Daily Intel Report - 2-10-09

1. Obama Ponders Outreach to Elements of Taliban
By HELENE COOPER and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG March 8, 2009 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08obama.html?

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq. Mr. Obama pointed to the success in peeling Iraqi insurgents away from more hard-core elements of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a strategy that many credit as much as the increase of American forces with turning the war around in the last two years… In a 35-minute conversation with The New York Times aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Obama reviewed the challenges to his young administration…

Dreaming of Splitting the Taliban
By HELENE COOPER March 8, 2009 New York Times Week in Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/weekinreview/08COOPER.html?

WASHINGTON - HERE is a proposition that is bound to cut deep into the national psyche: Should the United States seek to negotiate with some of the same people who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden prior to the Sept. 11 attacks?...

2. Case of Missing American Citizen Robert Levinson

US Department of State Robert Wood Acting Spokesman Washington, DC March 8, 2009
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/03/120128.htm

Today marks the two year anniversary of the disappearance of American citizen Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who went missing in Iran during a business trip to Kish Island in 2007. On this day, we reiterate our commitment to determining Mr. Levinson's welfare and whereabouts, and reuniting him with his family… In December 2007, Mrs. Levinson traveled to Iran - accompanied by her son and sister - where she met with Iranian officials who expressed a willingness to share information about their investigation into her husband's disappearance with the family. However, to date, no information has been forthcoming. We continue to call on Iran to stand by its commitment by providing full details about their authorities' investigation both to his family and to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after U.S. interests in the absence of normal diplomatic relations..

3. Pentagon: Chinese vessels harassed unarmed ship
Associated Press March 9, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2859

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon charged Monday that five Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in an apparent attempt to harass the American crew. Defense officials in the Obama administration said the incident Sunday followed several days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships in the region. The incident took place in international waters in the South China Sea, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. U.S. officials said a protest was to be delivered to Beijing's military attache at a Pentagon meeting Monday. The USNS Impeccable sprayed one ship with water from fire hoses to force it away. Despite the force of the water, Chinese crew members stripped to their underwear and continued closing within 25 feet, the Defense Department said…

4. U.S. eyes arms sales to Libya
Fri Mar 6, 2009 5:28pm EST By Jim Wolf Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5256H720090306
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is ready to consider arms deals with Libya, a former foe, that could include transport aircraft and systems for coastal and border security, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday. "We will consider Libyan requests for defense equipment that enables them to build capabilities in areas that serve our mutual interest," said Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner of the Army, a department spokeswoman…

5. Iranian gets 5-plus years in night goggle case
By CURT ANDERSON – Associated Press March 6, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2858

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — An Iranian woman has been sentenced to more than five years in U.S. prison for her role in a scheme to smuggle military night-vision goggles to Iran. A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale imposed the sentence Friday on 31-year-old Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan. Gholikhan was convicted in December of illegally trying to broker sale of about 3,500 pairs of goggles and seeking to violate the U.S. embargo against Iran. Gholikhan had previously pleaded guilty in hopes she would get only probation. But the plea deal fell apart, and she decided to go to trial and act as her own attorney. The goggles involved are used only by U.S. special forces and the Israelis, and provide an advantage at night.

Arms trafficker sentenced to 22 years for plot to smuggle shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and other military weapons

US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York March 6, 2009
CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE (212) 637-2600
YUSILL SCRIBNER, REBEKAH CARMICHAEL, JANICE OH
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/March09/solomonyansentencing...

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ARTUR SOLOMONYAN, 30, the leader of an international arms trafficking operation, was sentenced today to 22 years in prison for plotting to smuggle shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles ("SAMs"), rocket-propelled grenades ("RPGs"), anti-tank guided missiles, and other high-powered military weapons into the United States for sale. United States District Judge RICHARD J. HOLWELL imposed the sentence today in Manhattan federal court. SOLOMONYAN, and his co-defendants CHRISTIAAN SPIES and IOSEB KHARABADZE, were found guilty on July 24, 2007 following a one-month jury trial, of conspiring to smuggle SAMs, RPGs, machine guns, and other high-powered weapons from Eastern Europe into the United States. The jury also found SOLOMONYAN and SPIES guilty of illegally trafficking in machine guns and other assault weapons. According to the evidence at trial: …

6. Defendant convicted of Arms Export Control Act conspiracy
March 06, 2009 US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/090306-01.html
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Miami Field Division, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement ("OEE"), and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), Office of Investigations, announced that defendant Joseph Piquet was convicted on all counts by a federal jury in Fort Pierce after a four-day trial in Case No. 08-14031-Cr-Martinez/Lynch. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 14, 2009 at 2 pm in Fort Pierce before Judge Martinez….Piquet was convicted of seven separate counts arising from a conspiracy to purchase high-tech, military use electronic components from Northrop Grumman Corporation, and to then ship the items to Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China without first obtaining required export licenses under the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Among those items involved in the export conspiracy were high power amplifiers designed for use by the U.S. military in early warning radar and missile target acquisition systems, as well as low noise amplifiers that have both commercial and military use...

