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From the Los Angeles Times

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L.A. school officer faked shooting story, LAPD says

The report of an officer shot by an attacker forced a lockdown of nine San Fernando Valley campuses last week.

by Joel Rubin and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times

January 28, 2011

A Los Angeles school police officer who said he was shot by an attacker last week, prompting a manhunt that shut down a large swath of Woodland Hills, has been arrested on suspicion of concocting the story, authorities said Thursday night.

The startling revelation came at a hastily called news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said detectives became suspicious about the officer's story as they investigated the case.

A terse Beck said Los Angeles School Police Department Officer Jeff Stenroos had been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report. He declined to elaborate further on the case, which the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League called an "embarrassment to law enforcement."

Police had said Stenroos was shot in the chest Jan. 19 after he confronted a man who was attempting to break into vehicles near the eastern boundary of the El Camino Real High School campus. Stenroos' bulletproof vest absorbed the impact of a single gunshot, which Los Angeles Police Department officials said could easily have killed the officer.

The incident sparked a massive police response that inconvenienced thousands of people for the day as officers blocked roads, locked down schools and refused to let people in or out of a 7-square-mile area.

Authorities arrested Stenroos after he allegedly admitted to fabricating the story, a senior LAPD official close to the investigation told The Times.

The official said investigators were still piecing together how Stenroos had pulled off the hoax.

But the source added that Stenroos' protective vest showed obvious signs of having been struck by the bullet. Stenroos suffered bruising to his chest, raising questions for detectives about whether the officer shot himself accidentally and then fabricated a story or concocted the whole scenario. The source declined to say whether additional arrests would be made in the case.

"Obviously it's as shocking to us as it is to anyone else," Steven Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles School Police Department, said late Thursday.

Zipperman, a former LAPD captain, said his department was cooperating fully with the investigation.

Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Stenroos was a "disgrace."

"The law enforcement community is disgusted," Weber said in a statement. "While Mr. Stenroos is a disgrace to the badge, his individual and dangerous actions should not reflect on the hard-working men and women in law enforcement."

More than 300 officers swarmed the west San Fernando Valley in search of a gunman, locking down nine schools and setting up a dragnet as they looked for a suspect described as a white man in his 40s, wearing a bomber or black-hooded jacket and blue jeans.

Although many in the community expressed frustration and anger at the inconvenience caused by the size and length of the operation, LAPD officials defended the decision as necessary to protect the public from a suspect who was believed to have shot an armed officer. They noted that the incident was especially serious because it involved an attack against a fellow law enforcement officer.

Stenroos said he was knocked back and hit his head. Coast Guard Auxiliary member Michael Brodey found Stenroos and immediately summoned help using the officer's police radio while providing aid. Brodey did not report seeing a gunman.

Authorities offered a $100,000 reward for information in the case and even distributed a composite of the suspected gunman.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-school-shooting-20110128,0,6106415.story

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Mexican drug cartels suspected in American missionary's slaying

Nancy Davis may have been attacked in Mexico for her truck, police say.

by Nicholas Riccardi and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

January 28, 2011

Reporting from Denver and Mexico City

A 59-year-old American missionary was shot in the head and killed in northern Mexico, possibly because one of the local drug cartels coveted her heavy-duty pickup truck, authorities said Thursday.

Nancy Davis' husband, Sam, drove the bullet-riddled blue 2008 Chevrolet against traffic to the border Wednesday afternoon. He crossed the bridge into Pharr, Texas, where he told authorities that the couple had been ambushed about 70 miles south of the border on a Mexican highway by gunmen in a black pickup, according to the Pharr Police Department.

Davis was rushed to a hospital in McAllen, where she died. Friends told reporters she was a longtime missionary with vast experience in the increasingly dangerous area of northern Mexico, which has been racked by drug violence for several years. Local police said the type of truck the Davises drove was prized by Mexican cartels.

The shooting was reported to have taken place near the town of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state. San Fernando was the site in August where 72 immigrants, mostly from Central America, were abducted and slain in the single largest massacre of Mexico's raging drug war.

Gunmen from the notorious Zeta cartel were suspected in the migrant massacre. They control much of Tamaulipas and are locked in a vicious battle with the rival Gulf cartel for supremacy.

