Justice Official Who Oversees Cases On Corruption, Fraud Is Quitting

Source: WaPo

Justice Official Who Oversees Cases On Corruption, Fraud Is Quitting

Thursday, May 1, 2008; A17



Alice S. Fisher, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, said yesterday that she will leave government service at the end of the month after nearly three years overseeing major public corruption and corporate fraud cases.

Her departure leaves the Justice Department even more short-staffed. Fisher was one of only four remaining division chiefs who have navigated the Senate confirmation process.

Among the ongoing investigations Fisher had been overseeing were cases involving members of Congress and executives at mortgage companies caught up in the credit debacle. Her deputy, Barry M. Sabin, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, is serving in an acting capacity, and her chief of staff left for private practice earlier this year.

Justice Department officials said they are not ready to announce who will replace Fisher, who previously worked several years at the law firm Latham & Watkins.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003257_pf.html

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Alice S. Fisher
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Alice S. FisherAlice S. Fisher was appointed<1> by President George W. Bush in a recess appointment August 31, 2005, as Assistant Attorney General to head the Criminal Division in the United States Department of Justice.

Fisher was nominated March 29, 2005, and her nomination was sent to the Senate April 4, 2005. Her nomination was stalled over interrogation tactics at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility. She was confirmed by the senate on September 19, 2006.<2>

Fisher "had a substantive law firm career, and she worked for two years in the Criminal Division overseeing the Department’s prosecutions in the high-profile areas of counterterrorism and corporate fraud. She also been a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff," Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy said<3> in his May 12, 2005, statement. "I am somewhat concerned, however, that Ms. Fisher is nominated for one of the most visible prosecutorial positions in the country without ever having prosecuted a case, and she brings to the position minimal trial experience in any context," he said.

Leahy also expressed concerns about Fisher's "views on checks of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and her opposition to the Act’s sunset provision; her participation in meetings in which the FBI expressed its disagreement with harsh interrogation methods practiced by the military toward detainees held at Guantanamo, and her ideas about appropriate safeguards for the treatment of enemy combatants." Leahy was also concerned about "reports that she has had ties to Congressman Tom DeLay’s defense team" and "also to know what steps she to take to avoid a conflict of interest in the Department’s investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and possibly Mr. DeLay."

more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_S._Fisher

Good riddance.

"If only," to replace this rat leaving the sinking ship, there could slip by, somehow in the general chaos that the wind-down of this administration is turning into, a REAL prosecutorial talent who hasn't been vetted so thoroughly yet by the overseeing Darth Team. This person gets appointed and goes to work.

And "if only" this person could then get rolling on some of the most egregious corruption cases that involve the dark side of this administration (oh wait, it's all a dark side), AND then news of such investigations or prosecutions gets out, gains attention, and turns explosive and radioactive before they can stuff the leakage back into their NSA-certified Secrecy Cannisters.

And "if only" we would then be able to watch the show, as the eyes of millions of willingly oblivious USians bug out in shock when they have to face just how malicious and criminally guilty their reps and appointees under this administration are. Watch an even bigger show as the guilty perps are marched off to their meager prison cells, thinking (as Al Capone did) that their stay would be short, but learning (as Al Capone did) that they could die of their own nasty diseases, right there, locked up in the dark, dank penitentiary!

Wouldn't that be marvelous? Ironic (considering their prediliction for imprisoning others)? Fun and exciting for us? Rewarding!? And most of all, JUST and gratifying!?

But I know, I know ... you don't have to tell me: I'm dreaming again. Imagining what could happen "if only" some really major break were made; some little chink in their Hoover-Dam-like wall of secrecy and self-protection (through lies and coverups) that could turn into a bigger crack as ever-larger cogs in their monstrous machine decide it's better to 'fess up and throw their bosses to the wolves than to go down alone themselves for crimes they were ordered to commit.

And then the big cracks would start to leak like a bus-wide split in that dam wall, and ... well, get the picture?

So that, in the end, like a floodgate that was bound to be made by accident when so much powerfully incriminating stuff was "stuffed" and hidden for too long, the flow begins for real and grows, uncontrollable and unstaunched. The flow of truth, of knowledge, at last reveals all; the secrets kept from us, the nasty truths we've avoided or been prevented from knowing, FINALLY blasts out upon the land in such a rush we can hardly keep our heads above the torrents of slime we're witnessing being exposed!

