A review of Chertoff's links to terrorist financiers would be prudent before naming him Atty General

[seafan]

In view of the swirling speculation that Bush will name Michael Chertoff as Attorney General, it would be prudent to review a specific piece of Chertoff's history, which was at issue before his last confirmation as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. It, apparently, was not addressed adequately during his confirmation.


From the Texas State University Star

by: Melissa Johnson and Sander Hicks
January 20, 2005

Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff's ties to the financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks may prevent his confirmation as Homeland Security Chief.

According to a June 20, 2000 article in the The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, Chertoff defended accused terrorist financier Dr. Magdy Elamir.

Elamir's HMO was sued by the State of New Jersey to recoup $16.7 million in losses. At least $5.7 million went "to unknown parties... by means of wire transfers to bank accounts where the beneficial owner of the account is unknown,"� according to the article.

Foreign intelligence reports given to then chairman of the House International Relations Committee Ben Gilman,
R-New York, in 1998 accused Magdy Elamir of having "had financial ties with Osama bin Laden for years,"� according to an Aug. 2, 2002 Dateline NBC broadcast.

In 1999, Magdy Elamir and brother Mohamed were named suspects in Operation Diamondback, an FBI/ATF undercover infiltration of Pakistani arms merchants who sought to arm Osama bin Laden with conventional and nuclear weapons, according to independent researcher and former New Jersey police officer Allan Duncan and taped transcripts with FBI informant Randy Glass.

Mohamed Elamir tried to purchase "small arms and ammunition"� in a recorded telephone conversation with Glass, according to Dateline.

Dateline confirmed that Elamir and his corporations had paid at least $5,000 to Egyptian arms dealer Diaa Mohsen, who Elamir referred to on camera as a family friend. Moshen was sentenced to 30 months for his involvement in Operation Diamondback. However, Elamir was never convicted.

Duncan, who was hired by family members of the Sept. 11 victims to research government ties to the attacks, said the reason Magdy Elamir was never convicted was because he was never charged with a crime.

"By the time Operation Diamondback culminated in arrests in the summer of 2001, Michael Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division and Operation Diamondback would have fallen under his prevue since it was a criminal case and not a counterterrorism case,"� Duncan said.

From 1990 to 1994, Chertoff was U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, during the period when the first attack on the World Trade Center took place.

In October 2001, Chertoff was appointed head of Operation Greenquest, a multi-agency initiative to target sources of funding for terrorist organizations, according to a U.S. Customs Service press release. Chertoff told the Associated Press on Oct. 25, 2001 that, �The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the money we cut the blood supply.�

But this is an exceptionally hypocritical statement given Chertoff�s legal defense of Dr. Magdy Elamir and Chertoff�s knowledge that Dr. Elamir was sending money skimmed from a New Jersey HMO to bin Laden and to the terrorist cell of Abdel Rahman at the Al Salaam mosque whose members Chertoff had used to blow up the WTC with Emad Salem and the FBI in 1993. But just as bad, and perhaps even more hypocritical if not corrupt, is the fact that while also head of Greenquest, Chertoff, the DOJ and FBI impeded and sabotaged the efforts of Customs agents investigating Ptech and the very agents who had set up Greenquest in the first place! Former U.S. Customs chief Robert Bonner created Operation Greenquest just after the September 11 terror attacks to be a high-profile federal task force targeting the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups. But as noted, in October 2001, Chertoff was appointed head of Operation Greenquest. When the Customs task force was folded into Homeland Security, the FBI and DOJ (criminal division and 9-11 team headed by Chertoff at the time) demanded that the White House instead give the FBI and DOJ total control over Greenquest and the Ptech investigation.

Homeland Security officials accuse the FBI (and DOJ) of intentionally sabotaging Greenquest investigations by Customs and Homeland security agents by not turning over critical information to their agents and obfuscating FBI failure to actively pursue terror finance cases. �They won�t share anything with us,� said a Homeland Security official. �Then they go to the White House and they accuse us of not sharing � If they can�t take it over, they want to kill it.�

What further bolsters Homeland Security officials assertions of deliberate FBI and DOJ (Chertoff) sabotage of the Ptech investigation is the fact that even after WBZ-TV finally ran its story on Ptech and after the Greenquest raid, there still have to this date been no charges or indictments against Al-Qadi or anyone else connected with Ptech.

On May 13, 2003 John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge stepped into the cover-up by Chertoff and Bush by signing a "Memorandum of Agreement� between DOJ and Homeland Security, formally taking control of the Ptech investigation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), giving it to the FBI and DOJ, and further giving the FBI unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing investigations and operations. According to the memorandum, "all appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI."

Chertoff and the FBI strongly impeded and obstructed the US Customs and Homeland Security operation Greenquest investigating the Saudi, Ptech and other terror money sources for 9-11. The DOJ, Chertoff and FBI were given control of the Ptech investigation and Greenquest based on the agreement signed by Ridge and Ashcroft. To make doubly sure that nothing is done by the backdoor by Homeland Security to reveal the DOJ and FBI sabotage and cover-up of the Ptech investigation and other Saudi backing of terror finances, Chertoff has now been put in place at Homeland Security to replace Tom Ridge.

.....


Link

From MSNBC, December 10, 2003:

April 9 - While the U.S. military wages war in Iraq, the FBI and the new Department of Homeland Security are fighting their own fierce battle�against each other.

THE CASUS BELLI of this conflict is Operation Greenquest�the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

.....

But as the Greenquest team made headlines, its investigations triggered a bitter dispute within the government. Internally, FBI officials have derided Greenquest agents as a bunch of �cowboys� whose actions have undermined more important, long-range FBI investigations into terrorist financing. Greenquest sources in turn accuse the FBI of jealousy.
Now that the Customs-led Greenquest operation has been folded into the new Homeland Security Department, NEWSWEEK has learned, the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice Department, have demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Greenquest.
One senior law-enforcement official called the lack of coordination between the FBI and Greenquest �an intolerable situation� and noted that the bureau�not Homeland Security�has been formally designated by President Bush as the �lead agency� for terrorism investigations. �You can�t have two lead agencies� conducting terror cases, the official said.

The FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Greenquest investigations�by failing to turn over critical information to their agents�and trying to obscure a decadelong record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.

�They won�t share anything with us,� said a Homeland Security official. �Then they go to the White House and they accuse us of not sharing � If they can�t take it over, they want to kill it.�

.....

The creation of the Homeland Security Department was supposed to put an end to such turf fights. The new department took over a diverse assortment of federal agencies that had various responsibilities for combating terrorism, including the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Border Patrol.

But even while the White House was preaching cooperation, the various agencies that were being folded into Homeland Security were squabbling with the FBI�the behemoth in the domestic war on terror. One prime example of the tension is the investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor embarrassment for the bureau, the firm�s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.

The Ptech case turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Greenquest agents about their own suspicions about the firm�s owners. Sources close to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the National Security Council, Greenquest agents then mounted a full-scale investigation that culminated in a raid on the company�s office last December. After getting wind of the Greenquest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully tried to take control of the case.
The result, sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say Greenquest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising inquiries into Al-Qadi. Greenquest agents dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau was slow to respond to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may have infiltrated government computers.

Whatever the truth, there is no dispute that the case has so far produced no charges and indictments against Al-Qadi or anyone else connected with Ptech. The company has denied wrongdoing.

.....

The same goes for Greenquest�s most highly publicized case�its raids on the offices of a large network of Islamic charities and foundations in northern Virginia in March 2002. Customs agents, armed with federal search warrants, hauled away truckloads of documents and computer files. But so far the investigation, which created a ruckus within the American Muslim community, has yet to yield any criminal charges. Greenquest investigations have resulted in a number of indictments of alleged Iraqi and Yemni hawala money-laundering rings (in Seattle and New York City) although it is still unclear whether these connect to the financing of terror groups or simply involve networks of Middle Eastern immigrants attempting to send money home to relatives.

In any case, Homeland Security officials say they have no intention of giving up control of Greenquest, which a Homeland spokesman said was a natural �fit� for the new department

.....

And while all this was going on, with the noted lack of prosecutions for terror financing, who would be tasked with that, as the head of the criminal division of the Department of Justice?

Michael Chertoff.



Do you think that the Senate will do some homework on this guy now, before rubber-stamping him again, this time as Attorney General? There's also a better than average chance that Bush will shoehorn Chertoff in, as an interim appointment, just for vindictive spite.


How about it, Senators? Media??

[robinlynne]

1. This makes me sick.

[seafan]

2. A kick to disseminate this information. n/t

[seemslikeadream]

3. Chertoff's client Dr. Elamir - brother Mohamed has ties with bin Laden

Chertoff's client Dr. Elamir - brother Mohamed has ties with bin Laden

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3031371

�Did Mohamed give Glass any indication as to who was going to get these arms?
�Never got a chance to ask him,� says Glass.
Glass says federal agents told him to drop the matter.
So, what happened to the case? �Nothing,� says Glass.
There was no follow-up. �No,� says Glass.
Was this a missed opportunity? �Hundred percent,� says Glass.
And Randy Glass doesn�t know the half of it, because that same intelligence report that talks about Dr. Elamir also names his brother Mohamed as having ties to Osama bin Laden.� (1)

...

The suspects named in Operation Diamondback are now known to have had ties to AQ Khan�s nuclear weapons network operating out of Pakistan. This info was not known during the operation by the ATF and FBI Agents who worked on the case. Dateline NBC revealed this information on January 14, 2005. ATF Agent Dick Stoltz who supervised Operation Diamondback had this to say:

�In the summer of 1999, a group of illegal weapons dealers were meeting at a warehouse in Florida, their conversations recorded by federal investigators. One of the men, from Pakistan, was seeking technology for nuclear weapons. Who did he say he was working for?
Dick Stoltz: �Dr. Abdul Khan.�
Chris Hansen: �A.Q. Khan.�
Dick Stoltz: �A.Q. Khan.�
Former federal undercover agent Dick Stoltz was posing as a black market arms dealer.
Hansen: �Did you realize what you had at the time?�
Stoltz: �No. We didn't.�
But now he does -- because A.Q. Khan is considered, by some, to be the most dangerous man in the world. Why? Because Dr. Khan has peddled nuclear weapons technology to some of the countries the United States considers most dangerous, and some accepted his offers.�

I find it very interesting that Michael Chertoff, the man tapped to cut off the flow of finances to known terrorists, had in fact represented a man from 1998-2000 who allegedly had ties to Osama Bin Laden and may have sent millions of dollars to him.

I also find it interesting, that while Michael Chertoff served as Assistant United States Attorney and then United States Attorney for New Jersey from 1987 to 1994, that terrorist acts, including the first World Trade Center bombing, were perpetrated under his watch and were fueled from a mosque in Jersey City that was never shut down and still exists today. Chertoff�s former client, Dr. Magdy Elamir, is known to have supported the mosque financially while having suspected ties to Osama Bin Laden. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 bombing, just happens to be the nephew of the 9-11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

more
http://www.opednews.com/duncan_013005_chertoff_questions.htm

[seemslikeadream]

4. Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2951935

Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

Remember Ptech? That's the Boston software firm financed by Saudi businessman Yassin Al-Qadi, who also happens to be an al Qaeda bagman, whose clients happened to include numerous sensitive US federal branches and agencies, including the FAA, the FBI, the military and the White House.

A little background, from the mainstream, even, thanks to WBZ-TV:

Joe Bergantino, a reporter for WBZ-TV's investigative team, was torn. He could risk breaking a story based on months of work investigating a software firm linked to terrorism, or heed the government's demand to hold the story for national security reasons. In mid-June, Bergantino received a tip from a woman in New York who suspected that Ptech, a computer software company in Quincy, Mass., had ties to terrorists. Ptech specialized in developing software that manages information contained in computer networks.

Bergantino's investigation revealed that Ptech's clients included many federal governmental agencies, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, NATO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even the White House.

"Ptech was doing business with every federal government in defense and had access to key government data," Bergantino said.

...

Bergantino was ready to air the story by September, but the government had different plans. Federal authorities told Bergantino not to air the story because it would jeopardize their investigation and would threaten national security. According to federal authorities, documents would be shredded and people would flee if we ran the story, Bergantino said. But Bergantino claims the government's demand to hold off on the story was merely a pretext.