The Davises had spent decades as missionaries in Mexico and owned a home in the nearby state of Nuevo Leon, friends told reporters. They had also founded a group called the Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Assn. in Weslaco, Texas.

The God's Missionary Church in Beavertown, Pa., alerted its congregation about the attack via Twitter. "Long time missionary Nancy Davis has gone to Heaven," the church said. "Serving in that country for over 35 years with her family, she has now given her very life for her people."

American authorities said the investigation was largely in Mexican hands. "Mexico being a sovereign nation, we ask the involved entities over there to aggressively pursue cases such as this," said Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman.

The Mexican federal government condemned the shooting in a statement Wednesday evening, and the Tamaulipas state government did as well Thursday, while also pledging to cooperate with authorities investigating the killing.

Few crimes are ever resolved in Mexico, however, least of all in a violent state such as Tamaulipas, where cartels hold massive sway.

The attack revived concerns about violence from Mexico's drug wars spilling across the border. Crime has either dropped or held steady along most of the U.S. side of the border, which includes some of the safest parts of the country, according to FBI crime statistics. But there have been signs in recent months that the calm may not hold.

Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said the killing was a reminder of the need for greater border protection. "The federal government has not done nearly enough to secure the border," she said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-missionary-shooting-20110128,0,6119121,print.story

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Is the drug war creeping into Mexico City?

On a street corner waking up for the day Thursday in downtown Mexico City, La Plaza observed a military unit on patrol.

A green Humvee was stationed in front of a convenience store, with several armed soldiers inside. One stood behind a mounted automatic firearm. Two troops in green fatigues and combat vests and carrying long assault rifles were strolling down a street, patrolling in the way police officers normally do in this congested capital.

We don't see this often in Mexico City.

Soldiers are generally only visible when they are being transported in cargo vehicles from government buildings in the city center to large bases in the west and south. None of the large-scale operations -- or wild shootouts -- that have become common elsewhere in Mexico have occurred here, making Mexico City somewhat of a haven from the drug war that has left more than 34,000 dead.

But this week the Mexican military pursued drug-trafficking suspects in operations smack in the middle of the sprawling capital.

Marines raided a hotel and a home in the middle-class districts of Napoles and Del Valle, arresting one suspected member of the Zetas cartel. On Wednesday, army units searched homes in the Iztacalco borough (links in Spanish). Is something changing?

Two cartels are reportedly fighting over control of several tough suburban municipalities in the state of Mexico, which rings the Federal District, or D.F., on three sides. An August 2010 report by the Interior Ministry details various cartel conflicts, including that which is occurring on the fringes of the city. Local news articles here and here offer other details on the "dispute" between La Familia and the Zetas in the region (links in Spanish).

La Familia has been crippled by recent government assaults in Michoacan state, and announced it would be disbanding in a fresh "narco-message" that began circulating over the weekend. But reports from Mexico state indicate that the cartel remains active on the outskirts of the capital. The Zetas are said to operate throughout Mexico's southeast and coast on the Gulf of Mexico, but according to the government report, the group is also challenging for control in other states, including in Mexico state.

Last week, 10 people were killed in an attack in the suburb of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl. Authorities said the killings were tied to La Familia (link in Spanish).

So far, although capos and their girlfriends or families often live in local mansions, the Mexico City metropolitan region has seen almost none of the brutal drug-related crimes that fill the headlines from other points in the country. No ambushes at house parties or nightclubs, no bodies hanging from bridges, no decapitated heads rolled into public places.

Yet the federal military operations in the city this week seem to be rattling nerves and raising eyebrows. The city's attorney general told reporters that residents should know federal and local authorities work in coordination in making "preventive plans" against crime in the capital, and should not worry (link in Spanish).

In an online forum this week, El Universal asked readers: "Federal operations in the D.F., calming or worrying?"

One reader responded: "Of course constant operations are calming, in all of the D.F. or in the state of Mexico. As long as this continues things could get better."

Another reader thought differently: "When the state kills, it teaches killing. Military operations and state violence have destabilized Mexico. It is not the manner to solve the problem of drug-trafficking, which is global and not only in our country."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/01/drug-war-zetas-mexico-city-army-marines-creeping.html

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Serial killer Rodney Alcala may face murder charges in New York cases

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, already condemned to death row in a string of Southern California slayings, will probably be taken to New York to face charges in the slaying of two women there in the 1970s.

