To Better Serve And Protect: My Washington Times Piece On One Way We Can Arm Volunteer Teachers

The Washington Times ran my piece on one way we can arm volunteer teachers.

I recently watched a video of a mother and daughter who took on a shotgun-wielding armed robber. The two women protected themselves and their Oklahoma liquor store by pulling out handguns from under the counter and shooting the armed crook. Good for them.

If only the two Florida school faculty members who gave their lives shielding students had been armed with handguns to shoot back at the obviously deranged young man who would murder 17 students and faculty on that day.

The knee-jerk reaction by many politicians and commentators was to suggest various forms of gun control, but the sad truth and reality is that a determined killer will use any means to commit mass murder, including driving a car or a truck into a crowd, as we’ve seen in Europe and elsewhere.

I don’t recall anyone calling for car control after those incidents.

President Trump has called for arming teachers to prevent future shootings, the idea being that killers, even deranged ones, never seem to attack places where they know the people are armed and will shoot back. As one commentator noted, no one has ever tried to shoot up an NRA event.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott came out against the president’s plan, stating that schools needed metal detectors, bullet proof glass and better perimeter fencing, as well as trained law enforcement officers.

But there is an idea that both the president and the governor might agree on.

Volunteer teachers can become paid reserve police officers. Also called auxiliary officers, they can be trained and certified in firearms and tactics and serve as part time police officers in their communities. In an emergency at their school, a teacher who is also a reserve police officer can place a lanyard around his/her neck with their police badge, take out their secured police firearm, and engage the threat in those crucial minutes before the local police arrive.

I imagine that teachers who are veterans would rise up to this challenge, as will other teachers and school administrators who want to better protect themselves and the students.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/28/to-better-serve-and-protect-students/   

Hemingway At Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched An American Legend

The Washington Times ran my review of Steve Paul’s Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched an American Legend.

There have been books written about the late, great American writer Ernest Hemingway and his time as a cub reporter on the staff of the Kansas City Star, and there have been books written about Mr. Hemingway’s time in the Red Cross ambulance service in World War I, but Steve Paul has written an interesting book that combines the writer’s two dramatic experiences, both of which occurred during Mr. Hemingway’s 18th year.

“Hemingway is quite likely the American author of the twentieth century who has been the most argued about, dissected, and puzzled over to this day. His life grew to mythic proportions. His work, or much of it, remains canonical, inspiring, mysterious, and powerfully, surprisingly relevant to humans with a heart in a world shaped by war and anxiety. Popular culture retains him as a complicated force of nature. Books by and about him continue to make waves and news,” Mr. Paul writes in his introduction to “Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched an American Legend.”

Mr. Paul admits that the book’s emphasis on a single year of a great writer’s eventful and productive life is a “presumptuous slice of biography.”

 “But what a year it was,” Mr. Paul writes. “This was the year that Hemingway’s life of self-invention began.”

In that year Mr. Hemingway’s path toward becoming a world-famous writer began in the busy newsroom of a great American newspaper and would lead him to a near-death experience in a wartime trench in Italy.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/27/book-review-hemingway-at-eighteen-by-steve-paul/ 

Cybercom Commander Discusses Evolving Cyber Threats

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ignacio D. Perez at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2018 — Although competitors such as China and Russia remain the greatest threat to U.S. security, rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea have increased in capabilities and have begun using aggressive methods to conduct malicious cyberspace activities, the military’s top cyber officer told Congress today.

Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers (seen in the below photo), director of the National Security Agency, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and chief of the Central Security Service, testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

“Our adversaries have grown more emboldened, conducting increasingly aggressive activities to extend their influence without fear of significant consequence,” Rogers said. “We must change our approaches and responses here if we are to change this dynamic.”

But as the cyber domain has evolved, Rogers told the senators, Cybercom’s three major mission areas endure: protecting the Department of Defense Information Network; enabling other joint force commanders by delivering effects in and through cyberspace; and defending the nation against cyber threats through support to the Department of Homeland Security and others when directed to do so by the president or secretary of defense.

Joint Force Headquarters DODIN, the subordinate headquarters responsible for securing, operating and defending the Defense Department's complex information technology infrastructure, has achieved full operational capability, he said.

Joint Task Force Ares, created to lead the fight in cyber against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has successfully integrated cyberspace operations into broader military campaigns, has achieved some “excellent results,” and will continue to pursue ISIS in support of the nation's objectives, the admiral told the Senate panel.

Cybercom also has significantly enhanced training in cyber operation platforms to prepare the battlespace against key adversaries, he said.

