Times Square bomb suspect had ties to key Pakistani militants

Faisal Shahzad's family background may help explain why he grew radicalized and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban, sources say.

By Richard A. Serrano and David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau

May 8, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, grew up in a Pakistani family whose circle of acquaintances included two future militants — a Taliban leader and one of the participants in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, a government source said Friday.

Officials now believe this family background may help explain why Shahzad, after immigrating to the United States, grew radicalized and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban via the Internet. The group would have welcomed him because as a naturalized U.S. citizen, he could easily travel to and from Pakistan.

Agents interviewing Shahzad, 30, who lived in Connecticut, also learned that he was upset over repeated CIA drone attacks on militants in Pakistan, his native country. He was also troubled by marital and financial difficulties and a foreclosure on his home, said the government source, who has been briefed on the investigation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The revelations provide fresh indications that the Pakistani Taliban — in the past mainly concerned with fighting the Pakistani government — has broadened its focus to include the U.S. by encouraging Shahzad to detonate a Nissan Pathfinder in New York last week.

But it remained unclear whether Shahzad's Internet contact with the Taliban was an attempt to volunteer, or whether the militants reached out to him.

"What we don't know is if he was actively recruited by these guys or if he recruited himself," said a second source, a senior U.S. official.

But, the senior official said, if the Taliban has widened its focus to carry out attacks on the United States, then "it would change the game." He added that it could force the U.S. to reassess the threat it faces from Pakistan and how best to respond.

Shahzad was arrested late Monday night after boarding a flight at New York's JFK International Airport. He was charged Tuesday with five criminal counts, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faces life in prison if convicted.

He has not appeared in court, and no defense attorney has appeared on his behalf, signs that Shahzad is cooperating with the FBI and counter-terrorism interrogators.

In the criminal complaint, FBI Special Agent Andrew P. Pachtman said that Shahzad confessed to trying to blow up his SUV loaded with propane gas and fertilizer, and that he had "recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan."

In addition, records showed that he last returned to the U.S. from Pakistan on a one-way ticket on Feb. 3 after he said he spent five months in that country. He told airport security officials in a secondary screening that he had gone to Pakistan to visit his parents.

But it has since been learned that Shahzad was driven by Sheikh Mohammed Rehan, a known militant, from Karachi to the turbulent border city of Peshawar in July 2009, and then on to the Waziristan area and its training camps there. Rehan was arrested in Pakistan this week with several others, and Shahzad's father, Bahar Ul Haz, was questioned but not arrested.

Ul Haz is a retired air vice marshal in Pakistan, who, the government source said, knew Baitullah Mehsud, a leading militant in Waziristan with the Taliban. He is thought to have once led some 5,000 jihadists in struggles against the Pakistani government.

Although Mehsud's death has never been officially confirmed, it has been reported that he was gravely injured in an Aug. 5 drone attack in South Waziristan, and died three weeks later. That would have occurred around the time that Shahzad was in the Waziristan area.

It also was learned that Shahzad knew one of the militants involved in the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, where a resort hotel, hospitals and a movie theater were bombed and people were shot to death. At least 173 people were killed.

It was not known which Mumbai attacker Shahzad knew. The source described the man only as someone Shahzad knew when he was a child.

The Pakistani Taliban initially claimed credit for the attempted Times Square bombing, then retracted the claim while suggesting it had other efforts underway to attack the U.S. The group has made such claims in the past, and they have been dismissed by intelligence agencies.

Until now, the U.S. has carried out a covert campaign of airstrikes against militant groups in the border region and funneled aid to Pakistan's government and armed forces, while relying largely on Pakistani forces to conduct ground operations.

The U.S. official said discussions about possibly employing new military or diplomatic options would become serious only if the Obama administration revised its assessment of the Pakistani Taliban. Even then, sending large numbers of U.S. troops is not considered a likely option, largely because of the Pakistani government's continued opposition to the idea.

Currently only a few hundred U.S. military personnel — mostly Special Forces trainers — are in Pakistan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bomb-motive-20100508,0,3573650,print.story

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A portrait of mental disintegration

Woman accused of stabbing four people at Target spent years in and out of psychiatric facilities, which released her despite her family's pleas to keep her.

By Lee Romney, Robert Faturechi and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times

May 8, 2010

Reporting from Antioch, Calif., and Los Angeles

Layla Rosette Trawick could be sweet and charming. She volunteered for causes she believed in, friends and family said, and could be generous almost to a fault.

But anyone who spent time with the 34-year-old woman knew that there was another side to her.

She was convinced in recent months she was the test subject in a mind-control experiment. When she read books, she hallucinated that smaller books were emerging from the text with secret messages for her. She suffered bouts of profound paranoia and delusions.

Last year, hoping to start a new life, she moved from Northern California to Los Angeles.

But on Monday, authorities allege, Trawick entered a Target store in West Hollywood armed with a butcher's knife and a chef's knife. She roamed through the aisles muttering about being bipolar and randomly stabbing people, including a woman holding a baby. Four people were wounded, one critically.

In interviews with The Times since the attack, friends and relatives of Trawick describe her as a woman who suffered mental health problems from childhood. Trawick was in and out of psychiatric wards much of her life, as many as half a dozen times in the last year. But between the flaws of the mental health system and her own paranoia, she slipped through the cracks. Although she felt more stable on medication, those around her said, she was often unable to obtain it or declined to take it.

In the months before Trawick's rampage, her condition was deteriorating. She lived for a time with an ex-boyfriend in his Hollywood apartment, but she had become too destructive. In the weeks leading up to the attack, she was living on the street, and with strangers. Like many suffering from severe mental illness without the prescription drugs she needed, she often used alcohol and drugs to self-medicate.

"There was nobody taking her seriously," said the former boyfriend, Steve, who spoke on the condition that his last name would not be used. Trawick was deeply distrustful of mental health professionals who could help her, he added. "She didn't believe that these people were in the right frame of mind, or have enough power to help her."

Traces of Trawick's illness emerged when she was 3 years old in the form of hallucinations.

"She saw fishies," her mother, 55-year-old Sheila Clark, said at her home in the Contra Costa County city of Antioch, where Trawick grew up.

