…………………….Issue 37
BORDER SECURITY MATTERS
September 2009
borderpol@borderpol.org scott.newark@borderpol.org
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1. The Americas
The Canadian connection: Iran acquiring nuclear
materials in Canada
Rings involve both entrepreneurs and state-sponsored cells, Canadian counter-
proliferation chief says
Stewart Bell, National Post October 1, 2009
Iran has been running a sophisticated procurement operation in Canada to acquire materials for
its nuclear and weapons programs, according to a senior Canadian official.
Canadian customs officers have seized everything from centrifuge parts to programmable logic
controllers that were being illicitly shipped to Iran through third countries, George Webb said.
"We have anything to do with a nuclear program going to Iran," Mr. Webb, head of the Canada
Border Services Agency's Counter Proliferation Section, told the National Post in an exclusive
interview.
The latest seizure in Canada occurred just last week, as Iran was in the spotlight for building a
secret uranium enrichment facility that some experts say could be used for the production of
nuclear weapons.
Customs officers found a shipment of microchips that Department of National Defence analysts
have identified as possible navigational chips.
Tests are continuing but Mr. Webb said they were "probably some type of guidance system."
The tiny microchips, about a quarter the size of a fingernail, had been purchased in the United
States, Denmark and Japan, and were being shipped from Canada to the United Arab Emirates,
but officials believe the end destination was Iran. The United Nations Security Council members
and Germany were to meet today with Iranian officials to discuss Tehran's newly discovered
underground nuclear facility.
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Western leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have demanded that Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad open the plant to International Atomic Energy Agency
inspectors.
In Geneva today, Iran will likely assert its right to peaceful nuclear energy and deny it is seeking
nuclear weapons, but it is unlikely to acknowledge the clandestine methods it has used to acquire
nuclear technology.
"Iran is trying to do as much as possible indigenously but some things are either too time-
consuming to do or they don't have the infrastructure for making it so they'll buy pieces from
outside the country but with the intention of eventually making it on their own," said Geoffrey
Forden, research scientist at the MIT Science, Technology and Global Security Working Group.
Peter Jones, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and
International Affairs, said Iran's nuclear program makes use of both overseas procurement and
indigenous development.
"The equipment they've bought abroad they are able to then take apart and reverse engineer,
build their own components based upon what they've got," he said.
"So I don't think they're using entirely stuff they got from abroad but certainly it's a big part of
what they're doing."
At least some of that technology is coming through Canada. Mr. Webb said that in December
2008 his officers had seized centrifuge parts bound for Iran. Centrifuges are used to enrich
uranium. "We're still working on the case," he said.
Arrests are rare because the procurement cells are difficult to identify, but last April the RCMP
charged a Toronto man with attempting to export pressure transducers to Iran.
The devices can be used in peaceful nuclear plants but are also required to produce nuclear
weapons. Mahmoud Yadegari is scheduled to go on trial in January. He is accused of attempting
to ship the items to Iran via Dubai.
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"With all of the UN sanctions, of course, now no one declares that the goods are going to Iran.
They actually declare U. A. E., Dubai," Mr. Webb said.
Canadian customs officials have recently discovered a new port in the Persian Gulf named Ras al-
Khaimah that is being used to transship goods to Iran, Mr. Webb said.
While nominally in the U. A. E., the port is controlled by Iran and is situated just across the Gulf
from Bandar Abbas, an Iranian city with a naval base and an airport capable of landing large
transport planes.
"Ras al-Khaimah is actually leased by the Iranian government, staffed by Iranian customs," Mr.
Webb said, as he examined a classified satellite photo of the port.
"We found out about it about six months ago and this is just a little hop, skip and a jump over to a
significant airstrip. So if they boat it over, it goes in the plane, it's in Tehran real quick."
He said his officers had been finding materials in Canada that were destined for Ras al-Khaimah
but customs inspectors are now on the lookout. "All of our people in those ports are aware, so as
soon as they see it, it's hauled aside for examination and follow up."
Mr. Forden said he had not heard of Ras al-Khaimah but said that "Iran has very close ties with
the U. A. E. in terms of trading, and obviously transshipping."
As law enforcement agencies have awakened to the U. A. E.'s role as a transshipment point for
Iranian procurement, the cells have apparently shifted their routing accordingly.
"We have created such pressure on goods going to Dubai that they're now, rather than heading
east, they're actually heading west and using places like Malaysia, Hong Kong," Mr. Webb said.
He said his officers are working on a case involving a shipment that went from Toronto to
Vancouver to Hong Kong to China to Tehran. "Unfortunately, in that situation, we missed that
particular shipment, but we did get others."
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In another case, he said a company had imported a shipment of costly high-pressure pipes into
British Columbia from Texas, claiming they were for refurbishing steam engines.
"But Texas being close to Mexico, our drug team was totally convinced the piping was stuffed with
drugs," Mr. Webb said.
A CBSA intelligence officer followed the shipment from the port of Vancouver to a storage locker
in the suburb of Richmond.
"Inside the u-rental place was a 20-foot sea container, which was really strange. So now he calls,
panics, and we set up surveillance and see what the heck is going on," Mr. Webb said.
The CBSA obtained a warrant to search the company that was shipping the pipes and made
arrests but the suspects quickly disappeared. "It turns out that they were in fact Iranian," he said,
adding such piping is used "in the whole nuclear process."
He said the procurement rings operating in Canada were a mix of entrepreneurs and state-
sponsored cells that operate through front companies.
He said he expects there will be more arrests.
Halifax lands $194-million Coast Guard ship contract
Ottawa announces plans to upgrade aging fleet
Alison Auld
Halifax — The Canadian Press Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 02, 2009 04:23PM EDT
The Canadian Coast Guard will get nine new patrol vessels under a $194-million contract
announced Wednesday, years after Ottawa promised to build the ships and beef up the
country's aging fleet.
Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said Irving Shipbuilding Inc. will deliver the first midshore patrol
vessel in 2011 after the Halifax-based company beat out rival bidders from across Canada.
Standing on the Halifax waterfront and flanked by hundreds of shipyard workers, Ms. Shea
said the 43-metre-long ships will be used in national fisheries conservation programs, and
security surveillance in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system.
―These ships ... are a new model for the Canadian Coast Guard,‖ she said in front of a
backdrop of navy vessels being refitted.
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―With greater speed, broader range and the ability to operate in difficult environmental
conditions, these ships will be more effective and efficient.‖
The vessels, which will be delivered by 2013, will replace aging coast guard ships that have
been patrolling waterways on an interim basis since the much-delayed program was
announced in the 2007 federal budget.
Nancy Hurlburt, the coast guard's assistant commissioner for the Atlantic region, said the new
assets will let them go out to sea for weeks at a time without having to come back to shore as
they patrol for overfishing and other illegal activities.
But she said the nine falls short of the 12 that were originally pledged by the minister of
fisheries when the budget was tabled in 2007. They'll now have to recondition three vessels
now in service to make up for the shortfall.
―We're going to do some work on them to make them available so they'll be able to deliver
programs,‖ she said. ―So, we'll still have 12 vessels – nine new, three reconditioned.‖
Four of the vessels will be stationed in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway region and
the rest will be in ports in the Maritimes, Pacific and Quebec regions, though those haven't yet
been identified.
In 2008, the Conservative government scuttled a tender call for the purchase of the 12
midshore patrol ships, arguing it had to ensure taxpayers receive the best value for their
money.
Ottawa also halted the navy's $2.9-billion project to replace its aging supply ships, saying bids
from the shipbuilding industry were significantly higher than the money set aside for the
program.
Wednesday's announcement came weeks after the federal Conservatives gathered the
country's shipbuilders behind closed doors to salvage tens of billions of dollars worth of navy
and coast guard vessels.
Cabinet ministers called on competitors to work with the Ottawa to roll out as many as 50
large ship projects – worth an estimated $40-billion – over the next 30 years.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the announcement on the patrol vessels signalled a first
step in streamlining the procurement process, which has been stalled by government missteps
and failed projects.
―I think it's going to go a long way to breaking what was a logjam when it came to
shipbuilding in Canada,‖ he said on the waterfront.
―There's a lot more to come and a lot more vessels that the Canadian Forces, in particular our
navy, need.‖
Halifax Shipyard estimates the deal will employ 155 people over four years, giving hope to
workers who have seen their industry ebb and flow over the last decade.
―It's good. It's going to take me right into retirement, I hope,‖ said Art Howarth, a 48-year-old
iron worker.
―This here will definitely keep me in the yard with full-time work, which has been very rare
over the last 10 years.‖
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Border guards using guns, batons, pepper spray more often: report
September 2009- Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada's border guards are pulling out their guns, batons and pepper spray
much more frequently, says a newly released report, suggesting border crossings are
becoming more dangerous places.
There were 127 so-called use-of-force incidents in the year ending March 31, almost
three times more than occurred in each of the previous two years.
And guards who began to carry sidearms in July 2007 are now pulling them from their
holsters about three times a month.
The report says no guns were actually fired in the 34 cases where the sidearm was used
last year. Batons were brought out five times but never used.
Pepper spray was discharged four out of the seven times it was displayed to aggressive
travellers. No one was seriously injured in any of the incidents.
The accounting of the use of force appears in a June 23 analysis by the Canada Border
Services Agency, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information
Act.
The agency defines use of force as "any situation where a CBSA officer has drawn his or
her defensive equipment, Oleoresin Capiscum 1/8pepper 3/8 spray, baton or duty firearm,
in the presence of members of the public."
Officers must file a detailed report each time a defensive weapon or force, such as a
headlock, is used while on the job.
The increasing use of pistols, which were being drawn only about once a month when
they were first introduced two years ago, appears directly related to the gradual increase
in the number of armed guards on duty.
As of March 31, more than 800 officers had been trained and assigned a duty firearm, the
9 mm Beretta P4X Storm. The agency wants to arm 4,800 guards at all land and marine
border points by 2016.
Officers have been equipped with batons and pepper spray since 2003.
The rising use of force is apparent in every region of Canada, but the increase is fastest in
two hot spots: British Columbia and Windsor, Ont.
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The 44 incidents in the Pacific Region last year - up from 13 and 29 in the previous two
years - are consistent with a 2008 internal assessment that determined Vancouver
International Airport is the second-highest risk port of entry in Canada.
It's outranked only by Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport as the riskiest in
Canada, according to the assessment, though the facility reported just five incidents last
year.
The Windsor-St. Clair crossings showed a dramatic rise last year, to 25 use-of-force
incidents from just two and three in the previous two years.
At the same time, the overall numbers are relatively low considering the Canada Border
Services Agency processed more than 93 million travellers in 2008-2009.
The report does not provide detailed information on the circumstances surrounding each
incident. But previously released internal documents show sidearms are typically drawn
when belligerent travellers are suspected to be carrying concealed firearms.
A spokeswoman for the border agency declined to comment on why there has been a
rapid rise in the number of incidents, especially in British Columbia and Windsor, Ont.,
saying only that each case is carefully reviewed.
"Situations where force is appropriate will depend on the particular threat faced by the
officers," Patrizia Giolti said in an email response to questions.
"Each incident is reviewed on a case by case basis to ensure that established standards
and protocols were followed."
Agency officers are stationed at more than 1,200 locations across Canada, including 14
international airports and 119 land crossings.
Airport employee security called lax
By BILL KAUFMANN, CALGARY SUN
Last Updated: 10th September 2009,
Authorities have been slow to clamp down on airport and airline employees recruited by
criminals to help them smuggle drugs, senators overseeing Canada's security said
yesterday.
It's a laxity in the system that could have deadly consequences for travellers, said
Senator Colin Kenney, chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and
Defence.
"It's fertile ground for terrorists to put things on planes," Kenney told the Calgary Sun
editorial board.
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Those working at airports can easily bring duffle bags or lunch pails into secure areas
unchecked "and there's no search on their way out," said Kenney, who's part of a
Senate security tour of airports.
In what he calls "incursions by organized criminals singling out staff," Alberta Senator
Tommy Banks said large sums of money offered airline workers is hard to ignore.
The comments were made before the senators toured the Calgary International Airport
yesterday.
They said the amount of contraband confiscated at Toronto's Pearson International
Airport -- some of it through the use of airport staff -- is sobering.
"There were suitcases too heavy to lift they were so full of Khat," said Kenney, referring
to an illegal leafy east African stimulant.
Kenney said he's hoping the model of Alberta's Coutts border crossing with Montana
whose main building is shared by American and Canadian agents spreads across the
country.
Senate security committee eyes private airports
September 10, 2009
(CBC)Canada should be paying more attention to security issues at private
airports, says the chair of the Senate national security and defence committee.
Ontario Liberal Senator Colin Kenny joined other senators on a visit to Calgary's
Springbank Airport on Thursday, as part of a tour examining border security.
Operators of Springbank say it's the fifth busiest airport in the country.
Kenny said that from a security standpoint, it's possible for planes — and whatever and
whomever they might be carrying — to fly in to places such as Springbank, virtually
under the radar.
That makes little sense when there's so much money and attention on security at major
airports, he suggested.
"It's a huge concern," said Kenny. "It doesn't make any sense to lock the front door and
leave the back door swinging in the breeze.
Private pilots who use airports such as Springbank must submit a flight plan and
international arrivals still must go through customs, but Kenny said there's lots of
opportunity to skirt the system.
For example, there are usually no Canada Customs officials working at Springbank — so
if an international flight lands there, a customs officer will drive 10 kilometres from
Calgary to meet the visitors.
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Calgary Flying Club manager Scott Wilcox said smaller airports are tightly regulated and
security should not be a major concern.
"The track record of aviation is one that any other industry would have a very hard time
living up to," said Wilcox. "It's a very highly regulated industry all on its own just the
way it stands."
Kenny said the Senate committee especially wants to find out how people are getting into
this country illegally, so the committee will travel next to Alberta's busiest land border
crossing at Coutts.
Review of rail security at borders cites major gaps
Thousands of shipping containers enter Canada by rail each year without proper checks
for illegal drugs and other contraband, says a new report
Dean Beeby
Ottawa — The Canadian Press Last updated on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009 04:37PM EDT
Thousands of shipping containers enter Canada by rail each year without proper checks for
illegal drugs and other contraband, says a new report.
A border screening program begun in 2000 has fallen into disrepair, with just two officers now
responsible for the vetting of some 400,000 rail cars and containers annually.
They're given almost no training, close shop on weekends, get little support from other
security officers, and have few facilities for inspecting shipments.
―The amount and level of targeting has decreased due to a lack of resources,‖ concludes the
August 2009 review, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
The screening program, known as Winfall, was begun as a pilot project in the mid-1990s after
security officials determined that almost no rail shipments entering Canada were being
inspected.
Between 1990 and 1998, customs cops seized about $5.5 billion worth of illegal drugs in
marine containers arriving at Canadian ports, or about 60 per cent of all drugs seized by
customs in that period.
Such containers also arrived at U.S. and Mexican ports and thousands were being hauled —
uninspected — into Canada by rail.
By August 2000, the federal government had turned Winfall into a full-fledged program based
in Winnipeg, drawing on internal shipping data provided by Canadian National Railway Co.
(CNR-T54.190.120.22%) and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., (CP-T52.90-0.10-0.19%) which
together account for more than 95 per cent of all rail traffic in Canada.
The railways deliver the data up to six days before shipments originating in Mexico and the
United States arrive in Canada, allowing inspectors to be pro-active about targeting suspect
rail cars and containers.
The rail lines are then notified of suspect shipments and place an internal hold on the goods so
they can be inspected by border officers at rail yards.
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From December 2005 to November 2006, Winfall officers were responsible for the screening of
about 45,000 containers and 344,000 rail cars. But very few drugs were ever found because
the program has been starved of resources and support.
The internal review was based on a June 8-11, 2009, visit by Canada Border Services Agency
investigators to the Winnipeg headquarters of Winfall.
There they found only two officers instead of the four the program was assigned, as the other
two had been poached by other areas.
The program was operating 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, with no after-hours and
weekend coverage even though rail traffic moves 24/7. Training was virtually non-existent,
with staff forced to learn on the job.
The two officers often received little co-operation with other sections of the Canada Border
Services Agency when a rail car or container inspection was required.
―When targets are issued for examinations, communications with the regions are laboured and
therefore the requests are often not actioned,‖ says one document.
And there are no formal agreements with the railways for sharing shipping data, which is
currently in an awkward format. ―Extracting information from the CN and CP systems is
cumbersome and significant time and energy is spent by the targeters searching for data.‖
The report's findings come as no surprise to Colin Kenny, the Liberal-appointed senator who
chairs the Senate's national security and defence committee.
―Trains are a big black hole,‖ Mr. Kenny said from Calgary, the latest stop in the committee's
current cross-Canada tour examining border and airport security.
He noted American customs officials use large X-ray machines at border points to inspect all
trains arriving in the United States. They have offered use of the machines to Canada — only
to be turned down because the border service lacks the staff.
Mr. Kenny rejected the claim that because CN and CP have their own police, border officials
need not be as vigilant with rail shipments.
―CBSA is paid to check for themselves,‖ he said. ―To simply say it's a trusted shipper doesn't
cut it for me.‖
A spokeswoman for the agency said the Winfall program remains under review, with a
completion date of December.
―The CBSA will examine the current complement of staff required to conduct targeting on U.S.
in-transit rail shipments,‖ Patrizia Giolti said in an e-mail response to questions.
She said the program was scaled back in 2002, when a joint agreement was signed with the
United States to beef up the inspection of sea containers arriving at U.S. ports and bound for
Canada.
Since then, the focus has been on ―lower risk shipments‖ arriving by rail from the United
States, freeing CBSA staff for other duties, Giolti said.
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The Canada Border Services Agency currently requires air and marine carriers to provide
advance electronic information about goods coming into Canada, to help officers select high-
risk shipments for inspection when they arrive.
That requirement is being extended to highway carriers next spring and, in the fall of 2010 to
railways, which may help resolve some problems uncovered in the Winfall review
Ontario border bridge closed for 5 hours
September 19, 2009
Cornwall Island is entirely on the Canadian
side of the border but south of the new border post, which is at the north end of the
Seaway International Bridge. (Google Maps)
An international border crossing at a Cornwall, Ont., bridge between Canada and the
United States was shut down for about five hours Saturday afternoon amid ongoing
tensions between the Canada Border Services Agency and area Mohawks.
Cornwall police were called to the bridge around 12:30 p.m. ET and began diverting
traffic from the area. The unexplained closure lasted until about 5:30 p.m. ET.
The Cornwall border post was previously on Cornwall Island in Akwesasne Mohawk
Territory, which spans the Canada-U.S. border and includes the island.
However, that post was shut down June 1 by the border agency after Mohawks protested
the decision to arm border guards.
The international crossing remained closed from that date until July 13, when a
temporary border post was opened at the north end of the Seaway International Bridge.
Cornwall Island is entirely on the Canadian side of the border, but south of the new
border post, so people passing between Cornwall and Cornwall Island are now required
to stop at the new post, even though they never leave Canada.
Mohawks travelling in their territory between New York and Cornwall Island, including
those who live on the island but work in the United States, are also required to go to the
border post in Cornwall.
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On Friday, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne accused the CBSA of seizing vehicles
belonging to Mohawk residents who don't report to the new border post — and
demanding $1,000 to recover them.
Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Customs Act, the CBSA "is
required to ensure that all travellers to Canada report to the temporary port of entry
located in Cornwall," agency spokesperson Tracie LeBlanc said in an email statement
Saturday.
"These rules apply equally to all travellers."
LeBlanc said that "since July 13, we have been clearly and consistently communicating
the legal obligation for travellers to Canada to report directly to the port of Cornwall."
No punishment for customs inspector who wrote warning letter
By Janice Tibbetts , Canwest News Service September 30, 2009
The Federal Court ruled Wednesday that John King, a longtime Canadian customs
inspector who had worked at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, did not deserve to
be suspended for 30 days without pay five years ago for his letter to Tom Ridge, then U.S.
secretary of homeland security .
OTTAWA — A longtime Canadian customs inspector who wrote to the U.S. homeland security
secretary with complaints about Canadian border security in the years after 9/11 has escaped
punishment in a court decision that upheld his right to free speech.
The Federal Court ruled that John King, a former union activist who had worked at Toronto's
Pearson International Airport, did not deserve to be suspended for 30 days without pay five years
ago for his letter to Tom Ridge, then U.S. secretary of homeland security.
"The bottom line is this clarifies our freedom of speech and freedom of expression," King, who
lives in Ajax, Ont., said Wednesday.
He said he felt compelled to write Ridge in 2004 to ensure he had the "primary facts" about
Canada's border agency.
But his employers accused him of inciting fear. Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, a
myth persists in the U.S. that the terrorists entered the U.S. via Canada.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano revived concerns about the Canada-U.S. border
earlier this year.
In his letter, King told Ridge that the federal government continues to hire non-Canadians and
students to staff its border and that officers are unarmed.
At the time, King was the first national vice-president of the Customs and Excise Union and he
was on leave from his airport security job.
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He has been a long-standing thorn in the side of his bosses, until he was fired in 2007 as a result
of a separate dispute.
"Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, little has changed as far as the recruitment and
staffing practices for Canada's first line of defence," King wrote to Ridge.
He said that the border agency's practice of hiring non-Canadians "may raise concerns as all
customs officers, regardless of status, have access to our port of entry coding systems, electronic
database, internal intelligence bulletins, and other protected information as well the authority to
release persons and goods."
King noted that the U.S. only hires Americans to staff border points.
He also apprised Ridge of Canada's failure to arm border inspectors with firearms, which he said
"could prove fatal should front-line officers encounter weapons of mass destruction being
smuggled into Canada."
The Conservative government is now beginning to arm border agents with guns.
Barbara Herbert, Canada Border Services Agency vice-president of operations, suspended King
after he fired off his letter to Ridge, saying that he breached "a duty of loyalty" that public servants
owe the government.
"I find that by writing a letter about our operations that is intended to or could be construed as
pointing to a weakness in Canada's border practices to the Department of Homeland Security,
you have breached the above-noted duty and obligations," Herbert said in her reprimand letter.
She also said she was "profoundly disturbed" by King's contention that hiring non-Canadians to
work at border points posed a security threat, statements she denounced as offensive to
Canadian values.
King filed an internal grievance against his suspension and he lost. He then won his case before
the Public Service Staff Relations Board, which the Federal Court upheld in a decision released
Wednesday.
Justice Roger Hughes confirmed as "reasonable" the adjudicator's finding that there was no
evidence the letter caused harm to the border agency, nor was King revealing any information
that was not already in the public domain.
The adjudicator also concluded there is no prohibition against union officials contacting foreign
governments.
King said he never heard back from the U.S. about his letter so he has no idea whether Ridge
received or read it.
King, who was a customs inspector for 18 years, is currently fighting a much larger battle than his
30-day suspension. His 2007 firing — also related to union activity — is currently being
adjudicated by the staff relations board.
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Ouster delay queried
Federal minister wants answers
By TARINA WHITE, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 1st September 2009
With reputed gangster Jackie Tran receiving an emergency stay of his deportation on
the weekend, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is demanding why the deportation
process has stretched into a five-year ordeal.
The minister's spokesman Alykhan Velshi yesterday said Kenney is concerned the
process to remove dangerous criminals such as Tran is too lenient.
"Minister Kenney has asked for a comprehensive explanation of why this particular
removal is taking so long, and has given clear direction to his officials to do everything in
their power to ensure the speedy removal of dangerous and violent foreign criminals,"
said Velshi.
"He's also exploring different policy options to give the government more power to
remove dangerous and violent foreign criminals."
Tran was arrested last week after being a no-show at a meeting -- a direct breach of his
release conditions set last October. He faced imminent deportation before a Federal
Court judge Saturday granted him an emergency stay.
Lawyer Raj Sharma, in part, won the emergency stay on the weekend based on the
argument he still has a viable case to make to try and argue against Tran's deportation.
Sharma now intends to argue for Tran's release at a detention hearing scheduled for
tomorrow. He said his client should be freed because he isn't a risk to the community nor
a flight risk.
Canada Border Services Agency officials have been attempting to remove Tran, whose
real name is Nghia Trong Nguyen-Tran, from Canada for five years, arguing he is
involved in organized crime and a threat to society.
He was first ordered deported in 2004 for serious criminality after being convicted of
trafficking cocaine and assault with a weapon.
Sharma intends to argue before the Federal Court that errors were made in an earlier
appeal ruling on Tran's 2004 deportation, which was based on serious criminality. But it
could be months or even years before Tran's case is heard, he said.
Four rescued at U.S.-Canada border: Report
CANWEST NEWS SERVICESEPTEMBER 8, 2009
OROVILLE, Wash. — Authorities were investigating Tuesday after four people — including a
five-year-old — were rescued late Monday near the B.C.-Washington border after they were
reportedly abandoned by their guide, according to a Washington state newspaper.
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The Wenatchee World reported that investigators believed the four had entered the U.S.
illegally from Canada with three others when they were abandoned near Chopaka Mountain,
near Osoyoos, B.C., about 350 kilometres east of Vancouver.
They were found late Monday by a U.S. Navy aircraft.
The group had called 911 Sunday but could not tell where they were located, Okanogan
County Sheriff Frank Rogers told the newspaper.
A search for them did not begin until dawn Monday, due to weather.
It's believed the three other people originally with the group returned to Canada.
Investigators were looking into whether the four were Canadian citizens.
The four who were rescued have been hospitalized. It's unclear if they suffered any injuries.
A U.S. Border Patrol spokeswoman told the newspaper that the agency were also trying to
determine if this was a "larger smuggling attempt."
The B.C. RCMP could not be reached late Tuesday
Abbotsford cops nab border jumpers and $1
million of cocaine
BY IAN AUSTIN, THE PROVINCESEPTEMBER 13, 2009
Abbotsford police detain a man near the Sumas border crossing Saturday night.
Photograph by: Kevin MacDonald, For The Province
Abbotsford Police believe they‘ve made a million-dollar cocaine haul after three suspects
carried the contraband across the U.S. border.
Alerted by U.S. border guards, the Abbosford officers brought out a chopper and a police
dog to track down three men carrying duffle bags north over the border late Saturday night.
―Last night between 10:30 and 11 we a got a call from U.S. border services,‖ said Abbotsford
Police Acting Sgt. Roger Gosal.
―They said three men were seen fleeing south over the border, and the same males were
later seen coming north over the Canadian side.
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―We had the chopper check around Zero Avenue between Mt. Lehman and Huntingdon, and
a police dog was dispatched and caught two suspects.‖
Gosal said the culprits probably thought the unmanned section of the U.S.-Canada border
was a safe place to smuggle drugs.
―The border is unmanned, but there are cameras by the border which can detect movement,‖
he said. ―When the alarm and bells go off, the cameras can zero in on that area.‖
Concerned about the huge amounts of drugs flowing both ways across an unfenced border,
the U.S. Border Patrol unveiled a $10-million Sumas border station last fall to house 100
border agents.
Gosal said the investigation is ongoing, but police believe the three men crossed the border,
dropped something off on the south side, then picked up four duffel bags that were later
abandoned north of the border and confiscated by police.
Inside the four bags were 12-14 tightly-packaged white bricks of what is believed to be
cocaine worth about $1 million on the street.
―It‘s a larger amount of drugs than we usually see,‖ said Abbotsford Police Sgt. Daffydd
Herman.
―We get regular calls to the border.
―It‘s quite a common occurrence for people to walk across not at a crossing.‖
Among the charges the duo could face include importing drugs into Canada, exporting drugs
from the U.S., and crossing the border illegally.
Gosal said quick cross-border cooperation led to the drug seizure.
―They spotted them on the U.S., and then crossing over to the Canadian side,‖ he said. ―By
that time we were already en route.‖
Huge porn bust at airport
September 3, 2009- A 45-year-old teacher from St. Albert has been charged after child
pornography was seized at the Edmonton International Airport.
17
Just before 11 p.m. on Aug. 26, Canada Border Services Agency officers searched a
man's suitcase and seized "a large collection of CDs and DVDs" of child pornography
tucked inside a pouch.
The man, who had flown from Thailand via San Francisco, reportedly purchased the
materials in Thailand, said RCMP Sgt. Pat Waldorf, head of the Northern Alberta
Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit.
Waldorf said the man worked as a teacher, but has been on sick leave.
He added the man had made no attempt to conceal the materials as the discs were labelled
with pornographic images.
"We get about four to six cases like this each year," he said.
Canada Border Services spokesman Lisa White said agency officers are always on the
lookout for illegal materials, including "child pornography, obscene materials and hate
propaganda."
Kerry Glen Avey has been charged with one count of possession and one count of
importation of child pornography. He was released from police custody and is expected
to appear in court on Oct. 7.
Kid porn suspect kills self
Sun Sep 6, 6:15 AM
A St. Albert teacher facing child pornography charges was found dead in the St. Albert
RCMP detachment parking lot yesterday morning.
"Our thoughts go with the family of this person," said Cpl. Laurel Kading, with the St.
Albert RCMP. "We know this will be a terrible and trying time for them."
About 2:35 a.m., two Mounties returning from patrol found the body of Kerry Glen
Avey, 45, lying near his vehicle in the visitor's area of the RCMP detachment parking lot
close to the sidewalk, police said.
He appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said, adding a
shotgun with a shortened barrel was found near his body. Family have been notified.
Kading said it appeared the man had taken his life just a few minutes before the two
officers had returned.
Avey, who was on leave from his teaching post, was expected to appear in court Oct. 7
after he was charged with one count of possession and one count of importation of child
pornography.
18
He had flown into the Edmonton International Airport from Thailand via San Francisco
just before 11 p.m. on Aug. 26 when Canada Border Services Agency officers searched
his luggage and allegedly discovered a large collection of child pornography CDs and
DVDs tucked inside a pouch.
The discs were reportedly purchased in Thailand and each was labelled with a
pornographic image, said Sgt. Pat Waldorf of the Northern Alberta Integrated Child
Exploitation (ICE) Unit.
St. Albert RCMP's general investigation section and detachment officers, as well as
RCMP K Division's forensic identification section, continue to investigate and are
assisting the medical examiner's office with the case.
Another child porn case making headlines this week was that of former Winnipeg Blue
Bombers president Ross Brown.
The 72-year-old doctor, who had also sat on the board of directors for the Special
Olympics, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was handed a 45-day
jail sentence.
Court heard that about 5,000 images and videos of children engaged in sexual acts were
seized from his home computer.
Suspected killer arrested at B.C.-Washington
border
BY KATIE MERCER, THE PROVINCESEPTEMBER 18, 2009
A Californian man accused of killing his wife and dog was nabbed last week as he tried to
cross into B.C.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested John Levin, 44, on Sept. 12 at the
Peace Arch border crossing.
The badly decomposed bodies of his 35-year-old wife and the family dog had been found in
their Glendale apartment the day earlier.
Levin has been charged with murder and one felony count of animal cruelty.
The cause of death has not been released, but a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior
Court identifies the murder weapon as a knife, the Glendale News Press reports.
A mobile patrol unit had stopped Levin at the border, where his licence plate came back as
belonging to a missing person.
19
The alert also informed officers that his wife had died of suspicious circumstances the day
prior.
The officers who immediately arrested Levin noted his wrists ―were injured and oozing blood‖
when he was handcuffed.
A call to Glendale police later that day revealed Levin was the murder suspect.
Prolific con man arrested while fleeing Canada
Catch me if you can ... they did
Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Scotland Yard
A prolific international con man and master thief -- who uses his hypnotizing charm to plunder
wealthy guests at luxury hotels in the world's leading cities -- has been arrested while fleeing
Canada.
Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt was arrested by a U.S. Border Patrol agent as he waited for a taxi
at a gas station in Derby Line, Vermont, directly across from the Canadian border. Although
giving a different name and claiming he unwittingly crossed the border after his car broke down
in Quebec, a fingerprint check revealed him to be the silver-tongued thief, authorities say.
"He was very polite and friendly and definitely had a charming personality," said the cashier
working at the gas station, requesting her name not be published.
Nabbing Mr. Guzman-Betancourt, 33, is a considerable feat.
He has eluded police in a dozen countries for decades by donning compelling identities, from rag-
a-muffin orphan to parish priest, Arab billionaire to airline employee.
20
He is remembered both for one of crime's most indulgent getaways -- fleeing in a chauffeur-
driven Bentley coupe -- and for talking his way out of a British prison where he was incarcerated.
His deceptive stunts go back to at least to 1993, when he tumbled onto the runway of Miami
airport, claiming to be a 13-year-old orphan who had hugged the plane's landing gear for the flight
from Colombia. He became a local celebrity and was showered with donations and gifts until his
story unravelled. He was really 17 and his parents alive.
Since then he has led a life of fraud and plunder spanning the globe. Handsome and charming
with a warm smile, he is considered a gentleman bandit akin to Leonardo DiCaprio's character in
the movie Catch Me If You Can.
He developed a remarkably successful modus operandi.
Visiting some of the world's leading hotels he assumed the identity of a well-heeled guest,
convinced staff to let him into the room of the person he was pretending to be. He then phoned
security from inside the room and said he had forgotten the combination to the safe. Helpful staff
opened it for him and he made off with cash, credit cards, passports, designer clothes and
jewellery.
He pulled the stunt over and over again.
His tally was notable. At The Dorchester in London, for instance, he pretended to be a billionaire
from Bahrain and took $85,000 in cash and goods.
In Las Vegas he is wanted after $380,000 in jewellery and cash was stolen from the room of a
British businessman who was enjoying the spa at the Four Seasons hotel.
It was after cleaning out a room at London's Intercontinental that he hired a chauffeur and a
Bentley for his escape to Heathrow airport. There he used the freshly stolen card to buy a first-
class ticket to Paris, where he binge shopped.
21
He is linked to similar thefts at hotels in London, Paris, Toronto, Las Vegas, Geneva, Dublin,
Tokyo and others.
He was good but not flawless. Twice he was arrested in Europe but both times hid his identity
long enough to escape, authorities said.
Then, in 2004, the head of the hotel crimes unit with London's Scotland Yard was off-duty when
he spotted a man who looked like the thief he had seen on surveillance videos. He arrested Mr.
Guzman-Betancourt.
He was sentenced to 3½ years, which he was serving on an island prison when he convinced
authorities he should see a dentist without an escort. He never returned.
Ten days later, he visited Dublin's most expensive hotel, talked his way into a room and stole
credit cards, jewellery and cash and went on a shopping spree, spending $140,000 within hours.
When recaptured in 2005, he claimed he was the son of gypsies who had escaped from a Spanish
orphanage but was sentenced to two years in an Irish jail regardless. He disappeared after his
release.
This April, the National Post reported that a man fitting Mr. Guzman-Betancourt's description
and using his usual routine hit a high-end hotel in downtown Toronto.
Mr. Guzman-Betancourt did not officially resurface, however, until he walked into the Vermont
gas station on the evening of Sept. 21.
"This guy came into the store and said his car had broken down and he needed to call a cab to a
hotel," said the cashier. "I gave him the phone book and he called."
Dressed neatly but casually, he sat and worked away on a laptop computer while he waited, she
said. Meanwhile, state troopers came in for coffee and soon after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Peter
Costas arrived to question him, acting on a tip.
22
The man said his name was Jordi Ejarque-Rodriguez, according to a sworn statement from Agent
Costas filed in court.
"He further claimed that his car had broken down in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, and that he was
waiting for a taxi to pick him up and bring him to his car," wrote Agent Costas.
Although saying he was U.S.-born, he carried a Spanish passport issued in Abu Dhabi in the name
he told the agent.
"Stamps in the passport indicate that the passport traveled to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Oman."
Agent Costas' check of the man's fingerprints revealed him to be Mr. Guzman-Betancourt,
authorities said.
The check showed he had been removed from the United States three times: in 1994 and 1995
from Miami and in 1997 from Puerto Rico. He has been convicted of theft in Virginia in 1995;
fraudulent use of credit cards in Florida in 1996; and theft in New York in 2000.
Prosecutor Timothy C. Doherty, Jr., argued in court that Mr. Guzman-Betancourt needed to be
kept in custody pending a trial.
If convicted, he faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison.
Canadian authorities fighting 'global
phenomenon' of human trafficking
BY JASON VAN RASSEL, CALGARY HERALDSEPTEMBER 19, 2009 9:30 AM
Human trafficking has only been in the Criminal Code since 2005, but experts say the crime
has been in Canada for far longer.
This month, it surfaced again.
23
Police in Edmonton say they rescued three women who were being forced to eat, sleep and
perform sex acts for money in the same room at a city spa. The incident prompted the first
charges of human trafficking laid in Western Canada since the offence was added to the
Criminal Code.
Law-enforcement agencies and government departments were in Calgary this weekend for a
two-day workshop on how to identify and investigate human trafficking.
"Human trafficking is a global phenomenon and we're no different," Garry Drummond of the
RCMP's human-trafficking unit in Calgary said during conference, which was being held
Friday and Saturday.
"If we have the ingredients for a crime, then we'll have that crime."
The ingredient - people - is subject to both supply and demand in Canada, as the recent
investigation in Edmonton demonstrated.
Police allege a spa in west Edmonton was being used as a bawdy house where women were
being forced or coerced into performing sex acts for money.
Two people have been charged with human trafficking. It's alleged that three women,
ranging in age from 21 to 41, were expected to perform sexual acts 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
A report by the U. S. State Department earlier this year identified Canada as a source, transit
point and destination for men, women and children trafficked for the sex trade and forced
labour.
Some of the Edmonton investigators involved in the bust earlier this month are in Calgary for
the workshop.
"They said they wished they had (the training) three weeks earlier. It's a complex crime and
it's designed by criminals to make it hard to prove," Drummond said.
While human trafficking is often thought of as a crime that involves smuggling people across
borders, that's not always the case.
Police, as well as agencies that work with sexually abused clients, have found that it's
common for women in the sex trade to be forcibly moved between Calgary, Edmonton and
Vancouver.
24
"It's been a reality in the sex trade for a long, long time," said Danielle Aubry, of Calgary
Communities Against Sexual Abuse.
In Calgary, police convicted a man and woman of prostitution-related offences for using
massage parlours as fronts for prostitution in 2003.
During the investigation that led to the convictions, the woman who ran the sex ring, Noi
Saengchanh, offered to smuggle women into Canada from Asia on behalf of undercover
officers who posed as potential business partners.