Milestones expected to be achieved this year include Cyber Command’s elevation to a combatant command responsible for providing mission-ready cyberspace operations forces to other combatant commanders, Rogers said.

In addition, the admiral said, Cybercom will be moving into a state-of-the-art integrated cyber center and joint operations facility at Fort Meade, Maryland, enhancing the coordination and planning of operations against cyber threats.

“Without cyberspace superiority in today's battlefield, risk to mission increases across all domains and endangers our security,” Rogers said.

Cybercom’s focus on innovation and rapid tech development has extended all the way to small businesses and working with the private sector while maintaining cybersecurity, Rogers told the committee.

“We intend in the coming year to create an unclassified collaboration venue where businesses and academia can help us tackle tough problems without needing to jump over clearance hurdles, for example, which for many are very difficult barriers,” Rogers explained.

After serving more than four years as a commander of Cybercom and after nearly 37 years of service as a naval officer, Rogers is set to retire this spring.

“I will do all I can during the intervening period to ensure the mission continues, that our men and women remain ever motivated, and that we have a smooth transition,” he said.  

The Legacy Of William F. Buckley

As Ed Feulner notes in his piece in the Washington Times, it has been ten years since author, columnist, editor and TV host William F. Buckley died.

I began reading Mr. Buckley and watching his TV show Firing Line when I was 12-years-old. 

Like so many, many others, Mr. Buckley was a huge influence in my life. 

I’m thankful that I was able to review favorably two of his books for the Philadelphia Inquirer – one was a political book on President Reagan and the other was his last spy thriller. 

He died before my review of his The Reagan I Knew appeared in the Inquirer, but as he was alive and still an avid reader when my review of Last Call for Blackford Oakes appeared in the Inquirer, I hope he read my review.

William F. Buckley may have passed, but his influence lives on. 

Ed Feulner looks back at the life and work of  Mr. Buckley in the Washington Times.

It’s been exactly a decade since William F. Buckley Jr. died. Yet, surveying the ideological landscape, it feels more like a century.

Watch an episode of his program “Firing Line,” and you’ll see what I mean. There, Mr. Buckley — in his uniquely aristocratic way — would debate guests on the issues of the day. Not try to shout each other down, or trot out a quick sound bite before three or four different people cross-talked over you, but actually debate.

That may sound like a recipe for boredom, and perhaps by the cage-match mentality prevailing today, it was. But we’re talking about a program that racked up more than 1,500 episodes over nearly 35 years. People were watching, listening and engaging in debates of their own across the country.

Mr. Buckley, of course, was no mere host, but an intellect of the first order who preached undiluted conservatism. Author, publisher, commentator, he bucked the liberal order by revealing the emptiness of its utopian promises.

… “Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view,” he wrote in “Up From Liberalism.” Another classic zinger: “Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other people’s money, except when it comes to questions of national survival, when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/26/william-f-buckleys-legacy/ 

And you can read my Philadelphia Inquirer reviews of Mr. Buckley’s books below:

And you can watch an episode of Firing Line in which Groucho Marx appears with William F. Buckley via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXlIZBZpkoA  

What Joey Merlino's Hung Jury Verdict Means For Philly's Mob Scene

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'It Was As Bad As You Can Imagine, Times Ten': Emotional Cops Reveal How They Ran Towards Rampaging School Shooter While Four 'Coward' Sheriff Deputies Stayed Outside And Refused To Go In

The Daily Mail offers a piece on the Florida school shooting and the accounts of two heroic police officers who rose to the occasion.    

Two police officers have emotionally recalled the terrifying moment they entered the Florida school where a gunman was on the loose while a number of sheriff deputies cowered outside. 

Coral Springs Police Department officers Chris Crawford and Sgt. Jeff Heinrich  recounted their heroics during a local news conference on Friday, describing the 'surreal' events of that fateful Valentine's Day.

The incident 'was bad as you can imagine — times 10,' Crawford said in the aftermath of the campus shooting. 'I have a 2-year-old. I don't want to send him to school.'

Coral Springs Police Department officers Chris Crawford and Sgt. Jeff Heinrich recently recounted their heroics during a news conference

A Marine veteran, Crawford recounted the 'awful' task of having to treat children suffering from gunshot wounds, adding that he wished he 'could have saved all of them.' 

Crawford said that he stuffed 'combat gauze,' a medical dressing with a clotting agent, into the wounds of a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the back, and treated a young girl for a shrapnel injury. 

You can read the rest of the piece and view a good number of photos via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5431965/The-hero-cops-ran-Florida-shooter.html 

Worldwide Threat Assessment Of The US Intelligence Community

Daniel R. Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, released the unclassified Worldwide Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community.

