El Monte school board member slain in Mexico

“She's extremely brokenhearted. It's a nightmare. I can't believe it's happening,” he said. “My brother had just such a bright future. He was finishing up his doctorate at UCLA — just the type of person you want in your community as a leader.”

“Bobby was an absolute bright, shining star in our community,” Quintero said.

Quintero said he hoped authorities would do whatever possible to catch the suspects.

Judge throws out Blackwater guards' charges in Iraqi deaths

The private contractors are accused of killing 17 unarmed civilians in Baghdad in a 2007 case that sparked an outcry. A judge says using statements from the Americans was a violation of their rights.

by David G. Savage

January 1, 2010

Reporting from Washington

A federal judge in Washington on Thursday dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in an incident that strained U.S.-Iraqi relations and sparked an outcry over the military's use of private contractors.

The judge did not rule on the substance of the charges against the security guards, but instead decided that prosecutors had wrongly relied on what the guards told State Department investigators shortly after the incident. As government contractors, the Blackwater employees were required to speak to an investigator after a shooting.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said that the use of these statements -- which were given with a promise of immunity -- violated the defendants' rights against compelled self-incrimination.

"In their zeal to bring charges against the defendants . . . the government used compelled statements to guide its charging decisions . . . and ultimately, to obtain the indictment in this case," the judge wrote in a 90-page opinion.

The efforts of prosecutors and investigators to show that their case did not hinge on compelled testimony "were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility," Urbina wrote.

Because the indictment was thrown out on legal grounds, the government could bring an appeal. It could also re-charge the guards, although a new prosecution could be difficult given the judge's finding that the case was so thoroughly tainted.

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said, "We're disappointed by the decision." He added that the department was "still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options."

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who has in the past sponsored legislation that would prohibit the hire of private military contractors, said she was dismayed by the news.

"A question I've been asking for a long time is, 'Can these private military contractors actually get away with murder?' " Schakowsky said. "This indicates that the answer is yes."

"There's a long history of these kinds of companies being able to operate with impunity," she said.

The news of the dismissal reached Baghdad late Thursday night, prompting warnings that it could further damage U.S.-Iraqi relations.

"The message is these people are protected by the American administration," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "These people were backed by the State Department. . . . We are entering the new year with a bad message."

Othman warned: "People won't be satisfied on the political or popular level."

The five guards in the case were Paul Slough of Keller, Texas; Nicholas Slatten of Sparta, Tenn.; Evan Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tenn.; and Donald Ball of West Valley City, Utah. Each had been charged with multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter and firearms violations.

A sixth guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and helped authorities confirm the details of the incident. It is unclear what effect the judge's decision will have on Ridgeway's case.

The guards maintained that they had fired their weapons in response to an attack by insurgents. But according to U.S. prosecutors and an Iraqi government investigation, the shooting was unprovoked.

An FBI investigation found that at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis killed were shot without cause.

The September 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square, which also wounded 20, put a harsh spotlight on the role of private security guards in the war there. Blackwater guards were hired to provide protection for U.S. officials, but they were not bound by all of the same rules and procedures as the U.S. military.

Before the incident, Blackwater guards had been involved in other shootings and were faulted for firing at unarmed civilians.

In their defense, the five guards in the Nisoor Square case said they were responding to reports of an explosive device detonating nearby as a convoy of U.S. officials approached the area.

The guards "were defending themselves and their comrades who were being shot at and receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents," said defense attorney David Schertler at the time of their indictment in December 2007.

Government prosecutors disputed that the guards were returning fire.

"None of the victims of this shooting was armed," said Jeffrey A. Taylor, the U.S. attorney in Washington, when he announced the indictment. "None was an insurgent."

The five guards were not charged with murder but instead with voluntary manslaughter and firearms offenses.

Urbina, who was appointed by President Clinton, has a reputation as a liberal judge. Last year, he ordered the government to free 17 Chinese Uighurs who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison. The government refused, however, and the U.S. appeals court reversed his order.

