06-03-09 Daily Intel Report

1. Fears mount that North Korea is preparing to attack the South

Richard Lloyd Parry on the Northern Limit Line, Yellow Sea From The Times (London) June 2, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6410160.ece

It was obvious that something was up when the Chinese scarpered. One day there were scores of their fishing boats hoovering up the valuable crabs from the richest of the fishing grounds in the Yellow Sea. Overnight all but a handful were gone. Anywhere else the locals would have been glad to have the crabs to themselves but this is no ordinary fishing ground. A few yards from here is the maritime boundary between South and North Korea. "The Chinese fish here because the North Koreans allow them," a coastguard official said. "If they've gone it's because they've had some kind of warning." An imminent missile launch into the sea? An armed incursion of North Korean ships? A full-scale invasion of Yeonpyeong, the small South Korean island hard up against the maritime boundary? Too much blood has already been shed in these waters for anyone to risk taking any chances, and for the past week South Korea has been dispatching reinforcements. No one will discuss numbers for security reasons but sailors and marines, as well as members of the Sea Special Attack Team, the coastguard's commando force, have been arriving to join the several hundred troops already on Yeonpyeong. These waters, around the Northern Limit Line, have become the most tense and dangerous patch of sea in Asia…

2. Two military recruiters shot, one of them killed in drive-by
By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Contact) June 1, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3554

Police say a man with "political and religious motives" confessed to fatally shooting a new soldier and wounding another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center. The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme. William Long, 23, of Conway, died in the attack on the Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center, and Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, was wounded and in stable condition, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said. Police arrested Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23 of Little Rock, along a crosstown interstate moments later. Thomas said Muhammad, previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, would be charged with capital murder, plus 16 counts of committing a terroristic act. A police report said Muhammad admitted that he "observed two uniformed U.S. soldiers standing in front of the recruiting office ... then drove in front of the army recruiting office and shot the victims." It did not quote Muhammad directly. "He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them," Lt. Terry Hastings said in an interview said. "That's what he said." Thomas said that, based on an interview officers conducted with Muhammad, the suspect "probably had political and religious motives for the attack" on the recruiting center about 1.5 miles from his apartment. Mr. Muhammad, previously known as Mr. Bledsoe, did convert to Islam sometime previously in his life. At this point it appears that he specifically targeted military personnel, but there doesn't appear to be a wider conspiracy or, at this point in time, any indication that he's a part of a larger group or a conspiracy to go further," the chief said. "At this point, we believe that it's associated with his disagreement over the military operations."…

Recruiter Shooting Suspect Under FBI Investigation Allegedly Confessed
Investigators Probing Attack to Determine Whether Shooting Suspect Acted Alone
By PIERRE THOMAS, RICHARD ESPOSITO and JACK DATE June 2, 2009— ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7732467&page=1

The suspect arrested for the murder of a U.S. Army soldier at a Little Rock, Ark., recruiting booth has allegedly confessed to the attack, according to court documents. Though police have told ABC News that a preliminary investigation indicated that Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, acted alone, authorities are trying to determine whether others were involved in the Monday shooting that also critically wounded another soldier. Police could only guess at the motive for Muhammad's attack. "We believe that it's associated with his disagreement over the military operations," Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas told The Associated Press… ABC News has learned that Muhammad had been under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force since his return from Yemen. The investigation was in its preliminary stages, authorities said, and was based on the suspect's travel to Yemen and his arrest there for using a Somali passport. Muhammad had changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after converting to the Muslim faith… According to sources, the suspect advised them that he was going to kill as many Army personnel as possible. At the time of the shooting, the subject had approximately 200 rounds of ammunition available, police said… When police stopped Muhammad's vehicle, the suspect immediately surrendered and advised officers that he had a bomb in the car. Bomb techs were dispatched, but no explosive devices were found. The car, however, was loaded with a small arsenal. Officers who searched it found more than 100 rounds of ammunition, an SKS assault rifle, two pistols and two military books. The ammunition was loaded in magazines which were found in a vest, police sources say...

