Asa Hutchinson/ official photo

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Blackwater Worldwide,  the target of intense public criticism and an FBI probe into arms smuggling into Iraq, has appointed former undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson to a three-person committee to ensure that it complies with U.S. Export laws.
“Our Company has experienced remarkable growth in the last few years,” Erik Prince, Blackwater founder and CEO said in a prepared statement. “This growth, our work for the U.S. government around the world…have created compliance challenges.”
Besides serving as undersecretary of Homeland Security, Hutchinson also headed the Drug Enforcement Administration and served in Congress.
Blackwater said the other committee members include : Robert C. Bonner, a former federal judge, former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ex-U.S. Attorney; and Carol R. Marshall,  the former vice president of ethics at Lockheed Martin Corp and MCI.
Read Blackwater Press Release

This “hot kielbasa” didn’t require any mustard.

By Associated Press
NEW YORK – A Brooklyn butcher shop worker called his specialty “hot kielbasa” _ for snorting, not eating.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the kielbasa was really cocaine _ not the Polish sausage sold in a popular meat market.
According to a criminal complaint, the “hot kielbasa” was kept in the basement.
Twenty-six suspects are under arrest, including the butcher, after an FBI informant visited the shop in response to the message: “Come to the store, I have hot kielbasa for you.”
Law enforcement officials say the ring includes John Guarnieri, a nephew of Louis Eppolito, the former NYPD detective convicted of murdering eight people on the orders of a Mafia boss.
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