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

From the Los Angeles Times

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

Three U.S. Muslims convicted in terrorism case

The North Carolina men are found guilty in what prosecutors have called a case of 'homegrown terrorism.' They are convicted of plotting an attack on a Marine base in Quantico, Va., among other things.

by David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

October 13, 2011

Reporting from New Bern, N.C.

A federal jury has convicted three Muslim men from North Carolina of plotting to attack unspecified targets overseas, as well as the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., in what prosecutors called a case of "homegrown terrorism."

After two days of deliberations, Omar Aly Hassan, 22, Ziyad Yaghi, 21, and Hysen Sherifi, 24, were convicted Thursday of providing material support for terrorists. Yaghi and Sherifi were also convicted of conspiring to kill, kidnap or maim unspecified people overseas; Hassan was acquitted on the conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors in the three-week trial said the men traveled overseas, raised money and trained with weapons to support a jihadist plot to kill perceived enemies of Islam. Defense lawyers said audio and video recordings played in court did not show the defendants discussing or agreeing to any specific attack.

At issue in the case was the extent to which someone in the U.S. can discuss violent jihad and spread radical propaganda in the post-Sept. 11 era, even while committing no violent acts.

Like many other federal terrorism cases since 2001, the prosecution was preemptive. The suspects were arrested as the terrorist plot unfolded — but before they could commit violence.

The government amassed 750 hours of audio and video that included conversations between the defendants and three paid FBI informants; in those conversations, the defendants discussed jihad and their hatred for non-Muslims.

Friends and family members who attended parts of the trial complained of selective prosecution of Muslims. Hassan's father, Aly Hassan, said after the verdict that the trial had been "a long nightmare."

"Every single witness came out and said they never conspired with my son," Hassan said. "Conspiracy is a very elastic word."

Outside the courtroom, Sherifi's mother shouted, "Racist vultures!"

Mauri Saalakhan, director of an Islamic organization called the Peace Thru Justice Foundation in Silver Spring, Md., who attended parts of the trial, said the convicted men were victims of guilt by association. He called the undercover informants "provocateurs" who entrapped them.

Eight men were indicted in the case in 2009. The accused ringleader, U.S.-born Daniel Boyd, a Muslim convert, testified for the government in a plea deal. So did his sons, Daniel Boyd, 24, and Zakariya Boyd, 21. They are to be sentenced later.

A trial for the seventh defendant, Anes Subasic, has not been scheduled. The eighth defendant, Jude Kenan Mohammad, is a fugitive.

Prosecutors named no targeted victims. Nor did they specify places, times or dates of attacks, except for a potential attack on the Marine base in Quantico. The elder Daniel Boyd had visited the base, and he and Sherifi had discussed its vulnerability to an attack on Marines and their families.

Sherifi was also convicted of conspiring to kill members of the U.S. military and weapons violations.

In court, prosecutors displayed a stockpile of nearly two dozen guns and 27,000 rounds of ammunition seized from a bunker under Daniel Boyd's home; they also played tapes of the defendants praising jihadist publications.

Defense lawyers said the defendants were foolish young men who made "stupid'' and offensive comments but committed no crimes.

Hassan and Yaghi are U.S. citizens. Sherifi, a Kosovo native, is a legal permanent U.S. resident. All lived in the Raleigh, N.C., area.

Sentencing is scheduled to take place in 90 days.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-trial-20111013,0,2430719,print.story

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

Mexico steps up security as host of Pan Am Games

The stakes are high as Mexico prepares to kick off the games, the nation's first since 1975. The games will unfold amid a nearly 5-year-old drug war that keeps setting new thresholds for violence.

by Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

October 13, 2011

Reporting from Mexico City

When athletes from across the Americas take to playing fields and swimming pools in Mexico this month, they'll be guarded by unmanned drones, infrared-equipped Black Hawk helicopters, hundreds of surveillance cameras and more than 11,000 police officers.

It's the first time since 1975 that Mexico is hosting the Pan American Games — a major multi-sport event held every four years — and the stakes are high, as the games play out amid a nearly 5-year-old drug war that keeps setting new thresholds for shocking violence.

About 6,000 athletes from 42 countries will take part in the two-week event, which opens Friday with festivities in the host city of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest. Sports events will also be held in four other cities in the same state, Jalisco.

Although vigilance is always heightened around international sports events, the specter of possible violence in Mexico has thrust security to the forefront of planning for the games. Nationwide, more than 40,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown on traffickers in late 2006.

Guadalajara, a colonial-era city known as the birthplace of mariachi and tequila, is not among the main hot spots for drug violence. But in the last two years, the number of killings has risen in the metropolitan region, with 4.4 million residents, as several drug-trafficking organizations have battled one another in a messy struggle for supremacy in western Mexico.

One of Mexico's most-wanted drug kingpins, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, was killed by Mexican troops last year during a raid outside Guadalajara, in the upscale suburb of Zapopan. Since then, turf fighting has rocked Jalisco, with nearly 600 dead last year, more than double the toll in 2009.

Against that backdrop, Guadalajara residents and Mexican officials are hoping that the showcase sports event — the biggest in Mexico since the 1986 World Cup — is peaceful.

"Right now this is the safest city in Mexico and many other places in Latin America," Guadalajara Mayor Aristoteles Sandoval said this week in a welcome to arriving teams.

Not everyone is so sure. A headline on an editorial last month in the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara sounded like a plea: "A Pan American truce." The newspaper said that though "statements by our officials should comfort us, worry remains."

None of the drug-trafficking organizations jousting for dominance in Jalisco has made threats against the games, expected to draw 1 million spectators.

Mexico has hosted a number of other marquee events — including an international climate-change summit, film festivals and other athletic tournaments — during the last few years without a hitch.

"There's not a whole lot of incentive for the cartels to create any sort of major mayhem aimed at athletes and spectators," said Scott Stewart, a vice president of Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm. "They try to do things, for the most part, that are good for business. There's not a business reason to kill athletes and spectators."

But the huge media presence in Guadalajara could provide a means for traffickers to try to send a message to rivals, such as by dumping bodies in public places. That's what happened in Acapulco last spring when a visit by Calderon drew press attention, Stewart said.

A 2008 grenade attack by suspected cartel hit men killed eight people during an Independence Day event in the western state of Michoacan.

In August, thousands of panicked soccer fans and players fled from a professional soccer game in northern Mexico after gunmen opened fire on police outside the stadium. No one inside was hurt, but televised images of the scene, in the city of Torreon, further rattled a nation that has seen escalating drug-war bloodshed.

The Calderon administration took the unusual step this week of sending federal police to patrol by air and on the ground outside the same Torreon stadium when Mexico played Brazil in a soccer match unrelated to the Pan American Games. No shots were fired, and Brazil won, 2 to 1.

This won't be the first time Mexico has hosted an international athletic event at a tense moment.

The 1968 Olympics opened in Mexico City 10 days after an army crackdown on student demonstrators in the capital left dozens, perhaps hundreds, of protesters dead. In the end, the Games would be remembered more for raised-fist, Black Power salutes by American sprinters than for turmoil in Mexico.

For many athletes, the upcoming games are a key step toward next year's Olympics in London. Safety precautions for U.S. competitors in Mexico are no different than in other international contests, which customarily rely on close contact with local police, team officials said.

Brenda Villa, a water-polo star from Commerce, Calif., whose mother was born in Jalisco, said she wasn't jittery about coming to Mexico amid so much violence.

"I'm not. My team isn't. We're just excited to go to a new city and I'm excited for my team to see some of Guadalajara," she said in a conference call with reporters.

As the games neared, the most immediate worry centered on construction delays and weather.

The main athletic track gained authorization from the IAAF, the international organizing body, on Tuesday.

Hurricane Jova this week stormed ashore along a stretch of Jalisco before veering north, away from Guadalajara, and weakening, but the forecast for the next several days calls for thunderstorms.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-games-security-20111014,0,1019903,print.story

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

From Google News

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

Obama promises 'toughest sanctions' on Iran over alleged bomb plot

President says US will call on international community to further isolate Iran – but doubts remain over whether plot was genuine

Obama insisted that the US had evidence to back up the allegations, as he said he would not take any options off the table in dealing with Iran - diplomatic code for the possibility of military action. Tehran has vehemently denied any involvement in the plot.

US authorities said on Tuesday they had evidence of a plot by two men linked to Iran's revolutionary guard to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, by setting off a bomb in a Washington restaurant.

Speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama said: "Now those facts are there for all to see. We would not be bringing forward a case unless we knew exactly how to support all the allegations that are contained in the indictment."

In addition to prosecutions, Obama said he would continue "to apply the sort of pressure that will have a direct impact on the Iranian government until it makes a better choice in how it interacts with the rest of the international community".

The State Department revealed on Thursday that the US had been in direct contact with Iran over the allegations. "We are not prepared at the moment to go any further on the question of who spoke to whom, and where, but just to confirm that we have had direct contact with Iran,'' said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The president's comments came as two congressional committees held hearings on Iran. In testimony to the Senate banking committee, David Cohen, the US Treasury's under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the administration was considering sanctions against Iran's central bank.

Cohen described the alleged plot as a "dramatic reminder that the urgent and serious threat we face from Iran is not limited to Iran's nuclear ambitions".

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee, said the assassination plot "illustrates Iran's active campaign" to partner with extremists groups and drug traffickers.

But as more details have emerged, there has been growing scepticism over the true nature of the threat, not least because the main suspect has been revealed to be a chaotic used car salesman, nicknamed "Scarface", with a string of failed businesses behind him.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalised US citizen, was arrested last month, and stands accused of running a global terror plot that stretched from Mexico to Tehran. He is accused of having links to Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The other suspect, Gholam Shakuri, is said by the US to be in Iran.

But Tom Hosseini, a friend and former roommate of Arbabsiar's, questioned his ability to carry out the plot and told the New York Times: "His socks would not match. He was always losing his keys and his cellphone."

Hosseini said when he last saw his friend two months ago, Arbabsiar told him he had been in Iran and was "making good money".

US officials concede that the plot and its alleged mastermind are unusual. ''We would expect to see the Quds Force cover their tracks more effectively,'' one official told Reuters. Another said a plot to launch a violent attack inside the United States was ''very outside the pattern'' of recent Quds Force activities.

Kenneth Katzman, an Iran specialist at the Congressional Research Service, said there were elements of the alleged plot that did not make sense.

''The idea of using a Texas car salesman who is not really a Quds Force person himself, who has been in residence in the United States many years, that doesn't add up,'' Katzman said.

''There could have been some contact on this with the Quds Force, but the idea that this was some sort of directed, vetted, fully thought-through plot, approved at high levels in Tehran leadership I think defies credulity,'' he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/13/obama-us-toughest-sanctions-iran?newsfeed=true

From the Department of Honeland Security

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

Kicking Off Fire Prevention Week by Glenn Gaines Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator for the U.S. Fire Administration We often say it takes a team to prepare and be ready for disasters. This week, USFA and other members of the emergency management team will be

.