11-07-08 Daily Update

1. Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz Washington Times Thursday, November 6, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/06/inside-the-ring-20169387...

IPT NOTE: The GAO has established a website http://www.gao.gov/transition_2009/urgent/ listing urgent issues to be addressed for the transition.

Transition vulnerability

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that the United States is vulnerable to attack or other incidents during the presidential transition period and that the military is ready to respond. "When you go back and look at the number of incidents that have occurred three or four months before an inauguration to about 12 months out, back to the '50s, it's pretty staggering the number of major incidents which have occurred in this time frame," Adm. Michael Mullen said, noting that the danger is compounded by current world conditions. The Sept. 11 attacks, for example, occurred eight months after President Bush took office, at a time when many key appointments had not been made. Recent preparations for the transition in the Pentagon were aimed at preventing any attacks, and if an attack or incident does take place, the military is ready to respond, Adm. Mullen told Sara A. Carter, national security reporter for The Washington Times… The chairman said he is concerned about the transition because of the global threats and opportunities facing the United States at the present time, namely in Iraq and Afghanistan…

Transition could be slow, cumbersome
By: Chris Frates Politico November 5, 2008 04:02 PM EST
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15346.html

President-elect Barack Obama must move quickly to assemble his team in the first wartime transition in 40 years, national security and political experts agree, but a largely antiquated process is likely to make that cumbersome. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economic crisis and the still-horrifying backdrop of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will confront the new president when he’s sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009. But Obama had an opportunity to get a jump on the transition, thanks to a new law that allows presidential candidates to submit names to the FBI to be vetted for key transition posts before the election. That advantage, though, could be largely overshadowed by an increasingly complex process that includes political and security vetting as well as sometimes-difficult Senate confirmation hearings…

2. Defense Lawyers Question Informant in Terror Case

By Geoff Mulvihill Associated Press Thursday, November 6, 2008; A10

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1508

CAMDEN, N.J., Nov. 5 -- Attorneys for five men accused of plotting to kill soldiers in New Jersey began cross-examining a key government informant Wednesday as they tried to pin blame for the alleged conspiracy on him. The four previous days Mahmoud Omar spent on the witness stand mostly involved prosecutors asking him to clarify secret recordings he made that are key to the government's case. Defense lawyers contend it was Omar who tried to create a conspiracy and draw the other men into it. Rocco Cipparone, the attorney for defendant Mohamad Shnewer, quizzed Omar about his past crimes, what he was getting for cooperating with the FBI, his investigative methods and his truthfulness. Omar, 39, became an informant in 2005 after being caught in a bank-fraud scam. Beginning in March 2006, he infiltrated the group of men eventually charged with plotting the attack on Fort Dix, an Army installation used primarily to train soldiers for deployments in Iraq…

FBI informant clashes with defense in Fort Dix trial
by John P. Martin Newark Star-Ledger Wednesday November 05, 2008, 11:30 AM

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/fbi_informant_clashes_with_def....

The FBI informant who infiltrated a group on trial for plotting an attack on Fort Dix clashed this morning with a defense attorney, disputing suggestions that he was involved in a film pirating operation or encouraged a nephew to use arson or guns to resolve a business dispute… Omar, a 39-year-old Egyptian national, had already spent nearly a week on the witness stand in Camden but faced few questions from prosecutors. Instead, they used him to play hours of conversations he recorded with the five Muslim immigrants authorities say wanted to launch a jihad against a military site in the region. Defense attorneys have portrayed him as a former bankrupt con man who they say concocted and encouraged the scheme to avoid deportation and collect a weekly paycheck from the FBI. They have promised to question him about his criminal record, his drug use and his interaction with the defendants…

3. Syrian arms dealer Monzer Al-Kassar OKd terror arms, feds charge
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, November 5th 2008, 7:02 PM

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1509

A Syrian arms dealer agreed to funnel high-powered weapons to a terror group so it could slaughter American agents fighting the Colombian drug trade, prosecutors charged Wednesday. Monzer Al-Kassar, 62, and accused accomplice Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, went on trial yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court for conspiring to supply Colombian guerrillas with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, surface-to-air missiles and thousands of machine guns. Kassar "without hesitation agreed to supply them with everything they asked for and more," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan McGuire told jurors. Prosecutors say they'll show jurors videotapes of overseas sitdowns between the defendants and "cooperators" working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Kassar lawyer Ike Sorkin says his client is a legitimate businessman…

