Word: snitches
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Leslie White is a prime example of a shady fixture in American justice: the jailhouse snitch. Over the past decade White -- whose rap sheet lists crimes ranging from purse snatching to kidnaping -- has testified against at least a dozen California inmates who he claimed confessed their guilt to him. With information he provided, authorities have unearthed the bodies of murder victims and prosecuted a prison gang leader for murder. In exchange, lawmen accorded him special privileges, including early release, during his frequent returns to the slammer. "Every time I come in here," White boasts, "I inform and get back...
White claims he confessed his fabrications to absolve a guilty conscience. But he doubts that any other snitch who made up a confession is likely to come clean as he did. "These guys will just get on the stand again and say, 'No, I didn't lie.' Case closed. Back in the closet...
...Huckleberry Finn. Actually, it is an FBI counterespionage effort. In a 33-page report issued last week, the bureau declared that stacks of the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjold Library, the New York City Public Library and the Library of Congress, among others, are haunted by Soviet agents who snitch sensitive research. Spies also prowl libraries to spot recruits -- such as the Queens College student approached in New York City by Gennadi Zakharov, the Soviet diplomat who was arrested in 1986 and exchanged for Journalist Nicholas Daniloff...
There are indications that some controllers may be cheating the snitch system to avoid the burden of paperwork and explanations. The FAA investigated a near miss on Feb. 16 between a Sky West Airlines flight and a private Beech Bonanza near Santa Barbara, Calif. The planes had come within five miles, but the snitch was not triggered. The investigators discovered that a controller had dropped the Bonanza from his screen in the belief that there was no real chance of a collision despite the proximity of the two aircraft. This action, reported the FAA, "disabled the computer's ability...
...Some pilots object to the snitch alarm as a superfluous electronic Big Brother, but few approve of controllers defeating the system. Charges a veteran American Airlines captain: "Dropping a plane from the screen is playing fast and loose with human life to avoid being pinpointed for a mistake. It's unconscionable...