The inspector general’s office for the Department of Homeland Security will transfer half of its corruption investigations to other homeland security agencies. Former Customs and Border Protection Officer Margarita Crispin, pictured above, was arrested in July 2007 in El Paso on corruption charges by inspector general agents and other federal investigators. Department of Homeland Security […]
National Security
Our system of national security is full of holes – on the border, at the airports and inside our computers, where the fight against cyberterrorism rages.
Posted inCriminal Justice, National Security
How Guantanamo’s ‘war court’ differs from federal system
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is shown in this file photograph during his arrest March 1, 2003. The accused 9/11 mastermind and four suspected co-conspirators are facing trial in a Guantanamo war crimes tribunal on charges that could carry the death penalty.Courtesy of U.S. News & World Report/Reuters What’s happening? Tomorrow, five men accused of planning the attacks that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, National Security
Ex-ICE intelligence chief pleads guilty to embezzlement
A former chief of intelligence for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pleaded guilty today to embezzlement charges stemming from a travel voucher fraud and kickback scheme that has cost the government more than $600,000. James M. Woosley, 48, formerly of Tucson, Ariz., pleaded guilty to a charge of conversion of public money, or embezzlement, for […]
Posted inNational Security
Calif. still leads nation in Iraq, Afghan war casualties
Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas JohnsonU.S. Army When Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas Johnson’s Black Hawk helicopter went down during bad weather April 19, killing him and three others, he became the 671st service member from California to die in the combined Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A brief Department of Defense statement from April 24 said the […]
Posted inNational Security
Homeland security corruption probes to be reviewed
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark, shown speaking during a hearing he convened in June 2011 related to border corruption, said allegations that agents had falsified misconduct reports ahead of an internal review last fall were disturbing. He said he would consider holding hearings on the matter this summer.Donna Burton/U.S. Customs and Border Protection Dozens of corruption […]
Posted inNational Security
Homeland security office accused of faking reports on internal investigations
Charles Edwards, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting inspector general, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee in June 2011.Donna Burton/U.S. Customs and Border Protection The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog agency is in turmoil amid allegations that its agents in Texas were told to falsify reports ahead of an office inspection […]
Posted inNational Security
Another ICE employee charged in kickback scheme
An assistant to a former top immigration and customs official has been charged with stealing nearly $296,000 from the government, the fourth defendant in a widening probe of a fake travel voucher kickback scheme involving the agency’s intelligence office. Lateisha M. Rollerson, a onetime assistant to the former acting intelligence chief for U.S. Immigration and […]