By the age of 7, there were disturbing images of clowns laughing at her. Clark took her daughter to doctors, who speculated that the visions might be the result of seizures, but suggested no follow-up, she said.

At 16, the suicide attempts and cutting began. From then on, family members said, Trawick's life was a constant cycle of light and darkness.

When she was doing well, she was gregarious and vibrant. She loved to dance and act. As a teenager, she performed with Antioch's community theater, taking particular pride in her role as the laundress in "Scrooge."

After graduating from Antioch High School, Trawick became a beautician and worked at a number of local salons, living on her own. But her descents into self-harm were harsh and numerous.

Clark said she lost count of the number of times she called 911 to prevent her eldest-born from harming herself. Officers would arrive and take her away under California Welfare and Institutions Code 5150, which allows for involuntary psychiatric hold in cases of imminent danger to self or others.

Her hospitalizations generally lasted about a week, her family said. She would stabilize on medication. Then, after being released, she would ultimately stop taking her drugs and deteriorate.

Clark said she would beg for continued hospitalization, transfer to a program where Trawick could receive intensive attention, even long-term institutionalization — to no avail.

If she no longer posed a threat to herself, hospital staff would tell Clark, they had no choice but to let her go.

"I didn't want them to release her, and they did, time after time after time," her mom said.

People with severe mental illness like Trawick's benefit from intensive outpatient care, in which housing, medication and therapy are coordinated by a social worker. The style of care — known as "whatever it takes" — is a cornerstone of the Mental Health Services Act, the millionaires' tax passed by voters in 2004 that has raised more than $3.7 billion for improved community mental health care.

But as a resident of four different counties — Contra Costa, Alameda, Sacramento and ultimately Los Angeles — Trawick never plugged into any mental health system to receive anything remotely comparable, her family said. Hospitals typically give a patient like Trawick a discharge plan directing her to a clinic, experts said. Whether Trawick received one is unknown, but many mentally ill people need extensive follow-up to make sure they stick with such a plan.

According to family members, Trawick had one period in her life in which she was relatively free of her symptoms. In her mid-20s, she moved to Berkeley, enamored of the atmosphere. In San Francisco, she met the man who would become her baby's father.

She moved to Sacramento to be with him and in 2003 she got pregnant. Clark described her daughter as "completely healthy" during her pregnancy and the first two years of her son's life. "She was a real good mom."

The father of her child — who received full custody largely because of Trawick's illness — said Trawick rarely took medication. After they separated, there were many hospitalizations. For a time, she received services at El Hogar, an outpatient mental health agency in Sacramento, but her experience was short-lived.

"I think a side effect was the belief that the illness didn't exist," he said, speaking on the agreement that his name not be used to protect the privacy of his child.

Court records show that Trawick had been charged with minor crimes over the years, including public drunkenness, petty theft and vandalism. She also was arrested for misdemeanor assault.

After she lost custody, she began to "slip away," her mother said. "That's when her biggest downfall started."

She had trouble getting hired in recent years, relying on federal disability checks.

Trawick retained a strong sense of social justice, her family and former boyfriend said, volunteering with community groups that served the disadvantaged. Then, a year ago, intent on starting a program or movement related to her ideals, she moved to Los Angeles.

Her problems were quickly detected by the friends she made here, who said she was in and out of hospitals and psychiatric wards on at least half a dozen occasions.

Trawick met Steve, 35, on Memorial Day last year when she stumbled by his Hollywood apartment. She was wearing novelty sunglasses, and despite the morning hour, it was clear she had already started drinking, he said. Struck by her beauty, he began a conversation.

An intense relationship grew out of the chance run-in. But he quickly realized Trawick's bubbly persona often gave way to dark, troubling thoughts. "Really conspiratorial ideas," he said.

Trawick is not alone. While mental health money flowing to counties from the millionaires' tax has helped some, many have fallen through the cracks as county budgets are squeezed. Last year, a program for severely mentally ill Medi-Cal recipients was halved, for example, and other reductions have forced many counties to close community clinics, according to the California Mental Health Directors Assn.

Long Beach-based mental health advocate Carla Jacobs called Trawick's experience "so terribly typical.… The paranoia plays right into the fact that the person can't accept the services."

Another close friend, Erik Herrera, 39, of Koreatown, who met Trawick through Steve, said the woman seemed particularly at ease in their last conversation, days before the incident at Target.

Trawick had come by Steve's apartment, they said. Her spirits were high as she discussed starting her own business, and finally getting her life together.

"She seemed more reasonable, rational. She looked happy," Herrera said. "She was trying to make something out of her life."

He's can't make sense of the attack. Now, Trawick faces nine felony counts, including four counts of attempted murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Trawick's mother was watching TV at home when she learned of the assault on the news.

Maybe, her mother said, it could have been prevented, "if she'd gotten the right mental health care when she needed it."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0508-target-stabbing-20100508,0,1953511,print.story

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Protecting teens or expanding a 'nanny state'?

Proposals that would bar California high school students from buying Gatorade on campus, ban metal bats from their baseball games and require them to wear helmets while skiing are drawing criticism.

By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

May 7, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento

Barring high school students from buying Gatorade on campus, banning metal bats from their baseball games, making it illegal for adolescents to have themselves "branded" with a hot iron: Regulating teenage behavior has become an attractive topic for California's legislators.

Some lawmakers also want to outlaw nipple piercings for teenagers, and prohibit them from snowboarding and skiing without a helmet or reentering a football game too quickly after taking a hard hit to the head.

The proposals have riled those who complain that California is already an intrusive "nanny state," and they're asking whether lawmakers should find better ways to spend their time than pondering how to keep teens in check — like dealing with high unemployment or resolving the budget crisis.

"This is a nanny state that tells you what you can eat, what you can drink, what you have to wear during your outdoor recreation," said state Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks). "I believe it's the parents' responsibility to decide what is best for their children. It is arrogance having government officials telling you, 'You're not smart enough, so we're going to tell you what is right and wrong for you.' "

Some teenagers also think state lawmakers are going too far. "It's like they are trying to control our lives for us," said Eddie Muro, the 17-year-old senior class president at Big Bear High School. "If a kid is 17, he can sign up for the Marines to fight for his country, but people are deciding what he can drink at school? It's ridiculous."

