U.S.-bound passengers cope with airport delays

Tighter security rules tangle departures from Canada, London and other places. The effect on domestic flights is less dramatic.

by Jane Engle

December 28, 2009

Air passengers headed to the United States from Canada, Europe and elsewhere faced hours of delay Sunday because of tightened security imposed after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight headed from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The new security measures varied, but at many airports, travelers flying to the U.S. were limited to one carry-on and were subject to pat-downs or last-minute bag screenings at the gate. Once on the plane, many were told to stay in their seats for the last hour of the flight.

Among the affected airports:

* Pearson International, Toronto: Travelers faced huge lines and "absolute bedlam" Sunday, the Toronto Star reported. Some U.S.-bound flights at Canada's busiest airport were delayed four hours or more, partly because of the new carry-on limit, the Canadian Press reported.

"Most of the delays are occurring -- or some of the delays are occurring -- because passengers come to the airport and . . . they're having to shuffle their baggage around," said Trish Krale of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the Canadian news service reported.

* Vancouver International: The airport's website, which reported flight delays, said U.S.-bound passengers could expect to "undergo a personal [pat-down] search and have all of their personal belongings examined"; be limited to one carry-on bag; and face some delays "as the additional screening does take more time."

* Heathrow, London: The Times of London reported "chaos at Heathrow and other British airports with delays reaching up to five hours." On its website, Heathrow, one of the world's biggest airports, advised travelers to limit carry-on luggage, arrive promptly and call their airlines for additional advice.

The security crackdown, which was aimed mainly at flights into the U.S. from abroad, did not seem to cause major delays at U.S. airports.

In Los Angeles, an airport spokeswoman said that the security changes were not causing delays, and that any flight delays stemmed from snowstorms that had affected air traffic through the Midwest.

"We are aware the TSA has beefed up protocols and procedures," said Nancy Castles, Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman. "There isn't an observable difference in them to the public, but they are observable to us."

She advised travelers, "Call ahead to your airline and check on the flight."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-airports28-2009dec28,0,2856238,print.story

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Nation on edge after Christmas terrorism attempt

Napolitano seeks to reassure the public. Republicans say the government isn't taking the terrorist threat seriously enough. A scare in Phoenix and another in Detroit end without incident.

by Josh Meyer

December 28, 2009

Reporting from Washington

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the suicide bomber who tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas did not appear to be part of a broader plot to attack U.S. targets and that flying is safe.

The administration announced two sweeping reviews into the situation, but Republicans said the government was not taking Al Qaeda or the safety of air travelers seriously enough.

The Christmas Day attempt, in which a 23-year-old Nigerian allegedly tried to set off an incendiary device on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit as it prepared for landing, jangled nerves worldwide.

On Sunday, another Nigerian flying the same Northwest route triggered alarm when he spent about an hour in the bathroom. Fearing another would-be suicide bomber, Northwest asked authorities to meet the plane.

Law enforcement rushed to the scene, sirens blaring. The FBI determined that the young man was sick, not a terrorist, an FBI official said in Washington. President Obama was briefed on the event.

On Saturday night, FBI and TSA agents were called to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a passenger on US Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., reported two passengers acting suspiciously. The plane was searched, as were the men's belongings. The men, described as Middle Eastern, were questioned and released.

"We do not believe they were related to any type of terrorist activity," said Manuel Johnson, spokesman for the FBI's Phoenix division.

Napolitano sought to reassure the public Sunday. Appearing on several talk shows, she said that commercial flying had been safe before the Christmas incident and was even safer now because of intensified security that U.S. and other authorities have imposed on international flights.

Those include further limits on carry-on luggage; more searches, including pat-downs; and requiring passengers to stay in their seats for the last hour of their flights.

Napolitano said the suspect in the attempted bombing, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, appeared to be acting alone -- though shortly after his arrest, he allegedly said he had obtained a specialized explosive chemical compound and a syringe from an Al Qaeda bomb expert in Yemen.

She praised passengers and crew for helping avert a potential tragedy, and she praised the quick notification of other flights in the air.

"The whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly," Napolitano said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, accused the administration of being soft on terrorism, including on young Muslims who appear to get radicalized and then seek help from Al Qaeda.

"Homegrown terrorism, the threat to the United States, is real," Hoekstra told "Fox News Sunday." "I think this administration has downplayed it. They need to recognize it, identify it. It is the only way we are going to defeat it."

Napolitano said that U.S. authorities had placed Abdulmutallab on a general counter-terrorism watch list that contains about 550,000 names, which is shared with airlines and foreign security agencies. Administration officials acknowledged that he was placed on that list about a month ago after his father, a respected Nigerian banker, told U.S. authorities that his son had been radicalized and had ties to militants.

But Napolitano said that without specific and "credible" evidence of suspicious activity, Abdulmutallab could not be formally classified as the sort of security risk that would bar him from traveling to the United States.

Some Republicans contended that U.S. officials failed to follow up on the father's concerns appropriately.

"There is much to investigate here," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on ABC News' "This Week." "It's amazing to me that an individual like this, who was sending out so many signals, could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S."

Other Republicans, as well as Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), said the administration and authorities in Europe and Africa should have done more to screen Abdulmutallab and to prevent him from getting on the plane with a package containing an easily detectable military-grade explosive known as PETN.

"We ought to, in our age, be able to put 500,000 names on a computer and have everybody who's trying to come to the U.S. go through that list," Lieberman said on "Fox News Sunday." "That doesn't mean they're convicted of any wrongdoing. But it would be basis enough to take this guy out of the line in Amsterdam and do a full-body check, and that would have determined that he was carrying explosives."

The reviews ordered by Obama will focus on how an individual with that explosive could have gotten on a plane, as well as on decisions related to the name databases, according to White House spokes- man Robert Gibbs, who also appeared on Sunday talk shows.

One review will include the broader issue of whether appropriate policies and procedures are in place related to watch lists, an administration official said.

Authorities will try to determine why Abdulmutallab was not on the no-fly list of 4,000 people who are barred from flights to the United States, or on the list of 15,000 people required to go through more rigorous screening before boarding, the official said.

Abdulmutallab began his trip in Nigeria and passed through Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, which has a reputation as one of the most secure in the world. There, passengers typically are screened as they pass through customs and again at the gate. Security agents interview each passenger, looking for suspicious behavior.

Newspapers in London reported that in May, Abdulmutallab was denied a visa to study in Britain after the college was determined to be bogus. He had graduated from a London university last year.

On Sunday, Abdulmutallab was released from a Detroit-area hospital. He remained in federal custody.

One U.S. intelligence official said authorities were trying to learn how he might have become radicalized and what ties he might have to Al Qaeda operatives or other militants. The focus, the official said, continues to be Yemen, which the U.S. considers a growing haven for Al Qaeda members.

Some terrorism experts, including Brian Jenkins of the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. think tank, said the failure to ignite the explosive mixture could suggest that Abdulmutallab and any co-conspirators may have been operating independently of Al Qaeda's experienced bomb-makers.

PETN was also used by so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid in his unsuccessful attempt to blow up a Paris-to- Miami flight.

In Friday's case, the PETN probably was not compacted correctly, because it flamed rather than explode, law enforcement sources said. Abdulmutallab also may have lacked the necessary detonator.

"I'm suspicious of his claimed Al Qaeda connections," Jenkins said, "because Al Qaeda's people know how to make a bomb."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-plane28-2009dec28,0,4364603,print.story

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U.S. wants Pakistan to pursue Taliban-allied group

But the Pakistani government has balked at going after the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, which Islamabad considers a potential ally in Afghanistan.

by Alex Rodriguez

December 28, 2009

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan

As Pakistan forges ahead with its bid to uproot Taliban fighters from tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, its troops are bypassing an enemy that the Obama administration desperately wants confronted.

Rather than expand on its gains in South Waziristan and drive into North Waziristan to tackle the Haqqani network -- a wing of the Taliban that views U.S. and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan as its principal target -- the Pakistani military is now focusing its attention on driving Taliban militants from their strongholds in the surrounding tribal regions of Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber.

One reason Pakistan has refused to go after the Haqqani network, a senior Pakistani official says, is that it doesn't have the manpower to fight concentrations of militants on multiple fronts. Pakistani troops are deployed in the Swat Valley, from which they drove out Taliban fighters in a large offensive in the summer. An additional 30,000 troops are winding down major operations in South Waziristan, the Pakistani Taliban's primary hub.

Many of those fighters fled to nearby tribal regions, such as Kurram and Orakzai, which is why the Pakistani military has stepped up airstrikes in those areas to prevent militants from establishing new bases. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani said the army's next major deployment of ground troops may target Orakzai.

