(In)Justice Department at Work

"A man described as one of the nation's most prolific e-mail spammers was among 11 people accused in an indictment unsealed Thursday of defrauding people by manipulating Chinese stock prices. Alan Ralsky 52, of suburban West Bloomfield Township, made about $3 million through the scheme in summer 2005 alone, U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy said", Houston Chronicle, 4 January 2008.

"I also want to address the issue of protecting telecom companies from lawsuits. It's critical that Congress provide retroactive liability protection for telecommunications companies, as a bipartisan bill from the Senate Intelligence Committee does. ... The amounts of these claims ... are enough to send any company into bankruptcy. ... Not only is the litigation itself costly, but the companies also may suffer significant business and reputational harm as the result of the allegations against them. ... to which they cannot publicly respond, because they are not allowed to confirm or deny whether. and to what extent, they provided classified assistance to the Government", Attorney General Michael Mukasey at the WSJ, 4 January 2008.

"A couple of years ago, Michael T. Arnold landed at the Los Angeles International Airport after a 20-hour flight from the Phillipines. He had his laptop with him and a customs officer took a look at what was on his hard drive. Clicking on the folders called 'Kodak picktures' and 'Kodak memories,' the officer found child pornography", Adam Liptak at http://www.nytimes.com/, 7 January 2008.

Only $3 million, quash this indictment under the Blankfein test. Get out your crying towel for the telecoms, "business and reputational harm". Boo hoo.

Don't you feel safe now? A laptop with child pornography on it was seized and its owner may get indicted. Immunity for the telecoms and imprisonment for a nobody.