Obama takes steps to bolster security

The president, sharing an internal investigation into the foiled Christmas airline attack, calls for changes to improve the system but avoids placing specific blame.

by Christi Parsons and Greg Miller

January 8, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Declaring that "the buck stops with me," President Obama on Thursday released the results of an internal investigation into the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt and ordered a series of incremental measures meant to close gaps in the U.S. intelligence system that failed to detect it in advance.

The president avoided blaming any particular agency or official for the breakdowns that allegedly allowed a Nigerian extremist to board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit armed with explosives, leaving a series of warning signs along the way.

"As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility," Obama said.

The remedies he ordered in a memo to Cabinet officials and security chiefs mostly were modest steps. And the report, conducted by Obama's counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan, concluded that another round of sweeping intelligence reorganization "is not required."

"Before 9/11, there was often a reluctance or refusal to share information between departments and agencies," Brennan said. "That is not what happened here."

The president ordered the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created in the post-Sept. 11 intelligence overhaul and was singled out for criticism in the new report, "to prioritize and pursue thoroughly" terrorism tips.

The CIA also was faulted in the report for failing to assemble important clues. But CIA Director Leon E. Panetta issued a statement that seemed anything but apologetic.

The agency had collected and shared information about the alleged bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, before the plot, Panetta said, but would now take steps to "do even more to support our government's efforts."

In particular, the agency gave itself a new 48-hour deadline for disseminating information on suspected extremists, and pledged to conduct more thorough traces on suspects' names to pull up data that might otherwise fall through the cracks.

Obama also ordered the State Department to revoke visas when questions arise and to make it more difficult for people showing up in terrorism-related databases to receive visas. Abdulmutallab's father had warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son was becoming radicalized and might be a threat to the United States, but the subsequent internal review found that a misspelling of Abdulmutallab's name led State Department officials to mistakenly believe that he did not have a visa.

Imaging machines

In a briefing following the release of the report, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled a series of changes her agency is implementing, including plans that were in motion before Christmas to deploy 300 advanced imaging machines to airports around the country.

She also said that the administration would press foreign governments to tighten airport screening procedures.

The Christmas Day incident underscores that "the screening procedures at foreign airports are critical to our safety here in the United States," she said. "After all, there were passengers from 17 countries aboard Flight 253. This is an international issue, not just one about the United States."

Currently, 19 U.S. airports use the scanners. But the move to expand their use ran into strong opposition on privacy grounds from Republicans and Democrats in Congress last year. Civil libertarians described the scanners as a "virtual strip-search."

In June, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a freshman Republican from Utah, won approval of a bill to bar the use of these body imagers as the primary scanners at airports. "Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane," Chaffetz said at the time.

His amendment won on a 310-118 vote in June. The Senate has not taken up the idea.

For months, Republican critics have complained that Obama does not take a hard enough line against terrorism, and have criticized decisions such as his move to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On Thursday, Obama reaffirmed his previous statements that the U.S. is, in fact, "at war" with Al Qaeda.

"Over the past two weeks, we've been reminded again of the challenge we face in protecting our country against a foe that is bent on our destruction," he said. "And while passions and politics can often obscure the hard work before us, let's be clear about what this moment demands. We are at war. We are at war against Al Qaeda."

At the same time, however, the president said Americans shouldn't sacrifice their ideals out of fear.

"Here at home, we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust," he said.

Obama acknowledged that the government may not be able to prevent every attempted attack against Americans. "There is, of course, no foolproof solution," he said. "As we develop new screening technologies and procedures, our adversaries will seek new ways to evade them, as was shown by the Christmas attack. In the never-ending race to protect our country, we have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary."

Arraignment today

Abdulmutallab, 23, is to be arraigned today on charges of attempted murder, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and other charges that carry a penalty of as long as life in prison. Witnesses on the flight said he attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear.

Obama said he was more interested in fixing the problems than in assigning blame. Aides said there were no plans to fire anyone over the failures documented in the new report.

During the intensive reviews this week, White House aides said that various administration officials took responsibility for shortcomings in their agencies leading up to the Christmas Day incident. During an afternoon briefing with reporters, Brennan said Thursday that he personally felt he had failed the president.

"I told the president today I let him down," Brennan said. "I am the president's assistant for homeland security and counter-terrorism."

Brennan also claimed responsibility for the fact that National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter left town with his family the day after Christmas. Brennan defended Leiter, who he said left a "full complement of folks" on duty, including his deputy.

"I said, 'Mike, no, you deserve this vacation, you need to be with your son,' so I was the one who told him he should go out there," Brennan said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-obama-terror8-2010jan08,0,1402957,print.story

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FBI arrests 2 in N.Y. terror investigation

From the Associated Press

January 8, 2010

NEW YORK — Two men have been arrested in connection with the investigation of a bomb plot against New York City.

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko says Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were arrested early today in New York.

The FBI says the arrests were part of "an ongoing investigation." The charges were not immediately detailed.

Medunjanin's attorney says the FBI seized his client's passport Thursday. Robert C. Gottlieb says he was not officially notified that his client had been arrested after being treated for minor injuries from a traffic accident.

Gottlieb says the search warrant indicates the passport was sought as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Najibullah Zazi (nah-jee-BOO'-lah ZAH'-zee) has previously pleaded not guilty to that charge.

The Colorado airport driver is accused of getting Al Qaeda training to build homemade bombs to attack New York City.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-naw-ny-terror-arrests9-2010jan09,0,3198787,print.story

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3 in 25 juveniles in detention are sexually abused, study finds

A federal report identifies 13 detention centers with high rates of abuse. It's a 'systematic problem,' a human rights activist says.

by Nicole Santa Cruz

January 8, 2010

About 3 out of every 25 youths in state and privately run juvenile correctional facilities have experienced at least one incident of sexual victimization, according to a federal study released Thursday.

