06-08-09 Daily Intel Report

1. Iran closer to nuclear weapon capacity
Eli Lake Washington Times Saturday, June 6, 2009

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/06/specialists-warn-possible-br...

Ignoring overtures for talks from the Obama administration, Iran has continued to build a stockpile of low-enriched uranium and could, within three to six months, convert the material into a nuclear weapon, according to nuclear specialists. Iran insists that its program at Natanz, south of Tehran, is for peaceful purposes only and that the facility is regularly inspected by the the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. However, according to an analysis of the latest IAEA report on Iran by the Institute for Science and International Security a Washington think tank that focuses on nuclear proliferation Iran produced an additional 329 kilograms (724 pounds) of low-enriched uranium from November through May, a 20-percent improvement in Iran's capacity to make the fuel. The IAEA report, also released Friday, said Iran is operating more than 5,000 centrifuges at its declared nuclear facility in Natanz and has a total of more than 1,300 kilograms (2,860 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. This form of uranium is used for civilian power plants but can be further refined to make fuel for weapons. The difference lies in the concentration of a uranium isotope, U-235, whose atoms can be split apart to produce vast amounts of energy. For civilian use, fuel must contain about 5 percent of the isotope; for weapons, more than 80 percent…

Iran nuclear program advancing, U.N. agency says
The IAEA issues two reports. One says Tehran has boosted its supply and output of reactor- grade nuclear material, the other points to the discovery of unusual uranium particles in Syria's capital.
By Borzou Daragahin June 6, 2009 From the Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-nuclear6-2009ju...

Reporting from Tehran — Iran has significantly boosted its supply and output of reactor-grade nuclear material, according to a quarterly report issued Friday by the United Nations' arms control division. Meanwhile, in Syria, international inspectors reported finding unexplained particles of modified uranium at a lab in Damascus, far from an alleged nuclear site. The inspectors said they discovered the artificially modified uranium particles in samples taken last year from a facility in the Syrian capital called the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor. The report disclosed few other details about the discovery or Syria's response to the agency's request for an explanation. The uranium particles found at the facility "are of a type not included in Syria's declared inventory of nuclear material," the report says. The reports by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, came a day after President Obama, during his visit to Cairo, called on Iran and other nations to avoid a Middle East nuclear arms race and strive for a world without atomic weapons. The U.S. and its Western allies allege that Iran is violating the spirit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover for developing the means to produce atomic weapons, a charge Iranian leaders deny...

Obama seeks global uranium fuel bank
Plan could counter Iran's weapon quest
By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff June 8, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3596

WASHINGTON - As part of a new strategy to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, President Obama plans to seek the creation of the first-ever international supply of uranium that would allow nations to obtain fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but limit the capacity to make bombs, according to senior administration officials. Many arms-control specialists consider the idea of a "fuel bank" controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency a key way to test the sincerity of Iranian leaders, who maintain that their enrichment program is only for civilian use and necessary because they cannot be assured of energy supplies from other countries. Many specialists believe an internationally managed fuel bank could also remove the "peaceful use" justification for other nations that might be trying to use a civilian nuclear program as cover to make nuclear weapons...

Don't discount Israel pre-emptive strike, Hillary Clinton warns Iran
Tim Reid in Washington From The Times (London) June 8, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6451892.e...

Hillary Clinton refused yesterday to rule out a pre-emptive Israeli military strike on Iran. It was the first time that a senior member of the Obama Administration had openly discussed such a possibility. The US Secretary Of State, speaking a few days before elections in Iran that will determine the fate of President Ahmadinejad, also warned that the country would face retaliation if it launched a nuclear attack on Israel. As President Obama extends "an open hand", seeking direct talks with Tehran in his attempt to halt its nuclear programme, Mrs Clinton appeared ready to unnerve the Iranian leadership with talk of a pre-emptive strike "the way that we did attack Iraq". She said that she was trying to put herself in the shoes of the Iranian leadership, but added that Tehran "might have some other enemies that would do that [deliver a pre-emptive strike] to them". It was a clear reference to Israel, where Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, has talked about the possibility of military action to halt Iran's nuclear programme — something he views as a threat to the Jewish state. Mrs Clinton, interviewed on the ABC programme This Week a year after she conceded to Mr Obama in the Democratic primary race, said that it was US policy that a nuclear attack by Iran on Israel would be seen as an attack on the US…

2. North Korea May be Reconsidered for Terrorist List
By CQ Staff June 7, 2009 – 1:18 p.m. CQ Politics

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003136838

The United States is looking into reassigning North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Clinton said North Korea was "taken off of the list for a purpose and that purpose is being thwarted by their actions." In recent weeks, North Korea set off a nuclear device and test-fired several short-range missiles. The Bush administration agreed in October 2008 to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of terrorist states after the North said it would dismantle its nuclear weapons facilities. It later refused to go forward with the dismantlement. Several senators have written to President Obama about the possibility of returning North Korea to the list…

North Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists

By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, June 8, 2009 10:08 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/08/AR200906...