Police arrested Saengchanh and several accomplices before the plan was ever put in
motion.
Saengchanh claimed she paid smugglers $35,000 to enter Canada illegally and worked as a
prostitute for three months to repay the sum. She was deported to Thailand in 2005.
RCMP seize illegal cigarettes
By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen September 17, 2009
OTTAWA — The RCMP has seized more than 9,000 bags of contraband cigarettes, eight
vehicles, a boat and a trailer and arrested 10 people in raids conducted in the last week.
Sgt. Michael Harvey of the Cornwall detachment of the RCMP said Thursday that 9,450 cartons
or resealable bags and 302 kilograms of fine cut tobacco were seized in raids since Sept. 11 into
the illegal importing of tobacco into the country. Of the 10 people arrested, seven face a number
of charges, he said.
He said more people are resorting to illegally transporting cigarettes across the border by boat.
"All the cigarettes still come over from the United States from the U.S. portion of Akwesasne to
avoid any customs, but now instead of going from Cornwall Island on vehicles into Canada they
are now coming from Cornwall Island or other parts by boat to the shores of Cornwall or east of
Quebec where vehicles will be picking it up," he said.
Border Patrol Begins Construction on SBInet Technology on
Northern Border
US Customs and Border Protection News Release (Thursday, September 03, 2009)
Selfridge ANGB, Mich. — U.S. Border Patrol began construction Wednesday on the deployment
of eleven Remote Video Surveillance Sites in the Detroit Sector as part of Customs and Border
Protections initiative to enhance the use of technology in securing the northern border against
illegal cross-border activity. The Northern Border Project will provide RVSS surveillance
capabilities in the Detroit Sector using technology similar to what is already in use along the
southwest border.
25
―The Northern Border Project technology deployment will improve our situational awareness,
decrease response time and allow our agents to more effectively identify and resolve illegal cross
border incursions,‖ said Detroit Sector Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Randy Gallegos.
Each RVSS tower is comprised of a total of four cameras – two day and two night cameras. The
Northern Border Project will deploy technology along the St. Clair River, from Lake Huron to Lake
St. Clair covering approximately 37 miles of a mix of rural, residential, commercial and riverine
environments.
The Northern Border Project in the Detroit Sector will include 11 RVSS sites – nine camera
towers and two cameras on existing structures. The Detroit Sector project began with installing a
camera system on top of the Port Huron city building followed by Wednesday‘s groundbreaking of
a RVSS tower next to the old Marysville Border Patrol Station on River Road in Marysville, Mich.
―It‘s taken us two years and countless hours of work to get to this. I couldn‘t be happier with
seeing the ground breaking,‖ said Special Operations Supervisor Greg Lambert. ―It‘s a great day,
not only are we making our nations border more secure, but were also giving back to the local
community by using local contractors.‖
The deployment of technology along the northern border is part of a larger border security
strategy that assists CBP frontline officers and agents. SBInet is the component of SBI charged
with developing and installing technology solutions to help gain effective control of our nation‘s
borders. The right mix of technology and personnel is considered for each part of the border
based on the operational needs of Border Patrol agents. The deployment of RVSS cameras
along the St. Clair River is scheduled to conclude by early 2010.
Global Entry Program Debuts at Sea-Tac Airport
Pre-approved Air Travelers Receive Expedited Processing
(Tuesday, September 01, 2009)
contacts for this news release
Seattle — U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Port of Seattle today demonstrated a
new clearance system for international air passengers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Global Entry uses a risk-based approach to facilitate the entry of pre-approved U.S. citizens,
lawful permanent residents of the U.S. and citizens of certain other countries. Global Entry now
allows pre-screened, approved, registered travelers to receive expedited processing at Sea-Tac.
―Global Entry is a definite win-win for international travelers and for CBP,‖ said Michele James,
director of the Seattle Field Office. ―It provides pre-approved travelers an expedited clearance
process and allows our CBP officers the ability to focus on processing other arriving passengers.‖
Approved applicants present their machine-readable passport, submit their fingerprints for
biometric verification, and make a declaration at the kiosk. Upon successful completion of the
process at the kiosk, they are then directed to baggage claim and the exit, unless chosen for a
selective or random secondary inspection.
26
To date, approximately 18,000 members have enrolled in the program. The Global Entry kiosks
have been used more than 58,000 times at existing pilot locations. Global Entry reduces average
wait times for CBP processing by 70 percent, with more than 75 percent of travelers using Global
Entry processed in under five minutes.
The Global Entry process was piloted in 2008 at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport,
N.Y.; Washington Dulles International Airport, Dulles, Va.; and Houston Intercontinental Airport,
Houston, Texas. Global Entry was later expanded to Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.
On August 24, CBP expanded the program to 13 additional international U.S. airports. Global
Entry is now available at Detroit, Dallas, Newark, San Francisco, Boston, Orlando, Honolulu, Las
Vegas, Orland-Sanford, Philadelphia, San Juan and Fort Lauderdale, as well as Sea-Tac.
Additional information on the Global Entry program (including enrollment application) is available
on the CBP Web site. ( Global Entry Program )
Senecas sign on for border ID plan
Business First of Buffalo - by James Fink September 10, 2009
The Seneca Nation of Indians is poised to be just the third tribe to agree to work with the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency on an enhanced tribal card that can be used
as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder signed a memorandum of understanding with the
federal agency Thursday afternoon, clearing the way for the Indian nation to take part in
the initiative. The Senecas have joined the Kootenai tribe from Idaho and the Pasqua
Yaqui nation from Arizona in the effort.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security,
has reached out to more than 600 Indian tribes to take part in the program, said Thomas
Winkowski, U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner for the Office of
Field Operations.
The enhanced tribal card is still being developed but is likely work the same way as an
enhanced driver’s license. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, new
documentation such as a passport, enhanced driver’s license or Nexus card is needed to
re-enter the U.S. from Canada or the Caribbean. The new WHTI mandates took effect on
June 1.
Snyder said the Seneca Nation was approached last fall about their interest in taking part
in the program. The nation’s Tribal Council agreed to move forward and further
investigate the initiative.
―Our main concern is the safety of our members and protections of our treaties,‖ Snyder
said.
The Seneca Nation has 7,800 registered members.
27
The tribal card could be used as a stand-alone piece of border-crossing documentation or
in conjunction with other forms of identification, Winkowski said.
―We just offering a choice,‖ he said.
Winkowski said the memorandum of understanding pact was a key first step in the
program. He hopes it may serve as a benchmark for other Indian tribes to follow suit.
―It is a major, major milestone,‖ Winkowski said. ―It’s historic.‖
Snyder said if the enhanced card program can be worked out, it will be a benefit to both
the Seneca Nation and other Indian tribes and to the Department of Homeland Security.
―We understand what security means,‖ Snyder said. ―We’re all in the same boat on this.‖
New ID cards being developed for aboriginals crossing Canada-U.S.
border
MONTREAL GAZETTESEPTEMBER 27, 2009 12:02 PM
MONTREAL -- While a passport is required for international travel, two new identity cards
are in the works to make it easier for Mohawks and other aboriginals to cross the Canada-
U.S. border.
One of the two new cards is being produced by the federal Department of Indian and
Northern Affairs.
On-site applications for Canada's new INAC card or "secure certificate of Indian status" have
been filed across the country, including in the Quebec Mohawk community of Kahnawake
this August.
Security details of the new identity cards are now being finalized, said Margot Geduld, a
spokeswoman for Indian and Northern Affairs. A rollout date has yet to be announced.
The card's enhanced security features will meet requirements of the Western Hemisphere
Travel Initiative, new federal U.S. regulations, Geduld said.
28
It will replace the existing INAC identity card, most commonly used to obtain federal and
provincial tax exemptions.
The second card in the works is the Haudenosaunee identity card, also known as the red
card.
It will be made available to the nearly 150,000 Mohawks, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida,
Onondaga and Tuscarora living in Quebec, Ontario and New York State.
Karl Hill, a Cayuga sub-chief in charge of the Haudenosaunee committee overseeing the
project, said the card will contain a radio frequency identity chip in order to meet the new
U.S. requirements. It will be manufactured by Siemens AG.
DHS renews SBINet contract with Boeing despite shortcomings
September 18, 2009 Jason Miller Federal News Radio
The Homeland Security Department has renewed for at least one more year its multi-
billion dollar contract with Boeing to develop the technology part of the Secure Border
Initiative.
But really, DHS had no choice but to bring the aerospace giant back because of the way
the department constructed the original contract in 2006. Mark Borkowski, executive
director of SBI, told House Homeland Security Committee members Thursday that the
contract is set up awkwardly and DHS would not use this approach in the future.
"I would've had to recompete it and I would have lost the work that was ongoing, I would
have to just stop," he says. "We are in the process of building these things now and I don't
want to stop that. I want to build that and find out if it works so it makes sense to extend
the contract to get to that point."
Borkowski says the original contract would have expired Thursday, but DHS picked up
the option year and could add one more year after 2010.
He says there is no more money under the new deal, but was unsure if the extensions
affect the overall ceiling of the contract. Industry estimated in 2006 that the contract
could be worth $2 billion. That seems on the low side after almost four years.
The problem with the contract is how it is set up. Borkowski says DHS awards Boeing
task orders under and that is where the management challenge comes in.
"Sometimes the product we need is a combination of work from multiple task orders," he
says. "If you think about me trying to combine work from three different contracts and
control that and hold one person accountable, you can imagine the challenge that I have.
I've got a contract with one contractor, but with three different pieces and so when I go to
29
the contractor ask who is responsible for all of them together-now we've put some of
these things in place to do that-but that is the type of thing we are seeing."
He adds that sometimes task orders go on beyond the life of the contract and that adds
another dimension of complexity to SBINet.
Lawmakers were less than thrilled with DHS's decision to extend the contract.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on
Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, says DHS hasn't improved border
security from the $1.1 billion it's spent over the last three years.
"[T] he subcommittee was given hard dates and assurances that deadlines for specific
SBINet projects would be met by Boeing," she says. "However weeks later deadlines
were pushed back. SBINet's full deployment along the southwest border, now estimated
by Boeing and Customs and Border Protection to occur in 2016 will be seven years after
the original contract end date of 2009. This situation is very troubling since in the mean
time border patrol agents must continue to use older and less capable technology, which
is frequently hindered by maintenance issues."
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of full committee, piled on his discontent.
He wants to know what DHS will do to ensure Boeing delivers results.
The contract hasn't been a boon in any regard for Boeing, either. Timothy Peters, vice
president and general manager for Boeing's global security systems, which runs SBI-Net,
says the aerospace giant has lost millions under the deal.
Peters told lawmakers that Boeing spent money on the testing facility, and spent twice as
much as the government gave them for the P28 prototype system.
The Government Accountability Office also expressed doubts about DHS's ability to
make this program work.
Richard Stana, GAO's director of homeland security and justice issues, says DHS was
overly ambitious at the beginning and has continued to run into challenges every step of
the way. But he also says DHS and Boeing have learned from their mistakes, such as
including the border patrol agents during the planning stages and testing in an operational
environment before deploying.
"Maybe we are still having an expectation gap here, is the technology really ready to do
what we have contracted for it to do?" he asks. "Seems like every time we have one of
these hearings, everything will be fixed and we are disappointed. Maybe it's just time to
really think about whether this is the way to go. Maybe the grand plan isn't achievable
right now given the current state of technology. And maybe depending on what happens
in 2010, it might be time to think about other options."
DHS knows it's under a lot of pressure to find success next year. Borkowski says it will
be testing Boeing's technology in January for deployment in Sasabe, Ariz., and Ajo,
30
Ariz., later this year should all go well. Borkowski says DHS will reassess Boeing's
contract once the testing and deployment decision is made.
"We need to look at how to get out of the structure of the contract," he says.
Stana says the January tests will be telling. He says GAO found that the new technologies
had some of the same problems P28 had-especially the radar and camera systems.
Borkowski says DHS and Boeing are fixing those issues, and gaining a better
understanding of the type of training patrol agents will need.
"Our goal is to get through Block 1 to the point where we can start stamping these out,"
Borkowski says.
Committee members promised to continue to play close attention. Rep. Christopher
Carney (D-Pa.) says some members may ask to come observe the tests in January.
Obama names Customs and Border Protection commissioner
, September 22, 2009
Reporting from Washington - President Obama has nominated the administration's point man on
Southwest border strategy to be the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
the nation's largest law enforcement agency, the White House announced today.
Alan Bersin, a veteran of federal border enforcement and a former San Diego schools
superintendent, has served since April as assistant secretary for international affairs at the
Department of Homeland Security. Bersin, 62, also is the department's special representative for
border affairs, working with Mexican leaders and U.S. border-area agencies on challenges such
as drugs and immigration.
If approved as commissioner by the Senate, Bersin will take charge of about 57,000 employees
who police the nation's borders while struggling with a massive workload, grappling with the
threat of corruption and trying to speed travel and commerce.
Customs and Border Protection encompasses the U.S. Border Patrol agents who guard the
Mexican and Canadian boundaries, a far-flung army of inspectors working at ports of entry, and
an air and sea interdiction fleet.
The agency faces a persistent terrorist menace as well as powerful drug mafias that have
responded violently to a crackdown by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
Bersin will continue to advise Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on issues related to
Mexico and the border, although he will relinquish the title of special representative, officials said.
"Under Alan's leadership over the past several months, we have forged new international and
domestic partnerships along our borders to strengthen security," Napolitano said in a statement.
"I look forward to continuing to work with Alan in his new position."
Known for a cerebral yet hard-charging style, Bersin has alternated between law enforcement
and education during his career.
31
In the Clinton administration, he spent five years as U.S. attorney in San Diego. He led
campaigns against illegal immigration and drug mafias at a time when turmoil at the border
surged to the center of the political debate in California and the nation.
Appointed to the additional role of so-called border czar by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in 1995, he
worked to coordinate an array of often overwhelmed and fractious federal agencies at the U.S.-
Mexico boundary.
In 1998, Bersin turned away from the border when he became superintendent of schools in San
Diego, the nation's eighth-largest school district. He gained a reputation as an energetic innovator
but clashed during a seven-year tenure with teachers unions that resisted his efforts for dramatic
change.
Although a Democrat, Bersin also has held posts under Republican bosses. Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger appointed him state secretary of education in July 2005. He served until
December 2006, and then was named by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to chair San Diego's
regional aviation authority.
As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Bersin met future Vice President Al Gore and starred
at football. He knew former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, now the
secretary of State, as a law student at Yale University and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford
University.
Before going into government, Bersin was a senior partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger,
Tolles & Olson and a law professor.
Gov't: Border fence to cost $6.5B over 20 years
By EILEEN SULLIVAN (AP) – September 17, 2009
IPT NOTE: The cited GAO material is posted as follows:
Secure Border Initiative: Technology Deployment Delays Persist and the Impact of Border
Fencing Has Not Been Assessed, GAO-09-1013T, September 17, 2009
Summary (HTML) http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-1013T
Full Report (PDF, 10 pages) http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d091013t.pdf
Secure Border Initiative: Technology Deployment Delays Persist and the Impact of Border
Fencing Has Not Been Assessed, GAO-09-896, September 09, 2009
Summary (HTML) http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-896
Full Report (PDF, 47 pages) http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09896.pdf
WASHINGTON — It will cost taxpayers $6.5 billion over the next 20 years to maintain the fence
along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a government audit.
But as the Obama administration realizes the long-term costs of the border fence, it does not
have a way to evaluate whether this investment has helped control illegal entries into the country,
according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.
The $6.5 billion price tag is in addition to the $2.4 billion that's been spent to build more than 600
miles of fence segments along the southwest border. As of May 14, there have been 3,363
breaches in the fence, which cost about $1,300 each to repair, GAO found.
"We can't empty the federal treasury to satisfy some bumper-sticker notion of border security,"
Rep. David Price, D-N.C. said in a statement. Price said comprehensive changes to the country's
immigration laws is what will improve border security.
32
The fence is a Bush administration initiative that has faced several delays and cost increases.
The technological part of the government's plan to secure the border continues to be delayed,
GAO said.
Until the entire technology piece is complete, it is impossible for Border Patrol to know if the
security measures are working, GAO said.
Boeing Co. has the contract for the technology piece and has received about $400 million for
work on the physical fence, company spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said.
On Thursday, Customs and Border Protection extended the contract option to continue to assign
tasks to Boeing for another year, said Mark Borkowski, the government's director of the secure
border initiative.
Borkowski said he understands the frustrations about the project's delays. But he said he's
confident that Boeing and the government will find the right technology for the long stretches of
the border.
Tim Peters, Boeing's vice president of global security, told lawmakers that the company has
learned valuable lessons from its initial projects on the border. Peters said it's not "uncommon" to
run into technological challenges in these sort of projects.
Depending on funding, the there would be fencing or technology along the whole southwestern
border except for about 200 miles around Big Bend National Park by 2014, Homeland Security
officials have said. But GAO said it's more likely to be completed in 2016.
On Thursday officials told Congress that the remaining 38 miles of physical fencing is held up
because of legal issues related to obtaining land.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, called the fence a
"serious challenge" that the Obama administration has inherited. In remarks prepared for a
hearing Thursday, the Mississippi Democrat said the GAO's findings are troubling.
Administration Will Cut Border Patrol Deployed on U.S-Mexico Border
Thursday, September 24, 2009 CNSnews.com By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief
(CNSNews.com) - Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-
Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast
stretches of the border are ―easily breached,‖ and the Government Accountability Office has
revealed that three persons ―linked to terrorism‖ and 530 aliens from ―special interest countries‖
were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now
planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Border Patrol Director of Media Relations Lloyd Easterling confirmed this week--as I first reported
in my column yesterday--that his agency is planning for a net decrease of 384 agents on the
U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.
A Department of Homeland Security annual performance review updated by the Obama
administration on May 7 said the Border Patrol ―plans to move several hundred Agents from the
Southwest Border to the Northern Border to meet the FY 2010 staffing requirements, with only a
small increase in new agents for the Southwest Border in the same year.‖
Easterling said on Tuesday that in fiscal 2009, 17,399 Border Patrol agents have been deployed
on the U.S.-Mexico border. In fiscal year 2010, the Border Patrol plans to decrease that by 384
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agents, leaving 17,015 deployed along the Mexican frontier. At the same time, the number of
Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Canada border will be increased by 414, from a fiscal
2009 total of 1,798 agents to a fiscal 2010 total of 2,212.
The Border Patrol is responsible for securing a total of 8,607 miles of border, including the U.S.-
Mexico border, the U.S.-Canada border from Washington state to Maine, and sectors of coastline
in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Each year, the Border Patrol sets a goal for ―border miles under effective control (including
certain coastal sectors).‖ ―Effective control,‖ as defined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
means that when the Border Patrol detects an illegal border crosser in a particular area of the
border the agency can be expected to succeed in apprehending that person.
In the May 7 update of its performance review, DHS said the Border Patrol‘s goal for fiscal 2009
was to have 815 of the 8,607 miles of border for which the agency is responsible under ―effective
control.‖ The review also said the Border Patrol‘s goal for fiscal 2010 was to again have 815
miles of border under ―effective control,‖ meaning DHS was not planning to secure a single
additional mile of border in the coming year.
