2 former officers in Arizona admit helping smugglers www.privateofficer.com

 

YUMA AZ April 17 2013— A U.S. Border Patrol agent and an Arizona corrections officer face lengthy federal prison terms on allegations that they passed codes to unlock border gates, maps of hidden sensors and other sensitive information to smugglers before losing their jobs.

Ex-agent Ivhan Herrera-Chiang and former state Corrections Officer Michael Lopez-Garcia are to be sentenced Aug. 12 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Plea agreements with prosecutors call for each man to receive up to 15 years in prison.

Herrera-Chiang pleaded guilty Friday to bribery of a public official, the Yuma Sun reported Tuesday.

Federal court records indicate Lopez-Garcia pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and to conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Both men were charged in early 2012 with conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to distribute.

As a Border Patrol agent, Herrera-Chiang, 29, was stationed in Yuma, while Lopez-Garcia, 28, worked at the state prison in San Luis, Ariz.

In his plea agreement, Herrera-Chiang said he provided maps and combinations to border gates to Lopez-Garcia to give to smugglers. The maps showed the locations of sensors hidden along the border to detect people entering the country illegally.

Herrera-Chiang said he also used a law enforcement database to look up confidential information about a drug load for Lopez-Garcia.

Lopez-Garcia said he was paid $5,000 for the gate combinations and that he shared the money with Herrera-Chiang.

Lopez-Garcia said he provided the information to smugglers and also acted as a lookout for smugglers and twice smuggled methamphetamine into the United States.

Lopez-Garcia admitted selling the smuggled methamphetamine as well as smuggled cocaine to a drug trafficker, but the buyer was an undercover agent.

In his plea agreement, Lopez-Garcia also admitted asking someone in a drug trafficking organization to arrange the murder of a government informant whom Lopez-Garcia thought had incriminating evidence about him and his activities.

source-azcentral.com

Seven colleges and universities chosen for Homeland Security pilot program www.privateofficer.com

Washington DC April 5 2013 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced yesterday that it chose seven colleges and universities for its “Campus Resilience Pilot Program.” “This is an important step in our work with the academic community to help campuses prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate crisis and emergency situations,” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. “Through their work with DHS, these colleges and universities will help us further develop best practices, resources and tools needed to assist campus communities nationwide in their efforts to reduce gun violence on campuses and bolster resilience and emergency planning processes for all types of hazards.” The selected colleges and universities are:

• Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Conn.
• Green River Community College, Auburn, Wash.
• Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, N.M.
• Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
• Tougaloo College, Jackson, Miss.
• University of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

According to the department, the program will “emphasize the importance of DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) ‘Whole Community’ approach to planning and resilience efforts and will highlight the needs of various student populations.” The department said that the selected colleges and universities will help develop and pilot and emergency preparedness and resilience planning program. It will be assisted by “local stakeholders,” campus leaders and students. The Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council recommended that DHS create the program.

Medical College of Wisconsin researcher charged with economic espionage www.privateofficer.com

Madison WI April 3 2013 A researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin has been charged with stealing a possible cancer-fighting compound and research data that led to its development, all to benefit a Chinese university.

Huajun Zhao, 42, faces a single count of economic espionage, according to a federal criminal complaint, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Zhao was arrested Saturday and held without bail over the weekend pending a detention hearing in Milwaukee federal court on Monday, when he was ordered detained until trial. No date has been set. John Raymond, president and CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, said the school is cooperating with the FBI, and directed all other questions to the FBI. According to the complaint, Zhao worked as an associate researcher at the college, assisting professor Marshall Anderson by conducting experiments in pharmacology.

On Feb. 22, Anderson set down three pill bottle-size containers of a cancer research compound called C-25, and later noticed they were missing from his desk. After searching extensively for the bottles, he reported them lost or stolen on Feb. 26. The next day, security video showed Zhao entering Anderson’s office on Feb. 22, and leaving shortly after. No one else was seen entering the office on the videos.

Security officials questioned Zhao, who didn’t admit or deny taking the compound, but said he couldn’t understand the questions, and that, regardless, everything would be resolved in 10 days. The public safety manager of the college, Jessica Luedtke, contacted the FBI. She said Zhao had been disciplined months earlier for putting lab data on his personal computer.

The college staff also discovered that on a professional researcher’s website, Zhao claimed to have discovered a cancer-fighting compound that he wanted to bring back to China, where he had been from December till mid-February.

Since his return, his résumé lists him as an assistant professor at Zhejiang University in China. Zhao was placed on administrative suspension and ordered to turn in all his access badges for the Medical College of Wisconsin after the Feb. 27 interview, according to the complaint. On March 1, Zhao met with Anderson, college security and the FBI to go over his computer, hard drive and flash drive, where 384 items related to Anderson’s C-25 research were discovered and deleted. He also had some research from another professor in the Hematology/Oncology department, without permission. Among Zhao’s paperwork, investigators found more C-25 research and a grant application, written in Mandarin, claiming he had discovered the compound and seeking more Chinese funding to continue research.

Anderson observed the application was identical to one he had submitted years earlier, in English. During the same March 1 review, college security informed the FBI that after his suspension on Feb. 27, Zhao had remotely accessed the Medical College servers and deleted Anderson’s raw data from the C-25 research, information the college was later able to restore. Zhao denied stealing any research or deleting data, and again said he did not understand the questions, though his co-workers told investigators Zhao spoke excellent English and had lived in the United States several years.

Finally, on Thursday, agents served a search warrant at Zhao’s apartment and recovered a receipt for a package he sent to his wife in China on Feb. 28, the day after he was suspended from the Medical College. They also found that Zhao had purchased, on Feb. 3 and Feb. 17, identical airline tickets to China from Chicago for April 2. Asked about C-25, a spokeswoman for the Medical College said “it is being studied to see if it can assist cancer drugs in killing cancer cells and not damaging ‘normal’ cells,” but declined further comment on the case. According to Zhao’s LinkedIn page, he has worked at the Medical College of Wisconsin since August 2011, and before that spent four years at the University of Cincinnati as a postdoctoral fellow doing breast cancer research. From December 2006 to July 2007 he did cancer research at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa. Zhao obtained his doctorate in pharmacology in 2006 from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the LinkedIn page.

His attorney, Juval Scott, said, “In this earliest stage of a complex case involving a talented professional accused of a serious crime, we look forward to rolling up our sleeves on Dr. Zhao’s behalf.”
Source- jsonline.com

2 Maryland men arrested, indicted for manufacturing fake identification documents www.privateofficer.com

BALTIMORE MD March 29 2013

Special agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested two men in Maryland Wednesday morning after both were indicted on document fraud related charges.

Antonio Abraham Cruz-Cruz, 26, a Mexican citizen residing in Adelphi, Md., and Henry Ramos Agustin, 37, a Guatemalan citizen residing in Cambridge, Md., were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges relating to the sale and transfer of fraudulent identification documents.  The superseding indictment was returned on March 20 and unsealed Wednesday upon the arrest of the defendants.

“Document fraud poses a threat to national security and puts the security of our communities at risk because it creates a vulnerability that may enable terrorists, criminals and illegal aliens to gain entry to and remain in the United States,” said HSI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge William Winter. “This investigation resulted in the arrest and indictment of an alleged document mill leader and co-conspirator operating out of Maryland. Homeland Security Investigations will move aggressively to investigate and bring to justice those who potentially compromise the integrity of America’s legal immigration system.”

