The Mad, Bad And Ugly: A look At Some Of Florida's Police Mugshots

The British newspaper, the Daily Mail offers an interesting story and photos of Florida's criminal mugshots, like the one above.

A handful of criminals have been snapped sporting some truly bizarre looks after being hauled in front of the camera lens at their local police stations.

While some stand out for their unusual choice of hairstyles and extreme tattoos others, it seems, are simply not that photogenic.

The crooks, all from the Orlando area of Florida, have failed to perfect their picture pose despite almost every one of them having mug shot taken repeatedly.

You can read the story and check out the mugshots via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116079/The-mad-bad-ugly-Mugshot-hall-shame-reveals-criminals-work-look.html

But We Got him First: The Bin Laden Plot to Kill President Obama And General Petraeus

David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, reports on the Osama bin Laden plot to assissinate President Obama and General David Petraeus.

Before his death, Osama bin Laden boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus.

“The reason for concentrating on them,” the al-Qaeda leader explained to his top lieutenant, “is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make [Vice President] Biden take over the presidency. . . . Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour . . . and killing him would alter the war’s path” in Afghanistan.

Administration officials said Friday that the Obama-Petraeus plot was never a serious threat.

The scheme is described in one of the documents taken from bin Laden’s compound by U.S. forces on May 2, the night he was killed. I was given an exclusive look at some of these remarkable documents by a senior administration official. They have been declassified and will be available soon to the public in their original Arabic texts and translations.

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-bin-laden-plot-to-kill-president-obama/2012/03/16/gIQAwN5RGS_story.html?hpid=z2

Note: David Ignatius is also a fine spy thriller writer. You can read my review of one of his thrillers, The Increment, via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2009/07/iranian-intrigue-in-increment.html

Citizen Twain: Actor Val Kilmer To Play Mark Twain In One-Man Play

 

Sarah Ann Hughes at the Washington Post reports that Val Kilmer, seen in the above photo, is portraying one of my favorite writers, Mark Twain, in a one-man show.

Have you recently thought to yourself, “I wonder what Val Kilmer is up to”? Why, he’s currently playing Mark Twain in a one-man show he created about the American author and humorist, of course.

The “Batman Forever” actor will perform “Citizen Twain” — a show that “delves into the heart and soul of Samuel Clemens and conjures forth the great spirit of Mark Twain” — in a two-weekend run at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery this March, Playbill reports.

Apparently, Kilmer has been impersonating Twain for some time now.

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/val-kilmer-to-play-mark-twain-in-one-man-show/2012/03/15/gIQAv5fYES_blog.html

Note: I love Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holiday in Tombstone.

40th Anniversary Of The Classic Film 'The Godfather'

 

ABCNews.com reports that today is the 40th anniversary of the classic film The Godfather.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of what many consider to be one of the greatest films ever made: “The Godfather.”

Based on the book of the same name by author Mario Puzo, the film, originally released March 15, 1972, starred Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, a leader of a Mafia family in 1940s New York. It was his character that uttered the famous line, “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

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

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/03/40th-anniversary-of-the-godfather/ 

Note: I still believe Ernest Borgnine would have been a better choice to portray Vito Corleone. Borgnine is Italian, speaks Italian, and he would not have had to stuff his face with cotton and used heavy makeup like Brando. He was a great comedic actor - I loved him in McHale's Navy - but watch him in Marty, From Here To Eternity and Bad Day At Black Rock and you will see how fine an actor Borgnine was.

The Vietnam War From The Rear Echelon: An Intelligence Officer's Memoir, 1972-1973

Peter Brush offers a good review of Timothy J. Lomperis' The Vietnam War From the Rear Echelon in Vietnam magazine.

Now, author Timothy Lomperis is a political science professor who has written several books about the Vietnam War. Then, Lomperis was an Army lieutenant in Saigon, a REMF (a rear echelon mother—you know the rest) who did two tours of duty. By combining a history of the war and personal memoir, the result is two narratives woven into one. The author's service covers the period from the 1972 Easter Invasion to the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement and its aftermath. He offers a "mid-level perspective of the rear-echelon war in Saigon." Lomperis writes that macro accounts of strategy and diplomacy as well as combat memoirs are plentiful, while mid-level accounts have been largely neglected.

