Untraceable returning jihadists pose ‘serious threat’ to US

An image grab taken from a propaganda video uploaded on June 11, 2014 by jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) allegedly shows ISIL militants driving at an undisclosed location in Iraq's Nineveh province. (AFP Photo)

US #jihadist fighters returning from conflict zones pose a “very serious threat” to #US national security alongside British and Canadian nationals that also fought oversees as they can freely enter the American soil, top politicians say.

It is impossible to track every single person who might have visited a conflict zone such as Syria or Iraq, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers said, expressing concerns over American, British and Canadian jihadist fighters who potentially can pose a very serious threat to the US.

“I'm very concerned because we don't know every single person who has gone and trained and learned how to fight,” Rogers told Fox News Sunday, urging the White House to aggressively prosecute Americans who had trained overseas.

Hundreds of US citizens had gone overseas, Rogers said, in addition to some 500 British citizens and hundreds more from Canada.

“The chances of error are greater than our ability to track every single area. It's a very serious threat,” he said.

Meanwhile, he noted, the US is tracking “pretty serious” threats of planned attacks in the West by al-Qaeda.

Another member of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, echoed Rogers' assessment.

“The biggest threat that I see to the United States right now are Americans and Brits who have passports that have the ability to come into our country without getting a visa,” Ruppersberger told CNN's State of the Union program.

“We had the suicide American bomber who was radicalized, came home to visit his parents, went back and then killed himself. Now, that could have happened in the United States,” Ruppersberger said, referring to a man who became first known US suicide bomber after blew himself up in an attack in Syria in May.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called for an international coalition to combat the Islamic State and its “genocidal agenda” on a larger scale, as the US continues to hit jihadist positions in Iraq in limited airstrikes. RT

America’s adversaries crow over Ferguson shooting conflict

Usually, it is the United States that doles out rebukes over human rights abuses to the troublesome country of the day.

However the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager and subsequent crackdown on protesters in the Midwestern state of Missouri has America’s foes crowing about the flaws in the land of the free. Teargas, arrests of journalists, racial tensions and footage of militarily equipped police training their weapons on protesters. These are images more easily associated with one of the nations regularly chided by Washington than the small town of Ferguson, rocked by days of violent protests.

Many of the countries at the stinging end of these criticisms have seized upon the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the ensuing clashes to scold the United States for hypocritically lecturing the world on human rights while ignoring the plight of its own people. They also say the shooting underscores how far America has to go to resolve its racial tensions.

In China, which Washington regularly accuses of human rights abuses, the Ferguson story has been getting prominent media coverage.
‘Human rights flaws’

In a commentary entitled “Ferguson riot reveals US racial divide, human rights flaw”, the official news agency Xinhua berated America.

It said the Ferguson shooting “once again demonstrates that even in a country that has for years tried to play the role of an international human rights judge and defender, there is still much room for improvement at home”.

“What the United States needs to do is to concentrate on solving its own problems rather than always pointing fingers at others,” it added.

While China censors reports of local unrest in its domestic media, state broadcaster CCTV has covered the Ferguson riots. On Tuesday, it showed National Guard troops on the streets, with a reporter taking advantage of the greater access available to media in the United States, describing tear gas and other weapons used by police.

On Chinese social media, some echoed the state media line. “This is human rights in democratic countries,” wrote one user of the Twitter-like Sina Weibo service.

But others noted the repression was light compared to that meted out to protesters by the Chinese government. In 1989, hundreds were killed during the armed suppression of protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

‘Oppressed’ Americans
Iran also latched on to the Ferguson story as evidence of the racial divide in America and what it called double standards on human rights.

“The targeted discrimination against the black in America by the US police and the judicial system and the suppression of protesters ... are clear instances of violations of human rights of people of colour in the US,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted: “Today like previous years, African-Americans are still under pressure, oppressed and subjected to discrimination.”

Even Egypt - where at least 1,400 people, mostly Islamist protesters, have been killed in clashes with security forces - weighed in. Interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Lattiff, said the US police were using “excessive” force. “The police are using heavy weapons that are used in war. We didn’t see the protesters even using Molotov cocktails or shotguns. They have legitimate demands.”

Egypt’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it was “closely monitoring” the situation in Ferguson and echoed a UN call for restraint. Russia, which has been under fire for months over its intervention in Ukraine and is a favourite target for allegations of authoritarianism, has also given the Ferguson story wide coverage.

Konstantin Dolgov, the foreign ministry’s representative for human rights, said the US should take care of its own problems before interfering in the affairs of other nations. He said the events in Ferguson “are clear evidence of the high degree of tensions in US society, which remains split along racial lines”.

It was a view echoed by rights group Amnesty International, which for the first time has deployed observers within the United States.

The “US can’t tell other countries to improve their records on policing and peaceful assembly if it won’t clean up its own human rights record,” the group wrote on Twitter. The irony of the situation was not lost on the Internet.

One website www.vox.com published a satirical take on how American media would cover the story if it were happening anywhere else in the world, referring to “a remote Missouri village that has been a hotbed of sectarian tension”.

Dramatic footage from the protests sweeping social media prompted reactions from activists in more troubled parts of the world.

Mariam Barghouti, a student from Ramallah in the West Bank, tweeted some advice to the Americans: “Keep calm when you’re teargassed, the pain will pass, don’t rub your eyes!”–AFP

Police use tear gas on crowd outside St. Louis

Police in riot gear approach a group of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri on August 11, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A black teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer had his hands raised when the officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly, according to two men who said they witnessed the shooting that sparked two nights of unrest in suburban St. Louis.

The FBI opened an investigation Monday into the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who police said was shot multiple times Saturday after being confronted by an officer in Ferguson, a suburb of 21,000 that's nearly 70 percent black.

Authorities in Ferguson used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse a large crowd Monday night that had gathered at the site of a burned-out convenience store damaged a night earlier, when many businesses in the area were looted.

Police Chief Tom Jackson said members of the crowd threw rocks at police and gunfire came from the crowd, so officers used tear gas and shot "beanbag rounds" meant to stun them.

An Associated Press photographer said police were telling people to go home, but authorities had blocked exit streets off. Jackson said police blocked off the area where most of the looting and vandalism occurred the previous night out of concern that cars passing by might hit demonstrators in the street.

Authorities were vague about exactly what led the officer to open fire on Brown, except to say that the shooting was preceded by a scuffle of some kind with a man. It was unclear whether Brown or the man he was with was involved in the altercation.

Investigators have refused to publicly disclose the race of the officer, who is now on administrative leave. But Phillip Walker said he was on the porch of an apartment complex overlooking the scene when he heard a shot and saw a white officer with Brown on the street.

