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June 30, 2013

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U.S. taps half-billion German phone, internet links in month: report

(Reuters) - The United States taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in German in a typical month and has classed its biggest European ally as a target similar to China, according to secret U.S. documents quoted by a German newsmagazine.

The revelations of alleged U.S. surveillance programs based on documents taken by fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have raised a political furor in the United States and abroad over the balance between privacy rights and national security.

Exposing the latest details in a string of reputed spying programs, Der Spiegel quoted from an internal NSA document which it said its reporters had seen.

The document Spiegel cited showed that the United States categorized Germany as a "third-class" partner and that surveillance there was stronger than in any other EU country, similar in extent to China, Iraq or Saudi-Arabia.

"We can attack the signals of most foreign third-class partners, and we do it too," Der Spiegel quoted a passage in the NSA document as saying.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/30/us-usa-germany-spying-idUSBRE95T04B20130630

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Illinois

Matteson man accused of carrying loaded guns near Hawks rally

Authorities say sports fan told police that he had been robbed before

A Matteson man who had two loaded guns in a backpack while walking with crowds toward the Chicago Blackhawks victory rally tried to avoid a search by police officers, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday.

Roger Harrison has been charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after he was arrested during Friday's Grant Park rally, which hundreds of thousands of people attended.

Chicago police said there was no indication that the south suburban man — of the 3100 block of Holden Circle — was a threat.

Still, Harrison, 37, "became agitated" when he was stopped by police in the 100 block of North LaSalle Street, according to an arrest report. When officers asked about the large backpack he was carrying, Harrison told them he would "go the other way," the report said.

Harrison turned to walk away, but the officers followed him. When asked what was in his bag, he told officers, "I might have a handgun on me," and said he needed to go to work, court documents said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bond-court-hawks-guns-20130630,0,24224.story

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From the White House

Senate Votes to Reform Our Nation's Immigration System

When was the last time you can remember a week like this?

On Tuesday, President Obama committed the full weight of American leadership to the fight against carbon pollution and climate change. Then on Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and took us one step closer to marriage equality.

It's not all been good news. Before the President spoke on Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down one of the core provisions of the Voting Rights Act that has helped to protect one of Americans' most fundamental rights for nearly 50 years. As the President said, it's now up to Congress to ensure that every American has equal access to the polls.

But the most incredible thing about this week is that it's not over yet.

On Thursday, 68 members of the U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats, came together and voted to reform our nation's immigration system. They voted for a bill that secures our borders and cracks down on employers who refuse to play by the rules. They voted for a bill that provides undocumented immigrants with a way to earn citizenship so they can come out of the shadows. They voted for a bill that provides visas to foreign entrepreneurs looking to start American businesses, reunites families, and helps the students and young people who've never known any home but America fully embrace the country that they love.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/27/senate-votes-reform-our-nations-immigration-system

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From ICE

US, Mexican authorities shut down smuggling tunnel under construction in Nogales

NOGALES, Ariz. – U.S. and Mexican authorities shut down an incomplete cross-border drug smuggling tunnel following its discovery Tuesday during a routine, bi-national inspection of the city's main storm drain system.

While inspecting the storm drain running under Grand Avenue, authorities found a concrete access panel embedded in the storm drain floor. Upon removing the panel, they located an illicit tunnel containing numerous tools, a core drill and forced air ventilation. The inspection was conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-led Nogales Tunnel Task Force and U.S. Border Patrol, in partnership with Mexican federal police.

Investigators believe the tunnel, which was in the final stages of construction, would have exited on the U.S. side through a public parking lot located near the Dennis DeConcini port of entry. The passageway stretches for approximately 160 feet and is roughly two feet wide by three feet tall. About 153 feet of the tunnel is located within the United States, with seven feet in Mexico. A water line, storm drain pipe and two fiber optic lines were exposed inside the passageway. No people or drugs were found inside the tunnel and no arrests have yet been made in the case, which remains under investigation by the Nogales Tunnel Task Force.

Federal authorities have discovered and shut down six cross-border smuggling tunnels in the Nogales area in fiscal year 2013.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130627nogales.htm

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From the FBI

Race Against Time
Holiday Bomb Threat Averted

It was one of those cases like you might see on TV or in the movies—where the FBI and its partners work feverishly behind the scenes, racing to stop bombs from going off and lives from possibly being lost.

But this was real—and the stakes were high. The target was one of the nation's largest retailers in one of America's most populated areas. And the day of reckoning was Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.

It all started last October 15, when the Home Depot in Huntington, New York—a town on the north shore of Long Island—received an ominous anonymous note. The sender demanded $2 million or he would “shut down” three Home Depot stores on Long Island the day after Thanksgiving by remotely setting off bombs filled with roofing nails using a cell phone. As proof of his ability to hide a bomb, he said that he had planted a live device in the Huntington store's lighting department.

