From the New York Times

Police Say Early Detonation of Bomb Averted Disaster in Sweden

STOCKHOLM — Two days after a bomber killed himself and slightly wounded two people in a commercial district here crowded with Christmas shoppers, investigators offered glimpses of a suspect who, in the pattern of other Islamist terrorists, moved unobtrusively between Europe and the Middle East as he prepared to martyr himself, only to botch the operation in a manner that suggested a clumsy do-it-yourself attack.

The bomber was identified Monday as Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, a 28-year-old Swede of Iraqi origin, who reportedly had been living with his wife and children in a house in Luton, just north of London, until as recently as three weeks ago. The town is notorious now as the early morning starting point for the four bombers who attacked the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 56 people, including themselves.

Police investigators searched the Luton house as well as an apartment in Stockholm's northwestern suburbs, and carried away potential evidence, including a family car that was mounted on a flatbed and taken away from the Luton home.

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported in its Monday editions that Mr. Abdaly had also recently visited Jordan. A sound recording delivered by e-mail to a Swedish news agency minutes before the explosions included an apology to his family for having lied to them about previous trips to the Middle East, which he said had not been for business but for jihad, or holy war.

Swedish and British investigators, who appeared to be working in close cooperation, were careful for the time being not to point to Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization as having played a part. But at a Stockholm news conference, Tomas Lindstrand, Sweden's chief prosecutor for terrorist offenses, said that while the bomber was “definitely on his own in the execution” of the explosions, “from experience, we know that there are usually more people involved in such actions.”

The case recalled that of Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old American of Pakistani origin who botched his attempt to set off a powerful bomb in Times Square in May and was sentenced to life in prison. He received training from the Taliban and financing from abroad, but tried to carry off the bombing alone.

The two explosions set off by the Stockholm bomber occurred on side streets crossing the pedestrian mall called Drottninggatan, the city's principal shopping street, and suggested that a catastrophic outcome had been narrowly averted. Mr. Abdaly appeared to have started by igniting an assembly of gas canisters in a white Audi 80 Vantage car bought for about $1,500 from a second-hand dealer in late November in the provincial city of Vadstena, causing an eruption of flame but limited damage.

He then walked 200 yards up Drottninggatan before turning into another side street where he appeared to have detonated at least one of the 12 pipe bombs strapped to his waist.

Swedish newspapers reported that the police believed that he may have been heading to the nearby Ahlens department store, one of Stockholm's busiest, or possibly for the city's main railway station, when he accidentally triggered the belt-bomb. Swedish newspapers said that in addition to the belt-bomb, he appeared to have been carrying more explosives and a satchel of nails in his backpack.

A witness quoted by the newspaper Espressen said the bomber appeared to drop a black object as he walked, pausing to pick it up, before rounding a corner, just before the second blast. Among the theories floating in local papers was that he stumbled on the snowy surface of the side street, or that the object he dropped was the cellphone found beside his body, a possible trigger for the belt-bomb that he might have accidentally activated on retrieving the phone.

As with several other terrorist bombings across Europe, closed-circuit video from security cameras appeared likely to play a major part in the investigation. Video taken from a camera mounted on the roof of a building directly overlooking the second blast, and broadcast on Swedish television, showed the bomber lying face-up on the pavement after the explosion, his feet widely splayed, with a khaki-colored vest over his chest and waist, and pools of blood accumulating beside him.

The images showed several passers-by hastening to kneel beside him, followed by shouts of “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!” that caused many in the gathering crowd to pull back. Within minutes, a police vehicle could be seen pulling up at the entrance to the side street. Witnesses said that the man appeared to be alive for several minutes after the explosion, but that he died before an ambulance arrived.

The theory of an accidental detonation appeared to have gained some traction with the police. “It's not unreasonable to think that he could have made a mistake, so that a portion of the bomb detonated and caused his death,” Mr. Lindstrand, the chief terrorism prosecutor, said at the Stockholm news conference. “There is speculation that he was on his way to a place where there were a lot of people. This was in the middle of Stockholm, in the middle of Christmas; it's not a daring guess.”

While several other European countries have suffered bombings since 9/11 opened a new era of terrorist attacks, Sweden, until now, has been something of a safe haven.

But in interviews over the last 48 hours, Western intelligence officials said that Sweden was regarded as an increasingly likely target in recent years, partly because a number of well-known Islamic militants have traveled to the country. One American intelligence operative spoke of an established Qaeda cell here.

