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From the Los Angeles Times

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Ruling threatens civilian prosecutions of terrorism defendants

A judge in New York has blocked testimony from a key witness against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, being tried in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa.

By David G. Savage and Richard A. Serrano, Tribune Washington Bureau

October 7, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The Obama administration's prosecution of major foreign terrorism suspects in U.S. civilian courts has hit another roadblock, after a judge in New York disallowed testimony this week from the government's key witness against a prisoner about to stand trial in connection with the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998.

The trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is being closely watched as a test case for the legal system over whether a "high-value" detainee held in a secret CIA location and later at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can be tried and convicted under the rules of American criminal law.

The dispute sits at the heart of this still-unresolved debate over whether terrorism suspects should be held as military prisoners or tried as criminals. And the judge's ruling in New York deals another political blow to the Obama administration, which has said Guantanamo Bay should be closed and the suspected terrorists tried in this country.

In Wednesday's ruling in the Ghailani case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said he was unwilling to relax the law because of the special circumstances surrounding the capture and questioning of the accused embassy bomber. "The Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests," he said.

The case was nearing the end of jury selection, and prosecutors said they planned to put Hussein Abebe on the witness stand to testify that he sold explosives to Ghailani that were used in the embassy bombing. But the judge said Abebe's testimony was tainted and could not be used because prosecutors learned of him only as a result of coerced statements taken from Ghailani in the CIA prison.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration said it was reconsidering its plan to try the top Sept. 11 attack plotters in New York after an outcry in New York and Washington.

"This is a serious setback, and it will reverberate through the broader Guantanamo debates," Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor and an expert on national security law, said of the Ghailani ruling. "This case has particular symbolic and precedential value, because Ghailani was the first Guantanamo detainee transferred to New York for prosecution."

Benjamin Wittes, an expert on terrorism law, agreed. "If they can't get this one done, it will be very hard for them to argue you ought to try the true 'high-value' detainees in federal court," he said.

But Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said prosecutors planned to press forward, and prosecutors were expected to either appeal Kaplan's ruling or take Ghailani to trial without the benefit of Abebe's testimony. "We intend to proceed with this trial," Holder said.

The Ghailani case is not the first terrorism prosecution to be jeopardized because of torture issues.

A year ago, in August 2009, Mohammed Jawad, arrested in 2002 on allegations that he killed two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Afghanistan, was ordered released and returned home to Afghanistan after U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle in Washington threw out his supposed confession on the grounds that he talked only after being tortured.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union attorneys who represented Jawad, he "was subjected to repeated torture and other mistreatment and to a systematic program of harsh and highly coercive interrogations designed to break him physically and mentally." The lawyers said he tried to kill himself by slamming his head against his cell wall.

Administration critics say that the ruling in the Ghailani case strongly supports their position that suspected terrorists should not be tried in U.S. civil courts, but rather should be prosecuted in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay or held there indefinitely as "enemy combatants."

"The administration's policy was a product of an unwise campaign promise," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "And the safety of the American people requires it be abandoned."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-trial-20101008,0,3282690,print.story

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Boys ages 2 and 4 abducted from Anaheim home

Two young boys were kidnapped Thursday night by strangers who grabbed them in front of their Anaheim home and drove away, police said.

The children were taken about 8 p.m. as their mother took out trash in an alley, the Anaheim Police Department said.

The children were identified as 4-year-old Jacob Quinones and 2-year-old Justin Quinones.

The two men left in a silver, pewter or gray 2009 or 2010 Dodge Caravan.

One kidnapper is described as white, 45 to 50 years old, with a stocky build. He has long, straight, scraggly hair and was wearing a dark baseball cap and white tennis shoes. He also has a mustache and maybe a goatee. The other man is in his 20s with long hair in a ponytail. He is about 5-feet-8 and weighs about 180 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (714) 765-1900

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

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From the New York Times

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Inquiry Finds Guards at U.S. Bases Are Tied to Taliban

WASHINGTON — Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban , criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.

The Pentagon's oversight of the Afghan guards is virtually nonexistent, allowing local security deals among American military commanders, Western contracting companies and Afghan warlords who are closely connected to the violent insurgency, according to the report by investigators on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The United States military has almost no independent information on the Afghans guarding the bases, who are employees of Afghan groups hired as subcontractors by Western firms awarded security contracts by the Pentagon. At one large American airbase in western Afghanistan, military personnel did not even know the names of the leaders of the Afghan groups providing base security, the investigators found. So they used the nicknames that the contractor was using — Mr. White and Mr. Pink from “Reservoir Dogs,” the 1992 gangster movie by Quentin Tarantino . Mr. Pink was later determined to be a “known Taliban” figure, they reported.

