ICE Union Employees: ICE Director Won’t Let Us Enforce U.S. Immigration Laws

From: The washington Times

By Kerry Picket

Published on August 5, 2010

In the midst of  a leaked Department of Homeland Security immigration memo that made it to  Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, outlining ways for the Obama Administration to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, the Center for Immigration Studies yesterday posted a letter that was authored on June 11, 2010  by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Union President Chris Crane titled: “VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN ICE DIRECTOR JOHN MORTON AND ODPP ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PHYLLIS COVEN”:

 On June 11, 2010, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council and its constituent local representatives from around the nation, acting on behalf of approximately 7,000 ICE officers and employees from the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), cast a unanimous “Vote of No Confidence” in the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), John Morton, and the Assistant Director of the ICE Office of Detention Policy and Planning, (ODPP), Phyllis Coven.

 According to CIS:  “The letter, acquired through sources, provides a litany of examples of how ICE’s mission is being skewed towards supporting an unflinching goal of amnesty by refusing to allow agents to do their job; allowing criminal aliens to roam free; depleting resources for key enforcement initiatives that preceded this administration; and misrepresenting facts and programs, demeaning the extent of the criminal alien problem and geared to support amnesty.”

Two bullet points in the letter stick out:

While ICE reports internally that more than 90 percent of ICE detainees are first encountered in jails after they are arrested by local police for criminal charges, ICE senior leadership misrepresents this information publicly in order to portray ICE detainees as being non-criminal in nature to support the Administration’s position on amnesty and relaxed security at ICE detention facilities.

The majority of ICE ERO Officers are prohibited from making street arrests or enforcing United States immigration laws outside of the institutional (jail) setting. This has effectively created “amnesty through policy” for anyone illegally in the United States who has not been arrested by another agency for a criminal violation.

 Another disturbing point of the letter is the description of the Obama Administration policy on ICE detention centers that have bingo nights, dance lessons, plant hanging:

ICE Detention Reforms have transformed into a detention system aimed at providing resort like living conditions to criminal aliens. Senior ICE leadership excluded ICE officers and field managers (the technical experts on ICE detention) from the development of these reforms, and instead solicited recommendations from special interest groups. The lack of technical expertise and field expertise has resulted in a priority of providing bingo nights, dance lessons and hanging plants to criminals, instead of addressing safe and responsible detention reforms for non-criminal individuals and families. Unlike any other agency in the nation, ICE officers will be prevented from searching detainees housed in ICE facilities allowing weapons, drugs and other contraband into detention centers putting detainees, ICE officers and contract guards at risk. 

Back in July, The Washington Post reported calls for Mr. Morton’s resignation for being lax on immigration. The director of of ICE would only say, that demands that he step down and criticisms is “just part of the territory.”

Police, Suspect Trade Shots in East Charlotte Standoff

Aug 6, 2010 | 11:31:03

CHRIS MILLER, WBT NEWS

CHARLOTTE – A domestic dispute late Friday erupted into a shootout with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, which then escalated into an overnight standoff.

Police said as many as 90 rounds were fired during the 40-minute exchange between officers and Cody Richmond, who was later charged with ten counts of attempted murder.

Richmond, 24, was also booked on assault with a deadly weapon and assault on law enforcement charges.

“It could have been as deadly as anything that we’ve faced in recent years,” said deputy police chief Harold Madlock.

Officers were called to 4216 Somerdale Lane shortly after 11:30 p.m. Friday. Richmond’s mother told police her son was drunk and walking around the house with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Police said Richmond opened fire as soon as officers arrived at the home. CMPD spokesman Rob Tufano said in a statement that Richmond “fired approximately 30 rounds” at officers, who “discharg(ed) approximately 60 rounds.”

The SWAT team was called in and managed to talk Richmond into surrendering peacefully.

None of the officers was injured, but Tufano said Richmond was hit by a fragment in his right-buttock. Richmond was treated and released from Carolinas Medical Center, then taken to the Mecklenburg County Jail.

Report: New Al Qaeda Leader Knows U.S. Well

August 06, 2010 

 Associated Press 

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, is shown in these undated images provided by the FBI. The suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

 MIAMI — A suspected Al Qaeda operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with Al Qaeda’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah and two other leaders were part of an “external operations council” that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.

“He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it,” said LeBlanc, the FBI’s lead Shukrijumah investigator. “He’s looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss.”

The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only Al Qaeda leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.

Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York’s subway system in 2009. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness.

Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plotting of potential Al Qaeda bomb attacks in Norway and a never-executed attack on subways in the United Kingdom, but LeBlanc said no direct link has yet emerged. Travel records and other evidence also indicate Shukrijumah did research and surveillance in spring 2001 for a never-attempted plot to disrupt commerce in the Panama Canal by sinking a freighter there, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah, who trained at Al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a “clear and present danger” to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and the FBI also is releasing an age-enhanced photo of what he may look like today.

It’s natural he would focus on attacking on the U.S, LeBlanc said.

“He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver’s license. He knows how to get a passport,” LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah’s mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, said Thursday on the front stoop of her small home in suburban Miramar, Fla., that her son frequently talked about what he considered the excesses of American society — such as alcohol and drug abuse and women wearing skimpy clothes — but that he did not condone violence. She also said she has not had contact with her son for several years.

“This boy would never do evil stuff. He is not an evil person,” she said. “He loved this country. He never had a problem with the United States.”

LeBlanc said the new charges were brought after the New York subway bomb suspects identified him to investigators as their Al Qaeda superior. The New York suspects provided other key information about his Al Qaeda status.

“It was basically Adnan who convinced them to come back to the United States and do this attack,” LeBlanc said. “His ability to manipulate someone like that and direct that, I think it speaks volumes.”

Before turning to radical strains of Islam, Shukrijumah lived in Miramar with his mother and five siblings, excelling at computer science and chemistry courses while studying at community college. He had come to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque after several years at a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y.

At some point in the late 1990s, according to the FBI, Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in “jihad,” or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia.

That led to training camps in Afghanistan, where he underwent basic and advanced training in the use of automatic weapons, explosives, battle tactics, surveillance and camouflage.

“What’s dangerous about an individual that understands the U.S. is he may have a better sense of our security vulnerabilities and insights into how to terrify the American people using smaller attacks for large, political impact,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation. “This increases the risk of attacks outside traditional places we normally worry about like New York and Washington.”

Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia. He is a citizen of Guyana, a small South American country where his father was born. His father died in 2004.

While still in Afghanistan, he met another young recruit — Jose Padilla, an American citizen once suspected of plotting to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” and now imprisoned on a 2007 terrorism material support conviction in Miami. At one point, according to interrogations of Padilla and other Al Qaeda detainees, Shukrijumah and Padilla were paired in a plot to fill apartments in several high-rise apartment buildings with natural gas and blow them up, but they had a falling out.

“They just couldn’t get along. It’s like two guys that could not work together,” LeBlanc said.

The FBI is still hoping to bring charges in South Florida against Shukrijumah, but key information about him was provided by Guantanamo Bay detainees such as Mohammed, whose use as a witness would be difficult.

“For us, it’s never been a dry hole. It’s always been an active investigation and it’s global in nature,” LeBlanc said. “We have never stopped working it.”

Opponents Question Ground Zero Mosque’s Murky Funding, Mysterious Sponsors

From: www.newsmax.com

Thursday, 05 August 2010

By: David A. Patten

A Landmarks Preservation Commission decision to allow a new $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque to be built just two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City has triggered a lawsuit and calls for an investigation into the center’s shadowy funding.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an organization founded by religious broadcaster the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit Wednesday urging the New York Supreme Court to toss the commission’s ruling for not following its own regulations and precedents.

In appealing the commission’s finding that the building fails to qualify for historic preservation, Sekulow pointed out that the landing gear from the first airliner to slam into the trade center plummeted to earth and crashed through the roof of the very structure now scheduled to be demolished for construction of the “ground zero mosque.”

Video: Former New York Gov. George Pataki on the Ground Zero Mosque (Story continues below).

“That should have been enough to have it deemed landmark status,” Sekulow tells Newsmax. “Instead, and this is what is so unusual about this, months ago the Landmark Commission approved the idea of having a mosque there.

“That’s not their job. Their job’s not to approve whether it’s a mosque or not.
Their job is to determine whether the building has landmark significance . . .  they’ve thwarted their own policies in order to do a politically correct thing here by approving this mosque at ground zero.”

Sekulow likens putting a mosque and cultural center at the site to “putting a monument to kamikaze pilots at the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor,” and says he has questions about “where is this money coming from and who is behind it?”

The 9/11 first responders he represents are “outraged and shocked at the same time,” he says.

“The shock is the idea that this mosque would go up at the same site,” Sekulow says. “The outrage is that the government is allowing it, and not only allowing it but is complaisant in it. The irony of this is quite unbelievable.”