In the Blackwater case, the judge convened a hearing in October to determine whether the indictment was tainted by the statements the guards had given during their initial interviews. The hearing stretched over three weeks.

He concluded Thursday that the "defendants' compelled statements pervaded nearly every aspect of the government's investigation and prosecution."

For that reason, the entire indictment must be dismissed, he said. In his opinion, Judge Urbina cited the case of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, whose conviction in the Iran-Contra case was overturned on similar grounds in 1990.

North was forced to testify under immunity before Congress, and he was later indicted and convicted by a special prosecutor. Although North's actual words were not used against him, the U.S. appeals court said that the entire case was tainted because prosecutors were aware of his testimony.

Schakowsky, who had not yet read Urbina's decision, said she would "investigate how various arms of the government tripped over themselves in this case."

"We're going to have to understand how this happened," she said.

Schakowsky said she worried that the dismissal of charges in the Blackwater case would send a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. military and contractors will not be held accountable for crimes. She pointed out that soldiers and civilian contractors are often indistinguishable in war zones.

"I'll be interested to see how the government of Iraq responds to this decision," she said. "I think it will fuel anti-American sentiment."

One survivor of the incident, a cabdriver named Bara Sadoun Ismail, who was shot twice, still held out hope that the guards would eventually be prosecuted.

"I don't think it's true that these five people have been released for lack of evidence," he said. "The American justice [system] works. There is just delay."

Separately, Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince, have been sued in federal court by the victims of the Nisoor Square shooting.

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the suit, the complaint alleged that Blackwater and Prince "created and fostered a culture of lawlessness among [Blackwater] employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life."

Blackwater, which has changed its name to Xe Services, is seeking to have the suit dismissed.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/la-na-blackwater1-2010jan01,0,3517374,print.story

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White House pledges to fix intelligence gaps

Inquiries show better communication might have flagged an alleged terrorist who boarded a U.S.-bound flight with explosives, officials say.

by Josh Meyer and Peter Nicholas and Alana Semuels

January 1, 2010

Reporting from Washington and Honolulu

The Obama administration pledged Thursday to close gaps in the intelligence system that enabled a suspected terrorist carrying explosives to board a U.S.-bound plane, and vowed to create a better system for sharing and analyzing the information that floods the intelligence community.

The White House based its assertions on the early findings of two inquiries into what it calls the "human and systemic failures" that took place in the run-up to a Nigerian man's alleged attempt to blow up a plane carrying nearly 300 people from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas.

The administration would not release the conclusions, but it said Obama will hold meetings next week in Washington aimed at getting the tangle of government agencies responsible for fighting terrorism to more diligently assess and share information.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that she would send senior department officials to meet with leaders from major international airports in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America to review security procedures and technology being used to screen passengers on U.S.-bound flights.

Senior administration and intelligence officials said the inquiries' preliminary findings show that in some cases, systemic problems, including a lack of interagency coordination, prevented key pieces of information from being shared or matched up.

But in other cases, intelligence analysts simply didn't connect the disparate pieces of information already in their computer databases that could have flagged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and stopped him from boarding Northwest Airlines Flight 253, according to officials familiar with the preliminary investigation.

The need for the White House review underscores one of the more troubling aspects of the Christmas incident: Despite spending billions to shore up the nation's defenses and intelligence networks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. still struggles to digest and act upon all of its anti-terrorism intelligence.

"It points to something fundamental," said Richard A. Clarke, a former top counter-terrorism official in the Bush and Clinton administrations. "No matter how good your software is or how good your procedures are, at the end of the day it comes back to people. And if people think that this is a 9-5 job and they're not filled with a sense of urgency every day, then you'll get these kinds of mistakes."

Briefing reporters in Hawaii, a senior administration official said the various intelligence breakdowns identified so far are being addressed.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "When we do have information and when we have good information -- as we often do, given how good our intelligence professionals are -- the failure to share that information is not going to be tolerated."

According to intelligence and administration officials, the lack of communication and intelligence-sharing is especially apparent in the Abdulmutallab case.

