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

From the Los Angeles Times

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

Gunshots again cause turmoil in L.A. Unified schools

Nine campuses were locked down after a school officer was shot outside El Camino High — just a day after two students were shot at Gardena High. A Bell High student was also shot on his way home from school.

by Bob Pool, Andrew Blankstein and Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times

January 20, 2011

A second day of violence shook the Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday, with the shooting of a school police officer prompting officials to seal off a large swath of Woodland Hills and place about 9,000 students on lockdown for hours.

More than 350 officers swarmed through the West San Fernando Valley looking for the gunman, blocking people from entering or exiting a seven-square-mile area.

The shooting occurred just before noon adjacent to El Camino Real High School, where Officer Jeffrey Stenroos was patrolling. A gunman fired multiple shots at Stenroos, hitting him in the chest. A bulletproof vest prevented the bullet from penetrating his body, and his injuries are considered minor.

The shootings came a day after a student brought a gun onto the campus of Gardena High School. The gun accidentally went off in a classroom, police officials said, and two students were hit.

The incidents brought a collective shudder throughout the district and calls for better security in and around schools.

"We've never had two days like this in my 19 years here," said school board member Steve Zimmer. "Guns in and around school create a special kind of fear."

Melissa Warga had two children on lockdown most of the day, a 15-year-old girl at El Camino and an 8-year-old boy at Woodlake Elementary.

"There's something about what's happening now that has to stop," she said. "I'm so numb that my kids are enduring what they're enduring."

Incoming L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy promised to launch an assessment of all high schools in the district to make sure they are following a district policy that requires random weapons searches to be conducted every day. He said Gardena High had violated district policy by not doing enough random weapons checks of students.

About four hours after Stenroos was shot, a 16-year-old Bell High School student was shot and wounded about half a block from the campus. In that case, a gunman in a black truck opened fire on the boy as he was walking home from school.

But the main focus of the LAPD remained in Woodland Hills. LAPD officials described the perimeter — which stretched from the 101 Freeway north to Oxnard Street — as one of the largest in recent memory. At the peak of the search, nine schools in the area were on lockdown.

The incident began when Stenroos, an eight-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified police force, spotted the suspect on Manton Avenue near Burbank Boulevard involved in some kind of illegal activity, possibly breaking into cars, police said. He confronted the man, who pulled a gun and fired multiple rounds, hitting the officer once in the chest.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said the officer fell back and hit his head, but was able to stumble to his patrol car, where a civilian helped him radio for help.

The suspect, described as a white man in his 40s wearing blue jeans and a bomber jacket, fled and was last seen running east on Burbank Boulevard.

Stenroos was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

"He's a lucky man," said Dr. Stephen Jones, medical director of emergency services. "The vest obviously saved his life."

Hundreds of officers from the LAPD, school police, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol swarmed the area around El Camino throughout the afternoon, cordoning off a seven-square-mile area. Firefighters called to the scene wore body armor. Helicopters drummed overhead.

Anxious parents gathered in the parking lot of Hale Middle School around 2 p.m., just beyond the perimeter.

Rachel Vred, who lives near El Camino High, was desperate to get home, where she had left her 8-year-old daughter with a nanny. She begged officers to let her in. "My daughter's sick," she told them. "Please, I need to get home."

All she knew was that "someone with a gun is running around the neighborhood."

Shelly Devito gazed through the chain-link fence with a strained look, helplessly waiting to get her two children at El Camino.

"Nobody's telling me anything, I can't get through. My kids are texting and calling me. They're stuck inside and not allowed to move. … You think our kids are safe and they're not. It's that feeling. I don't know what to do with myself now."

She wiped her eyes. "I just want my kids."

Inside the schools, students said they had no access to water or restroom facilities. In at least one classroom, students relieved themselves in buckets placed in a closet.

Katie Testo, an 18-year-old senior at El Camino, said SWAT teams were combing the hallways of her school and students were still on lockdown in their classrooms late in the afternoon. "We're really anxious and really scared because we don't know what's going on," she said.

