Smearing Whistle Blower Bruce Gorcyca – Almost Locked Away For 15 Years – Part 3 of 6

When Bruce would not shut up about the murder of IRS Agent Liston Smith and the hit list. The feds recruited a jailhouse “witness” named Neil Keenan and offered him his freedom in exchange for a few lies. They had Keenan write a false statement that Bruce was plotting the murder of his ex girlfriend’s new boyfriend, both of whom were Metro Dade police officers. If the scheme worked, Bruce would be locked away for 15 years, and nobody would listen to the rants and pleas of some guy who tried to kill a cop. The problem is the truth and misfortune both got in the way and really pissed off a fairly honest judge named Sydney Shapiro in Miami.

You see, the day that Neil claimed Bruce supposedly admitted waiting for his victim to come out of his apartment to be killed, Bruce was actually on a date with a beautiful girl named Mirriam Rodriguez of Miami at Everglades National Park where tragedy had struck twice for the couple. While riding their bicycles through the park, a huge dragon fly the size of a pigeon landed on Mirriam’s shoulder and scared the beejesus out her causing her to crash her bike, skin here knee and sprain her ankle – all in less than 1 minute. Anyone who heard her scream would think she was having her limbs ripped off. Big bugs that buzz do that to a girl.

Since that accident killed the rest of the bicycle hike, Bruce tried to make lemonade from the lemons and suggested they take an airboat tour of the Everglades and look at the wildlife – mostly deer, alligators, racoon, and a hundred or so variety of birds. Still in pain, she agreed that might be fun, so they found a big country boy who rents airboats and they asked him for a guided tour. For $200 an hour he happily agreed. This would be a big mistake, but one that Bruce would be very grateful for a few weeks later.

Neither Bruce nor Mirriam knew the good old boy owner/driver of the airboat had a few beers to many and although he told some great jokes and kept them entertained, he had lost his sense of speed and direction. Because the airboat was powered to carry up to 8 passengers and only Bruce and Mirriam were on it, they sped through the tall grass at 70mph. It was exhilarating and…a bit dangerous.  The driver did not see a sandbar and WHAM! They they sat stranded on a sandbar for 3 hours surrounded by curious alligators and mosquitoes that really were.  They would sit there as the sun would set – more than 5 miles from any other human being. When it grew dark and the airboat was missing back at dockside, the other good old boys realized something was wrong and launched a search party of 3 airboats to go look for the trio. It was about this time that federal witness Keenan swore under oath that Bruce was lurking in a Kendal apartment building parking lot waiting to take out a cop. If Neil was believed by a jury, Keenan would be released seven years early from his 10 year sentence.

By the time they were found, Bruce and Mirriam swore they met every single mosquito in Florida and the hundreds of bumps all over their bodies gave testament to this. They arrived back at the dock about 8:00pm and about 9:00pm when Bruce dropped Mirriam at her home. It would truly be a memorable day for every one, but for all the wrong reasons.

Thus when Bruce was arrested a few days later and ended up in an attempted murder trial, he was grateful that Keenan picked that particular day as the murder date. Mirriam and the airboat driver told a Miami jury the above story and Mirriam still had the scar on her knee from the bicycle spill. Bruce still had the receipt from the airboat ride.  Shortly after the three testified about their adventure in the Everglades, the trial came to an end and so did Keenan’s lies. The jury took all of 12 minutes to return a verdict of “not guilty” and Judge Shapiro chastised the prosecutor for not checking out Bruce’s version of events for that day. Although Shapiro made it clear that Keenan perjured himself, no criminal charges were brought against him. Why?

The Keenan affair was just one of 4 times the feds tried to have Bruce arrested with fake crime in order to hide real ones. When people use the law and the courts as a political weapon, it is called “Abuse of Process” and it is a felony crime that commands five years in prisons. Yet it is a crime that is almost never prosecuted. Why?  Because it would draw publicity and scrutiny to the entire criminal justice and judicial system from the public and media. But herein lies a very big problem…

Our prisons are full of Neil Keenans – people serving 10-20 years sentences who would say they saw Mother Theresa giving the Pope a blow job if gets them out of jail. In the book Bruce wrote he wrote over 30 pages about the “witnesses for hire” and he even interviewed one named Chester Zukowski of Florida who testified in over 50 trials for the federal prosecutors who used to ask him to rehearse his testimony and memorize scripted responses to questions they would be asked on the stand.

