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AP Exclusive: New al-Qaida leader knows US well
YAHOO
By CURT ANDERSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Fri Aug 6, 7:04 am ET
 
MIAMI – A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network's global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah (SHOOK'-ree joohm-HAH') and two other leaders were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.

"He's making operational decisions is the best way to put it," said LeBlanc, the FBI's lead Shukrijumah investigator. "He's looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss."

The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.

Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York's subway system in 2009. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness.

Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plotting of potential al-Qaida bomb attacks in Norway and a never-executed attack on subways in the United Kingdom, but LeBlanc said no direct link has yet emerged. Travel records and other evidence also indicate Shukrijumah did research and surveillance in spring 2001 for a never-attempted plot to disrupt commerce in the Panama Canal by sinking a freighter there, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah, who trained at al-Qaida's Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a "clear and present danger" to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and the FBI also is releasing an age-enhanced photo of what he may look like today.

It's natural he would focus on attacking on the U.S, LeBlanc said.

"He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver's license. He knows how to get a passport," LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah's mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, said Thursday on the front stoop of her small home in suburban Miramar, Fla., that her son frequently talked about what he considered the excesses of American society — such as alcohol and drug abuse and women wearing skimpy clothes — but that he did not condone violence. She also said she has not had contact with her son for several years.

"This boy would never do evil stuff. He is not an evil person," she said. "He loved this country. He never had a problem with the United States."

LeBlanc said the new charges were brought after the New York subway bomb suspects identified him to investigators as their al-Qaida superior. The New York suspects provided other key information about his al-Qaida status.

"It was basically Adnan who convinced them to come back to the United States and do this attack," LeBlanc said. "His ability to manipulate someone like that and direct that, I think it speaks volumes."

Before turning to radical strains of Islam, Shukrijumah lived in Miramar with his mother and five siblings, excelling at computer science and chemistry courses while studying at community college. He had come to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque after several years at a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y.

At some point in the late 1990s, according to the FBI, Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in "jihad," or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia.

That led to training camps in Afghanistan, where he underwent basic and advanced training in the use of automatic weapons, explosives, battle tactics, surveillance and camouflage.

"What's dangerous about an individual that understands the U.S. is he may have a better sense of our security vulnerabilities and insights into how to terrify the American people using smaller attacks for large, political impact," said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation. "This increases the risk of attacks outside traditional places we normally worry about like New York and Washington."

Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia. He is a citizen of Guyana, a small South American country where his father was born. His father died in 2004.

While still in Afghanistan, he met another young recruit — Jose Padilla, an American citizen once suspected of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" and now imprisoned on a 2007 terrorism material support conviction in Miami. At one point, according to interrogations of Padilla and other al-Qaida detainees, Shukrijumah and Padilla were paired in a plot to fill apartments in several high-rise apartment buildings with natural gas and blow them up, but they had a falling out.

"They just couldn't get along. It's like two guys that could not work together," LeBlanc said.

The FBI is still hoping to bring charges in South Florida against Shukrijumah, but key information about him was provided by Guantanamo Bay detainees such as Mohammed, whose use as a witness would be difficult.

"For us, it's never been a dry hole. It's always been an active investigation and it's global in nature," LeBlanc said. "We have never stopped working it."

Homeland chief's caution to citizens: Be wary
Michael P. Mayko, CT POST Staff Writer
Published: 11:06 p.m., Wednesday, June 2, 2010

SHELTON -- Maybe the Faisal Shahzads of the world are no longer a concern to area residents.

Maybe they consider the suspected terrorist, who lived on Long Hill Avenue, an anomaly.

Maybe that's why only six people, not counting media, city employees or politicians, turned out Wednesday night to hear Peter Boynton, the commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, speak at Shelton Intermediate School.

"This is probably one of the smaller groups I've spoken to," conceded Boynton, who hoped media accounts would get his word out. The word was how well the various investigative agencies in New York, Connecticut and Washington worked together in dismantling the May 1 Times Square bomb before anyone got hurt and the arrest of Shahzad a day later.

But more important, Boynton urged residents to learn a lesson from the Times Square T-shirt vendor who knew the parked SUV was not normal and notified authorities. "You don't have to be like a movie star on `24' (the Fox TV drama)," the commissioner said. "All you have to do is tell someone or call 911."

Boynton said he could not comment on the pending Shahzad investigation or any continuing probe in Fairfield County.

At least nine incidents involving terrorists or terrorism have taken place in southwestern Connecticut dating to 1983. These include some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers visiting Bridgeport in efforts to obtain false identification papers and attending flight schools here.

"This isn't Mayberry anymore," said state Rep. Jason Perillo, R-113, who with state Rep. Lawrence Miller, R-122, brought Boynton to Shelton. "Nobody knows your neighborhood as well as you do. Stay alert. If you see something that doesn't fit, keep an eye on it or call the authorities. Connecticut is smack dab in the middle of Boston and New York. This is a main corridor in the Northeast."


GOTCHA!!!

Evidence Mounts for Taliban Role in Car Bomb Plot
NYTIMES
By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
May 5, 2010

WASHINGTON — American officials said Wednesday that it was very likely that a radical group once thought unable to attack the United States had played a role in the bombing attempt in Times Square, elevating concerns about whether other militant groups could deliver at least a glancing blow on American soil.

Officials said that after two days of intense questioning of the bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, evidence was mounting that the group, the Pakistani Taliban, had helped inspire and train Mr. Shahzad in the months before he is alleged to have parked an explosives-filled sport utility vehicle in a busy Manhattan intersection on Saturday night. Officials said Mr. Shahzad had discussed his contacts with the group, and investigators had accumulated other evidence that they would not disclose.

On Wednesday, Mr. Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired senior Pakistani Air Force officer, waived his right to a speedy arraignment, a possible sign of his continuing cooperation with investigators.

As his interrogation continued, Department of Homeland Security officials directed airlines to speed up their checks of new names added to the no-fly list, a requirement that might have prevented Mr. Shahzad from boarding a flight to Dubai on Monday night before his arrest at Kennedy International Airport.

The failed attack has produced a flurry of other proposals to tighten security procedures, including calls by members of Congress to more closely scrutinize passengers who buy tickets with cash, as Mr. Shahzad did. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, proposed stripping terrorism suspects of American citizenship, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked Congress to block the sale of firearms and explosives to those on terrorist watch lists.

American officials, speaking about the continuing inquiry only on condition of anonymity, gave few details about what Mr. Shahzad had told investigators, and said their understanding of the plot would evolve as a dragnet spanning two continents gathered more evidence.

One senior Obama administration official cautioned that “there are no smoking guns yet” that the Pakistani Taliban had directed the Times Square bombing. But others said that there were strong indications that Mr. Shahzad knew some members of the group and that they probably had a role in training him.

In a video on Sunday, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.

One issue that investigators are vigorously pursuing is who provided Mr. Shahzad cash to buy the S.U.V. and his plane ticket to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. “Somebody’s financially sponsoring him, and that’s the link we’re pursuing,” one official said. “And that would take you on the logic train back to Pak-Taliban authorizations,” the official said, referring to the group.

American officials said it had become increasingly difficult to separate the operations of the militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The region, they said, has become a stew of like-minded organizations plotting attacks in Pakistani cities, across the border into Afghanistan, and on targets in Western Europe and the United States.

Besides the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda, groups operating in the tribal areas are the Haqqani Network and the Kashmiri groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

There is no doubt among intelligence officials that the barrage of attacks by C.I.A. drones over the past year has made Pakistan’s Taliban, which goes by the name Tehrik-i-Taliban, increasingly determined to seek revenge by finding any way possible to strike at the United States.

The C.I.A.’s drone program in Pakistan, which was accelerated in 2008 and expanded by President Obama last year, has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Washington in part because it was perceived as eliminating dangerous militants while keeping Americans safe.

But the attack in December on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan, and now possibly the failed S.U.V. attack in Manhattan, are reminders that the drones’ very success may be provoking a costly response.

Last March, when the Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud boasted that his group was planning an attack on Washington that would “amaze everyone in the world,” many American officials dismissed his claims as empty bravado. His network, they said, had neither the resources nor the reach to pull off an attack far beyond its base in the mountains of western Pakistan.

But the attempted attack on Saturday has forced something of a reassessment, especially as American officials see militant groups determined to score a propaganda victory by pulling off even the crudest of attacks.

If the Pakistani Taliban was involved in the Times Square bombing plot, the organization is only the latest militant group to expand beyond a local political agenda and strike the United States. The Christmas Day attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner, for instance, was traced to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, whose primary targets had previously been the Saudi and Yemeni governments.

But for such a group, trying for the biggest prize in the jihadist universe — a successful attack on American soil — could have significant payoffs, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.

The message may be, “ ‘The U.S. is pounding us with drone attacks, but we’re powerful enough to strike back’; it’s certainly enough to attract ever more recruits to replace those they’re losing,” Mr. Hoffman said.

The Pakistani Taliban has used a relentless campaign of violence to undermine Pakistan’s secular government. The group has been blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as well as bombings in Islamabad, Lahore and elsewhere.

As casualties from the Taliban mounted in Pakistan in 2008, officials there pleaded with Washington to begin striking the group with C.I.A. drones. American counterterrorism officials had never considered the group to be a top priority, but last year the Obama administration approved targeted attacks on Pakistani Taliban leaders, in part to win Islamabad’s tacit approval for drone strikes elsewhere in the tribal areas. Mr. Mehsud himself was killed in a C.I.A. drone attack in August.

Some American officials bristled at the idea that the United States had not taken the Pakistani Taliban threat seriously.

“We’ve been pounding their leadership, including figures like Baitullah Mehsud, and their training camps and other facilities,” one American counterterrorism official said. “Those actions have probably taken other people like Shahzad off the board.”

Denis McDonough, the chief of staff for the National Security Council, said the Times Square attempted bombing showed that Pakistan and the United States faced a common enemy, calling it “a pretty stark reminder that the same collection of terrorists that are threatening them are threatening us.”

The administration has been in intensive contact with the Pakistani government, delivering the message that “there are clear links to Pakistan and that we would fully expect them to do what they should do,” the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said. Pakistani officials have arrested about a dozen people they believe may be linked to the plot, the authorities have said.

On Wednesday, the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, met with Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and spoke by phone with the interior minister, A. Rehman Malik. The administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, also spoke by phone with Mr. Qureshi.

“The key here is that we’re touching the right bases politically, and we’re getting the right signals back,” a senior official said.

The tracking of Mr. Shahzad and his links to Pakistan began with a fortunate match of phone numbers, a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said Wednesday.

One number that he had provided when he last entered the United States, in February, was stored in a Customs and Border Protection database. It turned out to match a number on the list of calls to and from a prepaid cellphone that investigators knew belonged to the purchaser of the S.U.V. found on Times Square.

Only when they matched the phone numbers did investigators learn “that that was the guy we were looking for,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the investigation.

The name match allowed security officials to discover Mr. Shahzad aboard the flight to Dubai minutes before takeoff on Monday night. He had been added to the no-fly list at 12:30 p.m. that day, when airlines were directed to check the list for updates. But Emirates airline did not look at the updated list, and sold Mr. Shahzad a ticket for cash at 7:35 p.m. on Monday.

Airlines had been required to check the no-fly list for updates only every 24 hours. The new rule requires that they check within two hours of receiving notification that a high-priority name has been added to the list, Homeland Security officials said.

Reporting for articles on the Times Square bomb case was contributed by Peter Baker, Anne Barnard, Nina Bernstein, Alison Leigh Cowan, Adam B. Ellick, Andrea Elliott, Dan Frosch, Kirk Johnson, Mark Landler, Mike McIntire, Sharon Otterman, Ray Rivera, David E. Sanger, Michael S. Schmidt, Daniel E. Slotnik and Karen Zraick.

Shooter of Two Pentagon Police Officers Dies
NYTIMES
By THOM SHANKER and IAN URBINA
March 5, 2010

WASHINGTON — A gunman described by police officials as well dressed, well educated and well armed for his minute-long shootout with police on Thursday just outside the Pentagon has died from his wounds.

Law enforcement officials said they still had not determined a specific motive for the gunman, identified as John Patrick Bedell, 36, but officials said that he “had issues” and that there were records of previous brushes with law enforcement officials.

Seeking clues for what prompted the suspect to open fire at a Pentagon entrance, police and F.B.I. investigators were examining a series of Internet postings thought to have been his work.

During a 6 a.m. news conference Friday in a parking lot outside the Defense Department, Pentagon Police Chief Richard Keevill said it appeared Mr. Bedell had acted alone.

“There is no indication at this point that there is any domestic or international terrorist nexus,” Chief Keevill said, adding that the assessment that the gunman acted alone was supported by surveillance video.

Still, he said, the inquiry was in its early stages.

Two Pentagon police officers — one who sustained superficial gunshot wounds to the thigh and one who sustained superficial gunshot wounds to the shoulder — were released from a hospital.

The suspect died from gunshot wounds to his head.

The gunman was wearing a suit as he approached a security checkpoint outside the Pentagon, near the entrance to the Pentagon subway station, during the rush hour Thursday evening. There was no indication before he pulled out a pistol “that he had hostile intent,” the chief said. “There was no distress in his appearance.”

Officials described the gunman as “well armed” — he carried two 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols and had several magazines of ammunition with him. He was not wearing body armor.

A search of his car, found in a local parking lot, revealed more ammunition. Chief Keevill said it appeared that the suspect had traveled to the Pentagon by car from California over several weeks.

One line of the capital’s subway system, called the Washington Metro, runs directly beneath the Pentagon. Escalators from the Pentagon subway station rise to the surface just outside the security perimeter of the Defense Department, and the above-ground station is a busy stop for commuter buses.

When the gunman walked up to the station entrance Thursday evening and, without a word, drew his pistol from his pocket and started shooting, police officers quickly returned fire, Pentagon officials said. The injured police officers, whose names were not released, were wearing ballistic vests.

“They said he walked up very cool, like there was no distress,” Chief Keevill said Thursday night, quoting the officers. “He had no real emotion in his face.”

Witnesses told news stations that they heard gunshots and saw people screaming and scrambling to get out of the area.

The police said Mr. Bedell was an American citizen. Military service records were being checked to see whether he had any ties to the armed forces.

Messages posted on the Web under the username JPatrickBedell seemed to share some biographical details with the shooter and pointed to a distrust of the military and the government at large. “I am determined to see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow, as a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions,” the user wrote, referring to the suicide of an Army officer in 1991.

A 2006 arrest report for a man identified as John Patrick Bedell, then 33 years old, appeared to connect to the user JPatrickBedell, who wrote: “My desire for justice led me to violate what I think is one of the most unjust laws, cannabis prohibition, by growing 16 cannabis plants on my balcony in Irvine, CA from March 2006 to June 2006.”

The Pentagon was briefly locked down after the shooting incident, and the subway entrance was closed for about two hours. Officers with military-style weapons fitted with flashlights could be seen patrolling the area around the Pentagon shortly after the shooting.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, new security measures were put in place at the Pentagon and part of the building was redesigned. Subway passengers are no longer permitted to exit directly into the Pentagon; they must be screened outside before entering the building.

Anahad O’Connor contributed reporting from New York and Theo Emery from Washington.



U.S. Drops Plan for a 9/11 Trial in New York City
NYTIMES
By SCOTT SHANE and BENJAMIN WEISER
January 30, 2010

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

“I think I can acknowledge the obvious,” an administration official said. “We’re considering other options.”

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

But behind the brave face that many New Yorkers had put on for weeks, resistance had been gathering steam.

After a dinner in New York on Dec. 14, Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, pulled aside David Axelrod, President Obama’s closest adviser, to convey an urgent plea: move the 9/11 trial out of Manhattan.

More recently, in a series of presentations to business leaders, local elected officials and community representatives of Chinatown, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly laid out his plan for securing the trial: blanketing a swath of Lower Manhattan with police checkpoints, vehicle searches, rooftop snipers and canine patrols.

“They were not received well,” said one city official.

And on Tuesday, in a meeting Mr. Bloomberg had with at least two dozen federal judges on the eighth floor of their Manhattan courthouse, one judge raised the question of security. The mayor, according to several people present, said he was sure the courthouse could be made safe, but that it would be costly and difficult.

The next day, the mayor, who back in November had hailed the idea of trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other accused Sept. 11 plotters in the heart of downtown Manhattan, made clear he’d changed his mind.

The Obama administration official said the decision to back out of plans for a New York trial had broad support but had not yet been made public.

Jason Post, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, said Friday night that the mayor would have no comment until the Obama administration had made an official announcement of its intentions.

Told of the administration’s decision, a spokesman for Mr. Kelly said, “We were not aware of that.”

But the spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said of Mr. Kelly: “He is of the mind that such a decision would give us some breathing room, but that New York has to remain vigilant because it remains at the top of the terrorist target list.”

“It is obvious that they can't have the trials in New York,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, New York's Democratic senior senator.

Mr. Bloomberg’s remarks on Wednesday set off a stampede of New York City officials, most of them Democrats well-disposed toward President Obama, who suddenly declared that a civilian trial for the 9/11 suspects was a great idea — as long as it didn’t happen in their city.

By Friday, Justice Department officials were studying other locations, focusing especially on military bases and prison complexes, and no obvious new choice had emerged.

The story of how prominent New York officials seemed to have so quickly moved from a kind of “bring it on” bravado to an “anywhere but here” involves many factors, including a new anxiety about terrorism after the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day.

Ultimately, it appears, New York officials could not tolerate ceding much of the city to a set of trials that could last for years.

“The administration is in a tricky political and legal position,” Julie Menin, a lawyer who is chairwoman of the 50-member Community Board 1 that represents Lower Manhattan, including the federal courthouse and ground zero, said of President Obama and his Justice Department. “But it means shutting down our financial district. It could cost $1 billion. It’s absolutely crazy.”

Ms. Menin said the turning point for her came when she heard Mr. Kelly’s security plan and cost estimates: hundreds of millions of dollars a year. “It was an absolute game-changer,” she said. She wrote a Jan. 17 op-ed article for The New York Times proposing moving the trial to Governors Island off Manhattan; that idea did not catch hold, but the article escalated the outcry against a Manhattan trial.

When the Justice Department announced in November its plans to try Mr. Mohammed and four alleged accomplices blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, Mr. Bloomberg hailed the location as not only workable but as a powerful symbol.

“It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered,” the mayor said at the time. The federal courthouse had hosted major terror trials previously, he noted, and the police were more than up to the security challenge.

And so it is possible that the reversal will call into question the calibrated effort of Mr. Obama and his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., to bring the handling of suspected terrorists out of the realm of military emergency and into the halls of civilian justice.

If the message to Al Qaeda and its supporters in November was that New York City was able, even eager, to bring justice to those who plotted mass murder, the message of January is far less confident.

“This will be one more stroke for Al Qaeda’s propaganda,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.

The breakdown of support for the trials in New York might have actually been assisted by the way New York officials were first notified by the Obama administration.

Mr. Holder called Mr. Bloomberg and Gov. David A. Paterson only a few hours before his public announcement on Nov. 13; and Mr. Kelly got a similar call that morning from Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office had been picked to prosecute the cases.

But by the time those calls were made, the decision had already been reported in the news media, which was how Mr. Bloomberg learned about it, according to mayoral aides.

One senior Bloomberg official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to antagonize the White House, said: “When Holder was making the decision he didn’t call Ray Kelly and say, ‘What do you think?’ He didn’t call the mayor and say, ‘What would your position be?’ They didn’t reach out until it got out there.”

Soon, though, New York real estate executives were raising concerns with the Obama administration, according to Mr. Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Mr. Spinola said he had received calls and e-mail messages from the board’s members. Residential real estate brokers were “going berserk,” as he put it, worried that they would no longer be able to sell apartments downtown.

Commercial brokers feared they would not be able to lease office space.

On Nov. 20, the Friday before Thanksgiving, the real estate executive William C. Rudin held a meeting at his office to talk about issues with Jim Messina, a deputy White House chief of staff, according to Mr. Spinola.

The meeting was not on the topic of the trials, but the executives pressed their case anyway.

Mr. Spinola said that he told Mr. Messina, “I hope that the White House was going to put a ton of money into it.”

A turning point came when Mr. Kelly spoke before a large business crowd at a New York Police Foundation breakfast on Jan. 13.

After addressing the year’s highlights in crime reduction, he turned to the 9/11 trials, offering a presentation that was direct and graphic.

“Whatever the merits of holding the trial in Lower Manhattan,” he said, “it will certainly raise the level of threat.” He said that “securing this area and the entire city for the duration of this event promises to be an extremely demanding undertaking.”

He offered a detailed account of his department’s security plan, with inner and outer perimeters, unannounced vehicle checkpoints, countersniper teams on rooftops, and hazardous-materials and bomb squad personnel ready to respond. And he cited the hundreds of millions it would cost to protect the city.

“The entire audience issued a collective gasp when it became clear that this was an event that could go on for years,” said one guest, Kathryn S. Wylde, president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City.

The unhappiness grew. During the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual gala, held on Jan. 21, Mr. Bloomberg dropped by, and Bloomberg officials said they got “an earful on that” from real estate executives, all of whom were angry about the plan.

A week later, his public opinion had changed, and so, it seems, had the ultimate destination of the trials.

Jet Diverted in Scare

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Continental Airlines jet flying from Newark, N.J., to Bogota was diverted to Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday over concerns that a passenger was on the government’s watch list of suspected terrorists banned from commercial flights. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

The passenger — one of 75 — was cleared by the F.B.I. and permitted to continue on the flight to Colombia, the Transportation Security Administration said.

Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, David W. Chen, Christine Haughney and William K. Rashbaum.


Review of Jet Bomb Plot Shows More Missed Clues
NYTIMES
By ERIC LIPTON, ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
January 18, 2010

WASHINGTON — Worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas holiday, President Obama met on Dec. 22 with top officials of the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security, who ticked off a list of possible plots against the United States and how their agencies were working to disrupt them.

In a separate White House meeting that day, Mr. Obama’s homeland security adviser, John O. Brennan, led talks on Yemen, where a stream of disturbing intelligence had suggested that Qaeda operatives were preparing for some action, perhaps a strike on an American target, on Christmas Day.

Yet in those sessions, government officials never considered or connected links that, with the benefit of hindsight, now seem so evident and indicated that the gathering threat in Yemen would reach into the United States.

Just as lower-level counterterrorism analysts failed to stitch together the pieces of information that would have alerted them to the possibility of a suicide bomber aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas, top national security officials failed to fully appreciate mounting evidence of the dangers beyond the Arabian Peninsula posed by extremists linked to Yemen.

Mr. Obama this month presented his government’s findings on how the plot went undetected. But a detailed review of the episode by The New York Times, including more than two dozen interviews with White House and American intelligence officials and with counterterrorism officials in Europe and Yemen, shows that there were far more warning signs than the administration has acknowledged.

The officials also cited lapses and misjudgments that were not disclosed in the declassified government report released Jan. 7 about what went wrong inside the nation’s counterterrorism network.

In September, for example, a United Nations expert on Al Qaeda warned policy makers in Washington that the type of explosive device used by a Yemeni militant in an assassination attempt in Saudi Arabia could be carried aboard an airliner.

In early November, American intelligence authorities say they learned from a communications intercept of Qaeda followers in Yemen that a man named “Umar Farouk” — the first two names of the jetliner suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — had volunteered for a coming operation.

In late December, more intercepts of Qaeda operatives in Yemen, who had previously focused their attacks in the region, mentioned the date of Dec. 25, and suggested that they were “looking for ways to get somebody out” or “for ways to move people to the West,” one senior administration official said.

And the same day those White House meetings on terrorist activities took place, a Qaeda figure made ominous — and seemingly prescient — threats against the United States.

“We carry prayer beads, and with them we carry a bomb for the enemies of God,” a man describing himself as a Qaeda fighter from Yemen announced in a video released on Al Jazeera satellite television. “The issue is between us and America and its allies, and beware, those who stand in the ranks of America.”

The American intelligence network was clearly listening in Yemen and sharing that information, a sign of progress since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Yet the inability to pull the data together or correctly interpret it produced the “systemic failure” that Mr. Obama has vowed to fix and that Congress will examine in hearings this week.

The criticism of the government’s performance has provoked infighting, with rival agencies privately pointing at one another and some intelligence officials complaining about what they see as a White House attempt to deflect responsibility.

Top White House officials, already warning Americans about the possibility of more Qaeda terrorist plots, say they have little patience for squabbling.

“We had a system in place to capture these nuggets because of the investment we put into the collection system,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview. “We had the ability to map it against a database that was designed specifically to capture that bio data information. We had those pieces in place.

“And we could have brought it together, and we should have brought it together. And that is what upset the president.”

A Growing Threat

The blast that ricocheted last August through the office of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef of Saudi Arabia took only one life — that of the young suicide bomber sent by Al Qaeda in Yemen. But the assassination attempt set off alarms both in the Middle East and in Washington.

From the start of the Obama administration, American officials had been focused on the growing threat in Yemen, where Qaeda operatives from Saudi Arabia and Yemen had recently merged and created a dangerous alliance dubbed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The attack against Prince Nayef, who is the country’s chief counterterrorism official, showed that the new group’s ambitions were growing and spurred warnings about the explosive’s usefulness as an aviation threat. Mr. Brennan flew to Saudi Arabia within a week to see him, and the United States swiftly increased its electronic eavesdropping and other spying in Yemen. It also intensified a diplomatic effort to prod Yemen’s leaders to strike back at the militants.

A second alarm came in early November, when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan killed 12 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. Over the previous year, American investigators said, Major Hasan had sent more than a dozen e-mail messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born cleric living in Yemen. After ordering a review of any contacts between other possible extremists and Mr. Awlaki, American authorities began collecting more intelligence, officials said.

And some of the tips were increasingly alarming. Qaeda operatives in Yemen were caught discussing an “Umar Farouk” who had recently been in contact with Mr. Awlaki about volunteering for terrorist operations, one official said. American intelligence officials learned of the conversation in November, although it had been intercepted by a foreign intelligence service in August, an administration official said.

The National Security Agency intercepted a second phone conversation in November involving Qaeda members in Yemen, in which they discussed an unnamed Nigerian man who was being groomed for an operation. (Mr. Abdulmutallab is Nigerian.) The next month, intelligence officials eavesdropped on Qaeda operatives who talked of sending a militant toward the West to carry out a strike.

Other intercepted conversations mentioned a significant event on Christmas Day, although it was unclear if the event concerned a strike against an American target or a movement of Qaeda backers, perhaps motivated by the deadly raids that Yemeni forces began in mid-December, officials said.

In the final weeks of the year, American intelligence officials, using spy satellites and communication intercepts, were intently focused on pinpointing the location of Qaeda fighters so the Yemeni military could strike them. By doing so, the American officials hoped to prevent attacks on the United States Embassy in Yemen, personnel or other targets in the region with American ties.

Yet they had unwittingly left themselves vulnerable, American officials now concede. Counterterrorism officials assumed that the militants were not sophisticated or ambitious enough to send operatives into the United States. And no one shifted more intelligence analysts to the task, so that they could have supported the military assaults by Yemen while also scrutinizing all incoming tips for hints about future attacks against Americans, one administration official said.

So, though intelligence analysts had enough information in those days before Christmas to block the suicide bomber on the Northwest flight, they did not act.

“We didn’t know they had progressed to the point of actually launching individuals here,” Mr. Brennan said on Jan. 7 at a White House briefing.

An administration official added, “The puzzle pieces were not being fitted to any type of homeland plot.”

Flaws Laid Bare

The overhaul of America’s intelligence apparatus in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks was intended to break information logjams and ensure that spy agencies traded secrets with one another. It established redundant layers of terrorism analysts to ensure that disparate clues to the next attack would not be ignored or overlooked.

But in the weeks before Christmas, the flaws in the structure were laid bare. No single person or unit was in charge of running down every high-priority tip.

At the National Counterterrorism Center just outside Washington, where specialists can draw on streams of information from more than 80 databases across the government, two teams of intelligence analysts worked on different parts of the same problem. Yet they never collaborated to piece together clues about the Christmas Day attack that were coming in.

A group of “watch list analysts” had been told by the United States Embassy in Nigeria that Mr. Abdulmutallab had been reported missing by his father and was likely to be under “the influence of religious extremists based in Yemen.”

But American officials in Nigeria did not flag Mr. Abdulmutallab for closer scrutiny, and alarms were not raised with the American Embassy in Yemen, either. Inside their electronic files, which contain tips on tens of thousands of cases, the analysts at the counterterrorism center also had a draft C.I.A. memorandum with biographical information about the man.

These tips were enough for the team, made up of about two dozen specialists, to add Mr. Abdulmutallab into the so-called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a tally of 550,000 people worldwide who might be a threat to the United States. The analysts, though, had missed the other threads of information sitting in their computer systems, so they did not put him in a more restrictive database that could have resulted in his inclusion on a “no fly” list.

The second team, a cadre of about 300 “all-source analysts,” failed to make the link as well. They are supposed to be the deep thinkers charged with preparing long-term assessments of terrorist groups, their financing and recruiting methods and their leadership. But officials said that while dozens of such analysts were examining the Yemen threat, they failed to repeatedly scrutinize the raw intelligence for hints of a possible attack on the United States originating in Yemen.

Obama administration officials now say the counterterrorism center needs personnel assigned solely to follow up on all tips, acting like detectives who keep working cases until they are solved.

The analysts are stymied, however, by computer systems that cannot easily search automatically — and repeatedly — for possible links, officials said. Even simple keyword searches are a challenge, according to a 2008 report by investigators for the House Committee on Science and Technology.

“The program not only can’t connect the dots, it can’t find the dots,” Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina and chairman of a House panel that oversees the program, said at the time.

At the C.I.A, some of the information that had been collected was not widely distributed. A draft memorandum on Mr. Abdulmutallab circulated through the agency, with information added by officers inside its Africa division and its counterterrorism center.

But on Christmas Day, the final draft of the memorandum was still sitting in the computer of a junior C.I.A. analyst, waiting until a photo of the young Nigerian was located. Unbeknownst to the analyst, officials said, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s photo had already been delivered to other counterterrorism agencies.

“There were so many things that could have altered the course of events,” one senior administration official said.

The fallout from the terrorist plot has already exposed some simmering tensions, complicating the government’s ability fix the problems.

One senior Obama official faulted Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, for failing to assign extra intelligence analysts to focus on Yemen while also hunting for possible emerging threats to the United States.

For their part, some senior intelligence officials bristled at what they saw as a White House effort to place blame for the breakdowns solely on American spy agencies.

Mr. Blair fought back after early drafts of the White House report on the bombing attempt did not, in his view, adequately acknowledge the difficulties of placing a name on travel watch lists, according to two government officials. The report’s release was delayed several hours, and Mr. Blair managed to get changes made to the final version.

The tensions have also added to the concern expressed by influential lawmakers, who said they were told by administration officials last week in a briefing that the United States believes that Al Qaeda in Yemen could use other young men like Mr. Abdulmutallab as suicide bombers aboard aircraft.

“We don’t know how many more individuals are still out there that were trained by this radical cleric in Yemen,” said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security intelligence subcommittee, “and may be still trying to pull off the same stunt.”


NC port closed after containers are punctured
YAHOO
January 12, 2010

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Officials shut down a North Carolina port and urged people to leave the area Tuesday after nine containers with highly explosive materials were punctured.

Morehead City Fire Chief Wes Lail told television station WTVD the chemical involved is pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a powerful explosive. It's not clear what form the chemical was in.

It's also known as PETN, the substance authorities say was part of a device a Nigerian man tried to use to bring down a Detroit-bound Northwest flight on Christmas Day. PETN is often used in military explosives and found inside blasting caps. It is also the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions.

Authorities did not immediately say how big the containers were or how they were damaged.

Police told people near the port to stay away from windows and doors. Officers were sent downtown to knock on doors and relay alert and evacuation recommendations.

Morehead City police spokeswoman Amy H. Thompson said people close to the port were leaving, but she did not know how many.

The Morehead port is one of the deepest on the East coast. Its Web site says its top import last year was sulfur products and the top export was phosphate.

Locals said there was no sense of panic. Drew Hall, who answered the phone at Crystal Coast Jamboree, a concert hall near the port, said she could see police lights.

"Everybody is going about their business," said Hall, 27 who has lived in Morehead City her whole life and does not remember a similar incident. "Why get nervous? Things happen. You can't freak out in times like this. If you freak out, you're going to go down."

Calls to Mayor Jerry Jones were not returned. The coastal town has about 8,800 residents.


Not the New York Times' front page version of this story (NYPOST) above...

As the Nation’s Pulse Races, Obama Can’t Seem to Find His
NYTIMES
By MAUREEN DOWD
December 30, 2009

WASHINGTON

I was walking through a deserted downtown on Christmas Eve with a friend, past the lonely, gray Treasury Building, past the snowy White House with no president inside.

“I hope the terrorists don’t think this is a good time to attack,” I said, looking protectively at the White House, which always looks smaller and more vulnerable and beautiful than you expect, no matter how often you see it up close.

I thought our guard might be down because of the holiday; now I realize our guard is down every day.

One thrilling thing about moving from W. to Barack Obama was that Obama seemed like an avatar of modernity.

W., Dick Cheney and Rummy kept ceaselessly dragging us back into the past. America seemed to have lost her ingenuity, her quickness, her man-on-the-moon bravura, her Bugs Bunny panache.

Were we clever and inventive enough to protect ourselves from the new breed of Flintstones-hardy yet Facebook-savvy terrorists?

W.’s favorite word was “resolute,” but despite gazillions spent and Cheney’s bluster, our efforts to shield ourselves seemed flaccid.

President Obama’s favorite word is “unprecedented,” as Carol Lee of Politico pointed out. Yet he often seems mired in the past as well, letting his hallmark legislation get loaded up with old-school bribes and pork; surrounding himself with Clintonites; continuing the Bushies’ penchant for secrecy and expansive executive privilege; doubling down in Afghanistan while acting as though he’s getting out; and failing to capitalize on snazzy new technology while agencies thumb through printouts and continue their old turf battles.

Even before a Nigerian with Al Qaeda links tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet headed to Detroit, travelers could see we had made no progress toward a technologically wondrous Philip K. Dick universe.

We seemed to still be behind the curve and reactive, patting down grannies and 5-year-olds, confiscating snow globes and lip glosses.

Instead of modernity, we have airports where security is so retro that taking away pillows and blankies and bathroom breaks counts as a great leap forward.

If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly feminine-looking underpants and a syringe full of acid, a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags, whose visa renewal had been denied by the British, who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen, whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who can we catch?

We are headed toward the moment when screeners will watch watch-listers sashay through while we have to come to the airport in hospital gowns, flapping open in the back.

In a rare bipartisan success, House members tried to prevent the Transportation Security Administration from implementing full-body imaging as a screening tool at airports.

Just because Republicans helped lead the ban on better technology and opposed airport security spending doesn’t mean they’ll stop Cheneying the Democrats for subverting national security.

Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Michigan was weaselly enough to whack the president and “weak-kneed liberals” in his gubernatorial fund-raising letter.

Before he left for vacation, Obama tried to shed his Spock mien and juice up the empathy quotient on jobs. But in his usual inspiring/listless cycle, he once more appeared chilly in his response to the chilling episode on Flight 253, issuing bulletins through his press secretary and hitting the links. At least you have to seem concerned.

On Tuesday, Obama stepped up to the microphone to admit what Janet Napolitano (who learned nothing from an earlier Janet named Reno) had first tried to deny: that there had been “a systemic failure” and a “catastrophic breach of security.”

But in a mystifying moment that was not technically or emotionally reassuring, there was no live video and it looked as though the Obama operation was flying by the seat of its pants.

Given that every utterance of the president is usually televised, it was a throwback to radio days — just at the moment we sought reassurance that our security has finally caught up to “Total Recall.”

All that TV viewers heard, broadcast from a Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, was the president’s disembodied voice, talking about “deficiencies.”

Citing the attempt of the Nigerian’s father to warn U.S. authorities six months ago, the president intoned: “It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect’s name on a no-fly list.”

In his detached way, Spock was letting us know that our besieged starship was not speeding into a safer new future, and that we still have to be scared.

Heck of a job, Barry.


Delta Airbus 330 airliner sits on a runway at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan in this video grab made December 25, 2009. A man reportedly set off firecrackers on the Northwest Airlines flight 253 that was carrying 278 passengers to Detroit from Amsterdam. Delta Air Lines has taken over Northwest.

Dutch to use full body scanners for US flights
YAHOO
By MIKE CORDER and ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press
Dec. 30, 2009

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a "professional" al-Qaida terror attack.

A top Dutch official said a scanner of that type may have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Friday carrying undetected explosives. Law enforcement officials say the 23-year-old Nigerian tried but failed to detonate the explosives on a plane carrying over 300 people.

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst told a news conference, referring to it as "another al-Qaida attack."

The Dutch minister said U.S. had not wanted these scanners to be used previously because of privacy concerns but said there was now agreement with Washington authorities that "all possible measures will be used on flights to the U.S..."  Full story here.

A key European legislator urged the European Union to begin rapidly installing the new equipment across the 27-nation bloc, but no other European nations immediately followed the Dutch move.

Body scanners that peer underneath clothing have been available for years, but privacy advocates say they are a "virtual strip search" because they display an image of the body onto a computer screen.

Ian Dowty, a lawyer with Action on Rights of the Child, said allowing minors to pass through the scanners violates child pornography laws.

"It shows genitalia," he told The Associated Press. "As far as English law is concerned ... it's unlawful if it's indecent."

For that reason, British authorities have exempted under-18s from body scan trials at places including Paddington Station in London as well as Heathrow and Manchester airports.

New software, however, eliminates that problem by projecting a stylized image rather than an actual picture onto a computer screen, highlighting the area of the body where objects are concealed in pockets or under the clothing...full story here.


Napolitano says airline security system failed
YAHOO
Dec. 28, 2009

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watch list with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano said her words had been taken out of context. She said Monday on NBC's "Today" show that "our system did not work in this instance."

Napolitano said an investigation ordered by the Obama administration will look at why Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a U.S.-bound flight on Christmas Day despite being on a terrorist watch list.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has ordered investigations into the two areas of aviation security — how travelers are placed on watch lists and passengers screened — as critics continued to question how a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"The investigation will look backwards and figure out if any signs were missed, if any procedures can be changed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on ABC's "This Week".

The White House press office, traveling with President Barack Obama in Hawaii, said early Monday that the president would make a statement from the Kaneoho Marine Base in the morning. White House spokesman Bill Burton did not elaborate.  Billions of dollars have been spent on aviation security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when commercial airliners were hijacked and used as weapons.

Much of that money has gone toward training and equipment that some security experts say could have detected the explosive device the 23-year-old Nigerian man is believed to have hidden on his body on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"One thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday morning on CNN.

"This was one individual, literally, of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year," Napolitano said. "And he was stopped before any damage could be done."

But the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee took issue with Napolitano's assessment.  Airport security "failed in every respect," Rep. Peter King of New York said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's not reassuring when the secretary of Homeland Security says the system worked."