"First we would like to consolidate and stabilize, and not get into something that overstretches us," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The bigger reason for Pakistan's reluctance to cooperate, however, lies in the government's ardent belief that the Haqqani network, led by Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin, does not pose a direct threat to Pakistan.

Instead, a friendly relationship with the Afghan Taliban is seen by many Pakistanis as a valuable hedge against Pakistan's archrival, India, meddling in Afghanistan. Pakistanis also view the Haqqanis and the rest of the Afghan Taliban as crucial players in Afghanistan's future once the U.S. pulls out. At that point, Pakistan would prefer the Taliban as an ally and not a foe.

"The Americans will leave in 18 months, and the Taliban won't be defeated. If Pakistan has earned the hostility of the Afghan Taliban, it will be in trouble," said Javed Hussain, a retired brigadier and a former special forces commander. "This concern of Pakistan's is genuine. We cannot afford to earn the wrath of the Taliban and the Haqqani group."

In recent weeks, President Obama has sent several top officials to make the case for going after the Haqqani network, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James L. Jones, the national security advisor. Although Pakistan so far has balked at Obama's demands, U.S. officials have not given up.

"I'm not going to give a grade to a work in progress," said Richard C. Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, during an appearance on PBS' "The Charlie Rose Show" on Dec. 21.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's reluctance may prompt an increase in U.S. Predator drone strikes in North Waziristan and the rest of the tribal areas. On Dec. 17, U.S. drone strikes killed 16 people at suspected militant hide-outs near Miram Shah, North Waziristan's largest town. The next day, another drone strike killed six suspected militants in the same area.

Drone strikes have become a cornerstone of Obama's strategy against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the border region. At least 10 suspected senior Al Qaeda operatives have been killed in such strikes since August 2008. The use of drones has angered Pakistanis, who argue that the strikes kill mostly civilians and trample on their country's sovereignty.

But the Pakistani government tacitly allows the strikes, which frequently target the Haqqani network.

"These drone attacks are disadvantageous for the U.S.," said Fakhrul Islam, a tribal areas expert at Peshawar University. "The Pakistani population isn't happy with these attacks, and they give the Taliban a chance to talk about the killing of innocent people as a result of drone strikes."

Pakistan's stance toward the Haqqani network is rooted in its nearly 30-year relationship with Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun warlord who organized mujahedin fighters against Soviet troops in the 1980s. At the time, he had nurtured ties with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, as well as with the CIA.

Haqqani has maintained strong ties with Pakistan despite Islamabad's alliance with Washington. Now believed to be in his late 50s, he has handed over control of his network to his son, Sirajuddin. Hussain said the Haqqanis run a fighting force of about 5,000 that splits its time between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Haqqanis' alliance with Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, also based in North Waziristan, further complicates Pakistan's strategy in the area. Bahadur agreed to not interfere with the army's operations in South Waziristan against the rival Pakistani Taliban faction led by Hakimullah Mahsud. A military push into North Waziristan now might be viewed by Bahadur as a betrayal of that agreement.

Some of the Al Qaeda militants who fled South Waziristan are believed to be hiding in North Waziristan. The desolate, largely ungoverned territory may also have become a sanctuary for top Al Qaeda leaders. Although U.S. leaders say they have no firm knowledge of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said this month that the Al Qaeda leader is probably in North Waziristan.

Pakistani officials say that Al Qaeda remains a priority for them but that now is not the right time for troops to move into North Waziristan.

"Uzbek and Arab fighters from South Waziristan are on the run, and there are elements of [Al Qaeda] in North Waziristan," the senior Pakistani official said. "But when one has the plate full, one does not want to get into a conflict where you dilute your power. Then you achieve nothing."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-north-waziristan28-2009dec28,0,1700635,print.story

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LAPD gang units feel the pinch of financial disclosure rule

Many rank-and-file cops see the requirement -- a result of the department's consent decree -- as an insult. It could erode the strength of the units.

by Scott Gold and Joel Rubin

December 28, 2009

The LAPD is struggling to fill vacancies in gang units as a financial disclosure rule meant to fight corruption has been received by many rank-and-file cops as an insult -- and a deal-breaker when it comes to working the tough gangland assignments.

After years of contentious battles with police union representatives over the issue, Los Angeles Police Department officials pushed through a policy in April that requires gang officers to disclose details of their personal finances.

Intended to help supervisors catch cops who are taking bribes or to identify officers in financial straits who might be tempted to stray, the policy has considerable reach: Officers must disclose outside income, real estate, stocks and other assets. They also have to report the size of bank accounts and debts, including mortgages and credit cards. And the disclosures apply to any financial holdings a cop shares with family members and business partners.

When it went into effect, then-Chief William J. Bratton and other officials insisted that the policy would have little effect on recruiting and retaining gang cops and vowed to block efforts by officers to leave gang units en masse in protest.

But erosion in the ranks is apparent. According to interviews with police officers and gang unit supervisors across the city, the number of officers dedicated to fighting gangs is beginning to drop. And top brass now acknowledge that they must do more to confront discontent and distrust.

Percolating indications of trouble can be found across the city.

Earlier this year, for instance, supervisors at the Newton Area station in South Los Angeles, where 51 street gangs are active in the nine-square-mile patrol area, received permission from higher-ups to add 14 officers to the station's gang operation. It was welcome news and would have nearly doubled the number of officers dedicated to gang activity. Few officers, however, applied for the job.

Surprised, supervisors resorted to measures they'd never taken before, such as placing notices in cop newsletters. Nothing seemed to work. The reason, they said: the new financial disclosure policy.

The policy also includes officers serving on narcotics details, although the discontent seems focused among gang officers. The roughly 600 officers already assigned to affected units when the policy went into effect in April were granted a two-year grace period, and so far it appears that few, if any, officers have left a gang assignment rather than sign the forms. The problem, the supervisors say, is one of attrition.

LAPD officers have traditionally moved from one assignment to the next with great regularity. Gang units are affected along with all other divisions. But now, officers who want to join gang units for the first time have to sign the disclosure forms, and few appear willing to do that.

When gang teams are hit with the usual mix of transfers and promotions, jobs open up. According to department figures, 20 new gang officers across the city -- and a few narcotics officers -- have agreed to sign the disclosure forms, but supervisors say that hasn't been nearly enough to keep pace with new vacancies.

Another LAPD rule sets a five-year cap on the number of consecutive years an officer can work in a gang unit. That makes for an even higher rate of turnover in gang units than in many other LAPD divisions, compounding the problem.

Uncertain of the actual number of vacancies throughout the department, top LAPD officials are conducting an audit of gang unit enrollment. They expect it to be completed in coming weeks.

Supervisors and gang officers, however, said the problem is serious. One South L.A. gang unit that had 18 officers at the beginning of the year is down to 13, with more departures expected in the coming months. Another had 35 gang officers; it now has 24. Newton eventually filled most of the new positions approved by the department, but only by poaching gang officers from other stations, not by training new ones. Today, seven months after the positions were approved, five remain vacant.

Supervisors and area commanders have tried to take matters into their own hands. Many, if not most, gang units in the city "overstaffed" earlier this year, with too many officers assigned to them intentionally, as a buffer against the onset of the financial disclosure rule. But already, those units are seeing their numbers drop to levels at or below where they were before the over-staffing.

In interviews, officers gave numerous reasons why they would seek assignments elsewhere in the department rather than abide by the disclosure rules. Some said they fear the data could be used against them in discipline proceedings or in court, and others said they question the department's ability to store the information safely. Others said the disclosure rules do little to catch or deter rogue police officers.

"Rooting out corruption is a worthy goal. This doesn't do that. It deters guys from wanting to do the job," said one gang unit supervisor. Like most gang officers interviewed for this article, he requested anonymity because some gang units have been ordered not to discuss the effects of the rule.

Most, however, say it is simply a matter of principle and fairness.

Although some other federal and local law enforcement agencies require disclosures by their officers, officials of the Police Protective League, LAPD's union, said a survey turned up none as extensive as L.A.'s.

The problem is seen as particularly acute and time-sensitive in South L.A. -- not because of what's gone wrong but because of what's gone right.

Crime has dropped in many areas of the city but has seen a particularly pronounced decline in South L.A. By the end of October, for instance, no station had recorded a sharper decline in serious crime than Newton, a 15.2% decline from the same period in 2008.

Gang members are responsible for the majority of serious crime in Newton, and the station had recorded 656 gang arrests through the end of October, a 76.8% increase over the 371 arrests made through the same period in 2008.

