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From the Los Angeles Times

U.S. apologizes for experiment that infected Guatemalans with syphilis

The United States apologized to Guatemala on Friday for a 1940s research program in which Guatemalans were intentionally infected with the sexually transmitted disease syphilis without their knowledge or consent.

Between 1946 and 1948, the agency then known as the U.S. Public Health Service infected Guatemalan sex workers, prison inmates, and mental health patients with syphilis. The program was conducted in order to examine whether penicillin, relatively new at the time, could be used to treat the disease. It was led by John Cutler, the U.S. doctor who later led the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which African American men in Alabama infected with syphilis were observed without receiving treatment.

The Guatemala program was "clearly unethical," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement.

"Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," the statement said. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

Archival research conducted by medical historian Susan Reverby , a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, uncovered the Guatemala syphilis experiment. Reverby, who has written extensively on the Tuskegee experiment, found documents on the Guatemala program at a library at the University of Pittsburgh. The professor discovered that the Public Health Service sent Cutler to Guatemala to study syphilis transmission, with the backing of Guatemalan health officials and the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau.

Cutler and Guatemalan doctor Juan Funes induced the disease by allowing prison inmates to have sex with infected prostitutes, or by inoculating the syphilis-causing bacteria in inmates through a solution. The patients, who remained uninformed, were then given penicillin to see if the antibiotic could treat syphilis.

"In addition to the penitentiary, the studies took place in an insane asylum and an army barracks," Reverby said in a Wellesley College release on her work. "In total, 696 men and women were exposed to the disease and then offered penicillin. The studies went on until 1948 and the records suggest that despite intentions not everyone was probably cured."

The Wellesley release has more details. U.S. Health and Human Services has posted an information page on the Guatemala syphilis study at its website.

President Barack Obama called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Friday to apologize on behalf of the United States for the 1940s syphilis program. Colom's government posted a message on its official website condemning the experiment and requesting a full investigation, which the U.S. has promised to carry out.

A separate statement on the government's Facebook page said Guatemala "reserves the right" to further denounce the experiment in an international forum, but did not elaborate.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/10/guatemala-std-apology-clinton-sebelius.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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New indictments in Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case

A grand jury has indicted the couple accused of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard on 19 counts.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido initially faced 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment. Officials have not released any details of the revised charges.

The indictments were announced Friday during a hearing for Nancy Garrido, according to Fox 40 Sacramento. Her lawyers entered a plea of not guilty. Criminal proceedings against her husband have been suspended to evaluate his mental competency.

The grand jury indictment means prosecutors will bypass the preliminary hearing and that Dugard likely won't have to take the stand until the trial.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/new-indictments-in-jaycee-dugard-kidnapping-case.html#more

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From the New York Times

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Mexico Seeks to Unify Police to Fight Drugs and Graft

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

SANTIAGO, Mexico — The Mexican government is preparing a plan to radically alter the nation's police forces, hoping not only to instill a trust the public has never had in them but also to choke off a critical source of manpower for organized crime.

The proposal, which the president's aides say is expected in the coming weeks, would all but do away with the nation's 2,200 local police departments and place their duties under a “unified command.” It comes at a critical moment for President Felipe Calderón , who faces mounting pressure from the United States and within Mexico to demonstrate progress in defeating the drug cartels.

He has already hurled the military into the fight, using soldiers to buttress the federal police and battle the drug traffickers, but violence continues to soar and corruption among the nation's police forces remains a constant, fundamental scourge.

Police departments around the country, filled with underpaid, undertrained officers, are heavily infiltrated by criminal organizations or under the thumb of mayors, often simply escorting local officials rather than patrolling the community, according to a report by Mexico's Senate last month.

Mr. Calderón's new plan would eliminate what are now wide variations in police training, equipment, operations and recruitment in favor of a single national standard, helping the government field a more professional, cohesive force to work alongside its soldiers and agents fighting the drug war.

