Daily Intel Brief 3-11-09

1. China accuses US Navy of breaking the law
China has escalated a spat with America, accusing an unarmed US Navy surveillance ship of illegally monitoring the Chinese coast.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai 10 Mar 2009 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2887

Washington had complained five small Chinese ships "shadowed and aggressively manoeuvred" near USNS Impeccable in international waters around 75 miles south of China's Hainan island on Sunday. The Chinese boats, which came within 25 feet of the US ship, were all small vessels, including a naval intelligence ship, a patrol vessel, a maritime fisheries boat and two fishing boats. Chinese crew members on board one of the boats even bared their bottoms after US seamen doused them with hoses, according to the US. Two of the Chinese ship closed "to within 50 ft, waving Chinese flags and telling Impeccable to leave the area," officials said in the statement. "Because the vessels' intentions were not known, Impeccable sprayed its fire hoses at one of the vessels in order to protect itself," the statement continued. "The Chinese crew members disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25 ft." The USNS Impeccable was designed to track submarines and was sailing close to China's main submarine base in Hainan. Chinese submarines have become increasingly active in the South China Sea and are equipped with ballistic missiles, according to military analysts. The Pentagon lodged a "formal" complaint to Beijing, insisting that it was within its rights to operate outside Chinese territorial waters…

2. U.N. Says Iran Broke Weapons Ban
Wall Street Journal March 11, 2009 By JOE LAURIA
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123673405099190313.html

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.S. called on the United Nations to take action after a Security Council committee said Iran violated international sanctions banning it from exporting munitions, which the U.S. says were headed to Syria. A U.S. official said the incident occurred Jan. 19 and 20, when the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk, which originated in Iran, was boarded in the Red Sea by the USS San Antonio. The ship was ordered to port in Cyprus, where authorities there found 1,980 wooden cases of powder for 130mm guns and 1,320 cases of powder and powder pellets for 125mm guns, according to a Cypriot government report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Also discovered were 60 barrels full of 39mm shells, 810 cases of propellant for 125mm guns and eight cases of 120mm mortar components, the report said. Three of the 98 containers onboard were too heavy to move and still haven't been searched, the report said. The munitions are being stored on Cypru...

Iran: Hostile drones disrupted our satellite launch
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent March 10, 2009
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069876.html

Hostile unmanned aerial vehicles overflew Iran last month and disrupted the communications systems at the launch site of a missile carrying Iran's first satellite to space, according to the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian leader was quoted by an Iranian news agency as having said in recent discussions that the disruptions of communications caused a delay of several hours to the launch of the rocket, which had to be operated with the use of a backup system. Ahmadinejad said drones flew at very high altitude and used sophisticated electronic equipment to jam ground-based systems. He also said that a decision was made to shoot down the drones with fighter planes, but it was decided not to do so for reasons he did not explain...

3. Biden: Taliban negotiations likely
Jon Ward Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Washington Times

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2888
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Tuesday that 70 percent of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are essentially mercenaries who possibly could be negotiated with instead of fought, and said the United States likely will try this approach. Mr. Biden, in Belgium to discuss Afghanistan with NATO officials in advance of next month's summit, said that he did not know what kind of concessions Taliban members might be willing to make, and said that the Afghan government would have to initiate and approve of any such talks. "But I do think it is worth engaging and determining whether or not there are those who are willing to participate in a secure and stable Afghan state," Mr. Biden said. President Obama on Friday left open the door to negotiating with elements of the Taliban as part of a counterinsurgency strategy first conceived and carried out in Iraq by Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of military forces in Iraq who now oversees military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan as commander of CentCom. In response to a question about how many of the Taliban might be considered "moderate" and therefore open to reconciliation, Mr. Biden ticked off some percentages. "Five percent of the Taliban is incorrigible, not susceptible to anything other than being defeated. Another 25 percent or so are not quite sure, in my view, [of] the intensity of their commitment to the insurgency," Mr. Biden said during a press conference. "And roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money, because of them being . . . paid," he said…

4. Grand Jury Convenes in FBI Terror Case Against Somali-Americans in Minneapolis, Sources Say
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Fox News By Mike Levine

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,508484,00.html

IPT NOTE: The witness list for the cited Senate hearing is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2898

