10-31-09 Daily Update

1. Intel says Iran plans secret nuclear experiments
By GEORGE JAHN October 30, 2008 Associated Press

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1436

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Iran has recently tested ways of recovering highly enriched uranium from waste reactor fuel in a covert bid to expand its nuclear program, according to an intelligence assessment made available to The Associated Press. The intelligence, provided by a member of the 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency, also says a report will soon be submitted to the Iranian leadership for a decision on whether to go ahead with the project. The alleged tests loosely replicate Saddam Hussein's attempts to build the bomb nearly two decades ago. But experts question the conclusion by those providing the intelligence that Tehran, too, is trying to reprocess the fuel to make a nuclear weapon. They note that the spent fuel at issue as the source of the enriched uranium is not enough to yield the approximately 30 kilograms (65 pounds)of weapons-grade material needed for one simple warhead. Still, they say that the alleged experiment appears plausible — if not as a fast track to weapons capability then as an incremental step that could move it further along that path…

Khamenei: "The Iranian People's Hatred for America Is Profound";
Larijani: America Should Beware of Our Martyrdom-Seekers
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Special Dispatch Series - No. 2098 October 30, 2008
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD209808#_edn2
Following recent reports in the West regarding the possibility of opening an American interest office in Tehran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an October 29, 2008 speech to students, which was quoted on Iranian TV, that "the Iranian people's hatred for America is profound." This statement was apparently meant to put an end to any debate on the American proposal. Khamenei added: "The reason for this [hatred] is the various plots that the U.S. government has concocted against Iran and the Iranian people in the past 50 years. The Americans have not only refused to apologize for their actions, but have continued with their arrogant actions." Khamenei said further that the confrontation between Iran and the U.S. would lead "the arrogant American regime to a dead end," and stressed that "anyone who wished to trample the identity and independence of the Iranian nation would have his hand cut off by it." [1] Due to Iran's growing fear of a U.S. military strike, senior Iranian leaders have been threatening the U.S. in the recent days with suicide attacks on its forces in the region, and have been warning about the annihilation of Israel. Following are excerpts from the threats:…

2. Intelligence Head Says Next President Faces Volatile Era

By Joby Warrick Washington Post Friday, October 31, 2008; A10

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1437

NASHVILLE, Oct. 30 -- The next U.S. president will govern in an era of increasing international instability, including a heightened risk of terrorist attacks in the near future, long-term prospects of regional conflicts and diminished U.S. dominance across the globe, the nation's top intelligence officer said Thursday. Competition for energy, water and food will drive conflicts between nations to a degree not seen in decades, and climate change and global economic upheaval will amplify the effects, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in a speech here. McConnell, who has given security briefings to both major-party presidential candidates, said the list of worries will soon drown out the euphoria as the next occupant of the White House settles into the job…

3. Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz Washington Times Thursday, October 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1438

Afghan arms security

A report by the Pentagon inspector general states that problems with controls and accounting for U.S. weapons and explosives supplied to the Afghan security forces could lead to the diversion of arms to insurgents. The report also identified shortcomings in the $7.4 billion program of equipping and training Afghan forces. An IG assessment team surveyed weapons controls at the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) and found the command "had not issued implementing instructions or procedures governing the accountability, control, and physical security of arms, ammunition, and explosives the U.S. is supplying to" the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF), according to the Oct. 24 report...

Africom and China

The commander of the newly created U.S. Africa Command, or Africom, carefully sidestepped a question about whether the new command, with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, was created with an eye toward strategic competition with China, which is expanding its influence into the continent. "I can't judge what the Chinese do or don't do, but I would say where there are common objectives we would look to be complementary to what we do in the hopes of creating a more stable continent of Africa," said Army Gen. William E. Ward, noting that many nations are involved in Africa, including China, India, Russia and European states. "We do what we do because it's in our national security and our foreign-policy interest to do our work," he told reporters at a breakfast meeting on Oct. 8…

4. Boots on the Ground or Weapons in the Sky?
Budget Crunch Forces U.S. Military to Choose Which Form of Defense to Pursue; This-War-Itis vs. Next-War-Itis
By AUGUST COLE and YOCHI J. DREAZEN Wall Street Journal Oct 30, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122531935101081929.html

