Rating: 
Summary: In the beginning
Review: It seems possible Flemmi and Bulger were swindled by the government but that the FBI might not be to blame. Here's why..There is an individual i know who was abandoned about the time Flemmi came on the scene as an infant. The person was raised with little knowledge of their family and not long before Whitey disappeared the individual worked for a defense contractor with a security clearance. About the time Bulger disappeared this person was fired.Not long before a meeting with an alleged government official resulted in intimidation of this individual. Many strange things happened to this person before and even moreso after Bulger disappeared. Some have suggested heavy DoD activity before and following the unravelling of this case. Before one jumps all over the FBI , Congress might want to investigate all agencies in the region and specifically defense-industrial ties. The FBI might be the whipping boy for other agencies.
Rating:
Summary: Heads or tails
Review: If Congress investigates thoroughly they may find that many gangsters have been tipped off and that it goes way beyond these guys. One thing no one has addressed is how much of Justice Department practices might have been compromised by Bulger and Flemmi? Has there been a major breach of security? A confidential informant finally helped get Salvati and Limone free but who was this informant and how do these agencies know how truthful the informants are? How easy would it be for an informant to fabricate information which the FBI then acts on? Should this case be viewed in a similar light to the Hanssen case, where it is assumed everything has been compromised? Were brothel services also provided courtesy of Flemmi and Bulger or others in that market? Why is the Justice Department so aggressive now, 3 decades later? Who did Bulger and Flemmi give their 'cuts' to? Will Congress excuse the years of detainment experienced by Salemme and Flemmi as it has taken almost 7 years just to get to trial stage? 7 YEARS!!
Rating:
Summary: Check?
Review: One of the things Congressman Burton should investigate is how tips were handled by America's Most Wanted and whether any of them were withheld or leaked. I know of at least one person who became a target after providing information that could go one or another. I know some individuals with strong roots back to the areas described in this book and when this all came out they went ballistic. One of the people i had known for 2 decades and was rabidly anti-Bulger. I found myself surrounded by people who had some feeling one way or another about the Bulger case and it was mixed between pro-FBI and pro-Bulger forces. This schism was so pronounced i wonder if the Bulger case actually involves the 2 major political parties in the U.S.and this is why there is so much gridlock. One person affected by this whole mess was allegedly targeted by individuals claiming to have ties to the Nh department of justice and possibly other local FBI offices in the area. Were these real agents or agent provocateurs? Was the Defense Investigative Service,DIA or other agencies involved? Is Congress capable of doing anything if they are? Did the state or regional federal agencies within the state back Whitey? Have other branches of the Justice Department or other agencies protected Bulger from the FBI or has the FBI done it? Could Bulger be being protected on the possibility he really did NOT do all that is alleged and what is going on is a lynching? Is this a planned reorganization of the government itself taking shape as a series of scandalous triggers which will cause disbanding of the agency? Was the FBI set up?
Rating:
Summary: Bouncing betty
Review: If you look at the timing at which this all began... one might ask -"What was the precipitating event or events of the Mclean-Mclaughlin wars?" this then might help define what happened after and why.Are the events discussed in this case tied to the assassination of JFK? The violence began after JFK's death. What is the likelihood any useful results will come from Congressional hearings? When will the public waken to the reality that Congress is essentially powerless despite the puffery? A complete accounting of what happened here will most likely involve a massive multiagency task force which can be easily compromised. The FBI is painted as an evil entity but it seems that a system has been in place for many decades, even before Bulger that transcends any one agency and may involve representatives from many agencies cloaked in a veil of secrecy. The problem with this is that you can have groups of employees from whatever agency harassing or targeting individuals and be wholly unaccountable. So if you have rogue FBI agents or officials from other security-related agencies,they can harass and target pretty much in a carefree and unbounded fashion.Or even worse, you can have agents harassing and such with full backing of their management. If the FBI or any other agency wanted to 'make life tough for you', what can you do?