TOKYO, June 8 -- A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained in March along North Korea's border with China, received harsher sentences than many outsiders had expected. But several experts in South Korea predicted that talks will begin soon to negotiate their release. The U.S. government said it was "deeply concerned." The five-day trial of Ling and Lee was held in Pyongyang's Central Court, the top court in North Korea. Outside observers were not allowed… The "grave crime," however, was not explained. The reporters had earlier been accused of unspecified "hostile acts." Legal analysts in South Korea said the North Korean court might have sentenced the women to the maximum of 10 years of hard labor for hostile acts and added on two years for illegal entry... Ling and Lee were working for Current TV, a cable and Web network co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, when they were detained March 17 by North Korean soldiers along the border with China. The reporters were working on a story about North Koreans who flee the country, but the circumstances of their arrest are not clear...

3. Former State Department Official and Wife Arrested for Serving as Illegal Agents of Cuba for Nearly 30 Years

Couple Allegedly Conspired to Provide Classified Information to Cuban Government

Dep't of Justice Press Release June 5, 2009 US Attorney's Office, District of Columbia

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-nsd-554.html
WASHINGTON—A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government. The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI's Washington Field Office, and Ambassador Eric J. Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security. An indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia charge Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a.k.a. "Agent 202," and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, a.k.a. "Agent 123," and "Agent E-634," with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each of the defendants is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud…

Accused spy's lecture raised flags
Ben Conery Washington Times Sunday, June 7, 2009

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/07/critical-lecture-raised-...?

Nearly three years before he and his wife were arrested on charges of spying for Cuba, Walter Kendall Myers raised the ire of his superiors at the State Department after delivering a lecture that criticized U.S. foreign policy. Mr. Myers, who was a high-ranking State Department analyst and part-time professor at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the time, told a gathering at the university in 2006 that the relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain was "totally one-sided." According to published reports, Mr. Myers said the U.S. stance toward Great Britain, one of its closest allies, is to "typically ignore them and take no notice - it's a sad business." The State Department reacted angrily, calling Mr. Myers "just plain wrong" and ordering him to a meeting with his superiors. Similar criticisms of U.S. foreign policy are found in Mr. Myers' writings about Cuba in a diary the FBI said it recently seized. The writings praise former Cuban President Fidel Castro and blast U.S. involvement with the island country as violent imperialism. Authorities now say Mr. Myers, 72, and his wife, 71-year-old Gwendolyn Myers, were driven to spy for Cuba for three decades by ideology and not profit…

4. U.S. May Permit 9/11 Guilty Pleas in Capital Cases
By WILLIAM GLABERSON June 6, 2009 page A1 New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/politics/06gitmo.html

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial. The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom. The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention. The proposal would ease what has come to be recognized as the government's difficult task of prosecuting men who have confessed to terrorism but whose cases present challenges. Much of the evidence against the men accused in the Sept. 11 case, as well as against other detainees, is believed to have come from confessions they gave during intense interrogations at secret C.I.A. prisons. In any proceeding, the reliability of those statements would be challenged, making trials difficult and drawing new political pressure over detainee treatment…

5. U.S. Lawyers Agreed on Legality of Brutal Tactic
By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID JOHNSTON New York Times June 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/politics/07lawyers.html

WASHINGTON — When Justice Department lawyers engaged in a sharp internal debate in 2005 over brutal interrogation techniques, even some who believed that using tough tactics was a serious mistake agreed on a basic point: the methods themselves were legal. Previously undisclosed Justice Department e-mail messages, interviews and newly declassified documents show that some of the lawyers, including James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general who argued repeatedly that the United States would regret using harsh methods, went along with a 2005 legal opinion asserting that the techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency were lawful. That opinion, giving the green light for the C.I.A. to use all 13 methods in interrogating terrorism suspects, including waterboarding and up to 180 hours of sleep deprivation, "was ready to go out and I concurred," Mr. Comey wrote to a colleague in an April 27, 2005, e-mail message obtained by The New York Times. While signing off on the techniques, Mr. Comey in his e-mail provided a firsthand account of how he tried unsuccessfully to discourage use of the practices. He made a last-ditch effort to derail the interrogation program, urging Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to argue at a White House meeting in May 2005 that it was "wrong." …

Comey Emails Offer Candid View of Bush-Era Torture Memo Battles
By Mary Jacoby | June 7, 2009 Main Justice
http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/06/07/comey-emails-offer-candid-view-of-...

The New York Times has a terrific story today about the battles between the Justice Department and the White House in 2005 over legal authorization of torture. Reporters Scott Shane and David Johnston give a contrarian take on the roles of two of the "heroes" of that bitter internal debate – then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey and Acting Office of Legal Counsel head Dan Levin, who protested the methods — and puts one of the "villains, "Office of Legal Counsel head Steven Bradbury, in a more sympathetic light. The Times says Comey and Levin agreed the techniques were legal even though they strongly protested their use. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/politics/07lawyers.html?_r=2&hp What we found the most interesting, though, were the internal emails the Times obtained from Comey to his then-chief of staff, Chuck Rosenberg. (It's our guess the leak has something to do with the long-delayed release of the Office of Professional Responsibility inquiry http://www.newsweek.com/id/184801 into the DOJ lawyers who authorized torture). The emails showed Comey warning repeatedly that while certain interrogation methods might be technically legal, they were wrong and disastrous as policy. Comey fretted about the terrible hit the DOJ as an institution could take as well…

6. Group Linked to Al Qaeda May Have Killed Minnesota Man Recruited in Somalia
Sunday, June 07, 2009 By Mike Levine Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525339,00.html

Families that belong to this Minnesota mosque, Abubakar As-Saddiqu, were suspected of having a role in their loved ones' disappearance. A Minnesota man recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group overseas may have been assassinated in Somalia by the very terrorist group he went there to help. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating for several months at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area who recently traveled to Somalia to train with the terrorist group al-Shabaab. One of those men — 17-year-old Burhan Hassan — was killed in Mogadishu on Friday, his uncle, Osman Ahmed, told FOX News… A law enforcement official told FOX News on Sunday that one of the Somali-American men was recently killed in Somalia by artillery fire, but the official declined to release the man's name...

7. MARYLAND COURTHOUSES
Officers Can Order Removal of Veils
Legal Opinion Biased, Groups Say
By Lisa Rein Washington Post Saturday, June 6, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/06/05/ST20090605...

IPT NOTE: The text of AG Gansler's ruling on religious headgear is posted at http://www.oag.state.md.us/Opinions/2009/94oag81.pdf?sid=ST2009060503790

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has issued a legal opinion allowing security officers to require Muslim women and other people who cover their faces for religious reasons to remove their veils when entering courthouses. Gansler said law enforcement officers could require removing the cloth as long as they enforce a "neutral and generally applicable" standard to all groups. The guidance had been sought by the Prince George's County sheriff's office and was not related to a specific incident. Security officers said they needed to be able to identify people who enter the courthouse. Gansler's opinion advises that officers take women to be screened in a private area with female officers present and allows the women to wear their veils after being checked. The opinion has drawn concern from civil liberties groups, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which said that even if the policy is applied to all people, it was designed for Muslims and so could be discriminatory…

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. Bipartisan WMD Panel Criticizes Obama Plan To Fund Flu Vaccine

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Monday, June 8, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/07/AR200906...

President Obama's contingency plan to help finance production of a swine flu vaccine with funds set aside to develop defenses against biological attacks would weaken the nation's preparedness for terrorism, the leaders of a bipartisan commission on weapons of mass destruction said yesterday. The White House asked Congress on Tuesday for authority to spend up to $9 billion more for an H1N1 flu vaccine and other preparations against the novel flu strain that first appeared in April. Of the total, the administration asked Congress to provide $2 billion in "contingent" funding. Another $3 billion could come from the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund, created in 2004 to field countermeasures against nuclear, biological or chemical threats; $3.1 billion from stimulus funds appropriated to spur economic recovery; and $800 million from the Department of Health and Human Services...

9. Conspiracy to blow up JFK …Prosecution tenders range of evidence ahead of trial
-includes info from Kadir's computers
By Stabroek staff Stabroek News (Guyana) June 8, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3589

Information from two computers seized from the home of Guyanese Abdul Kadir and other documentation are among the evidence the prosecution will present when the conspiracy to blow up the JFK International Airport case starts. The prosecution has made a number of documents and taped conversations available to the defence lawyers so they can review them before the commencement of the trial. Kadir, a former PNC parliamentarian; former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad and Guyanese Abdel Nur have been charged with conspiring to blow up JFK airport, tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines in 2007. According to letters of discovery made available to the lawyers of the defendants by the government, information from some 54 taped conversations between May 7 and June 1, 2007 involving the defendants, co-conspirators and others are going to be used in the trial. Copies of the tapes were handed over to the lawyers earlier this week. Also handed over to the lawyers was a 2003 interview Defreitas had with a Guyanese reporter along with various arrest documents including pedigree information, photographs, fingerprints and arrest warrants for Kadir, Ibrahim and Nur…