In another incident, the United States military bombed a house where it was believed that a Taliban leader was holding a meeting, only to discover later that the house was owned by an Afghan security contractor to the American military, who was meeting with his nephew — the Taliban leader.

Some Afghans hired by EOD Technology, which was awarded a United States Army contract to provide security at a training center for Afghan police officers in Adraskan, near Shindand, were also providing information to Iran, the report asserted. The Senate committee said it received intelligence from the Defense Intelligence Agency about Afghans working for EOD, and that the reporting found that some of them “have been involved in activities at odds with U.S. interests in the region.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee adopted the report by a unanimous vote, although Republican members issued a statement critical of the report for too narrowly focusing on case studies in western Afghanistan.

In response to the Senate report, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued a letter saying that the Pentagon recognized the problems and has created new task forces to help overhaul contracting procedures in Afghanistan. "Through the new programs we have implemented, I believe D.O.D. has taken significant steps to benefit our forces on the ground while not providing aid to our enemies," Mr. Gates wrote.

The latest disclosures follow a series of reports, including articles in The New York Times and testimony before a House committee, describing bribes paid by contractors to the Taliban and other warlords to make sure supply convoys for the American military were provided safe passage.

But the Senate report goes further, spelling out the close relations between some contractors and the forces arrayed against the Kabul government and the Americans, and saying that the proliferation of contractors in the country is sometimes fueling the very insurgency that the military is there to combat. It names a few of the contracting companies, and uses one base as a case study, but calls the problems it identified pervasive.

“We must shut off the spigot of U.S. dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and power brokers who act contrary to our interests,” said Senator Carl Levin , the Michigan Democrat who is the committee's chairman.

“There are truly some outrageous allegations here, and it's a wake-up call that we have to get a better handle on contractors in Afghanistan and ensure that taxpayer dollars don't end up in the hands of the enemy,” said Richard Fontaine, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington research group.

There are more than 26,000 private security employees in Afghanistan, and 90 percent of them are working under United States government contracts or subcontracts. Almost all are tied to the militias of local warlords and other powerful Afghan figures outside the control of the American military or the Afghan government, the report found.

The contracting firms are now hiring active-duty members of the Afghan military and security forces, the investigators found, further undermining the efforts by the United States to help Afghanistan build a stronger military that can take on the Taliban insurgency on its own.

The Senate report focuses heavily on security contracting at remote American military bases in western Afghanistan, including the air base in Shindand, near Herat. ArmorGroup, a British-based security firm, was hired by a contractor to the United States Air Force to provide security at Shindand, and then ArmorGroup turned in 2007 to two warlords who had their own militias to do the actual security work. ArmorGroup called them “Mr. White” and “Mr. Pink,” and few Americans knew their real identities, although a leader of an American military team at an adjacent base had recommended Mr. Pink.

“The two warlords and their successors served as manpower providers for ArmorGroup for the next 18 months — a period marked by a series of violent incidents,” the report found.

Fights soon erupted between the forces of Mr. White and Mr. Pink, with Mr. Pink finally killing Mr. White. Mr. Pink then sought refuge with the Taliban. ArmorGroup then turned to Mr. White's brother, Mr. White II, to run its security force, but also continued to employ Mr. Pink's men, even though they knew he was now working with the Taliban.

In a raid on Aug., 21, 2008, in Azizabad, Afghanistan, American forces bombed a house where a local Taliban leader, Mullah Sadeq, was suspected of holding a meeting. It was the home of Mr. White II; he was killed in the raid, along with seven other men employed as security guards by ArmorGroup or ArmorGroup Mine Action, an affiliated company with a contract with the United Nations for mine clearing.

The Azizabad raid sparked outrage within Afghanistan. Local villagers, human rights officials and Afghan government officials said that the attack had resulted in more than 90 civilian deaths. The raid had a broad impact on relations between the Afghan government and the American military, and was one of the major incidents that led to a reassessment by President Hamid Karzai of his support for American air raids in the country.

