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From LA Times

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Health insurance for children in doubt

Federal health officials are casting doubt on a last-gasp funding scheme by California to keep nearly 700,000 children from being yanked from a government health insurance program for the working poor.

U.S. health officials say the plan adopted by the state in the final days of the legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may not meet regulatory muster.

As a result, children's health advocates are warning that by the end of next year, hundreds of thousands of children could lose their health insurance -- even as the Obama administration continues its push for universal healthcare.

“This would have devastating consequences,” said Wendy Lazarus of the Children's Partnership. “I really can't believe the Obama administration wants something like this to happen at the time they're trying to make healthcare more stable for all Americans, particularly the kids.”

Facing huge funding cuts to the Healthy Families program, the state Legislature passed a measure extending a 2.35% tax to health insurance plans for the poor to help raise nearly $100 million to keep Healthy Families afloat.

But officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the state in a letter last month that a preliminary review of the proposal found that it failed to meet its reading of the rules for such taxes.

“We recognize that the California Legislature may need to adjust state laws. We will work with the state to clarify policy and resolve any outstanding issues,” said Cindy Mann, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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

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Santa Ana College student is missing

Authorities, family and friends were frantically searching for a 21-year-old college student who appears to have vanished Saturday as he was about to secure a full athletic scholarship to Cal State Long Beach.

James Patrick Wernke was last seen shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday near 3000 Sunnywood Dr. in Fullerton walking a yellow Labrador retriever named “Kealie,” said Lt. Alex Bastreri of the Fullerton Police Department. Wernke left behind his car, keys, wallet, and laptop computer, Bastreri said. The dog is also missing.

Wernke is a Santa Ana College student and pitcher on their baseball team who was looking at a full ride to Cal State Long Beach if he did well enough on his finals this week, authorities said. His family, who flew out from Colorado, said it was “out of character” for Wernke to disappear, because he is normally in constant communication with his family and he doesn't drink, do drugs, or party, Bastreri said.

“We haven't heard a peep out of him,” Bastreri said. “No cell activity, bank activity, absolutely nothing. He hasn't spoken to any of his close friends and relatives.”

Wernke is 6 foot 2, 190 to 200 pounds, has short blond hair and brown/blue eyes. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Fullerton Police Department at (714) 738-6800 or (714) 620-5104.

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

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State should pay foster care providers more, court rules

California's compensation to foster care providers is so low that it violates the federal Child Welfare Act, a U.S. appeals court ruled today.

In a case brought by group home administrators caring for about 9,500 wards of the state with special needs, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed the state's payments of 80% or less of the actual cost of care illegal and insufficient.

The case was brought last year by the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which operates more than 100 homes across the state for children who have been deemed unsuitable for foster family placements.

A parallel case was brought last year by foster family advocates who raised an alarm about the declining numbers of families willing to take children because the state doesn't fully compensate them for the care and services it demands, like food, shelter, education and transportation.

The foster families' suit on behalf of about 75,000 foster children won a similar judgment in U.S. District Court 14 months ago, and the state Department of Social Services' appeal of that ruling has been on hold while the 9th Circuit's decision in the group homes' case was pending.

“I hope this is the biggest win for foster kids ever. I hope it says that the state really does have to pay for the care of these kids, that it can't cheap out,” said Carroll Schroeder, executive director of the Sacramento-based alliance.

An alliance lawsuit brought against the state Department of Social Services was dismissed last year by U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel, who said the state was in substantial compliance with the Child Welfare Act.

“We disagree,” the 9th Circuit three-judge panel ruled. “The natural meaning of ‘cover the cost' is to pay in full, not in part.”

The case now goes back to Patel to decide how the state should remedy its failure to comply with the Child Welfare Act's requirements of states that receive federal matching funds for its programs, said William F. Abrams, the East Palo Alto lawyer who represented the alliance.

The Department of Social Services has experienced a 28% decline in foster care placements over the last eight years, a situation that supporters of family home settings for state dependents blame at least in part on the inadequate compensation.

In the foster family organization's lawsuit brought about the same time last year as the group home challenge to the state compensation system, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled in favor of the child-care providers, whose compensation of $446 to $627 per month, depending on a child's age, falls short of the actual cost of care by as much as 40%.

The office of Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown referred inquiries about today's ruling to the Department of Social Services, whose spokeswoman, Lizelda Lopez, would say only that “we are in receipt of the 9th Circuit Court decision and are in the process of reviewing it and making decisions about next steps."

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

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Fears of racial violence prompt lockdown of L.A. County Men's Central Jail

The Men's Central Jail has been on lockdown since Friday evening after the L.A. County Sheriff's Department learned that inmates were plotting violence.

Sheriff's officials said they placed the downtown jail -- known for holding the most dangerous inmates -- on lockdown after learning that some prisoners were planning racial violence.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the facility was locked down to visitors and inmate movement until this morning and that now those restrictions were being eased.

Violence between black and Latino inmates has been a problem at the jail.

Since it opened just east of downtown Los Angeles 44 years ago, Men's Central Jail has been the scene of many of the jail system's most disturbing incidents, including nine inmate homicides between 2000 and 2007. In 2004, an inmate roamed the jail unsupervised for hours before tracking down and killing an inmate who had testified against him.

Months after that killing, Merrick Bobb, the county's special counsel, wrote a report that described the jail as "nightmarish to manage" and suggested the department close it.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/fears-of-racial-violence-prompts-lockdown-of-la-county-mens-central-jail.html#more

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Former Marine indicted in slayings of five women in Southern California

A convicted murderer in Illinois has been indicted by an Orange County grand jury in connection with the slayings of five Southern California women in the 1980s and '90s, prosecutors said today.

Andrew Urdiales, 45, is on death row in Illinois, where he was convicted of killing two women in 2002 and a third in 2004. He is accused of several murders in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties between 1986 and 1995.

Urdiales, a former Marine, was stationed at Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms between 1984 and 1991. He is accused, prosecutors said, of killing one woman in Orange County, two in Riverside County and one in San Diego County during those years. After he was discharged, he returned to his home state of Illinois. He is accused of killing a fifth woman while on vacation in Palm Springs in 1995.

The first of the cases in the most recent indictment occurred on Jan. 18, 1986. Robbin Brandley, 23, was volunteering as an usher at a jazz concert at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo when she was attacked as she left the event. She was stabbed 41 times in the back, neck, chest and hands with a hunting knife.

Prosecutors expect Urdiales to be transported to California to face the charges after the evidentiary portion of his death penalty appeal in Illinois.

The Orange County district attorney's office is prosecuting the case.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/a-convicted-murderer-in-illinois-has-been-indicted-by-an-orange-county-grand-jury-in-connection-with-the-slayings-of-five-sou.html#more

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L.A. County sheriff orders homicide probe in Mitrice Richardson disappearance

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has ordered a homicide investigation into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, though officials stressed they have no evidence she is dead.

Baca's decision today allows a three-person sheriff's homicide team to join the Los Angeles Police Department's search for the 24-year-old who mysteriously vanished after walking out of the Lost Hills sheriff's station nearly three months ago.

"He has declared it a homicide investigation. That does not mean the sheriff believes Ms. Richardson is dead. But by opening up a homicide investigation, it does allow the Sheriff's Department to put some of our top investigators on the case," said Steve Whitmore, a department spokesman.

Whitmore said a lieutenant and two detectives would join LAPD detectives already investigating Richardson's Sept. 24 disappearance.

Based on that investigation and the contents of her diaries, authorities believe that days before she was arrested for not paying her bill at a Malibu restaurant, the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate had gone without sleep for as many as five nights and "had a major mental breakdown," said LAPD Det. Chuck Knolls.