Federal authorities are looking to bring terror-related charges against one or more Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area, and witnesses to the case have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury, according to a Muslim leader in the area and a woman who said she testified before the grand jury this morning. For several months the FBI has been investigating about a dozen Somali-American men who disappeared from their homes in the Minneapolis area late last year and may have joined terrorist groups overseas. One of the men, 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed, later blew himself up in Somalia. The FBI recently called him the first U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing, and FBI Director Mueller said he was "radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota." The FBI has interviewed at least 50 people in the Somali community and subpoenaed at least 10 people to testify before a grand jury in Minneapolis, according to Farhan Hurre, the director of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in St. Paul, one of the largest mosques in the Twin Cities. He said most of those subpoenaed are students at the University of Minnesota. At least two of the men still missing were students at the University of Minnesota.… The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security is set to hold a hearing tomorrow morning looking at Somalia-based terrorist groups, particularly the Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, and their efforts to recruit inside the United States. A top-ranking official with the FBI's National Security Branch, J. Philip Mudd, and the Deputy Director for Intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center, Andrew Liepman, are scheduled to testify at the hearing.

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Title: Violent Islamist Extremism: al-Shabaab Recruitment in America
Date: 3/11/09 Time (EST): 9:30 AM Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2898
Panel 1
J. Philip Mudd, Associate Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice
Andrew M. Liepman, Deputy Director for Intelligence, National Counterterrorism Center

Panel 2
Ken Menkhaus, Ph.D. , Professor of Political Science, Davidson College
Osman Ahmed, President, Riverside Plaza Tenants Association
Abdirahman Mukhtar, Youth Program Manager, Brian Coyle Community Center

5. Officials: Taliban's New Top Operations Officer Is Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Associated Press

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,508506,00.html

IPT NOTE: Links to the prepared statements of the witnesses in the cited hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee are found at
http://armed-services.senate.gov/e_witnesslist.cfm?id=3704.

WASHINGTON — The Taliban's new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan had been a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison. U.S. authorities handed over the detainee to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials. Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007. Rasoul is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan. The officials, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to release the information, said Rasoul has joined a growing faction of former Guantanamo prisoners who have rejoined militant groups and taken action against U.S. interests. Pentagon officials have said that as many as 60 former detainees have resurfaced on foreign battlefields. Pentagon and intelligence officials said Rasoul has emerged as a key militant figure in southern Afghanistan, where violence has been spiking in the last year. Thousands of U.S. troops are preparing to deploy there to fight resurgent Taliban forces. One intelligence official told the Associated Press that Rasoul's stated mission is to counter the U.S. troop surge…

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said Tuesday that at least two Saudi detainees also turned up recently as members of al-Qaida in Yemen after they were released from Guantanamo. The Saudis had been handed over by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, where they were supposedly rehabilitated as part of a Saudi program to reform extremists. The Bush administration's decision to transfer militants to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation "doesn't inspire confidence," Blair said. But he told the House Intelligence Committee last month that the prison must be closed because of the damage it has done to America's reputation. It is too powerful a negative symbol to remain open, he said.

UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:30 AM Room SH-216, Hart Senate Office Building OPEN*
http://armed-services.senate.gov/e_witnesslist.cfm?id=3704

To receive testimony on the current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the United States.

Honorable Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence
http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2009/March/Blair%2003-10-09.pd...

Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2009/March/Maples%2003-10-09.p...

Gitmo prisoners defend 'blessed' 9/11 attack
U.S. war crime accusations are "badges of honor," five al Qaeda prisoners say

Statement asks God to "accept our contributions to the ... great attack on America"

"Your fall will be just as the fall of the towers on the blessed 9/11 day," filing says

March 10, 2009 CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/10/gitmo.terror.prisoners/

(CNN) -- Five Guantanamo prisoners accused in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S. staunchly defended their actions, calling the operation "blessed" and "great" and the accusations against them "badges of honor." "You are the last nation that has the right to speak about civilians and killing civilians," the five said in a response this month to the U.S. government's war crimes charges…

Federal Courts in Va., N.Y. May Take Some Guantanamo Cases

By Peter Finn and Carrie Johnson Washington Post Saturday, March 7, 2009; A05

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR200903...

Correction to This Article
This article incorrectly said that John Walker Lindh is incarcerated in a federal "supermax" prison in Colorado. Lindh is serving a 20-year prison term at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind.

