Justice Department poised to challenge Arizona immigration law

Nine police chiefs meet with Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to tell him the measure would hinder local law enforcement and ask that the Obama administration block it.

By Richard A. Serrano and Kate Linthicum, Tribune Washington Bureau and Los Angeles Times

May 26, 2010

Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles

Top Justice Department officials have drafted a legal challenge asserting that Arizona's controversial immigration law is unconstitutional because it impinges on the federal government's authority to police the nation's borders, sources said Wednesday.

At the same time, the government officials said, the department's civil rights section is considering possible legal action against the law on the basis that it amounts to racial profiling of Latinos who are legally in Arizona but conceivably could be asked to provide documents proving their citizenship.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. met Wednesday with nine top police chiefs who object to the Arizona legislation and promised them he would act on the recommendations soon, a spokesman said.

The police chiefs urged Holder and the Obama administration, which has grave reservations about the Arizona measure, to stop the law. The chiefs said it would seriously hamper local police work if officers had to serve as border patrol policemen.

FOR THE RECORD:

An earlier version of this report said that Jack Harris, Phoenix police chief, attended the meeting. He was not able to attend.

"He did say that the Justice Department is seriously considering what they would do and that could come very soon," said Chuck Wexler, the director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank that helped bring the police chiefs together with Holder.

Echoing concerns from Obama and Holder, the chiefs told the attorney general during the closed-door meeting that the problem with the Arizona law is that it will break down trust between victims and witnesses of crimes and the police officers in their communities.

One of the attendees was Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said afterward that he told Holder that "legislation like this inhibits us from doing our jobs" and would deter immigrants from reporting crimes, either as victims or witnesses.

"The fear of the police already inhibits immigrants from coming forward to a certain extent," Beck said. "But if you add this, you increase the reluctance tenfold.

"People should remember that undocumented immigrants are witnesses in all kinds of crime, and this does not just affect them. If people don't come forward to help the police solve and protect against crime, no matter what their status, then we are doomed to failure. It threatens to destroy a lot of the work that has been done."

Beck added that his officers are guided by a different set of rules than those laid out in the Arizona law. For more than three decades, he said, the agency has followed a policy that prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone solely to determine whether he or she is in the country legally.

But an additional dozen or more states are considering passing legislation mirroring the Arizona law, which is to go into effect in July. That groundswell of support for the Arizona law is part of what is pushing Holder and the White House to act swiftly if they decide they want to strike down the measure in Arizona.

The new Arizona law requires police to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop and suspect is in the country illegally. It also makes it a state crime to lack proper immigration papers in Arizona.

Matthew Miller, the Department of Justice's chief spokesman, acknowledged that Holder had told the police chiefs that a decision on federal action would come quickly.

But Miller also cautioned that "the review is still on."

"There's really not been any decisions yet," he said. "We're still working on it, and it's still being discussed internally."

He declined to discuss what legal strategy the department would pursue. Nevertheless, Miller said that the meeting with the police chiefs was very helpful.

"The attorney general thought the police chiefs raised important concerns about the impact the Arizona law will have on the ability of law enforcement to keep communities safe," he said.

Two of the chiefs meeting with Holder are from Arizona: Roberto Villasenor of Tucson and John W. Harris of Sahuarita, who also serves as president of the Arizona Assn. of Chiefs of Police.

"The attorney general asked us very specific, good questions about our experiences — all the things we've heard — to get a good reading on the ground," Wexler said. "Beyond that he did not give us any indication of what the Justice Department is going to do.

"We were not trying to influence the attorney general as much as to have a conversation with him about our concerns and also get the [Obama administration] focused on the need for national legislation."

"The U.S. attorney general listened to us — we had a great conversation — but he was not committal," the Los Angeles chief said. "His task is to announce his plans to the American people, not necessarily to this group. I think that we influenced him, but we will see."

Despite the opposition to the law from Obama and Holder, many Americans support it; some polls indicate that as many as 70% are in favor of giving local police the authority to check on someone's legal status in the United States.

Likewise, not all top U.S. police officials are against the law. Even in Arizona, some wholeheartedly support it. They include Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Phoenix area, who has long railed against the influx of illegal immigrants there, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, head of the Arizona Sheriff's Assn.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-holder-immigration-20100527,0,1198158,print.story

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Member of terror group may be trying to slip into Texas from Mexico, U.S. warns

Homeland Security officials have asked Houston authorities to watch for a member of a Somalia-based terror group who may be coming to Texas through Mexico.

The department issued an alert last week for a suspected member of the al-Shabaab group, which has declared allegiance to Al Qaeda.

The alert was issued after federal prosecutors in San Antonio added new charges earlier this month against a 24-year-old Somali man, Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, who had been picked up in Brownsville in 2008.

He pleaded not guilty May 14 in San Antonio federal court to three counts of immigration fraud.

A Harris County sheriff's spokeswoman confirmed a connection Wednesday between Dhakane's case and the Homeland Security alert but would not elaborate.

Dhakane is accused of making false statements under oath in support of his application for asylum.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2010/05/member-of-terror-group-may-be-trying-to-slip-into-texas-from-mexico-us-warns-.html

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L.A. County sheriff can't be sued for releasing illegal immigrant accused of killing football star, judge rules

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit by the parents of a high school football star who had sued the Sheriff's Department for releasing from jail an illegal immigrant suspected of killing their son.

'The parents of Jamiel Shaw II , a running back who was recruited by Stanford and Rutgers universities before he was gunned down in 2008, had accused the sheriff of negligence, wrongful death and civil rights violations for letting Pedro Espinoza out onto the streets instead of turning him over to immigration authorities.

Espinoza, a 21-year-old who prosecutors say was a member of the 18th Street gang in the United States illegally, had been released from jail a day before the shooting after serving time for an earlier offense. His criminal case, in which he faces the death penalty, remains pending.

Shaw's family alleged in their suit that because of an agreement allowing local agencies to enforce federal immigration law, the Sheriff's Department was liable for Shaw's death.

At the time of the suit's filing, immigration law experts said the argument that a sheriff or warden could be held liable for releasing an illegal immigrant who goes on to commit a crime was unprecedented.

In dismissing the suit Wednesday, Judge Charles F. Palmer found that the federal-local partnership did not mean the sheriff had a “mandatory duty” to transfer illegal immigrants after they completed their sentences.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/05/la-sheriff-cant-be-used-to-releasing-illegal-immigrant-accused-of-killing-football-star-judge-rules.html#more

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EDITORIAL

A step toward border security

Deploying 1,200 National Guard troops hopefully reflects a genuine, long-term pledge to enforcement.

