FBI probes Mexican, European firms over Venezuela oil trading - sources

Source: Reuters

May 13 2020

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI is probing several Mexican and European companies allegedly involved in trading Venezuelan oil as it gathers information for a U.S. Treasury Department inquiry into possible sanctions busting, according to four people familiar with the matter.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and special envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told reporters late last month the State and Treasury departments were investigating whether several firms were violating sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA since January 2019.

The sanctions are part of a campaign by Washington to strangle the revenues of President Nicolas Maduro, which has failed to break his grip on power. U.S. officials say privately that is a source of frustration for President Donald Trump, whose administration has tightened the implementation of sanctions in recent months.

Three of the people who provided information to the FBI - who asked for anonymity to discuss the matter - said the agency was investigating three Mexican companies: Libre Abordo, Schlager Business Group, and Grupo Jomadi Logistics & Cargo.

Reuters could find no record of Venezuelan oil purchases by those companies prior to sanctions.

The people also said the FBI was gathering information on two Europe-based oil trading companies that do have a track record of dealing in Venezuelan oil or selling fuel to PDVSA: Elemento Ltd and Swissoil Trading SA.

One of the sources familiar with the matter in Washington said any action against the Mexican and European companies could be postponed or cancelled if the firms halted trade with Venezuela. The three others said the probe by the Treasury and the State departments could potentially lead to action in the coming weeks.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which handles media enquiries for the FBI, declined to comment, as did a State Department spokesperson. The Treasury Department did not reply to a request for comment.

Emails and phone calls seeking comment from Elemento and Swissoil went unanswered, and a lawyer for Elemento did not respond to a request for comment. Emails sent to an address on Jomadi’s website bounced back.

Libre Abordo and its affiliate Schlager said in a statement to Reuters, citing legal experts they hired, that two contracts they signed in June 2019 with Venezuela’s Corporation for Foreign Trade (Corpovex) to provide food and water trucks in exchange for Venezuelan crude - known as an oil-for-food agreement - were permitted under the sanctions as long as no cash payment reached Maduro’s government.

“Neither Libre Abordo nor shipping companies hired to move PDVSA’s hydrocarbons are the subject of sanctions,” read the statement.

The firms declined to identify the legal experts but provided Reuters with their interpretation of Venezuela sanctions, which the companies said they sent to several shipping firms and other partners.

The undated memorandum said the oil-for-food deal did not contravene U.S. measures because Corpovex was not specifically named on the Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned people and entities, unlike PDVSA, and because there were exceptions under the sanctions for humanitarian goods.

Neither Corpovex, PDVSA nor Venezuela’s trade ministry responded to requests for comment.

VENEZUELA RELIANT ON SWAP DEALS

The two small Mexican companies have emerged as the largest middlemen for Venezuelan oil in recent months, according to internal PDVSA export documents, reviewed by Reuters.

OPEC member Venezuela has come to rely on trading oil and gold to pay for essential imports using complicated swap agreements because Washington’s sanctions bar Maduro’s government from using the U.S. financial system.

The PDVSA export documents show that Libre Abordo and Schlager have quickly ramped up trading of Venezuelan oil since receiving a first cargo in December, after a second wave of U.S. sanctions in August 2019 barred non-U.S. oil companies from doing business with PDVSA.

These secondary sanctions blocked the U.S. property of anyone worldwide “materially assisting” Venezuela’s government, including PDVSA and other governmental bodies - though it did not specifically name Corpovex. While the measures permitted shipments of food, clothing and medicines, none of the Venezuela-related executive orders issued by Trump specifically allowed oil-for-food agreements.

Whether that ambiguity potentially has created a loophole for companies is a matter of disagreement, some experts said.

Richard Nephew, a senior researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and a former State Department official dealing with sanctions policy toward Iran, said that while food deals were permitted under sanctions there was no special dispensation for them to be paid for in oil and the involvement of PDVSA could still prompt Treasury to take action.

However, Peter Harrell, an expert on sanctions at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), said that in oil-for-food swaps the companies ultimately supplying the food could be protected from sanctions provided they had no role in physically receiving, transporting or selling the oil.

Harrell added that some U.S. policymakers might be reluctant to impose sanctions on companies involved in a deal to supply basic goods to a nation suffering a humanitarian crisis.

“Policymakers will be concerned that sanctioning an oil for food barter would play into a...narrative that U.S. sanctions are causing humanitarian challenges in Venezuela,” Harrell said.

DECISIONS ON SANCTIONS

While the FBI’s principal focus is on domestic intelligence and security, its agents also carry out overseas investigations to aid decisions on sanctions by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which often also seeks input from the State and Commerce departments, U.S. embassies and the intelligence community.

Libre Abordo and Schlager’s oil-for-food deals with Venezuela obliged them to deliver 1,000 water trucks and 210,000 tonnes of corn to the country, the companies said. While some of the trucks have been delivered, the firms said they have not so far supplied any of the food as low oil prices have affected the original delivery schedule.

In exchange, they have so far received more than 26 million barrels of Venezuelan oil for resale, according to PDVSA’s export documents.

In just four months, Libre Abordo and Schlager increased their intake of PDVSA’s oil from less than 3% to 39% of the Venezuelan company’s total exports, which averaged 850,000 barrels per day in April.

The agreements threw a lifeline to Maduro, whose administration is struggling to afford imports of everything from food to medicine and industrial equipment.

Reporting by Marianna Parraga, Adriana Barrera and Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City, and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah Lynch, Daphne Psaledakis, Gary McWilliams and Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Daniel Wallis.

Carter Ham: "Fragile" Libyan Gov't is Why Benghazi Attackers are Free

Πηγή: Foreign Policy
Posted By John Reed
July 20 2013

Aspen, CO. - Turmoil in the nascent Libyan government is likely frustrating the FBI's attempts to capture the five men suspected of playing a key role in the attacks on the U.S. consulate and CIA facility in Libya that left four Americans dead last September, according to former U.S. Africa Command chief, Gen. (ret) Carter Ham.

"It's more the dealing between the government of the United States and this emerging yet fragile government of Libya that has impeded any significant progress on bringing to justice those who killed our friends," said Ham during a talk at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado last night.

"All politics are local, and in Libya that is very much the case," said Ham. "The Libyan government has to wrestle with this idea of ‘do we apprehend this guy and what would that mean to us if we apprehended some of these people, if we tried them, if we handed them over [to the U.S.],' it's a very, very complex issue."

While the U.S. made some progress initially in working with the Libyan government that has emerged in Tripoli since Muammar al Qaddafi was overthrown in late 2011, that stalled as senior officials in the Libyan government came and went.

"This is one of the consequences of the fragility of the Libyan government," said Ham. "Progress was made initially but then the government changes, key leaders change."

He went on to say that "so much of this is relationships, so much of this is trust and if the person you're used to working with is now out of office and suddenly you've got a brand new person . . . it just frustrates, it complicates the process."

Some have criticized the Obama administration for not capturing the five suspects identified by the FBI in May via military means, despite claims the U.S. has evidence to justify such actions. The White House maintains that it is treating this as a law enforcement case and is trying to work with the Libyan legal system to extradite the attackers and try them in a U.S. criminal court. One of the suspects, Faraj al Chalabi, was reportedly detained by the Libyan government in March -- only to be released in June by Libyan authorities who said they didn't have enough evidence to warrant holding him.

