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From LA Times

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Woman who called police in Bay Area gang rape honored today

In a proclamation, the City Council honored Margarita Vargas "for her act of humanity by reporting the sexual assault."

The 15-year-old victim had been repeatedly raped, beaten and robbed after she left the dance at Richmond High School on Oct. 24.

The crime sparked outrage and focused national attention on the city of 103,000 northeast of San Francisco.

Police search for suspect in attempted kidnapping of 13-year-old in West Valley

LAPD detectives are searching for a kidnapping suspect who tried to snatch a 13-year-old girl walking home from school in the West San Fernando Valley.

The girl was walking near Magnolia Boulevard and Zelzah Avenue last Wednesday when a man jumped out of his parked vehicle and grabbed her as she passed, according to investigators.

As the man dragged the girl toward his car, she screamed and struggled and was able to free herself and run away. The suspect immediately ran back to his car and drove away from the scene, police said.

The suspected kidnapper is described as a 30- to 40-year-old heavy-set Latino with a shaved head. He is about 5-foot-5 and 200 pounds and was wearing a white oversized T-shirt and dark baggy shorts.

He may have been driving a white four-door 1995 to 2005 GMC Yukon, with a possible partial license number of "4Y------". The vehicle is believed to have a broken right taillight.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Larry Concepcion of the West Valley homicide unit at (818) 374-7725.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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D.A. will prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries -- even if L.A. does not ban sales

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said today he will prosecute dispensaries that sell medical marijuana even if the Los Angeles City Council adopts an ordinance that does not ban such sales.

On Monday, two council committees rejected the city attorney's advice and changed a provision in the proposed ordinance, allowing cash transactions as long as they complied with state law.

“Undermining those laws via their ordinance powers is counterproductive, and, quite frankly, we're ignoring them. They are absolutely so irrelevant it's not funny,” Cooley said.

Cooley said state law and state court decisions have made it clear that collectives cannot sell marijuana at dispensaries.

The district attorney said his office was already prosecuting some dispensaries, and he promised to step up efforts next month. Cooley said he decided to weigh in today because he was irritated that the council had ignored the advice of the city attorney, Carmen Trutanich.

“What the City Council is doing is beyond meaningless and irrelevant,” he said.

The district attorney's view could complicate the City Council's deliberations. The council is scheduled to consider the ordinance Wednesday, more than four years after it first began to study the issue of dispensaries.

“These guys over there, God love them, are four years into this, and they won't listen to their good lawyer,” Cooley said. “They're sort of doing their own thing.”

Councilman Ed Reyes, who has overseen the development of the city's ordinance, said he did not think Cooley's comments would cause the council to rethink whether to allow sales. “This is not about Cooley versus Reyes, or Cooley versus the council. This is about the quality of life. We all have better things to do than to do this legal jousting,” he said.

Reyes said the law was not clear on the issue. “We'll let the courts decide,” he said. “We are trying our very best to work with a system that is very vague at this moment.”

He also noted that Cooley and Trutanich were allies and that both spoke at a training session for narcotics officers focused on eradicating dispensaries. “We're here to serve the people, not to serve each other's political agenda,” he said. “It makes no sense to play political football with people's lives.”

Once the council acts on the issue, Reyes said, “We expect the city attorney to vigorously defend our medical marijuana ordinance.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/da-will-prosecute-dispensaries-even-if-la-does-not-ban-sales.html#more

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Swiss tribunal to decide on bail for Roman Polanski in 2 to 3 weeks, officials say

Swiss justice officials said they will decide within the next few weeks whether to allow Roman Polanski to go free on bail.

Polanski is behind bars in a Zurich prison, awaiting possible extradition to Los Angeles to face sentencing after he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl more than 30 years ago. Polanski fled L.A. just before sentencing from a judge that the famed director felt was treating him unfairly. Polanski has said he would fight extradition.

Officials of the Federal Criminal Tribunal in Switzerland said that body will soon decide whether Polanski, 76, can be set free on bail.

"A decision on the matter will probably be issued in the next two to three weeks," Mascia Gregori Al-Barafi told the AFP news agency.

Swiss officials have said Polanski would face up to two years in prison if he returned to Los Angeles.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Charlie Beck named L.A.'s new chief of police

The Los Angeles City Council today appointed Charlie Beck as the city's new police chief.

The council unanimously approved Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's nomination at a hearing this morning. There was no organized opposition to the nomination of Beck, currently an LAPD deputy chief, but the stakes are high.

The choice comes at a time of uncertainty for the department as Beck will be given the task of sustaining former Police Chief William J. Bratton's hard-won gains amid dwindling city budgets. Beck, 56, has risen quickly through the department's command ranks in recent years and was viewed widely as the favorite to be selected by the mayor.

From his success in rehabilitating the Rampart Division, which had been at the center of a corruption scandal, and later as head of the LAPD's forces in South Los Angeles, he has earned praise from police and civic leaders for blending a tough stance on crime with a progressive approach to improving the police department's relationship with the public.

Villaraigosa chose Beck nearly three months after Bratton announced he would step down at the end of October. During his seven years as chief, Bratton oversaw dramatic declines in crime and improved long-strained relations between police and minority communities.

With the department budget being battered by the city's fiscal crisis and morale of rank-and-file officers wavering in the face of a new contract that offers no pay raises, Beck faces a serious challenge in maintaining the progress of the last several years.

During a city council committee hearing last week on Beck's nomination, community leaders and council members praised his work and called him the right man to take over the department right now.

Beck made his own presentation, saying his top goal was to extend the reforms begun by Bratton and move them down into the rank and file of the department. He said he would concentrate on continuing reforms Bratton introduced into the mind-set of the thousands of officers who are the heart of the organization.

"Now is the time to push down into the patrol cars," Beck said of the reforms, adding that this effort would be the "hallmark of my leadership." In interviews, Beck said he planned to give greater authority to the captains who run the department's dozens of field stations.

Currently, decisions on how to deploy a large segment of the department's force are made by commanders at LAPD headquarters. Field captains should have more discretion, Beck said.

Amid an ongoing debate over the size of the force and whether the city should continue to fund an effort by the mayor to add 1,000 officers, Beck said he believed the current number of officers, which hovers near 10,000, should be viewed as "a floor, a basement." Any drop in numbers, he said, would make it difficult to continue the gains made under Bratton.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/la-police-chief.html#more

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Captor of Elizabeth Smart to serve 15 years

Wanda Barzee admitted her role in the 2002 kidnapping in Utah and agreed to testify in federal court against her husband, Brian David Mitchell. She apologizes for the nine-month enslavement.

by Nicholas Riccardi

November 18, 2009

Reporting from Denver

A woman who helped her husband keep kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart enslaved for nine months agreed Tuesday to serve 15 years in federal prison after admitting her role in the abduction.

Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, also agreed to testify against her husband, Brian David Mitchell, whose attorneys claim he is not mentally competent to stand trial on charges relating to the 2002 kidnapping of Smart, then 14. Smart's disappearance and the nationwide search for her captivated the country.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth, for all the pain and suffering I caused you and your family," Barzee said in federal court in Salt Lake City, where she pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. "It is my hope you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me."

Smart, now 22, was not in the courtroom. She testified last month that Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who wanted her to be a plural bride, snatched her from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in March 2002 and brought her to a remote camp, where he held her with Barzee's help.

Smart testified that Barzee was jealous of Mitchell's relationship with her, which included repeated rapes, but that Barzee complied with his directives to keep Smart a captive.

Barzee, Mitchell and Smart were spotted on a street in a Salt Lake City suburb in March 2003, nine months after the abduction.

Defense attorneys for Mitchell and Barzee argued that the two suffered from mental illnesses that prevented them from being competent to stand trial.

Barzee called herself the "mother of Zion" and claimed to receive messages from God through her television. Doctors said that, after several years in a mental hospital and a forced regimen of psychotropic drugs, Barzee was competent to stand trial on kidnapping charges. She would have faced a possible life sentence if convicted.

"Today's agreement means that Elizabeth Smart will not have to testify at trial against Ms. Barzee," U.S. Atty. Brett Tolman said in a statement. "It is our belief that this outcome will begin to bring long-awaited closure to Elizabeth and her family."

Mitchell, 56, was found mentally incompetent to face the charges in state court, but federal prosecutors hope to prove at a hearing starting Nov. 30 that he is sane enough to face charges in federal court.

Barzee and authorities agreed that she would serve a 15-year sentence provided she cooperates with the prosecution of Mitchell. Her formal sentencing is being delayed.

On Monday a federal judge approved the prosecution's list of witnesses for Mitchell's competency hearing. The witnesses include a forensic psychiatrist who contends in a 206-page report that Mitchell is malingering.

Lay witnesses who are not medical professionals also may testify that, in their opinions, Mitchell is faking mental illness to avoid punishment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-elizabeth-smart18-2009nov18,0,4240452,print.story

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From the Washington Times

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Obama gets delay of Fort Hood probe

by S.A. Miller

The Obama administration on Tuesday had the president's National Security Council take control of congressional briefings on the Fort Hood killings and asked Democratic leaders to delay a probe, as top Republicans said intelligence shortcomings blamed for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks are re-emerging.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the NSC had taken over the briefings "due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood," and that Democratic leaders agreed to postpone any congressional action on the shootings.

"This is a somewhat complicated case," the Texas Democrat said of the Nov. 6 rampage, attributed to Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, that left 13 dead and 29 wounded on the country's largest Army post.

He said Congress should give "the guys who are charged with protecting this country, protecting our national security" time to do their work and "wait until all the facts are in."

But Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the intelligence committee, said the country cannot afford to wait to find out if failures in the intelligence community and the Pentagon are allowing other potential attackers to fester within the military.

"The prosecutor in this case is not assigned the responsibility to take a look into the process of how to keep America safe. That is the responsibility of Congress," he said. "It has to happen now. This is not something we should take weeks or months to wait on."

Mr. Hoekstra and the other eight Republicans on the committee outlined their concerns in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, that called for an immediate investigation.

"The future security of over 300 million Americans is far more pressing than after-the-fact investigation of one man," the letter said.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the intelligence committee will continue its oversight work of the Fort Hood tragedy.

"Chairman Reyes remains committed to ensuring that the committee receives pertinent and timely information from the Executive Branch," he said.

Earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said that a congressional probe would be appropriate, though he did not discuss the timing and warned against politicizing the Fort Hood tragedy.

"I don't see any partisan flavor to this other than if somebody tries to make it a partisan flavor," the Maryland Democrat said.

Mr. Hoekstra also challenged President Obama's decision to try the purported Sept. 11, 2001, attack plotters in federal court in New York City, undertaking a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to block those trials. If a majority of House members sign the petition, the bill automatically would be brought to the floor for a vote, despite objections of Democratic leaders.

The petition and the calls for an investigation of the Fort Hood shootings, which the White House and Democratic leaders have avoided calling an act of terrorism, highlight what Republicans view as their strong position on terrorism and national security.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner said Mr. Obama's decision to move confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected plotters shows Democrats are "out of touch."

"It really begs the question of what is the administration's overarching strategy to fight the terrorists and keep Americans safe. We haven't seen that overarching strategy yet," said Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

Rep. Peter T. King of New York, a member of the intelligence committee and ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said a congressional probe is warranted, because the same type of "stovepiping" of information that precipitated the 9/11 attacks also appeared to help Maj. Hasan avoid detection despite several warning signs, including contact with Islamic extremists overseas.

"Our concern is: Are there any other Maj. Hasans in the armed forces today?" Mr. King said. "Our concern is that it appears that even eight years after Sept. 11, we still have silos and stovepipes, and information is not being shared throughout the intelligence community or the military."

The 9/11 Commission determined that "stovepiping," or preventing the sharing of information among agencies, was a key factor leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

In one of the more dramatic moments at the commission's hearings, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said the No. 2 officer at the Justice Department under President Clinton had built a wall between law enforcement and intelligence gathering, and he said that had agencies been permitted to talk to each other, the terrorist attacks might not have happened. Clinton officials argued, and the 9/11 Commission concluded, that the wall had been in place for years and was the result of a series of decisions.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/obama-gets-delay-of-fort-hood-probe//print/

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Chinese TV interrupts Obama appearances

by Matthew Mosk

BEIJING | The ceremony that served as President Obama's formal welcome to this city had all the visual grandeur and red-carpeted elegance a television camera crew could desire - a military review, a long walk across the opulent Great Hall of the People, an expansive mural depicting the Great Wall.

And it had one element that made it ideal for the Chinese national broadcast station, CCTV: silence.

In his first official trip to China, Mr. Obama visited the Forbidden City, spoke at length with Chinese leaders about greenhouse gas emissions and nuclear disarmament, and delivered some of the toughest rhetoric a U.S. president has ever uttered on Chinese soil about open government and universal rights.

But among the Chinese people, the popular American president was seen, more than heard.

Before he departed Wednesday, Mr. Obama proved he could do little to unlock the iron-tight grip the Chinese maintained on how his visit would be viewed here.

