U.S. Navy Hit By Another International Bribery Scandal

Craig Whitlock, a reporter who has covered the “Fat Leonard” U.S. Navy bribery case well, offers a piece at the Washington Post on yet another U.S. Navy bribery and fraud case. 

Federal agents are investigating a new U.S. Navy corruption case that has strong echoes of the Fat Leonard scandal, with a defense contractor facing accusations that he delivered cash bribes and bilked the Navy out of at least $50 million to service its ships in foreign ports, according to recently unsealed court records.

The Justice Department is trying to extradite the contractor — Frank Rafaraci, chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS — from Malta, the Mediterranean island where he was arrested last week after an international manhunt. 

Rafaraci, 68, is a dual U.S.-Italian citizen who splits his time between the United Arab Emirates and Sicily. Since 2010, the Navy and federal agencies have awarded MLS about $1.3 billion in contracts to resupply and refuel U.S. warships in the Middle East, Asia and other regions.

According to an arrest warrant unsealed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, Rafaraci and MLS defrauded the Navy of at least $50 million by inflating invoices for port services between 2011 and 2018. 

In one instance, when the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson visited Manama, capital of the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, in January 2015, MLS billed the Navy for more than $231,000 in “port authority fees,” even though the Manama port authority charged only $12,686, the court documents show. 

Federal authorities are also seeking Rafaraci’s extradition on suspicion of money laundering and bribery. The arrest warrant alleges that he met with an unnamed U.S. Navy official at the Diplomat Hotel in Manama in August 2015, handed over an envelope stuffed with $20,000 in cash and told the official to “keep up the good work.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

U.S. Navy hit by another international bribery scandal - The Washington Post

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard case via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Piece On The 'Fat Leonard' U.S. Navy Bribery And Fraud Case

And you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on an earlier bribery case at the Philadelphia Quartermaster via the below link:  

Paul Davis On Crime: A Look Back At The Multi-Million Dollar Defense Contract Fraud and Bribery Case At The Philadelphia Quartermaster 

The Spy And The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story Of The Cold War

David Ignatius (seen in the below photo), Washington Post columnist and author of spy thrillers such as The Quantum Spy and Body of Lies, offers his take on Ben Macintyre’s nonfiction spy story The Spy and the Traitor in his Post column 

“The Spy and the Traitor” arrives at a moment when the machinations of Russian intelligence (election meddling, Internet manipulation, assassination by poison) are the subjects of almost daily news stories. Russia and its ex-KGB president seem brutally dominant in the intelligence sphere. Ben Macintyre offers a refreshing reversal of that theme: In this story, it’s the Russians who get turned inside out by a British mole. It’s the Kim Philby case, in reverse.

The subtitle of Macintyre’s latest real-life spy thriller calls it “The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.” Like pretty much everything in this fine book, the description is accurate.

The book narrates the astonishing tale of how Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service recruited a KGB officer named Oleg Gordievsky in 1974 and ran him as its agent for 11 years, as he rose to become the “rezident,” or station chief, in London. Then in 1985, because of an appalling blunder by a jealous CIA, Gordievsky was exposed and recalled to Moscow to face almost certain death.

The book converges on a final plot twist so implausible that it could happen only in real life: Gordievsky was exfiltrated across the Finnish border in the trunk of a car by a plucky MI6 officer and his wife and brought back to London for a secret hero’s welcome from an adoring Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He survives today in a protected location in Britain, and one suspects that he’s quite careful about what doorknobs he touches.

Britain didn’t invent spying, but as Macintyre recounts in this and other books, it may have perfected it — producing some of the most sublime manipulators in intelligence history (along with several of the greatest traitors, such as Philby). This book recounts what modern SIS officers rightly regard as their finest hour.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-the-spy-and-the-traitor-a-tale-of-cold-war-espionage-thats-both-thrilling-and-true/2018/09/17/d5666f98-ba8a-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?ut 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with David Ignatius via the below link:

 www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2018/03/the-quantum-spy-my-q-with-spy-novelist.html

‘Fat Leonard’ Scandal Grows With Indictment Of Three More Retired Navy Officials

Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post offers his latest piece on the ongoing U.S. Navy’s ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery and fraud scandal.