The approach has its pitfalls, though. State authorities, which would now control the local police forces in coordination with the federal police, are hardly immune to corruption themselves, and municipal officials are suspicious of surrendering autonomy. It is also unclear how dishonest officers will be weeded out of the new chain of command.

But the government is running out of options, and the public's worries have only intensified with a recent rash of assassinations.

Here in this pastel-splashed colonial town, it was a shock to most residents when the popular mayor was bundled into a sport utility vehicle in August and found dead days later. It was less of a surprise that several local police officers were accused of the murder.

Eleven mayors have been killed this year. Just this week, the mayor of Tancitaro was found dead from a blow with a stone . The previous mayor and several town officials had already resigned after threats from drug traffickers and complaints that the police were ineffective; the state and federal authorities took over enforcement because the 60-member police force was believed to be enmeshed in crime.

Several mayors here in northeastern Mexico now spend the night in the United States out of concern that the local police cannot protect them, state officials confirmed.

Until now, Mr. Calderón's main approach has been to draw on the military and the federal police, but the strategy has come under withering criticism for its human rights record. The State Department withheld funds from Mexico under an antidrug initiative for the first time this year partly because of abuses.

The military has been accused of unlawful killings, torture, seizures and indiscriminate fire that has killed innocents.

“We are still waiting for justice,” said Juan Carlos Arredondo, the uncle of one of two students killed in Monterrey by soldiers, who claimed they were criminals and, according to a report by the National Human Rights Commission, manipulated the crime scene to make it look that way.

Last week, Human Rights Watch sent a scathing letter to Mr. Calderón, accusing him of sitting silent in face of evidence that military abuses “have grown significantly with each year of your presidency.”

Mr. Calderón's aides remain confident that their strategy is making progress and are counting on the police reform to help make the kind of turnover that the president has been promising.

Despite talk in Washington about increasing the role of the United States military here — small teams have advised the Mexican military for several years — Mr. Calderón's chief security spokesman, Alejandro Poiré, ruled that out.

“This a matter in which we need to rebuild our own institutions,” he said, after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the fight against traffickers here was taking on the characteristics of an “insurgency,” angering Mexican officials. President Obama contradicted her the next day.

Since Mr. Calderón took office, the federal police have expanded to more than 30,000 officers from about 6,000, and have often swooped in with the military to take over policing from local officers deemed corrupt or under the control of drug gangs.

The government's new plan would place local police departments under the command of governors, preserving the closely guarded autonomy of the states and allowing the authorities to more easily move people to trouble spots.

Mr. Calderón announced in June that he would propose constitutional changes for the measure this year and recently held “public dialogues” to help build support. He has proposed spending $2.4 billion next year to carry it out, which might allow for higher salaries and help steer officers away from corruption.

“That is one of the deficits of the last 20 or 30 years of Mexico's political development, that we didn't build the police institutions to prevent crime,” Mr. Poiré said.

Officials in Monterrey, a city of two million, recently reported that its police force stood at 350 officers, half what it was a year ago because of dismissals and resignations.

While the new approach would make law enforcement more accountable to state leaders, analysts note that state forces — and even the federal police, where nearly a tenth of the force has been dismissed this year for suspected corruption and other problems — do not have great records themselves.

“The problem is the state governments are not exactly clean,” said John Ackerman, editor of the Mexican Law Review. “It can hardly be worse than the municipal level, but the state has problems too.”

Here in Santiago, the police force has dwindled to about 20 from 160 a year ago, with state and federal police filling the gap, according to the mayor, Bladimiro Montalvo. Residents like Gonzalo Almaguer, a 62-year-old retiree, say they hardly go out anymore, especially at night. “This was a peaceful town but now you don't know who to trust; it is like the rest of the country,” said Mr. Almaguer, one of the few people in the central plaza last week.

Mayor Montalvo said he worried most about the 50 percent drop in tourism because of the swelling violence around his town, including shootings and kidnappings in nearby Monterrey that prompted the State Department to pull children of its workers out of the country.