With budget crises blocking new spending programs and entrenched interests ready to fight proposals that regulate adult behavior, teens have become a ready target for the legislators' desire to address problems that distress their constituents.

Supporters of the bills have some influential voices on their side. Among them is TV talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw, who recently told his national audience that he supports the California proposal to require helmets for snowboarding kids.

The reasoning ability of teenagers is not fully developed, McGraw said, and they don't always make good decisions: "We have to protect these kids from themselves."

State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) is the author of SB 1255 , which would ban the on-campus sale of Gatorade and other sugary sports drinks during school hours but allow them at practices and games. He cited studies indicating that many teenagers are switching from sugary sodas, which have already been banned from campuses, to electrolyte-replacement drinks, which can be high in sugar and sodium and can make kids fat.

"Childhood obesity has become an epidemic," Padilla told his colleagues during a hearing on the bill. "What we are going after here is the source of all that sugar."

The proposal is sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fitness advocate. It is backed by the California Teachers Assn.

But Kent Mercer, the head athletic trainer at De La Salle High School in Concord, says the ban goes too far. Sports drinks help students perform better in the classroom as well as on the field, he testified at the hearing, and teens should be able to make informed choices after being educated about the drinks and nutrition.

"They need to have that understanding of the role it plays, as opposed to just not having that option at schools and being limited to fruit drinks with high levels of fruit sugars," Mercer said.

Chanel Maldonado, a student at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, said she and her friends buy Gatorade from a campus vending machine after playing basketball at lunch. If the state outlaws it, "we're just going to buy it somewhere else and bring it to school," she said.

The full Senate could vote on the bill as early as Monday. The other measures are expected to be voted on in coming weeks.

A Senate committee on Wednesday recommended a three-year moratorium on the use of metal bats in high school baseball. Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) introduced the measure, AB 7 after a 16-year-old student at Marin Catholic High School was badly injured when a line drive from a metal bat struck him in the head.

"It's time to seriously consider the safety of allowing kids to use performance-enhancing metal bats with the pitcher standing just 60 feet away with virtually no protection," Huffman said before the Senate Education Committee passed the measure on a 3-1 vote.

Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) opposed the bill, saying it is unwarranted meddling by lawmakers in a sport already regulated by a regional federation.

"You have more injuries from fielding, running the bases, than you do from this, and so that begs the question: At what point are we as the Legislature going to step in to [regulate] team sports? Where do we stop?" Huff asked.

Two veteran high school coaches testified against the bill, saying they have never seen a player hurt because of a metal bat. Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Escondido) sarcastically said that if there is a safety justification for such a ban, the state should ban Pop Warner football, which also causes injuries.

Safety is the issue in a measure to allow $25 fines to be imposed on parents whose children younger than 18 fail to wear a helmet while skiing or snowboarding. The Senate Health Committee has approved it.

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) said his proposal, SB 880 , would reduce head injuries. He cited a study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that said 44% of head injuries — an estimated 7,700 annually — could be prevented or reduced in severity each year by using skiing or snowboarding helmets.

"Despite repeated warnings from public health experts, professional athletes and ski resorts, each winter brings news of hundreds of unnecessary tragedies for the failure to wear a helmet," Yee said.

Strickland voted against the measure. "It is the responsibility of the parent," he said.

Muro, the senior class president at Big Hear High, said he doesn't always wear a helmet but thinks snowboarders should: "I've seen friends get hurt." He just isn't sure the state should force it on people and fine parents instead of educating them about the benefits.

William Young, a junior from Davis, wears a helmet when he races on the school ski team and thinks the law is necessary. "Wearing a helmet, in my opinion, is not a hassle, so I don't think many kids would care if they were forced to wear one."

Debate has also been sparked by a measure from Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) that would prohibit branding a minor with a hot iron. It also bar certain body piercings, including those to genitals and nipples, even if a parent approves. Branding has been featured in at least one program on the MTV network, although a spokesman for Ma said she was not aware of the show.

Noting that the state bars tattooing minors, Ma said: " AB 223 simply follows the same logic of protecting minors from health risks."

James Byrum's two teenage sons had their astrological signs — Leo and Taurus — branded on their bodies without his permission. One had his nipples pierced just after turning 18.

Byrum, a professional piercer who has worked in Hollywood, said he supports a ban on piercing private parts of those under 18 because it is inappropriate for the adult doing the piercing to have contact with those areas of a minor's body. But, he said, teenagers should be allowed to have, say, an arm branded if their parents give permission and it is done by a professional.

"It is a way of self-expression," Byrum said.

Not all of the teen-related measures face opposition in the Legislature.

Strickland supports one that would require a doctor's clearance before any student athlete suspected of having a concussion could return to the playing field. In that case, parents in the stands at a game may not have the information needed to make a good decision about their teen's ability to play, he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teens-20100508,0,5139407,print.story

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Pakistani militant groups out in the open

Though banned, groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad, which is suspected of having a link to Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad, are out in the open, with their leaders delivering sermons and holding rallies.

By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

May 8, 2010

Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan

The leader of Jaish-e-Muhammad, one of Pakistan's most feared militant groups, recently drew hundreds of worshipers to the Batha Mosque, where the theme of speeches and sermons often covers the same topic: holy war against the West.

Young men streamed into the beige building in north Karachi chanting "God is great!" on the day Maulana Masood Azhar spoke. Though Jaish-e-Muhammad has been banned in Pakistan since 2002, local police officers joined mosque guards in cordoning off the garbage-strewn dirt lanes surrounding the mosque and providing security for the rally.

"They had metal detectors checking people going in," said Ali Khan, 27, who works at a barber shop about 50 yards from the mosque's white iron gate. "The people in this mosque, their main focus is jihad."

Jaish-e-Muhammad is being scrutinized by U.S. and Pakistani investigators for a possible connection to Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old Pakistani-American accused of attempting to detonate a car bomb last week in New York City's Times Square.