U.S. Embassy officials said they received numerous reports that broadcasts of the president's two main public appearances in China were at least partially interrupted. The Chinese altered plans to televise Mr. Obama's town hall with 500 students in Shanghai, showing the event only on a smaller, local station. U.S. Embassy officials here said a Hong Kong-based station that attempted to beam images of the event into Beijing had its feed cut after Mr. Obama took his second question.

The People's Daily online briefly summarized Mr. Obama as telling the crowd that the Internet has "enormous power in assisting information dissemination," but made no mention of his comments on how censorship undermines debate that drives positive change.

And the American president's one chance to engage publicly with Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a planned news conference, was abruptly scaled back so that neither man could take questions from reporters.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged Tuesday that the president did not reach as many people as he would have liked, but said it was unrealistic to believe the Chinese state-run media would suddenly change after a generation of censorship and tight image control.

"I did not expect, and I can speak authoritatively for the president on this, that we thought the waters would part and everything would change over the course of our almost 2 1/2-day trip to China," Mr. Gibbs said. "We understand there's a lot of work to do and that we'll continue to work hard at making more progress."

For the first time since he arrived in China, Mr. Obama publicly raised the issue of the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

"I spoke to President Hu about America's bedrock beliefs that all men and women possess certain fundamental human rights," Mr. Obama said during the carefully orchestrated event with Chinas president in an ornate marble chamber in the Hall of the People.

"We did note that while we recognize that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have," he said.

Despite groundbreaking public remarks from Mr. Obama about Tibet and Internet censorship, the Chinese-controlled media appeared to give the American president far less leeway than his predecessors when it came to reaching the Chinese people.

During President George W. Bush's visit in 2002, his words were broadcast live and distributed widely to the Chinese public.

When President Bill Clinton came here in 1998, Chinese citizens were floored to watch the American president engage then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin during a live, televised news conference that turned into an unscripted public debate about sensitive political subjects, such as human rights and the Tiananmen massacre. The American president was also afforded a 20-minute interview on national Chinese television in which he was able to make a strong impression.

At the time, a Chinese math student, Xiao Yan, told the New York Times he found the broadcasts "very exciting, ... something we rarely see, since most of the news avoids controversial topics, so this is a sign of progress. There's an old saying, 'When you hear from many different sides only then you understand.' "

Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Mr. Clinton was even unhindered from mentioning the 1989 Tiananmen events, during a speech at Beijing University that was broadcast live on national television.

"During past visits, the Chinese seemed to be more comfortable than they are today receiving criticism," Ms. Glaser said. "I think what we've seen on this visit is a reflection of the current moment, when the Chinese leadership feels very paranoid about stability at home."

But this was not the first time the Chinese have exhibited a reluctance to give Mr. Obama broad exposure here. Chinese who stayed up into the early hours to watch his inauguration in January looked on as state-run CCTV abruptly cut away from its coverage of Mr. Obama's address when he spoke of how "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism."

The censors proceeded to mute the Chinese interpreter, abandon the shot of the U.S. Capitol and seek refuge with a flustered studio anchor.

U.S. Embassy officials here said it is too early to determine how many people in China will ultimately have heard Mr. Obama reflect on such sensitive topics as Tibet and Internet censorship during this stretch of his eight-day, four-country Asian tour. Thomas F. Skipper, the minister counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, told The Washington Times that his staff was still going through tapes.

But several top aides to the president said they believe the president's message will eventually reach large numbers of people here, in part through videos of his appearances on Internet sites such as whitehouse.gov.

And if the Chinese people see Mr. Obama's appearance, administration officials said, they will have the chance to hear him address censorship, something that is rarely discussed publicly in China.

"I should tell you, I should be honest, as President of the United States, there are times where I wish information didn't flow so freely, because then I wouldn't have to listen to people criticizing me all the time," Mr. Obama told the gathered students Monday.

"I think people naturally are - when they're in positions of power, sometimes think, 'Oh, how could that person say that about me, or that's irresponsible,' " he said. "But the truth is that because in the United States information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader, because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear. It forces me to examine what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis to see am I really doing the very best that I could be doing for the people of the United States."

Mr. Obama's foreign policy team said that the day of talks with Mr. Hu represented a significant advance for American relations with China on several key fronts.

On climate change, for instance, the two leaders agreed in principle that each country would take significant mitigation actions, according to Michael Froman, a senior adviser to the president on the issue. They agreed that even as the Copenhagen negotiations appear well short of a final legal agreement, they would seek an accord that addresses mitigation commitments by both developed and developing countries, focuses on countries adapting to the effects of climate change, and provides scaled-up financing and technological support.

Mr. Hu listed a range of other areas where he expects his government to work more closely with the U.S., including on counterterrorism, law enforcement, science, technology, civil aviation, space exploration, high-speed railway infrastructure, agriculture, health and other fields.

"We also agreed to work together to continue to promote even greater progress in the growth of military-to-military ties," Mr. Hu said, through a translator.

Mr. Hu did not entirely ignore the question of human rights. Speaking to the gathered reporters - who were told they would not be permitted to ask questions - Mr. Hu said he and Mr. Obama "reaffirmed the fundamental principle of respecting each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"We will continue to act in the spirit of equality, mutual respect and noninterference in each other's internal affairs, and engage in dialogue and exchanges on such issues as human rights and religion in order to enhance understanding, reduce differences and broaden common ground," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/chinese-tv-interrupts-obamas-appearances//print/

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Death by political correctness

by Armstrong Williams

OPINION/ANALYSIS:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is now conscious and being nursed back to health by hospital staff, just days after opening fire on crowds of unarmed American soldiers at the Fort Hood Readiness Center. Maj. Hasan reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar!" - a phrase meaning "God is great!"- before discharging 100 bullets at some 300 unarmed U.S. troops who had gathered for pre-deployment processing. By the time his rampage ended, Maj. Hasan had massacred 13 servicemen and women, and injured 29.

In all likelihood, this tragedy would have been avoided if political correctness hadn't led military and government officials to turn a blind eye to clear signs that Maj. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist. As far back as a year ago, at least three government agencies - the Army, the Department of Defense and the FBI - learned that Maj. Hasan had sent 10 to 20 e-mails to an al Qaeda propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki .

Al-Awlaki is the radical imam from Virginia, now based in Yemen, who had ties to several of the 9/11 hijackers. In those 2008 correspondences with the imam, Maj. Hasan sought advice about how to reconcile his membership in the armed forces with his increasingly radical beliefs. One can certainly imagine how al-Awlaki prodded Maj. Hasan toward the virulent strain of Islamic extremism that he preaches through his Web site. Indeed, just days after Maj. Hasan's rampage, al-Awlaki posted an essay on his Web site titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing." In it, he described Maj. Hasan as a hero and "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."

