Free Republic

SAN DIEGO - A Border Patrol agent who admitted smuggling more than 100 illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico, some of them in his government truck, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for about three years, but U.S. District Judge John A. Houston decided a stiffer punishment was required for 29-year-old Oscar Antonio Ortiz. "You violated the sacred trust of your comrades," the judge said. "As a link in the chain, they depended on you." The corruption case is one in a spate involving Border Patrol agents at a time when the agency is...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2006 — The morning of Feb. 20 was like any other for Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Adele Loar, who was assigned to the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate in Baghdad, Iraq. Her mission, along with the joint team assembled there, was to gather information from Iraqi civilian sources to ascertain current threats to coalition forces. Performing a mission for which she is trained and one that she loves, Loar said it did not matter when or where she worked or the dangers she might face. She especially reveled in the opportunity to be working on...

Agent who led Bin Laden hunt criticises CIA Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday July 8, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The man who led America's hunt for Osama bin Laden has said the CIA was wrong to disband the only unit devoted entirely to the terrorist leader's pursuit - just at a time when al-Qaida is reasserting its influence over global jihad. Shutting down the Bin Laden unit squandered 10 years of expertise in the war on terror, said Michael Scheuer, who founded the unit in 1995 and arguably knows more about Bin Laden than any other western intelligence official. He...

RUSSIA has come up with its own answer to James Bond in the shape of a glamorous all-action female spy.The blockbuster film Beautiful is due to be released this autumn - at the same time as Daniel Craig makes his debut as 007 in Casino Royale - and is being seen as part of an attempt to lift the nation's confidence and improve the battered reputation of its security services. The Russian media have already styled the film and the action heroine as their post-communist equivalent to Bond. In a play on his 007 code name, the actress has been...

For the second time this week, a border inspector was arrested and charged with waiving smugglers into the country in exchange for bribes. Customs and Border Protection Inspector Richard Elizalda of Chula Vista was indicted Friday, along with seven other people, on conspiracy and other charges. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Authorities said smugglers bribed Elizalda with cash and a Lexus automobile to allow them to use his lane at the San Ysidro border crossing to bring illegal immigrants and marijuana into the United States. Another inspector was brought into San Diego federal court Wednesday on similar charges. Authorities said...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 9, 2006) -- The Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, conducted training April 25, in Al Asad, Iraq, to enhance their skills under varied conditions. The CBRN Marines have in place an incident response team to deal with situations that involve the use of the four agents. "We've taken traditional Nuclear, Biological and Chemical doctrine and modified it for use in a nontraditional NBC threat environment," said Sgt. Chad W. Jenkins, response team leader, CBRN, from Portland, Ore. "Here, we have to stay ready to defend...

Kim Young-nam's Abductor Now Free in S.Korea The North Korean agent who kidnapped Kim Young-nam from South Korea in 1978 now lives in Seoul and has his own business, it was revealed Thursday. Kim was this week identified as the man North Korea says was married to the famous Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota. In a divided nation, his abductor Kim Gwang-hyun lives comfortably in the South while his victim is stuck in the repressive North as an instructor of spies who will be dispatched to the South. Kim Gwang-hyun kidnapped Kim Young-nam, then a high school student who was on...

BUBBA AN AGENT FOR DUBAI? IS Bill Clinton serving as a lobbyist and public-rela tions guru to the government of Dubai? It sure looks like it. He's been paid a pretty penny by Dubai's rulers... The whole affair raises disclosure questions for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, too. While publicly opposing the port deal, she privately benefits from her husband's Dubai-related income. Published reports indicate that that Clinton has been directly advising top Dubai officials over the past two weeks on how to overcome negative public opinion and congressional resistance to the takeover of six U.S. ports by DP World ......

DUBAI DUETS Late Friday, Department of Justice lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel were attempting to determine if former President Bill Clinton had registered as an "Agent of a Foreign Principal." Federal statute requires that anyone -- even a former President -- doing political or public affairs work on behalf of a foreign country, agency or official must register with the Department, and essentially update his status every six months. It was not clear the Clinton had done so. If his status is less clear, here is what we do know: If Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not know...

Moscow wants you - as a double agent February 07 2006 at 10:49PM Moscow - Russia's secret services made an offer Tuesday they hope that readers of their website will not be able to refuse - work as a double agent. The Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the successor to the Soviet KGB, posted the advertisement on its site www.fsb.ru. "Russian citizens cooperating with foreign spies can contact the Russian FSB on a confidential telephone line to become double agents," the message read. Russian law allows for charges to be dropped against anyone helping the security services in their...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - An FBI agent accused of lying about two trips to Las Vegas that were paid for by an informant pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor and agreed to resign from the bureau. Erik Blowers, once the chief legal counsel and ethics adviser for the FBI office in Charlotte, pleaded guilty to making a false report. Blowers, 40, originally faced a felony charge of making a false statement for failing to report thousands of dollars in gifts and travel expenses paid for by homebuilder David Simonini. The FBI agent took two trips to Las Vegas in 2000 with...

