February 22, 2008

Renzi Indicted On Land Deal Charges

UPDATED.

Rep. Rick Renzi, R- Ariz., was indicted on federal charges of extortion, wire fraud and money laundering stemming from an investigation of land deals in his home state and an alleged payment in return for the lawmaker's influence, the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona said today.

The 26-page indictment [PDF] accused Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to sell land that buyers could swap for federal property. The sale netted $4.5 million for one of the associates, the government said. The FBI conducted a raid in April on a business owned by Renzi's wife, leading to his decision to step down from the Intelligence, Natural Resources and Financial Services committees. Renzi previously announced he would not run for another term and would work to clear his name.

But stepping down next January isn't soon enough for the House Republican leadership. In a statement issued this afternoon, Minority Leader John Boehner urged Renzi to resign.

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Posted at 4:05 PM
Posted to: Campaigns, Congress, Crime, FBI, House
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January 04, 2008

Group Claims Responsibility For Diplomat's Death In Sudan

A group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid, or Companions of Monotheism, has claimed responsibility for the Jan. 1 murder of a U.S. diplomat in Sudan, the SITE Intelligence Group is reporting.

SITE, which monitors extremist Web sites, said today that there was no way to verify the statement from the previously unknown organization. "The soldiers of Tawhid carried out an operation of killing the American diplomat and his Sudanese driver who sold his religion for few benefits of life, in the section of Al-Riyadh in eastern Khartoum," the claim reads, according to SITE's translation.

John Granville of the U.S. Agency for International Development and his driver, Abdel-Rahman Abbas, were shot and killed early on New Year's Day. Sudanese officials have ruled out terrorism, but the FBI arrived in Khartoum yesterday to begin its own investigation of the diplomat's death.

Granville's body was flown home for burial yesterday.

Posted at 3:36 PM
Posted to: Africa, FBI, Sudan
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December 14, 2007

Source Says Iraq IG Searched E-Mails To Find Press Leaks

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen and his aides reviewed employee e-mails in May to see if someone in the office was leaking damaging information to the media, according to a former employee familiar with the agency's internal probe.

The former agency employee said the review of e-mails lasted two days and did not violate federal law. This source also said the method of finding the leak was consistent with an agency policy that says employees "imply their consent to disclosing the contents of files or information" on agency equipment they use. The former employee described the internal probe to counter charges by other former employees that Bowen and top aides engaged in a far more extensive open-ended review of employee e-mails over a period of months.

Some former employees said they believed their e-mails were reviewed to dig up dirt on their activities or to assess their loyalty. Those allegations and other charges have generated an FBI investigation of Bowen and other officials, CongressDaily reported. In an exclusive interview yesterday, Bowen called the charges baseless.

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Posted at 3:36 PM
Posted to: FBI, Iraq
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FBI Probes Special IG For Iraq

The FBI is investigating allegations of misconduct against Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, according to former employees and other knowledgeable sources, indicating that a long administrative probe has widened to include the possibility of criminal wrongdoing.

The FBI is looking into claims that the former White House lawyer and aides violated federal law by accessing e-mail accounts of agency employees, several former staffers told CongressDaily. A grand jury has been empaneled in Virginia as part of the probe, the sources said.

Among the employees whose e-mail accounts were allegedly accessed is former Ambassador Robin Raphel, a respected career diplomat who worked as a deputy to Bowen until early this year. Denise Burgess, a former spokeswoman for the special inspector general's office who has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also has been interviewed by FBI agents, former co-workers said.

In an interview yesterday, Bowen said neither he nor anyone in his office has been notified they are targets of an investigation. He said he is legally prohibited from confirming the existence of an investigation, but he denied wrongdoing. "I am confident that this is going to amount to nothing," he said. Bowen also acknowledged the investigation has become a drag on the organization. "It takes up time and money that should be spent on Iraq oversight," he said.

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Posted at 9:35 AM
Posted to: FBI, Iraq
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October 30, 2007

Immunity Deal For Blackwater Guards Hampers FBI's Efforts

UPDATED.

In an apparent deal that could impede the government's ability to prosecute Blackwater guards suspected of being involved in a shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead last month, AP reports that State Department investigators granted immunity to employees of the private security contractor in exchange for statements they made regarding the case.

"As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can -- if ever -- bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government," AP wrote when it broke the story yesterday.

But CNN is reporting today that, according to two anonymous State Department officials, State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not offer "blanket immunity" to the guards that would prohibit the FBI from pressing criminal charges. "We want to see anyone who violated laws or broke rules held accountable," said one official, who claimed to lack authorization to speak on the matter. "Nothing that was done prevents anyone from being prosecuted if they broke the law."

But according to ABC News, the exact language of the "use immunity" agreement included at the beginning of each guard's sworn statement is as follows:

I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry.... I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001.

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Posted at 3:30 PM
Posted to: FBI, Iraq
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