Iran announces launch of animals into space

It test-fires a rocket designed to carry satellites. Tehran's advances in missile technology are worrisome to the West.

By Borzou Daragahi

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

4:27 AM PST, February 3, 2010

Reporting from Beirut

Iran announced the test-firing of a powerful rocket loaded with several live animals into space and unveiled a handful of other space technologies Wednesday, ahead of a nationalist holiday and amid heightened international concerns about Tehran's nuclear research and missile programs.

The long-awaited launch of the Kavoshgar-3 satellite carrier and the unveiling of the other astrophysical technologies coincided with Iran's annual "Space Day," as well as the buildup to the Feb. 11 anniversary of the Islamic Republic.

State television aired footage of the flying Kavoshgar-3. Photos posted to news websites showed a rat strapped into a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard.

"These miraculous satellite projects are, in fact, key to the connection between God and mankind," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony, according to state radio. "Today, Iranian scientists are capable of capturing the skies."

He predicted that Iran would in the future dispatch astronauts beyond Earth's orbit and was "two steps away from reaching a point of no return" in its space program, which has worried the U.S. and other nations in the West because of its potential to bolster Iran's ballistic missile program.

Iran inaugurated seven projects Wednesday, including a satellite image processing center, a 3-D laboratory and plans for the four-engine, liquid-fuel Simorgh satellite carrier, which can transport a 220-pound object up to 300 miles above Earth, according to Iranian news outlets.

Three satellites unveiled were the solar-powered Tolou, which can take photographs and transmit them back to Earth; the Mesbah-II, which can provide telecommunications to remote areas; and the Navid, an imaging satellite designed by students.

Iran sent its first satellite, the Omid, into orbit last year amid patriotic fervor in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. But the discord unleashed following Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection has largely dissipated the spirit of unity.

Iran's authorities are trying hard to bolster the nation's spirits ahead of the Feb. 11 commemorations, which the opposition has vowed to turn into anti-government rally.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iran-satellites4-2010feb04,0,127783,print.story

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Is she a victim of the U.S. or is she 'Terror Mom'?

Aafia Siddiqui is awaiting a verdict after her trial in the U.S. on attempted murder charges. Many in Pakistan consider her a hero and a victim of persecution.

By Alex Rodriguez

February 3, 2010

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan

Depending on which side of the globe you call home, she's either Lady Al Qaeda or the incarnation of America's persecution of Muslims.

Aafia Siddiqui, 37, a neuroscientist and mother of three, was once branded by the U.S. as the most wanted woman in the world, an Al Qaeda facilitator who posed a "clear and present danger to the U.S.," then-U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft told reporters in 2004.

These days, the diminutive Pakistani woman sits in the custody of New York authorities, awaiting a verdict on charges that she attempted to murder FBI agents and U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan in July 2008, when she allegedly picked up an unattended rifle and fired at the agents and officers.

In Pakistan, however, Siddiqui is a victim and a hero, a courageous patriot who has withstood years of torture at the U.S. detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan. Pakistanis insist that the charges are fabricated and the U.S. has only one option for righting the wrongs it's committed: Send their beloved Aafia home.

"It's a witch hunt, and it's got nothing to do with what the truth really is," says Attiya Inayatullah, a Pakistani lawmaker with the PML-Q party and a leading advocate for Siddiqui's cause. "You cannot do this to Aafia. It's nothing but villainy. At a recent candlelight vigil for Aafia, my placard read, 'FBI gangsters, return our daughter, Aafia.' "

Given the symbolic value of Siddiqui's case, a guilty verdict in New York could cause a firestorm of anti-American sentiment in a country where the U.S is already viewed as a malevolent intruder.

Amina Janjua, an Islamabad human rights activist, said rage over the case could spill into the streets.

"When Pakistanis go wild, they can do anything," Janjua said. "Every second that the U.S. holds our daughter, they are testing the whole nation, testing how much patience we have, how much we can tolerate."

Pakistanis have a list of gripes against the U.S.

They're angry that U.S. drone missile strikes aimed at Taliban fighters continue in tribal areas. Despite denials from both the U.S. and Pakistani governments, they accuse the controversial American security firm once known as Blackwater of secretly operating in their country.

Siddiqui's case, however, has given Pakistanis a face to rally around. Demonstrations on her behalf have been attended by thousands, from Lahore to Karachi to Islamabad. Activists have sought intervention by the Pakistani government, which has agreed to pay for Siddiqui's defense team and has pushed the U.S. to repatriate her to Pakistan.

College student Asma Waheed expressed her disapproval of Siddiqui's arrest and prosecution by refusing an academic prize at an awards ceremony last month in Islamabad, using her moment on stage to urge the Pakistani government to press Washington harder for Siddiqui's release. After she refused the prize, her teachers approached and hugged her.

"They told me this is how every Pakistani feels," said Waheed, 17. "This is something all of Pakistan feels very strongly about. She was our sister, and she was taken away."

Siddiqui had been scrutinized by U.S. authorities as far back as March 2003, when the FBI announced that it wanted to question the graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University in connection with a terrorism investigation.

At the time, Siddiqui's three children were 9 months, 3 and 6. Her husband in 2003, Mohammed Khan, was also being sought on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. Both Siddiqui and her husband were suspected of having links to a Saudi member of Al Qaeda.

The couple left their apartment in Boston and settled in Pakistan in 2002. While living in Karachi, they separated. In the spring of 2003, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was arrested at a Rawalpindi safe house. While being questioned, he named Siddiqui as an Al Qaeda operative.

About a month after Mohammed's arrest, Siddiqui and her three children disappeared. What happened after that remains the murkiest chapter in Siddiqui's life.