However, Acting Deputy Assistant Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Todd Owen
told a House committee in July that the Border Patrol already had 894 miles of border under
effective control as of May 31 of this year. These 894 miles, Owen said, included 697 miles on
the Mexican border, 32 miles on the Canadian border and 165 miles in the coastal sectors.
Easterling said this week that as of now the Border Patrol still has the same 894 miles of border
under effective control that it had under effective control as of May 31. He also said the agency
would not relinquish control of any of these miles in the coming year. After the beginning of the
new fiscal year, he said, the Border Patrol would reevaluate the situation and set a new goal for
border miles under ―effective control‖ for 2010 that would at least equal, and might exceed, the
894 miles currently under effective control.
―The intention is to take back the border incrementally, and make gains that we can keep,‖
Easterling said. ―We do not intend, nor will we give back, miles that we have gained control over.‖
Easterling said the Border Patrol would be able to maintain the current number of miles under
effective control on the Mexico border with fewer agents deployed there thanks to ―force
multipliers,‖ including new fencing, roads and other infrastructure that has been built in recent
years. He also cited the assistance the Border Patrol receives from local police and sheriffs
departments and community watch groups.
But even if the Border Patrol is able to maintain or marginally improve on the current level of
security on the U.S.-Mexico border, most of the border will remain effectively open to smuggling
both contraband and persons.
The entire U.S.-Mexico border is 1,954 miles long, according to the International Boundary and
Water Commission. While 697 of those miles are now under ―effective control,‖ according to the
Border Patrol, 1,257 miles are not under ―effective control.‖
Reports from other government agencies paint a vivid picture of the massive drug and alien
smuggling that takes place in these uncontrolled expanses and the national security problem
created by unsecured border lands.
Each year, the Justice Department‘s National Drug Intelligence Center produces ―drug market
analyses‖ for each of 32 regions of the country that the NDIC describes as ―high intensity drug
trafficking areas.‖ Five of these areas sit along the U.S.-Mexico border. These include the
California border region, Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas and South Texas. The latest reports,
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released in March and April of this year, use candid language in portraying the U.S.-Mexican
frontier as wide open to drug smuggling and even vulnerable to penetration by potential terrorists.
The California-Mexico border, the NDIC said, was ―easily breached‖ on both foot and in vehicles.
―The vast border area presents innumerable remote crossing points that traffickers exploit to
smuggle illicit drugs, primarily marijuana, into the country from Mexico,‖ said NDIC. ―These areas
are easily breached by traffickers on foot, in private vehicles, or in all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) as
they smuggle drugs between POEs [ports of entry], particularly the mountainous areas in eastern
San Diego County and the desert and sand dune areas in Imperial County.‖
Arizona‘s border was judged to be open not only to drug smugglers but also aliens with
―extensive criminal records‖ and from ―special interest countries,‖ which are defined as ―countries
that could export individuals who could bring harm to the United States through terrorism.‖
―Some criminal organizations smuggle aliens and gang members into the United States,‖ said
NDIC‘s report on Arizona. ―These particular individuals typically have extensive criminal records
and pose a threat, not only to the Arizona HIDTA [high intensity drug trafficking area] region but
also to communities throughout the United States. Alien smuggling organizations reportedly also
smuggle aliens from countries other than Mexico, including special-interest countries.‖
―Special-interest countries are those designated by the intelligence community as countries that
could export individuals who could bring harm to the United States through terrorism,‖ said the
NDIC report.
The NDIC described the Arizona-Mexico border as ―largely underprotected‖ in the areas between
official ports of entry.
―Large amounts of illicit drugs are smuggled into the area from Mexico, and bulk cash is
transported from the area into Mexico,‖ said NDIC. ―These trafficking activities are facilitated by
several factors unique to the region, including the continuing economic and population growth in
Arizona‘s two primary drug markets (Phoenix and Tucson), the highways that connect major
metropolitan areas in Arizona with major illicit drug source areas in Mexico, and a remote, largely
underprotected border area between Arizona‘s ports of entry (POEs).
―Vast stretches of remote, sparsely populated border areas are located within the HIDTA region;
these areas are especially conducive to large-scale drug smuggling,‖ said NDIC. ―By the end of
January 2009, 108 miles of the 262-mile shared border between Arizona and Mexico will have
some type of fencing. However, few physical barriers exist in border areas between POEs,
particularly in the West Desert area of the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Tucson Sector, to impede
drug traffickers, chiefly Mexican DTOs, from smuggling illicit drug shipments into the United
States from Mexico.‖
Part of the New Mexico border was described as ―an ideal smuggling corridor.‖
―Southwestern New Mexico—specifically Hidalgo, Luna, and Dona Ana Counties—shares a 180-
mile border with Mexico,‖ said NDIC. ―More than half the length of this border is desolate public
land that contains innumerable footpaths, roads, and trails. Additionally, many ranches are
located along the border. These factors and minimal law enforcement coverage make the area an
ideal smuggling corridor for drugs and other illicit goods and services— primarily alien smuggling
into the United States and weapons and bulk cash smuggling into Mexico. Mexican DTOs
smuggle multihundred-kilogram quantities of illicit drugs through this portion of the HIDTA region
annually.‖
Like the California border, the South Texas border is also ―easily breached,‖ according to the
NDIC.
35
―The combination of vast stretches of remote, sparsely populated land and extensive crossborder
economic activity at designated ports of entry (POEs) creates an environment conducive to large-
scale drug smuggling,‖ said NDIC. ―Few physical barriers exist between POEs to impede drug
traffickers, particularly Mexican DTOs, from smuggling illicit drug shipments into the United States
from Mexico. Along many areas of the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas, the Rio Grande River
can be easily breached by smugglers on foot or in vehicles, enabling Mexican DTOs to smuggle
multikilogram quantities of illicit drugs, primarily marijuana and cocaine, into the United States.‖
In the West Texas sector, the NDIC again raised the possibility that terrorists could exploit the
border to enter the country.
―Moreover, the region‘s location along the U.S.-Mexico border poses national security and law
enforcement issues for the region, such as alien smuggling, weapons transportation, and terrorist
entry into the United States through and between ports of entry,‖ said NDIC.
While the U.S. government may be failing to exert effective control over most of the border,
identical language in the NDIC reports for Arizona and West Texas said that drug trafficking
organizations have set up ―gatekeeper‖ operations that control smuggling into the U.S. and levy
taxes on the smugglers they let through.
―Gatekeepers regulate the drug flow from Mexico across the U.S.-Mexico border into the United
States by controlling drug smugglers‘ access to areas along the border,‖ said the Arizona and
West Texas NDIC reports. ―Gatekeepers collect ‗taxes‘ from smugglers on all illicit shipments that
are moved through these areas, including drugs and illegal aliens. The taxes are generally paid to
the DTO that controls the area; the DTO then launders the tax proceeds. Gatekeepers sometimes
resort to extortion, intimidation, and acts of violence to collect taxes from smugglers. Gatekeepers
also reportedly bribe corrupt Mexican police and military personnel in order to ensure that
smuggling activities occur without interruption.‖
―Gatekeepers generally operate at the behest of a Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO)
and enforce the will of the organization through bribery, intimidation, extortion, beatings, and
murder,‖ said the reports.
A Government Accountability Office report released on August 31 pointed out that the Border
Patrol‘s top priority is to stop terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United
States and revealed that three person‘s ―linked to terrorism‖ and hundreds of aliens from ―special
interest countries‖ were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints in fiscal 2008. These
checkpoints, which act as a final line of defense for the U.S. border, are typically set up on
highways 25 to 100 miles north of the Mexican border.
―CBP reported that in fiscal year 2008, there were three individuals encountered by the Border
Patrol at southwest border checkpoints who were identified as persons linked to terrorism,‖ said
GAO.
―In addition, the Border Patrol reported that in fiscal year 2008 checkpoints encountered 530
aliens from special interest countries, which are countries the Department of State has
determined to represent a potential terrorist threat to the United States,‖ said GAO. ―While people
from these countries may not have any ties to illegal or terrorist activities, Border Patrol agents
detain aliens from special interest countries if they are in the United States illegally and Border
Patrol agents report these encounters to the local Sector Intelligence Agent, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) Office of Investigations, and the CBP National Targeting Center.‖
The GAO also said one illegal alien detained in West Texas had come from Iran.
36
―For example,‖ said GAO, ―according to a Border Patrol official in the El Paso sector, a checkpoint
stopped a vehicle and questioned its three Iranian occupants, determining that one of those
occupants was in the United States illegally. The individual was detained and turned over to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further questioning.‖
There has been much discussion in the past week about whether President Barack Obama will
heed the advice of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to increase
the U.S. troop deployment there. The administration, however, has already decided to decrease
by 384 the Border Patrol agents deployed on our own southern frontier.
United States and Mexico Announce Agreement for Cross
Border Public Security Communications Network
Release Date: September 2, 2009
Washington/Mexico City—The Departments of Homeland Security and State announced
today that senior officials on the United States-Mexico High-Level Consultative
Commission on Telecommunications (HLCC) have signed a bilateral
telecommunications agreement to support a new cross border communications network
for public safety and law enforcement organizations focused on strengthening border
security.
The agreement establishes a bilateral working group through which the Department of
Homeland Security of the United States and the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) of
Mexico will coordinate the installation and operation of the network. The new network
will allow participating public safety organizations to coordinate incident response and
cooperate on a broad array of law enforcement activities through the establishment of
new cross border voice, data and video channels.
The agreement also provides radio interference protection for the network’s infrastructure
and a process under which the bilateral working group can establish interoperable
communications for qualifying federal, state, local and tribal public safety and law
enforcement organizations that are invited to participate in the network.
The senior HLCC officials who signed the agreement were: Ambassador Philip L.
Verveer, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy,
U.S. Department of State; Ms. Gabriela Hernandez Cardoso, Mexico’s Under Secretary
of Communications; and Under Secretary Jose Francisco Niembro Gonzalez, Mexico’s
Under Secretary of Institutional Development and Evaluation in the SSP.
Negotiation of the agreement stemmed from a recommendation by HLCC working level
officials in May 2008 to formulate a long-term plan to advance critical cross border
communications networks for improving border security and combating border violence.
A copy of the agreement is available
at: http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/othr/telecom/128506.htm.
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Administration Seeks to Keep Terror Watch-List Data
Secret
By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer 6 September 2009
The Obama administration wants to maintain the secrecy of terrorist watch-list
information it routinely shares with federal, state and local agencies, a move that rights
groups say would make it difficult for people who have been improperly included on
such lists to challenge the government.
Intelligence officials in the administration are pressing for legislation that would exempt
"terrorist identity information" from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
Such information -- which includes names, aliases, fingerprints and other biometric
identifiers -- is widely shared with law enforcement agencies and intelligence "fusion
centers," which combine state and federal counterterrorism resources.
Still, some officials say public disclosure of watch-list data risks alerting terrorism
suspects that they are being tracked and may help them evade surveillance.
Advocates for civil liberties and open government argue that the administration has not
proved the secrecy is necessary and that the proposed changes could make the
government less accountable for errors on watch lists. The proposed FOIA exemption has
been included in pending House and Senate intelligence authorization bills at the
administration's request.
"Instead of enhancing accountability, this would remove accountability one or two steps
further away," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists'
Project on Government Secrecy.
When the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center disseminates data from watch lists to state and
federal agencies, the information is unclassified, though marked "for official use only."
Officials said that the information could be obtained under a FOIA request and that such
data has been released under FOIA.
Michael G. Birmingham, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, said that the intelligence community is seeking "adequate protection from
disclosing terrorist identity information" to the public because "no [such] exemption
currently exists under FOIA." He said the goal of the proposed exemption was to keep
sensitive unclassified information from unintended recipients, including terrorism
suspects.
One intelligence official said the information's disclosure creates a host of difficulties.
"Here's the problem," the official said, discussing the matter on the condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. "If you've got
somebody, including a suspected terrorist, who can FOIA that information, you're
38
making intelligence-gathering methods vulnerable. You're possibly making intelligence
agents and law enforcement personnel vulnerable. Suspects could alter their behavior and
circumvent the surveillance."
David Sobel, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy
group, said the government has successfully used existing FOIA exemptions to deny
requests for watch-list records. He cited a court case last fall brought by the EFF in which
the government, in keeping with it policy, refused to confirm or deny whether a European
Parliament member's name was on the terrorist watch list. The government claimed in
part an exemption that bars disclosure of law enforcement information on "techniques
and procedures" for investigations. The EFF, concluding that the government would win,
withdrew the case.
Rather than expanding the list of FOIA exemptions, Congress should pay more attention
to improving the procedures for helping people who have been improperly included on
the watch list, Sobel said. "There's a serious redress problem," he said. "That's the issue
that needs to be addressed."
On Tuesday, a coalition of privacy and transparency advocates led by
OpenTheGovernment.org sent a letter to the leading members of the House and Senate
intelligence committees urging that the measure be dropped. "We consider this provision
unnecessary, overbroad and unwise," the letter said.
A consolidated government watch list was created in 2004 and is housed at the Terrorist
Screening Center. As of last September, it included about 1.1 million names and aliases
corresponding to 400,000 individuals. The TSC feeds names and other data to the
Transportation Security Administration's air passenger "no-fly" list, the State
Department's Consular Lookout and Support System list, and the FBI's Violent Gang and
Terrorist Organizations File, as well as to state and local agencies.
A person is included in the list if he or she is "known or appropriately suspected to be or
have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to
terrorism," according to the TSC Web site.
A May report by the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General found the watch-
list process to be flawed, with the FBI failing to "update or remove watch list records as
required." In one instance, an individual remained on the list nearly five years after the
after the underlying terrorism case had been closed, the report found.
The FBI later said it had implemented measures "to resolve all of the issues disclosed in
the report."
In 2007, the FBI signed a memo with federal agencies to standardize the redress process
and to ensure "fair, timely and independent review" of complaints, according to a
statement by the bureau.
"We're constantly working to improve our redress procedures," TSC spokesman Chad
Kolton said. "We're very proud of the work we've done so far."
39
Kolton noted that fewer than 5 percent of the 400,000 people whose names are on the
watch list are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. "The vast majority of people on the
watch list are not currently in the U.S.,'' he said.
Ex-sheriff handed 5 years in prison
By Lynn Brezosky- Express-News September 3, 2009
McALLEN — Former Starr County Sheriff Reymundo Guerra was sentenced Thursday
to five years and four months in federal prison for helping Gulf Cartel operatives move
marijuana and cocaine through his remote border county.
The prison term, set to begin Sept. 28, makes Guerra the second Starr County sheriff in a
row to do time and the latest in a line of Rio Grande Valley officials convicted of
corruption and abuse of office.
―I’m saddened to see a law enforcement officer who’s indicted like this,‖ U.S. District
Judge Randy Crane said, recalling the recent conviction of Cameron County Sheriff
Conrado Cantu. ―It is a stain on the badge.‖
Guerra was named in October along with 14 others on a 19-count indictment stemming
from an investigation dubbed ―Operation Carlito’s Weigh.‖
He pleaded guilty in May to one of three charges against him — conspiracy — in an
agreement that dropped other charges and gave hope for a lighter sentence.
Since then, the investigation has netted 28 defendants. Jose Carlos Hinojosa, a former
Mexican police official pegged as the ringleader of the operation, is to be sentenced in
October. In the end, Crane said, it appeared Guerra’s role was as a ―minor participant‖ in
a ―significant, large conspiracy.‖
Though he may have helped smugglers evade detection with tips on stings or recent
seizures, there was no evidence that Guerra arranged to move drugs or was a key player
in the cartel operation. It’s unclear whether his ill-gotten gains amounted to more than a
few thousand dollars.
―For really pennies and nickels, you were influenced by these people,‖ Crane said to
Guerra.
His conviction hinged on two things: a scheme to create fake lease documents to make it
appear a drug load belonged to an out-of-town tenant, and a meeting between himself,
Hinojosa and a sheriff’s investigator working with the multiagency High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area initiative.
Guerra told the investigator Hinojosa was a Mexican police official conducting a parallel
investigation and needed information about a recent bust. The investigator tipped off the
FBI, which began a probe.
Guerra, 52, initially faced 10 years to life in prison on the conspiracy charge alone.
40
―I want to say how sorry I am for putting my wife and daughter through this nightmare,‖
he told the judge. ―I apologize to my friends, family and constituents for this wrong I
have done.‖
He left the courtroom smiling, but declined to comment.
Initiative to curb trade in chemicals for illicit
drugs
4 September 2009 - The trafficking in chemicals required for the manufacture of cocaine,
heroin and stimulants such as amphetamine, methamphetamine and Ecstasy (commonly
referred to as precursors) is of particular concern to countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
The dynamics associated with both the chemical substances themselves and the methods
of diversion (mostly from licit trade) are complex and constantly evolving as traffickers
seek new ways to avoid international trade controls. Limited knowledge and capacity to
share information on the production, types and quantity of chemicals currently being
used, as well as on trafficking modalities, hamper control and enforcement at the regional
and national levels.
It is within this context that UNODC and the European Commission have partnered to
launch PRELAC, a three-year project to strengthen the capacities of national
administrative control authorities to prevent the diversion of precursor chemicals from
the licit market into Latin America and the Caribbean.
PRELAC builds on an earlier regional project of the European Commission for precursor
control in the Andean countries, and will cover 12 countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean, namely Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico,
Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. UNODC is the partner organization
appointed by the European Commission to implement the activities that will be
undertaken by the field offices in Mexico and Peru.
41
At the inaugural seminar in Lima, Peru, held from 20 to 22 July, delegates from the
participating countries, including representatives from chemical operators, discussed and
agreed to a timetable of regional activities.
These activities include: establishing a web-based system of information exchange
between all participating countries; standardizing precursor control mechanisms and legal
frameworks; improving inspection and investigation techniques; developing synergies
between the control agencies and chemical operators in both the public and private
sector; and enhancing the effectiveness of customs administrations in the control of
precursor chemicals.
One of the initial activities will be a technical assessment of the European Commission's
regional project for precursor control in the Andean countries, and other national
administrative precursor control systems. This will be complemented by an adapted
UNODC national drug control system available in most participating countries, and
extending connectivity within and across regions via an website between the producers of
precursors and transit and destination countries.
Another key activity is a baseline study of the trafficking routes and dynamics associated
with the chemicals currently used in transforming coca leaf into cocaine. This particular
study will assist participating countries, as well as international organizations and other
decision makers, to propose appropriate and effective preventive measures. The
trafficking of ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine will be the subject of an additional regional
study.
PRELAC is being implemented in consultation with the participating countries and in
collaboration with the Andean Community and the Caribbean Community. Other relevant
regional and international organizations will also be involved.
A steering committee has been established. National and regional expertise and best
practices will be utilized and training delivered to multi-agency groups either on a bi-
national or trans-regional basis as a means to encourage regional cooperation, teamwork
and information exchange.
With the support and collaboration of chemical operators, PRELAC will enhance the
capacity of the national control authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean to achieve
42
measurable results and enable the targeting and seizure of diverted precursor chemicals
and the prosecution of those responsible.
$.25M in ganja found on cement tug boat
By AZARD ALI Sunday, September 6 2009
THERE was drama on the seas Friday night just off the Claxton Bay coast when Coast Guard and police
officers boarded a vessel transporting clinker from Jamaica to Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) and seized
two crocus bags of marijuana. The Tug boat Seven Mako, has since been impounded at the TCL jetty
under police guard. The captain of the vessel who is from Nicaragua was arrested and up to yesterday
incarcerated at a police station.
