......... NEWS
of the Day - December 19, 2009
on
some LACP issues of interest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEWS
of the Day
- December 19, 2009
on
some issues of interest to the community policing and neighborhood
activist across the country
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following group of articles from local
newspapers and other sources constitutes but a small percentage
of the information available to the community policing and neighborhood
activist public. It is by no means meant to cover every possible
issue of interest, nor is it meant to convey any particular
point of view ...
We present this simply as a convenience to our readership ...
California's death row grows as death sentences decline nationwide
In Los Angeles County alone, 13 convicted murderers were condemned, contributing to the state's 2009 total of 29, according to a national report.
by Carol J. Williams and Jack Leonard
December 19, 2009
Los Angeles County sent more people to death row this year than Texas, Florida or any other state in the nation, condemning 13 convicted murderers -- the highest number in a decade, according to a Times review of justice statistics.
The increase comes as a national report projects that the number of death sentences issued across the country this year will reach its lowest level since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Los Angeles County helped California buck that trend, boosting the state's death sentences from 20 last year to 29 so far this year, more than a quarter of the nationwide total of 106, according to a report released Friday by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. The center attributed the national decline to deepening concerns about the costs of capital punishment and the possibility of wrongful convictions.
California's increase occurred despite legal challenges that have left the state's lethal injection chamber idle for the last four years. Any resumption of executions is still at least a year off, experts said. The 2009 capital sentences have helped push the state's condemned population to 697, the nation's largest by far.
"It really goes against all of the trends we've seen across the country, where death sentences are becoming less and less common and are imposed more selectively," said Natasha Minsker, death penalty policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which opposes capital punishment.
California's capital punishment system has drawn widespread criticism as the most cost-inefficient in the country, having executed only 13 people in more than 30 years.
Los Angeles County sent as many defendants to death row in 2009 as in the previous three years combined. Until this year, the county had experienced a marked drop in death sentences since reaching a high during the late-1990s, when double-digit figures were the norm.
The trend has caused concern among defense attorneys who handle death cases. Lawyers suggested that some judges have played a role by placing strict limits on the time attorneys get to question prospective jurors about their attitudes toward the death penalty. Others said they believe jurors have become more cynical about evidence of a defendant's abusive childhood.
"There is less tolerance, less understanding from more and more jurors," said Robert Schwartz, a veteran defense lawyer.
L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley cautioned against reading too much into this year's figures, saying the rise could be a fluke of courtroom scheduling. Capital cases typically take years to wind through the courts before reaching a jury.
Timothy McGhee, for example, a shot-caller for a notorious gang in northeast Los Angeles, was charged with several slayings in 2003. It took four years before McGhee went to trial. A jury found him guilty of three murders and the attempted murder of two police officers, but deadlocked on whether McGhee should be executed. Last year, a second jury voted for death. McGhee was sentenced in January.
L.A. County prosecutors have been seeking death in fewer cases than they did a decade ago, but the percentage resulting in death verdicts has grown, records show.
"We started being more selective and more rigorous in our review," Cooley said. "It's certainly not being more aggressive."
The high cost of prosecuting capital cases, he said, is only one factor that the office weighs in deciding when to seek death.
"Oftentimes, a crime is so horrific that . . . you're not going to need very much more than proof beyond a reasonable doubt" to get a capital conviction, Cooley said. "I think that society in general wants to keep that option for some people. Maybe less people, but some people."
Among the new arrivals at San Quentin's death row this year were Reyon Ingram and Calvin Dennis, convicted of killing a father and son as part of a robbery in Compton in 2006. The men had robbed Derrick Kellum Sr. of his wallet, then lured him to the scene of his death by offering to return it. Kellum was shot nine times. His 10-year-old son was also shot.
Ruben Becerrada of Arleta was sentenced to death for the 2000 stabbing and strangulation of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Maria Arevalo, after she reported to authorities that he had previously raped her. Prosecutors said he punched and kicked her on a street near his home before abducting her. Her body was discovered in the trunk of her abandoned car.
Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit database maintained by capital punishment opponents, attributed California's continued pursuit of death sentences to a lack of public debate about the economics of the policy, which he said costs the state $137 million a year more than if the defendants were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
"It seems particularly strange in California because that is a state where expenses are very high and the return in terms of executions is low," Dieter said.
While sentences declined throughout the country this year, executions rose with 52 men put to death, up from 37 last year. Death penalty states observed a de facto moratorium in early 2008 while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures in Kentucky.
Texas, which has the nation's most active death chamber, executed 24 men this year. The state issued only nine new death sentences, though, down dramatically from the average of 34 annually in the 1990s, according to the year-end report.
Neither the Texas attorney general's office nor the Texas District and County Attorneys Assn. monitors capital cases statewide, said association spokeswoman Sarah Wolf.
If the figures cited in Dieter's 2009 report are accurate, she said, they might reflect growing concerns about the costs of prosecuting capital cases, but not a decline in Texans' support for keeping the ultimate sentence an option.
"There is still overwhelming support for the death penalty in Texas," Wolf said. "If we get someone who commits a horrific crime, people are just not going to put up with that here."
Currently, Texas has 342 people on death row.
"We don't really let them stack up here, like in California," Wolf said.
Executions have been on hold in California while corrections and justice officials revamp the three-drug procedure used to execute condemned inmates, a review fraught with bureaucracy and legal challenges expected to delay executions for at least another year and probably longer.
San Quentin State Prison's death row now houses more than a fifth of the 3,279 awaiting execution across the country.
The case -- the first of its kind -- portrays northwest Africa as a new danger zone. Three men are accused of being Al Qaeda associates and conspiring to smuggle cocaine.
by Sebastian Rotella
December 19, 2009
Reporting from Washington
Three men alleged to be Al Qaeda associates were charged Friday with conspiring to smuggle cocaine through Africa -- the first U.S. prosecution linking the terrorist group directly to drug trafficking.
The three suspects, who were charged in federal court in New York, are believed to be from Mali and were arrested in Ghana during a Drug Enforcement Administration sting. Although U.S. authorities have alleged that Al Qaeda and the Taliban profit from Afghanistan's heroin trade, the case is the first in which suspects linked to Al Qaeda have been charged under severe narco-terrorism laws, federal officials said.
The 18-page complaint describes a convergence of mafias and terrorists in northwest Africa that has caused increasing alarm among European, African and U.S. investigators.