Pakistani authorities arrested at least four suspected Jaish-e-Muhammad members in Karachi this week, including Mohammed Rehan, who in July allegedly drove Shahzad to the northwestern city of Peshawar, the gateway to the country's Taliban-filled tribal areas.

In light of the Shahzad case, the U.S. probably will push Pakistan to clamp down on groups such as Jaish-e-Muhammad that harbor bitter hatred for the United States and have begun to establish links with Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan's record in enforcing its ban on militant groups has been poor, Pakistani analysts said.

In Karachi, banned militant groups routinely dispatch workers to mosques where they have strong followings to pass out jihad pamphlets and compact discs, said Raza Hassan, a Karachi-based crime reporter for Dawn, a Pakistani English-language newspaper.

"Authorities have not come down hard on Jaish-e-Muhammad or any of these banned outfits," Hassan said. "They seem to lack a policy."

If there has been a policy, it has been one that publicly condemns certain militant groups while discreetly allowing them to function under the radar. To facilitate their operations, some extremist organizations have created humanitarian front groups with different names that raise funds for building schools and healthcare clinics. What's not known is how much of that money gets channeled to militant activities.

"Usually when the government bans these militant groups, they suddenly start welfare work," said Yusuf Khan, a Karachi-based analyst. "During the earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, Jaish-e-Muhammad began helping people and rebuilding. That's their technique: to become philanthropic and get sympathy."

One reason groups such as Jaish-e-Muhammad are allowed to operate is because historically they have set their primary target as India, Pakistan's nuclear-armed rival, experts said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group alleged to have engineered the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, is banned in Pakistan but continues to operate under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs hospitals and schools throughout the country. Though the West regards Lashkar-e-Taiba as a terrorist organization, the group's founder, Hafiz Saeed, moves freely through Pakistan and periodically delivers sermons at a mosque in Lahore.

U.S. officials and others in the West worry that Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba may be operating training compounds in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt along the Afghan border. Experts doubt that the Shahzad case will prod Pakistani authorities to crack down on those groups.

"I'm afraid it will be life as normal," said Yusuf Khan. "There is a lot of sympathy among many in law enforcement for these people. You cannot wipe this out."

It is widely believed that Pakistan's intelligence community helped form Jaish-e-Muhammad in the mid-1990s to battle Indian forces in the Indian-administered section of Kashmir. Later, however, the group widened its mission, training thousands of recruits to fight U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Jaish-e-Muhammad is also linked to the 2002 kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

Jaish-e-Muhammad's leader, Azhar, lives in Bahawalpur, a southern Punjab city and the militant group's home base. When he comes to Karachi, he usually heads to the North Nazimabad neighborhood, where he makes periodic appearances at the Batha Mosque, Ali Khan and other residents said.

Shopkeepers and neighbors near the mosque's 10-foot perimeter wall said they tolerate a nervous co-existence with the mosque.

"We're always fearful that something's going to happen there," says Shahzad Ali, a 35-year-old grocery shop owner, "and that in the process, we'll become victims."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-0508-pakistan-militants-20100508,0,832377,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Illegal Status of Army Spouses Often Leads to Snags

Lt. Kenneth Tenebro enlisted in the armed forces after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, signing up even before he became an American citizen.

He served one tour of duty in Iraq, dodging roadside bombs, and he would like to do another. But throughout that first mission, he harbored a fear he did not share with anyone in the military. Lieutenant Tenebro worried that his wife, Wilma, back home in New York with their infant daughter, would be deported.

Wilma, who like her husband was born in the Philippines, is an illegal immigrant.

“That was our fear all the time,” Lieutenant Tenebro said. When he called home, “She often cried about it,” he said. “Like, hey, what's going to happen? Where will I leave our daughter?”

Immigration lawyers and Department of Homeland Security officials say that many thousands of people in the military have spouses or close relatives who are illegal immigrants. Many of those service members have fought to gain legal status for their family members — only to hit a legal dead end created in 1996, when Congress last made major revisions to the immigration laws.

Today the issue is not only personal. “It is an issue of readiness for the American armed forces,” says Representative Zoe Lofgren, the Democrat from California who leads the House subcommittee on immigration. “We have many Americans who are afraid to deploy.”

Lieutenant Tenebro would like to make a career in the military, including new missions to Iraq or Afghanistan, but for now he is not stepping forward for an overseas deployment. “Our situation has kept me at bay because of the constant worry that something might happen to my family while I am away,” he said.

With the debate over illegal immigration sharpening after a tough law passed in Arizona, immigration lawyers said the Tenebros' case illustrates legal obstacles that have stopped immigrants from becoming legal even when they could qualify.

“We have made it impossible for many illegal immigrants to become legal,” said Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta who was 2009 president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association , the national bar.

Many lawmakers say that existing penalties have helped curb illegal immigration and, if anything, should be increased.

Like Lieutenant Tenebro, many soldiers, anticipating rebuke and possibly damage to their careers, do not reveal to others in the military their family ties to immigrants here illegally.

“You will always hear the jokes about those who crossed the border,” Lieutenant Tenebro said. “Even though we think we did everything legally possible, it's just not knowing what other people will think. Maybe they will find ways to hit you, without knowing the whole facts.”

Lieutenant Tenebro, 35, an Army officer now stationed at Fort Dix, N.J., said he decided to tell his story publicly for the first time after lawyers advised Mrs. Tenebro that she had little hope of being approved to remain here as a legal resident without a change in immigration law. He risks drawing the attention of his commanders and the immigration authorities to his wife's illegal status.

Mrs. Tenebro is snagged on a statute, notorious among immigration lawyers, that makes it virtually impossible for her to become a legal resident without first leaving the United States and staying away for 10 years.

Because of the Catch-22, the severe penalty applies to Mrs. Tenebro even though she is the wife of an American citizen who is also an active duty serviceman. Lieutenant Tenebro, who was never in the United States illegally, was naturalized in 2003.

The legal boomerang that snared her and many others was created in 1996, when Congress imposed automatic restrictions on illegal immigrants, barring them from returning for periods of 3 to 10 years after they leave the country, regardless of whether they were deported or left voluntarily. However, in many cases the law also requires immigrants who are approved for legal documents to complete their paperwork at American consulates in their home countries.