The 13-count indictment alleges that from Oct. 17, 2012 through Feb. 19, Cruz-Cruz and Agustin conspired to manufacture and transfer fraudulent identification documents.  According to the indictment, Cruz-Cruz manufactured documents, including permanent resident cards and social security cards, which he sold to customers, and which he provided to Agustin for sale to customers. The indictment alleges that the defendants solicited and took orders for false identification documents from customers who provided the defendants with photographs and personal information.  Agustin allegedly provided the photographs and personal information to Cruz-Cruz, who manufactured the requested fake documents, which he then delivered to Agustin in exchange for a portion of the sales price.

The indictment alleges that Cruz-Cruz sold such manufactured fake documents to his own customers as well. The defendants face up to 15 years in prison for the conspiracy and for each count of transfer of false identification documents; 10 years in prison for each count of fraud and misuse of immigration documents; five years in prison for each count of social security number fraud and a mandatory two years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for aggravated identity theft. An initial appearance and arraignment was held Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Cruz-Cruz and Agustin are detained pending trial.

The case was investigated by HSI Baltimore and HSI Ocean City with the assistance of the Anne Arundel County Police Department and Baltimore County Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamera L. Fine for the District of Baltimore.
source- http://www.abc2news.com

2 from Mexico sentenced in Las Vegas counterfeit ID case www.privateofficer.com

Las Vegas NV March 28 2013 Authorities in Las Vegas say a man and woman from Mexico were sentenced to two to five years in state prison and will face deportation for operating a counterfeiting operation that sold phony identification at swap meets.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 38-year-old Jose Navarro-Parra and 30-year-old Libia Bustillos-Gonzalez were sentenced Friday in Clark County District Court.

They were arrested in March 2012 by Homeland Security agents and Las Vegas police who recovered computers, printers, laminating machines and $18,000 in cash.

They pleaded guilty in January to establishing and possessing a financial forgery laboratory.

Investigators say Navarro-Parra and Bustillos-Gonzalez charged $100 for a packet containing an immigration document and a Social Security card, and an additional $180 for phony driver’s licenses from states including Nevada, Virginia, Colorado and Texas.
Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com

Chinese scientist suspected of acquiring sensitive information at NASA www.privateofficer.com

Hampton VA March 22 2013 The leader of NASA said Wednesday he has ordered a comprehensive review of the space agency’s security procedures after the arrest of a Chinese scientist suspected of acquiring sensitive information at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.

While the review is under way, Administrator Charles Bolden said he has placed a moratorium on access to NASA facilities by foreign nationals from China and other countries subject to national security concerns. Bo Jiang, a researcher who worked for a NASA Langley contractor, was pulled off a China-bound plane at Dulles International Airport over the weekend and later arrested by FBI agents investigating possible violations of the Arms Export Control Act.

He faces a criminal charge of lying to agents about computer hardware he was carrying. The investigation was spurred by U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County, who said he was contacted by whistleblowers concerned about security lapses at NASA. Bolden testified Wednesday before a subcommittee chaired by Wolf that oversees NASA. Wolf said China poses an “active, aggressive espionage threat” to the United States and suggested that the aeronautics research conducted at NASA Langley would be an attractive target. “NASA takes your allegations very seriously,” Bolden told Wolf. “This is about national security.”

Bolden said 192 Chinese nationals who have been working at NASA facilities across the country will be affected by his order. Asked by Wolf if he would agree to an independent review of NASA security procedures by an outside panel of experts, Bolden said that is his “probable intent,” but he wants to complete the internal review first.

“We just want to make sure we know what the depth of our problem is,” he said. Bolden disputed Wolf’s accusation that NASA has allowed contract workers such as Jiang into its research centers as a “workaround” to evade legal restrictions on hiring foreigners directly. “We feel that we have been fully complying with the law,” Bolden said. T

he Jiang case might suggest an isolated gap in that compliance, he said. Jiang, 31, worked for the National Institute of Aerospace, a Hampton-based nonprofit research center formed by a consortium of universities. Timothy Allen, a spokesman for the institute, said Jiang’s employment ended in January. In an affidavit filed in connection with the arrest, an FBI agent said Jiang previously had traveled to China with a NASA-owned laptop computer believed to contain sensitive information.

After Jiang boarded a Beijing-bound plane at Dulles on Saturday, agents confronted him and searched his belongings. He was accused of lying to agents because he allegedly failed to fully disclose the computer equipment he had with him. Jiang has been in the custody of U.S. marshals since his arrest. A detention hearing is scheduled in federal court today in Newport News.

Source-Pilotonline.com

Iraqi men sentenced in Bowling Green terrorism case www.privateofficer.com

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. Jan 31 2013 (AP) – An Iraqi man who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges in Bowling Green has been sentenced to life in prison.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell sentenced 25-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi on Tuesday, hours after 30-year-old co-defendant Waad Ramadan Alwan received a lesser sentence for his cooperation with prosecutors after his arrest in May 2011. Alwan could have received up to life in prison.
Hammadi’s sentencing grew contentious at times as prosecutors accused him of changing his story in an effort to secure less prison time. Hammadi testified during the hearing, speaking of growing up poor in Iraq and saying life was no longer normal after the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Hammadi and Alwan pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to send weapons, cash and explosives to al-Qaida in Iraq

Homeland Security officers bust kiosk operators with fake sports merchandise www.privateofficer.com

LAS VEGAS NV Jan 28 2013 AP— Homeland Security officials said they’ve seized about $15,000 in knock-off sports merchandise in Las Vegas on a pre-Super Bowl crackdown.
Agents said they took two downtown kiosk operators into custody and seized about 600 phony NFL logo items this week. They said they found more than six dozen counterfeit jerseys, along with T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts with professional sports logos.
Officials said the merchandise would sell for $15,000 if it were authentic.
The shutdown is part of Homeland Security’s nationwide “Operation Red Zone” effort to curb fake sports paraphernalia.
Las Vegas agent Michael Harris said counterfeiting isn’t a victimless crime because it undermines the U.S. economy and can fund other criminal operations.

Virginia former Marine who shot at Pentagon gets 25 years in prison www.privateofficer.com

ALEXANDRIA, Va.Jan 12 2013 – A schizophrenic ex-Marine convicted of shooting at the Pentagon and other military targets has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Twenty-five-year-old Yonathan Melaku of Alexandria pleaded guilty last year to a series of shootings in 2010, including at the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and military recruiting stations. No one was injured.
The plea deal called for a non-negotiable 25-year sentence. But Melaku got new lawyers who uncovered evidence he was mentally ill. Government doctors have now also diagnosed him as schizophrenic.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Melaku confirmed that he wanted to go forward with the plea deal, even though he was aware of a potential insanity defense. He risked an 85-year sentence if he passed on the plea deal.

Couple charged after explosive substance, ‘terrorist’ papers found in NYC apartment www.privateofficer.com

Manhattan NY Jan 1 2013 A Manhattan couple was facing weapons charges Monday after authorities said they found a substance used to make bombs and papers titled “The Terrorist Encyclopedia” in their Greenwich Village apartment.
Morgan Gliedman, 27, and her 31-year-old boyfriend, Aaron Greene, were arrested on weapons-possession charges Saturday after officers with a search warrant discovered a plastic container with 7 grams of HMTD, a highly explosive white powder used in bomb making, police and prosecutors said.
Also found in the living room were numerous written items containing instructions on the manufacture of explosive materials and bombs, including a collection of pages that had a cover page entitled “The Terrorist Encyclopedia,” court papers said.
According to the court papers, chemical precursors to HMTD also were found in the living room.
Greene was held without bail after he appeared in state court in Manhattan on Sunday. Gliedman, who is nine months pregnant, was awaiting an initial court appearance. It was not clear who will represent her in court.
“The whole situation’s sad,” said attorney Lisa Pelosi, who represented Greene. She declined further comment. He is due back in court Friday.
The New York Post reported in its Monday editions that Gliedman is the daughter of a prominent Manhattan doctor. It described her boyfriend as a Harvard graduate and an Occupy Wall Street activist.
The newspaper said police went to the apartment with a search warrant stemming from a credit card-theft case. It said weapons recovered included a flare launcher, a commercial replica of a grenade launcher, a 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition and nine high-capacity rifle magazines.

