My Washington Times Piece, 'Sympathy For The Criminal'

The Washington Times published my piece on the left’s misguided sympathy for criminals.

My wife and I visited our daughter and her Air Force pilot husband in California recently, and we spent a day at the famous former federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

Located in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz once held some of the most notorious criminals in American history. The Justice Department took over Alcatraz in 1934 as it wanted a prison that would house criminals too dangerous and disruptive to be kept at other prisons.

Foremost among the notorious prisoners was mobster Al Capone, who was transferred here when it was discovered that he was running his Chicago criminal organization from the penitentiary in Atlanta. His mob leadership role ended abruptly when Capone entered his Alcatraz cell.

According to John Kobler, author of “Capone,” Al Capone, the country’s most famous gangster at the time said, “It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.”

Other notorious criminals held at Alcatraz were gangsters, Alvin “Creepy Karpis” Karpowicz, whom the FBI in the 1930s called “Public Enemy No. 1,” and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Robert Stroud, a convicted murderer known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” was also a prisoner on “the Rock.”

The prison closed in 1963 and since then millions of tourists have visited the island.

Two of these tourists, a middle-age white couple, stood in front of me at one point and stated loudly for all to hear that the conditions at Alcatraz were inhumane. They also said that today’s prisons were still terrible and bemoaned the “mass incarceration” of black people. They went on to praise President Obama for his attempt at prison reform.

Tempted to refute their assertions, as there is no “mass” in American incarceration — criminals commit crimes individually, they are arrested and convicted individually, and they are sentenced individually — it was prudent to just let it pass. And a thought occurred: Why does the left seem to sympathize more with criminals than with crime victims?

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

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/7/misguided-sympathizers-incorrectly-assert-that-inc/ 

Note: The top photo is of Alcatraz and San Francisco. The middle photo is the federal mugshot of Al Capone at Alcatraz and the above photo is of President Obama at El Reno prison. 

Thirty-Six Defendants Indicted For Alleged Roles In Transnational Criminal Organization Responsible For More than $530 Million In Losses From Cybercrimes

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

A federal indictment was unsealed today charging 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization, an Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband.

Following the return of a nine-count superseding indictment by a Las Vegas, Nevada, grand jury alleging racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, federal, state, local, and international law enforcement authorities arrested 13 defendants from the United States and six countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson of the District of Nevada, and Acting Executive Associate Director Derek N. Benner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made the announcement.

“Today’s indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan.  “As alleged in the indictment, Infraud operated like a business to facilitate cyberfraud on a global scale.  Its members allegedly caused more than $530 million in actual losses to consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike—and it is alleged that the losses they intended to cause amounted to more than $2.2 billion.  The Department of Justice refuses to allow these cybercriminals to use the perceived anonymity of the Internet as a shield for their crimes.  We are committed to working closely with our international counterparts to identify, investigate, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes, wherever in the world they operate.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is steadfastly committed to protecting America’s national and economic security,” said U.S. Attorney Elieson. “Criminals cannot hide behind their computer screens. We are working vigilantly with American and international law enforcement partners to identify and disrupt transnational cybercrime organizations, such as the Infraud Organization.”

“Criminal cyber organizations like Infraud threaten not just U.S. citizens but people in every corner of the globe,” said HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Benner. “The actions of computer hackers and identity thieves not only harm countless innocent Americans, but the threat they pose to our financial system and global commerce cannot be overstated.  The criminals involved in such schemes may think they can escape detection by hiding behind their computer screens here and overseas, but as this case shows, cyberspace is not a refuge from justice.  HSI will continue working with our law enforcement partners in this country and around the world to aggressively target cyber thieves to ensure the perpetrators face the full weight of the law.”

According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization was created in October 2010 by Svyatoslav Bondarenko aka “Obnon,” aka “Rector,” aka “Helkern,” 34, of Ukraine, to promote and grow interest in the Infraud Organization as the premier destination for carding—purchasing retail items with counterfeit or stolen credit card information—on the Internet.  Under the slogan, “In Fraud We Trust,” the organization directed traffic and potential purchasers to the automated vending sites of its members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods.  It also provided an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital currency transactions among its members and employed screening protocols that purported to ensure only high quality vendors of stolen cards, personally identifiable information, and other contraband were permitted to advertise to members.