Brown "was giving up in the sense of raising his arms and being subdued," Walker told The Associated Press on Monday. The officer "had his gun raised and started shooting the individual in the chest multiple times." The officer then "stood over him and shot him" after the victim fell wounded.

Dorian Johnson offered a similar account when he told KMOV-TV that he and Brown were walking home from a convenience store when a police officer told them to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. Johnson said they kept walking, which caused the officer to confront them from his car and again after getting out of the vehicle.

Johnson said the first time the officer fired, he and Brown got scared and ran away.

"He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air, and he started to get down," Johnson said. "But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots."

"We wasn't causing harm to nobody," Johnson said. "We had no weapons on us at all."
Walker said that he did not see a scuffle or the circumstances that preceded the first gunshot.

The St. Louis County Police Department refused to discuss Johnson's remarks, citing the ongoing investigation. But county Police Chief Jon Belmar previously said that an officer encountered Brown and another man outside an apartment complex, and that one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car and they struggled over the officer's weapon.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said there's no video footage of the shooting from the apartment complex or from any police dashboard cameras or body-worn cameras that the department recently bought but has not yet put to use.

Brown's parents and their attorneys asked the public to share any information and videos they might have related to the shooting.

The family had planned to drop their son off at a technical college Monday to begin his studies.

"Instead of celebrating his future, they are having to plan his funeral," said Benjamin Crump, a family attorney who also represented Trayvon Martin's relatives after he was slain in 2012 in Florida.
"I don't want to sugarcoat it," Crump added. Brown "was executed in broad daylight."

Crump and some civil rights leaders drew comparisons between Brown's death and that of Martin and other young black men killed in racially charged incidents.

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said she did not understand why police did not subdue her son with a club or stun gun. She said the officer involved should be fired and prosecuted, adding that "I would like to see him go to jail with the death penalty."

The FBI is looking into possible civil rights violations, said Cheryl Mimura, a spokeswoman for the agency's St. Louis field office.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the case deserves a full review.

Nearly three dozen people were arrested following a candlelight vigil Sunday night after crowds looted and burned stores, vandalized vehicles, assaulted and threatened reporters and taunted officers.
Deanel Trout, a 14-year resident of Ferguson, was convinced the troublemakers were largely from outside Ferguson and that they used Brown's death and the vigil as an opportunity to steal.

"I can understand the anger and unrest, but I can't understand the violence and looting," Trout said.
Some people climbed atop police cars as officers with riot shields and batons stood stoically nearby, trying to restrict access to the most endangered areas.

Thirty-two people were arrested, police said. Two officers suffered minor injuries. There were no reports of civilians hurt.

On Monday, the scene of the shooting was marked with a makeshift memorial of candles and signs in the middle of the narrow street where Brown fell dead.

Brown's father, also named Michael Brown, visited the memorial Monday, at one point straightening a wooden cross. He abruptly left after gunshots rang out a block away. There were no reports of injuries from that gunfire.

The person who was with Brown has not been arrested or charged, and it was not clear if he was armed, Jackson said. Blood samples were taken from Brown and the officer for toxicology tests, which can take weeks to complete. WFAA

US accused of inciting South China Sea tensions

Reuters/Martin Petty

The Chinese foreign ministry strongly questioned the intentions of the United States over the weekend with regards to an #Asian territorial dispute that has attracted the opinion of US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his #American counterpart were both among the attendees at this weekend’s ASEAN Regional Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, where representatives from 26 countries came together to discuss policy and security issues concerning the Asia-Pacific region. Now in the aftermath of the event, Wang’s office is instructing the US to refrain from interfering in one of the matters in particular that Sec. Kerry spoke of at the forum: the ongoing dispute involving Beijing’s claims regarding the South China Sea and those from other neighboring nations.

“China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are totally able to safeguard well the peace and stability of South China Sea,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Wang as saying, “in immediate response to the so-called tense situation propagated by some countries over the South China Sea.”

The statement, published by the Foreign Ministry on Monday this week, says that Wang insisted during the multinational conference that China and ASEAN are capable of handling the territorial dispute in calm, yet “he could not understand why some countries out of the region stayed restless to propagate its tense situation.”

"Is it they want to confuse the region? Countries out of the region can reasonably voice their concern, but we disagree with them for coming to the region finger-pointing," he was quoted as saying.

According to AFP, Wang said at the forum that "Some countries outside the region are restless, and stir up tensions,” and even went as far as to ask: “Might their intention be to create chaos in the region?”

The official statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry neglects to identify the United States by name, but a report by a regional newswire published after the forum said the remarks were intended for the White House.

"By stoking the flames, Washington is further emboldening countries like the Philippines and Vietnam to take a hardline stance against China," China's official Xinhua news agency added in its commentary published this week.

"It is a painful reality that Uncle Sam has left too many places in chaos after it stepped in, as what people are witnessing now in Iraq, Syria and Libya,” the agency added. "The South China Sea should not be the next one."

Last November, Beijing warned Washington not to “meddle” in the maritime affair after the US raised concerns about Chinese plans to put the East China Sea under the control of its air forces. In the months since, the US has flown B-52 bombers over the region in defiance of China’s territory claims, as well as surveillance aircraft, and recently cut a deal with the Philippines that will ensure that American military personnel continue to have a strong presence in the area for at least another decade.

On Sunday, the US State Dept. said in a statement that “With over 40 percent of the world’s seaborne trade flowing through the Asia Pacific, maintaining open sea lines of communication and ensuring freedom of navigation and other lawful uses of the seas are critical for regional security and stability. As a Pacific nation, the United States continues to prioritize maritime security cooperation through the promotion of freedom of navigation, international law, the peaceful settlement of disputes and unimpeded lawful commerce.” RT

Clinton blames Islamic militants rise on Obama policies

WASHINGTON - Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton blamed the rise of Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria on failures of US policy under President Barack Obama, in an interview published Sunday.

Clinton specifically faulted the US decision to stay on the sidelines of the insurgency against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad as opening the way for the most extreme rebel faction, the Islamic State.

"The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad -- there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle -- the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled," Clinton told the Atlantic.

Clinton, widely considered an undeclared presidential candidate, was an unsuccessful advocate of arming the Syrian rebels when she was secretary of state during Obama's first term.

She was interviewed before the US president's decision Thursday to order limited air strikes to check an IS offensive into Kurdistan, which threatened US nationals and facilities and sent thousands of refugees fleeing into the mountains.

Obama, who oversaw the US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, vowed not to send US troops back into the country and said Iraqis needed to confront the jihadist threat by forming an inclusive unity government.

Clinton, however, suggested in the interview that Obama lacked a strategy for dealing with the jihadist threat.

"Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said referring to an Obama slogan.

