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Tag: documents

  • Telangana Edu Min involved in illegal mining, 101 documents retrieved: CBI

    Telangana Edu Min involved in illegal mining, 101 documents retrieved: CBI

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    Hyderabad: The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) on Friday informed the Telangana High Court that they are in possession of 101 documents that manifest Telangana education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy’s role in the illegal mining case.

    The bench of Telangana HC headed by chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing a criminal revision plea filed by Sabitha Reddy challenging the decision of the Hyderabad CBI court that refused to discharge her from the illegal mining case involving mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy and his Obulapuram Mining Company.

    During the argument, CBI’s special public prosecutor N Nagendran refuted the charge laid on the bureau of holding Sabitha an accused without any substantive material, by presenting the documentary evidence to prove their claim.

    CBI counsel said that her actions helped private parties gain undue advantage and money, which was enough to convict a public servant in a corruption case.

    “We laid our hands on 104 documents. Of them, 101 turned out to be new ones and we relied on them in our supplementary chargesheet, making Sabitha an accused in the case,” he said.

    “She was asked to wait. She did not wait and took a decision favouring OMC when she was a minister in the united AP government,” CBI counsel said.

    Requesting the HC to dismiss her plea, the counsel of the bureau said, “Sabitha may have signed the file because she did not know the legal consequences. But, ignorance of the law is no excuse. She has to face trial.”

    Sabith’s counsel, E Uma Maheswara Rao in return said that the then-state government issued two GOs granting mining leases to OMC in 2007.

    “Those two were legally scrutinised and no courts scrapped the GOs. She did her job consciously and not with ignorance as was alleged by CBI,” he added.

    However, the case was adjourned to March 17.

    The minister, in January, had sought relief from the charges laid against her by filing a criminal revision petition in the state’s HC.

    Sabitha, in undivided AP, was the mining minister while Krupanandam and Srilakshmi were working as secretaries in the industries and mines department respectively when they were charged with conspiring with Janardhan Reddy and his OMC.

    The CBI charged her with assisting mining baron G Janardhan Reddy in illegally extracting iron ore on the AP-Karnataka border and exporting it.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents investigation

    FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents investigation

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    The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by Joe Biden.

    The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.

    A justice department special counsel is investigating how classified documents from Biden’s time as vice-president and senator came to end up in his home and former office – and whether any mishandling involved criminal intent or was unintentional. Biden’s personal lawyers disclosed in January that a small batch of documents with classified markings had been found weeks earlier in his former Washington office, and they have since allowed FBI searches of multiple properties.

    The university is Biden’s alma mater. In 2011, Biden donated his records from his 36 years serving in the US Senate to the school. The documents arrived on 6 June 2012, according to the university, which released photos of the numbered boxes being unloaded at the university alongside blue and gold balloons.

    Under the terms of Biden’s gift, the records are to remain sealed until two years after he retires from public life.

    Biden’s Senate records would not be covered by the Presidential Records Act, though prohibitions on mishandling classified information would still apply.

    The White House referred questions to the justice department, which declined to comment. The University of Delaware also referred questions to the justice department.

    The university is the fourth known entity to be searched by the FBI following inspections of Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington DC, where records with classified markings were initially found in a locked closet by Biden’s personal lawyers in November, and more recently of his Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.

    Those searches were all done voluntarily and with the consent of Biden’s legal team.

    The FBI took six items that contained documents with classified markings during its January search of the Wilmington home, Biden’s personal lawyer said. Agents did not find classified documents at the Rehoboth Beach property but did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice-president for review.

    The justice department is separately investigating the retention by former president Donald Trump of roughly 300 documents marked as classified at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The FBI served a search warrant at the home last August after months of resistance by Trump and his representatives to returning the documents to the government.

    The FBI also searched the Indiana home of former vice-president Mike Pence last week after his lawyers came forward to say they had found a small number of documents with classified markings. A Pence adviser said one additional document with classified markings was found during that search.

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    #FBI #searched #University #Delaware #Biden #documents #investigation
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents probe

    FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents probe

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    President Joe Biden speaks to the University of Delaware Class of 2022 during its commencement ceremony in Newark, Del., May 28, 2022. The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by Biden. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

    By Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by President Joe Biden.

