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

From the New York Times

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

Recruits for Police in Sudan Are Abused

JUBA, Sudan — The medic said patients started coming in by the dozens, and never stopped.

The symptoms were similar, he said — acute stomach pains, bloody noses, diarrhea, high fevers, bruising. One came in shot in the leg. Many healed, but many others died. Two he remembers vividly. They had come in a few days before, complaining of nagging pains, but otherwise in decent spirits.

“I saw them through the window when they were being carried away,” the medic said, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals.

The stream of patients he saw at Juba Teaching Hospital, the primary hospital in southern Sudan, were not everyday civilian cases. They were police recruits. And they were not coming from battle. They were coming from initiation.

Diplomats, researchers and recruits recount cases of sexual assaults and torture, including a campuswide punishment last year that lasted for days, sending many to the hospital.

Over the course of the training, as many as 100 recruits may have died from severe punishment and harsh conditions, recruits and international observers say, prompting a United Nations investigation and a diplomatic scramble by donor nations.

“We are really concerned,” said Joseph Feeney, head of the United Nations Development Program in southern Sudan.

For 50 years, the people of southern Sudan fought as resolute, spartan warriors in civil wars with the north. Conflict is all many of them had ever known, and the reality of peace, achieved in a 2005 accord, has never been fully trusted.

Now, after a referendum, the south is expected to declare independence from the north on July 9. With less than five months to go, this legion of lifelong rebels is scrambling to evolve into a full-fledged government.

Southern Sudan is expected to become a close strategic partner to the United States in an increasingly troubled region and, as one of the poorest places on earth, a recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid.

But the rebels-turned-government here have struggled with a core element of their transformation: shaking off a culture of severe military discipline that has been deeply ingrained over generations.

Nowhere are the scars of this struggle more evident than on the legs, arms and torsos of southern Sudan's young police cadets, recruits to a government training program partly paid for and supported by United Nations and donors like the United States.

The program was intended to build the soon-to-be-country's first professional, civil-rights oriented police force, part of a strategic effort by the United Nations to help establish security in a region that desperately needs it. Cattle-rustling is a dangerous problem here. So are the tens of thousands of soldiers from the civil war yet to be demobilized. This month, a pair of mutinies by soldiers left about 250 dead.

The new police force was meant to be a backbone of better security, but last December, the newly graduated officers were implicated in cases of assaults on young women in the capital, Juba, for what they were wearing on the street. The attacks caught many by surprise, particularly those who saw southern Sudan as an open, Western-oriented society.

But before the officers ever took to the street, it seems they were victims of large-scale human-rights abuses themselves, carried out at the hands of their superior officers while they were still in training.

For Jane Amito, the beginning now seems almost surreal. In January 2010, she joined 6,000 others at the Dr. John Garang Police Training Center in the village of Rejaf, near Juba. Many were just like herself, young and educated and enthusiastic about serving their newborn country.

“I was very much excited,” said Ms. Amito, 25, who applied to the program after seeing an advertisement. “They told us we would become police officers.”

But Ms. Amito never became an officer. Instead, she and other recruits described harsh, life-threatening conditions at the camp. Upon arrival, Ms. Amito said, recruits slept outside for days. Soon they built mud-hut shelters, but they lived in squalor and poverty. Many fell ill to malaria and typhoid, she and other recruits said.

Last April, recruits asked the visiting police chief whether they could vote in the national presidential elections, and for stipends they said they were promised.

The chief got angry and called the recruits insubordinate, saying they would be disciplined.

The punishments began that afternoon, led by a unit of special military commandos, according to recruits and human rights researchers. For days, nearly all 6,000 recruits were forced to stand still for hours; they were forced to jump into the river, hop like frogs, crawl on their elbows and stare at the sun, all while being kicked and beaten with clubs.

The punishments took a heavy psychological toll on the recruits. They were soon halted, but Rejaf was never the same.

Female recruits say they were sexually abused by male officers on a routine basis. Ms. Amito remembers one man in particular, who regularly tried to seduce her, and later threatened her at gunpoint to have sex with him. She ran off, and the officer was later dismissed.

