News

1. War funding bill gets sidetracked over IMF funding, detainee abuse photos
By: ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press 06/08/09 5:40 PM EDT

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/ap/47234017.html

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's penchant for last-minute demands, and a rebellion by liberal allies over his efforts to block the release of detainee abuse photos, have combined to sidetrack his bill to pay for an expanded war in Afghanistan as well as continuing military operations in Iraq. The $100 billion measure is awaiting a House-Senate conference committee after winning easy approval last month in both chambers, but an emerging compromise on the bill has become caught in the crosscurrents coming from both Obama's left and right on Capitol Hill. The firestorm over detainee photos comes as Obama needs liberals more than ever, since House Republican support has evaporated over the White House's desire to include a new $108 billion U.S. line of credit to help poor countries deal with their own collapsing economies as a result of the world recession…

2. CIA urges detainee papers be kept secret
Panetta says releasing documents would damage national security
The Associated Press updated 8:10 p.m. ET, Mon., June 8, 2009

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31176348/

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Leon Panetta told a federal judge Monday that releasing documents about the agency's terror interrogations would gravely damage national security. Panetta sent a 24-page missive to New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, arguing that release of agency cables describing tough interrogation methods used on al-Qaida suspects would tell the enemy far too much about U.S. counterterrorism work. The CIA director filed the papers in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit has already led to the unveiling of Bush administration legal memos authorizing harsh methods — among them waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning, and slamming suspects into walls — and a fight over releasing long-secret photos of abused detainees…

3. First Guantanamo Detainee Arrives in U.S.

By Peter Finn Washington Post Tuesday, June 9, 2009 9:23 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/09/AR200906...?

IPT NOTE: The gov't's press release, with chart listing charges, is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-563.html, and a related Fact Sheet is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-564.html. Other Ghailani case materials are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/cases.php#325.

The Obama administration for the first time has transferred a Guantanamo Bay detainee into the United States, flying the suspect to New York early today to face federal charges in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. U.S. Marshals took custody of Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian, at the military prison in Cuba and moved him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, officials said. He is expected to appear in federal court later today. Ghailani faces multiple charges and, if convicted, could face the death penalty for his role in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans…

Ahmed Ghailani Transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York for Prosecution on Terror Charges
US Department of Justice Tuesday, June 9, 2009
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-563.html

Fact Sheet: Prosecuting and Detaining Terror Suspects in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

US Department of Justice Press Release Tuesday, June 9, 2009
AG (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-564.html

4. Judge issues gag order in GI-shooting case
BY JACOB QUINN SANDERS Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/261584

IPT NOTE: Gag order is posted at http://showtime.arkansasonline.com/e/pdf/muhammedgagorder.pdf. Other court documents in this case are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/cases.php#330

Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle issued a gag order Monday in the case of the man accused of killing one U.S. Army soldier and wounding another outside a west Little Rock recruiting office last week.
Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley requested that Lightle issue an order barring "police agencies" and defense and prosecution attorneys and their staffs from commenting publicly on the case of Abdul-Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23. It is not clear from the order whether "police agencies" includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who also are investigating Muhammad. Muhammad's attorney, Jim Hensley, did not appear in Lightle's court Monday morning. He could not be reached for comment. Jegley said Friday he planned to seek the order in large part because Hensley granted extensive interviews and spoke at length about the case. Jegley said his preference was to try the case in court - not in the press. In the motion for the gag order filed Monday, in which Jegley misspelled Muhammad's name, Jegley did not mention Hensley by name…

LR shooting suspect lying, Yemeni says
Embassy dismisses account of torture in jail, brainwashing
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock) June 6, 2009 Saturday BY JACOB QUINN SANDERS
http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/National/261285/print/
The man accused of killing one U.S. Army private and wounding another outside a west Little Rock recruiting office Monday was not "brainwashed," "tortured" or "detained for more than four months" in a Yemeni jail, according to a statement released Friday by that country's embassy in Washington, D.C. Mohammed Albasha, the embassy's spokesman, said in the written statement that any information 23-year-old Abdul-Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, born Carlos Bledsoe, offered after his arrest Monday could not be trusted…