10. Aerial images online endanger national security, critics say
Critics fear online aerial imagery of sensitive sites could help terrorists plan attacks

They have launched efforts to get Web map services to remove or blur images

Web sites offer a virtual tour of the nation's 66 nuclear power plants, with close-ups

Expert: Regulating imagery of sensitive infrastructure would be problematic

By Mike M. Ahlers June 5, 2009 CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/05/aerial.images.security

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One is a assemblyman in California; the other a piano tuner in Pennsylvania. But when they independently looked at online aerial imagery of nuclear power plants and other sites, they had the same reaction: They said they feared that terrorists might be doing the same thing. Now, both have launched efforts to try to get Internet map services to remove or blur images of sensitive sites, saying the same technology that allows people to see a neighbor's swimming pool can be used by terrorists to chose targets and plan attacks… Portzline is asking the Department of Homeland Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to seek voluntary compliance from satellite and aerial imagery companies to blur images of nuclear plants. Joel Anderson, a member of the California Assembly, has more expansive goals. He has introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would prohibit "virtual globe" services from providing unblurred pictures of schools, churches and government or medical facilities in California. It also would prohibit those services from providing street-view photos of those buildings…

11. US Airways worker, passenger charged in gun incident
By Robert Moran Philadelphia Inquirer Posted on Fri, Jun. 5, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3597

A US Airways employee and a passenger were arrested yesterday for trying to sneak an unloaded gun onto a flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix, the FBI said. Roshid Milledge, 38, a customer-service representative for US Airways, allegedly helped Damien Young, 29, get a 9mm pistol onto Flight 1195, which was scheduled to depart at 7:10 a.m. "This investigation represents an isolated incident, involving only these two individuals," FBI Special Agent in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said. Young apparently wanted to take the gun to Phoenix and had no intention of taking it out during the flight, the FBI said…

Financing, money laundering, fraud, identity theft

12. Two takes on the Holy Land Foundation case: defendant Ghassan Elashi and prosecutor Jim Jacks
Dallas Morning News 11:10 AM Mon, Jun 08, 2009 Jason Trahan / Reporter
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/06/two-takes-on-the-holy-l...
Last month's sentencing was the first time we've heard from all five Holy Land Foundation defendants, who have sat mute, for the most part, through both trials. Each defendant gave a speech, and most were similar in that they defended their record of charity, decried the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and thanked their families and supporters. Most declared themselves innocent. I wanted to post Ghassan Elashi's speech, mostly because I had decent notes on it and didn't want them to just sit in my computer. I also included the rebuttal from prosecutor Jim Jacks…

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. Gang Wars: Justice in Our Times

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/topic.html?t=Topic&q=Gang+violence
A special Vancouver Sun five-day series which looks at the hierarchy of B.C.'s 135 crime groups.
Saturday: A guide to gang structure in B.C.
Monday: An overview of the gang problem in the U.S., Mexico and Central America, and the links to B.C.
Tuesday, June 9: How police and prosecutors tackle gangs in B.C.
Wednesday, June 10: What our judges do when gangsters get to court.
Thursday, June 11: How can we stop our children from becoming involved in gangs?
Expert panel: Live streaming of Justice Education Society video at vancouversun.com, June 11, 7 p.m.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

$5m B.C. project targets South American gangs
By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun June 7, 2009

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/project+targets+South+American+gangs/16...

Graphic: Gangs without borders: http://www.vancouversun.com/pdf/s08_gang_pic.pdf

VANCOUVER — A special B.C.-led project to help police and prosecutors in Central America tackle gang violence is about to expand, thanks to a $5-million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency. Rick Craig, of Law Courts Education Society of B.C., said the funding will allow for a four-year project in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where Canadian expertise is helping to rebuild judiciaries fractured by years of civil war. Central America has been ripped apart by violent gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha and M-18, which are often working for Mexican drug cartels who supply cocaine to Canadian crime groups. With the Mexican army deployed to ease the cartel war on the Mexican-U.S. border, the problem could be pushed south, worsening an already dire gang problem, Craig said Friday…

B.C.'s gang war: How cocaine makes it to Vancouver's streets
By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun June 7, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3598

VANCOUVER — Deep in the jungles of Peru or Colombia, a kilo of cocaine can be bought for as little as $3,000. By the time the lucrative white powder makes the 7,000-plus-kilometre journey to the streets of Vancouver, a kilo is worth as much as $30,000. It is that huge increase that fuels the greed of B.C.-based crime groups, who have developed sophisticated north-south networks to smuggle coke into Canada and their currency commodities — marijuana and synthetic drugs — south. Most major criminal gangs here get their cocaine from Los Angeles-area distribution centres run by Mexican cartels, who sell it for $17,000 to $20,000 US a kilo, says Supt. Pat Fogarty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. That means the B.C. gangs must make their own transportation arrangements from L.A. to Vancouver, clandestinely crossing the Washington-B.C. border. Some Canadian drug-smuggling gangsters use brokers to get the cocaine into the U.S...