Martin Mude Jackson, another recruit, remembers a time when a recruit, exhausted from work, suddenly quit in the middle of training.

“They started caning this guy, telling him they didn't respect him; they caned this guy until he collapsed,” said Officer Jackson, who graduated from the program but had not yet been deployed. “They thought he was pretending. They caned him until he could not even breathe. We had to carry him to the health unit.”

The international community learned of the troubles at Rejaf by chance one morning in early December. A delegation of diplomats and journalists were touring the camp and Ms. Amito was chosen among a number of recruits to speak.

When a journalist asked how the recruits were being treated, Ms. Amito said she simply told the truth.

“I did not know it was bad; I was just answering like any person,” Ms. Amito said.

Now she is in hiding, fearing for her life after being suddenly dismissed from the program days after the interview.

“They said, ‘What did you tell the white man?' ” Ms. Amito recalled her superiors as saying.

The medic at Juba Teaching Hospital said some patients from Rejaf who died at the hospital had been admitted for malaria, anemia, facial bleeding and, as written in the registration book, “running too long.”

The training program at Rejaf received about $1 million from international donors through the United Nations, which helped to build classrooms and provide part-time trainers, particularly in human rights. Millions more dollars have been promised.

“The international community was skeptical in the beginning, but then there was a lot of pride,” one diplomat, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said of the local government's ability to train its own police. “Now it has come up short.”

The United Nations began supporting Rejaf in February 2010, before the collective punishment, but says it was unaware of what was happening.

“We are monitoring the situation in regard to our future involvements,” said Mr. Feeney of the United Nations.

The southern Sudanese government has strongly condemned the abuses at Rejaf, and has removed officials involved, but has evaded acknowledging direct responsibility.

“We're trying our best,” said Lt. Gen. Gier Chuang Aluong, southern minister of internal affairs, adding that an independent panel would be established to investigate the matter. “It will not be easy to change overnight.”

Dr. Carol Berger, an anthropologist who has specialized in southern Sudan's rebel military that is now the governing party, said the abuse echoed a culture of “discipline and punishment” in military training during the years of war and that there was “much resentment” from older veterans toward the younger, relatively better-educated generation, a belief articulated by some recruits.

“I regret joining,” said Joseph Onen, who trained at Rejaf. “I thought when I joined this could be a time for me to help myself, but the whole time I spent there was misery.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/africa/25sudan.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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

Drug Raids Across U.S. Net Hundreds of Suspects

WASHINGTON — A little more than a week after an American law enforcement agent was shot to death by gunmen suspected of being drug traffickers in Mexico, federal authorities struck back Thursday with raids across the United States that rounded up more than 450 people believed to have ties to criminal organizations south of the border.

The authorities said sweeps were conducted in nearly every major American city; involved more than 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agents; and resulted in the seizure of an estimated 300 kilograms of cocaine, 150,000 pounds of marijuana and 190 weapons. Derek Maltz, a special agent at the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the sweeps were part of a multinational investigation that could lead to more arrests and seizures in the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

Mr. Maltz said that the message the authorities hoped to send with the sweeps was as important as the suspects being brought in. The operation came eight days after Jaime Zapata, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, was gunned down on a Mexican highway. Mr. Maltz said the planning for the operation had begun before Mr. Zapata's shooting, but he acknowledged that the United States hoped to show it would not tolerate attacks against its agents.

Louie Garcia, a deputy special immigration and customs agent involved with the sweeps, echoed that thought in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is personal,” he said. “We lost an agent. We lost a good agent. And we have to respond.”

While thousands of Mexican law enforcement agents have been killed in the drug violence that has plagued Mexico since 2007, Mr. Zapata was the first American official to be killed in the line of duty there in more than 25 years. Obama administration officials called the attack a “game-changer,” hinting to Mexico that more needed to be done to quash the cartels.

After those comments, a Mexican newspaper published President Felipe Calderón's angry reactions to State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks. Some of those cables described Mexican law enforcement agencies as corrupt and unwilling to cooperate with one another.

