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From LA Times

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Fort Hood shooting suspect's ties to mosque investigated

The FBI and Army are looking into whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had an association with militants at the Virginia mosque where two 9/11 hijackers prayed, a source says.

By Josh Meyer

November 9, 2009

Reporting from Washington

The FBI and the Army on Sunday were investigating whether the military psychiatrist suspected in the Ft. Hood shooting rampage had an association with militants at a mosque in Virginia or in cyberspace.

A senior federal law enforcement official said there was no immediate evidence of such a link, nor of any direct connection between the suspected gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, and terrorist groups or individuals, either in person or online. Hasan is accused of opening fire at a readiness center in Ft. Hood, Texas, on Thursday, killing 13 and wounding dozens. He reportedly had been depressed about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

But authorities are still scouring "voluminous" hard drives, multiple e-mail accounts and website trails "to see what's out there, and to see what it all means," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "There's a lot of work being done."

The official said investigators were looking into Hasan's association with the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., in early 2001, about the same time that a radical Islamist prayer leader and two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were there.

The mosque is one of the biggest in the United States, and the official cautioned that thousands of people go there for prayer services and other events. The funeral of Hasan's mother was held there on May 31, 2001, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities were focusing aggressively on whether Hasan more recently had been following the fiery online sermons and blog postings of that imam, Anwar al Awlaki, the official said.

Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be in Yemen. He is actively supporting the Islamist jihad, or holy war against the West, through his website.

Early this morning, after Awlaki's name was publicly linked to Hasan's, a posting on Awlaki's site was titled “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing.”

In it, a writer claiming to be Awlaki described 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."

"Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal," the writer said.

There was no way to confirm immediately whether the posting was actually from Awlaki.

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

In recent days, authorities poring over Hasan's computer, Internet records and multiple e-mail accounts have found evidence that he visited other radical Islamist websites with some frequency, according to several officials familiar with the investigation.

"Obviously, people who visit these websites can be influenced by or affected by them, by the influence of the clerics, as opposed to being directed by them," said the senior federal law enforcement official. "It goes back to his state of mind."

Some counter-terrorism officials and experts said that although Hasan's connections to Awlaki, if any, are unclear, the imam has had a major effect on aspiring violent extremists around the world.

"Awlaki is one of the principal jihadi luminaries for would-be homegrown terrorists," said Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism consultant for the U.S. and other governments. "His fluency with English, his unabashed advocacy of jihad and mujahideen organizations, and his Web-savvy approach are a powerful combination."

Kohlmann said Awlaki's lecture on "Constants on the Path of Jihad" -- based on a similarly named document written by the founder of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia -- is the "virtual bible for lone-wolf Muslim extremists."

FBI agents and military investigators continued to work methodically to retrace Hasan's steps in an effort to determine what might have set him off and who, if anyone, might have known about his alleged plans.

There was no indication from a thorough search of his computer and other seized evidence that the suspect had any conspirators, federal law enforcement officials said, but they were not willing to rule that out.

Those officials said that Hasan's apparent interest in websites focusing on radical Islamist ideology came at a time when he had grown increasingly -- and publicly -- unhappy with the U.S. war effort and his possible deployment.

"There is nothing that we have found thus far linking him to a terrorist group, but we have intelligence that he made postings in chat rooms," said Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, a Texas-based private firm that gathers intelligence for corporations and divisions of the U.S. and foreign governments. He said the group got its information from open-source intelligence on the Internet and elsewhere, and from authorities of various agencies involved in the investigation into Hasan.

"Everything that I'm seeing so far is that he was a lone wolf. It does seem that there was a religious element to this, but there could have been some other workplace violence issues too, since it seems he was a loner who had few friends," Stewart said. "But it's hard to separate sometimes, especially with a lone-wolf actor, where the mental disturbance ends and the religious convictions and political beliefs start."

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), said he wanted to launch a congressional investigation into the shooting.

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

But Army Chief of Staff George W. Casey Jr. urged caution and said it was too early to arrive at conclusions about the suspect's motives. Casey warned on ABC's "This Week" that focusing on Hasan's ties to Islam could "heighten the backlash" against enlisted Muslims.

Hasan's relatives have said that he was taunted for his faith. They have also said that he was a good doctor and, if he was the shooter, must have snapped.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fort-hood-probe9-2009nov09,0,1824834,print.story

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Fort Hood tragedy rocks military as it grapples with mental health issues

Psychological problems are rampant, leaders admit. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been long, and repeat deployments are highly stressful. Doctors, too, fall prey to mental illness.

By Shari Roan

November 9, 2009

The U.S. military's culture of silence about troops' mental health had finally begun to change.

In the early years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the various branches had been roundly criticized for failing to adequately address post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and other psychiatric problems. Responding to that criticism, leaders made progress in diagnosing and treating such illnesses among service members.

