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From the Los Angeles Times

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Suicide attackers hit U.N. compound in Afghanistan

One assailant is killed at the outset, two others apparently detonate their suicide vests, and the last is shot dead by police. The incident sets the aid community on edge.

By Laura King

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 23, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan

Suicide attackers burst into the main United Nations compound in the western city of Herat on Saturday, setting off a battle with Afghan police and troops. All four assailants were reported killed, but the U.N. said there were no casualties among its staff.

The incident roiled the aid community in Afghanistan at a time when a number of international humanitarian and development groups are considering curtailing or halting projects in response to an upcoming ban by President Hamid Karzai on the use of private security guards. Western diplomats are pressing the Afghan leader to ease the restrictions, which are to take effect at the end of the year.

The attack in Herat, the biggest city in western Afghanistan, began with a detonation at one of the complex's entry gates, according to provincial officials, and three assailants then managed to push their way inside. One or more of them wore a burqa, or a body-length veil, said Naqib Armin, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The compound, on the city's edge near the airport, houses several U.N. agencies which employ both foreign and Afghan staff. There would have been about 40 people inside at the time, said U.N. spokesman Dan McNorton.

One of the attackers was killed at the outset of the strike when he set off explosives inside a car, provincial authorities said. Two others apparently detonated their suicide vests, and the last was shot dead by police.

Herat province is considered a relatively calm part of the country -- so much so that it is being considered as one of the first places where the NATO force will attempt to hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces.

With Western military officials claiming major success in driving the Taliban from strongholds in Kandahar province, however, the insurgency has been making a push into parts of the country that were previously considered relatively safe, such as the north.

Attacks inside Kandahar have diminished since the Western military offensive began in earnest about a month ago, but insurgents are still able to move about despite the security cordon around the city. A motorcycle-borne suicide bomber at a main traffic circle in the city killed one passer-by and injured two others on Saturday, provincial authorities said.

Outside Kandahar city, veteran New York Times photographer Joao Silva was seriously injured Saturday when he stepped on a buried bomb, the newspaper reported on its website. Although NATO officials say Taliban fighters have been mainly driven out of the district, Arghandab, the insurgents have seeded the area with IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, which are the principal killer of Western troops.

Most of the 30,000 American troops who arrived this year under President Obama's "surge" are deployed in the south, mainly in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

NATO troops were not involved in responding to the attack in Herat, said Lt. Col. Regina Winchester, a spokeswoman for the International Security Assistance Force. However, witnesses said Western forces were seen helping cordon off the scene, and a NATO helicopter circled overhead. NATO troops in the west of Afghanistan are under Italian command.

McNorton, the U.N. spokesman, said it was "too early to speculate" about steps the world body might take in response to the attack on its compound. The U.N. sent hundreds of foreign staffers out of the country after a Taliban attack last October on a U.N. guesthouse in the capital, in which five of its foreign staff were killed.

This year has been a perilous one for foreign aid workers in Afghanistan. In August, insurgent gunmen killed a 10-member medical team, including six Americans, in Badakhshan province, in the north. Earlier this month, a Scottish development worker was killed during an attempt by American troops to rescue her after she was abducted by the Taliban.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghan-attack-20101024,0,6422635,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Use of Drug Challenged in Death Penalty Case

Arizona plans to execute Jeffrey Landrigan next week, but his lawyers are arguing that one of the drugs that the state intends to use to end his life may not be good enough.

The planned execution of Mr. Landrigan, convicted of murder in 1990, coincides with a shortage of the anesthetic used in the state's execution protocol, sodium thiopental. The thiopental shortage has already caused delays in executions around the country.

Arizona officials have the drug, but defense lawyers for Mr. Landrigan are asking to stay the execution until the state reveals where it got its supply.

If Arizona obtained the drug from an overseas supplier, they argue, it may be substandard and violate Food and Drug Administration rules for importation.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group that supports the death penalty, said that arguing over the safety of a drug for executions is “absurd.”

