DOJ drops the dime on CIA, State Department wrongdoing

DOJ drops the dime on CIA, State Department wrongdoing
Posted by Bill Conroy

Congress made aware of agencies’ alleged deceptions

Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice have filed a motion in federal court indicating that Congress has been notified officially of corruption allegations involving the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department.

The motion further substantiates a prior report by Narco News published July 4 that revealed at least one Congressional committee has launched an investigation into alleged CIA and State Department deceptions that surfaced in a lawsuit accusing officials from those agencies of spying on a DEA agent.

From the Narco News report:

“The CIA and State Department’s OIGs [Office of Inspector Generals] gave notice to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and they also notified the appropriate [Congressional] committees about the corruption allegations raised in [former DEA agent] Horn’s litigation,” says the Congressional source, who asked not to be named. The source adds that an investigation is now underway by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and possibly additional committees, that is focused not only on the corruption charges that surfaced in Horn’s lawsuit, but also some “bigger issues.”

The plaintiff in the case, now-retired DEA agent Richard Horn, earlier this year struck a deal with government attorneys to settle a 16-year-long legal battle in which Horn accused CIA and State Department officials of spying on him and sabotaging his anti-narcotics mission in Burma — now known as Myanmar. The lawsuit was hidden from public view for more than a decade because the CIA invoked the “state secrets privilege,” claiming the litigation implicated national security.

The CIA’s claims, however, were later shown to be bogus, prompting Judge Royce Lamberth last year to unseal the case. In addition to the deception played on the court by the CIA with respect to the unwarranted national security claims, evidence also surfaced in the case that management at both the State Department and CIA’s Inspector General offices pressured their investigators to falsify reports that were favorable to Horn.

Due to the extensive pattern of fraud and corruption exposed in the Horn case, Judge Lamberth pressed the Department of Justice to make a referral to the appropriate Inspectors General for an investigation into the allegations of government wrongdoing in Horn’s case and to notify the appropriate oversight committees in Congress.

In a ruling issued on March 30 of this year, Judge Lamberth agreed to dismiss the case and all pending motions except two. The ruling triggered the government’s requirement to pay Horn a total of $3 million per the terms of a settlement agreement ironed out between Horn’s lawyer (Brian Leighton) and attorneys representing the U.S. government.

The two motions not dismissed, but rather held in “abeyance,” dealt with the government’s request to vacate “opinions and orders” issued by the judge on Jan. 15, 2009, and Feb. 6, 2009 — both of which lay the groundwork for potential sanctions against CIA officials for the alleged fraud perpetrated on the court. The judge made the termination of those two opinions and orders contingent on the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, agreeing to notify the appropriate Inspector General offices and Congressional oversight committees about the alleged corruption.

The motion filed on July 20 in federal court in Washington, D.C., confirms that the notices requested by Judge Lamberth were, in fact, made:

Pursuant to the Court’s March 30, 2010 Memorandum Opinion and Order … the Offices of the Inspector General in the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of State referred the allegations set forth in the Court’s Opinion and Order to the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and informed their respective congressional oversight committees of the allegations. The government respectfully requests that the Court now grant the government’s motion to vacate the Court’s January 15, 2009 and February 6, 2009 opinions and orders.

Stay tuned…..