideas and experience as chief of staff at the White House under President Ford. It was Ford who vetoed H.R. 12471, a bill to strengthen the FOIA, calling it "unconstitutional and unworkable." Congress overrode Ford's veto. And it was Cheney who sought to punish gadfly journalist Seymour Hersh for his investigative reporting on the U.S. intelligence community, pushing for an FBI probe of Hersh and the New York Times.
Indeed Cheney has defended his recent efforts to keep secret his energy records by saying it is time to restore presidential powers eroded by "unwise compromises that have been made over the last 30 or 35 years."

Starting to sound familiar? Unwise compromises about presidential powers? And now we learn that the administration is actively stumping on the issue that the president has the "war-time power" to supersede any law passed by Congress, including FISA which forbids warrantless NSA surveillance of American citizens.

The NSA program is nothing new and neither is Bush's imperial presidency. And hardliner Dan Burton warned us from the beginning, even though now he is defending Bush:

Representative Dan Burton, of Indiana speaks on behalf of Bush's defense and states that, "the liberal media and its liberal allies are attacking the President. The fact is the President is defending the United States of America."
I guess it's ok for Bush to be king sometimes, eh Dan?

About the Judiciary Committee
The jurisdiction of the The House Committee on the Judiciary as follows:

8. Federal courts and judges, and local courts in the Territories and possessions.

12. Members of Congress, attendance of members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner; and their acceptance of incompatible offices.

16. Protection of trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies.

19. Subversive activities affecting the internal security of the United States.

US judge chastises Dept. of Justice
Blasts handling of prosecutor's misconduct

Globe Staff / January 5, 2008
The chief federal judge in Boston has urged the new US attorney general to crack down on prosecutors who commit misconduct and to force Justice Department lawyers to be truthful in court.
Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf, in an extraordinary letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, skewered the Justice Department's mild and secret discipline of Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn in 2006 for misconduct that Wolf said required him to order the "release from prison of a capo and associate of the Patriarca family of La Cosa Nostra."
After a closed disciplinary hearing, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan gave Auerhahn a letter of reprimand for withholding evidence while handling a racketeering case in the 1990s against members of the New England Mafia.

"The [Justice] Department's performance in the Auerhahn matter raises serious questions about whether judges should continue to rely upon the department to investigate and sanction misconduct by federal prosecutors," wrote Wolf, who last July, after expressing frustration with his punishment, took the unusual step of asking the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers to launch disciplinary proceedings against Auerhahn.

Wolf also wrote that "the department's failure to be candid and consistent with the court has become disturbingly common in the District of Massachusetts."

He cited several instances in which civil litigators defending the Justice Department in lawsuits stemming from the FBI's mishandling of fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger contradicted positions taken by their colleagues in the department's criminal division.

Wolf criticized the department's handling of Auerhahn's misconduct during a conversation with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in Boston in 2006 and in a follow-up letter that he placed in a court file last July.

Wolf's latest letter, dated Wednesday and filed with the court yesterday, indicated he was dissatisfied with the Justice Department's response and hoped that Mukasey, a former federal judge and prosecutor, would take action that Gonzales had not. Gonzales resigned under fire in September amid accusations that he removed nine US attorneys for political reasons and then made misrepresentations to Congress.

Wolf wrote Mukasey that he hoped the Justice Department "will soon again discharge its duties in a manner that commands the trust of federal judges and the people of the United States."

A spokesman for Mukasey in Washington said yesterday that the Justice Department will review the letter and respond to Wolf. In October, a high-ranking Justice Department official wrote Wolf that Auerhahn's reprimand fell within the range of sanctions authorized by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility. But Wolf responded to Mukasey that he doubts that office's ability to fulfill its mission.

A spokeswoman for Sullivan said the US attorney first saw the letter and accompanying documents yesterday and also needed time to review them. Sullivan - who has been serving as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives - publicly defended Auerhahn last year as a diligent prosecutor who "understands his ethical and professional responsibilities."

Wolf did not specify what he wants Mukasey to do. But some legal specialists saw the letter as a warning to the Justice Department that the federal bench in Massachusetts will severely sanction government lawyers for misconduct or lack of candor.

"There has been a disturbing pattern of the Justice Department taking inconsistent positions in litigation based upon how it views its interests at the time," said William Christie, a New Hampshire lawyer for the families of two men who were allegedly slain by members of the Winter Hill gang as a result of information leaked by a rogue FBI agent.

Christie, who represents the families of John McIntyre and Edward Brian Halloran in wrongful death suits against the government, said lawyers from the Justice Department successfully prosecuted the former agent, John J. Connolly Jr., for his crimes. But government litigators then denied that the government was liable for the deaths of McIntyre and Halloran in civil suits.

US District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay ordered the government in 2006 to pay more than $3 million to McIntyre's family after concluding that Connolly caused his death. The judge also sanctioned the government by ordering it to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, Christie said. (Robert A. George- "Former Assoc. of Joe Balliro" the same lawyer in this trial Worthington-McCowen Trial, also was one of the Top Lawyers representing the Donahue family.)

Sweet 'victory' for Bulger victims' kin
Judge calls for Whitey reparations
By Laurel J. Sweet
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A fed-up federal judge told the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday it's time to own up and pay the anguished families of a half-dozen alleged victims of fugitive gangland serial killer James "Whitey" Bulger.
U.S. District Court Judge Reginald C. Lindsay called for creating a reparation pool similar to what was afforded the casualties of 9/11.

Sweet 'victory' for Bulger victims' kin - BostonHerald.com
...allegedly whacked. "The judge didn't just put the government's feet to the fire today, he threw them in," said Robert George, one of the attorneys representing Donahue's widow and three sons. William Christie, attorney for Halloran's...
Source: Boston Herald
www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1045909

Wolf placed his letter to Mukaskey in the files of two reputed mobsters, Pasquale Barone and Vincent Ferrara, who asserted in civil suits that they were wrongly imprisoned as a result of Auerhahn's actions.

In 2003, Wolf found that Auerhahn failed to tell defense lawyers that a key witness had recanted testimony about the 1985 slaying of Vincent "Jimmy" Limoli in the North End. That led Wolf to release Barone and, two years later, to free Mafia captain Ferrara, whose convictions in the slaying he deemed tainted. (THIS IS WHEN ROBERT S. MUELLER WAS IN CHARGE OF THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPT. IN BOSTON.)

Auerhahn still works for the US attorney's office and is assigned to the antiterrorism unit.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in Saturday's City & Region section about US Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf's criticism of the Justice Department misstated the subject of a discussion in June 2006 between him and Alberto R. Gonzales, who was attorney general at the time. Wolf and Gonzales did not discuss the disciplining of a federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Auerhahn, as the story reported. Instead, according to a letter Wolf sent to the Justice Department last week, the judge criticized the department to Gonzales for repeatedly taking inconsistent positions in prominent criminal and civil cases involving misconduct by the FBI concerning its informant James "Whitey" Bulger. Wolf mentioned his dissatisfaction with the disciplining of the prosecutor in a letter to Gonzales in June 2007.

Meet the $101.7 million dream team
After 30-year fight, lawyers bask in victory
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | July 29, 2007

They beat the government, winning a landmark $101.7 million judgment last week on behalf of four men who were framed for a 1965 gangland murder in Chelsea and spent decades in prison.

It was a long, grueling battle for the team of more than a dozen lawyers, before they proved the FBI was to blame for the injustice done to Joseph Salvati and Peter J. Limone - (The Lawyer is Juliane Balliro daughter of Joseph Balliro the Former Lawyer for Henry Tameleo) , who grew old behind bars, and Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, who died in prison before being exonerated.

Medford lawyer Victor J. Garo said he took Salvati's case after meeting with him in prison on a dreary, rainy day 30 years ago.

Salvati's family believed in his innocence, Garo said, but he'd lost all appeals and had no money for lawyers.