The worst corruption scandal in Navy history reached new heights Friday as federal prosecutors announced bribery and fraud charges against three retired sailors, including an officer who allegedly took part in a wild two-day party with prostitutes in Tokyo that cost $75,000.

A grand jury in San Diego indicted retired Capt. David W. Haas, 50, of Kailua, Hawaii, on charges that he took $145,000 in bribes from Leonard Glenn Francis (seen in the above photo), a Singapore-based defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” in Navy circles.

Indicted separately on fraud charges were Ricarte Icmat David, 61, a retired master chief petty officer who lives in the Philippines, and Brooks Alonzo Parks, 46, a retired chief petty officer who lives in Naples, according to the Justice Department. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/08/17/fat-leonard-scandal-grows-with-indictment-of-three-more-retired-navy-officials/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a4a75ba4a787

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard scandal via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/03/my-piece-on-fat-leonard-us-navy-bribery.html

How Spielberg's 'The Post' Misses What Really Happened In Vietnam

Seth Lipsky at that other Post – the New York Post – offers his take on the Steven Spielberg film The Post, a film about the liberal, anti-war Washington Post that published “The Pentagon Papers,” which documented the government’s lies about the Vietnam War.

Ironically, most of the lies were told by the liberal-Democrat Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

‘Democracy dies in darkness” is the new motto of The Washington Post. It adopted the slogan amid the campaign of the liberal press to topple President Trump.

Steven Spielberg’s new movie about The Washington Post is a reminder — however unintended — of something else. Sometimes democracy dies in the full glare of the press.

That’s what happened in Vietnam. And the film, “The Post,” takes on a special irony today, as a press full of righteous indignation seeks to overturn an American election.

Spielberg’s epic is about events that took place in 1971. That’s when the WaPo published the secret history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.

The history had been assembled on orders of LBJ’s secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. A security analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, who’d turned against the war, leaked the documents to The New York Times.

The papers showed that America’s leaders sometimes lied. About, say, the events in the Tonkin Gulf that led Congress to authorize the Vietnam War. Or about whether we could win.

The Times started publishing the papers in June 1971 but was stopped by a federal judge. Ellsberg then gave boxes of the papers to The Washington Post. All eyes then fell on the paper’s owner, Katharine Graham.

Played by Meryl Streep, the doughty doyenne is torn between two factions. On one side are her bankers, who are trying to raise capital for the paper; on the other, her famed editor, Ben Bradlee, played by Tom Hanks.

 “What are you going to do, Mrs. Graham?” Bradlee asks her.

The real drama, though, was the war. Bradlee is up on his high horse. “The way they lied — those days have to be over,” the editor tells Mrs. Graham.

Fair enough. It’s not my intention to fault either of them.

Yet this movie deals with only some of the lies about Vietnam. Inexcusable as they were, the lies told by the Americans were relatively small beer.

It was our Communist enemies who told the big lie — that war was a struggle for liberation by Vietnam’s noble comrades, who took on the Americans with pitchforks. What hooey.

The truth is that the war was a conquest of free South Vietnam by a well-armed, Soviet-backed regime in the north. At the end, the enemy emerged from the jungles with tanks and surface-to-air missiles.

The Pentagon Papers disclosed that our own leaders, in effect, refused to heed evidence that we would lose the war — and sent our troops anyway. “The Post” seems to buy into this theory. Yet it wasn’t sending troops that turned out to be the error.

Rather, it was assuming we couldn’t win. On the ground in Vietnam, our GIs did just that. In the most famous battle, Tet in 1968, our soldiers trounced the Communists. The cause of free Vietnam was betrayed in the US Congress, which had been turned by the anti-war movement.

… Let President Trump — and his critics — remember: When Congress cut off Vietnam, it wasn’t about saving our GIs. They’d long since been withdrawn.

No, the decision by Congress was to retreat in the face of Soviet Communism. It was about abandoning the hope of free Vietnam itself.

