Daily Intel Report 05-12-09

1. Tehran's nukes
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL: Monday, May 11, 2009

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/11/tehrans-nukes/print/

IPT NOTE: The witnesses' prepared statements are posted at http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090506a.html. The full transcript is available on NEXIS/Westlaw. The WINPAC report is posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3388

At last week's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings titled, "Engaging Iran: Obstacles and Opportunities," former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told senators that "there is no question [Iran is] seeking a nuclear weapons capability. No one doubts that." No one? Really? Actually, our own spy agencies belittle the Iranian threat. On March 12, the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC, released its report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, which covered 2008. The agency concluded that "we do not know whether Iran currently intends to develop a nuclear weapon." However, Iran "continued to expand its nuclear infrastructure and continued uranium enrichment activities ... despite multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions since 2006 calling for the suspension of those activities." The report essentially reworks conclusions reached in a controversial December 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iranian Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called a "declaration of surrender" by America… A Senate report on Iran is due out this week, and we look forward to reading its conclusions about the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Maybe the intelligence community eventually will conclude that it exists - hopefully sometime before Iran tests a nuclear weapon.

Iran very close to getting nuclear arms: Israel
Agence France Presse May 12, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3389

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Iran is very close to acquiring nuclear weapons, the head of Israel's military intelligence was reported as telling a powerful parliamentary committee on Tuesday. "Iran is at the moment very close to getting a military nuclear arsenal," Amos Yadlin told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, adding that "Iran can manage to stabilise its military nuclear programme by 2010." "The Iranian strategy was not to get the international community against it, but to discreetly continue nuclear armament without crossing red lines," he was quoted by Israeli media as saying. Yadlin also excluded the possibility of war in the region in the coming year. Israeli officials have said several times that they were keeping all options on the table in dealing with Tehran's nuclear ambitions. On March 25, Yadlin told the same committee that Iran will have the capacity to build a nuclear bomb within a year but is not rushing into production…

2. Jury in NY convicts man in al-Qaida terrorism case

Associated Press - May 12, 2009 4:15 PM ET

http://www.fox44.net/Global/story.asp?S=10349032

NEW YORK (AP) - A jury has convicted a man accused of helping al-Qaida by trying to set up a weapons-training post in a small town in Oregon. Oussama Kassir (oh-SAH'-muh kuh-SEHR') watched passively as the jury in Manhattan found he had helped support al-Qaida by teaching others how to make bombs, poison people and slit throats. The verdict followed a three-week trial. The government said Kassir joined a conspiracy to set up the military-style training camp in 1999 in Bly, Ore...

3. 5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plot
By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer Posted on Tuesday, 05.12.09

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1044636.html

MIAMI -- A federal jury in Miami has convicted five men of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to topple Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection. A sixth man was acquitted. Tuesday's verdicts came after six days of deliberations in the third trial of the "Liberty City Six." The first two trials ended in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men's guilt or innocence. A seventh man was acquitted in the first trial. The men were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they thought was from al-Qaida. Defense attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI tapes was not serious and the men wanted only money.

Jury convicts 5, acquits 1 in Liberty City Six terror retrial
Miami Herald BY JAY WEAVER Posted on Tuesday, 05.12.09
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1044374.html

… The indictment charged the Liberty City Six with four counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; provide material support to terrorists; destroy buildings with explosives; and levy war against the U.S. government in a seditious act… The racially mixed jury decided whether the six inner-city men conspired with the global terrorist organization to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings across the country...

4. Obama threatens to limit U.S. intel with Brits
Eli Lake The Washington Times Tuesday, May 12, 2009

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/obama-threatens-to-limit-us-...