Recruiting Center Shooting Suspect Pleads Not Guilty, Held Without Bail
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,524405,00.html

A convert to Islam accused of having "political and religious motives" in a deadly Arkansas military center shooting pleaded not guilty to capital murder Tuesday and was ordered held without bond…

3. Guantanamo: the Xbox game
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg will take the starring role in a new computer game based on life at the prison camp.
Last Updated: 4:02PM BST 01 Jun 2009 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3555

Begg, from Birmingham, was captured by the CIA and thrown in jail at Guantanamo Bay in 2003. The 41-year-old, who was released in 2005, will now feature as himself in the game for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In the game, players control a detainee at the camp, which has been sold by the US Government to a shadowy agency called Freedom Corp. Before he is subjected to torture and scientific experiments, the character must shoot his way out of the detention camp to bring down his captors. Moazzam, who has a financial stake in the game, said he has not yet received any money from the producers. He said: "The software firm approached me with this idea about making a game based on my experience in Guantanamo. "My first response was hesitation - I was worried that it might trivialise my experience… Zarrar Chishti, the firm's director, said: … "It's been in production for a year and two months. You start the game with the orange boiler suit, cuffs and earmuffs. "We have had a lot of hate mail about this, mainly from America, saying things like 'don't dare put out a game that shows them killing our soldiers'. "But no US or British soldiers get killed in it. The only ones being killed are mercenaries."

4. Judge OKs Access To Videos In Ga. Terror Case
Updated 6/1/2009 2:49:56 PM Posted By: The Associated Press
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130886&catid=3
IPT NOTE: Court documents in this case are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/cases.php#139

ATLANTA -- A federal judge has granted a request by news organizations for access to copies of audio and video court records key to the case against a former Georgia Tech student on trial for conspiring to aid terrorist groups. U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey granted the request Monday, the first day of Syed Haris Ahmed's trial. The request included access to about 12 hours of an audiotaped FBI interview with Ahmed and videos that prosecutors say he and another suspect filmed of potential terrorist targets in Washington, D.C. Among the news organizations requesting access were The Associated Press and CNN.

Lawyers in Atlanta Case Spar Over Whether Idle Net Chatter Could Lead to Terrorism
R. Robin McDonald 06-02-2009 Fulton County Daily Report
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202431138789&pos=ataglance
A federal prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer began sparring before a judge on Monday over terrorism charges against an engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Syed Haris Ahmed was just 19 when his forays on the Internet led him to Muslim chat rooms where he corresponded with jihadists whose calls for violence had attracted the attention of international terrorist hunters. But Ahmed's contacts with a network of individuals either sympathetic to or affiliated with international terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida soon drew Ahmed into a conspiracy of terror that was thwarted before he participated in any violent act, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert C. McBurney said in opening statements Monday. Ahmed, a naturalized American citizen whose parents immigrated to the United States from Pakistan when he was 12, is being tried for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in a bench trial in front of U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey Jr. in Atlanta. Ahmed is being tried separately from his friend and alleged co-conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee. He is an American, whose parents are from Bangladesh, who was 19 when he and Ahmed were arrested. Sadequee is expected to go to trial in August. "There are no bombs," McBurney told Duffey on Monday morning. "This case is one step removed from the bomb throwers, the shooters. ... It's about people who've entered into an agreement to support terrorists."…

Atlanta terror trial tied to Toronto 18
U.S. prosecutors say would-be jihadist offered advice here

Jun 02, 2009 04:30 AM Ben Smith SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO STAR
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/643922

ATLANTA – In a Toronto mosque and in an Internet chat room, an aspiring young jihadist from Georgia and members of the so-called Toronto 18 terror cell talked of blowing up oil refineries, attacking U.S. military bases and going to Pakistan for terrorism training, U.S. federal prosecutors alleged yesterday. The prosecutors launched their case in federal court against Syed Haris Ahmed, accused of conspiring in 2005 to commit terrorist acts that were never carried out… Much of the evidence in the case of the Toronto adults is covered under a publication ban, but the trial in Atlanta offers a glimpse into the inner workings of these two groups. Court was told yesterday the American pair met several times, including once in an unidentified Toronto mosque, with three individuals identified in transcripts as "Azdee, James and Jamal." McBurney later identified James as Fahim Ahmad, a member of the Toronto 18. He said Jamal is Jahmaal James, another member of the group. McBurney also said Ahmad used the name "Deenin" in online discussions with Ahmed and Sadequee about going to Pakistan. Along with attacking oil refineries and military bases, the group talked about disabling global positioning satellites – the latter was said to be Ahmad's idea…

Atlanta Terrorism Case Shows Global Reach of Potential Plots
Alleged Casing Video of Washington, DC Key Evidence
By JASON RYAN ABC News June 2, 2009—
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7734390&page=1

IPT NOTE: See related item #27 below.