"They gave me a retainer at the beginning, I think it was $2,500, then I found out they didn't have any money and had borrowed it from family and relatives, so I gave it back."

For the next three decades, Garo refused to take any money from the Salvatis as he dug up secret evidence, found new witnesses, won Salvati's release in 1997, stood by his side as they testified before Congress, and ultimately cleared his name.

By the time Juliane Balliro joined the legal team preparing a civil suit on behalf of the Limone family and Tameleo's estate in 2001, she was a high-powered trial attorney and Limone had just been freed from prison after 33 years.
The case brought back childhood memories.

Her father, prominent criminal defense attorney Joseph J. Balliro, represented Tameleo, reputed consigliere of the New England Mafia, in the 1968 trial that ended with the wrongful conviction of the four men for the slaying of small-time hoodlum Edward "Teddy" Deegan.

"I remember my father coming home . . . the conversation about how terrible this is and the shock that every body was in," said Juliane Balliro, recounting her father's reaction when the men were convicted and three of them were sentenced to die in the electric chair. Their sentences were later reduced to life in prison.

Earlier that year, Juliane Balliro, then a sixth-grader in Melrose, was summoned to the principal's office, along with her sister, for a police escort home because someone had telephoned a threat to her mother while her father was in court giving closing arguments in another case against Tameleo.

The caller warned, "We know where your daughters go to school and we're going to get them," Juliane Balliro recalled.

Her family suspected the call was from Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, a notorious hitman who had been recruited by the FBI to testify against local Mafia leaders that year, and had faced blistering cross-examination from her father, she said.

On Thursday, US District Judge Nancy Gertner, found the FBI was responsible for framing Tameleo, Limone, Salvati, and Greco because the bureau knew Barboza was lying when he implicated them in Deegan's murder. She found the FBI withheld critical evidence from state prosecutors before, during, and after the 1968 trial -- evidence that could have cleared them.

Joseph Balliro's pride in his daughter's achievement, helping prove a truth he had long believed, carried a personal reward for him. "It somehow feels like what she did was right a wrong," he said.

The lawyers who won last week's judgment, included Suffolk University Law School professor Michael Avery, who specializes in police misconduct cases and wrote a book on the subject; Austin J. McGuigan, former chief state's attorney for Connecticut and his partner Joseph B. Burns; Boston civil rights lawyer Howard Friedman; Boston litigators Richard D. Bickelman, William T. Koski, and Daniel R. Deutsch; and Michael Rachlis and Edwin Durham of Chicago. Another lawyer, John Cavicchi, represented Greco for years pro bono and after Greco died, helped free Limone, before leaving the case.

"I have done a lot of very bad police brutality and wrongful conviction cases, but this was by far the worst case I had ever seen," said Avery, who teaches constitutional law and rules of evidence and was nicknamed "The Professor" by Salvati and Limone during the trial.

A state judge overturned the convictions of Limone and Salvati in January 2001 after the discovery of secret FBI documents that had never been turned over during their 1968 trial.

The documents showed the FBI knew that Barboza may have falsely implicated the four men in Deegan's slaying, while protecting one of the true killers, Vincent "Jimmy the Bear" Flemmi, who was an FBI informant.

Tameleo died in prison in 1985 after serving 18 years and Greco died in 1995 having served 28 years.

Avery, who gave up a Boston law practice specializing in civil rights nine years ago to teach full time, said he was recruited by Koski to represent the Limones and Tameleos in the civil case and agreed because "this is too momentous, too important, not to get involved."

With no law practice to support him in a case of "epic scale," Avery said he convinced Juliane Balliro to team up with him. Later, when she became a partner in the law firm WolfBlock, she brought in her associate, Christine M. Griffin, and an army of associates and paralegals that took charge of organizing thousands of documents dating to the 1960s.

"I think it's one of those once-in-a-career cases," said Juliane Balliro, with special significance, not just because of her father's connection to it, but because a terrible injustice had been done.

She said her father, who testified during the civil trial, was helpful in providing details about the 1968 trial that couldn't be gathered from records.

"I felt that we had a reasonable chance of winning the [1968] case because it was just based upon Barboza's testimony," said Joseph Balliro, but the trial hit a turning point when FBI agent Dennis Condon took the stand and vouched for Barboza's testimony.

Last week's victory took "great lawyering" said Garo, with each attorney contributing something, to prove the FBI liable for malicious prosecution, civil conspiracy and negligence.

Garo, who runs a one-man law firm in Medford, recruited McGuigan, a childhood friend, to help him represent the Salvatis. McGuigan had investigated organized crime and FBI wrongdoing as a prosecutor in Connecticut.

"If you've been in law enforcement and you've been a prosecutor, you get sort of outraged by things that happen to people who are innocent," McGuigan said. "There's nothing worse than thinking about convicting somebody who didn't do it."

McGuigan said he felt he owed it to the criminal justice system to commit to the case after learning Salvati was deliberately framed.

The other lawyers said McGuigan's contribution was invaluable because while working as a state prosecutor in Connecticut he had gathered overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing by former FBI agent H. Paul Rico, who had recruited Barboza to testify in the Deegan case.

Rico died in 2004 while awaiting trial on state murder charges in Oklahoma for allegedly plotting with his former informants, James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, to kill Roger Wheeler, owner of World Jai Alai, in 1981.
But the lawyers agreed that Garo, who had lived and breathed the case for 30 years, was the go-to guy about the facts of the case.

Garo said he promised Garo's dying mother in 1988 that he'd stay with Salvati's case until he walked him out of prison.

After persuading then-Governor William F. Weld to parole Salvati in 1997, Garo walked Salvati out of the Bay State Correctional Facility, then they went to lay red roses on Garo's mother's grave.

The story captured the attention of Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG, which is planning a movie about Salvati's life and Garo's crusade to exonerate him.

"Joe and I grew old together in this case, and all we've ever sought is justice," Garo said. "We'll be friends for life."

BOSTON - A man who spent more than three decades in prison after being framed by the FBI for a gangland slaying he did not commit is being investigated again by law enforcers.

State police raided the suburban Boston home of Peter Limone last week, his lawyer confirmed to The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear why Limone's home was searched or what was taken by police.

Limone, 73, and three other men and their families won a $101.7 million judgment last year after a federal judge found that Boston FBI agents withheld evidence they knew could prove the men were not involved in the 1965 killing of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum who was shot in an alley.

At the time of the Deegan slaying, Limone was a reputed leader of the New England mob.

Limone's lawyer, Juliane Balliro, confirmed that state police searched Limone's Medford home Friday but dismissed published reports that he is now considered by law enforcers to be the leader of the Boston mob.

"They've been singing that song for 35 years now," Balliro said. "They were looking, obviously, for evidence of some sort of a crime ... to my knowledge, they didn't find anything. I don't know where they are getting their information from."

"If you are asking me if he is involved in organized crime, my answer to you is no," she said.
Balliro said she does not know what police took from Limone's home. Limone did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

Spokesmen for the state police and for Middlesex prosecutor's office both declined to comment.

In July, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said FBI agents were trying to protect informants when they encouraged a witness to lie, then withheld evidence they knew could prove Limone and three other men were not involved in the Deegan killing. The U.S. Justice Department is appealing the ruling.

Gertner said Boston FBI agents knew mob hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza lied when he named Limone, Joseph Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco as Deegan's killers. She said the FBI considered the four "collateral damage" in its war against the Mafia, the bureau's top priority in the 1960s.

Tameleo and Greco died behind bars, while Salvati and Limone spent three decades in prison before they were exonerated in 2001. Limone, Salvati and the families of the other men sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.

Gertner awarded $26 million of the $101.7 million judgment to Limone, who served 33 years in prison before being freed in 2001. Limone and Salvati were exonerated after FBI memos dating back to the Deegan case surfaced.

For a detective in murder case, a sense of vindication
Former Miami-Dade homicide Detective Shelton Merritt feels vindicated by the trial this month of ex-FBI agent John Connolly.

BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

Shelton Merritt was the first detective charged with finding whoever killed executive John Callahan and left his body to rot in the trunk of a Cadillac at Miami's airport in 1982.

Merritt quickly realized that Callahan's death was linked to shady dealings involving World Jai-Alai, Boston's Winter Hill gang -- and possibly the FBI.

So, today, as ex-FBI agent John Connolly faces his third week of trial in Callahan's slaying -- revisiting one of the darkest FBI corruption scandals -- the former Miami-Dade police homicide detective feels vindicated.

''For almost a year, I worked my a-- off, and it cost me nothing but aggravation,'' Merritt said last week from his mountain retirement home in Georgia. ``But we worked hard and we knew who did it, but we couldn't prove it. The FBI blocked us at every turn.''

Merritt, 57, a Miamian with Tennessee roots, is one of the forgotten players in the saga. His nickname: Grits.
At the time, Miami-Dade detectives were working with the FBI. Merritt grew fearful about agents, who he said pestered him unsuccessfully to see his files and would never allow him to interview Boston underworld figures.

Merritt began to drive home by different routes. He asked that FBI agents not be allowed in the homicide office without an escort.
When the case grew cold, Merritt wrapped his files in evidence tape in the storage room. People thought he had gone crazy, he said.
''It feels like Mulder from The X-Files finding an alien and proving it to the world,'' he said of this month's trial.

Prosecutors say Connolly was in cahoots with gangsters James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi, FBI informants who allegedly corrupted their handler.

Bulger and Flemmi ordered Callahan killed, prosecutors say, because Connolly warned them that Callahan might cooperate with investigators regarding the earlier murder of World Jai-Alai owner Roger Wheeler.

Callahan had pushed for Wheeler's murder, worried that he might be implicated in a skimming scam at World Jai-Alai.

In 1982, Merritt served a search warrant at World Jai-Alai's Miami office, where ex-FBI agent H. Paul Rico ran security and hosted agents. In 2004, Rico was indicted in the Wheeler murder, but he died before trial.

Merritt and investigators seized 10 tons of documents, determined to prove skimming. World Jai-Alai's parent company later sued the detective; the county settled despite Merritt's protests.

His probe eventually fizzled. Resources wore thin. ''You're not going to break organized crime sitting in Miami when they are in Boston,'' Merritt said.

Merritt left homicide in 1987. He retired in 2000, several years after the corruption was outed in a New England court.
Today, Merritt lives reclusively in northeast Georgia. He has no cellphone, no computer. He knows about Connolly's trial through news clippings mailed by family members.

Federal judge praises Connolly role
Calls him key to effort that took down Mafia

US District Senior Judge Edward F. Harrington was the first witness called by the defense in the state murder trial. (J. Pat Carter/ Associated Press)
By Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff / October 15, 2008

MIAMI - A jury of Floridians was offered a different portrait of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. yesterday as a federal judge from Boston took the stand, crediting the agent with playing a starring role in federal investigations that helped dismantle the New England Mafia in the 1980s.

US District Senior Judge Edward F. Harrington heaped praise on Connolly when asked to describe the former agent's contribution to the FBI's fight against organized crime, telling jurors: "It was substantial. It was without parallel."

Harrington was the first witness called by the defense in the state murder trial of 68-year-old Connolly, who is accused of plotting with longtime informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi in the 1982 gangland killing of a Boston businessman in Florida.

In the past month, prosecution witnesses - including Flemmi and two other admitted killers - have portrayed Connolly as a corrupt agent.

But Harrington offered a different perspective. The federal judge, who served as US attorney in Massachusetts from 1977 to 1981 and spent nearly 20 years prosecuting organized crime cases for the Justice Department, took jurors back to an era when the Mafia was viewed as the biggest threat on American soil.

It was a time when FBI agents were told to recruit criminals with access to high-level mobsters as informants.

"John Connolly had great ability, and he had a certain flair that attracted a confidence and trust with underworld figures," Harrington said. "And he had several top echelon underworld figures that he handled who provided the federal government with enormous and critical intelligence which was the basis for successful prosecutions."

Harrington credited Connolly with getting information from informants - including Bulger and Flemmi - that allowed the FBI to get court authorization to plant a bug in 1981 in the North End headquarters of New England underboss Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo. (Joseph Balliro's Client)

The bug "ultimately, virtually decimated the mob in Massachusetts," Harrington said.
But Connolly's handling of Bulger and Flemmi landed him in his current predicament, facing charges of murder and murder conspiracy for the killing of Boston business consultant John B. Callahan. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testified that Connolly warned him and Bulger that the FBI was seeking Callahan for questioning and that he probably would implicate the gangsters in the 1981 murder of a Tulsa businessman.

Hitman-turned-government witness John Martorano testified that he killed Callahan at the urging of Bulger and Flemmi. Callahan's bullet-riddled body was found Aug. 2, 1982, in the trunk of his own Cadillac at Miami International Airport.

Flemmi told jurors that he and Bulger gave Connolly payoffs totaling $235,000 over a decade, and also gave $7,000 in payoffs and cases of wine to former FBI supervisor John Morris; additional cash bonuses to other agents in the Boston office; and swapped Christmas gifts and enjoyed cozy dinners with a number of agents.

During cross-examination, Harrington acknowledged that it would be wrong for agents to take cash from informants, but he told jurors that accepting gifts, and even cases of wine, from informants might be justifiable.

"In view of the fact that the confidential relationship between a handler and an informant is based on trust, confidence, and good will, I'm sure that depending on the circumstances and maybe the duration of the relationships, exchanges of some type of gifts of friendship at Christmas or at birthdays might not be improper," Harrington said.

Harrington also acknowledged that he testified on Connolly's behalf in a prior proceeding and violated a judicial canon of ethics in an attempt to assist Connolly. However, jurors were not told the details of the earlier case because it involved Connolly's 2002 conviction on federal racketeering charges - which the judge has been careful to shield from jurors.

After testifying as a defense witness in Connolly's federal case in Boston, Harrington wrote a letter to the sentencing judge on federal court stationery, urging leniency. He later withdrew the letter, acknowledged it was a violation of the code of conduct for judges, and apologized.
Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990 after 22 years, was convicted of racketeering for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning them to flee before their 1995 indictment on racketeering charges. Connolly is serving a 10-year prison term. Bulger, wanted for 19 murders, is one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted. (WANTED? - NO JOKE - HE IS ONE OF THESE RATS! BEING PROTECTED BY THEM AT A MINIMUM COST TO THE TAX PAYERS OF $1,000,000.00 (14 Years) A YEAR BY A SEVEN MEMBER FULL-TIME LAW ENFORCEMENT TEAM-LOL - THE TEAM IS OUT OF MASS. THEY ARE BASICALLY MAKING SURE ANYONE THAT SEE'S HIM IS DISCREDITED - SO THEY CONTINUE TO BILK THE TAXPAYER FOR THEMSELVES! THE FRAUD FBI UPPED THE REWARD to $2 MIL. On 9-3-2008 the day after I Blogged in the Cape Cod Times - He's alive and well here in Clearwater, Fl. under a palm tree with his FBI buddy RATS!)

While jurors have not been told of the conviction, Flemmi testified that Connolly warned him and Bulger to flee (1-5-1995) just before their indictment. He said he procrastinated and was arrested, but Bulger fled.

Ex-FBI agent sentenced to 40 years in 1982 killing (THE YEAR MUELLER CAME IN AS BOSTON FEDERAL PROSECUTOR IN THE JUSTICE DEPT.)

In a Monday, Sept. 22, 2008 file photo, former FBI agent John Connolly, left, and his lawyer Bruce Fleicher listen to testimony from Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, a jailed Boston mob leader, during Connolly's murder trial in Miami. Connolly was sentenced Thursday, Jan. 15 2009 to 40 years for the 1982 mob-related killing of a Miami gambling executive.

