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From the Los Angeles Times

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Lawsuit contends FBI violated rights of hundreds of Muslim Americans

The FBI violated the 1st Amendment rights of hundreds of Muslims by using a paid informant to target and monitor several Southern California mosques based solely on religion, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the suit accuses the FBI and seven of its employees, including Director Robert Mueller, of paying Irvine resident Craig Monteilh to go undercover, infiltrate mosques and record conversations in order to root out potential terrorists.

Over the course of 14 months beginning in 2006, the FBI used Monteilh to “indiscriminately collect” personal information on hundreds or even thousands of Muslim Americans, the lawsuit alleges.

Through this “dragnet” operation, the agency “gathered hundreds of phone numbers, thousands of e-mail addresses, hundreds of hours of video recordings that captured the interiors of mosques, homes and businesses, and ... thousands of hours of audio recordings,” the lawsuit alleges.

Monteilh, who has served prison time for forgery, has previously told The Times that he was recruited by the FBI in 2004 to infiltrate drug-trafficking groups. In 2006, Monteilh said, he was asked to assume the identity of a Muslim convert and go undercover to identify extremists and gather intelligence.

The lawsuit comes a year after Monteilh filed suit personally against the FBI, accusing his law enforcement handlers of endangering his life and violating his civil rights. His claims of working for the FBI in some capacity were confirmed in 2009 when a West Covina judge unsealed court records that showed the agency intervened in 2007 to terminate Monteilh's parole on a theft charge early.

The FBI declined to comment on the case Tuesday night, citing ongoing legal proceedings. Spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in an e-mail, however, that the FBI does not target houses of worship or religious groups but does focus on “people who are alleged to be involved in criminal activity, regardless of their affiliations, religious or otherwise.”

ACLU lawyer Peter Bibring said members of the Muslim community grew suspicious after Monteilh habitually asked probing and invasive questions about their religious beliefs, political views, loyalties and became “increasing aggressive about denouncing U.S. foreign policy.”

“Ironically, the operation ended when members of the Muslim communities of Southern California reported the informant to the police because of his violent rhetoric and ultimately obtained a restraining order against him,” the lawsuit alleged.

Bibring dismisses the idea that the FBI may have been targeting individuals already suspected of criminal activity.

“That simply doesn't fit with the behavior that the entire community observed,” he said. Monteilh “didn't focus on individuals or small groups of people. He probed a wide range of people.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, class-action status and the destruction of all materials that Monteilh collected and handed over to the FBI.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/fbi-muslim-communities-lawsuit-aclu.html

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Egypt's women face growing sexual harassment

Some women in Egypt say they suffer catcalls, groping and other sexual harassment daily. For a time it seemed that the Tahrir Square protests might point to progress, but the attack on TV reporter Lara Logan and others showed otherwise.

by Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times

February 23, 2011

Reporting from Cairo

On the night Hosni Mubarak fell from power, the crowds that rejoiced in Cairo's central square were so dense, so roiling and rowdy that Mohamed Assyouti couldn't push his way through when his girlfriend, Mariam Nekiwi, was assaulted several yards away.

"A group of men surrounded her from four directions and closed her off," he said.

First someone grabbed her groin, she said. Other hands groped the rest of her body, pinching hard and yanking at her clothes. She was shoved one way and then the other. The frenzy was so sudden, the crush so stifling, that she could barely see. She shouted, and then screamed. The reaction was swift.

"People started yelling at me to be quiet," recalled Nekiwi, a 24-year-old video editor, still shaken by the ordeal. "They said: 'Don't tarnish the revolution. Don't make a scene.' They said: 'We are men. We're sorry. Just go now.' "

Later that night, Feb. 11, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan came under what the network later described as a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating by a mob of unidentified men in another part of Tahrir Square.

Logan's clothes were ripped off and her body was covered with welts and bruises, sources here said, before soldiers came to her rescue, firing live rounds in the air to disperse the attackers. She was evacuated to the U.S. and hospitalized for several days.

The attack on a high-profile female TV reporter shocked Americans and dominated U.S. news cycles, partly eclipsing the historic changes underway in Egypt.

It also challenged an inspiring narrative that had focused on nonviolent protesters and their idealistic calls for freedom from a despot.

Egyptians who knew of the attack, which was overshadowed by the broader tumult here, also were horrified. But many were not surprised.

Catcalls, fondling, indecent exposure and other forms of sexual harassment by strangers are an everyday occurrence for women on the streets of Cairo, according to human rights groups, social scientists, diplomats and interviews with Egyptians. Moreover, predatory packs have brutalized women at several public places, including a soccer stadium, in recent years, according to witnesses and local news accounts.

"There is increasing violence against women in our society," said Nehad Abul Komsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, a nongovernmental group that campaigns against such abuse.

Theories abound to explain the violence. Unable to find decent jobs or affordable apartments, many men don't marry until their mid-30s, social scientists say. Premarital sex is taboo, so sexual frustration is said to run abnormally high.

At the same time, analysts say, prosecutions are rare. Many families pressure wives, daughters and sisters to keep quiet after being attacked rather than invite scandal. So-called honor killings, the slaying of women by male relatives for supposedly tarnishing the family's honor, ensure their silence. Such killings are common in Egypt, according to the National Center for Social and Criminological Research.

Politics are also to blame. Civil society was shredded under Mubarak and traditional respect for women frayed as well. Then, in May 2005, government security officers were filmed tearing the clothes and pulling the hair of four women — three journalists and a lawyer — at a protest rally.

"After that, we saw dramatic change," said Komsan, of the women's rights center. "It was like a very clear message that anything was allowed. Women became an open target."

In the summer of 2006, authorities were embarrassed when women were molested on a major street in Cairo during celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. The following year, police announced that a crackdown had resulted in hundreds of arrests.

But rights lawyers said most of the men were quickly released.

In 2008, Komsan's group polled 2,020 Egyptians and 109 non-Egyptian women. The results: 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women surveyed said they had suffered sexual harassment. About half the women said they were harassed every day.

The research showed that more than two-thirds of the women reporting abuse wore traditional Muslim head scarves or robes. Some even wore a flowing body-length black burka , with veil and gloves. Fewer than a third of the women wore Western attire.

The current U.S. State Department travel advisory for American visitors to Egypt warns that unescorted women are "vulnerable to sexual harassment and verbal abuse." It cites "increasing reports over the last several months of foreigners being sexually groped in taxis and in public places."

"This is a daily phenomenon for all women now," said Hafez abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. "Unfortunately, it's become a very common practice."

It's also the premise behind "678," a feature film that opened last month in Cairo. Inspired by true stories, the movie portrays three women — one veiled and poor, one middle-class and striving, the other rich and privileged — who fight back after a lifetime of indignities and mistreatment. Some critics denounced the film, warning that it would tarnish Egypt's image, but women have packed theaters to see it.

Mohamed Diab, the director, shot some scenes at a packed Cairo soccer match last February. His script, which includes a gang assault on the rich woman, proved prophetic.

"We went in only 50 steps, and men in the crowd grabbed my actress and pulled her away," he said. "Her clothes were ripped off. She fainted. The actors had to fight their way over to rescue her."

At least some of the pro-democracy protesters saw the mostly peaceful demonstrations at Tahrir Square as a way to change all that.

The protesters who occupied the square for 18 days developed an unusual bond. They not only risked their lives against gunmen and thugs, many risked their futures, saying they feared that Mubarak's secret police could imprison and torture them if they failed.

Cultural barriers quickly fell. Men and women mingled freely, a rare sight in a culture that still segregates the sexes in many schools and offices. Teenage girls and women slept in makeshift tents on the square each night. Many had never slept away from home before. Some felt so safe they brought their children.

For the first 16 days, no sexual molestation or other crimes were reported. Women spoke of the dawn of a new era.

But on Feb. 10, rumors that Mubarak might step down drew tens of thousands more people to the square. Many had waited out the turmoil until the victory seemed clear. Though still primarily festive, the tenor of the crowd changed.

As the sun set, Beatrice Ghirinjhelli, a 46-year-old former teacher who grew up in Egypt but lives in Greece, entered the square from a bridge that crosses the Nile. As the crowd inched forward, a man groped her from behind.

"He repeated it several times," she said. "I screamed. The crowd was so heavy, I couldn't pick him out. I felt like a piece of meat at the butcher."

The next night, when Mubarak finally quit, another man groped Ghirinjhelli the same way.

"I managed to grab his arm," she said. "But he turned and got away. And then another man touched me too. I was so disgusted, and I just turned around and left."

In the square, Doha Alzohairy, 33, was celebrating when a group of men abruptly closed around her. She is convinced they didn't know one another. They kept their hands low and their faces blank. She tried not to panic.

"They all started to touch me and grab me and pinch me all over," she said. "The arms came from everywhere. It was terrifying. I worried that if I fell on the ground, no one would see me. So I started to shout and punch and scream and swear. But I wanted people to hear me.

"It was so humiliating," she said. "I looked like I was crazy. Finally a man grabbed me from behind. I struggled against him, but he said, 'I will help.' And he helped me escape."

Logan, the CBS reporter, has yet to publicly describe her ordeal. No one was arrested for the assault, and given Egypt's current turmoil, no arrests are likely.

Logan may have been singled out because state-run TV had spent days demonizing foreign reporters as U.S. spies and agents of Israel or, incongruously, backers of two extremist groups, Hamas or Hezbollah. Other reporters were beaten and harassed by pro-Mubarak forces during the uprising.