In October 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order freezing the assets of individuals linked to terrorism. According to Bergantino, the list identified Saudi Arabian businessman Yassin Al-Qadi as a key financial backer of Osama Bin Laden. As it turns out, Bergantino said, Al-Qadi also is the chief financier of Ptech. The government failed to investigate Ptech in October 2001 and didn't start it's investigation until August 2002 when WBZ-TV's investigation called attention to Ptech.

Bergatino's tipster was Indira Singh, who has said she recognizes the separate command and control communications system Mike Ruppert describes Dick Cheney to have been running on September 11th as having "the exact same functionality I was looking to utilize for Ptech."

Now, how does Chertoff figure in the Ptech story? It goes back to the turf war of two years ago over Operation Greenquest, "the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups." The aggressive, Customs-led task force was folded into Homeland Security, sending both the FBI and its minders at the Department of Justice into a tizzy. They "demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Greenquest."

Now, consider this, also from Newsweek:

The FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Greenquest investigations � by failing to turn over critical information to their agents�and trying to obscure a decade-long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.

...

One prime example of the tension is the investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor embarrassment for the bureau, the firm�s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.

The Ptech case turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Greenquest agents about their own suspicions about the firm�s owners. Sources close to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the National Security Council, Greenquest agents then mounted a full-scale investigation that culminated in a raid on the company�s office last December. After getting wind of the Greenquest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully tried to take control of the case.

The result, sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say Greenquest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising inquiries into Al-Qadi. Greenquest agents dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau was slow to respond to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may have infiltrated government computers.

(And still, there are no charges or indictments against Al-Qadi or Ptech.)

The turf war was won on May 13, 2003, when John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge signed a "Memorandum of Agreement between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, giving the FBI "unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing investigations and operations."

Several seasoned government agents fear for the nation�s security should the FBI be tackling most terrorism cases, as their ineptitude in preventing terrorism has been established time and time again. Yet, the memorandum between Ashcroft and Ridge places the FBI in an incredibly powerful position over Homeland Security. According to the memorandum, "all appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI."

Well, no reason to fear now, now that Michael Chertoff is heading up Homeland Security. Right?

[seemslikeadream]

5. More on Chertoff

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4770157


More on Chertoff
Posted by snot on Thu Sep-15-05 01:04 AM

I found the info on Chertoff below by googling "mark lombardi" bcci chertoff.

In case you haven't heard of Lombardi, he was an artist who, back in the early 90's, started making beautiful, spidery charts of the relationships among the Bushes, the Bin Ladins, BCCI et al. He made his charts based on vast files of accumulated index cards using articles culled from the media and public records. He was found dead in his apartment and ruled a suicide. "The byzantine saga of BCCI's demise is plotted in the drawing that is perhaps Lombardi's masterwork, BCCI-ICIC-FAB, c. 1972-1991, (4th Version), 1996-2000. Unveiled in the landmark P.S. 1 exhibition "Greater New York" in 2000, this piece signaled Lombardi's arrival at the cusp of art world fame; it is now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum. A wall-size panel schematizing twenty years of suspect alliances amongst scores of players, BCCI-ICIC-FAB� was the last major work the artist made before his death." (http://www.wburg.com/0202/arts/lombardi.html ).

The catalogue of Lombardi's work entitled "Global Networks" has on it another BCCI-related chart, which includes Bush Jr., Lloyd Bentsen, James Bath, Harken Energy, Harvard Endowment, Bush Sr., Osama Bin Ladin, John Connally, Saudi Bank Paris, the RNS, BCCI, various Bass bros., and lots of sheiks and oil cos. These parties are connected by various kinds of relationships: ownership, loans, fellow-board-members, etc. (Sorry, I like art and couldn't resist.)

Here's the info I found by googling lombardi and chertoff (from http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/01/michael-chertoff-and-sabotage-of-ptech.html ):

Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation
Remember Ptech? That's the Boston software firm financed by Saudi businessman Yassin Al-Qadi, who also happens to be an al Qaeda bagman, whose clients happened to include numerous sensitive US federal branches and agencies, including the FAA, the FBI, the military and the White House.

A little background, from the mainstream, even, thanks to WBZ-TV:

Joe Bergantino, a reporter for WBZ-TV's investigative team, was torn. He could risk breaking a story based on months of work investigating a software firm linked to terrorism, or heed the government's demand to hold the story for national security reasons. In mid-June, Bergantino received a tip from a woman in New York who suspected that Ptech, a computer software company in Quincy, Mass., had ties to terrorists. Ptech specialized in developing software that manages information contained in computer networks.

Bergantino's investigation revealed that Ptech's clients included many federal governmental agencies, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, NATO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even the White House.

"Ptech was doing business with every federal government in defense and had access to key government data," Bergantino said.

...

Bergantino was ready to air the story by September, but the government had different plans. Federal authorities told Bergantino not to air the story because it would jeopardize their investigation and would threaten national security. According to federal authorities, documents would be shredded and people would flee if we ran the story, Bergantino said.

But Bergantino claims the government's demand to hold off on the story was merely a pretext.

In October 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order freezing the assets of individuals linked to terrorism. According to Bergantino, the list identified Saudi Arabian businessman Yassin Al-Qadi as a key financial backer of Osama Bin Laden. As it turns out, Bergantino said, Al-Qadi also is the chief financier of Ptech. The government failed to investigate Ptech in October 2001 and didn't start it's investigation until August 2002 when WBZ-TV's investigation called attention to Ptech.

Even if Ptech was unaware that the President's October 2001 order contained the name of its chief financier, documents seized in a March 2002 government raid revealed Ptech's connections with another organization linked to terrorism, Bergantino said. And again, the government failed to investigate Ptech.

Bergatino's tipster was Indira Singh, who has said she recognizes the separate command and control communications system Mike Ruppert describes Dick Cheney to have been running on September 11th as having "the exact same functionality I was looking to utilize Ptech."