The Obama administration says it may curtail Anglo-American intelligence sharing if the British High Court discloses new details of the treatment of a former Guantanamo detainee. A court filing from the British Foreign Office released recently includes a letter from the U.S. government, identified as the "Obama administration's communication." Other information identifying the U.S. agency and author of the letter appears to have been redacted. The letter says: … The letter stands in contrast to President Obama's decision last month to release four memos from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel providing fresh detail on the CIA's enhanced interrogation program... At issue is whether the British courts will disclose a seven-paragraph summary of the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, a former detainee who was released from Guantanamo Bay prison in February. The British terrorism suspect was set free after charges that he had collaborated with convicted terrorist Jose Padilla in a plot to set off a "dirty bomb" in the United States fell apart. Mr. Mohamed says he was tortured while in U.S., Pakistani and Moroccan custody. In February, the British Foreign Office claimed that the U.S. government had threatened to reduce intelligence cooperation if details of the interrogations and treatment of Mr. Mohamed were disclosed. The High Court agreed on Feb. 4 to keep the details of Mr. Mohamed's treatment from the public. But two days later, the court decided to take up the matter again in response to an argument that the position of the U.S. government may have represented the Bush administration's view and not that of the Obama administration...

5. F.A.A. Rejects Navy Request for Low Flight Over Hudson
By CHRISTINE HAUSER May 12, 2009 New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/nyregion/12flyover.html

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday refused to give a Navy unit permission for a military flight low over the Hudson River. The episode highlighted the increased sensitivity since a presidential jet flew over parts of New York and New Jersey on April 27, rattling nerves and eventually resulting in the resignation of a White House official. The Navy unit, which is based in Maine, told the aviation agency that it wanted to fly a P3 military plane at 3,000 feet over the river at about 10:30 a.m., the F.A.A. said in a statement. But when higher level officials in the agency learned about the request, they informed the Navy that the flight would not be allowed on the requested route along the river…

6. FBI book: Agent gets closer to publishing critical book after 7-year fight with FBI
Court rules against FBI about book that alleges shortcomings in the agency's anti-terrorism work in the 1990s
By Todd Lighty Chicago Tribune May 12, 2009

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fbi-book-fightmay12,0,7835769.stor...

IPT NOTE: Judicial Watch has posted a press release at http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/420184142.html

A Chicago-based FBI agent has moved a step closer to publishing a book that he says reveals how the bureau mishandled investigations in the 1990s into fundraising by Hamas and other militant Islamic groups. Agent Robert G. Wright Jr. has been battling his bosses in court for seven years to be allowed to publish his book critical of the FBI's ability to protect the United States from terrorists. The bureau has challenged Wright's efforts to go public with his story, arguing at different times that publication would reveal law-enforcement secrets or interfere with investigations. But a federal judge in the District of Columbia last week rejected nearly every FBI argument to stop release of Wright's 500-page manuscript, "Fatal Betrayals." "This is a sad and discouraging tale about the determined efforts of the FBI to censor various portions" of Wright's manuscript, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler wrote. The FBI also sought to censor written answers that Wright and retired agent John Vincent had prepared in response to questions from a New York Times reporter looking into Wright's detailed allegations. Kessler took the bureau to task for its secrecy…

7. Alleged Crime Goes Unsolved as U.N. Agencies Argue

By Colum Lynch Washington Post Tuesday, May 12, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR200905...

UNITED NATIONS -- It was 10:30 p.m. in Kabul, and Shkelquim Sina had just e-mailed his wife goodnight when an explosion ripped through his hotel bedroom, obliterating a wall, scorching nearly half his body and leaving the United Nations weapons expert barely clinging to life. The alleged culprit was not a terrorist attacker but a U.N. colleague: Within 24 hours, Robert Shaw, a former weapons specialist for British intelligence, had been turned over to Afghan authorities by U.N. officials on suspicion of attempting to murder his Albanian colleague. The October 2006 incident is one of the most egregious alleged crimes to have occurred within the U.N.'s ranks, but the ensuing investigation unraveled, leaving both men with shattered lives and damaged reputations with virtually no hope of having their names cleared. Hundreds of pages of confidential U.N. documents reviewed by The Washington Post, as well as interviews with those involved in the incident, demonstrate how U.N. agencies turned against each other as they struggled to determine who was responsible for the explosion. The case highlights the challenges the United Nations faces in policing the conduct of more than 150,000 U.N. civilian officials and uniformed peacekeepers around the world…