Police uncovered four or five journals -- small bound books as well as spiral notebooks -- in the car she drove Sept. 16 to Geoffrey's in Malibu, where she behaved bizarrely, spoke in gibberish and ordered a steak dinner and cocktail.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/la-sheriff-orders-homicide-probe-in-mitrice-richardson-disappearance.html#more

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Libya's coup: Turning militants against Al Qaeda

Kadafi's government is touting its success in persuading the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to renounce Osama bin Laden's tactics.

by Borzou Daragahi

December 15, 2009

Reporting from Tripoli, Libya

A nation the West once considered a major sponsor of terrorism may have pulled off a groundbreaking coup against Al Qaeda: coaxing a group once strongly allied with Osama bin Laden to renounce its onetime partner as un-Islamic.

Libya's government is trumpeting its success in persuading leaders and foot soldiers of the extremist Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to reject Al Qaeda's brand of violence. The decision, recounted by former members of the group and Libyan officials, offers a unique example of reconciliation between a government and a violent Islamic group once devoted to overthrowing it.

"The government learned to sit with people who were opposed to them and have dialogue and understand them," said Abubakir Armela, a leader of the group who returned from exile in 2005.

The effort also provides lessons that might be applied in other countries where local insurgents have joined forces with Al Qaeda, including Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria.

"I used to believe that the only way to change the system was through war or fighting," said Tarek Mufteh Ghunnay, who, like dozens of other members of the group, was released from prison last month after his life sentence was commuted. "Now, on the contrary, I believe in dialogue and the peaceful way."

The defanging of a group that the U.S. has listed as a terrorist organization since 2004 is the fruit of a years-long dialogue between the militants and the government. The effort was launched by Saif Islam Kadafi, the Western-educated son of aging Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi who many say is being positioned to replace him.

Pacifying militants out to overthrow the government bolsters the younger Kadafi's authority and smooths any future transfer of power. It may also help Libya's attempts to improve its battered image in the West. Tripoli had been ostracized until it dismantled its clandestine nuclear program in 2004, and it sparked further outrage this year when it welcomed home the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, after he was freed from a Scottish prison.

"This group was not just related to Al Qaeda. They were in bed deeply with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and later," said Robert Pape, a specialist on Al Qaeda at the University of Chicago and the sole scholar among a small of group of U.S. journalists recently invited to Tripoli by a Libyan charity, the Kadafi Foundation, to meet the former militants.

"This is a splitting of Al Qaeda," he said. "I can't remember that ever happening."

The trajectory of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group is a chapter in the history of Al Qaeda's rise, expansion and eventual weakening. Its members could provide a potential trove of intelligence for Western security officials seeking to divide and conquer the terrorist network and capture Bin Laden.

Members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group trained in Afghanistan with Bin Laden, followed him during his years in Sudan and shared personnel, tactics and a puritanical Salafist religious outlook with Al Qaeda until earlier this decade. On the run throughout the Middle East, many of them were caught, sent home and sentenced to life in prison.

They broke off their partnership with Al Qaeda and denounced its brand of violence in a 400-page document completed in September and titled "Revised Studies." Vahid Brown of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point described it in an online analysis "as a very sweeping repudiation not just of Salafi jihadism but of all forms of revolutionary Islamism in general."

Former fighter Ghunnay said his enthusiasm for political violence had already faded by 1999, when he found himself shackled, loaded onto a plane in Jordan and sent back to his native Libya to face charges of being a member of a terrorist organization.

He was just 17 when he heeded the call to jihad in 1990. Moammar Kadafi had launched a widespread crackdown on Islamic groups after a January 1989 uprising against his rule. Ghunnay, a student of the Koran at a religious school, was summoned for questioning and kept under watch.

Captivated by videos showing Soviet brutality in Afghanistan and encouraged by fiery Muslim clerics, he created a fake passport, teamed up with six other Libyans and traveled through Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan before traversing the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

Ghunnay spent two months learning the art of combat at the infamous Al Farouq training camp, which produced many of Al Qaeda's best-known alums, including "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh and four of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

"I was going to fight over there," he said in an interview at his home, off an alleyway in a run-down section of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. "I was seeing what the Soviets were doing in Afghanistan, what murders and horrible things were happening. I was looking to be killed and die for Islam."

Ghunnay worked as a rocket launcher, backing up the mujahedin fighting government forces for control of the Afghan city of Jalalabad. As the Moscow-backed government collapsed and the country descended into civil war, Ghunnay and other Libyans left the country.

They refocused their attention on going after Kadafi almost as soon as they left Afghanistan. They went underground, and Ghunnay adopted the nom de guerre Abu Ebrahim, receiving instructions from the newly formed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in informal code.

In those days, "slippers" meant passports and "straw huts" meant embassies. Ghunnay dodged authorities, going to Mauritania, Senegal, Yemen, Jordan and Syria as a propagandist for the fighting group, which in the 1990s began assassinating members of Libya's security forces.

In 1996, one member threw a grenade at Kadafi. It failed to explode, but the attempt established the group as a force to be reckoned with.

Ghunnay said he first met Bin Laden at a 1995 Ramadan celebration in Sudan, where Arab veterans of the Afghan war had flocked.

"He was very much respected," Ghunnay recalled. "He was a rich man, so he could have a luxurious life in Europe. But he spent his money on jihad. He didn't even have air conditioning in his home."

Ghunnay was finally arrested in Jordan in 1999, questioned for suspected ties to Islamic militants and sent back to Libya. He was convicted of taking up arms against the government, among other charges, and sentenced to life in prison.

Behind bars, Ghunnay and others said, they were shocked at the violence being carried out against civilians by Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda in Algeria and Egypt, and at the Sept. 11 attacks.

The former members of the group said their views changed through discussions with clerics and one another. The Kadafi Foundation, overseen by the younger Kadafi, took a lead role in institutionalizing the discussions and helped in producing the "Revised Studies" document, which questions violence except in cases of self-defense.

"Just because they're different, it's not an excuse to kill people," said Ghunnay, a short, bearded man who now hopes to find work teaching the Koran. "It's not Islam. Killing people -- whether Jews, Christians or Buddhists -- because of their religion is a sin. Only if someone is trying to fight you is it permitted to kill them."

Officials and former fighters acknowledged that speaking out so publicly against Al Qaeda risks incurring the wrath of Islamic militants, including Bin Laden-allied groups in neighboring countries.

Advocates of the reconciliation effort, such as Salem Mohammed Adam, a former Libyan diplomat who has negotiated with Islamic militants, say they aren't too worried about what Al Qaeda might think or do in response to the document, which is partially online and will soon be distributed throughout the Arab world.

Said Adam: "Let them go to hell."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-libya-fighters15-2009dec15,0,4564645,print.story

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Chicago terrorism case widens

U.S. authorities say two men accused of plotting an attack in Denmark knew about the rampage in India.

by Jeff Coen and Josh Meyer

December 15, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Chicago

Two Chicago men accused of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper knew beforehand about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last year that killed nearly 170 people, federal investigators said Monday.

In a conversation that investigators said they secretly recorded on a long car ride, U.S. authorities said the two men chatted about how they had known the terrorism rampage was about to begin in which 10 gunmen ran between hotels and other public places shooting people.

During the ride, U.S. officials said, Tahawwur Rana asked David Coleman Headley to pass along congratulations to the planner of the attack, a leader of the militant Pakistani organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"In the world, if there had been . . . a medal for command, top class," Rana is alleged to have said.

A transcript of the conversation was released Monday in the federal case accusing Rana and Headley of links to terrorism plots in Copenhagen, Mumbai and elsewhere.