“I don't think so,” he said when asked if he worried for his safety. “Something can happen, but if you are orderly and respectful that is something they will respect,” he said of criminal organizations. He then dashed off, driven away in a sport utility vehicle by two bodyguards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/americas/02mexico.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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California Reduces Its Penalty for Marijuana

SAN FRANCISCO — A month before California voters decide the fate of a ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana , Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that essentially puts those caught possessing small amounts of the drug on the same level as those caught speeding on the freeway.

The governor — who has come out against the ballot measure, Proposition 19 — cast the new law's effect as largely administrative, changing the crime of possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction, the lowest level of offense under state law.

And like everything else in a state struggling with a $19 billion deficit, money mattered, too.

“The only difference is that because it is a misdemeanor, a criminal defendant is entitled to a jury trial,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said in a statement that accompanied his signature. “In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket.”

Under the law, SB 1449 , possession of up to an ounce of marijuana is punishable by a $100 fine. But offenders would not be arrested or risk having a criminal record, something that drug legalization groups applauded on Friday.

Stephen Gutwillig, the California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance , a group based in New York that advocates for drug law reform, said the law could be particularly meaningful for black men, who have been found to be arrested for possession at far higher rates than white men.

“It's important because it ends an epidemic of race-based targeting of misdemeanor marijuana arrests in California,” Mr. Gutwillig said.

About a dozen states have softened their stance on marijuana over the years, including Massachusetts, where voters passed a ballot initiative in 2008 that made possession of less than one ounce a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine. (Minors also have to take a drug awareness class.)

In his signing statement, Mr. Schwarzenegger was firm in his opposition to Proposition 19, which would legalize, tax and regulate the use of marijuana for those over 21, calling the measure “deeply flawed.”

But as is the case with so many other things in California, where the governor's approval ratings are at rock bottom, many voters might not see things his way. A Field Poll released on Sunday found that 49 percent of voters approved of Proposition 19, with 42 percent against.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02pot.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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California Tightens Oversight of CT Scans

California's governor has signed tough new legislation tightening oversight of diagnostic CT scans, largely in response to the overdosing of hundreds of patients who underwent brain scans for stroke in 2008 and 2009.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill on Wednesday that will require hospitals and clinics to record radiation doses for CT scans and to report any overdoses to patients and their doctors.

The brain scan overdoses surfaced last year at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where 269 patients received up to eight times the radiation that was expected. The overdoses continued for 18 months before the hospital discovered them.

So far, higher than expected radiation doses have been uncovered at eight hospitals, six in California. The New York Times reported in August that excessive radiation doses had been given to more than 400 patients, including some at Huntsville Hospital in Alabama who received up to 13 times the expected amount.

In response to the Times report, the Food and Drug Administration expanded its investigation to include the overdoses in Huntsville. The agency is expected to release the results of its inquiry soon.

Patients who received the high doses reported symptoms ranging from hair loss to mental confusion, headaches and memory loss . Those patients also face a higher risk of brain damage and cancer , experts say.

The overdoses came at a time when patients are getting more medical radiation, a result of new technology that improves diagnosis. The stroke tests, called a CT brain perfusion scan, deliver the equivalent of about 200 X-rays of the skull, even when done properly.

Radiation experts have expressed concern that spotty government oversight of diagnostic radiation has put patients at risk. The F.D.A., for example, regulates radiation equipment, but each individual state is responsible for how those machines are used and who is qualified to use them.

Some states provide little or no regulation of medical radiation. Alabama, where the biggest overdoses occurred, took no action against Huntsville Hospital because there were no state standards defining what constitutes an overdose.

Eight states allow technologists to perform medical imaging other than mammographies with no credentials or educational requirements.

“There is an urgent need for protocols and safeguards,” said Alex Padilla, a California state senator. “The bill will provide physicians the information they need to track dosage levels, identify errors and prevent patients from receiving overdoses.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02radiation.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Legal Debate Swirls Over Charges in a Student's Suicide

Dozens of Rutgers University students wore black on Friday to remember Tyler Clementi , a freshman who killed himself after his roommate, according to prosecutors, secretly streamed over the Internet his intimate encounter with another man.

