Obama cites intelligence failures in Northwest airline attack

A senior administration official says agencies had enough information to have prevented the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, from boarding but didn't properly analyze or share it.

by Josh Meyer and Peter Nicholas and Alana Semuels

December 30, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Hawaii

U.S. intelligence agencies had enough "bits and pieces" of information to thwart the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing, a senior administration official said Tuesday, but they failed to properly analyze and share it.

Instead, what President Obama called a potentially catastrophic "mix of human and systemic failures" allowed a 23-year-old Nigerian to board a U.S.-bound airliner, allegedly hiding an explosive device that could have killed nearly 300 people.

"A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable," an angry and unusually blunt Obama told reporters near his vacation retreat in Hawaii.

The comments by the president and the senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, suggested that the lack of information-sharing that plagued the U.S. intelligence community before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks still persists.

"It is now clear to us that there are bits and pieces of information that were in the possession of the U.S. government in advance . . . that, had they been assessed and correlated, could have led to a much broader picture and allowed us to disrupt the attack," the official said. "Or certainly to know much more about the alleged attacker in such a way as to ensure that he was on . . . a no-fly list."

The information, the official said, "was in some instances about the individual in question and his plans, some of it was about Al Qaeda and its plans, some of it was about potential attacks during the holiday."

"It was not obvious or readily apparent that all of it spoke to this attack -- but in fact, we believe it did," he said.

Obama on Tuesday criticized unspecified U.S. counter-terrorism and domestic security agencies for failing to act more vigorously on information that the father of suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had given the U.S. Embassy in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, six weeks before the botched attack.

U.S. intelligence officials said the information provided by the father, a respected banker, described Abdulmutallab as dangerously radicalized and involved with militants in Yemen, a major center of Al Qaeda activity.

Obama also hinted that U.S. intelligence agencies had either missed or ignored other clues that accumulated before Abdulmutallab boarded a Northwest Airlines flight in Amsterdam with a valid U.S. visa and a packet of military-grade explosives allegedly concealed in his clothing.

"Even without this one report, there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together," Obama said. "Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged.

"The warning signs would have triggered red flags," he said, "and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America."

In an apparent malfunction, the packet of PETN explosive caught fire, and Abdulmutallab was subdued by Detroit-bound passengers and crew members.

On the question of potential red flags, the senior administration official said the president's comments "had to do with information that was in possession of the government at the time that spoke to both where the suspect had been, what some of his thinking and plans were, what some plans of Al Qaeda were."

Two other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said the intelligence-sharing lapse involved a report the CIA prepared based on information from Abdulmutallab's father.

That report was not shared with the broader security community for follow-up assessment or for consideration of his name being placed on the watch list.

"It contained information that potentially could have gotten this guy added to the no-fly list, and could very well have prevented this attack," according to one of the officials.

The second official said the intelligence community had been tracking an unspecified Nigerian since August, but did not have enough information to identify him as Abdulmutallab or to connect him to any plot.

"There are a lot of Nigerians out there," the official said. "The notion that there was some magic piece of intelligence that could have put him on the watch list that wasn't shared just isn't correct."

The CIA declined to comment on whether the agency withheld any kind of report or cable from the Nigeria station regarding Abdulmutallab, although one official said that "all of the key information was passed along."

Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, said the agency was reviewing what its case officers and analysts did to see what might have gone wrong.

"We learned of Abdulmutallab in November, when his father came to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him. We did not have his name before then," Gimigliano said.

"Also in November, we worked with the embassy to ensure he was in the government's terrorist database -- including mention of his possible extremist connections in Yemen. We also forwarded key biographical information about him to the National Counterterrorism Center.

"This agency, like others in our government, is reviewing all data to which it had access -- not just what we ourselves may have collected -- to determine if more could have been done to stop Abdulmutallab," Gimigliano said.

Tuesday marked the second straight day in which Obama spoke out -- in increasingly sharp terms -- after initially leaving administration officials to respond to the incident. Republicans have been particularly critical of what they said was the president's failure to lead.

The perception problem was compounded by comments Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made over the weekend that were seen as suggesting the security system had worked effectively -- a position she disavowed Monday.

The senior administration official said Obama decided to speak out again because he had received information that suggested serious deficiencies in the way U.S. agencies shared information about terrorist threats.

An extensive revamping of the intelligence system in the wake of Sept. 11 was supposed to have averted such communication lapses.

As reviews of the episode proceed, finger-pointing is likely to intensify -- not only within the government but between Democrats and Republicans.

GOP leaders, including New York Rep. Peter T. King of the House Homeland Security Committee, have accused the administration of not doing enough to ensure the safety of air travelers or to counter the growth of Al Qaeda.

Democrats and administration officials, in response, have blamed the Republicans for saddling the Obama White House with a welter of counter-terrorism problems, including a systemic inability to generate one system of interconnected computers that would flag suspected militants.

Obama ordered that preliminary reports on two reviews -- regarding problems in the air travel screening system and the terrorist watch list -- be provided to the White House by Thursday.

"The reviews I've ordered will surely tell us more. But what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security," Obama said.

"We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system, because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.

"We've achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks," Obama added.

"But it's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-obama30-2009dec30,0,5234945,print.story

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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

In Mexico's drug battle, the public is missing in action

Faced with drug-cartel violence and signs of vigilantism against the gangs, ordinary people would argue that it doesn't pay to get involved.

by Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood

December 30, 2009

Reporting from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico -- The mayor had good news: A notorious thug from one of the drug cartels had been found killed. Hector "El Negro" Saldana would no longer menace the people of San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico.

Trouble was, Saldana's body hadn't yet been discovered when Mayor Mauricio Fernandez made the announcement with a flourish at his swearing-in ceremony in October.

How did Fernandez know about Saldana's demise hours before investigators found the body stuffed in a car hundreds of miles away in Mexico City?

Without explicitly admitting that he had ordered the killing, Fernandez eventually acknowledged forming "intelligence squads" to "cleanse" his jurisdiction of undesirables such as "El Negro," who by all accounts kidnapped and extorted with impunity and flaunted his untouchable status by driving around in a yellow Lamborghini.

The top judicial official in the region praised Fernandez's crime-busting initiative as "fabulous." Days passed before any senior government figure criticized the mayor.

The hit on "El Negro" raised a nightmarish prospect for the nation: Had the government's war on the cartels brought Mexico to the point where vigilantism was sanctioned? And were ordinary Mexicans somehow complicit?

"We've all paid off a cop, bribed our way to a degree, been afraid to denounce the pusher at the taxi stand," said Marcos Fastlicht, a prominent Mexico City businessman who is trying to rally citizens into collective action against crime.

"We are all born into this environment and we have not been strong, or courageous, enough. We've all helped this country fall apart."

But many Mexicans would argue that it doesn't pay to get involved. Governments have long discouraged or even punished those who speak out. Given that legions of police officers and politicians have been bought off by the drug capos, it's safer to stay on the sidelines.

And a lot of people benefit from narcotics trafficking. The cartels "have offered work and opportunities and a sense of identity that we as society were not able to offer them," Luis Cardenas Palomino, head of an intelligence branch of the federal police, said at a recent conference on citizen participation.

"They have offered them something that is the most serious of all: the chance for a social payback."

Last year, when a 14-year-old boy from an affluent family in Mexico City was killed and crammed into a car trunk after his parents paid a ransom, an aggrieved public staged protest marches in many cities. But since then, there has been little sustained public action against organized crime.

In this drug offensive launched three years ago by President Felipe Calderon, more than 15,000 people have been killed. But that is not the only measure of the damage, or of the difficulty Calderon faces. The Mexican people have been reluctant allies in the struggle, key institutions of society have been silent or ineffectual, and democratic values that had been struggling to take root, such as independence of the press and the rule of law, have been eroded.

Dripping with money, some of it even legal, San Pedro Garza Garcia is the kind of place where residents put a high premium on safety and can demand it.

Fernandez, the mayor, says he is meeting those demands. He says he was forced to create "intelligence units" because of public anger and the ineffectiveness of authorities.

By acknowledging the use of vigilantes, Fernandez uttered aloud what had swirled as whispers in many parts of the country. From blood-soaked border states such as Chihuahua to drug-producing centers such as Sinaloa to the capital, Mexico City, a number of mysterious killings point to the settling of scores or removal of undesirables.

San Pedro, a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico's industrial capital, boasts multinational corporate headquarters, Ferrari dealerships, pristine streets and parks, the top luxury hotels. At one typically orderly intersection rises a copy of Michelangelo's David larger than the original.

In an interview in a City Hall office decorated with paintings by Mexico's top contemporary artists, Fernandez dismissed comparisons of the intelligence units to death squads or Colombia-style paramilitaries, saying his units are "more like detectives," albeit answerable only to him. He refused to provide any details as to who serves on the squads or how they operate.

"The important thing to know is that here in San Pedro we will do whatever it takes," he said. "We are not willing to accept organized crime."

Fernandez, scion of one of his city's oldest families, said he enjoyed broad support and would pay for his special units with donations from rich businessmen, like himself.

And he said he was talking to Israeli firms about purchasing top-of-the line surveillance and security equipment.

"The important thing is to have the information," he said. "How did we come by the information? Doesn't matter to me. . . . Just bring me the information."

He said that those who worried that the squads would run amok could relax because they would be under his control.

"It is not within the law, but it's not against the law either," he said.

Consuelo Morales, a nun who stands not quite 5 feet tall, was one of the people condemning Fernandez. No one wanted to hear her.

Not unusual, she says.

"Citizens are sick and tired of corruption and impunity and tempted to take justice into their own hands," she said. "But if we permit citizens to form groups to settle scores, because the authorities don't function at any level, then you create a monster."

As head of a human rights organization, Morales for years has been trying to shine light on the misdeeds of officials, police and others, with little success.

On her laptop computer, the nun stores videos of vicious beatings of suspects in jails. In one, a young man sinks to the floor yelping and writhing in pain as uniformed police officers pummel him with a long, flat board.

