Dr. Deb attacks this site and its author

One of the more unpleasant commenters at Birther Report™ set a new personal best in bigotry yesterday. Dr. Deb [surname withheld] who goes by the internally-redundant screen name drdebdrdeb, commented:

When I read, "We read Birther Report so you don't have to" it told me ALL I EVER needed to know about you.
You are EVIL to the CORE.
The Sheeple don't need to check the facts because YOU do it for them.
Just like Communism. You SHALL NOT think for yourself.
I hope they are paying you a lot to spy on Americans.
You will need this money soon.

Apparently Dr. Deb needed to know very little about me to conclude that I am “EVIL to the CORE.” In fact, it appears that she needs to know nothing about me to come up with her extreme opinion, since she appears not to even understand the site’s tag line.
Gerbil Report™ is a spoof of Birther Report (I thought it would be obvious). The tag line is inspired by the NewsHounds.us web site, whose tag line is “We watch Fox so you don’t have to.”

Only a brain-dead literalist (or maybe a poorly written computer program) would conclude that this site’s tag line was meant to dissuade people from reading Birther Report. I just have to shake my head over how clueless Dr. Deb is and how she grasps a straw to justify defaming someone. Maybe the College of Education has lower standards.

Birther witness list

Melendres v. Arpaio (2007) is a federal lawsuit filed to stop the practice of racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The Court found that there was racial profiling and issued orders to end the practice. Interested readers can follow the history of that case at “What’s Your Evidence”.

The Court’s orders were not fully carried out, racial profiling continued, and federal judge G. Murray Snow ordered hearings on whether Sheriff Arpaio was in contempt of court. Sheriff Arpaio in an attempt to forestall a hearing admitted being in contempt and offered to pay money to settle the issue, but that didn’t work out.

The hearing was held and Judge Snow asked a few probing questions and then it hit the fan. Sheriff Arpaio admitted paying a Seattle software designer named Dennis Montgomery, widely reported to have sold bogus software to the government for detecting terrorist messages, to help him get dirt on the judge. That’s not how Arpaio couched what happened, but it is surely how it looks in some emails that the Court obtained from the Sheriff’s Office--and therein lies the birther angle. The participants in that email chain included Mike Zullo, head of Arpaio’s birther posse, and noted birther attorney Larry Klayman. Other information in the emails indicate that Montgomery was the source of the universe-shattering investigation that the Cold Case Posse has been talking about for a couple of years.

One cannot escape the question of whether Sheriff Arpaio lied in testimony last April when he said that Judge Snow was not individually targeted in what the Sheriff’s Office came to call “The Seattle Operation.” Charts and tables received by Arpaio from Montgomery appear to be very much about targeting the judge. Since Mike Zullo and Larry Klayman were knowledgeable about who was targeting whom, having participated in email exchanges on the subject, it seems extremely likely that these two will appear in federal court to answer questions. Judge Snow yesterday suggested that Klayman could be a witness.

I doubt much will come out about the birther side of the Seattle Operation because it’s not relevant. Still, strange twists do happen sometimes.

County raises taxes to pay Arpaio's legal bills

You can can spin it any way you want, but Maricopa County is planning to increase property taxes to the tune of $20,000,000 next year, reports station KJZZ in Phoenix. At the same time they have set apart $23,000,000 to pay for expenses in the law suit against Joe Arpaio for racial profiling. Obviously if they didn't have to pay for Sheriff Joe's misconduct, they would have the $20 million, and wouldn't have to raise taxes.

Joe Arpaio: Misprision of felony

"Misprision of felony" is one of those shiny objects the birthers discovered a few years back. The concept is knowing about a felony and not reporting it. Douglas Vogt's court action in Washington State was framed as a report of his belief that a felony was committed in regard to President Obama's birth certificate, and his desire to obtain a certification from the court that he wasn't guilty of hiding it.

Birthers aimed misprision at their opponents and members of Congress, saying that they knew Obama had forged his birth certificate and were covering it up.

