Web site identifies informants

[Tux of Borg]

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Web site identifies informants

Officials: WhosaRat.com puts officers in danger, too

 

By MATT APUZZO

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Last Updated: December 2, 2006, 05:09:08 AM PST

 

WASHINGTON — Police and prosecutors are worried that a Web site claiming to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents will cripple investigations and hang targets on witnesses.

 

WhosaRat.com caught the attention of authorities after a Massachusetts man put it online and named a few dozen people as turncoats in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a clearinghouse for mug shots, court papers and rumors.

 

Federal prosecutors say the site was set up to encourage violence, and federal judges around the country were recently warned that witnesses in their courtrooms may be profiled online.

 

"My concern is making sure cooperators are adequately protected from retaliation," said Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, who alerted other judges in Washington's federal courthouse.

 

Modesto police Sgt. Craig Gundlach said he first heard about the Web site while working with the department's Narcotics Enforcement Team.

 

Undercover investigations and confidential informants play a significant role in the narcotics team's cases.

 

Gundlach said the site puts undercover officers in danger, discourages people from providing crucial information and lets criminals evade the law.

 

"It's the criminals who want to know who the undercover officers are, who the witnesses to a case are," Gundlach said. "A lot of these people who come forward are concerned about their personal safety."

 

Gundlach said WhosaRat.com does not identify any undercover Modesto police officers or informants, and does not refer to any investigations in the Modesto area. He said police have procedures to protect informants' identities, and only a few officers know who the informants are.

 

The latest effort to identify witnesses

 

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson was not aware of WhosaRat.com but said a Web site identifying informants or undercover officers puts lives in danger.

 

He said many investigations rely on people coming forward anonymously through programs such as the Crime Stoppers tips line.

 

"Imagine if those people were afraid to come to us," Christianson said.

 

WhosaRat.com is the latest unabashedly public effort to identify witnesses or discourage helping police. "Stop Snitching" T-shirts have been sold in cities around the country and popular hip-hop lyrics disparage or threaten people who help police.

 

In 2004, pro basketball player Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets appeared in an underground Baltimore DVD that warned people they could be killed for cooperating with police.

 

Anthony has said he was not aware of the DVD's message.

 

Such threats hinder criminal investigations, said Ronald Teachman, police chief in New Bedford, Mass., where murder cases have been stymied by witness silence. "Stop Snitching" T-shirts recently were for sale there.

 

"These kids have the idea that the worst offense they can commit is to cooperate with the police," Teachman said.

 

Sean Bucci, a former disc jockey, set up WhosaRat.com after federal prosecutors charged him with selling marijuana in bulk from his house. Bucci is under house arrest awaiting trial and could not be reached.

 

A WhosaRat spokesman identifying himself as Anthony Capone said the site is a resource for criminal defendants and does not condone violence.

 

"If people got hurt or killed, it's kind of on them. They knew the dangers of becoming an informant," Capone said. "We'd feel bad, don't get me wrong, but things happen to people. If they decide to become an informant, with or without the Web site, that's a possibility."

 

The site offers biographical information about people whom users identify as witnesses or undercover agents. Users can post court documents, comments and pictures.

 

Some of those listed are well known, such as former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, who served 10 months in prison before testifying in a public corruption case. But many never made headlines and were identified as having helped investigators in drug cases.

 

For two years, anyone with an Internet connection could search the site.

 

On Thursday, a day after it was discussed at a courthouse conference in Washington, the site became a subscription-only service. The site also has disabled the ability to post photos of undercover agents, Capone said, because administrators of the Web site do not want officers to be hurt.

 

Authorities disagree. In documents filed in Bucci's court case last month, federal prosecutors said they have information that Bucci set up the Web site to help intimidate and harm witnesses.

[UConn James]

I think this is one of those cases where this site's First Amendment right ends where the rights of the informants and undercover cops begin. That is a veritable "Here they are --- go kill them."

 

There was a thing in the Providence/SE Mass area about people wearing "NO SNITCHING!" T-shirts, worn by drug dealers and gang members involved in a number of murders. They were declared illegal. I would concur; it's an imminent threat.

 

But the damage is done for the people already named. It's online forever now.