In late March 2003, Pakistani news reports said Pakistani authorities had detained Siddiqui and, together with FBI agents, had questioned her. Days later, Pakistani and U.S. authorities backtracked and denied arresting Siddiqui.

Pakistani security officials said they believed she had gone into hiding. Her oldest son, Ahmed, ended up living with Siddiqui's sister in Karachi. The whereabouts of the two younger children remain unknown.

Siddiqui's family and most other Pakistanis, however, are convinced she was kidnapped by U.S. authorities and taken to the Bagram detention facility. They cite accounts of former Bagram detainees who say they believe a woman held at the prison while they were there was Siddiqui.

U.S. officials say Siddiqui was never at Bagram. Prosecutors contend that, in the summer of 2008, she appeared in Ghazni province in Afghanistan, where she was detained by Afghan police after they found in her bag bomb-making instructions and a list of New York landmarks.

At an Afghan police station, she was being questioned by U.S. soldiers and FBI agents when she picked up an M-4 rifle left unattended by an American soldier, prosecutors and witnesses said during the trial. She fired at the soldiers and agents, yelling "death to Americans," according to testimony at the trial.

Siddiqui fired two rounds before an Afghan interpreter wrested the gun from her, and a U.S. soldier shot her in the abdomen, according to testimony.

As the trial wound down, Siddiqui testified Thursday that she never picked up the rifle and was shot as she was trying to escape from the police station.

Jurors began deliberations this week. If convicted of the attempted murder charges, Siddiqui could be sentenced to life in prison. She is not facing any terrorism-related counts.

New York tabloids have splashed headlines that call Siddiqui "Lady Al Qaeda" and "Terror Mom." In Pakistan, news agencies have said the case comes down "to whether an American jury can acquit a woman with a scarf covering her face."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-terror-mom3-2010feb03,0,3290839,print.story

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Telephoned abduction claims bedeviling Mexico

A cottage industry has exploded alongside the skyrocketing kidnapping rate: telephoned shakedowns that play on fears, in which the perpetrators scamming for pesos make random, scattershot calls.

By Tracy Wilkinson

February 3, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

'We have your daughter."

Those chilling words, the worst nightmare of any parent, came over the telephone, spoken by a man planning to demand money for her safe return.

One catch: We have no daughter. So the call, for us, was easy enough to ignore. But thousands of Mexicans receive these calls every week. Sometimes they are real; a child or spouse or other relative has been kidnapped, and a ransom is demanded.

Often, they're bogus.

A cottage industry has exploded alongside the skyrocketing kidnapping rate in Mexico that could be called "extortion on spec": telephoned shakedowns that play on fears, in which the perpetrators scamming for pesos make random calls.

And as any cold-call telemarketer will tell you, dial long enough and someone will take the bait, whether it's magazine subscriptions, too-good-to-be-true mortgage rates . . . or a ransom demand.

These calls "provoke such terrible anguish and panic that many victims don't bother to check out the claim, and they fall for the trick," said Luis de la Barreda, director of the Citizens' Institute for the Study of Crime.

"It has been growing as a phenomenon because it works."

When our would-be extortionist called our home telephone, my husband answered. A weepy girl's voice (or, more probably, a woman feigning to be a girl) said, "Papi, papi, they've got me!"

Then a man came on to declare they had our "daughter." My husband said he didn't have a daughter, and the caller hung up.

Every Mexican seems to know someone who has had a similar thing happen. Sometimes these callers are so off base, as in our case, that they can be dismissed. A colleague received a threat saying his son had been kidnapped; he's the father of four girls.

Often, the call is close enough to instill terror, even when it's phony. Many Mexicans tell of late-night ransom calls when their kids are out on the town or at the movies; frantic, heart-stopping minutes pass until they reach their child by cellphone. Friends tell of a child walking into the house minutes before the money was to be paid. And still other people pay.

Usually, the caller demands an electronic transfer of money into an account. Sometimes the mark is asked to pay in person.

A recent report by the Ministry of Public Security said one of the most common forms of phone extortion is for the caller to pretend to represent one of the notorious drug gangs terrorizing Mexico, such as La Familia, based in the state of Michoacan, or the Zetas, a ruthless network of hired hit men.

In 2008, the last full year for which statistics are available, authorities received 50,138 formal complaints of various kinds of phone extortion. The figure is believed to be a small fraction of the number of actual frauds attempted and committed. Among those complainants, 4,587 people paid the demanded amount, the report said. In the first two months of last year, an additional 3,575 complaints were filed.

A team of suspected extortionists arrested in October allegedly telephoned the victim and told him they'd placed snipers outside his business and would begin picking off his family unless he paid $50,000. Often the caller says a relative in the United States has been taken hostage, figuring that's something that is harder to verify quickly.

The vast majority of the calls originate in Mexico's overcrowded prisons. One report by the official news agency Notimex said inmates and others were making about 500 calls a day using smuggled cellphones, of which 2% resulted in someone paying. And in a new, timely twist, callers have been telling marks to fork over money to get access to vaccines for swine flu, which has been infecting much of Mexico since last spring.

Although the number of extortion attempts has soared in the last five years, the good news, authorities say, is that the percentage of people who fall for the scam and pay is shrinking. Word of mouth and news reports have contributed to greater awareness and more people are tracking down their loved ones before paying ransoms.

De la Barreda's group tells people to ask basic questions of the caller to test the authenticity of the threat.

"This is a crime that requires no organization, no resources, no accomplices, just a little luck," he said. "It is an easy crime."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shakedown3-2010feb03,0,6498564,print.story

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Michael Jackson's doctor prepared to surrender, his attorney says

A lawyer for Michael Jackson's personal physician said Tuesday that the Houston-based doctor is in Los Angeles and prepared to surrender if authorities file charges against him in the pop star's death.