Washington - For years, the military has been roiled by a heated internal debate over what kind of wars it should prepare to fight. One faction, led by a host of senior officers, favors buying state-of-the-art weapons systems that would be useful in a traditional conflict with a nation like Russia or China. The other side, which includes Defense Secretary Robert Gates, believes the military should prepare for grinding insurgencies that closely resemble the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The dispute has long been largely academic, since the soaring defense budgets in the years since the September 2001 terror attacks left plenty of money for each side's main priorities. That is beginning to change, a casualty of the widening global financial crisis. With the economy slowing and the tab for the government's bailout of the private sector spiraling higher, Democratic lawmakers are signaling that Pentagon officials will soon have to choose which programs to keep and which to cut. In the long and unresolved debate about the military's future, a clearer vision of how best to defend America will emerge -- but not without one side ceding hard-fought ground…

5. Dix jurors see vids of 'reconnaissance'
Defendant in apparent target search

By JASON NARK Philadelphia Daily News Posted on Thu, Oct. 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1433

IPT NOTE: Court documents are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/cases.php#223

Mohamad Shnewer's alleged "reconnaissance" mission to scope out weak spots and targets at Fort Dix began with a stop to Wawa for coffee. It was the morning of Aug. 11, 2006, a critical day in the Fort Dix terrorism case, and Shnewer's 20-ounce cup of coffee often flashed before the hidden camera that the FBI had planted in the car of its top informant, Mahmoud Omar. Together, the two men would spend the morning driving around the South Jersey Army base, talking about Islam, weapons and targets. The government eventually charged five men, including Shnewer, with conspiracy to murder military personnel and attempted murder. All five men, including brothers Shain, Dritan and Eljvir Duka, and Serdar Tatar were arrested on May 7, 2007 and have been in federal custody since. Omar, who yesterday took the stand for the second day, slouched in his seat and propped his head up with his hand as more than five hours of secretly recorded videos and conversations he made were played to the jury. They mostly spoke in Arabic, but the video included an English transcript. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer asked Omar only a handful of questions between the recordings...

Informant testifies again on Fort Dix
By George Anastasia Philadelphia Inquirer Posted on Thu, Oct. 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1439

… For nearly three hours yesterday, jurors in the Fort Dix terrorism trial watched videos and listened to tapes that the prosecution alleges capture defendant Mohamad Shnewer and FBI informant Mahmoud Omar laying the groundwork for a plot to attack the South Jersey military complex. Authorities have alleged that Shnewer and his four codefendants planned a jihad-inspired assault, hoping to kill as many soldiers as possible. But the defense has contended that they were manipulated by Omar, a felon whom they describe as a "serial fraud artist" and who they say created a conspiracy out of the false bravado and bumbling of the five men. Sections of the tapes played yesterday appeared to support both positions…

Fort Dix jury hears fuel truck mentioned as weapon

Associated Press By GEOFF MULVIHILL –Oct 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1440

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Jurors in the trial of five men accused of plotting an attack on a New Jersey Army base listened Thursday to recordings of one defendant discussing driving a fuel truck into a building and firing on people in a picnic area. For the third straight day, the trial was dominated by recordings made by federal informant Mahmoud Omar, a native of Egypt with a sketchy past who is being paid $1,500 weekly for his cooperation. Many of the conversations involve suspect Mohamad Shnewer, now 23, a cabdriver and college dropout who drove with Omar to Fort Dix and Delaware's Dover Air Force Base in August 2006. The government says that attacking the Army post in New Jersey was Shnewer's idea, and that the defendants were inspired by al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Defense lawyers contend that Shnewer was dragged into the plot by Omar — and that the four other suspects were unaware of their plan. All five defendants are foreign-born Muslims in their 20s who spent years in southern New Jersey. They are charged with conspiracy to murder military personnel, attempted murder and weapons offenses… In one conversation jurors heard Thursday — recorded in August 2006 — Shnewer and Omar agree that the best way to attack the U.S. would be by hijacking a fuel tanker and driving it into a building. They even agree to go to truck-driving school to prepare…

6. Megahed Wants FBI Explosives Videos Barred From Trial

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune Published: October 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1441

IPT NOTE: The motion is posted at http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/103008video.pdf