Headley is accused of scouting attack locations and Rana, the owner of a Chicago immigration consulting business, is under investigation for possibly financing his travels, sources have said.

The new court filing, submitted in an effort to keep Rana in custody, accuses him of being in much closer contact with others linked to the plots than previously alleged.

Federal authorities said Headley traveled at least five times to India at Lashkar-e-Taiba's direction. They said he told people he was a representative of an immigration business, and that he took video of target sites and scouted the best locations for the Mumbai attack team to make its landing.

Headley and Rana were charged in October with conspiring to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten over its publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that sparked riots in the Muslim world.

Authorities said Headley traveled to Denmark to scout an attack, visited the newspaper and told employees there he was working for an immigration business.

In their written bid to keep Rana behind bars, prosecutors said he was in Dubai speaking with retired military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed days before the Mumbai assault. Syed, a man Rana reportedly knows as "Pasha," also is charged in the newspaper plot.

Sources said investigators used a bug in a car in September to record Headley and Rana discussing the Dubai meeting. According to the court filing, Headley recalled how Rana was told by Syed that the attacks were about to happen.

The court filing also said that the U.S. government thinks a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who "coordinated the attacks" in Mumbai was Headley's handler.

The government also thinks the operative is one of the people who can be heard on intercepts giving real-time guidance to the 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba gunmen on how to continue their three-day assault.

In court documents, the Justice Department has identified the operative as "LeT Member A," but U.S. and Pakistani officials think he goes by the name Sajid Mir, and that he is Lashkar-e-Taiba's head of international operations -- or attacks outside of Pakistan.

One senior Pakistani official said Pakistani authorities were still trying to determine Mir's identity, and that they think he was a ranking member of the Pakistani army until several years ago.

Pakistani authorities think Headley, Rana and Mir attended the same military high school, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The FBI arrested Headley, 49, on Oct. 3 as he was trying to board a flight that would have taken him to Pakistan. Authorities said he was traveling to visit his contacts about the newspaper attack.

The Pakistani American, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, has appeared in court in public once.

Rana, 48, was taken into custody Oct. 18, the same day as a raid on his immigration business and on a meat processing plant that has ties to him.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror15-2009dec15,0,3241378,print.story

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Teen drug use survey seen as 'warning sign'

'When beliefs soften, drug use worsens,' says Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, referring to a study that shows fewer teens believe use of marijuana, inhalants, LSD and Ecstasy is risky.

by Melissa Healy

December 15, 2009

The federal government's annual report of kids' alcohol and drug abuse seems reassuring: Compared with earlier in the decade, use of hallucinogens was down in 2008, marijuana use was way down, and use of methamphetamines was way, way down.

But the researchers and public officials who crunch those numbers warned that some of the statistics gleaned from an annual survey of 46,000 American eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders were worrisome.

Though drug and alcohol use seems to be declining or holding steady, there has been slippage in teen disapproval of such practices and perception of the risks, officials warned.

Take marijuana use, which had declined steadily among teens since the mid-1990s. This year, 19.4% of high school seniors said they had smoked marijuana at some point in the prior 30 days, as did 13.8% of 10th-graders and 5.8% of eighth-graders. The downward trend has stalled in the last two years, and kids' attitudes suggest a reversal may be ahead.

In 1991, 58% of eighth-graders said they thought occasional marijuana use was harmful. By last year, that number had fallen to 48%, and this year, to 45%.

In a Washington, D.C., news conference Monday, Gil Kerlikowske, the Obama administration's drug czar, called such numbers "a warning sign."

"When beliefs soften, drug use worsens," said Kerlikowske, whose office is expected to release its first policy initiatives to combat and treat drug abuse in February.

University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, who oversees the annual survey, said there was "serious softening" in the perceived risks of LSD, inhalants and the party drug Ecstasy -- a sign that "a new generation of kids are interested . . . in rediscovering these drugs, because they don't understand why they shouldn't be using them."

Johnston also flagged a phenomenon the survey has recently begun to track -- "extreme binge drinking," or the consumption of more than 10 drinks on a single occasion. Coming on the heels of the weekend death of South Pasadena's Aydin Salek, an 18-year-old suspected of having succumbed to alcohol poisoning, the survey's findings suggest that such high-risk drinking is not unusual among older teens.

Binge drinking, defined as consumption of five drinks or more in a row, has declined since peaking in 1983. But Johnston said there has been "not much decline" in numbers of extreme binge drinkers.

Among high school seniors, 11% said they had drunk 10 drinks or more in a row in the two weeks prior to the survey; 6% said they'd had 15 or more.

The survey also showed that U.S. adolescents continue to raid their parents' and friends' medicine chests. Use of prescription painkillers is at an all-time high: 10% of high-school seniors reported taking Vicodin for nonmedical reasons in the last year, and 5% reported taking OxyContin.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has commissioned the survey for 35 years, said at the news conference that teen use of prescription stimulant drugs is holding steady, with just over 7% of 10th- and 12th-graders reporting they had taken amphetamines -- drugs prescribed to many kids in treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- for nonmedical reasons. Volkow said that in many cases, teens take these drugs before tests or study sessions as "cognitive enhancers."

Although fewer kids reported taking Ritalin, much of that decline was because kids had merely shifted to Adderall, a newer ADHD drug.

The officials said that youths report some confidence that prescription drugs are less harmful than street drugs.

In the survey's first accounting of where kids get drugs, it found that 66% who reported illicit drug use said they got the drugs from a friend or relative. Almost 19% said they got drugs with a doctor's prescription.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-drug-use15-2009dec15,0,6769986,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Cracking down on 'conflict minerals'

Action would aid those suffering from fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

December 15, 2009

The deadliest conflict since World War II, in which 5.4 million people have died and 200,000 women have been raped, rages far from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where murderous militias are battling for control of valuable minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, which are essential to the worldwide production of consumer electronics. Congolese, in other words, are dying in extraordinary numbers for our cellphones and video games, digital cameras and laptop computers.

Most consumers are unaware that these gadgets often have their beginnings in Congo's torment. Not only are militia-controlled mines the cause of continuing warfare, but they are hellish places to work. Much of the mining is done by local villagers forced into labor against their will -- and, in some cases, by enslaved children -- with few or no safety measures or precautions taken.

The international community has imposed a series of arms embargoes and sanctions in an effort to weaken the militias; the U.N. Security Council recently extended its embargo. High-powered weapons, however, remain readily available, and violence is undiminished. It's time to turn to the businesses that profit from Congo's "conflict minerals" and to figure out a way -- as was done with conflict diamonds -- that they can certify which mines in Congo are operating legally and safely. A handful of companies have voluntarily begun to research and take steps on the issue, including Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Dell Inc. and Motorola Inc. They deserve encouragement, but individual corporate efforts are not a sufficient substitute for national policy.

Two bills pending in Congress could start the process. A House bill is aimed at the middlemen -- the smelters -- that receive raw minerals from Congo and neighboring countries they're routed through. Under the bill, smelters -- most of which are located in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia -- would have to agree to be audited in order to export to the U.S. And after two years of auditing, they would have to certify whether their products contain conflict minerals. A Senate bill would require publicly traded companies to disclose the origins of the minerals they use and, if the source is Congo or a neighboring country, the name of the mine.

Both bills raise questions, such as who would do the auditing and how the certification process would work. But the fact that legislation is pending in Washington already has put pressure on mine officials in Africa, according to human rights activists. It won't be easy, but certifying minerals as "conflict free" can be done. We did it with diamonds. We can do it with minerals too.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-congo15-2009dec15,0,6738943,print.story

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OPINION

A bill of rights -- then, and now

Could we find wise leaders today who would put aside politics for the good of the country?

by Jonathan Estrin and Marshall Croddy

December 15, 2009

Watching the often vitriolic debates in Congress these days can be disturbing. But disagreement and debate are part of our national DNA. Consider the Bill of Rights, which was as controversial when it was first debated as parts of it still are today.