Now, how does Chertoff figure in the Ptech story? It goes back to the turf war of two years ago over Operation Greenquest, "the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups." The aggressive, Customs-led task force was folded into Homeland Security, sending both the FBI and its minders at the Department of Justice into a tizzy. They "demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Greenquest."

Now, consider this, also from the two-year-old Newsweek:

The FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Greenquest investigations�by failing to turn over critical information to their agents�and trying to obscure a decade-long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.

...

One prime example of the tension is the investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor embarrassment for the bureau, the firm�s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.

The Ptech case turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Greenquest agents about their own suspicions about the firm�s owners. Sources close to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the National Security Council, Greenquest agents then mounted a full-scale investigation that culminated in a raid on the company�s office last December. After getting wind of the Greenquest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully tried to take control of the case.

The result, sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say Greenquest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising inquiries into Al-Qadi. Greenquest agents dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau was slow to respond to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may have infiltrated government computers.

Whatever the truth, there is no dispute that the case has so far produced no charges and indictments against Al-Qadi or anyone else connected with Ptech. The company has denied wrongdoing.

The turf war was won on May 13, 2003, when John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge signed a "Memorandum of Agreement bet7ween the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, giving the FBI "unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing investigations and operations."

Several seasoned government agents fear for the nation�s security should the FBI be tackling most terrorism cases, as their ineptitude in preventing terrorism has been established time and time again. Yet, the memorandum between Ashcroft and Ridge places the FBI in an incredibly powerful position over Homeland Security. According to the memorandum, "all appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI."

Well, no reason to fear now, now that Michael Chertoff is heading up Homeland Security. Right?

Also, a noteworthy admission today from the Department of Justice, released in a "37-page, unclassified summary of a broader, 100-page internal review over Edmonds' case":

From Associated Press:

Evidence and other witnesses support complaints by a fired FBI contract linguist who alleged shoddy work and possible espionage within the bureau's translator program in the months after the September 2001 terror attacks, according to a report Friday by the senior oversight official at the Justice Department.

The department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, said the allegations by former translator Sibel Edmonds "raised substantial questions and were supported by various pieces of evidence." Fine said the FBI still has not adequately investigated the sensational claims.

A show of hands: how many have heard US cable news whisper, even once, the name "Sibel Edmonds"? I have. Once. It was about the time of Edmonds' press conference last Spring, held between sessions of Thomas Kean's 9/11 Commission. Paul Begalia, the designated liberal of CNN's Crossfire, gingerly raised her more reasonable-to-mainstream charges. (At least, those of which John Ashcroft's gag order permits her to speak.) Tucker Carlson, as if on cue, called her a "conspiracy theorist" and, I seem to recall, a "nutjob."

And according to CNN, that's the last we've heard of her.

Naturally, neither Sibel Edmonds nor Indira Singh, nor Ptech, warrant a mention in the official 9/11 Commission report. Though Edmonds is gagged, Singh did give testimony to the 9/11 Citizens' Commission, Sept 9, 2004 in New York. She read an open letter from Edmonds, and added "what I have uncovered in Ptech connects with some of the things that she has discovered. Sibel is not allowed to disclose content but she can ask me questions. I know some of the things that she mentioned there connect directly to what I discovered."

Further:

INDIRA SINGH: I did a number of things in my research and when I ran into the drugs I was told that if I mentioned the money to the drugs around 9/11 that would be the end of me. That is a current threat that I�m under and therefore I will speak out about the drugs at another forum.

I did not expect the Kean Commission to go anywhere near the FBI and Ptech. But I hope all Americans will demand answers regarding the FBI and Ptech. I would like to leave you with this one question. Not only why is Ptech still operating but why did Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff state that they cannot differentiate between terrorism, organized crime and drug dealing and is that the reason the Kean Commission will not make terrorism financing a priority in the future?

...

Ptech was with Mitre Corporation in the basement of the FAA for two years prior to 9/11. Their specific job is to look at interoperability issues the FAA had with NORAD and the Air Force in the case of an emergency. If anyone was in a position to know that the FAA, that there was a window of opportunity or to insert software or to change anything it would have been Ptech along with Mitre. And that ties right back to Michael Ruppert�s information.... The functionality that Michael is claiming that Dick Cheney utilized is the exact same functionality I was looking to utilize Ptech for in the bank. I was looking to set up a shadow surveillance system on everything going on, every transaction and the ability to backdoor, to look at information unobtrusively and to backdoor intelligent agents out there to do things that other people would not be aware of. To stop� in risk the whole shift is from bad things going on and finding it after the fact to preventing it from happening. So we were looking for patterns and have the intervention in there. So we were looking for interventive software, something that would stop. What Mike Ruppert is referring to is exactly the same kind of functionality�surveillance and intervention.

Another show of hands: have you heard anything like that, ever, on US cable news?


posted by Jeff at 1:29 PM
9 Comments:

Spooked said...
What a tangled web. Clearly ptech represent some nexus between the government and terorism that must not be revealed, and Chertoff is just the man to cover it up. I was reading an article about him earlier and it seems his whole career has been about covering up government secrets. I guess DHS is the perfect place for him then.

As far as Sibel Edmonds, I know she was slated to go on Paula Zahn, on CNN-- I know they did mention her name in a promo. I'm not sure if her segment ever aired though-- but I think it did. Edmonds is very attractive and I'm sure that swayed the CNN producers some. I saw a segment with Edmonds on Democracy Now right after the 9/11 commission report came out, and she was serious eye candy.

10:46 PM
Anonymous said...
Great article. Slowly the dots connect.

11:31 PM
Anonymous said...
Anonymus One,this reminds me of Billy Idle's album Cyber Punk,in the introduction he say's, information is the new currency,power.We find our selfs at the mercy of the news whores.The worst part is that most americans wouldn't belive this story if you hit them over the head with it.Oh,I did see Tim Russet ask Keen and Hamelton if they where going to talk a woman named Sible Edmonds,and it looked to me like both of their jaws hit the foor about the same time. Cover ups aren't easy, and this baby is starting to be get bigger than anyone could have ever thought,where is a Mark Lombardi when you need one,I don't think he could find a canvas to fit all these guys on,the octopus has taken over,later.

