Ex-Atty. Gen. Ashcroft Dodges Bullet; Supreme Court Tosses Lawsuit Against Him

John Ashcroft/doj photo

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON — Ex-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft is off the hook.
In an 8-0 ruling, the Supreme Court tossed out a lawsuit against Ashcroft. It overturned a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, saying the former Attorney General under President Bush  enjoyed “qualified immunity” from a lawsuit filed by Abdullah al Kidd, a former University of Idaho football player who converted to Islam.

The court ruled that Ashcroft did not clearly violate the 4th Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

FBI agents arrested Kidd in 2003 at Dulles Airport and detained him for 16 days in three different states as a material witness supposedly for a pending case. He was never charged and never called as a witness.
Kidd claimed Ashcroft abused his power by detaining him as a material witness. He also alleged the arrest was part of a bigger plan by the Bush administration to round up Muslims, regardless if whether they had ties to terrorism.

But the Supreme Court, in a ruling written by Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote: “The affidavit accompanying the warrant application (as al-Kidd concedes) gave individualized reasons to believe that he was a material witness and that he would soon disappear.”

“Qualified immunity gives government officials breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions. When properly applied, it protects ‘all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law’,” the court wrote.

”We hold that an objectively reasonable arrest and detention of a material witness pursuant to a validly obtained warrant cannot be challenged as unconstitutional on the basis of allegations that the arresting authority had an improper motive. Because Ashcroft did not violate clearly established law, we need not address the more difficult question whether he enjoys absolute immunity.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor voted to overturn the lower court ruling, but conceded that the law in this area is not completely clear. Justice Elena Kagan did not participate.

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Justice Dept. Not Budging: Won’t Pay for $750,000 Car FBI Agent Smashed

Latest model of Ferrari F50

By Allan Lengel

 

DETROIT -- A Michigan insurance company insists it’s still not getting justice from the Justice Department.

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department is still refusing to pay $750,000 to a Michigan insurance company for a stolen Ferrari F50 that was recovered, but then was wrecked while being driven by an FBI agent in Kentucky. The Justice Department has refused to release many documents to the insurance company about the incident involving the car that was stolen from a dealership in Rosemont, Pa.
A hearing on the matter is set for June 13 in Detroit.

The Justice Department claimed in a lawsuit filed by the Southfield, Mi. insurance company, Motors Insurance,  that it was immune to tort claims when law enforcement possesses certain goods, AP reported.

The rare car was stolen in 2003 and recovered five years later in Kentucky, AP reported. It became evidence in an ongoing probe.

In May 2009, FBI agent Fred Kingston was moving the car when he lost control and crashed into a curb.

Earl Albert Moore: Suspect In Columbine Mall Bombing Attempt

“The FBI identified a 65-year-old man with a raft of aliases as the suspect in the attempted bombing of a suburban shopping mall on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre and issued a nationwide alert Sunday, warning that he is probably armed and dangerous.

Earl Albert Moore is the lone suspect in the case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. It listed five aliases for him and said he had an ‘extensive’ criminal background.”
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Investigators Looking For Who Planted Pipe Bomb at Colorado Mall

Investigators are searching for whoever planted a pipe bomb among propane gas tanks at the Southwest Plaza Mall in Littleton, Colorado shopping mall on the 12th anniversary of the Columbine massacre.


 The bomb and propane tanks were discovered after the fire department responded to a small fire at the mall. The bomb squad was called to defuse the bomb. The FBI has identified a person of interest, based on surveillance video:

The FBI has released these surveillance pictures of the man they are looking for. The subject is describe as a white male, with graying hair, a silver mustache, wearing a dark colored cap with a light colored logo on the front, gray and white horizontally striped shirt, dark jacket with silver buttons, blue jeans, and dark colored shoes.

Anyone with information about this man is asked to call Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tipline at (303) 271-5615.

Members of the Jefferson County Bomb Squad found two propane tanks and a pipe bomb inside the mall after a fire broke out near the food court. The mall is expected to remain closed until Thursday.

The fire started at about 11:50 a.m. Wednesday. By 11:59 firefighters had extinguished the fire. Firefighters found a suspicious device at the origin of the fire, including two propane tanks and what was later revealed to be a pipe bomb.

Posted by lawhawk

JFK KILLED OVER UFOS!

WASHINGTON -  Secret CIA memos reveal that President John F. Kennedy was killed because he wanted to release the UFO files.

An uncovered letter written by John F Kennedy to the head of the CIA shows that the president demanded to be shown highly confidential documents about UFOs 10 days before his assassination.

The secret memo is one of two letters written by JFK asking for information about the paranormal on November 12 1963, which have been released by the CIA for the first time.

A second memo was released that details the findings of a report – confirming that JFK was killed by government officials covering-up the existence of UFOs and aliens.  It also details the UFO sightings over Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Author William Lester said the CIA released the documents t under the Freedom of Information Act after he made a request while researching his new book ‘A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier.’
The president’s interest in UFOs shortly before his death confirms theories about his assassination  – that the CIA was worried about him making public the UFO files.

Alien researchers say the latest documents, released to Mr Lester by the CIA, prove that the president was shot to stop him revealing the truth about UFOs.  In one of the secret documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, JFK writes to the director asking for the UFO files.

