Officer warns against dangers of angel's trumpet

In the Los Feliz neighborhood, youths who ingest the toxic plant to get high have been sickened.

By Kate Linthicum

February 19, 2010

One day last week officer Al Polehonki took his police cruiser out for a garden tour of Los Feliz.

He was looking for a toxic plant called angel's trumpet, a plant common in Southern California that is known for its large, flared flowers that Polehonki described as looking "like lilies with long necks."

Each time he spotted the plant in front of a house, he got out, knocked on the door and asked whoever answered: Do you know that kids pick these flowers and chew them to get high?

At least twice this year paramedics have been called to nearby Marshall High School to treat students who became ill after ingesting angel's trumpet, school officials say. Polehonki, who is familiar with those cases, said the students suffered nausea, delirium and difficulty breathing. He said he has heard of two other cases in which neighborhood youths became seriously ill after eating the plant.

They do it, said 14-year-old Marshall High freshman Earl Harris, "because it makes them feel relaxed and calm."

Harris said he has heard fellow students talk about eating angel's trumpet and how it makes them feel, although he said he's never eaten the plant himself.

Angel's trumpet is a relative of jimson weed, a smaller plant that grows wild and that has long been a subject of teenage lore.

David Nichols, a pharmacologist at Purdue University and an expert in psychoactive drugs, said angel's trumpet, like jimson weed, "does produce hallucinations, but at toxic levels."

"It is not something to play around with," Nichols said. "Drugs like LSD or marijuana will never kill you, but angel's trumpet can."

Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District say they have not heard of students using angel's trumpet at other schools.

"This is not an epidemic," said Earl Perkins, the district's assistant superintendent for school operations. Other school officials said that substances such as marijuana and household chemicals that students inhale are more common.

But unlike those substances, angel's trumpet is ubiquitous -- and free. That's what worries Polehonki.

On his recent tour, Polehonki said, he found one such plant at a house on Lyric Avenue, one block from Marshall High. "Just about every flower within reaching distance was missing," he said.

The officer alerted the homeowner, who agreed to chop it down.

Polehonki has warned other residents, "If you've got the plant, keep an eye on it."

Harris, who was hanging out with friends after school Thursday, listening to rap music on an amplified iPod, said he first heard talk about angel's trumpet, or "angel," two months ago.

"I've been seeing these plants my whole life," he said, "and I never knew they did that."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-trumpet20-2010feb20,0,2790630,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Juarez massacre may mark a turning for Mexico

The January killing of 15 young people has created a furor and left some wondering whether it's a tipping point, a moment when Mexicans overcame their fear and fatalism to confront the violence.

By Tracy Wilkinson

February 19, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

The slaughter last month of at least 15 young people with no apparent criminal ties has galvanized the Mexican public in ways not seen here in more than three years of bloody drug warfare and has forced the government to enact long-resisted policy changes to combat violence.

Some in Mexico are wondering whether this is their nation's tipping point, a moment when public outrage that has bubbled along finally overcomes the fear and fatalism that largely silenced or intimidated Mexican society.

Led by parents of the victims in the Jan. 31 massacre, citizens of Ciudad Juarez have marched, protested, challenged Mexican President Felipe Calderon and demanded a new strategy for reducing the number of the gruesome crimes that have made their city one of the world's deadliest. Joining grieving parents in their wrath have been civic leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, educators and priests.

"For the very, very first time, people, civil society as a whole, have come together and decided, this is enough," said Marcos Fastlicht, a prominent Mexico City businessman who heads an organization dedicated to the uphill task of promoting citizen participation in crime-fighting. "And they've said that to Calderon . . . to his ministers . . . that they are not going to take any more" neglect and broken promises.

Calderon, an often aloof leader seemingly impervious to criticism, has responded by apparently heeding the complaints and making the remarkable concession that his military-led offensive against drug cartels has proved insufficient.

He traveled to Ciudad Juarez twice in less than a week, amid noisy street demonstrations demanding that he resign and with key Cabinet ministers in tow, and received long litanies of grievances from the beleaguered public. He quietly took a tongue-lashing from a middle-aged maquiladora worker, mother of two of the teenagers killed in the massacre, who confronted him at a town meeting.

"President, I cannot welcome you here," Luz Maria Davila started, voice raised; Calderon waved off an aide who moved to whisk Davila away. "We are living the consequences of a war we did not ask for."

It was a highly unusual rebuke from a humble woman in a country that retains paternalistic tendencies and demands a certain reverence for presidential figures.

Almost since its inception when Calderon took office in December 2006, the president's anti-drug policy has been roundly criticized for emphasizing military and police repression and largely ignoring other components of the multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking industry.

Poverty and lack of opportunity send thousands into the ranks of cartel foot soldiers in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso. The Mexican city became the extreme, terror-gripped example of the policy's shortcomings.

