Free Republic

Social activist, organizer ... and FBI informant It was all about stopping violence, says Austin man who revealed alleged firebomb plot at GOP convention. By David Hanners ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS Saturday, January 03, 2009 ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a federal courtroom in Minneapolis this month, the public transformation of Brandon Darby of Austin will become complete. In four years, he has gone from a never-trust-the-government activist to the confidential informant who helped the FBI arrest two Austin men on suspicion of building firebombs during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September. "I feel like, as an...

During the Republican convention in St. Paul, many of us expected to see a level of violence similar to that of the Seattle WTO riots a few years back. When that violence never materialized, we knew that law enforcement managed to penetrate the organizations of tinhorn terrorists who have to rely on bombs and rocks to make their arguments. The trial of two conspirators has revealed one successful penetration that saved lives and property — and of course the nutcase Left in Texas considers the HERE

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2008 – A suspected member of an Iranian-backed “special group” turned into an informant for coalition forces today, and Iraqi and coalition forces detained 16 suspected terrorists and several weapons caches in operations over the past three days, military officials reported. The special groups suspect turned into an informer this morning during operations in Qasarin, about 30 kilometers north of Baghdad in Diyala province. Coalition forces were pursuing a man affiliated with the "Asaib al Haq" criminal ring, a Shiite group that broke away from Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. According to information provided by suspects already in custody,...

NAPLES (Reuters) - An Italian businessman who was helping police break organized crime gangs that operate waste disposal rackets in Naples was gunned down on Sunday in an apparent mafia hit, police said. The latest killing in the southern Italian city, which in recent months has become as famous for its piles of trash as for its reputation for crime, came on a day that thousands of people attended a rally against plans to open new rubbish dumps. Police said Michele Orsi, a businessman with mafia links who had turned informant, was shot three times near his home by assailants...

When U.S. authorities got their hands on terrorist Mohammed Mansour Jabarah in May 2002, he agreed to inform on some of the most influential al-Qaeda leaders. So instead of being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or a high-security CIA detention facility, Jabarah was housed with relatively lax security at Fort Dix, N.J., where he was allowed to watch television and movies, speak to his family in Canada by telephone, go for walks and even make his own meals, all under 24-hour FBI watch. That arrangement soon proved to be a major problem for the bureau. In court papers filed in...

When we first read the newspaper today, we were intrigued by the article about a website called www.whosarat.com. The story describes the site as an information clearinghouse about confidential informants who have participated with government investigations and helped put people behind bars. Many of these informants have their own criminal histories and some of the defendants and defense attorneys can use this information to try to save themselves, or their clients, from prosecution. The first thing we did was check out the site for ourselves. We barely got past the front page when we were asked to spend $7.99 for...

A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies. The FBI would not comment on what it knew about the involvement of its informant, 39-year-old David Gletty of Orlando, in the neo-Nazi event. In court Wednesday, an...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he has received warnings from within the White House that the Bush administration is plotting to assassinate him or topple his left-leaning government. Citing what he said were warnings from an alleged White House informant, Chavez told thousands of supporters at a campaign rally that President Bush has ordered him to be killed before he leaves office in 2008. Bush "has said that before he goes, Hugo Chavez shouldn't be the president of Venezuela," Chavez told the crowd. "The president of the United States has said it, especially in recent days....

Jefferson case informant files complaint with policeShe says odd 'things' occurred after FBI tip Tuesday, August 29, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- A Virginia woman told police that "things have been happening" since she went to the FBI 17 months ago with a complaint that led to the continuing corruption probe against Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. Lori Mody, who wore a hidden microphone to tape conversations with Jefferson, said in her July 24 complaint to the Fairfax County (Va.) Police Department that the toilet in a McLean, Va., home she is getting ready to sell broke between July...

TORONTO – The surprise announcement by a prominent Muslim leader here that he was an informant who helped authorities arrest 17 Muslims on terrorism charges has raised questions in the Muslim community over the ethics of informing versus a responsibility to stop violence. Since outing himself as an informant who infiltrated and trained with the suspects, Mubin Shaikh has come under harsh criticism by some Toronto Muslims and sparked a debate about how far citizens should go in aiding police investigations, even as he has been hailed as a hero in the mainstream media.

October 8, 2005 -- The al Qaeda member who triggered New York's subway alert told the anti-terror squad that arrested him they were "too late," it was reported yesterday. The insurgent, captured in an Iraqi "safe house," passed some lie-detector tests, and information found in the house led to another terrorist hideout. But the suspect's claims — of 19 al Qaeda operatives planning to plant bombs in subways, using baby strollers and other camouflage — have not been corroborated despite a massive U.S. intelligence effort, sources said. The alert that jolted the city began last week when an informant, whose...