GI-shootings suspect has agenda, lawyer says

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock) June 5, 2009 Friday

BY JACOB QUINN SANDERS AND AMY SCHLESING

http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/National/261221/print/

The man accused of killing one U.S. Army private and wounding another outside a west Little Rock recruiting office this week was drawn to Islam's call to help others and build peaceful communities when he converted at 19 while in college, his attorney said Thursday. Abdul-Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, followed his new religion to Yemen from Nashville, Tenn., a year or two later, in late 2007, to teach English to poor children, North Little Rock attorney Jim Hensley said. Four months into his stay there, after moving to the capital city of Sana, he was jailed on charges that Hensley said remain unclear to him. It was in a Yemeni jail that an agent from the FBI first contacted him, beginning what Hensley described as more than a year of United States government harassment and threats against Muhammad…

FBI Encountered Accused Ark. Shooter In Yemen
by Dina Temple-Raston National Public Radio June 8, 2009

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105128523
IPT NOTE: See the June 2 IPT News story on this issue at http://www.investigativeproject.org/1050/arkansas-shooter-studied-under-...

All Things Considered, June 8, 2009 · The suspect in the deadly shooting at a military recruiting center in Arkansas last week, Abdulhakim Muhammed, is the latest in a series of Muslim converts who stand accused of planning or launching violent attacks in the U.S. His given name was Carlos Bledsoe. He was 23, grew up in Tennessee, and converted to Islam in high school. He traveled to Yemen in 2007, and FBI agents first encountered him in a Yemeni prison about a year later. Officials close to the investigation say what they learned about him alarmed them. The young American claimed to be in Yemen to study religion, but he was linked to a school there that was well-known for its terrorist ties. He had a fake Somali passport, though he was carrying a perfectly valid American one…

5. Key polygraph tests withheld
Canada's spy agency moves to restore its credibility after 'inexcusable' mistake before Federal Court

Toronto Star June 06, 2009 Tonda MacCharles, OTTAWA BUREAU

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/646648

OTTAWA – The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has ordered an "exhaustive review" of all five of its security certificate cases after a Federal Court judge slammed the spy agency for withholding lie detector results that cast doubt on a source key to the effort to deport Mohamed Harkat. In a scramble to restore its credibility in the face of a tougher line coming from the Federal Court, CSIS advised in a letter the mistake in Harkat's case was "inexcusable." The agency says it is taking several steps to allay any doubts about the "integrity" of its evidence or employees. "The service is resolute in its determination to restore judicial confidence in (the agency's) integrity and credibility," lawyer Michael Duffy, senior general counsel for CSIS, wrote in a letter addressed to Chief Justice Allan Lutfy of the Federal Court... The federal government alleges Harkat and four other Muslim men are threats to national security, and is using extraordinary immigration warrants that permit secret evidence to be used against them in deportation proceedings…

6. FBI director defends use of informants in mosques
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press Writer June 8, 2009, 8:42PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6465957.html

LOS ANGELES — FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday defended the agency's use of informants within U.S. mosques, despite complaints from Muslim organizations that worshippers and clerics are being targeted instead of possible terrorists. Mueller's comments came just days after a Michigan Muslim organization asked the Justice Department to investigate complaints that the FBI is asking the faithful to spy on Islamic leaders and worshippers. Similar alarm followed the disclosure earlier this year that the FBI planted a spy in Southern California mosques. "We don't investigate places, we investigate individuals," Mueller said during a brief meeting with reporters in Los Angeles. "To the extent that there may be evidence or other information of criminal wrongdoings, then we will ... undertake those investigations," Mueller added. "We will continue to do it." He called relations with U.S. Muslims "very good," but acknowledged disagreements without providing specifics. The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been asked to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make. The FBI's Detroit office has denied the allegations. In the California case, information about the informant who spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine came out at a February detention hearing for a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, an Afghan native and naturalized U.S. citizen named Ahmadullah Niazi who is accused of lying on his citizenship and passport applications about terrorism ties...

