~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Los Angeles Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Explosives found in two U.S.-bound packages, thwarting terrorist attack

The two packages and other suspicious parcels aboard cargo jets, all originating from Yemen, 'underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism,' President Obama says.

by Paul Richter, Richard A. Serrano and Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau

October 30, 2010

Reporting from Washington

A terrorist attack apparently aimed at two Jewish centers in Chicago was thwarted when two packages the size of bread boxes containing explosives were intercepted in Europe and the Middle East, President Obama and counterterrorism officials announced Friday.

The packages, which had originated from Yemen, were found on cargo planes after a tip from an official in Saudi Arabia. The targets were a synagogue and another Jewish center on the North Side of Chicago, a U.S. official said.

As they launched a terrorism investigation on three continents, authorities said suspicion fell in particular on Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, which has been linked to the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Christmas Day. The explosive material found in the two packages is the same as that used in the failed airliner attack, according to a U.S. official.

Authorities discovered the packages late Thursday in UPS cargo planes that had flown from Yemen to an airport in East Midlands, England; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

An initial examination of the packages found that "they do apparently contain explosive materials," Obama said in an announcement from the White House on Friday afternoon. Officials said it was still uncertain whether the devices were operational or whether they were to be picked up and activated by someone in Chicago. One official said federal law enforcement authorities believe the latter scenario to be the most likely.

The events "underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism," the president said. He warned that authorities believe Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based group, "continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens and our friends and allies."

A federal law enforcement official said the cargo packages resembled the kind of smaller but deadly attacks recently urged by Anwar Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric thought to be living in Yemen. Awlaki sent e-mail to U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan encouraging him to militant activity before the November attacks at Ft. Hood, Texas, in which Hasan is suspected of killing 13 fellow soldiers. The cleric is also suspected of being behind the Christmas Day airliner plot allegedly carried out by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

"He is pushing the less sensational,'' the official said, asking not to be identified because the investigation is continuing. "There appears to be a good amount of debate within Al Qaeda, and Al Awlaki is pushing for more hits, but on a smaller scale. He also believes that even when attacks are scrubbed or foiled, they nonetheless are successful if it terrorizes the United States.''

Federal authorities searched cargo planes at airports along the Eastern seaboard on Friday as well as a delivery truck in Brooklyn, N.Y., but found no explosives.

An Emirates Airline passenger jet carrying cargo from Yemen was escorted from the Canadian border to New York City by two military jets, in what U.S. officials described as a precautionary measure. A package aboard the passenger plane appeared similar to those found in England and Dubai, officials said, but was found not be contain explosives.

John Brennan, Obama's counterterrorism advisor, said the explosives "were in a form that was designed to try to carry out some type of attack."

A federal law enforcement official said initial reviews of the two suspicious cargo packages showed that the one found in England apparently contained a printer or ink toner cartridge with "some kind of white powder" and syringes and wires. He said the package uncovered in Dubai apparently contained cellphone components and a timer. He cautioned that both were still being evaluated and that no firm conclusions had been made.

Obama said that Brennan had spoken with the president of Yemen, who had pledged full cooperation in the investigation.

According to officials, the White House called a 1 a.m. meeting Friday to evaluate the cargo package intelligence, which included video participation with Homeland Security officials. They said the White House decided it was "good enough intelligence" to alert allies in Europe to start checking cargo packages coming from Yemen and bound for the U.S.

At 3 a.m., they said, the U.S. ordered every package from Yemen headed for the U.S. to be pulled off planes and inspected.

Homeland Security officials took a series of steps to enhance security, including heightened cargo screening and additional safety measures at U.S. airports. "Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams and pat downs, among others," Homeland Security officials said.

A Jewish Federation of Greater Chicago spokeswoman said the group was "taking appropriate precautions" and was "advising our local synagogues to do likewise." One of the targets was a Jewish congregation that meets at a Unitarian church, according to a U.S. official.

Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism in Washington, said Rahm Emanuel has been the focus of some attention on extremist blogs since long before he resigned as White House chief of staff to run for Chicago mayor. Segal said that vitriol on message boards peaked when Obama named Emanuel his top aide in early 2009.

The two incidents highlight a known vulnerability in the air cargo industry, one that has been the subject of extensive discussion between the Transportation Security Administration and the industry for several years.

The federal government has mandated in recent years that all cargo on passenger aircraft be screened, a goal that was achieved only this August. But the issue of parcels aboard cargo-only aircraft has been far more difficult to resolve. As far back as March 2009, the industry warned Congress it would not be able to meet the August deadline that 100% of cargo would be screened.

A TSA official acknowledged Friday that not all cargo inbound from abroad is screened and that the cargo that does get screened is handled differently than passenger luggage, which is subject to X-ray. That means that the two suspicious packages may not have been subject to screening when they were originally loaded in Yemen.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cargo-planes-20101030,0,6887227,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 doctors accused of using mentally ill homeless people in fraud scheme

The physicians are arrested for allegedly performing unwarranted procedures at a North Hollywood clinic so they could submit false bills to Medicare and Medi-Cal.

By Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times

October 30, 2010

Two physicians were arrested Friday for allegedly subjecting mentally ill homeless people to unnecessary tests and other procedures at a North Hollywood clinic in order to submit fraudulent bills to government insurance programs, authorities said.

Dr. Eleanor Santiago Arthur and Dr. Rodney Stephen Barron participated in a scheme in which "cappers" recruited Medicare and Medi-Cal enrollees from as far away as Long Beach and drove them to the Victory Boulevard clinic in exchange for a fee, according to the complaint filed by Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Carolyn Phillips.

The "patients" were subjected to abdominal ultrasounds and other procedures that were unwarranted, the complaint says. In some instances, their blood was drained into unsanitary, open containers, it says. One official said the clinics submitted the blood for tests under multiple patients' names so they could bill multiple times.

After the visits, the cappers drove the patients back to where they picked them up and paid them $100 each, according to the complaint.

The clinic billed the government for up to $1,000 worth of medical care per patient, and each physician saw 30 to 50 patients a day, city attorney's officials said in a news release. The investigation carried out by the Los Angeles County Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force found that the scheme cheated the government out of millions of dollars over six months, officials said.

Santiago Arthur and Barron each face up to seven years in prison if convicted of charges that they conspired to cheat Medicare and Medi-Cal, the government medical insurance programs for seniors, the poor and the disabled.

Barron voluntarily surrendered his U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration registration that allowed him to prescribe drugs that are commonly abused, an agency spokesman said. Santiago Arthur refused and retains the right to prescribe all medications.

The Medical Board of California is also investigating the physicians, an inquiry that could lead to revocation of their licenses. In a separate, pending action filed in July, the medical board accused Santiago Arthur of failing to properly care for patients whom she saw out of an office in Irvine.

The physicians, who were held in lieu of $500,000 bail each, could not be reached for comment.

Four clinic workers were also arrested.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-doctors-20101030,0,2156900,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sheriff's Department urges parents to check for pot-laced Halloween candy

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is urging parents to look for candy containing marijuana this Halloween.

Investigators have confiscated candies and snacks containing pot from marijuana dispensaries, and they are concerned such items could wind up in children's trick-or-treat bags, they said Friday in a statement.

