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From the Los Angeles Times

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Authorities seek identity of men videotaped sexually assaulting disabled women

A package left at L.A. County Sheriff's Department headquarters contains 100 hours of footage of men who appear to be assaulting severely disabled women. Investigators are looking for leads on who is involved and where the attacks took place.

by Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

January 7, 2011

The package mysteriously left at Los Angeles County Sheriff's headquarters shocked even some of the department's most grizzled detectives: A hundred hours of video footage showing severely disabled women, many in diapers, being sexually assaulted by anonymous men.

The attacks appeared to have taken place at residential care centers, authorities said, and most of the attackers are believed to be employees. One suspect appears to be a paraplegic patient, hoisting himself off his wheelchair, before removing his diaper and that of his victim's, and beginning his assault.

The footage, dropped off in March, has left detectives with few leads. Though authorities are confident the scenes were shot in residential care facilities, it's unclear if they are located in Los Angeles County. Much of the footage is so grainy that only the faces of four of the estimated 10 men could be made out.

Authorities Thursday asked for the public's help in identifying the men, releasing screenshots and composite drawings of the attackers.

"Maybe they can identify these people," said Sgt. Dan Scott. "Maybe they can identify the room."

Detectives are also hoping the tipster who dropped off the package will come forward. The footage left at sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park came with a note explaining how he discovered the video. He had been commissioned by a man to scrub a computer hard drive, but before he did, he burned 100 hours of video files onto DVDs.

Detectives said the women in the videos appear to be between 20 and 40 years old, some appearing almost entirely unresponsive. The men appear to also be between 20 and 40. The footage, detectives said, appears to be a collection, with some men appearing in more than one scene. Some of the footage was shot with a handheld camera, with the rest appearing to be captured by a security camera, detectives said.

Enhancing and analyzing the video took several months, authorities said. Detectives have not contacted local residential care centers yet, an official said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Special Victims Bureau detectives at (866) 247-5877 . Anonymous tipsters can call (800) 222-TIPS .

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lasd-20110107,0,2751038.story

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China's development of stealth fighter takes U.S. by surprise

The emergence of what is said to be a prototype jet, along with news of advances on an anti-ship missile, raises concerns about China's military intentions and the threat it poses to the U.S. in the Pacific.

by Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times

January 7, 2011

Reporting from Washington

A few weeks ago, grainy photos surfaced online showing what several prominent defense analysts said appeared to be a prototype of a Chinese stealth fighter jet that could compete with the best of America's warplanes, years ahead of U.S. predictions.

Days later, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet disclosed that a long-awaited Chinese anti-ship missile, designed to sink an American aircraft carrier, was nearly operational.

As Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates heads to China this weekend, analysts are expressing concern about Chinese military advances, which appear to have taken the U.S. by surprise. The Pentagon had predicted that China wouldn't have a stealth fighter for a decade or more and Defense officials had given no previous indication the anti-ship missile, which had long been tracked by the U.S., was close to fruition.

The assertions came as Gates on Thursday outlined plans to cut $78 billion in projected growth from the Pentagon's budget over the next five years and cut the number of troops on active duty.

Gates is expected to meet stiff resistance from contractors and military officials who have long been accustomed to annual budget increases and development of new hardware systems in response to warnings of new foreign threats.

"We have been pretty consistent in underestimating the delivery … of Chinese technology and weapons systems," Vice Adm. David J. "Jack" Dorsett, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance, told reporters Wednesday. "They enter operational capability quicker than we frequently project."

Dorsett acknowledged that the stealth fighter was real, but said it would be years before the jet could be deployed. "Developing a stealth capability with a prototype and then integrating that into a combat environment is going to take some time," he said.

China watchers disagree about the extent to which the U.S. should worry about China's steadily increasing military power, which remains well behind American war technology. But there is one emerging consensus: After a three-decade buildup and a raft of technological secrets stolen through espionage, China has closed the capabilities gap enough to pose a threat to U.S. freedom of action in the western Pacific Ocean.

"It is true that China is doing some things that we need to be very concerned about, and it's also true that they are in no danger of matching U.S. capabilities," said Christopher A. Ford, a former State Department official and author of "The Mind of Empire: China's History And Modern Foreign Relations." "Their immediate game is simply to make sure that it becomes vastly more complicated for us to do what we might want to do in a crisis in their particular neighborhood."

