Thursday 02-11-16

US intelligence chief: we might use the internet of things to spy on you

James Clapper did not name specific agency as being involved in surveillance via smart-home devices but said in congressional testimony it is a distinct possibility

The US intelligence chief has acknowledged for the first time that agencies might use a new generation of smart household devices to increase their surveillance capabilities.
As increasing numbers of devices connect to the internet and to one another, the so-called internet of things promises consumers increased convenience – the remotely operated thermostat from Google-owned Nest is a leading example. But as home computing migrates away from the laptop, the tablet and the smartphone, experts warn that the security features on the coming wave of automobiles, dishwashers and alarm systems lag far behind.The government just admitted it will use smart home devices for spying  Many consumers are wholly unaware that the smart devices making their home more custom and responsive are making data that can be hacked or collected                        In an appearance at a Washington thinktank last month, the director of the National Security Agency, Adm Michael Rogers, said that it was time to consider making the home devices “more defensible”, but did not address the opportunities that increased numbers and even categories of connected devices provide to his surveillance agency.   However, James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, was more direct in testimony submitted to the Senate on Tuesday as part of an assessment of threats facing the United States.  “In the future, intelligence services might use the [internet of things] for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials,” Clapper said.   Clapper did not specifically name any intelligence agency as involved in household-device surveillance. But security experts examining the internet of things take as a given that the US and other surveillance services will intercept the signals the newly networked devices emit, much as they do with those from cellphones. Amateurs are already interested in easily compromised hardware; computer programmer John Matherly’s search engine Shodan indexes thousands of completely unsecured web-connected devices.  Online threats again topped the intelligence chief’s list of “worldwide threats” the US faces, with the mutating threat of low-intensity terrorism quickly following. While Clapper has for years used the equivocal term “evolving” when asked about the scope of the threat, he said Tuesday that Sunni violent extremism “has more groups, members, and safe havens than at any other point in history”.
The Islamic State topped the threat index, but Clapper also warned that the US-backed Saudi war in Yemen was redounding to the benefit of al-Qaida’s local affiliate. Domestically, “homegrown extremists” are the greatest terrorist threat, rather than Islamic State or al-Qaida attacks planned from overseas. Clapper cited the San Bernardino and Chattanooga shootings as examples of lethal operations emanating from self-starting extremists “without direct guidance from [Isis] leadership”.   US intelligence officials did not foresee Isis suffering significant setbacks in 2016 despite a war in Syria and Iraq that the Pentagon has pledged to escalate. The chief of defense intelligence, Marine Lt Gen Vincent Stewart, said the jihadist army would “probably retain Sunni Arab urban centers” in 2016, even as military leaders pledged to wrest the key cities of Raqqa and Mosul from it.    Contradicting the US defense secretary, Ashton Carter, Stewart said he was “less optimistic in the near term about Mosul”, saying the US and Iraqi government would “certainly not” retake it in 2016.   The negative outlook comes as Carter traveled on Tuesday to meet with his fellow defense chiefs in Brussels for a discussion on increasing their contributions against Isis. On the Iran nuclear deal, Clapper said intelligence agencies were in a “distrust and verify mode”, but added: “We have no evidence thus far that they’re moving toward violation.”  Clapper’s admission about the surveillance potential for networked home devices is rare for a US official. But in an overlooked 2012 speech, the then CIA director David Petraeus called the surveillance implications of the internet of things “transformational … particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft”.
During testimony to both the Senate armed services committee and the intelligence panel, Clapper cited Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State as bolstering their online espionage, disinformation, theft, propaganda and data-destruction capabilities. He warned that the US’s ability to correctly attribute the culprits of those actions would probably diminish with “improving offensive tradecraft, the use of proxies, and the creation of cover organizations”.   Clapper suggested that US adversaries had overtaken its online capabilities: “Russia and China continue to have the most sophisticated cyber programs.”   The White House’s new cybersecurity initiative, unveiled on Tuesday, pledged increased security for nontraditional networked home devices. It tasked the Department of Homeland Security to “test and certify networked devices within the ‘Internet of Things’.” It did not discuss any tension between the US’s twin cybersecurity and surveillance priorities.   Connected household devices are a potential treasure trove to intelligence agencies seeking unobtrusive ways to listen and watch a target, according to a study that Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society released last week. The study found that the signals explosion represented by the internet of things would overwhelm any privacy benefits by users of commercial encryption – even as Clapper in his testimony again alleged that the growth of encryption was having a “negative effect on intelligence gathering”.  The report’s authors cited a 2001 case in which the FBI had sought to compel a company that makes emergency communications hardware for automobiles – similar by description to OnStar, though the company was not named – to assist agents in Nevada in listening in on conversations in a client’s car.   In February 2015, news reports revealed that microphones on Samsung “smart” televisions were “always on” so as to receive any audio that it could interpret as an instruction. “Law enforcement or intelligence agencies may start to seek orders compelling Samsung, Google, Mattel, Nest or vendors of other networked devices to push an update or flip a digital switch to intercept the ambient communications of a target,” the authors wrote.                                                           http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/09/internet-of-things-smart-home-devices-government-surveillance-james-clapper

U.S. eyes ways to toughen fight against domestic extremists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is considering legal changes to combat what it sees as a rising threat from domestic anti-government extremists, senior officials told Reuters, even as it steps up efforts to stop Islamic State-inspired attacks at home.

Extremist groups motivated by a range of U.S.-born philosophies present a "clear and present danger," John Carlin, the Justice Department's chief of national security, told Reuters in an interview. “Based on recent reports and the cases we are seeing, it seems like we’re in a heightened environment.”

Over the past year, the Justice Department has brought charges against domestic extremist suspects accused of attempting to bomb U.S. military bases, kill police officers and fire bomb a school and other buildings in a predominantly Muslim town in New York state.

But federal prosecutors tackling domestic extremists still lack an important legal tool they have used extensively in dozens of prosecutions against Islamic State-inspired suspects: a law that prohibits supporting designated terrorist groups.

Carlin and other Justice Department officials declined to say if they would ask Congress for a comparable domestic extremist statute, or comment on what other changes they might pursue to toughen the fight against anti-government extremists.

The U.S. State Department designates international terrorist organizations to which it is illegal to provide "material support." No domestic groups have that designation, helping to create a disparity in charges faced by international extremist suspects compared to domestic ones.

A Reuters analysis of more than 100 federal cases found that domestic terrorism suspects collectively have faced less severe charges than those accused of acting on behalf of Islamic State since prosecutors began targeting that group in early 2014.

(Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/1IbZGHR)

Over the past two years, 27 defendants have been charged with plotting or inciting attacks within the United States in the name of Islamic State. They have faced charges that carried a median prison sentence of 53 years - half of the defendants faced more, and half faced less.

In the same period, 27 adherents of U.S.-based anti-government ideologies have been charged with similar activity. They faced charges that carried a median prison sentence of 20 years.

Carlin said his counter-terrorism team, including a recently hired counsel, is taking a “thoughtful look at the nature and scope of the domestic terrorism threat” and helping to analyze “potential legal improvements and enhancements to better combat those threats.”

The counsel, who was appointed last October and has not been named publicly, will identify cases being prosecuted at the state level that “could arguably meet the federal definition of domestic terrorism," a Justice Department official said.

That would give the department a direct role in more domestic extremism cases.

Recognizing that domestic threats were “rapidly evolving, and had the potential to grow,” the department in March 2015 rated disrupting such terrorists as a key component of its broader counter-terrorism efforts, officials said.

 

THE THREAT PENDULUM

The Justice Department aggressively pursued domestic extremists after Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

The government shifted its focus to international terrorism after al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.

But in recent years anti-government activists, like those who occupied a wildlife preserve in eastern Oregon last month, have regained prominence.

As law enforcement experts confront domestic militia groups, "sovereign citizens" who do not recognize government authority, and other anti-government extremists, they also face a heightened threat from Islamic extremists like the couple who carried out the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, California.

"A new development we're seeing is that when it comes to ISIL investigations, the flash-to-bang time from radicalization to action appears to be happening faster than with other types of terrorists," said Michael Steinbach, the head of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.

As a result, government agents are quick to investigate people who appear sympathetic toward Islamic State, current and former officials say. But some say the government has been overzealous in its pursuit of Islamic State suspects.

Similar actions by extremist suspects have yielded sharply disparate sentences.

Eight Islamic State-related defendants have been sentenced so far, to prison terms that range from three to 20 years, the Reuters review found. Over the same period, 18 domestic extremists have been sentenced to terms from one day to 12 years.

