Daily intel report 05-12 -09

1. Al Qaeda's Global Base Is Pakistan, Says Petraeus
U.S. Central Command Chief Says Group Has Shifted Operations There, While Afghani Taliban Plan 'Surge' of Their Own
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Wall Street Journal MAY 9, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124182556238902393.html

WASHINGTON -- Senior leaders of al Qaeda are using sanctuaries in Pakistan's lawless frontier regions to plan new terror attacks and funnel money, manpower and guidance to affiliates around the world, according to a top American military commander. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said in an interview that Pakistan has become the nerve center of al Qaeda's global operations, allowing the terror group to re-establish its organizational structure and build stronger ties to al Qaeda offshoots in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and parts of Europe. The comments underscore a growing U.S. belief that Pakistan has displaced Afghanistan as al Qaeda's main stronghold. "It is the headquarters of the al Qaeda senior leadership," said the general, who took the helm of the military's Central Command last fall. In the interview, Gen. Petraeus also warned of difficult months ahead in Afghanistan, saying Taliban militants are moving weapons and forces into areas where the U.S. is adding troops, planning a "surge" of their own to counter the U.S. plan. The commander said the U.S. had intelligence showing that the Taliban were deploying new fighters to southern Afghanistan, appointing new local commanders, and prepositioning weapons and other supplies...

Seeds of Afghan jihad bloom in two US towns

* While recruiting for the war, Sheikh Gilani formed two groups in America now suspected of involvement in violent extremism

Monday, May 11, 2009 Staff Report The Daily Times (Pakistan)

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3370

WASHINGTON: In the 1980s when small towns in FATA were turning into recruitment centers for the Afghan war, seeds of jihad took hold and bloomed in some unexpected places – in two small towns in the United States, where two groups formed by Sheikh Mubarik Gilani –arrested in connection with Daniel Pearl's murder in 2002 – are suspected of violent extremism. The towns of Red House, Virginia and Islamberg, New York are home to a small number of African-American converts to Islam who have withdrawn from the outside world to live by a set of strict religious codes. The two communities, which have formed a sect calling themselves the Muslims of the Americas, are said to be the followers of Sheikh Gilani. Gilani began preaching at a mosque in Brooklyn, New York seeking recruits for the Afghan jihad in 1980. It was then that he formed the group Jamat al Fuqra and later the Muslims of the Americas. The Muslims of the Americas, a group exempt from tax, operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims in many states in the US. In addition to the compounds in Virginia and New York, these groups, which some have characterized as a cult, has compounds in Badger, California; Red House, Virginia; Binghamton, New York; and York, South Carolina. The cult houses between 100 and 200 people, many of them women and children in about 20 huge trailers. A 2005 Department of Homeland Security report, titled the "Integrated Planning Guidance Report", warned that "other predicted possible sponsors of attacks (against North America) include Jamat al Fuqra (JF) that has been linked to Muslims of the Americas".Federal government officials told Daily Times that in 2006, the Department of Justice reported that the JF "has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 30,000 members spread across the US, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence." …

2. Terrorist Traffic Via Syria Again Inching Up
Pipeline to Iraq Back In Business After Lull

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Monday, May 11, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3369

Last October, as the Bush administration was touting a dramatic drop in the number of suicide bombings in Iraq, four young Tunisian men left their homes for Libya and then headed to Syria. There, they were met at the Damascus airport and taken to a safe house. Six tedious months passed until their handlers felt that it was safe to move the men again. In April, they were smuggled across the Iraqi border; within days, two were dead, among the suicide bombers who have killed at least 370 Iraqis in a wave of attacks over the past several weeks. The third Tunisian disappeared. The fourth was captured and, according to a senior U.S. military official, provided interrogators with this account of their travels. His statement, combined with what other sources had previously indicated to U.S. and Iraqi intelligence, confirmed what American officials had suspected: After a long hiatus, the Syrian pipeline operated by the organization al-Qaeda in Iraq is back in business. The revival of a transit route that officials had declared all but closed comes as the Obama administration is exploring a new diplomatic dialogue with Syria. At the same time, Washington remains concerned by Syrian activities -- including ongoing support for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as activities involving Iraq…

3. Holder Declines to Rule Out Expanded Interrogation Probe
Attorney General Eric Holder declined Thursday to rule out expanding an investigation of alleged torture under the Bush administration to include the members of Congress who knew about the interrogations and other officials.