Gang unit supervisors said they expect the shortage of new, qualified gang officers to accelerate next year. The troubles, they said, will climax in early 2011, when the grace period for existing gang officers expires and everyone serving in a gang unit will be required to sign the disclosure forms. That, one supervisor contended, will result in a "mass exodus."

The issue has boiled over in recent weeks; at some gang-unit meetings, supervisors have tried to shout down veteran gang officers who are preaching to recruits about the dangers of the disclosure rule.

Earl Paysinger, assistant chief in charge of the department's office of operations, downplayed the possibility that a large number of gang cops would leave their posts at the end of the grace period.

In the past, LAPD brass have said they would not approve assignment transfer requests of large numbers of gang officers if doing so would compromise the department's ability to fight gang crime.

Paysinger, however, acknowledged the brewing discontent among officers about perceived risks and the resulting increase in pressure on department commanders to address the issue with officers at roll call meetings and elsewhere.

The disclosure rule is rooted in controversy.

Late in 2007, after several years of unsuccessful negotiations with the union, LAPD officials pushed ahead with the disclosure plan. Department officials had grown increasingly determined to shed a federal consent decree that had been forced on the department after a scandal involving misconduct by gang officers. Establishment of disclosure rules for officers in specialized units that frequently handle cash or drugs was one of the last outstanding reforms required by the decree.

Officials of the Police Protective League objected angrily and immediately launched a legal bid to defeat the disclosures; it has so far been unsuccessful. They also embarked on an aggressive campaign to turn officers against the policy, instructing them not to join the units.

For their part, gang officers' supervisors have grown frustrated that the disclosures have poisoned an already small pool of candidates for the assignments. Good gang officers must know when to be tough and aggressive -- and they must have patience and aplomb, because success entails building good relationships on the street. That combination of skills is rare, said one gang supervisor.

Paysinger conceded that the financial reporting rules have further complicated what has long been the challenge of persuading qualified and committed officers to accept the trying, often thankless assignments that offer no additional pay, dangerous foot pursuits and frequent allegations of excessive force by suspects.

"I'd be disingenuous to suggest otherwise," he said. "Cops tend to be private people."

Still, he said, there is a long history of cops initially gnashing their teeth over new requirements ordered from on high.

He said he expects officers' concerns over the disclosures to subside as the number of cops who agree to submit the information ticks upward and word spreads "that the boogie man isn't really there."

Indeed, said Sgt. Greg Garcia: "I signed."

Garcia, a 19-year veteran, recently became a leader of a team of Newton gang cops. One recent night in South L.A., he drove past gang members' names spray-painted on the walls of a parking lot: Smoky and Whisper, Scrappy and Trouble.

Garcia said his career has been good to him -- particularly given that he was "just a kid with a high school diploma." He said he respects other officers' decisions not to sign but he said he decided it was the right thing to do.

"They gave me an opportunity to do something with my life," he said. "There comes a time when it is time to give something back to the department."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gangcops28-2009dec28,0,5845548,print.story

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Students resist Colorado State gun ban

Activists at the Fort Collins campus say a ban will make them more vulnerable to a Virginia Tech-style attack.

by Nicholas Riccardi

December 28, 2009

Reporting from Denver

After a gun-wielding student killed 32 at Virginia Tech, faculty at Colorado State University in Fort Collins found, to their alarm, that theirs was one of the few public schools in the country with no policy banning firearms. Anyone with a concealed weapons permit could legally carry on campus.

Students, however, were alarmed when the faculty moved to change that.

Among other arguments, students contended that permitting people to carry concealed weapons was the campus' best defense against another tragedy.

"Let's say you have another Columbine or Virginia Tech," said Dan Gearhart, the student government president. "People want the ability to protect themselves."

Still, Colorado State's Board of Governors unanimously directed the presidents of the 22,000-student Fort Collins campus and the system's smaller campus in Pueblo to draw up weapon restriction policies. (The system also maintains what it calls its Global Campus online.) It cited a study by an association of campus police chiefs that concluded private firearms didn't help protect schools.

The governors are scheduled to finalize the new policies in February.

At Colorado State's main campus, where the student government voted to oppose any restrictions on concealed weapons, student leaders circulated a petition urging a permissive policy.

"Students were really disregarded in a lot of the discussions," said sophomore David Ambrose, a student senator majoring in business. "Banning concealed weapons on campus makes students second-class citizens compared to the rest of Colorado."

It's a rural state, and many students, professors and campus workers are hunters. Gun ownership is so widespread that the University of Colorado at Boulder has opened a gun storage facility where students can deposit their firearms.

"It's definitely more of a Western thing," Gearhart said. He keeps a shotgun in his Colorado Springs home that he mainly uses for skeet shooting.

But Pueblo students supported the limitations, Board of Governors spokeswoman Michele McKinney noted.

The governors "respect and understand there are going to be different views on this matter," McKinney said. "But they think this is a responsible step."

Most public colleges and universities around the country impose some restriction on firearms on campus. The notable exception is the 44,000-student University of Utah. The school had a gun ban for decades, but state legislators lifted it in 2004.

In 2003, Colorado's Legislature passed a law allowing holders of concealed weapons permits to carry their firearms anywhere in the state.

The University of Colorado at Boulder then banned guns on its campus and this year won a lawsuit filed by gun-rights groups that sought to overturn the ban. That victory added momentum to the Colorado State faculty's push to restrict guns.

Republicans have already vowed to try to overturn the Colorado State board's decision. One, state Rep. Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs, tweeted “VA Tech all over again!” after the vote.

Democrats control both houses of the Legislature.

Richard Eykholt, a physics professor and chairman of Colorado State's faculty council, said that carrying a gun at universities is different than elsewhere.

In the classroom, he said, "one of the things we try to do is push students out of their comfort zones. An effort to provoke controversy is not unusual."

And, he pointed out, students often live in dorms or other close quarters, they're often on their own for the first time and they often drink excessively.

At the meeting where the board voted on the ban, Brady Allen, a former Marine and history major at Colorado State, said safety concerns were misplaced.

"You might as well ban everything that has a potential risk -- cars, alcohol and sports," he said.

Advocates of the restriction point to the study, prepared by the International Assn. of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators , cited by the Board of Governors.

The study found that of the 30,000 Americans killed by guns in 2005, only 147 were shot in justifiable homicides -- in other words, for protection.

The report, prepared after several states discussed allowing guns on campus in the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech killings, concludes: "There is no credible evidence to suggest that the presence of concealed weapons would reduce violence on our college campuses."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-guns-campus28-2009dec28,0,1355784,print.story

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OPINION

The dark side of white

For decades, immigrants to the U.S. have sought protection and status by identifying with the 'white' race. But what they -- and society -- have lost is a horse of another color.

by Gregory Rodriguez

December 28, 2009

From 1790 to 1952, only "white people" were eligible to become naturalized U.S. citizens. That fact alone explains why for most of our history, immigrants and their descendants fought to be considered white.

It wasn't a pretty process. Nor did the coveted category of "whiteness" have any clear definition. Oh, sure, some dimwitted people really thought it was a rigidly scientific category. But for the most part, the evolving definitions and elastic boundaries of whiteness were subject to cultural bias and, let's face it, whim and subjectivity.

The federal government (and the Census Bureau) likes to pretend it knows what white is, but not everyone agrees with its definitions. Now some Arab Americans are openly questioning its categories -- and the meaning and cost of whiteness.

Since the first census in 1790, the government has separated people into racial categories. It did so because the constitutional mandate for a decennial enumeration was based on free people -- that is, whites -- counting more than Indians and black slaves. The census reflected and upheld the racial hierarchy that existed in society.

Many books and articles have been devoted to explaining what it means to be white in America, but my favorite way to get at it is to describe an interview I helped conduct three years ago with a retired sheriff in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta, where, like most places in the U.S., the "white" population is actually a fragile amalgam of diverse subgroups.

"Are Lebanese white people?" we asked the 71-year-old gentleman who considered himself white. "Yes," he said, "although they're real dark." How about Italian Catholics; are they white? Sure. And Jews? Yes. What about the Chinese? "Yes," he said, "they go to the white schools." And Mexicans? "They're becoming more white," he said. "More of them are getting an education."

Then what is a white person? we asked. After some confusion, our interviewee gave us this answer: anybody "who isn't black."

Over the decades, new immigrants to these shores were obliged to fit themselves into this black/white racial scheme. Not surprisingly, most chose to identify themselves with the group that had full rights. In books such as "How the Irish Became White," scholars have traced the path that immigrant subgroups took to become considered part of the "white" race. It's a poignant and peculiarly American journey. The protection and status of whiteness was not without costs. Most distinct subgroups gradually lost their distinctiveness. Their members traded specific ethnic labels -- Italian, Swedish, French -- for the generic racial label of "white." They exchanged identities that told us something about their unique histories for an elastic racial category that mostly tells us what they are not.