The warning comes days before Californians vote on Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure. Sheriff Lee Baca opposes the proposition and has said he will continue to arrest marijuana growers even if it is approved.

Officials said in their warning that the confiscated items were untested and unlicensed, and some of the packaging could be attractive to children. The department encouraged parents to check Halloween candy and other snacks for indications they were tampered with.

The department has not received reports in previous years of candy or snacks containing pot being distributed to Halloween trick-or-treaters.

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDITORIAL

Experimenting with pot

The broader desire to legalize marijuana is no reason to vote for a badly flawed Prop. 19.

October 30, 2010

Just days ago, Proposition 19's prospects seemed shaky. A Los Angeles Times/USC poll found likely voters opposing it by 51% to 39%, and the Yes on Prop. 19 campaign was short on funds. Then George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist with a long-standing interest in loosening drug laws, resuscitated its chances with a last-minute $1-million donation.

In a statement outlining his support for ending marijuana prohibition, Soros said, "Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing billions of dollars in revenue annually." Legalizing marijuana, he added, would "also reduce crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and restore civil liberties lost by the mass incarceration of otherwise law-abiding citizens."

Well, maybe it would and maybe it wouldn't. But those broad, sweeping arguments for legalizing marijuana don't really speak to the numerous problems with this badly drafted ballot measure. The Times completely agrees that there are deep flaws in the nation's drug policy. We're even willing to concede that there might be benefits to ending the ban on pot. But a close look at Proposition 19 suggests that it is the wrong vehicle to accomplish that.

That the so-called drug war has been a disaster is widely acknowledged. Even the Obama administration has abandoned the terminology and places increasingly greater emphasis on prevention and treatment rather than incarceration of low-level drug users. Rather than making marijuana unavailable or reducing consumption, prohibition has led to the imprisonment of 750,000 people a year on possession charges, a black market that fuels gang rivalries and contributes to the violence among the Mexican drug cartels, and an unequal enforcement of drug laws that has fallen heaviest on black and Latino communities.

But Proposition 19 isn't the answer. Even voters who want marijuana legalized should beware of a measure that permits each of California's 478 cities and 58 counties to create local regulations regarding cultivation, possession and distribution. Plus, marijuana, though legal in California, would remain a prohibited Schedule I drug under federal law, setting up an inevitable conflict. Its strength and purity would not be overseen by federal drug authorities, and whether or not the much-hoped-for tax revenue comes in would depend on local governments — the ones that choose to, that is — setting up new and untried bureaucracies and enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, Californians, understandably confused by a crazy quilt of laws throughout the state, could actually end up more likely, not less, to face federal prosecution.

It's easy for residents of other states to encourage Californians to experiment with their safety on the broad, general principle that marijuana should no longer be illegal. But California voters have to look at the details. Opposition to the unsuccessful war on drugs is not sufficient reason to support a counterproductive solution such as Proposition 19. One has almost no relationship to the other.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-prop19-20101030,0,6070833,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the New York Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. Hunts for More Suspicious Packages

WASHINGTON — Officials searched for suspicious packages in the United States and other countries after two shipments containing explosives, sent from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago, were intercepted in Britain and Dubai.

The discovery of the explosives packed in toner cartridges for computer printers, based on a tip from Saudi intelligence officials, set off a broad terrorism scare on Friday that included the scrambling of fighter jets to accompany a passenger flight as it landed safely in New York.

Cargo planes were moved to secure areas of airports in Philadelphia and Newark for searches, and a United Parcel Service truck in Brooklyn was stopped and inspected. No additional explosives had been discovered by early Saturday morning.

Representative Jane Harman , a California Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Friday that the packages seized in Britain and Dubai contained PETN, the same chemical explosive contained in the bomb sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit last Dec. 25. That plot, too, was hatched in Yemen, a country that is regarded as one of the most significant fronts in the battle with extremists.

Ms. Harman, who was briefed by John S. Pistole , administrator of the Transportation Security Administration , said that both packages contained computer printer cartridges filled with the explosive, but that one used a cellphone as a detonator and the other had a timer.

In a brief statement to reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon, President Obama , who had been briefed on developments starting at 10:35 p.m. on Thursday, said the explosives represented a “credible terrorist threat” to the United States.

“The events of the past 24 hours underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism,” Mr. Obama said. He praised the work of intelligence and counterterrorism officials in foiling the plot.

“The American people should be confident that we will not waver in our resolve to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates and to root out violent extremism in all its forms,” the president said.

News of the terrorist plot came as Mr. Obama was barreling into the last four days of campaigning before midterm elections on Tuesday, and White House officials appeared determined to project the appearance of a commander in chief who was on top of the developments.

Intelligence officials in Saudi Arabia tipped off the United States to the plot to ship explosives from Sana, the Yemeni capital, American officials said. Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen, closely monitors militants there, who have plotted against the Saudi monarchy and sent a suicide bomber last year in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Saudi counterterrorism chief.

Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, whose office was briefed on the episode, said the tip about the explosives was precise. “We knew what we were looking for, and we knew where to look,” he said.

Mr. King, who has often been a critic of the administration and intelligence agencies that have at times missed warning signs of attacks, said, “So far everything has worked the right way.”

John O. Brennan , the president's top counterterrorism adviser, said that the packages containing explosives, which he compared in size to a “breadbox,” were undergoing forensic analysis and that the inquiry was at an early stage. He said investigators did not yet know how the explosives were intended to be activated.

He said the search for additional explosives was continuing. “We don't want to presume we know the bounds of this plot, so we are looking at all packages,” Mr. Brennan said.

The latest plot underscored once again the threat from Yemen and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch of the terrorism network based there. Mr. Brennan called it “the most active operational franchise of Al Qaeda.”

Indeed, Yemen, once little known to most Americans, has been the source of some of the most dramatic terrorism attempts of recent years. American intelligence officials have said that Anwar al-Awlaki , an American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen, played a direct role in the Christmas Day airliner plot, and he has publicly called for more attacks on the United States.

In addition, an Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood , Texas, a year ago had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki beforehand. Mr. Awlaki's lectures and sermons have been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada, and Faisal Shahzad , who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May, cited Mr. Awlaki as an inspiration.

Yemeni raids and American missile strikes have repeatedly targeted Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula since December, and early this year Mr. Awlaki became the first American citizen to be placed on the Central Intelligence Agency 's list of suspected terrorists to be captured or killed. So far no evidence has been made public linking Mr. Awlaki to the latest plot.

A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, Mohammed Albasha, said Yemen's government “launched a full-scale investigation” and was working closely with the United States and other countries to assess the episode.

Mr. Brennan, who spoke early Friday with the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh , said Yemen's cooperation in the fight against terrorism had steadily improved. “We're working very closely with them, and we have found that they are courageous partners,” he said.

Mr. Brennan also praised the Saudis, saying, “Their quick action was responsible for preventing what might have been major terrorist attacks with significant loss of life.”

The plot unfolded in dramatic fashion on international television, with scenes of security teams surrounding cargo planes in several countries, military fighters accompanying a passenger plane into New York and a grim-faced president and his aides, many of whom had spent a sleepless night.

One of the packages was found aboard a U.P.S. cargo plane at East Midlands Airport near Nottingham, England, officials said. A second, similar package was removed from a FedEx flight in Dubai, they said.