Can anyone else imagine such a thing, or is it just me, and am I losing it at long last? ;)

Because, ya see, I DO wonder if it is indeed quite possible that AT SOME POINT, EVENTUALLY, the truth will force its way out and the light of day will burn the eyes and bare-naked, brazen backs of those who have flourished in and profitted from the darkness they've hidden in for just too damn long. Darkness and secrecy that allowed them to get away with so much and encouraged the growth of their hubris to ridiculous heights.

And finally their hubris led them to behave even more recklessly and brazenly, enlarging their web of lies ... till it inevitably stretches too thin and breaks.

I mean, Shakespeare said it, didn't he? "Truth will out," or something like that, right? Right?? I have always believed there was a huge amount of reality and wisdom in that adage, and isn't it a given that secrets almost always DO get exposed at some point?

Why NOT sooner rather than later -- rather than TOO late -- for these folks to be exposed for their rotten and criminal secret doings? Why not see it as "They've gotten away with it longer than we thought possible" leading to "It's PAST time for any reasonable expectation of further successful covering up"?

I mean, haven't all huge and evil enterprises and empires historically ultimately come crashing down, due to the secrets which helped keep them in power and in operation being finally exposed? Why do we seem to accept that THIS nefarious operation is any different? They've simply had more power than previous operators, power to do damage and keep their secrets hidden. But consequently they over-reached too often and too deeply and surely have left a few secrets insufficiently guarded and with loose ends not neatly enough tied up. Shouldn't we expect that a good hard tug on some of those loose ends at this point would unravel the whole shebang?

Don't the biggest and baddest things take the biggest and baddest falls in the end?

We should start thinking in terms of the INEVITABILITY of their downfall and begin looking forward to the full exposure and END of these murderous bastards, right? They WILL fall, eventually! I'm sure of it! They only SEEM to be untouchable and out of reach, due to their careful longterm planning, their cunning, and their successful covering up of their wickedness -- to this point. But hell, even the "Untouchables" weren't UNtouchable! NO ONE IS!

Uh oh ... now I'm raving. But it's a great feeling, to let that certainty of their mighty downfall ALMOST take hold and feel real.

Maybe "if only" we could change our own attitudes about the ultimate power of this wickedest of crews, so we could recognize that no one has ultimate and unending power, then the entire picture might begin to shift right before our eyes.

I do remember also that before the Watergate thing got rolling, long before Nixon's resignation speech and his little wave bye-bye as he entered the helicopter to leave the White House in disgrace, no one would have dared to imagine, let alone believe, that such a powerful man could fall so far, so fast. The chinks had already begun to appear in his Secrecy Cannister even before he was re-elected for a second term, yet he did take office again and it appeared he was going to get away with everything. But he didn't!

I desperately want us to change our mindset, and then maybe we could get something DONE about the outrage that has been our government "representation" and power structure. It's all gone very, VERY wrong, and I think most everyone knows it by now. The beast has become too big and too top-heavy and unwieldy. You can't prop up that much shit at the top for that long and not have something trickle down, leak out, and start a sewage smell going that finally can NOT be ignored.

Okay, all right! Rant over! But I'm not done -- not by a long shot! We should NOT give up, that's what I'm ranting about. It's too important that we keep fighting. If we give up, just let it slide, we could be doing so just at the moment before everything comes unstuck for them and their sinking boat takes on water too fast for them to bail it out quickly enough to save themselves.

They're probably counting on us all being willing to just let them leave without a big fuss at this point!

Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? If we gave up just when we were about to succeed at long last? What a scary, dismaying thought!.......

Look what happened to South Africa's apartheid regime under Mandela's leadership.

Remember Mahatma Gandhi driving out the British Raj from India.

Visualize Obama winning the election, choosing a great VP and appointing the right people to key positions...

It is possible. We know it is or we wouldn't be writing here. Hell yes!

:hi:

Sorry, only one to a customer.

when I see others getting unreasonably hopeful about a real breakthrough in this miserable, prolonged, and very frustrating situation.

It's not like I'm not realistic -- I am. But still I think my last sentence in that post holds true. Irrational hope? No, not good for us, it just perpetuates our sense of inevitable defeat. But continuing the fight, for the reasons I gave? I think ... YES!! We MUST continue it!

(I admit I don't always feel this way, but I try to hold onto that underlying attitude at the core, while the different individual situations come and go.)


Not ALL my hopes and visions are "just dreaming"! And some of us MUST keep the ball in the air. If we all just let it drop ... well ... we KNOW what happens then, right?

:)