According to the indictment, Infraud members held defined roles within the organization’s hierarchy.  “Administrators” managed day-to-day operation of and strategic planning for the organization, approved and monitored membership, and meted out punishments and rewards to members.  “Super Moderators” oversaw and administered specific subject-matter areas within their expertise.  “Moderators” moderated one or two specific sub-forums within their areas of subject-matter expertise.  “Vendors” sold illicit products and services to Infraud members.  Finally, “VIP Members” and “Members” used the Infraud forum to gather information and to facilitate their criminal activities.  As of March 2017, there were 10,901 registered members of the Infraud Organization.

During the course of its seven-year history, the Infraud Organization inflicted approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses, and more than $530 million in actual losses, on a wide swath of financial institutions, merchants, and private individuals, and would have continued to do so for the foreseeable future if left unchecked.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Rybicki Of The Criminal Division Delivers Remarks Announcing International Cyber Fraud Ring Takedown

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

Thanks for participating on the call.  My name is David Rybicki.  I am a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division here at the Department of Justice and I supervise the Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section.

Today marks a significant step in the battle against transnational cybercrime.

A federal grand jury in the District of Nevada has returned an indictment, unsealed today, against 36 cybercriminals from the United States and 17 countries on five continents who participated in a transnational racketeering enterprise via an internet forum called “Infraud.”

Members of the Infraud Organization used the forum to coordinate and conduct online criminal activities that included identity theft, bank fraud, wire fraud and computer crimes.  Coordinated with the unsealing of the indictment today, U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents across the country and our law enforcement counterparts in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Kosovo, Serbia and Albania have conducted operations that have resulted in the arrest of 13 members of the Infraud Organization.

Operating under the slogan “In Fraud We Trust,” members of the Infraud Organization used the online forum to purchase and sell stolen credit card numbers, financial information, social security numbers, passwords and other personally identifying information; they advertised services that facilitated these activities and related, illicit financial transactions; and they disseminated malware.

Infraud was truly the premier one-stop shop for cybercriminals worldwide.

Over the course of the Infraud Organization’s seven-year history, its members targeted more than 4.3 million credit cards, debit cards and bank accounts held by individuals around the world and in all 50 states.  

The actions of the Infraud Organization resulted in approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses and over $530 million in actual losses to U.S. financial institutions, merchants and consumers.  That makes this case one of the largest cyber fraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice.

This case reflects the alarming and increasing threat posed by cybercrime.  A recent report predicts that the annual cost of global cybercrime will exceed $2 trillion by 2019, four times the 2015 estimate.  Those staggering numbers demonstrate why addressing this growing danger is among the Department’s top priorities.

Like most organized transnational criminal enterprises, Infraud’s members had defined roles within the organization’s hierarchy.  But unlike the organized crime of years past, many of the organization’s nearly 11,000 members have never met in person and do not know the true identities of their co-conspirators — they know each other only by their online user names and other anonymized identifiers.  Infraud members used the forum’s private message threads, digital currency escrow services, VPNs, and other anonymizing software, to keep it that way.

But as today’s announcement demonstrates, the Department of Justice refuses to allow cybercriminals to hide behind the anonymity of the web while stealing personally identifying information, emptying bank accounts, and wreaking havoc on our nation’s digital infrastructure and financial system.  We aggressively investigate, indict, and when possible, prosecute the cybercriminals responsible for such brazen attacks.  The charges and arrests announced today are a victory for the rule of law. 

Long-term success in the fight against global cybercrime — not only against groups like Infraud, but also cybercriminals who flock to dark web markets for child pornography, human trafficking, illegal drugs, firearms and narcotics — requires that we systematically address the many challenges posed by cybercrime.  Cybercriminals consistently seek new ways to abuse and exploit developing technologies.  But the dedicated professionals at the Department of Justice are equally hard at work ensuring that we have the ability to effectively investigate and prosecute these cybercriminals, as well as to conduct outreach to the cybersecurity community and to advocate for legislative change, when necessary.  While we continue to use all lawful tools available to identify, apprehend and prosecute cybercriminals, at the same time we are also working toward a comprehensive cybercrime strategy.