You can read the assessment via the below link:

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Testimonies/2018-ATA---Unclassified-SSCI.pdf

Justice Department Coordinates Nationwide Elder Fraud Sweep Of More Than 250 Defendants

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and law enforcement partners announced today the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history.   The cases involve more than two hundred and fifty defendants from around the globe who victimized more than a million Americans, most of whom were elderly.  The cases include criminal, civil, and forfeiture actions across more than 50 federal districts.  Of the defendants, 200 were charged criminally.  In each case, offenders engaged in financial schemes that targeted or largely affected seniors.  In total, the charged elder fraud schemes caused losses of more than half a billion dollars.  The Department coordinated its announcement with the FTC and state Attorneys General, who independently filed numerous cases targeting elder frauds within the sweep period.

Attorney General Sessions was joined in the announcement by FBI Acting Deputy Director David Bowdich; Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell; FTC Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen; and Kansas Attorney General and President of the National Association of Attorneys General Derek Schmidt.

“The Justice Department and its partners are taking unprecedented, coordinated action to protect elderly Americans from financial threats, both foreign and domestic,” said Attorney General Sessions.  “Today’s actions send a clear message:  we will hold perpetrators of elder fraud schemes accountable wherever they are.  When criminals steal the hard-earned life savings of older Americans, we will respond with all the tools at the Department’s disposal – criminal prosecutions to punish offenders, civil injunctions to shut the schemes down, and asset forfeiture to take back ill-gotten gains.  Today is only the beginning.  I have directed Department prosecutors to coordinate with both domestic law enforcement partners and foreign counterparts to stop these criminals from exploiting our seniors.”

The actions charged a variety of fraud schemes, ranging from mass mailing, telemarketing and investment frauds to individual incidences of identity theft and theft by guardians.  A number of cases involved transnational criminal organizations that defrauded hundreds of thousands of elderly victims, while others involved a single relative or fiduciary who took advantage of an individual victim.  The schemes charged in these cases caused losses to more than a million victims.

"Winners. That’s what so many of the people who received these solicitations in the mail thought they were. But they’re not. They are victims (link is external) of scams that Postal Inspectors have seen and investigated for decades. In fact, some of the same operators we encountered 20 years ago are back. But so are we. Yesterday, Postal Inspectors around the country executed search warrants on 12 locations that some of these same operators used to run their scams. We’re letting the American public know – and especially our vulnerable older Americans – that Postal Inspectors are working hard to protect them and ensure their confidence in the U.S. Mail,” said Chief Postal Inspector Cottrell.

“Over the last year, the FBI has initiated more than 200 financial crimes cases involving elderly victims who were devastated financially, emotionally, mentally and physically. Picking up the pieces of these fraud schemes can be equally as traumatizing for the caregivers of these elderly victims,” said Acting Deputy Director Bowdich.  “The FBI reminds seniors and their caregivers to be vigilant. If any person believes they are the victim of, or have knowledge of fraud involving an elderly person, regardless of the loss amount, they should report it to the FBI.”

  

Actions against mass-mailing fraud industry

As part of the initiative, the Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and others, brought numerous cases this past week in a coordinated strike against more than 43 mass-mailing fraud operators, including criminal charges against six individuals.  In addition, law enforcement agents executed 14 premises search warrants from Las Vegas to south Florida, served numerous asset seizure warrants, and coordinated with the Vancouver Police in Canada, who executed over 20 warrants, including search warrants on business premises.

“The defendants targeted elderly and vulnerable consumers both in the United States and abroad, using U.S. addresses and the U.S. mails to try to legitimize their fraudulent schemes,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue.  “They sold false promises of life-changing prizes that never came true.  We will pursue the perpetrators of these mail schemes wherever they are located, and hold them accountable.”

These recently filed cases particularly targeted transnational criminal actors who collectively defrauded at least a million victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Indeed, just one of the schemes prosecuted criminally by the Consumer Protection Branch operated from 14 foreign countries to cost American victims more than $30 million.  Click here for map showing a transnational, single fraud scheme.

Mass-mailing fraud inflicts hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to elderly U.S. victims each year.  Department prosecutors and U.S. Postal Inspectors have taken a comprehensive approach to combatting this fraud, disrupting and prosecuting individuals who manage the schemes, artists who draft the fraudulent solicitations, list brokers who supply victim lists, and individuals who collect victim payments. Click here for fact-sheet with cases on mass-mailing fraud.

