~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From LA Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 12, 2009

Reporting from Sargodha, Pakistan, and Washington

The investigation of five American Muslims held on suspicion of having links with terrorist groups has focused on a Pakistani militant whom the young men communicated with over the Internet and who became their primary contact as they tried to make their way to Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities said Saturday.

As Pakistani law enforcement officials began questioning for the fourth day the close-knit group from a multiethnic, working-class enclave in Virginia, investigators sought more information about a suspected Pakistani militant they knew only as Saifullah.

Investigators believe that Saifullah recruited the Americans, some of whom were college students, through an exchange of e-mails in late summer and the fall. Saifullah then tried to arrange for them to head to Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border, sanctuaries for the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Although investigators have not determined which militant group Saifullah was affiliated with, they believe he was based in Hangu, a district in North-West Frontier Province adjacent to the tribal areas where the Taliban presence is strong.

"They wanted to go to the tribal areas, and [Saifullah] was guiding them through e-mails and cellphone conversations," said Javed Islam, a police official in Sargodha, the central Pakistani city where the Americans were detained. "We've checked his location, and he's from Hangu."

The account police provided Saturday began to answer questions about how the group might have been radicalized. The story reinforces impressions that the journey was not well planned and shows, experts said, that the path to jihad, or holy war, is not straight or easy.

Unlike several alleged U.S. Islamic militants accused this year of training and plotting with Al Qaeda, the five men from Alexandria, Va., do not appear to have influential contacts in the extremist networks in Pakistan. Their difficulties are reminiscent of recent cases in which extremists were wary of Westerners, fearing infiltration by informants or rebuffing green recruits.

"I think these groups have thought about some of the recent high-profile cases in the media and they are thinking: 'Are these guys spies?' " said Evan Kohlmann, an independent investigator who works closely with security forces around the world. "Or are they so inept they could be a liability?"

The five men range in age from 18 to 24 and are U.S. citizens of Pakistani, African and Egyptian descent. They lived within blocks of one another in the Washington suburb.

They were arrested Wednesday in Sargodha, a city in Punjab province regarded as a hotbed for militants who have strengthened ties with the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Police say the Americans flew to Pakistan in late November with the hope of waging jihad against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But the five have not been charged.

On Saturday, they were transferred from Sargodha to the eastern city of Lahore and were questioned by a team of Pakistani police investigators and intelligence agents, said Islam, the police official. A team of FBI agents had also questioned the men in Sargodha.

The detainees told interrogators that YouTube video postings by Saifullah depicting militant attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan caught their attention, according to Pakistani police. The Americans attached comments to the postings praising the attacks, and eventually learned that the videos were posted by someone named Saifullah.

Saifullah is a common name meaning "sword of Allah." Several militant chieftains in Pakistan are named Saifullah, but experts said it was doubtful that any of them would have communicated extensively with unknown Americans.

"It might be a recruiter with jihad experience, but not necessarily high in the hierarchy," Kohlmann said. "It could be an entrepreneurial 19-year-old."

The five men arrived in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 30, stayed one night and traveled to the nearby city of Hyderabad, where they appeared at a madrasa, or Islamic seminary, run by Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani militant group with ties to Al Qaeda. The men asked to join the group, but were rejected, said Sargodha Police Chief Usman Anwar.

The Americans then went to Lahore, where they approached Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an extremist group affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant organization accused of engineering the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people. Again, the men were rebuffed, police said.

These extremist groups disseminate a lot of English-language propaganda and operate offices in populated areas, so they have been gateways to training camps, combat and even Al Qaeda plots for Westerners over the years, authorities said. The rejections of the five young Americans underscore the apparently makeshift nature of an odyssey that relied mainly on the e-mail contact and the fact that one American had a family home in Sargodha, said a U.S. counter-terrorism specialist, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

"It seems . . . they just jumped into the ocean to see what they could find," the specialist said.

The five eventually went to Sargodha, where they stayed at a home owned by the parents of one of the men, Umar Farooq. His parents, Khalid and Sabira Farooq, live in Virginia but were at their home in Sargodha when the men arrived.

Islam said Farooq's parents did not know about the group's intentions and learned that they had left the U.S. only after another son there called to alert them.

Khalid Farooq does not share his son's radical beliefs and was angered by Umar's actions, said Islam, the Sargodha police official.

Khalid Farooq, 55, was arrested with the five young men and remained in custody while authorities decided whether to charge him for not informing police that the men were staying with him.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-pakistan-americans13-2009dec13,0,777321,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terror probe leads FBI to India, Pakistan

On tips from a U.S. man, agents make an urgent trip after learning of possible Mumbai-style attacks. Also, U.S. charges implicate the involvement of ex-Pakistan military officers.

by Josh Meyer

December 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington

FBI agents made an urgent trip to India and Pakistan last week after they learned of plotting for Mumbai-style terrorism attacks while investigating a Chicago man's case, according to current and former U.S., Indian and European counter-terrorism officials.