    The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.

    The university is Biden’s alma mater. In 2011, Biden donated his records from his 36 years serving in the U.S. Senate to the school. The documents arrived June 6, 2012, according to the university, which released photos of the numbered boxes being unloaded at the university alongside blue and gold balloons.

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    #FBI #searched #University #Delaware #Biden #documents #probe
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Biden on documents: People packing offices ‘didn’t do the kind of job that should’ve been done’

    Biden on documents: People packing offices ‘didn’t do the kind of job that should’ve been done’

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    He continued to contrast the discovery of sensitive materials in his own possession with the FBI seizure of documents at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August.

    “The best of my knowledge, the kind of things they [investigators] picked up are things that — from 1974, stray papers. There may be something else, I don’t know,” Biden said of the investigators that looked for materials in his possession. 1974 was Biden’s second year in the U.S. Senate, and he didn’t explain what type of material from that year he might have had in his possession.

    He also maintained he “volunteered to open every single aperture” in cooperating with the Justice Department, a notable difference from Trump. The former president is under investigation not only for allegedly holding highly sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but also for possibly obstructing the investigation process. Trump has repeatedly complained about the process that led to the FBI seizures at Mar-a-Lago.

    Classified documents have been found at Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, as well as a Biden-associated private think tank space in Washington. Biden previously said he was “surprised” at the discovery of classified materials in the think tank space and that he didn’t know what was in them.

    Federal agents also searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home last week, but no additional documents with classified markings were found, according to Biden’s personal lawyer.

    His administration has repeatedly said they’re cooperating with the investigation, which is being led by special counsel Robert Hur.

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    #Biden #documents #People #packing #offices #didnt #kind #job #shouldve
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • New book documents revival of Gandhi’s Tolstoy Farm in South Africa

    New book documents revival of Gandhi’s Tolstoy Farm in South Africa

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    Johannesberg: A new book documenting the revival of the historic Tolstoy Farm, the commune started by Mahatma Gandhi during his tenure in Johannesburg at the turn of the 19th century, was officially launched here ahead of the iconic Indian leader’s 75th death anniversary.

    The book titled Tolstoy Farm the Road to Recovery’ was launched on Sunday and shares how Gandhian enthusiast Mohan Hira almost single-handled changed the completely vandalised Tolstoy Farm, overgrown by grass and bush, to where it today has a Garden of Remembrance, fruit orchards, a library and a museum.

    The author, a veteran South African journalist and PTI Correspondent in South Africa Fakir Hassen, shared how this book came about.

    “This book is not a complete historical record of the revival of Tolstoy Farm, nor is it an academic exercise on its relevance today, but rather just a collection of some of what I have reported over the last two decades or so,” he said.

    Hassen has written books on the contemporary history of South African Indians, including three on Gandhi. Gandhi, the father of the nation, was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.

    The author said the idea of this book was initiated in November 2022 when he joined Indian Consul General Anju Ranjan at Tolstoy Farm as speakers at the official opening of the library, put up in record time by Hira and his colleagues at the Mahatma Gandhi Remembrance Organisation (MGRO).

    “I had known about Tolstoy Farm from the 1970s when I was a young journalist with the Lenasia Times. I recall seeing some fruit trees and the remains of the wood and iron building that was once Gandhi’s home during his tenure in Johannesburg,” he said.

    It was largely left to Hira’s associates at the MGRO and the last few High Commissioners and Consuls General of India to start supporting Hira and his initiatives.

    In the book, Hassen quotes South African academic and prolific historian Prof Surendra Bhana’s essay incorporating the history of Tolstoy Farm in the South African Historical Journal, No 7, of November 1975.

    “Gandhi used the farm much as he was to use the Sabarmati Ashram later in India. One can say that the Tolstoy Farm was a laboratory for experimenting with problematic issues: diet, nature cure, harmonious living with nature, brahmacharya, and so on. It also proved to be a ‘training ground’ – I must add, incidentally – for his leadership among the people and in the politics of India,” Bhana wrote.

    Mahatma Gandhi’s 75th death anniversary was commemorated as Martyrs’ Day the world over on Monday.

