NEW YORK (AP) — An author and journalist who resigned last month from the Internet news site The Daily Beast over allegations of lifting material acknowledged that passages in his latest book are similar to those of another writer. Gerald Posner, whose many books include “Case Closed” and “Secrets of the Kingdom,” said in an interview with The Associated Press that a flawed research methodology for “Miami Babylon,” a nonfiction work released last fall by Simon & Schuster, led him to use text from Frank Owen’s “Clubland” without giving proper credit. “If you use something from another book, a statement from another book, it needs to be in quotations, or if you take something and put it in your own syntax and grammar, you still need to cite it,” Posner said Wednesday, adding that he would revise the material in question and would check the rest of the book for possible problems. “I do think that the Frank Owen situation may be unique for me. Without going through every line I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I think that is the only case.” The Miami New Times reported the similarities Tuesday night. David Rosenthal, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in a statement Wednesday: “We are reviewing the situation and discussing the issues with the author.” In February, Posner stepped down as chief investigative reporter of The Daily Beast after a writer for Slate.com noted several instances in which Posner took material from Miami Herald articles without attribution. Posner wrote on his Web site at the time that he “inadvertently” copied the passages into master files and that he “lost sight” that the material belonged to a published source. “The core of my problem was in shifting from that of a book writer – with two years or more on a project – to what I describe as the `warp speed of the Net,’” he wrote. German author Helene Hegemann recently acknowledged copying text for her novel “Axolotl Roadkill,” but defended her actions, saying writers should be allowed to get their material from anywhere. “Babylon” describes the shady characters over the past century on Miami Beach, Fla., from Al Capone getting in on its bootlegging business, to cocaine dealers. The book shows how the criminals were intertwined with politicians, club owners and real estate developers in the wealthy, flashy area. Among the passages in question are a description of the indictment of former Miami nightclub owner Chris Paciello. In “Clubland,” published in 2003, Owen wrote: “On November 23, 1999, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a sealed indictment against Paciello and eight other defendants, all connected to the Bonanno crime family, charging them with multiple counts of murder, robbery, and racketeering. Later that same evening, Bonanno captain Anthony Graziano telephoned Paciello.” Posner’s account reads: “On November 23, 1999, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a sealed indictment against Paciello and eight other defendants, all of them connected to the Bonanno crime family. They were charged with numerous murder, robbery, and racketeering counts. Later the same day, at around seven in the evening, Bonanno captain Anthony Graziano called Paciello.” Posner said he scanned many documents and books he used for “Babylon,” including from “Clubland,” into a computer database instead of working with the documents all in front of him, as he had done in previous books. Since the book took years to write, he said he should have marked the passages from other sources much better, so that when he went back to work on the chapters, he would be certain which were his words and which were others. Some of the passages are similar but not identical because he edited them, he said. He pointed out that “Babylon” included countless hours of original reporting. He said he interviewed hundreds of people and sifted through thousands of pages of documents from court cases and political meetings when researching the book. “There is no worse word than the ‘p’ word – plagiarism” in journalism, Posner said. “It conjures up the worst elements of the business.” —- Associated Press Writer Carol Druga in Miami contributed to this report.
