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From the Los Angeles Times

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La Familia cartel leader believed killed in Michoacan violence

Mexican authorities believe Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, a.k.a. 'El Mas Loco,' died in the fighting that raged between drug traffickers and federal troops this week.

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

December 11, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Mexican authorities said Friday that they believe a top leader of the violent La Familia cartel was killed during two days of pitched fighting in the home state of President Felipe Calderon.

In violence that erupted Wednesday afternoon and raged until early Friday, federal forces deployed in the western state of Michoacan battled scores of gunmen from La Familia who torched vehicles and barricaded roads in a dozen cities. At least 11 people were confirmed killed, including five federal police officers and an 8-month-old.

Government security spokesman Alejandro Poire said officials had received information that La Familia founder Nazario Moreno Gonzalez — a.k.a. "El Mas Loco" (the craziest) — was killed in the shooting.

He acknowledged, however, that La Familia gunmen carried away their dead and injured as they retreated, making an exact accounting of who and how many died impossible.

Still, Poire said the group had been "significantly weakened."

"This is the moment to intensify pressure on this organization in order to diminish criminal activity in the region efficiently and permanently," he said.

Moreno's death would be a significant blow to the cartel, which is among the newest in Mexico and one of the most brutal.

La Familia first gained national attention by tossing five severed heads onto the floor of a dance hall in September 2006. Two months later, Calderon sent troops into Michoacan for the first time to take on traffickers. Nevertheless, La Familia swiftly rose to a spot on the short list of dangerous cartels, dominating the methamphetamine trade and steadily diversifying into counterfeiting, extortion and kidnapping.

Based in Michoacan, where it has infiltrated police ranks and city halls, the group has spread into neighboring Guerrero and Mexico states, as well as at least 30 U.S. towns and cities, including the Los Angeles area.

Moreno gave La Familia a patina of pseudo-religious, cultlike mystique. He carried a self-published "bible," recruited members at drug rehab centers and insisted that the group's traffickers and hit men lead lives free of drug or alcohol consumption. He cast himself and the cartel as protectors of Michoacan.

Moreno also had a bounty on his head of about $2 million, placed by the Mexican government. The charges listed on his wanted poster include drug trafficking in Mexico and the U.S., kidnapping and homicide. He was considered one of the two top leaders of La Familia.

The heaviest fighting this week in Michoacan took place around the town of Apatzingan, a La Familia stronghold, where Mexican marines and army troops backed by helicopters fanned out across the countryside, according to witnesses, and were pushing the offensive as late as Friday afternoon. If Moreno was indeed killed, La Familia could retaliate, a prospect that has set residents on edge.

"The situation is very critical," Apatzingan Mayor Genaro Guizar said by telephone. "There is hardly anyone on the streets, and traffic has stopped."

He sent city hall employees home early and told them to stay inside.

In the state capital, Morelia, businesses were shuttered Friday and parents kept their children home from school. On Thursday, gunmen forced motorists from their vehicles and set cars, trucks and buses on fire to block all roads leading into the capital. Parts of Morelia, a picturesque, colonial-era city once popular with tourists, were ringed with black smoke.

La Familia recently used banners and fliers to offer a truce and say it was ready to disband. The government ignored the offer, saying it showed the group was battered and in decline. But others in Michoacan viewed the offer as a ploy that foreshadowed a new offensive by the cartel.

"What we have witnessed in the last few days is the demonstration of a criminal organization repudiated by the public and that has found itself significantly weakened," Poire said. "That has been proved by its false calls for a truce."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-drug-lord-20101211,0,6005257,print.story

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'Mexico supplies the drugs. We supply the users'

"Over the border and through the cartels to Abuelita's casa we go," begins a recent commentary on the Mexican drug war, published Monday in the Kansas City Star (and also syndicated by Tribune Media Services).

The line by columnist Mary Sanchez refers to the brutal drug-trafficking organizations currently spreading fear and violence across the country, and -- of course -- to the stereotypical sweet grandmother figure that draws so many Mexican Americans back to the country of their ancestors during the Christmas season.

This season, Mexico warned, visitors from the United States should travel in convoys to help avoid the kidnappings and shoot-outs. Feliz Navidad ?

Sanchez writes that looking at the drug war in Mexico as merely a south-of-the-border problem ignores half of the equation. The violence, she says, is rooted in competition over which groups get to supply the lucrative demand for narcotics in the United States, the largest drug market in the world, and which groups the Mexican government is attempting to dismantle. The writer argues:

Read the entire column here.

The states of Tamaulipas and Michoacan, along with Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua, are currently bearing the brunt of what that "import/export business" can produce when attempts are made to stop it. See recent related La Plaza posts here and here.

On Thursday and Friday, much of Michoacan was on lock-down as the major local cartel, the cult-like La Familia, battled federal forces. The 36-hour siege gripped a dozen municipalities in the state and paralyzed the capital, Morelia, as gunmen yanked random citizens from their cars and trucks and set fire to vehicles to block the five roads that provide access to the city.

Eight people died in Thursday's fighting, including an 8-month-old who was struck by a stray bullet in the town of Apatzingan (link in Spanish). This is where the heaviest gun battles took place as federal police chased a top figure in La Familia, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez. The capo, known as "El Chayo," is believed to have been killed, the government said Friday.

At least 30,000 people have died in four years of fighting in Mexico. Every day, as Michoacan demonstrated this week, that number grows.

So what do you think, La Plaza readers? Are the debates over the Mexican drug war -- the question of whether the violence is "spilling over" -- inherently asymmetrical, as Sanchez argues? Is the United States government doing its part, doing enough to recognize the war as a binational crisis? How about the American news coverage?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/12/commentary-mexico-drug-war-supply-trade-demand.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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Elizabeth Smart's abductor found guilty of kidnapping, rape

A federal jury in Salt Lake City rejects an insanity defense and convicts self-proclaimed prophet Brian David Mitchell of kidnapping and repeatedly raping Elizabeth Smart, then 14. He could face up to life in prison.

By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

December 10, 2010

Eight years ago she was a symbol of stolen innocence, snatched from her bedroom at age 14, chained up and raped for nine months before being rescued.

On Friday, Elizabeth Smart, now 23, symbolized something else in a federal courtroom in Salt Lake City — resilience. She watched a jury convict her kidnapper, the culmination of a long legal battle that featured Smart's calm, methodical testimony about the unspeakable things that Brian David Mitchell did to her during her captivity.

"The beginning and end of this story is … a woman with extraordinary courage and extraordinary determination," Acting U.S. Atty. Carlie Christensen told reporters after the verdict was read. Smart recounted her travails, Christensen said, "with a candor and clarity and a truthfulness that I think moved all of us. She is a remarkable young woman."

Later, Smart spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. "I hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened," she said.

The abduction of Smart — petite, blond and a member of a devout Mormon family — attracted worldwide attention and an outpouring of prayers for her safe return. The circumstance of her disappearance — taken as her parents slept — added to the horror, and her rescue prompted perhaps an even larger outpouring of relief and joy.

After five hours of deliberation, the jury found Mitchell, 57, guilty of transporting a minor across state lines for sexual exploitation and interstate kidnapping. He could face life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced May 25.

Mitchell's attorneys never denied the allegations against him. "You do not have a good man here," Robert Steele, one of his lawyers, told jurors during closing arguments.

But his attorneys contended that Mitchell — who said that God ordered him to abduct Smart and rape her — was clinically insane and should not be convicted for his acts.

Prosecutors said that Mitchell, who had used an insanity defense to avoid a conviction in state court, was only play-acting. A gaunt man with an unruly gray beard, Mitchell regularly broke into song during the trial, which led to him being exiled to a cell, where he watched testimony via video. On Friday, as the verdict was announced, Mitchell sang a Mormon hymn called "He Died. The Great Redeemer Died."

Outside court, his stepdaughter, Rebecca Woodridge, who herself had been sexually abused by Mitchell decades ago, told reporters she thought his mental illness meant he could not be held legally responsible for his actions. "There's a difference from knowing what you're doing is wrong and continuing to do it, and knowing what you're doing could be wrong but not being able to stop it," she said.

On the night of June 4, 2002, Smart testified, she woke with Mitchell standing over her, a knife to her throat. He threatened to kill her family if she did not go with him. He took her from her family's Salt Lake City home into a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, where his then-wife, Wanda Barzee, awaited them.

Mitchell took Smart as a "plural wife" and began raping her, telling her it was God's will and preaching a twisted version of Mormon theology. He and Barzee locked a cable around Smart's leg and chained it to a tree. She spent months living in primitive conditions, and was raped multiple times a day. As winter neared, Mitchell moved them to the hills east of San Diego.

In California, Mitchell was arrested for breaking into a church while high on prescription drugs. He didn't get out of jail for a week, and Barzee and Smart survived by drinking rainwater.

Smart's recounting of the California leg of their journey showed how, even then, she maintained her poise and wits. She used religion against her tormentor and told Mitchell that she thought God was calling them back to Salt Lake City, and he agreed to return there.

As she testified in a 2009 hearing on whether Mitchell should stand trial, she said, "California, I felt that was so far away. I felt that no one would ever find me. Even if it took 20 years to find me I thought the chances would be better in Salt Lake."

The tactic worked. Several weeks later, a biker spotted Mitchell and Barzee walking with a girl in a Salt Lake City suburb. By then Mitchell, who had done odd jobs for Smart's parents in the past, had been identified as a suspect in her disappearance.