FOXNews.com Thursday, May 07, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3371

IPT NOTE: AG Holder's prepared statement is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3372

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he would not rule out expanding an investigation of alleged torture under the Bush administration to include the officials who approved the interrogation techniques and the members of Congress who knew about them. Holder was pointedly asked about the terms of such an investigation by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., during a Senate hearing Thursday. Alexander, echoing claims by fellow conservatives that Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike knew about the interrogation methods in advance, questioned whether all parties in the loop would be "appropriate" parts of an investigation. "If you're going to investigate the lawyers ... I would assume you could also get the people who created the techniques, the officials who approved and the members of Congress who knew about them and may have encouraged them," Alexander said. "Hypothetically, that might be true. I don't know," Holder said. Though Holder previously has said that intelligence officials who acted in "good faith" and relied on official legal opinions during interrogations will not be prosecuted, he has not defined how wide a net the Justice Department might cast if it pursues a full-fledged probe into the interrogation program. His statements Thursday suggested an investigation may not be narrowed to focus only on the lawyers who authored the so-called torture memos. The attorney general added Thursday that he wants to look in a "very concrete way" at an internal ethics report and "see from there whether further action is warranted." …

Agenda: Review of funding and oversight of the Department of Justice
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2009
Senate Appropriations Committee, Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee (Chairman Mikulski)
Witness: The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, US Department of Justice
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3372

List Says Top Democrats Were Briefed on Interrogations
By SCOTT SHANE and CARL HULSE May 9, 2009 New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/politics/09detain.html

IPT NOTE: The cited chart of briefings does not appear to be posted online yet at http://www.dni.gov/press_room.htm

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans on Friday accused Democrats of full complicity in the approval of the Bush administration's brutal interrogations, citing a new accounting that shows briefings for some top Democrats on waterboarding and other harsh methods starting in 2002. The new chart of briefings, prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was the first full listing of briefings to members of Congress and their aides. It appears to call into question the longstanding assertion of Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she was never told that waterboarding and other methods were actually used, only that the Central Intelligence Agency believed they were legal and could be used. The chart said that at the first briefing, on Sept. 4, 2002, Ms. Pelosi, then the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Representative Porter J. Goss, the committee's Republican chairman, were given a "description" of the interrogation methods that "had been employed" against a prisoner, Abu Zubaydah. On Friday, the speaker issued a statement defending her previous account…

Judge won't delay May 27 war court session
BY CAROL ROSENBERG May 11, 2009 Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1042070.html

IPT NOTE: The Apr 27 docketing order is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3373 , and the May 7 ruling is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3374

The chief of the Pentagon war court has spurned a defense request for delay and ordered a Military Commission hearing that will address the issue of torture to go forward after Memorial Day at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a document obtained by The Miami Herald. Army Col. James Pohl, the judge, wrote in the two-page ruling Thursday that defense lawyers had ample notice to prepare for the one-day hearing May 27. He ordered them to make plans to travel to the remote base in southeast Cuba for the first commission session since President Barack Obama took office and got a 120-day freeze in the war court proceedings. At issue at the hearing for Saudi Arabian Ahmed Darbi, 34, is how much evidence might be presented at his military trial in a bid to show the man was tortured into confessing crimes he now denies. The Defense Department says Darbi is the brother-in-law of one of the men on the suicide squad that forced hijacked Flight 77 into the Pentagon building on Sept. 11, 2001, although he is not accused in that crime. His charge sheet alleges he conspired with al Qaeda in a never-realized 2000-2002 plot to bomb vessels at sea in the Straits of Hormuz. He also allegedly met Osama bin Laden and trained in an Afghan al Qaeda camp. Defense lawyers had earlier asked to submit the award-winning documentaries Taxi to the Dark Side and Torturing Democracy into the court record…

4. Canada appeals ruling on Guantanamo detainee
By ROB GILLIES The Associated Press Friday, May 8, 2009; 5:31 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR200905...

