Wednesday, September 1, 2010
US man pleads guilty in Obama anthrax hoax
DENVER — A man has pleaded guilty to sending letters containing white powder to President Barack Obama, members of Congress from Colorado and Alabama, and to Argentine consulates.
Jay DeVaughn pleaded guilty Thursday to 13 federal counts of mailing threatening communications. DeVaughn, also known as Jay Paige Ewards, mailed a letter to Obama that was intercepted Sept. 10, 2009.
The white powder in the letters was harmless.
The 40-year-old DeVaughn mailed letters criticizing federal health care reform to members of Colorado’s congressional delegation last year and this year. He sent letters to Alabama congressional members in January.
He will be sentenced Nov. 19, when he will face about two years to nearly five years in prison.
ACLU, CCR sue US over targeted assassinations of American citizens
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., demanding to know more about an alleged policy of assassinating Americans thought to be involved in terrorist activities.
“The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so,” Vince Warren, Executive Director of the CCR, said in a media advisory. “The law prohibits the government from killing without trial or conviction other than in the face of an imminent threat that leaves no time for deliberation or due process. That the government adds people to kill lists after a bureaucratic process and leaves them on the lists for months at a time flies in the face of the Constitution and international law.”
The groups have sued President Obama, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Defense.
“A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero added in a prepared statement.
FEMA: Evacuations may be ordered for Hurricane Earl
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said Tuesday that people along the eastern seaboard should be prepared in case evacuations are necessary later this week.
Officials will be closely monitoring the movement of the Category 4 storm to determine which parts of the coast will face the greatest impact. It's too early to tell right now what those might be.
Earl is forecast to potentially brush North Carolina late Thursday before running parallel to land up the East Coast on Friday and Saturday.
FEMA already has teams deployed in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and North Carolina. It has advance teams prepared to work with other states up the coast.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos (AP) – Islanders wary of a possible blow from powerful Hurricane Earl pulled boats ashore and packed supermarkets on the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday as the Category 4 storm howled over open seas toward the eastern United States.
The hurricane, with winds of 135 mph (215 kilometers), was expected to remain over the open ocean east of this British territory before turning north and running parallel to the U.S. coast, potentially reaching the North Carolina coastal region by Friday. It was projected then to curve back out to sea, perhaps swiping New England or far-eastern Canada.
"There is still considerable uncertainty as to how close the hurricane will come to the U.S. East Coast," the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said in a bulletin Tuesday.
Earl delivered a glancing blow to several small Caribbean islands on Monday, tearing roofs off homes and cutting electricity to people in Anguilla, Antigua, and St. Maarten. Cruise ships were diverted and flights canceled across the region. But there were no reports of death or injury.
In Providenciales, Benson Capron was among several fishermen tying their boats to trees lining a beach.
"I hear it is going to pass, but I will not take any chances," Capron said. "Today I will not go out to fish."
The Hurricane Center said it was too early to say what effect Earl would have in the U.S., but warned it could at least kick up dangerous rip currents. A surfer died in Florida and a Maryland swimmer had been missing since Saturday in waves spawned by former Hurricane Danielle, which weakened to a tropical storm Monday far out in the north Atlantic.
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Earl's approach ought to serve as a reminder for Atlantic coastal states to update their evacuation plans.
"It wouldn't take much to have the storm come ashore somewhere on the coast," Fugate said. "The message is for everyone to pay attention."
The storm's center passed just north of the British Virgin Islands on Monday afternoon. Despite a few lost fishing boats and several uprooted trees in Tortola and Anegada, there were no reports of major damage or injuries, said Sharleen DaBreo, disaster management agency director.
Early Tuesday, Earl's center was about 230 miles (370 kilometers) east of Grand Turk island as it headed west-northwest at 13 mph (30 kph), according to the hurricane center. Hurricane strength winds extended up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) from the center, it said.
Tropical storm conditions were expected to spread into the Turks and Caicos by Tuesday afternoon, with a potential for above normal tides and dangerous tides. The territory was under a tropical warning and a tropical storm watch was in effect for the southeastern Bahamas.
Close on Earl's heels, Tropical Storm Fiona formed Monday afternoon in the open Atlantic. The storm, with maximum winds of 40 mph (65 kph), was projected to pass just north of the Leeward Islands by Wednesday and stay farther out in the Atlantic than Earl's northward path. Fiona wasn't expected to reach hurricane strength over the next several days.
The rapid development of Earl, which only became a hurricane Sunday, took some islanders and tourists by surprise.
In Anguilla, several utility poles were down and a couple of roofs had blown away, but it was still too dangerous to go out and assess the full extent of damage, said Martin Gussie, a police officer.
At El Conquistador Resort in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, people lined up at the reception desk, the lights occasionally flickering, to check out and head to the airport. There, more delays awaited.
John and Linda Helton of Boulder, Colo., opted to ride out the storm. The couple, celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary, finished a cruise Sunday and planned to spend three days in Puerto Rico.
"There was a huge line of people checking out as we were coming in, and I thought it was just that summer vacation must be over," said John Helton, a real estate appraiser. "But we paid for the room, so we might as well stick it out."
"I don't think we could get a flight even if we wanted to leave," Linda Helton added.
In St. Maarten, sand and debris littered the streets, and winds knocked down trees and electricity poles and damaged roofs. But police spokesman Ricardo Henson said there was no extensive damage to property.
In Antigua, at least one home was destroyed but there were no reports of serious injuries. Governor General Dame Louise Agnetha Lake-Tack declared Monday a public holiday to keep islanders off the road and give them a chance to clean up.