Mr. Karzai visited the village after the attack, and President George W. Bush called Mr. Karzai to express his regret. But the report shows that the bombing raid was entangled in the interplay between contractors and the Taliban, and occurred during a meeting between Mr. White II and the suspect Taliban leader, Mullah Sadeq.

Providing contracts to local militia leaders with ties to the Taliban “gives these warlords an independent funding source,” observed Carl Forsberg, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. “And it gives them a feeling of impunity.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/world/asia/08contractor.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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A Fishing Paradise Gains a Deadly Reputation

HOUSTON — For decades, Falcon Lake was known primarily as an anglers' paradise, a tranquil reservoir straddling the border with Mexico where a clever fisherman could catch enormous largemouth bass. These days, however, the lake is developing a reputation for something else: piracy.

As a prolonged conflict between drug dealers and the government has eroded civil order in Mexico, gangs of armed thugs in speedboats have begun robbing fishermen and tourists on the lake.

Last week, gunmen in three boats reportedly shot and killed an American as he and his wife toured the lake on Jet Skis.

The shooting has strained tense relations between the Texas authorities and the Mexican government. A week after David M. Hartley, 30, was reported shot in the head, the Mexican authorities have yet to find a body or any trace of his watercraft.

On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry , a Republican running for re-election, sharply criticized the Mexican government as being slow to investigate the episode. He also denounced the Obama administration as not having provided more National Guard troops to patrol the border.

“Frankly, these two presidents need to get together with their secretaries of state and say, ‘What are we going to do about this?' ” Mr. Perry said.

Mr. Hartley's wife, Tiffany, has complained that the Mexican police are not trying hard enough to find him, making teary appeals on a national morning news show and on local television stations.

The Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry, meanwhile, released a communiqué saying that the authorities in Tamaulipas state had “stepped up their actions with the support of specialized personnel, boats and helicopters.”

Ruben Dario Rios, a spokesman for the Tamaulipas state police, said in an interview that officers continued to dredge the lake and scan the water from a helicopter but had yet to find any trace of the missing man.

The Texas Rangers have warned Americans to keep to the United States side of the 60-mile-long reservoir, which was formed in 1953 when the Rio Grande was dammed. The Border Patrol and the Coast Guard have increased their patrols on the lake in response to Mr. Hartley's disappearance, federal officials said.

The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks by pirates on the lake that began on April 30. The gangs carry AK-47s and sometimes claim to be Mexican federal police or American game wardens. They have sometimes hijacked high-prowed boats favored by Mexican fishermen and used them to chase down Americans in bass boats, stealing their money at gunpoint.

The state police say the robbers are believed to be members of a drug gang, though it is unclear if the attacks are the work of one group or several.

On Sept. 30, Mr. Hartley and his wife had traveled on their Jet Skis to the village of Guerrero on the Mexican side of the lake to take photographs of an old church there, according to her father, Bob Young. Mr. Hartley, a regional manager for Calfrac Well Services, was a history buff and wanted to see the landmark, which lies near a finger of water well inside Mexico.

Originally from Colorado, the couple had just finished a two-year assignment in Reynosa, Mexico, and had moved to McAllen, Tex., four months ago to escape the violence. They were only days away from moving again, this time back to Colorado, and the trip to see the church was a last hurrah on their Jet Skis, Mr. Young said.

“He told her, ‘We might as well go and check out this old church and take the Jet Skis out one more time,' ” Mr. Young said. “It was just a fluke. Wrong place, wrong time.”

As they started back from the church, Mrs. Hartley said in interviews, gunmen in three small boats raced toward them from shore. The Hartleys tried to speed away, but the gunmen opened fire and Mr. Hartley was shot in the head.

She turned around and tried to haul her unconscious husband onto her watercraft but was not strong enough. “I tried pulling him up, and you cannot imagine how awful it was not being able to help him,” she told ABC News.

Mr. Young said his daughter was in the water with her husband when the gunmen pulled up in boats and pointed a gun at her. She begged them not to shoot, he said, and they retreated to shore. A few minutes later, some of them began to return. She fled to the United States side of the lake and called the police, according to 911 tapes.

The state attorney in Tamaulipas, Marco Antonio Guerrero, initially questioned Mrs. Hartley's story in an interview with The McAllen Monitor, saying the Mexican police were “not certain that the incident happened the way they are telling us.”

But Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, on the Texas side of the lake, has said that Mrs. Hartley's story is credible and that the assault is in keeping with other recent robberies, some of which happened in the same part of the lake.