The FBI, with the help of U.S. intelligence agencies, is keeping the suspects under electronic surveillance as it tries to gather up more evidence -- such as videos of the men at the scene of the attack -- for use in a criminal trial.

This is just one example of what may be many of how tough it will be for the U.S. to form working relationships with the new, often fluid and shaky governments that are emerging from the political upheaval in the Arab world. It also shows that it may be a while before the U.S. is able to put the Banghazi attack behind it. Let's hope America's can get better at building relationships with other new governements popping up in the Arab world.

1st Amendment Violated as Facebook Assists Police in Pre-Crime Investigations

Πηγή: Occupy Corporatism
Susanne Posel
August 22 2012

On August 16th former US Marine Brandon Raub was arrested for posting his opinion about the US government on his Facebook page . Raub is currently being held in a psychiatric ward. In a statement by Raub, he explains : “I’m currently in John Randolph in the psychiatric ward being held against my will. They were concerned about me calling for the arrest of government officials.”

Raub’s lawyers say that he will be held for “up to 30 days’ further confinement in a VA psych ward” after “government officials again pointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration.”

While Raub was taken forcefully, put into handcuffs and taken by the FBI to be questioned, both the FBI and Secret Service deny that Raub was arrested or detained by them.

Facebook comments were recently cited as evidence in a court case concerning cyber bullying where comments on a personal page were ruled by a US Federal court as information that can be lawfully obtained by the police to be used against a defendant.

William Pauley, US District Court Judge, stated that because the defendant made violent threats in his posts which are deemed public information that they are allowable as evidence against him by prosecutors.

On April 24th, District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled that by clicking a “like” button on Facebook, that this affiliation is public domain and not protected by the 1st Amendment. Jackson wrote : “Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient. It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection,” and continues to say that, “Facebook posts can be a matter of public concern; however the Court does not believe Plaintiffs Carter and McCoy have alleged sufficient speech to garner First Amendment protection.”

The Electric Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit with the US Department of Defense (DoD) because the federal agency refused to admit their relationship with social networks with regard to surveillance and law enforcement investigations.

Government officials scan Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube for evidence of criminal activities, activists and possible suspects who may have not committed a crime just yet. And these agencies named in the lawsuit refused to cooperate with the EFF in explaining how gathering this information would impact “citizen’s privacy rights and associated legal protections.”

Hoping to dupe Americans into posting on their Facebook page, the CIA gathers information while inviting people to register and read information about the “employment opportunities.”

While government agencies are using Facebook to data mine on Americans, it has been suggested in the social meme that without a Facebook page, a person’s mental stability is questionable.

Now, having a profile or not is the barometer of whether or not a person is “suspicious” or not. Some psychologists are even suggesting that not having a Facebook profile means that you are a psychopath. The link between the Batman shooter and the Norwegian mass murderer was their lack of Facebook profiles. In fact, this may “be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.”

Trapwire , the most impressive pre-crime surveillance software corporation with clients from Wal-Mart to the White House, is but one of many types of Big Brother network grids that have incrementally begun to invade our lives.

Alexander Keith, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) described at a yearly Def Con computer hacking conference that the internet is “at great risk from exploitation, disruption and destruction.” He went on to voice his “concern that it’s going to flow into destructive attacks that could have consequences for our critical national infrastructure and the Internet itself.”

Basically, Keith is concerned because the internet is currently not controlled by federal agencies. When the NSA needs more hackers , they recruit out of colleges and universities across the US under the official Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations. By using college students, the NSA is amassing an “elite team of computer geniuses” that will be trained in all methodology of hacking based on their exceptional cyber intelligence, military capabilities and ability to enhance law enforcement’s expansion of spying on Americans.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has requested the authority to criminally prosecute those who lie on Facebook and other social media as a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. According to Richard Downing, the DoJ deputy computer crime chief, the law must provide for “prosecutions based upon a violation of terms of service or similar contractual agreement with an employer or provider.”

A felony can be committed by the user of a social media site by exceeding the authorized access; meaning any infraction of the website’s term of service. Put in other words , “If a person assumes a fictitious identity at a party, there is no federal crime. Yet if they assume that same identity on a social network that prohibits pseudonyms, there may again be a CFAA violation. This is a gross misuse of the law.”

The NSA has transformed itself into the largest and most comprehensive intelligence agency with the expressed purpose of collecting data on American citizens. Emails, cell phone calls, text messages, Google searches, parking receipts, and all other forms of information are collected and stored for future use. Social media sites like Facebook readily give over information to federal agencies that conduct such surveillance.

And like we have seen with the case of US Marine veteran Brandon Raub, it can be used against you.

Federal Government Acts Against Trojan; Some Users May Lose Internet Access Monday

Πηγή: CRN
By Ken Presti
July 6 2012

Efforts to eliminate a high-profile Trojan may cause some Internet users to lose connectivity on Monday. And, getting systems back up and running may be far more difficult than the preventative measures themselves.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will be shutting down servers used by operators leveraging the DNSChanger Trojan, and when that happens, people with infected systems will lose access to the Internet, according to Dave Marcus, director of advanced researcher and threat intelligence at McAfee Labs.

“A DNSChanger Trojan literally changes the infected computer's DNS settings,” explained Marcus. “When a user opens up a browser and enters a web address, good DNS settings will take you to the proper website. But if you've got malicious DNS settings, the criminal can point you to whatever server they want. So it can be used in a lot of nasty and malicious ways. The FBI has taken control of a lot of these malicious servers, and on July 9th, they are going to shut down all of these servers. That means if you open up your browser and you are infected with this malware, you won't be able to get to the Internet because it won't be able to resolve your DNS to the correct addresses or anything else.”

That translates to users not only losing web and email access but also connectivity to resources that will restore their services without on-premise support.

And, it’s likely that a number of large organizations could be adversely affected.

“This is an important opportunity for channel partners to reach out to their customers and resolve potential problems before they occur,” said Marcus. “It’s also a good idea to update their security software and run a full system scan.”

A number of vendors, including McAfee, are offering free online testing resources.

“Ours is at this website,” said Marcus, referring to McAfee's free online test. “You click the button on the website and it will let you know if your DNS settings are good or bad. If your DNS settings are bad, it will tell you what you need to do in order to resolve the problem. It's a very simple solution.” Marcus added that the test literally ensures that the user’s DNS settings route them to the correct server.

FBI takes Madoff into custody; NY judge to hear guilty plea from brother of financial villain

In this April 3, 2009 file photo, Peter Madoff exits State Supreme Court in Mineola, N.Y. The brother of Ponzi scheme king Bernard Madoff will plead guilty on Friday, June 29, 2012, to conspiracy and falsifying records, admitting his role in the multibillion-dollar fraud that destroyed the savings of thousands of investors, prosecutors told a judge on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

Πηγή: Washington Post
By AP
June 29 2012

NEW YORK — The younger brother of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff — the loyal No. 2 at an investment firm that fronted a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme — pleaded guilty Friday to charges he doctored documents that helped conceal a fraud that wiped out thousands of investors.

Peter Madoff, 66, entered the plea Friday as part of a deal expected to result in a 10-year prison term. He had been taken into custody at his lawyer’s midtown Manhattan office earlier in the morning.

The plea came in the same Manhattan courthouse where Bernard Madoff was led away in handcuffs in 2009 to serve a 150-year sentence.

Peter Madoff told the judge he was “deeply ashamed and terribly sorry” but that he didn’t know about the scam until his brother revealed it in December 2008.

When he learned of the fraud, “I was in shock and my world was destroyed. I lost everything I worked for,” he said.

