Self-help guru arrested in Arizona sweat lodge deaths

James Arthur Ray is charged with three counts of manslaughter in connection with the 'Spiritual Warrior' retreat near Sedona in October.

By Kate Linthicum and DeeDee Correll

February 4, 2010

Reporting from Los Angeles and Denver

Self-help guru James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of manslaughter in connection with an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that left three people dead in October.

Ray was taken into custody at his attorney's office in Prescott, Ariz., a sheriff's spokesman said, and taken to the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde. Bond has been set at $5 million. He is to appear in court Thursday.

The charges are linked to the last day of Ray's five-day $9,695-a-person "Spiritual Warrior" retreat near Sedona, where he assembled about 50 people in a makeshift, sauna-like sweat lodge for about two hours.

When it was over, three people were dying. Eighteen others suffered burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest or kidney failure.

In a statement, Ray's attorney called the charges unjust.

"This was a terrible accident -- but it was an accident, not a criminal act," Luis Li said. "James Ray cooperated at every step of the way, providing information and witnesses to the authorities showing that no one could have foreseen this accident."

Ray said he used the sweat lodge to show people they can gain strength and confidence by mastering physical discomfort. He had rented space at the Angel Valley Retreat Center several times over the last seven years for similar retreats.

For the "Spiritual Warrior" retreat, he promised to teach techniques that he says he "searched out in the mountains of Peru [and] the jungles of the Amazon."

Beverley Bunn, 43, who attended the October session, told the Associated Press that she and more than 50 others had endured fasting and sleep deprivation when Ray led them into the sweat lodge ceremony, held in a 415-square-foot tent made of tree branches and plastic tarps.

Bunn said it became unbearably hot when Ray poured water over hot rocks, filling the tent with steam.

Some participants began to appear ill after about an hour, she said, but Ray did not seem concerned. Bunn said he sat inside the tent door, leading the group in chants and prayers, while some people vomited and gasped for air and others lay on the floor.

When someone lifted the back of the tent to let in fresh air, Ray demanded to know where the light was coming from and who had committed the "sacrilegious act," Bunn said.

James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee and Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., died that night in a hospital. Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and died a week later.

Authorities launched a homicide investigation and questioned hundreds of people. Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said he did not know whether anyone else would be arrested in connection with the incident.

D'Evelyn said investigators interviewed the man who had been hired to build the sweat lodge for the October retreat and two previous retreats. D'Evelyn said the man told them that at each of the ceremonies he had assisted with, people emerged in medical distress.

In a post on Ray's website in December, his legal team said retreat participants signed a comprehensive release form "that spelled out that the activities could include a sweat lodge with tight, enclosed spaces and intense temperatures."

"Those who chose to participate in the sweat lodge, and in any other event at the Retreat, did so voluntarily and after having been informed of the risk," they wrote.

The legal team said Ray told participants, "You are not going to die, you might think you are, but you're not going to die," but that "these words were never meant to be taken literally."

In a January interview with New York Magazine, Ray said he did not know anything was wrong until the ceremony ended.

"Someone came up to me and said that there were some individuals that were having problems on the back side of the lodge," Ray told the magazine. "I did everything I could to help. I held people's hands, I stroked their hair, I talked to them, I held IV for the paramedics."

Ray soared to New Age celebrity in recent years after appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Larry King Live" and "Today." He appeared in the 2006 film "The Secret," which postulated that success came to those who willed it, and wrote several books, including "Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want."

Over the last decade, he traveled the world giving free self-help lectures, during which people were encouraged to sign up for paid events such as retreats.

Since 2001, more than 14,500 people have paid to attend his seminars and retreats. In September, Ray's Carlsbad, Calif.-based business was ranked as one of America's fastest-growing private companies.

On Wednesday, John Curtis, of Asheville, N.C., a critic of the $11.3-billion self-help industry and founder of the website Americans Against Self-Help Fraud, welcomed the news of Ray's arrest and said he hoped it would prompt new scrutiny of an industry that he says preys on troubled people.

"I see it as the proverbial 9/11 for the self-help movement," Curtis said. "I hope we'll see a greater degree of accountability."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-sweatlodge4-2010feb04,0,6544665,print.story

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Holder defends arrest of alleged airline bomb plotter

The U.S. attorney general says no intelligence agency objected to charging Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab criminally instead of treating him as a prisoner of war.

By Richard A. Serrano

February 4, 2010

Reporting from Washington

In his first public defense of the arrest of a Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airplane on Christmas Day, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that he personally made the decision to prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and that no one in the Washington intelligence community objected that the alleged Al Qaeda operative should instead be turned over to military interrogators as a prisoner of war.

Holder also applauded the work of FBI agents in Detroit, specifically those who spoke with the 23-year-old and have since been criticized for reading him his Miranda rights against self-incrimination.

The suspect initially stopped talking but has begun to cooperate again after meeting with his family while in custody.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said "Abdulmutallab has not been offered anything," but the Justice Department would take his cooperation into consideration.

In a five-page response to the Republican Senate leadership that has been demanding his testimony on Capitol Hill, Holder took responsibility for deciding to prosecute Abdulmutallab.

"I made the decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab with federal crimes, and to seek his detention in connection with those charges, with the knowledge of, and with no objection from, all other relevant departments of the government," he said.

Republicans, who have been critical of the decision to arrest Abdulmutallab and read him his rights rather than declare him an "enemy combatant," said they were dissatisfied with Holder's response and continued to press him to testify.

On Christmas night and into the next day, "the FBI informed its partners in the intelligence community that Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally, and no agency objected to this course of action," the attorney general said.

Under the law of war, there could have been a decision to stop the federal prosecution of Abdulmutallab and have President Obama declare him an enemy combatant. He would have been taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or some other location and subjected to military interrogations and a possible trial by a military tribunal.

But, Holder said, "no agency supported the use of law of war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued."

That position appears to contradict remarks from some in the intelligence field, including Dennis C. Blair, director of National Intelligence, who told the Senate Homeland Security Committee it was a "mistake" to give Abdulmutallab a Miranda warning.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, insisted that military custody was the proper place for Abdulmutallab in order to find out everything he knew about Al Qaeda plots -- especially since the Senate Intelligence Committee was advised Tuesday that terrorists were planning an attack on U.S. soil by July.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-holder-miranda4-2010feb04,0,6620425,print.story

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An Iraqi woman's taste of freedom turns sour

Sarah never wanted to work for the Americans, but soon their military base became her second home, and a confidence she never dreamed of took root. How could they believe she would betray them?

By Ned Parker

February 4, 2010

Reporting from Baghdad

In jail, Sarah had imagined herself sitting on Oprah's stage. The talk show host would listen sympathetically to the Iraqi widow's story. The audience would applaud as she told how she had made hardened militants cry while she helped grill them for the U.S. military. They would know, despite the rumors, that she had never betrayed the Americans.

Now that she was free, Sarah concentrated on a letter: "In the name of God, Dear Oprah, peace be upon you," she typed. "I'm sure you're going to be a little surprised because a lady from Iraq is writing to you, a woman from America. When I was in jail, I decided to . . . tell [you] my entire story with the American Army in Iraq."

She no longer looked like the woman in the photos from her Army days -- her auburn hair pulled back, wearing the fatigues, bulletproof vest and wraparound sunglasses that made Iraqis mistake her for a man. On the street, no one would guess that the 40-year-old mother of two teenage boys had been a scourge of Shiite death squads, or that she no longer trusts the Americans who once needed her.

About a stay-at-home wife who found bittersweet emancipation against the backdrop of a brutal civil war, Sarah's story is one of the freedom and loss that has marked the lives of most Iraqis since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Americans: Spring 2007

Sarah never wanted to work for the U.S. Army. Her husband, Ahmed, volunteered her.

In a chance encounter, Sarah's 11-year-old son had impressed some American soldiers with his English and the boy's father bragged that Sarah had taught him. The soldiers urged Ahmed to send her to them.

Sarah, a university dropout, had a gift for languages, learning English through movies like "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" and songs by ABBA and the Bee Gees.

Ahmed, a mechanic who had lost his business in a Shiite neighborhood, pleaded with his wife to take the job. Still haunted by the firebombing that had forced the Sunni family from their home, she told him she would be killed, but he refused to listen.

