cannabisnews.com: DEA Won't Punish Agents Who Failed To Disclose DEA Won't Punish Agents Who Failed To Disclose Posted by FoM on October 01, 2001 at 15:20:22 PT By Michael D. Sorkin, The Post-Dispatch Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Nobody will be disciplined for letting St. Louis-based drug snitch Andrew Chambers lie under oath throughout 16 years of government testimony, Asa Hutchinson, the new head of the DEA, disclosed in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. But he vowed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would never again give informers the free rein that Chambers abused. ". . . It hurts the agency," Hutchinson said, referring to Chambers' lying in testimony about his background and arrest record. The testimony has compromised dozens of DEA investigations. Hutchinson said no agents have been punished because an investigation determined that it was the DEA's own policies that failed. Chambers, 44, grew up in University City. Before his suspension last year, he was the most active -- and one of the highest paid -- undercover operatives in the DEA's history. "Chambers abused his position with us, and we didn't have the systems in place to keep the checks and balances on that," Hutchinson said last week. He said he's confident the right checks are now in place: * The DEA has set up a central registry to keep track of informers who testify in more than one place. Beginning in 1984, when Chambers was recruited at the agency's Clayton office, he helped arrest more than 400 drug suspects in 31 cities. He also lied under oath at least 16 times, but the DEA says its agents either didn't know or, if they did, didn't tell their colleagues elsewhere. * All agents have been ordered to turn over the complete records of their snitches to prosecutors and defense attorneys. Some agents were in courtrooms when Chambers lied but never reported it. Others did, but the agency kept a lid on it. How could no one be punished after years of courtroom lying? The DEA's own records show that senior officials at headquarters fought a two-year court fight to keep secret Chambers records: that he repeatedly lied in court when he claimed he had never been arrested or convicted, inflated his educational background and claimed he paid taxes on his DEA earnings - more than $1.8 million. The DEA spent months investigating itself. The report of that investigation, obtained by the Post-Dispatch in May, concluded that at least one DEA supervisor in the field should have done more to report Chambers' courtroom lying. In July, a DEA spokesman said two employees were under investigation. They are now identified only as an agent and a supervisor. "A thorough investigation was done, and there was no finding that would result in a disciplinary action," DEA spokesman Michael Chapman said Friday. Critics See a Cover-Up "I'm stunned that so much government wrongdoing meant so little to the government," said Dean Steward. He's a former federal public defender in California who led a three-year effort to make the Justice Department disclose the extent of Chambers' lying - and the Justice Department's complicity. "Had this been a major corporation, heads would roll," Steward added. Hutchinson acknowledged that the scandal had hurt the DEA: "Whenever you lose the credibility of an informant . . . it hurts the agency." But in the end, he said, it appeared to be "a failure of policy versus a failure of personnel." He said he wasn't familiar with all of the details because he became DEA administrator just over a month ago. He reports to Attorney General John Ashcroft, who also took office months after Chambers was suspended, after disclosures in the Post-Dispatch. Hutchinson said undercover snitches are crucial, both to his agency in the war on drugs, as well as to the country's new war on terrorism. "You've got to use informants. . . . Otherwise, you can't get the job done." He said the DEA won't use Chambers again in any capacity - despite accolades from dozens of agents who considered him the best. Here's how the DEA investigation describes Chambers: ". . . Motivated by money, thrill, camaraderie and a sense of self-righteousness." The DEA chief disagreed with those who say Chambers is too valuable to lose. "You don't lose anything by cutting that out," Hutchinson said. "You want to balance proper accountability and checks and balances with getting the job done." Complete Title: DEA Won't Punish Agents Who Failed To Disclose Lying By Informer ChambersNewshawk: mayanSource: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)Author: Michael D. Sorkin, The Post-DispatchPublished: September 30, 2001Copyright: 2001 St. Louis Post-DispatchContact: letters post-dispatch.comWebsite: http://home.post-dispatch.com/Related Articles:DEA Informer's Trail Of Lies Contorts Case http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8489.shtmlDEA Drug Informant Is Caught Lying http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6364.