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From the Los Angeles Times

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The scourge of Somalia

A military approach alone won't end piracy. The country needs a functioning government.

February 23, 2011

Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey lived a life many would envy, until it was cut short Tuesday by a band of Somali pirates. On their yacht, Quest, they had spent most of the last decade sailing to exotic locales and were on a trip from Thailand to the Mediterranean with another couple, Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle of Seattle, when their boat was intercepted off the coast of Oman. All four were shot to death Tuesday by their captors after negotiations with U.S. naval officials for their release apparently broke down.

Pirates plying the seas off Somalia have been a scourge of international shipping for years, but this week's slayings mark the deadliest incident yet involving Americans. In response, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on foreign governments to contribute more toward the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. Solutions to that country's piracy and governance problems are elusive, but the peacekeeping effort backed by Clinton isn't working, and U.S. policy toward Somalia could stand another look.

Tempting as it is to call for more naval involvement, it's clear that a purely military approach won't cut it. To avoid the U.S. 5th Fleet and other international warships plying the waters near Somalia, pirates are simply ranging farther afield; the seas between Somalia and India are too vast to be effectively patrolled. Meanwhile, every effort by the United States to intervene in Somali affairs since 1993, when the Clinton administration's attempts to subdue Mogadishu's warlords ended in the catastrophe chronicled in the film "Black Hawk Down," has backfired spectacularly.

The latest failed initiative is the so-called Transitional Federal Government, a United Nations fiction that controls a few square blocks in Mogadishu. The United States has invested millions of dollars arming a peacekeeping force to protect the TFG, which has little public support and is widely viewed by Somalis as an invading foreign force. Bronwyn E. Bruton, an Africa scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations, argues convincingly that the TFG is not only failing to spread democracy and the rule of law, it is actually strengthening radical Islamist movements by prompting quarrelsome extremist groups to unite against a common enemy.

Bronwyn's proposed solution is "constructive disengagement," in which the U.S. stops backing a failed U.N. experiment and vows to engage with any government that emerges, including an Islamist one, as long as it renounces international terrorism and agrees not to interfere with humanitarian relief workers. A government with a measure of legitimacy is far likelier to stabilize Somalia than the current puppet regime, even if it's not as secular as we'd like.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-somalia-20110223,0,753293,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Seizing of Pirate Chiefs Is Questioned in Killings

WASHINGTON — When the two pirates boarded the U.S.S. Sterett off the coast of Somalia on Monday, American officials thought they were headed for a breakthrough in the four-day standoff with a gang that had seized four Americans vacationing on their 58-foot yacht.

But an F.B.I. hostage-rescue negotiator aboard the Sterett came to believe the two Somalis were not serious. So the Americans took them into custody and told the pirates back on the yacht to send over someone they could do business with.

What happened next is sharply contested and raises questions about the crucial decision to detain the pirate leaders.

American officials said the pirates on the yacht, called the Quest, seemed relieved — even “exceptionally calm” — when told their senior commander was cooling his heels in a Navy brig.

But hours later, panic ensued among young pirates. Some Americans theorized that a fight had broken out among the gang members, suddenly leaderless, and fearing they were about to be overtaken by the four Navy warships that surrounded them. One person who has talked to associates of the pirates said their leader had told them that if he did not return, they should kill the hostages, though American officials say they do not know that to be the case.

The death of the four Americans — the yacht's owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and two crew members, Phyllis Macay and Robert A. Riggle of Seattle — is certain to add momentum to a wide-ranging review the Obama administration is conducting on how to combat the growing threat from bands of Somali pirates. The episode began last Friday, when the Quest sent out a distress signal 275 miles from the coast of Oman, in open waters between Mumbai and Djibouti. A Yemeni fishing vessel that served as a mother ship for the pirates was seen near the yacht when it was hijacked by pirates in a smaller craft, maritime officials said, but it disappeared once the American warships drew near.

As the military converged on the yacht, officials learned that there might be a way to negotiate with the pirates' financiers and village elders, who could have acted as shore-based intermediaries if communication permitted. But for unknown reasons these contacts did not pan out.

On Monday, the two pirates boarded the Sterett, which had pulled within 600 yards of the Quest, to conduct face-to-face negotiations, apparently knowing that it was unlikely they could get away with the yacht or its passengers. One of the pirate negotiators was a seasoned commander, who had several successful hijackings under his belt, according to one person who has regular contacts with pirate cells.