An Atlanta terrorism case which begins this week details the intricate threads behind several international terrorism investigations that were unfolding in 2005 and 2006 that had FBI officials and counterterrorism officials around the world on high alert due to multiple convergences in the U.S. and abroad. The trial of Syed Haris Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech student, before a federal judge in a bench trial, weaves together several terrorism cases in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Canada and demonstrates how cyberspace has served as a key place for terrorist recruiting. Ahmed, now 24 years-old, was arrested in March 2006, and his alleged accomplice Ehsanul Islam Sadequee was arrested in April of 2006 on charges that they provided material support to Lashkar e-Tayyiba, a Pakistani terrorist group. While Ahmed's trial will be decided by a federal judge, not a jury, Sadequee's jury case will go to trial this August… A month after their visit to Canada, the Justice Department has contended that the two men recorded casing videos in and around Washington, DC in April 2005, "targets of potential terrorist attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, including the United States Capitol; the headquarters building of the World Bank in downtown Washington; the Masonic Temple in Alexandria, Virginia; and a group of large fuel storage tanks near I-95 in northern Virginia." U.S. counterterrorism officials and federal law enforcement sources say that Ahmed and Sadequee sent the videos to Younis Tsouli, a British propaganda master who distributed jihadist materials and training videos on how to construct bombs all from his home in West London. Tsouli was known on the Internet as "Irhabi007" or translated into Arabic "Terrorist007"; at the time of his arrest by British security services and Scotland Yard in October 2005, he was in possession of videos on constructing car bombs and the videos that Ahmed and Sadequee had filmed in Washington, DC, along with videos from Iraq and Afghanistan including brutal beheadings that circulated on websites worldwide. Tsouli developed propaganda from Al Qaeda and other networks including for Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and helped spread their messages on the internet. Authorities also believe Tsouli was in contact with the members of the Canadian group that Ahemed and Sadequee had met with, and what concerned some officials most was that Tsouli's propaganda was influencing numerous cells around the world and inspiring them to undertake operations. Counterterrorism officials were finally able to close in on Tsouli days after Bosnian authorities disrupted a terrorism cell there where the suspects were caught with explosives and martyrdom messages they had recorded to send to Tsouli. Tsouli and two other accomplices pleaded guilty in the UK in 2007 to charges of inciting terrorism on the Internet; he was sentenced to 16 years in prison and is currently imprisoned in the UK's maximum security prison in Belmarsh…

5. Voice of Taliban on VOA probed
Eli Lake Washington Times Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Exclusive

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/02/voice-of-taliban-on-voa-quer...

Complaints that the U.S. government's Voice of America (VOA) interviewed a top Pakistani Taliban leader have sparked an investigation into VOA's Pashto language service to determine if it has allowed itself to become a platform for terrorist propaganda. In a letter obtained by The Washington Times, the State Department's acting inspector general, Harold Geisel, said his office will conduct a review "to determine the effectiveness of their broadcast and editorial practices and policies." The service broadcasts into the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region that serves as a refuge for al Qaeda and the Taliban. The probe was spurred by concerns first raised by Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, an Illinois Republican who in the past had championed the Pashto-language service known as Deewa Radio. Mr. Kirk said he became concerned that American taxpayers were providing the Taliban a megaphone after he learned that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had been interviewed by the service -- and claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings in the Pakistani city of Lahore 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

6. Anti-U.S. Hackers Infiltrate Army Servers

Exclusive: Defense Department investigators subpoena records from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo in connection with ongoing probe.

By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek May 28, 2009
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=2177006...