TAMPA - Lawyers for Youssef Megahed are asking a judge to prevent prosecutors from using a "Hollywood-esque" video in his upcoming trial on charges he illegally transported explosives. Megahed and his friend, Ahmed Mohamed, were arrested last year in South Carolina after deputies there found items in their trunk that prosecutors say were explosive materials. The defendants maintain they were homemade rockets, intended to be used as fireworks. Mohamed has pleaded guilty to a charge of trying to help terrorists by creating a video in which he demonstrates how to use a remote-controlled toy to detonate a bomb. That video was posted on YouTube. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Megahed, who is not accused of participating in Mohamed's video, is awaiting trial while prosecutors appeal a judge's decision not to allow them to use videos seized from Megahed's family computer showing rockets and other violent scenes in the Middle East. Judge Steven D. Merryday barred the use of those videos partly on the grounds that prosecutors violated court-imposed deadlines to turn over copies of evidence to the defense. The prosecution is also appealing Merryday's ruling that they could not use Mohamed's YouTube video. Now the defense is asking Merryday to rule that prosecutors may not use more videos made by the FBI showing ways some of the other evidence in the case could be used to create explosions…

Megahed wants FBI video excluded from explosives trial
By Kevin Graham, St Petersburg Times Thursday, October 30, 2008
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/article881432.ece
TAMPA — An attorney for Youssef Megahed says the FBI went too far when it blew up a van to demonstrate to jurors how a homemade detonator in a video created by another defendant could set off explosives. The attorney wants the video of the blast excluded from the former University of South Florida student's upcoming trial… The demonstration video, produced at an FBI lab on July 15, shows agents using a model rocket igniter similar to one seen in a YouTube video created by Ahmed Mohamed, the motion said. Federal agents used what appeared to be a C4 mixture placed inside a van to show the destruction that can occur once the explosive is ignited, Dyer said…

7. Much-debated legislation survives epic legal battle
Ian Macleod The Ottawa Citizen Thursday, October 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1432
The government has won more than guilty verdicts in the Khawaja case; it has survived an epic battle that challenged its authority to radically alter the country's legal landscape in the name of post-9/11 national security. As the first major test of the hard-hitting Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, the Khawaja case set off a marathon of pre-trial skirmishing between defence, prosecution and government lawyers that wound through some of the highest courts in the land. Debate raged over the infant law's impact on fundamental legal issues involving government secrecy, due process and political and religious freedoms. The storm of constitutional challenges, appeals and cross-appeals lasted two years, casting light on the judicial system's seeming inability to handle a case of such magnitude…

Descent into jihad
Momin Khawaja remained silent throughout his 41/2-year-long case, but dozens of e-mails he wrote prior to his arrest reveal how and why this quiet Canadian, with a nice family from a nice Ottawa suburb, dedicated his life to terrorism and destroying the West. Using Mr. Khawaja's own words and expressed thoughts, national security reporter Ian MacLeod reconstructs Mr. Khawaja's ...
Ian MacLeod Canwest News Service Ottawa Citizen Thursday, October 30, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1442

Sentence designed to thwart Khawaja, as well as send message
Judge to weigh many factors as he decides prison term for terrorism conviction
Ian MacLeod Canwest News Service Thursday, Oct 30, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1443

The prison time Momin Khawaja now faces will likely be calculated to prevent him from waging jihad again and to give notice that terrorism won't be tolerated here. Parliament wanted convicted terrorists denounced in the harshest possible terms when it established the Anti-terrorism Act in December 2001… Mr. Khawaja, 29, faces a maximum of two life terms plus a consecutive 58 years. It's unlikely he will receive the maximums. Several factors must be considered by Justice Douglas Rutherford in determining the punishment to be meted out for each conviction, and weighing the totality of those sentences… As this is the first conviction under the post-9/11 anti-terror laws, Judge Rutherford has no previous Canadian cases to use as sentencing benchmark… A sentencing hearing for Mr. Khawaja is to be held Nov. 18.

