118 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
118 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 97
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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U.S. SELLS SECRET DATA TO CHARLES HAYES
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*New York Times*, NATIONAL, Sunday, Sept. 2, 1990 (p. 25)
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"U.S. Mistakenly Sold a Prosecutor's Secret Data"
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Pikeville, Ky., Sept. 1 (AP) -- A United States Attorney's
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secret computer files, including electronic copies of sealed
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indictments and information about pending F.B.I. inquiries, were
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mistakenly sold by the Government a month ago to a businessman
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who paid $45 for what he thought was only broken computer
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equipment.
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The Justice Department now says the sale could compromise any
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number of criminal cases, and it has sued the businessman to get
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the data back.
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The businessman, Charles Hayes, who resells Government surplus
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items, says that he would like to cooperate but that the
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equipment he bought, and various parts from it, have now been
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mixed with his previous inventory and so he is no longer sure
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which is which. He says he is trying to determine which of his
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customers may have bought some of the equipment, but he is
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resisting the Government's demand that he identify those
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customers, terming it an unwarranted intrusion into his business.
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-+- A Search of His Business -+-
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The Government finds Mr. Hayes's attitude insufficiently
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forthcoming. In addition to the lawsuit, which was filed
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Thursday, Federal marshals armed with a search warrant arrived
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Friday night at his establishment in Pulaski County, about 125
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miles west of here. By the time they had left nine hours later,
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they had seized what Mr. Hayes described today as nine computer
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terminals, a computer memory device and assorted other equipment.
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According to the Government's lawsuit, the case stems from a
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mistake made last January when a technician for the Harris-Lanier
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Corporation, the manufacturer of the system that Mr. Hayes would
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later buy, arrived at the office of the United States Attorney in
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Lexington, Louis DeFalaise. The system, in disrepair, was to be
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sold at auction, and the technician was supposed to erase the
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computer's memory.
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In July, at an auction of the General Services Administration,
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Mr. Hayes made a successful bid of $45 for the system: 13
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computer terminals, two central memory units, two cartridge
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module drives and nine printers. After Mr. Hayes picked up the
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equipment on Aug. 3, the Harris-Lanier technician told the
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Government that he had not erased the memory after all; A
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magnetic probe used to scramble the data had been too weak, and,
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because the equipment was broken, technicians had been unable to
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purge the memory through normal computer commands.
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The Government's lawsuit says that the computer's memory and
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backup storage tapes almost certainly still contain sensitive
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details about informers who work for the Federal Bureau of
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Investigation, about sealed indictments, about federally
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protected witnesses and about employees in Mr. DeFalaise's
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office.
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-+- "Irreparable Injury" -+-
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"The U.S. Attorney's office," the lawsuit says, "used some or all
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of the computer equipment to prepare and store virtually every
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document and record generated by both the civil and criminal
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divisions of the office from 1983 to 1989."
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If made public, the suit goes on, the files could ruin criminal
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investigations and cause "great harm and irreparable injury" to
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the work of Federal prosecutors. "The seriousness of the injury
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to the United States of America cannot be understated," it says.
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Within hours of the lawsuits filing, a Federal district judge,
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Eugene Siler Jr., ordered Mr. Hayes to return the computer system
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to the Government and not examine, copy or distribute the data.
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A hearing has been set for Tuesday.
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Mr. Hayes said he had been told before he bought the equipment
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that the computer memory had been wiped out. He called the sale
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"the worst case of bureaucracy I have ever seen," and added, "If
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it is this loose, I wonder what else is missing up there" in the
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Office of the United States Attorney.
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"What it amounts to," he said, "is I am being punished for the
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inefficiency" in the prosecutor's office.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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