HEADLINE NEWS

Thursday 30 December 2010

U.S. Refuses to Help Polish Probe of Secret CIA Prisons

U.S. Refuses to Help Polish Probe of Secret CIA Prisons: "An international human rights group has revealed the Obama administration has refused to help the Polish government investigate claims that the CIA ran a secret black site prison inside Poland. Polish prosecutors launched a probe in August 2008, but U.S. authorities have refused to cooperate, claiming that they consider the matter closed. Flight records show that seven CIA planes landed in 2002 and 2003 at Szymany, a Polish military base in northeast Poland."

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Wednesday 22 December 2010

Crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths - stalked and beat ex-girlfriend - mirror.co.uk

Crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths - stalked and beat ex-girlfriend - mirror.co.uk: "EX-GIRLFRIEND Kathy Hancock has told how she was stalked by Griffiths – who she calls Psycho Steve – for 10 YEARS.

Former prison officer Kathy, 37, repeatedly fled but time and time again he tracked her down.

She shuddered: “I was completely brainwashed by him. It was 10 years of mental torture and abuse. I couldn’t get away.

“He wants control of everything but he does it in such a passive way. He would make you doubt the way you are.”

Kathy was introduced to Griffiths in February 2000 and at first she enjoyed talking to a man she saw as a shy loner."

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Man shot dead on Cheshire street - Crime, UK - The Independent

Man shot dead on Cheshire street - Crime, UK - The Independent: "man has died after being shot in the street.

Officers were alerted after residents in Hale, Cheshire, heard gunfire shortly after midnight.

The 30-year-old victim, from nearby Widnes, was found on Pepper Street with serious head injuries and was taken to hospital where he later died.

His next of kin have been informed."

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Tuesday 21 December 2010

Crossbow cannibal may have killed six women, police fear

When he was first arrested he indicated to detectives that he had murdered five or six women in total.
He held up one hand with his fingers outstretched and put up a finger on another when asked about killings he had carried out.
But he only named Susan Rushworth, Shelley Armitage and Suzanne Blamires, refusing to co-operate further about the identities of the others.
It is not known if he was attempting to exercise some form of control over investigators, exaggerating his notoriety or hinting at the truth.
West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team is considering the possibility that he has killed before.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.
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Sunday 12 December 2010

A lot of drugs, a lot of money.”U.S. authorities deport Salvatore Montagna, a reputed New York crime boss to Montreal

Gangland Gotham: New York's Notorious Mob BossesU.S. authorities deport Salvatore Montagna, a reputed New York crime boss to Montreal, the city of his birth.Within months, bodies begin to fall.The decimation of Montreal’s ruling crime family, the Rizzutos, has begun.Montagna, 39, known as Sal the Ironworker because of his family’s metal business in Brooklyn and who was dubbed Bambino Boss by New York media, was reportedly acting boss of New York’s powerful Bonanno family.What part — if any — Montagna is playing in the bloody mob war in Montreal is unclear.He arrived back from the States in April 2009.In August 2009, the assault on the crime group starts with the murder of convicted drug trafficker Federico del Peschio, 59, a former cellmate and friend of the godfather, Nicolo Rizzuto, Sr.In December 2009, Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., 42, son of Vito Rizzuto and grandson of the don, his namesake, is shot to death.



In May 2010, Rizzuto consigliere Paolo Renda vanishes.



That is followed with the June 2010 murders of Agostino Cuntrera, 66, who was in charge of the Rizzuto crime family’s daily operations and of his bodyguard Liborio Sciascia, 40.



And on Nov. 10, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., 86, was assassinated by a sniper in his home.



Montreal police refused to comment on Montagna because of ongoing investigations but they don’t seem to be paying much attention to the Bambino Boss.



In a decision that stunned police intelligence officers in the GTA, some Montreal and U.S. cops apparently took him at his word when he said — while being deported — that he was retiring.



“They got to make this guy for who he really is,” a veteran organized crime investigator in the GTA said.