“I don't have any specific information that leads me to believe he is going to be charged this week," said lawyer Ed Chernoff, " but if he is, we've made it clear he's available to turn himself in.”

The arrival of Dr. Conrad Murray and Chernoff, his lead attorney, from Houston set off a new round of speculation that authorities, who have been mulling a manslaughter case against the doctor since last summer, were about to file charges.

Chernoff said Murray was visiting L.A. on personal matters -- he has an infant son in Santa Monica -- and also planned to attend a strategy session Tuesday afternoon with his criminal defense team, made up of Chernoff, local counsel J. Michael Flanagan and Long Beach attorney Joseph Low IV. Low represents Nicole Alvarez, the mother of Murray's infant son. 

Murray acknowledged administering the anesthetic propofol to Jackson shortly before his death on June 25, according to police affidavits. An autopsy classified Jackson's death as a homicide and said the cause was “acute propofol intoxication” in combination with the use of sedatives.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/michael-jacksons-doctor-prepared-to-surrounding-his-attorney-says.html#more

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L.A. County sheriff to donate thousands of bulletproof vests and other equipment to Mexican police

Baca said the equipment has outlived its service life to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The county is able to donate supplies if the gift serves a public purpose, according to Baca's letter . The public purpose in this case, Baca said, is to supply Mexican authorities who arrest criminals and seize drugs before they reach Los Angeles County.

The donations include more than 2,600 bulletproof vests, more than 300 helmets, more than 400 batons, more than 1,000 handcuff cases, and more than 1,000 pepper spray holders.

Last year, Baca asked supervisors to approve a similar donation to Mexican and Thai authorities.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Civil rights groups file lawsuit against Costa Mesa ordinance barring day laborers from soliciting employment

LAX 'millennium bomber' to be resentenced; 22 years is too lenient, court rules

The 22-year prison sentence given to would-be Los Angeles International Airport bomber Ahmed Ressam is so lenient that it constitutes procedural error and failure by the Seattle judge who sentenced him to adequately protect the public, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Algerian's case transferred to a different judge for resentencing, saying that U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour failed to heed federal sentencing guidelines and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke.

Ressam was detained in Washington state in December 1999 when he attempted to smuggle explosives into the United States on a ferry from Canada with plans to detonate them at LAX. He initially cooperated with interrogators and provided what Coughenour termed vital insight into the workings of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda.

But Ressam ceased helping federal agents and retracted his statements implicating other terror suspects after being subjected to solitary confinement and what he considered interrogation excesses.

Coughenour twice rejected the federal sentencing recommendation of 65 years in prison for the terrorism conspiracy offense, a position the 9th Circuit panel said constituted procedural error. The judge also failed to consider the potential national security consequences for the U.S. public if Ressam were to be released after only a 22-year term, as he would be only 53 years old, the appeals panel said.

Ressam, now 42, has remained incarcerated the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., throughout the legal appeals of his sentence.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/lax-millennium-bomber-to-be-resentenced-22-years-too-lenient-court-rules.html#more

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EDITORIAL

The war on terror's legal battle

The Obama administration shouldn't waver in its commitment to give suspected terrorists due process.

February 3, 2010

From the start, this page never believed it was crucial that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four confederates be tried in federal court in Manhattan. Now the Obama administration apparently agrees. After an about-face by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- who once said the alleged architects of 9/11 should face justice "where so many New Yorkers were murdered" -- the administration reportedly is looking for a new venue.

That's fine with us. Although trials generally ought to be located where the crime occurred, there are plenty of reasons in this case to make an exception. The problem, however, is that President Obama's change of heart could embolden those in Congress who oppose not just a trial in New York but, more broadly, the president's determination to show the world that even accused terrorists will receive due process in this country. Obama must prevent his critics from exploiting the trial's relocation to try to dismantle his larger policy of bringing the war on terror under the rule of law.

Even before it was reported that Mohammed and the others might not be tried in Manhattan, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and several other Republican senators were savaging the Obama administration for treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to destroy an airliner on Christmas Day, "as a civilian defendant -- including advising him of a right in a civilian law enforcement context not to cooperate -- rather than as an intelligence resource to be thoroughly interrogated in order to obtain potentially life-saving information."

So it isn't just the policy of trying suspected terrorists in civilian court that is under siege. McConnell also argued on Sunday that suspected terrorists should be sent to Guantanamo, and he threatened to block funding needed to close the prison. Put on the defensive, the administration has insisted that Abdulmutallab wasn't read his rights until after he had provided valuable information and stopped talking. Administration officials also point out that accused terrorists were tried in civilian courts during the George W. Bush administration.

Closing Guantanamo and trying detainees in courts of law are signature features of Obama's rejection of Bush's anti-terror policies. Yet the president has undermined his own position by needlessly hedging his commitment to full due process for accused terrorists. First, he decided to try some in military commissions, allowing critics to ask why the same treatment isn't sufficient for the alleged 9/11 conspirators. More recently, a task force he appointed suggested holding about 50 detainees without trial, a recommendation Obama should reject. It will be hard for the president to defend his convictions if he doesn't hold fast to them himself.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trial3-2010feb03,0,2532016,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Fur coats become animal nests in recycling bid

Got a fur coat gathering dust? The Humane Society suggests the ultimate recycling - putting it on the backs of other animals.

The Coats for Cubs program by the Humane Society of the United States helps orphaned, injured or sick wildlife by gathering fur coats and using them for nests, bedding or cuddly replacements for mom and dad. In 2009, 2,687 fur items were donated.

"We use the discarded furs as bedding to give the animals comfort and reduce stress," said Michael Markarian, the agency's chief operating officer in Washington, D.C. "The fur garments act as a surrogate mother. It is a warm and furry substitute."