For more than 36 hours after the bombings, Swedish officials were reluctant to confirm that the dead man was Mr. Abdaly. At the news conference on Monday, Mr. Lindstrand said, “There hasn't been a formal identification yet, not by DNA, or by his parents, or by some other people who are very familiar with him,” though the police were “98 percent sure” who the man was.

But Anders Thornberg, the chief of operations for the security police and the head of the investigation, appeared impatient with the evasions. Asked by a reporter if the bomber was Mr. Abdaly, he answered curtly, “Yes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/europe/15sweden.html?_r=1&ref=world

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Swedish Bombing Suspect's Drift to Extremism

LONDON — Those who knew the prime suspect in the Stockholm bombings described him as highly intelligent as a child in Sweden, but stubborn and often in trouble. Those who prayed and studied with him in England, where he attended college from 2001 to 2004 and reportedly lived until weeks before the attack, spoke of a friendly associate who fervently sought an audience for increasingly extremist views but was quick to anger and slow to forgive.

His own words, sent in statements to the Swedish news media and the police minutes before he detonated the crude bombs that would kill him, and wound two others, on a busy shopping street in Stockholm, show him as a loving husband and father, as well as a vehement Islamic extremist able to talk tenderly of his children and determinedly of killing in the same breath.

As investigators searched properties in Sweden and England, piecing together the details of the failed terrorism plot, a portrait began to emerge of the suspect, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, 28, a disaffected Iraqi Swede who had studied in Britain and whose final statements hint at a link to the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Perhaps the clearest picture was provided by Qadeer Baksh, a leader at the Luton Islamic Center, a small red-brick mosque in the county of Bedfordshire north of London. He said Mr. Abdaly attended the mosque during the festival of Ramadan in 2007 — sleeping there, as some Muslims choose to, during the last 10 days of the monthlong celebration.

Mr. Abdaly, he said, was very friendly, “very polite, and very helpful, he'd be making people cups of tea when the fast was broken, talking to people — it was almost too much, actually.” But when elders from the mosque tried to join his conversations with other congregants “he'd say nothing, he'd just go silent.”

On the fifth day of the stay at the mosque, Mr. Baksh said, one of the imams found out that the affable new member was quietly, carefully, preaching “rebellion against Muslim rulers, and talking about the oppression of Muslims. It was nothing violent, but it was extremist.” And it disturbed many of the congregants, who guard vigilantly against any revival of the mosque's past links to extremists like the banned cleric Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed.

The next day, when the congregation gathered for dawn prayers just after 5 a.m., the imam gave a lecture to those present, directed subtly at Mr. Abdaly, on the dangers of such extremist views.

“He got up and stormed out halfway through,” said Mr. Baksh, “and we never saw him again. He seemed very emotional, very confused, very frustrated. Normally when someone is challenged they can present arguments from the Koran, but he didn't have the knowledge or the understanding to communicate, so he just left.”

Mr. Abdaly, said Mr. Baksh, was subsequently informed that he was not welcome to return.

In photographs, Mr. Abdaly appears as a tall, stern-looking and smartly dressed man, his black hair and beard cropped short. In one image he is seen posing in sunglasses and a sharp black jacket. Tariq Rasul, a friend while Mr. Abdaly studied in England, said in an interview Monday that the Swede wore only Western clothes despite his devoutness.

Mr. Abdaly, according to a profile he posted on an online dating Web site, Muslima.com, was born in Baghdad and moved to Sweden with his family in 1992, when he was 10 years old. His childhood friends in the small and prosperous town of Tranas, three hours by car from Stockholm, told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he arrived with a big sister and his mother and father.

As a child he was “above average,” according to a teacher quoted by Aftonbladet. But “Taimour got himself into a lot of trouble,” said one unidentified friend, “and fought a lot.” Later, the friend said he “wondered if he didn't actually have a hard time finding his place in Swedish society.”

Mr. Abdaly's Facebook page contains hints of that apparent conflict. He posted several videos dedicated to Islamic fighters around the world, and his profile picture showed hooded figures waving the black flag of Al Qaeda. But among his listed interests were “National Geographic” and “I love my Apple iPad.”

The Facebook profile also indicates he studied “sports therapy at the University of Bedfordshire.” In a statement Monday, the university said that Mr. Abdaly, going by the name of Taimour Abdalwahab, attended the college between 2001 and 2004.