The man, David Coleman Headley, was recently charged with being a longtime clandestine operative for Lashkar-e-Taiba and another Pakistan-based militant group affiliated with Al Qaeda.

The alleged plots, believed to be in the works for months, were aimed mostly at locations frequented by Americans, Israelis and other Westerners, such as hotels or synagogues, according to the officials. India's National Defense College and other government sites were scouted as possible targets as well, according to the officials and FBI affidavits recently unsealed in Chicago.

The investigators say that Headley, who is now cooperating with the FBI, spent much of the last few years scouting targets not only for last year's Mumbai siege in which 166 people died, including six Americans, but also for future attacks in India and one in Denmark.

Authorities allege that he did so at the direction of two senior operatives of Pakistani militant groups who had also been members of Pakistan's military.

The Justice Department last week filed criminal terrorism charges against a third former Pakistani army officer, still in Pakistan, in the Denmark plot.

On Dec. 9, Headley pleaded not guilty to the charge that he worked with Lashkar-e-Taiba to plan the Mumbai attacks.

The accusations implicating former Pakistani military officers are almost certain to exacerbate tensions in the region. Washington and India contend that Pakistan's military maintains close ties to Lashkar and other militant groups and has used them for attacks on India. Pakistan has long denied those accusations and demanded proof.

Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, downplayed the significance of any role by former military officers in Lashkar terrorism strikes or plots, saying, "A former army officer doesn't represent the army."

He added that the Islamabad government had been actively cooperating with the United States and India in the various investigations. Any evidence showing that former Pakistani officers were involved with terrorists "should be shared with Pakistan, and we will look into it," Kiani said.

U.S. officials believe that the FBI investigation now has documented such ties, citing phone intercepts, travel records, credit card purchases and other information in the Headley investigation.

In the recently unsealed court documents, authorities say Headley traveled widely through India with a video camera posing as an American Jew. After each surveillance mission, they allege, he took a circuitous route to Pakistan to brief his Lashkar handlers and turn over the tapes before heading back home to Chicago.

Various sources of information appear to have corroborated the FBI's findings.

"There have been a number of intelligence reports indicating [Lashkar] activities that might suggest further attacks" in India, one South Asia-based Western official confirmed.

In response, the Israeli National Security Council's counter-terrorism bureau recently issued two "highly concrete" travel warnings about possible Lashkar terrorist attacks in India with Israelis and Westerners as targets. One mentioned synagogues, Chabad Houses and popular Israeli tourist spots in the coastal state of Goa.

Indian authorities have been on high alert since getting briefed by U.S. officials. Last month, the current threat level was a prime topic of discussion during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President Obama in Washington, U.S. officials said.

The initial leg of the FBI trip to Mumbai and then New Delhi was based, in part, on orders from the White House that agents share as much information from the investigation as possible with India about when and where such an attack may occur.

Information was also shared about the role Headley and his alleged co-conspirators in the United States, Pakistan and Europe may have played in the Mumbai attacks of Nov. 26, 2008, when 10 heavily armed gunmen rampaged throughout India's financial capital, targeting luxury hotels, transportation centers, a hospital and a Jewish community center.

The trip by agents of the FBI's Chicago field office was also designed to help India fill in the still-significant gaps in what it knows about the Mumbai massacre and the growing global threat posed by Lashkar, also known as LET, the officials said.

The agents' purpose on the last leg of the trip was more politically delicate: to present Pakistan with new hard evidence that Lashkar is plotting attacks from its soil despite the Islamabad government's promises to crack down on the group -- and that Lashkar is doing so with the help of some former and possibly current high-ranking military officers.

The FBI alleges that Headley was trained by Lashkar operatives in 2002 and told to change his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 so he could travel without attracting suspicion. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pure, has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

Headley, 49, was arrested Oct. 3 before boarding a plane in Chicago, intending to travel to Pakistan. He was initially charged with plotting terrorist attacks in Denmark. His friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, who ran an immigration consulting business that employed Headley, was later charged with terrorism conspiracy in the alleged plot against the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, which previously published controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Authorities are now scrambling to determine whether Headley and Rana had other co-conspirators in the United States and overseas.

"There's something missing, which is what he was trying to do here," one senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said of Headley, the son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American-born mother. Headley converted to Islam later in life. "He travels under the radar, he looks white, and he's older," unlike most would-be jihadists, who are usually half his age.

