Posted on 07/27/2014 6:41:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
The FBI's motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity." But given the FBI sting against Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow -- a convicted felon who was freed from prison in 2003 because the feds got him to testify against a confederate -- I suspect that a more apt motto might be "Fuggedaboutit."
On Thursday, San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phil Matier and Andy Ross identified San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee as another public figure who was drawn dangerously close to the FBI's "Shrimp Boy" trap. According to their report, FBI operatives donated $20,000 to Hizzoner's 2011 mayoral campaign. Likewise, agents reportedly tried to cozy up to two Ess Eff supervisors, London Breed and Malia Cohen, two Oakland city councilors and -- go figure -- 49ers great Joe Montana.
"We have no information or reason to believe Mayor Lee was ever a target of this probe," quoth mayoral mouthpiece Tony Winnicker, "which, at any rate, appears to have been a fairly wide-ranging Bay Area fishing expedition." And so it does; think giant net, dubious catch.
At first, it seemed like a huge crime story with a crooked politician and politically savvy crook. California state Sen. Leland Yee was caught in the FBI's dragnet, along with 25 others. Charges included firearms trafficking, murder for hire and honest-services fraud -- and consorting with a Chinatown figure called "Shrimp Boy."
Unfortunately for the authorities, most of the press already had seen "American Hustle," the star-studded drama about an FBI sting gone rogue.
If the complaint is accurate -- and that's a big if -- then Yee needed little prompting before he accepted illicit payments for public services. But his role as a deal maker with a Filipino arms dealer was, by the feds' own account, all smoke and mirrors. The 137-page criminal complaint mostly catalogued instances of contraband cigarette trafficking, the transport of stolen goods, drug dealing and money laundering -- and not by criminal masterminds. Taxpayers can support a four-year deployment of undercover agents, would-be informants and wiretap crews to collar arms dealers -- but for cigarettes and bootleg Hennessy? I don't think so.
If I were making a movie of the feds' move against Chow, Yee and company, I'd start with the original sin. In 2000, Chow pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges involving murder for hire, conspiracy to distribute heroin and arson. For reasons I will never understand, the feds agreed to free Chow in exchange for his testimony against Peter Chong, a fellow leader of the Hop Sing Tong. Chong had fled to Hong Kong before he could be arrested.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney William Schaefer told the Chronicle that Chow's testimony cemented Chong as the leader of the Hop Sing Tong. So where was the public safety benefit in freeing Chow, who was serving a 160-month sentence, in order to put a fugitive in a U.S. prison?
Is there no end to the lengths to which federal law enforcement will go to put another notch in its gun? According to the U.S. attorney's complaint, the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI surveilled the Ghee Kung Tong's swearing-in of Chow as its dragonhead in 2006 precisely because authorities believed he had become the head of a criminal enterprise. If so, why didn't they deport Chow, a Chinese citizen who had applied for an S visa -- also known as a snitch visa? Or send him back behind bars? Curtis Briggs, one of Chow's attorneys, told me he believes that the FBI resented the prosecutor's decision to cut the deal that freed Chow. He portrays the Chow sting as "almost a retribution."
I don't buy that. I've talked to a number of men who have worked in law enforcement circles in the Bay Area. Their answer to my question is, in some ways, worse. We don't get convictions relying on the testimony of choirboys, they tell me (like I'm some Girl Scout). This case, they say, demonstrates a brilliant use of surveillance to prosecute a greedy politician, to nail a convicted felon always under a watchful eye, and to scoop up an extra couple of dozen shady characters who deserve to go to prison.
Briggs is right about this: The feds told a judge that Chow was reformed and thus he should be free. Then they allowed him to serve as a dragonhead in an ankle bracelet when they should have deported him. Maybe they tried to deport him, but they couldn't make up for their original mistake. And no one is talking.
I don't see brilliant law enforcement. I see institutional blindness. I see authorities thinking it's a smart idea to do the easy thing that makes the bureaucracy look good. Except it doesn't.
Friendly But Incompetent.
Good one.
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Fat-heads
Butter-brains
Ideologues
Every agency in government has been politicized by Barry’s boys.
Sad but true.
INCONVENIENT FACTOIDS:
<><>Feinstein heads the Senate Intel Committee;
<><> Her hubby Richard Blum made million as the lawyer for Chinese interests;
<><> gun-grabber Leland Yee knew where to get missiles, launchers, machine-guns etc;
<><> Raymond Chow was jailed, then freed when he professed to be a “really nice guy”.... honored by Di/Fi for working with local Chinese youths.
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And let's not forget Intel head Di/Fi's whining about the CIA looking through her computers and taking documents....they had their eyes on her...... even BEFORE the shocking YEE missile scandal broke.
THE DI/FI STORY COULD DWARF YEE'S TERRORSTIC CORRUPTION : LAT should now get on the ball, and investigate Di/Fi's intel activities. Did Di use her access to valuable US security data improperly? Hubby Richard Blum made millions in China deals in past years. How'd he do that? Is hubby cutting new deals w/ the Chi/Coms?
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THIS DI/FI HILLARY SUCK-UP WAS VERY INSTRUCTIVE---DI even dropped the term "foreign policy" “In my view, she’s in the prime of her political life. She’s got the energy. She’s articulate. She’s got the background. She’s got the smarts. She has all of the elements of a good leader plus the fact, and this is not to be underestimated, she is enormously attractive to people,” she said on CNN's "State of the Union." “And she carries the torch for women who are the majority of votes in this country, very strongly and very high.”