The founders of our country, united in the revolution, were divided over the issue of including a bill of rights in the Constitution of 1787. And although those first 10 amendments were eventually ratified -- 118 years ago today -- the outcome was at times in doubt.

James Madison and other Federalists opposed adding a bill of rights. They argued that the document hammered out at the Constitutional Convention granted only limited powers to the national government and that it was therefore unnecessary to enumerate rights the new government had no power to abridge. They also argued that by enumerating specific rights, other unnamed rights might not be protected.

Virginia delegate George Mason argued vehemently for a bill of rights. When the majority at the convention failed to act, he and two others refused to sign the completed Constitution. The Anti-Federalists, among them Patrick Henry, argued that the strong national government proposed in the Constitution threatened state sovereignty and individual rights.

The lack of a bill of rights provoked conflict as states debated ratifying the Constitution. Five states ratified easily, but a strong, organized opposition emerged at the Massachusetts convention. Finally, two delegates, John Adams and John Hancock, negotiated a compromise. Massachusetts would ratify but would also recommend amendments to the Constitution to the new Congress.

Subsequent states made similar calls for amendments, many about safeguarding basic rights. After the Constitution was finally ratified, the first Congress met and took up the question of rights. Responding to seven states' calls for amendments, Rep. James Madison addressed the House on the issue. Originally in opposition, Madison had changed his mind. He prepared the list of amendments that, after much more debate, conflict and compromise, became our Bill of Rights.

Today we still debate the Bill of Rights. But these debates focus on the meaning of the amendments, not their inclusion.

Consider the 2nd Amendment. Can everyone have as many guns or any kind of gun, or can guns be restricted, registered and regulated?

What does the 1st Amendment mean? Can the Ten Commandments be displayed in government buildings? What place does prayer have in public schools?

Then there are the due process rights contained in the 4th, 5th and 6th amendments. Are prisoners held by the U.S. in places such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, entitled to those rights?

We may disagree, but these and many other issues that we care about -- that define our lives -- are debated and contested based on those words written so long ago.

Given the nature of modern political discourse, too often driven by partisanship, power-seeking and punditry, one wonders if we would be able to craft a constitution or a bill of rights today.

Indeed, can we even manage to address the controversial issues that do face us? How many Madisons are out there willing to compromise or reverse positions for the good of the country?

For our democracy to continue to flourish, we must have an educated and involved citizenry. We must have leaders who can debate and compromise to find solutions to our vexing problems.

And we must educate our young people to take these civic roles in the future. This vital task must be borne by both parents and schools.

Research shows that parents can play a major role in the development of their children's civic education. You can make a big difference by engaging your children in discussions about issues and politics, watching and discussing the news with them, and by taking them to the polls or public meetings with you.

Schools must encourage civic learning. Students should have plenty of practice in structured discussion of politics and controversial issues to help them learn to analyze cause and effect and multiple points of view, present fact- and logic-based opinions, and listen to what others have to say.

Research shows that students who have the opportunity to participate in simulations such as legislative hearings, mock trials and, yes, even constitutional conventions not only learn more but develop greater civic skills and interest in politics.

Although we need to make sure our children are proficient in math and reading, it is vitally important to the future of our democracy that they also learn what it means to be a competent and involved citizen.

We celebrate the Bill of Rights, not only for its importance but because of the actions that brought it into being -- the passionate and reasonable contributions of wise leaders and active citizens.

Jonathan Estrin and Marshall Croddy are president and vice president, respectively, of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit dedicated to civic education.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-estrincroddy15-2009dec15,0,1694930,print.story

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OPINION

Hit Iran where it hurts

The U.S. must be prepared to use every weapon in its political and economic arsenal. The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act could provide such a tool.

by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

December 14, 2009

Behind closed doors, the Iranian regime probably cannot conceal its surprise and delight at what it has gotten away with. For more than 10 years, Tehran has succeeded in deceiving foreign governments, thwarting nuclear inspectors and keeping sanctions weak and feckless. During that time, Iran has not broken stride in expanding its nuclear program, and it has now announced plans for 10 new enrichment facilities.

Tehran's greatest feat has been its success in lulling global leaders -- including many in the U.S. administration and Congress -- into complacency, based on the belief that the threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons program can be negotiated away through engagement and concessions by the West. This approach also largely ignores the totality of Iran's multifaceted threat.

The range and accuracy of Tehran's ballistic missiles continue to improve, with U.S. forces and allies in the Middle East and Europe now within striking distance. Iran is also quickly accumulating an array of advanced conventional weapons in its effort to dominate the Persian Gulf and the world's oil supply.

Iran is designated by the U.S. as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and it is supporting extremist organizations throughout the Middle East and beyond, reaching even into Latin America. Iran has also assumed a major role in fueling the insurgency in Iraq and is backing Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

Many U.S. officials and congressional leaders seem content to engage in vague and open-ended talks with Iran, acting as though we have a reservoir of time to work with before the Iranian threat reaches critical mass. Yet, in June, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, estimated that Iran had already amassed a stockpile of nearly 1,400 kilograms of enriched uranium, which it could use in a "dirty bomb" or pass along to extremist groups or other rogue states.

Just last month, the IAEA made the startling revelation that Iranian scientists may have tested advanced components of nuclear warheads. Nuclear experts note that such technology, once mastered, would allow for the production of smaller and simpler nuclear bombs, and would make it easier for Iran to put a nuclear warhead on a missile. This represents a step that few in the West believed possible.

The IAEA also issued a report last month containing urgent new findings. One was that yet another camouflaged nuclear facility, this time at the recently disclosed Qom site, was at "an advanced state of construction." With additional installations widely suspected, who knows what will be uncovered next.

The IAEA should immediately cease all technical assistance to Iran and should suspend Iran's membership privileges in the organization. Until such actions are taken, the U.S. should not send one more penny of taxpayer funds to the IAEA that benefit Iran's nuclear program.

The regime in Tehran knows only hardball, and nothing less than overwhelming and crippling sanctions could produce a reversal of its threatening programs and policies.

That is why the United States must be prepared to act alone, if necessary, and with every weapon in its political and economic arsenal. The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act is one such tool. This legislation, which I coauthored, has the support of more than 300 members of the House, and it is urgent that this bill reaches the president's desk before the end of the year. It targets one of Iran's major weaknesses -- namely, its dependency on foreign gasoline and other refined petroleum products. By placing financial sanctions on U.S. and foreign companies providing these crucial resources, Iran's economic lifeline would be severed and its already weak economy would crumble.

But these sanctions must be coupled with action on all fronts. The U.S. must also specifically reject Iran's claim to an inalienable right to produce nuclear fuel. We must strengthen existing laws to prevent the transfer of prohibited materials and technology to Iran. Responsible nations should impose a ban on travel by senior Iranian regime officials and their families to Europe and the U.S. We should strengthen bilateral and multilateral efforts to shut down accounts of those doing business with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or its affiliated entities; deny Tehran access to euros and U.S. dollars; and freeze the assets of those who violate U.N. sanctions on Iran. Concurrently, we should offer our full support to the Iranian people and increase funding for Iran democracy programs.