British news media reports suggest that he may have stayed in Luton, home of one of the university's campuses, after earning his degree until as recently as three weeks ago. According to reports in the Swedish news media on Monday, Mr. Abdaly's wife and three small children are still in Britain. Little is known, so far, of his immediate family, and the media accounts could not be verified.

But on the undated Muslima.com profile, he said he had been “married since 2004,” according to a translation from Arabic. He described himself as “very religious” and said two of his daughters were 3 and 1. Little is known of Mr. Abdaly's final weeks in Sweden, and his last steps toward the attack. But in recorded messages, made in English and Arabic and sent by e-mail to the Swedish police and the news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra just minutes before the bombings, he made reference to “the Islamic state, may Allah protect it, and its people.”

“I have no doubt he's talking about the Islamic State of Iraq, which is what Al Qaeda in Iraq calls itself,” said Evan Kohlmann, an expert on Al Qaeda communications and recruitment who consults for the Department of Justice. “Other groups do not use this language — it's a quite specific reference.”

In 2007 Al Qaeda in Iraq, which intelligence agencies say is a mostly Iraqi militant group with some foreign leadership, issued a threat against Sweden, in response to a drawing published in a Swedish newspaper that depicted the head of the Prophet Muhammad on the body of a dog. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Mr. Abdaly's attack, and the authorities have released no information on any affiliations he might have had. But Swedish investigators said Monday that they did not believe Mr. Abdaly had acted alone.

In the final sections of one of the recordings, Mr. Abdaly turns to address his family. “Tell the children that I love them,” he said, tenderness in his voice, “and their dad couldn't sit back and watch the pigs humiliate our beloved Prophet Muhammad.”

Mr. Abdaly died, lying on his back in a pool of blood on a Stockholm street, just a few hours before his 29th birthday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/world/europe/14suspect.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Medvedev Warns Against Ethnic Attacks

MOSCOW — After an outburst of ethnic violence on the streets of the capital, President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday warned that nationalist attacks threatened Russia's stability and ordered law enforcement agencies to crack down on race-based clashes amid reports of further attacks on ethnic minorities here.

Mr. Medvedev's statement, delivered in steely tones on national television, attempted to rein in unrest that erupted over the weekend. Thousands of young men massed outside Red Square on Saturday, attacking both police officers and passers-by who had the dark complexions of migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Since then, the police have reported beatings, stabbings and shootings of people who were not ethnic Russians, often by groups of young people.

Mr. Medvedev ordered the police to prevent “chaos” on the streets, which was set off by self-described soccer fans two weeks after Russia was chosen to host the 2018 World Cup. He also called for a stop to all unsanctioned protest actions.

“The recent events in Moscow, the pogroms, the attacks on people must be qualified as crimes, and people who commit them must be held fully responsible and punished,” he said. “Crimes aimed at fanning hatred and animosity based on race, ethnic origin or religion are especially dangerous. Such actions threaten the stability of the state.”

Even with the police on high alert, there were more reports of attacks on Monday. Most violence appeared random, done by groups of young men and some women, who singled out victims because of their non-Slavic appearance, according to witnesses and Russian news reports.

On Sunday, youths attacked a migrant from Kyrgyzstan, Alisher Shamshiyev, 37, at a bus stop. He was stabbed in the chest and died within 10 minutes, said Temirbek Asanbekov, head of a support group for immigrants from Kyrgyzstan in Moscow.

“The most frightening is that our compatriot was killed at 8 in the evening at a newspaper stand,” he said. “I'm shocked how cold-bloodedly people stood by and looked on.” The police have opened a criminal case, but no suspects have been named.

There have been more than 40 attacks reported against minority members in Moscow and at least one death, said Galina V. Kozhevnikova, who works for the Sova Center, which tracks racist violence.

“It is clear that these are reverberations from what happened on Manezh Square, and it is clear that there are far more than we know about,” Ms. Kozhevnikova said, referring to the square outside the Kremlin where the weekend's unrest was centered. “People were dragged from the subway cars and beaten right on the platform,” she said.

Xenophobic attacks are not uncommon in Russia, particularly against people from the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as Russian citizens from the Russian North Caucasus, who flock by the millions to Moscow and other large cities to work.

But the recent violence has been unusually acute and has prompted leaders of ethnic diasporas to advise compatriots to remain indoors or to travel outside only in groups until the police bring the situation under control. Others, like Mr. Asanbekov, have warned against revenge attacks.