May 27, 2010

Even those who are appalled by Arizona's harsh new immigration law — as we are — recognize that the state's misguided decision to take federal matters into its own legislative hands did not come out of the blue. Arizona is the preferred superhighway for drug and human smugglers. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the nation, and almost all of those abducted are either illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade. The recent killing of a rancher in southern Arizona has increased the sense of lawlessness and danger at the border; police believe the killer was involved with drug trafficking. Fed up with federal inaction, Arizona lashed out.

California was the model for such behavior in the 1990s, when San Diego County was the nation's main thoroughfare for illegal immigration. In 1994, Californians approved Proposition 187, which would have denied most healthcare, education and social services to illegal immigrants. It was mean-spirited, and a federal court ultimately found it unconstitutional, but it had one positive result: President Clinton started Operation Gatekeeper, beefing up border fencing, tripling the number of underground sensors and almost doubling the number of Border Patrol agents. And California's problem shifted east, to Arizona. So it was deja vu Tuesday when President Obama announced he was sending 1,200 National Guard troops to the border for a year.

The troops will be stationed in Arizona and other border states, where they'll help local law enforcement intercept drug traffickers. It is an overdue step. For political reasons, including the delicate relationship with Mexico, Obama has tried to resist giving the appearance of militarizing the border. But the lack of security, particularly in areas a stone's throw from Mexico's drug war, undermines public confidence in the ability of the federal government to regulate immigration. And if any meaningful immigration reform is to be passed, it will require that confidence.

Over the years, presidents have tended to view immigration through an economic lens, paying heed to issues of bilateral trade and facilitating the flow of low-skilled labor. But addressing the broken immigration system, including making it easier for employers to hire foreign workers legally and bringing forward the 11 million undocumented people living in the shadows of American society, will only be achieved when the public sees that Washington can successfully secure the border.

The Obama administration deserves credit for stepping up enforcement efforts. We hope the deployment of additional National Guard troops is not merely a stopgap measure to appease a restless public, but becomes a genuine, long-term commitment to border enforcement.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-border-20100527,0,1039579,print.story

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America's 'Sundown town' legacy

Thousands of communities in the U.S. had night-time bans on African Americans. Some have taken steps to re-integrate, while others have yet to acknowledge their past.

James W. Loewen

May 26, 2010

Joe Mozingo's fine article, "An old diary throws him a curve," (May 17) rightly focuses on his family story, but it brushes up against one of the biggest untold stories in American race relations. "There's no coloreds," Mozingo's relative says, discussing Greensburg, Indiana. "They don't let them come back after sunset."

Indeed, there aren't any. In 1906, whites drove them out. They proceeded to post signs at the edge of Decatur County, of which Greensburg is the county seat, saying, "Nigger, don't let the sun set on your back in Decatur County," complete with a picture of the sun going down. These signs remained up until well after World War II.

Unfortunately, Greensburg and Decatur County were not alone or even unusual. At least 200 other towns in Indiana took the same action between 1890 and 1940, along with 500 in Illinois and thousands more in Northern states from Pennsylvania to Oregon. Most suburbs of Los Angeles had a whites-only policy until at least the 1960s. Often violent expulsions were required, as in Greensburg. Other towns passed ordinances or used more subtle means to keep African Americans from living within their city limits.

This legacy of "sundown towns" still haunts thousands of communities across the north, as well as in Appalachia, the Ozarks and some other parts of the South. For example, Calhoun County, in neighboring Illinois, has a similar tradition of violence toward African Americans lingering after sundown. It voted for Barack Obama 53% to 46% in 2008, the same proportion as the nation. Nevertheless, it boasts not a single black household, and some residents suggested to me last year that it would not prudent for one to move in "just now."

To recover from this sundown past, a community needs to take three steps:

Admit it. "We did this."

Apologize. "We did this, and it was wrong, and we're sorry."

Promise never to do it again. State, "We don't do it any more," and the statement needs to have teeth.

Greensburg has yet to take the first step. The mayor, quoted by Mozingo as using "colored people" as his usual term for African Americans, would not even admit, when interviewed by reporters in 2007, that his city had ever driven out its black population.

Sociologist James W. Loewen is the author of "Sundown Towns" (Simon & Schuster, 2006) as well as of the best-seller, "Lies My Teacher Told Me" (1995). He lives in Washington.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-loewen-20100526,0,4546354,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Where's the children's Tylenol?

The maker of children's Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl was found to have numerous manufacturing problems at its plant in Pennsylvania.

May 27, 2010

The drugstore shelves for children's analgesics and other over-the-counter liquid medications are conspicuously bare these days, the result of disturbing shortcomings federal investigators found at a Johnson & Johnson plant. The corporation's pharmaceutical division, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which makes such pediatric staples as infants' and children's Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl, has recalled about 50 versions of its products. Its Pennsylvania plant, where the problems were found, has closed operations altogether for the time being.

An inspection report released this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlined a panoply of violations found during an April inspection. The plant wasn't adequately testing the components of its medicines, the FDA said. And when it changed the process for one of its infant Tylenol products, it failed to check that the new procedures were working correctly. The result: Some batches had 24% more of the product's active ingredient than they were supposed to. Potentially bacteria-contaminated materials were used to make the medications. There were dusty and dirty areas.

Worst, perhaps: The company had received dozens of customer complaints over the course of 10 months about dark specks in some of its liquid formulas, but failed to investigate properly. Ultimately, the FDA found that the specks were tiny bits of metal from some machinery.

The FDA says the chances of anyone being harmed by the recalled products are remote. But the conditions uncovered by the agency are inexcusable in a modern U.S. drug-making facility. It sounds more like the scandals in Chinese plants that have outraged the American public. And the April inspection was prompted by a history of other McNeil problems, including a series of recalls from this and other plants. Among them was a December 2009 recall of Tylenol arthritis medicine made at the company's Puerto Rico facility.

There had been dozens of complaints from consumers in that case as well, about a moldy smell in the medication and gastrointestinal upset after taking it, beginning in spring 2008. According to an FDA warning letter to the company, McNeil initially suspected microbial contamination, but when tests were negative, it closed its investigation and failed to notify the FDA about the problem until September 2009. The problem was later found to be contamination from a chemical used to treat the wooden pallets on which the medication was shipped.