Even as 10,000 army troops and federal police officers were deployed, Ciudad Juarez last year had a homicide about every three hours on average, and up to half a million residents fled, a quarter of the population. As early as last summer, authorities told The Times they were planning to make changes in the strategy for combating organized crime in the troubled city, a pledge made throughout the rest of the year, but never put into action.

Calderon has now been forced to offer a mea culpa and take action. Embracing the citizens' slogan, "We are all Juarez," he acknowledged that his strategy had neglected socioeconomic factors and established a $50-million fund for new schools, clinics and job-creation programs, while also promising to assign a large contingent of judicial investigators to the city.

"By hearing the demands and the indignation directly," political analyst Alfonso Zarate in Mexico City said, Calderon "has an opportunity to rectify and to act differently."

Skeptics accuse Calderon of moving now because it's an election year. Both the governorship of Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, and the mayor's post in the city are held by Calderon's chief rival party and are up for grabs in voting scheduled in July.

Whatever his electoral calculations, however, Calderon is also keenly aware of the Ciudad Juarez disaster's corrosive political damage to his government, an erosion that goes far beyond the screaming crowds in the border city's streets.

A poll out this week showed a dramatic decline nationwide in support for Calderon's government. An overwhelming majority said violent crime had increased substantially in the last six months, and solidly half the nation said the president's war on drug cartels was failing. The poll by Buendia & Laredo surveyed 1,000 people in face-to-face interviews and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

And there has been a busy confluence of voices of criticism from segments of society, such as the Roman Catholic Church, that had remained largely on the sidelines.

A member of Calderon's own National Action Party, legislator Manuel Clouthier Carrillo, accused the government of playing favorites in going after drug gangs, leaving the largest and most powerful of them, the so-called Sinaloa cartel led by fugitive kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, untouched. Clouthier was not clear about what Calderon's alleged motives might be, but the suggestion stung and his colleagues are demanding that he retract it.

So far the citizen outcry in Ciudad Juarez has been focused on demands that the government change course and withdraw the army (Calderon refused). It has not addressed residents' own responsibilities in challenging drug gangs.

Many Mexicans have in effect become complicit by failing to speak out. But there were signs of that changing too.

Heriberto Galindo, one of the dozens of community leaders petitioning Calderon in Ciudad Juarez this week, scolded his neighbors for consistently lashing out at the government and army but never the traffickers.

"We have to assume our own portion of blame as well," Galindo said. "It is not always the government that is responsible for the killing of a child."

The only other recent incident that provoked a level of outrage similar to that generated by the deaths of the young people in January was the 2008 kidnapping and killing of a boy from a wealthy Mexico City family, a tragedy that sparked angry marches across the country. But the response quickly lost momentum.

It is possible that once again, the furor -- this time over the killing of the youths in Ciudad Juarez -- could disappear in the ephemera of rhetoric absent concrete action. Already, several Juarez activists are complaining that the issue of human rights, much violated in recent months, was given short shrift in the talks with Calderon.

"The first step is to regain the public's trust," said Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, "and that is not done with a government decree."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-tipping-point20-2010feb20,0,318533,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. closes case on anthrax letters

The inquiry concludes that researcher Bruce E. Ivins, who died in 2008 in an apparent suicide, was solely responsible for the 2001 attacks.

By Richard A. Serrano

February 20, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The FBI and Justice Department on Friday officially closed their investigation into the 2001 mailings of anthrax-contaminated letters to Capitol Hill and journalists in New York and Florida, concluding that U.S. Army medical researcher Bruce E. Ivins was solely responsible for the five deaths that resulted.

Had Ivins not died in an apparent suicide in July 2008 as investigators were closing in on him, he would probably have been charged with the use of a weapon of mass destruction, authorities said in their report.

The announcement of the end of the case was accompanied by the release of voluminous supporting documents, including thousands of pages of summaries, e-mails, search warrants and other evidentiary material.

The FBI, working with postal inspectors and federal prosecutors, said Ivins had plenty of opportunities to create and maintain the spore batches of anthrax, noting that he often worked late at night alone in the lab at Ft. Detrick, Md., where the material was stored, grown and harvested.

"In addition," the report says, "Dr. Ivins was among the very few anthrax researchers nationwide with the knowledge and ability to create the highly purified spores used in the mailings." His motive, it says, was born out of "intense personal and professional pressure."

He had devoted his entire 20-year career to the anthrax vaccine program and feared that the project was being phased out. "Following the anthrax attacks, however, his program was suddenly rejuvenated," authorities said.

Ivins' lawyer, Paul Kemp, ridiculed the government findings.

"There's absolutely no evidence he did anything," Kemp said. Rep. Rush D. Holt, a Democrat from central New Jersey where the anthrax letters were mailed, also was not satisfied.

"This has been a closed-minded, closed process from the beginning," he said. "The evidence the FBI produced would not, I think, stand up in court."