“As long as it's a real drug manufacturer and not mixed up in somebody's garage, it doesn't matter where it came from,” Mr. Scheidegger said. While the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to determine whether drugs are safe and effective, he said, “in this case, safe and effective are opposites.”

Shelly Burgess, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said that imported drugs must go through an approval process before being used in the United States, but added that executions are “clearly not under our purview or authority.”

Megan McCracken, an adviser on lethal injection issues to the death penalty clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, argued that the origin of the drug used was nonetheless important under the law.

She cited the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and a 2008 decision by the Supreme Court. In that case, Baze v. Rees, the court left room for challenges to execution methods that involve a demonstrated risk of severe pain compared with available alternatives.

To Ms. McCracken, the lack of information about the drug opens Arizona to a challenge under the Baze decision. “Its provenance matters,” she said.

“I don't think you can say that thiopental is thiopental is thiopental.”

Judge Roslyn O. Silver of United States District Court on Thursday asked the state to voluntarily reveal where the drug had come from. She set the matter for oral argument on Monday.

The state, in a brief filed Friday, declined to identify the source of the drug, citing state confidentiality laws intended to shield those involved in executions from harassment by death penalty opponents. It denied that the drug to be used was substandard, and suggested that the criticism of the drug was an “improper delay tactic.”

The state, the brief said, “takes its responsibility to carry out an execution seriously and has attempted to construct a protocol to carry out executions as humanely as possible.”

Kent E. Cattani, an Arizona assistant attorney general, said that the supply of the drug obtained by the state was effective, and noted that the protocol in place involved several methods for determining that the inmate was unconscious before administering the final drug. While an important concern with the administration of powerful anesthetics is that the patient might receive too much, Mr. Cattani explained, “it's obviously not a consideration here.”

In fact, the amount that is given to inmates is more than 10 times the recommended dose for surgical procedures. “There's little or no chance that he would regain consciousness,” he said.

If the judge insists on knowing the origins of the drug, he said, “we would ask that it be disclosed under seal.”

To Ms. McCracken, the state's response was inadequate, akin to saying, “Just trust us,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/us/23execute.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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At Mosques, Inviting Non-Muslims Inside to Ease Hostility Toward Islam

Brother Abdullah was working the sidewalk outside the Omar Ben Abdel-Aziz Mosque in Jamaica, Queens, on Friday, looking for the curious, fearful, idle and confused.

It was an hour into a two-hour open house intended to dispel ignorance and promote neighborliness and interfaith harmony. But only four guests, all Muslim, had showed up at the mosque, and all the passers-by he had stopped had said they had somewhere else to go.

“I want you to write that we tried,” said Brother Abdullah, a member of the mosque's congregation who declined to give his last name, as he watched another pedestrian hurry away down the block. “Efforts were made to the public, and there's nothing for them to avoid or shun. Islam is a good way of life.”

This week, hundreds of mosques and Islamic organizations across the country have been encouraging their members to invite non-Muslims to attend prayers, discussions and tours of Islamic centers as a way to defuse hostility toward the Muslim population.

In New York, about 20 mosques are participating in the event, which began last weekend and ends on Sunday. And organizers said that it had been a success — the experience of the Omar Ben Abdel-Aziz Mosque notwithstanding — with hundreds of visitors attending lectures, tours and question-and-answer sessions at Islamic centers in all five boroughs of New York City and on Long Island.

The idea for the program, “A Week of Dialogue,” emerged from a summit of Islamic leaders last month in New York and was, in part, a response to the furor surrounding a plan to open a Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero.

“In terms of rectifying this Islamophobia and bigotry, we should focus on our relationship with our neighbors,” said Zaheer Uddin, executive director of the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, an umbrella group of mosques and Islamic groups in the city. “If our neighbors are happy, they can't make some propaganda stuff.”

A New York Times poll in August found that 75 percent of New Yorkers had never visited a mosque, and that those who had, or who had a close Muslim friend, were more likely to support the Muslim center planned in Lower Manhattan.