Cocaine traffic has risen sharply in West Africa in recent years. Exploiting states that are weakened by corruption, poverty and violence, Latin American mafias have made the region a hub for moving cocaine across the Atlantic and into the booming drug markets of Europe.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb -- a North African ally of Osama bin Laden's organization -- has muscled into the lucrative cocaine smuggling routes of the Sahara, according to Western and African officials. It existed for two decades under other names before declaring allegiance to Bin Laden in 2006.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb finances itself partly by protecting and moving loads along smuggling corridors that run through Morocco into Spain and through Libya and Algeria into Italy, according to the complaint and Western investigators.
"We've known about this for a long time, but this is the first actionable thing we've done in response to it," DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.
The stakes are high because of the potential for Al Qaeda in the Maghreb to use cocaine profits in attacks on the West.
Anti-terrorism investigators cite a harbinger: An Al Qaeda-connected cell of North Africans financed their 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 190 people, by dealing hashish and Ecstasy. Moreover, officials said, conversations among informants and suspects have suggested that the lawless region around the Gulf of Guinea is a crossroads for groups united by hatred of the United States -- Al Qaeda, Mexican gangsters, Colombian guerrillas and Lebanese militant groups.
"For the first time in that part of the world, these guys are operating in the same environment in the same place at the same time," said Michael Braun, a former chief of DEA operations. "They are doing business and cutting deals. What's most troubling about this is the personal relationships that these guys are making today, between drug organizations and terror organizations, will become operational alliances in the future."
Authorities say the three suspects charged Friday are not members of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb but allege that they are associates. The case against them is based largely on conversations in which, authorities say, the suspects described the smuggling trade and Al Qaeda's involvement to informants posing as representatives of the FARC guerrillas of Colombia.
In recent years, Western and African investigators have pointed to concrete signs of the convergence of drugs and terrorism in the region.
In 2007, two accused operatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a major player in cocaine trafficking, were arrested in Guinea-Bissau -- described by many as Africa's first "narco-state."
And last year, Morocco's interior minister asserted that Al Qaeda in the Maghreb fighters were enriching themselves by taxing the cocaine smuggling routes in Mali and Mauritania to the south.
"It is a zone where there is a lot of money circulating, with cocaine traffic that is growing fast," Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said. "A certain number of terror networks exploit this situation because these groups guarantee, secure the routes."
The charges unsealed Friday allege that the conspiracy began in Ghana in September, when one of the suspects, Omuar Issa, made contact with a DEA informant. The informant presented himself as an anti-Western "Lebanese radical" working with the FARC. That link was not farfetched, Western investigators said, because Lebanese mafias with a presence in West Africa have long played a role in helping Latin American drug lords carve out trafficking routes.
Issa was a facilitator working for a criminal organization active in Ghana, Mali and neighboring countries, the complaint alleges. He discussed a deal to transport cocaine from Ghana through North Africa and into Spain with the protection of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb at a price of $4,200 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), the complaint said.
At meetings in October, Issa introduced the informant to Harouna Toure, another of the suspects, who authorities say is the leader of a criminal organization that works closely with Al Qaeda.
According to the complaint, Toure said his organization would use Land Rovers to drive the load across the desert to Morocco, and he described "two different transportation routes, one through Algeria and Libya and the other through Algeria and Morocco." He told the informant that his group "provides protection for planes that land in their area, including planes from Colombia," the document said.
The complaint also said Toure had described his strong relationship with the Al Qaeda groups that control areas of North Africa: "Toure stated that he has worked with Al Qaeda to transport and deliver between one and two tons of hashish to Tunisia and that his organization and Al Qaeda have collaborated in the human smuggling of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian subjects into Spain."
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb has carried out attacks primarily in Algeria, Mali and Mauritania. The Algeria-based militant group's stated goal is to wage holy war across North Africa and Europe. The militants could use cocaine profits to better arm themselves, expand recruitment and buy off corrupt government allies in the region, investigators said.
And the case that was detailed Friday, Braun said, reveals the dimensions of a threat that has not gotten enough attention in the West.
"The Moroccans have been pounding on the table, warning about the involvement of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb in drug trafficking," he said. "This shows they were right. Nobody in [Washington] has been talking about this threat. The only agency that has really gone after it is the DEA."
She's working with Parents Too Soon, a program that sends educators on home visits to help break the generational cycle of aggressive behavior. The key is early-childhood role modeling.
by Stephanie Banchero
December 19, 2009
Reporting from Chicago
Shantell Thomas stood in front of her son's strawberry birthday cake, jaw clenched, knuckles white from the ferocious grip she had on the 10-inch carving knife.
A dozen rowdy youngsters behind her pushed toward the cake, jostling Thomas and knocking foam cups off the table. Jabari, the 1-year-old birthday boy, sat on his aunt's lap nearby and wailed.
Thomas wheeled around and raised the knife. "Back the F up!" she yelled, catching herself before a curse could slip out. "Or I'm about to cut some necks off."
It had been a stressful night for the 18-year-old mother of two, who organized a party for a dozen and then saw 40 show up. Her mom didn't make it, and she was left to run Pin the Tail on the Donkey by herself.
Her outburst was the default reaction of a teenager raised in a home where violence was the accepted way of dealing with frustration. And her struggle represents the challenge of teaching a youngster how to manage the stress of motherhood and break the intergenerational cycle of violence.
Thomas is working to alter her aggressive tendencies, and help at the party came in the form of Cynthia Brown, her counselor in a parenting program.
"Shantell," Brown said, "maybe we can think about a better way to say that?"
Thomas dropped the knife to hip level and relaxed her shoulders. "OK, OK, back up, everyone," she said, her voice still tense. "Back up!"
Research shows that children raised in violent homes are more likely to be violent themselves. But a growing body of science suggests there are crucial stages when intervention can interrupt the cycle. And new findings in brain development, human behavior and economics suggest that early childhood is the most important and cost-effective time.
If Jabari is to learn alternatives to aggressive behavior, it must be imprinted onto his brain now. Doing that starts with his mother.
"Children model what they see. If they see the parents using physical aggression, then the child will learn that when they meet life's frustrations, the right thing to do is use physical aggression," said Seth Scholer, a professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who has studied violence and parenting programs. "Evidence points to the fact that ineffective parenting and early childhood aggression are two of the root causes of violence."