The video was aired on television. The reaction? Zilch, Morales said. "If this doesn't mobilize people, then I hate to say we are paralyzed."

In Catholic countries torn by strife, the church has often served as a catalyst for change. But in Mexico, the Roman Catholic Church has failed in that mission, top clerics say.

Much like the broader society, the church is caught between fear and complicity, between the impulse to take a stand and the desire to avoid conflict.

"The church has been content to follow its same rhythm of always, when it should be revving its engines," said Hector Gonzalez Martinez, archbishop of the tense, rough state of Durango.

Gonzalez made a splash this year when he said that Mexico's top fugitive drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was living in a Durango mountain village and that "everyone knows" it, including authorities who had failed to capture him.

Four days later, two army officers were found slain in the area the cleric had singled out, with a sign attached to their bodies: "Neither officials nor priests will ever be able to handle El Chapo."

This year, a priest and two seminary students were killed in the state of Guerrero, presumably by traffickers; in Durango, a region where gunmen "own the night" in village after village, "every priest has been threatened," Gonzalez says.

Gonzalez continued to visit remote parishes up and down the Sierra Madre foothills that march through western and northern Durango.

Until August.

A village mayor ran to the visiting Gonzalez to report that gunmen in several SUVs were gathering nearby. Then Gonzalez's cellphone rang. A state official in the Durango capital said U.S. drug agents had learned of a plot to kill the archbishop.

The official dispatched a helicopter to whisk him to safety.

Gonzalez now travels with bodyguards and is awaiting delivery of an armored car.

He laments that Mexican society lacks a sense of solidarity when it comes to facing drug violence.

"Every time there's another murder, another headless corpse, another kidnapped person, the immediate family members are very concerned, but it doesn't move society as a whole," said Gonzalez, 70, who moves and speaks with grave deliberateness, as if he had a great weight on his shoulders.

"We have too rapidly become accustomed to having these evils in the middle of our society."

In some parts of the country, priests have used money from traffickers to pay for church repairs, special chapels or other community projects. One senior priest was quoted a few years ago praising the drug lords' propensity to tithe.

"They make us accomplices," said an outspoken bishop, Raul Vera of Saltillo. "A steeple built with drug money has blood gushing from its rafters."

Nuevo Laredo was once the most violent city in the country. It is an exhaust-choked trucking hub on the border across from Laredo, Texas, where four years ago spectacular gunfights between rival drug gangs left residents afraid to leave their homes. A police chief was assassinated hours after taking the oath of office.

The shootouts have largely ebbed, replaced by a calm that most residents attribute to a pact between the warring groups that left the city under the control of the Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf cartel that often operates on its own.

But the quiet in Nuevo Laredo is thick with fear and a feeling of helplessness.

The Zetas have proved to be ruthless overlords. They have kidnapped businessmen, demanded protection money from merchants, taken over sales of pirated CDs and DVDs and muscled into the liquor trade by forcing restaurant and bar owners to buy from them.

"Imagine this is 1920s Chicago and Al Capone is the boss," said one longtime resident, who like others in town voiced his belief that the gang is protected by local law enforcement.

Jittery residents hesitate to say "Zeta" in public. A joke making the rounds has it that the gang, whose name is the Spanish for "Z," left Nuevo Laredo with one less letter in the alphabet.

Many residents say they don't trust the authorities enough to report crime or suspicious activity. Threats and attacks have cowed journalists into slanting their reports.

In October, local news outlets received ominous calls from a purported representative of the group after a rolling shootout that involved Mexican soldiers, according to a newspaper editor who declined to be named out of concern for his safety.

The gist of the message: Make the army look bad.

The news media obliged, reporting that soldiers had ignited the shootout, in which an elementary school filled with children was sprayed with gunfire.

"Soldiers Provoke the Clash," read one headline. The accompanying article said troops had fired in an "indiscriminate" manner.

"Everyone published stories criticizing the army . . . because of pressure," the editor said.

"It wasn't necessarily false. It was manipulated, inaccurate, because of what the bad guys wanted known."

Residents mobilized briefly during the carnage of 2005. Civic leaders held meetings and issued a decal bearing the image of a white dove and a plea for "Peace in Both Laredos." Many residents stuck them on their cars.

Activists planned a peace march from the international border to a statue of 19th century Mexican President Benito Juarez two miles away. A few days before the march, gunmen opened fire in front of City Hall, where a group was protesting the arrest of police officers who were suspected of having criminal links. A man was killed.

Organizers called off the peace march.

"We considered the consequences," said Carlos Martinez, who runs a secondary school called Nuevo Laredo City College. "It was the last serious effort by people to take action."

Some residents call the atmosphere in Nuevo Laredo a calma chicha -- a fishy quiet.

Martinez said the drug trade will never end, so the best border residents can hope for is not to be bothered by the traffickers.

"We don't care what deals they make," Martinez said. "What we want in the city is peace. At least leave us alone."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-society30-2009dec30,0,4738266,print.story

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Infant's death rekindles scrutiny of L.A. County child services agency

Authorities deemed Diamond Hillman's mother fit to care for her, even though the woman's two other children had been removed from her home. Four months later, Diamond was dead.

by Kim Christensen

December 30, 2009

Five months before Diamond Hillman was born last July, her two half siblings were removed from their mother's home.

Social workers found that she had spanked her 6-year-old daughter with a belt, scrubbed her face so hard it left welts and sent her to school in diapers.

Despite that finding, and a resulting court order that the 28-year-old mother have only monitored visits with the two older children, child welfare authorities deemed her fit to care for Diamond.

The child lived just four months. She died Nov. 22, allegedly at the hands of her stepfather, a convicted batterer with whom the mother had left the baby, according to court records and a confidential child-fatality report obtained by The Times.

Her death comes amid growing public scrutiny of suspected abuse and neglect fatalities among children whose families at some point were under the supervision of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

There were 14 such deaths in 2008 and at least that many this year, though some remain under investigation, according to department officials and records recently made public under California law.

Diamond's death is being investigated by the department, Santa Monica police and the L.A. County coroner's office.

Many of those deaths occurred after children left the department's watch -- to return to their families after a stint in foster care or to enter the criminal justice system, records show.

But Diamond's case calls the department's vigilance into greater question, because she was still under its direct supervision when she was killed.

Donald Renald Hillman Jr., 33, a resident of Santa Monica and her mother's estranged husband, has pleaded not guilty to murder and child abuse.

He is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

The mother was not identified in the child-fatality report and has not been charged. She did not respond to a phone message left with a man at her last known address.

Shortly after Diamond's birth, her mother told Hillman that he was not the girl's father, "but he accepted Diamond as his child," the report states. Although separated from Hillman, the mother left Diamond with him Oct. 4 while she met with a friend.

Hillman, who is 6 foot 1 and weighs 245 pounds, allegedly shook the infant so hard that day that she suffered retinal hemorrhaging and a traumatic brain injury.

When he brought her to a hospital emergency room in full cardiac arrest and not breathing, he told doctors the injuries were accidental.

"According to Diamond's stepfather, Diamond was asleep in her bassinet when her two-year-old half-sibling ran into the room and somehow fell over the bassinet," the report states.

The attending physician said that explanation didn't jibe with the baby's injuries, which "appeared to be the result of being shaken," the report notes.

Doctors twice resuscitated the infant and placed her on a ventilator, Santa Monica police said. She spent the next six weeks on life support, which was removed Nov. 22, police said.

An autopsy supported the shaken-baby diagnosis and Hillman was arrested Dec. 7 after he attended Diamond's funeral, police said.

The cause of death has been deferred pending further investigation by the coroner's office.

"As a result of the circumstances surrounding Diamond's death, the Department will perform a comprehensive review and analysis of our prior involvement with Diamond and her family," the report said in part.

Social workers are trained to give extra consideration to the cases of children who are age 2 and younger, because they are considered the most vulnerable and the least likely to be observed by people outside the home.

Trish Ploehn, who heads the child welfare agency, would not say if social workers had been disciplined for their handling of Diamond's case, but noted that such action is taken when warranted. Social worker error was a factor in 10 of the 14 deaths in 2008 among children with prior involvement with her department, Ploehn said earlier this year.

She declined to comment on circumstances surrounding Diamond's death, which she called "a tragedy for our entire county."

"The safety and the well-being of all children in Los Angeles County remains our highest priority," Ploehn said in a statement.

One of the key issues under review, according to the internal report, is whether the department acted appropriately in keeping Diamond with her mother, who was still subject to monitored visitation with the older children, then 2 and 6.

Also under scrutiny is a decision by the department last February to place the 2-year-old with Hillman despite his criminal history, the report said. Hillman is the child's biological father.

A search of Los Angeles County Superior Court records for Hillman turned up convictions for burglary, drug abuse and battery dating to 1998.

In 2005, he was charged with felony domestic violence but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of battery, court records show.

A marijuana possession charge was dismissed.

The court file did not identify the battery victim, although the original felony charge was based on the alleged infliction of injury upon a "spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or father of his or her child."

Hillman was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years' probation, and ordered to undergo domestic violence counseling, including anger management.

In 2006, he was kicked out of a "batterers treatment program" after missing four of six meetings, court records show.

The county report states that Diamond's family had been the subject of six prior abuse and neglect complaints since 2004, when the oldest child, then 18 months old, was alleged to be hungry and living with her mother in a motel with no cooking facilities.

When a social worker could not find them, that allegation was deemed inconclusive .

Subsequent allegations of general neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse in 2006, 2007 and 2008 involving the oldest child were all deemed inconclusive or unfounded, the report states.

In late January 2009, social workers substantiated allegations that the girl, then 6, had been physically and emotionally abused by her mother.

Besides striking her with a belt, the woman also had interfered with the girl's relationship with her father, who was not Hillman, and had created "a detrimental environment" that caused her to act out aggressively.

The girl and her younger sibling were then taken from their mother and placed with their biological fathers.