March 17, 2010 | Posted in
Entertainment |
Read More »
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too. U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. Think you know who’s behind that “friend” request? Think again. Your new “friend” just might be the FBI. The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target’s friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs and video clips. Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects’ alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree – people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars – can link suspects or their friends to robberies or burglaries. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties group, obtained the Justice Department document when it sued the agency and five others in federal court. The 33-page document underscores the importance of social networking sites to U.S. authorities. The foundation said it would publish the document on its Web site on Tuesday. With agents going undercover, state and local police coordinate their online activities with the Secret Service, FBI and other federal agencies in a strategy known as “deconfliction” to keep out of each other’s way. “You could really mess up someone’s investigation because you’re investigating the same person and maybe doing things that are counterproductive to what another agency is doing,” said Detective Frank Dannahey of the Rocky Hill, Conn., Police Department, a veteran of dozens of undercover cases. A decade ago, agents kept watch over AOL and MSN chat rooms to nab sexual predators. But those text-only chat services are old-school compared with today’s social media, which contain mountains of personal data, photographs, videos and audio clips – a potential treasure trove of evidence for cases of violent crime, financial fraud and much more. The Justice Department document, part of a presentation given in August by top cybercrime officials, describes the value of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other services to government investigators. It does not describe in detail the boundaries for using them. “It doesn’t really discuss any mechanisms for accountability or ensuring that government agents use those tools responsibly,” said Marcia Hoffman, a senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group sued in Washington to force the government to disclose its policies for using social networking sites in investigations, data collection and surveillance. The foundation also obtained an Internal Revenue Service document that instructs employees on how to use to use Internet tools – including social networking sites – to investigate taxpayers. The document states that IRS employees are barred from using deception or creating fake accounts to get information, a directive the group says is commendable. Covert investigations on social-networking services are legal and governed by internal rules, according to Justice Department officials. But they would not say what those rules are. The Justice Department document raises a legal question about a social-media bullying case in which U.S. prosecutors charged a Missouri woman with computer fraud for creating a fake MySpace account – effectively the same activity that undercover agents are doing, although for different purposes. The woman, Lori Drew, helped create an account for a fictitious teen boy on MySpace and sent flirtatious messages to a 13-year-old neighborhood girl in his name. The girl hanged herself in October 2006, in a St. Louis suburb, after she received a message saying the world would be better without her. A jury in California, where MySpace has its servers, convicted Drew of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization because she was accused of violating MySpace’s rules against creating fake accounts. But last year a judge overturned the verdicts, citing the vagueness of the law. “If agents violate terms of service, is that ‘otherwise illegal activity’?” the document asks. It doesn’t provide an answer. Facebook’s rules, for example, specify that users “will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.” Twitter’s rules prohibit its users from sending deceptive or false information. MySpace requires that information for accounts be “truthful and accurate.” A former U.S. cybersecurity prosecutor, Marc Zwillinger, said investigators should be able to go undercover in the online world the same way they do in the real world, even if such conduct is barred by a company’s rules. But there have to be limits, he said. In the face-to-face world, agents can’t impersonate a suspect’s spouse, child, parent or best friend. But online, behind the guise of a social-networking account, they can. “This new situation presents a need for careful oversight so that law enforcement does not use social networking to intrude on some of our most personal relationships,” said Zwillinger, whose firm does legal work for Yahoo and MySpace. Undercover operations aren’t necessary if the suspect is reckless. Federal authorities nabbed a man wanted on bank fraud charges after he started posting Facebook updates about the fun he was having in Mexico. Maxi Sopo, a native of Cameroon living in the Seattle area, apparently slipped across the border into Mexico in a rented car last year after learning that federal agents were investigating the alleged scheme. The agents initially could find no trace of him on social media sites, and they were unable to pin down his exact location in Mexico. But they kept checking and eventually found Sopo on Facebook. While Sopo’s online profile was private, his list of friends was not. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville began going through the list and was able to learn where Sopo was living. Mexican authorities arrested Sopo in September. He is awaiting extradition to the U.S. The Justice document describes how Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have interacted with federal investigators: Facebook is “often cooperative with emergency requests,” the government said. MySpace preserves information about its users indefinitely and even stores data from deleted accounts for one year. But Twitter’s lawyers tell prosecutors they need a warrant or subpoena before the company turns over customer information, the document says. “Will not preserve data without legal process,” the document says under the heading, “Getting Info From Twitter … the bad news.” Twitter did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The chief security officer for MySpace, Hemanshu Nigam, said MySpace doesn’t want to be the company that stands in the way of an investigation. “That said, we also want to make sure that our users’ privacy is protected and any data that’s disclosed is done under proper legal process,” Nigam said. MySpace requires a search warrant for private messages less than six months old, according to the company. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company has put together a handbook to help law enforcement officials understand “the proper ways to request information from Facebook to aid investigations.” The Justice document includes sections about its own lawyers. For government attorneys taking cases to trial, social networks are a “valuable source of info on defense witnesses,” they said. “Knowledge is power. … Research all witnesses on social networking sites.” But the government warned prosecutors to advise their own witnesses not to discuss cases on social media sites and to “think carefully about what they post.” It also cautioned federal law enforcement officials to think prudently before adding judges or defense counsel as “friends” on these services. “Social networking and the courtroom can be a dangerous combination,” the government said. — On the Net: Link to Justice Department document: http://tinyurl.com/yjc6mql
March 16, 2010 | Posted in
Tech |
Read More »
BOSTON (AP) — It remains the most tantalizing art heist mystery in the world. In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two thieves walked into Boston’s elegant Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum disguised as police officers and bound and gagged two guards using handcuffs and duct tape. For the next 81 minutes, they sauntered around the ornate galleries, removing masterworks including those by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet, cutting some of the largest pieces from their frames. By the time they disappeared, they would be credited with the largest art theft in history, making off with upward of a half-billion dollars in loot far too hot to sell. Now, 20 years later, investigators are making a renewed push to recover the paintings. The FBI has resubmitted DNA samples for updated testing, the museum is publicizing its $5 million, no-questions-asked reward, and the U.S. attorney’s office is offering immunity. Two billboards on Interstates 93 and 495 are also advertising the reward. “Our priority is to get the paintings back,” U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said. “If someone had information or had possession of the paintings, immunity from prosecution is negotiable.” Investigators say they’ve largely ruled out some of the more popular theories, from the specter of a recluse billionaire art collector to the hand of notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. More likely, investigators say, the two were homegrown thieves with knowledge of the museum’s security system – including the absence of a “dead man’s switch” that would have alerted police. They might have even underestimated the breathtaking scope of their crime. “I picture the thieves waking up the next morning and looking in the papers and saying, ‘We just pulled off the largest art theft in history,’” said Anthony Amore, the museum’s security director. The theft began around 1:24 a.m. when the two white men – one in his late 20s to mid-30s, the other in his early to mid-30s – overpowered the guards, according to an FBI report. The two took their time. A full 24 minutes passed before they were first picked up on a motion detector entering the museum’s second floor Dutch room, where the most valuable paintings were seized. Investigators believe the first nabbed was Rembrandt’s iconic “Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” measuring about 5-by-4 feet and dating to 1633. The frame was laid on the floor where one of the thieves neatly sliced it from its frame. Next was “Landscape with an Obelisk” by Govaert Flinck. Other stolen masterpieces included a second Rembrandt also cut from its frame, “A Lady and Gentleman in Black” from 1633. The most valuable pieced was Vermeer’s “The Concert,” an oil painting measuring about 2 1/2-by-2 feet from 1660 – one of only 36 known works by the Dutch master and valued at more than $250 million, Amore said. A Rembrandt self-portrait from 1629 – one of the museum’s most valuable paintings – was removed from the wall, but then left untouched while one of the crooks patiently unscrewed and removed from its frame a tiny Rembrandt etching slightly larger than a postage stamp. It was the first of many odd twists investigators have puzzled over as they mapped the route the thieves using motion detector records. After the heavier works of art were removed from the walls, the thief in charge – possibly the older of the two – might have let the younger thief take what he wanted. Amore believes the second thief found his way to a nearby gallery, lifting smaller Degas drawings of horses while passing up more valuable works of art including one by the Italian painter Botticelli. The thieves also tried to remove a flag of Napoleon’s First Regiment from its frame before giving up and making off with a bronze finial in the shape of an eagle from atop the flag – ignoring more valuable letters with Napoleon’s signature. Then came a final puzzle. At some point the thieves found their way to a gallery on the first floor, again passing more valuable works of arts, to seize a “Chez Tortoni,” a Manet painting of a man in a top hat and a departure from the Dutch paintings – all without triggering a motion detector. “If we ever speak to the thieves, which is secondary, I would like to say, ‘Why did you take that? Why did you pass by the Raphael?’” Amore said. On