8. 3 from NY terror case testify in Gitmo trial

Associated Press Oct 30, 2008 By DAVID MCFADDEN

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1444

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Three upstate New York men convicted of aiding terrorism said Thursday their al-Qaida training included viewing a violent video allegedly created by a Guantanamo prisoner on trial as Osama bin Laden's chief propagandist. The two-hour video featuring depictions of al-Qaida attacks spliced with images of Muslims being brutalized was intended both to inspire and infuriate terrorist recruits in Afghanistan, the three men said as they testified for the prosecution in the second Guantanamo war-crimes trial. "It was showing how successful people can be if they really want to perform jihad," Yahya Goba, one of the men from Lackawanna, N.Y., told the court, using an Arabic word often interpreted as meaning holy war. "Anything military, economical, political was considered a target." Goba and the two others, Yasein Taher and Sahim Alwan, three of the so-called "Lackawanna Six," pleaded guilty in 2003 to aiding terrorism by attending an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and are now serving prison terms in Indiana. The men said they attended the training camp before the Sept. 11 attacks, left their training early and said they had no intention of taking part in any attacks on the United States. The witnesses told prosecutors they agreed to testify against Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, of Yemen, in hopes they would be allowed to enter a witness protection program, with their identities shielded, after their release from prison…

9. Navy judge refuses to re-sentence Bin Laden driver
A judge has spurned a Pentagon prosecutor's request to revisit the 66-month sentence of Osama bin Laden's driver on grounds he didn't have authority to grant credit for time serve

Miami Herald October 30, 2008 BY CAROL ROSENBERG
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/748989.html

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A war court judge has flatly refused a Pentagon effort to revisit the soon-to-expire prison sentence of Osama bin Laden's driver at the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II. Navy Capt. Keith Allred ruling means the prison sentence for Salim Hamdan, 40, will end by New Year's under a military jury sentence that granted him time served for more than 61 months in prison at this remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba. The jury of five colonels and lieutenant colonels, led by a U.S. Navy captain, convicted Hamdan Aug. 6 of providing material support for terror for working as Bin Laden's $200-a-month driver in Afghanistan until his capture in November 2001. It cleared him of a more serious charge of conspiracy…

10. Man Sentenced for Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terror Organization
Aided Tamil Tiger Terrorists in the Attempted Purchase of Surface to Air Missiles, Night Vision Devices, Machine Guns and State of the Art Firearms
US Department of Justice Oct 30, 2008
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/October/08-nsd-969.html

BALTIMORE, MD -- U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Haniffa Bin Osman, age 57, a citizen of the Republic of Singapore, today to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and money laundering, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said, "Haniffa Bin Osman conspired with others to provide material support to the Tamil Tigers, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attempted to illegally export arms, including state of the art firearms, grenade launchers, night vision devices, surface to air missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles…

Air, rail, port, health & communication infrastructure security

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

11. Bioterrorism’s Deadly Math
Despite billions spent, we’re not yet ready for a big attack.
Judith Miller City Journal Autumn 2008

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_4_bioterrorism.html

The White House wanted to know: How much safer are Americans today than they were on October 4, 2001? That was the day when a photo editor in Florida became the first reported case of inhalation anthrax in America in decades. In what became biology’s 9/11, five letters containing less than a quarter-ounce of anthrax total—the equivalent of two pats of butter—killed five people, infected 17, put more than 20,000 on antibiotics, and traumatized thousands more. Decontamination alone, including at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, took over three years and cost some $200 million. With these disturbing facts in mind, and keenly aware that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have sought germ weapons, the White House in 2006 quietly directed the Department of Homeland Security to commission studies from teams of researchers on what Americans had received for the billions of dollars spent on preparing for a bioterrorist attack since 2001. Taken together, the papers—whose contents remain secret and whose authors have been asked by the DHS not to discuss them—constitute what officials call the first “net assessment” to focus exclusively on the issue. Though many of the papers were delivered to the DHS months ago, the net assessment remains unfinished and is likely to be handed over to the next administration, officials say. Still, its thrust is that while the estimated $50 billion spent since 2001 on countering bioterrorism has left us far better prepared for a bioterrorist attack, we remain vulnerable and, in some ways, may even be losing ground…

Judith Miller, a contributing editor of City Journal, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who writes about national security issues.