On Thursday, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that a grand jury had voted to indict Alcala on murder charges in the deaths of two young women that Vance said “have haunted New York since the 1970s.”

Alcala is charged with the murder of Cornelia Crilley, a 23-year-old flight attendant who in 1971 was raped and strangled with her stockings in her apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

He is also charged with the slaying of Ellen Hover, also 23 and a young Manhattan socialite and daughter of a Hollywood nightclub owner, who was found dead in 1977, not far from her family's estate in Westchester County.

Authorities long suspected Alcala in both cases, but it wasn't until the district attorney's “cold case” unit reexamined the files, re-interviewed old witnesses and pieced together new evidence, Vance said, that they had enough evidence to bring the case to a grand jury.

It marked the third time he was sentenced to death for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, last seen alive riding her bike to ballet class in 1979.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/serial-killer-rodney-alcala-likely-to-be-taken-to-nyc-to-faces-murder-charges-in-1970s-cold-cases.html#more

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From the New York Times

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Jury Delivers Mixed Verdict for 3 Officers

WASHINGTON — A federal jury on Thursday convicted a former Pennsylvania police officer of the most serious charge against him in what prosecutors said was a cover-up of the beating death of a Mexican immigrant. But the jury delivered a less severe verdict against a second officer and acquitted a third.

The former officers, Matthew Nestor, Jason Hayes and William Moyer, were accused of helping a group of white teenage football players cover up their parts in the death of Luis Ramírez, an illegal Mexican immigrant who was fatally beaten in July 2008 in Shenandoah, Pa.

The men were tried in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Wilkes-Barre. The jury gave its verdict after two days of deliberation.

Mr. Nestor, the former Shenandoah police chief, was found guilty of falsifying records, a charge that could bring up to 20 years in prison, but he was acquitted of conspiracy. Mr. Moyer, a former Shenandoah lieutenant, was convicted of lying to the F.B.I., but acquitted of all other counts, including obstruction of justice, and he faces up to five years in prison. Mr. Hayes, a former patrolman, was acquitted of all charges.

Hispanic groups have viewed the beating death of Mr. Ramírez, and the state's response to it, as a test case for the national treatment of Hispanics.

“I'm disappointed that they weren't convicted of all the charges,” said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights group. At the same time, she said, the verdict “does show that these police officers did interfere in the case.”

Latinos said that the main defendants in the death — Brandon Piekarsky, a member of a high school football team, and his friend, Derrick Donchak — got off with light sentences of misdemeanors in a state trial in 2009. Federal prosecutors later pressed civil rights charges, and in October, got convictions, with possible life sentences.

Prosecutors said the officers misrepresented facts during their investigation because they had personal connections to the families of the accused. Mr. Nestor had vacationed with Mr. Piekarsky's mother, according to the indictment; Mr. Hayes was dating her.

But lawyers for Mr. Hayes said that they confronted the issue of the relationship directly with the jury, and that the case for his innocence was clear.

The government had to prove not only that the three police officers had taken steps to shield the perpetrators, but also that they had done so knowing that there would be a federal civil rights investigation, according to The Associated Press, setting a high bar for prosecutors.

Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that the verdict held the officers accountable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/us/28trial.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Lethal Injection and the F.D.A.

Capital punishment means lethal injection. The administration of a barbiturate as part of a fatal dose of drugs is meant to render a convict unconscious before other drugs stop his or her breathing and heart so the execution can somehow be construed by a judge as being neither cruel nor unusual.

Sodium thiopental is at the heart of this story. A fast- and short-acting general anesthetic, it has been used to put convicts under and make executions methodical. For more than a year, however, a shortage of the drug has widened the gap between the reality of carrying out executions and support for them in American law. In October, a majority of the Supreme Court wrongly insisted there was no evidence that the shortage had any bearing on whether an execution can be done constitutionally. Now the evidence is impossible to ignore.