The F.B.I. agent involved was a hostage negotiator from a special team based at Quantico, Va., who was experienced in both domestic and international hostage crises, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. It was unclear whether the agent had ever negotiated with Somali pirates.

The two pirates were brought on board “in a good-faith attempt to negotiate the safe release of the hostages” a military official said. Once the Americans came to believe they were not serious, the official said, the pirate commander and his ally were detained and their fellow pirates were notified.

“The pirates who were brought aboard the ship never communicated back to their pirate allies on the Quest,” said the official, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of the F.B.I. investigation.

“The pirates on the Quest seemed relieved and were exceptionally calm in discussions with the negotiator,” said the military official. He said the Americans placed an offer on the table. The pirates could take the Quest, or another small Navy boat. But they had to release the hostages and could not take them to join the hundreds of travelers who are believed being held for ransom in pirate strongholds.

The pirates communicated back that they wanted to sleep on the offer, the military official said. The Americans agreed, giving them eight hours.

Whatever calm the pirates displayed on the surface masked a roiling split, according to one person who has been in contact with Somali pirate cells, including people who were in communication with others who know those aboard the Quest.

Somali pirate specialists say the pirates once had an informal code that required members to treat one another well and not harm hostages, valuable commodities who draw ransom payments on average of $4 million. But while Somali pirates might once have been a tight-knit group motivated by money, not murder, pirates and pirate experts say the lure of big money was attracting less-disciplined young Somalis hungry to share in the new riches.

Somali pirates interviewed Wednesday said something must have gone very wrong in the case of the Quest, since killing hostages is bad for business and is almost certain to draw a more aggressive response from countries like the United States. “We don't kill hostages,” said a pirate in Hobyo who gave his middle name as Hassan. “We have many hostages here, and we treat them well. But the pirates might have been angered by the Americans.”

The person in contact with pirate cells said a gun fight had broken out below deck on the Quest, likely over money or the hostages' fate. American officials theorize this may have been the case. Five minutes after the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterett, and small arms fire erupted, 15 Navy SEAL commandos stormed the yacht. The hostages were dead or dying. American officials said it was unclear whether they had been executed or killed in the pirates' cross-fire. Other pirate hostages have died in captivity or during rescue attempts, but there are few, if any, cases of pirates intentionally killing hostages.

The commandos shot and killed one pirate and stabbed another. Two other pirates were found dead, apparently killed by their comrades, and 13 surrendered to the Americans.

“While the pirates clearly knew, from the beginning of our negotiations, that we were not going to allow the Quest to make shore, they gave no warning, no visible signs whatsoever that the hostages' lives were in danger,” said the military official. The senior law enforcement official added, “These incidents, by their very nature, often move at a rapid pace which requires difficult decisions in real time.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/africa/24pirates.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Mexico: Suspect Detained in Shooting of U.S. Agent

The Mexican Army said Wednesday that it had detained a man suspected in the shooting death of a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and the wounding of another on a Mexican highway last week.

The detained man was identified as Julián Zapata Espinosa, known as El Piolín, a leader of the Zetas gang in San Luis Potosí.

The agents were ambushed and fired on as they drove from San Luis Potosí State to Mexico City.

The motive was not clear but speculation has focused on a possible carjacking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/americas/24briefs-Mexico.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Arizona Lawmakers Push New Round of Immigration Restrictions

PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers are proposing a sweeping package of immigration restrictions that might make the controversial measures the state approved last year, which the Obama administration went to court to block, look mild.

Illegal immigrants would be barred from driving in the state, enrolling in school or receiving most public benefits. Their children would receive special birth certificates that would make clear that the state does not consider them Arizona citizens.

Some of the bills, like those restricting immigrants' access to schooling and right to state citizenship, flout current federal law and are being put forward to draw legal challenges in hopes that the Supreme Court might rule in the state's favor.

Arizona drew considerable scorn last year when it passed legislation compelling police officers to inquire about the immigration status of those they stopped whom they suspected were in the country illegally. Critics said the law would lead to racial profiling of Latinos, and a federal judge agreed that portions of the law, known as Senate Bill 1070, were unconstitutional.