When Diamond was born, the woman was "actively participating in court-ordered services and had nearly completed the required case plan activities," the report noted.

So she was permitted to sign onto a "family maintenance plan" that allowed her to keep her new daughter at home, the report said.

"That agreement remained in place at the time that Diamond suffered the injuries that resulted in her death," the report said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-death30-2009dec30,0,1018878,print.story

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Afghan panel says U.S. strike killed 8 schoolboys

NATO initally reported that the casualties were nine adult insurgents. It says the incident is still being investigated.

by Laura King

December 31, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan

An Afghan presidential delegation looking into reports that up to 10 civilians were accidentally killed by U.S. troops earlier this week said today that it had so far confirmed at least eight deaths -- all schoolboys ages 12 to 17.

That contradicts initial findings by the NATO force regarding Sunday's strike in Kunar, a remote northeastern province. Western military officials earlier reported nine killed, all adult males and all insurgents, and said today that the incident remains under investigation.

Civilian deaths and injuries are one of the most contentious issues between foreign forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai. Asadullah Wafa, who heads the investigative panel that traveled to Kunar on the president's orders, reported that the boys' bodies were found in a single village home in Kunar's Narang district, and that all were members of the same extended family. He indicated there were other remains found in the house that had not yet been identified.

Wafa suggested that an informant had provided misleading information to Western forces, triggering the strike. There have been past instances of villagers trying to settle scores with rival clans or tribes by giving foreign troops false accounts of insurgent activity.

Karzai continues to be a harsh critic of foreign forces' accidental killings of civilians, although the number of such deaths has fallen sharply since July, when U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan, issued new rules of engagement meant to protect civilian lives.

Insurgents are believed responsible for about 70% of civilian deaths this year, but in the recent past, the proportion of such deaths caused by Western troops -- as opposed to those blamed on Taliban fighters -- has been considerably higher than now. More than 2,000 civilians have died in fighting this year, according to United Nations figures -- the highest number since the start of the war in 2001.

Western and Afghan officials appearing at a joint news conference in Kabul offered contradictory accounts of the Sunday raid that led to the deaths.

NATO, which had originally denied carrying out operations in the area at the time of the deaths, now says a joint Afghan-Western force carried out the strike. But a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, Gen. Mohammed Azimi, told reporters today that only U.S. special forces had been involved.

Special forces, which generally operate under a separate command structure, have been responsible for a disproportionate share of civilian casualties in the course of the conflict. Many Afghans fear that civilian casualties will rise in the coming year, in part due to the expected arrival of about 37,000 more foreign troops, 30,000 of them American.

Col. Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Western forces do all they can to safeguard civilians, while Taliban fighters kill indiscriminately, especially with roadside bombs.

"Our enemy, the insurgents, have very little regard for the Afghan people," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghanistan-civilians31-2009dec31,0,7579235,print.story

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Federal court restricts Taser use by police

Ninth Circuit ruling -- allowing an officer to be held liable for injuries a man suffered after being Tasered -- sets a precedent that may force agencies to revisit their policies.

by Joel Rubin and Richard Winton

December 30, 2009

A federal appeals court this week ruled that a California police officer can be held liable for injuries suffered by an unarmed man he Tasered during a traffic stop. The decision, if allowed to stand, would set a rigorous legal precedent for when police are permitted to use the weapons and would force some law enforcement agencies throughout the state -- and presumably the nation -- to tighten their policies governing Taser use, experts said.

Michael Gennaco, an expert in police conduct issues who has conducted internal reviews of Taser use for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other agencies, said the ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibits officers from deploying Tasers in a host of scenarios and largely limits their use to situations in which a person poses an obvious danger.

"This decision talks about the need for an immediate threat. . . . Some departments allow Tasers in cases of passive resistance, such as protesters who won't move," he said. Tasering for "passive resistance is out the door now with this decision. Even resistance by tensing or bracing may not qualify."

The weapons, which resemble handguns, can be fired from about 20 feet away and project two dartlike electrodes. The electrodes send an electrical charge coursing through the target -- a shock that temporarily paralyzes the person's muscles and causes extreme pain. Almost all of the stun guns used by law enforcement agencies in the United States are manufactured by Taser International Inc., including the one fired in the current case.

Though stun guns have been in use for about three decades, the number of police departments issuing them to officers has proliferated in the last 10 years. Advocates tout the weapons as a less-than-lethal alternative to firearms and say they help resolve dangerous face-to-face confrontations with combative suspects. But several controversial Taser incidents, some involving fatalities, have led to widespread debate over when police should be allowed to deploy the weapons.

Last year, a National Institute of Justice study found that the weapons were employed safely in the vast majority of cases, but concluded that more research is needed to determine the health effects of shocking small children and the elderly, among other groups.

The unanimous ruling, issued Monday by a three-judge panel, stemmed from a 2005 encounter in which a former Coronado, Calif., police officer, Brian McPherson, stopped a man for failing to wear a seat belt while driving. The driver, Carl Bryan, who testified that he did not hear McPherson order him to remain in the car, exited the vehicle and stood about 20 feet away from the officer. Bryan grew visibly agitated and angry with himself, but did not make any verbal threats against McPherson, according to court documents. McPherson has said he fired his Taser when Bryan took a step toward him -- a claim Bryan has denied.

Bryan's face slammed against the pavement when he collapsed, causing bruises and smashing four front teeth.

The appellate court did not rule on whether McPherson acted appropriately, but simply cleared the way for Bryan to pursue a civil case against the officer and the city of Coronado in a lower court. Based on Bryan's version of events, though, the judges found that McPherson used excessive force in firing the Taser, since Bryan did not appear to pose any immediate threat.

In spelling out their decision, the judges established legally binding standards about where Tasers fall on the spectrum of force available to police officers, and laid out clear guidelines for when an officer should be allowed to use the weapon. The judges, for example, said Tasers should be considered a more serious use of force than pepper spray -- a distinction that runs counter to policies used by most law enforcement agencies in California and elsewhere, according to Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain and consultant on use-of-force issues.

The ruling does not appear to affect the LAPD, which has a relatively strict policy on Taser use. Gennaco said that the same is more or less true of the Sheriff's Department, but that he would discuss with Sheriff Lee Baca the possible need for "tweaking" the policy and training.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department seems more likely to be affected. Spokesman John McDonald said the department's policy allows officers to fire Tasers at people who try to flee an encounter with police or who refuse, for example, to comply with an officer's order to lie down during an arrest. Those scenarios appear to be prohibited under the court's ruling.

"It sounds like this court is attempting to raise the bar for nonlethal use of force," Meyer said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taser30-2009dec30,0,5597112,print.story

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Man unloads 58 guns at Compton weapons exchange

The donor receives several thousand dollars in supermarket gift cards in annual 'gifts for guns' program. 'That should feed someone for a year or two,' a sheriff's deputy says.

by Richard Winton

December 30, 2009

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies expected heavy business Tuesday during its annual "gifts for guns" program in Compton.

And sure enough, scores of people lined up to turn in various weapons in exchange for retail and supermarket gift cards.

But they were surprised at the man who pulled up in a sport utility vehicle with 58 guns -- mostly handguns but also some assault weapons. Dressed in a sweat shirt and jeans, the man offered his cache in a nonchalant fashion.

As is the policy for such events, deputies asked no questions and eagerly took the guns. They don't know the man's name, and the donor declined to comment to The Times. After unloading his guns, the man received several thousand dollars in gift cards and drove away.

"That should feed someone for a year or two," said Lt. Anthony Lucia. "There were a lot of the kind of weapons used in robberies. We don't know his identity. We don't know if he is a gun dealer or what."

The Compton exchange Tuesday garnered 232 guns, all of which will be destroyed.

The gifts for guns program has been a staple of the Sheriff's Department's crime- reduction efforts in Compton, which has seen a drop in homicides in recent years.

Lucia said the mystery man will likely remain a mystery. "It's 58 guns off the street," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guns30-2009dec30,0,1109594,print.story

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OPINION

Jihadism and the Cold War

The West won the Cold War; we can use some of the same tactics to defeat Islamic extremism.

by Tim Rutten

December 30, 2009

As we sort through the implications of Umar Farouk Abdulmultallab's alleged attempt to incinerate a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, we're bound to hear a great deal about "the war on terror" and how it is or isn't being waged.

We're also going to have to assimilate the confounding facts that Abdulmultallab converted to Salafism -- Islam's fundamentalist and puritanical variant -- not in his native Nigeria but in London. He was apparently drawn to Yemen, where his suicide mission was conceived, by sermons and texts posted on the Internet, and it was there, on Monday, that Al Qaeda's Arabian peninsula organization hailed him as a hero.

One of the paradoxes of our struggle with the jihadi strain of Salafist Islam is its wholehearted embrace of the Internet, which is a quintessential expression of the open society's creativity and values. Al Qaeda and its fellow travelers use the Web for propaganda, education, recruitment and operational communication.

This paradoxical conduct points to some of the emerging similarities between this conflict and the long confrontation with Soviet totalitarianism, as well as at least one significant difference that already is clear.

The West's victory in the Cold War essentially was built on a three-front strategy. First, of course, was containment of Soviet ambitions through military means. Second was the intellectual and ideological competition for hearts and minds -- including those of reform-minded Soviets -- through the arts, culture and social philosophy. Finally, there was the powerful example of economic and social progress that spread across the Western democracies throughout the post-World War II era. Communists across the Eastern Bloc saw that free people simply lived better and in greater decency than they did.

Counter-terrorism is not confrontation with another nation-state. Moreover, the Cold War was the end point of a great European civil war that dominated the 20th century, eventually drawing into opposition two nations from Europe's cultural periphery -- the United States and the Soviet Union. Whatever their ideological differences, Washington and Moscow were heirs to a common cultural patrimony. By contrast, the desires and interests of modern America and those of an obscurantist Islam that wishfully evokes an imagined medieval purity are mutually unintelligible. Still, there are lessons from the Cold War that are applicable to the struggle with jihadism.