“This incident could provoke a much larger conflict,” Mr. Asanbekov said. “We are worried about this more than anything.”

Amid fears of new violence, the police stepped up security around the Kremlin on Monday evening. Riot police officers in body armor moved in, and the authorities closed a shopping mall.

It was there, just outside the Kremlin gates, that thousands, mostly young men, gathered on Saturday to mourn and rage over the fatal shooting this month of Yegor Sviridov, a soccer fan, by a man from the North Caucasus. Many of the demonstrators called themselves soccer fans, a subculture often infused with aggressive nationalism and xenophobia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/world/europe/14russia.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Execution 150 Years Ago Spurs Calls for Pardon

MANKATO, Minn. — On Dec. 26, 1862, thirty-eight doomed Dakota Indians wailed and danced atop the gallows, waiting for the trapdoors to drop beneath them. The square scaffold, built here to accommodate the largest mass execution in United States history, swayed under their weight.

“It seemed that the purpose of the singing and dancing was only to sustain each other in their last ordeal,” a witness observed. “As the last moment rapidly approached, they each called out their name and shouted in their native language: ‘I'm here! I'm here!' ”

Thirty-seven of the men were among the “most ferocious” followers of the Dakota leader Little Crow, according to the federal government. They stood accused of killing approximately 490 settlers, including women and children, in raids along the Minnesota frontier.

But one man, historians say, did not belong there. A captured Dakota named We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee, often called Chaska, had had his sentence commuted by President Abraham Lincoln days earlier. Yet on the day after Christmas 1862, Chaska died with the others.

It was a case of wrongful execution, Gary C. Anderson, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma and Little Crow biographer, said last week in an interview. “These soldiers just grabbed the wrong guy,” he said.

Although the story of the mass execution in Mankato is well-known locally, scholars say the case of Chaska — spared by Lincoln, then wrongfully executed — has been long overlooked by the federal government and all but forgotten even by the Dakota.

Now, an effort to keep the story alive is taking root on campuses and even on Capitol Hill as the 150th anniversary of the execution, in 2012, approaches. Commemorative events will include symposiums, museum exhibits, monument re-dedications, book publications and an original symphony and choral production.

“It's time to talk about it and time for people to know about it,” said Gwen Westerman, a professor of English at Minnesota State University at Mankato and a member of the Dakota who is planning to investigate Chaska's case and the cultural context of the conflict with a class. She says she is hoping her students can “put together some more pieces of the puzzle.”

“Because there is a historical record” for Chaska's commutation, Ms. Westerman said, “that's a good place to start.”

A move to award Chaska (pronounced chas-KAY) a posthumous pardon has drawn some initial support. Before his defeat in November, Representative James L. Oberstar, Democrat of Minnesota, said a federal pardon would be “a grand gesture and one I think our Congressional delegation should support.”

“A wrong should be righted,” he added.

Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who sits on the Committee on Indian Affairs, issued a statement last week signaling that he might move the issue forward.

“Senator Franken recognizes that this is a tragic period in history,” said his press secretary, Ed Shelleby. “The senator will continue to look into this incident in the next Congress.”

Tension between the Dakota, historically called the Sioux, and the influx of settlers had been mounting for years before the Civil War, which further strained United States resources, disrupting food and supplies promised to the Dakota in a series of broken peace treaties. One local trader, Andrew Myrick, said of the Indians' plight, “If they are hungry, let them eat grass.”

Enraged and starving, the tribe attacked and plundered the new state's settlements. Of the 400-plus Dakota and “mixed blood” men detained by Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley, 303 were sentenced by a military court to death. But Lincoln found a lack of evidence at most of the tribunals, and he reduced the number of the condemned to 38.

We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee's case was No. 3 and not listed in the execution order handwritten by Lincoln, but his fate may have been the result of mistaken identity. The man he died for was No. 121, identified by Lincoln as Chaskey-don or Chaskey-etay, who had been condemned for murdering a pregnant woman.

But historians say something far more complex may have been responsible for Chaska's death: rumor. During the raids, Chaska took a white woman, Sarah Wakefield, and her children prisoner — not an uncommon occurrence during the Dakota War.