Smart was with him, dressed in a wig and sunglasses. She testified that she was so scared of Mitchell she initially didn't identify herself to police when they picked her up.

Barzee and Mitchell were found mentally incompetent to stand trial by state courts and were held at a psychiatric hospital. Federal authorities took over the case and were able to get Mitchell declared competent at a federal court hearing last year. Barzee soon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Now 65, Barzee testified against Mitchell, calling her ex-husband a "great deceiver." The two had spent years wandering the country as street preachers before the kidnapping.

Barzee, who along with Mitchell had belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he manipulated her religious beliefs to get her to go along with the kidnapping. She testified that he had claimed to have had a divine revelation years earlier that God wanted him to take multiple brides.

Smart's testimony lasted for three days, but much of the trial was taken up by dueling experts discussing whether Mitchell was mentally competent.

Smart calmly sat through much of the trial, though she and her mother stormed out of court when one state psychiatrist testified that she had picked out baby names during her captivity in case she became pregnant.

After the verdict, however, Smart and her parents spoke triumphantly to a crush of reporters.

"This is an exceptionally victorious day for all of us," said Lois Smart, Elizabeth's mother.

Elizabeth Smart, who is on a break from her Mormon mission in France, said she hoped other victims of sex crimes and abductions would take heart from the verdict. "We can speak out," she said, "and we will be heard."

Until Mitchell's trial, Smart had remained largely out of the public eye and embarked on her mission work in Europe.

But last year she appeared on CNN to offer advice to Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was discovered 18 years after being kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe.

"I would just encourage her to find different passions in life and continually push forward and learn more and reach more for them," Smart said, "and not to look behind, because there's a lot out there."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-elizabeth-smart-20101211,0,7021671,print.story

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Gay and homeless: In plain sight, a largely hidden population

Every year, hundreds of gay youths end up on the streets of L.A. County, where they make up a disproportionate share of the people under 25 who are homeless. 'They haven't been on the streets for years and years,' an advocate says, 'so they don't look bad.'

By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times

December 12, 2010

The city hipsters sipping expensive coffee and chatting on cellphones did not give a second look at the two young men cutting across a Hollywood courtyard on their way to bed down in a nearby park.

AJ, 23, and his boyfriend, Alex, 21, hide their blankets and duffel bags in bushes. They shower every morning at a drop-in center and pick out outfits from a closet full of used yet youthful attire.

"If I could be invisible, I would," AJ said. "I feel ashamed to admit that I'm homeless."

Every year, hundreds of gay youths end up alone on the streets of Los Angeles County, where they make up a disproportionate share of the at least 4,200 people under 25 who are homeless on any given day.

A recent study found that 40% of the homeless youths in Hollywood, a gathering spot for these young people, identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure of their sexual orientation. Five percent say they are transgender.

But it is a largely hidden population, said Simon Costello, who manages the drop-in center frequented by AJ and Alex.

"They haven't been on the streets for years and years," he said, "so they don't look bad."

Blending in is part of how AJ and Alex survive on the streets. Police officers are quick to issue tickets, and the streets are full of predators.

In recent weeks, a Times reporter and a photographer spent time with several gay homeless men in their early 20s.

The men agreed to speak openly about their lives, including illegal drug use and other criminal activity, on the condition that their full names not be used. Using public records and other sources, The Times was able to independently verify some details they shared about their family histories.

***

Gay and transgender youths become homeless for the same reasons as others their age. Many come from families with a history of abuse, neglect, addiction, incarceration or mental illness. But they say their sexual or gender identity often plays a role in the breakdown of their families.

"Queer" was among the more polite names Christopher was called while growing up, before he even knew what the barbs meant.

A slight 22-year-old with a shock of red hair, he said he stood out in his large Latino family in Pacoima, a place he calls "the ghetto of the Valley."

"My cousins were gangbangers," he said. "They're talking about girls and parties … and I knew in middle school that I liked boys and wanted to hold their hands."

At school, classmates would pelt him with food and milk cartons. To dull the hurt, he turned to alcohol and drugs. He stole money from his grandmother, swallowed his brother's medication and cut himself with razors.

When he turned 18, he said, his grandmother kicked him out of the family home. She filed a restraining order against him in court.

"I been hearing about my peers committing suicide because of the teasing and bullying … and of course I understand," he said, staring at a web of scars on his left forearm. "But then I go, 'How come that's not my story? Why didn't you kill yourself? How did you make it through all that?'"

Christopher said that on his first night without a roof over his head, he shared a drink with two men who took turns raping a girl who had passed out on the side of a highway.

Soon he was selling his body on Santa Monica Boulevard to support a methamphetamine habit. He and his friends used the drug to stay awake, he said, so they would not get jumped. They shared a room and a soiled mattress in an abandoned building. "No plumbing, no electricity," Christopher said.

***

AJ was just 16 when his Vietnamese immigrant father told him to get out of his house, unable to accept his admission that he was gay. Any effeminate gesture, AJ said, would drive his father to beat him.

For a time, AJ moved between the homes of friends and relatives in California and Colorado while he worked a succession of jobs. Some paid well enough for him to get his own apartment. But, he said ruefully, "It has been hard to sustain my sobriety."

When he was fired from his last job in July, he had no place to go but the streets.

He met Alex at the drop-in center operated by the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center. Tired of his father's drunken rages, Alex left his home in El Paso in June and caught a train to Los Angeles with a friend. He thought there would be more opportunities here. After two weeks, his backpack was stolen along with the only possessions he had with him. He still hasn't found work.

AJ and Alex bonded quickly. Both lost their mothers to drug overdoses and struggled to be accepted by their fathers.

On a recent night, the couple headed to a park, one of their favorite spots to while away time during the hours the drop-in center is closed. The restrooms are open late. Friendly neighbors stop to chat while walking their dogs; once, they ordered pizza for them.

They spread a sleeping bag on the lawn, then pulled out a bottle of cheap gin, which they mixed with diet Mountain Dew. They said they collected store gift cards, which are offered by many institutions as incentives to attend therapy sessions, then traded them in for cash to buy the beverages.

"We're not alcoholics," Alex said. But sometimes their life is difficult, he said, "and we have to numb it down."

Soon they were singing along to songs stored on a cellphone with no service. As they neared the end of the bottle, AJ became by turns angry and despondent. All he could think about was getting high, but he did not have the cash to buy crystal meth.

"Let's go," he told Alex. "I want to prostitute myself."

Alex tried to distract him with a bite of hamburger, but AJ pushed it away and groaned.

Finally, they crawled underneath some bushes to go to sleep. As they curled up in each other's arms, cheerful chatter wafted over them from a late-night picnic, punctuated by the thwacks of tennis rackets hitting a ball on an illuminated court.

***

For some gay youths alienated from their families, the foster care system provides sanctuary. But too often, said Costello, the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's associate director for children, youth and family services, they bounce between foster parents and group homes until they turn 18. Once emancipated, they have nowhere to go.

Jonathan, a gregarious 21-year-old with a marijuana leaf tattoo on his arm, said he had more than 20 placements between the time he was removed from his parents' home at 5 and aged out of foster care three years ago.

"I had anger management issues," he said.

When he was 9, Jonathan said, one of his foster mothers left him alone with two men who raped him.

"I used to hate gay people because of what happened to me," he said.

But he recently told his best friend that he is bisexual. They were in a cell waiting to see a judge about a pair of tickets they'd been issued for riding a train without paying.

Jonathan said he has lost track of the number of times he has been arrested. He hangs out in skateboard parks and often sleeps on a rooftop, where he feels safe.

The first thing he does when he wakes up is reach for a marijuana pipe. Staring through the pungent haze from his spot on the pavement early one morning, he had a commanding view of the Hollywood Hills.

"You see those houses on the hill?" he said. "I'm a have one of those one day."

***

Getting off the streets is a challenge for many of these young people. The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center is one of several Hollywood organizations that assist homeless youths. Among them, there are only about 200 beds available.

Christopher credits the center — and the kindness of a teacher who took him into her home for a time when he was being bullied — with keeping him alive.

But it has not been easy. Soon after he was admitted to a transitional living program operated by the center, he was kicked out for getting into a fight with his boyfriend. Months later, Christopher asked the center for another chance.

"I was so tired … so broken and hopeless," he said. "I was desperate for something different."

With their help, he completed a rehab program, passed the high school equivalency test and moved into a sober-living home. He now works part time dispensing frozen yogurt and has a tiny apartment of his own.

"I'm a part of society," he said. "I couldn't be any happier."

Jonathan says he isn't sure that he wants to go into transitional housing — too many rules. But he has plans. He would like to go to college, maybe become a doctor or a lawyer so he can help others like himself.

"Things are going to work out," he said. "Remember this face."

AJ has promised Alex he will stop doing crystal meth. They are looking for work, but are finding it difficult without an address.

AJ was diagnosed with depression and applied for a bed at a shelter operated by a mental health center. But when two beds became available one morning, the staff had no way to reach him. By the time he checked in with the center that afternoon, the spots had been snapped up.

A few days later, there was good news. Another bed was available. AJ, worried that Alex could not cope alone on the streets, made his boyfriend take the bed. They held hands on the bus and kissed goodnight outside the metal gates.