Prosecutors say Harlem Suarez, 23, of Key West, Florida, tried to buy a bomb last year from an undercover FBI agent as he plotted attacks on behalf of Islamic State. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison and has pleaded not guilty.

Michael Sibley, 67, left two unexploded pipe bombs and a Koran in a park in Roswell, Georgia in 2014 in what he later told police was an attempt to highlight the danger of Islamic terrorism. He pleaded guilty and faces a maximum of five years in prison.

"A different standard is being applied to Muslims than to other people," said Daryl Johnson, a former counterterrorism expert at the Department of Homeland Security who now works as a law enforcement consultant.

 

"SPRING-LOADED"

Steinbach said that the FBI can never open up any type of investigation “just on the basis of race, creed, or religion,”

But he added that federal agents are "spring-loaded" to open investigations into Americans who support groups on the State Department list of designated terrorist organizations.

The maximum penalty for supporting one of these groups has been raised from 10 years to 20 years in prison since 2001.

It has been applied in 58 of the government's 79 Islamic State cases since 2014 against defendants who engaged in a wide range of activity, from traveling to Syria to fight alongside Islamic State to raising money for a friend who wished to do so.

Judges usually issue sentences below the maximum, but some charges trigger sentencing "enhancements" that raise the baseline sentence a judge can issue – and the material support charge raises it more than most.

Domestic groups enjoy greater constitutional protections because being a member of those groups, no matter how extreme their rhetoric, is not a crime.

Prosecutors can bring “material support” terrorism charges against defendants who aren't linked to groups on the State Department's list, but they have only done so twice against non-jihadist suspects since the law was enacted in 1994. The law, which prohibits supporting people who have been deemed to be terrorists by their actions, carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Current and former federal prosecutors say they rarely consider that statute in domestic terrorism cases because it is often hard to convince a jury that someone who is not affiliated with a foreign group can be guilty of terrorism.

William Wilmoth, a former federal prosecutor who invoked that law in a 1996 case against a West Virginia militia member, said he was surprised to hear that it isn't used more often.

"These guys have every right to have off-center political views," he said. "But when they made affirmative steps to blow up an actual federal facility... we thought it was an important place for us to go and prosecute."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-eyes-ways-toughen-fight-against-domestic-extremists-060402478.html

Friday 10-19-12

Does not really matter which one it is, it is a real problem and needs to get fixed.  It is not just a s simple as throwing money at it to make it go away.  The credit is always (unless they are trying shift the blame) given to person in power at the time.

Welfare spending jumps 32% during Obama’s presidency
Federal welfare spending has grown by 32 percent over the past four years, fattened by President Obama’s stimulus spending and swelled by a growing number of Americans whose recession-depleted incomes now qualify them for public assistance, according to numbers released Thursday.
Federal spending on more than 80 low-income assistance programs reached $746 billion in 2011, and state spending on those programs brought the total to $1.03 trillion, according to figures from the Congressional Research Service and the Senate Budget Committee.
That makes welfare the single biggest chunk of federal spending — topping Social Security and basic defense spending.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee who requested the Congressional Research Service report, said the numbers underscore a fundamental shift in welfare, which he said has moved from being a Band-Aid and toward a more permanent crutch.
“No longer should we measure compassion by how much money the government spends but by how many people we help to rise out of poverty,” the Alabama conservative said. “Welfare assistance should be seen as temporary whenever possible, and the goal must be to help more of our fellow citizens attain gainful employment and financial independence.”

Welfare spending as measured by obligations stood at $563 billion in fiscal year 2008, but reached $746 billion in fiscal year 2011, a jump of 32 percent.

Complex story
The numbers tell a complex story of American taxpayers’ generosity in supporting a varied social safety net, including food stamps, support for low-income AIDS patients, child care payments and direct cash going from taxpayers to the poor.
By far, the biggest item on the list is Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, which at $296 billion in federal spending made up 40 percent of all low-income assistance in 2011. That total was up $82 billion from 2008.
Beyond that, the next big program is food stamps at $75 billion in 2011, or 10 percent of welfare spending. It’s nearly twice the size it was in 2008 and accounts for a staggering 20 percent of the total welfare spending increase over those four years.
Several programs to funnel cash to the poor also ranked high. Led by the earned income tax credit, supplemental security income and the additional child tax credit, direct cash aid accounts for about a fifth of all welfare.
Mr. Sessions’ staff on the Senate Budget Committee calculated that states contributed another $283 billion to low-income assistance — chiefly through Medicaid.
Richard Kogan, senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that while the dollar amounts for low-income assistance are growing, they still represent about the same slice of the budget pie when viewed over the long run. He said the costs may have spiked during the recession, but are projected to drop back to more normal levels once the economy recovers.
“In short, whatever one thinks about the merits or costs of these programs, other than Medicaid, they are contributing nothing to long-run budgetary pressures,” he said.
As for Medicaid, where major spending increases have been made, Mr. Kogan said even there it may be a savings.
“Medicaid provides health care at a noticeably cheaper price than Medicare does, and both are cheaper than the cost of private-sector health insurance,” he said. “The problem is not that the programs are badly designed — it is that the entire health care system in the U.S. is much more expensive than in any other advanced country.”
Combined with several programs also directed at health care, the category made up 46 percent of total welfare spending in 2011.
Mr. Kogan said the cash assistance figure was “a shockingly small amount of money” in the scheme of things.
“Virtually all the rest is in the form of in-kind assistance: Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, housing vouchers, Pell Grants, LIHEAP and child care vouchers; or in the form of direct services, such as community health centers, Title 1 education, foster care, school lunch and Head Start,” he said.
Rather than straight transfers, those other programs provide support for services Congress has deemed worthy of funding. SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that used to be called food stamps; LIHEAP is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; WIC is the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program; and Pell Grants provide assistance for college costs.
The conservative Heritage Foundation said roughly 100 million Americans get benefits from at least one low-income assistance program each month, with the average benefit coming to around $9,000.
The think tank estimates that if welfare spending were transferred as straight cash instead, it would be five times more than needed to lift every American family above the poverty line — though many of the programs help those above the poverty line.
Mr. Sessions’ Budget Committee staff said that at current projections, the 10 biggest welfare programs will cost $8.3 trillion over the next decade.
The Congressional Research Service looked at obligations for each program as its measure of spending. It included every program that had eligibility requirements that seemed designed chiefly to benefit those with lower or limited incomes. The report looked at programs that had obligations of at least $100 million in a fiscal year, which meant some small-dollar welfare assistance wasn’t included.

Political wrangle
The report was released as President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney fight over the size and scope of government assistance.
Mr. Obama has taken heat from Republicans for a new policy that Republicans argue would remove work requirements from the 1996 welfare reform. The administration said it is merely adding more flexibility for states, which still would have to prove the law is meeting its jobs goals.
Mr. Romney was damaged last month by caught-on-camera remarks in which he said 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government and see themselves as victims.
In Tuesday’s debate, Mr. Romney blasted Mr. Obama for overseeing a 50 percent increase in the number of people on food stamps, which has risen from 32 million to 47 million.
But the two men also share some agreement on safety-net programs. In the debate, Mr. Romney said he wants to increase the Pell Grant program to help low-income students pay for college.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/18/welfare-spending-jumps-32-percent-four-years/

This is additional info to the ablove post, to help put some prosective on it.

Report: Welfare government’s single largest budget item in FY 2011 at approx. $1.03 trillion

The government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone — a price tag that makes welfare that year the government’s largest expenditure, according to new data released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.
The total sum taxpayers spent on federal welfare programs was derived from a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on federal welfare spending — which topped out at $745.84 billion for fiscal year 2011 — combined with an analysis from the Republican Senate Budget Committee staff of state spending on federal welfare programs (based on “The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance”), which reached $282.7 billion in fiscal year 2011.

...
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/18/report-welfare-governments-single-largest-budget-item-in-fy-2011-at-approx-1-03-trillion/

Our fifth columnist is back in the news, maybe our President will have the courage to call him a terrorist now, why has this man not been tried and executed by now?  How many witnesses?

Accused Ft. Hood shooter should shave beard, appeals court rules


http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-fort-hood-beard-hasan-20121018,0,4304611.story?track=rss

Friday 07-29-11

ATF position on pistol grip 'shotguns' creates new danger

An interpretation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that pistol grip shotguns are not shotguns has created an unforeseen legal liability for owners of such firearms. ATF’s Nov. 2009 FFL Newsletter declared:

Certain commercially produced firearms do not fall within the definition of shotgun under the GCA even though they utilize a shotgun shell for ammunition. For example, firearms that come equipped with a pistol grip in place of the buttstock are not shotguns as defined by the GCA.