But Thursday's attack at Ft. Hood -- as well as two other recent incidents in which military personnel allegedly turned guns on their own -- indicates an intractable problem not easily overcome.

In last week's incident, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly fired repeatedly at colleagues on the Texas base, killing 13 and wounding more than 30, before being felled by civilian base police officers. Hasan, who was about to be deployed to Afghanistan, is now hospitalized.

The fact that the suspect is a psychiatrist "is a one-in-a-billion case," said Floyd Meshad, who served as a psychiatric social worker in the Vietnam War and is president of the National Veterans Foundation in Los Angeles. "But it does red-flag a lot of questions."

Those questions include whether, even today, military personnel can easily obtain mental health services.

The factors that may have led to Hasan's alleged actions are not yet clear. What is clear is that no one is immune to mental health problems: Doctors have slightly higher suicide rates than does the general population.

"Psychiatrists can have emotional difficulties too. We are humans like everyone else," said Dr. William Callahan, a psychiatrist in Aliso Viejo who served as a flight surgeon in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "It's a shocking reminder of how much we need to do to get people access and better treatment."

Military leaders acknowledge rampant psychiatric problems in their midst. According to the Army, the suicide rate among soldiers in Iraq is five times that seen in the Persian Gulf War and 11% higher than during Vietnam. The Army reported 133 suicides in 2008, the most ever. In January of this year, the 24 suicides reported by the Army outnumbered U.S. combat-related deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps also reported an increase in suicides in 2008, to 41. The Army and Marine Corps have provided most of the troops in the two wars.

In April 2008, researchers at the Rand Corp. published a study showing that almost 20% of personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported PTSD or depression. Just over half of those had sought treatment.

"I think the military fully understands the magnitude of this problem," said Dahr Jamail, a journalist and author of a new book, "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"This issue of redeploying people repeatedly is a massive crisis," Jamail said. "It's creating a point of collapse in the military."

In fact, Jamail said, he is surprised that violent incidents aren't more frequent.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have generated an array of mental and behavioral problems, experts say. Besides PTSD, a high rate of traumatic brain injury has contributed to cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. The wars have been long and, without a national draft in place, many troops have been subject to repeat deployment. The nature of the conflicts -- fighting insurgents who mingle among civilians -- is considered an additional, constant source of stress.

Military violence has been a problem in recent years. An Army sergeant has been accused of killing two superiors at a base south of Baghdad last year. And in May, an Army sergeant allegedly opened fire in a stress clinic on a base in Baghdad, killing five fellow soldiers.

The symptoms of mental health problems can include anxiety, depression, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, nightmares, emotional numbness, cognitive difficulties and intrusive thoughts. Some troops report feelings of guilt or sorrow that they cannot overcome. Others begin to abuse alcohol or drugs. Loneliness, divorce and domestic violence are common.

Service personnel have traditionally been reluctant to seek counseling because doing so might go on their records, said Meshad, who teaches mental health workers about compassion fatigue -- a gradual erosion of compassion for one's patients and apathy about their plight.

"We have a system that has a Catch-22, and it's time the military faced it," he said. "These soldiers would like to see a therapist. But there must be a way where it can be confidential."

Recently, military leaders have made strides in addressing the mental health crisis. In 2007, the Defense Department established the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury to promote prevention and treatment.

The department also recently launched a program called Real Warriors to fight the stigma surrounding mental health issues and promote treatment. In July, the Army provided $500 million for the largest study ever on suicide and mental health issues among military personnel and last month announced it would begin emotional-resilience training to prepare troops for the psychological duress of service.

"The military is doing more and more to address emotions," Callahan said. "They are becoming more focused and precise in realizing they have got to prepare people emotionally for war."

Some say military mental health providers, possibly including Hasan, carry heavy workloads as a result.

"They are horribly burned out," said Aaron Glantz, author of the 2009 book "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans."

Military psychiatrists can face especially frustrating circumstances because they may recommend releasing a soldier from active duty or redeployment because of mental health problems, only to be overridden by a commanding officer, Glantz said.

In 2007, a soldier at Ft. Hood told mental health services that he was suicidal, but he was nonetheless ordered to redeploy.

"His commanding officer said, 'I don't care, I want you redeployed anyway,' " Glantz said. "He walked into a field and killed himself. Imagine if you're the psychiatrist in that situation. All of these psychiatrists are experiencing this."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-fort-hood-psych9-2009nov09,0,2522739,print.story

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D.C. sniper set to be executed Tuesday

His appeal to the Supreme Court says the case has moved too fast. If he had been tried in Maryland -- where most of the murders took place -- instead of Virginia, the outcome would have been different

By David G. Savage

November 9, 2009

Reporting from Washington

Seven years ago this month, the captured Beltway snipers -- John Allen Muhammad, then 41, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, 17 -- were in federal custody, accused of 16 shootings and 10 murders. They had set out to create a reign of terror in the Washington area to match the 9/11 attacks of the year before.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft had a choice: He could send them to be tried in Maryland, where most of the murders took place but where the death penalty was on hold because of the specter of racial unfairness. Or he could send them across the Potomac River to Virginia, the site of three of the killings, where death sentences are carried out swiftly.

