FBI: Perpetrator Of Attacks On Arkansas Power Grid Sentenced to 15 Years

The FBI website offers a report on the man who sabotaged the Arkansas power grid was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

On the afternoon of August 21, 2013, the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office was notified by a local energy provider about a downed 500,000-volt power line near an active railroad track in Cabot, Arkansas. A power outage ensued. Company officials and local law enforcement believed that very early in the morning, someone had climbed a 100-foot tall support tower and intentionally sawed off the shackles that held up the power line, which then fell across the railroad tracks. A short time later, a train struck the line and severed it.

The FBI was called into the matter because sabotaging an energy facility and causing more than $100,000 in damage is a federal crime. According to energy company officials, the damage in this instance was $550,000.

A search of the crime scene and subsequent investigative activity by FBI Little Rock’s Joint Terrorism Task Force—aided by our local law enforcement partners and power company officials—revealed a great deal of information about what had happened.

In addition to the power line’s support tower shackles being cut with a hacksaw (which had been left behind), someone had loosened most of the bolts holding the support tower to its cement base. Investigators believed that in a previous attempt to damage the support tower and take down the power line, the perpetrator had taken a steel cable—insulated in blue plastic hosing that’s often used for pool maintenance—and tied one end to the bottom of the support tower and the other end to a tree across the railroad tracks in the hopes that a train would run into the cable, pulling down the entire support tower and possibly toppling several nearby towers. Instead, the cable simply snapped when hit by the train, and the tower—and power line—remained in place. Pieces of the cable and the blue hosing from that attempt were found at the crime scene.

But then there were two more seemingly related incidents:

You can read the rest of the FBI report via the below link:   

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/august/attacks-on-arkansas-power-grid 

Former New Jersey Man Charged With Conspiracy And Attempt To Provide Material Support To ISIL

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

A former resident of Bergen County, New Jersey, was arrested this morning for allegedly conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey and Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel of the FBI’s Newark, New Jersey, Division.

Nader Saadeh, 20, a former resident of Rutherford, New Jersey, is charged by complaint with conspiring with other individuals in New Jersey and New York to provide material support to ISIL and with attempting to provide material support to ISIL.  He is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. EDT before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor of the District of New Jersey.    

According to documents filed in this case:

The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) have been investigating a group of individuals from New York and New Jersey who have allegedly conspired to provide material support to ISIL.  Nader Saadeh lived in Rutherford until leaving the country on May 5, 2015, allegedly to join ISIL.  Nader Saadeh’s brother, Alaa Saadeh, was a resident of West New York, New Jersey, until he was arrested on June 29, 2015, and charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIL, aiding and abetting an attempt to provide material support to ISIL and witness tampering.  Samuel Rahamin Topaz was a resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey, until he was arrested on June 17, 2015, and charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIL.  Conspirator 1 (CC-1) was a Queens, New York, resident until he was arrested in New York on June 13, 2015, on terrorism charges.

Between 2012 and 2013, Nader Saadeh sent CC-1 electronic messages expressing his hatred for the United States and desire to form a small army that would include their friends.  On July 1, 2014, the day ISIL’s leader declared an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq, Nader Saadeh posted images of ISIL’s flag and the flag of the Islamic caliphate on his Facebook page.

According to an informant who was close to him for years, by April 2015, Nader Saadeh had become a radicalized supporter of ISIL who was preparing to travel overseas with other individuals.  In addition, Nader Saadeh said that ISIL’s execution of a captured Jordanian Air Force pilot by burning him alive and the murders of several staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris earlier this year were justified.

During the investigation, the FBI obtained computer files showing that Nader Saadeh viewed ISIL propaganda videos and researched the availability of flights to Turkey, which borders Syria, where ISIL claims to control territory.  The FBI also obtained electronic messages sent to Nader Saadeh on April 21, 2015, by family members living overseas, including his mother, who pleaded for him not to join ISIL.

On May 5, 2015, Nader Saadeh traveled overseas via John F. Kennedy International Airport, allegedly in order to join ISIL.  On his way to the airport, while accompanied by Alaa Saadeh and CC-1, he said that he, Alaa Saadeh, CC-1 and Topaz had plans to reunite overseas within a few weeks.

On the day of his arrest, Topaz told the FBI that he agreed with Nader Saadeh, CC-1 and Alaa Saadeh to travel to join ISIL.  In addition, Alaa Saadeh told the FBI in a post-arrest interview that he, Nader Saadeh and Topaz all watched ISIL propaganda videos together and discussed going overseas to join ISIL.  Alaa Saadeh also stated that the night before Nader Saadeh left for Jordan, CC-1 provided Nader Saadeh with the name and number of an ISIL contact near the Turkey/Syria border who would facilitate his travel to ISIL-controlled territory.