But even as students conducted quiet rituals of mourning, a vehement legal debate swirled over whether prosecutors, who have charged the roommate and another freshman with invasion of privacy, should — or would — raise the stakes by also pressing hate-crime charges.

Though bias charges are generally hard to prove, lawyers and civil rights experts said, New Jersey has one of the toughest state laws on hate crimes. Its so-called bias intimidation law allows prosecutors to lodge separate charges and seek greater penalties against anyone who commits a crime against someone because of the victim's sexual orientation. The law does not specify that the crime be violent.

The Middlesex County prosecutor, Bruce J. Kaplan, said Thursday that his office was considering whether to press hate-crime charges against Mr. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi of Plainsboro, N.J., and Molly Wei of West Windsor, N.J. As of Friday, no additional charges had been filed and a court hearing date had not been set.

But on talk shows and blogs, people outraged by the suicide of Mr. Clementi, an accomplished violinist from Ridgewood, N.J., demanded that the defendants face stiff penalties.

In a statement released through a lawyer, Mr. Clementi's parents, Jane and Joe Clementi, said: “We understand that our family's personal tragedy presents important legal issues for the country as well as for us. Regardless of our legal outcomes, our hope is that our family's personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy and human dignity.”

On Sept. 19, Mr. Ravi messaged his Twitter followers that he had gone to Ms. Wei's dormitory room and activated a webcam in his own room, showing Mr. Clementi as he was “making out with a dude.” Prosecutors said the images were streamed live on the Internet.

On Sept. 21, the authorities said, Mr. Ravi tried to stream more video and invited friends to watch. But Mr. Clementi apparently discovered the camera and complained to school officials. The next day, he jumped from the George Washington Bridge.

“It is crystal clear that the motive was to intimidate and harass that young man based on his sexual orientation, whether actual or perceived,” said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality , a gay rights group.

Malcolm Lazin, a former federal prosecutor who is executive director of Equality Forum , a national gay rights advocacy group, called on prosecutors to charge the two students with reckless manslaughter. “Clearly, what they did was premeditated,” Mr. Lazin said. “This was not a visceral response. This was something that was well thought out, executed and then put on the worldwide Internet.”

But several lawyers said it was hard to imagine that prosecutors could make a case for manslaughter, which would require them to show that Mr. Ravi and Ms. Wei foresaw that their actions would lead to a death.

“I think it would be hard to show that their conduct reached a level of recklessness that caused Tyler Clementi to commit suicide,” said Jay V. Surgent , a criminal defense lawyer in Lyndhurst, N.J.

Instead, these lawyers said, it was more likely that prosecutors would pursue bias charges.

Robert A. Mintz, a criminal defense lawyer in Newark and a former federal prosecutor, said, “What prosecutors will be looking at is whether this is a prank that had gone horribly wrong, or whether this was an orchestrated scheme to intimidate the victim based on his sexual orientation.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/nyregion/02suicide.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Bank of America to Freeze Foreclosure Cases

Bank of America , the country's largest mortgage lender by assets, said on Friday that it was reviewing documents in all foreclosure cases now in court to evaluate if there were errors.

It is the third major lender in the last two weeks to freeze foreclosures in the 23 states where the process is controlled by courts.

But Bank of America went further than the first two lenders, GMAC Mortgage and JPMorgan Chase , which have said they will amend paperwork only in cases they think were improperly done. So far, that has amounted to only a handful of cases.

Bank of America, in an e-mailed statement, said it would “amend all affidavits in foreclosure cases that have not yet gone to judgment.”

That could mean tens of thousands of foreclosure cases would be in limbo for months or, if the consumers in default hire lawyers, years.

Spokesmen for the bank said that they were uncertain how many cases the lender currently had in court. They provided no timeline or explanation for the freeze, saying only that the bank planned to eventually resubmit all the cases.