Starting in August, the National Security Agency intercepted some communications between senior members of Al Qaeda's regional network in Yemen in which they discussed possible attacks involving an unidentified Nigerian.

But those intercepts were vague, did not refer to potential attacks on U.S. soil, and were not highlighted as an urgent cause for concern for the nation's analysts at the CIA, the National Counterterrorism Center or elsewhere in the U.S. intelligence community, according to officials familiar with the communications.

Then, in November, Abdulmutallab's father told officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that his 23-year-old son had fallen in with a group of extremists and might have traveled to Yemen.

Much of that information was sent back to Washington in a classified cable, and although officials at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., prepared a formal report on the father's information, it wasn't shared with the larger intelligence community until after the jet incident, an intelligence official familiar with the document said.

Administration officials have said that the information in that report could have placed Abdulmutallab on federal lists that would have subjected him to additional screenings or barred him from flying.

But other officials said the CIA did send the raw data from the father's visit to classified computer networks that are available to all analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center, the agency set up after Sept. 11 as a clearinghouse for intelligence.

Some U.S. officials said the raw data would not have flagged the suspect because the information was too vague.

"Abdulmutallab's father didn't say his son was a terrorist, let alone planning an attack," another U.S. intelligence official said. "I'm not aware of [any] intelligence that suddenly would have flagged this guy -- whose name nobody even had until November -- as a killer en route to America."

Others challenged that assertion, saying that if the CIA had disseminated its formal report, it would have drawn far more attention than raw, unhighlighted data and could have prompted analysts to link the intercepts of the Al Qaeda leaders in Yemen with the information provided by Abdulmutallab's father.

If they had linked the two pieces of information, authorities might have flagged Abdulmutallab as a serious threat.

Instead, his name was added to a general threat database of 550,000 names that is not cross-checked with other databases. And Abdulmutallab was allowed to board Flight 253.

An intelligence official from a different agency defended the NCTC, dismissing criticism that an analyst should have matched up the intercepts about an unspecified Nigerian with the raw intelligence from the CIA.

"The bull's-eye seems to have settled on them," he said, adding such an assessment was unfair.

The NCTC, he said, "routinely gets terabytes of data, in quantities that boggle the mind. The question is, what format was it in? Was it query-able? Could you look for it and find it? Was it shareable? Was it in a database that could be accessed by everyone?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-report1-2010jan01,0,2015710,print.story

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Book takes Mexico drug war to task

The book by two former Mexican government officials criticizes President Felipe Calderon's campaign against the drug cartels. The authors say the focus should be on smaller-bore crimes.

by Ken Ellingwood

January 1, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Almost everything to do with the Mexican government's war against drugs is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The threat from narco-trafficking is overblown. Fighting cartels won't stop the flow of illegal drugs or erase Mexican corruption. The real battle over drugs lies on the U.S. side of the border.

That's the gist of a provocative new book that challenges virtually every premise on which Mexican President Felipe Calderon has based his 3-year-old offensive against drug cartels.

"El Narco: La Guerra Fallida" ("Narco: The Failed War"), by two top officials under Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, is one of the first book-length looks at the crackdown launched by Calderon when he took office in December 2006.

The Spanish-language book, which has sold well here, is controversial and stubbornly contrarian, to the point of suggesting that Mexico might be better off coming to terms with the drug capos and focusing on smaller-bore crimes that plague Mexicans.

"Calderon could have easily launched a major crusade against insecurity, violence and unorganized crime, on the type of minor misdemeanors that gave birth to Rudy Giuliani's zero tolerance stance in New York," the authors assert. "But that crusade would never have unleashed the passions, support or sense of danger that a full-fledged war on drugs actually did."

In "El Narco," former Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar and former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda attempt an end run past the usual debate over whether the Calderon anti-crime strategy is working. Instead, they maintain that the offensive was unnecessary, and they seek to poke holes in many of the reasons Calderon has offered for launching a campaign that has claimed more than 15,000 lives.

The president's assertion that Mexico faced a crisis of deepening drug consumption at home? They present figures showing that though domestic use has risen, it is minuscule compared with countries such as the United States.