She said the United States must develop an "overarching" strategy to confront Islamist extremism, likening it to the long US struggle against Soviet-led communism.

"One of the reasons why I worry about what's happening in the Middle East right now is because of the breakout capacity of jihadist groups that can affect Europe, can affect the United States," she said. "Jihadist groups are governing territory. They will never stay there, though. They are driven to expand. Their raison d'etre is to be against the West, against the Crusaders, against the fill-in-the-blank-and we all fit into one of these categories.

"How do we try to contain that? I'm thinking a lot about containment, deterrence, and defeat," she said.

Her arguments, seen as an attempt to distance herself from Obama, echoed those of Republican critics who accuse Obama of allowing a power vacuum to develop by failing to bring US leadership to bear in conflicts from Syria to Iraq to Ukraine.  CBN News

Men face jail time for stealing part of Paul Walker's crashed Porsche

Sheriff's deputies work near the crash scene in the 28300 block of Rye Canyon Loop.

Two men pleaded no contest Tuesday to stealing the roof panel from a #Porsche Carrera GT that "Fast and Furious" actor Paul #Walker was riding in when he died in a fiery crash last year in Santa Clarita.

Jameson Brooks Witty, 18, and Anthony Edward Janow, 26, face up to six months in jail on misdemeanor charges of destroying evidence and resisting or delaying a police officer. Janow also pleaded no contest to felony grand theft, Witty to misdemeanor grand theft.

Authorities say that on the night of Nov. 30, the pair stole the roof panel from a tow truck carrying the destroyed Porsche away from the crash site -- even after a sheriff's deputy told them they couldn't take any vehicle parts.

The tow truck driver -- who had been stopped at a red light when the theft occurred -- reported it to authorities, officials said. Search warrants were served, and investigators found some of the parts at a home in Canyon Country.

A photo posted to an Instagram account for @jamesonwitty showed what the user claimed to be a piece of the Porsche from the crash: “Piece of Paul walkers car, took it off a tow truck at a stop light…#paulwalker” #rip #comeup.”

A second message posted on the same account offered an apology, in which the car enthusiast said he took the roof to make a memorial out of it.

“Paul was a childhood idol to me and many. At the time I was not thinking about the consequences it could have, I never wanted it to be like this I wasn’t going to sell the piece to make a profit,” the message reads. “Nobody in this world is perfect, we all make mistakes. Some bigger than others.”

Walker, 40, died Nov. 30 from a combination of traumatic injuries and burns after the Porsche crashed into a light pole in Santa Clarita and erupted in flames.


Roger Rodas, 38, Walker's financial advisor and friend, was behind the wheel of the high-performance 2005 Porsche when it crashed. He was killed by the impact alone, a medical examiner concluded.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department's report determined that the sports car was traveling at more than 90 mph.

Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash indicated Whitty and Janow could each face about 180 days in jail, according the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Witty is due back in court for sentencing Aug. 14, Janow on Oct. 23. LA Times

Sudanese Christian mother who faced death sentence arrives in US

July 24, 2014: In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets Meriam Ibrahim, from Sudan, with her daughter Maya in her arms, in his Santa Marta residence, at the Vatican. The Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to recant her Christian faith has arrived in Italy along with her family, including the infant born in prison. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA –  A #Sudanese #woman who refused to recant her #Christian faith in the face of a death sentence, which was later overturned, has arrived in the United States after a flight from Rome.

Meriam Ibrahim stopped in Philadelphia briefly before she headed to Manchester, New Hampshire, where she was greeted by cheering supporters waving American flags.

Her husband, who has U.S. citizenship, had previously lived in New Hampshire and has family already there.

Officials at Philadelphia International Airport say she arrived with her family late Thursday afternoon.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was at the airport to greet her.

Meriam's husband, Daniel Wani, had previously lived in New Hampshire, where hundreds of southern Sudanese refugees have settled over the years. He had been granted U.S. citizenship when he fled to the United States as a child to escape civil war, but he later returned and was a citizen of South Sudan.

Sudan initially blocked Ibrahim from leaving the country even after its highest court overturned her death sentence in June. At one point, the family took refuge at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum.

Devlin said Ibrahim expressed some sadness when he talked to her Wednesday.

"She is leaving everything she knows behind," he said.

Ibrahim had been sentenced to death over charges of apostasy. Her father was Muslim, and her mother was an Orthodox Christian. She married Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan, in 2011. Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims. By law, children must follow their father's religion.

Manchester, with 110,000 people, is northern New England's largest city and has been a magnet for immigrants and refugees for decades. There are about 500 Sudanese living in the city just north of the Massachusetts state line.

A small gathering is planned at the airport tonight, said Gabriel Wani, Ibrahim's brother-in-law. He spoke to his brother and said the family is doing well.

"We're just going to go and bring them home," he said. "They want to come home and they want to rest."

Monyroor Teng, pastor of the Sudanese Evangelical Covenant Church in Manchester, said Ibrahim's release gives him hope.

"People are really happy to receive them when they come home," he said. "It's a miracle to me. I didn't think that something like this would happen because in Sudan, when something happens like that, it's unreal. It happens to so many people. Maybe, who knows, I'm praying for those (other) ladies who are in jail and those who have died." Fox News

Confirmed: CIA spied on Senate staff

U.S. Capitol building in Washington (Reuters / Jason Reed)

The head of the Central Intelligence Agency apologized privately to lawmakers on Tuesday after an internal review revealed that #CIA employees had secretly monitored, as alleged, the computer usage of certain Senate staffers.

Director John Brennan’s admission this week that members of his agency “acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding” among the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee came months after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the chairperson of that panel, complained on the floor of Congress that her staff had been subjected to covert monitoring as they worked on an official investigation into the CIA’s now defunct detention and interrogation practices. That report — a 6,300-page review of tactics employed by the CIA considered by some to be forms of torture — has yet to be made public.

Dean Boyd, a spokesperson for the CIA, told journalists at McClatchy that an investigation into Sen. Feinstein’s allegations led the agency to determine that some degree of wrongdoing did occur, and an additional review is now being undertaken to examine what action, if any, the agency will take.

In March, Sen. Feinstein told reporters that the CIA general counsel’s office was conducting a review of how her committee “investigated allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program,” and that the probe would assess whether her staffers had at any point removed secret documents from a secure facility outside of Washington, DC while working on that report. On her part, Feinstein said those allegations led her to believe the CIA was secretly monitoring her staff while they worked on the torture report, and said she had "grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the US Constitution.”

“I am deeply dismayed that some members of the Senate have decided to make spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts,” Brennan, the agency’s director, responded at the time. “I am very confident that the appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the executive branch or legislative branch.”

Speaking to McClatchy, Boyd said that Brennan on Tuesday briefed Feinstein and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), the vice chairman of the intelligence committee, on the findings of the internal review.

