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From the Los Angeles Times

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Cholera detected in the Dominican Republic

A case of cholera has been detected in the Dominican Republic, the first sign that the worsening epidemic in neighboring Haiti could be crossing the border shared by the island nations. The cholera case was diagnosed in a 32-year-old Haitian man who works in the Dominican Republic and visited Haiti between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12, reports said.

A cholera case has also been detected in Florida, involving a woman who recently returned from Haiti.

The man's diagnosis in the Dominican Republic sent authorities scrambling to identify any other possible cholera cases; several suspected cases have turned out negative. The Dominican Republic has tightened control of its border with Haiti, including temporarily shutting down a traditional cross-border market in the Dominican border town of Dajabon.

At least 1,100 people in Haiti have succumbed to cholera since the outbreak began last month.

The Dominican government said Wednesday that it would ask employers in the tourism and construction sectors to temporarily stop hiring Haitian workers. Carpets doused with chlorine were being placed on border bridges to disinfect tires and shoes, reported Dominican Today. The man with cholera is in stable condition in a hospital in eastern Dominican Republic, the Miami Herald reported.

Times staff writer Joe Mozingo recently reported on a woman who attempted to save her 2-year-old son from the disease. The mother, Rosemane Saintelone, was unsuccessful, and then was turned away from public transit trucks when drivers saw her carrying her child's corpse. Mozingo and staff photographer Rick Loomis observed dozens of bodies piling up in pits.

Haiti has a presidential election scheduled for Nov. 28, but the campaigns are being hampered by the cholera outbreak, deadly anti-U.N. riots, and continued recovery efforts after the devastating January earthquake.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/11/haiti-cholera-dominican-republic.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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U.S. civilian court acquits ex-Guantanamo detainee of all major terrorism charges

The verdict involving a suspect in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa may complicate efforts to try Sept. 11 defendants in nonmilitary U.S. courts. But Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani may still face life in prison without parole for his conviction on a lesser count.

By Carol J. Williams and Geraldine Baum, Los Angeles Times

November 18, 2010

Reporting from Los Angeles and New York

A New York federal jury acquitted alleged Al Qaeda accomplice Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on Wednesday of all major terrorism charges in the 1998 suicide bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

In the first trial of a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner in civilian court, the Tanzanian was convicted of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. property but cleared of 276 counts of murder and attempted murder. The government said it would seek the maximum sentence of life without parole on the conspiracy count.

The verdict could presage trouble for President Obama's plans to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba and bring its remaining detainees to the United States for trial. Officials who want military commissions to try the men argue that terrorism suspects would get too many rights and protections in civilian court.

"This tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama administration's decision to try Al Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts," Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said, calling the Ghailani ruling "a total miscarriage of justice."

As the jury in the case began deliberations last week, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said the administration was close to reaching a decision on where to try Guantanamo's "high-value detainees," including confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Opposition remains fierce among many New Yorkers to bringing the Sept. 11 suspects to the scene of their alleged crimes. Critics warn that the city could become a magnet for other terrorist attacks during the trials. Many also fear that stricter standards for admissible evidence could result in more acquittals and lenient sentences.

In Ghailani's monthlong trial, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan refused to allow a key government witness to testify after finding that the information had been produced by torture at an undisclosed CIA foreign detention site.

Prosecutors cast Ghailani, 36, as a committed terrorist in league with Al Qaeda's murderous leaders. Defense attorneys said he was duped into helping acquire what the plotters needed to bomb the embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Court-watchers had feared a mistrial was in the offing when one juror told Kaplan that she wanted to be dismissed from the panel, saying she was the lone holdout and felt "attacked" for her unspecified position. Kaplan sent the jurors back with instructions to work toward a unanimous decision.

Defense attorney Peter Quijano said he would appeal Ghailani's sole conviction but thanked "this courageous jury and judge" on behalf of his client.

U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara said the government would seek the maximum sentence of life without parole.

"We respect the jury's verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings," said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department.

Sentencing is set for January.

Daphne Eviatar of Human Rights First, who has monitored both Guantanamo military commissions and terrorism cases in civilian courts, praised Ghailani's trial as "efficient, fair and transparent," in contrast with the military tribunals.

Ghailani's trial stirred little protest or disruption, but politicians argue that the security risks and costs would be massively higher if the more notorious terrorism suspects were prosecuted in New York.

Last year, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg estimated the city's cost of trying the five highest-profile terrorism suspects in New York at $215 million for the first year and $200 million for subsequent years, mostly to pay for extra police patrols.

But, the mayor said, "this is the federal government's call, and if the trial is in New York, we will provide security."

New York Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo opposes trying Guantanamo prisoners in his state.

Bill Martel, a professor of international security studies at Tufts University's Fletcher School, said that the Obama administration's announcement a year ago that the Sept. 11 suspects would be tried in New York triggered resistance because it was ill-timed.

"The mistake that people make in the policy world is that they lose touch with public opinion," Martel said.

Other analysts contend that trials in the U.S. would be cathartic.

"Yes, it's a challenge to New York, but we are up to it, just like we were to everything else that has happened since 9/11," said Karen Greenberg, head of the Center on Law and Security at New York University's law school. "It's important that New York overcome the sense that we're vulnerable and [show] we can take care of ourselves."

Of the 174 prisoners still at Guantanamo, only one remains indicted for war crimes. Charges filed against about 20 others during the George W. Bush administration were dropped as the military commission rules were changed.

Only five trials have been held by military commissions at Guantanamo, and all have resulted in conviction. In the nine years since the Sept. 11 attacks, at least 400 terrorism suspects have been tried in U.S. civilian courts. Most were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ghailani-verdict-20101118,0,299041,print.story

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TSA chief defends body scanners, pat-downs

John Pistole says the pat-downs, which include searches of passengers' genital areas, and scanners that reveal nude images of their bodies would have found the explosives on the alleged would-be underwear bomber.

By Brian Bennett and Jordan Steffen, Tribune Washington Bureau

November 17, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The head of the Transportation Security Administration refused to back down from using aggressive pat-downs and full-body scans at airports, telling a Senate committee on Wednesday that the screenings were necessary to protect the nation's fliers.

TSA Director John Pistole said the pat-downs, which include searches of passengers' genital areas, and scanners that reveal nude images of their bodies would have found the explosives on an alleged would-be airline bomber last Christmas Day. Umar Abdulmutallab is accused of boarding a flight bound for Detroit with explosives in his underwear that went undetected by metal detectors.

Pistole told the Senate Commerce Committee that the Detroit attempt prompted the TSA to develop the new procedures, but their gradual phase-in was accelerated after the Yemen package bomb plot last month.

A week before the Thanksgiving travel crush, some passengers and pilots have complained that the searches — particularly the pat-downs — are too invasive.

"I wouldn't want my wife to be touched in a way that these folks are being touched. I wouldn't want to be touched that way. And I think that we have to be focused on safety, but there's a balance," said Republican Sen. George LeMieux of Florida. "I think we've gone to right field."

But Pistole responded that his job was "to find that balance, recognize the invasiveness of it — and also recognize that the threats are real, the stakes are high and we must prevail."

Pilots unions also are fighting the additional measures, saying pilots should continue going through metal detectors only. The Allied Pilots Assn. told its members that the cumulative effect of frequent full-body scans could be harmful, given that pilots are already exposed to higher doses of cosmic rays during long flights at high altitudes.

Studies conducted on the full-body scanners by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Science and Technology and Johns Hopkins University concluded that radiation from the scans is minimal, Pistole said.

Michael Roberts, a commercial pilot from Memphis, filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying that the new procedures violate his constitutional protection against unnecessary search and seizure.

Pistole acknowledged in a previous Senate hearing that pilots already are trusted with the aircraft and may not need as much additional screening. He said the TSA would announce new procedures for pilots "in the near future."

