John Dion to head DoJ investigation of Traitorgate

[grasswire]

Come on, DU-ers -- what can we learn about John Dion?

I found one blurb:

.....That expertise is located in the Internal Security Section of the Department of Justice. That the Internal Security Section has helped secure so many important espionage convictions over the years is due in no small part to John Dion, the Acting Chief of the Internal Security Section, who is one of the witnesses appearing before you today.

Although he would be too modest to cite his achievements to you himself, Mr. Dion is one of the most outstanding public servants I have known during my 49 years of service at the Department of Justice. Mr. Dion himself has served in the Internal Security Section for 20 years. During that time he has played a central role in this nation's most critical espionage cases.

John has been repeatedly recognized by both Republican and Democratic Administrations for his espionage prosecutions. In 1987, Attorney General Meese awarded Mr. Dion the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Achievement for his work on the prosecution of John Walker and his confederates for espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. John received a second John Marshall award in 1997 for his work in two other prosecutions: those of FBI Special Agent Earl Pitts and CIA case officer Harold Nicholson for espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. In 1995, the Director of Central Intelligence awarded John the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion.

John also has been consistently praised by the United States Attorneys and Assistant United States Attorneys who have worked with him. I would request that you make part of the record a letter sent to the Department by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia praising John's role in the Squillacote prosecution. I also would request that you make part of the record two unsolicited letters sent to Senator Hatch by two former senior Assistant United States Attorneys who worked with John.

In short, I know of no prosecutor in the United States who has had more experience in prosecuting espionage cases than John Dion.

[fsbooks]

1. link?

sources are appreciated.

[eleny]

2. Is this him?

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2000_hr/dion.html

from 3 years ago:
"Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I am the Acting Chief of the Internal Security Section. I held that position in the fall of 1997 as the Peter Lee case was being considered for prosecution. As Mr. Keeney noted, I have devoted most of my career to prosecuting espionage cases. In all I have been involved in the prosecution of more than 70 defendants charged with espionage or other Internal Security offenses"

[SoCalDem]

3. This one is a bit encouraging

The Clinton Espionage White Wash is in the Works
... reported Sunday that US Justice Department security chief John Dion has urged ... clear
China obtained information on US nuclear weapons through espionage and that ...
usa-patriot.net/whiteW2.html - 6k - Cached - Similar pages

http://usa-patriot.net/whiteW2.html

[remfan]

4. Dion (quick Google)

http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/national/article/0,1375,VCS_123_2312578,00.html

Corallo said the decision to investigate the leak was made by counterespionage section chief John Dion without consulting Ashcroft.

http://www.wenholee.org/Lettertosupporters072002.html

Lee is suing the government for violating his privacy rights. New documents in his case, recently obtained by his lawyers and reviewed by Newsweek, show that top Justice Department officials had concerns from the outset about some of their tactics.

In an internal memo, John Dion, chief of the department's internal security, wrote that the aggressive tactics against Lee "suggest that the government intentionally revealed facts about the investigation to the news media in order to pressure Lee to confess, or out of vindictiveness toward Lee for not confessing."

http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/5.17/990827-racism.html

Meanwhile, the government appears to be back-pedaling on the charges. Newsweek reported that the Justice Department security chief John Dion has urged his superiors not to proceed with prosecuting Lee because of lack of evidence. A day earlier, Notra Trulock, deputy director of intelligence in the Department of Energy who initiated the investigation against Lee, resigned. He told the Washington Post he did so after two Energy Department reports failed to support his position on the Lee case.

[PaDUer]

5. MSNBC this am

interviewed Jay Rockefeller..said they need an independent prosecutor, not someone who's been involved in politics. Dion would be biased..