Tennessee workers involved in Goodyear spy case
Tiremaker told FBI of suspicions
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 8, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2860
KNOXVILLE — Goodyear called in the FBI when the company suspected someone was spying on closely guarded technology for making tires. The global security chief for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said in a statement Saturday that the company alerted the FBI after an internal investigation into what he called an apparent attempt in 2007 to steal proprietary technology. The FBI probe was followed by federal charges Friday against two engineers for a Tennessee company, Wyko Tire Technology Inc. in Greenback near Knoxville. The engineers, Clark Alan Roberts and Sean Edward Howley, pleaded not guilty to counts including trade secret theft, wire fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors say Roberts and Howley took unauthorized photographs of machinery that wraps rubber around cable at a Goodyear plant in Topeka, Kan., to help them design equipment for a Chinese tire company…

7. Terror Trials in U.S. Are A Worry
Classified Data Just One Hurdle

By Jerry Markon Washington Post Friday, March 6, 2009; A04

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2861

When suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was indicted on criminal charges last week, the Obama administration said it was sending a message that the U.S. courts can deal with terror suspects. But Marri says he was subjected to painful stress positions, extreme sensory deprivation and violent threats and was denied access to lawyers when he was held in a military brig in South Carolina. Those claims are likely to become part of his defense against charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. As the Obama administration wrestles with what to do with the detainees at the prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials will be closely monitoring how Marri's case winds its way through the U.S. courts… Any plan for terrorism trials in federal courthouses would face extraordinary difficulties, lawyers say. Much of the evidence is classified, and key witnesses are reluctant to testify. Government secrets can be spilled. Litigation can be expensive and stretch for years. Security is a nightmare…

8. Founder of prison-based terrorist group sentenced to 16 years
Kevin James, founder of Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, a terrorist group that targeted the U.S. government and supporters of Israel, pleaded guilty in 2007 of conspiring against the United States.
By Christopher Goffard March 7, 2009 Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-terror-sentence7-2009

IPT NOTE: The gov't's press release is posted at http://losangeles.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/la030609ausa.htm

The founder of a prison-based terrorist group that targeted the U.S. government and supporters of Israel was sentenced Friday to 16 years in federal prison. Kevin James, 32, who founded Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, pleaded guilty in 2007 of plotting "to levy war against the United States through terrorism." On Friday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney described James as "the mastermind and architect of a terrorist conspiracy" to attack LAX, Army recruiting centers and the Israeli Consulate.... Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Staples, arguing for an 18-year prison term for James, said that when authorities stopped the conspirators, "they were gearing up and accelerating." He said James' group planned to stage attacks on political targets with the proceeds of gas station robberies, and the group's writings contained calls to acquire remote-controlled bombs and silencer-equipped guns. At New Folsom prison in 2004, James recruited fellow inmate Levar Washington, who was released that year and in turn recruited Gregory Patterson. When Torrance police focused on Washington and Patterson as suspects in a series of 2005 robberies, a search of their South Los Angeles apartment turned up the JIS manifesto and a list of potential targets of attack. In James' prison cell, authorities found a statement he had written to be distributed to the media in the aftermath of such an attack. It warned "sincere Muslims" to avoid supporters of Israel and promised more attacks intended "to defend and propagate traditional Islam in its purity." …

9. Intelligence Director's Freeman Appointment Draws Mounting Criticism
Critics say Chas Freeman is too entangled with foreign interests to keep an impartial approach to his new job, chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

FOXNews.com Friday, March 06, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2862

When President Obama's nominations go south, it typically has something to do with unpaid taxes. But Chas Freeman's problems may be a little harder to clear up; they are things he can't just pay his way out of. The former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, tapped last week to be the nation's top intelligence analyst, is hearing from a growing chorus of critics who say the foreign affairs veteran is too entangled with foreign interests to keep an impartial approach to his new job. Freeman was appointed by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, not Obama, and his job does not require Senate confirmation. Still, he's drawing some of the toughest criticism of any appointment this year. On Thursday, the inspector general for the director of national intelligence agreed to requests from lawmakers on Capitol Hill to examine Freeman's foreign ties. The concerns were raised on top of questions about Freeman's controversial past statements on Israel, China and U.S. foreign policy.…