  

Actions against other elder fraud schemes

Prosecutors across the country from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, the Consumer Protection Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices have heeded the call to focus resources on elder fraud cases.  Over 50 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and Department Components filed elder fraud cases in the last year.  A list of Elder Fraud cases is provided on this interactive map.

Some examples of the elder financial exploitation prosecuted by the Department include:

“Lottery phone scams,” in which callers convince seniors that a large fee or taxes must be paid before one can receive lottery winnings;

“Grandparent scams,” which convince seniors that their grandchildren have been arrested and need bail money;

“Romance scams,” which lull victims to believe that their online paramour needs funds for a U.S. visit or some other purpose;

“IRS imposter schemes,” which defraud victims by posing as IRS agents and claiming that victims owe back taxes;

“Guardianship schemes,” which siphon seniors’ financial resources into the bank accounts of deceitful relatives or guardians.

Many of these cases illustrate how an elderly American can lose his or her life savings to a duplicitous relative, guardian, or stranger who gains the victim’s trust.  The devastating effects these cases have on victims and their families, both financially and psychologically, make prosecuting elder fraud a key Department priority.

Public education

The Department has partnered with Senior Corps, a national service program administered by the federal agency the Corporation for National and Community Service, to educate seniors and prevent further victimization. The Senior Corps program engages more than 245,000 older adults in intensive service each year, who in turn, serve more than 840,000 additional seniors, including 332,000 veterans.

Using its vast network operating in more than 30,000 locations, Senior Corps volunteers will communicate about elder fraud to potential victims across the country and will use their skills, knowledge and experience to educate their peers and caregivers about the most prolific types of schemes and how to avoid them. Click here for information on Senior Corps’ efforts to reduce elder fraud.

  

Coordination with state officials

Kansas Attorney General Schmidt highlighted the cases filed by state Attorneys General targeting elder frauds within in the sweep period, and he emphasized efforts at the state level to combat elder abuse and protect seniors from fraud and exploitation.  He encouraged all of the state Attorneys General to devote enforcement and public education resources to preventing financial exploitation of senior citizens.

Coordination with foreign law enforcement

Exceptional assistance from foreign law enforcement partners amplified the effectiveness of the Department’s initiative.  The sweep announced today benefited greatly from the work of the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG), a network of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Europol, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The IMMFWG is co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Justice and FTC, and law enforcement in the United Kingdom, and serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats that endanger the financial well-being of each member country’s residents.  Attorney General Sessions expressed gratitude for the outstanding efforts of the working group, including law enforcement action taken as part of the sweep by the Vancouver Police Department in Canada to halt mass mailing schemes that defrauded hundreds of thousands of elderly victims worldwide.

  

Elder fraud complaints

Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or at 877-FTC-HELP.  The Department of Justice provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office of Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov.

MS-13 Gang Members Gaining Numbers By Recruiting Illegal Immigrants: Report

Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times offers a piece on the violent gang MS-13.

The violent MS-13 gang, which was nearly eradicated by the Bush administration, has been able to rebuild its ranks on the backs of illegal immigrant recruits, according to a new think tank report Wednesday.

Nearly a quarter of MS-13 gang members arrested or charged with crimes since 2012 came to the U.S. as part of the Obama-era surge of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), including a staggering number who have faced murder charges, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which looked at 506 cases.

Jessica Vaughan, the report’s author, said the Bush administration used immigration laws to go after even low-level MS-13 affiliates, and worked closely with local police — even in sanctuary cities — to try to target gang members.

The Obama administration changed the focus away from rank-and-file illegal immigrants and toward trying to make big cases, hoping to make major conspiracy cases instead.

The result was a collapse in enforcement.

“ICE officers were no longer permitted to arrest and remove foreign gang members until they had been convicted of major crimes. Gang arrests by ICE plummeted from about 4,600 in 2012 to about 1,580 in 2014,” Ms. Vaughan wrote.

She said those changes came just as the gangs were getting an influx of new members thanks to the surge of UAC that began in 2012 and was in full bloom by 2014, drawing tens of thousands of young males from Central America into the U.S. That’s the key recruiting pool for MS-13.

“According to local gang investigators, these gangs have been aggressively recruiting recently arrived Central American children as young as 10 years old,” she wrote.

Ms. Vaughan said sanctuary cities are feeding the problem by creating a no-questions-asked environment, of which the gangs are aware.