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

http://www.historynet.com/reviews-the-vietnam-war-from-the-rear-echelon-an-intelligence-officers-memoir-1972-1973.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Historynet+%28HistoryNet+%7C+From+the+World%27s+Largest+History+Magazine+Publisher%29

Former CIA Head Of Bin Laden Unit Discusses Current Situation In Afghanistan

Gary Berntsen, the former CIA officer who led a group of operators that hunted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, spoke to CNN about the current situation in Afghanistan.

On Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien, Gary Berntsen, former commander of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit in Afghanistan, discusses the potential fallout of the U.S. moving the Afghanistan shooter to Kuwait, Leon Panetta security scare and sustained American Presence in the country.  

You can watch the video via the below link:

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/15/fmr-cia-head-of-bin-laden-unit-on-us-soldier-could-be-moved-back-to-afghanistan/

Note: I interviewed Gary Berntsen about Operation Jawbreaker a few years back for Counterterrorism magazine. You can read the piece via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/OpJawbreaker1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/OpJawbreaker2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/OpJawbreaker3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/OpJawbreaker4.jpg

Afghan With Ties To The Taliban Convicted On Drug Trafficking And Narco-Terrorism Charges

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information yesterday:

WASHINGTON – An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban was convicted today by a jury in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy, distribution of heroin for importation into the United States and narco-terrorism, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Haji Bagcho, from Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, was investigated by the DEA for narcotics offenses. The investigation revealed that Bagcho was one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world and manufactured the drug in clandestine laboratories along Afghanistan’s border region with Pakistan. Bagcho sent heroin to more than 20 countries, including the United States. Proceeds from his heroin trafficking were then used to support high-level members of the Taliban to further their insurgency in Afghanistan.

 

Beginning in 2005 and continuing for the next five years, the DEA, in cooperation with Afghan authorities, conducted an investigation of Bagcho’s organization. With the help of cooperating witnesses, the DEA purchased heroin directly from the organization on two occasions, which Bagcho understood was destined for the United States. They also conducted several searches of residences belonging to Bagcho and his associates, recovering evidence consistent with drug trafficking. During one search, ledgers belonging to the defendant were found. One ledger, cataloguing Bagcho’s activities during 2006, reflected heroin transactions of more than 123,000 kilograms, worth more than $250 million, according to Bagcho’s ledger. Based on heroin production statistics compiled by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime for 2006, the defendant’s trafficking accounted for approximately 20% of the world’s total production for that year.

The investigation also obtained evidence that over several years, Bagcho used a portion of his drug proceeds to provide the former Taliban governor of Nangarhar Province and two Taliban commanders responsible for insurgent activity in eastern Afghanistan with cash, weapons and other supplies so that they could continue their “jihad” against western troops and the Afghan government.

“Haji Bagcho was a prolific and dangerous heroin manufacturer, trafficking in over 123,000 kilograms of the drug in 2006 alone,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Moreover, he used proceeds from his crimes to fund Taliban insurgents and fuel their ongoing ‘jihad’ against the United States and others. The effects of Bagcho’s criminal activity were felt all over the world, and today’s guilty verdict ensures that he will serve a lengthy prison term.”

“One of the world’s most prolific drug trafficker’s reign has come to an end,” said DEA Administrator Leonhart. “Now Haji Bagcho will serve time behind bars on the same soil he sought to destroy with his drugs, and whose troops he sought to kill through his support to the Taliban. DEA stands committed to stopping narco-traffickers, like Bagcho, and their funding of terror.”

A grand jury returned an indictment against Bagcho on Nov. 8, 2006, charging him with distributing heroin, knowing that it would be imported into the United States. A superseding indictment returned on Jan. 28, 2010, added additional charges of conspiracy to distribute and distribution of heroin, knowing or intending that it would be imported in the United States, as well as engaging in drug trafficking knowing or intending to provide something of pecuniary value to a terrorist or terrorist organization. Bagcho was brought to the United States on June 24, 2009. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled before the Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle on June 12, 2012.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Matthew Stiglitz and Marlon Cobar of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. The case was investigated by the DEA Special Operations Division in the United States, with assistance from the DEA’s Foreign Deployed Advisory Support Team and Kabul Country Office in Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and in close cooperation with Afghan law enforcement. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided invaluable support.