Here’s another wrinkle, from Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars:

An October 27, 2010, letter from the Firearms Technology Branch ruled that such a firearm, with a 17" barrel and 26-1/4" overall length, was not subject to the National Firearms Act.

You can click here to read the letter.

That would seem to indicate there’s no issue with violating National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) requirements, right? No worries if you own one, or want to buy one…?

Not so fast. If the pistol grip firearms are not “shotguns,” what are they?

The NFA Owners Association points us to the only “legal” definition seemingly available with which to classify these firearms (click on link for “National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, as amended” to open up the text):

[T]aken at face value, a "pistol grip firearm" with a bore diameter larger than 1/2" in diameter is a "Destructive Device" under the NFA, unless the Attorney General determines that it is "a shotgun . . . generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes." By determining that a "pistol grip firearm" is not a shotgun, it is difficult to understand how current law would not classify such as firearm as a Destructive Device."

A “Destructive Device”?

"Any weapon by whatever name known which will, or which may be readily converted to, expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, the barrel or barrels of which have a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter, except a shotgun or shotgun shell which the Secretary finds is generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes." Source: 26 U.S.C, Section 5845(f).

Which means registration on the NFRTR would be required. But there’s no way to do that retroactively, is there?

Per Vanderboegh:

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/atf-position-on-pistol-grip-shotguns-creates-new-danger

AWOL soldier condemned '09 Fort Hood shootings

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) - As Pfc. Naser Abdo beseeched officials to grant him conscientious objector status and release him from the military, he condemned a fellow Muslim soldier accused of shooting 13 people to death at Fort Hood. Such acts, he wrote, "run counter to what I believe in as a Muslim."

Less than a year later, officials say Abdo has admitted planning to launch another attack on Fort Hood with a bomb in a backpack and weapons stashed in a motel room where he was arrested Wednesday, about 3 miles from the Texas Army base's main gate.

The 21-year-old's writings, including the essay obtained by The Associated Press in which he deplored the 2009 shootings, portray a devout infantry soldier struggling with his faith while facing the prospect of deployment and what he felt was the scorn of his peers.

"Overall, as a Muslim I feel that I will not be able to carry out my military duties due to my conscientious objection," Abdo wrote in his application for the status. "Therefore, unless I separate myself from the military, I would potentially be putting the soldiers I work with in jeopardy.

"In this instance, I would be failing in my duty to my unit, my army and my god."

Abdo was approved as a conscientious objector this year, but his discharge was put on hold amid military charges that 34 images of child pornography were found on a computer he used. He went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., during the July 4 weekend.

On July 3, Abdo tried to buy a gun at a store near the Kentucky post, according to the company that owns the store. Abdo told an AP reporter a week later that he was concerned about his safety and had considered purchasing a gun for protection, but had not yet done so.

Police in Killeen said their break in the case came Tuesday from Guns Galore LLC _ the same gun store where Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the 2009 attack. Store clerk Greg Ebert said Abdo arrived by taxi and bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol.

Ebert said he called authorities because he and his co-workers "felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn't know what the hell he was buying."

"We would probably be here today, giving you a different briefing, had he not been stopped," said Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin, who called the plan "a terror plot."

According to an Army alert sent via email and obtained by the AP, Killeen police learned from the taxi company that Abdo had been picked up from a local motel and also had visited an Army surplus store where he paid cash for a uniform bearing Fort Hood unit patches.

Agents found firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder," in Abdo's motel room, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said. The FBI planned to charge Abdo with possessing bomb-making materials.

An Oklahoma lawyer who has represented Abdo said Thursday he hadn't heard him in weeks. "I've been quite anxious to get in touch with him," said attorney James Branum.

The Army alert said Abdo "was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack," and upon questioning admitted planning an attack on Fort Hood.

The military's criminal investigation division, along with the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, had previously investigated Abdo after he was flagged for making unspecified anti-American comments while taking a language class, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said neither the military nor the task force discovered anything at the time to indicate Abdo was planning an attack, the official said.

As the first anniversary of the 2009 Fort Hood rampage approached, Abdo sent to the AP the essay describing how he became a "different Muslim" after going through basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and enduring religious harassment.

"Often times, during basic training the trainees would insult Islam and insult Muslims," he wrote. As a result, Abdo said he grew reclusive and stopped socializing.

Abdo grew up in Garland, a Dallas suburb about 170 miles from Fort Hood. In his essay, he said his mother is Christian and his father is Muslim, and that he decided to follow Islam when he was 17

"Little did I know that when I first became a Muslim that I was going to learn what Islam meant to me and what I was willing to sacrifice for it," he wrote.

Abdo said life was better after he arrived at his first duty station, but that he studied Islam more closely as he neared deployment to learn "whether going to war was the right thing to do Islamically."

"I began to understand and believe that only God can give legitimacy to war and not humankind," he wrote. "That's when I realized my conscience would not allow me to deploy."

His application was filed in June 2010. Abdo wrote that if it was granted, he looked forward to "rejoining the Muslim community in Dallas and spending some time on `The path of Allah." He said he would devote days or weeks travelling to other states and sleeping in mosques to "revive the faith of the Muslim nation."

The Army's Conscientious Objector Review board denied his request, but the deputy assistant secretary of the Army Review Boards Agency recommended this year he be separated from the Army as a conscientious objector. The discharge was delayed when he was charged with possession of child pornography on May 13.

Fort Campbell civilian spokesman Bob Jenkins said Abdo had been aware of the child pornography investigation since November.

Abdo attempted to purchase a gun July 3 from Quantico Tactical, a store near Fort Campbell in Oak Grove, Ky., said David Hensley, president of the seven-store chain.

Hensley said Abdo went into the store twice that day. The first time, after asking questions, he left. The second time, he attempted to buy a handgun, Hensley said.

"He exhibited behavior that alerted our staff and our staff refused to, based upon that behavior, sell him a firearm," he said.

The AP was among the media outlets to interview Abdo in the past year when reporting on his request for objector status. On July 12, Abdo contacted an AP reporter with whom he had spoken previously, said he had gone AWOL and considered purchasing a gun for personal protection. Abdo said he had not yet done so, because he knew he would have to give his name and other information to the gun dealer.

The AP described the contents of this conversation on July 14 to a civilian Army spokesman. The next day, when contacted by Army investigators, the AP said it did not know Abdo's location and provided the telephone number from which he made his original call.

http://wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2474043

Ark. soldier shooter sent FBI letter

A man who pleaded guilty to shooting two soldiers outside a military recruiting station in Arkansas said he also shot at the home of a rabbi in Little Rock days earlier, according to a letter he wrote to the FBI.

In the letter obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request, Abdulhakim Muhammad said he fired 10 rounds at the home of Rabbi Eugene Levy days before he fatally shot Pvt. William Andrew Long and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula in June 2009.

A judge sentenced Muhammad to life in prison without parole this week after prosecutors accepted his plea agreement during his capital murder trial for killing Long and hurting Ezeagwula.

In the letter, dated November 24, 2009, Muhammad said he targeted Levy's house after researching Jewish leaders in Little Rock, Nashville, Tenn., and his hometown of Memphis, where he was born by the name Carlos Bledsoe. He changed his name after converting to Islam in college.

"Figured the FBI wasn't watching me anymore," he wrote. "I started my Plans to Attack, recruitment centers, Jewish organizations, across America..." He said he bought rifles, a pistol, ammunition and materials to make Molotov cocktails.

Then, shortly after midnight May 30, Muhammad said he shot at Levy's house from his truck using a .22-caliber rifle.

"The spent rounds were found during search," he wrote.

Levy's wife, Bobbye Levy, said FBI agents visited their home sometime in June after Muhammad was arrested. But she said she didn't hear any gunshots or find any damage to the house.

"We never knew anything about it until the FBI showed up," she said.

She wasn't sure whether the agents found any remnants of a shooting outside. FBI spokesman Steve Frazier declined to comment.

Levy said and her husband, who's a rabbi at Temple B'nai Israel in Little Rock, have never received any threatening letters or phone calls.

Muhammad said he then drove to Memphis and later Nashville to the homes of two other rabbis. In Nashville, he said he drove to a Jewish community center, "but found there were too many children around so I aborted that."

So, the self-professed jihadist said he kept driving until he came to a recruitment center in Florence, Ky., but found it was closed.

He decided to go back to Little Rock to revise his plan, and said he drove overnight to Nashville. About 2 a.m. on June 1, Muhammad said he decided to firebomb another rabbi's house. He said he lobbed a Molotov cocktail at the home, but the fire blew out mid-air.