A known computer hacking clan with anti-American leanings has successfully broken into at least two sensitive Web servers maintained by the U.S. Army, InformationWeek has learned exclusively. Department of Defense and other investigators are currently probing the breaches, which have not been publicly disclosed. The hackers, who collectively go by the name "m0sted" and are based in Turkey, penetrated servers at the Army's McAlester Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla., and at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Transatlantic Center in Winchester, Va. The breach at the McAlester munitions plant occurred on Jan. 26, according to records of the investigation obtained by InformationWeek. On that date, Web users attempting to access the plant's site were redirected to a Web page that featured a protest against climate change. On Sept. 19, 2007, the same hackers electronically broke into Army Corps of Engineers' servers. That hack sent Web users to www.m0sted.net. The page, at the time, contained anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and images, records show. It currently appears to be an Internet landing spot that features airline reservation links. Beyond the redirects, it's not clear whether the group was able to obtain sensitive information from the Army's servers. The hacks are the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by Defense Department officials and members of the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Office and Computer Emergency Response Team. Investigators have executed records search warrants against Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and other Internet service and e-mail providers as part of their efforts to unmask the hackers' true identities. Investigators believe the hackers used a technique called SQL injection to exploit a security vulnerability in Microsoft's SQL Server database to gain entry to the Web servers. "m0sted" is known to have carried out similar attacks on a number of other Web sites in the past -- including against a site maintained by Internet security company Kaspersky Lab...

7. House to consider ban on airport body scans
By Chris Strohm CongressDaily June 1, 2009

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42855&dcn=todaysnews
House lawmakers expect to take up legislation Wednesday that would prohibit government security officials from using controversial whole-body imaging machines to screen airplane passengers at primary airport checkpoints. The machines are being tested at 19 airports by the Transportation Security Administration, with six airports allowing passengers to voluntarily go through them at primary security checkpoints and the rest using scanners at secondary checkpoints. The machines use millimeter-wave technology that shows a three-dimensional image of a passenger without clothes. The images allow security officials to determine whether somebody is hiding threatening objects under their clothes. But lawmakers and civil liberties advocates say the machines raise too many privacy concerns. In response, Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., have offered an amendment to the TSA authorization bill that would prevent the machines from being used at primary checkpoints... TSA is evaluating its trial use of the scanners to decide whether more airports should use whole-body imaging at its primary checkpoints…

8. Face Masks To Be Allowed for TSA?
By washingtonpost.com Editors June 1, 2009; 4:35 PM ET

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/06/tsa.html?hpid=news-...

Do not be alarmed if one day soon you see TSA officers wearing face masks at airport security checkpoints. The House later this week will consider an amendment to the TSA Authorization Bill that would allow transportation security officers to wear "personal protective equipment" (PPE) including protective masks during any public health emergency. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) stems from concern during the recent swine flu outbreak that TSOs and Customs and Border Protection officers might spread the virus to colleagues, family members and neighbors if they came into contact with infected passengers. The Department of Homeland Security said officers in close contact with infected passengers should wear protective gear and take other preventative measures, but never issued formal guidelines that TSOs or CBP officers could wear gear without seeking permission from supervisors. The department cited medical advice from the CDC and other government health agencies that deemed such guidelines unnecessary…

9. DHS distributes port and mass transit grants
Recovery act pushes $300 million in funding for eligible projects

By Alice Lipowicz Washington Technology Jun 01, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3556

The Homeland Security Department is distributing $300 million in economic stimulus law funds for port and mass transit grants for projects that include high-tech identification cards and domain-awareness solutions, officials announced. The department is making available $150 million from the stimulus law available for the Port Security Grant Program, in addition to $389 million already allocated by Congress for fiscal 2009, Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a May 29 news release. The port program pays for technology and equipment to protect against terrorism, including maritime domain-awareness solutions, risk-management capabilities, protections against improvised explosive devices. It also can be used to support implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, which is an identification card that contains a photo and digitized fingerprint information…

Financing, money laundering, fraud, identity theft

10. N. Korea general tied to forged $100 bills
Report details "supernotes"
Bill Gertz Washington Times Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Exclusive
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/02/n-korea-general-tied-to-forg...
A North Korean general who is a confidant of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, has been identified by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies as a key figure in the covert production and distribution of high-quality counterfeit $100 bills called supernotes, according to documents and interviews with intelligence officials. North Korean Gen. O Kuk-ryol, who was recently promoted to the country's powerful National Defense Commission, and several of his family members are said to be in charge of producing the fake $100 bills, which are so carefully crafted that they are difficult to tell apart from real U.S. banknotes, according to U.S. government and foreign diplomatic sources familiar with classified intelligence reports on the counterfeiting. A foreign-government report obtained by The Washington Times from a diplomatic source in Washington said Gen. O has emerged in recent months as one of the most powerful military figures in the North Korean regime and the person in charge of arranging the succession of Mr. Kim by his third son, Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke in August and has appeared in public recently looking thin and frail. The information about the general in the report was confirmed by a senior U.S. intelligence official as well as by other current and former officials with knowledge of North Korean activities. They asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Although North Korea has been linked to counterfeiting for many years, the report is unusually detailed in its account of how North Korea is using illegal activities to raise hard currency for use by the regime and Mr. Kim. The new details were disclosed as the United Nations considers additional economic sanctions against North Korea for an underground test of a nuclear weapon last week…