In response, President Calderón said that American law enforcement was guilty of the same kind of rivalries and that cooperation from the United States in the drug fight ended up being “notoriously insufficient.” American diplomats, he added, had “done a lot of harm” to relations between Mexico and the United States “with the stories they tell and that, in all honesty, they distort.”

President Calderón is to visit Washington next week.

On Wednesday, Mexican authorities detained several people in connection with Mr. Zapata's murder, saying the traffickers shot the agent because they thought he and his partner were members of a rival drug cartel. Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, who was briefed by senior ICE officials after the shooting, said, “I'm not buying the mistaken identity.”

He added, “Our current strategy is not working. President Calderón is losing this war. And if the traffickers win' we're going to have a failed state at our door.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/us/25drugs.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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

Enlisting Prison Labor to Close Budget Gaps

JAY, Fla. — Before he went to jail, Danny Ivey had barely seen a backyard garden.

But here he was, two years left on his sentence for grand theft, bent over in a field, snapping wide, green collard leaves from their stems. For the rest of the week, Mr. Ivey and his fellow inmates would be eating the greens he picked, and the State of Florida would be saving most of the $2.29 a day it allots for their meals.

Prison labor — making license plates, picking up litter — is nothing new, and nearly all states have such programs. But these days, officials are expanding the practice to combat cuts in federal financing and dwindling tax revenue, using prisoners to paint vehicles, clean courthouses, sweep campsites and perform many other services done before the recession by private contractors or government employees.

In New Jersey, inmates on roadkill patrol clean deer carcasses from highways. Georgia inmates tend municipal graveyards. In Ohio, they paint their own cells. In California, prison officials hope to expand existing programs, including one in which wet-suit-clad inmates repair leaky public water tanks. There are no figures on how many prisoners have been enrolled in new or expanded programs nationwide, but experts in criminal justice have taken note of the increase.

“There's special urgency in prisons these days,” said Martin F. Horn, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction. “As state budgets get constricted, the public is looking for ways to offset the cost of imprisonment.”

Although inmate labor is helping budgets in many corners of state government, the savings are the largest in corrections departments themselves, which have cut billions of dollars in recent years and are under constant pressure to reduce the roughly $29,000 a year that it costs to incarcerate the average inmate in the United States.

Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, introduced a bill last month to require all low-security prisoners to work 50 hours a week. Creating a national prison labor force has been a goal since he went to Congress in 1995, but it makes even more sense in this economy, he said.

“Think about how much it costs to incarcerate someone,” Mr. Ensign said. “Do we want them just sitting in prison, lifting weights, becoming violent and thinking about the next crime? Or do we want them having a little purpose in life and learning a skill?”

Financial experts agree.

“These are nickel-and-dime attempts to cut budgets, but they add up,” said Alan Essig, an expert on state budgets at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “You save a dollar here, a dollar there, and you keep your government's functions.”

Technology has made it easier to coordinate. In Hunterdon County, N.J., nonprofit organizations and government agencies can view prisoners' work schedules online and reserve them for a specific task on a free day. (Coming tasks include cleaning up after a Fire Department fish fry and maintaining a public park.)

“Using inmate labor has created unusual alliances: liberal humanitarian groups that advocate more education and exercise in prisons find themselves supporting proposals from conservative budget hawks to get inmates jobs, often outdoors, where they can learn new skills. Having a job in prison has been linked in studies to decreased violence, improved morale and lowered recidivism — but most effectively, experts say, when the task is purposeful.

“The days of just breaking rocks with sledgehammers” are over, said Michael P. Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice, a research group in New York. “At the grossest financial level, it's just savings. You can cut the government worker, save the salary and still maintain the service, and you're providing a skill for when they leave.”

There are, of course, concerns about public safety and competition with government or private workers. Professor Horn estimates that only 20 percent of inmates present a low enough security threat to work in public. And in some places, even financially struggling governments are not willing to take the risk of employing prisoners.