Critics say the funding sources for the 13-story project, initially called the Cordoba House but now more commonly referred to by its proponents as “Park51,” are very murky.

The Cordoba Initiative, which describes its objective on its website as “steering the world back to the course of mutual recognition and respect and away from heightened tensions,” is led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan. The organization lists scores of “supporters” on its home page, including 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, the American Jewish Committee, the Interfaith Center of New York, St. Bartholomew’s Church, and the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

The site does not specify, however, whether any of those organizations has contributed financially to the cultural center project.

The organization’s website solicits donations by directing donors to a PayPal account, and does not require disclosure of identity other than payment information and an e-mail address.

“If this project were what it was represented to be, which is an exercise in building bridges and a more ecumenical kind of Islam, then there shouldn’t be any shroud whatsoever over who is behind it,” Andrew C. McCarthy, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and author of “The Grand Jihad,” tells Newsmax. “The fact that there is an obvious reluctance about saying who is behind it would lead a rational person to think it isn’t what it’s represented to be.”

New York GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio has called for an investigation into the proposed project, including its funding. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who applauded the commission’s ruling Tuesday, blasted any probe into the finances of Imam Feisal’s organizations as “out of character for what this nation stands for and the way we conduct ourselves.”

Bloomberg recently told NY 1: “I don’t think we’re going to go and start investigating funding sources for religious organizations or vetting people who preach or pray in religious organizations.”

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., also has called for an investigation.

“It’s a house of worship, but we are at war with al-Qaida,” King told The Associated Press last month. “I think the 9/11 families have a right to know where the funding comes from. I think there are significant questions.”

Former New York Gov. George Pataki tells Newsmax.TV that Bloomberg is “dead wrong on this. The mosque does not belong anywhere near ground zero, and it’s not a matter of tolerance.”

Pataki questioned the financing of the project.

“This isn’t the local community corner mosque,” he said. “This is a $100 million, 13-story facility. Where are the funds coming from? We as Americans have a right to know where are the funds coming from? Are they coming from foreign governments? Foreign governments don’t have the right, I don’t believe, to come and build a facility like this.

“Are they coming from people who have backed terrorists in the past? You know Sept. 11 was not just some random attack. It was a planned assault on New York America by Islamic terrorists. And we have every right to stand up and say we need to know where the funds are coming from,” Pataki said.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, the Muslim president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a group seeking to discourage Islamic extremism, tells Newsmax that construction of an Islamic prayer area overlooking ground zero will be seen in the Muslim world as “a victory for political Islam.”

Jasser, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant, has said Muslim youths must be taught American liberty and freedom are preferable to the harsh regime of Islamic laws known as Shariah. Islamic experts say that in extreme cases Shariah has led to stonings after alleged infidelity, and profound discrimination against women.

Asked who is paying for the religious facility, Jasser replied, “That’s what I want to know. I don’t know. Nobody knows. The organization certainly has not said that they will not take foreign funding. They have had some funding that they [have] gotten, I believe, from a Qatari foundation. So they do take foreign moneys by their previous example. But they haven’t answered the question.”

Among the concerns raised about Abdul Rauf and the proposed Islamic center:

• Jasser says Abdul Rauf has refused to condemn Hamas or Hezbollah out of concern for alienating some Muslims. “It’s just absurd that he can’t identify groups that use terrorism as a means as corrupt and unIslamic,” Jasser says. “So this is why the money is very important.”
• Abdul Rauf recently wrote a commentary published on HuffingtonPost.com that compared Shariah with the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. “He is completely misrepresenting what Shariah really is,” Jasser warns. “We are not a theocracy, canon law is not part of Western society, and our laws are based on a separation of powers and an Establishment clause that could never be interpreted the way Shariah law is [as] simply the domain of clerics. I think it’s very deceptive for him to say that and it shows that he’s really not a reformist, but an apologist.”
• The New York Post has reported that Abdul Rauf is a “prominent member” of the Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization. That is the single largest donor to the Free Gaza Movement, which in turn played a key role in organizing the violence-marred flotilla that tried to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Deborah Burlingame, sister of an American Airlines pilot who died on 9/11, told the Post: “I think it goes to show he is not the man he represents himself to be. We have two Imam Raufs.”
• The Anti-Defamation League caught many civil rights groups by surprise when it came out against the ground zero mosque. ADL leader Abe Foxman told NPR Tuesday that if Cordoba’s leaders sincere in their desire to encourage inter-faith harmony and understanding, the best way to accomplish that objective would be to move the facility to a less controversial location.
• Even the name Cordoba is controversial. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has written that the name derives from “a city in Spain where a conquering Muslim army replaced a church with a mosque. This name is a very direct historical indication that the ground zero mosque is all about conquest and thus an assertion of Islamist triumphalism which we should not tolerate.”
• Shortly after 9/11, Abdul Rauf strongly denounced the attacks, saying on “60 Minutes” that “Fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam.” But he also remarked: “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”