We strongly oppose capital punishment on many grounds. Even with judicial blessing, the conduct of executions in this country is a shambles. In Arizona and Georgia, the sodium thiopental used in executions has possibly been ineffective and almost certainly been illegal. It came from Dream Pharma, an unlicensed British supplier, run from a driving school. The batches carried a date of 2006. They were likely made by a company in Austria that went out of business. The drug is said to be effective for only a year. As a foreign-made drug without approval by the Food and Drug Administration, it is prohibited by federal statute.

The F.D.A. initially suspected the drug from Dream Pharma of being adulterated or mislabeled and refused to let it be imported. Then it let the drug enter the country — but with the warning that the agency hadn't reviewed the drug's “identity, safety, effectiveness, purity or any other characteristics.”

This month, the F.D.A. stated: “Reviewing substances imported or used for the purpose of state-authorized lethal injection clearly falls outside of F.D.A.'s explicit public health role.”

In the meantime, the only American manufacturer of sodium thiopental — formerly described as F.D.A.-approved — has announced it will no longer make the drug. It planned to produce the drug in Italy, but the Italian government has said it won't permit the drug's export for use in executions.

When it reaffirmed the constitutionality of capital punishment three years ago, a splintered Supreme Court said it believed lethal injection carried neither “substantial” nor “objectively intolerable” risk of inflicting serious harm. How can the justices be confident in that conclusion now?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/opinion/28fri3.html?adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1296218437-XvxTdWIRJr8w7u6ThqsHEw&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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White House Supports Airwaves for Public Safety 

WASHINGTON—The White House endorsed a plan Thursday to give a chunk of airwaves worth an estimated $3 billion to public-safety groups for a new national wireless public-safety network that could cost as much as $15 billion to build, if Congress approves.

The proposal is part of the administration's plan to make good on a pledge President Barack Obama made during his State of the Union speech Tuesday to make mobile Internet available to 98% of Americans in five years.

White House officials are also expected to ask Congress to set aside billions of dollars in future airwave auctions for a new broadband public-safety network. The network would allow police and firemen to share video and other data during emergencies.

In the past, administration officials have suggested that these beefed-up public-safety networks could be shared by private companies to provide Internet access in rural areas.

White House officials declined to comment on specifics of the new public-safety network plan.

However, the administration's plan depends on the willingness of House Republicans to set aside billions of dollars the government would raise from airwave auctions for the new network, instead of using it for deficit reduction or to offset other federal spending.

The question of whether to give so-called D-block spectrum to public-safety agencies, or auction it off and put the money in the Treasury has divided members of Congress.

The wireless industry also is divided on the issue of what to do with the D-block airwaves.

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., which both hold a large amount of airwaves for new 4G wireless services, favor giving the airwaves to public-safety groups instead of auctioning them off to smaller wireless competitors, such as Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile subsidiary and Sprint Nextel Corp.

Public-safety groups have urged Congress to fund a new national multibillion dollar wireless-data network since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Since then, lawmakers have spent billions on new radios and other equipment so federal, state and local public-safety officials can talk to each other during emergencies. But Congress has thus far been unwilling to commit billions more for a new wireless broadband network, which would allow police and firefighters to use two-way video or other data sharing.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission proposed auctioning off a valuable block of airwaves to wireless carriers and using the proceeds to help fund this new public-safety network. The White House projected that the government would raise about $3 billion from the auction.

At the time, agency officials said it would be more cost effective to auction off the airwaves and require commercial wireless providers to provide priority access to public-safety agencies.

But the FCC didn't go forward with this auction and the White House Thursday formally rejected the FCC's plan, saying that giving the airwaves to public-safety groups was a better option. Administration officials are expected to lay out details of their new national wireless plan in the coming fiscal 2012 budget request.

The cost of building a new national network could cost upward of $15 billion, the FCC estimated last year.

On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia re-introduced legislation to give the airwaves to public-safety groups. His legislation would also authorize the FCC's plan to take back airwaves from willing TV stations and auction them off to wireless companies.

Station owners would get a still unspecified cut of the proceeds from those auctions. The rest of the money would be set aside for the new public-safety network under the White House's plan.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703893104576108541261134226.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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From the White House

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Sharing the Responsibility for Our Collective Security

From day one, this Administration has operated on the premise that security is a shared responsibility. No matter who you are – a student, a small business owner, a first responder, a member of the military, or a civilian – we all play a part.