To be close to Alex, AJ started sleeping under a nearby bridge. There were rats and piles of trash. He spread cardboard on the ground before putting down a blanket. His last $2 went to buy a bottle of vodka. When that was gone, he grabbed another bottle from a supermarket shelf and sprinted out the door.

He tried to bum a cigarette off a passerby, but the man ignored him. Furious, AJ threw down the backpack in which he had stuffed the bottle, then burst into tears as vodka seeped onto the pavement.

Spending a night apart from Alex, "it seems so small," he said later. "But when you have nothing but each other, it's huge."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gay-homeless-20101212,0,2768780,print.story

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Father Chris Ponnet eulogizes 1,689 people whose remains were buried in a mass grave at an annual ritual at the L.A. County crematory.

Can't forgiveness transcend death? by Sandy Banks December 11, 2010 The mourners were outnumbered by news crews and clerics at this week's burial service at the Los Angeles County Crematory. I'm not sure what group to count myself in. I took notes, and I prayed. And I mourned for those who had died alone, as I contemplated the freshly dug mass grave that had become their final home. It held the remains of 1,689 people who died in Los Angeles County three years ago and were cremated by the county after no one showed up to claim their bodies. Three years later, their ashes were still unclaimed. It was time for the county to bury them. Every year, for more than 50 years, the county has ceremoniously interred its unclaimed in the crematorium's tiny graveyard, on the small slope of a grassy hill alongside Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

At Wednesday's memorial, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist prayers were offered. Onlookers were given flowers to scatter. There were no personal stories shared, no individual tragedies mourned. But Father Chris Ponnet's thoughtful eulogy cloaked the anonymous dead in dignity.

Ponnet is director of spiritual care at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He considers this official ritual a reflection of the county's reverence for humanity. "It's a sign that society does not throw away people who die, for various reasons, alone," he said.

It is also a reminder of life's fragility. And a symbol of something less ennobling: Our fraying social fabric and unforgiving economy.

--

As chief investigator for the coroner's office, Craig Harvey tries to track down friends and family members of people whose bodies linger at the morgue unclaimed. That sometimes sends him wading into family feuds, trying to reconnect relatives who gave up on one another long ago.

"Sometimes we find them and they want the ashes," he said, recalling a young woman who was "thrilled" to take possession of her grandfather's remains. An aunt had been trying to hold the ashes hostage because of some ancient disagreement, he said.

But sometimes "there's so much animosity, they just walk away. They'll say 'How did you find me? I haven't talked to my brother in 30 years.' They're not interested in taking responsibility now."

Other times the impediment is more mundane; it costs about $400 to retrieve the remains of someone cremated by the county. "They may be living on Social Security themselves," Harvey explained. "They've got no money to claim this person."

Cemetery caretaker Albert Gaskin supervises the cremations — "gets the paperwork done," he said. "We do about six a day … each person cremated individually." Their ashes are packed in plastic bags, stored in reusable plastic urns the size of a cigar box.

This week, Gaskin helped stack those bags in a 7-foot-square hole, dug 7 feet deep. By the time the service began, the mound of dirt covering the plot was crowned with a modest spray of white flowers. Later a plaque the size of an index card, plain except for the burial year, will be added to mark the spot.

Martha Vega was among a half-dozen visitors, there to "show my respect," she said. She had tended some of the dead as a county hospital chaplain. Some had battled long illnesses; others died unexpectedly from traumatic injuries, she said.

"Many of these people, we were present at their death, accompanied them in their final hour." She saw the "spectrum of feelings" among those preparing to face life's end alone. "Some are still angry about whatever broke up their family. They really don't care to have a connection. And some are sad and wish they had a family."

I spoke with a pair of outreach workers from Passageways, a Pasadena agency that helps homeless people. "This is not what you think; not some body just abandoned on the street," Ruben Gallegos told me. "Almost all of these people have families."

Some of their clients wound up among the unclaimed dead; most were mentally ill or addicted to drugs or alcohol. They'd broken with their families years ago, been given up on and written off. "They go unclaimed for two reasons," Gallegos told me: "Animosity and finances."

His partner, Kitty Galt, added another: "Our transient society."

People leave their home towns, move around, lose touch and never nurture the kind of roots that might make their ashes important to someone.

--

I cannot imagine dying alone or envision a violation thicker than blood — a dispute so ugly and long-lasting that it would obliterate my ties to my family.

As we walked the burial ground, Ponnet told me that every year, a few people discover too late that someone they loved is buried there.

Some visit the cemetery and add to the mass graves small personal markers. Many are terse and plain, bearing only dates of birth and death and the deceased's name. But others hint at tenderness, reminding me that these graves hold not just "unclaimed dead" but a "beloved brother," someone's "husband and father," a handsome teenage son whose parents apparently cared enough to add his photo to the small square marker.

I see evidence of recent tending: a fragrant bouquet on a 10-year-old grave, a shiny ceramic statue of the Virgin Mary, a polished granite headstone marking the 1989 death of a 14-year-old "daughter, sister and auntie."

None of the markers offered hints to whatever feud or misfortune landed them there. How, I wondered, could teenagers like Bryant Hernandez and Cassandra Belton die alone, unaccounted for for years, until loved ones marked their burial sites?

I thought about them when I heard later that day of Elizabeth Edwards' death, surrounded by friends and family members. Among them was her estranged husband, John Edwards, whose scandalous infidelity had compounded the pain of her struggle with cancer.

She must have looked past her husband's betrayal to remember the man she'd once called her "rock" — the husband who weathered tragedy alongside her, the father of three children who will ever mourn her.

Impending death, it seems, can recalibrate pain and reconfigure our memories.

Those crowded graves can be seen as an ugly testimony to the enduring power of anger, bitterness and neglect. But they are also a reminder of the possibility life offers. It is not too late to reach out, to forgive, to restore a relationship, until you—or someone you love—has passed away.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's database of unclaimed bodies includes more than 5,000 names.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-20101211,0,5611938,print.column

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All the Web privacy you want

The Internet is about collecting and sharing data. But users should have more control over that.

December 11, 2010

Microsoft announced this week that the next version of its Internet Explorer browser will include better privacy controls, giving users more protection against being tracked by advertisers online. Its initiative, which takes a novel approach to counteracting online tracking, illustrates why the government shouldn't rush to regulate in its zeal to address the problem. But it also highlights the scattershot nature of privacy protection, and the need for Washington to give people more say over how information about them is collected, used and shared.

The software giant's announcement came as federal officials are stepping up scrutiny of privacy practices in response to growing public concern. Privacy advocates have complained with increasing frequency about the amount of personal information being collected about Internet users, how often data are being shared without users' knowledge, and how aggressively some companies are translating supposedly anonymous information about Web users into profiles of real individuals.

The challenge for policymakers is that the Web is built around the collection and sharing of data. Much of that sharing is benign or even welcome. For example, frequent online shoppers may want their favorite retailers to store their credit-card numbers, or they may want to share their street address with shipping services. And people who watch videos on the Web may prefer to see commercials targeted to their location and interests over ads aimed at the undifferentiated masses.

But other surreptitious uses of data are not so innocent, such as when companies use browsing data to raise or lower the price of goods and services a particular shopper is offered, or to develop profiles that combine supposedly anonymous online behavior with individuals' public records. Such actions are often made possible by the tracking "cookies" used by online advertising networks. These bits of software, which browsers download or update automatically when they reach a website displaying one of the network's ads, quietly record some of the actions the user of that browser takes online.

Microsoft's updated browser will offer users the option of blocking tracking cookies, advertisements and any other form of content from specific Web servers. The company won't suggest sites to block, but privacy groups are expected to supply lists that will be updated regularly. If enough consumers use the feature, it will put pressure on advertisers to abandon tracking in favor of less-intrusive means of targeting their pitches.

The initiative marks a shift for Microsoft, which had declined in the past to take aggressive measures against tracking software. Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, has also changed its thinking on the issue. Earlier this year it removed a proposed feature that would have killed tracking cookies not long after they were delivered, but it's now working on ways to give users more control over their privacy. There's been no similar movement yet from the other leading browser developers, but the actions by Microsoft and Mozilla show that the complaints about tracking have gotten loud enough to affect the market.

Naturally, online advertisers aren't entirely pleased with these developments, even as they scramble to respond to consumers' concerns by giving them better notification of tracking ads and a way to opt out of at least some of them. Their trade group, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, argues that encouraging people to block the kind of personalization that tracking enables will make it harder for sites to offer content and services for free, or at least charge those who block ads. But Internet users should be the ones making that choice, rather than having it made for them on terms they don't like.

As welcome as the efforts by browser-makers may be, they address only the concerns related to ad networks' tracking cookies. Still missing are better mechanisms for limiting how personal information is collected and shared by websites and social networks, as well as the data brokers that aggregate information collected by others.

Today, online companies are required to do little more than publish a privacy policy that discloses what personal information they collect and share, and to honor that policy. The result has been a proliferation of privacy policies that are incomprehensibly dense and riddled with loopholes. What's worse, sites' policies don't bind the advertising networks that support them, which may be inundating people's computers with tracking software.

In a report last week, the FTC declared that the approach it has encouraged sites to take — notifying consumers about privacy policies and letting them opt out of practices they don't like — isn't working. The report outlined a good framework for approaching the issue, calling for all companies (not just those online) to give consumers a better view of how they collect and share personal information and a more effective means to control whether to provide that information.

