Clips July 18-21

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips July 18-21

ARTICLES

Bill aims to curb Net censorship 
Videocams Record Airline Flights  
E-government 'needs rebooting'
Senate Votes to Deny Funding To Computer Surveillance Effort 
ISPs slammed with subpoenas
Identity Theft Charges Belie a Life of Luxury 
Computer Game Turned Bloody Mismatch Lands 9 Teens in Court
DHS hires fingerprint expertise

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CNET News.com
Bill aims to curb Net censorship 
By Declan McCullagh 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 17, 2003, 7:37 AM PT


Would-be Internet censors in places such as China and Myanmar could have a tougher time restricting the free flow of information, according to a measure that the U.S. House of Representatives approved on Wednesday. 
The legislation aims to create a federal Office of Global Internet Freedom and gives it $16 million to spend over the next two years. The office would be tasked with an unusual mission for a government agency: devising technical methods to prevent other nations from censoring the Internet. 

"These regimes have been aggressively blocking access to the Internet with technologies such as firewalls, filters and black boxes," said Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., sponsor of the bill and Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. "In addition, these oppressive regimes habitually monitor activity on the Internet, including e-mail and message boards...The Global Internet Freedom Act will give millions of people around the globe the power to outwit repressive regimes that would silence them, and to protect themselves from reprisals in the process." 

 

Cox's measure is embedded in a much larger bill--which the House approved by a 382-42 vote--that would fund the State Department for the next few years. It directs the Office of Global Internet Freedom to "develop and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat state-sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming, and persecution of those who use the Internet." In practice, the money will likely to go fund Web services that let Internet users circumvent government restrictions. 

An earlier version of the legislation, introduced in October, would have given the office a far larger sum: $100 million over two years. 

If the Senate follows the House's lead and approves the appropriations bill, the new office would be organized under the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a federal agency that was created in 1999 to consolidate nonmilitary broadcasting by the federal government. It also is home to the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia. 

As the Internet has grown in importance, some foreign governments have moved to curb their citizens' abilities to access Web sites and other resources in other nations. 

A report titled "The Internet Under Surveillance," published last month by Reporters Without Borders, a journalists' advocacy group, paints a stark picture of an increasingly controlled Internet. 

In Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), for instance, the ruling military junta monitors e-mail and drastically limits access to the outside Internet. "Fewer than 10,000 people are allowed to use the substitute Internet, the local Myanmar Wide Web intranet set up by the regime, but only a few dozen mainly service or administrative sites, all government-approved, are accessible," the report says. "Even that is hard to log on to, since until very recently, only one cybercafe, at the university, had free access to Myanmar Wide Web." 

Cox is a longtime China hawk who chaired the committee that investigated whether the Clinton administration let the Chinese government acquire sensitive missile technology in exchange for campaign contributions. Since introducing his Global Internet Freedom Act last fall, Cox has taken pains to highlight that country's human rights record. 

"The Chinese government, and sadly, too many other regimes around the world, have been aggressively blocking access to the Internet, monitoring Internet activity and punishing those who seek only to share information," Cox testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission last month. 

Lance Cottrell, president of Anonymizer.com, which offers software for online privacy and security, lauded moves such as Cox's to take restrictions off Internet access. 

"It's really important that we stand up and try to make free access to information available--and that it not merely be piping in a particular American perspective, but allowing these people access to any set of opinions," Cottrell said. "There are a lot of places in the world that are doing a lot of censorship. The Internet has an opportunity to live up to its billing as the single greatest democratizing technology ever invented." 
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Wired News
Videocams Record Airline Flights  
02:00 AM Jul. 18, 2003 PT

Southeast Airlines said it plans to install digital video cameras throughout the cabins of its planes to record the faces and activities of its passengers at all times, as a precaution against terrorism and other safety threats. 


In addition, the charter airline, based in Largo, Florida, will store the digitized video for up to 10 years. And it may use face recognition software to match faces to names and personal records, the airline said.

"One of the strong capabilities of the system is for the corporate office to be able to monitor what is going on at all times," said Scott Bacon, Southeast's vice president of planning. "From a security standpoint, this provides a great advantage to assure that there is a safe environment at all times." 

The Federal Aviation Administration and the newly created Homeland Security Department do not require airlines to take such security measures. But Southeast said it's just a matter of time before they do, and it will be prepared. 

While other airlines have not announced similar plans, privacy and consumer advocates are alarmed by the tiny airline. They said the move is a big invasion of privacy and see no reason why an airline needs to retain video. 