Amazingly, none of the three government agencies that were aware of the communications between Maj. Hasan and al-Awlaki ever opened an in-depth investigation into the matter. How is it that three government agencies could know that a major in the U.S. Army is communicating with an al Qaeda associate, yet do nothing? At least one government official has stated that U.S. officials were scared that an investigation into Maj. Hasan's activities could be viewed as a sign of bias against Muslims. And so they did nothing. A year later, Maj. Hasan went on a killing spree.

Maj. Hasan's colleagues ignored similar red flags. Several of Maj. Hasan's Army comrades have disclosed how, on almost a daily basis, Maj. Hasan interrupted class discussions with volatile rants about "Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan." Over time, Maj. Hasan became increasingly vocal that the war on terrorism was a war against Islam. More than one classmate complained to higher-ups.

Moreover, doctors at the Walter Reed Medical Center, where Maj. Hasan was completing a fellowship, noted that Maj. Hasan's behavior was becoming erratic and that he delighted in spewing anti-American statements. Fearful of getting embroiled in a discrimination lawsuit, the doctors at Walter Reed had Maj. Hasan promoted and transferred to Fort Hood. Apparently, the administrators at Walter Reed have become so neutered by notions of political correctness, that they ignored the blatant signs that a budding homegrown terrorist was in their midst.

It doesn't end there. Approximately six months ago, the FBI reviewed Internet postings by Maj. Hasan, which described suicide bombings as heroic sacrifices in defense of Islam: "If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off-guard, that would be considered a strategic victory," wrote Maj. Hasan.

The FBI never opened a full investigation. Do terrorists now have to hand out business cards proclaiming themselves "terrorists" before the FBI takes action? This thought may have actually occurred to Maj. Hasan, who printed business cards identifying himself as "SOA," a jihadi acronym for "Soldier of Allah."

Still, no one did anything.

Even now, after the full extent of this tragedy has sunk in, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has warned the public against making any connections between Maj. Hasan and Muslims.

"As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty, as well," said Gen. Casey. It is true that this tragedy should not become an excuse to nurture irrational fear and loathing of Muslims. But we cannot become so neutered by political correctness that we ignore the facts. Maj. Hasan's killing spree was the most deadly act of terrorism on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

The military must state, in no uncertain terms, that it endorses a zero-tolerance policy for Islamist extremism. Certainly, if Maj. Hasan had been a white supremacist spewing forth racist vitriol, he would have been booted from the military. If Maj. Hasan had been a domestic terrorist spewing forth Timothy McVeigh-esque rhetoric about a tyrannical federal government, the government would have launched an in-depth investigation. Yet, apparently we have become so fearful of offending the Muslim community that we overlook it when a U.S. soldier exhorts violent Islamist extremism.

Even now, The Washington Post and the New York Times are running profiles on Maj. Hasan that depict him as a displaced and impoverished Muslim who suffered for his religious beliefs. For obvious reasons, neither piece mentioned that Maj. Hasan earned approximately $90,000 a year and had no school loans to pay back. This is impoverished? I think not.

Let's hold off on the sympathy pieces and deal with the hard truth: This tragedy could have been averted if we hadn't been so scared of offending the Muslim community that we ignored a jihadist in our midst. We need to open our eyes, and say never again.

• "The Armstrong Williams Show" is broadcast weeknights on XM Satellite's Power 169 channel from 9 to 10 p.m.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/williams-death-by-political-correctness//print/

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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When Every Second Counts

Our Border Membership Challenge

Statements by DHS Secretary Napolitano and HUD Secretary Donovan on Today's Disaster Recovery Stakeholder Forum in Los Angeles

Release Date: November 17, 2009

For Immediate Release
DHS Office of Public Affairs
Contact: 202-282-8010
HUD Office of Public Affairs, Contact: 202-708-0685

Los Angeles - The Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group today held its third of five planned stakeholder forums in Los Angeles—designed to encourage stakeholders to provide direct input and ideas for disaster recovery.

The Working Group—co-chaired by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan—is a high-level, strategic initiative that will recommend future improvements and help inform and develop a National Disaster Recovery Framework to provide operational guidance for recovery organizations.

“We are committed to ensuring a more resilient nation in which individuals, communities and the economy can adapt to changing conditions and rapidly recover from disasters of all kinds,” said Secretary Napolitano. “These forums are providing valuable input and feedback to strengthen our disaster recovery capabilities nationwide.”

“The stakeholder meetings ensure that the vital voices of disaster recovery professionals and stakeholders are heard as we move forward to improve disaster recovery efforts,” said Secretary Donovan. “It allows those on the ground to tell us what works and what doesn't in responding to natural disasters.”

The Working Group previously met with stakeholders to gather input and ideas in New York City on Nov. 10 and in New Orleans on Nov. 4.

The public is also encouraged to visit DisasterRecoveryWorkingGroup.gov to provide input on the same 16 specific questions posed to stakeholders at today's Working Group meeting addressing disaster recovery management issues and opportunities. The Web site, launched in October, provides more information about the Working Group's initiatives and upcoming stakeholder meetings in Salt Lake City (Nov. 19) and Memphis (Nov. 23).

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1258486108999.shtm

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From the Justice Department

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Good afternoon. I am joined here by some of my partners in the new effort we are launching today, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shawn Donovan, and Robert Khuzami, the Director of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is here representing SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro.

I am pleased today to announce the launch of an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to combat financial crime. The Task Force is designed to strengthen our collective efforts -- in conjunction with our federal, state, and local partners -- to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes relating to the current financial crisis; to recover ill-gotten gains; and to ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes.

We face unprecedented challenges in responding to the financial crisis that has gripped our economy for the past year. Mortgage, securities, and corporate fraud schemes have eroded the public's confidence in the nation's financial markets and have led to a growing sentiment that Wall Street does not play by the same rules as Main Street. Unscrupulous executives, Ponzi scheme operators, and common criminals alike have targeted the pocketbooks and retirement accounts of middle class Americans, and in many cases, devastated entire families' futures.

We will not allow these actions to go unpunished, which is why President Obama has established this Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to investigate and prosecute fraud and financial crime.

In the tough economic environment we face today, one of this Administration's most important missions is to draw upon all of the resources of the federal government to fight financial fraud in all of its forms. The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force will wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. We will marshal the criminal and civil enforcement resources of the executive branch to investigate and prosecute financial fraud cases; recover stolen funds for victims; address discrimination in lending and financial markets; and enhance coordination and cooperation among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial authorities responsible for investigating and prosecuting significant financial crimes and violations.