Neither company has flights into or out of Yemen, but they offer shipping from Yemen and contract with other companies to move freight from there to hubs in Europe and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The episode is likely to reignite a long-running debate over the screening of freight aboard cargo planes. Only a small percentage of such freight is currently screened, though in 2007 Congress directed the Transportation Security Administration to screen all cargo carried on passenger flights starting this year.

Administration officials said they had no reason to believe the Chicago addresses were connected to Mr. Obama's plans to be in Chicago on Saturday night. They said the decision to have the president speak publicly about the plot was made partly because of confusing and contradictory reports on television on Friday.

After a suspicious package was reported to be aboard a flight from the United Arab Emirates to New York, Canadian and American fighters were scrambled to accompany it. The flight landed in New York City on Friday afternoon without incident, and no explosives were found.

David Packles, 23, a financial analyst from New York who was aboard the plane, Emirates Flight 201 from Dubai, said he did not spot any military aircraft or notice any unusual security precautions, except for a 20-minute delay before passengers were permitted to leave the plane.

“To think there were fighter jets escorting the plane really, really blows my mind right now,” he said.

Two U.P.S. cargo planes at the Philadelphia airport and another in Newark were moved to safe areas away from terminals and searched before being cleared. A U.P.S. truck in New York City was stopped and searched as well, and two items from Yemen were inspected, the police said.

Counterterrorism officials declined to identify the synagogues to which the suspicious packages found in Dubai and Britain were addressed; they did say they did not include KAM Isaiah Israel, which is across the street from Mr. Obama's Hyde Park home.

Synagogues in Chicago planned to hold regular services on Saturday, said Rabbi Michael Balinsky, executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. “It's obviously disturbing,” he said of the news that Chicago might have been the focus of a plot, “but certainly the Jewish community will proceed as it proceeds. We'll just exercise caution.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/us/30plane.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yemen Emerges as Base for Qaeda Attacks on U.S.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Not long ago, most Americans had scarcely heard of Yemen , the arid, Texas-size country in the southern corner of the Arabian peninsula.

But on Friday, as news emerged of a plot to send explosives in courier packages from Yemen to synagogues in Chicago, the world's attention was focused once again on the threats brewing in Yemen's lawless, strife-torn hinterlands, where American citizens appear to be helping the local branch of Al Qaeda take aim at the United States.

It was the second time in less than a year: on Dec. 25, a Nigerian trained in Yemen tried to detonate a bomb on a commercial flight as it approached Detroit, and Al Qaeda took credit for the attempt. The American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had been in contact with the would-be bomber, and some analysts believe the latest effort may also be linked to Mr. Awlaki, a charismatic preacher who remains in hiding in Yemen and has issued threats by Internet.

In recent months, American intelligence officials have grown increasingly concerned about Yemen, despite a renewed cooperation on counterterrorism with the Yemeni authorities in the past year. Al Qaeda's regional arm, which went quiet for several months after a series of American airstrikes in Yemen that began last December, has become more active since the spring, and has killed several dozen Yemeni soldiers and police officers.

The group has also stepped up its recruitment drive on the Internet, issuing an English-language magazine that includes articles with titles like “Make a Bomb in Your Mother's Kitchen.” The most recent issue of the magazine, “Inspire,” was published last month and includes an article by an American citizen named Samir Khan titled “I am Proud to be a Traitor to America.” Mr. Khan, who grew up in North Carolina and New York City, is believed to have joined Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch last year.

One important reason for the rising concern about Yemen is the presence of Americans like Mr. Awlaki and Mr. Khan.

It is not clear how many Americans are working with Al Qaeda in Yemen, a group that is believed to comprise several hundred members, including some from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. The group is mostly based in the lawless provinces to the east of Yemen's capital, Sana, but has carried out attacks in the capital as well.

“These are people with both access to explosives and knowledge of how the United States works,” said Bernard Haykel , a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University who has written on Yemen. “And in Yemen, you can walk into a local branch of FedEx and mail something to the U.S. You can't do that in Somalia or in rural Afghanistan.”

Al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, which calls itself Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, does not consider the United States a key target, intelligence officials and analysts say. The group has tried repeatedly to strike at Saudi Arabia, and says it aims to topple the Yemeni and Saudi governments.

But attacking the United States draws broader publicity, and may be helpful with recruiting. Al Qaeda's regional arm took credit for a suicide attack on the American Embassy in Sana in September 2008 that left 16 people dead, including the six attackers. There have been other, less deadly attacks on other foreign embassies in Yemen's capital.

The United States government's relationship with Yemen has been troubled by mutual suspicion. The country has long been a haven for jihadists, who were welcomed there after returning from fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Yemeni government cracked down on many jihadists, but also maintained relationships with them, paroling some convicted terrorists and cultivating radical clerics. American officials complained; Yemeni officials defended their approach as necessary pragmatism in a country where hard-line Islamist views are common.

Last year American officials showed Yemen's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh , intelligence reports indicating that Al Qaeda was singling out him and his family members, many of whom hold senior government positions. After that, Mr. Saleh redoubled his commitment to fighting Al Qaeda, and allowed the United States to launch airstrikes on Yemeni terrain.

But Al Qaeda's presence has also led the United States to vastly increase its military and economic assistance to Yemen, and many Yemeni and American analysts say they fear that Mr. Saleh has a financial interest in maintaining some level of threat in his country.

Another source of concern is the rising chaos of Yemen, which has a fast-growing, desperately poor population of 23 million and is running out of water.

The country's meager oil reserves, a key source of revenue for the government, are also running dry. The government has limited control outside of major cities, where powerful tribes hold sway and are sometimes willing to shelter Qaeda members. An intermittent rebellion in Yemen's northwest has created a humanitarian crisis; in the south, a secessionist movement has fostered an increasingly lawless environment where Al Qaeda appears to be flourishing.

Although Al Qaeda has not claimed credit for the packages that were bound for Chicago, this latest episode “is a reminder that we have a serious problem brewing in Yemen, and the current counterterrorism measures have not been able to stop it,” said Gregory Johnsen, an expert on Yemen at Princeton University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/world/middleeast/30yemen.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Explosives in Cargo Renew Debate on Screening

The discovery of two explosive devices shipped by cargo planes has reignited a long-running debate about how thoroughly cargo needs to be screened on its way into the United States.

Despite the increased scrutiny of people and luggage on passenger planes since 9/11, there are far fewer safeguards for packages and bundles, particularly when loaded on cargo-only planes. The issue has come up in Congress repeatedly and was the subject of a recent report by the research arm of Congress that warned new mandates were not being met.

Industry experts said the latest case suggested that terrorists may have singled out cargo aircraft precisely because they are not subject to the same scrutiny as passenger planes.

Only a small percentage of all cargo from abroad is physically checked on freight planes bound for the United States. A law that took effect in August requiring full screening does not apply.

“The 100 percent screening requirements only pertains to passenger flights that carry air cargo,” said Steve Lord, a director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office .

The size of a package can determine whether it is physically checked. A legislative aide who has studied the issue said large packages were subject to a higher level of scrutiny, usually meaning they are opened, in an effort partly meant to detect stowaways. If a package makes an official suspicious, for instance if it is leaking or has protruding wires, it will be inspected, industry sources said. Sometimes, cargo on freight planes is tracked by only packing lists or manifests.