7. Death of Somali teen a mystery to Minnesota family

Associated Press Online June 9, 2009 Tuesday By JEFF BAENEN and STEVE KARNOWSKI,

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3604
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS - Burhan Hassan was an infant when he left his homeland of Somalia. He grew up American, a bright student with dreams of becoming a doctor or lawyer. But now his family is trying to find out why the 17-year-old was killed under mysterious circumstances in Somalia. Hassan was one of about a dozen young Somali men who have gone missing from the Minneapolis area over the last couple years recruited, their families say, by radical elements in Somalia. Relatives said they learned Friday that he had been killed and buried in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, but they had few details. His death follows a suicide bombing carried out in that warring Horn of Africa country last October by another young Somali man from Minneapolis. "We believe he was killed because he would have been a key person in the investigation into the recruitment (of young Somali men) here in Minneapolis," said Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi. Bihi said his nephew was found shot in the head in an open area of the city. Hassan's mother declined to comment Monday. But Bihi, her brother, said she's "devastated, the whole family's devastated."… FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson said he could not confirm whether Hassan had been killed. A State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, had no firm information either. The FBI has acknowledged an ongoing investigation into the disappearances, but won't elaborate. Several local Somalis say they've been questioned by the FBI, Customs officials, or subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury over the last several months… Like some of the other missing young people, Hassan had also attended the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis. Hassan had gone to the mosque for more than 10 years and was involved in a youth group there, another uncle told a U.S. Senate committee in March…

Air, rail, port, health & communication infrastructure security

IPT NOTE: For more infrastructure news, see Dep't of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/editorial_0542.shtm; Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/dir/index-eng.aspx; TSA Press Releases http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/index.shtm

8. New clues about object that came near plane

Friday, June 05, 2009 | 5:45 PM

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6850086

LIBERTY COUNTY (KTRK) -- There are new details on a strange object eyewitnesses say came dangerously close to hitting a commuter plane that had just left Houston. Investigators are now zeroing in on what it is. Last Friday, a pilot spotted a rocket-like object coming from the ground in Liberty County toward the airplane. The express jet flight was about 10,000 feet in the air headed from Bush Intercontinental Airport to Greenville, South Carolina. The pilot reported seeing a something fly within 150 of his plane. Seven days later, investigators believe the object was a large model rocket. "It's about 5 to 7 feet in length, solid white in color, with delta fins on the tail," said Liberty County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Ken DeFoor. "That takes it out of a missile class and puts it more into a rocket class."… Mills says most rocket enthusiasts know they need FAA clearance to fly large size rockets, but there are always exceptions. "Usually it's people who don't know any better," said Mills. "They'll build a rocket from scratch and just fire it, not thinking about it, and not knowing what the rules are." The sheriff's department now thinks the rocket was launched somewhere in northeast Chambers County and landed near the Chambers and Harris County border. That's the area they'll be searching in the coming days and hoping to find the person who launched a rocket... This is the second problem in the last year involving a model rocket and planes from Bush Intercontinental Airport. Last May, pilots from a Continental plane saw an unidentified flying object shortly after takeoff. The FAA looked into the case and determined that object was a model rocket…

9. Stowaway from Ethiopia found among Dulles baggage
Associated Press June 7, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3605

CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — Federal authorities say they've discovered a stowaway who arrived at a

Washington-area airport in the cargo hold of a flight from Ethiopia. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steve Sapp says ground personnel at Dulles International Airport were pulling baggage from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 500 when they noticed an arm sticking out. Sapp says the stowaway was an Ethiopian man who was exhausted and dehydrated. He was taken to Reston Hospital Center and is now being held at a federal detention center. Sapp says the man has been charged with being a stowaway and will be deported, but is not a security threat...

10. Recent violence in churches exposes lack of security, experts say
Churches that shrug off safety provide false sense of security, experts say
By Manya A. Brachear Chicago Tribune June 8, 2009

www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-church-safety-08-jun08,0,582...