their way out, the two thieves smashed their way into the security office and snatched the only visual record of their crime – a VHS type. In all, 13 works disappeared. FBI agent Geoffrey Kelly, who has led the investigation for eight years, said it’s unlikely the thieves destroyed the art. “If it were any other kind of commodity, I might feel pessimistic about recovery, but with art it’s not uncommon to stay missing for long periods of time,” he said. “It’s one of the most interesting novels you could write, except it’s missing that last chapter.” For those drawn to what happened that March night, the lure of the theft won’t fade. Ulrich Boser, author of “The Gardner Heist” and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said he’s convinced the paintings were taken by burglars involved in Boston’s organized crime rackets in the 1980s. He said the thieves might have subsequently lost possession of the works. “For the most part, thieves steal these works because it’s easy to do and they’re worth a lot of money, and then they become too hot,” he said. “You can’t sell them on eBay. You can’t bring them into an auction house.” Amore said he won’t stop until the paintings again fill the empty frames still hanging in the museum’s galleries. “I don’t have any doubt we are going to recover them,” he said. “There’s nothing we’re not doing.” — On the Net: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: http://www.gardnermuseum.org/
March 15, 2010 | Posted in
Entertainment |
Read More »
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet on Saturday while demanding authorities crack down on a critical news Web site that he accused of spreading false information. In a televised speech, Chavez said: “The Internet can’t be something free where anything can be done and said. No, every country has to impose its rules and regulations,” Chavez said. He singled out the Venezuelan news site Noticiero Digital, saying it had posted false information that some of his close allies had been killed. Chavez called for Venezuela’s attorney general to take action immediately against the Web site. “This is a crime,” he said of the site’s reports. There was no immediate reaction from the Web site, which is a popular outlet for critical news and commentary in Venezuela. Chavez has regularly clashed with critical broadcasters and newspapers. One anti-Chavez channel, Radio Caracas Television, was forced to move to cable in 2007 after the president refused to renew its license. In January, cable and satellite TV providers also stopped transmitting that channel under government orders after it defied regulations requiring it to televise some of Chavez’s speeches. Referring to satellite TV channels, Chavez said, “It can’t be that they transmit whatever they want poisoning the minds of many people – regulation, regulation, the laws!” The last anti-Chavez channel on the open airwaves, Globovision, faces multiple investigations by government regulators for alleged violations of broadcast regulations. Chavez called for authorities to take action against Globovision, saying one recent panelist on the channel “has the nerve to say that Chavez, the president of this country, supports drug trafficking and also has the nerve to say there is evidence that here in Venezuela … a bunch of courses have been given to terrorists from ETA and the FARC.” “That’s very serious. That can’t be permitted,” Chavez said. “I can’t put anyone in jail. There are the branches of government that should act, and the people themselves have to act.” The interview that Chavez mentioned came during tensions between Spain and Venezuela after a Spanish judge said he has evidence of Venezuelan government links to the Basque separatist group ETA and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC – both of which are classified as terrorist organizations by the European Union and the United States. Chavez’s government testily denied having links to the two groups, and the two countries have since tried to ease tensions with a joint statement pledging to work together against ETA. — On the Net: Noticiero Digital: http://www.noticierodigital.com
March 14, 2010 | Posted in
Tech |
Read More »
WASHINGTON (AP) — The cost of Internet fraud doubled in 2009 to about $560 million, the FBI said Friday. The most common type of frauds reported were scams from people falsely claiming to be from the FBI. Individual complaints of Internet scams grew more than 20 percent last year, according to a report issued by the FBI in partnership with a private fraud-fighting group, the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The amounts taken by individual frauds ranged from less than $30 to more than $100,000, officials said. The most frequently reported scams were those that falsely used the FBI’s name, accounting for 16 percent of the more than 300,000 complaints received last year. Some of those frauds have even featured e-mails purporting to be from FBI Director Robert Mueller, though the e-mail addresses of the senders often betray the con, authorities said. Peter Trahon, head of the FBI’s cyber division, said people should evaluate the e-mail pitches they receive “with a healthy skepticism – if something seems to good to be true, it likely is.” For example, one popular scam last year involved a phone pitch made by someone who sounded a lot like President Barack Obama. The recorded message told people to visit a Web site to get government stimulus money. When victims who visited the site entered personal information and paid $28 in fees, they were promised a big stimulus check, but got nothing. — On the Net: Internet Crime Report: http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2009-IC3Report.pdf
March 12, 2010 | Posted in
Tech |
Read More »
THERMAL, Calif. (AP) — They say crime doesn’t pay. For one robber in California, it did – but not much. Authorities in Riverside County say a woman with a gun robbed 11 customers at a market and got away with $6. A Sheriff’s Department statement says the woman was armed with a semi-automatic pistol when she went to La Chicanita Market in the town of Thermal on Tuesday afternoon. Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela says the woman confronted 10 customers in the store and also demanded money from one person who was entering the market. She then fled in an old car. Nobody was hurt. — Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com