For the first time in their 18-year marriage, he was permitting her to work. Even now, Sarah suspects that her husband pushed her to take the job because he was desperate for money and didn't care enough about her safety. She was hired at Camp Falcon, a giant base in southeast Baghdad.

"I knew nothing about the Americans. It was a new world to me. I had never been in the same place with foreign people. . . . All I knew was what I saw on movies and TV," she said. "When I heard them laughing, I thought to myself: 'What am I doing here? I should be in the house with my boys, taking care of them.' "

The other interpreters asked her to pick an American name. Some called themselves Styles, or Travis. She chose Sarah because it was her niece's name. For security reasons, that name is being used for this report.

She soon found herself wearing a green uniform and walking across the gravel lot to the convoy of Capt. Bill Higgins' Alpha Company, 1st Infantry Division. Her former self, a woman who wore heart-shaped necklaces, had vanished along with her real name.

In meetings with informants and tribal sheiks, she impressed Higgins with her ability to get people to talk freely, and even on the phone. Soon Higgins asked her to coordinate meetings and help smuggle sources onto the base, unnoticed by armed groups and the national police.

Tips started to roll in about the Mahdi Army, the main Shiite militia in the district; its members killed people, planted bombs and ran extortion rings. Sarah started asking for more time to talk with people on the street. She'd hand out her number and get calls offering information on where the Mahdi Army's bombs were hidden to target troops.

Higgins joked that they should call her Iron Woman. She joined in the interrogations of detainees. She bragged that she could push them to tears: "I would talk with them about their families and babies. That they are young, and who was going to take care of their babies and wife. That someone would take their place."

Some of Alpha Company's informants told her that militia fighters knew who she was and wanted her dead, but that only made her more confident.

"They are all rats; they hide themselves in holes. If they were really brave men, let them face me," she would reply. Sometimes the prisoners kissed Sarah's boots, begging her to help them.

At community meetings, when she took off her sunglasses, helmet and bulletproof vest, tribal leaders were stunned to learn her gender. "She is a woman, she is a woman," they would whisper.

At home, she began challenging her husband, who often picked fights with her and ordered her around.

"I started to stay away from him and not talk with him because he hurt my feelings many times," she said. Sometimes the captain would intervene to try to cool tempers between them.

"Capt. Higgins helped me so much to get over many bad things in my life," she recalled much later. "He saw something in me. 'Sarah,' he said, 'you are smart and have the talent to do many things.' . . . He taught me to be patient. Maybe he even taught me to be strong because he was a strong man."

Higgins' company left Iraq in late 2007, but he made Sarah promise that she would stay and work with Capt. Michael Berriman and the next batch of officers from Charlie Company. Berriman liked to tease her about Higgins. He would tell his men, "Ask the 'terp' who she likes more -- me or Capt. Higgins." And Sarah would answer, "My Capt. Higgins, of course."

The base had become her other home. She awoke at sunrise, praying in her room, drinking her Nescafe and milk, and then wandering over to the command center to chat with the sergeants.

It was on one of these mornings at the base that she received the phone call: "Abu Mustapha is dead." She didn't understand who the caller meant.

Your husband, Ahmed, he said. He had been shot to death at a checkpoint.

Sarah shouted and cried until her screams brought in an American officer, who ordered her to change into her civilian clothes and go home to be with her boys.

Even though she couldn't forget how much the two of them had fought, she was haunted by the fear that her husband had been killed because of her.

The Arrest: September 2008

"Sarah, just tell them the truth."

Those were the last words she heard from Berriman at the end of what was supposed to have been a routine security clearance. With that, she was no longer the woman who helped clean up southeast Baghdad, but an alleged spy for the Mahdi Army, disappearing into the American and Iraqi detention system.

For eight days, an interrogator questioned her about alleged links to the militia and said that she would never see her children again.

She clung to bits of information from her questioner, about how an unidentified Iraqi had signed a statement accusing her of smuggling intelligence to the Mahdi Army; that she deliberately misinterpreted during meetings; that she helped slip militia fighters into U.S.-backed neighborhood watch programs.

She tormented herself, wondering how the soldiers she had worked with for months could believe this.

"How could I help the Mahdi Army, who blew up my house, killed my husband . . . and made my sons fatherless?" she asked. "How could you imagine I would do this?"

She ran through names in her head, trying to seize upon who had spread the rumors and betrayed her.

She watched Oprah with the other women at the detention center and started to daydream. "Oprah, I'm going to write my story to you and see what you are going to do for me," she mused.

On the phone, she asked her son Mustapha, a shy boy with floppy bangs, to get the $20,000 in savings she had hidden in her handbag in her room on the U.S. base, which she thought was the safest place in Baghdad to keep her belongings. When Mustapha retrieved her things, there was no money.

Two months passed before Sarah appeared in an Iraqi court, where the judge asked how she knew the Mahdi Army. She explained that she met militia members with U.S. soldiers, who even posed for pictures with them. The judge quickly dismissed the case against her.

But her Iraqi lawyer wanted more money from her family and balked at filling out the release papers. With her papers unsigned, the Americans sent her to an Iraqi women's jail.

The Rusafa jail was "the lowest depth of hell." Sarah stayed in rooms with almost 100 women, including kidnappers and murderers. There was the Bata gang, named after a Toyota with a big trunk convenient for dumping bodies during the civil war, and the Lima gang, named after a prisoner who had had a baby with a guard at a previous jail.

After a month, a new lawyer completed the paperwork for her release. Sarah couldn't sleep the night before her freedom, staying awake till dawn.

Still angry, she wrote an e-mail to Berriman and asked the captain why he had abandoned her, why he did nothing when her money was stolen. Only months before, he had recommended her for immigration to America; now she had lost her job and her chance to go to the U.S.

"This is for you too to ask yourselves: Did anyone of you get hurt when I was working with you?" she addressed the captain. "I am sure you know the answer."

Her e-mail bounced back.

Berriman said later in an interview that he wished he had done more for her, but his battalion was preoccupied with rotating out of Iraq when Sarah was being investigated.

If he could tell her anything, Berriman said, "I would want her to know she helped us out very much and she is a very good person and I hope she continues to stay safe and finds security for her and her boys."

An Army spokesperson added that an investigation failed to uncover any evidence of theft.

Sarah started her letter to Oprah. When she sat down to type, she sobbed, remembering every moment from the last two years. Finally she sent it. The e-mail failed to go through. She asked Higgins' wife to send it for her. But Oprah never answered.

A New Life: Winter 2009

Sarah decided to finish studying for the foreign language degree she had walked away from years ago and get a job as a civil servant with it. She was attending class alongside 20-year-olds and grappling with grammar. But she was resolute.

"I am tired from crying," she said, a textbook under her arm.

She was determined to show her children she was strong. The night before the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, the family was sitting in the darkened living room when her younger son, Baqr, started sobbing because his father used to give him a bit of money on the holiday.

Sarah did all she could: She held him close until his tears had dried.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iraq-widow4-2010feb04,0,1343149,print.story

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Man arrested on charges of impersonating federal agent and 'deporting' distant cousin's wife

A Southern California man has been arrested on suspicion of posing as a federal marshal to kidnap a distant cousin's wife and put her on a plane to the Philippines, police said Wednesday.

Witnesses said Gregory Denny, 37, turned up at the Hemet home of Craig Hibbard, a distant cousin, on Jan. 15, wearing a fake badge and a shirt imprinted with “U.S. Federal Agent,” said Lt. Duane Wisehart of the Hemet Police Department.

Displaying what turned out to be a pellet gun, Denny reportedly handcuffed Hibbard's wife, Cherrie Belle, and told the couple she was being deported, Wisehart said. Denny allegedly drove Belle, 28, to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection station in Murrieta.

When he was told there was no warrant for her in the computer system, he apparently returned to the couple's house in the 1200 block of Stepstone Court and instructed her husband to purchase a ticket for her online to her home country, Wisehart said.

When Hibbard reported the matter to authorities three days later, police reached Denny by telephone and asked him to come into the station for questioning. Denny arrived wearing the “U.S. Federal Agent” shirt, identified himself to police as a U.S. marshal and verified the family's general account of what happened, Wisehart said.