This Task Force's mission is not just to hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial meltdown, but to prevent another meltdown from happening. By punishing criminals for their actions, we will send a strong message to anyone looking to profit from the misfortune of others: We will investigate you, we will prosecute you, and we will incarcerate you. We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate and financial wrongdoing, and will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives.

Even before the launch of this Task Force, we have increased our efforts to prosecute financial fraud, including securities and commodities fraud, market manipulation, and various Ponzi schemes. In just the last ten months, we have secured the convictions of Bernard Madoff and several of his associates, and working alongside the SEC, have indicted several officers of Stanford Financial Group for their involvement in another massive Ponzi scheme.

Last month, we arrested individuals on charges stemming from what has been described as the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history. We also recently secured a 20-year sentence for the president and owner of Gen-See Capital Corp., who perpetrated a $31 million Ponzi scheme between 2002 and 2009 involving more than 500 victims, as well as 30-year and 25-year sentences for two executives of National Century Financial Enterprises following their convictions on conspiracy, fraud, and money-laundering charges.

We also have devoted substantial attention to preventing and prosecuting mortgage fraud. The FBI is currently investigating more than 2,800 mortgage fraud cases, up almost 400 percent from five years ago. The Bureau has more than doubled the number of agents investigating mortgage scams, and has created a National Mortgage Fraud Team at headquarters here in Washington. And last summer, we launched a coordinated state/federal mortgage fraud initiative with state attorneys general from around the country. This initiative will result in enhanced information-sharing, improved criminal and civil enforcement efforts, and a more effective approach to fighting discrimination in the housing and lending markets.

These were important steps, and by launching this new Task Force today we will build on them in moving forward.

This Task Force will be a robust, substantial working partnership with concrete follow-through. We will enhance training and information-sharing across the government, so that our prosecutors, regulators, and law enforcement agencies work seamlessly, employing the best available practices to fight financial crime.

We will work tirelessly with the victims of financial crime to ensure that their rights are restored and their financial futures preserved.

And at the core of the Task Force's mission will be our enforcement efforts, which will focus on the types of financial crime that affect us most significantly in this time of economic recovery: These crimes include:

• mortgage fraud –from the simplest of "flip" schemes to systematic lending fraud in the nationwide housing market;
  
  
• securities fraud – including traditional insider trading, Ponzi schemes, and misrepresentations to investors;
  
  
• Recovery Act and rescue fraud – we will ensure that the taxpayers' investment in America's economic recovery is not siphoned away by a dishonest few; and,
  
  
• discrimination – this Task Force will work to ensure that the financial markets work for all Americans, and that no one is unfairly targeted based on impermissible characteristics.

Our Task Force will take full advantage of the new legislative authorities Congress provided us earlier this year when it gave our agencies stronger tools to investigate and prosecute financial fraud.  That legislation, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, was an important bipartisan endorsement of the work we will undertake in this area.  

Our enforcement priorities will continue to be informed by the realities of the crisis we face. We will protect borrowers and ensure the integrity of the financial services industry by combating mortgage fraud head-on. We will protect investors and our capital markets by vigorously attacking securities fraud. We will ensure that recipients of federal financial rescue funds do not obtain them through fraud, or use them for improper purposes. And we will make sure that federal stimulus funds are well-spent by vigilantly protecting the integrity of federal procurement and grant processes. By carrying out this mission aggressively and effectively, we will promote the integrity of our markets, preserve taxpayers' resources, and protect the vast majority of consumers, investors, and companies that play by the rules and adhere to the law.

http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-091117.html

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WASHINGTON – Consuelo Carreto Valencia, a member of the Carreto family sex trafficking ring that operated between Mexico and Queens, N.Y., was sentenced to 121 months in prison for benefitting financially from her participation in the organization, which transported young Mexican women to the United States and forced them into prostitution. The sentencing proceeding was held today before U.S. District Judge Frederic Block at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The sentence was announced by Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and John Morton, Assistant Secretary, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security (ICE).

From 1991 through 2004, Carreto Valencia served as a manager in her family's sex trafficking operation based in Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico. She and her sons, Josue Flores Carreto and Gerardo Flores Carreto, and others, recruited young, uneducated women and girls from impoverished areas of Mexico and used or approved of a combination of deception, fraud, threats and physical violence – including rape and coerced abortion – to force them to prostitute themselves in brothels throughout the New York City metropolitan area, including Queens and Brooklyn. Carreto Valencia and her family made hundreds of thousands of dollars in prostitution profits, while the victims, who had been separated from their families in Mexico, received next to nothing.

At her guilty plea hearing on July 22, 2008, Carreto Valencia admitted that while living in Mexico, she received wire transfers of money from New York, fully aware that they were the proceeds of acts of prostitution performed by women who had been recruited and smuggled into the United States by her sons and others. She also admitted that she knew that the young women had been forced into prostitution in the United States.

"The victims in this case were robbed of their freedom, their dignity and their human rights. This case should send a clear message to those who abuse the rights of innocent individuals for their own profit that the federal government will be there to bring the perpetrators to justice," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

"It is unconscionable in this day and age that there are persons who would hold other human beings in conditions of servitude and force them into lives of prostitution in order to line their own pockets," stated U.S. Attorney Campbell. "As this case demonstrates, sex traffickers operating from abroad should be on notice that they will find no refuge from reach of United States law enforcement." Mr. Campbell extended his grateful appreciation to the agencies and individuals in the United States and abroad who assisted in the investigation.

"Even as Carreto Valencia heads to prison, there are still criminals coercing and trafficking young women and children into prostitution," said ICE Assistant Secretary Morton. "This case attests to the commitment of ICE and its law enforcement partners to insure that there is no safe haven for those who seek to endanger and dehumanize innocent women and children."

Previously, in April 2006, Josue Flores Carreto, Gerardo Flores Carreto and co-defendant Daniel Perez Alonso were sentenced to terms of 50, 50 and 25 years in prison, respectively, following their guilty pleas in April 2005. Carreto Valencia was extradited to the United States from Mexico in January 2007 to face the charges against her.

The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica E. Ryan and Hilary Axam, Acting Director of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

The case was investigated by Special Agents from the ICE New York Office with assistance provided by ICE Special Agents from the New Jersey and Mexico City offices; the New York City Police Department; the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; officials at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City; and officials of the Mexican Prosecutor General of the Republic.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/November/09-crt-1245.html

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From ICE

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November 16, 2009

Vietnamese predator nabbed by Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Force in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detention and removal officers arrested yesterday a Vietnamese national convicted of sexual abuse, forgery and misdemeanor battery.

Hung Hoang Nguyen, 50, was arrested as a result of a Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Force (JCART) operation targeting sexual predators.  