Jury in Arms Trial Is Told About a Double Sting Operation
By BENJAMIN WEISER New York Times

November 6, 2008, on page A30 of the New York edition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/nyregion/06arms.html

For more than 30 years, prosecutors say, Monzer al-Kassar, a Syrian-born merchant, has been involved in illegal arms deals and money laundering. On Wednesday, as his trial opened in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors told the jury about what they said were his plans to sell arms to rebels who wanted to kill Americans. Brendan R. McGuire, a prosecutor, said that Mr. Kassar and his co-defendant had “agreed together to put an arsenal of weapons, explosives and missiles into the hands of terrorists.” But what Mr. Kassar and the co-defendant, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, did not know, Mr. McGuire said, was that the deal was an elaborate sting operation run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which was using informants to pose as brokers seeking arms for a Colombian terrorist organization. When the defense lawyers offered their version of the case, they made a startling assertion that turned the government’s allegation on its head. They said that Mr. Kassar had been an important intelligence source for the government of Spain, where he had lived for about 25 years. And when the “brokers,” who unbeknownst to Mr. Kassar and Mr. Godoy were controlled by the D.E.A., came to them seeking arms for terrorists, Mr. Kassar reported them to the Spanish authorities, and continued to deal with them in order to learn as much as he could to have them arrested...

4. "Millennium bomber" wants to represent himself at resentencing
Would-be terrorist Ahmed Ressam has asked to fire his longtime public defenders and to represent himself at a hearing where he will be resentenced for conspiring to set off a powerful suitcase bomb at Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebration.

By Mike Carter Seattle Times Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008357065_ressam06m.htm...

Convicted would-be terrorist Ahmed Ressam has asked to fire his longtime public defenders so he can represent himself when he is resentenced for conspiring to set off a powerful suitcase bomb at the Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebration. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour received a letter from Ressam on Tuesday, which he sealed. On Wednesday, Public Defender Tom Hillier filed a motion for the document to remain sealed, saying it contains "sensitive and confidential" information "which, if made public, could result in irreparable harm to the defendant."… Federal prosecutors on Wednesday responded to Ressam's letter by asking Coughenour to hold a hearing to determine whether the 41-year-old Algerian is competent to represent himself when he is resentenced on Dec. 3. Hillier has led Ressam's defense team since he was indicted in December 1999 on charges of conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism and a variety of other crimes. Ressam was convicted at a Los Angeles trial in the spring of 2001. Ressam was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, in Port Angeles, coming off the ferry from Victoria, B.C. Inspectors found powders and liquids in the trunk of his rental car that turned out to be the makings of a powerful bomb. The investigation showed Ressam had been recruited by al-Qaida in Montreal and had trained in Osama bin Laden-sponsored terrorism camps in Afghanistan…

5. Obama's election won't assure Khadr's release

President would consider freeing him – but only if Prime Minister asks, says former Pentagon adviser

Toronto Star Nov 06, 2008 04:30 AM Michelle Shephard National Security Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/531567

Despite Barack Obama's promises to close the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr is not likely to be sent home any time soon unless Ottawa lobbies for his release, says a former top Pentagon official. Charles Stimson, who served as the Pentagon's chief adviser for detainee affairs until his resignation last year, said without a call from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it's unlikely Khadr's case would become a priority during Obama's early days in office. "It needs to be leader of state to leader of state. I can't predict what Obama would do if Harper asked ... but it would up the ante," Stimson said. "This president would have to give that serious consideration." Stimson, now a senior legal fellow at Washington's Heritage Foundation, was the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence for detainee affairs when other Guantanamo detainees were repatriated, including German-born Murat Kurnaz…

6. Mohamed Planned To Cause Harm, Prosecutor Writes
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune November 5, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1507

IPT NOTE: The government's sentencing memo is posted at http://media.tbo.com/pdf/110508mohamedsentencing.pdf.