While it continues its investigation, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing Thursday on the McNeil lapses. Clearly, a company that managed to do so much wrong on so many fronts needs to hit the stop and restart buttons on its operations if it is to regain public trust. At minimum, the committee and the FDA should require McNeil to pay for full-time, round-the-clock outside inspectors at its facilities in a federally mandated revamp of both its procedures and its apparently cavalier attitude toward the safety of vulnerable customers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-tylenol-20100527,0,533719,print.story

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From the New York Times

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U.S. Stands With an Ally, Eager for China to Join the Line

SEOUL, South Korea — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday declared America's solidarity with South Korea in its mounting confrontation with North Korea , she had more than a domestic audience in mind: she was also speaking to the Chinese.

“We believe it's in everyone's interest, including China , to make a persuasive case for North Korea to change direction,” Mrs. Clinton said after meeting South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak .

She implored the Chinese to study the 400-page South Korean government report that concluded that the North torpedoed a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors. And she promoted a visit to Seoul on Friday by the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao , which American officials hope will open the door for Beijing's support of a United Nations resolution condemning the attack.

The American effort to muster Chinese backing for South Korea is emerging as a test case for how the Obama administration handles China, a nation that is more assertive on the world stage, yet possessed of some of the same insecurities and internal divisions that have long preoccupied its leaders.

While China's decision-making on core foreign policy issues tends to be secretive, American officials said they had picked up hints that there was some disagreement within the leadership about how to respond to North Korea's behavior, pitting civilian party leaders against the military.

The debate surfaced last year after North Korea tested a nuclear device, American officials said, and has accelerated since the attack on the South Korean ship, the Cheonan . Chinese civilian leaders have expressed growing puzzlement and anger about the North's behavior, these officials said, while military officials tend to see the North's moves as more defensible given the threat North Korea perceives from the United States.

China and North Korea, onetime ideological allies, conduct their relations through their ruling parties. But the two militaries, which fought together against the United States and South Korea during the Korean War, have their own close ties.

“There is profound frustration with North Korean behavior and with the way in which it complicates China's own security calculations,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The United States and South Korea, for example, have agreed to conduct joint naval exercises in the waters off the Korean Peninsula. Their troops are working together to increase military preparedness. Japan dropped its resistance to a deal to relocate a Marine Corps air base on the island of Okinawa, driven in part by fears of hostility in its neighborhood.

These developments were noticed in Beijing, which views them as an impediment to its own ambitions, officials said.

Recognizing the influential role of the Chinese military, the United States is working to restore military-to-military contacts. They were cut off by China this year after Washington sold weapons to Taiwan, and military officials still seem chilly toward the United States.

The only discordant note at the American-Chinese meetings, an official said, was a presentation by an officer of the People's Liberation Army, in which he blamed Washington for everything that had gone wrong between the two countries and credited Beijing for everything that had gone right. American officials complained afterward to their Chinese hosts.

To emphasize the importance the United States places on military exchanges, Mrs. Clinton brought along Adm. Robert F. Willard, the commander of the United States Pacific Command, who met with senior military officials and was introduced by Mrs. Clinton to President Hu Jintao .

Mrs. Clinton also pushed hard to change China's aloof posture on the Korean standoff. She spent many hours in meetings with Chinese leaders, going over the fine points of the South Korean report and brandishing other evidence of the North's involvement.

She showered public praise on President Lee to remind Beijing of South Korea's economic heft and strategic importance. And she is trying to corral support from Russia, which has often influenced how China votes in the United Nations Security Council , where both countries hold vetoes.

It is a formula that administration officials said they used with some success in overcoming China's initial opposition to United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. But as with Iran, the process is likely to be slow, grinding and prone to setbacks.

The Iran resolution has taken months longer than the administration would have liked, and even now, China's support is not a sure thing. Administration officials suggested Wednesday that it would make sense to wait for the Iran sanctions to be passed before introducing a resolution on North Korea, to avoid overloading the diplomatic circuits at the Security Council.

The Chinese have not yet shown any readiness to accept that the North sank the ship. To the extent that they alluded to the crisis at all, it was to appeal for calm.

Given China's reluctance to single out North Korea, officials said it was unrealistic to expect that Mrs. Clinton could break down their resistance in a couple of days. That is likely to take days or even weeks of talks.

Meanwhile, the United States signaled that it stood firmly behind President Lee, a former business executive who has the difficult task of responding to North Korea's attack without allowing the situation to spiral out of control. Mrs. Clinton described him several times as statesmanlike.

“We will stand with you in this difficult hour, and we stand with you always,” Mrs. Clinton said during a four-hour stop in Seoul.

Despite all the hurdles, South Korean officials seemed confident that they would be able to win broad international backing. “China and Russia, of course, will take time, I'm sure,” said the foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan. “But they will not be able to deny the facts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/world/asia/27clinton.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Britain Reveals Nuclear Arsenal: 225 Warheads

LONDON (AP) — Britain disclosed Wednesday that it has a stockpile of 225 nuclear warheads, its first public accounting of its total nuclear arsenal.

The announcement, made without fanfare in the House of Commons, followed the Obama administration's recent disclosure that the United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its arsenal and “several thousand” more retired warheads awaiting the junk pile — the first public description of the secretive stockpile born in the cold war and now shrinking rapidly.

The United States made the announcement at the May 3 opening of a five-year review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global disarmament efforts, where Washington and its allies are seeking stronger measures to prevent the spread of nuclear arms. Britain made its announcement as the monthlong conference at the United Nations nears an end on Friday, with intense debate under way on a final document.

“We believe that the time is now right to be more open about the weapons we hold,” Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons. “We judge that this will assist in building a climate of trust between nuclear and nonnuclear weapons states and contribute, therefore, to future efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide.”

Britain had earlier disclosed that it possessed 160 operational warheads, but Mr. Hague's comment that the country's “overall stockpile of nuclear warheads will not exceed 225 warheads” was the first time the size of the total stockpile had been revealed. The Foreign Office later said the 225 figure was the number of warheads the country now held.

Countries that do not possess nuclear weapons have long demanded more openness from the nuclear-weapon states — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — about the size and nature of their arsenals as an essential step toward nuclear disarmament, which is a crucial plank in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Four other nations have or are suspected of having atomic arms — Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/world/europe/27britain.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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A Case Built in New York Against a Jamaican Kingpin

In October 2007, federal drug enforcement agents were questioning a man who had been arrested in the Bronx on gun and drug charges when he began to talk about someone he depicted as “one of the most powerful men in all of Jamaica,” records show.