Investigators are piecing together Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's brazen attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Dec. 25. Law enforcement officials say he tucked below his waist a small bag holding his potentially deadly concoction of liquid and powder explosive material.

Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, says Abdulmutallab's ticket came from a KLM office in Accra, Ghana. Demuren said Monday that Abdulmutallab bought the $2,831 round-trip ticket from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit via Amsterdam on Dec. 16.  Demuren declined to comment about Abdulmutallab's travels in the days before he boarded his Dec. 24 flight from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam, saying FBI agents and Nigerian officials view the information as "sensitive." He says Abdulmutallab checked into his flight with only a small carryon bag.

Abdulmutallab had been placed in a U.S. database of people suspected of terrorist ties in November, but there was not enough information about his activity that would place him on a watch list that could have kept him from flying.  However, British officials placed Abdulmutallab's name on a U.K. watch list after he was refused a student visa in May.  Home Secretary Alan Johnson added that police and security services are looking at whether Abdulmutallab was radicalized in Britain.

Abdulmutallab received a degree in engineering and business finance from University College London last year and later applied to re-enter Britain to study at another institution. Johnson said Monday he was refused entry because officials suspected the school was not genuine and they then put his name on the list.  Johnson says that people on the list can transit through the U.K. but cannot enter the country.

Officials said he came to the attention of U.S. intelligence last month when his father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, a prominent Nigerian banker, reported to the American Embassy in Nigeria about his son's increasingly extremist religious views.  In a statement released Monday morning, Abdulmutallab's family in Nigeria said that after his "disappearance and stoppage of communications while schooling abroad," his father reached out to Nigerian security agencies two months ago. The statement says the father then approached foreign security agencies for "their assistance to find and return him home."

The family says: "It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day."

The statement did not offer any specifics on where Abdulmutallab had been.  Abdulmutallab's success in smuggling and partially igniting the material on Friday's flight prompted the Obama administration to promise a sweeping review of aviation security, even as the Homeland Security secretary defended the current system.

Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said the government will investigate its systems for placing suspicious travelers on watch lists and for detecting explosives before passengers board flights.

Both lines of defense were breached in an improbable series of events Christmas Day that spanned three continents and culminated in a struggle and fire aboard a Northwest jet shortly before its safe landing in Detroit. Law enforcement officials believed the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

An apparent malfunction in a device designed to detonate the PETN may have been all that saved the 278 passengers and the crew aboard Northwest Flight 253. No undercover air marshal was on board and passengers and crew subdued the suspect when he tried to set off the explosion. He succeeded only in starting a fire on himself.

Security experts said airport "puffer" machines that blow air on a passenger to collect and analyze residues would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab. Most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.

Abdulmutallab was treated for burns and was released Sunday to a prison 50 miles outside of Detroit.

Stiffer boarding measures have met passengers at gates since Friday and authorities warned travelers to expect extra delays returning home from holidays.

Adding to the airborne jitters, authorities detained a man, also from Nigeria, who locked himself in the bathroom on Sunday's Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam as it was about to land in Detroit. Investigators concluded he posed no threat. Despite the government's decision after the attempted Friday attack to mobilize more air marshals, none was on the Sunday flight from Amsterdam, according to a government report obtained by The Associated Press.
Security reviews under way after airliner attack
YAHOO
By PAMELA HESS and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writers
Dec. 27, 2009

WASHINGTON – Investigators piecing together a brazen attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic airliner said Sunday the suspect tucked a small bag holding his deadly concoction on his body, using an explosive that would have been easily detected with the right airport equipment.

His success in smuggling and partially igniting the material on Friday's flight to Detroit prompted the Obama administration to promise a sweeping review of aviation security.

Adding to the airborne jitters, a second Nigerian man was detained Sunday from the same Northwest flight to Detroit after he locked himself in the plane's bathroom. Officials reported that he was belligerent but genuinely sick, and that, in an abundance of caution, the plane was taken to a remote location for screening before passengers were let off.

Investigators concluded he posed no threat. Despite the government's decision after the attempted Friday attack to mobilize more air marshals, none was on the Sunday flight from Amsterdam, according to a government report obtained by The Associated Press.

Stiffer boarding measures met passengers at gates as authorities warned travelers to expect extra delays returning home from holidays. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced a review of air safety on two broad fronts, saying the government will investigate its systems for placing suspicious travelers on watch lists and for detecting explosives before passengers board flights.

Both lines of defense were breached in an improbable series of events Christmas Day that spanned three continents and culminated in a struggle and fire aboard a Northwest jet shortly before its safe landing in Detroit. Law enforcement officials believed the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, an Islamic devotee once dubbed "the Pope" as a sign of respect by classmates, was released from a Michigan hospital in the custody of federal marshals Sunday after being treated for burns. He is charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device in a plane.

Abdulmutallab's lawyer said Sunday that he is now in a federal prison in Milan, Mich.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hastened to assure people that flying is "very, very safe."

She said the suspect in Friday's attack "was stopped before any damage could be done. I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have."

That brought a sharp rebuke from Rep. Peter King of New York, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee. "It's not reassuring when the secretary of Homeland Security says the system worked," King said. "It failed in every respect."

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, said, "It's amazing to me that an individual like this who was sending out so many signals could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S."

An apparent malfunction in a device designed to detonate the high explosive PETN may have been all that saved the 278 passengers and the crew aboard Northwest Flight 253. No undercover air marshal was on board and passengers and crew subdued the suspect when he tried to set off the explosion. He succeeded only in starting a fire on himself.

Law enforcement officials say Abdulmutallab hid a condom or condom-like pouch below his torso containing PETN, the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions.

Airport "puffer" machines that blow air on a passenger to collect and analyze residues would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab, they said, but most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Abdulmutallab told authorities after his arrest that his plan originated with al-Qaida's network inside Yemen, a link the U.S. government has avoided making so far. Napolitano said there was no indication yet that Abdulmutallab is part of a larger terrorist plot, although his possible ties to al-Qaida are still under investigation.

A video posted online four days before the bombing attempt featured an al-Qaida operative in Yemen threatening the U.S. and saying "we are carrying a bomb." It was not immediately clear whether the speaker was anticipating Friday's bombing attempt.

In November, Abdulmutallab had been placed in a database of more than 500,000 names of people suspected of terrorist ties. But officials say there was not enough information about his terror activity that would have placed him on a watch list that could have kept him from flying. Officials said he came to the attention of U.S. intelligence last month when his father, a prominent Nigerian banker, reported to the American Embassy in Nigeria about his son's increasingly extremist views.

Despite that red flag, Abdulmutallab was not elevated to more exclusive — and perhaps manageable — lists of some 18,000 people who are designated for additional security searches or barred from flying altogether. Napolitano said that would have required "specific, credible, derogatory information" that authorities didn't have.

A U.S. official said the father's concerns were shared among those in the embassy, including liaison personnel from other agencies based there, such as the FBI. The alert was then relayed to Washington and again shared among agencies such as the State, Justice and Homeland Security departments, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili said Abdulmutallab, who was living in London, sneaked back into Nigeria to catch the flight that would take him to Amsterdam and Detroit. She did not elaborate on how he entered the country.

Abdulmutallab had a U.S. visa issued in June 2008 and valid through June 2010.

Just as passenger shoe searches became the order of the day after Richard Reid tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with PETN hidden in his shoes, the latest attempted assault could bring new layers of screening and delays. Among the possibilities: fuller and more frequent body pat-downs and scanning.

"I think we have to head in that direction," King said. "Yes, there is some brief violation of privacy with a full body scan. But on the other hand, if we can save thousands of lives, to me, we have to make that decision."

Gibbs was noncommittal on that question. "We obviously want to review and make sure that all the detection capabilities that are supposed to happen, whether it's a pat-down, whether it's additional security selection — that that happens in each instance."

On Saturday, two Middle Eastern men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before being released. That incident — and Sunday's incident in Detroit — led the Council on American-Islamic Relations to urge airline security personnel to avoid ethnic and religious profiling.

Gibbs appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation." Napolitano spoke on CNN's "State of the Union" as well as on NBC and ABC. King appeared on CBS; McConnell appeared on ABC.
Nigerian man charged in Christmas airliner attack
YAHOO
By LARRY MARGASAK and COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writers
Dec. 26, 2009

DETROIT – A 23-year-old Nigerian man who claimed ties to al-Qaida was charged Saturday with trying to destroy a Detroit-bound airliner, just a month after his father warned U.S. officials of concerns about his son's religious beliefs.  The suspect claimed to have received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen, a law enforcement official said on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairman of a House Homeland Security subcommittee, said there were "strong suggestions of a Yemen-al Qaida connection and an intent to blow up the plane over U.S. airspace." Several officials said they have yet to see independent confirmation.

Some airline passengers traveling Saturday felt the consequences of the frightening Christmas Day attack. They were told that new U.S. regulations prevented them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing.  The Justice Department charged that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO-mahr fah-ROOK ahb-DOOL-moo-TAH-lahb) willfully attempted to destroy or wreck an aircraft; and that he placed a destructive device in the plane.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read Abdulmutallab the charges in a conference room at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. where he is being treated for burns.

An affidavit said he had a device containing a high explosive attached to his body. The affidavit said that as Northwest Flight 253 descended toward Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Abdulmutallab set off the device — sparking a fire instead of an explosion.  According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed it contained PETN, a high explosive also known as pentaerythritol.

This was the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used when he tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes.  PETN is often used in military explosives and found inside blasting caps. But terrorists like it because it's small and powerful.

FBI agents recovered what appeared to be the remnants of a liquid-filled syringe, believed to have been part of the explosive device, from the vicinity of Abdulmutallab's seat.

U.S. authorities told The Associated Press that in November, his father went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss his concerns about his son's religious beliefs.  One government official said the father did not have any specific information that would put his son on the "no-fly list" or on the list for additional security checks at the airport.  Nor was the information sufficient to revoke his visa to visit the United States. His visa had been granted June 2008 and was valid through June 2010. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither was authorized to speak to the media.

The suspect smiled when he was wheeled into the hospital conference room. He had a bandage on his left thumb and right wrist, and part of the skin on the thumb was burned off.  He was wearing a light green hospital robe and blue hospital socks. The judge sat at the far end of a 10-foot table, the suspect at the other end.  Judge Borman asked the defendant if he was pronouncing his name correctly.

Abdulmutallab responded, in English. "Yes, that's fine." The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."

The judge said the suspect would be assigned a public defender and set a detention hearing for Jan. 8. The hearing lasted 20 minutes.

Attorney General Eric Holder made clear that the United States will look beyond Abdulmutallab. He vowed to "use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice."

Abdulmutallab was in a terrorism database but not on a no-fly list. He lived in a posh London neighborhood.

President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, was briefed about developments in the attack. National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough was holed up in a secure hotel room in Hawaii to receive briefings, and other traveling presidential aides were kept shut away to monitor new information.  Several members of Congress called for congressional investigations.

Abdulmutallab appeared on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said a U.S. official who received a briefing. Containing some 550,000 names, the database includes people with known or suspected ties to a terrorist organization. However, it is not a list that would prohibit a person from boarding a U.S.-bound airplane.

An official briefed on the attack on a Detroit airliner said the U.S. has known for at least two years that the suspect in the attack could have terrorist ties. The official told The Associated Press that the suspect has been on the list that includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

In Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the man's father, told The Associated Press, "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said there are still questions about the suspect's connections with al-Qaida and Yemen.  Still, Smith noted that incendiary materials used by Abdulmutallab suggest he may have had more formal instruction and aid than a self-starter moved to action by militant al-Qaida ideology. Smith is chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on terrorism and has been briefed on the investigation.  U.S. Intelligence officials say their investigation is pointing in that direction, but they are still running down his claims. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

A Virginia-based group that monitors militant messages called attention Saturday to a Dec. 21 video recording from an al-Qaida operative in Yemen who warned of a looming bombing in the U.S. 
IntelCenter, a Virginia-based group that monitors militant messages, said the al-Qaida member levied that threat last week during a funeral for militants killed during an airstrike in Yemen two days earlier.

The father was chairman of First Bank of Nigeria from 1999 through this month. The banker said his son is a former university student in London but had left Britain to travel abroad.  A search was conducted Saturday at an apartment building in the West London neighborhood where the suspect is said to have lived.

University College London issued a statement saying a student named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied mechanical engineering there between September 2005 and June 2008. But the college said it wasn't certain the student was the same person who was on the plane.
AP sources: Al-Qaida link in failed plane attack
YAHOO
By LARRY MARGASAK and LARA JAKES and JIM IRWIN, Associated Press Writers
Dec. 25, 2009

DETROIT – A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria, who said he was acting on al-Qaida's instructions, set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was landing in Detroit, federal officials said.

Flight 253 with 278 passengers aboard was 20 minutes from the airport when it sounded like a firecracker had exploded, witnesses said. One passenger jumped over others and tried to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel, but were not specified.  Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. Others had slightly different spellings.  One law enforcement source said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over U.S. soil.

"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."

At least one passenger acted heroically.  Smith said the passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.  The incident was reminiscent of convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.

A statement Delta, which acquired Northwest, said, "Upon approach to Detroit, a passenger caused a disturbance onboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253. The passenger was subdued immediately and the crew requested that law enforcement meet the flight upon arrival.

"The flight, operated by Northwest using an Airbus 330-300 aircraft with 278 passengers onboard, landed safely. The passenger was taken into custody and questioned by law enforcement authorities."

The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the 2009 holiday season from Thanksgiving through Jan. 1. At the time, intelligence officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. The intelligence note was obtained by The Associated Press.  President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about Flight 253 on Friday until it was on final approach to Detroit, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. That is when the pilot declared an emergency and landed without incident shortly thereafter, Cory said. The plane landed at 12:51 p.m. EST.  One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.

The passenger was being questioned Friday evening. An intelligence source said the Nigerian passenger was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Mich., hospital.  All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.  The official said an official determination of a terrorist act would have to come from the attorney general. The official added that additional security measures were being taken without raising the airline threat level, but declined to describe them.

The White House was coordinating briefings for the president through the Homeland Security Department, the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI.  A law enforcement source said the explosives may have been strapped to the man's body but investigators weren't immediately certain, partly because of the struggle with other passengers.  One passenger from the flight was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, hospital spokeswoman Tracy Justice said. She didn't know the person's condition, or whether the person was a man or woman. She referred all inquiries to the FBI.

Passenger Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said the incident occurred during the plane's descent. Jafri said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and said he saw a glow, and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."

"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," he said.

Rich Griffith, a passenger from Pontiac, said he was seated too far in the back to see what had happened. But he said he didn't mind being detained on the plane for several hours. "It's frustrating if you don't want to keep your country safe," he said. "We can't have what's going on everywhere else happening here."

J.P. Karas, 55, of Wyandotte, Mich., said he was driving down a road near the airport and saw a Delta jet at the end of the runway, surrounded by police cars, an ambulance, a bus and some TV trucks.

"I don't ever recall seeing a plane on that runway ever before and I pass by there frequently," he said.

Karas said it was difficult to tell what was going on, but it looked like the front wheel was off the runway.

"We encourage those with future travel plans to stay in touch with their airline and to visit http://www.tsa.gov for updates," Homeland Security Department said in a statement.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has been briefed on the incident and is closely monitoring the situation.  The department encouraged travelers to be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement officials.

The FBI fumbles again

Last Updated: 5:11 AM, December 22, 2009
Posted: 1:06 AM, December 22, 2009

A case could be made that a substantial threat to American national security may reside in . . . the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the latest in a series of embarrassing episodes, an FBI linguist with a "secret" security clearance has been caught passing classified documents to a blogger.  Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, a Maryland lawyer, pled guilty to a felony count of disclosing to a third party materials that carried the "secret" classification.  Leibowitz had been employed as a linguist for all of three months before he leaked the documents. Makes one sort of wonder how he got the job -- and the "secret" clearance -- in the first place.

Sure, Leibowitz's disclosures appear not to have been particularly damaging.  But that's not the point.

The question still needs answering.  Again: How did this guy -- an Israeli-American with a history of questionable relationships with radical Palestinian groups -- end up with clearance to handle classified material in the first place?  His grandfather, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, had long been a strong critic of Israeli policy on the Palestinian territories.

But the younger Leibowitz went further: He helped defend Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian sentenced to five life terms in 2004 for incitement to murder.  As a US citizen, Leibowitz has the right to associate with whomever. He doesn't automatically get the right to an FBI clearance allowing him to view and translate classified material.  This information comes to light one month after the bureau admitted that it had seen e-mail correspondence between Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, radical cleric with strong ties to al Qaeda.

The FBI concluded that a broader investigation into Hasan wasn't warranted. The results speak for themselves.

The bureau is now "reviewing" its actions prior to the shooting.

Here's an idea: How about reviewing its policies on granting clearance to translators with radical ties of their own?

FBI probes cyber attack on Citigroup: report
YAHOO
Tue Dec 22,2009 2:32 am ET

(Reuters) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a hacking that targeted Citigroup Inc and resulted in the theft of tens of million of dollars, the Wall Street Journal said, citing U.S. government officials.

The cyber attack by hackers believed to be linked to a Russian cyber gang was aimed at Citi's Citibank subsidiary, the paper said, adding it was unclear whether the hackers gained access to the bank's systems directly or through third parties.

Two other entities, including a U.S. government agency, were also attacked by hackers, the paper said, citing people familiar with the attack on Citibank.

The cyber attack on Citibank was believed to have taken place last summer but U.S. investigators suspect the attack could have taken place a year earlier, the paper said.

"We had no breach of the system and there were no losses, no customer losses, no bank losses," Joe Petro, managing director of Citigroup's Security and Investigative services told the paper.

"Any allegation that the FBI is working a case at Citigroup involving tens of millions of losses is just not true," he said.

The FBI's press office could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours, while a Citigroup spokesman in Hong Kong was not immediately available for comment.


Did someone say "audacity" in Partygate?


Op-Ed Columnist
Who’s Sari Now?
NYTIMES
By MAUREEN DOWD
December 2, 2009

WASHINGTON

Michaele and Tareq Salahi finally actually got invited to an exclusive Washington gathering.  But they’re not sure they want to accept.

It is, after all, an invitation to Thursday’s Congressional hearing into their Night of Living Dangerously, the notorious White House party-crashing incident.

The Salahis discovered the secret to sneaking through a mythical gate, and that has now taken on the import of one of Dan Brown’s ancient portals; the breached White House wall serves as a prism to examine our society, our president and our values.  We live in an age obsessed with “reality” and overrun by fakers. The mock has run amok.

This decade will be remembered for the collapse of the Twin Towers, the economy and any standard of accomplishment for societal prestige. TV and the Internet wallow in the lowest common denominator.

Warhol looks like Whistler.

But if Congress investigates social climbing and party crashing in Washington, it won’t have time for anything else.  Because even the outrage over the fakers is fake. The capital has turned up its nose at the tacky trompe l’oeil Virginia horse-country socialites: a faux Redskins cheerleader and a faux successful businessman auditioning for a “reality” show by feigning a White House invitation.

Yet Washington has always been a town full of poseurs, arrivistes, fame-seekers, cheaters and camera hogs.  Lots of people here are trying to crash the party, wangle an invite to the right thing, work the angles and milk their connections to better insinuate their way into the inner circle.  Barack Obama is the ultimate party crasher. He crashed Hillary’s high-hat party in 2008 and he crashed the snooty age-old Washington party of privileged white guys with a monopoly on power.

Sneaking past the White House gates with the slippery Salahis, we catch a rare glimpse of a Secret Service, a social office and a Pentagon with glaring — and chilling — vulnerabilities and liabilities.

The Washington Post reported the Secret Service guard waved in the Salahis, breaking the rules, because he “was persuaded by the couple’s manner and insistence as well as the pressure of keeping lines moving on a rainy evening.”

Because Barack Obama has broken historic barriers and excites strong passions, he requires a heightened level of Secret Service protection. Now, he isn’t getting the minimum required.  Vetting guests does not involve emotion or leeway. Famous lawmakers like Pat Schroeder have been turned away after showing up without IDs.

Whatever Michele Jones, the Pentagon-based liaison to the White House, e-mailed the Salahis to enhance their delusion of having a shot at a dinner, she was mindlessly enabling fabulists.

Desirée Rogers, who has also been asked to testify Thursday, has been cruising for a bruising since telling The Wall Street Journal in April: “We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand. Our possibilities are endless.” She wanted to pose for The Journal in an Oscar de la Renta gown in the first lady’s garden, but the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, vetoed that.

The statuesque social secretary brandishing a Harvard M.B.A. and animal-print designer shoes is not any mere party planner. The old friend of the first couple from Chicago has the exalted and uncommon title of social secretary and special assistant to the president.  Instead of standing outside with a clipboard, eyeballing guests as Anne Hathaway did in “The Devil Wears Prada,” Desirée was a guest at the dinner, the center of her own table of guests, just like the president and first lady.

As Michael Isikoff wrote in Newsweek, Rogers sidelined Cathy Hargraves, the East Wing staffer whose job it was to go to the East Gate portico and check off the names of each guest from a printout.  Rogers told Hargraves that the Obama team felt no need for those services because, given the recession, there wouldn’t be many lavish dinners. But even if it’s just two state dinners a year, as the first lady plans, one big mistake is too many.

Also, the rejection of the Bush appointee has unseemly echoes of Hillary Clinton sacking the White House travel office staff, unnecessarily politicizing an office that required old pros.

Rogers also conjured up a White House closing ranks on itself, allowing far too many West Wing staffers, mid-level political aides, press flacks and speechwriters to attend the prestigious premiere state dinner, rather than people more relevant to the Indian guests of honor. The Obama team always talks of making the White House “the People’s House,” so why let it look like the White House Mess?

Even before the Salahis swept in preening, the Obama staffers were there preening, standing around celebrating themselves. And of course, savoring the wonder of the Obama brand.

Don’t Call Us White House Crashers, Couple Says in Interview
NYTIMES
By BRIAN STELTER
December 2, 2009

They were not on the White House guest list, but Michaele and Tareq Salahi insist that they are not party crashers.

In their first televised interview since being accused of slipping past White House security and attending President Obama’s first state dinner a week ago, the aspiring reality TV stars said they were eager to explain what had happened — but that they would have to wait until a later interview to do so.

“We did not party crash the White House,” Mr. Salahi said on the “Today” show on NBC.

“There isn’t anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that,” Ms. Salahi added later.

But when Matt Lauer, a host of the show, asked “Who invited you?” the couple did not answer. Instead, Mr. Salahi said: “One of the things that we’re doing is we’re working closely with the Secret Service in their internal investigation. We’re respecting their timeline. We’re working on their timeline. We want to get through that process.”

Mr. Salahi added that they had “turned over documentation” to the Secret Service, which may have been a reference to e-mail messages between the couple and Michele S. Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates who serves as a liaison to the White House.

The Salahis tried to obtain tickets to the state dinner through Ms. Jones. But in a statement released by the White House on Monday, Ms. Jones said she told the couple that she “did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities.”

“Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come,” Ms. Jones added in the statement.

In a separate interview on “Today,” the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, dismissed the notion that there was a misunderstanding between the Salahis and government officials.

“You don’t show up at the White House as a misunderstanding,” Mr. Gibbs said. He added that the incident is “being looked at criminally.”

Mr. Lauer said the Salahis led him to believe, in a telephone conversation on Monday, that “this story is about to take a dramatic and unexpected turn.” But that turn was not taken on Tuesday, as the Salahis returned to a pat answer — “we are working closely with the Secret Service” — when Mr. Lauer pressed for details.

They said that more information would be forthcoming. “We’re going to be coming up to New York, sitting on your couch; we’re going to show you documentation from e-mails that you’ll get a chance to see,” Mr. Salahi said.

The Salahis said their lives had “been destroyed” in the days after the state dinner, when they and their record of lawsuits and unpaid bills came under intense media scrutiny.

Ms. Salahi had auditioned this fall for “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” a forthcoming reality show on the Bravo cable channel, which is owned by NBC Universal. A Bravo camera crew shadowed the couple to the White House gates on Tuesday, but could not follow them into the dinner.

Mr. Lauer did not ask any questions about Ms. Salahi’s “Housewives” role.

Before the interview, NBC reported on Tuesday that the couple had attended a Congressional Black Caucus dinner without an invitation in September, and “had to be escorted out by security.” Mr. Salahi said they were invited to that dinner by a law firm, and added: “We were escorted out? Of course not.”

The couple said it was not paid for the appearance on “Today.” Over the weekend, a television network executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly comment on payments, said the couple sought hundreds of thousands of dollars for their first interview.


"Devil Wears Prada" hint...don't let anyone near the boss unless she knows who they are!
For starters, why wasn't the social director's office at the gates?. If a breach of security like this can happen...what's next?

Desiree Rogers, White House social secretary at center of Salahi scandal, resigns
BY Kenneth R. Bazinet, DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Originally Published:Friday, February 26th 2010, 2:41 PM
Updated: Friday, February 26th 2010, 3:07 PM

WASHINGTON  - White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, who took the heat after a starstruck couple evaded security and crashed a state dinner last year, will step down next month, officials confirmed Friday.

A close confidant of the First Couple, Rogers failed to provide staff to help Secret Service double-check a White House guest list last November.

That allowed wannabe celebrity party-goers Michaele and Tareq Salahi to sneak into the state dinner honoring the Indian prime minister.

The Secret Service took the fall and supported the White House's initial position on the handling of the event, saying Rogers was not at fault.

But after an internal investigation and the discovery Rogers had indeed not followed the traditional protocols for checking a White House guest list, senior administration officials acknowledged she had made a mistake.

As a result, the White House social office announced it would revert to the time-honored procedure of previous administrations of stationing a social aide at entry points.

Rogers is reportedly telling people she is tired after hosting hundreds of events already and is ready to pursue other interests. But she never was able to overcome the embarrassment of the party-crasher episode.

"As we turn the corner on the first year, this is a good time for me to explore opportunities in the corporate world," Rogers told the Chicago Sun-Times, which first reported she was leaving.

Like senior West Wing advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, Rogers is a Chicagoan in Obama's inner circle. She is particularly close to First Lady Michelle Obama.
Salahi denies being White House party-crasher
YAHOO
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
December 1, 2009

WASHINGTON – The man who got into a White House dinner without an invitation denied Tuesday that he and his wife were gatecrashers.

Appearing on a nationally broadcast morning news show with his wife, Michaele, Tareq Salahi said the furor surrounding their attendance at the state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister has been a "most devastating" experience.

Salahi said in the interview Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show that there was more to the story — an explanation that would exonerate the couple from allegations of misconduct in the breach of White House security. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, appearing on the same program, stood by the administration's position that the Salahis were gatecrashers.

"This wasn't a misunderstanding," Gibbs said. "You don't show up at the White House as a misunderstanding."

For his part, Salahi said he and his wife were cooperating with the Secret Service in its investigation of the incident a week ago. And he said they both have "great respect" for President Barack Obama.

"We're greatly saddened by all the circumstances ... portraying my wife and I as party crashers. I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House."

The White House gate caper captivated a capital frequently as as well known for its elegant social life and celebrity eruptions as the day-to-day business of government and state.

Earlier Tuesday, Gibbs said that Obama and his wife, Michelle, were both angered by the incursion.

Interviewed on MSNBC, Gibbs said "it's safe to say he was angry. Michelle was angry."

Gibbs noted that the Secret Service is investigating what went wrong and said the White House was also re-examining its procedures. He told the network, "I think the president really had the same reaction the Secret Service had, and that was great concern for how something like this happened."
Senators want party crashers punished
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Tom LoBianco
Monday, November 30, 2009

The Virginia couple who crashed the White House state dinner Tuesday should face the heaviest criminal charges in order to deter other would-be crashers, two lawmakers said Sunday.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, said Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who are vying for a spot on a reality TV show to be filmed in Washington, need to be made an example of to prevent this from happening again.

"I think you have to have a strong deterrent against this kind of thing. And therefore, if it's a federal crime to lie to a federal agent, and these people didn't tell the truth about their invitation, then they should be in some way brought to justice here, again, as an example to others not to do it," Mr. Kyl said on "Fox News Sunday."

The Salahis may have had to lie to Secret Service agents to gain entrance Tuesday to President Obama's first state dinner, for Indian Prime Minister Manhoman Singh, though Secret Service officials admitted that the couple's identities were never checked against the guest list.

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat, compared the couple's stunt to "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, the Islamic terrorist whose attempt to explode a plane shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks changed how all passengers were screened at airports.

"I mean, of course, people have been laughing about it because it is so incredulous. But it's not a laughing matter that people could get that close to the president and the vice president who aren't supposed to be there," Mr. Bayh said on "Fox News Sunday."

The couple is now trying to sell interviews to television networks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Associated Press reported, citing a television executive speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Salahis have told network officials to "get their bids in" and are looking to be paid an amount in the mid-six figures range, the executive said.

The two canceled a planned interview Monday with CNN's Larry King. Mrs. Salahi is auditioning for the Bravo network's reality show "Real Housewives of Washington, D.C."

The event has prompted other lawmakers to call for a review of the U.S. Secret Services security practices and focused attention on how the two eventually got to meet the president and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has apologized for the breach.
Crashers probe may become criminal investigation
CTPOST
By Larry Margasak, The Associated Press
Updated: 11/27/2009 02:32:51 PM EST

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service may begin a criminal investigation against the Virginia couple who crashed a high-profile White House dinner, an agency spokesman said Friday.

Jim Mackin said the possible turn toward criminal charges is one reason the Secret Service has kept mum about what happened when Michaele and Tareq Salahi arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday. They were not on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Nobody disputes that the two, candidates for a reality TV show, were allowed through security. The Secret Service acknowledges that its procedures weren't followed.

Still unknown is the story that the uninvited guests spun to the security officers that persuaded them to allow the couple through. That likely would play a role in any criminal charges.

"As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there's less that we can say," Mackin said. "I don't want to jeopardize what could be a criminal investigation. We're not leaving any option off the table at this point."

It was not immediately clear what charges would be pursued. The Salahis lawyer, Paul Gardner, posted a comment on their Facebook page saying, "My clients were cleared by the White House, to be there."

He said more information would be forthcoming.

Attempts to reach Gardner on Friday were not immediately successful.

Michaele Salahi's hairdresser at the Georgetown salon where she scheduled a last-minute appointment hours before the
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dinner said she asked to look at the invitation to the White House event, but never saw it.

"She was so excited. She told me that she got it in the mail and it was just an amazing feeling and they couldn't wait and in fact they called the White House, I believe, to make sure that she was going to be dressed appropriately," Peggy Ioakim told CBS' "The Early Show" on Friday. Salahi wore a red sari to the dinner.

Bravo Media, meanwhile, confirmed that on the day of the dinner Michaele Salahi was being filmed around Washington and while she prepared for the dinner by a film crew connected with the network's reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C.," because she is being considered for the upcoming TV program.

"Half Yard's cameras were not inside the White House. They filmed the couple preparing for the event," Johanna Fuentes, Bravo Media's vice president, communications, said in an e-mail late Thursday. She said the Salahis "informed Half Yard that they were invited (to the dinner), the producers had no reason to believe otherwise."

Fuentes referred further questions to the couple's lawyer and their publicist.

The White House refused comment on the Salahis and referred all calls to the Secret Service.

Ronald Kessler, author of a book on the Secret Service, said, "While the couple did pass through a magnetometer to detect weapons, they could have assassinated the president or vice president using other means - anthrax, for example." He added the Secret Service would not detect secreted biological weapons.

Kessler, a journalist, wrote "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect."

The author added that it's unlikely the Secret Service performed the usual background check to ensure that the crashers were not possible threats.

"The party crashers could have had outstanding arrest warrants for murder. They could have been involved with terrorists. They could have been agents of Iran or North Korea. The Secret Service would never have known," he said.

During President George W. Bush's administration, it was standard procedure to have someone from the White House social office at the gate for state dinners and other events with large groups of visitors, according to a former senior Bush aide who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to be seen as criticizing the Obama White House.

The social office is most knowledgeable about the guest list and could have been called in case of any uncertainty, this official said.

White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, asked by The Associated Press on Thursday whether personnel from her office were at the checkpoint said, "We were not."



The New York twin towers, burning
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany like all of Europe, except for Belarus, has no death penalty

Terrorism | 21.11.2009
Berlin wants no part in potential 9/11 execution

A legal team is going to New York to prevent the use of evidence provided by Germany in seeking a death penalty. Berlin wants to ensure that promises made by the US are kept if the suspects are found guilty.

A team of observers from the German government is going to New York to oversee the trial of five suspects accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

The federal trial of the suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants was announced on November 13 by the US Justice Department. The government also asserted that it intends to seek the death penalty if the accused are found guilty.

Germany, which does not have a death penalty, provided evidence for the trial on the condition that it could not be used to support a death sentence. Several members of the al Qaeda cell that planned and executed the attacks of September 11 were previously based in the northern German city of Hamburg.

"In this case we will observe very closely that the given assurances are kept," Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said.

However it was unclear exactly how evidence from Germany would be distinguished from evidence procured from elsewhere.

The defense lawyer for one of the accused, Ramzi Binalshibh, said that a conviction of his client would "scarcely be possible without evidence from Germany."


sjt/AP/dpa
Editor: Andreas Illmer
Lawyer: 9/11 defendants want platform for views
YAHOO
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
November 22, 2009

NEW YORK – The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."

The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the nation's deadliest terrorist attack will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy," Fenstermaker said.

"Their assessment is negative," he said.

Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.

Fenstermaker was first quoted in The New York Times in Sunday's editions.

Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthourse have warned that the trial would provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Sunday that while the men may attempt to use the trial to express their views, "we have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disrupton, as federal courts have done in the past."

Terror thugs to get justice near WTC
NYDAILYNEWS
By DAN MANGAN
Last Updated: 6:03 AM, November 14, 2009
Posted: 3:09 AM, November 14, 2009

Let's get it on!

Admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four al Qaeda co-conspirators are headed to Manhattan to face a civilian trial in federal court -- and a possible death sentence -- just blocks from hallowed Ground Zero.

Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday said the five terror thugs will be shipped from the American base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they had been facing a military commission for the evil plot that slaughtered nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in western Pennsylvania.

Holder's decision immediately was met with praise by supporters of civilian trials for terrorists. But it also drew howls from others who argue that military commissions are the right place to deal with fiends engaged in attacks on America -- and that trying them in a civilian court in lower Manhattan will put the city at great risk.

"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice," said Holder. "I am confident in the ability of our courts to provide these defendants a fair trial, just as they have for over 200 years. I also want to assure the American people that we will prosecute these cases vigorously, and we will pursue the maximum punishment available.

"I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators."

At the same time, Holder said that five other detainees at Guantanamo, among them a main suspect in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, will be tried before a military commission.

Speaking before Holder's announcement, President Obama said, "I'm absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheik Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice."

"The American people insist on it, and my administration insists on it."

It will be well over a month -- at minimum -- before Mohammed and the other four defendants are flown from Gitmo to New York. They will be housed in the ultra-high-security 10th-floor south wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center, next to the federal courthouse a half-mile from Ground Zero.

Under federal law, the Justice Department must give Congress 45 days notice and file a report before transporting Guantanamo detainees to the United States.

In the meantime, prosecutors will prepare evidence to present to a grand jury here.

"I support the Obama administration's decision to prosecute 9/11 terrorists here in New York," said Mayor Bloomberg.

"It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site, where so many New Yorkers were murdered. We have hosted terrorism trials before, including the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing."

"New York City stands ready to assist the federal court in the administration of justice in any way necessary."

Former Manhattan US Attorney David Kelley said Holder's decision is "great."

"The Southern District [of New York] has demonstrated that they've handled these cases before. They've had a successful track record," said Kelley, who prosecuted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case and multiple other terror cases in the district.

"They've been sitting in jail for eight years. Eight years has demonstrated that [the government doesn't] know how else to handle this in a way that will have the respect and confidence not only of the public here, but of the global community."

But Gov. Paterson told WPIX/Channel 11 in an interview that "I do not understand" why Mohammed and the other four evildoers are not being tried in Guantanamo Bay.

"It's an added security risk" to have their case tried in New York, Paterson said. "We are still in a vulnerable situation here in New York and I made that clear to the attorney general when he called six months ago."

US Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) called the decision "an unnecessary risk" that could result in the disclosure of classified information, citing the Manhattan federal court trial of the "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman as a case where "valuable information about US intelligence and methods" was revealed to al Qaeda.

And Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was murdered while piloting the plane that hijackers then used to crash into the Pentagon, said, "We have a president who doesn't know we're at war."

She said she was disgusted by "the prospect of these barbarians being turned into victims by their attorneys."

That's a possibility because Mohammed had been subjected to now-banned waterboarding. He was dealt the harsh treatment a staggering 183 times in 2003 when he was being interrogated about how he orchestrated 9/11 for Osama bin Laden.

Defense lawyers could cite that coercion of him and the other defendants to argue that the entire case should be tossed out on the grounds that the evidence is inadmissible under the rules of a civilian criminal court.

"Obviously, there are issues out there with Khalid Sheik Mohammed. We know the nature of the interrogation is going to create issues," said Gerald Zerkin, a federal public defender in Richmond, Va., who defended "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui.

Another possible monkey wrench in trying the five defendants is their desire to act as their own lawyers.

Mohammed and two other defendants -- Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali -- had been representing themselves in military proceedings in Guantanamo, albeit under the observation of teams of both military and civilian defense lawyers. The other two defendants -- Waleed bin Attash and Ramzi Binalshibh -- had been trying to get permission to fire their own legal teams.

It is not known if the five men now will try to represent themselves in Manhattan federal court, or accept lawyers appointed by the trial judge.

KHALID SHEIK MOHAMMED
Baluchistan province, Pakistan

Evil deeds:
* Mastermind of 9/11 attacks, proposed idea to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996
* Planned aborted “Operation Bojinka” with his nephew Ramzi Yousef to blow up 12 planes flying between US and Asia during one day
* Sent al Qaeda operative Richard Reid on failed mission to explode a trans-Atlantic jet with a shoe bomb
* Decapitated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan
* Provided funding for 1993 World Trade Center bombing

WALEED BIN ATTASH
Yemen

Evil deeds:
* Ran al Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two 9/11 hijackers were trained
* Believed to have been bin Laden’s bodyguard

ALI ABD AL-AZIZ ALI
Baluchistan province, Pakistan

Evil deeds:
* Helped nine 9/11 hijackers travel to US and sent them $120,000 for expenses and flight training
* Believed to have been Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s lieutenant in Pakistan

MUSTAFA AHMAD AL-HAWSAWI
Saudi Arabia

Evil deeds:
* Helped the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler’s checks and credit cards

RAMZI BINALSHIBH
Yemen

Evil deeds:
* Helped find flight schools for the hijackers, aided their entering US and assisted with financing the operation
* Believed to be a lead operative for foiled plot to crash aircraft into London’s Heathrow Airport

Official: Craig to step down as W.H. lawyer
Washington Times
Jennifer Loven ASSOCIATED PRESS
Originally published 07:08 a.m., November 13, 2009, updated 07:09 a.m., November 13, 2009

TOKYO (AP) -- The White House's top lawyer is announcing his resignation on Friday, senior administration officials said.