The long process of race trumping ethnicity continues in a few months when the 2010 census is conducted. For the first time since 1980, the decennial census will not ask a question about ancestry and ethnic ties for those who identify themselves racially as white or black. If you designate yourself as Asian or Latino, however, you will be able to identify yourself by ethnic subgroup or national origin -- Chinese, Japanese, Mexican American, Cuban.

The Census Bureau says that the question was jettisoned for the purposes of streamlining. And to be fair, the census' ancestry data for whites was never terribly reliable beyond the immigrant generation. (For example, the number of Louisianians who called themselves Cajun unrealistically plunged from 432,549 in 1990 to 44,960 in 2000.) But the cultural significance of the move is nonetheless profound. It means we as a nation care less about the many ethnic groups that helped build this country than the divisive racial categories that have generally served to divide it.

Not surprisingly, some people are protesting. Arab American activists in particular have expressed their displeasure. They long ago laid claim to official whiteness (immigrants from Syria and "Arabia" brought a series of court cases, seeking to naturalize). But they know that ethnicity still matters. Imad Hamad, the director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for the Detroit region, told the Detroit Free Press the move by the census was unfair "because we are not treated as white in society and by the government, but we also don't qualify as minorities to get the benefits of some programs."

Claiming whiteness has always been a Faustian bargain. Ditching the ancestry question on the decennial census makes the nature of the exchange all the more clear. In our culturally, geographically, economically mobile society, the embrace of ethnicity -- real or imagined -- has long served as a source of protection and rootedness. As the concept of ethnicity vanishes into whiteness, society's alienation abounds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez28-2009dec28,0,2529749,print.column

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OPINION

A year of war -- and progress

Despite ongoing troubles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2009 was a moderately successful year for the U.S. in all three theaters of battle.

by Michael O'Hanlon

December 27, 2009

The United States spent 2009 at war again -- with its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a major, indirect supporter of Pakistan in its internal counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism campaign as well. On balance, I would judge it a moderately successful year in all three places to varying degrees. But that is admittedly a subjective judgment and also obviously requires a great deal more discussion.

First, the basics: The year was one of gradual drawdown in Iraq together with intensification of operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet it was still Iraq that occupied the most American troops and cost the most for the year. The American uniformed presence there started the year at about 142,000 troops and will end it at around 115,000, with total budgetary costs of more than $100 billion in 2009. But Afghanistan became the clearly deadlier war; more than 300 Americans died there in the year, compared with 150 in Iraq. And of the three countries, it was Pakistan that probably constituted the greatest potential long-term threat to the United States, with its nuclear weapons arsenal the ultimate desired prize for Al Qaeda and other extremists in the region. Accordingly, U.S. expenditures there rose a good deal, to $3.3 billion or so in the form of economic and security aid -- though this is obviously a far cry from the 12-figure costs of Iraq and the expected 12-figure costs of Afghanistan in 2010 as U.S. troop totals there rise to nearly 100,000.

What about life in each of these places for the local citizens? Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, civilian fatalities attributable to war violence were roughly comparable in each place.

Yearly losses in Iraq were about 3,000 (still a factor of 10 less than annual totals in the 2004-07 period). In Afghanistan, the total approached 2,500 -- much more than early in the decade but only marginally worse than in 2008. In fact, the higher numbers for 2009 over 2008 may reflect our greater ability to measure accurately (due to an expanding troop presence) more than anything else. This figure of 2,500 civilian deaths, interestingly, is still less than Iraq's tally for the year -- and perhaps 20 to 50 times less than the norm during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s or during the anarchy that followed the Soviets' departure. In addition, because of Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's new emphasis on reducing the use of firepower in situations that could harm innocents, the number of Afghan deaths estimated as being caused by government or NATO troops declined somewhat, to about 500. In Pakistan, civilian deaths from bombings and other atrocities reached 4,000 -- although that figure needs to be understood against the population, which is about six times larger than in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Beyond the facts and figures, what was the broader story in each place -- and my reason for guarded optimism about each?

In Iraq, 2009 was the year of transitions, and they turned out to be relatively smooth. Despite catastrophic attacks in August, October and December and an ongoing level of violence that still makes it a very troubled place, Iraq has done reasonably well in statistical terms. Violence has not increased even as U.S. forces have generally reduced their role. Another 10,000 "Sons of Iraq" have been hired into permanent jobs by the government, reducing the odds of a Sunni backlash against the Shiite-led government, and the economy has survived the decline in global oil prices. Iraqi elections are now scheduled for March, so 2010 needs to be another year of smooth transitions, especially as U.S. forces are scheduled to decline to 50,000 by summer's end. Though much could still go wrong, Iraq is holding together.

In Pakistan, 2009 was the year of government action. Major government military initiatives in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan reflected a new determination against the Pakistani Taliban. Its fighters have responded brutally with more suicide attacks against innocent civilians. But momentum may be shifting to the government's side. The Pakistani population, though fed up with its politicians (and the United States), is even more angry with extremists these days. Successful U.S. drone attacks against Baitullah Mahsud of the Pakistani Taliban and other top leaders, including a key Al Qaeda figure in December, have helped change trends as well. That said, in terms of the basic strength of its economy and society, Pakistan is still in serious condition; the global recession has hurt it badly and increased the challenge of educating and employing Pakistan's masses of youth.

In Afghanistan, 2009 was the year of political milestones. These included momentous decisions about the war by President Obama here in the United States, of course, and by the Afghan people as they voted for Hamid Karzai in sufficient numbers to give him a second term as president. It was also a year of tougher fighting. In addition to the American losses noted above, and 200 more NATO deaths, Afghan security forces again lost more than 1,000 personnel (a number similar to the year's toll on Pakistani security forces and about twice the combined losses of Iraq's army and police). However, as McChrystal noted in recent congressional testimony, our clearing operations have begun to change the momentum in places. Next year, serious reform of the Afghan police must occur, and Karzai must accelerate his anti-corruption efforts. Don't expect miracles on either front, but moderate progress would seem probable. The question is whether it will be too little too late, but there is reason for hope.

Our nation's wars are, of course, hardly reason to get bubbly about the new year, and all three theaters could slide backward in the coming months as well. Still, the last 12 months have moved us in better directions.

Michael O'Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, senior author of its war index projects and the author of "The Science of War."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ohanlon27-2009dec27,0,6307820,print.story

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From the Washington Times

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Multiple mystery fires rattle Houston

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON (AP) | A 4-foot-high pile of ash and charred debris is all that remains of the Rodriguez family's two-story garage, which had been stuffed with tools, machinery, couches and appliances when a mysterious fire ripped through it earlier this month.

The Dec. 4 fire was the 22nd arson since August in a historic Houston neighborhood called the Heights, known more for its comforting small-town feel in the midst of big-city sprawl than for being the center of criminal activity.

Most of the fires have taken place in the middle of the night and nearly always in abandoned structures, though flames have leapt to some adjacent occupied homes, frightening residents such as the Rodriguez family.

"I just don't know when they are going to catch this guy," a dejected Jesus Rodriguez said as he stood over his truck's pickup bed, dirtied by ash and scorched pieces of wood after it had been used to haul away the debris.

Authorities charged a suspect last month with starting one of the blazes. But he has not been charged with any of the other arsons, and the fires continued even after his arrest. Residents of the Heights, which sits on one of Houston's rare hills overlooking nearby downtown, have taken some comfort that no one has been hurt. But they worry that their property could be next.

"I don't feel like they have the person that did it," said Diane Kight, who lives across the street from a home set ablaze on Nov. 11. She was recently driving home after taking her husband to work and saw a firetruck and immediately worried it could be speeding to her house. "It's scary."

The fires have kept to the Heights, a neighborhood of more than 40,000 residents first developed in 1892. Its streets are lined by majestic trees and stately Victorian-style homes. The locally owned antiques and coffee shops and art galleries give it a laid-back atmosphere.

But the landscape has changed on some streets. Some of the torched structures still stand, littered with burned mattresses, blackened photographs. Others have been torn down, only a concrete foundation or dirt lot remaining.

The fires have shared a similar pattern: The arsonist targets mostly older, unoccupied homes, garages, storage sheds and other structures, setting them ablaze either late in the evening or in the early morning hours. A few of the fires happened at occupied homes, but no one was hurt. Some structures have been set ablaze more than once. One location was hit four times.