Sunday Newsday was informed by police sources that acting on a tip-off, customs and police officers boarded
the vessel as it was approaching the Claxton Bay jetty. It was loaded with eight metric tonnes of clinker which is
a rock-like substance used in the manufacturing of cement. The aggregate was bound for the TCL cement
factory.
When the vessel was berthed, a thorough search was conducted of the clinker. It was discovered that two crocus
bags were lying in the bottom ceiling of a bunker beneath the tonnes of clinker.
Police observed that its contents resembled compressed marijuana, the street value of which was put at
approximately $250,000. The vessel‘s captain whose name was given as Noel, was arrested. The vessel is said
to be owned and operated by a foreign company.
Customs Officers disclosed that the vessel was loaded in Jamaica and it is believed the marijuana was smuggled
during the loading exercise. Such loading is conducted in the presence of security and custom officers, Sunday
Newsday was told, but clinker throws up tremendous dust which blurs the vision of persons supervising the
loading.
―Regrettably, a senior customs officer said,‖ the vessel‘s captain had to be detained though he more than likely is
not responsible for it.‖ The crocus bags of marijuana have been taken to the Forensic Science Centre for
analysis.
Investigations are being further conducted before any charge is laid. Officials of TCL could not be reached for
comment yesterday.
Hundreds of pounds of ganja found in the harbour
Monday, 07 September 2009
Kingston Harbour was on Sunday the scene of a large drug seizure by the police.
Four hundred pounds of compressed ganja was found in three cannisters which were attached to a vessel
which had docked after arriving from Trinidad.
The find was made during a routine search by the police.
43
No arrest was made.
"Just after 7 a.m. a team from the Marine Department was on routine patrol in the Kingston Harbour. During
that exercise four vessels that were docked in the Gordon Cay were searched and the three canisters found
attached to one of the ships,"
"These vessels that originated out of Antigua made its last port of call in Trinidad prior to arriving in
Jamaica,"
"It was scheduled to leave the Kingston Harbour at about 7 a.m. The crew consisted of Romanians, Latvians
and Filipinos," said spokesman for Operation Kingfish, Detective Sergeant Jubert Llewellyn.
U.S. officials troubled by fake currency flowing from Peru
In the last year, agents have recovered about $8 million in fake notes across the U.S. and
$18 million, as well as fake passports, in raids in Peru, authorities say.
By Josh Meyer Los Angeles Times September 13, 2009
Reporting from Washington
A flood of high-quality counterfeit U.S. money from Peru is perplexing federal authorities, who say
the shadowy networks that are responsible are also engaging in other criminal activity that poses
a threat to national security.
Over the last year, authorities and banks have recovered at least $7.8 million in fake notes across
the United States that they believe were manufactured in Peru, according to Secret Service
statistics. In addition, $446,280 in fake U.S. cash from Peru was seized before it was spent during
that same period, and more than $18.2 million more in raids in the South American country, the
Secret Service said.
"And that's just a fraction of the notes that we can ally to Peru" worldwide, said John Large, the
assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service's criminal division at its headquarters in
Washington. "It's a form of economic terrorism."
Besides costing U.S. citizens and businesses millions in losses, Large said, the international
counterfeiting rings undermine confidence in U.S. currency. That is especially the case in
countries in South America and elsewhere that have "dollarized" economies, in which U.S. bills
are accepted as an official form of currency.
The Secret Service launched a special task force in February in partnership with the Peruvian
National Police and stepped up training for Peruvian officials and bankers in how to go after
counterfeiters. The State Department issued a warning to travelers last month, saying that
"counterfeit U.S. currency is a growing and serious problem in Peru."
A similar crackdown in Colombia in recent years helped authorities sharply reduce the rampant
counterfeiting of U.S. currency. Colombia used to account for as much as 70% of the counterfeit
currency passed annually in the United States, but law enforcement initiatives have dropped that
level to about 5% domestically, Secret Service statistics show. Counterfeiters in Colombia still
print millions in fake U.S. dollars.
The successes in that country, however, resulted in at least some of the Colombian counterfeiters
moving to Peru, which does not have as robust an anti-fraud force or system of anti-counterfeiting
laws.
44
The Secret Service first noticed a trickle of fake bills coming out of Peru in 2003. Two years ago,
agents began reporting a steady stream of fake currency in Miami, some smuggled in by human
"mules" who hid it on their bodies or in packages and even in greeting cards.
One woman was observed passing seven counterfeit $100 notes at the Macy's Galleria Mall in
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to Secret Service officials. They said further investigation
revealed that she had been traveling every month to the Peruvian capital, Lima, and she was
arrested at Miami International Airport with $47,300 in counterfeit $100 bills in her luggage and on
her body.
Kris Buckner, a former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, said groups spreading counterfeit
money from Peru have been active in Southern California for some time. But, he said, it is hard to
get good intelligence on them. "The guys who are selling the counterfeit money are also selling
guns and drugs and counterfeit goods. It's a never-ending cycle of criminal activity," said
Buckner, who now heads Investigative Consultants, a Los Angeles-area group that tracks
counterfeiting and piracy.
Large and other U.S. and Peruvian officials say some of the Peruvian counterfeiters are also
engaged in drug trafficking and making fake passports, visas and other documents. They fear
that terrorists could use the documents, and even the fake cash, to make their way into the
United States.
In one recent raid in Peru, authorities seized forged passports from 16 countries.
Large and other authorities say they have made 24 arrests and taken down 17 counterfeiting
plants in Peru in the raids, which have netted $18.2 million in fake U.S. currency since February.
In one raid in April, U.S. and Peruvian officers seized $8.4 million in counterfeit $100 bills, eight
lithographic printing presses and numerous plates and negatives used in the manufacture of
counterfeit currency. They also arrested five suspects.
US targets smugglers at Puerto Rico airport
By MIKE MELIA (AP) – 5 days ago
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Nine employees of American Airlines have been charged
with participating in a smuggling ring that shipped cocaine from Puerto Rico's main
airport aboard flights to the U.S. mainland, officials said Tuesday.
The American Airlines workers, a mix of baggage handlers and other members of the
ground crew, were part of a ring suspected of sending at least 9,000 kilograms (19,840
pounds) of cocaine over the past decade to destinations that include Miami and Orlando,
Florida, and New Jersey, said U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez.
Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI arrested 22 members of
the alleged smuggling ring, including most of the suspects who work at the airport,
during raids early Tuesday. The arrests followed a joint investigation dubbed "Operation
Heavy Cargo."
45
The alleged ringleader, Wilfredo Rodriguez Rosado, 37, surrendered at a federal
courthouse Tuesday afternoon, according to his attorney, Luis Rivera. Rodriguez no
longer works for the airline and is pleading innocent, Rivera said.
As a part-time American Airlines cargo employee, Rodriguez allegedly recruited others
to help pack suitcases with cocaine and deliver them to the airport on pre-loaded airline
cargo containers. A member of the drug ring would then pick up the suitcases at mainland
airports, according to the indictment.
The defendants, who were arrested in cities near San Juan and in Miami, face charges
including conspiracy and aiding and abetting one another with intent to distribute
cocaine. Authorities say they smuggled out cocaine worth more than $19 million. If
convicted they face fines and up to life in prison.
As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is a favored transshipment point for South American
cocaine and heroin because once the drugs reach the Caribbean island, they do not have
to pass through customs on the way to the American market.
The alleged drug ring operated on a freelance basis and contracted their services to
several different drug traffickers, according to Javier Pena, the special agent in charge of
the DEA in Puerto Rico.
"They lent themselves out to other organizations," Pena told The Associated Press. "They
were available to anyone."
Rodriguez, the prosecutor, defended security at the airport, but said it could be better.
"It has better security than many airports in the United States and I'm sure that now it will
be even better," she said.
American spokeswoman Minnette Velez confirmed the arrest of airline employees but
gave no details.
"We work with the authorities whenever we identify a situation like this, which is
unacceptable," Velez said. "We work to make sure this doesn't happen."
U.S. closes Mexico crossing after shooting
REUTERSSEPTEMBER 23, 2009 9:15 AM
TIJUANA, Mexico - U.S. authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing for
several hours on Tuesday after suspected Mexican human traffickers tried to enter with
illegal immigrants, U.S. officials said.
U.S. agents fired at three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants that tried to evade
heavy security and cross into the United States, the officials said.
46
"The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours," U.S. Customs and Border
Patrol spokeswoman Angelica De Cima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro
crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.
Three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman
for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials said the suspected migrants did not
open fire on U.S. agents as initial reports had suggested.
"Three vans attempted to run the port through one of the northbound vehicle lanes to avoid
inspection," De Cima said, adding that two agents fired their weapons. "I cannot confirm that
fire was returned," she added.
Mack said the border crossing partially reopened on Tuesday evening. A Mexican border
hotline for motorists said seven lanes at the crossing were open.
Mexico's violent drug gangs are increasingly moving into the lucrative people-smuggling
business, but tight U.S. border security is forcing them to take bigger risks to get narcotics
and illegal immigrants into the United States.
The brazen attempt was unprecedented at the heavily guarded crossing where helicopters
circle overhead and armed agents with dogs keep watch at a series of staggered
checkpoints.
All the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into custody. The crossing, a major
smuggling corridor for narcotics and illegal immigrants, was shut while police conducted the
investigation.
Some 90 million people a year use the California-Mexico land border crossings, with almost
half the traffic going through San Ysidro.
Angry drivers blared car horns as a huge traffic jam built up on the Mexican side while U.S.
agents signaled them to turn around.
"I've never known the entire crossing to be closed before. We just didn't believe the agents
when they told us to turn around," said a Mexican student who gave his name as Juan
Carlos and who crosses the border almost daily.
U.S. officials are directing motorists to California's other six border crossing, which also
handle trucks
47
CANU detain four for cocaine shipment destined for Canada
September 21, 2009 |
Agents from the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) have arrested four suspects
following the discovery of 7.5 Kilograms of cocaine in a shipment of spices destined for
Canada.
The bust was made last Thursday when CANU officers intercepted a shipment of
casreep, pepper sauce and Chinese sauce on its way to Canada via Amerijet, through the
Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs, one of the four suspects in
custody was held previously by CANU in connection with a shipment of cocaine to
Canada during December last year.
Investigations are in continuing.
ICE and international partners seize more than $41
million in Colombia and Mexico
Largest container bulk cash seizure made in Colombia and the United States
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Press Release September 28, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents along
with Colombian and Mexican law enforcement officers between Sept. 9 and 15 made the largest
bulk cash container seizure in Colombia and the U.S. - more than $41 million in U.S. currency
that was secreted in shipping containers found in ports in Colombia and Mexico. The seizures are
part of an ongoing ICE investigation by ICE's Attaché Office in Bogota, Colombia.
"ICE's bilateral cooperation between its foreign law enforcement partners has significantly
furthered ICE's mission to disrupt the criminal organizations that are smuggling narcotics into the
United States and smuggling bulk cash shipments out, which they use to fund additional criminal
activities," said the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton.
"This seizure of more than $41 million has surely put a dent in the illegal activities of the
individuals involved."
"We recognize both the U.S. government and the Mexican authorities as our best allies in the
fight against organized crime and thank and congratulate ICE for their support and collaboration,"
said General Oscar Naranjo Trujillo, director general of the Colombian National Police. "We also
praise the dedicated and professional work of 152,000 Colombian policemen that work day and
night towards security and coexistence amongst Colombians and the work of the members of the
Customs and Tax Police and the Anti-Narcotics Directorate. We are determined to bring to justice
the suspected owners of these illegal funds, as well as other drug traffickers that through their
illegal activities damage Colombia and its allied countries."
Alfredo Gutierrez, chief of Mexico's Tax Administration Service, said, "The data we collect
electronically from the trade community on a regular basis and the data we receive from and
crosscheck with our International Partners is now processed through highly sophisticated
systems and cutting-edge technologies. Our personnel have been trained to make the best of
these instruments and the results are there."
48
On Sept. 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian National Police (CNP) officers seized
$11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers, each containing 20 big bags
filled with ammonium sulfate. Sixteen of the 40 bags contained $700,000 in $20 dollar bill
denominations. The containers departed on a vessel from the port of Manzanillo, Mexico,
destined to the west coast port of Buenaventura, Colombia. According to Colombian customs
inspectors, this seizure is the most cash ever seized by police at a port in Colombia.
On Sept. 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million was also seized at the
port of Buenaventura.
Additionally on Sept. 11, ICE Attaché Mexico City special agents reported that information
developed by ICE Attaché Bogota agents resulted in a third seizure of U.S. currency estimated at
$11 million discovered hidden inside two shipping containers containing sodium sulfate at the
Port of Manzanillo, Mexico.
On Sept. 14, ICE special agents along with Colombian authorities discovered in Buenaventura
three additional shipping containers containing approximately $5 million in $100 and $50 dollar
bill denominations concealed within bags labeled as sodium sulfate. These shipping containers
also originated in Manzanillo.
On Sept. 18, a second seizure was recovered in the amount of $2.15 million in $100 dollar bill
denominations concealed within two containers with similar bags containing sodium sulfate
aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo.
The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points of a well-known route used for
smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash
back into Colombia.
The ICE Attaché Bogota office is the lead U.S. law enforcement agency in this bulk cash
smuggling investigation, with assistance from ICE Attaché Mexico City, the Colombian National
Police, Colombian Department of Treasury, Mexican Customs, and the Mexican Assistant
Attorney General for Special Investigations and Organized Crime (Siedo).
ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, charged with
enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics
smuggling, cash smuggling, and others. ICE has taken a leading role in combating bulk cash
smuggling, teaming in 2005, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to launch Operation
Firewall, a comprehensive law enforcement operation targeting criminal organizations involved in
the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency. The ICE Office of International Affairs (OIA) is
a critical asset in this mission, responsible for enhancing national security by conducting and
coordinating international investigations involving transnational criminal organizations and serving
as ICE's liaison to counterparts in local government and law enforcement.
Since its inception in 2005, Operation Firewall efforts have resulted in approximately 524 arrests
and 3,275 seizures in the United States and abroad totaling over $260 million. Over $100 million
has been seized by foreign authorities. In Jan 2007, Colombia authorities working in conjunction
with ICE and other federal authorities found approximately $85 million in U.S. currency, euros and
gold bars in five stash houses in Cali, Colombia. This is the largest cash seizure in Colombian
history.
49
2. The EU
Russia to detain Georgian ships off Abkhazia
By BEN JUDAH
ASSOCIATED PREESS WRITER September 15, 2009
MOSCOW -- Russia heightened tensions with Georgia Tuesday by warning that it will
detain Georgian ships entering the territorial waters of Abkhazia, a breakaway province
allied with Moscow, news agencies reported.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations after a brief war
with Georgia last year and has posted thousands of troops in both regions. Georgia,
whose military was routed during the fighting, has in recent months tried to assert
authority over Abkhazia in part by stopping ships from delivering cargo there.
Russian coast guard chief Lt. Gen. Viktor Trufanov said Tuesday that Georgia has
illegally intercepted more than 20 ships in the Black Sea off Abkhazia this year, Interfax
and RIA-Novosti reported. He said that Russia forces will intercept but not destroy any
Georgian ships that try to stop ships in Abkhazian waters from now on.
"We will do everything to ensure the security of the Russian state, the security of the
Abkhazian state. We have a task and we will carry it out," Interfax quoted Trufanov as
saying.
Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia all have Black Sea coastlines and maritime tensions have
escalated, as Georgia has sought to block Abkhazia's trade. Georgian authorities detained
a Turkish vessel in the area in August and sentenced its captain to 24 years in prison, but
released him free him earlier this month after the Turkish foreign minister got involved.
Two weeks ago, Abkhazian authorities warned they would open fire on any Georgian
ships entering what they consider Abkhazian waters.
Tuesday's warning from the coast guard chief provoked anger in Georgia.
"From the perspective of international maritime law, the (Russian) coast guards are
pirates and this is plain and simple occupation," Giorgi Kandelaki, deputy chairman of
the Georgian parliament's foreign relations committee, told The Associated Press.
Also adding to tensions, a Georgian official said an explosion damaged a passenger train
in Zugdidi, a town near Abkhazia. Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said no
casualties were reported in the blast, which he called terrorism. There was a similar
explosion targeting a train in Zugdidi in early September.
Russia drove Georgian forces out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a five-day war in
August 2008, badly setting back Georgia's hopes of regaining control over the two
50
provinces even though only Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have recognized them as
independent.
Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the regions and signed agreements in April
giving it the power to guard their borders.
Also Tuesday, Russia signed new agreements with both South Ossetia and Abkhazia
allowing Russia to build new military bases in the regions and to set up joint military
units, news agencies reported.
Russia has established Arctic border forces
2009-09-15
Murmansk and Arkhangelsk border guard services have been included in a newly
established Arctic Group for the protection of Russia’s northern borders.
This was said by Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Border
Guard Service Lieutenant General Viktor Trufanov in a briefing in Moscow yesterday,
news agency RIA Novosti reports.
Trufanov said that last year border guard vessels started patrolling along the Northeast
Passage and in the Sea of Chukchi Sea for the first time in many years.
He also reminded that in August, the Russian coast guard vessel ―Neva‖ from the North-
Eastern Border Guard Directorate detained a Norwegian sailboat in the East-Siberian Sea,
as BarentsObserver reported.
France to shut UK-bound migrant base
September 17, 2009 - 8:09AM
The French government announced it would this week close a wasteland district of Calais
known as The Jungle where hundreds of migrants trying to get to Britain have set up
home.
Immigration Minister Eric Besson said some of the migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and
other troubled or impoverished nations would be sent home from the notorious zone in
the Channel port.
Besson said a police operation in the scrub land near the main port would be staged this
week. He said the action would be taken because of the rising crime in the Channel port
since The Jungle became established.
Hundreds of mainly male migrants try to jump on trucks going onto ferries or to get on
trains going through the Channel tunnel to get to Britain.
51
Immigration ministry officials said The Jungle has become a haven for people smuggling
gangs and that it had become a virtual "no-go zone." They estimated that three months
ago it held about 700 people with around 300 there now.
The ministry said that dozens of squats inside the zone had been closed over the past six
months and that 170 people had made requests for asylum in France.
Besson said that an "individual solution" would be found for each person in the unruly
zone, including a voluntary return to the home country, an asylum request or expulsion.
But he added: "If conditions in Afghanistan do not allow this there will be no forced
return" to this country.
"The closing of The Jungle will not be the end of the fight against the underground
networks," said Besson, who added that other operations will follow.
Aid groups who work in The Jungle said that the closure would not stop the would be
migrants congregating in Calais hoping to get across the Channel.
"It is ridiculous," Friar Jean-Pierre Boutoille, of the C-Sur coalition of aid groups, told
AFP. "When they get out of The Jungle, the Afghans are just going to move one or two
hundred metres away."
French authorities had a centre for migrants at Sangatte, near Calais but this was closed in
2002 because of similar fears about crime and the numbers staying there
France evicts migrants from ‘Jungle’
Peter O’Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service S22/09
PARIS - Truncheon-wielding French riot police cleared out a migrant camp Tuesday known as the
"Jungle" as Europe took a small -- some say cosmetic -- step in an ongoing attempt to get a handle
on its migration crisis.