The stepped-up screening procedures are a result of a security review initiated by Pistole, who said upon taking office in July that he had found several reports that concluded existing security procedures would not stop someone from carrying explosives hidden in his underwear.

A CBS News poll released Monday showed that 81% of Americans think airports should use full-body scanners to screen passengers.

The public outcry has been more focused on the pat-downs, which require TSA agents to search for explosives near passengers' genitals using the open palms of their hands and fingers.

The TSA has installed 365 full-body scanners in 68 airports across the U.S. The agency wants to have 500 installed by the end of the year, and 1,000 by the end of 2011.

A loose network of groups is calling for a boycott of the full-body scanners on the day before Thanksgiving — one of the biggest travel days of the year. The campaign could cause long delays in security lines if many passengers refuse to go through the scanners and must be subjected to pat-downs.

Some experts argue that the new procedures could make passengers uncomfortable without providing a substantial increase in security. "Security measures that just force the bad guys to change tactics and targets are a waste of money," said Bruce Schneier, a security expert who works for British Telecom.

But Rick Nelson, director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the full-body scans were an effective tool and that objections to the new procedures were overblown.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tsa-pat-downs-20101118,0,3295303,print.story

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Police have little evidence in Ronni Chasen slaying

Beverly Hills detectives are seeking surveillance tapes from Sunset Strip businesses and home security systems along the route the Hollywood public relations executive had driven early Tuesday.

By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

November 18, 2010

Beverly Hills detectives investigating the slaying of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen believe she was shot moments before her car crashed and came to rest off Sunset Boulevard early Tuesday.

Authorities on Wednesday stressed that they have few leads in the case and that the motive for the attack is unclear. But they are focusing heavily on forensic evidence gathered from the spot where Chasen was found shot several times in her Mercedes coupe. Residents who heard the crash found Chasen slumped over the steering wheel bleeding, with the passenger-side window of her car shattered.

Beverly Hills police Sgt. Lincoln Hoshino said that while investigators are not sure exactly where the shooting occurred, their working theory is that it happened before the crash. Police are also trying to determine whether the shattered window was caused by gunshots or by some other type of force.

One resident who lives near where Chasen's car came to rest said she heard several shots, followed moments later by what she believed was the sound of a car crashing. The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she and several other people raced outside to see Chasen's car crashed into a light pole.

At least two witnesses have said the interior of Chasen's car appeared to have little visible damage or evidence of gunshots. Moreover, they said they noticed no bullet casings either near the car or inside it. Police would not say whether shell casing were found at the scene.

Calling the investigation "wide open," detectives are also seeking video surveillance footage from businesses and residents along Sunset Boulevard, hoping it might shed light on what happened.

Chasen had attended an after-party following the premiere of the movie "Burlesque" at the W Hotel in Hollywood. She is believed to have left the event for home sometime around midnight, traveling west on Sunset Boulevard. Friends believe that she had planned to swing south to her condominium on Wilshire Boulevard near the grounds of the Los Angeles Country Club.

The 6-mile drive would have taken Chasen along the Sunset Strip, an area potentially stocked with surveillance video from clubs and restaurants as well as mansions with sophisticated security systems. That could allow investigators to pick up a crucial clue.

In examining video, investigators face potential challenges. Some cameras work better in the day than at night. Even cameras that can pick up images at night can be blinded by bright light. Some cameras may have blind spots, and video quality is often poor.

Chasen, 64, was found shot multiple times at the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard near the border of Beverly Hills and the city of Los Angeles about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. She was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about an hour later, officials said.

Investigators spent much of the day removing potential evidence from Chasen's Westside condominium, including hard drives, compact discs and file boxes. Investigators also scoured her Westwood public relations company for similar evidence. It's unclear whether any of those searches yielded evidence.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1118-ronni-chasen-20101118,0,2850163.story?track=rss

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Reality TV producer accused of killing wife in Mexico arrested

The arrest of Bruce Beresford-Redman comes five months after Mexican authorities accused him of killing his wife in Cancun and after he returned home despite being told not to leave Mexico.

By Corina Knoll and Andrew Blankstein

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

November 17, 2010

An Emmy-nominated reality TV producer accused of killing his wife at a Cancun resort earlier this year was arrested Tuesday by U.S. authorities at his Rancho Palos Verdes home.

Bruce Beresford- Redman, 38, was home alone at the time of his arrest and offered no resistance to the U.S. marshals and FBI agents who took him into custody. His arrest comes five months after Mexican authorities accused him of murdering his wife.

Monica Beresford-Redman, 41, co-owner of Zabumba, a popular eatery and nightclub in Palms, was found April 8 in a septic tank at the luxury hotel where the couple was staying. Mexican officials said the woman died of "asphyxia by suffocation."

Bruce Beresford-Redman said he last saw his wife the morning of April 5 when she left to go shopping. He reported her missing that night.

Family members have said that the couple went to Mexico with their two children in an effort to shore up their troubled marriage, which had become strained after Monica Beresford-Redman discovered her husband had had an affair. Her body was found on her 42nd birthday, the day the couple was scheduled to return home. An autopsy indicated that she had died April 5.

The hotel staff reported seeing the couple fighting, and several guests told authorities they heard arguing coming from their room. Bruce Beresford-Redman had scratches on his neck, police said.

After he was questioned by Mexican police, Beresford-Redman was instructed to stay in Mexico. His children returned to the United States without him. But in May, Beresford-Redman's attorney issued a statement saying that his client had returned to California to be with his children and attend to personal matters. A week later, Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant for him.

"I am innocent," Beresford-Redman said at the time. "My children have had one parent taken from them by a senseless act of violence. I implore the Mexican authorities not to take their remaining parent by a miscarriage of justice."

The former "Survivor" producer and co-creator of MTV's "Pimp My Ride" is scheduled to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Sources familiar with the case say it could take months or even years before Beresford-Redman is extradited to Mexico to face trial.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cancun-slaying-20101117,0,3158396.story?track=rss

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EDITORIAL

An LAPD to be proud of

Sound management and wise public investment have produced a more responsive Police Department and a dramatic drop in crime.

November 18, 2010

The relationship between Los Angeles city government and its Police Department once was distinctly destructive: City Hall starved the LAPD for resources but, by way of consolation, allowed its officers to do their work without much second-guessing. The result was a kind of mutually assured destruction at the civic level, and the breaking point occurred in 1991 and 1992. The beating of Rodney G. King inflamed an abused public, and the riots that erupted when the officers responsible were found not guilty highlighted both the fury toward the police and the LAPD's inability to respond. The bill for decades of neglect and indifference came due.

City Hall's relationship to the LAPD began to change with the election of Mayor Richard Riordan, and it has continued to improve, with some interruption, in the years since. For his part, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has contributed mightily toward healing those old wounds, first by finding the money to expand the LAPD — though it remains just shy of his promised 10,000 officers — and then, a year ago this week, by hiring Charlie Beck as its chief.

Sound management and wise public investment have produced the opposite of what starvation and neglect once did. Crime has declined year after year, and continues to drop in 2010. Even as other big cities have seen increases, Los Angeles has reduced overall serious crimes by 7.2%, and homicides by more than 10%. If those trends continue through the end of this year, Los Angeles will complete 2010 with less than one murder a day. In the early 1990s, more than four times that many Angelenos were murdered. Not since the 1960s has Los Angeles been this free of crime.

Police work is never done, and the department continues to confront some stubborn reminders of its past. Just last week, The Times reported that the Justice Department is troubled by the LAPD's systems for investigating allegations of racial profiling. Beck and the city's Police Commission are right to take those admonitions seriously, but also right to place them in a larger context. As Beck pointed out, LAPD officers faced 216 allegations of profiling last year. Over the same period, officers made arrests, issued citations or impounded vehicles on 800,000 occasions. Racial profiling is destructive to public confidence in the police, and should be vigorously rooted out. Thankfully, it is at least rare.

