Watching the watchers

WASHINGTON (AP) - Police and prosecutors are worried that a Web site claiming to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents will cripple investigations and hang targets on witnesses.

The Web site, WhosaRat.com, first caught the attention of authorities after a Massachusetts man put it online and named a few dozen people as turncoats in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a clearinghouse for mug shots, court papers and rumors.

Federal prosecutors say the site was set up to encourage violence, and federal judges around the country were recently warned that witnesses in their courtrooms may be profiled online.
"My concern is making sure cooperators are adequately protected from retaliation," said Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, who alerted other judges in Washington's federal courthouse. He said he learned about the site from a federal judge in Maine.

The Web site is the latest unabashedly public effort to identify witnesses or discourage helping police. "Stop Snitching" T-shirts have been sold in cities around the country and popular hip-hop lyrics disparage or threaten people who help police.

I have been aware of this website for some time, but have not talked about it in print because I didn't want to help publicize it. Now that it has made the mainstream media I figure that the cat is out of the bag.

I'd love to say that I was outraged by this, but considering the way our society is deteriorating all I am is surprised that someone didn't do it sooner.

Not that the idea of trying to identify who undercover law enforcement officers are for the benefit of criminals is anything new. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is located just outside a small town in Georgia. To get to the center from the town there is a certain road that must be taken. Organized crime and, it is suspected, terrorist groups have agents living in that town with homes overlooking that road and they attempt to photograph anyone driving to the training center.

They also stake out the motels in the town where the agents who are there for training stay, as well as the restaurants and bars in the area.