All cargo on passenger planes, on the other hand, which carry about 16 percent of all cargo that comes into, leaves and travels within the United States, are bound by the August law to have physical inspections using technology and other means. Those screening measures are conducted by private contractors, officials of a foreign government or by American customs officials in some countries.

In addition, planes carrying only freight that are scheduled to transfer to a passenger flight are subject to the full screening law. But as the G.A.O. noted in a June 2010 report, the federal government has yet to meet these requirements for inbound air cargo on passenger flights.

“Even though it is subject to the law, it is not yet being screened 100 percent,” Mr. Lord said. “T.S.A. is still devising a system to screen this cargo. That is a potential vulnerability.”

In a statement, the transportation administration said that it screens 100 percent of all cargo on domestic flights as well as 100 percent of what it described as "high-risk" international inbound air cargo packages on passenger planes. However, a T.S.A. official declined to say what percentage of cargo on international cargo flights is screened.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who was an author of the August law, said, “Given the terrorist threats that we face, the need for continued vigilance is clear when it comes to cargo on aircraft.”

Over all, 20 million pounds of cargo is transported on domestic and inbound passenger aircraft daily.

Officials of both FedEx and United Parcel Service declined to provide details about their screening practices but said their procedures exceeded federal regulations. Both carriers said that they rely on contract carriers in Yemen and do not fly their own planes there. On Friday, the companies said that they had embargoed shipments from Yemen or suspended service from that country.

The suspcious package intercepted in England was shipped through United Parcel Service. Karen Cole, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to say whether a company plane carried that package at any point in its route.

Maury S. Lane, a spokesman for FedEx, said the carrier learned that a suspect package might be at its Dubai facility when it was contacted by the F.B.I. and local authorities in Dubai. “We were contacted, and the package was intercepted shortly afterwards,” Mr. Lane said.

Michael D. Whatley, a partner at HBW Resources, which is a consulting firm for the Air Cargo Security Alliance, an organization that represents the cargo airlines, said that there is no way to force American standards on other countries loading cargo bound for the United States.

“That is a huge hole,” said Mr. Whatley. “So we have to rely on international treaties and bilateral negotiations and all the different tools that we have as a country to get the other countries to do it on their territory.”

Aviation officials have been under Congressional pressure for nearly a decade to ensure that air cargo loaded onto passenger planes is checked for possible explosives. Critics have argued it made no sense for the United States to have spent billions of dollars to examine all carry-on bags and checked baggage but allow cargo to be loaded onto passenger planes without scrutiny.

Congress, frustrated with the progress, mandated in 2007 that the Transportation Security Administration take steps to ensure that all air cargo on passenger planes be inspected — on domestic flights and international flights headed to the United States — by August 2010. Homeland Security recently acknowledged it would not meet the deadline for international cargo.

Earlier this year, Gale D. Rossides, then acting director of the Transportation Security Administration, , told a House committee that about 80 to 85 percent of international cargo headed for passenger planes would be inspected as of the August deadline, and cited the difficulty of getting certain international airports to comply.

“We're visiting these countries,” Ms. Rossides told a House Homeland Security subcommittee in June. “We're giving them our standards. We're assisting them with teams of T.S.A. experts.”

The G.A.O. audit said that part of the problem is that the Transportation Security Administration as of earlier this year had not approved the use of devices to screen large pallets or containers of cargo. A significant amount of air cargo headed to the United States is also given an exemption from screening if it is in shrink-wrapped bundles, based on an assumption that the shipper knows the contents are secure, the audit said.

Perhaps more troubling, the audit found that the agency could not say for sure that air carriers are complying with the mandates to screen cargo even at airports where the system is supposedly in place. The inspections are done by private companies, not government security officers, and the federal government does not have a reliable way to monitor the process.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/us/30cargo.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Russia Joins Drug Raid in Afghanistan, Marking Advance in Relations With U.S.

MOSCOW — Russian counternarcotics agents took part in an operation to eradicate several drug laboratories in Afghanistan this week, joining Afghan and American antidrug forces in what officials here said Friday marked an advance in relations between Moscow and Washington.

The operation, in which four opium refining laboratories and over 2,000 pounds of high-quality heroin were destroyed, was the first to include Russian agents. It also indicated a tentative willingness among Russian officials to become more deeply involved in Afghanistan two decades after American-backed Afghan fighters defeated the Soviet military there.

“This is a major success for cooperative actions,” Viktor P. Ivanov, Russia 's top drug enforcement official, told journalists in Moscow. “This shows that there are real actions being taken amid the reset in relations between Russia and the United States.”

Although Russia has a large stake in the outcome of the war in Afghanistan, the country has not participated in the NATO -led military coalition there and has seemed ambivalent about the American effort in its backyard.

Officials in Russia and the United States have called Afghanistan an important arena for cooperation, but they have often clashed over the conduct of the war. Russian officials have granted permission for nonlethal cargo destined for Afghanistan to be transported across Russian territory, but they have also pushed the authorities in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan to close an American military base there that acts as a crucial supply hub for the war. So far, the base remains open .

At the same time, Russia has strong interests in a stable and cooperative Afghanistan. A Taliban resurgence and the return of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan could bolster Islamic extremism in Central Asia and southern Russia, where the authorities continue to battle a potent Islamic insurgency in Chechnya and the surrounding region.

The issue of Afghan heroin, which is derived from opium, is particularly vexing. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of heroin, much of which seeps into neighboring Central Asian countries and then into Russia, where it finds a ready market of over a million users.

Almost 90 percent of Russia's heroin comes from Afghanistan, according to government statistics. Injected drugs kill thousands annually and are the main driver of Russia's H.I.V. epidemic, which is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world.

While Russia has struggled to bring heroin use under control domestically, officials have criticized the United States for not doing enough to halt the production of the drug in Afghanistan. Some here have even suggested that the United States was abetting the drug trade in an effort to weaken Russia.

Mr. Ivanov, who is also a close adviser to Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin , has been pressing his counterparts in Washington to increase efforts to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's opium production, estimated at almost 4,000 tons in the last year, has been a major source of financing for the Taliban. But the Obama administration has scaled back eradication programs, which were employed in the Bush era, out of fears that farmers would turn to the Taliban for assistance.

Russia and the United States created a counternarcotics working group last year in part to reconcile these disagreements, and this week's raid on the heroin factories appears to be a step in that direction.

Of about 70 people taking part in the raid early Thursday morning, only four were agents of Russia's Federal Counter Narcotics Service. The others were from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the Afghan drug police.

Senior D.E.A. officials said that the multinational task force, acting on intelligence, located a major clandestine heroin laboratory in the Zerasari village of Achin District, in Nangarhar Province near the Pakistani border. After they arrived, the agents discovered three additional labs hidden by vegetation. All four sites had been abandoned at the time of the operation, but officials said the evidence collected there confirmed that all were actively producing heroin and morphine.

The agents seized about 2,000 pounds of heroin and about 345 pounds of opium, as well as other chemicals and equipment. The D.E.A. said the heroin was worth $55.9 million.

“Just in terms of disruption this was a very important operation, but it was also part of a larger strategy to attack the drug flows,” said Eric Rubin, the deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Moscow. “The goal is to identify, disrupt and deny material support to terrorism, and very specifically to the Taliban elements that are supporting this drug trade.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/world/asia/30opium.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gunman Has Grievance With Marines, F.B.I. Says

WASHINGTON — The perpetrator of a string of shootings of buildings near the capital this month is believed to have a “grievance” with the United States Marine Corps , Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said Friday.

Officials have not yet identified who is responsible but say the four sets of shots — fired at the Pentagon, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., and the Marine recruiting station in Chantilly, Va. — came from the same gun and probably from the same person.

“He was somebody we thought might be upset or might have an issue with the Marine Corps,” said Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the F.B.I. Mr. Ames said the gunman was believed to have recently experienced “a significant personal crisis,” like a divorce, the loss of a job or the death of a loved one.

Mr. Ames declined to comment on whether the F.B.I. believed that the gunman was a Marine.

The shootings have formed an unsettling pattern in the days before two large events in the capital — a rally organized by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Saturday, and the Marine Corps Marathon, with 30,000 runners, on Sunday.

Officials said they believed that the gunman had no intention of harming people. All the shootings were aimed at buildings, and most took place when the buildings were empty. Mr. Ames said that the authorities asked the gunman to turn himself in.

The fourth shooting took place early Friday, the authorities said, again at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

A spokeswoman for the Police Department in Prince William County, where the museum is located, said several shots fired overnight caused damage to glass that forms the upper part of the building. The episode was discovered around 7 a.m. when employees arrived for work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/us/30shootings.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPINION

The Shame of New York

The whole notion of the rule of law, critical to a democracy, is sabotaged when the guardians of the law — in this case the officers of the New York City Police Department — are permitted to violate the law with impunity.

The police in New York City are not just permitted, they are encouraged to trample on the rights of black and Hispanic New Yorkers by relentlessly enforcing the city's degrading, unlawful and outright racist stop-and-frisk policy. Hundreds of thousands of wholly innocent individuals, most of them young, are routinely humiliated by the police, day in and day out, year after shameful year.

Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law and public health at Columbia University and a widely recognized scholar on the subject of police and citizen interactions, has filed a report in support of a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the stop-and-frisk policy as unconstitutional. Based on analyses of the department's own statistics, he found, as the plaintiffs and other observers have argued all along, that seizures of weapons or contraband as a result of the stops “is extremely rare.”

The rate of gun seizures is near zero — 0.15 guns seized for every 100 stops. “The N.Y.P.D. stop-and-frisk tactics,” wrote Professor Fagan, “produce rates of seizures of guns or other contraband that are no greater than would be produced simply by chance.”

More important, after studying six years' worth of data, the professor concluded that many of the millions of stops are violations of the Constitution. One of a number of constitutional problems, according to Professor Fagan, is that the police frequently use race or national origin rather than reasonable suspicion as the basis for the stops.

“I provide evidence that the N.Y.P.D. has engaged in patterns of unconstitutional stops of city residents that are more likely to affect black and Latino citizens,” he wrote.

From 2004 through 2009, city police officers stopped people on the street and checked them out nearly three million times. Many were patted down, frisked, made to sprawl face down on the ground, or spread-eagle themselves against a wall or over the hood of a car. Nearly 90 percent of the people stopped were completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

An overwhelming majority of the people stopped were black or Hispanic. Blacks were nine times more likely than whites to be stopped by the police, but no more likely than whites to be arrested as a result of the stops.

While crime has been going down, the number of people getting stopped has been going up. More than 575,000 stops were made last year — a record. But 504,594 of those stops were of people who had committed no crime, were issued no summonses and were carrying no weapons or illegal substances.

If the stops go up when crime goes down, it's fair to wonder what might happen if there was no crime in the city. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly might decide that it is necessary to frisk everybody. The use of such stops has more than quintupled on their watch.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the class-action suit, wants the Police Department barred from engaging in what the center describes as race-based and “suspicionless stops and frisks.”

Professor Fagan, in his report filed in connection with the suit, found that nearly 150,000 stops over the six-year period that he studied lacked any legal justification at all. An additional 544,252 stops lacked sufficiently detailed information from the officers involved to determine their legality.

I've no doubt that the professor's findings are, in fact, conservative. But even his figures show the police to be violating the Constitution on a scandalously vast scale. The police use such specious justifications as “furtive movements” or an alleged “bulge” in someone's pocket as the basis for stopping people. If you believe all those furtive-movement and bulging-pocket stories, I've got some antiques spanning the East River that you might be interested in.

It's important to keep in mind that what we are talking about here, in the overwhelming number of cases, are innocent people, not criminals. No one wants to stop the police from going after the bad guys. But what keeps happening with this lousy policy is that the cops target skin color, not the likelihood that a crime might be in progress, or have taken place. As Professor Fagan found, “Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be stopped than whites, even in areas where there are low crime rates and where residential populations are racially heterogeneous or predominantly white.”

It doesn't matter if innocent black or Hispanic kids are in a high-crime area or low, a minority area or white, they stand a good chance of being harassed by New York City cops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/opinion/30herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Chicago Sun Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Explosive packages bound for area Jewish institutions

Tips lead to search of cargo planes from Yemen  

October 30, 2010

by MARY WISNIEWSKI, LYNN SWEET, STEFANO ESPOSITO AND FRANK MAIN

Two packages containing explosives and bound for Chicago area Jewish institutions were intercepted in what President Obama called a "credible terrorist threat against our country.''

Obama was alerted Thursday night to the plot, which involved packages sent on cargo jets from Yemen.

A federal source told the Chicago Sun-Times at least one Chicago synagogue and one Jewish Community Center had been targeted.

The JCC -- a 107-year-old service organization "dedicated to ensuring a strong and vibrant Jewish life and community'' -- has seven community centers in the area, including Rogers Park, Lake View and Hyde Park, according to its website. It also runs 15 preschools. No one with the JCC could be reached for comment Friday.

The Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago was alerted about the possible threat by authorities Friday morning, according to Linda Haase, associate vice president.

"We are taking appropriate precautions, and we are advising local synagogues to do likewise," Haase said. "Sadly, this is not the first time the Jewish community has had to deal with a security issue."

While it was not immediately known which synagogue was targeted, federal officials said that neither package was addressed to KAM Isaiah Israel synagogue, which is across the street from Obama's Kenwood home. Michelle Obama was in town Friday for a memorial service for Bishop Arthur M. Brazier. The president is expected to be in town today for a pre-election rally.

Gov. Quinn said he has been in touch with leaders of the state's Jewish community.

"I have committed the full resources of the State of Illinois -- working cooperatively with federal and local officials -- to ensure the continued safety and security of everyone in our state,'' Quinn said. "My thoughts are with Illinois' Jewish community, and I urge everyone to stand together in unity during this time."

Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice said both packages were sent from the same address in Yemen.

Authorities in Dubai intercepted one explosive device. The second package was aboard a plane searched in East Midlands, which is north of London, and officials said it contained a printer toner cartridge with wires and powder. White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said the devices were in packages about the size of a breadbox.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation in Lake View noted that Friday night began the Jewish sabbath, and that it was important for things to carry on as usual.

"We need to not let the terrorists stop us," Lopatin said, adding: "We have to be cautious and vigilant but not panic."

