Michael Webster
Federal agents being accused of gross misconduct & assassinations
By Michael Webster
An investigation was launched in response to congressional inquiries following the 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, involving Secret Service agents. As a result even more outrages conduct was discovered. It shows that many agents in our federal law enforcement are out of control and operating under the radar when it comes to their personal and group sexual conduct and much much worse. Many Government agency leaders are either participating in the misconduct or helping to cover-up the misdeeds, while some heads will not or they claim they cannot fire or take any disciplinary action against the agents other than a few days off with pay. They claim it is the law and their hands are tied.
In a recent report, published by the Office of the Inspector General, reveals a culture of widespread and extreme sexual misconduct across several federal agencies as well as resisting and not cooperating with the investigations.. The investigation also shows several additional incidents of sexual misconduct across many federal agencies – such as the DEA, FBI, the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) – including dozens of rendezvous with prostitutes in other countries, at least one physical assault of a hooker over a payment disagreement and several incidents of disturbing sexual harassment.
The report cited dozens of allegations of incidence where Drug Enforcement Administration agents (DEA) (some with top secret clearances) held 'sex parties' and participated in multiple orgies with prostitutes funded by the local drug cartels for the agents while being hosted by the very drug traffickers they were supposed to be investigating and at their government-leased quarters, over a period of several years. South American, Mexican drug cartels and other drug traffickers around the world have been dolling out favors to local, state and federal law enforcement both inside and outside of the U.S. Government.
"Although some of the DEA agents participating in these parties denied it, the information in the case file suggested they should have known the prostitutes that where in attendance were paid with cartel funds," investigators wrote of the parties. "The foreign officers further alleged that in addition to soliciting prostitutes, three DEA (special agents) in particular were provided money, protection, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members."
During the parties, which reportedly occurred over many years, federal agents allegedly paid Colombian police officers to provide protection and security, including holding the agents' weapons and property," the report claimed.
The Justice Dept. reported that, that protection did not work. The serious "security risks" posed by the wrong doing where, according to the report, hookers were constantly around sensitive government computers and devices, including "agents' personal laptops, BlackBerrys, and other devices, and other government-issued equipment.
The situation "created potential security risks for the DEA and for the agents who participated in the parties. . . In 2012 DEA agents participated in a raid in Honduras that left four innocent people murdered, including a teenager and two pregnant women.
Despite these shocking headlines this scandal isn't really about just sex – and it's much bigger than the DEA. At its core, this sordid tale is about the futility and corruption of prohibition – told through the lens of a rogue agency that represents everything wrong with the multi billion dollar war on drugs. The report, part of a larger investigation of how the Justice Department's various law-enforcement agencies respond to sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, didn't name any of the agents involved, but claimed that 10 of them had admitted to attending the bashes and had been punished with modest suspensions ranging from two to 10 days.
Colombia is also the location where several Secret Service personnel were caught in a separate prostitution scandal in April 2012.
The DEA wasn't the only federal agency with personnel recently implicated in drug war-related crimes in Colombia. Though less widely reported, a much more serious allegation emerged that U.S. soldiers and military contractors raped at least 54 women and girls between 2004 and 2007 while deployed as part of "Plan Colombia" – the nearly $10-billion U.S. drug war military aid package.
Not one of the perpetrators has faced justice. Committed during drug war operations, these heinous acts should be treated as war crimes.
These are just the latest horrors that the U.S. drug war has unleashed on Latin America – with the DEA often at the center. For years the agency has been spying on governments in the region, often for political purposes not related to drugs – prompting Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador to kick the DEA out of their countries. Latin American counties are increasingly rejecting drug prohibition, and each fresh episode of war crimes and human rights abuses strikes a major blow to the U.S.'s failed global drug policy.
Even on a higher level of concern for most Americans is an FBI investigation involving a CIA high level operative Normand Hodges, who has made a series of confessions. The 78-year old claims he committed 37 assassinations for the U.S. government between 1959 and 1972, including the beloved actress and model, Marilyn Monroe.