Air, rail, port, health & communication infrastructure security

IPT NOTE: For more infrastructure news, see Dep't of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/editorial_0542.shtm; Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/dir/index-eng.aspx; TSA Press Releases http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/index.shtm

8. China blocks U.S. from cyber warfare
Bill Gertz Tuesday, May 12, 2009 The Washington Times

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/china-bolsters-for-cyber-arm...

China has developed more secure operating software for its tens of millions of computers and is already installing it on government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing's networks impenetrable to U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The secure operating system, known as Kylin, was disclosed to Congress during recent hearings that provided new details on how China's government is preparing to wage cyberwarfare with the United States. "We are in the early stages of a cyber arms race and need to respond accordingly," said Kevin G. Coleman, a private security specialist who advises the government on cybersecurity. He discussed Kylin during a hearing of the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission on April 30. The deployment of Kylin is significant, Mr. Coleman said, because the system has "hardened" key Chinese servers. U.S. offensive cyberwar capabilities have been focused on getting into Chinese government and military computers outfitted with less secure operating systems like those made by Microsoft Corp. "This action also made our offensive cybercapabilities ineffective against them, given the cyberweapons were designed to be used against Linux, UNIX and Windows," he said. The secure operating system was disclosed as computer hackers in China - some of them sponsored by the communist government and military - are engaged in aggressive attacks against the United States, said officials and experts who disclosed new details of what was described as a growing war in cyberspace. These experts say Beijing's military is recruiting computer hackers for its forces, including one specialist identified in congressional testimony who set up a company that was traced to attacks that penetrated Pentagon computers…

FBI to station cybercrime expert in Estonia
Agency may cooperate with an Estonia-based NATO cyber-defense center
The Associated Press updated 11:11 a.m. ET, Mon., May 11, 2009

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30683801/
TALLINN, Estonia - The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation says it will permanently base a computer crime expert in Estonia this year to help fight international threats against computer systems. FBI assistant director Shawn Henry says this will be the first time the bureau is placing outside the United States an agent focused purely on cybercrime. He said Monday that Estonia was chosen because of its expertise in information technology, well-developed computer infrastructure and the government's commitment to fight computer crime. The FBI official says the agency may also cooperate with a NATO cyber-defense center that was established in Estonia last year…

9. Tracking Cyberspies Through the Web Wilderness
By JOHN MARKOFF May 12, 2009New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/12cyber.html

For old-fashioned detectives, the problem was always acquiring information. For the cybersleuth, hunting evidence in the data tangle of the Internet, the problem is different. "The holy grail is how can you distinguish between information which is garbage and information which is valuable?" said Rafal Rohozinski, a University of Cambridge-trained social scientist involved in computer security issues. Beginning eight years ago he co-founded two groups, Information Warfare Monitor and Citizen Lab, which both have headquarters at the University of Toronto, with Ronald Deibert, a University of Toronto political scientist. The groups pursue that grail and strive to put investigative tools normally reserved for law enforcement agencies and computer security investigators at the service of groups that do not have such resources. "We thought that civil society groups lacked an intelligence capacity," Dr. Deibert said. They have had some important successes. Last year Nart Villeneuve, 34, an international relations researcher who works for the two groups, found that a Chinese version of Skype software was being used for eavesdropping by one of China's major wireless carriers, probably on behalf of Chinese government law enforcement agencies. This year, he helped uncover a spy system, which he and his fellow researchers dubbed Ghostnet, which looked like a Chinese-government-run spying operation on mostly South Asian government-owned computers around the world. Both discoveries were the result of a new genre of detective work, and they illustrate the strengths and the limits of detective work in cyberspace…