Jasser says the financing is important because the ideas and teachings of a mosque can be greatly influenced by those who are footing the bill.

Abdul Rauf has been a voice of reason within the Muslim community at times. Shortly after the Fort Hood shootings in Texas, for example, he decried the violence as a “senseless act.”

“What this unfortunate Army major did was against the laws of Islam,” Abdul Rauf wrote on his site’s blog. “He obviously was violating his faith when he undertook this act. Killing is as much a sin in Islam as it is in Christianity, Judaism and all the major religions. Taking the law into one’s own hands is against Islamic teachings.”

Imam Feisal is a Sufi Muslim, which has been described as more centered on spiritual pursuits than on strict rituals. The FBI has officially credited Imam Feisal with helping the agency to reach out to Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11. He founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement in 1997, a group aimed at bringing Muslims and non-Muslims together through academic and cultural programs. His biography states he holds a B.S. in physics from Columbia University. His wife has won several awards for promoting interfaith understanding.

Jasser credits Abdul Rauf with being “very nonviolent.”

“He has condemned terrorism as a tactic, and he’s pretty smooth when it comes to these things,” Jasser tells Newsmax. “But yet he’s an apologist for political Islam and Shariah. You can’t help but think he’s part of the same Islamist ideas of wanting to spread Islam in an evangelical way globally, and probably establish an Islamic state.”

Newsmax contacted Abdul Rauf’s office seeking his comment on the lawsuit and the financing. His assistant replied via e-mail: “Imam Feisal is still out of town and will not be available for an interview.”

Cain: Blacks Have ‘Buyer’s Remorse’ Over Obama

From: www.newsmax.com; August 5, 2010

By: John Rossomando

The NAACP’s smearing tea partyers as racists betrays liberals’ desperation to scare voters away from the grass-roots movement, Atlanta radio talk-show host Herman Cain tells Newsmax.TV.

“The whole accusation of racism is ridiculous,” says Cain, a black businessman who often speaks at tea party events. “I believe it is a play on the part of some liberals, even though the NAACP was the one who launched this accusation. It is a sign of desperation on the part of the liberals.”

The furor started last month when the National Association of Colored People passed a resolution at its national convention last month denouncing what it alleged is racism within the tea party movement.

“I believe the use of the race card by the NAACP has backfired because it is not true,” says Cain, whose radio show is on WSB in Atlanta.

The racism allegations are part of a smokescreen intended to divert attention from President Obama’s failed stimulus and other unpopular liberal policies, he says.

Tea partyers want the federal government to embrace fiscal responsibility; to show them their opinions count; to embrace the preservation of the free-market system; and to run Washington according to constitutional principles, he says.

“Right now, under many policies of this administration and this Congress, they are killing our free-market system, which is why our economy is so stalled,” he says.

The former chairman of Godfather’s Pizza Inc. has experience making the free-market system work, having transformed the struggling pizza chain from worst to first in the 1980s.

The talk show host gives Obama a “D” for his job performance because of his lack of “effective leadership” and his pushing healthcare and other legislation through Congress “against the will of the majority of the American people.”

“When you consider that we have issues with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, it didn’t make sense to me and a lot of people to force through another massive social program when we don’t have our current social programs functioning the way that they should,” Cain says.

Cain contends that Obama has broken numerous campaign promises, which he says will cost the president politically — especially among blacks.

“A lot of black people who voted for Obama are having buyer’s remorse,” Cain says. “They have seen for themselves some of the things that I mentioned in terms of why I would give the president such a low grade.”

Although an estimated 95 percent of blacks voted for Obama in 2008, Cain predicts a significantly lower percentage in 2012.

“My own personal gut feel is that a third of the black people that vote in 2012, at a minimum, are not going to vote for President Obama simply because he’s black, and secondly if the Republican Party has a very credible candidate, that number could be even higher,” he says.