Vietnam’s democracy died in broad daylight.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2017/12/27/how-spielbergs-new-flick-the-post-misses-what-really-happened-in-nam/ 

You can also read my piece in the Washington Times on another view of the Vietnam War via the below link: 

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/11/another-view-of-vietnam-war.html

‘Fat Leonard’ Probe Expands To Ensnare More Than 60 Admirals

Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post offers a piece on the U.S. Navy “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal.

The “Fat Leonard” corruption investigation has expanded to include more than 60 admirals and hundreds of other U.S. Navy officers under scrutiny for their contacts with a defense contractor in Asia who systematically bribed sailors with sex, liquor and other temptations, according to the Navy.

Most of the admirals are suspected of attending extravagant feasts at Asia’s best restaurants paid for by Leonard Glenn Francis (seen in the above photo), a Singapore-based maritime tycoon who made an illicit fortune supplying Navy vessels in ports from Vladivostok, Russia to Brisbane, Australia. Francis also was renowned for hosting alcohol-soaked, after-dinner parties, which often featured imported prostitutes and sometimes lasted for days, according to federal court records.

The 350-pound Francis, also known in Navy circles as “Leonard the Legend” for his wild-side lifestyle, spent decades cultivating relationships with officers, many of whom developed a blind spot to his fraudulent ways. Even while he and his firm were being targeted by Navy criminal investigators, he received VIP invitations to ceremonies in Annapolis and Pearl Harbor, where he hobnobbed with four-star admirals, according to photographs obtained by The Washington Post.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/fat-leonard-scandal-expands-to-ensnare-more-than-60-admirals/2017/11/05/f6a12678-be5d-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.24b622610bc2

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard case via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/03/my-piece-on-fat-leonard-us-navy-bribery.html 

Five Myths About the Vietnam War

Lan Cao offers five myths about the Vietnam War in the Washington Post.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick say their multi-part PBS documentary about the Vietnam War, which concluded this past week, was intended to unpack a complex conflict and to embark upon the process of healing and reconciliation. The series has catapulted the Vietnam War back into the national consciousness. But despite thousands of books, articles and films about this moment in our history, there remain many deeply entrenched myths.

MYTH NO. 1

The Viet Cong was a scrappy guerrilla force.

“Vastly superior in tools and techniques, and militarily dominant over much of the world,” historian Ronald Aronson described the hegemonic United States and the impudent rebels, “the Goliath sought to impose on David a peace favourable to his vision of the world.” Recode recently compared the Viet Cong to Uber: “young, scrappy and hungry troops break rules and create new norms, shocking the enemy.”

In reality, the Viet Cong, the pro-North force in South Vietnam, was armed by North Vietnam — which planned, controlled and directed Viet Cong campaigns in the South — the Soviet Union and China. According to the CIA, from 1954 to 1968, those communist nations provided the North with $3.2 billion in military and economic aid, mostly coming after 1964 as the war accelerated. Other sources suggest the number was more than double that figure.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-the-vietnam-war/2017/09/29/467ef3e0-a474-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.c229a3242016 

Blanche Blackwell, Mistress And Muse Of James Bond’s Creator, Ian Fleming, Dies at 104

Matt Schudel at the Washington Post offers an obituary of Blanche Blackwell, a British socialite who lived in Jamaica and inspired Errol Flynn, Noel Coward and Ian Fleming.

Blanche Blackwell inspired one of Noel Coward’s plays about an upper-crust love triangle, and swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn wanted to marry her. She was a member of one of Jamaica’s richest families, but she was best known as the mistress and muse of Ian Fleming (seen in the below photo), the rakish author who was the creator of James Bond.

Mrs. Blackwell died Aug. 8 in London at 104. Her death was confirmed by Andrew Lycett, Fleming’s biographer. Other details were not available.

Vivacious and outdoorsy, Mrs. Blackwell was known for her bright smile and casual allure. She first met Flynn — “a gorgeous god,” in her words — in the 1940s, during one of his Jamaican vacations. He described her laugh as “like the sounds of water tinkling over a waterfall” and was so enchanted that he wanted to propose, even both were married to other people.

One of her closest friends was Coward, the gay playwright and entertainer who based a character on Mrs. Blackwell in his play 1957 “Volcano,” which was so sexually charged that it wasn’t performed in public until 2012. (Mrs. Blackwell attended the opening.)