The coats go to wildlife rehabilitation centers that take in baby raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, skunks and other animals, and the program has helped thousands of animals since it began in 2005 with the Fund for Animals.

Markarian said many of the coats are donated by people who find fur to be inhumane - whether the animals are trapped in steel-jawed traps or raised on factory farms. For those who have fur and no longer want to wear it, "This is a great way for them to give back to the animals," he said.

Amber Ginter, 13, from Kingston, Ohio, spent last summer collecting fur coats as part of a community project affiliated with the Humane Society. She put a box in her church, wrote a letter describing the project in the church bulletin and collected 30 coats in two months, she said.

"It was kind of sad to see all the furs because you know they had to kill the animals to get them," said Amber, who wants to be a veterinarian or zoologist when she grows up.

The Florida Wildlife Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. has used coats for wildlife babies in the past, but employees and volunteers had to scrounge for donations, twist arms, or scour garage sales and thrift stores. After becoming a Humane Society affiliate last June, the center got three boxes full of furs and are well stocked for baby season.

"It's a remarkable, generous way to make good of a tragic beginning. I know young people are involved in this effort. Bravo for understanding this better than adults and for seeing a positive way to help other animals," said Sherry Schlueter, managing director at the Florida Wildlife Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The center houses what they believe is the largest wildlife trauma center in the United States, Schlueter said. Of the 12,000 animals cared for in 2009, just over 1,900 were orphaned babies, including about 1,000 gray squirrels, Virginia opossums and raccoons - those most likely to benefit from the furs.

The center is expecting at least 1,000 additional baby animals in 2010 because a nearby wildlife rehab center closed last year.

The coats are always needed, but they are especially welcome in one of the worst winters in memory, said Erica Yery, president of the Wild Bunch Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Alexandria, Va. Most of the baby animals she has now are raccoons who are making good use of the coats.

"They go in and snuggle up. Of course, they might tear it to shreds after a while," she said. But she knows they like the fur - if they didn't "they would just throw it out. They wouldn't keep in it their nesting box."

The coats are great, but caps and hats are even better, she said, because she doesn't have to cut them and they are already rounded like nests.

The current Coats for Cubs coat drive technically ends on Earth Day, April 22, but the Humane Society will accept coats any time of the year, Markarian said. Donations can be shipped to the group or turned in to any Buffalo Exchange, which has stores or franchises in 14 states.
.

On the Net: www.humanesociety.org www.wildbunchrehab.org www.wildlifecarecenter.org www.buffaloexchange.com

.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14320246

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Suspect's family led to FBI cooperation

WASHINGTON - The Nigerian man accused of trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day has been cooperating with investigators since last week and provided fresh intelligence in multiple terrorism investigations, officials said Tuesday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's cooperation could prove to be a national security victory and a political vindication for President Barack Obama, who has been under fire from lawmakers who contend the administration botched the case by giving Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, rather than interrogating him as a military prisoner.

In the days following the failed bombing, a pair of FBI agents flew to Nigeria and persuaded Abdulmutallab's family to help them. When the agents returned to the U.S., Abdulmutallab's family came, too, according to a senior administration official briefed on the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

FBI officials continue to question Abdulmutallab, working in collaboration with CIA and other intelligence authorities, the official said.

Authorities had hoped to keep Abdulmutallab's cooperation secret while they continued to investigate his leads, but details began to trickle out during testimony Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

In a terse exchange, FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared to confirm that Abdulmutallab is now talking with investigators.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Mueller: "It is also my understanding that Mr. Abdulmutallab has provided valuable information. Is that correct?

"Yes," Mueller replied.

"Thank you," Feinstein said, "and that the interrogation continues despite the fact that he has been Mirandized?"

"Yes," Mueller said. He explained that Abdulmutallab did talk to FBI agents after he was arrested on Christmas Day, speaking freely until he went into surgery for burns on his legs.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair also confirmed that authorities continued to get intelligence in Abdulmutallab's case.

In Detroit, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with Abdulmutallab's lawyer, Miriam Siefer.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14319788

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Use of Twitter, Facebook rising among gang members

When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.

They sent a warning on Twitter that went like this: We have a snitch in our midst.

Unbeknownst to them, that tweet and the traffic it generated were being closely followed by investigators, who had been tracking the San Francisco Bay Area gang for months. Officials sat back and watched as others joined the conversation and left behind incriminating information.

Law enforcement officials say gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organizations.

"You find out about people you never would have known about before," said Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs. "You build this little tree of people."

In the case involving the suspected informant, tweets alerted investigators to three other gang members who were ultimately arrested on drug charges.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms and on Web sites like MySpace, but they appear to be gravitating toward Twitter and Facebook, where they can make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

"We are seeing a lot more of it," Johnston said. "They will even go out and brag about doing shootings."

In another California case involving a different gang, much of the information gathered by investigators came from members' Facebook accounts. Authorities expect to make arrests in the coming months.

"Once you get into a Facebook group, it's relatively easy," Johnston said. "You have a rolling commentary."

And gang members sometimes turn the tables, asking contacts across their extended networks for help identifying undercover police officers.

It's hard to know exactly how many gang members are turning to Twitter and Facebook. Many police agencies are reluctant to discuss the phenomenon for fear of revealing their investigative techniques.

Capt. Walt Myer, director of the Riverside County regional gang task force, said gang activity often "mirrors general society. When any kind of new technology comes along, they are going to use it."

Tapping into tweets and status updates can be easy. Agents pose as pretty girls and send flirtatious friend requests. Confidential informants sometimes let police peer into their accounts.

Authorities can also seek help from the Web sites. Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant. Neither company would discuss specifics.