What was uncommon, however, was Wakefield's defense of her captor at his military tribunal. Chaska defended her and her children, she said, and kept them from certain death and abuse at the hands of his fellow tribesmen. “If it had not been for Chaska,” Wakefield said, “my bones would now be bleaching on the prairie, and my children with Little Crow.”

One prison chaplain wrote to her after the hanging: “Dear Madam: In regard to the mistake by which Chaska was hung instead of another, I doubt whether I can satisfactorily explain it.”

Wakefield firmly believed that Chaska was executed on purpose, in retaliation for her testimony and in reaction to rumors that she and Chaska were lovers. General Sibley, who appointed the tribunal that convicted Chaska, privately referred to him as Wakefield's “dusky paramour.”

Wakefield denied any sexual relationship in the booklet she wrote the year after his death, titled “Six Weeks in the Sioux Teepees.” She wrote, “I loved not the man, but his kindly acts."

Some details of the conflict have been willfully buried or forgotten, by both sides of the war. The Dakota conflict came in 1862, which historians have described as Lincoln's “darkest year” during the Civil War. It was the year the president lost his 11-year-old son, Willie, to typhoid fever. Thousands died on the battlefields at the Battle of Bull Run and at Fredericksburg, as Lincoln fought with his own generals. In large part, the narrative of mass execution in Mankato was lost in the United States' struggle to preserve the union.

Lincoln himself was distressed at the speed of the military tribunals that condemned 303 men, and his decision to commute most of the sentences was politically dangerous. But he said, “I could not afford to hang men for votes.” The 265 Dakota Indians Lincoln spared from the gallows were either fully pardoned or died in prison.

Modern Mankato, once a prairie outpost, is now a city of 37,000, where a modest downtown struggles for survival, competing against outlying strip malls and chain stores.

The only reminders that 38 Indians died here is a Dakota warrior statue and plaque outside the local library. The location of the actual scaffold is now called Reconciliation Park.

Glenn Wasicunna, a Dakota language teacher and husband of Ms. Westerman, said that for decades, his people would not even drive through Mankato during the day. The place carried too many memories, too much cultural trauma, he said.

“These were our family,” Ms. Westerman added. “These were people my great-grandparents knew. They have a direct effect on who we are.”

Each year on Dec. 26, the annual Mankato memorial run acknowledges those who died in the mass execution. But Wayne Wells, a Dakota language teacher on the nearby Prairie Island reservation, said there would be a range of response to a pardon just for Chaska. Many Dakota, he said, “consider all of them to be innocent martyrs — people who stood up and died for us.”

However, Leonard Wabasha, a local Dakota leader, said a federal pardon for Chaska would “shine a light.”

“It would cause people to read and research into it a little deeper,” Mr. Wabasha said. “It would be a step in the right direction.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/us/14dakota.html?ref=us

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Lawyer Argues Entrapment in Bomb Plot

BALTIMORE (AP) — A man accused of plotting to kill military recruiters with a car bomb was a victim of entrapment and was incapable of building or detonating explosives, his lawyer said Monday.

Antonio Martinez, 21, was arrested last week in an F.B.I. sting operation. Agents said he tried to detonate a fake bomb outside a recruitment center in Catonsville, a Baltimore suburb. Mr. Martinez is charged with attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

His public defender, Joseph Balter, argued at a detention hearing on Monday that his client, a recent convert to Islam who prefers to be addressed as Muhammad Hussain, did not initiate the bombing plot. Mr. Balter described it as “the creation of the government — a creation which was implanted into Mr. Hussain's mind.”

“There was nothing provided which showed that Mr. Hussain had any ability whatsoever to carry out any kind of plan,” Mr. Balter said.

But prosecutors said Mr. Martinez had been plotting to kill American soldiers before he even met the informer who reported him to the F.B.I.

Christine Manuelian, an assistant United States attorney, said investigators had captured Mr. Martinez on video, “grinning from ear to ear,” as he armed the fake bomb.

“There is no indication of any remorse, any concern, any nervousness,” she said.

Ms. Manuelian said that before he tried to detonate the bomb with a cellphone, he videotaped himself saying: “There will be no place for the oppressors. You will feel our bullets.”

Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey of Federal District Court ordered Mr. Martinez detained pending trial, saying he was dangerous and a flight risk. The defense's entrapment argument “really is an issue for another day,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/us/14bomb.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Brittany Smith's 'Big Brown Eyes' Are What Saved Her

Brittany Smith's Father Thanks California Woman Who Spotted Missing Girl

Brittany Mae Smith, the 12-year-old girl who was missing for more than a week, is safe with her family in Virginia today because of the help of a California woman who recognized the abducted girl's "big brown eyes."

