Ford gets SCREWED BIG TIME!

March 31, 2006 -- In yesterday's sentencing hearing for former NSA analyst Ken Ford, Federal Judge Peter Messitte mentioned the defense's contention that the classified NSA documents Ford was accused of removing from NSA had been planted in Ford's home. Messitte also stated, "no one knows how he [Ford] ended up with these documents." Messitte also referred to Florida resident Tonya Tucker [one of many aliases], the government's confidential informant who initiated the sting against Ford, as a "curious figure." Yet, even with such doubts about the case against Ford, Messitte sentenced Ford to six years in prison.

In fact, the prosecution engaged in gross and illegal misconduct for the duration of the trial and pre-trial. The prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney David Salem, relied on false affidavits, perjured testimony, and a tainted jury -- complete with a government jury plant who did not identify himself as a former employee of NSA contractor Northrop Grumman -- and coached witnesses to get his conviction against Ford, the only U.S. intelligence employee who has been jailed as a result of his expressed doubts about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Ford prepared a May 2003 NSA signals intelligence report, based on intercepts of Iraqi communications and interviews with NSA counter-proliferation specialists, that disproved the Bush administration's theory about Iraqi WMDs. That report eventually ended up in Vice President Dick Cheney's office. The same type of retaliatory "work up" used on Ambassador Joe Wilson and his covert CIA wife was launched against Ford. However, as a young GS-9 and African American, Ford was much more vulnerable to being set up in a criminal sting than the more savvy and experienced members of the US Intelligence Community.

When Ford's defense attorney, Spencer Hecht, argued that former CIA Director John Deutch and Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger received very lenient sentences for the same crimes for which Ford was convicted, Salem defended their actions, stating, "they took the [classified] documents for the continuation of their work." Salem said that Deutch, who took home a classified CIA laptop computer and then connected it up to American On Line and reportedly surfed pornographic web sites and collected data transfer programs known as "cookies," remained as CIA director. He also said that Berger, who took classified documents from the National Archives, needed them for his testimony in Congress about the Millennium bombing plot. Salem also stated that Deutch and Berger continued to have security clearances when they took home classified documents. Deutch received a reprimand and Berger received a $10,000 fine and three years of probation. Contrary to what Salem said about Berger's clearance, Berger had a National Archives clearance, which is not the same as the multi-compartmented clearance he possessed as National Security Adviser. However, Salem argued that in Ford's case, his alleged removal of classified documents was the same as an individual transmitting them to a foreign power. He said, "anyone could have walked into Ford's kitchen and seen the documents."

Salem also perpetuated several other frauds upon the court during the sentencing hearing. He stated "there are no security procedures at NSA that would prevent an employee from removing documents." Salem said there was "no guard . . . no working camera" at the Technical Exploitation Center (TEC) building where Ford allegedly removed documents in broad daylight. Adding two arguments not brought up in the trial, Salem alleged that Ford took documents from NSA "on more than one occasion" and in response to the defense argument that the documents were planted, he stated, "the government may have additional evidence not reported to the court before." Salem also contended that Ford removed "thousands of pages of Top Secret documents" from NSA. However, under questioning from Messitte, Salem downwardly re-estimated the number of Top Secret pages from "thousands" to well below a thousand, since many of the pages alleged to have been removed were unclassified, confidential, and secret.

Ford's attorney requested that Ford remain free from prison pending the appeal of the verdict. However, Messitte ordered a prison report date of May 15, 2006.

The Ford case ample evidence that the federal judiciary and Justice Department are as infested with neo-cons as the intelligence community, Pentagon, State Department, and White House. Ken Ford received a six year sentence one day after GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, someone who spied for South Africa in the 1980s, ripped off Native American tribes, engaged in bribery of members of Congress, illegally funneled charity proceeds to right-wing settlers on the West Bank of Palestine, and is under investigation for a gangland murder in Florida, received a five year and 10 month prison term.

Salem's perpetuation of fraud against the court came one day after his one-time counterpart in Detroit, former Assistant US Attorney Richard Convertino was indicted by a Federal grand jury for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. Convertino and State Department security officer Harry R. Smith III were indicted for their misconduct in four North African immigrants who were charged with being members of a "sleeper operational combat cell." The convictions of the North Africans was dismissed in 2004 as a result of Justice Department prosecutorial misconduct. Convertino contends he was acting on orders from Washington and is being unfairly targeted in a Bush administration reprisal.

Salem's court antics also followed news from the US Attorney's office in Philadelphia that it was investigating Transportation Security Administration attorney Carla J. Martin for illegally coaching witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui case in Alexandria, Virginia. US Judge Louise Brinkema called Martin's witness coaching, "the most egregious violation of the court's rules on witnesses in all the years I've been on the bench."

All the misconduct elements present in the Convertino and Martin cases were practiced by Salem in his vendetta against Ford. If the US Attorney's office in Detroit can bring charges against Convertino and the US Attorney's office in Philadelphia can investigate Martin (the US Attorney's office in Alexandria was forced to recuse itself), then some US Attorney's office outside of Maryland would be acting well within legal bounds to investigate Salem for prosecutorial misconduct in a politically-charged and motivated case.

Additional note: WMR has been informed by a well-placed Italian source that the threat of a letter rogatory from Italy for this editor to testify before a US judge concerning the Italian investigation of the US assassination of Italian SISMI deputy chief Nicola Calipari in Iraq was an Italian right-wing effort to intimidate the editor and the investigation of Calipari's death. The presiding judge, we are told, has no plans to issue a letter rogatory. The Italian right-wing, which is facing probable defeat in upcoming elections, is worried about the Calipari investigation and the involvement of Italian right-wing political leaders with the Bush administration. Other right-wing media outlets in Italy have even suggested "Wayne Madsen" does not exist and is a figment of the imagination of RAI TV investigative journalists. It's kind of funny what right-winger say when they are desperate.
[link to www.waynemadsenreport.com]