MIAMI -- Former FBI agent John Connolly was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for slipping information to Boston mobsters that led to the 1982 shooting death of a Miami gambling executive.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Stanford Blake imposed the sentence after rejecting defense claims that a four-year statute of limitations had expired on Connolly's second-degree murder conviction in the killing of 45-year-old John Callahan. Blake said a motion on that issue was filed past a 10-day deadline but was probably legally correct - meaning an appeal is certain.

"You can't be convicted when the statute of limitations has expired," said Connolly attorney Manuel Casabielle.

"We think the sentence will stand, as will the conviction," said Assistant State Attorney Michael Von Zamft. "We believe Judge Blake is incorrect in his assessment of the law."

Connolly, 68, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. Under laws in effect when the killing happened in 1982, Connolly may only serve about a third of the 40 years, prosecutors said.

Connolly is already serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for his corrupt dealings with Boston's Winter Hill Gang. Blake said the state murder sentence will run consecutively to the federal term, which is set to end in 2011.

Callahan was fatally shot July 31, 1982, by mob hit man John Martorano, who has admitted the killing. Callahan's body was stuffed into the trunk of his Cadillac and discovered a few days later at a Miami International Airport parking lot.

Martorano and other Winter Hill figures testified that Connolly regularly tipped them off to potential "rats" or snitches within their own ranks, sometimes leading to their untimely demise. In Callahan's case, Connolly supposedly said the former World Jai-Alai president would probably implicate the mobsters in the 1981 murder of an Oklahoma businessman who owned the gambling business.

In return for his tips, prosecutors said Connolly was given inside information by Winter Hill chieftains James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi that led to high-profile FBI takedowns of bosses in Boston's rival Italian-American Mafia. That made Connolly a highly decorated FBI star.

Blake said Thursday that Connolly had "tarnished the badge" through his corrupt dealings with mobsters.
"You left law enforcement. You forfeited that badge that so many people wear proudly," Blake said. "For an FBI agent to go to the dark side is a sad, sad day."

The statute of limitations issued focused on the use of a gun in Callahan's slaying, which provides for an enhanced penalty and thus no time limit on prosecution. Prosecutors argued it wasn't necessary for Connolly to possess the actual murder weapon for the gun enhancement to apply, while defense lawyers said it was an essential element - and Blake concluded Connolly was correct.

But the judge said Connolly's attorneys didn't file their motion on the issue until Dec. 2, well past the deadline of 10 days after the Nov. 6 jury verdict. Blake decided he had no jurisdiction because of that technicality and said he would welcome an appeals court review.
"I made my rulings on what I thought the law required. Anything the state or defense wants to file, they are free to file," Blake said.
Connolly's defense focused on the difficult job of investigating organized crime, on how FBI agents are forced to deal with unsavory characters to win larger victories. Connolly did not testify at his trial but insisted at a subsequent hearing that he had nothing to do with the Callahan killing.

"I never have, and I never would, knowingly say anything that would cause harm to come to any human being," Connolly said Dec. 4.
While Flemmi and other Boston gangsters have admitted their roles in many murders and other crimes, Bulger remains a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Testimony indicated that he disappeared following a 1995 tip from then-retired Connolly that a grand jury was about to indict him on racketeering charges.

The Winter Hill saga was the loose basis for the 2006 Martin Scorsese film "The Departed," with Matt Damon in the crooked cop role and Jack Nicholson playing a Bulger-like Irish-American gangster.

Publisher Information
Note* This page is not part of the opinion as entered by the court.
The docket information provided on this page is for the benefit of publishers of these opinions.

1:02-cv-10890-NG Limone, et al v. United States of, et al
Nancy Gertner, presiding
Date filed: 05/15/2002 Date of last filing: 07/26/2007
Attorneys Jonathan M. Albano
Bingham McCutchen LLP
150 Federal Street Boston, MA 02110
617-951-8000
617-951-8736 (fax)
jonathan.albano@bingham.com

Assigned: 05/15/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Carolyn Limone Zenga (Plaintiff)
Janine Limone Arria (Plaintiff)
Olympia Limone (Plaintiff)
Paul Limone (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone, Jr. (Plaintiff)
Saverio Tameleo (Plaintiff)
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff) (Donahue's wife)
Juliane Balliro
Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen LLP
One Boston Place 40th Floor
representing
Carolyn Limone Zenga (Plaintiff)
-222-
Boston, MA 02108
617-226-4000
617-226-4002 (cell)
617-226-4500 (fax)
jballiro@wolfblock.com

Assigned: 09/09/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff)
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff)
Jennifer L. Bills
Law Offices of Howard Friedman, PC
90 Canal Street 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02114-2022
617-742-4100
617-742-5858 (fax)
jbills@civil-rightslaw.com

Assigned: 08/28/2006 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Edward Greco (Consolidated Plaintiff)
Joseph B. Burns
Hoberman, McGuigan,Freidman, McNamara & Ruberto, P.C.
One State Street
Hartford, CT 06103-3101
(203) 549-1000
jburns@rms-law.com

Assigned: 07/31/2003 TERMINATED: 11/10/2003 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
United States of America (Defendant)
John Cavicchi
Attorney John Cavicchi
25 Barnes Ave.
E.Boston, MA 02128
617-567-4697
jecavicchi@aol.com

Assigned: 05/15/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff)
Carolyn Limone Zenga (Plaintiff)
Janine Limone Arria (Plaintiff)
Olympia Limone (Plaintiff)
Paul Limone (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone, Jr. (Plaintiff)
Saverio Tameleo (Plaintiff)
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff)
James M. Chernetsky
City of Boston Law Department
Boston City Hall Room 615
Boston, MA 02201
617-635-4048
617-635-3199 (fax)

Assigned: 08/04/2005 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Gail Orenberg (Plaintiff)
Joseph Salvati (Plaintiff)
-224-
Maria Sidman (Plaintiff)
Marie Salvati (Plaintiff)
Sharon Salvati (Plaintiff)
Glenn E. Coe
Rome, McGuigan, Sabanosh, P.C.
One State Street
Hartford, CT 06103-3101
860-549-1000
860-724-3921 (fax)
gcoe@rms-law.com

Assigned: 04/22/2004
LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Anthony Salvati (Plaintiff)
Gail Orenberg (Plaintiff)
Joseph Salvati (Plaintiff)
Maria Sidman (Plaintiff)
Marie Salvati (Plaintiff)
Sharon Salvati (Plaintiff)
John M. Connolly
Meyer, Connolly, Sloman & MacDonald, LLP
12 Post Office Square 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
617-423-2254
617-426-4687 (fax)
jconnolly@meyerconnolly.com

Assigned: 09/07/2005 ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff) Wife of Thomas R Donohue
Brody, Hardoon, Perkins & Kesten
One Exeter Plaza, 12th floor
Boston, MA 02116
617-880-7100
617-880-7171 (fax)
tdonohue@bhpklaw.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnote:

Footnote:
Sweet 'victory' for Bulger victims' kin
Judge calls for Whitey reparations
By Laurel J. Sweet
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

U.S. District Court Judge Reginald C. Lindsay called for creating a reparation pool similar to what was afforded the casualties of 9/11.