In Ocala, Fla., after a long debate, the City Council last summer decided to have a private company mow grass, even though using inmates would have saved $1.1 million. “Our area has been really hard hit by unemployment,” said Suzy Heinbockel, a Council member. “There was a belief that the private company would bring local jobs, rather than giving those jobs to prisoners.”

In other areas that have used prison labor to reduce costs, there have been embarrassing results. In Ohio, there was public outcry last year after state investigations found inmates drinking on the job at the governor's mansion and smuggling tobacco back into jail. And in Maryland, a proposal to have prisoners pick blue crabs for a private company was dropped amid concern about food safety.

But the budget savings are worth it, many state officials say. In Florida, where the budget was cut by $4.6 billion this year, analysts say inmate farming could save $2.4 million a year. That is relatively small potatoes, but enough for the new governor, Rick Scott, to call for an expansion of prison farming. The state already uses 550 inmates to grow 4.8 million pounds of produce a year, and the governor has pledged $2.5 million to have more inmates grow their own food.

“It's a win-win,” said Jeff Mullahey, the director of an agricultural center at the University of Florida whose staff was downsized in 2007 and replaced, in part, by prisoners. “It's obvious to me why governments should be doing this.”

Inmates arrive at the center from the Century Correctional Institute every weekday, rain or shine, to grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, broccoli and oranges. The partnership with the prison began two years ago, after the university's agriculture program sustained deep budget cuts.

Professors provide farming expertise, and inmates supply the labor and learn marketable skills as fieldworkers. The result has been so successful, providing $192,000 worth of food a year to the prison and saving $75,000 a year for the university, that wardens from around the state have visited to learn about replicating it with their inmates.

No inmates have escaped, and sometimes, Mr. Mullahey said, their criminal backgrounds are assets. Inmates with drug offenses already know how to grow plants, and when a university employee lost the key to a file cabinet, a prisoner with lock-picking experience helped him break in.

The prisoners say farming has made them feel better about themselves. “The department of corrections is going to find you a job so you might as well do something you want to do and learn something,” said Randall Riley, 37, who is doing a four-year sentence for habitual driving offenses.

And the savings are not lost on the prisoners either. “I'm on this side of the fence,” Mr. Ivey said. “But my family's on that other side, and they're paying taxes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/us/25inmates.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

From the FBI

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

Internet Crime Trends

The Latest Report

02/24/11

Non-delivery of payment or merchandise. Scams impersonating the FBI. Identity theft.

These were the top three most common complaints made to the joint FBI/National White Collar Crime Center's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year, according to its just-released 2010 Internet Crime Report. The report also includes a state-by-state breakdown of complaints.

In May 2010, the IC3 marked its 10th anniversary, and by November , it had received its two millionth complaint since opening for business.

Last year, the IC3 received more than 300,000 complaints , averaging just over 25,000 a month. About 170,000 complaints that met specific investigative criteria—

such as certain financial thresholds—were referred to the appropriate local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies. But even the complaints not referred to law enforcement, including those where no financial losses had occurred, were valuable pieces of information analyzed and used for intelligence reports and to help identify emerging fraud trends.

So even if you think an Internet scammer was targeting you and you didn't fall for it, file a complaint with the IC3. Whether or not it's referred to law enforcement, your information is vital in helping the IC3 paint a fuller picture of Internet crime.

Additional highlights from the report :

• Most victims filing complaints were from the U.S., male, between 40 and 59 years old, and residents of California, Florida, Texas, or New York. Most international complainants were from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, or India.
  
  
• In cases where perpetrator information was available, nearly 75 percent were men and more than half resided in California, Florida, New York, Texas, the District of Columbia, or Washington state. The highest numbers of perpetrators outside this country were from the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Canada.
  
  
• After non-delivery of payment/merchandise, scams impersonating the FBI, and identity theft, rounding out the top 10 crime types were: computer crimes, miscellaneous fraud, advance fee fraud, spam, auction fraud, credit card fraud, and overpayment fraud.

