Feds: Mass. man planned terror attacks on US malls

Image via Wikipedia

BOSTON (AP) -- A pharmacy college graduate made a defiant actualization in federal court Wednesday, hours afterwards actuality charged with conspiring with two added men in a alarm plot to annihilate two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq.

Authorities say the men's affairs - in which they used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for agitator camps - were thwarted in part back they could not find training and were clumsy to buy automated weapons, authorities said.

Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested Wednesday morning at his parents' home in Sudbury, an upscale suburb 20 miles west of Boston, and appeared for a brief hearing afterwards in the day. When ordered by the judge to stand to hear the charge adjoin him, he refused. He finally did stand - tossing his chair loudly to the floor - alone afterwards his ancestor urged him to do so.

"This really, absolutely is a show," his father, Ahmed Mehanna, said afterward. When asked if he believed the charges adjoin his son, he said, "No, definitely not."

Prosecutors say Tarek Mehanna worked with two men from 2001 to May 2008 on the cabal to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure" soldiers and two politicians who were associates of the executive branch but are no best in office. Authorities refused to identify the politicians.

Mehanna - a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, where his ancestor is a professor - conspired with Ahmad Abousamra, who authorities say is now in Syria, and an bearding man, who is allied in the investigation, according to authorities.

Th! e three men often discussed their admiration to participate in "violent jihad adjoin American interests" and talked about "their admiration to die on the battlefield," prosecutors said. But back they were clumsy to accompany alarm groups in Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan, they begin inspiration in the Washington-area sniper shootings and turned their interests to calm alarm pursuits while they plotted the attack on shopping malls, authorities said.

Mehanna had "multiple conversations about obtaining automated weapons and randomly cutting bodies in shopping malls," Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said. Prosecutors would not say which malls had been targeted.

Loucks said the men justified attacks because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the U.S. government and because they are "nonbelievers."

The mall plan was abandoned afterwards the men bootless to track down automated weapons, Loucks said.

Mehanna's attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., would not comment on the allegations. Mehanna is actuality captivated until his next court actualization on Oct. 30.

Court abstracts filed by the government say that in 2002 or 2003, Abousamra became frustrated afterwards repeatedly actuality rejected to accompany alarm groups in Pakistan - aboriginal Lashkar e Tayyiba, then the Taliban.

"Because Abousamra was an Arab (not Pakistani) the LeT affected would not acquire him, and because of Abousamra's abridgement of experience, the Taliban affected would not acquire him," FBI Special Agent Heidi Williams wrote in the affidavit.

Mehanna and Abousamra catholic to Yemen in 2004 in an attempt to accompany a agitator training camp.

Mehanna allegedly told a friend, the third abettor who is now allied with authorities, that their trip was a failure because they were clumsy to ability bodies affiliated with the camps. The men, who had allegedly! receive d tips on whom to accommodated from a being identified in court abstracts as "Individual A," said half the bodies they wanted to see were on "hajj," apropos to the crusade to Mecca in Islam, and half were in jail.

"They catholic all over the country looking for the bodies Individual A told them to meet," authorities allege in the criminal complaint.

Abousamra was rejected by a alarm accumulation back he approved training in Iraq because he was American, authorities said.

The men afterwards decided they were not activity to be able to get alarm training in Pakistan and "began exploring added options, including agitator acts in the United States," the affidavit said.

Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in November and charged with lying to the FBI in December 2006 back asked the abode of Daniel Maldonado, who is now confined a 10-year bastille sentence for training with al-Qaida to abolish the Somali government.

Mehanna told the FBI that Maldonado was living in Egypt and alive for a Web site. But authorities said Maldonado had alleged Mehanna from Somalia urging him to accompany him in "training for jihad."

Authorities said Wednesday that Mehanna and his conspirators had contacted Maldonado about accepting automated weapons for their planned mall attacks.

Carney, who represented Mehanna in the antecedent case, said at the time: "If this is the FBI's idea of a terrorist, they are application a net that is designed to bolt minnows instead of sharks."

After his arrest, Mehanna developed a cult following among Muslim civilian rights groups and Web sites that believed Mehanna was wrongly arrested. Web sites like the London-based cageprisoners.com, a animal rights accumulation that advocates for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and added detainees as part of the U.S. war on terror, asked supporters to write Meh! anna in bastille to keep up his spirits.

The site MuslimMatters.org asked supporters to pray for his release and published a letter they said Mehanna wrote from prison.

In the letter, Mehanna thanked supporters and said he was actuality treated well.

"I can alone think of the endless confined Muslims in the jails of tyrants about the globe and hope that if it is not Allah's Decree to free them in the near future, that they taste the sweetness that Allah has placed them in bastille to taste," Mehanna wrote.

He active the letter, "Your brother in the green jumpsuit."

Related articles by

• Largest US sting on drug cartel arrests 300-plus (criminal-defense-blog.blogspot.com)
• $2 million in fed, state aid for WA landslide fix (criminal-defense-blog.blogspot.com)
• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• E-mails: US discussed nabbing Polanski in Austria (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Polanski lawyers split on possible surrender to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Harold Sturgeon v. William Bratton (simpleunjustice.blogspot.com)
• More money might not speed salmon culvert fixes (criminal-defense-blog.blogspot.com)
• AP NewsBreak: Swiss defend Polanski tipoff to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• AP says artist made up story about Obama poster (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• U2, world's biggest band, adapts to changing times (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)

Afghan coalition government is an option, US says

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States would be receptive to a power-sharing arrangement between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his election challenger if they agreed to it, Obama administration officials said Wednesday.

Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah have settled on a Nov. 7 runoff following weeks of acrimony over Afghanistan's fraud-ridden national election. But both sides also are considering a coalition government that could either replace the runoff or follow it.

A State Department official said the U.S. would not be opposed to a power-sharing deal, depending on its legitimacy and how it was implemented. And President Barack Obama appeared to allude to the still-fluid discussions Wednesday.

"I think we're still in - finding out how this whole process in Afghanistan is going to unfold," Obama said in an interview on MSNBC.

One senior defense official said that a power-sharing deal at this point had equal odds of coming together or falling apart.

The administration is stressing that any such agreement is up to the Afghan government and the U.S. is not involved in any effort to forge or encourage it.

The U.S. wants a government that is legitimate in the eyes of Afghans and the international community, officials say, and at present that legitimacy appears clearest through the Afghan Constitution's requirement for a run-off vote.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe confidential discussions between the two governments.

"We don't have any view really on a power-sharing arrangement," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters on Wednesday. "! It would depend on the manner in which it was presented and carried out."

Officials also said Wednesday that Obama's pending decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan figured in the U.S. discussions with Karzai about how to resolve the political impasse.

Several officials stressed that the looming troop plan decision was not used overtly to force Karzai to concede on the election's contested first round, but one highly placed U.S. official in Afghanistan said the United States used Obama's deliberation over troop numbers as leverage.

That official spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not announced whether he will agree to a U.S. military request for thousands of additional forces.

Karzai and Abdullah have largely dismissed the idea of sharing power, but there have been reports of private horsetrading discussions before and since Tuesday's announcement that the country would hold a runoff election on Nov. 7.

The most important near-term goal for the U.S. was Karzai's acceptance of election commission results and his recognition that the impasse must be resolved, the defense official said.

The outcome has been in doubt since an August election badly marred by fraud. The United Nations says much of the vote-rigging and phantom balloting was done on Karzai's behalf.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., met repeatedly with Karzai leading up to Tuesday's announcement that a runoff would be held. Kerry gave Obama his accounting at the White House on Wednesday, and afterward told reporters that in Afghanistan he "did not discuss nor did I even attempt to put on the table the concept of a coalition."

It would be inappropriate to raise that possibility and would make it seem to Afghans that the United States was calling the shots, Kerry said. "We want to avoid that, always."

However, h! e acknow ledged the issue was being discussed in Kabul, and said there may have been talks between the Karzai and Abdullah camps on it "even today."

Obama is mulling how to shift strategy in the 8-year-old Afghanistan war, and the election mess in Afghanistan has played a big role in his intensive, weeks-long discussions with his war council.

"What we've said is that it is important to make sure that we understand the landscape and the partner that we're going to be dealing with," Obama told MSNBC. "Because our strategy in Afghanistan is not just dependent on military - forces. It's also dependent on how well we're doing with our civilian development efforts, how well we're doing in stemming corruption. So, this is part of a comprehensive strategy, it always has been. And our basic attitude is that we are going to take the time to get this right."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the decision about troops could come before the Nov. 7 runoff date.

"I don't know when the decision is going to be, so it's certainly possible," Gibbs said.

In his own interview, Obama added that even if the new strategy is formulated before the runoff "we may not announce it."

The White House has been saying that Obama's decision on troops is still weeks away. Obama leaves Nov. 11 for a long trip to Asia, and it has been expected he would make a decision before then.

A State Department official said Abdullah's camp had expressed some interest in a coalition or power-sharing deal, and that some Karzai aides, concerned about the results of a runoff, are willing to consider the idea despite the president's public repudiation of the idea.

That official said the U.S. would support any course that leads to the formation of a credible government in the eyes of the Afghan people.

That could include a c! oalition or other power-sharing arrangement that is either formed to eliminate the need for a second round or one that is created using the results of the runoff.

But there are no provisions for a coalition in the Afghan Constitution, and it is not clear how such a deal would work or remain enforceable.

Abdullah was not enthusiastic in public comments Wednesday in Kabul about a possible power-sharing arrangement, although as the second-place finisher in August he probably has the most to gain from such a deal.

"I think a coalition government is not a solution for Afghanistan's problems," Abdullah said, speaking in Dari. "The solution is to bring peace and good governance."

---

Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven, Ron Fournier and Julie Pace in Washington and Robert H. Reid in Kabul contributed to this report.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• Polanski lawyers split on possible surrender to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• AP NewsBreak: Swiss defend Polanski tipoff to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Birkhead: Prosecutors chastised testimony (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Suicide Blast in Iran Kills Top Revolutionary Guard Leaders (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• Brian "Ten Year Bomb" Tannebaum Above the LAW? (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)

THE INFLUENCE GAME: Firms resist new health rules

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite promises by President Barack Obama, more than 70 million Americans who have health insurance through their jobs could be open to higher costs or denials of some coverage under a leading overhaul plan making its way through Congress.