Source:www.foxnews.com

Three people charged in a gas explosion that devastated Indianapolis neighborhood www.privateofficer.com

INDIANAPOLIS IN Dec 23 2012 (AP) — Three people charged in a gas explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood deliberately set up the deadly blast to collect a big insurance payout, authorities said Friday.
The home’s owner, Monserrate Shirley; her boyfriend, Mark Leonard; and his brother, Bob Leonard, were arrested Friday and charged with murder, arson and other counts in the Nov. 10 blast that killed two people.
Shirley, 47, was facing mounting financial woes, including $63,000 in credit card debt and worsening bankruptcy proceedings, court documents say. And a friend of Mark Leonard’s told investigators Leonard said he had “lost a ton of money” — about $10,000 — at a casino some three weeks before the explosion.
Investigators believe the trio had actually tried but failed to blow up Shirley’s home the weekend before the successful timed explosion, according to Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry. The fiery blast destroyed five homes, including Shirley’s, and caused widespread damage to dozens of others in the Richmond Hill subdivision in the far south side of the city.
Curry called the explosion a “thoroughly senseless act” that killed Shirley’s next-door neighbors. He said the victims, John Dion Longworth, a 34-year-old electronics expert, and his 36-year-old wife, second-grade teacher Jennifer Longworth, were “in the prime of their lives.”
Randall Cable, the attorney for Shirley and Mark Leonard, said he was stunned by their arrest.
“I’m just as surprised as everyone else that they’ve made an arrest. My clients have consistently indicated their innocence,” he said.
Shirley and the Leonard brothers face two counts of murder as well as 33 counts of arson — one count for each of the homes damaged so badly that officials have ordered their demolition.

Curry said his office would review whether to pursue the death penalty or life in prison without parole against the three, who are scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Shirley and Mark Leonard, 43, also face two counts of conspiracy to commit arson, while Bob Leonard, 54, faces a single count. Curry said the conspiracy charges stem from the failed explosion.
He said investigators determined that Shirley’s home filled up with gas after a gas fireplace valve and a gas line regulator were removed. A microwave, apparently set to start on a timer, sparked the explosion, he said.
On Friday, workers using heavy equipment were removing debris from razed homes in the neighborhood.
Doug Aldridge, the head of the Richmond Hill’s crime watch group, said after a neighborhood meeting that the allegations are “more than we anticipated.”
“Sometimes money makes people do stupid stuff,” Aldridge said.

Investigators found that in December 2011, Shirley’s home insurance policy for personal property was increased to $304,000 — an amount that was in addition to the coverage for the home itself, according to court documents.
A probable cause affidavit says Shirley filed for bankruptcy this year but stopped making her court-arranged payments and failed to appear at a July bankruptcy hearing. The home’s original loan was for $116,000 and a second mortgage was taken out on the home for $65,000, the affidavit also says.
A friend of Mark Leonard’s also told investigators that Leonard would surf online dating sites “and located older, heavier women, wine and dine them,” then borrowed money and never paid them back, according to the affidavit.

The friend said Shirley was aware of the scheming “and was OK with it so long as he did not sleep with the women,” the affidavit says.
Leonard has a criminal record that includes stalking and intimidation and convictions on dealing and possessing cocaine, according to prison records.
Two men, one fitting Bob Leonard’s description, were seen at Shirley’s home the day of the explosion, and Curry indicated investigators believe that’s when the gas line and valve were tampered with. He said authorities are still trying to determine the second man’s identity.
Curry said that the day before the blast, the brothers asked an employee of local gas utility Citizens Energy several questions, “including the differences between propane and natural gas, the role of a regulator in a house and controlling the flow of natural gas and how much gas it would require to fill a house.”
Curry said Shirley and her boyfriend had followed the same pattern two weekends in a row, visiting a southern Indiana casino, dropping off Shirley’s daughter with a baby sitter and boarding the family’s cat.
An affidavit says that when a friend of Mark Leonard’s called him Nov. 2, eight days before the successful blast, Leonard told the friend “the house blew up” and that he and Shirley were staying in an efficiency apartment.

In another call that day, Leonard told his friend he had been surfing Craigslist “looking for a Ferrari to buy” and explained that he could afford the luxury car because Shirley had jewelry insurance and “they expect to get $300,000 and he would get $100,000″ in the insurance payout, according to the affidavit.
It’s not clear whether investigators think Leonard believed the first explosion attempt had succeeded. Curry’s spokeswoman, Brienne Delaney, said the office could not comment beyond what was in the court documents.
The day after the explosion, Bob Leonard allegedly called his son and asked him to retrieve from a white van items he said he had salvaged from Shirley’s home after the blast.
“That, of course, is impossible because everything in the house was destroyed,” Curry said. “Plus no one was allowed access to the property after the explosion.”

Arrest made in Social Security Administration office bombing www.privateofficer.com

Phoenix AZ Dec 3 2012 More details emerged about the man authorities arrested in connection to the investigation of a bombing at a government building in downtown Casa Grande on Friday.

Abdullatif Aldosary, 47, was arrested by Casa Grande Police Friday morning shortly after a homemade explosive rocked the Social Security Administration office at 501 N. Marshall St. at about 8 a.m., a sources close to the case told The Republic and 12 News.

The sources said Aldosary may face a myriad of state and federal charges and expected him to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in downtown Phoenix on Monday.

It’s not clear if investigators have determined a suspected motive in the bombing. Authorities served a search warrant on Aldosary’s home in Coolidge on Friday.

The FBI is leading a team of investigators that includes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement.

An official from the FBI field office in Phoenix would not positively identify Aldosary as a suspect.

Records from the Arizona Department of Corrections show Abdullatif Aldosary did time in state prison for aggravated harassment case. Details in the case are unclear, but records show he was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court. He was released in 2009. A search of public records also show he had four addresses since Oct. 1998 including residences in Tempe, Phoenix and Coolidge.

The office building, which normally has 14 workers, was closed, according to Social Security Administration officials. The explosion charred a back entrance to the building.

No one was reported injured. The monetary amount of the damage had not been released Friday.

FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said he could not confirm or deny an arrest was made. He would not say if the agency was working any investigative leads.

“This thing is fluid,” Johnson said Friday. “There are (other) agencies involved at this point, and it would be really premature for me to start speculating.”

John Lopez, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, also declined to comment Friday and referred questions to the FBI.

Source:AZCentral

ICE Shuts Down 2 SoCal Internet Businesses For Selling Fake Goods www.privateofficer.com

 

 

LOS ANGELES CA Nov 29 2012 — Two Southern California-based Internet businesses were among several shut down by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a Cyber Monday crackdown on the online sales of counterfeit goods, officials announced Monday.

Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations in Ventura served seizure warrants for two domain names linked to http://www.autoforms8m.com.

The website claims to offer easy and affordable access to legal forms online and is suspected of selling counterfeit Adobe software, officials said.