  

She lived long enough to give business advice to U2’s Bono, whose career was launched by her son, Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records.

“She always says, ‘I love men — they make such good pets,’ ” Chris Blackwell told the British magazine Tatler this year.

Mrs. Blackwell had a home on Jamaica’s northern coast, midway between Coward’s island retreat and Fleming’s estate, Goldeneye, where he wrote his novels and stories about Bond, Agent 007.

…“She always says, ‘I love men — they make such good pets,’ ” Chris Blackwell told the British magazine Tatler this year.

Mrs. Blackwell had a home on Jamaica’s northern coast, midway between Coward’s island retreat and Fleming’s estate, Goldeneye, where he wrote his novels and stories about Bond, Agent 007.

…In Jamaica, what began as “a tropical dalliance” between the writer and Mrs. Blackwell “developed into a deep love affair,” Lycett wrote in his 1995 biography of Fleming.

Beginning in 1952, Fleming returned to Goldeneye every winter to write a new book about Bond’s adventures as a British intelligence officer and serial seducer of women — both of which he could describe from his personal experience. His wife, Ann, usually stayed in England.

…“She was really somebody who offered him friendship,” Lycett said in an interview. “She made him content and happy at a difficult time in his life. She was a woman of great charm and intelligence and was extraordinarily good company.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mistress-and-muse-of-james-bonds-creator-ian-fleming-dies-at-104/2017/08/11/27f65c7a-7eb2-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.f013c4927861 

Yuri Drozdov, Soviet spymaster Who Planted Agents Across The West, Dies At 91

Harrison Smith offers an obituary of a former KGB spymaster in the Washington Post.

They were known as the illegals, men and women who adopted the identities of the dead, worked as priests, poets, actors and inventors, and quietly gathered intelligence for the Soviet Union during the long years of the Cold War. 

Based in nondescript American suburbs and bustling European capitals, they spent up to two decades developing the trust of their neighbors and employers while stealing secret information about nuclear weapons, missile systems, Western intelligence efforts and political intrigue.

At the helm of their organization, a secretive wing of the KGB known as Directorate S, was a balding man with the rank of major general and the name of Yuri Drozdov (seen in the above photo). A square-jawed World War II veteran who led assaults in Afghanistan and helped arrange a high-profile spy exchange in 1960s Berlin, he died June 21 at 91.

The Foreign Intelligence Service, a KGB successor agency known as the SVR, announced his death but did not provide additional details.

You can read the rest of the obit via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/yuri-drozdov-soviet-spymaster-who-planted-agents-across-the-west-dies-at-91/2017/06/21/82d7644c-568d-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?utm_term=.819fb5bd7eb9  

George Anastasia: Five Myths About The Mafia

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the below photo) offers a piece in the Washington Post on five myths about the mafia.

The Tribeca Film Festival ended last month with screenings of “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II.” The purpose was to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the first film, which pumped new life into a genre that had dominated the movie industry in the 1930s. Released at a time when the American Mafia was losing its hold on the underworld, the movies offered a romanticized version of “the life,” a version that celebrated “men of honor” and omerta. In many ways, the movies have served as training films for second- and third-generation Italian American gangsters, who moved from the urban centers of their immigrant grandparents to homogenized suburbs where Sunday dinner is served at the Olive Garden and espresso comes in four flavors at Starbucks. The movies have also reinforced several myths about the Mafia that, ironically, the actions of those in the next generations quickly dispelled.

MYTH NO. 1

The Mafia doesn’t deal drugs.

In “The Godfather,” Michael Corleone became a gangster after his brother Sonny was brutally slaughtered on the causeway in a dispute over drugs. Don Vito Corleone’s avowed opposition to narcotics trafficking helped create the perception that drug dealing was against the rules. Testimony at real-life mob trials reinforced that canard. “Our policy was against drugs,” mobster turned government witness Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano said while testifying against mob boss John Gotti in 1993.