Dr. George Tiller wore a bulletproof vest as he handed out bulletins in his church's lobby on May 31. But it wasn't enough to save the abortion provider when a man aimed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger. Fortunately for the other members of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kan., the gunman turned and walked away instead of carrying out his vendetta on the congregation. But experts say that as congregations offer shelter for victims of domestic violence, protest gun laws or take controversial stands on abortion, gay rights and the Middle East conflict, houses of worship have become battlegrounds and targets for attack. The prevailing false sense of security only adds to the danger, they say… But Hawkins and others say U.S. churches are loath to admit they have safety concerns for fear they might scare members away. Some don't take precautions. Others that have safeguards such as bodyguards or cameras hide them from congregations. Others simply stay silent on social issues, illustrating the chilling effect such danger can have on ministry… The frequency of violent incidents at churches has risen in recent years, experts say. According to the Christian Security Network, there have been 45 acts of arson and 14 violent or threatening incidents across the nation since January in which suspects brought knives or guns to church or opened fire. Jewish congregations, on the other hand, have been ahead of the curve in providing security due in part to neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, according to Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network, which provides safety advice to mostly Jewish groups across the country…

11. Black Hat Founder Tapped To Advise Homeland Security

Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences, is one of 16 people appointed to the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, as the government casts a wide net for perspectives on cybersecurity.

By Thomas Claburn InformationWeek June 8, 2009 08:50 PM

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21780017...

Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences, was one of 16 people appointed to the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) on Friday. he HSAC is composed of individuals with extensive security and policy experience from state and local government, the private sector, and academia. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano said that members of the HSAC will bring unique expertise and insight to the DHS's mission to keep the U.S. secure. Moss used to work in information security for Ernst & Young and as a director of Secure Computing Corporation. Online, he goes by the handle Dark Tangent. The fact that the noted hacker is will be palling around with other HSAC members like former FBI director Louis Freeh and William Webster, former director of both the FBI and CIA at different times, shows that the government is casting a wide net for perspectives on cybersecurity…

12. British Hacker Fights U.S. Extradition
U.K. High Court Weigh's Gary McKinnon's Asperger's Diagnosis Against U.S. Cyber-Terrorism Charges
by Tucker Reals CBS News June 9, 2009

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/09/world/main5074473.shtml
LONDON, June 9, 2009 - (CBS) The self-confessed British hacker charged with illegally accessing about 100 computers at the Pentagon and NASA is to hear this week whether his diagnosis with a mild type of autism can prevent his extradition to the United States. A judicial review by Britain's high court was to weigh the possibility of Gary McKinnon, 40, facing trial on U.S. cyber-terrorism charges and a possible jail sentence of up to 70 years, against the Asperger's Disorder diagnosis. McKinnon has admitted breaking the law by accessing the computers starting in February 2001, which he said he did looking for information on UFOs. He was arrested about a year later in March 2002. But his mother and a growing list of high-profile advocates argue that his condition would make him highly vulnerable to depression and even self-harm if sentenced to jail in the United States…

13. A Marine's hard fight: leukemia and a smallpox vaccine infection
Odds appeared to be against 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Cory Belken when he was diagnosed with both.
By Jia-Rui Chong June 7, 2009 From the Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smallpox7-2009jun07,0,6952606.st...

Reporting from San Diego — … Belken, a 20-year-old Marine, had been dealing with two potentially life-threatening conditions at once -- a recent onset of acute leukemia and a blooming infection from a smallpox vaccination. He was that unlucky one-in-a-million case, his doctors said, but one they hoped would end well. Unfortunately, his immune system wasn't regenerating very well after two rounds of chemotherapy… More than 1.7 million service members have been vaccinated against smallpox since 2002 because of fears of a bioterrorism attack. Most simply develop a tiny blister that scabs over after 14 days. The scab typically falls off by the 21st day, leaving a barely visible circle of new skin on the arm. But the military knows it is risking potentially fatal side effects to protect service members, who are exposed to diseases most Americans never encounter. About 200 service members have developed complications associated with the smallpox vaccination that were serious enough to require hospitalization or absence from work, according to Lt. Col. Patrick Garman of the Military Vaccine Agency. Problems included inflammations of the brain and parts of the heart…