“This person is not and never was employed by the U.S. Marshals Service, and as far as we can ascertain, has never been employed by any law enforcement agency in any capacity,” the Hemet Police Department said in a statement.

Police arrested Denny last month on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, impersonating a peace officer, burglary and false arrest, Wisehart said. He was released the next day on $50,000 bail and is expected in court Feb. 16.

The Riverside County district attorney's office is considering whether to file charges, said spokesman John Hall. Hemet police also notified the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

Denny told the Press-Enterprise the kidnapping claims are false but did not elaborate. The Police Department did not provide a motive. “There is no clear motive except that he felt he was doing a 'favor' for the family, and that they, the family, wanted her deported,” Wisehart said.

Hibbard told the Press-Enterprise that his wife is five months' pregnant and that they have been married for three years. He said she canceled her green card last year in a dispute with him, saying she wanted to go home to the Philippines.

The couple later reconciled and she tried to renew her immigration documents, the paper reported. Hibbard said they were told by immigration officials in San Bernardino that she was allowed to remain in the U.S. while her application was being processed.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/man-arrested-for-impersonating-federal-agent-and-deporting-distant-cousins-wife.html#more

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Marijuana seized in banana shipment at San Diego border crossing

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in San Diego found more than $1 million worth of marijuana hidden in a shipment of bananas at the Mexico border, officials said Wednesday.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted officers to the shipment Monday when a 40-year-old Mexican truck driver applied to cross into the United States at the Otay Mesa cargo facility, the agency said in a statement.

When officers opened the boxes in the truck, they found 235 packages of marijuana weighing nearly a ton hidden among bunches of bananas, the statement said. Officers seized the marijuana, which is worth an estimated $1.17 million.

The driver was arrested by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Last week, 315 packages of marijuana weighing 3,877 pounds were found hidden in a shipment of peppers and beans at the cargo facility.

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

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OPINION

The death penalty -- it's unworkable

The American Law Institute, instrumental in structuring the model statutes on which most death sentences are based, has withdrawn its support of such laws.

By Michael Traynor

February 4, 2010

Nearly 50 years ago, as concern grew in the country about the fairness of death penalty laws, the American Law Institute published a "model statute" aimed at helping state lawmakers draft laws to ensure that death sentences were meted out fairly and consistently.

Last fall, the institute withdrew its support for the model death penalty law. The decision was a striking repudiation from the very organization that provided the blueprint for death penalty laws in this country.

The institute, with a membership of more than 4,000 lawyers, judges and law professors of the highest qualifications, is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify and improve the law.

In the decade after the institute published its law, which was part of a comprehensive model penal code, the statute became the prototype for death penalty laws across the United States. Some parts of the model -- such as the categorical exclusion of the death penalty for crimes other than murder and for people of limited mental abilities -- withstood the test of time. But the core of the statute, which created a list of factors to guide judges and jurors deciding when to sentence someone to death, has proved unworkable and fostered confusion and injustice.

Now, after searching analysis by our country's top legal minds, the institute has concluded that the system it created does not work and cannot be fixed. It concluded that we cannot devise a death penalty system that will ensure fairness in process or outcome, or even that innocent people will not be executed.

I am speaking for myself, not as a representative of the institute, but I can say with certainty that the institute did not reach these conclusions lightly. It commissioned a special committee and a scholarly study, heard various viewpoints and debated the issues extensively. A strong consensus emerged that capital punishment in this country is riddled with pervasive problems.

The death penalty cannot balance the need for consistency in sentencing with the need for individualized determinations. Its administration is unequal across racial groups. There is a grave lack of resources for defense lawyers. The law is distorted by the politics of judicial elections, and it consumes a disproportionate share of public resources.

California's death penalty exemplifies these problems. Portions of California's law were copied from the institute's model statute. The system now is on the verge of collapse. There are about 700 people on death row in California, and it can take 25 years for mandatory appeals to be completed. Since 1978, California has executed 13 prisoners, while 72 have died of old age or other causes.

Resources are woefully inadequate. More than half of the people on death row don't have access to a constitutionally-required lawyer. A statewide commission found that there remains a serious risk that the state will execute an innocent person. And then there is the cost. Housing a prisoner on death row costs taxpayers $90,000 a year more than if that prisoner were held in another type of high-security prison. The total additional cost for housing all of California's death row inmates is more than $60 million a year.

These problems are entrenched in the death penalty system, both in California and nationwide. The cumulative result: Executions remain as random as lightning strikes, or more so, and that is the very problem the institute's model statute intended to fix. In addition, across the country, at least 139 individuals have been released from death row after establishing their innocence.

The institute's action comes at a time of widespread reevaluation of capital punishment. Fifteen states have abandoned capital punishment, including three in the last three years. In 2009, the country saw the lowest number of death sentences since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

We now have decades of experience, which the institute lacked when it proposed its model statute almost 50 years ago. Life without the possibility of parole, now an important alternative in nearly every state, was then virtually untried. To the extent that society needs to punish murderers severely, it can do so far more effectively using tough yet fair prison sentences rather than through an ineffective and extravagant death penalty.

The American Law Institute could have chosen to do nothing. But having laid the intellectual and legal groundwork for the modern death penalty, it concluded that it had a responsibility to act now that the system's fatal flaws have fully emerged.

The withdrawal of the model death penalty statute recognizes that it is impossible to administer the death penalty consistently and fairly, and it therefore should not remain a punishment option in this country. The institute could no longer play a role in legitimizing a failed system. How much longer can any of us?

Michael Traynor is president emeritus of the American Law Institute and lives in Berkeley.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-traynor4-2010feb04,0,7797946,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Mentally ill released and dumped

As California reduces its prison population, Los Angeles County officials said Wednesday they are considering legal action in light of revelations the state is dropping off mentally ill offenders from state prisons and hospitals at county hospital emergency rooms.

County Department of Mental Health Director Marvin Southard said those offenders - some judged insane or unfit to stand trial - have wound up in the community when a judge ordered their release or there was difficulty finding a board-and-care facility to house them.

Southard's department has lost $175 million in funding over the last two years and he expects to spend $8 million to $24 million to provide mental health care to 1,200 mentally ill county parolees whose state-based mental health treatment is about to end.

"These are walking time bombs going into our medical facilities," Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. "Some of these individuals will be re-arrested and put in the system again. This is an irresponsible action by the state."

But state Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Jennifer Turner said the agency is working with counties to ensure mental health services are "made available to those most in need, and that services being offered are in settings that help advance each patients' treatment goals."

The announcement came as Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, introduced a bill that would inform local law enforcement officials when mentally ill offenders are released.

Dutton introduced the bill in response to a homicide that took place last month at an unsupervised group home in Upland, where seven male offenders were living. All the men had been released from mental hospitals under the state Department of Mental Health's Forensic Conditional Release Program.

"This is a common-sense public safety issue," said Dutton spokesman Larry Venus. "The community should be made aware of it, and at a minimum law enforcement agencies should be notified when a CONREP individual is placed in their community. That is not happening right now."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14328983

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Official says L.A. faces no additional post-Sept. 11 threat

Despite warnings from the nation's top intelligence officials that a domestic terrorist attack is likely within the next six months, Los Angeles faces no greater threat than it has since the Sept. 11 attacks, a top police official said Wednesday.

Deputy Chief Mike Downing, who heads the anti-terrorist division in the Los Angeles Police Department, said none of the information provided to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday broke new ground.

"We have seen activity in other parts of the world that have transnational reach," Downing said. "We have always been concerned about it. We know about the training camps in Milwaukee and the whole use of the Internet to reach people."

Officials representing the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies told the committee that they expect another terrorist attack on the United States in coming months.

In particular, the officials said they are concerned with the use of the Internet and cyber-security issues.

"What keeps me awake at night is that al-Qaida and its terrorist allies and affiliates could very well attack the United States," CIA Director Leon Panetta told the congressional committee.

Downing, who has a force of 300 officers and works with the federal government in a joint intelligence center, said his group is concerned not only with al-Qaida, but also with what experts call the "inside-outside" threat - when someone inside the country carries out an attack on behalf of outside interests - along with the "lone wolf" terrorists.

"One of the areas of most concern is the homegrown terrorist," Downing said. "They are inspired by the al-Qaida idealogy and act on that."

One of Downing's duties is to communicate with the local Islamic community, where he said he is welcomed.