The government has used the cooperation of six former employees and associates at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to learn what went on inside the secretive business. Close to $20 billion vanished in the scam, the largest Ponzi scheme ever prosecuted in the U.S. The scheme left behind only a few hundred million dollars, not the $65 billion claimed in bogus financial statements.

Peter Madoff revealed in court that he agreed to assist his brother in sending out the only money left to favored people, including friends and family.

“I was shocked and devastated but nevertheless I did as my brother had said, as I had consistently done for decades,” he said. “I knew that the conduct was wrong and I am deeply ashamed.” The checks never went out.

In his guilty plea, Bernard Madoff admitted his investment advisory business was a sham, but insisted that his brother and two sons who also worked for him were in the dark about his misdeeds. The FBI nevertheless had been suspicious from the start about the role of Peter Madoff, who had worked side by side with his scheming brother for more than 40 years.

Peter Madoff sometimes signed many weeks of compliance reports in one sitting, intentionally changing pens and ink colors to make it appear he had signed them at various times, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa A. Baroni told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain. She said he also arranged for his wife to have a no-show job at the company, allowing her to receive salary.

FBI Assistant Director Janice K. Fedarcyk said Peter Madoff played an “essential enabling role” in the scam by certifying fabricated investment results.

“The Madoff investment empire, built on a foundation of deceit, was a house of cards that grew to skyscraper proportions,” she said. “As Peter Madoff has admitted today, he was one of the chief architects.”

Peter Madoff was being released on $5 million bail, secured by $1 million in cash or property, pending his Oct. 4 sentencing. Prosecutor said Peter Madoff has agreed to give up all his assets.

“Peter Madoff enabled the largest fraud in human history. He will now be jailed well into old age, and he will forfeit virtually every penny he has,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. “We are not yet finished calling to account everyone responsible for the epic fraud of Bernard Madoff and the epic pain of his many victims.”

Friends and business associates had described the brothers as very close. Their offices in midtown Manhattan were a few feet apart. Their families vacationed together.

Peter Madoff was credited with creating a computer trading system for the firm in the late 1970s and early 1980s that was considered groundbreaking at the time. He ran the daily trading operation while his brother focused on the more secretive investment advisory arm.

Both brothers made a fortune. Peter Madoff owned a Palm Beach, Fla., vacation house that recently sold for $5.5 million.

When Bernard Madoff was arrested, Peter Madoff broke the news to Madoff Securities employees. And he was a co-signer on a $10 million bond that won his brother’s release. Through attorneys, he denied any wrongdoing.

But the denial didn’t stop federal authorities from moving to freeze Peter Madoff’s assets. He agreed not to dispose of his assets and promised to curtail his personal spending as the investigation moved forward. His living expenses were capped at $10,000 a month.

A trustee appointed to recover stolen assets also came after Peter Madoff, accusing him of financing his high-end lifestyle through the fraud.

A complaint filed in bankruptcy court alleged that the Madoff investment business had transferred more than $77 million to Peter Madoff. It said that between 1993 and 2008, he was paid a total of $36 million in salary and bonuses. And it identified other income for Peter Madoff as memberships to country clubs, including Glen Oaks Club in New York and one of Donald Trump’s country clubs.

Given Peter Madoff’s “level of financial experience and sophistication,” he either knew or should have known that he reaped gains from “fraud and deception,” the trustee alleged.

The trustee also took aim at his daughter Shana, who once worked as an in-house lawyer at the firm and has denied involvement in the scheme.

“Had Peter, as the Chief Compliance Officer, or Shana, as Compliance Counsel, done their jobs properly, the fraud might have been revealed years earlier,” the complaint said. “Either they failed completely to carry out their required supervisory/compliance roles, or they knew about the fraud but covered it up.”

Defense lawyers responded by branding the complaint “a sensationalistic attempt to lump together members of the Madoff family and create liability by association.” Their court papers claimed the scandal has “left Peter Madoff mired in litigation, and has devastated his family emotionally and financially.”

Documents provide rare insight into FBI’s terrorism stings

A wire-wearing FBI informant named Shaheed Hussain was used in a sting operation against four Muslim men charged with trying to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down military planes.

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Peter Finn
April 14 2012

Days before his arrest in Pittsburgh last month, Khalifa Ali al-Akili posted a remarkable message on his Facebook page: A mysterious man who spoke often of jihad had tried to interest Akili in buying a gun, then later introduced him to a second man, whom Akili was assured was “all about the struggle.”

It smelled, Akili wrote on Facebook, like a setup.

“I had a feeling that I had just played out a part in some Hollywood movie where I had just been introduced to the leader of a ‘terrorist’ sleeper cell,” Akili wrote.

When he googled a phone number provided by the second man, it turned out to be to Shahed Hussain, one of the FBI’s most prolific and controversial informants for terrorism cases. Soon the sting was off; Akili was subsequently arrested on gun — not terrorism — charges, which he has denied.

It was a rare miss for Hussain, 55, who has played a wealthy, dapper member of a Pakistani terrorist group in several FBI operations over nearly a decade.

This role has inflamed Muslim and civil rights activists, who describe Hussain as an “agent provocateur,” and prompted harsh comments from the presiding judge in a 2010 case, who questioned his honesty and the aggressiveness of the FBI’s tactics.

“I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition,” said U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon at the sentencing of four men from Newburgh, N.Y., convicted on terrorism charges. She added, “That does not mean there was no crime.”

Hussain declined to speak about his work for the FBI, saying in a brief phone interview, “I can’t say anything for security reasons.” The FBI declined to discuss Hussain or McMahon’s comments.

But the blown Pittsburgh sting and the voluminous court records from the 2010 case have provided rare insight into a tactic used increasingly by the FBI since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which suspects are monitored almost from the beginning of plots and provided with means to help them carry them out. The targets in such stings have included Washington’s Metro subway system, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.

There have been 138 terrorism or national security cases involving informants since 2001, and 51 of those have come over the past three years, according to the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School in New York. The center said the government secured convictions in 91 percent of those cases.

Law enforcement officials say stings are a vital tactic for heading off terrorism. But civil rights activists and others say the FBI has been identifying individuals with radical views who, despite brash talk, might have little ability to launch attacks without the government’s help.

“It almost seems like the government is creating a theatrical event that produces more fear in the community,” said Michael German, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former FBI agent who worked undercover.

Yet in these terrorism stings, every attempted defense that has alleged entrapment by the government has failed, according to Fordham’s Center on National Security. The FBI said that record speaks volumes and rejected any suggestion that it has invented terrorist plots. “They present the idea,” FBI spokesman Kathleen Wright said of the targets of investigations. “It is not us coming up with these ideas.”

Officials said the subjects of these stings are the ones who first generate suspicion — by contacting terrorists overseas, attempting to secure weapons or speaking of a desire to commit violence.

One of the prosecutors in the 2010 case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Halperin, said in court that confidential informants such as Hussain are an “important tool” for the FBI. “Mr. Hussain is Pakistani. He speaks Urdu. He speaks Pashto. He’s Muslim. He can read Arabic,” Halperin said. “All of these things make Mr. Hussain a very valuable asset for the FBI.”

The birth of an asset

In testimony for the 2010 terrorism case, for which Hussain appeared as a witness for the prosecution, he described himself as a member of a politically connected family in Pakistan who fled to the United States with his wife and children after he was falsely accused of murder during a government crackdown against the secular MQM party. He arrived on a fake British passport in 1994, Hussain testified.