Today, one year into Beck's tenure, Los Angeles is safer than it has been in decades. As a result, it is more inviting to tourists and business. Credit is due to Chief Beck, who has managed the department with skill, and to the mayor, who has found resources for the LAPD and defended them even in difficult economic times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-beck-20101118,0,7973704,print.story

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From the New York Times

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U.N. Urges Food Aid for North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Despite a relatively good autumn harvest, North Korea remains in dire need of food aid, especially for its youngest children, pregnant women and the elderly, according to two United Nations agencies.

In a new joint report, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said that North Korea, even after substantial imports, would have a shortfall in staple crops — mostly rice, grains and soybeans — of more than half a million tons.

The 2010 harvest was 3 percent higher than last year's, the agencies said, despite an unusually harsh winter and alternating drought and flood conditions over the summer.

But even in the best of years, North Korea is unable to feed itself. Government food distribution provides only half the necessary daily calories, the report said. People are thus left to fend for themselves with small hillside plots and kitchen gardens, and by buying food or bartering for it on the black market.

Officials have estimated that the food aid program for North Korea is underfinanced by 80 percent and that nearly half the country's children are malnourished. “I saw a lot of children already losing the battle against malnutrition,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, after a visit to North Korea this month. “Their bodies and minds are stunted, and so we really feel the need there.”

On another matter affecting North Korea, the South Korean government on Wednesday rejected a North Korean request for talks about restarting cross-border tours to the jointly operated Mount Kumgang resort in the North, also known as Diamond Mountain. The tours, which were suspended by the South in 2008, annually brought millions of dollars of hard currency to the North Korean government.

South Korea suspended the resort tours after a South Korean woman was shot and killed there by a North Korean guard, apparently when the woman wandered into a restricted zone. Angered by the suspension of the tours, North Korea responded by seizing several buildings owned by South Korea.

The South has demanded a fuller investigation of the shooting as well as more safeguards for its tourists before tours can begin again.

In their joint report on food shortages, the United Nations agencies pointed out that agriculture was “the main contributor to the national income” in the North, although its percentage of the gross domestic product has declined in the past decade to 21 percent from 30 percent. A lack of foreign currency and credit, made worse by international sanctions against the government, prevented significant imports of fertilizer and pesticides as well as tires and spare parts for farm trucks and tractors.

In remarks before the Group of 20 summit meeting in Seoul last week, the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said he had “very serious concerns about the humanitarian situation” in North Korea, “especially for the very young children.”

Mr. Ban said the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, had pledged to him that the South would provide humanitarian assistance to the North's children.

North Korea, as a condition for allowing further reunions between families separated by the Korean War, asked the South last month for 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer. The request was denied.

The South Korean government did send small shipments of rice and instant noodles to the North last month, part of an $8.5 million aid package agreed on earlier by the two countries. Analysts and donors have expressed concern that the food aid from the South will be diverted to the North's political elite and the military.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/world/asia/18korea.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Fearing Terror Threat, Germany Raises Security

Germany dispatched heavily armed police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs to train stations, airports and key landmarks on Wednesday as a new picture emerged of the terrorist threat that had already provoked security alarms relating to Britain and France.

In a hastily called news conference in Berlin, the country's interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said the government had “concrete indications of a series of attacks planned for the end of November,” and German, Pakistani and American officials offered similar accounts of intelligence that pointed to imminent attacks by terrorists trained in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The officials said that American military drone strikes in those countries had killed some of the plotters and disrupted the plans, but that others were at large and might still strike.

In Washington, an American counterterrorism official detailed the intelligence behind a warning issued in October to Americans traveling in Europe. He said that about 25 fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda, organized into cells of three to five members, had been planning commando attacks in Britain, France and Germany. Since then, the official said, about 10 of the fighters have been killed or captured, most of them by drone strikes in Pakistan. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because his comments involved security matters.

A Pakistani official, who also spoke on the condition that he remain anonymous, said drone strikes in September and October were believed to have killed European recruits directly involved in various plots, possibly including attacks in Germany and Britain. But he said several such plotters were believed to be alive.

France has been on high alert for several weeks, deploying nearly 5,000 extra members of the military and the police force to patrol sites deemed vulnerable. Five people were arrested in France on terrorism charges last week. Officials said one of them had spent time in Afghanistan and the others had planned to travel to Pakistan. The officials also said one of the suspects had been involved in an assassination plot against the leader of the Great Mosque of Paris.

A high-ranking German intelligence official said reports had been streaming in for months that teams might be heading to Germany for a Mumbai-style attack or other terrorism strikes.

“The situation has developed over the past weeks and months,” the official said, also speaking anonymously. “There were new messages almost every day. The number of messages increased and concentrated on Germany.”

But, he said, the warnings included none of the specifics of the Saudi tip that allowed the authorities in Britain and Dubai to intercept powerful bombs hidden in air cargo shipped from Yemen late last month.

“In essence, the messages are nonspecific, and the sources are difficult to reconstruct,” the official said. “It was a colorful variety of information, and because of this, the impression developed that something is about to happen.”

According to one European intelligence official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, some attackers might be in place. That official said that “within the last six weeks there had been some Germans arrested in Pakistan” who said as much, though they did not know where or when a strike was planned.

Mr. de Maizière's declaration on Wednesday that “the security situation in Germany has become more serious,” and the decision to put on a show of force on the streets, represented a significant shift in strategy. Germany had largely restrained from issuing major warnings, saying that such alerts alarmed the public while doing little to protect it — in itself a sort of victory for terrorists.

Mr. de Maizière did not specify the exact nature of the new information, saying only that it had emerged after the interception of the Yemen bombs, one of which had passed through a German airport.

The German intelligence official said the shift was not so much a result of a single tip than of the buildup of reports that indicated German targets were at risk and of increased concerns about cargo security.

Those concerns — underscored in Germany by the discovery of a package bomb from Greece that was found in Chancellor Angela Merkel's mail — are particularly troubling at a time of year when holiday purchases and gifts are flooding shipping agencies.

On Wednesday, Mr. de Maizière insisted that while there was cause for concern there was “no reason to panic.”

“We won't be intimidated by international terror,” he said, “neither in our way of life, nor our culture or freedom.”

At the busy Friedrichstrasse station in Berlin, where national, regional and commuter train lines intersect, heavily armed officers in dark uniforms patrolled the platforms and entry and exit points during the afternoon rush.

The security staff of Deutsche Bahn, the German federal railways, seemed relaxed about Mr. de Maizière's new alert, with officers smoking and chatting outside the station, but there was an increased police presence in the streets near Parliament.

“I worry about these terror alerts,” said Sabine Krohl, a sales assistant. “It's all very well shrugging them off by saying it will never happen here in Germany.

“But you just never know,” she added, rushing to catch her commuter train.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/world/europe/18germany.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Accused Arms Dealer Pleads Not Guilty

A man accused of being one of the world's most prolific arms dealers swaggered into a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, sizing up his surroundings after a two-year fight between the United States and Russia over his extradition from Thailand.

The man, Viktor Bout, a former Soviet Air Force officer, is accused of running a wide-ranging arms trafficking network and trying to sell a huge arsenal of weapons to undercover federal agents. Mr. Bout, 43, has been charged with, among other things, conspiring to kill United States nationals; he faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, hailed Mr. Bout's arrival as the product of “courageous and groundbreaking work” by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which staged an undercover operation that spanned three continents and eventually led to Mr. Bout's arrest in 2008 in Thailand. He was held there until his extradition on Tuesday.

“The so-called Merchant of Death is now a federal inmate,” Mr. Bharara said, referring to Mr. Bout (pronounced boot).

Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that Mr. Bout is an innocent businessman, as he himself claims. Russia issued a statement on Tuesday lambasting the Thai court's decision to extradite Mr. Bout as illegal and “a consequence of unprecedented political pressure exerted by the U.S. on the government and judicial authorities of Thailand.”

