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FBI comment is worst PR imaginable
Boston Herald ^ | Tuesday, November 27, 2001 | by Maggie Mulvihill

Posted on 11/27/2001 12:30:50 PM PST by ninonitti

The man holding one of the most important policing jobs in America - New York's FBI chief, Barry Mawn - made a truly astonishing statement not long ago.

Asked about his former job running the FBI's Boston office - now the subject of federal and congressional corruption probes - Mr. Mawn dismissed the situation there as nothing more than a ``public relations problem.''

Like I said, it was an astonishing statement.

So the corruption-infested Boston FBI office and the dirty agents who coddled their killer ``informants'' for decades is merely a ``public relations problem,'' Mr. Mawn?

OK, let's review.

Was it a ``public relations problem'' when state police dug up the decayed remains of a beautiful 26-year-old girl named Debbie Davis from a Quincy death pit last year, nearly two decades after she was slain by prized FBI rat Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi?

And was it just a ``public relations'' problem when a slew of other bodies - including Flemmi's own stepdaughter - were rooted out from similar Boston mob graves after angering such FBI ``friends'' as Flemmi and crime boss James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger?

Was it just a ``public relations problem'' when four innocent Massachusetts men were sentenced to death in 1968 for the murder of Edward ``Teddy'' Deegan, a hoodlum actually slain by New England mobsters secretly working at the time for FBI agent H. Paul Rico?

And is it just a ``public relations problem'' that the Boston office of the FBI let Bulger, another ``top-echelon informant,'' escape arrest nearly seven years ago - a fugitive who is now second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List?

And is it a ``public relations problem'' that Bulger still can't be found by the most powerful law enforcement agency in the world after being tipped off to the pending arrest by his close friend, former agent John J. Connolly, a man considered a ``superstar'' cop by FBI brass?

Is it just a ``public relations problem'' that Connolly has now been charged with such crimes as obstruction of justice, bribery and anonymously sending a letter to a federal judge falsely accusing his fellow cops of misconduct?

If nothing else, Mr. Mawn's decision to brush off scores of murders, pervasive police corruption and obstruction of justice as only ``public relations problems'' illuminates the arrogance that continues to define the agency at its highest levels.

Mr. Mawn apparently learned nothing from the rough rebuke issued last August by U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf, who chastised the FBI for blaming its problems on a ``few bad apples'' rather than dealing with its long history of helping - not hindering - vicious killers such as Flemmi and Bulger.

But that's history Mr. Mawn has shamefully chosen to forget.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Does anyone else here have second thoughts about granting goons like Barry Mawn MORE power to act like this?

This is the same FBI office that hasn't made a public corruption case in 3 or 4 decades.

It's part of the same FBI that had evidence of the AlQueda network and their plans YEARS ago and yet couldn't put two and two together.

I personally would have trouble giving anyone from this agency $10 to go get coffee for fear that they'd screw the order up.

Thank God we'll have the Feds now running airport security.

1 posted on 11/27/2001 12:30:50 PM PST by ninonitti
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To: ninonitti
Thank you for posting this. Is the DOJ doing a formal investigation into this? I mean, really, this is HORRIFYING, particularly as the bin Laden family owns classy condominiums in Boston, and because al-Qaeda purposively picked LOGAN International Airport. This is just appalling, and like you, I do NOT believe it is evidence of a PR problem.

Geesh...

2 posted on 11/27/2001 12:36:46 PM PST by meridia
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To: ninonitti
All those claims are nothing compared to the corruption at presididential levels during Clinton's term. I never read anything that even sounded like a complaint about that administration from the Boston Herald. Now all of the sudden they are concerned about corruption? Puleeze, now they're all trying to pretend they are OReilly.
3 posted on 11/27/2001 12:43:45 PM PST by mgist
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To: ninonitti
Don't forget the recent arrest of a Boston FBI agent for fraud in obtaing a sit-down lawn mower in Virginia, and a pal of his who beat up his wife and was suspended.

PR my arse!!

4 posted on 11/27/2001 12:48:51 PM PST by Doc Savage
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To: mgist
"All those claims are nothing compared to the corruption at presididential levels during Clinton's term. I never read anything that even sounded like a complaint about that administration from the Boston Herald. Now all of the sudden they are concerned about corruption? Puleeze, now they're all trying to pretend they are OReilly."

BWAHAAAAAA!!!
Did you nail this, or what?

That the sycophant, quisling media, & especially this RAG, are screaming & wringing their hands about *corruption* (of any kind,) now??
Why this is so ludicrous one MUST be careful not to be caught standing too close to this imbecile Maggie Mulvihill.
Lest one risk getting hit with a bolt of lightening not intended for anyone but her.

Oh this, "is" funny!!

5 posted on 11/27/2001 12:56:00 PM PST by Landru
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To: ninonitti
We are talking about Boston here! This is the core support group of the national Liberials, Lesbians, Queers, Gore, Hillary, you name it - They couldn't find their common collective sense in that hole called Boston. Just my humble opinion now.
6 posted on 11/27/2001 1:45:13 PM PST by Cosmologist
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To: mgist
All those claims are nothing compared to the corruption at presididential levels during Clinton's term. I never read anything that even sounded like a complaint about that administration from the Boston Herald. Now all of the sudden they are concerned about corruption? Puleeze, now they're all trying to pretend they are OReilly.