This involves trust and confidence in the American public, as well as the notion that candor and common awareness of the threats we all face, coupled with concrete steps that individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments can take to prepare for emergencies and disasters, deliver far better security than the federal government can provide acting alone.

Because of the trust we have in Americans to share in our collective security, today I announced the end of the old system of color-coded alerts. In its place, we will implement a new system that is built on a clear and simple premise: when a threat develops that could impact you, the public – we will tell you.  We will provide whatever information we can so you know how to protect yourselves, your families and your communities.  

The new system, called the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), reflects the reality that we must always be on alert and ready.  Under the new, two-tiered system, DHS will coordinate with other federal entities to issue formal, detailed alerts regarding information about a specific or credible terrorist threat. These alerts will include a clear statement that there is an “imminent threat” or “elevated threat.” The alerts also will provide a concise summary of the potential threat, information about actions being taken to ensure public safety, and recommended steps that individuals and communities can take.

When we have information about a specific, credible threat, we will issue a formal alert providing as much information as we can.  Depending on the nature of the threat, the alert may be sent to a limited, particular audience like law enforcement, or a segment of the private sector, like shopping malls or hotels.

The alerts will be more focused to a two-tier system – “imminent” or “elevated threat.” At a minimum, alerts will include a statement of whether there is an imminent or elevated threat.

Or, the alert may be issued more broadly to the American people distributed—through a statement from DHS—to the news media as well as via our website and social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

Since a major change like this can't happen overnight, today we are beginning a 90-day implementation period in which federal, state and local governments, law enforcement entities, private and non-profit sector partners, airports, and other transport hubs will transition to this new system. We are committed to making sure that we launch NTAS in the right way so it can be the most effective system possible not only for the public, but for all of our partners.  During the implementation period, the old system will remain in place.

The alerts will be specific to the threat.  They may recommend certain actions, or suggest looking for specific kinds of suspicious behavior.  And the alerts will have a specified end date, which will be extended only if additional information becomes available or if the threat evolves.

This means that the days are numbered for the automated recordings at airports about a color code level that were too often accompanied by little practical information.  This new system is built on the common-sense belief that we are all in this together, and that we all have a role to play.  

NTAS was developed in that same collaborative spirit: it was largely the work of a bi-partisan task force that included law enforcement, former mayors and governors, and members of the previous administration.  

We know that we cannot achieve 100 percent protection against terrorism 100 percent of the time – but by empowering the American public to share the responsibility for safeguarding our communities, and by working with partners across the country, we can – and will – continue to do everything we can to keep our communities and fellow Americans safe.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/27/sharing-responsibility-our-collective-security

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Immigration & Winning the Future

In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out his vision for winning our future.  Part of accomplishing  this important goal means fixing our nation's broken immigration system.  The President again reiterated his deep commitment to addressing this issue because it's critical to strengthening our global competitiveness and boosting our economy. Last July, the President outlined his vision for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability:

• Continue to make border security the responsibility and priority of the federal government,
• Hold accountable businesses that break the law by exploiting undocumented workers,
• Make those living in the United States illegally take responsibility for their actions, and
• Strengthen our economic competiveness by creating a legal immigration system that meets our diverse needs.

Over the last two years, the President has taken his responsibility to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders very seriously.  This Administration dedicated unprecedented resources to secure our borders, implemented smarter, more strategic interior and worksite enforcement policies, and improved our legal immigration system. 

These efforts have had real results.  Our borders are more secure than ever. Apprehensions along the border reflect far fewer attempts to cross illegally while seizures of illegal currency, drugs, and guns are dramatically up – leading  to increased criminal arrests and prosecutions. In FY 2010 the Administration increased the number of convicted criminals removed from our country by more than 23,000,  which represents a  more than 70 percent increase  from the previous Administration. 

Additionally, we have more than doubled the number of worksite enforcement investigations conducted in FY 2010 as compared to FY 2008. These investigations have led to millions of dollars of fines levied against employers who have violated immigration laws. We have also improved our legal immigration system by reducing backlogs of immigration applications and devoting critical funding to promote innovative citizenship preparation and integration programs in communities throughout the country.

