[Now, we all know that Atty. Gen. Reno will do a full and careful
investigation of her own regarding this report. Yeah, Rieeght.
It don't take a psychic to predict that she will find no credible
evidence that supports prosecuting anyone.]
Insight Exclusive - Breaking News
Top International DOJ Officials Caught in Sweeping IG Probe!
Embarrassment to Reno!
9/12/00 - The Justice Department�s inspector general sent to
Capitol Hill today a damning 400-page report that accuses former
and current senior Justice officials - including a onetime
favorite of attorney general Janet Reno - of "egregious
misconduct," lax handling of highly classified intelligence
documents and visa fraud.
The report, the result of a nearly three-year-long probe into
justice programs tasked with the training of foreign police
officers and prosecutors, is already making waves on the Hill and
is likely to be the subject of a full hearing by the House
Judiciary Committee later this month.
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa released the executive summary
of the long-awaited IG report following the Republican's comments
on the floor of the Senate demanding to know why the Justice
Department is not planning to prosecute any of the officials
targeted by the IG.
The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
apparently declined prosecution notwithstanding such a
recommendation from the IG, Insight sources say.
Those targetted by the IG probe include the former head of the
international programs, Robert Bratt, who the IG says in the
report committed visa fraud when he attempted to secure U.S.
entry for two Russian women he met in Moscow.
The probe into the International Criminal Investigative Training
Assistance Program, or ICITAP, and the Office of Prosecutorial
Development and Training, or OPDAT, was launched in the spring of
1997 and was first reported by Insight. Justice chiefs tried
initially to keep the inquiry under wraps and, according to
sources close to the probe, have in the last few months attempted
to coax the IG�s office into weakening the report, which is
described by a congressional aide as "excoriating."
Copies of the IG�s report were given to the U.S. attorneys in the
District of Columbia, but they so far have declined to indict any
of the Justice officials accused of wrongdoing, say the sources.
Capitol Hill aides claim that the failure by the U.S. attorneys
to mount any indictments is a result of a "Justice effort to
circle the wagons."
The probe was sparked initially when the Justice Department�s
head of security, Jerry Rubino, was informed by a whistle-blower
about serious security breaches within ICITAP. The
whistle-blower, Martin Andersen, claimed that the then executive
officer Bratt and his subordinates, Janice Stromsem, Joe Lake and
Carey Hoover, consistently mishandled top secret in-country
reports and cables from the DEA, CIA and other U.S. intelligence
and law-enforcement agencies.
He alleged that the documents, many of which contained details of
intelligence sources, were left unsecured and their contents
shared frequently with ICITAP contractors who had not undergone
security clearances.
IG investigators launched a massive security sweep as allegations
of other wrongdoing and bizarre mismanagement by Bratt and his
deputies multiplied. More than 200 people were interviewed and
the files on more than 1,000 ICITAP and OPDAT sub-contractors and
consultants were reviewed.
A Justice source admitted as the probe widened that the IG was
uncovering "general moral turpitude" in the running of the
programs. IG agents encountered claims of sexual harassment and
heterosexual and homosexual favoritism in the hiring of staff and
contractors, including the employing of a waitress from a local
Washington DC disco who caught the eye of a senior ICITAP
official.
Governement sources who have read the report � it has not been
fully released to the public or press - say many of the
allegations are confirmed in the IG�s report, which among other
things recommends major reform of the security procedures
followed at Justice.
The report confirms that Bratt and other senior officials,
including Lake and Hoover, acted "egregiously" while on business
trips overseas to Russia, eastern Europe and the Caribbean.
Officials visited strip bars and sex clubs, laying themselves
open to blackmail. Bratt, who had a high security clearance,
failed to report as required friendships and associations with
foreign nationals, the report found.
Bratt also committed visa fraud when he tried to secure American
entry documents for a couple of Russian women who he claimed
wrongly were essential for ICITAP�s work, the report maintains.
Sources say he claimed they were translators when they were not.
Further Bratt, who recently retired from Justice and now works as
a consultant at Science Applications International Corp (SAIC),
was found also by investigators to have given false statements
during interviews by IG agents.
A close associate of Bratt familiar with the IG report says that
Bratt believes the allegations against him were wrong and that
the report is the result of overzealous prosecutorial behaviour.
He's reportedly pointed out to friends that the IG failed to get
an indictment against him from the U.S. attorneys as did the DOJ
Public Integrity Section.
No mention was made by Bratt's associate that the former Justice
official was compelled to testify by his superiors which
technically provided a form of limited immunity.
The report is bound to prove personally embarrassing for Attorney
General Reno. Justice sources say that Bratt was a "Reno
blue-eyed boy" and as a result the attorney general long ignored
allegations of wrongdoing at ICITAP and OPDAT, even when FBI
agents tipped off her office about major problems in the
management of the international law enforcement programs.
When the IG probe was first launched Reno still gave Bratt the
benefit of the doubt, the sources say. As allegations tumbled out
from ICITAP and OPDAT, she selected Bratt to straighten out the
Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The probe may also prove embarrassing for current and former
senior Justice officials. The IG�s report makes clear that there
was a failure of oversight by Bratt�s superiors, and
investigators also found security breaches in the Criminal
Division � including lax security in the office of the then
deputy assistant attorney general Mark Richard.
Richard, who along with Public Integrity Section chief Lee Radek
led the high-profile inquiry into 1996 campaign-finance abuses by
the White House, was also investigated by the IG for approving
ethically dubious ICITAP contracts awarded to former Justice
officials, including to JoAnn Harris shortly after she retired
from her post as assistant attorney general. The report concludes
that the contract awarded to Harris wasn't improper but it had
"the appearance of favoritism." It questioned the basis for her
fee, which was higher than normally given to outside consultants
by other government departments.
Founded in 1986, ICITAP in recent years has provided training to
police forces in Latin America, the Caribbean and Russia. It has
been earmarked to provide training to Colombian anti-narcotic
police units but in the last few weeks drug czar Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, aware of the impending IG�s probe, has been lobbying
against the program being involved in Colombia.
By Jamie Dettmer, Senior Editor
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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