U.S. Navy Civilian Engineer Tried To Steal Schematics Of Aircraft Carrier, Feds Say

Foxnews.com reports offers a report on the indictment of a U.S. Navy civilian engineer who attempted to steal schematics of the aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (seen in the above U.S. Navy photo).

NORFOLK, Va. –  A Navy civilian engineer has been indicted on charges he tried to steal schematics of an aircraft carrier under construction and have them sent to Egypt.

Federal prosecutors said Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Yorktown, Virginia, was arrested Friday on two counts of attempted exportation of defense articles and technical data.

Prosecutors said Awwad tried to steal technical data in the designs of the USS Gerald R. Ford in late October. Awwad provided computer drawings downloaded from the Navy to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer.

 

The Ford is the lead ship in a new class of carriers. It is scheduled for delivery to the Navy in 2016.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/12/05/navy-engineer-tried-to-steal-schematics-aircraft-carrier-feds-say/

Wanted: Yaser Abdel Said, the FBI's New Top Ten Fugitive

The FBI web page announced the addition of another fugitive to their Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Yaser Abdel Said, wanted for the murder of his two teenage daughters in Texas, has been named to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information leading directly to the arrest of Said, who was born in Egypt and may be hiding there or in U.S. communities with Egyptian ties.

On January 1, 2008, Said persuaded his estranged daughters—Amina, 18, and Sarah, 17—to visit him. He said he was going to take them to get something to eat. Instead, he allegedly drove them in his taxi cab to a remote location and used a handgun to murder them. One of the girls was able to make a 911 call and was heard screaming for help, saying she and her sister were being shot by their father. Their bodies were discovered several hours later in the cab, which was abandoned outside a hotel in Irving, Texas.

“Yaser Abdel Said is wanted for his alleged role in committing a terrible act of violence against his own daughters,” said Diego Rodriguez, special agent in charge of our Dallas Field Office. “Adding him to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list shows our commitment to seek justice for Amina and Sarah.”

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/new-top-ten-fugitive-help-us-find-a-murderer 

U.S. Special Operations Rescue Mission 'Quick, But Thorough' Official Says

Jim Garamone at DoD News offers the below piece:

ROTA, Spain, Dec. 6, 2014 - The operation to rescue a U.S. hostage in Yemen was quickly but thoroughly planned, a senior U.S. military official said here today.

U.S. Special Operations forces were close to the Yemeni compound when al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorists detected them and murdered American Luke Somers and another Western hostage. President Barack Obama approved the rescue attempt early Dec. 5, the official said on background.

Interagency officials had such confidence in the intelligence that they unanimously recommended the rescue operation to the president. The Yemeni government approved the operation and gave its full support. "There is no excuse for the brutality and inhumanity of groups like AQAP and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," said Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We will relentlessly seek to protect our citizens and punish those who threaten us."

Military, law enforcement and intelligence specialists pinpointed where AQAP was holding the hostages and the threat the terrorists posed to them. Intelligence indicated AQAP planned to murder the hostages within 72 hours, giving added impetus to the attempt. "The time was short to plan the operation, but it was thorough, and balanced the risks to the special operations forces," the official said on background.

Mission Conducted in Darkness

Under the cover of darkness, Special Operations forces infiltrated from CV-22 Ospreys near the remote compound in the Shabwah governate. The terrain was difficult and illumination lacking.

AQAP terrorists detected the special operators as they began their final approach to the compound and they began firing wildly at the Americans. Military assets detected a terrorist entering the building where the hostages were held and exited soon after. The terrorist had shot them, officials said. "There is zero possibility that the hostages were victims of cross fire," the military official said. "This was an execution."

The special operators quickly overcame the terrorists and entered the building and reached Somers and his fellow hostage. Both were still alive. The special operators quickly moved them to the CV-22s and evacuated them to the USS Makin Island.

Surgeons and medics worked on the two men on the way to the ship, but one died en route and the other on the operating table.

All told, the operation lasted about a half-hour, with the most difficult and intense portion lasting about 10 minutes, officials said.

Six Terrorists Killed in Operation

There were no injuries to any of the 40 U.S. special operators in the rescue operation and no casualties to Yemeni civilians. Officials estimated the special operators killed six AQAP terrorists.

Dempsey, who is hosting a USO tour of the base here, said all American service members will keep the victims and families in their prayers and thoughts. "We remain on watch for the nation," the chairman said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the mission was a reminder to those who wish Americans ill, that the United States will protect its citizens wherever they are threatened. "I commend the troops who undertook this dangerous mission," Hagel said in a written statement. "Their service and valor are an inspiration to us all."

Note: The above DoD photo shows a CV-22 Osprey.