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    #book #documents #revival #Gandhis #Tolstoy #Farm #South #Africa

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Hyderabad: Kolkata gang arrested for creating fake bank documents

    Hyderabad: Kolkata gang arrested for creating fake bank documents

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    Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police arrested a Kolkata-based gang consisting of four members who are allegedly involved in preparing fake bank guarantees and seized two cheques, five mobile phones, and 60 fake bank guarantees from them.

    The persons who are arrested are Godishala Naga Raju, 45 years, advocate and loan agent from Warangal, Naresh Sharma, 52 years of Rajasthan, Nilotpal Das, of Kolkata, West Bengal, and Subhrajit Ghosal, 31 years a resident of Kolkata, West Bengal.

    Sneha Mehra, DCP (Cybercrimes) Hyderabad said generally for awarding a government contract during documentation to assess the credibility of the applying company bank guarantees are sought from the company.

    In the detected case Harshitha Infra Engineering Private Limited awarded a Bio-Mining contract in Karimnagar Smart City Corporation Limited for which Rs. 1 Crore Bank Guarantee was sought Subsequently, Harshitha Infra Engineering Private Limited also awarded 11 bio-mining contracts by Director of Municipal Administration and the company had to submit bank guarantees Rs. 2.25 crores.

    Nagaraju had acquaintance with the victims Prajwel and Sandeep Reddy of Harshitha Infra Engineering and told them that bank guarantees will be provided on a commission basis.

    Nagaraju contacted Naresh Sharma from Jaipur, Rajasthan who in turn contacted Nilotpal Das and Subrajit Ghosal from Kolkata, West Bengal who had been the mastermind behind the fake bank guarantee document racket operating from Kolkata, West Bengal,” the official said.

    “Nilotpal Das reached out to the company through his friend Naresh Sharma and supplied fabricated bank guarantee documents by charging a 14 percent commission on the BG amount. Each person in this network takes a percentage of the commission. Nilotpal Das and Subrajit Ghosal prepared 12 fake bank guarantee documents for a total worth of Rs. 3.25 crores by using fabricated letters in the name of IndusInd Bank, Park Street Branch, Kolkata, West Bengal, and collected Rs. 47 Lakhs as commission for this work,” said Sneha Mehra.

    Nagaraju also took two cheques worth Rs. 1.1 Crore as security from Harshitha Infra Engineering Pvt Ltd. The company submitted them to Karimnagar Smart City Corporation Ltd and the Director of Municipal Administration, Hyderabad. The advocate had created a fake website and fake name of the IndusInd Branch.

    “When the concerned authorities cross-checked by sending email to the website specified on the bank guarantee documents, the accused responded by sending return fake mail confirming the genuineness of the documents. But when the hard copies of the documents were sent to the specified address for verification, the IndusInd Bank authorities identified them as fake documents and reported the matter to the Police, the DCP added.

    Nilotpal Das and Subhrajit Ghosal prepared fake bank guarantee documents on several occasions in the past in the name of IndusInd Bank and other banks in different states. During the preliminary investigation, it was found that the accused Nilotpal Das and Subhrajit Ghosal have prepared about 60 fake bank guarantees worth Rs. 45 Crores of IndusInd Bank, Bank of India, and Punjab National Bank, and the same has to be probed further.

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    #Hyderabad #Kolkata #gang #arrested #creating #fake #bank #documents

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Opinion | Don’t Blame the Government for Our Leaders Mishandling Documents

    Opinion | Don’t Blame the Government for Our Leaders Mishandling Documents

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    Sometimes, however, I reviewed a document marked “TS/SCI” and did not intuitively understand why its contents were classified in that way. The information might seem benign on its face and the implications for U.S. national security were far from clear, at least to me. Does that mean that the information in the document was over-classified? Not necessarily.

    Imagine we learn that a leader of a hostile nation — and I am wholly inventing this example — loves turnip ice cream. Could that information be classified at the TS/SCI level? Hypothetically, yes, and properly so. Let me explain.

    Perhaps the only person on the planet who knows of the turnip ice cream preference is someone on his staff. Perhaps that staffer is supplying information to our intelligence community about the foreign leader — his ice cream preferences, for example — but also about other things, including things he overhears the leader talking about during the day. That highly placed source is incredibly valuable to U.S. intelligence because of his proximity to the foreign leader. However, not all his reporting will be crucial and some of it — including the turnip preference — will seem trivial.

