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Home Front: Culture Wars

DEA top dawg will quit in May

2015-04-22

Washington (CNN): It didn’t happen on 4/20 — marijuana’s high holy day — but expect Michele Leonhart to step down soon as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. officials familiar with the matter say. Obama administration officials long ago soured on Leonhart, a career DEA agent who broke ground at the agency when she rose into leadership as the first woman to head a field office. In recent years, she has angered the administration for appearing to resist federal rules relaxing enforcement on marijuana as states have moved to legalize the drug for medicinal and recreational use. More recently, she came under fire for her poor performance in a congressional hearing on an inspector general report that found instances of DEA agents having sex parties in Colombia with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels. The report cited light punishments for the agents and Leonhart seemed at a loss about what she could do about it.

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-Land of the Free

Facebook hits DEA for fake account

2014-10-20

[The Hill] Facebook on Friday criticized the Drug Enforcement Administration for creating a fake account using a woman's name and photos without her permission. The DEA's actions are a "knowing and serious breach" of the social media giant's policies, chief security officer Joe Sullivan wrote in a letter to agency Administrator Michele Leonhart. Anyone still believe these social media outlets are harmless. When Facebook kicks the Federal government off their website let me know...

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Bank accused of terror funding; U.S. wins $102 million

2013-06-26

Lebanese bank accused of laundering drug money through U.S. banks and routing it to the terrorist group Hezbollah will pay $102 million to settle a lawsuit brought in 2011 by the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The government accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank of a "widespread international scheme" to use the U.S. banking system to launder the proceeds from drug trafficking through West Africa and back to Lebanese financial institutions with ties to Hebollah. "Drug trafficking profits and terror financing often grow and flow together," said Michele Leonhart, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. A lawyer for the bank responded to the developments. "The bank is pleased to have reached a settlement with the United States Government, ending months of legal dispute," Evan Benn, an attorney for the bank, said in a statement. "The U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments have brought enforcement actions against a large number of well-known banks around the world, including LCB, in connection with alleged failures to comply with various executive orders and regulations issued by the U.S. Government. LCB, by contrast to many other such enforcement actions, has resolved this case without any admission or acknowledgement of wrongdoing."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US Seizes $150m In Hezbollah-Linked Funds

2012-08-21

[Ynet] US authorities freeze funds wired by Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank; say banking institution 'plays key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah' US authorities on Monday announced the seizure of $150 million allegedly linked to a scheme by the Lebanese cut-thoat group Hezbollah to launder proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes.   The money came from a US bank account used by the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) to conduct US currency transactions, US Attorney Preet Bharara and US Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said.   Washington considers the Shiite cut-thoat group a terrorist organization.   "As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah controlled organizations across the globe," Leonhart said in a statement.   A December 2011 money laundering and forfeiture complaint filed in US federal court in New York targeted the Lebanese Canadian Bank and two other Lebanese financial institutions with alleged ties to Hezbollah.   US prosecutors then alleged that the LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and Ellissa Holding wired funds from Leb to the United States to buy used cars, which were then sent to West Africa.   "Cash from the sale of the cars, along with proceeds of narcotics trafficking, were then funneled to Leb through Hezbollah-controlled money laundering channels," the US Attorney's office said at the time.   At the time, Hezbollah refuted the charges, saying they were "another attempt to tarnish the image of the resistance in Leb."   "Our relentless pursuit of global criminal networks showed that the US banking system was exploited to launder drug trafficking funds through West Africa and into Leb," Leonhart said Monday.   "DEA and our partners are attacking these groups and their financial infrastructure, while establishing clear links between drug trafficking proceeds and terrorist funding," she said.   Bharara said: "We will use every resource at our disposal to separate hard boyz and narco-traffickers, and the banks that work with them, from their illicit funds, even those hidden in foreign accounts."

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Home Front: WoT

Project Gunwalker: Who Was At The October 27, 2009 Meeting?

2011-07-07

For the last month, there have been hints that on a day in October, some top level folks from lots of alphabet soup letters had met. And several days later, the word went down to Phoenix, AZ..... and thus began Project Gunwalker. An email confirms "Gunwalker" was known throughout the Justice Department -- but there were other gov't agencies there. Bob Owens reports: Bob Owens has the tenacity of the best old-time reporters. The MSM can ignore this all they want, Mr. Owens will get to the bottom of it. An email cited in Senator Charles Grassley's testimony in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Operation Fast and Furious indicates that knowledge of the program was spread across the highest levels of the Justice Department. This lends even greater suspicion to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that he knew nothing about the program until well after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed. The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including: Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA Robert Mueller, Director FBI Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session. While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunwalker, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within the Department of Justice was briefed on Gunwalker, including the AGAC, which has the formally ordered functions of giving U.S attorneys a voice in department policies and advising the attorney general. Mexican government officials are infuriated by the scandal, and unlike the New York Times and Washington Post that seek to minimize it, they want justice. Senator Rene Arce is chairman of Mexico's Commission for National Security, a congressional panel similar to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He told Fox News that the American officials that authorized Gunwalker should face felony charges in the United States, and then be extradited to Mexico to stand trial there. Rumors that Dept of State was brought into the "Circle of Walkers," because of the treaty of exporting guns to foreign countries (had to have State's approval). And going for the brass ring, Holder has testified, "I know nothin'"