Each count in the complaint carries a maximum of potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and JTTF.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys L. Judson Welle, Dennis C. Carletta and Francisco J. Navarro of the District of New Jersey, with the assistance of Trial Attorney Robert Sander of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

The charge and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

BBC 4 Radio Offers Ian Fleming's 'Diamonds Are Forever'

I'm a huge fan of Ian Fleming's thriller Diamonds Are Forever. I first read it as a teenager and I've reread the novel several times over the years.

In Fleming's novel, James Bond goes after diamond smugglers and the American mob. Great stuff.

I was disappointed in the 1971 film version of Diamonds Are Forever, even though the film makers reenlisted the great Sean Connery to portray Bond again. The film was a silly comedy and sadly did not use much from Fleming's novel.

So I was very interested in listening to BBC 4 Radio's faithful adaptation of Fleming's thriller.

The James Bond website MI6 reports on the radio program and offers a link to the BBC 4 radio program.

BBC Radio 4's 'Diamonds Are Forever' is an all-star Ian Fleming James Bond adventure, directed by Martin Jarvis and starring Toby Stephens as 007.  

Fleming's fourth Bond novel is especially dazzling. Its dark humour encompasses millions of pounds worth of diamonds smuggled out of British mines in Africa. Responsible? Somebody known as 'ABC'.

James Bond is sent undercover by MI6 to New York to follow the pipeline. Masquerading as a courier he meets enticing, ice-cold, Tiffany Case. She stands between Bond and gang-bosses whose criminal diamond business stretches from Sierra Leone, via London, to the gambling tables of Las Vegas.

Bond infiltrates the mob. Horse-racing scams, a car chase, a rigged card game, pursuit by locomotive - Bond and Tiffany endure all. Eventually flown to West Africa, Bond unmasks the ultimate villain.

You can link to the radio program via the below link:

https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/event_radio_daf_listen_online?t=&s=&id=03940

And you can link to BBC 4 Radio via the below link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0631r4y

After listening to the radio program, I suggest you read Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever.

Viet Thanh Nguyen's 'The Sympathizer': Compelling, Original Take On Vietnam War

Dan DeLuca offers a review of Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

From Michael Herr's Dispatches to Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, from Oliver Stone's Platoon to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.," the American experience in Vietnam has been closely examined and obsessed over, its human cost and toll on the national psyche put under the microscope in fiction, film, and song for decades.

The Vietnamese experience, in particular the North Vietnamese experience, is less familiar. Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer is an ambitious, sparklingly executed first novel that redresses that imbalance in unexpected ways.

It's not a conventional war novel. The Sympathizer opens with the fall of Saigon in 1975, with its title character - identified only as The Captain - helping his South Vietnamese superior The General escape, headed first to a refugee camp in Guam, and then to Los Angeles.

But The Captain is not the loyal aide-de-camp The General thinks he is. In fact, he's a North Vietnamese spy. He's a mole skilled at role-playing because - as the U.S.-educated bastard son of a Vietnamese mother and a French Catholic priest - his identity is fluid, his otherness a constant, whether meeting with Viet Cong contacts or working in the Department  of Oriental Studies at a California university.

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

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20150809_Viet_Thanh_Nguyen_s__The_Sympathizer___Compelling__original_take_on_Vietnam_War.html

Note: I read The Sympathizer. I don't subscribe to the narrator's communist, anti-American views, but I thought this was an interesting novel with a unique voice.

Joe Samuel Starnes' 'Red Dirt': Tennis As Metaphor For Life

Frank Wilson, my friend and former editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a fine review of Joe Samuel Starnes' Red Dirt in today's Inquirer.

Jaxie Skinner is 3 when he sits with his family on the sofa in their house in Piney, Ga., and watches the first Björn Borg-John McEnroe final at Wimbledon in 1980. Afterward, his father goes outside and climbs onto his bulldozer: 

"He made a long pass of about 120 feet and then turned and went back the other way, clearing another wide swath to reveal a large rectangle of virgin clay. The fresh earth shone, steaming in the hot sun. "Red dirt," he said. "Nothing like red dirt."

... It becomes the first clay court Jaxie will play on. A try at Wimbledon ends with a serious knee injury, and Jaxie spends 10 years as a drunken recluse in the house he grew up in. The harsh consequences of another of his ill-advised dalliances, though, gets him started on the comeback trail."

I don't know squat about tennis. I've never played it, and I don't think I've ever watched an entire match. So I was rather surprised to find myself engrossed in Joe Samuel Starnes' "tennis novel." 

To begin with, Jaxie is a pretty honest narrator. When he describes himself toward the end as "a dude who has done the best I could and am trying to make right for the bad deeds I've done, to recover some of the talent I've wasted," he's actually not just blowing smoke.