Thomas is aware of the research, and she wants to change: She enrolled in Parents Too Soon, a program that sends educators into homes to teach young mothers about the social, emotional and brain development of children.
But her desire for improvement often crashes into her life's history.
Thomas grew up in a home steeped in violence and drug dealing. She got pregnant when she was 11 -- the father of the baby was sent to prison for sexual assault of a minor. Thomas' 6-year-old daughter is living temporarily with Thomas' mother.
Jabari's father is in jail, accused of shooting a 15-year-old girl.
Thomas says she has dealt drugs and settled disagreements with her fists. She walks her treacherous Chicago neighborhood with shoulders back, chest forward, suggesting she is not to be messed with. "I'm always feeling like I've got to get my licks in," she said.
But behind the adult-like armor is a child's softness.
During the teen parenting group sessions, Thomas is the one who soothes the crying babies. She's the one who volunteers every month at the local food drive. And she's the one who spent most of the day cooking, decorating and choosing favors for her son's party.
Home visiting programs have been part of the U.S. social fabric since the 19th century, when public health nurses and social workers provided healthcare and parenting education to women in urban areas.
In the last 20 years, a raft of research has shown that these programs can improve parenting skills, boost children's cognitive and emotional development, keep mothers on track academically and lower the risk of child abuse and neglect, said Neil Guterman, a professor at the University of Chicago and an expert on home visiting. "There's strong evidence to show these programs, if implemented properly, can improve the life course of the mother and the child," he said.
Thomas joined Parents Too Soon as a 17-year-old high school dropout with both parents in prison for drug dealing. She worried she would never overcome the family history of poverty, crime and bad parenting.
"My father taught me to be a hustler. My mama taught me how to talk people out of stuff I want," she said. "I want to be a better parent than what my parents did. I needed someone to teach me how to do better than that."
Pregnancy could mean court-martial for soldiers in Iraq
December 18, 2009 | 3:21 pm
A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.
The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the soldiers who impregnate them.
Civilians reporting to Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the new guidelines.
Army spokesman George Wright said the service typically sends home from the battlefield soldiers who become pregnant. But it is not an Army-wide policy to punish them under the military's legal code, he said.
However, division commanders like Cucolo have the authority to impose these type of restrictions to personnel operating under their command, Wright said.
Cucolo oversees forces in northern Iraq, an area that includes the cities Kirkuk, Tikrit and Mosul. His Nov. 4 order was first reported by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
Cucolo's order outlines some 20 barred activities. Most of them are aimed at keeping order and preventing criminal activity, such as selling a weapon or taking drugs.
But other restrictions seemed aimed at preventing soldiers from leaving their unit short-handed, including becoming pregnant or undergoing elective surgery that would prevent their deployment.
Under Cucolo's order, troops also are prohibited from “sexual contact of any kind” with Iraqi nationals. And, they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.
Mexican forces won this battle, killing Arturo Beltran Leyva. But the war is far from over.
December 19, 2009
Understandably, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is trumpeting the navy's success in taking down Arturo Beltran Leyva, wanted in the United States and Mexico for his part in the $15-billion to $20-billion-a-year drug trade. He was a criminal known to behead his rivals and believed to be responsible for last year's killing of the federal police chief in his Mexico City home; he was the most powerful cartel boss to be removed by security forces since Calderon launched his drug war in 2006. The operation reportedly was the result of improved U.S.-Mexican intelligence cooperation, and although the naval troops failed to take Beltran Leyva and six cohorts alive, it should yield a trove of new information. Moreover, the battle between cartel grenades and the navy's mounted machine guns was carried out without civilian casualties or, apparently, some of the other abuses that have marked army operations.
For all the accomplishments, however, the operation reveals the extent of unfinished business in Calderon's campaign. Beltran Leyva was discovered at a luxury apartment complex near the governor's mansion in the city of Cuernavaca, just south of the national capital. Clearly he felt he had bought enough protection from security forces to stray far from his home base in Sinaloa and into the weekend getaway for Mexico City's rich. But someone either infiltrated his inner circle or turned on him -- possibly for the $2-million bounty on his head.
The cartel's arsenal allowed the gunmen to fight for hours in Cuernavaca. Although they couldn't outlast 200 troops this time, the traffickers demonstrated once again that they have no trouble acquiring weapons, many of them on the black market from the United States. Meanwhile, the use of the navy so far from the sea suggests that the government couldn't trust this operation to army and police forces fighting the drug war day in and day out.
Celebrated as it is, Beltran Leyva's death does not fundamentally alter the trafficking landscape. There are three Beltran Leyva brothers and an enforcer inside the organization who could step in to fill the void, as well as rival cartels likely to go after the lucrative business. And that's the bottom line -- it's big business. To change that, U.S. officials must continue to attack consumption here and stop the flow of money and weapons to Mexico. While hunting traffickers, Calderon must pursue elected officials, prosecutors and members of the security forces who have been bought off by traffickers. Together the two countries must raise the costs and cut into the profits of traffickers. Otherwise, a year or two from now they'll be going after some other kingpin who took Beltran Leyva's place.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio - the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" in America - likes Christmas music, especially "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and anything by Alvin and the Chipmunks, and apparently he thinks the 8,000 inmates inside his Phoenix jail should, too.
So it was with some glee that his Maricopa County office announced Thursday in a red-and-green press release that the "sixth and perhaps final lawsuit" brought by inmates to stop the sheriff from playing the holiday songs all day, every day, during the holidays had been dismissed in federal court.
"We keep winning these lawsuits. Inmates should stop acting like the Grinch who stole Christmas and give up wasting the court's time with such frivolous assertions," it read. "But chances are they'll keep suing and we'll keep winning."
The latest lawsuit was filed by inmate William Lamb, who said that being forced to listen to the Christmas songs 12 hours a day was a violation of his civil and religious rights. But U.S. District Judge Roz Silver disagreed, dismissing the case and denying Lamb's claim for $250,000 in damages.
Sheriff Arpaio catapulted to national attention when he cracked down on the thousands of illegal immigrants who swarm daily through his county; put inmates in pink jumpsuits and underwear; worked them in chain gangs; housed them in tents in the Arizona desert and fed them bologna sandwiches.
He said that his Christmas selections were multi-ethnic and culturally diverse, from all faiths and ethnicities. He told The Washington Times earlier this year that in addition to tunes by Alvin and the Chipmunks, the music included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Bing Crosby and Doctor Demento.
