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A baseball players agent illegally smuggled Cuban players into the United States, eventually shipping them to California in hopes that they would be signed by major league teams, federal immigration officials said Tuesday. The agent, Gustavo ``Gus'' Dominguez, is charged with paying four aides to transport the athletes and other Cubans to the U.S. in two trips from the island nation. Dominguez, of California-based Total Sports International, has represented several Cuban baseball defectors, including Andy Morales, who was signed into the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox minor league systems after fleeing Cuba six years ago. Excerpt. Get the...

Congressmen who visit the U.S.-Mexico border unannounced are being monitored by the Department of Homeland Security, and at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent has been suspended for speaking to a congressman without first getting supervisory clearance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Congressional representatives interviewed by the Daily Bulletin said they were unaware until recently that Border Patrol agents were required to file Significant Incident Reports -- normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents -- when congressional representatives made unannounced visits this summer along the U.S.-Mexico border. A second document obtained by the...

A former border inspector pleaded guilty Thursday to accepting cash bribes and luxury cars in exchange for allowing smugglers to sneak hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. through a busy San Diego crossing. Richard Elizalda, 55, a 10-year veteran border inspector for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, admitted to one count of accepting bribes as a public official and two counts of bringing illegal aliens into the country for financial gain stemming from a 15-count indictment in January. He faces up to 35 years in prison and $820,000 in fines. Elizalda sent text messages directing drivers to...

YUMA, Ariz. -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at officers from the Mexican side of the border late Saturday, officials said. The incident began after agents spotted a suspicious vehicle near the Andrade Port of Entry west of the California-Arizona border, just north of the international border and alongside the Colorado River. The driver fled and then tried to swim across a pond along the river in an effort to return to Mexico, the agency said in a press release. But the man began to struggle to stay afloat and agents threw...

Ex-NHL agent arrested on sex charges David Frost used position of trust to prey on boys, girls, police say Gary Dimmock and Andrew Seymour CanWest News Service Wednesday, August 23, 2006 OTTAWA -- David Frost, the former NHL agent who was once the target of a foiled U.S. murder-for-hire plot hatched by one of his star players, woke up this morning in jail on charges that he sexually exploited four boys and three girls, aged 14 to 16, across a six-year period ending in 2001. The disgraced coach and mentor-turned-NHL-agent for onetime big leaguers like Mike Danton and Sheldon...

US Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos attorney is Mary Stillinger (article at the end of this email) http://www.marystillingerlaw.com/index.jsp (915) 544-0415 I just spoke with Attorney Mary Stillinger's legal assistant, Ruth. She said that the U.S. Border Patrol Agents are scheduled for their sentencing on August 22nd. Ruth said IF WE SEND LETTERS stating the border patrol agents have been wrongly accused THAT ATTORNEY MARY STILLINGER CAN USE OUR LETTERS WHEN SHE GOES BEFORE THE JUDGE on August 22nd. Letters could be helpful for both the sentencing and the appeal in this case, she said. I have been researching this issue...

EL PASO, Texas - Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos could hear his heart racing. He could feel the dry, hot dust burning against his skin as he chased a drug trafficker trying to flee back into Mexico. Ramos' fellow agent, Jose Alonso Compean, was lying on the ground behind him, banged up and bloody from a scuffle with the much-bigger smuggler moments earlier. Suddenly the smuggler turned toward the pursuing Ramos, gun in hand. Ramos, his own weapon already drawn, shot at him, though the man was able to flee into the brush and escape the agents. Now, nearly 18...

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....