The Tenebros' immigration troubles began with a moonstruck romance. They met one weekend five years ago while Wilma was on vacation in New York at the end of a job as a housekeeper on a cruise ship. She did not return to the Philippines, and eventually she overstayed her visa.

Love led to marriage, and their daughter, who is now 3, and an expensive battle to gain legal status for Mrs. Tenebro, 37.

In 2008, Citizenship and Immigration Services , the federal agency, gave Mrs. Tenebro approval to become a legal permanent resident, as the spouse of an American citizen. In general, immigration law is intended to make it easy for foreigners who marry citizens to become legal residents.

But because of the particular visa she overstayed — known as a crewman's visa — she is required to finish the paperwork for her green card in the Philippines. Every one of a string of lawyers the couple consulted — $7,000 in fees so far — gave them the same bad news: Even though Mrs. Tenebro has qualified for a green card, if she leaves the United States to get it, she will automatically trigger the legal bar that will block her from returning for 10 years.

In rare circumstances of severe hardship, consular officials have the authority to grant waivers allowing spouses to return here more quickly. But officials in Manila are known among lawyers for being especially reluctant to give waivers.

For his wife, Lieutenant Tenebro said, the visa offered in Manila is “like the cheese in a mousetrap. It's like, hey, come and get it! And then, swat! They'll get you.”

One lawyer after another suggested the same option, he said: “Wait until there is a change in the language of the law.”

Susan Timmons, who runs the military assistance program for the immigration lawyers association, said there was little lawyers could do in such cases.

“If you do try to follow the law, you run into a serious problem and you won't be able to fix your situation,” Ms. Timmons said. Her program has received hundreds of similar cases from American soldiers, she said.

Lieutenant Tenebro said he and his wife believed they were following the rules by prolonging their courtship and waiting for several months after their marriage in February 2007 to file for her immigration papers, so it would be clear that their marriage was not fake.

They remember the first time a lawyer explained the decade-long separation they could be facing. “I didn't want to show emotion, but it was like shock,” Mrs. Tenebro said. “I was thinking, to be away from my family is hard.”

Representative Lofgren and Senator Robert Menendez , Democrat of New Jersey, have proposed bills that would make it easier for spouses and close relatives of Americans in the military to become legal residents. Those bills are included in immigration overhaul legislation, including measures to grant legal status to millions of currently illegal immigrants, that Democratic Congressional leaders are preparing.

But after the furor over the Arizona law, President Obama said Wednesday that he wanted to “begin work” on the overhaul — but not try to pass a bill — this year. Republicans argue that the administration should concentrate on enforcement, not on easing the law.

“Millions of individuals come to the U.S. on visas every year and don't overstay them,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. “Congress has already provided for remedies in appropriate cases, so there should be no need to change the rules.”

Homeland Security officials said that in the absence of Congressional action, they had been working quietly to fix immigration problems for American soldiers on a case-by-case basis, using limited authorities that already exist in law. After a preliminary review of the Tenebros' case in response to a reporter's questions, Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said they were working to identify legal alternatives for them.

“Keeping U.S. military families together is a vital priority,” said Matt Chandler, a Homeland Security Department spokesman.

Now, instead of a foreign mission, Lieutenant Tenebro is running a marathon every month or so, raising money for veterans coming back with injuries. At home on Long Island, Mrs. Tenebro, who cannot work legally, feels a chill every time immigration news comes on the radio.

“We just have our bags packed all the time in case immigration will come knocking on the door,” Lieutenant Tenebro said “We talk about what school to pick and what apartment to get. But it's in the Philippines.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08soldier.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

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Bombing Suspect's Route to Citizenship Reveals Limitations

When Faisal Shahzad took his oath of citizenship a year ago, swearing to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies,” he seemed the model of a legal immigrant success story. Moving from one coveted visa to the next over a decade, he had acquired an M.B.A., a decent job, a wife and two children and a fine suburban home.

Now that he has admitted driving a car bomb into Times Square, every step of his path to citizenship is under fresh scrutiny. One key question is when Mr. Shahzad turned against his adopted country. The answer could determine whether the unraveling of his immigrant success story ends with the revocation of his American citizenship.

The typical grounds for denaturalization, immigration officials say, are fraud or misrepresentation in the reams of immigration forms that Mr. Shahzad filled out over the years, including accounting for every trip he made outside the country. But even if he never lied in his applications, an obscure anti-Communist statute enacted half a century ago could be used to revoke his citizenship, said Donald Kerwin, a vice president at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute , a research organization in Washington.

The law states that within five years of naturalization, any affiliation that would have precluded citizenship — like membership in a terrorist organization — is prima facie evidence that the person “was not attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and was not well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States at the time of naturalization.” In the absence of countervailing evidence, the statute says, that affiliation is enough to authorize revocation.

“It doesn't happen very often, but you're obviously not attached to the principles of the Constitution if you're being trained in bomb-making in Waziristan when you take the oath,” Mr. Kerwin said.

The narrative that has emerged suggests that after signs of financial stress and a turn to religion within the past year or two, Mr. Shahzad quit his job and flew to Pakistan. Law enforcement officials say he has admitted to training with terrorists there in December or January.

Mr. Kerwin said that such a sequence provides the prima facie evidence described in the statute, but that it is unclear whether the federal government would bother with revocation if Mr. Shahzad was headed for a long prison sentence anyway.

The Department of Justice declined to discuss the matter.

In Washington, the more pressing question seems to be how he became a citizen in the first place. Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has demanded to see Mr. Shahzad's full immigration file.

Experts on both sides of the nation's immigration debate said the case points to the limitations of a screening apparatus increasingly burdened with national security expectations.

Immigration lawyers in Connecticut said Mr. Shahzad followed a typical trajectory, though his path seemed more smooth than many others, especially men from Muslim countries, who can be stuck in security checks for years.

Mr. Shahzad's name had long been listed in the Treasury Enforcement Communication System, known as TECS, which helps the federal government track potential law violators entering the country, an administration official said.