"The city of Los Angeles may have its problems, but the majority of the Islamic community is not one of them. Our engagement has been very positive, and we have a lot of partners in the Islamic community who believe in our country and democracy. They believe the killing of innocent civilians is not part of Islamic beliefs."

At the same time, Downing said, officials are aware of a Pew Institute study that shows 4 percent of Muslims have a favorable view of al-Qaida and 1 percent have a very favorable view.

"If that is correct, that means there is a population of 125,000 people in the country with that view," Downing said.

For the average citizen, Downing advises people to be alert to potential danger and contact the LAPD for assistance.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14328549

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Cop Murders Spark Legal Overhaul in Washington

Washington state lawmakers on Wednesday passed five bills aimed at increasing safety for law-enforcement officials in the wake of the slayings of six police officers, in a big overhaul of the state's criminal justice system.

The bills passed by the state's House of Representatives raise penalties for assaulting officers, increase benefits to public safety workers killed in the line of duty and end a bail practice that allowed criminals to be released without the consent of a judge. In addition, House lawmakers will later this month vote on a bill that would give judges leeway to deny bail to people accused of crimes in the interest of public safety. The bill would require voter approval in November since it would amend the state constitution.

The efforts are Washington state's most concerted moves to revamp its criminal-justice system since 1993, when it passed the nation's first three-strikes law, said Hugh Spitzer, a University of Washington professor of state constitutional law. That law required courts to give extended sentences to offenders who commit three or more criminal offenses.

The overhaul has national implications, since other states that passed laws following heinous crimes have been copied elsewhere. After Florida enacted a law requiring tighter restrictions on sex offenders in response to the murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford by a convicted sex offender in 2005, for instance, more than 20 states implemented similar laws.

Washington's overhaul may spur states like Oregon and Indiana to take action, since they have similar constitutions, Mr. Spitzer said. "Washington's changes may force other states to re-evaluate some of their public safety provisions," he said. "The bail law was very old and needed broadening and there are many states that have similar provisions."

Washington's bills follow the murders of six police officers in the state since October. The violence provoked an outcry and rattled law-enforcement nerves around the Puget Sound region, with many officers changing their habits to be less predictable. "I don't go to the same coffee shop routinely anymore," said Mike Hope, a Seattle police officer and a Republican state representative from Lake Stevens, Wash., who backs the bail reform bill. "I'm a little more aware. I think everyone's in that position."

But the revamp has stirred opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union, public defenders and criminal defense associations. They say the bail proposals could curtail a basic protection of the legal system against individuals accused but not convicted of crimes.

Still, Wednesday's measures are expected to pass in the Senate in the coming weeks and be signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

"The shootings sent shockwaves through the community," says Rep. Chris Hurst, a Democrat and chair of the state's Public Safety Committee. "People couldn't believe this happened and want to take whatever measures necessary to prevent it from happening again."

The case that stoked particular outrage involved four police officers in Parkland, Wash., who were shot and killed at a coffee shop by Maurice Clemmons, a parolee who was himself later killed by a Seattle police officer. Mr. Clemmons had just been released on bail from an Arkansas state prison for assault when he shot the officers.

The lack of inter-state coordination between Arkansas and Washington over supervision of Mr. Clemmons pushed Washington legislators to enact a moratorium in December on accepting parolees from Arkansas until proper safety controls were put in place.

The moratorium is set to remain in effect until state public-safety officials review Arkansas's procedures and Gov. Gregoire has determined that Arkansas is living up to its responsibilities for monitoring parolees, says a spokeswoman for the governor.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703575004575043630845268398.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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Mexican 'virtual fence' in jeopardy

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX | An ambitious, $6.7 billion government project to secure nearly the entire Mexican border with a "virtual fence" of cameras, ground sensors and radar is in jeopardy after a string of technical glitches and delays, and this week President Obama proposed cutting $189 million from the venture.

Having spent $672 million so far with little to show for it, Washington has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea.

Ultimately, the project could be scaled back dramatically, with the government installing virtual fences along a few segments of the nation's 2,000-mile southern boundary but dropping plans for any further expansion, officials said.

"The worst that happens is that we have a system which gives us some value but we conclude that it's not worth buying any more of it," said Mark Borkowski, the government's director of the project at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The first permanent segment of virtual fence - a 23-mile stretch near Sasabe, Ariz. - was supposed to be turned over to the Border Patrol by the main contractor, Boeing Co., for testing in January, but the handover has been delayed by problems involving the video recording equipment.

The George W. Bush administration began the project in 2005 to help secure the border against illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and other intruders. It was conceived as another layer of protection, in addition to thousands of Border Patrol agents and 650 miles of real fences.

The system was supposed to let a small number of dispatchers watch the border on a computer monitor, zoom in with cameras to see people crossing, and decide whether to send Border Patrol agents to the scene. Although there are sensors, cameras and radar at many points along the border, they are not connected to cover large expanses.

Originally, the virtual fence was supposed to be completed by 2011; that date has slipped to 2014, largely because of technical problems.

Among other things, the radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people when it was windy. Also, the satellite communication system took too long to relay information in the field to a command center. By the time an operator moved a camera to take a closer look at a spot, whatever had raised suspicion was gone.

The Homeland Security Department and Boeing said the early problems were fixed, but other glitches keep popping up. The latest: A software bug that causes video recording devices to lock on to the wrong cameras, hindering agents trying to collect evidence against illegal border crossers.

The government is trying to negotiate a deal with Boeing to let the Border Patrol begin using the first permanent stretch of virtual fence at night while the contractor is still working on it. Otherwise, the Border Patrol might have to wait until late summer or early fall to take control of the section.

In ordering a reassessment of the project Jan. 8, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the delays were unacceptable and that the government must consider more efficient and economical options. She did not elaborate.

"Americans need border security now - not 10 years down the road," Miss Napolitano said.

As for the possibility of the project being scaled back by government officials, Tim Peters, a Boeing vice president, said: "They really need to come up with the right calculus, and we'll support that answer and look to be their preferred contractor to build whatever portion of what that calculus is."

Both Boeing and the government officials said the technical problems stemmed from an erroneous belief that the first-of-its-kind virtual fence could be put together relatively quickly by tying together off-the-shelf components that weren't designed to be linked.

Mr. Borkowski said the government shares blame with the contractor for the delays.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tougher immigration enforcement, said the project has suffered from a lack of oversight.

"We didn't get the border security we were promised," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/04/virtual-fence-on-mexican-border-in-jeopardy//print/

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Hospitals cut dialysis to indigent patients

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA | Before she started receiving dialysis treatments at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, Bineet Kaur was so sick from kidney failure that she could hardly walk. The memories of that pain came flooding back in September, when she received a letter saying the clinic was closing.

The treatment typically costs $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and Grady is just one of the struggling public hospitals cutting the service to reduce costs. Many indigent dialysis patients, including Miss Kaur, are illegal immigrants, so facilities that give them routine treatments receive no federal money for their care.

Since the clinic closed in October, Miss Kaur and other former clinic patients have been getting private dialysis treatments funded by Grady, which is struggling to find new providers for them and has even offered to buy them plane tickets to their home countries.

New patients who show up in Grady's emergency room in need of dialysis will get it only in life-or-death situations, and after they improve will be told that they must go elsewhere for regular care.

Miss Kaur, a bubbly 26-year-old who studied nursing and once did an internship at Grady, said she doesn't know where she will get the treatment she needs to survive.

"I really hope God helps," the Indian native said on a recent morning. "Otherwise, it's like having a death sentence."

Public hospitals are often the only option for illegal immigrants and others without health insurance because they will treat anyone. But many of those hospitals have severe funding problems, and several have given up dialysis treatment to control costs. Grady officials say its clinic was losing $2 million to $4 million a year.

Jackson Health System, the public hospital in Miami-Dade County, stopped paying for outpatient dialysis treatment for 175 indigent patients on Dec. 31. A month later, 40 patients - about half of them illegal immigrants - were still looking for alternate treatment. The hospital said it expects to save more than $4 million a year by stopping the payments.

The University Medical Center in Las Vegas has had its budget strained as emergency room visits for dialysis more than doubled from December 2008 to December 2009, from 116 to 243. The Las Vegas hospital stopped paying for people to get private dialysis, but now spends about $700,000 a month on dialysis in its emergency room.

