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From the L.A. Daily News

Bus driver taking kids to Disneyland arrested

by Brian Skoloff

SALT LAKE CITY - An alert police officer who boarded a bus full of recent Utah high school graduates headed to Disneyland averted what could have been a deadly road trip after arresting the driver for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, authorities said Friday.

"There's no other way to put it," said Cedar City police Lt. Darin Adams. "I really hate to think of what would have been. We may have been getting calls today that the bus had crashed and students were dead or injured."

About 100 students from Canyon View High School in southern Utah had just graduated Thursday night and boarded the charter bus for their senior trip, Adams said.

Parents and faculty members had asked police to bring a K-9 to the scene before the bus departed to check students' bags for drugs.

Officer Isaac Askeroth boarded the bus with his dog and another officer and immediately noticed driver Brandon Gillman, 30, of South Jordan, seemed suspicious, Adams said.

He was fidgety, began removing items from his backpack and stuffing them in his pockets as he tried to wander off the bus, he said.

"They saw some things that didn't add up and their instincts kicked in," Adams added.

The dog immediately alerted on the driver's bag.

Adams said the officer then found prescription pills, drug paraphernalia and what is believed to be cocaine in the backpack.

Gillman then failed a field sobriety test and was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence, Adams said.

"This is a great day because we averted a tragedy," Canyon View High School Principal Richard Nielsen told the Deseret News. "In my mind, there's a strong likelihood that we (would be) having a mass memorial service instead of celebrating the accomplishments of these kids."

No telephone number was listed for Gillman, who remained jailed Friday. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Richard Maben, president of the charter bus company Utah Trailways, said Gillman started work in March and was a model employee. Maben said he passed drug tests and an extensive screening process, including a background check "with flying colors."

"In fact, he was one of our most complimented drivers. He was doing an excellent job," Maben said. "If this is true, I would certainly be shocked."

The students got on their way to Disneyland about an hour later with a new bus driver.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20712815/bus-driver-taking-kids-disneyland-arrested

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Man allegedly shines laser at Pasadena police helicopter, injures officer's eyes

City News Service

PASADENA - A man was in custody today for allegedly shining a laser at a Pasadena police helicopter, injuring the eyes of an officer on board.

Rafael Juarez, 23, of San Gabriel, was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of discharging a laser at an aircraft and possession of a controlled substance, said Pasadena police Lt. Michael Ingram. He was held in lieu $25,000 bail, according to the sheriff's department.

The laser-pointing occurred about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, while the helicopter was flying over the city of San Gabriel, Ingram said.

"The helicopter crew was not wearing their protective eyewear at the time of the attack," Ingram said. "However, they identified the suspect's location and worked with the San Gabriel police ground units to contain the area, (and) the suspect was arrested without incident."

The flight crew landed safely at the Pasadena Heliport, and the injured officer was evaluated at a hospital. His condition was not released.

"Laser assaults on public and private aircraft are becoming all too common throughout Southern California," Pasadena police Chief Phillip Sanchez said. "Pointing a laser at an aircraft while flying is illegal and can have catastrophic consequences for aircrews and the people on the ground."

http://www.dailynews.com/crime/ci_20711428/man-allegedly-shines-laser-at-pasadena-police-helicopter

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From the Washington Times

P&G to add latches to make detergent packs safer

by Linda Stewart Ball and Nomaan Merchant

DALLAS — The maker of Tide Pods will create a new double-latch lid to deter children from accessing and eating the brightly colored detergent packets, a company spokesman said Friday.

Procter & Gamble spokesman Paul Fox said the Cincinnati-based company plans to create a new lid on tubs of Tide Pods “in the next couple of weeks.” The company continues to study the design of the package, Fox said.

Doctors say children sometimes swallow Tide Pods and similar laundry products, around 1 inch cubes that are meant to be dropped into a washing machine in place of liquid or powder detergent. Nearly 250 cases nationally have been reported to poison control centers this year, a figure that's expected to rise. No deaths have been reported.

Almost all of the cases so far have been reported since March, when several companies began to market the packets. A handful of children have been hospitalized for several days.

Texas reported 71 instances of exposure this year, all but one in March or later. Missouri reported 25 cases related to the packets, and Illinois reported 26.

Some children might be confusing the tubs of colorfully swirled detergent packets for bowls of candy, said Bruce D. Anderson, director of operations at the Maryland Poison Center. Maryland has reported 15 cases this year.

“Kids are very bright and will find a way to get to something that they want to get to,” he said.

Dr. Michael Buehler of the Carolinas Poison Center said Tide's tougher lid could make a difference.

“In a nutshell, yes, it would be good, but I don't know enough,” Buehler said. “It's too early to tell.”

Spokesmen for Purex, All and Arm & Hammer did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their companies also planned changes. Kathryn Corbally, a spokeswoman for Sun Products Corp., said the company is evaluating its packaging.

The packets appear to cause more severe symptoms than typical detergent, possibly because a single packet has a full cup's worth of detergent or because the packets might activate more quickly or differently.