The moratorium is likely to further fuel the uproar over the foreclosure tactics of the big lenders, which continued to have political ramifications on Friday.

Before Bank of America's announcement, Richard Blumenthal , the Connecticut attorney general, asked judges in his state to put a halt to all foreclosures for 60 days. Connecticut is one of the 23 states where foreclosure is a judicial matter. Others include Illinois, Florida, New Jersey and New York.

Mr. Blumenthal, who is running for senator in Connecticut, said the freeze “should stop a foreclosure steamroller based on defective documents and enable effective remedies.”

California's attorney general, Jerry Brown, said that Chase should stop any foreclosures in the state until it proved that it was following the law. Mr. Brown, who is a candidate for governor, earlier made the same demand of GMAC.

In California, lenders generally pursue foreclosures outside of the court system, so they are presumably still proceeding with evictions. Chase declined to say whether it would comply with Mr. Brown's comments.

Chase said this week that it had frozen 56,000 foreclosure cases. GMAC, which is largely owned by the Treasury after receiving $17 billion in federal bailout money to prevent its collapse, has repeatedly declined to say how many cases it is halting.

The nation's two other major lenders, Citi and Wells Fargo , have issued statements maintaining they have no problems with their cases.

The problem for all the lenders that have announced moratoriums stems directly from their attempt to deal with an unprecedented number of foreclosures.

According to LPS Applied Analytics, a mortgage data firm, 2 million households are in foreclosure. Another 2.37 million households are seriously delinquent and waiting for their lender to take action.

Sometimes these loans are still owned by the lender but often, the banks are merely the loan servicer acting on behalf of the owner. Many of the loans are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the mortgage holding companies now controlled by the Treasury. In other cases the loans have been sold to private investment pools.

Confronted with so many cases, the lenders tried to process them on a wholesale basis, with the goal of avoiding the expense of a full trial and instead getting summary judgments.

The tool for doing this was the so-called robo-signers, in which midlevel bank executives would sign thousands of affidavits a month attesting that they had personal knowledge that the facts of the case were as presented. The affidavits were prepared by lawyers who were paid a flat fee, which also placed a premium on volume.

When defense lawyers started deposing these robo-signers, they acknowledged that they could not possibly have knowledge of all the cases. The banks say this is a technicality and they will refile the proper affidavits. The defense lawyers say the practice calls the cases, and indeed the entire process, into question.

Thomas Lawler, a housing economist, said the current mess was predictable and probably inevitable. Lenders made their money by making loans and then simply and efficiently servicing them by collecting the checks every month. They were never prepared to deal with the labor-intensive problems of delinquency and foreclosure.

“However, the foreclosure crisis is now almost three years old, and not having staffed up sufficiently to deal with the problems with inadequate staffing borders on criminal,” Mr. Lawler said. “I mean, jeepers, look at the unemployment rate; how hard would it have been to hire more folks?”

Mark Stopa, a Florida lawyer who represents defaulting homeowners, said the magnitude of the current troubles depends on how title insurance companies react. If those firms begin to shy away from insuring foreclosed properties because they think those properties are vulnerable to claims, he said, the entire housing market could suffer.

“Judges have to force banks to do foreclosures correctly,” Mr. Stopa said. But he noted that would require a significant increase in staff. “I'll believe it when I see it,” he said.

Stocks of the major title insurance companies dropped on Friday amid concern that their business would suffer as a result of the foreclosure freezes. Fidelity National Financial fell more than 4 percent, while First American Financial dropped 3 percent.

One firm, Old Republic National Title, said this week it would not issue policies on GMAC foreclosures until further notice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/business/02mortgage.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Bin Laden involved in Europe terror plot?

AL-QAIDA | Could be his most active role in planning an attack since Sept. 11

October 2, 2010

BY LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden emerged Friday as possibly a key figure in a European terror plot, raising speculation he may be flexing his muscles in a move to show a besieged al-Qaida remains strong and able to launch major attacks on Western targets.