"Another attempt gone sour," he wrote.

He made it to Little Rock that morning and spotted two uniformed soldiers outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He said he considered firing at them from afar, but decided to get closer so he wouldn't miss.

He fired an assault rifle at Long and Ezeagwula, who were smoking cigarettes outside. They had recently completed basic training and decided to volunteer as recruiters. Neither had seen combat.

Muhammad rolled down the window and fired an assault rifle. Ezeagwula, then 18, watched his friend fall to the ground as the bullets hit them. In the parking lot, Long's mother, Janet Long, heard the gunshots.

In his letter to the FBI, Muhammad confessed to his actions, taking full responsibility and professing ties to al-Qaida. He told The Associated Press that the shootings were justified because of U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

"I ask to be punish by lethal injection and to be shown no respite," he wrote to the FBI.

http://wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2341907

Saturday 03-05-11

Did Muslim Lobby Force Firing of Popular Radio Host?

The growing controversy over Grandy’s departure has resulted in some Grandy supporters charging the station with being “Sharia-compliant,” Washington, D.C. radio station WMAL is once again being accused of firing a popular talk show host because of his criticism of radical Muslims. The station, a major source of news and information for the nation’s capital, claims that popular morning host Fred Grandy resigned on his own, but Grandy tells AIM that he was essentially forced to leave after his wife, who is also outspoken about radical Islam, was cut from the program.

The growing controversy over Grandy’s departure has resulted in some Grandy supporters charging the station with being “Sharia-compliant,” a reference to Islamic law, and with bending under pressure from the Council on American Islamic-Relations (CAIR), a Muslim lobbying organization that combats what it calls “Islamophobia” in the media.

Grandy, a former actor and Republican member of Congress, told AIM, “My wife and I have used our program over the last several months to warn about the spread of radical Islam at home and abroad. Last week, Catherine (known on the show as Mrs. Fred) delivered a very tough indictment against stealth jihad, and for her efforts she was told she was off the show. I then told management without Mrs. Fred at the microphone, I could not remain either and have resigned effective this morning.”

A WMAL statement, which makes no mention of terminating “Mrs. Fred,” was released on Thursday and claimed that “Fred Grandy has informed WMAL of his intention to resign from the station and its morning program, The Grandy Group. Veteran broadcast talent Bryan Nehman will continue to anchor the morning program and in the interim will be joined by several notable guest hosts and regular contributors. The station’s morning show will also continue to provide the latest news, traffic and weather reports to its audience. WMAL remains committed to its goal of providing a forum for discussing a broad spectrum of issues while delivering compelling programming including Chris Plante, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin.”

The statement on the Grandy matter was read on the air by another WMAL host, Chris Plante, who said that his broadcast opposition to radical Islam has not been curtailed in any way.

Grandy told AIM, “We cannot affirmatively conclude CAIR or any of the prominent Islamic organizations had anything to do with this. We do know, however, in 2005 representatives of CAIR in DC were successful in getting midmorning host Michael Graham fired for anti-Islamic statements he had made on the radio and TV.”

Graham was fired from WMAL after describing Islam as a “terrorist organization” on his program and refusing to apologize or modify the description.

James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force, who insists that Grandy was “forced to walk away” from his program after the banning of his wife from the show, blames the controversy on CAIR. “CAIR frequently criticized Grandy for reading FBI reports and court documents on his radio show which labeled CAIR as ‘an unindicted co-conspirator’ in the federal Holy Land Foundation terror finance trial,” Lafferty said.

But CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper acted surprised by the news of Grandy’s resignation and responded, “What is their evidence for that claim?,” when informed that his group was being blamed for his departure.

Lafferty told AIM, “I heard from two very good sources that CAIR was involved in this and not only targeting Grandy but Sean Hannity.” He said CAIR’s strategy was to knock Grandy off the air and then go after Hannity, a nationally syndicated radio host carried by WMAL in the afternoon. Hannity also hosts a Fox News Channel TV show.

Lafferty has urged supporters of the Grandys to protest on Monday, March 7, and Tuesday, March 8, during “Call Out WMAL Days.” He wants the public to call WMAL at (202) 895-2350 and (202) 686-3100 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each of those days and tell the station, “you will not listen to their station until Fred and Mrs. Fred Grandy return.”

“America expects radio stations to be committed to free speech and the truth,” he says. “We expect WMAL to grow a backbone and stand up to CAIR and the other radicals. Call early and often.”

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 9, Lafferty wants supporters of the Grandys to meet at WMAL’s studios (4400 Jenifer St., NW, Washington, DC 20015) with signs “to demonstrate our support for Fred Grandy and his wife and their courageous stand against radical Islam.”

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/did-muslim-lobby-force-firing-of-popular-radio-host/

The melting pot analogy does not work anymore, they don't come to assimilate, they come to conquer.

NJ terror suspects plead guilty
http://wtop.com/?sid=2292982&nid=

Attacker's gun jammed in Germany, sparing airman
http://wtop.com/?sid=2291347&nid=209

No bail for Mass. suspect in plot to kill US pols
http://wtop.com/?sid=2279028&nid=

Va. man who tried to join terrorists gets 25 years
http://wtop.com/?sid=2283636&nid=

Monday 11-01-10

fCongress has finally milked the Social Security Cow Dry

Over the last 30 years Social Security taxes have produced more revenue than was needed to pay benefits. In other words, there has been a surplus in the Social Security trust fund for the last 30 years.

What have the pompous peacocks in Congress done with this surplus? Well, anyone with the financial acumen above that of a six year old would have put the surplus aside to pay future benefits.

But OUR Congress doesn't have the collective brain of a six year old, no, it has the intelligence of a two year old. OUR Congress has spent every dime of the surplus.

So NOW that we are, starting this year, looking at deficits as far as the eye can see OUR Congress will turn their self-righteous gaze on us again and piously tell us we need to pony up more money because otherwise old people will die in the streets. How long will we tolerate this incompetence and corruption?

http://taxingtennessee.blogspot.com/2010/10/congress-has-finally-milked-social.html

FBI asks how subway bomb defendant was radicalized
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents who ensnared a suburban father in a terrorism sting involving a fictional subway bomb plot have turned their attention to figuring out what may have made the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen turn against his adopted country.

Law-enforcement officials said they believe Farooque Ahmed was radicalized in the United States, becoming the latest in a string of U.S. citizens radicalized here, and charged with plotting terrorist attacks.

FBI agents were tipped off to Mr. Ahmed in January, when a source inside the Muslim community said the 34-year-old telecommunications worker was asking around, trying to join a terrorist group and kill Americans overseas, the officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI has tried hard to build relationships inside the Muslim community. The White House has made combating homegrown terrorism part of its national security strategy.

"We need to build this trust factor within the community," acting FBI Assistant Director John Perren said Friday. "The fight against terrorism is a multi-dimensional approach and we want to have the community help us."

At a hearing Friday that lasted less than two minutes, Mr. Ahmed's attorney said he would not contest pretrial detention. Mr. Ahmed, who wore a green prison jumpsuit and a full beard, said nothing.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Mr. Ahmed arrived in the U.S. in 1993 and became a citizen in 2002, officials said. He worshipped at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, which is known for its mainstream Islamic congregation. Mr. Ahmed has not been back to Pakistan since 2005 and has no ties to terrorist groups there, officials said.

Mr. Perren said Mr. Ahmed is part of a growing trend of would-be terrorists who don't receive formal training abroad and operate without direction from al Qaeda leaders overseas. On Thursday, the FBI and Homeland Security Department issued a law-enforcement bulletin saying they remained concerned about homegrown terrorists.

"They know the geography. They're astute to Western culture," Mr. Perren said.

Like many would-be terrorists and sympathizers, Mr. Ahmed was potentially influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Muslim cleric who preached in northern Virginia until 2002 and now lives in hiding in Yemen, officials said. But while Mr. Ahmed listened to al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, officials said the two were not in contact and they're not sure how influential those sermons were.

In April, Mr. Ahmed thought he had found what he wanted: a pair of al Qaeda operatives who would help him carry out a bomb attack on the nation's second-busiest subway system, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. But the operatives were really undercover investigators, the officials said. And the meetings at local hotels were all staged with the FBI's cameras rolling.

What followed was an elaborate ruse in which Mr. Ahmed was given intelligence-gathering duties and coded information in a Koran as part of the supposed plot to kill commuters. Mr. Perren said the lengthy sting was necessary for the FBI to determine whether Mr. Ahmed was serious about wanting to kill Americans.

"We wanted to assess his intent and his capability," he said, adding that by the end of the sting it was clear, "he was willing and able and wanted to help."