"What's the point of keeping track of everyone when nothing happens on the flight?" said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

Tien said the airlines and law enforcement would be able to track private, personal information. Not only would they keep a record of every recreational or business trip, they could record conversations between spouses and capture every book title or magazine a passenger reads. 

The video system is manufactured by SkyWay Communications, based in Clearwater, Florida. The company installs the cameras and stores the information for its customers. 

"We can install up to 16 cameras that can be located throughout the plane and could be covert or overt," said David Huy, SkyWay vice president of sales and marketing. "It enables us to monitor the activity in the aircraft in real time. We feel this will be very important. The federal government is looking at mandating some camera security and surveillance." 

Huy said cameras wouldn't be installed in the restrooms. 

He conceded the system would not prevent determined terrorists from sabotaging a plane, as the terrorists of the Sept. 11 attacks did. The purpose is to help law enforcement identify criminals and keep track of their whereabouts. Pilots could check the cabin before opening the cockpit door during a flight. And, airlines could use the records to defend themselves in lawsuits over situations like air rage. 

The Department for Homeland Security hasn't yet mandated the use of video cameras in flights. 

"These are just a number of technologies out there that we are considering in reference to security," said Michelle Petrovich, a spokeswoman for the department's science and technology bureau. "We haven't made a decision or awarded a contract yet." 

Other airlines did not respond to queries about plans to use cameras. American Airlines declined to comment. The Air Transport Association, an airline industry trade group, did not respond to a call. 

Privacy advocates say systems that allow constant surveillance will have limited ability to prevent crime. Instead, they likely will only raise people's anxiety. 

Tien said he recently read a book by the U.S. government titled Who Becomes a Terrorist? 

"It's creepy that they would know what it is I am reading," Tien said. "I could see what it would look like on a screen. I don't think I should have to feel funny about things like that."
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BBC Online
E-government 'needs rebooting'
Thursday, 17 July, 2003, 07:10 GMT 08:10 UK

Computer literate people should gradually be forced to go online to use public services, says a leading think tank. 
Savings from making the middle classes do things like file their tax returns online can help improve other services for those uncomfortable with computers, says the Work Foundation. 

In a new report, the think tank says the government should downgrade its target of getting all public services online by 2005. 

The target should not be scrapped completely, it says, but the top priority must go to increasing the number of people using services through the internet. 

User focus 

At a reception to launch the report on Wednesday, author Noah Curthoys said the best way to improve internet usage was to focus on those people most comfortable and skilled at using the internet. 

Research suggested that was more affluent, younger people in full-time employment, he explained. 

Instead, it was older people from poorer backgrounds who were less computer literate and also were the greatest users of public services. 

Mr Curthoys acknowledged the idea of compulsion was controversial and, as with London's motorist congestion charges, it would not always be necessary. 

But his report says: "The logical issue for rebuilding government is the introduction of greater incentives, and greater compulsion. 

"E-government currently offers neither a bonus for use nor a penalty for avoidance." 

'No e-ghetto' 

The report goes further, pushes for wider reforms, both putting services online and rejigging the way government deals with them. 

It suggests that the "ghettoisation" of e-government should end and it should instead seen as part of the broader drive for "joined-up government" and reformed public services. 

Mr Curthoys says the government has invested in and started to build online services. 

But evidence of success is scattered, successes not trumpeted loudly enough and perceptions of failure reinforced. 

His report adds: "Usage and delivery of online services remain patchy. To be blunt, British e-government needs rebooting." 

The idea of compelling people to take up online services got short shrift from the some of the other experts at the launch. 

Val Shawcross, e-envoy at the Greater London Authority, said: "I think that would be wholly wrong in a democratic society." 

But she backed other parts of the report, saying the public sector needed to use its partnerships with private companies more effectively. 

Ms Shawcross added: "We always knew really that the rather narrow targets of 2005 was unintelligent. 

"It was a very rough boot in the right direction." 

Incentives 

Ian Kearns, from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the target should now be scrapped completely as it had done of its job of kick-starting initial efforts. 

He too argued against compulsion, saying choice was the best way of improving take up by focusing on core services online. 

Instead, he suggested a public interest company be set up to help get people who are not using the internet online. 

If such companies got people in the long term online and using e-government services then the savings made would go back to the firm to help it continue its work, said Mr Kearns. 

Steve Beet, from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, said the compulsion idea was important for helping to change attitudes. 

But he thought incentives were a better way to improve take-up. 

"If you offer a high quality service - and we do not in e-government - people would migrate to using it," he said. 