Indicted Chinese National Lands at Boston’s Logan Airport to Face Federal Prosecution for Supplying Iran with Nuclear Production Parts

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

BOSTON—Sihai Cheng, a/k/a Chun Hai Cheng, a/k/a Alex Cheng, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), arrived at Logan Airport today from the United Kingdom to face charges for conspiring to export pressure transducers to Iran which can be used in the production process of weapons-grade uranium. In February 2014, Cheng was arrested by British authorities on U.S. charges during a trip to the United Kingdom. He was detained in the United Kingdom pending extradition to the United States.

Cheng is charged in a 10-count indictment with Seyed Abolfazl Shahab Jamili, an Iranian national, and two Iranian companies, Nicaro Eng. Co., Ltd. (Nicaro) and Eyvaz Technic Manufacturing Company (Eyvaz). They are accused of conspiring to export, and exporting, highly sensitive U.S. manufactured goods with nuclear applications to Iran.

The indictment alleges that Cheng supplied thousands of parts that have nuclear applications, including U.S. origin goods, to Eyvaz, an Iranian company involved in the development and procurement of parts for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Specifically, it alleges that in 2005, Cheng began doing business with Jamili, an Iranian national who worked for Eyvaz and ran his own importing business in Iran. Jamili remains a fugitive, but the U.S. government, through Interpol, has requested his arrest to face prosecution in the United States.

Since 2005, Cheng sold Jamili thousands of parts with nuclear applications, knowing that these parts were destined for Iran. Significantly, beginning in February 2009, Cheng and Jamili conspired with others in the PRC to illegally obtain hundreds of U.S. manufactured pressure transducers which were manufactured by MKS Instruments, Inc., a company headquartered in Massachusetts, on behalf of Eyvaz. As a result, hundreds of MKS pressure transducers were illegally exported from the United States to China. Upon receipt of these parts in China, Cheng caused the MKS pressure transducers to be exported to Eyvaz or Jamili in Tehran, Iran, in violation of U.S. export laws.

The indictment further alleges that by 2007, Iran was operating thousands of gas centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran has sought and illicitly obtained MKS pressure transducers to use in its centrifuge plants. Those transducers can be seen in publicly available photographs of Natanz, an Iranian uranium nuclear enrichment facility, with then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, showing numerous transducers attached to Iran’s gas centrifuge cascades. Because pressure transducers can be used in gas centrifuges to convert natural uranium into a form that can be used in nuclear weapons, they are subject to export controls and cannot be shipped to China without an export license or to Iran at all.

In 2011, the Council of the European Union designated Eyvaz as an entity “involved in [Iran’s] nuclear or ballistic missile activities” and imposed restrictive measures against it. In so doing, it found that Eyvaz had produced vacuum equipment, which it supplied to Natanz and Fordow, another of Iran’s uranium nuclear enrichment facilities, and that it also had supplied pressure transducers to Kalaye Electric Company, an Iranian company which has been designated by the United States and United Nations as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.

The charging statutes provide a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison on the charges of conspiracy to commit export violations and illegal exports of goods to Iran; no greater than 10 years in prison on the charges of smuggling goods, and no greater than five years on the charge of conspiracy, in addition to five years of supervised release and a fine of $4 million. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and John J. McKenna, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, Boston Field Office, made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney B. Stephanie Siegmann of Ortiz’s Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Four Men Indicted on Charges in 2011 Kidnapping of Mother and Teenage Son in the Philippines

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

WASHINGTON—Four Philippine nationals were indicted today on conspiracy, hostage-taking, and weapons charges stemming from the kidnapping in the Philippines of a mother and her then 14-year-old son in July of 2011. The indictment alleges that the group held the mother for approximately 82 days and the son for approximately 151 days, and forced the family to pay ransom for their return.

The victims, both U.S. nationals, were in the Philippines on a family trip.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was announced by John P. Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Stephanie Yonekura, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, and Bill L. Lewis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

The four men are identified as John Does, but are also known as Furuji Indama, Radzmil Jannatul, Muadz, and Abu Basim. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, two counts of hostage-taking, one count of conspiracy to use, carry, brandish and discharge a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and aiding and abetting and causing an act to be done. None of the defendants is in custody.

If extradited to the United States and convicted of these charges, each defendant would face a maximum term of life in prison.

“The four men indicted are alleged to have been involved in the hostage-taking of two U.S. citizens vacationing in the Philippines more than three years ago,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Hostage-takers who target our citizens with captivity and violence anywhere in the world should know that we will pursue them and seek to bring them to justice, however long it takes.”