Theresa Shanley spotted the seventh grader and her alleged kidnapper, 32-year-old Jeffrey Scott Easley, last Friday outside of a Safeway supermarket in San Francisco.

"Because Virginia was so far away, I thought it couldn't possibly be her, but the brown eyes is what got me...her big brown eyes," Shanley said.

Smith and Easley were reportedly panhandling near the grocery store. Shanley ran into the supermarket and asked a clerk to call the police. Police quickly took the pair into custody without resistance.

Shanley said that she recognized Brittany after seeing her on cable television. Police first issued an Amber Alert for the girl on Dec. 6. after discovering the body of Brittany's murdered mother, Tina Smith. Easley, her alleged abductor, is also a suspect in the murder.

The search for Brittany spanned eight states with police sifting through over 700 tips, but it was Shanley's alertness that made the difference.

"I am happy that she will at least be home to say goodbye to her mom," Shanley said.

Benjamin Smith, Brittany's father, spoke last night to reporters, saying he couldn't describe how grateful he was for his daughter's safe return.

"I thought that the happiest day of my life was when my daughter was born. Tonight has taken the number one spot," Benjamin Smith said.

The father, a police officer in South Boston, Va., was grateful to Shanley for her help.

"It's not anything that I could say to describe you the way my heart feels about you," Benjamin Smith said. "A simple thank you and God bless you."

Easley's Extradition Hearing Scheduled For Today

Brittany's father refused to comment on his daughter's alleged abductor, Easley.

Easley is being held at a San Francisco jail without bond and in the wing of the jail reserved for those under psychiatric observation, ABC affiliate WSET reported. An extradition hearing is scheduled today. If he waives the extradition, he could be back in Virginia by the end of this week.

Easley also faces charges of abduction and credit card fraud. The credit card charges stems from Easley's use of Tina Smith's credit card to buy a tent and other camping equipment at a Virginia Walmart. The tent was found nearby after Easley and Brittany were taken into custody.

The 2005 silver Dodge Neon that belonged to Brittany's murdered mother was located near San Francisco International Airport.

The ex-landscaper began an online relationship with Brittany's mother this summer. By October, Easley was living with the Smith family.

When Tina Smith failed to show up for work Dec. 6, police went to the home and found her body. They then learned that Brittany had disappeared.

Brittany Smith's great-aunt Lois Choquette told ABC affiliate KGO that she first met Easley on Thanksgiving and was immediately suspicious about the way Easley interacted with the seventh-grader.

"He was touching her hair and touching her hands and just gazing at her," said Choquette. "It was like he wanted to consume her with his eyes. It was just gross."

Choquette said she called Child Protective Services and a child abuse hotline four times the following day and never heard back. She also called the girl's mother to express concern, KGO reports.

Investigators have not given further details about the nature of Easley's relationship with Brittany. The middle schooler's Facebook page lists her name as Brittany Easley instead of her legal name. Her MySpace page's latest update reads, "Brittany Easleys what they call me."

Two Roanoke County detectives escorted Brittany back to Virginia from California on Monday.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/good-samaritan-spotted-missing-brittany-mae-smith-speaks/story?id=12390014

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4 bodies found near New York beach

The first body was found Saturday and three more were found on Monday, Suffolk County police said. All the bodies were discovered on a quarter-mile stretch of Oak Beach. They were found stuffed in the bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property, CNN affiliate WABC reported. They were in various stages of decomposition and police said they could have been there for as long as a month, the station reported.

Authorities were searching for Shonnan Gilbert, 24, of Jersey City, New Jersey, when the bodies were found. Gilbert was last seen alive May 1, WABC reported.

Suffolk County Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky told WABC Gilbert worked as a prostitute and had last arranged to meet a client on Fire Island, which is about a mile from Oak Beach. "Common sense tells us it's not a coincidence," he said.

It was unclear whether any of the bodies had been identified.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/14/new.york.bodies/

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Missing boys' dad could be sent back to Michigan

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The father of three boys missing since Thanksgiving could be returned to Michigan to face parental kidnapping charges.

John Skelton is to appear at an extradition hearing Tuesday in Toledo, Ohio, where he's being held on $3 million bond.