While some parents said they were worried about violence at schools, violent crime has actually been declining in L.A. County for some time. According to a Times analysis, neither Gardena High nor El Camino Real High is located in an area with high reports of violent crime. Since January 2007, two homicides have taken place within a mile of Gardena High. Over the last several months, few serious violent or property crimes have been reported close to El Camino.

The perimeter stranded thousands of people. Josh Morgan, 31, whose office is on Ventura Boulevard, said he and his colleagues tried to walk to lunch, but were turned back by police.

"We were able to leave the office, but made it about half a block down the street," Morgan said. He and his colleagues returned to work and ate potato chips and other snacks.

Ken Taylor, who owns a photo studio on Ostronic Drive, said he and his employees tried to leave the area after they heard about the shooting but were stopped by police searching for the gunman.

"The police stop every car … they're opening their trunks," Taylor said. "They just want to make sure the suspect doesn't get out."

Taylor said police told him that if he left the area, he wouldn't be let back in. So he and his employees decided to return to the shop. "We locked our doors," he said.

Officials emphasized that the Woodland Hills incident was different from the one in Gardena. "This was not a schools shooting," said Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti. "It was a shooting near a school."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-school-violence-20110120,0,4379557,print.story

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

Mental health in Arizona: A case study

Gov. Jan Brewer, long a champion of services for the mentally ill, reluctantly agreed to cut funding amid a budget crisis. It's just one example of the battle mental health advocates across the U.S. face as cash-strapped legislatures chop services.

by Nicole Santa Cruz and Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2011

Reporting from Tucson

When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer took office in 2009, she restored funding to a mental health and drug treatment program. She also forced state agencies to justify their funding requests by arguing why their needs were greater than those of programs for the mentally ill.

Throughout her political career, Brewer had championed mental health services, though rarely discussed one connection: Her son Ronald has lived in a state mental facility for much of the last two decades. He had been found not guilty of kidnapping and sexual assault by reason of insanity.

Yet, in 2010, Brewer agreed to cut in half state funding for the Department of Health Services, reducing services to about 14,000 mentally ill Arizonans.

Brewer's reluctant acquiescence to the cuts reflects not only the state's dire budget crisis — it must fill a $1.2-billion budget chasm this year — but the tough battle mental health advocates face in securing funding for such services.

Across the country, mental health advocates say, cash-strapped legislatures have been chopping services for the anxious, depressed and schizophrenic. Since 2009, states have shaved more than $2 billion from such programs and axed more than 4,000 inpatient beds, said Michael Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

About one-fifth of states have passed or proposed cuts in mental health budgets for the next fiscal year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In California, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed that funding remain essentially intact. The state has struggled since the late 1960s, when then-Gov. Ronald Reagan began emptying its psychiatric hospitals, with how to handle its mentally troubled population.

Brewer said scaling back mental healthcare was one of the most painful decisions of her career. Now lawmakers are expected to make even more cuts.

The proposals come even in the aftermath of the shooting that left six dead and a congresswoman badly wounded. There's no indication that the accused gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, was formally diagnosed with mental health problems. But the rampage and Loughner's widely documented incoherent rants have thrown a spotlight on the need for mental health services.

To be sure, the recession has drained money from most public services. But mental health advocates are burdened with significant disadvantages in pleading for more cash.

Explaining mental illness is messy. Its effects are often imperceptible, with no equivalent of a wheelchair or a wound. Its origins are often misunderstood, as is the costliness and complexity of treatment. Its advocates typically hold less political sway than teachers, firefighters and nurses.

Most of all, those who suffer severely from it, like the homeless and the imprisoned, draw little sympathy from outsiders. "Unless you got a family member or have some direct experience, you don't know and you don't care," said lawyer Charles Arnold, a longtime mental health advocate in Arizona. "It's dreadful, and it's sort of a time bomb."

Arizona provides an extraordinary case study.