KINGSTON, Ontario -- Canada said Friday it would appeal a court ruling requiring it to press the United States for the return of the last Western detainee still being held at Guantanamo Bay. Foreign Affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione said the government has been very vocal in stating that Omar Khadr faces serious charges. Khadr, a Toronto native, was one of the youngest people ever charged with war crimes. He was 15 when he was accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade during a 2002 battle in Afghanistan. Canada's three opposition parties have demanded the Conservative government bring Khadr home. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to get involved in the case, saying the U.S. legal process must play itself out. Khadr's lawyer called the government's decision to appeal mean spirited... Khadr has received some sympathy from Canadians, but his family has been widely criticized and called the "first family of terrorism." His father was an alleged al-Qaida militant and financier who was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003. A brother, Abdullah Khadr, is being held in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant, accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaida. Another brother has acknowledged the family stayed with Osama bin Laden.

5. Rehman says Dr Aafia to be repatriated soon
Published: May 09, 2009 Associated Press of Pakistan
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3375

IPT NOTE: The government's complaint against Siddiqui is posted at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/August/siddiqui-aafia-complaint.pdf

WASHINGTON (APP) - Dr Aafia Siddiqui, currently detained in a New York jail, will soon be repatriated home, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. "A considerable progress has been made to this effect and there are positive indication from the US administration to get her released. He told this news agency that he held meetings at three levels - FBI, State Department and US Attorney-General. He has forcefully pleaded her case, both on legal and humanitarian grounds. The US side has promised to give sympathetic consideration to their plea. The US administration also showed willingness to arrange meeting of the family members with her…

6. Venezuela Seizes Assets of 60 Oil Services Companies
By VOA News 09 May 2009
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-09-voa16.cfm

The Venezuelan government has seized the assets of 60 local and foreign-owned oil services firms. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the seizures Friday, saying they were authorized under a law passed Thursday by the National Assembly. Among the firms whose assets were taken is Oklahoma-based Williams Companies, which said the government took control of two natural gas facilities. The company said it is seeking repayment of millions of dollars in services fees owed by state-run companies in Venezuela. The takeovers come as Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, tries to renegotiate contracts with foreign and domestic oil companies in a bid to lower costs…

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

7. Obama's Budget Eliminates New Funding for Nuclear Detection
By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Thursday, May 7, 2009 6:00 PM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3376

IPT NOTE: The DHS press release is posted at http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1241715252729.shtm and the full DHS FY 2010 budget request can be found at www.dhs.gov/xabout/budget/

President Obama would eliminate new funding for advanced-generation equipment to detect nuclear weapons and radiological materials at U.S. borders and ports and around New York City in his 2010 budget, homeland security officials said. The decisions, outlined in Homeland Security Department budget documents and briefings Thursday, mark a turn away from a priority of the administration of former president George W. Bush, who with former vice president Dick Cheney championed development of new technologies that could lead to a ring of domestic sensors of weapons of mass destruction. But the research effort -- which former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff described as a "mini-Manhattan project" -- has run into problems. Technical flaws and doubts about the integrity of scientific testing have delayed multi-billion dollar plans to buy advanced spectroscopic portal monitors, or ASPs, and automated cargo radiographic imaging systems, or CAARs, to scan for nuclear materials aboard cars, trucks, trains and cargo moving through air and land ports. Congress has forced DHS's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to hold off on new purchases, and Obama declined to request funds to buy equipment under DNDO beyond the $153 million Bush obtained last year…

Secretary Napolitano Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request
Department of Homeland Security Release Date: May 7, 2009 Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1241715252729.shtm

DHS asks for nearly $1 billion to protect critical networks, systems
By Jill R. Aitoro 05/07/2009