Sen. Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law is the mystery witness who raised $100,000 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and then went undercover and wore a wire to help the feds nab one of her top moneymen on charges of fund-raising-fraud, The Post has learned. The witness, Ray Reggie, 43, has a sister, Victoria, who married Kennedy in 1992, and prosecutors say Reggie secretly recorded "incriminating" statements made by David Rosen, a top Clinton fund-raiser. Reggie was close enough to Bill and Hillary Clinton to sleep over at the White House in 2000 and stay up chatting with the first couple into the...

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant who was set to be the star prosecution witness in a terror trial until he set himself ablaze outside the White House took the stand for the defense Thursday, saying he had sought $5 million for leading prosecutors to a Yemeni sheik he says gave Osama bin Laden money, arms and fighters. "I deserve that," Mohamed Alanssi said through an Arabic-English interpreter. "After I chase the terrorist and I bring him here to America I deserve even $10 million." Alanssi quickly laid out some of the government's most serious allegations against Sheik Mohammed...

Mohamed Alanssi slid the photos of his once-happy life across the table of a Union Station restaurant. The portrait of his wife with two of his six children. The picture showing the living room of the $1 million home he built in his native Yemen when he was a prosperous businessman. The 1970s snapshot of him as a low-level employee at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, shaking hands with the U.S. ambassador. But that happiness ended after he made the mistake of becoming an FBI terrorism informant, Alanssi said tearfully in an interview three weeks ago. His cooperation had been...

The informant who tipped Microsoft Corp. to the identity of the "Sasser" computer worm's creator last month is among five people under investigation as possible accomplices, prosecutors said Wednesday. The worm's 18-year-old creator, Sven Jaschan, was arrested at his home in northern Germany May 7 following the tip to Microsoft from an informant seeking a reward. Jaschan, whose worm raced around the world exploiting a flaw in the company's Windows operating system, is free pending charges. The week after the arrest, police questioned five people, some of whom said Jaschan had given them the source code for the "Netsky" virus,...

Most of us old enough to have been reading newspapers and watching television in the mid-1980s remember when the Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist junta “Sandinistas” were battling the anti-communist guerrilla army of “Contras” in Nicaragua. And who could forget the overblown Iran-Contra affair, the attempt to arm the Contras through a deal to swap arms for hostages with the mullahs in Iran. What might be hazy in the memory after 20 years, however, is the Keystone Kops, I-want-to-play-president role of the freshman senator from Massachusetts, John Forbes Kerry. Still humming his “Give peace a chance” mantra from Vietnam days, Kerry jumped into...

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen killed the brother of a man widely regarded as having revealed the location of Saddam Hussein's sons to U.S. troops in an attack on his car on Saturday, police said. Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in July 2003 when soldiers stormed a villa in Mosul belonging to Nawaf al-Zeidan, who is distantly related to Saddam. Locals said Zeidan had tipped off U.S. forces that Saddam's sons were staying at his villa. Zeidan's brother, Salaah al-Zeidan, was killed and three of his male relatives traveling in the same vehicle were wounded, including an eight-year-old...

<p>TACOMA -- A federal judge could decide Monday the fate of an Olympia man implicated in an alleged plot to kill Gov. Gary Locke. A sentencing hearing for James D. Brailey, 44, began Friday in U.S. District Court. In June, Brailey pleaded guilty to illegal possession of seven guns, including handguns and an assault rifle that were found in his van and home during a search warrant.</p>

MR. SENOR: Good afternoon. I have a brief statement to make, after which General Kimmitt will make an opening statement, and then we will be happy to take your questions. On January 10th, coalition forces received a tip from an informant regarding Khamis Sirhan al-Mohammed, a former Karbala Ba'ath Party regional commander, and number 54 in Central Command's deck of cards. Based in part on that intelligence, al-Mohammed was captured the following day. Today we can announce that less than a month following receipt of that tip, we've approved a payment of $1 million to the Iraqi informant. Al-Mohammed was...

No reward for the man who gave up Saddam December 20 2003 at 09:57AM Baghdad - One of Saddam Hussein's top aides turned him over to American forces, according to fresh details on the former Iraqi leader's capture, as the United States administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said he had escaped an assassination bid earlier this month. "He was someone I would call his right arm," said Major Stan Murphy, the head of intelligence for the 4th Infantry Division's First Brigade in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit said on Friday of the man who led to Saddam's capture at a hideout...