Calderon's contention that drug violence had reached alarming levels when he decided to act? The authors quote studies showing that the nation's overall homicide rate had been in decline for years. (It has gone up since.)

"Why in the world was it necessary to declare an all-out war against the cartels because of growing violence, when violence was actually diminishing?" the authors ask.

The book argues that U.S. drug use -- the motor of the violent trafficking industry -- is largely unaffected by Mexico's enforcement actions. The answer for Mexico, it says, lies in swinging debate north of the border in favor of drug decriminalization or legalization.

"If what is good for us is decriminalization, that is what we should fight for," write Aguilar and Castaneda, a leftist intellectual and commentator who is the better known of the two.

The authors propose some public-safety measures, including creation of a national police force and a no-fly zone over southern Mexico. But rather than send troops to fight drug cartels, they argue, Mexico should focus on limiting the "collateral damage" that most aggrieves Mexicans: kidnappings, extortion, car theft and corruption.

This could mean "tacit quid pro quos" with gangs to get them to keep down criminal mayhem in Mexico's streets, the writers say, but it doesn't require a formal handshake.

"The narcos understand," they say. "If they were imbeciles, they wouldn't be rich."

Aguilar and Castaneda contend that in launching the drug offensive, the conservative Calderon sought to win legitimacy for his presidency after a disputed election victory in 2006. That thesis is heard often on the Mexican left.

Calderon hasn't directly referred to the authors, but he has sharply criticized those who he says would have Mexico run from the drug war or cut deals with traffickers. He says such approaches would "erode the foundations that support our society, as a state based on law."

Calderon has frequently characterized his crime crackdown as an attempt to clean and modernize a system that had become thoroughly corrupted through decades of official acceptance of the drug trade, or even outright collusion with it.

Last month, he urged Mexicans to "ignore those who naively want the government to just walk away from the fight, as if the problems would solve themselves by magic."

The outspoken authors of "El Narco" are uncharacteristically spare when it comes to solving Mexico's graft problem. They agree that drug-related corruption has long been part of the Mexican landscape, especially in small towns, but are skeptical of reports that traffickers' penetration of the system had hit grave new depths when Calderon sent troops into the streets.

"This is Mexico, not Norway," they write. "Narcos' complicity with municipal, state and federal authorities wasn't born yesterday."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-narco-book1-2010jan01,0,6342270,print.story

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From the Daily News

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US scanners went unused at Nigeria airport

LAGOS, Nigeria—The U.S. gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs, but none were used on the man suspected trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight, Nigerian officials say.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tracked by cameras through the security check, only went through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed when he arrived at Nigeria's busiest airport to start his journey, the officials say.

The Soter RS scanners delivers 3-D images that would have shown something hidden under clothing. But a spokesman for the anti-drug agency, which operates the Nigerian machines, told The Associated Press that the one at Lagos airport is used sporadically and only on potential narcotics smugglers.

After clearing security at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Abdulmutallab flew to Amsterdam, boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253, and allegedly lit an explosive device hidden in his underpants as the plane approached Detroit on Christmas Day.

Even word of the scanners' presence in Nigeria's four main airports apparently hasn't reached top officials, including one responsible for airline safety.

Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters Wednesday that his government would buy 3-D full-body scanners for the airports, and insisted there were currently none there.

But on Thursday, Ofoyeju Mitchell of Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, told the AP that one of the machines sits in a room near the security checkpoint in Lagos' often chaotic international airport.

He said they aren't used on every passenger. Instead, drug agents select frequent flyers, travelers heading to and from drug shipment points, and people who seem deceptive or under stress. Nigeria is a major transit point for Afghan heroin and South American cocaine.

"The frequency of checks is determined by the risk level of our assessment ... (and) reasonable cause for suspicion," Mitchell said.

Such limited use is not what the U.S. State Department intended when it gave Nigeria the scanners.

According to an April 30 U.S. State Department report, the scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008 "to detect explosives and drugs on passengers."