Another congressman speaks out on Freeman
By Eric Fingerhut · March 6, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2863

Another member of Congress is going public with his unhappiness about the appointment of Charles "Chas" Freeman as chair of the National Intelligence Council. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has sent a lengthy letter to President Obama detailing his problems with the appointment. Wolf, a longtime activist on human rights, is particularly upset about Freeman's ties to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the regimes that company deals with… Here's the full letter:…

10. 'Model student' closer to facing terrorism charges
Judge orders extradition of Ontario men accused of aiding Tamil Tigers
Toronto Star March 06, 2009 Michelle Shephard National Security Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/597484
An Ontario university student who recently won an award for his entrepreneurial skills, and has been working on a PhD while on bail here, is one step closer to facing terrorism charges in the United States. Superior Court Justice Laurence Pattillo ordered 28-year-old Suresh Sriskandarajah into custody yesterday morning after dismissing a constitutional challenge and upholding the U.S. extradition request. Sriskandarajah, who allegedly referred to himself as "Waterloo Suresh," was arrested in August 2006 following an RCMP-FBI investigation into the activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Also known as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, the guerrilla group has been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983. A second Canadian, Brampton resident Piratheepan Nadarajah, was also ordered extradited and taken into custody yesterday. The Tigers were declared a terrorist organization by the United States in 1997 and were added to Canada's list in 2006…

11. Judge faces dilemma in first sentence under terror law
Canadian Press March 8, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2864

OTTAWA — Misguided young man or calculating professional terrorist? The fate of Momin Khawaja depends, to a large extent, on which of those contrasting portraits Justice Douglas Rutherford chooses to accept when he passes sentence on the 29-year-old Ottawa software developer this week. Khawaja, arrested nearly five years ago by the RCMP as part of a joint investigation with British police and security forces, now stands convicted on seven criminal counts, five of them specifically relating to terrorist activity. When he appears before Rutherford in Ontario Superior Court on Thursday, he will be the first person sentenced under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, rushed into law by Parliament in the wake of the 9-11 attacks in 2001... Rutherford, who heard the case without a jury, concluded there wasn't enough evidence to show Khawaja knew the specific targets under consideration by his British colleagues…

Did spy's affair taint case against terror suspect?
March 07, 2009 Toronto Star Michelle Shephard NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/598192
Theresa Sullivan had been a dedicated and respected agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, working her way up from the age of 23 to become a field officer with top security clearance and a $65,000 salary. For more than a decade, the Ottawa spy rarely took a sick day and her employment record was unblemished. Then, in December 1996, she met a man the service classified as a "POI," a person of operational interest, and a few years later Sullivan's life began to unravel. The details of this descent – a broken marriage, a relationship with a man identified only as A.B. and her firing from CSIS – is contained in a 2003 report by the Public Service Labour Relations Board. While it seemed this sad story had been put to rest six years ago, Sullivan's firing was raised again last week in the high-profile case of terrorism suspect Mohamed Harkat. The Ottawa man's supporters and lawyers now say the revelation raises questions about the veracity of the government's evidence in his case. And it poses vexing questions of how to bring terrorism suspects to justice when dealing with sensitive or classified evidence...

12. Anti-terrorist security urged for PM's residences
BILL CURRY From Monday's Globe and Mail March 9, 2009 at 4:05 AM EDT

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2865

OTTAWA — It's drafty and in desperate need of repair, but when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his family move out of their 143-year-old official residence on Ottawa's Sussex Drive this year to allow for renovations, the RCMP is looking to beef up security there at the same time. An RCMP threat-evaluation report says 24 Sussex and the Prime Minister's country residence at Harrington Lake should have more security, including the installation of an "antiram, antiscaling fence" to deter a terrorist attack...