“The director . . . apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG (Office of Inspector General Report),” Boyd said in a statement.

Next, the spokesperson added, the findings will be reviewed by an accountability board chaired by retired Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, which will then “conduct interviews as needed and provide the director with recommendations that, depending on its findings, could include potential disciplinary measures and/or steps to address systemic issues.”

“Recognizing the importance of this matter and the need to resolve it in a way that preserved the crucial equities of both branches, Director Brennan asked the CIA Office of Inspector General to examine the actions of CIA personnel,” Boyd added.

According to McClatchy, though, Feinstein’s staff is still being scrutinized. The Senate Sergeant at Arms office, Jonathan Landay and Ali Watkins reported, is still investigating whether or not the Intelligence Committee staff removed classified documents without authorization.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice confirmed that, after a careful review, it failed to find sufficient evidence to further carry a criminal investigation into either the CIA’s spying or the allegations of document stealing. RT

Six Philly cops indicted for kidnapping, extortion, robbery

(TOP L-R) Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, John Speiser (BOTTOM L-R) Linwood Norman, Perry Betts, Thomas Liciardello (RT / Philadelphia Police Department)

Six #Philadelphia #police officers have been arrested on charges - including conspiracy, robbery, extortion, kidnapping, and drug dealing - for a six-year racketeering scheme during which the group netted $500,000 in drugs, cash, and personal property.

The indictment of the officers, formerly part of the city’s narcotics field unit, comes after a two-year joint investigation by the FBI, federal prosecutors, and the Philadelphia Police internal affairs unit, said US Attorney Zane David Memeger.

"I have been a police officer for more than 40 years, and this is one of the worst cases of corruption that I have ever heard," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told reporters on Wednesday.

"Words just don't describe the degree to which their acts have brought discredit," he added, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Memeger said the officers were involved in a variety of crimes between February 2006 and November 2012, including beatings, threatening to shoot suspects, busting into homes without warrants to steal drugs and money, and the distribution of narcotics.

In one instance, the officers allegedly held a drug suspect over a balcony railing of an 18th-floor apartment during an interrogation, federal prosecutors said.

In another case, the six officers kidnapped a drug suspect and held him in a hotel room for days while making threats to his family.

"The reprehensible conduct alleged to have been committed by the six charged officers tarnishes the badge held by the thousands of officers who currently serve -- and have previously served -- this city with distinction," Memeger said.

The officers indicted in the case are Thomas Liciardello, 38; Brian Reynolds, 43; Michael Spicer, 46; Perry Betts, 46; Linwood Norman, 46; and John Speiser, 44. All were arrested Wednesday at their homes, authorities said.

Their arrests now cast doubt on dozens of their past cases, and could reopen a host of civil rights lawsuits from suspects they arrested. These lawsuits have already cost the city at least $777,000.

"Our clients have been waiting for this day for some time now," said Jonathan James, a civil rights lawyer representing clients in lawsuits against the officers. "They look forward to the day when these officers are punished by the very law they hid behind in their efforts to illegally charge our clients."

The officers often attempted to cover their activities by falsifying police reports, Memeger said.

Information provided to investigators by former narcotics unit member Jeffrey Walker was used to build the case against the rogue officers, Commissioner Ramsey said.

Walker was arrested in May 2013 on charges of robbery extortion, and committing criminal acts through his position as a police officer, according to a criminal complaint. He pleaded guilty to robbery charges and will be sentenced on Nov. 4, according to Patty Hartman, spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office.

The information provided by Walker led to the removal of the six officers from the narcotics unit after the district Attorney’s Office told the commissioner’s office that their testimony could no longer be used in their cases, Ramsey said. The officers were not fired at the time in an effort to maintain the integrity of the ongoing investigation, he added.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the officers’ previous convictions, it said in a statement.

The officers will be held in custody until trial, Memeger said.

"My client is a good, decent family man, presumed innocent by law," Jack McMahon, attorney for Officer Reynolds, said Wednesday. "These are merely accusations by a bunch of police-hating drug dealers."

If convicted, the six officers face between 40 years and life in prison, Memeger said.

"That many of the victims were drug dealers, not Boy Scouts, is irrelevant," said Edward Hanko, head of the FBI's Philadelphia office. "This corrupt group chose to make their own rules. Now they will have to answer for it." RT

Pentagon team dispatched to Ukraine amid crisis with Russia

In this photo taken on Saturday, July 5, 2014, Ukrainian soldiers walk outside the city government headquarters in the city of Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine. After Ukrainian forces’ seizure of a key rebel stronghold in the east, the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk could be the next focus of major fighting. Three bridges on roads leading to Donetsk were blown up Monday — possibly to hinder military movements, though the rebels claim it was the work of pro-Kiev saboteurs. (AP Photo)

A team of #Pentagon officials is heading to #Ukraine to help the country rebuild its fractured military, a mission that lawmakers and analysts expect will result in recommendations for greater military assistance in the country’s fight against pro-#Russia separatists amid international outrage over the downing of a commercial airplane.

Within the next few weeks, a group of Defense Department representatives who specialize in strategy and policy will head to Kiev to evaluate specific programs that the United States may want to help bolster, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

Their objective is to work with Ukrainians to “shape and establish an enduring program for future U.S. efforts to support the Ukrainian military through subject-matter expert teams and long-term advisers,” he said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, offered qualified support for the plan.
“Clearly, we have an interest in what happens in Ukraine and it’s far better to have an idea of where we can maximize any support we are willing to provide,” he said.

The U.S. is moving to bolster Ukraine’s defense infrastructure as Russian President Vladimir Putin faces increasing pressure to cut off support to separatists who have seized control of a swath of eastern Ukraine.

While the international community focuses on a response to the downing of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 over Ukrainian airspace, the country’s armed forces have continued to press a military campaign against rebels who have largely retreated to two eastern cities and issued increasingly desperate pleas to Russia for assistance.

Mr. Putin, who showed little inclination to come to the rebels’ aid with thousands of troops massed on the Ukrainian border before the airplane was shot down, has been preoccupied with publicly challenging the narrative that Russia carries some culpability for the assault on the Malaysian airliner.

The Russian president in recent days has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine and said he would press the rebels to cooperate with an international investigation into the incident, which resulted in the deaths of 298 people.
As U.S. officials disclosed Tuesday that they were nearly certain the rebels shot down the passenger plane with a Russian-supplied missile system, European Union officials went forward with increased sanctions on Russia for not acting decisively to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict. Further and more severe sanctions were threatened if Russia does not quickly rein in the rebels.