The anti-ship weapon, described as a mobile, land-based ballistic missile capable of hitting a moving target 2,000 miles away, could do that. Defense watchers were startled when Adm. Robert F. Willard, who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, told a Japanese newspaper last month that China had achieved an "initial operational capability" for the missile.

The U.S. currently has no good defense against such a weapon, said Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center think tank in Alexandria, Va., who has tracked China's armed forces for decades.

Some analysts believe China wants to end U.S. naval superiority so it can dominate its neighbors, including U.S. allies Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

In July, when U.S. diplomats rejected China's claim that the entire South China Sea was part of its "core interests," the Chinese foreign minister reportedly stared at a Singaporean diplomat and said, "China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that's just a fact."

In September, when Japan detained a Chinese captain caught fishing in disputed waters, China cut off exports of key minerals to the nation. And in November, after North Korea shelled a South Korean island, China criticized the U.S. decision to send the carrier George Washington to the Yellow Sea, off China's coast.

A 2008 study by Rand Corp. asserts that, based on current trends, the U.S. by 2020 would lose a military conflict with China over Taiwan. A recent war game by an Australian think tank confirmed that finding, assessing that the number of Chinese planes would overwhelm U.S. forces, Aviation Week magazine said.

Skeptics argue that the U.S. has little to fear militarily from a country that is its second-largest trading partner and biggest debt holder. They also note that China still lags in certain key technologies: It hasn't been able to produce its own fighter jet engines, for example, and still buys them from Russia.

But the Pentagon is concerned about China's expanding military prowess. In little-noticed remarks last month, Assistant Secretary of Defense Wallace "Chip" Gregson said China "is pursuing a long-term, comprehensive military buildup that could upend the regional security balance."

The U.S. military's biggest worry, he said, is what are known as China's "anti-access and area-denial" weapons, including submarines and the anti-ship missile, designed to prevent the U.S. from operating without fear in the Western Pacific.

Those weapons go beyond China's defensive needs and "threaten our primary means of projecting power: our bases, our sea and air assets, and the networks that support them," Gregson said.

Vice Adm. Dorsett said it was unclear when the aircraft would be operational.

"They have been able to invest in a military buildup, and a stealth fighter is just one aspect of that," he said. "The fact they are making progress in that should not be a surprise."

Dorsett said he was more troubled by China's advances in space weapons and cyberwarfare capabilities. In 2007, China demonstrated that it could shoot a satellite out of low Earth orbit. And for years, corporate and government computer systems in the U.S. and elsewhere, including those of American defense contractors, have been hit by cyberattacks traced to China, though a link to the Chinese military hasn't been publicly established.

Some experts believe Chinese military hackers already have the ability to take down U.S. power grids and disrupt the financial system.

China is also developing and fielding "large numbers of advanced medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles, new attack submarines equipped with advanced weapons [and] increasingly capable long-range air defense systems," says the U.S. military's 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.

"It's China's goal to have a globally deployable military by the 2020s," said Fisher, of the Virginia think tank. "We have to understand that what the Russians teach them they are absorbing well. They are becoming military technology innovators, not just copiers."

China has nuclear weapons and a modern air force, but it doesn't have an aircraft carrier or bases abroad; its main military focus has been Taiwan, the island allied with the U.S. that China considers a province, despite it being ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. But China is building as many as five aircraft carriers, analysts say, and is increasingly turning its focus to projecting power beyond the Taiwan Strait.

China is the world's second-largest military spender after the U.S., though the gap is large. China put its 2010 defense budget at nearly $80 billion. The sum is less than a fifth of the U.S. level of about $530 billion, which doesn't include costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the U.S. believes the amount spent by China is higher.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-military-20110107,0,3324067.story

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Women identified, missing persons cases reopened after photos released from Grim Sleeper's home

Investigators are looking into four missing persons cases after law enforcement released photos taken from the home of Lonnie Franklin Jr., the alleged South L.A. serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper."

Since last month, the Los Angeles Police Department has been flooded with hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and other tips after detectives publicized photographs of unidentified women that were found in a trailer and garage belonging to Franklin.

He has pleaded not guilty to 10 killings in South L.A. over three decades.

