2-24-09 Daily Intel Report

1. Secret U.S. Unit Trains Commandos in Pakistan
By ERIC SCHMITT and JANE PERLEZ February 23, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/asia/23terror.html

BARA, Pakistan — More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country's lawless tribal areas, American military officials said. The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added. They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command. It started last summer, with the support of Pakistan's government and military, in an effort to root out Qaeda and Taliban operations that threaten American troops in Afghanistan and are increasingly destabilizing Pakistan. It is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged. Pakistani officials have vigorously protested American missile strikes in the tribal areas as a violation of sovereignty and have resisted efforts by Washington to put more troops on Pakistani soil. President Asif Ali Zardari, who leads a weak civilian government, is trying to cope with soaring anti-Americanism among Pakistanis and a belief that he is too close to Washington. Despite the political hazards for Islamabad, the American effort is beginning to pay dividends…

2. Woman accused of illegal export to China
By NEDRA PICKLER – Feb 13, 2009 Associated Press
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2703
IPT NOTE: The DoJ press release (PDF) is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2704

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Maryland woman was charged Friday with exporting miniature controls for small unmanned aircraft to China. The government says the controls are the world's smallest and involve a technology that cannot be shared with China because of national security concerns. The devices can be used to fly small military reconnaissance planes. Yaming Nina Qi Hanson of Silver Spring, Md., is accused of taking the controls to China last August without a required export license. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Qi Hanson and her husband, Harold Hanson, arranged over e-mail to buy the controls from a Canadian company, MicroPilot of Manitoba, according to the criminal complaint. Company officials told the couple they could ship the controls to the United States but the couple would have to get an export permit to send the controls to another country. Harold Hanson claimed the controls were going to be used by a model airplane club in Xi'an, China. But Canadian officials objected, questioning why automated controls would be used for model airplanes that are typically flown manually…

Silver Spring, Maryland Woman Arrested on Charges of Supplying People's Republic of China with Controlled Technology
United States Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, Jeffrey A. Taylor US Attorney
NEWS RELEASE Friday, February 13, 2009 USAO Public Affairs (202) 514-6933
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2704

3. S. Korea: N. Korea has deployed new ballistic missile
Associated Press Feb 23, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2705

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea recently deployed a new type of medium-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Australia and the U.S. territory of Guam, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday. The report comes amid speculation that the isolated regime is also preparing to test-fire another, long-range missile able to hit Alaska. The new intermediate-range ballistic missile can travel at least 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers), which would put the Pacific island of Guam, the northern tip of Australia and much of Russia and India within striking distance, the ministry said in a report…

4. US court won't hear appeal in Bush al Qaeda plot
Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:23am EST Reuters By James Vicini

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN23337294

IPT NOTE: Court documents in the Abu Ali case are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/cases.php#101

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court turned down on Monday an appeal by an American citizen convicted in 2005 for plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush and conspiring with al Qaeda. Ahmed Abu Ali, who was born in Texas and lived in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, was arrested in 2003 while studying at a Saudi university and was held in Saudi custody for 20 months before being returned to the United States to face trial. In Saudi Arabia, he signed confessions and made statements admitting to the plot against Bush and to having ties to an al Qaeda cell. That provided the bulk of the U.S. government's case against him. Abu Ali's attorneys initially raised a number of issues in appealing his conviction, but a U.S. appeals court last year rejected all of them in ruling he had received a fair trial…

5. A 'Ticking Time Bomb' Goes Off
When Abdallah Al-Ajmi Returned to Kuwait After Nearly Four Years at Guantanamo, His Family Tried to Get Him to Move On. But He Didn't Want to Let Go.