While he continues to criticize Kiev for its counteroffensive against rebels in the east, Mr. Putin likely will “offer an olive branch” to deflect the political and diplomatic pressure his country faces, said Steve Ganyard, president of Avascent International and former deputy assistant secretary of state for plans, programs and operations in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

“I think that Mr. Putin is going to look for a face-saving way to avoid an international investigation that is going to show Russian culpability,” he said. “And I think he’ll come in and offer a six-month cease-fire and lots of things that are going to calm down international anger, and then six months later he’ll be back at it again.”

Even as Mr. Putin is increasingly pressured to conciliate the international community over Russia’s support for the rebels, the Defense Department intends to begin looking for an innovative way to bolster the army of the former Soviet bloc country.

Steven Pifer, a national security analyst for the Brookings Institution, said the international incident should be a clear sign to the Obama administration that now is the time to supply lethal weaponry.
Mr. Pifer, head of Brookings’ arms control initiative who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000, said the Ukrainians need light anti-armor weapons and manned portable air defense systems to keep the Russians at bay.

I want to make sure that the potential costs to the Russians in the event of a military incursion in Ukraine are as high as possible,” he said.

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, has said the United States is past due in providing direct military support to Ukraine. In the hours after the downing of the Malaysian airliner, he criticized the “cowardly” Obama administration for failing “to give the Ukrainians weapons with which to defend themselves.”

Mr. McCain told Fox News that the deadly crash warranted a weapons delivery from the United States to Ukraine so that its security forces are properly equipped to “regain their territory.”

The Pentagon has provided Ukraine with radios, individual first-aid kits, sleeping mats, neck gaiters, jackets and body armor but stopped short of offering anything that the country’s defense officials have requested that could be perceived as direct military assistance.

Over the next weeks to months, additional items will move through the procurement process, including night-vision devices, thermal imagers, helmets, explosive-ordnance disposal robots, and additional radios, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said.

Defense Department officials say the equipment request list that Ukraine provided to the United States earlier this year is dated and “conditions may have changed.” In addition, that list is not based on a coherent defense strategy, one Pentagon official said.

“It’s important to keep in mind that one of the reasons we’re sending people over there now to help them establish enduring programs is because they don’t have enduring programs,” the official said. “So two months ago, when they generated their request list, that list wasn’t a result of a well-established defense strategy.”

Paul Schwartz, a national security analyst who specializes in Russia and Eurasia studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Ukrainian defense capabilities “declined substantially after the Cold War” because of years of underinvestment. But he said the country’s forces still have the capabilities at least to engage the separatists.

“After a slow start, the Ukrainian military has proven sufficiently capable to make inroads on rebel-held territory in Eastern Ukraine,” he said.

Mr. Ganyard said it was unclear how successful the Pentagon team’s efforts might be. Before the United States can begin to rebuild Ukraine’s fractured military, he said, policymakers must decide what they want it to look like.

“What do we want them to be?” he asked. “Is it a force that stands on its own and can guard against all its borders? Or do we just want them to be able to defend themselves against Russia?”
Source: Washington Times

U.S. Crackdown On Human Trafficking Leads To 192 Arrests, Seizure Of Over $625,000 In Illicit Profits

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the campaign underscored the government's pledge that U.S. borders were not open to illegal immigration. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. officials have made almost 200 arrests and seized more than $625,000 in illicit profits in a month-long crackdown on human smuggling in response to an influx of illegal immigration into Texas, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the campaign underscored the government's pledge that U.S. borders were not open to illegal immigration "and that if you enter the United States illegally, we will send you back."

"Equally important, those who prey upon migrants for financial gain will be targeted, arrested and prosecuted," he added in a statement.

"We are focusing on the pocketbooks of these human smugglers, including their money laundering activities in the United States - working with our Mexican and Central American partners to track, interdict, and seize the money flowing through Mexico and Central America."

Johnson said the government sent extra personnel to Texas' Rio Grande Valley in late June to combat human smuggling operations on the southwest U.S. border.

"Less than a month into this operation, 192 smugglers and their associates have already been arrested on criminal charges, more than 501 undocumented immigrants have been taken into custody and more than $625,000 in illicit profits have been seized from 288 bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations," the secretary said.

Immigration enforcement authorities, it said, "will continue to prioritize cases involving smuggling or transporting of undocumented individuals, including minors, into the United States."

The Obama administration has been seeking to deal with a surge of undocumented children across the southern border.

During the nine months ending June 30, more than 57,000 children were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border, most from Central America, and double last year's count, according to U.S. government data.

President Barack Obama meets the leaders of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador on Friday to discuss cooperation in dealing with the flow of child migrants. (Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Ron Popeski) Huffington Post

Tobacco giant to pay $23bn damages to Florida smoker’s widow

AFP Photo / Andrew Burton

A jury in Florida has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 36 punitive damages of $23 billion. RJ Reynolds, the second biggest #tobacco company in the US, plans to challenge “this runaway verdict.”

The judgment is the largest in Florida’s history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, said a spokesman for the widow’s lawyer, Chris Chesnut.

Cynthia Robinson sued RJ Reynolds - which produces Winston, Camel and Pall Mall - back in 2008 over the death of her husband Michael Johnson, arguing the cigarette company concealed the dangers and addictive nature of smoking.

Johnson smoked between one and three packets a day for more than 20 years and died of lung cancer aged just 36 some 18 years ago.

“He couldn’t quit. He was smoking the day he died,” Chesnut told Reuters Saturday.

After 11 hours of deliberations the jury granted damages of $7.3 million to the widow and the couple’s child, and $9.6 million to Johnson’s son from a previous relationship.

The jury then deliberated for another seven hours and awarded Robinson a further $23.6 billion in punitive damages.

Jeffrey Raborn, the vice president of Reynolds American Inc., said in a statement as quoted by the New York Times, that they would challenge “this runaway verdict.” Appeals by large companies against individuals are often successful.

But Chesnut defended the jury, saying “This wasn’t a runaway jury, it was a courageous one.”

He said the jury saw evidence of RJ Reynolds aggressive marketing of tobacco products, which were aimed mainly at young people, and were exposed to the standard defense of tobacco companies, i.e. that it was Johnson’s choice to smoke.

“They lied to Congress, they lied to the public, they lied to smokers and tried to blame the smoker,” he said.

Robinson’s case was initially part of a large class- action which was filed in 1994 and was known as the ‘Engel case’.

In 2000, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded the group a total of $145 billion in punitive damages, which then was the largest judgment in US history.

But in 2006, Florida’s Supreme Court tossed it out and ruled that the group of plaintiffs was too disparate and that each consumer had smoked for different reasons. However, the court also ruled that the plaintiffs could file lawsuits individually and this is what Robinson did.

