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The Antagonist

Posted: Apr 21 2009, 05:39 PM

Antagonista

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QUOTE

FBI staff accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls
Two FBI staff have been accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity fashion show.
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 5:50PM BST 21 Apr 2009

Prosecutors say the pair were manning an FBI satellite control room in Fairmont, West Virginia, when they positioned a camera at a local shopping mall on temporary changing rooms, zooming in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show.

Gary Sutton, 40, and Charles Hommema have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy.

The pair, who yet to offer a plea, were described in court papers as "police officers" but prosecutors did not say whether they were FBI agents.

The Cinderella Project event at the Middletown mall, which provides prom outfits for girls who could not otherwise afford them, drew hundreds of girls from 10 local high schools. Organisers said volunteers and participants were furious.

"I can't even begin to put words around what I consider an unspeakable act, the misuse of surveillance by a branch of our government in a place we felt so secure," said Cynthia Woodyard, an organiser.

"Never in a million years would we have thought something like this would happen. We're in shock."

The FBI said the Office of the Inspector General was investigating the incident.

It said in a statement: "The FBI is committed to the timely and full resolution of this matter, but must remain sensitive to the privacy concerns of any potential victims and their families." [???]

A lawyer for Mr Sutton said the camera's recording of the girls was not deliberate, and that his client was innocent and mortified at the allegations.

Bridget

Posted: Apr 22 2009, 12:01 AM

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QUOTE

FBI's newest 'Most Wanted' terrorist is American

AP

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A photo of Daniel Andreas San Diego appears on a poster of the FBI's most wanted terrorists

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer � Tue Apr 21, 2:50 pm ET

WASHINGTON � A fugitive animal rights activist believed to be hiding outside the United States has become the first domestic terror suspect named to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terrorists.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities say San Diego has unusual tattoos, including one that shows a burning field and proclaims, "It only takes a spark."

FBI Assistant Director Michael Heimbach announced San Diego's addition to its "Most Wanted" terrorists list at a press conference Tuesday.

Authorities believe he has fled the United States.

In the global search for the suspect, Heimbach said the FBI has spoken to officials in Germany, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, France, Spain Denmark, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, and Chile.

He has ties to Germany, and may be living in Costa Rica, officials said.

"The leads have gone stale on us, so now we're seeking the public's awareness," said Heimbach.

San Diego is the 24th person on the bureau's wanted terrorist list, and the only domestic terror suspect.

The move to add a domestic, left-wing activist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.

An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in northern California of the corporate offices of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm, and at Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company. The explosions caused minor damages and no injuries.

A group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells" took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.

Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.

The FBI says animal rights and environmental extremists have been responsible for over 1,800 criminal acts and more than $110 million in damages. Currently, the bureau is investigating 170 animal rights or environmental extremism incidents.

Law enforcement officials describe San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has tattoo images of burning and collapsing buildings.

The FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running "Ten Most Wanted" list. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is on both.

There is another American already on the terrorist list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaida. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaida.

This post has been edited by Bridget on Apr 22 2009, 12:06 AM

Bridget

Posted: Apr 22 2009, 02:22 PM

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QUOTE

Interpreter for F.B.I. Thinks Interrogators Beat Terror Suspect

By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: April 15, 2009

An interpreter for the F.B.I. during an interrogation of a suspect in the terrorist bombing of the American Embassy in Kenya in 1998 now says that she heard sounds and pleading that led her to believe that the suspect was being beaten, and that she was so traumatized by the incident that she fled from the room, newly filed court documents show.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who wrote that the interpreter made the claim only recently, have provided a summary of her statement to a lawyer for the suspect, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-�Owhali who was convicted in 2001 in the attack, which killed more than 200 people, and was sentenced to life in prison.

The interpreter�s account is vivid and detailed, the summary showed. During the interrogation, in Kenya, she said, she was separated from Mr. al-�Owhali, a Saudi, by a partition, which prevented him from seeing her face. But she was able to hear him, she said, and �from sounds emanating from the interrogation room,� she concluded that he was being beaten.

At one point, he shouted to her, �Sister, please make them stop beating me,� the document said.

The summary said that American and Kenyan officials were present during the questioning, although it does not identify them further. The document also did not explain why she waited so long to report her observations, whom she finally told, and under what circumstances.

The document reported that she said that �this incident is the reason she does not wish to ever participate in another interrogation.�

The interpreter�s account is unusual in that it goes beyond what Mr. al-�Owhali and his lawyers have claimed about the conditions of his interrogation. Prosecutors have said that the questioning was carried out properly, and that Mr. al-�Owhali confessed to his role in the attack, which al Qaeda carried out simultaneously with a bombing of the American Embassy in Tanzania.