White House counsel Greg Craig has been the subject of questions about his future since late summer, dogged by talk that President Barack Obama's promise to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay military prison by January went awry under Craig's leadership.

Craig also oversaw the president's revamping of U.S. policy on terrorism interrogations and detentions, including a ban on torture, and was at the center of administration moves to release many documents relating to the treatment of terror suspects under the Bush administration -- and to oppose the release of photos of abuse of detainees overseas by U.S. personnel. All those decisions earned Obama considerable criticism, some from the right and some from the left.

Bob Bauer, who was general counsel on Obama's presidential campaign and a longtime adviser to Obama, has agreed to take Craig's place, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement, first reported by The Washington Post, has not yet been made.

As speculation about Craig has heightened, White House officials maintained that the likable lawyer retained Obama's confidence. However, they also noted privately that Craig had never intended to stay at the White House longer than a year. It had been expected he would then move to another prestigious job, such as an ambassadorship or judicial posting.

Craig's planned resignation became public just as Obama landed in Tokyo for a weeklong tour of east Asia.

Craig would be the highest-ranking departure so far in Obama's 10-month presidency. In the first sign of the coming shake-up, Craig's deputy, Cassandra Butts, was moved last week out of that job to be senior adviser at Millennium Challenge Corporation, an aid program for developing countries that was created under the Bush administration.

Craig is perhaps best known for his work in a previous White House, as former President Bill Clinton's chief defender during his 1998 Senate impeachment trial. Later, Craig became one of the earliest Clinton allies to sign on to Obama's presidential campaign, during the Democratic primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Craig has taken the blame for the White House's failure to predict and effectively manage the political dimension of closing Guantanamo, especially the extremely charged question of where to move the detainees now held in the Cuba-based prison.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers balked at the idea of transferring detainees into U.S. prisons and, under GOP pressure, Congress has banned the release of any detainee into the U.S.

Democrats, however, have turned back Republican efforts to bar transfer of Guantanamo detainees into the country to face trial.

The process of persuading other nations to take some Guantanamo detainees also has been painstakingly slow. The Obama administration also was taken aback at the amount of work required to put together formerly nonexistent evidence and intelligence files on each Guantanamo detainee.

As a result, the administration admitted some time ago that it will most likely not meet Obama's January deadline for closing the prison.

In recent weeks, however, the prison-closing process has begun to pick up some steam.

Last month, Obama signed a defense policy bill that brought back but revamped Bush-era military trials for terror suspects. The revised military commissions give new legal rights to accused terrorists.

Also, the administration is due to begin announcing by a self-imposed deadline of Monday which of the 220 remaining Guantanamo detainees are to be tried in federal courts and which by the overhauled military commission process.

Still to come is the administration's choice of which U.S. prison will house the handful of detainees considered too dangerous to release to another country or put on trial.




Hasan had intensified contact with cleric
FBI MONITORED E-MAIL EXCHANGES: Fort Hood suspect raised prospect of financial transfers
By Carrie Johnson, Spencer S. Hsu and Ellen Nakashima
Saturday, November 21, 2009

In the months before the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan intensified his communications with a radical Yemeni American cleric and began to discuss surreptitious financial transfers and other steps that could translate his thoughts into action, according to two sources briefed on a collection of secret e-mails between the two.

The e-mails were obtained by an FBI-led task force in San Diego between late last year and June but were not forwarded to the military, according to government and congressional sources. Some were sent to the FBI's Washington field office, triggering an assessment into whether they raised national security concerns, but those intercepted later were not, the sources said.

Hasan's contacts with extremist imam Anwar al-Aulaqi began as religious queries but took on a more specific and concrete tone before he moved to Texas, where he allegedly unleashed the Nov. 5 attack that killed 13 people and wounded nearly three dozen, said the sources who were briefed on the e-mails, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case is sensitive and unfolding. One of those sources said the two discussed in "cryptic and coded exchanges" the transfer of money overseas in ways that would not attract law enforcement attention.

"He [Hasan] clearly became more radicalized toward the end, and was having discussions related to the transfer of money and finances . . .," said the source, who spoke at length in part because he was concerned the public accounting of the events has been incomplete. "It became very clear toward the end of those e-mails he was interested in taking action."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said Friday that he would investigate the handling of the e-mails -- 18 or 19 in all -- and why military officials were not aware of them before the deadly attack. Levin told reporters after a briefing from Pentagon staff members that "there are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism, but there is significant evidence that it is."

Bits and pieces of Hasan's communications with Aulaqi have become public since the Fort Hood massacre, but the sources provided the most detailed description yet of the messages. The e-mails will help investigators determine whether Hasan's alleged actions were motivated by psychological deterioration or inspired by radical religious views he found online and through e-mail exchanges with Aulaqi.

The sources said the e-mail correspondence is particularly troubling because Aulaqi, who has been on the law enforcement radar for years, is considered by U.S. officials to be an al-Qaeda supporter who has inspired terrorism suspects in Britain, Canada and the United States. Lawmakers and counterterrorism experts have questioned why no one in the government interceded earlier given Aulaqi's history and Hasan's military position.

The disclosures came as investigators in the FBI and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division continue to interview witnesses and execute search warrants in and around the Army's largest post, in Killeen, Tex., and elsewhere.

This week Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates launched a department-wide review to determine whether military procedures hinder the identification of service members who pose a threat to their fellow troops.

Hasan faces 13 charges of premeditated murder. He is scheduled to have his first formal court hearing Saturday, in his hospital room in the intensive care unit at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he is recovering from gunshot wounds that have left him paralyzed.

Hasan's contacts with Aulaqi were not publicly disclosed until after the shootings, which the cleric subsequently praised, calling the Army psychiatrist a "hero" in a posting on his Web site.

In the months before the shootings, the two discussed how Hasan could make several transactions of less than $10,000, a threshold for reporting to U.S. authorities, according to the source who spoke extensively. Hasan did not explicitly vow to fund terrorist activities or evade tax and reporting laws for contributions, the source said.

"I believe they were interested in the money for operational-type aspects, and knowing that he had funds and wouldn't be around to use them, they were very eager to get those funds," he said.

To date, investigators have not unearthed evidence that Hasan sent money to charities with strong or suspected ties to Islamist militant groups, but they are continuing to probe his financial dealings as one aspect of a many-pronged case, other sources cautioned.

The FBI obtained the e-mails pursuant to court-ordered wiretaps, according to a former intelligence official. After receiving a wiretap order, Internet providers generally set up accounts that allow cloned copies of e-mails to go to the government agency in real time. Stored e-mails also may be provided with a search warrant.

In this case, a first batch of Hasan's e-mails was sent by agents in San Diego to the bureau's Washington field office, where a terrorism task force began to assess them in December. But months later, additional messages emerged, according to government and congressional sources. Those e-mails were reviewed only in San Diego, where authorities determined they did not pose a national security risk. The FBI said last week, without going into details about the process, that "all of the e-mails were known."

Hasan's commanding officer ordered him to "pre-trial confinement" on Friday, John Galligan, the suspect's attorney, said in an interview at his Belton, Tex., office. Galligan described pre-trial confinement as the strictest confinement in military court and said it usually means the suspect is locked in a military jail. Because Hasan is paralyzed and has substantial medical needs, Galligan said he will ask for his client to remain in intensive care under guarded supervision.

"He's in a hospital bed," Galligan said. "He's not going to get up and walk away."

In several of their applications for search warrants, authorities are approaching the matter as a regular criminal investigation rather than invoking special legal authority available in terrorism cases, the sources said.

What, if anything, authorities on the task force and in the Army should have done differently after Hasan emerged as a possible problem is the subject of multiple congressional and executive branch investigations, including one ordered by President Obama.

At a congressional hearing Thursday, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that Hasan had conducted a "homegrown terrorist attack" -- a conclusion investigators have yet to reach.

But several current and former investigators who handle high-profile cases said that not citing terrorism as a possible motivation for Hasan at this stage may be a function of the legal standards imposed by prosecutors preparing the search applications.

Investigators within the FBI and the Defense Department continue to operate on the theory that Hasan acted alone, though they have demonstrated interest in his relationships with other soldiers including Duane Reasoner Jr., a convert to Islam who dined with Hasan at a local restaurant in the months before the attack.

No Democrats attended except for Sen. Lieberman - and no witnesses from the Administration, either!
Terrorists Inside U.S. Increase Attacks, Panel Hears
YAHOO
Jeff Bliss
Nov. 19. 2009

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Terrorist incidents over the past 12 months show that Islamic extremists within the U.S. increasingly are launching attacks against targets such as military bases, anti-terrorist experts said today.

“The threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by violent Islamist ideology to plan and execute attacks where they live,” Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department, said.

Silber was among witnesses testifying to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has started an investigation into events leading up to the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed and 43 were injured.

While it may be “premature” to link the shootings at the Texas Army base to homegrown radical Islamic terrorism, the incident is similar to other recent incidents at military bases, Juan Zarate, President George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser, said.

“Unfortunately, this event follows in a line of attacks against military personnel,” said Zarate, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based policy group.

Zarate pointed to a murder outside a military recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, in June and killings at Camp Liberty in Iraq in May and Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in 2003.

Premeditated Murder

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged by military authorities with 13 counts of premeditated murder in connection with the Fort Hood incident.

The Homeland Security panel’s probe is the first congressional investigation into the shootings. Republicans have been pressing Democrats, who control Congress, for more probes into the incident.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who heads the panel, has said his goal is to find out how the federal government missed detecting Hasan as a threat.

He said the panel wants to talk to members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force who were collecting information on Hasan. The task force is headed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The panel also wants to interview staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where Hasan completed a residency in psychiatry before transferring to Fort Hood.

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his panel will investigate how the military handled concerns about Hasan.

New Wave

Zarate said the shootings raise “questions about whether we are facing a new wave of terrorism driven in part by self- radicalized actors.”

Some witnesses said they thought those investigating Hasan’s behavior before the shootings may have felt reluctant to act because they were overly concerned with protecting the suspect’s religious beliefs.

Retired General John Keane, the Army’s former vice chief of staff, said the military needs “clear, specific guidelines” on what constitutes jihadist behavior.

“It should not be an act of moral courage for a soldier to identify a fellow solider” as a potentially dangerous Islamic extremist, he said. “It should be an obligation.”

Keane was commanding officer at Fort Bragg in North Carolina during the investigation of racially motivated murders in the 1990s. He said the Fort Hood situation may be similar.

At Fort Bragg, “we were wrongfully tolerating extremists in our organization,” he said.

Pentagon Review

Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans a broad review of the military procedures and policies that were in place before the shootings, a spokesman said.

Gates wants to “assess if the department is doing everything it can to prevent” similar incidents, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The steps could include a review of base security and how “adverse personnel information is handled,” he said.

Frances Fragos Townsend, Bush’s former assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, said reports about Hasan’s communications and ideology indicate that investigators shouldn’t have felt restricted by his First Amendment rights.

Many of the inflammatory comments “had nothing to do with his religion or speech,” she said.

‘Political Correctness’

Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, asked if “political correctness” may have contributed to authorities not stopping Hasan.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that was operating here,” Keane said.

Zarate disagreed and said that any reluctance may have stemmed from the perception of Hasan being a doctor conducting research.

Intelligence agencies last year intercepted e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim religious leader in Yemen known for his anti-American views. Investigators say there was nothing suspicious in the communications, and they appeared to be related to a research project.

Silber said Hasan’s alleged murder spree came after U.S. authorities foiled a number of terror plots by cells and individuals, including four men placing what they believed were explosives outside a Riverdale, New York, synagogue and community center in April.

In September, authorities arrested Najibullah Zazi for allegedly planning to attack New York sites with explosives.

Most recently, the Internet has become a tool for spurring militants in the U.S. to act, Silber said.

Charismatic religious leaders such as al-Awlaki have been effective in urging on would-be terrorists, he said.

Also testifying today was Brian Jenkins, senior adviser at RAND Corp., a Santa Monica, California-based policy group.

The administration provided no witnesses for the hearing.
Alleged Fort Hood shooter trusted Al Qaeda linked imam: report
NYPOST
AP
Last Updated: 10:23 AM, November 16, 2009
Posted: 10:20 AM, November 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — A radical Muslim cleric with suspected links to Al Qaeda considered himself a confidant of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shootings, The Washington Post reported Monday.

But the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, insisted in an interview with a Yemeni journalist contacted by the Post that he did not pressure Hasan to harm Americans. Al-Awlaki is a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped.

Al-Awlaki, a native-born U.S. citizen, left the United States in 2002, eventually traveling to Yemen. He said Hasan first e-mailed him in December 2008. Eventually, al-Awlaki said, Hasan came to view him as a confidant.

"It was clear from his e-mails that Nidal trusted me," al-Awlaki told the journalist. "Nidal told me: 'I speak with you about issues that I never speak with anyone else.'"

He showed the journalist his correspondence with Hasan but would not provide it to the Post. He said Hasan questioned the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the Army psychiatrist cited Islamic law that demanded "that what America was doing should be confronted."

"So Nidal was providing evidence to Anwar, not vice versa," said the Yemeni reporter, Abdulelah Hider Shaea.

Hasan, 39, was charged last Thursday with the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed.

The imam told Shaea that the Fort Hood attack was acceptable under Islam. "America was the one who first brought the battle to Muslim countries," al-Awlaki said.

Al-Awlaki also denounced Muslims who condemned the attack. "They say American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan should be killed," the imam argued, "so how can they say the American soldier should not be killed at the moment they are going to Iraq and Afghanistan?"

Al-Awlaki is considered to have deep and close links with Al Qaeda, former U.S. intelligence officials have told The Associated Press. In 2001, al-Awlaki had contact with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, according to law enforcement officials.
Questions, Not Alarms, Met Exchanges With Cleric
NYTIMES
By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID JOHNSTON
November 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — Last December, the vast electronic net of American intelligence captured queries that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of the Army was sending by e-mail to a radical cleric in Yemen who has long been a target of American surveillance.

Trained in the connect-the-dots mantra since rival agencies failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks, analysts recognized that the contacts were significant. The dozen or so messages to the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, were largely questions about Islam, not expressions of militancy or hints of a plot, government officials familiar with the messages said. Mr. Awlaki sent a handful of answers to Major Hasan that were cautious and said nothing to indicate that the two men knew each other, the officials said.

Still, the messages were quickly passed to a Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington, where a Defense Department investigator pulled the personnel files of Major Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who was charged last week with killing 13 people and injuring dozens more in a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex.

Those files, however, did not reflect the concerns of some colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center about Major Hasan’s outspoken opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and his strong feeling that Muslims should not be sent to fight other Muslims.

The defense investigator also did not interview any of the psychiatrist’s superiors and co-workers. After studying the messages, which were sent between December and the early months of this year, the investigator wrote a report last spring concluding that the e-mail contacts were not a sign of a terrorist threat. The report was not shared with the Pentagon, or with anyone outside the task force.

Now, Congress is looking for someone to blame for the shootings at Fort Hood. The Defense Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies are reviewing whether they missed significant clues — or whether Walter Reed ignored signs of serious trouble — that might have averted the shootings. Already, the military and F.B.I. officials have begun an inevitable round of finger-pointing.

But a striking fact is that the system set up after Sept. 11, 2001, to make sure clues of a coming attack were not missed actually worked as intended — and still failed to stop the deadly episode. The question for investigators is whether the very fact that Major Hasan sent the e-mail messages to an imam with mysterious connections to the Sept. 11 hijackers and a Web site encouraging extremist violence should have set off greater alarms.

“The fact that they got these e-mails and acted on them shows that at least to a point, the system worked,” said Matthew M. Aid, an intelligence historian and author of “The Secret Sentry,” a new history of the National Security Agency. “Quite possibly someone dropped the ball down the line.”

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said any contact with Mr. Awlaki should have raised red flags. “There’s no doubt that Awlaki is a vessel for the message of Al Qaeda whose goal is radicalizing others,” he said. “Any contact should generate serious concern.”

Mr. Hoffman, too, said the intelligence network, in catching the messages and passing them on, worked far better than would have been likely before the 2001 attacks. “But 13 people are dead,” he added. “What are we going to do differently next time?”

When the Joint Terrorism Task Force began its inquiry, the Defense Department criminal investigator limited his review to paper records, not interviewing Major Hasan or his co-workers. The investigator also did not alert anyone at Walter Reed or elsewhere in the Army or Defense Department to the e-mail contacts with Mr. Awlaki.

Officials familiar with the work of the Washington task force said the Hasan assessment was one of hundreds involving government employees undertaken each year. Such inquiries can be hampered, they said, by privacy laws that prevent the sharing of personal information about someone unless it reflects evidence of wrongdoing or a potential threat.

Had the task force investigator spoken with Major Hasan’s psychiatric colleagues, he would have found a mixed picture. Some co-workers at Walter Reed and the Uniformed Services University said in interviews that they found his conduct troubling at times.

National Public Radio reported on Wednesday that from the spring of 2008 to the spring of 2009, when Major Hasan, then a captain, was on a fellowship at the Uniformed Services University, senior faculty members and administrators from the two institutions discussed on several occasions whether he was mentally fit to be an Army psychiatrist, but eventually sent him on to Fort Hood.

Other faculty members and students have expressed alarm about Power Point presentations Major Hasan delivered both as a senior resident at Walter Reed and during his fellowship. In one presentation in June 2007, first reported by The Washington Post, Major Hasan argued that the Army should allow Muslim soldiers to leave the military as conscientious objectors if they refused to kill other Muslims, and he warned of “adverse events” if it did not.

Other colleagues had a more benign view of Major Hasan. Nancy Meyer, a social worker who attended the 2007 presentation, described it as a scholarly explanation of why “Muslims should not be in a position to harm other Muslims,” saying she did not take it as “at all threatening.” Ms. Meyer added, however, that when she heard Major Hasan had been charged with the shootings, the lecture was the first thing that came to her mind.

Dr. Aaron Haney, who was a year ahead of Major Hasan in the residency program at Walter Reed, said there were some faculty members who did not like Major Hasan because they thought “he was not as much of a pro-active go-getter type, like the military really like.”

In completing his report six months ago, the terrorism task force investigator concluded that the e-mail messages were consistent with Major Hasan’s research efforts, did not suggest violence and did not justify further inquiry — a judgment that represented the task force’s collective view. The case was closed.

In the days since the shootings, Pentagon officials have faulted the F.B.I., asserting that because it supervises the task force, the agency should have informed the Defense Department about the e-mail messages.

Law enforcement officials have denied that they were at fault. They said the defense investigator could have shared his assessment of Major Hasan’s e-mail messages with the Defense Department.
Accused Ft. Hood gunman: Hard for US Muslims to fight in Islamic nations
NYPOST POST STAFF REPORT
Last Updated: 12:17 PM, November 10, 2009
Posted: 12:14 PM, November 10, 2009

The Fort Hood killer accused of gunning down 13 people reportedly warned a roomful of senior Army doctors nearly two years ago that to avoid "adverse events," the military should allow soldiers who practice Islam to be released instead of being forced to fighting in wars against other Muslims.

As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal Hasan stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members in June 2007 and addressed the issue of Muslims being conflicted about fighting in Islamic countries, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," Hasan said in the presentation, referring to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hasan even said the Army should "identify Muslim soldiers that may be having religious conflicts with the currents wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"It was really strange," one staff member who attended the presentation told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. "The senior doctors looked really upset... These medical presentations occurred each Wednesday afternoon, and other students had lectured on new medications and treatment of specific mental illnesses.''

Last Thursday, Hasan went on a shooting spree at the texas base, killing 13 people and injuring 29.

Investigators are looking into Hasan's religious beliefs and whether he harbored extremist views. The FBI knew for nearly a year that Hasan had repeatedly contacted al Qaeda -- but the agency admitted that it had dismissed the lead, the agency said yesterday.

At the time, the FBI said they chalked up his communication with radicals as "research" in his role as an Army shrink.

The title of Hasan's PowerPoint presentation was "The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the US Military" that consisted of 50 slides, The Washington Post reported on its Web site today.

In one slide, Hasan described the presentation's objectives as identifying "what the Koran inculcates in the minds of Muslims and the potential implications this may have for the US military," The Washington Post reported.

Under a slide titled "Comments," Hasan wrote: "If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the 'infidels'; ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary ie: suicide bombing, etc."

An Army spokesman said he was unaware of the presentation. A Walter Reed spokesman declined to comment.
FBI blew off killer e-mail to al Qaeda

By JOHN DOYLE in Fort Hood, Texas, and CHUCK BENNETT in NY
Last Updated: 5:40 AM, November 10, 2009
Posted: 3:01 AM, November 10, 2009

The FBI knew for nearly a year before his murderous Fort Hood rampage that psycho Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had repeatedly contacted al Qaeda -- but the blundering agency last night admitted it dismissed the lead.

The clueless G-men said that at the time, they simply chalked up the chilling e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam and other terror-tied Islamic figures to his "research" as an Army shrink.

Outraged congressional leaders immediately called for a probe into the debacle -- and the red-faced agency vowed to get to the bottom of things itself.

"I think the very fact that you've got a major in the US Army contacting [a radical imam], or attempting to contact him, would raise some red flags," Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) -- ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee -- told the Los Angeles Times.

The FBI said Hasan -- who faces a court-martial -- first turned up on its radar in December 2008.

That's when he sent 10 to 20 e-mails to several terror-related Islamic figures, including Anwar Aulaqi, a radical imam from Virginia who has been openly propagandizing for al Qaeda in Yemen and who had ties to several of the 9/11 hijackers, sources told the LA Times.

Those messages were intercepted by a Joint Terrorism Task Force during an unrelated investigation and later referred to FBI and Army investigators in Washington, officials said.

But no alarm bells went off because the communications were consistent with Hasan's research into how US combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan affect civilians, officials insisted. The e-mails never made explicit threats or discussed plots, they added.

Less than a year later, last Thursday, Hasan went on a shooting spree at the Army base in Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 and injuring 29.

Even if US authorities regarded Aulaqi's responses to Hasan as "relatively innocuous," Hoekstra told the LA Times, "I think the fact that you're getting responses should have set off red flags, regardless of the content."

Federal sources admitted that Hasan was so off their radar by that point that they hadn't even been aware of his gun purchases in Texas in August.

Investigators say they were still operating on the theory that Hasan, 39, acted alone.

Aulaqi yesterday posted a hateful screed on his jihadi propaganda Web site titled "Nidal Hassan [sic] Did the Right Thing" and praised him as a "hero."

Hasan attended the same Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Fall Church, Va., where Aulaqi was giving sermons in 2001, although it appears doubtful that the two men knew each other personally, sources said.

But the mass killer's family did attend Aulaqi's service in April 2001 on the same day as two 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Hani Hanjour. Aulaqi was believed to have been a procurement agent for Osama bin Laden at the time.

Also yesterday:

* It emerged that Hasan warned Army doctors 18 months ago that to avoid "adverse events," the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors. It's unclear whether anyone reported the briefing to counterintelligence or law-enforcement authorities, The Washington Post reported.

* It was learned that President Obama would have to sign the death warrant if Hasan is convicted and sentenced to execution. That's what President George W. Bush did last year in another case; the defendant remains on death row.
Lawyer asks investigators not to question Hasan
YAHOO
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

KILLEEN, Texas – A lawyer for the Army psychiatrist accused in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood said Monday he asked investigators not to question his client and expressed doubt that the suspect would be able to get a fair trial, given the widespread attention to the case.  Retired Col. John P. Galligan said he was contacted Monday by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's family and was headed to an Army hospital in San Antonio to meet Hasan.

"Until I meet with him, it's best to say we're just going to protect all of his rights," Galligan said.

Hasan, 39, is accused of opening fire on the Army post on Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding 29 before civilian police shot him in the torso. He was taken into custody and eventually moved to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he was in stable condition Monday and able to talk, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said.  Galligan said he didn't know if Hasan had been medically cleared to talk.

"There's a lot of facts that still need to be developed, and the time for that will come in due course," he said.

Authorities won't say when charges would be filed or if Hasan would face military justice.  Galligan questioned whether Hasan could get a fair trial in either criminal or military court, given President Barack Obama's planned visit to the base on Tuesday and public comments by the post commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

"You've got his commander in chief showing up tomorrow," Galligan said. "That same kind of publicity naturally creates an issue as to whether you find a fair and impartial forum, whether that's in the military or even if it were in a federal forum."

Authorities say Hasan fired off more than 100 rounds at a soldier processing center. Fifteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and eight were in intensive care.  Authorities continue to refer to Hasan as the only suspect in the rampage, but they have said they have not determined a motive. A spokesman for Army investigators did not immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment Monday.

A radical American imam living in Yemen who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers praised Hasan as a hero as a hero on his personal Web site Monday.  The posting on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the Fort Hood attack are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

"Nidal Hassan (sic) is a hero," Awlaki said. "He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

Two U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press the Web site was Awlaki's. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence collection. Awlaki did not immediately respond to an attempt to contact him through the Web site.  Hasan's family attended the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., where Awlaki was preaching in 2001. Hasan's mother's funeral was held at the mosque on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper, around the same time two 9/11 hijackers worshipped at the mosque and while Awlaki was preaching.

The Falls Church mosque is one of the largest on the East Coast, and thousands of worshippers attend prayers and services there every week.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director at Dar al Hijrah, said he did not know whether Hasan ever attended the mosque but confirmed that the Hasan family participated in services there. Abdul-Malik said the Hasans were not leaders at the mosque and their attendance was normal.

Fort Hood officials said the country's largest military installation was moving forward with the business of soldiering. The building where Hasan allegedly opened fire remains a crime scene, but a processing center is scheduled to reopen Thursday in a new, temporary location.

Command Sgt. Maj. Arthur L. Coleman Jr. said Monday that reopening the center is an important step in returning the Army post to normal. Cone said the post stepped up security, including suspending visits by the public, largely to reassure the population that the sprawling base is safe and won't "become a battlefield."

9/11 link in Ft. Hood slay spree
NYPOST
By JOHN DOYLE in Fort Hood, Texas, DAPHNE RETTER in Washington, DC, and JEREMY OLSHAN in NY
Last Updated: 8:58 AM, November 9, 2009
Posted: 3:51 AM, November 9, 2009

Army massacre fiend Nidal Malik Hasan attended a Virginia mosque at the same time as two of the 9/11 hijackers -- and the FBI is now investigating whether there is a connection between the men, an official confirmed yesterday.

Maj. Hasan -- the Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people and wounding 29 others at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday -- had held his mother's funeral at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., in May 2001.

The mosque's imam at the time was the ultraradical Anwar Aulaqi, thought to have ties to Osama bin Laden.  After 9/11, the controversial imam admitted to the FBI that he had met with Nawaf al-Hazmi, one of the hijackers who crashed a jet into the Pentagon.  Al-Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, had attended the imam's mosque in early April 2001 -- the same time Hasan's family worshipped there.

The Falls Church mosque is one of the largest on the East Coast, and thousands attend prayers and services there.  The mosque's outreach director, Imam Abdul-Malik, said it's a mistake for people to tie regular attendance at a mosque to extremism.  Many Muslims pray at the mosque several times a day, he said. "It's part of family life. It's like going out for ice cream after dinner," he added.

The possible association among Hasan, the hijackers and the radical imam only fueled fears that the Fort Hood murders were more than just the work of one disturbed person.  Hasan was scheduled to be deployed soon to Afghanistan, and that might have fueled his deadly rage, officials said.  But clearly, the massacre might have been an act of terrorism, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said yesterday.

"I want to say very quickly we don't know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," Lieberman told "Fox News."

Either way, the Army should have booted the deeply disturbed Hasan the moment he showed any signs of Islamic extremism, said Lieberman, who heads the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  Hasan's classmates at the Uniformed Services University, the military college where he recently took master's courses, said they repeatedly griped to higher-ups about his constant anti-American rants.

One said he warned superiors that the raging Hasan was a "ticking time bomb" after he made a presentation defending Islamic suicide bombers.  Another classmate said he complained to five officers and two civilian faculty members.

He wrote in a document sent to Pentagon officials that fear in the military of being seen as politically incorrect prevented an "intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology" in the ranks.

Lieberman said, "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the US Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone."

The senator vowed to launch an investigation into whether the Fort Hood bloodshed was terror-related and if the Army missed vital warning signs that could have prevented it.  A government official, who asked not to be identified, said an initial review of Hasan's computer use has found no evidence of links to terror groups or anyone who might have helped plan or push him toward the attack.

President Obama will visit the base tomorrow for a memorial service.  Hasan, who was shot four times, remains in critical condition, but was removed from a ventilator Saturday.
Lieberman: Senate to investigate Ft. Hood shooting
YAHOO
By ALLEN G. BREED, AP National Writer
November 8, 2009

FORT HOOD, Texas – A key U.S. senator said Sunday he would begin an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's call for an investigation came a day after classmates who participated in a 2007-2008 master's program at a military college said they complained to superiors about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and what they considered to be his anti-American views, which included his giving a presentation that justified suicide bombing and telling classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance," Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on "Fox News Sunday." "He should have been gone."

Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wants Congress to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack.

Army Chief of Staff George Casey also warned Sunday against reaching conclusions about the suspected shooter's motives until investigators have fully explored the attack. "I think the speculation (on Hasan's Islamic roots) could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Dr. Val Finnell told The Associated Press on Saturday that he and other classmates participating in a 2007-2008 master's program with Hasan at the Uniformed Services University complained about his comments, including that the war on terror was "a war against Islam."

Another classmate told the AP on Sunday that he complained to five officers and two civilian faculty members at the university. He wrote in a command climate survey sent to Pentagon officials that fear in the military of being seen as politically incorrect prevented an "intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology" in the ranks. The classmate requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, the FBI will probably look into whether Hasan attended the same Virginia mosque as two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001 at a time when a radical imam preached there, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center, confirmed Sunday Hasan's family participated in services at the mosque in Falls Church, Va. Abdul-Malik said the Hasans were not leaders at the mosque and their attendance was utterly normal, and he did not know whether Hasan himself ever attended services there.

In 2001, Anwar Aulaqi was an imam, or spiritual leader, at the mosque. Aulaqi told the FBI in 2001 that before he moved to Virginia in early 2001, he met with 9/11 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi several times in San Diego. Al-Hazmi was at the time living with Khalid al-Mihdhar, another hijacker. Al-Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, attended the Dar al Hijrah mosque in early April 2001.

The mosque is one of the largest on the East Coast, and thousands of worshippers attend prayers and services there every week. Abdul-Malik said it's a mistake for people to conflate regular attendance at a mosque with extremism.

Many Muslims pray at the mosque multiple times a day, he said. "It's part of family life. It's like going out for ice cream after dinner."

Faizul Khan, former imam of the Muslim Community Center in nearby Silver Spring, Md., where Hasan also worshipped, said he was not aware that Hasan had attended services at Dar al Hijrah but said it would not be unusual for Hasan to attend more than one mosque concurrently. Khan said he did not recall Hasan mentioning having been taught or preached to by Aulaqi.

Hasan's family has described the Army psychiatrist him as a "peaceful, loving and compassionate person." His brother, Eyad Hasan, of Sterling, Va., said in a statement Saturday that Hasan has "never committed an act of violence and was always known to be a good, law-abiding citizen."

Authorities continue to refer to Hasan, 39, as the only suspect in the shootings that killed 13 and wounded 29, but they won't say when charges would be filed and have said they have not determined a motive. Hasan, who was shot by civilian police to end the rampage, was in critical but stable condition at an Army hospital in San Antonio.

He was breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator on Saturday, but officials won't say whether Hasan can communicate. Sixteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and seven were in intensive care.

Hasan likely would face military justice rather than federal criminal charges if investigators determine the violence was the work of just one person.

There is no time limit on charging Hasan, but once he is in pre-trial confinement, the military has 120 days to start his trial, said John P. Galligan, an attorney who has represented Fort Hood soldiers but is not involved in the Hasan case. However, defense attorneys often file motions that stop the 120-day clock. Authorities have said Hasan is "in custody" in the hospital, but it's unclear if that is considered pre-trial confinement.

At the post's main church Sunday, Col. Frank Jackson, the garrison chaplain, asked mourners to pray for Hasan and his family "as they find themselves in a position that no person ever desires to be — to try and explain the unexplainable."

"Lord, all those around us search for motive, search for meaning, search for something, someone to blame. That is so frustrating," Jackson told a group of about 120 people gathered at the 1st Cavalry Memorial Chapel. "Today, we pause to hear from you. So Lord, as we pray together, we focus on things we know."

Hasan linked to terror thugs' 'adviser'

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 9:34 PM, November 8, 2009
Posted: 8:40 PM, November 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — The family of the alleged Fort Hood shooter held his mother's funeral at the same Virginia mosque that two Sept. 11 hijackers attended in 2001, at a time when a radical imam preached there.

Whether the Fort Hood shooter associated with the hijackers is something the FBI will probably look into, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The family of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 and wounded 29 at the Texas military base, held his mother's funeral at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper.

In 2001, Anwar Aulaqi was an imam, or spiritual leader, at the Washington-area mosque. Aulaqi told the FBI in 2001 that, before he moved to Virginia in early 2001, he met with 9/11 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi several times in San Diego. Al-Hazmi was at the time living with Khalid al-Mihdhar, another hijacker. Al-Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, attended the Dar al Hijrah mosque in Virginia in early April 2001.

In his FBI interview, Aulaqi denied ever meeting with al-Hazmi and Hanjour while in Virginia.

Aulaqi, a native-born U.S. citizen, left the United States in 2002, eventually traveling to Yemen. He was investigated by the FBI in 1999 and 2000 after it was learned that he may have been contacted by a possible procurement agent for Osama bin Laden. During this investigation, the FBI learned that Aulaqi knew people involved in raising money for Hamas, a Palestinian group on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director at Dar al Hijrah, said he did not know whether Hasan ever attended the mosque but confirmed that the Hasan family participated in services there. Abdul-Malik said the Hasans were not leaders at the mosque and their attendance was utterly normal.

The Falls Church mosque is one of the largest on the East Coast, and thousands of worshippers attend prayers and services there every week. Abdul-Malik said it's a mistake for people to conflate regular attendance at a mosque with extremism.

Many Muslims pray at the mosque multiple times a day, he said. "It's part of family life. It's like going out for ice cream after dinner."

Faizul Khan, former imam of the Muslim Community Center in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland, where Hasan also worshipped, said he was not aware that Hasan had attended services at Dar al Hijrah but said it would not be unusual for Hasan to attend more than one mosque concurrently.

Khan said he did not recall Hasan mentioning having been taught or preached to by Aulaqi.

The London Telegraph first reported the potential link between Hasan and the mosque.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Sunday it's important for the country not to get caught up in speculation about Hasan's Muslim faith, and he has instructed his commanders to be on the lookout for anti-Muslim reaction to the killings at the Texas post.

He says focusing on the Islamic roots of the suspected shooter could "heighten the backlash" against all Muslims in the military.

Casey says diversity in the military "gives us strength."

Casey declined to answer questions about the investigation into the shooting, but said evidence to this point shows that Hasan acted alone. He toured Fort Hood on Friday with Army Secretary John McHugh.

Casey appeared on ABC's "This Week" and CNN's "State of the Union."


Washington Times photo

Man charged in plot to attack U.S. shopping mall
YAHOO
October 21, 2009

BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. federal prosecutors have charged a Massachusetts man with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, alleging he and co-conspirators traveled to the Middle East seeking training, discussed attacking a shopping center, and distributed videos promoting holy war.

Tarek Mehanna, 27, from Sudbury, Massachusetts, had been previously indicted in January 2009 for making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other officials in connection with a terrorism investigation, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release on Wednesday.

"Mehanna and the co-conspirators had multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in a shopping mall, and that the conversations went so far as to discuss the logistics of a mall attack, including coordination, weapons needed and the possibility of attacking emergency responders," the Justice Department said.

Mehanna was arrested at his home on Wednesday morning.

Prosecutors allege that from 2001 to 2008 Mehanna conspired with a man named Ahmad Abousamra and others in an attempt to kill, kidnap or injure people in the United States.

The charges accuse Mehanna and co-conspirators of talking about their desire to participate in Islamist holy war and of their desire to die on the battlefield.

The case comes less than a month after an Afghan-born man, Najibullah Zazi, was accused of plotting a bomb attack against the United States.

Authorities say Zazi took a bomb-making course at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, had bomb-making notes on his laptop computer and acquired bomb-making materials similar to those used in the 2005 London attacks, buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide at beauty supply stores.

Zazi, an Afghan immigrant and permanent U.S. resident, was indicted late last month on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held in prison without bail.

Civilian Courts Are No Place to Try Terrorists
We tried the first World Trade Center bombers in civilian courts. In return we got 9/11 and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.

By MICHAEL B. MUKASEY
OCTOBER 19, 2009, 9:18 A.M. ET

The Obama administration has said it intends to try several of the prisoners now detained at Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts in this country. This would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other detainees allegedly involved. The Justice Department claims that our courts are well suited to the task.

Based on my experience trying such cases, and what I saw as attorney general, they aren't. That is not to say that civilian courts cannot ever handle terrorist prosecutions, but rather that their role in a war on terror—to use an unfashionably harsh phrase—should be, as the term "war" would suggest, a supporting and not a principal role.

The challenges of a terrorism trial are overwhelming. To maintain the security of the courthouse and the jail facilities where defendants are housed, deputy U.S. marshals must be recruited from other jurisdictions; jurors must be selected anonymously and escorted to and from the courthouse under armed guard; and judges who preside over such cases often need protection as well. All such measures burden an already overloaded justice system and interfere with the handling of other cases, both criminal and civil.

Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the places of both trial and confinement for such defendants would become attractive targets for others intent on creating mayhem, whether it be terrorists intent on inflicting casualties on the local population, or lawyers intent on filing waves of lawsuits over issues as diverse as whether those captured in combat must be charged with crimes or released, or the conditions of confinement for all prisoners, whether convicted or not.

Even after conviction, the issue is not whether a maximum-security prison can hold these defendants; of course it can. But their presence even inside the walls, as proselytizers if nothing else, is itself a danger. The recent arrest of U.S. citizen Michael Finton, a convert to Islam proselytized in prison and charged with planning to blow up a building in Springfield, Ill., is only the latest example of that problem.

Moreover, the rules for conducting criminal trials in federal courts have been fashioned to prosecute conventional crimes by conventional criminals. Defendants are granted access to information relating to their case that might be useful in meeting the charges and shaping a defense, without regard to the wider impact such information might have. That can provide a cornucopia of valuable information to terrorists, both those in custody and those at large.

Thus, in the multidefendant terrorism prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and others that I presided over in 1995 in federal district court in Manhattan, the government was required to disclose, as it is routinely in conspiracy cases, the identity of all known co-conspirators, regardless of whether they are charged as defendants. One of those co-conspirators, relatively obscure in 1995, was Osama bin Laden. It was later learned that soon after the government's disclosure the list of unindicted co-conspirators had made its way to bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, where he then resided. He was able to learn not only that the government was aware of him, but also who else the government was aware of.