“You know he’s not going to hang up his reins.



“Who in the right mind is going to believe that he’s retired?”



The violence in Montreal has spawned a number of theories.



One scenario police are considering is that the Bonanno mob of New York that Montagna reportedly controlled is consolidating its hold on Montreal and with it southern Ontario.



Yet another theory is that Italian crime families between Hamilton and Montreal, a lethal mix of Sicilian and Calabrian mobs, are now operating as one.



The Sicilian Bonanno family’s ties to Quebec go back to shortly after the Second World War when New York’s Joe “Bananas” Bonanno gave his blessing to the Montreal mob.



The Cotroni family, of Calabrian heritage, was put in charge but the relationship between them and Sicilian families within the Montreal organization crumbled during the 1970s.



The Sicilians, through Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., made a push for control and his son, Vito, would later struggle for more independence.



Police say the Rizzutos’ influence in southern Ontario was spread through the crime family run by Toronto’s Pietro Scarcella, the last man to see mob boss Paul Volpe alive — his body was found in a car trunk at Toronto International Airport in 1983, and through the Musitano family in Hamilton.



The Rizzutos forced their way into the Niagara-Hamilton area in the late 1990s, police investigators say. Two of the casualties in 1997 were Hamilton mob boss John Papalia and his Niagara associate Carmen Barillaro.



But suddenly in 2009 the tables were turned on the aggressive Rizzutos.



“It’s almost like the entire annihilation of an entire family,” the police intelligence officer said. “The Rizzutos were responsible for a lot of pain and suffering.”



n n n



When Montagna arrived in Montreal the crime scene was chaotic.



The once powerful Rizzutos were in trouble.



Their ranks were decimated by Ontario’s Project R.I.P. and Quebec’s Project Colisee, that stripped away layers of mob middlemen.



“It created a power void,” the source said, but added “the demand for organized crime, via drugs, money-laundering” remained.



Colisee also picked up in wiretaps that mobsters were ripping off and betraying each other.



When the evidence was released through disclosure before trial “it showed how everybody f---ed each other.”



The Rizzutos were suddenly vulnerable.



Montagna, who was born in Montreal and spent his youth in Sicily before moving to the U.S., was arrested April 6, 2009, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported later that month on the strength of a Sept. 2, 2003, conviction when he pleaded guilty to criminal contempt for refusing to testify to a grand jury.



Montagna refused to answer questions put to him during his Sept. 24, 2002 grand jury appearance.



A police source said Montagna lived up to the code of “omerta”, the organized crime rule of not revealing anything to authorities, when he failed to testify to the grand jury. He was sentenced to five years probation.



The contempt charge was filed in November 2002 when the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced the arrest of 19 mobsters for their “participation in the criminal activities of an organized crime crew of the Bonanno organized crime family.”



The crew was involved in gambling and loan-sharking, uncovered after a New York City Police undercover detective infiltrated the group based at the Aquarius Social Club on Waterbury Cres. in the Bronx.



It was during the racketeering investigation of three men, Bonanno soldiers Baldassare “Baldo” Amato and Stephen “Stevie” Locurto, and associate Anthony Basile, that FBI investigators realized Montagna’s role in the Cosa Nostra family.



U.S. immigration argued Montagna took over the Bonanno crime family at the age of 36 and police say he behaves like a seasoned, mature boss.



The contempt conviction was enough for U.S. immigration officials to deport Montagna to Montreal.



“Following that,” said the GTA police source, “the level of violence in Montreal is more active than in New York City.”



He suggested the list of motives and possible suspects for the elimination of the Rizzuto crime family could be long but in the end it’s all about the business of crime.



What’s occurring is a collaborative settling of disputes based on common goals, he said.



“A gun is pointed at a man, but how many hands are on that gun?” the cop said.



Determine how many are involved and “then you get to understand how (Italian organized crime) works,” he said.



“The key to remember, it was clear at a time, that Montreal was the centre of the universe for organized crime,” the police source said, adding there is a seismic shift taking place.