We all benefit from the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that immigrants bring to our shores. Indeed, it has made us the engine of the global economy and a beacon of hope around the world. I was reminded of this last Independence Day when I had the honor of speaking at a naturalization ceremony right in the shadow of the Statute of Liberty on Ellis Island.  We honored and celebrated 143 new citizens from 57 countries, each with their own unique story of how they came to America and what they have done to make it their home. Among the group were individuals who came to our country as young children, college students, working professionals, and victims of oppression.

In his State of the Union address, the President called on Republicans and Democrats to work with him on this critical issue.  He acknowledged that the debate will not be easy, but the American people expect their leaders to come together to tackle the important issues confronting our nation. Winning the future and building a competitive America demands an immigration system that works.

We need comprehensive immigration reform that respects our nation's laws while continuing our rich tradition as a nation of immigrants and that strengthens our efforts to secure our borders while allowing immigrants to contribute fully to our country and our economy.  In the coming weeks, that's the consensus the President and his Administration will seek to build.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/27/immigration-winning-future

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Secretary Napolitano Announces New National Terrorism Advisory System to More Effectively Communicate Information about Terrorist Threats to the American Public

DHS Discontinues Color-Coded Alert System

Washington, D.C. - Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will discontinue the color-coded alerts of the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) in favor of a new system, the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), that will more effectively communicate information about terrorist threats by providing timely, detailed information to the public, government agencies, first responders, airports and other transportation hubs, and the private sector.

The National Terrorism Advisory System will be implemented over the next 90 days in order for DHS and our federal, state, local, tribal, community and private sector partners to transition to the new system.

“Security is a shared responsibility, and we must work together to keep our nation safe from threats,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This new system is built on a clear and simple premise: when a credible threat develops that could impact the public, we will tell you and provide whatever information we can so that you know how to keep yourselves, your families and your communities safe.”

HSAS was first introduced on March 11, 2002. In July 2009, Secretary Napolitano formed a bipartisan task force of security experts, state and local elected and law enforcement officials, and other key stakeholders—co-chaired by Fran Townsend, former Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security, and Judge William Webster, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—to assess the effectiveness of HSAS. The results of this assessment formed the basis of the National Terrorism Advisory System.

Under the new system, DHS will coordinate with other federal entities to issue formal, detailed alerts when the federal government receives information about a specific or credible terrorist threat. These alerts will include a clear statement that there is an “imminent threat” or “elevated threat.” The alerts also will provide a concise summary of the potential threat, information about actions being taken to ensure public safety, and recommended steps that individuals and communities, businesses and governments can take.

The National Terrorism Advisory System alerts will be based on the nature of the threat: in some cases, alerts will be sent directly to law enforcement or affected areas of the private sector, while in others, alerts will be issued more broadly to the American people through both official and media channels—including a designated DHS webpage ( www.dhs.gov/alerts ), as well as social media channels including Facebook and via Twitter @NTASAlerts. 

Additionally, NTAS will have a “sunset provision,” meaning that individual threat alerts will be issued with a specified end date. Alerts may be extended if new information becomes available or if the threat evolves significantly.

Secretary Napolitano announced this change today during her “State of America's Homeland Security” address at the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute. A copy of her prepared remarks is available here .

For more information on the National Terrorism Advisory System, visit www.dhs.gov/alerts

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1296158119383.shtm

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From the FBI

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Search Warrants Executed in the United States as Part of Ongoing Cyber Investigation

FBI agents today executed more than 40 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into recent coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations. Also today, the United Kingdom's Metropolitan Police Service executed additional search warrants and arrested five people for their alleged role in the attacks.

These distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) are facilitated by software tools designed to damage a computer network's ability to function by flooding it with useless commands and information, thus denying service to legitimate users. A group calling itself “Anonymous” has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they conducted them in protest of the companies' and organizations' actions. The attacks were facilitated by the software tools the group makes available for free download on the Internet. The victims included major U.S. companies across several industries.

The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability.