"Clearly, now we know in hindsight that he's in contact with known LET contacts," said the official.

Headley also was working at the direction of Ilyas Kashmiri, a leader of another militant group who sits on Al Qaeda's shura, or leadership council, said the official.

(U.S. authorities do not believe Headley was connected to five students from Virginia who were arrested last week in Pakistan and accused of trying to join a Pakistani militant group. According to Pakistani police officials, the students also tried to link up with Lashkar, but the security-conscious group rebuffed them because they didn't have the proper sponsors.)

Headley spent as much as a year total in India, including stays at five-star hotels and membership at an ultra-luxury gym frequented by Bollywood movie stars, according to interviews and the U.S. court documents.

"Where did he get the money for all of this?" asked Bahukutumbi Raman, the former head of counter-terrorism for India's foreign intelligence agency. "He got it from LET, of course, but the FBI should be asking questions about the role of the ISI," or Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency.

The FBI affidavits filed in support of the Headley and Rana prosecutions mark the first time U.S. authorities have accused former Pakistani military officials by name of being involved in terrorism.

Based on wiretaps and Headley's cooperation, prosecutors have charged retired Pakistani army Maj. Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed with being a key facilitator of Headley's alleged terrorism plot in Denmark.

The FBI documents allege, in great detail, how Rehman acted as a conduit between Headley and the leaders of Lashkar and to Kashmiri. Kashmiri is a former Pakistani special forces commando, U.S. officials believe.

In court documents and interviews, they identify another retired Pakistani army officer, Maj. Haroon Ashiq, as having kidnapped affluent people to raise money for Kashmiri's group and having killed a rival army major general who had threatened to expose links between the army and militant groups.

And potentially of most concern, authorities alleged that Headley's Lashkar handler in the plotting for Mumbai was another former Pakistani army senior officer. He is not identified by name in the court documents, but U.S. and Pakistani officials said that he is Sajid Mir, a top Lashkar operative who they believe orchestrated Headley's role in all of the India plots, including last year's attack in Mumbai.

Such disclosures may prove embarrassing for Pakistan, but probably not enough to force the Pakistan military to sever its ties with Lashkar and other militant groups, some current and former officials said.

"LET is an extremely dangerous group and well-connected to the Pakistan government," said one Justice Department counter-terrorism official. "There is a civil war going on, and it's not clear if our side is going to win."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-threat13-2009dec13,0,7524129,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Surgeon/cop straddles two worlds of violence

Andrew Dennis' two jobs -- in a busy Chicago trauma unit and on a SWAT team -- aren't so different. 'Anything can go wrong.'

by Annie Sweeney

December 12, 2009

Reporting from Chicago

His team already was dressing for battle, and Andrew Dennis was trying to catch up.

With the trunk of his car open, he secured his rifle. Helmet. Headset. Pistol. Taser. He was then quickly briefed about the night's target: a small home on a dark street with someone inside rumored to carry a gun.

Cook County sheriff's police believed there were drugs inside, and the hostage barricade and terrorist team was going in to find them.

About 30 minutes earlier, Dennis had raced out of Stroger Hospital from his other job, where he treated one last patient who came in from a car crash. Now he would help provide cover to an officer who would toss the flash-bang grenades. If things went wrong and someone got hurt, a message on the headset would signal Dennis and other medics to go inside.

Standing at the back of his car, Dennis was ready -- he'd switched from scrubs to fatigues and had a new purpose. The trauma surgeon with a special skill for reconstructing abdominal walls was ready to help kick in a door.

For about eight years, Dennis has straddled two worlds brimming with violence -- working as a surgeon in one of the busiest trauma units in the U.S. and as a sworn police officer and unpaid member of two Chicago-area SWAT teams.

"Anything can go wrong," Dennis said, when asked about similarities of the work. "Police officers learn how to face-read and mind-read and are typically more hyper-aware of situations, especially SWAT cops. Trauma surgeons are not that much different. You learn how to read patients."

Dennis' primary focus as a member of the SWAT teams is to provide immediate care to anyone who gets hurt during a raid or a hostage-barricade situation. The mission with Cook County took less than a minute. When it was over, Dennis waited in the front yard with his team as the house was cleared. Nearly 4 pounds of marijuana and a gun were seized. A 21-year-old man was charged with weapons and drug violations.

Dennis, 39, is not normally the one poised at the top of a gangway with an assault rifle. He usually goes in as a "protected entity," which puts him, pistol in hand, in the back as officers forcibly enter a building. He has never had to fire his gun in the line of duty.

Adding medics or doctors to SWAT teams is a growing practice. But it is rare to have a trauma surgeon assigned to a SWAT team who is also a sworn officer.