 The reality is that as far back as Lucky Luciano, the mob has been in the drug business. In 1959, Vito Genovese — who gave his name to one of the five New York families — was imprisoned on drug charges, as was his low-level crime family soldier Joe Valachi. Drugs have generated billions of dollars in income for the mob over the decades.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-mafia/2017/05/05/f4075da8-306c-11e7-9dec-764dc781686f_story.html?utm_term=.1ebeebb65036 

Note: Myth number six about the Mafia: They don’t call themselves the Mafia. According to former members who became cooperating witnesses and wiretap recordings, the word Mafia is never used. 

Cosa Nostra, “Our Thing,” which Mr. Anastasia notes in his piece, is the name insiders call the organized crime group. And not La Cosa Nostra, which in Italian would be “The Our Thing.”   

U.S. Navy Bribery And Fraud Scandal: Admiral's Illicit History With 'Fat Leonard' Goes Back 20 years, Prosecutors say

Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post offers a piece on Admiral Robert Gilbeau (seen in the above U.S. Navy photo) who was convicted in the U.S. Navy’s “Fat Leonard” bribery and fraud scandal.

The highest-ranking officer convicted so far in a colossal Navy corruption scandal began accepting a cornucopia of gifts and prostitutes from an Asian defense contractor 20 years ago and later suffered a mental breakdown when he learned authorities were making arrests in the case, new court documents allege.

Robert Gilbeau became the first active-duty Navy admiral ever to be convicted of a felony when he pleaded guilty last year to lying to federal investigators. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month and likely faces up to 18 months in prison.

In a plea deal last June, Gilbeau admitted to making false statements about his contacts with Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as "Fat Leonard," a crooked defense contractor from Singapore who has pleaded guilty to bribing scores of Navy officials. At the time, Gilbeau and federal authorities revealed little about the nature and extent of his relationship with Francis.

But in documents filed last week in federal court in San Diego, prosecutors allege that Gilbeau, 56, was corrupted in 1997 when he and another Navy officer met Francis during a port visit to the Indonesian island of Bali and succumbed to the contractor's offer of free hotel rooms, lavish dinners and paid sex.

The relationship continued on a sporadic basis until 2012, according to prosecutors, who said Francis treated Gilbeau to numerous evenings at karaoke bars and luxury restaurants in Singapore, often capped off by assignations with prostitutes.

Prosecutors allege that Gilbeau also pocketed $40,000 in cash bribes from Francis as part of a kickback scheme to overcharge the Navy for pumping wastewater from its ships.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/Admirals-illicit-history-with-Fat-Leonard-goes-back-20-years-prosecutors-say.html

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Fat Leonard scandal via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/03/my-piece-on-fat-leonard-us-navy-bribery.html

Note: The above U.S. Navy shows Leonard with then-Chariman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen.

U.S. Navy Repeatedly Dismissed Evidence That ‘Fat Leonard’ Was Cheating The 7th Fleet

Craig Witlock at the Washington Post offers a piece on the U.S. Navy "Fat Leonard' bribery and fraud scandal.

For Fat Leonard, conning the U.S. Navy was a big piece of cake.

The Navy allowed the worst corruption scandal in its history to fester for several years by dismissing a flood of evidence that the rotund Asian defense contractor was cheating the service out of millions of dollars and bribing officers with booze, sex and lavish dinners, newly released ­documents show.

The Singapore-based contractor, Leonard Glenn Francis, found it especially easy to outwit the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), the renowned law enforcement agency that has inspired one of the longest-running cop shows on television.

Starting in 2006, in response to a multitude of fraud complaints, NCIS opened 27 separate investigations into Francis’s company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. In each of those instances, however, NCIS closed the case after failing to dig up sufficient evidence to take action against the firm, according to hundreds of pages of law enforcement records ­obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of ­Information Act.

Known as Fat Leonard for his 350-pound physique, Francis held lucrative contracts to resupply U.S. warships and submarines in ports throughout Asia. He was also legendary within the Navy for throwing hedonistic parties, often with prostitutes, to entertain ­sailors. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/navy-repeatedly-dismissed-evidence-that-fat-leonard-was-cheating-the-7th-fleet/2016/12/27/0afb2738-c5ab-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.c52f8ea0bde1

Phillip Knightley, Journalist Who Wrote Of British Spy Ring, Dies at 87

Matt Schudel at the Washington Post reports that Philip Knightly (seen in the below photo), a veteran British journalist and the author of Philby: Master Spy, The First Casualty: From the Crimea To Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker, and other books on espionage and journalism, has died.

