http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/a/w/1152/3-19-2004/20040319103014_20.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - The witness protection program is entering a new phase, with people who testify in terrorism cases expected to join the Mafia henchmen, motorcycle gang members and drug dealers who receive changed identities courtesy of the government.
The Justice Department is asking Congress for 15 additional U.S. marshals and $2 million more this year to begin working with witnesses who give key testimony in terrorism cases. Most are likely to be foreign-born and some could be in the United States illegally.
The amount of money is small by federal standards but prosecutors say it can have huge implications. Entire criminal enterprises have been dismantled through testimony of a single witness.
"It's been invaluable in a lot of cases, even white-collar cases," said Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney in New York who prosecuted high-profile mob and terrorism cases. "The more serious prosecutions you do, including terrorism and organized crime, the more you have a need for witnesses, if you can persuade them."
Witness protection is offered to people who can provide key testimony and whose safety could be jeopardized because of their cooperation with prosecutors. The conviction rate in cases where these witnesses have testified is 89 percent.
No one who followed the rules has been killed or harmed while in the witness program, run by the U.S. Marshals Service. More than 7,600 witnesses and 9,600 spouses and children have come under the "WITSEC" umbrella since its inception in 1970.
Kearn Knowles, chief of the program, said marshals now are protecting the grandchildren of some of the original cooperating witnesses, mostly organized crime figures. One of them, not knowing his true ancestry, recently applied to be an FBI agent, Knowles said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
There are witnesses in terrorism cases now under government protection, but none stemming from prosecutions since the Sept. 11 attacks. Knowles and Joseph Paonessa, chief inspector of the program, said they expect that will change as counterterrorism prosecutions mount.
Paonessa said terrorism cases involving Islamic extremists raise new issues for the marshals, especially if a person is in the United States illegally. That includes persuading immigration officials to drop any attempts to deport the witness.
There are cultural and language issues, challenges in job training and in making sure the witness is erased from any terrorism watch lists or criminal databases based on fingerprints or biometric identification systems.
If those connections aren't severed, it could be difficult for the witness to fly on a plane and there is a higher chance the witness' cover might be blown.
"It's becoming more and more complicated after 9-11," Knowles said.
Then there is the possibility that al-Qaida or other terror groups will launch intense campaigns to find and kill anyone who turns government witness and disappears into the program, or even try to harm those who protect them.
"In the past, there were unwritten rules," Paonessa said. "The Mafia didn't kill cops or federal agents. Terrorists are completely the opposite. To them, it's not a business, it's a cause. They want attention."
Witness families are paid an average of about $60,000 a year until they get jobs in their new communities. The Marshals Service helps them find housing, work and schools for the kids, and taps into a secure national network of doctors and other professionals to provide various services. They help witnesses obtain new Social Security numbers, open bank accounts and find an appropriate church, synagogue or mosque.
After the witness gets established, contact with the government is required only once a year unless there is some change, such as a new address. But there are a host of rules, foremost among them a ban on contact with outside family, friends or associates.
Some people can't take that kind of isolation and quit the program. Others get kicked out for committing another crime or providing the government with false information.
Terrorists pose an additional risk: A person whose past is erased could easily travel or make transactions undetected and commit an attack with potentially catastrophic consequences.
State and local officials are sometimes notified by the Marshals Service when a possibly dangerous witness is placed in their midst. Prosecutors say choosing who enters the program comes down to deciding if the testimony is worth the risk.
"You have to make those judgments," White said, "and build safeguards into the program, with sufficient surveillance and monitoring."
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