Sweet 'victory' for Bulger victims' kin - BostonHerald.com
...allegedly whacked. "The judge didn't just put the government's feet to the fire today, he threw them in," said Robert George, one of the attorneys representing Donahue's widow and three sons. William Christie, attorney for Halloran's...
Source: Boston Herald
www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1045909
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assigned: 11/27/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY Representing
Frank L. Walsh (Defendant)
-225-TO BE NOTICED
Edwin Durham
Rachlis, Durham, Duff, Adler
542 South Dearborn Street 1310
Chicago, IL 60605
312-733-3950

Assigned: 07/24/2003 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Edward Greco (Consolidated Plaintiff)
John C. Foskett
Deutsch, Williams, Brooks, DeRensis & Holland, P.C.
99 Summer Street
Boston, MA 02110-1213
617-951-2300
617-951-2323 (fax)
jfoskett@dwboston.com

Assigned: 09/09/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff) (Donahue's Widow)
Howard Friedman
Law Offices of Howard Friedman, PC
90 Canal Street 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02114-2022
617-742-4100
617-742-5858 (fax)
hfriedman@civil-rightslaw.com

1:02-cv-10890-NG Limone, et al v. United States of, et al
Nancy Gertner, presiding
Date filed: 05/15/2002 Date of last filing: 07/26/2007
Attorneys Jonathan M. Albano
Bingham McCutchen LLP
150 Federal Street
Boston, MA 02110
617-951-8000
617-951-8736 (fax)
jonathan.albano@bingham.com

Assigned: 09/09/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff)
Jennifer L. Bills
Law Offices of Howard Friedman, PC
90 Canal Street 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02114-2022
617-742-4100
617-742-5858 (fax)
jbills@civil-rightslaw.com

Assigned: 11/27/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Frank L. Walsh (Defendant)
Bridget Ciarlo
Rome McGuigan, P.C.
One State Street 13th Floor
Hartford, CT 06103-3101
860-549-1000
860-724-3921 (fax)

Assigned: 08/04/2005 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Gail Orenberg (Plaintiff)
Joseph Salvati (Plaintiff)
-224-
Maria Sidman (Plaintiff)
Marie Salvati (Plaintiff)
Sharon Salvati (Plaintiff)
Glenn E. Coe
Rome McGuigan Sabanosh, P.C.
One State Street
Hartford, CT 06103-3101
860-549-1000
860-724-3921 (fax)
gcoe@rms-law.com

Assigned: 04/22/2004 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Anthony Salvati (Plaintiff)
Gail Orenberg (Plaintiff)
Joseph Salvati (Plaintiff)
Maria Sidman (Plaintiff)
Marie Salvati (Plaintiff)
Sharon Salvati (Plaintiff)
John M. Connolly
Meyer, Connolly, Sloman & MacDonald, LLP
12 Post Office Square, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
617-423-2254
617-426-4687 (fax)
jconnolly@meyerconnolly.com

Assigned: 09/07/2005 ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Roberta Werner (Plaintiff) Thomas R Donohue
Brody, Hardoon,Perkins & Kesten
One Exeter Plaza, 12th floor
Boston, MA 02116
617-880-7100
617-880-7171 (fax)
tdonohue@bhpklaw.com

Assigned: 11/27/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY representing
Frank L. Walsh (Defendant)
-225-
TO BE NOTICED
Edwin Durham
Rachlis, Durham, Duff, Adler
542 South Dearborn Street 1310
Chicago, IL 60605
312-733-3950

Assigned:
07/24/2003 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED
representing
Edward Greco (Consolidated Plaintiff)
John C. Foskett
Deutsch, Williams, Brooks, DeRensis & Holland, P.C.
99 Summer Street
Boston, MA 02110-1213
617-951-2300
617-951-2323 (fax)
jfoskett@dwboston.com

Assigned: 11/10/2003 TERMINATED: 07/02/2004 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
United States of America (Defendant)
Mary McElroy Leach Civil Division,
US Dept. of Justice
FTCA Staff
P.O. Box 888
Benjamin Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044
202-616-4256
202-616-5200 (fax)
mary.leach@usdoj.gov

Assigned: 07/31/2003 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
United States of America (Defendant)
Keith H. Liddle
Department of Justice Civil Division, Torts Branch
1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-616-4296
202-626-5200 (fax)
keith.liddle@usdoj.gov

Assigned: 06/30/2004 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
United States of America (Defendant)
Bridget Bailey Lipscomb
U.S. Department of Justice representing
United States of America (Defendant)
-228-
PO Box 888 Ben Franklin
Station Washington, DC 20044
202-616-9356
202-616-5200 (fax)
Bridget.Lipscomb@usdoj.gov

Assigned:
06/27/2005 ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Edward J. Lonergan
101 Merrimac Street Suite 800
Boston, MA 02114-9601
617-371-0430
617-227-7177 (fax)
edwardlonergan@aol.com

Assigned:
06/17/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
John Connolly (Defendant)
Austin J. McGuigan
Rome, McGuigan, Sabanosh, P.C.
One State Street 13th Floor
Hartford, CT 06103
860-246-5048
860-724-3921 (fax)
amcguigan@rmslaw.com

Assigned: 10/01/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Dennis Condon 12 Kingston Terrace Waltham, MA 02541 (Defendant) PRO SE
Ian H. Moss
Posternak, Blankstein & Lund
Prudential Tower
800 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02199-8004
617-973-6146
representing All Plaintiffs (All Plaintiffs)
-229-
617-722-4989 (fax) imoss@pbl.com
Assigned: 09/06/2006 ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED
E. Peter Mullane
Mullane, Michel & McInnes
132 Mount Auburn Steet
Cambridge, MA 02138-5736
617-661-9000
617-661-2915 (fax)
peter@3mlaw.com

Assigned: 06/17/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
John Connolly (Defendant)
E. Peter
Parker Law Office of E. Peter Parker
151 Merrimac Street Boston, MA 02114
617-742-9099
617-742-9989 (fax)
peter@parkerslaw.com

Assigned: 11/18/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
H. Paul Rico TERMINATED: 01/22/2004 (Defendant)
David Plotinsky
Office of General Counsel
U.S. House of Representatives
219 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6532
202-225-9700
202-226-1360 (fax)
David.Plotinsky@mail.house.gov

Assigned: 11/17/2006 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives (Intervenor)
Michael Rachlis
Rachlis, Durham, Duff, Adler
542 South Dearborn Street, Suite 1310
Chicago, IL 60605
312-733-3950
312-733-3952 (fax)
mrachlis@rddlaw.net

Assigned: 07/24/2003 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Edward Greco (Consolidated Plaintiff)
J. Lizette Richards
Fierst, Pucci & Kane LLP representing
Edward Greco (Consolidated Plaintiff)
-230-
64 Gothic Street
Northampton, MA 01060-3042
413-584-8067
413-585-0787 (fax)
richards@fierstpucci.com

Assigned: 11/21/2003 TERMINATED: 10/29/2004 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Alan D. Rose, Jr.
Rose, Chinitz & Rose
29 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02216
617-536-0040
617-536-4400 (fax)
adrjr@rose-law.net

Assigned: 08/22/2002 TERMINATED: 09/30/2002 LEAD ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED representing
Edward F. Harrington TERMINATED: 09/30/2002 (Defendant)
Ronald J. Snyder Perkins, Smith & Cohen, LLP
One Beacon Street, 30th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
617-854-4000
617-854-4040 (fax)

Assigned: 05/07/2004 TERMINATED: 08/09/2005 ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED
representing
Carolyn Limone Zenga (Plaintiff)
Janine Limone Arria (Plaintiff)
Olympia Limone (Plaintiff)
Paul Limone (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone, Jr. (Plaintiff)
Saverio Tameleo (Plaintiff)
Peter J. Limone (Plaintiff)
Wendy C. Weber
Department of Correction Legal Division
70 Franklin Street Suite 600
representing
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Corrections (Interested Party)
-231-
Boston, MA 02110
617-727-3300 x 189
617-727-7403 (fax)

Exculpatory Motion filed 11-26-07! The motion/document speaks loud and clear about DA O'keefe and his office (See link above), ADA-Prosecutor Welsh (Now Judge appt. by Mitt Romney 12-2006 right after this trial) and his Dad former Judge Welsh ("Man of the People" - See link above) of the Orleans Court handled the dispostions in all these cases! Certifying to the Court and Defense that they had handed everything over when in fact they knowingly hadn't - is a VERY BIG DEAL and fits right into the rest of the conspiracy that has been the major part of this crime and case from the onset! See the Exculpatory Motion filed (Link Above)11-26-2007 and the author Peter Manso who has been writing a book about this crime and case discovered much of this exculpatory material was then setup a month later by an errant home alarm going off and then arrested for guns that were out of registration!

"In the aftermath of these filings, this court held several discovery conferences on February 10, 2006, April 7, 2006 and October 11, 2006 resulting in the Commonwealth’s filing of a Discovery Compliance Certificate on October 11, 2006. However, despite these procedures and specific discovery requests, all of the evidence listed in the following paragraphs was known to the Commonwealth about its own witnesses and still withheld from the defendant, bringing us to this point."

"THE WITHHELD EVIDENCE
The following evidence, uncovered through the efforts of journalist Peter Manso during his research for his upcoming novel on the Worthington homicide case, was deliberately withheld from the defense by the prosecution prior to and during the defendant’s trial. This critical information was known to the government, was clearly discoverable, was requested by the defendant yet still withheld from the Court and the defendant by the prosecution.
In what appears to be an unsettling pattern of uncanny commonality, the same investigators, arresting officers, defendants/witnesses and prosecutors thread through all of the withheld evidence. At the very least, this data was undisclosed and was likely deliberately withheld by the same District Attorney’s Office that handled most of the challenged cases. In other words, the District Attorney’s Office must have known about the evidence and there is no possible reason that the Commonwealth would fail to produce such evidence other than with the intent to deliberately suppress it."

"CONCLUSION
The importance of these witness’ backgrounds and the related laboratory evidence to the defense in this case is clear. Frazier and his associates, not McCowen, were the suggested culprits in this homicide as part of the defense and almost all were present at the Thomas Bilbo party in Eastham on January 4, 2002, only a short time before the alleged stabbing of Christa Worthington. The Commonwealth claimed at trial that it also was at this party that Frazier, Mulvey and others, including most of these witnesses, engaged in a violent brawl and then allegedly went home to bed rather than to Worthington’s house, a place well known to Frazier due to his employment at Magnum Movers."

BOSTON -- Controversies connected to the Christa Worthington murder case and trial could affect the outcome, according to a local author.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda (She's the wife of Mob Defense Lawyer Joseph Balliro who the defense attorney Robert A. George in this heinous trial had worked for Joe for six years and the reason for their appearance in this case, crime and trial) reported that testimony in the Worthington murder case could begin on Wednesday. Christopher McCowen is accused of killing the fashion writer in her Truro home almost four years ago.

Three of 14 seats on the jury remained unfilled Tuesday after two days of jury selection.

"The bottom line is this is going to be one hell of a trial," said author Peter Manso.
For the past year, Manso has been doing research for a book on the murder of Worthington, 46, and the trial of McCowen, 34.
"I don't have a precise number, but I'm sure it's 20 to 30 people if not more -- their phones were tapped," Manso said.
Manso said investigators subpoenaed people's phone records, went through people's mail and surreptitiously obtained DNA by going through people's garbage. Manso said his book will not lavish praise on the murder investigation.

"At least 90 percent of the people I've talked to have raised questions about the arrest of Chris McCowen. Many people come right out and say this guy's a patsy. They had to arrest someone, and they arrested this, forgive me, dumb, uneducated garbage man who's black," Manso said.

Manso said McCowen was a drug snitch who talked to police 36 hours after the murder. A year later, he voluntarily submitted a DNA sample that eventually came back as a match. District Attorney Michael O'Keefe announced the charges and they included aggravated rape.

"All the DNA shows is that Chris McCowen had sex with Christa Worthington. Was it consensual sex? Was it rape? I don't know. From what I'm told, the autopsy does not indicate rape," Manso said.

Once arrested, Manso said investigators grilled McCowen for more than six hours while the defendant was high on marijuana and Percocet, and they didn't record a word of it.

"He's an infinitely suggestible guy. He's a guy who has a low IQ. From what I understand, this guy would confess to owning the Brooklyn Bridge if you leaned on him long enough," Manso said.

Manso, who authored the controversial book entitled "Provincetown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape," also won't be writing flattering things about the victim's family, especially Worthington's cousin, Jan.

"Jan had not seen Christa for six months. She lived across the street. Six months prior to the killing," Manso said.
In response to Manso's criticisms of the investigation, O'Keefe said, "These were normal complaints from the defendant that were heard by a judge during pretrial motions and they were denied. That's why we have courtrooms and judges who are more experienced at handling these kinds of issues than writers are."

Mueller was born in 1944 in New York City to Alice C. Truesdale and Robert Swan Mueller.

[1] He grew up outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A 1962 graduate of St. Paul's School, he went on to graduate from Princeton University in 1966, earned a master's degree in international relations at New York University in 1967, and obtained his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Prior to earning his law degree, Mueller joined the United States Marine Corps, where he served as an officer for three years, leading a rifle platoon of the 3rd Marine Division during the Vietnam War. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Following his military service, Mueller earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Virginia in 1973 and served on the Law Review. After completing his education, Mueller worked as a litigator in San Francisco until 1976.
He then served for 12 years in United States Attorney offices. He first worked in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he rose to be chief of the criminal division (PROTECTING THE CORRUPT FBI FROM EXPOSURE WITH BOSTON & NATIONAL EVEN THEN-BARBOZA) , and in 1982, he moved to Boston to work in the office of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts as Assistant United States Attorney, where he investigated and prosecuted major financial fraud, terrorism and public corruption cases, as well as narcotics conspiracies and international money launderers.

After serving as a partner at the Boston law firm of Hill and Barlow, Mueller was again called to public service. In 1989, he served in the United States Department of Justice as an assistant to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. The following year he took charge of its criminal division. During his tenure, he oversaw prosecutions that included Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the Pan Am Flight 103 (Lockerbie bombing) case, and the Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. - (A quote from John Gotti was he couldn't compete with them any longer.) In 1991, he was elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
(Upon George Bush losing his second term, due to a poor economy and the Iran-Contra exposure's and pardoning's, Mueller was out again.)

In 1993, Mueller became a partner at Boston's Hale and Dorr, specializing in complex white-collar crime litigation. He returned to public service in 1995 as senior litigator in the homicide section of the District of Columbia United States Attorney's Office. (Hired by current AG Eric Holder for his first Democratic appointment UNDER CLINTON)

In 1998, Mueller was named U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California and held that position until 2001. Until Bush & Ashcroft, were under possible Contempt of Congress, over all this longterm Boston area Government Corruption when Bush "W" tapped him to be the head of criminal bureau.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Swan Mueller III
Mueller was nominated for the position of FBI Director on July 5, 2001.

[2] He and two other candidates were up for the job at the time, but he was always considered the front runner.

[3] Washington lawyer George J. Terwilliger III and veteran Chicago prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer Dan Webb were up for the job but both pulled out from consideration around mid-June. Confirmation hearings for Mueller, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were quickly set for July 30, only three days before his prostate cancer surgery.

[4][5] The vote on the Senate floor on August 2, 2001 passed unanimously, 98-0.

[6] He then served as Acting Deputy Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice for several months, before officially becoming the FBI Director on September 4, 2001, just one week before the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.

Domestic wiretapping investigation
Director Robert Mueller along with the then Acting Attorney General James B. Comey offered to resign from office in March 2004 if the White House overruled a Department of Justice ruling which concluded that warrantless domestic wiretapping was unconstitutional.

[7] Attorney General John D. Ashcroft refused to intervene in attempts by White House chief of Staff Andrew Card and then White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to waive this ruling and permit the domestic warrantless eavesdropping program to proceed. President Bush ultimately gave his support to making changes to the program on March 12, 2004 thereby defusing a crisis there.

There would be NO OTHER AGENCY that would have had the manpower, technology, staff, millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours to pull what they have pulled off on so many of us while being the TERRORISTS and destroying honest decent citizens lives! Shame on this CRIMINAL organization under the helm of their hellion leader Robert S. Mueller III.