The study, which is the first of its kind, brings attention to the need for more training and accountability for staff members at such facilities, said Linda McFarlane, deputy executive director of Just Detention International, a nonprofit human rights organization that works on preventing abuse in detention centers.

"It's more of a systemic problem," she said.

The study defines victimization as any forced sexual activity with another youth or any sexual activity with facility a staffer. The facilities included juvenile halls and detention centers.

The study, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, also identified 13 facilities with a high rate of sexual victimization. Out of the centers, six had victimization rates of 30% or more, four had rates between 25% and 30%, and three had rates between 20% and 25%. Two Virginia facilities made the list, as did two Texas facilities.

Bruce Twyman, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, called the results shocking. Over the last 18 months, the department has implemented extra staff training and installed more monitoring video cameras to deal with the issue, he said.

"It's a problem in Virginia," Twyman said. "It's a problem nationally."

The study reported that 10% of abuse incidents involved staff members, with almost all of the abuse involving females.

"When we put kids in custody and staff has absolute power and control over what happens to those kids, it is crucial that very careful mechanisms to check that power are put into place," McFarlane said.

Youths who had experienced any prior sexual assault were twice as likely to report victimization, according to the survey. About 60% of the misconduct occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight.

The study, mandated by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act, was based on audio computer-assisted interviews conducted from June 2008 to April 2009. Out of the 166 state-run facilities and 29 locally or privately operated centers, 9,198 youths who had served sentences responded.

Overall, 91% of youths in the facilities were male, according to the study. More than 26,550 adjudicated youths are held in centers nationwide.

One person who says he experienced sexual abuse while in custody is Troy Erik Isaac, 36, of North Hollywood. Until January 2008, Isaac says, he was in and out of detention centers his entire life. He was 12 when he was assaulted the first time -- while being held at a California detention hall for vandalism.

Isaac says he was assaulted throughout the next 22 years in various detention centers and halls and in prison.

"Psychologically, it damaged me," he said. "I had to learn on my own how to protect myself."

As a result, Isaac often lied to staff members about being suicidal so he could be isolated.

"There's no such thing as consenting juveniles and there's no such thing as consenting adults in prison," said Isaac, who started a nonprofit community service organization, Hands On Advocacy Group.

Eleven facilities, including California's Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino, were identified with low rates of sexual victimization.

But, McFarlane said, whether the rate is low or high, it's still happening.

"When I read the numbers, I think of the faces, the lives behind each of these percentage points which have been affected for life," she said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-juvenile-detention8-2010jan08,0,5164864,print.story

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Wariness Persists at Airports

Passengers at U.S. airports have been jolted by at least two dozen disruptive but ultimately nonthreatening security incidents in the days since the failed bombing attempt on a Northwest flight, reflecting a new round of jitters and raising questions about the impact continued disruptions could have on the airline industry.

One of the latest incidents came Wednesday night at Miami International Airport, when a Delta Air Lines pilot returned a taxiing aircraft to the jet bridge after a passenger on the Detroit-bound flight said he wanted to "kill all the Jews," according to a police report. Authorities escorted the man off the flight, and several witnesses said the man spoke in a foreign language believed to be Arabic, according to the report. Once officers conducted a security sweep, the aircraft departed.

Mr. Lautenberg said he requested the release of the tape in hopes that the man will be found. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the TSA said the video "clearly shows that a TSA officer's actions led to the Sunday incident." The officer has been placed on administrative leave.

Among the other incidents, a suspicious material found in luggage at an airport in Bakersfield, Calif., caused the airport to shut down temporarily. The material turned out to be honey stored in bottles. On Wednesday, two military jets were scrambled to escort a plane back to Portland, Ore., after a passenger became unruly on board.

Several European and U.S. airlines say they are still adjusting to heightened security procedures for passengers on flights to the U.S. The new rules subject all passengers flying to the U.S. from or through countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism or certain other countries "of interest" to enhanced screening.

The 24 incidents the TSA tallied at U.S. airports from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3 involve checkpoint closures, terminal evacuations or breaches of sterile areas. That compares with 37 such incidents during the previous week, and 18 the week before that, according to TSA data. The TSA official said the agency screens more than two million passengers each day at thousands of checkpoints across the country, and that the holiday travel season could account for increases in incidents.

But the incidents are likely being more highly publicized in the wake of the recent bombing attempt. "Clearly, after the events of Dec. 25, there is an increased focus on aviation security, and therefore I think people are more aware of and cognizant of any event" that's disruptive, said Christopher Bidwell, a vice president of security for the Airports Council International, a trade group.

Industry trade groups and several U.S. airlines, including Delta, American and Continental, said Thursday that it was too early to tell whether the Christmas Day bombing attempt and resulting security measures would change passenger booking patterns or flying habits.

Steve Lott, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, said passengers "are more focused on the hassle instead of worry about terror in the skies."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126287503947419579.html?mod=article-outset-box#printMode

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Years of Spotty Data-Sharing on Suspects

Insufficient Funding, Old Technologies and Bureaucratic Turnover Hindered Efforts to Link Spy Agencies

Programs to help intelligence analysts connect disparate bits of data to prevent terrorist attacks have made halting progress in the past few years because they received only intermittent support from the White House and spy-agency leaders, intelligence officials say.

President Barack Obama faulted U.S. intelligence agencies again for failing to stop a Nigerian man from a boarding a Detroit-bound jet on Christmas and allegedly attempting to blow it up, despite red flags about the suspect and warnings that al Qaeda in Yemen was plotting an attack.

The White House review of the attack found that the technology at the spy agencies didn't allow them to bring all the relevant information on the emerging plot together. The president has ordered spy agencies to bolster their technology.