As you have heard today, law enforcement across the globe acted swiftly to take Infraud’s cybercriminals off the Internet.  This case is the result of the outstanding work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the Henderson, Nevada, Police Department; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada; the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section; our foreign law enforcement counterparts; and the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.  

On behalf of the Department, I thank them for their efforts in this case and for their daily work to curb the threats posed to our citizens by transnational criminal enterprises like the Infraud Organization.

New York Man Sentenced To 18 Years For ISIS-Directed Terrorist Attacks In New York City

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

Munther Omar Saleh, 22, of Queens, New York, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison, to be followed by a term of 10 years’ supervised release, for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and for assaulting and conspiring to assault federal officers.  Saleh pleaded guilty on Feb. 10, 2017, to all counts in the indictment.

Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Edward C. O’Callaghan, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office and Commissioner James P. O’Neill of the NYPD made the announcement.  The sentence was issued by U.S. District Judge Margo K. Brodie.

“Inspired by ISIS’s violent and hateful ideology, the defendant conspired with others to use a pressure-cooker bomb in a terrorist attack in New York and attempted to attack members of law enforcement who were conducting surveillance of him,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General O’Callaghan.  “Today’s sentence is but one example of our resolve to bring to justice homegrown violent extremists who plot and attempt attacks on innocent people, including law enforcement agents, in the U.S. in the name of foreign terrorist organizations.”

“Munther Omar Saleh and his coconspirators conducted attacks on members of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to keep our city safe,” stated U.S. Attorney Donoghue.  “Saleh’s sentence will not only incapacitate the defendant for a significant period of time, but should also serve as a deterrent to those who contemplate waging violent jihad in New York City at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization.  This Office, and our partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, will never relent in our efforts to hold terrorists accountable for their cowardly acts, including attacks on those who protect us.”

“Saleh attempted to turn our city into a staging ground for violent attacks, including those aimed at both local and federal law enforcement officials. Directed by a known terrorist organization responsible for civilian massacres and other heinous crimes worldwide, he supported and attempted to facilitate the martyrdom of those with similar views,” said Assistant Director in Charge Sweeney. “Today’s sentencing promises he’ll remain behind bars for a significant period of time, upholding our faith in a justice system that has little compassion for those who wish to harm our way of life.”

As alleged in the indictment and in other court filings, Saleh and codefendant Fareed Mumuni conspired to support ISIS by helping their coconspirators attempt to travel to ISIS-controlled territory in order to join ISIS, and by plotting to use a pressure-cooker bomb to conduct a terrorist attack in the New York metropolitan area on behalf of ISIS.

On June 13, 2015, Saleh and another coconspirator were arrested in Queens after they attempted to attack members of law enforcement by charging at a federal officer who was performing physical surveillance of Saleh.  Saleh and the coconspirator were armed with knives.  Following his arrest, Saleh admitted to agents that he had discussed with Mumuni physically attacking the law-enforcement officers who were surveilling Mumuni.  On June 17, 2015, during the execution of a search warrant at his residence in Staten Island, Mumuni was arrested after he repeatedly stabbed an FBI agent in the torso with a large kitchen knife.  The knife did not penetrate the agent’s protective body armor, and he sustained minor injuries.

Mr. O’Callaghan and Mr. Donoghue praised the agents, analysts and prosecutors for their dedication and commitment to this investigation and prosecution.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander A. Solomon, Douglas M. Pravda, and Ian C. Richardson, with assistance provided by Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and Bob Sander of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. 

Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth

John R. Coyne Jr offers a review of Howard Kurtz’s Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, and the War over the Truth for the Washington Times.

The political war between conservatives and a largely liberal national media didn’t begin with Donald Trump. But with his election, it’s reached a new intensity.

“The country’s top news organizations have targeted Trump with an unprecedented barrage of negative stories, with some no longer making much attempt to hide their contempt,” writes veteran journalist Howard Kurtz in this strongly written and compelling analysis.

That contempt is encapsulated in this succinct statement from New Yorker editor David Remnick: “The election of Donald Trump to the presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism.”

This charge of “racism,” troubles Mr. Kurtz, thrown out by Mr. Trump’s critics “as an undisputed fact, not a journalist’s assessment, and there was no room for dissent on the score.” And even more troubling to Mr. Kurtz is how this attitude has come to permeate not just the editorial sections of newspapers but the news stories themselves, with reporters functioning as editorialists, rendering the once honored journalistic principle of objectivity no longer operative.