He also answered questions about rumors he might be a stealth candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

“It lays a very heavy burden on my heart, quite frankly, to watch what’s going on and then to see the lack of leadership and the lack of response of this Congress and this administration, and that’s what motivated me to be in what I call prayerful consideration” about running for president, he says.

“And yes, I would be one of the dark-horse candidates because nobody would be expecting me to be making a run since I have never made one before.”

However, it would not be his first foray into electoral politics, as he ran unsuccessfully in the 2004 Georgia U.S. Senate primary.

If Cain decided not to run, he says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be an excellent choice for president.

“He is one of the best minds on the planet,” Cain says.

“Nobody in my opinion has a better grasp of international issues, national-security issues, our economic issues and our domestic issues.”

Feds Admit Storing Checkpoint Body Scan Images

Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People’s Money column for CBS News’ Web site.

August 4, 2010

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they’re viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that “scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.”

TSA’s X-ray backscatter scanning with “privacy filter”

(Credit: TSA.gov) 

TSA’s X-ray backscatter scanning with “privacy filter”

 

 Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

 This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.” The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.

 Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that critics have likened it to a virtual strip search. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing fuzzier images, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. The U.S. government likes the idea because body scanners can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers.

 This privacy debate, which has been simmering since the days of the Bush administration, came to a boil two weeks ago when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that scanners would soon appear at virtually every major airport. The updated list includes airports in New York City, Dallas, Washington, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia.

 The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to grant an immediate injunction pulling the plug on TSA’s body scanning program. In a separate lawsuit, EPIC obtained a letter (PDF) from the Marshals Service, part of the Justice Department, and released it on Tuesday afternoon.

 These “devices are designed and deployed in a way that allows the images to be routinely stored and recorded, which is exactly what the Marshals Service is doing,” EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg told CNET. “We think it’s significant.”

 William Bordley, an associate general counsel with the Marshals Service, acknowledged in the letter that “approximately 35,314 images…have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine” used in the Orlando, Fla. federal courthouse. In addition, Bordley wrote, a Millivision machine was tested in the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse but it was sent back to the manufacturer, which now apparently possesses the image database.

 The Gen 2 machine, manufactured by Brijot of Lake Mary, Fla., uses a millimeter wave radiometer and accompanying video camera to store up to 40,000 images and records. Brijot boasts that it can even be operated remotely: “The Gen 2 detection engine capability eliminates the need for constant user observation and local operation for effective monitoring. Using our APIs, instantly connect to your units from a remote location via the Brijot Client interface.”

 This trickle of disclosures about the true capabilities of body scanners–and how they’re being used in practice–is probably what alarms privacy advocates more than anything else.

 A 70-page document (PDF) showing the TSA’s procurement specifications, classified as “sensitive security information,” says that in some modes the scanner must “allow exporting of image data in real time” and provide a mechanism for “high-speed transfer of image data” over the network. (It also says that image filters will “protect the identity, modesty, and privacy of the passenger.”)

 ”TSA is not being straightforward with the public about the capabilities of these devices,” Rotenberg said. “This is the Department of Homeland Security subjecting every U.S. traveler to an intrusive search that can be recorded without any suspicion–I think it’s outrageous.” EPIC’s lawsuit says that the TSA should have announced formal regulations, and argues that the body scanners violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits “unreasonable” searches.

 TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz told CNET on Wednesday that the agency’s scanners are delivered to airports with the image recording functions turned off. “We’re not recording them,” she said. “I’m reiterating that to the public. We are not ever activating those capabilities at the airport.”

 The TSA maintains that body scanning is perfectly constitutional: “The program is designed to respect individual sensibilities regarding privacy, modesty and personal autonomy to the maximum extent possible, while still performing its crucial function of protecting all members of the public from potentially catastrophic events.”

Man: I ‘Shushed’ Trooper, So He Used Stun Gun On Me

From: www.wpxi.com

August 6, 2010

WASHINGTON, Pa. — A man who either fell asleep or passed out in the back of a taxi is suing the Pennsylvania state police saying a trooper used a stun gun after the man “shushed” the trooper who was trying to wake him up. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh, Phillip Chappel, 29, of Washington, Pa., said the incident happened Aug. 8, 2008 after a Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game.

 Chappel had called a cab after partying after the game, and the driver went to the police barracks because he couldn’t awaken Chappel and his friend.

 When the trooper tried, Chappel said he “shushed” the officer who then stunned him with the device. A disorderly conduct citation the trooper issued confirms the “shushing” and was later dismissed.