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria would not comment on the use of the scanners.

Reuben Abati, a columnist at Nigeria's Guardian newspaper, highlighted a different risk factor—a culture of graft and favoritism that allows VIPs to bypass screening.

"Big men and their wives and children are often piloted through security," Abati wrote. "They could go straight to the tarmac to board the aircraft, depending on the scope of their influence. With the power of cash, anything can be taken onto an aircraft in Nigeria."

Abdulmutallab's father is a prominent banker. However, Demuren and the country's Information Minister have said Abdulmutallab did go through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed, citing security camera footage which they refuse to release.

Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, did not deny that some passengers have been allowed to breeze past security checkpoints.

"It is possible in the past that people may have gone above the law," he said. However, he insisted that new rules and their strict enforcement would prevent such practices from recurring.

Passengers can fly directly from this West African city to Europe and the United States. The most recent available statistics say some 2.1 million international travelers passed through the airport in 2006.

In new information released Thursday, Information Minister Dora Akunyili said Abdulmutallab flew into Lagos from Accra, Ghana on Christmas Eve and "spent less than 30 minutes" in the airport before catching the flight to Amsterdam.

Nigerian officials had said earlier that his round-trip ticket was bought in Accra for $2,831 in cash on Dec. 16. Akunyili's statement did not say how he spent the rest of the week before flying to Lagos.

Abdulmutallab raised no alarms as he boarded the flight to Amsterdam. He also underwent a second set of searches in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport that turned up nothing.

Schiphol has 15 scanners, but the U.S. has discouraged their routine use on privacy grounds. Dutch authorities say Abdulmutallab raised no suspicions that would require a scan.

Demuren, the civil aviation chief, said scanners Nigeria will buy are "very new machines" used in few airports worldwide. "Nigeria is determined to acquire these," he said.

He referred further questions to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, the agency that oversees airport construction and maintenance. An agency spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Since the attempted bombing, the police presence at the Lagos airport has noticeably increased, with officers cradling weathered assault rifles both inside and outside the terminal. Airline officials also are making a point of going through every bag presented to them at check-in.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14101884

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From the New York Post

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Powder-bomb airplane plot wasn't the 1st

by CHUCK BENNETT and ANDY SOLTIS

December 31, 2009

In an incident eerily similar to the Christmas Day crotch- bomb plot, airport guards in Somalia nabbed a suspected terrorist last month trying to smuggle a syringe, acid and more than 2 pounds of explosive powder aboard a Dubai-bound flight, authorities revealed yesterday.

The Somali terrorist was carrying more than 13 times the amount of explosives that al Qaeda-linked operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was packing in his undies in his failed attempt to blow up a jet over Detroit.

"We don't know whether [the November suspect is] linked with al Qaeda or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Somali police spokesman Abdulahi Hassan Barise.

In Washington, US officials said the Homeland Security Department did not learn of the Nov. 13 incident until yesterday morning.

It resembled Abdulmutallab's Christmas Day attempt to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with 80 grams of the explosive PETN -- believed to be enough to blow a hole in the plane.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said linking the Somalia case to the foiled Christmas attack "would be speculative at this point."

The suspect in the Somali incident initially told authorities, who had recognized him as a member of the al Shabaab Islamist insurgency group, that the chemicals were for his farm.

Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Ali told reporters in the capital city of Mogadishu that he believed the powder was explosive, and it had been sent to London for analysis. Somali officials do not believe the man sought to bomb the jet, which was operated by Daallo Airlines and was headed to Somaliland and Djibouti before Dubai, as it contained religious pilgrims.

The news came as Washington was abuzz over whether heads will roll because of the stunning intelligence failure to detect Abdulmutallab.

US intelligence chief Adm. Dennis Blair and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are obvious contenders for the chopping block, but administration officials gave no hints as Republicans hammered the Obama administration over the security lapse.

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces stormed an al Qaeda lair yesterday, wounding several terrorists, as the country's leaders vowed to destroy the group that orchestrated the bombing attempt over Detroit.