It is not simply the disclosure of information under discovery rules that can be useful to terrorists. The testimony in a public trial, particularly under the probing of appropriately diligent defense counsel, can elicit evidence about means and methods of evidence collection that have nothing to do with the underlying issues in the case, but which can be used to press government witnesses to either disclose information they would prefer to keep confidential or make it appear that they are concealing facts. The alternative is to lengthen criminal trials beyond what is tolerable by vetting topics in closed sessions before they can be presented in open ones.

In June, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the transfer of Ahmed Ghailani to this country from Guantanamo. Mr. Ghailani was indicted in connection with the 1998 bombing of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was captured in 2004, after others had already been tried here for that bombing.

Mr. Ghailani was to be tried before a military commission for that and other war crimes committed afterward, but when the Obama administration elected to close Guantanamo, the existing indictment against Mr. Ghailani in New York apparently seemed to offer an attractive alternative. It may be as well that prosecuting Mr. Ghailani in an already pending case in New York was seen as an opportunity to illustrate how readily those at Guantanamo might be prosecuted in civilian courts. After all, as Mr. Holder said in his June announcement, four defendants were "successfully prosecuted" in that case.

It is certainly true that four defendants already were tried and sentenced in that case. But the proceedings were far from exemplary. The jury declined to impose the death penalty, which requires unanimity, when one juror disclosed at the end of the trial that he could not impose the death penalty—even though he had sworn previously that he could. Despite his disclosure, the juror was permitted to serve and render a verdict.

Mr. Holder failed to mention it, but there was also a fifth defendant in the case, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim. He never participated in the trial. Why? Because, before it began, in a foiled attempt to escape a maximum security prison, he sharpened a plastic comb into a weapon and drove it through the eye and into the brain of Louis Pepe, a 42-year-old Bureau of Prisons guard. Mr. Pepe was blinded in one eye and rendered nearly unable to speak.

Salim was prosecuted separately for that crime and found guilty of attempted murder. There are many words one might use to describe how these events unfolded; "successfully" is not among them.

The very length of Mr. Ghailani's detention prior to being brought here for prosecution presents difficult issues. The Speedy Trial Act requires that those charged be tried within a relatively short time after they are charged or captured, whichever comes last. Even if the pending charge against Mr. Ghailani is not dismissed for violation of that statute, he may well seek access to what the government knows of his activities after the embassy bombings, even if those activities are not charged in the pending indictment. Such disclosures could seriously compromise sources and methods of intelligence gathering.

Finally, the government (for undisclosed reasons) has chosen not to seek the death penalty against Mr. Ghailani, even though that penalty was sought, albeit unsuccessfully, against those who stood trial earlier. The embassy bombings killed more than 200 people.

Although the jury in the earlier case declined to sentence the defendants to death, that determination does not bind a future jury. However, when the government determines not to seek the death penalty against a defendant charged with complicity in the murder of hundreds, that potentially distorts every future capital case the government prosecutes. Put simply, once the government decides not to seek the death penalty against a defendant charged with mass murder, how can it justify seeking the death penalty against anyone charged with murder—however atrocious—on a smaller scale?

Even a successful prosecution of Mr. Ghailani, with none of the possible obstacles described earlier, would offer no example of how the cases against other Guantanamo detainees can be handled. The embassy bombing case was investigated for prosecution in a court, with all of the safeguards in handling evidence and securing witnesses that attend such a prosecution. By contrast, the charges against other detainees have not been so investigated.

It was anticipated that if those detainees were to be tried at all, it would be before a military commission where the touchstone for admissibility of evidence was simply relevance and apparent reliability. Thus, the circumstances of their capture on the battlefield could be described by affidavit if necessary, without bringing to court the particular soldier or unit that effected the capture, so long as the affidavit and surrounding circumstances appeared reliable. No such procedure would be permitted in an ordinary civilian court.

Moreover, it appears likely that certain charges could not be presented in a civilian court because the proof that would have to be offered could, if publicly disclosed, compromise sources and methods of intelligence gathering. The military commissions regimen established for use at Guantanamo was designed with such considerations in mind. It provided a way of handling classified information so as to make it available to a defendant's counsel while preserving confidentiality. The courtroom facility at Guantanamo was constructed, at a cost of millions of dollars, specifically to accommodate the handling of classified information and the heightened security needs of a trial of such defendants.

Nevertheless, critics of Guantanamo seem to believe that if we put our vaunted civilian justice system on display in these cases, then we will reap benefits in the coin of world opinion, and perhaps even in that part of the world that wishes us ill. Of course, we did just that after the first World Trade Center bombing, after the plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, and after the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

In return, we got the 9/11 attacks and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents. True, this won us a great deal of goodwill abroad—people around the globe lined up for blocks outside our embassies to sign the condolence books. That is the kind of goodwill we can do without.

Mr. Mukasey was attorney general of the United States from 2007 to 2009.


An AP source?

AP Sources: NYC Suspect Contacted Senior al-Qaida
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 5, 2009
Filed at 10:12 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terrorist attack in New York after receiving training in Pakistan was in contact with a senior al-Qaida operative, intelligence officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.  The CIA learned about Najibullah Zazi through one of its sources and alerted domestic agencies, including the FBI, intelligence officials said.

U.S. intelligence organizations first became aware of Zazi in late August, a senior administration official said. Interest in Zazi surfaced just weeks before prosecutors claim he was planning to strike on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  The intelligence and administration officials declined to offer more details on the operative and spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on the government's claim that the charges against him are part of a broader, international case and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community.  It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida and not an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI.

President Barack Obama began receiving briefings on the investigation in late August, updated at least daily and sometimes several times a day as intelligence officials were crafting their case against Zazi, senior administration officials said.  Zazi initially was characterized to Obama as a person of interest because of suspected involvement in terrorist activities, the officials said. Obama's primary interest in those briefings was to ensure an attack was prevented and all involved in the plot were identified, the officials said.

The CIA declined to comment Monday, spokesman George Little said.

Federal agents began watching Zazi in Denver in early September. He drove a rental car to New York on Sept. 9, but left the city to return to Denver on Sept. 12 after learning that investigators were looking for him, prosecutors said. FBI agents raided three apartments in Queens two days after Zazi left the New York area.  Zazi and his lawyer agreed to meet with investigators at FBI offices in Denver on Sept. 16. And after three days of meetings, Zazi was arrested and charged with lying to federal agents.

Speaking Monday in Colorado at a conference of police chiefs, Attorney General Eric Holder said the plot had the potential to kill scores of people.  Zazi, 24, is the only suspect publicly identified in the terror plot. More arrests are expected. Prosecutors have said three others in New York City worked with Zazi, although they do not currently pose a threat.  Calls to Zazi's lawyer were not returned Monday.

Zazi was initially arrested on charges that he lied to federal investigators. He remains held without bond and has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. The charges related to his statements to investigators later were dropped.  Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and a Queens, N.Y., imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, face charges of lying to investigators last month when first questioned about Zazi.

Prosecutors said Zazi received explosives training at an al-Qaida training camp. They have accused him of planning an attack in New York, perhaps on the city's subway system around the anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, using powerful homemade bombs of hydrogen peroxide and flour. Would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid attempted to use the same type of explosive in 2001 and the material was used by the terrorists in the London bombings in 2005 that killed 52 people.

Zazi was recruited and trained by al-Qaida to make the bombs from common supplies purchased at beauty supply stores, intelligence officials said, although they declined to say when that occurred. Zazi's contact with the senior al-Qaida operative occurred through an intermediary, one official said.

Zazi, who moved to the U.S. with his family as a teenager, has denied any involvement in a terror plot. He has said his travels to Pakistan, which began in 2006, were to visit family, including his wife, whom he married on that first trip.  The case against Zazi involves classified information as well as evidence the FBI collected in searches of Zazi's computer that discussed bomb making.

Intelligence Averts Another Attack:  Why do Democrats in Congress want to change key laws that have helped to discover terrorist plots?

By MICHAEL B. MUKASEY
October 1, 2009

One would think that the arrests last week of Najibullah Zazi, charged with plotting to bomb New York City subways—and of two others charged with planning to blow up buildings in Dallas, Texas, and Springfield, Ill.—would generate support for the intelligence-gathering tools that protect this country from Muslim fanatics. In Mr. Zazi's case, the government has already confirmed the value of these tools: It has filed a notice of its intent to use information gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was specifically written to help combat terrorists and spies.

Nevertheless, there is a rear-guard action in Congress to make it more difficult to gather, use and protect intelligence—the only weapon that can prevent an attack rather than simply punish one after the fact. The USA Patriot Act, enacted in the aftermath of 9/11, is a case in point.

This law has a series of provisions that will expire unless Congress renews them. Up for renewal this year is a provision that permits investigators to maintain surveillance of sophisticated terrorists who change cell phones frequently to evade detection. This kind of surveillance is known as "roving wiretaps." Also up for renewal are authorizations to seek court orders to examine business records in national security investigations, and to conduct national security investigations even when investigators cannot prove a particular target is connected to a particular terrorist organization or foreign power—known as "lone wolf" authority.

Roving wiretaps have been used for decades by law enforcement in routine narcotics cases. They reportedly were used to help thwart a plot earlier this year to blow up synagogues in Riverdale, N.Y. Business records, including bank and telephone records, can provide important leads early in a national security investigation, and they have been used to obtain evidence in numerous cases.

The value of lone wolf authority is best demonstrated by its absence in the summer of 2001. That's when FBI agents might have obtained a warrant to search the computer of Zacharias Moussaoui, often referred to as the "20th hijacker," before the 9/11 attacks—although there was no proof at the time of his arrest on an immigration violation that he was acting for a terrorist organization. But a later search of his computer revealed just that.

Rather than simply renew these vital provisions, which expire at the end of this year, some congressional Democrats want to impose requirements that would diminish their effectiveness, or add burdens to existing authorizations that would retard rather than advance our ability to gather intelligence.

One bill would require the government to prove that the business records it seeks by court order pertain to an agent of a foreign power before investigators have seen those records. The current standard requires only that the records in question do not involve a person in the United States, or that they do relate to an investigation undertaken to protect the country against international terrorism or spying.

The section of the Patriot Act that confers the authority on investigators to seek these records was amended in 2006 to add civil liberties protections when sensitive personal information about a person in the U.S. is gathered. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly with support that included then-Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The same proposed legislation would make it harder to obtain a real-time record of incoming and outgoing calls—known as a pen register—in national security cases. It does so by requiring that the government prove that the information sought in this record relates to a foreign power. Currently, the government can obtain a court order by certifying that the information sought either is foreign-intelligence information or relates to an investigation to protect against foreign terrorism or spying.

While the changes may sound benign, they turn the concept of an investigation on its head, requiring the government to submit proof at the outset of an investigation while facts are still being sought. In any event, a pen register shows only who called whom and nothing about the content of the call, and thus raises none of the privacy concerns that are at stake when a full-fledged wiretap is at issue. Moreover, the underlying information in a pen register is not private because telephone companies routinely have it.

Other proposals target national security letters, known as NSLs, which are administrative subpoenas like those issued routinely by the FBI and agencies as diverse as the Agriculture Department and the IRS to get information they need in order to enforce the statutes they administer. One Democratic bill would impose a four-year sunset on the FBI's authority to issue such letters where none exists now. Another, the "Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts Act of 2009," would bar their use entirely to get information about local or long-distance calls, financial transactions, or information from credit reports.

But this is precisely the kind of information that would be useful to an investigator trying to find out who a terrorist is calling or how much money he is receiving from overseas. The FBI already has the authority to obtain this kind of information in cases involving crimes against children. The Drug Enforcement Administration has it in drug cases. There is no sense in giving investigators in national security cases less authority than investigators in criminal cases, and in criticizing them for failing to connect the dots while denying them the authority to discover the dots.

Mr. Zazi's arrest is only the most recent case in which intelligence apparently has averted disaster. Cells have been broken up and individual defendants convicted in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Ohio.

But a disaster once averted is not permanently averted, as the writer Jonah Goldberg has noted. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing killed six people and injured hundreds, Ramzi Youssef, the mastermind, was caught, convicted and put in the maximum security prison at Florence, Colo. Nonetheless, the World Trade Center towers are gone along with thousands of people.

Those who indulge paranoid fantasies of government investigators snooping on the books they take out of the library, and who would roll back current authorities in the name of protecting civil liberties, should consider what legislation will be proposed and passed if the next Najibullah Zazi is not detected.

Mr. Mukasey was attorney general of the United States from 2007 to 2009.

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Betraying our dead
NYPOST
By RALPH PETERS
Last Updated: 8:32 AM, September 11, 2009
Posted: 1:13 AM, September 11, 2009

Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died.

We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot.

We've learned nothing.

Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of killing terrorists, we free them.

Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them.

Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and who counts among his mentors and friends those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Instead of insisting that freedom will not be infringed by terrorist threats, we censor works that might offend mass murderers. Radical Muslims around the world can indulge in viral lies about us, but we dare not even publish cartoons mocking them.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists. So we confiscate granny's shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid.

Instead of insisting that Islamist hatred and religious apartheid have no place in our country, we permit the Saudis to continue funding mosques and madrassahs where hating Jews and Christians is preached as essential to Islam.

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.

Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel.

Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

Instead of taking every effective measure to cull information from terrorists, the current administration threatens CIA agents with prosecution for keeping us safe.

Instead of proudly and promptly rebuilding on the site of the Twin Towers, we've committed ourselves to the hopeless, useless task of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Perhaps we should have built a mosque at Ground Zero -- the Saudis would've funded it.)

Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamist fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations -- as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons; sponsor terrorism; torture, imprison, rape and murder their own citizens -- and laugh at us.

Instead of insisting that Islam must become a religion of responsibility, our leaders in both parties continue to bleat that "Islam's a religion of peace," ignoring the curious absence of Baptist suicide bombers.

Instead of requiring new immigrants to integrate into our society and conform to its public values, we encourage and subsidize anti-American, woman-hating, freedom-denying bigotry in the name of toleration.

Instead of pursuing our enemies to the ends of the earth, we help them sue us.

We've dishonored our dead and whitewashed our enemies. A distinctly unholy alliance between fanatical Islamists abroad and a politically correct "elite" in the US has reduced 9/11 to the status of a non-event, a day for politicians to preen about how little they've done.

We've forgotten the shock and the patriotic fury Americans felt on that bright September morning eight years ago. We've forgotten our identification with fellow citizens leaping from doomed skyscrapers. We've forgotten the courage of airline passengers who would not surrender to terror.

We've forgotten the men and women who burned to death or suffocated in the Pentagon. We've forgotten our promises, our vows, our commitments.

We've forgotten what we owe our dead and what we owe our children. We've even forgotten who attacked us.

We have betrayed the memory of our dead. In doing so, we betrayed ourselves and our country. Our troops continue to fight -- when they're allowed to do so -- but our politicians have surrendered.

Are we willing to let the terrorists win?

F.B.I. Agents’ Role Is Transformed by Terror Fight
NYTIMES
By ERIC SCHMITT
August 19, 2009

NORWALK, Calif. — The report last month was chilling: a 55-gallon drum of radioactive material had gone missing during shipment from North Carolina to California. Even worse, the person who signed for the cargo was not an employee of the company that ordered the load.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation here ramped up, consulting health officials, questioning radiation specialists and tracking down the trucker who dropped off the material, which could be used in a radioactive-bomb attack. Three hours later, the shipper found the drum — still sitting on a loading dock 20 miles from its destination in the Los Angeles area — having confused it with a similar shipment sent to a different company on the same day.

For an F.B.I. team here that vets tips and threats about possible terrorist activity, it was yet another false alarm in a job largely defined by hoaxes and bogus leads that must still be run to ground.

“A lot of time we are chasing shadows,” said Lee Ann Bernardino, a 20-year F.B.I. special agent who handled the case, “but it’s better to do that than find out later you let something get by.”

Spending two days with Agent Bernardino’s 21-member threat squad, known as Counterterrorism 6, or CT-6, offered a rare window on the daily workings of an F.B.I. transformed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The bureau now ranks fighting terrorism as its No. 1 priority. It has doubled the number of agents assigned to counterterrorism duties to roughly 5,000 people, and has created new squads across the country that focus more on deterring and disrupting terrorism than on solving crimes.

But the manpower costs of this focus are steep, and the benefits not always clear. Of the 5,500 leads that the squad has pursued since it was formed five years ago, only 5 percent have been found credible enough to be sent to permanent F.B.I. squads for longer-term investigations, said Supervisory Special Agent Kristen von KleinSmid, head of the squad. Only a handful of those cases have resulted in criminal prosecutions or other law enforcement action, and none have foiled a specific terrorist plot, the authorities acknowledge.

As part of the larger debate about the transformation of the F.B.I., some counterterrorism specialists question the value of threat squads — which are also in Washington, New York and a few other cities.

“Just chasing leads burns through resources,” said Amy Zegart, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who writes extensively on intelligence matters. “You’re really going to get bang for the buck when you chase leads based on a deeper assessment of who threatens us, their capabilities and indicators of impending attack. Right now, there’s more chasing than assessing.”

The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, has acknowledged the toll of the shift of agents to counterterrorism and intelligence duties. It comes at the cost of resources to combat corporate and financial fraud, and the deadly drug war in Mexico. About 40 percent of the bureau’s agents are devoted to fighting terrorism.

The threat squad here is just one part of the F.B.I.’s sprawling Los Angeles field office. About 30 percent of the office’s 750 agents work on terrorism cases, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, terrorism financing and animal rights extremists.

Federal agents say a major lesson of the Sept. 11 attacks is that all credible reports of possible terrorist activity must be checked. And they say it is more efficient for one squad with specially trained investigators to assess these tips, allowing other agents to stay focused on longer-term terrorist inquiries.

The squad’s work here has yielded important results, officials say. In March 2008, Seyed Maghloubi, an Iranian-born American citizen, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for plotting to illegally export 100,000 Uzi submachine guns to Iran, via Dubai.

His arrest stemmed from a tip from a police informant whom Mr. Maghloubi contacted about buying the weapons. The threat squad picked up the tip and developed information that led to a federal sting operation against Mr. Maghloubi.

Responsible for overseeing seven counties and 19 million people in Southern California, the threat squad was created in May 2004 after threats to shopping malls on the West Side of Los Angeles diverted about 100 agents from other counterterrorism inquiries.

Working out of a drab office building here 15 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, the investigators sift through tips and threats called in by the public or passed on by a regional intelligence center. The agents check databases and conduct field interviews before deciding whether to act on a case immediately, farm it out to another F.B.I. squad or refer it to another law enforcement agency.

“Someone has to go out and knock on the doors,” said Frank Leal, a 29-year detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department assigned to the threat squad along with investigators from 10 other local, state and federal agencies. “You don’t want any one of those leads to go boom.”

The squad now gets about 80 leads a month, down from a peak of about 140 a month a few years ago, a decline Agent von KleinSmid attributed in part to greater screening of tips by other intelligence analysts.

Recent reported threats range from the mundane to the bizarre.

On Aug. 1, a man called in a bomb threat to a Marriott-chain hotel in Hollywood. The authorities found nothing in a sweep of the hotel. A few hours later, the same man called to ask if the hotel had by any chance lowered its rates recently, and if it would do so if a bomb threat came in.

Security guards have questioned people taking pictures of oil refineries in the Los Angeles area. Many turned out to be college students fulfilling assignment for class projects.

Another recent reported threat sounded like a Hollywood thriller. In June, a college student told her University of California, Riverside, professor that her father, a Pakistani microbiologist, was secretly testing botulism toxins on animals in their basement on the outskirts of Los Angeles. F.B.I. agents, backed by police and hazardous-material experts, moved in on the house only to find nothing. The student had been trying to impress her professor in a weird way, investigators said.

Nicholas M. Legaspi, the lead F.B.I. special agent on the bogus biolaboratory case, said he had no regrets about the effort devoted to the false alarm, which he said had served as an excellent training exercise.

Agent Legaspi said his initial frustration about working on the threat squad was tempered by overseas assignments in which he investigated the attacks in Mumbai, India; worked alongside American Special Forces in Afghanistan; and interrogated Qaeda detainees at the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“For the first several years, it was very disappointing always chasing ghosts,” said Agent Legaspi, a former officer in the Army and the California Highway Patrol. “But looking at what goes on overseas keeps me sharp. I realized the terrorists are deadly serious. It makes me hungry to do this job.”

FBI Agent: Suspect Said He Got Terror Training At Connecticut Shooting Range
The Hartford Courant
By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY
August 5, 2009

For state residents, the news seems unbelievable: An FBI agent testified in a Raleigh, N.C., courtroom Tuesday that a terrorism suspect told him he had attended a terror camp in Connecticut.

A terror camp?

It could be true. Two men convicted of carrying out the 1993 World Trade Center attack in New York and a man later convicted of killing a militant Jewish leader in New York are known to have trained at a remote shooting range in Naugatuck called the High Rock Shooting Range, The Courant reported in 2001.

Others tested explosives in the nearby woods in preparation for unsuccessful schemes to blow up New York landmarks.

On Tuesday in Raleigh, FBI Special Agent Michael Sutton testified at a bond hearing for Daniel Boyd and six other suspects accused of plotting terrorism abroad. Sutton said Boyd, 39, recruited followers to engage in violent jihad, train on firearms and gather the financial resources to travel overseas. No specific plot has been described.

At stake in the hearing is whether the men will remain in custody before trial.

Sutton also testified that Boyd told him he had attended a terror camp in Connecticut in the late 1980s and three more in Pakistan, where he learned about hand-to-hand combat and the use of military firearms. Authorities found an identification card suggesting Boyd's membership in Pakistani terror groups.

Sutton did not offer details about the location of the alleged terror camps, said Mandy Locke, a reporter with the Raleigh News & Observer who was in the courtroom. Boyd lived in Massachusetts before moving to North Carolina in the mid-1990s.

An FBI spokeswoman with the Charlotte office could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.

The feds have had their eyes on the High Rock range for years.

In July 1989, a constable came upon a group of "Arabic-looking" men unloading AK-47s and other assault-style weapons from their cars at the range. The license plates on the two cars and minivan were from New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The constable, who later became a Naugatuck police officer, called for backup and police checked the men's identification. There was no legal reason to stop them, the officer recalled in a 1993 interview with The Courant.

In 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the militant founder of the Jewish Defense League, was shot to death in a New York hotel, and detectives found a link to Connecticut. As they searched the New Jersey apartment of El Sayyid Nosair, a suspect in Kahane's killing, they found a federal firearms dealer's permit issued to a former Waterbury police officer who frequented the Naugatuck shooting range. The detectives visited the range, looked for shell casings, but didn't investigate it further.

No one from the High Rock Shooting Association, which runs the shooting range in the Naugatuck State Forest on weekends, could be reached for comment

In 1993, soon after the World Trade Center bombing, an FBI informant accompanied a Sudanese Muslin from New York named Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali to the range, where the two men tested homemade explosives.

Four days later, U.S. authorities issued a sweeping indictment, charging Siddig Ali, Nosair and others with conspiring to blow up the World Trade Center, the United Nations, the George Washington Bridge and other New York landmarks. They also had planned to crash a plane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Nosair was convicted of murder in 1994.

Courant staff writer Bill Leukhardt contributed to this story. A McClatchy Newspapers report also is included.

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

Homeland Chief Offers Shift in Tone
NYTIMES
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
July 30, 2009

Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano on Wednesday called for closer collaboration with foreign partners, more intensive cooperation with local law-enforcement officials, and greater involvement by citizens in watching for and responding to terrorist threats.

“For too long, we’ve treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than as an asset in our nation’s collective security,” Ms. Napolitano said during a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “This approach, unfortunately, has allowed confusion, anxiety and fear to linger.”

“The consequences of living in a state of fear rather than a state of preparedness are enormous,” she said.

Afterward, Ms. Napolitano planned to a visit to Ground Zero, her first visit there. It was the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that led to the creation of her department. Ms. Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, is the third homeland security secretary.

“The terror threat is even more decentralized, networked and adaptive than on 9/11,” she said. “The United States needed an approach that was “more layered, networked and resilient.”

In her speech, Ms. Napolitano seemed intent on a shift of tone, a recasting of the way Americans view the terror threat. Implicitly, she seemed to rebuke the approach taken by the Bush administration, which critics said too often seemed to exaggerate threats and sow a sense of fear.

Yet while Barack Obama had often criticized the Bush administration approach during the presidential campaign, Ms. Napolitano did not unveil any specific new initiatives on Wednesday.

She did note that her department was examining the color-coded terror warning system, a system that critics say has often seemed to be manipulated to heighten public fear, though she announced no results of that review.

Ms. Napolitano said she had traveled 30,000 miles just in the past few weeks — “from Islamabad to Seattle” — while brokering new international agreements to improve security arrangements that would be effective even before potential terrorists reached American shores.

She also emphasized the importance of the facilities, called intelligence fusion centers, that have been set up nationwide to improve and streamline communications between the local officials most likely to see the first signs of suspicious activity — like a flight school student showing interest in learning to take off but not to land a plane — and state and federal officials.

As a governor, Ms. Napolitano helped set up one of the early centers, where she said one might find an F.B.I. agent, a state highway patrol officer, immigration and drug enforcement agents, and perhaps even a tribal police officer. “They don’t merely share space,” she said. “They share data bases and techniques.”

She also emphasized her department’s efforts to strengthen ties with Arab-American, Muslim-American, and South Asian communities across the country — to ease relations and share information — something she said paralleled Mr. Obama’s effort to reach out to other nations.

During a question period after her speech, Ms. Napolitano carefully sidestepped some of the most sensitive issues, like her position on domestic electronic surveillance.

She encouraged voluntary participation in local emergency preparedness programs, and underscored the importance of educating ordinary Americans about how to be more aware of, or respond to, possible terror risks. But the secretary acknowledged that there currently is not any educational program in place.

When one questioner suggested that much of the planning for terror attacks happened in mosques, Ms. Napolitano urged caution, addressing the sensitive balance between seeking better input from, for example, Muslim-American communities and infringing on their rights.

“We have to be very, very careful about interfering with the free exercise of religion, or profiling in that sense,” she said.

Op-Ed Contributor
Warrantless Criticism
By MICHAEL HAYDEN
July 27, 2009

Washington

THE recent report of inspectors general on the President’s Surveillance Program operated by the National Security Agency has led some to make hasty and deeply flawed judgments about the value and legality of what was a critical part of protecting America from further attack after Sept. 11.

The program was crucial in addressing one of the most stinging criticisms of the 9/11 commission — the need to reduce the gap between foreign intelligence and domestic security. This was an especially difficult task, which helps explain both the program’s importance and its sensitivity. The program was lawful, effective and necessary.

The reflexive judgments to the contrary seem hasty at best. Although the inspectors general report notes that the compartmented nature of the program hurt its utility (it should be noted that restricting access to especially sensitive data is hardly a unique phenomenon in an intelligence community that forever has to balance using information and protecting it), it also notes that users of the information rated the program “of value,” “useful” and a “key resource,” albeit one that was most often used in combination with other intelligence sources.

Intelligence professionals call that “connecting the dots,” something for which we were roundly criticized after Sept. 11 as not sufficiently doing. The report also suggested that there were counterterrorism successes associated with the program but that these could not be discussed in an unclassified venue. Although little commented on, the report also mentions that “even those read into the program would have been unaware of the full extent” of reporting.

Let’s be clear: when the National Security Agency reported intercepted communications from this program, the reports were often disseminated in the normal intelligence production stream. An analyst would have no way of knowing the source of the information.

Some critics claim that Congress was not aware of the full extent of the program, but the ultimate judgment on the effectiveness of much of the program may actually have been the actions of Congress. In the 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Congress judged it appropriate not only to provide additional legal underpinnings for much of what the agency had been doing but also to recognize the value of its activities by providing additional critically needed capabilities. In my briefings to Congressional overseers from 2001 to 2005, I continually made the point that we simply could not achieve the program’s operational effect under FISA procedures as they then existed and it is clear that Congress ultimately agreed.

There has been much controversy about the lawfulness of the program. Here I must point out that agency lawyers — career attorneys with deep expertise in the law, privacy and intelligence — assisted their professional Justice Department counterparts in their review of the program but remained comfortable throughout with the lawfulness of all aspects of the surveillance effort.

IN any event, the aspect of the program that was so contentious in March 2004, when some Justice Department officials objected, resumed in only slightly modified form within six months under a new legal regime that all the players in March’s crisis supported. And it should be pointed out that the elements of the program made public in news reports in December 2005 had been consistently deemed lawful by the Justice Department.

Some have been tempted to read ominous undertones into the report’s careful prose: a passing reference without further definition to the program’s “effect on privacy interests of U.S. persons,” the parting words that information collected under the surveillance program and FISA "should be carefully monitored,” and a reminder that there were other highly classified parts of the president’s program out there still publicly unacknowledged. Such phrases have already led to incorrect assumptions that the report concluded that the wiretaps violated the privacy of millions of American citizens.

Let me stress that Congressional overseers were told of all activities conducted by the agency under this authorization. We made clear that this program was not a minor effort but neither was it the “Big Brother” project that some have alleged. In fact, at every briefing we reported daily and cumulative activities for the program.

There is also one very large finding in the report that hasn’t received the attention it deserves: “No evidence of intentional misuse” of the program was discovered.

That is, the agency work force heeded, to the very best of its ability, the direction I gave them when the program was begun: do what the president has authorized us to do and not one photon or one electron more.

This debate on law and policy will no doubt continue, but learning will only begin when we turn down the volume, moderate our language and recognize that there is more information that will appropriately become available in time to allow both us and history to inform our judgments.

Michael Hayden was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 to 2009 and the director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005.

"Aspirational" terrorist to subway, L.I.R.R. caught...
Long Island Man Charged in Attack on U.S. Base in Afghanistan
NYTIMES
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and SOUAD MEKHENNET
July 22, 2009

A 26-year-old American-born Long Island man who traveled to Pakistan and trained in a Qaeda camp there last year has been charged with taking part in a rocket attack against a United States base in Afghanistan, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday.

The man, Bryant Neal Vinas, who was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, last November, was also charged with assisting Al Qaeda by providing “expert advice and assistance” that was “derived from specialized knowledge of the New York transit system and the Long Island Rail Road, communications equipment and personnel,” according to the papers.

The court papers, a criminal information charging Mr. Vinas with conspiracy and carrying out the attempted missile attack, providing material support to Al Qaeda and receiving military support from the group, did not mention a specific New York City plot involving the Long Island Rail Road. The papers, filed by prosecutors in the office of the Brooklyn United States attorney, Benton J. Campbell, also say that he attempted the attack and received “military-type training” from and on behalf of Al Qaeda between March and August 2008.

But around the time of his arrest in Pakistan in November, the federal authorities in New York issued warnings about a possible attack on mass transit. One official said that the information about the possible attack, which the authorities described at the time as “aspirational,” came from a Long Island man who had been arrested in Pakistan.

The criminal information charges that Mr. Vinas, along with other people who were not named, “fired rockets at a United States military base in Afghanistan” in September 2008.

The name of Mr. Vinas’s lawyer could not be immediately determined. Mr. Vinas, who converted to Islam at a mosque on Long Island, where he worked briefly as a truck driver and in a car wash, has been cooperating with European and United States counterterrorism officials since some time after his arrest, according to European and American officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said he was a key witness in two terrorism prosecutions in Europe.

The cases there, in Belgium and Italy, center on two groups of French and Belgian nationals, several of whom trained in the camps, as well as on a Moroccan-born woman, Malika El Aroud, who has been accused of using the Internet to recruit the young Muslim men to train with Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Mr. Vinas, according to European officials, is expected to be a key witness in those attacks because he spent time in the training camps with the men, who officials have said were recruited through Ms. El Aroud’s Web site.

Ms. El Aroud, a Belgian citizen, has become one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe, writing in French under the name Oum Obeyda. She began her rise to prominence as the widow of a suicide bomber. Her husband killed the anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the behest of Osama bin Laden

Op-Ed Contributor
Defend America, One Laptop at a Time
By JACK GOLDSMITH
Cambridge, Mass.
July 2, 2009

OUR economy, energy supply, means of transportation and military defenses are dependent on vast, interconnected computer and telecommunications networks. These networks are poorly defended and vulnerable to theft, disruption or destruction by foreign states, criminal organizations, individual hackers and, potentially, terrorists. In the last few months it has been reported that Chinese network operations have found their way into American electricity grids, and computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project.

Acknowledging such threats, President Obama recently declared that digital infrastructure is a “strategic national asset,” the protection of which is a national security priority.

One of many hurdles to meeting this goal is that the private sector owns and controls most of the networks the government must protect. In addition to banks, energy suppliers and telecommunication companies, military and intelligence agencies use these private networks. This is a dangerous state of affairs, because the firms that build and run computer and communications networks focus on increasing profits, not protecting national security. They invest in levels of safety that satisfy their own purposes, and tend not to worry when they contribute to insecure networks that jeopardize national security.

This is a classic market failure that only government leadership can correct. The tricky task is for the government to fix the problem in ways that do not stifle innovation or unduly hamper civil liberties.

Our digital security problems start with ordinary computer users who do not take security seriously. Their computers can be infiltrated and used as vehicles for attacks on military or corporate systems. They are also often the first place that adversaries go to steal credentials or identify targets as a prelude to larger attacks.

President Obama has recognized the need to educate the public about computer security. The government should jump-start this education by mandating minimum computer security standards and by requiring Internet service providers to deny or delay Internet access to computers that fall below these standards, or that are sending spam or suspicious multiple computer probes into the network.

The government should also use legal liability or tax breaks to motivate manufacturers — especially makers of operating systems — to improve vulnerability-filled software that infects the entire network. It should mandate disclosure of data theft and other digital attacks — to trusted private parties, if not to the public or the government — so that firms can share information about common weapons and best defenses, and so the public can better assess which firms’ computer systems are secure. Increased information production and sharing will also help create insurance markets that can elevate best security practices.

But the private sector cannot protect these networks by itself any more than it can protect the land, air or water channels through which foreign adversaries or criminal organizations might attack us. The government must be prepared to monitor and, if necessary, intervene to secure channels of cyberattack as well.

The Obama administration recently announced that it would set up a Pentagon cybercommand to defend military networks. Some in the administration want to use Cybercom to help the Department of Homeland Security protect the domestic components of private networks that are under attack or being used for attacks. Along similar lines, a Senate bill introduced in April would give the executive branch broad emergency authority to limit or halt private Internet traffic related to “critical infrastructure information systems.”

President Obama has tried to soothe civil liberties groups’ understandable worries about these proposals. In the speech that outlined the national security implications of our weak digital defenses, the president said the government would not monitor private sector networks or Internet traffic, and pledged to “preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties we cherish as Americans.”

But the president is less than candid about the tradeoffs the nation faces. The government must be given wider latitude than in the past to monitor private networks and respond to the most serious computer threats.

These new powers should be strictly defined and regularly vetted to ensure legal compliance and effectiveness. Last year’s amendments to the nation’s secret wiretapping regime are a useful model. They expanded the president’s secret wiretapping powers, but also required quasi-independent inspectors general in the Department of Justice and the intelligence community to review effectiveness and legal compliance and report to Congress regularly.

Many will balk at this proposal because of the excesses and mistakes associated with the secret wiretapping regime in the Bush administration. These legitimate concerns can be addressed with improved systems of review.

But they should not prevent us from empowering the government to meet the cyber threats that jeopardize our national defense and economic security. If they do, then privacy could suffer much more when the government reacts to a catastrophic computer attack that it failed to prevent.

Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School who was an assistant attorney general from 2003 to 2004, is writing a book on cyberwar.

Op-Ed Contributor: A Threat in Every Port
NYTIMES
By LAWRENCE M. WEIN, Stanford, Calif.
June 15, 2009

WHILE President Obama’s future vision of “a world with no nuclear weapons” is certainly laudable, for the present America still needs to do everything it can to prevent a terrorist from detonating such a bomb on our soil.

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, part of the Department of Homeland Security, is in charge of developing a worldwide nuclear-detection system that, primarily, would use technology to monitor vehicles and shipping containers along the various transportation networks by which nuclear weapons could be smuggled into America. Yet the Government Accountability Office found last year that the detection office “lacks an overarching strategic plan,” despite the $2.8 billion a year spent on the initiative.

How should the detection office proceed? The best way to view the problem strategically is through game theory. In this case, the government plays first and uses its budget to place detection resources — technology, security experts and the like — at the various “nodes” along the transportation network, like seaports, airports and border stations. The terrorists, in turn, can be expected to choose the path that gives them the best chance to carry out an attack.

As the accompanying chart illustrates, there are a dizzying number of paths that terrorists could use to transport a foreign-built weapon to an American target city — 132 variations, in fact, taking into consideration all four likely modes of transport: commercial airplane, cargo airplane, container ship and cruise ship.

So, how do we decide which route the terrorists are most likely to choose and which path we the are most vulnerable to? Game theory implies that we should maintain an equal chance of detecting fissile material along each of the 132 paths because if we harden one path too much, the terrorists will simply choose an easier one. On top of it all, the agency needs to consider cost-effectiveness: if certain sets of nodes along the transportation network are much more cost-effective to reinforce than others, then the best defense may not come from allocating resources equitably across the system.

First, the terrorists’ obtaining nuclear material and transferring it to a foreign airport or seaport are the two steps that are on all 132 paths, and hence represent excellent choke points. The Pentagon and Energy Department agencies that try to detect fissile material at foreign ports are actually quite well financed and efficient, but given the size of the globe, the number of nations producing nuclear material and the political barriers inherent in working in another nation’s territory, we can hardly assume these efforts are a solid defense of our homeland.

Next we must look at the 12 paths that terrorists have to get nuclear material from a foreign nation to an American port. Whether by sea or air, the trip could either be direct to the United States or routed through a port in Canada or in Central or South America.

On the direct-to-America route, game theory tells us to equalize the likelihood of detection for the four methods of transportation. Yet the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office has inexplicably concentrated its efforts on seaborne commerce and commercial flights: every United States-bound shipping container and piece of baggage on international flights is now screened by professionals (cruise lines do their own checking). The agency has dragged its feet on aviation cargo, with a goal of 100 percent inspections by 2014. As it looks to reshape its strategy, speeding up the monitoring of cargo planes would seem an obvious place to start.

Once the terrorists have a weapon in our hemisphere, they have several possible paths into the United States other than bringing it to a secure seaport or airport. One would involve making a covert trip in either a small boat or plane to a discreet coastal dock or landing strip. Or, if the weapon is in either Canada or Mexico, the terrorists could cross into American soil at an official land port of entry like the Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit. Or they could sneak into the country at any unguarded spot along our long northern and southern land borders.

Strategically, we should aim to have identical detection probabilities for each route. But this does not mean pouring equal amounts of money, manpower and technology into each. For example, although the long northern border is more porous (and more costly to harden) than the southern border, it would be far easier to improve security at Canada’s seaports than at all those littered along the coasts of Central and South America.

Thus we should put far more effort into increasing security along the Mexican border than along the northern border, but we should work closely with Canada to harden its seaports and airports. Canada now screens all shipping containers, but we must push it — using its obligations under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Program of 2005 — to move quickly toward 100 percent screening of cargo at air terminals.