The report also contained information on some of the alerts sent out by the IC3 during 2010 in response to new scams or to an increase in established scams, including those involving:

• Telephone calls claiming victims are delinquent on payday loans. More
  
  
• Online apartment and house rental and real estate scams used to swindle consumers out of thousands of dollars. More
  
  
• Denial-of-service attacks on cell phones and landlines used as a ruse to access victims' bank accounts. More
  
  
• Fake e-mails seeking donations to disaster relief efforts after last year's earthquake in Haiti. More
  

Over the past few years, the IC3 has enhanced the way it processes, analyzes, and refers victim complaints to law enforcement . Technology has automated the search process, so IC3 analysts as well as local, state, and federal analysts and investigators can look for similar complaints to build cases. Technology also allows law enforcement users who may be working on the same or similar cases to communicate and share information.

Because there are so many variations of Internet scams out there, we can't possibly warn against every single one . But we do recommend this: practice good security—make sure your computer is outfitted with the latest security software, protect your personal identification information, and be highly suspicious if someone offers you an online deal that's too good to be true.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/february/internet_022411/internet_022411

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

Virginia Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Providing Material Support and Encouraging Violent Jihadists to Kill U.S. Citizens

WASHINGTON—Zachary Adam Chesser, 21, of Fairfax County, Virginia, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for communicating threats against the writers of the South Park television show, soliciting violent jihadists to desensitize law enforcement, and attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The sentencing was announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division; Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

"Zachary Chesser attempted to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and used the Internet to incite violence," said Assistant Attorney General Kris. "Today he is being held accountable for his actions. I applaud the many agents, prosecutors, and analysts who worked tirelessly to bring this man to justice."

"Zachary Chesser will spend 25 years in prison for advocating the murder of U.S. citizens for engaging in free speech about his religion," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "His actions caused people throughout the country to fear speaking out—even in jest—to avoid being labeled as enemies who deserved to be killed. The fact that a young man from Northern Virginia could support such violence and terror is a sobering reminder of the serious threat that homegrown jihadists pose to this country."

"Zachary Chesser encouraged violent jihad," said James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office. "The FBI is concerned about U.S. citizens traveling overseas to join al Shabaab, and we are vigilant in working to disrupt potential plots where U.S. citizens become further indoctrinated and return with actual terrorism experience and training."

According to court documents filed with his plea agreement on Oct. 20, 2010, Chesser maintained several online profiles dedicated to extremist jihad propaganda. Chesser admitted to taking repeated steps in April 2010 to encourage violent jihadists to attack the writers of South Park for an episode that included Muhammad in a bear suit, including highlighting their residence and urging online readers to "pay them a visit." Among the steps he took was posting on multiple occasions speeches by Anwar Al-Awlaki, which explained the Islamic justification for killing those who insult or defame Muhammad. Al-Awlaki was designated by the United States as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" on July 12, 2010.

Chesser also admitted that in May 2010, he posted to a jihadist website the personal contact information of individuals who had joined the "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" group on Facebook, with the prompting that this is "Just a place to start."

Chesser also pleaded guilty to soliciting others to desensitize law enforcement by placing suspicious-looking but innocent packages in public places. Chesser explained through a posting online that once law enforcement was desensitized, a real explosive could be used. Chesser ended the posting with the words, "Boom! No more kuffar." According to court documents, "kuffar" means unbeliever, or disbeliever.

According to court records, Chesser also admitted that from at least January 2010 through July 2010, he posted numerous messages online that included calls from Al-Awlaki to join violent jihadists and step-by-step actions individuals needed to take to leave for jihad. Among those postings included a video Chesser made that featured images of mujahedeen in Somalia and a song, sung by Chesser, with the translated title, "America We Are Coming."

Chesser admitted that he promoted online what he called "Open Source Jihad," where he would direct jihadists through his online forums to information on the Internet that they could use to elude capture and death while maintaining relevance and striking capability. This included linking to the entire security screening manual used by the Transportation Security Administration and hundreds of books that contained information on the construction of anti-aircraft missiles and tactics, techniques, and weapons for targeting aircraft such as jet airplanes and helicopters.