There was, however, some support for the compulsion idea at the launch 

One observer argued it was "dishonest" for government to say it would use paper communications channels when they were much more expensive.
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 InfoWorld
Congress takes small steps on privacy legislation
Bill's passing in doubt due to opposition from within technology industry
http://www.idg.net/ic_1326807_9677_1-5041.html
July 18, 2003

While the U.S. Congress focuses on fighting spam e-mail, legislation aimed at protecting consumer privacy online has taken a back seat. The chance of passage of one privacy bill, which would require companies to notify consumers when a database containing private information has been compromised, is in doubt after some in the technology industry opposed the legislation. 
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Washington Post
Senate Votes to Deny Funding To Computer Surveillance Effort 
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 19, 2003; Page E01 


A Senate vote to cut off funding is the latest setback for a controversial computer surveillance program the Pentagon wants, to enable authorities to search vast networks of personal records to look for possible terrorist activity. 

The vote late Thursday to deny any funds being spent on what is now called the Terrorism Information Awareness program was part of a $369 billion military spending bill that passed unanimously. The Bush administration, which requested $54 million for the program over three years, had urged the Senate to remove the provision cutting off funding, saying in a statement Monday, "This provision would deny an important tool in the war on terrorism."

A provision in the House defense appropriations bill that passed last week left room for further work on the program, though it prohibited use of the program's technology on U.S. citizens without congressional permission. The House and Senate will meet in conference to discuss the differences between the bills. 

Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversees the program, said yesterday, "We urge the conferees to remove the prohibition on research and development" of the program.

The $54 million initiative seeks to develop a database of public and private records that could be combed for patterns that may reveal terrorist activity. Authorities could search credit card bills and airline records, as well as health, education and other personal information, the Pentagon told Congress in May. Other elements of the proposed program included developing long-distance surveillance technology that could identify people by their gaits, or, from closer in, by the irises of their eyes. 

The research project, originally known as the Total Information Awareness initiative, began in 2002 under the direction of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter. Fearing the Orwellian overtones of the office logo -- an all-seeing eye with the slogan "knowledge is power" in Latin -- bipartisan support grew in Congress and among privacy coalitions for checking the program's development. 

Civil liberties advocates, who have harshly criticized the initiative as an invasion of privacy, applauded the Senate action. 

"I think it's a landmark occasion. The Senate of the United States is stepping up and saying that they are not going to tolerate the creation of a surveillance society," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program.

"As originally proposed, this program would have been the biggest spying and surveillance program in the history of the country," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who spearheaded an earlier effort to ensure congressional oversight of the technology, said in an interview. "Now there are real checks, and a strong prospect that Congress will close the program altogether. I think this is a watershed moment for privacy rights."

"This starts from the premise that there might be something inherently suspicious about anyone even before a criminal act has occurred," said David L. Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Though the government needs to be involved in preventative activity this really goes too far, and opens the door to serious abuses." 
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Australian IT
Police target free email
Simon Hayes
JULY 21, 2003  
 
THE Federal Police is talking with the major free email providers in the hope of making it easier to trace suspects who use the accounts for crimes like fraud and paedophilia.

The news came as an ex-NCA member suggested abolishing free email accounts as a way to better identify offenders online. 
Admitting that the AFP had difficulty gaining access to subscriber details often stored with the US offices of email providers, Australian High Tech Crime Centre director Alastair MacGibbon said discussions were in train with the local offices of major providers. 

His comments to the the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission's investigation into cybercrime came as other witnesses suggested 100 point checks for internet users and the abolition of free email accounts. 

"While the ISP can provide that capability to someone sitting in Australia, the capability is more than likely somewhere in the US," said Mr MacGibbon. "How do we use our (Australian) powers to compell that ISP to give information." 

Mr MacGibbon said free email providers' "head office in California" may not agree to delivering subscriber data to Australian police. 

"We are in discussions with the major ISPs commonly used to see if we can apply Australian laws (to them)," he said. 

While Mr MacGibbon did not name the ISPs involved in the talks, he did say that Hotmail featured prominently in many investigations due to the sheer number of accounts issued. 

"Hotmail figures quite prominently in our investigations not because Microsoft is a bad company but because they have provided a good service that can be used anywhere," he said. 

A Yahoo! spokeswoman said the company worked closely with police, but added that authorities had to go through the US for access to Yahoo US accounts. 

A spokesman for Hotmail's local provider ninemsn was not available for comment at press time. 

Former NCA member Greg Melick told the committee there was an easy way to eliminate the anonymity that protected criminals online. 

"Do away with free internet (email) accounts," he said. "If they aren't free then people will pay by credit card and that gives law enforcement some starting point. 

"Microsoft and others who provide these services have to be brought to heel." 

