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| NEWS of the Day - June 23, 2011 |
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on some issues of interest to the community policing and neighborhood activist across the country
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following group of articles from local newspapers and other sources constitutes but a small percentage of the information available to the community policing and neighborhood activist public. It is by no means meant to cover every possible issue of interest, nor is it meant to convey any particular point of view ...
We present this simply as a convenience to our readership ... |
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From Los Angeles Times
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Fugitive Boston mobster arrested on Westside
FBI arrests James 'Whitey' Bulger, sought in 19 slayings, and his girlfriend, in Santa Monica.
by Andrew Blankstein and Robert J. Lopez, Los Angeles Times
June 22, 2011
Legendary Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who has been on the run for more than 15 years, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times.
Bulger, 81, fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with at least 19 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. He headed an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals and other illegal activities in the Boston area.
His companion, Catherine Elizabeth Greig, 60, was also arrested.
PHOTOS: James "Whitey" Bulger
The FBI initially declined to confirm Bulger's arrest when contacted by The Times but later issued a statement saying he and Greig were in custody and scheduled to appear Thursday in federal court in downtown Los Angeles. Bulger had been on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitive list, and the agency had offered a $2-million reward for his arrest.
FBI agents took the two into custody without incident at a home after authorities received a tip, according to the sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the matter. Other details surrounding his arrest were unclear Wednesday night.
The arrests came as the FBI launched a media campaign in 14 cities to help determine Bulger's whereabouts. Los Angeles was not one of the cities.
Bulger was believed to have been traveling with Greig for the last several years, according to the FBI. Petite with blue eyes, Greig was a dental hygienist by occupation. Authorities say she dyed her hair to disguise her appearance. The media campaign was aimed at women in their 60s, the same demographic as Greig, in hopes of developing leads.
Authorities said Bulger initially fled after being tipped by John Connolly Jr., an FBI agent who used Bulger as an informant. Connolly was convicted of racketeering in May 2002 for protecting Bulger and another reputed crime boss and FBI informant, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.
Bulger was the subject of several books and helped inspire "The Departed," the 2006 Martin Scorsese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson, who played a Bulger-like character.
In 2000, an unconfirmed sighting of Bulger was reported in Orange County. A man told authorities he believed he saw Bulger outside a Fountain Valley hair salon where a woman who may been Greig was having her hair done.
The last credible sighting of him was in London in 2002, the FBI said. He was believed to have altered his appearance and traveled extensively through Europe, Mexico, Canada and the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0623-whitey-bulger-20110623,0,3111204.story
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From Google News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dozens of Islamist militants tunnel out of Yemeni prison
by Mohammed al-Qadhi and Peter Finn
June 22 , 2011
SANAA, Yemen — More than 60 Islamist militants tunneled out of a prison in Yemen on Wednesday in a well-executed escape that highlighted the security risks in a nation that is increasingly unstable and home to al-Qaeda's most potent regional affiliate.
The prison break, which occurred in the eastern port city of Mukalla, was coordinated with militants attacking from the outside to divert the guards — a tactic that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as AQAP, used last summer to free prisoners in the southern city of Aden.
Among the escapees Wednesday were members of an al-Qaeda cell that has killed foreign tourists and tried to attack the U.S. Embassy in Yemen and other Western targets, according to Yemeni officials. AQAP was behind the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound commercial flight on Christmas Day 2009 and the mailing of bombs on cargo planes destined for the United States.
The prison break could reinject committed fighters into the group's ranks. Yemeni officials have not released a list of escapees, but one official told The Washington Post that 57 of the 62 men, many of whom fled into nearby mountains, had been convicted on terrorism charges and that some had been sentenced to death.
“Even as we don't know exactly who escaped yet, 62 is a very worrying number,” said Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen and a diplomat in residence at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “The potential for destruction and disruption is high, although AQAP's ability to be a political force, in whatever small area they control, is very limited.”
The prison in Mukalla, which is about 300 miles east of Aden, held up to 100 convicts who were associated with al-Qaeda or who had been imprisoned after returning from Iraq, where they had joined the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition, according to Yemeni officials. They said two Syrians and two Saudis were among those who escaped.
The inmates dug the 50-yard tunnel themselves, said one jail official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details of the escape.
They attacked a guard with daggers, snatched his gun and fired it as they were making their escape, the official said. One guard was fatally shot, and another was wounded. At the same time, militants attacked from the outside, and a gun battle raged for 30 minutes while the prisoners fled.
Yemen's Interior Ministry said that three of the escapees were later killed by security forces and two were captured.
The prison break Wednesday, though far from the first in Yemen, came at a moment of political crisis in the country and seemed likely to heighten fears among U.S. counterterrorism officials that AQAP is gathering strength as the authority of the central government weakens.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh left Yemen for Saudi Arabia on June 3 after he was injured in an attack on his palace during days of bloody street fighting in the capital. Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been the acting president since Saleh's departure, and although the clashes between government loyalists and rival tribes in Sanaa have abated, the political process has stalled.