At the time, he said "all people everywhere deserve a little Christmas cheer."
Lt. Brian Lee, the sheriff's spokesman, said the court issued a summary judgment upholding the decision to "inject the holiday spirit into the lives of those incarcerated over the holiday season in the third-largest jail system in the U.S."
He said inmates have sued six times claiming the music was in violation of their religious rights or cruel and unusual punishment, but the court disagreed - finding no evidence of fact, so Sheriff Arpaio was entitled to the judgment as a matter of law.
The sheriff is no stranger to controversy, although his philosophy of "zero tolerance towards the criminal element" has been embraced by his deputies and the community alike. He was first elected in 1996 and was re-elected by double-digit margins in 2000, 2004 and 2008. In 2007 a petition to recall him failed to gain enough voter signatures to get on the ballot.
Most recently he has come to the attention of the federal government. He was notified in March by the Justice Department that he may have unfairly targeted Hispanics and Spanish-speaking people for arrest. In October, the Department of Homeland Security revoked the authority of 160 of his federally trained deputies to make immigration arrests in the field.
The sheriff has denied any wrongdoing and has said he welcomed and would cooperate in any investigation of his office. He has continued to arrest illegal immigrants under recently passed state laws.
Tired of waiting for the federal government to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and concerned about the potential terrorism threat that the lack of border security posed, he assigned deputies in 2006 to monitor his 9,226-square-mile county for illegal immigrants. He targeted the illegals under an anti-smuggling law that state lawmakers passed to fight drug trafficking.
"My message is clear: If you come here and I catch you, you're going straight to jail," he said at the time. "We're going to arrest any illegal who violates this new law, and I'm not going to turn these people over to federal authorities so they can have a free ride back to Mexico. I'll give them a free ride to my jail."
Sheriff Arpaio, 77, captured headlines nationwide when he set up a jail system that included tents, spent less than 15 cents per meal per inmate, and banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines and unrestricted television in all of his jails. He also assigned both men and women to chain gangs.
The sheriff also has created several rehabilitative programs, including "Hard Knocks High," the only accredited high school program administered by a sheriff's office in a U.S. jail.
More recently he has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor, with polls showing that he has a commanding lead as a Republican candidate for the November 2010 race.
A November poll by Rasmussen Reports said that of 1,200 likely Arizona voters, he was the Republicans' "best shot at holding onto the Arizona governorship in 2010." The poll said Sheriff Arpaio led the expected Democratic challenger, Terry Goddard, Arizona's attorney general, by 12 points and that 64 percent of voters statewide said he was doing the right thing by working around federal law to continue his aggressive actions against illegal immigration.
Lt. Lee said his boss had received "multiple inquiries locally and nationally" about the latest Rasmussen poll, but had made no decision regarding the governor's race.
Illinois Town Expects Economic Bonanza From Transfer of Prisoners to Long-Empty Facility
by JOE BARRETT
The prospect of housing Guantanamo detainees on U.S. soil gives some people pause. But most folks in Thomson, Ill., welcome anyone to fill the $128 million maximum-security prison that has stood near empty there for eight years.
"We're hoping this is an actual Christmas present and not an illusion," said Luanne Bruckner, a former village council member and motel owner.
President Barack Obama announced plans this week to buy the state-built Thomson Correctional Center and fill it with federal prisoners, as well as about 100 detainees.
There is some nervousness about the plan, but most people are eager for the 3,000 jobs the facility would bring to an area where unemployment is about 11%.
The town has had its hopes crushed before -- by a string of dismal state budgets, a powerful union's resistance to closing other state prisons and untimely corruption cases against two governors who championed the prison.
"We've had a long line of governors who promised" the funds needed to open the prison, Ms. Bruckner said, and then quipped: "Frankly, we had a place for them right here in Thomson, at the correctional center."
The prison was conceived in the mid-1990s, when the Illinois inmate population was exploding. The state housed more than 38,000 prisoners as of June 1996 and it estimated the prison population would grow to 83,000 by 2009. Instead, inmate growth slowed, and the state now has about 45,000 prisoners, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Construction of the 1,800-bed, state-of-the-art prison on 146 acres provided an economic lift for Thomson in 2000 and 2001. The village of 550 people had long been suffering a population drain as factories, a rail yard and a nearby Army depot closed down.
"It was beautiful," said Rick McGinnis, the 63-year-old owner of Kyle's Tavern. He and his wife had a booming lunch business, selling burgers and sandwiches. "It was a flood," he recalled.
But business dried up in January 2002 when a state budget crunch forced then-Gov. George Ryan to pull the plug on the nearly $50 million-a-year allowance to operate the prison.
Mr. McGinnis said he hasn't sold a sandwich since.
Ms. Bruckner and her husband, Lawrence, both in their late 50s, had opened a 40-room motel in 2000. After two good years, they had a deal to sell it in 2002. The sale tanked after the governor's announcement.
The Bruckners ran the hotel for six years, scraping by with 60% occupancy in the summer and 20% in the winter, "if we were lucky," she said. After selling a portion of the property and leasing another, Ms. Bruckner said the couple ended up losing about $400,000.
Hope the state would authorize funding to open the prison dimmed after Mr. Ryan became mired in a corruption probe. He was indicted in 2003 and began serving a 6 1/2-year term in federal prison in 2007.
The empty facility still costs the state money for security, maintenance and utilities. Illinois also had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a sewage- and water-treatment plant the village built to handle the expected surge from the prison, said Arthur Donart, who was chairman of the village council's water and sewer committee at the time.
In 2004, Mr. Ryan's successor, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, floated a plan to close the Stateville and Plymouth prisons in a bid to save $7.6 million in operating costs. The maximum-security prisoners would go to Thomson. A compromise later spared the two prisons.
In 2006, Mr. Blagojevich spent about $7 million to open a portion of Thomson to house about 200 minimum-security prisoners.
Two years later, Mr. Blagojevich again proposed closing Stateville. Local politicians objected to the loss of prison jobs.
The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 13,000 Illinois prison workers, argued that Thomson should be used to relieve overcrowding, rather than as a replacement for existing facilities.
Anders Lindall, a spokesman for AFSCME in Illinois, said the state system is overcrowded -- housing 45,000 prisoners in facilities built for 32,000. He said Illinois shouldn't be thinking about offloading Thomson to the federal government without a plan to house its own prisoners.
