Calderon: Mexico Casino Fire Deaths "Act Of Terrorism"

www.washingtonpost.com

MEXICO CITY — Calling a deadly fire at a casino “an act of terrorism,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his top law enforcement officials vowed Friday to capture the gangsters responsible for the deaths of 52 people who perished in a fire set by gunmen at the Casino Royale in Monterrey.

Security cameras captured images of a dozen assailants pulling up in four vehicles to the front doors of the casino, spilling out of their trucks and cars in mid-afternoon and entering the entertainment complex, which offers bingo and betting on sports and horse racing.

As casino customers are seen quickly rushing from the front doors, some of the gunmen stand watching by their cars. They did not appear to wearing masks, and with computer enhancements, the license plates numbers of their vehicles would likely be readable.

Within two minutes and 30 seconds of their arrival, black smoke and flames appear in the security video and the gunmen are seen rapidly leaving and driving away.

The Casino Royale is the third such establishment targeted this month in northern Mexico. On Wednesday night, gunmen attacked the Caliente Casino in Saltillo, following a similar attack on Aug. 15 against the Sun City casino there.

The industrial and business-oriented city of Monterrey was previously free from Mexico’s crime and murder wave, but in the past year the city has seen its homicide rates soar, as organized crime and drug gangs attack each other and police, and prey upon businesses in extortion rackets.

The governor of the state of Nuevo León in northern Mexico said at a press conference Friday morning the Monterrey fire was ignited by "a group of people linked to organized crime," but did not specify what group or if there were any links to Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations.

Gov. Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz put the official death toll at 52 and said that most of the victims appeared to have died of smoke inhalation and burns from the fire — and not from gunshots. The governor said that 13 eyewitnesses to the attack had been interviewed.

Wearing a black suit and tie as a sign of mourning, President Calderon said Friday morning that the country was “facing real terrorists who know no limits.

"We have to fight even more forcefully. They can not be allowed to own our streets, our cities," Calderon said.

In his remarks, Calderon also blamed the United States. The Mexican president called on Congress, the U.S. government and citizens to reflect on the tragedy and see that the insatiable consumption of drugs “involving millions and millions of Americans” fueled the criminal gangs in Mexico with billions of dollars in profits.

"This drug consumption should be reduced drastically, and if that is not possible, the United States must work at least to prevent the transfer of the dollars to Mexico," Calderon said.

Calderon, however, did not identify what drug smuggling cartel might have been involved in the fire.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Some witnesses reported that the attackers threw grenades into the Casino Royale in Monterrey, while others said gasoline bombs started the fire.

The flames trapped customers and staff in the building. A survivor told the Mexico City newspaper Reforma that many of the dead were crushed to death in a stampede for the emergency exits.

Video: Marine Corps Times interviews Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient

Marine Corps Times interviews Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient

GREENSBURG, Ky. — It has been a long journey.

Dakota Meyer will receive the Medal of Honor on Sept. 15, two years after he braved enemy fire multiple times in Afghanistan in attempt to save fellow U.S. service members in Ganjgal, Afghanistan. He made it out of the valley alive, and they didn’t. It’s a tough situation to digest.

Marine Corps Times readers know the story well by now — various aspects of it have led me to write three cover stories since early last year, including a profile on Meyer.

With the White House announcement now official, however, I made my way down to Meyer’s hometown this week with staff photographer Chris Maddaloni.

We met him at his grandparents’ farm Tuesday in this rural town of 2,500 people, sitting in their living room to discuss the battle, its aftermath and how he handles all the attention. An excerpt of the interview is available here:

We’ll have a lot more in next week’s print edition of Marine Corps Times, but I thought it was worth sharing some personal observations here.

Meyer has taken the time to do at least 20 interviews since the White House’s announcement — a heavy workload that must be both monotonous and exhausting. Still, he sits dutifully, answering questions from reporters — some of whom clearly haven’t done their research and ask dumb questions, based on a quick Google search.

Meyer still loves to crack jokes, and clearly has a great relationship with his grandparents, Dwight and Jean Meyer. Married 58 years, they’re planning to fly to Washington for the ceremony. They proudly shared their recollection of the Korean War, which Dwight served in as a Marine. His haircut is still squared away, snow-white hair and all.

Anti-Terror Program 'Kept New York Safe,' - NYPD

www.nydailynews.com

The NYPD and CIA sent undercover agents to watch mosques, bookstores and cafés in Muslim neighborhoods to sniff out terror plots - a tactic cops say helped them thwart seven planned attacks.

The Daily News largely confirmed the details of an Associated Press report revealing the existence of what it called the NYPD's Demographic Unit, which uses "mosque crawlers" to gather information.

Critics charge the operation to gather intel on the city's imams, cabbies and street-meat sellers blurs the line between foreign and domestic spying and stretches legal limits on racial profiling.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne blasted the AP story, saying it was "marked by outright fiction," and insisting there's no such thing as "mosque crawlers."

Browne said cops did nothing wrong in their efforts to combat terrorism - and foiled some major plots in the process.

"We're going to do all we reasonably can to keep New York safe," he said. "And we uphold the Constitution in doing so."

He said there have been at least 13 major plots against New York since 9/11 and pointed to seven cases in which information from the NYPD's Intelligence Unit helped nab would-be terrorists.

"We commit over a thousand officers to the fight every day to stop terrorists who've demonstrated an undiminished appetite to come back and kill more New Yorkers," Browne said.