Public Corruption is among the FBI’s top priorities and is the number one priority of the Criminal Investigative Division. Public corruption strikes at the heart of government, eroding public confidence and undermining the strength of our democracy. Investigating public corruption is an FBI commitment as old as the Bureau itself. Indeed, it is a mission for which the FBI is singularly situated; we have the skills necessary to conduct undercover operations and the ability to perform electronic surveillance.

Counterintelligence
As the lead counterintelligence agency within the United States Intelligence Community, the FBI has the principal authority to conduct and coordinate counterintelligence investigations and operations within the United States.

The FBI plays two very important roles in cyberspace. First, it is the lead law enforcement agency for investigating cyber attacks by criminals.

The FBI also works to prevent criminals, sexual predators, and others intent on malicious destruction from using the Internet and online services to steal from, defraud, and otherwise victimize citizens, businesses, and communities.

The Cyber Division at Headquarters manages investigations into Internet-facilitated crimes and supports counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations that call for technical expertise. The Division has developed regional Cyber Action Teams (CATs) to respond to cyber events

he IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism for alerting authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. The IC3 serves the broader law enforcement community and all the key components of the 50 FBI-led Cyber Crime Task Forces throughout the country.

The reason we were denied help or VICTIM ASSISTANCE is because they (The FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III - a Former Boston Fed. Pros. and head of the Boston Fed. Pros. Crime Task Force, former Boston Fed. Pros./BATF&E Dir. Michael J. Sullivan - a former Mass. Plymouth County DA-(Currently, Ashcroft-Sullivan Lobbying Inc.), Mass. AG. Martha Coakley a former Mass. Middlesex County ADA/DA and Former Member of Mueller's US AG's. Boston Fed. Pros. Crime Task Force, (Currently running for the US Senate), and their buddy Cape & Islands DA Michael D. O'Keefe are all friends that have conspired and are treasonous to their oaths and the Constitution to defend and protect against all terrorists both Foreign or Domestic - NOT BE THE TERRORISTS) are the CRIMINALS behind this! In my opinion, the only things these criminals should be running or running for, is a boarder or the green zone in Iraq. A disgrace to humanity.

"The White House" should be more aptly named "The Whitey House" and the FBI Building "RICO Headquarters", named after their other infamous FBI "RAT", Paul RICO.

One question - I remember all the stories about Saddam Hussein and his very sadistic sons - is there really any difference with the way they SLAUGHTERED/ASSASSINATED CHRISTA WORTHINGTON (1-5-2002) on the seventh Anniversary (1-5-1995) of the hiding of their other "Crime Partner/Protected Assassin" James "Whitey" Bulger and Saddams Sons?

"And to make sure they fully understand the magnitude of their oath to defend the Constitution, every new FBI agent visits the Holocaust museum, to see for themselves the horror and injustice that result when law enforcement becomes a tool for oppression."

An FBI "CoIntelPro" Secret - Tweaking or Tickling the wire as TORTURE 24/7 365 Days a Year - By inserting Tones, an occasional male voice giving instructions on how to proceed with a word that was just stated in a "private" conversation, etc. Aberrant noises constantly on wired land lines or cell phones - rings that are just short "bing" ring sounds at all hours of the day or night, opening your lines and inserting digital data tones on wired landlines, opening the land line while you're in the privacy of your own home and using it as a microphone (One-way Intercom), even while sleeping with a TV on and snoring. Talk about Stalkers! There is much too much to cover in this brief expose' and insidious terror and torture many of us continue to endure since 7-2-2005 (Noticeably) - along with in-vehicle stalking in large blacked-out glass trucks and Vans. Like they did to the supposed Anthrax scientist last August. *See footnote below!

Perhaps if the FBI had been doing what they are supposed to be paid for - looking for TERRORISTS, like the shooter at Ft. Hood - instead of saying they missed it because they are so overextended and being overworked - while wasting MILLIONS being the TERRORISTS - that tragedy could have been avoided. This outfit has to meet it's end.

I know NO ONE wants to think this, let alone know it, but as AMERICAN'S We longer have "FREEDOM" or "LIBERTY", that's now only a false sales pitch by so many that wear their lapel pins as fronts, and merely tout these words KNOWING they have let down and betrayed everything and everyone including AMERICA.

Thank you former Pres. Bush for opening up this evil again starting in 2001. Your entire close administration should be brought up on TREASON & TYRANNY charges for ushering in a VILE "Police State" - NO EXCUSES.

The "patroit ACT" sadly was just that an ACT and was really in the name of CORRUPTION and a Rogue FBI Organization THAT IS America's Premiere SADISTIC and VERY CRUEL Domestic Terrorist Organization. This is no different than the Stasi or Hitler's secret police under Himmler!

SHAME ON YOU DIRECTOR MUELLER! THIS IS A SIN TO ALL HUMANITY AND THE GOOD PEOPLE OF The United States of America!

*Anthrax Scientist footnote - the same blacked-out glass vehicle "CoIntelPro" FBI stalking teams, as we have endured. See pdreport.html

"I'd frequently see [the FBI's] cars ... they had blacked-out windows. It was kind of freaky," Natalie Duggan said. "We were kind of wondering what the deal is. We would see Bruce, but we never thought it was him."
The news of his suicide saddened them both. "It is just a very sad day," Bonnie Duggan said. "I never suspected him of any wrongdoing whatsoever, he always was a straight arrow."

"Across the street from the razor wire guarding Fort Detrick, the people living along Military Road would see the strange cars and SUVs with the tinted glass come and go like clockwork."
"At other times, the cars would block a driveway, and residents would ask the drivers to move. Then the cars would vanish for a few days, only to return."

"NOTICEABLE" Day and Night IN-VEHICLE STALKING STARTED On Oct. 18th 2006 - the first day of this trial's testimony. This happened at my FORMER Condominium in Clearwater, FL. and another relatives home, 25 miles North simultaneously.

Dec. 11th 2006 - My buildings Condo. owners hold a building meeting and form a citizen watch group because of the sudden appearance of all these vans and trucks with blacked out glass parking oddly in the wrong directions at all hours in our gated communities quiet cul-de-sac's that both face my End Condo. unit on both the side and back! This scared the entire building of senior citizens.

Trucks and Vans were parked at all times going in the wrong direction, and when its dark they park with the engines going and parking lights on ONLY. This is done to get your attention and let you know they are threatening you and on occasion they would flash their lights incessantly and rev their engines full blast on a power line right of way behind my building. All of these Trucks and Vans when leaving go out the main gate most of the time. Even though this was a gated community no one is stopped from access due to its immense size. The trucks and vans started appearing on Oct. 18th 2006 the first day of trial testimony in this case - some 1,600 miles away of Cape Cod, MA. They were multiple times daily & nightly through Feb. 2007.

After contacting the FBI for the first time by phone booth on Feb. 7th & 8th 2007 - it became periodic but it was always known if I had an appointment for work or even going out if it was discussed via any communications, etc. I'd be followed to the point that I gave up going out, out of sheer fear of not knowing what their evil plans may be. They know all your business and all of your moves if it is communicated via phones or computer. I have many videos and pictures of these ROGUE'S activitities. The first sample video is from 10-25-2006 at 6:20 AM - During the trial. They had a pair of Black & Silver Dodge Ram 1500 Pickup Trucks and pair of Large Silver and Black Chrysler Vans. Through the trial they had two men per vehicle because on a few occasions we could see their outlines in strong light while on the road. There was a few occasions that they used Dark Blue Vans and a rare blue Pickup Truck. The oddest vehicle this rogue VIGILANTE group used was a larger Truck with all MYLAR mirror finished glass throughout and that appeared at two locations on the day our nephew was on the stand on Oct. 27th 2006. Myself and a relative 25 miles away both had trash barrel and the SAME truck issues that day.