Authorities want Skelton back in Michigan where he lives and where 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner Skelton were last seen. Their mother reported them missing after Skelton didn't return them from a court-ordered visitation.

Police say Skelton made up a story about giving the boys to a friend. They also say they don't expect a positive outcome in the investigation.

Skelton's court-appointed attorney for the extradition hearing has said he wouldn't comment on the case.

Volunteers and authorities have searched southern Michigan and northwest Ohio for the boys.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hp_YgRBuOHkZ_r7ozpvkyJZ1J9UQ?docId=c71bff3bfee44deb81418fe4718e597a

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From ICE

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ICE operation targeting at-large violent convicted criminal aliens nets 95 arrests

MIAMI - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 93 foreign nationals with criminal records and two others during a five-day enforcement action throughout Florida targeting convicted criminal aliens identified with being in violation of U.S. immigration law.

The enforcement operation, which began Dec. 6 and ended on Friday, was conducted by the ICE ERO Joint Criminal Alien Removal Taskforce (JCART). JCART operations are intended to seek, locate and arrest at-large criminal aliens with convictions for drug trafficking offenses, violent crimes and sex offenses.

"Arresting convicted criminals and immigration fugitives is a top priority for ICE ERO," said Marc Moore, field office director for ICE ERO in Miami. "Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. The results of last week's operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to working with state, federal and local law enforcement to be a force multiplier in making our communities safer for everyone."

All 95 were arrested administratively for being in violation of immigration law, and all are being held in ICE custody pending immigration removal proceedings or removal from the United States. The 93 criminal alien arrests include 25 arrests in Miami-Dade County, eight arrests in Broward County, 13 arrests in West Palm Beach, 19 arrests in Tampa, 11 arrests in Orlando, one arrest in Tallahassee, two arrests in Jacksonville and 14 arrests in Ft. Myers. Two additional arrests of a non-criminal male in Tampa identified as illegally re-entering the country after deportation and female, who is an ICE fugitive with an outstanding order of deportation, were made in Ft. Myers. The overall criminal alien arrests include 84 men and nine women, representing 22 different nations, including countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Arrested by ICE ERO officers were:

• A 38-year-old citizen and national of the Dominican Republic, residing in Miami Lakes, Fla. He has prior 2010 convictions in Miami-Dade County for second degree attempted murder, burglary with assault or battery, and child abuse.
• A 25-year-old citizen and national of Mexico, residing in Apopka, Fla. He has a prior 2005 conviction in Orange County, Fla. for cocaine possession. He is also documented as an associate gang member of the criminal street gang "SUR 13" (SURENOS 13).
• A 42-year-old citizen and national of Mexico, residing in Lake Worth, Fla. He has a prior 2010 conviction in Palm Beach County for third degree felony of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
• A 44-year-old citizen and national of Mexico, residing in Plant City, Fla. He has a prior 2002 conviction in Collier County for child neglect.

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

Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1012/101213miami.htm

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Boston-area child sexual exploitation investigation leads to arrests in the Netherlands

BOSTON - Special agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Boston, along with Massachusetts State Police (MSP) detectives assigned to the Worcester District Attorney's Office, conducted advanced computer forensics on a computer seized in a child sexual exploitation investigation in the Boston-area. After intensive investigative work, HSI special agents and the MSP, working with Interpol and Dutch authorities, were able to track these photos to the Netherlands. Dutch officials consequently arrested a 27-year-old daycare center employee who confessed to dozens of sex crimes with children.

During their search of computer files, HSI special agents in Boston discovered a series of child sexual exploitation files. These files are known to include pictures, and videos of an adult male who is sexually abusing a two-year-old boy. Special agents determined that the photos did not appear to be from the United States.

In coordination with the ICE HSI Cyber Crimes Center (C3), HSI agents shared an edited image on INTERPOL's secure system for law enforcement officials in order to solicit assistance to identify the origin of the photo. As a result, the National Police Services Agency (KLPD-Ipol) in the Netherlands recognized the photos of being Dutch in origin. Additional photos were securely shared with KLPD-Ipol officials, who positively confirmed that these images originated from their country.

On Dec. 7, 2010, the national television station in the Netherlands ran a story seeking public assistance to identify the two-year-old child. KLPD-Ipol immediately received a call identifying the child.