11. 74 indicted in drug probe of Michigan biker club
Defendants include lawyer on Bing turnaround team, 2 former police officers
Paul Egan / The Detroit News Friday, May 15, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3557

Detroit -- An attorney at Miller Canfield who on Wednesday was named to Mayor Dave Bing's "crisis turnaround team" was among 74 defendants named Thursday in a sweeping racketeering indictment unsealed against the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club. Hatim "Tim" Attalla, 49, of Northville is charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute illegal drugs. The indictment alleges he advised arrested club members to keep quiet about former club vice president Aref "Scarface" Nagi's involvement in drug dealing, supplied Nagi with a variety of pills, and acted "as general counsel to the enterprise." Attalla, who is active in community work with groups such as the Arab American Council and Seeds of Peace, did not respond to an e-mail or a phone message left at his home. Wednesday, Bing named Attalla to the legal section of his turnaround team... The indictment unsealed Wednesday against members of the Highwaymen represents "the largest prosecution in the history of Michigan of a motorcycle club," interim U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said. The indictment, which names 74 alleged club members and associates -- including Attalla and two former police officers -- details a litany of violent crimes, drug dealing, robbery, extortion and attempted murder dating to about 2000… According to Miller Canfield's Web site, Attalla, who speaks Arabic, specializes in counseling clients doing business in the Mideast...

12. Colombian paramilitary member sentenced
By JUAN A. LOZANO The Associated Press June 2, 2009, 12:16PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6454182.html

IPT NOTE: Archive gov't press releases in this massive group of cases are found at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/080513-03.html and http://houston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ho051320008.htm

HOUSTON — An apologetic member of a Colombian right-wing paramilitary group was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for trying to acquire anti-aircraft missiles, grenade launchers and other powerful weapons for $25 million worth of cocaine. Diego Alberto Ruiz Arroyave pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to provide material support and resources to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials, AUC. The group has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government… Under sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge David Hittner could have given Ruiz a prison term of more than 27 years. But he agreed to a request from prosecutor Jeff Vaden to reduce the sentence because of Ruiz's cooperation Ruiz with U.S. and Colombian authorities… Ruiz was one of 14 Colombian paramilitary members extradited to the United States in May 2008 to face charges of supporting a terrorist organization and drug trafficking in cases around the country. Since then, three other paramilitary members have been extradited to the U.S. The case against Ruiz stemmed from a 2004 superseding indictment that accused him of participating in a scheme to acquire the Russian and Eastern European-made weapons for the AUC. The weapons included shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 assault weapons. The AUC never got any weapons…

Defendant extradited from Columbia in weapons deal

Department of Justice May 13, 2008

http://houston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ho051320008.htm

14 members of Columbian paramilitary group extradited to the US to face US drug charges
Department of Justice Press Release May 13, 2008

US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/080513-03.html

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

13. Montgomery County targets gang activity
STEVE LASH Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer June 1, 2009 7:16 PM