One is the value of containment, which is why President Obama was correct in authorizing a military surge in Afghanistan and stepped-up covert operations in Yemen. So long as Al Qaeda and other jihadi gangs remain underground organizations with their leaders perpetually on the run and dependent on the Internet, they are in an important sense "contained." When they gain a foothold in a sympathetic nation, as they did in the Taliban's Afghanistan or seem to be doing in the tribal regions of Yemen, their lethality escalates dramatically. With more time and security to train the wretched Abdulmultallab or other useful idiots, who knows what kind of tragedy might have been organized for Christmas morning?

While we seem to be applying the containment lesson appropriately, we're failing badly on the struggle's intellectual and cultural front. Many of the most devastating blows struck against Soviet totalitarianism were inflicted by writers and artists who'd lived under the system and then found allies in the West who appreciated their work and, most important, disseminated it. Books such as Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," Czeslaw Milosz's "The Captive Mind" and, most of all, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" were iron nails in the coffin of Soviet illusion.

Where now are the critics, Western intellectuals and publishing houses searching out and supporting the Islamic world's voices of tolerance and modernity, whether philosophical or artistic? If we don't find and embrace them and give them a secure platform from which to speak truth to those within their own societies hungry to listen, we're waging this struggle with one arm tied behind our collective back -- and, perhaps, hopelessly.

The one Cold War lesson that won't avail in this instance is that of the open society's example as a changer of hearts and minds. One of the chilling things about the jihadis is how many of them have lived and been educated in the West. Abdulmultallab graduated from an English university, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed from an American school, and Mohamed Atta studied at a German one.

Jihadism involves a conscious rejection of democracy, modernity and the open society as embodied in the lives of each of these men. Their delusion is as complete as their hostility is implacable. On this count, we can afford no illusions of our own.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rutten30-2009dec30,0,6689489,print.column

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EDITORIAL

A foolish foster care shuffle

California shouldn't have to move kids in and out of foster care to retain federal funding.

December 30, 2009

There are two ways to deal with a wrongheaded federal interpretation of a law meant to help abused and neglected children. Here's one: Remove 16,000 California children from the homes of close relatives and put them in group homes or with foster families, where by most accounts youths suffer more psychological trauma, perform more poorly in school and get into more trouble with the law. Keep them there six months or so. Then apply for funding that Congress made available last year to encourage states to keep foster youths with relatives, and pay to move the kids back where they were. Then hope they have no lingering ill effects from the wrenching, and foolish, bureaucratic shuffle.

California is being punished for leading the nation in child welfare policy. Nine years ago, policymakers here saw the wisdom in keeping children with family members instead of sending them to live with strangers when their parents ran into trouble and could no longer properly care for them. Grandparents and other family members who wanted to take the children in -- but were retired or otherwise lacked the money to pay for school clothes, pediatrician bills and meals -- got some of the money that otherwise would have gone to foster parents. Last year, Congress passed a law that wisely directs federal foster care funding to "kinship care" programs like California's, and keeps it coming through age 21 so the children have the support they need to transition to work, college or both. But a division of the Department of Health and Human Services -- the Administration for Children and Families -- interpreted Congress' action to mean that only new applications for kinship care are eligible.

Lawmakers and the Schwarzenegger administration are struggling to find the money to keep paying the state's part. But even if they do, California stands to lose $70 million in federal funding to keep children with their families, and will get it back only if they oust the kids. Some advocates suggest shuffling paperwork to officially, but not physically, remove children from their homes and then move them back. But even that sleight of hand would be a ridiculous waste of scarce resources. Why spend money on paperwork instead of children?

That brings us to the second way to deal with the interpretation of the federal law: Change the interpretation. Congress certainly did not intend to penalize states for innovation and leadership or to shuttle children back and forth between homes; quite the opposite. The solution is simple and obvious, and well within the Obama administration's ability.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-foster30-2009dec30,0,4615316,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Remembering Iraq's refugees

Progress has been made, but thousands of Iraqis still must be resettled.

December 30, 2009

The bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, ushered in one of the bloodiest episodes of the Iraq war. After its gilded dome was ripped open to the sky, sectarian strife exploded. The day after the bombing in February 2006, dozens of Sunni mosques were attacked, many people were killed and a period of massive displacement began. Millions of Iraqis fled to Syria and Jordan if they could, or relocated within Iraq if they could not.

Today, almost four years later, the International Rescue Committee estimates that there are still between 1 million and 2 million Iraqi refugees outside the country and another 2 million displaced people inside. As the United States winds down its presence, many of these Iraqis can't go home because of continuing suicide bombings and other violence, but have yet to resettle elsewhere. Particularly vulnerable if they try to return are those who allied themselves with the U.S., working as translators, cooks, drivers, assistants or in any capacity with the military, contractors or businesses.

The United States was embarrassingly slow to help this category of refugees resettle, dragging its feet until Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) insisted the nation had a moral obligation to do so and spearheaded bipartisan legislation to facilitate the process. President Bush signed the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, which established a special immigrant visa for Iraqis targeted because of their affiliation with the United States.

This year, for the first time since 2003, the U.S. exceeded its resettlement target, helping 18,000 Iraqis begin lives in America. That's a big increase over the 12,000 in 2008 and a huge gain over the paltry few hundred admitted in the first years of the war. Some procedural changes have allowed this, such as the decision to let refugees be processed directly from Iraq. Until last year, they were required to leave and apply from another country. Washington deserves a pat on the back, and a big push to do more. Sweden admitted 40,000 Iraqis in 2007; we should exceed that.

The United Nations estimates that about 88,000 Iraqis still need resettling, and the U.S. is expected, ultimately, to take half of them. Iraq also must become more fully engaged, creating a reconciliation process between hostile factions and resolving housing issues so refugees can return home in meaningful numbers.

Now that the U.S. has the political will to address the crisis, we must do so efficiently and humanely. That means swifter processing of refugees, more aid for countries now hosting most of them and, when the time comes, services to ease the transition of displaced Iraqis to the U.S. Even as we pull out of Iraq, we cannot leave behind our obligation to these refugees.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-refugees30-2009dec30,0,3325326,print.story

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Should gang cops have to disclose their assets?

December 29, 2009

Monday's Times story on the LAPD's difficulty filling gang units in the face of new financial disclosure rules reminded those of us on the editorial page of the ground we staked out two years ago -- against adopting the new rules.

The page has long been solidly in favor of public disclosure of police business, so it's worth noting that we went the other way on this issue.

"It's hard to see how periodic financial reports would help LAPD brass nail corrupt cops," we wrote on Dec. 20, 2007. "Officers already must submit to lie detector tests, and they now work in an environment in which stings are all but routine. Financial disclosure would do nothing to allow the public to monitor the kinds of corruption and excessive force that led to the Rampart scandal -- or the kind of management and training failures that produced this year's MacArthur Park fiasco."

The position is neither a departure nor counterintuitive for an editorial page that has called repeatedly, and as recently as last month, for public disclosure about officer discipline. This new rule -- requiring applicants to special LAPD gang enforcement units to disclose data about their (and their spouses') mortgages, bank accounts and other personal finances -- doesn't tell the public anything about the officers who are supposed to protect and serve them. It does allow police brass to delve deeply into their personal affairs.

That would be fine if the LAPD were able to defend its assertion that the data are needed to prevent a rogue cop from taking bribes, planting evidence or engaging in other wrongdoing. But the department hasn't made the case.

Listen here to a KPCC radio discussion on Monday with Times reporter Joel Rubin (who co-wrote Monday's story with Scott Gold), LAPD Asst. Chief Michel Moore, and Police Protective League President Paul M. Weber. The moderator is Times columnist David Lazarus, sitting in for AirTalk's Larry Mantle. Moore acknowledges that the disclosure is only one of many tools to guard against corruption, but he does not make the case that it is a necessary tool or that it's worth the extra effort needed to recruit officers to the crucial, but often thankless and dangerous, gang units.

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2009/12/chief-charlie-beck-gangs-lapd-financial-disclosure-police-corruption.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpinionLa+%28L.A.+Times+-+Opinion+Blog%29

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From the Daily News

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GPS to aid illegal border crossing

by Elliot Spagat

The Associated Press

12/29/2009

SAN DIEGO - A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the U.S.

Faculty at University of California, San Diego, are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on Ellis Island.

The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.

Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier.

The designers - three visual artists on UCSD's faculty and an English professor at the University of Michigan - are undeterred as they criticize a U.S. policy they say embraces illegal immigrants for cheap labor while letting them die crossing the border.

"It's about giving water to somebody who's dying in the desert of dehydration," said Micha Cardenas, 32, a UCSD lecturer.

The effort is being done on the government's dime - an irony not lost on the designers whose salaries are paid by the state of California.

"There are many, many areas in which every American would say I don't like the way my tax dollars are being spent. Our answer to that is an in-your-face, so what?" says UCSD lecturer Brett Stalbaum, 33, a self-described news junkie who likens his role to chief technology officer.

Migrants walk for days in extreme heat, often eating tuna and crackers handed out at migrant shelters in Mexico. On Arizona ranches, they sip desperately from bins used by cows when their water runs out.

Hundreds have perished each year since heightened U.S. border enforcement pushed migrants out of large cities like San Diego and El Paso, Texas, in the 1990s. In response, migrant sympathizers put jugs or even barrels of water in the desert.

Bogus water locations?

The designers want to load inexpensive phones with GPS software that takes signals from satellite, independent of phone networks. Pressing a menu button displays water stations, with the distance to each. A user selects one and follows an arrow on the screen.

Some worry the software could lead migrants to damaged or abandoned water stations. Others wonder if it would lull them into a false sense of security or alert the Border Patrol and anti-illegal immigration activists to their whereabouts.

John Hunter, who has planted water barrels in California's scorching Imperial Valley since the late 1990s, says vandals destroy about 40 of his 150 stations every year.

"My concern is for people who arrive and find (the water) doesn't exist," he says.