Rating:
Summary: An untold chapter
Review: I know a person who grew up in state child care who may have a father involved in this case without their knowledge, perhaps even Bulger or Flemmi during their alleged pornography days.In a predominantly Catholic area. Did Flemmi or Bulger have children as a result of these activities? How strong were their ties to the pornography business? Were Bulger and Flemmi tied in any way to the Boston Strangler killings which remains controversial? Around the time Bulger disappeared, everything hit the fan for this person. Loved ones around them were threatened and as they went to the FBI and Justice Department and State Police they were ignored. Before Bulger disappeared this person was approached by alleged Defense Investigative Service and FBI personnel at a business seminar. This was also prior to the release of Jonathan Harr's book, "A Civil Action" and when it was released Bulger disappeared as this person became a target of harassment in sync with escalating media accounts of the case. The person was connected as a state child to a reputed gangster in the area with alleged ties to John Connolly as a foster child without their knowledge. The person was very young and the particulars were arranged by combined private and public human services representatives.When this case opened up these same connections to the former child started acting bizarre, as if anxious that the whole thing was unravelling. It has been speculated that perhaps this person is a child of Whitey's without their knowledge and that state and federal authorities all had a role in the upbringing of the child and perhaps the child was bounced around and neglected and/or physically and emotionally abused in proportion to Bulger's cooperation. None of the media has raised the prospect that a confluence of state and federal representatives effectively managed the Bulger case.This book does highlight how information was frequently passed between DEA and the FBI in informal channels and why should we believe it was limited to only these 2 agencies? The state police and DEA are detailed as investigating Bulger here while Connolly had ties to the DEA and FBI. All one has to do is look in any major yellow pages and you wil find all sorts of escort services complete with corporate account capability to know that society and the government does not find these things objectionable. Bulger and Flemmi may have simply been regional coordinators for these services. What we do not know is how many services or gratutities were actually provided to government and/or political officials and whether their continued generosity or lack of it is what contributed to their prosperity or demise. Bulger and Flemmi may have been involved in providing services for many agencies and the FBI might be bearing the brunt of the heat. In this book nor anywhere else has anyone tried to interview former military associates of Bulger and Flemmi or investigated possibly military involvement in their activities, especially where McIntyre was concerned.Will Congress make inquiries of the Defense Investigative Service which overseas industrial security and background checks with the secret service (see James Bamford's 'The Puzzle Palace') or the DIA?
Rating: 
Summary: Truth and ?
Review: In following this case i don't know what to think. The recent admission of a number of women now full-grown admitting to being targeted by Flemmi and Bulger for sex and porno films and the way it is described is quite believable. I know someone quite well who has had seen this sort of thing happen and with individuals associated with other branches of the government as well. Teen boys are often targeted by homosexual and bisexual predators and this person knew of some businessmen that targeted in particular kids in foster care or kids from dysfunctional families. These individuals got away with it because they had close ties, often family members, linked to high level government positions that could come to their aid if any local law enforcement action was taken. In the case of this person mentioned, teen boys were targeted and bribed with money or gifts or favors for sex or if that didn't work, their 'connections' were mentioned as a potential threat.One man in particular hinted at violence as well. What might be coming out in this case is that there is a whole economy based on a confluence of drugs,prostitution,pornography, blackmail and extortion of which the government itself has a strong financial interest in perpetuating. Vulnerable teenagers from broken homes or without homes may be a prime choice of recruiting for these economic sectors and people like Flemmi and Bulger are relatively small with respect to this whole underground economy which is global in nature. The women who have come forth do sound quite believable in describing what went on but the question in all of this remains: did Flemmi and Bulger voluntarily choose this or were they pushed into it,only later to adapt or accept that lifestyle? In other words, will locking up Flemmi and Bulger and 'throwing the key away' do anything to change future exploitation of unwilling girls and boys? Would we feel differently if individuals choose this lifestyle after they have become adults?
Rating:
Summary: Scary!