In suburban Philadelphia, a 17-month-old boy climbed onto a dresser and popped a detergent package in his mouth. The boy vomited, became drowsy and started coughing, said Dr. Fred Henretig of the Poison Control Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The boy was put on a ventilator for a day and hospitalized for a week.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/25/pg-add-latches-make-detergent-packs-safer/

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AWOL Muslim soldier guilty in Fort Hood bomb plot

by Angela K. Brown

WACO, Texas (AP) — Walking around a gun store one day last summer, the young man never took off his sunglasses as he asked questions about items he piled on the counter — behavior that struck the manager as odd.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo had already traveled hundreds of miles since going AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., three weeks earlier. He bought a gun from an online seller in Nashville and paid cash for thousands of dollars of bomb-making components at a major Dallas-area retail store. Trying to avoid being caught, he wore a baseball cap and sunglasses most of the time, never used credit cards while staying in motels and traveling by bus or cab, and he had his roommate's driver's license.

But his luck ran out in Killeen, a city about 150 miles southwest of Dallas and near one of the nation's largest Army posts — Fort Hood. Guns Galore manager Cathy Cheadle “just had this feeling” about him. She and an employee talked about it and then called police — who had Abdo in custody less than 24 hours later at a motel, where authorities say he had started to build a bomb. Police hadn't even known his name or background until they detained him.

A federal jury Thursday convicted Abdo, a Muslim soldier, on six charges in connection with his failed plot to blow up a Texas restaurant full of Fort Hood troops, his religious mission to get “justice” for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“A disaster was averted because somebody picked up the phone and made a call,” prosecutor Mark Frazier told The Associated Press after the trial. “The people who work in businesses like this are vigilant … and risked being embarrassed if their suspicions turned out to be nothing, but that's what we want people to do.”

Abdo was convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder of U.S. officers or employees, and four counts of possessing a weapon in furtherance of a federal crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith is set to sentence Abdo in July.

Abdo, 22, did not stand with his attorneys when jurors and the judge entered the room, and he showed no emotion when each of the six guilty verdicts was read by the court clerk. Abdo, who's been accused of spitting blood on authorities escorting him and a jailer, wore a mask covering his nose and mouth throughout the trial.

Abdo 's lead attorney, Zach Boyd, told jurors during closing arguments that he should be acquitted because his plan never progressed beyond preparation.

When authorities detained Abdo at a Killeen motel July 27, they found bomb-making components, a loaded gun, 143 rounds of ammunition, a stun gun and magazine article on how to make an explosive device.

In a recorded police interview, Abdo said he was planning an attack in the Fort Hood area “because I don't appreciate what my unit did in Afghanistan.”

He told authorities he planned to put the bomb in a busy restaurant filled with soldiers, wait outside and shoot anyone who survived — and become a martyr after police killed him. Abdo told an investigator that he didn't plan an attack inside Fort Hood because he didn't believe he would be able to get through security at the gates, according to testimony.

During the four-day trial, a recorded jail conversation was played for jurors in which Abdo told his mother his religion inspired his actions and he was seeking “justice” for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Their suffering is my suffering,” he said.

Abdo became a Muslim when he was 17. He enlisted in the military in 2009, thinking that the service wouldn't conflict with his religious beliefs. But according to his essay that was part of his conscientious objector status application, Abdo reconsidered as he explored Islam further. That status was put on hold after he was charged with possessing child pornography — about two months before he went AWOL.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/25/awol-muslim-soldier-guilty-fort-hood-bomb-plot/

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U.S. efforts on Web said frustrating to al Qaeda

Sites hacked to throw recruiters off message

by Shaun Waterman

U.S. efforts to counter al Qaeda recruiting online are bearing fruit, and the terrorist group is urging its members not to believe what they read on the Web, according to the State Department.

“We can tell that our efforts are starting to have an impact because we monitor the extremists venting their frustration and asking their supporters not to believe everything they read on the Internet,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a U.S. Special Operations Command conference in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday evening.

Mrs. Clinton highlighted a recent effort in which diplomats answered an al Qaeda recruiting campaign. Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen recently “began an advertising campaign on key tribal websites, bragging about killing Americans,” she said.

The campaign involved al Qaeda supporters posting pictures of coffins draped in the U.S. flag on Arabic-language discussion forums used by many young men from Yemen's fractious tribes.

“Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al Qaeda attacks have taken on the Yemeni people,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The counterpostings showed coffins draped in the Yemeni flag and Arabic messages about the human cost of terrorism in the country, officials said later.

The postings were clear that they came from the U.S. government, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday.

The posts were part of a new interagency effort in the State Department - the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which President Obama established in September by executive order.

The center has a $6 million annual budget, and its 40 staff come from the State Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community, a U.S. official told reporters Thursday.

The center 's 20-strong Digital Outreach Team focuses on Arabic, Urdu and Somali language Internet forums where angry young Muslims provide opportunities for al Qaeda recruiters.

“In the digital world, there's a whole middle ground where [al Qaeda recruiters] are operating and they seek to push radical views and seek to push young men to go from being, say, anti-American to being terrorists,” the official said.

On these forums, al Qaeda operatives “have people who write in, and we have people who write in against what they do. … They put links to YouTube videos, we put links to YouTube videos. Sometimes there's a one-to-one correlation, where we're responding to something they've done, as in [this] case,” the official said.

The team's small size does not matter because it is focused on a small audience, said William McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism adviser.

“They aren't focused on the whole region,” said Mr. McCants, who now works on counterterrorism at the nonprofit Center for Naval Analyses. “They are focused on a very, very specific group of people, the same audience al Qaeda [recruiters] are going after.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/24/us-efforts-on-web-said-frustrating-to-al-qaeda/