Similar legal challenges are likely to come in response to the latest round of legislation, some of which cleared a key Senate committee early Wednesday after a long debate that drew hundreds of protesters, some for and some against the crackdown.

“This bill is miles beyond S.B. 1070 in terms of its potential to roll back the rights and fundamental freedoms of both citizens and noncitizens alike,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Arizona. She said the measures would create “a ‘papers, please' society” and that a new crime — “driving while undocumented” — would be added to the books.

Despite boycotts and accusations that the state has become a haven of intolerance, Arizona won plaudits last year from immigration hardliners across the country. On Tuesday night, the Indiana Senate voted to allow its police officers to question people stopped for infractions on their immigration status, one of numerous proposals inspired by Arizona's law.

“If you are ever going to stop this invasion, and it is an invasion, you have to quit rewarding people for breaking those laws,” said State Senator Russell Pearce, the Senate president, who is leading Arizona's effort to try to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they stop coming, or leave.

Opponents said the changes were a drastic rewriting of the core values of the country. In Tucson, a community group was so enraged by what it called the extremist nature of the proposals from Phoenix that it proposed severing the state in two, creating what some call Baja Arizona.

“Denying citizenship to children because they have parents without documents is crazy,” said the Rev. Javier Perez, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant from Mexico who waited in the legislative chamber into the night Tuesday for a chance to speak. “Honestly, I don't think anything I say will change their minds, but it's immoral what they're doing and we have to say this is against the values of America.”

The measures would compel school officials to ask for proof of citizenship for students and require hospitals to similarly ask for papers for those receiving non-emergency care. Illegal immigrants would be blocked from obtaining any state licenses, including those for marriage. Landlords would be forced to evict the entire family from public housing if one illegal immigrant were found living in a unit. Illegal immigrants found driving would face 30 days in jail and forfeit the vehicle to the state.

The measures are not assured of passage. Although Republicans have a majority in the Legislature, the restrictions on citizenship failed to win approval in the Judiciary Committee this month, so they were rerouted to the Appropriations Committee, where they won passage.

Some state lawmakers said their constituents were furious over the Obama administration's lawsuit challenging the last immigration law and wanted the state to continue pressing the issue. Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said the state would file a countersuit against the federal government accusing it of not enforcing immigration laws.

Supporters of the crackdown include Katie Dionne, who described herself as an “average, everyday American” who wanted to prevent illegal immigrants from changing her way of life. “If their life is so wonderful why did they leave where they're from?” she asked senators.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security and a former Arizona governor, cites statistics showing that the influx of illegal immigrants across the Arizona border has declined markedly with significant increases in federal resources. But that has done little to ameliorate the feeling of crisis expressed by many Arizona politicians.

The state's business community, stung by a boycott that has reduced the number of conventions in the state, generally opposes the new round of restrictions. “This will put Arizona through another trial and hurt innocent businesspeople who are just trying to get ahead,” said Glenn Hamer of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/us/24arizona.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Agents Raid Florida Clinics in Drug Crackdown

MIAMI — Drug Enforcement Administration agents and other law enforcement officials on Wednesday raided six South Florida pain clinics accused of illegally dispensing potent prescription drugs across the United States. Twenty-two people, including five doctors, were arrested on state and federal drug trafficking charges.

The one-year undercover inquiry, dubbed Operation Pill Nation, focused on storefront clinics in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties that the authorities say have become a national clearinghouse for illegal prescription drugs and highly addictive painkillers like oxycodone. Investigators described the operation as the federal government's most aggressive effort to shut down the so-called pill mills they say have contributed to sharp increases in overdoses and addiction.

South Florida has long been a place where prescription drugs could be obtained easily and cheaply. In recent years, such pill mills have flourished in strip malls from Miami to Palm Beach Gardens, with the highest concentration of rogue clinics in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, officials said.

“This is a completely profit-driven operation that has no medical regard for anyone,” Mark R. Trouville, the special agent in charge of the Miami field office for the D.E.A., said in an interview. “These clinics have nothing to do with the welfare of the community.”

Mr. Trouville said that since the operation began a year ago, a task force had taken action against 66 doctors at 83 locations and seized more than $25 million worth of property.

Wednesday's raids came several weeks after Gov. Rick Scott announced his intention to halt a planned state database for tracking the sale of prescription drugs. Mr. Scott, a Republican, has said the database is an invasion of privacy and a waste of money, drawing criticism in Florida, even from some fellow Republicans, and from two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.