That same poll also found widespread anxiety among New Yorkers about Muslims. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims, and nearly 60 percent said people they knew had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

Juan Williams gave voice to such concerns this week when he said on the Fox News Channel, where he is a political analyst, that he got “nervous” when he saw people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane. National Public Radio, where Mr. Williams had also worked, terminated his contract on Wednesday; Fox gave him a new contract on Thursday.

While some Islamic leaders publicly supported the decision to fire Mr. Williams, the organizers of the weeklong dialogue said the open houses were intended to help dispel just the sort of concerns that Mr. Williams expressed.

Though mosques are always open to the public, the organizers said they felt that a special open-house program was necessary to bring non-Muslims through the door.

On most days this week, at least two mosques somewhere in the city have held programs to accommodate visitors. Before Friday, attendance at the programs ranged from about a dozen visitors — at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York in Manhattan — to more than 100 at the Muslim Center of Long Island, or Masjid Darul Quran, in Bay Shore, according to organizers.

Organizers said the interactions had been peaceful and engaging, for the congregations and the visitors alike.

“So far so good,” Mr. Uddin said. “Very friendly, very pleasant, very educational.”

For many visitors, it is the first time they have been to a mosque, organizers said. They brought questions about prayer rituals, Muslim holidays and the similarities and differences between Islam and other religions.

In recent months, Islamic leaders in the United States have been wrestling with the question of how to improve their faith's image in the public eye.

In Jamaica on Friday, Aiyub Abdul Baqi, an imam who was visiting from another mosque, addressed the small gathering, which also included about a 10 members of the Omar Ben Abdel-Aziz congregation. He spoke about the main tenets of Islam and talked about the early history of Islam in the United States.

“This is not a gathering to convert anyone,” he said. “This is an attempt to clear up some of the lies and misconceptions that some people have tried to perpetuate.”

His audience, already converted, nodded in assent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/nyregion/23mosques.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

The Way We Treat Our Troops

You can only hope that the very preliminary peace efforts in Afghanistan bear fruit before long. But for evidence that the United States is letting its claim to greatness, and even common decency, slip through its fingers, all you need to do is look at the way we treat our own troops.

The idea that the United States is at war and hardly any of its citizens are paying attention to the terrible burden being shouldered by its men and women in uniform is beyond appalling.

We can get fired up about Lady Gaga and the Tea Party crackpots. We're into fantasy football, the baseball playoffs and our obsessively narcissistic tweets. But American soldiers fighting and dying in a foreign land? That is such a yawn.

I would bring back the draft in a heartbeat. Then you wouldn't have these wars that last a lifetime. And you wouldn't get mind-bending tragedies like the death of Sgt. First Class Lance Vogeler, a 29-year-old who was killed a few weeks ago while serving in the Army in his 12th combat tour. That's right, his 12th — four in Iraq and eight in Afghanistan.

Twelve tours may be unusual, but multiple tours — three, four, five — are absolutely normal. We don't have enough volunteers to fight these endless wars. Americans are big on bumper stickers, and they like to go to sports events and demonstrate their patriotism by chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” But actually putting on a uniform and going into harm's way? No thanks.

Sergeant Vogeler was married and the father of two children, and his wife was expecting their third.

It's a quaint notion, but true: with wars come responsibilities. The meat grinder of war takes its toll in so many ways, and we should be paying close attention to all aspects of it. Instead, we send our service members off to war, and once they're gone, it's out of sight, out of mind.

If we were interested, we might notice that record numbers of soldiers are killing themselves. At least 125 committed suicide through August of this year, an awful pace that if continued would surpass last year's all-time high of 162.

Stressed-out, depressed and despondent soldiers are seeking help for their mental difficulties at a rate that is overwhelming the capacity of available professionals. And you can bet that there are even higher numbers of troubled service members who are not seeking help.

In the war zones, we medicate the troubled troops and send them right back into action, loading them up with antidepressants, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety drugs and lord knows what other kinds of medication.