The weakness of recent actions has been daunting. The IAEA mustered only a weak censure of Iran; the U.N. Security Council has said that it was disappointed; the White House has maintained its wait-and-see approach; and the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act continues to languish because many remain true believers in the mirage of engagement. However, the threat is immediate, and the time to act has arrived.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ros14-2009dec14,0,4587757,print.story

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From the Daily News

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City moves toward creating gang intervention training program

Taking the first step to professionalize gang intervention workers, a city panel recommended Monday paying a group $200,000 to create a training academy.

The Los Angeles Violence Intervention and Training Academy will develop a 150-hour program for intervention workers - many of whom have been working on their own to try and curb gang activity. Leaders say the program will be operating by March.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told the City Council's Public Safety Committee the new academy is critical to the city's crime-fighting efforts.

"This will be a model for the nation," said Beck, who has worked on gang issues for much of his 33-year career with the LAPD. "We are known for exporting the problem across the country. This will let us be known for how to solve the problem."

The committee recommended awarding the contract to the Advancement Project, a civil rights law, policy and communications group headed by local civil rights attorney Connie Rice. Under the contract, the group also will operate the academy for a year.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chaired the ad hoc committee tasked with reforming the city's anti-gang programs, voiced concerns about appointing a single agency to develop the academy.

"Why aren't we reaching out to other organizations to also develop programs," Cardenas said, citing the work of A Better LA, which has its own anti-gang efforts.

Guillermo Cespedes, director of the gang reduction program in the Mayor's Office, said city leaders believe that working with a single agency will enhance accountability and transparency.

However, other agencies will be encouraged to continue their efforts and to send their anti-gang workers to the academy for training.

Plans also call for an advisory board to be established to oversee the results of the academy, its training and assure the certification of workers, Cespedes said.

Brian Center, executive director of A Better LA, endorsed the proposal with the Advancement Project.

"We will continue our work," Center said. "But it's important to get this started."

It was the Advancement Project that released a report three years ago, recommending a formal system for training gang intervention workers.

Former Controller Laura Chick subsequently issued a similar report, which resulted in the City Council transferring all anti-gang programs to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13995884

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From the Washington Times

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Ill. prison to get Gitmo detainees

by Henry C. Jackson ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Taking an important step on the thorny path to closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the White House plans to announce Tuesday that the government will acquire an underutilized state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo.

Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House.

Officials from both the White House and Durbin's office confirmed that President Barack Obama had directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting Tuesday's announcement.

A Durbin aide said the facility would house federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The facility in Thomson had emerged as a clear front-runner after Illinois officials, led by Durbin, enthusiastically embraced the idea of turning a near-dormant prison over to federal officials.

The White House has been coy about its selection process, but on Friday a draft memo leaked to a conservative Web site that seemed to indicate officials were homing in on Thomson.

The Thomson Correctional Center was one of several potential sites evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to potentially house detainees from the Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay. Officials with other prisons, including Marion, Ill., Hardin, Mont., and Florence, Colo., have said they would welcome the jobs that would be created by the new inmates.

Closing Guantanamo is a top priority for Obama, and he signed an executive order hours into his presidency directing that the process of closing the prison begin. Obama has said he wants terrorism suspects transferred to American soil so they can be tried for their suspected crimes.

The Thomson Correctional Center was built by Illinois in 2001 as a state prison with the potential to house maximum security inmates. Local officials hoped it would improve the local economy, providing jobs to a hard-hit community. State budget problems, however, have kept the 1,600-cell prison from ever fully opening. At present, it houses about 200 minimum-security inmates.

Obama has faced some resistance to the idea of housing terrorism suspects in the United States, but in Thomson many have welcomed the prospect as a potential economic engine. Thomson Village President Jerry Hebeler, was asleep when the word came that Thomson had been chosen.

"It's news to me, but then I'm always the last to know anything," Hebeler said Monday night of the news affecting his town of 450 residents. "It'll be good for the village and the surrounding area, especially with all the jobs that have been lost here."

But Hebeler said he wouldn't rejoice until "the ink is on the paper" because previous plans for increased use of the nearly empty prison have fallen through.

Some Illinois officials have not supported the idea. GOP Rep. Mark Kirk, who is seeking Obama's old Senate seat, said he believes moving Guantanamo detainees to Illinois will make the state a greater threat for terrorist attacks. Kirk has lobbied other officials to contact the White House in opposition to using the facility.

To be sure, Thomson will not solve all the administration's Guantanamo-related problems. There still will be dozens of detainees who are not relocated to Thomson, other legal issues and potential resistance from Congress.

Thomson is a symbolic step, however, a clear sign that the United States is working to find a new place to hold detainees from Guantanamo.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/15/ap-ill-prison-get-gitmo-detainees//print/

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Clinton: 'One size does not fit all' for human rights

by Nicholas Kralev

The Obama administration put new emphasis on human rights abuses in Iran on Monday after months of a "delicate balancing act" aimed at seeking a nuclear deal and not jeopardizing activists affected by a government crackdown after disputed presidential elections.

In what aides described as the "most detailed and comprehensive" speech on human rights by a senior official since President Obama took office, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also said the administration will use different approaches to address violations in different countries.

"We acknowledge that one size does not fit all. When old approaches aren't working, we won't be afraid to attempt new ones, as we have this year by ending the stalemate of isolation and instead pursuing measured engagement with Burma," Mrs. Clinton said.

"In Iran, we have offered to negotiate directly with the government on nuclear issues, but have at the same time expressed solidarity with those inside struggling for democratic change," she said, recalling Mr. Obama's words in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech last week that Iranian activists "have us on their side."

Speaking at Georgetown University, Mrs. Clinton also said that trying to craft a policy that supports democracy advocates and does not detract from the authenticity of their movement is "one of those very good examples of a hard call."

"It's been a delicate walk," she said, "but the most important balancing act is to make sure that our very strong opposition to what is going on inside Iran doesn't in any way undermine the legitimacy of the protest movement that has taken hold."

Responding to critics who fault the administration for not paying enough attention to human rights while focusing mostly on Iran's nuclear program, Mrs. Clinton said that "pursuing an agenda of nonproliferation is a human rights issue."

"We do not want to be in an either/or position: Are we going to pursue nonproliferation with Iran, or are we going to support the demonstrators inside Iran? We are going to do both, to the best of our ability, to get a result that will further the cause we are seeking to support," she said.

Mrs. Clinton disappointed some rights activists in February when she said on her way to Beijing that human rights should not "interfere" with other issues on the U.S.-China agenda, such as trade and North Korea's nuclear program. Mr. Obama aroused opposition from the rights community when he declined to meet the Dalai Lama before his first trip to China as president.

Her speech Monday won praise.

"The emphasis on universal human rights in Secretary Clintons speech sends an important message of her personal commitment at a time when the world is witnessing continuing global declines in fundamental rights," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. "We look forward to seeing this passion integrated into U.S. policy around the globe."

Michael Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, called the criticism that the administration was neglecting human rights "a false dichotomy," adding, "It's not like we can do only one thing at a time."

He told The Washington Times it had taken time to complete a "process of distilling and pulling together all the thoughts that have been developed in the [administration's] first year."

In Iran's case, analysts said that Washington's resolve to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon played a role in the administration's relatively cautious approach to speaking publicly about human rights.

Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official now at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, said the Obama administration is now moving ahead on economic sanctions because engagement appears to have failed.

"People are trying to figure out a way to plug human rights in" to sanctions, he added.

Last week, Amnesty International published a report documenting unlawful killings, mass executions, torture, rape and sexual abuse of men and women, arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences imposed after "flawed show trials" after Iran's June 12 elections.

"The authorities have resorted to exceptionally high levels of violence and arbitrary measures to stifle protest and dissent," the report said. "At least 4,000 people were arrested while over 200 remain in detention."

Among them is Iranian-American Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner. He has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on espionage charges, which he and his family have denied.