Luis Jimenez, 47, was abandoned by smugglers and rescued by the Border Patrol twice this year - once after hitting his head on a rock and again after being bit by a snake. The Salvadoran migrant, who hopes to reach family in Los Angeles, would try the GPS device but can't afford one.

"If it tells you where to find water, it's good," he said at a Tijuana, Mexico, migrant shelter.

The phone designers say they are addressing the concerns, with an eye toward having the phone ready by midsummer.

"We don't want to create a safety tool that actually puts people in more danger," Stalbaum says.

`Very close to ... a crime'

The water locations beamed to the phones will be updated constantly to ensure accuracy. If the distance is too far, they won't appear on the screen.

The designers, who have raised $15,000 from a UCSD grant and an art festival award, hope to hand out phones for free in Mexico. The phones sell used for about $30 apiece. It costs nothing to add the GPS software.

Distribution would be tightly controlled by migrant shelters and advocacy groups to keep them away from anti-illegal immigration activists. The migrants would need passwords to use them.

U.S. authorities are unfazed. The Border Patrol has begun a $6.7-billion plan to drape the border with whiz-bang cameras, sensors and other technology.

"It's nothing new," said Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott. "We've seen handheld GPS devices used by smugglers. ... We're just going to have to learn to adapt to any challenges."

Critics of illegal immigration say the device is misguided, at best.

"If it's not a crime, it's very close to committing a crime," said Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego. "Whether this constitutes aiding and abetting would depend on the details, but it certainly puts you in the discussion."

The software is being designed to direct migrants to water stations but Cardenas said they may add other "safety markers," like roads, towns and Border Patrol lookouts.

The group has published verses to be played on the phone's "Global Poetic System."

One poem reads, "May your tracks cut the shortest distance between points A and B."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14090370

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man

by LAURA SAUNDERS

Nothing's certain except death and taxes -- but a temporary lapse in the estate tax is causing a few wealthy Americans to try to bend those rules.

Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax -- which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate -- goes away for a year. For families facing end-of-life decisions in the immediate future, the change is making one of life's most trying episodes only more complex.

"I have two clients on life support, and the families are struggling with whether to continue heroic measures for a few more days," says Joshua Rubenstein, a lawyer with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York. "Do they want to live for the rest of their lives having made serious medical decisions based on estate-tax law?"

Currently, the tax applies to about 5,500 taxpayers a year. So, on average, at least 15 people die every day whose estates would benefit from the the tax's lapse.

The macabre situation stems from 2001, when Congress raised estate-tax exemptions, culminating with the tax's disappearance next year. However, due to budget constraints, lawmakers didn't make the change permanent. So the estate tax is due to come back to life in 2011 -- at a higher rate and lower exemption.

To make it easier on their heirs, some clients are putting provisions into their health-care proxies allowing whoever makes end-of-life medical decisions to consider changes in estate-tax law. "We have done this at least a dozen times, and have gotten more calls recently," says Andrew Katzenstein, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose LLP in Los Angeles.

Of course, plenty of taxpayers themselves are eager to live to see the new year. One wealthy, terminally ill real-estate entrepreneur has told his doctors he is determined to live until the law changes.

"Whenever he wakes up," says his lawyer, "He says: 'What day is it? Is it Jan. 1 yet?'"

Estate-tax experts didn't expect Congress to allow the tax to lapse, and are flabbergasted that it is actually happening. "All fall when I gave speeches, I said I was willing to bet anyone in the room $10 that we would have an estate-tax extension by the end of the year," says Thomas Ochsenschlager, head of taxes for the American Institute of CPAs. "Thank goodness I didn't have any takers," he says.

Now, all bets are off. "If Congress couldn't do it this year, why will they be able to do it next year?" says Prof. Michael Graetz of Columbia University, who worked both at Treasury and for Congress. He calls the lapse "congressional malpractice."

Under current laws in effect until the end of this year, the size of the exemption is $3.5 million per individual or up to $7 million per couple. The tax is slated to disappear entirely on Jan 1.

But estate planning in 2010 will be complicated by a new twist: a complex tax on capital gains, levied at death, that will affect a broader swath of taxpayers. The estate tax is scheduled to return in 2011 at a 55% rate with an exemption of slightly more than $1 million.

The looming lapse of the estate tax is presenting some families with unprecedented ethical quandaries.

"I've been practicing for more than 30 years, and never has the timing of death made such a financial difference," says Dennis Belcher, president of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. "People have a hard enough time talking about death and addressing estate planning without this."

Congress could pass an estate tax next year and make it retroactive to Jan. 1. Whether that would withstand a court challenge is a subject of debate in the estate-planning world. In the past, when Congress has passed retroactive laws, congressional leaders often issued formal statements of intent in advance.

That hasn't happened this time. The main statement has been a verbal one by Senator Max Baucus (D., Mont.) on the floor of the Senate, not a joint declaration by leaders from both parties.

In addition, the composition of the Supreme Court has changed, and some financial advisers believe the court might not again bless a retroactive law. "People with the means to fight against a retroactive law will die, and someone will challenge it and we might not know the answer for years," Mr. Belcher says.

As part of the changes taking effect in January, Congress also dramatically lowered the taxes on gifts to grandchildren. But all the uncertainties -- Will the law be changed? Will it be retroactive? -- are forcing family legal advisers to craft various provisional financial-planning strategies that can be undone later if the rules do change.

The situation is causing at least one person to add the prospect of euthanasia to his estate-planning mix, according to Mr. Katzenstein of Proskauer Rose. An elderly, infirm client of his recently asked whether undergoing euthanasia next year in Holland, where it's legal, might allow his estate to dodge the tax.

His answer: Yes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126213588339309657.html#printMode

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Retirees Snared by Medicare

As People Work Longer, They Risk Penalties for Missing Deadlines

by ANNE TERGESEN

Rules for enrolling in Medicare are complex. But when people postpone retirement past age 65, as many people are doing these days, it's easy to get caught up in red tape.

Older adults can't get into Medicare any time they want. The easiest time to sign up is when you turn 65, and, if you're already collecting Social Security, enrollment is automatic. But if you keep working beyond that age and opt instead to stay with your employer's group health plan, your options for getting Medicare can be sharply limited. It's important to pay attention to strict enrollment deadlines, or you may face a fine and risk going without coverage for months.

That's what happened to Barbara Gardner, 66, who chose to continue on her former employer's plan instead of signing up for Medicare when she retired last year. "My employer's plan offers much better coverage," says the Austintown, Ohio, resident, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

Now, Ms. Gardner realizes her decision caused her to run afoul of a Medicare rule that required her to enroll within eight months of leaving her job. As a result, Ms. Gardner's next chance to sign up for Medicare is in January, and her coverage won't begin until July. With her current health plan due to expire in March, Ms. Gardner is facing several months without insurance. And as a penalty for missing the deadline, her monthly Medicare premium will permanently be increased by 10%. "I don't know what I am going to do," she says, adding that she can't afford to purchase an individual policy for the months she'll be without insurance.

Medicare advocates say a growing number of older adults are getting ensnared in the program's complex rules, as more seniors return to work or put off leaving their jobs. The nonprofit Medicare Rights Center says that before the recession it typically received a handful of calls each month from people trying to sort out the enrollment rules. Now, the organization says it gets several such calls a day.

In January, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D., Ore.) plans to introduce a bill designed to make it easier for those 65 and older who leave jobs to switch from their employer's group health insurance to Medicare, his office says. Among other things, the bill would eliminate the delays that some experience before their Medicare benefits go into effect.

"Many seniors are going without coverage because of problems transitioning into Medicare and are unable to pick up temporary coverage because of their age," Rep. Schrader says.

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare, says the agency is just following the laws governing the insurance program. "We just don't have the discretion" to accomodate those who miss enrollment deadlines, he says.

Some workers postpone enrolling in Medicare because their health coverage on the job can be less expensive. Even though Medicare Part A, which covers hospitalization, is free for most people 65 and older, Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and other forms of outpatient care, charges a monthly premium of between $96.40 and $353.60, depending on a beneficiary's income.

Many people also choose to purchase private "supplement" policies, which pay for expenses Medicare doesn't cover, and so-called Part D prescription-drug plans. Others choose to receive benefits through private Medicare Advantage plans, which generally charge premiums, copayments and deductibles.

But it's important to do some homework before deciding to stick with an employer's plan alone. Those who are employed can switch at any time from a group health plan to Medicare. But once an employee stops working—voluntarily or not—he or she has only eight months to sign up for Medicare Part B. Those who miss this window—called a special enrollment period—must wait for Medicare's general enrollment period, from Jan. 1 to March 31, to sign up. Worse, their Part B benefits won't go into effect until the following July, and late-enrollment penalties may apply.

Common Traps

One common trap: Many people on Cobra, a federal law that permits workers temporarily to stay enrolled in an employer's health plan, or those receiving retiree medical benefits are unaware that the eight-month deadline applies to them, says Pamela Meliso, senior attorney at the nonprofit Center for Medicare Advocacy Inc. in Mansfield, Conn. Other people get into trouble by failing to check whether their company's plan requires them to sign up for Medicare Part B upon turning 65. Such rules are typical of companies with fewer than 20 employees and also often apply to former employees on Cobra. After age 65, these plans at best provide only supplementary coverage, paying only for expenses that Part B won't cover, says Hannah Oakland, a health advocate at Medicare Rights Center.

Limits of Cobra

Carla Arnett, of Dripping Springs, Texas, found out too late the limits of opting for Cobra instead of signing up for Medicare when she turned 65 last year. When she recently left her job in a retail store, she discovered she had to wait until January to sign up for Part B and wouldn't begin receiving benefits until July 2010, according to her son, Edward Arnett. He says his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer this summer and didn't want to be without insurance. So she paid to continue her former employer's coverage through the Cobra program, not realizing that she was buying a plan that only provided supplementary coverage.

Mr. Arnett says his mother recently learned that the Cobra plan will only cover a small fraction of the more than $20,000 in medical bills she has incurred since her cancer diagnosis.