Alison Stein, assistant chief investigator for the Houston Fire Department, said arson investigators have concluded all the fires were intentionally set. But authorities won't say how the fires have been started, whether they believe one person or several are responsible or what the motive is.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/28/mystery-fires-rattle-houston//print/

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Illegal dumping fouling up federal land

by Mike Stark

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SKULL VALLEY, Utah | During a warm spell this fall, vandals hauled 18 decrepit televisions and computers down a narrow gravel road in Utah's picturesque Skull Valley, dumped them on a hillside, blasted them with guns and left them for dead.

Nearby on the scrubby valley floor, other items have met the same fate: a hot water heater, paint cans, a candy vending machine, a couch and even a pile of mannequin heads.

Illegally dumped garbage is piling up on federal lands, often creating toxic hazards and costly cleanups. And nowhere is it more apparent than on the vast, often-stunning tracts owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the nation's largest landlord with about 412,000 square miles, mostly in 12 Western states.

"We can't keep up with it," Ray Kelsey, a BLM outdoor recreation specialist said on a recent trip to an outlaw dump site about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. "It's happening every day."

The BLM doesn't keep a nationwide tab on the number of illegal dump sites, but hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each year to clean them up, said Georgette Fogle, who oversees the BLM's solid waste program from Washington, D.C. "Every state has a problem," Miss Fogle said.

That includes junk from meth labs in Alaska, solvents in Idaho, tires in Wyoming, burned-out cars in Colorado and washing machines in New Mexico. BLM officials fear more TVs will be abandoned as part of the switchover from analog to digital signals.

And where one pile of garbage shows up, others follow.

"If there's trash there already, [people] feel like they can dump their own trash," said Beth Barrie, project manager for Take Pride in America in southern Nevada.

BLM officials there say that over the last year, they've cleaned up more than 100 illegal dumps sites outside Las Vegas. Another 100 are scheduled for cleanup and about 35 are perpetual problems that may never be remediated.

Faced with mounting dump sites and expenses, BLM is now preparing a national appeal to the public to halt illegal dumping. A nationwide campaign could launch next year.

It's no sure bet though. In many places, the BLM has put up signs asking the public not to litter. Many end up vandalized, destroyed or shot to pieces.

It's frustrating, said Mr. Kelsey, who worked on a recent cleanup that yielded more than 60 cubic yards of trash - enough to fill the beds of 20 to 30 pickup trucks - from a site in Skull Valley only to have it quickly littered again.

Dumpers tend to prefer places outside metropolitan areas with easy road access and scant law enforcement. The junk they leave behind not only fouls the landscape but can be hazardous to people and wildlife, such as lead, mercury and other nasty substances in leaky TVs and computers.

The BLM is left having to hire a private hazardous material cleanup contractor. In Utah, BLM officials estimate they've spent more than $125,000 since 2005 to clean up dumped electronics.

Catching the litterbugs in the act however has proved difficult, with rangers being outnumbered by the illegal dumpers and charged with patrolling millions of remote acres.

Those tenacious enough to dig through piles of trash for a name or address label sometimes come up with a lead. That's how they caught a New Mexico woman who told authorities she paid a contractor to haul her garbage away and was surprised to learn it ended up on BLM land.

Scofflaws are sometimes caught and fined but it's rare. "I'd say 5 to 10 percent we can trace it back," said Linda McGlothlen at BLM's office in Colorado's Royal Gorge office.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/28/illegal-dumping-fouling-up-federal-land//print/

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Thwarted Detroit blast too close for some

by Tom LoBianco

Terrorist screening measures worked fine in Friday's thwarted attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, despite criticism from lawmakers that the security system failed on the flight.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was allowed to fly from Amsterdam despite warnings from his father about his extremist leanings and his inclusion on a terrorist watch list. He is accused of having explosives sewn into his clothes and trying to detonate them on the flight, which likely would have killed almost 300 passengers and crew members. He reportedly has told authorities he was part of an al Qaeda plot.

"The whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly," Ms. Napolitano said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

But Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," attributed the flight's survival to luck and/or terrorist incompetence.

"Let's be honest. This guy, Abdulmutallab, got through the screening, and this would have been - could have been an enormous disaster if not for our good fortune, a miracle on Christmas Day that this device did not explode," said Mr. Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees Ms. Napolitano's department.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, agreed, saying on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "it's not reassuring when the secretary of homeland security says the system worked."

"It failed in every respect," he said.

Much like on United Flight 93 during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it was the Northwest flight crew and the passengers on Flight 253 who purportedly thwarted Mr. Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up the plane.

"That's part of what I keep saying, is security is everybody's responsibility," Ms. Napolitano said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "The passengers and the flight crew deserve our praise, and the system went into full alert mode leaning forward, literally, within minutes, an hour of the incident occurring in the air."

Ms. Napolitano said there was no evidence that the suspect was part of a broader terrorist plot, although several U.S. news organizations reported Sunday that Mr. Abdulmutallab had told investigators that al Qaeda operatives in Yemen had given him the device and told him how to detonate it.

"Right now, we have no indication that it is part of anything larger," she said on CNN.

Also on Sunday's talk shows, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced a two-pronged air-safety investigation, saying the federal government will focus on how it places suspicious travelers on watch lists and detects explosives on passengers.

"There's a series of databases that list people of concern to several agencies across the government. We want to make sure information-sharing is going on," Mr. Gibbs said on NBC's "Meet the Press," adding that a second review would examine how "an individual with the chemical explosive he had on him could get onto an airliner in Amsterdam and fly into this country."

Mr. Abdulmutallab was included on a terrorist watch list of about 550,000 but was not on the smaller "no-fly list," which bars about 18,000 terrorism suspects from flying.

Security breaches involving Islamists have risen. The Army did not act against Maj. Nidal Hasan before the deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, despite the suspect's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen.

A key document detailing TSA airport security screening procedures was accidentally posted online. Ms. Napolitano appeared to allude to this incident Sunday when she said screeners were rotating procedures at airports so as not to be predictable.

Republican leaders said the Northwest Airlines incident on Christmas seems to be the most egregious example of a security failure.

"There is much to investigate here. It's amazing to me that an individual like this, who was sending out so many signals, could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S.," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said on ABC's "This Week."

Other White House aides defended the response and broader efforts by the Obama administration to refocus the war on terror, including drawing down fighting forces in Iraq and refocusing efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I think pretty quickly the White House determined, and we told many in the media and you all reported, that we believe this was a potential terrorist attack that, that could have occurred. The president certainly has taken steps in his time in office to reorient our priorities as it comes to fighting that war on terror," Mr. Gibbs said.

Meanwhile Sunday, another incident involving a Nigerian occurred on a Northwest Amsterdam-Detroit flight. It was apparently just a coincidence, but the jitters from Friday's incident prompted authorities to take the plane to a remote part of Detroit Metropolitan Airport to unload and screen the passengers.

A second Nigerian man, whom authorities did not immediately identify, was detained after locking himself in the plane's bathroom and acting belligerently. Officials said that his claim of sickness turned out to be genuine.

The Associated Press reported, however, citing a government report it had obtained, that no air marshals were aboard Sunday's Amsterdam-Detroit flight despite government promises of tighter security and mobilization of air marshals.

U.S. authorities said they think Mr. Abdulmutallab tried to ignite PETN, a nitroglycerin-related powder, in his underwear, and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive in a syringe strapped to his leg.

The attempt set off popping, smoke and some fire but no major explosion. The crude detonator reportedly failed to get a proper blast out of the mixture.

Law enforcement officials told AP on the condition of anonymity that bomb-sniffing dogs, a human frisking or airport "puffer" machines, which blow air onto a passenger to collect and analyze residues, probably would have detected PETN powder. However, most airplane passengers go only through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.

Mr. Abdulmutallab was released to federal marshals Sunday and is now detained in Michigan on federal charges of attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device in an airplane. He had been in a Michigan hospital receiving treatment for burns.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/28/thwarted-blast-on-detroit-flight-too-close-for-som//print/

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Global Probe of Bomb Suspect

Nigerian Was on Terror Watch List; Emergency Security Steps Cause Flight Delays

Northwest Flight 253 after arriving Friday in Detroit from Amsterdam. Delta Air Lines now owns Northwest.

Investigators in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East are racing to determine how the son of a Nigerian banker became the first person in eight years to try to set off an explosive aboard a U.S. commercial airliner.

President Barack Obama on Sunday ordered a review of government procedures for screening airline passengers and for tracking individuals suspected of terrorist ties. The administration also said it was tightening security procedures, which airlines and passengers say is already causing delays on international flights.

Lawmakers of both parties expressed concerns that the man charged in the Christmas Day attempt to bomb Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was able to board an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight with a hidden cache of explosives even though he was on a terrorist watch list.