U.S. counterterrorism officials said they believe that senior al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden, were involved in the plan to strike several European cities in a coordinated assault. If bin Laden had a direct hand in the planning, it would be the most active role he has played in a terror plot since the 9/11 attacks, according to U.S. officials and analysts.

Counterterrorism officials said that they are now working under the assumption that bin Laden played a role in the plotting, but they would not detail what indications they've seen that led them in that direction.

Still, some also believe that bin Laden's orders may have been delivered by one of his top commanders, since the al-Qaida leader is known to avoid close contact with anyone except his closet confidants.

While bin Laden's name is still a powerful reminder of the World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon engulfed in flames, U.S. officials have for months asserted both in private and in hearings on Capitol Hill that his core al-Qaida group is weakened, struggling to raise money and attract recruits.

"Clearly there is a great deal of pressure on al-Qaida to do something to show that it is still alive and kicking," said Richard Barrett, the head of a U.N. group that monitors the threat posed by al-Qaida and the Taliban. "They need to show they're strong, they're a force multiplier, that they've still got some beef, that they've got operators abroad, that they can do things."

Barrett said al-Qaida's Pakistan-based network has not launched a successful attack since the London subway bombing in 2005. "In order to attract the younger new recruits, I think they have to do a bit better than that," he said.

The multi-pronged scope of the emerging terror plan -- which aimed to launch coordinated shooting rampages or attacks in Britain, France and Germany -- is an al-Qaida hallmark.

U.S. officials declined to reveal what evidence they have that bin Laden took a more prominent role in this plan. And one U.S. intelligence official cautioned that the details of how the plan was directed or coordinated by the group's core leaders is not yet clear.

The involvement of bin Laden and his devoted leaders, believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, underscores continuing U.S. concerns about that country's role as a safe haven for al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that bin Laden may simply be trying to re-exert himself. And his role in the European plot could suggest a lack of confidence by al-Qaida central in the ability of other affiliated groups in Yemen or Africa to carry out a successful attack on their own, Hoekstra said.

Over the past year, several terror attacks in the U.S. have either failed or been foiled, including the botched attempts to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day and to set off a bomb in New York's Time Square.

"They've let other people take the lead on attacking the West," said Hoekstra, adding that bin Laden may now be thinking, "these guys can't do it, we've got to become more involved again."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/2764924,CST-NWS-binladen02.article

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From the White House

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National Cyber Security Awareness Month Kicks Off

I am very pleased to announce the beginning of National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2010.  This is the 7th Annual celebration of National Cyber Security Awareness Month. 

Today, President Obama reflected his continued commitment to cybersecurity as a national priority and signed a proclamation recognizing October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. 

The awareness campaign in October reminds us all that we have a shared responsibility to protect the cyber networks  we rely upon for everything from conducting our daily business at work to keeping in touch with our families, loved ones, and friends, to teaching our children and communities, conducting our finances, and keeping the lights on. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the time of the year we need to stop and realize all the things we can do collectively to keep our selves cyber-educated, cyber-smart, and cyber-assured.

The official launch of the event will be National Cyber Security Awareness Month will take place in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Public Library on Monday, October 4.  It will be simulcast from the National Capital Region.  Senior government and industry officials will participate in officially kicking off National Cyber Security Awareness Month on both coasts for the first time in its history.  This will be the first of many events and activities sponsored by federal, state, local  government, the private sector, and international partners  that will take place throughout October. 

As the President said in his proclamation, I urge all Americans to visit DHS.gov/Cyber and OnGuardOnline.gov for more information about practices that can enhance the security of our shared cyber networks.

Howard A. Schmidt is the Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-kicks

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From the Department of Justice

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Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli Speaks at the COPS Hiring Program Announcement

Houston

September 30, 2010

I bring you the greetings of Attorney General Eric Holder and I am excited to represent him here today to announce the Fiscal Year 2010 COPS Hiring Program grant awards. Before we get too much further into the program, I'd like to take a minute to recognize several officials. Thank you everyone for joining us.