"We have enough beds for the prisoners we currently have and unless judges change their sentencing patterns" the state should have adequate space for its prison population into the future, said Januari Smith, spokeswoman for the corrections department.
Amid the debate over Stateville, Mr. Blagojevich shifted his focus to closing the prison in Pontiac.
The possibility that Thomson would open seemed secure enough for the state to begin hiring guards.
Joe Tieso, 47, moved to the area in 2006 and worked more than a year to win a physical-therapy contract with the prison. His contract was set to take effect on Dec. 15 last year.
Mr. Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of corruption on Dec. 9 last year. His successor, Gov. Pat Quinn, scuttled plans to close Pontiac in March.
The Obama administration is set to release six Yemenis from Guantanamo Bay in a potentially important step in the White House's bid to close the detention facility next year, according to U.S. officials.
Yemen nationals make up nearly half the 210 detainees still being held at the U.S. military facility in Cuba. The Pentagon and Justice Department have cleared 34 of the 97 Yemenis of any ties to al Qaeda or other militant Islamist organizations.
However, U.S. officials have hesitated to repatriate Yemenis cleared for release because of growing insurgencies in the Middle Eastern country and a significant presence of al Qaeda fighters in Yemen. In recent days, Yemeni counterterrorism squads carried out operations against alleged al Qaeda fighters in at least four cities.
In the past, al Qaeda members captured in Yemen have either escaped from detention facilities or been released by the Yemeni government. A number of former Guantanamo detainees have also taken up arms with al Qaeda following their release, according to senior U.S. officials.
"The security situation in Yemen isn't what we'd like to be able to send these men back," a U.S. official said Friday.
Nonetheless, the U.S. has decided to proceed with a small number of repatriations and will monitor the progress to see if further releases are possible, officials said.
Federal judges ordered the release in recent months of three of the Yemenis after they challenged their detention under the doctrine of habeas corpus. A U.S. official said Friday that the six Yemenis would be repatriated "in the next few days," along with four Afghans.
The Justice Department is still considering what to do with the roughly 60 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo who haven't been cleared for release. Some will be tried on terrorism charges either in a U.S. federal court or in military commissions, according to U.S. officials. Others could be held for prolonged detention without trial at a prison inside the U.S. following Guantanamo's formal closing.
Under the Bush and Obama administrations, the U.S. has held extensive negotiations with Saudi Arabia in a bid to get the Saudis to accept some Yemenis into a Saudi rehabilitation program. Saudi Arabia and Yemen, neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula, share extensive cultural, familial and tribal ties.
Earlier this year, U.S. officials said they believed Saudi Arabia would accept at least a dozen Yemenis. But Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has vigorously fought the move, arguing that the U.S. should fund a rehabilitation center inside his own country.
U.S. officials working on the Yemen detainee issue include the White House's top counterterrorism official, John Brennan, and the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy director, Stephen Kappes.
Washington is increasingly concerned about the overall stability of Yemen. Mr. Saleh's government is currently fighting an insurgency in the north made up of Shiite Muslim rebels, known as the Houthis. Cross-border attacks by Houthi fighters into Saudi Arabia led Riyadh to open a military campaign into northern Yemen last month.
Roanoke, Virginia, Neo-Nazi Convicted for Threats, Witness Intimidation
WASHINGTON -- William A. "Bill" White, the self-proclaimed commander of the neo-Nazi group the American National Socialist Workers Party, was convicted by a federal jury for threatening three individuals and for attempting to intimidate litigants in a federal housing discrimination lawsuit, the Justice Department announced. White was convicted today of three counts of communicating threats in interstate commerce, and one count of witness intimidation.
According to the testimony at trial, from late 2006 through mid-2008, White targeted individuals and engaged in a pattern of threatening communications which resulted in those individuals fearing for their personal safety. These communications included late night telephone calls to the victims' homes, during which he would identify himself as the leader of a white supremacist group; emails to the victims in which he would make threatening statements; and posting the victims' names, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information on neo-Nazi Web sites, sometimes accompanied by language advocating the murder of the targeted victim.
In one instance, White threatened a bank employee because of a personal financial dispute. In another instance, he sent letters marked with swastikas to the homes of individuals involved in a federal housing discrimination suit, filled with racial epithets and causing the victims to feel that they may suffer dire consequences for their participation in the lawsuit. Other counts of conviction victims included threats to a human rights lawyer from Canada and threats to a university administrator who was responsible for implementing a diversity program. White was acquitted of three additional counts.
White faces a maximum punishment of 25 years: a maximum of 10 years in prison for witness intimidation; and a maximum of five years imprisonment for each of the three counts of communicating threats in interstate commerce. Each of the aforementioned charges entails a potential fine of up to $250,000.00."One of the greatest truths about our nation is that everyone has the right to be free from threats violence because of the color of their skin, the language they speak or the country from which they come. Those individuals who are driven by bigotry to violate that right will be brought to justice," said Assistant Attorney General Perez. "The jury's verdict in this case sends a strong message that hate crimes will not be tolerated on our free society."
"For an extended period of time, William White has hidden behind the First Amendment while making racist remarks and threatening people who are different from him. While the First Amendment protects our ability to express views even if unpopular, it does not provide a license to threaten, intimidate, and inflict emotional distress,"
U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy for the Western District of Virginia said, "William White did just that, using hateful words as a sword. We appreciate the strength of the victims of those hateful words. Because they came forward, William White will be held accountable for his misguided attempt at intimidation."
Texas Man Sentenced to 292 Months in Prison for Advertising and Possessing Child Pornography
Mark Edwin Cairnes, 51, was sentenced today to 292 months in prison and lifetime supervised release following his prison term for advertising and possessing child pornography.
Cairnes, of Jonestown, Texas, pleaded guilty on Sept. 25, 2009, before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin, Texas, to one count of advertising child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. As part of his plea agreement, Cairnes admitted to being a member of an Internet-based bulletin board group dedicated to the trading of child pornography. The group could only be accessed by using a unique username and password. The groups had very detailed rules for behavior, including requiring all members to post only pornographic images or videos depicting minors under the age of 18. Members were also required to post their images or videos in pre-established categories based on the type of material, such as the hardcore category, which contained only images or links to images that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit acts with either adults or other minors.