“Preliminarily, federal investigators estimate the loss of revenue to Adobe at more than $3 million,” ICE agents said in a news release.

The second seizure involved the San Diego-based website, Staxxs on Deck, which sold counterfeit Nike footwear, officials said.

“In addition to selling counterfeit merchandise at its El Cajon storefront location, the company also operated a website – http://www.23isking.com – that offered knockoff Nike shoes online,” ICE said.

According to an affidavit, the company’s website made approximately $1.5 million in proceeds from the fake goods.

The annual crackdown, which began in 2010, resulted in the seizure of 132 domain names that sold fake goods.

Source:  CBSLA.com

Homeland Security Has Spent $430 Million on Radios Its Employees Don’t Know How to Use www.privateofficer.com

Washington DC Nov 26 2012 

Getting the agencies responsible for national security to communicate better was one of the main reasons the Department of Homeland Security was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But according to a recent report from the department’s inspector general, one aspect of this mission remains far from accomplished.

DHS has spent $430 million over the past nine years to provide radios tuned to a common, secure channel to 123,000 employees across the country. Problem is, no one seems to know how to use them.

Only one of 479 DHS employees surveyed by the inspector general’s office was actually able to use the common channel, according to the report. Most of those surveyed — 72 percent — didn’t even know the common channel existed. Another 25 percent knew the channel existed but weren’t able to find it; 3 percent were able to find an older common channel, but not the current one.

The investigators also found that more than half of the radios did not have the settings for the common channel programmed into them. Only 20 percent of radios tested had all the correct settings.

The radios are supposed to help employees of Customs and Border Patrol, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service, and other agencies with DHS communicate during crises, as well as normal operations.

DHS officials did not immediately respond to questions from ProPublica about what effect the radio problems could have on how the agency handles an emergency.

The $430 million paid for radio infrastructure and maintenance as well as the actual radios.

In a response letter to the report, Jim H. Crumpacker, the Department of Homeland Security’s liaison between the Government Accountability Office and the inspector general, wrote that DHS had made “significant strides” in improving emergency communications since 2003. But he acknowledged that DHS “has had some challenges in achieving Department-wide interoperable communications goals.”

The recent inspector general’s report is the latest in a string of critical assessments DHS has received on its efforts to improve communication between federal, state and local agencies. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2007 that the Department of Homeland Security had “generally not achieved” this  goal.

DHS has assigned a blizzard of offices and committees to oversee its radio effort since 2003, which the inspector general’s report claimed had “hindered DHS’ ability to provide effective oversight.”

Also, none of the entities “had the authority to implement and enforce their recommendations,” the report concluded. Tanya Callender, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said the current office overseeing the effort hadn’t been given the authority to force agencies to use the common channel or even to provide instructions for programming the radios.

The inspector general recommended DHS standardize its policies regarding radios, which DHS agreed to do. But it rejected a second recommendation that it overhaul the office overseeing the radios to give it more authority.

“DHS believes that it has already established a structure with the necessary authority to ensure” that its various agencies can communicate, Crumpacker wrote in his response letter.

Source:BeaumontObserver.net

Four Southern California men charged in terrorist plot www.privateofficer.com

 

LOS ANGELES CA Nov 21 2012 (AP) – Four Southern California men have been charged with plotting to kill Americans and destroy U.S. targets overseas by joining al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, federal officials said Monday.

The defendants, including a man who served in the U.S. Air Force, were arrested for plotting to bomb military bases and government facilities, and for planning to engage in “violent jihad,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a release.

A federal complaint unsealed Monday says 34-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona introduced 2 of the other men to the radical Islamist doctrine of Anwar al-Awlaki, a deceased al-Qaida leader. Kabir served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001.

The other two – 23-year-old Ralph Deleon of Ontario and 21-year-old Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales of Upland – converted to Islam in 2010 and began engaging with Kabir and others online in discussions about jihad, including posting radical content to Facebook and expressing extremist views in comments.

They later recruited 21-year-old Arifeen David Gojali of Riverside.

Authorities allege that in Skype calls from Afghanistan, Kabir told the trio he would arrange their meetings with terrorists. Kabir added the would-be jihadists could sleep in mosques or the homes of fellow jihadists once they arrived in Afghanistan.

The trio made plans to depart in mid-November to carry out plots in Afghanistan, primarily, andYemen, after they sold off belongings to scrape together enough cash to buy plane tickets and made passport arrangements.

In one online conversation, Santana told an FBI undercover agent that he wanted to commit jihad and expressed interest in a jihadist training camp in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

The complaint also alleges the men went to a shooting range several times, including a Sept. 10 trip in which Deleon told a confidential FBI source that he wanted to be on the front lines overseas and use C-4, an explosive, in an attack. Santana agreed.

“I wanna do C-4s if I could put 1 of these trucks right here with my, with that. Just drive into, like, the baddest military base,” Santana said, according to the complaint.

Santana added he wanted to use a large quantity of the explosive. “If I’m gonna do that, I’m gonna take out a whole base. Might as well make it, like, big, ya know,” he said.

According to the complaint, at the shooting range that day both Santana and Deleon told a confidential FBI source they were excited about the rewards from becoming a shaheed, which is Arabic for martyr.

Ten days later, during another trip to the shooting range to fire assault-style rifles, Santana told the source he had been around gangs and had no problem taking a life.

On Sept. 30, Gojali was recruited to the plot after he was asked if he had it in him to kill in jihad. Gojali answered, “Yeah, of course.”

“I watch videos on the Internet, and I see what they are doing to our brothers and sisters. … It makes me cry, and it gets like I’m, like, so angered with them,” Gojali said, according to the complaint.

The men wiped their Facebook pages of radical Islamist content and photos of themselves in traditional Muslim attire, and devised a cover story that they were going to Afghanistan to attend Kabir’s wedding.

Federal authorities said the trio and the FBI’s confidential source bought airplane tickets last week for a Sunday flight from Mexico City to Istanbul, with plans to later continue to Kabul.

After Kabir began talking to him about Islam, Santana said he “accepted Islam without knowing anything about it besides it being the truth” and that he believed the religion would help him “fit in and actually be able to fight for something that’s right,” according to the complaint.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of 15 years in federal prison.

Kabir is being detained in Afghanistan. The other three appeared for a detention hearing Monday in Riverside, and all but Gojali were remanded to federal custody with no bail. His detention hearing was delayed.

After-hours calls left for the men’s attorneys were not immediately returned Monday.

A preliminary hearing is slated for Dec. 3, and an arraignment is set for Dec. 5.

Kabir is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan. Santana was born in Mexico, while Deleon was born in the Philippines. Both are lawful, permanent U.S. residents. Gojali is aU.S. citizen.

NJ doctor arrested with bomb making components www.privateofficer.com

Ridgewood NJ Nov 19 2012

Large amounts of chemicals commonly used to make bombs were found in the basement of aNew Jersey doctor, along with assault rifles and a stun gun, prosecutors said today.

Dr. Roberto Rivera, 60, who according to some reports was active in the Occupy Wall Streetmovement last year, was arrested following a Friday night raid on his Ridgewood, N.J., home.

Ridgewood police first showed up at the home around 6:15 p.m. after getting a report of potential hazardous and explosive material, according to a press release from Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.

 Inside the home, police found a “large amount” of a chemical typically used in bomb-making, the release said. The name of the chemical was not released.

Armed with a search warrant, the FBI and the Bergen County Bomb Squad then visited Rivera’s home where they confiscated the bomb-making chemical and also found “several other precursor chemicals commonly used in the making of explosive devices,” Molinelli said.