But Komsan, the women's rights activist, said the assault shows that violence against women isn't just a problem of the past.

"The respite we saw at Tahrir was temporary," she said sadly. "It means a revolution doesn't end all our problems."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-women-abuse-20110223,0,1442746,print.story

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Navy ship Sterett, named for pirate fighter, took lead in rescue attempt against Somali pirates

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Sterett, which took the lead in the failed U.S. attempt to rescue Americans from Somali pirates, is on its first active-duty cruise.

But it has pirate-hunting in its legacy. The ship is named for one of the Navy's heroes in the long-ago fight with Barbary Coast pirates.

As the U.S. Central Command sought to rescue four Americans held by Somali pirates this week, the Sterett was the closest of four Navy ships trailing the pirates.

Negotiators on the Sterett tried to talk the pirates into releasing the four. The two sides were reportedly at a stalemate over the pirates' demand for money. Then an argument apparently broke out among the pirates, leading to gunfire, in which two pirates were killed by other pirates.

The pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterett, which was about 600 yards away. The grenade missed its target, and U.S. personnel heard the gunshots aboard the hijacked yacht Quest.

Two boats of Navy SEALs launched toward the Quest and found the four hostages had been shot. Two were dead and two died minutes later despite medical intervention. The SEALs killed two pirates, one by gunfire, one in a knife fight.

The Sterett is named for Andrew Sterett, commander on the U.S. schooner Enterprise during the Barbary War of 1801 when the U.S. battled with pirates over their demand for tribute from ships on the Mediterranean.

Sterett's boldness in dealing with the pirates won him an honored spot in Navy history. The San Diego-based destroyer is the fourth Navy ship named for him.

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

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Daughter and son-in-law of hostage slain by pirates thank Navy for attempted rescue

The daughter and son-in-law of Scott Adam, who was slain by Somali pirates, issued a statement late Tuesday thanking the U.S. Navy for the attempted rescue of the four hostages.

"We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the brave men and women of the Navy and other military branches who risked their lives trying to save them," said a statement issued through the FBI by Sem family of Escondido. Their first names were not revealed.

FBI agents were with the Sem family Tuesday as news of the killings was made public.

"Our loved ones were tragically taken from us and our hearts are broken," said the family statement, which asked for the media to respect their privacy.

Scott Adam and his wife Jean Adam, from Southern California, were killed by pirates as U.S. officials aboard the destroyer Sterett tried to negotiate their release. Also killed were Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle.

The four were aboard the 58-foot yacht Quest that was seized Friday by pirates.

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

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From the New York Times

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Anarchist Ties Seen in '08 Bombing of Texas Governor's Mansion

HOUSTON — It has been two and a half years since an arsonist tossed a firebomb into the governor's mansion in Austin and slipped into the night, but the Texas Rangers say they are finally closing in on the person responsible.

Steven C. McCraw, the head of the Department of Public Safety, said on Friday that investigators had linked the arsonist to a group of anarchists known as Austin Affinity. He said two members of the same group had pleaded guilty to making and possessing gasoline bombs during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., three months later.

But one of the men who pleaded guilty in Minnesota said the anarchist group that the rangers are focusing on did not exist. The man, Bradley Crowder, said it was an ad hoc collection of young anarchists who had pooled resources to hire a van for the trip north.

“It was like an activist car pool,” said Mr. Crowder, who is 25 and served two years in prison for his role in making eight gasoline bombs in wine bottles, which were never used.

The rangers, however, see things differently. A break in the case came several months ago, they said, when a ranger who was helping review thousands of hours of surveillance tapes from 11 cameras around the Capitol and mansion spotted something strange.

Four days before the fire, three men in a white Jeep Cherokee stopped in front of the mansion about 2 a.m. and a person in the back seat snapped photos of the building. The ranger thought the men might have been casing the place.

But the video camera did not capture the license plate number. So the police began a painstaking hunt through 3,000 similar Jeeps in Texas, eliminating them one by one, Mr. McCraw said. “Every one of them had to be looked at,” he said, “and it had to be done in a way that you are not letting the person know.”

“It was good, old-fashioned police work,” he said. “Sometimes it's the minutiae and the tedious that links you to something.”

Months later, investigators found the car and interviewed the owner, who turned out to have a connection to people who were part of the Austin Affinity anarchist group, Mr. McCraw said. The owner also identified the two passengers, one of whom was near the mansion at the time of the fire.

All three men in the Jeep have been questioned in connection with the arson and are considered suspects, though they have denied involvement, the police said.