12. DHS: Scour Blogs to Stop Bombs
By Noah Shachtman Danger Room Wired News October 31, 2008 | 7:39:00 AM
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/dhs-scour-blogs.html
Could blogs be the key to building better bombs? The Department of Homeland Security is worried they just might. So DHS is looking for teams of geeks and social scientists to "gather data on a near real-time basis from blogs and message boards... in order to better counter the use of IEDs," or improvised explosive devices. "As the use of the internet by terrorists has increased, blogging and message boards have played a substantial role in allowing communication among those who would do the United States harm," the agency adds, in a solicitation for contractors. That's why "it is necessary to identify speech acts in near to real-time which proceed the decision by terrorists to use an IED." Military, security, and intelligence circles have grown increasingly worried about how would-be terrorists might use emerging tools. Everything from Twitter to World of Warcraft has earned a suspicious eye. In contrast, the threat raised by DHS' "Counter-Improved Explosive Devices Blogging" project is relatively old. Jihadist groups have been using online forums and, yes, blogging software for years. Dozens of federal agencies and independent firms keep tabs on these sites, for potentially hazardous chatter. Which makes you wonder why is DHS is suddenly looking to get into the blog-spotting game, too. The Department is promising to meet with potential contractors to explain "the types of information that needs to be collected from blogs and message boards (amount of discussion about IED technology, depth of discussion about IEDs, support for use of IEDs, etc.)."...

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

13. Three LIFG Members Designation for Terrorism
U.S. Dep't of the Treasury Press Release HP-1244 October 30, 2008
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1244.htm

Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated three members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and the financial, technological, or material support networks of terrorists. "LIFG, along with other al Qaida affiliates, seeks to exploit our globalized world, raising funds in Europe for transfer to terror cells operating in North Africa," said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. "To combat such transnational threats, the power and reach of the U.N.'s counterterrorism authorities are needed more than ever to shut down financiers of bloodshed wherever they may be." LIFG officially announced its formation in 1995 among Libyans who had fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan and the Qadhafi regime in Libya. The LIFG is believed to have participated in the planning of the May 2003 Casablanca suicide bombings, and LIFG has been linked to the 2004 Madrid attacks…

14. Israeli Official Details Zakat Committee Links to Hamas
IPT News October 30, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/798
DALLAS – Palestinian charities receiving millions of dollars from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were controlled by Hamas throughout the time they received the Texas-based charity's money, a lawyer for the Israeli Security Agency testified Wednesday and Thursday. That opinion is based on the presence of Hamas leaders and activists serving in "key leadership roles" on the committees and the committees' work advancing the terrorist group's goals, said the lawyer, testifying anonymously under the pseudonym "Avi." He has been accepted as an expert witness on Hamas financing and social programs based upon his years of research in Israeli criminal probes. And his opinion is based further on the presence of internal Hamas documents and propaganda items hyping the group in charity offices - even schools. Five former HLF officials are accused of conspiring to provide material support to Hamas, largely through donations to Palestinian charities, known as zakat committees, which prosecutors say are controlled by Hamas. Avi, expected to be the final prosecution witness, is tasked with proving that connection…

Holy Land jurors get a sample of Hamas martyr propaganda
11:29 AM Thu, Oct 30, 2008 Dallas Morning News Jason Trahan
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1445

Jurors in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial on Thursday saw some disturbing examples of Hamas propaganda glorifying young suicide bombers. The poster shown here is one of several that the Israeli military confiscated from the offices of the Islamic Charitable Society of Hebron, one of several groups in the Palestinian territories that received millions of dollars from Holy Land. "Avi," one of two anonymous Israeli government witnesses, continued his testimony Thursday that these charity groups were fronts for Hamas, not only because of Hamas propaganda found there, but also because they were led by known Hamas operatives. This particular poster features 18-year-old Abdel Mu'ti Muhammad Salih Shabanah. According to the FBI's translation, he is a "high school student who preferred the martyrdom certificate over the life's certificate." It says he was preparing to finish up his school language testing when he "received the signal" to respond to the assassination attempt on Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. "So he headed to Jerusalem to attain martyrdom," the poster says...