The point I am trying to drive home here is that if Uncle Sam needs you to be guilty of a crime in order to discredit you, they will find a way to make it happen. The same was done to Chip Tatum and Richard Brennecke who also worked  many years for the government and witnesses dozens of crime. These fake criminal charges are standard operating procedures when you start implicating high ranking government official at the Governor level or higher. Judges know the score and pretend they are shocked and surprised when these actor witnesses get tripped up in their lies.

This is why Bruce claimed in his book that up to 15% of prisoners locked p in our jails today may actually be innocent as well as those like Bradley Manning who were intimidated and or psychologically tortured into pleading guilty. So who was Bruce implicating in crimes back in 1985-1986?  Read Part 2 of this 6 part blog series.

FREE BRADLEY MANNING!

People should not go to prison for telling the truth simply because

the truth exposes the lies of government officials. 35 Years?

This is not Nazi Germany – Or is it?

American Citizens Are Tortured On American Soil For Years – A Shameful Fact.

1 in every 20 Americans will spend time in a jail cell at least once in their lifetime. No nation jails more of their citizens per capita than the United States of America. 10% of Americans will be arrested in their lifetime.  Less than 2% have been tortured – so far. This is almost 300% more than China and 400% more than Russia – per capita.

Because our national news media is heavily biased and regularly manipulated (proven by award-winning CNN journalist/whistle blower Amber Lyon) we often hear about the human rights abuses of other countries like China, Turkey, Iran or Russia, but we never hear about all the American citizens, over a thousand of them that are tortured and abused on a daily basis – right here on American soil. No, I am not talking about Muslim terrorists, or some Russian spies. I am talking about military veterans, pilots, crooked accountants, tax evaders, and many white-collar thieves, and even a few dozen people who were wrongly convicted, or have not even had their trial yet, and are supposed to be “presumed innocent” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvU_PNCjhE

I personally both witnessed and was subjected to both physical and psychological torture some of which is outlined here http://WhyUncleSamHatesBruce.blogspot.com, others I summarized in a 2 page report I submitted to Amnesty International in Toronto in the summer of 2000 at 56 Temperance Street, only 3 days before a swarm of police descended upon our Canadian home (where I had sought sanctuary). 20 armed SWAT guys came to “help” a sole Immigration Canada man with a clipboard  “detain” me.  For what?  Even he wasn’t sure, but over the next week while I was locked up in maximum security detention, we learned the USA  “made a request” for the “enforcement action” without providing an explanation. Was it retaliatory for blowing the whistle on the torture in America?  Yes, but only in part.

Anyway my profile is not one you think of when you imagine someone being tortured.  I have zero history of violence and was a former air traffic controller, former employee of the U.S. Justice Department, a former U.S. Treasury Agent, and amongst other things a former Fortune 500 Executive, Red Cross Volunteer, and honorably discharged military veteran.  I was imprisoned 30 years ago for something I never did, but had to deal with due to political corruption. I have to admit that my visit to a U.S. prison was shocking and a bit scary at first. But most all people quickly adapt to their environment and so did I. It was not my world mind you, but I had to live in it. Some memories never fade with time.

I heard the horror stories but frankly, I blew them off as urban legend myths – until I saw my first brutal beating of a prisoner who had four guards kicking, clubbing, and stomping the poor bastard as he lay on the ground with no way to defend himself. His hands were bound behind his back with nylon tie-wraps. his face and jumpsuit were covered in blood – a real mess. They dragged him behind one of the housing units – out of general view. After a few more punishing minutes, he was taken not to the clinic, but to the solitary confinement unit.  “My God! This guy must have done something horrible!”  I thought to myself. As a new arrival I just assumed he simply must have deserved this beating.  But later, when we all got wind of the whole story, I was sick to my stomach. The prisoner confronted a guard who had made some suggestive sexual comments to his wife as she entered the visiting room and demanded to know the guard’s name. Apparently the guard and his three friends, persuaded him not to file any report with the warden! They clearly believe actions speak louder than mere words.