"You try to figure out what service lines to cut and that seemed like an easy one," said hospital spokesman Rick Plummer. "But it ended up just shifting the burden because now the dialysis patients show up very ill in the emergency room."

Larry Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, said many hospitals are rethinking the services they offer.

"It comes down to a decision about how to allocate scarce resources," Mr. Gage said. "As sad as some of the individual cases are, you really almost have to ask which services are the greatest number of uninsured patients going to benefit from, including uninsured immigrants."

Some argue that illegal immigrants are a burden that the nation's health care system should not have to shoulder.

"When you have long-term health conditions that need continuing care, the government needs to send these people back to their countries," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tougher immigration enforcement. "They cannot expect the taxpayer is going to endlessly pick up the tab."

Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older, covers routine dialysis for U.S. citizens regardless of their age, but illegal immigrants are ineligible.

Changes to the health care system being considered in Congress are unlikely to improve the situation. The current bills specifically exclude illegal immigrants.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/04/hospitals-cut-dialysis-to-indigent-patients//print/

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Nuclear missile threats to U.S. mount

by Bill Gertz

North Korea is expected to deploy a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching parts of the United States in the next decade, despite two long-range missile flight-test failures, according to the Pentagon's ballistic-missile defense review.

The review report, made public this week, concluded that missile threats from several states, including Iran, Syria, China and Russia, are growing "quantitatively and qualitatively," and it outlined Pentagon plans for silo-based and mobile anti-missile systems to counter them.

On North Korea, the report disclosed for the first time the U.S. intelligence estimate of when Pyongyang will be able to reach the technically challenging threshold of producing a nuclear device small enough to be carried on a missile.

"We must assume that sooner or later, North Korea will have a successful test of its Taepodong-2 and, if there are no major changes in its national security strategy in the next decade, it will be able to mate a nuclear warhead to a proven delivery system," the report said.

U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea was one of at least three states — along with Libya and Iran — that benefited from the spread of nuclear technology provided by the network of suppliers headed by Pakistani technician A.Q. Khan. Included with that assistance and discovered when Libya gave up its Khan-supplied nuclear goods were Chinese-language documents on how to make a warhead for a missile, the officials have said.

U.S. intelligence agencies suspect but have not confirmed that North Korea also obtained the warhead-design documents from Mr. Khan.

North Korea's two underground nuclear tests and its development of long-range missiles is a major worry, the report said, noting that Iran also is developing long-range missiles.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in Senate testimony this week that the Pentagon is seeking $8.4 billion for missile defenses under what he described as a phased plan to shift the focus from larger ground-based long-range interceptors to shorter-range missile defenses, like the Navy's SM-3 ship-based missile interceptor.

"We have deployed ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely [in Alaska]. We have a very aggressive test program that has been successful. We believe that those interceptors give us the capability to deal with launches from either Iran or North Korea, a small-scale threat," Mr. Gates said.

Chuck Downs, a former Pentagon official and specialist on North Korea, said the North Korean drive for a long-range nuclear missile is part of Pyongyang's objective of being able to threaten the United States.

"They are a regime that has already relied on coercive threats, with their own people, with their neighbors and with the United States," he said.

Developing a nuclear-tipped Taepodong will be "the high point of their military development program," said Mr. Downs, head of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. "It should come as no surprise that they are seeking to develop this missile."

A defense official said the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress last year that North Korea may be able to mate a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile, noting that the Taepodong would be nuclear-capable. Additionally, DIA has stated that "North Korea could have several nuclear warheads capable of delivery by ballistic missiles."

"We have publicly stated that North Korea has a theoretical capability to produce a warhead and mate it with a missile, but we have no information to suggest they have done so," the official said.

Five years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York, made headlines when she asked DIA director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby during a hearing whether North Korea had a nuclear warhead small enough to be carried on a missile. Adm. Jacoby said yes, but a Pentagon spokesman said later that officials did not know whether Pyongyang has a nuclear missile warhead capability.

The report said it was difficult to predict when the missile threat to the U.S. homeland will evolve, "but it is certain that it will do so."

Iran, meanwhile, announced Wednesday that it had conducted a rocket launch to place a satellite into orbit, a move that the White House called provocative.

North Korea's April 2009 Taepodong test failed to orbit a small communications satellites, but showed that Pyongyang has developed "many technologies associated with an [intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)]," the report said.

The missile-defense report outlines the Obama administration's plan for stepping up the deployment of short- and medium-range missile defenses, specifically to counter Iranian missiles.

"North Korea and Iran have shown contempt for international norms, pursued illicit weapons programs in defiance of the international community, and have been highly provocative in both their actions and statements," the report said. "They have exploited the capabilities available to them to threaten others."

Regional neighbors of both states may be limited in their actions and pursuit of interests because of the missile threat.

"Deterrence is a powerful tool, and the United States is seeking to strengthen deterrence against these new challenges," the report said. "But deterrence by threat of a strong offensive response may not be effective against these states in a time of political-military crisis. Risk-taking leaders may conclude that they can engage the United States in a confrontation if they can raise the stakes high enough by demonstrating the potential to do further harm with their missiles. Thus, U.S. missile defenses are critical to strengthening regional deterrence."

Iran has not stated its plan to build ICBMs, but the report said it continues to "pursue long-range ballistic missiles," including the Safir space launcher that was used in August 2008 and February 2009 to launch satellites.

Current U.S. missile-defense systems include 30 ground-based long-range interceptors in Alaska and California, ground-based mobile Patriot and Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems and the Navy's SM-3 anti-missile interceptor, based on Aegis warships.

In the next several years, the Pentagon plans to develop and deploy several advanced variants of the SM-3 missile, including a ground-based version in Poland.

The report said the most advanced SM-3 will have some capability to knock out long-range missile warheads and will be ready for use in "the 2020 time frame."

The Obama administration canceled a plan to deploy long-range interceptors in Poland after Russia opposed the interceptor base and a related radar planned for the Czech Republic.

Instead, the administration will use ships deployed in waters closer to Iran to counter Iranian medium-range missiles, as well as interceptors in Poland to protect the Continent.

Critics of the scaled-back missile-defense plan say abandoning the proposal for stationing long-range missile interceptors in Europe will increase the U.S. vulnerability to a future Iranian missile strike on the United States.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/04/nuclear-missile-threats-to-us-mount//print/

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From Fox News

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Peterson's Friend Testifies Ex-Wife Slept With Kitchen Knife

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

JOLIET, Ill.  — 

A friend of former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson's ex-wife says her friend was so afraid of Peterson that she installed a deadbolt lock on her bedroom door and slept with a kitchen knife under her mattress.

Kristin Anderson testified Wednesday that Kathleen Savio told her Peterson once put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Anderson lived at Savio's home for two months in late 2003.

The testimony came during a hearing to determine what hearsay evidence will be allowed at Peterson's upcoming murder trial.

The former Bolingbrook police officer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Savio's 2004 death. The death was initially ruled accidental but reclassified a homicide after the 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584739,00.html

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From MSNBC

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Google enlists NSA to fight off cyberattacks

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners."

But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.

"The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry.

On Jan. 12, Google took the rare step of announcing publicly that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December.

The intrusions, industry experts said, targeted Google source code — the programming language underlying Google applications — and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. The Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were also compromised.

So significant was the attack that Google threatened to shutter its business operation in China if the government did not agree to let the firm operate an uncensored search engine there. That issue is still unresolved.

Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program.

'Deficiencies'

Sources familiar with the new initiative said the focus is not figuring out who was behind the recent cyberattacks — doing so is a nearly impossible task after the fact — but building a better defense of Google's networks, or what its technicians call "information assurance."

One senior defense official, while not confirming or denying any agreement the NSA might have with any firm, said: "If a company came to the table and asked for help, I would ask them . . . 'What do you know about what transpired in your system? What deficiencies do you think they took advantage of? Tell me a little bit about what it was they did.' " Sources said the NSA is reaching out to other government agencies that play key roles in the U.S. effort to defend cyberspace and might be able to help in the Google investigation.

These agencies include the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Over the past decade, other Silicon Valley companies have quietly turned to the NSA for guidance in protecting their networks.