Cairnes admitted he was an active participant on the bulletin board and that his involvement dated from October 2006. Cairnes also admitted that on some occasions he made requests for images and videos of child pornography by name or by providing "sample images" of the material he sought. Cairnes also admitted to commenting on the quality of the child pornography he received from other members and expressing his gratification upon seeing the images and videos of child pornography, some of which depicted very young children. Through his plea, Cairnes also admitted to possessing tens of thousands of images of child pornography, including images of the sexual abuse of infants and images of children engaged in sadistic and masochistic abuse.
Cairnes was identified through "Operation Joint Hammer," the U.S. component of an ongoing global enforcement operation targeting transnational rings of child pornographers. The operation has led to the arrest of more than 60 people in the United States involved in the trade of child pornography. Operation Joint Hammer was initiated through evidence developed by European law enforcement and shared with U.S. counterparts by Europol and Interpol. The European portion of this global enforcement effort, "Operation Koala," was launched after the discovery of the activities of several people in Europe who were abusing children and producing photographs of the abuse for commercial gain. Further investigation unveiled a number of online child pornography rings.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew B. Devlin of the Western District of Texas and Trial Attorney Alecia Riewerts Wolak of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The investigation was handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Former pizza shop owner sentenced on child pornography charges
Possessed and distributed child pornography online
DETROIT - A Brighton, Mich., man was sentenced today to five years on charges of transportation and distribution of child pornography. Following his sentence, he is required to register as a sex offender and he faces supervised release for the rest of his life.
Raymond King, 68, of Brighton, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in August 2009 to three counts of sexual exploitation of children by receiving, possessing and transporting child pornography.
"People who distribute and possess child pornography are victimizing the most vulnerable members of our society" said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Detroit. "ICE relentlessly pursues predators who sexually abuse children, whether that abuse is physical in nature or if it's accomplished by exploiting the images of their abuse."
Terrence Berg U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Moskowitz announced the pleas entered before U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds.
According to the investigation, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at King's home in September 2006. While there, agents seized computers and media storage devices belonging to King. Forensic examiners found more than 200 pictures and 184 movies of child pornography on the two computers. King later admitted to receiving and distributing child pornography via the internet.
This case was investigated under Operation Predator, which is a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 11,600 individuals.
ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.
Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .
Three Al Qaeda Associates Arrested on Drug and Terrorism Charges
DEC 18 - DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart and United States Attorney Preet Bharara announced today the arrests of three individuals for drug and terrorism charges. OUMAR ISSA, HAROUNA TOURÉ, and IDRISS ABELRAHMAN arrived in the Southern District of New York early this morning to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The charges stem from the defendants' alleged agreement to transport cocaine through West and North Africa with the intent to support three terrorist organizations .. Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb ("AQIM"), and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC"). All three organizations have been designated by the United States Department of State as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The charges in this case mark the first time that associates of Al Qaeda have been charged with narco-terrorism offenses. ISSA, TOURÉ, and ABELRAHMAN were arrested in Ghana on December 16, 2009, at the request of the United States; thereafter, they were transferred to the custody of the United States and transported to the Southern District of New York. The defendants are expected to be presented in Manhattan federal court later today before United States Magistrate Judge JAMES C. FRANCIS IV.
"Today's arrests are further proof of the direct link between dangerous terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, and international drug trafficking that fuels their violent activities," said DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart. "These narco-terrorists do not respect borders and do not care who they harm with their drug trafficking conspiracies. Working with our narcotics law enforcement partners in Ghana and across the globe, DEA is making unprecedented progress in dismantling illicit drug networks in western Africa and around the world, and putting the criminals who operate them behind bars, where they belong."
"Today's allegations reflect the emergence of a worrisome alliance between Al Qaeda and transnational narcotics traffickers. As terrorists diversify into drugs, however, they provide us with more opportunities to incapacitate them and cut off the funding for future acts of terror," said United States Attorney PREET BHARARA. "We will continue to work with our partners at the DEA, in Ghana, and around the world to meet the threat narco-terrorism poses to our national security."
According to the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
Al Qaeda And AQIM
Founded in 1989, Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization which has as its principal goal to attack the United States. Al Qaeda functions on its own and through various terrorist organizations that operate under it. The group now known as AQIM, formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ("GSPC"), was founded in the late 1990s with the assistance of USAMA BIN LADEN. On September 11, 2006, AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI, a high-ranking Al Qaeda member and close associate of BIN LADEN, announced that GSPC had joined Al Qaeda and called for "our brothers of the GSPC to hit the foundations of the Crusader alliance, primarily their old leader the infidel United States."
The FARC
From 1964 until the present, the FARC has been an international terrorist group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the democratically elected Government of Colombia. The FARC is highly structured and organized as a military group. To further its goals, the FARC actively engages in narcotics trafficking as a financing mechanism and has evolved into the world's largest supplier of cocaine. For at least the past five years, the FARC has directed violent acts against U.S. persons and commercial and property interests in foreign jurisdictions, including in Colombia. The FARC leadership has directed the kidnapping and murder of U.S. citizens and attacks on U.S. interests in order to dissuade the United States from continuing its efforts to disrupt the FARC's cocaine manufacturing and trafficking activities.
The Narco, Terrorism And Material Support Conspiracies
Between September 2009 and December 2009, ISSA, TOURÉ, and ABELRAHMAN, who stated that they were associated with Al Qaeda, conspired to assist purported representatives of the FARC in transporting hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from West Africa through North Africa and ultimately into Spain. In a series of telephone calls and meetings with two confidential sources working with the DEA who claimed to represent the FARC (the "CSs"), the defendants stated that they had a transportation route from West Africa through North Africa, and that Al Qaeda could provide protection for the cocaine along that route.
At an initial meeting with one of the DEA confidential sources ("CS1"), ISSA stated that his boss, TOURÉ, could facilitate this cocaine transportation. At a subsequent meeting, ISSA introduced CS1 to TOURÉ, describing him as a leader of a criminal organization that worked with Al Qaeda affiliated groups in North Africa.
During meetings with the CSs, TOURÉ described his strong relationship with Al Qaeda groups that controlled areas of North Africa, and discussed other instances in which he had transported drugs with Al Qaeda's assistance. TOURÉ stated that Al Qaeda would protect the FARC's cocaine shipment from Mali through North Africa and into Morocco en route to Spain. More specifically, TOURÉ discussed the option of two different transportation routes: one through Algeria and Libya, and the other through Algeria and Morocco. TOURÉ also discussed the possibility of kidnapping foreign nationals to raise money for the cause.
