CNN: Witness protection program lost two former “known or suspected terrorists”

[dkf]

The U.S. Marshal Service has been “unable to locate” two former participants in the federal Witness Security Program “identified as known or suspected terrorists,” states the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN.

The Marshals have concluded that “one individual was and the other individual was believed to be residing outside of the United States.”

Read the public summary here.

The news comes from an audit of the Witness Security Program by the IG’s office, which states that “the Department did not definitively know how many known or suspected terrorists were admitted into the WITSEC program,” among other “significant issues concerning national security.” The report makes 16 recommendations.

The “Interim Report on the Department of Justice’s Handling of Known or Suspected Terrorists Admitted Into the Federal Witness Security Program” notes that while in the midst of an audit of the WITSEC program, the Inspector General felt the need to notify the Justice Department of national security vulnerabilities, and the IG’s office “developed the interim report to help ensure that the Department promptly and sufficiently addressed the deficiencies we found.”

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/16/first-on-cnn-witness-protection-program-lost-two-former-known-or-suspected-terrorists/

[tularetom]

1. "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" in case anyone has forgot & wants to make a BFD out of this

Fuck CNN, they sort of missed out on Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, and AP-gate, so somebody there decided to start their own gate.

[dkf]

3. Obama really needs to rebuild the case for government competence.

The press is on the case.

Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, and others who support what government does are beginning to ask wtf.

[unblock]

2. witsec is not prison; people are free to disappear if they so choose.

if they were kidnapped, that would obviously be a failure on the part of witsec.
but if those in the program choose, for whatever reason, to dodge their protection and leave, there's not much witsec can do about it.

i imagine a lot of people in the program, terrorists or otherwise, tire of their created lives or don't fit in; miss their former family and friends; just don't like the monitoring; or get complacent or cocky and think they can continue to hide on their own.

[dkf]

4. So the question is why are they putting known or suspected terrorists in witness protection

[Kingofalldems]

5. So obvious.

[IdaBriggs]

6. Is this a joke? Are you unclear about what "witness protection" is?

I suggest watching the series "In Plain Sight" (since cancelled) that was on the "USA" network.

You can also take this quiz: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/inplainsight/games/trivia/witsec/quiz.cgi?beginner

[unblock]

7. the whole idea is to cut a deal with the foot soldiers in exchange for info on the kingpins.