More than 20,000 people a year die of prescription drug overdoses, including an estimated seven a day in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among those arrested on Wednesday was Dr. Zvi Perper, who owns Delray Pain Management in Delray Beach. Dr. Perper, whose father is Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, had no comment as he was led away in handcuffs and beige medical scrubs.

The authorities said they seized more than $2.5 million worth of homes, property, luxury cars and boats belonging to doctors and clinic owners on Wednesday.

In the last year, undercover agents, posing as patients without legitimate medical ailments, were able to easily obtain powerful narcotics like oxycodone and hydrodone, law enforcement officials said.

Mr. Trouville said addicts, driving cars with out-of-state plates, camp out most nights and wait for clinics to open at 10 a.m. “When we go into these clinics, there is a gun in there,” he said. “How many times have you gone into your doctor's office and there's an armed guard outside? They don't take insurance. This is a facade that these clinics provide a service to the community.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/us/24drugs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Judge will hear Internet suicide case

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A Minnesota judge will determine if a former nurse charged with helping two people commit suicide over the Internet is guilty of aiding suicide, officials said.

William Melchert-Dinkel has agreed to let a judge determine if he violated a Minnesota law against aiding suicide, Minnesota Public Radio reported Thursday.

The law applies to those who "intentionally advises, encourages or assists" suicide and provides for a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

Melchert-Dinkel, 48, allegedly helped two people commit suicide -- one a Canadian citizen, the other lived in England. His attorney has argued free-speech rights protected his client's actions.

Attorney Terry Watkins also questioned whether courts have jurisdiction over the case because the suicides happened in other countries.

A judge has denied Watkins motions for dismissal based on both pre-trial arguments. The judge has 20 days to issue a ruling.

The trial starts Thursday in Rice County.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/02/24/Judge-will-hear-Internet-suicide-case/UPI-49991298552780/

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Museum launches online timeline of 9/11 attacks

Feb 23, 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An interactive timeline chronicling the September 11, 2001 attacks hour-by-hour went online on Wednesday, with a fast-forward button to skip any video or audio accounts too disturbing for the visitor.

The virtual exhibit was organized by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which is building a structure at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan to honor almost 3,000 victims killed in the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Until the building opens in September 2011, anyone interested in how that historic day unfolded can find out here.

"This timeline is a real attempt to organize what was an incredibly chaotic day into a format that's accessible for people to learn from," said Joe Daniels, the president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

The timeline begins at 5:45 a.m. with video showing hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari passing through security in Boston's Logan Airport just prior to boarding American Airlines Flight 11, the first to slam into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

The timeline ends with then-President George W. Bush's address to the nation at 8:30 p.m. that night.

In between, there are gripping still photographs and first person accounts from fire fighters and other survivors who were at the scene when planes hit the buildings or when the twin towers fell.

One office worker's first-person account, from about 9:15 a.m., when the towers were being evacuated, recounts his descent down the stairwell from his office on the 47th floor of the north tower.

"There were three flows of people. The regular people like me going down, the people who were coming down from the other floors, who were very badly burned. No skin. No hair. Just burned," said Bruce Dellinger, who worked at a marketing firm, in the audio account.

"The third flow of people was security personnel and fire department people... in some of those eyes you could see, they knew something, that it was dangerous... while I was walking down, they were going up to their death, and I was walking down to live."

Organizers of the timeline took particular care to allow visitors to view and hear only what they feel comfortable absorbing, and included a fast-forward button to skip anything particularly disturbing.

"The material itself is difficult and emotional, and we approach it sensitively by allowing the user to modulate their own experience," Daniels said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-sept11-memorial-idUSTRE71M5VK20110223?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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U.S. Urban Search & Rescue Team Deploying to New Zealand

by: Bob Fenton, Assistant Administrator, Response Directorate

At the request of the New Zealand government, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), a team that includes the Los Angeles County Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue team (US&R), also known as California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2), to assist with the search and rescue efforts.

You may remember the LA County US&R team from this YouTube video that was taken in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in early 2010.

You often hear US&R and FEMA in the same sentence, and the reason is because FEMA has developed disaster response agreements with 28 urban search and rescue teams located in various cities throughout the United States. The teams are locally managed but FEMA provides funding and program development support for the teams.