As for our preventive strategy along the southern border, we need to consider what we now do well and what we are struggling at, particularly the effectiveness of the Coast Guard along the coasts and of Customs and Border Protection agents along the land borders. We now screen for radiation all cargo containers and privately owned vehicles arriving at official ports of entry, but security experts have for some time put the likelihood of detecting anyone crossing at unguarded spots along the United States-Mexico border in the 20 percent to 30 percent range (although carrying a bomb or even tens of pounds of fissile material may make evasion more difficult).

The seaborne route is even more worrisome. The Coast Guard is undertaking a three-year pilot project aimed at securing maritime routes, but faces daunting challenges in both identifying suspect vessels and detecting fissile material amid the background radiation present at sea. This pathway will perhaps be the weakest link in our border defense for the next several years, and should be one of the highest priorities of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.

Last, assuming the terrorists aren’t planning to detonate the device at the point of entry, they must move it to the target city. They could do this in several ways: with a truck, a small airplane or, for coastal cities, a small boat. As we have no idea which is most likely, our goal should be to ensure an equal chance of detection no matter which form of transportation is used.

The detection office has a pilot project called the Securing the Cities Initiative, which is testing techniques of detecting fissile material, at land or sea, within 45 miles of New York City. Given the many crowded roads and waterways leading into the city, this is no easy task. It requires creating a detection architecture that cannot be easily bypassed by a vehicle; sensors that can operate amid all manner of background confusion and false signals; and a communications network that can track vehicles amid swarms of cars after the alarm is given.

What about attack by a small plane? Given the impracticality of shooting down a tiny aircraft before it could detonate a bomb from the air, the best approach is to begin screening all domestic departures of small airplanes. This effort should be folded into the Securing the Cities Initiative.

The one thing each of these strategies has in common is the use of technology to detect fissile material. But what sort of nuclear fuel are the terrorists likely to use? While existing equipment detects plutonium much more easily than highly enriched uranium, most experts believe that terrorists are more likely to have uranium weapons, as they are far easier to build. Development aimed at detecting highly enriched uranium needs to be a much higher priority.

The criticism of the accountability office aside, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office has done a good job since its inception in 2005 at identifying the weak links in our global detection network. But its bigger task is to turn that analysis into action, initially by stepping up the screening of air cargo, better monitoring domestic flights by small planes, and improving the ability to detect highly enriched uranium and fissile material at sea.

Lawrence M. Wein is a professor of management science at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

3 June 2009 - I-BBC
Los Alamos
The Los Alamos facility in New Mexico was one of those detailed

US in nuclear disclosure blunder
A document providing confidential details of US civilian nuclear sites was accidentally posted on the internet, the government has admitted.

The 266-page document included the precise location of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons, the Obama administration said.

The Government Printing Office website took down the posting on Tuesday after experts expressed concern.

US officials insisted the information detailed was not a security threat.

The document, which lists itself as "sensitive but unclassified", contains maps and information on hundreds of US civilian nuclear sites.

No military installations are included but the document does cover the nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia.

Enriched uranium

An internet site of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington had highlighted the document's existence on Sunday, saying it was "a one-stop shop for information on US nuclear programs".

A spokesman for the printing office told the New York Times the document had been gathered "under normal operating procedures" and was removed on Tuesday pending a review.

US analysts said although much of the information was already available to the public, the disclosure, particularly of the location of the fuel stockpiles, was embarrassing for the government.

The Times said the document was collated as part of a US drive to make its civilian nuclear programme more transparent in the hope that other nations, particularly Iran, would follow suit.

It said the most serious disclosure was on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, known as the Fort Knox of highly enriched uranium, the leading fuel for nuclear weapons.

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, confirmed the material should not have been released.

But he said: "The departments of energy, defence and commerce and the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised."




Link to more on"Jihad Jane"
The two women above are trainees in radical Islam - blonds have more fun?

U.S. Woman Held in Plot Is Released, Family Says
NYTIMES
By KIRK JOHNSON and LIZ ROBBINS
March 13, 2010

LEADVILLE, Colo. — An American woman whose family feared that she may have become a radicalized Muslim was detained in Ireland last week in connection with a plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist.

But her relatives said Saturday night that they had learned that the woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, had been released.

“She’s definitely been released,” said George Mott, 51, Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s stepfather. But he said that the family was still concerned because they had not heard from her and did not know whether she had regained custody of her 6-year-old son, Christian.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s mother, Christine Mott, 59, said in a tear-filled interview at her home here that she had learned Thursday that her daughter was being held by Irish officials and that Christian was in state custody.

“I am terrified for my daughter,” Ms. Mott said. “And that baby is my heart.”

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez had announced her conversion to Islam around last Easter, her mother said, and after that had become increasingly estranged from the family.

In October, she moved to Ireland with her son, who was then 5, Ms. Mott said. The Wall Street Journal reported the arrest of Ms. Paulin-Ramirez on Friday. The newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said that she had been arrested in connection with a plot to kill Lars Vilks, whose 2007 cartoon depicted the head of the Prophet Muhammad on a dog’s body.

The Associated Press quoted an unnamed American official on Saturday as saying that the arrest had been in connection with a plot against Mr. Vilks.

Many details of the case remained unclear. The police in Ireland arrested seven people on Tuesday who were suspected of having been involved in the plot against the cartoonist. The Irish police issued a statement late Friday saying that three of the seven had been released on bail. Prosecutors were deliberating whether to file charges.

Under Irish law, none of the names of those arrested have been released.

Last week, a federal indictment in Pennsylvania was unsealed, revealing that Colleen R. LaRose, 46, from suburban Philadelphia, had been arrested there on terror charges in October.  Prosecutors accused Ms. LaRose, who called herself JihadJane, of linking up, through the Internet, with militants overseas and plotting to carry out a murder. A law enforcement official said that her case was connected to a plot to kill Mr. Vilks.

As for Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, Mr. and Ms. Mott said they knew little about any associations she had made since her conversion to Islam.

Ms. Mott said that her daughter had been in contact with a man named “Ali” via the Internet, and that in the months before she had left for Europe, she had spent more and more time on the computer, even neglecting her son.  She described her daughter as a lonely and insecure woman, isolated from others since childhood by a hearing problem, but also intelligent and fascinated by other cultures, especially Mexico’s.

“She never really liked herself,” Ms. Mott said, sitting on the couch of her modest home in Leadville, a hard-luck old mining town perched high up in the Colorado Rockies, two hours west of Denver. “She wanted somebody to love her.”

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, fluent in Spanish, was married at least three times, her mother said. Two of the men, Ms. Mott said, including Christian’s father — Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s second husband — were Mexican citizens. Christian’s father was deported, Ms. Mott said, and has not been in contact with the family for years.  Ms. Mott first filed a missing-person report on her daughter and grandson with the Leadville Police Department on Sept. 14. The police investigated, but dropped the case after Ms. Mott told them on Oct. 6 that she had been in contact with Ms. Paulin-Ramirez and Christian, who were in Ireland.

In late September, officials located Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s car, a 2005 Pontiac Bonneville that she had recently purchased, in the economy lot at Denver International Airport.  Islam was a point of tension in the Mott household even before Ms. Paulin-Ramirez’s conversion, her stepfather said.

Mr. Mott described himself as a Sunni Muslim who embraced Islam after his childhood in Detroit. He said that after 9/11, Ms. Paulin-Ramirez denounced him and all Muslims.

“She figured we were all killers and murderers,” Mr. Mott said.

But after her own her conversion last year, she denounced him again, he said, this time for not being Muslim enough because he did not pray openly and at appointed times.  Ms. Mott said she had been able to speak to her grandson on the phone in recent months and that he had sometimes said things that troubled her.

She said she had told her daughter, “I am sick and tired of being told by this baby that Christians are going to burn in hell.”

According to Ms. Mott, Ms. Paulin-Ramirez replied, “We’re just teaching him the truth.”

Eamon Quinn contributed reporting from Dublin.
U.S. terror mom brainwashed 6-year-old son
NYPOST
By BARRY BORTNICK in Leadville, Colo., and TODD VENEZIA in NY
Last Updated: 8:53 AM, March 14, 2010
Posted: 4:02 AM, March 14, 2010

He was being turned into a baby bomber.

The 6-year-old son of a Colorado nursing student who ran off to Europe to join a terrorist murder cell was brainwashed into a hate-filled Islamic fundamentalist zombie, his family said yesterday.

"He said that Christians will burn in hellfire," the child's grandmother, Christine Mott, told The Post. "That's what they are teaching this baby."

The boy's mom, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, converted to Islam over the last year. Her family said she struck up an Internet friendship with another Colorado radical, Najibullah Zazi, an al Qaeda associate who pleaded guilty last month in a plot to set off bombs in the New York subway system.

Her conversion was so complete, Paulin-Ramirez changed her son's name from Christian to the Islamic name Walid after enrolling him in a fire-breathing Muslim school in Ireland.

The terror mom's stepfather, George Mott, said he talked by phone once with the boy at the school and the boy said: "We are building pipes [pipe bombs], like the Fourth of July!"

Paulin-Ramirez ditched her life in the Rocky Mountain city of Leadville, Colo., last September, and allegedly joined a small group of radical Islamists in Ireland who planned to claim a $100,000 al Qaeda bounty by killing a Swedish cartoonist who drew the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

She was arrested Tuesday in a series of raids in the cities of Waterford and Cork, along with other members of the group. They included Colleen LaRose, 46, of Pennsylvania, another blond American woman who called herself "JihadJane" and has been in custody since October.

The Colorado woman's parents believe she was recruited by LaRose, who they say introduced her to her Algerian husband.

Paulin-Ramirez was released by Irish authorities yesterday, although charges may still be forthcoming, said a spokesman for the Irish police.

Her son, who was affectionately known to his grandmother as "Baby Huey," occasionally contacted relatives in Colorado -- and what he said stunned relatives.

"I talked to Huey on Monday. He said they taught him how to shoot a gun," Christine Mott said. "They taught him how to kick and fight . . . We're Democrats. We won't even buy him a toy gun."

Christine said that she became estranged from her daughter who sank into the radical Islamic lifestyle. But as the boy's brainwashing became apparent, Mott confronted Paulin-Ramirez.

"When Huey said, 'Christians will burn in hell,' I told Jamie, 'I'm sick and tired of this hate for Christians.' Jamie said, 'It's the truth.'

"The boy was not allowed to associate with non-Muslim children, and he gets beat up by the Muslim kids because they know he's not one of them," she added.

George Mott, is himself a Muslim convert who speaks Arabic. He said that once as he talked to the boy on the phone, he could hear a Jihadi recruitment tape playing in the background talking of death to Zionists and America.

Before the boy left, he was like any other 6-year-old, George Mott said. He was into normal things like cartoons, cars and dinosaurs. "I figured him to be a paleontologist," he said.

"He has not been in school since they left there," George said. "He's in an Islamic school. They're teaching him hate."

Christian's father is a Mexican immigrant, Alejandro Carreon, who was deported a few years ago, relatives said. They do not know where he is now.

Paulin-Ramirez wore full Islamic robes and head scarves to her son's soccer games.

"It was like a neon sign that said 'Look at me,' " Christine Mott said.

George Mott said that Christian, who is currently in Irish foster care, told them his mom had married a man named Ali in New York. The Washington Post reported that Paulin-Ramirez may have been motivated to travel to Ireland for the rendezvous out of a love for him rather than by a fervent belief in terrorism.

As she began to become more deeply involved with Islam last summer, Paulin-Ramirez hit it off with failed terror bomber Zazi.

"When I saw him [Zazi] on TV, I said 'That's the fool Jamie's been talking with,' " George said. "She was on the line with Zazi and also with 'JihadJane,' all talking at the same time."

Paulin-Ramirez befriended a Pakistani man over the Internet, and offered to help him come to the United States to take flying lessons.



THE ENEMY AMONGST US
NYPOST editorial
May 22, 2009

It's scant comfort that the four men ar rested Wednesday night as they car ried out what they thought was their own private jihad -- attempting to car-bomb two Riverdale synagogues and shoot down military planes in upstate Newburgh -- were not trained terrorists.

Don't be misled by the amateurish nature of their misadventure. What the four lacked in brains, they more than made up for in malign intent.

And the fact that their plot went as far as it did -- the men actually had planted what they thought were deadly bombs before the feds moved in -- dramatically underscores, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly noted, the very real threat of homegrown terror cells.

The imitators, in other words, are potentially as dangerous as those sent from abroad by the likes of al Qaeda.

New York is lucky that these four were nabbed as part of an elaborate sting in which an informant supplied them with inert explosives and an inoperable Stinger surface-to-air missile.

Who's to say their dreams of unleashing death and destruction couldn't have been realized -- had they approached someone who was tied to Islamist terrorists instead of working with the feds?

The plot also raises anew questions about how America's prison system has become a breeding ground for aspiring terrorists.

All four of those arrested were Muslim, three of whom converted while doing time. As the sister of ringleader James Cromitie said: "They do a little time in jail, and they don't eat pork no more."

Three years ago, The Post broke the story of a vitriolic anti-American diatribe delivered by Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, a Rikers Island chaplain.

"We know that the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House, without a doubt," he said -- later urging that American Muslims stop allowing "the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us." Muslims, he said, must be "compassionate with each other" and "hard against the kufr [unbeliever]."

Abdul-Jalil, shockingly, remains on the municipal payroll.

Then there's Warith Deem Umar, who long had a key post overseeing Islamic programs in New York's prison system, including the recruitment and training of numerous chaplains.

Umar actually boasted to The Wall Street Journal that "prison is the perfect recruitment and training ground for radicalism and the Islamic religion."

As Steven Schwartz has written: "Radical Muslim chaplains . . . acting in coordination to impose an extremist agenda have gained a monopoly over Islamic activities in America's state, federal and city prisons and jails."

Thus, it's likely no accident that the spiritual leader of the four men arrested Wednesday, the imam of a mosque in Newburgh, has worked for the state prison system since 1985.

Who knows how many potential terrorists have been inspired by the preachers of poison in our nation's prisons?

Well, at least four.

Maybe it is impossible to keep Islamist propaganda out of the prisons, but the fact that it is directly subsidized by tax dollars is simply insane.

It's time that this boil was lanced.
 


Stamford, CT warehouse used by FBI - made it an interstate crime, besides the intent to accomplish terror aspect.
In Bronx Bomb Case, Steps and Missteps Alike Caught on Tape
NYTIMES
By MICHAEL WILSON
May 22, 2009

They were four ex-convicts — one a crack addict, another whose most recent arrest involved snatching purses — and they gathered their terror tools as they went.

They bought cellphones, the authorities said; they bought a camera in a Wal-Mart to take photographs of the synagogues in New York City that they wanted to blow up. When their attempt to buy guns in Newburgh, N.Y., fell through — their gun dealer told them she had sold out — they drove downstate, buying a $700 pistol from a Bloods gang leader in Brooklyn.

After months of planning, the authorities allege, the men had their first real scare this month, driving to Stamford, Conn., to pick up a surface-to-air missile that was waiting for them in a warehouse. One of the men in the car believed they were being followed by law enforcement, so they returned to Newburgh, drove around until they were satisfied they were in the clear, then went back to Stamford for their missile and bombs.

They brought them back to Newburgh, locked them in a storage container, and celebrated, shouting, “Allah akbar!”

These details as told by the authorities describe a homegrown terror plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down a military aircraft in Newburgh. The outlines of the plan were fleshed out on Thursday, in court hearings, documents and interviews, as were bits and pieces of the checkered life stories of the four men charged in the plot.

Remarkably, vast passages of the conspiracy the federal authorities described — the talk of killing Jews, the testing of the men’s would-be weaponry — played out on a veritable soundstage of hidden cameras and secret microphones, and involved material provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A house in Newburgh, a storage facility in Stamford, the planting of the would-be bombs in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale — everything was recorded, according to the complaint.

“It’s hard to envision a more chilling plot,” Eric Snyder, an assistant United States attorney, said on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. “These are extremely violent men. These are men who eagerly embraced an opportunity” to “bring deaths to Jews.”

On Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly appeared at the Riverdale Jewish Center, which the F.B.I. identified as one of the targets of the plot. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly praised the work of the agencies behind the arrests and sought to tamp down any fears of a larger terrorist organization at work.

“Sadly, this is just a reminder that peace is fragile and democracy is fragile and we have to be vigilant all the time,” said Mr. Bloomberg, who along with Mr. Kelly stressed that the four men had no connection to any international terror groups. “The good news is that the N.Y.P.D. and F.B.I. prevented what could have been a terrible event in our city.”

The case is the latest in a series in New York and around the country since Sept. 11, 2001, and sounded familiar in some ways. The investigation, for instance, began with the work of a confidential informant, who portrayed himself as an agent of a Pakistani terror organization, and who became a critical member of the men’s plot.

The full nature and extent of the informant’s role in facilitating the plot is unknown. In other cases, defense lawyers have sought to portray these informants as engaging in entrapment, suggesting they had, in effect, provoked and fueled the actions of their clients.

But where past terror prosecutions have been based mostly on conversations about a planned or imagined attack, this one went further, the authorities alleged: the men went through critical acts in what they believed to be a deadly assault.

As for the defendants — James Cromitie, 44; David Williams, 28; Onta Williams, 32, and no apparent relation to David; and Laguerre Payen, 27 — most of the details that emerged on Thursday stemmed from their criminal pasts.

David Williams, who lately had grown a beard and taken to reading the Koran on slow nights at a steakhouse job, was described as particularly violent by prosecutors on Thursday. When the plan to buy guns from a woman in Newburgh fell through, it was David Williams who quickly improvised, arranging to buy a gun from a man he described as a “supreme Blood gang leader” in Brooklyn, Mr. Snyder said. After buying the gun in the company of the informant, David Williams said he would have shot the gang leader if he were alone with him, and kept his $700.

Mr. Payen, described as a nervous, quiet sort who took medication for schizophrenia or a bi-polar disorder, was unemployed and living in squalor in Newburgh. His last arrest, in 2002, was for assault, after he drove around the Rockland County village of Monsey, firing a BB gun out of the window — striking two teens — and snatching two purses. A friend who visited Mr. Payen’s apartment on Thursday said it contained bottles of urine, and raw chicken on the stovetop.

Onta Williams had been addicted to cocaine since he was a teenager, according to his lawyer, Sol Lesser, at his sentencing in 2003. Mr. Cromitie has spent 12 years in prison, most recently for selling drugs to undercover officers behind a school.

Law enforcement officials initially said the four men were Muslims, but their religious backgrounds remained uncertain Thursday. Mr. Payen reported himself to be Catholic during his 15-month prison sentence that ended in 2005, according to a state corrections official. Mr. Cromitie and Onta Williams both identified themselves as Baptists in prison records, although Mr. Cromitie changed his listed religion to Muslim upon his last two incarcerations; David Williams reported no religious affiliation.

The men never served in the same prison together. Three of them regularly lunched together at Danny’s Restaurant in Newburgh, chatting over plates of rice and beans, said Danny DeLeon, the owner.

Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, the imam at the mosque where the authorities say the confidential informant first encountered the men, said none of the men were active in the mosque. An assistant imam, Hamin Rashada, said Mr. Cromitie and Mr. Payen occasionally attended services.

Mr. Cromitie was there last June, and he met a stranger.

He had no way of knowing that the stranger’s path to the mosque began in 2002, when he was arrested on federal charges of identity theft. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, and became a confidential informant for the F.B.I. He began showing up at the mosque in Newburgh around 2007, Mr. Muhammad said.

The stranger’s behavior aroused the imam’s suspicions. He invited other worshipers to meals, and spoke of violence and jihad, so the imam said he steered clear of him.

“There was just something fishy about him,” Mr. Muhammad said. Members “believed he was a government agent.”

Mr. Muhammad said members of his congregation told him the man he believed was the informant offered at least one of them a substantial amount of money to join his “team.”

The informant met Mr. Cromitie, and it quickly appeared that Mr. Cromitie was of a like mind with the apparent radical before him, according to the complaint. Mr. Cromitie said his parents had lived in Afghanistan before he was born and that he was angry at the killing of Muslims there.

The next month, on July 3, the two men met and discussed the terror organization Jaish-e-Mohammed, based in Pakistan, with which the informant claimed to be involved. Mr. Cromitie told him he wanted to join and “do jihad,” according to the complaint.

All of this came as a shock to Mr. Cromitie’s mother after his arrest on Wednesday. Adele Cromitie, 65, said her son was raised a Christian, and that neither she nor his father, who left the family when Mr. Cromitie was a young child, had lived in Afghanistan. She said Mr. Cromitie visited her, at her apartment in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, for the first time in nearly 15 years about three years ago, after getting out of prison, and announced he had converted to Islam.

“When he told me that, I said, ‘Get out of here,’ ” Ms. Cromitie recalled.

About six months ago, Mr. DeLeon, the restaurant owner, noticed that a new man was showing up for lunch. He was about 50 and appeared to be South Asian, and he usually paid for the group. Mr. DeLeon thought he was the boss.

Beginning in October, the informant began meeting Mr. Cromitie at a home in Newburgh that was wired with hidden cameras and microphones, the criminal complaint said. David Williams, Onta Williams and Mr. Payen attended these meetings, and the group discussed Mr. Cromitie’s desire to strike a synagogue in the Bronx and military aircraft at the Air National Guard base in Newburgh, according to the complaint.

In December, the plan began to take shape in the Newburgh house. On Dec. 5, Mr. Cromitie asked the informant whether he could acquire “rockets” and “devices” for attacks, and the informant said he could provide C-4 plastic explosives to fashion improvised bombs. On Dec. 17, Mr. Cromitie said he wanted to case the air base later that week, and that he would remove his traditional Muslim attire — a white jalabiya and cap — so as not to draw suspicion. David Williams suggested they refer to the synagogues as “joints.”

On April 10, Mr. Cromitie, David Williams and the informant drove to a Wal-Mart in Newburgh and bought a camera, and then went to the Bronx, where Mr. Cromitie took pictures of synagogues. He said blowing up the Riverdale Jewish Center would be “a piece of cake.”

Several days later, the three men met again and discussed picking up a Stinger heat-seeking missile in Connecticut and synchronizing the aircraft strike and the bombings.

On the night of April 28, after figuring out where they could get a gun, the men reinforced their commitment to the plan to one another, according to the authorities. They each said they were willing to perform jihad, and Onta Williams spoke, saying the military is “killing Muslim brothers and sisters in Muslim countries, so if we kill them here with I.E.D.’s and Stingers, it is equal,” according to the complaint.

On May 6, the five men drove to Stamford to pick up the explosives and the Stinger, according to the complaint. The location was carefully chosen in advance, but not by any of the men in the vehicle.

The Stamford police were approached by the F.B.I. several months ago, officials said, and asked for help in finding a warehouse where a meeting with the suspected terror cell could take place. A warehouse on the Waterside section of town was chosen and wired for video and audio for the meeting.

The men, after the brief scare about being followed, eventually made it to Stamford. There, they inspected the explosive devices. Each weighed 37 pounds and was inside a canvas bag. None of them, nor the Stinger missile at the warehouse, was operational, having been disabled by the F.B.I.

The four men tested one of the detonators for the bombs, which was to be set off with a cellphone, the compliant said. They drove the weapons to Newburgh, locked them in a storage container and celebrated.

The five men met at the storage unit to inspect the weapons on May 8. Twelve days later, they drove to the Bronx with the bombs.
Police Detail Disruption of Terror Plot
NYTIMES
By Sewell Chan
May 21, 2009, 7:10 am

Updated, 8:06 a.m. | The four men who were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., were “petty criminals” who acted alone and did not appear to be acting in concert with any terrorist organization, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Thursday morning.

In a news conference at the Riverdale Jewish Center, one of the two synagogues that were said to be the targets of the plot, Mr. Kelly offered new details about the four defendants — James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen. The men are to be arraigned in Federal District Court in White Plains, N.Y., later Thursday morning.

Mr. Cromitie, 53, had lived in Brooklyn and had a record of “as many as 27 arrests” for minor crimes “both upstate and in New York City,” Mr. Kelly said. He, David Williams and Onta Williams are native-born United States citizens, while Mr. Payen is a native of Haiti. “We believe they knew each other from prison contacts, for the most part,” Mr. Kelly said.

Mr. Cromitie was the oldest member of the group and its leader, while the others were “significantly younger,” in their late 20s or early 30s, Mr. Kelly said.

“They stated that they wanted to commit jihad,” he said. “More information about their motives I’m sure will be developed as the case progresses, but right now, they stated they wanted to make jihad. They were disturbed about what was happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that Muslims were being killed. They were making statements that Jews were killed in this attack and that would be all right — that sort of thing.”

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. Wednesday after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue, and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue.

The arrests came after what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America.

At no point, the authorities emphasized, did the men actually acquire weapons of mass destruction, though they stand accused of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles.

Mr. Kelly offered fresh details on Thursday morning of the moments leading up to the arrests on Wednesday night.

The arrests, he said, occurred after one of the suspects placed what he believed were homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices, in separate vehicles parked outside the synagogues. The other three suspects served as lookouts, Mr. Kelly sai.

“There was a driver who was a cooperator, and there was the individual who placed the bombs in the vehicle, and then there were three lookouts,” Mr. Kelly said. “When everyone returned to their car — as everyone was going back to the car — that is when the signal was given to the emergency service officers to move in.”

An 18-wheel New York Police Department vehicle — known as a “low-boy” — blocked the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle at 237th Street and Riverdale Avenue. The F.B.I. informer also served as the driver of the suspects’ S.U.V., Mr. Kelly said.

Another armored vehicle arrived, and officers from the department’s Emergency Service Unit smashed the blackened windows of the S.U.V., removed the men from the vehicle, and handcuffed them on the ground. None offered resistance.

Other police officers, along with members of the Joint Terrorist Task Force, the F.B.I., and the State Police, were also on hand, and “moved in and took those individuals away,” Mr. Kelly said.

Each of the two homemade bombs was equipped with “about 37 pounds” of inert C-4 plastic explosives, but the devices had been “totally disabled by the FBI” and “there was no danger to anyone,” Mr. Kelly said.

He said of the case: “It speaks to our concern about homegrown terrorism.”

Mr. Kelly joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and elected officials for a news conference on Thursday morning outside the Riverdale Jewish Center to greet morning worshipers.

The mayor praised the Police Department, which worked on the F.B.I. and other agencies on the case, and described the disruption of the terror plot as a frightening but exceptional occurrence. “Most people in New York City want to live together, work together, and I think we’re as safe today as we’ve ever been before,” the mayor said.

State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Bronx Democrat who represents Riverdale, noted that he is a member of the congregation at the Riverdale Temple. “I think most people will agree that we’re very angry, but very sad that this kind of plot would take place in our community,” he said. “There are people out there motivated by religious hatred, hatred against Jews frankly, but the good news is that the N.Y.P.D. and F.B.I. were on top of this from the very beginning.”

City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, who also represents the neighborhood, said, “It’s a very frightening, disturbing situation. Fortunately, good, enormously good police work averted a terrible tragedy.” He added, “Unfortunately, people with twisted minds often copy things. I think our community needs special protection now - I’m sure we’ll get it.”

Also on Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil liberties organization for Muslim Americans, urged the public not to link the case with mainstream Islam.

“We applaud the F.B.I., the New York Police Department and the other law enforcement agencies that took part in the investigation for their efforts in helping to prevent any harm to either Jewish institutions or to our nation’s military,” the organization’s executive director, Nihad Awad, said. “We repeat the American Muslim community’s repudiation of bias-motivated crimes and of anyone who would falsely claim religious justification for violent actions. Members of the American Muslim community should remain vigilant in reporting any activities that could harm the safety and security of our nation or its citizens.”
4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues
NYTIMES
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ and AL BAKER
May 21, 2009

Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.

The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.

“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The charges against the four men represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.

Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox congregation, said the police informed him on Wednesday evening that his synagogue was a target of the plot, as well as the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue that is a short distance away, on Independence Avenue. The two buildings are about six blocks apart, each with a brick facade. Outside the synagogues on Wednesday night, the streets were eerily quiet.

Rabbi Rosenblatt said in a phone interview that he took the news with “shock, surprise — a sense of disbelief that something which is supposed to belong to the world of front pages and the evening news had invaded the quiet world of our synagogue.”

Jonathan Mark, associate editor of The Jewish Week newspaper who grew up in Riverdale, said it would have been the third plot in the past decade against the synagogues in Riverdale.

Law enforcement officials identified the four men arrested as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh. Some of the men were of Arabic descent, and one is of Haitian descent, according to law enforcement officials. At least three were United States citizens, according to officials. They are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said.

Mr. Cromitie, whose parents had lived in Afghanistan before his birth, had told the informant that he was upset about the war in Afghanistan and that that he wanted to do “something to America.” Mr. Cromitie stated “the best target” — the World Trade Center — “was hit already,” according to the complaint.

In April, Mr. Cromitie and the three other men selected the synagogues as their targets, the statement said. The informant soon helped them get the weapons, which were incapable of being fired or detonated, according to the authorities.

Mr. Kelly told Jewish leaders Wednesday evening that the attackers planned simultaneous attacks, and the men planned to leave the bombs in the cars in front of the two synagogues, drive back to Newburgh and retrieve cellphone-detonating devices and then proceed with the attack on the air base — simultaneously shooting down aircraft while remotely setting off the devices in the cars.

On Wednesday night, they planted one of the mock improvised explosive devices in a trunk of a car outside the temple and two mock bombs in the back seat of a car outside the Jewish center, the authorities said. Shortly thereafter, police officers swooped in and broke the windows on the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle and charged them with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles.

Around 9 p.m., a law enforcement official said an 18-wheel New York Police Department vehicle blocked the suspects’ black sport utility vehicle at 237th Street and Riverdale Avenue. Another armored vehicle arrived and officers from the department’s Emergency Service Unit took the men out of the truck and handcuffed them.

After the plot was broken up, the team of uniformed officers took the suspects away.

Three of the four men were escorted by federal agents from Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan around 1 a.m. Thursday. They were handcuffed and did not respond to reporters’ questions as they were loaded into the back of vehicles to be taken to the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center. There, they emerged one by one.

Mr. Cromitie, who was wearing a dark blue shirt and jeans, gazed at the assembled reporters and photographers but again did not respond to questions. David and Onta Williams also did not answer questions as they quickly walked by, staring at the ground. The four defendants were to be taken to White Plains later on Thursday morning, where they were to appear in federal court.

A federal law enforcement official described the plot as “aspirational” — meaning that the suspects wanted to do something but had no weapons or explosives — and described the operation as a sting with a cooperator within the group.

“It was fully controlled at all times,” a law enforcement official said.

Stewart International Airport is used by the New York Air National Guard and United States Air Force, according to the complaint, and it stores aircraft used to transport military supplies and personnel to the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Political leaders responded to the news of the arrests with statements expressing relief.

“This was a very serious threat that could have cost many, many lives if it had gone through,” Representative Peter T. King, Republican from Long Island, said in an interview with WPIX-TV. “It would have been a horrible, damaging tragedy. There’s a real threat from homegrown terrorists and also from jailhouse converts.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement: “If there can be any good news from this terror scare it’s that this group was relatively unsophisticated, infiltrated early, and not connected to another terrorist group. This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism — foreign or domestic.”

Obama Sets ‘New Direction’ on Terror
NYTIMES
By DAVID STOUT
May 22, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Thursday that his administration wants to transfer some detainees from the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba to highly secure prisons in the United States, and that doing so will in no way endanger American security.Reiterating his determination to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, in the face of growing Congressional pressure to keep it open, the president said what has gone on there for the past eight years has undermined rather than strengthened America’s safety, and that moving its most dangerous inmates to the United States is both practical and in keeping with the country’s cherished ideals.

“As we make these decisions, bear in mind the following fact: nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal ‘supermax’ prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists,” the president said. “As Senator Lindsey Graham said: ‘The idea that we cannot find a place to securely house 250-plus detainees within the United States is not rational.’”

The “supermax” prisons, familiar to viewers of cable-television crime programs, are fortress-like structures of concrete and steel where the inmates — the worst of the worst of hardened criminals — live in near-isolation.

Speaking at the National Archives, which houses the Constitution and other documents embodying America’s system of government and justice, the president promised to work with Congress to develop a safe and fair system for dealing with those Guantánamo detainees who cannot be prosecuted “yet who pose a clear danger to the American people.”

“I want to be honest: this is the toughest issue we will face,” the president said.

“I know that creating such a system poses unique challenges,” Mr. Obama said. “Other countries have grappled with this question, and so must we. But I want to be very clear that our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for Guantanamo detainees — not to avoid one. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man.”

The president said Americans should resist the temptation to indulge in “finger-pointing” over mistakes. But he offered scathing criticism of the presidency of George W. Bush, referring repeatedly to the missteps, in Mr. Obama’s view, of “the past eight years.”

In an address punctuated several times by applause, the president asserted over and over that fidelity to American values is not a luxury to be dispensed with in times of crisis but, rather, the compass that will steer the country to safety in an age of terrorism.

“We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and keeps us safe,” he said.But even as the president was finishing his speech, television networks were preparing to cut away to another speech, titled “Keeping America Safe,” by former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney, who was to speak before the American Enterprise Institute, has emerged as one of the new administration’s staunchest critics on security questions.

Both speeches came in a week in which Congress has been wrestling with detention issues. The Senate rebuffed the president over financing for closing down the detention center. Republicans and Democrats alike argued that the White House had yet to outline a realistic plan for what to do with the remaining detainees after the center is closed.

Mr. Obama did not provide details about his plan, except for his pledge to work closely with Congress to arrive at a system both practical and humane.

“People don’t understand that much of what we’re doing is being driven by the courts, and whether he had decided to close Guantánamo or not, he would have to respond” to the judicial rulings, said David Axelrod, a chief adviser to President Obama, referring to lawsuits and litigation brought by civil liberties groups and others. “We’re in the process of cleaning up the accrued issues of the last six or seven years and they’re complex and thorny and they’re going to require a series of actions.”

Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan
NYTIMES
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
May 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.

The discussion, in a 90-minute meeting in the Cabinet Room that included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and other top administration officials, came on the eve of a much-anticipated speech Mr. Obama is to give Thursday on a number of thorny national security matters, including his promise to close the detention center at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights advocates are growing deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama’s stance on these issues, especially his recent move to block the release of photographs showing abuse of detainees, and his announcement that he is willing to try terrorism suspects in military commissions — a concept he criticized bitterly as a presidential candidate.

The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.

They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the issue of preventive detention himself, but made clear that he had not made a decision on it. Several senior White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the outsiders’ accounts.

“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”

The other participant said Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate battlefield like Afghanistan. “The issue is,” the participant said, “What are the options left open to a future president?”

Mr. Obama did not specify how he intended to deal with Guantánamo detainees who posed a threat and could not be tried, nor did he share the contents of Thursday’s speech, the participants said.

He will deliver the speech at a site laden with symbolism — the National Archives, home to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Across town, his biggest Republican critic, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will deliver a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mr. Cheney and other hawkish critics have sought to portray Mr. Obama as weak on terror, and their argument seems to be catching on with the public. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats, in a clear rebuke to the White House, blocked the $80 million Mr. Obama had requested in financing to close the Guantánamo prison.

The lawmakers say they want a detailed plan before releasing the money; there is deep opposition on Capitol Hill to housing terrorism suspects inside the United States.

“He needs to convince people that he’s got a game plan that will protect us as well as be fair to the detainees,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who agrees with Mr. Obama that the prison should be closed. “If he can do that, then we’re back on track. But if he doesn’t make that case, then we’ve lost control of this debate.”

But Mr. Obama will not use the speech to provide the details lawmakers want.

“What it’s not going to be is a prescriptive speech,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “The president wants to take some time and put this whole issue in perspective to identify what the challenges are and how he will approach dealing with them.”



Stephen Morgan (AP)

Bail Raised to $15 Million in Wesleyan Slaying
NYTIMES
By NATE SCHWEBER and LIZ ROBBINS
May 9, 2009

MIDDLETOWN, Conn -- A judge on Friday raised the bail for the man accused of fatally shooting a Wesleyan University junior in a bookstore near the campus to $15 million from $10 million, citing the seriousness of the crime and the threat posed to the community he had paralyzed for more than 24 hours until he surrendered.

The suspect, Stephan P. Morgan, 29, wearing a dark violet jumpsuit and with his hands cuffed behind his back, stood expressionless during his arraignment on first-degree murder charges before Superior Court Judge Mary-Margaret Burgdorff.

Mr. Morgan is accused of shooting Johanna Justin-Jinich, 21, a woman he had met earlier, in a downtown Middletown bookstore on Wednesday afternoon.

According to chilling new details from an arrest warrant released on Friday, Mr. Morgan fired seven shots at Ms. Justin-Jinich in a café portion of Broad Street Books. He then pointed his gun at employees of the store, according to the warrant, discarded his wig, changed shirts and left the building. He was still milling about when a police officer interviewed him and then let him go, only to have the suspect elude police for more than a day.

Investigators said they found a journal he had left in a computer bag at the crime scene and discovered an entry that said, “I think it okay to kill Jews, and go on a killing spree at this school.” When the suspect’s father subsequently identified his son in a surveillance video from the store, and confirmed that he was known to express anti-Jewish sentiments, officials directed Wesleyan to lock down the campus.

About 9:15 p.m. Thursday, Mr. Morgan surrendered after walking into a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Meriden, 10 miles from campus, and asking the clerk for a phone to call the police. When he could not dial the number, the store clerk said, he dialed for him. Moments later the police arrived and took Mr. Morgan into custody.

On Friday, Judge Burgdorff said she was raising the bail because, beyond his threat to the community, Mr. Morgan does not live in Connecticut and because he was wearing a disguise when he allegedly committed the crime. His next court appearance will be May 19.

As the judge read Mr. Morgan his legal rights in the five-minute arraignment, Mr. Morgan nodded but said nothing. He bowed his head, blinked, but expressed no emotion. He had a beard and a mustache and his hair, balding in the back, was unkempt.

His father and mother, James F. and Maureen Morgan of Marblehead, Mass., were in the courtroom, along with one of their daughters. As Mr. Morgan was led from the room, his father waved and Mr. Morgan raised his head to look at him, appearing to open his mouth but saying nothing.

The lives of Ms. Justin-Jinich and Mr. Morgan had intersected briefly — and ominously — two years earlier, when both attended a summer course at New York University. He called repeatedly and sent 38 harassing e-mail messages. The university and the police were notified, but he had left town and she declined to press charges.

There was no way to foresee the sudden, nightmarish sequel. Mr. Morgan walked into the bookstore about 1 p.m. Wednesday, then toward the Red and Black Cafe, where Ms. Justin-Jinich worked. He was a menacing figure, described as 6-feet-tall and wearing glasses by Susan Gerdhart, 22, who was paying for a salad when she heard four loud pops.