A well dressed man in shorts with this truck removed two trash barrels from another relatives Condo's trash room, where I had been watching this trial. After viewing trial testimony from the day before we were concerned that our brother was also involved in part of this and supected they may be looking for "familial DNA" to try to match up to him, considering what we knew and what was coming out in testimony's. Our nephew is adopted and I would imagine that would be known - so our DNA would not resemble his. The second video sample was on the morning of 3-11-2008. I had an out-of-town visitor coming to stay overnight that connected to this case, in a way. The third video sample was on the early evening of Aug. 24th 2008 - I had recieved my first reply from a Congressman the day before, and word was out that I contacted many with packages via UPS to avoid the USPS Mail Fraud, "CoIntelPro" has going.

Update: I abandoned my home with the help of some very nice neighbors and fled FL, under an assumed identity and returned to NYC in late April 2009, after having been terrorized to the point of never returning. After a few days in NYC they sent out a Silver Dodge Charger with "blacked out glass" with several Federal Cowards/Bullies/Criminals to STALK. The plastic covering the license plate had dull black spray paint sprayed on it. I went out while the crowds were thick and non chalently peered closer at it, and got the NY tag number. Others witnessed this STALKING, as well. I posted that tag number on a Cape Cod Times - story forum site in June 2009 relating to this crime and case, and that came to an END. The phone harassment continues to this very day in NYC and FL and the manipualtion going on in other areas, is extraordinary - that will all be entered into a Federal Civil Law Suit. Others in Fl and my building was Stalked on Nov. 5th 2009, while things are being removed from my now former Condo. No one likes to know this is happening in America, but this is no different than what Himmler did to Germany or the Stasi did in Iron Curtain countries.

HUNT FOR BULGER FOCUSES ON FLORIDA - SEPT. 2009 - Where else but CLEARWATER, FL where he lives as a "RAT" along with several others protected by the biggest RATS of ALL - their partners in crime that go by the name of "The FBI"! Fairy's-Bullies-Infidels

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/26/hunt_for_whitey_bulger_focuses_on_florida/

An FBI "CoIntelPro" Secret - Tweaking or Tickling the wire is TORTURE 24/7 365 Days a Year - By inserting Tones- Aberrant noises - rings that are just short "bing" ring sounds at all hours (On PD Report-Audio), opening your lines and inserting digital data tones on wired landlines, opening the lines while your in the privacy of your home even while sleeping with a TV on and snoring. Talk about Stalkers! There is much too much to cover in this insidious terror and torture - along with in-vehicle stalking blacked out glass large trucks and Vans. We now have our very own Forth Reich for America to keep any innocent citizen quiet about Government Corruption. Thank you former Pres. Bush for opening up this evil again starting in 2001. This is in the name of terrorism? This is the Rogue and Domestic Terrorists for which he'd pledged "Oath" to serve and protect the Constitution and people of these United States!

C-Span-2006 - National Security Whistleblowers Congressional Hearing - Russell Tice

COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens, Final- Church Commisson Report
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIa.htm

Legislation To Reopen Hearings Into Cointelpro - 2006
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0609/S00610.htm

The Corbett Report | 2008/02/14 | The Snitch State
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20080214_snitch_state.htm

CoIntelPro - Gang Stalking - New Free Book - Jan. 20th 2009
http://www.gangstalkingunited.com/Bridgingthegap.pdf
"These types of harassment programs are designed to make the target vulnerable, they want to make the target destitute. The secondary goals seems to be to make the target homeless, jobless, give them a breakdown, and the primary goals seems to be to drive the target to forced suicide. These were some of the same goals and objectives used during the American Cointelpro program that was used against
dissidents. It's a useful way of eliminating perceived enemies of the state. Martin Luther King Jr was
one such target. The FBI sent him a note suggesting that he kill himself or they would expose an affair
that he had been having. He refused to comply."

"Targeting can happen to anyone in society. In the past primary targets of programs such as Cointelpro
have been minorities. In Russia it was activist, dissidents, and anyone perceived to be an enemy of the
state. Targeting however can happen to anyone. Individuals can be targeted for being too outspoken,
whistle blowers, dissidents, people who go up against wealthy corporations, woman's groups, (single)
women, anti-war proponents, individuals identified or targeted as problems at these community
meetings, and other innocent individuals."

"The pattern that is unfolding indicates that many targets are people who tend to be
emotionally developed, self-confident, independent, free thinkers, artistic, people who
don't need the approval of others, and those not prone to corruption. They're people who
don't need to be part of a group to feel secure--generally people who are not part of the
herd."

"In his research into the bullying phenomenon Tim Field discovered that those targeted have similar
traits. They were leaders, they had a sense of integrity, refused to join the established clique.
being good at your job, often excelling
being popular with people (colleagues, customers, clients, pupils, parents, patients, etc)
being the expert and the person to whom others come for advice, either personal or
professional (ie you get more attention than the bully)
having a well-defined set of values which you are unwilling to compromise
having a strong sense of integrity (bullies despise integrity, for they have none, and
seem compelled to destroy anyone who has integrity)
refusing to join an established clique
showing independence of thought or deed
refusing to become a corporate clone and drone."

"If these are the types of people in society being targeted for bullying, mobbing, and Gang Stalking,
then can it be assumed that we might not be doing society a favor by eliminating these vital types of
individuals? As this type of person is eliminated via systemic harassment, can we also assume that
maybe less qualified individuals are left to fill key and vital roles in society?"

Ge·sta·po (g…-stä“p½, -shtä“-) n. 1. The German internal security police as organized under the Nazi regime, known for its terrorist methods directed against those suspected of treason or questionable loyalty. 2. gestapo., pl. ge·sta·pos. A police organization that employs terroristic methods to control a populace. --Ge·sta·po adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the German security police organized under the Nazi regime. 2. gestapo. Of, relating to, or characteristic of terroristic police methods or operations.

Please note: This site is for information and exposure purposes ONLY, in hopes that this entire catastrophe is resolved for the betterment of all in the former land of the free and home of the brave.

I do not seek to proffer from such an ugly and criminal disgrace that this brings upon everyone involved, including America.

Personally, I've lost ALL net worth as a direct result of this "Targeting" and Corruption and I'm now personally facing financial collapse, not to mention the emotional and physical effects as a DIRECT result. It has been over four years of 24/7 harassment, fear, intimidation, in-vehicle stalking, telecommunications stalking and destruction, etc. I've borrowed against all assets to try to survive such an attack and if Congress FAILS like the rest of Federal Institutional Government already has, my next and last step is political asylum from hopefully a nation that doesn't harbor, aid and abet state sponsored terrorists and murders, like America does.

This TRUE story is our own and I give copyright notice on this site for any that seek commercial rights to our story in this horrendous American tragedy. Perhaps that could be one way from not ending up in the street dead from total abuse and torture by our own EVIL Institutionalized Government attackers in the FBI "CoIntelPro" Program that is designed to do just that.

NOTE: A NEW BOOK, penned by Pulitzer nominated author Peter Manso, titled (REASONABLE DOUBT, ) that details this incredible travesty of Justice and Corruption, will be Published by Simon & Schuster on July 5, 2011. This book ONLY covers the local aspects of this crime, the crime investigation, or lack thereof, and a trial that was REALLY CORRUPTED at the highest levels of government.

Shawn Mulvey - FBI "Protected Assassin"

THE STATE-SPONSORED

GOVERNMENT ASSASSINS

"SANCTIONED - IN COLD BLOOD"

JJeremy Frazier - MA State Police "Protected Assassin"

God Bless "ONLY" The Honest and Decent People that have integrity in America, the "Truth"and true battle has just begun.

My Stories and documentation are FOR SALE and copywritten. Funds will be used for Defense and support purposes, as I have been FINANCIALLY TANKED by our ROGUE GOVERNMENT, with the intent of my destruction, as well as others, in their conspiracy to silence anyone, in their purely evil way. "CoIntelPro"