"I don't know why they chose Chicago, but it wakes you up out of your complacency, and hopefully, we'll be safe and more vigilant in the future," Lopatin said.

Several cargo planes along the East Coast were searched, but no explosives were found. An Emirates Airlines passenger jet carrying cargo from Yemen was escorted from the Canadian border to New York City by two military fighter jets, U.S. officials said. They said it was a precautionary action.

The Department of Homeland Security said that it has taken steps to enhance security at the nation's airports, including heightened cargo screening. The Homeland Security Department said that passengers should expect an "unpredictable mix of security layers" that include canine teams and patdowns.

U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they were increasingly certain that Yemen's al-Qaida branch was the source. The same group was responsible for the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas.

The radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who now lives in hiding in Yemen, is believed to have helped inspire recent attacks, including the Fort Hood shooting, the Times Square bombing attempt and the failed Christmas airliner bombing.

Before the attempted Detroit bombing, the U.S. had regarded al-Qaida's Yemen branch as primarily a threat in the region, not to the United States.

Brennan said that a forensic analysis is under way for the two packages. He said the initial analysis shows the materials found in the device were "intended to do harm."

Intelligence personnel had been monitoring a suspected plot for days, officials said. The packages were discovered after a foreign intelligence service picked up information related to Yemen and passed it on to the United States. The Yemeni government has stepped up counterterrorism operations with help from the U.S. military and intelligence officials.

UPS immediately suspended service out of Yemen.

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, said Illinois Muslims stand united with Jewish organizations in condemning "this terrorist and heinous act."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2849030,CST-NWS-suspicious30.article

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the White House

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement by the President

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  I want to briefly update the American people on a credible terrorist threat against our country, and the actions that we're taking with our friends and our partners to respond to it.

Last night and earlier today, our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, working with our friends and allies, identified two suspicious packages bound for the United States -- specifically, two places of Jewish worship in Chicago.  Those packages had been located in Dubai and East Midlands Airport in the United Kingdom.  An initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material.

I was alerted to this threat last night by my top counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan.  I directed the Department of Homeland Security and all our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps are necessary to protect our citizens from this type of attack.  Those measures led to additional screening of some planes in Newark and Philadelphia.

The Department of Homeland Security is also taking steps to enhance the safety of air travel, including additional cargo screening.  We will continue to pursue additional protective measures for as long as it takes to ensure the safety and security of our citizens.

I've also directed that we spare no effort in investigating the origins of these suspicious packages and their connection to any additional terrorist plotting.  Although we are still pursuing all the facts, we do know that the packages originated in Yemen. We also know that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a terrorist group based in Yemen, continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies.

John Brennan, who you will be hearing from, spoke with President Saleh of Yemen today about the seriousness of this threat, and President Saleh pledged the full cooperation of the Yemeni government in this investigation.

Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Yemeni government to disrupt plotting by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to destroy this al Qaeda affiliate. We'll also continue our efforts to strengthen a more stable, secure and prosperous Yemen so that terrorist groups do not have the time and space they need to plan attacks from within its borders.

The events of the past 24 hours underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism.  As usual, our intelligence, law enforcement and Homeland Security professionals have served with extraordinary skill and resolve and with the commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand.  We're also coordinating closely and effectively with our friends and our allies, who are essential to this fight.

As we obtain more information we will keep the public fully informed.  But at this stage, the American people should know that the counterterrorism professionals are taking this threat very seriously and are taking all necessary and prudent steps to ensure our security.  And the American people should be confident that we will not waver in our resolve to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates and to root out violent extremism in all its forms.

Thank you very much.  

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/29/statement-president

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Department of Homeland Security

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DHS Statement on Increased Security Precautions

"As a precaution, DHS has taken a number of steps to enhance security. Some of these security measures will be visible while others will not. The public may recognize specific enhancements including heightened cargo screening and additional security at airports. Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams and pat downs, among others. As always, we remind the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to local law enforcement."

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1288373834911.shtm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Department of Justice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez Delivers Remarks at the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 10th Anniversary Event

Washington, D.C.

October 29, 2010

Thank you, Attorney General Holder, for your leadership and commitment to combating human trafficking, and your vision in developing forthcoming new initiatives to make our efforts more effective than ever.

It's an honor to be here to celebrate how far we've come since the TVPA was enacted a decade ago. HT is a grave affront to human rights and to our nation's core values, and there can be no higher calling in our commitment to vindicating the individual rights of all people than eradicating this form of modern-day slavery.

In my career with DOJ, I've had the privilege to serve as a prosecutor in the Criminal Section working on the front lines of involuntary servitude cases and other crimes, as one of the first coordinators of the Worker Exploitation Task Force, as a Deputy AAG in the leadership of the Civil Rights Division in the late 1990s as our efforts around human trafficking were gathering force, and now at the helm of a Division doing more than ever to bring justice to human trafficking victims.

While prosecuting involuntary servitude and slavery cases has been a priority of the Civil Rights Division for decades, it is incredible to see the Division's early efforts evolve from a small but dedicated group of civil rights lawyers bringing a few involuntary servitude cases a year, into a broad-based, comprehensive enforcement program in close coordination with critical partners across government, and throughout the NGO community.

The TVPA provided us with powerful tools that have dramatically impacted enforcement efforts. We've gone from charging fewer than four cases a year in the years before the TVPA, to about 18 a year during the first five years of the TVPA, to an average of nearly forty cases each year over the past five years. These results include record numbers of prosecutions in each of the past two years, with a record 52 cases charged just this past fiscal year. These results are a testament to the leadership of our Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit created 3 years ago to prosecute complex HT cases, and to provide specialized expertise to federal prosecutors around the country. They are also a testament to the United States Attorneys Offices nationwide who have stepped up to bring tough HT prosecutions, as well as our law enforcement partner from a variety of federal, state and local agencies and our non-profit partners who serve as the indispensable bridge between victims and government.

And we're not just bringing more cases. We're bringing cases of unprecedented scope and impact, taking on international organized criminal networks; and partnering with the Criminal Division, ICE, and Mexican authorities to bring bilateral investigations and prosecutions. Human trafficking is becoming similar to drug trafficking and gun trafficking in that it frequently involves complex cartels of organized crime.

But this work isn't about how many cases we've charged or how well we work together -- it's about the human lives restored to freedom and dignity.

It's about the widowed mother of six from an impoverished village in Nigeria, enslaved for 8 years outside Dallas, Texas, courageously speaking out against her captors and reuniting with her children while the traffickers serve 20 years in prison

It's about the undocumented Mexican and Guatemalan farmworkers beaten, threatened, and locked in the back of a truck, forced to toil in the fields to pay off smuggling debts, now free to feed their families with the fruits of their labor

It's about the troubled hometown teens compelled into prostitution on the streets of Baltimore by sex traffickers who used violence, threats, and addictive drugs to hold their victims in submission, now living free as survivors, while the trafficker serves 37 years

The work of striving for justice on behalf of these victims and others can be heart-breaking and gut-wrenching. It can also be inspiring, and give us hope as we face the challenges ahead. And great challenges do remain.