Mr. al-�Owhali�s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to have his confession suppressed before his trial in 2001, partly on grounds that it had been coerced. In an affidavit at the time, Mr. al-�Owhali said that during many days of interrogation, American and Kenyan officials berated him with insults about his religion and threats of violence against him and his family.

He said that one F.B.I. agent told him: �You will be hanged from your neck like a dog.� But Mr. al-�Owhali did not say that he had been beaten.

Mr. al-�Owhali�s conviction was upheld by a federal appeals court last November. His lawyer, Frederick H. Cohn, said in court papers filed on Wednesday that he interviewed his client this week in the federal prison known as the supermax, in Florence, Colo., and that although Mr. al-�Owhali again said he had not been beaten, he said an agent squeezed his wrist, which had been injured earlier.

Mr. Cohn said the pain did not, in his client�s view, �amount to torture,� but �was what he was referring to when he cried out to the interpreter.�

Mr. Cohn said that his client did not ask the interpreter to �make them stop beating me,� but rather had �begged her to make them stop hurting him.�

Mr. Cohn argued that the discrepancy was �a distinction without a difference.� He said that beyond the issue of whether abuse had occurred was the matter of how the translator�s version conflicted with the testimony of an F.B.I. agent who, in a pretrial suppression hearing, had �characterized the interrogation of al-�Owhali as civilized to the point that it resembled a Victorian tea,� as Mr. Cohn put it.

A federal judge found that American agents made no threats, and allowed Mr. al-�Owhali�s statement to be used at his trial. Had he been aware of the interpreter�s account, he might have ruled differently, Mr. Cohn suggested.

The United States attorney�s office and the F.B.I. in New York declined to comment. Mr. Cohn is seeking a hearing to investigate the incident.

The document does not identify the interpreter, but it says that she was �terrified and ran from the room.� It added that an American official convinced her to return. A few days later, she was replaced by another interpreter, it says.

Bridget

Posted: May 28 2009, 08:43 PM

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QUOTE

FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight

Bureau agents will gather evidence to ensure that criminal prosecutions of alleged terrorists are an option. The move is a reversal of the Bush administration's emphasis on covert CIA actions.

By Josh Meyer
May 28, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions.

Under the "global justice" initiative, which has been in the works for several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases. They will expand their questioning of suspects and evidence-gathering to try to ensure that criminal prosecutions are an option, officials familiar with the effort said.

Though the initiative is a work in progress, some senior counter-terrorism officials and administration policy-makers envision it as key to the national security strategy President Obama laid out last week -- one that presumes most accused terrorists have the right to contest the charges against them in a "legitimate" setting.

The approach effectively reverses a mainstay of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, in which global counter-terrorism was treated primarily as an intelligence and military problem, not a law enforcement one. That policy led to the establishment of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; harsh interrogations; and detentions without trials.

The "global justice" initiative starts out with the premise that virtually all suspects will end up in a U.S. or foreign court of law.

That will be the case whether a suspected terrorist is captured on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in the Philippine jungle or in a mosque in Nigeria, said one senior U.S. counter-terrorism official with knowledge of the initiative.

"Regardless of where any bad guy is caught, we want the bureau to be in a position to put charges on them," the official said, adding that the Bush administration's emphasis on CIA and military operations often marginalized the FBI -- especially when it came to interrogating suspects.

Like others interviewed for this article, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because no one has been authorized to discuss the initiative publicly. "We have no comment on it at this time," FBI Assistant Director John J. Miller, the bureau's chief spokesman, said when asked about the initiative.

Upon taking office in January, Obama shut down the CIA's secret "black site" prisons and forbade the use of coercive interrogation techniques.

That opened the door for an increased role for the FBI, which for the last year has deployed more agents and analysts overseas to work alongside the CIA, U.S. military and foreign governments.

The initiative would mean even broader incorporation of the FBI and Justice Department into global counter-terrorism operations. Many national security officials said it is a vindication of the FBI, which before Sept. 11 had played a leading role in international terrorism investigations.

FBI agents for years had used non-coercive interrogations to thwart attacks, win convictions of Al Qaeda operatives and gain an encyclopedic knowledge of how the terrorist network operates. But they withdrew from questioning important suspects after the bureau opposed the tactics being used by the CIA and military -- often by inexperienced civilian contractors.

The harsh interrogations provided such bad information that U.S. agents spent years chasing false leads around the world, former FBI agent Ali Soufan testified before Congress two weeks ago. "It was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against Al Qaeda."

Bush administration officials, however, have defended the tactics and rejected claims that the FBI's methods would have worked better.

"With many thousands of lives potentially in the balance, we did not think it made good sense to let the terrorists answer questions in their own good time," former Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech this month.