On April 30, for example, two boats carrying five tourists who wanted photographs of the Guerrero church were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily tattooed men in a fishing boat who identified themselves as “federales.” They demanded cash and even asked, “Where are the drugs?”

A week later, on May 6, three fishermen were robbed at gunpoint near Salado Island. On May 16, another group of boaters was robbed, again by armed men in a fishing boat on the United States side of the reservoir.

More recently, a gang of pirates in a small boat, with “Game Wardin” spelled out in duct tape, tried to stop a Texas fisherman, the police said. The Texan figured the misspelled word meant they were not really game wardens and outran them, the police said.

The drama surrounding Mr. Hartley's disappearance and apparent death has rapidly become fodder for both sides in the governor's race.

The Democratic challenger, Bill White, a former Houston mayor, said the shooting was a consequence of too little support from the state for sheriffs and police departments on the border.

Mr. Perry, meanwhile, reiterated his demand for more troops and federal agents on the border, pointing a finger of blame at the Obama administration.

The governor has also staunchly defended Mrs. Hartley against anyone who doubts her account, saying he finds such theories “really reprehensible.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08pirate.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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California: Child Molesters Can't Welcome Trick-Or-Treaters

Tulare County has passed a law barring people convicted of sex crimes against children from decorating their homes and handing out candy to children on Halloween. The county Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday in favor of the new ordinance despite objections it could violate state law and the United States Constitution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08brfs-CHILDMOLESTE_BRF.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Visit to Kentucky

October 7, 2010

Louisville, Ky. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today visited Lexington, Ky., to meet with state and local law enforcement partners and business leaders to discuss the Obama administration's strong commitment to smart, effective enforcement of America's immigration laws. She also visited Louisville, Ky., to meet with first responders and community leaders to discuss the importance of informing and empowering citizens and communities both before and during an emergency.

In Lexington, Secretary Napolitano highlighted the first ever implementation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Secure Communities program in the commonwealth of Kentucky in Fayette County, Ky. Secure Communities allows ICE to use biometric information to identify criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails.

“The Obama administration has fundamentally changed the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement—both at and within our nation's borders,” said Secretary Napolitano. “With smart, effective enforcement that prioritizes public safety and national security and holds employers accountable, we are removing more convicted criminal aliens than ever before.”

Secretary Napolitano underscored the Obama administration's continued focus on prioritizing the identification and removal of criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety—noting the record-breaking immigration enforcement statistics achieved in fiscal year (FY) 2010. DHS removed more than 392,000 aliens nationwide in FY 2010, the most ever, and half of those removed—more than 195,000—were convicted criminals. These statistics represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to FY 2008—a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration.

DHS has expanded the Secure Communities initiative—which uses biometric information and services to identify and remove criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails—from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 660 today, including all jurisdictions along the Southwest border. DHS is on track to expand this program to all law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide by 2013. This year alone, Secure Communities has resulted in the arrest of more than 59,000 convicted criminal aliens, including more than 21,000 convicted of major violent offenses like murder, rape, and the sexual abuse of children.

In Louisville, Secretary Napolitano toured the Louisville Operations Center and reiterated the Department's commitment to partnering with local law enforcement and first responders, as well as citizens, private sector leaders and community groups to get resources out of Washington, D.C., and into the hands of the men and women serving on the front lines.

“Homeland security begins with hometown security,” said Secretary Napolitano. “When we equip local law enforcement, citizens and communities with the tools they need to understand and counter the threats we face, we make our hometowns—and our nation—safer.”

She also highlighted Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson's efforts to synchronize Louisville's successful anonymous tipline tool with DHS's “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign—part of the Department's national efforts to help raise public awareness of terrorism, crime and other threats and emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the proper law enforcement authorities.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1286483660728.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Four California Police Officers Indicted for Civil Rights Charges

WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging former Fresno, Calif., Police Department (FPD) Officers Christopher Coleman, 42; Paul Van Dalen, 44; and Sean Plymale, 41; and current FPD Sergeant Michael Manfredi, 50, with civil rights and obstruction of justice offenses related to the assault of a man in their custody in October 2005.