One example is the Information Integration Program, an effort to create a Google-like search capability across all spy agencies that was relaunched in 2008 after an earlier effort collapsed. Its initial momentum lost steam amid the bureaucratic turnover with the change in administration, according to current and former officials tracking the program.

At its current pace, the program won't be fully in place for two years, a congressional official said.

That pace is typical of a number of intelligence-sharing efforts launched since Congress overhauled U.S. intelligence and created the director of national intelligence five years ago, said Thomas McNamara, who led the director's information-sharing office until last summer. "The system is still in start-up mode. It should be further along, and would have been, if the push had been harder," Mr. McNamara said. "They're going to have to really get serous about it."

Mr. McNamara said the Bush administration claimed it had solved the intelligence-sharing problem in its last year in office and therefore no longer need to fund several programs. The Obama administration, he said, pledged during the transition to elevate the focus on intelligence-sharing and ensure it got a budget equal to its importance, but as of July, that hadn't happened, and he decided it was time to leave. His post still hasn't been filled on a permanent basis.

In response to the criticism, a White House spokesman noted that Mr. Obama said Thursday that intelligence agencies would tackle the "longer-term challenge of sifting through a vast universe of data" and step up investments in technology to do it.

The predecessor to the Information Integration Program in 2006 failed to win the support of the 16 spy agencies and fell flat. Rebooted in 2008, it focused first on basic issues such as connecting the email systems of the major intelligence agencies so employees could type the name of a colleague in another agency and send email. They were linked last year. It also created the National Intelligence Library, which provides analysts with a means to search finished intelligence reports.

What's taking longer is a project to allow analysts with proper clearances from any spy agency to search unprocessed intelligence such as intercepts or reports from the field in the databases of another agency. While analysts can search about 5% of unprocessed data now, this program would give them closer to 95%.

A pilot program testing that capability with some data from agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency is expected to launch in the next few months, said a senior intelligence official. But the government is spending just 10% of what the private sector spends on a comparable project, the official said, and the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, hasn't pressed for fast enough action, the official said.

"On the whole, information integration will always be a 'work in progress,' because there will always be more to do," said Vanee Vines, a spokeswoman for the Mr. Blair. "But we know exactly where we're going," she said Thursday.

Meanwhile, a long-planned upgrade to the National Counterterrorism Center's terrorism database, known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, has had problems.

In 2008, the effort stalled as a result of battles between two contracting companies managing it. NCTC Director Michael Leiter overhauled the program. An inspector-general report last year found that it had gotten back on track and the problems hadn't compromised the NCTC's mission, said Courtney Littig, spokeswoman for the House intelligence committee.

The center is using older database technology, which wasn't built to handle the volumes of data it is being fed, said a person familiar with the program.

A U.S. official familiar with TIDE said the older database "is working as designed and the database is being developed into a more modern application." He said the system can keep up with the volume of data and said upgrades were geared more to allow it to handle biometric data.

The White House is reviewing the past problems with the TIDE database as part of the review of the intelligence failures prior to botched Christmas attack.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126291547649920819.html?mod=article-outset-box#printMode

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Two More World Trade Center Victims Identified

NEW YORK -- New York City has positively identified two more victims from the Sept. 11 attacks after retesting DNA on remains found in and around the World Trade Center site.

The medical examiner's office said Thursday that both victims were women. It said it was withholding their names at the families' request.

One of the victims was identified from remains using newer DNA technology developed in 2006.

The city said a total of 25 victims have been identified through the new technology.

More than 1,100 of New York's 2,750 victims have not been identified because many of the more than 21,000 remains found were too badly compromised by heat and time.

The city is continuing to retest thousands of remains.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126288839479919987.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#printMode

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'A Failure to Connect the Dots'

A lesson in the lack of bureaucratic intelligence.

Mr. Obama blamed no one in particular for the failure, not even George W. Bush. In one sense this is refreshing. The President said the buck stops with him, not his underlings, and he ordered the usual agencies to review their usual procedures and institute changes to make sure information is shared more quickly and analyzed more comprehensively. This all seems worthwhile as far as it goes, and it may well do some good by shaking up settled behavior patterns, at least for a while.

On the other hand, it's impossible to read even the six-page unclassified summary of the White House review without a rising sense of frustration, even anger. This was above all a failure of bureaucracy. Consider (or rather, bear with) this mouthful of an explanation from the White House review:

"Notwithstanding [the National Counterterrorism Center's] central role in producing terrorism analysis, CIA maintains the responsibility and resource capability to 'correlate and evaluate intelligence related to national security and provide appropriate dissemination of such intelligence.' CIA's responsibility for conducting all-source analysis in the area of counterterrorism is focused on supporting its operations overseas, as well as informing its leadership of terrorist threats and terrorist targets overseas. Therefore, both agencies—NCTC and CIA—have a role to play in conducting (and a responsibility to carry out) all-source analysis to identify operatives and uncover specific plots like the attempted December 25 attack. . . .

" Though the consumer base and operational capabilities of CIA and NCTC are somewhat different, the intentional redundancy in the system should have added an additional layer of protection in uncovering a plot like the failed attack on December 25. [White House emphasis.] However, in both cases, the mission to 'connect the dots' did not produce the result that, in hindsight, it could have—connecting identifying information about Mr. Abdulmutallab with fragments of information about his association with [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] and the group's intention of attacking the U.S."

Translating from the Esperanto, the point is that a pair of agencies were supposed to figure this out, but neither one did, perhaps because each thought the other one was responsible, or perhaps because the "dots" didn't find their way into the right person's computer inbox. To put it another way, if everyone is responsible, then no one is. This is the tao of modern bureaucracies, and there is nothing larger, more complex or harder to attach responsibility to than America's intelligence labyrinth. Jack Bauer exists only on TV.