After the chemicals were retrieved, Molinelli said police searched the home and found various weapons, including assault rifles, other firearms and a stun gun.

Rivera faces six charges, including possession of a destructive device and recklessly creating a risk of widespread injury or damage. His bail was set at $1 million cash.

It was not yet clear whether Rivera has hired a lawyer.

Bill Dobbs, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press team, said he had no knowledge of any connection between Rivera and the movement, and said Occupy is firmly committed to non-violence.

Stolen copper ingots valued at $1.25 million recovered at Port of Los Angeles www.privateofficer.com

 

Los Angeles CA Nov 15 2012 Customs agents discovered 359 stolen copper ingots worth $1.25 million that were headed to China through the Port of Los Angeles, officials said Tuesday.

The discoveries inside six containers began Oct. 2 and continued through Nov. 6, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers halted the illegal shipments from leaving the ports or ordered them to return after departure.

“This is just unprecedented for us,” said Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which began the investigation at a copper mine in Hayden. “This is a situation where the more layers you uncovered, the more intriguing it got.”

Arizona agents opened the investigation Sept. 27 when a traffic stop near a mining facility and a subsequent search of a house led to the discovery of stolen copper worth more than $300,000, along with three tractors, three semitrailers, one forklift and two hand carts.

“This is the first that we’ve seen this,” Graves said. “This is a brazen theft of large amounts of copper ingots. These thieves just work with impunity, driving the stuff out on trucks.”

Copper ingots are unrefined copper that contain traces of gold and silver. The ingots were 3 feet long, 2 inches thick, and weighed 806 pounds each.

The investigation moved to the port, where customs officers identified three containers scheduled to depart for Hong Kong. Each container held 60 copper ingots, but had a Shipper’s Export Declaration isting them as “Metal Scrap (Copper Alloy Waste and Scrap)” from the same exporter, authorities said.

Customs officers found three more containers with similar shipments that were on vessels headed for China. They were ordered to return to the port for inspection.

Agents found 179 copper ingots in the three containers for a total of 145 tons. Each ingot was covered with black powderlike substance to camouflage its color.

“We made this traffic stop with this semi loaded with all these ingots,” Graves said. “And our detectives followed the money all the way to California.”

No arrests have been made, but investigators are continuing to work the crime, which involved “a lot of players,” Graves said.

source-contra costa times

Charlotte NC man arrested for Weapons of Mass Destruction www.privateofficer.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Nov 4 2012 – A Charlotte man was arrested Friday night and is under investigation after Charlotte-Mecklenburg police found three bottles of gasoline in a hotel room.

Police responded to a call at about 3 a.m. Friday at the Econo Lodge in the 3000 block of

Independence Boulevard, near Bojangles’ Coliseum regarding suspicious circumstances. In a vacant room, they discovered the bottles and called a HazMat team to dispose of them, police said. Hotel guests were evacuated at the time.

Emmanuel Barner, 53, was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

 Barner was taken to the Mecklenburg County Jail under $10,000 bond.

Police have not said what use might have been intended for the bottles of gasoline but are still investigating.

Low morale continues to plague Homeland Security www.privateofficer.com

 

Washington DC Nov 3 2012 AP  Employees at the Homeland Security Department are less satisfied with their jobs on average than other federal workers, and DHS must do a better job figuring out why, according to a new report.

Morale varies among DHS employees, depending on where they work, with job satisfaction and employee engagement particularly low at the Transportation Security Administration and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency compared to other federal workers, the Government Accountability Office pointed out in a new report based on data from the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

While DHS has tried to determine the reasons behind low morale within certain agencies, GAO said the department should put in place more specific metrics to home in on the root causes of dissatisfaction among different sections of the workforce. “GAO found that despite having broad performance metrics in place to track and assess DHS employee morale on an agencywide level, DHS does not have specific metrics within the action plans that are consistently clear and measurable,” the GAO report concluded. GAO looked at four agencies within the department: the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, ICE and TSA.

Dissatisfaction over pay and the fairness of performance evaluations are affecting the morale of TSA employees, according to GAO’s analysis of the latest Federal Employee Viewpoint, while ICE employees did not think pay raises were linked to job performance. Employees at some DHS agencies, however, are pretty happy: job satisfaction at the Federal Law Enforcement TrainingCenter, Coast Guard, CPB and the Secret Service was higher than the average for the rest of the government, according to the 2011 survey.

DHS is the government’s third-largest department, with more than 200,000 employees.

Low morale has been a problem for DHS since its creation in 2003, although job satisfaction has improved since 2006, according to GAO. The department has used focus groups and put in place an employee exit survey in addition to creating an employee engagement committee at the leadership level to suss out problems. Poor training, staff turnover and negative publicity have been cited as reasons for employee dissatisfaction; a House Homeland Security subcommittee held a hearing on the topic earlier this year. TSA announced in October that it would seek to fire 25 employees at Newark Liberty Airport and suspend 19 others for improperly screening checked luggage.

“One explanation for lower morale at DHS is that its employees could be members of demographic groups that typically have lower morale across all agencies,” GAO’s report said. “If this is true, the cause of morale problems and their solutions might focus less on factors that are unique to DHS and more on approaches that apply to any agency with a similar workforce.”

GAO’s analysis of the 2011 survey also indicated that job satisfaction among the DHS workforce varied, depending on employee pay and length of service. Higher paid employees, including those in the Senior Executive Service, tended to be happier with their jobs than other groups. Employees with less than a year of service at the department reported the highest job satisfaction score.

DHS agreed with GAO’s findings.

Filipino crewman accused of faking fall overboard in Mobile, prompting $1 million search www.privateofficer.com

MOBILE, Alabama Nov 2 2012 – A Filipino crewman on a foreign ship jumped overboard two weeks ago in an attempt to start a new life in America and then told a fantastic story when investigators caught up with him, federal authorities allege.

A grand jury indicted Dexter Emphasis Desquitado on one count of communicating a false distress message. According to a criminal complaint, Desquitado threw one of his shoes overboard and left the other on a ladder, making it appear as though he had fallen.

The U.S. Coast Guard spent more than $1 million on a three-day search after the vessel reported Desquitado missing, according to the complaint.

This afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Cassady allowed Desquitado to get out of jail pending trial as long as he stays under house arrest at an apartment in Mobile that his cousin will arrange for him.

Assistant Federal Defender Fred Tiemann said he has not yet reviewed the evidence against his client and could not comment about the allegations. But he disputed the prosecution’s contention that Desquitado was a risk to flee. He said Desquitado’s cousin told him people were searching for him and that they immediately contacted the vessel’s shipping agent.

“They never went anywhere,” Tiemann said.

According to an affidavit by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the MSC Tokyo entered the Port of Mobile on Oct. 15. Desquitado was the crewman assigned to lower a flexible ladder, called a “Jacob’s ladder,” to help the bar pilot come aboard to help guide the ship to the dock.

Desquitado failed to show up for his shift at 2:15 a.m., however. The affidavit states that the Jacob’s ladder was not stowed as ordered and that one of the defendant’s shoes was on it.

Unable to find Desquitado, the crew reported to the Coast Guard that he was overboard.

The Coast Guard proceeded to search Mobile Bay on the water and from the air. Efforts continued into Oct. 17, covering the entire bay as well as about 30 nautical miles offshore. Guardsmen found the other shoe and an orange hard hat in the water but no sign of Desquitado.

After Desquitado alerted authorities to his whereabouts, he initially told them on Oct. 17 that he fell from the ladder and that his life jacket automatically inflated. He told authorities that he could not remember how long he was in the water but that he saw one sunrise and was able to swim to shore the following night, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit states that he said he managed to find a local bail bond agency, where an employee called him a taxicab to take him to Walmart to buy new clothes. According to Desquitado’s account, he remained in the store until he found a Filipino man who helped him locate cousin, Dr. Donato Dumlao. He and his wife picked Desquitado up and drove him to their home in Spanish Fort.

After the Coast Guard began investigating, the defendant’s story fell apart, according to the affidavit.

The bail bondsman told investigators that Desquitado declined an offer for a cab ride directly to his cousin’s home because he had been with a lady friend of whom they disapproved and that he did not want them to know where he had been, the complaint states.

The criminal complaint states that the cabbie told investigators Desquitado paid with a wet $50 bill.

Confronted with results from the investigation, Desquitado confessed that he staged his fall overboard and then hid in a tunnel on the “poop” deck until after the ship had docked an unloaded its cargo, according to the affidavit. After dark, the affidavit continues, he jumped into the water, swam past a barge and climbed ashore on a sandy area.

The criminal complaint states that Desquitado told investigators that he had been thinking about sneaking off the vessel since it was docked in Mexico and that he was waiting for the right time. He told the Coast Guard that he intended to ask his cousin if he could stay at his his house for a short time before traveling somewhere in the United States, according to the Coast Guard.

Tiemann said he does not believe his client faces significant punishment if convicted, but that remains unclear. Unlike most federal crimes, this offense is not covered by advisory sentencing guidelines, he said.

The defense and prosecution do not even agree about the maximum penalty under the statute. Prosecutors contend it is 10 years, but Tiemann maintains the maximum is six.

Warming Alaska Arctic poses security concerns www.privateofficer.com

BARROW AK Oct 24 2012  – In past years, these remote gray waters of the Alaska Arctic saw little more than the occasional cargo barge and Eskimo whaling boat. No more.

This summer, when the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf was monitoring shipping traffic along the desolate tundra coast, its radar displays were often brightly lighted with mysterious targets.

There were oil drilling rigs, research vessels, fuel barges, small cruise ships. A few were sailboats that had ventured through the Northwest Passage above Canada. On a single day in August, 95 ships were detected between Prudhoe Bay and Wainwright off America’s least defended coastline, and for some of them, Coast Guard officials had no idea what the vessels were carrying or who was on them.

“There’s probably 1,500 people out there,” Rear Adm. Thomas P. Ostebo, commander of the Coast Guard’s 17th District in Alaska, said at a recent conference of Arctic policymakers nearAnchorage. “It’s kind of spinning a little bit out of control.”

The rapid melting of the polar ice cap is turning the once ice-clogged waters off northern Alaskainto a navigable ocean, and the rush to grab the region’s abundant oil and mineral resources by

way of new shipping lanes is posing safety and security concerns for Coast Guard patrols.

What happens if a cruise ship gets stranded in stray ice? Or if a sailing vessel capsizes off an uninhabited coast?

“Yesterday, we saw three sailing vessels in 24 hours,” said the Bertholf’s commander, Capt. Thomas E. Crabbs.

The Coast Guard this summer ran Arctic Shield, the most extensive patrol operation it has ever mounted in the Arctic. It set up a temporary operating base and remote communications station at Barrow.

A fleet of cutters, buoy tenders, helicopters and boarding vessels deployed across the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering seas to oversee new offshore oil drilling operations offers search-and-rescue if needed and provides notice to burgeoning ship traffic that the U.S. is monitoring its northernmost border.

The rush for riches as Russia, Norway and Canada vie with the U.S. for the Arctic’s mineral resources, and the possibility that drug dealers, arms merchants and terrorists could begin to explore transport routes near America’s largest oil fields have prompted the U.S. military to begin planning for a future in the Arctic much more substantial than it had envisioned.

The U.S. Naval War College last year conducted war games simulating the sinking of a ship carrying weapons of mass destruction from North Africa to Asia across the top of Canada andAlaska.

The Air Force has been practicing how to make food and survival gear drops to survivors of a large plane crash in the unbelievably remote Brooks Range, north of Fairbanks.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD, already has gone beyond drills: F-15 fighters have been launched on interceptions at least 50 times during the last five years in response to Russian long-range bombers — not previously seen here since the Cold War — which have been provocatively skirting the edges of U.S. airspace.

Through it all, U.S. security forces are battling historically sketchy radio communications, vicious storms, shifting ice floes and huge distances from base: Coast Guard cutters must sail 1,200 miles south just to take on food and refuel.

“All of the uniqueness of operating up in the Arctic represents huge challenges for us,” said Royal Canadian Air Force Col. Dan Constable, deputy commander of NORAD’s Alaska region.

The Naval War College games in September 2011 were an early test, and not an encouraging one. Many of the scenarios rehearsed, former Navy Cmdr. Christopher Gray said, ran into problems with poor communications and trouble maintaining supplies of food, fuel and supplies.

“Does the Navy have the ability to go up and operate a number of ships, a number of aircraft, for a sustained period of time in this environment, where it’s cold, it’s got bad weather, it’s got a lot of ice, and it’s really far away from everything that supports you? What we found is that the answer is, not really,” Gray said.

The Bertholf is especially suited to summertime operations in the Far North. Though not capable of operating in ice, it is equipped with high-efficiency engines and stability systems that allow the vessel and its crew of 146 to remain in the Arctic for a month at a time — heretofore unheard of in the U.S. fleet.

“Because we’re present here and because we have the endurance to remain here throughout the season, we’re going to be able to understand who is in the maritime domain,” Crabbs said as a small vessel carrying boarding troops was launched off the Bertholf’s stern for a closer look at nearby shipping traffic.

U.S. officials say they are still several decades away from needing a full-scale military presence in the region, and with luck, there will be no need to resort to arms: The real source of conflict is the battle everyone faces — with the elements.

“If somebody were to invade the Canadian High North,” Canadian Forces chief of staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk said at the Arctic Imperative Summit, “my first problem would be to rescue them.”

The move to secure the Arctic goes well beyond domestic security. With easier access to the more than 90 billion barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in the Arctic, nations are rushing to gain international recognition of territorial claims, mineral contracts and shipping routes.

On Aug. 2, the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon completed an unprecedented voyage across the top of the world through the Northwest Passage.

Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson was paid a visit by a delegation of senior Chinese officials who wanted to discuss Beijing’s bid for permanent observer status in the Arctic Council, the suddenly powerful organization of eight nations with territory in the Arctic Circle.

“And China is not the only Asian country interested in the Arctic,” Grimsson said at the Arctic summit. Singapore and South Korea, he said, also want in.

The U.S. has been slow to stake out its own territory. While Russia has submitted a claim for thousands of miles of seabed, and Canada is asserting title to mineral-rich areas along the U.S. border, the United States is the only Arctic nation that has not ratified the 1982 treaty known as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — the international mechanism for brokering such claims.

The U.S. has also fallen behind on what the Coast Guard needs to patrol the new mineral development zones. The only working icebreaker is the cutter Healy, with a second being refurbished that is due to return soon. Russia, by contrast, has 25 icebreakers, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Finland and Sweden have seven each, Canada six.

“I think it’s a real-time imperative for our nation to get its arms around these things,” Rear Adm. Ostebo said. “It’s critically important to understand that we do not control it. The rest of the world has a boat here, and we are late to the table.”

source-www.adn.com

Federal agents thwart bomb plot at Federal Reserve building www.privateofficer.com

NEW YORK NY Oct 18 2012 A Bangladeshi man who came to the United States to wage jihad was arrested in an elaborate FBI sting on Wednesday after attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, authorities said.

