Feds grab credit for computer bust.

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:04:38 -0600
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From: Clark Johnson <clarkjohnson () cpinternet com>

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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 () madison com

Published: 5:56 AM 11/22/03

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editor.

Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
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