If Mr. Obama isn't angry, he should be, because Americans were told by our leaders that the "intelligence reform" of the last decade would fix this. A smaller Counterterrorism Center had existed for years inside the CIA, but the Bush Administration yanked it out to assert more control. This later became the NCTC when the 2004 intelligence reform created the Director of National Intelligence, which was supposed to prevent these kind of screw-ups by sharing information and "connecting the dots."

However, the DNI has since become its own vast bureaucracy with thousands of employees, whose main job seems to be micromanaging or duplicating the CIA. We—and many others—opposed the 2004 reform on grounds that it would create precisely this redundant layer of intelligence bureaucracy, and so it has. This is one mess that Mr. Obama really can blame on Mr. Bush and especially the 9/11 Commission that came up with the idea and lobbied furiously for it.

We'd feel better if an individual were to blame. At least a President could fire the hapless Bartleby and find someone better. The lesson of Abdulmuttalab is that rearranging the bureaucratic furniture is always the first resort of politicians who want to be seen "doing something" about a problem, but it almost never works. A President has to drive the bureaucracy by making the fight against terrorism a daily, personal priority.

Perhaps now Mr. Obama will, and yesterday he finally said after a year in office that "We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda." But in fighting that war, he'd be better off shrinking the DNI to 20 or 30 people—and the CIA by half—and starting over.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644852758778552.html#printMode

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OPINION

Where U.S. Health Care Ranks Number One

Isn't 'responsiveness' what medicine is all about?

Last August the cover of Time pictured President Obama in white coat and stethoscope. The story opened: "The U.S. spends more to get less [health care] than just about every other industrialized country." This trope has dominated media coverage of health-care reform. Yet a majority of Americans opposes Congress's health-care bills. Why?

The comparative ranking system that most critics cite comes from the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO). The ranking most often quoted is Overall Performance, where the U.S. is rated No. 37. The Overall Performance Index, however, is adjusted to reflect how well WHO officials believe that a country could have done in relation to its resources.

The scale is heavily subjective: The WHO believes that we could have done better because we do not have universal coverage. What apparently does not matter is that our population has universal access because most physicians treat indigent patients without charge and accept Medicare and Medicaid payments, which do not even cover overhead expenses. The WHO does rank the U.S. No. 1 of 191 countries for "responsiveness to the needs and choices of the individual patient." Isn't responsiveness what health care is all about?

Data assembled by Dr. Ronald Wenger and published recently in the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons indicates that cardiac deaths in the U.S. have fallen by two-thirds over the past 50 years. Polio has been virtually eradicated. Childhood leukemia has a high cure rate. Eight of the top 10 medical advances in the past 20 years were developed or had roots in the U.S.

We have the shortest waiting time for nonemergency surgery in the world; England has one of the longest. In Canada, a country of 35 million citizens, 1 million patients now wait for surgery and another million wait to see specialists.

When my friend, cardiac surgeon Peter Alivizatos, returned to Greece after 10 years heading the heart transplantation program at Baylor University in Dallas, the one-year heart transplant survival rate there was 50%—five-year survival was only 35%. He soon increased those numbers to 94% one-year and 90% five-year survival, which is what we achieve in the U.S. So the next time you hear that the U.S. is No. 37, remember that Greece is No. 14. Cuba, by the way, is No. 39.

But the issue is only partly about quality. As we have all heard, the U.S. spends a higher percentage of its gross domestic product for health care than any other country.

Actually, health-care spending now increases more moderately than it has in previous decades. Food, energy, housing and health care consume the same share of American spending today (55%) that they did in 1960 (53%).

So what does this money buy? Certainly some goes to inefficiencies, corporate profits, and costs that should be lowered by professional liability reform and national, free-market insurance access by allowing for competition across state lines. But the majority goes to a long list of advantages that American citizens now expect: the easiest access, the shortest waiting times the widest choice of physicians and hospitals, and constant availability of health care to elderly Americans. What we need now is insurance and liability reform—not health-care reform.

Who determines how much a nation should pay for its health? Is 17% too much, or too little? What better way could there be to dedicate our national resources than toward the health and productivity of our citizens?

Perhaps it's not that America spends too much on health care, but that other nations don't spend enough.

Dr. Constantian is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in New Hampshire.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644230678102274.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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CIA bomber's wife says war must go on against U.S.

ISTANBUL (AP) -- The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on Dec. 30 in what he regarded as a holy war against the U.S.

Bayrak also said Friday, "I think the war against the United States must go on."

Turkish police questioned and released Bayrak on Thursday. But she says police confiscated a book she had written called "Osama bin Laden the Che Guevera of the East."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/08/cia-bombers-wife-says-war-must-go-against-us//print/

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What's good for the Nazi works for a jihadi

by Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper

President Obama was right when he declared after convening the post mortem on the Detroit debacle that "we have to do better." The simple fact is that $42 billion later, Americans do not feel much safer getting on an airplane than they did eight years ago. Despite the post- Sept. 11 upgrades in security, despite the long lines, the inconveniences of removing shoes and belts and coming soon to an airport near you - full body scans - we are not reassured that the next disaster is not lurking just around the corner. People are concerned we aren't doing enough to fight the enemy and we're still not sure we've fully identified the enemy.

The administration and its Republican critics are still arguing whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's Ft. Hood massacre constitutes an act of terrorism. That dispute is reflected in a larger debate of whether we are still in a "war against terror" and whether individuals like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should be treated as enemy combatants or read their Miranda Rights as common criminals.