[Octafish]

6. Crossed paths with Wen Ho Lee and John Deutch

Seems Mr. Dion played key roles in regards to the Wen Ho Lee Star Wars espionage and ex-DCI John Deutch-missing laptop affairs. Dion took heat from Arlen (Magic Bullet Boy) Specter for not going after Lee with the death penalty:

From the "alamo girl" archive:

PRnewswire 8/22/99 "… Internal Security chief John Dion has urged his superiors at the Justice Department not to proceed with a case of mishandling information against Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos scientist suspected of leaking nuclear secrets to China, sources tell Newsweek in the current issue. Lee was fired from his job but investigators have already conceded that they don't have the evidence to convict Lee as a spy…"

New York Post 8/23/99 Marilyn Rauber "…A top Justice Department official wants the case against suspected Chinese nuclear spy Wen Ho Lee dropped, it was reported yesterday. Internal Security Chief John Dion has urged his superiors not to proceed against Lee, a Taiwan-born scientist fired in March from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after being suspected of leaking nuclear secrets to Beijing, Newsweek magazine reported. The latest development comes after the former CIA head at Los Alamos, Robert Vrooman, claimed Lee was targeted because of his race - and revelations this week that former CIA Director John Deutch also took home classified documents and loaded them into his unsecured home computer. Deutch won't be prosecuted….. "It would be outrageous to follow a botched investigation with a botched prosecution," Dion's predecessor at the Justice Department, John Martin, told the magazine. Vrooman, the ex-CIA honcho who's been accused of bungling the espionage probe by allowing Lee access to secrets even after he was suspected of spying, told the Washington Post earlier this month that race was "a key factor" in Lee being targeted - a claim vehemently denied by investigators. Although he's been under investigation for a year, Lee's never been charged with any crime. …"

SNIP…

Washington Post 4/4/00 Vernon Loeb "…….Specter asked last week at a hearing why prosecutors hadn't used a death penalty section of the espionage statute in prosecuting Lee, a laser scientist at TRW Inc. who has admitted passing nuclear secrets to Beijing but spent only 12 months in a halfway house. Tomorrow, Specter will hear from two senior attorneys from the criminal division who supervised the prosecution, John Dion and Michael Liebman, and the lead prosecutor in Los Angeles, former assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Shapiro. Sparks should fly. ………..FBI agents confronted Lee in 1997, after he failed to report a trip that year to China, as required under the terms of his government security clearance. After failing an FBI polygraph examination, Lee confessed to passing nuclear secrets to Beijing in 1985, while working as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. ….. The Justice Department ultimately accepted a plea agreement from Lee on two felony charges that fell far short of a full espionage conviction punishable by death--one for passing classified nuclear secrets in 1985 and one for lying to the government about the purpose of his 1997 trip, when he also revealed classified information to Chinese scientists about his work at TRW involving space radar imaging of submarines. ……"

SOURCE:

http://www.alamo-girl.com/0251.htm

[Octafish]

7. AJC: Dion may be better than an Independent Counsel chosen by Ashcan!

Spy catcher leads leak probe Bias debate overlooks career staff

By REBECCA CARR
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- The probe of whether Bush administration officials illegally revealed a CIA officer's identity is stirring up debate over whether Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department can lead an unbiased investigation.

EXCERPT...

Many experts, including former White House officials, say a career prosecutor such as Dion would be far more impartial than a special counsel of Ashcroft's choosing.

Dion, 56, has been a prosecutor in the Justice Department since 1973. He has won top honors at the department from both Democratic and Republican attorneys general for his work as a spy catcher, having led investigations that snared two high-profile spies: CIA officer Aldrich Ames and former FBI agent Robert Hanssen.

Dion and his staff of 11 attorneys will work closely with investigators in the FBI's Inspections Division, but independent from Ashcroft. He will report to Bruce Swartz, a career prosecutor who is a deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1003/02ciaprosecute.html;COXnetJSessionID=18sMwlGDmkBw7wj9V57yaw2ElTx6I7dEtY2hiX0uJGAvvH7dmytA!-1349196415?urac=n&urvf=10651024767360.314180739019412