{"id":491,"date":"2010-11-08T17:59:38","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T22:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=491"},"modified":"2012-03-05T18:33:15","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T23:33:15","slug":"sidebar-drugs-lies-and-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Who sues? Drugs, Lies and the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an earlier posted piece called Who Else Sues? Some Violent Lawsuits,<\/strong> I made harsh mention of a case I worked on involving a drug raid and the weaknesses inherent in the use of confidential informants.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m tearing my hair out. Take a look at this, on the front page of today\u2019s NY Times:\u00a0 D.E.A. Deployed Mumbai Plotter Despite Warning \u2013 NYTimes.com<\/a><\/strong> (Apparently, the Times, so often nowadays ex post facto,<\/em> picked up the story only after ProPublica, a terrific investigative journalistic group, uncovered it, at Newly Discovered Warnings About Headley Reveal a Troubling Timeline in Mumbai Case \u2013 ProPublica<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

A summary: shortly after the World Trade Center catastrophe, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.) sent a small-time drug dealer to Pakistan to work as an informant, despite warnings that he had some connection with radical Islamic groups.<\/p>\n

This \u201cinformant\u201d became a key member of the group that in 2008 attacked the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, killing 166 people.<\/p>\n

The people supplying the warnings were women who had close, even familial, relationships with the informant. These women were dismissed as unreliable.<\/p>\n

When I worked in criminal defense law, we had a semi-tacit rating system for the intelligence of law enforcement personnel. At the bottom of the barrel were the marshals. Next up in the stupid department were D.E.A. agents.<\/p>\n

So a lot of stupid people, all bearing really heavy weaponry, deaf to genuine intelligence (especially from women), are romping throughout the world pursuing drugs.<\/p>\n

A few years ago \u2013 when Bush was still in the White House \u2013 I went onto the government web site to find out how much tax money we spent on the D.E.A. each year. The number? Two billion dollars. Two billion dollars a year to send promising terrorists into Pakistan as drug informants.<\/p>\n

(The punch line of my legitimate research into the federal budget. A day or so later I received an ominous e-mail message: \u201cWelcome to Ask the D.O.J. [Department of Justice]. We will respond to your request shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t asked the D.O.J. anything. And I certainly hadn\u2019t given them my e-mail address.)<\/p>\n

Several things to say about all this:<\/p>\n