One of the things we have long known about warfare is that the trouble follows the troops home. The Times published an article this week by Aaron Glantz, a reporter with The Bay Citizen news organization in San Francisco, that focused on the extraordinary surge of fatalities among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. These young people died, wrote Mr. Glantz, “not just as a result of suicide, but also of vehicle accidents, motorcycle crashes, drug overdoses or other causes after being discharged from the military.”

An analysis of official death certificates showed that, from 2005 through 2008, more than 1,000 California veterans under the age of 35 had died. That's three times the number of service members from California who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq during the same period.

Veterans of the two wars were two-and-a-half times as likely to commit suicide as people the same age with no military service. “They were twice as likely,” Mr. Glantz reported, “to die in a vehicle accident, and five-and-a-half times as likely to die in a motorcycle accident.”

The torment that wars put people through is not something that can be turned on and off like a switch. It's a potentially deadly burden that demands attention and care. People shouldn't be exposed to it if there is any possible alternative.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been world-class fiascos. To continue them without taking serious account of the horrors being endured by our troops and their families is just wrong.

The war in Afghanistan, the longest in our history, began on Oct. 7, 2001. It's now in its 10th year. After all this time and all the blood shed and lives lost, it's still not clear what we're doing. Osama bin Laden hasn't been found. The Afghan Army can't stand on its own. Our ally in Pakistan can't be trusted, and our man in Kabul is, at best, flaky. A good and humane society would not keep sending its young people into that caldron.

Shakespeare tells us to “be not afraid of greatness.” At the moment, we are acting like we're terrified.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

Smoke and Horrors

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.'s recent chest-thumping against the California ballot initiative that seeks to legalize marijuana underscores how the war on drugs in this country has become a war focused on marijuana, one being waged primarily against minorities and promoted, fueled and financed primarily by Democratic politicians.

According to a report released Friday by the Marijuana Arrest Research Project for the Drug Policy Alliance and the N.A.A.C.P. and led by Prof. Harry Levine, a sociologist at the City University of New York: “In the last 20 years, California made 850,000 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and half-a-million arrests in the last 10 years. The people arrested were disproportionately African-Americans and Latinos, overwhelmingly young people, especially men.”

For instance, the report says that the City of Los Angeles “arrested blacks for marijuana possession at seven times the rate of whites.”

This imbalance is not specific to California; it exists across the country.

One could justify this on some level if, in fact, young blacks and Hispanics were using marijuana more than young whites, but that isn't the case. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, young white people consistently report higher marijuana use than blacks or Hispanics.

How can such a grotesquely race-biased pattern of arrests exist? Professor Levine paints a sordid picture: young police officers are funneled into low-income black and Hispanic neighborhoods where they are encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk young men. And if you look for something, you'll find it. So they find some of these young people with small amounts of drugs. Then these young people are arrested. The officers will get experience processing arrests and will likely get to file overtime, he says, and the police chiefs will get a measure of productivity from their officers. The young men who were arrested are simply pawns.

Professor Levine has documented an even more devious practice in New York City, where possessing a small amount of marijuana is just a civil violation (so is a speeding ticket), but having it “open to public view” is a misdemeanor.

According to a report he issued in September 2009: “Police typically discovered the marijuana by stopping and searching people, often by tricking and intimidating them into revealing it. When people then took out the marijuana and handed it over, they were arrested and charged with the crime of having marijuana ‘open to public view.' ”

And these arrests are no minor matter. They can have very serious, lifelong consequences.

For instance, in 1998, President Bill Clinton signed a provision that made people temporarily or permanently ineligible for federal financial aid depending on how many times they had been arrested and convicted of a drug offense. The law took effect in 2000, and since 2006 lawmakers have been working to soften it. But the effect was real and devastating: the people most in need of financial aid were also being the most targeted for marijuana arrests and were therefore the most at risk of being frozen out of higher education. Remember that the next time someone starts spouting statistics comparing the number of black men in prison with the number in college.