During a news conference before Mr. Bout's arraignment, Mr. Bharara would not directly address the Russian government's outrage, other than to say: “We pursued an indictment with evidence. We then pursued extradition consistent with our law, international law and Thai law.”

Government officials in Bangkok defended their position, according to local newspaper reports.

“We cannot satisfy everybody, but we have to accept it,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said, according to the reports. “Thailand has to do what it has to do.”

Sabrina Shroff, Mr. Bout's court-appointed lawyer, pleaded not guilty on his behalf before Judge Shira A. Scheindlin. Mr. Bout was given a Russian translation of the proceeding through a headset. He gave only brief responses — sometimes in English, sometimes in Russian — to questions posed to him by the judge. “Yes, your honor,” he said after Judge Scheindlin read him his rights and asked if he understood them.

“Yes, I swear,” he said through an interpreter when asked if the information in his financial affidavit was true.

In that affidavit, Mr. Bout told the authorities that he was married with a 16-year-old child, that he did not have any assets in the United States and that he had no cash on hand.

Ms. Shroff said that her client agreed to be detained but reserved the right to file a bail application in the future. His next court date is scheduled for Jan. 10.

Mr. Bout is accused of trying to sell a huge arsenal of weapons to undercover federal agents posing as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The agents secretly recorded a two-hour meeting with Mr. Bout in which he was told that the weapons were needed to kill American pilots, Mr. Bharara said. Mr. Bout responded that the fight against the United States was his fight, too, Mr. Bharara said.

In an investigation that took agents to Curaçao, Copenhagen, Bucharest and Bangkok, federal authorities obtained e-mails, telephone intercepts and recorded conversations that they plan to use to prosecute Mr. Bout, Mr. Bharara said.

The government also plans to use the testimony of Andrew Smulian, an associate who has admitted to conspiring with Mr. Bout to sell weapons to the FARC. Mr. Smulian has pleaded guilty, Mr. Bharara said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/nyregion/18bout.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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The murder of Officer Robert Soto and companion Kathryn Romberg lead to the arrest of dozens in a drug sweep.

Dozens nabbed in gang sweep CHICAGO WEST SIDE Murder of cop spurs probe leading to 60 drug, weapon arrests   November 18, 2010 BY FRANK MAIN An off-duty Chicago Police officer's murder led to a major investigation of a West Side street gang -- culminating Wednesday with the arrest of 60 suspects on drug and weapon charges while authorities hunted dozens more. The gang members were involved in a drug trade that grossed thousands of dollars a day and that at one point gave away free heroin to build a customer base, authorities said.

VICE LORDS' HISTORY

The Vice Lords, one of the oldest Chicago street gangs, got its start in 1958, experts say.

By the mid-1960s, police were cracking down on the gang, which sought to soften its violent image by describing itself as a community outreach group.

Since the 1970s, the gang has been a major drug trafficking operation, which by some estimates now has as many as 30,000 members, experts say.

Frank Main

Officer Robert Soto and companion Kathryn Romberg were shot to death while sitting in an SUV in front of Romberg's home in the 3000 block of West Franklin on Aug. 13, 2008. Traveling Vice Lords member Jason "J Rock" Austin, 28, who allegedly controlled drug sales a few blocks away at Kedzie and Ohio, was arrested in the murders.

While charges were dropped against Austin, an investigation into the gang continued as police hoped to develop new information about the killings, which remain unsolved, sources said. The FBI joined the case three months into the investigation, which relied on wiretaps, surveillance and several informants who received housing and in one case $43,000 from the government for their cooperation.

On Wednesday, officials announced that nearly 100 Traveling Vice Lord members have been charged in federal and state court as a result of the probe, dubbed Operation Blue Knight. One suspect tossed guns and drugs out of a window as authorities came to arrest him at his home, sources said.

"The Chicago Police Department is committed to working with our partners to rid our communities of gangs, guns and drugs,'' police Supt. Jody Weis said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the roundup was the fifth of its kind in the last four months.

Operation Blue Knight focused on the Traveling Vice Lords' drug market at Kedzie and Ohio, called "KO,'' as well as one at Chicago and St. Louis, where the gang moved its drug operations because of the "heat'' police put on the neighborhood, officials said.

The gang sold heroin marketed as "Blue Magic," which drew customers from as far away as Iowa, according to an 89-page affidavit by a Chicago Police officer assigned to an FBI task force. The gang averaged drug sales of more than $3,000 a day, the affidavit said. When the gang shifted its sales to Chicago and St. Louis, it gave away heroin for free -- much like an ice cream store might do to build a customer base, authorities said.

In 2009, Austin was sent to state prison on a drug conviction, and 21-year-old Kevin Terry Jr. allegedly became a boss of drug sales in the area, officials said. Officers busted Terry on Nov. 14, 2009, for possession of suspected packets of heroin, but a subordinate offered police a "thumper" -- street slang for a gun -- apparently in exchange for freeing Terry. The officers decided to release Terry to "preserve the investigation," the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, at least one of the drug operation's leaders -- 32-year-old Emanuel "Miko" Young -- held a legitimate job. He worked at Malcolm X College with the title "testing specialist-adult education," investigators learned.

By Wednesday afternoon, police, FBI agents and deputy U.S. marshals had arrested about 60 of the suspects and were hunting for about 40 others.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2904054,CST-NWS-vicelords18.article

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From the Washington Examiner

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Examiner reader turns in fugitive in N.Y.

The power of the Internet is making it harder for fugitives to hide from readers of The Washington Examiner .

U.S. Marshals said they captured an accused drug-dealer with ties to the underground D.C. hip-hop scene, thanks to a "Most Wanted" profile that ran two years ago in The Examiner . An anonymous tipster saw the story about Kalif Prysock online late last week and called in information that led to his arrest in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Once again, The Examiner and its readers came through," said Matthew Burke, supervisory inspector with the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. "There are a lot of fugitives out there, and not enough people looking for them. Having this sort of help is just fantastic."

With Prysock's capture, Burke said his investigators can redirect their efforts into looking for the next fugitive.

The arrest should also serve as a reminder to other fugitives profiled in The Examiner that marshals will not stop searching for them and they can never know who seen them on the Internet, Burke said.

Marshals said Prysock, 31, was involved in the D.C. club scene and was associated with a rap music label called Career Criminal Enterprise records. He had ties along the East Coast, from D.C. to Massachusetts, making it more difficult for authorities to track him down.

He used numerous aliases, and when deputies caught up to him, he was using a fake identification card, Burke said.

Prysock remained in New York on Tuesday and was awaiting extradition to Montgomery County where he has been wanted since 2006 on drug distribution charges.

Prysock is at least the 24th fugitive taken into custody thanks to a tip from a Washington Examiner reader. The "Most Wanted" feature appears each Thursday in the Crime & Punishment page -- and on-line indefinitely.

The Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, run by the U.S. Marshals Service, includes 30 federal, state and local agencies from Baltimore to Norfolk. The unit has captured more than 31,000 wanted fugitives since its creation in 2004.

Ga. man gets long sentence for child abuse

EVANS, GA. — A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to 110 years in prison after being convicted in Columbia County of abusing his two sons.

It took a Superior Court jury about 10 minutes on Wednesday to unanimously find Thomas G. Beasley guilty of cruelty to children.

Witnesses said Beasley punched, pinched, scratched and kicked the boys. They said punishment also included holding their heads under water and making them maintain painful positions for long periods.

Assistant District Attorney Kristi Connell told the jury Beasley grabbed his 9-year-old son by the ankles and drove his head into the floor in 2008. She said the boy needed emergency brain surgery to save his life.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/ga-man-gets-long-sentence-for-child-abuse-108927369.html

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From Google News

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Detonator Is Found on Air Berlin Flight From Namibia to Munich, Police Say

Germany's Federal Criminal Office has sent a team of experts to Namibia after police in Windhoek discovered a suspect device including a detonator in baggage that was about to be loaded on board a plane bound for Munich.