“While on a family vacation overseas, a Virginia mother and her teenage son were captured, forced into boats at gunpoint, and taken to an island where they were held hostage for ransom,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “This indictment charges four Philippine men for their alleged roles in taking these Americans hostage and holding them captive for months in terrifying conditions. We remain focused on apprehending and extraditing these men so that they can face these charges in a courtroom in our nation’s capital.”

“The victim family in this case experienced great suffering when a mother and son were violently kidnapped and held by the defendants overseas, while family members in the United States endured for months without knowing the fate of their loved ones,” said Assistant Director Lewis, of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “It should be noted that, following the mother’s release, her son was held for months before valiantly escaping his captors. The charges in this case are the result of a joint investigation by the FBI and law enforcement partners in the Philippines, one of many countries with whom we work to identify those responsible for victimizing American citizens abroad and build cases for potential prosecution.”

According to the indictment, the defendants and co-conspirators kidnapped the two United States nationals on or about July 12, 2011. The woman, then age 43, and her then 14-year-old son were taken hostage from a beach cottage on Tictabon Island, several miles from the mainland of Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines.

Both hostages were forced into boats at gunpoint, brought to another island, Basilan Island, and forced to march to a camp where they were held until September 2011. The two were then forced to march to another camp, also on Basilan Island.

The indictment alleges that the defendants and their co-conspirators threatened to kill the hostages, and that they used firearms, including handguns, semiautomatic assault weapons, and destructive devices to keep and detain them. The indictment also alleges that the group demanded ransom from a family member of the hostages and did, in fact, cause a family member to make bank transfers as ransom payments.

The group released the mother on or about Oct. 2, 2011, but retained her teenage son as a hostage, and demanded that she pay a large ransom for his release. The son eventually escaped from his captivity on or about Dec. 9, 2011.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.

The charges were the result of an investigation led by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Courtney Spivey Urschel and Thomas A. Gillice of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Grigg of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, and Trial Attorney T. J. Reardon III of the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Asuncion and Assistant U.S. Attorney George P. Varghese, now with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, investigated the case prior to indictment.

U.S. Navy Revokes Bill Cosby's Honorary Title

The Secretary of the Navy Public Affairs released the below:

ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) --  Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Michael Stevens today said the Navy is revoking Bill Cosby's title of honorary Chief Petty Officer, originally presented in 2011.

The Navy is taking this action because allegations against Mr. Cosby are very serious and are in conflict with the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment.

Cosby enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and served for four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd Class Petty Officer.

Note: You can read a previous post on Bill Cosby receiving the Navy honorary title via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/02/chief-cos-us-navy-promotes-navy-veteran.html

Considering that Bill Cosby has not yet been arrested, tried or convicted of a crime, this seems to be premature, in my view.

An Unexpected Place For Lessons To Fight Mexico's Mafia: Italy

Robert Saviano, author of Gomorrah, offers his views on how to combat Mexican organized crime at Reuters.com.

At this moment, the fiercest, most powerful criminal organizations in the world are located in Mexico. Recent events should leave no one with any doubts.

On Sept. 26, 43 trainee teachers in the southwestern city of Iguala were abducted by the police and, according to the government, were most likely murdered by drug traffickers. Their deaths, which are the latest in a long list of bloody gang-related murders, sparked widespread riots in Mexico City. According to Amnesty International, 136,100 people were killed by Mexican cartels between December 2006 and May 2014 alone.

So how is Mexico to deal with this formidable problem? Perhaps it could look to Italy for lessons on how a deeply entrenched mafia.

Why Italy?

Italy is the country with the oldest mafia in the world—indeed, the very word mafia has Italian origins. But ever since the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Italian mafia was planting bombs on highways to kill state magistrates, mafia-related homicides have nose-dived. Between 1992 and 2012, murders related to organized crime dropped around 80 percent, according to the United Nations.

According to one mafia expert, the “radical and painful” changes seen in the decline of mafia groups in southern Italy “are the best proof of the effectiveness of anti-mafia law enforcement.”

Some might counter that Mexico does not have a mafia problem. After all, the Mexican cartels are often simply referred to as “drug traffickers.”

However, the most recent report of the U.S. State Department has estimated that the amount of money laundered annually in Mexico is between $19 and $29 billion. Such data suggests that continuing to merely call them drug traffickers is neither accurate nor, indeed, responsible.

To launder that amount of money, one has to be a mafia organization. These groups do more than merely produce and sell drugs — they reinvest profits in real estate, businesses and stocks. In addition, the groups also have a pyramid structure and employ financial consultants and accountants, which is typical of mafia organizations.

To date, Mexico has primarily used military crackdowns to fight its mafia. This has not resolved the situation, and, in some cases, has even worsened it by leading to a significant increase in ferocity and defections.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/12/04/an-unexpected-place-for-lessons-to-fight-mexicos-mafia-italy/