    Should we still classify the turnip reporting at the TS/SCI level and endeavor to protect it? Absolutely. If leaked, it might be easy for the foreign leader to determine the source of the leak and something very bad could happen to that staffer (and to U.S. intelligence interests).

    We might also learn of the leader’s turnip fixation through other means because we gather intelligence through many “sources and methods” that are not always obvious from the contents of a document. Indeed, the sources and methods were often opaque to me — and properly so — because though I may need the underlying information to do my job, I did not “need to know” how we obtained that information.

    Even if we saw the documents found at the homes of Trump, Biden and Pence, we might not understand how the information was compiled nor why the sources and methods are unique, sensitive and worthy of protection. We also could not say that their mishandling was the result of over-classification because we cannot know that.

    That is why extraordinarily reckless and irresponsible people like Edward Snowden can do so much damage to U.S. national security interests. They cannot know — and do not understand — the nature of the information they are disclosing, how it was obtained, who they are putting at risk with their disclosures, and what the costs to the U.S. might be, in terms of lost access and lost information. But I digress.

    Do we have an over-classification problem in this country? I suppose we do. Information might be classified that should not be classified at all; it might be classified at a level higher than it ought to be classified; or it might be classified for too long when declassification could serve other important public interests like transparency and accountability.

    But accepting all that, it is impossible to know that these types of over-classification issues apply to the documents that turned up at the homes of Trump, Biden and Pence. And, so what? None of this is an excuse for sloppy handling.

    Furthermore, if a document is classified, then we must — as users of classified information — accept that classification on its face and treat it as the rules require us to treat it. If it is over-classified, so be it. It certainly would not be prudent for someone to decide on their own that a document is over-classified and then treat it as if it is not classified at all.

    The classified information system is bulky and imperfect. And there is inevitably an over-classification problem, much of it likely not nefarious. A classification official gets into less trouble and incurs less risk for over-classifying a document rather than under-classifying it. But, in the end, the system relies on trust and diligence and prudence and rules. When people fail to act in those ways — even if unintentionally — we ought not make excuses for them.

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    #Opinion #Dont #Blame #Government #Leaders #Mishandling #Documents
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Cotton vows to block Biden nominees over classified documents flap

    Cotton vows to block Biden nominees over classified documents flap

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    Cotton’s stance threatens to shut down an already slow-moving Senate. The chamber has taken just one roll-call vote since being sworn in on Jan. 3: confirming an assistant defense secretary on Monday. The chamber will take its second floor vote on Thursday to dub January National Stalking Awareness Month.

    Otherwise, the chamber has been in a deep freeze, with no votes on Tuesday or Wednesday and continued haggling over committee assignments. If Cotton follows through on his objection, it will mean Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has to burn multiple days of valuable floor time to set up nominee votes.

    Classified documents have recently been found at the homes of both Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence and promptly turned over to the National Archives. Additionally, Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago was searched by the FBI last summer after he refused the Archives’ attempts to recover troves of classified records. Cotton said the administration would need to provide Congress with all the material seized from Biden, Trump and Pence to satisfy the Arkansas senator.

    “Congress has an absolute right to every single document or item or photo or box or picture or map that was at President Trump’s residence, President Biden’s residence and office, and for that matter, President Pence’s residence as well,” Cotton said. “I still have no clue what was in these documents. I’m not aware of any member of Congress that has any clue.”

    With agreement from all 100 senators, nominees can move immediately, although many nominees must go through a more laborious process. Nominees can be confirmed with simple majority votes, though any senator can still filibuster a nominee to delay their confirmation.

    “I’m sorry to see him try to find a way to obstruct the Senate. I’m hoping we can find a bipartisan way to get this done,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “The special counsel is investigating.”

    The special counsel probes into Biden’s and Trump’s handling of classified documents could complicate congressional oversight efforts. Administrations have historically been reluctant to share information with Congress that’s relevant to ongoing investigations, an issue that flared up during the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    But senators noted that a precedent was established during the Russia investigation permitting lawmakers to receive preliminary briefings and the administration found ways to resolve inter-branch conflicts.