Even women prisoners get beaten or raped without provocation, or for refusing to provide sexual favors.  Four guards in Georgia had to resign for beating this woman below but they never spent jail time for it.  “Detainees” at an Immigration Center in Florida (Krome) where I briefly worked myself, got abused in much the same way (I resigned from Krome after reporting a supervisor for raping young Latino immigrants) Did you know that fully one-third of all the jailed women in the world are in U.S. jails?

But this would prove to be the most mild abuse and torture I would see and experience. In fact, I would see/hear two prisoners actually murdered at MCC MIami and then their deaths falsely made to appear as suicides. One of the victims was Ralph Steele.  I gave sworn statements to the police when I was released and never saw a single police report written up. The FBI station Chief in Miami (Paul Miller) actually had the audacity to tell me the FBI had no legal jurisdiction to investigate the murders I tried to report! Getting back on point… I saw prisoners locked in a closet and then the closet was filled with pepper spray as the prisoner could do nothing but gag, scream, vomit, and beg for mercy. His offense?  Calling a guard an “asshole” for stealing his library book from his cell so he could read it himself.  Books are rare gold in solitary confinement cells.

Prisoners are human beings. Human beings are animals. All animals, no matter how docile, will tolerate only so much abuse before they snarl and snap back in self-defense. When that happens in a prison however, the animal that dares to defend themself will be swarmed upon by a wolf pack of guards and then bound like in the above photo and get “a full body massage compliments of Uncle Sam”  Thank God I was foolish enough to make this mistake only once.  The next day my testicles were swollen the size of tennis balls and I had blood in my pee and turds for almost a week. From that day forward I would only defend myself against prisoners – not a guard.  No matter how abusive one guard can be, fighting back, even in self defense will certainly quadruple the pain since at least three or more guards will “join the party” as they call it.

       

Some torture is slow and not so obvious. It may be just chaining someone to their bed for a a few days or in an awkward position for only a few hours that puts a strain on your back muscles and causes painful cramps. Above are a few favorite positions and another that I personally dreaded was handcuffing the right wrist to the left ankle and the left wrist to the right ankle, Learning how to pee in this configuration is a real challenge!

The above may look like a toilet to you, and on a good day it is. On a bad day it is a torture device. American citizen prisoners have a worse version of water-boarding than Al-Qaeda prisoners.  Imagine this… 4 or 5 guards come into your cell and decide to use your toilet and all take a healthy pee in it.  They then grab you and handcuff your hands behind your back and make you kneel in front of this unflushed toilet.  The smell is nauseating but it gets a lot worse when they now slam your face down into the toilet and submerge your face in the pee!  While you gag, they laugh.  They usually want something from you when they do this – either information, a phone number, cigarettes, etc. In my case they wanted a signature.  So until you give them what they want, they keep dunking your head and then will start repeatedly flushing the toilet until you gag or drown. At least one prisoner drowned like this at Dade County Jail where they moved me to hide me from a news reporter. Here below is what a Federal Solitary Confinement cell looks like – when they are new…(the glass is frosted or opaque so there is nothing to look at outside, and only half of these cells have windows at all)

Nine of my 38 months in prison were spent in solitary confinement, but fortunately my torture period was no more than 3 months and I was kept in a cell similar to the one below during the abuse. These solitary confinement cells are where 80% of all torture takes place in America.  Why?  There are no witnesses here and nobody but other prisoners can hear you scream in pain. My 3 week hunger strike put an end to most of the abuse.

Torturing American prisoners is not at all new. In the 1860s prisoners at Arkansas State Prison often got to talk on the “Tucker Telephone” – getting their genitals electrocuted  with high voltage wires that caused excruciating pain, sterility, and bleeding. But today, the torture used is less noticeable and easy to hide from witnesses or even police investigators.