So far, at least 53 women have been identified by LAPD Robbery-Homicide detectives who are continuing to receive information since going public with the approximately 180 images, including duplicates.

In all, 79 photos have been or are in the process of being removed from the LAPD website after the women in them were identified.

Police would not discuss details of the missing persons cases other than to say they involved women whose images were found among Franklin's possessions.

Reporter Andrew Blankstein has more on the story : 'Grim Sleeper' photos: 4 missing persons cases opened, 53 women identified

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/post/times-coverage-women-identified-and-missing-persons-cases-reopened-after-photos-released-grim-sleepe/

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From the New York Times

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U.S. Cautions People Named in Cable Leaks

WASHINGTON — The State Department is warning hundreds of human rights activists, foreign government officials and businesspeople identified in leaked diplomatic cables of potential threats to their safety and has moved a handful of them to safer locations, administration officials said Thursday.

The operation, which involves a team of 30 in Washington and embassies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, reflects the administration's fear that the disclosure of cables obtained by the organization WikiLeaks has damaged American interests by exposing foreigners who supply valuable information to the United States.

Administration officials said they were not aware of anyone who has been attacked or imprisoned as a direct result of information in the 2,700 cables that have been made public to date by WikiLeaks, The New York Times and several other publications, many with some names removed. But they caution that many dissidents are under constant harassment from their governments, so it is difficult to be certain of the cause of actions against them.

The officials declined to discuss details about people contacted by the State Department in recent weeks, saying only that a few were relocated within their home countries and that a few others were moved abroad.

The State Department is mainly concerned about the cables that have yet to be published or posted on Web sites — nearly 99 percent of the archive of 251,287 cables obtained by WikiLeaks. With cables continuing to trickle out, they said, protecting those identified will be a complex, delicate and long-term undertaking. The State Department said it had combed through a majority of the quarter-million cables and distributed many to embassies for review by diplomats there.

“We feel responsible for doing everything possible to protect these people,” said Michael H. Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, who is overseeing the effort. “We're taking it extremely seriously.”

Contrary to the administration's initial fears, the fallout from the cables on the diplomatic corps itself has been manageable. The most visible casualty so far could be Gene A. Cretz, the ambassador to Libya, who was recalled from his post last month after his name appeared on a cable describing peculiar personal habits of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. While no decision has been made on Mr. Cretz's future, officials said he was unlikely to return to Tripoli. In addition, one midlevel diplomat has been moved from his post in an undisclosed country.

But other senior diplomats initially considered at risk — for example, the ambassador to Russia, John R. Beyrle, whose name was on cables critical of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin — appeared to have weathered the disclosures.

There is anecdotal evidence that the disclosure of the cables has chilled daily contacts between human rights activists and diplomats. An American diplomat in Central Asia said recently that one Iranian contact, who met him on periodic trips outside Iran, told him he would no longer speak to him. Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, said people in Afghanistan and Pakistan had become more reluctant to speak to human rights investigators for fear that what they said might be made public.

WikiLeaks came under fire from human rights organizations last July, after it released a large number of documents about the war in Afghanistan without removing the names of Afghan citizens who had assisted the American military. When it later released documents about the Iraq war, the group stripped names from the documents.

A Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Chris Perrine, said Thursday that the military was not aware of any confirmed case of harm to anyone as a result of being named in the Afghan war documents. But he noted that the Taliban had said it would study the WikiLeaks documents to punish collaborators with the Americans.

State Department officials believe that a wide range of foreigners who have spoken candidly to American diplomats could be at risk if publicly identified. For example, a businessman who spoke about official corruption, a gay person in a society intolerant of homosexuality or a high-ranking government official who criticized his bosses could face severe reprisals, the officials said.

Human rights advocates share the State Department's concern that many people could be at risk if cables become public without careful redaction. “There are definitely people named in the cables who would be very much endangered,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch.

In one case, Mr. Malinowski said, the State Department asked Human Rights Watch to inform a person in a Middle Eastern country that his exchanges with American diplomats had been reported in a cable.

In addition to The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel have had the entire cable database for several months. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten said last month that it had obtained the entire collection, and newspapers in several other countries have obtained a selection of cables relating to their regions.

WikiLeaks's founder, Julian Assange, has said the group will continue to release additional cables on its own Web site as well, though to date it has moved cautiously and has reproduced the redactions made by newspapers publishing the cables.