Dennis fell into the work in 2001 after officers he met during his residency suggested he join a team. After a series of calls, he found himself meeting with Mike Volling, who was then commander of a cooperative SWAT team that is part of the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, a mutual support system of departments.

"My first thought was, something is wrong with this guy," Volling said. "Why does this physician want to come out and play with the police?"

Soon, Volling said, he recognized that Dennis was not merely interested in kicking in doors -- wanted to bring expertise to the team.

"He explained to me that on a busy night at Cook County he treats 10 to 15 victims," Volling recalled. "I said this is the guy we've got to get."

The Des Plaines, Ill., police took on Dennis as an unpaid part-timer, which provided him a place to train and get certified as a police officer.

The worst-case scenario Dennis and other medics face is treating a critical injury, most likely a gunshot wound.

The more likely scenario is a twisted ankle or a heart attack.

"Should something like that happen . . . if we can save one life or save someone from prolonged injury, we did a good thing," said Bill Evans, the commander of Cook County's hostage barricade and terrorist team.

On the SWAT teams, Dennis has dealt with training injuries and panicked calls from fellow officers about getting the H1N1 flu shot. He has taught them how to recognize heat exhaustion or what a sucking chest wound sounds like.

"The majority of issues we deal with on SWAT are not traumatic in nature," Dennis said. And officer survival, he said, "is paramount -- to empower and equip these individuals, who are putting their lives on the line for you and me, to be able to go home to their families."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-surgeon-cop13-2009dec13,0,2530818,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDITORIAL

Hunger in California

The state has erected barriers to food stamps for hungry people, and its school breakfast program is not meeting students' needs.

December 13, 2009

California is a bad place to be hungry. While the demand for food stamps is increasing across the nation, people who are eligible for the program are less likely to be enrolled in it here than in any other state but Wyoming. The percentage of low-income children who eat free breakfasts at school here is also lower than the national average.

Even if the financially crippled state had to pay for food stamps and school breakfasts, its failure to feed the poor would be a source of shame. Nothing is more fundamental to society than keeping hunger at bay. But food stamps and subsidized breakfasts for children are federal programs; the state is responsible only for some administrative costs for food stamps. In other words, the state and many of its school districts are turning away money to alleviate hunger, money that would boost the spending power of impoverished households, improve the health of residents and help children achieve more in school -- all of which would improve the state's economy too.

California has erected barriers to food stamps for hungry people, and in the process has increased the state's administrative costs. It's not as though the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees food stamps, appreciates the state's scrimping on its behalf. Quite the opposite. In late November, Kevin Concannon, the undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, wrote a letter sharply rebuking states with low participation rates. Concannon chided those states, which he did not name, for creating "a more complex and difficult enrollment process" that serves neither the hungry nor the taxpayer well.

The letter was sent soon after the USDA released a report showing that only 48% of those eligible received food stamps in 2007 in California, one of only two states that failed to register at least half of their eligible residents for the program. (Illegal immigrants are not eligible.) The top eight states enrolled more than 80%; in Missouri, virtually every eligible resident received nutrition assistance.

Because of the miserable economy, the number of Californians receiving food stamps has grown 13% a month since the beginning of the year, to 2.9 million. But by revamping its approach, the state could receive up to $3.7 billion more in federal aid.

* Quarterly recertification. California is the only state that requires recipients to be recertified for eligibility every three months. Other states require recertification just twice a year. Each update is a chance for people to fall through the cracks. They may forget the deadline or get the paperwork in late. They may be employed sporadically -- with a temporary job at the three-month mark that disqualifies them for food stamps, then jobless a few weeks later. Only a third of the state's working poor who qualify for food stamps receive them. Quarterly recertification also means twice as much paperwork and administrative time.

The USDA has ordered California to switch to a six-month schedule. Earlier this year, the state asked for a four-year extension of its quarterly system, and was denied -- but it still has until September 2011 to implement the new rules. It should move faster than that.

* Fingerprinting. Fingerprinting of food-stamp recipients is intended to reduce fraud, so that a single person cannot receive food stamps in more than one county. But for some -- the infirm, the working poor -- simply getting to the local welfare office to be fingerprinted can be onerous enough to keep them from enrolling.

California is one of only four states that still require fingerprints, and those that have eliminated the requirement have not experienced rampant fraud. A 2005 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that nationwide, fraud in the food stamp program is extremely low. At about $1 a meal, it's hard to get rich off food stamps. A November report by the California state auditor questioned whether the fingerprinting is cost-effective.

* In-person interviews. In October, the state gave counties the option of conducting interviews with applicants by phone instead of face to face. As with fingerprinting, the face-to-face interviews proved burdensome for people who had trouble getting time off work or for whom transportation was a particular problem. The state should simply eliminate these interviews except in cases where there is reason to suspect fraud.