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Home Front: WoT

Seven Men, Including 2 Lebanese, Charged in NY with Conspiring to Aid Taliban

2011-02-16

Seven men, including two Lebanese citizens, were charged with selling drugs and weapons in an effort to help the Taliban fight U.S. troops overseas. Posing as representatives of the Taliban, cooperating witnesses for the Drug Enforcement Administration approached the men in Ghana last June, asking to set up a drug relationship, prosecutors said. First, the cooperators asked if they could buy large amounts of cocaine, according to court documents. Then, they asked if the men could set up safe places in West Africa to store heroin on its way from Afghanistan to the United States, Canada and Europe. Terrorism charges were filed against Maroun Saade and Walid Nasir, who are Lebanese. Charges were also filed against Francis Sourou Ahissou, Corneille Dato, Martin Raouf Bouraima, Oded Orbach and Alwar Pouryan. Prosecutors said Orbach and Pouryan, who are U.S. citizens, were nabbed in Romania last week and are being held there while they await extradition to the United States. The others were nabbed last week in Liberia, where they are in U.S. custody. All are expected to be prosecuted in New York. The supposed Taliban representatives told the men that the drugs would be sold to help finance Taliban operations against the United States, court documents said. "Saade responded that it would please him to support the Taliban's cause," prosecutors wrote in the indictment. As the drug relationship blossomed, the DEA also began negotiating to buy anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons, prosecutors said. Those inquiries led the DEA to Orbach and Pouryan, who discussed selling anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers and other weapons to the Taliban. An e-mail seized by prosecutors revealed a price list ranging from $120 or so for an M16 rifle to $87,000 and up for a Javelin anti-take missile. Prosecutors said they believe the men were working with a co-conspirator in Leb. The co-conspirator was not named. "Today, we eliminated an entrenched global criminal network, preventing it from moving ton quantities of cocaine, laundering millions in drug money, and trading arms to the Taliban to undermine the rule of law and kill Americans," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said.

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Home Front: WoT

Obama to meet plane carrying fallen soldiers in Afghanistan

2009-10-29

Tip for Barack: If you take the missus with you, please get her to tone it down a bit. And don't forget your lapel pin this time. The flag-draped coffins of at least 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware early Thursday, government and military officials said. President Obama, who arrived to Dover Air Force Base on Marine One, along with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and acting DEA administrator Michele Leonhart will witness the transfer of the bodies, according to the Justice Department. The bodies will include three Drug Enforcement Administration special agents and 15 U.S. troops who died in Afghanistan on Monday. The DEA agents were returning from a raid on a compound believed to be harboring insurgents tied to drug trafficking when their chopper with seven troops aboard went down in western Afghanistan. The military transport will also include eight U.S. soldiers killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the Arghandab River Valley. The DEA identified the agents as Forrest N. Leamon, 37, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Chad L. Michael, 30, of Quantico, Virginia; and Michael E. Weston, 37, of Washington. Leamon and Michael were members of the DEA's Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Teams, and Weston was assigned to the agency's Kabul Country Office.

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Home Front: WoT

Talib convicted in US for 'narco-terrorism'

2008-05-17

A member of an Afghan Taliban cell was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday on charges of narco-terrorism and narcotics distribution, the US Justice Department said in a statement. Khan Mohammed, from Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, is the first person to be convicted under a narco-terrorism provision of the USA Patriot Act that went into effect in March 2006, the statement said. US officials said Mohammed was caught in an investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration with the help of a cooperating witness. “As an enemy of the United States, Khan Mohammed intended to ship heroin to the United States and use profits from the trade to assist the Taliban,” DEA administrator Michele Leonhart said. “A dangerous double threat, Kahn Mohammed purchased rockets to attack American and coalition soldiers,” she added. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10. Mohammed was first indicted in Dec 2006 on narcotics distribution charges and was brought to the United States in November 2007. A second indictment in January 2008 charged him with engaging in drug trafficking to fund a terrorist organization.

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