The FBI searched Mr. Ahmed's house on Wednesday, pulling out guns and ammunition, officials said.

Farooque Ahmed was a married father with a good job with a telecommunications company. He was also, authorities say, eager to fight Americans in Afghanistan and committed to becoming a martyr.

Mr. Ahmed was arrested Wednesday, just weeks before, the FBI says, he planned to make the annual religious pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Ahmed faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Prosecutors say he videotaped four northern Virginia subway stations, suggested using rolling suitcases instead of backpacks to pack the explosives and said he wanted to donate $10,000 to help the overseas fight.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/29/fbi-asks-how-subway-bomb-defendant-was-radicalized/

Court allows use of fake Social Security Number
The Colorado Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a man who admitted using someone else's Social Security number to obtain a loan, concluding that the defendant wasn't really trying to assume a false identity.

The opinion was written by Michael Bender, who was joined by Mary Mullarkey, Gregory Hobbs and Alex Martinez. A strongly worded dissent by Nathan Coats was joined by Nancy Rice and Allison Eid.

The case involved Felix Montes-Rodriguez, who was convicted of criminal impersonation for using another person's Social Security number on a loan application at an automobile dealership.
The Colorado Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a man who admitted using someone else's Social Security number to obtain a loan, concluding that the defendant wasn't really trying to assume a false identity.

The opinion was written by Michael Bender, who was joined by Mary Mullarkey, Gregory Hobbs and Alex Martinez. A strongly worded dissent by Nathan Coats was joined by Nancy Rice and Allison Eid.

The case involved Felix Montes-Rodriguez, who was convicted of criminal impersonation for using another person's Social Security number on a loan application at an automobile dealership.

The ID Theft Center warns on its website, "A dishonest person who has your Social Security number can use it to get other personal information about you. Identity thieves can use your number and your good credit to apply for more credit in your name. Then, they use the credit cards and do not pay the bills. You may not find out that someone is using your number until you are turned down for credit or you begin to get calls from unknown creditors demanding payment for items you never bought."

Center Executiver Director Jay Foley said the court was overlooking the fact that there may be a multitude of people with the same name. The Social Security number is supposed to be the distinguishing characteristic.

"By supply either a fraudulent Social Security number or somebody else's, I am, in fact, identifying myself as somebody other than who I am," he said.

He said it was alarming that such a result would be coming from a state Supreme Court.

The Social Security Administration suggests that while it cannot fix problems from thieves using stolen Social Security numbers, consumers must pay attention to the possible problems.

"An identity thief might also use your Social Security number to file a tax return in order to receive a refund. If the thief files the tax return before you do, the IRS will believe you already filed and received your refund if eligible. If your Social Security number is stolen, another individual may use it to get a job. That person's employer would report income earned to the IRS using your Social Security number, making it appear that you did not report all of your income on your tax return."

Bankrate.com suggests, "The more people who see it, the more susceptible you are to identity theft, where you are victimized by someone fraudulently using your name and credit report to steal money."

In the Colorado case, the court's slim majority concluded that criminal impersonation is "when one assumes a false identity or a false capacity with the intent to unlawfully gain a benefit."

While Montes-Rodriguez "admitted to using the false Social Security number … he argued that he did not assume a false identity or capacity under the statute because he applied for the loan using his proper name, birth date, address and other identifying information."


L-R, Front: Gregory J.Hobbs, Jr., Mary Mullarkey, Alex J. Martinez. Back: Nathan B. Coats, Michael L. Bender, Nancy E. Rice, Allison Eid

A jury had convicted him and a lower appeals court affirmed the result.

But Bender explained the facts of the case: Montes-Rodriguez used another person's Social Security number because the car dealership required a number to check credit-worthiness before approving a loan. The court did not explain why Montes-Rodriguez did not use his own number, or whether he even had one.

But the opinion notes the defendant "impliedly asserted his power or fitness to obtain the loan, and his ability to work legally in this country, and thereby repay it."

"Although Montes-Rodriguez may have lacked the practical capacity to obtain a loan through Hajek Chevrolet because they could not check his credit without a Social Security number, he did not lack the legal capacity to obtain a loan," Bender wrote.

He ordered a judgment of acquittal entered.

Coats, Rice and Eid, however, noted that the majority was "slicing, dicing, parsing, distinguishing, and generally over-analyzing one short and relatively self-explanatory phrase."

"The defendant's deliberate misrepresentation of the single most unique and important piece of identifying data for credit-transaction purposes [is] precisely the kind of conduct meant to be proscribed as criminal," the dissent said.

"By claiming another person's Social Security number in a credit transaction, as the defendant did in this case, a person necessarily identifies himself as the person with the credit history associated with that number," the opinion said.

"Where the nature of the transaction is such that a false Social Security number is not merely incidental but is rather the single piece of identifying data upon which the fraud in question depends, it cannot be assessed as merely 'one of many pieces of identifying information," warned the dissent.

"For the purposes of the fraudulent transaction at issue, it is clearly the assumption of a false or fictitious identity."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=221161

Saturday 10-30-10

Another Fifth Columnist at work? Who knows, but know it is four military buildings.

Shots fired at Marine Corps Museum

TRIANGLE, Va. - Shots were fired at the Marine Corps Museum in Triangle -- the fourth time someone has fired at military-related buildings in the last few weeks.
No one has been hurt in the shootings, and the FBI urged the unknown gunman to surrender before someone is hurt.

"We appreciate that he is struggling right now," FBI spokeswoman Katherine Schweit said Friday. "This guy hasn't hurt anybody. We don't think he wants to. We're hoping that he'll turn himself in."

The FBI's evidence team and the Prince William County Police are on the scene investigating.

Police are on their hands and knees searching for evidence on the grounds of the museum. Police also are searching for evidence off northbound Interstate 95.

The FBI will hold a news conference at 11:30 a.m. at its field office in D.C.

Prince William County Police spokeswoman First Sgt. Kim Chinn says multiple shots were fired sometime after the museum closed Thursday night.

The FBI says it was called to the scene early Friday.

The museum is closed, but First Lt. Brian Villard with the Marine Corps base at Quantico tells WTOP they hope to reopen the museum as soon as possible.

"That's our goal, as soon as investigators are through with the scene the museum will reopen," Villard says.

Villard would not comment on any changes to security except to say, "the security of our staff and visitors is our first priority."

A Pentagon spokesman says security has not been changed at the Pentagon. There are no changes to military protocol for the U.S. Army Military District of Washington. Individual facilities are allowed to ramp up security if they believe it is necessary.

Authorities have connected all four shootings. Two of them occurred at the museum, one at the Pentagon and one at a Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly, Va. The same gun was used in the first three shootings.

Investigators haven't determined a motive or identified a suspect.

Security for the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday will be beefed up and the course has changed.

Police presence across the region is expected to be more visible, in light of the recent shootings and huge rallies this weekend in the District.

"We are aware of events that have occurred in the D.C. Metropolitan area. We take all threats seriously and we continue to remain vigilant. However, the Metropolitan Police Department will not discuss certain aspects of operational preparedness for security reasons," said Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier.

While they did not comment directly on Friday's report of shots fired, Rep. Gerry Connolly and his challenger in the 11th Congressional District Keith Fimian both agreed Americans needs to remain vigilant against recurrent attacks on U.S. soil.

"We don't know whether it's a foreign threat or whether it's a domestic threat. It could be a crazed gunman who has decided to target our military," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., on The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin on WTOP.

"Many people want to see us done in," said Fimian, who was also on the show. "We have to be ever vigilant."

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2098485

Friday 10-29-10

Police buying Taser Cams for stun gun accountability
When West Melbourne, Fla., police officer Ken Wells subdued Zak Anthony King with a Taser earlier this month, the takedown of the naked 18-year-old jogger was recorded on a camera mounted to the officer's weapon.
The grainy black-and-white video captured in raw detail how the officer used the Taser. The department released it to the news media to show the shooting was justified. The video made its way to YouTube, where more than 90,000 had viewed various postings of it as of Wednesday.

"The officer used the proper tools, and the video backed it up," said Cmdr. Steve Wilkinson, internal affairs investigator for the West Melbourne Police Department.

More than 2,400 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have bought 45,000 of the $400 video camera attachments that Taser International started selling in 2006, says Steve Tuttle, spokesman for the Scottsdale, Ariz., company. Sales have been brisk in the past six months, he says, as agencies look to provide accountability for the department, he said.

The Taser Cam is activated as soon as the officer unholsters the Taser and turns off the safety, Tuttle says. There is no way to deactivate the camera without disabling the gun, he says.