13. Death of attorney veiled in mystery
By Colleen O'Connor The Denver Post Posted: 03/08/2009 12:30:00 AM MST
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11863718

Sean May was shot in his backyard Aug. 27. The killing left co-workers looking over their shoulders. Six months after Adams County prosecutor Sean May was ambushed in his backyard, his murder remains a mystery. Police still don't know whether the crime was connected to his work, and his colleagues still look over their shoulders. In October, the reward was increased from $2,000 to $125,000. It hasn't helped…

14. Muslim community rallies behind Sudbury man charged by the FBI
By Milton J. Valencia Boston Globe March 8, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2866

To friends and family, he was a maturing leader in the Muslim community, a passionate writer who was departing for Saudi Arabia for a career as a pharmacist. But the arrest of Tariq Mehanna in November, as he was about to board a plane at Logan International Airport for his new life in the Middle East, has cast the 26-year-old in darker terms, as a liar supporting and associating with terrorists. With an indictment in federal court, the Sudbury man faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison on charges of lying to investigators in a terrorism inquiry. But a community of supporters has rallied around him, questioning how Mehanna could have been ensnared in a federal case and whether he is being used a pawn in the FBI's war on terrorism... [H]e faces scrutiny over his blog postings, his acquaintances, and his associations with people such as Daniel Maldonado, who later became the first American charged with terrorism activities in Somalia... It is clear that Mehanna did not help his case by openly supporting controversial figures such as Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani woman who was on the FBI's Most Wanted List before she was arrested last year on charges of shooting at a US soldier in Afghanistan. A 1995 MIT graduate, Siddiqui reportedly established ties with Al Qaeda during her time in Boston…

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

15. Hazmat incident at O'Hare sickens 2 TSA guards
March 9, 2009 11:49 AM | No Comments | UPDATED STORY

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2867

Two Transportation Security Administration workers had to stop working briefly this morning after being exposed to what authorities are calling a "tar-like" substance at O'Hare International Airport. Officials are still trying to determine what the substance was, but they do not believe the public was ever in danger…

16. 3rd explosive on roof of Lakeland parking garage detonated
Reported by: Chad Cookler Last Update: 1:21 pm
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2868

LAKELAND, FL -- Members of the Tampa bomb squad have detonated a 3rd explosive device found on the roof of a Lakeland parking garage this morning. A 2nd bomb was neutralized just before 12:30pm. Lakeland officers found that device at the city-owned garage at Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue this morning. No evacuations were ordered and officials say the garage is secure…

17. One Million Workers Now Enrolled in Vital Port Security Program
Press Release March 9, 2009 Media Contact: TSA Public Affairs (571) 227-2829

http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2009/0309.shtm

WASHINGTON – One million port and longshore workers, truckers and others at ports across the nation have enrolled in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program's goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a known security threat…

18. Advocates say DHS managers, rank-and-file are dissatisfied with personnel policies
By Alyssa Rosenberg Government Executive March 5, 2009
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42201&dcn=todaysnews
IPT NOTE: The list of witnesses, with links to their prepared statements, is posted at http://homeland.house.gov/Hearings/index.asp?ID=174
The Homeland Security Department should focus on retaining senior executives, who are leaving DHS at a fast clip, union and nonprofit leaders told a congressional committee on Thursday. Since its creation in October 2003 to September 2007, 72 percent of its career executives have left DHS, according to data from Homeland Security's fiscal 2009-13 strategic plan -- a rate significantly higher than other Cabinet-level departments, testified Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight…

"Putting People First: A Way Forward for the Homeland Security Workforce"
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight Hearing Thursday, March 05, 2009
http://homeland.house.gov/Hearings/index.asp?ID=174

19. Cybersecurity Chief Resigns
By SIOBHAN GORMAN MARCH 7, 2009 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638468860758145.html
WASHINGTON -- The government's coordinator for cybersecurity programs has quit, criticizing what he described as the National Security Agency's grip on cybersecurity. Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, said in his resignation letter that the NSA's central role in cybersecurity is "a bad strategy" because it is important to have a civilian agency taking a key role in the issue. The NSA is part of the Department of Defense. … The power battles Mr. Beckstrom describes in his resignation letter illustrate the challenges ahead for the Obama administration as it plans its defense against governments and terrorists who might try to disrupt U.S. computer systems, cybersecurity specialists said. One issue is what part or parts of the government should lead the effort...