Federal authorities have finished compiling detailed electronic dossiers on 241 detainees who remain in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interagency review teams have begun studying the individual files. The process could see some suspects transferred to federal courts, possibly in Northern Virginia and New York City, the jurisdictions where the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred, according to Justice Department officials. The specter of Guantanamo Bay inmates such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, moving to federal detention centers in Alexandria, Manhattan or elsewhere to await trial is likely to stir political controversy. Legislators nationwide have lined up to say they do not want detainees in their city or state…

6. Last 'enemy combatant' in US transferred to federal custody
Agence France Presse March 10, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2891

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The last "enemy combatant" held in the United States has been transferred to federal custody from military detention and was due to make his first court appearance Tuesday, the Justice Department said. Ali al-Marri had been held without charge in a military brig in South Carolina ever since President George W. Bush declared him an enemy combatant in 2003, but late last month the Justice Department formally charged him with providing support to Al-Qaeda. Marri, 43, was served an arrest warrant early Tuesday at the Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina and taken into custody by the US Marshals Service, according to the Justice Department… Marri, a suspected sleeper agent who arrived in the United States on the eve of the September 11 attacks in 2001, was indicted February 26 on two charges of providing material support to Al-Qaeda and conspiring to provide such support...

Long in brig, alleged al-Qaida agent in US court
By BRUCE SMITH – Associated Press March 10, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2899

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — … Al-Marri was studying at Bradley University in Peoria when he was arrested in late 2001 as part of the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. He was initially indicted on fraud charges, which were dropped in 2003 when President George W. Bush declared him an enemy combatant. The government has said al-Marri met with Osama bin Laden and volunteered for a suicide mission or whatever help al-Qaida wanted. He arrived in the U.S. the day before terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Al-Qaida leaders wanted al-Marri, a computer specialist, to wreak havoc on the U.S. banking system and to serve as a liaison for other al-Qaida operatives, according to a court document filed by Jeffrey Rapp, a senior member of the Defense Intelligence Agency…

7. Exclusive: Harkat knew al-Qaeda lieutenant, files reveal
By Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa Citizen March 10, 2009 8:01 AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2890
IPT NOTE: The cited summaries were filed in the following Federal Court case: IMM-4184-06 Mohamed Harkat v. MCI et al

OTTAWA — Terror suspect Mohamed Harkat admitted in a March 1997 conversation that he knew al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah personally and did not fear being contacted by him at home, according to new court documents. A summary of that conversation — between Harkat and an unidentified Ottawa man — has been filed with the Federal Court. Prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the summary is one of 13 added to the public record in the security certificate case. It's not clear whether the summaries are based on wiretaps, obtained under authority of the CSIS Act, or on informants' accounts of conversations. Harkat in previous testimony has denied any association with Zubaydah, who remains a prisoner in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The federal government contends Harkat is an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, who poses a threat to national security. The government's case against him has been conducted largely in secret. The new summaries offer never-before-seen detail of the evidentiary basis for the allegations against the Algerian-born Harkat, who claimed refugee status in Canada in October 1995. Eleven of the summaries are from conversations in which Harkat was a participant, while two others are between third parties…

Terror suspect taught Khadr's children: Document
By Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service March 10, 2009 6:02 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2889

IPT NOTE: The cited CSIS report was filed in the following Federal Court case:
IMM-416-07 Hassan Almrei et al v. AGC (Attorney General of Canada)

OTTAWA — Toronto terror suspect Mahmoud Jaballah taught the children of Ahmed Khadr in Pakistan, says a new document from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that closely links Jaballah to a Canadian clan known for its terrorist ties. The allegations that Jaballah was more than a passing acquaintance of the deceased Khadr is contained in a CSIS summary of its case against the Egyptian-born suspect. The 64-page document, filed recently in Federal Court, updates a summary made public last February. The federal government has been trying to deport Jaballah, based on CSIS allegations he is senior member of the Egyptian terrorist allegation Al Jihad — a charge he denies. The November 2008 summary repeats many of the allegations contained in the earlier CSIS file, released in February 2008, including accusations that, after coming to Canada in 1996, Jaballah was in regular contact with Osama bin Laden's immediate deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri…

8. 'End climate of impunity' for online extremists, report urges
International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence calls on authorities to go beyond simply shutting down Web sites used to promote violent political extremism

Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Tuesday, March 10, 2009

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1374932

IPT NOTE: The cited report may be downloaded at http://www.icsr.info/news-item.php?id=21
Full Report http://www.icsr.info/news/attachments/1236642159ICSROnlineRadicalisation...

Executive Summary
http://www.icsr.info/news/attachments/1236621831icsrinternetreportexecsu...

From white supremacist propaganda to radical Islamist recruiting videos, the Internet is awash with extremist content but a report released on Tuesday says it is time to "end the current climate of impunity" enjoyed by those responsible. The report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence calls on authorities to go beyond simply shutting down Web sites used to promote violent political extremism and to prosecute those behind them… While the report's focus is Britain, the Canadian government was consulted by the study's authors and Canada is experiencing similar problems with extremist groups using the Internet to recruit and radicalize followers. Racist groups such as the Aryan Guard in Calgary use the Internet to spread their message, while in Quebec, a Moroccan man, Said Namouh, went on trial last month for his alleged role in an al-Qaeda on-line propaganda organization. In Ontario, a University of Toronto at Mississauga student, Salman Hossain, was widely denounced last year for posting messages online that supported terrorist attacks in Canada. Ontario Provincial Police are now investigating him for comments he allegedly made about Jews. Prof. Sanjeev Anand of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law said Canadian human rights tribunals have been successfully used to target extremist Internet sites but criminal charges are rare, partly because police lack resources to investigate…

Countering Online Radicalisation: A Strategy for Action
International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence March 10, 2009
http://www.icsr.info/news-item.php?id=21#

9. Chas Freeman pulls out
By BEN SMITH | 3/10/09 5:01 PM EDT Politico.com Updated: 3/10/09 5:32 PM EDT
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19856.html
The controversial appointee to chair President Barack Obama's National Intelligence Council walked away from the job Tuesday as criticism on Capitol Hill escalated. Charles W. Freeman Jr., the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had been praised by allies and by the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, as a brilliant, iconoclastic analyst. Critics said he was too hard on Israel and too soft on China, and blasted him for taking funding from Saudi royals. Freeman "requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed," Blair's office said in a statement. "Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman's decision with regret." The withdrawal came after Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) grilled Blair at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing Tuesday. Lieberman cited his "concern" about "statements that [Freeman] has made that appear either to be inclined to lean against Israel or too much in favor of China." …

Statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Washington, DC March 10, 2009

http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20090310_release.pdf

Blair Defends Intelligence Pick From Questions on Foreign Connections
By Tim Starks, CQ Staff CQPolitics
CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – INTELLIGENCE March 9, 2009 – 7:34 p.m.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003070206

10. Body odor: New proof of ID?
Shaun Waterman UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Tuesday, March 10, 2009

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/10/body-odor-new-proof-id/

UPDATED: The Department of Homeland Security plans to study the possibility that human body odor might be used to determine when people are lying, or to identify individuals in the same way that fingerprints can. In a federal procurement document posted Friday on the Web, the department´s Science and Technology Directorate says it will conduct an "outsourced, proof-of-principle study to determine if human odor signatures can serve as an indicator of deception. ... As a secondary goal, this study will examine ... human odor samples for evidence to support the theory that an individual can be identified by that individual´s odor signature." …

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

11. A Struggle Over U.S. Cybersecurity

By Brian Krebs Washington Post Tuesday, March 10, 2009; A11

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR200903...

The resignation of the federal government's cybersecurity coordinator highlights a power struggle underway over how best to defend the government's civilian computer networks against digital attacks. Rod A. Beckstrom resigned the post Friday after less than a year on the job, citing a lack of funding and the National Security Agency's tightening grip on government cybersecurity matters. Beckstrom is director of the National Cyber Security Center -- an organization created last March to help coordinate such security efforts across the intelligence community. But recently, Beckstrom said, efforts have been underway to fold his group into a facility at the NSA. Beckstrom said in an interview over the weekend that his group was formed to coordinate the various agencies' efforts but not to be controlled by the NSA… The Obama administration is in the midst of a 60-day review of the government's cybersecurity initiative, with recommendations on next steps expected sometime next month…