According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mr. Tajbakhsh's attorney, Masoud Shafie, has not been allowed to visit him. Mr. Shafie has reviewed the entire file and has found no evidence justifying the charge or the sentence, he told the organization.

Mr. Tajbakhsh's mother, Farideh Gerami, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Friday that she visited her son in prison on Thursday, along with his wife and daughter.

"Spending five months in solitary confinement is extremely difficult. Psychologically, he is strong because he is innocent and he hasn't done anything wrong ..., but physically, he's lost weight, and as a mother I can see that he's been broken," she said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/15/clinton-stresses-support-for-human-rights//print/

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Immigration bill backers try again despite jobless rate

by Stephen Dinan

Democrats on Tuesday begin their new push for an immigration bill, hamstrung by the image of legalizing millions of illegal immigrant workers at a time when the unemployment rate stands at 10 percent -- more than twice what it was the last time Congress tried to act.

"It certainly will confuse the debate a lot more, but at the end of the day what we have to understand is fixing this system will be good for American workers," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which is one of the major advocates for legalizing illegal immigrant workers.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, the Illinois Democrat who has taken over leadership on the issue after the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, plans to introduce an immigration legalization bill Tuesday, and backers are planning a strategy to avoid repeats of the failed attempts of 2006 and 2007.

In a letter to members of Congress last week seeking support for the bill, Mr. Gutierrez and Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, New York Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said their legislation will end the off-the-books economy of illegal immigrant workers and protect American workers by raising labor standards.

"In these difficult economic times, we must ensure that everyone contributes toward the recovery and prosperity of our nation," they wrote. "To this end, it is imperative that all individuals and employers pay their fair share in taxes."

A draft overview of the bill, circulated with the letter, ends some enforcement tools such as the 287(g) local police cooperation program, calls for an electronic verification system to replace the voluntary E-verify program, argues that there's no need for more U.S. Border Patrol agents or fencing, and establishes a long-term path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

That path would require illegal immigrants to pay a $500 fine, pass a background check and learn English and civics to gain legal status. After six years, they could apply for legal permanent residence, or a green card, which is the interim step to citizenship. There is no "touchback" provision requiring them to return to their home countries at some point in the process.

Republicans are sharpening their attacks and going straight for the jobs argument.

"With 15 million Americans out of work, it's hard to believe that anyone would give amnesty to 12 million illegal immigrants," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Even the open-borders crowd agrees that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. This is exactly why we need to oppose amnesty."

His office has calculated that there are 19 states where the number of illegal immigrants in the work force is at least 50 percent of the number of unemployed workers.

Arizona tops the list, with unemployment at 293,000 as of October and with 300,000 illegal immigrants either working or seeking work as of 2008, according to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report. New Jersey, Nevada, Maryland and Texas round out the top five states.

The Immigration Policy Center says employment is "not a zero-sum game" and that a legalization program would increase tax revenues and consumer spending.

Supporters of legalization acknowledge the tough sell on jobs but say the math is more complex than stacking unemployment and immigration numbers against each other.

"Of course it complicates it. Of course the public's first reaction is understandable, it's why do we need more workers when upwards of 15 million Americans are out of work," said Tamar Jacoby, president and chief executive officer of ImmigrationWorks USA, a coalition of businesses pushing for immigration reform.

But she said history has shown that there are some jobs that American workers won't take and immigrant workers will.

She pointed to resort communities in Michigan that struggled to find workers this summer even though they were just a couple of counties away from Detroit, which has been devastated by layoffs.

"Laid-off autoworkers in Detroit don't want to travel across the state, let alone across the country, to pick pears, pick apples," she said.

"In 1986, the last time we tried immigration reform, Congress told itself that American employers could be weaned from their need for workers. That was just unrealistic because Americans do not want to work in meat-processing plants, they do not want to clean rooms in hotels, they do not want to work as dishwashers."

The 1986 amnesty legalized millions of illegal immigrants but did not stop more from coming.

In 2006, at President Bush's urging, the Senate passed a bill to legalize most illegal immigrants and to boost security. That bill stalled when the House insisted on an enforcement-only approach.

In 2007, with Democrats in control of Congress, the Senate tried again -- but the bill failed after a public outcry shut down the Senate phone system and a bipartisan majority of senators joined a filibuster. Lawmakers said voters didn't think the government would follow through on enforcement.

The unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent in 2006 and 2007, or less than half of the current 10 percent rate.

President Obama has said he wants Congress to act next year on immigration, and has tapped Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to begin organizing the administration's effort.

Ms. Napolitano, in a speech last month, said enough progress has been made on border security, and that she's trying to refocus interior enforcement on dangerous illegal immigrants and unscrupulous employers rather than workers. Part of that refocused effort involves audits of I-9 forms, the work authorization documents all workers must file when they take a job.

But Ms. Napolitano has taken fire from both sides. Those who want a crackdown say she's letting illegal immigrant workers off the hook by not deporting them when they're caught, while immigrant-rights advocates say the I-9 audit focuses on the wrong employers.

Mr. Medina, in a call with reporters Monday, said employers who fill out I-9 forms are at least employing workers on the books and paying taxes on their income. He said Ms. Napolitano instead should go after businesses that ignore the I-9 requirements and hire workers off the books, which he said makes those workers more open to exploitation.

"They are trying to look tough in enforcing the law. But this is not about looking tough; this is about solving problems," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/15/immigration-bill-backers-try-again-in-face-of-jobl//print/

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EDITORIAL

Tehran's nuclear trigger

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A smoking-gun document has emerged that indicates Iran is closer than ever to developing a nuclear weapon. Top-secret technical notes leaked from deep within the Iranian nuclear program - and making the rounds of Western intelligence agencies - detail research on a neutron initiator, a device that sets off a nuclear detonation. It is the smoking gun's trigger.

The Islamic republic has long argued that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes, but there is no peaceful use for the neutron initiator. It is not a "dual-use" technology; it only sets off bombs. Iran apparently has been working on the initiator since at least 2007, coincidentally the same year that a National Intelligence Estimate from the United States Intelligence Community determined that Iran had no intention of seeking nuclear weapons. In light of this and other revelations, that finding needs a serious rethinking.

The timely revelation about Iran's secret program comes as the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council prepare to discuss possible responses to Iran's nuclear obstinacy. The case for determined action is growing, and the bill of particulars is long. In addition to Iran's nuclear program, Tehran is still the world's largest state sponsor of global terrorism and supplies arms to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan that are used to kill American troops. Iran has tested a rocket that could be the basis for an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the International Atomic Energy Agency recently confronted Tehran with evidence that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design. And the human rights nightmare inside the country continues to intensify.

There are some signs of life in U.S. policy toward Iran. The Treasury Department reportedly is implementing a plan to target front groups operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime's feared paramilitary enforcers, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization. The Revolutionary Guard uses a network of front groups to evade international sanctions, in part to sustain Iran's nuclear program. Washington plans to expose and potentially shut down these illicit conduits.

President Obama also seems to be awakening to the seriousness of the issue. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, the president reiterated his commitment to upholding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, calling it a "centerpiece" of his foreign policy. He said it was "incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran ... do not game the [nuclear arms control] system." Tehran, however, is willing to ditch the system altogether. In a Nov. 30 editorial in the hard-line Iranian newspaper Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, who represents Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, questioned whether Iran should stay within the bounds of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime. "Isn't it time for Iran to pull out of the NPT?" he wrote. "This is a serious question and needs a logical answer."