Two of these teams are classified under United Nations Guidelines for international response. The two USAID-sponsored international classified teams are USA-TF2 (CA-TF2) and USA-TF1 (Virginia Task Force 1, VA-TF1) from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. These “international teams” have direct agreements with USAID, and it is under this agreement and the direction of USAID that CA-TF2 is being deployed to New Zealand.

Ever wonder what a US&R team base of operations looks like? Administrator Fugate and USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah got a tour on a visit to Haiti in the aftermath of the quake that struck there last year.

What is a National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Force?

The 28 National US&R Task Forces, made up of teams of state and local first responders, can be activated for major disasters to assist in rescuing victims of structural collapse incidents or to assist in other search and rescue missions.

All 28 teams are “Type I task forces,” which are made up of around 70 multi-faceted, cross-trained personnel who serve in six major functional areas, including search, rescue, medical, hazardous materials, logistics and planning. In addition, they are supported by canines that are specially trained and qualified to be able to conduct physical search and heavy rescue operations in damaged or collapsed reinforced concrete buildings.

Each task force can be divided into two 35-member teams to provide 24-hour search and rescue operations. Self-sufficient for the initial 72 hours or more, the task forces are equipped with convoy vehicles to support over the road deployments and their equipment caches can be quickly reconfigured to be able to deploy by military or commercial airlift. The task forces can also be configured into Light Task Forces to support weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes and other similar incidents.

http://blog.fema.gov/2011/02/us-urban-search-rescue-team-deploying.html

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Visit to Coast Guard Sector Key West

February 23, 2011

Key West, Fla.—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today visited U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West to tour operations, meet with Coast Guard personnel, and receive a briefing on maritime security operations at the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF)-South—the U.S. Southern Command entity that coordinates integrated interagency counter drug operations.

“Maritime security is critical to interdicting drugs and other threats before they reach our shores,” said Secretary Napolitano. “The men and women of the Coast Guard play a vital role in preventing illegal maritime migration, combating illegal drug trafficking and protecting our nation's maritime borders.”

As an integral part of the Department of Homeland Security's Southern Border strategy, the Coast Guard continues to target maritime shipments to stop drugs before they reach overland routes and fuel drug trafficking crime—removing nearly 92 metric tons of cocaine in fiscal year 2010, and more than 10.3 metric tons of cocaine in 2011 as of Jan. 31.

During her visit, Secretary Napolitano was joined by Rear Admiral William Baumgartner, Seventh Coast Guard District Commander and Director of the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, and Coast Guard Sector Key West Commander Captain Pat DeQuattro.

The Seventh Coast Guard District is responsible for all Coast Guard operations in South Carolina, Georgia, the Florida Peninsula and the entire Caribbean basin—including eight of the nation's largest container ports and the three largest multi-day cruise ports in the world.

During her briefing at the JIATF-South—which is responsible for the detection of suspected air and maritime drug activity in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific—Secretary Napolitano also met with JIATF-South Director, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Daniel Lloyd. In total, thirty eight DHS personnel—representing the Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—are currently deployed to the JIATF-South to collaborate with the Department of Defense and other federal partners in the collection, processing and dissemination of counter drug information to our interagency and international partners.

In Florida in 2010, the Coast Guard saved 555 lives; assisted 3,544 people; saved $10.5 million in property; and interdicted $930 million in illegal narcotics.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1298498047552.shtm

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From ICE

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ICE arrests 58 during enforcement surge targeting criminal aliens and fugitives

JACKSON, Miss. - During a four-day targeted enforcement operation in and around Jackson that ended Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers arrested 58 individuals, including convicted criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and known gang members and affiliates.

Many of the criminal aliens taken into custody had prior convictions for serious or violent crimes, such as contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual assault, possessing and selling dangerous drugs, drunken driving, sexual contact and battery, and assault.

Eleven of the individuals ICE officers took into custody were immigration fugitives, aliens with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country.

The arrests took place in the following Mississippi cities: Brandon, Pearl, Ridgeland, Canton, Carthage, Crystal Springs, Hazlehurst and Jackson.

The Ridgeland Police Department, Leake Sheriff Office and Pearl Police Department assisted ICE ERO officers with these arrests.

