Radio monitor contradicts FBI

When FBI agents stormed a farmhouse in rural Puerto Rico on Sept. 23 where independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was hiding out, it was a radio monitor who reportedly heard first from the FBI that the wanted-fugitive had been shot dead. Pedro Alberto Beauchamp´s version of what he heard on the VHF bands that Friday evening apparently contradicts the official story. The FBI maintains that it didn´t learn of Ojeda´s death until the following day because agents had to wait for a federal explosive team to arrive in Puerto Rico before they could enter the home.

Ojeda, 72, who had been wanted for skipping bail in the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck depot in West Hartford, Conn., bled to death as he lay wounded in the shoulder. An autopsy report revealed that Ojeda may have survived if he would have received quick medical attention.

Beauchamp, a VHF radio scanner listener from the city of Mayaguez, gave a sworn statement to local authorities who are investigating Ojeda´s death and the FBI´s role in the ambush. Last month, the Puerto Rico daily Primera Hora detailed portions of Beauchamp´s sworn statement taken by the Mayaguez district attorney. In it, Beauchamp said he was monitoring the frequencies between 144-174 mHz when he allegedly heard an agent on the scene excitedly contact his superior saying "Ojeda is dead." The zealous agent reportedly forgot to switch on his radio´s scrambler. This occurred at around 7:20 p.m., some three hours after the standoff began.

The following day, FBI Special Agent in Charge Luis Fraticelli announced that Ojeda was indeed shot dead but didn´t learn about it until agents could enter the farmhouse. He explained that his agents had specific orders from Washington not to go inside until an explosives team could arrive in Puerto Rico and assure that it was safe. Ojeda and his terror group Macheteros or "cane-cutters" had used explosives during their rash of attacks in the 1980s.

Puerto Rico´s Attorney General Roberto Sánchez Ramos has said that FBI has not been fully cooperative in the local investigation. The law enforcement bureau has denied turning over documents in the case and refused to allow local investigators interview agents at the scene. Nevertheless because of mounting public and political pressure, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General has opened an investigation into the FBI´s actions.

Fortunately, monitoring official radio communications in the United States is not a crime, although some conservative lawmakers would love to make it one. (They´ve all ready taken away our rights to the cellular phone bands!) Divulging publicly what was said could be prosecuted as an offense. But then again, Beauchamp only related what he heard to a prosecutor. How the press got a hold of the details of his sworn statement is a totally different matter.

PMR broadcasts in English

The would-be breakaway region of the Transdniestrian Moldovian Republic (or PMR) in eastern Moldova is now broadcasting everyday in English to North America. Radio Pridnestrovia or Radio PMR is being heard clear in Madrid on 5,961.8 kHz from 1700 to about 1730 UTC. The lengths of their broadcasts appear to vary each day. According to their announcer, the transmissions are intended for North America. There is little spillover from RAI on an adjacent frequency. They ask for comments on their broadcasts, in which they trash Russian-Moldovan relations. Their address: Radio Prinestrovia, ul. Rozy Luksemburg 10, 3300 Tiraspol, Rep. of Moldova. Check ´em out!

Marc Harris, Offshore Boy Blunder

Marc M. Harris is serving 17 years at a federal medical center outside Fort Worth for tax fraud and money laundering in a scheme to bring in prohibited Freon into the United States. Aside from perhaps several dozen investors who wanted to avoid the U.S. tax laws and got burned in the process, The Marc Harris Organization isn´t quite known among too many international observers. However, this North Carolina native, now 40, was the catalyst of a diplomatic embroilment between the U.S. government and Panamanian authorities who were suspected of protecting him.

In June 2003, Harris was detained at an intersection in Managua, Nicaragua while he and his Panamanian-born wife were on their way to an immigration hearing. He moved to Nicaragua from Panama the year before reportedly after things got too hot for him both legally and politically. He was turned over to U.S. Marshals who were in the country waiting for him, shackled and placed on board a Homeland Security plane bound for Miami. Upon his arrival, the U.S. Attorney´s Office for the Southern District of Florida unsealed a 13-count indictment which charged Harris and co-conspirators Aurelio and Joseph Vigna with evading to pay $6.2 milllion in excise taxes between 1993-94 to import an ozone-depleting refrigerant chemical known by its Dupont name Freon.

Harris´ lawyers unsuccessfully argued that he was kidnapped in violation of international law without due process, much like how U.S. authorities honed into Honduras in 1988 and plucked drug kingpin Juan Ramón Matos Ballesteros from his home and brought him to Los Angeles to face murder and narcotics charges. Harris married a Panamanian but it isn´t clear whether he renounced his U.S. citizenship after fleeing Florida in 1989.