TOURÉ later agreed to introduce CS1 to a representative of the group that would handle the security of the cocaine while it was being transported. The CSs subsequently met with TOURÉ and ABELRAHMAN, who was introduced as a leader of a "militia" of armed men. ABELRAHMAN discussed with the CSs the shared goals of the FARC and ABELRAHMAN's organization, including the fact that they were committed to the same anti-American cause.
* * *
The defendants each are charged with one count of narco-terrorism conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and one count of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The charges unsealed today were the result of the coordinated efforts of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the DEA's Special Operations Division and Ghana Office. Mr. BHARARA praised the outstanding investigative work of the DEA and thanked the Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs, its National Security Division, and the Department of State for their assistance. Mr. BHARARA also thanked the Government of Ghana for its cooperation.
Assistant United States Attorneys JEFFREY A. BROWN and CHRISTIAN R. EVERDELL are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Statement from DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart
on the Death of Mexican Drug Cartel Leader Arturo Beltran-Leyva
“President Calderon of Mexico scored a major victory against the Arturo Beltran-Leyva drug cartel. Last August when DEA, along with our U.S. law enforcement partners, announced the indictment of Mexican drug kingpin Arturo Beltran-Leyva, we were confident that our Mexican counterparts would work with us to pursue him and hold him accountable for his horrific crimes. And last night they did.”
“His death has dealt a crippling blow to one of the most violent cartels in the world, and it comes as a result of significant cooperation and information sharing between law enforcement in the United States and our courageous partners in Mexico.”
“DEA has consistently shared information with our Mexican counterparts to target the Mexican cartels, which threaten both countries. This pattern of cooperation was the basis for the arrest operation. Last night, when the Mexican Navy closed in on Beltran-Leyva's apartment complex, a sustained firefight ensued and Arturo Beltran-Leyva was killed, along with several of his bodyguards.”
“Arturo Beltran-Leyva and members of his organization have smuggled ton-quantities of lethal and highly addictive drugs into the United States every year for more than a decade . As he first created and then defended his empire built on cocaine, meth, and heroin, he orchestrated the murder of countless law enforcement officers, innocent civilians, and rival traffickers. And along the way, he took every opportunity to terrorize the innocent, and to corrupt government officials.”
“The reign of Arturo Beltran-Leyva is over. His cartel has been directly responsible for much of the violence plaguing Mexico today, and this operation is a model of our commitment to continue working in close cooperation with our Mexican partners to disrupt and dismantle all of the Mexican cartels.”
Leaders of Colombian Narco-Terrorist Organization Plead Guilty in U.S. District Court
to Conspiring to Import Tons
of Cocaine into the United States
DEC 17 -- PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division,("DEA"), announced that JORGE ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA, a/k/a "Ivan Vargas," and GERARDO AGUILAR RAMIREZ, a/k/a "Cesar"—leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC")—pleaded guilty today to conspiring to import ton-quantities of cocaine into the United States. The FARC is Colombia's main leftist rebel group and a U.S. State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA and AGUILAR RAMIREZ pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge THOMAS F. HOGAN in District of Columbia federal court.
According to the previously-unsealed Indictment to which the defendants pleaded guilty, other documents filed in this case, and statements made in court:
The FARC, which occupies large swaths of territory in Colombia, is a hierarchical organization which, at its height during the time of the conspiracy, was comprised of 12,000 to 18,000 members. At the lowest level, the FARC is made up of 77 distinct military units, called Fronts, organized by geographical location. These in turn are grouped into seven "blocs." The FARC is led by a seven-member Secretariat and a 27-member Central General Staff, or Estado Mayor, responsible for setting the cocaine policies of the FARC. The FARC is responsible for the production of more than half the world's supply of cocaine and nearly two-thirds of the cocaine imported into the United States, and is the world's leading cocaine manufacturer. The FARC initially involved itself in the cocaine and cocaine paste trade by imposing a "tax" on individuals involved in every stage of cocaine production. Later, in the 1990s, recognizing the profit potential, FARC leadership ordered that the FARC become the exclusive buyer of the raw cocaine paste used to make cocaine in all areas under FARC occupation.
In the late 1990s, the FARC leadership, including RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA, met and voted unanimously in favor of a number of resolutions, including resolutions to: expand coca production in areas of Colombia under FARC control; expand the FARC's international distribution routes; increase the number of crystallization labs in which cocaine paste would be converted into cocaine; appoint members within each Front to be in charge of coca production; raise prices that the FARC would pay to campesinos (peasant farmers) from whom they purchased cocaine paste; and mandate that better chemicals be used to increase the quality of cocaine paste.
In late 2001 or early 2002, the FARC leadership, including RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA and AGUILAR RAMIREZ, participated in a meeting in which they further resolved, among other things, to: increase cocaine trafficking routes overseas, including to the United States; establish better ways to exchange cocaine and cocaine paste for weapons; and to pay more to campesinos for cocaine paste.
RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA served as the Commander of the FARC's 24th Front and as a member of the FARC's Estado Major. In that capacity, he directed the purchase of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine paste, and transmitted billions of Colombian pesos in cocaine proceeds to higher-ranking FARC officials. AGUILAR RAMIREZ was the commander of the FARC's 1st Front and was ultimately responsible for all of that Front's criminal activities. Among other things, RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA and AGUILAR RAMIREZ each conspired with others to manufacture and distribute thousands of tons of cocaine in Colombia, with the knowledge and intent that such cocaine would be imported into the United States.
AGUILAR RAMIREZ was captured on July 2, 2008, in a Colombian military operation which freed three American hostages who had been held by the FARC for over five years, as well as several Colombian hostages. AGUILAR RAMIREZ was extradited to the United States on July 16, 2009. RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA was arrested by Colombian authorities in late 2004 and extradited to the United States on November 1, 2007.
Earlier today, in separate proceedings, RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA and AGUILAR RAMIREZ each pleaded guilty to the sole count of the Indictment, which charges them with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, and conspiring to distribute cocaine with the knowledge and intent that it would be imported into the United States. This offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. As part of its extradition requests, however, the United States has previously provided assurances to the government of Colombia that it will not seek a life sentence for the defendants, but instead will ask for a prison term of years.