Under federal law, "misprision of felony" is codified in 18 U.S. Code § 4, which says:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

They want the Obots dragged away and hung for this crime (or perhaps for the more severe "misprision of treason"). The reason this is nonsense is that the opponents of birthers do not believe that there is any felony, nor that they have any information indicating the commission of a crime. The courts have ruled that in order to be guilty of misprision of felony, a person must actively cover up the felony. Anti-birthers widely discuss birther claims, and nothing is covered up by anybody. Arguing that someone is wrong is not "covering up."

However, let's consider another possible charge of misprision of felony, this time on the birther side, and in particular against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The felony is possession of classified documents, codified as 18 U.S. Code § 1924 - Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. According to news reports, Dennis Montgomery came to Sheriff Arpaio and stated that he had made copies of data developed by him under contract with the CIA. The very existence of this material was classified. Montgomery then offered to mine the data for Arpaio for money.

Sheriff Arpaio paid Montgomery for information, and did not inform the US Attorney or the CIA of Montgomery's representations. Further, Sheriff Arpaio assigned Montgomery a confidential informant number, and instituted procedures whereby even people in his own department were unaware of possible felonious activity by Montgomery. Arpaio knew of crimes Montgomery claimed to have committed, and actively participated in keeping it secret. That sounds like misprision of felony to me and I am not the only one thinking this. Phoenix New Times Reporter Stephen Lemons, somewhat of an expert on the misdeeds of Joe Arpaio, raised the issue (after this article was initially published) based on a discussion with former U. S. Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton:

Charlton offers a couple of possible federal statutes that could apply, including 18 USC 371, conspiracy “to commit any offense against” the U.S. government. 

“Even if the information is not classified, it is still conspiracy,” Charlton says.
“Ask any narco who is currently in prison for conspiracy to transport, sell, or buy cocaine when in fact there was no cocaine, only a DEA agent pretending to deal in cocaine.” 

Then there is 18 USC 4, which has the rather exotic title “misprision of a felony.”
Charlton says this would entail Arpaio’s not alerting, say, the FBI upon learning that someone wanted to sell him classified information.

Mike Zullo: Following the money

Reprinted from Obama Conspiracy Theories

The transcript of Day 3 in the Melendres v. Arpaio contempt hearing is now available, courtesy of the Friends of the Fogbow. It contains a somewhat confusing exchange between Judge G. Murray Snow and Sheriff Arpaio relating to the Cold Case Posse’s involvement with confidential informant Dennis Montgomery in Seattle, and in particular with money.

Q. And is zoo -- did you say Zulu? Zullo. Is he a posse member?
A. Yes.
Q. And did you pay funds from Maricopa County for Mr. Zullo to
go to the Washington area?
A. Yes.
Q. And then I assume you paid Anglin and Mackiewicz their travel costs?
A. We don't pay for Zullo, but --
Q. But you paid Mackiewicz and Anglin.
A. Yes.
…
Q. And so Mr. Montgomery proposed to -- who did he propose to at the MCSO that the DOJ was inappropriately -- I assume it was of interest to you if they were wiretapping my phone, among others?
A. Yes. And mine, too.
Q. And yours, too. And so were you conducting this investigation?
A. No.
Q. Who was in your department?
A. This is Zullo and I think Mackiewicz.
Q. What rank does Mackiewicz have?
A. He's a detective.
Q. Who did he report to about this investigation?
A. I think he and Zullo worked together.
Q. And who did they report to?
A. And Jerry Sheridan.
Q. They reported to Deputy Chief Sheridan?
A. At one time, but let me just say that the information we're -- we've been getting is the informer's not very viable.
Q. Well, I understand that, I think the article itself says, that you became aware after a considerable amount of time that the reporter was giving you junk. Is that fair to say?
A. Yes.
Q. Or the informer was giving you junk?
A. Yes
Q. How much money did you spend on the informant?
A. I don't recall.
Q. How much money did you spend on the investigation?
A. I don't have the figures.
…
Q. Did you keep any of the materials that Mr. Montgomery has
provided you?
A. I don't have them.
Q. Who does?
A. I believe Zullo does.
Q. And is he subject to your control --
A. Yes.
Q. -- as a member of your posse?
A. Yes.
…
THE COURT: I just wanted to reiterate some of the
things I said during my questioning of you to make sure
everybody was clear. I was told over lunch that posse funds
like Mr. Zullo -- Mr. Zullo's the head of one of your posses.
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Is it the Cold Case posse?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: I was told that you also have various sources of funding within the MCSO, like the Cold Case posse has its own funds. Is that possible?
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: Okay. Do you know what the possible funding sources were for the investigations that were related to the Seattle operation? When I say "operation," I mean the one involving Mr. Montgomery and the investigations with Brian Mackiewicz and Mr. Anglin.
THE WITNESS: I'm not sure if it was our RICO, which is drugs seized -- I mean moneys seized from drug peddlers, or our general funds.
THE COURT: Were there other possible funds that might be involved that fund various like, for example, the Cold Case posse?
THE WITNESS: They're independent 501(c) --
THE COURT: 501(c)(3).
THE WITNESS: -- and they raise their own money.
THE COURT: All right. And you don't have any control over those funds?
THE WITNESS: No.