9:34 AM
bin'dare said...
Ptech may well have been a CIA asset but it certainly was not an example of "Al-Queda terrorist" infiltrating american government. Yet that is what Indira Singh claimed initially and in the process destroyed a rather promising company. Why? Was it because it was founded and run by a muslim with a number of muslim workers? That is certainly what gave the accusation traction.

Now she claims Ptech's software is the type that Ruppert says Cheney used on 9/11. How did she recognize it? she says: "I was looking to set up a shadow surveillance system on everything going on, every transaction and the ability to backdoor, to look at information unobtrusively and to backdoor intelligent agents out there to do things that other people would not be aware of." She is either lying, and if not, what the fuck is a consultant for a bank doing creating backdoor intelligent agents (i'm assuming these are software agents, not the physical thing)?

She stinks to high hell.
In response to the following headline she said "I am sure the families of the victims of 9/11 will be glad to hear that."

Rumored links to terrorism doomed business: But owner of former Quincy company has no hard feelings

QUINCY - The Marina Bay software company raided by federal agents in late 2002 has become a ��virtual company'' with no offices or staff.
Publicity about a Customs Service raid on Ptech's headquarters made it impossible for the 10-year-old company to attract new clients, CEO Oussama Ziade said yesterday.
So it laid off the last of its 50-person work force in October, shuttered its office, and now markets its technology through a third party
(more)
http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/05/14/news/news04.txt

5:42 PM
Spooked said...
bin'dare-- you may be right about ptech and you've expressed doubts about Indira Singh before. What's your take on her? Is she simply full of it or a disinfo agent (or both)?

10:05 PM
bin'dare said...
spooked: i posted a longish piece on Indira Singh, it has not yet appeared. If it is still not here later, i will try to post it again tonight.

3:22 PM
bin'dare said...
The bottom line is this: Indira Singh has publicly called Ptech "Effectively an Al Qaeda corporate cell", if this is true then Al-Qaeda is for real (as in wanting to penetrate america to bomb it), is not US (as in government) connected, and the Saudi's did 9-11 because they financed Al-Qaeda. This is not our reading of the situation, so why would she say this, and why would she be supported in saying it?

I do not know the answer, but i will lay out what i know of her (if there is any interest, i can supply the citations later). She is at the nexus of a number of important 9/11 strands so there may well be a lot more to her story; it is unfortunate that we do not have much info on her.

On the morning of 9/11, Singh had two things on her mind: she was scheduled for a risk assessment meeting at the WTC and she was on call as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). She was running late and was worried about being late for the meeting.

When she fot news of the attacks she called her company (i assume JP Morgan) to say there was an emergency and then went to join the rescue as an EMT. Her particular pre-assignment (the reason she was on call) was for triage. (Triage is were victums are evaluated and sorted by immediacy of treatment.) There is a photo of her during the rescue altho I have not seen it.

In early december, she gives an interview with UPI decrying the deterioration of her health, before the attacks "she was a mountain climber and a pilot and in the top physical condition of her life but since then she has a cough, onset asthma, chest pain and headaches that won't quit". Apparently she had left her windows open and the dust had got in. By summer of 2004, she is accusing the government of lying about contamination, about the toxicity of the dust, and is a regular at community meetings. She believes the original 9/11 dust is still in her apartment and hired (in 2004) an environmental scientist to prove it.

During interviews, Singh would identify herself as a "risk architect", a position that does not exist (as best i can tell). I think she was a consultant with/for JP Morgan on "risk assesment": financial risk management can be defined as practices by which a firm optimizes the manner in which it takes financial risk. It got tricky in the late 90's because companies were combining financial risk management, insurance purchasing, and contingency planning into a single business unit, that is, merging finance and insurance. A number of financial scandals arising out of this combination were looming, Enron was just the tip of the iceberg.

Singh says she consulted with many companies and government agencies including DoD and DARPA, but is rather vague about what she actually did. The only thing i infer is that she had a relatively high security clearance. I should note that she says she is a lifetime New Yorker, she does not speak with a foreign accent, but I can find nothing about her prior to 2001.

She began interacting with Ptech in the spring of 2002. She writes to FrontPage magazine (a rabid anti-muslim, rabib pro-zionist, rabib pro-likud site) in jan 2003 that "My thanks to Stephen Schwartz whose book had not been published when I was trying to put the Ptech pieces together between May and August 2002". Schwartz was big on Operation GreenQuest, Saudi's and Wahhabbi's. She says "Ptech, the facts, the exposures, the rationale, the patterns and story those facts tell are explained only by the existence of something like Mr. Schwartz describes".

We now know that no terrorists have been successfully tried (in america) for money laundering, not a single one.

My gut feeling is Indira Singh bought into the muslim terrorist thing at the beginning, but is confused, and some people may be taking advantage of that. She recently said "I hold real data implicating the Bush Administration in the events of 9/11. For me to do something with it, I have to leave, if only to be able to breathe". She combines 9/11 conspiracy with her health and well being.

7:45 PM
Anonymous said...
have heard rumors of promis in ptech, if faa and norad were using this software on 911 they were in way over their head, is chertoff a jew

8:08 PM


Speak of the Devil.......
Posted by nonny on Thu Sep-15-05 07:42 PM

Bush's DHS pick Chertoff involved in false flag U.S. state terror: 1993-2001's WTC hits

I'm not sure where to start and pick out a few paragraphs of this...


1. 1993's connections to Chertoff being an attorney for an Osama bin Laden (i.e,. the cover for the CIA = al-CIAda) terrorism financier MAGDY ELAMIR connected with the 1993 WTC hits and the mosque where the false flagger agents were recruited. Interesting that hardcore rabbi Zionist Chertoff is a defense attorney for a Muslim terrorist, eh? He sure must see some important benefit for his friends, in his view, to support the people involved in terrorism hits on the U.S

2. 1999 Project Dimondback connection with MAGDY ELAMIR & CHERTOFF once more, where ELAMIR attempts to get nuclear technology to bin Laden. Despite this, Chertoff makes sure that Elamir AVOIDS ALL CHARGES despite being caught red handed.

3. Chertoff being THE ONE who let all the 100s of 9-11 connected ZIONIST SPIES LEAVE THE U.S. despite failing their lie detector tests.