President Trump has elevated the issue of MS-13 this year, including inviting to the State of the Union address a top-level Homeland Security investigator and the parents of two teenage girls who were victims of a gang attack.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/21/ms-13-gang-members-gaining-numbers-by-recruiting-i/ 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on MS-13 via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/12/my-piece-on-ms-13-and-operation.html 

First In War, First in Peace And First In The Hearts Of His Countrymen: Happy Birthday To America's 'Indispensable Man,' George Washington

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee said of our late first president.

He was also, as James Thomas Flexner called him, 'The Indispensable Man." 

As History.com notes, today is George Washington’s birthday.

On this day in 1732, George Washington is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the second son from the second marriage of a colonial plantation owner. An initially loyal British subject, Washington eventually led the Continental Army in the American Revolution and became known as the father of the United States.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-washington-is-born 

Note: In addition to James Thomas Flexner's book, if you would like to learn more about George Washington, our greatest president, as well as Benedict Arnold, our greatest traitor, I recommend highly Nathaniel Philbrick's Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold and the Fate of the American Revolution.

A Look Back At How Ian Fleming's Naval Intelligence WWII Background Helped Him To Create His Iconic Character James Bond

Hervie Haufler at the Warfare History Network offers a piece that looks back on how the adventures of a British Intelligence officer named Ian Fleming (seen in the above and photos) during World War II fueled his creation of the iconic fictional secret agent James Bond.

Some accounts of Ian Fleming’s life make it seem that only at the age of 44, as an antidote to the shock of finally agreeing to get married, did he suddenly commit himself to the unplanned task of creating his James Bond novels. In actuality, he had declared his interest in writing thriller-type books as early as the age of 20, when he confided to his friend Ivar Bryce that this was his lifetime goal. Even that early he had begun collecting incidents and experiences that he could later weave into his 13-book saga of James Bond.

Most particularly, Fleming relied on his richly varied participation in World War II as source material for Bond’s exploits. Rather than tie his hero to history, though, he made Bond current by involving him in the Allies’ Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/fleming-ian-fleming/

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming and his 30 Assault Unit commando group in WWII exploits via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html 

Mob Talk 13: Joseph Merlino, The Face Of The Philly Mob, Discussed By Mob Experts

Philadelphia Mob Boss Joey Merlino dodged another bullet in federal court when a jury failed to reach a verdict on gambling and healthcare fraud charges after a three week trial.  A mistrial was declared.  So where does that leave the 55 year old gangster?  Mob experts George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser have the latest on Merlino in the Mob Talk 13 video.

You can watch the video via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZMenbskUbA 

On This Day In History CIA Officer And Traitor Aldrich Ames Was Arrested For Being A Soviet Spy

As History.com notes, on this day in 1994 CIA officer Aldrich Ames was arrested for being a Russian spy.

CIA operative Aldrich Ames is arrested for selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames had access to the names and identities of all U.S. spies in Russia, and by becoming a double agent he was directly responsible for jeopardizing the lives of CIA agents working in the Eastern bloc. At least 10 men were killed after Ames revealed their identities, and more were sent to Russian gulags.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/double-agent-aldrich-ames-is-arrested?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2018-0221-02212018&om_rid=d7a6a4618fea152ee101c52ce6bad4d7f3138899598191c1d8e241260a87276f&om_mid=325291874&kx_EmailCampaignID=19107&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2018-0221-02212018&kx_EmailRecipientID=d7a6a4618fea152ee101c52ce6bad4d7f3138899598191c1d8e241260a87276f

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine interview with Sandra A. Grimes (seen in the above photo in front on the left), one of the CIA officers who investigated Ames and brought him down, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/the-ames-mole-hunt-my-q-with-sandra.html 

Attorney General Sessions Announces New Cybersecurity Task Force

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered the creation of the Justice Department’s Cyber-Digital Task Force, which will canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat, and will also identify how federal law enforcement can more effectively accomplish its mission in this vital and evolving area.

“The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate, and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments,” Attorney General Sessions said.  “At the Department of Justice, we take these threats seriously.  That is why today I am ordering the creation of a Cyber-Digital Task Force to advise me on the most effective ways that this Department can confront these threats and keep the American people safe.”

The Task Force will be chaired by a senior Department official appointed by the Deputy Attorney General and will consist of representatives from the Department’s Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the United States Attorney’s Office community, the Office of Legal Policy, the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the ATF, FBI, DEA, and the U.S. Marshals Service.  The Deputy Attorney General may invite representatives from other Department of Justice components and from other federal agencies to participate in the Task Force. He may also establish subcommittees to focus the Task Force’s efforts.

The Task Force will be responsible for issuing a report to the Attorney General by the end of June.