"This four-day ICE operation targeted criminal and fugitive aliens throughout Mississippi," said Scott L. Sutterfield, acting field office director for ICE ERO in New Orleans. "These surge operations, and our daily targeting of aliens with criminal convictions, are some of the many tools that ICE uses to effectively reduce crime at the street level in communities throughout the United States."

Of those arrested, there were 57 men and one woman. Forty are from Mexico, nine are from Guatemala, four are from Honduras, two are from Panama, one is from El Salvador, one is from Peru, and one is from Costa Rica. They range in age from 17 to 71.

Seven of those arrested had been previously deported. A conviction for felony re-entry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

This week's enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE's fugitive operations program, which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at-large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives - aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation handed down by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's fugitive operations teams give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders.

The officers who conducted this week's operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in Williston, Vt. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 550,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

ICE's fugitive operations program is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. Other initiatives that figure prominently in this effort are the Criminal Alien Program, Secure Communities and the agency's partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies under 287(g).

Largely as a result of these initiatives, ICE last year removed more than 392,800 aliens from the United States; of that number, more than 195,700 were aliens with criminal convictions.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110223jackson.htm

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12 from Eastern Europe charged with criminal prostitution in central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. - Twelve individuals from Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, were charged federally with a 27-count indictment alleging criminal prostitution Friday, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI), a local task force in Orlando.

ICE HSI and the MBI also arrested five of the individuals in the Orlando area on Friday.

The twelve individuals charged were: Roman Caraiman, 24, of Moldova; Tatiana Belinschi, 25, of Moldova; Alexandr Postica, 25, of Moldova; Saida Babaeva, 28, of Russia; Kateryna Krykovlyuk, 24, of Ukraine; Elena Shashurova, 24, of Russia; Vlada Blisciuc, 23, of Moldova; Elena Abushinova, 24, of Russia; Irina Luchina; 22, of Moldova; Aleksandra Liubina, 23, of Russia; Natalia Fedorova, 23, of Russia; and Alina Priadko, 24, of Ukraine.

On Feb. 11, Postica was arrested near Marietta, Ga., and Belinschi was arrested in the Orlando area.

On Friday, ICE HSI and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI), arrested Krykovlyuk, Shashurova, Luchina, Blisciuc, and Abushinova in the Orlando area.

Babaeva and Priadko are currently in custody in Ohio.

Caraiman, Liubina and Fedorova are at-large fugitives.

According to the indictment, a number of the individuals worked together in a commercial sex business that sought to make money by providing sexual services for money. According to the indictment, among the activities in which the defendants engaged included setting up appointments, performing sexual acts for money, advertising massage services on the Internet, and interstate transportation of prostitutes in furtherance of their prostitution activities.

The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Feb. 9, which was unsealed on Feb. 14.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Bishop Ravenel.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110222orlando.htm

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From the FBI

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Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Hate Crime in Connection with Mosque Arson in Arlington, Texas

WASHINGTON—Henry Clay Glaspell, of Arlington, Texas, pleaded guilty today to a hate crime charge stemming from the ethnically motivated arson of a children's playground at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center in Arlington in July 2010, the Justice Department announced today.

Glaspell, 34, pleaded guilty to damaging religious property in violation of federal hate crime laws before U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque. Glaspell further admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions. This is the 50th prosecution of post-September 11, 2001 backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans.

“Arab-Americans are part of the American family, and the defendant today admitted that he targeted Arabs at a mosque where people worship peacefully and children play,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Hate-fueled incidents of this kind will not be tolerated in our country. The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting hate crimes against all persons.”

“All members of our community must be free to live without fear that they will be targeted because of their ethnicity or religion. This office will vigorously prosecute those who commit such despicable acts of hatred,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas James T. Jacks.

“The crime in this case underscores the importance of enforcing the nation's civil rights laws, and the FBI is firmly committed to that enforcement. One of our most important responsibilities is protecting the right to worship free from violence, fear, or intimidation,” said Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Dallas Division. “As this case indicates, the FBI, together with and our state and local law enforcement allies, will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who attack that right.”

Glaspell's sentencing has been set for July 11, 2011. Glaspell faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for using fire to damage religious property in violation of federal hate crimes laws.

This case was jointly investigated by Arlington Police Department and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Victor Boutros from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Lewis for the Northern District of Texas, with assistance from the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

http://dallas.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/dl022311.htm

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