10. DHS to Bolster Protection of Civilian Computer Networks

By Ellen Nakashima and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:13 PM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3391

The Department of Homeland Security will step up operations to secure civilian computer networks against cyber attacks in coming years, getting increases in funding and personnel, and coordinating responsibilities now scattered across government agencies, administration officials said this week. The comments come as a comprehensive review of the nation's cyber defenses before President Obama has triggered a broader debate over whether the government is sufficiently mobilized and has the resources to tackle complex cyber-security threats posed by sophisticated criminal operations and states such as Russia and China. A debate over the White House's role in leading the effort also is expected to be resolved soon, with an announcement expected as early as the end of this week, though more likely next week, sources said. The review, led by Obama aide Melissa Hathaway, was aimed at crafting a broad strategy to defend against debilitating cyber attacks -- against government sites and the increasingly global computer networks of major telecommunications, financial, energy and other companies that control critical infrastructure. But not all issues have been resolved, sources said. Officials said that under the plan, the National Security Agency would continue to assist DHS in protecting civilian networks, despite concern over the impact on Americans' privacy and the legal authority for the military and intelligence agency to conduct domestic surveillance activities. Legal reviews of that issue are ongoing, officials said…

11. Man faces sentencing for posing as fed
By Associated Press Tuesday, May 12, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3392

BOSTON — A Massachusetts man faces sentencing for impersonating a federal agent so he could bypass airport security. Stephen Grant, of Rockland, a medical supplies salesman and former part-time harbor master in Chatham, pleaded guilty in February. Under a plea agreement, he faces a maximum of three years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Prosecutors say the 48-year-old Grant was boarding a flight from Logan International Airport to San Diego in January 2007 when he showed his assistant harbor master badge and told security personnel he worked for the Department of Homeland Security. A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said the case led to a change in procedures to make sure that credentials are properly vetted.

12. Feds criticized for not releasing Air India docs
By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun May 11, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3393

VANCOUVER — Damning new documents suggesting a coverup of the Air India bombing by Brian Mulroney's adviser should have been provided during the public hearing phase of the inquiry into the terrorist plot, says Liberal MP and former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh. Dosanjh asked Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on Monday why the documents were only released Friday, 15 months after the inquiry headed by John Major ended hearings in Ottawa. Two memos from 1985 and 1986 indicate Mulroney's staff wanted to keep a report away from the Indian government's judicial inquiry known as the Kirpal Commission. In the January 1986 memo, Mulroney adviser Fred Doucet is named as the chairman of the meeting at which it was decided the report of the Canadian Aviation Safety Board concluding a B.C. bomb brought down the plane would not be given to India. The memos indicated Canada was concerned about looking bad internationally…

13. Hourly Update: Fifth wildfire breaks out in Southern Arizona
By Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star May 11, 2009

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/292421.php
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.11.2009 - Two "hotshot" firefighting crews were dispatched this morning to a fire in the Patagonia Mountains near the U.S.-Mexico border. The Washington Fire is located just south of the old mining area of Duquesne and east of Mount Washington, about 10 miles south and slightly east of the town of Patagonia. Crews this morning reported no active flame and little smoke, said Teresa Ann Ciapusci, spokeswoman for Coronado National Forest. The Washington Fire is the fifth to break out in the past week in Southeastern Arizona…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

14. Lawyer gets 5 years in massive mortgage fraud
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune Published: May 11, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3394