The Attorney General has asked the Task Force to prioritize its study of efforts to interfere with our elections; efforts to interfere with our critical infrastructure; the use of the Internet to spread violent ideologies and to recruit followers; the mass theft of corporate, governmental, and private information; the use of technology to avoid or frustrate law enforcement; and the mass exploitation of computers and other digital devices to attack American citizens and businesses.  The scope of the Task Force’s report is not limited to these categories.

Reputed Philly Mob Boss Joseph Merlino's Trial In New York Ends In Hung Jury

The New York Post covered the federal racketeering trial of reputed Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph Merlino in New York.

Reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino slipped through the feds’ fingers Tuesday when the jury at his racketeering trial announced it was hopelessly deadlocked despite four days of deliberations.

Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan declared a mistrial at 5:30 p.m., more than seven hours after giving jurors a sternly worded “Allen charge” to try to end the stalemate the panel first revealed in a note late Thursday afternoon.

Merlino, 55, faced four charges tied to alleged loan-sharking, bookmaking and health care fraud conspiracies.

The feds say the schemes were part of a sprawling, cross-crime-family racket from Springfield, Massachusetts, to South Florida, where Merlino moved following his release from prison in 2011 and was the matire d’ at a short-lived, namesake Italian restaurant, Merlino’s, in Boca Raton.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2018/02/20/reputed-mob-boss-trial-ends-in-hung-jury/ 

My Washington Times Piece On Liberal Democrats And Illegal Immigrants

The Washington Times published my piece on liberal Democrats and illegal immigrants.

Liberal Democrats don’t like the broad term illegal immigrants, so the joke goes, as they much prefer to think of them as undocumented future registered Democrats.

Two recently elected Democrats, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, are so enamored with illegals that they appear to favor these non-citizens over the legal citizens who obey the law, pay taxes and just happened to have elected them to their respective offices.

One of Mr. Murphy’s first acts in office was the creation of the Office of Immigrant Protection. Although the governor has been vague on the details of the new office, his spokesman told reporters that the Office of Immigrant Protection will serve as a single point of contact for any New Jersey resident facing detention or deportation, with a focus on expanding access to legal services to these residents.

During his gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Murphy vowed to ban state and local police departments from assisting the federal government in “mass deportations.” And according to his campaign website, he also vowed to make life easier for our “undocumented neighbors.” He promised to provide driver’s licenses and statewide ID to illegal immigrants, extend in-state financial aid to the “Dreamers,” those brought illegally to the U.S. as children, increase access to professional licenses for immigrants, raise the minimum wage, guarantee earned sick leave, and strengthen workplace protections.

Under the new governor, New Jersey will also join other states in a lawsuit that challenges President Trump’s authority to end a program that allows Dreamers to avoid deportation.

Across the Delaware River from New Jersey in Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, the recently elected Philadelphia district attorney, also has announced the creation of a new top position in his office that is solely dedicated to protecting the “rights” of illegal immigrants.

During his campaign for DA, which was funded in large part by a huge donation from leftist billionaire George Soros, Larry Krasner vowed to fight what he deemed to be President Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. He promised to maintain Philadelphia’s status as a “sanctuary city” and protect the Fourth Amendment rights of all residents, regardless of legal status. He stated that he would cooperate with federal authorities only to the degree required by law.

… “This guy wants to protect illegal immigrants who commit crimes and lock up cops who are just doing their jobs,” an angry Philly cop said to me during the election. “He cares more for illegal immigrants than legal citizens and crime victims. He’s more concerned with radical politics than putting the bad guys away.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/19/democrats-put-the-needs-of-illegal-immigrants-over/ 

A Look Back At FBI Agent And Russian Spy Robert Hanssen

The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. offers a look back at former FBI agent and Russian spy Robert Hanssen

Was the son of a Chicago police officer and a housewife. Howard Hanssen was part of a special division called the Red Unit, created to ferret out communist sympathizers during the Red Scare.

Attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, majoring in chemistry while also taking Russian as a foreign language. After being rejected for a position as a cryptographer with the NSA, enrolled in the Dental School of Northwestern University in 1966. At Northwestern, Hanssen became known for his penchant for wearing Black suits to class every day. In 1968, halfway through the Dental program, Hanssen grew tired of it and decided he would rather become a psychiatrist. After growing tired of this pursuit he returned to Northwestern and earned an MBA in accounting and information systems.

  

 Met Bonnie Wauck, a student nurse at a state mental facility in Chicago in 1965. The two married on August 10, 1968. Wauck was the daughter of a University professor and a practicing Catholic, and member of the Opus Dei organization. Four years later Robert enrolled in the Chicago Police Department and was soon assigned to a special training class for a new division of the department that focused on police corruption.

