News Release -
October 20, 2007
For Immediate Release October 20, 2007
Printable Copy (72 KB pdf)
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Contact: Mr. Steven Frank
(814) 532-4601
Office of the Director
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National Drug Intelligence Center provides key assistance to U.S. Army-IRAQ
in conviction of Lieutenant Colonel William Steele
Intelligence Analysts from the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC),
Johnstown, PA, provided critical assistance to the investigation and court-martial of U.S.
Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel William H. Steele, Camp Liberty, IRAQ. At the request of
the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, NDIC provided Document Exploitation (Doc Ex)
unit support and analysis of seized evidence during the course of the investigation of Lt.
Colonel Steele. In support of the court-martial, an NDIC DocEx analyst testified at the
proceeding which was held at Camp Liberty.
Lt. Colonel Steele was convicted of three charges relating to the
unauthorized possession, storage, and marking of classified materials. He was also convicted of
possession of pornographic videos, violating an order from his superior, and conduct
unbecoming an officer for having an inappropriate relationship with a contracted interpreter. Today Lt.
Colonel Steele was sentenced to two years in prison, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances,
dismissal from the service, and to have a reprimand placed in his official file.
Lt. Colonel Steele had formerly served as the commander of Camp Cropper, a
U.S. detention center where Saddam Hussein was detained in the days leading up to the former
Iraqi leader's execution on December 30, 2006.
NDIC DocEx analysts are specially trained to analyze and exploit information
from documents and electronic media. DocEx teams provide a focused and intensive examination
of seized evidence, using computer support and proprietary software, known by the
acronym RAID, to rapidly organize and examine large quantities of evidence. Lt. Colonel Kevin
M. Walker, as the Chief of Military Justice for Multi-national Corps Iraq is the senior
military prosecutor for Iraq and was the lead prosecutor in the case United States v. Steele. Lt. Colonel
Walker is a mobilized reservist assigned to the 151st Legal Support Organization in Alexandria, VA.
In his civilian career, he is the Chief Counsel at the National Drug Intelligence Center. Lt.
Colonel Walker's knowledge of the document and computer exploitation expertise at NDIC led to
the U.S. Army's request for support that followed the seizure of digital media by
investigators in this case.
The "Operation Tarnished Steele" case was investigated by a joint task force
consisting of investigators from the Army's Major Procurement Fraud Unit, Naval Criminal
Investigative Service, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Army Counter
Intelligence and the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The Defense Computer Forensic Laboratory
conducted the initial evidence recovery and provided electronic media containing more than
110,000 classified documents and email messages in various electronic formats. Through the
efforts of the document and computer exploitation teams, NDIC was able to identify nearly
12,000 classified documents that existed alone or as attachments to e-mail files. These
documents were electronically analyzed for items of particular interest to prosecutors in
the case. NDIC analysts also compiled and analyzed telephone records to identify any information that
either supported, or refuted, the charges against Steele. On October 11, 2007, NDIC Document
Exploitation analyst Rodger Miller traveled to Iraq to present testimony at the
court-martial based on the results of the examination and analysis of the evidence prepared by NDIC. Mr.
Miller was qualified by the court as an expert witness in document exploitation.
Although called as a government witness, the defense also called Mr. Miller to testify regarding
document exploitation conducted by NDIC analyzing phone records in the case. Mr.
Miller also testified in the sentencing phase of the trial. He was the only witness called to testify
in all three phases of the trial.
NDIC has conducted hundreds of document and computer exploitation missions
for domestic and international law enforcement agencies since its inception in 1993, and
shares its proprietary RAID software with other government agencies and the military services.
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