TAMPA - A Sarasota lawyer was sentenced to five years in federal prison today for his role in what authorities described as an $82.7 million mortgage fraud that victimized seven banks. John A. Yanchek, 49, could have faced a longer sentence but was given credit for his extensive cooperation with prosecutors, including his testimony in the trial of a co-defendant, Tampa businessman Larry P. Nardelli, who was convicted for his role in the scheme… Another defendant, Sarasota businessman Michael A. Tringali, was sentenced last month to three years and four months in prison. Tringali's cooperation started before Yanchek's, so he was given "a better deal," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Zitek... He, Nardelli and Tringali were arrested in July. A fourth defendant, Neil Mohamed Husani, has been arrested in Jordan and U.S. authorities are negotiating his extradition. According to a 44-page indictment, between May 2004 and June 2006, the four defrauded Orion Bank, Mercantile Bank, Bank Atlantic, Coast Bank, Fifth/Third Bank, Wachovia Bank and First State Bank…

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. COLUMN ONE
Pursuing smugglers, border agents become trackers
New fencing and high-tech devices make it difficult for drug traffickers to cross the border. So smugglers hoist packs and take to the desert on foot. Agents use century-old tracking skills to follow.
By Scott Kraft From the Los Angeles TimesMay 12, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3395

Reporting from Antelope Wells, N.M. — … Drug cartels in Mexico are in a deadly battle over smuggling routes into the United States. At the same time, more border agents, hundreds of miles of new fencing and a growing arsenal of high-tech devices have made it harder than ever for drug traffickers to cross much of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Over the last six months, the U.S. Border Patrol has seized 1.3 million pounds of marijuana -- an amount nearly equal to the total for all of last year. The crackdown has driven waves of ever more daring smugglers to the most remote and rugged parts of the border, areas that are difficult for federal agents to patrol, where fancy electronic surveillance is often useless. The southwestern corner of New Mexico, with its 81 miles of border, is one of those prime corridors, a forbidding area the size of Los Angeles County where drug traffickers find plenty of places to hide. To outwit their adversaries, Border Patrol agents here rely on tracking skills borrowed a century ago from Native Americans: "cutting for sign," detecting where someone has crossed the Earth's surface, and "pushing sign," tracking that person down. So far this year, Border Patrol agents in this area have hauled in 35,500 pounds of marijuana, more than all of the year before, with a street value of nearly $30 million…

16. Immigration Officials May Have Let International Fugitive Into U.S.
Monday , May 11, 2009 Fox News By Mike Levine

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519799,00.html

An international fugitive may have entered the United States last month after promising immigration officials he would show up for a closer screening a few weeks later. The man never showed, and federal authorities are now trying to track him down, according to court documents obtained by FOX News. Last week a federal judge issued an arrest warrant for the man, who flew into New York's J.F.K. International Airport in early April. According to the court documents, immigration officers fingerprinted him during the "arrival process," which "resulted in a possible match" to a man named Frank Dwomoh, who is on the run from Interpol, the international police force. Dwomoh was placed on Interpol's "Wanted Person Lookout" list for crimes in Italy dating back to 1999, including alleged rape, armed robbery and illegal possession of a weapon. But, court documents said, "due to limited information about the Interpol Lookout at that time, [the man at J.F.K. International Airport] was granted a deferred inspection into the United States." A "deferred inspection" is an honor system of sorts that allows travelers into the United States when their immigration status cannot be immediately determined at an airport, border crossing or other point of entry. As part of an "understanding," according to court documents, the travelers are ordered to report to an immigration office sometime later with the necessary documentation. In the case last month, the man, originally from Ghana, was ordered by Customs and Border Protection officers to appear two weeks ago at Washington Dulles International Airport, outside the nation's capital. Travelers granted deferred inspection are often told to appear at a site near their final destination. "To date, [the man] has not appeared for further inspection at any port of entry in the United States," said court documents filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, home to Dulles International Airport. "In addition, both [he] and his attorney have failed to answer their provided telephone numbers and return any of the messages left by [officers]." FOX News has decided not to reveal the man's name over concerns from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it could impact the investigation. He has been charged with eluding examination and inspection by immigration officers…

17. Mexico drug violence rises on border despite army

By Julian Cardona Reuters Monday, May 11, 2009 1:39 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1140493820090511