US officials said Abdulmutallab has provided some leads to help find his Yemeni handlers, but locating them won't be easy, since huge parts of the country, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, are lawless.

In other developments yesterday:

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/national/powder_bomb_airplane_plot_wasn_the_dTqOAfpkb9e74ddM9PjY5H

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Stopping terror before takeoff

by JAMES JAY CARAFANO

December 31, 2009

The Transportation Security Administra tion's move to mix up security procedures on flights is likely to hamper terrorists. But in the end, we need to stop them before they buy their plane tickets.

Terrorists want the security they face to be predictable -- and for the results of their attacks to be predictable. They rehearse, do practice runs, test security and conduct surveillance of airports and airlines. When they attack, they want the results to be successful and spectacular. They must get it right the first time. So any change in security screws them up.

For that reason, it probably makes a lot of sense that the TSA decided after the unsuccessful Christmas Day crotch-bomber incident to let the airlines mix up the security procedures on flights. On some trips, you'll have to stay in your seats. Sometimes, you won't be allowed a blanket for the baby, to use electronic games or type on your laptop. On other flights, pilots will have a whole different list of taboos.

The jumble of security measures will frustrate and confuse many airline passengers -- but it's likely to give al Qaeda pause. Having gotten it wrong and stirred up a hornet's nest of airline security worldwide, it will probably wait a bit before it tries again.

The security "mashup," however, is likely just a short-term fix. The evildoers will eventually figure out how to do an end-run around any security we dish out. America needs a better long-term answer to aviation security.

Likely as not, the Detroit-bound bomber was just a test run, similar to Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber. If al Qaeda thought it had crotch-bombing down to a science, it would've hit a dozen planes at the same time. They'll keep at it till they get it right -- and throwing billions more dollars at airline security won't stop them.

The answer is to stop them before they buy a plane ticket, let alone try to set their pants on fire on an overseas flight. That means more connecting of the dots. The Department of Homeland Security must identify suspicious travelers and keep them off planes or at least make sure they get more scrutiny before their seating zone is called.

Better still, we need effective counterterrorism operations that nab the leaders, break up the organizations, mess up operations, cut off funding and thwart recruiting.

The fact that an international terrorist ring was able to put a plot together and US intelligence knew nothing about it till the stewardess grabbed the fire extinguisher and a passenger had the bomber in a hammer-lock -- well, that's just appalling.

In short, Detroit makes our intelligence, military and law-enforcement efforts to thwart attacks on the homeland look like something from 2001. We were supposed to have come a long way since then. What happened?

In fact, government agencies have thwarted 28 attacks on the homeland since 9/11. But in the last year, the number of aborted strikes has doubled, and in the latest one, we just got lucky.

So for now, buckle up and live with it, passengers. We'll need to remain alert while Washington tries to get its act together.

James Jay Carafano directs the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Stud ies at the Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/stopping_terror_before_takeoff_hh3OygjsQ4f8fLIWaJksRO

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Montana High Court Paves Way for Physician-Assisted Suicide

HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Supreme Court said Thursday that nothing in state law prevents patients from seeking physician-assisted suicide, paving the way for the procedure.

A year ago, a state District Court judge ruled that the state's constitutional rights to privacy and dignity protect the right of terminally ill Montanans to get the drugs needed to die peacefully.

But advocates have said a decision from the state Supreme Court was needed before physician-assisted suicide would be embraced by the medical community.

The Supreme Court disagreed that the Montana Constitution guarantees the right. But it said in an opinion Thursday that "we find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy."

Oregon and Washington state allow assisted suicides for terminally ill patients. Oregon adopted the nation's first "death with dignity" law in 1997.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126228802529412197.html#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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Obama expects review of Christmas attack by Thursday night

by Joseph Weber

President Obama said Thursday he expects top U.S. security agencies to submit by tonight their preliminary findings on the review he ordered on the attempted Christmas Day terrorist act.

The president said he spoke this morning with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, about the "human and systemic failures" that allowed an alleged terrorist to purportedly attempt to blow up an international flight to Detroit.