The man wasn't bluffing. Home Depot immediately contacted the Suffolk County Police Department, which found an operational pipe bomb hidden within a light fixture inside a box on a shelf. Bomb techs rendered it harmless through a controlled detonation.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/june/holiday-bomb-threat-averted/holiday-bomb-threat-averted

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June 29, 2013

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Connecticut

Norwalk To Host Roundtable On Urban Violence, Community Policing

NORWALK, Conn. -- The city of Norwalk will host a community roundtable discussion Monday on urban violence, including gun- violence reduction strategies, community policing and other urban crime mitigation efforts, Mayor Richard Moccia announced.

Moccia will host with Gov. Dannel Malloy, Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik and other members of the Norwalk community.

The discussion will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Community Room at Norwalk City Hall, 125 East Ave.

Moccia invites all residents and members of the Norwalk community to join him for this important discussion.

Please RSVP via email to Sally Johnson at sjohnson@norwalkct.org

If you have any further questions, call City Clerk Erin E. Herring at 203-854-7703.

http://norwalk.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/norwalk-host-roundtable-urban-violence-community-policing

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Edward Snowden's father seeks to broker deal with U.S. for son's return

NSA leaker Edward Snowden's father, Lonnie, says he is trying to arrange terms with the U.S. Justice Department for his son's return.

WASHINGTON — The father of Edward Snowden, the computer expert who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs, revealed Friday that he was trying to broker a compromise with the U.S. government that could bring his son back to the United States.

In a letter to the Justice Department, Lonnie Snowden said through his attorney that his son wanted "ironclad assurances" he would not be held in jail before trial or subjected to a gag order, and would be allowed to choose where he would be tried on federal espionage charges.

The elder Snowden said the offer could end the impasse that has kept his 30-year-old son stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and raised tensions between the U.S. and other countries, including China, Russia and Ecuador, where the former National Security Agency contract employee is seeking political asylum.

"We believe you share our objective of securing Edward's voluntary return to the United States to face trial," Washington attorney Bruce Fein wrote to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. on behalf of Snowden's father.

Lonnie Snowden, Fein wrote, "is reasonably certain that his son would voluntarily return to the United States if there were ironclad assurances that his constitutional rights would be honored, and he were provided a fair opportunity to explain his motivations and actions to an impartial judge and jury."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-snowden-20130629,0,7711506.story

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Illinois

Community policing adds overview of Islam to officers' toolbelt

Rockford-area leaders aim to reduce racial, cultural bias in police work

ROCKFORD — Shpendim Nadzaku perhaps took a step Friday in bridging a cultural divide.

The Muslim Association of Greater Rockford imam's skull cap, traditional white robe and his thick beard, which hung just beyond his shoulders, stood in contrast to the mostly clean-shaven law-enforcement faces looking back at him.

It was all part of a tour police chiefs and command staff from Rockford, Rockford Park District, Loves Park, Winnebago, Cherry Valley and Winnebago County took of the Muslim Community Center mosque in hopes of improving cultural awareness.

Police officers unfamiliar with the myriad cultures that make up the Muslim community could find Nadzaku's dress, accent and manner strange. On the other hand, some of the 500 Muslims who regularly attend services at the mosque, 5921 Darlene Drive, have a deep distrust of law enforcement.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1808709338/Community-policing-adds-overview-of-Islam-to-officers-toolbelt#axzz2Xbem2Gn1

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June 28, 2013

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California

Columbus Street, San Fernando Valley gang, subject to new injunction

An injunction against the San Fernando Valley's Columbus Street gang was approved Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the city attorney's office announced.

The injunction prohibits 18 members of the gang from associating with one another within a specified zone in Panorama City and North Hills and engaging in other activities such as intimidating witnesses. The zone is defined as a 2.7 square mile area covering territory generally bounded by Plummer Street, Sepulveda Boulevard, Saticoy Street and Woodman Avenue.

Among the crimes attributed to the gang, which include former state prison inmates with ties to the Mexican Mafia, are murders, assaults, shootings, street robberies and drug dealings, according to the City Attorney's Office.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich filed for the injunction in February in an effort to stem violence attributed to the more 200 members of the Columbus Street gang. The injunction includes more than 400 pages of declarations from law enforcement officials about the activity of the members of the Columbus Street gang. Trutanich has said the gang goes back several generations to the late 1970s and includes some leaders who are in their 40s.

"For too long, the Columbus Street gang has used intimidation, violence and fear in holding this community hostage to its nefarious activities," Trutanich said. "Today, our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have secured an important tool to curb illegal activity in our neighborhoods and bring safety and security to our residents."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23555769/columbus-street-san-fernando-valley-gang-subject-new

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Senate passes sweeping immigration bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate, after a decade of trying and failing, on Thursday passed a wide-ranging immigration bill that would put 11 million foreigners now living illegally in the United States on a path to American citizenship.