Freezing prisoners to the point of Hypothermia is very common and something I experienced a handful of times at MCC Miami and elsewhere.  The effects of Hypothermia aside from uncontrollable shivering is gradual and complete disorientation and extreme stress. Prisoners who fall asleep during this torture can easily die and dozens have every year. Those that survive the Hypothermia may then lose their life to Pneumonia if their body is not strong enough to resist the water build up in their lungs.

I was personally kept hog-tied and naked on the concrete floor with handcuffs for 4 days.  Unlike duct tape, steel handcuffs dig into your skin and cause bleeding within a few hours of movement. Today 30 years later, I still have the scars on my wrists to remind me of the ordeal. All these tortures were an attempt to get me to sign a false statement. During those four days I had no choice but to urinate and defecate on myself and to eat like dog from a tray of food put in front of me. Nylon tie wraps are also used and are only slightly less painful. Both cut off circulation in your arms and put a huge amount of stress on your lower back. Veteran prisoners who heard of my plight advised me to roll over on my side to ease the pain a bit. I was extremely grateful for that tip.

At FCI Talladega a federal prison in Alabama I saw a prisoner with his head duct-taped between two jail bars while he was forced to kneel with his hands cuffed behind his back. Two guards tormented him for over an hour. One would kick his face while the other would spray him with pepper spray when he screamed and vomited. When we other prisoners would protest, we’d also get hit with a blast of the burning spray.

Getting sprayed with pepper, mace, or bear spray is very easy to do in an American prison. Just argue or disagree with a guard or refuse to call him “sir” and you have 50% chance of getting third degree burns in less than 30 minutes.  This is one time you will actually want to stick your face into a flushing toilet!

When  MCC Miami guards got their new Taser Guns in 1987 they needed to have a demonstration. I supposedly was selected at random to be their target – twice.  There are no words to describe the painful tingling sensation you feel all over your body as you lose all muscle control and pee and shit on yourself. For 10-15 minutes you remain totally incapacitated, flopping around on the floor like a fish out of water.  https://ca.screen.yahoo.com/tech—science/taser-effects-bare-skin-super-214609480.html

One of the most brutal tortures I ever witnessed are the “gladiator fights” many guards force prisoners to participate in. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/27/san-francisco-prison-guards-forced-inmates-game-of-thrones-style-fights The one I saw at Atlanta FCI resulted in a prisoner having his eye gouged so badly that it had to be surgically removed. Some of these prisoners forced to fight one another don’t even know each other. Others belong to rival gangs. Fortunately I was never subjected to this brutality. But still I was attacked, and even stabbed after one of the prison guards decided to leak to all the other prisoners that I was a former U.S. federal agent. As a result I was stabbed with a pencil in my stomach and my neck, but neither wound caused serious injury and I recovered within a week. Had a metal shank been used instead of a pencil, you would not be reading these words right now.

Other torture involves making prisoners eat feces or drink pee mixed in with their kool-aid  drinks. Not so funny when you remember how HIV, Hepatitis and other diseases are spread through body fluids. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2007/aug/15/rhode-island-pays-120000-to-prisoner-forced-to-eat-feces/ I thank God they only pulled that stunt on me once,, although I was deliberately given diarrhea many times by guards who would spike our drinks with Visine for a good laugh and then give us the “bad news” that there is no more toilet paper! Their twisted sense of humor was not much appreciated by the prison residents. Sometimes our assholes were sore for 2-3 days at a stretch. From time to time we found a few other surprises in our food – namely dead or live insects (flies and roaches) and having worked in the prison kitchen which we kept spotless, I knew the special condiments were courtesy of the guards in solitary.

This Ohio woman was sentenced to 54 years in prison for exactly what prison guards did to me at MCC Miami  http://murderpedia.org/female.C/c/carroll-liz.htm  This took place just before I went on my hunger strike, the only effective way a prisoner can protest and get the warden’s attention.