The man, Lloyd Reid, said he was referring to Christopher Coke , the notorious gang leader whose resistance to extradition to New York has led to violence and deaths this week in Jamaica as the authorities have hunted for him.

In seeking Mr. Coke's extradition, Preet Bharara , the United States attorney in Manhattan, has charged that for more than a decade he has controlled an international drug ring from his neighborhood stronghold of Tivoli Gardens in Kingston. Prosecutors say Mr. Coke's operatives in New York send him part of their drug proceeds and buy guns that they ship to him.

In Jamaica, he distributes the firearms, bolstering his authority and influence, a federal indictment charges.

The prosecutor's office has not made public its extradition papers against Mr. Coke, but court records in New York show that investigators have been building a case against him through court-approved wiretaps and the questioning of people like Mr. Reid.

The records offer a snapshot of how investigators believe Mr. Coke's influence extends to the streets of New York, and suggest how the drug dealing here may have helped fortify what the indictment calls Mr. Coke's garrison community in Jamaica, “a barricaded neighborhood guarded by a group of armed gunmen.”

Prosecutors have said that Mr. Reid, who was convicted last year of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and is serving a five-year prison sentence, was an enforcer for Mr. Coke in New York.

In talks with agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration , Mr. Reid said he had a close relationship with Mr. Coke because his brother had once served as Mr. Coke's “right-hand man” in Jamaica before he was murdered, records show.

But there was another reason, Mr. Reid told agents. He and Mr. Coke became close because they spent time together in the Bronx, where Mr. Coke once lived, according to testimony by Eric Baldus, one of the drug enforcement agents who interviewed Mr. Reid.

That Mr. Coke lived in the United States is not widely known; officials say he was convicted in 1988 in North Carolina of possession of stolen property and deported the following year.

Mr. Reid said he was often called upon to resolve disagreements among Mr. Coke's operatives because people knew of his relationship with Mr. Coke, the notes show. And when problems needed resolution by a higher authority, he indicated, he relayed information to Mr. Coke.

“Coke is the one who has the power to stop or settle all disputes,” Mr. Reid stated, the notes show.

Mr. Reid's lawyer, Jeremy Schneider, disputes the government's characterization of his client. Mr. Schneider noted that Mr. Reid was convicted in a conspiracy that involved less than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. He was also convicted of robbery conspiracy but acquitted of using a firearm in a drug trafficking crime.

“He was found guilty of being a low-level marijuana dealer,” Mr. Schneider said. “He was clearly not a high-level operative representing Coke in the United States.” He added that there was “a previous familial relationship” between Mr. Coke and his client's family.

Prosecutors say that while guns and money were sent to Jamaica as part of Mr. Coke's operation, he and his organization, called the Shower Posse, also sent something back — they provided protection for their operatives in the United States.

The relationship between the operatives and “supporters in Jamaica was critical to the ability to traffic in marijuana here,” Jocelyn Strauber, a federal prosecutor, said in a pretrial proceeding in Mr. Reid's case.

Prosecutors have said in court papers that some of their evidence comes from court-authorized surveillance of what they call Mr. Coke's co-conspirators.

A transcript of one call, which was introduced at Mr. Reid's trial last year in Federal District Court in Manhattan, shows him discussing Mr. Coke with a close associate. Mr. Reid quotes Mr. Coke as saying, “You represent me in America,” the document shows.

Mr. Reid also quotes Mr. Coke as saying: “Don't you see our thing is a worldwide thing? Nobody will mess with us.”

Mr. Coke, 41, has been charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana and cocaine and to illegally traffic in firearms. If he is extradited and convicted, he could face a life sentence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/world/americas/27coke.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Jamaican Forces Hunt Target of Raid

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Near the shuttered shops of downtown Kingston, draped with fallen electricity lines and prowled by armies of stray dogs, soldiers emerged from the shadows on Wednesday to warn off visitors, politely at first, then forcefully and finally with bursts of gunfire.

Their message was clear: The neighborhood called Tivoli Gardens would stay off limits, leaving its residents to share the story of their neighborhood and the four-day siege that upended it from a distance on cellphones.

And so they did, speaking of the friends who had been arrested or killed and of the house-to-house searches for the gang leader named Christopher Coke . These residents boasted about the comparative order in the neighborhood before the current mayhem, and they hung up abruptly when the soldiers came knocking again.

Mr. Coke, the powerful and politically connected don of Tivoli Gardens who is wanted by the authorities in the United States on gun and drug charges, remained at large on Wednesday. He had not been found despite a dragnet that had led to fierce gun battles between Mr. Coke's supporters and government security forces, and despite at least one government official's contention that Tivoli Gardens had been secured.

Mr. Coke's apparent disappearance was the talk of Kingston on Wednesday, giving rise to a multitude of theories and hard questions that government officials had trouble answering.

At a news conference on Wednesday, officials were asked whether they had made contact with Mr. Coke and had spoken with him by phone. Did the government, someone asked, have any idea at all where Mr. Coke might be?

Karl Angell, a police spokesman, answered, “For all purposes we are not speaking on the matter.” He added that parts of Kingston and a nearby area would remain under a state of emergency for a month.

Security forces announced that they had arrested more than 500 people since the operation began and that they continued to detain scores of people even as the violence eased on Wednesday afternoon. A Jamaican official said the death toll had grown to at least 44.

Earl Witter, Jamaica's public defender, said the conflict had spread to adjoining neighborhoods of Tivoli Gardens late on Tuesday, although he did not know whether troops were still actively fighting with Mr. Coke's supporters there.

Mr. Witter said that 35 bodies had been taken to a morgue in Kingston and that officials had received reports of 9 other deaths. Earlier, the government said that the death toll included three police officers and soldiers.

“Frankly, I expect the number to rise,” Mr. Witter said.

On Wednesday, Ann Marie Johnson left the morgue, having just completed a fruitless search for the body of her cousin's son. As she spoke, police vehicles tore up behind her, shooing visitors away. One officer, who faced a phalanx of frustrated reporters and photographers, said, “The police are not the most popular people in Kingston now.”

