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Feds Find Hundreds of Laptops, Weapons Missing
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Feds Find Hundreds of Laptops, Weapons Missing
Monday, August 05, 2002
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has lost track of 775 weapons and 400 laptop computers, more than half of which may have contained national security or sensitive law enforcement information, an internal investigation found.
Some of the weapons were recovered after they were used in armed robberies, the department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, said in a report released Monday.
Most of the 775 weapons reported missing belonged to the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Before last year, the FBI had not taken a complete inventory of laptops and weapons in almost a decade, despite an agency policy requiring one every two years, the investigation found. Last year's inventory was prompted when other agencies, including the INS, reported large numbers of missing weapons.
"The FBI showed serious deficiencies in management in keeping track of weapons and laptops," Fine said Monday.
Fine reported in March 2001 that an audit of the INS found the service had lost about 500 weapons. The audit prompted criticism from Congress and a request by Attorney General John Ashcroft to review the Justice Department's other component agencies.
The new report, which includes the INS figures revealed in the March 2001 audit, prompted more criticism Monday.
"This problem has sparked consequences, in criminal acts and danger to national security," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. "According to the reports, the problem of missing guns at the FBI, in particular, is a mess, and it's been that way for years.
"It stems from weak discipline, lax standards, tardy reporting and few, if any, consequences."
Some Justice Department officials attributed much of the problem to faulty paperwork and tracking, suggesting some of the equipment may have been loaned to other government agencies or may still be in the possession of government employees.
The FBI said Monday it is creating new programs to address the problems.
"The institutional response to the loss of any sensitive property, like a gun or laptop, will be prompt and robust, both from a security standpoint and from an accountability standpoint," the FBI said in a statement.
Regarding weapons, the inspector general's report found the INS and the FBI reported losses of 539 and 212 weapons, respectively, during the time frame of the audit, October 1999 to January 2002. The FBI reported an additional 211 missing weapons outside that period.
The other three Justice Department components -- the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service -- reported a combined total of 24 missing weapons during their audit period, October 1999 to August 2001.
With respect to laptop computers, the FBI reported 317 of its more than 15,000 laptop computers as missing, the Marshals Service reported 56 of its 1,450 laptops missing, the DEA could not provide the number of losses due to unreliable data. The Bureau of Prisons reported 27 laptops missing.
Some of the weapons were believed used in crimes.
The report says local police found one gun in a murder victim's pocket; it had been stolen from an FBI agent's home in New Orleans. Police in Atlanta recovered a stolen DEA weapon during a narcotics search at a suspect's residence; and police in Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla., recovered INS weapons that were used to commit armed robberies.
Fine suggested in the report that the Justice Department impose deadlines for reporting missing.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59622,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Monday, August 05, 2002
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has lost track of 775 weapons and 400 laptop computers, more than half of which may have contained national security or sensitive law enforcement information, an internal investigation found.
Some of the weapons were recovered after they were used in armed robberies, the department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, said in a report released Monday.
Most of the 775 weapons reported missing belonged to the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Before last year, the FBI had not taken a complete inventory of laptops and weapons in almost a decade, despite an agency policy requiring one every two years, the investigation found. Last year's inventory was prompted when other agencies, including the INS, reported large numbers of missing weapons.
"The FBI showed serious deficiencies in management in keeping track of weapons and laptops," Fine said Monday.
Fine reported in March 2001 that an audit of the INS found the service had lost about 500 weapons. The audit prompted criticism from Congress and a request by Attorney General John Ashcroft to review the Justice Department's other component agencies.
The new report, which includes the INS figures revealed in the March 2001 audit, prompted more criticism Monday.
"This problem has sparked consequences, in criminal acts and danger to national security," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. "According to the reports, the problem of missing guns at the FBI, in particular, is a mess, and it's been that way for years.
"It stems from weak discipline, lax standards, tardy reporting and few, if any, consequences."
Some Justice Department officials attributed much of the problem to faulty paperwork and tracking, suggesting some of the equipment may have been loaned to other government agencies or may still be in the possession of government employees.
The FBI said Monday it is creating new programs to address the problems.
"The institutional response to the loss of any sensitive property, like a gun or laptop, will be prompt and robust, both from a security standpoint and from an accountability standpoint," the FBI said in a statement.
Regarding weapons, the inspector general's report found the INS and the FBI reported losses of 539 and 212 weapons, respectively, during the time frame of the audit, October 1999 to January 2002. The FBI reported an additional 211 missing weapons outside that period.
The other three Justice Department components -- the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service -- reported a combined total of 24 missing weapons during their audit period, October 1999 to August 2001.
With respect to laptop computers, the FBI reported 317 of its more than 15,000 laptop computers as missing, the Marshals Service reported 56 of its 1,450 laptops missing, the DEA could not provide the number of losses due to unreliable data. The Bureau of Prisons reported 27 laptops missing.