“Clearly what we’ve seen is that true power is in Ontario. We’re now one, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal is one criminal enterprise,” he said.



“They have business plans,” the source said. “The money they have is insane. They have millions.”



Police estimate, for example, the Caruana-Cuntrera faction had in the late 1990s an estimated net worth of more than $1 billion in property and businesses.



“At the end of the day, this has to do with drugs and money,” the source said.



“A lot of drugs, a lot of money.”DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.
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S.African police probe Dewani case link to 2007 murder

The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in AmericaAFP: S.African police probe Dewani case link to 2007 murder: "South African police are probing a link between a Cape Town murder of the wife of a British businessman and a 2007 killing of a local doctor under similar circumstances, media said Sunday.
The Sunday Times said the doctor, Pox Raghavjee, was found shot dead in his car in Bhisho, a small town in the Eastern Cape region, but nothing was stolen from him.
His widow, Heather Raghavjee, travelled to Cape Town to comfort businessman Shrien Dewani after the murder of his wife Anni last month, the paper said.
'National police commissioner Bheki Cele confirmed yesterday that police were probing links between the 2007 killing of an Eastern Cape doctor to Anni's murder,' said the paper.
She was killed in a poor suburb outside Cape Town, after a taxi she was travelling in with her husband was hijacked.
The hijackers released Dewani and made off with his wife. Her body was later found with a single bullet to her neck.
One of the men who have been arrested for the killing, Zola Tongo, turned state witness and implicated Dewani in his wife's murder."

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Now Wikileaks suffers its own leaks - Telegraph

Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace (Information Revolution and Global Politics)Now Wikileaks suffers its own leaks - Telegraph: "The development comes as a senior WikiLeaks activist told The Sunday Telegraph that she and others had resigned from the organisation because of their deep concern about its treatment of sources and 'lack of transparency with relation to large sums of money'.
This newspaper has learned that one of WikiLeaks's main funding channels, the Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation, has been issued with two official warnings by charity regulators after failing to file financial records.
It has also emerged that the online payment service PayPal, which last week cut off donations to WikiLeaks, suspended the site's account twice before, once under money laundering regulations."

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Russia 'tracked' spy killers in UK - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Russia 'tracked' spy killers in UK - Europe - Al Jazeera English: "Russia was following the suspected killers of former spy Alexander Litvinenko before he was poisoned in London in 2006, but had been told to stand down by British authorities, according to remarks in leaked US diplomatic cables.

'[Russian Special Presidential Representative Anatoly] Safonov claimed that Russian authorities in London had known about and followed individuals moving radioactive substances into the city but were told by the British that they were under control before the poisoning took place,' the cable said.

Litvinenko, a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, died in hospital after being poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210 in a restaurant.

The leaked US cable, quoting a meeting in Paris between a Russian official and Henry Crumpton, US Ambassador-at-Large, was released by WikiLeaks and published on The Guardian's website on Saturday."

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Mark Madoff in suicide 2 years on from dad Bernard Madoff's arrest - mirror.co.uk

The Club No One Wanted To Join-Madoff Victims In Their Own WordsMark Madoff in suicide 2 years on from dad Bernard Madoff's arrest - mirror.co.uk: "The son of jailed financier Bernard Madoff was found dead yesterday - on the second anniversary of his father's arrest.
Mark Madoff, 46, was found hanging from a dog collar attached to a pipe in an apparent suicide at his New York apartment. His two-yearold son was sleeping nearby. Bernard Madoff, 72, was jailed for 150 years for swindling billions from investors in a fraudulent 'Ponzi scheme'.
Mark had also been under investigation even though he is said to have turned his father in. But he had yet to face criminal charges.
Last night close friends say he had been left 'unalterably bitter' by his father's crimes."

