I overheard something disturbing today and need to pass it on.

Please, legit information only. Someone you trust in the FBI etc.

Not looking for local law enforcement here, must be national.

Email it to my posted address.

And all you anti-government, anti-law enforcement posters, don't bother.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), September 22, 1999

Answers

If you overheard it, it is just rumor. Why don't you let it stop with you?

George

-- George Valentine (GeorgeValentine@usa.net), September 22, 1999.

what did you hear?

-- sarah (qubr@aol.com), September 22, 1999.

If any FBI will do, look them up in the phone book. If it involved some sort of division WITHIN the FBI.. then sure hope you don't communicate it by email.

Sure you don't want to wisper it in our ear? We won't tell a soul.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 23, 1999.

Gordon,

If Linda's suggestion does not address your question, then it would seem that anyone's random "contact" in e.g. the FBI may also not meet your needs. In other words, if Linda's suggestion is not adequate, you might describe your criteria somewhat more than in your initial post.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), September 23, 1999.

An older brother of mine has been in the Bureau for about 20yrs or so. Investigates white collar crime...fraud and embezzlement, I don't ever really talk to him about his "business"... just general stuff. Are you looking for a contact?

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), September 23, 1999.

i once left a contact on the nightstand of a big, strapping fbi man. alas, he threw it out the next morning like it was yesterday's news. does that count?

a 9mm smooch to ya.

corrine

-- corrine l (corine@iwaynet.net), September 23, 1999.

To illustrate WHY he needs to be cautious about this: read this AP story further down.. Finally, AP gets a breaking story!

There are honest, trustworthy FBI agents (such as Ms. Parker) out there, its just that their supervisors steal the honest agents records and notes, and destroy them......while the Justice Dept deliberately decides to delay/interfere with/conceal evidence/refuse permits/ to protect the President.

If it involves terrorism/threats of terrorism, any FBI office would do. If it involves politcal corruption, the FBI isn't the best place. Frankly, I'd recommend sending any matter about political corruiption (registered letter perhaps) to your nearest (Republican) Congressional representative. (Also, if it involves political corruption, don't bother sending it to anybody in the same political party - either Republican or Democrat. Send it to the opposing party for most reliable action.]

If you wish, contact me, I'll get it to somebody who can get it to the House Justice Dept Committee. Doesn't have to be opened.

< By Larry Margasak Associated Press Writer Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999; 6:48 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON  In a rare public airing of friction between the FBI and its parent Justice Department, bureau agents testified Wednesday that prosecutors impeded their campaign fund-raising inquiry. The former lead prosecutor countered by criticizing the agents' work.

The testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee spotlighted the bitter internal disagreements in the investigation of donations to the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign.

Disagreement over the investigation caused friction between Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh. Reno eventually rejected the director's conclusion that an independent counsel should be appointed.

Disputing Reno's oft-quoted assertions of a vigorous investigation, FBI agent Daniel Wehr told the committee that the initial lead attorney in the inquiry, Laura Ingersoll, told the agents they should "not pursue any matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president. The reason given was, 'That's the way the American political process works.' I was scandalized by that."

In fact, federal election and bribery laws make it a crime for officials to accept money or contributions in return for government decisions, but not in return for spending time in the official's presence.

Wehr, agents Roberta Parker and Kevin Sheridan are still assigned to the investigation and worked on the case of presidential friend Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, a major Democratic donor who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations. Besides the three agents, the committee heard from Ivian C. Smith, the retired agent who headed the Little Rock, Ark., FBI office.

The four contended that Ms. Ingersoll  who eventually was replaced as lead attorney  prevented the FBI from executing search warrants to stop destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason.

But Ms. Ingersoll testified there was "no smoking gun" in documents the FBI discovered in the trash of Trie and a business associate  records which, the agents concluded, should have been the basis for search warrants of the subjects' residences.

Explaining her rejection of the search warrant request in the summer of 1997, Ms. Ingersoll said, "Nothing we saw indicated to us" that there was "anything incriminating" in the documents.

She said the FBI's proposed search warrant affidavit lacked any description of how the records were relevant.

"We didn't know what the documents were. The agents didn't bring us what these documents actually were. I would have wanted them (the search warrant justifications) to be fuller and more complete. The search warrant affidavit was far from being finalized ... to be presented to a magistrate."

Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate committee and leader of its campaign finance inquiry in 1997, appeared upset by Ms. Ingersoll's answers.

"We're not talking about trying to electrocute someone," Thompson said. "We're talking about getting ... to an independent magistrate. It does not have to be a smoking gun."

FBI agent Parker, also an attorney, testified that Ms. Ingersoll told the agents the department "would not take into consideration" evidence involving President Clinton's legal defense fund and obstruction of the Senate's investigation.

Smith, the retired FBI supervisor, told the committee he was "quite astounded at the type of documents being destroyed."

The committee released a memo by Smith, dated Aug. 4, 1997, to Freeh that bitterly complained about the prosecutors. He expressed "a lack of confidence" in department attorneys, adding, "I am convinced the team at DOJ leading this investigation is, at best, simply not up to the task."

"The impression left is the emphasis on how not to prosecute matters, not how to aggressively conduct investigations leading to prosecutions."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., senior Democrat on the committee, said the disputes amounted to a "culture clash" between FBI agents and prosecutors  one that was "very destructive."

Republicans have been extremely critical of Reno's decision not to appoint an independent counsel in the fund-raising inquiry and of her insistence that a vigorous investigation was being conducted by the Justice Department.

Agent Parker testified that there were 27 pages missing from her spiral notebook recounting the agents' disagreements with the prosecutors. She said she had turned over the notes to FBI superiors because Congress sought information about the disagreements, adding that the pages must have been ripped out.

Thompson threatened to hold hearings on the disappearance, now the subject of an internal FBI investigation.

) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press >>

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 23, 1999.