Mr. Hodges claims that he worked as a high level operative for 41-years and was granted top-level security clearances.
Trained as both a sniper and a martial arts expert, Mr. Hodges says he also has significant experience with more unconventional methods of inflicting harm upon others, like poisons and explosives.
He says he was often employed as a hit man by the organization, to assassinate individuals who could represent a threat to the security of the country.
Most of his victims were political activists, journalists and union leaders, but he also claims that he killed a few scientists and artists whose ideas represented a threat to the interests of the United States.
"We had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had not only slept with Kennedy, but also with Fidel Castro" claims M. Hodges. "My commanding officer, Jimmy Hayworth, told me that she had to die, and that it had to look like a suicide or an overdose. I had never killed a woman before, but I obeyed orders... I did it for America! She could have transmitted strategic information to the communists, and we couldn't allow that! She had to die! I just did what I had to do!"
Hodges has been placed under custody by the FBI, which is taking his confession very seriously and has opened an investigation to verify his allegations.
In almost all the wrong doing by federal agents was not reported or not reported in a timely manner to the heads of those agencies. The incidents at the DEA, which has been led by Michele Leonhart since 2007, were never properly reported; the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility only learned that they had happened after an anonymous tip was submitted in 2010. This week DEA chief tells House committee she can't fire agents involved in sex parties.
"We found that a Regional Director, an Acting Assistant Regional Director (AARD), and a Group Supervisor failed to report ... repeated allegations of DEA Special Agents (SA) patronizing prostitutes and frequenting a brothel while in an overseas posting, treating these allegations as local management issues," the report said. "It was also alleged that one of the subjects in the supervisors' group assaulted a prostitute following a payment dispute."
The report also disclosed a 2009 incident where an ATF manager "solicited consensual sex with anonymous partners and modified a hotel room door to facilitate sexual play."
The individual "removed smoke detectors from the hotel room and inadvertently caused damage to the hotel's centralized fire detection system," the report stated. When local cops were finally called, the person "admitted the conduct and told local police this type of conduct was not an isolated incident for him and had occurred in the past."
In a separate case, the review found evidence that a different ATF manager "failed to report allegations that two training instructors were having consensual sex with their students."
"The same instructors had engaged in substantially the same activities 3 years earlier but had merely counseled the training instructors without reporting the alleged activities," to the appropriate Internal Affairs personnel, the report claimed.
In yet another troubling case mentioned in the report, a supervisor in the U.S. Marshals Service reported that a colleague at the agency engaged in "an inappropriate relationship with the common law spouse of a fugitive."
At least three other supervisors ordered the employee in question to "terminate the relationship," but he, nevertheless, continued to see the individual for another year.
In addition, the report revealed several incidents of office sexual harassment at multiple agencies, including one example from the FBI, where an employee was accused of "cornering his subordinates in their cubicles and displaying the size of his genitals by tightening his pants, making graphic and inappropriate sexual comments and gestures, and otherwise creating a hostile work environment."
Representatives from the CIA, DEA, the ATF and the FBI did not respond to requests for comment on the report.
In many, if not most, of the described incidents, supervisors at the DEA, the ATF, the Marshals Service, and possibly, other agencies, failed to properly report or respond to the allegations appropriately, revealing "significant systemic issues with the ... processes," the review said.
When allegations were finally addressed by the Justice Department's Inspector General's office, the report said, investigators faced a noticeable lack of cooperation with the probe, with many agencies refusing to turn over requested information.
"We cannot be completely confident that the FBI and DEA provided us with all information relevant to this review," investigators wrote about the agencies' cooperation with the report. "As a result, our report reflects the findings and conclusions we reached based on the information made available to us."
Related articles: Feds cooperate & allowed Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine into U.S.
