A Web Site That Snitches On Snitches

The Skinny: Uncle Sam Is Furious With Whosarat.com For Exposing Government Informers

(CBS)  The Skinny is Joel Roberts' take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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New Web sites devoted to exposing the identities of informants who cooperate with the government are making federal prosecutors furious and prompting calls to limit public access to electronic court files.

According to The New York Times, the sites, like one called whosarat.com, post the names and mug shots of government witnesses, along with court documents outlining the plea agreements they made in return for more lenient sentences. Much of the data is obtained from files readily available on the Internet.

Last week, for example, whosarat.com posted information about a Florida man who agreed to plead guilty to cocaine possession but not gun charges in exchange for working in an undercover role to contact and negotiate with drug dealers.

Whosarat.com says it has identified 4,300 informants and 400 undercover agents since 2004. The site was started by a man named Sean Bucci, who was indicted in federal court on marijuana charges after an informant provided information to prosecutors.

The Times says the site was "initially modest and free, the seeming product of a drug defendant's fit of pique." It now charges between $7.99 for a week's access to $89.99 for a lifetime membership, which includes a free "Stop Snitching" T-shirt.

A Justice Department official, in a letter quoted by the Times, said these sites were set up "for the clear purpose of witness intimidation, retaliation and harassment," and pose "a grave risk of harm to cooperating witnesses and defendants."

The letter says that in one case, a witness in Philadelphia had to be moved and the FBI called in to investigate after information from whosarat.com was mailed to neighbors and posted on utility poles and cars in the area.


Immigration Stories

Alongside its lead article on the heated politics of the immigration debate unfolding in Congress, the Washington Post features another kind of immigration story, highlighting immigrants who fought for America before it officially became their country.

The Post profiles three servicemen – a soldier, a sailor and a marine, from, respectively, Canada, Haiti and St. Vincent – who recently became U.S. citizens. Until their swearing-in ceremony, they had been among the more than 40,000 so-called "green card" service members – non-citizens serving in the U.S. military.

Since the start of the Iraq war, the Bush administration has expedited the citizenship process for members of the military, allowing more than 26,000 service members to become U.S. citizens. Seventy-five service members have also received their citizenship posthumously since the war began.

Although official U.S. military policy is to accept only legal permanent residents with green cards, the Post article points out that the immigration bill before Congress would open the military as a path to citizenship for a limited number of undocumented immigrants.

Some military experts, the Post says, favor opening the military to undocumented immigrants and foreign recruits to fill shortages as the Army and Marines plan to boost troop strength.

Others fear "a flood of recruits lured solely by the promise of legal status" could change the purpose of joining the military from defending the country to getting a foot in the door. "It becomes a kind of mercenary thing," one critic said.


Another Hat Is Tossed In The Ring

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson formally entered the race for the White House on Monday, but you'd be hard pressed to find much news about it on the front pages Tuesday morning.

None of the major dailies feature a page-one story on the Democrat's official announcement of his campaign to become the nation's first Latino president, although the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times do run photos on the bottom of the first page with teases for articles inside the paper.

The New York Times runs its Richardson story on page A18, pointing out that the former congressman, diplomat and Clinton energy secretary's biggest frustration is that he has "perhaps the strongest résumé but is one of the least-known candidates" in the crowded presidential field.

Coverage on page A18 isn't likely to help.


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[toddpw01]

Wow, a return to public shaming! What a concept!

What happened to the Federal Budget sunshine website?

Why are they stalling and then watering down lobbying reform in the Senate?

Simple-- the public isn't mad enough to truly scare them yet.

[roynadeau]

George Orwell was right. It's here; Big Brother is here. There is nowhere to hide. Do something, someone knows. Fairly soon, think something, someone knows. Public journals anyone?

[incog-nito]

This is no big deal. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, you can snitch on your next door neighbor, and then one day the whole family just disappeared. Now that's what I call snitching!

[billpl-2009]

first time he snitches out a snitch who turns out NOT to be a snitch?? then gets hurt?

bye-bye mr snitchy snitch

[mike_hunt5]

"More importantly, those people who are simply walking down the street, observe a crime, and then cooperate with the police will also be targeted by this site."

How many times does it have to be repeated. These people are not witnesses. They are GOVERNMENT INFORMANTS and undercover cops there is huge difference.

[sty1]

anarchy is just beautiful. for some reason it frightens women..I dont know why. I just love it.

[latorria]

Does anyone know why I can't open this page. Have someone closed it I would really like to see some more news!

[kimberely4]

The administrators of this website have not done anything wrong. Kudos to them for making this site. It will likely make jobs of snitches more difficult, and maybe snitches and informants will think twice about doing undercover work for fear of getting killed. They never know who has checked out the website. The government has too much control over Americans. Our government is not different from the Iraqi government. The government goes in and kills people and nothing is ever heard again about the mysterious crime. This website is just a slap in the face to the government. There needs to be more websites like this.