Today we are here to celebrate how far we've come, and to recommit ourselves to the unfinished business that lies ahead. We celebrate: The thousands of human lives restored to freedom; the hundreds of traffickers prosecuted and their criminal networks dismantled; the strong partnerships forged with our government and NGO colleagues; and of course our partnerships within the many parts of the Department of Justice who have played key roles in the momentum of today's broad-based anti-trafficking efforts, from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office for Victims of Crime who have led the Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative; to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys and the US Attorney community who have joined forces with us on announcing the forthcoming initiatives; To our partners in the Criminal Division who are key experts on sexual exploitation, organized crime, and international collaboration. Each of these partners has been key to the significant strides we have made since enactment of the TVPA, as a testament that human trafficking is a crime against human dignity that will not be tolerated on the shores of a nation founded on freedom.

As Attorney General Holder said, we're committed to doing more than ever before. And we're looking forward to working with all of you as we start implementing the forthcoming new initiatives to streamline coordination.

With that, I'd like to introduce the Honorable Lanny A. Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, who has been such an incredible force in building these partnerships to take our fight against Human Trafficking to the next level.

http://www.justice.gov/crt/opa/pr/speeches/2010/crt-speech-101029.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer Delivers Remarks at the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 10th Anniversary Event

Washington, D.C.

October 29, 2010

Attorney General Holder, Assistant Attorney General Perez, and distinguished guests: It is an honor for me to be with you today to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

The TVPA was a landmark piece of legislation. Among other things, it dramatically expanded our ability to hold human traffickers, and especially child sex traffickers, criminally accountable. In passing the TVPA ten years ago, Congress recognized that existing criminal legislation was inadequate to deter human trafficking and bring traffickers appropriately to justice.

Human trafficking is a reprehensible crime, and children are often the victims of the depraved criminal schemes that we prosecute. Human trafficking truly is a “modern form of slavery.”

Since the passage of the TVPA, the Criminal Division has partnered closely with the Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, other federal agencies, and state and local authorities to bring human traffickers to justice and seek appropriate penalties for their crimes.

To give you one example of the level of cooperation we have achieved, last year the Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section partnered with the Civil Rights Division; the U.S. Attorney's Offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and here in the District of Columbia; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and the police departments here and in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on a child sex trafficking case against Jorge Flores-Rojas. Flores-Rojas pleaded guilty under the TVPA to trafficking two minor girls, including an undocumented Honduran national, for the purpose of causing them to engage in commercial sex acts in Charlotte and the District of Columbia. He also pleaded guilty to transporting an adult woman across state lines to force her to engage in commercial sex acts. The evidence at sentencing showed that he repeatedly sexually and physically abused at least one of his minor victims. Flores-Rojas was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his crimes.

This level of coordination is typical of the cases we prosecute, and spans across multiple Sections in the Division. In addition to the Child Exploitation Section, for example, which leads the Division's prosecution efforts in this area, our Office of Enforcement Operations approves Title III wiretaps in all human trafficking cases, and our Organized Crime and Racketeering Section has been a consistent partner in the fight against human trafficking. Just recently, nine defendants pleaded guilty in the so-called “Giant Labor Solutions” case in Kansas City, a case prosecuted by the local U.S. Attorney's Office and the Civil Rights Division that was aimed at dismantling an Uzbek organized crime ring engaged in labor racketeering and forced labor of guest workers across 14 states. This case, which yielded a conviction against the sole remaining defendant yesterday, has benefited from close coordination among our Organized Crime Section; the Civil Rights Division; the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas City; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the FBI; and the Department of Labor.

Shortly after the enactment of the TVPA, we also collaborated with the FBI Crimes Against Children Unit and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to establish the Innocence Lost Initiative. Since its creation in 2003, this Initiative has developed 38 task forces and working groups nationwide to investigate and prosecute the commercial sexual exploitation of children and, it has produced more than 500 convictions in state and federal courts across the country.

While our criminal prosecutions are necessary to combat human trafficking, our extensive international efforts are also central – both in terms of conducting investigations and building the capacity of foreign governments to fight trafficking. As Assistant Attorney General Perez described, so many of these cases involve the exploitation of vulnerable foreign nationals. U.S. investigators and prosecutors must interview witnesses and obtain evidence overseas. And all too frequently, trafficking defendants flee the United States to seek safe haven abroad. Our Office of International Affairs has been instrumental in assisting investigations overseas and obtaining extraditions of human traffickers to the United States. These efforts have greatly strengthened our prosecutions here at home.

In addition, through our Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (or OPDAT), the Division has devoted significant resources to capacity-building abroad. In Fiscal Year 2009, OPDAT conducted 49 programs involving 17 countries to strengthen international efforts to prevent human trafficking. In the last several weeks alone, OPDAT has conducted human trafficking programs in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico, including assisting the creation of a Mexican website devoted exclusively to anti-human trafficking efforts.

There may be no greater success story than in Mexico. There, the Department of Justice, in partnership with the Departments of State and Homeland Security, is working hand-in-hand with our friends in the Mexican government to develop investigations and prosecutions to combat human trafficking rings operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

These efforts are a true testament to what the U.S. government can achieve when we collaborate and share resources, and the Criminal Division is absolutely committed to working with its law enforcement partners even more closely in the future.

Today's celebration marks the anniversary of a tremendously important piece of legislation that continues to aid us in our fight against human trafficking. I am privileged to take part in this event with you. Thank you. Now please welcome your next speaker, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steve Dettelbach.

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches/2010/crm-speech-101029.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 10th Anniversary Event

Washington, D.C.

October 29, 2010

Thank you, Roy [Austin].

It is an honor to join so many friends, colleagues, and committed partners this morning. Thank you all for helping to mark this historic milestone. I also want to thank Dorothy Williams and the Eastern Senior High School Color Guard for sharing their gifts with us this morning and for helping to make this celebration so special.

Today, we commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. And together, we celebrate a decade of progress and service, of liberation, and of long-overdue justice.

This record of accomplishment has been the result of extraordinary dedication and collaboration. In particular, I want to recognize, and thank Roy and Hilary [Axam], Assistant Attorneys General Perez and Breuer, and U.S. Attorney Dettelbach, as well as the other members of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, for their efforts.

Since Congress enacted the TVPA in 2000, many of the leaders in this room have been on the front lines of our nation's fight to protect the victims of human trafficking and to bring traffickers to justice. Your efforts have liberated thousands and given trafficking victims across the globe an opportunity to live in freedom, and with the dignity that every person deserves.

The human trafficking prosecutions brought by the Department of Justice are a critical part of our efforts to protect civil and human rights. This work is a priority for many of the Justice Department's components. And for me, it is also a source of great pride.

In particular, we should all be encouraged by the work of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and by its impressive record of achievement. Since its creation three years ago, this unit has used the tools and resources provided by the TVPA to dismantle trafficking networks operating in every region of the country. More important, their work has provided trafficking victims from more than 80 countries with long overdue freedom, and with long denied justice.

The Justice Department has rescued trafficking victims from hotels in South Dakota, eldercare homes in California, farms in Florida, and suburban houses in Wisconsin. From Connecticut to California, our agents and prosecutors have liberated victims from sex-trafficking rings. We have secured forty- and fifty-year sentences against traffickers who once thought that they could exploit and abuse their victims with impunity. And we have obtained millions of dollars in restitution.