12. Texas Bill Would Criminalize Online Gang Recruitment, Tackle Transnational Crime
Government Technology Mar 10, 2009, News Report

http://www.govtech.com/gt/print_article.php?id=625827

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was joined by Sen. John Carona and law enforcement officials yesterday to emphasize the need to combat the escalating threat of transnational gangs in Texas communities. Carona yesterday filed Senate Bill (SB) 11, legislation that if passed will significantly disrupt the operations of transnational gangs in Texas... Gangs like the Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate, Barrio Azteca and MS-13 are a threat to Texas citizens, said the Governor's Office, and growing increasingly sophisticated as they work to expand their influence across our state, recruiting members from our schools, communities and prisons. SB 11 will create an offense for the online promotion of criminal gangs which will be a powerful tool in protecting young Texans and preventing them from being recruited into these illicit organizations. The bill will also allow parents, communities and government entities to file civil suits against criminal street gangs or individual gang members, enabling those parties to recover for damages caused by gang-related crimes…

13. "Hear it Now": Audio newsletter from the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University

http://homelandsecurity.tamu.edu/outreach/hear-it-now.html/?

March 6, 2009 | Vol. 3, No. 11
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2892

In this week's issue….

14. Instant Immunity

The Burrill Report March 6, 2009

http://www.burrillreport.com/article-1184.html

Scripps research scientists engineer new type of vaccination that provides protections against pathogens without delay. Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute working with mice appear to have overcome a major drawback of vaccinations—the lag time of days, or even weeks, that it normally takes for immunity to build against a pathogen. This new method of vaccination, they say, could potentially be used to provide instantaneous protection against diseases caused by viruses and bacteria, cancers, and even virulent toxins…

15. Olympics security could ground regional flights to Vancouver
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | 11:35 AM ET CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2009/03/10/bc-olympic-security-grounds-re...

Pacific Coastal Airlines could ground some flights during the Olympics because of security plans. (Pacific Coastal Airlines)Flights between Vancouver and many rural areas across B.C. may be grounded during the 2010 Winter Olympics because of airport security plans, one of B.C.'s regional airlines is warning. Olympics security officials say all airline passengers must clear security before being allowed to land at Vancouver International Airport during the Winter Games next February. But many B.C. airports, such as those at Trail, Powell River and Bella Bella, don't currently screen departing passengers, and thus far there are no official plans to upgrade security at those rural airports…

16. Feds call magician-as-cargo stunt a hoax
By WILLIAM KATES – Associated Press March 10, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2893

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Federal investigators say a magician who claimed he packaged himself and rode a cargo plane on a cross-country flight from upstate New York to Las Vegas was pulling off a hoax…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

17. Al-Arian Offered Cooperation After Unexpected Sentence
Government Made No Extra Promises, Al-Arian Told Judge
IPT News March 9, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1009/al-arian-offered-cooperation-af...
When a federal magistrate specifically asked Sami Al-Arian whether any extra promises were made to him in exchange for his 2006 guilty plea to assisting a terrorist group, Al-Arian offered a simple response: "I don't recall anything else." He made no mention of any deal with prosecutors exempting him from giving future grand jury testimony, a transcript shows. What's more, the former University of South Florida professor even offered to cooperate with the government after receiving a subpoena compelling his testimony in a terrorism financing probe in Virginia, federal prosecutors said in a recent court filing. The revelation of Al-Arian's May 2006 offer to assist the government's Virginia investigation undermines his argument to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Va., that he had an unwritten understanding with prosecutors barring grand jury testimony. The government has repeatedly said prosecutors reached no such deal with Al-Arian, a former operative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. Nonetheless, in a hearing Monday, Brinkema expressed skepticism about the government's position, saying the "integrity of the Department of Justice" plea agreement process was at stake. She granted Al-Arian 10 days to file a motion to dismiss a pending criminal contempt indictment...

18. Focus to Remain on Terrorist Financing
By Matthew Levitt March 9, 2009 02:48 PM Counterterrorism Blog

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/03/focus_to_remain_on_terrorist_f.p...