Ashcroft chose Virginia.

On Tuesday, Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison, his initial appeals having been dismissed by state and federal judges.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sniper9-2009nov09,0,3520756.story

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Runaway Toyota cases ignored

Safety investigators dismissed numerous reports of sudden acceleration, then said data were lacking.

By Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger

November 8, 2009

More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found.

The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.

Owner complaints helped trigger at least eight investigations into sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last seven years. Toyota Motor Corp. recalled fewer than 85,000 vehicles in response to two of those probes, and the federal agency closed six other cases without finding a defect.

But those investigations systematically excluded or dismissed the majority of complaints by owners that their Toyota and Lexus vehicles had suddenly accelerated, which sharply narrowed the scope of the probes, the Times investigation revealed.

Federal officials eliminated broad categories of sudden-acceleration complaints, including cases in which drivers said they were unable to stop runaway cars using their brakes; incidents of unintended acceleration lasting more than a few seconds; and reports in which owners did not identify the possible causes of the problem.

NHTSA officials used the exclusions as part of their rationale to close at least five of the investigations without finding any defect, because -- with fewer incidents to consider -- the agency concluded there were not enough reported problems to warrant further inquiry. In a 2003 Lexus probe, for example, the agency threw out all but one of 37 customer complaints cited in a defect petition. It then halted further investigation, saying it "found no data indicating the existence of a defect trend."

Meanwhile, fatal crashes involving Toyota vehicles continued to mount.

In a written statement, the NHTSA said its records show that a total of 15 people died in crashes related to possible sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles from the 2002 model year and newer, compared with 11 such deaths in vehicles made by all other automakers.

The Times located federal and other records of 19 fatalities involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles from the same model years in which sudden or unintended acceleration may have been a factor, as well as more than 1,000 reports by owners that their vehicles had suddenly accelerated. Independent safety expert Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies, said he has identified nearly 2,000 sudden-acceleration cases for Toyota vehicles built since 2001.

Other experts say the numbers may be far higher, pointing to a 2007 NHTSA survey of 600 Lexus owners that found 10% complained they had experienced sudden acceleration.

Most sudden accelerations did not result in a crash, but there were notable exceptions. Bulent Ezal, a retired engineer, plunged 70 feet off a Pismo Beach cliff into the Pacific Ocean surf. He was hospitalized with minor injuries, but his wife of 46 years was killed.

"By the time they pulled me out, the tide was about to cover the car," Ezal said.

He said his 2005 Camry had suddenly accelerated in a parking lot.

In its research, The Times examined thousands of federal defect investigation records, complaints filed with NHTSA by Toyota and Lexus owners, lawsuits against the company, and reports by independent safety experts and local police agencies.

Toyota has been under a spotlight since Aug. 28, when off-duty California Highway Patrolman Mark Saylor and three members of his family died in a Lexus ES 350 that accelerated to more than 100 mph and crashed in San Diego County.

Toyota has blamed the Saylor crash on an incorrectly installed floor mat that jammed the accelerator pedal. The company announced a recall of 3.8 million vehicles in September and is designing a fix aimed at preventing sudden acceleration caused by floor mats.

The recall affects the following Toyota models: the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2004-2009 Prius, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2005-2010 Tacoma and the 2007-2010 Tundra, as well as the 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350 and the 2006-2010 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350.

Last week, the NHTSA called the issue a "very dangerous problem" and said the remedy remains to be determined.

The agency declined a request for interviews, but issued a statement defending its past actions, saying its officials have continuously monitored Toyota vehicles for potential defects and that many of the reports of sudden acceleration involved only momentary surges of engine power that did not result in any loss of vehicle control.

"NHTSA takes every allegation of safety problems seriously and that is why we read every consumer complaint within one business day of its receipt," the agency said. "In the case of complaints about sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles NHTSA moved very quickly to respond to them."

Toyota Motor Corp. defended its Toyota and Lexus vehicles and the validity of prior investigations.

"Over the past six years, NHTSA has undertaken several exhaustive reviews of allegations of unintended acceleration on Toyota and Lexus vehicles. In each case, the agency closed the investigation without finding any electronic engine control system malfunction to be the cause of unintended acceleration," the company said in a statement.

Whatever the cause, Toyota and Lexus owners have grappled with the dangerous consequences.

* Jean Bookout awoke in an Oklahoma hospital a month after a crash in her 2005 Camry.

She said the car sped out of control on a freeway, then smashed into an embankment after she swerved it onto an exit ramp, leaving behind long skid marks from attempts to stop the vehicle with her brakes and emergency brake.

Bookout sustained permanent memory loss, and her best friend died.