Government officials are also worried that foreign intelligence services may be trying to acquire the cable collection, a development that would heighten concerns about the safety of those named in the documents.

For human rights activists in this country, disclosures by WikiLeaks, which was founded in 2006, have been a decidedly mixed development. Amnesty International gave WikiLeaks an award in 2009 for its role in revealing human rights violations in Kenya. Human Rights Watch wrote to President Obama last month to urge the administration not to pursue a prosecution of WikiLeaks or Mr. Assange.

But they are concerned that the cables could inflict their own kind of collateral damage, either by endangering diplomats' sources or discouraging witnesses and victims of abuses from speaking to foreign supporters.

Sam Zarifi, director of Amnesty International's operations in Asia, said the cables had provided valuable “empirical information” on abuses in several countries. “This is a new way to distribute information,” Mr. Zarifi said. “We just want to make sure it has the same safeguards as traditional journalism.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/world/07wiki.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Two Packages Emit Smoke in Maryland State Buildings

Two packages that contained incendiary devices that emitted a brief flame and smoke were opened Thursday in Maryland state office buildings about 15 minutes apart, but caused no serious injuries, the police said. One package was addressed to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Mr. O'Malley told reporters the package sent to him in Annapolis had a note complaining about highway signs that asked motorists to report suspicious activity.

No explosive material was found in either package, the authorities said. Mailrooms were inspected at government buildings across the state.

“When both packages were opened there was a reaction — a reaction that caused a flash of fire, a brief flash of fire, smoke and a smell” like sulfur, said Greg Shipley, a Maryland State Police spokesman. He said the employee who opened one of the packages complained of having “singed fingers.”

Officials took pains not to call the packages bombs or explosives. Instead they referred to them as “incendiary.”

“This is not to be confused with a significant explosion that we think of when you say that word,” Mr. Shipley said.

William F. Barnard, the state fire marshal, called the devices “very similar in nature.”

The package sent to Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, was opened by a state mailroom employee inside the Jeffrey Building in Annapolis about 12:45 p.m., Mr. Shipley said. The building is a few blocks from the State House. The governor was never in danger, the authorities said.

About 125 people were evacuated from the building during a search for other devices, the police said. Roughly 15 minutes after the first package was opened, an employee in the Maryland Department of Transportation headquarters in Hanover found a package that also flashed a flame, officials said.

About 250 employees were evacuated. Several were taken to the hospital as a precaution, the authorities said.

Two other suspicious packages were found Thursday in Baltimore, at a state office building and at a courthouse. One contained printer toner; the other computer accessories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07package.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Man gets life without parole in gruesome Ohio murders

Matthew Hoffman, 30, pleaded guilty to all 10 counts, including three counts of aggravated murder and the kidnapping of one of the victim's 13-year-old relatives, in Knox County, Ohio, in November.

According to his attorney, Hoffman said he committed the crimes after encountering Tina R. Herrmann when he entered the house during a burglary attempt.

But the sister of Stephanie Sprang, one of the other victims, said there was no excuse for him killing Herrmann and waiting for the other victims to come to the house.

"Death is too easy for him and we would rather pay tax dollars and let him suffer and live and deal with what he did every day," Sherrie Baxter told CNN affiliate WSYX.

The remains of Herrmann, 31, her son, Kody, and Stephanie Sprang, 41, were found November 18 in a rural area after they had been missing 10 days from Herrmann's home. Autopsy results indicated they had been stabbed to death and dismembered.

Hoffman, who worked as a tree trimmer, was indicted Monday and the plea and sentencing agreement were detailed during a hearing Thursday.

"The indictment alleges that Hoffman purposely caused the deaths of Tina R. Herrmann, Ms. Herrmann's son Kody Maynard, age 11, and her neighbor Stephanie L. Sprang, on November 10, 2010," prosecutors said about the indictment. "The aggravated murder charges further allege that Hoffman murdered the victims while he was committing the offense of aggravated burglary in Herrmann's residence."

The indictment did not include death penalty specifications, authorities said, "in accordance with the wishes of the victim's families."

CNN left a message for Hoffman's attorney, Bruce Malek, who told WSYX that Hoffman had remorse for what he did and felt it was important for the victims' remains to be found. Police previously had said Hoffman provided information leading to the recovery of the remains.