In the years since, his relatives in Pakistan have transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to him, allowing him and his family to acquire gas stations, a beverage center and a motel in Upstate New York, according to financial records produced in court. He also testified that former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, during a trip to New York, gave his son $40,000 to buy a new car, but the judge, McMahon, questioned the veracity of the claim.

It was not the only time McMahon expressed doubts about Hussain’s honesty.

“By the end of the trial, the jury knew that Hussain had lied about his finances to at least two courts (the Northern District of New York and the Northern District Bankruptcy Court), lied to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, lied to the Town of Colonie and its school district about his residence, lied to potential customers of his motel, and lied to the IRS about his income at tax time,” wrote McMahon.

In late 2001, Hussain was arrested on federal fraud charges of helping immigrants illegally secure driver’s licenses. Hussain, who had been working as a translator for the Department of Motor Vehicles, faced a possible prison term and deportation to Pakistan. He pleaded guilty and, as part of his agreement with the government, cooperated with the FBI by going undercover to secure evidence against several former associates in the scheme, including his mistress.

Hussain excelled in this new role — a fact grudgingly accepted even by his detractors.

“Both his physical and emotional presence seemed impervious to chastisement, to exposure, to anything — nothing seemed to throw his casual defiance off course,” said Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham’s Center on National Security, who has observed Hussain in court.

The bureau also has sent Hussain to London and Pakistan, where he infiltrated a terrorist training camp, according to court testimony.

In the summer of 2003, Hussain first adopted the persona of the suave, moneyed terrorist at the direction of the FBI. The object of the sting was Yassin Aref, an Iraqi Kurd and the spiritual leader of an Albany mosque.

Aref was convicted of participating in a plot to launder funds from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile. Aref’s attorneys said he simply saw what he thought was a loan between Hussain and the owner of a struggling pizza parlor who was also convicted. Aref and the owner of the pizza parlor were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The informant at work

On another assignment for the FBI, Hussain went to Newburgh’s Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque 12 times before he met James Cromitie, a convert to Islam and a stocker at a Wal-Mart, in June 2008.

In a poor community, Hussain struck an odd figure, driving Hummers and BMWs and wearing designer clothes.

Salahuddin Muhammad, imam of the mosque, said in an interview that some people suspected that Hussain was an FBI informant. He was too eager to engage people in conversation about jihad, Muhammad said.

Cromitie, who attended the mosque infrequently, either didn’t hear of the suspicions of others or didn’t care.

Hussain later told the FBI that Cromitie said: “Look, brother, I might have done a lot of sin, but to die like a shaded (martyr), I will go to paradise . . . I want to do something to America.”

By July, Hussain had told Cromitie he was part of a Pakistani terrorist group. Cromitie, who had multiple drug convictions but no history of violence, said he wanted to join, according to the FBI’s debriefing of the informant.

During a November 2008 trip to Philadelphia with Hussain, which coincided with the terrorist attacks on several locations in Mumbai, India, Cromitie made some of his most incendiary statements.

Cromitie hadn’t heard of the attacks, but Hussain pointed out that one of the targets in Mumbai was a Jewish center, according to transcripts of conversations that were secretly recorded and later played in court.

“I’d like to get a synagogue,” Cromitie said.

The judge later noted in a finding of fact that “whenever Hussain asked Cromitie to act on those sentiments — make a plan, pick a target, find recruits, introduce the [confidential informant] to like-minded brothers, procure guns and conduct surveillance — Cromitie did none of the above.”

McMahon said that at this point Hussain began to add “more worldly inducements” to the “offer of paradise” beginning with a BMW “but only after Cromitie had completed a mission.”

Closing the net

Hussain left for Pakistan on Dec. 18, 2008, and didn’t return to the United States for two months. While he was away, the FBI briefed officials at Stewart International Airport in New York on the investigation but assured them that “Cromitie was unlikely to commit an act without the support of the FBI source.”

Indeed, Cromitie said, “I just dropped everything,” according to the transcript of the conversation. But when Hussain returned, Cromitie’s enthusiasm was rekindled.

McMahon later wrote that “the court believes and specifically finds that it was about this time when Hussain offered Cromitie as much as a quarter million dollars to participate in a mission.”

Such an offer was not authorized by the FBI, the prosecutor told the court. Hussain denied making it, saying the reference to a specific amount of money was not intended to be literal. McMahon, in her sentencing, said she did not believe him.

After a surveillance drive around Stewart Air National Guard Base on Feb. 24, 2009, Cromitie cut off communication with Hussain for six weeks, he later testified. Cromitie pretended to have left town, although he was still in Newburgh.

On April 5, Cromitie called Hussain. “I have to try to make some money, brother,” Cromitie said.

“I told you. I can make you $250,000, but you don’t want it, brother. What can I tell you,” Hussain said.

Cromitie soon was back in.

On May 20, 2009, Hussain, Cromitie and three associates drove south from Newburgh carrying three duffel bags, each stuffed with nearly 40 pounds of explosives and 500 steel ball bearings to maximize casualties at a synagogue and a Jewish community center in the Bronx. After bombing them, the men planned to double back north to Stewart Air National Guard base near Newburgh to launch a stinger missile at parked military planes.

But the FBI had provided the bombs and the missile and had rendered them harmless.

All four Newburgh men were later convicted on terrorism charges in a jury trial and sentenced to 25 years in prison. They have appealed.

On the final drive to the Bronx, Hussain tried to get Cromitie to prime the bombs by following his instructions on which wires to connect, Hussain testified. But Cromitie and the others couldn’t figure it out, and Hussain had to stop the car and do it himself.

When they got to the Bronx, Hussain had to explain how to operate a car key fob so Cromitie could open the first of the pre-parked cars and plant the bomb.

Afterward, Hussain asked him if he had turned the bomb on. “I forgot,” Cromitie replied.

Hussain told him not to worry, it could still be detonated.

Cromitie then set off to plant the other two bombs, but he couldn’t open the trunk of the next car. Hussain told Cromitie by walkie-talkie to just put them in the back seat.

Hussain then signaled for the FBI to move in.

Federal agents arrest man who allegedly planned suicide bombing on U.S. Capitol

The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man Friday after a lengthy investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol.

Πηγή: Washington Post
By William Branigin and Del Quentin Wilber
Feb 17 2012

The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol.

Amine el-Khalifi, 29, was picked up while carrying an inoperable gun and a fake suicide vest provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates, U.S. officials said. They said he entered the United States when he was 16 and was living as an illegal immigrant in Arlington, Va., having reportedly overstayed his visitor’s visa for years.

Khalifi was arrested in a parking garage on Constitution Avenue NW a few blocks from the Capitol following a year-long investigation, officials said.

The first official word of the arrest came in a cryptic news release from the Capitol Police that said an unidentified individual was arrested “in the area of the U.S. Capitol” but that “at no time was the public or congressional community in any danger.”

The statement said the arrest “was the culmination of a lengthy and extensive operation during which the individual was closely and carefully monitored.”

The statement provided no other details, but a U.S. official said a Moroccan man was picked up near the Labor Department on his way to the Capitol for what he thought would be a suicide attack. He was carrying with him a vest that he believed was packed with explosives but that actually contained harmless material, officials said.

The man thought he was being assisted by members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, but they were really undercover FBI agents, officials said.

“We can confirm that there has been an arrest of a suspect in Washington, D.C., in connection with a terrorism investigation,” said Peter Carr, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride in Virginia, where the investigation is centered.