Guards made me strip naked and cuffed my hands behind my back and then rolled me inside a wool blank that wreaked like urine. I did not know for an hour that the blanket was infested with lice and crabs. For good measure the guards also sprinkled in some fiberglass fibers from some insulation. Then they wrapped me as tight as possible with two rolls of duct tape and left me in my cell to roast.  Within 2 hours the heat was the good news! Sweating profusely was bad yes, but having crabs and lice biting away at me in my crotch, armpits, neck, and hair was unbearable, especially since I had no way to scratch.  I was screaming for release within 4 -5 hours. This was not a happy place for me, and I still get flashbacks to this episode and the toilet diving. But the most painful was being hog-tied and pepper-sprayed.

Not all the torture of U.S. citizens is physical. A good portion of it is psychological, like locking up a prisoner in a completely white room, withholding mail and visits from loved ones and lawyers , or telling a prisoner he tested positive for HIV or tuberculosis, or that while you are locked away in solitary confinement, your parents, children, or spouse died in some horrible accident. One prisoner in Memphis committed suicide after a guard told him that his parents and children died in a house fire and that his wife was probably not going to make it either. They had me convinced that my mother had passed away, and that I had contracted TB in prison and would probably die within a year or two. I lived in despair for six months until I learned the truth… my mother was quite alive and worried sick about me. I also tested negative for TB.

I was subjected to 4 days of sleep deprivation which damn near drove me insane. It is one of the most cruel things that you can do to a human body and after 2 days you do not even respond to loud noises and after 3 days can even sleep through a bucket of ice water thrown on you. By day 4 they had to keep me awake with cigarette burns. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dreaming-in-the-digital-age/201412/why-sleep-deprivation-is-torture

Some of the worst cells have no windows at all and are actually several feet underground. They are cold, damp, and dark. At times you could hear a pin drop and yet you will hear grown men weep and scream at least once a day. Just because we were isolated from the public, family, and friends did not rob us of our emotions. Regretfully, we could not rid ourselves of them even if we wanted to. Sometimes the only friendly face and semblance of kindness came from a caring nurse, visiting pastor, or one of the new guards who were not yet jaded. The below photo shows just how isolated prisoners are kept for days, weeks, months, and even years. This is how they break your spirit to fight back against any injustice that was forced upon you in a courtroom.

Some twisted guards actually feel it is their duty to amplify any and all punishment a judge may have given you with their sentence, and so when it comes to torture they can justify it and even rationalize it if caught.  BTW… when the segregation unit gets crowded (like during the Iran Contra scandal) it is not uncommon for two prisoners to share a cell. One sick guard had promised Foster that he would get me to sign the statement he wanted so badly. Knowing that I am a non-smoker he first put me in a cell with a chain smoker for a day and then asked me if wanted a “cell change” after he heard me gagging and coughing all day long. I jumped at the chance to breathe clean air, and the guard just smiled. Three minutes later, I found myself sharing a cell with “Big Man” whose nick name was quite fitting since he was about six feet tall and about 290 pounds. He was a friendly guy, and for good reason – he was aggressively gay. I knew I was either going to die or end up in a hospital if I could not get out of that cell. But the guard just ignored me when I started banging on the door. Big man introduced himself and offered me a chocolate bar. I ignored his overt flirting all day and dreaded having to sleep in the same cell with this guy. He offered me the bottom bunk and I said “no thanks”.  He had already occupied the top bunk so I prepared myself for what was to come.  Fortunately fighting with bullies in the schoolyard as a kid prepared me for this day. (Thanks for the training Cliff) When he tried to force himself on me when the lights went off that night, I had no choice but to bite him and fight for my life. If he was going to rape me, i would make sure the event had more pain than pleasure for the sleazeball. Learning to wrestle and box in my youth sure came in handy for me that ugly night. The floor was slippery with blood, both his and mine and only a guard shift change got me taken out of the cell during the most exhausting scuffle of my life – far worse than any wrestling match to be sure. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/locked-up-in-america/#solitary-nation

Just recently something very unusual happened in Florida.  These six prison guards were arrested and charged with inflicting cruel and unusual punishment (assaults) on prisoners under their supervision. At MCC Miami not a single guard was arrested for the murder of Ralph Steele. Too many witnesses made it difficult to conceal the abuse doled out by these six guys, as investigative reporters from The Miami Herald noticed some unusual prisoner deaths and began to interview prisoners and their families.  http://media.miamiherald.com/static/media/projects/2015/cruel-and-unusual/aftermath/guards-arrested/    Friends, what they stumbled upon is just the tip of a very big iceberg, that if properly investigated will uncover hundreds of torture victims and murders – in the land of the free.

