This is just horrifying.
Dan L'Allier said he witnessed 45 tons of the New York loot being unloaded in Minnesota at his company's headquarters. He and Christopherson complained to a company executive, but were ordered to keep quiet. They persisted, going instead to the FBI.
The two whistleblowers eventually lost their jobs, received death threats and were blackballed in the disaster relief industry. But they remained convinced their sacrifice was worth seeing justice done.
They were wrong.
Once-secret documents obtained by The Associated Press detail how the company, Kieger Enterprises of Lino Lakes, Minn., went unpunished for the Sept. 11 thefts after the government discovered FBI agents and other government officials had stolen artifacts from New York's ground zero.
As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark about a major fraud involving their donated goods even as new requests for charity emerged with disasters like Hurricane Katrina. And Christopherson and L'Allier were left disillusioned.
"I wouldn't open my mouth again for all the tea in China," L'Allier said. Added Christopherson, a 34-year-old father of two: "I paid a big price."
[...]
The lead investigators for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AP that the plan to prosecute KEI for those thefts stopped as soon as it became clear in late summer 2002 that an FBI agent in Minnesota had stolen a crystal globe from ground zero.
That prompted a broader review that ultimately found 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.
"How could you secure an indictment?" FEMA investigator Kirk Beauchamp asked. "It would be a conflict."
[...]
Prosecutors "and the FBI were very conscious of the fact that if they proceeded in one direction, they would have to proceed in the other, which meant prosecuting FBI agents," said Jane Turner, the lead FBI agent. She too became a whistleblower alleging the bureau tried to fire her for bringing the stolen artifacts to light. Turner retired in 2003.
I don't think the following is a very good argument, though:
Nick Gess, another former federal prosecutor, said the agents' actions shouldn't have precluded prosecuting the company.
"DEA agents have been found to smoke pot occasionally," Gess said. "That doesn't mean they (the Drug Enforcement Administration) can't still work on drug cases."
Yeeeeeaaaaah.
3 comments:
Hahah. Leave it to NBC. It's not even important to the greater part of the story, but it's there nonetheless, and it does its damage as it was intended to do. Here's another link of a similar story.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-13-rumsfeld-sept11_x.htm
Now, you'll notice here that the headline is even more up front and in your face. But that's USA Today for you.
But please, though it doesn't have anything to do with the water, food, items, what have you that was stolen, take a gander at what Rumsfeld "stole" from the crashsite. Oh, and the FBI fellow as well.
Shame they forgot to point that out in the other article. Or hell, make it available in the headline of this one here.
These days, people only need to see "ONE OF BUSH GUYS STOLE STOLE STOLE WHILE PEOPLE DIED" and they nod their head in agreement, ignoring whatever might have actually gone down.
Dunno about you, but if I was one of those that was running this show and looking out for the men and women of this country, I don't think I'd consider requesting what he did to be any sort of theft of any kind.
Hahah! Did I say NBC? I meant CBS. Or does the difference in letters really make a difference at all? ;p
If the FBI didn't prosecute because an agent took a paperweight as a souvenir, that is important for people to know. Like Gess pointed out, that petty (and debatable, perhaps) crime doesn't make them unable to go after a company that did steal. His metaphor is terrible, but the point stands. If this is true, what were they thinking?
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