TAMPA - Ahmed Mohamed came to the United States to gather "information about explosives and acquiring components in this country to construct explosives to cause harm within this country," a federal prosecutor asserts in a newly filed court document. Mohamed, an Egyptian student in the United States to attend the University of South Florida, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorists by making and posting on the Web site You Tube a video in which he shows how to use a remote-controlled device to detonate a bomb. Mohamed was arrested, along with his friend, Youseff Megahed, last year in South Carolina after deputies there said they found explosives in the trunk of their car. Megahed is still awaiting trial on charges of illegally transporting explosives. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer, argues in a sentencing memorandum filed in Mohamed's case that Megahed, a legal, permanent resident of the United States, was a "front man" who was to help Mohamed acquire firearms. The memo was submitted to U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday...

7. Harkat spoke with Bin Laden's banker: CSIS
Andrew Duffy, Canwest News Service Tuesday, November 04, 2008

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1513

OTTAWA - A senior Canadian spy says Mohamed Harkat operated as an al-Qaida sleeper agent in Ottawa - and kept in contact with Osama bin Laden's main banker. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service official, identified only as John, told a Federal Court hearing Tuesday that Harkat's behaviour was consistent with an al-Qaida sleeper: He kept a low profile, denied his known use of aliases and lied about his connections to Islamic extremists… John, a section chief in the Middle East branch of the spy agency, has spent 10 years investigating and analyzing Islamic terrorism. He is the first CSIS agent to testify against Harkat in open court. Harkat, 40, an Ottawa pizza delivery man, was arrested in December 2002 on the strength of a security certificate seven years after his arrival in Canada. Federal Court Justice Simon Noel must now decide whether the government made a reasonable decision when it labelled Harkat a terrorist. CSIS alleges that Harkat served as a soldier in Afghanistan during the early 1990s and has links to terrorist groups associated with the bin Laden network, including the Algerian GIA and the Egyptian Islamic Group. John also testified that the spy agency recorded a phone conversation between Harkat and a man named Haji Wazir. In that conversation, Harkat described himself as a Canadian Muslim and inquired about Chechen mujahedeen leader Ibn Khattab and other "brothers." John told the court that CSIS believes Haji Wazir is, in fact, Pacha Wazir, a financial kingpin from the United Arab Emirates whom bin Laden relied upon to move money around the world…

Accused terrorist asks court to trust him; judge wonders why

November 5, 2008 - 15:37 By: Jim Brown, THE CANADIAN PRESS

http://www.570news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n1105117A

OTTAWA - Accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat says he needs to have his stringent bail conditions eased, and he's promising to behave himself if Ottawa will agree to relax the rules. But a Federal Court judge expressed reservations Wednesday, suggesting Harkat has a track record of untruthfulness that raises questions about his credibility… The comments were a reference to a ruling by another Federal Court judge, Eleanor Dawson, who wrote in 2005 that Harkat had lied about his background and personal contacts to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Harkat maintained Wednesday he was hampered by his imperfect English in his initial dealings with CSIS, and said he was also "scared" of the spy service at the time…

8. Security Grants to Have Fewer Requirements
DHS Eases Rules Amid Criticism From Struggling Local Officials

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Thursday, November 6, 2008; A06

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1510

The Department of Homeland Security announced plans yesterday to dole out $3 billion in counterterrorism grants next year to state and local agencies with far-fewer strings attached than in past years, in a concession to sharply tightening budgets at all levels of government. The total amount mandated by Congress to go to the 50 states and the District, as well as funds for ports, transit systems, emergency managers, tribes, nonprofit groups and others, remains close to last year's levels. But, unlike in past years, DHS acted months earlier in revealing specific amounts that will go to the states and the 62 designated high-risk cities. The DHS move marks a response to criticism from a Democratic Congress and increasingly restive state and local leaders. They have complained that the Bush administration's domestic security officials have focused on terrorism at the expense of other law enforcement priorities, such as fighting drugs, gangs and violent crime. That tension is expected to intensify as the nation's financial crisis deepens. The incoming Democratic administration will face hard funding choices as it tries to improve ties with state and local partners who must choose between keeping police officers on the beat; maintaining costly equipment, systems and supplies intended to respond to a terrorist attack; and other needs…

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

9. D.C. hospital gets 'dirty bomb' sensors
Nov 4, 2008 By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-04-hospitalsensors_N.htm

WASHINGTON — The largest private hospital in the nation's capital on Tuesday began installing sophisticated new radiation detectors in an effort to better prepare for a terrorist attack with a radiological "dirty bomb." The sensors, which will be placed out of public view at the 926-bed Washington Hospital Center, will immediately let doctors, nurses and other hospital staff know if someone contaminated with dangerous radiation enters the emergency room or other areas of the hospital. The goal is to prevent victims of an attack from compounding the disaster by contaminating the hospitals and emergency workers who are there to treat them…

