-Caveat Lector-
FBI Releases File on Insight
By Timothy W. Maier
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This magazine files a FOIA request with the FBI to discover
whether Insight reporters have been under investigation for
reporting about sensitive, national-security issues.
Six months ago Insight filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request with the FBI to determine whether the G-men have been
maintaining a dossier on this magazine under lock and key.
There was concern that the bureau might be building such a file
based on dozens of Insight special investigative reports into
criminal and intelligence matters. There also was concern that
telephones were being bugged when clicks and tapping noises
frequently interrupted interviews with clandestine sources.
It is not irrational to say that words published in this magazine
sometimes have made life difficult for a lot of official
someones: Under the Clinton administration, U.S. Secret Service
agents have made unannounced visits to interrogate Managing
Editor Paul M. Rodriguez concerning his statements about
upcoming news stories. Other federal law-enforcement agents have
demanded that this writer and other Insight reporters back off
from key stories in preparation. And sometimes federal agents
have called asking for a heads-up on what Insight was planning to
reveal in future issues. As a matter of journalistic principle,
such requests always have been denied.
Conversations with the FBI sometimes hinted that Insight had
become a matter of official interest. But is there a paper trail
on the interest? After some careful thought, we decided to
reverse the tables and find out what, if anything, those pesky
G-men have collected about this magazine and its reporters.
Given the clear protections of the First Amendment, there
couldn�t be an FBI file on Insight even under the Clinton
administration � or could there?
Indeed there could � and there is: File No. 263-0-3095. And we
have obtained at least part of it through a standard FOIA
request. This file is astonishing in some respects because it
shows that stories published here often have prompted officials
to request inquiries and reports � investigations we never were
told about during standard follow-ups to the original stories.
It also is evident from this file that some Insight stories have
touched nerves so sensitive that the FBI has refused to release
additional memos that may have been triggered by those stories,
protecting this paper trail by dead-ending it at the FBI�s
National Security Division.
FBI Freedom of Information chief John M. Kelso Jr. released 11
of 11 pages dealing with what the bureau described as a
�cross-reference� report on the magazine. Some of the
information was redacted because of �internal personnel rules and
practices of an agency.� Most of the redacted material appears to
have dealt with names, other agencies and details of specific
comments.
Did the relatively small size of the file seem disappointing?
Only to those who expected something like the FBI�s 4,500-page
�Walshot� file. Readers may recall that Insight obtained that one
from the bureau for an inside look at the assassination attempt
on the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace (see �New Chapters in
Assassin�s Diary,� Dec. 14, 1998). That Insight story prompted
Court TV to produce a documentary on the mid-election attack that
is expected to be aired this year.
Still, only 11 pages? It is hard to believe considering that
this magazine has been breaking national-security stories and
annoying some of the most powerful politicians and bureaucrats in
the world for 16 years. Of course, our initial reaction was
there just had to be more than 11 pages. Perhaps we had stymied
ourselves by requesting a file on the magazine rather than files
on the reporters and editors. So, recently, several of us waived
our privacy rights to let Insight find out what the FBI had or
imagined about our staff.
In the meantime, we still had those 11 pages of G-men�s snooping
on this magazine. What did the file on Insight say? Those
looking for dirt on Rodriguez and the deep-background sources
that enabled him to help bust up the Keating Five, dig up Larry
Lawrence from the Arlington National Cemetery and nail the
foreign spying on the Clinton White House can forget it.
Rodriguez, surprisingly, is nowhere to be found in the FBI�s file
on the magazine. Only two Insight reporters are mentioned in the
file, Senior Editor Jamie Dettmer and Timothy W. Maier.
The good news, of course, is that Kelso says in his report on the
Insight file that a �search at FBI headquarters of the general
indices to the central records did not reveal that the subject of
your request has been the subject of an FBI investigation.� So
Insight is not a target of an FBI probe. That will save a lot of
lawyer fees. But details in the file confirm that stories broken
by Insight repeatedly have become subject to FBI inquiries.
The first story to tickle the bureau came from Dettmer in 1997.
The FBI even goes so far as to include a copy of Dettmer�s story
�Reno Joined by Others in Ignoring Justice Scandals� that
appeared in his news alert! column in the Sept. 22, 1997,
issue. The story suggests that an anonymous FBI agent warned of
a brewing security and sex scandal in the Justice Department
programs tasked with training foreign police officers and
prosecutors � and that the warning was forwarded to FBI Director
Louis Freeh, who ignored it.
The FBI�s Office of Professional Responsibility notes in a
three-page memo dated Oct. 8, 1997, that the Office of the
Inspector General of the Department of Justice had requested the
FBI to locate and provide copies of any documents containing such
a warning because it is �conceivable that the FBI personnel
assigned to the International Criminal Investigative Training
Assistance Program [ICITAP] may have been reluctant to bring
their observations to the attention of higher-ranking officials.�
The Office of Professional Responsibility also requested that the
FBI�s assistant director of the Criminal Investigations Division
review files within the International Relations Branch for any
documents reporting allegations by FBI personnel or others of
misconduct or criminal activity by ICITAP since 1994.
The Office of Professional Responsibility also acted upon this
reporter�s three-part investigative series concerning the secret
surveillance of the 1993 Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) conference in Seattle. One of the articles, dated Sept.
29, 1997, alleged FBI agents received kickbacks from vendors who
provided electronic eavesdropping equipment to the FBI for use in
the operation. The article also alleged that underage boys were
provided as prostitutes to visiting dignitaries who attended the
weeklong conference. The FBI was not directly involved in the
prostitution but agents were aware of it through the surveillance
equipment, intelligence sources told the magazine.
The article stated that �some federal agents routinely accepted
thousands of dollars in kickbacks from technical-equipment
contractors during this operation that began about four months
prior to the five-day summit in November. The FBI agents
justified the kickbacks as a means to offset hundreds of hours of
overtime that never were compensated. In one case, an agent
received a check for $16,000, according to sources familiar with
the scheme. Seattle FBI agents had been under attack from prior
cases in which a grand jury investigated similar allegations but
did not indict.�
In a four-page Oct. 24, 1997 memo, the Office of Professional
Responsibility requested the Seattle special agent in charge to
review the allegations and provide recommendations, comments and
observations.
In a one-page Nov. 11, 1997, memo from the FBI Seattle office,
Special Agent in Charge Charles E. Mandigo says the details of
the allegations in the story are a �212 classification matter
which should be discussed with appropriate personnel in the
National Security Division.�
When Insight asked the FBI what a �212 classification� is, the
bureau responded that the number has to do with �our foreign
counterintelligence group, but under current executive orders we
are not allowed to explain specifically what it means because it
is classified.� That certainly seemed odd because it never had
occurred even to us that an Insight story might be labeled a
national-security concern.
Mandigo, however, was quick to defend himself and stated, �There
is no merit to any of the allegations of illegal acts by Seattle
Division personnel. Seattle will hold in abeyance any further
response to this inquiry until so authorized by National Security
Division and directed by Office of Professional Responsibility.�
No one denied the heart of the story, which claimed the FBI
participated in bugging the APEC conference. In fact, the file
shows no concern about whether that happened. The alarm appeared
to be the charge that agents had taken kickbacks, which the
Seattle office denied. The file does not indicate if the Seattle
office issued a report to the National Security Division.
When Insight asked an APEC source to comment about Mandigo�s
denial of the allegations, the response came with laughter and
then a serious pause. �They can deny it, but it happened,� said
the intelligence source.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
