Posted on 11/30/2001 4:55:06 AM PST by ninonitti
A U.S. House committee vowing to uncover what led the Boston FBI to use murderous gangsters as protected informants announced yesterday it will press the Justice Department next week to hand over key internal memos dating back to the 1960s.
The committee also said it will hold a January hearing to unravel the role of Boston federal investigators in helping mob hit man Joseph ``The Animal'' Barboza beat a first-degree murder rap in California in 1971.
Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) defended the committee's efforts to dig out the truth about the bureau's past policy choices.
Congressional investigations ``have a profound effect on current and future decision making,'' Burton said.
The Justice Department in August of 2000 announced a new blanket policy against releasing ``deliberative documents.''
Among questions the committee has asked the government to help answer:
Why was James ``Whitey'' Bulger not prosecuted for his ``many crimes'' prior to 1995 despite ``extensive evidence readily available''?
Why did the FBI allow Joseph Salvati to spent 30 years in prison ``for a crime that was committed by two - and possibly three - of their informants?''
Why was mob boss Francis ``Cadillac Frank'' Salemme prosecuted for the 1968 bombing of Hub attorney John Fitzgerald's car while his partner Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi was not?
The committee had planned to query Attorney General John Ashcroft at a hearing Sept. 12, but it was canceled after the terror attacks in New York and Washington.
In January, the committee plans to call retired FBI agent Dennis Condon, who is in his 70s, to testify about his handling of Barboza, the government's key witness against Salvati during a 1965 murder case.
Condon - whose testimony helped send Salvati to prison - apparently thought the terror attacks had quashed the probe.
``Don't you have anything better to do?'' a committee source quoted Condon as saying when he was told of the upcoming hearing. Condon's Washington attorney could not be reached for comment.
Nice to see these guys sitting before this committee looking like the goons that they are too bad it's not a grand jury.
The FBI - the taxpayer's organized crime family.
It's a shame that this has occurred over the years, and that the fbi rank and file have "put up with" some pretty strange happenings inside their own organization. Now I have no personal insider knowledge of these gents, but, I am almost completely sure that there have been long standing power struggles going on between the various honest and patriotic folks inside that org, and the dirty cop elements. I hope at some time the honest ones "win" in this struggle. If they don't, I would advocate disbanding the entire organization, and making it unlawful for any current employees to have any sort of government service ever again, because we have zero practical way of sorting them out, if they all coverup for each other no matter the circumstances. One or the other, clean up their own house, or have it cleaned up for them. For them to insist their house is in order and squeeky clean is just plain "not true" at this point. Walks like a duck, and etc.
The most important function of any governmental employee is to do their job honestly and with common sense as well. As soon as that drops down the list of priorities it's time for them to voluntarily leave government service, or be removed from government service. It's a 'service' they perform for us, it is not their 'right" to do what they choose to do whenever, and to continue to cash a check or receive a pension or whatever. Do job honestly, or you are a crook, simple as that.
CYA and ends justifying the means seems to be what really goes on down there in JEdgar World.
Don't see any big improvement coming after Freehs departure - maybe they'll hire more Public Relations people and trot out Effrem Zimbalist as the terrorist fighting G-man for the new century.
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