20. Anthrax hoaxes pile up, as does their cost
Since the deadly mailings in 2001, the U.S. has spent $50 billion to bolster biological defenses. The cost is raised by a flood of threats that ultimately prove harmless.
By Bob Drogin From the Los Angeles Times March 8, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2869

Reporting from Boston — … In the 7 1/2 years since America's worst bioterrorist attack -- when letters laced with anthrax spores killed five people, closed Congress and the Supreme Court, and crippled mail service for months -- U.S. agencies have spent more than $50 billion to beef up biological defenses. No other anthrax attacks have occurred. But a flood of anthrax hoaxes and false alarms have raised the cost considerably through lost work, emergency evacuations, decontamination efforts, first-responders' time and the emotional distress of the victims. That, experts say, is often the hoaxer's goal…

Creative Disruption
Creating New, Innovative Vaccines
Josh Wolfe, Editor Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report 03.09.09, 6:30 AM ET

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2870
Staph Leavenworth Bakali has been involved in some of the biggest vaccine exits of all time. Through various senior operating and leadership positions over a 20-year career in vaccines, Leavenworth Bakali has played a critical role in some of the most successful and leading vaccine companies.…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

21. Alleged Kickbacks at Glencore Probed
By GLENN R. SIMPSON MARCH 7, 2009, 12:00 A.M. ET Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123639633890259917.html

Prosecutors in the U.S. and the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain are examining about $4.6 million in alleged payments by employees of global commodities trader Glencore International AG to bank accounts controlled by then-employees of Aluminum Bahrain, a big state-owned aluminum smelter also known as Alba, people familiar with the probe said. … Investigators are looking at alleged payments made by Glencore employees to a group of accounts at LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, people with knowledge of the matter said. LGT account records show that the accounts were set up and controlled by employees of Aluminum Bahrain who have since left the company, these people said… Bahrain officials have said in public that they plan to charge the former Alba employees with money laundering…

22. Detectives crack baby formula theft ring
Posted: March 6, 2009 01:07 PM EST
http://www.mysuncoast.com/Global/story.asp?S=9960370&nav=menu577_2

POLK COUNTY, FL. - The Polk County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) and Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), working in conjunction with the State Attorney's Office (SAO) of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Criminal Investigations Division, have shut down an elaborate retail theft ring operating in the central Florida area responsible for the theft of thousands of cans of powdered baby formula, spanning throughout the southeastern United States. In all, 40 detectives working from October 2008 to March 2009, arrested 21 suspects who were stealing baby formula from 6 different counties (Polk, Highlands, Hillsborough, Manatee, Orange, and Osceola) and transporting it out of state. The investigation began on October 11, 2008, during a traffic stop in Polk County on two vehicles in response to a BOLO (Be On Look Out) for an armed aggravated battery suspect. The vehicles matched the suspect vehicle description. During the traffic stop it was determined the occupants of the vehicle were illegal aliens and were in possession of stolen baby formula. … All thirteen (13) suspects were charged with organized retail theft (F-2). Through interviews with detectives, these suspects admitted to working together as an organized theft ring... • All of the suspects were in the country illegally and were either here from Honduras or Mexico. • The suspects admitted to traveling from Atlanta, Georgia, for the sole purpose of stealing baby formula. • They were being paid anywhere from $100 to $300 a day for stealing baby formula. • Three of the vehicles they were driving had recently been purchased for the sole purpose of stealing baby formula. The suspects told detectives that they operated in the following manner:...

23. 4 arrested in Nev. probe of anti-government group
Associated Press March 7, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2871
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Four members of an anti-government group have been arrested on charges that include money laundering, tax evasion and weapons possession, federal prosecutors said Friday. Authorities said the four men are members of the Sovereign Movement, a group that attempts to overthrow the government and defy authority with "paper terrorism." The arrests in Las Vegas on Thursday capped a three-year investigation into the group's activities led by the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Attorney for Nevada Greg Brower said. A grand jury indictment in federal court in Las Vegas names Samuel Davis, 54, of Council, Idaho; Shawn Rice, 46, of Seligman, Ariz.; Harold Call, 67, of Las Vegas; and Jan Lindsey, of Henderson. Davis and Rice are accused of laundering roughly $1.3 million for undercover FBI agents, who described the money as loot from a bank fraud scheme. …

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

24. Texas makes emergency plans in case violence spills over from Mexico

By DAVE MONTGOMERY Sunday, Mar 8, 2009 San Antonio Star-Telegram
http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1245213.html

AUSTIN — The state and federal governments have prepared contingency plans to deal with spillover violence from across the border as Mexican troops clash with ruthless drug cartels terrorizing Mexico. "Anything you can think of that's happened in Mexico, we have to think could happen here," said Steve McCraw, Gov. Rick Perry's director of homeland security. "We know what they're capable of." A crackdown by Mexican President Felipe Calderon has turned Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, into a war zone as federal troops battle feuding cartels. Thousands of soldiers and agents have surged into the border city in the government's latest effort to free Mexican citizens from a daily spectacle of assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings ordered by rival drug czars. McCraw predicted that the violence in Mexico "will get worse before it gets better."…