The 13-year-old girl was found bound and gagged in the basement of Hoffman's home in Mount Vernon, Ohio, about 20 miles from Herrmann's home in Howard, Ohio. Hoffman was charged with one count of rape for allegedly assaulting the girl, prosecutors said.

Besides the aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and rape charges, Hoffman faced a charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly removing some clothing and bedding from Herrmann's residence in order to hinder the investigation, authorities said.

He also pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors those charges were filed because "the victims' remains were not intact when recovered by authorities in a hollow tree" in Kokosing Lake State Wildlife Area.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, in a statement read by Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher, the girl said: "This has changed my whole life and my family's life, too." In the statement, the teen related memories of the victims and said she's no longer frightened of Hoffman.

"This is so sickening, Matthew, to know you even had the guts to do this to a family," she said in the statement.

Herrmann failed to report to work at a Dairy Queen in Mount Vernon on November 10, Knox County Sheriff David Barber told CNN affiliate WBNS. A deputy twice went to her home and saw her pickup truck there. No one answered the door, though lights were on in the home.

Later in the week, blood was found in the home, leading authorities to suspect foul play.

Sprang's father, Steve Thompson, said he was satisfied with the sentence.

"They are many answers that I still need," he told WSYX. "I am confident and sure we will find them later on down the road."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/06/ohio.family.sentence/

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Arrest in killing of hospital worker

by Dan Morse and Keith L. Alexander

Washington Post Staff Writers

January 7, 2011

The unusual slaying at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda was high-profile, coming on New Year's Day at the well-known facility. The victim, Roosevelt Brockington, was stabbed more than 70 times in a basement boiler room.

Detectives quickly identified a suspect: Keith Little, a hospital employee. He worked for Brockington, who had recently given him a poor performance review. Little had also been accused of killing a co-worker at a previous job, at a maintenance facility in the District in 2003, but he was acquitted.

Detectives spoke to Little, but they said it wasn't until a bizarre incident Wednesday night that they had enough to charge him: Another hospital worker said he saw Little, just outside the boiler room, using chemically treated water and a bucket to wash down a pair of black gloves and a ski mask, police said.

"We got a break in the case," Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said Thursday.

Little, 49, of Lanham, was being held without bond in the Montgomery County jail. He is due in court Friday for a bond hearing on a charge of first-degree murder.

Detectives said the brutality of the crime indicated a lot of anger. They said the recent poor performance review from Brockington kept Little from getting a raise.

"We believe this may have been the motive," Manger said.

In the District case, Little was charged on three counts, including second-degree murder while armed, in the shooting death of Gordon Rollins, according to court documents.

Rollins and Little were co-workers at the facility in Northwest Washington. Rollins, 47, was a janitor, and Little was a maintenance man who had joined the company a month before the shooting.

Authorities said the two men argued over a missing plumber's snake before Rollins was shot to death. Rollins had accused Little of stealing tools, according to Montgomery officials.

Co-workers said they had seen the two men argue before Rollins was fatally shot Feb. 3, 2003.

The case sat until Little was charged with second-degree murder in 2006. Little pleaded not guilty, and a jury acquitted him after a four-day trial.

After his arrest in Montgomery this week, Little didn't say much when questioned by detectives, according to law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case. "He's been down this road before," one of the sources said.

When police began investigating the case, they thought they might be looking at a robbery gone bad. They were called to Suburban about 10:30 a.m. Sunday and within two hours had spoken to a close friend of Brockington's.

According to arrest records filed in court, she told detectives that she was on the telephone with Brockington at 9:45 a.m. that day when she heard a voice in the background saying: "Give me all your money. . . . You got any more?"

She said she heard Brockington respond, "That's all I got," then ask the other man not to hurt him. Then she heard Brockington scream several times, according to the arrest record, and then his phone went silent.

But the scene didn't look like a robbery. The boiler room, in the basement, is accessible only to hospital staff. Detectives theorized that the assailant was an employee "wearing a mask or some sort of disguise," Detective Dimitry Ruvin wrote in the arrest records.

Ruvin learned that Little, a maintenance engineer, had worked a shift that ended about 5:15 a.m. Sunday and was relieved by his boss, Brockington. Detectives spoke twice to Little, who said that after his shift ended, he drove to his sister's house in Gaithersburg, got some sleep, then spent the rest of the day helping her move to a new home in the District.