In 2009, the state's mental health system was considered middling by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, which gave Arizona a C grade. But the group also praised several innovations, including screening and treating troubled inmates.

For example, a state law long guaranteed help to the mentally ill who sought it. "The test will be whether progress can continue in the face of the current economic downturn," said the NAMI report.

The observation proved prophetic — the guarantee of help has been suspended because of the economic crisis.

In the last fiscal year, revenue-starved lawmakers sold state buildings, froze enrollment in a children's health insurance program and slashed payments for organ transplants. At least two patients denied transplant coverage have died, according to news reports, prodding lawmakers to consider restoring funding.

Critics said the budget crisis handed the conservative Legislature an excuse to whittle down services it believed the government had no business providing. Republicans countered that they had little choice when confronted with such a yawning gap.

"There's no doubt that this governor has demonstrated a long track record and strong support of mental health funding for this state," said Paul Senseman, the governor's spokesman, who declined to comment on Brewer's familial link to the mental health system.

A former Republican state senator, Carolyn Allen, said Brewer had no choice but to cut programs dear to her. "I know in her heart that she cares," Allen said. "I know she is overwhelmed."

Allen too has a personal reason for defending psychiatric care. When she was a child, her father died in a state mental hospital and her brother in a public sanitarium. "I lived in my family with the ramifications of what mental illness does to destroy a family," she said.

Regardless, she said, the budget crisis gave lawmakers few options. "This state of Arizona is bankrupt," she said. "Not broke — bankrupt."

Mental health advocates, however, have long said skimping on psychiatric assistance swells homeless populations and fills prison cells. That has swayed few lawmakers.

Since Arizona's cuts took effect last summer, some emergency rooms and crisis clinics — the medical options of last resort — have reported a bump in people seeking psychiatric help. At University Medical Center in Tucson, for example, requests for psychiatric consultations in the ER have jumped 20%, said Dr. Steven Herron, a forensic psychiatrist there.

Other lives unraveled more privately.

Barbara Bursuk, 54, had suffered from anxiety and depression for decades. In recent years, the drug Seroquel helped tame her manic streaks and lessen her insomnia. When the state stopped covering the cost of the drug, her doctors prescribed at least three combinations of medications the state would pay for. None worked.

Bursuk was wracked by sleeplessness, anxiety attacks and a ceaseless excitability that sped up her thoughts and wore her down. By fall, she was desperate enough to pay for the $300-a-month Seroquel herself. Bursuk subsists on Social Security and, to afford the pills, was forced to curb her use of air conditioning during Arizona's scorching afternoons.

"I felt alone," said Bursuk, who has since qualified for a discount from the drug's manufacturer. "Look at me. I look fine. You don't know what's going on behind all this."

Still, Brewer's latest budget proposal, which the governor unveiled Friday, maintains last year's cutbacks. It also rolls back eligibility for the state's version of Medicaid, which could deprive at least 5,000 mentally ill patients of services, said Bill Kennard, executive director of NAMI's Arizona chapter.

Brewer's administration acknowledges how severe the proposed cuts are.

"Nevertheless," budget documents say, "making painful decisions about how to fund and who will receive health and welfare services is critical to balancing the state budget."

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-arizona-mental-health-20110120,0,7794344,print.story

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

State hospital workers demand improved safety conditions

About 200 staff members at troubled Napa State Hospital gathered outside the state psychiatric hospital Wednesday to demand improved safety conditions for themselves and the roughly 1,100 severely ill patients treated there.

The boisterous rally came nearly three months after psychiatric technician Donna Gross, 54, was strangled on hospital grounds. A patient has been charged in her death, and another patient is being held on assault charges in connection with a savage beating of a rehabilitation therapist just six weeks later that fractured the employee's skull in four places.

“Death Should Not Be the Price We Pay for Safety,” read one sign waved by a worker to honking supporters outside the hospital. “DMH Lets Nurses Die,” read another, echoing a common theme of anger toward the state Department of Mental Health, which operates the state hospitals, for ignoring repeated calls for better safety.