Last August a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida awarded $37.5 million, including $22.5 million in punitive damages, against RJ Reynolds to the family of a smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 38. RT

Debilitating case of mosquito-borne chikungunya reported in U.S.

Female Aedes mosquito feeding

Ever since the first local transmission of chikungunya was reported in the Americas late last year, health officials have been bracing for the arrival of the debilitating, mosquito-borne virus in the United States. Just seven months after the first cases were found in the Caribbean, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first locally acquired case of chikungunya in Florida.

Even though chikungunya is not on the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System list, 31 states and two U.S. territories have reported cases of the disease since the beginning of the year. But only Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands reported locally acquired cases. All the other cases were travelers who were infected in countries where the virus was endemic and were diagnosed upon returning to the United States.

That ended Thursday, when the CDC reported a man in Florida, who had not recently traveled outside the country, came down with the illness.

As of right now, the Florida Department of Health confirmed there are at least two cases. One case is in Miami Dade County and the other is in Palm Beach County.

Its arrival did not surprise the chair of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board.
"It was just a matter of when. We are prepared in the Keys and have been prepared for some time to deal with chikungunya," Steve Smith said. "From what I am seeing, I'm sure there are more cases out there that we don't know about. It's really a matter of time."

The CDC is working closely with the Florida Department of Health to investigate how the patient came down with the virus. The CDC will also monitor for additional locally acquired U.S. cases in the coming weeks and months.

The virus, which can cause joint pain and arthritis-like symptoms, has been on the U.S. public health radar for some time.

Usually about 25 to 28 infected travelers bring it to the United States each year. But this new case represents the first time that mosquitoes themselves are thought to have transferred the disease within the continental United States

"The arrival of chikungunya virus, first in the tropical Americas and now in the United States, underscores the risks posed by this and other exotic pathogens," said Roger Nasci, chief of CDC's Arboviral Diseases Branch. "This emphasizes the importance of CDC's health security initiatives designed to maintain effective surveillance networks, diagnostic laboratories and mosquito control programs both in the United States and around the world."

The virus is not deadly, but it can be extremely painful, with symptoms lasting for weeks. Those with weak immune systems, such as the elderly, are more likely to suffer from the virus' side effects than those who are healthier. About 60% to 90% of those infected will have symptoms, says Nasci. People infected with chikungunya will often have severe joint pain, particularly in their hands and feet, and can also quickly get very high fevers.

The good news, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, is that the United States is more sophisticated when it comes to controlling mosquitoes than many other nations and should be able to keep the problem under control.

"We live in a largely air-conditioned environment, and we have a lot of screening (window screens, porch screens)," Shaffner said. "So we can separate the humans from the mosquito population, but we cannot be completely be isolated."

Mosquito-borne virus worries CDC
Chikungunya was originally identified in East Africa in the 1950s. Then about 10 years ago, chikungunya spread to the Indian Ocean and India, and a few years later an outbreak in northern Italy sickened about 200 people. Now at least 74 countries plus the United States are reporting local transmission of the virus.

The ecological makeup of the United States supports the spread of an illness such as this, especially in the tropical areas of Florida and other Southern states, according to the CDC.
The other concern is the type of mosquito that carries the illness.

Unlike most mosquitoes that breed and prosper outside from dusk to dawn, the chikungunya virus is most often spread to people by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which are most active during the day, which makes it difficult to use the same chemical mosquito control measures.

These are the same mosquitoes that transmit the virus that causes dengue fever. The disease is transmitted from mosquito to human, human to mosquito and so forth. A female mosquito of this type lives three to four weeks and can bite someone every three to four days.

Shaffner and other health experts recommend people remember the mosquito-control basics:
-- Use bug spray if you are going out, especially in tropical or wooded areas near water.
-- Get rid of standing water in empty plastic pools, flower pots, pet dishes and gutters to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.

Gaza conflict: Obama warns Israel amid rising death toll

Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to expand the ground offensive in Gaza

US President Barack Obama has backed Israeli's right to self-defence, but warned against escalation in Gaza.

Speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, he underlined his support for #Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian militants.

But he said he was "deeply concerned" about civilian losses, with the #Palestinian death toll now over 300.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will arrive in the region on Saturday to try to mediate between Israel and Hamas.

Mr Ban's visit would aim to help Israelis and Palestinians "end the violence and find a way forward", UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said.

"Israel has legitimate security concerns, and we condemn the indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. But we are alarmed by Israel's heavy response," Mr Feltman added.

Mr Netanyahu has warned of a "significant expansion" of the offensive but Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, said Israel would "pay a high price" for the invasion.

Israel's ground operation followed 10 days of airstrikes on Gaza, which failed to stop Hamas firing rockets across the border.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See Also: Death Toll passes 300 in Gaza
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked Turkey and Qatar to urge Hamas to accept the terms of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel.

At least 60 Palestinians are thought to have been killed since Israel launched the ground offensive in Gaza on Thursday.

More than 300 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have been killed since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, according to officials in Gaza.

One Israeli soldier and one Israeli civilian have been killed in the clashes and several Israelis have been seriously injured.

President Obama urged Israel to conduct its operations in a way "that minimises civilian casualties"

Mr Netanyahu insisted that the ground operation was necessary to target a Hamas tunnel network, which the Israel military could not do "only from the air".

President Obama said "no nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders" but called on Israel's military to conduct its operation "in a way that minimises civilian casualties."

"The US and our friends and allies are deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life," he told reporters at the White House.

UN officials say more than 40,000 Palestinians have sought shelter from Israel's ground offensive.

After a relative lull in clashes on Friday, there were reports of increased Israeli tank fire overnight and further airstrikes early on Saturday morning. BBC News

Crash changes equation for Obama Ukraine policy

President Barack Obama, followed by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., salutes members of the military upon his arrival at New Castle Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Thursday, July 17, 2014.(Photo: Emily Varisco, AP)

WASHINGTON — Having just ratcheted up the pressure on #Russia with a new round of sanctions not 24 hours before, the #Obama administration Thursday faced a potentially volatile new development in Ukraine with the downing of a Malaysian jetliner.

As President Obama called the president of Ukraine and the prime minister of Malaysia, U.S. officials were slow to speculate about what happened until Vice President Biden later said it appeared to have been shot down.

"Not an accident, blown out of the sky," he told a conference in Detroit. While he said more investigation needs to be done, the vice president went further than any other U.S. official in attributing the crash to an intentional act.

But beyond sending investigators, the administration's options aren't clear.

"The first question is whether or not U.S. interests have changed at all in the last 24 hours," said Joshua Rovner, a professor at Southern Methodist University. "It's been a terrible day, but it's not clear to me that the U.S. interests are any different than they were the day before."

The sanctions imposed Wednesday, targeting Russian banking and energy concerns and people tied closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin, "are not meaningless sanctions at all," Rovner said. And there's still room for more economic pressure with broader, industry-wide sanctions.

