Deal with the Devil
Page 67
17. U.S. v. Victor M. Orena, 5250.
18. Ibid., 5255–56.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 5256.
21. Ibid., 5248–49.
22. Ibid., 5257–59.
23. U.S. v. Theodore Persico, 3692–96; U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, transcript, 896–97; U.S. v. Victor M. Orena, 2208–9.
24. Ibid., 2212–14.
25. Ibid., 2209.
26. Ibid., 2211.
27. “Reichstag fire,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire: “The fire was used as evidence by the Nazis that Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. Van der Lubbe and four Communist leaders were subsequently arrested. Adolf Hitler, who was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany four weeks before, on 30 January, urged President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter the ‘ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany.’ With civil liberties suspended, the government instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates. With them gone and their seats empty, the Nazis went from being a plurality party to the majority; subsequent elections confirmed this position and thus allowed Hitler to consolidate his power.”
28. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.
29. Jerry Capeci, “No Tipping the Capo to Legendary Mobster,” New York Daily News, June 14, 1994.
30. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 129.
31. Author’s interview with James Whalen, May 19, 2011.
CHAPTER 35: BURNING A GOOD COP
1. Greg B. Smith, “Mob Pigeons Wouldn’t Fly,” New York Daily News, December 21, 1994.
2. Greg B. Smith, “G-Man, Fed Atty Eyed in Mob Leaks,” New York Daily News, October 24, 1994.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.
6. Greg B. Smith and Jerry Capeci, “Mob, Mole & Murder,” New York Daily News, October 30, 1994.
7. Jerry Capeci, “Colombo Capo Gets a Big Present,” New York Daily News, December 21, 1994.
8. Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins, “Detective Stung by Feds: Sold Information to Colombos: FBI,” New York Daily News, December 9, 1993.
9. Ibid.
10. Author’s interview with NYPD detective Joseph Simone (ret.), April 27, 2004.
11. Jerry Capeci, “Mob Canary Hears Birds Singing, Picked Wrong Foe for Prison Fight,” New York Daily News, January 20, 1997.
12. Simone interview, April 27, 2004.
13. U.S. v. Joseph Simone, testimony of Christopher Favo, October 18, 1994.
14. Transcript of taped conversation between Salvatore Miciotta and Alfonso “Chips” DeCostanza, 194C-NY-240371, July 14, 1993.
15. Simone interview, April 27, 2004.
16. Special Agent Patrick McConnell, FBI 302 memo re: Detective Joseph Simone, December 8, 1993.
17. Capeci and Robbins, “Detective Stung by Feds.”
18. Ibid.
19. Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins, “Mob Biggie Aids FBI Sting,” New York Daily News, December 11, 1993.
20. Jerry Capeci, “Short FBI Tape May Aid ‘Rogue Cop’ Defense,” New York Daily News, April 13, 1994.
21. Greg Smith, “DA Gilds Case for Pet Canary,” New York Daily News, October 21, 1994.
22. U.S. v. Joseph Simone, cross-examination of Special Agent Lynn Smith, transcript, 665–69.
23. Author’s interview with Angela Clemente, April 11, 2004.
24. Author’s interview with John Patton, April 29, 2004.
25. FBI 302 memos, interview with Christopher Favo, June 1–2, 1994; November 16, 1995; December 8, 1995.
26. Patton interview.
27. Joseph P. Fried, “Detective Is Found Not Guilty of Selling Secrets to the Mafia,” New York Times, October 21, 1994.
28. Pete Bowles, “Cop Not Guilty of Fed Rap,” Newsday, October 21, 1994.
29. Ann Marie Calzolari, “Detective Acquitted of Mob Charges,” Staten Island Advance, October 22, 1994.
30. Angela Mosconi, “Cop Puts His Life Back Together,” Staten Island Advance, November 6, 1994.
31. Jerry Capeci, “Cop Still Treading Hot Water,” New York Daily News, November 8, 1994.
32. Fogel Draft, “In the Matter of the Charges and Specifications—against—Detective Joseph Simone,” Tax Registry No. 87061, Medical Division, before Rae Downes Koshetz, Deputy Commissioner—Trials.
33. “Howard Safir,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Safir.
34. John Marzulli, “Caracappa Lawyer AWOL; Mistrial Bid Is Shot Down,” New York Daily News, April 1, 2006.
35. Sewell Chan, “2 Ex-Detectives Get Life Terms in Mob Killings,” New York Times, March 6, 2009.
36. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 192–95.