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Monday, February 23, 2009; A01

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2706

KUWAIT CITY -- After arriving here from Guantanamo Bay in November 2005, Abdallah Saleh al-Ajmi was transported by Kuwaiti security agents to a military hospital, where he was allowed to meet with his family. He was soon moved to the city's central jail and placed in a high-security wing. Every few days, he was taken to a small interrogation room, this time by officials of his own government who wanted to know what he had been doing in Afghanistan. Ajmi insisted that he never traveled to Afghanistan, that he never fought with the Taliban -- that he had simply gone to Pakistan to study the Koran and that he was apprehended when he traveled toward the Afghan border to help refugees... He was later tried in a criminal court and acquitted of all charges. Senior U.S. government officials were deeply disappointed -- they had hoped that Kuwait, an American ally, would find a way to detain Ajmi for years -- but they refrained from any public criticism. At the very least, the officials figured, Kuwaiti authorities would keep a close watch on him... Last March, he drove a truck packed with explosives onto an Iraqi army base outside Mosul, killing 13 Iraqi soldiers and himself. It was the denouement of a nihilistic descent that his lawyers and family believe commenced at Guantanamo…

6. United States Transfers Binyam Mohammed to United Kingdom
US Department of Justice Monday, February 23, 2009
OPA (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-opa-150.html

IPT NOTE: See related item #39 below, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/binyam_mohamed_the_f.php
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced the transfer to the United Kingdom of Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian national and former resident of the United Kingdom who had been held at the Guantanamo detention facility since 2004. As directed by the Executive Order issued by President Obama on January 22, 2009, an interagency panel has reviewed Mohammed's case and determined that his transfer, pursuant to an arrangement between the United States and the United Kingdom, is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice…

Binyam Mohamed to fly back from Guantánamo
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent The Times (London) February 21, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5776342.ece

A British resident held as a terrorist suspect at Guantánamo Bay for more than four years is to be flown to Britain next week. Binyam Mohamed could arrive as early as Monday after the US and British governments "reached agreement" on his transfer… Mr Mohamed, 30, has agreed to a number of conditions on his return, which include reporting regularly to the authorities. He is expected to be placed under surveillance but will not be subject to an anti-terror control order, which would severely restrict his movements and access to telephones and the internet…

Holder Names Pick to Lead Guantanamo Task Force

February 20, 2009 The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2708

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has tapped his choice to lead the process of deciding what to do with Guantanamo Bay's detainees. Matthew Olsen, acting head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, will chair the task force in charge of recommending whether or not to prosecute the roughly 245 men still in custody at Gitmo. It will also makes suggestions about how to handle those whom are not brought to trial. In January, President Barack Obama issued an executive order requiring the government to close the prison within a year and to create a new strategy for dealing with its inmates. In his role at Justice, Olsen oversees the department's intelligence activities, as well as its counterterrorism and counterespionage sections. Between 1994 and 2006, Olsen served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, where he headed the national security section after it was created in 2005...

7. Tortured Canadians sue government
Feb 22, 2009 04:29 PM Jim Bronskill THE CANADIAN PRESS

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/591431

Three Canadians who were jailed and tortured in Syria are filing new lawsuits against the federal government, armed with fresh information from an inquiry that implicated several agencies in their ordeals. The renewed legal actions come four months after a commission of inquiry said Canadian officials contributed to the brutalization of Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin and Abdullah Almalki by sharing information – including unfounded and inflammatory accounts of extremist links – with foreign intelligence and police agencies. Former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci cited the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Foreign Affairs for mistakes. Iacobucci concluded the three men were tortured in Syrian custody and, in the case of El Maati, in Egypt as well. None of the men – all of whom are now in Canada and deny involvement in terrorism – has ever been charged…

8. 'Where do you draw the line'
Quebec man accused of terror activities was expressing religious freedom: defence

Graeme Hamilton, National Post Published: Friday, February 20, 2009

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1312837

MONTREAL -- The videos found on Said Namouh's computer when police raided his Quebec apartment in 2007 are brutal: point-blank executions of Westerners, suicide bombings, a charred soldier's body dragged through the street in celebration. Others offered tips on bomb-making or threatened Western governments over the presence of troops in Afghanistan. Over the past three weeks, a Quebec court has heard that Mr. Namouh worked tirelessly to ensure these images were widely available on the Internet to the global jihadi community, in some cases doing the editing and adding subtitles himself. Mr. Namouh's work showed that he had "devoted his life to spreading the ideology of al-Qaeda and encouraging others to join the jihadist movement," said Rita Katz, a Crown expert at the terrorism trial. What Quebec Court Judge Claude Leblond will have to establish is whether those actions contravened Canada's Criminal Code...