The FBI is working closely with its international law enforcement partners and others to mitigate these threats. Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, and France have also taken their own investigative and enforcement actions. The National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) also is providing assistance. The NCFTA is a public-private partnership that works to identify, mitigate, and neutralize cyber crime. The NCFTA has advised that software from any untrustworthy source represents a potential threat and should be removed. Major Internet security (anti-virus) software providers have instituted updates so they will detect the so-called “Low Orbit Ion Canon” tools used in these attacks.

• Robert S. Mueller, III
• Director
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Citizens Crime Commission of New York
• New York City, New York
• January 27, 2011

Good morning; it is good to be here today. 

I first met with you in late 2002. We were all still coming to grips with the reality of terrorism here at home. We were undergoing a shift in mindset, re-thinking our place in the world and the dangers we faced.

Since that time, we have seen a number of dramatic shifts–not just in our perspectives on terrorism, but in the way we learn, communicate, and conduct business. Shifts in the political, social, and economic climate. Shifts in our way of life.

Today, we communicate by texting, tweeting, and Skyping. We take pictures without film, we read books without pages, and every six-year-old has a smart phone. We share the sundry details of our lives on Facebook. Well, most of us do. For some reason, no one wants to be “friended” by the Director of the FBI.

YouTube made its debut just five years ago. Today, 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Most of them feature someone by the name of Justin Bieber. At my age, I have to wonder, who the heck is this kid, and why can't he get a haircut?

These shifts are the result of globalization and technology. And we have all felt the ripple effects.   

We in the FBI have seen a marked shift in criminal and terrorist threats. 

We not only face threats from Al Qaeda and its affiliates, we confront homegrown terrorism. These individuals are harder to identify. They can easily connect with other extremists on the Internet, and they may be highly capable operationally. For this reason, terrorism will remain our top priority. 

But we cannot discount shifting criminal threats, including those posed by lone offenders, such as the attack in Tucson. How do we find and stop an individual who would take up arms against his own community? We must do everything we can to prevent any such attack.

We also face evolving threats from violent gangs, computer hackers, child predators, and white collar criminals. This morning, I want to focus on one such evolving threat–that of organized crime. 

Some believe that organized crime is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Traditional criminal syndicates still con, extort, and intimidate American citizens. 

As you know, just last week we arrested nearly 130 members of La Cosa Nostra in New York, New Jersey, and New England. We will continue to work with our state and local partners to end La Cosa Nostra's lifelong practice of crime and undue influence. 

But the playing field has changed. We have seen a shift from regional families with a clear structure, to flat, fluid networks with global reach. These international enterprises are more anonymous and more sophisticated. Rather than running discrete operations, on their own turf, they are running multi-national, multi-billion dollar schemes from start to finish.

We are investigating groups in Asia, Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East. And we are seeing cross-pollination between groups that historically have not worked together. Criminals who may never meet, but who share one thing in common: greed.  

They may be former members of nation-state governments, security services, or the military. These individuals know who and what to target, and how best to do it. They are capitalists and entrepreneurs. But they are also master criminals who move easily between the licit and illicit worlds. And in some cases, these organizations are as forward-leaning as Fortune 500 companies.

This is not “The Sopranos,” with six guys sitting in a diner, shaking down a local business owner for $50 dollars a week. These criminal enterprises are making billions of dollars from human trafficking, health care fraud, computer intrusions, and copyright infringement. They are cornering the market on natural gas, oil, and precious metals, and selling to the highest bidder. 

These crimes are not easily categorized. Nor can the damage, the dollar loss, or the ripple effects be easily calculated. It is much like a Venn diagram, where one crime intersects with another, in different jurisdictions, and with different groups.

How does this impact you? You may not recognize the source, but you will feel the effects. You might pay more for a gallon of gas. You might pay more for a luxury car from overseas. You will pay more for health care, mortgages, clothes, and food.   

Yet we are concerned with more than just the financial impact. These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called “iron triangles” of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat.

Let us turn for a moment to the link between transnational organized crime and terrorism. If a terrorist cannot obtain a passport, for example, he will find someone who can. Terrorists may turn to street crime—and, by extension, organized crime—to raise money, as did the 2004 Madrid bombers.

Organized criminals have become “service providers.” Could a Mexican group move a terrorist across the border? Could an Eastern European enterprise sell a Weapon of Mass Destruction to a terrorist cell? Likely, yes. Criminal enterprises are motivated by money, not ideology. But they have no scruples about helping those who are, for the right price.