January 23, 2005
Michael Chertoff, Homeland Nominee Aided a 911 Terrorist

As incredible as this news may seem, it has now been revealed that the
nominee of President Bush for the new Secretary of Homeland Security,
Michael Chertoff, has ties with a man suspected of financing the 911
attacks, Dr. Magdy Elamir. There is also convincing evidence that Chertoff
as head of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Justice Department shielded
this financier of 911 from prosecution in a terrorist case.

The Record newspaper of Bergen County, New Jersey on June 20, 2000 shows
that Chertoff defended Magdy Elamir who was sued by the State of New
Jersey for $16.7 million dollars in losses. Over $5.7 million went to
unknown partiesby means of wire transfers to bank accounts where the
beneficial owner of the account is unknown.

Who is Elamir Magdy, Chertoffs important client? On the NBC program,
Dateline, on August 2, 2002, Rep. Ben Gilman, R-NY, of the House
International Relations Committee was quoted as saying in 1998 that Magdy
Elamir had financial ties with Osama bin Laden for years.

In fact, Elamir even had strong connections with the first World Trade
Center bombing in 1993.




Chertoff was one of the chief architects of the Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act, also known as the International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001.

Chertoff was then nominated to the Third Circuit U.S Court of Appeals in June 2003. Though there is no formal career path for federal judges, it is common for appellate judges to have served as district judges prior to appointments, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

Despite having never served in the judiciary, Chertoff was made a federal judge whose jurisdiction includes Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.

After 19 months, President Bush nominated Chertoff to the position of Secretary of Homeland Security.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a government advocacy watchdog agency, has noticed Chertoff's advancement from Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice to Secretary of Homeland Security nominee over the past four years.

"It's an exceptional rise to power," said Fitton.


much more at link
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/01/309109.shtml


A Legal Storm Trooper

Chertoff No Friend of Immigrants

By TOM BARRY

Silver City, New Mexico

Michael Chertoff, who replaced Tom Ridge as the administration's new chief of the homeland security department, has been praised by the president as a "brilliant thinker" and a tough prosecutor.

But his record on immigration cases as an appeals court judge and head of the Justice Department's criminal division under Attorney General John Ashcroft shows an anti-immigrant bias that has many human rights advocates worried.

As Homeland Security director, Chertoff is now in charge of determining the color of the day's terror alert and overseeing what the administration has described as the "home front" in its war against terrorism.

Like other recent appointments, Chertoff's prime qualification for the job is that he has proved himself to be a Bush loyalist. Chertoff, who helped write the U.S. Patriot Act, has little to show in the way of actual achievements in directing criminal prosecutions against any of the many hundreds of suspected terrorists detained by the Justice Department. Nonetheless, following the pattern set by the promotions of Alberto Gonzales and Condoleezza Rice to attorney general and secretary of state, Chertoff has fallen upwards in the second Bush administration.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/barry04012005.html


Spreading Mischief from DoJ to the Federal Bench

By ELAINE CASSEL
June 11, 2003

I have been watching John Ashcroft so long that it is getting to be a little boring. Promising to use all available means to "fight terrorism," prosecuting every violation of law "to the fullest extent of the law," desperately wanting the death penalty for every possible offense, and, according to his remarks last week before the Senate Judiciary committee, wanting laws changed to impose the death penalty for even more offenses. Ashcroft changes law and procedure by signing Executive Orders, and yes, he can get away with that unless a court stops him. So far, no court has. Some congressional members, damn few, express mild dismay at his tactics, such as locking up resident aliens after 9/11 and holding some of them for months without access to family or lawyers (or charges), then deporting many on the most technical visa violations (some of them the fault of INS, over which he has authority). It never ends-the Ashcroft watch. It only gets worse, and more frightening.

But now I have a new gremlin to watch, someone who is as intent on undermining the law and Constitution as Ashcroft. I am referring to the man behind the criminal prosecution of terrorists, Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, former chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, and a scary looking guy if ever there was one, has been elevated to the level of Court of Appeals judge--the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. What's so scary about Michael? Well, besides having no judicial experience and being a right-ring radical who does not believe in the Constitution and wants to rewrite federal law and rules of procedure on an ad hoc, case by case basis, as it suits him, nothing I guess.

A good place to look for Chertoff's legal philosophy is in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui , now taking place in the Eastern District of Virginia. Chertoff is not the prosecutor of course, Paul McNulty of the Eastern District is. But Chertoff is McNulty's boss and he is calling the shots. So Chertoff argued the government's case in the super secret hearing before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The government is trying to block trial judge Leonie Brinkema's ruling that Moussaoui and his lawyers have access to the government's star witnesses against him. The government has refused and appealed. Judge Brinkema, who still believes in the Constitution, rightly ruled that to deny Moussaoui that access is a blatant violation of the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses.

Brinkema indicates that she will not be a party to making exceptions to the Constitution on a case-by-case basis. She, in effect, suggests that maybe Justice better take Moussaoui to Guantanamo and try him there in secret, in the military tribunals they set up. Easy there to not only try him, but convict him, and execute him . So why is the government insisting on keeping him in federal court?

I have the answer, and it lies in Chertoff. Chertoff's goal, I believe, and the goal of Ashcroft and Bush in supporting this prosecution in federal court, is to subject federal trials, as they see fit, to ad hoc exemptions of whatever laws (be they constitutional, criminal code, or rules of procedure) that will suit their purposes. Their grand scheme is to ultimately cripple and dismantle the federal courts as we know them, one brick at a time.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel06112003.html


Serious Questions for Michael Chertoff; Bernie Kerik�s Not Looking So Bad Now

By Allan P. Duncan
January 30, 2005

EXCERPT...