To a person, U.S. officials were careful to say they didn't want to jump to conclusions. But they also acknowledged that a missile attack from Russian separatists was not unlikely.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the jetliner incident follows months of escalating tensions, with Russian-based separatists shooting down more than a dozen planes and helicopters in Ukraine.

"If evidence emerges that Russia was involved that would obviously be extremely concerning," she said.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States continues to be concerned by "the escalatory actions that we continue to see from Russia.

"However, we don't have enough info about this specific incident," she said. "And I don't want to speculate about who's to blame or the root causes, when we don't have that information yet."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was more willing to speculate, telling MSNBC that it had the "earmarks of a mistaken identification" incident.

If that turns out to be the case, there will be "incredible repercussions," he said. "Exactly what those will be will have to be determined by how we find out who was responsible."

Those repercussions could be diplomatic, economic and military, said Stephen Black, a Russia fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.

"I think we could bring this to the U.N. and start the ball rolling," he said. "Not just the Security Council, but the General Assembly, where Russia can't veto it. There are more economic tools. We did not simply block them from doing dollar-denominated transactions."

If nothing else, the incident demonstrates that the situation in #Ukraine has impacts felt across the globe, said Damon Wilson, who served as a Russia and Ukraine expert in the administrations of former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Wilson, now with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, said the U.S. and its allies should ratchet up "sanctions that bite, along with military assistance, including lethal military assistance to Ukraine."

News reports of the downed airliner emerged even as Obama was on the phone with Putin Thursday morning. The call was arranged at Moscow's urging to discuss the sanctions Obama announced late Wednesday.

Obama told Putin the United States and its allies are willing to take additional measures if Russia doesn't work to deescalate the conflict, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. "They could shut down the border and prevent the transfer of heavy weapons and materiel to separatists. They have not done that. President Putin himself could intervene with pro-Russian separatists and encourage them to abide by the ceasefire. He has not done that," he said. USA Today

Gold worth millions recovered from 1857 shipwreck

Gold bars and coins came from the SS Central America, a mail steamship that sank in a hurricane in September 1857 off the Carolinas. (Photo: AP)

Millions of dollars worth of gold has been recovered from a famous 19th-century shipwreck off South Carolina being fought over in court, the first inventories of the salvaged cargo show.

A federal judge in Virginia overseeing the recovery effort from the SS Central America released the mid-April-to-mid-June tallies late Wednesday, the Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday. An updated list is likely soon.

AP based the estimated value of the gold coins and bars on treasure that was sold for $50 million to $60 million after the shipwreck was found in 1988 by Tommy Thompson of Columbus, Ohio, now a fugitive and the target of lawsuits from jilted investors who bankrolled his expedition.

The New York-bound mail steamship sank during a hurricane in 1857, killing 425 people and sending tons of California Gold Rush fortune to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about 160 miles off South Carolina. The lost cargo caused a financial panic.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith settled an ownership dispute and granted salvage rights to Recovery Limited Partnership, which is run by a court-appointed receiver. Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration had been hired to lead the latest operation, which began in April.

The inventories show that 43 gold bars, 1,302 $20 double-eagle gold coins, 37 $10 eagle gold coins, and 9,053 10-cent silver coins have been brought to the surface. The chief scientist of the recovery told the Dispatch that the quality and variety of the coins, some dating to 1823, were "astonishing."

AP estimated that the $20 and $10 coins could sell for "up to $9 million, potentially more" based on proceeds from treasure recovered at an 1865 shipwreck.

Valuing gold bars is more complicated, because of "myriad factors," AP wrote. Citing Sotheby's estimates in 2000, bars weighing up to 54 pounds that were recovered initially from the SS Central America were worth "$8,000 to $250,000 each."

Salvage crews have discovered a trove of personal items, including eyeglasses and glass-plate photographs of at least 60 passengers. The salvager is working on how to safely retrieve the photos, known as ambrotypes. USA Today

US sentences British men over Taliban support

New York (AFP) – A #US judge sentenced two British men to a combined total of 20.5 years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to provide and for providing equipment and personnel to the Taliban.

Computer engineer Babar Ahmad was sentenced to 12.5 years and Syed Talha Ahsan, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in custody, to time served at eight years.

They were arrested by British police in 2004 and 2006 respectively and extradited to the United States in 2012 as part of a batch of Britons wanted on terror charges.

British campaigners bitterly opposed their extradition on the grounds that they were held so long without charge and arguing they should be tried at home.

Both sentences were lighter than demanded by prosecutors.

Ahmad, 40, and Ahsan, 34, were indicted in Connecticut on charges of conspiring to support and supporting the Taliban regime in Afghanistan while they sheltered Al-Qaeda, Chechens fighting the Russians and related terror groups.

For years, they pleaded not guilty but in December changed their plea on two counts of the indictment — conspiring to provide and providing support to the former #Taliban regime.

US District Judge Janet Hall sentenced Ahmad to 150 months’ imprisonment and Ahsan to 96 months, or time already served.

The case was heard in US federal court in New Haven, Connecticut because websites they ran in London relied for a time on a Connecticut hosting company.

Released shortly?

Ahsan is now expected to be released and deported. Ahmad has already served a decade in custody and reports suggest he too could be freed in months.

Their cases attracted the support of thousands in Britain and campaigners say Ahmad was the Briton held the longest without charge as part of the global ”war on terror.”

The son of a retired civil servant and a retired science teacher, Ahmad worked in the IT department of London’s prestigious Imperial College at the time of his arrest.

Ahsan, who was educated at one of Britain’s top private schools and has a degree with first class honors in Arabic, was looking for a job as a librarian when he was detained.

He now writes poetry, for which he has won prizes.

But the US government says the men supported terror, even after the 9/11 attacks, by running websites produced under the name Azzam Publications and operated from 1996 to 2002.

Prosecutors said Ahmad recruited and arranged for would-be fighters to travel to Afghanistan to train, and solicited military suits and gas masks for the Taliban against US retaliation after the 2000 Al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole.

According to court papers, he tried to secure GPS devices, Kevlar helmets, night vision goggles, ballistic vests and camouflage combat suits.

The Taliban, in power from 1996 until late 2001, sheltered Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda until they were toppled by the 2001 US-led offensive that followed the 9/11 attacks.

During that time, Al-Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the USS Cole and carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

US prosecutors welcomed the sentences despite having called for stiffer penalties.

Attorney Deirdre Daly said Ahmad provided ”unprecedented” support to terrorists for over seven years, knowing that his efforts could result in deaths of Americans and others.

After the 9/11 attacks, Ahmad and the websites urged Pakistanis all over the world to travel to Afghanistan to fight the 2001 US-led invasion, US prosecutors said.