With the privatization of America’s jails and prisons, the jailing of U.S. citizens has now become a “business”, and every business needs “customers” to be profitable. As a result, more and more innocent people are being locked up for non-violent crimes. More and more 99%, 911, and truther protesters are being silenced behind bars. Even homeless people are being rounded up and jailed to fuel the prison factories that we used to scold China for! The below chart speaks for itself and should be a wake-up call to all of my fellow-Americans, especially if you bother to read this: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/con_camps_fema.htm

Friends, violent crime in America has steadily decreased over the last two decades , yet the prison populations continues to climb. What is wrong with this picture?  When do we put our foot down and take back control of our lives from our government?  Our indifference and apathy only emboldens them even more to look for more brazen ways to profit from human suffering – at our expense. If you took the time to read this long article, it means you are still human, and probably still remember what it means to be a true patriot – an unselfish American of compassion and genuine justice. What happened to me and hundreds of other AMERICAN CITIZENS can just as easily happen to YOU or one of your loved ones. Lest we forget this old scribble from a World War II survivor of Nazi Germany? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/criminal-justice/locked-up-in-america/whos-locked-up-in-america/

The evil mean streak that runs through some of the American prison guards runs deep to their core. Even more so in state prisons. Multiply the human suffering by at least five at the state level.  Fortunately only 10% -12% of the guards are responsible for these heinous acts of torture. Unfortunately, the bigger problem is that most of the other 88% turn blind eyes to it all since they do not want to lose their stable and good-paying jobs. Humanity and compassion are growing extinct in America. These cruel bastards are paid with YOUR tax monies friends. Sometimes I think the only way to stop the madness is to stop giving them tax money to abuse in this manner. Seriously, how else can we stop the brutality that has become the new trademark of America?

Note: During my 38 months of false, but very real imprisonment  I interviewed 47 political prisoners and 22 victims of torture and vowed to tell their collective story one day. Prison guards would not allow me to leave prison with all of my notes, many of which I had memorized in preparation of a seizure and reconstructed them upon my release. Yet in October of 1999 federal storm troopers raided my mother’s home in Ohio and stole my manuscripts at gun-point in front of several witnesses. They gave no receipt for what they stole. Thank God for Zip drives  drives because I had buried two disks. Coming to China allowed me to finish writing my 812 page book but after our son was born I promised my wife I would never publish it.  Perhaps my son will have an interesting read one day after I pass on.  See: http://WhyUncleSamHatesBruce.blogspot.com

Your comments are welcome and feel free to reprint and reblog this without editing. Please remember, you are either part of the solution, or part of the problem. Thanks for letting me vent a little bit here. Blogging is great therapy eh? America – Land of the free?

The Smearing Of Federal Whistle Blower Bruce Gorcyca – A Case Study – Part I of 6

MANY THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT WHAT THEY APPEAR TO BE. JUST ASK OLIVER NORTH AND THE 23 INNOCENT PEOPLE JAILED OR MURDERED TO PROTECT NORTH, VP GEORGE BUSH, AND TERRY NELSON’S DRUG SMUGGLING ESCAPADES FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES.  WOULD YOU FALSELY ACCUSE SOMEONE TO AVOID SPENDING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE BEHIND BARS?

When U.S. Federal employees report federal crimes at the executive level where the perpetrators are GS-12 or higher in pay grade, they become marked men and women and targeted for harassment, inconvenient transfers, and intimidation designed to obtain a resignation or a recantment of their reports.  If those accused are political appointees or cabinet member the intimidation is escalated to a new level where the accuser must be discredited at any and all costs. If not, murder becomes the last resort.

