QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The system worked.”
Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, who was ordered to forfeit $5,000 a month in pay for four months but allowed to stay in the military after pleading guilty to multiple charges in a sexual misconduct case Article, 4A
Computers to be examined in CIA spat
WASHINGTON - The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said Thursday that he had ordered a forensic examination of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computer equipment to answer what he called the CIA’s “absurd” claims that the committee’s staff members had hacked into the agency’s network.
Reid’s order is the latest round of an escalating fight between the CIA and the Intelligence Committee, which has oversight authority of the agency.
Last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the committee, accused the CIA of monitoring computers used by committee staff members to complete their investigation of the agency’s detention and interrogation programs - an action she said may have broken the law.
She said that the agency had also improperly removed documents from the committee’s computers on two other occasions in 2010.
The CIA director, John Brennan, has denied that the agency spied on the committee. CIA lawyers have referred a case to the Justice Department, alleging that committee aides gained unauthorized access to CIA computer systems to obtain an internal classified report on the interrogation program.
Scam targeting taxpayers nets $1 million
WASHINGTON - More than 20,000 taxpayers have been targeted by fake Internal Revenue Service agents in the largest phone scam the agency has ever seen, the IRS inspector general said Thursday.
Thousands of victims have lost in total more than $1 million.
As part of the scam, fake IRS agents call taxpayers, claim they owe taxes and demand payment using a prepaid debit card or a wire transfer. Those who refuse are threatened with arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver’s license, said J. Russell George, Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration.
Real IRS agents usually contact people first by mail, George said. And they don’t demand payment by debit card, credit card or wire transfer.
The inspector general’s office started receiving complaints about the scam in August. Aliens were the primary target early on, the inspector general’s office said. But the scam has since become more widespread. People have been targeted in nearly every state.
The script is similar in many calls, leading investigators to believe they are connected.
Niece of Johnny Cash stabbed to death
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The great-niece of the late singer Johnny Cash has been found stabbed to death and stuffed in a box in a house, authorities in Tennessee said Thursday.
Putnam County Sheriff David Andrews said Courtney Cash’s body was found Wednesday morning in a home near Cookeville, about 70 miles east of Nashville.
The body was found in a chest just inside the front door, Andrews said. William Austin Johnson, Cash’s boyfriend, was being treated for stab wounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Andrews said.
Andrews said the pair had gone out with a friend before an altercation took place in the house where Johnson and Cash lived with their young child. The friend, identified as Wayne Gary Masciarella, has been charged with first-degree murder.
Johnson escaped the attack, took the child with him and drove to the hospital, Andrews said.
The suspect may have been trying to hide Cash’s body, Andrews said. A motive was not released, but Andrews indicated the stabbings were likely connected to drugs.
Police say 100 stashed in house; 5 held
HOUSTON - U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday were interviewing more than 100 people presumed to be in the country illegally after they were discovered crammed into a small house in south Houston.
Five men also were in custody, two of whom were arrested after driving from the home Wednesday. Authorities suspect it was a so-called stash house, a place where smugglers take the people they’ve brought into the U.S. illegally and keep them until they or their family members pay a ransom.
Police who found handguns and documents in the car suggesting illegal activity then went inside and found the captive people.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Brian Moskowitz told a congressional hearing Thursday in Houston that the five were held on offenses that included hostage-taking, weapons charges and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 03/21/2014