The device contained batteries wired to a working clock and a detonator inside bags booked on an Airbus SAS LTU/Air Berlin flight from the Namibian capital yesterday, the Federal Criminal Office, or BKA, said today.

“Whether we're dealing with an explosive device will only be determined after the on-going criminal investigation,” the Wiesbaden-based BKA said in an e-mailed statement.

Yasmin Born, an Air Berlin spokeswoman, said the piece of luggage wasn't necessarily destined for the carrier's plane because it didn't have a label and was sitting in a building together with bags meant for other planes.

The alert comes as German authorities step up security at airports and railway stations after receiving “concrete indications” that Islamist extremists plan to stage an attack in the country toward the end of this month.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said yesterday that the government was compelled to issue a warning of a “new threat level” after receiving intelligence from an unidentified foreign partner and from Islamist groups domestically.

Cargo Bombs

The BKA said it is sending a team from South Africa to help the Namibian authorities and will dispatch further experts to Windhoek.

After the discovery of the device yesterday, the passengers and luggage were subjected to further searches before the flight was allowed to depart. The plane arrived safely in Munich last night, the BKA said.

The German government's warning followed a worldwide terror alert last month after bombs were found in air-cargo shipments. One bomb, packed inside a printer cartridge, was timed to explode on a flight as it reached the U.S. East Coast.

That device, which originated in Yemen and was discovered at the U.K.'s East Midlands airport on Oct. 29, passed through Germany via Cologne/Bonn airport. A second bomb was found in Dubai. Both were addressed to synagogues in Chicago.

The German public will begin to see an increased security presence, though “there are a large number of measures they won't be able to see,” de Maiziere said yesterday.

“There is cause for concern, but no cause for hysteria,” he said.

Dutch experts test Aruba bone in Holloway case

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dutch forensic experts say they are testing a piece of bone found on the Caribbean island of Aruba to see if it comes from missing American teenager Natalee Holloway.

Netherlands Forensic Institute spokeswoman Inge Oevering says experts are first establishing whether the bone is human before comparing its DNA to that of Holloway.

18, disappeared in 2005 while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, who faces separate murder charges in Peru, is suspected in Holloway's disappearance.

Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported Tuesday the bone was found by tourists on a beach Friday.

Oevering says prosecutors in Aruba will announce the results. She could not say how long the tests would take.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/11/16/general-eu-netherlands-aruba-missing-teen_8108999.html?boxes=financechannelAP

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From the White House

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New Rules Require Equal Visitation Rights For All Patients

Earlier this year, President Obama called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create new rules for Medicare and Medicaid hospitals that would allow patients the right to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay. The Presidential Memorandum instructed HHS to develop rules that would prohibit hospitals from denying visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued that rule – a rule that will let patients decide whom they want by their bedside when they are sick – and that includes a visitor who is a same-sex domestic partner. The rule presents an important step forward in giving all Americans more control over their health care.

The new rules:

• Require hospitals to explain to all patients their right to choose who may visit them during their inpatient stay, regardless of whether the visitor is a family member, a spouse, a domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), or other type of visitor, as well as their right to withdraw such consent to visitation at any time.
  
   
• Require hospitals have written policies and procedures detailing patients' visitation rights, as well as the circumstances under which the hospitals may restrict patient access to visitors based on reasonable clinical needs.
  
  
• Specify that all visitors chosen by the patient must be able to enjoy “full and equal” visitation privileges consistent with the wishes of the patient.
  
  
• Update the Conditions of Participation (CoPs), which are the health and safety standards all Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals and critical access hospitals must meet, and are applicable to all patients of those hospitals regardless of payer source.

CMS finalized the rules based on thousands of comments from patient advocates, the hospital community, and other stakeholders. The rules will be effective 60 days after publication. 

For more information about the rules, visit CMS' website: http://www.cms.gov/CFCsAndCoPs/06_Hospitals.asp and http://www.cms.gov/CFCsAndCoPs/03_CAHs.asp.

Announcing The 2010 Medal of Freedom Recipients

Today, President Obama named fifteen recipients of the 2010 Medal of Freedom -- the Nation's highest civilian honor -- presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

"These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they've excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place," said President Obama. "I look forward to awarding them this honor next year."

The following individuals will receive the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom:

President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States.  Prior to that, he was Vice President in the Reagan Administration, Director of Central Intelligence, Chief of the U.S. Liaison's Office to the People's Republic of China, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and a Member of the House of Representatives from the 7th District of Texas.  He served in the Navy during World War II.  President Bush and President Clinton worked together to encourage aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. She is the first woman and first East German to serve as Chancellor of a unified Germany, which this year marks its 20th anniversary.  She has often said that freedom is the happiest experience of her life.  Chancellor Merkel was born in Hamburg but was raised in what was then Communist East Germany after her family moved to Templin.  Her political career began when she joined the new Democratic Awakening party in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  In 1990, as West and East Germany merged into one reunited country, her party joined with the Christian Democratic Union, and she was elected to the German parliament.  She has been chairman of the CDU since April 2000 and was recently reelected to another term.  

Congressman John Lewis
John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the Civil Rights Movement.  He served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), helped to organize the first lunch-counter sit-in in 1959 at the age of 19, and was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington.  In May 1961, he participated in the initial Freedom Ride, during which he endured violent attacks in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Montgomery, Alabama.  In 1964, he helped to coordinate the Mississippi Freedom Project, and, in 1965, he led the Selma-to-Montgomery march to petition for voting rights where marchers were brutally confronted in an incident that became known as “Bloody Sunday.”  Eight days later, President Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, condemned the violence in Selma, and called for passage of the Voting Rights Act, which was enacted within months.  Since 1987, John Lewis has continued his service to the nation as the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th District, which encompasses all of Atlanta.  

John H. Adams
John H. Adams co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970.  Adams served as Executive Director and, later, as president of the nonprofit environmental advocacy group until 2006.  His tenure is unparalleled by the leader of any other environmental organization.  Rolling Stone writes: “If the planet has a lawyer, it's John Adams.”

Maya Angelou
Dr. Maya Angelou is a prominent and celebrated author, poet, educator, producer, actress, filmmaker, and civil rights activist, who is currently the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.  She has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal for the Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008.  

Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is an American investor, industrialist, and philanthropist.  He is one of the most successful investors in the world.  Often called the “legendary investor Warren Buffett,” he is the primary shareholder, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.  Mr. Buffett has pledged that all of his shares in Berkshire Hathaway – about 99 percent of his net worth – will be given to philanthropic endeavors.  He is a co-founder of The Giving Pledge, an organization that encourages wealthy Americans to devote at least 50 percent of their net worth to philanthropy.

Jasper Johns
American artist Jasper Johns has produced a distinguished body of work dealing with themes of perception and identity since the mid-1950s.  Among his best known works are depictions of familiar objects and signs, including flags, targets and numbers.  He has incorporated innovative approaches to materials and techniques, and his work has influenced pop, minimal, and conceptual art.

Gerda Weissmann Klein
Gerda Weissmann Klein is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who has written several books about her experiences.  After Nazi Germany took over her homeland of Poland, Klein was separated from both her parents:  they were sent to Auschwitz and she to a series of labor and concentration camps.  In 1945, she was sent on a forced 350-mile death march to avoid the advance of Allied forces.  She was one of the minority who survived the forced journey.  In May 1945, Klein was liberated by forces of the United States Army in Volary, Czechoslovakia, and later married Army Lieutenant Kurt Klein, who liberated her camp.  A naturalized citizen, she recently founded Citizenship Counts, an organization that teaches students to cherish the value of their American citizenship.  Klein has spoken to audiences of all ages and faith around the world about the value of freedom and has dedicated her life to promoting tolerance and understanding among all people.  