10. FDA Seizes Contaminated Heparin
By JARED A. FAVOLE Wall Street Journal NOVEMBER 6, 2008, 2:24 P.M. ET

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122599922141305711.html
WASHINGTON -- The government on Thursday seized 11 lots of contaminated heparin, a widely used blood thinner, from a company in Cincinnati as part of a broader effort to ensure tainted heparin from China doesn't harm patients. U.S. Marshals seized the heparin at the request of the Food and Drug Administration, according to an FDA press release. The FDA said the products from Cincinnati-based Celsus Laboratories Inc. were contaminated with over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate, a substance that mimics heparin's blood-thinning activity. The company's products were made from material imported from China. Earlier this year, the FDA said contaminated heparin from facilities in China was linked to 81 deaths in the U.S. and hundreds of allergic reactions. Baxter International Inc. is the largest supplier of heparin. The FDA later said it received reports of 11 deaths and other adverse events associated with medical devices that contain heparin...

11. Radiation weapon may help fight pirates

Navy wants to use skin-warmer, ear-splitter to avert attacks on merchant ships
Navy Times By Philip Ewing - Posted : Tuesday Nov 4, 2008 6:35:14 EST

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/navy_pirate_zapper_110308w/

Navy ships frustrated by pirates and small-boat attackers could get a new tool to disarm such threats: a nonlethal people zapper. Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. Bill Gortney has put out an “urgent need statement” seeking nonlethal weapons to enable cruisers and destroyers to keep small boats at bay. “If you’re the [commanding officer] of a DDG ... and you see these small boats coming, all you can do is shoot at them,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Tom Benes, director of expeditionary warfare for the chief of naval operations. “Nonlethal weapons give you the ability to cover that gap.” The Active Denial System, a high-powered millimeter-wave ray that field commanders have requested for use in Iraq, is among the options, Benes said. Another is the Long Range Acoustic Device, already in limited use in the fleet, which sends warnings and ear-splitting noise in a particular direction. Although ADS has been touted as a land-based technology, the Defense Department has concluded the system could work over water, according to officials at Raytheon, which has delivered three of the systems to the Air Force…

12. TSA Approves Sagem Morpho Biometric Readers for Critical TWIC Pilot

Nov 5, 2008 Press Release

http://www.businesswire.com/news/google/20081105005132/en

TACOMA, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has approved four biometric readers from Sagem Morpho for deployment in critical pilot tests of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program at major U.S. ports including Los Angeles, New York, and Long Beach. The selection by TSA puts Sagem Morpho among the elite developers of biometric security devices whose technologies will define future TWIC specifications…

Financing, identity theft, money laundering

13. Treasury Revokes Iran’s U-Turn License

November 6, 2008 US Department of the Treasury Press Release HP-1257

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1257.htm

Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that it is revoking the "U-turn" license for Iran, further restricting Iran's access to the U.S. financial system. Treasury's move today follows a series of U.S. government actions to expose Iranian banks' involvement in the Iranian regime's support to terrorist groups and nuclear and missile proliferation. Prior to today's action, U.S. financial institutions were authorized to process certain funds transfers for the direct or indirect benefit of Iranian banks, other persons in Iran or the Government of Iran, provided such payments were initiated offshore by a non-Iranian, non-U.S. financial institution and only passed through the U.S. financial system en route to another offshore, non-Iranian, non-U.S. financial institution. As a result of today's action, U.S. financial institutions are no longer allowed to process these U-turn transfers. The Treasury Department previously designated Iranian state-owned banks Melli, Mellat, Sepah, Future Bank and the Export Development Bank of Iran for their roles in Iran's weapons proliferation activities, as well as Bank Saderat for providing support to terrorism. While these banks are already prohibited from taking advantage of the U-turn authorization, today's action ends this exception for all remaining Iranian banks, both state-owned and private, including the Central Bank of Iran...

Fact Sheet: Treasury Strengthens Preventive Measures Against Iran

US Department of the Treasury November 6, 2008 HP-1258

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1258.htm

Prepared Remarks of Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey On the Revocation of Iran’s U-Turn License

US Department of the Treasury November 6, 2008 HP-1256

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1256.htm

Stuart Levey’s War
By ROBIN WRIGHT New York Times Magazine November 2, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/magazine/02IRAN-t.html

… Iran will be perhaps the most daunting strategic challenge for a new American president… But what tools does Washington have?... In short, each American administration since 1979 has been driven to such distraction by Iran that it has had to continually revise its own policies. Can a new president do better? He will inherit few effective tools. Diplomacy is, at the moment, going nowhere. Efforts in the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency have done little to prevent Iran from growing ever closer to acquiring the capacity to manufacture nuclear fuel… What remains, in one form or another, is the idea of sanctions. Over the decades, Washington has embargoed imports from Iran, forbidden visas for officials and even sanctioned the entire Revolutionary Guard Corps — the first time the United States has ever sanctioned a section of another country’s military. But each effort has fallen short. Energy-hungry China now buys Iran’s oil in huge quantities. Tehran has found other outlets for trade and travel. And sanctions are slow to take effect. One new concept, however, has begun to get Tehran’s attention. In January 2006, Stuart Levey, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, was having breakfast in Bahrain when he noted a local newspaper article about a big Swiss bank that cut off business with Tehran. He clipped the article. It gave him an idea…

14. Pakistani man sentenced in money laundering scheme
The Associated Press 4:00 PM EST, November 4, 2008

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/crime/bal-launder1104,0,4530086.s...

The gov’t’s press release is posted at http://baltimore.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ba110408b.htm and at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1506
The U.S. attorney's office said a Pakistani national living in Washington and Maryland has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison for a money laundering plot and concealing terrorist financing. Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, 45, was sentenced to 110 months in prison today. He pleaded guilty in August. U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis also ordered Ranjha to forfeit $2,208,000. According to his guilty plea, Ranjha operated a money remitter business in Washington known as Hamza. Cooperating witnesses posed as drug smugglers, cigarette smugglers and other criminals, and in one case as a terrorist who wanted to send money to al-Qaida. From October 2003 to Sept. 19, 2007, the cooperating witness gave Ranjha and his associates more than $2.2 million in government money to transfer the funds abroad through an informal money transfer system called a hawala.

MONEY REMITTER SENTENCED TO OVER NINE YEARS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING CONSPIRACY AND CONCEALING TERRORIST FINANCING

Press Release Nov 4, 2008 Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, District of Maryland

http://baltimore.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ba110408b.htm and

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1506

15. Convicted terrorist to face another trial
El-Hindi charged in conspiracy, theft
Article published Wednesday, November 5, 2008 By ERICA BLAKE Toledo Blade
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1520

One of three men convicted in June of terrorism-related crimes returned to U.S. District Court in Toledo yesterday to face unrelated conspiracy and theft charges. Marwan El-Hindi is charged with one count each of conspiracy and theft of public funds and five counts of wire fraud after he was accused of using $40,000 in federal grant money for personal use. A bench trial before Judge James Carr is expected to last through next week… The trial occurs five months after a federal jury found El-Hindi guilty of conspiring to kill and maim people outside the United States, conspiring to provide material support, and disseminating information regarding explosives. He faces life in prison. Co-defendants Mohammad Amawi and Wassim Mazloum also were convicted after the two-month trial. No sentencing dates have been set. The theft and fraud charges against El-Hindi are unrelated to his terrorism convictions and are a result of a 2002 grant application - an action that occurred years before he was charged with terrorism-related crimes. Yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Duncan Brown told Judge Carr the allegations against El-Hindi were that he "knowingly conspired with [co-defendant] Ashraf Zaim to take $40,000 from the IRS under the auspices of operating a low-income tax clinic."…