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

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20150809_Joe_Samuel_Starnes___Red_Dirt___Tennis_as_metaphor_for_life.html

Actor Sam Riley, James Bond Screenwriters In Talks To Make Film Of Len Deighton's 'SS:GB'

Ali Jaafar at deadline.com reports that actor Sam Riley and the James Bond screenwriters are in talks to make a film from one of my favorite thrillers, Len Deighton's SS:GB. 

EXCLUSIVE– Sam Riley is in talks to star in SS:GB, the Len Deighton adaptation that James Bond scribes Neil Purvis and Robert Wade are writing.  No deal has been set yet but this is a plum role in what is fast gearing up to be a prestige project. German director Philipp Kadelbach, who won plaudits and numerous awards including the International Emmy for German World War 2 mini-series Generation War, is attached to direct. The project, which is being exec produced by Sid Gentle’sSally Woodward Gentle and produced by Patrick Schweitzer (Doctor Who), is set up at the BBC.

SS:GB is set in a UK conquered and occupied by Germany during World War II. The title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that controls Britain.  Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer, a British homicide detective assigned to Scotland Yard, is called in to investigate a murder of a well-dressed man. To his surprise, the case draws the attention of the highest levels of the German government. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a struggle between powerful forces.  Filming is set to begin in the fall.

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

http://deadline.com/2015/08/sam-riley-neil-purvis-robert-wade-james-bond-spectre-007-ss-gb-sally-woodward-gentle-sid-gentle-downton-abbey-1201495096/

You can also read an interview with Len Deighton from this past June at deightondossier.net via the below link:

http://www.deightondossier.net/Author/Interviews/june2015.html 

RussianTaliban Fighter Convicted Of Terrorism Charges

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

Irek Ilgiz Hamidullin, 55, a Russian national and former Russian army tank commander, was convicted today by a federal jury of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to shoot down American helicopters and to kill U.S. and Afghan soldiers, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and several other charges related to an attack he led on U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan in November 2009.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew G. McCabe of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office made the announcement.

“Irek Hamidullin was convicted of numerous terrorism offenses in connection with orchestrating and conducting a violent attack on Afghan and U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2009, including conspiring to kill members of the U.S. military,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “Hamidullin was captured and detained by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and brought to the United States for trial.  This case once again demonstrates our resolve to find and bring to justice, using all available tools, those who target U.S. citizens and interests around the world.”

“This case is an example of our criminal justice system functioning exactly the way it was designed,” said U.S. Attorney Boente. “I want to commend our trial team for their hard work in this case, bringing it from indictment to conviction in 10 months. I would also like to thank our partners at the FBI’s Washington Field Office for their efforts on this case.”

“Hamidullin’s conviction today should serve as a reminder to terrorists around the globe that the FBI is committed to finding justice for Americans who are attacked both overseas and at home,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge McCabe.  “Along with our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, we will aggressively bring to justice those who seek to kill U.S. troops and who provide material support to terrorist organizations.”

Hamidullin was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2014, followed by a superseding indictment on April 23, 2015.  The guilty verdict was accepted by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to court records and evidence at trial, Hamidullin was a former Russian army tank commander who had contact with high level Taliban and Haqqani Network personnel.  On Nov. 28, 2009, Hamidullin led a group of fighters in an attack on U.S. and Afghan forces at Camp Leyza, located in the Khost Province of Afghanistan, near the border of Pakistan.  He had planned the attack for months, received approval from the Taliban and Haqqani Network, recruited other fighters and acquired weapons for the attack, including IED’s, heavy machine guns and a shoulder-fired rocket, with the intent of shooting down U.S. helicopters responding to the attack.

According to evidence presented at trial, on the night of Nov. 28, 2009, Hamidullin and his fighters initiated their attack, beginning with firing into Camp Leyza.  Soon after the attack began, two U.S. Army helicopters responded to Camp Leyza, just as Hamidullin knew from his months of planning and reconnaissance.  He positioned himself on a nearby hill, away from his fighters, where he had a clear view of the battlefield and could radio orders to his fighters.  As the helicopters approached, he ordered his fighters to fire the anti-aircraft weapons he had strategically placed in the area.  Both weapons malfunctioned and the helicopters were not fired upon.  He then ordered his fighters to pack up their weapons and other gear and return to Pakistan.  During their retreat, U.S. forces ultimately identified and eliminated approximately 20 of Hamidullin’s fighters.

The next morning, as U.S. and Afghan forces were conducting a battle damage assessment, Hamidullin was found hiding on the battlefield.  After a brief firefight with U.S. Army soldiers, the two insurgents were killed and Hamidullin was wounded and captured. 

Hamidullin faces a maximum penalty of life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 6, 2015.  The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Gill and James P. Gillis of the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Jennifer E. Levy of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.