    Cotton has used this strategy in the past, holding up U.S. attorney nominees during the last Congress in protest against the Justice Department’s treatment of marshals who defended a courthouse in Portland, Ore., during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. But he also isn’t the only senator frustrated about the lack of detail provided by the intelligence chief.

    Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the briefing “very unsatisfying … to say that they’re not going to share anything with us as long as the special counsel doesn’t allow them to share it with us? That’s an untenable position.”

    Cotton also alluded to Democratic unease over the administration’s stance. And Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that “the answers we received on that issue didn’t meet the mark, and I’ll have more to say later.”

    “I’m very disappointed with the lack of detail and a timeline on when we’re going to get a briefing,” Warner added. “We’re left in limbo until, somehow, a special counsel designates it’s OK for us to be briefed. And that’s not going to stand, and all things will be on the table to try to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

    He declined to comment on Cotton’s threat.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Mike Pence had classified documents at home, turned them over

    Mike Pence had classified documents at home, turned them over

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    DOJ’s effort to obtain the documents came days after Pence notified the National Archives that he had discovered them at his residence on Jan. 16. Jacob indicated Pence was unaware of the existence of the documents and had enlisted an outside counsel after press reports of the discovery of documents at President Joe Biden’s own personal residence.

    The sensitivity of the newly discovered documents is unclear. In his first letter to the Archives, Jacob indicated that Pence’s counsel did not review them “once an indicator of potential classification was identified.”

    Pence’s revelation threatens to upend the political landscape on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Biden White House has similarly turned over classified documents to the National Archives that were found in the president’s personal home and an office he used following his stint as vice president. But it has endured withering criticism, including from fellow Democrats, over the existence of those items. And House Republicans have already begun the process of investigating why classified items were discovered in both Wilmington, Del., and the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

    Revelations that such mistakes are widespread provided Democrats with a sense of inoculation. It also gave them a talking point to contrast Biden’s situation with that of Donald Trump’s, who also had classified documents on his personal property but refused to turn all them over when asked.

    “This discovery by Pence’s attorney is a very interesting reinforcement of the contrast between how Biden & Pence are properly cooperating and returning documents versus Trump stealing them, hiding them, and obstructing justice into their return,” said David Brock, president of the Biden-allied group Facts First USA.

    The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), showed no immediate indication that he would back off his investigations in the aftermath of the Pence revelations.

    “Former Vice President Mike Pence reached out today about classified documents found at his home in Indiana,” Comer said. “He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter. Former Vice President Pence’s transparency stands in stark contrast to Biden White House staff who continue to withhold information from Congress and the American people.”

    The Biden White House declined to discuss the matter citing a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations. And Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said he planned to “ask for the same intelligence review and damage assessment” that he had requested regarding Biden, “to see if there are any national security concerns.”

    The discovery by Pence nevertheless underscores the haphazard process taken by senior officials in departing presidential administrations. And it left other lawmakers on the Hill befuddled.

    “I would have thought over a year ago that the beginnings of this conversation between the archives and President Trump, that anyone who served in any of these roles as president and vice president that are still living would say: Go check your closets,” said Senate Intel Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.).

    A request for comment made to Pence’s aides was not returned. Pence had previously said that he had not brought classified documents home with him after leaving the vice presidency.

    In the Jan. 22 letter to the Archives, Jacob indicated that before DOJ intervened, Pence had been prepared to return four boxes of materials to the Archives for review. He noted that some of the records, while not classified, were likely to include “courtesy copies” of White House records from his tenure in office.

    “I expressed to you my expectation that the substantial majority of the documents in the four boxes would, upon examination, be found to be personal copies of other records that were previously transmitted to the Archives,” Jacob noted.

    Jacob indicated he intended to transport the boxes, absent the classified records recovered by DOJ, to the Archives on Jan. 23

    “The boxes were sealed at the Vice President’s residence in Indiana, following a final review by the Vice President’s personal attorney during which attorney-client privileged materials related to personal capacity attorneys, and Article I legislative branch materials, were placed in sealed and clearly labeled envelopes,” he wrote.

    “All of the documents within the boxes, and within the sealed envelopes, remain in the exact place and order in which they were discovered on January 16. The Vice President is not waiving any privileges pertaining to the clearly labeled materials.”

    Jordain Carney and Burgess Everett contributed reporting.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )