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From the Los Angeles Times

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U.S. sees alleged assassination plot as radical shift for Iran

FBI says it has uncovered a plan by Iranian operatives linked to senior leaders to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

by Ken Dilanian, Paul Richter and Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau

October 11, 2011

Reporting from Washington

American officials charged that an alleged plot by Iran to blow up the Saudi ambassador as he dined in Washington marks a radical shift by Tehran toward direct confrontation with the United States.

The FBI said Tuesday that it had broken up a conspiracy orchestrated by a secretive unit of Iran's military with close ties to the country's senior leadership. In addition to criminal charges against two alleged perpetrators, the U.S. announced sanctions against five people, including two described as senior officials of Iran's Revolutionary Guard who were accused of overseeing the plot to kill Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir.

The high-profile nature of the administration's statements, featuring the secretary of State, attorney general and director of the FBI, appeared to reflect the White House's determination to hold Iran responsible for the incident.

"We see this as a dangerous escalation of the Iranian government's use of violence to advance its agenda," said a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

In a statement, the Saudi Embassy called the plot "a despicable violation of international norms."

Iran called the allegations a "fabrication."

Late Tuesday night, the State Department warned Americans at home and abroad to watch out for possible attacks linked to the alleged plot. In a travel alert, the department said the incident could signify "a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States."

According to the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, members of Iran's Quds Force, an elite Revolutionary Guard unit, tried to hire what they thought was a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi envoy. The complaint said that Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian American living in Texas, flew to Mexico and, at the behest of the Quds Force, agreed to pay a man he believed to be a cartel operative $1.5 million to kill the ambassador. Over time, the plot focused on bombing an unspecified restaurant the ambassador frequented, the complaint said.

The "cartel member" turned out to be a confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. He reported the solicitation to U.S. law enforcement and recorded his conversations with Arbabsiar, officials said.

Arbabsiar gave the man a down payment of about $100,000 and told him the plot should go ahead even if 100 or more bystanders would die in the explosion, the complaint said. "They want that guy done, if the 100 go with him," he allegedly said.

The case "reads like the pages of a Hollywood script," FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told reporters in announcing the arrest along with Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., but "the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost."

At Arbabsiar's arraignment in New York on Tuesday, his lawyer said he would plead not guilty.

The fact that the man the Iranians allegedly contacted was an informant allowed U.S. officials to monitor the conversations from the outset in May, officials said.

"Was it a lucky break? Yes," said a U.S. law enforcement official, "but everybody jumped on it."

The plotters also discussed an attack against the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a Senate speech. An Israeli Embassy spokesman said he could not confirm that.

U.S. officials previously have accused the Quds Force of sponsoring terrorist attacks abroad, including assassinations, and of roadside bomb attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. But officials expressed shock and anger at the allegation that Iranian operatives would plan to kill a diplomat on U.S. soil.

Seth Jones, an expert on Iran with the Rand Corp., said if the Quds Force was plotting attacks inside the United States, it would amount to "a notable change in behavior." It would be very hard to believe that senior Iranian officials condoned such an operation, he said.

At the news conference announcing the case, Holder noted that the criminal complaint did not allege involvement by top officials of the Iranian government. Separately, U.S. intelligence officials would not say whether evidence directly linked senior members of the Iranian government to the conspiracy.

Other U.S. officials, however, went further.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the evidence suggested the purported plot was approved "at the highest levels of the Iranian government" in part because the Quds Force is believed to report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The criminal complaint lays out a series of recorded phone conversations from May to October between the two men charged in the case, Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, alleged to be an Iran-based member of the Quds Force. Arbabsiar was arrested Sept. 29 and confessed after being read his Miranda rights, the FBI said. Shakuri presumably remains in Iran.

While they interrogated him, U.S. officials showed Arbabsiar an array of seven photos, two of which were of senior members of the Quds Force, the complaint said. Arbabsiar identified one of the known Quds Force officials as a senior commander he met with in Iran who was coordinating the alleged plot.

Expressing outrage, lawmakers urged the Obama administration to confront Iran. Reps. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called the alleged plot "an act of war." But no one was calling for a military strike, and the U.S. has been leveling economic sanctions against Iran for years, with no measurable change in behavior.

Rogers said he hoped the revelations put pressure on the Europeans, the Chinese and the Russians to go along with tougher U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an appearance at the State Department, said, "We will be consulting with our friends and partners around the world about how we can send a very strong message that this kind of action, which violates international norms, must be ended."

Asked about possible military action, the White House official said, "We never rule out options, but clearly the actions we're discussing today are increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran."

Saudi Arabia, the center of Sunni Islam, and Iran, a Shiite-dominated country, are bitter enemies. A State Department cable dated April 20, 2008, disclosed by WikiLeaks, quotes Al-Jubeir as telling American officials that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia wants to the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake" by launching military strikes against Iran's nuclear program.