The staff had been seeking improved conditions for several years, internal memos and documents show, but complaints to management yielded no change. Gross' slaying, however, has propelled psychiatric technicians, nurses, rehab therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and hospital police to work together in a rare show of unity to demand change.

Dr. Richard Frishman, a Napa State Hospital psychiatrist, held up a photo of himself with a battered and blackened face –- the result of a 2008 beating by a patient –- as he urged his fellow workers to demand  swift reform.

“Our mental institutions –- Napa State Hospital included –- are failing,” he said. “The men and women who take on this work that no one else will do need the tools to do it safely.”

Employee groups are asking for special units for the most violent patients –- many of whom have extensive criminal histories and hard-to-treat anti-social personality disorders that lead them to prey on more vulnerable patients. They are also seeking a greater hospital police presence, expedited methods for ordering involuntary medication for violent patients and for returning others to prisons, and more thorough violence assessments of patients before they land in the facility.

“Until then, we will continue to have deaths, we will continue to have injuries from which we cannot recover,” Kim Cowart, a Napa State Hospital nurse, told the crowd of co-workers who gathered Wednesday in front of an impromptu memorial of flowers adorned with a photo of Gross' smiling face.

Cowart and others stressed that the patients are suffering equally and cannot receive proper treatment in an atmosphere of such fear and uncertainty.

Since 2006, the state hospitals have been subject to a federal consent judgment demanding improved treatment for patients, many of whom have been accused or convicted of committing crimes relating to their mental illness. Yet data through mid-2010 show that patient assaults on both staff and other patients have largely trended upward at the hospitals subject to the judgment. Napa, an aging bucolic facility, has seen a dramatically sharp spike in assaults since early 2009, leading many to call Gross' death unsurprising.    

“We are not expendable,” Cowart bellowed to cheers. “We are not robots. You cannot just replace us. If we don't matter to DMH, we matter to each other.”

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

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

27 arrested in raid of Los Angeles gang Lennox 13

Federal agents and local authorities on Wednesday arrested 27 people allegedly linked to the Los Angeles street gang Lennox 13.

Nearly 500 officers connected with a federal and state drug task force and L.A. County sheriff's deputies made the arrests after an 18-month probe into the Lennox 13 gang.

Many of those arrested were indicted in a federal racketeering case alleging the gang is a criminal enterprise that had engaged in violent crimes, extortion and narcotics trafficking. Others are being charged with separate federal or local crimes, and some face illegal-immigration prosecution and deportation.

The centerpiece of the investigation is an 11-count indictment alleging violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The indictment names 15 defendants, nine of whom were taken into custody Wednesday.

“The drug-related violence of street gangs continues to inflict devastation in many of our communities,” said Timothy J. Landrum, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles.

The “13” stands for the letter M and was added to the gang's name about 20 years ago when it became associated with the Mexican Mafia. In Wednesday's raid, authorities also arrested one woman on a federal weapons charge, eight people on state narcotics charges, five on probation violations, two on federal criminal charges of illegal reentry after deportation and two on suspicion of being illegal immigrants.

The indictment alleges drug sales made up the bulk of the gang's profits in its territory just east of Los Angeles International Airport. The alleged scheme involved street-level narcotics dealers having to pay regular “rent” or “tax” to the gang to do business.

In exchange for the payments, Lennox 13 members provided protection to the drug dealers from rivals, the indictment claims.

The gang also routinely extorted legitimate business owners operating in territory claimed by Lennox 13, according to the indictment. The gang in turn allegedly paid a tax to the Mexican Mafia, which provided protection to Lennox 13 members within the prison system.

It also allegedly used the money to purchase weapons. Some of the money allegedly paid attorney's fees for gang members who had been charged with crimes, contributed to funeral costs for gang members who were killed and was deposited into the prison accounts of incarcerated gang members.

