The official website of investigative reporter author and investigative reporter Diane Dimond
President Obama Pardons "Courage"
Since the early 80’s Daniel Joseph Portley-Hanks has conducted undercover investigations for our government, specifically the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Along with his private investigation partner, the late Fred Valis, Hanks helped the feds crack a multitude of major cases that put away dozens of career criminals. [click to continue…]
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Justice For Terrorists - At What Cost?
It is time for us to stop and reassess how we handle terror suspects. We just came close to the worst case scenario with a man who admitted his complicity in the murders of hundreds of people yet was nearly cleared of all charges.
Ahmed Ghailani was the first Guantanamo prisoner to be tried in a civilian court – in New York, no less, just a short distance from ground zero where other extremist Muslims killed thousands of Americans on September 11th – and it didn’t go so well. The Obama Administration had insisted on having the trial in civilian court as a sort of proof to the rest of the world of America’s moral superiority, our transparency and sense of fair play. But the end result to this test case was a near disaster.
To everyone’s shock Ghailani was found not guilty of 284 counts of murder and conspiracy to murder and he came T-H-I-S close to be acquitted altogether. [click to continue…]
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Debate About Afghanistan? Yeah. Not So Much
During the mid-term election debate we barely heard a discussion about Afghanistan. Why is that? It’s a war that’s costing us $30 billion dollars a year, the lives of nearly 14 hundred brave American soldiers (so far) and as I’ve learned it’s making America complicit in one of the most heinous crimes known to mankind.
I had the opportunity to hear Pulitzer Prize winning foreign correspondent Joel Brinkley give a speech recently to a conference I attended in Chicago and it rattled me to my core.
I had addressed the Inland Press Association a day earlier (my topic: Journalistic ethics) and when I was introduced to Brinkley before his speech I asked the veteran journalist about his chosen topic. When he said, “Afghanistan” I admit I thought to myself, “Maybe I can duck out early – I do have a plane to catch.” Instead, I sat transfixed by his words. [click to continue…]
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The One Who Didn't Shrink From the Job
Remember the name Marisol Valles Garcia. She’ll either go down in history as a selfless heroine or she’ll soon be dead. Maybe both.
Twenty year old Marisol lives in the small and violent Mexican border village of Praxedis Guadalupe Guerro, population 9,149. Marisol is a criminal justice graduate student, married and the mother of a little boy. The baby calls her Mama. The rest of her village now calls her Chief, their Chief of Police. It’s a job no one else in her village would take for fear they’d lose their lives if they put on a badge.
The last man in Marisol’s position, Chief Manuel Castro, was kidnapped tortured and beheaded last year. But Marisol says she took the job because she’s just tired of everyone being afraid. She said after being sworn in, “We have to reclaim our lives!” [click to continue…]
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Ahmed Ghailani, Enemy Combatant
He didn’t commit a crime. He committed an act of war against the United States of America. So why did the U.S. Justice Department decide to put him on trial in a civilian court of law? That’s what I’d like to know! Because, frankly, his trial is not going so well and this guy might walk free after helping to cause the deaths of a dozen Americans and the wounding of thousands of others.
This is the risk we run when we put terrorists on trial in civilian courts rather than in front of military tribunals where they belong.
“He” is Ahmed Ghailani, a baby faced thirty-something man from Tanzania who has already confessed his role in Al Qaeda’s bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 that took the lives of 224 people. And, authorities say, after that carnage Al Qaeda rewarded Ghailani with a position as a bodyguard , cook and document forger for none other than Osama bin Laden himself. This Ghailani fellow had long term and daily knowledge of the activities of America’s #1 mortal enemy. [click to continue…]
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Help Right a Wrong
This criminal case breaks my heart. It wasn’t about justice, I believe it was about race based retribution against two sisters, young mothers, who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gladys and Jamie Scott were just 19 and 21 years old respectively on the day they were arrested, the day before Christmas 1993. They lived in the tiny town of Forest, Mississippi. As you read this story remember – early 90’s, the state of Mississippi and all the players are black. The local Sheriff at the time was white.
After the sisters’ car conked out that night outside a local Mini Mart they began walking home. Two cousins in their 20’s, known as the Duckworth Men, offered to give them a lift. When it became clear the men wanted sexual favors in return for their good deed the sisters jumped out and resumed walking home. Gladys and Jamie say they heard a commotion behind them on the road but they kept walking. They would later learn that three other locals called the Patrick Men, ages 14 to 18, had robbed the Duckworth’s of between nine and 11 dollars.
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Words Matter - Words Hurt
Has the internet made us more vicious? I ask because it sure seems to me that we are quickly becoming a people who have forgotten how to empathize with others. With our computer anonymity many of us have decided we can “say” things over the World Wide Web that we would never ever say to someone’s face. Cruel comments can be lobbed without personal risk so we send them out like invisible hand grenades, set to explode when opened.
Read some of the remarks others leave behind at your favorite news web site. [click to continue…]
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Sweeping Out Corruption
There seems to be a mini-movement underway of disgruntled taxpayers and law enforcement officials intent on sweeping out the bums who play-act at being our political leaders while lining their own pockets.
You may have already heard about the situation in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, California where eight current and past city leaders were arrested and charged with illegally awarding themselves exorbitant salaries and misappropriating public funds. When filing the charges District Attorney Steve Cooley called it a case of “corruption on steroids.” [click to continue…]
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The Cost of Justice
The scene: A judge sitting on the bench, gavel in hand. Sentence is about to be passed on a convicted person nervously standing at the defense table.
Question: Should the judge stop to think how much the state will have to pay to incarcerate the convict before passing sentence? The State of Missouri thinks so.
When I first heard about the Show Me state’s new formula for sentencing the newly convicted my knee jerk reaction was – this is awful! Justice is justice and judges are there to mete it out, not to sit with a calculator on the bench and tally up the cost! But then I stopped and really looked into Missouri’s new idea which went into effect last month. [click to continue…]
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Your Government Tracking Number Goes Here
Do you remember when you got your first Social Security card? I do.
I was about 14 years old and wanted to take a part time job at a Dairy Queen which was operated by one of my parent’s friends.First, I was told, I had to get a Social Security number.
When I finally received it I tucked that card away like it was gold.
Today, a whole new set of laws is in effect and since the 1980’s children in the United States are automatically issued a Social Security number at birth. Better for Big Brother to keep track of all its citizens that way – but it’s not necessarily good for individual citizens. [click to continue…]
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