Suspect Sues Police After Chase That Resulted In Cruiser Flip

August 6, 2010

PITTSBURGH — A suspected bank robber who led police on a chase along Route 28 that ended on the 31st Street Bridge is now suing the police.

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VIDEO: Footage Shows Suspect Being Pulled From SUV

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 John McAleavey, 38, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh, four surrounding boroughs and several police officers, claiming he was assaulted by officers after he was pulled from his vehicle.

 McAleavey is accused of robbing the National City Bank on Banksville Road in the Banksville Plaza before leading police on a 20-mile chase during rush hour that finally ended on the bridge. He and another suspect will go on trial for a number of charges, including robbery, later this month.

 During the chase, a police cruiser attempting to stop the suspect flipped in the southbound lanes of Route 28. The officer driving that vehicle injured his left arm.

 Police were able to lay a spike strip down to stop McAleavey’s vehicle, which could be seen weaving in and out of rush hour traffic, but that didn’t seem to do much to slow the driver down, police said. Eventually, police were able to box the vehicle in on the bridge.

 McAleavey’s girlfriend, Meghan Jaeger, 21, was also in the car and arrested after the chase.

 Previous Stories:

• March 26, 2009: Route 28 Police Chase Suspect Released From Jail
• September 8, 2008: Route 28 Rush Hour Police Chase Resulted From Woman’s Tip

 

Police: Young Pittsburgh Couple Plotted Mom’s Murder

From: www.wpxi.com

August 6, 2010

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police said a young couple planned to kill the woman’s mother because she stood in the way of their plans to run away and marry. A preliminary hearing on criminal conspiracy to commit homicide and other charges was postponed Thursday until Aug. 11 for Michael Satterwhite, 21, and Thalia Moore, 18.

 Police said Satterwhite began secretly living with Moore after her mother moved to Chicago to take a job and left her behind to finish the year at a city performing arts high school.

 Police charged Satterwhite with assaulting Moore’s mother’s boyfriend when he found Satterwhite at the house in March. Last month, police filed the murder plot charges after Moore allegedly confessed to it.

Police Find Diaper Filled With Heroin, Marijuana In Knoxville Home

From: www.wpxi.com

August 5, 2010

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police said they found heroin and marijuana hidden in a toddler’s diaper during a raid at a house in the city’s Knoxville neighborhood.

SWAT team members and police serving a search warrant at the Knox Avenue home Wednesday night said they found 49 small bags of heroin and plastic bags of marijuana in the 2-year-old girl’s diaper. Police also said they found about $1,000.

 Police arrested the toddler’s mother, Rashana Wright, 22, and her boyfriend, L.A. Owens, 31. The young girl was taken to a hospital and then placed in the custody of Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families.

 On Monday, police said undercover officers were able to arrange a buy through known drug dealers in the area. Another undercover buy was made on Wednesday, which is when Robert Crail, 49, and Robert Olszewski, 49, were taken into custody, police said.

 Both were charged with possession of a controlled substance, among other charges.

 Later that day, narcotics and SWAT officers raided Owens’ and Wright’s home, police said.

 Owens, police said, was found in a second-floor bedroom with the child. Police said he told them there weren’t any drugs in the house, but officers were able to see a big bulge in the baby’s diaper, where they found heroin and marijuana hidden.

 Owens was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver, among other charges.

 Wright, who wasn’t there when the raid began, returned home and was taken into custody. She was charged with possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, among other charges.

 Channel 11′s Renee Kaminski spoke with Wright after she returned home from jail. She said she didn’t know about the drugs in her home.

 ”I wasn’t home,” said Wright. “I was at school.”

 According to the police report, Wright admitted to living with and leaving her baby alone with Owens.

 In the report, Wright told police that, “He doesn’t do that stuff in the house. He’s small time. He doesn’t even sell that much.”

 Denise Flora, who owns the duplex, said it was 10 p.m. when the SWAT team made their move.

 ”All of a sudden, it was a big booming vehicle, something like from ‘Star Wars,’” said Flora. “Thirty or 40 cops were all around my property. They said something, drugs in the baby’s diaper. How could you think about doing something like that?”

 Flora said she’s upset at the damage that was done to her home during the raid.

 ”This is my crown jewel for retirement, and it’s just all wrecked up. All of it is wrecked,” said Flora.

 Owens’ father spoke to Channel 11 News, saying he’s trying to figure out how to get everything cleaned up.