If convicted under the RICO statute, an offender can receive 20 years in federal prison.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/27-arrested-in-los-angeles-lennox-street-gang-raid.html

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

From the New York Times

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

Doctor Is Charged in Killing of Newborns

An abortion doctor who served minority and immigrant women in his clinic in Philadelphia was charged with multiple counts of murder on Wednesday in the deaths of a woman and seven newborn babies whose spinal cords had been cut with scissors, the district attorney's office said.

Prosecutors charged Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, with eight counts of murder in the deaths of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, a refugee from Nepal, who received high doses of anesthetic for an illegal late-term abortion performed in 2009 and of seven infants who were born, killed and then disposed of in Dr. Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, the Women's Medical Society.

Prosecutors laid out their case in a 281-page grand jury document that read like a grisly script. Plastic bags and mineral water bottles holding aborted fetuses were found stashed in Dr. Gosnell's clinic. Jars containing the severed feet of babies lined a shelf, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, said in a statement.

Dr. Gosnell, a family practitioner who was not certified in obstetrics, performed late-term abortions, after 24 weeks, which are illegal, and employed staff members who were not trained medical professionals, including a teenage girl, prosecutors said. Nine of his employees were also charged.

“It is very important to remember that Dr. Gosnell is presumed innocent,” a lawyer for Dr. Gosnell, William J. Brennan, said. “I would hope there is not a rush to judgment and that he has an opportunity to review this very lengthy charging document.”

In the grand jury document, prosecutors called Dr. Gosnell's clinic “a baby charnel house,” riddled with fetal remains and reeking of cat urine, with furniture and blankets stained with blood. Medical equipment was broken and supplies were reused.

“The real business of the ‘Women's Medical Society' was not health, it was profit,” the document stated. It detailed a practice of selling prescription painkillers during the day, and at night, performing abortions for cash for women who could not get them elsewhere because they were too pregnant.

When labor was induced and a baby was born, Dr. Gosnell would kill it by cutting into its neck and severing its spinal cord in a process he referred to as “snipping.” In one case involving a 17-year-old who was 30 weeks pregnant, prosecutors said that Dr. Gosnell induced labor, severed the baby's spine and put the body in a shoe box. “The doctor joked that the baby was so big, ‘he could walk me to the bus stop,' ” the document said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/us/20doctor.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

From Google News

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

FBI investigates bomb attempt at parade

The FBI is investigating whether racial bias could have played a role in the apparent attempted bombing of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane, Wash., officials said Wednesday.

Three city employees spotted an unattended black backpack on a bench about an hour before the parade honoring the slain civil rights leader was to start on Monday. When they looked inside and saw wires, they alerted Spokane police, who defused a potentially lethal explosive device, officials said.

No one was injured in the incident, which came amid growing concern nationally over what authorities call a wave of homegrown terrorism. But if the bomb had gone off, it could have caused multiple deaths or injuries, officials said.

"The device appeared to be operational, it appeared to be deadly, and it was intended to inflict multiple casualties,'' said Special Agent Frederick Gutt, a spokesman for the FBI's Seattle field office.

Law enforcement sources familiar with the device, which is being analyzed at the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., said it had a remote detonator and was positioned so that any blast would have been directed at the crowd of marchers. "Someone obviously took some time with it,'' said one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is unfolding.

But several officials played down initial reports that the bomb was one of the most potentially destructive in U.S. history. "That's a stretch,'' said one law enforcement official. "Undoubtedly, it was viable, but in relation to other devices uncovered over time across the country, it will fall within that spectrum.''

The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating, and Frank Harrill, the supervisory senior resident FBI agent in Spokane, said the timing of the near-miss on Martin Luther King Jr. Day "is a matter of grave concern.''

"The confluence of the march, the route, the timing is inescapable,'' Harrill said.

Federal officials noted that there is a history of white supremacist and militia activity in the Northwest region but said it is too soon to tell whether that played a role in the incident. "We don't know the motive,'' Gutt said. "But obviously, with its placement at a Martin Luther King Day event, the obvious suggestion is it would be related to that.''