He probably landed on the huge list because he entered the country on several occasions carrying large amounts of cash, declaring the totals on his customs entry forms as required. But for a Pakistani-American who traveled frequently between the two countries, that was neither unusual nor necessarily an indication of any illicit activity, added the official, who would discuss the confidential records only on condition of anonymity.

He arrived at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut in January 1999 on a foreign student visa approved by the State Department in Pakistan. It allowed for a year of job training after graduation, and a temp agency placed him at Elizabeth Arden , the cosmetics company. Because he performed well as an account analyst there, a former manager said, the company applied to the Labor Department for one of the limited number of three-year H-1B visas available for foreigners with special skills. Critics of the H-1B visa system, like Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, say it is a source of cheap, captive labor, fed by mediocre schools.

“All we're hearing is that these visas are for the best and brightest,” said Mr. Krikorian, whose Washington-based group advocates sharp reductions in immigration. “This guy, both from his grades and his incompetent bomb-making skills, wasn't the best and brightest of anything.”

But lawyers who handle such cases said Mr. Shahzad probably had skills that were in short supply at the time, because the H-1B visa process is expensive and difficult for employers to pursue. “You can't expect people to dump thousands of dollars in the schooling system and then not have a chance to work here,” noted one lawyer, Nandita Ruchandani.

In July 2003, Elizabeth Arden petitioned for an employment-based green card on Mr. Shahzad's behalf, a Labor Department official said. By the next year, he did not need it: he had married Huma Mian, who was born in Colorado. Based on her February 2005 petition, he was granted a green card in January 2006.

To get it, he had to open his life to the government, supply his fingerprints for an F.B.I. background check and submit to an interview about whether his marriage was bona fide.

As a citizen's husband, he was entitled to petition for naturalization two years and nine months later. He did so in October 2008, and underwent another full security check and interview and a citizenship test, covering American civics, history and spoken English.

“You can do all the checks in the world; there's no way to know what's in their heart or head,” said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association . “People rarely go to their interview and say they think it would be a great idea to plant a bomb in Times Square.”

Even Mr. Krikorian did not blame the immigration system, noting that Mr. Shahzad did not enter the country illegally and seems to have had a genuine marriage. “Maybe there was nothing for them to find,” he said. “He may have been radicalized after he went through all this.”

Or maybe not. “Was it his plan all along? I don't know,” said Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services .

“It's important to realize that all the background checks are just a snapshot in time.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/nyregion/08immig.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Op-Ed Columnist

Bloody Urban Landscapes

Chicago

Driving through some of this city's neighborhoods is like driving through an alternate, horrifying universe, a place where no one thinks it's safe to be a child.

You follow a map in which the coordinates are laid out in blood. Over there, in front of that convenience store, is where Fred Couch, 16, was shot to death last December. The Couch boy went to the same school, Christian Fenger Academy, as Derrion Albert, an honor student who was beaten with wooden planks and kicked to death three months earlier in a broad daylight attack that was recorded on a cellphone by an onlooker.

Right there, on South Manistee Avenue, is where a 7-year-old girl riding her scooter was shot in the head and critically injured a few weeks ago.

And here, on East 92nd Street, is where a toddler, just 20 months old, was shot in the head and killed in the back seat of her father's car.

During a meeting with about a dozen men and boys on Thursday, some of them violence outreach workers on the South Side, I asked for a show of hands. “How many of you have been shot?” I asked. Five raised their hands.

When I asked how many knew someone who had been shot and killed, they all raised their hands.

The crazed, almost apocalyptic violence that is destroying the lives of so many young men, women and children here and in other major cities across the country is a crisis crying out for national attention. But, so far, it's been met mostly with a shrug.

Dozens of children school-aged and younger are murdered in Chicago every year. More than 150 have been shot (but not all of them killed) during the current school year.

This is occurring in a city that, in terms of its murder rate, is not even near the top of the list of most violent American cities. (In 2008, for example, Orlando, Fla., home of Disney World, had more murders per capita than Chicago.)

That we tolerate this incredible carnage, that there is not even much of a national outcry against it, is a measure of how sick our society has become.

“It's so different now,” said Ester Stroud, a hospital worker who lives in Northwest Chicago. “When I was young, if a child was murdered, it was a big deal. Now, I'm sorry to say, it's somewhat routine.”

Mrs. Stroud's son, Isiah, a 16-year-old who dreamed of dancing professionally, was stabbed to death a few days before Christmas in 2008. He had just won a dance contest and was planning to use the prize money to buy presents. He never made it home from the contest.

I talked for a long time with Mrs. Stroud, 46, and her husband, Eugene, 51, in a room at the school that Isiah had attended, Prologue Early College High. Their grief, after nearly a year and a half, seemed still to be weighing on them like a cloak of lead that cannot be lifted.

Mr. Stroud, his eyes red, recalled playing chess with his son and teaching him to swim, and watching old “Godzilla” movies with him on television. “Thinking about that last day is so hard,” he said. “He gave me the most beautiful smile that last moment that I saw him, when I dropped him off.”

He fingered a picture of his son as he talked.

Mrs. Stroud said, “His classmates are graduating this year. Maybe this is just a mother talking, but I think the world is a little different without him.”

It can be tough to acknowledge just how bizarrely violent some big-city neighborhoods have become. There are places in Chicago and many other cities where the norms of civilized behavior have been driven all but completely underground.

“I would characterize parts of this city as under siege,” said the Rev. Autry Phillips, who is the point person for a number of local antiviolence efforts. “It's sad when people are afraid to come out of their homes to walk the dog or wash the car because they feel they might get shot.

“We've got young people pulling out guns at 12 o'clock in the afternoon and shooting all over the place, no matter who's around. So we've got to do something about that.

“These kids did not come from the suburbs. They did not get dropped off of some spaceship. These are our kids. And we've got to take responsibility for them. A lot of them are angry because their daddy's not around and their mama's on crack.