Nowhere was that more true than among the shaken residents of Tivoli Gardens, Mr. Coke's stronghold and a place called a “garrison,” virtually outside of and off limits to the Jamaican state. In interviews with a half-dozen residents, they spoke of a place where, before the government crackdown, bell ringers would ride through the neighborhood at 8 p.m. every night, telling schoolchildren to go home. A theft of just a child's bicycle would not go unpunished if whispered of in the right ears, they bragged.

In the residents' nostalgic tales of their neighborhood, there was always Mr. Coke, the drug lord known as Dudus, whose sins, some argued, paled next to his largess. “You cannot do everything to please everyone,” said one resident, Cynthia Macalla.

Ms. Macalla's niece remembered meeting with Mr. Coke when she could not pay her college tuition bills: he gave her 100,000 Jamaican dollars, she said. “People were very comfortable,” said the niece, one of several residents who refused to give their names. “Now it looks like hell.”

Another woman who sells clothes in one of Kingston's outdoor markets said Mr. Coke gave her financial help when business was bad. She contrasted Mr. Coke's assistance with the behavior of the Jamaican government, which she said offered help but gave none last December when her house burned and her 3-year-old daughter died in the fire.

But some residents supported the government crackdown. “This country has been taken over by criminals,” said Jennifer Baker, according to Reuters. “Tivoli Gardens is one of the worst places in Jamaica, and it is time that something is done about that community. It is like a kingdom within an island.”

The complex relationship between Jamaica's politicians and its crime lords is at the heart of the current unrest, a system in which the prime minister, Bruce Golding , counted on Mr. Coke's influence to secure votes in the west Kingston neighborhood that both men share.

When Mr. Golding, under pressure, recently agreed to extradite Mr. Coke to the United States to face charges, including trafficking in drugs and arms, the arrangement collapsed, and Mr. Coke's supporters took up arms and barricaded the streets. Mr. Coke's lawyer says he is a legitimate businessman.

On the outskirts of Tivoli Gardens on Wednesday, past the soldiers' checkpoints, a few people congregated in Kingston's deserted downtown, but were dispersed by police officers roaming the streets in jeeps. The shops would reopen Thursday, said Jamaica's information minister, Daryl Vaz.

“Normalcy is fast returning to areas of downtown Kingston,” he said, adding that many airlines that had suspended flights because of the unrest had already restored normal service.

He also promised that in the coming days, journalists would be allowed to see some areas of Tivoli Gardens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/world/americas/27jamaica.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Immigration Overhaul Advocates Question Troops

WASHINGTON — In deciding to deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to bolster security at the Mexican border, President Obama has stepped into one of the thorniest issues facing American presidents — illegal immigration — and has confounded allies who say he is squandering his chance to address it in a comprehensive way.

The White House says it is sending the troops solely to combat drug smuggling, a problem highlighted by the recent killing of an Arizona rancher. But any move toward border security invariably raises passions in the immigration debate, and on Wednesday advocates for overhauling the system were questioning the president's intentions.

They said that in focusing first on border security, Mr. Obama might be giving up his best leverage for winning approval of broader but more politically contentious steps to address the status of the millions of immigrants already in the United States illegally, and the needs of employers who rely on their labor.

“I'm trying to reconcile the stated belief of this president when he was a candidate, what he has said publicly — as recently as a naturalization ceremony last month — and what his actions are,” said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning organization that is a close ally of the Obama administration. “I think there's a big gap there.”

Mr. Obama's decision to send the National Guard focused attention on the intense political pressures facing him as he wades into the issue during this midterm election year. Republicans are demanding that he improve border security before they cooperate on an immigration bill. Some moderate Democrats facing difficult re-election races are also demanding tougher action at the border.

But Democrats also see an opportunity to win the political allegiance of the fast-growing Hispanic population for years or decades to come if they can handle the issue adeptly. In particular, Democrats are eager to balance support for enhanced border security with an approach that they can contrast to the policies championed by many Republicans, starting with Arizona's new law that gives police a greater role in immigration enforcement.

Senator Charles E. Schumer , the New York Democrat who is trying to generate support for comprehensive immigration legislation in the Senate, said toughening border security would help the broader effort.

“Given the fact the problems at the border have turned to become seriously drug related, I think it's necessary and helps comprehensive reform,” Mr. Schumer said, “because it shows that Democrats will fight for both parts of the issue.”

In the Senate, Mr. Obama's 2008 Republican presidential rival, John McCain of Arizona, was driving colleagues toward a vote, originally scheduled for Wednesday but then postponed, on a plan to send 6,000 troops to the border. The White House, which has been quietly working on its own plan to send troops, hurriedly released that plan on Tuesday so that Democrats could have an alternative, according to one senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who, like Senator McCain, faces a tough re-election race, has been leaning hard on the administration. Two weeks ago, she showed up for a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano carrying a newspaper article about the Arizona rancher, who was her constituent, and asked that Ms. Napolitano show it to the president.

“She tucked it under her arm, and as she left she said she had a meeting with him that afternoon,” Ms. Giffords said, adding, “I've been a thorn in the side of the administration, repeatedly calling for the redeployment of the Guard to the area, and I have not backed down.”

Since the beginning of his presidency, Mr. Obama has been dogged by questions about his commitment to immigration legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people who are living in this country without legal documentation. Other priorities, notably the economy and health care legislation, put the issue on the back burner for the first year of his administration.

That changed last month, when Arizona enacted its new law, aimed at identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants. The measure unleashed immediate protests, and Mr. Obama, speaking at a naturalization ceremony for active-duty service members , condemned it on the day it was signed into law. He called on Congress to take up an immigration overhaul.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr. , heard from police chiefs who oppose the Arizona law. The chiefs, representing cities including Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, told Mr. Holder that the law would increase crime, not decrease it, as backers claim.

The Arizona bill put immigration squarely back on the Congressional agenda, but Mr. Obama has been having trouble persuading Republicans to sign on. During a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the Rose Garden last month, Mr. Obama told an audience of Hispanic leaders that he was determined to pass legislation, but that he could not do so without Republican support.

The decision to send troops could be an attempt to get that support. At a testy meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday, before the White House disclosed its decision about the National Guard deployment, Mr. McCain pressed Mr. Obama on what he was doing to improve border security. Mr. Obama did not reveal his border security plan, but did ask for Republicans' help in passing immigration legislation.

“The president told the Republican caucus yesterday that he wants to move forward; he feels that this problem has festered too long and needs a solution,” said David Axelrod , Mr. Obama's senior adviser, adding that the decision to send troops was “not related to the meeting.”

