What Taxpayers are for

What Taxpayers are for

[This letter was published in the Boston Herald on Friday November 23, 2007, page 26]

Once again the taxpayer loses twice. (Laurel J. Sweet, "Sweet ‘victory’ for
Bulger victims’ kin," Boston Herald, November 20, 2007) Citizens did not get
what they paid these criminal FBI agents to do. Now the taxpayer must pay for
their malfeasance. Taxpayers paid while they broke the law and violated their
oaths of office.
No supervising agent has been held personally liable for his negligence.
None of the agents have been held personally liable for their crimes.
There is still no incentive for FBI agents to obey the laws. As a creature
of statute the FBI violates the Constitution wherein there is no mention of the
FBI.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Sweet ‘victory’ for Bulger victims’ kin
Judge calls for Whitey reparations
By Laurel J. Sweet
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 |

A fed-up federal judge told the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday it’s time
to own up and pay the anguished families of a half-dozen alleged victims of
fugitive gangland serial killer James “Whitey” Bulger.

U.S. District Court Judge Reginald C. Lindsay called for creating a reparation
pool similar to what was afforded the casualties of 9/11.

Lindsay said it’s “time to think about settling these cases.” He delivered his
stern message to near-speechless DOJ prosecutor Andrew Kaplan.

The bold suggestion followed an exasperated Lindsay’s decision to forgo trials
for the estates of alleged Bulger victims Edward Brian Halloran and Michael
Donahue because he already believes former rogue Boston FBI Special Agent John
“Zip” Connolly’s unseemly friendship with the South Boston mob boss and his
partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, was responsible for getting the two men
shot to death on Northern Avenue on May 11, 1982.

Still to be decided by Lindsay is how much money the DOJ owes their
long-suffering families. Lindsay last year ordered the DOJ to pay $3.1 million
to the Quincy mother of John McIntyre, a government informant Bulger allegedly
whacked.

“The judge didn’t just put the government’s feet to the fire today, he threw
them in,” said Robert George, one of the attorneys representing Donahue’s widow
and three sons.

William Christie, attorney for Halloran’s widow, said the feds were already
guilty of “a sad history of denial.”

Although it’s been the DOJ’s position all along that Halloran and Donahue were
killed because Connolly tipped-off Bulger that Halloran was going to implicate
him in the 1981 murder of World Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler of Oklahoma, Kaplan
attempted to persuade Lindsay that the families wouldn’t be able to prove it.
This was done despite the fact the feds used the same information to convict
Connolly of racketeering in 2002.

Kaplan yesterday attempted to dismiss the chain of events as “street talk,”
citing the words of Flemmi in McIntyre’s wrongful-death case.

Lindsay repeatedly warned Kaplan to tell him what evidence the DOJ had for its
about-face, but Kaplan would only proffer, “I can’t commit to the entire trial
strategy at this point.”

Halloran, 41, and a small-time hood, was living in an FBI “safe house” when he
was shot to death. Donahue, a 32-year-old Teamster and family man, was merely a
neighborhood acquaintance who was giving him a lift home from a bar.

Thomas Donahue, who was 8 when his father was gunned down, was overwhelmed by
yesterday’s court proceeding.“This makes our holidays a lot sweeter,” he said.
“It’s a mental victory, a moral victory.”
Article URL:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1045909