"They informed me that they consider their coverage to be secondary," or supplementary, to Medicare Part B, says Mr. Arnett. She is "fighting for her life and watching as the bills stack up higher and higher," he says. Mr. Arnett says his mother has little choice but to continue the Cobra coverage, at a cost of $376 a month, until she can qualify for Medicare next year.

If you plan to delay signing up for Medicare, experts recommend keeping good files about your decision and copious notes from phone conversations with officials you contact for advice, including employees at Medicare and Social Security Administration, which handles Medicare enrollments.

Misinformed

Bill Bregar, a former software engineer, accepted a voluntary retirement package from his employer in June 2007. Now 68, Mr. Bregar and his wife were able to remain on the company's health insurance plan, via Cobra, for two years. "The cost was very reasonable and the plan covered everything," says the Lake Oswego, Ore., resident. He says he was assured by a representative at Social Security that he would be able to switch to Medicare when this coverage expired on May 31, 2009.

But when Mr. Bregar tried to enroll in Medicare Part B in May, he was told he was out of luck. Because he had missed the eight-month deadline in which to sign up for Medicare Part B, which expired in early 2008, he was relegated to Medicare's general enrollment period from Jan. 1 to March 31. And, when their Medicare benefits finally would be set to kick in next July, the Bregars would also be subject to a 10% late-enrollment penalty. "We were stunned," Mr. Bregar says.

With help from Rep. Schrader's office. Mr. Bregar submitted a request to Social Security asking for "equitable relief," a legal protection that allows for immediate enrollment in Medicare Part B without penalty.

He attached a letter documenting his earlier conversation with the Social Security representative who had misinformed him about Medicare's rules. A few weeks later, the Bregars received notice from Social Security that the agency was granting the couple's request for enrollment.

A Social Security spokeswoman says people requesting "equitable relief" should submit a letter explaining their case. Generally, Social Security looks for evidence that the person was misled by an agent of the federal government, she says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703344704574610570928560200.html#printMode

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U.S. Looks to Intensify Yemen Campaign

by PETER SPIEGEL, JAY SOLOMON and MARGARET COKER

The Obama administration is likely to intensify pressure on Yemen's president to focus his security forces against al Qaeda militants, following claims that the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing originated there, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. also is discussing increasing its counterterrorism support to Yemen from $70 million this year to as much as $190 million in 2010, according to a senior military official.

U.S. security policy toward Yemen had been increasingly focused on President Ali Abdullah Saleh even before the botched attack, officials said. His government in recent months has shown willingness to coordinate with the Obama administration in counterterrorism operations within his country.

"We are acting in response to threats to the U.S.," said Denis McDonough, the White House's deputy national-security advisor, adding that the administration will continue to "address these threats where they arise."

But Mr. Saleh is struggling with two rebellious provinces, dwindling financial resources and a significant weakening of his once-strong influence over Islamists in his country. His courting has been a source of debate within the administration: Some officials are concerned he is more interested in seeking American aid to crush local insurgencies than target Islamist militants.

"President Saleh is not a consistent and rational player," said another senior military official. "That's the other major worry we have there: What will he do for himself versus what he's doing against al Qaeda."

Yemen's government on Tuesday reiterated its desire for more foreign military aid, with foreign minister Abu Bakr al Qirbi telling the British Broadcasting Corp. that Yemen's battle is being undermined by a lack of financial and military support.

The Obama administration has praised Mr. Saleh's government in recent weeks for intensifying its campaign against al Qaeda, which includes two major offenses against suspected terrorist camps earlier this month.

Mr. Saleh, 63 years old, reiterated his support in combating terror in a telephone call to President Barack Obama two weeks ago, according to the state-run Yemeni press agency. But the U.S. has been frustrated by his unwillingness to open a serious dialogue with the Houthi rebels in the north, a move officials believe would allow Mr. Saleh to focus his attention on al Qaeda.

According to the former military official, Mr. Saleh has asked for weapons that he could use against indigenous rebels, including hundreds of tanks and Humvees. Sana'a has claimed the Houthi forces are receiving arms and funding from Shiite Iran. The Obama administration says it has found no such evidence.

U.S. officials say Yemen is nearly out of oil exports and facing severe water shortages. Roughly 35% of Yemen's adult population is unemployed. Development projects pursued by U.S., European and Arab donors have been undercut by security threats, U.S. officials say.

In the 1990s Yemen, much like Saudi Arabia, re-established ties with and in some cases welcomed back Islamist militants who were returning from fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Mr. Saleh, mirroring public opinion, treated them as heroes, and gave many of them places in the country's military and security forces. The army used these Afghan veterans to help put down a fresh revolt from southern opposition leaders in 1994.

In 2006, U.S. officials became alarmed that Mr. Saleh's political deals risked undermining his support for combating terrorism when 26 al Qaeda militants, including the convicted mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, escaped from a Yemeni jail. According to some reports, the militants received assistance from inside Yemen's security forces.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126211787251809321.html#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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D.C. homicides, in national trend, hit lowest level since '64

The year is drawing to a close with homicides in the District at a 45-year low, reflecting a national trend that law enforcement officials are attributing to multipronged crime-prevention strategies that include advances in communication and coordination.

With just two days left in the year, according to preliminary numbers from the police department, the District has had 138 homicides compared with 184 at the same time last year, setting up the city to record the lowest number of homicides since 1964, when 132 were reported killed. Metropolitan Police Department officials attribute the decline to a "perfect storm" of crime-fighting strategies, including a new culture of communication within the police department.

"The level of involvement far surpasses anything I've ever seen," said Metropolitan Police Commander Daniel Hickson, a more than 30-year veteran of the department and former homicide detective. "To imagine we're at 138 is unbelievable."

Commander Hickson said the District - known two decades ago as the "murder capital" of the country - has made progress by targeting violent gun offenders and emphasizing community policing and communication among officers.

The result this year has been a drop in violent crime and property crime. The sharpest drop was in homicides, at 25 percent, followed by a 16 percent decline in sexual assaults and a 10 percent decrease in car thefts.

View a PDF of the crime statistics (PDF)

The department has also reported a 75 percent homicide closure rate so far this year and put a lid on violence in the Trinidad neighborhood, ending a spasm of killing in the Northeast Washington neighborhood that grabbed national headlines last year.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier has said that success in closing homicide cases has been in part because of her signature All Hands on Deck initiative during which all officers, including recruits, work patrol shifts over three-day periods.

The District's numbers are part of a downward trend reflected in many other major cities and nationwide.

According to the FBI's uniform crime report, law enforcement agencies across the country experienced a decrease in violent crime for the first six months of 2009 from the same period the year earlier. Violent crime, which includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, decreased by 4.4 percent.

The largest decrease in violent crimes - defined as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault - came in the homicide rate. The homicide rate was down 10 percent from the same period in 2008, according to the report, but the violent-crime numbers declined in every category.

New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia all have seen significant declines in homicides, according to nearly complete annual data from all three departments provided to The Washington Times on Tuesday. As of Sunday, homicides had fallen by 11 percent in New York compared with the same period in 2008; as of Tuesday, homicides had declined by 9 percent in Philadelphia; and as of Sunday, Los Angeles had an 11 percent decrease.

However, several cities reported an increase in homicides. One of them was Baltimore, which reported 235 homicides as of Tuesday compared with 233 last year.

In addition, the same FBI report had property crimes - defined as burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson - decreasing even more significantly than violent crimes, declining 6.1 percent overall in the first half of 2009 versus the first six months of 2008.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he thinks the decline in Philadelphia and other cities is in large part because of more effective use of crime data.

"Police departments are using data in a more timely manner and more wisely," he said.

Commissioner Ramsey, a former D.C. police chief, said Philadelphia created patrol beats and checkpoints at the 125 most violent intersections in the city and subsequently experienced a 22 percent reduction in violent crime in those areas. He said he also focused police resources on the most violent police districts at times when violent crimes were most likely to occur.

In another indication of a declining crime rate in 2009, the deaths of police officers in the line of duty was at its lowest number in the past 50 years.

According to a study by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 124 officers were killed while on duty, the lowest number since 1959, when 108 were killed. The study found a 7 percent decline in officer deaths when comparing 2009 with 2008.

But the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also found reason for concern in 2009, as the number of firearm-related cop killings increased 23 percent from 39 in 2008 to 48 in 2009. The overall decrease was largely driven by a decrease in traffic-related fatalities.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the bureau does not generally comment on trends in crime statistics because of the complexity of factors that contribute to them.

"The amount and type of crime varies from place to place depending on a number of factors that affect crime in a particular community. We don't give a single reason why," he said.

Some analysts expected crimes to increase in 2009 because of tough economic times. But James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston, said the link between the economy and crime is largely a myth.

"All the research on economic indicators and violent crime in particular show there really isn't a link," Mr. Fox said. "People don't essentially become criminals because they are out of a job; the decision to pursue a life of crime is made independently of the economy."

However, Mr. Fox said an indirect connection between the economy and crime can be made in some cases. When the economy lags, he said, fewer resources are available for police budgets and other crime-prevention programs, which can have an impact on crime rates, particularly property offenses.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/dc-homicides-hit-lowest-number-since-64//print/

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Airliner suicide mission blessed by imam

The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki, the Muslim imam suspected of radicalizing the Fort Hood shooting suspect, a U.S. intelligence source has told The Washington Times.

The intelligence official, who is familiar with the FBI's interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said the bombing suspect has boasted of his jihad training to the FBI and has said it included final exhortations by Mr. al-Awlaki.

"It was Awlaki who indoctrinated him," the official said. "He was told, 'You are going to be the tip of the spear of the Muslim nation.' "

Mr. al-Awlaki, an American-born imam who once led a large Northern Virginia mosque but now lives in Yemen, has gained notoriety in recent months because of his influence on Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim accused of killing 13 people at the Texas military base.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit Monday for the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Airlines 253, an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight. The al Qaeda group and U.S. officials both say that Mr. Abdulmutallab was able to smuggle explosive powder in his underwear and only a detonator failure prevented him from blowing up the plane and killing almost 300 passengers and crew.