That was the Boston Globe. The Herald had numerous anti-Clinton articles. They are not a bad paper editorially.

7 posted on 11/27/2001 2:44:10 PM PST by Excuse_Me
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To: ninonitti
Does anyone else here have second thoughts about granting goons like Barry Mawn MORE power to act like this?

Not me. I love the FBI and as we all know they did such a good job of protecting us on 9/11.

And if they didn't it was because they weren't given complete authority to spy on us and hold us in prison indefinately.

8 posted on 11/27/2001 2:49:21 PM PST by Demidog
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To: Landru
That the sycophant, quisling media, & especially this RAG, are screaming & wringing their hands about *corruption* (of any kind,) now??

Don't know about Mulvihill, but the Herald is a fair paper editorially, especially for Boston. Maybe you're thinking of the Globe?

9 posted on 11/27/2001 2:50:57 PM PST by Excuse_Me
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To: ninonitti
This is their bridge too far. It is the rope that hangs centralized Federalism. That the Fed's are now running airport security.

Four years from now when people ar trying to paste together the completely failed airline industry from turbo-prop and fanjet local shuttles, they will remember and lament the glory that was aviation in 2001, how a family could travel coast-to-coast in six hours on a mammoth jetliner and not the 30+ hours the small short hoppers take, or the 72 hours by train that bicoastal travel in 2005 requires.

Yet at the same time we will be building the airline industry up the right way, from the ground up, by private industry with a scorn for federal regulation and booby-trapped hand-outs of money or federal services.

10 posted on 11/27/2001 3:01:50 PM PST by bvw
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To: ninonitti
And to the primary point -- this kind of attitude is that of a cad. Not a millisecond longer should he hold any position of authority. It is a completely irresponsible attitude.
11 posted on 11/27/2001 3:04:20 PM PST by bvw
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To: Landru
this imbecile Maggie Mulvihill

Whoa there.

See post #7 I think you may have confused the Boston Herald with the Boston Globe, the NY Times weak sister Mary.

As for Maggie she's anything but an imbecile (except of course if you happen to be a knuckle dragging fan of thugs like Mawn)and has done a ton of reporting on this corrupt FBI office from the legal angle-she's an attorney.

12 posted on 11/27/2001 3:54:22 PM PST by ninonitti
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To: Excuse_Me
"Don't know about Mulvihill, but the Herald is a fair paper editorially, especially for Boston. Maybe you're thinking of the Globe?"

Thanks; but I'm thinking of the Lamestream media in general & especially those who've the gall to call themselves, "journalists."

You stand over --->*there* if you insist on using the word, "fair" &, "paper" together, OK?
Lightning's been known to jump from one person to another. {g}

They're all a disgrace from my POV; & for the reason I'd stated.
You're right about one thing though, it would've been that much more damning had it been the pitifully awful *Globe*.

Actually, could it get any worse?

13 posted on 11/28/2001 3:16:57 AM PST by Landru
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To: ninonitti
Where was this person during eight year run of the Sink Emporer?

Had she been so compelled to write ad nauseum concerning corruption?
She could've had herslf a field day.
Think this *honest* rag would've printed anything she had wrote on that topic if she had?
Be honest, now...

~Methinks not.

14 posted on 11/28/2001 3:30:06 AM PST by Landru
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To: Landru
My dear friend your dislike of the lamestream media has obviously caused you stop reading completely - what other explanation could explain why you don't seem to get the fact that the Boston Herald did in fact report unfavorably on the "Toon during his eight year co-reign with her Heinous.

Granted, had we any serious reporting early on, the Clinton's would never have gotten out of Hookworm, AK in the first place so I don't dispute the fact that we have a serious problem with the major media in this country.

My personal preference would be to see more reporting on a whole lot of things but since I don't own a major market daily I have to content myself with posting here and reading what's available.

That's the beauty of this place.

15 posted on 11/28/2001 3:49:40 AM PST by ninonitti
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To: ninonitti
My bitterness sometimes takes-on a life of its own, huh?
"IT'S ALIVE!! IT'S ALIVE!!"...well, maybe not as frightful as all that; but close. ;^)

I'm very angry with the entire journalism industry as a whole for what I percieve matters they had a great deal of influence over?
So, to treat 'em in a charitable fashion?
An exremely difficult for me to do, on my best day.
Be that as it may, I'd never known the Herald had spoken out on the criminal enterprise...& let's admit, for one to have missed their concern(s) these past eight years could be considered totally understandable.
I mean, in the world of jouranlism?
A pro-American stand in the name of law & order would've been, & remains, such an unusual sight.

Anyway...enough of my blather.
Have yourself a great day, OK?

"That's the beauty of this place."

Amen to that.

16 posted on 11/28/2001 5:04:22 AM PST by Landru
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To: mgist
Heyyy, don't discourage them, there is no better journalist to imitate than O Reilly.
17 posted on 11/28/2001 5:08:44 AM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: bvw
"And to the primary point -- this kind of attitude is that of a cad. Not a millisecond longer should he hold any position of authority. It is a completely irresponsible attitude."

You haven't met many FBI Agents have you? The guy is typical.

18 posted on 11/28/2001 5:29:56 AM PST by rdavis84
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