B.C.'s gang war: Corporate hierarchies, innocent victims, out-of-control violence
By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun June 7, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3599

VANCOUVER — … All three were targeted for death because of their rung in the hierarchy of one of B.C.'s 135 crime groups… With billions of dollars a year at stake and an unprecedented number of groups vying for territory and profits, police and academics say there is an increasing sophistication in the way crime groups do business here. At the same time, there has been a record number of gangland slayings, most of them of mid-level or front-line drug dealers…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

14. Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 391-09 June 03, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12722
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Justin J. Duffy, 31, of Cozad, Neb., died June 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 401-09 June 05, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12730
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Charles D. Parrish, 23, of Jasper, Ala., died June 4 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered earlier that day in Jalula, Iraq, when his vehicle was struck by an anti-tank grenade. He was assigned to the 5th Engineer Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 402-09 June 06, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12731
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Christopher M. Kurth, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M., died June 4 in Kirkuk, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by an anti-tank grenade. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas…

DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 403-09 June 06, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12732
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Robert D. Ulmer, 22, of Landisville, Pa., died June 5 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune N.C. The incident is under investigation…

15. Pro-Western bloc defeats Hezbollah in crucial poll

Nicholas Blanford in Beirut From The Times (London) June 8, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6452810.e...

A Western-backed coalition appeared to have retained its parliamentary majority in the face of a strong challenge by the Hezbollah-led opposition, according to preliminary results early this morning in Lebanon's closely fought election. Fireworks exploded in the night sky above Beirut as motorcades of jubilant supporters of the US-backed March 14 bloc celebrated. Early results from yesterday's election indicated that the March 14 candidates had fared well in the key Christian constituencies north of Beirut, which were widely seen as the decisive battleground in what has been the closest-fought election in more than three decades... Lebanese television predicted that March 14 had won 70 seats in the 128-seat parliament, giving it a narrow majority over the opposition. If the victory is confirmed there are likely to be protracted negotiations over the composition of the next government. An agreement in May 2008, which ended the worst bout of internal factional violence since the 1975-1990 civil war, granted the opposition a one-third veto-wielding share of a government of national unity, with the March 14 bloc comprising the remaining two-thirds...

16. AP IMPACT: In Algeria, al-Qaida extends franchise
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU – Associated Press June 6, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3600

DRAA BEN KHEDDA, Algeria (AP) — Deep in the Sahara Desert, along the remote southern borders of Algeria, lies an immense no man's land where militants roam. It is here that terrorists linked with al-Qaida traffic everything from weapons and drugs to illegal migrants. They have planted at least a half-dozen cells in Europe, according to French, Italian and Belgian intelligence. Last week, they announced on the Internet that they had killed a British hostage in Mali, and are still holding a Swiss hostage. The al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is perhaps the best example of how al-Qaida is morphing and broadening its reach through loose relationships with local offshoots. The shadowy network of Algerian cells recruits Islamist radicals throughout northern and western Africa, trains them and sends them to fight in the region or Iraq, according to Western and North African intelligence officials who asked to remain anonymous because of the nature of their jobs. In turn, AQIM gets al-Qaida's brand name and some corporate know-how. "The relationship with the al-Qaida mother company works like in a multinational," says Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's former top counterterrorism judge and an expert on North African networks. "There's a strong ideological link, but the local subsidiary operates on its own." Another Western intelligence official compares AQIM to a local fast food franchise, "only for terrorism." A picture of AQIM and its ties with al-Qaida emerges from accounts by its victims, interviews with some of the dozens of intelligence officials following its activities and data pieced together by Western diplomats in Algeria. It shows that the battle against radical Islam in Algeria has become crucial — and not only for North Africa. Intelligence officials throughout Europe are convinced that AQIM wants to expand in their region. A senior counterterrorism official in France, who was not authorized to talk on the record, told The Associated Press that his services work "daily, constantly" with Algerian security to contain this threat. He says at least six AQIM-related cells, dormant or getting ready for action, have been dismantled across Europe in recent years...