Dr. Tom Little (posthumous)
Dr. Tom Little was an optometrist who was brutally murdered on August 6, 2010, by the Taliban in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, along with nine other members of a team returning from a humanitarian mission to provide vision care in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan.  Dr. Little and his wife, Libby, lived and worked  in Afghanistan for three decades beginning in 1976, raising three daughters and providing vision, dental and mother/child care to the people of that country through the NOOR program (Noor means “light” in Persian) that Dr. Little ran for the International Assistance Mission.  

Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is considered the world's greatest living cellist, recognized as a prodigy since the age of five whose celebrity transcends the world of classical music.  Born in Paris, Ma was a child prodigy who went on to study with Leonard Rose in New York.  He made his Carnegie Hall debut at age nine.  He was the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize in 1978, and, in 1991, Harvard awarded him an honorary doctorate in music.  He serves as Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project, and has won sixteen Grammy awards.  He is known especially for his interpretations of Bach and Beethoven, and for his ability to play many different styles of music, including tango and bluegrass.  He serves on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Sylvia Mendez
Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.  As an eight-year-old, her parents attempted to enroll Mendez in an all-white school in their community, but were denied entry at and were told to go to the school for Mexican children.  Her father and other parents sued and prevailed.  The Mendez v. Westminster case was a landmark decision in the civil rights movement against segregation.  Mendez currently travels around the country giving speeches on the value of a good education.  

Stan Musial
Stan “The Man” Musial is a baseball legend and Hall of Fame first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.   Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals from 1941 to 1963.  A 24-time All-Star selection, Musial accumulated 3,630 hits and 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League's Most Valuable Player three times, and was a member of three World Series championship teams.  Musial also served as the Cardinals' general manager in 1967, when the team once again won the World Series.

Bill Russell
Bill Russell is the former Boston Celtics' Captain who almost single-handedly redefined the game of basketball.  Russell led the Celtics to a virtually unparalleled string of eleven championships in thirteen years and was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player five times.  The first African American to coach in the NBA—indeed he was the first to coach a major sport at the professional level in the United States—Bill Russell is also an impassioned advocate of human rights.  He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and has been a consistent advocate of equality.

Jean Kennedy Smith
In 1974, Jean Kennedy Smith founded VSA, a non-profit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center that promotes the artistic talents of children, youth and adults with disabilities.   From 1993 to 1998, Smith served as U. S. Ambassador to Ireland, and played a pivotal role in the peace process.  Smith is the youngest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and is the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center.

John J. Sweeney
John J. Sweeney is the current President Emeritus of the AFL-CIO, and served as President of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.  The son of Irish immigrants, a domestic worker and a bus driver in the Bronx, he worked his way up in the labor movement to become President of the Service Employees International Union, growing the union to serve as a strong voice for working people.  As President of the AFL-CIO, he revitalized the American labor movement, emphasizing union organizing and social justice, and was a powerful advocate for America's workers.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/17/announcing-2010-medal-freedom-recipients

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From the Department of Justice

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Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs Laurie Robinson Speaks at Exploring Health Reform and Criminal Justice

Thank you, Nancy, and good morning to all of you. It's terrific to be here, and I'd like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Langeloth Foundation for underwriting this important meeting. My tremendous thanks, also, to Community Oriented Correctional Health Services for organizing and hosting today's event. I look at the participant list and see that you've brought together an incredibly impressive group of people, so I know the discussions here are going to be thoughtful and productive.

I'm so pleased to be part of this conversation about the intersection of health reform and public safety. The provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provide an unprecedented opportunity, as you're saying here, to rethink correctional health.

I've long been concerned about the impact of poor inmate health, not only on the inmates themselves and the institutions to which they're confined, but on public health generally – and on public safety. As I've said before, correctional health care is a public safety issue, and we can't forget that.

Before I came back to OJP, I had the privilege of serving on the Vera Institute's Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. In the testimony we heard from corrections officials, former inmates, and other experts, some troubling accounts had to do with health care. . . or lack of it.

And those anecdotal accounts are backed by statistics.

A 2002 study by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care found that every year, more than 1.5 million people are released from jail and prison carrying a life-threatening infectious disease. An earlier study found that those who pass through America's correctional institutions account for nearly a quarter of the general population living with HIV or AIDS, almost a third of those with hepatitis C, and almost 40 percent of people with tuberculosis.

On top of these physical ailments, a disproportionate percentage of people with mental illness cycle in and out of jails and prisons. A study from our Bureau of Justice Statistics based on surveys of prisoners and jail inmates found that 16 percent have a history of mental illness. That means that well over one million bookings of people with serious mental illness may occur every year. And what's so frightening is that only 18 percent of these inmates report receiving any treatment after admission.

For years now, it's been observed that detention facilities are the new asylums. Unfortunately, these new asylums are ill equipped for such a role.

And then there's the problem of substance abuse, as I don't need to tell those of you in this room. Data from our Bureau of Justice Statistics tell us that more than half of all state inmates were abusing or dependent on drugs in the year before their admission to prison. By way of comparison, the last published National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health from SAMHSA found that nine percent of the general population was classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year. And we know that few who need substance abuse treatment actually receive it.

These statistics explode the notion that prisons and jails are sealed institutions. We know better. Almost everyone who enters a prison or jail will eventually return to his or her community – many in a matter of days and weeks, not years. And in a vast majority of cases, the time spent behind bars is not a period of physical or psychological rehabilitation, but rather an invitation for an illness to entrench its effects.

In terms of scale, some 735,000 people come out of America's prisons every year, and 9 million cycle through our jails. Given these large numbers – and the high percentage of inmates and detainees with medical, psychological, and substance abuse problems – we're dealing with a potentially serious public health – and public safety – issue.

To my mind, dealing with this problem requires looking at the issue of correctional health care the way we look at all aspects of reentry – namely, that reentry back into the community begins the moment an offender enters the system. This means early screening and assessment to detect and identify core health issues, appropriate institutional treatment, and continuity of care in the community. Sounds easy, right?

And if the challenges I outlined earlier weren't enough, let's not forget – as surely you haven't – that these are deep-rooted problems that weren't created by the corrections system. As we put it in our report for the Vera prison commission, "many of the biggest so-called prison problems are created outside the gates of any correctional facility."

Dr. Veysey points out in her paper that these offenders are disproportionately poor and have high rates of health problems, psychiatric disorders, and addictions coming into the system. I like the way she put it – if I can just quote from you, Dr. Veysey: "Upon booking. . . arrestees are often at their sickest."

Prisons and jails inherit the medical, psychiatric, and addiction problems of those over whom they have custody. And despite the resource challenges and the large numbers of inmates and detainees needing help, some of those institutions have done commendable and even stellar work to reverse those problems. It sounds remarkable in the face of the obstacles, but in some cases, people actually return to their communities in better shape than when they left them.

But in these cases, the health gains are often squandered without continuity of care or adherence to the treatment regimens. It's essential that we figure out how to scale up the model being implemented in Hampden County and the COCHS sites.

Now, with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, I believe we have an incredible opportunity to build on those pockets of progress. As you well know, access to health care services in prisons and jails has always been a complicated issue. Those who are incarcerated have a constitutional right to health care, yet federal benefits are either suspended or terminated once a person goes behind bars. This leaves the burden on the institution to provide care, and the resources for meeting this responsibility – and the commitment to do so – vary widely among jails and prisons.

Then there are pre-trial detainees – those who haven't been found guilty of a crime and aren't legally precluded from receiving benefits, yet who still find themselves effectively excluded from care. These detainees make up the majority of the jail population. Many of them come in to the system, and no sooner have they been processed and admitted than they're back out again, except that now they don't even have the means to access basic care.

So, of course, what happens is that they rely on emergency rooms and other urgent care for treatment. And we all know that this is extremely expensive – and the cost of it falls squarely on the taxpayer. Not to mention, it's not an effective approach in the long run.