"Video is going to help the officer," Tuttle said. "And if you don't record it, the kid down the street with a cellphone is going to use it."

440 deaths claimed

Tasers are used by law enforcement as an alternative to deadly force, Tuttle said. The gun releases two darts with wires that attach to the subject's body and deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity, he said.

The use of stun guns has been controversial for years, especially in cases where the subject died after being shocked, says Curt Goering, chief operating officer for Amnesty International.

Goering says there are 440 people he knows of who have died after being shocked with such devices since the human rights organization started accumulating those statistics in 2001. The organization has asked for a moratorium on stun gun use until medical effects can be studied further, he says.

Taser International disputes those numbers.

"Amnesty International continues to promote a number for Taser-related deaths that is not only misleading and inaccurate, but also unsupported by medical or academic science," Tuttle says. Medical examiners have attributed Tasers as a contributing factor in fewer than 50 of those deaths, he said.

"In many of these cases, numerous causes, drug overdoses, pre-existing medical conditions, blunt trauma and other factors have also been listed," Tuttle said.

Despite his opposition to the use of stun guns, Goering says the use of video cameras is a positive development.

"If the recordings are closely monitored and studied and acted on by law enforcement agencies, it could be a tool to ensure accountability in cases of abuse," Goering says.

John Burris, a San Francisco civil rights lawyer who specializes in police misconduct cases, says he has represented clients where the use of a Taser or other stun gun was not captured on camera, and believes a video recording of those events would have resolved any uncertainty.

Taser loaned the cameras to police departments in major cities including Houston and Las Vegas in 2006 and 2007 to test them, Tuttle says.

The Las Vegas Metro Police Department bought 1,061 cameras in 2008 with a federal grant so that every patrol officer had one on, says Officer Marcus Martin, departmental spokesman and a Master Taser Instructor.

The videos have backed up contentious situations many times, Martin says. In one case, a suspect on PCP was stunned with a Taser several times before police subdued him.

"Without the video, the officer would be in trouble because of the long usage, which can be perceived as a misuse of force," Martin says. "The officer was clearly exonerated because you could see the altercation."

Nearly 13,000 of the agencies that have Tasers have not yet bought the cameras, Tuttle says. That number includes the Houston Police Department, which is one of the largest purchasers of the stun guns. Houston was one of the first departments to try the cameras, says Kirk Munden, executive assistant chief for field operations. After two trial runs, the department took a pass.

"The primary reason we didn't buy them was the expense," Munden says. It would have cost $2 million to equip all 4,000 officers with the cameras, he says.

Video can cut both ways

Though a Taser Cam in Las Vegas helped prove an officer's innocence, the cameras have also had the opposite result. An officer in Eugene, Ore., responded to a trespassing call and used his Taser on a college student in the student's apartment, says Lt. Doug Mozan, Eugene's daytime watch commander. Police Chief Pete Kerns said the action was justified because the officer believed he was in danger and that the student could have had a weapon, Mozan said. But a review of the video showed no weapon, and the Civilian Review Board ruled the officer misused it, according to minutes of the February meeting where the case was reviewed.

That review might have had a different outcome had the video camera been rolling sooner, Mozan says, but the camera only activates when the safety switch is off. He also says it was limiting in that the camera only records what the Taser is pointing at.

Still, Mozan says, he supports their use.

"Cameras only add to the quality of evidence and transparency in law enforcement," Mozan says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-10-28-tasercams28_ST_N.htm

Bushmaster recall

http://www.bushmaster.com/pdf/ACR-Web-Notification.pdf


Virginia man allegedly backed fake DC bomb plot

WASHINGTON (AP) - For more than six months, 34-year-old Farooque Ahmed went quietly about his business: casing Washington-area subway stations, sketching diagrams and shooting video, sizing up how best to kill the most people, police say.

Rolling suitcases filled with explosives would be better than backpacks, he allegedly told others, and rush hour would be the best time to strike.

The Pakistani-born Virginian thought he was working for al-Qaida operatives, according to the FBI. In fact, the plot was a ruse: The information went to people working on behalf of the U.S. government, according to a federal law enforcement official.

Ahmed, a naturalized citizen, was arrested Wednesday, the latest alleged example of homegrown terrorism.

His hearing in Alexandria Federal Court will be held Friday at 2 p.m.

"You never know who lives around you," said Margaret Petney, who lives on the same block as Ahmed in Ashburn, Va., outside Washington.

Last week, a Hawaii man was arrested and accused of making false statements to the FBI about his plans to attend terrorist training in Pakistan. In August, a Virginia man was caught trying to leave the country to go fight with an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Somalia. And in May, Faisal Shazhad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, tried to set off a car bomb at a bustling street corner in New York.

The FBI stressed that in the latest case, the public never was in danger. FBI agents were monitoring Ahmed's activities throughout the sting, the agency said.

Nonetheless, U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said it was "chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks."

Chilling, especially, for Washington-area commuters, who live with the memory of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

"As I look around, I think about how vulnerable we are," said 45-year-old McCarthy Council, who lives near the Pentagon City Metro station. "I'm just going to stay off the Metro system for now."

But Mary Brereton, 55, a personal trainer who lives in nearby Alexandria, Va., said she was more worried about the safety record of Metro's subway trains than the potential for a terrorist attack.

"Who was it who said, 'If we live in fear every day, then 9/11 was a success?'" she said. "You just can't."

Ahmed, bearded and wearing glasses, made a brief court appearance Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria. He didn't enter a plea and was ordered held without bond. He said he couldn't afford a lawyer. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

In a nine-page indictment, federal investigators alleged that, starting in April, Ahmed met several times with people he believed were al-Qaida operatives. He told them "he might be ready to travel overseas to conduct jihad in January 2011" after completing a hajj to Saudi Arabia he planned for November of this year, the document states. Date by date, the document lays out Ahmed's alleged activities and meetings in support of the fake bomb plot to be carried out in 2011.

According to the indictment:

_Ahmed took video of four northern Virginia subway stations _ Arlington Cemetery, Courthouse, Pentagon City and Crystal City, which is near the Pentagon _ and monitored security at a hotel in the District of Columbia. In a series of meetings at hotels in northern Virginia, Ahmed provided the videos to someone he believed was part of a terrorist organization and said he wanted to donate $10,000 to help the overseas fight and collect donations in a way "that would not raise red flags."

_In a Sept. 28 meeting in a Herndon, Va., hotel, Ahmed suggested that terror operatives use rolling suitcases instead of backpacks to blow up the subway. During that same meeting, Ahmed said he wanted to kill as many military personnel as possible and suggested an additional attack on a Crystal City subway station.

The indictment alleges he also handed over diagrams of the Arlington subway stations and gave suggestions about where to put explosives on trains to kill the most people in simultaneous attacks.

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was aware of the investigation before Ahmed was arrested. Gibbs also offered assurances that the public was never in danger. There are no indications Ahmed was connected with larger terrorist groups like al-Qaida, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official, who requested anonymity to discuss an intelligence matter.

Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the FBI Washington field office, declined to comment on how authorities learned about Ahmed. The Washington Post quoted an unidentified administration official as saying Ahmed drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials.

The FBI has made several cases with agents working undercover: Last year, authorities arrested a Jordanian national after he tried to detonate what he thought was a bomb outside a Dallas skyscraper. In an unrelated case, authorities in Springfield, Ill., arrested a man after he tried to set off what he thought were explosives in a van outside a federal courthouse. In both cases, decoy devices were provided to the men by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives.

A LinkedIn page that was created for Farooque Ahmed identifies him as a network planning engineer with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the City College of New York in 2003, during the same period that other records showed he had been living in New York. In Reston, Va., Ericsson Federal Inc. issued a statement confirming that Ahmed had done contract work for the company.

A check of legal records for Ahmed found several traffic offenses in Virginia, including speeding.

Law enforcement officials searched the brick town house where Ahmed lives on Wednesday.

Neighbor Petney said Ahmed moved in about a year and a half ago with his wife and young child, and that they wore traditional Muslim clothing.

Ahmed's wife, Sahar, joined the Hip Muslim Moms, a support group for women with children under 5 years old, and brought her young son to play dates with other mothers, said group organizer Esraa Bani. She had moved to the area and was looking for a mothers group when she joined. She was very quiet and kept to herself.

Petney observed that "they didn't seem to be too friendly with anybody."

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2095662

Bad Driver? In Debt? Proposed NYC Law Would Ban You From Owning a Gun
New York City residents who want to own a gun may soon be denied permits if they are litterbugs, if they are bad drivers, or if they have fallen behind on a few bills.