When Ms. Gerdhart turned, she said she saw smoke in the air and bullet casings on the ground. The victim was on the ground, according to Ms. Gerdhart’s statement to the police. She then looked at the suspect, who was looking down, and he fired three more shots, according to the warrant. He escaped by way of a conveyer belt that led to the basement, according to the manager of the bookstore, Steven Hebenstriet, who was standing there.

The gunman did a summersault off the belt and pointed his handgun at Mr. Hebenstriet. “Don’t say anything or I’ll shoot,” Mr. Morgan is quoted in the warrant.

He then left the bookstore through double swinging doors.

Hours after a police officer interviewed Mr. Morgan, even taking his full name and address, did they speak to his father in Marblehead. After identifying his son from the surveillance video the police showed him, the elder Mr. Morgan described his son as being “a loner, quiet, and not having many friends,” according to the warrant. He said that his son kept a journal and he had known him to make anti-Jewish comments.

Mr. Morgan said that he had last seen his son at the Marblehead house on May 5, and that his son told the family he intended to move to Newport, R.I. When officers looked at the son’s room — he had apparently taken most of his belongings with him — they found a full box of 9-millimeter ammunition and an empty holster.

The gun recovered at the scene was a CZ-USA 85 Combat 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol.

According to the arrest warrant, there is an entry on one of the last pages of Mr. Morgan’s journal, a composition book, dated May 6, 11 a.m. It mentioned “seeing all of the beautiful and smart people at Wes.” The murder occurred about two hours later.

In earlier journal entries, the police discovered, there were threats towards Jews, and specifically towards Ms. Justin-Jinich, whom Mr. Morgan apparently wrote he intended to rape and kill. One entry read: “Kill Johanna. She must Die.”

At Wesleyan, a private liberal arts school with about 3,000 students, classes ended this week and students were studying for finals when they were directed to stay indoors on Wednesday. The campus was all but deserted.

By 10:25 p.m. Thursday, the university’s Web site reported that Mr. Morgan was in custody. “We are all breathing a little easier with this news,” the president, Michael S. Roth, said.

On Friday afternoon, thousands of students, faculty and residents of Middletown gathered on campus for a brief remembrance for Ms. Justin-Jinich, many sobbing and clinging to one another. “This is a community that is grieving, and will grieve for some time,” Mr. Roth said. “I don’t think you ever get over something like this.”

Mr. Morgan had been the object of a nationwide alert with a $10,000 reward and a manhunt that focused on Middletown, a community of 48,000 in central Connecticut. Investigators said they believed that he had driven to Middletown from Boulder, Colo., arriving a day before the shooting and staying in a local hotel.

Ms. Justin-Jinich was from Timnath, Colo., a town of 200 southeast of Fort Collins. Because Mr. Morgan has lived in Colorado communities, including Colorado Springs and Boulder, the police were trying to determine if he and Ms. Justin-Jinich knew each other in Colorado.

As the investigation unfolded, the police focused on the only known point of connection between the victim and the assailant. It was a six-week summer program, in June and July 2007, at New York University, called Sexual Diversity in Society. Poulami Roychowdhury, a graduate student, taught the course, which met for two hours three days a week in a campus building in Greenwich Village.

The two lived in student housing, but not in the same residence hall, said John Beckman, an N.Y.U. spokesman. On July 17, as the program was nearing its end, Ms. Justin-Jinich notified the university that she had received repeated harassing e-mail messages and phone calls from Mr. Morgan. The school notified the police, and officers spoke with her. The case was referred to detectives.

The police report told of 38 e-mail messages that were “insulting” and “unwanted.” It quoted one as saying, “You’re going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can’t take any criticism, Johanna,” using an expletive. But she declined to file charges, and the matter was dropped.

Mr. Morgan appeared to come from an established family in suburban Boston. His father is a retired venture capitalist and graduate of Harvard Business School, where he once taught. In recent years, the elder Mr. Morgan has been active in the International Federation for Family Development, which provides education and support for parents.

The police said Mr. Morgan did not appear to have a criminal history. Public records indicate that he lived in Fairfax County, Va., in 2000, and was in Honolulu from September 2000 to February 2001, where he was stationed aboard the Navy-guided missile cruiser Lake Erie in Pearl Harbor, according to the Navy.

A Navy spokesman said that Mr. Morgan had joined the Navy on Feb. 16, 1999, and was discharged on Feb. 15, 2003, as a petty officer, second class. Lt. Cmdr. John M. Daniels, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said: "I cannot give you a characterization of his discharge. That is a privacy act. But I don’t have anything in here to indicate misconduct or anything."

Nate Schweber reported from Middletown, Conn., and Liz Robbins from New York. Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Marc Beja, Alison Leigh Cowan, Winnie Hu, Serge F. Kovaleski, Trymaine Lee, Robert D. McFadden and William K. Rashbaum in New York; Lisa W. Foderaro in Middletown, Conn.; Ariana Green in Marblehead, Mass.; Martin Forstenzer and Dan Frosch in Colorado; and David Kocieniewski in West Chester, Pa.
Wesleyan suspect's surrender ends fears of Va. Tech repeat
Stamford ADVOCATE
Associated Press
By Dave Collins
Posted: 05/08/2009 09:05:08 AM EDT
Updated: 05/08/2009 09:14:02 AM EDT

MIDDLETOWN -- For two days, Wesleyan University feared becoming another Virginia Tech as police conducted a nationwide manhunt for a man accused of stalking and killing one student and threatening to kill more.

But the crisis came to an abrupt end late Thursday just 10 miles from campus after suspect Stephen P. Morgan saw his photo in a newspaper and asked a convenience store clerk to call police.  Officers found him standing peacefully outside a Cumberland Farms store in south Meriden. They took him to the ground, then walked inside to tell the startled clerk that Morgan was the man wanted for the killing of 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich at a campus bookstore in Middletown.

"I got nervous and I started crying," Sonia Rodriguez said. "I just got very, very scared." Morgan, 29, was expected to be in court in Middletown on Friday morning for an arraignment, his first appearance before a judge to answer for Justin-Jinich's death. His bond is set at $10 million.

Justin-Jinich was shot several times early Wednesday afternoon while she worked in the bookstore cafe. Authorities say the gunman wore a disguise, and authorities recovered a wig and a weapon from the scene.

Police interviewed Morgan outside the bookstore Wednesday without realizing he was a suspect. An official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that police stopped Morgan shortly after the shooting, spoke to him and let him go.  Later, when police confiscated Morgan's car, they found a journal in which he spelled out a plan to rape and kill Justin-Jinich before going on a campus shooting spree, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.

Wesleyan officials said police told them that Morgan targeted Wesleyan students and Jews in his journals. Justin-Jinich, of Timnath, Colo., came from a Jewish family, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

Authorities in New York said Morgan and Justin-Jinich have known each other since at least 2007, when Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint against him while they were enrolled in a summer class at New York University. In the complaint filed in July of that year, Justin-Jinich said Morgan called her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails.  One of the e-mails warned: "You're going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can't take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna." Both were interviewed by university police, but Justin-Jinich decided not to press charges.

Morgan's brother Greg told the AP that Morgan wasn't anti-Semitic. His family issued a statement earlier Thursday pleading with Morgan to turn himself in "to avoid any further bloodshed." In a statement read to reporters outside his parents' Marblehead, Mass., home, the Morgans said they were "shocked and sickened by the tragedy" and extended their condolences to the victim's family.

They added: "Steve, turn yourself in right now to any law enforcement agency wherever you are to avoid any further bloodshed. We love you. We will support you in every way and we don't want anyone else to get hurt." It was unknown if Morgan heard the plea before he surrendered Thursday night.

Greg Morgan did not immediately return calls from the AP after police announced the arrest. There was no answer at the home of Morgan's father.  A woman answering the phone for Justin-Jinich's father said the family had no comment Thursday night on Morgan's arrest. She would not identify herself. 

The shooting stirred memories of the Virginia Tech shootings, in which a deranged student killed 32 people and himself. A panel that investigated the 2007 massacre said university officials erred by not acting more quickly to warn students. Police had mistakenly concluded that the first two victims were shot as a result of a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute.

Police and administrators at Wesleyan immediately locked down the 3,000-student campus and stepped up patrols as authorities launched a hunt for the killer.

Sebastian Giuliano, mayor of Middletown, a city of 48,000, said his immediate thought upon seeing five police cars race by Wednesday was, "Don't tell me it's another Virginia Tech situation." When the shooting occurred, several hundred students were already gathered for an annual concert that allowed students to blow off steam before finals. Police and university administrators moved everyone indoors and canceled the concert.

Police gave the all-clear late Wednesday afternoon and said there was no danger, but did an about-face two hours later, warning students to take immediate shelter.

Police said evidence uncovered at the scene prompted the renewed warnings, but they offered no details. Later Wednesday, they released a surveillance photo of the gunman and said they were looking for Morgan, a former Navy man who university authorities said had no connection to Wesleyan.

"Everything we did was based on information we received from Middletown police," Wesleyan spokesman David Pesci said.

By Thursday morning, Wesleyan officials warned that Morgan was threatening the Jewish population and the university. Staff members were ordered to stay home and most campus buildings were closed and locked, leaving the normally bustling liberal arts school barren of all but police cruisers.

The city's only synagogue also closed its doors Thursday.

Students who would typically be enjoying their pre-finals break instead shuffled through their dormitories in flip-flops, gym shorts and pajama pants. Wesleyan delivered box lunches so they wouldn't have to go outside.

Brenna Galvin, a sophomore from Amherst, N.H., said her family considered bringing her home. "It's hard to know what to do," she said. "Really, we're just trying to keep in touch with people at home." Officials planned a memorial vigil for Justin-Jinich for Friday afternoon. They said the university library would reopen Friday, and schedules would start returning to normal.

"We are all breathing a little easier with this news," Wesleyan President Michael Roth said Thursday night.۩


Bail Raised to $15 Million in Wesleyan Slaying
NYTIMES
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and LIZ ROBBINS
May 9, 2009

A judge in Middletown, Conn., on Friday raised the bail for the man accused of fatally shooting a Wesleyan University junior in a bookstore near the campus to $15 million from $10 million.

The suspect, Stephan P. Morgan, 29, wearing a navy blue jumpsuit and with his hands cuffed behind his back, stood expressionless during his arraignment on first-degree murder charges before Superior Court Judge Mary-Margaret Burgdorff.  Mr. Morgan is accused of shooting Johnanna Justin-Jinich, 21, in a downtown Middletown bookstore on Wednesday afternoon...full story here.
Wesleyan slaying suspect due in Conn. court Friday 
DAY
By DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press Writers 
Posted on May 8, 9:14 AM EDT

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) -- A 29-year-old man accused of stalking a college student and then killing her inside a bookstore was expected to make his first court appearance Friday, a day after seeing his photo in a newspaper and asking a convenience store clerk to call police.  Officers found Stephen P. Morgan on Thursday night standing outside the store in Meriden, 10 miles from where Wesleyan University junior Johanna Justin-Jinich was gunned down Wednesday afternoon by a man wearing a wig.

Morgan was expected in Middletown Superior Court on Friday for an arraignment, his first appearance before a judge to answer for Justin-Jinich's death. His bond is set at $10 million.  Morgan's journals contained threats against Jews and mentioned plans for a shooting spree at Wesleyan, prompting fears that Morgan was bent on a repeat of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. Those fears were put to rest when officers took Morgan to the ground outside the Cumberland Farms store, then walked inside to tell the startled clerk that he was the man wanted in Justin-Jinich's killing.

"I got nervous and I started crying," Sonia Rodriguez said. "I just got very, very scared."

Police had interviewed Morgan outside the bookstore Wednesday without realizing he was a suspect. An official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that police stopped Morgan shortly after the shooting, spoke to him and let him go.

Later, when police confiscated Morgan's car, they found a journal in which he spelled out a plan to rape and kill Justin-Jinich before going on a campus shooting spree, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.

Wesleyan officials said police told them that Morgan targeted Wesleyan students and Jews in his journals. Justin-Jinich, of Timnath, Colo., came from a Jewish family, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

Authorities in New York said Morgan and Justin-Jinich had known each other since at least 2007, when Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint against him while they were enrolled in a summer class at New York University. In the complaint filed in July of that year, Justin-Jinich said Morgan called her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails.

One of the e-mails warned: "You're going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can't take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna."

Both were interviewed by university police, but Justin-Jinich decided not to press charges.

Morgan's brother Greg told the AP that Morgan wasn't anti-Semitic. His family issued a statement earlier Thursday pleading with Morgan to turn himself in "to avoid any further bloodshed."

In a statement read to reporters outside his parents' Marblehead, Mass., home, the Morgans said they were "shocked and sickened by the tragedy" and extended their condolences to the victim's family.

They added: "Steve, turn yourself in right now to any law enforcement agency wherever you are to avoid any further bloodshed. We love you. We will support you in every way and we don't want anyone else to get hurt."

It was unknown if Morgan heard the plea before he surrendered Thursday night.  Greg Morgan did not immediately return calls from the AP after police announced the arrest. There was no answer at the home of Morgan's father.  A woman answering the phone for Justin-Jinich's father said the family had no comment Thursday night on Morgan's arrest. She would not identify herself.

The shooting stirred memories of the Virginia Tech shootings, in which a deranged student killed 32 people and himself. A panel that investigated the 2007 massacre said university officials erred by not acting more quickly to warn students. Police had mistakenly concluded that the first two victims were shot as a result of a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute.

Police and administrators at Wesleyan immediately locked down the 3,000-student campus and stepped up patrols as authorities launched a hunt for the killer.

Sebastian Giuliano, mayor of Middletown, a city of 48,000, said his immediate thought upon seeing five police cars race by Wednesday was, "Don't tell me it's another Virginia Tech situation."

When the shooting occurred, several hundred students were already gathered for an annual concert that allowed students to blow off steam before finals. Police and university administrators moved everyone indoors and canceled the concert.

Police gave the all-clear late Wednesday afternoon and said there was no danger, but did an about-face two hours later, warning students to take immediate shelter.

Police said evidence uncovered at the scene prompted the renewed warnings, but they offered no details. Later Wednesday, they released a surveillance photo of the gunman and said they were looking for Morgan, a former Navy man who university authorities said had no connection to Wesleyan.

"Everything we did was based on information we received from Middletown police," Wesleyan spokesman David Pesci said.

By Thursday morning, Wesleyan officials warned that Morgan was threatening the Jewish population and the university. Staff members were ordered to stay home and most campus buildings were closed and locked, leaving the normally bustling liberal arts school barren of all but police cruisers.

The city's only synagogue also closed its doors Thursday.

Students who would typically be enjoying their pre-finals break instead shuffled through their dormitories in flip-flops, gym shorts and pajama pants. Wesleyan delivered box lunches so they wouldn't have to go outside.

Brenna Galvin, a sophomore from Amherst, N.H., said her family considered bringing her home. "It's hard to know what to do," she said. "Really, we're just trying to keep in touch with people at home."

Officials planned a memorial vigil for Justin-Jinich for Friday afternoon. They said the university library would reopen Friday, and schedules would start returning to normal.

"We are all breathing a little easier with this news," Wesleyan President Michael Roth said Thursday night.

Is this the same guy?  Doesn't look like it to me!

Wesleyan U. suspect allegedly threatened victim
Norwalk HOUR
Associated Press Writer
By KATIE NELSON
May 7, 2009

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) -- A New York City police report shows that the suspect in a Connecticut bookstore slaying threatened the woman in 2007 when they were attending New York University.

Johanna Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint against Stephen Morgan on July 10, 2007, claiming that he was calling her repeatedly and sent her insulting emails for at least a week.  In one e-mail, Morgan allegedly said Justin-Jinich was "going to have a lot more problems down the road."

Morgan had apparently already left the city at the time the complaint was filed and was not arrested.

Justin-Jinich was shot and killed Wednesday in a bookstore near Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Police are looking for Morgan.
Wesleyan Shooting: Alleged Shooter Stephen Morgan Still In The Area; Police: Wesleyan Shooter May Be Targeting Campus, Jewish Community
The Hartford Courant
By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY and HILDA MUÑOZ
11:35 AM EDT, May 7, 2009

MIDDLETOWN —

Authorities are not sure whether the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Wesleyan University student Wednesday remains in the Middletown area, but police said he may be targeting the campus and well as its Jewish community.

The suspect, whom police identified as Stephen Morgan, expressed threats in his personal journal toward Wesleyan and its Jewish students, said Mike Whaley, vice president for student affairs.  Morgan, who has connections to New York, Colorado and Massachusetts, has not been apprehended, and university officials are asking students to remain inside and to be vigilant. Police also asked a synagogue nearby to close.

Morgan was not a student at Wesleyan. He and the victim, Johanna Justin-Jinich, participated in a six-week summer program at New York University in 2007. Both were residents in student housing but did not stay in the same residence hall, according to NYU spokesman John Beckman.  Toward the end of the program, Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint with the Public Safety Department, saying she had been receiving harassing e-mails and phone calls from Morgan, he said.

"The Public Safety Department brought in the NYPD, and initial conversations were conducted with each person by the police. Ultimately, after attempts to follow-up with Ms. Justin-Jinich about pursuing the matter, she declined to pursue the case," he said.

Congregation Adath Israel, a synagogue down the street from where the shooting occurred, was closed this morning. The synagogue closed at the request of police, according to a staff member at the First United Methodist Church, which is next door.

Dara Parent, a secretary at the Methodist church, said the church received an e-mail from the synagogue last night notifying its neighbors that it will close due to the shooting at the request of the police.

Wesleyan's faculty was also warned to stay home.

"Faculty and staff should not come to their offices unless otherwise instructed. We will be sending information soon in regard to food and other administrative services," Wesleyan spokesman David Pesci wrote in a statement.

In a phone interview, Pesci said no classes were planned for today, even before the shooting. Today is known as a "reading day," he said. It falls between the end of classes last week and final exams, which begin next week.

"We're asking staff, unless we've contacted them, to stay at home for now," Pesci said. They can work from home, he said.

At about 1 p.m. Wednesday, Morgan walked into the Red & Black Café inside Broad Street Books near the campus and shot junior Johanna Justin-Jinich, who worked there, police said. She was rushed to Middlesex Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A SWAT team that had been practicing nearby quickly responded and cordoned off the area, and the Wesleyan campus was locked down. The university's annual "Spring Fling" celebrations were canceled.  Later, students dropped plans for a candlelight vigil to remember Justin-Jinich because officials warned against any such gathering. The church remained open with an adult education class and a preschool operating as usual.  Counseling continues to be available to students, faculty and staff, Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth said in a statement issued shortly before 8 a.m. It also says:

"A beloved member of our community has been brutally murdered. Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the family and friends of Johanna Justin-Jinich. This is a tragic time for them, and for all of us in the Wesleyan community. We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this event."

Friends described Justin-Jinich as witty and smart, a popular woman who never seemed to be in a bad mood. Justin-Jinich had studied abroad in Spain and had lined up a summer internship on Capitol Hill in Washington with a women's organization.  Jen Bromley, the owner of a spa in Berlin, had a 2 p.m. appointment with Justin-Jinich on Wednesday. When she didn't show up, Bromley became worried. Justin-Jinich was never late.

At 2:15 p.m, she called Justin-Jinich's cellphone and left a voice message. Then Bromley sent her a text: "Are you on your way??"

Bromley, 28, called her phone again. A woman answered, a friend of Justin-Jinich's who was with her at the Red & Black Cafe near Wesleyan.

"She's been shot," the woman told Bromley. A thin man with a long-haired wig "ran up in here and shot at her at point-black range."

The center of campus was quiet Wednesday evening, with a few students walking about.

"It almost feels like a ghost town," said Beth Davies, a 21-year-old senior.

Others were trying to enjoy what was left of their annual "Spring Fling" celebration -- which was ended prematurely by the shooting and manhunt -- by partying in their houses and dorms.  A few faculty members invited students to the student center, where some were overheard saying they had been excited to graduate this month but now would associate the end of their college careers with tragedy.  Leah Lucid, a 21-year-old junior, had known Justin-Jinich since the first semester of their freshmen year. They were living across the hall from each other this year and were planning on being roommates as seniors. The night before Justin-Jinich was killed, she had been talking past midnight with Lucid in Lucid's dorm room.

"She's a really loyal friend; a really loving, passionate person about life and about her friends and family," Lucid said of her friend, whom she affectionately called Yo-Yo.

Her passions included writing and her work in public health and women's issues, Lucid said. Justin-Jinich volunteered at various Planned Parenthood offices in her home state and in the area.

"She was the most giving and loving person I have ever known," Lucid said. "I'll remember her loyalty and her warm smile whenever I saw her and her very funny voices she would make with me."

Eli Allen, 21, a senior, had been at the bookstore the day before buying his cap and gown.

"It's weird because there's this general sadness. The Wesleyan community has been affected, violated."

Yudhi Kandel, a 24-year-old senior and resident assistant in a freshmen dorm, said that students were in disbelief.

"It's pretty sad. ... It's a shocking thing."

Freshman Alexandra Cuervo, 19, said she and friends were beginning to celebrate Spring Fling when they heard about the shooting. At first, they continued with their partying, she said, until more details became known on campus.

"I feel guilty," Cuervo said. "It just wasn't taken as seriously until we found out it was a Wesleyan student."

Reality set in for her and her classmates, and jovial turned to somber, she said. "I think people are also scared. They're in their dorms."

Ben Bernstein met Justin-Jinich in their Diasporas in Transnationalism class this semester and said she was "amazing."

The 20-year-old junior English and music major said that Justin-Jinich "was just a totally intelligent, terrific person in every way. She was just nice to everybody. I had great discussions with her, in and out of class. It's just a horrible thing."

Ryan La Rochelle, 23, of Boston, said he was shocked. He knew Justin-Jinich from Westtown School, a small boarding institution in southeastern Pennsylvania they attended as high schoolers. La Rochelle learned about her death from the media.

"She was a very beautiful and kind girl," La Rochelle said. "I have no idea how something like this could have happened."

After Bromley, the owner of Silk Waxing Spa, learned that Justin-Jinich had been shot, she closed the shop and drove to Middlesex Hospital with her cousin, another friend of Justin-Jinich's who attends Wesleyan. They thought she was still alive. But as they pulled into the hospital parking lot, the cousin's boyfriend called with the news.

"I've been crying and distraught all day," Bromley said Wednesday evening. "She's a really happy, really smart girl. Really intellectual. ... I can't imagine why any one person would dislike her and want her dead."

Egyptian Student Arrested by Immigration Officials
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:32 p.m. ET
April 6, 2009

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- An Egyptian college student acquitted of federal explosives charges was unexpectedly arrested by immigration officials Monday.

Youssef Samir Megahed, 23, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as he left a Tampa Wal-Mart store with his father, according to his attorney, Adam Allen. He is being held on a warrant signed by an immigration judge.

Allen said the government is trying to deport Megahed even though federal prosecutors failed to secure a conviction at trial.

The former University of South Florida engineering student was acquitted by a federal jury Friday of possessing low-grade explosives that could have been used to build a destructive device.

Allen argued during the three-week trial that the items found in his car during an August 2007 traffic stop were homemade model rocket engines built and packed into the car by a friend without Megahed's knowledge.

Prosecutors implied that Megahed and his friend, Ahmed Mohamed, planned an act of terrorism.

Mohamed was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison for making a YouTube video showing would-be terrorists how to convert a remote-control toy into a bomb detonator. The video was found on Mohamed's laptop computer that was seized during the traffic stop.

Megahed wasn't charged in connection with the video, and his trial jury didn't get to hear about it.

In a statement, ICE spokesman James Judge said Megahed ''has been placed into removal proceedings'' and will be held until a judge hears his case. He declined to comment further.

Megahed is a legal permanent U.S. resident who's lived with his family in the United States since he was 11.




WHAT ARE THE ODDS?  NYC ATTACK WITHIN 2 YEARS, BEFORE THE TRIAL BEGINS? 
To detain or not to detain, that is the question...civil trials for the worst of the worst - the Obama administration decision brings a made-for-TV trial to this courthouse...


AP sources: Ill. prison to get Gitmo detainees
YAHOO
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press Writer
Dec. 15, 2009

WASHINGTON – Taking an important step on the thorny path to closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the White House plans to announce Tuesday that the government will acquire an underutilized state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo.  Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House.

Officials from both the White House and Durbin's office confirmed that President Barack Obama had directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting Tuesday's announcement.  A Durbin aide said the facility would house federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The facility in Thomson had emerged as a clear front-runner after Illinois officials, led by Durbin, enthusiastically embraced the idea of turning a near-dormant prison over to federal officials.  The White House has been coy about its selection process, but on Friday a draft memo leaked to a conservative Web site that seemed to indicate officials were homing in on Thomson.

The Thomson Correctional Center was one of several potential sites evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to potentially house detainees from the Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay. Officials with other prisons, including Marion, Ill., Hardin, Mont., and Florence, Colo., have said they would welcome the jobs that would be created by the new inmates.

Closing Guantanamo is a top priority for Obama, and he signed an executive order hours into his presidency directing that the process of closing the prison begin. Obama has said he wants terrorism suspects transferred to American soil so they can be tried for their suspected crimes.

The Thomson Correctional Center was built by Illinois in 2001 as a state prison with the potential to house maximum security inmates. Local officials hoped it would improve the local economy, providing jobs to a hard-hit community. State budget problems, however, have kept the 1,600-cell prison from ever fully opening. At present, it houses about 200 minimum-security inmates.

Obama has faced some resistance to the idea of housing terrorism suspects in the United States, but in Thomson many have welcomed the prospect as a potential economic engine. Thomson Village President Jerry Hebeler, was asleep when the word came that Thomson had been chosen.

"It's news to me, but then I'm always the last to know anything," Hebeler said Monday night of the news affecting his town of 450 residents. "It'll be good for the village and the surrounding area, especially with all the jobs that have been lost here."

But Hebeler said he wouldn't rejoice until "the ink is on the paper" because previous plans for increased use of the nearly empty prison have fallen through.

Some Illinois officials have not supported the idea. GOP Rep. Mark Kirk, who is seeking Obama's old Senate seat, said he believes moving Guantanamo detainees to Illinois will make the state a greater threat for terrorist attacks. Kirk has lobbied other officials to contact the White House in opposition to using the facility.

To be sure, Thomson will not solve all the administration's Guantanamo-related problems. There still will be dozens of detainees who are not relocated to Thomson, other legal issues and potential resistance from Congress.  Thomson is a symbolic step, however, a clear sign that the United States is working to find a new place to hold detainees from Guantanamo.


Giuliani furious about 9/11 trial decision

By DAPHNE RETTER and CATHY BURKE
Last Updated: 9:56 AM, November 16, 2009
Posted: 4:11 AM, November 16, 2009

Stop coddling the 9/11 killers -- the war on terror is far from over, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani fumed yesterday.

The decision by the Obama administration to put the self-proclaimed mastermind of the terror attacks and four accomplices on trial in New York is pure politics, Giuliani charged in interviews yesterday on Fox News and CNN.

The decision, he said, proclaims, "both in substance and reality, the war on terror, in their point of view, is over."

"There seems to be an over-concern with the rights of terrorists and a lack of concern with the rights of the public."

He noted that terror chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed "asked to be brought to New York" when he was first arrested.

"I didn't think we were in the business of granting the requests of terrorists."

The Democratic administration's plan to try Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators in federal criminal trials in New York is a shift from the Republican Bush administration's anti-terror strategy -- which created military tribunals for all suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Obama administration plans to close Guantanamo.

The five suspects have been accused of conspiring to finance, train and direct the 19 hijackers who seized four airliners used in the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Their trial here, Giuliani said, would be a waste of "millions and millions of dollars."

"Anyone that tells you this doesn't create additional security problems, of course, isn't telling you the truth," he said.

Other Republicans echoed similar concerns in interviews on CBS, Fox and CNN.

"They [the terrorists] are going to do everything they can to disrupt it and make it a circus and allow them to use it as a platform to push their ideology," said Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee.

But White House senior adviser David Axelrod shot back, "We believe that these folks should be tried in New York City . . . near where their heinous acts were conducted, in full view, in our court system."

He also reiterated the White House intention to close Guantanamo. "We are going to get it done," he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that "I want to see them brought to justice. The most important thing for me is that, you know, they pay the ultimate price for what they did to us on 9/11."

Mayor Bloomberg applauded the decision.

He said he had "great confidence" that the NYPD and feds would "handle security expertly."

Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes Ground Zero, said, "Would I prefer it elsewhere? Probably, but you know at this point it's here, and let's just make sure that we get the security and the resources that we need."

The administration has to give Congress 45 days' notice of its intent to transfer Guantanamo detainees from military to civilian lockups.

As the trial nears -- proceedings aren't expected to start for at least two years -- the detainees will sit it out at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, where a special unit is set aside for terror suspects.
Pentagon chief says "tough" to meet Gitmo deadline
YAHOO
By Deborah Zabarenko
Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:08 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged in an interview broadcast on Sunday that it would be difficult to meet the Obama administration's January 22 deadline for closing the Guantanamo detention camp.

Asked directly whether that deadline would be met, Gates told ABC's "This Week" program, "It's going to be tough."

Recent reports have suggested the administration may not meet the deadline because of legal, political and diplomatic issues involving the detainees at the controversial prison at a U.S. naval base in Cuba.  There are still some 223 detainees at the facility set up by the Bush administration in 2002 to hold foreign terrorism suspects captured after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan.  Some detainees are expected to be transferred abroad while others could face charges in U.S. military tribunals or in American courtrooms. The Justice Department said on Saturday three detainees had been sent to Ireland and Yemen.

Gates said, "I actually was one of those who said we should (set a deadline) because I know enough from being around this town that if you don't put a deadline on something, you'll never move the bureaucracy.

"But I also said and then if we find we can't get it done by that time but we have a good plan, then you're in a position to say it's going to take us a little longer but we are moving in the direction of implementing the policy that the president set," he said.

An administration official said on Saturday the White House was close to selecting a location on U.S. soil to house some detainees.

"We are doing everything we can to close it by the (January) date," the official said, adding, "We are in the final stages of locating a secure facility in the U.S. where detainees can be held.

Democrats have mostly backed closing Guantanamo, pointing to international criticism of the detention camp and concerns the prison provides a rallying cry to groups like al Qaeda.  Most Republicans have criticized Obama for wanting to close the camp since it is already set up for detention and trials.  But Senator John McCain, Obama's Republican opponent in the 2008 presidential election, disagreed.

"We should continue to work toward the closure of Guantanamo Bay because of the image it has in the world of brutality," he told ABC. "It harms our image very badly."
Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan
NYTIMES
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
May 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.

The discussion, in a 90-minute meeting in the Cabinet Room that included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and other top administration officials, came on the eve of a much-anticipated speech Mr. Obama is to give Thursday on a number of thorny national security matters, including his promise to close the detention center at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights advocates are growing deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama’s stance on these issues, especially his recent move to block the release of photographs showing abuse of detainees, and his announcement that he is willing to try terrorism suspects in military commissions — a concept he criticized bitterly as a presidential candidate.

The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.

They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the issue of preventive detention himself, but made clear that he had not made a decision on it. Several senior White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the outsiders’ accounts.

“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”

The other participant said Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate battlefield like Afghanistan. “The issue is,” the participant said, “What are the options left open to a future president?”

Mr. Obama did not specify how he intended to deal with Guantánamo detainees who posed a threat and could not be tried, nor did he share the contents of Thursday’s speech, the participants said.

He will deliver the speech at a site laden with symbolism — the National Archives, home to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Across town, his biggest Republican critic, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will deliver a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mr. Cheney and other hawkish critics have sought to portray Mr. Obama as weak on terror, and their argument seems to be catching on with the public. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats, in a clear rebuke to the White House, blocked the $80 million Mr. Obama had requested in financing to close the Guantánamo prison.

The lawmakers say they want a detailed plan before releasing the money; there is deep opposition on Capitol Hill to housing terrorism suspects inside the United States.

“He needs to convince people that he’s got a game plan that will protect us as well as be fair to the detainees,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who agrees with Mr. Obama that the prison should be closed. “If he can do that, then we’re back on track. But if he doesn’t make that case, then we’ve lost control of this debate.”

But Mr. Obama will not use the speech to provide the details lawmakers want.

“What it’s not going to be is a prescriptive speech,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “The president wants to take some time and put this whole issue in perspective to identify what the challenges are and how he will approach dealing with them.”
Court reverses ruling bringing 17 detainees to US 
DAY
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 
Posted on Feb 18, 12:22 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A U.S. appeals court reversed a ruling Wednesday that would have transferred 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees, none of whom are labeled enemy combatants, to the United States.

The ruling casts further uncertainty on the fate of the Turkic-speaking Muslims from western China. Because there is no evidence they plotted or fought against the United States, the government has no authority to hold them at Guantanamo Bay, but deciding what to do with the men has been a diplomatic problem for years.

The military says the men have ties to a militant group that demands separation from China. The United States will not release the Uighurs to their home for fear they will be tortured. Earlier this month, Beijing warned other countries not to accept the men, creating a diplomatic roadblock to President Barack Obama's plan to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled in October that, since they are not enemy combatants, the Uighurs must be released to the United States. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling.

Only the executive branch, not the courts, can make decisions about immigration, the appeals court said. That fact doesn't change, the court said, simply because the United States has held the men for years without charge.

"Such sentiments, however high-minded, do not represent a legal basis for upsetting settled law and overriding the prerogatives of the political branches," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote.

The decision has ramifications beyond the Uighurs. The Supreme Court has held that Guantanamo Bay detainees can go to court to challenge their imprisonment. The ruling, however, says a judge can hear the case but has no authority to actually free the detainees.

In ordering the Uighurs released last year, Urbina strongly rebuked the Bush administration for holding men who were not enemy combatants indefinitely, without charge.

"I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for the detention," he said. "There is a pressing need to have these people, who have been incarcerated for seven years, to have those conditions changed."

The appeals court ruled that Urbina lacked the authority to right that wrong.

"The government has represented that it is continuing diplomatic attempts to find an appropriate country willing to admit petitioners, and we have no reason to doubt that it is doing so," Randolph wrote. "Nor do we have the power to require anything more."

The court, made up of one Democratic and two Republican appointees, unanimously overturned Urbina's decision. But Judge Judith Rogers, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote a separate opinion saying Urbina had the authority to release the men but only after hearing from U.S. immigration officials.

The U.S. released four Uighurs from Guantanamo Bay in 2006, sending them to Albania because it was the only country that would take them. A Swedish immigration court granted asylum to one of those men on Wednesday. Adil Hakimjan applied for asylum in Sweden because his sister lives there.
 
Op-Ed Contributor
The Coming Swarm
By JOHN ARQUILLA, Monterey, Calif.
February 15, 2009

WITH three Afghan government ministries in Kabul hit by simultaneous suicide attacks this week, by a total of just eight terrorists, it seems that a new “Mumbai model” of swarming, smaller-scale terrorist violence is emerging.

The basic concept is that hitting several targets at once, even with just a few fighters at each site, can cause fits for elite counterterrorist forces that are often manpower-heavy, far away and organized to deal with only one crisis at a time. This approach certainly worked in Mumbai, India, last November, where five two-man teams of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives held the city hostage for two days, killing 179 people. The Indian security forces, many of which had to be flown in from New Delhi, simply had little ability to strike back at more than one site at a time.

While it’s true that the assaults in Kabul seem to be echoes of Mumbai, the fact is that Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been using these sorts of swarm tactics for several years. Jemaah Islamiyah — the group responsible for the Bali nightclub attack that killed 202 people in 2002 — mounted simultaneous attacks on 16 Christian churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve in 2000, befuddling security forces.

Even 9/11 itself had swarm-like characteristics, as four small teams of Qaeda operatives simultaneously seized commercial aircraft and turned them into missiles, flummoxing all our defensive responses. In the years since, Al Qaeda has coordinated swarm attacks in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and elsewhere. And at the height of the insurgency in Iraq, terrorists repeatedly used swarms on targets as small as truck convoys and as large as whole cities.

This pattern suggests that Americans should brace for a coming swarm. Right now, most of our cities would be as hard-pressed as Mumbai was to deal with several simultaneous attacks. Our elite federal and military counterterrorist units would most likely find their responses slowed, to varying degrees, by distance and the need to clarify jurisdiction.

While the specifics of the federal counterterrorism strategy are classified, what is in the public record indicates that the plan contemplates having to deal with as many as three sites being simultaneously hit and using “overwhelming force” against the terrorists, which probably means mustering as many as 3,000 ground troops to the site. If that’s an accurate picture, it doesn’t bode well. We would most likely have far too few such elite units for dealing with a large number of small terrorist teams carrying out simultaneous attacks across a region or even a single city.

Nightmare possibilities include synchronized assaults on several shopping malls, high-rise office buildings or other places that have lots of people and relatively few exits. Another option would be to set loose half a dozen two-man sniper teams in some metropolitan area — you only have to recall the havoc caused by the Washington sniper in 2002 to imagine how huge a panic a slightly larger version of that form of terrorism would cause.

So how are swarms to be countered? The simplest way is to create many more units able to respond to simultaneous, small-scale attacks and spread them around the country. This means jettisoning the idea of overwhelming force in favor of small units that are not “elite” but rather “good enough” to tangle with terrorist teams. In dealing with swarms, economizing on force is essential.

We’ve actually had a good test case in Iraq over the past two years. Instead of responding to insurgent attacks by sending out large numbers of troops from distant operating bases, the military strategy is now based on hundreds of smaller outposts in which 40 or 50 American troops are permanently stationed and prepared to act swiftly against attackers. Indeed, their very presence in Iraqi communities is a big deterrent. It’s small surprise that overall violence across Iraq has dropped by about 80 percent in that period.

For the defense of American cities against terrorist swarms, the key would be to use local police officers as the first line of defense instead of relying on the military. The first step would be to create lots of small counterterrorism posts throughout urban areas instead of keeping police officers in large, centralized precinct houses. This is consistent with existing notions of community-based policing, and could even include an element of outreach to residents similar to that undertaken in the Sunni areas of Iraq — even if it were to mean taking the paradoxical turn of negotiating with gangs about security.

At the federal level, we should stop thinking in terms of moving thousands of troops across the country and instead distribute small response units far more widely. Cities, states and Washington should work out clear rules in advance for using military forces in a counterterrorist role, to avoid any bickering or delay during a crisis. Reserve and National Guard units should train and field many more units able to take on small teams of terrorist gunmen and bombers. Think of them as latter-day Minutemen.

Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen all responded to Qaeda attacks with similar “packetizing” initiatives involving the police and armed forces; and while that hasn’t eliminated swarm attacks, the terrorists have been far less effective and many lives have been saved.

As for Afghanistan, where the swarm has just arrived, there is still time to realize the merits of forming lots of small units and sprinkling them about in a countrywide network of outposts. As President Obama looks to send more troops to that war, let’s make sure the Pentagon does it the right way.

Yes, the swarm will be heading our way, too. We need to get smaller, closer and quicker. The sooner the better.

John Arquilla teaches in the special operations program at the Naval Postgraduate School and is the author of “Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military.”