According to the 92-page summary of the investigation, Ivins struggled with mental health issues. In the month before he died of an overdose of Tylenol, he posted violent messages on the Internet and leveled death threats at a group therapy session. His doctors considered him "homicidal and sociopathic." He also told a friend how he felt pressured by the FBI investigation, and how things were happening that he had no control over, but that "I don't have it in my, in my, I, I can tell you I don't have it in my heart to kill anybody."

Just months earlier he had tried to commit suicide at home in Frederick, Md. He had been taking antidepressants. He collected guns and body armor. Sometimes he wrote in code, fascinated with constructions like TTT and AAT and TAT, similar to the bold-face letters on the anthrax mailings, apparent references to a chain of nucleic acids in the DNA genetic chain.

The federal investigation was not without its missteps and false turns. Officials spent the first years running down suspicions that the mailings were the work of Al Qaeda.

They devoted blocks of time and resources investigating Steven J. Hatfill, a former researcher at Ft. Detrick, ultimately clearing him.

No physical evidence was found linking Ivins to the mailbox at Princeton University in New Jersey where the anthrax letters were posted.

However, the report says, "strong circumstantial links . . . were established." The mailbox is near the offices of the school's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, which Ivins reportedly had obsessed over.

Kemp said the connection was preposterous. "I drove up there to see how long it would take me, and what was there," he said. "It's a mail drop for people interested in that sorority. Just a business drop. There were no girls there."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-fbi-anthrax20-2010feb20,0,741779,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arizona speed cameras incite a mini revolt

A masked man, a citizens group, a judge and other motorists are behind the fight against photo enforcement.

By Nicole Santa Cruz

February 19, 2010

Reporting from Phoenix

Arizonans drive long distances on their highways, and they like to do it fast.

But since the Grand Canyon State began enforcing speed limits with roadside cameras, motorists are raging against the machines: They have blocked out the lenses with Post-it notes or Silly String. During the Christmas holidays, they covered the cameras with boxes, complete with wrapping paper.

One dissenting citizen went after a camera with a pick ax.

Arizona is the only state to implement "photo enforcement," as it's known, on major highways and is one of 12 states and 52 communities, plus the District of Columbia, with speed cameras, according to the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The cameras, paired with radar devices, photograph vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 11 mph or more. A notice of violation -- carrying a fine of $181.50 -- is then sent to the address of the vehicle's registered owner.

In California, speed cameras are illegal, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a program to add speed enforcement capabilities to 500 red-light cameras to generate $338 million for the 2010-11 budget. The proposal is unlikely to be a part of the Legislature's upcoming budget recommendations.

State Assembly Budget Committee Chairwoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) has described the proposal as "silly."

"It's using big-brother tactics to balance the state budget," she said. "It's outlandish."

That's certainly been the reaction in Arizona, where the cameras have incited a mini revolt.

Initially, the cameras were thought of as a revenue generator, expected to bring in more than $90 million in the first fiscal year of operation.

But from October 2008, when the program began, to October 2009, the cameras generated about $19 million for the state's cash-strapped general fund, according to a report on photo radar released by the Arizona Office of the Auditor General last month.

As of September, only 38% of issued violations were paid, the report said.

This doesn't mean the program lacks defenders. The number of fatal collisions investigated on state highways in 2009 was the lowest in 15 years, a figure that Lt. Jeff King of the Arizona Department of Public Safety attributes to tough drunk driving laws and photo enforcement.

"We believe the cameras should stay up," said King, who is the district commander for the program.

The program was designed to encourage people to pay the fine and not fight their violations: No points are added to an offender's license, and it doesn't affect insurance.

But, critics note, that hasn't stopped people from wanting their day in court. About half of the total violations issued are still pending because people have ignored the tickets or have requested hearings to challenge them, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

The violations put an "inordinate" load on the courts, said Terry Stewart, a court administrator with Maricopa County. People have flocked to request hearings at Phoenix courts, and at one point last year, one court branch had cases set up through 2011.

"You just have irate litigants and irate defendants coming in, just mad at the entire photo enforcement system in general," said Steven Sarkis, a Maricopa County justice of the peace.

The most high-profile protester has been Dave VonTesmar, who has achieved statewide fame through his efforts to fight the tickets with a monkey mask. The 47-year-old flight attendant has allegedly sped past the cameras at least 40 times.

His defense?

There's no way to prove that he was the driver wearing the mask, he says. Lots of people, he adds, drive his car.

VonTesmar, who signed up for the military on his 17th birthday, says he doesn't fancy himself a criminal.

Amid empty soda cans on the floor of his white station wagon are various rubber disguises, including the famous monkey mask, a Frankenstein, koala, panda bear and a ghost mask that glows in the dark.

So far, four of VonTesmar's cases have been dismissed, and he's been found responsible for seven. The remaining 29 are pending, said VonTesmar's attorney, Michael Kielsky.

In December, the Maricopa County courts launched a pilot program specially designed to handle the photo enforcement hearing caseload. On one particular day, about 30 people sat in various courtrooms to fight their tickets.