9. Bail terms eased on terror suspect Charkaoui
Posted: February 20, 2009, 12:12 PM Canwest News Service
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2700

OTTAWA — The Federal Court has ordered strict bail conditions imposed on Adil Charkaoui in the name of national security to be eased. The decision Friday means Charkaoui, 35, who Ottawa claims has ties to terrorist organizations, must continue to wear an electronic tracking bracelet but no longer has a curfew, and can use the Internet, cellphones and regular phones…

Alleged Al-Qaeda sleeper wins better life in Canada
Agence France Presse Feb 20, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2718

… Charkaoui was arrested in 2003 under security measures contained in Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that permit secret court hearings and indefinite jailing of foreigners suspected of terror ties, without charges. He was released two years later under strict bail conditions, which the federal court has now deemed "disproportionate" to the threat he poses to Canada as an alleged Al-Qaeda sleeper agent…

10. Four animal rights activists arrested for terrorst acts against UC scientists
The Monterey County Herald MediaNews Updated: 02/20/2009 02:31:24 PM PST

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_11750466?

On February 19 and 20, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested four animal rights extremists suspected of terrorizing University of California researchers. A complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday alleged Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach, Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside, Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley, and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole, used force, violence, or threats to interfere with the operation of the University of California in violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Two of the incidents occurred against UC-Santa Cruz professors…

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

11. Buffalo crash investigator once held nuclear codes
By LARRY NEUMEISTER – Associated Press Feb 20, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2696

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The public face of the probe into the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 is a 62-year-old former Air Force fighter pilot and stunt flyer deemed so trustworthy he once carried the nuclear codes for President Ronald Reagan. Steven Chealander found himself in his most high-profile role yet as one of five National Transportation Safety Board members who head to a crash site at a minute's notice… The Dallas-area resident was an Air Force fighter pilot for 22 years, following in the path of his father who did the same in World War II. Chealander flew in the first Gulf War and was a member of the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's air demonstration team of elite pilots…

12. Internet threat: Hackers swarm bank accounts

By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY Feb 23, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2709

New and nasty banking trojans are on the rise on the Internet and attacking online bank accounts. The new trojan programs — which wait on your hard drive for an opportunity to crack your online banking account — are different from traditional "phishing" e-mail scams that try to trick you into typing your login information at fake bank websites. They're invisible, can steal data multiple ways and require no action by the victim to be launched. "Phishing doesn't work as well as it used to," says Patrik Runald, security specialist at F-Secure, the Internet security firm. "Banking trojans provide a very effective and direct means for the bad guys to get their hands on the money." Banking trojans can be gotten by clicking on a viral link to a greeting card or video that arrives in e-mail spam. Or, they can be picked up by clicking to a Web page that's been corrupted by hackers…

13. Too Much Information? Critics Decry Sites That Mine Public Data
Friday, February 20, 2009 By Joshua Rhett Miller Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,497285,00.html

If you want to know the names of people in Tennessee who have permits to carry concealed weapons ... or the folks who contributed their money in support of California's ballot measure to ban gay marriage ... the answers are just a few keystrokes away. And that's too close for comfort, some privacy law experts say… Increased listing of public information by political activists and media organizations has led some to question whether posting data made public through state campaign finance disclosure laws and other methods exceeds the public's right to know… In Memphis, Tenn., executives at the daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal said they received as many as 600 e-mails per day and dozens of phone calls after they posted a database on their Web site that listed every resident who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the state…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

14. Search for Madoff's Billions Leads to Switzerland, Africa
Bernie's Books: Investigators Discover $10 Billion in Suspect Entries
By BRIAN ROSS, RHONDA SCHWARTZ, JOSEPH RHEE, and RICHARD ESPOSITO
February 20, 2009— ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6916429&page=1

Two suspect entries in excess of $5 billion in the books of confessed fraudster Bernard Madoff have given investigators hope they may be on the trail of some of the money he allegedly stole in what has been called the world's largest financial fraud. One trail involves secret accounts set up in Switzerland and at an obscure bank in Africa, investigators and lawyers in the case told ABC News. The investigators and lawyers also tell ABC News that Madoff may have used the name of a dead client, Norman Levy, as well as the prominent Picower Foundation to disguise transfers of more than $10 billion to secret accounts he set up overseas. A lawyer who represents both the Levy family and the Picower Foundation, William Zabel, said neither had ever received a $5 billion disbursement or anything close to that amount…

15. Feds: Block lawyers from classified document
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Saturday, February 21, 2009

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/21/MNI916209V.DTL

The Obama administration filed an emergency request with a federal appeals court Friday to stop a judge in San Francisco from allowing lawyers challenging the government's wiretapping program to see a classified surveillance document. The document is the central evidence in the last remaining lawsuit over the legality of former President George W. Bush's 2001 order for the National Security Administration to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and suspected terrorists in other nations. The suit by Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation contends Bush violated a federal wiretapping law and constitutional restrictions on searches by authorizing the surveillance without approval from Congress or the courts. The organization, a now-defunct charity, was inadvertently sent a document in 2004 that reportedly showed it had been wiretapped during an investigation that led to its classification as a terrorist group. The group returned the document to the government, but Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last month that Al-Haramain's lawyers were entitled to see it, after receiving security clearances, so they could defend the organization's right to sue. Other lawsuits over the program have been dismissed because the plaintiffs have been unable to prove that they were targets of the surveillance program…

16. Judge Ordered to Reconsider Ruling on Palestinian Funds

New York Law Journal Feb 18, 2009 Newsbriefs

http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202428349692
IPT NOTE: The court's opinion is posted at http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2009/2009_01182.htm
A state appeals court yesterday ordered a Manhattan judge to take a second look at whether the estate of Yaron Ungar, a U.S. citizen gunned down in a 1996 Mideast terrorist attack, is entitled to $30 million in fund transfers involving the Palestine Monetary Authority and a U.S. bank. The money was frozen by the Bank of New York following a $116 million judgment obtained in 2004 against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization by heirs of Mr. Ungar and his wife. In April 2007, Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich ordered the Bank of New York to release the $30 million, after concluding that UCC 4-A-503 precluded the bank, an intermediary in the 17 Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) wire transfers, from freezing the funds (NYLJ, April 13, 2007). However, in a unanimous ruling, the Appellate Division, First Department, held that the Bank of New York's voluntary decision to obey the court order and restrain the $30 million did not violate the statute…

Terror victims seeking Persian relics in court
By SHARON COHEN AP National Writer The Associated Press Sat., Feb. 21, 2009

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29315707/

CHICAGO - The professor opens a cardboard box and gingerly picks up a few hunks of dried clay — dust-baked relics that offer a glimpse into the long-lost world of the Persian empire that spanned a continent 2,500 years ago... The collection — on loan for decades to the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute — is known as the Persepolis Fortification Archive. They are, to put it simply, bureaucratic records. But they also tell a story of rank and privilege, of deserters and generals, of life in what was once the largest empire on earth… In an extraordinary battle unfolding slowly in federal court here, several survivors of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 sued the government of Iran, accusing it of being complicit in the attack. They won a $412 million default judgment from a judge in Washington, D.C., and when their lawyer began looking for places to collect, he turned to the past. He decided to try to seize the tablets, along with collections of Persian antiquities at the Oriental Institute and other prominent museums. The goal: Sell them, with the proceeds going to the bombing survivors. His plan, though, has angered many scholars who see it as an attempt to ransom cultural artifacts and fear it could set a dangerous precedent…

17. Nigerian web scam bilked Utah out of $2.5M
Experts: 'Their IT people should have known better.'
By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune Posted: 02/12/2009 05:23:01 PM MST

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11691598

Thieves apparently used a Nigerian-based scam to steal $2.5 million from the Utah treasury, covering their tracks by using intermediaries and a church address. A Salt Lake Tribune review of the names listed in a search warrant as receiving or transferring money have names of African origin or connections to that continent. Michael Kessler, president of Kessler International, a forensic accounting and investigation agency in New York City, said the thieves appear to have used a simple scam that originated in Nigeria about five years ago. The Utah theft is the first time he's seen a government victimized…