Mayor Parker, I appreciate you letting us have a few minutes at city hall to make this important announcement. Your hard work in the city of Houston hasn't gone unnoticed. And that's why we are here today—to recognize the work of your police department and help them do even more to protect the people who live and work in this thriving city. Chief McClelland, I want to thank you, your officers, and the civilian personnel of the Houston Police Department who work tirelessly every day, often in harm's way, to keep the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment.

Today we are here talking about community policing – that's a term that is used a lot and captures much of what the Houston Police Department has done for decades, but is not often explained. It's an approach to policing that focuses on problem-solving and partnering with the community to address all aspects of crime. And the Department of Justice's COPS program is dedicated to advancing community policing and is based on a simple recognition – there is almost nothing more effective in keeping the public safe than cops on the beat who have the equipment and resources they need. I stand here today to tell you that this administration and this Attorney General stand behind you 100% and are doing everything we can to find the resources to help you continue to do your job.

And I know that's now small task today. Just as the American people are facing economic hardships, state and local governments are feeling the strain of balancing their budgets. Today, I'm proud to announce that Houston is getting some help to carry out that mission.

Through the Department of Justice COPS Office, the city of Houston is receiving $9.8 million to add 50 officers to your numbers. That's 50 more cops on the beat to keep this community safe. Under this grant, Houston will receive 100 percent of the approved salary and benefits for these officers for three years, and will then be required to retain the grant-funded positions for a fourth year.

The newly hired officers, funded by COPS, will work on many important programs and initiatives. I would like to highlight the Mayor's commitment to a citywide public safety campaign that is building a collaborative partnership between citizens, businesses and the Houston Police. And that is what community policing is all about. When law enforcement and communities work together, we can take back our streets and make communities safer.

The impact of the COPS program and the approximately 121,000 officers it has put on the street cannot be overstated. You and I know what putting another officer on the street means. One officer on the street means that a neighborhood is safer. It means that a store owner feels a little bit more comfortable opening up a new shop, or maybe staying open later. It means that the folks who work at that shop don't feel so nervous on their way home, and they might even stop for some shopping on their way home, or stop for an evening out. It means that people are willing to make the investment in their community and rent an apartment or buy a home, because it feels like the kind of place that they want to live. This is about making our cities, suburbs, and towns feel like the kinds of places where people can build a family, a business, and a life.

The Attorney General and the Department of Justice pledge to support you in every way that we can, and we are happy that we can show that support here in Houston and elsewhere with much-needed resources. Today, the COPS office will award nearly $300 million in funding to hire or rehire almost 1,400 officers nation-wide to keep the streets of America safe. That's more officers advancing public safety through community policing, more cops walking neighborhood streets, more uniforms visible in the community.

We recognize that this only begins to meet the need that is out there: The Justice Department received over 4,500 applications and we were only able to meet the need of 379 agencies across the country. Houston received funding for 50 officers – the maximum amount awarded. Everyone standing here knows that we can never support our law enforcement officers enough for your hard work and sacrifice. We know there is more to be done, but today we are making the thin blue line a little thicker.

The Attorney General and I and the entire Department of Justice pledge to continue working to find you the resources you need to do your job.

I would like to thank the Mayor and the chief again, and congratulations Houston on this much needed funding.

http://www.justice.gov/asg/speeches/2010/asg-speech-100930.html

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From ICE

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HSI's Identity and Benefit Fraud Unit receives Bright Ideas Award for its outreach campaign to departments of motor vehicles

HSI initiates wide-sweeping proactive measures to prevent and deter DMV corruption

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 hijackers used 364 aliases to obtain 26 state-issued DMV identification documents, many through fraudulent means. That day resulted in one of the most horrendous terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and continually serves as a reminder why U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is committed to stopping document and identity fraud.

Recently, ICE's Office of Homeland Security Investigations' (HSI) outreach campaign "Do the Right Thing - Stop Document and Identity Fraud" was recognized by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University with a Bright Ideas Award. The award highlights exemplary models of government innovation and advances efforts to address the nation's most pressing public concerns like document and benefit fraud.