Mexican cartels infiltrate Houston
Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs
By DANE SCHILLER Houston Chronicle March 7, 2009, 9:28PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6299436.html

Jose Perez was enjoying a night out with his wife, Norma, in 2006 when hitmen with a Mexican drug cartel mistook him for a rival trafficker and gunned him down. The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey. But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away… His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the perilous presence of Mexican organized crime and how cartel violence has seeped into the city…

25. Trial of Phoenix gun seller to start today
Prosecutors say guns reached Mexico gangs
by Dennis Wagner - Mar. 9, 2009 The Arizona Republic

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/2872
Law-enforcement agents on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border will be watching closely today as a Valley businessman accused of supplying assault rifles to Mexican drug cartels goes on trial. The case has drawn international attention as a landmark effort against gunrunning and because of the cooperative work between Mexican and U.S. authorities. Mexican prosecutors sat in on suspect interviews and provided investigative materials for the case. Court papers claim dealers in Arizona and other states bordering Mexico provide three- quarters of the black-market firearms to Mexico, a nation that strictly controls gun ownership. Phoenix is considered a hub for illegal exportation of AK-47s, SKS rifles, .50-caliber rifles and other weapons favored by narcotics gangsters. Authorities hope to stem the flow of weapons, which are bought at stores and gun shows and then smuggled into Mexico, by cracking down on illegal sales at gun stores...

Other items

26. Questions for Florida Lawmakers to Ask Ex-CAIR Leader
IPT News March 6, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1006/questions-for-florida-lawmakers...
Busloads of new civic activists are due to hit the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee this Tuesday, ostensibly to engage in the state political process for the first time. But some lawmakers are suspicious because of the man leading the effort. Ahmed Bedier used to run the Tampa chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), where he was among its most visible spokesmen. That all ended mysteriously last spring, with CAIR saying it wanted to "go into a new direction" – indicating Bedier had been fired – and with Bedier saying he chose to leave to launch "a new peace-making initiative." … [A]t least one lawmaker, State Rep. Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) reportedly alerted a group of Jewish lobbyists seeking "an information campaign in opposition." In correspondence with a Miami Herald reporter, Hasner cited CAIR's ties to Hamas as part of his concern. Bedier dismissed that as "ridiculous" and "nonsense," unrelated to his effort…

FBI's Embarrassing Response to CAIR Questions
IPT News March 9, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1007/fbis-embarrassing-response-to-c...
A U.S. Congressman who serves on a committee controlling the FBI's budget is blasting the Bureau's response to a set of questions regarding an FBI freeze on contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported January 29 that evidence tying CAIR and its founders to a U.S.-based Hamas support network prompted the Bureau to sever routine outreach meetings with the organization. That evidence was part of the government's prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which ended in November with the conviction of five former officials on 108 counts… U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-VA), wrote to the FBI http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/241.pdf on Feb. 2 asking for details about the FBI move. He addressed his questions to Michael Heimbach, an assistant director for the Counter Terrorism Division. Among them: whether there were conditions that could end the freeze, and what were the "certain issues" referenced by Finch that needed to be addressed by CAIR. FBI spokesman John Miller responded in a four-paragraph letter http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/246.pdf dated today, but hand-delivered last Friday:… The letter did not address most of Wolf's questions and he expressed his displeasure in a response released today:… http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/247.pdf .

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

27. DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 149-09 March 06, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12541
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Jeffrey A. Reed, 23, of Chesterfield, Va., died March 2 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by a grenade in Taji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 411th Military Police Company, 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 150-09 March 06, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12542
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pfc. Jessica Y. Sarandrea, 22, of Miami, Fla., died March 3 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her forward operating base with mortar fire. She was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas…

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release No. 152-09 March 09, 2009
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12543
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 1st Lt. Daniel B. Hyde, 24, of Modesto, Calif., died March 7 in Samarra, Iraq, of wounds sustained in Tikrit when an explosive device struck his unit vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii…

Suicide Bombing Targets Police Academy in Baghdad
By Edward Yeranian Voice of America News Cairo, Egypt 08 March 2009
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-08-voa2.cfm

A suicide bomber has killed at least 28 people near Iraq's police academy in Baghdad. The attack occurred as the United States and Britain announced major troop reductions by September. The explosion, outside Baghdad's police academy, was the second major terrorist attack in Iraq in three days. A suicide bomber, riding either a bicycle or a motorcycle, detonated an explosive belt near a side entrance to the academy, killing and wounding dozens…