Yesterday, the Obama administration officially nominated three new senior Treasury officials, including David S. Cohen to be assistant secretary in dealing with terrorist financing. Coming on the heels of the decision to keep Undersecretary Stuart Levey at the helm of the office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, all signs are that the new administration intends to keep a strong focus on protecting the U.S. financial system from abuse, taking offensive action to prevent illicit actors from enjoying easy access to the U.S. and international financial systems, and following the money as a means of identifying terrorist financiers and operators up and down the financial pipeline…

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

19. New ICE program enhances identifying and removing criminal aliens in Fairfax County
Now criminal and immigration records of all detainees to be checked

March 9, 2009 US Immigration & Customs Enforcement Press Release

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090309fairfax.htm

FAIRFAX, Va. -Fairfax County Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies have been added to a growing list of jurisdictions throughout the country that are receiving access to a program called Secure Communities, administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Fairfax County is the first location in the Washington Metropolitan Area and the first in Virginia to participate. Secure Communities will streamline the process for ICE to determine if an individual in local custody is a potentially removable criminal alien…

20. 10 indicted in multi-state marriage fraud scheme
Group arranged multiple sham marriages across the nation

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Press Release March 6, 2009

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090306cincinatti.htm

CINCINNATI - Ten individuals involved in a multi-state marriage fraud conspiracy were indicted today in federal court following an intensive and far-reaching investigation by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Eight individuals were arrested yesterday by ICE agents and two individuals are still at large and being sought…

21. More young men being caught smuggling narcotics
By Angelica Martinez San Diego Union-Tribune 10:27 a.m. March 10, 2009

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/10/bn10smuggle102735/
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have seen a recent increase in the number of boys and young men working as smugglers who are taping narcotics to their bodies, officials said. Since late August, when officers first noticed an upswing, officers have caught 157 teenage boys and men walking into the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry from Mexico with drugs hidden under their clothing...

22. Senate expected to extend E-Verify program
ERIN KELLY Published: 03.11.2009 Gannett News

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/111846.php

WASHINGTON — The Senate was poised Tuesday to extend the E-Verify program through Sept. 30 as part of its expected approval of a massive $410 billion federal spending bill. However, senators rejected an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to re-authorize the program for five years. The vote was 50-47 to kill the amendment. E-Verify allows employers to enter employees or job applicants' Social Security numbers electronically into a free federal database to check whether they are citizens or legal residents with permission to work. The goal is to make it tougher for illegal immigrants to use fake documents to get jobs...

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

23. 33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders
By KIM GAMEL – 11 hours ago Associated Press March 10, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2894

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders touring a market after a reconciliation meeting west of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 33 people in the second major attack in the capital area in two days. Despite the ongoing violence, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said he does not believe the Iraqi government will ask Americans to remain in the country past a 2011 deadline set by a security agreement between the two countries. The bombing — which left clusters of bodies lying piled near the shabby market stalls lining the road — was part of a spike of violence that comes as the U.S. military begins to draw down its forces. The bomber detonated an explosives belt as the tribal leaders were walking through the market in the town of Abu Ghraib, accompanied by security officials and journalists, according to the Iraqi military…

24. Somali cabinet votes to implement sharia law
Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:33am EDT Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSLA575453

MOGADISHU, March 10 (Reuters) - Somalia's cabinet voted on Tuesday to implement sharia law across the chaotic Horn of Africa nation, which has been wracked by conflict for 18 years. New President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is trying to restore stability and security in Somalia, and experts say the move to establish sharia or Islamic law is aimed at undermining Islamist guerrillas who have waged an insurgency for the last two years…

25. George Galloway convoy stoned by irate Egyptians
A British aid convoy led by George Galloway, the east London MP, that was carrying relief supplies for Gaza, was pelted with stones and vandalised in the Egyptian town El-Arish late on Sunday, an organiser said.
by Our Foreign Staff The Daily Telegraph (London) Last Updated: 7:29AM GMT 10 Mar 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2885
The convoy, which set out from London last month carrying relief supplies valued at £1 million ($1.4 million), was in El-Arish, a border staging post about 28 miles from the Rafah passage to Gaza. "It's an absolute disgrace," said the organiser of the aid shipment, Yvonne Ridley. "The power was cut. During cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones. "Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans," she said. "Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack."… The convoy is expected to head to Rafah but its future movement is tied up in a dispute between organisers and Egyptian officials, who had welcomed the activists, over the inclusion of non-medical aid in the convoy…