Law Enforcement Corruption: November 2008 Cartels » Embassy Investigations
Sources:
U.S. Congressional sub- Committee
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Justice Dept- http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2015/e1504.pdf#page=1
Columbia Army members
Cartagena Police
Bogotá Police
Daniel Robelo / AlterNet
Some photos by TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS and TIM SLOAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
© Michael Webster
April 16, 2015
An investigation was launched in response to congressional inquiries following the 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, involving Secret Service agents. As a result even more outrages conduct was discovered. It shows that many agents in our federal law enforcement are out of control and operating under the radar when it comes to their personal and group sexual conduct and much much worse. Many Government agency leaders are either participating in the misconduct or helping to cover-up the misdeeds, while some heads will not or they claim they cannot fire or take any disciplinary action against the agents other than a few days off with pay. They claim it is the law and their hands are tied.
In a recent report, published by the Office of the Inspector General, reveals a culture of widespread and extreme sexual misconduct across several federal agencies as well as resisting and not cooperating with the investigations.. The investigation also shows several additional incidents of sexual misconduct across many federal agencies – such as the DEA, FBI, the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) – including dozens of rendezvous with prostitutes in other countries, at least one physical assault of a hooker over a payment disagreement and several incidents of disturbing sexual harassment.
The report cited dozens of allegations of incidence where Drug Enforcement Administration agents (DEA) (some with top secret clearances) held 'sex parties' and participated in multiple orgies with prostitutes funded by the local drug cartels for the agents while being hosted by the very drug traffickers they were supposed to be investigating and at their government-leased quarters, over a period of several years. South American, Mexican drug cartels and other drug traffickers around the world have been dolling out favors to local, state and federal law enforcement both inside and outside of the U.S. Government.
"Although some of the DEA agents participating in these parties denied it, the information in the case file suggested they should have known the prostitutes that where in attendance were paid with cartel funds," investigators wrote of the parties. "The foreign officers further alleged that in addition to soliciting prostitutes, three DEA (special agents) in particular were provided money, protection, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members."
During the parties, which reportedly occurred over many years, federal agents allegedly paid Colombian police officers to provide protection and security, including holding the agents' weapons and property," the report claimed.
The Justice Dept. reported that, that protection did not work. The serious "security risks" posed by the wrong doing where, according to the report, hookers were constantly around sensitive government computers and devices, including "agents' personal laptops, BlackBerrys, and other devices, and other government-issued equipment.
The situation "created potential security risks for the DEA and for the agents who participated in the parties. . . In 2012 DEA agents participated in a raid in Honduras that left four innocent people murdered, including a teenager and two pregnant women.
Despite these shocking headlines this scandal isn't really about just sex – and it's much bigger than the DEA. At its core, this sordid tale is about the futility and corruption of prohibition – told through the lens of a rogue agency that represents everything wrong with the multi billion dollar war on drugs. The report, part of a larger investigation of how the Justice Department's various law-enforcement agencies respond to sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, didn't name any of the agents involved, but claimed that 10 of them had admitted to attending the bashes and had been punished with modest suspensions ranging from two to 10 days.
Colombia is also the location where several Secret Service personnel were caught in a separate prostitution scandal in April 2012.
The DEA wasn't the only federal agency with personnel recently implicated in drug war-related crimes in Colombia. Though less widely reported, a much more serious allegation emerged that U.S. soldiers and military contractors raped at least 54 women and girls between 2004 and 2007 while deployed as part of "Plan Colombia" – the nearly $10-billion U.S. drug war military aid package.
Not one of the perpetrators has faced justice. Committed during drug war operations, these heinous acts should be treated as war crimes.
These are just the latest horrors that the U.S. drug war has unleashed on Latin America – with the DEA often at the center. For years the agency has been spying on governments in the region, often for political purposes not related to drugs – prompting Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador to kick the DEA out of their countries. Latin American counties are increasingly rejecting drug prohibition, and each fresh episode of war crimes and human rights abuses strikes a major blow to the U.S.'s failed global drug policy.
Even on a higher level of concern for most Americans is an FBI investigation involving a CIA high level operative Normand Hodges, who has made a series of confessions. The 78-year old claims he committed 37 assassinations for the U.S. government between 1959 and 1972, including the beloved actress and model, Marilyn Monroe.
Mr. Hodges claims that he worked as a high level operative for 41-years and was granted top-level security clearances.