SANTA ANA – A federal judge on Monday overruled another judge's decision to grant release on bond to a U.S. defense technology engineer charged with being an unregistered agent for China. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said he recognized strong character evidence supporting the release of engineer Chi Mak but that the nature of the charge and alleged activities made it impossible to grant bond. Mak, his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and his brother, Tai Wang Mak, were indicted on a charge of being unregistered agents for China. All have pleaded not guilty. Investigators allege that Chi Mak, 65,...

LOS ANGELES – A recently hired federal immigration agent in San Diego has been charged with financial elder abuse, identity theft and attempted grand theft in connection with an alleged scheme to take over ownership of his uncle's house, officials said Thursday. Juan Carlos Cortes-Garcia, 34, of National City, who is an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant filed in Los Angeles. His bail was set at $175,000. He is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court next week on the 10-count complaint, which includes five forgery counts, filed against him....

The Rove/Plame Brouhaha: Exactly what DOES the law say? There are two parts you have to look at: 50 USC 421 and 50 USC 426.(Corrected- I originally posted 15 USC in error.) I'm going to put them up in reverse order because § 426 is where the term "covert agent" is defined (see (4) and § 421 is the law concerning "Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources" to which these definitions apply. TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 15 > SUBCHAPTER IV > § 426 § 426. Definitions For the purposes of this subchapter:...

I just completed this fantastic new "prescription thriller" novel, called "Carmen Piper and the Protest". It was released earlier this year after the Vioxx scandal. I wonder if a person could be sued for the claims made in this book, names are actually named! It's mystery suspense fiction, but it centers around fact-based events surrounding the Food and Drug Administration's financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies. I don't wanna give any spoilers, but you can expect to find a few surprises about Big Pharma. This book is very intelligent, full of cliffhangers, really fresh and witty, and very entertaining and...

I pick up a copy of the NY Times yesterday, and read an arts brief with the headline "Diversity Still a Problem For Hollywood Writers." ... A few minutes after reading this story, I get a call from my TV agent at ICM, telling me that the new management of Lifetime is not very interested in The Dirty Girls Social Club TV show. That, in fact, they wanted to "kill" it immediately, but that they are willing to listen to a re-pitch. That means that even though Lifetime owns the option for now (meaning I can't do anything with it)...

SAN DIEGO – A man who was shot by a Border Patrol agent in Otay Mesa early Sunday as he grappled for the officer's gun has died at a hospital, authorities said. The shooting in the 2300 block of Roll Drive happened about 2:15 a.m., as the officer tried to get a motorist out of an SUV, San Diego police homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney said. The officer had spotted the Chevy Suburban driving in the area of Roll and Siempre Viva Road and became suspicious because of reports that a Suburban had been seen in the area picking up suspected...

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 27 – An agent of Iran’s State Security Forces was killed in the town of Tonekabon, northern Iran, early Thursday morning, Iran’s press reported on Saturday. The incident occurred at one in the morning when two SSF agents attempted to detain a young man, the hard-line daily Kayhan wrote. It quoted Hojjatoleslam Najafi, head of the ideological-politico branch of the SSF in Tonekabon as saying that the SSF officer, identified as Mehdi Fahimi, was stabbed several times by a man called as Mehrdad Susan. The paper did not mention on what grounds Susan was being arrest or...

Who is Air America? Vanity A summary of some of the key persons involved in the Air-A scandals, and their friends, August 19, 2005 Some of you out there probably have located most of this information before. The following is based on a series of emails I sent to Michelle Malkin and Radio Equalizer over the last few days. I am sure others have sent them similar items, as well as posting them at FR. [My comments are in brackets; some key names, dates, places, organizations and links are highlighted in bold letters] [Michelle Malkin and Radio Equalizer (Brian Maloney)...

A Mexican man who used a fake U.S. birth certificate to get into the Border Patrol was helping to smuggle illegal immigrants, authorities said yesterday. Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, an El Cajon-based Border Patrol agent on administrative leave, was arrested yesterday and charged in San Diego federal court with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. He also is charged with conspiring with another Border Patrol agent to smuggle immigrants and is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court this morning. There is no indication in court records that the other agent, who was not identified, has been arrested....