It’s a matter of priorities

October 4, 2005

There’s an interesting AP story out noting that the FBI has curtailed its criminal case work considerably since 9/11. There are only so many agents and the Justice Department has prioritized counterterrorism. Sort of.

The FBI is investigating only about half the criminal cases it did before the Sept. 11 attacks because of its focus on stopping terrorist attacks, according to a federal report.

Investigations of financial fraud, bank robberies and some drug cases have suffered as a result, but other federal agencies as well as state and local law enforcement have picked up the slack in most areas, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said Monday. […]

Four years after the Sept. 11 attacks and FBI Director Robert Mueller’s decision to make counterterrorism the bureau’s top priority, the decline in traditional criminal investigations was steepest in drug cases and extended to organized crime, bank robberies, civil rights, health care fraud, corporate fraud and public corruption, Fine said in a 194-page audit.

A number of questions come to mind, but at the top of the list is wondering why the FBI is cutting back on fraud and corruption investigations while investing more resources in going after pornography.

The FBI is joining the Bush administration’s War on Porn. And it’s looking for a few good agents.

Early last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director.” That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Mischievous commentary began propagating around the water coolers at 601 Fourth St. NW and its satellites, where the FBI’s second-largest field office concentrates on national security, high-technology crimes and public corruption.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography — not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

The Bush administration has its priorities; are they yours?

Note to Democratic hopefulls: Opportunity. Knocking. This is a great chance to knock BuchCo (and the neocons in general) for a loop right where it hurts: national security.

“George Bush says he’s committed to fighting terrorism, but he’s tasking FBI agents to focus on the type of movies you watch. Who is he trying to fool? Tell Bush and [insert congressman here] to stay out of your bedroom, and send soemone who will remember what’s really important: protecting America.”

  • At least the FBI is only useless, in contrast to the many many years where it was solely a right-wing political outfit devoted to destroying the civil rights and anti-war movements.

  • Americans, along with their police systems, seem to have an unusual interest in sex (or, rather, the seamier aspects of it).

    Years ago I did a study of urban police-patrol geography — the lowest level patrol districts in cities. There was an inverse relation between patrol district area (sq. mi.) and “crime density” (crimes per sq. mi.). So, the higher the crime density, the smaller the patrol district. It makes sense, when you think about it: more intense surveillance of higher crime regions of the city. In fact, there was a precise mathematical relationship between density and size (for those who, like me, enjoy such things, size is proportional to density raised to the -2/3 power).

    What I found notable was that cities generally have one patrol district which is exceptional in being much smaller than it should be, given the overall pattern of crime density. It was always the district in which “vice” crimes (i.e., prostitution) predominated. Conclusion: police departments spend much more time and money patrolling sex crimes than the actual level of those crimes can justify. If anything, such over- patrolling probably contributes to excessive reporting of criminal activity.

  • Perhaps the military should try something similar & see if they can’t get their enrollment rates up…

  • No, and I can name names. Charlie Gargano, Bush pioneer, is the head of the NYS Empire Development Corpoation and the vice chairman of the NY Port Authority.

    In the 1970s, Gargano was doing business with the Lucchese family through the J. D. Posillico construction company. They were in cahoots in the $2 billion Southwest Sewer District scandal in Suffolk County, Long Island. So many Republicans and Democrats were on the take that judges would have been sending friends and family to jail so everyone got off virtually scotfree. J. D. Posilllico paid a $300k fine and pleaded no contest to bid-rigging charges.

    I can attest to the fact that Gargano was on first-name basis with Tony “Ducks” Corallo and Anello “Neil” Migliore of the Lucchese family. The Lucchese family controlled carting, cement and other industries on Long Island.

    To give you an idea of what kind of money is involved, NYS was after Migliore to pay taxes on $3m in illegal gambling profits in the 60s. I once read that the creator of the Sopranos lived in Oyster Bay where Migliore lived and I think that Tony Soprano was patterned after Migliore and his wife, Rose. They have two children, Donna and her younger brother, Ricky.

    In the 80s, the FBI scored some big mob cases in NYC and Long Island. The most famous case is the one in which the FBI bugged Corallo’s Jaguar while it was parked at a Huntington catering hall. Corallo died in prison in, I think, 2001. Migliore did time in another case under a deal with the US attorney and was released sometime in the mid-1990s.

    Other than the time his daughter, Donna Brown was arrested for insurance fraud in connection with killing race horses, Migliore has kept his name out of Newsday since Pataki took office and Charlie Gargano became a NYS powerhouse. It’s no coincidence that Gargano’s nephew, Frank, has his office in the same building as the FBI on Long Island.

    Going back to 1993, I’m pretty sure that the FBI on Long Island helped themselves to cash from the Revere Armored Car robbery. This is going to sound weird but the court transcript has a different name for the FBI agent who investigated the case. This is even going to sound more weird: Gargano sold a condo to two LI companies that do business with the courts, one of which provides court stenography services.

    For many years, Jerry Capeci has been writing about organized crime, first for the NY Daily News and now for the NY Observer. He owns the Gangland News website which provides weekly updates on mob comings and goings. In the January 17, 2005 issue of New York magazine (which is availabe online), he provided an update on NY crime families.

