OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Mickey Shunick Disappearance: FBI, Police Exhausting Resources in Hunt for Missing Co-ed (ABC News)
• Air Jet Diverts After Passenger Claims to Have ‘Device’ (Reuters)
• Attorney General Statement on Resignation of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (Justice Dept)
• Jury in John Edwards Trial Deliberates for 5th Day (AP)
• DOD and CIA Records Detail Meetings with bin Laden Raid Filmmakers (Judicial Watch)

Patrick Fiztgerald, the Chicago U.S. Attorney who was considered a rock star among fed prosecutors, and who went after Scooter Libby in Washington and Rod Blagojevich closer to home, is resigning.

His office issued a press release on Wednesday saying he was resigning on June 30 and had no immediate employment plans and will take time off for the summer.

Fitzgerald, who was first appointed to the post in 2001, is the longest serving U.S. Attorney in Chicago.

“When I was selected for this position in 2001, I said that it was one of the greatest opportunities that one could ever hope for, and I believe that even more now after having the privilege of working alongside hundreds of dedicated prosecutors and agents. I have tried not to get in their way.

“I extend my deepest appreciation to the attorneys and staff for their determined commitment to public service. This was a great office when I arrived, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be a great office.”

Assemblage by Mel Guapo/baltimore city paper

BALTIMORE — Last April, thousands of miles from Baltimore in the West African country of Ghana, a man known as “Wagba” got on the phone and mediated a Baltimore heroin-dealing dispute.

Nana Boateng, who supplied Baltimore dealers with heroin shipped under Wagba’s direction by couriers traveling to the United States on commercial flights leaving West Africa, was in a heated argument with another Ghanaian, Krist Koranteng, who also supplied Baltimore heroin dealers with courier-carried heroin from West Africa.

The two were threatening one another, with Koranteng saying he’d arrange for men to come from Ghana to kill Boateng if he didn’t pay up for short-changing Koranteng’s friend, Moses Appram, on a 200-gram heroin deal. Boateng, in response, vowed to come to Ghana and kill Koranteng himself.

Since Boateng’s phones were wiretapped as part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation, his conversations with Wagba were recorded for posterity.

To read the full story click here.

Shoshanna Utchenik

That authentic Mexican vibe at the popular higher-end fast food chain Chipotle seems authentic for a reason… and that reason may be the authentic undocumented Mexicans working there.

According to Fox News, Chipotle is getting it from all sides, having already been targeted by the feds for hiring illegals.

Now comes this: Fox reports the company is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for “possible criminal securities law violations relating to our employee work authorization verification compliance and related disclosures and statements.” But that’s not all; Chipotle also said it is opening its books to the Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm.

A similar 2010 investigation ended in 450 Minnesotan Chipotle employees losing their jobs. Chipotle owns over 1,000 restaurants in the U.S., and before announcing the investigations, its popular stock had climbed about 40% in the past 12 months.

To read more click here.

Rep. Peter King/gov photo

Could White House officials have accidentally leaked news that tripped up a Western intelligence operation targeting Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen?

Two Republican congressional leaders want the formal FBI inquiry to answer that question, reports Reuters.

Monday, Rep Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to FBI Director Mueller requesting that the FBI investigation of alleged leaks cover the White House, including the National Security staff. Later, Reuters says Sen. Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent Mueller a fax seconding that request.

These questions were triggered by last week’s Reuters story which brought a potential White House slip-up to light. In response, the White House has strongly denied that sensitive information was leaked stating, “No one is more upset than us about this disclosure, and we support efforts to prevent leaks like this which harm our national security.”

To read more click here.

secret service photo

Four of the Secret Service agents fired in the recent Colombian sex scandal are fighting their dismissals, screams today’s front-page headline of the Washington Post.

Above the fold.

For agents who already object to the agency’s handling of the incident, more public humiliation can’t help. The dismissed agents say they are being scapegoated for behavior that has been agency culture long before this scandal broke.

They also allege that media attention has skewed reality into a more titillating narrative, reports the Washington Post, and what really happened involved separate trysts with a range of intentions and outcomes… including the single 29 year old agent who naively thought he got lucky, bringing 2 women back to his room, unaware that they were prostitutes.

Director Mark Sullivan will appear before a Senate committee Wednesday, speaking publicly on the matter for the first time. He purportedly plans to tell Congress that there was “no breach of operational security,” but he may need to address the dismissed agents’ allegations of smarmy agency culture as well.

As POTUS made it through the Colombia visit unharmed, and the sex-scandal fallout spreads to the military and DEA, the public may be more interested in the integrity of these agencies’ cultures more than their effectiveness, especially as they represent the U.S. abroad.

To read more click here.

Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe/photo by Michelle Andonian

“I probably slept two hours,” Wershe told me. “I’ll never forget May 22. It still will always be the worst day of my life.”

Wershe is better known as White Boy Rick, one of the most famous drug dealers in Detroit history, a baby-faced, blond-haired, magazine cover boy who was only 17 when police arrested him in 1987 with $25,000 in cash while driving a new Thunderbird that had been rented by his girlfriend, Cathy Volsan. She was the niece of Mayor Coleman Young. Authorities later found eight kilos of cocaine, and they linked the dope to Wershe. He was convicted of drug trafficking Jan. 15, 1988 and sentenced to life in prison.

Wershe is in the news these days because he can’t get paroled — not even after 25 years in prison — not even after FBI agents and a federal prosecutor have vouched for him. Not even after he cooperated over many years and helped put away a bunch of dirty cops along with violent drug dealers.

While Wershe received a life sentence without parole, the state law was later changed, and he became eligible for parole, but in 2003 and 2008 he was rejected by a parole board. He’s up again in December for consideration.

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Pakistani Doctor Who Helped CIA Locate bin Laden Sentenced to Prison for Treason (Washington Post)
• NY Rail Workers in Disability Scam Can Get Amnesty (Wall Street Journal)
• FBI Warns of White Supremacy Extremism (Surf KY)
• FBI: Artwork Worth Millions, Including a Warhol, Goes Missing in Detroit (Detroit News)
• Sanford Judge Rules in Favor of Motorist who Flashed His Headlights (Orlando Sentinel)