The commission is still collecting feedback from the public on the details of its proposal, and it won't take formal action until next year. Even if it moves ahead with the report's suggestions, though, it's not clear what authority the FTC has to enforce them. So far, its power has been limited to cracking down on sites that don't honor their own privacy policies.

Existing federal law protects only certain types of personal information against improper use or disclosure, including medical records and credit reports. Considering how much information is routinely collected and shared online, and how that information can be used to favor some consumers and disadvantage others, Congress needs to provide more protection.

The solution isn't a special set of rules for the Web, but rather some basic, enforceable principles for personal information privacy. At least four are worth enshrining into law. First, businesses should disclose what forms of personal information they're collecting and sharing, especially when they're doing it behind the scenes. Second, those disclosures should be timely and easy to understand. Third, consumers should be able to choose not to have personal data shared in ways that aren't commonly accepted or that go beyond the limits imposed when the information was initially collected. And fourth, consumers should have the right to correct errors in the information that's compiled about them if it's put to commercial use.

The point is to let companies innovate with technologies and business models while making sure the public is an informed and willing participant. Given the tradeoffs involved, many Internet users may choose to let sites collect and share just as much personal information as they do today. But it should be their choice.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-1211-privacy-20101211,0,6527230,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Body Fell From Plane, Authorities Say

BOSTON — A North Carolina teenager whose body was found in a Boston suburb last month had most likely stowed away inside a plane's wheel well and fallen as it lowered its landing gear, the authorities said Friday.

The remains of the youth, Delvonte Tisdale, 16, were found in a quiet neighborhood in Milton, Mass., on Nov. 15, below a flight path to Logan Airport.

“It appears more likely than not that Mr. Tisdale was able to breach airport security and hide in the wheel well of a commercial jet airliner without being detected by airport security,” William R. Keating, Norfolk County district attorney, said at a news conference on Friday afternoon.

Mr. Keating said he had alerted federal authorities and the airport in Charlotte, N.C., where the teenager is believed to have gotten on the flight, about the events. While the case is a sad one, Mr. Keating said, it also underscores fears that someone with malicious intent could do the same thing.

“It's a terrible tragedy what happened to this young man, but if that was someone with a different motive,” he said, “if that was a terrorist that could have been a bomb that was planted, undetected. This is very serious.”

Mr. Keating said the authorities had searched two airplanes that left Charlotte for Boston on Nov. 15, and found handprints in the left wheel well of a Boeing 737 that was scheduled to leave Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 7 p.m. that day.

“As they looked at the grease, they saw what I describe as lateral impressions that showed there was someone in there. There was a handprint in an area where it ordinarily wouldn't be,” Mr. Keating said.

“I don't pretend to tell you how he did it,” Mr. Keating said, noting that Delvonte was an Air Force R.O.T.C. student.

Clothing that matched a description that Delvonte's family had given the authorities was found in Milton along the flight path, Mr. Keating said, and a plastic card — the type one uses to get into a hotel room — was found shattered.

“The altitudes were very high, and it gets very cold,” Mr. Keating said. “That card was shattered into such tiny pieces that it was consistent with something that had been frozen and shattered.”

The authorities initially believed that Delvonte had been murdered, and impounded two cars they thought to be suspicious. But in recent weeks, officials began investigating the possibility that the teenager had stowed away on an airplane.

“This was something that sounded quite remote, that someone could breach security aboard a commercial jet,” Mr. Keating said. “Again we look at every possibility.”

The authorities were at first flummoxed as to how the teenager had made it from North Carolina to Massachusetts so quickly. Delvonte was last seen around 1 a.m. Nov. 15 in Charlotte, and his body was found less than 24 hours later in Milton. A neighbor in the Milton neighborhood reported hearing a loud thump outside around 9 p.m.; the authorities said the plane landed minutes later.

Federal and state authorities continue to investigate the case, Mr. Keating said.

“I suspect,” he said, “that there will be a lot of scrutiny into this.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/11plane.html?_r=1&ref=us

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Holder Tells Muslim Group Stings Are ‘Essential'

MILLBRAE, Calif. — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. defended the use of sting operations orchestrated by government informants, telling advocates for Muslim-American civil rights in remarks on Friday night that the tactic is an “essential law enforcement tool in uncovering and preventing terror attacks.”

In a 20-minute speech delivered in this suburb of San Francisco at the annual dinner of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy and civil-rights organization, Mr. Holder rejected criticism by such groups that sting operations amount to improper “entrapment.”

About 300 Muslim community leaders from around the United States attended the dinner. Having a United States attorney general speak at such an event was unprecedented, the group's president, Farhana Khera, said in an interview earlier on Friday.

Mr. Holder was given a standing ovation as he took the stage, and many applauded during his speech. But the room fell silent for several minutes while Mr. Holder defended the sting operation in an Oregon bombing last month, calling it a “successful undercover operation” and not a case of entrapment. Those who think otherwise, he said, “simply do not have their facts straight.”

Ms. Khera said the group had invited the attorney general several months ago. She portrayed the Muslim-American community as torn by a mistrust of law enforcement because of what it sees as intrusive surveillance and harassment — like sending informants into mosques — and by its concerns about anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Mr. Holder said the cooperation of Muslim-Americans had been essential in preventing terrorist attacks. He said that the Justice Department was focusing on “violence, threats, vandalism and arson against Muslims and Arab-Americans,” and that in the last fiscal year federal prosecutors won convictions of more hate-crime defendants than any year but 2000.

“I believe that law enforcement has an obligation to ensure that members of every religious community enjoy the ability to worship and to practice their faith in peace, free from intimidation, violence or suspicion,” Mr. Holder said.

But he also rejected criticism of some counterterrorism techniques used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including sending informants into mosques in search of would-be terrorists and creating elaborate sting operations enabling them to carry out fake attacks using dummy bombs.

Ms. Khera emphasized that Muslim Advocates recognized that “there are actual threats that do exist and as Americans who care about the country, we want law enforcement to be effective.”

But the complex “entrapment operations,” she contended, may be getting people involved in terrorism who otherwise would not have done anything. She also argued that the operations divert investigators from “actual threats” and stoke “anti-Muslim sentiment.”

At a reception after the speech, many in the audience voiced their gratitude for Mr. Holder's presence, saying it would help rebuild trust between U.S. law enforcement and Muslims. “This is a positive step toward engaging a vital community and perhaps one of the most important partners in combating extremism and terrorism in America,” said Wajahat Ali, 30, a lawyer and playwright from Fremont, Calif. “He said exactly what needed to be said. Now those words need to be translated into action.”

In his remarks, Mr. Holder said that stings had been used for decades against many types of crimes. And he defended the investigation last month in Portland, Ore., in which a young Somali-American man, , Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested after law enforcement agents said he tried to trigger what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

“I make no apologies for the how the F.B.I. agents handled their work in executing the operation that led to Mr. Mohamud's arrest,” Mr. Holder said. “Their efforts helped to identify a person who repeatedly expressed his desire and intention to kill innocent Americans.”

He added: “But you also have my word that the Justice Department will — just as vigorously — continue to pursue anyone who would target Muslims, or their houses of worship.”

Despite the attorney general's reassurances, some in attendance were deeply concerned by the federal government's ongoing undercover sting operations.

“I grew up during the civil rights era and I'm aware how the civil rights community was infiltrated by provocateurs and agents who sought to undermine the legitimate struggles of the movement,” said Abu Qadir Al-Amin, 60, an African-American imam from Vallejo, Calif. “So my antennae are up and I try to educate the Muslim community so that they don't put themselves in a vulnerable position if someone comes along suggesting they do something illegal.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/politics/11holder.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

The Possible Dream?

The debate over United States immigration policy in recent years has been in equal parts tortuous and ineffectual. And one interested party had for the most part been relegated to the fringes: the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who were born abroad but brought to America when they were children. Claimed by neither their parents' homelands nor the nation they grew up in, unable to work legally here, they exist in a curious limbo.

Wednesday was a good day for those who want to make it easier for such young people to gain legal residency and citizenship: “A bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday, giving President Obama an unexpected although largely symbolic victory in the final days of Democratic control of Congress on an issue he has called a top priority,” reported The Times's Julia Preston. “The bill, known as the Dream Act, passed the House by a vote of 216 to 198.”

Friday, less so: “Senate Democrats on Thursday pulled a measure that would allow illegal immigrant students to earn legal status through education or military service after Republicans refused to allow a vote on a version of the legislation that had cleared the House on Wednesday,” wrote The Times's Carl Hulse. “Rather than try to break a Republican filibuster against the Senate's so-called Dream Act, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, instead forced a vote to call off the attempt, presumably so he could try again later.”

When “later” will be is unclear, but let's face it: if the bill can't be pushed through the Democrat-dominated Senate this session, it certainly stands no chance next year when the G.O.P. adds six seats.

In any case, there were plenty of talking points flying across the partisan divide. “The DREAM Act is not about creating an incentive for, or rewarding, high educational achievement,” writes Heather MacDonald at The Corner. “ It is about trying to extend an amnesty to as many illegal aliens as possible, who will then have the ability to legalize their family members.” She explains:

To convert conditional legal status to permanent legal status, the illegal alien needs at most to have completed two years worth of college credits over ten years. He need not have earned a bachelor's degree, nor have maintained a high GPA. He could have spent five years in remedial classes and the next five accumulating a year's worth of credits in Chicano/a studies. But even that minimal educational standard is waivable. If the illegal alien shows “compelling circumstances” for not accumulating two years worth of credits or if removal would cause “extremely unusual hardship” to the alien or his family, he can still be granted permanent legal status.