9/11 KIN MEETING WITH PREZ ON GITMO
New York Post
Posted: 2:04 am
February 6, 2009

President Obama, under fire for suspending trials of suspected terrorists and for phasing out the Guantanamo prison in Cuba, has invited relatives of 9/11 victim's to the White House for a meeting today.

Family members, who will attend a 3:30 p.m. get-together in the Roosevelt Room, told The Post they hope to urge the president to swiftly prosecute the suspects, including those who bragged of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center.

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches - whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died at Ground Zero - was ticked off by Obama's Gitmo decision. Riches last month visited Gitmo and attended the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters, who stood up and admitted their guilt.

"We saw these people face to face," he said. "I want to tell the president what happened at Gitmo - that these detainees were laughing about what they did. I wish these trials were on TV. Americans would be outraged.

"I don't want what happened to my son to happen to anyone else.

"Let's bring these guys to trial. Eight years is long enough. I want them tried, convicted and, if they killed my son, I want the death penalty."

Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, was eager to hear from the president.

"I'm hoping it's a substantive meeting," she said.

The White House has also invited relatives of victims of the terror attack on the USS Cole to attend.

Long Island Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, commended the White House for its outreach.

"The fact that he's meeting with the 9/11 families is a positive thing," he said. "He realizes that this is complicated and there are legitimate emotions involved."

King opposes Obama's call to close Gitmo and the president's order to ban controversial interrogation practices, such as water boarding. Obama vowed during the presidential campaign to close Gitmo, complaining that some detainees were tortured - violating US ideals and giving the country a black eye in world opinion.  He said America can both prosecute war criminals and uphold human rights.

Meanwhile, the judge overseeing terror trials at Gitmo dropped charges yesterday against a suspect in the bombing of the Cole who's being held there.  Abd al Rahim al Nashiri is the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack. He claims he confessed only after being tortured.  The move brings the base into compliance with Obama's request for a 90-day delay in legal proceedings.

The Saudi national will remain at Gitmo, and could be re-charged at a later date, officials said. Seventeen US sailors died on the Cole when al Qaeda suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the destroyer, which was at anchor in a Yemen port.


USS Cole suspect charges dropped
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Eli Lake and Stephen Dinan
Friday, February 6, 2009

The U.S. government has dropped charges for now against the Saudi man it accuses of masterminding the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors as the ship sat at the dock in Yemen.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, made the decision to withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.  However, Mr. Morrell said Thursday night that the dismissal was made "without prejudice," meaning the U.S. government may continue to prosecute him at a later date.

"Should the Obama administration choose to restart the administration's process or choose an alternative means to adjudicate his case, they have that option," Mr. Morrell said.

Mr. Morrell said al-Nashiri will not be set free, in the U.S. or elsewhere, any time soon. For now, he and 243 other detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba will be staying put as a special Cabinet-level review team determines whether to charge the inmates in federal court, send them to foreign courts, release them, or deal with them through some other process.

The White House didn't return messages seeking comment, and President Obama didn't respond to a question a reporter called to him about dismissing the charges as he left the press cabin aboard Air Force One on Thursday night.

However, the White House did announce Mr. Obama will meet Friday afternoon with family members of victims of the Sept. 11 and Cole attacks.

"The president wants to talk with these families about resolving the issues involved with closing Guantanamo Bay while keeping the safety and security of the American people as his top priority," the White House said in a statement announcing the meeting.

On Inauguration Day, Mr. Obama instructed the Defense Department to request 120-day delays in the trials, and the next day judges began to halt the trials.

On Jan. 22, two days after his inauguration, Mr. Obama signed three executive orders and one memorandum directing his administration to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to conduct a review of all terrorist suspect trials.

The al-Nashiri trial was the last one still ongoing Thursday night because Col. James L. Pohl, the chief judge of the Guantanamo Bay War Crimes court, refused to abide by the executive orders.

Peter Gadiel, whose son died in the Sept. 11 attacks and who runs 9/11 Families for a Secure America, will attend the Friday meeting. He said he expected about 30 family members of victims to be there.

He said if Mr. Obama does close the detention facility and have trials in U.S. courts, some terrorists will go free and, he predicted, take part in more terrorist plots.

"When they commit terrorist acts, the blood of the victims will be on his hands," Mr. Gadiel said of Mr. Obama.

Retired Cdr. Kirk Lippold, who was the Cole's captain at the time of the attack, said the Obama administration's decision "disregarded the legitimacy of the Military Commissions process" and was demeaning to U.S. service members and their families.

"It appears that the Obama Administration, without consideration for its immediate impact or long-term effects, will use a legal maneuver to prevent these detainees from being held accountable for their heinous acts. The families of the USS Cole sailors and all military families have waited too long for justice to be served," he said in a statement. "The president must consider the impact of his policy decisions on the military and their families who bear the burden of their sacrifice to protect our nation. To do any less demeans their service and sacrifice.

Al-Nashiri was one of three "high-value" al Qaeda suspects in custody that outgoing CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said last year had been "waterboarded" in 2002 and 2003 in CIA secret prisons.

At his confirmation hearing Thursday, Mr. Obama's nominee to head the CIA, Leon Panetta, said that he considered waterboarding to be torture. Al-Nashiri has said that he confessed to certain charges because he was tortured.

Mr. Panetta also told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that some suspects may be detained for a long period without access to an open trial.

"There probably has to develop some kind of process that allows for some kind of reporting to the federal courts so that there is an ongoing system of reporting why they are being incarcerated and why they are being held so that they just aren't, you know, put away without any resort to our justice system. But I think there are going to be a group of prisoners that, very frankly, are going to have to be held in detainment for a long time," Mr. Panetta said.
5 Men Are Convicted in Plot on Fort Dix
NYTIMES
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
December 22, 2008

A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press.

The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers -- Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka -- and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.

Defense lawyers argued that the men were never serious about attacking Fort Dix, and that the government informants repeatedly coaxed the men into making incendiary comments on government wiretaps.

Defense lawyers also hammered at credibility of the informants. One is an Egyptian-born illegal immigrant on probation for bank fraud; the other has been paid about $150,000 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for making the secret recording.

The five men were arrested in May 2007 after one of the government’s informants secretly videotaped them paying $1,400 for seven machine guns in the informant’s apartment, in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Investigators later found videos found on one defendant’s computer that showed clips of dead American soldiers and kidnapping victims about to be beheaded.

In March, the judge who presided over this trial, Robert B. Kugler of Federal District Court in Camden, sentenced a friend of the Duka brothers to 20 months in prison, for supplying the brothers with guns and ammunition. The friend, Agron Abdullahu, was released in October, said his lawyer in the case, Richard Coughlin.
Dems, GOP agree to telecom deal
Bill would quash 40 civil lawsuits challenging legality of wiretapping
DAY
By Pamela Hess       
Published on 6/20/2008

Washington - Big Telecom is being let off the hook.

House and Senate leaders have agreed to vote on a new surveillance bill that effectively shields from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government to wiretap American phone and computer lines without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

That warrantless wiretapping went on for almost six years. The New York Times revealed in late 2005 that the administration was conducting surveillance without the knowledge of the secret court set up 30 years ago to oversee just such activity. The Bush administration brought the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program under the court in January 2007.

The bill does other things, too, to strengthen the protection of American civil liberties. It would require the government to get a court order before eavesdropping on Americans who are overseas, rather than just getting the permission of the attorney general to target an American abroad. It expressly prohibits reverse targeting, that is, eavesdropping on a foreigner abroad in an attempt to hear calls or read e-mails to a particular American.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the bill “balances the needs of our intelligence community with Americans' civil liberties and provides critical new oversight and accountability requirements.”

The White House threatened to veto any bill that did not shield the companies, which tapped lines at the behest of the president but without permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against the companies by people and groups who think the government illegally eavesdropped.

The compromise bill would have a federal district court review certifications from the attorney general saying the telecommunications companies received presidential orders telling them wiretaps were needed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack. If the paperwork were in order, the judge would dismiss the lawsuit automatically.

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the second-ranking Republican, predicted all the cases would go away.

Not all Democrats were falling in line with the compromise. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said they opposed immunity. Feingold called the bill a “capitulation.”

Several privacy and civil rights organizations said Thursday they opposed the bill.
Spectrum Auction Raises $19.6 Billion
NYTIMES
Article Tools Sponsored By
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 18, 2008

Filed at 4:57 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bidding has closed on a record-setting government airwaves auction, with the total amount pledged reaching nearly $19.6 billion. But enthusiasm in the result was tempered by doubts concerning the future of a proposed emergency communications network.

The total was the most bid since the Federal Communications Commission began using auctions in 1994 to decide who should be granted rights to use the publicly owned airwaves.

About one-sixth of the spectrum at auction was dedicated to the creation of an emergency communications network for first responders. But the so-called D block did not attract the minimum bid required by FCC auction rules.
Commander Warns of al-Qaida Threat to US 
New London DAY
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer 
Posted on Mar 6, 10:19 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic defense said Thursday.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, told reporters he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S. presidential elections. But he said it would be imprudent to think that such threats are not there.

"We need only to look at Spain and see that they're certainly willing to try to do something that is significant that could affect an election process," Renuart said. "I think it would be imprudent of us to let down our guard believing that if there's no credible threat that you know of today, there won't be something tomorrow."

While he said that U.S. authorities have thwarted attacks on a number of occasions, he said terrorist cells may be working harder than ever to plot high-impact events. He did not point to any specific intelligence that authorities have received but said the "chatter" they are hearing "gives me no reason to believe they're going to slow down" in their efforts to target the U.S.

"If an organization like that is to maintain credibility and continue to grow more of its extremists, it has to show tangible results," Renuart said. "So I think there may be a certain sense of urgency among that organization to have an effect. So it would tell me that they're trying harder."

Of the more than a dozen daily events that Northern Command responds to - ranging from natural disasters to threats - two or three may have the potential to be terrorist incidents, he said.

The chatter, which included public audio and video tapes released on the Internet by al-Qaida leaders, suggests that they are looking for a way to have a big impact again, he said. Pressed for details, he said the chatter was more common but "whether that's louder or more ominous, I'm not sure I'm ready to draw that conclusion."

He did, however, repeat his assertion - which he first made last July - that he believes there are al-Qaida cells or sympathizers within the United States.

President Bush, in a speech, also said the United States remained under threat from terrorists. Marking the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Homeland Security Department, Bush said that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks "it was hard to imagine that we would reach this milestone without another attack on our homeland."

Yet he said, "On this anniversary, we must also remember that the danger to our country has not passed. Since the attacks of 9/11, the terrorists have tried to strike our homeland again and again. We've disrupted numerous planned attacks - including a plot to fly an airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast and another to blow up passenger jets headed for America across the Atlantic Ocean."

Bush said the lesson is clear: "The enemy remains active, deadly in its intent - and in the face of this danger, the United States must never let down its guard."


Mukasey Visits Guantanamo
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 27, 2008
Filed at 1:42 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey met briefly Wednesday with government prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the U.S. prepares its case against six al-Qaida suspects accused of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

The attorney general was expected to spend only about six hours at the Naval station during his previously unannounced first trip there, said Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr.

Mukasey ''is meeting with military personnel and other officials involved in the military commissions proceedings,'' Carr said. He said Justice Department prosecutors ''have been involved in the investigation since the high value detainees were moved to Guantanamo Bay.''

Mukasey was to return to Washington by Wednesday afternoon.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, 15 so-called ''high-value detainees'' were held at length by the CIA in secret overseas prisons before being handed over to the military. Six of them, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are facing the death penalty in a military trial that officials say could still be months, if not years, away.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in a few months on whether Guantanamo detainees can challenge their confinement in civilian courts. In 2006, the court ruled that a previous legal process for the detainees was unconstitutional, prompting Congress and the Bush administration months later to resurrect the tribunals in an altered form under the Military Commissions Act.

Critics of the untested military commissions system say the high-profile trial will expose its flaws.

Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser to the military commissions, said earlier this month that the trial for the six Guantanamo detainees is at least 120 days away, ''and probably well beyond that.''

An estimated 275 men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban are held at Guantanamo.
Justice For 9/11 Culprits - Scope of the al-Qaida conspiracy would be laid bare. 
By The Day    
Published on 2/12/2008 

The Sept. 11, 2001 suicide terrorist attacks on the United States killed 2,974 innocent people, and if the government can hold anyone still living responsible for those acts, it has an obligation to bring them to justice.

It appears that is what our government is finally preparing to do.

On Monday Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann said 169 criminal charges will be formally filed against six men incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The defendants will include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who allegedly masterminded the attacks in which 19 men hijacked four commercial jetliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers, a third into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania when passengers heroically fought with the hijackers.

Also charged will be: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called “20th hijacker” who was unable to get on one of the planes; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an alleged intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaida leaders; Mr. Mohammed's lieutenant, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali; Walid bin Attash, alleged to have trained the suicide attackers; and suspected al-Qaida operative Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.

They are among the most high-profile inmates at Guantanamo, home to an estimated 275 prisoners. How to deal do with these “enemy combatants” will be a challenge for years to come, but as the government at last begins to move forward with its first major case it's appropriate that the defendants be those individuals most closely linked with the 9/11 terror attacks.

The public should not expect a quick resolution, however. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice found problems with the handling of these unique suspects, ruling that military tribunals did not provide sufficient protection for detainees to challenge their detention and their accusers. In response, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, providing detainees limited access to the evidence against them and legal counsel. More constitutional challenges are certain, perhaps delaying justice for years.

It was good to hear Brig. Gen. Hartmann's assurances that it will be an open process with no secret trials, though understandably some classified information of a national security nature must remain closed.

It was unfortunate, however, to learn that the government would seek the death penalty. The Day opposes state-sponsored executions as morally wrong. But placing the moral argument aside, there are other reasons for not seeking death sentences.

If executions are ever carried out, the United States would simply be making martyrs of these men, and encouraging more recruits for their twisted cause. Taking the moral high ground by issuing life sentences for convictions is the better option if the United States wants to generate world support for the terrorist fight along with a legal victory. Finally, trying to get a death sentence will invite even greater scrutiny of the prosecutorial process, prolong the legal challenges and subject the methods used to gain evidence to even greater scrutiny.

CIA Director Michael Hayden has recently acknowledged that Mr. Mohammed and two other suspects were subjected to the torturous technique of waterboarding. It will be up to a military judge to rule whether statements gained using such interrogation methods are admissible.

The coming proceedings could present the greatest prosecutorial challenge since the Nuremberg trials brought Nazi officials to justice. If done right, like the Nuremberg trials, these trials will reveal the extent of evil that the world confronted, and continues to face.


Blumenthal opposes relicensing of Indian Point
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Brian Lockhart
Published December 4 2007

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced yesterday he is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny new 20-year licenses for Indian Point's two nuclear reactors in Buchanan, N.Y., until security and environmental concerns are addressed.

The power plant's existing 40-year permits expire in 2013 and 2015.  Indian Point's owner, Entergy Corp., applied for the new licenses in the spring. This weekend was the deadline to intervene and request hearings by the NRC.  New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo also announced his state is opposing the new licenses, in large part over concerns Indian Point is susceptible to terrorist attack.

"We're not saying that Indian Point should be shut down," Blumenthal said. "But rather (the license) should be extended only if it meets certain safety and environmental conditions. Those include a workable evacuation plan, a program for disposing of nuclear waste and procedures to safeguard against accident or terrorist attack."

Lower Fairfield County is within 50 miles of the reactors alongside the Hudson River, with the Stamford border fewer than 23 miles away. Diane Screnci, an NRC spokeswoman, outlined the licensing process, saying hearing requests will be vetted by a three-person atomic safety and licensing board.

"Your documentation should include a demonstration you . . . would be affected by any action we might take and also the issues or 'contentions' that would need to be addressed," she said.

Screnci said it will take at least a couple months for the panel to review petitions from Blumenthal, Cuomo and others.  If no hearing is scheduled, Screnci said the licensing process will take about 22 months, or until July 2009. A hearing process will boost the timeline to 30 months.  Jim Steets, head of regional communications for Entergy, yesterday disputed Blumenthal's criticisms of Indian Point and questioned whether Connecticut's attorney general had a role in the licensing debate.

"The idea anybody would have to be evacuated from those areas (in Connecticut) as the result of an event at Indian Point is baseless," Steets said. "I'm not surprised because our own attorney general thinks these plants can blow up like nuclear bombs. But people who know how these plants work, know that evacuating beyond just several miles in even the worst accident would be unnecessary."

Not true, Blumenthal said.

"A major part of Connecticut's population - as much as a third, to a half of all citizens - could be exposed to radioactive contamination if there was a substantial accident or attack," he said.

Screnci yesterday would not comment on the merits of Blumenthal's concerns and whether they would trigger a hearing.

"I can tell you we assess performance at the plant routinely, and we believe the two Indian Point units are being operated safely," she said.

Screnci added that because security concerns are part of NRC's everyday oversight of Indian Point, they are "not normally considered in licensing renewal."

Katherine Kennedy, a special deputy attorney in Cuomo's office, hopes the NRC will reconsider in light of a recent federal Court of Appeals decision requiring it to review terrorism issues when relicensing nuclear plants on the West Coast.

"So we have an unfair situation where citizens in California or Oregon can raise security and terrorism issues and the NRC will have to address them. But here in New York we're denied that right," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said Cuomo was working to persuade NRC to wrap security matters into its environmental review of Indian Point.

"We may also seek a waiver that allows parties to raise additional issues if very relevant and important," Kennedy said.

Federal and state lawmakers have continually expressed concerns about Indian Point's security, as well as emergency effects on Connecticut after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"They have made some upgrades, mostly superficial," Blumenthal said. "In our view, they still have failed to assure a sufficiently high standard to justify licensing extension. And they should be held to a very high standard."

The NRC said in 2004 that a speedy, significant release of radiation is all but impossible at Indian Point, even if terrorists crashed a jetliner into it.  And in April 2006, NRC representatives told U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, and other members of a House Government Reform subcommittee that Indian Point and other nuclear power plants can quickly change internal operations to protect the public from radiation exposure if targeted by a hijacked plane.

But in recent months, Indian Point has suffered some high-profile embarrassments.

In August, NRC reported one of its inspectors found an armed guard asleep at the gate of an inner security ring at the plant and spent two minutes trying to wake him.

And last month, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, in a letter to the NRC, said the county would no longer participate in emergency drills because Indian Point employees "were unprepared to participate, unfamiliar with the process and uninformed about the drill scenario."

Urgency fades for pills offering radiation protection
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Brian Lockhart
Published December 4 2007

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mike Cosenza, like some others in lower Fairfield County, invested in potassium iodide pills to block radiation in case the Indian Point nuclear plant became a target.

"I remember buying some of these things at the Weston Pharmacy," Cosenza said. "God knows what happened to them."

But Kerry Stevens of New Canaan keeps good track of her pills. She bought a fresh batch earlier this year.

"They're in a safe spot," Stevens said. "I do think about it periodically. I have low-grade angst about the whole thing - nothing like after 9/11."

As the nation examined its vulnerabilities after the terrorist attacks, public officials and area residents were faced with the decision of whether or not to stockpile potassium iodide, or KI, pills.

Taken in the proper dosage, potassium iodide is authorized by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prevent certain cancers caused when the thyroid absorbs radioactive iodine dispersed in a nuclear accident.  After the attacks, state officials distributed tablets from the NRC to residents living within a 10-mile radius of Connecticut's nuclear power plants.

Located over the New York border in Buchanan, Indian Point is outside the NRC's prescribed radius for distributing the tablets.

But elected officials in Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich and Westport fretted over contradictory claims about how far radiation could spread and whether they needed to act independently of the state and federal government to ensure constituents' safety.  Taking the lead was Diane Farrell, who was then the first selectwoman in Westport. That town spent $25,000 on the tablets and distributed them in June 2002 through the Westport Weston Health District.

"I have no regrets," Farrell said yesterday, adding she has kept her own supply. "Sadly, I believe we still live in a post-9/11 world and our vulnerabilities remain. I think it was a prudent decision on the town's part."

But John Cimarosa, a health district consultant, said the urgency surrounding the pills' purchase and distribution has subsided.  Cimarosa said the health district probably has 50,000 to 70,000 doses stockpiled.

"We haven't thought about it in a long time, to be honest," Cimarosa said.  And there appears to be no pressure on the health district to get a fresh supply of the tablets.

KI is known to have a shelf life of five years. And the NRC, according to the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, earlier this year provided the state with a new batch.

"We checked with the manufacturer. It's salt. It's basically not going to go bad as long as it's dry," Cimarosa said. "So we're keeping it. It doesn't make sense to me it would lose any potency . . ."

In early 2003, Dr. Anthony Iton, who was then the Stamford health director, was planning to stockpile potassium iodide for schools and day-care centers.  But current Stamford Health Director Dr. Johnnie Lee, as well as a city school board member, said yesterday they do not recall that the plan moved forward.

"It doesn't sound like something we would enter into without a whole lot of debate," school board member Susan Nabel said. She added that Indian Point "is awfully far away from us."

Greenwich resident Stephen Myers said yesterday he continues to believe town leaders were wrong for not purchasing and distributing the pills.  In a letter to The Advocate in 2003, Myers noted the American Thyroid Association and other groups endorse distributing potassium iodide in advance to individual households at a distance up to 50 miles from the site of a nuclear emergency.

"It still strikes me as being a good idea, because the potential hazard at Indian Point hasn't changed," Myers said. He said he and his wife have pills stored at home.

Former Norwalk Common Council member Kevin Poruban also has KI tablets stockpiled for his family.  As chairman of the council's public safety committee, Poruban was considering whether to recommend Norwalk purchase and distribute the pills to residents for about $64,000. But the city never went ahead with the plan.  Poruban said he, too, has read studies that say the pills should be distributed to residents living within a 50-mile radius of a nuclear plant.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," Poruban said. "I'd rather throw stuff out because it expired and I haven't used it than have a situation arise and say, 'Gee, I wish I had it.' "

No Way This Stuff's Going To Fly
By LYNN DOAN | Courant Staff Writer
November 6, 2007

WINDSOR LOCKS - Souvenir baseball bats. Screwdrivers and wrenches. A long and jagged piece of rock.

They all lie among the piles of prohibited carry-on items left behind by passengers at Bradley International Airport's security checkpoints. Last year, security workers at Bradley collected about 1.5 tons - roughly the weight of a car - of what they determined to be potential weapons.

But what's the ultimate fate of the abandoned items? Look no further than New Hampshire.

For the past year, the state of New Hampshire has been picking up the ever-accumulating treasure-trove of pocketknives, sporting equipment and miscellaneous keepsakes to auction off at its state surplus store. New Hampshire rids the Transportation Security Administration at Bradley of the growing piles free of cost, and gets to pocket the money from sales.

"[Granite State residents] love this stuff," said Gil Dubay, a TSA financial specialist who coordinates the pickups for New Hampshire. "It sells."

In a shipment made last week, 20 knee-high buckets of gadgets were hauled off to New Hampshire. TSA workers recently poured the contents of a few buckets onto a conference room table to eye the bounty before its departure.

Out came a stick of bamboo, three free weights and a plethora of blades. Dan Lee, a TSA spokesman, kept one item behind for a while to show around: "Ceasefire," a cologne kept in a grenade-shaped bottle.

Though absent from the most recent batch, Red Sox paraphernalia usually make up a good chunk of the prohibited items left at the checkpoints, Dubay said. Fans will try to scoot through security with sporting equipment, such as souvenir bats, not realizing that the items are banned because they could be used as weapons, officials said.

Other items in this batch are more flagrant violations of the security regulations. Dubay pulled a 6-inch blade out of bubble wrap. "Can you imagine someone trying to get on a plane with this?" he said.

A New Hampshire state official said the knives, auctioned off for $1 to $2 each, sell the best.

Before establishing the agreement with New Hampshire, Lee said, TSA paid for the collections to be carted off to a foundry in West Springfield, where they were melted.

Connecticut's surplus department originally was offered the non-liquid smorgasbord but declined, he said.

Liquid and chemical items prohibited by security are disposed of separately through a hazardous material company.

In recent years, TSA has had to worry less about disposing of the items left behind. That's because travelers have become more aware of what to pack in their carry-on luggage, and because some businesses at the airport now offer to ship the prohibited items to travelers for a fee.

The volume of items collected at Bradley's security checkpoints has decreased from 5.29 tons in 2003 to 1.5 tons last year. TSA workers recalled a time when they used to fill a dumpster with items every other month.

But not even public awareness campaigns can prevent travelers from bringing unusual items, like a foot-long piece of rock.

TSA logistician Scott Greene said, "There's usually a rock every month."
TSA to Scrutinize Remote-Controlled Toys
CABLEVISION
WASHINGTON
2007, 10 01

Airport screeners will be taking a closer look at remote control toys in carry-on luggage due to concerns they could be used to detonate bombs, U.S. officials said Monday.

The new practice is not a result of a specific threat, according to the Transportation Security Administration. But authorities recently arrested two Florida college students and accused one of them of posting a video online with instructions on how to use a remote-controlled toy to set off a bomb.

Passengers _ including children _ carrying these toys may have to go through secondary screening.

"While not associated with a specific threat at this time, TSA is aware that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in terrorist attacks," according to Monday's press release. "Transportation security officers have trained on this possibility and travelers may encounter additional screening when bringing remote control devices in carry-on luggage."
Town man's GIS bid fails in Stamford
Greenwich TIME
By Neil Vigdor, Staff Writer
Published August 25 2007

Denied first by Greenwich, a town man's bid to gain computer access to maps of fire hydrants, power lines, water mains, sewers and other infrastructure in neighboring Stamford has been turned down a second time for security reasons.

The state Freedom of Information Commission ruled unanimously Wednesday that the city of Stamford does not have to turn over computer files containing those maps to Stephen Whitaker, a self-employed computer consultant.

"Knowledge of the direction of the water supply would be useful to an individual seeking to introduce chemicals to the water supply," FOIC hearing officer Victor Perpetua wrote in a decision letter adopted by the commission. "Knowledge of the size and location of sewer mains would be useful to an individual seeking to access and harm public buildings or utilities through those sewer mains."

Whitaker has been seeking the files from the city since late 2005, overlapping with a similar request denied by town officials in Greenwich.

Both communities keep the information in geographic information system databases, which include aerial photographs of the two communities and supporting information on the location and dimension of landmarks such as wetlands, flood zones, open space and property lines.

Some of the information is available to the public but other parts have been restricted by officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said that while he is generally in favor of giving the public access to information contained in the city's GIS database, he does support limitations on certain data.

"So, I think it's a balancing act," Malloy said. "I support the decision, but I also caution that people have to hold their government accountable and not use (exemptions) as an excuse to withhold data."

Whitaker has accused the two communities of exaggerating security concerns, which he said has enabled bureaucrats to keep vital information to themselves and out of the hands of the public that could be used to plan for everything from taxi routing to emergency respoonse. For example, he said residents in both municipalities could plan better for fires and floods if they knew the location of hydrants and storm drains.

"It's not that I want this stuff as much as I don't want to see us go backwards in public records law for the reasons of overreaction to an event that happened six years ago," Whitaker said.

In August 2006, Stamford officials turned over some of the materials in the city's GIS database to Whitaker but took advantage of a law passed after the terrorist attacks to restrict other images.

The law gives the state's public works commissioner limited powers to restrict public access to information that risks harm to any person. In its decision this week, the FOIC upheld that authority.

Whitaker said he filed a motion yesterday for the commission to reconsider the ruling.

"So we're beginning to see the fallout of this irrational closure of what are public records, which are now claimed exempt at the very time we need to see them to question whether our infrastructure is properly maintained," Whitaker said.

Greenwich officials resorted to using the same exemption after the state Supreme Court ruled in June 2005 that they lacked concrete evidence to support their claim that the release of the images presented an immediate danger to the community. Whitaker missed the deadline to appeal that decision to the commission, however.

"It's very clear to me that there are things that certainly should be in the public eye and there are things that shouldn't be," said Daniel Warzoha, the town's emergency management director and a former fire chief.

Warzoha said a working group of neighborhood leaders in the flood-prone Pemberwick neighborhood has access to maps of storm drains.

But Warzoha said he felt uncomfortable providing the general public with town-wide maps of critical infrastructure, including bridges.

"We're the gateway to New England, and if you cripple our infrastructure here, the backups would be horrendous," Warzoha said. "All one has to do is look at the collapse of the Mianus River bridge to see what it did to the economy."



Congress OKs Homeland Security Bill; Legislation Targets Tighter Cargo Screening, Anti-Terrorism Grants 
DAY
By Spencer S. Hsu , William Branigin, The Washington Post    
Published on 7/28/2007 

Washington — Congress gave final approval Friday to legislation that requires more thorough screening of air and sea cargo, and shifts more federal anti-terrorism grants to high-risk areas such as New York and Washington, delivering on a pledge by Democrats last fall to implement additional recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Voting 371-40, the House followed the Senate, which voted 85-8 Thursday night, to send the measure to the White House after dropping a controversial provision that would have extended union protection to 45,000 federal airport screeners. That language had prompted a veto threat from President Bush.

In a statement, the White House criticized Congress for not acting on the Sept. 11 commission's recommendation to streamline its own tangled oversight of domestic security. But it said Bush's major concerns “have been addressed, and the president will sign the legislation.”

Democrats said the passage of the third of six legislative priorities established after their 2006 takeover of Congress proved that they are delivering on their campaign pledges.

“With this bill, we'll be keeping our promises to the families of 9/11, we'll be honoring the work of the 9/11 commission, and we'll be making the American people safer,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a speech on the House floor.

The bill implements many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. It cuts in half the amount of homeland security grants provided to states with no regard to the risk of attack they face. Those guaranteed, population-based allocations are to be cut from about 40 percent of the total to about 20 percent.

It requires radiation screening — within five years — of 100 percent of U.S.-bound maritime cargo before loading at foreign ports, but it allows the secretary of homeland security to extend the deadline two years at a time. Similarly, it requires screening of all cargo carried on passenger aircraft within three years, but not physical inspection, as initially proposed. That change will limit the impact on carriers.

The bill authorizes — but does not fund — significant increases in homeland security grants, providing billions of dollars for transit and aviation security, emergency communications and first responders.

In two controversial steps, Congress declassified the total amount budgeted annually for U.S. intelligence, but in a compromise with the administration, which opposed the change, it agreed to allow the president to waive the disclosure after two years if national security is harmed.

The bill also sets up a program requiring air travelers from 27 friendly countries to register online with the U.S. government as much as 48 hours before departure. Passenger manifests are now sent 15 minutes after takeoff. The change will give U.S. authorities more time to vet passport data for high-risk travelers. Most of the nations are in Europe. Their residents can visit the United States without visas for as much as 90 days.

Republicans accused Democrats of making “a hollow campaign promise” by not using the bill to consolidate Congress's oversight of homeland security within a single committee, a charge that Democrats levied at GOP leaders in three previous congresses. They also claimed victory by preserving a provision that protects from lawsuits people who report, in good faith, suspected terrorist activity involving aircraft, trains and buses.

Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the bill, “while not perfect, is another step in the right direction, building on the steps of the previous five years.”

Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the measure is “a nudge in generally the right direction.

“It's reasonable. It has the virtue of identifying a short list of priorities ... (and) of pushing hard without firmly mandating something that may not be necessary or practical,” O'Hanlon said. “It keeps homeland security in the conversation, when it would be all too easy to let it slide over issues like Iraq, immigration and domestic politics.”

In related action, the Senate also passed late Thursday its $40.6 billion version of the 2008 Department of Homeland Security budget, voting 89-4, after adding $3 billion for border security. The money is meant to pay for fencing, sensors and vehicle barriers; 3,000 more Border Patrol agents; 4,000 new detention beds; and 700 additional immigration enforcement personnel.  
Terror Threat Against U.S. Said Serious   
By KATHERINE SHRADER and ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writers 
Posted on Jul 17, 2007 9:40 AM EDT
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the United States.

The declassified key findings, to be released publicly on Tuesday, were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

The report lays out a range of dangers - from al-Qaida to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups - that pose a "persistent and evolving threat" to the country over the next three years. As expected, however, the findings focus most of their attention on the gravest terror problem: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The report makes clear that al-Qaida in Iraq, which has not yet posed a direct threat to U.S. soil, could become a problem here.

"Of note," the analysts said, "we assess that al-Qaida will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland."

The analysts also found that al-Qaida's association with its Iraqi affiliate helps the group to energize the broader Sunni Muslim extremist community, raise resources and recruit and indoctrinate operatives - "including for homeland attacks."

National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative written judgments of the 16 spy agencies across the breadth of the U.S. government. These agencies reflect the consensus long-term thinking of top intelligence analysts. Portions of the documents are occasionally declassified for public release.

The new report echoed statements made by senior intelligence officials over the last year, including the assessment of spy agencies that the country is in a "heightened threat environment." It also provided new details on their thinking and concerns.

For instance, the report says that worldwide counterterrorism efforts since 2001 have constrained al-Qaida's ability to attack the U.S. again and convinced terror groups that U.S. soil is a tougher target.

But, the report quickly adds, analysts are concerned "that this level of international cooperation may wane as 9/11 becomes a more distant memory and perceptions of the threat diverge."

Among the report's other findings:

-Al-Qaida is likely to continue to focus on high-profile political, economic and infrastructure targets to cause mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, economic aftershocks and fear. "The group is proficient with conventional small arms and improvised explosive devices and is innovative in creating new capabilities and overcoming security obstacles."

-The group has been able to restore key capabilities it would need to launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas, operational lieutenants and senior leaders. U.S. officials have warned publicly that a deal between the Pakistani government and tribal leaders allowed al-Qaida to plot and train more freely in parts of western Pakistan for the last 10 months.

-The group will continue to seek weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological or nuclear material - and "would not hesitate to use them."

-Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim extremist group that has conducted anti-American attacks overseas, may be more likely to consider attacking here, especially if it believes the United States is directly threatening the group or its main sponsor, Iran.

-Non-Muslim terrorist groups probably will attack here in the next several years, although on a smaller scale. The judgments don't name any specific groups, but the FBI often warns of violent environmental groups, such as Earth Liberation Front, and others.

The publicly disclosed judgments, laid out over two pages, are part of a longer document, which remains classified. It was approved by the heads of all 16 intelligence agencies on June 21.

In the last week, reports on this document and another threat assessment on al-Qaida's resurgence have renewed the debate in Washington about whether the Bush administration is on the right course in its war on terror, particularly in Iraq.

The White House has used the reports as evidence that the country must continue to go after al-Qaida in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But critics say the evolving threat is evidence of a policy gone wrong.

The debate - and the underlying global problem - will not go away soon.

The high-level estimate notes that the spread of radical ideas, especially on the Internet, growing anti-U.S. rhetoric and increasing numbers of radical cells throughout Western countries indicate the violent segments of the Muslim populations is expanding.

"The arrest and prosecution by U.S. law enforcement of a small number of violent Islamic extremists inside the United States ... points to the possibility that others may become sufficiently radicalized that they will view the use of violence here as legitimate," the estimate said. "We assess that this internal Muslim terrorist threat is not likely to be as severe as it is in Europe, however."
Four charged in plot to blow up JFK airport
By Chris Michaud
Sun Jun 3, 2007 12:57 AM ET
 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four people, including a former member of Guyana's parliament, have been charged with planning to blow up New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, U.S. officials said on Saturday.
 
This was "one of the most chilling plots imaginable," Roslynn Mauskopf, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference in New York. "The devastation that would be caused ... is just unthinkable."

The plotters sought to blow up the airport's jet fuel tanks and part of the 40-mile (64-km) pipeline feeding them from New Jersey. Three of the four suspects, who included a former airline cargo handler, have been arrested, federal law enforcement officials said.

In a recorded conversation one suspect predicted there would be few survivors and that the attacks would result in the destruction of "the whole of Kennedy."

There was no connection to al Qaeda, officials said, but some suspects were linked to an Islamist extremist group in Trinidad.

In one recorded conversation, a suspect compared the plot to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, saying, "Even the twin towers can't touch it." He added, "This can destroy the economy of America for some time."

The indictment said the suspects referred to their plot as "the chicken farm" or "the chicken hatchery" but did not explain the code name.

News of the foiled plot comes weeks after six suspected Islamist militants were detained on charges of planning to attack a U.S. Army base at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Targets in the airport plot included terminal buildings, aircraft and fuel tanks, as well as the fuel pipeline to the airport. Pipeline operator Buckeye Partners L.P. said it had been cooperating with authorities since the investigation started in January 2006.

Spokesman Roy Haase declined to comment on security measures but said speculation the plotters hoped to destroy large parts of the pipeline were unrealistic, since any damage would be confined to the area where fuel leaked and the pipeline was almost entirely underground.

"There's no oxygen in the pipeline. It's completely full of liquid and you need oxygen for ignition," Haase said.

The plot was foiled with the help of an informant who recorded conversations with the suspects, some as recent as last month. The arrests came well before the plan came to fruition and the        FBI said there was no threat to the public.

Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York field office, declined to say whether there might be more arrests.

PLOT SPREAD FROM U.S.

Officials said the plot began in the United States and spread to Trinidad and Guyana. Mershon said the cell had shown unusual persistence, seeking finance and expert advice and gathering photographic and video surveillance as well as satellite photographs.

"This is a very determined group," he said.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the plot was "different in its distinct ties to the Caribbean, a region that is rarely thought of in terms of terrorism but of increasing concern to us as a crucible in the foment of Islamic radicalism."

White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said        President George W. Bush had been briefed and updated regularly on the progress of the investigation. "This case is a good example of international counterterrorism cooperation," she said.

Among the three suspects arrested since Friday was Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana who was arrested in New York. Authorities said he was a former airport employee who conducted surveillance for the group, using his knowledge of the site to identify targets and escape routes.

"Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," Defreitas said in one recorded conversation. "To hit John F. Kennedy, wow ... they love John F. Kennedy like he's the man ... if you hit that, this whole country will be mourning. You can kill the man twice."

Authorities said two suspects were in custody in Trinidad and Tobago -- Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former member of its parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. Their extradition was being sought, officials said.

Mershon said the fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana, was believed to be at large in Trinidad.

Authorities said Kadir and Nur were associates of Jamaat Al Muslimeen, a Muslim group behind a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad.

Poll finds some U.S. Muslim support for suicide attacks
By David Morgan
May 22, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About one-quarter of young American Muslims believe to some extent that suicide bombings can be justified to defend Islam, while nearly 80 percent of all U.S. Muslims reject such attacks, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The nationwide poll of 1,050 Muslim adults by the Pew Research Center said the U.S. Muslim community is largely moderate, assimilated and happy.  But the community also contains pockets of support for Islamist militancy among Muslims aged 18-30 and black Muslims, the survey showed.  The survey, billed as one of the most far-reaching polls of Muslims living in the United States, asked the following question about suicide attacks:

"Some people think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies. Other people believe that, no matter what the reason, this kind of violence is never justified.

"Do you personally feel that this kind of violence is often justified to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified or never justified?"

The survey found 26 percent of younger Muslims believed suicide bombings are often, sometimes or rarely justified, compared with 69 percent who believed such attacks can never be accepted.  By contrast, 13 percent of all U.S. Muslims felt suicide attacks could be justified often, sometimes or rarely, while 78 percent completely rejected the deadly tactic that has been used by al Qaeda and other Islamist militants.