Mr. McCraw said the arsonist is believed to be a fourth person, whose shadowy figure can be seen in video taken by another camera the night of the fire. Released last week, the video shows the figure tossing a blazing gasoline bomb onto the porch of the mansion, then sprinting away. A third camera on an adjacent street captured a grainy image of his face. The police enhanced the picture electronically and released a sketch based on it.

The fire destroyed much of the historic two-story brick home across from the Texas Capitol where governors have lived since 1856. Renovations continue, but Gov. Rick Perry has been moved to other lodgings. For two years, the search for the culprit has been a priority for the rangers and the state police, and the lack of progress had been an embarrassment for the department.

In recent days, rangers in their trademark cowboy hats have fanned out across Austin and penetrated the city's counterculture hangouts, where the fashion accessories tend toward piercings and tattoos, the music is alternative rock and globalization is a dirty word. Toting pictures of suspects and offering a $50,000 reward for leads, the lawmen have questioned several self-described anarchists about the Affinity group and the identity of the bomber.

Not surprisingly, the investigation has been met with some suspicion. Many self-described anarchists in Austin do not advocate attacking all forms of government, a concept they regard as dated. Their vision of anarchism holds that people should take action themselves to fix social problems. Local anarchists run a recycling center, a food-distribution program, a bookstore, a cafe, and even a thrift shop.

Yet federal agents accused two men from these circles of plotting to make firebombs and hurl them at police cars during the convention. An F.B.I informant from Austin, Brandon Darby, was traveling with the group and told the authorities of the plot, which he had encouraged.

David Guy McKay, 24, pleaded guilty to firearms violations in the case and was sentenced to four years. Mr. Crowder, 25, received a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting Mr. McKay in the possession of an illegal firearm, which is how the law classifies a gasoline bomb.

Mr. Crowder, who is living and working in Austin, said he had nothing to do with the mansion fire. He called the theory that there was an anarchist organization behind both crimes “categorical nonsense.” “It never existed,” he said. “It's not a real entity.”

Scott Crow, an Austin anarchist who knows Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay but did not go to St. Paul, said the state police were “grasping at straws.” He said the group that had traveled to Minnesota was never a coherent organization and split up on returning.

“Anarchist groups, you know, they have no leader,” Mr. Crow said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23texas.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the FBI

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To Catch a Fugitive

New Tools to Find FBI's Most Wanted

02/22/11

For more than 60 years, the FBI has created posters to enlist the public's help in capturing fugitives or finding missing persons. Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, CIA shooter Mir Aimal Kansi, World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef—the captured fugitives were all on FBI wanted posters distributed and shared around the world.

Now, thanks to a recent redesign of the FBI.gov Most Wanted section, the public has more tools to help us close open cases of suspected murderers, terrorists, bank robbers, and kidnapped and missing individuals.

For the first time, web visitors can go beyond just scanning pages of mug shots—and use search criteria like location, gender, crime type, reward, and even ZIP Codes to help narrow and focus their searches. For example, you can search for fugitives wanted for murder in California. Bear in mind, we have about 600 open cases featured on the website, and cases are removed soon after they are solved.

“Tips and leads from the public are crucial in fugitive investigations,” said Special Agent Bradley Bryant, who works with local law enforcement agencies on cold cases through our Violent Crime Apprehension Program, or ViCAP. The program posts images, sketches, and profiles of individuals and their cases in hopes the public may be able to provide tips to aid investigations.

The web redesign also features a new blue profile box for each fugitive or missing person, which you can click through quickly for summaries, descriptions, aliases, photos, and more. Each profile also contains a link to the traditional poster that can be shared and printed—with printable pdfs now available for each poster.

The profiles are now organized into three main sections: wanted fugitives, missing persons, and seeking information. For the first time, the Wanted site also contains links to the fugitives of other federal agencies—such as the U.S. Secret Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Not all FBI fugitives are included in the Most Wanted section. Many bank robbers, for example, are publicized through local Bureau press releases or through various state or local websites. See our Bank Robbery webpage for a list of those sites and additional information.

Early on, our fugitive posters were commonplace in federal buildings, most notably in post offices where the mug shots and rewards were as reliably present as stamp machines. In the mid-‘90s, as the public's attention turned to the burgeoning Internet, FBI wanted posters followed suit. The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list went online in 1996 with the advent of the FBI website. New categories appeared shortly thereafter, including the addition of the Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2001.

“We've come a long way from the days of distributing wanted posters,” Bryant said. “We now routinely use not only the Internet, but television programs, digital billboards, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to publicize wanted persons.”

To date, 56 cases have been solved as a direct result of website publicity, according to the Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit, which runs the Most Wanted section. With the evolution of FBI.gov and the Most Wanted section's new search features, we hope the public will help us even more as we move forward.

“The searchable database on our website,” Special Agent Bryant says, “is in keeping with our continuing push for new and better ways to engage the public in our investigations.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/february/wanted_022211/wanted_022211

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