"I did everything I could to stop the car," she said Tuesday.

* Nancy Bernstein, a vice president for a Long Beach community garden and former science teacher, said she was taken on an 8-mile high-speed ride by her 2007 Prius while she was following her husband in a group bicycle tour in Wisconsin. She said her Prius accelerated from 45 mph to 75 mph on a winding, two-lane highway crowded with 100 cyclists.

"I was sure I was going to kill someone on a bicycle or myself," she recalled. "I stood on the brakes with both feet. All of a sudden, I see fire. I thought, sure, my brakes are on fire. I thought about maybe trying to sideswipe a tree to slow down."

Eventually she was able to stop at the bottom of a hill, using her brakes and emergency brake. A local resident rushed out with a fire extinguisher.

* Dr. David. W. Smith, an emergency room physician from San Dimas, has yet to receive a satisfactory answer from Toyota about his Lexus GS 300. Smith said he was driving with his cruise control in Central California on Highway 99 last year, not touching the accelerator, when suddenly the vehicle accelerated to 100 mph.

The brakes did not release the cruise control or slow down the vehicle, Smith recalled. Finally, he shifted into neutral and shut off the engine. "I am sure it is the cruise control," he said. "I haven't used it since."

In reviewing consumer complaints during its investigations, the NHTSA relied on established "positions" that defined how the agency viewed the causes of sudden acceleration. Cases in which consumers alleged that the brakes did not stop a car were discarded, for example, because the agency's official position was that a braking system would always overcome an engine and stop a car. The decision was laid out in a March 2004 memorandum.

When asked to submit its own complaint data to the NHTSA, Toyota eliminated reports claiming that sudden acceleration occurred for "a long duration," or more than a few seconds. Elsewhere, the company said a fail-safe in its throttle system makes such an event impossible.

NHTSA officials acknowledged in a statement that the exclusions were made, but defended the practice.

"While some vehicles may be excluded from the scope of an investigation into a specific defect allegation, all are continuously reviewed, along with other relevant information, in order to identify other emerging issues of concern," the statement said.

A reduced pool of reports created the appearance that the problem was much smaller than the total number of complaints suggested, making a broader vehicle recall seem less necessary, critics say.

"NHTSA has ways of pigeonholing reports, categorizing them as brake failure rather than sudden acceleration," said attorney Edgar Heiskell of Charleston, W.Va., who is suing Toyota over a fatal crash in Flint, Mich. "By excluding these braking and long-duration events, they have taken 80% of the cases off the table."

In 2004, the NHTSA began a probe into a defect petition filed by Carol J. Mathews, a registered nurse who was then director of health services for the Montgomery County, Md., school system. Matthews reported that she had her foot on the brake of her 2002 Lexus ES when it took off and hit a tree.

In its subsequent investigation, the NHTSA and Toyota both winnowed down other reports of sudden acceleration involving 2002 and 2003 Lexus ES and Camry models.

When the agency asked Toyota to disgorge all of the reports it knew about, the company eliminated an unknown number in five broad categories, including cases in which drivers said they were unable to control a runaway engine by applying the brakes.

In closing the probe, federal investigators said only 20 cases were considered relevant.

But The Times' examination of consumer complaints and a sampling of reports from Toyota dealers found more than 400 reports of sudden acceleration involving those models. And federal records show that the NHTSA knew about 260 of those cases and another 114 cases identified by Toyota.

As for its position that brakes can always overcome a vehicle's engine, the safety agency and Toyota now acknowledge that a braking system cannot always counter a wide-open throttle, as is the case in sudden acceleration.

The NHTSA began investigating the problem of sudden acceleration in the mid-1980s, after a flood of complaints about the Audi 5000. One outgrowth of the subsequent investigation was the NHTSA view that acceleration events at high speed are a different issue than events at low speed.

In 2005, for example, Jordan Ziprin of Phoenix, who had experienced a minor accident he blamed on sudden acceleration, filed a defect petition with the NHTSA that included nearly 1,200 owner complaints about Toyota vehicles. The automaker argued that the majority should be eliminated because they dealt "with two completely different issues."

When owners said the "vehicle unintentionally or suddenly 'accelerated,' " Toyota claimed that represented a different issue than when they said "the vehicle 'surged' or 'lurched.' " The NHTSA ultimately went a step further, eliminating every single complaint except Ziprin's, finding them to have "ambiguous significance."

The agency also has thrown out evidence for other reasons. In 2008, the NHTSA opened a probe of the Toyota Tacoma after a consumer found that the truck had accumulated 32 times as many sudden-acceleration complaints as any other pickup. But Toyota at the time said the complaints stemmed from "media and Internet exposure." The NHTSA closed the case without a finding after it whittled down a list of more than 450 complaints to just 62.

"To this day I still can't find evidence online of a flood of media exposure," said William Kronholm, the Helena, Mont., man who said he requested the investigation after he experienced two acceleration events in his 2006 Tacoma. "They never dealt with the question I presented in any real way."