Mr Melick also advocated a 100-point identification check for internet access accounts, saying a similar system had been established in France. 

He said the French move - regarded in the European Union as a "flash of Gallic madness" - would only work if other countries supported it. 

"There will always be rogue states that will provide an internet haven in the same way they provide a banking haven," he said. "This has to be seriously raised at an international level." 

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's director of electronic enforcement Keith Inman said law enforcement agencies had initially pushed for better identification of ISP subscribers, but had later compromised in favour of using caller ID to identify users. 

He said ISPs were becoming increasingly strict on correctly identifying customers. 
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New York Times
July 21, 2003
Report on USA Patriot Act Alleges Civil Rights Violations
By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON, July 20  A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations involving enforcement of the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act.

The inspector general's report, which was presented to Congress last week and is awaiting public release, is likely to raise new concern among lawmakers about whether the Justice Department can police itself when its employees are accused of violating the rights of Muslim and Arab immigrants and others swept up in terrorism investigations under the 2001 law.

The report said that in the six-month period that ended on June 15, the inspector general's office had received 34 complaints of civil rights and civil liberties violations by department employees that it considered credible, including accusations that Muslim and Arab immigrants in federal detention centers had been beaten.

The accused workers are employed in several of the agencies that make up the Justice Department, with most of them assigned to the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees federal penitentiaries and detention centers.

The report said that credible accusations were also made against employees of the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service; most of the immigration agency was consolidated earlier this year into the Department of Homeland Security.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Barbara Comstock, said tonight that the department "takes its obligations very seriously to protect civil rights and civil liberties, and the small number of credible allegations will be thoroughly investigated." 

Ms. Comstock noted that the department was continuing to review accusations made last month in a separate report by the inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, that found broader problems in the department's treatment of hundreds of illegal immigrants rounded up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

While most of the accusations in the report are still under investigation, the report said a handful had been substantiated, including those against a federal prison doctor who was reprimanded after reportedly telling an inmate during a physical examination that "if I was in charge, I would execute every one of you" because of "the crimes you all did."

The report did not otherwise identify the doctor or name the federal detention center where he worked. The doctor, it said, had "allegedly treated other inmates in a cruel and unprofessional manner."

The report said that the inspector general's office was continuing to investigate a separate case in which about 20 inmates at a federal detention center, which was not identified, had recently accused a corrections officer of abusive behavior, including ordering a Muslim inmate to remove his shirt "so the officer could use it to shine his shoes."

In that case, the report said, the inspector general's office was able to obtain a statement from the officer admitting that he had verbally abused the Muslim inmate and that he had been "less that completely candid" with internal investigators from the Bureau of Prisons. The inspector general's office said it had also obtained a sworn statement from another prison worker confirming the inmates' accusations.

The report did not directly criticize the Bureau of Prisons for its handling of an earlier internal investigation of the officer, but the report noted that the earlier inquiry had been closed  and the accused officer initially cleared  without anyone interviewing the inmates or the officer.

The report is the second in recent weeks from the inspector general to focus on the way the Justice Department is carrying out the broad new surveillance and detention powers it gained under the Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress a month after the 9/11 attacks.

In the first report, which was made public on June 2, Mr. Fine, whose job is to act as the department's internal watchdog, found that hundreds of illegal immigrants had been mistreated after they were detained following the attacks.

That report found that many inmates languished in unduly harsh conditions for months, and that the department had made little effort to distinguish legitimate terrorist suspects from others picked up in roundups of illegal immigrants.

The first report brought widespread, bipartisan criticism of the Justice Department, which defended its conduct at the time, saying that it "made no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further attacks."

Ms. Comstock, the spokeswoman, said tonight that the department had been sensitive to concerns about civil rights and civil liberties after the 9/11 attacks, and that the department had been aggressive in investigating more that 500 cases of complaints of ethnic "hate crimes" linked to backlash from the attacks.

"We've had 13 federal prosecutions of 18 defendants to date, with a 100 percent conviction rate," she said. "We have a very aggressive effort against post-9/11 discrimination."

A copy of the report, which was dated July 17 and provided to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, was made available to The New York Times by the office of Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House panel.

"This report shows that we have only begun to scratch the surface with respect to the Justice Department's disregard of constitutional rights and civil liberties," Mr. Conyers said in a statement. "I commend the inspector general for having the courage and independence to highlight the degree to which the administration's war on terror has misfired and harmed innocent victims with no ties to terror whatsoever.`

The report is Mr. Fine's evaluation of his efforts to enforce provisions of the Patriot Act that require his office to investigate complaints of abuses of civil rights and civil liberties by Justice Department employees. The provision was inserted into the law by members of Congress who said they feared that the Patriot Act might lead to widespread law enforcement abuses.