Gutt praised the fast action of city workers and police in handling the Swiss Army backpack, which also contained severalT-shirts. Local officials rerouted the parade, which went on as scheduled. "It's all about prevention,'' he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011907460.html

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

From the Department of Justice

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

Jared Lee Loughner Indicted

TUCSON , Ariz. - A federal grand jury in Tucson, today returned an initial three-count indictment against Jared Lee Loughner for attempting to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and two of her aides, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon.

Today's charges represent the initial indictment in the investigation of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson.

“Today, the Grand Jury returned an initial three-count indictment against Jared Lee Loughner in the Tucson shooting case. We are in the early stages of this ongoing investigation. We have made considerable progress in a short period of time,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. “This case also involves potential death-penalty charges, and Department rules require us to pursue a deliberate and thorough process. Today's charges are just the beginning of our legal action, and we are working diligently to ensure that our investigation is thorough and that justice is done for the victims and their families.”

The charges meet the requirement under the Federal Criminal Code which mandates that the United States bring an indictment within 30 days of arrest of the defendant.  

The indictment alleges that Loughner, 22, of Tucson, attempted to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, a Member of Congress, 18 USC 351(c,), and attempted to murder two federal employees, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon, 18 USC 1114 and 1113.

Loughner has been held in federal custody since Jan. 8.

A conviction for the attempted assassination of a Member of Congress carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction for attempted murder of a federal employee carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

In determining an actual sentence, Judge Burns will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

An indictment is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Burke emphasized that the procedure in any case which may result in a punishment of death requires a careful and deliberate process, and includes consultation with the victims of the crimes and their families, consideration of all evidence relevant to guilt and punishment, and consultation with all the law enforcement agencies investigating the case.  

Also, in order to pursue the death penalty the United States Attorney's Office for Arizona must provide information to the Capital Review Committee. For more detailed information about this process, click here.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement team led by the FBI. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wallace Kleindienst, Beverly Anderson, Christina Cabanillas and Mary Sue Feldmeier of the District of Arizona, Tucson.

RELEASE NUMBER: 2011-007(Loughner) Indictment

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/January/11-opa-072.html

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

Alleged Terrorist Charged with Conspiracy to Kill Americans in Iraq Defendant Charged with Being Member of Network Responsible for the Deaths of Five American Soldiers

WASHINGTON -- Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, 38, also known as “Faruk Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa,” “Sayfildin Tahir Sharif,” and “Tahir Sharif Sayfildin,” was arrested in Canada today pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest warrant, based on a complaint in the United States charging him with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and with providing material support to that terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans abroad. The U.S. government will seek the defendant's extradition to face the charges.

The charges were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI. The government's investigation is being conducted by the FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance provided by the Department of Defense, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the government of Tunisia.

The defendant is charged in connection with his support for a multinational terrorist network that conducted multiple suicide bombings in Iraq and that is responsible for the deaths of five American soldiers. According to the complaint, filed on Jan. 14, 2011, in the Eastern District of New York, the five American soldiers were killed on April 10, 2009, when a Tunisian jihadist, whose travel to and activities in Iraq were facilitated by the terrorist network, drove a truck laden with explosives to the gate of the U.S. Military's Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq. The jihadist exchanged fire with Iraqi police officers and then the American convoy that was exiting the base. The truck detonated approximately 50 yards from the gate, alongside the last vehicle in the U.S. convoy, leaving a 60-foot crater in the ground.

Five American soldiers were killed in the blast. They are Staff Sergeant Gary L. Woods, 24, of Lebanon Junction, Kentucky; Sergeant First Class Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, California; Sergeant Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis; Corporal Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa; and Army Private First Class Bryce E. Gaultier, 22, from Cyprus, California.