Ruvin examined Little's cellphone records. They indicated that callers couldn't get through to his number Sunday morning - specifically until at least 10:32 a.m. Little told Ruvin that he couldn't get a cellular signal in the boiler room, and Ruvin noted that he couldn't get a signal on his own phone there, either, according to arrest records.

On Wednesday night, in the hospital basement, one of Little's co-workers saw a white bucket under a valve in a room adjacent to the boiler room, according to arrest records. The valve was open, and chemically treated water "was pouring inside the bucket," Ruvin wrote. The co-worker looked inside the bucket and saw a black ski mask and black gloves, police said.

Little suddenly approached, grabbed the bucket and said, "I'll take care of this," Ruvin wrote.

Then Little poured the contents of the bucket into a red metal trash cart. Several minutes later, the co-worker looked in the cart and saw the gloves and ski mask. Little then announced he needed to check his vehicle for possible parking tickets and left. The co-worker checked the trash cart again, and the gloves and mask were not there, Ruvin wrote.

The co-worker reported this to his supervisor, and police were called at 9:20 p.m. They detained Little. Security cameras revealed that earlier Little appeared to be hiding something in a trash can. Inside, police reported, they found a "black hat with cutouts for eyes" and a pair of black gloves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010606618.html

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From the Department of Justice

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Former CIA Officer Arrested for Alleged Unauthorized Disclosure of National Defense Information and Obstruction of Justice

WASHINGTON – A former CIA officer was arrested today on charges that he illegally disclosed national defense information and obstructed justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, 43, of O'Fallon, Mo., was charged in a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Dec. 22, 2010, and unsealed today.  The indictment charges Sterling with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, and one count each of unlawful retention of national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstruction of justice.  Sterling was arrested today in St. Louis and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry I. Adelman in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

According to the indictment, Sterling was employed by the CIA from May 1993 to January 2002.  From November 1998 through May 2000, he was assigned to a classified clandestine operational program designed to conduct intelligence activities related to the weapons capabilities of certain countries, including Country A. During that same time frame, he was also the operations officer assigned to handle a human asset associated with that program.  According to the indictment, Sterling was reassigned in May 2000, at which time he was no longer authorized to receive or possess classified documents concerning the program or the individual.

In connection with his employment, the indictment alleges that Sterling, who is a lawyer, signed various security, secrecy and non-disclosure agreements in which he agreed never to disclose classified information to unauthorized persons, acknowledged that classified information was the property of the CIA, and also acknowledged that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information could constitute a criminal offense.  According to the indictment, these agreements also set forth the proper procedures to follow if Sterling had concerns that the CIA had engaged in any "unlawful or improper" conduct that implicated classified information.  These procedures permit such concerns to be addressed while still protecting the classified nature of the information.  The media, according to the indictment, was not an authorized party to receive such classified information under such circumstances.

The indictment alleges that Sterling, in retaliation for the CIA's refusal to settle on terms favorable to him in the civil and administrative claims he was pursuing against the CIA, engaged in a scheme to disclose information concerning the classified operational program and the human asset – first, in connection with a possible newspaper story to be written by an author employed by a national newspaper in early 2003 and, later, in connection with a book published by the author in January 2006.

"The indictment unsealed today alleges that Jeffrey Sterling violated his oath to protect classified information and then obstructed an investigation into his actions. Through his alleged actions, Sterling placed at risk our national security and the life of an individual working on a classified mission," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. "Those who violate the law, and the trust placed in them by the U.S. government to keep our national security information secure, must be held accountable."

"Our national security requires that sensitive information be protected," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "The law does not allow one person to unilaterally decide to disclose that information to someone not cleared to receive it. Those who handle classified information know the law and must be held accountable when they break it."