“Who was there to teach them how to behave? We have to deal with this. We have to change this behavior. This is not what we were supposed to be.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/opinion/08herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the White House

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Free Text4baby Service for Moms and Moms-to-Be is Growing up Fast

Text4baby , a free program that provides pregnant women and new moms with information they need to take care of their health and give their babies the best possible start in life, is growing up fast! A public-private partnership that includes the White House, text4baby provides free SMS text messages timed to a pregnant woman's due date or baby's date of birth. Women who sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 get health tips, reminders, and information about community resources available to them.

Announced by U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra on February 4, 2010, text4baby has already delivered more than 1 million free text messages to over 36,000 moms across the country. We are hearing stories about moms making prenatal appointments, using their seatbelts more safely, following safe sleep practices, and making other changes to keep themselves and their babies healthy. In a novel use of the underlying program, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies—the non-profit that runs text4baby—issued an extra message this week to alert moms to the recent recall of a number of pediatric medicines .

One of the most important things that text4baby can do is provide information on how moms and moms-to-be can access additional resources. For example, one of the Spanish messages reads:

Aunque te sientas bien, es importante tener cuidado medico todo el embarazo para mantener sanos a ti y a tu bebe. Llama 800-504-7081 para cuidado. (Even if you feel great, it's important to get medical care through your pregnancy. It helps keep you and your baby healthy. Call 800-504-7081 for care.)

Hotlines, including the National Hispanic Prenatal Helpline (1-800-504-7081) and National Hunger Hotline (1-866-348-6479) are reporting increases in calls linked to text4baby. Top issues that moms ask about are WIC services (which provide Federally supported food assistance), prenatal care services, and free or low-cost cribs.

And communities across the nation are getting into the action! This week, I joined Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Donald Schwarz and other partners to launch an extraordinary text4baby outreach coalition in Philadelphia. The high-energy event at that city's Please Touch Museum—organized by the Maternity Care Coalition and with support from ClearChannel Radio—featured several moms-to-be who shared their experiences with text4baby. One woman spoke through a translater about her appreciation for having the service in Spanish, and how useful it is to have reminders and tips coming directly to her phone because she is busy with two other small children as well.

Pennsylvania already ranks 9th in the nation in terms of the percentage of pregnant women and new moms using text4baby, and officials say they intend to climb further in the rankings by getting the word out through state and local government offices, non-profit organizations, and the media. ( Click here to find out how your state ranks.)

Text4baby is made possible through a broad, public-private partnership that includes government and tribal agencies, corporations, academic institutions, professional associations and non-profit organizations.Founding partners include the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, Johnson & Johnson, Voxiva, the CTIA Wireless Foundation, and WPP. U.S. government partners include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of Health and Human Services. Johnson & Johnson is the Founding Sponsor, and Premier Sponsors include WellPoint, Pfizer and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. The mobile health platform is provided by Voxiva and free messaging services are generously provided by participating wireless service providers. Implementation partners include BabyCenter, Danya International, Syniverse, Keynote Systems and The George Washington University.

Hillary Chen is a Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/07/free-text4baby-service-moms-and-moms-be-growing-fast

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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A Day in the Life of the Federal Protective Service

Mitigating Risk to Federal Facilities and Their Occupants

The  Federal Protective Service  (FPS) provides integrated security and law enforcement services to more than 9,000 federal facilities nationwide . These services include regular patrol and response activities as well as conducting comprehensive risk assessments to identify appropriate countermeasures to mitigate vulnerabilities and threats.

In Fiscal Year 2009, FPS was engaged in:

Managing:

• 164 FPS field offices within 11 Regions
• Law Enforcement and security for more than 1.5 million visitors and employees at federal facilities
• More than 5,100 security posts
• More than 14,200 Protective Security Officers (Contract Guards)

Facility Oversight:

• Completed 2,400 Facility Security Assessments
• Attended more than 25,000 Facility Security Committee meetings
• Reviewed roughly 9,200 Occupant Emergency Plans
• Conducted more than 77,000 inspections of security posts
• Implemented nearly 126,000 countermeasure projects
• Developed and conducted more than 7,500 training sessions for contract protective security officers

Executing:

• More than 43,000 calls for service
• More than 13,000 K-9 sweeps for explosives
• More than 200 intelligence bulletins
• More than 35,000 background investigations
• More than 1,645 apprehensions and citations
• A response to more than 1,200 demonstrations
• Mitigation for more than 270 weapons violations
• More than 820 Operation Shield missions initiated in FY09, and over 440 to date during FY10

Deploying:

In FY09, FPS responded to the following events with 427 law enforcement personnel and equipment for 21 days and a total of 4,658 man days:

• Operation Red River – Flooding in Iowa
• Operation Ready Eagle – 2009 Inauguration of President Obama
• Operation Steel Curtain – G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Interdicting:

• 284,434 Knives
• 22,064 OC/Mace
• 307,394 Other prohibited Items

http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1273177025622.shtm

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From the FBI

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COMBATING BORDER CORRUPTION

Locally and Nationally

05/07/10

Watch Video: FBI Special Agent Keith Byers describes the Bureau's interest in border protection.

Imagine a U.S. border guard on the take waving through a truck filled with weapons, drugs, explosives, or even a dirty bomb. It's that kind of scenario that keeps the FBI very focused on weeding out the occasional dishonest government official who accepts bribes to allow people or contraband into this country illegally.

“Because of its impact on national security, crookedness at our borders is one of the top priorities in our public corruption program,” says Special Agent Keith Byers, a public corruption supervisor in our Chicago office (and formerly assigned to the Public Corruption Unit at FBI Headquarters). “While it's true that the most common acts of border corruption involve drug trafficking and human smuggling, a single incident of the wrong person getting into the country could result in a catastrophe.”

A few more possibilities of what could go wrong:

• A corrupt officer might believe that he or she is accepting a bribe in return for allowing a carload of illegal immigrants to enter the country, when those individuals may actually be hard-core gang members or terrorists.
  
• A crooked official who expedites someone's immigration paperwork or helps someone obtain an identification document in return for a bribe could potentially be facilitating the operation of a terrorist cell, foreign counterintelligence network, or major criminal enterprise.
  
• A corrupt officer could knowingly or unknowingly allow entry of a truck, rail car, ship, or airplane carrying weapons of mass destruction, chemical or biological weapons, or bomb-making materials.