“It's unclear why anyone thinks the DREAM Act somehow disenfranchises American citizens, because nothing in the bill places undocumented children at an advantage over citizens,” writes Ben Armbruster at ThinkProgress. “The bill the House passed yesterday is not amnesty; it places demands on those undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. with their parents and are thus here illegally through no fault of their own.”

Steve M. at No More Mr. Nice Blog agrees:

Here's the problem: voters say they want “comprehensive immigration reform” but oppose “amnesty.” That sounds promising, but what it really means is that anything you propose that isn't “round ‘em all up and deport ‘em” is automatically described as “amnesty” by the right. And then swing voters hear that it's “amnesty” — whatever the proposal is — and assume they should be against it.

As long as right-wingers control the debate, you can't propose anything that won't fall victim to this sequence of events. You could write a bill that mandated fifty years at hard labor before the opportunity to apply for citizenship kicked in, and right-wingers would still call it “amnesty.” And the public, not knowing any better, would just nod in agreement. Someday this will change, I suppose. But not anytime soon.

And Michelle Malkin is gearing up for a last-ditch effort by the Democrats: “The Senate just voted 59-40 to table the DREAM Act illegal alien bailout cloture vote. It's been ‘vitiated,' to use Senate parlance. They'll take up the House-passed version next week. Which means another week of open-borders agitation, radical ethnic tribalism, and new Democrat euphemisms for illegal aliens. It's also another week for you to re-double phone calls, faxes and e-mails to Washington and demand that they put law-abiding American workers and students — and law-abiding immigrants and visa applicants — first.”

While the politics may be playing out predictably, the debate online has been of high quality, driven by a few of the better young bloggers.

The starting point, however, was not a blog post but a column by Michael Gerson in the Washington post in which he urged fellow Republicans to support the act:

Critics counter that the law would be a reward for illegal behavior and an incentive for future lawbreaking. But these immigrants, categorized as illegal, have done nothing illegal. They are condemned to a shadow existence entirely by the actions of their parents. And the Dream Act is not an open invitation for future illegal immigrants to bring their minors to America. Only applicants who have lived in America continuously for five years before enactment of the law would qualify.

Opponents of this law don't want earned citizenship for any illegal immigrant – even those personally guilty of no crime, even those who demonstrate their skills and character. The Dream Act would be a potent incentive for assimilation. But for some, assimilation clearly is not the goal. They have no intention of sharing the honor of citizenship with anyone called illegal – even those who came as children, have grown up as neighbors and would be willing to give their lives in the nation's cause.

“But what of the billions of children condemned to relative poverty because their parents chose not to become unauthorized immigrants?” countered Reihan Salam at National Review. He continued:

Migration is a highly effective means of achieving poverty reduction. An extraordinary 26 percent of people born in Haiti who live beyond the two-dollar-a-day standard live in the United States. As I understand it, the DREAM Act implicitly tells us that I should value the children of unauthorized immigrants more than the children of other people living in impoverished countries. If we assume that all human beings merit equal concern, this is obviously nonsensical. Indeed, all controls on migration are suspect under that assumption.

Even so, there is a broad consensus that the United States has a right to control its borders, and that the American polity can decide who will be allowed to settle in the United States. Or to put this another way, we've collectively decided that the right to live and work in the U.S. will be treated as a scarce good, just as we treat the right to access the spectrum as a scarce good.

Timothy B. Lee wasn't buying it:

Reihan objects that “we've collectively decided” that the opportunity to live and work in the United States “will be treated as” a scarce good. I suspect he's chosen this weird passive-voice phrasing because he knows better than to straight up claim that the opportunity to live in the United States is a scarce good. It's not. We should let the DREAM kids stay here and we should be letting a lot more kids from poorer countries come here. Doing the one doesn't in any way prevent us from doing the other …

That brings us to the core political question: does passing DREAM “implicitly tell us” something we'd rather not be told? This is where I think Reihan is furthest off base. From my perspective, the fundamental question in the immigration debate is: do we recognize immigrants as fellow human beings who are entitled to the same kind of empathy we extend to other Americans, or do we treat them as opponents in a zero-sum world whose interests are fundamentally opposed to our own? Most recent immigration reform proposals… are based on the latter premise: immigrants in general are yucky, but certain immigrants are so useful to the American economy that we'll hold our collective noses and let them in under tightly control conditions. The DREAM Act is different. The pro-DREAM argument appeals directly to Americans' generosity and sense of fairness, not our self-interest.

Nor was Adam Serwer:

DREAM is politically feasible precisely because it appeals to Americans' generosity, sense of fairness, and self-interest. Those who would be eligible are poised to offer concrete, sustained benefits to the country as a whole. Sending them away is a waste of the resources we've already invested in them, not to mention the ones they're prepared to contribute. DREAM also shaves about $1.4 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. So while DREAMers are getting something very valuable, the rest of us are as well.

Second, whether or not America should “value the children of unauthorized immigrants more than the children of other people living in impoverished countries,” it has a clear obligation to the former by virtue of their actually being here to treat them fairly. That means not holding them responsible for what their parents did.

“Gerson's approach to argument is weak and moralizing in a maddening way,” writes Conor Friedersdorf at the American Scene. But he doesn't have Salam's back either:

Let's assume for the sake of argument that Reihan is right, and that when it comes to immigration policy we should do what's best for US citizens and permanent legal residents. By that imperfect standard, Dream Act beneficiaries ought to be “valued” more highly than the impoverished resident of a Third World country. Compared to his counterpart somewhere abroad, the potential Dream Act beneficiary is almost certainly higher skilled. Having avoided legal trouble for many years, she is less likely to end up in jail than lesser known quantities. For anyone who values cultural assimilation, she is much farther along the path, if not fully assimilated. Most importantly, the ties the Dream Act beneficiary has to US citizens binds in two directions –– if he or she is given legal status rather than deported, there is a constellation of American citizen friends, lovers, neighbors, teachers, corner grocers, and employers whose loved one, friends or friendly acquaintances will be around for many years, rather than tragically deported or else living in the shadows, circumstances that'll make some of the important stakeholders in this hypothetical very sad.

These points are increasingly convincing to the extent that we look at the Dream Act as a test of America's highest ideals. But Salam, in a follow-up posting, reminds his critics that politics is still a fairly practical business:

My sense is that there is an upper bound on the number of foreigners that U.S. citizens will welcome to work and settle in the United States in any given year. I don't know what that number is, but I imagine it's not much higher than, say, 1.5 million per annum at the very high end. I am willing to accept that as a starting point, i.e., we're not going to allow 3 million or 7 million or even 1.6 million. Chances are that a number smaller than 1.5 million would reflect the preferences of a voting majority, e.g., 800,000. So how do we decide who “gets these slots”?

On humanitarian grounds, I can see why we might welcome at least some potential migrants with limited English language proficiency, modest skills, etc. These migrants, like any migrants, will make an economic contribution, yet this contribution is somewhat more likely to be outweighed by costs associated with social service expenditures … A serious humanitarian immigration policy requires a rigorous assessment of how to achieve the greatest humanitarian gain constrained by the aforementioned (constructed) scarcity.

For Salam, that greatest gain may come from increasing the ranks of immigrants from the very poorest countries — Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Senegal — and not Mexico, which has “a GDP per capita of $13,609, ahead of Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, and Colombia.” You can agree with his points or side with his detractors, but I'll say this: Coming on the heels of the recent screaming over WikiLeaks, paranoia about airport scanners and bashing of the deficit commission, it's quite heartening to look at a heated discussion among people from very different places on the political spectrum over whose plan would do the most good for the the country and the planet.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/the-possible-dream/?ref=opinion

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From Google News

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Brittany Mae Smith

S.F. shopper helps capture fugitive, kidnap victim by Jaxon Van Derbeken San Francisco Chronicle December 11, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO -- A relieved Virginia police chief extended an emotional thank-you from across the country to a San Francisco woman who spotted a fugitive sought in a slaying and kidnapping as she shopped at a Safeway in the Outer Richmond on Friday afternoon. "We're so thankful to her - for a person to be that observant, 3,000 miles away, is almost incredible," Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder said about the unidentified shopper who recognized Jeffrey Scott Easley, 32, from a TV report and called police, leading to his arrest and the recovery of 12-year-old Brittany Mae Smith. Roanoke authorities had feared the worst Monday when they found the child's mother, Tina Smith, 41, slain in her home near Salem, Va.

"We have no idea who it is, but in my eyes, whoever it is, they're a hero," Hall said.

Girl's father tearful

The father of the kidnap victim, who is a police officer in a nearby town, was tearful when he got the news his daughter had been found, Hall said.

"He expressed extreme relief - he was tearful, thanking God and thanking the officers and especially the woman who called in," she said.

Easley had been living with Brittany and her mother since October after meeting Tina Smith online last summer, according to Roanoke officials.

Tina Smith, who was employed at a local retirement home, had not been to work on Sunday, and co-workers discovered her body the next day when they came to check on her.