On Tuesday, President Obama made his second public address on the attack, saying there had been a "systemic failure" in intelligence-sharing among U.S. agencies.

He characterized the lapse as "totally unacceptable," distancing himself further from Sunday's widely derided comments by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that "the system worked."

Also Tuesday, Democrats reacted to criticism that the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees U.S. flight security, still does not have a top administrator. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, vowed to ensure confirmation of Eroll Southers and blamed Republicans for holding up the nomination.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he has learned of personal ties between Mr. Abdulmutallab and Mr. al-Awlaki, though he said he could neither confirm nor deny that the two men had been in the same Yemeni prayer room.

"From what I've heard, the relationship would have been closer than what Awlaki had with Hasan," Mr. Hoekstra told The Times. "He trusted [Mr. Abdulmutallab] more."

Mr. al-Awlaki had e-mail contact with Maj. Hasan as many as 20 times between December 2008 and the shootings at Fort Hood. Mr. al-Awlaki praised Maj. Hasan as a "hero" and said all Muslims in the U.S. military should "follow the footsteps of men like Nidal."

Monday's al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula statement spoke similarly, calling on every "soldier who works for the crusader armies" to "emulate the example of the heroic [mujahedeen] brother, Nidal Hasan."

According to the U.S. intelligence official, Mr. Abdulmutallab cited Maj. Hasan in his interrogations, but only to cite him as "an example of how Islam accepts even American soldiers." Mr. Abdulmutallab did not show any operational knowledge of the Army major or the Fort Hood attack.

In his FBI interrogation, according to the U.S. intelligence official, Mr. Abdulmutallab spoke of being in a room in Yemen receiving Muslim blessings and prayers from Mr. al-Awlaki, along with a number of other men "all covered up in white martyrs' garments," and known only by code names and "abu" honorifics.

The official said such clothing and the lack of familiarity among the men suggests that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula intends to use the men in that room in suicide missions.

The intelligence official's description comes in the wake of several reports that Yemen is breeding scores of jihadists ready to strike the West.

Yemen's top diplomat said Tuesday that hundreds of al Qaeda militants are in his country and pleaded for foreign help and intelligence in rooting them out.

"They may actually plan attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit. There are maybe hundreds of them -- 200, 300," Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told the Times of London.

The Sun also reported Monday that "British extremists in Yemen [who] are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London ... are due to return to the U.K. early in 2010 and will then await Internet instructions from al Qaeda on when to strike."

The British tabloid quoted an unnamed Scotland Yard source as saying, "We know there are four or five radicalized British Muslim cells in Yemen."

While the U.S. intelligence official cautioned that Mr. Abdulmutallab may simply have been boasting to his FBI interrogators, he told them that "this is just the beginning."

"I beat your security, and you can't stop us," the intelligence official cited Mr. Abdulmutallab as telling the FBI.

Al Qaeda's presence in Yemen also is being boosted by the release of detainees from U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At least three current or recent al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders -- Ibrahim Rubaish, Said Ali al-Shihri and Muhammad Attik al-Harbi -- were released to Saudi Arabia in 2006 and 2007.

Two other former Guantanamo inmates -- Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli and Yousef Mohammed al Shihri -- have been killed in shootouts with Yemeni and Saudi security forces after having joined the al Qaeda group.

But the Obama administration insisted Tuesday that the Detroit attack and the revelations about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula would not change its plans to close the Cuban facility and house terror detainees at a federal prison in Thomson, Ill.

"The detention facility at Guantanamo has been used by Al Qaeda as a rallying cry and recruiting tool, including its affiliate Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As our military leaders have recognized, closing the detention facility at Guantanamo is a national security imperative," a White House source told Politico on the condition of anonymity.

Later Tuesday, three hawkish senators -- Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut -- called on the Obama administration at least to halt releases to Yemen in light of the situation there and the Detroit attack.

"In view of these events, the planned repatriation of six Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay is especially alarming," the three men said in a joint statement Tuesday. "The current conditions and threat of AQAP activities are clear evidence of the danger in repatriating these Yemeni detainees. ... We request an immediate halt to the transfer of all detainees to Yemen until the American people and the Congress can be assured of the security situation in that country.

One reason Mr. al-Awlaki is so dangerous to the U.S., terrorism scholars and analysts say, is that he is a native speaker of English and a longtime U.S. resident. This gives him the cultural familiarity and shared experience to recruit jihadists and terrorists from amng the millions of Muslims in the West who may be unreachable by Middle Eastern imams.

The intelligence official said Mr. Abdulmutallab speaks English with a heavy British accent, which he may have picked up either during his 2005-08 studies in London or in his native Nigeria, a former British colony where his father is a wealthy banker.

In December, U.S.-backed Yemeni forces made at least two unsuccessful attempts to kill Mr. al-Awlaki. The latest was the day before the Detroit plane was to be attacked. In its Monday statement, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the Northwest plot was launched in response to recent "American aggression" in Yemen.

However, Mr. Hoekstra expressed skepticism about claims that the bombing plot was retaliation for the December strikes because the terrorist attack likely would have been in the works long before then. He described the timing of the U.S. strikes as simply giving al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula a convenient peg for saying its airplane plot was retaliatory.

The Yemeni Foreign Ministry said Monday that Mr. Abdulmutallab had been in the country from August to early December, having received a visa to study Arabic at the San'a Institute for the Arabic Language. A trip to Yemen to learn Arabic was also a major step in the radicalization of John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban."

According to an Associated Press dispatch from San'a, Yemen's capital, the Yemeni Embassy in the U.S. has been told not to issue student visas without Interior Ministry approval. The school's director also is being questioned by Yemeni authorities.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/airliner-suicide-mission-blessed-by-imam//print/

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Dutch to use full body scanners for U.S. flights

ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The Netherlands will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States to prevent future terrorist attacks like the Christmas Day attempt by a young Nigerian.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, managed to board a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport carrying explosives but failed to successfully detonate them.

In a preliminary report, the Dutch government on Wednesday said the plan to blow up the Detroit-bound aircraft was professional but called its execution "amateurish."

Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst said Abdulmutallab apparently assembled the explosive device, including 80 grams of PETN, in the aircraft toilet, then planned to detonate it with a syringe of chemicals.

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Ter Horst told a news conference.

Abdulmutallab arrived in Amsterdam on Friday from Lagos, Nigeria. After a layover of less than three hours, he passed through a security check at the gate in Amsterdam, including a hand baggage scan and a metal detector.

"No suspicious matters which would give reason to classify the person involved as a high-risk passenger were identified during the security check," Ter Horst said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/dutch-probe-airline-terror-attack-released//print/

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Obama moves to curb federal secrets

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents could be declassified as the federal government responds to President Barack Obama's order to rethink the way it protects the nation's secrets.

Among the changes announced Tuesday by Obama is a requirement that every record be released eventually and that federal agencies review how and why they mark documents classified or deny the release of historical records. A National Declassification Center at the National Archives will be established to assist them and help clear a backlog of the Cold War records by Dec. 31, 2013.

Obama also reversed a decision by President George W. Bush that had allowed the intelligence community to block the release of a specific document, even if an interagency panel decided the information wouldn't harm national security.

Advocates for a more open government are cautiously cheering the move.

"Everything will depend on implementation," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. But the order "has tremendous potential to reduce the level of secrecy throughout the government."

In a memo to agency heads, Obama said he expects that the order will produce "measurable progress" toward greater openness in government while also protecting the nation's most important secrets.

"I will closely monitor the results," he promised.

The still-classified Cold War records would provide a wealth of data on U.S.-Soviet relations, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, diplomacy and espionage. A Soviet spy ring in the Navy led by John Walker headlined 1985, which became known as "The Year of the Spy."

On his first day in office, Obama instructed federal agencies to be more responsive to requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act and he overturned an order by Bush that would have enabled former presidents and vice presidents to block release of sensitive records of their time in the White House.

The government spent more than $8.21 billion last year to create and safeguard classified information, and $43 million to declassify it, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the government's security classification. The figures don't include data from the principal intelligence agencies, which is classified.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/obama-moves-curb-federal-secrets//print/

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Putin threatens new missiles to counter U.S. shield

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that Russia will have to go ahead with a new class of advanced offensive nuclear missiles if the United States continues with plans to develop a defensive missile shield.

The powerful ex-president said in Vladivostok that the dispute was the main issue holding up negotiations on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Those tensions could be eased if Washington provides Moscow with full details of the missile shield plan, Mr. Putin added. He said Russia would reciprocate with information about its offensive missiles.

Russia analysts said the remarks appeared to be an effort by Mr. Putin to squeeze as many concessions as possible from the Obama administration before agreeing to a new treaty to replace an arms reduction pact that expired Dec. 5.

"It's a negotiating ploy," said Clifford Kupchan, a Russia specialist at the Eurasia Group, a risk analysis and consulting firm. "Both sides want a START treaty, but Putin wants at least informal constraints even around Obama's missile defense lite."

Earlier this year, the Obama administration scrapped plans by the George W. Bush administration to base interceptors and radar in the Czech Republic and Poland in favor of a largely sea-based program.

Nevertheless, Mr. Kupchan said, Russia remains "in perpetuity scared of a potential U.S. ability to neutralize their second strike capability."

A former U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile officer and current Defense Department official told The Washington Times that Mr. Putin is "trying to get us to drop as many missile defense systems as we will drop. He is going to push until he finds that line where we say, 'No more.' "

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Mr. Putin, who is widely considered to be more powerful than Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, appeared to deliberately link U.S. missile defense plans to the treaty aimed at reducing U.S. and Russian stockpiles of offensive nuclear weapons.

"If we want to retain the balance, we have to establish an exchange of information: Let the U.S. partners provide us information on [their] missile defense while we will give them information on [our] offensive weapons," Mr. Putin said.