On April 30, 1979, Nguyen was convicted in Sebastian County, Ark., for first degree carnal abuse and received a sentence of five days in prison followed by three years in probation.  On July 21, 1983, Nguyen was convicted in Benton County, Ark., for second degree forgery and received a sentence of three years probation. On May 6, 1992, Nguyen was convicted in Brevard County, Fla., for misdemeanor first degree battery and received a sentence of 20 days with a 10-day suspension.

Nguyen is currently in ICE custody and will appear before an immigration judge who will ultimately decide if he should remain or be removed from the United States.

"ICE will continue using its unique immigration authorities to identify and arrest those who present a threat to our community," said Philip Miller, Field Office Director for ICE's Office of Detention and Removal in New Orleans. "Criminals in Alabama should be on notice, because we will find you and bring you to justice."

The arrest of Nguyen was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers and foreign-national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested almost 12,000 individuals through Operation Predator.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091117mobile.htm

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November 17, 2009

ICE initiative uses biometrics to enhance identification and removal of criminal aliens in Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz counties

Criminal and immigration records of all detainees to be checked

TUCSON, Ariz. - Law enforcement agencies in Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties will benefit from a new initiative developed by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) that modernizes the process used to accurately identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the community.

The initiative, Secure Communities, is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Secure Communities enables ICE to determine whether an individual arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien and take the appropriate action to remove that individual from the community.

"Secure Communities is a DHS initiative to more broadly manage and modernize the processes used to identify and ultimately remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities," said Acting Secure Communities Executive Director Marc Rapp. "Our goal with this effort is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our local law enforcement partners."

The Secure Communities biometric identification technology is now accessible to the state and local law enforcement agencies in Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz that use electronic booking machines maintained by the county jails. The program has already been implemented in more than 100 jurisdictions in 13 states, including Maricopa, Pinal, Yuma and Yavapai counties in Arizona, with nationwide coverage expected by the end of 2013.

Formerly as part of the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were taken and checked for criminal history information against the DOJ biometric system maintained by the FBI. With the implementation of Secure Communities in Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz today, the fingerprint information will now be simultaneously checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by the DHS.

If any fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action after offenders complete their prison terms. Top priority is given to aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

Secure Communities enhances the ongoing joint efforts by the county sheriffs and ICE to identify criminal aliens in the jail system and process them for deportation. As a result of those efforts, more than 4,500 criminal aliens were turned over to ICE last year following their release from the custody of the sheriff's offices already participating in Arizona.

Secure Communities is part of DHS's comprehensive plan to distribute technology that links local law enforcement agencies to both FBI and DHS biometric systems. DHS's US VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) holds biometrics-based immigration records, while the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains biometrics-based criminal records.

"US VISIT is proud to support ICE, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said the Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division Daniel D. Roberts. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

More information about ICE's Secure Communities effort is available at www.ice.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091117tucson.htm

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November 17, 2009

New ICE initiative launched in 3 Georgia counties

Uses biometrics to identify and enhance removal of criminal aliens arrested in Gwinnett, Clayton and DeKalb counties

ATLANTA - Beginning today, law enforcement agencies in Gwinnett, Clayton, and DeKalb counties will benefit from a new initiative developed by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) that modernizes the process used to accurately identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the community.

The initiative, Secure Communities, is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Secure Communities enables ICE to determine whether an individual arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien and take the appropriate action to remove the individual from the community.

Formerly as part of the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were taken and checked for criminal history information against the DOJ biometric system maintained by the FBI. With the implementation of Secure Communities Gwinnett, Clayton, and DeKalb counties, the fingerprint information will now be simultaneously checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by the DHS.

If any fingerprints match those of someone in DHS' biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action after offenders complete their prison terms. Top priority is given to aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

"Secure Communities is a DHS initiative to more broadly manage and modernize the processes used to identify and ultimately remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities," said Acting Secure Communities Executive Director Marc Rapp. "Our goal with this effort is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our local law enforcement partners."

"We are pleased to be part of this initiative," said Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway.  "This is one more tool we can use to identify dangerous criminal aliens in order to keep them off our streets.  This new program will work in conjunction with our 287(g) program."

"We applaud the efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in working with us to remove dangerous criminals from within the boundaries of DeKalb County," said Dekalb County Sheriff Thomas E. Brown.  "This is yet another example of local and federal agencies working together effectively to keep our communities safe."

Secure Communities bolsters the ongoing joint efforts by ICE and participating law enforcement agencies in the United States. Eventually, with DOJ and other DHS component collaboration, ICE plans to expand this capability to all state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.

Secure Communities is part of DHS's comprehensive plan to distribute technology that links local law enforcement agencies to both FBI and DHS biometric systems. DHS's US VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) holds biometrics-based immigration records, while the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains biometrics-based criminal records.

The Secure Communities biometric identification technology is now accessible in more than 100 jurisdictions in 13 states throughout the country, with nationwide coverage expected by the end of 2013.  Last year a total of 990,738 fingerprint transmissions were processed through Secure Communities resulting in 119,052 matches that included 11,219 Level I and 101.953 Level II and III offenders respectively as well as 5,880 U.S. citizens.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091117atlanta.htm

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November 17, 2009

ICE initiative uses biometrics to enhance identification and removal of criminal aliens in Southeastern Michigan

Criminal and immigration records of all detainees to be checked

DETROIT - Law enforcement agencies in southeastern Michigan will benefit from a new initiative developed by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) that modernizes the process used to accurately identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the community.

The initiative, Secure Communities, is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Secure Communities enables ICE to determine whether an individual arrested by a participating state or local law enforcement agency is a dangerous criminal alien and take the appropriate action to remove that individual from the community.

"Secure Communities is a DHS initiative to more broadly manage and modernize the processes used to identify and ultimately remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities," said Acting Secure Communities Executive Director Marc Rapp. "Our goal with this effort is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our local law enforcement partners."

The Secure Communities biometric identification technology is now accessible to local law enforcement agencies in Wayne County that use electronic booking machines maintained by the county jails. The program has already been implemented in more than 100 jurisdictions with nationwide coverage expected by the end of 2013.

Formerly as part of the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were taken and checked for criminal history information against the DOJ biometric system maintained by the FBI. With the implementation of Secure Communities Wayne County, the fingerprint information will now be simultaneously checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by the DHS.

If any fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action after offenders complete their prison terms. Top priority is given to aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

Secure Communities enhances the ongoing joint efforts by the county sheriffs and ICE to identify criminal aliens in the jail system and process them for deportation.

Secure Communities is part of DHS's comprehensive plan to distribute technology that links local law enforcement agencies to both FBI and DHS biometric systems. DHS's US VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) holds biometrics-based immigration records, while the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains biometrics-based criminal records.