The report draws no broad conclusions about the extent of abuses by Justice Department employees, although it suggests that the relatively small staff of the inspector general's office has been overwhelmed by accusations of abuse, many filed by Muslim or Arab inmates in federal detention centers.

The inspector general said that from Dec. 16 through June 15, his office received 1,073 complaints "suggesting a Patriot Act-related" abuse of civil rights or civil liberties.

The report suggested that hundreds of the accusations were easily dismissed as not credible or impossible to prove. But of the remainder, 272 were determined to fall within the inspector general's jurisdiction, with 34 raising "credible Patriot Act violations on their face." 

In those 34 cases, it said, the accusations "ranged in seriousness from alleged beatings of immigration detainees to B.O.P. correctional officers allegedly verbally abusing inmates."

The report said that two of the cases were referred to internal investigators at the Federal Bureau of Investigation because they involved bureau employees. In one case, the report said, the bureau investigated  and determined to be unsubstantiated  a complaint that an F.B.I. agent had "displayed aggressive, hostile and demeaning behavior while administering a pre-employment polygraph examination." 

The report said that the second case involved accusations from a naturalized citizen of Lebanese descent that the F.B.I. had invaded his home based on false information and wrongly accused him of possessing an AK-47 rifle. That case, it said, is still under investigation by the bureau.
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Mercury News
ISPs slammed with subpoenas
MUSIC INDUSTRY SEEKS SUSPECTED INFRINGERS
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
July 21, 2003

The music industry has obtained at least 871 federal subpoenas in the past month to go after people who illegally trade music over the Internet.

The Recording Industry Association of America is seeking subpoenas, at a rate of 75 a day, to force Internet providers to release the names of customers suspected of downloading bootlegged songs online.

It's the music industry's first step toward curbing online piracy at the source -- individual computer users. When it gets the names from Internet companies, the industry plans to file civil lawsuits to stop the practice -- and deter others with the threat of penalties of $150,000 per stolen song.

Internet service providers call the torrent of subpoenas an unprecedented action.

The RIAA announced a shift in legal strategy last month, after a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that popular file-swapping services like Morpheus and Grokster could not be held liable for alleged copyright abuses by their millions of users.

Within a day of announcing plans to sue hundreds -- and possibly thousands -- of computer users who trade in bootlegged songs online, attorneys for the RIAA began seeking subpoenas to obtain the names of suspected infringers, known only by online aliases such as ``Clover77'' and ``Jeff.''

The actual identities of those subpoenaed, as well as where they live and work, are not yet known.

``This should not surprise anyone,'' said Amy Weiss, the RIAA's senior vice president of communications, in an e-mail. ``Filing information subpoenas is part of the evidence-gathering process that we announced a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the lawsuits that we will be filing against people who illegally make copyrighted music available on peer-to-peer networks. We're doing exactly what we said we'd do.''

The RIAA has subpoenaed virtually every major Internet provider, including EarthLink, Pacific Bell Internet in San Francisco, Comcast and Charter Communications, according to an examination of court documents.

Stewart Baker, general counsel for the Internet industry's leading trade group -- the United States Internet Service Providers Association -- said the subpoenas pose a significant burden. He said it's both expensive and logistically challenging to track down individual subscribers from the sketchiest of information -- often, a user name and a randomly assigned Internet address.

``In many cases, especially for people who have dynamic IP addresses, you've got to go back through the rolls, because many people have used the same IP address over the last two weeks,'' said Baker.

Verizon Internet Services predicted that this day would come, as it fought the RIAA's efforts to learn the identity of a single subscriber accused of downloading more than 600 copyrighted songs on Kazaa. Verizon was ordered to turn over the name in June, and has since received a reported 150 additional subpoenas from the RIAA.

``We argued to the judge that this kind of huge automated process would result in some abuses in the future. We also argued that it was a waste of judicial resources to turn the clerks' office into a full-time subpoena mill for a private party,'' said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate general counsel.

The recording industry has maintained that it has little choice other than to pursue individuals who use file-swapping services to steal music. It blames the wild popularity of file-swapping pioneer Napster, and its subsequent imitators that arose after its demise in 2001, for a 26 percent drop in music shipments since 1999.

And, as evidence of the corrosive effects of downloading, it pointed to a recent Edison Media Research study, which found that 48 percent of heavy music downloaders no longer purchase CDs because they get music for free online.