Under proposed revisions to the police department's handgun, rifle and shotgun permit procedures, the NYPD can reject gun license applicants for a number of reasons, including:

If they have been arrested or convicted of almost any "violation," in any state; having a "poor driving history"; having been fired for "circumstances that demonstrate lack of good judgment"; having "failed to pay legally required debts"; being deemed to lack "good moral character"; or if any other information demonstrates "other good cause for the denial of the permit."

Critics say many of the restrictions are vague, have nothing to do with one's fitness to own a gun and are unconstitutional.

Supporters say the new restrictions will make gun purchasing more efficient and don't give the NYPD any more power than it already has.

In District of Columbia v. Heller the Court found that a District of Columbia law banning the possession of handguns in the home was invalid due to the rights conferred by the Second Amendment; in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., the Court applied that right equally to the States," the report says.

As result, Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, introduced a proposal to lower the city's fees for gun permits to ones that more accurately reflect what the city spends to issue them.

"Now the fees are going to be much less and they're going to have a relationship to the amount of administrative costs that are involved, and in that way it will withstand the Constitution and the court challenge that most people expect will be coming down the road," Vallone told FoxNews.com.

The current $340 fee for all pistol licenses would be lowered to $70 for a premises license and $110 for a carry license. Rifle and shotgun permits would drop from $140 to $65. Costs for license renewals would also be significantly reduced.

With the lower fees, the New York Police Department also introduced revisions to the police department's gun permit procedures, which, unlike Vallone's bill, need only approval from the mayor's office, not the City Council.

"Although I do have oversight capability and I can have a hearing on it, I don't have any formal say in it," Vallone said.

Councilmember Dan Halloran says those revisions are intended to give the police more power to deny licenses, which could counter a possible spike in gun ownership triggered by the lower fees.

But Halloran and Vallone say the proposed restrictions give the NYPD so much authority that they violate the Second Amendment.

"The disqualification categories are downright scary. They're completely open to interpretation and they really don't measure anybody's fitness to own a gun," Halloran told FoxNews.com.

He pointed to a restriction stating applicants can be denied if they've "been arrested, indicted or convicted for a crime or violation, except minor traffic violations."

"So now the city can deny a permit for a building code violation, a sanitation ticket for failing to sweep the sidewalk … an array of non-criminal acts," Halloran said.

Another troublesome restriction, Halloran said, is one that allows permit denial if "the applicant has failed to pay legally required debts such as child support, taxes, fines or penalties imposed by governmental authorities."

"So people who are in foreclosure, or have credit card judgments, maybe filed bankruptcy, can now be legally denied," he said.

Applicants can also be denied, under the new restrictions, if they've "been terminated from employment under circumstances that demonstrate lack of good judgment or lack of good moral character."

"It seems to me it's more of an application to be pope than to be a gun owner," Vallone said. "I don't know anyone who would pass this thing. Anyone who has ever tried marijuana or has a bad driving history, lost a job regarding a lack of judgment – those are ridiculous criteria for gun ownership."

But Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, said nothing in the proposal gives police a power they don't already have.

"The revisions will make the application process more efficient and give more clarity to applicants for gun licenses," Post told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, agreed, saying the changes appear to be a "fleshing out" of existing gun restrictions, and not an expansion of them.

"I think it's a good faith attempt by New York City authorities to make sure that their restrictions comply with the Constitution standards that the Supreme Court's adopted over the last two years," he told FoxNews.com.

While some restrictions, like paying legally required debts, may seem irrelevant to critics, Helmke says they are not.

"Child support, taxes, fines and governmental penalties I think are legitimate things. Basically, if someone's not complying with what the government requires of somebody, that's usually a sign that you can't trust them to follow the rules with something like a gun," he said.

As for whether the rule could apply to failure to pay a cable TV bill, as Halloran implied, Helmke said, "I think he's stretching it there."

Halloran said the biggest problem is that the rules are open to that kind of interpretation, and he pointed to the clause that reads that applicants can be denied for failure "to provide information requested by the License Division or required by this chapter" or "other information demonstrates an unwillingness to abide by the law, a lack of candor towards lawful authorities, a lack of concern for the safety of oneself and/or other persons and/or for public safety, and/or other good cause for the denial of the license," as the most obvious example.

"Could this be any more vague and open ended?" he asked. "Ask yourself, would any other constitutional right be subject to such vagaries? Imagine these requirements put to be eligible to vote, to have a lawyer, to be secure in your person or possessions, your right to a jury."

Former federal prosecutor and constitutional law expert Douglas Burns said that while the Heller and McDonald cases allow guns to be regulated closely, New York's proposal has some legal issues.

"If left unchanged, I think there could be some problems in court with it," Burns told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

With a few adjustments, though, the proposal could be made to stand up in court, he said.

"I think like any proposed amendments, it has to be fine-tuned -- you can't leave in "violations other than traffic" because under NYS law a violation is not a criminal offense, so I think that's a problem. Also, as I said, the debt payment and job-firing language has to be fine-tuned; it is too broad.... I think the legislator does raise some valid concerns."

The council is due to vote on the price changes, which are expected to pass, and to advise the police department on the restriction changes Wednesday.

Should the department decide to go forward with the proposed changes, Vallone says he is "seriously considering having an oversight hearing on this topic"

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/23/nyc-proposal-renders-bad-drivers-debtors-unfit-guns/

Friday 10-22-10

This is absolutely great stuff

Founding Fathers' papers to be accessible online

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - History buffs will soon be able to explore the private thoughts and official writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in a public, online clearinghouse of their letters, journals and other documents.

The University of Virginia Press is putting the published papers of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin on a National Archives website that is expected to be accessible to the public in 2012.

When complete, the website will allow users to read, browse and search the text of tens of thousands of documents from the period.

"There's great interest in the founding era now, more than there has been for the last 30 years," said Penny Kaiserlian, director of the Charlottesville, Va.-based publisher. "People want to go back to what the founders said, rather than what people say they said. This will give people the ability to check out quotations and get documents, and in general, get a picture of the daily life of the founders."

Offering the texts online and free of charge helps takes the Founding Fathers' correspondence out of the scholarly realm and move it into the hands of the public, including history teachers and students, said Edward Lengel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington, at the University of Virginia.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, part of the National Archives, will provide up to $2 million for the project.

The archive will give people direct access to primary sources that tell the stories of the men in the context of the times during which they lived and helped shape. Some of the collections also include documents from their childhood and retirement years, giving fuller glimpses into their lives.

Among the Founding Fathers' documents is Washington's letter in April 1777 to Elizabeth Mallam Neil, widow of a captain killed at the Revolutionary War's Battle of Princeton. At the time, Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army and the Continental Congress hadn't yet enacted any measures to compensate the families of soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Washington closes his letter: "In the meantime, as I sincerely feel for your distress, I beg your acceptance of the Inclosd as a small testimony of my inclination to serve you upon any future occasion." His final notation: "Fifty Dollars sent."

"But he was not just a hero who strutted about performing great deeds," Lengel said of Washington. "He was a human who had his foibles, and could be jealous, angry and even crude at times. But he was a man who, despite all his flaws, walked the road to greatness."

The papers also serve as a reflection of American society at the time, Lengel said.

"You had thousands of people from all walks of life _ slaves, workmen, pioneers and politicians _ showing up" in documented interactions with the first president.

James Madison is primarily known as a principal architect of the Constitution's Bill of Rights. But records and correspondence from his service as Jefferson's secretary of state, and later as the nation's fourth president, will offer the public a more thorough picture of his accomplishments, said J.C.A. Stagg, editor-in-chief of the Papers of James Madison.

"He did a lot of significant things after he finished the Bill of Rights," Stagg said. "It was not downhill after that. The picture enshrined in the popular imagination is very misleading."

The U.Va. Press already has published volumes of print editions of the founders' papers, and a number of the documents appear online on its subscription-only digital site, Rotunda. U.Va. archivists will use the online documents as the framework for the National Archives' searchable database. The original documents are housed at the Library of Congress.

When complete, the website will include the complete contents of 242 printed volumes, including all of the existing document transcriptions and editors' explanatory notes.

A prototype website that includes the print editions of the papers of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison is expected to be ready in about a year. A full, publicly accessible version that includes volumes from the Papers of Alexander Hamilton is expected to go live by June 2012, and by the following year, the collection is expected to include published volumes of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin.