The migrants, mostly English-speaking Afghans, have been living in tin and wooden shacks in
Calais as they await the opportunity to sneak onto trucks en route by ferry to Britain.
French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, whose action was strongly supported by the British
government, said the "Jungle" has evolved into an "open-air dumping ground" run by people-
smugglers.
52
"This operation is not aimed at the migrants themselves," Besson told a news conference in
response to harsh criticisms from humanitarian groups.
"It's aimed at the logistical infrastructure and Mafia-style networks of the people-traffickers who
sell the trip to England at a very high price," he said.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who as France's interior minister shut down a similar camp in the
same area in 2002, had promised during the 2007 presidential campaign to crack down on illegal
migrants while bringing in a more selective, Canadian-style immigration program to target skilled
workers.
His tough talk successfully cut into the support for Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right Front National
party in France.
In other countries, anti-immigrant parties and groups have gained prominence, especially in
central and eastern Europe, since the onset of the global economic meltdown.
The European Union has used patrol vessels and other measures to try to stem the flow of
migrants who are charged less than $2,000 to board a fishing vessel to travel from the African
coastline to European ports, usually on the Spanish mainland or Spain's Canary Islands.
Mr. Besson said Tuesday that the EU should consider France's proposal for a European frontier
police force to stem the tide, though critics say such moves are just political posturing that does
little to deal with the problem.
Former Canadian immigration minister Sergio Marchi said Europeans, historically used to more
traditional and homogeneous societies, have struggled with the issue.
He said one factor making migration more explosive here is that many countries, and the
European Parliament, use proportional representation systems to elect politicians. That means
far-right parties can more easily win seats and gain legitimacy.
53
"If politicians push certain [anti-immigrant] buttons in Canadian society that might not go over
well," said Mr. Marchi, now senior fellow with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable
Development in Geneva.
"In Europe I think there is more space [to do that], and then the whole political class has to react.
So it makes for a far hotter issue here than back home."
While he said Europe has to be more receptive to immigrants, he said he understood the necessity
for authorities to take action against queue-jumpers.
"As minister I always said, ‘In order to say yes to the many you have to be able to say no to the
few.' If you don't say no, if you don't have any right or wrong or laws, then there's anarchy, then
you run the risk of losing the public, because I think it will move right."
Europe has by far the largest total number of immigrants and refugees of any region of the world,
with 64.1 million, compared to 44.5 million in North America, according to the International
Organization for Migration.
However, Canada and the U.S. have a higher per capita rate of migrants, representing 13.5% of
the population, compared to 8.8% in more populous Europe.
The British government praised France's action Tuesday that led to the detention of 278 people,
including 132 minors.
"I welcome the swift and decisive steps that the French government has taken today to close the
‘Jungle' in Calais, action which will disrupt illegal immigration and people trafficking routes," said
Home Secretary Alan Johnson.
54
New 'jungle' for asylum seekers springs up on outskirts of
Calais
A new "jungle" has sprung up in Calais just 24 hours after police closed a large
makeshift camp for asylum seekers less than a mile away in the northern French
town.
By Caroline Gammell in Calais
Published: 7:00AM BST 24 Sep 2009
An Afghan migrant sits in his makeshift shelter in woodland near Calais Photo: REUTERS
The new site, next to a bridge, lies in wasteland near the city centre, just yards from the
grandiose town hall.
More than 30 men gathered there yesterday to receive food from a local charity after
being released from detention by the French authorities. Many said they would remain
there until they could find a way into Britain.
At least five other small camps have also sprung up in the area near the port as hundreds
of migrants hope to reach the UK.
Nearly 300 people, mostly young Afghan men, were rounded up on Tuesday while their
"jungle" ghetto of tarpaulin and wooden houses – which had built up over the last five
years - was razed to the ground.
They were taken to a detention centre in Lille where they were either offered the option
to claim asylum in France or return to their home countries.
The vast majority refused both options, determined to reach the UK.
William Spindler, from the UNHCR, said 20 migrants were released on Monday, while
more were freed gradually throughout the early hours of yesterday.
He said: "The conditions in the jungle were appalling, but just closing it down without
providing any alternative is not going to solve the problem.
"They will just set up other camps somewhere else."
Aftar Gul was among those who lost everything when his makeshift home in the "jungle"
was destroyed and he was detained. He was subsequently released at 2am yesterday
(wed).
The 25-year-old, who looks considerably older, jumped on a train back to Calais
immediately – without a ticket – and found refuge at the bridge.
He said he would stay there and try to make his way to Britain again.
55
Mr Gul, who left a wife and five children in Jalalabad in Afghanistan, claimed to have
tried more than 300 times to get to the UK by jumping on lorries and trains crossing the
Channel.
He left Afghanistan a year ago, travelling 17 hours in a truck to reach Greece, before
moving through Italy and arriving in France six months ago.
The barber said he had a cousin and nephew in the UK, currently in a detention centre
themselves, and would not stop until he got there, where he hoped to find suitable
accommodation and a job.
"I hope and ask God that I will succeed in getting to England. My family are waiting to
help me.
"I do not want to stay in France. I will try by any means to get to England. I have to live
next to this bridge because I do not have any choice.
"The French police destroyed my home in the "jungle". I lost everything."
Fellow Afghan Kamran Warakheel added, as he wrapped himself in a blanket to get some
sleep: "This is the new jungle."
Those migrants detained by the police yesterday were just a small proportion of those
who lived in the "jungle" as many had moved on before the authorities arrived.
It is feared that they may have moved further down the coast, to places such as Dunkirk,
and set up camp anew.
Biggest ever heroin haul at Britain's Heathrow Airport
(AFP) – September 18, 2009
LONDON — British and South African authorities have made a record heroin seizure
following on operation at London's Heathrow Airport and raids in both countries,
officials said Thursday.
Immigration officials discovered some of the drugs hidden in souvenirs from South
Africa at Heathrow, sparking an investigation that netted 360 kilogrammes of heroin in
total, the UK Border Agency said.
Seven people have been arrested in both countries over the total seizure, worth 27 million
euros, the agency said.
Thousands of kilogrammes of cannabis were also discovered, the agency said.
56
"This latest detection of heroin at Heathrow, believed to be our biggest ever, highlights
our success in preventing class A drugs entering the UK," said Philip Astle, the UK
Border Agency's Heathrow director.
About 165 kilogrammes were discovered at Heathrow, a record seizure for the world's
busiest airport, on September 9 in the consignment of souvenirs.
After an investigation, police seized another 80 kilogrammes and arrested two people in
Kent, southeast England, charging one with conspiracy to import drugs and possession,
the agency said.
Acting on information from Britain, South African police arrested five people, including
three British nationals, and seized 115 kilogrammes of heroin and 6,500 kilogrammes of
cannabis in a warehouse outside Durban.
"These seizures are a great example of what can happen when partners work together,
said Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency deputy director Andy Sellers.
"Both ends of this international chain have been attacked, and a significant amount of
heroin and cannabis has been kept off the UK's streets."
2009/09/28
Navy seizes cocaine 'worth £240m'
The Royal Navy says it has seized its biggest haul of cocaine, estimating its street
value at £240m ($380m).
The Portsmouth-based frigate HMS Iron Duke seized more than five-and-a-half tonnes of the
drug from a 138ft fishing boat off the coast of Colombia.
The Royal Navy and US Coast Guard jointly intercepted the boat after it was spotted by a navy
helicopter crew.
Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell praised the operation for "damaging the trade in this vile
substance".
― It is the largest drugs bust by value, and by volume, in terms of cocaine ‖
Commander Andrew Stacey HMS Iron Duke, Royal Navy
He said cocaine "only serves to poison our communities".
Whitehall officials have said the bust took place in international waters off the north coast of
Colombia, according to BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
The 212 bales of cocaine, weighing about 26kg each, were seized in an area known for
trafficking.
57
Cdr Andrew Stacey said the ship's crew was "delighted".
He said: "This was our third successful drug bust in as many months but this surpasses
anything we've had and anything the navy had previously.
"It is the largest drugs bust by value, and by volume, in terms of cocaine. It is a massive blow
for the narcotics industry."
Cdr Stacey told the BBC that the crew - along with an armed helicopter and inflatable boats -
had intercepted the boat, MV Cristal, in a "high-speed pounce" on 15 September.
They spent 24 hours searching it before the drugs were found hidden beneath the ship's
regular stores.
A concrete floor had to be broken up with sledge hammers and metal panels had to be
unbolted before the stash was discovered and removed, he said.
NAVY'S ROLE IN THE CARIBBEAN
The Royal Navy has maintained a presence in the Caribbean for decades
Primary role is reassurance and hurricane relief
British ship RFA Fort George can carry fuel, spares, food and supplies, and has medical
facilities including a 12-bed surgical facility
Royal Navy operations reflect Britain's ties with Commonwealth nations and British overseas
territories in the region
Royal Navy ships also participate in anti-drugs operations
Earlier this year, HMS Iron Duke seized cocaine worth £33m, last year she impounded
cocaine worth £45m
Prince William has served on the Iron Duke
The drug smugglers' boat was later sunk by gunfire.
Cdr Stacey said several drug runners of different nationalities had been arrested but no more
details could be revealed.
He said he could not confirm for operational reasons whether intelligence had directed the Iron
Duke to the vessel, but likened the Royal Navy's patrols to those of a "bobby on the beat" who
notices when "something's not quite right".
Another British ship, RFA Fort George, was also involved in the joint operation between the
Royal Navy and the US Coast Guard. HMS Iron Duke's primary task, while on a six-month
deployment, is to reassure and assist the people of the UK Overseas Territories during the
hurricane season.
The warship, which was launched in 1991 and cost £140m to build, is also on stand-by to take
part in anti-narcotics operations.
The latest seizure is the third major counter-narcotics success for HMS Iron Duke off South
America in recent months.
In raids in July and August, the warship was involved in two operations which seized cocaine
with an estimated street value totalling £39m.
Prince William served on HMS Iron Duke in July 2008, during which the crew seized more than
£40m of cocaine in the Caribbean.
58
3. Africa and the Middle East
Dubai Customs foil bid to smuggle fake money
(WAM)
9 September 2009
DUBAI - Inline with the great efforts made to protect the local community from prohibited goods, Passengers
Operations Department at Dubai Customs- Airport Terminal 2
has recently managed to foil a bid to smuggle fake paper money of (AED 100, 200 and 500)
carried by an Arab passenger who was arriving from an Arab country.
Dubai Customs inspectors suspected the Arab passenger when he was standing at the
inspection point at Airport Terminal 2 who looked tensed. A well-trained customs inspector
noticed these suspicious signs and drew his fellow inspectors‘ attention to the implications of his
body language and he was monitored and meticulously checked.
At the beginning inspectors could not find illegal materials while searching the passenger‘s
luggage by the detector machines or even manual search to the luggage. Hence, they decided to
search him as they notices a plump in his trousers‘ pockets. They asked him to empty his pockets
and when asked to do so he showed more confusion and anxiety. Inspectors‘ doubts increased
when they saw that kind of behavior but it was all justified when they found out that he had
different categories of Emirati dirhams with a total of AED 268000.
Inline with the mutual coordination and cooperation between Dubai Customs and Dubai Police,
the passenger along with the seized money were transferred to the Police who in their turn
transferred the seizure to the Forensic Science and Criminology Department at Dubai Police.
The laboratory tests there showed that these paper money categories were thoroughly
duplicated, except for a single AED 100 that was not false, to the extent that average people
could not recognize them.
Saleh Al Mugahwi, Senior Manager of Passengers Operations Department at Dubai Customs,
said:‘ Dubai Customs makes great efforts in the field of combating all kinds of smuggling, among
which smuggling fake currency which reflects negatively on the UAE‘s economy. This is achieved
by hiring highly qualified cadres as Dubai Customs inspectors go through a number of specialized
courses in body language and developing the sense of security as well as customs monitoring.
They also receive training programs regularly on self-inspection methods, searching luggage
using the x-ray machines to detect smugglers who try to bring prohibited and illegal products to
the UAE.‘
Cocaine Ship Sailed From Brazil
SUNDAY, 06 SEPTEMBER 2009 ADMINISTRATOR
Information available to the Daily Graphic on the movement of St Efrem, the vessel impounded at the Tema
Port for carrying five sacks of suspected cocaine, indicates that the vessel sailed from Santos, Brazil on
August 13, 2009 after it arrived there on August 8, 2009.
Until the arrest of the vessel last Tuesday, it was the fourth time St Efrem was coming to Ghana, particularly
the Tema Port.
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It first came to Tema on March 23, 2008 but left before May 1, 2008.
Its second coming was on September 14, 2008 and left on September 24, 2008 and made a third
appearance on November 10, 2008 and left on November 24, 2008 enroute to Lome, Togo.
Prior to its arrival on September 1, 2009 at the Tema port, St Efrem had berthed in Lome on July 3, 2009
and reported to have left Lome before August 8, 2009 for Santos, Brazil.
While in Santos, Brazil, St Efrem loaded 14,000 tonnes of sugar, 8,000 tonnes of which was meant for a
Ghanaian importer, Taj Investments, with the remaining 6,000 tonnes heading for Congo Brazzaville.
Information available to the Daily Graphic also indicates that the Captain of the ship, Mr Fernandes
Alejandro, was engaged in Lome, Togo on July 9, 2009 while the Chief Officer, Rene Sagre, was engaged in
Santos, Brazil on August 8, 2009 with the deceased, Jose Saavedra Quinanola, engaged on August 18,
2008 in Santos, Brazil.
With the exception of one crew member, a Bangladeshi, all the other crew members are Philippinos.
Three of the Philipino crew members and the Bangladeshi were all recruited in Tema between September
and November 2008.
With International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 7617125 and San Evans Maritime as its registered
owner, St Efrem had come under intelligence surveillance for a while with the Drug Enforcement
Administration of the USA, the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL), Brazilian and Togolese
authorities confirming the suspicion that there was contraband goods on the vessel beside the legitimate
cargo.
The acting Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Mr Yaw Akrasi-Sarpong, told the
Daily Graphic yesterday that but for such international collaboration, the vessel could have discharged the
suspected cocaine along the shores of Ghana before berthing at the Tema Port.
He, however, said the Togolese and Ivorian authorities backed the Ghana Air Force and Ghana Navy with
the US providing technical support to prevent the crew from dumping the suspected cocaine into the waters
for their agents to pick.
"We beefed up operations at the coastal areas to monitor the ship's movements until it berthed. We became
suspicious when the captain informed the Port Master in Tema that its engine had broken down," he said.
Mr Akrasi-Sarpong said the Ghanaian authorities became more suspicious when they received conflicting
reports about its time of arrival.
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He said NACOB's international partners had provided pictures of the loading and weighing of the five bags
of suspected cocaine in the vessel before it set off from Santos, Brazil to facilitate investigations.
He said the crew members had been interrogated in the presence of their lawyer, Mr Yaw Darko Asare of
Beulah Chambers in Tema.
Mr Akrasi-Sarpong said impounding the vessel and its contents did not mean that the importers of the sugar
were behind the cocaine importation.
He said unless the investigations proved otherwise, nobody should jump into conclusions and put out
information to wrongly accuse anyone.
UAE aircraft carrying Harpoons to China?
Times of India, Staff Report, 2009 09 10
Kolkata - What is the mysterious weapons cargo in the China-bound UAE Air Force's C-
130 Hercules aircraft detained at Kolkata airport since Sunday?
Defence and intelligence sleuths say it could be a sophisticated US- made weapons
system, which explains the unconcealed concern of the Indian authorities and the silence
on the part of the UAE government.
UAE authorities applied to the Indian government to get the plane released on
Wednesday evening -- nearly 72 hours after it was detained. The plane has been given a
take-off slot of 9.30am on Thursday for China's Xiangyang. Sources confirmed that the
three mysterious boxes in the aircraft contain ''combat missiles'' but were mum on the
details.
Defence and intelligence sleuths, probing the case, don't rule out the possibility of the
deadly US- made Harpoon missiles being channelized to China from UAE and Egypt.
Press Trust Of India
Kolkata, September 10, 2009
Grounded arms-laden UAE plane takes off for China
The detained cargo plane of UAE's Air Force in which arms and ammunition were found
took off for China's Xianyang city on after being grounded in Kolkata for four days.
The China-bound plane was detained in Kolkata for not declaring the consignment it was
carrying.
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Airport sources said the airplane carrying 10 crew members, including the pilot, took off
at 9.30 am.
A defence spokesman said in Kolkata that the clearance for the plane was received from
the Air Headquarters late on Wednesday night.
The External Affairs Ministry had last night given the green signal to the Ministry of
Defence and Customs authorities that the C-130 Hercules plane could be allowed to leave
the NSC Bose International Airport.
The aircraft was grounded in Kolkata since Sunday evening and its crew members
interrogated.
The Indian government gave the clearance after it was told by UAE authorities that its
pilot had committed a "technical error" over declaring the on-board arms and ammunition
for which they expressed regret.
The External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement that the matter will be resolved in
the spirit of the close and friendly ties between India and the UAE.
The statement said the UAE authorities both in New Delhi and Abu Dhabi have since
formally regretted the omission in clearly indicating items carried by the aircraft and have
described it as a "technical error."
The plane, which had originated from UAE capital Abu Dhabi, had made a scheduled
transit halt in Kolkata for refuelling on Sunday when the consignment was detected.
UAE seizes North Korean weapons. Now what?
UN ban on North Korean weapons may be working. Should it apply to both
nuclear and conventional weapons?
By Donald Kirk | Correspondent 08.31.09
We‘ll take those, thank you.
Now what?
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) face the delicate question of whether to
jeopardize trade with Iran by holding on to a seized shipment of North Korean arms.
But some observers say: At least the UN ban on North Korean weapons is being
enforced.
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The Emirates has let the Australian-registered, Bahaman-flagged vessel leave port.
Now, it‘s asking the North Korean sanction committee set up by the United Nations
Security Council to deal with the question of what to do with the conventional weapons.
The UN sanctions, imposed on June 12 in response to North Korea‘s second
underground nuclear test on May 25, ban North Korea from exporting or importing arms
or military materiel, notably anything to do with missiles or weapons of mass destruction.
The sanctions also tightly circumscribe financial dealings with North Korea.
This isn‘t the first weapons shipment to arouse suspcions.
As reported in June, the US Navy destroyer John McCain shadowed a North Korean
cargo ship bound for Burma. The ship eventually turned around.
Earlier this month, an Indian ship intercepted a North Korean ship that it suspected had
nuclear cargo hidden in a consignment of sugar. That ship is bound for an Indian port for
a closer look.
The Miami Herald praised the UN sanctions – and Indian interdiction – as a ―welcome
delvelopment,‖ indicating that the ―international community is finally facing up to the
challenge of North Korea‘s build-up of a nuclear arsenal.‖
The UAE is the first country actually to seize a shipment of North Korean arms, but the
seizure inevitably will anger Iran – not to mention North Korea. The UAE serves as an
important transshipment point for cargo in and out of Iran.