``We all would much rather spend our time making music than dealing with legal issues in courtrooms,'' said RIAA President Cary Sherman last month, in defending the new, unpopular legal initiative. ``But we can no longer accept the work of our artists, songwriters, and entire music industry being stolen. So we're going to start doing something more about it.''

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, meanwhile, will launch a massive advertising campaign seeking to defend the rights of an estimated 57 million file-swappers and legitimize services like Kazaa. The ad, appearing in popular music magazines like Rolling Stone, Spin and Vibe, shows several music fans in a police-style lineup. The ad copy reads, ``Tired of being treated like a criminal for sharing music online?'' and ``File-Sharing: It's Music to Our Ears.''

``We think that it's gotten crazy enough now and it's time to say stop,'' said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the San Francisco-based Internet rights organization. ``That this ever-increasing demonization of file-sharing and file-sharers is counterproductive. It doesn't get artists paid. And it doesn't respond to what consumers want.''
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Washington Post
Identity Theft Charges Belie a Life of Luxury 
By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 19, 2003; Page B01 


In the heat of the afternoon, neighbors used to see Francis E. Fletcher Jr. and his wife, Michele, reclining on cushioned wicker chairs on the front porch of their new Mediterranean-style home in Glenn Dale, sipping cool drinks.

Lumber was piled in the driveway, the beginnings of what was to be a two-tier deck off the back of the house. Three satellite dishes sprouted from one end of the roof. A John Deere riding mower was parked in the garage, even though the home was so new the grass had yet to sprout. Three luxury cars were parked out front. And an artisan was coming regularly to paint flowers and fruit on the kitchen walls and bumblebees and ladybugs in the kids' rooms. Life was good. 

Prosecutors say it was too good to be true.

On Wednesday, federal officials brought a five-count indictment against the Prince George's County couple, charging them with credit card and bank fraud and identity theft. The two face up to 30 years in prison each and $1 million in fines. Authorities allege it is one of the biggest cases of identity theft in the region.

"The scope of this crime is rather significant," said U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio. "They had 40,000 victims."

While much remains unknown about the Fletchers, court and public records show one thing clearly: The "nice young couple" with four children including a brand-new baby living the easy life in a suburban cul-de-sac had lengthy arrest records, had served prison time and had grown up rough. 

By the time they were arrested in late April, Francis Fletcher had come a long way from the gray, single-story shotgun shack on the corner of Ely Place in Southeast Washington, where just about everyone else had an arrest record, including his father, who faced charges from petty larceny and assault to selling drugs.

And his wife had moved far beyond the meaner times of her youth in inner-city Brooklyn, N.Y., and her first arrest, at barely 19, on a charge of passing bad checks in Alexandria.

Neighbors in the new subdivision in Glenn Dale said Francis Fletcher was handsome, articulate and friendly. He won raves for revving up his new snowblower during this winter's storms and clearing the entire cul-de-sac. "I never would have suspected any kind of criminal background," said Harold Lipton, a neighbor two doors down.

"She looks like such a nice girl next door," said Ruth Raynor, who was the landlord to Michele Fletcher's now-defunct Moné salon on New Hampshire Avenue. 

And both were so sincere that Raynor believed Michele Fletcher when she continually fell behind in her rent but promised to pay. By October, she was behind $13,000, Raynor said. And overnight, she moved the entire operation out. It was only then that Raynor ran a credit check. The Social Security number on the lease application was a fake, Raynor said. "I feel like a damn fool."

Francis Fletcher's arrest records reach back to his teen years in the District and in Prince George's County, when he was known on the street by names that included Tyrone Ragareno and Michael Johnson. He never made it past 11th grade and dropped out of a dropout prevention program, D.C. court records show.

As late as 1995, when he was arrested for stealing two shirts, worth less than $200, from the Tennis Factory store in Arlington, he listed his home address as Anacostia, his profession as unemployed. He had no assets. No income.

Growing up was rough, relatives said. "His mother didn't pay much attention to him," said his maternal grandmother, Barbara Young. And his father didn't have much to do with him. "He mainly lived with other people," she said.

Young remembers her grandson as a quiet boy. "He was an easy person," she said, sitting in her Capitol Heights home. "Easy to be swayed."

Michele Cameron, on the other hand, was driven: driven to get out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, an old friend remembers, and determined to live the good life. She was short, 4 feet 11 inches, but bristling with New York attitude, another said.

"She was ambitious. Daring," said a friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "What other people said they might do, she went out and did. She took chances."

Records show that in the summer of 1993, she was accused of stealing other people's identities to buy nice things, and her husband was at her side. She was indicted in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on charges of using a stolen credit card to buy more than $2,000 in jewelry and merchandise from Zales and Macy's. 