The FBI itself has been criticized, as has the CIA, for failing to connect the dots before the Sept. 11 attacks. In hindsight, the evidence pointed to a clear and intensive Al Qaeda effort to launch attacks on U.S. soil.

Before Sept. 11, the FBI model of "informed" interrogation -- knowing everything about a suspect to get them talking -- was the preferred method of intelligence and military interrogators.

Even veteran CIA agents said that abandoning that approach after Sept. 11 was counterproductive. "To use a contractor to ask the questions and not let the FBI guy who's collected all the evidence and knows all of the intelligence about these guys, it makes no sense at all," said former CIA counter-terrorism case agent Robert Baer.

One intelligence official said the FBI's expanded role in the global fight against terrorism was a natural outgrowth of the Obama administration's new priorities. "It stands to reason because, by executive order, the CIA is out of the long-term detention business," the official said, referring to Obama's closing of overseas prisons.

Richard Clarke, a senior counter-terrorism official in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said the turnabout was long overdue.

"We have to return to the practice that we had before of arresting terrorists and putting them on trial," said Clarke, who added that the country's ability to do that "has atrophied."

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the agency would continue to play a central role in interrogations and counter-terrorism operations -- using techniques approved by the U.S. Army Field Manual-- in conjunction with other U.S. agencies.

Behind the scenes, some intelligence officials are resisting a broader criminal justice role overseas for the FBI, contending that it could inhibit the flow of intelligence if their own agents, or foreign governments, believe top-secret sources and methods might be disclosed during criminal prosecutions.

Two senior U.S. officials said efforts are being made to ensure that intelligence-gathering and law enforcement efforts proceed side by side. They stressed that the CIA and military would continue to play pivotal roles, particularly in gaining strategic intelligence against terrorist groups and thwarting future attacks.

Bridget

Posted: Jun 9 2009, 09:11 AM

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QUOTE

FBI boss defends use of mosque spies

Tuesday, 9 June 2009
The Independent

FBI director Robert Mueller defended the agency's use of informants within US mosques amid complaints that worshippers and clerics were being targeted instead of possible terrorists.

Mr Mueller's comments came days after a Michigan Muslim organisation asked the US Justice Department to investigate complaints that the FBI was asking the faithful to spy on Islamic leaders and worshippers.

Similar alarm followed the disclosure earlier this year that the FBI planted a spy in Southern California mosques.

"We don't investigate places, we investigate individuals," Mr Mueller said during a brief meeting with reporters in Los Angeles.

"To the extent that there may be evidence or other information of criminal wrongdoings, then we will ... undertake those investigations. We will continue to do it."

He called relations with US Muslims "very good", but acknowledged there were disagreements.

The Council of Islamic Organisations of Michigan sent a letter to US attorney general Eric Holder after mosques and other groups said members of the community had been asked to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they made. The FBI's Detroit office has denied the claims.

In the California case, information about the informant who spied on the Islamic Centre of Irvine came out at a February detention hearing for a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, an Afghan native and naturalised US citizen, Ahmadullah Niazi, who is accused of lying on his citizenship and passport applications about terrorism ties.

Community leaders said they suspected since at least 2006 that the FBI was trying to infiltrate Muslim organisations in the area.

"History disputes Mr Mueller's statements, at least in Southern California," said Shakeel Syed, executive of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California.

"It doesn't alleviate anything. It only continues to show the sheer arrogance demonstrated by the bureau in holding Muslim community members, clerics, mosques, as suspects."

Mr Syed is among community leaders in court seeking government records of surveillance.

FBI agents and prosecutors say spying on mosques is one of the best weapons to uncover lurking terrorists or threats to national security, but it has posed a politically and legally thorny issue with Muslims who see themselves as unjustly monitored.

"The FBI needs to do what it needs to do, certainly," Mr Syed said. But he said the agency was "trying to incite and entrap" law-abiding people.

Mr Mueller also said that there would be no change in the FBI's priorities in the new administration.

"I would not expect that we would in any way take our foot off the pedal of addressing counter-terrorism," he said.

"My expectation is that we'll see an uptick in terms of resources devoted towards our domestic criminal responsibilities, but we will not ... relax our responsibilities when it come to counter-terrorism or counter-intelligence."

Bridget

Posted: Sep 15 2009, 03:40 PM

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Connected?

QUOTE

NYPD detective reports to work from Tel Aviv

September 14, 2009 By The Associated Press

Detective Charlie Benaim speaks during his presentation at the Annual High Holy Days Meeting at One Police Plaza Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) � Charlie Benaim's education in fighting terrorism began as a kid in Jerusalem, where the grade school curriculum included lessons on how to deal with a suspicious package.