Anh Pearson of Cave Creek, Ariz., came prepared with a manila folder. "How do you know that is my car?" she asked the judge. "Do you know if I'm the registered driver?"

With each question, Judge Don Calender's irritation became more apparent in his monotone voice.

"Were you driving, yes or no?" he replied. "Were you speeding, yes or no? It's pretty simple."

In the end, she paid the fine. Pearson, 58, said she basically lives on the freeways in her work. Her job? A freelance court interpreter.

Among the dissenters fighting photo enforcement are members of a citizens group, the Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar.

In Maricopa County -- where 92% of Arizona's violations occur -- volunteers have been on the streets for about a year, gathering signatures for a 2010 ballot initiative to remove the cameras. On a December afternoon, Shawn Dow, chairman of the group, and two volunteers gathered signatures at an Arizona State University basketball game.

As ASU fans in maroon and yellow shuffled into the game, a mother with children in a Toyota Prius gave an opposing view as she drove past.

"Photo radar keeps people alive with kids, whoo-hoo!" she yelled.

Many people, however, were eager to sign the petition. One couple even took a snapshot with a sign saying "BAN Photo Radar!"

"It's a fraud," said Jose Jimenez of West Phoenix, who posed with his girlfriend. "It's a big scam."

The Arizona Legislature is considering multiple bills to alter or end the photo enforcement system. Gov. Jan Brewer is encouraging the Legislature to place a referendum on the November ballot -- so voters can decide whether to scrap the system.

Another dissenter is John Keegan, a judge for the Arrowhead Justice Court, who has called the cameras a constitutional violation. He rejects every photo radar ticket that comes before him.

So far, Keegan says, he's dismissed more than 7,000 violations, potentially worth more than $1 million.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-traffic-cameras20-2010feb20,0,6825028,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDITORIAL

Redefining 'support' of terrorism

The Supreme Court should clarify a U.S. law so that those seeking to counsel groups to abandon terrorism won't be prosecuted.

February 20, 2010

When most Americans hear that it's illegal to supply "material support" to foreign terrorist groups, they probably assume that the prohibition involves financial or technical support -- sending money to pay for hijackers' air fares or providing wiring for a bomb (or advice about how to use it).

In fact, the law also seems to prohibit residents of this country from trying to talk political movements out of terrorism or counseling them on how to bring their grievances before international bodies. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will be asked to invalidate those sections of the law. It can and should do so without undermining the primary purpose of the law.

At issue in the case is language in the law, which was revised in 2004, that makes it a crime to aid a group on the secretary of State's list of terrorist organizations. It's not only illegal to furnish such groups with money and tangible assets like explosives and communications technology but also with "expert advice" -- defined as "advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge." The law also forbids supplying terrorist groups with "personnel" -- defined as persons working under the group's "organization, direction or control" to further its policies.

These provisions may seem reasonable, but they extend beyond the common-sense definition of "material support" for terrorism. For example, USC professor Ralph Fertig, a Kurdish rights activist who is challenging the law, wants to counsel a Kurdish nationalist organization in Turkey -- a group that undoubtedly has engaged in acts of terrorism -- to abandon violence and take its political grievances to the United Nations. He argues that the law's reference to "expert advice" bars him from engaging in such speech.

Another problem with the law is that it could make it a crime for U.S. supporters of a cause to help groups that have engaged in terrorism to explain themselves. Would an intermediary who worked with a Hamas official to publish an Op-Ed article about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be subject to imprisonment? Those challenging the law argue that its language is vague enough to cover such a possibility, yet that hardly seems a case of giving material support to terrorism.

The Obama administration, defending the law, scoffs at the notion that its provisions are unconstitutionally vague or overly broad. And it notes that the law only applies when U.S. residents have direct contacts with terrorist groups; it does not limit a citizen's right to speak or write on their own in support of such groups (or to counsel them in print to forswear violence).

The government also makes a more general case: that preventing even benign contact and conversation with foreign groups that engage in terrorism isolates them -- or, as a Justice Department lawyer put it: "Congress wants these organizations to be radioactive." The assumption is that a group so stigmatized and starved of resources will have an incentive to abandon terrorism. But anyone who has followed the legitimization of the Palestine Liberation Organization or Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, knows that such movements can be open to persuasion even as some of their adherents are engaging in violence.

The point was well put in a brief filed by the Carter Center and other groups that seek to resolve international conflicts. They noted that "peacemaking, conflict resolution, human rights advocacy and the provision of aid to needy civilians sometimes requires direct engagement with groups and individuals that resort to or support violence, including some that are, or have been, designated" foreign terrorist organizations.

Lawyers challenging these provisions offer the court a simple way to resolve this case. It should interpret the law to require "proof of intent to further the designated organization's illegal activities." That way the court can protect the 1st Amendment without undermining the war against terrorism.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-material20-2010feb20,0,2772291,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Daily News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prof. accused in slayings is remorseful

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The Alabama university professor charged with fatally shooting three colleagues is remorseful but does not recall the shooting, her defense attorney said Friday.

Roy W. Miller said Amy Bishop, 44, is likely insane and does not remember pulling out a handgun and shooting six colleagues, three fatally, at a biology department faculty meeting one week ago at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"She just doesn't remember shooting these folks," he said.

But he said she is now "aware of what she's done. She's very sorry for it."

He said he has not spoken with her about where she got the gun. Police have said it was not registered to her, and her husband has said he does not know where she got it.

Miller said Bishop breaks down and cries, wanting to see her four children, but is trying to remain strong. Despite facing a possible death sentence, she is still concerned about her professional life and her position at the university.

"She said, 'Do I still have a job out there?' She asked me that yesterday," Miller said. "She said, 'Do you know if I have a job? I assume they fired me. Did they fire me?'"

University officials have said she remains on the payroll, but her $83,000-a-year job was ending at the end of the semester because she was denied tenure.

Bishop is charged with capital murder and attempted murder and is being held without bond.

Miller told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that Bishop has severe mental problems and appears to be paranoid schizophrenia.

He said Bishop's failure to get tenure at the university was likely a key to the shootings. Bishop, who has a doctorate from Harvard University and has taught at University of Alabama in Huntsville since 2003, apparently was incensed that a lesser-known school rejected her for what amounted to a lifetime job.

"Obviously she was very distraught and concerned over that tenure," Miller said. "It insulted her and slapped her in the face, and it's probably tied in with the Harvard mentality. She brooded and brooded and brooded over it, and then, 'bingo.'"

Bishop's husband, James Anderson, told ABC's "Good Morning America" he also thought the failed tenure battle was involved.

"Only someone who has been intricately involved with that fight understands what a tough, long, hard battle (it is). ... That I would say is part of the problem, is a factor," he said in an interview aired Friday.

Anderson said his wife had never taken any anger management courses, even though prosecutors asked for that when she was charged with starting a fight over a booster seat at a restaurant in 2002. Anderson told ABC he didn't think she needed the course. Bishop admitted to the assault in court, and the charges were dismissed six months later.

Miller said Bishop seems "very cogent" in jail, where he has spent more than three hours with her over two days, yet she also seems to realize she has a loose grip on reality.

"She gets at issue with people that she doesn't need to and obsesses on it," Miller said. "She won't shake it off, and it's really (things of) no great consequence."

Bishop, who claims an IQ of 180, can't explain the shooting and doesn't remember anything about it, he said.

The chief prosecutor in Huntsville said he would not oppose a mental evaluation for Bishop.

"In this case as in all cases, if they want to start talking about a mental defense, then have at it. We'll be ready when it comes to court," said Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard.

Miller said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty, but Broussard said his office hasn't decided whether to seek Bishop's execution or a sentence of life without parole if she is convicted.

"We'll wait until we have every piece of evidence in front of us to decide on that," Broussard said. He said investigators had yet to review evidence about Bishop's troubled past, including her fatal shooting of her younger brother in 1986. Authorities in Massachusetts ruled that shooting accidental, though State Police officials said Friday they will review their agency's investigation.

Since the Alabama shootings, there have been questions about why Bishop did not face any charges a quarter-century ago after she fled the house after killing her brother and allegedly pointed the gun at people at a nearby car dealership.

In Bishop's only public comments since the Alabama shooting, the professor said they "didn't happen. There's no way."

"What about the people who died?" a reporter asked as she was led to a police car hours after the killings.

"There's no way. They're still alive," she responded.

The shooting decimated the biology department - of 14 members, six were killed or wounded, one is jailed, and the rest are dealing with the shock and loss of colleagues. Two of those shot remained hospitalized in critical condition Friday, while another who was shot in the chest has been released.

Mourners hugged and cried Thursday at a memorial service for biology department chairman Gopi K. Podila. Funeral services are scheduled Friday for Adriel Johnson and Saturday for Maria Ragland Davis, professors in the department who died in the gunfire.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14433696

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Wall Street Journal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

People's Republic of Hacking

'Panda' Exploit Offers Rare Inside Look at China's Cybercrime Networks

WUHAN, China—Some of today's biggest cybersecurity worries trace their roots to this central Chinese city, where a hacker with a junior high school education slapped cartoon pandas onto millions of computers to hide a destructive spy program.

The Panda Burns Incense computer worm, created by 27-year-old Li Jun, wreaked havoc for months in China in 2006 and 2007, eventually landing Mr. Li in jail. Jumping one computer to another by tricking users into opening what appeared to be a friendly email message, the Panda funneled passwords, financial information and online cash balances from game Web sites to Mr. Li's cohorts—leaving a panda as its calling card.

There is no evidence thus far that the Google hack has any connection to the Panda's pandemonium. What is clear is that Mr. Li learned his craft and launched his attack within a hacker network in China that remains an active and growing threat to global computer users.

The identity, motivation and methods of Chinese hackers are rarely traceable. But based on interviews with security experts, forensic reports from independent tech firms, and the hackers themselves, the Panda case offers a rare window into how the underground world of Chinese hacking operates.

Mr. Li's Panda attack became known as "the first case of organized cybercrime in China, using a computer virus," according to U.S. technology security firm Symantec Corp. Once a computer was infected, the desktop icon of every executable file, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Word, would change into a picture of a panda. Clicking the panda would prompt the computer to immediately download software from the Internet that in turn allowed Mr. Li's computers to siphon off financial information stored deep inside it.

Cyber experts say hacker forums are very likely fertile recruiting grounds for the Chinese government, which is increasingly anxious about its own cybersecurity. In fact, one person formerly involved in spreading the Panda virus says he was later hired to work with Chinese police to break into accounts of Internet users. That couldn't be independently verified.

Investigators probing the Google matter still don't know where it began but have been examining whether computers at China's Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province were involved in the attacks, according to a person briefed on the matter. The New York Times reported Thursday that the attacks have been traced to computers at the two schools.

Mr. Li was released from prison in December after serving three years of a four-year term for destruction of property related to hacking. He declined a formal interview, but in a series of brief phone calls, online chats and email messages, he said he is looking for a "fresh start," perhaps as a cybersecurity specialist, a so-called "white hat." After his release from jail, Mr. Li spent a few days at his parent's red tiled three-floor house outside Wuhan. Instead, he has crisscrossed the country with his Acer laptop to visit others involved in the Panda attack. Mr. Li says he's interested in working with former co-conspirators on legitimate businesses.

Mr. Li's hacking career began in May 1999, a month before his 17th birthday, when U.S. warplanes bombed China's embassy in Belgrade. Angered by the strike, Mr. Li, who was hanging out at cybercafes in Wuhan, stopped playing computer games to become a hacker.

Mr. Li took lessons from a childhood acquaintance named Lei Lei. He learned how to control thousands of computers as zombie-slaves, or "chickens" in Chinese slang, to attack Websites, Mr. Lei said in an interview. While students in Beijing pelted the U.S. Embassy with rocks, the two skinny teenagers, from the second floor of a dimly lit Wuhan cybercafe called the "Network Club," waged their own "U.S. hacker war," disrupting 20 or 30 U.S. Websites, according to Mr. Lei. "We were too young at the time, doing wild things," Mr. Li said by email.

Over the next few years, the two hacked as teammates, stealing money from Internet users, Mr. Lei recalls. They downloaded simple attack programs found on the Internet to break into gaming accounts to steal and then sell virtual-money credits used by players. To advance in their games, players buy special weapons and other items, which are tradeable for cash.

Mr. Lei, 27, spent a year in the same jail as Mr. Li in Hubei province on similar charges for the Panda attack and was released in 2008. Today he works for his father's manufacturing firm in Wuhan and plans to open an Internet security business. A fan of American hip-hop music, he still flouts authority, steering his luxury Toyota the wrong way down Wuhan streets during an interview to avoid traffic.

In general, Chinese hackers don't fit the Hollywood stereotype of geeky loner-geniuses in American basements or steely smooth Russian mobsters who design and execute hits, reaping all the benefits, cybersecurity experts say. On the contrary, China's hacker community is a widely dispersed, fragmented chain of digital craftsmen. In Chinese, hackers are known as "heike," or black guests.

"As for Chinese hackers, their overall technological skill isn't as good as American or Russian hackers," Mr. Li said in an email, answering questions from the Wall Street Journal. "However, China has the biggest population of hackers in the world." Noting his own communication with foreign hackers, he added, "I often downloaded hacker software from their sites to compare them with programs I wrote or other Chinese hackers wrote."

In China's hacking community, each person does a specific job and, rather than working for a big score, gets paid piecemeal by selling his work, cybersecurity experts say. The programmer of malicious programs usually assembles his program, as Mr. Li did, with lines of computer code he bought elsewhere. The operation works like an assembly line: The programmer then makes customers of others who pay to undertake the broader attack, spreading the malicious software, triggering it and sharing the payoff.

"The chain business is uniquely Chinese," says a Chinese security expert for a major U.S. technology company in Shanghai. Hacker conspiracies in China are structured like multi-level sales networks and even pyramid schemes, he said, not tight-knit criminal gangs that write "technically clean" code designed from the ground up.

Like most Chinese hackers, Mr. Li says he was nurtured inside the informal but active network of online chat rooms where technology break-ins are plotted. According to hackers and Internet security people, such forums are little more than criminal training schools and hardware stores, a cyber underworld where the locks on technological secrets that power online games, bank Websites and Apple Inc.'s iPhone undergo brutal stress tests from the world's largest Internet population.

To sidestep laws against selling malicious software, programmers euphemistically advertise their hacks as "training" and "tutoring," hackers say. Would-be distributors tout themselves as "mail senders," while "script kiddies," keen to build an underworld reputation, will buy hacker tools and pull the trigger.

Anyone along the chain can tweak a virus, for instance, so it attacks another target or trolls for different data. The bounty, benignly called "envelopes," is for sale too: source codes to mimic existing Websites sell priced at 50 yuan, about $7, and data from their users go for 500 yuan. Forum owners and participants mask their identities. The chief barrier to participation is the Chinese language.

Hacker "crowd sourcing"—when large numbers of people contribute to writing code and executing it—reduces the risks individuals face and leaves the network intact if someone does get caught or a forum is shut, Internet security experts say.

By October 2006, looking to filch from several types of online accounts at once, Mr. Li turned to these forums, hoping to steal enough money to buy a Land Rover, he recalled in an email sent to the Wall Street Journal.

Using a Dell computer in a rented apartment in central Wuhan, Mr. Li designed his panda worm, now formally known as W32.Fujacks, to deliver a package of software to Internet users that would steal virtual-money credits and other items from 10 different sources like online game sites. The software exploited poorly protected firewalls to infect virtually any computer connected to the Internet.

Mr. Li fished these hacker forums for usable lines of code, settling on script for a worm called Nimaya. For feedback, in the hacker equivalent of a professional peer review, he dropped samples of his own work into bulletin boards like delphibbs.com, according to Mr. Lei. Hacking "can't have made such fast progress and be here today without innovation, sharing and exchanging of technologies," Mr. Li said by email.

Weeks later, Mr. Li branded his tens of thousands of lines of code with an icon stolen from a chatting website called QQ: a black-and-white panda gripping three incense sticks. He offered the tool that siphoned money out of sites for sale, initially tapping 10 distributors who he charged about $120 each.

With "astonishing frequency," according to Symantec, the panda replicated itself by the millions. For some recipients, it was a reminder of a bug dubbed "ILOVEYOU" that had spread from the Philippines six years earlier. But the panda added a malicious feature: hackers could deploy its "backdoor" to grab virtual money from popular online games, including those run by Tencent Inc. A spokeswoman for Tencent said many companies were affected and declined to comment on the Panda case.

Mr. Lei recalls the two spent every waking moment trying to resell their virtual trove. They fenced it at 10% discounts to face value to online buyers, "like on Ebay," Mr. Lei said. How much the scam brought in isn't known, but Mr. Lei says they could earn $1,200 some days. They partied and Mr. Li bought a $2,000 computer but otherwise Mr. Lei says they didn't spend their winnings much.

Soon Chinese Internet users, including government agencies, were decrying the "poisonous panda." Modified or copycat versions of the panda started doing other kinds of damage: turning screens blue, slowing computer speeds, crashing systems and erasing programs.

By early 2007, the two realized the Panda was "out of control" and set plans to flee to western China. By then, police had tracked the Panda to the $72-per-month apartment in Wuhan rented by Messrs. Li and Lei. Only Mr. Li was home when they swooped in on Feb. 3.

Mr. Li appeared in court handcuffed with a newly shaved head and was convicted of destroying property and stealing $18,000.

Mr. Lei was caught later. Police arrested others in Zhejiang, Yunnan and Shandong provinces for their involvement in the Panda attack, some of whom were jailed as well. Many others were never identified, including people who spurred the Panda's spread and profited from it.

As Mr. Li began his four-year sentence, state media pictured him behind bars in a yellow jumper using a prison computer to exterminate his panda virus. (It didn't work. Last November, McAfee Inc., the Internet security firm, warned fresh strains of the panda bug were spreading.)

In December, Mr. Li was released early for good behavior. His first call was to Mr. Lei.

To his fast-expanding 17,000 following on a Twitter-like service, Mr. Li issued a cryptic message about what he planned for the future: "Bread will come. Milk will come. Everything can be restarted all over again."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704140104575057490343183782.html?mod=WSJ_World_LeadStory#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the FBI

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven Charged with Illegal Export of Electronics to U.S.-Designated Terrorist Entity in Paraguay

Jeffrey H. Sloman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; Harold Woodward, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); Michael Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Commerce (DOC); Adam J. Szubin, Director, Department of the Treasury's, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC); and Michael Fithen, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, Miami Field Office, announced the indictment of four individuals and three Miami businesses on charges involving the export of electronics to a U.S. designated terrorist entity in

Samer Mehdi, 37, of Paraguay; Khaled T. Safadi, 56, of Miami, FL; Ulises Talavera, 46, of Miami, FL; Emilio Jacinto Gonzalez-Neira, 43, of Paraguay; Cedar Distributors, Inc. (Cedar), a Miami-based freight forwarding company owned by defendant Safadi; Transamerica Express of Miami, Inc. (Transamerica), a Miami-based freight forwarding company owned by defendant Talavera; and Jumbo Cargo, Inc. (Jumbo), a Miami-based freight forwarding company owned by defendant Gonzalez-Neira, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. § 371, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1706, and smuggling electronic goods from the United States to Paraguay, 18 U.S.C. § 554. The Indictment also seeks the forfeiture of an amount equal to the value of the electronics that were illegally exported. If convicted, the individual defendants face up to 20 years' imprisonment on the IEEPA charges, 10 years' imprisonment on the smuggling charges, and five years' imprisonment on the conspiracy charge. The companies each face up to five years' probation on all charges, and fines of up to $1,000,000 on the IEEPA charges, and $250,000 on the smuggling and conspiracy charges, respectively.