In addition, Chesser pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab. On Feb. 29, 2008, the U.S. Department of State designated al Shabaab as a foreign terrorist organization, describing it as a violent and brutal extremist group based in Somalia with a number of individuals affiliated with al Qaeda. This designation prohibits providing material support or resources to al Shabaab.

According to court records, Chesser admitted that he twice attempted to leave the United States and travel to Somalia for the purpose of joining al Shabaab and engage in violent jihad as a foreign fighter. The first attempt was in November 2009, which was postponed because his wife was unable to obtain her passport. The second attempt was on July 10, 2010, when he sought to board a flight from New York to Uganda with his infant son. He was prevented from boarding the plane, and Chesser admitted that he brought his son with him as part of his "cover" to avoid detection of his intention to join al Shabaab in Somalia. He also attempted to board the plane with a video camera, which he admitted in court that he intended to use to make production quality videos for al Shabaab's propaganda campaign.

Chesser also admitted in court that he posted several online messages in support of al Shabaab, including videos of attacks by al Shabaab on a government building in Mogadishu, a video claiming that African Union troops are responsible for killing civilians in Somalia, a video supporting the merger of al Shabaab with another organization, and links to what Chesser described as the "Al Qaeda Manual" that included instructions in support of violent jihad.

This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gordon Kromberg and Thomas H. McQuillan of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney John T. Gibbs of the Counterterrorism Section in the National Security Division are prosecuting the case.

http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/wfo022411a.htm

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

Texas Resident Arrested on Charge of Attempted Use of Weapon of Mass Destruction

Suspect Allegedly Purchased Bomb Materials and Researched U.S. Targets

WASHINGTON—Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and resident of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested late yesterday by FBI agents in Texas on a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with his alleged purchase of chemicals and equipment necessary to make an improvised explosive device (IED) and his research of potential U.S. targets.

The arrest and the criminal complaint, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Texas, were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas; and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division.

Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Aldawsari has been researching online how to construct an IED using several chemicals as ingredients. He has also acquired or taken a substantial step toward acquiring most of the ingredients and equipment necessary to construct an IED and he has conducted online research of several potential U.S. targets, the affidavit alleges. In addition, he has allegedly described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and a personal journal.

"As alleged in the complaint, Aldawsari purchased ingredients to construct an explosive device and was actively researching potential targets in the United States. Thanks to the efforts of many agents, analysts, and prosecutors, this plot was thwarted before it could advance further," said Assistant Attorney General Kris. "This case serves as another reminder of the need for continued vigilance both at home and abroad."

"Yesterday's arrest demonstrates the need for and the importance of vigilance and the willingness of private individuals and companies to ask questions and contact the authorities when confronted with suspicious activities. Based upon reports from the public, Aldawsari's plot was uncovered and thwarted. We're confident we have neutralized the alleged threat posed by this defendant. Those reports resulted in the initiation of a complex and far-reaching investigation requiring almost around the clock work by hundreds of dedicated FBI agents, analysts, prosecutors, and others. Their effort is another example of the work being done to protect our country and its citizens. These individuals are deserving of our respect and gratitude," said U.S. Attorney Jacks.

"This arrest and criminal charge is a result of the success of the FBI's counterterrorism strategy, which is to detect, penetrate, and disrupt terrorist plots in the United States and against U.S. interests abroad. In this case, FBI agents and other FBI experts worked tirelessly to neutralize the imminent terrorist threat described in the criminal complaint. The public can be justifiably proud of the national security expertise shown by the FBI in this investigation," said Special Agent in Charge Casey.

Purchases of Chemical Ingredients and Other Equipment

The affidavit alleges that on Feb. 1, 2011, a chemical supplier reported to the FBI a suspicious attempted purchase of concentrated phenol by a man identifying himself as Khalid Aldawsari. According to the affidavit, phenol is a toxic chemical with legitimate uses, but can also be used to make the explosive trinitrophenol, also known as T.N.P., or picric acid. The affidavit alleges that other ingredients typically used with phenol to make picric acid, or T.N.P., are concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids.