Both defendants had accessed an email that contained previously classified plans regarding the deployment of a US naval battle group from California to the Middle East.

Azzam Publications also posted detailed instructions on how to raise and deliver amounts over $20,000 in cash via the Taliban’s consulate in Pakistan.

In 2009, Ahmad won 60,000 pounds ($102,817 today) compensation from British police after being injured while he was held briefly without charge in December 2003.

Officers re-arrested him in August 2004 following an extradition request from the United States.

Both Ahmad and Ahsan were flown to the United States with radical cleric Abu Hamza, who was convicted in May on 11 kidnapping and terror charges, and faces life behind bars. MB

Violent California police chase ends with 3 dead

(CNN) -- A wild bank #robbery chase that saw two hostages thrown from the getaway car and suspects spraying bullets ended in a gunfight and three people dead in Stockton, #California, police said Wednesday.

Two suspects were killed by officers but not before the robbers fatally shot one hostage, police said.
The other suspect was wounded in the gunfight.

The chase began about 2 p.m. at a Bank of the West branch in Stockton. Three suspects took three female hostages from the bank and stole an employee's SUV.

"I noticed that the front (door) of the Bank of the West opened slowly," Jose Maldonado told CNN affiliate KOVR. "Three guys had three guns and had the guns to the hostages' heads. They were petrified. Their faces were white. They were so scared," Maldonado told the station.

Officers chased the car. One hostage was thrown from the vehicle, police said. She had been shot and was taken to a hospital.

The chase continued as the suspects fired from the car, which was racing along Interstate 5 and State Highway 99, known as the Golden Gate Freeway.

The chase ended in Lodi shortly after a second hostage, who had a non-life threatening gunshot wound, was thrown from the car.

Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspects.
"It sounded like five minutes of straight gunfire," Sam York told CNN affiliate KCRA. "It seemed like it wasn't real."

When police saw no one moving in the SUV they moved in. They found three dead -- two suspects and one hostage. The third wounded suspect was hospitalized. CNN

Obama: US using all means to get Israel-Gaza ceasefire

US President Barack Obama speaks as he hosts an Iftar dinner in the State Dinning Room at the White House in Washington on July 14, 2014. Obama said he hopes Egypt's ceasefire plan can restore calm in Gaza (Photo credit: Jewel Samad/AFP)

ASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack #Obama said Wednesday that the United States will use all its diplomatic resources and relationships to secure a deal on a cease-fire to end violence between #Israel and #Hamas in the #Gaza Strip

Obama said the US supports Egypt’s continued efforts to restore the 2012 cease-fire. He said the US was working with its partners in the region to secure a cease-fire and would stay in close contact during the next 24 hours.

Obama said Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket attacks, but also lamented the deaths of civilians in Gaza. He stressed the need to protect civilians in Gaza and in Israel and to avoid further escalation.

“There’s no country on Earth that can be expected to live under a daily barrage of rockets,” Obama said at the White House.

“But over the past two weeks, we’ve all been heartbroken by the violence, especially the death and injury of so many innocent civilians in Gaza — men, women and children who were caught in the crossfire. That’s why we have been working with our partners in the region to pursue a cease-fire, to protect civilians on both sides.

“Now, yesterday Israel did agree to a cease-fire. Unfortunately, Hamas continued to fire rockets at civilians, thereby prolonging the conflict.”

The Israeli military has agreed to a UN-brokered five-hour “humanitarian” pause starting Thursday in its strikes on the Gaza Strip to allow Palestinians to restock food, water and other necessities. An attack Wednesday by an Israeli naval vessel killed four Palestinian boys playing on the beach.

In response to a call by the UN, the Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday that it would hold its fire for five hours starting at 5 a.m. EDT. But it warned it will retaliate “firmly and decisively” if Hamas or other militant groups launch attacks on Israel during that time. It also said residents of three Gaza neighborhoods who on Wednesday asked to leave their homes should be out by the time the pause expires.

The announcement came after a day of Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian militant rocket attacks as Hamas formally rejected a cease-fire proposal that had been accepted by Israel to end the nine-day conflict that officials say has left at least 213 Palestinians and one Israeli dead. The Times of Israel

US imposes toughest sanctions yet on Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin - File Photo

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced the most wide-ranging sanctions yet on the Russian economy, targeting key institutions including Gazprombank and Rosneft Oil Co, as well as other energy and defense companies.

Washington has steadily escalated its financial sanctions on #Russia over what it views as Moscow's interference in its neighbor #Ukraine and its annexation of the Crimea region. Obama said the United States could impose further sanctions if Russia did not take concrete steps to ease the conflict.

The targeted companies also include Russia's second-largest gas producer, Novatek, Vnesheconombank, or VEB, a state-owned bank that acts as payment agent for the Russian government, and eight arms firms.

The U.S. Treasury Department, which posted the sanctions on its website, said the measures effectively closed medium- and long-term dollar funding to the two banks and energy companies. But the sanctions did not freeze those four companies' assets.

The sanctions stopped short of targeting Russia's Gazprom , the world's largest natural gas producer and provider of much of Europe's energy supplies. Gazprombank is 36 percent-owned by Gazprom.

"These sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted, designed to have the maximum impact on Russia while limiting any spillover impact on American companies or those of our allies," #Obama told reporters.

The new measures were announced on the same day that European Union leaders met in Brussels and agreed to expand their own sanctions on Russia.

The new U.S. sanctions also include Feodosiya Enterprises, a shipping facility in Crimea, and senior Russian officials, several of whom had already been targeted by the European Union.

The affected senior officials included the deputy head of the State Duma, or parliament, the minister of the Crimea, a commander of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and a Ukrainian separatist leader.

"We have emphasized our preference to resolve this issue diplomatically," Obama said. "We have to see concrete actions, not just words, that Russia in fact is committed to trying to end this conflict."

He said Russia had continued to support separatists in east Ukraine, sending fighters and weapons across the border.

RUNNING OUT OF PATIENCE

Obama in recent weeks has repeatedly threatened new sanctions, and appears to have run out of patience as fighting continued to rage in eastern Ukraine.

The new sanctions were unlikely to please Republican lawmakers, many of whom have been calling for the imposition of sanctions on entire Russian industries, rather than specific companies, as the best way to control Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Washington said on Wednesday that up to 12,000 Russian forces were back on the border with Ukraine and that weaponry was crossing over to pro-Russian separatists.

"These are combat forces," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters.

The increase in the Russian presence occurred several weeks after Moscow had drawn down its forces in the area to about 1,000 troops.

Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, had no immediate comment. Morgan Stanley, which is selling the majority of its global physical oil trading operations to Rosneft, declined to comment. CBN News