"Don't play with it. Don't touch it," Benaim recalled being told. "Take big rocks and circle it, then call the police."

Benaim is still under strict orders to assess terrorism threats � now as a New York Police Department detective on special assignment in Tel Aviv. His background, his bosses say, makes him uniquely qualified.

"I grew up with terrorism," he recently told The Associated Press during a visit to New York to give a security briefing on Monday to Jewish community leaders. "It's always in the back of my mind."

Benaim resettled in the Middle East in 2007 as part a dramatic makeover of the NYPD that transformed the nation's largest police department into a self-made counterterrorism agency.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NYPD has embedded officers with law enforcement agencies in Singapore, Madrid and other foreign cities to trade information about security and potential threats. It also has dispatched those officers to terrorism scenes � including attacks on hotels in Mumbai, India, in 2008 and Jakarta, Indonesia, in July � to speed access to information that could help deter strikes against New York.

"The trick is to learn from threats internationally so we can prevent them locally," said David Cohen, head of the NYPD's intelligence division.

Benaim, 41, served in the Israeli military before coming to the United States in 1990. After going to college and considering a career in child psychology, he joined the Police Department 12 years ago.

After a stint as a patrolman in Manhattan, he became an investigator in a narcotics unit. A supervisor there steered the clean-cut officer's career in an unexpected direction by putting a note on his locker about an opening in Israel.
connections

It read: "I'm giving you an order to apply."

Benaim won the job and moved with his wife and two children to Israel, where his parents still live, in Jerusalem. He reports to the NYPD from an office at the Israeli National Police headquarters in Tel Aviv.

His counterparts "like the fact that I grew up there," he said. "All the communication is done in Hebrew. Knowing the country, knowing the culture, it makes it easier."

When two suicide bombers struck last year at a shopping center in the southern town of Dimona, killing a woman and injuring 11 other Israelis, Benaim responded with local authorities. A month later, he also was given full access to the scene of another attack involving a gunman who killed eight students at a prominent Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.

In Israel, Bernaim has observed a shift away from suicide bombings to more unconventional tactics. He has alerted the NYPD to a possible trend toward using heavy construction equipment against civilians, citing the case of a Palestinian bulldozer driver who in July plowed into vehicles on a busy Jerusalem street before police fatally shot him.

"These attacks are spontaneous," he said. "There's no prior intelligence so it's very hard to stop. You're don't need to smuggle weapons and explosives. You take what's ever available and you use that to carry out an attack."

He said that while terrorism is a way of life for Israelis � "It's amazing to see after a suicide bombing or terror attack, things return to normal within hours" � they have a fascination with the devastation at the World Trade Center eight years ago.

When asked about it, he said he explained that his current assignment "is a direct result of what in New York City on Sept. 11. We want to make sure that it never happens again."

Bridget

Posted: Nov 1 2009, 10:27 AM

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QUOTE

1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list
Number of names on terrorist watch list at 400,000, agency says

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 1, 2009

Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.

During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week.

FBI officials cautioned that each nomination "does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously watchlisted person."

The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and 4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government's "no fly" list.

This information, and more about the FBI's wide-ranging effort against terrorists, came in answers from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to Senate Judiciary Committee members' questions. The answers were first made public last week in Steven Aftergood's Secrecy News.

Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), who has shown concern over some of the FBI's relatively new investigative techniques assessing possible terrorist, criminal or foreign intelligence activities, drew new information from the agency. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI needed initial information that a person or group was engaged in wrongdoing before it could open a preliminary investigation.

Under current practice, no such information is needed. That led Feingold to ask how many "assessments" had been initiated and how many had led to investigations since new guidelines were put into effect in December 2008. The FBI said the answer was "sensitive" and would be provided only in classified form.

Feingold was given brief descriptions of the types of assessments that can be undertaken: The inquiries can be opened by individual agents "proactively," meaning on his or her own or in response to a lead about a threat. Other assessments are undertaken to identify or gather information about potential targets or terrorists, to gather information to aid intelligence gathering and related to matters of foreign intelligence interest.

Feingold pointed to a November 2008 Justice Department inspector general audit showing that in 2006, approximately 219,000 tips from the public led to the FBI's determination that there were 2,800 counterterrorism threats and suspicious incidents that year. "Regardless of the reporting source, FBI policy requires that each threat or suspicious incident should receive some level of review and assessment to determine the potential nexus to terrorism," the audit said.

In a different vein, the FBI was asked why it is losing new recruits as special agents and support personnel at a time when terrorist investigations are increasing. The FBI responded that failed polygraph tests rather than other factors, such as the length of time for getting security clearances, are the main reason recruits are ending their efforts to join the bureau. In the past year, polygraphs were the cause of roughly 40 percent of special-agent applicants dropping out, the records showed.

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