Curious - convicted spy working for IRS
From Patrick Poole writing at
PJ Media:
(EXCLUSIVE) IRS Currently Employing Convicted Terrorist Associate
While IRS officials were targeting Tea Party groups for special scrutiny of their 501(c)3 tax exempt applications, the IRS also hired a policeman who had been prosecuted by the Justice Department � and convicted in federal court � of using his access to the FBI�s NCIC system to tip off a terror suspect about the bureau�s surveillance. The leak wrecked a major terror investigation.
He is still at the IRS.
Weiss Russell (he has changed his name from �Weiss Rasool,� the name under which he was convicted), is currently employed as a financial management analyst in the IRS Deputy Chief Financial Officer�s Office.
In 2008, Russell/Rasool was prosecuted for his role in tipping off Abdullah Alnoshan, a close associate of al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and a friend of Russell�s from their mosque. According to the Justice Department�s Statement of Facts filed at the time of Russell�s indictment, Alnoshan provided license plate numbers to Russell for cars he believed were conducting surveillance on him. Russell then checked those plate numbers in the FBI�s NCIC database, which came back to a leasing company which federal prosecutors claimed would have tipped off Russell to the bureau�s surveillance.
He left a phone message for Alnoshan that the FBI intercepted.
Prosecutors also claimed that on more than a dozen instances, Russell checked his name, the names of relatives, and other friends to see if they were listed on the Violent Crime and Terrorist Offender File on NCIC without an authorized reason for doing so.
More:
An IRS official speaking anonymously to PJ Media said that Russell�s financial management analyst position would have required him to fill out the Standard Form 86 questionnaire for national security positions and to be subjected to a background check.There�s no way anyone with his conviction for abusing access to a government database and damaging a terror investigation could have been vetted and approved without outside intervention. Changing his name shouldn�t have mattered.
I�ve never even heard of a case like this.
Patrick closes with this:
Phone messages left yesterday and today with the IRS Media Relations Office have not yet been returned. This story will be updated if they do provide comment.
Of course, Mr. Rasool will be ushered out of his current post but he will remain employed, just in a different position. I am cynical enough to think that he will get a raise for his troubles.
This is downright unreal and it is going on under our noses -- our tax dollars at work. If we had a flat tax of 10%, we could be done with this agency and our revenues would skyrocket...
Posted by DaveH at March 18, 2014 1:31 PM