A respected veteran federal prosecutor got fired for reporting
government misconduct involving a terrorism fundraising operation run by
9/11 hijacker Mohamaed Atta, according to a lawsuit filed in federal
court against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Eric
Holder.
The complaint,
filed this month in United States District Court for the District of
Columbia, is downright chilling. It outlines an alarming retaliation
plot at the upper levels of the DOJ to oust an esteemed prosecutor who
had received numerous awards for outstanding performance. Scarier even
is that the feds failed to act on evidence that linked domestic
fundraising to the 9/11 terrorists because it was uncovered by the
Assistant U.S. Attorney under fire for exposing government wrongdoing.
The ousted prosecutor, identified only as John Doe in the complaint,
led an investigation dubbed Money Exchange that uncovered evidence that
Atta was raising cash for terrorist missions in the U.S. before 2000.
Rather than focus on his solid investigative work, his bosses at the DOJ
retaliated against him for refusing to sign off on an illegal search
and seizure in the terrorism fundraising case. His superiors, George W.
Bush appointees, approved the illegal search anyways and the prosecutor
blew the whistle on the wrongdoing.
“John Doe made additional disclosures regarding his supervisors’
misconduct from 2005 through 2008 which are protected under the
Whistleblower Protection Act,” the complaint says. “These additional
protected disclosures included reports of misconduct by his superiors in
disciplinary proceedings, in political hirings, and in mishandling of a
terrorist investigation.”
Besides forcing the whistleblower out, the DOJ hierarchy continued
punishing him by snubbing his topnotch investigative work on the
terrorism financing case, which spanned several years. In fact, he came
under fire for distributing a memo on the Money Exchange investigation
to the DOJ counterterrorism division as part of an agency directive to
promptly make disclosures of national security information to all law
enforcement components.
Incredibly, authorities never followed through with the valuable
evidence that the former federal prosecutor and his team provided,
according to the lawsuit. “On May 23, 2008, John Doe urged the Acting
United States Attorney to act upon the Money Exchange Memorandum because
bank records underlying the terrorist funding would be destroyed after 7
years,” the complaint says.
“On May 27, 2008, the United State Attorney ordered John Doe to
retrieve the May 5 Money Exchange Memorandum from all recipients. The
Acting United States Attorney then criticized John Doe for “going
outside the chain of command.” The Acting United States Attorney ordered
John Doe to turn over the Money Exchange case materials to another
AUSA. That AUSA never followed up on the Money Exchange Memorandum.”
If the allegations in the complaint are true, heads should roll at
the DOJ for allowing a personal vendetta to interfere with a terrorism
investigation
(Click link below to read more)
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- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
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