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Police swapped circuit boards ahead of terror arrests
Suspected detonators were replaced with replicas amid fears they were about to be passed to third parties, sources say
Police snuck into an Ottawa apartment and replaced dozens of detonation devices with harmless replicas before one of Canada’s biggest-ever terrorism busts.
The swap was made as officers spied on a crucial meeting at which three people are alleged to have voted to plot terrorist violence together.
The Globe and Mail has obtained these insights from people close to RCMP Project Samossa, an investigation involving hundreds of federal agents pursuing alleged “homegrown” terrorists.
This continuing probe, which culminated in charges against three Canadians last week, began at least three years ago. Not all of the individuals who came to the attention of the federal agents have been arrested or publicly identified at this point.
The security operation started in Winnipeg when federal police and spies were investigating suspected religious extremists. Eventually, investigators found people they deemed to be potential terrorists in Canada and overseas working on schemes with three- to five-year timelines.
Agents on Project Samossa (all RCMP terrorism probes of national scope start with the letter “S”) kept taps on suspected conspirators operating in Winnipeg, Ottawa and several other Canadian cities.
For example, police monitored the suspects’ use of public-access computers in colleges and libraries, and at least one payphone outside a grocery store.
Some suspected terrorist-cell members allegedly ventured to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Canadian agents tried to track them by listening in on their satellite-phone conversations.
Some of the suspects who left Canada for overseas terrorist havens are believed by investigators to have not returned. Sources say one suspect who left – whom the Mounties considered a co-conspirator – is presumed to have been killed.
Members of the group, including three Canadians arrested last week on terrorism charges, are alleged to have been facilitating terrorist conspiracies abroad and in Canada.
Foremost among the three arrested in Canada is a gangly 30-year-old Iranian Canadian, Hiva Alizadeh, who is accused of having direct ties to terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (His brother – an alleged co-conspirator – denied all allegations in an interview with The Globe and Mail from Iran.)
Mr. Alizadeh moved to Canada when he was about 20 years old. He worked in a halal grocery store in Winnipeg before taking electronics courses at Red River College. He recently moved to Ottawa, where he went on welfare. He was arrested in the seventh-floor apartment that he shares with his family.
He is accused of raising funds for foreign terrorists and plotting bombings. Police say they’ve amassed considerable evidence against him – principally 59 homemade circuit boards that could have been used to set off bombs from a remote location.
The devices were allegedly seized from a bedroom closet. Police say they infiltrated Mr. Alizadeh’s residence over time, spotting the circuitry and working quickly to recreate harmless versions of them to swap for the originals.
The discovery of the circuit boards was especially shocking, one source said, because police found more of them with each surreptitious visit, but feared that the supply would eventually diminish – indicating boards were being handed to others.
It remains unclear whether the circuitry was to be used in Canada or overseas, or what the targets might have been.
One source said that Parliament Hill was discussed in the initial “chatter” first overheard by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and that CSIS relayed this to the Mounties.
Yet this allegation does not appear to be repeated in a secret Crown brief circulated to lawyers last week. The Mounties are understood to be conducting a relatively narrow probe, while CSIS continues a wider-ranging, parallel investigation.
Also arrested are two alleged co-conspirators: Khurram Syed Sher of London, Ont., and Misbahuddin Ahmed, a radiation technologist at an Ottawa hospital.
The two men are charged with facilitating the conspiracy, but are not alleged to have travelled to Afghanistan, built bombs or sought to finance terrorism.
Dr. Sher apparently came to the Mounties’ attention after he spent a weekend at Mr. Ahmed’s residence. This led to a crucial meeting, sources say, where the three men allegedly chose Mr. Ahmed as their nominal leader as they developed a plot.
Mr. Alizadeh remains the primary suspect.
Police believe he was about to head to Afghanistan at the time of his arrest, possibly to lead an insurgent or al-Qaeda cell whose leadership had been killed by NATO forces.
A fourth man who was arrested in Ottawa on Friday is considered a minor figure, someone who knows the others but is unlikely to be charged with terrorism. Awso Peshdary remains jailed on an unrelated assault charge pending his bail hearing Tuesday.
Second Newspaper Chain Joins Copyright Trolling Operation
A Las Vegas company established to sue bloggers who clip news content is expanding its operations to a second newspaper chain.
Righthaven LLC has struck a deal with Arkansas-based WEHCO Media to expand its copyright litigation campaign, in which bloggers and aggregators across the country are being sued on allegations of infringement.
Until now, Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson’s sole announced client had been Nevada-based Stephens Media. Righthaven has issued more than 100 lawsuits since its spring inception on behalf of the Las Vegas Review Journal — Stephens’ flagship.
“I can tell you we also have near finalization for contracts with a substantial number of other publishers,” Gibson said in a telephone interview. He declined to divulge their names until Righthaven begins filing suits on their behalf.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has received “several dozen” inquiries from Righthaven defendants seeking legal representation, said Eva Galperin, the EFF’s referral coordinator.
“We’re up to our armpits in Righthaven defendants,” she said in a telephone interview.
The EFF, she said, has yet to take a case and has been helping the defendants obtain other counsel, she said.
For its part, WEHCO controls 28 papers, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, and 13 cable stations largely in the south. Its president, Paul Smith, said in a Democrat-Gazette story last week that “it’s a pretty serious matter when someone takes your copy, information you’ve spent a lot of money to produce.”
Smith did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
In July, Gibson told Threat Level that more Righthaven clients would be forthcoming. He also gave a brief accounting of how Righthaven works. Borrowing a page from patent trolls, Righthaven acquires the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission.
Righthaven usually demands $75,000, but will settle for a few thousand dollars.
(Photo courtesy Steve Gibson, Righthaven)