Some of the weapons were believed used in crimes.
The report says local police found one gun in a murder victim's pocket; it had been stolen from an FBI agent's home in New Orleans. Police in Atlanta recovered a stolen DEA weapon during a narcotics search at a suspect's residence; and police in Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla., recovered INS weapons that were used to commit armed robberies.
Fine suggested in the report that the Justice Department impose deadlines for reporting missing.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59622,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Mon Aug 5,11:53 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI ( news - web sites), the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other U.S. Justice Department ( news - web sites) law enforcement agencies had at least 775 weapons and 400 laptop computers stolen, lost or missing over a recent two-year period, according to a report released on Monday.
The department's inspector general report found substantial losses of weapons and laptops, mainly at the FBI, the nation's top law enforcement agency -- and at the trouble-plagued immigration agency.
"Our audits found significant deficiencies in the accountability for sensitive department property," Inspector General Glenn Fine said in a statement.
He said the agencies must improve their management controls over property like weapons and laptop computers, and urged the Justice Department to take a more active oversight role to tighten controls that are weak, inadequate or not fully implemented.
The FBI's problems with stolen, missing or lost laptop computers and weapons first surfaced in July last year, adding to a string a blunders that included misplaced files in the case of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ( news - web sites) and the discovery of a longtime Russian spy within the FBI's ranks.
The report said the INS had 539 missing weapons, while the FBI had 212 missing weapons in the two-year audit period. The FBI had an additional 211 weapons reported missing during a time period not covered by the audit.
Local police recovered at least 18 of the missing weapons in connection with investigations into such crimes as robberies and drug dealing, according to the report.
Investigators were unable to determine the type of information stored on the 400 missing computers, but said some of the computers could have been used to store sensitive law enforcement information that could have jeopardized investigations if divulged.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&ncid=716&e=8&u=/nm/20020805/ts_nm/guns_dc_1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Allegations of false entry into Dallas house are denied by lawyers
08/03/2002
By TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News
A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the city of Dallas and a police narcotics officer, accusing the officer of conspiring with informants to frame innocent people on drug charges.
L. Dwaine Lord filed the civil lawsuit Friday against Officer David Larsen, an informant who worked for the officer and the city, seeking damages for a Jan. 11 raid by police on his home that uncovered no drugs.
Officer Larsen's attorney described the allegations as "all bunk."
"Let's put it this way," said attorney Bob Baskett after reading the 16-page complaint. "The factual allegations in there are untrue."
The lawsuit's allegations could not be independently verified Friday.
Also Online
Fake drugs, real people: The evolution of a scandal. A News 8 timeline featuring in-depth information, facts and figures.
Two drug cases filed by Officer Larsen are among dozens that were dismissed by the Dallas County district attorney after laboratory analysis showed that evidence did not contain illegal substances.
Mr. Lord's attorney, Douglas Larson, said that the allegations were based almost entirely on the testimony of Mr. Lord and what he said the two informants told him.
Mr. Larson, the attorney, said he believed his client's account and those of the two informants.
"This is not something new. It's on the street, everybody knows," said Mr. Larson, who is not related to Officer Larsen.
Mr. Lord said in the lawsuit that the officer falsely claimed in a sworn search-warrant affidavit that Officer Larsen and his informants had seen heroin inside his home while posing as drug dealers during an early January visit. The affidavit led to a "forced entry" police raid on Jan. 11.
Two Dallas Police Department narcotics officers, Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz and Officer Eddie Herrera, are on administrative leave while the FBI investigates the fake drug cases. The two officers also have been sued in federal court for alleged civil rights violations. Two confidential informants used by the officers have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges of planting fake drugs on innocent people.
Cpl. Delapaz and Officer Herrera were not involved in the incident leading to Mr. Lord's lawsuit.
A Dallas man earlier this year also filed a civil rights lawsuit against Officer Larsen and Cpl. Delapaz.
Victor Alvarado DeLeons said in the suit he was wrongly arrested on drug charges.
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/080302dnmetdrugbusts.42199.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
90% thrown to the river OPPPSSS! "lost in action" by the Agent...
10% thrown back at a felon so you were able to scape wile he figured out a way to shoot you with it (The he took me by surprize excuse on this one)
100% Of the PCsss ...OHHHH! Dad! thanks for the gift i needed for college so much ..... !!!!! They are soooo darrrnnn expensive !!!!
At the office ,,,AAWWWW! have you guys seen my laptop ???? I left it here friday afternoon.....???
Power corrupts (also the lack of it does)....."MONEY"
But have you seen a cow eat meat??? (A cow with Fangs!)
Shhhh!!! The FBI is full of them..... dont tell anyone....
HEHEHE!
400 million cows can't be wrong ( EAT GRASS !!! )
Rugster
rodney colson