Advocates for immigration reform say the two issues cannot be divorced. Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and national campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, questioned why Mr. Obama would satisfy Republicans' demands for increasing border security without extracting a commitment for comprehensive reform in return.

“Republicans keep saying they need to do these things first before they give immigration reform its due,” she said. “One could argue that perhaps the White House was trying to say: ‘O.K., you're saying this is the impediment to negotiations. Fine, let's remove the impediment and get to the negotiations.' The problem here is, that was not stated. I can't see the strategy in it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/us/politics/27immig.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Bias Seen in ‘Police-on-Police' Shootings

A governor's task force studying mistaken-identity confrontations between police officers found that racial bias, unconscious or otherwise, played a clear role in scores of firearms encounters over the years, most significantly in cases involving off-duty officers who are killed by their colleagues.

The task force, formed last June by Gov. David A. Paterson to examine confrontations between officers and the role that race might have played, conducted what it said it believed was the first “nationwide, systematic review of mistaken-identity, police-on-police shootings” by an independent panel outside of law enforcement.

“There may well be an issue of race in these shootings, but that is not the same as racism,” said Zachary W. Carter , a former United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who served as the task force's vice chairman. “Research reveals that race may play a role in an officer's instantaneous assessment of whether a particular person presents a danger or not.”

The report by the task force found that 26 police officers were killed in the United States over the past 30 years by colleagues who mistook them for criminals. It also found that it was increasingly “officers of color” who died in this manner, including 10 of the 14 killed since 1995.

More specifically, in cases involving a victim who was an off-duty officer, the task force reported that 9 of the 10 officers killed in friendly fire encounters in the United States since 1982 were black or Latino, including Omar J. Edwards , a New York City officer who was fatally shot in Harlem last May by an on-duty colleague, and Officer Christopher Ridley , an off-duty Mount Vernon officer shot and killed by at least three uniformed Westchester County officers in White Plains in January 2008.

The last killing of a white off-duty officer by an on-duty colleague in a mistaken-identity case in the United States happened in 1982.

“In short, there are many issues besides race present in these shootings, and the role that race plays is not simple or straightforward,” according to the report, which was delivered to Mr. Paterson this week.

But in searching for trends, the report said the conclusion of the task force was clear: “Inherent or unconscious racial bias plays a role in ‘shoot/don't-shoot,' decisions made by officers of all races and ethnicities.”

The task force, headed by Christopher E. Stone , the Guggenheim professor of criminal justice at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, made nine recommendations — directed at local, state and federal levels of government, including the United States Justice Department , he said.

It commended the New York Police Department for initiating a program, in the wake of the Edwards shooting , to test officers for unconscious racial bias, something Mr. Stone said he hoped would be replicated across the country.

Laurie O. Robinson , assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs in the Justice Department, said the recommendations were something it would “review and consider very seriously.” She said she had shared them with colleagues.

The recommendations are aimed at “blunting” any unconscious racial bias, Mr. Carter said. They call for establishing protocols for off-duty conduct, increasing testing for racial bias among officers and improving how police departments manage such encounters when they occur within their ranks. One focused on prosecutors, calling for them to disclose publicly as much detail as possible about such encounters, and early on, to avoid having facts disappear in a fog of grand jury secrecy.

The 67-page report outlined the facts of the Edwards and Ridley shootings, as well as some of the 24 other fatal encounters since 1981. The task force spoke with current and former officers. It drew on three public hearings held around the state — in Albany in November and in Harlem and in White Plains in December. It identified several trends in reviewing the cases and in analyzing existing research on the topic.

Most of the 26 victims were male. Of the 10 off-duty victims, 8 worked in plainclothes, and 6 worked undercover.

Of the 26 fatal shootings, 5, including Officer Ridley's case, involved an off-duty officer who came across a crime in progress and moved to help other officers or a civilian, the report found. In five other cases, including the Edwards shooting, an off-duty officer was a crime victim and then tried to make an arrest or to take police action, the report found. The only other New York City case the group studied involved Officer Eric Hernandez , who was off duty when he was shot by a colleague who responded to a 911 call and saw him in the aftermath of a brawl at a White Castle restaurant in 2006.

In all but 2 of the 26 fatal shootings of officers that were examined, the victim was holding a gun and had it “displayed” when he or she was shot, the report found. Indeed, it noted, “many of the victim officers with guns displayed reportedly failed to comply with the commands of challenging officers who ordered them to freeze or to drop their weapons.”

The report added, “This failure to comply is often simply the rapid turning of the head and body to determine the source of the verbal command.” The report referred to this reaction as “reflexive spin.”

The authors acknowledged that training for such instances was difficult because of the “rush of adrenaline” involved.

Deaths from friendly fire encounters — representing a small fraction of such confrontations — can tear at police officers and departments. In their wake, minority officers often second-guess their career choices, or are peppered with questions by relatives or friends, particularly those who have had difficult experiences with law enforcement, the study found.

A department's recruitment efforts, in turn, can be hampered.

“Departments that had never imagined that such a tragedy would occur within their ranks find themselves unprepared to handle the inevitable emotion and trauma, sometimes leading to a loss of credibility and respect, not only with the public, but also among sworn members of their own law enforcement agencies,” the report's executive summary said.

Yet, if patterns hold, such fatalities will afflict departments this year, next year and “so on into the future,” the summary said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/nyregion/27shoot.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Check It Again

These days it is hard enough to find a job. Far too many Americans miss a chance to get hired because the F.B.I. background checks employers commonly use to screen applicants have incomplete or inaccurate information. A bill introduced by Representative Bobby Scott, a Democrat of Virginia, would fix this problem by requiring the F.B.I. to verify and correct criminal data before issuing the background check for employment purposes.

That would improve the employment prospects, and the lives, of the nearly 50 million people with arrest or conviction records.

The problem of flawed reports became clear when Congress required new F.B.I. background checks for about 1.5 million people who work on the nation's ports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The goal was a sensible one: to screen out people who presented security risks. A 2009 report from the National Employment Law Project, a workers' advocacy group, found that the government had mistakenly denied credentials to tens of thousands of workers, partly because of flawed reports.

The most common problem is that the records fail to include the final disposition of a case. For example, they may show that the person was arrested but not that the charges were dismissed or that there was no prosecution or conviction.