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090507_9685.php

The Homeland Security Department requested about a 15 percent increase in funding for fiscal 2010 to defend the nation's critical infrastructure such as the electrical grid and financial sector, and for cybersecurity to protect government systems, according to the administration's budget released on Thursday. DHS asked for $918 million to support the Office of Infrastructure Protection, which leads coordinated efforts with industry to protect the nation's critical industries, including transportation and energy systems. Some of the money will be applied to information technology and cybersecurity, although the DHS did not break out technology spending. The amount also included funding for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, which includes the National Communications System, the Office of Emergency Communications, and the National Cyber Security Division. Homeland Security wants to use about $400 million of the $918 million to expand the national cybersecurity protection program, said DHS Chief Financial Officer Peggy Sherry. The amount represents an increase of $87.2 million, or 22 percent, from fiscal 2009, and would support development of the third version of Einstein, the intrusion detection system that the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team uses to monitor federal networks for suspicious activity...

NY Police: Counterterror program takes budget hit
May 7, 2009 Associated Press

www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--nypd-security0507may07...

NEW YORK - New York police officials have found some troubling fine print in President Obama's proposed budget. The budget released Thursday proposes pulling funding in 2010 for a program that's helped the NYPD develop a system to detect and repel radiological or nuclear terror threats. The NYPD has already received more than $53 million in Homeland Security Department grants for the effort, including $20 million this year. It has used the money to arm officers and vehicles with radiation detectors and to recruit other law enforcement agencies to form a protective ring around the city. Without more grants, the department may have to scrap plans to rig bridges and tunnels with detection devices monitored by a new command post in lower Manhattan…

8. Cyberwar
Cadets Trade the Trenches for Firewalls
By COREY KILGANNON and NOAM COHEN May 11, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/technology/11cybergames.html

WEST POINT, N.Y. — The Army forces were under attack. Communications were down, and the chain of command was broken. Pacing a makeshift bunker whose entrance was camouflaged with netting, the young man in battle fatigues barked at his comrades: "They are flooding the e-mail server. Block it. I'll take the heat for it." These are the war games at West Point, at least last month, when a team of cadets spent four days struggling around the clock to establish a computer network and keep it operating while hackers from the National Security Agency in Maryland tried to infiltrate it with methods that an enemy might use. The N.S.A. made the cadets' task more difficult by planting viruses on some of the equipment, just as real-world hackers have done on millions of computers around the world. The competition was a final exam of sorts for a senior elective class. The cadets, who were computer science and information technology majors, competed against teams from the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine as well as the Naval Postgraduate Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Each team was judged on how well it subdued the threats from the N.S.A. The cyberwar games at West Point are just one example of a heightened awareness across the military that it must treat the threat of a computer attack as seriously as it does an attack carried out by a bomber or combat brigade. There is hardly an American military unit or headquarters that has not been ordered to analyze the risk of cyberattacks to its mission — and to train to counter them. If the hackers were to succeed, they could change information on the network and cripple Internet communications…

9. Laser pointed at planes approaching Sea-Tac
Last updated May 7, 2009 11:33 p.m. PT By CASEY MCNERTHNEY SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406005_laser08.html

Pilots on two commercial jets flying into Sea-Tac International Airport on Thursday night reported having a red laser pointed at their cockpit. Police are searching for whoever committed the acts -- which could lead to federal charges -- and investigating whether Thursday's cases are connected to a series of laser incidents that targeted planes flying into Sea-Tac earlier this year. A pilot for Northwest Airlines and another for United Airlines reported seeing a red laser about 9:20 p.m. Thursday. "It happened 1 to 3 miles north of the runway on approach," Sea-Tac spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said. "Both landed safely." A 24-year-old Burien man who was suspected of shining a green laser at 13 planes the evening of Feb. 22 is a person of interest in a similar case from late March involving an Alaska Airlines flight, Betancourt said. She did not know if he was a person of interest in the most recent case…