Mr. Obama said he will review the assessments over the long, New Year's weekend, then meet Tuesday with agency leaders to discuss ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements.

Authorities say that on Christmas Day a 23-year-old Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit as the plane made its final landing approach.

Abdulmutallab allegedly used an explosive he stashed undetected in his underpants.

Mr. Obama said his called to Ms. Napolitano included discussions about what the agency has done since the incident to review detection capabilities and enhanced security measures.

Obama has demanded answers on why the U.S. intelligence community never pieced together information that could have prevented Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to destroy the plane, from getting on board. Obama called the situation "totally unacceptable" when he met with reporters Tuesday and put his top intelligence officials on notice that he wanted changes.

Administration officials have spent the last week poring over reams of data, looking for failings that allowed Abdulmutallab to board the flight that began in Nigeria. Officials have been sending details to Mr. Brennan, who has emerged at the center of the review.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden's group, claimed it was behind the attempt to bomb the Northwest airliner.

Senior U.S. officials told the Associated Press that intelligence authorities are looking at conversations between the suspect in the failed attack and at least one al Qaeda member. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the conversations were vague or coded, but the intelligence community believes that, in hindsight, the communications may have been referring to the Detroit attack.

Officials said the link between the suspect's planning and al Qaeda's goals was becoming clearer as the review progressed.

The goal now, officials say, is to do everything the U.S. can to prevent a repeat. Even so, they acknowledge a perfect system is impossible to create and it will take weeks to complete a more comprehensive investigation.

Abdulmutallab had been placed in one expansive database, but he never made it onto more restrictive lists that would have caught the attention of U.S. counter-terrorist screeners, despite his father's warnings to U.S. Embassy officials in Nigeria last month. Those warnings did not result in Abdulmutallab's U.S. visa being revoked.

U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen. Yemen's government has said Abdulmutallab spent two periods in the country, from 2004 to 2005 and from August to December of this year, just before the attempted attack.

The U.S. has increasingly provided intelligence, surveillance and training to Yemeni forces during the past year, and has provided some firepower, according to a senior U.S. defense official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/obama-receive-prelim-report-airline-attack//print/

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Pakistan seeks terror charges against Va. men

by Munir Ahmad

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani police said Thursday they plan to ask a court to charge five Americans arrested in early December with terrorism and will seek life sentences against them.

The young Muslim men, who are from Northern Virginia, were captured in the eastern Pakistan city of Sargodha in a case that has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups.

Tahir Gujar, a senior police investigator in Sargodha, said police almost had concluded their investigation and that the men would appear in an anti-terrorist court in the city on Jan. 4.

"We are certain that these five Americans wanted to carry out attacks in Pakistan, and we will seek life imprisonment for them," he said.

Under Pakistan's complicated judicial system, the police will recommend the charges during the court appearance on Monday. However, the court might not charge the men immediately, and the five likely will be given time to prepare their defense after they have seen the charges.

Mr. Gujar didn't say what police believe the men intended to target.

Authorities have said that the five had a map of Chashma Barrage, a complex that includes a water reservoir and other structures in the populous province of Punjab. It is located near nuclear power facilities about 125 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan has a nuclear weapons arsenal, but it also has nuclear power plants for civilian purposes.

Any nuclear activity in Pakistan tends to come under scrutiny because of growing Islamic militancy and the South Asian nation's past history of leaking sensitive nuclear technology stemming from the actions of the main architect of its atomic weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. But as militancy has spread in Pakistan, officials repeatedly have insisted the nuclear weapons program is safe.

Pakistani police and government officials have made a series of escalating and, at times, seemingly contradictory allegations about the five men's intentions, while U.S. officials have been far more cautious, though they, too, are looking at charging the men.

Officials in both countries have said they expected the men eventually would be deported back to the United States, but charging the men in Pakistan could delay that process. Pakistan's legal system can be slow and opaque.

In an interview with the Associated Press last week, Punjab province Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the men had established contact with Taliban commanders. He said they had planned to meet Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and his deputy, Qari Hussain, in Pakistan's tribal regions before going on to attack sites inside Pakistan.