“The arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation during which the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement,” Carr said in a statement. “Explosives the suspect allegedly sought to use in connection with the plot had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public. Additional information will be forthcoming at the appropriate time.”

The FBI issued a similar statement. An FBI source confirmed that the target was the U.S. Capitol.

The Moroccan man entered the United States with a family member, and at some point, he came to the attention of the FBI, said a law enforcement official.

Undercover FBI agents gave the man inoperable explosives and a gun, and he was followed Friday into the District, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Fox News, which first reported the man’s alleged intention to carry out a suicide mission against the Capitol, said the investigation began after he expressed interest in conducting an attack but that it was unclear how the FBI learned of his aspirations.

Shortly before the alleged mission, the man had been praying at a mosque in the Washington area, Fox News reported.

The Associated Press, quoting a law enforcement official, said Khalifi changed his mind about his intended target several times but ultimately decided on the Capitol. He is not believed to be associated with al-Qaeda, AP said.

In the past year, federal agents have arrested at least 20 people in the United States on terrorism-related charges, the Senate Intelligence Committee has said.

In September, FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates helped arrest a Massachusetts man of Bangladeshi descent, Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, for allegedly plotting to fly explosives-packed model planes into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.

In October 2010, Farooque Ahmed, a Pakistani American from Ashburn, Va., was arrested for an alleged plot to bomb Washington-area Metro stations. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April 2011 to 23 years in prison.

The Capitol was the scene of intense activity Friday, as the House and Senate voted on a $150 billion economic package that extends a payroll tax cut through the rest of the year for 160 million Americans. The measure passed both houses after morning debates.

News of the alleged plot came just as a group of Muslim congressional staffers and others finished their noontime Friday prayers at the U.S. Capitol.

“Clearly the alleged perpetrator... has no regard for Muslim leaders either from our mosque or from the leadership of Muslims in America,” said Johari Abdul-Malik, prayer leader of the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Northern Virginia, after leading the prayers in one of the meeting rooms of the Capitol.

“Whoever this guy was, if he was aiming for the Capitol, he would have gotten all of us,” Abdul-Malik said.

About 50 worshipers attended the prayers, including congressional staffers and workers from the National Archives, Library of Congress, Capitol Police and other surrounding federal offices. Also praying with the group was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, according to Abdul-Malik, who gave the main sermon at the prayers.

Muslim leaders from the region spent the afternoon conferring and trying to learn more about the arrest and the identity of the suspect.

Several expressed fears of backlash against Muslims.

“We don’t know anything yet — who this man was and where he’s from,” said Rizwan Jaka, spokesman for the All Dulles Area Muslim Society. “But people often correlate the individual with whatever mosques he has worshiped in previously. Mosques are open to the public and anyone can come in.”

Jaka added: “We condemn and reject these actions. Usually it’s these lone-wolf situations, and we’re just glad he’s off the street.”

Hackers claim to have intercepted call between FBI, Scotland Yard

A screenshot from a video posted by the Anonymous hacking group to YouTube purporting to be the recording of a conference call between FBI and Scotland Yard.

Πηγή: Fox news
Feb 3 2012

A sensitive conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard was recorded and released online by the hackers in Anonymous, the group claimed Friday.

The group released a roughly 15-minute-long recording of what appears to be a Jan. 17 conference call devoted to tracking and prosecuting members of the loose-knit hacking group and its spinoff group LulzSec. There was no classified information on the call, FBI sources tell Fox News, noting that unsecure phones are not used for sensitive information.

"The information was intended for law enforcement," the source said, and those responsible will be held accountable.

The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified and it's unclear how the hacking group obtained it. Names of some of the suspects being discussed were apparently edited from the recording.

"The information was illegally obtained and a criminal investigation is underway," FBI spokesman Tim Flannelly told FoxNews.com. He did not provide any additional details.

If authentic, the discussion itself appears quite sensitive. Those on the call talk about what legal strategy to pursue in the cases of Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis -- two British suspects linked to Anonymous -- and discuss details of the evidence gathered against other suspects

"We've set back arrests of Kayla and T-flow until we know what's happening," one person notes.

The conversation focuses for a time on hacker who's named is mentioned by obscured in the recording.

"He goes by the moniker "Tehwonhgz." He is the face behind CSL Sec (Can't Stop Laughing Security), which is a Lulzsec corner group ... he's just a pain in the bum ... we have copy of his hard drive here," one of the British voices says.

"Did anyone join on late," one of the voices asks at the end of the call.

Anonymous also published an email purportedly sent by an FBI agent which gave details and a password for accessing the call.

"The FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now," the group gloated in a message posted to Twitter.

Amid the material published by Anonymous was a message purportedly sent by an FBI agent to international law enforcement agencies. It invites his foreign counterparts to join the call to "discuss the on-going investigations related to Anonymous ... and other associated splinter groups." The email contained a phone number and password for accessing the call.

The email is addressed to officials in the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and France, but only American and British officials can be heard on the recording.

Graham Cluley, an expert with data security company Sophos, said that hackers had been able to eavesdrop on the call because they had compromised an investigator's emails.

"No doubt the police authorities will be appalled to realize that the very people that they are trying to apprehend, could have been tuning in to their internal conversations," he wrote in a blog post.

An email to the FBI agent who sent the email was not immediately returned, while one of the British investigators on the call referred questions to Scotland Yard's press office.

Karen Todner, a lawyer for Cleary, said that the recording could be "incredibly sensitive" and warned that such data breaches had the potential to derail the police's work.

"If they haven't secured their email it could potentially prejudice the investigation," she told The Associated Press.

Anonymous was believed to have also hacked into a website run by the Boston Police Department Friday morning. BPDNews.com, a public safety resource and community outreach site, was offline as technicians worked to get it up and running again.

“It is unfortunate that someone would go to this extent to compromise BPDNews.com,” Elaine Driscoll, director of communications for the Boston Police, said in a written statement. Driscoll declined to comment on whether the hack was the work of Anonymous, citing an ongoing investigation into the matter.

Anonymous is an amorphous collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies such as Visa and MasterCard.

Following a spate of arrests across the world, the group and its various offshoots have focused their attention on law enforcement in general and the FBI in particular.

FBI Director Denies Cover-Up Involving 'Fast and Furious' Guns Found at Border Agent's Murder

Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry, 40, seen here, was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, near Rio Rico, Ariz

Πηγή: Foxnews
By Mike Levine

Dec 14 2011

The head of the FBI is strongly denying claims his agency tried to cover up evidence related to "Operation Fast and Furious" and the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

"Let me start with adamantly rejecting the suggestion that the FBI would in any way cover up what happened in the tragic killing of Brian Terry," FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate panel Wednesday. "To the contrary, every available necessary resource has been put on that and similar investigations where we lose one of our own."

It's the latest in a broader back-and-forth over tactics used by investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to target gun-runners in Arizona. Launched in late 2009, "Fast and Furious" was said to be designed to follow gun purchasers in hopes that suspects would lead them to the heads of Mexican cartels.

But high-powered weapons tied to the investigation ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including at Terry's murder in December 2010.

Two months ago, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, appeared on a Sunday morning news show and noted that a now-public FBI ballistics report labeled two guns tied to "Fast and Furious" as "K2" and "K3," but "there's no 'Ticket 1.'"

Issa wondered if that meant there was a third weapon found at the scene, adding that the FBI "has a history in some cases of working with felons and criminals and hiding their other crimes in order to keep an investigation going."