Aldawsari allegedly attempted to have the phenol order shipped to a freight company so it could be held for him there, but the freight company returned the order to the supplier and called the police. Later, Aldawsari falsely told the supplier he was associated with a university and wanted the phenol for "off-campus, personal research." Frustrated by questions being asked over his phenol order, Aldawsari cancelled his order and later e-mailed himself instructions for producing phenol. The affidavit alleges that in December 2010, he successfully purchased concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids.

According to the affidavit, legally authorized electronic surveillance revealed that Aldawsari used various e-mail accounts in researching explosives and targets, and often sent e-mails to himself as part of this process. On Feb. 11, 2011, for instance, he allegedly e-mailed himself a recipe for picric acid, which the e-mail describes as a "military explosive." He also allegedly sent himself an e-mail on Oct. 19, 2010 that contained information on the material required for Nitro Urea, how to prepare it, and the advantages of using it.

The affidavit alleges that Aldawsari also e-mailed himself instructions on how to convert a cellular phone into a remote detonator and how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle using items available in every home. One e-mail allegedly contained a message stating that "one operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten operations against occupying forces in the land of the Muslims." During December 2010 and January 2011, Aldawsari allegedly purchased many other items, including a gas mask, a Hazmat suit, a soldering iron kit, glass beakers and flasks, wiring, a stun gun, clocks, and a battery tester.

Searches of Aldawsari's Residence

Two legally authorized searches of Aldawsari's apartment conducted by the FBI in February 2011 indicated that the concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids; the beakers and flasks; wiring; Hazmat suit; and clocks were present in Aldawsari's residence.

FBI agents also found a notebook at Aldawsari's residence that appeared to be a diary or journal. According to the affidavit, excerpts from the journal indicate that Aldawsari had been planning to commit a terrorist attack in the United States for years. One entry describes how Aldawsari sought and obtained a particular scholarship because it allowed him to come directly to the United State and helped him financially, which he said "will help tremendously in providing me with the support I need for Jihad." The entry continues: "And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad."

In another entry, Aldawsari allegedly wrote that he was near to reaching his goal and near to getting weapons to use against infidels and their helpers. He also listed a "synopsis of important steps" that included obtaining a forged U.S. birth certificate; renting a car; using different driver's licenses for each car rented; putting bombs in cars and taking them to different places during rush hour; and leaving the city for a safe place.

Research on Potential Targets

According to the affidavit, Aldawsari conducted research on various targets and e-mailed himself information on these locations and people. One of the documents he sent himself, with the subject line listed as "Targets," allegedly contained the names and home addresses of three American citizens who had previously served in the U.S. military and had been stationed for a time at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In another e-mail titled "NICE TARGETS 01," Aldawsari allegedly sent himself the names of 12 reservoir dams in Colorado and California. In another e-mail to himself, titled "NICE TARGETS," he listed two categories of targets: hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. On Feb. 6, 2011, the affidavit alleges, Aldawsari sent himself an e-mail titled "Tyrant's House," in which he listed the Dallas address for former President George W. Bush. The affidavit also alleges that Aldawsari conducted research that could indicate his consideration of the use of infant dolls to conceal explosives and possible targeting of a nightclub with an explosive concealed in a backpack.

The affidavit also alleges that Aldawsari created a blog in which he posted extremist messages. In one posting, he expressed dissatisfaction with current conditions of Muslims and vowed jihad and martyrdom. "You who created mankind….grant me martyrdom for Your sake and make jihad easy for me only in Your path," he wrote.