The greatest national security challenge that will face the Obama administration is coming, and Mr. Obama will either shape events or be shaped by them. He said in Oslo that "those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war." However, the United States has been standing idle for years, and time is running out. Even the much-criticized 2007 National Intelligence Estimate said Iran would be "technically capable of producing enough [highly enriched uranium] for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame." According to our calendar, that window opens about two weeks from now.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/15/tehrans-nuclear-trigger//print/

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Secretary Napolitano and USCIS Director Mayorkas Announce Full Implementation of
New Law Providing Permanent Residence Eligibility for Surviving Spouses and Children of U.S. Citizens

December 14, 2009

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas today announced that DHS has fully implemented recent legislation allowing USCIS to approve immigrant petitions for permanent resident status in the United States filed by or on behalf of widows and widowers of U.S. citizens and their unmarried children under 21 years old.

“Smart immigration policy balances strong enforcement practices with common-sense, practical solutions to complex issues,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Allowing widows and widowers of U.S. citizens to petition for permanent residence will help keep families together while honoring the spirit of the law.”

“Implementing this legislation allows us to support the widows, widowers and children of U.S. citizens who otherwise would have been denied the opportunity to remain in the United States,” said Director Mayorkas. “These families have already experienced the pain of losing a loved one; now we can help give them a chance to stay in the country that has become their home.”

Previously, a widow(er) had to be married to a U.S. citizen for at least two years in order to qualify as an immediate relative eligible to apply for permanent resident status. The new legislation enables all widows and widowers of U.S. citizens to apply regardless of how long the couple was married. President Obama signed the change into law on Oct. 28, as part of the fiscal year 2010 DHS Appropriations Act.

Since then, the Department has taken swift and efficient steps to implement the revised law—providing guidance to adjudication officers around the world and updating material necessary for applicants to take advantage of these new opportunities.

Today's announcement reflects Secretary Napolitano's commitment to working with lawmakers and stakeholders towards comprehensive reform of current immigration laws to provide lasting and dedicated resources for serious and effective law enforcement; a better system for families and workers coming to the United States legally; and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here.

A widow(er) qualifies as an immediate relative under the new law without the need to file another petition if the following criteria are met:

• The citizen spouse had already filed a Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130);
  
  
• The Form I-130 was pending when the law changed on Oct. 28, 2009; and
  
  
• The widow(er) has not remarried.
  

The children of widow(er)s who qualify as immediate relatives under the law also are eligible to seek permanent resident status. The new law applies to widow(er)s living abroad who are seeking immigrant visas, and to widow(er)s currently in the United States who want to become permanent residents based on their marriage through adjustment of status.

On June 9, Secretary Napolitano made a series of announcements granting interim relief to widow(er)s of U.S. citizens—including deferred action for two years to widows and widowers of U.S. citizens and their unmarried children under 21 years old—who reside in the United States and who were married for less than two years prior to their spouse's death.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov , www.uscis.gov or call USCIS' National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1260816180215.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced.

"With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people to change our policies. That is terrorism, and it will not succeed," said Sally Quillian Yates, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. "The risk posed by men such as these defendants continues, both here and abroad.  Hopefully, meaningful sentences such as these will make our citizens and our soldiers safer around the world as the message is sent that we will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who would ally themselves with terrorists."

In Washington, D.C., David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, said, "This case serves as another reminder of the global nature of the terrorism threat and the importance of international and domestic cooperation in addressing it. These defendants, who conducted surveillance of potential terror targets at home and pursued terrorist training overseas, were part of an online network that connected extremists in North America, Europe and South Asia. I commend all those who were involved in this prosecution and the related investigations around the world."

FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Greg Jones said, "The radicalization of U.S. citizens by jihadist recruiters abroad is a very real and growing concern that the FBI and the U.S. Government as a whole must deal with. The FBI is charged with preventing terrorist attacks before they occur and we are committed to this task. Individuals engaged in such activities as these two individuals cannot successfully argue that such activities are constitutionally protected."

U.S. District Court Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., sentenced Sadequee to a term of 17 years in prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. Judge Duffey sentenced Ahmed to 13 years in prison, also to be followed by 30 years of supervised release.

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Yates and the evidence presented during the trial: Sadequee was born in Fairfax, Va., in 1986.  He attended school in the United States, Canada and Bangladesh. In December 2001, while living in Bangladesh, he sought to join the Taliban, to help them in their fight against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. 

Ahmed, a naturalized citizen born in Pakistan in 1984, came to the United States in the mid-1990s.  He attended high school in Roswell and Dawsonville, Ga., followed by college studies at North Georgia College and Georgia Tech.  

Sadequee and Ahmed began discussing their obligation to support jihad in late 2004.  By this time, both Sadequee and Ahmed had become active on several web forums known to support the cause of violent jihad.  These discussions quickly grew into an active conspiracy with others to provide material support to terrorists engaged in violent jihad. The evidence indicated that the material support consisted of (1) Sadequee, Ahmed, and other individuals who intended to provide themselves as personnel to engage in violent jihad, and (2) property, namely, video clips of symbolic and infrastructure targets for potential terrorist attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, including the U.S. Capitol, the World Bank headquarters, the Masonic Temple, and a fuel tank farm -- all of which were taken by Sadequee and Ahmed to be sent to "the jihadi brothers" abroad.

At trial, the government presented evidence that Sadequee, Ahmed, and their co-conspirators used the Internet to develop relationships and maintain contact with each other and with other supporters of violent jihad in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and elsewhere. In support of the conspiracy, in March 2005 Sadequee and Ahmed traveled to Toronto to meet with other co-conspirators, including Fahim Ahmad, one of the "Toronto 18" suspects awaiting a terrorism trial in Canada.  While in Canada, Sadequee, Ahmed, and their co-conspirators discussed their plans to travel to Pakistan in an effort to attend a paramilitary training camp operated by a terrorist organization, as well as potential targets for terrorist attacks in the United States. 

In April 2005, Sadequee and Ahmed drove to the Washington, D.C., area to take the casing videos, which the government's evidence showed they made to establish their credentials with other violent jihad supporters as well as for use in violent jihad propaganda and planning.  Sadequee later sent several of the video clips to Younis Tsouli, aka "Irhabi007" (Arabic for "Terrorist 007"), a propagandist and recruiter for the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in Iraq, and to Aabid Hussein Khan, aka "Abu Umar," a facilitator for the Pakistan-based terrorist organizations "Lashkar-e-Tayyiba" and "Jaish-e-Mohammed."  Both Tsouli and Khan have since been convicted of terrorism-related offenses in the United Kingdom and are imprisoned there.

The government's evidence additionally showed that Sadequee and Aabid Hussein Khan, the convicted U.K.-based terrorist, using a members-only violent jihadist web forum known as "At-Tibyan Publications," recruited at least two individuals to participate in violent jihad.  One, a self-identified 17-year-old American convert, was praised by Sadequee for his "capacity of fulfilling [his] largest obligations in [his] native land."

The government also presented evidence at trial that in July 2005, Ahmed traveled from Atlanta to Pakistan in an unsuccessful attempt to enter a paramilitary terrorist training camp and ultimately engage in violent jihad.  While in Pakistan, Ahmed met with Aabid Hussein Khan, and the two discussed Ahmed's intention of joining a camp. The day before Ahmed returned to Atlanta, Sadequee departed Atlanta for Bangladesh, carrying with him, hidden in the lining of his suitcase, an encrypted CD; a map of Washington, D.C., that covered all of the areas he and Ahmed had cased; and a scrap of paper with Aabid Hussein Khan's mobile phone number in Pakistan.