Vali Nasr, an Iranian-born Mideast specialist who advised the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011, said the alleged plot suggested that the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran "is more intense and significant than we have assumed" and may have been further inflamed by the "Arab Spring."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iran-plot-20111012,0,2198531,print.story

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Mexico says it helped U.S. foil plot to kill Saudi envoy

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Mexico said Tuesday that it cooperated with the U.S. government to help foil an alleged Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States that supposedly would have required the help of a Mexican drug cartel member.

“From the first moment, Mexico and the United States exchanged information and acted in a coordinated manner,” said Julian Ventura, Mexico's assistant foreign secretary for North America.

Two men, Iranian American Manssor Arbabsiar, and Gholam Shakuri, an alleged member of Iran's elite Quds Force, were charged Tuesday in New York federal court with planning to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant and kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.

The plotters planned to pay a Drug Enforcement Administration informant posing as a member of the Zetas cartel $1.5 million to carry out the attack, U.S. officials said.

Ventura told reporters that when Arbabsiar attempted to return to Mexico on Sept. 28, the U.S. government had already issued an arrest warrant for him, and Mexican immigration authorities were on alert. When he arrived, Mexican authorities denied him entry and sent him back to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he was arrested.

Reading a brief statement to reporters, Ventura did not comment on U.S. claims that Arbabsiar was tripped up by an undercover informant posing as a drug cartel associate.

The DEA and other U.S. security agencies have stepped up considerably their cooperation and intelligence-sharing operations with Mexico in the nearly five years of a brutal drug war, and are more active inside the country than in the past.

“It was possible to neutralize a risk to Mexican national security, re-enforce reciprocal bilateral cooperation with the United States and confirm that there are mechanisms and adequate procedures for anticipating and preventing the presence in our territory of individuals who are harmful to national security and interests,” Ventura said.

He added that Mexico was committed to fighting and preventing “any international individual, group or actor” from committing terrorist-type actions from its territory.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/mexico-us-saudi-arabia-iran-plot.html

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Iran rejects U.S. accusations of plot to kill Saudi ambassador

REPORTING FROM TEHRAN -- Iran on Tuesday rejected U.S. accusations of involvement in an elaborate plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States with help from a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel.

The official news agency, IRNA, accused the United States of a "new propaganda campaign" against Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the claims a “prefabricated scenario” and a “ridiculous show,” according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. Justice Department alleged Tuesday that members of an elite branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard planned to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant and kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. The plotters planned to pay a member of the Zetas cartel $1.5 million to carry out the attack, U.S. officials said.

An Iranian American, Manssor Arbabsiar, has been arrested in the case. Gholam Shakuri, an alleged member of Iran's Quds Force, was also charged but is not in custody, officials said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/iran-us-saudi-arabia-plot-reaction.html

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Free clinic plagued by red tape

California has failed to adopt regulations allowing out-of-state professionals to take part in a four-day health clinic Oct. 20, despite a law passed after crowds overwhelmed facilities last year.

by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

October 12, 2011

After more than 6,600 people overwhelmed volunteers at a free mobile health clinic in Los Angeles last year, California legislators passed a law making it easier for out-of-state medical personnel to assist with future events.

But just over a week before the massive clinic returns, the state has failed to adopt regulations needed for the additional volunteers to participate. As a result, only medical personnel licensed in California will be able to treat patients and some people could be turned away. It also means Mehmet Oz of "The Dr. Oz Show" won't be able to see patients at the clinic as planned, though he can serve as a consultant.

The clinic, which begins Oct. 20 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, will offer free healthcare services such as mammograms and eye exams to about 5,000 patients over four days. Run by the local nonprofit group CareNow, the event will be staffed by 700 to 850 doctors, dentists, optometrists, gynecologists, cardiologists and other volunteers. The clinic will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Organizers said this year's clinic will add a crucial service: connecting patients to local providers for follow-up care. In the past, uninsured patients left the event with few places to go for further treatment. This year, many will leave with a scheduled appointment.

"We want to see this as a bridge to the safety net that already exists," CareNow President Don Manelli said.

Patients also will be able to listen to presentations and receive information about nutrition, weight loss and smoking prevention.

In an effort to cut down on waiting times and crowding, patients must get a free wristband in advance. Wristbands will be distributed at the Sports Arena on Monday beginning at 1 p.m. Gates will open at 7 a.m.

The new state law, signed in September 2010 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, allows volunteer doctors, nurses and other licensed healthcare workers from other states to come to California to treat uninsured or underinsured patients on a short-term basis. But detailed regulations needed to establish procedures for authorizing the visiting professionals have not been finalized.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) sponsored the law as state Assembly speaker and said it was approved with a sense of immediacy about helping thousands of people get treatment at such clinics. Now, fewer people will receive care because regulatory agencies have not worked quickly enough, she said.

"I am very disappointed," she said. "I would have thought they would have realized the urgency and sped up the process."

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who also worked on the law, calls the event a "mega free clinic" that keeps uninsured residents out of emergency rooms. But bureaucracy is getting in the way of people who need help, he said. "The agencies that were obliged to do their part failed to do so," he said. "The ball was dropped."

Organizers also expressed frustration at the delay on the regulations. Volunteers, including internal and family medicine doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and podiatrists, are still needed, they say. Others are being asked to donate time to register patients and guide them through the clinic.

But the greatest need, Manelli said, is for dentists. "There is a huge pent-up demand for dental," he said. Although many patients may be unaware of their medical problems, he said, "If you have a toothache you know it."

The Medical Board of California began developing regulations as soon as the law took effect in January, but it is not expected to be finished until after the New Year, said legislative chief Jennifer Simoes. "Everyone just assumes when a law is passed that it is effective, but there are steps in the process we had to take before it could be implemented," she said.

Several other boards, including dental, occupational therapy and vocational nursing panels, also are preparing regulations, said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Department of Consumer Affairs. But they won't be ready in time for the upcoming clinic.

The regulations are important to ensure that patients receive safe treatment, said Bonnie Castillo, director of government relations at the California Nurses Assn., which opposed the law.

"You have to have checks and balances," she said. "You can't have people just cross state lines and set up shop without having checked their credentials."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-freeclinic-20111012,0,2851524,print.story

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Pair can face trial in Washington in three-state killing rampage

David Joseph Pedersen, 31, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, appeared in Yuba County Superior Court in Marysville, Calif., on Tuesday to face charges that they murdered Pedersen's father and his wife in Washington state, a confrontation authorities believe was only the beginning of a violent road trip that ended with two more dead in Oregon and California.

The two waived extradition Tuesday, clearing the way for authorities in Washington to try them on charges of aggravated murder in the first degree in connection with the deaths of the David "Red" Pedersen and his wife, Leslie Pedersen, 69, in Everett, Wash.

Prosecutors allege, based on police interviews with the couple and family members, that Pedersen and Grigsby paid a visit to the elder Pedersens, with whom they had had little or no contact over the years, planning from the beginning to kill them because of Pedersen's belief that his father had, years before, molested his sister.

"The plan that they set out was that they were going to allegedly kill Red as he drove them to the Everett station to catch a bus," Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said at a news conference.

"Suspect Pedersen, or 'Joey' as he's called, would sit in the back seat, Holly would sit in the front seat, and as they were driving, Joey would shoot Mr. Pedersen from the back seat. Holly would then take control of the vehicle, slow it down and they'd be on their way. That is in effect what happened," he said.

The elder Pedersen's wife was found stabbed to death in her home, her hands, feet and mouth bound with duct tape and her throat slashed. Grigsby told police it was she who had bound the woman and used two knives to slash her throat, according to the affidavit.

"They killed Leslie for what Holly said was her knowledge of the molestation, and her failure to do anything about it," Lt. Gregg Hastings, spokesman for the Oregon State Police, told reporters after his officers interviewed Grigsby.

Red Pedersen's body wasn't found right away because the couple left it in his Jeep Patriot and drove with it down to Oregon, where the vehicle was pushed off a gravel road down a steep embankment in Linn County, police say.

Meanwhile, authorities in Corvallis, Ore., on Sept. 29, a day after Leslie Pedersen's body was discovered, recovered a backpack from a garbage can at a park that contained four credit cards belonging to the elder Pedersens, along with bloody clothing and a knife.

Two days later, police believe, the couple met a young Oregon man, Cody Myers, 19, who was on his way to a jazz festival in Newport, Ore., but never returned home. Though Myers was Christian, Grigsby told police that the couple, who have a history of sympathy to white supremacist ideology, decided to kill him because his name sounded Jewish.

"Grigsby also reportedly commented that when arrested, the couple were on their way to Sacramento to 'kill more Jews,' " the court affidavit said.

Myers' body was discovered Oct. 5 in a wooded area southwest of Corvallis, shot several times. It was his 1999 Plymouth the couple was driving the same day near Yuba City, Calif., when a Highway Patrol officer, who had been alerted to the missing car, called for backup and made the arrest.

Not long after, the pair was implicated in a fourth slaying: Pedersen told police he had killed a man on Oct. 3 or 4 in Eureka, Calif., authorities said in court papers. That admission has since been linked to the death of an African American man, Reginald Clark, 53, who was found dead in that area with a gunshot wound to the head.

Pedersen confessed to all four killings in a jailhouse interview with the Appeal-Democrat in Marysville, Calif., confirming that he killed his father after learning that, years before, he had purportedly molested his own daughter, Pedersen's older sister, and another family member. Police have said they have no knowledge that this is true.

"I felt it was my responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again," Pedersen told the newspaper. "I'm not glad he's dead. I don't get joy from it. But I do get satisfaction," he said. "He didn't deserve to be walking around anymore."

He said it was also likely that he'd be charged with the murder of "a dead Negro" in Eureka, Calif., "in that the bullet from my gun is in his head."

Goetz told The Times that authorities in Everett, Wash., are trying to decide how to proceed with the case. The Snohomish County prosecutor's office filed the murder charges this week, which could lead to the death penalty.