Hillary's hefty income includes:
Hualuo CEO Forum (Spouse) Shanghai, China $550,000
Telefonaktiebolagel LM Ericsson AB (Spouse) Hong Kong, China $750,000
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WHAT DO DI/FI, HER HUBBY, HARRY REID, YEE, LEE AND CHOW KNOW ABOUT THIS?
Then-Pres Clinton inevitably pursued his own political advantage at the expense of American interests and national security.
Here's just one of the endless examples: the Clintons cupidity is well-documented---shows Clinton and the Democrats took illegal campaign money from groups and individuals tied directly to the Chinese People’s Republican Army. It is therefore not surprising that In January 1998 Clinton went against the advice of then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Pentagon experts by lifting long-standing restrictions against the export of American satellites to China for launch on Chinese rockets.
Not only did then-pres Clinton move control over such decisions from the more security-focused State Department to the Commerce Department, but he intervened in a Justice Department investigation of Loral Space & Communications, retroactively enabling Loral to sell critical missile technology to the Chinese.
Interestingly enough, Clinton’s decision was made at the request of Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz, whose earlier $1.3 million campaign donation made him the single biggest contributor to the Democratic election effort.
The result? Democrats got money from satellite companies and from Chinese communists; China got supercomputors, advanced production equipment and missile technology; Loral got its satellites launched at bargain basement prices . . . and the transfer of sensitive missile technology gave China [for the first time] the capability of depositing bombs on American cities.
Incidentally, Loral ultimately failed to benefit from this permanent injury to America’s security interests: in July 2003, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, and in order to raise cash was forced to sell its most profitable business – a fleet of communications satellites orbiting over North America.
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WAKE UP-CALL The Clintons have received zillions from the Chi/Coms---we all assumed it was going to their three tax-exempt foundations. Now here's another angle (think money-laundering, and kickbacks).
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The Harry Reid connection to the tax-exempt "Clinton Global Initiative" foundation needs to be investigated.
PUT ON YOUR TINFOIL HATS TO CONNECT THE DOTS:
(1) Harry Reid's son Rory is in business w/ the Chi/Coms on a multi-billion dollar solar energy project; Cliven Bundy and his land are standing in the way.
(2) Reports say Bill Clinton recently went to China to panhandle for his tax-exempt "Clinton Global Initiative" foundation.
(3) The "Clinton Global Initiative" (NOT KNOWN for giving out grants)---gave Harry Reid's granddaughter a grant for a Brooklyn, NY theatre she runs (what is a Brooklyn theatre's connection to "global initiatives?")
(4) A Nevada energy company also gave Reid's granddaughter's theatre group a grant.
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"Money laundering" comes to mind. Could the Chinese be financing the Reid's solar project through donations to theClinton Foundations....which is then laundered to Reid's granddaughter?
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REFERENCE----HARRY REID IS LIVID THAT HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER HAS BEEN OUTED AS A RECIPIENT OF LAUNDERED CAMPAIGN CASH---Reid lashed out at reporters, saying, “My granddaughter has been the target of harassing phone calls, strangers tracking her down, knocking on her door and negative, unwanted attention on the Internet.” “This has gone too far and it needs to stop now,” Reid said. “I deeply regret any role I had in creating this situation but now, as a grandparent, I say enough is enough.”
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Besides the "jewelry company" financed by her grandfather, Ryan Elisabeth Reid runs the Sprat Theater Company, a small theater in Brooklyn, which is also coming under scrutiny. According to Sprat’s Theatre Company Web site, it has received grants/contributions from:
<><> the Clinton Global Initiative (connected to global terrorism via Muslim Brotherhood employee),
<><> two major Las Vegas foundations:
Caesar’s Foundation, and the NV Energy Foundation.
NOTE NV Energy Foundation---is a non-profit division of NV Energy (a public utility). The NV Energy utility is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company which took over in 2013....and is now owned by a Warren Buffet unit.
Harry w/ grand-daughter Ryan Elizabeth Reid.
The idea that the FBI would give $20 grand to a mayoral candidate under the pretext of some criminal investigation doesn’t pass the smell test.
And will likely conclude their investigation of themselves by finding no wrong doing...
I hate reading articles written under the.premise you.know what the hell they are talking about. This article was confusing and shouldn’t have to keep an open google tab to decifer.
FBI agents no better than any other FedGov drone, marking time until the pension kicks in, being careful not to attract too much attention while getting “his share” in the meantime....
Cleanface(or clownface) or whatever you want to call him, has been a lying, crooked slime ball from day one.
It is only his complete lack of integrity and human decency that allowed the lying punk to get to his current position.
In a just society Harry Reid would spend his life in prison.
Yee may not be a criminal mastermind, but the moment law enforcement pulled back the liberal camouflage, he was still revealed as a crook. Of course the arms deal was smoke and mirrors; the FBI is not likely to run the risk of real armament ending up in the hands of terrorists. Maybe a lesson was learned from Fast and Furious.
It takes a four year investigation to cover all the bases to nail a Democrat. Without extensive corroboration, chain of custody evidence, meticulous wire tap procedures, and locked down testimony, a Democrat politician walks. Just remember that at the onset of the news breaks on this scandal, the Dem heirarchy was all in support of their fellow cockroaches.
Alphonse Capone was brought down for tax evasion. Should we care that Yee was subdued by peddling smokes and whiskey?
Just goes to show L/E can go thru the back door to nail a suspect.
Same here----they always make a mistake.
Ya never know what's gonna crawl out from under that rock.
Bump post 7
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