___

Online:

http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/FOEA.html

Pentagon Will Help Homeland Security Department Fight Domestic Cyberattacks
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has adopted new procedures for using the Defense Department’s vast array of cyberwarfare capabilities in case of an attack on vital computer networks inside the United States, delicately navigating historic rules that restrict military action on American soil.
The system would mirror that used when the military is called on in natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. A presidential order dispatches the military forces, working under the control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the new rules, the president would approve the use of the military’s expertise in computer-network warfare, and the Department of Homeland Security would direct the work.

Officials involved in drafting the rules said the goal was to ensure a rapid response to a cyberthreat while balancing concerns that civil liberties might be at risk should the military take over such domestic operations.

The rules were deemed essential because most of the government’s computer-network capabilities reside within the Pentagon — while most of the important targets are on domestic soil, whether within the government or in critical private operations like financial networks or a regional power grid.

The new approach will begin with a Department of Homeland Security team deploying to Fort Meade, Md., home to both the National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic espionage, and the military’s new Cyber Command. In exchange, a team of military networking experts would be assigned to the operations center at the Homeland Security Department.

The rules were detailed in a memorandum of agreement signed in late September by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, but they were not released until last week.

Robert J. Butler, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy, said the memorandum was intended to cut through legal debates about the authority for operating domestically, and to focus on how best to respond to the threat of attack on critical computer networks.

Mr. Butler said teams of lawyers would watch for potential violations of civil liberties. “We have put protection measures in place,” he said.

The Pentagon is expected to release a full National Defense Strategy for Cyber Operations this year, to be followed by broader interagency guidance from the White House, perhaps in the form of a presidential directive, in 2011.

Congress also is weighing legislation that would update domestic law to deal with advances in computer-based surveillance and cyberwarfare.

William J. Lynn III, the deputy defense secretary, underscored the Pentagon’s “need to protect our military networks,” but said that “it’s a national challenge as well.” In an interview with Charlie Rose broadcast Monday by PBS, Mr. Lynn added: “We need to protect our critical infrastructure. We need to protect our intellectual property. And that’s a whole-of-government effort.”

During a visit last week to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr. Gates lobbied for new partnerships to combat computer threats, while warning that the NATO networks were vulnerable.

“On cybersecurity, the alliance is far behind,” Mr. Gates said. “Our vulnerabilities are well known, but our existing programs to remedy these weaknesses are inadequate.”

Mr. Gates said he was not concerned that secret intelligence shared with allies would be compromised, but he said NATO had weaknesses in its defenses for computer networks at its headquarters and throughout the shared command structure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/21cyber.html

Va. man behind ‘South Park’ threat faces terror charge

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A man known for posting an online warning that the creators of “South Park” risked death by mocking the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a Somali terror group linked to al-Qaida.

Zachary A. Chesser, 20, of Oakton, Va., told FBI agents that he twice tried to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a fighter. On the most recent attempt, earlier this month, Chesser brought his infant son with him as he tried to board a flight from New York to Uganda so he would look less suspicious, according to an FBI affidavit.

Chesser was barred from the July 10 flight and told by the Transportation Security Administration that he was on the no-fly list, according to the affidavit.

While Chesser told the FBI that he had intended on July 10 to join al-Shabab, he told them in a July 14 interview that he changed his mind because of the July 11 bombing in Uganda that killed more than 75 people watching the World Cup, for which al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

But leading up to July 10, Chesser said he had corresponded with al-Shabab members and expected to undergo a six-week basic training and then serve as a “foreign fighter” with al-Shabab in Mogadishu. According to the affidavit, Chesser expected he would be asked to serve as a propagandist but that he had been willing to fight on the front lines.

The affidavit also states that Chesser corresponded with the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last year. Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen who has recently been designated a terrorist by the U.S. government. Al-Awlaki is believed to have corresponded with several alleged terrorists, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November at Fort Hood, Tex.

Chesser also told authorities that he used several online profiles to spread terrorist propaganda.

The affidavit makes only a brief mention of Chesser’s warnings to the “South Park” creators, saying that Chesser told authorities his parents were no longer speaking to him because of death threats they received after Chesser posted his warnings.

In April, Chesser posted a warning on the revolutionmuslim.com website that Trey Parker and Matt Stone could face the same fate as a Dutch filmmaker who was killed after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad’s teachings. An episode of the show depicted Muhammad in a bear costume.

At the time, Chesser said his online posting was not a threat.

“It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome,” Chesser told FoxNews.com. “They’re going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It’s just the reality.”

The charges against Chesser do not involve the postings about “South Park.”

“This case exposes the disturbing reality that extreme radicalization can happen anywhere, including Northern Virginia,” Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “This young man is accused of seeking to join al-Shabab, a brutal terrorist organization with ties to Al-Qaida. These allegations underscore the need for continued vigilance against homegrown terror threats.”

Chesser is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria Thursday. A spokesman for the prosecutors’ office said he had no information on whether Chesser currently has a lawyer.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/07/22/news/aa5southpark3072210.txt


Geithner's Goal: Rebalanced World Economy
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he would use weekend meetings of G-20 finance ministers to advance efforts to "rebalance" the world economy so it is less reliant on U.S. consumers, to move toward establishing "norms" on exchange-rate policy, and to persuade others the U.S. doesn't aim to devalue its way to prosperity.

David Wessel discusses his conversation this week with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and why the U.S. seems to be supporting a weaker dollar while officially pushing for a stronger U.S. currency. Plus, a big day for earnings and China cools off.
.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Geithner said the world sorely needs to agree on guidelines for exchange-rate policy. "Right now, there is no established sense of what's fair," he said.

He also said the U.S. is pressing the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations to adopt numerical gauges to judge whether individual trade surpluses or deficits are "sustainable," a way to measure progress towards the goal of more balanced global growth.

Mr. Geithner is to meet G-20 counterparts in South Korea this weekend amid widespread skepticism about whether the organization of economies as diverse as Argentina, France and the U.S. can defuse exchange-rate tensions. Brazil's finance minister has warned of "an international currency war." India's prime minister has said he is "worried about the global situation." The governor of the Bank of England has warned of protectionism unless "the need to act in the collective interest" is recognized.

U.S. officials played down the likelihood of a substantial communique after Saturday's meeting of finance ministers. The Koreans preferred to hold any major announcements for the November meeting of G-20 leaders in Seoul.

"People are trying to figure out what is in their self-interest," Mr. Geithner said. "It's not a test you solve in two weeks. It'll take three to five years. We want to move the G-20 toward an institution with more promise."

On currencies, Mr. Geithner said, "We would like countries to move toward a set of norms on exchange-rate policy."

U.S. officials say conditions aren't ripe for a global accord on currencies like the 1985 Plaza accord to push the dollar down. The goal, another senior Treasury official told reporters, is an agreement to "pursue a cooperative approach" that would, even without explicit pledges, lead China and smaller countries in its shadow to let their exchange rates appreciate.

Mr. Geithner divided world currencies into three groups. In one, he put countries with currencies "undervalued by any measure," especially China. He said, though, that if the pace of appreciation seen since September were sustained, it would help correct the undervaluation. Other emerging markets play a role, he said.

China Refutes 'Manipulator' Label. Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More ."If China knew that if it moved more rapidly, other emerging markets would move with them, it would be easier for them to move," Mr. Geithner said.

In a second group, he put "emerging economies with flexible exchange rates that intervene or impose taxes to try to reduce the risks of significant overvaluation, of bubbles and of inflationary pressures." The U.S. isn't objecting to such efforts.

In the third group, he put "the major currencies, which are roughly in alignment now," a suggestion that he sees no need for the dollar to sink more than it already has against the euro and yen. Mr. Geithner emphasized that the U.S. is not pursuing a deliberate policy of devaluing the dollar. Earlier this week, speaking in Palo Alto, Calif., he said that no country can "devalue its way to prosperity and competitiveness."

Ultimately, a sounder global economy demands efforts to restrain trade surpluses in export-driven countries like China and reduce trade deficits in import-hungry countries like the U.S.

"The rest of the world wants us to save more—and that means less U.S. demand for the rest of the world. Demand is going have to come from other sources," Mr. Geithner said.

G-20 countries agreed to norms for fiscal policy at their Toronto summit. Now the U.S. is seeking the same for the broadest measure of trade flows, current account balances.

"We're encouraging our partners to put a little more flesh on the skeleton of the rebalancing commitment," Mr. Geithner said. "We are exploring whether we can agree to commit to keep the external imbalances to levels that are more sustainable, making allowances for different kinds of countries, such as commodity producers."

U.S. officials are hopeful that China, which projects that its current-account surplus will hover around 4% of gross domestic product in the next few years, will go along. But a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Yao Jian, said last week, "Other countries have no right to comment on what is a reasonable level for a country's trade surplus."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304011604575564661615005500.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection