Lead Story
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The Government Accountability Office reported in July that two of its undercover agents had been able to buy $1.1 million in “sensitive” military surplus from defense-department contractors, much of which–including shoulder-fired missile launcher parts, tracking and surveillance gear, and body armor–“could be used by terrorists.” The Pentagon had failed across the board to enforce existing security controls governing such equipment, the GAO wrote; in the previous eight months at least 2,669 sensitive items that should have been destroyed were instead sold to the public.
A computer consultant hired by the FBI office in Springfield, Illinois, was sentenced in July to home detention after pleading guilty to exceeding his authorized access. Apparently frustrated by bureaucratic obstacles to the system installation he was working on, the consultant used free programs available online to obtain the passwords of 38,000 FBI employees–among them director Robert Mueller–and gained access to counterespionage and witness-protection files. Also in July, homeland security officials in Indiana warned Vermillion County it might lose federal money if it didn’t stop using its electronic emergency message boards to advertise elementary school carnivals, fire department fish fries, and other community events.
Least competent bail bondsman: Thomas Samuel, who in June pleaded guilty to ten fraud-related charges after writing what investigators said were hundreds of counterfeit checks, got out of jail following his arrest using a counterfeit bail check; after one bail bondsman turned down a fake $2,300 check, Samuel convinced another to take one for $9,800.
Arrested recently for murder: John Wayne Lewis, 59 (McAlester, Oklahoma, June); Kenneth Wayne Beck, 34 (Warrenton, Missouri, June); Timothy Wayne Coalson, 44 (Senoia, Georgia, July); Charles Wayne Thomas Jr., 22 (Dallas, July); Ira Wayne Cloniger, 43 (Rappahannock County, Virginia, July); John Wayne Thomson, 46 (Victorville, California, August). Pleaded guilty to murder: Michael Wayne Nelson, 23 (Palatka, Florida, August). Executed for murder: Darrell Wayne “Gator” Ferguson, 28 (Lucasville, Ohio, August).