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=11636&type=UTTM

ROCKVILLE – Montgomery County may not have the same level of gang violence that has plagued neighboring Prince George's County and Washington, D.C., but its days of shrugging off violence from Wheaton to Germantown as "youth that went astray" are over, said County Executive Isiah "Ike" Leggett. Assaults between members of rival gangs are on the rise, as are thefts and drug use, the county reported... Amid the increase in gang-on-gang violence, the county plans to beef up its efforts to discourage gang membership and vigorously prosecute gang-related crime, said Leggett, who was joined at a news conference by Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger and State's Attorney John J. McCarthy. McCarthy announced his selection of Victor DelPino to head the state's attorney's gang prosecution unit, which prosecutes gang-related crimes… In the last two years, the county prosecuted about 1,000 crimes committed by about 40 different gangs, including such nationally notorious groups as the Bloods and the Crips and local gangs such as the Lincoln Park Crew and Montgomery Village MOB, McCarthy said… DelPino enters a gang prosecution unit that has been busy since McCarthy formed it in the spring of 2007, shortly after he took office… The crimes prosecuted most often were assaults, burglary, robbery and drug offenses. … Mara Salvatrucha, more commonly known as MS13, was the most prosecuted gang, accounting for 159 prosecutions. The Bloods accounted for 148, and the Crips 80, according to the state's attorney's office…

14. Former Agent Calls Sham Marriages 'Epidemic'
Written by Brian Maass May 27, 2009 10:05 pm US/Mountain

http://cbs4denver.com/investigates/marriage.foreign.sham.2.1021765.html
DENVER (CBS4) ― A former immigration enforcement agent says he is seeing an "epidemic" of fraudulent marriages where foreign women marry American men, then claim domestic violence to escape the marriage and legally remain in the U.S. "What happens is they enter into a one-sided sham marriage to defraud an American citizen into believing they love him. And once they get in, they allege domestic violence to get themselves out of the sham marriage and to throw off suspicion this was a sham marriage to begin with," said John Sampson. After 27 years as a U.S. Immigrations investigator, Sampson retired then started up a business in Aurora in January of this year to investigate suspected sham marriages. He says in less than six months, he has heard from 200 men in Colorado and across the country who are convinced they were used by foreign women then accused of being batterers. Under the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), foreign women who file abuse claims against their American spouses can obtain permanent resident status… Men like Hoppel are now pressing for change in the Violence Against Women Act claiming that foreign women are exploiting it to gain residency in the U.S. via domestic violence claims...

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

15. DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 377-09 June 01, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12709
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pvt. Bradley W. Iorio, 19, of Galloway, N.J., died May 29 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident May 27 in Tallil, Iraq. He was assigned to the Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 378-09 June 01, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12710
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pfc. Samuel D. Stone, 20, of Port Orchard, Wash., died May 30 in Tallil, Iraq, of injuries suffered during a non-combat related vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 303rd Cavalry Regiment, Bremerton, Wash. The incident is under investigation…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 379-09 June 01, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12711
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Marko M. Samson, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 31 in Tikrit, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 277th Aviation Support Battalion, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation…

16. Algerian paper says Al-Qa'idah Maghreb appoints new chiefs

BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

May 31, 2009 Sunday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation

Source: Echourouk El Youmi website, Algiers, in Arabic 31 May 09
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
The Algerian daily Echorouk said on Sunday 31 May that the available information from the latest terrorist attacks in the east of the country shows that the command of the terrorist organization called The Salafi Group for Call and Combat, GSPC - now known as Al-Qa'idah in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, AQLIM, under the leadership of Abdelmalek Droukdel (Abou Moussab Abdelouadoud) - is using foreign recruits in the terrorist attacks, particularly Libyans and Moroccans. The paper said that this reflects the shortage of terrorists in the east of the country. The paper reported that foreign terrorists, including Libyans, were killed in the combing operation carried out by the army forces following the assassination of eight soldiers in an ambush in the southeast of Biskra Province. The paper said also that reliable sources have told Echorouk that on the basis of statements by repentant terrorists and other arrested ones, changes have been carried out at the level of the GSPC's organization command following the human and material losses it has incurred. According to the same sources, a new chief of terrorist operations has been appointed and the suicide cell has been restructured with the appointment of a new chief who has not been identified…

17. Moroccan paper says terror cell set up military wing to topple government

BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

May 30, 2009 Saturday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
Text of report by Moroccan privately-owned newspaper Assabah website on 30 May