When Bruce reported one of his first federal crimes (the theft of drugs and cigarettes from the U.S. Coast Guard Base in San Juan, he received only the support of Commander Frank Ballou and to all others he became a “snitch” and was merely transferred to another duty station 25 miles away to the air station in Aguadilla.  Once there the Commanding Office made the mistake of assigning him to the Security Office which gave Bruce the authority to investigate crimes on the 12 acre military base, which were few and far between. The crimes he did observe were mostly committed by officers who used their rank to misappropriate property from the government, ranging from a few cases of liquor to a $50,000 chandelier and avionics equipment a Lt. had the nerve to steal and install in his own private aircraft. Yep, you guessed, it Bruce reported it all.  This again made him an inconvenient problem who had to be removed to protect the careers of a handful of officers, who aside from their misdeeds were of high value to the Coast Guard. Therefore, Bruce was set up for a quite ridiculous crime himself.

He resided with 3 other enlisted men in a duplex government housing unity on the base. Without notice, the duplex unit was searched one early morning and lo and behold, what do they find in government housing? Government paint, a government broom, government pens, government furniture, government fan etc. Exactly what would be found in any of the other 170 housing units on the base. It was all confiscated and even though Bruce was one of four people residing in the unit he was the only charged with misappropriating govt. property even though nothing was found in his own bedroom other than a govt. pen and trashcan.  The paint that was found just happened to be the same mint green that matched the color of the duplex! So government paint was used to paint a government house on a government base. HOW CRIMINAL CAN YOU GET!?!

Bruce was called in to see the Commanding Officer who notified Bruce he was placed on report and would be taken before the Captain for a “Captain’s Mast” (Article 15 disciplinary hearing). But Bruce who had just been promoted to BM2 (Boatswain mate 2nd Class Petty Officer) politely declined the the hearing and requested a Court Martial, primarily so the District Commander in Miami would learn of the nonsense. An entire month was spent trying to persuade Bruce to withdraw the Court Martial request, or simply resign from the Coast Guard. Bruce stood his ground and realized that if a Court Martial was convened, the truth of all the other crimes he had reported that were covered up by the CO would come out for all to see.

Long story short, the court martial convened, Bruce was ordered to limit his testimony to the stuff found in the house and nothing more. Nothing could be discussed as to WHY his housing unit was the only one selected for a “random drug search” (No drugs were found on the premises btw)  Bruce’s family flew in a top notch lawyer from Ohio named Gerry Gold)  It was concluded that people living in government housing would be expected to have government household items and furnishings. This was embarrassing for the Command who was spending about $300,000 (a lot of money back in 1977). They had to find Bruce guilty of something!  So they decided to find him guilty of misappropriating a key ring someone had left on a forklift the day before the Saturday house search about 10 minutes before everyone went home for the weekend. Bruce’s intentions were to take the unidentified key ring to security office the following Monday since somebody would probably come looking for them. So he took personal custody of the keys over the weekend. Aha!  They were able to say he “misappropriated” something!  So 99% of the charges were dismissed but they nailed him for the key ring which an alcoholic public works supervisor did not even realize he lost for three days!

At the time this all took place, Bruce had the highest academic ranking on the base from the Coast Guard Institute and was on fast pace of promotions and by his last year (4th year in the military he would have been an E6 or first class petty officer – a rank most people achieved in 5-6 years) Prior to this incident only 1 out of 8 performance reports were not “excellent”. The sole negative evaluation was given by the officer Bruce caught with the $50,000 chandelier in his home (stolen during the renovation of the Officer’s club).

After the court martial Bruce had to be punish for those keys, which if left on the forklift could have been stolen by civilian employees and perhaps used to steal something of value, although it was never determined what the keys actually opened!  Bruce was demoted to BM3 and told he would not be eligible for promotion again for two years when he was only 6 months away from qualifying for OCS (Officer Candidate School). Demoralized he agreed to accept an early honorable discharge since the value of the “crime” he committed was less that $100. As petty as this case may seem, it shows what lengths the government will go to punish those who expose felony crimes within the government. The senior people are protected at all costs, even when they covered up the murder of Radioman 3rd class Patrick Wesphal in San Juan who they wrote up as a suicide. Patrick was the radioman on duty the night some drugs were stolen from the base, and he unfortunately became a witness. Commander Frank Ballou and Bruce had wanted to examine the crime scene when CGI finished doing the same, but they were refused. Ballou was claiming the right to do so as the duty officer of that day, but he was over-ruled by the command.

The CO that set up the “random drug search” on Bruce had a personal score to settle. Captain Tom Lutton was passed over for promotion to Admiral primarily due to an ACLU investigation and complaint filed with the Commandant Owen SIler. It grew from a complaint filed by Bruce with the ACLU that the Coast Guard was publishing the social security numbers and unpublished private telephone numbers in a telephone directory at the Borinquen Air Station of all the military personnel without their knowledge nor consent. Bruce had first asked Lutton to remove his name, SSN, and private telephone number but Lutton said that would cost the Coast Guard $350 to reprint the directory and apparently that $350 was more important to Lutton than the Privacy of 230 people he commanded. The Commandant ordered the directories to be recalled and destroyed and placed a letter of reprimand in Lutton’s service file jacket. Now you know why the “random” drug search selected the housing unit of Bruce even though none of the four men living their used drugs.

Fast forward to 1981 when Bruce was assigned to Krome Detention Center in MIami (basically a jail for immigrants in the Everglades) as an employee of the U.S. Justice Department. It was a temporary job for Bruce while he was awaiting a placement with U.S. Customs as boat coxswain or diver (Bruce was already a PADI Scuba Instructor by this time) At Krome Bruce witnessed an reported the beatings and rapes of immigrant prisoners (described in detail in his book manuscripts) Some of the girls raped were still in their teens. They were told that if they complained or said anything, they would be deported and never get a green card.  Bruce went to bat for them and filed a formal report against a supervisor named Ruiz. Officially, Bruce was thanked for his “diligence” but within a month Ruiz was “promoted” and transferred, the girls (witnesses) were deported and Bruce was told that when he finished his training at Glynco he would be assigned to the most undesirable duty station run by INS. Bruce decided to take the test to become an air traffic controller since he was a student pilot at this time with over 180 hours of flight time. Less than 15% of people who take the test actually pass it, but Bruce gave it a shot. He passed with the third highest score in Florida so he resigned his post at Krome.

This above episode shows how supervisory perpetrators are protected with bogus promotions and transfers. But when the crimes involve a U.S. Senator, IRS Commissioner, and the Attorney General of America, the dirty tricks team is called in to deal with the whistle blower.

Bruce’s next government job would be with the IRS while awaited a call from U.S. Customs and the FBI where he was advised he was in que for consideration after a hiring freeze was to be lifted within a year. At the IRS in Miami, he and his partner (Liston Smith) would find something by accident, that a few U.S. Senators were looking for – the IRS Florida Hit List of democratic campaign donors that were hoping to unseat the incumbent Senator Paula Hawkins in favor of Governor Bob Graham. What Bruce and Liston would stumble upon would cause Liston to be murdered and Bruce jailed on a fabricated bribery charge in 1984 within 30 days of each other. Ironically a week after Bruce was accused of taking that non-existent bribe he received a notice from the FBI that he should contact the local HR Officer to confirm a convenient time for a job interview!  The week before he was arrested for the bribe, Bruce was interviewed for a promotion to work with internal affairs of the IRS (Inspection division after working undercover for the inspection team on a local Miami case) Woody Kirk and Harold Wenig can verify the above undercover work and pending hire to internal affairs. Wenig would later admit he did not believe the bribery story and apologized to Bruce for not saying anything.

TO BE CONTINUED…

For those of you who believe the government really can’t lie about stuff like this, I remind you of the following lies of Uncle Sam that all of us swallowed at one time or another:

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/incubatorlie.html

http://billmoyers.com/content/10-big-fat-lies-and-the-liars-who-told-them/

http://pearly-abraham.tripod.com/htmls/bush-lies.html

Bruce wrote an 812 page book about his journey through the dark side of government crimes.The manuscripts were twice seized at gunpoint by federal agents who had no warrants. The book was reconstructed from a zip disk file Bruce had buried in Ohio.  But after his wife became pregnant with their son he she made him promise not to publish it, and he has kept his word to her for over 10 years.