[IP] Feds grab credit for computer bust.
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Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:04:38 -0600
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From today's Madison, WI Capital Times (11/22)
Ashcroft, feds grab credit for computer bust
Madison police work slighted
By Steven Elbow
November 22, 2003
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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.
Rajib Mitra, 25, an MBA student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
faces two federal counts of committing computer crimes against Madison's
emergency radio system. He faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and
$500,000 in fines if convicted.
Madison police and fire personnel have experienced periodic interference
with their radio communications for months, initially thinking the problem
was an equipment failure.
After a lull in the interference, the system was plagued with interruptions
on Halloween weekend, as officers dealt with crowds of more than 60,000
people on State Street.
Then on Nov. 11, police traced a signal that was "piggy backing" audio from
pornographic videos onto police transmissions to Mitra's apartment building
at 10 N. Orchard St., near campus.
"It's clear that our department received the information," Madison Police
Department spokesman Larry Kamholz said. "We pieced it together."
But in a news release with a U.S. Justice Department letterhead, the case
was billed as part of "Operation Cyber Sweep," begun Oct. 1 of this year,
which Ashcroft credits with 145 investigations, the execution of more than
90 search warrants and more than 70 indictments.
"Online criminals assume that they can conduct their schemes with
impunity," Ashcroft is quoted as saying. "Operation Cyber Sweep is proving
them wrong by piercing the criminals' cloak of anonymity and prosecuting
them to the fullest extent of the law."
The first of three Wisconsin cases cited in Friday's news release is
Mitra's. The second is about an Illinois woman who worked in Madison who
pleaded guilty this week to stealing a Social Security number with her
office computer for a car loan. The third is about a Wausau man indicted on
charges of offering products on the Internet, convincing people to send him
money for them and never shipping anything.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy O'Shea of Wisconsin's Western District said
Friday that he prepared the portion of the news release that dealt with the
Wisconsin cases, while the remainder of it was written in Ashcroft's
Washington, D.C. office.
O'Shea said Friday that he regretted not having credited local police
agencies when describing the cases.
"I should have noted clearly the invaluable assistance those two
departments provided in those cases," he said. "They have done the lion's
share of the work," he said of police departments in Madison and Wausau.
O'Shea also pointed out that a previous news release announcing Mitra's
indictment by a federal grand jury did credit the Madison Police Department
with its work on the investigation.
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.
"We have a very good working relationship with the FBI and with federal
agencies," he said. "What really matters is that people committing crimes
are prosecuted in an appropriate way."
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.
Kamholz said Madison Police Detective Cynthia Murphy was the lead
investigator in the Mitra case and filed for the search warrant that was
used to seize broadcasting and computer equipment believed to have been
used in the cyber attack on the city radio system.
Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard had no comment on the news
release, but he said given the complexity of the case, his office decided
it would be better handled in federal court rather than being prosecuted by
his office.
"They have lower volume and greater resources," he said.
E-mail: selbow@xxxxxxxxxxx
Published: 5:56 AM 11/22/03
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