Gang use of Twitter and Facebook still lags behind use of the much-older MySpace, which remains gang members' online venue of choice.

The Crips, Bloods, Florencia 13, MS-13 and other gangs have long used MySpace to display potentially incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hand gestures. They also post messages about rivals.

Last week, officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, announced the arrest of 50 people in a crackdown of a Latino gang they say was engaged in drug sales and hate crimes against black residents. Prosecutors say some of the evidence was pulled from MySpace and YouTube, including rap videos taunting police with violent messages.

While some members are wising up to the police attention such postings can bring, gang information remains publicly viewable online.

Dozens of Facebook accounts are dedicated to the deadly MS-13 gang, with followers from around the globe. At one site, a video displays pictures of dead members of the rival 18th Street gang, and some users have left disrespectful comments.

The toughest part about tracking someone on Twitter is finding the alias or screen name they are posting under. And many tweets are nonsensical or pointless, so cutting through the clutter can be difficult.

"It's tricky," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Anguiano. "If you find out what they go by, you are good to go."

Anguiano tracks the online activity of graffiti vandals - the so-called tagging crews that sometimes morph into gangs. They post tweets saying they are heading out to spray paint and sometimes post links to photographs of their work.

Often, they cannot resist bragging about their handiwork, and the electronic trail they leave is frequently used as evidence.

"They talk about it too much," Anguiano said. "You want the fame so you've got to go out there and talk about it. That's when your mouth gets you in trouble."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14317777

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Slain Gang Leader Planned Juárez Massacre

A gang leader for the Juárez Cartel who was killed in a shootout with soldiers Monday planned and helped carry out the massacre of 15 students Sunday night, Mexican police officials said in Ciudad Juárez.

Adrian Ramírez, known as "El Rama" or "12" was killed in a shootout with Mexican soldiers the day after two squads of gunmen massacred 15 students who were celebrating a birthday party. The killings has shocked Mexico, and called into question President Felipe Calderón's war on the violent drug cartels who are fighting for control of profitable routes to the U.S.

Police interrogated José Dolores Arroyo, who is accused of being a lookout for the gunmen. Mr. Arroyo told police the gunmen, who worked for the Juárez Cartel, also known as La Linea, believed the students belonged to a rival gang known as the Artistic Assassins who work for Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Mexico's most powerful drug lord. Mr. Guzmán has been battling to take over Ciudad Juárez from the hometown Juárez Cartel for the past two years. During that period, violence has spiraled out of control. Last year, more than 2,600 people were killed in drug related violence in Ciudad Juárez, up from 1,600 in 2008.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575042124112718934.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews#printMode

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NASA's Outsourcing May Benefit Large Contractors

WASHINGTON -- Despite the Obama administration's multibillion dollar bet that a scrappy band of entrepreneurs can revitalize the U.S. manned space program, its budget also offers sweeteners to some of the nation's largest aerospace contractors.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's proposed $19 billion spending plan for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 includes early seed money for development of pioneering technologies to deliver cargo and astronauts to Earth orbit and beyond. But two of the five initial recipients hardly fit the mold of hungry start-ups: Boeing Co., one of NASA's premier suppliers, and United Launch Alliance, a Boeing- Lockheed Martin Corp rocket joint venture that currently has a virtual monopoly launching U.S. military and spy satellites.

On Tuesday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the commercially oriented development projects are aimed at providing "game-changing" propulsion, in-orbit-refueling, inflatable structures and other systems intended to leapfrog current agency capabilities. Over five years, NASA envisions spending some $7.8 billion on various demonstration programs to "reduce the cost and expand the capabilities of future exploration activities." Initial contracts for NASA's Commercial Crew Development program total only about $50 million, but the choices were announced with much fanfare along with the budget.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Bolden said he and White House officials are counting on the fact that with such an array of firms, "We will have several successes." "There will be some failures," he sad, but "I doubt very seriously . . . that everyone will fail."

The rest of the companies recently picked by NASA to push ahead in this arena are closely held Paragon Space Development Corp., an Arizona-based hardware and engineering firm; Blue Origin, a space tourism company formed by Jeff Bezos , the founder of online retail giant Amazon.com ; and Sierra Nevada Corp. a Colorado company that designs and manufactures spacecraft subsystems and components.

But there is an apparent disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality of how NASA hopes to proceed. In the interview, Mr. Bolden said lower-level NASA officials picked the winners in the last round on the grounds that "they are truly entrepreneurial" and "almost in incubator status."

The NASA chief, however, went on to add that while the shift to commercial-style development requires picking companies with "innovative ideas . . . the paradigm did not say they had to be start-ups."

Mr. Bolden said, "It would be unfair, to be quite honest, to limit it to truly entrepreneurial firms."

Boeing said it would work on perfecting technologies needed for relatively simple, low-cost capsules capable of reaching orbit. "It will be compatible with multiple launch vehicles and configurable to carry a mixture of crew and cargo on short-duration missions to and from the International Space Station," according to a company statement.

Mr. Bolden and other NASA officials have indicated it could take NASA months to detail a timetable for future exploration missions based on advanced technologies. "It's more than a couple of weeks but less than years, " the NASA chief told reporters at a press conference earlier Tuesday. Among the most likely eventual destinations are the Moon, Mars and certain asteroids.

After the space shuttle fleet is retired, likely before mid-2011, NASA expects a gap of at least five years before new commercial spacecraft and rockets go into service. Many inside and outside NASA predict it's likely to take years longer. In the interim, the U.S. will be dependent on Russia, and potentially space agencies in Japan and Europe, to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575042222164591514.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#printMode

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How to Destroy American Jobs

Obama's proposals for increasing the tax burden on U.S.-based multinationals would harm our most dynamic companies.