"US VISIT is proud to support ICE, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said the Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division Daniel D. Roberts. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

More information about ICE's Secure Communities effort is available at www.ice.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091117detroit.htm

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From the FBI

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Steven R. Chabinsky
Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Statement Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security

November 17, 2009

Good morning Chairman Cardin, Ranking Member Kyl, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Federal Bureau of Investigation's role in reducing our nation's risk from acts of cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, and cyber crime.

The Cyber Threat and the FBI's Cyber Program

The FBI considers the cyber threat against our nation to be one of the greatest concerns of the 21st century. Despite the enormous advantages of the Internet, our networked systems leave a gaping and widening hole in the security posture of both our private sector and government systems. An increasing array of sophisticated state and non-state actors have the capability to steal, alter, or destroy our sensitive data and, in the worst of cases, to manipulate from afar the process control systems that are meant to ensure the proper functioning of portions of our critical infrastructure. Moreover, the number of actors with the ability to utilize computers for illegal, harmful, and possibly devastating purposes continues to rise.

When assessing the extent of the cyber threat, the FBI considers both the sophistication and the intent of our adversaries. The most sophisticated actors have the ability to alter our hardware and software along the global supply chain route, conduct remote intrusions into our networks, establish the physical and technical presence necessary to re-route and monitor our wireless communications, and plant dangerous insiders within our private sector and government organizations. The actors that currently have all of these capabilities—which is a finding that is distinct from whether and when they are using them—include multiple nation states and likely include some organized crime groups.

In the cyber realm, the technical positioning an adversary requires to steal data typically provides them with the very same access and systems administrator rights that could be used for destructive purposes. As a result, our adversaries' use of computer network exploitation—the ability to monitor our networks and steal our secrets—might simultaneously provide them with pre-positioned capabilities to conduct computer network attacks—the ability to deny, disrupt, degrade, or destroy our information, our networks, and the infrastructure services that rely upon them.

With respect to organized crime groups, financially motivated cyber crime typically does not involve acts of violence or network destruction. The exception to this generality however is extortion. Cyber criminals can threaten to hold entire networks, or more simply the data on them, hostage to their demands. Often, cyber criminals have the technical sophistication and access to make good on their threats, especially if an insider is involved.

The FBI has not yet seen a high level of end-to-end cyber sophistication within terrorist organizations. Still, the FBI is aware of and investigating individuals who are affiliated with or sympathetic to al Qaeda who have recognized and discussed the vulnerabilities of the U.S. infrastructure to cyber attack; who have demonstrated an interest in elevating their computer hacking skills; and who are seeking more sophisticated capabilities from outside of their close-knit circles. Should terrorists obtain such capabilities, they will be matched with destructive and deadly intent. In addition, it is always worth remaining mindful that terrorists do not require long term, persistent network access to accomplish some or all of their goals. Rather, a compelling act of terror in cyberspace could take advantage of a limited window of opportunity to access and then destroy portions of our networked infrastructure. The likelihood that such an opportunity will present itself to terrorists is increased by the fact that we, as a nation, continue to deploy new technologies without having in place sufficient hardware or software assurance schemes, or sufficient security processes that extend through the entire lifecycle of our networks.

FBI Leadership, Collaboration, and Information Sharing

Based on the significance of the problem, protecting the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes is one of the FBI's highest priorities and, in fact, is the FBI's highest criminal priority. It was with these factors in mind that, in 2002, the FBI created its current Cyber Division to handle all categories of cyber crime and cyber national security matters.

Today's FBI is comprised of the largest cadre of cyber trained law enforcement officers in the United States, with over 2,000 special agents having received specialized cyber training as part of the core curriculum at Quantico. To combat the most sophisticated and urgent matters, the FBI has built a national resource of over 1,000 advanced cyber-trained FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, and digital forensic examiners. In short, some of the best and brightest minds in the country have joined the FBI, which is uniquely positioned to combine counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal domestic investigative authorities to address the cyber threat.

Still, the cyber threat will not be eliminated through the efforts of any one government agency acting alone. It is for this reason that we have made collaboration and information sharing a key component of the FBI cyber strategy. The FBI has established a leadership role across the federal government, with industry, with state and local partners, with consumers, and internationally.

At the federal level, the FBI established and leads the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a presidentially mandated focal point for all government agencies to coordinate, integrate, and share pertinent information related to all domestic cyber threat investigations.

Serving by example, the FBI also leads all law enforcement agencies in cyber information sharing. In fiscal year 2009, the FBI disseminated over 1,800 cyber intelligence reports and cyber analytic products, providing members of the intelligence community, military, law enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security with the information they need to maximize their and our nation's success.

At the industry, state, and local level, the FBI established and leads InfraGard, currently consisting of more than 33,000 members spanning 87 cities nationwide and including representatives from federal, state, and local government; industry; and academia. InfraGard is the nation's largest government/private sector partnership focused on reducing physical and cyber threats against our critical infrastructure. Although InfraGard is an FBI program, established in 1996, it also benefits from the active support and participation of the Department of Homeland Security and each of its Protective Security Advisors throughout the country. The FBI also established a lead role in the development of the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, a group committed to combining the resources of academia, law enforcement, and industry to identify major global cyber threats.

At the consumer level, the FBI established and leads the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in partnership with the National White Collar Crime Center. The IC3 website ( www.ic3.gov ) is the leading cyber crime incident reporting portal, having received 275,284 complaint submissions in 2008 alone. From these submissions, IC3 analyzed, aggregated, and then referred 72,940 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration.

Internationally, the FBI operates 75 legal attaché offices and sub-offices around the world to assist in international investigations, including cyber investigations, providing coverage for more than 200 countries, territories, and islands. The FBI's international efforts have led to the arrest of hundreds of cyber criminals throughout the world, resulting in the dismantlement of major transnational organized crime rings that once preyed on Americans. The FBI also plays a leading role in the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center which, together with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, coordinates the government's domestic and international law enforcement efforts against IPR violations.

FBI Investigative, Collaborative, and Information Sharing Successes

Although an unclassified forum is not suitable for discussing the FBI's counterterrorism and counterintelligence cyber efforts, our investigative success on the criminal side provides a glimpse into our capabilities and strategic partnerships that can be used against any adversary. These cases also serve as a warning to would-be cyber thieves: the FBI can and will investigate high-technology crimes, we have partners throughout the world who are equally capable and vigilant, and we will ensure that cyber criminals are brought to justice.