http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw
The public prosecutor at the Sale court of appeal annex which deals with terrorism-related cases yesterday Friday [29 May] levelled accusations at the detainees of the cell involving Belliraj and his acolytes, describing them as members of an efficient organization that was seeking to overthrow the regime and to set up an Islamic state on its ruins. The king's public prosecutor at the Sale appeal court annex stresses that there are dozens of facts and irrefutable evidence that prove that the cell of Belliraj and his acolytes is "a dangerous terrorist organization", pointing out that the reports drafted by the national judiciary police brigade, the tests that have been carried out, and the confiscated objects reveal that we are in the presence of a very dangerous terrorist gang that was a danger to security in Morocco, and to the lives of many innocent people. The public prosecutor said in his pleading before the panel of judges that the Belliraj organization was dangerous because it was active on two fronts: Firstly, it was carrying out a secret activity by a secret wing that resorts to armed action, robberies and theft committed by members of the organization, especially in Belgium, and secondly, a public activity seeking to gain sympathy by penetrating the political and partisan scene in the kingdom. The public prosecutor underlines that the judiciary report prepared by the police and by the investigating judge, in addition to a range of recorded events, prove that the members of this terrorist organization have planned to target sensitive institutions, and to assassinate Jewish public figures and others in the country in order to spread fear, sedition and unrest among the elements of Moroccan society. The prosecutor also reveals that the detainees had several links to foreign terrorist quarters…

18. Azerbaijan seen as new front in Mideast conflict
Officials say they foiled a plot by Hezbollah and Iran to bomb the Israeli Embassy in revenge for the 2008 slaying of Imad Mughniyah. Anti-terrorism officials fear a new militant hub.
By Sebastian Rotella From the Los Angeles Times May 30, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3558

Reporting from Paris — It happened in Baku, transforming the capital of Azerbaijan into a battleground in a global shadow war. Police intercepted a fleeing car and captured two suspected Hezbollah militants from Lebanon. The car contained explosives, binoculars, cameras, pistols with silencers and reconnaissance photos. Raiding alleged safe houses, police foiled what authorities say was a plot to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that borders Iran. Western anti-terrorism officials say the arrests a year ago thwarted swift retaliation by Hezbollah and Iran for the slaying of Imad Mughniyah, the legendary warlord of the Shiite Muslim militia based in Lebanon whose death was widely blamed on Israel. The prosecution remained largely a secret until this week, when closed court proceedings began for two Lebanese and four Azeris charged with terrorism, espionage and other crimes. The case offers an inside look at one of the stealthy duels being fought by Israel on one side and Hezbollah and Iran on the other in remote locales, from Latin America to Central Asia. "They had reached the stage where they had a network in place to do an operation," said an Israeli security official, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. "We are seeing it all over the world. They are working very hard at it." Hezbollah steadfastly denies that it conducts armed activity outside Lebanon, the base for its military, political and social service wings. Iran rejects allegations that it sponsors terrorism. Both, however, have sworn to avenge the death in February 2008 of Mughniyah, one of the world's most-wanted terrorist suspects and the longtime nexus between Tehran and Beirut. His assassination by car bomb in Damascus, Syria, which Hezbollah blamed on Israel, spurred into action a secret apparatus teaming Iranian intelligence with Hezbollah's external operations unit, say European, Israeli and U.S. officials. That alleged alliance is accused in the bombings in Argentina of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994, attacks that left 114 people dead. Both were allegedly the work of Hezbollah suicide bombers directed by Iranian spies in response to Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leaders…

19. Muslim Brotherhood in audience for Obama Cairo speech - Feature
Posted : Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:05:47 GMT DPA
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3559

Cairo - At least 10 members of parliament from Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood will attend US President Barack Obama's landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, it was confirmed by the group Tuesday. As well as various lawmakers, activists, charity workers and non- governmental organisations at the address, invitations have been sent to the group for the keynote speech. The Muslim Brotherhood are officially banned in Egypt, but have 88 seats in the parliament, where they sit as independents. The invitations for Thursday's speech came not from the US embassy, but from the sheikh of al-Azhar university, one of Egypt's most prestigious centres of Islamic learning. The university is jointly hosting the landmark Obama speech. "The invitation came from Egyptian institutions, not the US administration," said Mohammed al-Katatni, head of the Muslim Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc. "I expect to hear reassurances to the Muslim and Arab world, and I expect that he will push the democratic agenda." "The president's speech is intended to do damage control for the image of US foreign policy following the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and years of blind US support for Israel," al-Katatni added. "I think the US government is trying to send a message to the Egyptian government that it will deal with us on the same level as it deals with them, that it considers us as important," said Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, who has won awards from international human rights organisations for videos depicting police abuse he has posted on his website, Misrdigital.com.