Before trying to carry out the alleged terrorism plot, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis went to a warehouse to help assemble a 1,000-pound bomb using inert material, according to a criminal complaint. He also asked an undercover agent to videotape him saying, “We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom,” the complaint said.

Agents grabbed the 21-year-old Nafis — armed with a cellphone he believed was rigged as a detonator — after he made several attempts to blow up the bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve, the complaint said.

CBS News correspondent John Miller reported that it is possible authorities may take other people into custody in this case. They are looking at least five other people who are associates of Nafis. If Nafis is convicted in this case, he could face life in prison.

Authorities emphasized that the plot never posed an actual risk. However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralize young extremists eager to harm Americans.

“Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure,” said Mary Galligan, acting head of the FBI’s New York office. “The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences.”

Nafis appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda. Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered held without bail and did not enter a plea. His defense attorney had no comment outside court.

The defendant “reported having connections” to al Qaeda, prosecutors said. But there was no allegation that he received training or direction from the terrorist group. Nafis was living inQueens.

Prosecutors say Nafis traveled to the U.S. in January to carry out an attack. In July, he contacted a confidential informant, telling him he wanted to form a terror cell, the criminal complaint said.

In further conversations, authorities said Nafis proposed several spots for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange — and that in a written letter taking responsibility for the Federal Reserve job he was about to carry out, he said he wanted to “destroy America.” Other communications took place through Facebook, the complaint said.

A source told CBS News’ Pat Milton that the arrest was the result of a several-month investigation, and that the suspect is from Jamaica, Queens, in New York. CBS News has also learned that Nafis was enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University for the spring semester earlier this year and that he was pursuing a degree in cyber security; he is not currently enrolled there.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Nafis came to the U.S. on a student visa. He said the man came under the guise of going to school in Missouri but was really plotting an attack. Kelly said the city remains at the top of the terrorist target list.

The bank in New York, located at 33 Liberty St., is one of 12 branches around the country that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System that serves as the central bank of the United States. It sets interest rates.

The Fed is also home to “the world’s largest accumulation of gold,” according to the bank’s website. Dozens of governments and central banks store a portion of their gold reserves in high-security vaults deep beneath the building. In recent years, it held 216 million troy ounces of gold, or more than a fifth of all global monetary gold reserves, making it a bigger bullion depository than Fort Knox.

Kelly said the plot demonstrates the continued threat of terrorism against the city.

“Whether al Qaeda operatives like Iyman Faris or those inspired by them like Jose Pimentel, terrorists have tried time and again to make New York City their killing field,” said Kelly in a statement. “We’re up to 15 plots and counting since 9/11, with the Federal Reserve now added to a list of iconic targets that previously included the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Stock Exchange, and Citicorp Center. After 11 years without a successful attack, it’s understanding if the public becomes complacent. But that’s a luxury law enforcement can’t afford.”

The FBI has come under criticism for similar sting operations recently. Back in September, Adel Daoud was arrested in a sting operation and charged for trying to blow up a Chicago bar with an explosive. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the device was harmless and that the public was not in danger. In court documents, Daoud told an undercover agent the reason for the attack was that America was at war “with Islam and Muslims.” Daoud’s attorney said that his client was encouraged by federal agents to take part in terrorism.

Four men were convicted in 2009 in a plot to bomb synagogues and shoot down military planes with missiles — a case that began after an FBI informant was assigned to infiltrate a mosque in Newburgh, about 70 miles north of New York City. The federal judge hearing the case said she was not proud of the government’s role in nurturing the plot.

In 2004, a Pakistani immigrant was arrested and convicted for a scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in Midtown. His lawyers argued that their client had been set up by a police informant who showed him pictures of Iraq abuse to get him involved in an attack against civilians.

So how often is the FBI do these stings? In the universe of cases since 9/11, there have been about 300 arrests in terrorism cases, reported Miller. Of that, about 100 have involved plots. And of those, about 25 of them or so have involved actual stings where people carried what they believe were real bombs to launch attacks. So a lot more often than the general public is really aware.

New technologically advanced police boat patrolling Lake Erie www.privateofficer.com

 

LORAIN, OHIO July 15 2012  - An interesting thing happened on the way to patrolling international water on Lake Erie. Deputies gathered intelligence that the wide open water of Lake Erie could also be used for human trafficking.

The Lorain County Sheriff’s Department was awarded a first-of-its-kind, technologically advanced patrol boat in 2011 through a Homeland Security grant to protect the northern border from terrorists using the Great Lakes to transport materials for dirty bombs.

David James who operates the boat for the Lorain County Sheriff’s Department said the boat is equipped with sophisticated equipment and can detect radiological and nuclear material on recreational boats or freighters illegally entering Lake Erie. Deputies have also used the boat to gather intelligence during patrols and interdictions or boat checks that have led to major drug investigations. The boat is also used for search and rescue.

But intelligence gathering led to a surprising discovery. There’s another growing illegal activity that this boat can help prevent.

The Lorain County Sheriff Department’s Chief Deputy Dennis Cavanaugh said so much focus has been placed on ports of entry in Detroit and Buffalo that human traffickers are possibly using boats to cross from Canada into United States water during summer months. Human traffickers illegally bring people into the county for the abusive sex trade or cheap labor.

Boats being used by human traffickers could blend in with recreational boaters, especially near the Lake Erie islands where thousands of boaters gather during summer weekends.

The sheriff’s department boat uses heat-sensing technology that indicates the number of people on board or where someone might be hiding on a boat. The boat’s infrared technology can show a person in the water or on a boat in total darkness by making a monitor appear as if it’s nearly daylight.

Working very closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Lorain County Sheriff’s department patrols 22 miles of Lake Erie shoreline, but most intelligence gathering missions are conducted nearly 20 miles from shore near Canadian water.

Investigators on the boat, a Boston Whaler 350 Challenger, work in conjunction with Homeland Security’s Northern Border Initiative.

The boat has enormous horsepower and tops out at nearly 60 mph. It has a touch screen that allows a computer to drive and guide it to an exact location on the lake..

The boat can team up with seven northern Ohio counties for mutual aid on a wide range of needs, but this shift in focus sheds new light on the growing concern over increased human trafficking.

Recent missions have been taking place in the evening or at night, but mission times vary which means you never know when the boat will be docked or out on the lake 20 miles from land.

The federal grant paid for the half million dollar boat.

Source:www.newsnet5.com

NYC cab drivers trained to spot sex trafficking victims www.privateofficer.com

 

New York City NY July 12 2012 A new law will soon require New York City cab drivers to keep an eye out for possible victims of sex trafficking.

The law goes into effect this fall.

Sex trafficking by taxi is rare, but advocacy groups say as police crackdown on brothels, traffickers have adjusted – now paying drivers of all kinds to ferry victims to the customer.

The city plans to train taxi drivers to spot clues.

But some cabbies say they’re being unfairly targeted by the law and question how police can enforce it.

Taxi drivers who knowingly transport sex trafficking victims will lose their license and face a $ 10,000 fine.

Source:CNN

Eight federal air marshals for drinking on the job www.privateofficer.com

 

LOS ANGELES CA July 1 2012 - The Transportation Security Administration is firing eight federal air marshals for drinking on the job, and suspending six more for failing to report the incident.

The 14 marshals, who work out of the New York field office, were notified Friday and asked to turn in their weapons and credentials, TSA officials said. One probationary employee was terminated immediately. The rest can appeal.