Was distrusted by many within the division, including his boss, John Clarke. Was considered a devoted family man in his community, spending time with his children, teaching them to excel at academics. He also became an enthusiastic member of Opus Dei, which was deemed a cult by many. The organization instructed its members to attend Catholic church services every day and confession once each week. Applied twice to the FBI and was accepted the second time in January 1976. Was assigned to the Bureau’s Gary, Indiana office but was transferred two years later to New York City. Living with his wife and four children in Scarsdale, New York, Hanssen was having a tough time making ends meet and decided to exploit his position with the FBI.

 Disenchanted by the lackadaisical attitude of fellow FBI agents, Hanssen approached Russian agents and offered to sell secret documents. He was rewarded famously for his efforts but was caught by his wife while counting $20,000 and writing a letter to the Soviets in his basement. Thinking he was writing a love letter to a girlfriend, she demanded to know what was going on. He admitted to her where he had gotten the money but claimed that he had only given the Soviets useless information. Instead, he had actually provided the Soviets with very valuable information , including the identity of Dmitri Polyakov, a top-level Soviet double-agent. Rather than turn him into the authorities, she convinced him to confess his actions to an Opus Dei priest. The priest instructed him to give up his activities and to donate the money he received to Mother Theresa’s charities.

Was considered a highly intelligent agent, but his tepid interpersonal skill as well as his continued preference for black suits caused many to tag him with the nickname “the Mortician.” Unfortunately, the perception that he was an aloof, introverted worker hindered his upward mobility within the Bureau. Was transferred to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC where he was initially assigned to develop a budget for the Bureau that was to be presented to Congress. Was moved to the Soviet Analytical Unit in 1983 and given a high security clearance. After a four year stint, was transferred back to New York.

Decided to re-establish his link to the Soviets. Knew that the FBI was not conducting surveillance on Victor Degtyar, a KGB Colonel living in Alexandria, Virginia. Hanssen therefore sent a letter to Degtyar, with instructions to pass another letter on to Victor Cherkashin, the head of Soviet espionage efforts in Washington. In this letter, Hanssen offered to turn over classified and highly sensitive information to the Soviets in return for $100,000. He also provided the name of three Russian agents who were working for the United States. Two of the agents were executed and one was imprisoned.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://spymuseum.com/robert-hanssen/ 

Note: To Learn more about the Robert Hanssen case I suggest you read David Wise's outstanding book Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America.   

The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia And The Ghosts Of The Past

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a review in the Washington Times of Shaun Walker’s The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past.

Fellow writers take note: Your work is being monitored every day by a Russian agency that formerly was part of the Russian SVR foreign intelligence service, successor to the KGB of the old Soviet Union.

Officers examine the world’s press, searching for instances of what they term to be “Russophobia,” loosely defined as anything critical of the regime of President Vladimir Putin.

The agency’s director, Igor Nikolaichuk, maintains what is tantamount to an enemy list, ranking other nations’ hostility to Russia. One listing he displayed to Shaun Walker, author of this insightful look into Mr. Putin’s Russia, ranked Austria as the most hostile, followed closely by the U.S.

Depicting the West — and its “controlled press” — as an enemy scheming to overthrow Russia is one of the methods enabling Mr. Putin to maintain a considerable popularity. He is essentially unopposed as he seeks a fourth term in March, which would keep him in office until 2024.

Mr. Walker, a reporter for the Guardian, a British newspaper, has worked in Russia for two decades. His portrayal of Mr. Putin’s rule is based on interviews throughout Russia, from the Pacific shores to Europe. The man has astounding courage — seeking out, for instance, Chechen thugs who would happily put a bullet into his head.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/18/book-review-the-long-hangover-by-shaun-walker/ 

Wheresoever She Was, There Was Eden: For Mark Twain, It Was Love At First Sight When He Saw A Photo of Olivia Langton

Richard Gunderman at the Smithsonian magazine offers a piece on Mark Twain and his wife Olivia.

The year 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of one of the great courtships in American history, the wooing of an unenthusiastic 22-year-old Olivia Langdon by a completely smitten 32-year-old Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

As I first learned while visiting Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri in preparation for teaching “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the contrasts between the two were indeed stark, and the prospects for their eventual union exceedingly poor. Olivia Langdon, known as Livy, was a thoroughly proper easterner, while Sam was a rugged man of the West. Livy came from a family that was rich and well-educated, while Sam had grown up poor and left school at age 12. She was thoroughly pious, while he was a man who knew how to smoke, drink and swear.