During today's guilty plea proceeding, RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA acknowledged that from approximately 1998 through early October 2004, he was the commander of the 24th Front of the FARC and that he led and directed other members of the 24th Front in the manufacture and distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine, knowing and intending that at least some of this cocaine would be imported into the United States. AGUILAR RAMIREZ acknowledged at his proceeding that from approximately 1998 through early July 2008, he was the Commander of the 1st Front of the FARC and that he led and directed other members of the 1st Front in the manufacture and distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine, knowing and intending that at least some of this cocaine would be imported into the United States. AGUILAR RAMIREZ also acknowledged that he, along with other members of this cocaine importation conspiracy, possessed firearms in connection with his narcotics trafficking activities.
RODRIGUEZ MENDIETA, 46, and AGUILAR RAMIREZ, 49, are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge HOGAN on March 5, 2010.
U.S. Attorney BHARARA stated: "Today, two FARC leaders admitted that they conspired to send literally tons of cocaine from Colombia into the United States. With each step to disrupt this illicit narcotics trade, we siphon fuel from the machine of terror. Guilty pleas by these dangerous narco-terrorists are significant milestones in our fight against the FARC, whose criminal activities threaten the national security of both Colombia and the United States. We will continue to work with our partner, the DEA, to confront narco terrorism around the world."
"These FARC leaders conspired to manufacture and sell thousands of kilograms of cocaine in the United States and elsewhere in order to enrich themselves and buy arms to further their terrorist activities," said Special Agent-in-Charge GILBRIDE. "Using drug trafficking proceeds, the FARC has intimidated and murdered thousands of Colombians over several decades. After today's hearing, these two narco-terrorists will neither be selling dangerous drugs nor harming innocent Colombians."
The investigation resulting in these charges was led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, working with the New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force (which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, the New York City Police Department, the United States Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York State Police) and the DEA's Bogota, Colombia, Country Office. The investigation, conducted under the auspices of the Department of Justice's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program, involved unprecedented cooperation from the Colombian Military, the Colombian National Police, and the Colombian Fiscalia. Mr. BHARARA praised all the law enforcement partners involved in the investigation, and thanked the Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs, as well as U.S. Department of Justice Attachés in Bogota for their involvement in the extradition process.
This case is being prosecuted in the District of Columbia by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Special Assistant United States Attorneys ERIC SNYDER, PABLO QUIÑONES, and RANDALL JACKSON are in charge of the prosecution.
A brief history of how ATF got into the arson business.
ATF 's early arson jurisdiction is embedded within explosives legislation dictated by two critical Acts: the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the Explosive Control Act of 1970.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 not only dictated firearms laws, but also focused on jurisdiction over destructive devices. Before this Act, arson was considered to be outside ATF 's jurisdiction, unless the device used to ignite the fire was a traditionally recognized destructive device or an explosive.
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (commonly called the Explosive Control Act of 1970) established penalties for the misuse of explosives and outlined regulations for the manufacture, importation, sale and storage of explosives.
Interpreting the Law
ATF determined that the use of a flammable liquid when mixed with an oxidizing agent fell within the definition of “explosive” as set out in the Explosive Control Act. Under this broadened interpretation, ATF successfully prosecuted three men in a U.S. district court in Savannah, GA . While this was not the first successful conviction for arson under the Explosives Control Act, it was the first in which a broadened interpretation of the definition of explosives was applied.
Thus, a violation of the Explosive Control Act had been established that supported the interpretation of gasoline used with an oxidizing agent to damage or destroy any building, vehicle or other real or personal property in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce.
With this interpretation supported, ATF had the authority to directly investigate many more arson cases than previously.
The Task Force Concept
ATF formed the first federal arson task force in 1977, in Philadelphia. The agency provided on-the-job training to ATF agents by temporarily assigning them to the Philadelphia Arson Task Force. In addition to ATF , this task force consisted of FBI agents, postal investigators and Philadelphia police and fire investigators.
ATF soon expanded the arson task force model to 10 other cities with acute arson problems. By November 1977, with the support of the U.S. Department of Justice ( DOJ ), ATF expanded the concept to all 23 DOJ strike force cities.
National Response Teams are Born
By 1978, ATF recognized the need to address the growing epidemic of arsons and established two national response teams. The idea was to develop a well-trained team of specialists who could be convened on short notice anywhere in the United States at the site of a major arson or bombing.
Because the investigation of explosions and fires can tie-up many agents for long periods, these quick response teams would offer relief to local ATF agents allowing them to conduct their regular investigative work uninterrupted, and leaving the investigation of the major arson cases to the response team. Each team consisted of 10 special agents, augmented by technicians, forensic scientists and auditors.
On May 25, 1979, a major fire in Shelby, NC , destroyed a downtown block of buildings, killing five people, injuring 31 people and causing more than $5 million in damage. ATF 's National Response Team responded for the first time. Working with state and local officers, two men were arrested on felony murder charges. ATF had validated its National Response Team concept.
Arson for Profit
By 1980, ATF identified “arson for profit” as one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation, increasing every year by an estimated 25 percent.
ATF began training state, local and other federal agencies in the detection and investigation of “arson for profit” schemes and related tactics employed by organized crime and white-collar criminals. The agency's close working relationships with these partners resulted in increased federal prosecution. ATF also initiated its own “origin and cause” training programs.
Congress continued to provide ATF with additional tools for arson prosecution. In 1982, the Anti-Arson Act amended the explosives laws, specifically criminalizing the use of fire to commit any federal felony. The Act made it unlawful to damage or destroy, by fire, any property used in activities affecting interstate commerce.
The Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 granted federal prosecutors greater power in pursuing burnings and desecrations at houses of worship.
ATF has a staff of forensic auditors trained to assist arson case agents from ashes to trial. The forensic auditors follow the complex paper and money trail to link the arson suspect to the fire. ATF forensic auditors assist on search warrants; interviewing witnesses and owners; analyzing financial documents; and preparing demonstrative evidence used for indictment and for courtroom testimony.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established the Department of Homeland Security and outlined responsibilities for fighting terrorism. As a result, ATF was transferred to DOJ and given a more effective legislative tool, the Safe Explosives Act of 2003. This Act restricted the availability of explosives to prohibited persons. It also strengthened licensing and permitting requirements.