He quotes Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times, which vies with The Washington Post for the title of the country’s premier NeverTrump organ. In a 2016 piece, Timesman Rutenberg instructed his fellow journalists that no matter what their reservations about shedding objectivity — “uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, non-opinion journalist” — they’re obliged to oppose Mr. Trump, “a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalist tendencies.”

Whatever the causes of what Mr. Kurtz calls “Trump Trauma” — perhaps fueled by an unconscious desire to return to Watergate glory by bringing down another president — the liberal media seem intent on destroying the Trump presidency.

And Donald Trump, writes Mr. Kurtz, “is staking his presidency on nothing less than destroying the credibility of the news media This is not just a feud It is scorched-earth warfare in which only one side can achieve victory.”

Mr. Kurtz is no apologist for President Trump, pointing out the president often generates negative stories through his own exaggerations and tendency to shoot from the lip. In a chapter titled “A Leaky Ship of State,” he writes that in the Trump White House, “just about everything leaked to the press.”

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

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/5/book-review-media-madness-by-howard-kurtz/ 

Note: If you want to read a conservative and fair daily newspaper, I suggest you check out the Washington Times. I’m proud to be a regular contributor to the Washington Times.  

Stand-Up Team: No Philadelphia Eagles Players Knelt For National Anthem in 2017

Valerie Richardson at the Washington Times offers a piece on the football players who did and did not “take a knee” during the national anthem.

If you’re planning to watch the Super Bowl but you can’t stand the NFL takel-a-knee protests, you may want to root for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Not a single Eagles player sat or knelt during the national anthem, one of just seven teams with perfect non-kneeling records, in a season that saw 684 such incidents, according to a study released Thursday by Sports Pundit.

The other Super Bowl LII team, the New England Patriots, landed in the middle of the pack with 17 incidents of anthem sitting or kneeling, wedged between the Buffalo Bills with 16 and the Cleveland Browns with 20.

Still, neither of the Super Bowl teams was in any danger of catching the leader: the Seattle Seahawks, which easily scored the most episodes of sitting or kneeling with 156, followed by the San Francisco 49ers with 110.

Both of those teams play in the NFC West. Oddly enough, the division’s other two teams — the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams — had zero take-a-knee protests.

The remaining teams with no players sitting out during the anthem were the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets.

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

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/1/no-philadelphia-eagles-players-knelt-anthem-2017/ 

Spy Watching: Intelligence Accountability In The United States

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden reviewed Loch K. Johnson’s Spy Watching: Intelligence Accountability in the United States for the Washington Times.

In 1984, author Loch K. Johnson took advantage of a dinner encounter to ask a question of William Casey, then the director of central intelligence: “What is the role of Congress in intelligence?”

One can imagine the snort that came with Mr. Casey’s reply: “The business of Congress is to stay the [expletive deleted] out of my business.”

Although the political correctness of the times dictates that few persons in the intelligence community would publicly agree with Mr. Casey, such a sentiment exists, even if sub rosa.

Mr. Johnson, a professor at the University of Georgia, has been pushing for enhanced intelligence oversight for more than 40 years, commencing with his staff work with the Senate’s Church Committee in 1975.

The intelligence community was reeling about disclosure of programs that, in Mr. Johnson’s understated words, “strayed outside the boundaries of law” — most notably, operations aimed at discrediting the Vietnam War peace movement and the struggle for civil rights.

Sen. Frank Church, Idaho Democrat, the presidency in his eyes, picked up on a comment he attributed to McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser to President Kennedy, that the CIA was a “rogue elephant on a rampage.”

Mr. Church set out to prove such a case and opened uncountable drawers filled with dirty linen. But as testimony brought out, many of CIA’s claimed misdeeds were performed on presidential orders, and Mr. Church had to sidle away from his key charge.

Nonetheless, his crusade resulted in the creation of intelligence oversight committees in both houses of Congress.

In the opinion of many retired and present officers, the result is that intelligence now is run by hypercautious lawyers, rather than professionals. Officers shy away from risky (but important) operations rather risk grilling by hostile congressmen in public hearings.

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

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/4/book-review-spy-watching-by-loch-k-johnson/