Deep in the president's budget released Monday—in Table S-8 on page 161—appear a set of proposals headed "Reform U.S. International Tax System." If these proposals are enacted, U.S.-based multinational firms will face $122.2 billion in tax increases over the next decade. This is a natural follow-up to President Obama's sweeping plan announced last May entitled "Leveling the Playing Field: Curbing Tax Havens and Removing Tax Incentives for Shifting Jobs Overseas."

The fundamental assumption behind these proposals is that U.S. multinationals expand abroad only to "export" jobs out of the country. Thus, taxing their foreign operations more would boost tax revenues here and create desperately needed U.S. jobs.

This is simply wrong. These tax increases would not create American jobs, they would destroy them.

Academic research, including most recently by Harvard's Mihir Desai and Fritz Foley and University of Michigan's James Hines, has consistently found that expansion abroad by U.S. multinationals tends to support jobs based in the U.S. More investment and employment abroad is strongly associated with more investment and employment in American parent companies.

When parent firms based in the U.S. hire workers in their foreign affiliates, the skills and occupations of these workers are often complementary; they aren't substitutes. More hiring abroad stimulates more U.S. hiring. For example, as Wal-Mart has opened stores abroad, it has created hundreds of U.S. jobs for workers to coordinate the distribution of goods world-wide. The expansion of these foreign affiliates—whether to serve foreign customers, or to save costs—also expands the overall scale of multinationals.

Expanding abroad also allows firms to refine their scope of activities. For example, exporting routine production means that employees in the U.S. can focus on higher value-added tasks such as R&D, marketing and general management.

The total impact of this process is much richer than an overly simplistic story of exporting jobs. But the ultimate proof lies in the empirical evidence.

Consider total employment spanning 1988 through 2007 (the most recent year of data available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis). Over that time, employment in affiliates rose by 5.3 million—to 11.7 million from 6.4 million. Over that same period, employment in U.S. parent companies increased by nearly as much—4.3 million—to 22 million from 17.7 million. Indeed, research repeatedly shows that foreign-affiliate expansion tends to expand U.S. parent activity.

For many global firms there is no inherent substitutability between foreign and U.S. operations. Rather, there is an inherent complementarity. For example, even as IBM has been expanding abroad, last year it announced the location of a new service-delivery center in Dubuque, Iowa, where the company expects to create 1,300 new jobs and invest more than $800 million over the next 10 years.

This is true in manufacturing, too. Procter & Gamble calculates that one in five of its U.S. jobs—and two in five in Ohio—depend directly on its global business.

Compared to the rest of the world, U.S. corporate tax rates are sky-high and our system of corporate taxation is highly complex. The current U.S. federal statutory corporate tax rate of 35% is the highest among all 30 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, far above the OECD average of about 23%. Raise the international tax burden on U.S. multinationals by limiting foreign-tax credits, for example, and you will further reduce their ability to compete abroad. This, in turn, will reduce employment and investment in U.S parent companies.

Since the slowdown began in December 2007, private-sector payrolls have fallen precipitously. Today there are 2.4 million fewer private-sector jobs than 10 years ago. Moreover, in all four quarters of 2009, gross private-sector investment fell so low that it did not even cover depreciation. For the first time since at least 1947, the U.S. private capital stock shrank throughout an entire year.

The major policy challenge facing the U.S. today is not just to create jobs, but to create high-paying private-sector jobs linked to investment and trade.

Which firms can create these jobs? U.S.-based multinationals. They—along with similarly performing U.S. affiliates of foreign-based multinationals—have long been among the strongest companies in the U.S. economy.

These two groups of firms accounted for the majority of the post-1995 acceleration in U.S. productivity growth, the foundation of rising standards of living for everyone. They tend to create high-paying jobs—27.5 million in 2007.

Consider that in 2007, the average compensation per worker in these multinational firms was $65,248—about 20% above the average for all other jobs in the U.S. economy. These firms undertook $665.5 billion in capital investment, which constituted 40.6% of all private-sector nonresidential investment. They exported $731 billion in goods, 62.7% of all U.S. goods exports. And these firms also conducted $240.2 billion in research and development, a remarkable 89.2% of all U.S. private-sector R&D.

To climb out of the recession, we need to create millions of the kinds of jobs that U.S. multinationals tend to create. Economic policy on all fronts should be encouraging job growth by these firms. The proposed international-tax reforms do precisely the opposite.

International trade and investment policies are especially important to these firms. Passing the already negotiated trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea—and stopping trade barriers against key partners like China—are critical to increasing U.S. exports and related investment and jobs. If we are going to achieve the president's State of the Union aspiration to "double our exports over the next five years," we need to start now.

To help close looming fiscal deficits, the nation needs spending restraint and pro-growth sources of tax revenue. But Monday's proposals are far from that. These tax increases would destroy jobs in some of America's most dynamic companies.

Mr. Slaughter is associate dean and professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2005 to 2007 he served as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575041253835415076.html#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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Terrorist attempt 'certain' in months

by Eli Lake

The five senior leaders of the U.S. intelligence community told a Senate panel Tuesday they are "certain" that terrorists will attempt another attack on the United States in the next three to six months.

The warning came during the annual threat briefing to Congress in response to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who asked, "What is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months? High or low?"

"An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say," Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, a retired admiral, said in response.

Four other intelligence agency leaders who appeared at the hearing with Mr. Blair said they agreed with the assessment.

They included CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr., the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and John Dinger, the acting assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.

Mr. Blair outlined the major threats facing the United States, in addition to a possible terrorist attack. They include:

• The threat of major attacks on U.S. computer networks and infrastructure.