Phillip Knightley, who was the only western journalist to interview British spy Kim Philby, a longtime double agent for the Soviet Union, and who wrote compelling books about journalism and the history of spycraft, died Wednesday in London. He was 87.

His death was first reported by the London Times. The cause was cancer.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/phillip-knightley-journalist-who-helped-expose-kim-philby-as-soviet-spy-dies-at-87/2016/12/10/6b7f0b72-bd56-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html?utm_term=.840e677a85fd

Obama Administration Expands Elite Military Unit’s Powers To Hunt Foreign Fighters Globally

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is expanding the JSOC's role in hunting foreign fighters.

The Obama administration is giving the elite Joint Special Operations Command— the same organization that helped kill Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs — expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe, a move driven by concerns of a dispersed terrorist threat as Islamic State militants are driven from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said.

The missions could occur well beyond the battlefields of places like Iraq, Syria and Libya where Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has carried out clandestine operations in the past. When finalized, it will elevate JSOC from being a highly-valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multiagency intelligence and action force. Known as the “Counter-External Operations Task Force,” the group will be designed to take JSOC’s targeting model — honed over the last 15 years of conflict — and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/11/25/obama-administration-expands-elite-military-units-powers-to-hunt-foreign-fighters-globally/?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-world%252Bnation

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Becomes Latest Officer To Admit Taking Bribes And Prostitutes From ‘Fat Leonard’

Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post offers a piece on the latest U.S. naval officer to plead guilty in the massive Navy "Fat Leonard" bribery and fraud scandal.

A retired Navy captain who also served as the U.S. naval attache in the Philippines pleaded guilty to corruption in federal court Tuesday, admitting that he secretly worked as an agent for an Asian defense contractor in exchange for gifts, travel and the services of prostitutes.

Michael George Brooks, 57, of Fairfax Station, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Diego to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. He faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In his plea agreement, Brooks acknowledged that he and his family members accepted fine wines, hotel rooms, electronics, luxury watches and prostitutes on dozens of occasions from Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based contractor known as “Fat Leonard” in Navy circles. Francis’s firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, held contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to resupply and refuel U.S. Navy ships at ports throughout Asia.

Francis pleaded guilty to bribery charges last year in the case, which has erupted into the worst corruption case in the history of the Navy. Seventeen people have been charged with crimes in federal court, including an admiral and eight other officers. Another defendant has been charged in Singapore. About two thirds of those facing charges have pleaded guilty.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/11/15/retired-navy-captain-becomes-latest-officer-to-admit-taking-bribes-and-prostitutes-from-fat-leonard/?wpisrc=nl_check&wpmm=1

‘The Father Of The Modern Police Novel’ Joseph Wambaugh On ‘Dragnet,’ Police Shootings And Hollywood’s Action Addiction

Alyssa Rosenberg at the Washington Post offers an interview with Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD detective sergeant and the author of classic police novels like The Blue Knight and The Choirboys, as well as classic true-crime books like The Onion Field. 

Joseph Wambaugh earned the title “father of the modern police novel” in 1971 when he published “The New Centurions,” a raw, emotional look at the experiences of a class of new Los Angeles Police Department cadets in the years leading up to the 1965 Watts riots. No matter who had written it, “The New Centurions” would be a masterpiece, as are Wambaugh’s other police books, including “The Onion Field,” a nonfiction account of the kidnapping of two LAPD officers. But Wambaugh drew special attention because of his day job: At the time “The New Centurions” was published, Wambaugh was a detective sergeant in the LAPD. His unique experiences helped usher in a new era in police storytelling.

You can read the interview via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/the-father-of-the-modern-police-novel-joseph-wambaugh-on-dragnet-police-shootings-and-hollywoods-action-addiction/?utm_term=.242ed2fe7b5d

I interviewed Joseph Wambaugh a while back. You can read my Q&A with him via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/11/semper-cop-interview-with-novelist.html

And you can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Joseph Wambaugh's Hollywood Station below:

From Webb To Wambaugh To The Wire: 100 Years Of The Police In Pop Culture

Alyssa Rosenberg at the Washington Post offers a five-part series on the depiction of the police in popular culture.