10. Pueblo Students Asked To Plot Terror Attack
Parents Upset Over 9th Grade Assignment

POSTED: 7:13 pm MDT May 9, 2009 UPDATED: 8:52 am MDT May 11, 2009

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/19418299/detail.html

PUEBLO, Colo. -- A ninth grade history project at a high school in Pueblo was supposed to teach students about terrorism, but instead it outraged parents. Gini Fischer says her daughter came home Thursday saying she had two minutes to come up with a plot for an act of terrorism. Over 110 freshmen at Pueblo County High School were given the project. The teacher claims the assignment was to illustrate an act of terrorism by a foreign government on American soil… District 70 Superintendent Dr. Dan Lere said students may have misinterpreted the assignment… The school district has decided to collect the assignment from students and destroy them.

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

11. Former West Michigan congressman speaks out concerning his charges

A former West Michigan congressman is facing indictment and trial.

May 7, 2009 - 9:16 PM (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - (Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo)

http://www.wwmt.com/articles/west-1362261-michigan-congressman.html

Mark Siljander served as a republican congressman from West Michigan from 1981 to 1987. Since then he's run a consulting firm, worked overseas on behalf of the U.S. and even written a book. But in January 2008 Siljander was indicted on charges that he worked for an Islamic charity that landed on the U.S. list of charity organizations with links to terrorist groups. But Siljander is now speaking out about his work and how he ended up with a federal indictment. We talked to Mark Siljander via satellite from Florida. He says investigators have it wrong and many don't understand his work, or just oppose it… Siljander was charged in early 2008 for allegedly lobbying on behalf of the Islamic American Relief Agency after the group was investigated for funneling money to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a Taliban leader on the us list of global terrorists…

12. N.Y. man admits role in identity theft scam targeting N.J. banks
by Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger Friday May 08, 2009, 3:30 PM
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/ny_man_admits_role_in_identity....

NEWARK -- A New York man pleaded guilty in federal court today to mining Social Security numbers for an identity theft ring targeting home equity lines of credit at New Jersey banks. Yomi Jagunna, 44, of Queens, stood before U.S. District Court Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark and said he set up a sham collection agency to gain access to a commercial database. He admitted selling 39 Social Security numbers for $30 a piece to a group authorities said siphoned at least $2.5 million from dozens of banks, including at least 11 in the Garden State. Jagunna, who is being held on $1 million bail, wept quietly before pleading guilty to conspiring to commit identity theft. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Kosto said prosecutors could have proved if the case had gone to trial that Jagunna looked up more than 100,000 Social Security numbers...

13. Laundering costs British bank $350M

Posted on Mon, May. 11, 2009 Miami Herald BY JOSEPH A. MANN JR.
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1041009.html

IPT NOTE: The witnesses' prepared statements [previously circulated] are posted at http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090506a.html and the full hearing transcript is available on NEXIS/Weslaw.

American anti-money-laundering officials racked up their biggest success to date when a British bank agreed to pay $350 million to the federal government and the Manhattan District Attorney's office earlier this year for violating federal and New York state laws. Lloyds TSB Bank, an international bank based in the United Kingdom, in January agreed to forfeit the money after U.S. investigators found that it falsified information on electronic fund transfers from Iranian and Sudanese banks to U.S. banks... In this case, it was employees of the bank who found a way to avoid setting off alarms at U.S. banks, according to court documents. Describing the Lloyds case at a recent conference in Hollywood organized by moneylaundering.com, Adam Kaufmann, bureau chief at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, said his office began investigating Iran and Iranian banking about three years ago. As the investigation unfolded, the DA's office and the Justice Department, working with the IRS and New York state banking officials, found that beginning in the mid-1990s, Lloyds' offices, primarily in the U.K., Tokyo and Dubai, altered the text of electronic messages that moved funds from banks in Iran and Sudan to Lloyds and then to correspondent banks in the U.S. The alterations, called "stripping," involved removing any references to Iran, Sudan or any other terms that might raise a red flag at U.S. banks. These actions by Lloyds bypassed money-laundering filters and violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which bans exportation of services to Iran and Sudan without authorization. Lloyds also violated New York State penal law by falsifying business records, Kaufmann said. U.S. financial institutions believed that the transfers originated at Lloyds, not at banks in Iran and Sudan, thus causing them to provide financial services that were banned…