California does somewhat better with children who qualify for free or reduced-price school breakfasts, though according to a new report by the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, it still ranks 33rd nationally -- and loses out on more than $97 million in federal funding each year that would pay for those meals. Every child who is entitled to a free lunch also qualifies for a free breakfast. Studies have shown that breakfasts not only provide important nutrition but improve classroom achievement. Yet in California, only 42% of the children in the lunch program also receive school breakfasts.

School districts can choose whether to provide the federally funded breakfasts, and nearly 20% of schools in California opt out. Some don't have enough qualifying students to bother, but in some of the others, school officials contend that families should be eating breakfast together at home. This foolishly assumes that the families have food at home to eat. In Texas and West Virginia, every school in the lunch program also provides breakfasts.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has been leading California toward a smarter approach, with a "second chance" breakfast program adopted in 2004 that lets low-income children pick up food during their first morning break. Previous programs served breakfast before school started, but school buses weren't getting to school in time. Now 55% of the district’s qualified students eat a school breakfast, well above the state average.

Of course, there's room for improvement, and just last week the school board passed a resolution to look for ways to raise participation rates in its lunch and breakfast programs. L.A. Unified has wisely realized that feeding the hungry is not just a humane act. It's sound policy that feeds the physical, educational and financial health of our state.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-foodstamp13-2009dec13,0,6578004,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Daily News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New world threats reviving cold war era bomb shelters

by Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

Updated: 12/11/2009

Roobina Badalian looks into a dirt floor area of the basement at the Glendale Courthouse where disaster supplies have been found. The basement was intended to be used as a bomb shelter, but now houses records and files.

While the possibility of a nuclear attack in Los Angeles seems almost unthinkable, local officials are inventorying hundreds of old bomb and fallout shelters as part of their preparations for a "radiological or nuclear event."

Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas are drafting emergency plans while federal agencies study how to prepare the public for what county public health Director Jonathan Fielding describes as a "low-likelihood, huge-consequences event."

His department hosted a workshop last week for the emergency operations staff of the county's 88 cities in preparation for "Golden Phoenix," an exercise scheduled for June 2010 that simulates the scenario of a 10-kiloton nuclear device detonated in Los Angeles.

A seminar is planned for the medical community on Jan. 21 to provide information on what to expect and what actions they should take after a nuclear incident.

"These aren't comfortable things to talk about, but it all begins with preparations," said Angelo Bellomo, the county director of environmental health who oversees the Radiation Management unit.

"We think this is a great opportunity for us to open a dialogue with the 88 cities so they can begin to amend their emergency plans to include planning for a nuclear device."

Fears of nuclear destruction have their roots in the Cold War, when governments and residents built bomb and fallout shelters to protect occupants from radioactive debris. Interest in such civil defense activities was renewed in recent years amid fears that a terrorist group or rogue nation like Iran or North Korea might gain access to nuclear weapons.

The federal Homeland Security Council is urging state and local governments to prepare in the event of a nuclear detonation in a major city.

And Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is studying how to incorporate a nuclear detonation scenario into a citizen preparedness campaign.

President Barack Obama brought the issue to the public's attention during a speech at West Point on Dec. 1, when he called for a troop surge in Afghanistan.

"The stakes are even higher within a nuclear-armed Pakistan, because we know that al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them," Obama said.

Experts are also concerned about nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea and to a lesser extent, China and Russia. The president of Iran has threatened to annihilate Israel and the U.S. and experts believe North Korea has missiles that can hit the West Coast.

Experts are especially concerned about the possibility that Iran one day could launch ship-based nuclear missiles at the nation - a scenario Iran has already tested, said Brian Kennedy, president of The Claremont Institute's Ballistic Missile Defense Project.

"The West Coast of the U.S. has limited missile defense against a North Korean missile," Kennedy said. "And, unfortunately, we're almost completely vulnerable to a ship-launched ballistic missile attack."

Kennedy is also concerned a ship-launched nuclear missile detonated at a high altitude would create an electromagnetic pulse, possibly destroying electronic equipment and knocking out the nation's power grid - leaving the country with little or no communications and no ability to provide food and water to potentially hundreds of millions of people.

Congressional reports suggest such an attack could result in more than 100 million deaths in a year, said Sharon Packer, executive director of the American Civil Defense Association.

"I don't mean to minimize the efforts of Los Angeles County in creating fallout shelters," Packer said. "It is very important and a wonderful first step. The larger concern, in my estimation, is in the protection of our electrical grid and the storage of additional transformers to assure the continuance of our infrastructure."