Intelligence and partnerships are key to our success in countering these threats.   

In the past nine years, we in the FBI have shifted from a law enforcement agency to a national security service that is threat-driven and intelligence-led. 

With organized crime, we are using intelligence to expand upon what we already know, from phone, travel, and financial records to extensive biographies of key players. And we are sharing this information with our partners around the world.

But we are also building a long-term strategy for dismantling these enterprises. Last year, we set up two units, called Threat Focus Cells, to target Eurasian organized crime. The first focuses on the Semion Mogilevich Organization; the second on the Brother's Circle enterprise. 

For those of you not familiar with either group, their memberships are large, their reach is global, and their scope of operations is broad, from weapons and drug trafficking to high-stakes fraud and global prostitution. If left unchecked, the resulting impact to our economy and our security will be significant. Indeed, Semion Mogilevich is on the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted List, and he will remain so until he is captured. 

These Threat Focus Cells include FBI personnel from the Criminal, Cyber, Counterintelligence, and International Operations divisions. They also include our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, both at home and abroad. 

We are also taking a hard look at other groups around the world, such as West African and Southeast Asian organized crime. We are sharing that intelligence with our partners, who, in turn, will add their own information. The goal is to combine our resources and our expertise to gain a full understanding of each group, and to better understand what we must do, together, to put them out of business. 

But even the best intelligence is often not enough. We must present a united front. 

Joseph Petrosino, a detective in the New York Police Department, was one of the first to fight organized crime, in the early 1900s. He was a legend in law enforcement circles, and he was certainly one of New York's finest. 

This five-foot-three-inch Italian immigrant was a one-man intelligence collection platform and undercover operations unit. Petrosino reportedly went undercover as a blind beggar, a sanitation worker, and a health inspector. Along the way, he put a rather large dent in the operations of the Black Hand, with the support of Teddy Roosevelt. But in 1909, when Petrosino traveled to Sicily, he was gunned down in the street.   

Petrosino had a limited network of support here at home, and no network of which to speak overseas. He was the leader of a small, inexperienced team fighting large, deep-rooted organizations. And by all accounts, he was a marked man, on borrowed time.   

Fortunately, times have changed.  

Last October, with our state and local partners, we arrested 52 individuals—many of whom were alleged members of an Armenian-American syndicate—for health care fraud amounting to more than $163 million dollars. Among those arrested was an individual believed to be what is known as a “Thief-in-Law”—the elite in today's world of organized crime. This is the first time in nearly 15 years that a known “Thief-in-Law” has been arrested on a federal charge.

We have also built a solid network of support with our international partners. We have more than 60 Legal Attaché offices overseas, where agents and analysts work closely with their foreign counterparts, sharing intelligence and investigating cases together.

In Budapest, FBI agents have worked side-by-side with the Hungarian National Police for more than 10 years, targeting Eurasian organized crime. Together, we have identified and arrested criminals from Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Russia, among others. 

Through these partnerships—these friendships—we are on a first-name basis with thousands of officers around the world, all of whom share the same goal—keeping their citizens safe from every threat, every day.

Nearly three weeks have passed since the tragic attack in Tucson. We still feel the impact of that attack—and the idea that one individual could inflict such damage.

Yet we also confront terrorists who seek to inflict the greatest damage possible. Gang members who cultivate crime and violence. Computer hackers who target our financial networks. And organized criminals who will stop at nothing to make money. 

Congresswoman Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, is an astronaut. His twin brother, Scott, is the current commander of the International Space Station.    

Two days after the attack, from space, Commander Kelly led NASA in a moment of silence. Speaking by radio, he said, “We have a unique vantage point [up] here. …I see a very beautiful planet that seems inviting and peaceful.  Unfortunately, it is not. …[But] we are better than this. We must do better.”

As we all know, a world that is often inviting and peaceful can become violent, even deadly, in the blink of an eye. We may not see the shift, but we certainly feel the impact. 

But we are better than the criminals and terrorists we face. Together, we can and we must do better. Together, we must do more, for the American people deserve no less.

Thank you for having me here this morning and for your support over the years. It has been my honor to work with you.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/mueller_012711

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