Financing, money laundering, fraud, identity theft

14. President Obama to American Muslims: I will ease the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny of charities
BY Michael Saul New York Daily News Political Correspondent Friday, June 5th 2009, 2:38 AM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3606

IPT NOTE: See related item #31 below.
Tucked away in President Obama's historic speech in Cairo Thursday was a promise to American Muslims to ease the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny of their charities. "Rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That's why I'm committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat," said Obama, referring to the Muslim obligation to be charitable. A Treasury Department spokeswoman, Natalie Wyeth, described an increased effort to talk with the groups, to "help them protect against terrorist abuse of charity and to refine the guidance surrounding charitable giving." Ever since the World Trade Center attacks, fund-raising by American Muslims has come under repeated federal investigations for possible support of terrorism. Just last week, a federal judge in Dallas sentenced five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to between 15 and 65 years in prison after they were convicted of providing material support to Hamas...

15. German Terrorism Insurer Extremus Boosted by Real Estate Crunch
By Oliver Suess June 8 (Bloomberg) --

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aXkdbUj7lKRQ&refer=g...

Extremus Versicherungs-AG, the German government-backed insurer set up to cover terrorism-related claims following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, expects premium income to rise this year as real estate companies seeking funding from banks are forced to buy more coverage. "While premiums have stabilized, we are clearly selling more policies," Chief Executive Officer Leo Zagel said in an interview. "We currently have 1,400 contracts, up from 1,302 at the end of 2008." …

Border security, immigration, customs

IPT NOTE: For more details, see US Customs and Border Protection releases at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/ ; US Immigration and Customs Enforcement http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2754 , and Canada Border Services Agency http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html

16. Obama Administration Announces National Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking and Flow of Bulk Cash and Weapons Across Southwest Border

Friday, June 5, 2009 AG (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-553.html

IPT NOTE: See Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Holder at the Announcement of the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, Albuquerque, N.M., Friday, June 5, 2009, http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090605.html

Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske released President Obama's strategy to stem the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the Southwest border and reduce associated crime and violence in the region. The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy directs federal agencies to increase coordination and information sharing with state and local law enforcement agencies, intensifies national efforts to interdict the southbound flow of weapons and bulk currency, and calls for continued close collaboration with the Government of Mexico in their efforts against the drug cartels. The strategy is an important component of the Administration's national drug control policy and complements the Administration's comprehensive efforts to respond to threats along the border… The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy can be found at www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov .

House Budget Bill Adds Funds to Southwest Border Security

Homeland security subcommittee also focuses on cargo screening deadlines
by Mickey McCarter Tuesday, 09 June 2009

http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/8863/128/

The House version of the fiscal 2010 budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advanced out of the homeland security spending subcommittee Monday with more funding than originally requested to fund southwest border security operations while reducing the administration's overall request by 1 percent. Total discretionary funding for DHS would come in at $42.625 billion under the billion, an increase of 6.5 percent over fiscal 2009, excluding the cost of overseas operations for the US Coast Guard, declared Rep. David Price (D-NC), chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee…

Other items

17. Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Department of Justice's Outreach and Enforcement Efforts to Protect American Muslims
Thursday, June 4, 2009 US Department of Justice

http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090604.html

IPT NOTE: See Department of Justice Backgrounder on Outreach and Enforcement Efforts to Protect American Muslims, http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/documents/muslim-protect-effort.pdf

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement relating to President Obama's historic speech today in Cairo, Egypt: "The President's pledge for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community takes root here in the Justice Department where we are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans. A top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth...