The NHTSA has declined to reconsider previous investigations, even in the face of new evidence.

In March, Jeffrey Pepski of Plymouth, Minn., formally requested that the NHTSA reopen two closed investigations into Toyota and Lexus vehicles for the acceleration problem, arguing in part that 10 other motorists had experienced sudden acceleration that could not be explained by floor mats.

The NHTSA looked at the 10 cases and tossed them out. The agency's way of looking at them sharply contrasted with the drivers' original accounts.

In one case, the driver of a 2007 Lexus ES 350 reported that the sedan accelerated into a building, bounced backward, struck another vehicle and ended up on top of a snowbank.

But federal officials described the same case as a "single incident of alleged engine surge while parking vehicle. No trouble found by dealer."

The NHTSA denied Pepski's petition last week, arguing that further study was "not warranted."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-toyota-recall8-2009nov08,0,101419,print.story

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D.C. sniper set to be executed Tuesday

His appeal to the Supreme Court says the case has moved too fast. If he had been tried in Maryland -- where most of the murders took place -- instead of Virginia, the outcome would have been different

By David G. Savage

November 9, 2009

Reporting from Washington

Seven years ago this month, the captured Beltway snipers -- John Allen Muhammad, then 41, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, 17 -- were in federal custody, accused of 16 shootings and 10 murders. They had set out to create a reign of terror in the Washington area to match the 9/11 attacks of the year before.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft had a choice: He could send them to be tried in Maryland, where most of the murders took place but where the death penalty was on hold because of the specter of racial unfairness. Or he could send them across the Potomac River to Virginia, the site of three of the killings, where death sentences are carried out swiftly.

Ashcroft chose Virginia.

On Tuesday, Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison, his initial appeals having been dismissed by state and federal judges.

"History has borne out the attorney general made the right call," said Mark Corallo, who was Ashcroft's spokesman. "These crimes were so brutally coldblooded and calculated."

Muhammad's new lawyers lodged a last set of emergency appeals with the Supreme Court last week. Their main claim is that the case has moved too quickly. They said judges in Virginia cut short the time for filing appeals and refused to hold a single hearing after the trial.

Jonathan Sheldon, Muhammad's current lawyer, describes his client as mentally ill.

"He is delusional, paranoid and incompetent. He was angry at the government after he came back from the Gulf War. And he has delusions of racist conspiracies," Sheldon said.

He faults Muhammad's trial lawyers for having described him as a "very bright man" to the jury, and for not recounting his mental problems.

Sheldon said Muhammad called him a few days ago to say he should find Muhammad's dentist to confirm that he was not in Washington at the time of the crimes.

"He's in Nuremberg," Muhammad said, according to his lawyer's account. "In Germany?" the lawyer asked.

"It's a week before his execution, and he thinks we should be looking for a dentist in Germany," Sheldon said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors and families of the victims have said they are comforted that Muhammad is facing the death penalty and that an execution is on schedule.

Maryland Atty. Gen. Douglas F. Gansler agrees, though he objected to Ashcroft's 2002 decision to move the case.

"It has worked out for the better. If you are going to have a death penalty, John Muhammad -- just like Tim McVeigh -- is the poster boy for the death penalty," said Gansler, referring to the Oklahoma City bomber who was executed in 2001. At the time of the Washington shootings, Gansler was chief prosecutor in Montgomery County, Md., where six of the murders occurred.

Besides the 10 killings in the Washington area, Muhammad and Malvo were believed to have killed at least seven others in their cross-country shooting spree.

It began on Sept. 5, 2002, when a restaurant owner in Clinton, Md., was shot six times as he left his establishment. He survived, but a young thief, apparently Malvo, stole $3,500 in cash from him. Ten days later, the owner of a nearby liquor store was shot and robbed.

It was not until Oct. 3 that the shootings gripped the Washington area. At 8:15 a.m., a taxi driver was fatally shot while fueling his car. Fifteen minutes later, a woman was fatally shot in the head while sitting on a bench outside a restaurant. Less than two hours later, another woman was fatally shot as she stood next to her car. And that evening, a man was shot on a street in northwest Washington.

The shootings continued throughout the month. The FBI eventually used fingerprints on ransom notes to trace Muhammad and Malvo back to Washington state, where their shooting spree had begun. The bureau posted a public alert for the old Chevy Caprice the two were driving. And they were arrested while asleep at a rest stop along a highway in Maryland on Oct. 24, 2002. The killing spree was over.

Malvo was convicted of the murders, but because of his young age, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sniper9-2009nov09,0,5261605,print.story

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From the Washington Times

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Monday, November 9, 2009

N.Y. hate crimes on rise

Frank Eltman ASSOCIATED PRESS

PATCHOGUE, N.Y.

The high-school buddies who trolled the streets looking for Hispanics to attack called it "beaner hopping."

"Jose, Kevin and I started popping and Jose punched him so hard he knocked him out," Anthony Hartford told police, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Hartford said he didn't do it often: "Maybe only once a week."

There had been other high-profile attacks on a growing Hispanic population on eastern Long Island before Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death a year ago Sunday on a street corner.

But it wasn't until the seven teens accused in the killing told police of the attacks -- and Hispanic residents who had been long silent about hate crimes came forward to confirm the stories -- that officials began to realize what they were dealing with.

The year since the Lucero slaying has put a national spotlight on race relations and has seen the U.S. Justice Department launch a probe of hate crimes and police response to them. A national civil rights group released a study that found "a pervasive climate of fear in the Latino community" in Suffolk County.

On Saturday, dozens of people, including Lucero's mother, brother and sister, held a candlelight vigil where he died, singing, holding hands and praying there wouldn't be another such killing.

Many victims said they had always been reluctant to contact police, fearing they would be asked about their immigration status. Just weeks after presiding at a funeral for Lucero, a preacher invited Hispanic crime victims to share their experiences. Dozens came forward.

"It was a bunch of people relieved that someone was listening," the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter said. "They just wanted some sort of witness that their story was worth telling."

Many were unable to identify attackers, but prosecutors gleaned enough evidence to file charges in eight other attacks against the teens accused in the Lucero killing.

Not all were crime victims. One man came to the church with his telephone answering machine wrapped in plastic, Father Wolter said. He had received threatening phone calls from his landlord, peppered with anti-Hispanic slurs, and wanted advice on making it stop.

Foster Maer, an attorney for Manhattan-based LatinoJustice, which called for the Justice Department investigation, said the Lucero killing "raised everybody's awareness of how bad it is."

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said officers don't ask victims whether they're illegal immigrants and said the probe would exonerate the department.

Commissioner Dormer assigned a Hispanic officer to command a local precinct after the killing.

Lucero, 37, came to the United States when he was 21 and worked at a dry cleaner. He was walking with a friend shortly before midnight near the Patchogue train station when they were confronted by a mob of teens. His friend ran away, but Lucero was surrounded, prosecutors say.

He tried to fight back, flailing at the assailants with his belt. At some point, 18-year-old Jeffrey Conroy plunged a knife into Lucero's chest before running away, prosecutors said.

They strengthened their case against the teens this week when one pleaded guilty to conspiracy and hate crime charges and agreed to testify against the others. The other six defendants, including Mr. Hartford, Kevin Shea and Jose Pacheco, have pleaded not guilty.

Nicholas Hausch also admitted to participating in other attacks on Hispanics, confessing he and his cohorts frequently used racial epithets when confronting victims. In one attack, Mr. Hausch said, they shot a BB gun at a Hispanic man.

Conroy attorney William Keahon told Newsday of Mr. Hausch, "I guarantee the jury will not believe a word that comes out of his mouth." Mr. Keahon did not return a call from the Associated Press.

Suffolk County has seen thousands of Hispanics settle there in recent years. U.S. Census figures show the number of Hispanics nearly doubled from 7.1 percent of the population in 1990 to 13.7 percent in 2008.

The Southern Poverty Law Center report, titled "Climate of Fear; Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County," cataloged a litany of anti-immigrant attacks dating back a decade.

Two men are serving long prison terms for attempted murder after luring two Mexican laborers to a warehouse in 2000 with the promise of work, only to pummel them with shovels.

In August, three young men were charged with hate crimes in the robbery and beating of an Ecuadorean man near the spot where Lucero was killed. Police said one man punched 22-year-old day laborer Milton Balbuca in the face while the others kicked and punched him, yelling anti-Mexican slurs.

Margarita Espada, a playwright who emigrated from Puerto Rico, has written "What Killed Marcelo Lucero" for a local theater. The production features vignettes about the experiences of whites and Hispanics on Long Island.

"People will have the opportunity to see what happened," she explained. "It's a long-term issue because there is no trust. There's no hope."

Obdulio deLeon, a cast member who arrived from Guatemala 23 years ago, says even now, newcomers live in fear. The volunteer EMT said some are even afraid to call for a doctor when they're sick.

"They don't want to call 911," he said. "They don't want to call the ambulance or call police for anything. If they get beat up or they get picked on, they just let it be."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/ny-hate-crimes-on-rise//print/

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Monday, November 9, 2009

A great day for liberty

George Allen

Nov. 9, 1989 - 20 years ago Monday - should be remembered forever as a truly great day in the course of human history.

Few could believe the exhilarating fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, without a shot being fired, just a little more than two years after President Reagan audaciously demanded, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

How was this advancement of human freedom achieved? Through resolve and unity of purpose of people, motivated by the visionary leadership of Reagan and steadily supported by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the unique moral respect of Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

Lovers of liberty all over the world were in solidarity with the cause of Lech Walesa and the shipyard workers in Gdansk, Poland.

A visit these days to Berlin does not provide one with the reality of the Berlin Wall. In 1983, I was a newly elected delegate serving in Thomas Jefferson's old seat in the Virginia General Assembly and was honored to be selected to join a bipartisan delegation of young leaders (with the American Council of Young Political Leaders) for an East-West Study Tour in Germany. Near Hamburg, we listened to the perspectives of many Germans, including the desire and goal of reunification of Germany. That goal seemed impossible when our delegation drove through heavily armed security checkpoints on the East German border and the Berlin Wall.

More telling than any lecture were the faces of the people in East Berlin who stood passively in long lines to acquire a few vegetables. This impoverishment was in contrast to the station of East German officials and communist Cuban generals, who were protected by goose-stepping troops at a soldiers memorial when they arrived in Mercedes autos.

With thick concrete walls and barriers, rolls of barbed and razor wire, land mines, German Shepherd attack dogs and sharp-shooting border guards in towers - all to keep people from escaping - the Berlin Wall was a brutal monument to the inferiority of the repressive communist system. Any government that uses such massive guarded barriers to prevent people from leaving for freedom gives testament to the abject oppressiveness of its depraved system.

Many people lost their lives trying to get out of East Berlin and the Soviet bloc. Sadly, it seemed likely that any uprising or revolt would result in hopeless slaughter of unarmed people. There was a resigned, hollow look in the eyes of the hundreds of drably dressed men and women standing in the long lines to get a few carrots or potatoes.

However, since the momentous fall of the wall and the Iron Curtain, an exhilarating breeze of freedom and opportunity has invigorated hundreds of millions of liberated people from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea.

It is heartening that on this 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, students across America are rallying to tear down a mock Berlin Wall at the exact time the wall opened in Berlin, at 4:30 p.m. The colleges include Arizona State University, the College of William and Mary, Florida State, the University of Connecticut and Cornell, among many others.

These young conservative activists are warning their peers about the endless misery, rationing and despair that results from socialist policies and are advocating the principles of freedom, responsibility and opportunity.

This initiative, part of Young America's Foundation's Freedom Week program, is designed to remind students of the lessons of the Cold War, lessons all too often lost in history and policy discussions these days. Each year, two significant events are overlooked on many college campuses: the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Veterans Day in appreciation for those men and women who have served in our military.

The fall of the Berlin Wall led to the collapse of the Soviet empire, tangibly symbolizing the failures of repressive, centralized economies. Though Marxist and socialist ideas have been soundly repudiated, some regimes and leftists still fervently preach them. It is encouraging to know there are young men and women on college campuses who have learned and appreciate the lessons of recent history and are willing to advocate for liberty and opportunity. If people all across America and the world remember the Berlin Wall, we will confidently choose to plant and grow new trees of liberty throughout the world and here at home.

George Allen is a former Republican governor of Virginia and U.S. senator. He is the Reagan Ranch Presidential Scholar for the Young America's Foundation.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/a-great-day-for-liberty//print/

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From the New York Post

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Nov. 8, 2009, 9:16 PM 

NYPD takes on Indians to halt billion-$$ flow

By BRAD HAMILTON Post Correspondent

Last Updated: 9:16 PM, November 8, 2009

Posted: 3:38 AM, November 8, 2009

MOHAWK NATION OF AKWESASNE -- The NYPD has gone on the reservation -- sending its drug czar upstate to try to help cut off a massive pipeline of pot and ecstasy to the city run by Mohawk Indian smugglers on the Canadian border.

"I was astounded at how lenient the border is," said Chief Joseph Resnick, head of the NYPD's narcotics division.

He spoke after a trip six weeks ago to the Akwesasne reservation, which straddles the US-Canadian border and which he said supplies most of the high-potency marijuana and ecstasy sold on city streets.

"Once you cross into the US, you're on the Indian reservation, which is sovereign land. The whole border is the real point of origin. When we bust large numbers of ecstasy and hydroponic pot, most of it comes through there."

The feds say that in the last 10 years, more than $1 billion worth of marijuana has come through the reservation, which stretches five miles along the banks of the St. Lawrence River.

Smugglers traverse the fast-moving water in Jet Skis and high-powered speedboats. When the river freezes, they switch to snowmobiles.

The contraband is then packed into vans or trucks and driven down the New York State Thruway, authorities said.

The crossing, featured in last year's Oscar-nominated movie "Frozen River," is also a major route for illegal immigrants as well as huge quantities of untaxed liquor and cigarettes, investigators said.

The banks of the St. Lawrence are dotted with small docks and access roads. The 40-square-mile reservation includes territorial waters and about 100 islands. Interdiction efforts are often stymied by this geography -- and influenced by politics.

While federal and state cops and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are allowed onto the reservation, they tread carefully. Some tribe members are openly hostile to them; a road sign labeled officers "terrorists." The Mohawks have their own force on the "res," as they call the Akwesasne reservation, and prefer to do their own policing.

Many of the traffickers are enterprising Mohawk tribe members in their 20s, attracted by fast money and better pay than they can make doing almost anything else.

One self-professed smuggler interviewed by The Post described how easy it was to elude US Border Patrol officers, who oversee the waterways on the US side of the river, and the Mounties' marine patrol on the Canadian side.

"We go at night and run all night. I get on my Jet Ski, put on a helmet and night-vision goggles and just go. The boats we have are way faster than theirs. They can't catch us."

He said he earned about $300,000 in a two-week period last year after delivering a haul of cigarettes, liquor and pot -- and returned with large equipment bags stuffed with stacks of $100 bills, which took all night to count, he said.

"There are about 100 millionaires on the res," he said. "A lot of them use the money to build these big houses or fix up their houses, then they put in safes to keep the cash."

He said he knew of one man who had made $9 million smuggling drugs and contraband. Just about everyone on the reservation -- home to 21,000 Mohawks divided into the St. Regis and Akwesasne tribes -- knows someone in the smuggling trade.

A trip to Cornwall Island on the Canadian side revealed a disparity in wealth among residents. Some homes were dilapidated structures with rusted vehicles sitting on overgrown lawns. Others wouldn't look out of place in the Hamptons. Many had brand-new Jet Skis or speedboats on driveways.

At the east end of the island, an unmarked speedboat, in which two of the boaters had their faces covered, zoomed past. One looked around nervously, and the other stared at a Post photographer as he took his picture.

"You see these boats race across the river all the time; they run everything," said James Burns, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. "Those fellows were probably nervous because they saw you with a camera."

The island was the home of Mickey "Big Boss Man" Woods, a 38-year-old busted last year and charged with transporting more than 10,000 kilos of Canadian pot through the reservation between 2005 and 2008.

A federal indictment alleges that Woods and his crew of 33, including 16 tribe members from the island and two more from the nearby town of Hogansburg, NY, made tens of millions. The indictment seeks to seize $45 million in alleged proceeds from illegal drugs.

The pot is grown in Canada, Resnick said, and it's the highest quality and most expensive available in New York City.

"It's hydroponic, which means it's grown indoors, and has concentrated levels of THC," the chemical in pot that creates a high.

"The price is about $3,000 a pound -- as opposed to $500 to $1,000 for homegrown. On the street, you'll pay up to $600 an ounce."

Coordinated crackdowns have led to several recent arrests, including a state Attorney General's Office indictment on Oct. 28 of 18 alleged traffickers. They were headed by Scott Jerome, 33, who stands accused of running hundreds of pounds of pot through the reservation with the help of Mohawk tribe members.

One of the biggest arrests came in June, when the DEA broke up what it said was a major ring that pumped hundreds of pounds of pot into New York and other cities on the Eastern seaboard.

There have been several seizures of ecstasy -- including one in April and another in September that netted 81,000 pills, which have a street value of $1.6 million, DEA Agent Burns said.

The NYPD got involved after the DEA formed a task force in March "for the specific purpose of targeting criminal organizations that use the reservation for their activities," he said.

The group, which includes federal border patrol and immigration and customs officers, along with state troopers and local sheriffs and prosecutors, met in late September. They were joined by Resnick and a contingent of other city cops.

"They had a good representation and were very interested in what we had to say about smuggling operations. It's my understanding that they intend to have some folks up here. It's been bantered about. They've also been talking about that with the State Police."

Not so, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

"Yes, NYPD narcotics have been briefed regarding activities on the reservation. We cooperate with other agencies by sharing information, but there is now none and never has been any plans to assign any NYPD personnel there."

If the NYPD does take on a larger role, it could experience resistance from the Mohawks, who have clashed with federal officers.

"They act like they are a sovereign nation, but we can go onto the land any time we want," said one US Customs and Border Protection guard.

Said another: "When the river freezes, there's so many snowmobiles out there we don't even bother. If border patrol tried to police the traffic, there would be a war."

Tribe leaders have said that drug smugglers represent only a small percentage of their population -- and they resent being characterized as a lawless group. None, including a grand chief, would speak on the record.

Leaders are proud of their members. Although the Akwesasne reservation suffers from some of the same problems as others -- high unemployment, obesity, alcoholism -- it also has successful industries, including tobacco factories, construction and maple syrup.

There is a large presence of Mohawk ironworkers in New York City, many of whom live in The Bronx and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Burns pointed out that although tribe members have been arrested for smuggling, the Mohawks are by no means the only ones involved in illicit trafficking.

"The whole north border is sparsely populated, and there are a lot of places that are unregulated where you can cross," he said. "There's a lot going on at the reservation, but that's not the only place."

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/local/nypd_takes_on_indians_to_halt_billion_XZ6o26MJSigZpGubY9QIyI

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