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Killings between rival drug cartels are rising again in Mexico's most violent city despite a massive army deployment that temporarily slashed the murder rate on the U.S. border. Drug gangsters in Ciudad Juarez who used to chase enemies in flashy black jeeps have lowered their profile but are still killing each other as 10,000 troops and federal police patrol the city, across the border from El Paso, Texas. "Criminals are taking a different approach, using pistols not assault weapons and driving around in small, old cars to reach their rivals, ditching their SUVs," said army spokesman Enrique Torres. The government says the army has cut drug murders by up to 80 percent since soldiers arrived in March -- but gangs killed 12 people on May 1 in one of the bloodiest days this year…

Other items

18. Accused in 'honour killing' told friend, 'I had to do what I had to do,' trial told
Friend described killing sister, fiancé, witness testifies
By Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen May 12, 2009 6:30 AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3396

OTTAWA — During a conversation outside an Orléans pizza shop the night his sister and her fiancé were shot in a car at the Elmvale Acres shopping plaza, Hasibullah Sadiqi told a friend that "he got rid of them," an Ottawa court heard Monday. Earlier that night, Sadiqi, along with his sister, Khatera, her fiancé, Feroz Mangal, and some friends went to a movie, said Sadiqi's friend, Hasibullah Assadi, a deliveryman at Pizza Pizza who Sadiqi called shortly after the early-morning shooting on Sept. 19, 2006. After dropping the others off, the Sadiqi siblings and Mangal had returned to the Elmvale Acres plaza, where Sadiqi was parked. Assadi testified that Sadiqi told him he had been talking to his sister and her fiancé in the parking lot before he left their car, telling them he'd be back after starting his vehicle… The Crown's theory is the slaying was an "honour killing" rooted in anger over the engagement and is trying to prove Sadiqi's actions were planned and deliberate. Sadiqi's defence lawyers do not deny that their client is responsible for the deaths, but are expected to argue he was provoked. If certain legal conditions are met, their argument could reduce the murder charges to manslaughter…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

19. U.S. Military Identifies Sergeant Charged in Baghdad Shooting

By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:46 AM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3397

BAGHDAD, May 12 -- The U.S. military on Tuesday announced that Sgt. John M. Russell, of the 54th Engineer Battalion, has been charged in the shooting that killed five service members at a combat stress clinic here on Monday. Russell, 44, is from Sherman, Texas and is on his third deployment to Iraq, military officials said. He was charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault, said Maj. Gen. David Perkins, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. Two of the slain service members were officers who worked at the combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty. One was a Navy officer and the other was in the Army. The three other victims were enlisted soldiers. Perkins said Russell's commanders in recent days had asked him to seek counseling. Out of concern for his welfare, they took the rare measure of taking his weapon away, Perkins said. That measure is typically taken when soldiers exhibit violent or suicidal behavior. It is unclear where Russell got the weapon he allegedly used in the shooting. Perkins did not say what type of weapon was used…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 313-09 May 11, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12660

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Randy S. Agno, 29, of Pearl City, Hawaii, died May 8 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, of wounds sustained Apr. 27 from a non-combat related incident at Forward Operating Base Olsen in Samarra, Iraq. He was assigned to the 325th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 314-09 May 11, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12661
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pvt. Justin P. Hartford, 21, of Elmira, N.Y., died May 8 at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 699th Maintenance Company, Corps Support Battalion, 916th Support Brigade, Fort Irwin, Calif. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation…

20. U.S. ships must post guards if sailing off Somalia
Tue May 12, 2009 3:19pm EDT By Jane Sutton Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54B67920090512

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval, a Coast Guard official said on Tuesday. The new requirements, which respond to a surge of piracy off the coast of Somalia, allow ship owners to decide whether to use armed or unarmed guards, Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson told shipping industry representatives at a maritime security meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The revised Maritime Security Directive, highly anticipated by the shipping industry, was signed on Monday by Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen...