Police began a national manhunt, with Easley's mother tearfully pleading on television for him to give himself up. The only clue authorities had was that Easley and the girl were recorded on video buying a blue tent at a Walmart near the victim's home, possibly on the day of the slaying, believed to be Dec. 3.

Distinctive tattoos

On Friday, San Francisco police called Virginia police after the shopper spotted the fugitive and the girl at the Safeway at 48th Avenue and Fulton Street. They described distinctive tattoos Easley had on his calves to confirm his identity.

"We're immensely happy," Lavinder said late Friday, thanking both the alert shopper and San Francisco police for capturing the man and recovering the kidnap victim without incident.

The two, who were detained at about 1:30 p.m., had been living in a makeshift encampment near Ocean Beach, police said. The tent Easley had purchased at the Virginia Walmart was found in the encampment nearby, police said.

The child was placed in a shelter, and Easley was being held without bail on kidnapping charges.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F12%2F11%2FMN0I1GP6UF.DTL

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US senator calls for hearings on plane registry

NEW YORK (AP) — The chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing aviation said Friday he would recommend holding congressional hearings on aircraft registration after The Associated Press reported the Federal Aviation Administration was missing data on one-third of U.S. planes.

"We need to find out why, and how it can be brought back to have a registry that has credibility," said North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat.

The FAA says as many as 119,000 of the 357,000 U.S.-registered aircraft have "questionable registration" due to missing paperwork, invalid addresses and other paperwork problems.

In reports in 2007 and 2008, the agency warned that the probblem was causing loopholes that terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals might exploit. It was concerned that a criminal might use a U.S. registration, known as an N-number, to slip by computer systems designed to track suspicious flights.

"It is advantageous to a drug trafficker or a terrorist to use an airplane with a registered N-number as these airplanes would be subject to less scrutiny," the FAA wrote in a 2008 explanation of the registry problem.

On Friday the FAA said it was taking "proactive steps" to clean up the database by requiring all aircraft owners to re-register their planes over the next three years.

"The agency is moving to a mandatory re-registration system like the ones most states use to register automobiles, so we have more current and complete registration information in our database," the agency said.

Dorgan's counterpart in the House of Representatives, Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., said Friday the FAA needs to improve its recordkeeping but stopped short of calling for hearings.

"Given the security issues at stake, revising and modernizing the registration process is necessary," Costello said in a written statement. "The FAA needs to ensure the re-registration process runs as smoothly as possible and that the maintenance of records is improved, and I believe the FAA is proceeding accordingly."

Both congressmen will soon be stepping down from their leadership roles in the aviation committees. Dorgan is retiring in January, and Senate leaders have not yet chosen a new committee chair.

Costello, a Democrat, will lose the post when Republicans take control of the House in January. His likely replacement, Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., was unavailable for comment on Friday, a spokeswoman said.

Until now, aircraft owners were only required to register once, when they purchased an aircraft. Errors accumulated over decades as new purchasers forgot to register, owners died, invalid addresses went uncorrected and junked aircraft went unreported, the FAA says.

In addition to law enforcement purposes, the FAA said it uses the database to contact owners about safety problems and locate planes that go missing.

Pilot groups said the outdated registry was not a security risk, noting the United States has other safeguards against terrorism.

The Transportation Security Administration does background checks on student pilots from other countries, air traffic controllers watch for suspicious flights, and the Department of Homeland Security has launched new computer systems to screen aircraft arriving from other countries.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkmLNDRZqeKUtxOrd6lt3zuXvtGA?docId=5013efb19862427ca71e5511460f6ce1

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Joe Sjoberg

The Social Media Amber Alert: A Personal Story December 9, 2010 At the end of November, Joe Sjoberg went missing. He was last seen by his roommate on Monday, November 29, in Madison, Wisconsin, where the two shared a home. A graduate of Carleton College in Minnesota known for his extroversion and warm, welcoming personality, his disappearance was a shock to those who knew him. Distraught, Joe's family filed a missing persons report, and a case was opened with the Madison Police Department. But while the Madison Police conducted their investigation in the usual manner, Joe's family and friends refused to wait by the phone for news. The family started a Facebook group entitled "HELP JOE SJOBERG MISSING." The Facebook page has since become a home base for a Web-wide mobilization effort, a call to arms to find Joe and bring him home safely to his parents and friends. But Joe's brothers, Robert and Patrick, didn't stop there, pushing a flyer with Joe's face and standardized message onto Facebook, Twitter, and social news forums throughout the Web. "Beginning on Thursday, Dec. 2, we launched a massive social media campaign, spanning forums from Facebook to Reddit to Craigslist to Twitter, with retweets and posts numbering in the tens of thousands," said Rachel Mandell-Rice, a friend of Sjoberg family, via email. "Celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson, Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, and ESPN commentator Matthew Berry have posted this news on their twitter feeds. The sheer magnitude of the campaign has prompted one blogger to refer to it as a "Social Media Amber Alert." While even the most casual observer understands the boost that a mention from Twitterati like Ashton Kutcher or Kim Kardashian can provide to a cause, the campaign to find Sjoberg extends far beyond mere awareness to coordinated action. "On December 4, 2010, we learned that Joe had researched private airstrips in Wisconsin. Within 90 minutes of posting a request for help on the 'Joe Sjoberg Missing' Facebook page, volunteers had contacted the almost 600 private airstrips in Wisconsin, and faxed or emailed flyers with information," Mandell-Rice told me in an email.

"Subsequent posts for help have received an overwhelming response, allowing us to contact over 200 Wisconsin-area hotels and more than 200 local hospitals. Volunteers have emailed or faxed hundreds of flyers to gas stations and local businesses. They have also searched miles of airport parking lots in Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago. Without social media, this process would have taken police weeks to complete."

On Reddit, where Redditors have for years been responsible for enourmous acts of charity and benevolence, the AskReddit thread generated more than 400 responses suggesting methods of tracking down Sjoberg, including accessing his bank records and emails.

The disappearance of Joe Sjoberg is more than just a human interest story about a community spontaneously built around finding one man. Social media has proven an incredibly effective resource at tracking people down, even those who don't want to be found. In August 2009, Wired writer Evan Ratiff tried to disappear completely; he bought prepaid cell phones, disguises, and gift cards to avoid being recognized or tracked through his bank account. He shaved his head. He carefully monitored his phone usage and IP addresses so as not to leave a digital footprint. He took on a fake identity and created a new life for himself in New Orleans. Wired offered a reward to readers who could track down Evan, say the code word ("fluke"), and snap a picture. After several months of cat-and-mouse with casual readers and participants from communities like Reddit and 4chan, Ratiff found himself cornered. "You wouldn't happen to know a guy named Fluke, would you?" The game was up.

But the everyday citizens after Ratiff were motivated by a monetary prize. What drove thousands of complete strangers to lend their efforts to hunting Sjoberg? Compassion and sympathy are obviously answers: many Redditors shared similar stories of friends and family who had simply disappeared. In the digital world, the faintest sense of horror over a distant family's pain is incentive enough for a stranger to help. As Clay Shirky noted in Here Comes Everybody , social media has drastically reduced -- if not totally eliminated -- the costs of participating in collective action, especially those costs associated with distance. The search for Joe Sjoberg "has gone global," Mandell-Rice said. "People as far away as Egypt, Spain and Thailand pitching in to help." With conventional police departments often overburdened with heavy caseloads, the capacity to crowdsource support from a vast online network may serve as a useful resource for future instances like this. "You don't need a background in public relations or technology to do something like this," Mandell-Rice said.

As I write this story, there's no certainty as to Joe's fate. Concerned friends and family swoop into the Reddit and Facebook groups to share updates and support; many reach out to their existing networks, for retweets and Facebook posts. But the scope and strength of the response has proven invaluable to Joe's family and friends. "In all honesty, we don't know if we will ever find Joe, or if he's even alive. What we do know is that the more people who see his picture and read his story, the more likely we are to get some kind of closure from this," Mandell-Rice said.

"While our hope is to use our story to spread awareness of Joe's disappearance and to get him home safe, we understand that his disappearance alone is not national news. We believe, however, that our ability to leverage social media into immediate action is a compelling and timely story. Our search has been extensive and wide reaching, yet conducted completely through the Internet," Mandell-Rice said. "It is an experience that offers hope to all families who suffer this kind of a tragedy. There is something that can be done. There is hope."

If you want to raise awareness of Joe's disappearance, tweet "Please RT, #JoeSjoberg has gone missing in WI. Please help us find him. http://bit.ly/ieE12p or  http://on.fb.me/HelpFindJoe

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/the-social-media-amber-alert-a-personal-story/67762

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Another woman claims to have seen 3 missing Michigan brothers in Ohio

Another person has come forward claiming she spotted 3 missing Michigan brothers in Ohio. Earlier this week, another woman said she saw the Skelton boys on November 28 in a Sandusky donut shop.

This time, the alleged witness says she saw Andrew, 9, Alexander, 7, and Tanner, 5 , at a Bowling Green flea market just one day before an Amber Alert was issued for the boys.

Just like the first woman who claims to have seen the brothers, she said she did not contact authorities right away because she didn't know the boys were missing. Additionally, the description of the woman seen with the three young males at the flea market matches that of the woman at the donut shop -- older, haggard, and tired looking.

To see a video report regarding the woman who claims to have seen the Skelton brothers in a Ohio donut shop, click here .

