Page 5 - Peter Lance News Today

The majority of peat fires are thought to be deliberately lit. other result of bad farming. in addition to slash and burn practices farmers are also draining peat land to grow palm all trees rendering the soil dry and flammable. for years palm oil cultivation has been the go to means to make a living for farmers and some outre but some are starting to make the switch. this 58 year old farmer got rid of his palm oil trees to grow chile a crop which doesnt degrade the land. or. it is very very fas...

Fbi. so they were basically faced with the task -- and i think what they did, they did very well. essentially what they tried to do is the traditional defense, which is the witnesses have an overwhelming incentive to lie. doors are going to be opened for them. theyve committed all kinds of crimes. theyre unbelievable and you cant believe them, and theyve tried to couple that traditional defense with these unusual circumstances of fbi misconduct to basically say that if you couple that with the f...

0 what did you learn listening to the stories about whitey through this trial that either unnerved you or surprised you? >> well, one of the things that was astonishing was that in the opening remarks of his defense lawyer, he said the worst thing an irish-american can be accused of is being an informant, you know, from the troubles in ireland, the ira, et cetera over the years. as an irish-american, i can assure you the worst thing an irish-american can be accused of is being a homicidal killer...

Heath did a killer story, an investigative piece, and he found that the justice department had admitted that there are 15,000 confidential informants today in the system. >> wow. >> and in one year, listen to this, in one year they committed 5,658 crimes. >> wow. >> now sanctioned by the government. now we dont know were they just misdemeanors, were they felonies, because its all in secret. the problem is you sleep -- you get down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. you hang with these guys and y...

Drives to the curb, walks home, drinks a scotch, and is driven to the hospital. >> what a guy. >> wow. what a story. peter, to talk about whitey bulger for a second, because i was in high school the day the news came across the radio. we were coming home, he was on the lam. it wasnt until 16 1/2 years later, like june 2011, that was he was actually caught. the talk all those years as the details of his relationship with the fbi came out was that the fbi really maybe wasnt trying that hard to cat...

Journalist peter lance. peter, welcome. 40 years as a mafioso. 30 days in jail. 26 murders, either executed, ordered or committed. and $1 million in fees or rewards from the fbi. this is an extraordinary story youve got here. >> well, toure, this is the whitey bulger story on steroids. he was by far the most vicious, violent killer in the history. he actually confessed to his killing partner the 90s hed stop counting after 50 murders, which makes him one of the top serial killers of all time. ye...

Are. so the stakes in new york were much, much higher for the justice department than in boston. >> wow. peter, a final question here with a little time. what do we draw as the lessons here? obviously, you need informants like you knee spie -- need spie. yet people walk away from this reporting thinking how do we get in so deep on the law enforcement side with criminals. >> heres the big take aiway. ive done three books prior to this on counterterrorism failures. the bureau was so obsessed forev...

Whitey bulger. its a trial about extortion, assassinations, and on tuesday we heard about a machine gun jam between a witnesss legs as he was told to pay up or die. all while whitey was said to be protected by the authorities. wait, how do the good guys end up in bed with the bad guys? drawing on 1,153 pages of newly uncovered secret memos, our next guest tells the true story of a different deal with the devil while fbi special agent lindley devevvhio was putting together the bust of the 80s, he...

Equities were so unbalanced. >> peter, fascinating stuff. fascinating book. congratulations on that. thank you for being here. up next, hot off the presses, a big announcement about the future of "the cycle." in cities like charlotte,ing. atlanta, and chicago, were revving people up to take a lap around the legendary nascar race track with drivers from the coca-cola racing family.

0 how trayvon is. >> as you sat there, you knew -- and youre saying this by your statement, that you were representing trayvon. in many ways, being the friend that you were to him, they were going to judge trayvons character by you, which was a real burden that you had to carry that you didnt ask for. >> yes, yes. >> now, meantime, reaction continues to pour in from the first and only full interview with a member of the jury. that was, of course, juror number b-37. she told cnn she believed the ...