37. Author’s interview with NYPD detective Joseph Simone (ret.), February 22, 2012.
38. Clemente interview.
CHAPTER 36: GASPIPE’S CONFESSION
1. Special Agents John L. Barrett and Thomas Fuentes, FBI 302 memo re: Valerie Caproni, January 26, 1994, 2; R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 253–54.
2. Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mob Boss, original draft manuscript, 311–14.
3. Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mob Boss (New York: William Morrow, 2008), 264–67.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 85–86.
6. Helen Peterson, “Wiseguy Won’t Get Fed Aid on Sentence,” New York Daily News, July 1, 1998.
7. Carlo, Gaspipe (Morrow edition), 266.
8. Ibid., 267.
9. “FCI La Tuna,” Federal Bureau of Prisons, http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/lat/index.jsp.
10. Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia (New York: Checkmark Books, 2005), 258.
11. William Oldham, The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia (New York: Scribner, 2006), 290–91.
12. Ibid.
13. Carlo, Gaspipe (draft manuscript), 311–12.
14. Ibid.
15. E-mail to author from FBI Special Agent James Brennan (ret.), January 19, 2013.
16. Special Agents Stephen A. Grimaldi and Donald W. McCormick, FBI 302 memo re: debriefing of Al D’Arco, January 17, 1992.
17. Tommy Dades and Mike Vecchione, Friends of the Family: The Inside Story of the Mafia Cops Case (New York: William Morrow, 2009), 178.
18. Ibid., 313.
19. Ibid.
20. Author’s interview with Anthony Casso, September 23, 2011.
21. Carlo, Gaspipe (draft manuscript), 319.
22. Casso interview.
23. Author’s interview with William Oldham, June 10, 2011.
24. Brennan e-mail to author, January 19, 2013.
25. Carlo, Gaspipe (draft manuscript), 323.
26. Selwyn Raab, “Plea Deal Rescinded, Informer May Face Life,” New York Times, July 1, 1998.
27. Carlo, Gaspipe (draft manuscript), 329.
28. Ibid.
29. Oldham interview, August 21, 2011.
30. Special Agent Chris Favo, FBI 302 memo, February 6, 1994, 7; sworn statement of Special Agent Jeffrey Tomlinson, April 6, 1994, 4; sworn statement of Special Agent Raymond Andjich, April 6, 1994, 3–4.
31. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 251.
32. Ibid., 289.
33. Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.
34. Author’s interview with Fredric Dannen, October 2, 2011.
35. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.
36. Selwyn Raab, “The Mobster Was a Mole for the FBI: Tangled Life of a Mafia Figure Who Died
of AIDS Is Exposed,” New York Times, November 20, 1994.
37. Selwyn Raab, “7 Suspects Say F.B.I. Helped Incite Mob Violence,” New York Times, May 10, 1995.
CHAPTER 37: INSANE MAD-DOG KILLER
1. FBI memo from Mr. Reutter to L. A. Potts. Subject: Unauthorized Dissemination of Information to Colombo LCN Capo Gregory Scarpa Sr., New York Division, OPR Matter, March 21, 1994.
2. Sworn affidavit of Valerie Caproni, April 12, 1995, 3; Reutter-Potts memo.
3. Author’s interview with Ellen Resnick, February 21, 2012.
4. Caproni affidavit, 4.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 7–9.
7. Ibid., 9.
8. Ibid., 6–7.
9. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato v. U.S. 2255, hearing before Judge Jack B. Weinstein, statement by the court, May 20, 1996, transcript, 6.
10. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.
11. Section 13-6.2, FBI Manual of Administrative Operations and Procedures, http://vault.fbi.gov/maop/maop-part-02-of-07/view.
12. R. Lindley DeVecchio, sworn compelled statement to Supervisory Special Agent Robert J. O’Brien, May 5, 1995, 1–2.
13. Memorandum from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI. Subject: Gregory Scarpa. Top Echelon (TE) Criminal Informant Program, New York Division, June 18, 1962, 1.
14. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 108.
15. Reutter-Potts memo.
16. DeVecchio, compelled statement, 4.
17. Supervisory Special Agents Kevin P. Donovan and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo, statement of Assistant U.S. Attorney George Stamboulidis, September 9, 1994, 3.
18. DeVecchio, compelled statement, 4.
19. Supervisory Special Agents Kevin P. Donovan and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo, William Meli, June 13, 1994, 6.