Federal air marshals are armed, non-uniformed officers who fly on commercial flights to protect travelers. They also fan out among other law enforcement organizations during times of heightened security or special national events.

The drinking occurred at a restaurant in February and was reported to a website where employees can alert the organization of unethical and inappropriate behavior.

None of the marshals was scheduled to fly that day, but alcohol is forbidden when employees are on the clock.

Source:www.timesunion.com

Driver deliberately crashed car with gas container into NW D.C. building, police say www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Washington DC June 10 2012 A car carrying at least one container of gasoline crashed into the lobby of a prominent Washington office building Friday evening as diners ate at a restaurant one floor above, authorities said.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the crash was deliberate. Law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that one or more containers of gasoline were in the vehicle and that gasoline had been poured on or in it.

The vehicle smashed through plate glass and into the lobby of the building on the southwest corner of Connecticut Avenue and L Street NW about 7:30 p.m.

With its similarities to car bombings, the crash provoked a vigorous response. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was at the scene, but there was no indication late Friday of a terrorist link. The motive was unclear.

The driver was taken to a hospital for evaluation, D.C. police said. There was no report of any other injuries.

“I felt a crash,” said a woman who was in the bar area of Morton’s the Steakhouse. “I kind of heard it.” She said someone in their group asked facetiously: “Is the building collapsing? Should we try to get out?”

The woman, Maureen Mathis, a law student working in D.C. for the summer, said a red vehicle, apparently a Jeep, rested in the lobby. Mathis said the man who appeared to be the driver struggled with building security officers, then with police. Police said the car had been stolen.

The corner is busy and many people were nearby, Mathis said. She added that she saw what appeared to be a gasoline container being taken out of the vehicle.

The entrance to the Farragut North Metro station at that corner was closed after the incident while police investigated. “Everyone said it was a miracle that no one was hurt,” Mathis said.

Source:Washington Post

Man on terrorist watch list threatens to blow up social security office www.privateofficer.com

 

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. June 5 2012– A man was arrested Monday morning after allegedly threatening to blow up a social security office in Murfreesboro.

Police said they have called federal agents to bring bomb-sniffing dogs to check out the building, located on St. Patrick Court.

The man, who was not identified, is on the terrorist watch list, according to Murfreesboro police.

Murfreesboro Police along with the Murfreesboro Fire Department were called to the scene.

GA college student charged by federal agents with building bombs www.privateofficer.com

 

GAINESVILLE, Ga. June 2 2012

A federal magistrate judge denied bond for a north Georgia college student Thursday who the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said admitted building bombs.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne confirmed Wednesday a small army of ATF, FBI, GBI and local law enforcement raided a house in the woods where the girl lives near Cornelia.

The girl’s father told Winne she’s not a danger.

“Oh, she’s a real good person,” Tommy Savage said about his daughter Celia. “She likes to hunt and fish. She loves shooting. She goes sky diving. All kinds of stuff like that that you wouldn’t really typically think of a young lady doing

“What goes on in your heart and mind when you realize they’re arresting your daughter?” Winne asked Savage.

“I wish the government would stay out of my business or her business or whoevers,” Savage answered.

Winne found fascinating photos on Facebook through her name and now federal documents show Celia Savage facing some fascinating charges.

A sworn statement by an ATF agent said she illegally possessed a destructive device and possessed firearms while being an illegal drug user.

Tommy Savage told Winne his daughter Celia is a church-going college student but also is a daddy’s girl, hunting and fishing as she grew up. Like him, she is also a fierce advocate of the right to keep and bear arms.

“Is she a gun toting terrorist of any kind?” Winne asked Tommy Savage.

“Not hardly,” Savage answered, laughing.

Savage said his daughter’s not a militia member but she shares his dislike of government.

“The government, don’t have a whole lot of use for,” Savage said. “I think everybody ought to be able to stay on their property, do whatever the heck they want to.”

Savage confirms she’s in a YouTube video where she exploded a commode.

The ATF agent’s statement suggests Savage told an FBI agent she likes to blow up toilets in the woods.

Celia Savage allegedly has said she made five to seven pipe bombs of various sizes and that “manufacturing explosive devices and detonating them for recreation was her hobby.

But one wonders if she’ll have to face up to statements on Facebook.

“I despise all law enforcement and any governing authority. I am not one for selective targeting but mass destruction,” one statement said on her Facebook page.

Her dad said neither he nor his daughter advocate violence toward the government.

Documents allege suspect pot and suspected meth were found. They said Celia used pot the previous day and meth two months ago.

Her dad said to his knowledge his daughter is not a drug user but he’s concerned about some of the people she’s been hanging out with.

Customs and Border Protection officer arrested for buying weapons for illegal immigrants www.privateofficer.com

 

Brownsville TX May 27 2012 Federal agents arrested a Customs and Border Protection officer in Brownsville on charges he twice acted as a “straw purchaser” and illegally bought hunting rifles for an immigrant who could not.

Manuel Eduardo Pena, a 13-year veteran of the agency, is on paid leave.

His arrest is the fourth of a CBP employee in the last four months on corruption-related charges – and comes as lawmakers focus on infractions with Homeland Security agencies such as CBP, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, and the Transportation Security Administration.

Of immediate concern is whether Pena, 38, was part of a larger gun-trafficking cell that shipped guns south of the border, where there are warring drug cartels, but officials won’t say.

Last year, CBP and ICE combined had 893 allegations of employee misconduct involving corruption, according to Congressman Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who represents a portion of Harris County.

“While the vast majority of DHS employees are honest and hardworking, unfortunately the actions of a few bad apples taint the entire organization,” said McCaul, who heads a congressional subcommittee examining misconduct within Homeland Security.

In Brownsville, agents secretly watched Pena in December on two occasions when he allegedly purchased Remington 770 hunting rifles at Academy Sports and Outdoors, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

Pena is accused of lying on federal forms by claiming he was buying the guns for himself.

After each buy, Pena handed the guns to Sergio Gonzalez – who could not legally buy the guns – and was reimbursed for the purchases.

Pena, whose arrest was announced Friday after he was taken into custody the night before, was assigned to ports of entry in Brownsville, which include the airport and bridges spanning the Rio Grande.

“We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigation of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel on or off-duty,” said Bill Brooks, a CBP spokesman.

Larry Karson, a retired Customs Service agent who is a criminal justice lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown, said investigators likely had to assume the guns were headed to Mexico.

“If it is an illegal purchase in the Valley, you have to start with the assumption that eventually it was headed south of the border,” Karson said, pointing to the hunger of cartels for weapons from the United States.

“If you have a law-enforcement officer involved in an (illegal) transaction, it immediately brings into question: With what other violations has the officer compromised his credibility?” he continued. “If you are willing to assist somebody in the illegal purchase of a weapon.

Source:chon

Commercial bus at US-Mexico border had 700 pounds of marijuana www.privateofficer.com

SAN DIEGO CA May 25 2012 — Customs officers found 700 pounds of marijuana in a commercial bus that was stopped at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Customs officers found 177 packages of marijuana on the bus. There were 22 passengers on the bus when it entered the port for inspection about 7 a.m. Tuesday, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A canine team was screening vehicles in the area when a dog alerted to the undercarriage of the bus.

Officers found 177 packages of marijuana in a compartment that had been built in the gas tank. The street value of the drug was estimated at $350,000, De Cima said.

The 37-year-old driver, a Mexican citizen who lives in Tijuana, was arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Source:UT-San Diego