The poll, conducted from January 24 to April 30 in four languages, had a 5 percent margin of error.

"It's not something they see themselves engaging in. It's more of them seeing what's happening abroad and ... feeling that in these situations, suicide bombings are justified for others," said Farid Senzai of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Michigan-based research group that studies U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Senzai attended the news conference as a member of the Pew survey project's outside advisory board.  Experts said the level of Muslim youth support for suicide bombings was similar to patterns seen in Europe.  Support in some degree for suicide bombings among younger European Muslims ranged from 22 percent in Germany to 29 percent in Spain, 35 percent in Britain and 42 percent in France, according to a May 2006 Pew poll.

Pew estimates that there are 2.35 million Muslims living in the United States, a tiny fraction of an overall U.S. population of 300 million people. But Muslim population estimates vary widely, ranging as high as 7 million, because the U.S.        Census Bureau does not ask about religious affiliations in its national surveys.

Pollsters said they were surprised to find that only 40 percent of U.S. Muslims believed Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.  The survey suggested 53 percent of Muslims believe their life has become more difficult since the 2001 attacks because of discrimination or government surveillance.

But the findings also showed that 78 percent of U.S. Muslims are either "pretty happy" or "very happy" with their lives.

Fort Dix Suspects Denied Bail
Hartford Courant
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated press Writer 
12:05 PM EDT, May 11, 2007

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Six Muslim men suspected of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were ordered held without bail Friday.  Prosecutors argued that the men, all born outside the United States, pose a flight risk. They are being held at a federal detention center in Philadelphia.

The men were arrested Monday night during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons. They targeted Fort Dix, a post 25 miles east of Philadelphia that is used primarily to train reservists, partly because one of them had delivered pizzas there and was familiar with the base, according to court filings. Their objective was to kill "as many American soldiers as possible," the documents said.

The men have lived in and around Philadelphia for years, worshipped at moderate mosques and worked blue-collar jobs installing roofs, driving a cab, delivering pizzas and baking bread. Four are ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, one is from Jordan and one is from Turkey.

Defense lawyers for some of the men said they are considering attacking the prosecution's reliance on two paid informants who infiltrated the group more than a year ago and recorded conversations with the defendants.  Authorities said they first learned about the men in January 2006 after a tip from a clerk at a Mount Laurel electronics store. The clerk called police because a home video the men wanted transferred to a DVD looked like it might have terrorist links, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said.

Earlier this year, authorities said, the men took a training trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where they fired weapons and played paintball to prepare for an attack.

Five of the men -- Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 -- are charged with conspiring to kill uniformed military personnel, an offense punishable by life in prison.  Agron Abdullahu, 24, is charged with helping illegal immigrants obtain weapons. He could face 10 years in prison if convicted.

Abdullahu, who faces the least serious charges of the six, will have another bail hearing next Thursday. 
U.S. man accused of plot to bomb resorts
By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer
April 12, 2007

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas, officials said Thursday.

The investigation of Christopher Paul, 43, spanned four years, three continents and at least eight countries, FBI agent Tim Murphy said shortly before the Columbus man appeared before a federal judge.

Paul had trained with al-Qaida in the early 1990s and told al-Qaida members in Pakistan and Afghanistan that he was dedicated to committing violent jihad, according to the indictment issued Wednesday.

"The indictment of Christopher Paul paints a disturbing picture of an American who traveled overseas to train as a violet jihadist, joined the ranks of al-Qaida and provided military instruction and support to radial cohorts both here and abroad," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said in a statement.

Paul, who was arrested Wednesday outside his apartment, is charged with providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

In court Thursday, Magistrate Judge Terence Kemp asked Paul if he understood the charges. "Yes, sir," Paul replied.  Prosecutors asked that he be held without bond, and Kemp set another hearing Friday on the issue. Paul's lawyer, Don Wolery, did not return a message seeking comment before the hearing.

The indictment says Paul traveled to Germany about April 1999 to train co-conspirators to use explosives to attack European and U.S. targets, including government buildings and vacation spots frequented by American tourists.  It does not name specific resorts or buildings that might have been targeted, but gives U.S. embassies, military bases and consular premises in Europe as examples.

Paul later sent a wire transfer of $1,760 from a financial institution in the U.S. to an alleged co-conspirator in Germany, prosecutors allege.  A fax machine in his home contained names, phone numbers and contact information for key al-Qaida leadership and associates, according to the indictment.

Paul also is accused of storing material at his father's house in Columbus, including a book on improvised land mines, money from countries in the Middle East and a letter to his parents explaining that he would be "on the front lines," according to the indictment.

His sister, Sandra Laws, answered the door at the home and said she and her father live there. She said the family will be speaking to Paul's attorney later Thursday and declined further comment.  No charges are expected against family members, authorities said.

Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws. He legally changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989, then to Christopher Paul in 1994, according to the indictment.  After finishing his al-Qaida training in the early 1990s, he returned to Columbus to teach martial arts at a mosque, the indictment said.

Two other Columbus men have been charged in federal investigators' terrorism investigation. Lyman Faris was sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for a plot to topple the Brooklyn Bridge. Nuradin Abdi, accused of plotting to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall, is awaiting trial on charges including conspiring to aid terrorists.
Terrorists to form their own union?
9/11 Bill May Face Scrutiny in Senate
DAY 
By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer
Published January 10 2007, 7:21 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- An anti-terrorism measure that easily passed the House faces tougher scrutiny from senators skeptical of its call for tougher screening for cargo aboard ships, a new way to divide federal security aid among states and other provisions.

Raising further questions about the bill's future, the Bush administration said it opposed the measure's collective bargaining rights for airport screeners, inspections of cargo on passenger airliners and the cargo-scanning requirement for ships bound for U.S. ports. A White House statement, however, did not threaten a veto.
 
An obviously delighted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the vote by which the bill passed on Tuesday by a bipartisan roll call of 299-128. It was the first of six measures the House is expected to pass in its first 100 hours in session under Democratic control.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said adopting these and other recommendations of the 9/11 Commission were a vital step toward the goal to "protect the American people, to defend our homeland and to strengthen our national security."

It is not clear how soon the Senate will take up the measure, which would enact many of the remaining recommendations by the bipartisan commission, which was formed after the 2001 terrorist attacks to suggest changes the government should make to upgrade security. The previous Republican-controlled Congress approved many of the commission's proposals, such as reorganizing the nation's intelligence agencies.

The House bill would also provide more funds to improve local emergency agencies' communications gear and take steps aimed at making it harder for terrorists to obtain nuclear weapons.

Democrats provided no cost estimate of the package, but a Senate bill introduced last year to adopt the commission's proposals had a five-year price tag of $53 billion.

Republicans warned that the bill would be too costly and require technology that doesn't yet exist. They also assailed Democrats for posing as being tough on terrorism.

"Homeland security is too important to play politics when American lives are at stake," said Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The bill also would change the way federal security funds are distributed to communities around the country, giving more to areas considered at higher risk of terrorist attacks and less to smaller and rural states.  That is one of the biggest obstacles to the bill's friendly reception in the Senate, where many leaders represent small and rural states that could lose money under the new formula.  The Bush administration said it supported the measure's plan for distributing security aid.

But in a statement, it said it opposed provisions:

* Allowing inspectors employed by the Transportation Security Administration to have collective bargaining rights. The administration said these provisions were not recommended by the 9/11 Commission and would diminish the Homeland Security secretary's flexibility to effectively manage the department.

* Requiring scanning of all U.S.-bound cargo containers before loading in foreign ports. The administration said the requirement, which might eventually apply to more than 700 ports worldwide, is not feasible. The administration is also reluctant to pass on to commercial carriers the significant costs involved. Last year, the Senate rejected such a measure after senators aired similar reservations.

* Requiring that all air cargo shipped on passenger planes be inspected. "Technology does not currently exist that would allow for physical inspection of all air cargo ... without impeding the legitimate flow of commerce," the administration says.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a tug-of-war between the House and the Senate over how security aid should be distributed.

The Homeland Security Department has gradually been given more control over funds it could allocate based on risk.  But some money has still been guaranteed to every state. The new bill drops the amount from 0.75 percent of the pot to 0.25, or 0.45 percent for states with a foreign border. The amount of money available would be determined later in an appropriations bill.
Zombie Computers Attack - Spammers invade with new 'botnets'
By New York Times News Service 
Published on 1/7/2007
 
In their persistent quest to breach the Internet's defenses, the bad guys are honing their weapons and increasing their firepower...read full story here.
U.S. To Check Cargo Overseas For Radiation
DAY
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Writer 
Published on 12/8/2006
 
Washington — U.S.-bound cargo at six overseas ports will be screened for nuclear and radiological material in an expanded effort to prevent terrorist bombs from entering American waters, federal officials said Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security said it would scan all containers bound for the United States in the ports of Qasim, Pakistan; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; and Southampton, England.

Radiological scanning will also be done at Port Salaleh in Oman, the Port of Singapore, and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea, though not every container will be screened, officials said. Officials said the examinations would begin early next year at all six ports.

The Southampton facility is operated by Dubai Ports World, the same company whose planned purchase of U.S. port operations caused an uproar earlier this year. One of the chief opponents of that deal said the company had undergone closer scrutiny this time.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the effort part of a strategy to “secure the global supply chain and cut off any possibility of exploitation by terrorists.”

The program was created by Congress in September, but the agency said it was going beyond the legislation's requirement of screening in three foreign ports.  The departments of Homeland Security and Energy will split the nearly $60 million cost of the detection equipment, ranging from large portals to handheld scanners.
Dubai Ports participating in U.S. security plan
By David Morgan
December 7, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dubai Ports World, the Arab-owned firm whose purchase of American port facilities caused a U.S. political uproar, will join a program aimed at stopping nuclear weapons being smuggled into the United States, sources familiar with the agreement said on Thursday.

The program would involve screening U.S.-bound cargo for radiation at more than half a dozen ports including in Britain, Honduras, Oman and
South Korea, sources said.

Dubai Ports World is among several international shipping and port operators chosen for the screening program mandated by the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, legislation that resulted from the Dubai Ports controversy.

An announcement was expected on Thursday afternoon from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and the State Department.

Asked about the program, a Homeland Security spokesman said only that Secretary Michael Chertoff planned to speak publicly about a new initiative to strengthen the international supply chain.  The sources described the initiative as the first phase of a broader effort to screen cargo for radiation.

The SAFE Port Act authorizes $3.4 billion over five years for safety measures, including installing radiation detectors at the 22 largest U.S. ports by the end of next year.

Port operators, which are expected to participate in the program by providing customs officials with space and access to their facilities, include A.P. Moeller-Maersk, PSA International and Hutchison Whampoa.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Nike Inc. were expected to be among participating shippers, sources said.  Dubai Ports, owned by the United Arab Emirates, became the center of a bitter debate in Congress after buying assets at six U.S. ports within its $6.8 billion purchase of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. in February.

The Bush administration approved the purchase of facilities in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans. But lawmakers had security concerns about an Arab state-owned company running U.S. port terminals.  Dubai Ports responded by saying it would sell those U.S. assets. No sale has yet been announced.

David Sanborn, Dubai Ports World's managing director for the Americas, has sharply criticized the U.S. port-security law as fundamentally inadequate.  Sanborn, whom
President George W. Bush once nominated to head the U.S. Maritime Administration, told a security conference in October that the law did not go far enough to require radiation screening.  Sanborn withdrew his name from consideration for the Maritime Administration post amid the uproar over Dubai Ports.
Department of Homeland Security Selects AMETEK to Supply Portable Radiation Detection System;  High-Resolution System Incorporates Best-Available Identification Technology
Press Release    Source: AMETEK
Thursday October 26, 11:29 am ET

PAOLI, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded a contract to AMETEK (NYSE:AME - News) for the design, development and production of a high-resolution portable radiation detection system. The system will be used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, public safety officials and other first responders to screen vehicles and search public facilities for potentially harmful nuclear materials.

The contract calls for a base year award of $2.4 million for research and development. As well, the contract contains option years for both research and development and production. If all option years are exercised by the government, the total value of the contract will range from approximately $5 million to $50 million over a five year period.

"AMETEK is pleased to be selected as the only high-resolution germanium supplier for this important program. We believe our system represents the best technology for quickly, accurately and reliably identifying nuclear material and determining whether or not it poses a threat," noted AMETEK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank S. Hermance.

"Our Detective® family of high-resolution radiation detection systems represents a substantial advance in system performance and significantly improves the ability to detect potentially harmful radioactive material without interfering with the normal flow of commerce.

"These systems employ a unique class of high-purity germanium-based gamma ray detectors that offer the best available combination of resolution and sensitivity for the rapid, positive identification of nuclear materials. These detectors can identify nuclear material which can be used in a nuclear weapon, an improvised nuclear device or a dirty bomb," added Mr. Hermance.

This award from DHS follows a number of recent wins for AMETEK's radiation detection systems. In recent months, AMETEK has been awarded contracts totaling more than $12 million by the US Departments of Defense and Energy and the UK Ministry of Defence. These include standard handheld Detective radiation identifiers, a backpack version of the Detective, and a transportable portal system.

Corporate Profile

AMETEK is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annualized sales of approximately $1.8 billion. AMETEK's Corporate Growth Plan is based on Four Key Strategies: Operational Excellence, Strategic Acquisitions & Alliances, Global & Market Expansion, and New Products. Its objective is double-digit percentage growth in earnings per share over the business cycle and a superior return on total capital. The common stock of AMETEK is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 1000 Index.

Forward-looking Information

Statements in this news release that are not historical are considered "forward-looking statements" and are subject to change based on various factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ significantly from expectations. Those factors are contained in AMETEK's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
NOTE:  What was the vote in Congress?  It was this webpage's feeling that from the moment the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers, it was inevitable that our democracy would have to adapt.  Very sad.
The Shaving Of Democracy
DAY editorial
Published on 9/30/2006
 
The detainee legislation passed by the House and the Senate this week seeks to legitimize extreme standards that are an anathema to our democratic government. Conceived amid shameful political rhetoric that anyone who didn't support the measures was supporting terrorists, the legislation is fundamentally flawed and likely to face harsh review in the courts.

This was bad legislation passed at this time in order to influence the outcome of the November elections and designed to give Republicans a platform on which to campaign. It is a gross abuse of the congressional process and a dangerous precedent for a democratic nation.

Many elements of the legislation are bad. But perhaps the worst part of the bill may be the stripping away of the habeas corpus rights of detainees who are terrorist suspects. The bill will prevent them from challenging in court their detentions. Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill, saying: “What the bill seeks to do is set back basic rights by some 900 years.” He added that challenging detention has been a basic right since the signing of the Magna Carta.

And Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland representative who is the No. 2-ranking Democrat in the House, predicted that the legislation would undermine the moral credibility of the United States around the globe.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat, was more pointed. He argued that the Bush administration has been “relentless in its determination to legitimize the abuse of detainees.”

It's disappointing that Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who had opposed President George W. Bush on surrendering the rights of the Geneva Conventions, suggest that the “compromise” rules laid down keep the conventions intact and that this is good legislation. It is not. This bill compromises democracy with the flat assumption that the new world created by terrorists demands new tactics — apparently, no matter what they are.

By such declarations are the easy reductions of human rights made. The legislation allows the president to decide what is an abusive interrogation method. It prevents the courts from reviewing any part of the new system except for verdicts by military tribunals. It allows secret evidence kept from defendants. It limits the definition of torture.

Only one Republican senator had the courage to oppose this measure. Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island again demonstrated that he thinks for himself and won't bend to unreasonable measures. Regrettably, Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman supported the legislation.

What we witness in this debacle is a justification of the violations of people's rights under the umbrella excuse that the terrible tactics used by terrorists require sterner measures, even if they compromise basic human rights.

Liberty is a precious commodity. The patriots of earlier days understood this. Where are the patriots today?
 
Three firms win US DHS nuclear detection contracts
Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:36am ET

WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), American Science & Engineering Inc. (ASEI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and SAIC have won $1.35 billion in contracts as part of developing a system to detect nuclear and radiological matter in cargo, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

The so-called Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System program is designed to create an imaging system to detect high density shielding that could be used to hide enriched uranium or weapons grade plutonium, DHS said in a statement.
Experts: 9/11 Won't Be the Last Attack
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
4:36 PM EDT, September 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The threat of terrorism against the United States remains chillingly lethal five years after 9/11, and officials predict another massive attack is not a matter of if -- but when.

Despite a government overhaul and more than $250 billion spent to bolster security on airlines, at borders and in seaports, few doubt al-Qaida's intent to strike the U.S. again. That the nation hasn't been hit since Sept. 11, 2001, may say as much about terrorists' patience as it does about steps taken to stop them.

"I know of nobody in the intelligence field who doesn't believe there will be another attack," said Thomas Kean, former New Jersey governor and Republican chair of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the government's security missteps leading up to the 2001 hijackings.

"There's going to be another attack," Kean said. "They just can't tell you when."

In a new age of rapid and widespread ID checks, locked and bulletproof cockpit doors in airliners, armed pilots, tracking foreigners' visas and monitoring Muslim and Arab communities, few expect a precise repeat of the plot that used airline hijackings to bring down big buildings.

The unsettling reality of terrorism, however, is that it is always in search of new ways to accomplish mass death and destruction. And always in search of the weakest link.

Authorities have disrupted a number of high-profile plots, including last month's bombing scare on as many as 10 Britain-to-U.S. flights. The CIA has helped ensnare some 5,000 terror suspects around the world. And the government has imposed hundreds of security measures on foreign visitors and U.S. residents alike, from making travelers take off their shoes at airport checkpoints to eavesdropping on phone and e-mail conversations.

But glaring gaps in the security net remain.

Undercover inspectors testing the nation's security system have repeatedly sneaked weapons through airport checkpoints, entered the country with fake identification and foiled detectors that catch the trace amounts of radiation in kitty litter and bananas, but not always nuclear materials. Air testers to sniff out biological agents are becoming obsolete. And not all port or airline cargo is rigorously inspected.

And, as Hurricane Katrina showed last year, disaster response systems at all levels of government are woefully unprepared for a catastrophe.

"No matter what you do, it's not enough," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., co-chair of a congressional 9/11 caucus. "But the systems we've worked hard on to put in place are not working."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department was created in 2003 as a result of 9/11, points to strides made in sharing intelligence and screening passengers and cargo on flights and at seaports as proof that the country has been made safer without shutting down commerce. Yet he acknowledges more needs to be done in his agency that largely grapples with reacting to past crises while also thinking about what terrorists might try next.

The intelligence community spends a significant amount of time doing what Chertoff described as "putting ourselves in the heads of terrorists -- looking at emerging techniques and trying to figure out how terrorists might exploit our systems."

In one example, Chertoff said, the department last year relaxed its ban on scissors and small innocuous tools from being carried on planes to give inspectors more time to look for explosive devices. Screeners also are now being trained to interpret facial expressions and other behavioral patterns to pick out suspicious travelers.

"We will live with some form of this problem for a very long time," Chertoff said in an hour-long interview last month wedged between a phone call with British Home Secretary John Reid about the foiled flight plot and a meeting with FEMA director David Paulison about the hurricane season.

Several government-appointed panels -- including the 9/11 Commission -- have concluded over the last five years that the nation was vastly unprepared for the deadly attacks.

Their findings triggered a massive reshuffling of the government's counterterror missions, the largest since the Defense Department was created in 1947. In addition to merging 22 agencies into the new Homeland Security Department, a new position of intelligence director to oversee the nation's 16 spy agencies was established.

Congress approved policies such as the USA Patriot Act, allowing more surveillance in counterterrorism investigations. Federal spending on domestic security programs has more than tripled since 2001, to $55 billion this year, almost equal to what is spent on education.

The results have been mixed. Criticism for Homeland Security has run from sweeping (for cutting emergency responder funding to New York and Washington) to nitpicky (the color-coded threat alert system is too vague to be meaningful).

"Everything the department was supposed to do is still, at best, a work in progress," said Clark Kent Evin, Homeland Security's former inspector general.

Meanwhile, the government's once-greatest target in the war on terror -- Osama bin Laden -- remains on the loose. Michael Scheuer, the former head of the now-defunct CIA unit dedicating to finding the al-Qaida leader, said catching him now is mostly a matter of luck. "He's going to have to zig when we zag and we'll end up in the same place at once," Scheuer said.

With or without bin Laden, authorities expect al-Qaida's threat won't dim in coming years.

Some sympathizers -- including small pockets of homegrown Islamic extremists already in the United States -- may not even be directly linked to al-Qaida but aim to carry out its mission. Those who make up al-Qaida's core will wait years, and even decades, for the chance to attack when America least expects it.

"I'm convinced they're prepared to wait centuries if they have to," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said. "They're looking much longer term than we are. So we have to match their patience with our persistence and our continued focus. We can never let our guard down."

 

US charges Hezbollah TV provider
I-BBC, 25 August 2006
A US businessman has been charged with offering broadcasts of Hezbollah's al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the New York-area.

Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, is accused by prosecutors of doing business with a terrorist entity.  The Hezbollah Shia militia has been involved in a month-long conflict with Israeli forces in Lebanon and is seen as a terrorist group by the US.

Mr Iqbal's lawyers say his arrest violates his right to free speech.

"It's like the government of Iran saying we are going to ban the New York Times because we think of it as a terrorist outfit, or China saying we will ban CNN," a spokesman for the law firm representing Mr Iqbal told the Reuters news agency.
   
"America would be hopping up and down crying freedom of speech and freedom of the press," the spokesman said.

A lawyer representing Mr Iqbal said he knew of no other case where a person had been accused of breaking US law by offering access to news outlets via satellite dish.

'Hezbollah mouthpiece'

According to court papers and government documents, the authorities sent an agent posing as a potential customer after being informed that Mr Iqbal was offering al-Manar TV.

Mr Iqbal reportedly offered the agent a television package that included access to al-Manar broadcasts.

Mr Iqbal appeared in court on Thursday and was bailed for $250,000 (£132,300).  Prosecutor Stephen A Miller had argued against granting him bail, indicating more charges were likely to be filed.

"The charge lurking in the background is material support for terrorism," the Associated Press news agency quotes him as saying.  Al-Manar TV is broadly seen as the mouthpiece of the Hezbollah militia and European-owned satellites have been banned by the EU from broadcasting it.
Seattle port terminal evacuated
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
August 16, 2006

SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. Customs officials in Seattle evacuated one of North America's largest ship container terminals on Wednesday after two cargo containers from Pakistan alarmed bomb-sniffing dogs.

Authorities found no explosives or chemical or biological agents in containers, one filled with clothes and the other with large bundles of used or recycled textiles.

"We are all very grateful that we didn't find anything," said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Milne. "The terminal is going to reopen for operation this evening."

The port evacuation follows a series of major security scares in the last week since British authorities said they had foiled a plot to blow up planes from London to the United States.  Earlier on Wednesday, a woman panicking from claustrophobia caused a Washington-bound flight from London to make an emergency landing in Boston and sparked a security alert.

The two containers raised suspicion when a screening using gamma ray technology about the contents' density did not match the items listed on a ship's manifest.

The containers were two of 70 set aside from the vessel for closer inspection. Certain containers are held and inspected at the port based on risk scores determined by factors gleaned from the ship's manifest, officials said.  The vessel originated in Hong Kong and made stops in China and South Korea before reaching Seattle on Monday; the two containers came from Pakistan, said Milne.

Authorities set up a 2,000-foot (600-meter) perimeter around Terminal 18, just south of downtown Seattle, port spokesman David Schaefer said. The U.S. Coast Guard also established a 300-yard (270 meter) perimeter in the water.  All nonessential port personnel were evacuated after dogs detected the possible presence of explosives, Schaefer said.

The 196-acre (79-hectare) Terminal 18 is the Port of Seattle's largest container terminal and one of the largest in North America.

Earlier on Wednesday, Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat and a senior member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, urged authorities to establish a program for screening all cargo containers.

"We have the technology. We know the risks," Markey said in a statement.

U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year but only about 5 percent of containers entering the country are examined on arrival.

Hazardous-materials trucks: terror threat?  Technology could reduce the risk by a third, but at a cost of $1.1 billion to the industry.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
July 9, 2006

When he crisscrossed the East Coast in his big rig, New Jersey truck driver Bob Grant hauled everything from baby powder to rocket fuel. His specialty was hazardous materials, or hazmats, such as gasoline, butane, and diesel fuel.
Then came 9/11. Worried that terrorists would hijack his tanker truck and use it as a weapon, Mr. Grant switched to dump trucks and retired a few years later.

His jitters reflect a growing concern about terrorist truck bombs. In Tunisia in 2002, a suicide terrorist linked to Al Qaeda detonated a propane tanker beside a synagogue, killing 21 people. A 2004 visit to Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was punctuated by a fuel-truck attack that burned a section of Baghdad. These and scores of other truck attacks worldwide have fueled a growing debate over whether the United States is vulnerable to a similar strike. Last August, the FBI warned of a possible fuel-truck attack in a major US city.

The federal government's post-9/11 programs are enough to protect hazmat trucking, say federal officials and trucking organizations. Some security experts say more needs to be done. At issue: Should the government force the industry to spend $1.1 billion - about $5,500 per truck - on new technologies that could reduce the truck-bomb threat by a third?

"If you gave me a tanker truck and a phosphorous bomb, I could make a huge explosion anywhere I want," says Randy Larsen, an analyst with the Institute for Homeland Security in Alexandria, Va., a nonprofit consulting firm. "Hazmat security should be among the Top 10 national concerns, but we don't act like it is."

Ever since Timothy McVeigh drove an explosive-laden truck into the garage of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Americans have been aware of truck bombs. But Mr. McVeigh's homemade bomb was only 2 tons. Large hazmat 18-wheelers - Class 6 trucks - can haul 20 times as much weight.  Every day, some 800,000 hazmat loads hit the road, carrying everything from chlorine and gasoline to liquefied natural gas and radioactive material each year, according to a recent study by the Transportation Security Administration. Nearly 2 in 5 of those shipments are classified as "extreme risk."

Such shipments are "dangerous and ready-made weapons," the Department of Transportation concluded in 2004, and are "especially attractive" to terrorists.

Since 9/11, the federal government has tightened trucking security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began in 2004 requiring fingerprinting and background checks on drivers with hazmat licenses. It also instituted a "highway watch" program to help drivers spot threats. The Department of Transportation also requires hazmat truck companies to have detailed security plans.

"There is a much sharper realization among hazmat truckers since 9/11 that you've got to be more alert," says John Conley, president of the National Tank Truck Carriers Association. That includes "things as basic as locking your truck. Our drivers understand their loads could be used in a bad way."

But these steps aren't enough, several industry observers say.

"Normal trucking operations are still an open invitation to a terrorist," says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. in Grain Valley, Mo. "Even now, five years later, I don't know if they've really tightened up."

These observers point to multiple vulnerabilities. "My biggest concern is that we've got pretty lax security at a lot of trucking terminals," says a terminal manager for a large liquid bulk hazmat carrier on the East Coast, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to news media. "It's not uncommon at all to see several tankers already loaded with hazmat, and the gates to these facilities are wide open most of the time. It's inviting trouble."

Such vulnerability rises dramatically after a truck hits the open road. Hijackers could take it by force, many agree.

Available technologies, however, could prove a major deterrent, says the Transportation Department. Its 2004 study found eight technologies were largely successful, including satellite-based communications, global positioning tracking systems, remote vehicle-disabling devices, and "panic buttons" that send out an instantaneous alert to law enforcement. Biometric identification had some problems but was considered promising.

Such a portfolio of technologies could reduce the hijacking threat by about 36 percent, the DOT study concluded. At the same time, the technologies could save the industry an estimated $4.1 billion through improved operating efficiencies, it found.

As of 2003, nearly two-thirds of the nation's 115,000 fuel trucks had global positioning systems and wireless communications - the basic platform for more advanced systems. But only 12 percent had a panic button, and just 8 percent had remote vehicle disabling, the study found. And getting the industry to adopt these might require government mandates - something the industry opposes.

"We're not supporting the mandating of any technology simply because you are a hazardous-materials transporter," Mr. Conley says. "Tell me what you're hauling, and we'll tell if it makes sense."

Some truckers say the technology is vital. "I don't know why this technology isn't moving faster into the industry," says Reggie Dupre, president of Dupre Transport, which transports a range of hazardous materials in a 350-truck tanker fleet based in Lafayette, La.

During a year-long federal test, one of Mr. Dupre's drivers accidentally bumped a "panic button" device. Within minutes, police had the rig surrounded.

Tanker trucks carrying liquefied energy gases have worried terror experts since the 1970s. Now, with shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) set to soar in coming years alongside already robust shipments of liquefied petroleum gas, some security experts are again sounding the alarm. Their prime evidence: a truck accident in Spain.

Industry officials have long argued that LNG trucks are almost immune to explosion. But in 2002, an LNG truck in Spain flipped over, burned, then exploded into a 500-foot fireball that killed the driver and burned two others.

"The severity of this kind of explosion is something people haven't usually considered applicable to LNG trucks," says Jerry Havens, former director of the Chemical Hazards Research Center at the University of Arkansas. "But what happened in Spain changes that picture. It shows you've got the potential for a massive explosion."

Despite the Spain incident, industry spokesmen say LNG is not explosive.

"We don't view LNG tractor trailers as a high target for any intentional attacks whatsoever," says Bill Cooper, of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, a coalition of energy providers. "It would not explode, just burn back to its ignition source. Therefore you have to wonder if that's really a target-rich environment."

When an LNG tanker truck flipped in Massachusetts in May and another LNG tanker burned in Nevada last summer, neither produced an explosion, he notes.

But if terrorists are involved, then the equation changes, Dr. Havens and other experts argue. A hijacked LNG tanker truck could be rigged to explode fairly easily, Richard Wilson, a Harvard physicist, warned in a 2003 speech.

One thing is clear: More LNG trucks will hit the road in coming years if the federal government approves new LNG terminals at US ports.
 
FBI disrupts New York City tunnel plot
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
July 7, 2006

WASHINGTON - Authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists for an attack on New York City tunnels, two law enforcement officials said Friday.  FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city's economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one official said.

Lebanese authorities, acting on a U.S. request, have arrested one of the alleged plotters, identified as Amir Andalousli, the other official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.

Sen. Charles Schumer D-N.Y., said, "This is one instance where intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase."

The planning for the tunnel attacks was first reported by the New York Daily News in its Friday editions, the first anniversary of the attacks on the London transportation system that killed 52 people.

The planning was not far along, one U.S. official said, but authorities "take aspirations of that sort seriously."

"At this time we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system, or anywhere else in the U.S.," Richard Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement to Associated Press Radio.

Last month, authorities announced the arrests of seven men in Miami and Atlanta in the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower and other buildings in the United States. That plan was described by deputy FBI director John Pistole at the time as aspirational, rather than operational.

Rep. Peter King R-N.Y., said that federal law enforcement and New York police have been monitoring a plot to attack New York's mass transit system for at least eight months.

"There was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for long period of time," said King, who said he has received regular intelligence briefings on the alleged plot as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

King said he had been unable to publicly disclose the plot because to do so would risk the investigation.

"This is ongoing, that's why I've said nothing about it until now," King said. "It would have been better if this had not been disclosed."

The Daily News reported that the plotters wanted to blow up the Holland Tunnel, the southernmost link between Manhattan and New Jersey, in the hopes of flooding New York's financial district. The desired effect would be akin to the flooding that ravaged New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the newspaper said.

A government official with knowledge of the investigation said while the alleged plot did focus on New York's transportation system, it did not target the Holland Tunnel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, would give no further details about the intended targets.

It's unlikely that any plan to flood the financial district would work because it is above the level of the Hudson River.

Miami men accused of discussing attacks
By Michael Christie
June 23, 2006

MIAMI (Reuters) - Seven people arrested in Miami discussed attacks on the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago, the        FBI building in Miami and other government buildings in a mission "just as good or greater" than September 11, U.S. officials said on Friday.
 
But Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a news conference in Washington that the plotting of the seven, who were called part of a "a home-grown terrorism cell," never went beyond the earliest planning stages.

"There was no immediate threat," Gonzales said, acknowledging the defendants never had any contact with al Qaeda and did not have any weapons. "They didn't have the materials required."

An indictment handed up against the men by a grand jury in south Florida said they pledged loyalty to        Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in order to "wage war" against the U.S. government and build an Islamic army.  It said at least one of them plotted to blow up the 110-story Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States.

But Deputy FBI Director John Pistole said at the Justice Department news conference that the discussions to attack the Sears Tower were "aspirational rather than operational."

Gonzales emphasized there was no immediate threat to the Sears Tower or the five government buildings in the Miami area.  The men, named as Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Rotschild Augustine, were due to appear in a Miami magistrate's court later on Friday.

Justice Department officials said five were Americans and two were from Haiti, and that one of the two Haitians was in the country illegally.

'WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS'

The defendants thought they were discussing the attacks with a member of al Qaeda, but in reality the person was an informant cooperating with the FBI, the officials said.

They were arrested on Thursday after heavily armed FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies swooped on a warehouse in one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods, Liberty City, a predominantly black area that has witnessed some of Miami's worst race riots.

A man identified as a member of the "Seas of David" religious group told CNN on Thursday that five of his fellow members were among those arrested and that they had no connection to terrorists.

"We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said the man, identified as Brother Corey. He said the group had "soldiers" in Chicago, but reiterated it was peaceful movement. Miami media said the group of men sold hair grease and shampoo in the streets. Some worked on construction crews.  The indictment said all of the defendants also referred to themselves as "Brothers."

It said one of the men, Batiste, told an FBI informant he believed to be an al Qaeda representative that he wanted to attend a training camp with some of his "soldiers" and wage a "full ground war" against the United States.

Their aim was to "'kill all the devils we can' in a mission that would 'be just as good or greater than 9/11,' beginning with the destruction of the Sears Tower," according to the indictment.  A parade through Miami to celebrate the victory by the Miami Heat team in the National Basketball Association championship, expected to attract about 200,000 people, was still due to go ahead on Friday and the authorities stressed that citizens were never at risk.

It was unclear what impact if any the arrests might have on public opinion ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November, and amid a deep slump in        President George W. Bush's popularity and in public support for the Iraq war.


Al-Qaida Conspirator Moussaoui Gets Life
Hartford Courant
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
4:40 PM EDT, May 3, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal jury rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday and decided he must spend life in prison for his role in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed the government's appeal for death for the only person charged in this country in the four suicide jetliner hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

The verdict came after four years of legal maneuvering and a six-week trial that put jurors on an emotional roller coaster and gave the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent a platform to taunt Americans. The judge was to hand down the life sentence Thursday morning, bound by the jury's verdict.

It was the sixth case in a row since the death penalty was restored in 1976 in which federal prosecutors failed to obtain an execution in this courthouse -- all the more striking this time because the Pentagon is just miles away.

In their successful defense of Moussaoui, his lawyers revealed new levels of pre-attack bungling of intelligence by the FBI and other government agencies. By the trial's end, the defense team was portraying its uncooperative client as a delusional schizophrenic. They argued he took the witness stand to confess a role in Sept. 11 that he never had -- all to achieve martyrdom through execution or for recognition in history.

They overcame the impact of two dramatic appearances by Moussaoui himself -- first to renounce his four years of denying any involvement in the attacks and then to gloat over the pain of those who lost loved ones.

Using evidence gathered in the largest investigation in U.S. history, prosecutors achieved a preliminary victory last month when the jury ruled Moussaoui's lies to federal agents a month before the attacks made him eligible for the death penalty because they kept agents from discovering some of the hijackers.

But even with heart-rending testimony from nearly four dozen victims and their relatives -- testimony that forced some jurors to wipe their eyes -- the jury was not convinced that Moussaoui, who was in jail on Sept. 11, deserved to die.

The case broke new ground in the understanding of Sept. 11 -- releasing to the public the first transcript and playing in court the cockpit tape of United 93's last half hour. The tape captured the sounds of terrorists hijacking the aircraft over Pennsylvania and passengers trying to retake the jet until it crashed in a field.


Inquiry Finds Port Security Lacking
NYTIMES
By Mike Nizza
May 27, 2008,  10:38 am

The attacks of Sept. 11 transformed ports of entry into points of anxiety, but the job itself didn’t get any easier — just as illegal drugs slipped through loopholes, so did potential security threats.

While no attacks have originated at the ports, reminders that they are vulnerable are frequent — from the Sept. 11 Commission’s final report to the uproar over a proposal to allow a Dubai company manage U.S. ports.  Today’s reminder is from the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that studied one important part of port security known as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). In exchange for lighter — and faster — scrutiny at U.S. ports, the federal incentive program requires companies shipping cargo from overseas to follow a list of security precautions. About 8,000 companies participate.

Unfortunately, those protocols are not being faithfully followed abroad, opening the door to terrorists, the study concluded. The Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the G.A.O. report before its official release, listed some of the findings. Here are two key points:

– A company is generally certified as safer based on its self-reported security information that Customs employees use to determine if minimum government criteria are met. But due partly to limited resources, the agency does not typically test the member company’s supply-chain security practices and thus is “challenged to know that members’ security measures are reliable, accurate and effective.”
– Companies can get certified for reduced Customs inspections before they fully implement any additional security improvements requested by the U.S. government. Under the program, Customs also does not require its employees to systematically follow up to make sure the requested improvements were made and that security practices remained consistent with the minimum criteria.

As The A.P. noted, this is hardly the first piece of criticism for the program, which is operated by the Customs and Border Protection division of the Homeland Security Department. In 2005, the G.A.O. found several faults highlighted today, particularly the lack of following up with members of the program. Others critics said the government had settled on a slogan: “Trust, don’t verify.”

But Bradd M. Skinner, the C.B.D. official running the program, hailed the department’s success in a January news release that proudly noted several improvements. His staff visited 79 countries last year, increasing “validations” by more than 20 percent. In addition, 112 companies were suspended or dropped from the program for violations.

“When you consider what C-TPAT accomplished in 2007, you can see that we are producing solid results,” Mr. Skinner said. “We are holding members accountable to meet their commitments to the program but doing so in the spirit of collaboration.”

Despite the figures, the G.A.O. found that there is simply too much work for Customs. In offering a possible solution, it urged the U.S. government to consider using private contractors.
About a week ago, another concern was raised on port security as biometric ID cards were introduced to port workers. The effort was “riddled with problems as it’s getting underway,” USA Today reported.

That was a departure from the good vibes spreading earlier in the month, when the Homeland Security Department announced $844 million in port security grants for cities across the country. Unlike state officials quoted in The New York Times over the weekend on devoting funds to the I.E.D. threat in the U.S., leaders from New York to Milwaukee to Houston-Galveston welcomed the money as “vital” and “critical” to fighting terrorism.

Private aircraft to file passenger data under new rule
By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:42 PM ET Sep 11, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Private aircraft entering the United States would have to give U.S. government authorities their passengers' identities under a proposal by the Department of Homeland Security, which says it's concerned the growing ranks of these planes could be used to fly terrorists onto U.S. soil.