Tough rules drive away foreign bank clients
BY JOSEPH A. MANN JR. Miami Herald Posted on Mon, May. 11, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1041018.html

South Florida banks are better prepared to detect and block money laundering than many other financial institutions in the country, according to bankers and money laundering experts. Still, in an effort to keep pace with increasingly strict federal anti-money-laundering rules, banks say they are losing business from honest clients, especially those from Latin America, to financial institutions in Panama, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and other countries that are less stringent in accepting deposits…

Money launderers wash billions through international trade
By JOSEPH A. MANN Miami Herald Posted on Mon, May. 11, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1041027.html

Imported plain cotton pillow cases from France that cost more than $900 apiece and new bulldozers exported to Venezuela that cost $387 each. Such prices seem highly suspect -- and could be examples of someone using international trade to launder money. Despite strict enforcement of federal anti-money-laundering laws, criminals are constantly finding ways to transform dirty money -- the proceeds of illegal activities -- into clean cash, and one of their most important routes is laundering money via international trade. Money launderers are moving enormous sums through ports in Florida and other parts of the country by overvaluing or undervaluing exports and imports, said John Zdanowicz, a professor of finance at Florida International University. Using a statistical program he developed to track money laundering, Zdanowicz analyzes U.S. government trade figures, calculates average prices for commodities and merchandise and searches the data for abnormally priced products…

Tracking down dirty money

Miami Herald May 11, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/more-info/story/1041026.html
A maze of government agencies have roles in detecting, monitoring and regulating money-laundering activities, or in penalizing and prosecuting violators. These are the main players:…

Money laundering lingo

Miami Herald May 11, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/more-info/story/1041024.html

To the uninitiated, a technical discussion of money laundering might appear to be a conversation in code. People blithely discuss SARs, not the potentially deadly virus, but the suspicious activity reports financial institutions are required to file to the government, or PEPs -- politically exposed persons. PEPs and their associates perform important public functions for a government or are members of a royal family -- and they are sometimes considered risks because of their ability to hide illegally obtained money. Here are a few more samples from the alphabet soup of money laundering terms:…

14. Stanford drug informer role claim
By John Sweeney, BBC Panorama reporter BBC NEWS: 2009/05/09 23:12:41 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/8029494.stm

Evidence has emerged that the Texan who bankrolled English cricket may have been a US government informer. Sir Allen Stanford, who is accused of bank fraud, is the subject of an investigation by the BBC's Panorama. Sources told Panorama that if he was a paid anti-drug agency informer, that could explain why a 2006 probe into his financial dealings was quietly dropped. Sir Allen vigorously denies allegations of financial wrongdoing, despite a massive shortfall in his bank's assets. But the British receiver of his failed Stanford International Bank - based in Antigua - told Panorama that the books clearly show the deficit. Of the $7.2bn (£4.8bn) in deposits claimed by the bank, only $500m (£331m) has been traced…

Panorama: The Six Billion Dollar Man, 11 May 2009, BBC One at 2030 BST.

15. One industry still booming: Shoplifting
Jennifer Harper Monday, May 11, 2009 Washington Times

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/11/shoplifting-growing-in-poor-...