In response, the Justice Department disclosed that "K1" -- shorthand for "known item 1" -- was not listed on the FBI ballistics reports because it is a blood sample from Terry, not a firearm. Still, two weeks later, Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Mueller asking whether the FBI believes a third weapon killed Terry and what steps the FBI is taking to locate any other weapons associated with the attack.

On Wednesday, Mueller weighed in for the first time on the latest inquiry. He said he was "familiar with the suggestion that there was a third gun at the scene ... but the fact of the matter is there were only two weapons found at the scene."

Speaking to Grassley's committee, Mueller promised the FBI "will bring to justice those persons who are in any way involved in the killing of Officer Brian Terry," noting that there has already been one arrest in the case and the investigation continues.

In the wake of the investigation, dozens of Republicans have called for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation, many of them criticizing Holder for failing to know about the operation as head of the Justice Department. Grassley has suggested Holder had ample opportunity to learn about it.

In recent Senate hearings and media interviews, Grassley noted that in January -- the month after Terry was killed -- he handed Holder two letters mentioning "numerous allegations" from whistleblowers "that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers" and "two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight … killing CBP Agent Brian Terry."

The letters, addressed to then-ATF head Ken Melson, did not cite "Fast and Furious" by name.

In addition, Grassley has cited several memos addressed to Holder in July and August 2010 that do mention the gunrunning investigation by name but no information about the operation's tactics.

Holder has said his office typically receives more than 100 pages of "so-called 'weekly reports' that, while addressed to me, actually are provided to and reviewed by" his staff and the deputy attorney general's staff. He said he does not "and cannot read them cover-to-cover."

In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he "absolutely" agreed with Holder's assertion, and believes his claims are valid.

"There are multiple issues, multiple memos flowing up to the Office of the Attorney General every day. Sometimes you actually don't get to see them," Gonzales said. "And the fact that a memo is addressed to the attorney general doesn't mean that he actually saw it."

Gonzales, who served under George W. Bush, said it could be "like any other" government agency "where the top official just simply is unaware of" some operations, "not because he is out to lunch but simply because there are so many competing interests."

During recent hearings on Capitol Hill, Holder and Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly cited investigations in 2006 and 2007, including "Operation Wide Reciver," that lost track of hundreds of guns as a result of alleged "gun-walking."

Gonzales, who resigned as attorney general in mid-2007 after enduring his own political scandal over the firing of several U.S. attorneys, said he doesn't remember much about "Wide Receiver" or similar operations from his time leading the Justice Department.

"I'm very much aware of the fact that President Bush asked us to look to see what we could do -- what measures could be taken -- working with the Mexican authorities to stop the flow of guns from the United States illegally into Mexico," Gonzales said. But, he said, "I don't remember the specifics of this operation that people are alluding to."

As for whether Holder ends up resigning, Gonzales said he believes the current attorney general will stay until the end of President Obama's first term, even though he is likely "tired of this scrutiny" and "tired of these attacks."

"I think he knew, as I did, that you step into these jobs and it's hard," Gonzales said. "The attorney general is always involved in the most difficult, the most controversial issues, and that's just the way it is. And ... if you can't stand the scrutiny and if you are afraid of making a mistake, then you shouldn't be doing this job."

As for Mueller's remarks Wednesday, it's unclear if his latest comments will put to rest questions over how many guns were recovered at the scene of Terry's murder.

An ATF "briefing paper" about the murder, obtained by Fox News and sent to top Justice Department officials in Washington two days after the incident, said that "during the search of the area two ... AK-47 rifles, serial numbers 1983AH3977 and 1971CZ3775 were recovered near the scene of the shooting."

But emails in the hours after the incident show at least some ATF officials wondered whether a third gun had been recovered.

In one email, deputy ATF-Phoenix director George Gillett asks if two AK-47 rifles cited were "in addition to the gun already recovered this morning." It's unclear whether anyone responded to him.

Since then, some sources have accused the FBI of covering up evidence to protect an informant working inside a major Mexican cartel. That informant, sources have alleged, helped pay for the weapons used in the attack that killed Terry.

In addition, in recently disclosed recordings, a lead ATF investigator can be heard telling a Phoenix-area gun-dealer that an "SKS assault rifle out of Texas" had been found at the Terry murder scene.

In September, a spokeswoman for Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News it was "pretty clear" the ATF agent was talking about the Terry murder. Still, weapons involved in another case not tied to "Fast and Furious" -- the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico -- were traced to Texas.

UC Davis Chancellor Katehi’s past: Police repression in Greece, FBI spying in the US

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi (C) leaves an "Occupy UCD" rally on campus in Davis, California November 21, 2011. More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied on Monday at the University of California at Davis to protest the pepper-praying of student protesters by police, a clash captured in video footage circulated widely on television and the Internet.

Πηγή: WSWS
By Jack Hood 

Nov 28 2011

The pepper spraying of peaceful student protesters at the University of California, Davis has become a focal point for national outrage over the police repression of demonstrations against social inequality.

The police action was ordered by UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who was acting on behalf of the UC Regents and the Democratic Party-controlled political establishment in California, which is determined to enforce a new round of drastic tuition increases on students. Katehi has spent the past week and a half defending herself against demands for her resignation, while making half-hearted attempts to distance herself from the police violence.

However, Katehi’s claims of innocence in the matter are belied by her past. She has played a major role in developing repressive measures against students protesting austerity measures and is a prime example of the growing nexus between corporate CEOs, academic administrators and the police-intelligence apparatus.

Katehi’s has been involved with police crackdowns in her home country of Greece, is one of 20 administrators involved in a national FBI network aimed at monitoring “anti-U.S.” activities on college campuses, and has overseen an administration-run campus infiltration program.

At a rally of students last Monday, Katehi made a backhanded reference to the suppression of Greek students during an uprising against the military junta in 1973. “There is a plaque out there that speaks about 17 of November in 1973, and I was there. And I don’t want to forget that, so I hope I will have a better opportunity to work with you, to meet you, to get to know you,” Katehi announced.

Aside from its hypocrisy, this reference contains an implicit threat. Katehi, as part of a team of bankers, speculators, and administrators, has worked to bring police back onto Greek university campuses after a nearly 30-year ban on such activity.

Campuses in Greece became an important focus of opposition to the Greek junta in 1973. Throughout the year, students gathered at Athens Polytechnic under the banner of “Bread, Education, Freedom” to protest the forced conscription of any students deemed to be “subversive.” In February of that year, students began a campus occupation. In November, they launched a general strike, which was met with military force on the 17th of the month.

The ultra right-wing dictatorship, with the help of fascist armed thugs, massacred 24 students as they successfully ended the occupation. Several of those killed were run over by tanks.

The brutality contributed to mass opposition that eventually led to the dictatorship’s downfall the following year. In 1982, the Greek parliament passed the Academic Asylum Law, which required police to request permission from a prosecutor before entering a campus.

Recently, however, Chancellor Katehi served on a team of representatives from the European Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund, along with educators and administrators from across the world, to call for an end to these restrictions.

The team, called the “International Committee On Higher Education in Greece,” issued a report earlier this year, which Katehi co-signed, that called for an increase in police presence on campus under the guise of ensuring a “safe” environment.