Sharply rising prices of food and gas, shortages of drinking water and long power cuts are adding to the sense of crisis. U.S. officials are eager to revive a political process that seeks to incorporate opposition groups and key tribal groups while sidelining Saleh, who insists that he will return to Yemen when his health allows.
“Obviously, the instability in Yemen is the kind that al-Qaeda feeds on or tries to take advantage, exploit, throughout the world,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Wednesday. “It's concerning, but our cooperation continues.”
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, was in Sanaa on Wednesday and was scheduled to hold talks with several political figures, including Saleh's son, who controls the country's Republican Guard, a powerful military force.
Feltman met with Hadi and praised the acting president's efforts to maintain a cease-fire with armed factions supporting the political opposition, according to Yemen's state-run news agency. It said Feltman also welcomed Hadi's efforts to open roads, remove armed government loyalists from cities, and meet with political opponents and youth movement activists.
Hadi told Feltman that he appreciated President Obama's efforts to defuse tensions in Yemen, the agency reported. But a leading opposition group, the Organizing Committee of the Popular Youth Revolution, issued a statement denouncing Feltman's visit and calling on anti-government activists to boycott it.
The United States has placed an array of military and intelligence assets in Yemen, including Special Operations trainers who work with Yemeni counterterrorism forces and unmanned aircraft that conduct surveillance and strike AQAP. The group's current incarnation can be traced to a 2006 prison break in Sanaa in which its leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was one of 23 escapees.
U.S. officials have said that the ongoing political chaos has hampered counterterrorism operations, and the Obama administration recently decided to expand operations to include the use of CIA-operated armed drones over Yemen. Until now, only the Joint Special Operations Command had been flying Predators to hunt for terrorists.
U.S. concern about AQAP has grown in recent weeks. Militants have seized control of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, and they have been battling government troops, forcing hundreds of families to flee.
The attack on Zinjibar and another southern town by AQAP appeared to mark the first time that the underground group has attempted to take and hold territory. Some analysts caution, however, that a number of conflicting groups and interests are at play in Zinjibar.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/dozens-of-islamist-militants-tunnel-out-of-yemeni-prison/2011/06/22/AGV18RgH_print.html
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Confession of an illegal Prize-winning journalist reveals his true identity
by Brett Zongker THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINTON -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for the Washington Post went public Wednesday with a secret he says he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant.
Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, says that now he wants to push Congress to pass a bill called the DREAM Act that would allow people like him to become citizens.
“I'm done running. I'm exhausted,” Vargas wrote in a New York Times Magazine essay posted online Wednesday. “I don't want that life anymore.”
Vargas referred a request for comment from The Associated Press to his public relations team, which did not immediately make him available Wednesday. He also spoke to ABC News in interviews that will air today and Friday.
He says he didn't know about his citizenship status until four years after he arrived in the U.S., when he applied for a driver's permit and handed a clerk his green card.
“This is fake,” a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk said, according to Vargas' account. “Don't come back here again.”
Vargas confronted his grandfather, who acknowledged he purchased the green card and other fake documents.
“I remember the very first instinct was, OK, that's it, get rid of the accent,” Vargas told ABC. “Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I'm an American.”
He convinced himself that if he worked hard enough and achieved enough, he would be rewarded with citizenship, Vargas wrote in the magazine piece.
His grandfather imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.
Vargas was hired for internships at The San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. He was denied an internship at The Seattle Times because he didn't have all the documents they required. But he kept applying and got an offer from The Washington Post.
The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states.
Once hired full-time at the Post, he used the fake license to cover Washington events, including a state dinner at the White House, Vargas recalled.
He wrote that he was nearly paralyzed with anxiety that his secret would be found out at the Post. He tried to avoid reporting on immigration policy, but at times, it was impossible. At one point, he wrote about then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
Vargas eventually told his mentor, Peter Perl, now the newspaper's training director. Perl told him that once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post Chairman Don Graham together. They kept the secret until Vargas left the paper.
On Wednesday, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions.
“What Jose did was wrong. What Peter did was wrong,” Coratti said, declining to comment further on personnel matters. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Cori W. Bassett would not comment specifically on Vargas' case Wednesday but said the agency prioritizes cases that pose the most significant threat to public safety.
Vargas shared a Pulitzer Prize for the Post's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. A 2006 series he wrote on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington inspired a documentary film. Last year, he wrote a profile of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for The New Yorker.
Just before he turned 30 this year, Vargas said he obtained a Washington state driver's license, which would have given him a five-year reprieve — and meant five more years of lying. He said he couldn't deal with that.