The "five-finger discount" has a hold on the nation. Pizzas, art supplies, baby formula, diabetic test strips, fancy lingerie, perennial plants ripped from the ground - just about anything is up for grabs in a sour economy as more Americans resort to shoplifting. Some filchers have gone pro - snatching the goods in organized raids and later unloading their wares at innocent swap meets or flea markets. In separate incidents last week, police in Michigan, Nebraska, New York and New Hampshire reported that young mothers were apprehended shoplifting with the help of their toddlers. In Joliet, Ill., managers of a lingerie store were shocked to discover Thursday that someone had walked out with 140 bras worth a total of $5,440. It's rampant: 61 percent of the largest retailers and chain stores report that "opportunistic" shoplifting has increased in the past four months, despite the fact that stores collectively shell out $12 billion a year in loss-prevention efforts, according to new research released last week by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA)… More than half have been victimized by credit card or other financial fraud. In addition, three-fourths said they have seen a marked increase in "organized retail crime," or ORC, the catchall term for grand-scale shoplifting… The study warned that shoplifting funded serious crime, citing assassination attempts on federal prosecutors and police in Texas that were completely funded by more than $1 million in gang-related baby formula thefts from retailers. The group showcased a specific incident. In March, federal and regional authorities shut down a central Florida shoplifting ring, arresting 21 suspects - all illegal immigrants - who were paid up to $300 a day to steal baby formula. The group stole $17.5 million worth of formula, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, which had 40 detectives assigned to the case. The allure of shoplifting has also tarnished a foreign student exchange program coordinated by Georgetown University and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development…

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

15. Immigrant-smuggling ring bust nets 27 Dallas-area arrests

02:25 PM CDT on Friday, May 8, 2009 By DIANNE SOLIS / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3378

Federal officials have arrested 27 people on charges of migrant-smuggling, accusing them of bringing 500 to 1,000 illegal immigrants a month into the United States and charging them $1,500 to $2,500 for the journey. A two-count federal indictment accuses the people of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens and conspiracy to launder money, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Arrests were made Wednesday at multiple locations, including in Dallas, Garland and Mesquite. Federal agents seized $40,000 to $50,000 from bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes. The arrests are part of a two-year investigation into a smuggling ring operating in North Texas, authorities said.

17. U.S. gets tough on Canadian border
The administration says security should be as stringent as on the Mexican frontier. Border residents and Canadian officials disagree, saying the terrorism threat is exaggerated.
By Bob Drogin Los Angeles Times May 10, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3379
High above the rugged border, an unmanned Predator B drone equipped with night-vision cameras and cloud-piercing radar has scanned the landscape for signs of smugglers, illegal immigrants or terrorists. Armed agents checked the identification of border crossers while radiation sensors and other devices monitored vehicles entering by road. Soon, a network of telescopic and infrared video cameras mounted atop 80-foot metal towers will rise above key locations. The beefed-up border security is not taking place along America's chaotic southern border -- riven by drug smuggling, gun running and illegal immigration -- but rather, its traditionally boring northern boundary with Canada. The changes have jarred communities along the 3,987-mile frontier, the longest undefended border in the world… The U.S. has increased security along the Canadian border since the Sept. 11 attacks. But changes are coming more quickly now, driven by fears of terrorists exploiting the relative quiet of the northern border and complaints that the U.S. has been disproportionately soft on Canada...

Other items

18. Michigan Supreme Court weighs control over witness attire
Exempt religious wear from proposed guideline, groups say
Gregg Krupa The Detroit News Monday, May 11, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3380

The Michigan Supreme Court is considering adopting a guideline that would give judges wide discretion to control the appearance of witnesses testifying in state courts, but civil rights advocates said an exception should be made for religious attire, such as the face veils of Muslim women. The court proposed the rule following a lawsuit filed in 2006 by a Hamtramck woman against a car rental company. District Judge Paul Paruk dismissed the case when Ginnah Muhammad, a Muslim, declined to remove her face veil in order to present her complaint. Paruk said he needed to see Muhammad's face to judge her truthfulness, but Muhammad said her faith requires her to keep her face veiled in public. Muhammad's lawyer, Nabih Ayad of Canton Township, filed suit in U.S. District Court, complaining that Paruk denied Muhammad's constitutionally guaranteed access to courts. But Judge John Feikins dismissed the case saying the issue should be decided in state courts to avoid questions about federalism. Based on Feikins' ruling, the state Supreme Court proposed an addition to Michigan Rule of Evidence 611, to allow state judges the wide leeway on the issue. The current guidelines do not specifically address the appearance of witnesses or other parties. A hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Lansing...