OT: bitter, cynical political rant

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2004 at 05:16:41PM -0400, Ron Kracht wrote:
> >AFAIC, if the FBI spokesman was quoted *accurately*, then it's time;
> >you can rant all you like.  :-)
>
> The quote is accurate. The attribution is not. That statement was made 
> during a hearing in the case (as I remember it was a bail hearing) by a 
> prosecutor in Portland.
> 
> At the time the statement was made the FBI knew (who knows about the 
> prosecutor?) full well that the Spanish police did not consider the 
> print to be a match. As a matter of fact the Spanish authorities told 
> the FBI almost immediately that they considered that the print 
> conclusively did _not_ match the Portland lawyer. As a result of that 
> communication, two weeks before the lawyer was arrested, there was a 
> meeting in Spain between the FBI (including the expert who made the 
> match) and Spanish fingerprint experts. Although the FBI expert does not 
> speak Spanish two other FBI official at the meeting are reportedly 
> fluent. The Spanish experts pointed out that the print had only 7 of the 
> 15 matching points of reference that they require for a match. They 
> additionally pointed out that several aspects of the print were 
> obviously different from those of the Portland lawyer. The FBI would not 
> budge and at the conclusion of the meeting the Spanish authorities 
> agreed to leave the issue marked as 'open' so as to, in their eyes, 
> avoid embarrassing the FBI.

So the FBI *consciously* mischaracterized the situation, and didn't
want to hear about the evidence?

Well, what should I expect from a law enforcement agency that takes
orders from a man who couldn't win a congressional election against a
*dead guy*...

> If anyone it interested I can find the original attributions for all 
> this information. Much of it comes from overseas newspapers, some of it 
> from interviews with Spanish authorities who were at the above mentioned 
> meeting. The FBI, to its credit, has indicated that all the fault in the 
> case lies with the FBI. Sadly, some of those with an "it's a sign of 
> weakness to admit to a mistake" mentality have tried to shift blame to 
> the Spaniards.

I would absolutely love that; especially so if they're publication
quality sources.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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