Coleman and Van Dalen are each charged with deprivation of rights under color of law. As alleged in the indictment, Coleman used a 12-gauge shotgun to repeatedly shoot the victim with less-lethal ammunition, which consists of a flexible material that is filled with metal shot. Despite its name, less-lethal ammunition can cause death or serious bodily injury. Coleman is also charged with driving a speeding vehicle at the victim, putting him in fear for his life. The indictment further alleges that Van Dalen repeatedly kicked the victim in the side and stepped on his ankle. Plymale and Manfredi are each charged with one count of misprision of a felony for their knowing concealment of the assault carried out by Coleman and Van Dalen. All four defendants also are charged with one count of falsifying an official report to obstruct justice.

The case is being investigated by the Fresno Field Office of the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Benjamin J. Hawk of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin P. Rooney and Elana S. Landau of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-crt-1128.html

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Justice Department to Share $2.9 Million in Equipment with Mexican Authorities to Fight Organized Crime, Enhance Extradition

Late yesterday, U.S. Department of Justice and Mexican law enforcement officials signed an agreement that will support Mexican efforts to combat the financial infrastructure of organized crime and enhance cooperation in extradition matters.

Through the agreement, the Department will share more than $2.9 million in equipment with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) and the Ministry of Public Security (SSP) of the United Mexican States in recognition of Mexico's assistance leading to the forfeiture of more than $19 million in a narcotics money laundering investigation.

The forfeiture resulted from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation into a drug trafficking and money laundering organization's use of Mexican casa de cambio offices in Mexico to launder drug proceeds through an account at Union Bank of California.

In 2007, the Union Bank of California agreed to forfeit these funds to the United States as part of a deferred prosecution agreement resulting from violations of anti-money laundering provisions of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, in a case prosecuted by the Criminal Division's Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. During the investigation of the case, Mexican authories provided valuable cooperation to U.S. investigators and prosecutors.

Under the agreement, the shared assets will be used to purchase equipment that will strengthen PGR's and SSP's capacity to investigate and prosecute money laundering crimes, as well as Mexico's ability to forfeit the proceeds of crime. This initiative is designed to complement ongoing bilateral efforts to increase pressure on the economic resources of the criminal organizations that operate in Mexico and along the U.S./Mexico border.

A portion of the shared assets also will be used to acquire equipment to expedite apprehension and extradition of people from Mexico who have committed crimes against the United States and other nations. Bilateral cooperation in extradition helps bring to justice violent criminals and other offenders seeking to evade prosecution in the United States, and who may also threaten the Mexican communities in which they seek to hide.

The agreement was signed by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez and Mexico's Secretary General of the Federal Police Oswaldo Luna Valderrabano. The U.S. State Department will assist in its implementation.

http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/1001

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Civil Rights and School Discipline

In recent years, many school districts across the country have begun to adopt strict zero-tolerance discipline policies that impose increasingly harsher punishments for seemingly minor infractions. These disciplinary measures – in-school or out-of-school suspensions, alternative school placements, expulsions, and referrals to police departments and juvenile authorities – disrupt a student's education and diminish their chances for success.

For too many students, these school-imposed sanctions lead to the criminal justice system, a pathway commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Regrettably, studies have shown that children of color are disproportionately affected by zero-tolerance policies, a trend that increases already significant disparities.

To examine this issue and discuss strategies for addressing it, on Sept. 27 – Sept. 28, 2010, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education's Civil Rights Office jointly hosted a conference entitled, “Civil Rights and School Discipline: Addressing Disparities to Ensure Educational Opportunity.” Academic and policy leaders, lawyers and law enforcement officers, investigators and educators, advocates and researchers discussed and developed strategies to ensure that all children can access a pathway to success, not to prison.

During the conference, Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez discussed this pervasive problem, the need for collaboration to tackle it and the administration's commitment to addressing it:

Attorney General Holder stated:

Never before have our two agencies come together in this way – or brought together such a large and diverse group of partners – to discuss the best ways to ensure that civil rights and educational opportunities are protected for every student, at every level, and in every community…But it is just the beginning of what I know – and I pledge – will be an ongoing conversation about how we can better understand the causes, and most effectively remedy the consequences, of disparities in student discipline. I want to assure all of you that for me, for Secretary Duncan, for the agencies we lead, and for the administration – this work is a top priority.

Assistant Attorney General Perez continued:

Education should offer a lifeline to those students for whom a successful future is not predetermined. Particularly for those students in poor and historically disadvantaged communities, education should be the key that opens the door to a better future. .. And this is why we are here today – no single lawsuit or action or expert or agency can break down the School-to-Prison pipeline alone.

For more information on the conference, read: AAG Perez' full remarks

http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/997

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