“University campuses are unsafe,” the report claims. “While the [Greek] Constitution permits the university leadership to protect campuses from elements inciting political instability, Rectors have shown themselves unwilling to exercise these rights and fulfill their responsibilities, and to take the decisions needed in order to guarantee the safety of the faculty, staff, and students. As a result, the university administration and teaching staff have not proven themselves good stewards of the facilities with which society has entrusted them.

“The politicizing of universities – and in particular, of students – represents participation in the political process that exceeds the bounds of logic. This contributes to the rapid deterioration of tertiary education [emphasis added].”

According to the panel, then, peaceful student protesters like the ones who were pepper-sprayed at UC Davis “exceed the bounds of logic” and are helping to bring about the “rapid deterioration” of higher education.

The language used by the committee is strikingly similar to that used by the UC Davis administration to justify the deployment of police against students. On the morning of the police violence, the administration sent a letter to students warning that police action was necessary so that students “could learn and work in a safe, secure environment without disruption.”

In August, Greece’s PASOK government, headed by George Papandreou, approved the repeal of the Academic Asylum Law. Until his resignation on November 11, Papandreou oversaw the imposition of austerity measures dictated by the International Monetary Fund and the European banks, including further attacks on public education.

On November 17, 2011, the 38th anniversary of the massacre at Athens Polytechnic, the new Greek government authorized police entry at a university in Thessaloniki. This was the first time since 1982 that police have been allowed on a university campus.
FBI involvement

In the United States, Chancellor Katehi has participated in a national network of college presidents that works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to “promote discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI.”

The network is called the “National Security Higher Education Advisory Board,” and it is responsible for disseminating information regarding any activity by students and faculty that may be considered subversive.

The FBI has confirmed Katehi’s active involvement in the program. “Because of the nature of the material they discuss,” explains UC Davis administrator Andy Fell in a story from the campus faculty newspaper, Dateline, “board members must hold ‘secret’ security clearances.”

In light of this evidence of collusion with the FBI, the true meaning of Katehi’s claim that she wants to “get to know” students becomes clear.

Katehi herself boasted upon her appointment, telling the California Aggie, the UC Davis newspaper, in October 2010: “My participation allows me to visit with like-minded chancellors and presidents of major research institutions, to explore and share best practices that ensure our researchers and our research remain safe and unimpeded.”

That the real target of such activities is the politicization of students is made clear by Katehi’s involvement with the “Student Activism Response Team”—a group of 33 administrators from a variety of student service centers whose responsibility it is to infiltrate peaceful student demonstrations and disseminate information to the UC Davis Police Department. The team, active since at least 2009, is still in existence today.

The results of a Freedom of Information Act filing released last year documents the actions of the infiltration team. One email from an administrator released through the FOIA request, titled “Student Activism Response Protocol” and dated August 18, 2010, explains that administrators were given the responsibility to “receive information from all Student Affairs staff regarding any anticipated student actions, not just those of registered student organizations,” “inform police and request standby support if appropriate” and “notify and maintain communication with news service.”

Katehi’s sordid past and present actions exemplify a political establishment, comprised of both the Democrats and Republicans, that is thoroughly hostile to the interests of students, and ruthlessly determined to enforce the dictates of the corporate and financial elite in the face of growing mass opposition.

FBI working with NSA, CIA on cyber threats

Πηγή: FT
Nov 18 2011

The FBI must work more closely with the major US intelligence agencies in order to combat threats in cyberspace, its director said on Thursday, likening the government response to that against terrorism.

Director Robert Mueller said in a speech to San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club that the FBI had begun coordinating cases through task forces that included representatives of the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, among others.

When a company is first attacked, he said, neither it nor enforcement can tell whether it was part of another government’s espionage effort–which would be handled by the US spy agencies–or the work of an organised crime group in Eastern Europe, or a breach by an American high school student.

“We have had to adjust our organising structure” to share information and hand off cases, Mr Mueller said. Likewise, the overall fight is dependent on intelligence gathered domestically under greater legal restrictions and abroad, where the NSA and CIA garner much more.

Mr Mueller repeated his previous calls for law enforcement to have easier access to internet communications over social networks that may be encrypted and not stored. Google and other big technology companies, on the other hand, have joined with civil liberties advocates in asking that warrants be required for digitally stored emails and other content.

Hacking is now the FBI’s third priority, after terrorism and espionage, and he said the agency needs intelligence to learn about impending crimes rather than just responding afterward.

Because the targets and techniques change so rapidly, Mr Mueller said, “It is going to be a huge challenge in the years to come.”

Supreme Court worries that new technology creates ‘1984’ scenarios

Πηγή: Washington Post
By by Robert Barnes

Nov 9 2011

The government is free to attach a GPS device to the car of any American and record that person’s public movements for a month or more without a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing, a government lawyer told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Even the nine justices.

“You could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month. No problem under the Constitution?” asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

It is allowed under the court’s own precedents, replied Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben, and is no different than if the FBI “put its team of surveillance agents around the clock on any individual and follow that individual’s movements as they went around on the public streets.”

But to many of the justices, something did seem different. In an intense hour-long exchange in which the Big Brother of George Orwell’s novel “1984” was referenced six times, the justices wondered how the dizzying pace of technology has changed a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

The justices pondered a world in which satellites can zero in on an individual’s house, cameras record the faces at a crowded intersection and individuals instantly announce their every movement to the world on Facebook. They wondered about the government placing tracking devices in overcoats or on license plates.

“How do we deal with this?” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked. “Do we just say, ‘Well, nothing is changed,’ so that all the information that people expose to the public is fair game?”

The court is trying to apply the Constitution’s centuries-old protection against unreasonable searches and seizures at a time when devices such as a GPS can essentially do police officers’ work for them.

The court, Dreeben said, has already settled the greater question: “What a person seeks to preserve as private in the enclave of his own home or in a private letter or inside of his vehicle when he is traveling is a subject of Fourth Amendment protection.”

He added: “But what he reveals to the world, such as his movements in a car on a public roadway, is not.”

In 1983, the court ruled in United States v. Knotts that police were within their power to track a car traveling from one state to another with a beeper device they had placed in a can of chemicals used for drug production. “A person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another,” it said.

The case at hand, Dreeben said, is directly analogous. It involves a suspected D.C. drug kingpin named Antoine Jones, who was convicted in part because of evidence gathered from the use of a GPS device placed on his car that tracked his movements on public roads for 28 days.

His conviction was overturned when a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the use of the GPS and extended period of surveillance required a warrant (investigators had obtained a warrant for Jones, but it expired before they attached the device to his car).

Other appellate courts have held that GPS surveillance does not require a warrant.

The justices displayed varying degrees of alarm about the government’s theory. “If you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer said.

Dreeben said the court should hold those concerns for a case in which there was an abuse. “This case does not involve universal surveillance of every member of this court or every member of the society,” he said. “It involves limited surveillance of somebody who was suspected of drug activity.”

He estimated that the number of times federal investigators have used GPS tracking is in the “low thousands.”

But the justices also appeared conflicted about where to draw a constitutional line.

Stephen C. Leckar, representing Jones, said police should be required to persuade a judge to issue a warrant for each use of a GPS device. But the justices wondered how that squared with their previous rulings that no warrant is needed when the person being targeted was being monitored in public places.

“If there is no invasion of privacy for one day, there is no invasion of privacy for 100 days,” Justice Antonin Scalia said.

Alito said Leckar had not shown that using a GPS device was any different from traditional police surveillance.

Dreeben agreed when he made his rebuttal. “The fact that GPS makes it more efficient for the police to put a tail on somebody invades no additional expectation of privacy that they otherwise would have had,” he said.

