OBAMA'S DEPT OF INJUSTICE

[AGAINST GODLESS SOCIALISM]

JUSTICE DEPT. FAULTED OVER TERRORIST IDENTITIES
By PETE YOST
— May. 16

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government allowed "a small but significant
number" of terrorists into America's witness protection program and
then failed to provide the names of some of them for a watch list
that's used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the Justice
Department's inspector general says.
As a result of the department's failure to share information with the
Terrorist Screening Center, some in the witness protection program who
were on a government "no-fly" list were allowed to travel on
commercial flights, the department's watchdog said.

The FBI-managed screening center is the clearinghouse for information
about known or suspected terrorists.

In a briefing for reporters Thursday, the Justice Department said it
had remedied the problem with a restrictive travel policy that
prohibits program participants with no-fly status from traveling on
commercial flights. The department declined to say how many people in
the program actually flew.

While people involved in terrorism cases have long been eligible for
federal witness protection, the Justice Department wouldn't say how
many have been in the program. The inspector general's report said it
was "a small but significant number."

The Witness Security Program, or WitSec as it is known, protects
witnesses from the people and organizations against whom they have
testified. The U.S. Marshals Service provides cooperating witnesses
with new identities.

Over the past two decades, the program has been significant in the
government's efforts to prosecute terrorists responsible for the 1993
World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City and the
2009 New York City subway suicide-bomb plot.

Since the witness protection program began in 1971, it has taken in
more than 8,400 witnesses and 9,900 family members and other
associates of witnesses. The department said the vast majority of what
it referred to as former terrorists in the program were admitted
before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The department said that to date, the FBI has not identified a
national security threat tied to the participation of any terrorism-
linked witness in the program.
The inspector general's report said that as a result of the department
not disclosing information on some known or suspected terrorists, the
new, government-provided identities of the witnesses were not included
on the consolidated terrorist watch list until the IG noted it.

"We found that the department was not authorizing the disclosure to
the Terrorist Screening Center of the new identities provided to known
or suspected terrorists," said the report. "It was possible for known
or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the
United States and evade one of the government's primary means of
identifying and tracking terrorists' movements and actions."

The IG also found that information was not shared promptly with the
FBI.

In a June 2009 field report, a Marshals Service inspector reported his
belief that a program participant was trying to gather intelligence on
sensitive program policies and procedures for militant Muslim groups.
The IG found no evidence that that information was shared with the FBI
around the time of the inspector's concerns. An FBI official later
told the IG that the information was shared in February 2012, which
the IG pointed out was years after the inspector stated his concern.

http://www.truthandgrace.com/obama.htm