As alleged in the complaint, the day after the attack, the defendant had a conversation with one of the Iraq-based members of the terrorist network during which the defendant asked, “Did you hear about the huge incident yesterday? Is it known?” When the network member replied that he had, the defendant said, “He was one of the Tunisian brothers.” The network member responded, “Praise God, may God acknowledge him” and the defendant said, “Amen.” This conversation, along with the others referenced in the complaint, was recovered pursuant to Canadian court-authorized wiretaps and search warrants.

The defendant's network is allegedly also responsible for a suicide bombing attack on an Iraqi police station on March 31, 2009, in which at least seven Iraqis were killed. That attack was committed by two other Tunisian jihadists who were recruited by the defendant's network and who traveled to Iraq with the bomber responsible for the April 10th attack. A day or two after the bombing, the brother of one of the bombers received an anonymous phone call in which the caller repeated three times that the bomber had “been martyred two days ago in combat with the Americans in Mosul.” The caller went on to say, “May God witness what I say. God is great.”

According to the complaint, the network unsuccessfully tried to send a second group of Tunisian jihadists to Iraq in March 2009. In online conversations with one of those jihadists as the jihadist was preparing to leave Tunisia, the defendant advised him not to leave a will, and to “try to delete everything. . . . off your computer. Don't leave one character of information or anything behind. . . . Don't leave any trace. . . . Do not forget to keep reading Qur'an and repeat the famous prayers on the way until you meet with God.” That jihadist was arrested by Tunisian authorities as he attempted to leave the country in April 2009.

According to the complaint, the defendant has continued, since the March and April 2009 attacks, to seek to further the network's attacks against Americans in Iraq, and to state his motive for doing so. In Jan. 2010, he told another person, “There is no more pressing duty after the declaration of faith than fighting the enemy. Fighting comes before the other four pillars of faith.” In July 2010, he stated, “Islam came for the good of humanity. So if someone doesn't like good, we fight them, like those dog Americans.” The defendant also instructed a family member in Iraq to “Go learn about weapons and go attack the police and Americans. Let it be that you die.” According to the complaint, the defendant used the code “farming” to refer to jihadist attacks because, as he put it, jihadists “plant metal and harvest metal and flesh.”

The defendant allegedly also sought to conduct attacks himself and become a suicide bomber for the terrorist network. He informed his mother in November 2009, that his greatest wish was to die a martyr and be greeted by 70 virgins in paradise. In a conversation with an Iraq-based leader of the terrorist network in January 2010, the defendant volunteered to travel to Iraq, take up arms against the Americans, and subsequently conduct a suicide mission. The defendant asked that his dedication to the network be explained to those in charge as follows: “He [i.e., the defendant] is not just 100 percent but 1,000,000 percent with you. He is with you on the doctrine, the loyalty and the enmity and everything one million percent.” He added, “Even if I can't work over there, I can work here.”

“These changes underscore the global nature of the terrorist threat we face and the importance of international cooperation in addressing this threat. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who worked to bring about this case and thank our foreign counterparts for their substantial assistance,” said Assistant Attorney General Kris.

“There is no safe harbor for terrorists, including those who endeavor to spread violence from halfway across the world,” stated U.S. Attorney Lynch. “The five American servicemen who lost their lives in Iraq as a result of the actions of this terrorist network made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Today's arrest demonstrates that we have not forgotten that sacrifice and will continue to use every available means to bring to justice all those who are responsible.” Ms. Lynch also expressed her grateful appreciation to the New York City Police Department, the Canadian government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the government of Tunisia for their assistance and cooperation in the investigation.

“The terrorist threat may be decentralized, but it is undeniably international,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Fedarcyk. “In a real sense, the safety and security of people anywhere depends on the ability and commitment of counterterrorism entities everywhere to work together. If national borders don't deter terrorists, we can't allow boundaries to impede the global effort to prevent a global threat.”

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zainab Ahmad, Berit W. Berger, and Carter H. Burwell, with assistance provided by Mary Futcher of the Counterterrorism Section in the Department of Justice's National Security Division. The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs also provided assistance in this matter.

The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/January/11-nsd-073.html

.