Operation Diamondback dealt with much more than what I have presented in regards to Dr. Elamir and his brother. The case also involved other Middle Eastern men operating in Jersey City with ties to Dr. Elamir and his brother. Three of these men attempted to secure components for nuclear Dirty Bombs and also wanted to secure Plutonium. They also tried to buy 500 Stinger Missiles. In one instance one of the men who was named as a member of the Pakistani ISI, pointed towards the World Trade Center and stated �Those towers are coming down.� The conversation was recorded by the FBI�s Terrorism Task Force and yet nothing was done with the information as we found out the hard way on 9-11. (1)

The suspects named in Operation Diamondback are now known to have had ties to AQ Khan�s nuclear weapons network operating out of Pakistan. This info was not known during the operation by the ATF and FBI Agents who worked on the case. Dateline NBC revealed this information on January 14, 2005. ATF Agent Dick Stoltz who supervised Operation Diamondback had this to say:

�In the summer of 1999, a group of illegal weapons dealers were meeting at a warehouse in Florida, their conversations recorded by federal investigators. One of the men, from Pakistan, was seeking technology for nuclear weapons. Who did he say he was working for?

Dick Stoltz: �Dr. Abdul Khan.�

Chris Hansen: �A.Q. Khan.�

Dick Stoltz: �A.Q. Khan.�

Former federal undercover agent Dick Stoltz was posing as a black market arms dealer.

Hansen: �Did you realize what you had at the time?�

Stoltz: �No. We didn't.�

But now he does -- because A.Q. Khan is considered, by some, to be the most dangerous man in the world. Why? Because Dr. Khan has peddled nuclear weapons technology to some of the countries the United States considers most dangerous, and some accepted his offers.�

Further on:

�Undercover federal agent Dick Stoltz says there's evidence Khan's operatives were at work here in the U.S., like a man who asked if Stoltz could supply heavy water, an ingredient used to make plutonium for nuclear bombs.

Stoltz: �He said that Dr. Khan was handling the negotiations behind the scene, as far as-- the heavy water.�

CONTINUED...

http://www.opednews.com/duncan_013005_chertoff_questions.htm


From Mr. Duncan's analysis:




When the attacks on 9-11 occurred, Michael Chertoff was placed in charge of the investigation. On Oct. 25, 2001, CBS reported that the Feds had launched Operation Green Quest in an attempt to stop the financing of terrorism. Here�s what Dr. Magdy Elamir�s former attorney had to say on the subject:

"The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the money we cut the blood supply," said assistant attorney general Michael Chertoff, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division. (7)

The next day, on October 26, 2001, Michael Chertoff testified before Congress and had this to say:

�As an integral part of this national effort, the Department of Justice and the FBI have established an interagency Financial Review Group to coordinate the investigation of the financial aspects surrounding the terrorist events of September 11th and beyond. All members of this Committee recognize the importance of understanding the financial components of terrorist and criminal organizations. These financial links will be critical to the larger criminal investigation, while also providing a trail to the sources of funding for these heinous crimes. The importance of "following the money," in this instance, as well as in the investigation of all criminal enterprises, cannot be overstated.

The members of this Committee are also well aware that money laundering constitutes a threat to the safety of our communities, to the integrity of our financial institutions and to our national security.� (8)

On March 25, 2002, CNN reported:

�Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff is the Dick Cheney of the Justice Department. Brainy, intense and well connected, the former federal prosecutor can usually be found at Attorney General John Ashcroft's elbow as the department's top counterterrorism tactician. And last week Chertoff vanished to an undisclosed location.

With no deputies along and no publicity, Chertoff was on a stealthy swing through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. His mission: sell Western European governments on a new Bush Administration plan to post U.S. Justice Department prosecutors overseas in unprecedented numbers. "The sinews that hold a terrorist network together are money, communications and transportation," Chertoff told TIME before his trip. To help sever those sinews, Chertoff wants to have American prosecutors stationed in key capitals, where they can work behind the scenes with their counterparts to overcome the legal and cultural obstacles to shipping evidence to the U.S. for use in court.� (9)

I find it very interesting that Michael Chertoff, the man tapped to cut off the flow of finances to known terrorists, had in fact represented a man from 1998-2000 who allegedly had ties to Osama Bin Laden and may have sent millions of dollars to him.

I also find it interesting, that while Michael Chertoff served as Assistant United States Attorney and then United States Attorney for New Jersey from 1987 to 1994, that terrorist acts, including the first World Trade Center bombing, were perpetrated under his watch and were fueled from a mosque in Jersey City that was never shut down and still exists today. Chertoff�s former client, Dr. Magdy Elamir, is known to have supported the mosque financially while having suspected ties to Osama Bin Laden. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 bombing, just happens to be the nephew of the 9-11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

If you read my entire four part article you will discover a wealth of information about terrorist activities in the North Jersey area from before the 1993 bombing through 9-11 with a lot of evidence that many of the 9-11 hijackers spent time in North Jersey before the attacks.

CONTINUED...

http://www.opednews.com/duncan_013005_chertoff_questions.htm


Security Risk?

by: Melissa Johnson and Sander Hicks, News Reporter and Special to the Star - January 20, 2005

Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff�s ties to the financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks may prevent his confirmation as Homeland Security Chief.

According to a June 20, 2000 article in the The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, Chertoff defended accused terrorist financier Dr. Magdy Elamir.

Elamir�s HMO was sued by the State of New Jersey to recoup $16.7 million in losses. At least $5.7 million went �to unknown parties... by means of wire transfers to bank accounts where the beneficial owner of the account is unknown,� according to the article.

Foreign intelligence reports given to then chairman of the House International Relations Committee Ben Gilman,
R-New York, in 1998 accused Magdy Elamir of having �had financial ties with Osama bin Laden for years,� according to an Aug. 2, 2002 Dateline NBC broadcast.

In 1999, Magdy Elamir and brother Mohamed were named suspects in Operation Diamondback, an FBI/ATF undercover infiltration of Pakistani arms merchants who sought to arm Osama bin Laden with conventional and nuclear weapons, according to independent researcher and former New Jersey police officer Allan Duncan and taped transcripts with FBI informant Randy Glass.

BIG SNIP...

�By the time Operation Diamondback culminated in arrests in the summer of 2001, Michael Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division and Operation Diamondback would have fallen under his prevue since it was a criminal case and not a counterterrorism case,� Duncan said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.oilempire.us/chertoff.html

[seafan]

7. Great links and info, seemslikeadream. Thanks for adding them here.

Will the appropriate people ever lower the boom on these criminals?

This ptech story has been cooking around here for several years now. And if Chertie is the nominee, someone will be bringing this up. This cat is out of the bag.

