Posted on 12/11/2003 9:50:05 AM PST by Sub-Driver
FEDS GIVING OUT BUG LETTERS NOTIFYING PEOPLE THEY'VE BEEN TAPPED A SIGNAL NOOSE IS CLOSING By KITTY CAPARELLA & DAVE DAVIES caparek@phillynews.com
THE HEAT just turned up a notch in the city public corruption probe.
FBI agents are notifying people whose conversations were intercepted by phone taps and listening devices, according to sources familiar with the ongoing investigation.
Two agents arrived at Mayor Street's campaign office Tuesday to deliver written notice to Connie Little, a former special assistant to Street who left the government earlier this year to work on his re-election campaign.
Little is a longtime member of Street's inner circle, serving as a senior staff member when Street was City Council president in the 1990s. She also is the former Democratic leader of the 37th Ward in North Philadelphia.
Another source said the Little conversations were intercepted with Faridah Ali, the wife of the Muslim cleric Imam Shamsud-din Ali, in 2001 and '02, indicating some form of surveillance dating back as far as two years.
The Daily News reported this week that Ali's cell and home phones were bugged and that federal agents had installed a videocam inside the cleric's Mount Airy company, Keystone Information and Financial Services on Germantown Avenue.
"If it's at this stage, it's very likely these people are going to get some contact from the government - either a target letter or a grand-jury subpoena," said Peter F. Vaira, a former U.S. attorney.
"The heat is on and they've got to think about what they said," he added.
There is no indication that Little has been accused of any wrongdoing. She could not be reached for comment last night.
The agents were carrying several notices for other individuals, according to a knowledgable source.
It could not be learned whether any of the letters were for interceptions from an FBI bug found in Street's office on Oct. 7, or in the offices of attorney Ron White and former city Treasurer Corey Kemp, which, sources said, were also wiretapped.
"Generally, you get a notice when you play some sort of role that [investigators] are looking at," Vaira said. "It's a relevant part of the investigation - good or bad."
Street has consistently said he's done nothing wrong, and that he plans to cooperate fully with the investigation. Barbara Grant, the mayor's press secretary, said she did not know if Street received a letter.
Kemp could not be reached for comment. Attorney Creed Black Jr., who represents White, and Joel Slomsky, attorney for Ali, could not be reached late yesterday.
The notification signals a new phase in the probe, as investigators tighten the loop to bring in witnesses or potential defendants.
The letters are the government's official confirmation of wiretaps and listening devices used in the investigation, which sources have reported to various media in recent weeks.
Vaira cautioned that the written notification of an intercepted electronic conversation is not a target letter.
Some people notified of the bugs "may know it because the agents probably talked to them," he added.
Under the electronic-surveillance statute, the government is required to notify people overheard in a "substantive conversation" they were intercepted, he added.
The notification is part of their due process. They could be called before a grand jury, he added. "And this is serious."
While the government must notify a person intercepted about nonconsensual wiretaps and the bugging of rooms, there is no requirement to notify if a person is talking to a friend who is wearing a tape recorder.
With videotapes, "the sound controls," Vaira explained. If the video is silent, they don't have to notify you, but if the video has sound, they do.
Vaira said that a prosecutor can wait a substantial amount of time before sending out the letters.
"It's a psychological technique," he said. "When do you spring it on them? When do you use them?
"It's part of an investigative technique. You work your way up from the bottom. In a white-collar investigation, it's all about money, financial transactions. Somebody has to be putting it someplace."
For those who receive such letters, Vaira says, "If you're wise enough, you go to a lawyer, and the lawyer asks, 'What do you have on my guy?' And then, you deal."
In a white-collar investigation, prosecutors and federal agents develop a combination of evidence: testimony of live witnesses, wiretaps and financial records, he said.
Financial documents, computers and other materials from Ali's and White's offices were seized during raids in the days after an FBI bug was discovered in Street's office on Oct. 7.
"Now, they are looking for live witnesses," Vaira said.
You can bet the farm that the Feds have all their I's dotted and their T's crossed. The usual suspects, are ready to pounce. The investigations involve the corrupt dims, and John Ashcroft and his DOJ are very aware of this fact. They will be prepared for the onslaught, with facts and an airtight case. The political climate, the Clinton moles in the DOJ, and their Goebbels like destruction machine, dictate this.!! This investigation will turn out to be huge, and IMHO is traveling up the food chain, and could involve some really big fish.
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