From “Dragnet” to “Dirty Harry” to “Die Hard,” Hollywood’s police stories have reinforced myths about cops and the work of policing — ideas that resonate painfully today as police-involved shootings and questions about race and community relations wrack U.S. cities and play a starring role in the presidential election.

The police story is one of the elemental dramas of American popular culture, the place we face down whatever crimes frighten us most in a given era and grapple with what we want from the cops who are supposed to stop those crimes. “Dragnet’s” Joe Friday bolstered public faith in law and order in the ’50s. “Dirty Harry” Callahan stoked terror and rage about the violent crime wave that began in the ’60s. And John McClane of “Die Hard” awed audiences when he singlehandedly saved a whole office tower from ruthless criminals in the 1980s.

If these were only fantasies, they would still be powerful. But the ideas that popular culture embeds in the public consciousness about policing remain after the story is over. This five-part series examines the evolving relationship between police officers and the communities they are supposed to serve; the way Hollywood shapes our expectations for shootings by police; the entertainment industry’s embrace of a more violent style of policing during the drug war; and the changing composition of police forces in an increasingly diverse society.

Because it is not possible to understand the stories Hollywood tells about the police without looking back at the industry’s own vexed relationship with the law, this series begins by exploring how police pressure, government regulation and censorship helped mold pop culture’s stories about the police.

You can read the rest of the first part of the series via the below link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/24/how-police-censorship-shaped-hollywood/?utm_term=.f36247f16593 

As Russia Reasserts Itself, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Focus Anew On The Kremlin

Greg Miller at the Washington Post reports on the renewed efforts of U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on a resurgent Russia.

U.S. intelligence agencies are expanding spying operations against Russia on a greater scale than at any time since the end of the Cold War, U.S. officials said.

The mobilization involves clandestine CIA operatives, National Security Agency cyberespionage capabilities, satellite systems and other intelligence assets, officials said, describing a shift in resources across spy services that had previously diverted attention from Russia to focus on terrorist threats and U.S. war zones.

U.S. officials said the moves are part of an effort to rebuild U.S. intelligence capabilities that had continued to atrophy even as Russia sought to reassert itself as a global power. Over the past two years, officials said, the United States was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s aggression, including its annexation of Crimea, its intervention in the war in Syria and its suspected role in hacking operations against the United States and Europe.

U.S. spy agencies “are playing catch-up big time” with Russia, a senior U.S. intelligence official said. Terrorism remains the top concern for American intelligence services, the official said, but recent directives from the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have moved Russia up the list of intelligence priorities for the first time since the Soviet Union’s collapse.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-russia-reasserts-itself-us-intelligence-agencies-focus-anew-on-the-kremlin/2016/09/14/cc212c62-78f0-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

Krauthammer On The Incident In Hangzhou And The International Disdain For President Obama

Charles Krauthammer's column in the Washington Post covers the incident in Hangzhou involving President Obama exit through the "ass of the plane."

The president of the United States lands with all the majesty of Air Force One, waiting to exit the front door and stride down the rolling staircase to the red-carpeted tarmac. Except that there is no rolling staircase. He is forced to exit — as one China expert put it rather undiplomatically — through “the ass” of the plane.

This happened Saturday at Hangzhou airport. Yes, in China. If the Chinese didn’t invent diplomatic protocol, they surely are its most venerable and experienced practitioners. They’ve been at it for 4,000 years. They are the masters of every tributary gesture, every nuance of hierarchical ritual. In a land so exquisitely sensitive to protocol, rolling staircases don’t just disappear at arrival ceremonies. Indeed, not one of the other G-20 world leaders was left stranded on his plane upon arrival.

Did President Xi Jinping directly order airport personnel and diplomatic functionaries to deny President Obama a proper welcome? Who knows? But the message, whether intentional or not, wasn’t very subtle. The authorities expressed no regret, no remorse and certainly no apology. On the contrary, they scolded the media for even reporting the snub.