15. State Warns Passport Applicants Of Danger of Credit Card Fraud

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Friday, October 31, 2008; A17

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1446

The State Department has notified approximately 400 passport applicants in the D.C. area of a breach in its database security that allowed a ring of thieves to obtain confidential information so they could fraudulently use credit cards stolen from the mail, officials said. The scheme, involving two major government agencies, came to light months ago through a fluke. On March 25, D.C. police officers on a routine patrol stopped a car on the suspicion that its windows were excessively tinted, an apparent violation of city law. Smelling marijuana, the officers searched the car and discovered that the 24-year-old driver was carrying 21 credit cards not in his name and printouts of eight passport applications -- and that four of the names on the passport applications matched the names on four of the credit cards, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court…

16. 2 charged in mail theft ring
Suspects charged $27K on stolen Macy's cards
By Frederick Melo Pioneer Press 10/31/2008 12:17:14 AM CDT

http://www.twincities.com/ci_10860768?nclick_check=1

Call it snail mail gone bad — super bad. It happens like this: You pop a $10.83 check in the mail, but it never arrives at its intended destination. Instead, a check for $1,083 gets deposited — in your name — into someone else's bank account. Authorities say a ring of seven thieves got prolific with that and other mail theft schemes, stealing checks and Macy's credit cards from home mailboxes in and around Lakeville and Apple Valley. The suspects allegedly visited Macy's stores in Burnsville, Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis and Roseville, charging more than $27,000 on the stolen cards last winter before the cops put an end to their wild spending spree. Two alleged ring members — Sergey Ivanovich Kirilyuk, 24, of Blaine, and Stephan Vladimirovich Sysa, 25, of Coon Rapids — were charged this week after a broad investigation involving police from Apple Valley, Lakeville, Savage and Prior Lake and inspectors from Macy's and the U.S. Postal Service… U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding Sysa without bail in the Carver County Jail on immigration-related charges. Lakeville Police Chief Tom Vonhof said the ring was committing "all sorts of identity theft." His department got involved after one of his patrol officers stopped a car for a stop sign violation on Feb. 23 and found a large volume of mail inside. "What's kind of unusual in this is the sophistication," Vonhof said. "These guys were going out and hitting these mailboxes, and they had kind of an organized setup."…

Border security, immigration, customs

17. U.S. gets ready for tougher border ID requirements
Monica Wolfson, The Windsor Star Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1447

U.S. officials at Detroit border crossings are preparing early for the start of tougher identification requirements in June, hoping for a smooth transition. In seven months the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative takes effect, requiring anyone entering the U.S. to present a passport or enhanced driver's licence or trusted-traveller (NEXUS) card. Scanners and radio-frequency identification readers are being installed in December at each customs lane at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, said Chief Ron Smith, head of customs and border protection in the Detroit field office of the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. government is putting the equipment at 39 ports of entry. The border crossings in Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie will be operational in April…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

18. Coalition Captures Iranian-Backed Terrorism Suspects
American Forces Press Service Oct 29, 2008
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51713
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2008 – Coalition troops in Iraq today captured a suspected financer and four others associated with an Iranian-backed terrorist group believed to be responsible for bombings, military officials said. Acting on intelligence information, coalition forces this morning targeted the suspected Kataib Hezbollah facilitator during an operation in Amarah in Iraq’s Maysan province, which borders Iran. Kataib Hezbollah, also known as Hezbollah Brigades, is a terrorist group believed to receive funding, training, logistics and material support from Iran to attack Iraqi and coalition forces using what the military calls “explosively formed penetrators,” or EFPs – roadside bombs designed to pierce armor-hulled vehicles – and other weapons such as rocket-assisted mortars. The group is believed to be responsible for a June 4 explosion in the Shaab district of Adhamiyah in Baghdad that killed 16 Iraqi civilians and injured 29 others, officials said. The suspect and his associates were detained without incident. During their search, troops discovered more than $50,000 in U.S. currency and nearly 12 million Iraqi dinar, the equivalent of about $10,000, officials said…

Coalition Forces Capture Wanted Men, Additional Suspects
American Forces Press Service Oct 30, 2008

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51731

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2008 – Coalition forces further debilitated al-Qaida in Iraq networks during operations yesterday and today, capturing four wanted men and detaining six additional suspects, military officials reported. Today in Sadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, coalition forces captured a wanted man assessed to be associated with al-Qaida weapons and foreign terrorist facilitation networks in the region. One additional suspect was detained for further questioning. Two more wanted men were captured by forces operating in Baghdad today. One of the men, believed to be an al-Qaida financier, surrendered to coalition forces and turned in his associate. Forces in Mosul targeted al-Qaida's communication lines yesterday. A wanted man believed to be an al-Qaida courier associated with multiple regional leaders was captured along with three suspects during the operation…

