* information to and from NAS does not seem to be flowing smoothly

CASE CLOSED is a novel which answers the question “Why did the FBI fail to solve the 2001 anthrax case?” … click here to … buy CASE CLOSED by Lew Weinstein

Here’s what readers say about CASE CLOSED  …

“Author Lew Weinstein does a terrific job telling this fictionalized account of an inter agency post-mortem investigation of the (real) failed FBI investigation.”

“Fiction?? Maybe?? But I don’t think so!! More likely an excellent interpretation of what may have really happened.”

******

information to and from NAS

does not seem to be flowing smoothly

******

DXer’s recent comment deserves a post of its own …

In Amerithrax, NAS has not yet provided a report a description of the Closed Meeting as required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act.  Nor has the NAS responded to email or telephone inquiry to Amanda Cline concerning the documents that should have been put in the Public Access File the day of the meeting (such as Joe Michael’s powerpoint).  Lawrence Livermore advised me that they were refusing to put Dr. Weber’s powerpoint in the Public Access File but then I persuaded them to comply with the law — which requires that a powerpoint presented in open session be made available.  Sandia, on the other hand, through its Public Affairs person, and after checking with Dr. Michael, has refused to provide me a copy.  Sandia’s FOIA person has not even provided or responded to a FOIA request directed to the powerpoint from June.

If these scientists cannot read and comply with the plainly worded statute, it does not bode well for the prospects that the NAS panel will ask the tough questions or succeed in obtaining meaningful documents.  The volunteers have no experience or leverage in obtaining documents.  A federal district court judge ruled this week that the FBI’s interview notes of Vice President Cheney  regarding who leaked Valerie Plame’s name as a CIA operative have to be provided under FOIA.  If Vice President Cheney has to comply with FOIA, Sandia should rethink its position (at least the one from September presented in open session) given that they were funded by taxpayer money. The Sandia powerpoints are the subject of YouTube videos in which they spin the science to accuse the dead guy by using undefined terms like “weaponization” and “natural” in order to create an impression that the silicates were not added intentionally for a reason.

Now, Joe Michael’s email correspondence with Dr. Meselson would be even more interesting but the chances that the NAS will succeed in pressing for meaningful documents  (as former FBI agent Jennifer Smith and Dr. Budowie urged) are slim. NAS will not succeed in obtaining full document discovery because they have no mechanism by which to make it happen.  They are staffed by well-meaning volunteers with limited time who, although  expert in their particular narrow field, have no means of enforcing a request for documents.  The FBI has proven that it does not like producing documents.  The DOJ will be appealing the court order to release the Cheney interview.

* SBI, FBI … the temptation to hide information and to convict innocent people too often seems to be overwhelming … a recent NC case is not unrelated to the FBI’s fervent desire to hide information about its investigation of the 2001 anthrax case

CASE CLOSED is a novel which answers the question “Why did the FBI fail to solve the 2001 anthrax case?” … click here to … buy CASE CLOSED by Lew Weinstein

Here’s what readers say about CASE CLOSED  …

“Lew Weinstein is a meticulous researcher and a determined storyteller. CASE CLOSED  will keep you up at night — reading, then worrying.”

“This scary scenario is as close to truth as fiction can come.”

******

this recent NC case is not unrelated to the FBI’s fervent desire to hide information about its investigation of the 2001 anthrax case

Joseph Neff writes for NewsObserver.com (10/2/09) …

• The (North Carolina) State Bureau of Investigation has agreed to a $3.9 million settlement with former death row inmate Alan Gell to end his lawsuit accusing the SBI of fabricating evidence and obstructing justice, according to documents made public Thursday. The state also spent $731,062.40 to defend the lawsuit.
• The settlement was made on behalf of SBI special agent Dwight Ransome. He was the lead investigator into the 1995 killing of Allen Ray Jenkins, a retired truck driver in Aulander, about 120 miles east of Raleigh.
• According to a case summary by the agent’s own lawyer, Ransome had decided that Gell was guilty early on, despite having statements from 17 independent witnesses who saw Jenkins alive after Gell was jailed on unrelated charges.
• Ransome recommended Gell be charged with murder while failing to inform the prosecutor of a host of evidence favorable to Gell: taped telephone calls, a failed polygraph test and the 17 witness statements.
• SBI Director Robin Pendergraft said Thursday that Ransome has been transferred to an administrative job in Raleigh and will not conduct any more investigations. His salary, $72,849, is unchanged.
• Gell spent four of his nine years behind bars on death row.
• The prosecutors were dismissed from the case because they enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution or lawsuits stemming from their official actions.

read the entire story at … http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/122030.html

LMW COMMENT …

As I have said before (and written a novel about), police and prosecutorial abuse is a national disgrace and a plague on our criminal justice system.

Withholding information that is relevant to the defense is against the law, but those who do so are rarely punished. In this North Carolina case, the police officer who lied in court and sent an innocent man to death row, still has his job and salary, and the prosecutors (did they know? were they in collusion with the officer?) were, as almost always, excused from the case.

You will recall that a federal judge recently awarded $101.7 million in a Boston case because the FBI withheld evidence in violation of the law, thus knowingly convicting innocent men who spent decades in prison…

see related posts …

* the FBI is found to have withheld evidence in a Boston case … it happens a lot in America … is it happening in the FBI case against Dr. Bruce Ivins?

* more details about the FBI hiding evidence to convict the innocent in Boston case … who is safe when those responsible for upholding the law can break it to gain a conviction?

Is the NC case of withheld information related to the FBI’s anthrax investigation?

Not directly, of course, but it is not hard to see the pattern …

When the same FBI found to have illegally withheld information in the above cited Boston case uses every possible strategy to avoid turning over information related to its 2001 anthrax case investigation …

• accusing a dead man (Dr. Ivins) and thus never having to present its case in court under oath
• hounding another USAMRIID scientist (Dr. Hatfil) for years and then paying $5.8 million to avoid going to court to defend their actions
• still not closing the case against Dr. Ivins 13 months after stating in August 2008 that Dr. Ivins was the sole perpetrator, and more than two months after repeating that the closing of the case was imminent, thus avoiding FOIA requests for documents that should now be part of the public record
• agreeing with NAS not to turn over documents until the conclusion of the NAS study, in apparent violation of FOIA regulations
• limiting the scope of the NAS study in ways that seem to hinder an effort to learn the truth as to whether or not the FBI’s science points to Dr. Ivins or merely to the scores of scientists who had access to flask RMR-1029
• refusing to make public the contract between the NAS and the FBI so that the restrictions of NAS in that contract could be clearly known
• failing (for almost two years now) to answer direct questions about the anthrax case posed by U.S. Congressmen and Senators

… then there is a loss of confidence in the FBI’s willingness to stay within the law and behave according to the rules of our justice system.

This inability to have faith in the FBI is, in my judgment, a major national issue.

******

A Good Conviction is a novel, written by Lew Weinstein, about a young man convicted of murder by a NYC prosecutor who knew he was innocent.

A reader comment about A Good Conviction …

“This gripping story demonstrates how one’s life can take a 180 degree turn in a moment. Weinstein is a great story teller and this is a very well crafted story.”

click here to … * buy A GOOD CONVICTION by Lew Weinstein

******