The boys' father, John Skelton, claimed he gave the boys to an acquaintance to protect them from their mother, Tanya Skelton, who reported them missing on November 26. That same day, John Skelton allegedly attempted to kill himself. He initially told police that friend Joann Taylor took the boys at his request so they wouldn't have to witness his suicide.

Police do not believe Taylor exists and now question whether Skelton attempted suicide at all.

The boys live with their mother and were visiting their father for the Thanksgiving holiday. Police fear they may be dead, however, Skelton recently reassured his parents during a jailhouse visit that the boys were alive and safe.

Andrew is 4-feet-1 inch tall, weighs 57 pounds, and has brown eyes and hair. Alexander is 3-feet-9 inches tall, weighs 45 pounds, and has brown eyes and hair, and a scar at his hairline and on his chin. Tanner is 3-feet-6 inches tall, weighs 40 pounds, and has blonde hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information on the alleged victims, abductor or vehicle is asked to call 911 or the Morenci Police Department at (517) 263-0524 .

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-national/another-woman-claims-to-have-seen-3-missing-michigan-brothers-ohio

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From the White House

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DREAM Act Gives Hard-Working, Patriotic Young People a Shot at the American Dream

EDITOR'S. NOTE: This is the first in a series of posts from top Administration Officials on the importance of the DREAM Act.

Now is the time to press on with our full support for the DREAM Act.  We're closer than we've ever been and we're not giving up.

The President, myself, and many of my Cabinet colleagues have held conference calls, talked to the press, and written op-eds and letters of support.  We will keep doing whatever it takes to make this happen for thousands of hard-working, patriotic young people who are leaders in their communities and who are looking for an opportunity to attend college or serve our country in the military, but who can't, through no fault of their own.  The Senate has the chance to offer them and our nation a brighter future by coming together in a bipartisan way to pass the DREAM Act.

Wednesday night, the House of Representatives took an historic and courageous step forward by passing their version of the DREAM Act.  Eight Republicans joined Democrats to rise above the heated political rhetoric and embrace this common-sense approach.  Yesterday, the Senate leadership decided to table their version of the DREAM Act and take up the House approved bill.  It was the right thing to do.  This wasn't the end of the DREAM Act.  It was a lifeline — another chance to build on the tremendous momentum coming out of the House.

In the coming days, the Senate will have the opportunity to open the door to the American Dream of college for these bright, talented youth, unleashing the full potential of young people who live out values that all Americans cherish—a strong work ethic, service to others, and a deep loyalty to our country.  The result will be a new generation of college graduates who will help strengthen our economic security and a new set of future taxpayers who will contribute much more as college graduates than they ever would as struggling workers moving from one under-the-table job to another.  They will help build the economy of the 21 st century.

The students of the DREAM Act are some of the country's best and brightest.  They were raised and educated in America.  They are valedictorians, star athletes, community leaders, and are active in their faith.  They text and go to the mall.  They are Americans in every sense of the word.  They have deep roots here and are loyal to the country that has been the only home they've known.  They are our future pediatricians, teachers, and engineers — if we give them a chance.  They are exactly the type of young people America should be embracing.

But, unlike their classmates, DREAM Act students are in a bind.  It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents.  But thousands of young people find themselves in that position.  We can't let them continue to live unfulfilled lives of fear and squandered hopes.  We need to act before we lose this generation.  It's who we are as Americans, at our best.  The time is now.

Arne Duncan is Secretary of Education

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/10/dream-act-gives-hard-working-patriotic-young-people-a-shot-american-dream

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Meeting With Global Shipping Leaders

WASHINGTON - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today met with leaders from global shipping companies, including UPS, DHL, FedEx, Atlas and TNT along with U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, to reiterate the Obama administration's commitment to strengthening air cargo screening and security efforts while facilitating the flow of commerce following the disrupted attempt by terrorists to conceal and ship explosive devices onboard aircraft bound for the United States in October.

During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano underscored her continued commitment to partnering with the shipping industry to strengthen cargo security through enhanced screening and preventative measures - including the successful partnership between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the air cargo industry that, starting this month, will allow DHS to collect more comprehensive cargo information in order to make better informed decisions regarding whether high-risk shipments should be loaded on an aircraft. Together, UPS, DHL, FedEx, Atlas and TNT employ more than one million employees in hundreds of countries around the world.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the Department's continued collaboration with our federal, state, local and private sector partners and international allies to secure the global supply chain through a layered security approach to identify, deter and disrupt threats through initiatives such as CBP's Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and TSA's Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP). C-TPAT is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program which strengthens cargo security by working closely with importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers to validate and enhance security throughout participating companies' international supply chain. CCSP strengthens security by certifying more than 1,000 entities responsible for conducting air cargo screening throughout the supply chain, facilitating the movement of commerce while ensuring that 100 percent of all cargo transported on passenger aircraft that depart U.S. airports is being screened commensurate with screening of passenger checked baggage -as required by the 9/11 Act.

Secretary Napolitano previously spoke with leaders of the global shipping industry in November to coordinate response and enhanced security efforts following the thwarted terrorist plot in October.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1291853480217.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Muslim Advocates' Annual Dinner

San Francisco, California

December 10, 2010

Thank you, Farhana Khera.  It is a pleasure to be here.

I want to recognize, and salute, the work that everyone here – as leaders, supporters, and partners of Muslim Advocates – is doing to help fulfill our nation's promise of equal justice and opportunity.

On behalf of our nation's Justice Department, I am grateful to count you as partners in our work to promote tolerance, to ensure public safety, and to protect civil rights.  Your engagement – and your commitment to the principles and goals that we share – has been critical, especially throughout this year.

In September, Farhana participated in a meeting I held with national leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities.  We met to discuss shared concerns about rising levels of religious intolerance – and, in particular, incidents and reports of intimidation and violence against American Muslims and their religious institutions.

Farhana helped lead that important, and productive, conversation.  This evening, it is a privilege to continue that discussion – and to help advance the crucial dialogue that is underway between those in Muslim and Arab-American communities and law enforcement.  Strengthening this dialogue – and expanding it – is important to me, to our nation's Justice Department, and to the Obama administration.

Speaking in Cairo, less than six months after taking office, President Obama described the values and hopes that unify all of us as Americans.

“America,” he said, “holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations - to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God.”

But, he added, “so long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity.  This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.”

President Obama may have been addressing another region of the world, but his words are as much a guide for America's diverse communities as they are for others around the globe.

Since becoming Attorney General last February, I have heard from Arab Americans and Muslims who say they feel uneasy about their relationship with the United States government.

Some feel that they have not been afforded the full rights of citizenship.  Others are worried about the safety of their families, communities, and places of worship.  And, too often, Muslims and Arab Americans have told me that they feel as though they are treated by their fellow citizens, by their government, and especially by those of us in law enforcement as though it were, quote, “us versus them.”

That is unacceptable.  And it is inconsistent with what America is all about.  Muslims and Arab Americans have helped to build and strengthen our nation.  They have served as police officers, teachers, civic leaders and soldiers – strengthening their local communities and safeguarding their country.  And the cooperation of Muslim and Arab-American communities has been absolutely essential in identifying, and preventing, terrorist threats.  We must never lose sight of this.  And, as we work to create a brighter and more prosperous future, we must not fail to heed the lessons of our past.

Ours is a nation of immigrants. I am the son of immigrants. And the American people have proven, time and again, that our progress is rooted in partnership - and that this country's greatest successes begin with a willingness to reach across lines of division and exclusion.  If we are going to realize our nation's promise – and if we want to heal persistent wounds and overcome new threats - then we must work together.

Regardless of color or creed, we are all Americans.  And, to the extent that relationships between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans are defined by differences, those who sow hatred rather than peace will – no doubt – prevail.  But we cannot – and we must not – allow that to happen.

There can be no "us" or "them" among Americans.  And I believe that law enforcement has an obligation to ensure that members of every religious community enjoy the ability to worship and to practice their faith in peace, free from intimidation, violence or suspicion.  That is the right of all Americans.  And it must be a reality for every citizen.

In this nation, our many faiths, origins, and appearances must bind us together – not break us apart.  Our justice system must be used to empower, not to exclude or target.  And security and liberty must be guideposts – not opposing forces – in ensuring safety and opportunity for all.

At every level of the Justice Department, we are committed to the impartial and aggressive enforcement of our nation's laws.  I recognize that actions speak louder than assurances.  And I know that the communities we serve must see – and more fully understand – that we are defending civil rights with the same vigor that we are protecting public safety.

Tonight, I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss some of the ways that the Justice Department is working to advance both of these priorities – and to strengthen cooperation between law enforcement and Muslim and Arab-American communities.

Over the last 22 months, the Justice Department – and our U.S. Attorneys' Offices – have reinvigorated our civil rights enforcement activities.

First and foremost, we have restored the Department's Civil Rights Division to its rightful place as our country's preeminent civil rights enforcement agency.  The Department's commitment to civil rights has never been stronger.  And the prosecution of violence motivated by religious intolerance has been – and will continue to be – a priority.

We also are working to ensure fair housing and lending, land use rights, and educational opportunities – and to make certain that Americans are not forced to choose between their faith and their jobs.

In October, the Department filed an amicus brief supporting the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee – and argued that Islam is a religion entitled to protection under the First Amendment.  The Department has brought suit against the New York City MTA over its refusal to permit Muslims and Sikhs who work as bus and subway drivers to wear religious head coverings on the job.  And we recently reached settlements in Delaware and Texas resolving discrimination complaints against Muslim students.