    Here’s what he wrote about Migliore:

    “Currently, the Lucheses have a trio of veteran capos functioning as a ruling committee: Aniello “Neil” Migliore, 71; Joseph DiNapoli, 69; and Matthew Madonna, 69.

    Migliore, who served briefly as underboss to Antonio “Tony Ducks” Corallo decades ago, “is the biggest influence on the street,” says one law-enforcement official. “He’s more equal than the others,” says another investigator.”

    Before this article was published, I wrote to Capeci and asked for an update on Migliore because I was damned sure he did not retire but Capeci never answered my letter.

    Gargano was a director of Eagle Building Technologies which I posted about here a few days ago. The president of Eagle, Anthony M. D’Amato who is now serving a nine year prison sentence, was linked to mob-related businesses including prepaid phone cards. One of the Eagle insiders was Robert Molinari who I think is Guy’s bolder brother and Susan’s uncle. He made $225k selling Eagle stock.

    Given the first board of directors, Eagle probably was laundering money for the construction industry. For example, Robert Kornahrens owns Advanced Roofing which does business with the state of Florida. Kornahrens, according to Eagle filings, loaned Eagle $500k. Given that most of Eagle’s financial information was garbage, that may or may not be true. Another director was Andros Savvides who, according to his bio, formed an engineering company, the Excel Group in Mineola. Long Island.

    Gargano was also associated with Sealant Solutions f/k/a Winners Edge f/k/a UC’NWIN and Andros Development International. James “Carey” Parrish was the president of both of those companies and he was convicted along with D’Amato after being snagged by the FBI in the famous “Bermuda Shorts” sting operation which was run jointly with the Canadian Royal Mounted Police.

    As president of Sealant Solutions in 2002, Parrish placed $250k of Sealant stock privately with IFG Goldstar Cement. The $250k placement was Sealant’s only transaction in 2002. It had no other business. Goldstar Cement is a front for Buck Showalter, a notorius stock swindler and con artist who should have his lights punched out for wasting valauble SEC time and resources. Showalter, according to SEC records, was in Lebanon sometime in 2000? and then spent six months in Ukraine in 2001.

    Gargano was the chairman of the Andros advisory board, whatever that means. Andros actually maintains (or used to) an office in Coral Springs, Florida and supposedly was developing property on Andros Island in the Bahamas as well as establishing a fibreboard construction business. Some of the same people associated with Eagle and other Gargano “investments” are associated with Andros.

    The Andros board of directors are (or were) an interesting lot. Sir Orville Turnquest is the former governor-general of the Bahamas. Gene Brehm is a CPA from San Antonio who raises limousin cattle. Lord Charles Churchill is a society sponge who capitalizes on his name and has been involved in other shady deals. Iraklis Fidetz is a mysterious Greek who supposedly has ties to Onassis or something or other. The executives include Alfred V. Grecco, a NYC attorney, who makes a living off of small cap companies and David Goldblatt, a longtime Gargano croney.

    James “Carey” Parrish, convict and president of Andros and Sealant, was the vice president of a Florida, get this, security firm that monitored electric bracelets installed on criminals released from jail. Richard Kurtz, who owns the company, is the major shareholder in another Gargano associated public company, Urecoats.

    I can’t begin to describe how disgusted I am with every Democrat and Republican in New York. For twenty five years, honest NYers have had to watch Pataki, D’Amato and Gargano loot the state treasury. The state legislature is so corrupt that the NY Post advocated voting every last one of them out of office in the last election.

    The right wing was right – Hillary Clinton is a piece of trash. Reading about how she sucked up to D’Amato on the steps of the new D’Amato courthouse made me sick. Naming a courthouse for the guy who should be inside on trial is an indication of the sewer that that NYS has become.

    What really burned me up was the photo of Hillary batting her baby blues at Pataki on some podium in western NY so she could take credit for creating three f**king jobs. This while Carl McCall was running for governor. Everybody laughed at McCall yet for years, he fended off Gargano and D’Amato who wanted to loot the state pension funds and “invest” in NYS. Gargano’s idea of investment is Intelli-Check, created solely to launder money.

    The NY investment community is made up entirely of thieves, Goldman Sachs being the worst of the lot. If I know that Gargano is a crook, so does Goldman Sachs. As long as Garagano keeps issuing debt, Goldman Sachs will keep underwriting it.

    Gargano has such a bad reputation, Italy did not want him to be the US ambassador. Italy has had enough trouble with the mafia.

    At this point, I’d settle for any candidate that promised to beef up the IRS and the SEC, clean out the FBI and expand citizen access to government information. I really don’t care anymore where anyone stands on abortion rights as long as he or she is honest.

    Yeah, I’d say I have different priorities than the Bush administration.

  • Ditto. Great story but that’s easy for me to say, 3000 miles away.

    I don’t see Elliot Spitzer’s name in that reeking tableau. Seems like he would have needed to wear a haz-mat suit all this time to have avoided getting tainted himself just from being so close to it all. Is he what he’s cracked up to be? Is he the last honest man or does he have his own dark shadows?

    No wonder Hillary went to New York. Maybe it reminded her of Arkansas. “Nobody here but us chickens.”

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