U.S. Takes Battle Against Iraq Violence to Border

By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, October 30, 2008; A16

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1455

ZURBATIYAH, Iraq -- For thousands of Iranians, traveling to Iraq through this bustling, dusty gateway now requires stopping at small white trailers where U.S. officials take their photos and record scans of their irises and fingerprints. U.S. officials collect the biometric information of virtually all "military-age men" in an effort to stop the entry of weapons and fighters. Since officials began gathering biometric data at border posts this spring, more than 150,000 individuals have been scanned and photographed. Their records have been added to a burgeoning database that also includes biometric information about Iraqis and foreigners employed on American bases, as well as Iraqis who are detained or interrogated by U.S. forces. American officials use the data to identify people on wanted lists, search for suspicious travel patterns, and look for matches in a separate database that includes fingerprints collected after bombings and other attacks...

Christians On the Run in Iraq
By Peter Wensierski and Bernhard Zand SPIEGEL ONLINE 10/30/2008 05:57 PM

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,587345,00.html

… Since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Christians in Mosul have had to fear for their lives. Churches have been set on fire, and priests, doctors, engineers and businesspeople have been murdered. In March, aides found the body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho on the outskirts of the city. A new series of killings that began in late September has already claimed 18 lives. To stop the Christians who are fleeing Mosul, their persecutors set up fake checkpoints along the roads leading out of the city. They are often robbed, beaten and even killed. In the Sadik neighborhood, masked men recently stopped a man with his child. When they saw a Christian name on his identification card, they shot the man on the spot. When the boy said the man they had just killed was his father, they shot him as well. Church members who have not yet fled are finding flyers in their apartments with a "Warning to all Christians." "If you do not leave," the flyers read, "you will be slaughtered in three days." These are not empty threats. At the beginning of October, 15 masked youths broke into the house of a Christian family living on the east bank of the Tigris in Mosul. First they collected the family's mobile phone, and then one of the masked intruders held a gun to the head of the eight-year-old son. The attackers shouted that everyone in the family should abandon the house and leave their belongings behind. Then they carried in large amounts of explosives. Although the neighbors had alerted the police, they did not arrive in time to save the building, which exploded in front of their eyes and those of the victimized family...

19. Syrian riot police form ring around US Embassy

By BASSEM MROUE The Associated Press Thursday, October 30, 2008; 7:12 AM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1448

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Tens of thousands of Syrians turned out Thursday for a massive government-orchestrated protest against a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border. A mile away, hundreds of Syrian riot police formed a protective ring around the closed U.S. Embassy, but the flag-waving crowds dispersed peacefully after a couple of hours later, with students heading to schools and employees to work. The troops, wearing helmets and armed with batons and shields, took up positions around the embassy and the adjacent U.S. residence building. The embassy was closed because of security concerns related to the protest, and the American school in Damascus was also shut for the day…

20. Somali pirates seize Turkish ship - officials
Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:44 GMT Reuters
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnLU642089.html

ISTANBUL, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked a Turkish ship off the lawless Horn of Africa country on Wednesday in the latest in a wave of attacks, Turkish and Kenyan maritime officials said. The MV Yasa Neslihan had 20 Turkish crew when pirates seized the ship in Aden Bay as it was carrying iron ore from Canada to China, state news agency Anatolian said, quoting the Turkish Under Secretariat for Maritime Affairs…

Somalia's pirate problem grows more rampant
For many Somalis on the coast, piracy is the only way to earn a living in a country without a functioning government and faced with soaring inflation, civil war and rising malnutrition.
By Abukar Albadri and Edmund Sanders October 31, 2008 From the Los Angeles Times

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1456

Reporting from Haradhere, Somalia, and Nairobi, Kenya -- Straddling a wooden crate filled with $1 million in cash ransom, a cranky old pirate bellows names from a notebook as his anxious, bleary-eyed minions lean against the stone walls of their cramped hide-out… Rampant piracy is the latest, strangest and by far the most lucrative survival technique employed by Somalia's desperate populace, which has struggled without a functioning government since 1991. Seizing boats on the high seas along this lawless Horn of Africa nation is turning once-quiet fishing villages such as Haradhere into Mafia-style dens of greed and vice…