We have also strengthened efforts to prevent and combat hate crimes – and to protect American Muslims from acts of violence and discrimination.

More than ever before, all 94 U.S. Attorneys Offices are partnering with the Department's Civil Rights Division to act as force multipliers in helping to deliver our nation's most vital protections to their communities. Just this past Tuesday, nearly a third of the nation's United States Attorneys gathered in Washington for an unprecedented meeting to work on this issue – and to identify additional ways to strengthen outreach to Muslim and Arab-American communities.

Since September 11 th , 2001, the Justice Department has investigated hundreds of incidents involving violence, threats, vandalism, and arson against Muslims and Arab Americans.  In the last fiscal year, the Department indicted more hate crime defendants than any year since 1996, and convicted more hate crime defendants than any year since 2000.

When it comes to combating these heinous crimes, our message is simple: If you engage in violence fueled by bigotry – no matter the object or nature of your hate – we will bring you to justice.

As we continue utilizing the new tools afforded by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the work of organizations like Muslim Advocates will be critical.  Often, you learn of incidents before law enforcement.  And I encourage you to report these incidents to the Justice Department.  I assure you: each and every report of a potential hate crime is taken seriously - and, as our record of recent activity makes clear, we will investigate and prosecute violations of federal law whenever we can.

Last year, two Tennessee men were sentenced to more than 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to spray painting swastikas and the words “white power” on a mosque - and then starting a fire that destroyed the mosque.  And last month, an Illinois man was sentenced to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to sending a threatening e-mail to a mosque.

But our work extends beyond prosecutions.  Community outreach is a critical component of the Justice Department's hate crimes prevention strategy.  The Civil Rights Division holds regular meetings that bring together Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian community leaders with various federal agencies and Department leaders.  These conversations are not always easy.  But they are essential.  Last year, I established an Arab-American and Muslim Engagement Advisory Group to help identify more effective ways for the Justice Department to foster greater communication and collaboration - as well as a new level of respect and understanding - between law enforcement and Muslim and Arab-American communities.

These relationships are critical to ensuring both public safety and civil rights.  And, in many communities, I'm pleased that our engagement efforts are producing results.

For instance, just last week in San Diego, law enforcement officers met with Somali residents to discuss the arrests of four members of their community, to address potential tensions, and to share information.

But in other parts of the country, we know that we have more work to do to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and those in Muslim and Arab-American communities.

Some have expressed concerns about the recent charges brought against Mohamed Osman Mohamud in Portland, Oregon, for his alleged involvement in planning – and attempting to execute – a terror attack during a Christmas Tree-lighting celebration.

Mr. Mohamud's arrest was the result of a successful undercover operation – a critical and frequently used law enforcement tool that has helped identify and defuse public safety threats such as those posed by potential terrorists, drug dealers and child pornographers for decades. 

These types of operations have proven to be an essential law enforcement tool in uncovering and preventing potential terror attacks.

Since 2001, more than 400 individuals have been convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related violations in federal courts.  And in those terrorism cases where undercover sting operations have been used, there is a lengthy record of convictions.

Our nation's law enforcement professionals have consistently demonstrated not just their effectiveness, but also their commitment to the highest standards of professional conduct, integrity, and fairness.

I make no apologies for the how the FBI agents handled their work in executing the operation that led to Mr. Mohamud's arrest.  Their efforts helped to identify a person who repeatedly expressed his desire and intention to kill innocent Americans.  As you may have read – and as the affidavit alleges – Mr. Mohamud chose the target location months in advance; provided FBI operatives with bomb components and detailed operational instructions; and repeatedly refused to change course when he was reminded that a large crowd – including children – would be in harm's way.

Because of law enforcement's outstanding work, Mr. Mohamud is no longer plotting attacks.  He is now behind bars.  And he will be brought to justice.  But you also have my word that the Justice Department will – just as vigorously – continue to pursue anyone who would target Muslims, or their houses of worship.

Those who characterize the FBI's activities in this case as “entrapment” simply do not have their facts straight - or do not have a full understanding of the law.

Our nation's law enforcement officials deserve our gratitude – and respect.  Without their work – and their willingness to place public safety above personal security – government simply could not meet its most critical responsibility of protecting American lives.

Meeting this responsibility has never been more difficult.  Our nation faces a determined and sophisticated enemy.  As I've said repeatedly, I am committed to using every available tool to protect the American people.  But I will not sacrifice or compromise our civil liberties.  And I will not support activities that jeopardize our nation's ability to serve as a beacon of hope for all the world – and as a model of strict adherence to the rule of law.  Neither will I allow Muslim and Arab-American communities – or any community of Americans – to be persecuted because of their faith or national origin.

There is no question or doubt that threats to our national security are real.  Together, we have mourned the loss of our fellow Americans in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; in Fort Hood, Texas; and in Mumbai, Yemen, and Uganda.  Each of these attacks was a reprehensible act of cowardice, inspired by a radical and corrupt ideology – one that systematically denies human rights, devalues women and girls, and perverts the peaceful traditions and teachings of Islam.

But as you and I know, the vulgar actions of a misguided few do not reflect the values of an entire faith or people.  And while violence, and the loss of innocent lives, can be cause for anger and grief – we must not let it result in widespread bias and bigotry – or in acts of vengeance.

It is our responsibility to discourage and condemn such acts – and to help change misguided perceptions. This work begins by meeting fear with reason; by meeting ignorance with information; and by meeting suspicious gazes with an outstretched hand.

I realize that this is easier said that done.  This requires great courage – and uncommon grace.

And yet, your organization – and so many hopeful and committed individuals – are finding ways to bridge divides.  The public education efforts that you have launched – and the steps that you are taking to unite law enforcement and Muslim communities – are critical.  You are paving new paths for cooperation.  You are leading the way toward peace and healing.  You are making a difference.

You must keep at it.  Too much is at stake.  Too much is at risk.

With your continued support, continued guidance, and continued partnership – I am confident that, together, we can confront and overcome threats to our fellow citizens, and to all innocent people.  I am also certain that we can ensure that all components of our government can be as sensitive and respectful as they are effective.  There is not a tension in that last declaration. 

Together, I am sure that we can help to build a future that honors America's enduring creed - E pluribus unum.  “Out of many, one.”

Thank you, again, for inviting me to join you this evening. I look forward to our continued collaboration in the pursuit of a more perfect union and a more peaceful existence for all Americans. 

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-1012101.html

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From the DEA

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Leader of Colombian Drug Trafficking Organization and Associate Found Guilty of Conspiring to Import Multiple Tons of Cocaine into the United States

DEC 09 -- WASHINGTON – Christian Fernando Borda and Alvaro Alvaran-Velez, two narcotics traffickers aligned with the Autodefenses Unidas de Colombia (AUC), were found guilty today in U.S. District Court of conspiring to import ton-quantities of cocaine into the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. The AUC is a Colombian paramilitary group designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization.

The guilty verdicts returned today follow a seven-week trial before U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in the District of Columbia. Borda, 46, and Alvaran-Velez, 56, who are Colombian nationals, were extradited from Colombia to the United States on Oct. 29, 2009, and trial began with jury selection on Oct. 21, 2010. Following two days of deliberations, the jury found Borda and Alvaran-Velez guilty of one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine with the knowledge and intent that it would be imported into the United States.

"These drug traffickers were responsible for facilitating the delivery of tons of cocaine from Colombia into the United States, and today 12 U.S. jurors found them guilty," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. "Over the course of many years, the United States and Colombia have worked together to bring to justice in both countries the leaders and associates of these dangerous organizations, and today marks another milestone in that continued effort."

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between February 2005 and March 16, 2007, Borda and Alvaran-Velez were members of a major narcotics trafficking organization based in Colombia that transported multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia to the United States via Mexico.

Borda, as the leader of this drug trafficking organization, obtained large amounts of cocaine from Colombian paramilitary sources and directed others in their drug trafficking activities. Alvaran-Velez, an associate of Borda, coordinated and facilitated shipments of cocaine through his Mexico contacts.

According to court documents and trial evidence, one of their shipments of cocaine in 2005 involved approximately 1,500 kilograms of cocaine that was smuggled in drums of palm oil on a ship departing from the north coast of Colombia. Additional cocaine shipments in 2005 and 2006 involved quantities of more than 3,000 kilograms per shipment.

The evidence at trial included numerous recorded conversations from in-person meetings and telephone calls, as well as surveillance by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), including photos and videos. Additional evidence revealed shipments of millions of dollars of narcotics-related proceeds, all in U.S. currency, to Borda in Colombia via Monterrey, Mexico, and Mexico City.

Borda and Alvaran-Velez are scheduled to be sentenced on April 28, 2011. The conspiracy charge carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison, as well as a fine of up to $4 million. Borda has a prior felony narcotics conviction and thus faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. As part of its extradition requests, the United States provided assurances that it will not seek a life sentence for the defendants, but instead will ask for a prison term of years.

This case was investigated by the DEA's Miami and Houston Field Divisions, with assistance from DEA's Cartagena and Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico, country offices. The U.S. Coast Guard provided valuable additional investigative assistance. The investigation also involved close cooperation with the Colombian National Police and the Colombian Fiscalia.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/mia120910.html

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