Shortly thereafter, on the same evening, KLPD-Ipol, along with Amsterdam Police, arrested a 27-year-old suspect. The suspect had babysat the victim and had worked at at least two daycare centers in Amsterdam. He also offered his services online as a babysitter.

The man's computers were seized and will be searched for evidence of child sexual exploitation and he has since confessed to dozens of sex crimes allegedly committed over the past year and a half. On Sunday, more than 50 parents were also informed that the suspect has either confessed to abusing their children or was thought to have done so.

KLPD-Ipol also arrested the suspect's 37-year-old partner on suspicion of possession of child pornography. He is not suspected of physically molesting children. A 39-year-old employee of one of the daycare centers where the suspect worked was also arrested after allegedly attempting an "indecent" online chat.

"This arrest underlines the fact that there will be no refuge for child sexual predators who believe that they pursue their perverse behavior with impunity online," said Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Boston. Foucart oversees ICE HSI throughout New England. "Law enforcement agencies will continue to work tirelessly across jurisdictions and national boundaries to protect children anywhere in the world. I commend the collaboration of our agents and our law enforcement partners who were able to track down this child predator."

ICE HSI in Boston, C3, Interpol, KLPD-Ipol, Amsterdam Police and ICE's attache office in The Hague continue to follow-up on all investigative leads in this case.

C3's Child Exploitation Section (CES) investigates the trans-border large scale production and distribution of images of child abuse, as well as individuals who travel abroad to engage in sex with minors. The CES employs the latest technology to collect evidence and track the activities of individuals and organized groups who sexually exploit children through the use of websites, chat rooms, newsgroups and peer-to-peer trading. These investigative activities are organized under Operation Predator, a program managed by the CES.

Operation Predator is a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

This enforcement operation is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1012/101213boston.htm

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From the FBI

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Roy Moore in 1937 (left) and 1974		FBI Versus the Klan, Part 4 Our continuing series looks at the work of a key special agent in charge in the 1960s. Part 4: A Leader Emerges from FBI December 13, 2010
Roy Moore had seen the Klan in action, and he knew what he was up against. While head of the FBI's office in Little Rock, he was asked to lead a special squad investigating the KKK's 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which had killed four African-American girls and injured many more. So when the call came on July 2, 1964 from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Special Agent in Charge Moore was ready. Later that afternoon, the historic Civil Rights Act would be signed into law, and President Lyndon B. Johnson had already instructed Hoover's FBI, which was about to gain new authorities, to establish a stronger presence in Mississippi. Hoover chose Moore—a trusted Bureau veteran who'd joined the FBI in 1938 and earned his stripes finding the culprit of a massive mid-air explosion in 1955—to set up a new field office in Jackson. At the time, Mississippi was the epicenter of violent Klan activity, and Hoover wanted to send a powerful message that the FBI was in business there and was determined to reassert the rule of law. So he asked Moore to make preparations quickly and quietly as part of what Hoover considered a “psychological operation” against the KKK in the state. The morning after the July 4 holiday, Moore reported to Jackson. A week later, he joined Hoover, the Mississippi attorney general, and others in announcing the formal opening of the office in a rented downtown bank building. Moore's immediate job was to help solve the KKK-fueled murder of three civil rights workers—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner—in Neshoba County less than a month earlier. What became known as the infamous “Mississippi Burning” case gained national attention and helped spur the passage of the landmark civil rights bill. With his support, the FBI located the three men's bodies buried under an earthen dam and fingered a series of suspects by year's end. For Moore, it was just the beginning. Over the next seven years, he spearheaded the Bureau's work to loosen the Klan's stranglehold in Mississippi and restore law and order through a series of investigations and other efforts. Moore was well respected by the agents who worked with and for him. He was considered a tough, demanding boss but an “outstanding individual” and “one of the great leaders of that time.” According to Special Agent James Ingram, “He expected people to work six-and-a-half days a week ... Sunday mornings were for church and laundry, [but] by 1 p.m. you were back to work.” Moore's leadership made a critical difference in turning the tide against the Klan in the 1960s. He was reassigned to Chicago in 1971, then retired in December 1974—moving back to Mississippi, where he lived out his days. When Moore died in 2008, veteran Mississippi journalist Bill Minor was quoted as saying in a Washington Post obituary, “How close Mississippi stood in the 1960s to being taken over by the law of the jungle is still a frightening thought…There was only one reliable law enforcement agency in Mississippi at the time, and that was the FBI, headed by Roy Moore.”

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