"As a general matter," NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel said, "as part of its information-assurance mission, NSA works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates to ensure the availability of secure tailored solutions for Department of Defense and national security systems customers."

Despite such precedent, Matthew Aid, an expert on the NSA, said Google's global reach makes it unique.

"When you rise to the level of Google . . . you're looking at a company that has taken great pride in its independence," said Aid, author of "The Secret Sentry," a history of the NSA. "I'm a little uncomfortable with Google cooperating this closely with the nation's largest intelligence agency, even if it's strictly for defensive purposes."

The pact would be aimed at allowing the NSA help Google understand whether it is putting in place the right defenses by evaluating vulnerabilities in hardware and software and to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is. The agency's expertise is based in part on its analysis of cyber-"signatures" that have been documented in previous attacks and can be used to block future intrusions.

The NSA would also be able to help the firm understand what methods are being used to penetrate its system, the sources said. Google, for its part, may share information on the types of malicious code seen in the attacks — without disclosing proprietary data about what was taken, which would concern shareholders, sources said.

Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a privacy advocacy group, said companies have statutory authority to share information with the government to protect their rights and property.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35231454/ns/technology_and_science-washington_post/

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Somali pirates hijack N. Korean cargo ship

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship on Wednesday with an unknown number of crew on board, the European Union Naval Force said.

The MV Rim was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition, said Cmdr. Anders Kallin of the EU Naval Force.

The MV Rim has not had any communication with maritime authorities, but Kallin said an American warship, the USS Porter, and a helicopter from American warship USS Farragut confirmed the seizure of the ship to the EU.

The 4,800-ton ship is owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya. It is carrying unknown cargo and the number and nationalities of the crew are not known. The seized ship was heading toward the Somali coast and warships were monitoring the situation, the EU Naval Force said.

The MV Rim is the third ship seized by Somali pirates this year. Its crew will join more than 180 sailors being held hostage along the Somali coast.

Most Somalis are impoverished and many have suffered from almost two decades of fighting. The anarchic Horn of Africa nation is the perfect pirate base because the weak U.N.-backed government is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to patrol its shores or go after pirates on land.

The multimillion-dollar ransoms that pirates command are one of the few remaining ways for Somalis to make money. Experts say the problems will only get worse unless the security situation on land improves.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35217421/ns/world_news/

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Senate report: 'Dirty money' still entering US

WASHINGTON - Foreign dictators, high-living bureaucrats and arms dealers are still able to funnel millions of dollars in potentially corrupt money into the United States despite post-Sept. 11, 2001 laws cracking down on money laundering, according to a Senate investigation.

The son of the president of Equatorial Guinea moved $110 million in suspect funds into the United States from 2004 to 2008 while an Angolan arms dealer, now in a French jail, was able to pay $9.6 million for an Arizona home in 2000 and maintained U.S. bank accounts handling some $60 million in transactions between 1999 and 2007, the report found.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee's permanent subcommittee on investigations, which wrote the report, has summoned several of the U.S. lawyers, real estate agents and bankers involved in the financial transactions to a hearing Thursday.

The subcommittee chairman, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said that while banks are doing better in blocking dirty money because of anti-money laundering safeguards created in the 2001 bill known as the Patriot Act, there are still "so many vehicles in our system where corrupt money can flow." The findings of the report, which focused on four case studies, are "infuriating," he said.

The 330-page report concluded that powerful foreign officials and their families, known internationally as "politically exposed persons" or PEPs, have used lawyers, real estate and escrow agents, lobbyists, bankers and university officials to circumvent anti-corruption laws.

It noted that the Treasury Department exempted some industries, such as hedge funds and the real estate industry, from Patriot Act anti-money laundering requirements, and that many of the professionals examined were under no legal obligation to take anti-money laundering precautions when dealing with a PEP.

The four case studies:

The report recommended that Treasury adopt recent World Bank proposals to strengthen bank controls related to PEPs and repeal Patriot Act exemptions for setting up anti-money laundering programs. Congress should require that the owners of shell corporations be named, according to the report, and should make acts of foreign corruption a legal basis for denying U.S. entry to the person involved in the corruption and his family.

A Levin aide said one possibility was attaching anti-money laundering provisions to pending legislation to increase oversight of financial institutions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35223183/ns/politics/

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Obama keeps N. Korea off terror sponsor list

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he had decided not to reinstate nuclear-armed North Korea to a list of countries that the United States considers state sponsors of terrorism.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last June had raised the possibility of returning North Korea to the list in reaction to recent nuclear and missile tests. Several Republican senators had been demanding such a move.

Obama made the determination in a letter sent to leaders of the U.S. Congress that accompanied a classified report on the conduct of North Korea between June 26, 2008, and Nov. 16, 2009.

He said the report concludes that North Korea "does not meet the statutory criteria to again be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism."

Obama was continuing a policy begun by his predecessor, George W. Bush, who removed North Korea from the list of countries alleged to be state sponsors of terrorism in October 2008 in an effort to keep a nuclear deal from collapsing.

Obama, who came to office a year ago seeking to increase American diplomacy, has been seeking to coax North Korea back to the bargaining table.

Pyongyang is under growing pressure to end its boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks, where it could win aid for reducing the security threat it poses in economically vital North Asia.

North Korea had been added to the list in 1988 after its agents were linked to the deadly bombing of a South Korean airliner.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35225224/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

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Man saved on frozen sea by webcam spotter

BERLIN - Watch the sunset, save a life.

A woman admiring the sunset on a tourist webcam in northern Germany spotted a man who was lost on the frozen North Sea and probably saved his life by alerting authorities, police said Wednesday.

The man had climbed over pack ice off the coast to photograph a sunset near the town of St. Peter-Ording, then became disoriented on the ice, Husum police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow said.

Unable to locate the beach, the man began using his camera to flash for help. That got the attention of a woman hundreds of miles away in southern Germany who was watching the sunset over the sea on her computer.

The woman contacted police, who located the man's signals and guided him into shore by flashing their car lights. Officers then lectured him on the dangers of trekking on the ice.

Police would not identify the man or the woman who spotted him. Stielow said he was a German tourist in his 40s.

She said locals are well aware of the risk of disorientation as darkness falls and the beach becomes hard to identify, but vivid sunsets over frozen landscapes often draw people away from the shore.

At the time the man lost his bearings, the air temperature was below freezing. He could have frozen to death or fallen through the ice, Stielow added.

St. Peter-Ording is popular tourist destination known for its beaches and sailing, and the local tourism board runs a Web site with a webcam. The board, however, said images from the webcam are routinely erased and the dramatic flashes from the man's camera were not saved before the story came to light.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35214255/ns/world_news-europe/

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State Farm cancels thousands of Fla. policies

The largest homeowners insurer in Florida is canceling the policies of 125,000 of its most vulnerable customers beginning Aug. 1, halfway through the 2010 hurricane season.

The company, State Farm Florida, began sending out cancellation notices this week to nearly a fifth of its 714,000 customers, most of them in the state's hurricane-prone coastal regions.

A spokesman for State Farm said the decision was the direct result of its failure to win a 47.1 percent rate increase from state regulators.

State Farm stopped writing new policies and sought the increase a year ago, saying severe losses from a series of devastating hurricanes in recent years had rendered its business model unworkable. It said that without the large increase, it would be insolvent by the end of 2011.

The losses for State Farm are especially large because it is the largest insurer in the state. But the insurance industry across the board has been slammed by heavy hurricane losses in recent years, most notably from hurricanes Ivan (which caused $8.9 billion in damage) and Frances ($8.3 billion) in 2004 and Wilma ($20.6 billion) in 2005.

Although there were no catastrophic hurricane losses in the last two years, the potential continues to drive up costs for Florida insurers, whose access to reinsurance is restricted because of the risk, the state Office of Insurance Regulation said. It projected that 102 of the 200 largest Florida carriers were running net underwriting losses.

Numbers like that led State Farm, which said it was losing $20 million a month, to give notice that it would pull out of the Florida market unless it could enact a mammoth rate hike. In a settlement with regulators in December, it was granted a 14.8 percent rate increase and permission to drop its most vulnerable customers over an 18-month period as a condition for its agreement not to withdraw from Florida completely.

Jim Thompson, president of State Farm Florida, called the arrangement “an important step,” saying it would help “stem State Farm Florida's deteriorating financial condition.”