The new Health Care law presents us with an opportunity to address what I think is the biggest challenge in correctional health care – and that is continuity of care. By 2014, the obstacles to coverage may be eliminated for detainees, and so community-based providers will have an incentive to work closely with jails and prisons to serve the needs of their populations.

We've already seen good examples of this kind of collaboration – most notably, of course, the Hampden County model, which matches inmates with treatment providers based on the inmate's home zip code so that treatment can continue uninterrupted after release. This kind of connection is so important because even where good institutional treatment is provided, it often falls off at release. Fewer than 20 percent of annual jail admissions stay longer than 1 month, so continued community care is paramount.

Now, I think, is the time to be building these partnerships. As the Hampden County experience demonstrates, there's nothing to prevent us from developing these relationships now. In fact, there are more than 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers serving some 6,600 communities that are designed to meet the medical needs of underserved populations – and many of these centers are already working with correctional institutions. To other providers, we can make a strong case for working together based on the potential public safety impact, on inmate health, and on cost.

Partnerships are key to meeting correctional health care challenges, but I don't want to sell partnership as a panacea. Resources across the board remain scarce, and even a strategic pooling of resources can't be expected to solve all our problems. I think we also need to set some priorities and not expect that we'll be able to achieve community standards of care for every inmate or detainee in every case.

This, I think, begins with a quick screen followed by thorough assessments of risk and need. Assessment is one of the pillars of any public health approach, but it's even more critical in the corrections arena, particularly given the often short jail stays of many who come into the system. In many cases, assessment may be the only interface with correctional health care. In these cases, assessment serves to identify who needs treatment services on the outside, and it identifies what, specifically, needs attention in the treatment plan.

Risk assessment – even beyond medical and psychiatric issues – is the bedrock of effective reentry – and I feel compelled to point out that, from a public safety standpoint, correctional health care is very much a reentry issue. I think we need to let risk and need help us sort out who to focus our resources on. This means universally screening inmates and prioritizing who gets services.

Also, there are basic administrative obstacles to continuing care that must be addressed. Reinstating Medicaid benefits, for example, can take months, and so those who were so ill at admission return to the community with no coverage – at least for the short-term.

But there's nothing preventing correctional agencies from working with Social Security offices to ensure that benefits are reinstated when an inmate is released. In fact, SSA has pre-release agreements with about 700 state and local prisons and jails. This could – and should – be part of discharge planning so that returning offenders can begin to receive services immediately upon release.

I know these are complex issues, and resolving them will require a lot of strategic planning and even changing some attitudes, which I know is sometimes the biggest challenge of all! I believe we at the federal level have an important responsibility to help lead this shift.

One way we're trying to do this is through an interagency reentry working group. My agency is leading this staff-level effort, and the Attorney General will be creating a parallel Cabinet-level group. The issues you're discussing here and that are set forth in the commissioned papers will help inform our discussions.

Amy Solomon and Marlene Beckman of my staff (both of whom are here today) are heading up the staff-level group – and I know there are several others here from partner agencies across the government. Amy and Marlene have already met with Nancy and Steve to talk through some of these issues.

When I spoke to the American Correctional Association's Health Care Professional Interest Section in January, I pledged that this Administration – and this Department of Justice – are committed to improving the health care delivery system in our nation's correctional institutions. This is evidence of that commitment.

We're moving forward in other ways, as well. Last month, the Attorney General announced $100 million in awards under the Second Chance Act to support 178 reentry grants nationwide. This is on top of 70 reentry grants we awarded last year. Some of these focus on health care in our nation's jails. A good example is the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative in Pennsylvania.

This is a partnership between the jail, the county health department, and the county's Department of Human Services. Inmates are screened at intake and referred to a variety of programs, including mental health and substance abuse treatment. The partners meet monthly to plan all in-jail, transitional, and post-release services so that treatment continues after release. An evaluation from the University of Pittsburgh found that recidivism rates were half those of non-participants, and that the program saved the county more than $5.3 million annually.

The Allegheny program – and others like it – are proof positive that we have the ability to improve health care delivery in our nation's jails and prisons – and to enhance community safety into the bargain.

I'm excited about this moment. We're now seeing a convergence of opportunity and innovative thinking in the correctional health care arena. We know that the challenges, while not insignificant, are within our power to meet. And in meeting these challenges, we know that we can make a huge, positive difference in public health and safety.

As we said in the report for the prison commission, "[p]rotecting public health and public safety, reducing human suffering, and limiting the financial cost of untreated illness depends on adequately funded, good quality correctional health care." There's no question that the work each of you is doing is vital to a healthy – and safe – society. If we can add the community element – and the Affordable Care Act may give us a chance to do that – we have a monumental opportunity to change the landscape.

Keep up your good work, keep your commitment strong, and let's use this moment to make a correctional health network we can all be proud of.

Thank you.

http://www.justice.gov/ojp/opa/pr/speeches/2010/ojp-speech-101117.html

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From ICE

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ICE arrests 6 at-large convicted criminal aliens in Miami

MIAMI - Six convicted criminals residing in Miami were arrested on Tuesday by officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in an enforcement operation targeting convicted criminal aliens identified with being in violation of U.S. immigration law.

Yesterday's enforcement operation was conducted by the ICE ERO Joint Criminal Alien Removal Taskforce (JCART). JCART operations are intended to seek, locate and arrest at-large criminal aliens with convictions for drug trafficking offenses, violent crimes and sex offenses.

"Arresting convicted criminals and immigration fugitives is a top priority for ICE ERO," said Marc Moore, field office director for ICE ERO in Miami. "We're committed to working with our state, federal and local law enforcement to be a force multiplier in making our communities safer for everyone."

All six were arrested administratively for being in violation of immigration law, and all are being held in ICE custody pending immigration removal proceedings or removal from the United States.

Arrested by ICE ERO officers were:

• Marvin Ledesma, 31, a citizen and national of the Dominican Republic. He has prior convictions in Miami/Dade County for possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, criminal mischief, prostitution and driving with a suspended license.
• Jose Hernan Perez, 22, a citizen and national of Honduras. He has prior convictions in Miami/Dade County for aggravated battery with great bodily harm and driving without a license while the license was suspended for causing a death.
• Jose Sorto Sorto, 48, a citizen and national of Honduras. He has a prior conviction in Miami/Dade County for aggravated battery.
• Ady Niang, 20, a citizen of Canada and national of Senegal. He has a prior conviction in Alachua County, Fla., for the sale of cannabis.
• Maritza Rodriguez, 43, a citizen and national of Venezuela. She has prior convictions in Miami/Dade County for grand theft and forged checks.
• Josue Rene Alarado-Herrera, 35, a citizen and national of Nicaragua. He has a prior conviction for hit and run.

JCART works closely with other federal law enforcement agencies and conducts special operations at the request of local law enforcement agencies. JCART may also target criminal aliens at large in the community who have been released from federal, state or local custody.

5 charged in scheme to transport prostitutes to work in brothels in Maryland

BALTIMORE - Five men were charged in a criminal complaint and nine search warrants were executed yesterday in connection with a scheme to transport individuals from Virginia and Washington, D.C., to engage in prostitution in Annapolis and Easton, Md.

The criminal complaint was announced by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Chief Michael Pristoop of the Annapolis Police Department.

"This investigation is an excellent example of federal and local law enforcement working cooperatively to dismantle a criminal organization that used violence to ensure that their organization continued to profit from the exploitation of women," said Winter. "HSI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute criminals who profit through the exploitation of others."

"These arrests and search warrants are the result of many months of hard work. We are grateful to our federal partners from whom we received invaluable assistance. Human trafficking, prostitution and associated violence are intolerable in any community. Yesterday, our partnership made Annapolis even safer," said Pristoop.