That's because large employers that directly assume the cost and risk of health coverage for their workers - including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Xerox - wouldn't be subject to the same rules and restrictions that would be imposed on health insurers in the measure approved this month by the Senate Finance Committee.

Large companies that offer their workers such coverage are lobbying hard to keep the status quo and be shielded from costly new regulations and requirements in the final health measure currently being negotiated behind closed doors by Obama's top aides and leading Democrats.

Not all Democrats want to go along.

"I want to make very clear that we cannot promise the American people that the insurance reforms they have been hearing so much about will benefit everyone, when the reality is that this bill leaves out" up to 55 percent, or 73 million people covered by such arrangements, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., when the Finance panel met recently to debate the measure. He failed to change the legislation to require those plans to obey the rules applying to insurers.

What the firms want is to be able to keep extending health insurance to their workers free of many insurance regulations, such as those governing what services must be covered by a policy and when a person can be denied coverage.

That means that despite Obama's pledges that people will no longe! r be sub ject to the most egregious aspects of today's health care system - being denied insurance because of a health condition, shouldering crippling out-of-pocket costs, or facing limits or high costs for basic services and treatments - a wide swath of workers wouldn't enjoy the same guarantees.

Several big business groups have banded together as the National Coalition on Benefits to preserve their special status, originally granted in the early 1970s for employers that take on the risks and costs associated with insuring their own workers. They've been bringing executives from companies large and small to Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers to drive home their slogan: "Don't erode what works to fix what's broken."

The companies say they need flexibility to continue covering workers, and provisions included in other drafts of the health overhaul that would eventually subject them to some of the same rules as insurance companies - like requiring them to offer specific benefits - would crush their ability to do so.

"The more the administrative burdens are, the more costly it becomes. These things tend to snowball and grow with time," said Martin Reiser, a lobbyist with Xerox who heads the coalition. "Our message is that the employment-based system is working, so don't try and fix us."

Wal-Mart is part of the group. So is Caterpillar, which is a member of the steering committee along with such other Fortune 100 firms as AT&T, Dow Chemical and Verizon Communications.

At issue are businesses that "self-insure" rather than purchasing coverage from an insurance company. Workers in such arrangements often believe they're covered by a health insurer since they have cards bearing the company's name, but in fact their employer shoulders the risks and pays claims, with the insurance company merely administering the plan.

The Associated Press is one of many lar! ge emplo yers that self-insures.

Firms that offer the coverage generally provide generous benefits, and they're already subject to some federal requirements. They must cover maternity care, mental health and breast cancer screening, for example, and can block someone from coverage because of a pre-existing health condition only under certain circumstances and for limited periods of time. While they're not legally required to cover everyone regardless of medical history or health status, most if not all of these employer-provided plans already do so, since their goal is to spread risk across a broad group.

Still, some lawmakers contend they should have to abide by the same strict requirements that health insurance companies would under the new system.

Rockefeller says he is worried that some "bad actors" looking to manage their costs would end up saddling their workers with more health expenses. For example, if a worker had cancer and reached his employer's coverage limit, the company could stop paying for treatment. Insurance companies, by contrast, would be barred from establishing such limits in the new system.

Employers already have been shifting more health care costs onto workers in recent years as those expenses have skyrocketed. In the current sluggish economic environment with unemployment high, some analysts expect the trend to intensify.

"An employer's ability to increase deductibles and copays and basically mess around with a source of compensation depends on the strength of the labor market," said Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefits Research Institute. "Right now, employers have it made, because unemployment is at 10 percent - they can do whatever they want."

If companies in this category get their way in the debate over the health overhaul, employees will remain subject to such changes and reductions.

"They're already ! vulnerab le in the sense that employers decide what to cover in the benefits plan, and should somebody want something covered that's not covered, there's basically no recourse. That won't change," Fronstin said.

Organizations representing the large employers - including the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Benefits Council - say their members aren't asking for special treatment.

"We're the group that's been doing the right thing year after year. If the end goal is to make sure that everyone has good insurance, we're the group that's doing that already," said Jeri Kubicki of the NAM.

The Self-Insurance Institute of America Inc., which represents smaller firms that provide coverage to their workers, dispatched some 300 executives to Capitol Hill for three days in the spring to try and persuade lawmakers to leave their plans alone in the push to expand coverage.

"We cut costs, the employees are happy, and this is the part of the health care system that's clearly working - you're wasting your time picking at this issue," said Cliff Roberti, the Institute's government relations director.

Roberti's group has poured more than $600,000 into lobbying Congress over the past two years, doubling its spending this year as it has intensified its push to resist new requirements. Large members of the National Coalition on Benefits have shelled out much more to influence Capitol Hill, including more than $20 million by the Business Roundtable, more than $9.5 million by the National Association of Manufacturers and $1.6 million by the American Benefits Council.

Related articles

• Dems scramble after warning from health insurers (popehat.blogspot.com)
• When To Say When (bennettandbennett.blogspot.com)
• When To Say When (popehat.blogspot.com)
• Birkhead: Prosecutors chastised testimony (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)

Afghan president's rival accepts Nov. 7 runoff

Image via Wikipedia

KABUL (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai's arch political rival agreed Wednesday to booty allotment in the Nov. 7 runoff election, cementing the stage for a high-stakes showdown in the face of Taliban threats and approaching winter snows.

Ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah made his animadversion to reporters one day after Karzai bowed to intense U.S. and all-embracing pressure and accustomed findings of a U.N.-backed panel that there had been massive artifice on his behalf in the Aug. 20 vote. Those findings showed Karzai bootless to win the 50 percent appropriate to avoid a runoff.

As allotment of efforts to avert cheating in the upcoming ballot, acclamation admiral acquire accursed 200 commune acclamation chiefs following complaints by candidates or observers about misconduct in their regions, the U.N. said aftermost week. It was not immediately known how many posts in absolute there were.

The country's electoral crisis has comes as the Washington debates its way forward in a war that entered its ninth year this month.

Holding the second annular of polling as Afghanistan enters its winter season poses serious challenges, both for cartoon voters and distributing ballots nationwide, which the U.N. said would begin Thursday. Abdullah said U.S. and Afghan forces also charge provide security to prevent a repeat of a beachcomber of Taliban attacks in August that dead dozens. In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of bodies who had voted.

Voters "are demography a risk in some parts of the country and they should be assured that that risk is worthwhile," said Abdullah, who said he called Karzai to acknowledge him for agreeing to hold the second-round! . "I wou ld like to see that our bodies are accommodating after an environment and atmosphere of fear and intimidation."

But he conceded security was far from perfect. "There are some circumstances that we cannot change in the coming 15 days, like areas which Taliban can abuse the people," Abdullah said.

Abdullah's acknowledgment sets the stage for an acclamation that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said would be a "huge challenge" to pull off after repeating the boundless artifice that marred the first-round balloting. The world anatomy has set aside added than $20 million to support the poll, according to the U.N. spokesman in Kabul, Aleem Siddique.

Finding replacements for acclamation workers implicated in artifice will be difficult. The government had to clutter this summer to recruit enough acclamation admiral and poll workers, abnormally at voting stations for women. It's unclear if they would be able to fill accessible posts with better-qualified people.

"It is hard to see how a second annular can be aboveboard unless women's security and access to the polls is dramatically improved," said Rachel Reid, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Kabul.

The Independent Election Commission, the Afghan anatomy that runs elections, charge also agree the account of polling stations. Much of the artifice in the August balloting came through ballots that arrived from alleged "ghost polling stations" that never opened because they were in alarming areas.

But closing the ambiguous stations would prevent voters in those areas from casting ballots. Kai Eide, the U.N. arch in Afghanistan, has said he worked to accessible the stations to avoid disenfranchising voters.

Abdullah said Wednesday that he is preparing a account of conditions that his aggregation wants acclamation organizers to commit to in order to acquire a fair vote. He said he ! would be accessible to negotiating the conditions, but would not acquire an acclamation organized on the aforementioned terms as the August vote.

"I will be flexible, but I will be serious about this because, after all, it is the accuracy and candor of the elections which will decide the outcome," he said.

Karzai's capitulation Tuesday was a relief to the Obama administration, which hopes the troubled nation has taken one footfall afterpiece toward a credible, accepted government necessary to win public support in the U.S. for the war and reverse Taliban gains. The U.S. military appear one of its troops was dead in a bomb attack in the south Tuesday, bringing the absolute number of Americans dead in October to 30.

Karzai announced the accommodation Tuesday after a day of intensive talks with U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Later, in a blast interview from Dubai with The Associated Press, Kerry declared the evolution in Karzai's thinking.

"President Karzai really deeply believes he had won the acclamation and ... that the all-embracing community was affectionate of conspiring to push for a different outcome," Kerry said. "He had bodies aural his government, bodies aural the acclamation agency who felt they were being insulted about putting together a faulty acclamation process."

"There were a lot of very abysmal feelings about Afghanistan's appropriate to run its election, its competency in active it," Kerry said.

--

Associated Press Writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

Related articles

• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• AP NewsBreak: Swiss defend Polanski tipoff to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Pakistan Troops Battle Militants in South Waziristan (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• AP says artist made up story about Obama poster (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Birkhead: Prosecutors chastised testimony (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Pierce County assessor named in 6 complaints (criminal-defense-blog.blogspot.com)
• Elvis' hair sells for $15K at Chicago auction (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)

Pot advocates: Looser guidelines leave questions

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A new Obama administration policy loosening guidelines on federal prosecution of medical marijuana on Monday signaled to users that they had less to fear from federal agents but still left their suppliers to contend with a tangled mesh of state laws and regulations.

The Justice Department told federal prosecutors that targeting people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws was not a good use of their time.

Marijuana advocates and patients called the memo an encouraging step forward from the strict anti-pot policies of the Bush administration. But many worried that the web of laws in the 14 states that allow medical marijuana use could still leave users and sellers vulnerable to prosecution.

"Now we've got to figure out what these words actually mean," said Wayne Justmann, a longtime pro-pot activist in San Francisco who campaigned for the 1996 ballot measure that made California the first state to legalize medical marijuana.

The state stands out for the inconsistent enforcement of medical marijuana laws. There are as many as 800 storefront pot shops in Los Angeles just as some dispensary owners are starting decades-long sentences in federal prison. Some cities are trying to clamp down on medical marijuana, while others offer permits and collect taxes on dispensaries just like any other small business.