A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate state of negotiations told The Times, "We are aware of Putin's comments. The bottom line is that as the president said alongside President Medvedev in Copenhagen, we continue to work on the START treaty."

Indeed, Mr. Medvedev said in Copenhagen on Dec. 18, "Our positions are very close and almost all the issues that we've been discussing for the last month are almost closed. And there are certain technical details which we can encounter, many agreements which require further work. I hope that we will be able to do it in a quite brief period of time."

The Obama administration -- like its predecessor -- has insisted that missile defense is aimed not at Russia but at Iran and North Korea. Its decision to scrap the Bush plan, however, was seen by many as a concession to Russia and part of an effort to "reset" relations and improve cooperation on other issues, including Iran.

Toby Gati, who was a special assistant for Russia to President Clinton and is a former assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, said the Russians "always regard their missile forces as the one element of their national defense which is the absolute equivalent of U.S. systems and gives them the stature of a great power on par with the United States in this area. They jealously guard any action which might undermine it."

Mrs. Gati said the Putin remarks could reflect Russian concern that the U.S. decision not to base a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland did not eliminate plans for the system altogether.

"The Russians have always been concerned about our defensive systems, and their original satisfaction that we backed away from the plan in Central Europe is now over," she said. "Now they are facing the realities of what that new system is and the fact that the U.S. continues and will continue to have systems that they regard as a threat, even if these systems are not a threat."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/putin-threatens-new-missiles-to-counter-us-shield//print/

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From the White House

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The President on Preliminary Findings Regarding the Attempted Terrorist Attack

by Jesse Lee

December 29, 2009

Speaking at Kaneohe Bay Marine Base in Kaneohe, Hawaii, the President gave an update on the latest findings regarding the incident on the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Yesterday I updated the American people on the immediate steps we took -- the increased screening and security of air travel -- to keep our country safe in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. And I announced two reviews -- a review of our terrorist watch list system and a review of our air travel screening, so we can find out what went wrong, fix it and prevent future attacks.

Those reviews began on Sunday and are now underway. Earlier today I issued the former [sic] guidelines for those reviews and directed that preliminary findings be provided to the White House by this Thursday. It's essential that we diagnose the problems quickly and deal with them immediately.

Now, the more comprehensive, formal reviews and recommendations for improvement will be completed in the coming weeks, and I'm committed to working with Congress and our intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security communities to take all necessary steps to protect the country.

I wanted to speak to the American people again today because some of this preliminary information that has surfaced in the last 24 hours raises some serious concerns. It's been widely reported that the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned U.S. officials in Africa about his son's extremist views. It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community, but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list.

There appears to be other deficiencies as well. Even without this one report there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together. We've achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks. But it's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.

Had this critical information been shared it could have been compiled with other intelligence and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.

The professionalism of the men and women in our intelligence, counterterrorism and law enforcement and homeland security communities is extraordinary. They are some of the most hardworking, most dedicated Americans that I've ever met. In pursuit of our security here at home they risk their lives, day in and day out, in this country and around the world.

Few Americans see their work, but all Americans are safer because of their successes. They have targeted and taken out violent extremists, they have disrupted plots and saved countless American lives; they are making real and daily progress in our mission to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and other extremist networks around the world. And for this every American owes them a profound and lasting debt of gratitude.

Moreover, as Secretary Napolitano has said, once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253 -- after his attempt it's clear that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems and our aviation security took all appropriate actions. But what's also clear is this: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been, so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred. And I consider that totally unacceptable.

The reviews I've ordered will surely tell us more. But what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system, because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.

I fully understand that even when every person charged with ensuring our security does what they are trained to do, even when every system works exactly as intended there is still no one hundred percent guarantee of success. Yet, this should only compel us to work even harder, to be even more innovative and relentless in our efforts.

As President I will do everything in my power to support the men and women in intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security to make sure they've got the tools and resources they need to keep America safe. But it's also my job to ensure that our intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security systems and the people in them are working effectively and held accountable. I intend to fulfill that responsibility and insist on accountability at every level.

That's the spirit guiding our reviews into the attempted attack on Christmas Day. That's the spirit that will guide all our efforts in the days and years ahead.

Thank you very much.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/29/president-preliminary-findings-regarding-attempted-terrorist-attack

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From the Department of Justice

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Major International Hacker Pleads Guilty for Massive Attack on U.S. Retail and Banking Networks

WASHINGTON- Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major American retail and financial organizations, and to steal data relating to tens of millions of credit and debit cards, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen Milagros Ortiz and Director of the U.S. Secret Service Mark Sullivan.

Gonzalez, aka "segvec," "soupnazi" and "j4guar17," pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to the payment card networks operated by, among others, Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card processor; 7-Eleven, a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co. Inc., a Maine-based supermarket chain. The plea was entered in federal court in Boston before U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock. The case is one of the largest data breaches ever investigated and prosecuted in the United States.

According to information contained in the plea agreement, Gonzalez leased or otherwise controlled several servers, or "hacking platforms," and gave access to these servers to other hackers, knowing that they would use them to store malicious software, or "malware," and launch attacks against corporate victims. Malware used against several of the corporate victims was also found on a server controlled by Gonzalez. Gonzalez tested malware by running multiple anti-virus programs in an attempt to ascertain if the programs detected the malware. According to information in the plea agreement, it was foreseeable to Gonzalez that his co-conspirators would use malware to steal tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, affecting more than 250 financial institutions. Gonzalez was indicted in New Jersey in August 2009 for this criminal conduct.

Based on the terms of the plea agreement, Gonzalez will not seek a prison term under 17 years and the government will not seek a prison term of more than 25 years. Gonzalez pleaded guilty in September 2009 in Boston to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft relating to hacks into numerous major U.S. retailers including TJX Companies, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. Gonzalez was indicted for those offenses in August 2008 in the District of Massachusetts. Gonzalez also pleaded guilty in September 2009 in Boston to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to hacks into the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain, which were the subject of a May 2008 indictment in the Eastern District of New York.

As part of the plea agreement with the government, the New Jersey case was transferred to the District of Massachusetts for plea and sentencing. According to the terms of the New Jersey plea agreement, the parties agree that Gonzalez' sentence in the New Jersey case should run concurrently with the sentence imposed in the Boston and New York cases. Gonzalez remains in federal custody. Sentencing in the Boston and New York cases is currently scheduled for March 18, 2010, in Boston. Sentencing in the New Jersey case is scheduled for March 19, 2010.

"The Department of Justice will not allow computer hackers to rob consumers of their privacy and erode the public's confidence in the security of the marketplace," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. "Criminals like Albert Gonzalez who operate in the shadows will be caught, exposed and held to account. Indeed, with timely reporting of data breaches and high-tech investigations, even the most sophisticated hacking rings can be uncovered and dismantled, as our prosecutors and agents demonstrated in this case."

"Commercial hackers like Gonzalez believe they are immune from detection and prosecution as they lurk in the shadows of the Internet," said U.S. Attorney Fishman of the District of New Jersey. "But time and again they are caught, prosecuted and sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms. Other hackers should sit up and take notice."

"The conviction of Mr. Gonzalez, and the unraveling of one of the most complex and large scale identity theft cases in history, should serve as a reminder to hacker organizations, that the Department of Justice will vigorously investigate and prosecute cybercrimes, regardless of their sophistication and global reach. Mr. Gonzalez's conviction is the result of unprecedented coordination across agency and geographical lines, and I want to commend the investigators and prosecutors who have worked tirelessly to bring this case to fruition," said U.S. Attorney Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts.

"Today's plea proves that although cyber criminals can threaten our nation's financial sector, the Secret Service and its many partners around the world will pursue and prosecute them," said U.S. Secret Service Director Sullivan. "Time and again, cooperation and advanced methodologies have allowed us to focus our resources in order to detect and prevent these types of crimes, wherever they originate."

The New Jersey case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erez Liebermann and Seth Kosto of the District of New Jersey, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Heymann and Donald Cabell of the District of Massachusetts, and Senior Counsel Kimberly Kiefer Peretti of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. All of these cases are being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-crm-1389.html

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From ICE

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ICE: A Federal Leader in Combating Terrorism

As the second largest federal contributor to the nationwide network of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plays a critical role in protecting the country against the threat of terrorism. With agents assigned to counter-terrorism investigations across the United States and around the world, ICE lends its expertise in enforcing immigration and customs laws to the over 100 JTTFs to investigate, detect, interdict, prosecute and remove terrorists and to dismantle terrorist organizations.

The foiled bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 flying into Detroit on Christmas Day is a stark reminder that the terrorism threat is ever present. ICE, along with the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stands at the ready to respond to this threat. ICE agents assigned to the Detroit JTTF were quickly on the scene to provide support to the investigation and response effort.

"When we got the word that there was a potential terrorist attack on Flight 253, our team sprang into action," said John P. Woods, deputy assistant director of ICE's National Security Investigations Division. "We immediately provided investigative support, including Arabic language translation, travel document review capabilities and other law enforcement expertise. Thanks to our history of working together with other agencies on the JTTF, everyone knew their role when it came time to respond to this critical incident."

A few facts about ICE's role on JTTFs:

Virtually every foreign terrorism investigation has a relationship to ICE's authorities for investigating cross-border crime. Foreign terrorists need to move money, weapons and people across international borders to conduct their operations, and ICE holds a unique set of law enforcement tools for disrupting these illicit activities.

Our federal partners on JTTFs depend on ICE's authorities for enforcing immigration and customs laws in counter-terrorism investigations, because these prosecutions disrupt terror plots while protecting investigative techniques.

An ICE representative serves in the second most senior position in the National JTTF and is the highest ranking DHS official in the JTTF organization.

ICE's JTTF participation is only one example of the agency's commitment to partnerships in law enforcement and homeland security. For more information on ICE partnership initiatives, visit the ICE ACCESS page.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0912/091229detroit.htm

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