Charged in the criminal complaint are: German de Jesus Ventura, 32, of Capitol Heights, Md.; Kerlin Esau Esquivel-Feuntes, 23, of Annapolis, Md.; Luis Alberto Reyes, 28; Isidro Jiminez-Sanchez and Wibert Alejandro Herrera-Aranda, both 32, of Easton, Md.

Ventura was arrested yesterday and is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore later today. Jiminez-Sanchez and Herrera-Aranda are in state custody on related charges. Esquivel-Fuentes and Reyes are fugitives. All of the defendants are illegal aliens.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, since at least September 2008, Ventura has allegedly run brothels in Annapolis, Easton and elsewhere in Maryland, using and threatening to use violence against competitor pimps. According to the criminal complaint, Esquivel-Fuentes, Jiminez-Sanchez and Herrera-Aranda assisted Ventura in running the brothels, advertising the brothel, making appointments for the prostitutes and collecting money. The complaint also alleges that Reyes assisted in transporting the sex workers to the brothel locations, as well as purchasing supplies.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for transporting individuals to engage in prostitution.

ICE/HSI dismantles human trafficking ring, saving 2 young girls from lives as sex slaves Perpetrator sentenced to 50 years in prison Soledad was an easy mark for Juan Mendez and his girlfriend Christina Andres Perfecto to ensnare into their sex trafficking ring. Thirteen-year-old Soledad lived in poverty with her family in a small rural town in Mexico. The family eked out a living on $300 a year and did without running water or electricity. Soledad yearned for a better life. When Perfecto traveled to Mexico, she regaled the impressionable girl with promises of riches that awaited Soledad if she traveled back to America with her. Perfecto promised Soledad a job in Mendez's restaurant.

On their arrival in Nashville, Tenn., Soledad discovered that she had been duped. No restaurant and no school awaited her. Perfecto's boyfriend, however, Mendez, was all too real. He had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his newly-delivered prey.

Meanwhile, In September 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent (SA) Greg Swearngin of the Nashville Special Agent in Charge office was working a drug investigation. Swearngin had no way of knowing, at this point in time, that his life would soon intersect with Soledad and change the course of her life.

Swearngin heard from a confidential informant that underage girls were working at Latino brothels in Memphis, Tenn. Thus began Operation Latina Libre, and the search for possible victims of human trafficking began. As the leading federal agency in the fight against human trafficking, HSI works on a number of fronts to eradicate this crime-a crime that amounts to slavery-in many cases, sexual slavery.

At the height of the investigation, more than 150 law enforcement agents and officers from seven federal and state agencies executed one of the largest, most complex search warrants in the Western District of Tennessee. Law enforcement teams raided brothels at seven different locations, disrupting the activities of brothel owners, prostitutes and male customers and took 27 individuals into custody. Cell phone records and subsequent interviews provided more leads. The trail ended in Smyrna, Tenn., where Soledad was found and brought to safety.

Soledad recounted to SA Swearngin-as well as to an FBI agent and an Assistant U.S. Attorney, who also played major roles in the case-the horrifying details of extreme psychological and physical abuse she endured, including rape and beatings, at the hands of Mendez. Mendez kept Soledad on the move from brothel to brothel throughout the South forcing her to engage in prostitution with a continuous stream of customers.

Soledad also said that Mendez dispatched Perfecto back to the Mexican village to recruit Soledad's 17-year-old cousin, Emma. Succumbing to Perfecto's persuasive deceit, Emma met the same fate as Soledad. Locked away and forbidden to communicate with each other, Soledad and Emma remained fearful and depressed. Mendez retained the lucrative profits from his sex slavery ring.

Law enforcement authorities found Mendez and Perfecto in a hotel in Nashville where they were arrested and brought to justice.
Mendez pled guilty on Dec. 13, 2007 to two counts of child sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. He admitted to fraudulently luring two young girls to Tennessee with the intent of forcing them into prostitution. Mendez further admitted to threatening the victims, physically and verbally, in order to coerce them into prostitution. On June 27, 2008, Mendez was sentenced to 50 years in prison. On Dec. 23, 2009, Perfecto was sentenced to 190 months in prison for recruiting and bringing two young girls to Tennessee.

U.S. charitable and relief organizations, working with ICE and other federal agencies, came to the aid of Soledad and Emma, who are recovering from their trauma.

"Human traffickers who sexually exploit children may as well wear a target on their backs," said HSI Executive Associate Director James Dinkins. "HSI will investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of these crimes who prey on those most vulnerable and bring nothing but pain and misery to so many lives."

Learn more about ICE's role in combating human trafficking .

Learn more about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101115washingtondc.htm

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From the FBI

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California Woman Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison for Human Trafficking Charge

Daughter, Son-in-Law Sentenced on Immigration Charges

WASHINGTON—Fang Ping Ding was sentenced in federal court late yesterday to 37 months in prison for confiscating the passport, visa and other documents of a woman from the People's Republic of China in order to maintain control over the victim and force her to work as an unpaid, live-in domestic servant. During the same hearing, Ding's daughter, Wei Wei Liang, and her son-in-law, Bo Shen, were sentenced to home confinement and probationary sentences, respectively, on related immigration charges of harboring the victim, who entered and remained in the United States illegally, in their Fremont, Calif., home. The court also ordered that the defendants jointly pay the victim $83,866.61 and that Liang and Shen also forfeit $346,000 to the government.

The defendants pleaded guilty on Nov. 1, 2010. Ding admitted that she forced the victim to work without pay by physically abusing her, threatening to falsely report her to law enforcement and maintaining control of her visa and passport. Ding began recruiting the victim in China in December 2007, and eventually brought the victim to the United States in April 2008. All three defendants admitted to harboring the victim in their Fremont home until April 2009. The victim provided cooking, cleaning and child care services. Ding gave the victim's identity documents to Liang, who kept the documents locked in a bedroom. Ding and Liang also admitted to telling the victim that she needed to remain inside the house because she was an illegal alien. The sentences were handed down by U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong in the Northern District of California.

“The defendants deprived the victim of her freedom through physical abuse and psychological intimidation for their own financial benefit,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Their conduct created a condition of modern-day slavery for the victim within the walls of their home. The Department of Justice is committed to vigorously prosecuting cases of human trafficking.”

“By being forced to work without pay for more than a year, physically abused and having her visa and passport taken from her, the victim in this case was denied a basic constitutional right that American's take for granted – freedom,” said Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. “Not since 1865, when the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified, has slavery been tolerated in this country. My office will continue to work diligently to uphold the laws of the United States and ensure everyone's rights are protected.”

“No one should be forced to live in a world of isolation and servitude as this victim was, particularly in a country that prides itself on its freedoms,” said Mark Wollman, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations. “It's a sad reflection on human greed and heartlessness, that people believe they can engage in this kind of egregious exploitation with impunity. These sentences should send a message to those who traffic in human beings that ICE Homeland Security Investigations and its federal law enforcement partners are committed to protecting those who cannot protect themselves.”

The U.S. Attorney filed charges in a superseding information against Ding, 62, Liang, 36, and Shen, 43, all of Fremont, on May 27, 2010. Ding was charged with and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful conduct regarding documents in furtherance of forced labor. Liang and Shen were each charged with and pleaded guilty to one count of harboring an illegal alien for purposes of private financial gain.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Huang of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Karen Ruckert Lopez of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case with the assistance of legal assistant Jeanne Carstensen. This case was the result of a joint investigation between the FBI and ICE Homeland Security Investigations that arose from a referral by the Fremont Police Department in coordination with the San Jose Police Department Human Trafficking Task Force.

Combating human trafficking is a top priority of the Department of Justice. In each of the past two fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division, in partnership with U.S. Attorneys' Offices, has brought record numbers of human trafficking prosecutions. Anyone who suspects instances of human trafficking are encouraged to call the Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-3737-888 . Anonymous calls are welcome.

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