21. Libya reports prison suicide of top Qaeda man
Mon May 11, 2009 4:08pm EDT Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE54A4WU20090511

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan Islamist whose fabricated testimony about al Qaeda was used by the United States to justify its 2003 invasion of Iraq has killed himself in his Libyan jail cell, a Libyan newspaper reported on Monday. Human rights groups in the West demanded an immediate investigation into the death of Ali Mohamed Abdelaziz al Fakhiri, 46, also known as Ibn Sheikh al-Libi and a key figure in U.S. intelligence reports on al Qaeda before the war. "(Fakhiri) who is known as Ibn al Sheikh al-Libi, was found dead after he committed suicide," Oed newspaper said on its website, adding that Libyan authorities were investigating the case. Captured by U.S.-led forces in Pakistan in the weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Fakhiri later made up a story about links between al Qaeda and Iraq to avoid torture while in the custody of a third country, according to a 2006 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report. U.S. media have reported that Fakhiri provided the account to interrogators in Egypt, where he was sent by the United States in January 2002…

22. Moroccan Security Services Arrest Eight Over "Terrorist" Plot

Agence France Presse May 12, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3398

RABAT, Morocco (AFP)--Moroccan security services have arrested eight people suspected of forming a terrorist organization that was planning attacks, authorities said Tuesday. The suspects are followers of the radical Islamist movement Salafia Jihadia, a security source said. They were arrested in different parts of the kingdom in the towns of Guelmim, Laayoune and Boujdour after being "tailed for a long time," a security source said. The men are "dangerous elements aiming to attack security," the source said, without giving details about the terrorist acts that were allegedly planned.

23. African-American Muslim convert fears for his life from US, Moroccan security

BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

May 11, 2009 Monday Copyright 2009 British Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/index.htm subscription req'd, available on NEXIS/Westlaw

Al-Jazeera TV reported on 10 May that a Morocco-based African-American Muslim convert and a former agent of the US Department of Homeland Security claimed Moroccan security agents had "threatened to kill him" on orders of US agents and asked him to leave Morocco. Al-Jazeera TV quoted Yehia Soniani as saying he has been a "target" of several assassination attempts, which were carried out under what he said was a programme set up by the former US administration after the 9/11 attacks to hunt down African-Americans who converted to Islam. The programme is part of a pre-emptive war on terrorism of which the US military command for Africa (AFRICOM) is in charge, Al-Jazeera quoted Soniani as saying. In a report, Al-Jazeera TV correspondent interviewed Soniani in Fes, where he is now living. He says he has started to fear for his life since he was nearly run over by a car and was frequently assaulted by Moroccan security agents…

24. 'Iran deploys missiles in Persian Gulf'

May. 12, 2009 JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3399

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has deployed mobile ground-to-air and ground-to-sea missile batteries in the Strait of Hormuz and other areas in the Persian Gulf, a senior Iranian official was quoted by Al Watan as saying on Tuesday. The source told the Saudi-based newspaper that the move was made after Iran received reports that the US and Israel were preparing to attack the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, Revolutionary Guard Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned of the military and non-military threats facing Iran. The report could not be independently confirmed by The Jerusalem Post...

25. Brothers of Abu Dhabi 'torture video prince' sacked from cabinet
The president of the United Arab Emirates dropped two of his brothers from his cabinet yesterday, the same day it was confirmed that a third had been arrested over torture allegations.
The Daily Telegraph (London) By Richard Spencer Last Updated: 8:50PM BST 11 May 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/3400

The two, both deputy prime ministers, were replaced by other brothers from the large family of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and it was not clear if there was any connection with the detention of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed, who had no political role. Sheikh Issa was shown on a video given to American television beating a former business associate he said owed him money and running him over. A statement issued yesterday said all papers in the case had been handed over to the public prosecution office and all those involved, including Sheikh Issa, held and banned from travelling abroad. It raises the unprecedented possibility of a member of the royal family being put on trial…