The incident comes on the heels of nearly a dozen terrorism probes and alleged plots to come to light in recent months. The string of cases highlights the difficulty, more than five years after the 9/11 Commission called for better communication between intelligence, law-enforcement and security agencies, of identifying relevant information that could stop a terrorist attack.

One U.S. official briefed on the inquiry said investigators are still trying to determine whether the suspect's claims of links to al Qaeda in Yemen are accurate, and how strong those ties are.

Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, said the crew of Sunday's Flight 253 asked authorities to meet the plane upon landing in Detroit because of a "verbally disruptive" passenger. All 257 passengers and 12 crew members got off the plane safely.

The Homeland Security Department said Sunday evening that "indications at this time are that the individual's behavior is due to legitimate illness, and no other suspicious behavior or materials have been found."

In the aftermath of the attempted Christmas bombing, federal agents are working with authorities in Britain, the Netherlands, Yemen, and Nigeria to determine whether Mr. Abdulmutallab was part of a wider plot. Mr. Abdulmutallab told investigators he had affiliations with al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, who gave him the device and detonation instructions to blow up the plane, according to U.S. officials.

Law enforcement officials said there is no evidence yet to indicate that Mr. Abdulmutallab was part of, or in contact with, any terror cell in the U.S. or the U.K., and that early evidence indicates he was radicalized through contacts with extremists via the Internet.

Federal prosecutors are expected on Monday to request a judge's permission to obtain DNA from Mr. Abdulmutallab to compare with DNA found on remains of the device taken from the aircraft.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said the device contained the explosive PETN, which convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid used in his 2001 attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight.

The Flight 253 Bomb Attempt

The FBI's office in Yemen is working with authorities there to track any recent travel by Mr. Abdulmutallab in that country.

U.S. officials say the accused man's father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, had warned officials at the U.S. embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, in recent weeks that he feared his son had been "radicalized" during trips outside the West African country.

The father's concerns about his son weren't specific, nor did they point to any imminent threat against the U.S., according to a U.S. official. But they were enough for U.S. authorities to add his name to a broad terrorism database, called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. People on the list are not precluded from boarding flights to the U.S. Mr. Abdulmutallab wasn't added to more sensitive databases, such as the so-called "no fly" watch list, that would have flagged him for additional screening or barred him from boarding a U.S.-bound flight.

In June 2008, the U.S. Embassy in London had issued a multiyear, multientry tourist visa to Mr. Abdulmutallab, when the Nigerian national was a student living in the U.K., said a U.S. official. Mr. Abdulmutallab later left the U.K. and traveled to Dubai and Yemen. He was denied entry to the U.K. in May 2009 by border officials who said the school he proposed to attend wasn't legitimate.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview that briefings from U.S. security officials indicate that "the government definitely knew about [the alleged attacker]. They had a file on him. The question now is why wasn't he on the no-fly list."

According to a federal criminal complaint, Mr. Abdulmutallab boarded a Northwest flight, shared with Dutch Airline KLM, in Lagos on Thursday, then transferred to the Northwest airliner Friday in Amsterdam, bound for Detroit. He had a device attached to his body, according to the criminal complaint.

As the Airbus 330-300 carrying 289 people was approaching Detroit, Mr. Abdulmutallab went to the restroom for about 20 minutes. On returning to his seat, he stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself, according to the complaint. As the plane was heading for a landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the complaint alleges, Mr. Abdulmutallab set off the device, causing a fire. He was subdued by passengers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126192334798506391.html

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Terror Watch Lists Come Under Scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's order to review the databases used to track terrorism suspects and keep them off airplanes comes amid growing concerns about those systems from lawmakers in both parties.

Lawmakers questioned watch-list policies Sunday after a Nigerian man who had been on such a list tried unsuccessfully to bring down a trans-Atlantic jetliner carrying 278 people Christmas Day.

"We have to have a better process to decide which people to move to the 'no-fly' list and which" should have secondary screening at airports, Rep. Jane Harman (D., Calif.), chairwoman of a House homeland security subcommittee on intelligence, said in an interview. "This is a learning experience. There was a failure."

Officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old suspect, received a visa at a U.S. consular outpost in London in 2008 allowing him to repeatedly enter the U.S. as a tourist.

In November 2009, officials said he was added to an entry-level, or preliminary, terrorism watch list maintained by the government. That came after his father warned officials at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that the young man had become radicalized by Islamic extremists. The father also warned that his son might be in contact with terrorist groups.

Mr. Abdulmutallab's entry onto the first list, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, essentially meant U.S. intelligence officials had opened a file on him, authorities said. There are more than 550,000 names on that list, which are shared across the government.

But authorities didn't have enough credible or derogatory information to elevate him to a narrower, more serious list of terrorism suspects, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday on NBC. "We did not have the kind of information that under the current rules would elevate him," she said.

Lawmakers want to know why his entry into the first terrorism database didn't automatically prompt a review of his visa status, or why he didn't get more serious scrutiny, which could have led to him being elevated.

With more screening, Mr. Abdulmutallab could have landed in a smaller database of 400,000 names, called the Terrorist Screening Data Base, the main database on international terrorism within the U.S. government, officials said.

That list is maintained by an multiagency group managed by the FBI. It is supposed to contain names of individuals who are "known or reasonably suspected to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of or related to terrorism," according to an FBI Web site.

With additional scrutiny Mr. Abdulmutallab also might have been added to the roughly 14,000-person database maintained by the Transportation Security Administration called the "Selectee" list. Those people are supposed to be automatically selected for intensified, secondary screening at airports.

The next step up is the so-called no-fly list, which contains fewer than 4,000 names of people who are banned from jetliners.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.) said Sunday in an interview that serious alarm bells should have sounded after Mr. Abdulmutallab's father went to U.S. authorities. "Within the intelligence community, I would think this would have gone right to the top of the pile, saying, 'We've got to look at this guy,'" Mr. Hoekstra said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126196454972906951.html#printMode

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A Primer in PETN

PETN, the explosive that nearly doomed Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Detroit on Christmas Day, is a white powder that can deliver powerful blasts in quantities as small as tenths or hundredths of a pound.

But generally, it can't be lit with a match or otherwise set off without using a detonator or mixing it with a chemical to cause an explosion.

"It's a high explosive; it's one of the more sensitive things to handle," said Jimmie Carol Oxley, co-director of the Center of Excellence In Explosives Detection, Mitigation, Response and Characterization at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston. "But it doesn't initiate with a flame."

Her view, consistent with initial reports from investigators of the incident, is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up the plane, "was looking for a chemical reaction that would be hot enough to initiate" the PETN and cause it to explode. "It's not impossible, but it's not easy either and it obviously didn't work for him," Prof. Oxley said.

Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly was carrying a syringe with liquid believed to be an agent he was mixing with PETN to cause it to explode. Unlike a detonator such as a blasting cap, a syringe and PETN are very difficult to detect with X-ray equipment commonly used at airport security checkpoints.

Residue from the powder, though, is easily detectable with swabs that security personnel often use to wipe off briefcases, luggage and other personal items taken through checkpoints. Prof. Oxley has done research indicating PETN residue can be detected in human hair.

PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, is made by numerous manufacturers, many of them small, in the U.S. and abroad. The powder is suspected in other terrorist attacks, including the failed attempt in 2001 by Richard Reid to blow up a jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean with explosives hidden in his shoes.

PETN is also a common legal explosive, used by the military as well as industries such as mining, where it is mostly used in detonator cord or in devices to ignite another compound. In addition to powder, the material is manufactured in thin plasticized sheets.

Regulations in the U.S. and many other countries make it difficult to buy PETN and other explosives off the shelf. In the U.S., the ability to purchase PETN and other explosives is regulated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as well as some state agencies, which issue permits or licenses for their purchase.

But, Prof. Oxley noted, chemicals used to make PETN are more readily available. While rules vary from country to country, in the U.S. "we could acquire the chemicals to make it ourselves," she said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126195987401406861.html#printMode

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Yemeni Groups Increased Aviation Threats

WASHINGTON -- Al Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups in Yemen stepped up threats to Western aviation in the months prior to the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight by a Nigerian national who claimed ties to al Qaeda operatives there.

The link between Mr. Abdulmuttalab and Yemeni extremists is still tenuous. A Nigerian government spokeswoman said Sunday that, based on interviews with family members, Mr. Abdulmuttalab did travel to Yemen in recent months. It is still unclear if his claimed links with Al Qaeda-affiliated extremists in the country are genuine.