16. Bookkeeper Defends HLF Accounting
IPT News November 6, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/800

DALLAS – Foreign bank accounts controlled by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were never reported to the Internal Revenue Service or even to the charity's own auditors, a former bookkeeper for the charity admitted Wednesday. Mohammad Wafa Yaish worked as a tax and accounting consultant for HLF from 1997-2001. He was called as a defense witness to give an overview of the different projects run by HLF and to discuss financial records. Five former HLF officials are accused of illegally funneling millions of dollars to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities called zakat committees. If HLF was raising money for Hamas, he didn't know about it, Yaish said. During the prosecution's case, bank and tax records entered into evidence showed hundreds of thousands of dollars were unaccounted for. Other evidence and witness testimony showed the committees receiving money were run by people openly affiliated with Hamas… During cross examination, federal prosecutor Barry Jonas pointed to records showing HLF had accounts with a series of foreign banks, including the Arab Bank, Bank of Palestine, and the Cairo Amman Bank, among others. But these accounts were never reported by the non-profit charity on its IRS forms. Yaish said he saw no reason to inform IRS of the numerous transactions involving HLF's overseas bank accounts since they were "not bearing interest." HLF hired an independent auditor to review its accounts, Yaish said. But the auditor was never given information about the foreign accounts...

Lawyers Will Be Lawyers, Dumping More on Juries Than They Can Process
By LESLIE EATON and AMIR EFRATI NOVEMBER 6, 2008 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122593285676003505.html
DALLAS -- When the high-profile prosecution of a Texas charity accused of helping Palestinian terrorists collapsed in a chaotic mistrial here a year ago, there were lots of theories about what went wrong, from government overreaching to a new political climate to a rogue juror. But there was another problem, according to lawyers who followed the trial: Some jurors were bored and bewildered. They were buried under 197 counts and an avalanche of evidence, including hundreds of documents and dozens of wiretap tapes. The defense in the Holy Land Foundation case holds that the government's whole premise is fundamentally wrong, and it looks like some jurors in the original trial may have agreed, acquitting several defendants on most charges. Yet they deadlocked on the majority of the counts. The case, now being retried in a sparer form, stands as a lesson, lawyers and jury consultants say: Prosecutors can compile a ton of evidence, but whatever its merit, presentation and pacing are crucial…

Holy Land Foundation's former accountant in the hot seat
5:40 PM Wed, Nov 05, 2008 Jason Trahan Dallas Morning News
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/holy-land-foundations-f...

Up until this morning, Mohammed Wafa Yaish's defense testimony, which began Tuesday, wasn't that much different than last year's: He basically told jurors that Holy Land was a legit, law-abiding charity driven not by politics, but by a mission to help needy people worldwide. But, in keeping with this year's more aggressive prosecution style, Barry Jonas took a new tack and laid into the accountant on cross examination about Holy Land's tax filings, whom the charity targeted for aid and the foundation's policy about visiting terrorist websites at work. Yaish's answers were a tad all over the board, and the defense's re-direct of him fell somewhat short of clearing the air. Jonas began the morning asking Yaish why information about Holy Land's foreign bank accounts do not show up on tax forms, and why he, as the charity's accountant, did not mention them to auditors during annual examinations of the books…

17. Crime boss free while deportation pondered
James Turner Winnipeg Free Press Updated: November 6 at 02:50 AM CST

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/story/4246320p-4889520c.html

The leader of an eastern European organized crime syndicate operating in Canada, who has amassed more than 100 criminal convictions since his arrival here 17 years ago, has been set free to wait for his potential deportation. Gheorghe Capra, 47, appeared before the immigration review board Wednesday in a downtown courtroom. He had just been released on parole from Stony Mountain prison after serving one-third of a 30-month sentence for fraud over $5,000. Court documents show Montreal police first noticed Capra more than 10 years ago as part of a crime ring specializing in bank machine fraud and "skimming" scams. Credit or debit card information is illegally stolen, downloaded to a computer and transferred to blank cards used to make illegal purchases or withdrawals. A report from the Winnipeg police commercial crime unit, issued in February after a prolonged surveillance project into the activities of Capra and three of his cohorts, indicates the group was "very sophisticated." Canadian Border Services lawyer Maria Dejaeger said Capra mostly targeted unsuspecting senior citizens, who were tricked into picking up a $20 bill while at a bank machine and had their ATM cards switched. He would then use the card to drain all the cash from his victim's bank accounts...