The UN resolution is most concerned with missiles and weapons of mass destruction,
leaving it up to nations to decide what to do with conventional weapons. The shipment
seized in the Emirates consists of rocket-propelled grenades and other arms but not
missiles, according to diplomatic sources. The shipping manifest reportedly said the 10
containers held ―oil boring machines.‖
Nonetheless, the seizure raises the question of whether North Korea also continues to
ship missiles to Iran, suspected by some experts to rank as the biggest purchaser of
North Korean weapons.
Iran and North Korea also have collaborated in exchanges of nuclear technology,
particularly pertaining to highly enriched uranium. Iran‘s nuclear program is based on
highly enriched uranium, exclusively, Iran has frequently claimed, for nuclear energy.
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North Korea has produced plutonium for nuclear devices while beginning to conduct a
separate program relying on highly enriched uranium.
Cocaine turns West Africa's Gold Coast into 'coke coast' - Feature
Posted on : 2009-09-14 | Author : DPA
News Category : Africa
Nairobi/Bissau - West Africa's coastline was once known as the Gold Coast, but it is
increasingly earning a new designation of "coke coast."The bitterly poor countries in
the region have become a favoured transit point for European-bound cocaine
produced in Latin America, the United Nations and international experts have
warned.
"West Africa has everything that criminals need: Resources, a strategic location,
weak governance and an endless source of foot soldiers who see few viable
alternatives to a life of crime," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the
United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime, when the agency's latest report was
released in July.
Worst off appears to be Guinea Bissau, sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal,
which many say has become Africa's first "drug state." It's one of the West African
countries favoured by drug barons from the South American cartels, who have built
villas there and feel safe from prosecution.
The impoverished former Portuguese colony is a favourite with criminals from Brazil
and Colombia because language is no barrier - Portuguese remains the most
important language in the small country.
Today, South American "businessmen" frequent the most expensive nightclubs in
the capital, Bissau, and parade their expensive sports cars - often imported without
paying tax - through the city's pot- holed streets. Huge mansions have emerged
along the coast.
The success of investigators since the 1990s in shutting down the Caribbean drug
transit route made West Africa attractive to the drug gangs.
In one report, US drug investigators pointed out the advantage of West Africa for
Latin American drug cartels: The air route is relatively short; goods can be shipped
with ease from Brazil and Venezuela; and West Africa is strategically attractive,
being half- way between South America and Europe.
Security forces in the region's notoriously unstable countries do not pose a major
threat for drug traffickers, who can bribe top police officials and politicians.
In the face of rampant corruption, it is not difficult to get customs officers to look
the other way. Planes transporting cocaine use the main airport, with no need for
makeshift airstrips in the jungle.
Even if honest police officers try to declare war on the drug mafia, they are at a
hopeless disadvantage. They often have no petrol for their old vehicles, no radios
that work or no mobile phones. Compared with the "protection" that drug cartels
can easily buy with their abundant money, even successful investigations often
reach a dead end.
It is usually only the minnows who are ever arrested, often the mules who swallow
condoms full of cocaine and transport them from West Africa into Europe in the
hope of buying themselves a better life. Some are arrested, while others pay with
their lives when the condoms break.
Drug money threatens to pulverize the already fragile political stability of countries
like Guinea Bissau. The market value of the drugs is greater than the Gross
Domestic Product of the states affected.
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Poor West African nations are not in a position to patrol their coastline or airspace
effectively, the UN's Costa said.
Between 1998-2003, an average of 600 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized every
year in West Africa. This has increased several fold since.
In July, however, the UN's office on drugs noted a downturn in the estimated trans-
shipment of cocaine in West Africa to about 20 tonnes a year, down from 40 tonnes
in 2006.
The UN said about a quarter of the cocaine meant for the European market goes
through the region, while Interpol estimates that it may be as much as a third.
Costa noted last November the tragic connections between the 19th and 21st
centuries. "In the 19th century, Europe's hunger for slaves devastated West Africa.
Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same," he
said.
Drug bust points to top SA officials
By Fred Kockott
Batteries filled with hashish and heroin allegedly raked in billions for the international
drug syndicate that has been operating between Durban and Britain for over a year.
Six people have been arrested in Durban, and two in the UK. Kingpins connected to the
syndicate are now being sought elsewhere.
The SA-UK "battery gang", as it is now dubbed, is also suspected of having government
connections and possibly connections to officials in correctional services, customs and
police in South Africa.
Head of the SAPS Hawks narcotics division, Senior Superintendent Devon Naicker, last
week declined to comment on the suspected institutional links, beyond saying, "they
appear to be well connected".
Naicker, a former top SA Narcotics Bureau detective, is assisting a team of organised
crime detectives investigate the syndicate operations following a tip-off from British
authorities.
Earlier last week, Naicker believed detectives had "taken down the whole South African
leg of the scheme", but on Friday he said ongoing investigations had revealed "bigger
fish".
Naicker said he had been tipped off about the syndicate's operations after a
consignment of 160kg of heroin, concealed among boxes of curios from South Africa,
had landed at London's Heathrow Airport two weeks ago.
"We kept it very quiet and did discreet checks on the companies that had sent it. Then,
when they had finalised the operation in the UK, arresting one suspect and seizing a
total of 240kg of heroin, they gave us the go-ahead to take down the syndicate," said
Naicker.
After arresting two South African men, Moganenthan Nadasen, 52, and Gopal Ganesh,
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48, at the SA Cultural Curios - a small shop in Phoenix's Starwood Mall - a "whole chain
of events unfolded".
"It led us to another business, and from one warehouse to the next, to another storage
facility, a battery factory and to a home in La Lucia where they had run a packaging
laboratory to conceal the drugs," said Naidoo.
By Wednesday, police had arrested three more suspects - British nationals, Paul
Bromley, 40, and brothers, Paul, 34, and John, 29, Beazley - and confiscated vast
amounts of drugs. This included 116kg of heroin, six tons of hashish (cannabis resin),
and 500kg of compressed cannabis.
Naicker estimated the local street value of the drugs seized at R600 million. "It's
probably worth 10 times that in UK and Europe. That's a serious amount of drugs to go
missing. People are already crying, literally so, over it."
He said because of the "tight security" needed around the South African leg of the
investigations, only a handful of Durban organised crime unit detectives, led by Captain
Devan Moodley, had been involved in the investigations.
He said the evidence and interviews conducted indicated that the drugs had been
shipped from the South East Asia, including Pakistan, offloaded in Maputo, then trucked
via Johannesburg to Durban. In Durban, the drugs were allegedly taken to various
storage facilities and warehouses and then to a house in La Lucia where packaging and
concealment of the drugs took place.
The main method of concealing the drugs was by using empty battery casings and
boxes of curios.
These items would then be freighted to OR Tambo Airport and flown to the UK, where
they were collected by duplicate front companies, such as SA Cultural Curios UK and
battery shops, said Naicker.
"From there, they were distributed throughout the UK and Europe. This was all
happening under the pretence of legitimate trade."
He said that to support the trafficking scheme, an entire battery warehouse had been
established in Durban specialising in the production of battery casings.
With the scheme having allegedly operated for over a year, Naicker believes the
syndicate raked in billions through the sale of the drugs.
He said investigations and asset seizures flowing out of the "battery gang" case trial
were likely to extend over several years, but might never expose the drugs' original
sources.
"We will investigate that, but it's obviously difficult for us to make headway in tracing
suppliers in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan," said Naicker.
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Coast boats used to battle Middle East drugs
By MICHAEL NEWSOM - Saturday, Sep. 19, 2009
GULFPORT — United States Marine Inc. is building high-performance patrol boats for Middle
Eastern nations battling drug operations that support terrorism.
The company was in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, but moved its headquarters to a site
on Lorraine Road in Gulfport not long after the storm. USMI has built boats for Oman, Egypt,
Australia, Bahrain and others, said Barry Dreyfus Jr., president and chief executive officer of
USMI.
The Gulfport shipyard is building 25 boats for Kuwait, which will be used to fight ―narcoterrorism‖
— what some call drug operations that fund terrorism. Similar heavily armed, high-performance
boats from USMI are already in use in Oman.
―With the armament and the technology on these boats, the smugglers are going to be in for a
surprise,‖ Dreyfus said. ―They‘ve already been interjected off the coast of Oman coming out of
Iran and the boats are proving very dominant in the Gulf right now.‖
Kuwait will get 10 heavily armed Mark V Patrol Boats, which are up to 90 feet long and can
accommodate a crew of up to 30. With a top speed of more than 45 knots (more than 51 mph),
they‘re fast for their size. They take about a year and half to build.
Kuwait is also getting 15 of the nimble Rigid Inflatable Boats, which look a little like a heavily
armed raft. The RIB can hold a crew of up to 13 and hit speeds of more than 40 knots, thanks to
470-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engines.
Rather than getting the boats through the U.S. government, as is the rule for much of what USMI
builds for foreign nations, Kuwait bought them directly from the company.
―Kuwait has always been very responsive to the needs of America since we went in there and
saved them, for lack of a better word, during the first Gulf War,‖ Dreyfus said. ―They‘ve put up
over $200 million so they can come here and buy American products .... We look forward to a
long relationship with them.‖
USMI finds itself thriving since Katrina. Besides the contract with Kuwait, business is good
despite the recession. Dreyfus said USMI has avoided layoffs during the economic downturn and
may actually add to its work force of more than 200 employee as the company acquires more
contracts.
―We‘ve been really conservative,‖ Dreyfus said. ―We have no long-term debt, no bank loans, the
building here is built and paid for by us and the people that work for us.‖
Latin American drug cartels find home in West Africa
(CNN) -- Colombian and Mexican drug cartels have jumped the Atlantic Ocean and expanded into West
Africa, working closely with local criminal gangs to carve out a staging area for an assault on the lucrative
European market.
The situation has gotten so out of hand that tiny Guinea-Bissau, the fifth-poorest nation in the world, is being
called Africa's first narco-state. Others talk about how Africa's Gold Coast has become the Coke Coast. In
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all, officials say, at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African
nations.
"The same organizations that we investigate in Central and South America that are involved in drug activity
toward the United States are engaged in this trafficking in Western Africa," said Russell Benson, the Drug
Enforcement Agency regional director for Europe and Africa. "There's not one country that hasn't been
touched to some extent."
The calculus is simple: bigger profits in Europe than in the United States, less law enforcement in West
Africa than in Europe.
The driving force is the booming European market for cocaine.
"The exponential rise in the number of consumers has made Europe the fastest-growing and most-profitable
market in the world," said Bruce Bagley, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the
University of Miami.
While the European market has been expanding, use in the United States has declined from its peak in the
1980s, the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in its 2009 annual report, issued in July.
"Cocaine use prevalence in the USA is 50 percent lower than it was two decades ago, while Spain, Italy,
Portugal, France and the United Kingdom have all seen cocaine use double or triple in recent years," the
U.N. report said.
About 1,000 tons of pure cocaine are produced each year, nearly 60 percent of which evades law
enforcement interception and makes it to market, the report said. That's a wholesale global market of about
$70 billion.
Criminals traffic about 250 tons to Europe each year, though not all of it makes it there, the U.N. said. The
European market totals about $11 billion. About 27 percent of the cocaine that entered Europe in 2006 came
from Africa, the United Nations said.
Huge profits make Europe particularly attractive. Two pounds of uncut cocaine can sell for $22,000 in the
United States but for $45,000 in Europe, analyst Ashley-Louise Bybee wrote in a policy journal this year.
The Justice Department said the price in Europe can be three times more than in the United States.
"It's a significant market for them to exploit," Benson said.
A strong euro and weaker dollar also make Europe attractive to traffickers because of favorable exchange
rates. There's also the fact that the European Union recently issued a 500 euro note, currently equivalent to
about $700. The largest U.S. denomination in circulation is the $100 bill. Traffickers prefer the large euro
notes because they are easier to carry in large quantities.
For example, Benson said that $1 million in $100 bills weighs 22 pounds, while $1 million in 500 euro notes
weighs 3.5 pounds.
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"It's a huge difference," he said.
Though Europe is highly attractive to traffickers, it can have tight, Western-style security. So the Colombian
and Mexican cartels have discovered that it's much easier to smuggle large loads into West Africa and then
break that up into smaller shipments to the continent -- mostly Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
West Africa is a smuggler's dream, suffering from a combination of factors that make the area particularly
vulnerable. It is among the poorest and least stable regions in the world. Governments are weak and
ineffective and, as a top DEA chief testified to the U.S. Senate this summer, officials are often corrupt.
Law enforcement also is largely riddled with corruption. Criminal gangs are rampant. Foot soldiers can be
recruited from a large pool of poor and desperate youth.
"It's a point of least resistance," Benson said.
West Africa refers to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
"This area of the world is ripe," Bagley said. "There has been very little attention paid to it. The United States
is loath to give aid to these countries because they are corrupt."
U.S. authorities find themselves at a great disadvantage fighting cartels that have much more money and
guns. The DEA has four offices -- in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa -- to cover a continent that
spans 11.7 million square miles and has nearly 1 billion people.
"It's a big place," Benson acknowledges, noting that there are 54 countries on the continent.
Local police also are vastly outgunned. Guinea-Bissau offers an alarming example.
"The Judicial Police ... have 60 agents, one vehicle and often no fuel," analyst Bybee wrote in a journal
called New Voices in Public Policy, published by the George Mason University School of Public Policy. "As a
result, when culprits are apprehended, they are driven in a taxi to the police station. They just recently
received six sets of handcuffs from the U.K., which were badly needed. In the military, one rusty ship patrols
the 350-kilometer (217-mile) coastline and 88 islands."
Even when criminals are caught, Bybee said, "the near absence of a judicial system allows traffickers to
operate unimpeded." For example, she said, "because the police are so impotent, the culprits are often held
for just a few hours before senior military personnel suddenly attain extraordinary judicial powers to demand
their release."
The few officials who stand up to the traffickers receive death threats or are killed.
West Africa also is particularly attractive to traffickers because it is near "the soft underbelly of Europe," said
retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was drug policy director for President Clinton.
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Geography plays another role because West Africa is fairly close to the three South American nations that
produce nearly all of the world's cocaine -- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Many of the shipments depart from
Venezuela, which shares a 1,273-mile (2,050-kilometer) porous border with Colombia and is even closer to
Africa.
"They go right dead-ass across the shortest route," McCaffrey said.
Most of the cocaine shipments cross the Atlantic in large "mother ships" and then are off-loaded to small
vessels near the coastline, the United Nations said. Small planes modified for overseas flight that can carry
a 1-ton cargo also have been used. Most of those come from Venezuela, the United Nations reported.
A report issued in July by the Government Accountability Office said traffickers use go-fast boats, fishing
vessels and commercial shipping containers as the primary means of smuggling cocaine out of Venezuela.
McCaffrey also noted the use of go-fast boats and special planes.
DEA Assistant Administrator Thomas Harrigan testified before the Senate in June that authorities in Sierra
Leone seized a cocaine shipment last year from a twin-engine aircraft marked with a Red Cross insignia.
The flight originated in Venezuela, he said.
The GAO report noted that "U.S. government officials have observed an increase in suspicious air traffic
originating in Venezuela." In 2004, the report said, authorities tracked 109 suspect flights out of Venezuela.
In 2007, officials tracked 178 suspicious flights.
Then there's the crime connection in West Africa.
"Colombian and Venezuelan traffickers are entrenched in West Africa and have cultivated long-standing
relationships with African criminal networks to facilitate their activities in the region," Harrigan told a Senate
subcommittee on African affairs.
"These organizations don't operate in a vacuum," Benson said. "They have to align themselves with West
African criminal groups."
The cartels also have aligned themselves with terrorists, Harrigan said.
"The threat of narco-terrorism in Africa is a real concern, including the presence of international terrorist
organizations operating or based in Africa, such as the regional threat presented by al Qaeda in the Lands
of Maghreb," he said, referring to al Qaeda activists in North Africa. "In addition, DEA investigations have
identified elements of Colombia's Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [FARC] as being involved
in cocaine trafficking in West Africa."
Benson said the groups operating in Africa are "primarily narcotics organizations" but acknowledged that the
Marxist FARC guerrillas in Colombia are a force to be dealt with. The rebels have waged war on the
Colombian government for more than 40 years.
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"The profit potential is such that the FARC is one of the largest cocaine-trafficking operations globally and is
also a terrorist organization," he said.
Bagley and McCaffrey see less evidence of terrorist connections with the traffickers in Africa, both using
nearly identical language.
"I'd be really skeptical of those kinds of assertions," McCaffrey said.
"I'm quite skeptical about linkages between cartels and terrorists," Bagley said. "The criminal groups seek
profits. They're not interested in taking over governments."
Still, Bagley said, traffickers and terrorists may use some of the same criminal networks.
Analysts note that the surge of cartel activity in West Africa is a fairly recent development. The U.N. report
said it started around 2005. Bybee places it around 2006.
McCaffrey, who was in the Clinton White House in the 1990s, said he saw the problem coming a long time
ago.
"I've been warning people in Europe and Latin America starting 10 years ago where this issue was going to
move," he said. "The Europeans absolutely blew me off."
The U.N. report offers some hope, saying that cocaine seizures in Europe peaked in 2006 and topped out in
West Africa in 2007. Overall seizures have declined since 2006, the report said.
"This trend appears to be continuing in 2009 and includes declines in the number and volume of seizures
made in the region and in the number of air couriers coming from the region in Europe," the report
concluded.
For example, authorities seized 11 large shipments in Africa in 2007, four in 2008 and none so far this year.
The report does not specify whether there are fewer shipments or smarter criminals avoiding detection.
But if there is a decline, the DEA's Benson said he has not seen it.
"In the last three or four years, it's increased quite dramatically," he said. "The Colombian organizations
have been active there longer than that. In the last two years, we've also seen Mexican involvement in the
area as well."
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Guinea-Bissau 'to tackle drugs' 2009/09/25
New President Malam Bacai Sanha has promised to end Guinea-Bissau's role as a
major global drug trafficking hub.
Without giving further details, he promised to tackle the drugs trade, terrorism and organised
crime.
Latin American drugs cartels use Guinea-Bissau and some of its West African neighbours, as
transit points to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
President Sanha took office earlier this month, succeeding Joao Bernardo Vieira, who was
assassinated in March.
"I can today assure you that Guinea-Bissau will no long be a hub for drug trafficking," he said
in a speech to mark the country's 36th anniversary of independence from Portugal.
After years of instability and military coups, poverty-stricken Guinea-Bissau is seen by some
as a "narco-state".
Senior military officials have been accused of links to the drugs trade.
On Wednesday, China promised some 1m euros ($1.46m; £917,000) to help feed the Guinea-
Bissau army, among other aid pledges, reports the Reuters news agency.
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4. Asia Pacific
Navy factors in terrorism, coastal security in revamped
maritime doctrine
TNN 30 August 2009, 01:57am IST
NEW DELHI: Making major changes in its maritime doctrine given the evolving nature of modern
warfare, the Indian Navy has revamped its existing policies to factor in maritime terrorism, piracy
and coastal security as matters of greater strategic importance.
The revamped doctrine, which was released by outgoing Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on
Friday, has an all-new chapter on naval combat power which highlights the everchanging
demands on conceptual, human and physical components of warfare.
Navy spokesperson Commander PVS Satish said the rapid transformational changes in
technology and consequently tactics have been dealt with in this new chapter.