"There's still a lot of forensic evidence that we have to collect, to include processing the vehicle, the Jeep Patriot that was recovered over the weekend," Goetz said. "It's been pretty crazy for our investigators over this past 10 days to two weeks. They've been here, they've been in Oregon, they've been in California. Today is their first day to really catch up and see where they're going to go from here."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/pedersen-crime-spree-everett-oregon-yuba-city-murders.html

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Jury gets case of 3 North Carolina men charged with terrorism

Lawyers presented closing statements Tuesday in the federal terrorism trial of three young North Carolina Muslims charged with conspiring to take part in a jihadist plot to kill non-Muslims overseas.

The case goes to a jury Wednesday after a three-week trial in which the ringleader of the alleged plot testified for the government in a plea deal.

Daniel Boyd, 41, a Marine officer's son who converted to Islam as a teenager, testified against Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Hysen Sherifi. The three men, from Raleigh, N.C., were indicted along with Boyd and Boyd's two sons in 2009 on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.

Daniel Boyd and his sons, Dylan Boyd, 24, and Zakariya Boyd, 21, pleaded guilty and testified against their co-defendants. They will be sentenced after the trial.

Jason Kellhofer, a federal prosecutor, said the defendants were motivated by "hate -- quite a lot of hate." He told jurors that the alleged jihad plot involved "murderous intent based on a twisted view of a religion, Islam."

Kellhofer ridiculed defense claims that the young men discussed jihad as a form of internal religious struggle. "What it means in reality ... is to kill innocent people," he said.

Prosecutors said the defendants underwent weapons training, firing guns in preparation for jihadist attacks. The men also traveled to the Middle East to scout "battlegrounds" for conducting jihad, they charged.

Defense lawyers said the three young men were guilty only of monumentally poor judgment and youthful bravado in openly praising Al Qaeda and longing for jihad. Especially damning were Facebook raps extolling violence against non-Muslims, including the line, "I smoke a Jew like a ciggy."

Dan Boyce, representing Hassan, dismissed it as "Muslim gangster rap."

"This was stupid stuff by teenagers," Boyce told the jury. "But Muslim gangster rap doesn't mean you're a terrorist."

Kellhofer, the prosecutor, said the intent of the lyrics went far beyond "the new jihad cool."

"It's not a defense," he said.

Boyce countered later: "Are bad words about bad conduct enough to prove a crime?"

He said prosecutors, in their haste to build a case against Muslims who came into contact with Boyd, reduced the defendants to "collateral damage" or "by-catch" -- fish unintentionally caught in a fishing net.

Boyce said the defendants' comments about jihad, no matter how offensive, were protected free speech. And firing guns at targets -- a popular pastime in rural North Carolina -- is protected by the 2nd Amendment, he said.

Prosecutors amassed 750 hours of audio and videotape, some of it collected by paid FBI informants who secretly recorded the defendants. FBI agents said they seized nearly two dozen guns and 27,000 rounds of ammunition buried in a bunker under Daniel Boyd's home.

Hassan, 22, Sherifi, 24, and Yaghi, 21, graduated from or attended high schools in the Raleigh area, and Hassan attended N.C. State University. All three speak fluent English and are intimately acquainted with American youth culture.

Hassan and Yaghi are American citizens. Sherifi, a native of Kosovo, is a permanent U.S. resident.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow

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'Toy Box Killer': Search reopened for New Mexico woman's remains

New Mexico police have reopened the case of an Albuquerque woman missing for more than 15 years after authorities recently received new information about a man known as the "Toy Box Killer" who claimed he was responsible for murdering at least 40 people.

Police suspect that the remains of 22-year-old Jill Troia, who disappeared in 1995, may be buried near a reservoir in southern New Mexico, an FBI spokesman told The Times on Tuesday as he prepared to board a boat and begin the search about 150 miles south of Albuquerque.

He said about 20 FBI personnel had joined 10 Albuquerque police and New Mexico State Police and were about to head out to search Elephant Butte Reservoir and nearby caves where David Parker Ray may have buried the remains of Troia and other alleged victims.

Ray wrote about how he sexually tortured his victims in the trailer he dubbed his "toy box" in the New Mexico town of Truth or Consequences, within view of the reservoir, Fisher said. Ray claimed he then buried his victims, including an Asian woman who investigators believe may have been Troia.

But authorities have also said it's unclear whether Ray, who died in prison, was writing about actual crimes he committed, or sadistic fantasies.

"We will be taking service boats across the lake to McCrae Canyon, hike two miles searching for remains and hike back," said FBI spokesman Frank Fisher, adding that they planned to search the banks of the reservoir as they passed, since the reservoir water level has dropped recently. They did not bring cadaver dogs, opting to bring experts who are trained to identify human remains, Fisher said.

Ray was arrested in 1999 after a naked woman fled from his home wearing only a dog collar and chain.

In 2001, Ray pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape charges in the case of the woman who had fled his home, and was convicted of kidnapping and torturing a Colorado woman. He died in prison in 2002. After his death, authorities searched around the reservoir, but never recovered any bodies, Fisher said.

Ray's girlfriend at the time of his arrest, Cynthia Lea Hendy, told police that Ray disposed of bodies in Elephant Butte Reservoir. Hendy was sentenced 11 years ago to 36 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to accessory and kidnapping charges, and agreed to cooperate with investigators to avoid a life sentence. She remains in prison, Fisher said.

Troia was last seen in October 1995 at Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque with Ray's daughter, Glenda Jean Ray, whom she had dated. Albuquerque police have long believed Ray and his daughter were connected to Troia's disappearance, which remains the Albuquerque Police Department's only known cold case related to Ray. But neither was ever charged in connection with the case.

In 2001, Glenda Jean Ray pleaded no contest to kidnapping charges and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, plus five years of probation in connection to her father's sex torture case. She was later released, Fisher said.

Fisher said authorities are reopening other missing-persons cases from the same time period to see if they are connected to Ray. A new DNA missing persons' database could help identify remains, he said.

"We are hoping that if we find remains that we can take them and do DNA analysis on them to match them with missing people, we expect they would be missing women, to bring closure to their families and to determine if there were and co-conspirators," he said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/new-mexico-torture-toy-box.html#more

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U.S. should call Iran's bluff

Whether or not Ahmadinejad is sincere in his proposal to cease production of highly enriched nuclear fuel and import it instead, it is clearly in our interests to accept.

by James M. Acton

October 12, 2011

It's time to call Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bluff.

Over the last few weeks, the Iranian president has stated on a number of occasions that his country will cease domestic efforts to manufacture fuel for one of its nuclear reactors if it is able to purchase the fuel from abroad. The United States should accept this proposal — publicly, immediately and unconditionally.

Iran's enrichment program has been the focus of international concern for almost a decade. Its first efforts were geared toward enriching uranium to 5% — suitable for use in a power reactor. But, in February 2010, in an ominous development, it started to feed some of this material back into its centrifuges to produce uranium enriched to 20%.

Iran's ostensible purpose for enriching uranium to this higher level was to produce fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, which uses more highly enriched fuel than a normal power reactor to produce radioactive materials for some cancer treatments. This explanation is, however, hardly plausible. Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, but it lacks the technology to convert this material into reactor fuel (previously it bought fuel from abroad, most recently from Argentina). It is much more likely that Iran is stockpiling 20% enriched uranium to give itself the option of rapidly converting it, at some later date, into the 80% or 90% enriched material needed for a nuclear weapon.

In October 2009, after Iran had announced its intention to produce 20% enriched uranium, the U.S. tried to forestall Tehran. At talks in Geneva, U.S. negotiators offered a swap: They would ensure Iran was provided with reactor fuel if, in return, it gave up slightly more than a ton of enriched uranium. Ahmadinejad accepted the deal but was forced to back down after being savaged domestically.

Nonetheless, the fuel swap proposal was not a waste of time. By making the offer, the Obama administration proved that it was willing to work constructively toward finding a negotiated solution, and that the real barriers to progress lay in Tehran. This demonstration of good faith was instrumental in securing Chinese and Russian support for a U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran in June 2010.

Ahmadinejad's new offer — to cease enriching uranium to 20% if Iran can purchase fuel from abroad — is not as good as the original fuel swap proposal, not least because he has not offered to give up any uranium in return. And, indeed, U.S. officials have played down the offer, publicly and privately, questioning Ahmadinejad's sincerity. Though such skepticism is entirely understandable, it is actually in the United States' interest to accept, whether or not Iran is ultimately willing to follow through.

If implemented, this new deal could change Iranian plans to move the production of 20% enriched uranium to a new facility near Qom, which is buried in a mountain, and triple the rate of production. Stopping this development — and indeed all production of 20% enriched uranium — is well worth the price of supplying Iran with a small quantity of reactor fuel (which would, of course, remain under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards to prevent misuse).

Moreover, the deal is verifiable. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors keep Iran's centrifuge sites — Natanz and Qom — under extremely close supervision. Not only do they take their own measurements of the uranium Iran is producing, they also examine the microscopic particles that unavoidably leak from the centrifuges to make sure that Iran hasn't been secretly enriching to a higher level between their visits. The international community would learn very quickly if Iran broke its side of the bargain.

In reality, Ahmadinejad may well be bluffing, and even if he is not, he probably lacks the ability to forge a domestic consensus around accepting the proposal. His most likely response would, therefore, be no. But the refusal or inability to agree to his own suggestion would be diplomatically damaging for Iran. It would strengthen the U.S. push for a new round of Security Council sanctions, just as it did when Iran walked away from the 2009 fuel swap proposal.

The fuel Iran needs would take about a year to produce. Consequently, France (the one Western nation that has the capability to produce the fuel) should start manufacturing it right away, before Ahmadinejad has a chance to respond to acceptance of the deal. This would demonstrate the West's seriousness and help deny Iran the one plausible ground there is for refusal. Moreover, even if the fuel is not used on this occasion, it would be useful to have it ready — so the U.S. would be in a position to capitalize immediately on any future diplomatic opening.

James M. Acton is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-acton-iran-nukes-20111012,0,2821588,print.story

L.A.'s prison realignment opportunity

Done correctly, moving state inmates to L.A. County supervision could revolutionize local policies that have led to the nation's highest costs per inmate and the highest state recidivism rate.

by Jonathan Shapiro

October 12, 2011

California's prisons are too full. Indeed, federal courts have found them to be illegally, unconstitutionally overcrowded and have repeatedly ordered the state to address the problem. But even if the courts had not done so, hard economic times and empty state coffers all but demand it.

As the largest single consumer of state prison services, Los Angeles County has at least a moral obligation to help come up with solutions. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, about 54,000 offenders, or a third of all state prison inmates, are from Los Angeles County. Last year, about 19,000 offenders from the county were newly admitted to state prison.

For decades, the state's nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission and various blue-ribbon panels have proposed moving low-level offenders to county facilities and programs. On Oct. 1, this "realignment" began. Besides bringing the state into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision on overcrowding, the shift to community-based corrections can effectively serve the goals of public safety and eliminate costly, counterproductive, short-term prison stints.

Rather than embrace realignment, however, Los Angeles law enforcement leaders have gone out of their way to distance themselves from it. Just days before the shift began, they claimed to be shocked, shocked that the transfer of low-level offenders, months in the making, was happening at all. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck told The Times that it would put an unfair burden on Los Angeles. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley predicted a crime wave. Sheriff Lee Baca suggested the county would be overwhelmed with new offenders.

The truth is, however, that these concerns have nothing to do with questions of fairness.

Simply because of the county's size, the realignment population in Los Angeles will be larger than any other county. According to the county's own realignment plan, about 7,000 offenders who would have gone to state prison each year will instead remain under county supervision. If the county wishes to reduce this number, it may do so by choosing to charge fewer of its residents with low-level offenses.

Nor can L.A. officials claim a lack of space. The county already has about 4,300 empty jail beds, and there are fire camps and community correctional facilities available as other options for housing offenders.

Los Angeles officials also have raised concerns about the number of former offenders who will be returning to the county for local post-release supervision; 1 in 4 parolees statewide already live in L.A. County, and in the first year of realignment, about 9,000 former offenders will be supervised not by state parole agents but by county probation officers.

L.A.'s leaders point out that the money provided by the state — some $124 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2011-12 — will not be enough to provide jail space for all the low-level offenders who previously would have gone to state prison or for all the programs needed for former inmates. They are correct. It won't be. Like other entitlement programs, the state corrections system has to be cut.

Rather than complain, L.A. leaders ought to lead. If done right, realignment could revolutionize and repair the incarceration-only policies that have led to both the nation's highest costs per inmate and the nation's highest state recidivism rate.

Public safety means more than simply jailing offenders. It requires problem-solving courts, the creative use of electronic monitoring and more intensive oversight when offenders have done their time. It means evidence-based, cost-effective strategies such as day-reporting centers, where former offenders must participate in programs during the day but return home at night, and "flash" incarceration, an immediate but short return to jail following a probation violation. It also means drug and mental health treatment for offenders and ex-offenders, as well as education and job training.

To be sure, this is a tough time for Los Angeles County. Its Probation Department is in a period of transition, its Sheriff's Department is being investigated for excessive force against the offenders it already houses, and budgets are being cut. But however difficult the times and however challenging change is, L.A. County and the rest of California no longer have the luxury of pandering to "tough on crime" policies that have proved ineffective and too expensive to sustain.

Realignment has arrived. Former offenders are already trickling back to L.A. and into county hands. New offenders are being charged. The Los Angeles law enforcement community and the county Board of Supervisors should embrace their new role as a historic opportunity. Public safety is in their hands now more than ever.

Jonathan Shapiro, a former federal prosecutor, is an adjunct professor at the USC School of Law and a member of the Little Hoover Commission.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1012-shapiro-realignment-20111012,0,2582172,print.story

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From Google News

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U.S. aims to "unite the world" against Iran

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration plans to leverage charges that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States into a new global campaign to isolate the Islamic republic.

"It's critically important that we unite the world in the isolation of and dealing with the Iranians," Vice President Joe Biden said on "The Early Show" Wednesday. "That's the surest way to be able to get results."

U.S. officials say the administration will lobby for the imposition of new international sanctions as well as for individual nations to expand their own penalties against Iran based on allegations that Iranian agents tried to recruit a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi envoy on American soil.

Biden also said that U.S. action against Iran could go beyond sanctions, but added that "we're not going there yet."

Holder: Iran aimed to bomb Saudi ambassador

Iran rejects U.S. plot claim as "childish"

Read the criminal complaint (PDF)

"This really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. She said she and President Barack Obama want to "enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat" from Iran.

Britain's government said Wednesday it was consulting with the U.S. and others over new international sanctions against Iran. "We would support any measures that help hold Iran accountable for its actions," said Steve Field, spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Clinton and other U.S. officials said the alleged plot is a gross violation of international law and further proof that Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, a label Washington has for decades applied to the Iranian government. The officials said it also underscores concerns that despite its denials Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program.

"The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador? Nobody could make that up, right?" Clinton said shortly after U.S. prosecutors accused two suspected Iranian agents of trying to murder Saudi envoy Adel Al-Jubeir. The purported plan was to carry out the assassination with a bomb attack while Al-Jubeir dined at his favorite restaurant.

U.S. issues terror alert after foiled Iran plot

The Quds: Iran's shadowy terrorist trainers

Mr. Obama called al-Jubeir on Tuesday to declare that the foiled assassination plot was a "flagrant" violation of U.S. and international law, the White House said. The president expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and said he was committed to ensuring the security of diplomats in the United States. White House press secretary Jay Carney disclosed broad outlines of the call in a statement.

Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, called the Justice Department's claims a "childish game."

"These are cheap claims. By giving it a wide media coverage, it was evident that they are trying to cover up their own problems," Larijani told an open session of the parliament Wednesday.

"They (Americans) suffered a political stroke and learned that they had begun a childish game ," he said. "We have normal relations with the Saudis. There is no reason for Iran to carry out such childish acts."

The State Department late Tuesday warned Americans around the world of the potential for terrorist attacks against U.S. interests. It said Iranian-sponsored attacks could include strikes in the United States.

In the AP interview, Clinton predicted an Iranian denial, but added: "We want to reassure our friends that the complaints against Iran are well-founded."

Saudi Arabia is the main Sunni Muslim power center in the Middle East, and the one most closely allied with the United States, Iran's declared enemy. Iran is the most powerful and influential Shiite Muslim state. The two have long vied for power and influence across the region. Saudi Arabia and other countries like Bahrain have accused Iran of trying to create dissent in their countries this year, during democracy movements across the region.

But it is not clear what motive Iran might have had for trying to kill the Saudi official. An assassination might have ignited anti-American sentiment in Saudi Arabia and beyond by highlighting the close relationship, which is one explanation for Iran's alleged involvement. Yet Iranian fingerprints on the killing surely would have meant retribution that Iran's military is ill-prepared to meet.

"This is a radical shift for the Iranians to actually attempt an attack, an assasination, in the United States understanding what the potential blowback could be," said CBS News national security analyst

The U.S. criminal complaint said the Iranian plotters hired a would-be assassin in Mexico who was a paid informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and told U.S. authorities all about their plot, which they code-named "Chevrolet."

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, who authorities said was a Quds Force member and is still at large in Iran. The Treasury Department listed addresses for Arbabsiar in two Texas cities — the Austin suburb of Round Rock and the Gulf city of Corpus Christi — and prosecutors say he frequently traveled to Mexico for business.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost. But Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said no explosives were actually placed and no one was in any danger because of the informant's cooperation with authorities.

Shortly after the announcement, the Treasury Department announced economic penalties against Arbabsiar and four Quds Force officers it says were involved. The Quds force is a feared special operations wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard military unit.

The Obama administration has often said that no option is off the table with Iran, a position that a U.S. official said had not changed Tuesday. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the policy publicly, said the emphasis now is on increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.

Clinton said the U.S. was still willing to talk to Iran about addressing concerns over its nuclear program, but made clear Tehran would have to prove it was interested in such a discussion.

The alleged target was Al-Jubeir, a commoner educated at the University of North Texas and Georgetown University who was foreign affairs adviser to Saudi King Abdullah when he was crown prince. A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which 15 of the 19 Arab hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, Abdullah sent al-Jubeir to the United States to rebuild Saudi Arabia's image here. He was appointed ambassador in 2007.

The Saudi Embassy said in a statement that it appreciated the U.S. efforts to prevent the crime. "The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the statement read.

The complaint alleges this past spring that Arbabsiar approached the DEA informant, who he believed was associated with a well-known Mexican drug cartel with access to military-grade weapons and explosives and had a history of assassinations. Justice Department officials say Arbabsiar initially asked the informant about his knowledge of plastic explosives for a plot to blow up a Saudi embassy.

But through subsequent meetings in Mexico over the past six months in which they spoke English, secretly recorded for U.S. authorities, Arbabsiar offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador. He eventually wired nearly $100,000 to an account number that the informant provided, authorities said.

Arbabsiar was arrested Sept. 29 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and was ordered held without bail during his brief first court appearance Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors said he faces up to life in prison if convicted.

The complaint said that after his arrest, Arbabsiar made several calls to Shakuri in which they discussed the purchase of their "Chevrolet," and Shakuri urged Arbabsiar to "just do it quickly."

No one answered the door Tuesday at Arbabsiar's two-story home, decorated for Halloween, at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Austin suburb of Round Rock. A neighbor said he frequently saw Arbabsiar walking around smoking cigarettes and talking on a cellphone in a language the neighbor did not understand. Public records show Arbabsiar has been married at least twice and has a history of arrests in Texas for offenses that include evading arrest and theft.

David Tomscha told The Associated Press in an interview that he and Arbabsiar once owned a used car lot together in Corpus Christi, Texas. Tomscha said Arbabsiar was likable, but a bit lazy, and "sort of a hustler."

http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-201_162-20119095.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

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Editorial

Washington bomb plot shows we must stop letting Iran get away with murder

They are murderous in Tehran, and they have been ever since the theocratic revolution took hold in Iran in 1979. But too often, the world has overlooked the madness of the country's rulers in hope that they are susceptible to reasoning.

No such naivete is possible this morning. Not after the U.S. government persuasively charged that Iran's elite Quds Force conspired to kill the Saudi ambassador to America in a bomb plot that would have taken hundreds of lives.

According to the federal criminal complaint, key actor Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports, told a confidential informant in a taped conversation, "They want that guy [the ambassador] done. If the hundred go with him, f--k 'em."

The outlandish quality of the plot - Iranians hiring Mexican druglords to blow up a Washington restaurant - serves only to reinforce that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, will stop at nothing in pursuit of calculations that are inexplicable outside his demented realm.

Obviously, he saw rewards in showing who's boss to the Saudis, hated rivals who stand across the Shiite-Sunni divide, and humiliating the Great Satan in one blow. And what did he have to lose? Not much, he has learned down through years of committing unpunished acts of war.

Most recently, the Quds Force has supported the Taliban in its fight against American troops in Afghanistan. Before that, the Quds did the same for insurgents who used improvised explosive devices against U.S. troops in Iraq. In retaliation, the Treasury has placed Quds leaders on the list of Iranians subject to economic sanctions.

Yes, that will teach them.

The Pentagon last year gave Congress a bill of particulars on the Quds Force that was a catalogue of terrorism committed with impunity.

In 1982, Quds was instrumental in creating Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based group that has waged war on Israel ever since.

In 1983 and 1984, Quds was behind the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and an annex in Beirut, as well as the bombing of a Marine barracks there.

In 1992, Quds bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and returned there in 1994 to bomb a Jewish community center.

In 1996, Quds staged the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi and wounded 372 people.

In 2009, Israel interdicted an Iranian ship carrying 60 tons of weapons for Hezbollah.

Why did Iran attempt to strike now? Perhaps it was the Stuxnet computer virus that bollixed up the country's nuclear program for a while. Or perhaps it was the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. It doesn't matter.

What matters is that it is long past time to get serious about fanatics who kill, get away with it and dream of doing more on a nuclear scale.

City eyes ‘community policing'

by Mindy Honey

October 11, 2011

Branson's new police chief is looking at implementing a new philosophy of policing for the department that would get the community more involved.

Chief Kent Crutcher said the philosophy is called “community policing” and would replace the traditional style of coverage currently used by the department.

“Traditional policing, going back 50 years, is where the officer would go out, handle the call, take a police report and turn it in to detectives and go on to the next call,” Crutcher said. “He wasn't even concerned with the problem itself or what caused the problem. He was more worried about getting to the next call and making the next arrest. Community policing flips that upside down.”

Crutcher said community policing will require a lot of policy changes within the department.

He also said transparency is a large part of the new policy.

“We have to be transparent, and by that, I mean revealing what the problem is, what area of town we are focusing on, if possible, and what is the problem we are trying to address,” Crutcher said.“When you make it public, the thought is you get more support and you get more people engaged that way.”

He said in traditional policing, an officer is assigned a different beat each day.

“The downside to that is you don't get to meet and remember the business owners and the problem areas in that beat because you are constantly boun-ced around the city,” Crutcher said. “One of the components of community policing is to make officers more accountable for their beats, and you do that by having fixed areas of patrol.”

He said every day for six months, officers are assigned the same beat and they go out and meet the same people on a daily basis.

“You begin to see that particular beat in a different way,”Crutcher said. “You start to realize where the problems are, who the problem residents are and it gives you a better chance to address the problems in that beat because you are there 10 hours a day, every day that you work. You can't help but start to learn those things.”

Crutcher, who joined the Branson Police Department this summer, said his previous department in Normal, Ill., used community policing.

“It can be very successful,” he said.

To help residents, visitors and business owners better understand what is going on in their community, Crutcher said they will soon add a web-mapping interface tied to the city's website, which will provide maps of current and past crime locations.

It will allow people to see where crimes occur and when, as well as allow people to subscribe and receive email updates when crimes occur.

On Thursday, it was announced that the site would be up within a few days. However, on Tuesday at press time, the site was not available to the public. Crutcher's office would not say when it would be available, but indicated a press release regarding the matter was in the works.

http://bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_f94cd100-f452-11e0-bf29-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=print

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