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WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers | Media | The Observer

WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1 5000 [DOES NOT CONTAIN TEXT OF CABLES]WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers Media The Observer: "He is one of the newest recruits to Operation Payback. In a London bedroom, the 24-year-old computer hacker is preparing his weaponry for this week's battles in an evolving cyberwar. He is a self-styled defender of free speech, his weapon a laptop and his enemy the US corporations responsible for attacking the website WikiLeaks.
He had seen the flyers that began springing up on the web in mid-September. In chatrooms, on discussion boards and inboxes from Manchester to New York to Sydney the grinning face of a Guy Fawkes mask had appeared with a call to arms. Across the world a battalion of hackers was being summoned.
'Greetings, fellow anons,' it said beneath the headline Operation Payback. Alongside were a series of software programs dubbed 'our weapons of choice' and a stark message: people needed to show their 'hatred'."

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Police chief suspended over 'fraud' - mirror.co.uk

Police chief suspended over 'fraud' - mirror.co.uk: "senior police officer has been suspended after a fraud probe was launched.
Acting deputy chief constable Gordon Fraser, who joined Leicestershire Police in January, is being investigated over foreign property investment deals.
Two other officers are also being investigated."

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Among the pressures Mark Madoff faced was a strongly worded lawsuit by Irving Picard.

Almost a year after the multibiliion dollar fraud conducted by his father, Bernard Madoff, was revealed, both Mark and Andrew Madoff were sued by Mr. Picard, the trustee gathering assets for Bernard Madoff's victims. Also named were their uncle Peter and cousin Shana, who worked with them at the firm. Mr. Picard accused Mark Madoff in the October 2009 lawsuit of receiving at least $66.9 million improperly through the investment company.






"Mark Madoff lived a high-end lifestyle with homes in Manhattan, Nantucket, and Greenwich, Conn. Investment firm funds paid for all aspects of his lavish lifestyle from the purchases of his high-end homes to the mattress and box spring he slept on, the television he watched in his home gym, and the outdoor shower in his home," the lawsuit said.



According to Mr. Picard, Mark received "astronomical compensation"— $29.3 million from 2001 to 2008, including bonuses of $4.8 million in 2006 and more than $9 million in 2007.



He said Mark deposited a total of $745,482 into seven customer accounts he held and his family held, but redeemed $18.1 million.



"It was—or at the very least, should have been—obvious to Mark that the massive gains reflected in his customer account statements did not reflect actual securities transactions or market conditions," the suit said.



In one account, opened in 1998, no money was ever invested, but account records reflected shares of Dell that were purportedly purchased in early 1997, 18 months before it was opened, Mr. Picard alleged. In 1998, nearly $2 million was allegedly redeemed from the account.



Mr. Picard alleged that Andrew Madoff withdrew $17 million from his accounts over the years, also with an investment of less than $1 million. Mr. Picard described Bernard Madoff's firm as a "family piggy bank" that relatives used to support lavish spending habits.



A lawyer for the sons said they strongly disagreed with Mr. Picard's "baseless" complaint and were seeking to have it dismissed. At a hearing in October, their lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, said the sons had been "incredibly victimized by their father's sociopathic fraud."



"The time has come for the sins of the father not to be visited on the children," he said.



Mark and Andrew Madoff agreed with Mr. Picard not to transfer or sell certain assets.








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Friday 10 December 2010

Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn

BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn: "trustee charged with recovering funds for the victims of Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar fraud scheme has filed lawsuits seeking nearly $20bn (£12.6bn) in damages.
Irving Picard has charged nearly 60 people, including a key shareholder in Austria's Medici Bank.
Mr Picard accused Sonja Kohn of 'masterminding an illegal scheme' to help Madoff defraud investors.
Earlier this week, Mr Picard sued HSBC bank for $9bn."

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BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn

BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn: "trustee charged with recovering funds for the victims of Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar fraud scheme has filed lawsuits seeking nearly $20bn (£12.6bn) in damages.
Irving Picard has charged nearly 60 people, including a key shareholder in Austria's Medici Bank.
Mr Picard accused Sonja Kohn of 'masterminding an illegal scheme' to help Madoff defraud investors.
Earlier this week, Mr Picard sued HSBC bank for $9bn."

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