On July 29, 1993, when she was confronted by U.S. Secret Service officers who had been tracking her, she bit one of them. Francis Fletcher joined in the fray. Both were charged with assaulting federal officers.

"They were not people of means when they were here," said Dick Langway, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta.

Court records show that Francis Fletcher was declared a fugitive from justice before he was found at his grandmother's house and the pair were finally brought to trial in 1997. Both pleaded guilty to assault charges and served eight months in federal prisons. The theft charges were dropped.

After their release, Michele Fletcher opened her first beauty salon, Moné, named for her daughter. About that time, Francis Fletcher was driving a nine-year-old Acura, and his wife had a 12-year-old Nissan. The two lived in a dumpy, vinyl-sided apartment building off Harry Truman Drive in Largo.

Some who wrangled with Michele Fletcher said she was not one to mess with, especially over money. Terry Latrice Queen wanted a refund for her Moné salon gift certificate after her appointment was canceled. "She refused to budge. She used nasty, curse words. You name it, I got it, " said Queen, who later sued and won in civil court. "I could not believe someone like this was running a business."

In 2001, life suddenly changed for the couple. Michele Fletcher bought a Lexus and then a gutted home in a Largo neighborhood for $107,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Neighbors recall van after van driving up to refurbish the two-story rambler with wood floors, new appliances, landscaping and outdoor lighting. "I figured they were lucky people, like they had an inheritance or something," said a neighbor who gave his name only as Mack. He often saw Francis out front washing luxury cars. "They sure did have a lot of cars. People did notice that," Mack said.

In August, they traded up, buying a $400,000 home in a Glenn Dale subdivision so new there are no street signs.

Meanwhile, stores such as Target, Circuit City and Best Buy in the Washington area began noticing a pattern of identity theft: a black man wearing a baseball cap, accompanied by a short, Hispanic-looking woman, buying large-denomination gift certificates with phony credit cards.

Then on April 5, after a couple loaded three DVD players onto the checkout conveyor belt at Target in Germantown, a suspicious security guard trained the rooftop cameras on the two as they emerged from the store and captured their license plate on videotape.

A few days later, when a woman from La Plata called to complain about the $1,200 purchase she said she never made, police ran the license plate and discovered it belonged to the Fletchers.

"If they'd have been driving a rental car, or the security guard didn't have a hunch something was wrong, we never would have found them," said Montgomery County fraud detective Scott Wyne.

On April 21, authorities searched the house and arrested the two on charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit identity theft.

Detectives said they found 40 fake cards on the kitchen counter, in drawers in the master bedroom and in the hall closets. In one room, set up like a home office, were printers, Zip drives, computers, software and machinery necessary to make fake identification cards and emboss them with official-looking holograms and Visa logos, police said.

They found a report with 40,000 names and credit card numbers from a major retail store, the indictment charges.

In Francis Fletcher's wallet, they found a Virginia driver's license with his photo, the name James Simmons, a nonexistent Alexandria address and a Social Security number that investigators later said belonged to a woman in South Carolina.

They also found receipts from a single day's shopping: $292 for liquor, $185 for children's clothing and shoes, $518 spent at Benetton for women's clothing and $292 at Blockbuster video.

The Fletchers have been free since posting $100,000 bond each on the Montgomery County charges. They are awaiting arraignment in federal court. 

Meanwhile, business has evaporated at the one remaining Moné salon in College Park, with only one stylist left and a meager shelf of beauty products. And neighbors report that they don't much see Francis and Michele sitting outside in their matching wicker chairs, as they used to, drinking cool drinks in the easy heat of the afternoon.
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Los Angeles Times
Computer Game Turned Bloody Mismatch Lands 9 Teens in Court
One player and friends were ambushed when he agreed to fight the other player, authorities say.
By David Pierson
Times Staff Writer

July 21, 2003

For two San Gabriel Valley teenagers, an Internet computer game was too intense to forget about in cyberspace, so they agreed to fight in person.

It ended with the arrest of nine teenagers charged as adults with 10 felony counts after a bloody mismatch in a secluded Hacienda Heights community. They are all due in Pomona Superior Court today for their preliminary hearings to determine if they should stand trial.

An investigator said the dispute started March 13 when Jia Wen Chen defeated Kuan Chich Tsai in Counterstrike, an online game that pits "terrorists" against "counterterrorists" in a fast-paced shooting free-for-all. 

Tsai, who was playing from a computer gaming parlor in Hacienda Heights, challenged Chen, who was in a similar establishment in Rowland Heights, to a fight, said sheriff's Deputy John Choo, an Asian gang crime specialist who is leading the investigation. 