On Valentine’s Day, their story is a reminder of the true meaning of love. Despite many challenges, once united, they never gave up on each other and enjoyed a fulfilling 34 years of marriage.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-mark-twain-it-was-love-at-first-sight-180968141/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170218-Weekender&spMailingID=33107506&spUserID=NzQwNDU4NTg2NjMS1&spJobID=1222047727&spReportId=MTIyMjA0NzcyNwS2 

An Interview With British Thriller Writer Len Deighton, The Author Of 'The Ipcress File,' 'Funeral In Berlin' And 'SS-GB'

When I was a teenager back in the 1960s I was a huge fan of American crime thrillers and British spy thrillers. I was weaned on Ian Fleming and I later read Graham Greene and John le Carre.

I also read another British spy thriller writer named Len Deighton. Today is his birthday. He is 89.

Unlike the other British spy writers, Deighton’s unnamed spy hero in his first series of thrillers was an overweight, working-class smart aleck. When Michal Caine starred as the spy in the film versions of The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, the producers called him Harry Palmer.

Over the years I’ve read nearly all of Deighton’s novels, including his WWII military novels and his clever alternative history novel, SS-GB, which takes place in a post-WWI Briton that the Nazis have defeated and now occupy.

Last February, when the BBC offered a TV series based on SS-GB, the Telegraph republished Jake Kerridge's interview with Len Deighton from 2009.      

Deighton is famously publicity-shy, and I did wonder whether getting to interview him would be what the acronym-loving secret service bureaucrats of his early spy novels would call a high D of C (Difficulty of Completion) mission. But here he is, relaxed, jolly, indecently sprightly for a man who will celebrate his 80th birthday this week, and quietly pleased that HarperCollins will, from June, be reissuing several of his novels (with new cover designs by his old friend, the Oscar-winning documentary-maker Arnold Schwartzman), culminating in a golden jubilee edition of The Ipcress File in 2012.

 “I was on holiday, I was restless, I started this story, then I put it to one side and got on with my life. And then I met a guy at a party and he said ‘I’m a literary agent.’ He was a literary agent like I was a writer, to tell you the truth.” Jonathan Clowes, his agent to this day, sold what became The Ipcress File to Hodder & Stoughton.

“It might have sunk without a ripple but Harry Saltzman had just made the first Bond film [Dr No, 1962] and it did very well, but that was really because the critics used me as a blunt instrument to beat Ian Fleming over the head.” Saltzman bought the film rights to Ipcress, and Deighton found himself a professional author.

 His first four novels are a wonderful mixture of the exciting and the amusingly humdrum, narrated by an unnamed working-class intelligence officer from Burnley who spends as much time trying to reclaim his expenses as he does searching for kidnapped scientists.

His Eton- and Oxbridge-educated superiors are usually incompetent – “what chance did I stand between the communists on the one side and the establishment on the other” – or treacherous. Much is made of the fact that he is overweight: in Billion Dollar Brain (1966) he is told he has been chosen to go on a mission to Helsinki because he is “the one best protected against cold”. Well, James Bond may be thinner, but so is his dialogue.

Deighton doesn’t see the character as an anti-hero, and stresses that he is a romantic, incorruptible figure in the mould of Philip Marlowe. “This is not the way it is now. Modern fiction is not so keen to guard the integrity of our heroes… When I started writing I had rules. One was that violence must not solve the problem, and I cannot have the hero overcome violence with a counterweight of violence.”

He hopes new readers will “get a laugh” out of his books. Does he think other spy writers are too solemn? “It’s difficult to be sure sometimes what is intended humour and what is unintended, isn’t it?”

… Deighton admits he felt bad that he did not predict how brilliant his friend Michael Caine would be as the hero (newly christened Harry Palmer) in the 1965 film of The Ipcress File; Harry H Corbett was his choice for the role. By this time Deighton was famous. He was seduced by the celebrity lifestyle for a period (becoming the travel editor of Playboy), but soon swore off interviews and parties: “Two things destroy writers: praise and alcohol.”

… “I’m seriously thinking if I can persuade my wife to live in Japan.” Any other ambitions? “I’ve always wanted to land a jet on a carrier. But I’m content. Nobody could have had a happier life than I’ve had.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/len-deighton-interview-nobody-could-have-had-happier-life-had/

You can also read Len Deighton’s piece on his meeting with fellow thriller writer Ian Fleming (Deighton is on the left in the above photo and Fleming is in the center) via the below link:

https://literary007.com/2013/12/13/len-deighton-lunches-with-ian-fleming/