But the possible link further stoked concerns about terrorism in Yemen. U.S. officials say al Qaeda's activities in Yemen are now second only to operations in their safe haven in Pakistan.

"Yemen is the new FATA, or it will be," said Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who was briefed over the weekend on the matter. She was referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan, where al Qaeda has established a safe haven. The U.S. has provided support for recent air strikes against al Qaeda in Yemen.

But in recent months, al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, who historically focused on the Arabian Peninsula, have stepped up exhortations to followers to attack Western targets, particularly airlines.

In an article posted on jihadist Web sites in October, the emir of the Yemeni affiliate called on followers to emulate an attack technique used by a Saudi militant, who attempted to assassinate the deputy interior minister of Saudi Arabia earlier this year. He appeared to conceal an explosive in or around his underpants. Mr. Abdulmutallab is believed to have used a concealed explosive.

"Make the explosives into a bomb that you can throw, set off with a timer, explode by remote, or make them into an explosives belt," Nasir Al-Wahishi, wrote according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "[You should explode them] in the airports of the Western Crusader countries that have taken part in the war against the Muslims, or in their planes, on their residential blocks, or in their metros."

Earlier this month, a member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula gave a eulogy for comrades killed in a Dec. 17 strike against al Qaeda targets in which he singled out America as the enemy. "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God," he said according to a translation by the IntelCenter think tank. "O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents. So, be careful not to side with America."

Over the summer Arab and Western intelligence officials reported a growing number of Islamic fighters retreating from battlefields in Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen. CIA Director Leon Panetta listed Yemen as a major area of concern in his first meeting with reporters in February.

"Yemen has been a top area of concern for some time," said a U.S. counterterrorism official. "The al-Qaeda affiliate there has been one of, if not the, most-active al Qaeda branches outside of Af-Pak," referring to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The al Qaeda threats in Yemen have intensified as Yemen's Sana'a government launched two major military operations against al Qaeda forces, utilizing significant U.S. intelligence support. Terrorism analysts say the recent threats on the West from al Qaeda in Yemen could be in response to U.S. support for this campaign.

The operations have been focused across Yemen's north, south and central regions, claiming at least 30 senior al Qaeda members, according to a Yemeni official. The operation has specifically targeted Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric in Yemen who is a U.S. citizen and is alleged to have communicated with the suspect in last month's Ft. Hood shooting.

The Yemen government can't confirm whether the radical cleric has been killed, however, and a relative of Mr. al Awlaki told the Associated Press on Saturday that he was still alive.

The Pentagon has provided nearly $70 million in counter-terrorism aid to Yemen last year, including guns, night-vision goggles and humvees. Yemen's security forces receive significant training from the U.S., Jordan and the U.K.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126193343826006473.html#printMode

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'Democracy Is the Greatest Revenge'

Political ownership of the war on terrorism now rests with the people of Pakistan.

Two years ago the world stopped for me and for my children. Pakistan was shaken to its core and all but came apart. Women everywhere lost one of their greatest symbols of equality. And Islam, our great religion, lost its modern face.

On Dec. 27, 2007, my wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated. She was the bravest person I have ever known, and the second anniversary of her death is an appropriate occasion to reflect upon what she achieved for our country, and how her legacy must be preserved against those who would return Pakistan to darkness.

Twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir had an immense impact. She stood up and defeated the forces of military dictatorship. She freed all political prisoners. She ended press censorship. She legalized trade and student unions, built 46,000 primary and secondary schools and appointed the first female judges in our history. And she showed the women of Pakistan and the world that they must accept no limits on their ability and opportunity to learn, to grow and to lead in modern society.

The target of two assassination attempts by Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, Benazir repeatedly warned a skeptical world of the impending danger from extremists and militants. In her last campaign—even on the very day of her death, by the hands of such extremists—she mobilized and rallied the people of Pakistan against the terrorist threat.

Since then, fulfilling the electoral manifesto she wrote, the nation's economy, which had been left in shambles by the priorities of a decade of dictatorship, has been stabilized and revitalized. Food shortages have ended. Power shortages have diminished. We have adopted a national curriculum for the first time in history to challenge the spread of political madrassas. Constitutional reforms are being finalized which will rid Pakistan of the undemocratic provisions inserted by military dictators that expanded the power of the presidency at the expense of parliament.

Benazir Bhutto died confronting the forces of tyranny and terrorism, and Pakistan remains committed to the struggle that she led. We have reclaimed Swat and Malakand from the militants and rehabilitated the displaced persons back into their homes. We have taken the fight against militants to other areas, including South Waziristan in our Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and to our major cities, and we will win this war against them.

We will not let militants violently impose their political agenda on the people. Political ownership of the war against terrorism rests with the people of Pakistan for the first time. We are in the front trenches of this war while the community of nations stands with us.

Much has been accomplished, but it has not been easy for my nation, for my party or for my family. The forces in Pakistan that have resisted change, modernity and democracy for 30 years still attempt to derail progress.

Some of these forces who were allied with dictatorship in the past now hope that the judicial process can undo the will of a democratic electorate and destabilize the country. A litany of ancient charges of corruption—the modus operandi of past plots against every democratically elected government in Pakistan—now threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our government.

Those that will not stand with us against terrorism stand against us in the media. I have spent almost 12 years in prison on trumped up charges never proven, even by a court system manipulated by dictators and despots. But like Benazir, I refuse to be intimidated.

So let the legal process move forward. Those of us who have fought for democracy against dictatorship for decades do not fear justice; we embrace it.

My ministers, my party, leaders of other parties and thousands of civil servants across our nation will defend themselves in the courts if necessary. Democracy has come a long way in Pakistan, and the People's Party has always been at the vanguard of the fight. In 1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir's father and the elected prime minister of Pakistan was executed under a smokescreen that history now characterizes as a judicial murder. Two decades later Benazir was indicted on fabricated charges on the orders of her political enemies then in power. When tape recordings of these government officials ordering the courts to fabricate evidence and false witness against Benazir were made public, these trumped-up charges were dismissed.

Those of us who have been victims of dictatorship in the past believe in the rule of law and have faith in the judicial process. We believe, in the words of my wife, that "time, justice and the forces of history are on our side."

We have not come this far in our democratic struggle to fail. In this struggle, I am inspired by my father-in-law, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who said that he "would rather die at the hands of dictators than be killed by history."

Mr. Zardari is president of Pakistan.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704680804574620411590579566.html#printMode

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The Terror This Time

Janet Napolitano says the system worked. No, we were brave and lucky.

The attempt by 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab follows the alleged murders in Ft. Hood, Texas by Islamist-inspired Major Nidal Hasan in November. Brian Jenkins, who studies terrorism for the Rand Corporation, says there were more terror incidents (12), including thwarted plots, on U.S. soil in 2009 than in any year since 2001. The jihadists don't seem to like Americans any better because we're closing down Guantanamo.

Yet he is precisely the kind of illegal enemy combatant who should be interrogated first with the goal of preventing future attacks and learning more about terror networks rather than gaining a single conviction. We now have to hope he cooperates voluntarily.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, told CNN yesterday that "one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked." Yet the terrorist screening system seems to have failed in at least two crucial ways: first, in failing to revoke a visa to the U.S. that Mr. Abdulmutallab had obtained last June despite a later warning to U.S. consular officials from his own father that he was becoming radicalized and might have terror network ties; and second, in not adding him to a no-fly list from a lower-level watch list.

The episode is a reminder that the fight against terrorism requires even more interagency cooperation, and Congress should investigate whether such communication was lacking in this case. No one should leap to conclusions about who is responsible for any mistakes, but Ms. Napolitano isn't reassuring when she utters happy talk that it all "went very smoothly." The day was saved not because of the antiterror "system" but because the explosive failed to ignite and because a Dutch passenger and flight attendants acted heroically to subdue the man, put out the fire and detach the explosive.

The lesson here is the same as Flight 93 on 9/11 and shoe-bomber Richard Reid, which is that civilians willing to act in their own self-defense are a crucial part of "homeland security." The willingness of passengers and crew to identify potential threats seems more useful than more onerous airport screening, which only gives terrorists the satisfaction of knowing they have made air travel even more unbearable. The new rule to keep passengers in their seats in the final hour of some flights seems all too typical of arbitrary rules that inconvenience innocents but not terrorists.

On that score, the settlement reportedly won earlier this year by the so-called flying imams against a U.S. airline for knocking them off a flight in 2006 sends exactly the wrong message. The interests of nonradical Muslims will hardly be served if political correctness allows the next terror attack to succeed.