He told the court that the government’s “fallback” position would be that police need “reasonable suspicion” before using GPS surveillance, a lower legal standard than would be needed to obtain a warrant. But such decisions, he said, would be made by police.

The case is United States v. Jones .

New FBI Report Says Gangs Using Rap Groups To Launder Money, Recruit Members

Πηγή: allhiphop
By Grandmaster Grouchy Greg

Oct 29 2011

The FBI has released its 2011 report on gangs and gang activity in the United States and according to the government, rap music is being used to recruit new members.

The report, which was released earlier this week, details the activity of gang members around the country, the growth of gangs in the United States, their preferred method of crime, and how they are recruiting new members.

According to the FBI, rap music is integral to the process of recruiting new gang members.

“Gangster rap gangs, often comprised of juveniles, are forming and are being used to launder drug money through seemingly legitimate businesses,” according to the report.

The report claims that gang members often host legitimate events that serve a double purpose: to launder money and recruit new members.

“Juvenile gang members in some communities are hosting parties and organizing special events which develop into opportunities for recruiting, drugs, sexual exploitation, and criminal activities,” the report says.

The report doesn’t stop there.

According to the FBI, the Insane Clown Posse’s fan base known as “Juggalos,” has officially been branded a “hybrid gang.”

“Open source reporting suggest that a small number of Juggalos are forming more organized subsets and engaging in more gang-like criminal activity, such as felony assaults, thefts, robberies, and drug sales social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo sub-culture to communicate and expand.”

According to the report, gangs are also using Facebook, Twitter and other websites across the Internet, to recruit new members.

“Gangs are becoming increasingly savvy and are embracing new and advanced technology to facilitate criminal activity and enhance their criminal operations Prepaid cell phones, social networking and microblogging websites, VoiP systems, virtual worlds, and gaming systems enable gang members to communicate globally and discreetly,” the report reads. “Gangs are also increasingly employing advanced countermeasures to monitor and target law enforcement while engaging in a host of criminal activity are becoming increasingly savvy and are embracing new and advanced technology to facilitate criminal activity and enhance their criminal operations. Prepaid cell phones, social networking and microblog- ging websites, VoiP systems, virtual worlds, and gaming systems enable gang members to communicate globally and discreetly.”

The report said gang members are also using countermeasures to monitor and target law enforcement.

Check out the report here.

Michele Bachmann: 'Obama Is Allowing Terror Suspect Groups To Write The FBI's Terror Training Manual'

Republican Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann speaks to a gathering of conservative Christians at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum on October 22, 2011 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Πηγή: Huffington Post
BY THOMAS BEAUMONT and EILEEN SULLIVAN

Oct 28 2011

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Friday the Obama administration is striking all references to Islam from Justice Department training manuals, exaggerating a directive from federal officials to evaluate procedures for religious and cultural sensitivity.

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, equated the effort to strike offensive references to Islam from material to removing suspicion of Islamic terrorism from department policy.

A conservative popular with tea party activists and evangelical conservatives, she later linked President Barack Obama with "4,400 American lives" lost in Iraq. However, the death toll in the 8-year-old war that began under President George W. Bush had already reached 4,229 when Obama was inaugurated in 2009. It now stands at no fewer than 4,481.

As she campaigned in Iowa, now the focus of her effort to win the Republican nomination, Bachmann accused the administration of making changes in training manuals under pressure from pro-Islam groups with terrorist links.

"And now Obama is allowing terror suspect groups to write the FBI's terror training manual," she told about 75 Republican activists in an eastern Iowa hotel conference room.

The FBI has not removed Islam from training material, said an FBI official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.

The FBI has been conducting a comprehensive review of its training materials after it was revealed that what officials termed an inaccurate description of Islam, one that linked the religion to terrorism, was being used in some of the bureau's training programs. Last month, FBI officials said the agency was undertaking the review in light of an analyst's criticism of Islam during a lecture last spring.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole said last week he had asked that all aspects of the department be broadly re-evaluated for "sensitivity for all peoples of faith" in its training efforts.

"Examples include the efforts of our law enforcement components to ensure that their interactions with the community – whether in responding to an attack on a mosque or arresting a suspect in a counter-terrorism investigation – convey a sense of basic respect to the rule of law and the rights of all who have made this nation their home," Cole said.


In her remarks Friday, Bachmann broadly painted the effort as trying to remove the link between Islam and anti-American terrorism sponsored by radical Islamic extremists.

"And so now the White House has scrubbed all Islamic terms from the national counterterrorism strategy. The White House has removed all Islamic terms from the Pentagon's report on the Fort Hood shooting. And now, Obama is allowing terror suspect groups to write the FBI's terror training manual," she said.

The White House declined to respond to Bachmann's criticism.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Bachmann said Obama's foreign policies were worse than his economic ones and linked Obama to the war's overall death toll as well as its cost.

"Under Barack Obama's watch, we've expended $805 billion to liberate the people of Iraq and, more importantly, 4,400 American lives," she said.

Bachmann is on the first leg of a three-day campaign trip to the leadoff caucus state.

FBI going to court more often to get personal Internet-usage data

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Ellen Nakashima

Oct 26 2011

Investigators once routinely used administrative subpoenas, called national security letters, seeking information about who sent and received e-mail and what Web sites individuals visited. The letters can be issued by FBI field offices on their own authority, and they obligate the recipients to keep the requests secret.

But more recently, many service providers receiving national security letters have limited the information they give to customers’ names, addresses, length of service and phone billing records.

“Beginning in late 2009, certain electronic communications service providers no longer honored” more expansive requests, FBI officials wrote in August, in response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This marked a shift from comments made last year by Obama administration officials, who asserted then that most service providers were disclosing sufficient information when presented with national security letters.

Investigators seeking more expansive information over the past two years have turned to court orders called business record requests. In the first three months of this year, more than 80 percent of all business record requests were for Internet records that would previously have been obtained through national security letters, the FBI said. The FBI made more than four times as many business records requests in 2010 than in 2009: 96 compared with 21, according to Justice Department reports.

In response to concerns expressed by administration officials, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) has introduced a measure that would establish that the FBI can use national security letters to obtain “dialing, routing, addressing and signaling information.” It would not include the content of an e-mail or other communications, the administration has said.

The administration, which last year contemplated legislation to expand the authority of national security letters, has not taken a formal position on the Leahy measure, officials said. But the FBI has told Congress that the number of business record orders will continue to grow unless a legal change gives the agency more routine access to customer data.

Civil liberties groups said Leahy’s measure, included in a bill to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, would expand the government’s authority to obtain substantial data about the private communications of individuals without court oversight.

“Our view is data like e-mail ‘to-from’ information is so sensitive that it ought to be available only with a court order,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Privacy advocates said they support requiring the FBI to use court orders to seek the data. “This is an example of how the system should work,” said American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Michelle Richardson.

Business record requests are also known as Section 215 orders, after a provision in the Patriot Act, the law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The provision allows the government to obtain “any tangible thing” if officials can show reasonable grounds that it would be relevant to an authorized terrorism or espionage investigation.

The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Wednesday plan to separately sue the government to force disclosure of its interpretation of Section 215. The groups are following the lead of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has accused the administration of inappropriately withholding information about the law’s use.

On Oct. 19, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Wyden, saying the government has briefed Congress on the classified uses of Section 215. “We do not believe the Executive Branch is operating pursuant to ‘secret law,’ ” Weich wrote.