But however that debate shakes out, there is an important move, that would cost little but could strike a blow against extremism and make our skies a little safer: The president admitted that the current watch list is inadequate. But America needs to immediately expand its terrorist watch list. Consider this fact: While the United States has a database of 500,000 individuals implicated in criminal activity, only 1,700 of those names are on the terrorist watch list banning entry into the United States. Compare that to the watch list developed by the U.S. Justice Department of suspected Nazi war criminals. Developed in the 1980s, 40,000 individuals were initially listed, but later the list expanded beyond 70,000 when the Office of Special Investigations on Nazi War Crimes (OSI) included the entire roster of the Nazi SS - and all others who belonged to groups that abetted genocide.

Most of those aging genociders are in their 80s or 90s today and the hunt for Nazi war criminals will soon reach its biological solution. But not so Islamist terrorism - only in its genesis - which is the scourge of all humanity at the dawn of the new decade. It is inconceivable that in fighting the existential threat of terrorism, that we can be operating with a list of only 1,700 people to bar from entering the United States. To better protect the flying public and to strike a blow against extremists who today regularly indescriminantly slaughter fellow Muslims, the Department of Homeland Security should take a page from the Nazi watch list and immediately add those who openly support and abet terrorism. In practical terms, it means immediately listing the many thousands of names of all known members and enablers of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Indonesia's Jemmah Islamiyah and other terror groups listed by the State Department and the European Union.

And there are others who never fired a bullet, or strapped themselves to a ticking bomb, who nevertheless deserve to be publicly placed on America's terror watch list. They include Al Jazeera's Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, whose online fatwa insists that Palestinian women have the right to attain martyrdom by blowing themselves up amidst Israelis. There is Omar Bakri Muhammad, who once claimed to be a recruiter for al Qaeda and organized the "Magnificent 19" (Sept. 11 bombers) in London. Jordan's Dr. Ibrahim Zayd Al-Kilani, who said this: "killing a transgressing American soldier" is an obligation and a kind of jihad. There are the followers of Indonesia's notorious Abu Bakar Bashir, Jamaica's Abdullah el-Faisel, and Libyan-born Abu Yaha al- Libi, who defends the "legitimacy" of violent jihad as a "religious obligation." And of course, Yemen's favorite American Anwar al-Awlaki who served as spiritual mentor and validator to Ft. Hood's Maj. Hasan and the Northwest Airlines terrorist.

We have no doubts that a simple e-mail to all U.S. embassies by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would flush out many more terror enablers. To be sure, errors will be made and anyone who stands accused of such activity must be given recourse to clear their names. It may also be true that not everyone who belongs to a terrorist group will become a suicide bomber, but let them suffer the consequences - why should Americans have to take that risk?

By compiling a true terror watch list, the United States and allies will reassure the shaken flying public that no one committed to terrorism against innocent civilians is aboard their flight. Such a policy will also help strengthen the hand of moderates across the Arab and Muslim world struggling against these extremists. And by providing the guardians of our borders with accurate and timely information about all those who promote and deploy terrorism against our nation, we can help co-opt the need to turn to blanket racial and ethnic profiling.

The time to act is now.

Rabbi Marvin Hier is the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Center.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/08/whats-good-for-the-nazi-works-for-a-jihadi//print/

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From Fox News

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Possible Breakthrough in Tylenol Poisoning Case

January 8, 2010

In a potential breakthrough in a 27-year-old case, the sole suspect in the poisoning of Tylenol capsules that led to the deaths of seven people was subpoenaed this week to attend a court hearing that would order fingerprint and DNA samples.

James W. Lewis and his wife, LeAnn, of Cambridge, Mass., attended a closed hearing at the Middlesex Superior Court on Wednesday, where according to local reports, a judge may have ordered the couple to provide their fingerprints and DNA samples.

The criminal defense lawyer representing Lewis, 63, declined to confirm to the Boston Globe that the hearing took place.

However, an unnamed law enforcement official told the paper that FBI agents and representatives of local police attended the couple's hearing.

The hearing was first reported by the Somerville News and Cambridge News Weekly .

"Proceedings such as that reported by the Somerville News, to the extent that they occur, are supposed to be secret precisely to protect the reputations of innocent people like James Lewis and his wife," Lewis' attorney, David Meier, told the Globe.

Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to "stop the killing."

Police began to reinvestigate the sensational murder case a year ago as a result of advances in DNA testing and other forensic technologies. Wednesday's reported proceeding marks one of the first known recent developments in the investigation.

The review began in part because of publicity and tips that arrived after 25th anniversary of the deaths in 2007, according to the FBI. It has not resulted in any criminal charges.

The victims, four women, two men and a 12-year-old girl, died in 1982 after taking the pills purchased from Chicago area drugstores and markets.

The killer was never found, but Lewis, an out-of-work accountant, was arrested in December 1982 at a New York City library after a nationwide manhunt. At the time, he gave investigators a detailed account of how the killer might have operated and described how someone could buy medicine, use a special method to add cyanide to the capsules and return them to store shelves.

Lewis later admitted sending the letter and demanding the money, but said he never intended to collect it. He said he wanted to embarrass his wife's former employer by having the money sent to the employer's bank account.

In a 1992 interview with The Associated Press, Lewis explained that the account he gave authorities was simply his way of explaining the killer's actions.

"I was doing like I would have done for a corporate client, making a list of possible scenarios," said Lewis, who maintained his innocence. He called the killer "a heinous, cold-blooded killer, a cruel monster."

Lewis also served two years of a 10-year sentence for tax fraud. In 1978, he was charged in Kansas City with the dismemberment murder of Raymond West, 72, who had hired Lewis as an accountant. The charges were dismissed because West's cause of death was not determined and some evidence had been illegally obtained.