[neoconslayer]

I find the automatic, unsupported assumption that the only people on this site are going to be criminals who have done far worse things than every single person on whom they inform to be pathetically childish.
While it is undeniably true that some people rat others to save themselves, this 'looking out for number one' can be observed in every single aspect of human interaction, and i'll bet if you were honest, you know of a time when you did the same thing at some level.
This site exists not for no other purpose than to facilitate the murders of people who cooperate with police.
Yes, there are people who rat on others to save themselves. If you think cops would let a rapist go free to bust someone for a dime bag, you're an idiot. More importantly, those people who are simply walking down the street, observe a crime, and then cooperate with the police will also be targeted by this site.
It really sounds like some people got hammered by informers and they really don't care how many innocent people die for their petty revenge fantasies. After all, no one is claiming that they were innocent, just that they are pissed that someone sold them out to save their own butt.
They should make a site for the people who didn't rat, not out of fear of retaliation, but just because their 'honor' demands it. I'm sure all three of them would make excellent reading...

[bobnjersey]

[Let's all do anything we want! and never suffer the consequences ]
[Posted by dagim41 at 05:14 PM : May 22, 2007]

that would be anarchy ... but if we all took turns ...

[mike_hunt5]

All I can say is good for them! I have no problem with them exposing these scumbags. If you want to cut a deal with the government or be an undercover agent and throw someone under the bus to save your own *** then fine. But be prepared to deal with the public scrutiny that comes with it. By the way for the people who are featured on this site AREN'T witnesses who saw a violent crime and are testifying about it. They are GOVERNMENT WITNESSES aka criminals that have cut deals with the government.

[sty1]

This is a wonderful idea those who snitch. Make them pay. snitches and cops and laywers are the lowlifes of the world. lets start making them pay. You can't do anything bad to a snitch,cop preacher or lawyer so get busy NOW YEEHAAA

[hexualman]

A few things I knew this person had done was RAPE AN UNDERAGE GIRL, SELLING THE DRUGS THAT MORE THAN LIKELY THE FEDS THEMSELVES HAD GIVEN HIM TO INFILTRATE THE LOCAL DRUG GROUP TO CHILDREN, AND... well needless to say he was shocked and rocked when I even put 2 + 2 together for him and solved a local crime question that was that SAME UNDERCOVER SNITCH within 10 more minutes.
I told him that it seemed to me that the police were more guilty for putting this person out there and thinking that it was OK to look the other way in his case because he was working for him than anybody I knew of dealing drugs all combined. I told him honestly that I was MORE AFAID OF THE POLICE THAN THE SUPPOSED CRIMINALS.
It was the biggest reason WHY I was moving to Fl in the first place.
BTW THIS COP KNEW exactly WHO THE NARK WAS.
Can anybody out there like it when preyed upon by those more guilty and messed up than you ever were by someone endorsed by the police just to get off the hook to do more bad things?
just think on that.....

Let's all do anything we want! and never suffer the consequences

[hexualman]

I just tried to visit whosarat.com and was given the "server must be down etc..." screen. I have no doubt its because the location of that server is being, at this very moment, ripped into its component parts.
About 10 years ago i had the opportunity to be sitting in a police car with a police man who was convinced that i knew something about the drugs etc... of a small Va city that i was moving away from the very next day to Florida.
Oh I knew some things all right. Just sometimes KNOWING can make you GUILTY in the eyes of some law enforcement officials eyes. But imagine his surprise (knowing the entire time I was sitting in his car I was being recorded) when instead of telling him about people who werent hurting anybody by smoking their pot or minding their own bisuness..... I told him about one of the DEAs own informants who had more than likely been doing A LOT OF VERY BAD THINGS RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES.

[hexualman]

I just tried to visit whosarat.com and was given the "server must be down etc..." screen. I have no doubt its because the location of that server has now been raided... and that server is being, at this very moment, ripped into its component parts. hmmmmmm... free speach .... hmmmmm...
About 10 years ago i had the opportunity to be sitting in a police car with a police man who was convinced that i knew something about the drugs etc... of a small Va city that i was moving away from the very next day to Florida.
Oh I knew some things all right. Just sometimes KNOWING can make you GUILTY in the eyes of some law enforcement officials eyes. But imagine his surprise %

[pixelslinger]

Wow do most of you need to go back to high school.

Undercover agents should be ID'd and ratted out? Are f'in stoned or just bitter that they make dealing meth to school kids harder?

Snitches willing to throw someone else in front of a bus - that's nothing new; and this site just makes it easier to facilitate some payback. You are a bald faced liar and hypocrite if you're going to even hint that the site is meant to be something else. And sure, in a lot of cases, these snitches probably will deserve a bit more 'justice' coming to them than what they've gotten. But don't lump these people in with the ones that saw violent crimes and did the right thing by telling the truth about it - and certainly don't pick the few cases about the crappy cop that went way too far as justification for blowing the cover of 400 agents.

This is just a way to get people killed and send a message about it under the misconstrued image of free speach.

[mtredhawk200]

Cool! We had an "informant" in our area who was in the federal witness protection program. The creep kidnapped and raped a woman. He was a lot more dangerous than anybody he ratted out.

[cepe10-2009]

I think it is great - if you want to be an informant fine - be prepared for public scrutiny. We deserve to see who these accusers are and this transparency will help with all the false accusation being used by those for their own gain - namely over zealous prosecutors and those they use...

[kaili3]

the scary thing here is no one will want to help
in being a witness to crimes because of fear and intimidation. It would be really sad if a person was raped or killed and a witness refused to come forward because of these "snitches" type of websites.