The confusion makes some medical marijuana backers skeptical that anyone can feel secure they are clearly in compliance with state law and safe from federal prosecution.

"There's just too much disagreement about what the law is," said Dale Gieringer, director of the California chapter of T! he Natio nal Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The legality of almost anything is in doubt in California when it comes to dispensaries."

On Monday, for example, a state judge temporarily barred Los Angeles from enforcing a ban on medical marijuana clinics, ruling that the City Council failed to follow state law.

California also stands alone for the widespread presence of storefront dispensaries, but places to legally obtain pot are starting to sprout in other states. Colorado also has dispensaries, and Rhode Island and New Mexico are in the process of licensing providers.

Marijuana is effective in treating chronic pain and nausea, among other ailments, advocates say. In the past, federal agents have focused on busting dispensaries they said were using medical marijuana as a front for traditional drug-dealing and earning millions in the process. The Justice Department's latest memo suggests that approach will continue.

"We will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

The Justice Department memo emphasizes that prosecutors have wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue. In particular, the memo urges prosecutors to pursue marijuana cases which involve violence, the illegal use of firearms, selling pot to minors, money laundering or involvement in other crimes.

The states that allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, by the government's count.

But who exactly determines what compliance at the state level means is still a contentious question. California, for example, does not have an agency similar to its department of Alcoholic Bev! erage Co ntrol that focuses on marijuana. As a result, it has been up to the courts, city governments and local law enforcement to determine who is following the state law and who is not.

Just last week, attorneys for the city of Fresno, Calif. obtained a restraining order to force the closure of nine pot clubs for violating zoning laws that require them to comply with both state and federal laws, an essentially impossible requirement since the U.S. government classifies pot as an illegal narcotic.

Assistant City Attorney Doug Sloan said the Justice memo would not inhibit Fresno's ongoing effort to keep out medical marijuana dispensaries.

"The memo expressly says this doesn't legalize marijuana," Sloan said. "Until federal law changes, and right now marijuana is a Class 1 controlled substance, it will still be prohibited."

In Colorado, where voters allowed the use of small amounts of marijuana for medical reasons, there are no statewide rules regulating the increasing numbers of dispensaries and cities have taken to regulating them on their own. For the new federal policy to have any effect, lawmakers need to create the regulations, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said.

Patrons at a dispensary in San Francisco said they hoped the new policy would lift the stigma surrounding pot.

But they refused to give their names, saying they would not trust the federal government until marijuana was made completely legal.

---

Associated Press writers Greg Risling in Los Angeles, Tim Korte in Albuquerque and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.

---

On the Net:

Justice Department memo on medical marijuana: http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/192

!

Drug Enforcement Administration: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/

Related articles

• Polanski lawyers split on possible surrender to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• AP says artist made up story about Obama poster (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• AP NewsBreak: Swiss defend Polanski tipoff to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• Harold Sturgeon v. William Bratton (simpleunjustice.blogspot.com)
• Brian "Ten Year Bomb" Tannebaum Above the LAW? (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)
• Brian "Ten Year Bomb" Tannebaum from www.tannebaumweiss.com Fired By Client (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)

Pakistan cuts deal with anti-American militants

Image via Wikipedia

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's army, in the midst of a above new abhorrent adjoin Taliban militants, has addled deals to accumulate two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle adjoin the government, admiral said Monday.

The deals increase the affairs of an army victory adjoin Pakistan's enemy No. 1, but announce that the 3-day-old advance into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may accept beneath aftereffect than the U.S. wants on a spreading affront beyond the border in Afghanistan.

Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the accepted fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will additionally acquiesce the army to move through their own acreage unimpeded, giving the aggressive additional fronts from which to advance the Taliban.

In exchange, the army will affluence patrols and bombings in the acreage controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence admiral based in the arena told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because absolute their identities would accommodation their work.

An army spokesman described the deal as an "understanding" with the men that they would stay neutral. The agreements underscore Pakistan's past practice of targeting alone active groups that advance the government or its armament central Pakistan.

Western admiral say South Waziristan is additionally a above sanctuary and training ground for al-Qaida operatives. The mountain-studded arena has been under near-total active control for years and is advised a likely ambuscade place for Osama bin Laden.

The United States has responded cautiously to the antecedent Pakistani strategy, about welcoming the abhorrent but adage little about the specific best of targets.

"We accept a shared ambition here, and the shared ambition is angry violent extremism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday.

Kelly said he was blind of an agreement to accumulate some active factions out of the fight for now, but other U.S. admiral said the strategy is not surprising or necessarily worrisome.

Because the band loyal to Taliban baton Hakimullah Mehsud poses the best absolute threat to the Pakistani government and army, it is the logical aboriginal target, U.S. admiral briefed on the abhorrent said.

While a broad abhorrent that takes on all comers at once might be ideal, it is not practical, U.S. aggressive admiral said. They batten on condition of anonymity because the United States has no absolute role in the operations of another country.

U.S. admiral are watching the abhorrent closely with the hope that the Pakistani army will not cull aback afterwards the antecedent onslaught, and will eventually widen the abhorrent to cover other active factions and the added forbidding ground of North Waziristan.