Policyholders have six months

The first of the cancellations will take effect at the beginning of August because state law requires six months' notice, State Farm said. That will put them in the middle of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

To mitigate the impact, State Farm agreed to allow its agents to place canceled policyholders with other companies. It said those agents could continue to service the policies even though they were no longer with State Farm.

Victoria Baer, a 26-year State Farm customer who owns an advertising business in Jacksonville, was waiting this week to see whether she would get one of the notices.

Customers are “money for them,” she said, but “what's not money for them is the risk.”

David Miller, president of Brightway Insurance in Orlando and Jacksonville, saw a silver lining to the announcement. Spreading State Farm's customers around to other companies will make the homeowners insurance market more competitive, and the canceled State Farm customers will likely get a better deal from their new insurers, he said.

“I think when they go to shop ... they're going to find that there are actually some tremendous savings, and this could end up being a blessing in disguise for many people,” Miller said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35220269/ns/business-personal_finance/

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From the White House

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As We Approach the One-Year Anniversary of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

On February 5, 2009, President Obama launched the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  He charged this Office with a specific and critical mission: shifting the focus of the previous initiative from funding to programmatic impact, and helping the federal government partner with faith-based and other nonprofit organizations to better serve all Americans.  And over the last year, this Office has done just that.  Here's a just brief snapshot of the Office's work:  

• The Office has coordinated President Obama's national fatherhood agenda, implementing strategies to address the challenge of father absence in communities across the country. 
  
  
• It has built partnerships between federal agencies and local nonprofits on a range of key issues, from making sure that faith-based organizations can respond to the H1N1 crisis to ensuring that these groups are a part of the government's disaster response efforts.
  
  
• It has brought people together across religious lines, working with groups on over 4,000 interfaith service projects this summer, organizing a new President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships of some of the top faith and community leaders in the country, and helping to lead the Administration's efforts on interfaith cooperation abroad.
  
  
• It has worked to help local organizations to respond to the economic crisis, from implementing foreclosure prevention programs to strengthening nonprofit capacity building. 
  

Each of these and the many other priorities of the faith-based office are central to President Obama's vision for our country.  The President realizes that government programs alone cannot solve all of our problems, and that only by connecting with individuals, families, and community- and faith-based organizations across the country will we address our most pressing challenges.  The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships is working to form those partnerships every day, on behalf individuals, families and communities.

To following the ongoing work of the faith-based office, just visit www.whitehouse.gov/partnerships . 

Joshua DuBois is the Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/03/we-approach-one-year-anniversary-white-house-office-faith-based-and-neighborhood-par

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Remarks to the Homeland Security Advisory Council on Partnerships with Faith-Based and Community Groups

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today met with members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC)—comprised of leaders from state and local governments, first responder communities, the private sector and academia—in New York City, and delivered remarks emphasizing her commitment to strengthening comprehensive partnerships with faith-based and community groups.

“We face an enemy whose desire to attack us here at home has not diminished and who continues to seek every avenue to circumvent the security measures we've put in place since 9/11,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Today I am asking HSAC to provide recommendations on steps the Department can take to better support community-based efforts to address or counter violent extremism—with a focus on training, information sharing and community-oriented law enforcement. Faith-based and community groups play a major role in all aspects of American life, including our efforts to work together at all levels to combat these terrorist threats.”

During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano tasked HSAC to examine and make recommendations to enhance current DHS coordination and information-sharing with faith-based communities—building on the Secretary's meeting last week with leaders from the Muslim, Sikh, South Asian and Arab communities.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov/hsac .

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1265233553090.shtm

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Secretary Napolitano and Minister Toews Announce Joint Enforcement Efforts to Patrol Waterways During the 2010 Winter Games

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Honorable Vic Toews, Canadian Minister of Public Safety, today announced a new Shiprider pilot project designed to bolster cross-border security operations in the waters of Puget Sound and off the Pacific Coast before and during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The project enables the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the U.S. Coast Guard to cross-train, share resources and personnel and utilize each others' vessels in the waters of both countries.

“The United States and Canada are committed to securing our shared waterways against threats on both sides of the border,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This pilot project will enhance coordination and information-sharing between our two countries and strengthen our joint efforts to protect our citizens and visitors from around the world during the 2010 Winter Games.”

“This announcement supports our efforts to ensure a safe and secure 2010 Olympic Winter Games. During the Olympics, Canadian and U.S. law enforcement will work together to combat criminal activity in our shared waterways,” said Minister Toews. “Together with the United States, we are sending a strong message to criminals that illegal activity at our shared border will not be tolerated.”

The pilot will be consistent with the Framework Agreement governing Shiprider operations in shared waterways signed by Secretary Napolitano and former Public Safety Minister, the Honorable Peter Van Loan, in May 2009. Both countries remain committed to fully implementing this agreement and jointly protecting against shared threats.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1265230674954.shtm

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Secretary Napolitano Announces More than $23 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Fire Station Construction Grants

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced more than $23 million in Fire Station Construction Grants (SCG) funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—designed to support the nation's first responders while creating jobs and stimulating local economies.

“America's firefighters play a critical role in disaster prevention and response,” said Secretary Napolitano. “These Recovery Act-funded fire station construction projects and upgrades will strengthen community preparedness and the nation's emergency response capabilities.”

The 14 Fire Station Construction Grants announced today were selected through a competitive peer review process based on need to build new or modify existing fire stations to enhance response capabilities and protect communities from fire-related hazards. These grants will replace unsafe or uninhabitable structures and expand fire protection coverage in compliance with National Fire Protection Association standards.

These grants come in addition to the ARRA funding for 96 SCG grants announced by Secretary Napolitano in September, 2009.

The Recovery Act provided $210 million in SCG grant funds to DHS.

ARRA, signed by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, provided more than $3 billion to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and General Services Administration (GSA) in support of homeland security programs.

For more information on SCG, other preparedness grant programs or the Recovery Act, please visit www.dhs.gov , www.dhs.gov/recovery , or www.fema.gov/grants .

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1265124355731.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Thomas S. Pendleton, 66, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet in Wilmington, Del., to the statutory maximum of 30 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for traveling to Germany to have sex with a minor, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss for the District of Delaware. Pendleton was also sentenced today to a concurrent term of 10 years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender, in violation of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

In September 2009, a federal jury in Wilmington found Pendleton guilty following a three-day trial of violating the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act of 2003, which makes it a crime for U.S. citizens to travel abroad and commit illicit sexual acts with minors. Evidence introduced at trial established that Pendleton traveled from Philadelphia to Germany in November 2005, where he met his victim, a 14-year-old boy, who at the time was living in an orphanage. According to evidence presented at trial, during the next several months, Pendleton cultivated a friendship with the victim and made arrangements to go biking with him in May 2006, just after the victim turned 15. Testimony at trial established that, while on the bike trip, the victim woke up to find Pendleton fondling him. The victim and a witness from the camp site where the crime occurred traveled to the United States to testify at the trial.

Pendleton had been previously convicted by a German court of "sexual abuse of persons incapable of resistance," stemming from this incident. The defendant remained in German custody until Jan. 21, 2008, when he was deported to the United States. On July 24, 2008, Pendleton charged by a federal grand jury in the District of Delaware for violating the PROTECT Act.

Pendleton was also convicted in April 2009, in a separate trial for failing to register as a sex offender. According to information presented at the sentencing hearing, Pendleton has three prior convictions for sexually molesting or assaulting children aged nine through 13-years-old in two U.S. states and in Latvia, in addition to his conviction in Germany. Pendleton was convicted in 1981 of fourth degree criminal contact in a Michigan state court in a case involving the molestation of an 11-year-old, while Pendleton was serving as a church camp counselor at the victim's church.

According to information also presented at the sentencing hearing, Pendleton was convicted in New Jersey state court in 1992 of sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child in a case involving sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy on biking trips in Virginia and New Jersey. Pendleton received a seven year sentence for that offense. The jury heard testimony from the now 32-year-old victim of that prior offense at the September 2009-trial for the sex tourism charge.

Approximately three years after his release from New Jersey prison, Pendleton was convicted in the Republic of Latvia of sexually abusing a 9-year-old child and a 13-year-old child between June and November 2001, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He was released from Latvian prison and deported back to the United States on March 20, 2005.