Many of the chapters in the maritime doctrine, first brought out in 2004, have been changed. This
includes one on concepts of maritime power where emphasis has been laid on the contribution of
the government and the people towards attitudinal change and consciousness.
Post 26/11, a greater importance has been laid on creating awareness in the coastal belt and on
plugging possible loopholes in the security apparatus. Efforts are being made at the government
level for acquiring ships to beef up coastal security. All this adequately reflects in the Navy's
revamped doctrine.
"This review was necessitated in the current geo-strategic environment, the growing needs of the
nation," the Navy spokesperson said.
For the first time, the laws governing armed conflict have been covered in detail for a better
understanding of the legal aspects covering combat. There are notable changes in the `principles
of war' with the inclusion of `synergy' and `intelligence'.
Suspected jihadi held at airport
TNN 31 August 2009, 01:17am IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Authorities called back an aircraft from the runway on Sunday to
arrest a suspected jihadi who had a lookout notice issued against him by the Intelligence Bureau.
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The Kerala Police is still in the dark about Kabir, a resident of Rippon in Wayanad district, but
unconfirmed reports say the IB suspects him of being involved in terror attacks, including the
Bangalore blasts in 2008. He is also believed to be close to absconding Indian Mujahideen
commander Tadiyantavide Nasir, who is also wanted for the Bangalore serial blasts.
Kabir was held at the end of some dramatic moments, which saw a Kuwait Airlines flight to the
Gulf being called back from the runway of the international airport in Thiruvananthapuram when it
was preparing to take off.
It was only after the Air Traffic Control cleared the flight for takeoff at 5.15am that airport security
personnel realized there was a lookout notice pending against Kabir. He was questioned by
sleuths of Intelligence Bureau, which had issued the lookout notice three months ago. Three days
ago, the IB had given an alert, which said he could try to flee the country any time.
The security establishment, however, was left wondering how Kabir managed to pass the
different screening stages and enter the aircraft. Airport sources say a security review will be
done to find out if there was a flaw in the procedure. Instances of terrorists fleeing the country
through Kerala had prompted the CISF, which is in charge of security in these airports, to step up
vigil.
New naval forces established to protect continental shelf
17:18' 31/08/2009 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese Defence Ministry on August 29 announced it would set up
an additional naval unit to protect Vietnam’s southern continental shelf from Binh Thuan to Bac
Lieu provinces. The unit will be based in Nhon Trach, Dong Nai province.
The new naval unit will be responsible for managing and protecting
Vietnam‘s sovereignty over the sea area of more than 300km over the
southern continental shelf of Vietnam.
The new naval unit will be responsible for managing and protecting Vietnam‘s sovereignty over
the sea area of more than 300km over the southern continental shelf of Vietnam.
The commander of the new naval unit, which is called the Region 2 Navy, is Colonel Nguyen Van
Tuyen, while the unit‘s political commissar is Colonel Mai Tien Duyen.
―The establishment of the Region 2 Navy is to protect the country‘s sovereignty over the sea and
islands on the southern continental shelf,‖ said Colonel Mai Tien Duyen.
―The Region 2 naval forces will protect and ensure safety on the sea for people and the
international shipping line through the East Sea,‖ he added.
Colonel Tuyen said that besides its major mission of protecting Vietnam‘s sea sovereignty, the
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forces will also carry out search and rescue activities for vessels.
The Region 2 Navy belongs to the Vietnam People‘s Navy, an arm of the Ministry of Defence in
charge of protecting the sea and continental shelf of Vietnam.
Indonesian Navy intensifying security of outermost islands
Surabaya (ANTARA News) 08/31/09 - The Indonesian navy continued intensifying
operations to secure the country`s outermost islands in anticipation of possible
occupation by foreign countries.
Navy chief of staff Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno told newsmen here on Monday he had
already prepared special forces to secure the islands.
"So far we have not received reports about disputes over the islands but we keep securing
them," he said at the handing over of the post of commander of the Eastern Fleet
Command from Rear Admiral Lili Supramono to Commodore Ignatius Dadiek Surarto.
He said that although with limited personnel and equipment, the navy remained
committed to seriously carrying out its duty to secure the regions.
The navy`s warships in their operations to secure the islands are also assisted by ships
from the police and other institutions.
"For the security in Ambalat six warships remained in place to anticipate possible
infiltration by ships from Malaysia. Naval personnel are ready to intercept in case a
foreign ship is infiltrating," he said.
Tension was rising in the region when Malaysian ships conducted manouvering and
infiltrating the waters some time ago.
In connection with reports about the sale of a number of isles in several regions Admiral
Tedjo said it was impossible to happen because they were not for sale.
"What I know is that no isle has been sold but probably they are just leased to investors.
It is a mere misperception which must be straightened out," he said.
The new Eastern Fleet Command chief, Commodore Dadiek Surarto, used to be the chief
of staff of the Military Seaborn Command and the VIth Navy Main Base in Makassar.
Rear Lili Supramono has been assigned as a special staff to the navy`s chief.(*)
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Govt vows to boost security at ports
SANDRA O'MALLEY & STEPHEN JOHNSON
September 9, 2009 - 2:29PM
The Rudd government will move to tighten security at Australian ports after it speaks to
industry about the recommendations of a major review.
But Transport Minister Anthony Albanese would not say whether the government had
problems with the Maritime Security Identity Card.
Fairfax media reported on Wednesday that holes in the system were allowing convicted
criminals, who could pose a terrorism or organised crime risk, to work on the ports.
It cited an Office of Transport Security report that it accessed under Freedom of
Information (FOI) laws.
The report was written eight months ago following a three-year investigation by the
Australian Crime Commission.
Mr Albanese told reporters the government had inherited the existing maritime security
card from its predecessors.
He gave the Howard government credit for introducing the card earlier than many other
countries.
Nonetheless, the government ordered a review of the system last year and the GHD
report was delivered to the government in recent weeks.
Mr Albanese said the government was committed to speedy action to improve security
but wanted to get it right.
"We have taken those recommendations out to industry to consult, to see their views,
because we want to make sure any regime that is put in place and that any improvements
that are made are practicable," he said.
"We want to work with industry to make sure that occurs.
"We will be responding to tighten security on our ports once that consultation process
with industry is completed, which we are doing as a matter of urgency."
Mr Albanese said a person wasn't eligible for the card if they'd been convicted of a crime
and been jailed.
The jail term requirement is under consideration.
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The report also calls for more offences to be covered by the current system.
"It's called for a widening of the circumstances to include offences ancillary to terrorism,"
Mr Albanese said.
Opposition customs spokeswoman Sussan Ley called on the government to overhaul the
system immediately.
She said the government should have released the Office of Transport report by now.
"What this document says is you can have a criminal record for larceny, bribery,
corruption, fraud and a range of offences that make you a terrorist threat... and you can
still hold an ID card to access sensitive areas on our ports and our container facilities,"
she said.
"Clearly this independent report, that the government did not want revealed, explains
why there are terrorist and organised crime threats operating on our wharves today."
Australia intercepts boat with 65 asylum seekers
Sun Sep 13, 3:25 am ET
SYDNEY (AFP) – The Australian navy has intercepted a suspected people-smuggling
boat carrying 65 asylum seekers, officials said, the second such vessel stopped in 24
hours off the country's northwest coast.
The HMAS Maitland intercepted the boat on Saturday night about three nautical miles
from Ashmore Island, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said.
Earlier Saturday, the same navy patrol boat stopped another vessel with 83 asylum
seekers about 80 nautical miles south of the island, an uninhabited Australian territory in
the Indian Ocean.
All 148 asylum seekers and seven crew members who were operating the two boats
would be transferred to an immigration detention centre on Christmas Island, further west
in the Indian Ocean, O'Connor said.
Some 21 illegal vessels have been stopped this year, three in the past week.
Australia has detained more than 1,000 would-be refugees this year and the government
has warned that there are thousands more waiting in neighbouring Indonesia, a key
staging post for people smugglers.
Australia's conservative opposition has blamed the centre-left government for the influx,
saying its softening of refugee policies was encouraging people smugglers.
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone said people smugglers were
threatening to "swamp" Australia's official refugee programme.
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"The message now, it's well-established -- in Indonesia, in Malaysia and up through to
places like Pakistan or the further western Middle East -- come on down, you're going to
have a fairly trouble-free passage," Stone told public broadcaster ABC.
But O'Connor said international unrest was to blame for the surge in boat numbers, not
government policy.
"Situations around the world mean that large numbers of displaced persons are looking
for settlement in wealthy, developed nations like Australia and can be targeted by, and
fall prey to, people smugglers," he said.
"The Australian government remains vigilant and committed to protecting Australia's
borders."
Australia stops 'asylum' vessel
2009/09/16An Australian navy ship has intercepted a boat carrying nearly 60
suspected asylum seekers - the fourth such incident in less than two weeks.
The boat was stopped some 420km (265 miles) north of Broome in Western Australia, officials
said.
Those on board were being sent to an immigration detention centre on Christmas Island,
about 2,575km (1,600 miles) north-west of the mainland.
The nationalities of the suspects were not immediately known.
"Situations around the world mean that large numbers of displaced persons are looking for
settlement in wealthy, developed nations like Australia and can be targeted by, and fall prey
to, people-smugglers," Australian Home Minister Brendan O'Connor said.
"The Australian government remains vigilant and committed to protecting Australia's borders."
The minister also said Canberra would work closely with neighbouring nations to tackle
people-smuggling.
The government has blamed the recent rise in asylum seekers on the ongoing conflicts in
Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, along with the global economic downturn.
Australia's opposition has linked the upsurge with a relaxation of the country's immigration
policy since Kevin Rudd became prime minister in late 2007.
The Rudd government scrapped the widely-criticised policy of his predecessor, John Howard,
under which asylum-seekers and their children were detained for years in special centres in
Nauru or Papua New Guinea, a plan labelled the "Pacific Solution".
Asylum-seekers now arriving by boat are held on Christmas Island, but their claims must be
expedited, with six-monthly case reviews by an ombudsman now government policy.
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Alleged drug ring given airport security
passes
05:30 AEST Fri Sep 25 2009
Members of an alleged cocaine smuggling ring linked to the Bra Boys surf gang were
given unrestricted airport security passes by the Federal Government, according to
reports.
The Aviation Security Identification Cards were allegedly issued to three men by the Federal
Department of Transport, despite police intelligence showing they had criminal connections.
The passes reportedly allowed them to access sensitive areas of the airport and to bypass
customs checks.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Department of Transport is unable to act on criminal
convictions deemed unrelated to aviation security.
The men allegedly smuggled cocaine into Australia by hiding the drug on a plane in LA, where it
would be later retrieved by the catering staff when it arrived in Sydney.
Earlier this week US Playboy model Brandi Brandt was named as part of the smuggling
syndicate, which was allegedly orchestrated by Sydney Bra Boy Wayne Cleveland using airport
caterers.
Cleveland and Brandt were captured on CCTV footage at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Bondi after
the model arrived on the same United Airlines flight in which $1.6 million of cocaine was allegedly
found hidden in a toilet rubbish bin.
It is alleged the role of Brandt, 43, and her former surfer partner Rusty Setser, was to make sure
the cocaine was hidden on flights from Los Angeles.
Certain staff members of the Gate Gourmet catering company, including Cleveland's step father,
were allegedly made aware of the hiding places.
Brandt and Setser have not been arrested over the allegations.
"Wayne Cleveland has been identified as the Australian principal of the syndicate," the Daily
Telegraph reported the statement of facts tendered to Sydney's Central Local Court on Monday
as saying.
"Cleveland is closely associated with the Bra Boys, a well known surf-crime group based in the
Eastern Suburbs of Sydney."
Cleveland, 38, has been charged with conspiring to import cocaine.
He appeared at the Central Local Court on Monday and his case has been adjourned until
November 11.
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Piracy 'spike' in South China Sea
2009/09/21Piracy in the South China Sea has hit a five-year high, an international
monitoring agency has said.
According to the ReCAAP monitoring centre, there have been 10 reports of sea attacks so far
this year, compared to the previous high of nine in 2005.
Tankers and large container ships are most vulnerable to pirate attacks, said ReCAAP, because
they are slow moving.
The latest attack was on Saturday, when six pirates boarded a tanker off Indonesia and
robbed the crew.
ReCAAP, which stands for the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and
Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, said pirates were also active in the Strait of Malacca and
the Strait of Singapore, with five boardings and one attempted boarding.
Most of the incidents involve pirates robbing the crew and stealing stores from ships, unlike in
the waters off Somalia where ships and their crews are often held for ransom.
N Korea: In Deep, Illicit Water
North Korea’s illicit arms trade supplies anxious buyers willing to risk shipments that
travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles through the high seas, Jody Ray Bennett
writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Jody Ray Bennett for ISN Security Watch 28 Sep 2009
On a routine search in July, port security forces in Abu Dhabi seized ―10
container loads of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and trigger
mechanisms‖ found in the cargo aboard the ANL-Australia, a large shipping and
cargo vessel flying a flag from the Bahamas.
The Wall Street Journal reported on 31 August that an unnamed UN diplomat
explained that authorities in the UAE notified the UN sanctions committee, after
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correspondence revealed that the military hardware was manufactured in North
Korea, routed through Shanghai and picked up by the ANL-Australia, which was
under operation by the Milan, Italy-based shipping company, Otim. The cargo
was en route to Iran.
The shipment was considered in violation of the newest UN sanctions levied
against North Korea as a result of its nuclear tests that were conducted last May.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this shipment would have been legal under
previous sanctions regimes. It is still unclear whether or not management at Otim
or ANL had prior knowledge of the arms shipment, but Korean news reported
that a spokesperson from Otim said the cargo was sealed and could not be
inspected even after the North Korean exporter provided documents that
identified the cargo as ―oil pumping equipment.‖
―These shipments show North Korea's ongoing program for exporting arms,
including conventional weapons,‖ Donald Kirk, journalist and author of Korea
Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine, told ISN Security Watch.
―We have no way of knowing what's going by air across China. North Korea is
attempting to undercut if not do away with effective sanctions by diplomacy with a
wide range of countries, notably the US, China and Russia – each of which it
approaches in different ways.‖
A heightening security?
Passed in June, UN Resolution 1874 requires all states to ―inspect, seize and
dispose of […] armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, attack
helicopters, warships and missiles and spare parts […] by denying fuel or
supplies to service the vessels […] on the high seas, at seaports and airports.‖
The resolution enabled the Indian navy to detain and search another North
Korean vessel, the Mu San, in early August, finding 16,000 tons of sugar bound
for the Near East. According to a report by the New York Times, Indian
authorities did not receive a reason from the crew as to why it was in Indian
waters or why it made an unauthorized stop in the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of
Bengal. The daily reported that ―India has watched warily for signs that North
Korea is helping Myanmar build a nuclear reactor [and due to] the ship‘s
proximity to Myanmar, a North Korean ally, and the fact that it had no apparent
reason to be in the area raised suspicions.‖ No illegal cargo was found.
Trade sanctions against the DPRK have been imposed on its imports as well.
During the seizure of the ANL-Australia by the UAE, Italy‘s Ministry of Economic
Development announced that after investigation, it had officially blocked a €13
million (roughly $18 million) order for two luxury yachts by a Chinese firm that
were to bound to the DPRK. In the middle of last September, Italian customs
agents also confiscated ―150 bottles of brandy and 270 bottles of whisky‖ bound
for North Korea, worth approximately €12,000. The brands were not identified.
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Tehran’s strategy
ISN Security Watch was referred to the latest report from the European Strategic
Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC). The analysis, written by ESISC
President Claude Moniquet, details the unique and intriguing arms procurement
practices by Iran since the Iranian Revolution. The analysis uniquely points out
that shortly after the 1979 Revolution, Iran‘s Defense Ministry was confronted
with a problem: ―most of its armoured vehicles and, above all, of its air force was
equipped with American equipment – (this was particularly the case with more
than half of the fighter planes and bombers), but the state of relations with
Washington prohibited Tehran from resupplying itself with spare parts and
munitions from its former protector.‖
Since then, Iran has been involved in a dubious rush to obtain arms and parts to
sustain old hardware and develop new technologies. This often leads to
purchases of equipment, parts and munitions on the illicit, illegal, international
market. Moniquet rightly connects the ANL-Australia fiasco with the perhaps
even less popular arrest two weeks later of Jacques Monsieur, the Belgian arms
trafficker accused of illegal export of arms and equipment to Iran.
Monsieur, nicknamed ‗The Fox,‘ attempted to ―purchase F-5a spare parts and
engines from an intermediary who turned out to be an undercover agent of the
American intelligence services.‖
While Tehran never received its order, it highlights the degree to which
leadership in states like Iran, Myanmar and Syria are willing to turn to North
Korea for trade, whether in violation of imposed sanctions or otherwise.
―These Arms sales go to Middle Eastern countries, notably Iran but also Yemen,
Syria and Libya, to name a few, as well as Myanmar [Burma]. Basically, North
Korea will sell conventional weapons – including missiles – anywhere there's a
market, Kirk told ISN Security Watch.
That these states turn to an isolated and suspicious North Korea thousands of
miles away to order small arms by sea vessels that get stopped and checked by
the likes of UAE authorities, indicates the pressure felt in Tehran and elsewhere
to develop, sustain and deploy military strength. In this sense, Tehran has
irrationally chosen Pyongyang to supply the Islamic Republic‘s rational pursuit of
defense (or nuclear capability) in order to protect itself from US attack while
balancing Israeli power in the Middle East.
As a result of the ANL-Australia affair, the US Treasury Department and US
Department of State continued targeting DPRK interests and restricting American
companies from doing business with a list of state companies, specifically citing
examples of these companies‘ financial and trade involvement with Iranian
military development.
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According US news reports in May, the US government has officially identified
―Iran and Pakistan [using] North Korean materials to develop domestic ballistic
missiles [and] Syria, Yemen, Libya and Egypt [purchasing] North Korean missile
components in recent years.‖
―North Korea desperately needs money. Arms exports, notably that of missiles,
have been lucrative,‖ Kirk explained to ISN Security Watch.
―North Korea's role in the international arms trade, including possible nuclear
proliferation, will inevitably lead to a northeast Asian arms race. The root causes
go back to the division of the Korean peninsula in August 1945 and the Korean
War (1950-1953) and the DPRK's ongoing effort to unite the Korean peninsula on
its own terms,‖ he said.
Joshua Stanton, a lawyer in Washington, DC who blogs at OneFreeKorea, told
ISN Security Watch: ―The single most interesting unexplored question to arise
from arms sanctions and UNSCR 1874 was raised by the interception of [the]
Iran-bound North Korean arms shipment in the United Arab Emirates.
"Why was North Korea shipping rocket propelled grenades and detonators to
Iran, a country that manufactures both items? Iran is a fairly sophisticated
producer of weapons - why buy such simple, cheap items from North Korea?
Iran wanted a 'plausibly deniable' source for weapons it intended to supply to a
terrorist organization.‖
Stanton added, "A direct North Korean attack using WMDs via a missile or
aircraft is not a serious security concern. Such an attack would invite a
devastating response and is therefore deterrable. The real concern is
proliferation, such as North Korea's proliferation of nuclear technology to Syria,
and possibly Iran and Burma, and its open and notorious sales of missiles to any
willing purchaser."
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