Review: Did the FBI or some agenc(ies) have a child Bulger might have had raised in close proximity to families with government agency ties and then assert government security to cover sanitization of records and the identity of the child? In 1963 the Defense Investigative Service is said to have been formed and in the 1980s NSA opened its recruiting office in Boston,Mass. where McIntyre was allegedly killed being affiliated with the precursor to NSA. Any relationship here? If Bulger having a child sounds far-fetched, consider how such a child might be raised given all the connections identified in this case.
Rating:
Summary: Sneak Preview
Review: Congressional hearings are set to begin next month but can we expect anything to really come out of this? Will these hearings be about as effective as the IRS hearings were? In the end analysis, Congress has little authority of oversight. Former trooper Schneiderhan asserts that the whole investigation is a joke, and one might question this when one considers that this case spilled open in 1995 and it has been nearly 6.5 years. If one assumes say $200,000 spent each year, then $1.3 million has been spent so far just on investigating Whitey, not including costs of a state investigation. From a third party perspective it seems there are investigators all over, some of whom are blocking the efforts of others. The primary focus seems to be that Flemmi and Bulger were rogue,but this might be simply diverting from a harsher truth. The money for sex business has its own SIC codes,porno movies come with a compliance statement right at the opening of the movie showing that the producers have followed federal guidelines in their production. The 'war' on drugs is no war, so the government manages drugs,assuring neither too many drugs get in nor that there is too much clamping down,the premise being that it is a problem that really cannot be solved without fascist tactics. One can argue whether it is a supply-side or demand-side issue. There is a fine line between morality and legality. One area not investigated much here is the use of psychological warfare to cast doubt on credibility of witnesses or in the Bulger case to fuel existing paranoia that is not completely unfounded given the parties and reputations involved. Bulger is credited with being a serial liar but consider this: if you were being monitored by multiple agents of multiple agencies who are gathering information on you and comparing it without your knowledge or ability to refute or defend and for whom you are supposed to be working, what would you do? And because these agents can operate in anonymity you can only guess who they are, so this puts the person in the position of incriminating themselves without being apprised of the consequences.
Rating:
Summary: When is the sequel coming?
Review: It might be interesting for someone to do a report on what happened when those who were against Flemmi and Bulger thought they were legit gangsters and how those same individuals viewed them when they learned they were actually assisting the FBI. I know of an individual who may be a child of one of the parties involved in this case. In the early 90s this person worked for a defense contractor and was forced to sign documents assuring they would never file for bankruptcy or similar in the future or risk their security clearance being refused.Once the process began they had their home entered on numerous occasions, got strange and periodic phone calls and the like and much more strange phenomena. About a year before Whitey disappeared this person was featured in a newspaper story about their search to find out who their father is after growing up in state care. When Whitey disappeared and Flemmi was incarcerated, this person suddenly could not get work. This person suddenly found themselves surrounded by people on either side of the Bulger case and the target of hate by each. Some individuals targeted this individual by holding promises of job leads and not delivering. It was as if this person was being made to look as if they are lazy and unwilling to work and holding numerous undesirable traits.Some have speculated that these new associates of this person were actually government agents conducting background investigations of this person without their knowledge or trying to destroy this person's reputation in an effort to hurt them for a background they knew little of. This person was also approached by an 'investigator' and an attorney hailing from the 'Bergen county,NJ' area. Also, this person began having job interviews in which individuals they worked with a decade or more were mentioned and if this person said they remembered working with them, they were refused the job. If the media checks into information provided in this case, such as with America's Most Wanted or other such clearinghouses, you might find that a lot of leads and info pertinent to this case have not been followed up because the leads point to individuals transferring between different agencies or to powerful political figures.
Rating:
Summary: Fair trial?
Review: A local Boston newspaper has run a report quoting local criminal defense attorneys as refusing to represent Flemmi and similar might be implied about Bulger. Whether Flemmi and Bulger are guilty or not, isn't everyone entitled to a fair trial? Isn't the idea of a fair trial to weed out truth from fiction? If you were being accused of such serious things wouldn't YOU want a fair trial?
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