[seemslikeadream]

8. kick

:hi:

[seafan]

10. More on ptech and whistleblower Indira Singh:

The more that comes to light, the more it seems that Chertoff was specifically placed at DOJ (in charge of investigating ties to terror financing,) to prevent or obstruct those investigations.

And if you were George W. Bush, Chertie would be *the perfect replacement* for Alberto Gonzales.



FBI's continuing investigation of Boston-area software company Ptech and its possible ties to terrorism

December 8, 2002

.....

ARNOLD: Indira Singh was one of the first people to raise alarm about Ptech. She's a risk management and computer systems consultant. Singh was working with a major Wall Street bank and was thinking of using Ptech's software and consulting services. While checking on the company, she talked to an ex-employee. She says that person told her that some people at Ptech were concerned that one of its central investors was Yasin al-Qadi, who the FBI suspects of financing terrorist groups. Singh says she was told that at least several other employees and executives had ties to organizations suspected by the US government of funding terrorism. Singh says given that Ptech was doing work for the FBI, the Air Force, Navy and a host of other agencies, she became very concerned.

Ms. SINGH: I called the FBI directly.

ARNOLD: Singh says she'd learned that an ex-Ptech employee had also called the Boston office of the FBI months before, soon after the attacks on September 11th. So when she called that same office in May of this year, she hoped to hear that Ptech had been investigated and cleared of suspicion or was being aggressively looked into. She doesn't believe that it was.

Ms. SINGH: None of that was done. And the language, the kind of language law enforcement, counterterrorism and the FBI agents themselves were using basically indicated to me that absolutely no investigation was going on, that it was totally at a standstill, at which point my hair stood on end.

ARNOLD: A spokesperson for the FBI denies that the bureau failed to follow up on leads. Singh says she and others had to apply further pressure before the government started aggressively investigating the matter nearly a year after the FBI was first notified.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Ptech's software has now been scrutinized and it in no way jeopardizes the security of the country. But some security experts think the government is downplaying the potential threat. John Pike is a defense and intelligence analyst who heads up GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based non-profit policy group.

Mr. JOHN PIKE (GlobalSecurity.org): When you look at all of the different military security agencies that they have as customers, it's very difficult to imagine how they would not be encountering sensitive information, classified information.

ARNOLD: Indira Singh now believes that some Ptech employees had access to lots of information that could be dangerous in the hands of terrorists. She says Ptech did work for the Department of Energy in which it essentially blueprinted the process for nuclear waste disposal. She says Ptech employees could have learned how nuclear waste is transported and where it's stored. The company denies any ties to terrorist groups. Chris Arnold, NPR News, Boston.

[bobthedrummer]

6. You got it seafan. K&R

Fwiw, Chertoff mentored another DoJ Criminal Division star-recess appointed Alice s. Fisher.

Alice is ok with torutre as long as it's not called that, Alice was a longtime Frist family friend and a HCA lobbyist prior to being recess appointed into the Criminal Division, where, despite numerous objections she was made the lead person in the Jack Abramoff "investigations".

Alice also was a co-chair with Paul McNulty as part of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force.

One can only wonder what Chertoff taught her, and why she is still at DoJ Criminal Division.

"The Alice S. Fisher DoJ connection" (5-9-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x847120#853059

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST.

[porphyrian]

9. And Chertoff is the guy pushing for national IDs, right? - n/t

[seafan]

11. Yep. Link here.

Chertoff: There will be repercussions for states choosing not to comply with Real ID Act.

Chertoff said there would be repercussions for states choosing not to comply.

"This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes."

[porphyrian]

12. Kick for the morning crowd. - n/t

[seafan]

13. Report: Bush loyalist Clay Johnson to replace Chertoff at Homeland Security

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x16010


Bush is laying the groundwork. I hope like hell we can head Chertie off at the pass.

Gonzales is to torture:: as :: Chertie is to illegal domestic spying.

[southern_belle]

14. k & r

[seafan]

15. US suspends vast ADVISE data-sifting system run by Chertoff at Department of Homeland Security

US suspends vast ADVISE data-sifting system

By Mark Clayton
August 28, 2007

From late 2004 until mid-2006, a little-known data-mining computer system developed by the US Department of Homeland Security to hunt terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and biological weapons sifted through Americans' personal data with little regard for federal privacy laws.

Now the $42 million cutting-edge system, designed to process trillions of pieces of data, has been halted and could be canceled pending data-privacy reviews, according to a newly released report to Congress by the DHS's own internal watchdog.

Data mining to help fight the war on terror has become an accepted, even mandated, method to provide timely security information. The DHS operates at least a dozen such programs; intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense employ many others.

But ADVISE (Analy�sis, Dissemina�tion, Visu�ali�zation, Insight and Semantic Enhance�ment) was special. An electronic omnivore conceived in 2003, it was designed to ingest information from scores of databases, blogs, e-mail traffic, intelligence reports, and other sources, government documents and researchers say.

Sifting that enormous mass at lightning speed, ADVISE was to display data patterns visually as "semantic graphs" � a sort of illuminated information constellation � in which an analyst's eye could spot links between people, places, events, travel, calls, and organizations worldwide.

Report: DHS didn't follow guidelines

Yet ADVISE, whose existence and scope were first detailed by the Monitor in February 2006, seems to have run afoul of its own ambitious scope. It failed to incorporate federal privacy laws into its system design. From its earliest days, the system's pilot programs used "live data, including personally identifiable information, from multiple sources in attempts to identify potential terrorist activity," but without taking steps required by federal law and DHS's own internal guidelines to keep that data from being misused, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a June report to Congress, which was made public Aug. 13.

.....

Chertoff: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff speaks in this July 2007 file photo.
Damian Dovarganes/AP/file



To reiterate, Chertoff nominated by Bush for head of Department of Homeland Security, January, 2005. Confirmed February, 2005.

Massive, privacy-raping data mining system operational from late 2004 until mid-2006, under Chertoff.


Thanks, Chertie.

[wildbilln864]

16. Kick! n/t

[spanone]

17. he should have resigned in disgrace after katrina

[texpatriot2004]

18. Agreed nm