Sunset of the Day
Ah, politics. You know I avoid them in this blog but I can’t help noticing that Congressman Lynch from South Boston who just got reelected has decided to take a shot at the seat being vacated by Senator Kerry, according to some reports I’ve seen lately. I guess he is going to go up against another Congressman Edward Markey who is in a similar position. I love the courage of these men secure in one job which they intend to hold on to while running for an other job. I guess it’s a “public are fools” attitude since you can’t be doing the job you were just elected to as a Congressman while spending the enormous time running around soliciting votes and money for a new job.
I’m particularly bothered by Congressman Lynch going off on another quest. That is because I’m still waiting for him to tell us what is going on with the FBI. For those who are late to this blog let me quickly tell you why.
Retired FBI Agent John Connolly has been excoriated for using Whitey Bulger as an informant. The public was outraged that such a thing was happening that one of the alleged top gangsters in the area was working with the FBI. Connolly and Bulger were both from South Boston as is Lynch.
The outrage produced the criminal charges against Connolly. He was alleged to have been a renegade FBI agent using gangster Whitey as a source and protecting him. (I should say that it was well-known throughout the FBI that he was doing it so its difficult to be a renegade when the bosses approve of your actions. but we’re not suppose to know that.) Highlighting Connolly as the bad agent allowed the spotlight to stay focused on him. We were told after he was convicted that he was part of the old FBI and things had changed. But as we would learn, the FBI continued along pretty much unchanged.
I’ve pointed all this out in my book “Don’t Embarrass The Family”. As you know, if you read any book about the FBI you’ll understand that the only action an agent can become involved in which will not rally the whole FBI behind him is to embarrass it. When that happens the agent has to be thrown to the wolves with FBI helping to tear him apart as we saw happen in the Connolly case.
Many came away from this ordeal satisfied justice had been done. Never again would we see such a spectacle as the FBI joining up with a high level criminal and protecting him while he is engaged in committing crimes especially one who was believed involve in murders. Connolly was a maverick. Judge Wolf found the practice abhorrent and all the other judges followed along in lockstep awarding large sums of money to families of the victims because of that connection between the FBI and its Top Echelon Informants. A Congressional Committee, of which Lynch was a member, spent two years looking into this and condemning the FBI’s protection of its gangster informants.
Then in 2011 we found out we had been deceived. The FBI was still in bed with top criminals. It came out that during a Massachusetts State Police wiretap an FBI agent was intercepted saying to a high level Mafia figure Mark Rossetti suspected of several murders: “My job is to keep you anonymous and safe.”
What had happened? Didn’t this all stop? Do we still have high-ranking criminals committing crimes who are being protected by the FBI? I wrote back in August about this.
As you’d imagine, when Congressman Lynch who sat on the Committee couldn’t believe it. Nothing seemed to have changed after all these years. He was determined to get to the bottom and find out whether all the lessons we learned from the Whitey era had been forgotten. He was worried that the people of South Boston were again being victimized by gangsters who were protected by the FBI.
When asked about it at the time in August 2011 Lynch said he had demanded a briefing from the FBI on the matter which was being schedule. Then it was reported that in December 2011 Lynch met with the FBI. Lynch reported that the FBI was conducting an internal investigation. The urgency seemed to have died down a bit as the publicity did. The old “let time make everyone forget” seemed to be at work.
A year after the matter first reared its ugly head Lynch was again asked what was going on. He reportedly said “There’s still more work to be done . . . “ He said the FBI internal probe was still ongoing. I had to scratch my head to figure out what was the issue that was taking so long. It looked like Lynch and the rest of the congressional leaders who met with the FBI over this issue were getting the bum’s rush. Lynch would not comment on the appropriateness of having a Mafia leader as one who was being kept safe by the FBI until the FBI finished its internal review.
It’s now about a year and a half later. I’d ask Congressman Lynch that before he go off campaigning for another job if he could attend to the one he has. Can he tell us what is going on with the FBI still using high level criminal informants such as Whitey? Are we to believe no lessons have been learned on account of the Whitey affair? Any information Congressman Lynch can provide us on this matter will be appreciated.