In the second memo, sent to the NASA administrator, the president expresses a desire for cooperation with the former Soviet Union on mutual outer space activities and investigation to aliens on earth.
The previously classified documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to teacher William Lester as part of research for a new book about JFK.
He said that JFK’s interest in UFOs could have been fueled by concerns about relations with the former Soviet Union.

Days before he was killed, JFK wrote to the CIA demanding access to their files about UFOs.

Unclassified: A second memo written by JFK on November 12 1963, 10 days before his assassination, which has been released by the CIA

One of his concerns was that a lot of these UFOs were being seen over the Soviet Union and he was very concerned that the Soviets might misinterpret these UFOs as U.S. aggression, believing that it was some of our technology,” Mr Lester said.

“I think this is one of the reasons why he wanted to get his hands on this information and get it away from the jurisdiction of NASA so he could say to the Soviets, “Look, that’s not us, we’re not doing it, we’re not being provocative.”

But conspiracy theorists said the documents add interest to a disputed file, nicknamed the ‘burned memo”, which a UFO investigator claims he received in the 1990s.

The document, which has scorch marks, is claimed to have been posted to UFO hunter Timothy Cooper in 1999 by an unknown CIA leak, but has never been verified.

Disputed: In the ‘burned memo’ the CIA director allegedly wrote: ‘Lancer [JFK] has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow’

In a note sent with the document, the apparent leaker said he worked for CIA between 1960 and 1974 and pulled the memo from a fire when the agency was burning some of its most sensitive files.

The undated memo contains a reference to ‘Lancer’, which was JFK’s Secret Service code name.
On the first page, the director of Central Intelligence wrote: ‘As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow.

‘Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.’

The current owner of the ‘burned memo’, who bought it from Timothy Cooper in 2001 told AOL News that it shows that when JFK asked questions about UFOs that the CIA ‘bumped him off’.

UFO investigator Robert Wood said he has tested the paper it was printed on, the ink age, watermarks, font types and other markings.

He said: ‘I hired a forensics company to check the age of the ink and check several other things that you can date, using the same techniques you’d use in a court of law.’

By Tap Vann

Suspected Calif. Synagogue Bomber Nabbed in Ohio

Ron Hirsch/fbi photo

By Allan Lengel

ticklethewire.com

The nationwide hunt for a transient suspected of bombing a Santa Monica, Calif. synagogue last week ended Monday night with his arrest in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the FBI said.

The FBI said a citizen tip resulted in the arrest of Ron Hirsch, who had taken a Greyhound bus on the day of last Thursday’s bombing, and was destined for New York, where he has relatives.

“There are at least 10 destinations in between Los Angeles and New York. Additional investigation and video surveillance indicates that Hirsch disembarked the bus in Denver and may have further deviated from his original route,” the FBI said.

The New York Daily News reported that the blast at the Chabad House synagogue “sent a 300-pound concrete-encased pipe ricocheting off the synagogue into a neighboring house where a child was sleeping.” There were no injuries.

Authorities initially thought it was an industrial accident.

The FBI Reveals Documents on the Murder of The Notorious B.I.G.

More than 14 years after his death, the FBI has revealed as part of the Freedom of Information Act details about Notorious B.I.G.'s murder, including information about how he was killed with rare ammunition. The online reading room called The Vault that allows for a search of the bureau's documents has been published last week. Consequently, details on how the legendary rapper has been killed in Los Angeles have emerged. It appears that Biggie was killed with a German-made Gecko 9mm gun, one that is not commonly found in the United States. Furthermore, the documents reveals information about some Los Angeles Police Department officers involved with the case having gang ties, and how they were able to mislead the process of investigation.

Although most of the information related to the murder has been known by the public, The Vault also shed light on items B.I.G. had at the time of the shooting. As shown, Biggie was said to be carrying a plastic baggy with marijuana, an asthma inhaler and three Magnum condoms. That evening, he was wearing Karl Kani jeans, Timberland boots and a Bernini sweater.
To see the entire document, go here.

Ex-ABC Reporter Says He Never Disclosed Name of Confidential Source to FBI; Calls Allegations “Outrageous and Untrue”

Chris Isham/cbs photo

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON – The Washington bureau chief for CBS News says reports that he gave up a confidential informant to the FBI in the 1990s while he worked at ABC simply aren’t true, according to the Huffington Post.

A story by the Center for Public Integrity said declassified memo suggested that the then-ABC reporter disclosed the name of a confidential source to the FBI in the wake of the Oklahoma bombing.

But the reporter, Christopher Isham, whose name was not in the memo, but who was identified by the website Gawker, issued a statement, according to the Huffington Post, saying the allegations were ” “outrageous and untrue” and that he would have talked to the FBI to verify info or warn of a potential terrorist attack.

“This is consistent with the policies at every news organization,” Isham said, according to the Huffington Post. “But at no time did I compromise a confidential source with the FBI or anyone else.”

The news reports said the source in question was Vincent Cannistrarto, a former CIA official who was working for ABC News at the time as a paid consultant, Huffington Post reported.  Cannistrato passed on a tip that ended up being untrue: that the Iraqi Special Services were linked to the Oklahoma bombing.

“Mr. Cannistraro was not a confidential source, but rather a colleague–a paid consultant to ABC News who had already spoken to the FBI about information he had received,” Isham said, according to the Huffington Post.