The indictment alleges that Sterling took a number of steps to facilitate the disclosure of the classified information, including:

• stealing classified documents and other information from the CIA and unlawfully retaining those documents without the authority of the CIA;
• communicating by telephone, via e-mail and in person with the author in order to arrange for the disclosure of or to disclose classified information to the author;
• meeting with the author in person to orally disclose classified information to the author and to provide documents containing classified information to the author for review or use;
• characterizing the classified information in a false and misleading manner as a means of inducing the author to write and publish a story premised on that false and misleading information;
• deceiving and attempting to deceive the CIA into believing that he was a former employee adhering to his secrecy and non-disclosure agreements; and
• deliberately choosing to disclose the classified information to a member of the media, knowing that such an individual would not reveal his identity, thereby concealing and perpetrating the scheme.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that beginning in August 2000, Sterling pursued various administrative and civil actions against the CIA concerning alleged employment-related racial discrimination and decisions made by the CIA's Publications Review Board regarding Sterling's efforts to publish his memoirs. According to the indictment, on Feb. 12, 2003, the CIA rejected Sterling's third offer to settle his discrimination lawsuit, which was ultimately dismissed by the court.

The indictment alleges that beginning a few weeks later, in February and March 2003, Sterling made various telephone calls to the author's residence, and e-mailed the author a newspaper article about the weapons capabilities of Country A. According to the indictment, while the possible newspaper article containing the classified information Sterling allegedly provided ultimately was not published in 2003, Sterling and the author remained in touch from December 2003 through November 2005 via telephone and e-mail. The indictment alleges that in January 2006, the author published a book which contained classified information about the program and the human asset.

The indictment also alleges that Sterling obstructed justice when, between April and July 2006, he deleted the e-mail he had sent to the author concerning the weapons capabilities of Country A from his account. According to the indictment, Sterling was aware by June 2003 of an FBI investigation into his disclosure of national defense information, and was aware of a grand jury investigation into the matter by June 2006, when he was served a grand jury subpoena for documents relating to the author's book.

The charges of unauthorized disclosure and retention of national defense information each carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison. The charge of mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of unauthorized conveyance of government property carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The charge of obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Each of these charges also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the loss or gain associated with the offense.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

This case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel William M. Welch II of the Criminal Division, Trial Attorney Timothy J. Kelly of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section and Senior Litigation Counsel James L. Trump of the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated by the FBI's Washington Field Office, with assistance in the arrest from the FBI's St. Louis Field Office.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/January/11-crm-015.html

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From ICE

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National security is a top priority for ICE

As far as government agencies go, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a relative newcomer. However, the roots behind ICE and its focus on national security date back hundreds of years — 1789 to be exact. That's when Congress established the U.S. Customs Service (CSCS). Since then, the Immigration Act of 1891 was implemented, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was created, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established. All have paved the way for ICE.

Today, ICE serves as the largest investigative arm of DHS. ICE's National Security Investigations Division (NSID) — part of ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — leads efforts to identify, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations that threaten the security of the United States. Each program housed under NSID serves a specific purpose, whether that be protecting our borders, keeping terrorists out of the United States or identifying war criminals and making them accountable for their crimes.

"As a threat evolves, we evolve," says ICE Deputy Assistant Director John P. Woods. "As we identify vulnerabilities, we address those vulnerabilities."

The following programs fall under NSID's jurisdiction.

• The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) prevents terrorists and dangerous extremists from gaining entry to the United States. The program uses a web-based system to manage information on foreign students and exchange visitors in the United States.
• The Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit (CTCEU) prevents criminals and terrorists from fraudulently using our nation's immigration system. This unit investigates nonimmigrant visa holders who violate their immigration status, possible terrorists and individuals who exploit the student visa system.
• The National Security Unit (NSU) identifies and dismantles national security threats against the United States and oversees ICE's participation in the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). The JTTF investigates terrorist organizations and their malicious actors.
• Special agents are assigned to federal agencies and departments as National Security Liaisons (NSLs). They help ICE conduct comprehensive national security investigations that span across government agencies.
• The Counter Proliferation Investigations (CPI) unit prevents criminal and terrorist organizations from acquiring and trafficking items like weapons and sensitive technology. It also serves as the home to the Export Enforcement Coordination Center (EECC), a clearing house for law enforcement agencies to share information related to CPIs.
• The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit (HRVWCU) identifies and removes war crime suspects and human rights abusers from the United States.

"All [our programs] link together," says ICE Associate Deputy Assistant Director Frank Cabaddu. He refers to the interconnectedness as a "storyline" where each program plays a role in helping U.S. citizens "sleep better at night."

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1101/110105washingtondc.htm

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