Representative Scott's bill would require the F.B.I. to track down any missing data before issuing a report. That is what happens now for background checks for gun purchasers under the Brady gun control law. In compliance with existing regulations, the bill would also require that “nonserious” offenses like loitering be excluded from the background report. It would exclude reporting on an arrest more than a year old that does not include a disposition, unless it is being actively prosecuted.

Job applicants would have the right to receive a copy of the background check so that they could challenge inaccurate information. And the bureau would be required to correct inaccurate information in its database. The bill allows the F.B.I. to raise the fees it charges employers to cover the cost of cleaning up the data. No one should be denied a job because the government's information is wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/opinion/27thu3.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Department of Justice

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Hosam Maher Husein Smadi pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to a felony offense related to his attempted bombing of a downtown Dallas skyscraper in September 2009, announced David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division.

Smadi, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Under the terms of the plea agreement, however, Smadi faces a sentence of 30 years in prison, if the court accepts the plea. Judge Lynn has set a sentencing date of Aug. 20, 2010.

"Today's guilty plea underscores the continuing threat we face from lone actors who, although not members of any international terrorist organization, are willing to carry out acts of violence in this country to further the terrorist cause. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors responsible for this successful investigation and prosecution," said Assistant Attorney General Kris.

"I commend the FBI, the lawyers and support staff in the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Counterterrorism section at the Department of Justice for their excellent work in bringing this case closer to a successful conclusion," said U.S. Attorney Jacks.

"The facts disclosed today and Smadi's plea make it clear his intention was to kill American citizens. I want to commend the work of the FBI's North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators and the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, who worked countless hours to bring this investigation closer to its conclusion and to protect the community in their execution of the FBI's Counterterrorism strategy to detect, penetrate, and disrupt acts of terrorism in the United States," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Casey.

According to documents filed, on Sept. 24, 2009, Smadi knowingly took possession of a truck that contained a weapon of mass destruction, specifically a destructive device or bomb. The truck with the bomb inside was a vehicle borne improvised explosive device. Smadi believed that this was an active weapon of mass destruction, and while it was inert when Smadi took possession of it, it was a readily-convertible weapon of mass destruction.

Smadi knowingly drove the truck containing the bomb to Fountain Place, a 60-story public office building located at 1445 Ross Avenue in Dallas, and parked it in the public parking garage under the building. After parking the truck, Smadi activated a timer connected to the device, locked the truck and walked away. Smadi walked out of the parking garage, crossed the street and got into a car with an undercover law enforcement agent. They drove a safe distance away and prepared to watch the explosion. Smadi, who believed the bomb would explode and cause extensive damage, used a cell phone to remotely activate the device.

The case is being investigated by the FBI in conjunction with members of the FBI-sponsored North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson and Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerri Sims are prosecuting.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/May/10-nsd-622.html

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From ICE

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Final defendant to face charges related to international child pornography conspiracy case

WASHINGTON - The final U.S. defendant arrested in connection with a series of superseding indictments, charging 26 individuals for their participation in an online child pornography conspiracy, made his initial appearance in federal court. Edward Oedewaldt, 47, was arrested in Arcadia, La., on April 23, 2010, after an extensive investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad.

Oedewaldt faces charges related to his alleged participation in the conspiracy, announced ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Morrison of the Southern District of Indiana and Deputy Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

Oedewaldt is charged with one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography, one count of conspiracy to distribute child pornography, 13 counts of advertising child pornography and two counts of distributing child pornography.

The charges against Oedewaldt and his 25 co-defendants are a result of Operation Nest Egg, an ongoing and joint investigation led by ICE, the Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana and USPIS. Operation Nest Egg, launched in February 2008, targeted the 26 defendants as well as approximately 500 additional individuals located throughout the world for their involvement in an online group dedicated to trading images of child pornography.

According to court documents, Oedewaldt and 25 co-conspirators participated in a sophisticated, password-protected Internet bulletin board group, which existed to allow members to meet like-minded individuals with a sexualized interest in children, to discuss that interest and to trade images of child pornography. The defendants are charged with conspiring to advertise and distribute child pornography, along with substantive counts of advertising and distributing child pornography. The defendants allegedly served as administrators and members of the bulletin board and played an active role in decisions that affected its administration. Twenty-two of the 26 defendants charged in the conspiracy have been arrested. Nineteen of the 22 individuals arrested have been convicted or have pleaded guilty.

"This arrest underlines the fact that there will be no refuge for child sexual predators who believe that they pursue their perverse behavior with impunity online," said ICE Assistant Secretary Morton. "Law enforcement agencies will work tirelessly across jurisdictions and national boundaries to protect children anywhere in the world."

On April 15, 2010, Roger Lee Loughry Sr., 57, of Baltimore, was convicted by a federal jury in the Southern District of Indiana for his role as an administrator of the online bulletin board. Following a four-day trial, Loughry was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography, one count of conspiracy to distribute child pornography, 12 counts of advertising child pornography, and two counts of distributing child pornography. Loughry faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a lifetime term of supervised release following his prison term.

Six of the 19 individuals who have pleaded guilty for their role in the conspiracy have been sentenced to prison. On May 21, 2010, Thomas Lenti, 42, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role as a lead administrator for the bulletin board group. Lenti was previously convicted in 2000 of sexually abusing a minor who was under the age of 11. On May 19, 2010, William Gregory, 56, of Chester, Va., was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Also on May 19, 2010, Jonathan Hans, 37, of Woodstock, Ga., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy.

On Sept. 21, 2009, Charles Werenczak, 47, of Jamestown, N.Y., a convicted sex-offender in the state of New York, was sentenced to 378 months. Kevin Harkless, 53, of Copper Hill, Va., who was previously convicted of child pornography offenses in Pennsylvania, was sentenced on Nov. 30, 2009, to 240 months in prison. Patrick Jansen, 28, of Lockport, N.Y., was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Oct. 30, 2009.

Each defendant also received a lifetime of supervised release following their release from prison as part of their sentence.

"The individuals who participated in this Internet-based bulletin board exploited the most innocent and vulnerable in our society," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. "The Department of Justice is committed to working with law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad to find and prosecute those responsible for trafficking in images of child sexual exploitation."

"This investigation produced one of the largest number of conspirators charged in a single advertising and distribution case," said U.S. Attorney Morrison. "The fact that four at-large defendants remain identified only by their screen names attests to the great obstacles law enforcement had to overcome."