Trained as both a sniper and a martial arts expert, Mr. Hodges says he also has significant experience with more unconventional methods of inflicting harm upon others, like poisons and explosives.
He says he was often employed as a hit man by the organization, to assassinate individuals who could represent a threat to the security of the country.
Most of his victims were political activists, journalists and union leaders, but he also claims that he killed a few scientists and artists whose ideas represented a threat to the interests of the United States.
"We had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had not only slept with Kennedy, but also with Fidel Castro" claims M. Hodges. "My commanding officer, Jimmy Hayworth, told me that she had to die, and that it had to look like a suicide or an overdose. I had never killed a woman before, but I obeyed orders... I did it for America! She could have transmitted strategic information to the communists, and we couldn't allow that! She had to die! I just did what I had to do!"
Hodges has been placed under custody by the FBI, which is taking his confession very seriously and has opened an investigation to verify his allegations.
In almost all the wrong doing by federal agents was not reported or not reported in a timely manner to the heads of those agencies. The incidents at the DEA, which has been led by Michele Leonhart since 2007, were never properly reported; the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility only learned that they had happened after an anonymous tip was submitted in 2010. This week DEA chief tells House committee she can't fire agents involved in sex parties.
"We found that a Regional Director, an Acting Assistant Regional Director (AARD), and a Group Supervisor failed to report ... repeated allegations of DEA Special Agents (SA) patronizing prostitutes and frequenting a brothel while in an overseas posting, treating these allegations as local management issues," the report said. "It was also alleged that one of the subjects in the supervisors' group assaulted a prostitute following a payment dispute."
The report also disclosed a 2009 incident where an ATF manager "solicited consensual sex with anonymous partners and modified a hotel room door to facilitate sexual play."
The individual "removed smoke detectors from the hotel room and inadvertently caused damage to the hotel's centralized fire detection system," the report stated. When local cops were finally called, the person "admitted the conduct and told local police this type of conduct was not an isolated incident for him and had occurred in the past."
In a separate case, the review found evidence that a different ATF manager "failed to report allegations that two training instructors were having consensual sex with their students."
"The same instructors had engaged in substantially the same activities 3 years earlier but had merely counseled the training instructors without reporting the alleged activities," to the appropriate Internal Affairs personnel, the report claimed.
In yet another troubling case mentioned in the report, a supervisor in the U.S. Marshals Service reported that a colleague at the agency engaged in "an inappropriate relationship with the common law spouse of a fugitive."
At least three other supervisors ordered the employee in question to "terminate the relationship," but he, nevertheless, continued to see the individual for another year.
In addition, the report revealed several incidents of office sexual harassment at multiple agencies, including one example from the FBI, where an employee was accused of "cornering his subordinates in their cubicles and displaying the size of his genitals by tightening his pants, making graphic and inappropriate sexual comments and gestures, and otherwise creating a hostile work environment."
Representatives from the CIA, DEA, the ATF and the FBI did not respond to requests for comment on the report.
In many, if not most, of the described incidents, supervisors at the DEA, the ATF, the Marshals Service, and possibly, other agencies, failed to properly report or respond to the allegations appropriately, revealing "significant systemic issues with the ... processes," the review said.
When allegations were finally addressed by the Justice Department's Inspector General's office, the report said, investigators faced a noticeable lack of cooperation with the probe, with many agencies refusing to turn over requested information.
"We cannot be completely confident that the FBI and DEA provided us with all information relevant to this review," investigators wrote about the agencies' cooperation with the report. "As a result, our report reflects the findings and conclusions we reached based on the information made available to us."
Related articles: Feds cooperate & allowed Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine into U.S.
Law Enforcement Corruption: November 2008 Cartels » Embassy Investigations
Sources:
U.S. Congressional sub- Committee
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Justice Dept- http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2015/e1504.pdf#page=1
Columbia Army members
Cartagena Police
Bogotá Police
Daniel Robelo / AlterNet
Some photos by TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS and TIM SLOAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
© Michael Webster
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