But the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit isn't working alone. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is leading efforts to combat sex trafficking of minors and collaborating with state and local law enforcement, the FBI, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to make the Innocence Lost Initiative a success. To date, this initiative has rescued nearly 900 children and produced more than 500 convictions in state and federal courts.

The Justice Department isn't the only federal agency working to eradicate human trafficking and to protect its victims. I'd like to thank our partners in the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, State, Defense, and Labor for their efforts, as well as our colleagues in state and local law enforcement – and the many victim advocate organizations also serving as partners. We are more effective in the fight against human trafficking when we work closely together.

This is true internationally, as well. And with the help of our counterparts in other nations, the United States is working to disrupt trafficking networks that operate across international borders, including the Southern border of the United States. Through the Bilateral Enforcement Initiative – a collaboration between DOJ, Homeland Security, and Mexican law enforcement – we are investigating and prosecuting trafficking networks that operate on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, we're bringing help, and hope, to victims who have seen their dreams for a better life become nightmares. And, today, I am pleased that some of our key partners in this work have joined us. I want to join in welcoming Diputada Rosi Orozco, a member of Mexico's national Congress and President of Mexico's National Commission on Human Trafficking, as well as her colleagues from the Mexican Embassy. Thank you for being with us.

But despite our many achievements, there is still much more work to be done.

Human trafficking has become big business, generating billions of dollars each year. Almost every country in the world is affected, either as a source or a destination for trafficking victims. And here in the United States, unfortunately, far too many continue to live in bondage and in fear.

But we are fighting back.

Today, as we enter the second decade of TVPA enforcement, I am pleased to announce an important new weapon in the fight against human trafficking. In the coming weeks, the Justice Department, in collaboration with our partners in federal law enforcement, will be taking new steps to make our efforts to secure justice for victims of human trafficking more effective than ever before. We will be strengthening the structures of federal law enforcement – both within the Department of Justice and in coordination with our partner agencies – to enhance our capacity to investigate and prosecute human trafficking crimes.

The Department will be working with U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the country to improve collaboration among the prosecutors in the field, EOUSA, and the experts on human trafficking prosecutions in the Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions. Engaging the Department's subject matter experts in the early stages of investigations and prosecutions will better equip our prosecutors to put traffickers where they belong – behind bars. We are going to ensure that every human trafficking investigation and prosecution has access to the most sophisticated expertise that the Department of Justice has at its disposal.

In addition to these steps, the Justice Department will be working with its law enforcement partners to launch pilot interagency teams in select judicial districts to focus on bringing traffickers to justice. These teams – which will bring together AUSAs and federal agents from across federal law enforcement – will allow us to leverage the assets and expertise of each participating agency. This approach will create a streamlined interagency criminal enforcement structure. And it will allow us to more effectively target our enforcement efforts at the most serious human trafficking threats, and develop high-impact investigations and prosecutions.

Working together, we can ensure that the progress we celebrate today is just the beginning.

Because of the commitment and contributions of the people in this room over the last 10 years, the United States has become a global leader in the fight against human trafficking. But we cannot become complacent. We cannot yet be satisfied.

Too many are still suffering in the shadows. Too many in our communities are being denied their dignity and their right to freedom. Too many trafficking victims are still counting on us.

I look forward to what we can accomplish together. Through sustained collaboration and strong commitment, we can – and we will – deliver on our nation's founding, and most fundamental, promise: liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-101029.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 18 States on Election Day

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 400 federal observers and department personnel to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for the Nov. 2, 2010, general election.

Although state and local governments have primary responsibility for administering elections, under the federal voting rights laws, the Civil Rights Division is charged with and committed to protecting the rights of all citizens to access the ballot on Election Day.

In the days leading up to and throughout Election Day, Civil Rights Division staff members will be available at a special toll-free number to receive complaints related to ballot access ( 1-800-253-3931 ) (TTY line 1-877-267-8971 including allegations of voter intimidation or coercion targeted at voters because of their race, color, national origin or religion. In addition, individuals may also report complaints, problems or concerns related to voting via the Internet. Forms may be submitted through a link on the department web page: www.justice.gov/

Allegations of voter fraud are handled by the 94 U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the country and the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section. Complaints may be directed to any of the local U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the local FBI offices or the Public Integrity Section at 202-514-1412 .

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1 965, the department has regularly sent observers and monitors around the country to protect voters ' rights. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group. In addition, the act requires certain covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance during the election process. Under the Voting Rights Act, the department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that have been certified for coverage by a federal court or the Attorney General. The department also may send monitors from its own staff to elections in other jurisdictions.

On Election Day, federal observers will monitor polling place activities in 16 jurisdictions:

• Autauga County , Ala. ;
• Bethel , Alaska ;
• Apache and Navajo Counties , Ariz. ;
• Riverside County , Calif. ;
• Randolph County , G a. ;
• Kane County , Ill. ;
• Salem County (Penns Grove), N.J.;
• Cibola and Sandoval Counties , N.M. ;
• Cuyahoga County , Ohio ;
• Shannon County ; S.D.; and
• Dallas , Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson Counties, Texas.

Justice Department personnel will monitor the election in an additional 14 jurisdictions:

• Maricopa County , Ariz. ;
• Alameda County , Calif. ;
• Seminole County , Fl a. ;
• Honolulu , Hawaii ;
• Neshoba County , Miss.;
• Colfax County , Neb. ;
• Passaic County , N.J. ;
• Orange County , N.Y. ;
• Lorain County , Ohio ;
• Philadelphia , Pa. ;
• Bennett and Todd Counties , S.D.;
• Shelby County , Tenn. ; and
• Harris County, Texas.

The observers and department personnel will gather information on whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group; whether jurisdictions are complying with the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act; whether jurisdictions permit voters to receive assistance by a person of his or her choice if the voter is blind, has a disability, or is unable to read or write; whether jurisdictions allow voters with disabilit ies to cast a private and independent ballot; and whether jurisdictions comply with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act. To assist in these inquiries, the department has deployed observers and monitors who speak Spanish and a variety of Asian and Native American languages. Both the federal observers and department personnel will coordinate monitoring activities, and department attorneys maintain contact with local election officials.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting and election-related laws is available on the Civil Rights Division 's web site at: www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-crt-1235.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From ICE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ICE featured on National Geographic Channel's "Border Wars"

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does exciting work in the name of homeland security. We take down massive drug smuggling operations. We free individuals from human trafficking campaigns. We protect children from child predators. We also dedicate significant resources to our borders -- protecting them from drugs, crime and terrorism.

This season, the National Geographic Channel's "Border Wars" will highlight the work of ICE's Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) -- the largest investigative arm within the Department of Homeland Security -- and the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Cameras will follow HSI agents and ERO officers as they foil fugitive operations and tackle gangs, intercepting boatloads of narcotics and participating in an investigation yielding 3,000 pounds of cocaine. These drug smuggling operations are often linked to larger criminal organizations that threaten the safety and welfare of U.S. citizens.

Join ICE agents and officers as they engage in "Border Wars" on the National Geographic Channel, Wednesdays this fall at 9 p.m. Episodes featuring ICE will air on:

• Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 9 p.m.
• Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 9 p.m.
• Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 9 p.m.

Learn more about HSI. Learn more about ERO's Fugitive Operations.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1010/101029washingtondc2.htm

.