The arrests also have consequences for things like housing and employment. In fact, in her fascinating new book, “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander argues that the American justice system is being used to create a permanent “undercaste — a lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society” and to discriminate against blacks and Hispanics in the same way that Jim Crow laws were once used to discriminate against blacks.

This wave of arrests is partially financed, either directly or indirectly, by federal programs like the Byrne Formula Grant Program, which was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to rev up the war on drugs. Surprisingly, this program has become the pet project of Democrats, not Republicans.

Whatever his motives, President George W. Bush sought to eliminate the program. Conservative groups backed his proposal, saying the program “has proved to be an ineffective and inefficient use of resources.”

But Democrats would have none of it. In the last year of the Bush administration, financing had been reduced to $170 million. In March of that year, 56 senators signed onto a “bipartisan” letter to ranking members of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging them to restore nearly $500 million to the program. Only 15 Republicans signed the letter.

Even candidate Obama promised that he would restore funding to the program.

The 2009 stimulus package presented these Democrats with the opportunity, and they seized it. The legislation, designed by Democrats and signed by President Obama, included $2 billion for Byrne Grants to be awarded by the end of September 2010. That was nearly a 12-fold increase in financing. Whatever the merits of these programs, they are outweighed by the damage being done. Financing prevention is fine. Financing a race-based arrest epidemic is not.

Why would Democrats support a program that has such a deleterious effect on their most loyal constituencies? It is, in part, callous political calculus. It's an easy and relatively cheap way for them to buy a tough-on-crime badge while simultaneously pleasing police unions. The fact that they are ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of black and Hispanic men and, by extension, the communities they belong to barely seems to register.

This is outrageous and immoral and the Democrat's complicity is unconscionable, particularly for a party that likes to promote its social justice bona fides.

No one knows all the repercussions of legalizing marijuana, but it is clear that criminalizing it has made it a life-ruining racial weapon. As Ms. Alexander told me, “Our failed war on drugs has done incalculable damage.”

When will politicians have the courage to stand up, acknowledge this fact and stop allowing young minority men to be collateral damage?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/opinion/23blow.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Visit to New York City

October 22, 2010

New York, N.Y. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today visited New York City to announce that the Department has deployed 300 advanced imaging technology (AIT) units to airports throughout the country, tour security screening operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and meet with New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Raymond Kelly regarding joint DHS-NYPD homeland security and counterterrorism operations.

“The disruption of the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square demonstrated the critical importance of individual citizens and law enforcement personnel in detecting and mitigating threats—underscoring that homeland security truly begins with hometown security,” said Secretary Napolitano. “From securing our airports to supporting local law enforcement, the Obama administration is committed to getting critical information and resources out of Washington, DC, and into the hands of the men and women serving on the front lines.”

While in New York City, Secretary Napolitano visited JFK to highlight the first two AIT units at the airport and announce that the Department has deployed 300 AIT units to more than 60 airports nationwide—keeping the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on track to deploy approximately 500 units by the end of 2010, 450 of which were funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“The deployment of 300 advanced imaging technology units is an important milestone in our commitment to keeping the traveling public safe,” said TSA Administrator John Pistole. “Imaging technology is a critical part of TSA's layered counterterrorism strategy and ability to combat evolving threats to aviation security.”

AIT is designed to increase security by safely screening passengers for metallic and non-metallic threats—including weapons, explosives and other objects concealed under layers of clothing. TSA ensures passenger privacy through the anonymity of AIT images—a privacy filter is applied to blur images; all images examined by TSA at airports are permanently deleted immediately once viewed and are never stored, transmitted or printed; and the officer viewing the image is stationed in a remote location so as not to come into contact with passengers being screened. This technology is optional to all passengers. Those who opt out may request alternative screening to include a thorough pat down.

ARRA, signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, committed more than $3 billion for homeland security projects through DHS and the General Services Administration. Of the $1 billion allocated to TSA for aviation security projects, $734 million is dedicated to screening checked baggage and $266 million is allocated for checkpoint explosives detection technologies. President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget request included funding for an additional 500 AIT units.

While in New York City, Secretary Napolitano also met with Commissioner Kelly to discuss the Department's ongoing partnership with the NYPD and tour the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI). LMSI was launched by Commissioner Kelly in 2005 to help ensure public safety and includes additional uniformed officers on the streets as well as counterterrorism technologies deployed in public areas such as closed circuit televisions, license plate readers, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear detectors.

During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano reiterated the Department's continued support of the NYPD's critical infrastructure protection efforts. DHS, in partnership with the NYPD and other stakeholders, has performed consolidated field assessments at 74 critical infrastructure sites concentrated in lower Manhattan. In total, New York City has received more than $2.1 billion in funding from DHS to support the city's counterterrorism and homeland security-related initiatives.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1287780009339.shtm

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Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Cordero Applaud First-Ever Class of ICE-Trained Mexican Customs Officials

North Charleston, S.C. - U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton today joined Mexican Secretary of Finance Ernesto Cordero Arroyo and Tax Administration Service and Customs Director Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz-Mena to host the first-ever graduation of Mexican customs officials from a 10-week, ICE-led investigator training course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy in North Charleston, S.C.

"Our efforts to crack down on criminal organizations and others who threaten the safety of our citizens and our economy require close cooperation between the United States and Mexico," said Secretary Napolitano. "Today's historic graduation of Mexican customs officials from this U.S.-led investigator training course reflects the unprecedented collaboration between our two nations to better combat transnational crime while facilitating legitimate travel and trade."

"A well-functioning border is an opportunity for growth—it opens doors to commercial exchange, peace, progress and human development," said Secretary Cordero.

Twenty-four men and women from Mexico's Tax Administration Service and Customs participated in the inaugural session of the Mexican customs investigator training conducted by ICE agents.

The course included coursework in both Mexican and U.S. customs law, as well as training in a wide variety of investigative techniques, officer safety tactics, and ethics—helping to provide the graduates with the tools and knowledge necessary to combat cross-border crime, including money laundering, customs offenses and weapons and drug trafficking, in close coordination with ICE special agents and other U.S. law enforcement officials.

President Obama is committed to shared responsibility with President Felipe Calderón and the government of Mexico to secure the Southwest border and ensure the security of both nations through programs such as the Mérida Initiative—the cornerstone of U.S.-Mexico security cooperation. The Mexican customs investigator training course is part of this multiyear, Department of State-led initiative—designed to provide assistance to Mexico and Central America in the form of capacity building, training and equipment to better equip law enforcement agencies to complete their missions. The United States has appropriated $1.4 billion in aid for Mexico through the initiative—including resources to provide training and equipment to support law enforcement operations.

Over the past year, Secretary Napolitano and her Mexican counterparts have engaged in an unprecedented level of cooperation, signing a number of bilateral agreements and declarations to bolster cooperation in the areas of enforcement, information and intelligence sharing, joint operations and trade facilitation along the Southwest border. DHS has doubled the number of law enforcement personnel assigned to DHS's Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST), multi-agency teams that collaborate to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations which pose significant threats to border security and coordinate intelligence sharing on both sides of the border. The formation of the first-ever Mexico-based BEST was announced by Secretary Napolitano in August of 2009.

For more information on DHS's border security efforts, please visit: www.dhs.gov

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1287767935269.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Tennessee Man Sentenced for Conspiring to Commit Murders of African-Americans

Plot Included Then-Presidential Candidate Barack Obama

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced that Daniel Cowart was sentenced today to 14 years in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a conspiracy to murder dozens of African-Americans, including then-Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama, because of their race.

On March 29, 2010, Cowart pleaded guilty to conspiracy, threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon a major candidate for the office of President of the United States, interstate transportation of a short-barreled shotgun, interstate transportation of a firearm for the purpose of committing a felony, unlicensed transportation of an unauthorized short-barreled shotgun, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, intentional damage to religious real property and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Cowart, 22, of Bells, Tenn., admitted to conspiring with Paul Schlesselman of West Helena, Ark., to engage in a killing spree specifically targeting African-Americans. He further acknowledged that he intended to culminate these attacks by assassinating President Obama, a U.S. Senator and presidential candidate at the time of the conspiracy.

Cowart admitted that he and Schlesselman also conspired to burglarize a federally-licensed firearms dealer to obtain additional weapons for their scheme. He also admitted to transporting a sawed-off shotgun from Arkansas to Tennessee for the purpose of committing felonies. Cowart additionally admitted to shooting the window of the Allen Baptist Church in Brownsville, Tenn.

Under the plea agreement, Cowart agreed that an appropriate sentence would be between twelve and eighteen years. The charges to which he pleaded guilty carried a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison.

"Threats of violence fueled by bigotry and hate have no place in the United States of America, and they will not be tolerated," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Although the heroic intervention of law enforcement spared us from a tragedy, this conspiracy and its associated crimes demanded a severe sentence. The sentence imposed constitutes serious punishment for a serious crime."

"Thankfully, the defendants were not able to execute their violent scheme. Nevertheless, this is a grave matter and Judge Breen's sentence reflects that crimes of this magnitude demand stiff penalties," said Edward L. Stanton III, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. "I would like to recognize the extraordinary diligence of the Crockett County Sheriff's Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S Secret Service, and the FBI."

Cowart's co-defendant, Paul Schlesselman, pleaded guilty on Jan. 14, 2010, to one count of conspiracy, one count of threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon a presidential candidate, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Schlesselman was sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 15, 2010.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Secret Service; the FBI; and the Crockett County Sheriff's Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Larry Laurenzi and James Powell and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Jonathan Skrmetti.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-crt-1194.html

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From ICE

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DHS, ICE and Mexico honor graduates of Mexican Customs Investigator Training Program

Mexican Customs officials embrace learning ICE investigative and crime-fighting techniques

A group of 24 Mexican Customs officers completed a rigorous and unprecedented 10-week training program modeled on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Training Program to prepare them to more effectively fight crime along the southern border and within Mexico.

Students of the ICE-sponsored Mexican Customs Investigator Training (MEXCIT), their instructors, and Mexican and U.S. dignitaries attended a graduation ceremony at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 22, 2010. The event marked another landmark achievement that substantiates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/ICE commitment to partner with Mexico in confronting drug cartels and other criminal organizations whose actions undermine public safety, erode the rule of law and threaten the national security of the United States, Mexico and the world at large.

ICE Deputy Director Alonzo R. Peña, a long-standing supporter and active leader in bi-national cooperation with Mexico, was responsible for bringing the training to fruition. Peña officiated at Friday's ceremony and introduced DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; Mexico's Secretary of Treasury Ernesto Cordero Arroyo; Director of Tax Administration Service and Customs Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz Mena and ICE Director John Morton.

Morton commended the students for completing the challenging and physically demanding course work that included getting a dousing of pepper spray. Morton said MEXCIT is the first of its kind and "stands as a shining example of the strength of the U.S. and Mexico's commitment to bilateral cooperation."

Morton said to the graduating students, "As you go forward in your careers, remember that at ICE, we will be good partners to you, and we know we can rely on you to be good partners to us."

Napolitano congratulated the graduates and in her prepared remarks she said that in the last several years we have seen "a greater level of security cooperation between our two countries than at any point in our histories." In speaking about the drug cartels that operate in both the U.S. and Mexico, Napolitano said that "fighting them demands a response that is transnational and that is coordinated."

Also addressing the crowd was Secretary Cordero who said, "ICE has great experience and wonderful information, and the opportunity to share in that is extremely beneficial."

James S. Thomas, unit chief of international training at the ICE Academy, explained that a large block of curriculum was dedicated to officer safety, internal controls and integrity training." "It energized the instructors to be teaching the classes because the students were so enthusiastic and raised so many questions," said Thomas.

ICE instructor Daniel Hernandez, taught classes in integrity, undercover investigations and practical exercises. He said that on occasion "we had to tell them [the students] to put down their pencils. They were hungry for the information and just wanted to keep writing. I've been here for the entire 10 weeks, and these are not the same people we picked up from the plane. They are actual special agents. They are more aware of their surroundings, their safety and the importance of this job."

A MEXCIT graduate, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, said the training was more than gaining knowledge. "It's about wisdom." He is anxious to apply his newfound knowledge in his law enforcement role in Mexico. "This is another tool to use to combat crime and all that crime provokes. We want to have a safe country with people and families enjoying their lives," he said.

The youngest student, a 23-year-old woman, said of the instructors, "They took the most important work of their life and gave it to us. It was a precious gift."

For more information, please read the news release. For images of this graduation, please see the image gallery.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1010/101022northcharleston2.htm

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From the FBI

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Regional Computer Forensics Labs

A Decade of Accomplishments

10/21/10

Earlier this year, Denver resident Najabullah Zazi pled guilty to—among other things—conspiring to bomb the New York City subway system. A critical aspect of this investigation was the work done by the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, which analyzed Zazi's laptop, turning up bomb-making instructions and Internet searches for hydrochloric acid…and processed surveillance video of Zazi and others buying large quantities of ingredients that could be used to make explosives.

The Zazi investigation was just one the cases worked successfully by our network of 14 FBI-sponsored Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories (RCFLs) during fiscal year (FY) 2009. You can read more about the Zazi case, in addition to plus other investigations and additional accomplishments of RCFLs, in the recently-released RCFL Annual Report for FY 2009 at: www.rcfl.gov

Bryan Tepper, Unit Chief for FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory program, describes the role of FBI certified examiners in 14 labs across the country --------------------- Listen to Podcast

The FBI, incidentally, provides start-up and operational funding, training, and equipment for the RCFLs, while state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies (including us) assign personnel to work as examiners. The duties of these examiners range from collecting digital evidence at crime scenes, conducting examinations on a wide assortment of electronic devices, and testifying in court as to the results of the exams. Some report highlights of RCFL accomplishments during FY 2009 include: 689 different law enforcement agencies requested RCFL assistance. 6,016 digital examinations were conducted. 2,334 terabytes of information were processed (which is the equivalent of 230 academic libraries). the various media types examined included computer hard drives (15,630); CD/DVDs (14,028), floppy disks (4,104); flash media (2,820); cell phones and smart phones (1,953); CPUs (684); digital cameras (148); digital media players (95), and navigation systems (54).

During FY 2009, RCFLs across the country provided assistance on a wide variety of investigations, including terrorism, environmental crime, public corruption, homicides, rapes, crimes against children, and fraud.

For example:

• The Silicon Valley RCFL supported an investigation into an oil spill in San Francisco Bay by examining the ship's computers and discovering that navigation charts on one of the computers had been altered after the crash.
  
  
• The Houston RFCL provided assistance in an investigation involving an employee fired from a non-profit organ transplant organization who retaliated by erasing vital computer files.
  
  
• The New Jersey RCFL examined approximately 600 gigabytes of information during an investigation of a man who moderated a website devoted to child pornography and sex with children.
  
  
• The San Diego  RCFL devoted hundreds of hours of staff time and participated in multiple search warrants for an investigation involving the illegal accounting practices of a software company that resulted in criminal indictments of nearly a dozen senior managers.
  

Aside from the operational work performed by RCFLs, they also provide valuable training to state and local law enforcement officers—who are often the first responders to a crime scene and who must take the initial steps to recognize and secure any digital evidence. During FY 2009, 5,404 officers received training in various digital forensics techniques and tools.

A side note:  FY 2009 marked the RCFL Program's 10th anniversary—a decade of raising the level of excellence for digital forensics services to new heights and providing much needed expertise to national security cases and criminal investigations.

Resource:
- RCFL Annual Report for FY 2009

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/october/RCFL-report/RCFL

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