This case was investigated by the FBI's Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance from the Lubbock Police Department. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Baker and Denise Williams from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, and Trial Attorney David Cora from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

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

http://dallas.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/dl022411.htm

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

From ICE

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

Cities and states in which the fraudulent document trafficking ring was active

22 alleged members of sophisticated, violent fraudulent document ring indicted RICHMOND, Va. - A federal grand jury in Richmond has indicted 22 members of an allegedly highly sophisticated and violent fraudulent document trafficking organization based in Mexico with cells in 19 cities and 11 states, including three cells in Virginia. Discovered through an ongoing investigation dubbed "Operation Phalanx," the organization is accused of kidnapping, beating and - at least on one occasion - murdering competitors and using violence to discipline its own members. The indictment is the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). ICE Director John Morton, along with U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride, made the announcement after a superseding indictment was made public. "Document fraud doesn't just involve paperwork. The business of document fraud, which can be ugly and involve violence and the use of deadly weapons warrants the attention of Homeland Security Investigations," said Director Morton. "Fraudulent documents give people the appearance of lawful status and provide them a ticket to access and opportunities to which they are not entitled."

According to the 12-count indictment, Israel Cruz Millan, a/k/a "El Muerto," 28, of Raleigh, N.C., managed the organization's operations in the United States, overseeing cells in nearly a dozen states that produced high-quality false identification cards to illegal aliens. He allegedly placed a manager in each city, each of whom supervised a number of "runners" who distributed business cards advertising the organization's services and helped facilitate transactions with customers. The cost of fraudulent documents varied depending on the location, with counterfeit resident alien and social cecurity cards typically selling from $150 to $200. Each cell maintained detailed sales records and divided the proceeds between the runner, the cell manager, and the upper level managers in Mexico. The indictment states that from January 2008 through November 2010, members of the organization wired more than $1 million to Mexico.

The indictment alleges that Cruz Millan's organization sought to drive competitors from their territory by posing as customers and attacking them when they arrived to make a sale. These attacks allegedly included binding the victims' hands, feet and mouth; repeatedly beating them; and threatening them with death if they continued to sell false identification documents in the area. The victims were allegedly left bound at the scene of the attack, and the indictment states that at least one victim died from the beatings.

Cruz Millan is accused of tightly controlling the organization's activities, keeping in regular contact with cell managers about inventory, bi-weekly sales reports and competition. The indictment alleges that members who violated internal rules within the operation were subject to discipline, including shaving eyebrows, wearing weights, beatings, and other violent acts.

Twenty-eight members of the organization were arrested on Nov. 18, 2010, on conspiracy to produce and transfer false identification documents and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry a maximum penalty of 15 and 20 years in prison, respectively. To date, five individuals arrested on Nov. 18 have pled guilty to conspiracy to produce and transfer false identification documents.

On Feb. 23, 2011, twenty-two of the 28 were also charged with racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years to life, depending on the racketeering activity. The following additional charges were added in yesterday's superseding indictment:

• Christian Martinez-Arellano, a/k/a "Chachito," 27, of Richmond, Va., and Erik Martinez-Ortiz, a/k/a "Perruchi," 21, of Virginia Beach, Va., were charged with assaulting two rival document vendors in and around Richmond on June 16, 2009, including allegedly placing the barrel of a semi-automatic handgun in a victim's mouth and warning him about selling false identification documents in Richmond. The assault in aid of racketeering charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and the possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison.
  
  
• Edy Oliverez-Jiminez, a/k/a "Daniel," "Erasmo," "Ulysses," and "Jesus," 24, of Virginia Beach, Va., was charged the with murder, kidnapping, and assault of a rival document vendor on July 6, 2010, in Little Rock, Ark. Oliverez-Jimenez and others allegedly bound the victim's hands, feet, mouth, and eyes with duct tape and repeated beat him, which ultimately caused his death. The victim and an associate, who was also bound, were left bound on the floor and the victim was pronounced dead when they were found. Soon afterward, Oliverez-Jiminez allegedly relocated to Virginia to avoid the law enforcement investigation surrounding the murder, and he established a new cell in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison for murder in aid of racketeering, 10 years each for two counts of kidnapping in aid of racketeering, 20 years each for two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. He also faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, with a maximum of life in prison, for two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The investigation was centered in the Norfolk office of ICE HSI, which falls under the Washington, D.C., office. ICE HSI received assistance from the Virginia State Police and Chesterfield County Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Gill and Angela Miller and Trial Attorney Addison Thompson, of the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110224richmond.htm

.