In 2004, Lewis was charged with rape, kidnapping and other offenses for an alleged attack on a woman in Cambridge. He was jailed for three years while awaiting trial, but prosecutors dismissed the charges on the day his trial was scheduled to begin after the victim refused to testify, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

In 2007, Lewis was interviewed on a local-access television show, "The Cambridge Rag," by host Roger Nicholson. In segments available online, Lewis asserted his innocence in the Tylenol and West cases. He turned aside Nicholson's suggestion that he take a lie-detector test, saying they are unreliable and unscientific.

Lewis moved to the Boston area after getting out of prison in 1995 and is listed as a partner in a Web design and programming company called Cyberlewis. In a posting last year on its Web site, there is a tab labeled "Tylenol" with a written message and audio link in which a voice refers to himself as "Tylenol Man."

"Somehow, after a quarter of a century, I surmise only a select few with critical minds will believe anythng I have to say," the message says. "Many people look for hidden agendas, for secret double entendre, and ignore the literal meanings I convey. Many enjoy twisting and contorting what I say into something ominous and dreadful which I do not intend.

"That my friends is the curse of being labelled the Tylenol Man. Be that as it may, I can NOT change human proclivities. I shant try. Listen as you like."

The deaths in 1982 took place over three days. Johnson & Johnson had its sales force remove 264,000 Tylenol bottles from Chicago-area stores, and consumers were urged to exchange any Tylenol they had for a safe bottle.

The poisoning led to the introduction of tamperproof packaging that is now standard. Bottles of the pain reliever were triple-sealed and warnings against taking capsules from damaged packages prominently displayed. J&J also sealed the bottle caps to the neck with a tight, plastic band and stretched a tough foil membrane over the bottle's mouth.

In 2007, 25 years after the deaths, survivors of the victims said they remained haunted by what happened and frustrated that nobody was convicted.

"I will never get past this because this guy is out there, living his life, however miserable it might be," said Michelle Rosen, who was 8 when her mother, Mary Reiner, collapsed in front of her after taking Tylenol for post-labor pains.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,582534,00.html

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Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Nations Entering U.S. on 'Diversity Visas'

In the wake of the botched Christmas Day terror attack, members of Congress are worried that extremists could use the State Department's diversity visa lottery as a means of getting to the U.S.

The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a "diversity visa" lottery -- a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a "serious national security threat" that has gone unchecked for years.

Ostensibly designed to increase ethnic diversity among immigrants, the program invites in thousands of poorly educated laborers with few job skills -- and that's only the beginning of its problems, according to lawmakers and government investigations.

"There are a lot of holes in this program in terms of security and in terms of fraud," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who has written legislation aimed at killing the lottery.

Now, in the wake of the botched Christmas Day terror attack that emerged from Nigeria and Yemen, members of Congress are worried the system could be vulnerable to radicals looking to "play" the visa lottery as a means of reaching the U.S.

Here's how it works: to avoid getting stuck with 3.5 million others on a visa waiting list, hundreds of thousands of people put their names into the separate diversity lottery, which rewards countries that typically see low levels of immigration to the U.S. Immediate family are allowed to join lottery winners.

Countries like China, where lots of immigrants originate, are excluded.

Then a computer in Kentucky picks names at random from the qualified applicants, who need only a high school degree or two years at a job that requires two years of experience. The program accounts for about 10 percent of all immigrant visas each year.

Included in the lottery are all four countries the U.S considers state sponsors of terror -- Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and Syria -- and 13 of the 14 nations that are coming under special monitoring from the Transportation Security Administration as founts of terrorism. Pakistan is excluded because, like China, it sends over tens of thousands of immigrants each year and doesn't need to be in the lottery.

Among the winners for 2010 are:

Though Umar Farouk Abdulmattallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day, used a tourist visa -- not a diversity visa -- to enter the country, Goodlatte said he worries that Al Qaeda members will game the system. He fears they will submit the names of young acolytes from Saudi Arabia or Yemen who have clean records and could gain entry to the U.S. to wreak havoc. More than 1,000 such visas have been granted to Yemenis in the past decade alone.

"You can take young people out of the madrassas that have no record of any activity with a terrorist organization but are loyal followers of Usama bin Laden," he said.

The State Department's Office of the Inspector General recommended in a 2003 report that terror-sponsoring nations be removed from the diversity visa program.

"OIG believes that this program contains significant vulnerabilities to national security as hostile intelligence officers, criminals and terrorists attempt to use it to enter the United States as permanent residents," the office's deputy inspector testified to Congress in 2004.

A separate report filed by the Government Accountability Office also faulted the program for being susceptible to widespread fraud . A cottage industry has emerged abroad to cater to the lottery, and it regularly bilks people out of massive amounts of money and even coerces some into marriage to keep their diversity visas.

But State Department officials told FoxNews.com that they have a powerful security protocol in place to protect the system -- a point underscored in their rebuttal to the GAO report.

"We do not see the DV (diversity visa) program as uniquely vulnerable," when it comes to state sponsors of terrorism, they said, because of careful vetting that includes "two types of biometric checks and name checks."

They acknowledged that fraud occurs in the lottery, with one official saying, "It is a sad reality that all visa categories encounter sham marriages, suspect identities, fraudulent documents, use of agents and unlikely stories" -- but they cited an "impressive array" of strategies they use to tackle fraud.

The program hasn't been without its cost: one beneficiary, whose wife received a diversity lottery visa, killed two people at Los Angeles International Airport in a 2002 shooting spree at the El Al ticket counter, an act the government labeled terrorism.

Still, the lottery has some staunch defenders, including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who is sponsoring an amendment that would double the number of diversity visas to 110,000 a year. Because of State Department enforcement and lack of interest, not all of the 55,000 visas offered each year are taken by winners of the lottery.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., argued that the program allows many immigrants to come and make lives for themselves in the U.S., including soccer phenom Freddy Adu, who formerly played for D.C. United.