20. DeVecchio, compelled statement, 8.
21. U.S. v. Michael Sessa, testimony of R. Lindley DeVecchio, November 2, 1992, transcript, 118–19.
22. DeVecchio, compelled statement, 9.
23. Edwards interview, January 13, 2012.
24. John Kroger, Convictions (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008), 148.
25. DeVecchio, compelled statement, 17.
26. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” October 18, 1982.
27. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 6, 2012.
28. Edward Robert Korman, Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=1309&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na.
29. Selwyn Raab, “Prosecutors Say F.B.I. Agent Passed Information to a Colombo Mob Figure,” New York Times, May 9, 1995.
30. Greg B. Smith and Jerry Capeci, “FBI Big Tipped Off Mob: Prosecutor Speaks at Trial,” New York Daily News, May 10, 1995.
31. Ibid.
32. Richard Pyle, “Mob Prosecutor Concedes FBI Leak,” Staten Island Advance, May 10, 1995.
33. Ibid.
34. Selwyn Raab, “7 Suspects Say F.B.I. Helped Incite Mob Violence,” New York Times, May 10, 1995.
35. Pyle, “Mob Prosecutor Concedes.”
36. Raab, “7 Suspects Say F.B.I. Helped.”
37. Greg B. Smith, “Mobster Had Deal with FBI,” New York Daily News, May 11, 1995.
38. U.S. v. Victor M. Orena et al., transcript, 5761–62.
39. Ibid., 5960–64.
40. Ibid., 5964.
41. Author’s interview with Gerald Shargel, November 9, 2011.
42. Joseph Gambardello and Patricia Hurtado, “Black Eye for the FBI: 7 Acquitted in Mob Case,”Newsday, July 1, 1995.
43. Ibid.
44. Greg B. Smith, “7 Cleared in B’klyn Mob Case,” New York Daily News, July 1, 1995.
45. Al Guarte, “Wiseguys Acquitted in Colombo Murders,” New York Post, July 1, 1995.
46. Selwyn Raab, “The Thin Line Between Mole and Manager,” New York Times, July 2, 1995.
47. Memo from assistant director in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, April 10, 1996.
48. Kroger, Convictions, 149.
49. Supervisory Special Agent R. Patrick Welch and Inspector David V. Ries, FBI 302 memo, Valerie Caproni, July 17, 1995, 1.
50. Ibid., 3.
51. Pyle, “Mob Prosecutor Concedes.”
52. Welch and Ries, 302 memo, July 17, 1995, 3.
53. Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Caproni, FBI Eastern District of New York, letter to Supervisory Special Agent Ralph Regalbuto Jr., FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, July 24, 1995.
54. Edwards interview, January 13, 2012.
55. Letter from Lee. J. Radek to Douglas Grover, September 8, 1996.
CHAPTER 38: ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORISM
1. David M. Herszenhorn, “New Indictment for Reputed Colombo Crime Family Captain,” New York Times, July 7, 1995.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. The thirty-two-page illustrated timeline created for 1000 Years for Revenge documents how both attacks on the Twin Towers, masterminded by Ramzi Yousef, were bankrolled by al-Qaeda. Available at www.peterlance.com/1000_Years_Timeline.pdf.
5. Author’s interview with Colonel Rodolfo B. Mendoza, Philippine National Police, March 19, 2002.
6. Ibid.
7. Transcript of interrogation of Abdul Hakim Murad, Colonel Rodolfo B. Mendoza, Philippine National Police, January 20, 1995.
8. FBI 302 memo, interrogation of Abdul Hakim Murad, April 12–13, 1995.
9. Ibid.
10. Mendoza interview.
11. The account of Yousef’s arrest and KSM’s subsequent interview and escape was first revealed in a story by Christopher John Farley (“The Man Who Wasn’t There,” Time, February 20, 1995) and later detailed in a piece by Terry McDermott and other reporters for the Los Angeles Times in December 2002. Terry McDermott, Josh Meyer, and Patrick J. McDonnell, “The Plots and Designs of Al Qaeda’s Engineer: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Man Believed to Be Behind 9/11, Hides in Plain Sight—and Narrowly Escapes Capture in Pakistan,” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2002.
12. “The Long Arm of the Law: FBI International Presence Key to Bringing Terrorists to Justice,” FBI.gov, February 6, 2004, http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2004/february/law020604.