Border security, immigration, customs

18. Massive Overhaul of Immigration Services Planned
By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Thursday, November 6, 2008; 2:37 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1521

The Bush administration has launched a massive overhaul of the nation's long-troubled immigration services agency, tapping an IBM-led industry consortium to re-invent the way government workers help immigrants obtain visas, seek citizenship and get approval to work in the United States. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced that it has asked IBM to be its "solutions architect" to change the technology and processes used by its 16,000 government and 6,000 contract workers at 280 locations nationwide. The contract, awarded this week and the largest federal homeland security bid on the market, includes a $14.5 million, 90-day assessment period with options over five years worth $491.1 million, and a ceiling value of up to $3.5 billion if Congress approves a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that unleashes a flood of applications for legal status or other actions…

19. Dallas immigration officials say illegal immigrant arrests up 21 percent in 2008
12:53 PM CST on Thursday, November 6, 2008 By DIANNE SOLÍS Dallas Morning News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1514

Arrests of illegal immigrants in North Texas increased 21 percent in the last fiscal year, according to federal immigration officials in Dallas. More than 16,300 people were repatriated to their native countries, compared with 13,500 the previous fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. That pace matched the increase at the national level: 349,041 people were removed by ICE, compared with 288,663 the previous year. For the nation, removals of illegal immigrants has doubled since 2004…

Deportations reaching record numbers in Northwest
Immigration officials say more than 10,000 illegal aliens were deported in the last year from Washington, Oregon and Alaska - breaking a record for the region.
Originally published Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 12:10 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1515

SEATTLE — Immigration officials say more than 10,000 illegal aliens were deported in the last year from Washington, Oregon and Alaska - breaking a record for the region. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 10,602 aliens were deported to their home countries between October 2007 and September 2008 - a jump of more than 35 percent compared with the same period a year earlier…

Deportations on the rise in NJ
November 6, 2008 Associated Press
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1516

NEWARK, N.J. - New Jersey immigration officials say deportations and arrests for immigration violations reached record levels in 2008. The Newark field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, says that nearly 4,200 illegal immigrants were deported from New Jersey during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Of those, about 1,200 had prior criminal convictions. That's a 25 percent increase in deportations over the previous year. It represents slightly more than one percent of the estimated 350,000 illegal immigrants living in the Garden State.

Deportation up 63 percent in Georgia, Carolinas
Thursday, November 06, 2008 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/1517

There was a 63 percent increase in illegal immigrants deported from Georgia and the Carolinas in the 12 months ending in October, and thousands of criminals were tagged for removal from the country upon their release from prison, federal officials said Thursday. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Atlanta Field Office of Detention and Removal carried out a record 17,955 deportation orders, compared with 11,006 the previous year, officials said. They were among more than 40,000 people the field office processed in the three states during the 2008 fiscal year…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

20. U.S. Accepts Proposed Changes to Iraq Security Deal
By GINA CHON Wall Street Journal NOVEMBER 6, 2008, 2:52 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122597780613304841.html
BAGHDAD – The U.S. notified Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday that it has accepted many of the changes proposed last week by the Iraqi cabinet on a long-term security agreement between the two countries, removing another stumbling block to a deal. Because of the largely positive response from the U.S., Iraqi officials say they're warming to a resolution. But the two sides have appeared close to a deal before, only to face another setback. The Iraqi cabinet plans to meet Sunday to discuss the security pact, which is needed to replace a United Nations mandate that expires at the end of this year. If Iraqi ministers approve the deal, the Iraqi parliament could take up the pact next week…

21. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Threatens to Strike Western Targets in Algeria, North Africa

Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)

Islamist Websites Monitor Project Posted at: 2008-11-05

http://www.memriiwmp.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=457

On November 4, 2008, Islamist forums posted a 39-minute video produced by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, titled "War of Bombs and Landmines." The video features mainly images of past attacks against Algerian security forces, as well as images allegedly reflecting the economic situation in some North African countries; it includes very little by way of substantial claims and threats. The video addresses two main themes: the West's growing involvement in North Africa, and what is described as "the government's policy of starving its citizens." The video ends with a threat to strike Western interests in North Africa, particularly in Algeria.

22. Islamists kill Algerian mayor
Agence France Presse Nov 06, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdzA9UFccB-4lAe66uRyreuxdEJQ

ALGIERS (AFP) — Armed Islamists have assassinated the mayor of a northern Algerian town after kidnapping him, the interior ministry said in a statement Thursday. Security forces found the body of Timezrit mayor Fateh Bouchibane along with a charred vehicle belonging to the local government, the ministry said in a statement reported by the APS news service. Bouchibane was kidnapped late Wednesday by an unspecified armed Islamist group at an intersection in Tifra, some 263 kilometres (163 miles) east of Algiers, it said…