Ashcroft, feds grab credit for computer bust

[Whoa_Nelly]

Madison police spent months gathering enough evidence to arrest a UW student for jamming emergency radio communications.

Now that they've made an arrest, a news release gives U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft all the credit, although a local federal prosecutor says the slight was unintentional.

<snip>
Kamholz said police officials did not want to comment on the omission of any credit to the Madison Police Department for its lead role in the investigation.

<snip>
He said, however, that while the FBI was kept abreast of the investigation, it didn't put agents in the field until Mitra's arrest, after most of the investigative work had been done and enough evidence had been obtained by Madison police to get a search warrant.

more...
http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/61835.php

[htuttle]

1. The FBI had nothing to do with this

I've been watching the progress of the whole thing on local Madison TV. It was a local investigation all the way through. It was the Madison cops that triangulated the location of the jammer. They handed it to the Feds because Mitra didn't actually violate any local ordinances -- so they decided to let the Feds charge him.

Mitra was a fool for transmitting from his own apartment(!), but that's beside the point here.

Ashcroft is obviously trying to 'look busy'...

:eyes:

ps. It's the local consensus that Mitra wasn't a 'terrorist', just a crabby geek who could benefit from a little more forethought.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. AssCrack can look a litlle "busier"

by publically recusing himself from the Wilson/Plame investigation so the truth can come out.