A multi-agency response. FBI-led Border Corruption Task Forces are the cornerstone of our efforts to root out this kind of corruption. Initially located primarily along our nation's southwest border, we now also have task forces in Detroit, Miami, and San Juan, and we are setting up others in cities like Buffalo, Newark, and Seattle. These task forces generally consist of representatives from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security agencies (including Customs and Border Protection Internal Affairs, Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security—Office of Inspector General), and state and local law enforcement.

And we've just created a National Border Corruption Task Force at FBI Headquarters. It's role—much like that of our National Joint Terrorism Task Force—is to coordinate the activities of these regional task forces, especially in the areas of investigations, training, and inter-agency cooperation. 

Through joint investigations with our partners, we've been able to uncover the corrupt acts of federal agents, local police, correctional officers, military personnel, and even U.S. government employees responsible for issuing passports, visas, green cards, etc. And in many instances, we've had success with some of the same sophisticated techniques we've used so effectively in the past—including undercover operations and court-authorized electronic surveillance.

Post 9/11, the ranks of those responsible for securing our borders began to swell, as did the opportunities for corruption. And while most of these individuals are honest and dedicated public servants, we will continue working to uncover those few bad apples whose illegal deeds could potentially put an entire nation at risk.

Resources:

- Abused Trust: The Case of the Crooked Border Official

- Investigating Public Corruption

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/may10/border_050710.html

FAIRMONT, WV—Fighting cybercrime has become an increasingly more challenging task as criminals have gotten more and more creative over the years. Celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received more than 1.5 million complaints of cybercrime, ranging from online fraud and computer intrusion to economic espionage, money laundering, and child pornography.

“This year marks the first decade of our partnership with NW3C addressing nearly 1.5 million Internet crime complaints to IC3,” said Bill Hinerman, FBI Unit Chief for IC3. “This partnership has increased law enforcement's ability to collect, analyze, and refer Internet crime complaints to our domestic and international law enforcement partners.”

IC3 was established in May 2000 as a partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization gives victims of cybercrime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. IC3 provides law enforcement and regulatory agencies at all levels a central referral system for complaints involving Internet-related crimes.

“Since its creation in 2000, we have seen the number of complaints coming into IC3 increase year after year. Cybercrime is not going away and, in fact, is only going to continue as criminals become savvier,” said Don Brackman, Director of the NW3C. “We are so proud to be partners with the FBI in operating IC3 to address this growing global issue.”

To address the evolving area of cybercrime, IC3 implemented the Internet Complaint Search and Investigation System (ICSIS). ICSIS is a web-based software program available to approved agencies that enables users to search the IC3 complaint database, analyze data, and share case information with investigators across jurisdictions or nationally. IC3 also offers analytical support, training, and research to assist law enforcement with any needs they have in creating a case against cyber criminals.

“No one would have thought 10 years ago that we would have as many reports of cybercrime as we have today,” Brackman said. “As the Internet keeps evolving and as criminals keep thinking up new ways to take advantage of the public, IC3 will continue to look for ways we can help combat these types of crimes.”

For more information on the Internet Crime Complaint Center or to file a complaint, visit www.ic3.gov .

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/ic3_050710.htm

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From the DEA

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NYPD Police Officer Indicted for Armed Robbery Conspiracy and Narcotics Trafficking

Robbery Crew Netted More Than 250 Kilograms of Cocaine and $1 Million in Drug Proceeds in Over One Hundred Robberies

MAY 06 -- (BROOKLYN, NY) A superseding indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn addinga new defendant, Emmanuel Tavarez, to an indictment previously obtained against an allegedviolent robbery crew responsible for more than one hundred armed robberies of narcoticstraffickers in the New York City metropolitan area that netted more than 250 kilograms ofcocaine and $1 million in drug proceeds. Tavarez is an eight-year veteran of the New York CityPolice Department currently assigned to the NYPD's Housing Bureau Viper Unit in Queens.Tavarez will be arraigned later today before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.,at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York.

The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John P. Gilbride, Special Agent-in-Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York, James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, NewYork (ICE), Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department, and John P. Melville, Acting Superintendent, New York State Police.

As alleged in the indictments and a detention letter filed by the government, beginning in 2001, robbery crew members posing as police officers staged arrests of drug traffickers, using fake arrest and search warrants, and then forcibly took drugs and money from the traffickers. The investigation further revealed that, as necessary, members of the crew restrained the traffickers or bystanders with handcuffs, rope, and duct tape. In addition, crew members often brandished firearms or physically assaulted their victims.

Tavarez allegedly used his status as a police officer to obtain NYPD raid jackets and other NYPD paraphernalia and equipment for the crew so that they would appear to be authentic police officers. According to the government's filings, Tavarez personally participated in robberies which netted thousands of dollars in cash and hundreds of kilograms of cocaine with a wholesale value estimated at more than $1,000,000.

Investigators recovered some of the tools of the trade from members of the crew, including firearms, handcuffs, counterfeit law enforcement badges and Miranda warning cards, pepper spray, police-style radios, plastic tie-wrap handcuffs, gloves, duct tape, and a wooden club.

DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Gilbride stated, “Law enforcement officers worldwide take an oath to work for the public good. The crimes alleged to have been committed by Emmanuel Tavarez are a slap in the face to the vast majority of law enforcement officers in New York City who are dedicated to upholding the law. Those who commit such crimes are not worthy to stand among the ranks of the good men and women who wear their badges with pride in order to protect the citizens of New York City.”

“The defendant is alleged to have committed serious crimes and compounded that by violating the very law he was sworn to uphold,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “The charged conduct unfairly tarnishes the proud reputation of the thousands of law enforcement officers in New York who put their lives on the line every day to protect our residents and their communities.” Ms. Lynch thanked the Philadelphia Police Department for its assistance in the investigation.

ICE Special Agent-in-Charge Hayes stated, “This investigation has shown the unfortunate reality that people in all professional positions can become involved in criminal activity. People who commit such crimes will be held accountable.”

If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen Meyer, Sylvia Shweder, and Alexander Solomon.

The New Defendant:
Emmanuel Tavarez
Age: 30

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/nyc050610.html

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