The army's abhorrent in South Waziristan is pitting some 30,000 troops adjoin 11,500 militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella grouping of the country's main active factions blamed for 80 percent of the attacks in this nuclear-armed nation over the last three years.

The Taliban accept claimed responsibility for a billow in strikes over the past two weeks that has dead added than 170 people. The attacks accept included a 22-hour siege of the army headquarters and a bombing of the U.N. architecture in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani security analysts said the army had little best but to c! ut deals with rival Taliban factions to accept a chance of success. The attack will likely be far tougher than in the Swat Valley, a northwest arena where government troops overpowered insurgents this year. The army has conducted three antecedent offensives in South Waziristan back 2004, all unsuccessful.

"If the army opens up multiple fronts, they will be deluged," said Khalid Aziz, a above top administrator in the northwest. "It's like accepting a patient adversity from multiple diseases - you tend to treat those that are life-threatening first."

The army is setting its sights on Hakimullah Mehsud, who became baton of the Pakistani Taliban afterwards its above chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was dead in a U.S. missile strike in August.

Bahadur's breadth of influence lies in North Waziristan aloof beyond the border from South Waziristan, abutting acreage controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. He and his followers appear from a different tribe than the Mehsuds, who make up the majority of the Pakistani Taliban. Nazir controls breadth in South Waziristan.

Both acquiesce their acreage to be used by fighters who cantankerous into Afghanistan and are loyal to the Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban. Omar is believed to be living in Pakistan.

As the region's British colonial rulers did decades ago, the army is exploiting tribal rivalries to try to gain control in the region. Nazir is an old-time opponent of the Mehsud tribe, while Bahadur is reportedly angry over the appointment of Hakimullah as Taliban chief.

Being able to move unimpeded through their breadth gives the Pakistani army a massive boost in its accepted campaign.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but "there is an understanding with them that they will not baffle in this war."

He said the army "had to ta! lk to th e devil" to isolate its main target.

Asked whether the agreements were holding, he said: "Obviously, they are not coming to accomplishment or to help" the Pakistani Taliban.

The army said Monday that troops backed by aerial bombing were steadily advancing on three fronts into the arena and meeting annealed resistance in places. It said 78 militants and nine soldiers were dead over the last three days. Militants were not accessible for comment, but said Sunday they had the upper hand.

It is nearly absurd to verify apart what is going on in South Waziristan because the army is blocking admission to it and surrounding towns. There are no reporters traveling with the army, and few - if any - local journalists in the area.

Residents, some fleeing, appear fierce angry and said Pakistani armament were using arms and air attacks.

"There is lots of bombardment: on houses, on mosques, on Islamic boarding schools, on everything," said Fazlu Rehman as he accustomed in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, which lies abutting to South Waziristan.

As abounding as 150,000 civilians - possibly added - accept left South Waziristan in contempo months afterwards the army made clear it was planning an assault, with several thousand over the last few days. Authorities say that up to 200,000 bodies may flee in the coming weeks, but don't expect to accept to house them in camps because best accept relatives in the region.

In Dera Ismail Khan, government employees registered hundreds of bodies who lined up for cash handouts and other aid.

"The bearings in Waziristan is getting worse and worse every day," said Haji Sherzad Mehsud, one of the refugees.

---

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Anne Gearan and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

!

Related articles

• Pakistan Troops Battle Militants in South Waziristan (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• Suicide Blast in Iran Kills Top Revolutionary Guard Leaders (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• Polanski lawyers split on possible surrender to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Brian "Ten Year Bomb" Tannebaum Above the LAW? (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)
• Brian "Ten Year Bomb" Tannebaum from www.tannebaumweiss.com Fired By Client (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)
• AP NewsBreak: Swiss defend Polanski tipoff to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Brian Lawler is Brian Tannebaum? (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)
• Harold Sturgeon v. William Bratton (simpleunjustice.blogspot.com)
• MarkWBennett - BTannebaum Twitter News (fresnocriminallawyer.benninghofflaw.com)

Iran bombing kills 5 Revolutionary Guard leaders

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and at least 37 others Sunday near the Pakistani border in the heartland of a potentially escalating Sunni insurgency.

The attack - which also left dozens wounded - was the most high-profile strike against security forces in an outlaw region of armed tribal groups, drug smugglers and Sunni rebels known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised sharp retaliation. But a sweeping offensive by authorities is unlikely.

Iranian officials have been reluctant to open full-scale military operations in the southeastern border zone, fearing it could become a hotspot for sectarian violence with the potential to draw in al-Qaida and Sunni militants from nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The region's top prosecutor, Mohammad Marzieh, was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying Jundallah claimed responsibility for the blast in the Pishin district near the Pakistani border.

There was no immediate statement directly from the group, which has carried out sporadic kidnappings and attacks in recent years - including targeting the Revolutionary Guard - to press their claims of persecution in the Shiite government and officials.

In May, Jundallah said it sent a suicide bomber into a Shiite mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, killing 25 worshippers.

The latest attack, however, would mark the group's highest-level target. It also raised questions about how the attacker breached security around such a top delegation from the Revolutionary Guard - the country's strongest military force, w! hich is directly linked to the ruling clerics under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the victims included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground forces, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The others killed were Guard members or tribal leaders, it said.

The agency quoted the provincial forensics director, Abbas Amian, as saying 42 bodies had been handed over to his department.

More than two dozen others were wounded, state radio reported.

The commanders were entering a sports complex to meet tribal leaders to discuss Sunni-Shiite cooperation when the attacker detonated a belt fitted with explosives, IRNA said.

Ahmadinejad - who counts on support from the Revolutionary Guard - vowed to strike back.

"The criminals will soon get the response for their inhuman crimes," IRNA quoted him as saying.

But controlling the scrubland and arid hills along the southeastern borders is a huge challenge that has been out of Iran's reach.

Drug traffickers ferry opium and other narcotics through the cross-border badlands - a key source of income for the Taliban in Afghanistan and the ethnic Baluchi tribes that straddle the three-nation region and include members of Jundallah. Iran has pleaded for more international help to cut off the drug routes and criminal gangs.

Iran also has accused Jundallah of receiving support from al-Qaida and the Taliban, though some analysts who have studied the group dispute such a link.

"There is no evidence of outside help for Jundallah from wider militant networks," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "It's a homegrown group that moves across the borders within fel! low Balu chi tribes. It is very hard to control the border."

In an attempt to boost security in the region, Iran in April put the Revolutionary Guard directly in control of the Sistan-Baluchistan Province in Iran's southeastern corner.

The 120,000-strong Guard also controls Iran's missile program, guards its nuclear facilities and has its own ground, naval and air units.

The Revolutionary Guard led the blanket crackdown on dissident after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. But the attack Sunday appeared to have no link to the political showdowns.

State television accused Britain of supporting Jundallah, without providing any evidence.

The Revolutionary Guard blamed the attack on what it called the "global arrogance," a reference to the United States.

On the eve of talks about Tehran's nuclear program, Washington was quick to react.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States condemned what he called an "act of terrorism." Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are "completely false," he said.

Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, told lawmakers that the bombing was aimed at further destabilizing the uneasy border region with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province," Larijani said.

Iranian officials summoned Pakistan's charge d'affairs in Tehran to lodge allegations that "terrorists" use bases in Pakistan to carry out attacks against Iran, IRNA reported.

In Quetta, Pakistan, police official Akbar Sanjrani said Iran had closed at least one border crossing. He said Iranian authorities did not give a reason for blocking the route, but Sanjrani speculated it was related to the bombing.

Pakistan's Fore! ign Offi ce spokesman, Abdul Basit, also rejected Iranian claims that Jundallah's leader is in Pakistan.

"We are struggling to eradicate the menace of terrorism," Basit told Geo TV.

The group also has claimed responsibility for a February 2007 car bombing that killed 11 members of the Revolutionary Guard near Zahedan.

Despite Iran's claims of an al-Qaida link, Chris Zambelis, a Washington-based risk management consultant who has studied Jundallah, said in a recent article that there is no evidence al-Qaida is supporting the group. He does note, however, that the group has begun to use the kinds of suicide bombings associated with the global terror network.

"Jundallah's contacts with the Taliban are most likely based on jointly profiting from the illicit trade and smuggling as opposed to ideology," Zambelis wrote in the July issue of West Point's CTC Sentinel.

---

Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Related articles

• Suicide Blast in Iran Kills Top Revolutionary Guard Leaders (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• Taliban better financed than al-Qaida (popehat.blogspot.com)
• Polanski lawyers split on possible surrender to US (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Blast in Pakistani City of Peshawar Kills 11 (benninghofflaw.blogspot.com)
• What US Laws say about Drug Trafficking (popehat.blogspot.com)
• $2 million in fed, state aid for WA landslide fix (criminal-defense-blog.blogspot.com)

Sheriff: Boy-in-balloon was hoax, charges expected

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) -- The adventure that a little boy had floated abroad in a giant helium airship was a hoax affected to acreage a reality television show, authorities said Sunday, and the boy's parents will likely face abomination charges.

The achievement two weeks in the planning was a marketing artifice by Richard and Mayumi Heene, who met in acting academy in Hollywood and accept appeared on the ABC reality appearance "Wife Swap," Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said. The Heenes accept reportedly been alive on a reality TV accord in Los Angeles.

Investigators are examining the possibility of added conspirators, "including the possibility that even some of the media outlets may accept had some knowledge about this," Alderden said.

Documents appearance that a media aperture has agreed to pay money to the Heenes with regard to the airship incident, Alderden said. He didn't name the media outlet, but said it was a appearance that blurs "the line between ball and news." It wasn't clear whether the accord was active before or after the alleged hoax, or whether that media aperture was a accessible conspirator.

Alderden did not name an aperture or provide any details.

"Let's call it (my statement) short of speculation that a media aperture was in on the hoax, but let's not discount the possibility," he said.

Six-year-old Falcon Heene may not accept even been hiding in the rafters of the family's barn during the intense five-hour chase for him Thursday, Alderden said.

"For all we apperceive he may accept been two blocks down the road playing on the swing in the city park," the sheriff said.

Alderden additionally said board appetite to talk to Robert Thomas, a Denver man who claimed Heene had told him he was planning a media achievement to promote a proposed reality show. Thomas, a self-described researcher, awash his adventure to the Web armpit Gawker.com, which billed it with the headline: "Exclusive: I Helped Richard Heene Plan a Balloon Hoax."

Web armpit editor-in-chief Gabriel Snyder confirmed that the armpit paid Thomas for his adventure but declined to say how much it paid him. In an e-mail Sunday to The Associated Press, Snyder said editors there had not contacted the Heene ancestors or offered them money for their story, referring to Alderden's advertence to a accord being struck by a media outlet.

"No, that wasn't us," Snyder said.

Snyder said Thomas, 25, was planning to meet with board Sunday night, admitting sheriff's admiral didn't acknowledgment messages seeking confirmation.

Messages left for Thomas by the AP were additionally not returned.

In a statement, Gawker.com declared how Thomas told them the hoax was part of Heene's plan to boutique a proposed reality series billed as "Mythbusters-meets-mad scientist." Thomas told the armpit that the plan called for releasing a flying-saucer shaped airship to accumulate absorption for the Heene family, the proposed appearance and UFOs.

Thomas said in his Gawker.com adventure that the plan he knew about did not absorb the Heenes' children.

Thursday's achievement temporarily shut down Denver International Airport and caused the National Guard to scramble two helicopters in an attempt to rescue the boy, who was believed to be central the flying-saucer shaped homemade airship that hurtled added than 50 miles beyond two counties.

The ball played out on live television to millions of viewers worldwide. When the airship landed with! out the boy in it, admiral anticipation he had fallen out and began grim chase for his body.

In fact, the airship - which was held calm with aqueduct tape - would not accept been able to barrage with the 37-pound-boy inside, Colorado State University physics assistant Brian Jones has determined.

The parents weren't beneath arrest, the sheriff said. He said he accepted to recommend accuse of conspiracy, contributing to the crime of a minor, making a false address to authorities and attempting to influence a public servant. Federal accuse were additionally possible.

The most serious accuse are felonies and carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Alderden said they would be seeking amends for the costs, admitting he didn't accept an estimate.

The cost for just the two aggressive helicopters was about $14,500.

Richard and Mayumi Heene were arcade for snacks at Wal-Mart with their three sons as Alderden told reporters that the whole thing was a hoax.

Richard Heene told The Associated Press he was "seeking counsel."

"This thing has become so convoluted," Heene said as tears welled in his eyes. He said his wife was captivation calm bigger than he was.

The couple's attorney, David Lane, issued a account after Sunday saying the Heenes were willing to voluntarily about-face themselves in to face charges. Lane said he advised the ancestors against making public statements.

The sheriff said all three of the Heenes' sons knew of the hoax, but likely won't face accuse because of their ages. The oldest son is 10. One of the boys told board he saw his brother get in the balloon's box before it launched.

Heene, 48, a storm chaser and inventor, has declared himself as an amateur scientist, but Alderden said Heene has only a high academy education! . He mos t recently earned a living by laying tile, the sheriff said.

"He may be nutty, but he's not a professor," Alderden said.

Alderden said that during the drama, the family's accomplishments led them to accept the adventure was genuine. But during an interview on CNN Thursday night, Alderden said board had an "aha" moment back Falcon turned to his dad and said what articulate like "you had said we did this for a show" back asked why he didn't appear out of his hiding place.

On Friday, Falcon got ailing during two abstracted TV interviews back asked again why he hid.

Alderden said they didn't question the ancestors Friday because they wanted to accumulate the family's cooperation by maintaining the appearance that they believed their story. Richard Heene was asked to stop by the sheriff's appointment beneath the pretext that he needed to aces up his balloon, and was questioned already he got there.

With Heene gone, added board went to the house. Alderden said they were looking for computers, e-mails, phone annal and financial records.

Records appearance that police accept responded to the abode at least twice in the past year, including a accessible domestic abandon incident in February. No accuse were filed.

Alderden said admiral approved Saturday to actuate Mayumi Heene, 45, to go to a safe house, but she declined.

"We talked to her at breadth about domestic violence, about her safety, about her children's safety," the sheriff said. "We accept a concern, but we didn't accept enough that would allow us or child careful casework to physically take the kids from that environment."

Alderden said the children were still with the parents Sunday and that child careful casework had been contacted to investigate the children's well-being. On "Wife Swap," Heene was portrayed as erratic, ! at one p oint throwing a glass of milk on a participant on the program.

"Clearly, from all indications, Mr. Heene has somewhat of a temper," Alderden said.

As to the hoax that could end up with one or both in prison:

"It certainly got big and whether anybody accomplished it that it would get the type of international media attention, I suspect this is probably beyond what they thought," Alderden said.

The producers of "Wife Swap" in a account said they had been alive with the ancestors on developing a appearance but weren't anymore. It was unclear whether that proposed appearance was the same one Robert Thomas said Heene was alive on.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Family at center of balloon saga under scrutiny (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Colorado sheriff: Runaway balloon saga was hoax (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Balloon Boy Hoax: Sheriff Says Charges Will Be Filed For 'Publicity Stunt' (huffingtonpost.com)
• David Martin, Willinghamâs Trial Lawyer, Speaks Up (bennettandbennett.blogspot.com)
• Showbiz and Marital Failure - THISDAY (catch-infidelity.blogspot.com)
• Good premise, poor execution - Buffalo News (miamicrimelaw.blogspot.com)
• When To Say When (bennettandbennett.blogspot.com)