13. U.S. v. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef et al., indictment, S1293CR.180 (KTD).
14. For years, terrorism analysts, reporters, and historians have described “Bojinka” as a Serbo-Croatian word used variously to mean “explosion,” “big noise,” or “loud bang,” an allegation that a number of ethnic Serbs have since challenged. Terry McDermott, “The Plot: How Terrorists Hatched a Simple Plan to Use Planes as Bombs,” Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2002; Mitch Frank, “Four Dots American Intelligence Failed to Connect,” Time, April 26, 2004 (Bojinka = “explosion”); Steve Fairnaru, “Clues Pointed to Changing Terrorist Tactics,” Washington Post, May 18, 2002 (Bojinka = “loud bang”); David Horowitz, “Why Bush Is Innocent and the Democrats Are Guilty,” FrontPageMagazine.com, May 20, 2002 (Bojinka = “big bang”). The Croation word “bocčnica” translates as “boom”: http://www.eudict.com/?lang=croeng&word=boènica.
15. U.S. v. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef et al., S1293CR.180 (KTD), May 29, 1996.
16. PNP transcript, interrogation of Abdul Hakim Murad, January 7, 1995, government’s exhibit 760-T, U.S. v. Ramzi Yousef et al.
17. Author’s interview with Larry Silverman, June 12, 2006.
18. FBI 302 memo, Gregory Scarpa Jr. and Ramzi Yousef intelligence, March 5, 1996, 3.
19. Letter from Jeremy Orden, attorney for Gregory Scarpa Jr., to Judge Reena Raggi, April 29, 1999, U.S. v. Gregory Scarpa Jr., 94 Cr. 1119 (S-5).
20. Author’s interview with Larry Silverman, April 13, 2004.
21. Interview with James Kallstrom for documentary Conspiracy?, History Channel, 2005.
22. Assistant Director in C
harge James Kallstrom, FBI New York Office, memo to director, FBI, April 10, 1996.
23. http://www.peterlance.com/howto.htm.
24. FBI 302 memo, interview with Greg Scarpa Jr. re: Ramzi Yousef intelligence, May 5, 1996.
25. That position was ratified by then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in her April 8, 2004, testimony before the 9/11 Commission, when she testified that until the attacks of September 11, any warnings of a threat to the United States, specifically New York City, were “historic” and devoid of “actionable intelligence.” See Rice testimony at http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/08/rice.transcript/.
26. FBI 302 memo, Yousef handwritten notes, March 27–28, 1996; FBI 302 memo, September 7, 1996; Angela Clemente & Associates, “The Scarpa Intelligence on the Terrorist Threat: An Evaluative Report,” February 20, 2005.
27. Silverman interview, April 13, 2004.
28. FBI 302 memo, March 5, 1996, 4.
29. Roma Corp. “kite,” May 9, 1996. Reproduced as an appendix in Peter Lance, Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (New York: Regan Books, 2004), 301.
30. Author’s interview with confidential FBI source, February 10, 2006.
31. Bill Gertz, Breakdown: How America’s Intelligence Failures Led to September 11 (New York: Regnery, 2002); McDermott, “The Plot.”
32. Brian Ross, “Al Qaeda Ally? Member of Qatari Royal Family Helped Senior Al Qaeda Official Get Away,” ABC News, February 7, 2003.
33. FBI 302 memo, September 9, 1996, http://www.peterlance.com/302/9996.htm.
34. Entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.,” the PDB cited a 1998 report from an undisclosed intelligence service that “Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of ‘Blind Shaykh,’ ‘Umar Abd al-Rahman,’ and other US-held extremists.” “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US.
35. U.S. v. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef et al., S1293CR.180 (KTD), August 26, 1996.
36. The Feds were so desperate to keep that picture secret that in September 2002, when Associated Press reporter Jim Gomez express-couriered a copy of the lab report to John Solomon, the AP’s deputy bureau chief in Washington, the U.S. Customs Service, acting on a tip from the FBI, took the almost unprecedented step of seizing the package from a FedEx facility in the Midwest. “The interception was improper and clandestine,” complained AP president and CEO Louis D. Boccardi at the time. “A.P. Protests Government Seizure of Package Sent from One Reporter to Another,” Associated Press, May 13, 2003. Only when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pushed for an FBI OPR investigation to be opened on the seizure did the Bureau withdraw its objection and apologize. The incident pointed out just how much the Feds wanted to keep secret any evidence that might prove the validity of the Yousef-Scarpa intelligence initiative. Pete Yost, “FBI Unit Probes Intercepted Package Case,” Washington Post, April 23, 2003.