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by dddd on October 02, 2001 at 20:53:25 PT I agree Lookinside ...the word "justice",has a whole new meaning nowdays,and it has nothing to do with fairness or equal treatment under the law........I think it's appropriate that the new government sponsors lunacy is title "infinite justice",because it shows the new meaning of "justice",in the governments terms.....That's why all this flag waving,"united we stand" crap bugs me.It's the sickening commercialization of the government.We might as well just appoint the CEO of Time-Warner,or GM as our pResident...."old glory",,,,has become,"old Whorey".....dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by lookinside on October 02, 2001 at 19:50:39 PT: the legal system... our legal system has no interest in "TRUTH" or "JUSTICE"...it has mutated over the last century into a poker game...the participants are addicted to WINNING at any cost...law enforcement and prosecutors will stand still for ANYTHING if it furthers their chances of winning...it is up to the defense to prove that witnesses or evidence helpful to the prosecution is BOGUS...the hardest thing to do in court is to disprove a clever lie...the second hardest thing to do is ignore a plea bargain that reduces the possible sentence by a large margin...my personal experience was 4 months on an ankle monitor vs. 3 years in state prison if convicted by a jury..jury trial $10-20k minimum...plea bargain $5k...i have 3 kids and a sick wife...i did the pragmatic thing, if not the right thing...and i will fight this legal system any way i can til my dying day...i'm not kidding when i say every politician, district attorney(and quite a few defense lawyers), and cop have done SOMETHING worthy of the death penalty...they have become a disease across the land...their addiction to "winning" negates the possibility of "justice"...the only upside is the suicide rate among cops..very high...it shows that the most honest of them do have consciences and cannot live with their shame... [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Lehder on October 02, 2001 at 09:14:40 PT forecast: dirty weather Some agents were in courtrooms when Chambers lied but never reported it. Others did, but the agency kept a lid on it. This is somewhere way below repugnant on any moral scale. Allowing lies, known to be lies and given under oath, to go unchallenged and unreported as they are used to destroy thousands of lives, confiscate property and imprison people innocent of the crimes testified to - what could be lower? Government officials of such depravity would also knowingly allow terrorist attacks to proceed if they thought the reaction would enhance their powers.It's been clear for a long time, especially since the government's imprisonment of legal users of medical marijuana, that nothing at all will dissuade it from the destruction of American society and the Constitution. The federal "war on drugs" will end when the federal government falls, and the royal screwups I expect to eventually precipitate from the "war on terrorism", combined with a battered economy and growing international impatience with the feds on several scores, may well take us there. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by i420 on October 02, 2001 at 05:30:12 PT GRRRRRRRRRRRRR Someday your you know what is gonna hit the fan ...sooner the better. Don't expect any respect from me. How dare you allow this treason to happen and all you can say is it won't happen again. I think it takes a man with a very small brain and a smaller 3rd member to chase around after a bunch of marijuana users. How dare you do this when there are REAL CRIMINALS out there preying on society exactly what part of this don't comprehend. Idiots [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2001 at 21:44:50 PT Let's start a Patriotic Pothead movement Maybe we should be out there more proactively informing America that the marijuana reform movement is not at all about tearing down traditional American values, but really about affirming those values.Most of us I believe have consciously reaffirmed those values because of the way we have seen these values being so easily and casually trashed by the powers that be as part of their policy towards marijuana. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by dddd on October 01, 2001 at 20:59:34 PT I saw this article on MAP... ..and I have followed news concerning Chambers in the past,,,,,,and I am way too pissed off to comment on it!.......ddddisgusted! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by tdm on October 01, 2001 at 19:55:09 PT: DEA cries wolf But he vowed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would never again give informers the free rein that Chambers abused.Uhh, yeah, right.You can believe us. We're the DEA. There's no lying allowed here. Unless it's absolutely necessary. Or convenient. And this time I double-dog swear. Trust me. demoss.org [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2001 at 18:50:18 PT THIS is our role model for moral values?????? [quote]But he vowed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would never again give informers the free rein that Chambers abused. ". . . It hurts the agency," Hutchinson said, referring to Chambers' lying in testimony about his background and arrest record. The testimony has compromised dozens of DEA investigations. [/quote]Excuse me????How about:"It hurts the country.""It hurts the moral climate of American society.""It hurts the people who were lied about.""It hurts the families of the people who were lied about.""It hurts the rule of law.""It hurts the truth.""It hurts the principles on which this nation was founded.""It hurts the memeories of those who willingly gave their lives for the founding of this nation in honor of those principles on which it was founded."Out of all of those concerns, I think it is a giant RED FLAG in the face of democracy that Asa Hutchinson's first concern is that "It hurts the agency."The DEA does not exist outside of that democracy. It has no interests, or should have no interests, that are placed above the interests of American democracy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by mayan on October 01, 2001 at 18:06:00 PT Real Criminals The fact that this doesn't surprise me is very sad. There is no accountability in these corrupted agencies.It is obvious who the real criminals are. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment