The IPT Update

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

General security, policy

1.  US hardens tone toward Iran as election nears

2.  US Treasury sanctions Hizballah operatives in West Africa responsible for fundraising & recruiting

3.  Montgomery County businessman convicted of helping Iran on satellite project

4.  NSA leak prompts countermeasures by terrorists

5.  Manning trial:  WikiLeaks data included details of U.S. military targets, techniques
6.  Data-collection program got green light from MacKay in 2011
7.  Adelaide-raised Sabirhan Hasanoff facing 20 years for NYC stock exchange plot

8.  Lawyers for Boise terrorism suspect want off case due to budget cuts
9.  US attorney takes shot at Portland's part-time role in terrorism task force
10. Terror train plot: Chiheb Esseghaier's Qur'an demand reveals law/religion collision
11. Accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat wants bail restrictions eased

12. US disrupts al-Qaeda's online magazine
13. Canada's CSIS: Al-Qaeda likely to get bigger, stronger and more unpredictable in next five years

Air, rail, port, health, energy & communication security

14. Photos, video show JFK Airport security guards dozing at key posts

15. Flight from Los Angeles to Texas diverted to Phoenix after phone bomb threat
16. The new profiteers: NSA leak scandal presents opportunity for encryption companies

Financing, money laundering, bribery, fraud, identity theft, civil litigation

17. US Treasury sanctions the network of drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero

18. Dallas County DA: Theft ring used fake traveler's checks

Border security, immigration & customs

19. Cancelled Air Canada flight causes customs confusion

20. CAIR lawsuit filed by Muslims traveling to and from Canada moves forward
21. Woman, Moura El-Asmar, and daughter, busted at border with undergarment full of cash

22. Border war: Security at the center of Senate immigration fight

International
23. Does al-Qaeda have feared surface-to-air missiles?
24. Attacker in Afghanistan hid bomb in his body
25. Former al-Qaeda suspect suing for £50,000 after three years under house arrest 

26. UK judge attacks 'tide' of online extremism as he jails Islamic terror group

27. Spain arrests 5 Tunisians on terrorism promotion charges

28. Islamist terror suspect held in Italy; Moroccan in Brescia 'planned jihad'

Comment / analysis

29. Yaakov Lappin:  New Iran Crisis Looming
30. Sebastian Rotella:  Defenders of NSA Surveillance Omit Most of Mumbai Plotter's Story

 

The Investigative Project on Terrorism Update is designed for law enforcement, the intelligence community and policy makers for non-profit research and educational use only.   Quoted material is subject to the copyright protections of the original sources, which should be cited for attribution, rather than the Update. Our weekly report, The Money Trail, derived from our Update, is a compilation of materials on terror financing and other related financial issues.

THE AMERICAS

GENERAL SECURITY, POLICY

 

1.  U.S. Hardens Tone Toward Iran as Election Nears
By JAY SOLOMON Wall Street Journal June 11, 2013, 6:36 p.m. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324904004578539591927814904.html

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration has sharply increased its economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran's rulers in recent weeks in a bid to shape how the country's presidential election on Friday is viewed both in and outside the country.  The highly public and critical U.S. strategy marks a sharp break from its approach toward Iran's last presidential election, in 2009, when the White House was focused on talks with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian government to curb its nuclear program.  This year, American diplomats are publicly questioning the credibility of the June 14 election, which will elect a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, especially after two prominent politicians were banned by the government from participating.  The Treasury Department, meanwhile, has sought to aid the ability of the Iranian government's critics to communicate by dialing back restrictions on certain software and telecommunications equipment entering Iran.  The U.S. has also intensified its financial war on Tehran in recent weeks by seeking to ban the use of Iran's currency, the rial, internationally and sanctioning companies that allegedly laundered billions of dollars on behalf of Mr. Khamenei…

2.  Treasury Sanctions Hizballah Operatives in West Africa

Action Targets Hizballah's Global Support Network Responsible for Fundraising and Recruiting
US Department of the Treasury June 11, 2013

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1980.aspx

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Treasury today designated four Lebanese supporters of Hizballah who are responsible for aiding the organization's attempts to extend its influence throughout West Africa.  Ali Ibrahim al-Watfa, Abbas Loutfe Fawaz, Ali Ahmad Chehade, and Hicham Nmer Khanafer, who are responsible for Hizballah's activities in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Gambia respectively, have been organized fundraising efforts, recruited members, and in some cases styled themselves as ambassadors of Hizballah's Foreign Relations Department.  Today's designations, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and their supporters, further expose the alarming reach of Hizballah's activities and its determination to create a worldwide funding and recruitment network to support its violence and criminal enterprises around the world.  Even as Hizballah claims to be a resistance organization, its expansive global network is sending money and operatives to carry out terrorist attacks around the world and fighters to the front lines of the Syrian civil war…

3.  Montgomery businessman convicted of helping Iran on satellite project

By Ann E. Marimow, Published: June 10, 2013 Washington Post
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10800
In the mid-1990s, the Montgomery County businessman had the blessing of the U.S. government to launch one of the first commercial U.S. satellites on a Russian rocket. But prosecutors said Nader Modanlo later used his aerospace expertise and connections with Russia to help his native Iran launch a satellite of its own for the first time.  After more than a week of deliberations, a jury of 11 women and one man agreed Monday, finding that Modanlo illegally facilitated a satellite deal between Iran and Russia and received a $10 million brokering fee. The jury also found Modanlo guilty of money laundering and obstruction for lying during a series of bankruptcy proceedings.  Prosecutors said they expect Modanlo, 52, to face significant jail time because of the amount of money involved. Federal guidelines call for an estimated sentence of 10 years… The case against Modanlo that played out in federal court in Greenbelt last month had all the makings of an international mystery: meetings at a hotel in Moscow, allegations of documents written in code and a $10 million check that made its way from a Swiss bank account to Bowie...

4.  The Damage Is Done
NSA Leak Prompts Countermeasures by Terrorists
BY: Bill Gertz June 11, 2013 3:56 pm Washington Free Beacon
http://freebeacon.com/the-damage-is-done/
Jihadist websites urged terrorists to change passwords and shift communications to more secure means following the recent disclosure of the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance of the Internet, according to U.S. officials.  Postings monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies called for the changes in online communications and are the first sign of potential damage caused by the publication of the NSA's large-scale program to monitor Internet traffic through major U.S. data companies.  The once top-secret program known as PRISM was disclosed by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who said he exposed the program as infringing on Americans' civil liberties.  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who declassified the program last week, criticized the leaks to the Guardian and Washington Post… Intelligence agencies currently are conducting a damage assessment of the disclosures, he said.  The al Qaeda-affiliated, open-access website Ansar al Mujahidin posted several messages earlier this week expressing concern and urging terrorists to seek more secure electronic communications outlets.  Terrorists were critical of the Ansar al Mujahidin website administrators for not doing enough to warn members to the monitoring danger...

5.  WikiLeaks data included details of U.S. military targets, techniques
By Shaun Waterman The Washington Times Wednesday, June 12, 2013

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/12/wikileaks-data-included-details-us-military-target/

The vast trove of classified documents Army Pfc. Bradley Manning gave to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks included sensitive information about military operations and tactics, including techniques for disabling roadside bombs, the names of informants and at least one enemy target.  Evidence presented to Pfc Manning's court martial at the Ft. Mead, Md., Army base included written statements from military secrecy experts that defense and prosecution lawyers accepted as substitutions for live testimony. It was read aloud in court, according to the Associated Press.  In his statement, one of the experts, retired Air ForceLt. Col. Martin Nehring, said he had reviewed the hundreds of thousands of U.S. military battlefield reports posted by Wikileaks.  He said he found techniques for neutralizing improvised explosive devices, the name of an enemy target, the names of criminal suspects and details of troop movements.  Manning, a 25-year-old Oklahoma native who has been in custody for nearly three years awaiting trial, has said he didn't believe that national security would be harmed by the release of nearly a quarter-million battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and video clips he downloaded from U.S. government computer systems while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.  He has already pleaded guilty to several charges and faces 20 years or more in prison.  But prosecutors still want to convict him of aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence, for leaking documents they say found their way to Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan…

Bradley Manning's laptop scrutinized in WikiLeaks trial

CBS/AP/ June 12, 2013, 1:47 PM
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57588958/bradley-mannings-laptop-scrutinized-in-wikileaks-trial/

FORT MEADE, Maryland - Pfc. Bradley Manning's court-martial over sending sensitive material to WikiLeaks has resumed with a U.S. Army investigator testifying about what he found on the soldier's personal laptop. Army computer crimes investigator Mark Johnson testified Wednesday that he found evidence of chats between Manning and Julian Assange, who founded the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning faces numerous charges, including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.  Johnson also testified that Manning used the alias Nathaniel Frank, a historian who wrote a book critical of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy...

6.  Data-collection program got green light from MacKay in 2011
COLIN FREEZE The Globe and Mail Published Monday, Jun. 10 2013, 6:00 AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Jun. 10 2013, 11:52 AM EDT
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10788

IPT NOTE:  Documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10789

Defence Minister Peter MacKay approved a secret electronic eavesdropping program that scours global telephone records and Internet data trails – including those of Canadians – for patterns of suspicious activity.  Mr. MacKay signed a ministerial directive formally renewing the government's "metadata" surveillance program on Nov. 21, 2011, according to records obtained by The Globe and Mail. The program had been placed on a lengthy hiatus, according to the documents, after a federal watchdog agency raised concerns that it could lead to warrantless surveillance of Canadians.  There is little public information about the program, which is the subject of Access to Information requests that have returned hundreds of pages of records, with many passages blacked out on grounds of national security.  It was first explicitly approved in a secret decree signed in 2005 by Bill Graham, defence minister in Paul Martin's Liberal government...

7.  Adelaide-raised Sabirhan Hasanoff facing 20 years for stock exchange plot
by: Peter Mitchell, AAP From: News Limited Network June 10, 2013 10:32AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10786

IPT NOTE:  Court documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/489

ON an August day in 2008 Adelaide-raised accountant Sabirhan Hasanoff was an anonymous face outside the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan.  While tourists took photos and Wall Street suits charged by, Hasanoff was making notes.  The dual Australian-US citizen, who lived in the New York borough of Brooklyn, was, according to prosecutors, on a covert mission for two Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist leaders known by the aliases "The Doctor" and "Suffian".  The Doctor, a self-described career jihadist, was contemplating an attack on the New York Stock Exchange and was seeking information on the site, including its location in Manhattan, size and the security set up to protect it.   As a local devoted to The Doctor and al-Qaeda, Hasanoff was considered the ideal person to undertake the surveillance.  The former accountant for blue-chip accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, allegedly collated what he saw into a one-page email, detailing how the stock exchange was surrounded by four streets blocked off to vehicular traffic and any attack by a terrorist would have to be done on foot.  The email was sent to Suffian.  Suffian printed it out and gave it to The Doctor, but he was not impressed because it lacked the detail he hoped for.  The detail didn't disappoint US authorities.  Hasanoff and another Brooklyn-based man, Wesam El-Hanafi, were arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and transferred under guard back to the US…

8.  Lawyers for Boise terrorism suspect want off case due to budget cuts
by John Miller / Associated Press KTVB.COM Posted June 11, 2013
http://www.ktvb.com/news/crime/Boise-terrorism-suspects-lawyers-want-out-of-case-211026131.html

IPT NOTE: Court documents posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/643
BOISE -- Lawyers for an Uzbek national facing federal terrorism-related charges in Idaho and Utah want a judge to let them withdraw from the case, saying federal budget cuts have left their office with too few resources.  Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, of Boise, has pleaded not guilty to charges involving teaching people to build bombs.  Court-appointed attorneys Richard Rubin and Thomas Monaghan, of Federal Defenders Services of Idaho, are seeking appointment of new counsel.  Rubin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Congress' across-the-board budget cuts known as "sequestration" have reduced his budget by 10 percent this fiscal year, and as much as an 14 percent next year…

AP: Boise Attorneys Ask To Be Removed From Terror Suspect Case
POSTED BY GEORGE PRENTICE ON TUE, JUN 11, 2013 AT 3:37 PM Associated Press

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10795

… 30-year-old Fazliddin Kurbanov was arrested May 16 when FBI agents raided his Boise apartment, saying the suspect conspired to use a weapon of mass destruction and made regular shopping trips to purchase bomb-making materials.  Kurbanov's trial was expected to begin Tuesday, July 2, but is now expected to be delayed following a motion filed June 10… Federal grand juries in Salt Lake City and Boise returned indictments charging Kubanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device and one count of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction…

9.  U.S. attorney takes shot at Portland's part-time role in terrorism task force
By BRYAN DENSON & MAXINE BERNSTEIN The Oregonian June 07, 2013

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/06/us_attorney_takes_aim_at_portl.html
Oregon's top federal prosecutor went public on Friday with her growing frustration about Portland's failure to embed police investigators in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.   In an interview with The Oregonian, U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall said she wants the city to agree to commit two police officers to full-time work with the multi-agency task force, which collects and analyzes evidence of terrorist threats.  "My fear," Marshall said, is that "we've somehow stopped moving the conversation forward. It sort of feels like we're at a halt now."   Marshall said shared intelligence gathering between local police and FBI is essential to swiftly respond to terror attacks, pointing in particular to last month's Boston Marathon bombing.  Marshall took direct aim at Mayor Charlie Hales, who was the lone city commissioner in 2001 to oppose the city's role in the Joint Terrorism Task Force after the 9/11 attacks. Hales became mayor in January...

10.  Terror train plot: Chiheb Esseghaier's Qur'an demand reveals law/religion collision
Chiheb Esseghaier's extreme demand to be judged by the Qur'an, not the criminal code, reflects a tension that often arises in multicultural societies.
By: Wendy Gillis Toronto Star Published on Sat Jun 08 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10790

He sat silently at first, the camera beaming his image — thick dark beard, wire-rim glasses, an orange prison jumper — from a tiny jailhouse room into a cramped Old City Hall court.   But Chiheb Esseghaier, accused of being part of a terrorist plot, is not one to keep quiet in court. As the Crown attorney and Justice of the Peace discussed his failed attempts to find a lawyer last week, Esseghaier's voice rose above the rest, making clear he would not accept just anyone.  "I cannot take a lawyer who is not able to fulfill my need," he said.   Co-accused in an alleged plot to derail a Toronto-bound passenger train, the 30-year-old Tunisian national has proclaimed his peculiar "need" at numerous court appearances since his April 22 arrest. Because the Criminal Code is not a "holy book," he says, he requires a lawyer who will help him be judged by the Qur'an, not "a book written by humans."  He's had difficulty finding one. A Legal Aid lawyer visited Esseghaier in jail recently, but would not take him on because of his request. Without representation, Esseghaier, who returns to court later this month, may eventually have to mount his own defence — and he'll have a hard time there, too, given that accused criminals can't just opt out of the law…

11.  Accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat wants bail restrictions eased
Has worn GPS ankle bracelet for seven years and is banned from using cellphones or computers
By Chris Cobb, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 11, 2013  

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10796

OTTAWA — Mohamed Harkat can expect some slight easing of his restrictive bail conditions, but the federal government won't willingly agree to a deal that would allow the terrorist suspect to remove the GPS ankle bracelet that has been strapped to his body for seven years.  Harkat's lawyer, Matt Webber, told Federal Court judge Simon Noel Tuesday that since being released from jail, Harkat had been forced to wear the GPS bracelet for too long and it was causing him "incredible hardship."  The 44-year-old Algerian refugee, who is fighting deportation from Canada, starts each day plugged into a wall outlet for two hours while the monitoring device charges... Harkat, suspected by Canadian security services of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent, was arrested in 2002 under a national security certificate and on the basis of evidence that remains secret…

12.  U.S. disrupts al-Qaeda's online magazine

By Ellen Nakashima, Tuesday, June 11, 11:15 AM Washington Post

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10793

U.S. intelligence operatives covertly sabotaged a prominent al-Qaeda online magazine last month in an apparent attempt to sow confusion among the group's followers, according to officials.  The operation succeeded, at least temporarily, in thwarting publication of the latest issue of Inspire, the English-language magazine distributed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. When it appeared online, the text on the second page was garbled and the following 20 pages were blank. The sabotaged version was quickly removed from the online forum that hosted it, said independent analysts who track Islamist militant Web sites.  It is unclear how the hacking occurred, although U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency and the CIA, have invested heavily in cyber-capabilities in recent years. Security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the recent operation was only the latest U.S. attempt to disrupt al-Qaeda's online propaganda…

13.  Al-Qaeda likely to get bigger, stronger and more unpredictable in next five years, CSIS report says

Stewart Bell | 13/06/11 | Last Updated: 13/06/11 8:45 PM ET National Post
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10794

IPT NOTE:  Full report posted at https://www.csis.gc.ca/pblctns/cdmctrch/20130501_eng.pdf.  Individual chapters may be downloaded at https://www.csis.gc.ca/pblctns/cdmctrch/20130401_th_ftr_f_lgd-eng.asp

Al-Qaeda will likely become bigger, stronger and more unpredictable over the next five years, according to a Canadian intelligence study that attempted to peer into the future of the evolving terror network.  The report, The Future of al-Qaeda, was the result of a "foresight project" by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which asked unidentified "prominent specialists" the question: What might al-Qaeda look like in 2018?  The participants examined scenarios that saw al-Qaeda undergo gradual decline, incremental growth or rapid growth. The second was considered the "most expected," said the report, recently posted on the CSIS website.  "Incremental growth gradually changes the threats posed by AQ. They become less predictable as AQ leaders, become more autonomous and opportunistic, and they become more potent as AQ avails itself of new weapons and recruits, new funding sources and new safe havens," it said.  The fate of al-Qaeda has been widely debated since the killing of Osama bin Laden two years ago. While some see the terror network, formed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in the late 1980s, as a waning force, others believe it will remain a top threat into the foreseeable future… But all three of the projections in the Canadian study — the result of a two-day workshop hosted by the CSIS Academic Outreach program in January — assumed al-Qaeda would not accept defeat and would continue to mount attacks…

AIR, RAIL, PORT, HEALTH, ENERGY & COMMUNICATION SECURITY

IPT NOTE: For more, see DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/editorial_0542.shtm ;  DHS Blog http://www.dhs.gov/news-releases/blog;   TSA Releases http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/index.shtm ; TSA Blog http://blog.tsa.gov/

14.  Wake up! Photos, video show JFK Airport security guards dozing at key posts
By PHILIP MESSING New York Post Last Updated: 7:08 AM, June 10, 2013
Posted: 1:17 AM, June 10, 2013 EXCLUSIVE
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/dream_job_for_airport_workers_5ZMBzolLgQIXKp39jaquOI

Terror-targeted JFK Airport has become a giant slumber party for some of its security guards — who regularly doze on duty at key posts, according to a former boss and damning photos obtained by The Post.  Although the airport has been at the center of at least one terror plot — and an embarrassing security snafu involving a jet skier last summer — these disturbing infractions seem to mean little to the cadre of guards who catnap on the job, says the ex-boss, Stephen Jackson, 39.  "It was a regular occurrence finding the guards sleeping," said Jackson, a former manager for FJC Security, which employs about 300 security guards at JFK Airport.  Jackson, an ex-Marine, began working at FJC in August 2011 and became a security-guard supervisor at JFK in December. He was fired May 28 after what he calls a campaign of harassment over everything from his whistle-blowing to his being Hispanic.  The married Staten Island father of four said he typically supervised between 58 and 65 guards over an eight-hour shift at JFK — and regularly caught about six sleeping on duty...

15.  Southwest flight searched, cleared in Phoenix after bomb threat
By Christine Mai-Duc Los Angeles Times June 10, 2013, 10:20 p.m.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10797

A Southwest Airlines plane that made an unscheduled stop Monday in Phoenix after a bomb threat was made via telephone has been cleared.  Phoenix police and FBI bomb technicians searched the plane, originally bound for Austin, Texas, and found no explosives, the FBI said in a statement.  All passengers have been interviewed and are in the process of boarding another aircraft to Austin, the airline said. Their luggage had been returned to them after TSA agents re-screened all the bags.  Authorities are still trying to determine who called in the threat, which officials say was specific to that flight… Southwest flight 2675 was midair over Arizona when it made a 180-degree turn and began its rapid, unscheduled descent into Phoenix...

16.  The new profiteers: NSA leak scandal presents opportunity for encryption companies
By Shaun Waterman The Washington Times Wednesday, June 12, 2013
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/12/nsa-leak-scandal-presents-opportunity-encryption-c/

Revelations that the National Security Agency is gathering vast amounts of data about the phone and Internet communications of hundreds of millions of people has been good news for at least one group of entrepreneurs — those selling online encryption services that promise to shield email, text and voice from surveillance.  Seecrypt and Silent Circle, two firms that offer encryption services for individuals and businesses, say they have seen a wave of interest in their products since last week's revelations about the NSA's collection of electronic data from Internet and phone companies.  "There's been a massive spike in demand [for encryption] on the back of this story," said Harvey Boulter, CEO of Seecrypt, a South African-based firm that offers its product initially as a free download. Subscribers pay $3 a month after the first three months.  Mr. Boulter says U.S. registrations have doubled this week, adding that the interest is not just in the United States…

FINANCING, LAUNDERING, BRIBERY, FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT, CIVIL LITIGATION

17.  Treasury Sanctions the Network of Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero

Designation Targets Companies and Individuals in Guadalajara, Mexico​

US Department of the Treasury June 12, 2013

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1981.aspx

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated 18 individuals and 15 entities linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker.  Rafael Caro Quintero is a significant Mexican narcotics trafficker who began his criminal career in the late 1970s when he and others, including Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno (a.k.a. "El Azul"), formed the Guadalajara drug cartel and amassed an illicit fortune.  Caro Quintero was the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent (SA) Enrique Camarena in 1985.  Following his capture in the same year, Caro Quintero was convicted in Mexico for his involvement in SA Camarena's murder and drug trafficking and is currently serving a 40 year prison sentence there.   Caro Quintero is also wanted in the Central District of California on criminal charges related to the kidnapping and murder of SA Camarena as well as drug trafficking.  Caro Quintero continues his alliance with Esparragoza Moreno's organization and its key players, such as the previously-designated individual Juvencio Ignacio Gonzalez Parada.  The President identified Caro Quintero and Esparragoza Moreno as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) in 2000 and 2003, respectively... For a chart relating to today's actions see http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/20130612_caro_quintero.pdf

18.  Dallas County DA: Theft Ring Used Fake Traveler's Checks

By Ray Villeda| Tuesday, Jun 11, 2013  |  Updated 6:49 PM CDT NBC 5 News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10799

The Dallas County District Attorney's Office says thieves used fake traveler's checks to buy merchandise and then flew to California to return the goods for money.  Two people have been arrested in Dallas in connection with a retail theft ring that uses counterfeit traveler's checks, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office said.  Investigators say the Oakland, Calif.-based thieves used fake traveler's checks to buy merchandise in North Texas and then exchanged the items for cash in California.  "We've never seen a scam like this," District Attorney Craig Watkins said in a press release. "Several individuals would fly to the North Texas area from various states to buy merchandise, and then they would fly to different cities acting as tourists to return the goods to the same store to get cash. We need local stores to contact us if they suspect that they have fallen victim to this scheme."  More than two dozen stores in North Texas have been victims of the scheme, the DA's office said. The thieves have stolen about $100,000 so far, investigators said…

BORDER SECURITY, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS

IPT NOTE:  US Customs & Border Protection, http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/ & http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/border_patrol/press_announce_lp.xml; US Immigration and Customs Enforcement http://www.ice.gov/news/ ; Canada Border Services Agency http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html

19.  Cancelled Air Canada flight causes customs confusion

KATHRYN BLAZE CARLSON The Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Jun. 09 2013, 10:00 PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Jun. 10 2013, 8:43 AM EDT
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10792

Had they left the country or not? That was apparently the question aboard Air Canada flight 720 last Monday, when passengers were caught in a cross-border conundrum that left some dumbfounded and frustrated, and customs officers chuckling and shaking their heads.  The flight was slated to leave Toronto Pearson International Airport at 5:15 p.m. for New York's LaGuardia Airport, but it was cancelled after sitting on the tarmac for more than an hour. Having precleared U.S. customs, the passengers had technically entered the U.S. But they hadn't physically left Canada, let alone the runway.  Abbie Synan, a 31-year-old Pennsylvania travel blogger who was aboard the plane, said she knew something was amiss when passengers weren't immediately allowed to disembark after the cancellation. At about 7:45 p.m., the pilot made an announcement heralding what Ms. Synan called a turn toward the "ridiculous."  "He said U.S. customs and Canadian customs officers were in talks about whether we had technically left the country," she said Saturday. "They were arguing whether we had to – once we got redirected and put on another flight – go through customs a second time."  A spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said she did not have information about the co-ordination between her office and the Canada Border Services Agency, while a CBSA spokeswoman said the U.S. "requested" that travellers go back through U.S. customs before boarding a later flight to New York…

20.  Discrimination lawsuit filed by Muslims traveling to and from Canada moves forward
Leonard N. Fleming The Detroit News June 11, 2013 at 7:02 pm
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130611/METRO01/306110095#ixzz2VzcUKich

Detroit — A federal judge has decided to allow to move forward a discrimination case charging Muslims were unfairly detained while traveling to and from Canada.  A hearing was held late last month in front of U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn to address whether the lawsuit brought last year by the Council on American-Islamic Relations would move proceed. The suit was filed on behalf of several Muslims who said they were targeted.  CAIR … charged U.S. Border Patrol agents were unfairly detaining Muslims — sometimes for several hours — and asking intrusive questions about how many times a day they prayed as well as whether they pray in a mosque or who else prays there...   

21.  Woman busted at border with bra full of cash
Sarah Sacheli, The Windsor Star Jun 12, 2013
http://www.windsorstar.com/Woman+busted+border+with+full+cash/8512794/story.html

A woman believed to be from the Windsor area is in jail in Michigan for allegedly trying to smuggle tens of thousands of dollars across the border by padding her bra with cash.  Moura El-Asmar, 51, will have a bail hearing in Detroit today. She was arrested on the American side of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel Sunday after she and her 16-year-old daughter, Jacinta, were patted down during secondary inspection.  Both were found to have cash totalling $59,000 sewn into the linings of their bras.  The mother and daughter had a travel itinerary that showed they were catching a flight to Lebanon later that day to visit relatives.  According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, Moura El-Asmar told border officers she was carrying $3,300. When her purse was searched in secondary inspection, officers found more than $15,000.  Moura El-Asmar allegedly told the officers she hadn't counted the money and didn't realize she had so much.  The total amount was nearly $73,000…

22.  Border War: Security at the center of Senate immigration fight
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times Wednesday, June 12, 2013
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/12/border-security-center-senate-immigration-fight/

Border security is shaping up as the major fight on the immigration bill, and Sen. John Cornyn on Wednesday released a 134-page amendment that would impose stiffer requirements for the Homeland Security Department to meet.  Mr. Cornyn, Texas Republican, said the bill as written gives Homeland Security too much leeway to decide what to do, and doesn't actually require results, but only that money be spent. Instead, Mr. Cornyn calls for hard deadlines — including delaying any future path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless the targets are met… At root Mr. Cornyn's amendment poses the question of what's more important to guarantee in the bill: that the borders are secure, or that illegal immigrants get the chance at citizenship.  The deal struck by the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators who wrote the bill leans on the side of citizenship for illegal immigrants, while Mr. Cornyn says that risks repeating the past, such as the 1986 amnesty, when illegal immigrants were legalized but the government didn't follow through with stiffer security…

MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

23.  Does al-Qaeda have feared weapon?
Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press 2:13 p.m. EDT June 11, 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/11/mali-al-qaeda-weapon/2412261/

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class.  Except that the students in this case were al-Qaeda fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, with diagrams and photographs, on how to use a weapon that particularly concerns the United States: A surface-to-air missile capable of taking down a commercial airplane.  The 26-page document in Arabic, recovered by The Associated Press in a building that had been occupied by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu, strongly suggests the group now possesses the SA-7 surface-to-air missile, known to the Pentagon as the Grail, according to terrorism specialists. And it confirms that the al-Qaeda cell is actively training its fighters to use these weapons, also called man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS, which likely came from the arms depots of ex-Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi… The United States was so worried about this particular weapon ending up in the hands of terrorists that the State Department set up a task force to track and destroy it as far back as 2006. In the spring of 2011, before the fighting in Tripoli had even stopped, a U.S. team flew to Libya to secure Gadhafi's stockpile of thousands of heat-seeking, shoulder-fired missiles.  By the time they got there, many had already been looted…

ASIA / PACIFIC

24.  Attacker in Afghanistan Hid Bomb in His Body
By ROD NORDLAND New York Times June 9, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/world/asia/attacker-in-afghanistan-hid-bomb-in-his-body.html

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's spy chief, Asadullah Khalid, was taking no chances.  A man had crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan with important information he said he would only deliver personally to Mr. Khalid, who had just taken over as the head of the National Directorate of Security.  Mr. Khalid's aides took the visitor to an armored room in the basement of a safe house in Taimani, an upscale neighborhood in the capital city, for a security screening. They were no doubt mindful of what happened in September 2011 when a Taliban peace emissary was allowed to meet with a prominent Afghan peace envoy and then killed him with a bomb hidden in his turban.  Watching the man over closed-circuit television, they ordered him to strip naked, which he did. Satisfied, they let him get dressed and took him to see their boss upstairs.  Then he blew up. The suicide bomber killed only himself, but Mr. Khalid sustained severe abdominal wounds as well as injuries to his hands and arms.  Now, months after that attack, on Dec. 6, a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, Shafiqullah Tahiri, confirmed that the attacker had hidden the bomb inside his rectum…

EUROPE

25.  Muslim cleric sues MI5 over terror allegations
Former al-Qaeda suspect suing for £50,000 after three years under house arrest

By David Collins 10 Jun 2013 The Daily Mirror (UK)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-al-qaeda-suspect-suing-50000-1942332

A Muslim cleric who was a top terror suspect is claiming up to £50,000 compensation for house arrest.  He was put under a control order after MI5 told the Home Office of his alleged links to al-Qaeda.  The alleged hate preacher – then reckoned to be one of the greatest threats to national security – had his movements restricted for three years and was forbidden to use the internet or a mobile phone, or to study science at college.  He was also banned from contact with a ring of alleged extremists based around a British mosque. The High Court quashed the control order when the Iraqi cleric's lawyers asked to see more of the evidence against him than the ­security services would reveal.  The Mirror knows the identity of the man, referred to as AE, who lives in Britain with his wife and children, but an anonymity order stops us naming him.  We also know of three more former terror suspects who the courts have ruled may claim compensation for "illegal detention".  A court document detailing some of MI5's evidence says they believed AE had "extremist and criminal" contacts in the UK….

26.  Judge attacks 'tide' of online extremism as he jails terror group
A judge criticised the "tide of extremist material" freely available on the internet as he jailed a gang of Islamic fanatics who planned to bomb the English Defence League.
(Top row lt-rt) Anzal Hussain, Mohammed Hasseen, Omar Khan. (Bottom row Lt-Rt) Jewel Uddin, Mohammed Saud and Zohaib Ahmed Photo: PA
By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor 2:20PM BST 10 Jun 2013 The Daily Telegraph (London)
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10787
Nicholas Hilliard QC said such radicalising material was not difficult to find or share, which was an issue of "continuing significance".   He said its presence was partly to blame for the terrorist plot to attack an EDL rally with homemade bombs, guns and knives.   In the wake of the unconnected Woolwich atrocity, which saw British soldier Lee Rigby allegedly murdered by apparent Islamic extremists, internet companies and providers have been under increasing pressure to do more to curb extremist videos and material online.   Sentencing the Birmingham-based gang for up to 19 and a half years at the Old Bailey, Judge Hilliard said: "How was it that you became involved in a crime of this gravity?   "At least part of the answer to that question must come in the tide of apparently freely available extremist material in which most of you had immersed yourselves.   "In my view this aspect of the case has a continuing significance."…

27.  Spain Arrests Five Tunisians on Terrorism Promotion Charges

Asma Smadhi 12 June 2013
http://www.tunisia-live.net/2013/06/12/spain-arrests-five-tunisians-on-terrorism-promotion-charges/
Five Tunisians living in Barcelona have been arrested on charges of disseminating "materials with jihadi content." Image courtesy: Spanish Ministry of Interior's website.  Five Tunisian men living in Barcelona, Spain were arrested today on charges of disseminating "materials with jihadi content" through social networks, according to the Spanish Ministry of Interior's website.  The ministry posted pictures of the five Tunisian men: Kamel Boulehmi, Sabri Riahi, Sassi Ghrab, Hamed Ben Dhaou and Ali Ben Tahar Ghazouani.  The suspects are believed by Spanish authorities to have undergone "an intense process of self-radicalization" that led them to embrace the beliefs of "jihadist salafism."…

MINISTERIO DEL INTERIOR
La Policía detiene a cinco tunecinos en Barcelona por un delito de enaltecimiento del terrorismo
12 / 06 / 2013 Barcelona
http://www.investigativeproject.org/ext/10798

28.  Islamist terror suspect held in Italy
Moroccan in Brescia 'planned jihad'
June 12, 2013
http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/50126/Islamist-terror-suspect-held-in-Italy.html

 (By Denis Greenan). Rome, June 12 - Police in Brescia near Milan on Wednesday arrested the alleged head of the Italian branch of a Belgium-based Islamist organisation on suspicion of planning attacks in the northern Italian city. Anas El Abboubi, alias 'Anas Abdu Shakur', born in Morocco in 1992 and living with his family near Brescia since 1999, had allegedly scouted out two targets on Google Maps, Brescia's train station and its main military barracks, police said.  Police said they intercepted an email to foreign members of the organisation applauding the recent fatal attack on a British soldier in London and a copycat stabbing of a French soldier in Paris. "There can be no peace with us," he allegedly said.   The 20-year-old Moroccan reportedly told police he had "hated the West" since being "taunted as a member of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in America" and recently vowed to "die for Allah…"

COMMENT / ANALYSIS

29.  New Iran Crisis Looming
by Yaakov Lappin Gatestone Institute June 12, 2013 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3758/new-iran-crisis
Yaakov Lappin is a journalist for the Jerusalem Post, where he covers military and security affairs. On a daily basis, he provides breaking news coverage and analysis of Israeli and Middle Eastern regional developments. He is also author of The Virtual Caliphate; Exposing the Islamist State on the Internet, which explores al-Qaeda's online presence

30.  Defenders of NSA Surveillance Omit Most of Mumbai Plotter's Story
by Sebastian Rotella ProPublica, June 12, 2013, 1:36 p.m.
http://www.propublica.org/article/defenders-of-nsa-surveillance-web-omit-most-of-mumbai-plotters-story
IPT NOTE:  Court documents in the Headley case are posted at http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/354