At 7 p.m. the following night, Chen and four of his friends drove to High Tor, a gated community in the Puente Hills in southern Hacienda Heights. Shortly after entering the gates, they were reportedly surrounded by about 30 people, some carrying bats and metal pipes.

"It was a perfect ambush," Choo said.

The mob smashed the windows of the visitors' Honda Civic before striking the passengers. One 17-year-old got out of the car, stood nearby and inexplicably eluded the beating, Choo said.

Most severely beaten was Jacky Rui Sun, 22, who had his jaw broken and suffered a deep cut on his head. Choo said Sun was targeted because he was the driver and may have been mistaken for Chen.

A minute later, the mob fled in cars. Choo said some may have been members of an Asian gang. All of those arrested attended Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights at the time, and some went to a dance at the school minutes after the assault, Choo said.

Only Sun was hospitalized; the others suffered cuts and bruises. They alerted police after they returned to the Hacienda Heights home of one of them, Choo said.

Two months after the incident, deputies served 18 arrest warrants based on witnesses' and victims' accounts and examination of a school yearbook. Seventeen students were plucked out of classrooms, and one was arrested at home, Choo said.

They were held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. Many families could not afford the recommended bail of $305,000, and Choo said some of the young people are still in custody. One family started a donation drive in the neighborhood to help bail out their friends' child.

Of the 18 arrested May 13, the district attorney had sufficient evidence to charge nine, Choo said. They are the 18-year-old Tsai, who allegedly initiated the fight; Christopher Choo, 19; Willy Huang Yao, 17; Denny Jia Gan, 17; Louis Woo Lee, 17; Jack Sun, 17; Paul Shin, 16; Christopher Jeong 17; and Martin Myung, 17. 

They are charged with assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, false imprisonment and vandalism. If a teenager is convicted and proved to be a gang member, his or her sentence can be enhanced by several years under California law.

Myung's parents have hired a private investigator and an attorney in an effort to help prove that their son was wrongly identified as an assailant. They say he was at home chatting with a friend online and preparing to go to the dance at Wilson High when the attack occurred. 

"It was so sad when he said to me, 'Mommy, I see the world differently now. Why did they arrest an innocent person like me?' " said Sunny Myung, who took out loans with her husband for the entire $305,000 bail to free her son after his three nights in juvenile detention. 

The Myungs say Martin is a deeply religious boy who spends almost all his Friday evenings at a Bible workshop. They say family friends and teachers have offered to testify on his behalf. School friends even wore homemade "Free Martin" patches on campus, Marvin Myung said. 

A lawyer representing Yao said his client went with friends to the scene of the fight after rumors of the showdown started generating excitement among teenagers.

"A lot of innocent bystanders got sucked in," said attorney Montie Reynolds. "He was standing there like any kid who wants to watch a fight Some of the kids thought it was a five-on-five fight. They had no idea gangs were notified."

The remaining seven defendants and their attorneys could not be reached for comment.
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Federal Computer Week
DHS hires fingerprint expertise
BY Judi Hasson 
July 17, 2003

The Homeland Security Department has awarded a one-year contract to DigitalNet Government Solutions to bring its expertise to analyzing the fingerprints of suspected terrorists and others who may be on a government watch list.

The agency used a GSA schedule to award the contract to the Herndon, Va.-based company. DigitalNet will provide analysis to DHS' Biometrics Support Center, which is part of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigration officials are planning to require biometric identifiers, most likely fingerprints, for foreigners entering the United States by the end of this year under a program called US-VISIT. Fingerprint technology is also being studied for use in gaining access to government buildings and to embed in U.S. passports.

Under terms of the contract, DigtalNet will help DHS respond quickly in comparing fingerprints. The value of the contract depends on how many fingerprint records will be analyzed in the coming year, according to Gina Abate, DigitalNet's vice president.

"Examiners must fully understand the effects on fingerprints of varying amounts of pressure, scarring, dirt and grease," she said. "Examiners must have a good understanding of other fingerprint identification systems, particularly the FBI's."

Under the program, the Biometrics Support Center stores fingerprints and other biographical information in databases.

DigitalNet will help the government support its lookout database enrollment, alert Database enrollment, biometric identification verification services and the National Security Entry/Exit Registration System.

"The Department of Homeland Security is excited to be working with DigitalNet in its award of the operations of the Biometrics Support Center," said John Latta, DHS' biometric portfolio manager. "The BSC is a very mission-critical task that provides law enforcement officers of DHS with the timely information necessary to complete their job."
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