The county's efforts to inventory its bomb and fallout shelters follows the recent discovery of a 1975 book by the county's Emergency Preparedness Commission, "Los Angeles County & Cities Public Shelter Directory," which lists 6,200 fallout shelters with a capacity of 14.5 million people.

The shelters, including hundreds in the San Fernando Valley, include the basements and similarly protected areas in places such as hospitals, government buildings, courthouses, post offices, churches, movie studios, parking garages and tunnels. Many businesses are also listed, including McDonald's, J.C. Penney Co. and even a cellar at the Budweiser plant.

Ken Kondo, spokesman for the county's Office of Emergency Management, said the recent 50th anniversary of the county's Civil Defense program piqued a lot of interest in the shelters, along with the post-apocalyptic films, "The Road" starring Viggo Mortensen and "The Book of Eli" starring Denzel Washington, slated for release in January.

"Hollywood is raising awareness about the aftermath of a mega disaster and what needs to be done to survive," Kondo said. "So to Hollywood, we say, `Thank you.' Now it's up to us to start to locate and find these fallout and bomb shelters and make preparations and plans to utilize them in the event that people need to take shelter because of a terrorist attack or man-made event."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13980823

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Washington Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2009 a deadly year for police

by Colleen Long - ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK | A police officer is gunned down in his patrol car in Penn Hills, Pa., while waiting for backup. Near Seattle, four officers starting their day at a coffee shop are ambushed by an ex-con with a handgun. Another four officers are shot to death in Oakland, Calif., after a traffic stop gone awry.

Across the nation, 2009 was a particularly perilous year for officers involved in gun disputes.

The number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire increased 24 percent from 2008, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a national nonprofit organization that tracks officer-related deaths.

As of Saturday, 47 police officers have died nationwide this year after being shot while on duty, up from 38 for the same time in 2008, which was the lowest number of gunfire deaths since 1956, according to the data.

Over the past decade, small spikes in gunfire deaths have been common, but experts say they are surprised by the number of officers this year who have been specifically targeted by gunmen.

"There's an increasingly desperate population out there," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Other than in rare cases for ideological reasons, we really haven't seen people taking on the cops head-to-head. Something is amiss. It should be cause for grave concern."

Contributing to this year's spike are cases in which several officers were fatally shot in groups - the four officers last month outside Seattle; the four officers in Oakland, Calif., in March; three officers in Pittsburgh in April; and two officers in Okaloosa County, Fla., in April.

In the April 4 shooting in Pittsburgh, suspect Richard Poplawski has been accused by prosecutors of ambushing the three officers when they responded to a domestic disturbance call. Mr. Poplawski has pleaded not guilty.

In other cases, it's not so clear whether the officers were targeted, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oakland officers Mark Dunakin and John Hege were fatally shot during a traffic stop March 21. The suspect fled and barricaded himself in a home, where two SWAT officers were later shot and killed as they tried to enter.

In Penn Hills, Officer Michael Crawshaw was buried Friday, about a week after he was gunned down, police say, by a parolee wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet on his ankle. Crawshaw was responding to a 911 call of shots fired and was waiting for backup when the suspect came out of the house and opened fire on his patrol car, police said.

The availability of guns compounds the problem, criminologists say. But Pennsylvania, the state with the most gun-related officer deaths so far this year, has among the strictest gun laws in the country, according to a ranking by the pro-gun-control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Other states, such as Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky, have very little oversight and had few, if any, officer gun deaths this year.

Kevin Morison, a spokesman for the Officers Memorial Fund, which keeps the statistics, said he sees people on both sides of the gun debate using the numbers to prove points.

"But folks who are willing to intentionally target police officers seem to be able to find a way to accrue guns regardless of what the laws in those state would be," Mr. Morison said.

Overall, officers' gunfire deaths have more or less been on a steady decline for decades as more tools become available to keep officers safe. More police are required to wear bullet-resistant vests. There's also better and faster medical care to save an officer's life.

In 1973, during a heyday of corruption and crime, there were about 600,000 officers and about 156 gunfire deaths. Now there are about 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide and only 47 gunfire deaths this year - a per-capita decrease of nearly 21 percent.

Despite the increase in the number of gunfire deaths from 2008, there have been fewer overall officer deaths so far this year: 117, compared with 125 last year, according to the statistics. The major reason is that traffic deaths are down 24 percent.

"The chances of being killed in the line of duty are lower than they have been in modern times," Mr. Morison said. "But no one is immune to the dangers of the job."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/2009-a-deadly-year-for-police-in-gun-disputes//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hundreds line up as shop reopens after cops' ambush

by Manuel Valdes - ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARKLAND, Wash. | Hundreds of police officers and other customers lined up early Saturday for the reopening of the coffee shop where four officers were shot and killed two weeks ago.

Bagpipers played as the Forza Coffee shop opened its doors at 8:14 a.m., the hour on Nov. 29 when Maurice Clemmons ambushed Lakewood Police Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards.

Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar was the first customer. He hugged patrons who turned out to reclaim the shop from tragedy. Some waited up to three hours in line.

"It's just so heartwarming," Chief Farrar said. "It really pounds home the point as to why we do this. It's a dangerous job and bad things happen sometimes, but we're out here to support the community, and the community supports us."

The four officers, who made up a patrol squad, were sitting in the strip-mall coffee shop preparing for a Sunday shift when Clemmons, a felon with a long record in Arkansas and Washington state, walked in the door and started shooting. Richards managed to struggle with him and got off a shot, striking Clemmons in the stomach, before dying.

The gunman didn't aim at any other customers or the two young baristas.

With help from relatives and friends who hid him from police and patched his bullet wound with cotton balls, peroxide and duct tape, Clemmons was able to survive two days on the run, investigators said. He was fatally shot by a lone patrolman who encountered him on a south Seattle street at 2:45 a.m. Dec. 1.

The coffee shop had been closed since the shooting as investigators processed the grisly crime scene. On Thursday, religious leaders performed a moment of blessing there to "reclaim that space as a place for life," Forza said in a news release.

Afterward, during a private ceremony in the cafe for the officers' families, Lakewood police and Forza staff, they decided to reopen the shop, which has been repainted and redecorated.

Each of the 21 Forza branches in Washington and one in Colorado will feature plaques honoring the four officers, plus a Seattle officer shot and killed in an unrelated attack Oct. 31, the company said, and every new branch will open on its first day at 8:14 a.m.

The company's chief executive, Brad Carpenter, is a retired police officer and said he was touched by Saturday's turnout.

"The whole community is coming together and really showing us that evil and hate can stay in the darkness," he said. "We're turning on the lights and we're coming back."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/hundreds-line-up-as-shop-reopens-after-cops-ambush//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the New York Post

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jobs for jihadis

December 13, 2009

Is there so much competition in the domestic terrorism market that homegrown American jihadis have to head overseas to find, um, work?

Seems so.

Case in point: Those five radical Muslim students who vanished from their homes in Virginia, only to be arrested in Pakistan last week — reportedly on their way to rendezvous with al Qaeda.

Is it possible that, in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre and homegrown plots targeting La Guardia Airport, Fort Dix and a Bronx synagogue — plus terror cells uncovered in Queens and Buffalo — the aspiring jihadists decided they needed to go elsewhere to make a name for themselves?

Whatever the case, it’s clear that America’s homegrown terror problem is now causing consternation outside the country’s borders.

Quite apart from the Virginia Five, Washington, DC-born David Coleman Headley was arraigned last Wednesday in Chicago for assisting last year’s attacks in Mumbai and plotting to blow up a Danish newspaper.

Sure, this doesn’t exactly put the US up there with top terror exporters like Saudi Arabia, which provided 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 and propagates radical Islamist ideology worldwide through its schools network.

But it is something of a reversal. One doubts the Saudi princes would be too thrilled if American-born jihadists started blowing things up over there to effect their regime’s destruction.

Just as surprising has been the reaction of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which can typically be found running interference for radical Islamism.

Not only did the group help tip off the FBI to the Virginia Five’s disappearance, it admitted that “there is a problem” of radicalism among American Muslims.

Heck, if even CAIR is worried, law enforcement everywhere had better batten down the hatches. Truly heavy weather may be on the way.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/jobs_for_jihadis_6wX8IRPX8uuCH7eiN6X1aI

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

14,000 "get out of jail free" cards for NYC criminals

by JANON FISHER

December 13, 2009

Clivie Smith, 16, was hanging out on a Bronx street corner in 2007 when three men started harassing him. The youth ran into a nearby bodega, where a clerk handed him a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Smith came out shooting, cops say, striking one of his assailants and an innocent bystander. He then fired at narcotics officers responding to the scene.

The teenager never went to prison. He didn’t even go to trial. Not because the city couldn’t have tried to prosecute him on at least criminal possession of a weapon — but because the district attorney’s office took too long to bring a case.

Clivie Smith is one of the lucky criminals who got off because of a “30.30 motion” — referring to the section of the state criminal procedure law that mandates prosecutors be ready to try a case within six months for felonies and 90 days for high-level misdemeanors.

But he’s far from the only one. Brooklyn and Manhattan prosecutors gave 14,000 alleged criminals “Get Out of Jail Free” cards last year because they failed to meet deadliness. At the Manhattan DA’s office, the rate of 30.30 dismissals has increased a staggering 36% over the past four years.