"The Postal Inspection Service is proud to have participated in this multi-agency initiative," said Deputy Chief Postal Inspector Cottrell. "Through Operation Nest Egg, multiple offenders who trafficked in child pornography were identified and arrested and huge amounts of child pornography have been seized. Most importantly, many children have been rescued from further sexual abuse and exploitation."

Four of the 26 individuals charged in the conspiracy remain at large and are known only by their online identities. Efforts to identify and apprehend these four individuals continue.

To date, as a result of Operation Nest Egg, more than 80 searches have been conducted in the United States. In total, more than 50 individuals have been arrested and 35 individuals have been convicted. Numerous members of the Internet-based bulletin board were found to have been personally sexually abusing children, sometimes producing images of the sexual abuse. To date, 16 child victims have been identified through Operation Nest Egg.

Operation Nest Egg is a spinoff investigation from leads developed through Operation Joint Hammer, the U.S. component of an ongoing global law enforcement operation targeting transnational rings of child pornography trafficked through the Internet and U.S. mail. Operation Joint Hammer was initiated through evidence developed by European law enforcement and shared with U.S. counterparts by Europol and Interpol.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov .

The investigation was conducted jointly by ICE, CEOS' High Technology Investigative Unit and USPIS, with assistance provided by the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Taskforce, the Indiana ICAC Taskforce, Indiana State Police and numerous local and international law enforcement agencies across the United States and Europe.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1005/100526washingtondc2.htm

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From UNICEF

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UN and UNICEF urge all countries to adopt measures protecting children

10th anniversary of Optional Protocols to Convention on the Rights of the Child

By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, 25 May 2010 – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and other child-rights advocates came together at UNICEF headquarters in New York this morning, calling for all countries to take extra steps aimed at protecting children from violence and exploitation.

VIDEO: Watch now 

Ten years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted two Optional Protocols supplementing the wide-ranging human rights protections of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. The protocols offer additional protection for children who are vulnerable to armed conflict, or to being sold or exploited for purposes of prostitution or pornography.

Today's UNICEF House panel was organized to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Optional Protocols and to launch a campaign for their worldwide ratification and implementation by 2012.

‘A promise to children'

The protocols, said Mr. Lake, “are more than dry words on a piece of paper. They represent a promise to the most vulnerable children around the world, children who were born into the most extreme forms of poverty and despair.

“For 10 years, the Optional Protocols have greatly strengthened our ability to honour that promise,” he added. “But to achieve their full intent, we have to have a global call to action – a campaign to inspire greater co-operation and support among states, international agencies and the whole of civil society. The time has come to make clear that the Optional Protocols are morally mandatory.”

To date, fully two-thirds of the world's nations have ratified the protocols. Nonetheless, UN leaders and advocates are pushing for a stronger moral consensus. They are optimistic that, with strong political will, it can be achieved.

Push for global ratification

Secretary-General Ban said the world was moving in the right direction to protect children affected by armed conflict. He urged all UN Member States to ratify the Optional Protocols within the next two years.

“On this 10th anniversary, let us remember that each child has the right to grow up free of fear and exploitation,” said Mr. Ban. “Conscience demands nothing less. There is a global chorus demanding protection for all children.”

Although accurate figures are hard to obtain, studies have placed the number of children trafficked across international borders annually at 1.2 million. Many of those trafficked both within and across borders are forced into prostitution.

About 1 billion children live in countries or territories affected by armed conflict, and as many as 250,000 young people remain associated with armed groups or armed forces around the globe.

From dream to reality

“I am hopeful that we will celebrate, very soon, a new era for the millions of children we have failed to protect so far,” said Marta Santos Pais, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, urged the world to take a united stand supporting the rights of children affected by conflict.

Already, she noted, some nations have adopted a policy barring children under the age of 18 from service in the armed forces. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court in The Hague is helping to ensure that violators of child rights do not do act with impunity.

“I predict that in 25 years' time, there will be no child soldiers anywhere in the world,” Ms. Coomaraswamy told the audience and fellow panellists at UNICEF House. “I ask you to help me to make that dream a reality.”

http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_53727.html?q=printme

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UNICEF calls for renewed efforts and investment to combat child labour

THE HAGUE, 11 May 2010 - "Identifying the most vulnerable children requires new efforts and increased funding," UNICEF said today, on the opening day of The Hague Global Child Labour Conference. "To achieve long-term results for tomorrow's children, we must invest in creating new solutions today."

Ten years after the coming into force of the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) - the most widely-ratified international labour convention - and just six years ahead of the global target of eliminating this problem, UNICEF has partnered with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Bank in this global gathering hosted by the Dutch Government from 10 to 11 May.

The conference ( http://www.childlabourconference2010.com/ ) brings together 80 governments, UN agencies, multinational companies and NGO's to highlight the reality that child labour is significantly undermining progress towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

The event will see the launch of two new reports, the ILO's new global estimates of child labour and, for the first time ever, a joint UNICEF, ILO and World Bank report setting out lessons learned, key policy responses and emerging issues such as migration, which affects millions of children each year whether they accompany migrating parents, are left behind, or migrate or are trafficked alone.

UNICEF estimates that 150 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labour worldwide, which is both a cause and consequence of poverty, and compromises children's education and safety.

"These children have become invisible; trapped in the worst forms of child labour and need urgent help," UNICEF said.

"Migrant children, orphans, trafficked children, and above all girls, are too frequently missing from current data sets and surveys which rely upon static household data. New methodologies and innovative data collection systems need to be developed to ensure that the violence and hazards faced by these invisible children become visible on policy agendas and are systemically addressed."

The food, fuel and economic crises that have shaken the global order have had irreversible impact upon children's lives.  Child labour - a key household buffer in some countries against economic shocks - has led to more children being propelled from school into the labour force earlier and in more hazardous areas than would normally occur.

Protecting children and young people from the adverse impacts of the multiple crises faced today will simultaneously address their vulnerability and benefit future social and economic development.

"There is a growing international consensus that an effective, coherent response to child labour requires a mix of decent work employment measures, child sensitive social protection systems and the extension of basic services to the most vulnerable," UNICEF stressed.

"Child labour must be addressed as part of a package that improves a child's overall life, as many children are forced into labour by poverty or the death of a family breadwinner".

At the conference, UNICEF will call upon governments and donors to increase investment in accessible, quality education, support the establishment of social protection measures, generate sustainable livelihoods for families and, above all, create the conditions for a protective environment that covers all children.

About UNICEF

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.  UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_53611.html

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