18. Supreme Court hears immigrant's ID theft case
By MARK SHERMAN – Associated Press Feb 22, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2710
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, made a curious and undeniably bad decision. After working under an assumed name for six years, he decided to use his real name and exchanged one set of phony identification numbers for another. The change made his employer suspicious and the authorities were called in. The old numbers were made up, but the new ones he bought happened to belong to real people. Federal prosecutors said that was enough to label Flores-Figueroa an identity thief. The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on prosecutors' aggressive use of a new law that was intended to strengthen efforts to combat identity theft. In at least hundreds of cases last year, workers accused of immigration violations found themselves facing the more serious identity theft charge as well, without any indication they knew their counterfeit Social Security and other identification numbers belonged to actual people and were not made up… The case hinges on how the justices resolve this question: Does it matter whether someone using a phony ID knows that it belongs to someone else?...

Border security, immigration, customs

19. Feds indict Afghan national for alleged ties to terrorists
10:07 AM | February 20, 2009 Los Angeles Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/02/feds-indict-afg.html

IPT NOTE: The indictment is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/773.pdf
Federal officials said this morning they have indicted an Afghan national for lying about his alleged ties to terrorists in a bid to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he completed nationalization papers five years ago. During one visit, the government alleges Niazi visited Dr. Amin al-Haq, the security coordinator for Osama bin Laden. Charges against Niazi include perjury, naturalization fraud, misuse of a passport obtained by fraud and making a false statement to a federal agency. He is scheduled to make a court appearance this afternoon at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana…

Tustin man related to Al Qaeda figure is arrested
Brother-in-law of Afghan militant is charged with misstating facts in his U.S. citizenship application. He says that it's blackmail and that federal agents tried to force him to be an informant.
By Carol J. Williams and Christine Hanley February 21, 2009 From the Los Angeles Times
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2702

A Tustin man of Afghan origin, who failed to mention in his application for U.S. citizenship that his brother-in-law is designated as an Al Qaeda terrorist, appeared in federal court Friday to answer charges that could send him to prison for 35 years. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi's detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana was postponed until Tuesday, but the 34-year-old defendant used the occasion to accuse federal agents of trying to force him to become an informant. "I was blackmailed. I did not do what they told me to do," he told reporters in the courtroom, explaining what he saw as the motive for his arrest. "I want justice. I want fairness. . . . The people need to know."…

Afghan arrested for alleged lies about terror ties

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and AMY TAXIN, Associated Press 7:47 p.m. February 20, 2009
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/20/ca-afghan-arrested-02...

… Niazi, 34, has been living in the U.S. since 1998 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2004 through his wife a native of Cambodia who became a citizen in 1992. He first arrived on a tourist visa. Authorities allege that Niazi's sister, Hafiza, is married to Amin al-Haq, identified in court papers as a high-ranking al-Qaida member. al-Haq was named a "specially designated global terrorist" by the United Nations Security Council and U.S. officials in 2001, according to the indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot said al-Haq was believed to have been bin Laden's bodyguard around and after Sept. 11, 2001, prompting the terrorist designations… Niazi is also accused of associating with the Taliban and a terrorist organization called Hezb-e-Islami, which fights international and U.S. troops in Afghanistan… Shakeel Syed, executive director of Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, said he gave a workshop last year to teach people about their civil rights at a mosque in Orange County… Syed said he arranged a meeting for Niazi at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The council confirmed Niazi had visited its office but declined to comment further because of confidentiality…

20. Ottawa imposes another hurdle for Abdelrazik
Canadian living in embassy in Sudan must pay for his ticket home
PAUL KORING From Monday's Globe and Mail February 23, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2711

The Harper government has imposed another condition on Abousfian Abdelrazik – the only Canadian citizen labelled an al-Qaeda operative by Washington – before it will allow him to return home. Mr. Abdelrazik must present a fully-paid-for ticket home before "Passport Canada will issue an emergency passport," the government said in a Dec. 23 letter to his lawyers. But Mr. Abdelrazik, who is living in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, is destitute and the government has warned that it could criminally charge anyone who lends or gives money for a ticket under its sweeping anti-terrorist regulations. Previously, the government had repeatedly promised to give Mr. Abdelrazik an emergency passport if he managed to get a confirmed reservation from an airline willing to fly him from Khartoum to Montreal. For years that seemed unlikely, as no airline was willing to issue Mr. Abdelrazik a ticket as he is on the U.S. "no fly" list…

21. Recent border violence tests spillover plan
Jeremy Roebuck February 22 2009 - The Monitor (McAllen, TX)

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/violence_23502___article.html/border_...

As protests and gunfire erupted last week across Reynosa, Hidalgo County authorities stood prepared at the international bridges, ready for any possibility. With mobile command units connected to statewide intelligence centers and dozens of officers armed to confront potential threats, law enforcement officials responded to Tuesday's violence like they never have before. The incident prompted state officials to enact for the first time a border-wide emergency plan developed to address threats from Mexico's ongoing war against its entrenched drug cartels. Dubbed the "Operation Border Star Contingency Plan," Gov. Rick Perry's office drafted the policy with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies last year to prepare for the possibility of violence spilling over into the United States. "The most significant threat Texas faces is spillover violence from Mexico's drug cartels," Perry's homeland security director, Steve McCraw, told state senators at a hearing Wednesday. "You can never be too prepared."…

Other items

22. Slain Orchard Park woman was stabbed before beheading
Officials unsure if Orchard Park resident was alive when she was decapitated in office
By Gene Warner Buffalo News Updated: 02/21/09 07:33 AM
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/585874.html

Aasiya Z. Hassan was stabbed several times before being beheaded Feb. 12, and authorities still aren't sure whether she was alive when she was decapitated. Sources close to the case also have confirmed that Hassan was attacked with hunting knives… Orchard Park police have charged her husband, Muzzammil S. Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder in the killing. Officials investigating the case say that Muzzammil Hassan is not a hunter. It's not clear how authorities believe he obtained the knives. Authorities have been tight-lipped about the details of the case, refusing to discuss exactly how the 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan was assaulted, the weapons used and the cause of death… However, his defense attorney, James P. Harrington, has said his client did not confess to killing her…

Muslim community knew of Hassan's abuse
Grand Jury will decide if he heads to trial
Updated: Thursday, 19 Feb 2009, 9:48 AM EST Posted by: Emily Lenihan
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2719

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) - A grand jury will now decide whether the founder of Bridges TV will go to trial for the decapitation murder of his wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. "Everyone in the Muslim community was aware that she was indeed going through abuse," said Attorney Nadia Shahram." Although not evident in family pictures, investigators say the 37-year-old mother endured abuse at the hands of her husband, Muzzammil Hassan. Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last Thursday at Bridges TV in Orchard Park...

23. House Judiciary Subcommittee Grapples With 'Libel Tourism'
February 13, 2009 The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/02/house-judiciary-subcommittee-g...

IPT NOTE: The witness list (with links to the prepared statements) is found at http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_090212.html. The full transcript, including Q&A, is available on NEXIS.

For U.S. authors and publishers, "libel tourism" is no vacation, and a U.S. House of Representatives committee met on Thursday to discuss possible remedies. "Libel tourism" refers to bringing libel suits against U.S.-based defendants in foreign countries that have weaker protection for speech than does the United States. The United Kingdom, for example, has nothing analogous to the actual-malice requirement in the United States that protects speech involving public officials or public figures. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), and Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law met on Thursday to explore ways American authors, journalists, and publishers could protect themselves against such foreign libel suits. They heard from a panel of three legal experts and a U.S. author who was sued in the United Kingdom after 23 of her books were purchased online there. The U.S. author, Rachel Ehrenfeld of the American Center for Democracy, wrote the book Funding Evil about the financing of terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida and Hamas. One Saudi billionaire named in the book brought suit in the United Kingdom and won a $225,000 verdict…