He has been in federal custody since March 10, 2008, when the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him on the failure to register charge.

In sentencing the defendant, the court cited Pendleton's history of sexually abusing children, his failure to accept responsibility for his crimes, and the fact that the defendant's past prison sentences had failed to deter him. Chief Judge Sleet found that this sentence would protect children from "further acts of depravity" perpetrated by the defendant.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilana Eisenstein of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware and Trial Attorney Jennifer Toritto Leonardo of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). These cases were investigated by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and by deputy marshals of the U.S. Marshals Service. A computer forensic specialist from CEOS's High Tech Investigative Unit performed an analysis of a computer and other digital media seized from the defendant.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-crm-121.html

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Puerto Rican child sex predator gets 10 years in prison

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A 45-year-old man was sentenced Feb. 2 to 10 years in prison and 40 years of supervised release for possession and production of child pornography following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation.

Ross Perez-Cruz, of Fajardo, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Aida Delgado.

Perez-Cruz was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 15, 2008, after an ICE investigation that stemmed from a referral by the Puerto Rico Police Department revealed sexually explicit images of minors in his digital camera.

According to the indictment, Perez-Cruz persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced a 6-year-old female to engage in sexually explicit conduct such as exhibition of the genital and pubic areas for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.

"ICE will continue to aggressively use its investigative authorities, in conjunction with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, to identify individuals who seek to exploit children in this manner," said Roberto Escobar Vargas, acting special agent in charge for ICE's Office of Investigations in Puerto Rico. "Some predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace and new technologies shield them; in fact, the use of computers and the Internet have given ICE new tools in our enforcement efforts to protect children."

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenifer Hernandez.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign-national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested almost 12,000 individuals through Operation Predator.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. 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/1002/100203sanjuan1.htm

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ICE arrests 104 people during operation targeting illicit transportation businesses

HOUSTON - Twenty-two people arrested on Tuesday during a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation are being charged criminally with using their businesses to transport recently smuggled aliens into the country. These charges were announced on Wednesday by John Morton, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary for ICE, and U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson for the Southern District of Texas.

ICE agents on Feb. 2 also executed nine search warrants at various businesses associated with the defendants; 81 illegal aliens encountered at the businesses were arrested administratively and have been placed in removal proceedings. One individual was criminally arrested for re-entering the United States after having been previously deported, which is a felony.

The three-month investigation, dubbed "Night Moves," focused on Houston-area transportation businesses, which ranged from store-front operations to individually contracted drivers. Since November, ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents have administratively arrested 209 individuals as part of the operation, including citizens from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

"Human smugglers are ruthless criminals who prey upon and profit from people seeking a new life in our country. This crime undermines our borders and reaches every state in the interior, leaving a trail of exploitation," said John Morton, DHS assistant secretary for ICE. "ICE is committed to preventing human smuggling by using every available resource to investigate, dismantle and present for prosecution businesses involved in the unlawful activity."

U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson, Southern District of Texas, said: "Alien smuggling is a significant problem in our city. Those arrested and charged today with alien smuggling are the owners and managers of transport companies that allegedly accepted cash from alien smugglers to move undocumented aliens in vans and SUVs from Houston to other cities around the United States.

"This is not legitimate business. It's a violation of federal law. We will continue to investigate and prosecute those engaged in such activity," he said.

The following defendants associated with the named Houston transportation businesses remain in federal custody:

• Salvador Ramirez-Medina, 35, with Transportes Tres Estrellas de Oro, 7700 block of Park Place Boulevard
  
  
• Felipe Banda-De Jesus, 44, and Rogelio Banda, 37, with Transportes Banda, 5600 block of Harrisburg Boulevard
  
  
• Antonio Duran, 37; Tito Jimenez, 41; Liliana Madrigal, 30; and Benito Tapia, 34, with Transportes El Cadete and Los Angelitos, 2300 block of South Wayside Drive
  
  
• Rene Garcia-Garces, 61, Rene Alberto Garces, 33, Rene Leiva, 25, Alejandro Perez-Romero, 32, with Transportes Medrano and Amigo, 6300 block of Harrisburg Boulevard
  
  
• Maritza Herrera, 40, and Jose Manzur Romero-Luna, 31, with Transportes Sarahi, 7400 block of Tuck Street
  
  
• Blanca Estela Torres, 49; Jose Torres Mandujano, 52; and Jose Antonio Torres, 27, with Transportes Los Plebes, 500 block of Wayside Drive
  
  
• Santos Alejandro Yaxon, 47, with El Pionero Van Tours, 5500 block of East Mt. Houston
  
  
• Alejandro Rodriquez-Garcia, 43, Paola Rodriquez-Juarez, 50, Luis Sosa-Juarez, 47, with Super Express Van Tours, 7200 block of Long Drive.
  

Each of the defendants is charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

All defendants are scheduled to appear before U. S. Magistrate Judge Stephen W. Smith on Wednesday in Houston. A preliminary examination and bond determination hearing for each defendant may be set as early as today.

Among the 23 individuals charged in the Southern District of Texas, which includes the alien charged with re-entry after deportation, ICE agents arrested Gaspar Campos, 36, and Angel Bravo, 42, associated with Transportes Latinos, another Houston transportation company. The arrest warrants for Campos and Bravo were issued by U.S. District Court in the District of New Jersey.

Campos and Bravo are both charged with conspiring to transport illegal aliens and are also set to have their initial appearance in federal court today in Houston. However, they are scheduled to be transferred to New Jersey to await trial.

During Tuesday's enforcement operation, ICE agents also seized 32 vehicles and 18 weapons, including one weapon that was reported stolen.

ICE, the largest investigative agency within DHS, enforces laws related to human smuggling and human trafficking. Human smuggling illegally imports people into the country by deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the country, as well as the unlawful transporting and harboring of aliens already in the country illegally. Unlike human trafficking, which exploits aliens already in the country, human smuggling is transportation-based.

For those aliens who were administratively arrested, ICE may release individuals for medical or humanitarian reasons following an interview and evaluation. So far, ICE has released two people for humanitarian reasons. Both individuals have been served with a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge at a later date.

The following agencies also participated in this ICE-led investigation: U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Air, and Fines Penalties & Forfeiture; Houston Police Department; Harris County Sheriff's Office; and the U.S. Department of Public Health.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1002/100203houston.htm

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ICE meets with Mexican officials, Valley law enforcement to discuss border issues

This is the first such meeting held in the United States between the partners

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hosted a one-day South Texas-Tamaulipas (Mexico) cross border summit at the University of Texas in Brownsville. This is the first such meeting held in the United States.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Assistant Secretary for ICE Alonzo Pena led the meeting by renewing ICE's commitment to address the cross border crimes that affect our bilateral public safety. In an effort to keep safe our shared border communities, law enforcement needs to continue to communicate, cooperate, and share information between agencies and our nations. The goal of this summit is to gauge what has worked well so far, and what can be improved.

"Today's criminal organizations respect no borders and know no boundaries," said Pena. "If we're going to successfully continue to address this challenge, we must work together to harness all the resources, expertise and legal authorities at our disposal."

Law enforcement agencies at the summit also discussed minimizing the international boundaries when it comes to pursing and apprehending criminals. Crimes such as kidnapping, assaults, homicides, burglaries are all crimes that impact public safety. The intent is to assist law enforcement agencies on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in their efforts to make communities safer. The unified message law enforcement wants to send is that criminals who try to hide from their crimes in either country will be found and brought to justice.

ICE has fostered communication and cooperation with our federal, state, local and Mexican law enforcement partners along the border for years. Since 2005, the changing dynamics between the two governments have redefined our working relationships. Increased communication and cooperation amongst law enforcement at all these levels will allow us to make a significant improvements in public safety.

Since DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced in March that her department was intensifying efforts to combat cross border violence and weapons trafficking, ICE moved quickly to respond. ICE has deployed additional agents to its Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) along the southwest border and in Mexico. ICE has also established a Vetted Arms Trafficking Unit in Mexico City to target transnational smuggling and firearms trafficking organizations in Mexico.

The South Texas-Tamaulipas cross border summit is scheduled to end Wednesday night.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1002/100203brownsville.htm

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