Laptop may hold key to high-level scam

Gary, Indiana Post Tribune ^ | February 7, 2009

[KeyLargo]

Laptop may hold key to high-level scam

February 7, 2009

Post-Tribune staff report

A traffic stop at Indiana Dunes State Park has led to an ongoing investigation involving a man whose past includes swindling Fox News and national political figures, local law enforcement agents say.

Joseph Cafasso, being held at Porter County Jail, was the subject of a 2002 New York Times article and has a Wikipedia page detailing his exploits.

Officials declined to talk about the ongoing case, which involves several federal agencies.

"There are a lot of things involved here that I can't get into at this point," said Officer Bob Kauffmann of the Department of Natural Resources, who initiated the investigation.

It's believed that Cafasso impersonated rescue personnel in a drowning at Lake Michigan last year.

In October, Kauffmann stopped Cafasso for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Cafasso also provided Kauffmann with false information, including the alias "Robert Stormer."

And when Cafasso failed to appear in court last month, Kauffmann obtained a warrant for his arrest.

The curious case of Cafasso came to light Monday when a Chesterton resident turned over Cafasso's Apple laptop to Chesterton police. Kauffmann is waiting for a search warrant to access the laptop.

The mother of the Chesterton resident had been in a relationship with "Robert Stormer."

She was also in the car when "Stormer" was stopped for speeding, Kauffmann said.

The woman, who resides in Tefft, in northeastern Jasper County, met "Stormer" about a year ago through an online dating service. They later moved in together. According to the police report, he took control over some of the woman's finances before she learned he was a fraud.

According to the Chesterton police report, the woman and her son believe that Cafasso built a case against a man named Jack Idema, who also has a Wikipedia page.

The police report continues:?"Idema is allegedly a Special Forces soldier who went rogue and tortured people in Afghanistan without approval from his superiors. He was jailed in a military prison for this and he blames Cafasso for his troubles."

Police say Idema knew about Cafasso's laptop. Idema contacted the Chesterton man through a phone search and told him he wanted the computer.

So he and his mother brought it to Chesterton Police.

Cafasso was successful in duping institutions and high-profile military and political figures as a well-connected counterintelligence expert who had a high-rank career in the Special Forces, according to an April 29, 2002, story in the New York Times.

Alleged victims included the Fox News network, Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign and "several representatives, military officials and activists to whom he had sold himself for years,"?

Cafasso appeared as a military and counterterrorism expert during Fox's coverage of the invasion of Afghanistan.

"But records indicate that his total military experience was 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in May and June 1976, and his honorable discharge as a private, first class."

The article states Cafasso failed to show up to provide military records and other documents to The New York Times as he had promised.

The article continues: "Mr. Cafasso, it appears, has used his story of battlefield glories to make friends, find work, and perhaps most importantly, find acceptance among people who walk the fringes of Washington's power corridors, networking his way through a community of retired military officers to arrive at Fox News."

[KeyLargo]

Joseph A. Cafasso: A Call for Information

http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2006/09/joseph_a_cafass.html

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

"But records indicate that his total military experience was 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in May and June 1976, and his honorable discharge as a private, first class."

This does not make sense. He left boot camp early but got a promotion and honorable discharge? What is wrong with this picture?

[beandog]

I went to bootcamp as a PFC because of some college, which they credited. Also left bootcamp early with an honorable discharge and was paid as a PFC. This was back in 1976 so I know it happens.

[Carley]

And some how the gummint will determine that no one can access the computer.

[EEDUDE]

Those were the Carter years, and there were active RIF’s (reduction in forces) going on during that time. I suspect that these kind of things happened frequently.

[Repeal The 17th]

I enlisted as an E-4.

[jokyfo]

We used to call you guys “PB4s” (Push Button E-4s).

[freema]

Jack Idema Ping
http://www.superpatriots.us/speakout/jackspeaks.htm

[Mr. K]

I don’t like the way they cite Wikipedia pages as some source of truth.

IT is NOT

There is some useful information from people genuinely trying to be helpful and true to its purpose, but anything political is like the liberal media.

[Cicero]

Here’s the Wikipedia article, which fills in some of the background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_A._Cafasso

It would appear that he worked for various conservative causes, but was a fraud and perhaps an underminer of those causes.

Not sure if the authorities are after him because he’s a fraud or because they can make use of his conservative connections.

He was involved in the TWA 800 investigation, possibly as a dissinformant?

[Cicero]

I wouldn’t trust Wikipedia on politically sensitive matters, but chances are the facts are right—that he worked for Buchanan and so forth, and apparantly that he misrepresented his military service.

What you make of that, of course, is another question. But it’s a starting place.

[Repeal The 17th]

“We used to call you guys “PB4s” (Push Button E-4s).”
-
Probably because I graduated from a military high school
and already knew my left from my right.
...something that took others quite a while to figure out.
I tried in earnest twice in ‘76 to join the navy and
both times was told the only place for me was on a submarine.
I did not think I could handle the isolation and balked both times.
I have great admiration for any and all of you submariner-types.

[Caoilfhionn]

For more on Cafasso's antics, check out the blog "Carteret Con Artist".

Robert Stormer (aka Cafasso) produced an article recently that was published at "Common Dreams" and at Larry Johnson's "No Quarter", which is alleged to have been plagiarized. Cafasso has one blogspot blog called "Stuporpatriots" where he goes after Jack Idema relentlessly, and another new blogspot blog under this new Robert Stormer name he has assumed, Robin Storm. Strangely enough, that one is being updated despite the fact that Cafasso is in jail in Indiana right now.

The bio of Stormer at the Common Dreams site goes like this:

Robert Stormer of Chicago is a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, and was a specialist in weapons retrieval. He is a marine engineer and marine salvage specialist. © 2007 Star-Telegram

The blogger at the North Country Gazette tried to verify Stormer's credentials with the Fort Worth Star Telegram, but to no avail - back in October of 2007.

He may have began his career with Pat Buchanan, but he was also featured in the far left expose on Fox News entitled "Outfoxed".

You can see a clip of his small appearance in that movie here at youtube.

But all of that is around the time he was exposed as a fraud in the New York Times in the article "At Fox News The Colonel Who Wasn't". Now and for at least the past year- he has assumed an entirely new persona; that of Robert Stormer, the storm chaser- and under that fictious identity-victimized a woman in Indiana who is now about to loose both of her homes because of him. This is just the tip of the iceberg where Joe Cafasso is concerned.

[jokyfo]

Ahhh, the sub was fine. Lot better than the regular Navy.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Good, thanks for the reality check.

In boot camp, my job required that I wear E-1 through boot camp and then immediately get E-3 on completion of boot camp. Guess I shouldn’t assume it’s that way for everybody.