Once in Bangladesh, Sadequee began to conspire more closely with Younis Tsouli and Mirsad Bektasevic, a Swedish national of Serbian origins.  Specifically, Tsouli, Bektasevic, Sadequee and others formed a violent jihadist organization known as "Al Qaeda in Northern Europe."  The group was to be based in Sweden.  The evidence at trial showed that in October 2005, Sadequee sought a visa that would allow him to relocate from Bangladesh to Sweden.  Bektasevic was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Oct. 19, 2005.  He and a co-conspirator were found in possession of over 20 pounds of plastic explosives, a suicide belt with detonator, a firearm with a silencer and a video recorded by Bektasevic demonstrating how to make detonators; showing an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, grenades, explosives and other arms; and depicting Bektasevic and others placing a grenade booby-trap in a forest near Sarajevo.  Sadequee had been in electronic and telephonic contact with Bektasevic as recently as three days before Bektasevic's arrest, discussing the silencer and explosives Bektasevic had acquired for the group.  Bektasevic has since been convicted of terrorism offenses in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Meanwhile, after returning to Atlanta to resume his studies at Georgia Tech in August 2005, Ahmed remained in contact with Sadequee, expressed regret at his failure to join violent jihadists, conducted internet research on topics such as high explosives and defeating Special Operations troops, and discussed his intent to make another attempt to enter a violent jihad training camp.  In March 2006, Ahmed was approached by FBI agents and agreed to a series of voluntary, non-custodial interviews over the course of eight days.  Amid efforts to deny his illegal activities and mislead the agents, Ahmed made increasingly incriminating statements.  Efforts by the FBI to obtain Ahmed's cooperation in the ongoing international terrorism investigation ended after the FBI discovered that Ahmed was surreptitiously contacting Sadequee, who was still in Bangladesh, to advise him of the FBI investigation and to warn him not to return to the United States.

Ahmed was arrested on March 23, 2006, in Atlanta, on material support of terrorism charges.  He has been in custody ever since.

Sadequee was arrested on April 20, 2006, in Bangladesh, on charges arising out of false statements he made in an August 2005 interview with the FBI in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY).  Sadequee was indicted in the Northern District of Georgia on July 19, 2006, and transferred to Atlanta in August of that year, after the charges in EDNY were dismissed at the Government's request.   

This case was investigated by agents and officers of the Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which is led by the FBI, Atlanta Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert McBurney, Alexis Collins and Christopher Bly prosecuted the case.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html

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From ICE

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Iranian arms procurement agent sentenced to 60 months imprisonment

WILMINGTON, Del. - Iranian arms procurement agent Amir Hossein Ardebili was sentenced to a term of incarceration of 60 months on Dec. 14 as a result of an investigation led by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On May 19, 2008, Ardebili pleaded guilty to multiple violations of the Arms Export Control Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, smuggling, conspiracy, and money laundering. The charges resulted from a three year international undercover investigation which exposed Ardebili's role as a prolific arms acquisitions agent for the government of Iran.

"ICE will continue to pursue those who are willing to put America's national security at risk" said John P. Kelleghan, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Philadelphia. "The export of this technology to Iran is controlled so that it cannot be used to harm America or its allies. Enforcing export laws are one of ICE's top priorities and we will continue to work with our partners to ensure that those who send prohibited items to Iran are brought to justice."

"This case revealed the extent of the Iranian government's activities in acquiring American military technology. I applaud the tireless efforts of our law enforcement partners who patiently pursued their leads and built a compelling case. Today's sentence sends a message to others who would profit by illegal arms sales," said United States Attorney David C. Weiss.

In commenting on the serious nature of the offense, Chief Judge Gregory M. Sleet noted that defendant's crimes "could pose a direct threat to the security of the United States."

During the investigation, Ardebili acquired a number of articles of war for export, including:

• QRS-11 Gyro Chip Sensors. The QRS-11s are solid-state gyro chips that can be used in thousands of applications to include numerous advanced aircraft, missile, space and commercial applications. The BEI GyroChip Model QRS11 Quartz Rate Sensor, Modeln No. QRS-11-00300-100, is listed on the United States Munitions List in Category XII(d), and therefore requires a license from the Department of State for export.
  
  
• MAPCGM0003 Phase Shifters. Phase shifters perform a key function in the active radiating elements of electronically steered antennae. They enable an antenna to point a radiated beam in specific directions. The six bit phase shifter sought by Ardebili is state of the art. Phase shifters have many applications including phased array radar, which is used in military target acquisition and missile guidance.
  
  
• Digital Air Data Computer (DADC-107). The DADC-107 is a fully computerized Form/Fit/Function (FFF) replacement for the Central Air Data Computer installed on F-4 fighter aircraft. It calculates flight parameters including altitude, air speed, static pressure, mach number, and true angle of attack. Its high accuracy enhances weapons delivery system performance. The DADC-107 is a United States Munitions List Article under category VIII (h) and therefore requires a United States State Department license for export.
  

"The sentencing today of Amir Ardebeli will send a message to those elements not friendly to the United States that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and its law enforcement partners are committed to ensuring that DoD weapon systems and technologies are secure and do not get into the hands of people suspected of providing support to our adversaries," said James B. Burch, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. "We recognize this threat to the tactical and strategic advantages that our soldiers now hold and will continue to combat it with all the tools available to us."

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Hall.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0912/091214wilmington.htm

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From Parade Magazine...(Service can start at any age...)

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After bodies found around Cleveland home, calls for addiction help increase

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND -- More women are seeking help with drug addiction in the wake of the discovery of 11 decomposing bodies in and around a Cleveland home.

The United Way in Cleveland said calls from women asking to be referred to drug treatment programs was 36 percent higher in November compared to the same time in 2008.

According to drug counselors, many new addicts say they were motivated by the women who disappeared into the house on Imperial Avenue where registered sex offender Anthony Sowell lived.

Authorities said Sowell, 50, lured women addicted to drugs or alcohol into his home and attacked them. Some of the victims had been missing for more than a year. Their bodies were discovered between Oct. 29 and Nov. 3.

Sowell has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse. He could get the death penalty if convicted of any of the killings.

At drug treatment meetings and ex-offender support groups, women talk about how they could have been victims, too.

"They're caught up in that cycle, and they want to get out," said Mary Jane Chichester, executive director of the Women's Center of Greater Cleveland.

Denise Gaines, 40, said she accepted a ride from Sowell in August but jumped out of the car because he "started acting really funny."

A drug addict for most of her life, Gaines found new resolve to sober up when she stopped by Imperial Avenue shortly after the bodies were found and saw framed photographs of the victims.

"I just could see my picture in one of those frames," she said, shuddering. "I needed to get to the point in my life where I was ready."

Gaines, who smoked crack cocaine with many of the victims before they disappeared, thinks she was the last person to see victim Janice Webb alive in June.

"She left my home at 8 a.m.," Gaines said. "She left out of there saying she was going to see a friend, and she's never been seen since."

Shortly before the bodies were found, Gaines had signed up for a residential drug program at Community Assessment & Treatment Services in Cleveland.

Now she's determined to complete it.

Anita France, one of Gaines' counselors, worked with two of the victims to help them kick addictions, then watched their lives unravel as they returned to old habits.

"They have to walk through that area where people ask them to do drugs or give them free drugs so they can get addicted all over again," France said.

But many treatment centers with limited space and funding say they are forced to turn some women away. Most agencies have waiting lists.

At Murtis H. Taylor Multi-Service Center, a mental health center within walking distance of Sowell's home, counselors turned away about half of the women who sought counseling last month.

The center has reduced its budget by $500,000 since April and can't afford to serve women lacking Medicaid benefits. Instead, workers refer the women to short-term programs, even though many of them need long-term treatment.

"We don't have the resources to serve them," said Roberta Taliaferro, the center's vice president of clinical services. "The community is letting them down."

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