"The Diversity Visa Program is the chance for many people of color around the world to immigrate to the United States and pursue the same American dream that many of the ancestors of the members [of Congress] here were able to pursue," Conyers said in congressional debate in 2007.

Yet the name of the game hasn't always been diversity, and some experts argue that the program itself is racist for using ethnic criteria for immigration.

Prominent Irish- and Italian-American lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, crafted the law in 1988 as a way to confer legal status on immigrants from their countries of ancestry.

"If you look at the legislative history of it, it has nothing to do with diversity," said Anne Law, a professor of political science at DePaul University. Offering citizenship to hundreds of thousands of poorly educated illegal immigrants from Ireland and Italy was a hard sell to the public, she said, so congressmen used "diversity rhetoric" to mask ethnic pork-barrel politics.

"They were trying to tap into multiculturalism, so they thought, 'Let's jump on that bandwagon,'" she said. Government officials say the program offered 40 percent of its visas to the Irish in its early years.

Though legislation concerning the lottery has stalled in Congress, lawmakers who are seeking to end its funding say it has offered few advantages in its 21 years, even as it swells the ranks of poorly educated workers at a time of financial troubles in the United States.

"Why on Earth do we have a program that gives green cards to people for no reason whatsoever?" asked Goodlatte. "They have their names pulled out of a hat -- they have no job skills, no family -- [yet] they get to the front of the line."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/house/ci.Thousands+From+Terror-Sponsoring+Nations+Entering+U.S.+on+%27Diversity+Visas%27.opinionPrint

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Couple Seeking Adoption Eyed in Arizona Missing Baby Case

Thursday , January 07, 2010

PHOENIX — 

A couple from Scottsdale, Ariz., who wanted to adopt a woman's baby may know more about the missing child's whereabouts than they're telling investigators, police said Thursday.

Jack and Terri Smith are now "persons of interest" in the investigation into the disappearance of 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson, according to Tempe police spokesman Sgt. Steve Carbajal.

The baby was last seen in San Antonio in late December with his 23-year-old mother, Elizabeth Johnson.

Johnson was arrested last week in Florida on suspicion of custodial interference after she didn't show up for a custody hearing in Arizona. Her car was later found by the FBI in San Antonio.

She has since told a Phoenix television station that she gave the boy away in San Antonio. She made the statement after she sent a text message to her ex-boyfriend telling him she had killed the baby.

Police believe the baby has not been harmed.

"We are getting some indications that Gabriel is alive," Carbajal said Thursday. "We can't say specifically just what those are, but we are getting some indications that those are correct."

The Smiths have given numerous media interviews in recent days where they said they met Johnson at an airport during a long layover and befriended her. Terri Smith said the young mother wanted to give up her baby for adoption but the ex-boyfriend wouldn't go along.

Terri Smith told KTVK-TV in Phoenix on Thursday that the couple has cooperated fully with police and have nothing to hide.

The baby's father, Logan McQueary, has said Johnson tried several times to get him to sign away his parental rights but that he refused.

Tempe police have been inundated with tips and are now directing callers to the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children.

Carbajal urged anyone who has the baby to bring him to a safe place like a fire station or a hospital if they are afraid to come forward.

"Our focus has always been the same, and that is locating Gabriel," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,582522,00.html

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From the Department of Justice

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WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey and the New Jersey Civil Service Commission alleging a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against African-Americans and Hispanics, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint challenges New Jersey's use of a written examination for promotion to the rank of police sergeant in localities throughout the state.

The United States' complaint alleges that African-American and Hispanic candidates for promotion to sergeant pass the examination at significantly lower rates than white candidates. The complaint also alleges that even those African-American and Hispanic candidates who pass the examination suffer discrimination because their passing examination scores are significantly lower than those of white candidates, and New Jersey certifies candidates for promotion to police sergeant in descending rank-order based primarily upon each candidate's written examination score. The complaint concludes that New Jersey's use of the examination violates Title VII because the state has not demonstrated that its pass/fail use of the police sergeant written examination or its certification of candidates in descending rank-order to local jurisdictions is job related and consistent with business necessity.

Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin or religion. Title VII prohibits not only intentional discrimination, but also the use of employment practices – like the state's written examination for police sergeant in this case – that result in a disparate impact upon a protected group, unless the defendant can prove that such practices are job related and consistent with business necessity.

According to the complaint, New Jersey administers the challenged written examination as part of its police sergeant promotional process for local jurisdictions that participate in its civil service system. Police officers in participating local jurisdictions cannot be considered for promotion to police sergeant unless they take and pass the written examination. Currently, 18 of New Jersey's 20 largest cities and townships (all but Cherry Hill and Edison Township), and 20 of New Jersey's 21 counties (all but Somerset County), participate in the state's civil service system. According to information the Justice Department received from New Jersey, at least 120 local police jurisdictions participated in the state's police sergeant examination promotion process during the time frame of the Justice Department's pre-suit investigation.

"This complaint should send a clear message to all public employers that employment practices with unlawful discriminatory impact on account of race or national origin will not be tolerated," said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Justice Department will take all necessary action to ensure that such discriminatory practices are eliminated and that the victims of such practices are made whole."

The Justice Department is seeking a court order enjoining New Jersey from continuing to discriminate against African-Americans and Hispanics in violation of Title VII and, specifically, from continuing to use the challenged examination in a manner that does not meet the requirements of Title VII. The Justice Department also is asking the court to order New Jersey to provide make-whole relief (including, where appropriate, offers of promotion, backpay and retroactive seniority) to individual African-Americans and Hispanics who have been or will be harmed as a result of the state's use of the examination.

Additional information about Title VII and other federal employment laws is available on the Civil Rights Division's Web site at http://www.justice.gov/crt/ .