OK, you got that?

Where the hell is Mike Zullo?

This is a real question, and I hope that someone who knows will tell me in a comment to this article. I don’t want an address or anything, just whether Zullo is still in the Phoenix area or not. I received a report that all of his and his family’s property was sold last year, and I am not aware of any public sightings of him this year. I ask the question because Mike Zullo may be needed. Here’s why.
Mike Zullo was intimately involved in the Dennis Montgomery confidential informant investigation by Sheriff Arpaio’s office. There is a pivotal question hanging in the Melendres contempt proceedings against Joe Arpaio and Chief Deputy Sheridan: Was the purpose of the investigation to get something on Judge Snow or not? Mike Zullo may have the answer, and the question will surely be asked. Stephen Lemons reported:

But at the recent status hearing, Snow said documents confiscated by the monitor suggested that “previous testimony offered in this matter may have been untruthful.”

Mike Zullo can put things in context, but he cannot be subpoenaed if he can’t be found, and he cannot be compelled to testify if he is outside the court’s jurisdiction.

Update:

Zullo has been found in the Phoenix area, he was subpoenaed, and he did testify at the Melendres trial.

Did Joe Arpaio buy stolen CIA secrets?

Dennis Montgomery claims to have worked for the CIA, intercepting Internet communications of American citizens. He says he was bothered by what he was doing. Did he go to the New York Times or the Washington Post? No, he just made copies.

What did he do with this information he claims to have gathered for the CIA? He sold it to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office for what is reported to be between $500,000 and a $1,000,000.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan testified in a contempt hearing before Judge G. Murray Snow in federal court in Phoenix that Montgomery was indeed on their confidential informant payroll. Sheridan’s testimony is now available, in part, in an emergency petition for writ of mandamus filed by Montgomery’s attorney Larry Klayman with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking the removal of Judge Snow. Here is part of what Sheridan testified:

Okay. Here's where the plot thickens a little bit with Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery worked for the CIA. … 2007 to 2010, [note that Montgomery’s security clearance was revoked in January of 2006] sometime -- I may have the dates wrong, because this has been a few years, and I've had other things on my mind since this thing kind of got cold. He would -- when he worked for the CIA, he pulled data from American citizens for the CIA. I mean, we heard a lot about this a few years ago; it was very much in the media. And he said he was one of the individuals that was tasked with doing that, and he knew that was incorrect, it was wrong, and so he made backup copies that he took and he kept. And he was mining that data to find these e-mail breaches, to find the bank information that he originally came to us with.

We learned that 2 terabytes of information was provided to Arpaio by Montgomery, two terabytes of information allegedly private information, bank records, probably passwords, love letters, proprietary business data, all illegally obtained, illegally taken from the CIA, and sold to Joe Arpaio. If this is true, I find it outrageous. Why isn’t this guy in jail?

But is it true?

Here’s what Chief Deputy Sheridan said:

And we continued to work with him [Montgomery], we continued to keep him on our informant payroll, so to speak, as he was producing information. But it became very slow, it became very stale, and we finally realized that he was stringing us along.

Perhaps Sheriff Arpaio is only guilty of being gullible.