• The increasingly dangerous Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

• Instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

• Iranian and North Korean missile and nuclear programs.

• China's military buildup.

• Efforts by the anti-U.S. government of Venezuela to develop closer ties with Iran, China and Russia.

The warning about the threat of another attempted attack, like the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet, was in keeping with the sober public assessment of threats outlined last year by Mr. Blair.

"In our judgment, al Qaeda also retains the capability to recruit, train, and deploy operatives to mount some kind of an attack against the homeland," according to his written testimony.

The recent arrests of an al Qaeda cell led by Najibullah Zazi, the attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, and the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting rampage, with which Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is charged, all suggest al Qaeda has come close to pulling off mayhem inside the United States.

Adm. Blair's message was sobering: "Counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda have put the organization in one of its most difficult positions since the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom [in Afghanistan] in late 2001," he said. "However, while these efforts have slowed the pace of anti-U.S. planning and hindered progress on new external operations, they have not been sufficient to stop them."

The testimony specifically warned that al Qaeda is capable of another attack on the United States, marking a change from the 2009 assessment that emphasized the group's intentions to attack U.S. soil but said their capabilities to launch an attack on the homeland were limited.

Meanwhile, Metro Transit Police on Tuesday conducted an anti-terrorist exercise at a busy underground Metro station.

Mr. Blair testified that al Qaeda is eyeing targets the group in the past attempted to attack, including commercial jets and financial institutions in New York City, and the Washington Metro system.

Mr. Blair's testimony also focused on al Qaeda's continuing efforts to obtain biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, but he said he would discuss details only in a closed session.

In testimony after Mr. Blair's, Mr. Panetta pointed out that the biggest problem for U.S. spies is tracking the "lone wolf" operative who has no background in terrorism.

Mr. Blair said part of the problem is that al Qaeda has switched tactics from spectacular "multiple-cell-based attacks" to smaller-scale operations that are harder to detect.

"The recent successful and attempted attacks represent an evolving threat in which it is even more difficult to identify and track small numbers of terrorists recently recruited and trained and short-term plots than to find and follow terrorist cells engaged in plots that have been ongoing for years," Mr. Blair said.

Mr. Blair's written testimony touched on a wide range of topics — from Latin America to the effects of climate change on U.S. strategic interests in the world.

He began his testimony with a stark warning to Congress about the devastating capability of hackers to attack U.S. computer networks.

"Malicious cyber-activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication," he said. The director added that the technology today favors hackers and other criminals and not nations to protect their networks.

On Iran, Mr. Blair said the intelligence community suspects that Iran was preparing the groundwork for building nuclear weapons, but that to date Tehran had made no political decision to build the arms. Despite political turmoil that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets since the June 12 presidential elections, Iran's decision-making process would remain the same, he said.

Overall, Mr. Blair said, he gave he protesters little chance for success. "Strengthened conservative control will limit opportunities for reformers to participate in politics or organize opposition," he stated. "The regime will work to marginalize opposition elites, disrupt or intimidate efforts to organize dissent, and use force to put down unrest."

The U.S. intelligence community in the past failed to foresee political events in Iran. For example, a noted CIA assessment of Iran in the fall of 1978 predicted there was no prospect for an Islamic revolution. That prediction proved wrong within five months.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/03/terrorist-attack-certain-in-months//print/

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From the Department of Justice

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WASHINGTON – A federal jury has convicted an Arlington, Texas, husband and wife, Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji, of engaging in a nine-year scheme to compel the labor of a Nigerian victim as their domestic servant, the Justice Department announced today. The jury found the defendants guilty of conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude, alien harboring and false statements. Ngozi and Emmanuel Nnaji each face a maximum sentence of up to 55 years in prison.

According to the evidence at trial, Emmanuel Nnaji and Ngozi Nnaji enticed a widowed Nigerian mother of six to come to the United States to be their domestic servant by falsely promising a salary and support for her children, who she was struggling to support.

" Holding other human beings in servitude against their will is a violation of human rights that will not be tolerated in our free society, " stated Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. " This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to combating human trafficking in all its forms, vindicating the rights of trafficking victims and bringing human traffickers to justice. "

James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said, "We are pleased that this North Texas jury was able to return such a swift verdict, validating the hard work of the Civil Rights Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

The defendants procured fraudulent immigration documents, confiscated the victim's documents, harbored her in their home, compelled her to work long hours with no days off for little or no pay, used a scheme to isolate her and restrict her communications, withheld her documents and pay, and refused her requests to return home or be paid. The defendants also failed to provide support for the victim's six children in Nigeria, limited and monitored contact with her family in Nigeria, isolated her from normal society in the United States, and refused to allow her to regularly attend church. According to the evidence at trial, Emmanuel Nnaji sexually assaulted the victim and made her fearful to call the police.

This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Trial Attorney Susan L. French and Michael J. Frank of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-crt-118.html

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WASHINGTON – Isidro Hinojosa Benavides, 77, a U.S. citizen extradited from Argentina, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips.

Benavides was indicted in 2005 for traveling to the Republic of Chile and engaging in sexual conduct with a female child. Benavides has been held in custody without bond since his extradition from Argentina in 2009.

During the plea hearing, Benavides admitted to maintaining several residences in Santiago, Chile. Benavides admitted that he met the 12-year-old victim in 2002 when he was 70-years-old. He admitted he invited her on numerous occasions to his various residences and supplied her and other young girls with food, drinks and glue to inhale. Benavides admitted to fondling the 12-year-old victim, showing her pornographic images and movies, and having her engage in sexual activity with him. Afterwards, Benavides admitted he gave the victim between $5 and $10 dollars. Benavides admitted that he abused the victim until she was 13-years-old.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 14, 2010.