HSI's Identity and Benefit Fraud Unit (IBFU), which identifies, disrupts and dismantles document fraud operations, initiated the outreach campaign to raise awareness about corruption at department of motor vehicles (DMV) facilities. The primary goal was to educate DMV employees, law enforcement and the public about the seriousness of fraud schemes.

"Education and outreach are proactive steps HSI has taken to deter document and benefit fraud from happening. The initiative encourages people to report crime and promotes strong partnerships to ensure that investigations are comprehensive and more efficient," said HSI Executive Associate Director James Dinkins. "The IBFU is honored to be one of the first recipients to receive a Bright Ideas Award in recognition of the DMV outreach campaign."

The campaign encompassed several techniques to fight DMV corruption:

• New Partnerships . The campaign hinged on the daunting task of establishing partnerships with DMVs across the nation. Rather than coordinating efforts with individual DMVs, the IBFU tapped the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which represents state and provincial members in the U.S. and Canada who administer and enforce motor vehicle laws. In December 2009, ICE became the first U.S. federal law enforcement member of the AAMVA Internal Fraud Working Group.
  
  
• Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces . IBFU, through its HSI-led Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces, developed and strengthened existing relationships between ICE and DMV representatives.
  
  
• Specialized Training .  A DMV fraud corruption class was added to ICE's Identity and Benefit Fraud Advanced Training Course as a method for agents to share best practices.
  
  
• Multimedia Materials . HSI disseminated educational and informative materials, including: a "Do the Right Thing - Stop Document and Identity Fraud" poster; a brochure that highlights HSI's role as the leader in the detection and prevention of identity fraud; and a video featuring former DMV employees speaking about their illegal activities at the DMV, which DMVs can use during employee ethics training. The IBFU has sent approximately 215,000 brochures, 3,800 posters and 900 DVDs to participating DMVs across the nation that have pledged to use the materials in their employee training.

HSI has been at the forefront of numerous DMV employee corruption investigations where employees use their positions for financial gain. The investigations have resulted in the arrest, indictment and successful prosecution of DMV employees and members of criminal organizations.

The Baltimore Field Office led several of these investigations, including an undercover operation at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) . Investigators discovered that criminals involved in narcotics smuggling, firearms distribution and murder obtained fraudulent commercial driver's licenses at the MVA, which expanded the scope of the investigation into a large-scale drug smuggling operation along the Eastern Seaboard.

Driver's licenses can be used as proof of identity when completing employment eligibility forms, boarding an aircraft, opening a bank account and demonstrating residency. The DMV outreach campaign has proven to be a highly effective tool in fighting document and identity fraud-a crime that jeopardizes national security and threatens public safety.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1010/101001baltimore.htm

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Illegal alien sentenced 57 months for repeated illegal reentries and crimes of violence

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Miguel Angel Monjaras-Castro, 37, a native of El Salvador, was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for illegal reentry after deportation for commission of an aggravated felony following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride and Field Office Director for ICE's Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Washington, D.C., Henry M. Lucero made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. Monjaras-Castro pled guilty on July 15, 2010.

On April 24, 2009, Monjaras-Castro was located by ICE ERO officers at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, as part of ERO's Criminal Alien Program. According to court documents, Monjaras-Castro claimed to be a lawful permanent resident who arrived in the United States on a valid visa. However, Monjaras-Castro had been removed on Dec. 8, 1997 and again on April 18, 2008.

Monjaras-Castro's second removal was subsequent to two felony convictions for crimes of violence. On Jan. 16, 1997, Monjaras-Castro was convicted in Dallas County, Texas, of raping his estranged wife at knifepoint. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all 10 years probated. On Feb. 10, 1997, Monjaras-Castro was convicted of in Kaufman County, Texas, for twice striking a victim on the neck with the barrel of a loaded handgun and firing shots near the victim's vehicle. He was sentenced to three years' probation.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1010/101001alexandria.htm

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