Just weeks before his detention and extradition, I made contact with Harris through a series of emails to his office in Nicaragua. I was investigating whether some high-level Puerto Rican government officials in the then-administration of Gov. Pedro Rosselló had sought his help to squander public money in offshore accounts. In the 1990s, Harris was a partner in the suspcious offshore financial advisory group Trust Services, Ltd. which held an office next to the Puerto Rican Trade Office on Balboa Avenue in downtown Panama City. Arturo Paz Guzmán, a public housing official under Gov. Rosselló, had been convicted for money laundering and served a 12-month sentence. According to federal prosecutors, he used Trust Services to launder public money. After faxing a picture of Paz Guzmán, who now lives in Miami, Harris said he remembered him as a regular client.

These former Rosselló administration officials were all well to do businessmen who were later convicted for or implicated in various corruption kickback-for-contracts and money laundering schemes (see Oct. 13 post). But what made the news story more sexy was that the head of the Puerto Rico Trade Office, Walter Laffitte, is the son of a federal judge for the district of Puerto Rico!

Harris told me that he never had personal dealings with Walter Laffitte but that his clients would visit the Trade delegation then pop over to the Trust Services offices. According to the IRS, Harris bilked dozens of clients of millions of dollars with his offshore investment promises.

When Harris was brought before a Miami federal judge to face indictment charges, federal prosecutors said that they had several open investigations into Harris´dealings, including how he allegedly helped Americans evade paying U.S. taxes and whether he reportedly lent Peru´s jailed spymaster Vladimir Montesinos a plane to escape capture. Harris was allegedly protected by the government of then-Panamanian President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, a former Notre Dame University roommate of Puerto Rico´s controversial Rosselló. Following his arrest, Puerto Rican investigators traveled to Managua to sift through Harris´ personal and financial records. Their findings were never publicly disclosed.

Harris, who is claiming pauper status, is appealing his 17 year prison sentence, including the imposition of a $20 million fine. If this once offshore financial guru, who graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, decides to cooperate with the U.S. government in exchange for a lighter sentence, he can probably offer gleeming if not embarassing information about some high-profile international personalities. But then again, it may not be in the best interest for the U.S. government to make hay of what Harris has to offer.

CIA allegedly flies into Barcelona

The CIA allegedly made another clandestine flight into Spanish territory to pick up suspected Al Qaeda prisoners at the end of October with a stopover in Barcelona, the daily El País reported on Monday. If true, this puts at nine the number of unauthorized CIA flights in Spain. Quoting Turkish Foreign Minister Abudula Gul, El País reports that the DHC-8 aircraft arrived in Istambul, Turkey from Barcelona and proceeded to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on Oct. 31.

The aircraft with a registered number N-505L belongs to the Path Corp. of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a CIA front entity, El País stated. A quick Internet search for Path Corp. yielded no entry. The plane was reportedly photographed last month at Amsterdam´s Schiphol airport (photo above courtesy of Frequency Monitoring Centre webpage).

The plane, after arriving in Holland, took off for Iceland then landed at Daytona Beach, Florida. Its ultimate destination was unknown, including the number of passengers it was carrying.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to face some tough questions last week from the European Union concerning the unauthorized flights as well as alleged reports of torture and use of secret prisons in some Eastern European countries. In her best deflection on the matter, Rice told reporters that whatever she says, whether a confirmation or a denial, would jeopardize national security. She went on to remind EU leaders that the United States was responsible for helping thwart further acts of terrorism on European soil in recent months.

It is possible that more reports on other CIA flights will be forthcoming. But it is doubtful that the EU will do anything except continue to put up a front by publicly protesting in the media to quell concerns by anti-American, anti-Iraqi war factions in different countries. Although the routes may change, the flights no doubt will continue as the war on terror endures.

Mariano Rajoy escapes crash unharmed

It was an awful scare for Spain´s opposition leader Mariano Rajoy when the helicopter he boarded Thursday crashed and fell on its side during take off in the municipality of Móstoles outside Madrid. Rajoy, leader of the Popular Party, was helped out of the chopper (above). He said he only hurt his finger. A visibly shaken Esperanza Aguirre, the president of the Community of Madrid who was riding with him, also escaped unharmed. "We could have been killed but we are fine," she told reporters according to EFE News Agency.

Rajoy, a very vocal critic of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero Rodríguez, was visiting a special police brigade installation and boarded the chopper outside a bullfighting ring to take an air tour of the municipality. Móstoles Mayor Estebán Parro was also uninjured but the pilot of the craft and a television cameraman from the Antenna 3 network were taken to the hospital with slight injuries.

The crash is under investigation.