Mr. Abdulmutallab's alleged links to Yemen also raise questions about why the Administration is now returning Guantanamo detainees to that unstable Middle East nation. Pentagon officials have raised alarms about Yemen as an emerging al Qaeda sanctuary for at least a year, and now we may have the first case of a terrorist trained there to strike at U.S. airline or domestic targets. The Yemen government says it is cooperating with the U.S., and the CIA is said to be providing intelligence for some of Aden's anti-al Qaeda efforts. But at this point the repatriation of Gitmo detainees to Yemen seems dangerous, and recklessly so.

No doubt in the days ahead we'll learn more about how the young Nigerian became radicalized. Like many of the 9/11 murderers, he came from an affluent family and was highly educated. We know by now that the poverty-causes-terrorism school is false, but this is one more reminder. Authorities will also want to know how he was recruited—whether in person during a trip to Yemen or other sanctuary, through al Qaeda agents elsewhere, or perhaps via the Internet like Major Hasan. The report that the Nigerian turned more radical only in the last 18 months shows that our antiterror vigilance will have to continue for years, if not decades, to come.

Such vigilance is easier to sustain, and likelier to succeed in deterring attacks, if we understand that we are still fighting a multifront war against the various elements of radical Islam. This time, thanks to luck and bravery, the 278 passengers and crew of Northwest Flight 253 avoided death. We'd rather take the luck out of it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704680804574620931268246094.html#printMode

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Spirit of America in Afghanistan

Ordinary citizens can contribute to our victory.

In 2003, Sgt. First Class Jay Smith and his Army Special Forces team were based in Orgun-e, Afghanistan and were taking regular rocket fire from al Qaeda fighters. But Sgt. Smith and his men were armed with an effective counterweapon—gifts of school supplies and sports gear for children, and clothing, shoes and blankets for nearby families, all provided by American donors.

After receiving these items, the grateful villagers reciprocated by forming a night-watch patrol to protect our soldiers. Good relations with locals helped save American lives. I've witnessed this success on the front lines, aided by support from home, repeated many times since Sgt. Smith.

Accordingly, when President Barack Obama presented his plan for Afghanistan earlier this month he left out one critical element: the American people. Our initiative, resourcefulness and goodwill are incredibly powerful. In fact, the tangible support of the American people can make the difference between success and failure in Afghanistan.

Our troops in Afghanistan are engaged in counterinsurgency, a type of war that depends on winning over the local people. Marine Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command (which supports ongoing military operations and helps shape military forces for future conflicts), has said that, "One way we create the necessary credibility among the people and dissuade them from supporting our enemies is to show them hope of a better future." This is where the American people can play an indispensable role.

For the past six years, Spirit of America, the group I head, has supported our troops' humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. With donations from American citizens and businesses, we have provided sewing machines, medical supplies, tools, shoes, blankets, toys and more—all at the request of our troops for the benefit of local people.

Other organizations have also given Americans a chance to help the troops. Operation International Children, Soldiers' Angels, and Operation Gratitude, to name a few, have provided a link between the troops on the battlefield and Americans at home.

Most of Spirit of America's recent work has been in support of Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, the scene of fierce fighting and the destination for 10,000 additional Marines who will be deployed in 2010.

The experience of the First Battalion, Fifth Marines (the "1/5"), which is already in Helmand Province, is instructive. These Marines live in austere conditions. They sleep on the ground, wash themselves and their clothes in canals, and are embedded with the villagers.

Mike Kuiper, a first lieutenant with the 1/5, asked Spirit of America for solar-powered radios, gear for local Afghan police, school supplies, tools and sports equipment. He and others are finding that a simple $18 radio helps the Marines counter Taliban propaganda and open remote villages to ideas and information that supplant fear with hope.

This is one reason why the counterinsurgency approach of the 1/5 Marines is leading to the defeat of Taliban fighters and is winning the trust of local residents.

Lt. Kuiper told me the support provided by the American people "is vital in convincing the [Afghan] people that we are not enemies of Afghanistan, but friends. This is the way we will win this war."

Gen. Mattis has said that our "direct support to build the hopes of the people is often as important as a resupply of ammunition."

The key to this humanitarian "ammunition" is to provide it at the local level, when and where it is needed. To do that you need a network that is fast and flexible, which is not the strength of large bureaucracies. However, it is a perfect match for Americans who want to help.

In Afghanistan, there is a meaningful way for every American to help, regardless of our political views. There are requests every day from our troops for things that will help them succeed and come home sooner and safer. Our servicemen and women need our help. We can provide the direct support they require and provide it on a scale that makes the difference. Now is the time to do it.

Mr. Hake is founder and CEO of Spirit of America (www.spiritofamerica.net) and the author of "101 Ways to Help the Cause in Afghanistan" (Spirit of America, 2009).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574579744179585188.html#printMode

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From the Associated Press

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A look at some recent attacks on transportation

Some recent threats and attacks on airplanes, airports, trains and subways around the world:

- Dec. 25, 2009: A Nigerian man claiming to be an agent for al-Qaida tries to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane carrying 278 passengers as it prepares to land in Detroit.

- Sept. 4, 2007: Officials arrest three men they say were plotting an attack against Frankfurt International Airport.

- June 29, 2007: Two men ram a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas cylinders into the entrance of Glasgow International Airport and set it on fire.

- June 2007: A plot to detonate the fuel system at New York's JFK Airport is disrupted by authorities.

- Aug. 10, 2006: British police say they disrupt an alleged bomb plot targeting multiple airplanes destined for the U.S.

- July 7, 2005: A blast rips through London's subway system, killing 56 people, including four bombers, and injuring 700.

- Aug. 31, 2004: At least nine die and scores are wounded in a suicide blast outside a subway station in Moscow.

- Aug. 24, 2004: Two Russian airliners - one with 46 people aboard, one carrying 42 - crash after flying out of the same Moscow airport. Russian authorities suspect terrorism.

- March 10, 2004: Ten bombs rip through four commuter trains in Madrid during morning rush hour, killing 191 people in Spain's worst terror strike.

- July 4, 2002: An Egyptian immigrant guns down two people and wounds three others at Los Angeles International Airport before taking his own life.

- Dec. 22, 2001: Richard C. Reid attempts to detonate explosives in his shoes aboard an American Airlines passenger jet on a flight form Paris to Miami.

- Sept. 11, 2001: Nineteen men hijack four jetliners in a terror attack that kills nearly 3,000 people. Two planes are crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon, and one goes down in a field in Pennsylvania.

Source: The Associated Press

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRANSPORTATION_ATTACKS_GLANCE?SITE=ALOPE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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TSA Guidance for Passengers on Heightened Security Measures in Place Following Dec. 25 Incident

News & Happenings

December 27, 2009

On Dec. 25, 2009, an individual on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 set off a device and was subdued by passengers and crew. TSA wishes to acknowledge the heroic efforts of those individuals.

As a result of this incident, TSA has worked with airline and law enforcement authorities, as well as federal, state, local, and international partners to put additional security measures in place to ensure aviation security remains strong. Passengers traveling domestically and internationally to U.S. destinations may notice additional screening measures.

The American people should continue their planned holiday travel. TSA encourages passengers to remain observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity to law enforcement officials.

Click here to read a statement about the incident from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Q: What additional security measures is TSA taking domestically?
A: TSA has a layered approach to security that allows us to surge resources as needed on a daily basis. We have the ability to quickly implement additional screening measures including explosive detection canine teams, law enforcement officers, gate screening, behavior detection and other measures both seen and unseen. Passengers should not expect to see the same thing at every airport.

Q: What additional security measures are being taken for international flights to U.S. destinations?
A: TSA issued a directive for additional security measures to be implemented for last point of departure international flights to the United States. Passengers flying into the United States from abroad can expect to see additional security measures at international airports such as increased gate screening including pat-downs and bag searches. During flight, passengers will be asked to follow flight crew instructions, such as stowing personal items, turning off electronic equipment and remaining seated during certain portions of the flight.

Q: Do passengers need to do anything differently to prepare for checkpoint security procedures? Has anything changed in terms of what passengers can bring in their carry-on or checked bags?
A: At this time, security checkpoint requirements for passengers departing U.S. airports remain the same. Passengers do not need to do anything differently, but they may notice additional security measures at the airport.

Q: Should passengers plan to arrive at airports earlier than normal?
A: Passengers traveling within the United States should give themselves extra time to check in and proceed through the security checkpoint before their flight, especially during the busy holiday travel season. TSA advises that passengers traveling on international flights to U.S. destinations allow extra time for security and arrive an additional hour earlier.

Q. How long will these measures remain in place?
A: TSA will continuously review these measures to ensure the highest levels of security.

http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/dec25_guidance.shtm
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