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-crt-012.html

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Department of Justice Activities Focused on Addressing Abuses in Juvenile Facilities

The findings reported in the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) report, Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-2009 , bring into focus the dire circumstances that too many youth in juvenile correctional facilities have to endure. While the report focuses on specific types of juvenile facilities—larger facilities that typically hold adjudicated youth for longer periods—the Department of Justice is committed to addressing confinement issues for all youth in all facilities.

• The Department's Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Review Panel on Prison Rape (Panel) will review and conduct hearings on the BJS report. The Panel, as required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, is responsible for conducting annual hearings to collect evidence to assist the Bureau of Justice Statistics in identifying common characteristics, not only of victims and perpetrators of prison rape, but also of prisons and prison systems with a high incidence of prison rape and those that have been successful in deterring prison rape.
• OJP's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has long been concerned with the conditions and challenges that confront youth in the juvenile justice system, particularly those in custody.
• OJJDP plans to issue a solicitation in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 for a National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Youth in Custody. The Center will serve as a resource for juvenile detention and correctional facilities and among other activities will promulgate data-driven approaches for facilities to identify, monitor, and improve conditions and treatment services provided to youth in custody, using evidence-based standards and outcome measures.
• OJJDP will increase outreach and information about available training and technical assistance on best practices for juveniles in custody, to all grant recipients who use funding to support a juvenile facility (public or private).
• OJJDP will convene a listening session of juvenile detention and correctional leaders and experts to garner their input on the BJS study findings and discuss potential strategies for improving conditions of juvenile facilities.
• In late 2009, OJJDP provided funds to the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) and will partner with NIC to assess, plan, design, develop, deliver, and evaluate training programs, technical assistance and related services to address the needs of juvenile detention and correctional professionals working with youth.
• The Department's Civil Rights Division enforces two statutes concerning conditions in juvenile justice facilities – the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) and Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The Division's Special Litigation Section has investigated unlawful conditions in more than 100 juvenile facilities and monitors more than 65 facilities in the United States and its territories. Sharing information on the sexual victimization of youth in juvenile justice facilities between Justice Department components will further ensure that systemic changes occur so that youth are protected from such serious harm.
• The Attorney General has also established a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Working Group to review standards proposed by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and draft national standards to enhance the detection, prevention, reduction and punishment of prison rape. The working group is working diligently on these standards and to address the other recommendations of the commission.
  
  http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-opa-007.html

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From ICE

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Human trafficking: 21st century slavery

Forced labor. Prostitution. Child labor. Indentured servitude. Every day, men, women and children around the world are trapped in desperate and dangerous circumstances as a result of human trafficking.

A typical scenario: A young woman is smuggled across the border with the promise of a better life. Upon arrival in the United States, she is forced to work in the sex trade to pay off her smugglers. With no travel or identity documents and unable to speak the language, she is trapped in a nightmare with little hope for escape. In order to hold her in a state of virtual slavery, the traffickers may threaten her and her family with harm should she attempt to flee.

Human trafficking is a tragic, serious cross-border crime, and ICE is the lead U.S. federal government lead agency for investigating and dismantling human trafficking organizations. 

 "One of the most disturbing trends in recent years has been the increasing sophistication of criminal networks when it comes to trafficking in human beings," said Erik Breitzke, who leads ICE's Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit. "This requires a sophisticated law enforcement response, and no other agency has ICE's combined authorities for enforcing immigration and customs laws, which gives us a set of powerful tools for attacking these organizations.

"We're committed to working with our partners to eradicate this 21st century form of slavery, to holding the traffickers accountable and to getting victims the help they need," Breitzke concluded.

Other ICE activities in combating human trafficking include the following:

• ICE leads the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) , the U.S. government's intelligence fusion center for federal agencies involved in combating human smuggling, human trafficking and terrorist travel.
• ICE has a strong commitment to training law enforcement and government partners around the world, with training sessions on trends in trafficking, undercover operations and conducting investigations in foreign countries.
• ICE oversees a variety of outreach and public awareness efforts, including the "Hidden In Plain Sight" campaign to educate citizens on recognizing the signs of human trafficking and reporting suspected trafficking victims.
• ICE's Victims Assistance Program helps to coordinate services in support of human trafficking victims. In April 2009, ICE was recognized for its commitment to assisting victims of crime with a Federal Service Award from the U.S. Department of Justice National Crime Victims' Service Awards program .

ICE's efforts are getting results: In fiscal year 2009, ICE initiated 566 human trafficking investigations, a 31 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. ICE trafficking investigations in FY09 led to 388 arrests, 148 indictments and 165 convictions.

Learn more about ICE's commitment to combating human trafficking and smuggling .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1001/100107washingtondc.htm

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Mexican predator arrested by ICE, placed into deportation proceedings

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A illegal alien from Mexico, who had served a prison term for sexual battery of a child, was arrested on Wednesday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and placed into deportation proceedings.

Ignacio McDonald-Lopez, 47, was arrested as a result of the Joint Criminal Alien Removal Taskforce, which focuses on identifying, locating and arresting criminal aliens. McDonald-Lopez pleaded guilty in a Tennessee court in August 2000 to aggravated sexual battery and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison. ICE's local Fugitive Operations Team arrested McDonald-Lopez Jan. 6 after receiving information from the Board of Probation and Parole regarding his impending release from prison.

McDonald-Lopez is currently in ICE custody and is awaiting deportation. Aliens with aggravated felony convictions, such as McDonald-Lopez, who re-enter the United States after having been formally deported, commit a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

"ICE will continue using its unique immigration authorities to identify and arrest those who present a threat to our community," said Philip Miller, field office director for ICE's Office of Detention and Removal Operations in New Orleans. "Criminals in Tennessee should be on notice, because we will find you and bring you to justice."

This case was part of Operation Predator, which is a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested almost 12,000 individuals.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1001/100107memphis1.htm

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