The results are sometimes tragic. This year, Clivie Smith was the alleged ringleader of a group that shot innocent Bronx girl Vada Vasquez, 14, who was caught in the crossfire of a gang war.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office shrugged off the problem, saying most 30.30s are because of reluctant witnesses. The crimes dismissed, they say, are mostly low-level.

“It is more difficult to obtain and maintain the cooperation and interest of witnesses,” said Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for Robert Morgenthau’s office.

But legal experts say that it’s overwhelmed and inexperienced assistant district attorneys that allow drug dealers, rapists and murderers to walk the streets.

“Criminal court is a highly dysfunctional court across the board. It’s a high-volume conveyor belt,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Often an assistant district attorney will bungle the case.”

Savvy defense attorneys count the days, and when the time is up, judges have little option but to let accused drug dealers, subway flashers and cop beaters get an automatic pass.

After the case is done, the official records are sealed and no background check will turn up the crime, leaving law enforcement and victims fuming.

In 2006, for instance, school bus matron Connie Clark was accused of child endangerment for harassing an autistic boy. At one point, Clark was caught on tape yelling at P.J. Rossie, 8, to “shut up, you little dog.”

Prosecutors botched the case by mailing paperwork to the wrong address, despite being told that the defense attorneys had moved to a different office. Clark’s case was dismissed last week after the Brooklyn DA’s office failed to make their case in 90 days — and now Clark walks away with a clean record.

“All they had to do was file paperwork, and they didn’t do it. From top-to-bottom, the system has let my little boy down,” said Paul Rossi, the boy’s father.

“That was a snafu,” admits Jerry Schmetterer, spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney.

But the majority of the cases that get dismissed under the speedy-trial rule, Schmetterer says, are domestic violence or third-degree assault cases. And that’s because spousal abuse victims are often reluctant to testify against their partners.

Schmetterer said that they let the clock run out on these cases hoping the battered wife or husband will have a change of heart and testify in the case.

“It also keeps the victim under protective order for the duration of the case,” he said. “We see it as part of our crime-fighting strategy.”

But this doesn’t explain why the rate of third-degree assaults has remained stable in Brooklyn in the last two years, but “speedy-trial” dismissals in Kings County have shot up 12 percent.

O’Donnell said 30.30s are on the rise because the most inexperienced members of the District Attorney’s office are put in charge of criminal cases, while senior prosecutors handle more white-collar crimes and other high-level transgressions.

“A lot of these cases deserve a lot more time, but you have a lot of paperwork and you have a lot of inexperienced people handling most of these cases,” said O’Donnell, who was cop in the NYPD, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney and a defense attorney. “That’s really not a good end for any case. It’s not something you want to tell the public.”

O’Donnell believes that Brooklyn and Manhattan should be given the money to dedicate at least a few experienced attorneys with keeping track of the case calendar, and prevent people like Connie Clark and Clivie Smith from slipping through the cracks.

“There no sudden death overtime,” he added. “When it’s over, it’s over.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/get_out_of_jail_free_cards_for_nyc_IP7eTjw9zXfB7wbodMzb4M

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Persecuting heroes

December 12, 2009

A Navy court-martial will convene next month to determine whether Petty Officer Matthew McCabe, a Navy SEAL on tour in Iraq, gave terror mastermind Ahmed Hashim Abed a noogie.

Or maybe it was a fat lip.

Joining McCabe in the dock will be fellow SEAL Julio Huertas -- accused, essentially, of refusing to rat out a buddy.

And we thought show trials in Iraq went out of fashion when Saddam fell.

McCabe and Huertas were arraigned this week for assault and impeding an investigation, among other charges, after Abed complained about his "mistreatment" in US custody.

Whatever they gave him was better than he deserved: Abed orchestrated the brutal 2004 murder of four US civilian contractors in Fallujah.

His capture in September should have earned the SEALs a medal.

Instead, McCabe, Huertas and Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe (who's expected to be arraigned soon) were charged.

Much better had Navy brass let the SEALs return to killing terrorists.

Instead, they called the lawyers.

It only stands to reason: When hardened terrorists captured on the battlefield can expect three-ring-circus trials in US courts, hero GIs will be railroaded for the slightest indiscretion.

The courts, of course, can be fully counted on to weigh the evidence against McCabe, Huertas and Keefe.

That's the problem.

For the one thing the judicial system can't judge is how much of a waste -- in terms of time, money and troop morale -- the entire charade is in the first place.

That job falls to Pentagon brass -- right up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

They need to drop the charges.

First, Maj. Hasan and Fort Hood, and now this. How long before America's front-line troops begin to wonder if the country really has their backs?

.