No surprise. China’s ostentatious rudeness was perfectly reflective of the world’s general disdain for Obama. His high-minded lectures about global norms and demands that others live up to their “international obligations” are no longer amusing. They’re irritating.

...Now the latest. At the G-20, Obama said he spoke to Putin about cyberwarfare, amid revelations that Russian hackers have been interfering in our political campaigns. We are more technologically advanced, both offensively and defensively, in this arena than any of our adversaries, said Obama, but we really don’t want another Cold War-style arms race.

Instead, we must all adhere to norms of international behavior. 

It makes you want to weep. This KGB thug adhering to norms? He invades Ukraine, annexes Crimea, bombs hospitals in Aleppo — and we expect him to observe cyber-code etiquette? Rather than exploit our technological lead — with countermeasures and deterrent threats — to ensure our own cyber-safety?

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/incident-in-hangzhou/2016/09/08/c1da28f4-75f2-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?utm_term=.d62def0913b8&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

Dems And Convention Coverage Ignore National Security

Jennifer Rubin's column in the Washington Post offers her take on the ISIS murder of a priest in France and how the Democrats at their National Convention in Philadelphia have failed so far to acknowledge terrorism.

The recent spate of horrific terrorist incidents in Europe, including the gruesome slaughter Tuesday of a priest in France, underscores the degree to which the Islamic State has become a daily menace for our allies.

... Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) put out a statement: “This is the face of evil. To invade a sanctuary open to all—a place of worship and refuge—to kill and terrorize innocent people who devoted their lives to the teachings of Christ lays bare the barbarism of radical jihadism.” He continued: “I am outraged for the families of the victims, for our ally France, for the Catholic Church, and for humanity. This attack joins a lengthening string of jihadist attacks around the world, and it should steel our collective resolve to defeat ISIS abroad before they attack us at home and put an end to this madness.”

Democrats, as Republicans pointed out, on Monday night entirely omitted mention of the “Islamic State” or “ISIS.” They do so — and remain silent on the latest monstrosity — at their peril. Speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton mentioned the topic, but only briefly: “We have to protect ourselves against terrorists. To do that, we need to lead other countries in stopping ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other radical jihadist groups. We shouldn’t leave that to the rest of the world to figure out on their own — that won’t keep us safe.” Perhaps she or someone on the podium tonight will find time to make a more complete statement of American determination.

The media covering the convention did not find it odd or did not choose to cite the Democratic National Committee’s silence on national security, but then foreign affairs ordinarily gets subsumed in horse-race political coverage of elections.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/07/26/dems-and-convention-coverage-ignore-national-security/?wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1

'Blockbuster!’: The Strange Tale Of The Best-Selling Crime Novel Of The 19th Century

Michael Dirda at the Washington Post offers a review of Lucy Sussex's Blockbuster! Fergus Hume & the Mystery of a Hansom Cab.

Publishing history is full of strange tales, and that recounted by Lucy Sussex in “Blockbuster! Fergus Hume & the Mystery of a Hansom Cab” is certainly among the strangest and most poignant. In late 1880s Australia a would-be dramatist decided that he might gain more attention from theater impresarios if he were a published author. So Fergus Hume sat down to produce what ultimately became the best-selling crime novel of the 19th century.

These days, “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” is frequently derided as ill-written or faintly embarrassing, although such reactions puzzle me. In fact, the novel presents an almost Dickensian, top-to-bottom portrait of Melbourne in its Victorian heyday, when the population of the “London of the South” approached half a million. Moreover, the plotting of the mystery is exemplary. Two gentlemen in formal evening dress, both seemingly drunk, enter a hansom cab late one night in July. Later, one man gets out and disappears, the other remains — and is found dead, apparently murdered. Before the crime is solved, Hume gradually uncovers the hidden threads connecting Melbourne’s most and least respectable citizens, transporting the reader from elegant country houses to the city’s Chinese slums and lowest brothels. The book is certainly worth reading.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/blockbuster-the-strange-tale-of-the-best-selling-crime-novel-of-the-19th-century/2016/07/20/57b074d8-4a91-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html