18. Justice Department Files Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Against Essex County, New Jersey
County Refused to Accommodate Muslim Employee's Religious Headcovering
Monday, June 8, 2009 US Department of Justice, Civil Division

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-crt-559.html

The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit alleges that the county refused to permit Yvette Beshier to wear a religiously mandated headscarf while working as a corrections officer… According to the complaint, the Essex County Department of Corrections (DOC), first suspended Beshier and then terminated her on the ground that her wearing of a khimar (a head scarf) violated its uniform policy for corrections officers. The complaint alleges that Beshier had requested a religious accommodation that would permit her to wear her khimar, but the DOC denied her request…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

19. US releases Iraqi Shia terror group leader
By Bill Roggio June 9, 2009 1:12 AM
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/06/us_releases_shia_ter.php

The US military has released a senior member of a deadly terror group backed by Iran that has been directly implicated in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in during a complex operating in early 2007. Laith al Qazali was freed last weekend "as part of a reconciliation effort" as well as an attempt to secure the release of captive British hostages, according to a report in The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/world/middleeast/09release.html Laith is the brother of Qais Qazali, the commander of the Qazali network which better known as the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous. Qais Qazali was a spokesperson and senior aide to Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al Sadr. The terror group, which was part of the Mahdi Army until the spring of 2008, has received extensive financial and military support from Iran's Qods Force, the external division that backs Hezbollah and is tasked with supporting the Khomeinist Islamist revolution...

20. Algeria: Al-Qaeda had 'contacts' with militants in Italy

AKI June 9, 2009

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3408405465

Algiers, 9 June (AKI) - Algerian police have said that Al-Qaeda militants in the capital Algiers are in contact with members who live in Italy and Germany. According to the Algerian daily el-Khabar, members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb include young people in their 30's who are living abroad. The Algerian daily does not specify the number of members in the group, but it mentions Nasim, also known as Abu Sayyaf, who currently lives in Germany and was recently in Algeria to make contact with AQIM leaders. Police said inquiries revealed a link between the AQIM cell in Algiers and some Algerian citizens recently arrested in Italy. Last week, Italian police issued arrest warrants for five North Africans accused of plotting terror attacks in the northern cities of Milan and Bologna in early 2006. It is not known whether the arrests were linked to the cell in Algiers. The five were alleged to have planned attacks against the subway system in Milan and the San Petronio cathedral in Bologna which dates back to 1390…

21. Gaza gunmen use booby-trapped horses against IDF
Army continues to investigate foiled terror attack south of Karni crossing. Initial probe reveals cell believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda arrived with trucks, horses loaded with explosive devices, may have planned to kidnap soldier
Hanan Greenberg Ynetnews.com Published: 06.08.09, 14:29 /
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3728087,00.html

An Israel Defense Forces' investigation into a major terror attack thwarted Monday morning south of the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip revealed that the gunmen, believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, arrived at the crossing with several trucks and at least five horses loaded with explosive devices and mines. According to the army, it is possible that the gunmen had planned to kidnap a soldier. A new organization called "the army of Allah's supporters" claimed responsibility for the foiled terror attack. The organization said it would release details about the attack later in the day. About 10 to 12 terrorists took the horses off the truck and began planting the devices near the fence. At this stage, they were spotted by an IDF force and began firing at soldiers from Golani's 13th Regiment…

22. PA: Hamas West Bank terror plot exposed

Officials say member of Islamist group admitted to receiving 1.5 million euros to establish infrastructure aimed at undermining Abbas' regime

Ali Waked Published: 06.09.09, 00:44 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3728366,00.html

The Palestinian Authority said it has exposed a plot by Hamas to carry out a string of terror attacks against the Authority's officials and institutions in the West Bank city of Nablus and the surrounding area. PA officials said Monday evening that a Hamas member who was recently detained admitted to receiving 1.5 million euros from the Islamist group's leadership in Gaza in order to establish infrastructure aimed of undermining President Mahmoud Abbas' regime. He said that among the targets were headquarters of the Palestinian security services in Nablus. According to a Palestinian security source, the Hamas member, Wajia Abu Aidi, led officers from the Preventive Security Service to the stashed money, which he had hidden underneath the bathtub in his home. The source told Ynet that the money was earmarked for Hamas' military activities in Nablus…