On Feb. 18, 2010, ICE special agents along with agents and officers of CBP, FBI, DOC, OFAC, and the Secret Service, executed arrest and search warrants as a result of this criminal investigation. Cedar owner Khaled Safadi and Transamerica owner Ulises Talavera were arrested in Doral, FL, Jumbo owner Emilio Gonzalez-Neira was arrested in Sunny Isles, FL, and Jomana Import Export owner Samer Mehdi is still at large. Safadi, Talavera and Gonzalez-Neira had their initial appearances today. Gonzalez-Neira was held in pre-trial detention, and Safadi and Talavera are being held in pre-trial detention pending their bond hearings, which are scheduled for Monday, March 1, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.

This investigation was initiated in 2007 by ICE, FBI, CBP, and DOC, as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). According to the allegations in the Indictment, from at least as early as March 2007 through and continuing to at least January 2008, freight-forwarders Talavera, through Transamerica, and Gonzalez-Neira, through Jumbo, exported Sony brand electronics, including Playstation 2 consoles and digital cameras, to defendant Samer Mehdi, owner of Jomana Import Export, an electronics business located within the Galeria Page, a shopping center in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Safadi, through Cedar, was a distributor of the electronics to the freight-forwarders.

Since December 6, 2006, the shopping center known as Galeria Page in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, has been designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity by OFAC, pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Consequently, any transaction or dealing by a U.S. person with Galeria Page, including any transaction or dealing with an entity within Galeria Page, is prohibited. The OFAC designation banned trade with Galeria Page and all tenants located therein. At all relevant times to the Indictment, it is alleged that the defendants were aware that shipping to Galeria Page was prohibited.

To conceal the true destination of the prohibited shipments, the defendants created fake invoices that contained false addresses and also listed fictitious ultimate consignees on the required Shippers Export Declarations (SEDs), and other necessary export paperwork. Locations referenced in these false documents, as well as corresponding emails, ensured that the electronics would reach the prohibited intended destination. Additionally, wire transfer payments from Mehdi in Paraguay to the U.S.-based distributors were routed through various facilities to mask their true origin.

On September 23, 2001, pursuant to his authority under IEEPA, then President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13224, and declared a national emergency to deal with the threat of acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists. The Executive Order empowered the U.S. Secretary of State to designate individuals or entities as having committed or as posing a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. The Order also authorized the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to designate certain individuals or entities as owned or controlled by, acting for or on behalf of, or providing support to, foreign terrorists. Executive Order 13224 blocked the property interests of such designated entities and persons, known as SDGTs.  This Executive Order was in effect at all times relevant to this Indictment.

To implement Executive Order 13224, the U.S. Department of Treasury, through the OFAC, issued regulations that, among other things, prohibited any transactions or dealings in blocked property, or any transactions with an SDGT by a U.S. person in the absence of a specific license granted by OFAC. No such licenses were granted to the defendants here.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman stated, “The U.S. Attorney's Office, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to vigorously enforce OFAC regulations and federal laws designed to  shut down financing to individuals or entities that pose a potential threat to our national security.”

“This international ICE-led multi-jurisdictional investigation demonstrates ICE's mission to identify, investigate, disrupt, and dismantle criminal organizations that support designated terrorist entities and participate in the illicit trade of commodities that support terrorist activities and ultimately threaten the national security of the United States,” said Anthony V. Mangione, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Miami.

FBI Special Agent in Charge John V. Gillies, stated, “The tri-border region is an area of concern to the FBI and our law enforcement partners both in the United States and overseas. We will continue our efforts to safeguard our national security and economic interests, including investigations of violations of our export laws that harm the United States.” 

Harold Woodward Director of Field Operations for Customs and Border Protection stated “The changing face of terrorists and other criminal groups pose an increased area of concern for CBP and by fostering relationships with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies and foreign governments we improve the total security of global trade and travel. Dismantling these criminal organizations plays a major role in insuring the safety of our homeland.”

“OFAC will continue to pursue aggressive enforcement actions against domestic and foreign entities that conduct business with terrorist-linked entities through the United States," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin.

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of ICE's Office of Investigations in Miami, FBI, CBP, DOC, OFAC, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. State Department, Office of the ICE Attaché Buenos Aires and Office of the ICE Attaché Brasilia, and the cooperation of the Paraguayan and Brazilian governments. ICE's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center and Trade Transparency Unit assisted in the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allyson Fritz and Russell Koonin, and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Mariclaire Rourke.

An Indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

http://miami.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/mm021910.htm

.