But the bill may not progress beyond the Senate. The measure was in serious trouble in the more conservative House of Representatives. House Speaker John Boehner has said it will not even be considered in its current form.

The legislation, debated nearly non-stop since early May - first in the Senate Judiciary Committee and now on the Senate floor, is backed by President Barack Obama, who has made enactment of such a law one of his top priorities this year.

Test votes on the bill this week indicated that about two-thirds of the 100-memberSenate could vote for passage. Final passage is expected Thursday afternoon.

House Republicans are producing much more narrow bills that contain no steps toward legalization and eventual citizenship for the 11 million undocumented foreigners, some of whom are now raising families with American-born children.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23552924/senate-passes-sweeping-immigration-bill

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Feds: Boston Marathon suspect had bomb-making instructions, jihad literature available online

BOSTON — What Dzhokhar Tsarnaev needed to learn to make explosives with a pressure cooker was at his fingertips in jihadist files on the Internet, according to a federal indictment accusing him of carrying out the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured dozens more.

Investigators have been trying to determine whether Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed while the two were on the run after the bombings, was influenced or trained by Islamic militants during a trip overseas. But the indictment released Thursday against 19-year-old Dzhokhar makes no mention of any overseas influence.

Before the attack, according to the indictment, he downloaded the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaida. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks and lethal shrapnel.

He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including “Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam,” which advocates “violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam,” the indictment said. The article was written by the late Abdullah Azzam, whose legacy has inspired terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Another tract downloaded — titled “The Slicing Sword, Against the One Who Forms Allegiances With the Disbelievers and Takes Them as Supporters Instead of Allah, His Messenger and the Believers” — included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/indictment-boston-marathon-suspect-downloaded-bomb-making-instructions-jihad-literature.html/2

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Meth floods US border crossing

Children walk across the U.S.-Mexico border with crystal methamphetamine strapped to their backs or concealed between notebook pages. Motorists disguise liquid meth in tequila bottles, windshield washer containers and gas tanks.

The smuggling of the drug at land border crossings has jumped in recent years but especially at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry, which accounted for more than 40 percent of seizures in fiscal year 2012. That's more than three times the second-highest _ five miles east _ and more than five times the third-highest, in Nogales, Ariz.

The spike reflects a shift in production to Mexico after a U.S. crackdown on domestic labs and the Sinaloa cartel's new hold on the prized Tijuana-San Diego smuggling corridor.

A turf war that gripped Tijuana a few years ago with beheadings and daytime shootouts ended with the cartel coming out on top. The drugs, meanwhile, continue flowing through San Ysidro, the Western hemisphere's busiest land border crossing with an average of 40,000 cars and 25,000 pedestrians entering daily.

"This is the gem for traffickers," said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. "It's the greatest place for these guys to cross because there are so many opportunities."

http://www.theeagle.com/news/nation/article_235659a4-50ea-5b87-9a56-5c8476857df5.html

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Synthetic drug raid sweeps U.S.

11 eastern Iowa businesses are reportedly searched

WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies served hundreds of search and arrest warrants across the United States on Wednesday in what officials described as the largest-ever crackdown on those who make and distribute synthetic designer drugs.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that 11 eastern Iowa businesses were raided.

Drug Enforcement Administration Chief of Operations James Capra said drug and other agents served 150 arrest warrants and 375 search warrants and seized bank accounts in 35 states as part of a seven-month investigation. Capra said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have helped authorities seize more than 1,000 kilograms of drugs used in synthetic marijuana, bath salts and other substances that can mimic cocaine, LSD and other drugs.

The drugs, often marketed as herbal incense or other seemingly innocuous products, are marketed to teenagers and young adults in a growing industry that has netted millions of dollars from traffickers, Capra said. Use of synthetic drugs has led to increases in emergency room visits around the country and routinely leads to a dangerous psychosis, he added.

“What (traffickers) care about is lining their pockets on the backs of young people,” Capra said. Untold millions in profits have ended up in Middle Eastern countries, he said.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewart/20130627/NEWS01/306270093/Synthetic-drug-raid-sweeps-U-

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Illinois

Detroit to expand community policing program after decline in home invasions

A pilot program that launched a year ago and aimed at reducing home invasions in Detroit's Grandmont Rosedale community is expected to expand to other parts of the city.

“My No. 1 priority is reducing violence in this city,” incoming Police Chief James Craig said during a news conference today in the tree-lined community in northwest Detroit where officials said home invasions decreased by about 25% percent in a one-year period.

Craig, who officially starts his new job Monday, said he plans to replicate many of the strategies used to reduce home invasions in the area — which went down from 269 to 201 — in other parts of the city.

“I want to continue to look at the home invasion,” he said. “Nothing strikes fear in a community more than people's home being burglarized.”

The pilot program involved residents, the Detroit Police Department, Michigan Department of Corrections and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which funded the initiative.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130627/NEWS01/306270096/Detroit-community-policing-program-Grandmont

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