The nuclear power plant "might have been" one of the targets, Mr. Sanaullah alleged.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the potential charges and would not say what efforts Washington was making to bring the men back.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/pakistan-seek-terror-charges-against-va-men//print/

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Secretary Napolitano Dispatches Senior Department Officials to Review Security Procedures With International Airport Leaders

December 31, 2009

Secretary Napolitano to travel in the coming weeks to build on these efforts

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced that she is dispatching Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman and other senior Department officials on a broad international outreach effort to meet with leaders from major international airports in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America to review security procedures and technology being used to screen passengers on flights bound for the United States.

“As part of the ongoing review to determine exactly what went wrong leading up to Friday's attempted terrorist attack, we are looking not only at our own processes, but also beyond our borders to ensure effective aviation security measures are in place for U.S-bound flights that originate at international airports,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Because I am fully committed to making whatever changes are necessary to protect the safety of the traveling public, I am sending Deputy Secretary Lute and Assistant Secretary Heyman to work with our international partners on ways to collectively bolster our tactics for defeating terrorists wherever they may seek to launch an attack, and I will follow up on these efforts with ministerial-level meetings within the next few weeks.”

Deputy Secretary Lute and Assistant Secretary Heyman will first travel to Europe , departing on Monday. While there, they will brief European authorities on the findings of President Obama's aviation security review and then report back to Secretary Napolitano on their discussions on enhancing international security measures.

Following the attempted attack on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a directive for additional security measures to be implemented for last point of departure international flights to the United States , such as increased gate pat-downs and bag searches. At the direction of the flight crew, passengers may also be asked to follow additional instructions, such as stowing personal items, turning off electronic equipment and remaining seated during certain portions of the flight.

Other security measures implemented have included the deployment of additional law enforcement at airports, air marshals, and explosives detection canine teams. TSA will continue to work with airline and law enforcement authorities, as well as federal, state, local and international partners to put additional security measures in place to ensure that aviation security remains strong. For more information on current security measures, visit  www.tsa.gov .

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1262293437880.shtm

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From the FBI

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec09/review_123109.html

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Federal Indictment Charges Three Eugene Residents with Sex Trafficking of Minor Victim

PORTLAND, OR—Sharlise Michelle Duckworth, 27, appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Donald C. Ashmanskas, on a federal indictment charging sex trafficking of a minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Duckworth entered a plea of not guilty, was released on pre-trial release conditions and ordered to report for trial on March 2, 2009. Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors carries a maximum penalty of five years In prison and sex trafficking of minor has a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years and maximum of life in prison.

The federal indictment alleges Duckworth and co-defendants Stanley Mack Spriggs Jr., a.k.a. “Bug”, 26, and Hollie Robin Spriggs 27, both of Eugene/Springfield were involved in a conspiracy to recruit, entice, and provide minor girls online to engage in sex acts for money. Defendants would take photographs of the minors that were used with commercial sex advertisements on Craigslist and other online advertising services. Hotel rooms were rented so the minors could engage in sex. All of the proceeds from the illegal activity was given to the defendants. The federal charges comes after a lengthy investigation conducted by the Eugene Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Stanley Mack Spriggs is in state custody serving a prison sentence for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He will be arraigned at a later date. Hollie Robin Spriggs has been served with a summons to appear U.S. District Court, Portland on January 20, 2010.

An indictment is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant should be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was brought by the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force (OHTTF). The OHTTF was created in May of 2005. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the task force provides a comprehensive collaborative approach to combat human trafficking through partnerships between federal, state, local law enforcement, social service providers, and other government and non-government agencies. For more information about OHTTF visit www.oregonoath.org. To provide a local tip on a human trafficking please call Multnomah County Sheriff Deputy Sgt. Keith Bickford at (503) 251-2479. You can also report human trafficking tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or go online to NHTRC@PolarisProject.org.

This case was investigated by the Eugene Police Department and the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Kemp L. Strickland is handling the prosecution of the case.

http://portland.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/pd123009.htm

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