March 10, 2010 | Posted in
Weird |
Read More »
EVESHAM, N.J. (AP) — Police said a cook put a body hair in the bagel sandwich of a police officer who had given him tickets in the past. The cook was arrested Feb. 21 in the kitchen of Good Foods to Go in Evesham. The police officer ticketed the cook in March 2009 when he failed to pull over for a traffic violation. The cook spent four hours in jail before his wife bailed him out, and was fired from his job. The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill reports police asked them not to report the incident for fear of copycat crimes. The paper published the story anyway. — Information from: Courier-Post, http://www.courierpostonline.com/
March 4, 2010 | Posted in
Weird |
Read More »
SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore said it will maintain a ban on chewing gum sales, a policy that has helped shape the city-state’s international image as a tightly controlled, squeaky-clean island. The ban, first imposed in 1992, is necessary to reduce gum-related litter and vandalism, Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, parliamentary secretary of the national development ministry, told lawmakers Thursday. “We remain concerned that lifting the ban could result in chewing gum litter resurfacing as a problem,” Mohamad said. “The government stands by its decision to ban chewing gum as the rationale is based on maintaining a clean and comfortable living environment.” Singapore has sought in recent years to cultivate a more cosmopolitan, more hip image in a bid to attract foreign investment and tourists. The nation of 5 million residents opened its first casino last month and began hosting Formula One races in 2008. But the country maintains strict laws against public demonstrations and speech about religion and race. Punishment for minor crimes such as vandalism can include canings, and drug smugglers are often hanged. Denise Phua Lay Peng, a member of parliament from the ruling People’s Action Party, called on the government to allow citizens more freedom. “Let Singaporeans be accountable for the consequences, and not let our behavior be shaped by so many sticks,” Phua said. “If Singaporeans were seeking liberty in so many areas and the government does concede in some of these areas, why not liberalize the chewing gum ban?” Phua also expressed frustration that Singapore is so well-known internationally for banning gum. A clean city is more important than the freedom to chew gum, Mohamad said, adding that before the ban gobs of gum had stopped subway doors from closing, creating delays. “Our efforts at creating a clean, green and safe living environment have garnered much more international acclaim than criticisms of the ban of chewing gum,” he said. The ban was modified in 2004 to allow sales of gum that have medicinal value. — Associated Press writer Chun Han Wong contributed to this report.
March 4, 2010 | Posted in
Weird |
Read More »
LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Barack Obama is going to help TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” mark the milestone broadcast of its 1,000th episode. Obama will be interviewed by the show’s host, John Walsh, on the episode airing 9 p.m. EST Saturday on Fox. The president will discuss the show’s impact in its 22 years as well as his administration’s anti-crime initiatives, including those involving white-collar crime, Fox said Wednesday. Walsh, whose 6-year-old son Adam was abducted and killed in 1981, has been host of “America’s Most Wanted” since its start. According to Fox, the show has helped capture more than 1,100 fugitives and reunited 43 missing children with their families.
March 3, 2010 | Posted in
Entertainment |
Read More »
MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities who dismantled a network of up to 12.7 million virus-infected, data-stealing computers said Wednesday the mastermind of the scam remains a mystery, even though three alleged ringleaders have been arrested. The “botnet” of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks, police said. The tainted computers stole credit card numbers and online banking credentials. Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, arrested three young Spaniards last month as the alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. Spanish authorities are on the trail of a fourth suspect who might be Venezuelan, said Juan Salon of the Spanish Civil Guard’s cybercrime unit. But the people in custody did not design the malicious software behind the grid; rather they just bought it on the black market, Salon told a news conference called to detail the smashing of the network. “We have not arrested the creator of the botnet. We have arrested the administrators of the botnet, the ones who spread it and were administering and controlling it,” Salon said. He declined to say how much money might have been plundered or name companies whose computers had been compromised. Botnets are networks of infected PCs that have been hijacked from their owners, often without their knowledge, and put into the control of criminals. Linked together, the machines supply an enormous amount of computing power to spammers, identity thieves and Internet attackers. There are an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 operating today and this one was the biggest one ever brought down, said Jose Antonio Berrocal, head of the Civil Guard’s economic and technological crimes unit. The Mariposa botnet spread to more than 190 countries, according to researchers. It also appears to be far more sophisticated than the botnet that was used to hack into Google Inc. and other companies in the attack that led Google to threaten to pull out of China. — AP correspondent Jordan Robertson contributed to this report from San Francisco, California.
March 3, 2010 | Posted in
Tech |
Read More »
