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February 8, 2007
How to get thrown out of the federal Witness protection program: The short answer is "Talk to me."
Ron Gonen, the central figure in Blood & Volume: Inside New York's Israeli Mafia, called a little while ago to say that he had done just that.
This morning Gonen met with some officials from the U.S. Marshal's office, which oversees the program. He was asked to sign a series of documents and asked if he had any questions. He said no and was then asked if he knew why he was being terminated. He nodded yes, motioning to a draft of the book that he had brought along with him and was sitting on the table throughout the meeting.
He had brought the draft to show that the book doesn't address his life in the program, except for a very brief section at the end, and even then, no specifics are given that would compromise his location or safety. Gonen asked them if they wanted a copy of the book. The agents said no.
"It's going to be out soon enough as it is," they said, according to Gonen.
When I talked to him on the phone after the meeting was finished he seemed in remarkably good spirits for a man who faces possible deportation to a country that is home to a few of the surviving men that he testified against. The program is set up so foreigners like Gonen get a identity card each year that allows them to legally stay and work in the United States. That card expires in April or May, at which point Gonen could be in trouble.
But if he can work through the immigration troubles, Gonen seems to think things will be better for him. It gives him some mobility to move around and may make it easier for him to find steady work. Try being a real estate agent when you can't use your picture in your advertisement.
Indeed, Gonen expected this. When the Marshals told him at the end of the meeting that he should contact an immigration attorney he could tell him "I already have." He's meeting with the attorney within the next few days at which point I hope he will have a clearer picture of his short-term future.
He doesn't see his change in status as a threat to his safety. He is still in hiding and if he did have advance notice that people who wanted to hurt him were in the nameless city where he now lives, he's certain he would've been told there was nothing they could do because it was his own fault when he called the Marshal's for assistance. And if someone did still want to hurt him more than a decade after he finished giving testimony, Gonen suspects they would've found him already.
"Does a hit man give a shit who is protecting me if he got paid? Not at all," Gonen said.Labels: bloodandvolume
Posted at 4:03 PM
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