The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Schmidt of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, former Criminal Division Trial Attorney Myesha Braden and Michael Yoon of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in this matter. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Chilean Policia de Investigation.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-crm-114.html

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Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol V. Mason, Acting Director for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Catherine Pierce, and actress and advocate Mariska Hargitay addressed nearly 300 attendees today at the Services-Training-Officers-Prosecutors (STOP) Conference in San Francisco. The four-day conference, which began Sunday, brings together STOP grant administrators representing the offices of the governor, attorney general, or other state criminal justice agency from every state government and territory in the nation. Also in attendance are domestic violence and sexual assault coalition representatives from every state and territory.

"The Justice Department is committed to working with federal, state, local and tribal partners to ensure that all communities – particularly those that have been chronically neglected – are given the resources and support they need," said Deputy Associate Attorney General Mason. "We need your help to not only raise awareness, but to truly make change. Each community must take an active role in defining their response to violence against women."

"In the past 15 years since the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was signed into law, countless lives have been saved, the voices of survivors have been heard, and families have been protected. But there is still much more to be done. We have federal resources and we have a strong commitment from this administration, but that is not enough. We need to work together to bring about a significant shift in our culture," said Acting Director Pierce.

"I have seen survivors find their way back to lives of possibility, hope and joy, and I am so proud to be part of a movement that will change the way we talk about and behave around these epidemics," said Hargitay, best known for her role on NBC's Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit, and president and founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation. "Through your work, you strengthen the possibility of healing for a survivor because you are acknowledging, responding to, and giving your all to do something about the violence and injustice they have suffered. That is why I am so moved by your collective commitment: because it has the power to heal."

STOP grant administrators serve as the liaison between OVW and the states, oversee the administration of STOP funding and provide statewide leadership on violence against women intervention efforts. The STOP formula grant program, the largest single funding stream administered by OVW, promotes a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to enhancing advocacy and improving the criminal justice system's response to violent crimes against women. It encourages the development and improvement of effective law enforcement and prosecution strategies to address violent crimes against women and of advocacy and services in cases involving violent crimes against women.

The Justice Department has launched a year-long commemoration of the 15 th anniversary of VAWA, working to raise public awareness on issues around violence against women, to build and renew coalitions among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement and victim services communities, and to end stalking, sexual assault, domestic and dating violence for men, women and children across the country. As part of this effort, the department has encouraged the more than 100 celebrity allies, including Hargitay, who have lent their names in support of the department's "Join the List" initiative to raise awareness with their fans, through Web and fan sites, and social networking profiles.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-opa-113.html

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From the DEA

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Former New York City Police Department Sergeant Sentenced to Six Months' Imprisonment
for Making False Statements to Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agents

Defendant Provided Vehicle Registration Information for Law Enforcement Surveillance Vehicles to Narcotics Trafficker

FEB 02 -- (Brooklyn, NY) Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, Roosevelt Green, formerly a Sergeant with the New York City Police Department was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for making false statements to Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agents during a narcotics investigation. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco and announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

On June 16, 2009, as jury selection was about to commence in his trial, Green pleaded guilty to lying to DEA agents on May 22, 2007. As Green's guilty plea, indictment, and underlying complaint reveal, he used NYPD computers to obtain vehicle registration information for two DEA surveillance vehicles and provided that information to Frank Wilson, a long-time Wyandanch narcotics trafficker. 1 In a May 22, 2007 interview with DEA agents, Green falsely stated that he did not provide the vehicle registration information to Wilson.

In February 2007, the DEA, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), Suffolk County Sheriff's Department (SCSD), and the United States Attorney's Office commenced a court authorized wiretap investigation of Wilson's narcotics trafficking organization, which had been distributing cocaine and “crack” cocaine in Suffolk County for more than a decade. Law enforcement officers intercepted a series of conversations between Green and Wilson, which revealed that Wilson asked Green to check license plates on two vehicles Wilson thought might have been used to follow him. The intercepted conversations further revealed that, while on duty in an NYPD patrol car on March 31, 2007, Green used NYPD computers to obtain vehicle registration information for two vehicles and provided that information to Wilson. Both those vehicles had been used to conduct surveillance of Wilson and his co-conspirators during the wiretap investigation. In a subsequent conversation, Green told Wilson that he wanted a warm-up suit and a pair of sneakers in exchange for the information.

On May 22, 2007, DEA agents and NYPD detectives executed a federal search warrant at Green's Wyandanch residence. A number of items were seized, including sneakers and other articles of clothing Green admitted receiving from Wilson. At that time, Green told the DEA agents that he had had conversations with Wilson and that he was aware that Wilson was a drug dealer, but denied having obtained vehicle registration information for him.

As a condition of his plea agreement with the government, Green, a 12-year veteran, resigned from the NYPD immediately after his guilty plea on June 16, 2009 and agreed not to seek future employment with any federal, state or local law enforcement agency.

“Law enforcement officers have the responsibility to serve the public and protect their communities. This defendant abused that responsibility and used his position to obtain sensitive information that he provided to a known drug dealer,” stated United States Attorney Campbell. “By doing so, he not only violated his duties as a police officer, but also endangered fellow law enforcement officers and the public through his actions.” Mr. Campbell thanked the DEA, SCPD, and SCSD for their efforts during this prosecution. Mr. Campbell also thanked the NYPD for its cooperation and assistance during the investigation.

The government's case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John J. Durham.

The Defendant:
ROOSEVELT GREEN
Age: 47

In May 2007, Wilson and 14 co-defendants were arrested for conspiring to distribute cocaine and “crack” cocaine and were subsequently indicted on narcotics and weapons charges. All 15 defendants have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing in the Eastern District of New York.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/nyc020210a.html

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