Take for example last year's RBS Worldpay case in which a transnational crime organization used sophisticated hacking techniques to withdraw, in less than 12 hours, over $9 million from 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities around the world, including the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada. The FBI led the investigation, and its work with international law enforcement led to multiple arrests throughout the world and last week's indictment by a federal grand jury in Atlanta. The FBI investigation also included United States Secret Service participation, providing them with information that was relevant to their investigation of intrusions into Heartland Payment Systems and TJX Companies, for which there was a separate indictment in August of 2008. Each of these cases also included strong law enforcement assistance from the victims, which proved invaluable. Simply put, working together works.

The FBI's Operation Phish Phry is another recent example of the successful relationships between the FBI, the private sector, and international partners. Phish Phry resulted from ongoing coordination efforts between the FBI and United States financial institutions. Through the course of a two-year investigation, the investigation uncovered thousands of victims and identified an international sophisticated computer intrusion, identity theft, and money laundering scheme comprised of hundreds of subjects in the United States and Egypt. The FBI investigation yielded a 51-count federal indictment charging 53 U.S. citizens, while Egyptian law enforcement identified 47 Egyptian suspects directly involved in the criminal conspiracy. Of the identified U.S. targets, 10 possessed violent criminal histories requiring FBI SWAT teams to execute the high risk arrests. Cybercrime is serious business, and the people involved in it are no longer 15-year-olds in their parents' homes. Cybercrime is increasingly being adopted as a profitable component of violent, organized, sophisticated, and well-financed crime rings.

Another case example of note is the FBI's infiltration and dismantlement of Darkmarket, an online virtual transnational criminal organization. Working with our international partners in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Turkey, the FBI conducted a two-year undercover operation to penetrate the organization and bring it to its knees. At its peak, the Darkmarket forum had over 2,500 members—spanning countries throughout the world—who were involved in buying and selling stolen financial information, including credit card data, login credentials (user names, passwords), and equipment used to carry out certain financial crimes. Using undercover techniques, the FBI penetrated the highest levels of this group and identified and located its leading members. Multi-agency and multi-national coordination with our law enforcement partners led to over 60 arrests worldwide, as well as the prevention of $70 million in economic loss that otherwise would have occurred from compromised victim accounts.

In order to better protect banks and consumers against the rising costs of online fraud, the FBI has ramped up its collaboration to address matters impacting the financial services industry. In December of 2008, the FBI—working with the Internet Crime Complaint Center—issued a press release titled “Web Site Attack Preventative Measures” identifying a considerable spike in cyber attacks against the financial services and the online retail industry and detailing a number of actions a firm can take in order to prevent or thwart the specific attacks and techniques used by the intruders we were monitoring. This year, the FBI and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) developed a new model for intelligence-driven collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector. Specifically, during the course of our investigations, the FBI recognized threat trends, tactics, and techniques involving Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. Not only did we share that information while our investigations were pending, we invited FS-ISAC representatives into FBI space to get a full briefing on our case information. We then asked the FS-ISAC whether the threat information the FBI was seeing was relevant and timely for businesses and consumers to use to better protect themselves, reduce their vulnerabilities, and mitigate the consequences of these types of fraud. Industry representatives not only agreed that the information was pertinent, but that a written product would be useful for its members. In an entirely new collaboration model, we created a joint product in which the FBI wrote the first two sections involving the nature of the threat and how to recognize it, and the FS-ISAC (working with the National Automated Clearing House Association) wrote the second two sections involving industry impact and security recommendations for preventing further fraud.

Each of the above examples demonstrate that the FBI has not only adopted a robust information sharing model, we have moved past it. Our experience shows that collaboration is the answer, with information sharing being only one component of the equation. Taking advantage of each partner's skills and knowledge, and leveraging our nation's combined strengths in common cause provides significant advantages that are leading to increased and repeatable successes. Which brings me to the FBI's way ahead.

The Way Ahead

In an era of ever growing adversaries, our success clearly depends on working together and ensuring that agencies and industry have mature models in place for sharing information and collaborating, and to do so fully consistent with all civil liberties and privacy protections. Only in this way can we deter our adversaries, locate and bring them to justice, minimize systems vulnerabilities, and ensure that the consequences of successful cyber breaches and attacks are reduced.

As I alluded to earlier, the federal government's designated hub for domestic cyber threat investigative coordination, integration, and information sharing is the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF). The NCIJTF is a central aspect of the FBI's—and the nation's—comprehensive strategy to investigate, predict, and prevent cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, and cyber crime. In this regard, I would like to acknowledge the 19 intelligence and law enforcement agencies who, in addition to the FBI, have representatives at the NCIJTF and who are making vital contributions to our nation's cyber security every day.

Conclusion

I am grateful to the subcommittee for this chance to highlight the FBI's strengths in combating terrorism, espionage, and crime in cyberspace, and to recognize the partnerships that allow us to meet this ever growing economic and national security problem. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress09/chabinsky111709.htm

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From the DEA

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DEA Honored By Anti-Defamation League

NOV 17 -- (NEW YORK) – In recognition of their efforts to bring a notorious terrorist to justice, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) honored the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Each received the ADL Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation Award during the League's Annual Meeting in New York City. The award is named for Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair bound American tourist murdered while aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985, when it was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

As part of a successful undercover operation began in 2005 known as "Operation Legacy," a group of DEA agents infiltrated the inner ring of Monzer al-Kassar, a notorious arms dealer and the terrorist who supplied weapons to the hijackers of the Achille Lauro. After his arrest and extradition to the United States for attempting to sell weapons to a Colombian terrorist organization, al-Kassar and his associate were convicted on multiple terrorism charges in November 2008. Al-Kassar received a 30-year prison sentence.

In presenting the award named in honor of their father, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer spoke of the unwavering commitment of the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"Today we honor the tenacity and dedication it takes to brings terrorists and those who enable terrorism to justice," said Ilsa Klinghoffer. "As a family that has been victimized by terrorism, we cannot adequately express our appreciation to those who continue to investigate, track and prosecute terrorists."

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James Soiles, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Special Operations Division for DEA, accepted the awards on behalf of their respective offices.

With their late mother, Marilyn, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer established the ADL Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation in 1985, mandated to combat terrorism through educational, political and legal means.

"After suffering this most inexplicable and public of tragedies, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer did what many people do not have the strength or the courage to do – they decided to fight back," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Through their constant, selfless and tireless efforts, they have transformed terrorism and its victims from the abstract and put a face to those whose lives have been directly affected by terrorism."

The ADL Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation Award is an honor bestowed periodically in appreciation of important contributions to the struggle against terrorism. Past recipients of the award include former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, on behalf of the Clinton Administration, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Charles Schumer, Rep. Henry Hyde, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Richard Schifter, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Williams, and former Secretary of State George Schultz.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr111709.htm

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