“In my heart, I'm an American,” Vargas told ABC. “I am one of many, many people, and we are not who you think we are. We don't just mow your lawns and baby-sit your kids and serve you tacos. ... We do a really good job doing that, but we do other things, and we are a part of this society.”
On Wednesday, Vargas launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like him to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform. His high school principal and superintendent have signed on as board members.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20110623/NEWS/106239388/10091119&Template=printart
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TSA head: Airport screeners must avoid pat-downs of children
CNN - - The Transportation Security Administration is changing its policy on how screeners can search children, the agency's head has said.
TSA Administrator John Pistole announced the change at a Wednesday meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
The change was prompted by outrage over a video-recorded pat-down of a 6-year-old airline passenger at the New Orleans airport on April 5. The video, which was posted on YouTube, shows the girl protesting at first to the search, although she complies quietly while it is under way.
Pistole explained to committee members that a female security screener performed a pat-down search on the 6-year-old girl because the child had moved while passing through an airport body imaging machine. That prevented the device from getting a clear reading that the child was not carrying any banned objects through airport security.
"We have changed the policy to say that there'll be repeated efforts made to resolve that without a pat-down," Pistole told committee members.
The new policy will apply to children 10 years old or younger, Pistole said.
The incident renewed debate over the the TSA's security practices, especially their use on such low-risk passengers as young children. A backlash against passenger pat-downs -- an alternative to full-body scans in some locations -- swelled during the holiday travel season last year. Pistole maintained at the time that the agency walks a fine line between privacy concerns and public safety.
However, during the committee meeting, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, grilled Pistole for erring thoughtlessly too far on the side of safety.
"This isn't to say we don't believe in safety procedures," Paul said. "But I think I feel less safe when we're doing these invasive exams on a 6-year-old. It makes me think that you're clueless, that you think she's going to attack our country, and that you're not doing your research on the people who would attack our country."
Pistole suggested a pat-down of a child is not entirely unjustified.
"Unfortunately, we know that terrorists around the world have used children as suicide bombers," Pistole replied.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/06/23/tsa.patdown.change/
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From the Department of Homeland Security
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ICE arrests over 2,400 convicted criminal aliens, fugitives in enforcement operation throughout all 50 states
WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama administration's ongoing commitment to prioritizing the removal of criminal aliens that threaten public and national security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced the results of a seven-day targeted "Cross Check" enforcement operation-which led to the arrest of more than 2,400 convicted criminal aliens and immigration fugitives in May of this year. Last week, ICE also announced key improvements to its Secure Communities program as the agency continues to focus its resources on those in our country illegally who have also broken criminal laws.
"The results of this operation underscore ICE's ongoing focus on arresting those convicted criminal aliens who prey upon our communities, and tracking down fugitives who game our nation's immigration system," said ICE Director John Morton. "This targeted enforcement operation is a direct result of excellent teamwork among law enforcement agencies who share a commitment to protect public safety."
In May, ICE officers from all 24 ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field offices throughout the nation located and arrested more than 2,400 aliens with prior criminal convictions in all 50 states. All of the criminal aliens taken into custody had prior convictions for crimes such as armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault, theft, forgery and DUI. In total, 22% of the individuals ICE officers took into custody were immigration fugitives-convicted criminal aliens with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country.
ICE conducted the first successful Cross Check operation in December 2009, and has since conducted Cross Check operations in 37 states, including regional operations in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest regions. These previous Cross Check Operations resulted in ICE arresting 2,064 convicted criminals, fugitives, and aliens nationwide who have illegally re-entered the United States after removal.
This seven-day operation, the largest of its kind, involved the collaboration of more than 500 ICE agents and officers, as well as coordination with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and our state and local law enforcement partners throughout the United States.
The arrestees include:
- A 32-year-old man residing in Amesbury, Mass., from the Dominican Republic, who is a registered sex offender convicted of assault, battery on a household member, indecent assault, battery on a child, and leaving the scene/person injured.
- A 38-year-old man residing in Orlando, Fla. from the Philippines convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting officer with violence, reckless driving and refusal to submit to blood/urine test.
- A 37-year-old residing in North Hills, Calif. from Mexico convicted of aggravated felony sex crime and rape of an unconscious victim. He was also identified as illegally re-entering the United States after deportation. He will be removed from the United States following his prosecution for illegal re-entry after deportation.
- A 47-year-old man residing in Magnolia, Texas from Mexico convicted of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury, burglary, marijuana possession, driving while license suspended and indecency with a child by sexual contact.
ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes efforts first on removing those serious criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to the security of our communities, such as those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national security. ICE also prioritizes the arrest and removal of those who game the immigration system including immigration fugitives or those criminal aliens who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country.
To date, ICE has removed a record number of more than 109,700 criminal aliens from the United States in fiscal year 2011, including more than 585 criminal aliens convicted of homicide and more than 3,177 criminal aliens convicted sex offenders.
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1106/110621washingtondc.htm |
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