"We don't apologize for it."

City Councilman Peter Vallone, head of the Public Safety Committee, was even more blunt.

"Maybe they should infiltrate a few sewing clubs, just to be politically correct?" he asked rhetorically. "Clearly, they are going where they reasonably believe terrorist activity could be."

One source said the department has deep undercovers who live as members of different communities to keep a constant watch for danger.

Top cop taps CIA veteran

The counterrorism operation was started by CIA veteran David Cohen, who was tapped in 2002 by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who thought the 9/11 attacks proved the NYPD could no longer rely on the feds to protect the city.

Cohen and another agency veteran, Larry Sanchez, created an operation inside the NYPD with spies and analysts and an unprecedented international scope. The AP said Sanchez stayed on the CIA payroll while maintaining offices at Police Headquarters and the CIA station in New York.

The revelations of surveillance of New York's Muslim community reignited the verbal battle about freedom versus security, one that has been smoldering since 9/11.

"The question we should all have is whether the NYPD is operating a domestic CIA - but without the oversight or regulations that hold it in check," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"You call the U.S. a free country and you do this?" asked Shahid Malick, 28, a Pakistani cabbie from Bay Ridge.

"From now on, I can't feel safe in my own mosque because someone might be sitting behind me spying."

But Saleem Akbar, 58, a fabric store owner who is the unofficial mayor of Midwood's large Pakistani community, said the cops are trying to protect everyone in the city.

"They are doing it for your children and my children. I don't mind even if they are doing it secretly. If someone is hatching a conspiracy, they are hiding it from me, too. I want them found out," Akbar said.

"U.S. security comes first. I don't care if they are doing it in mosques. I don't care if they are doing it in airports. I'm glad they are doing it."

The AP said arrests for even minor crimes could become leverage to persuade someone to become an informant and young Middle Eastern men are singled out for extra questioning.

Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he's confident the department is abiding by the Constitution.

"I don't see civil rights abuses," King said.

"Everyone was critical of law enforcement after 9/11 for not thinking out of the box. The NYPD is getting the job done."

One source familiar with the NYPD counterterror operations said the only way to root out jihadists is to hang out where they might be.

"If you're looking for the IRA, you don't go to Katz's Deli  - you go to an Irish pub," the source said.

The cases against Shahawar Matin Siraj, who was found guilty in 2006 of plotting to bomb the subway, and the two men arrested at Kennedy Airport on their way to join terrorists in Somalia, were developed in such a manner.

NYPD Intelligence Unit Seen Pushing Rights Limits

by NPR Staff

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Police Department has become one of America's most aggressive gatherers of domestic intelligence. Its intelligence unit, directed by a retired CIA veteran, dispatches undercover officers to keep tabs on ethnic neighborhoods — sometimes in areas far outside their jurisdiction.

The existence of the Intelligence Division & Counter-Terrorism Bureau has been public knowledge, but many of its operations were kept secret. An investigation by the Associated Press has uncovered new details about how the unit, led by Deputy Commissioner David Cohen, works.

"The lesson of 9/11 to the NYPD was, 'We can't just can't sit back and let the federal government tell us how to keep us safe or what intelligence we need to know or who might be after us,'" AP reporter Matt Apuzzo tells Morning Edition guest host David Greene. "We need to take responsibility for this ourselves, and we're going to go to wherever we need to go to get this information."



Interview Highlights: David Greene talks with the AP's Matt Apuzzo:


On intelligence operations

"What's new here is just how close a relationship the NYPD has with the Central Intelligence Agency. And because of that relationship, the NYPD has been allowed to expand its intelligence gathering in ways that go far beyond what any other police department in the country can do."


On 'rakers' and 'crawlers'

"They have teams of undercover officers, they're known as rakers, who basically just troll ethnic neighborhoods. One officer described it as mapping the human terrain of New York. They also have informants known as mosque crawlers, who as the name implies, just sort of hang out in mosques, being the eyes and ears of the police department in mosques.


On legality

"If the FBI had an informant in a mosque, without information about a crime being committed, that would seem to violate the federal privacy act, which says the federal government can't collect or maintain information specifically related to First Amendment activities" without specific cause.


On a lack of scrutiny

"The New York Police Department is our largest police department in the country. They get a lot of money from the federal government. There's not a lot of discussion about whether New Yorkers have given up any privacy or civil liberties in exchange for security. And because there's not a lot of oversight, I don't think New Yorkers actually know whether they've given up privacy and liberty in exchange for security."


On public sentiment

"Almost every person we interviewed said, 'Look, this is exactly what you need. This is what has to happen to keep New York safe. And if we don't do it, we're not doing our jobs. And New Yorkers won't accept another attack. They will accept this, because it's what has to be done."


On tactics

"They're being creative in ways that come right up against the line of what the federal government or other police departments either can do, or feel comfortable doing."

SAS troopers help co-ordinate rebel attacks in Libya

The serving soldiers have joined British special forces and have been acting as forward air controllers and advising on tactics

www.guardian.co.uk

The Guardian has learned that a number of serving British special forces soldiers, as well as former SAS troopers, are advising and training rebel forces, although their presence is officially denied.

The Guardian has previously reported the presence of former British special forces troops, now employed by private security companies and funded by a number of sources, including Qatar. They have been joined by a number of serving SAS soldiers.

They have been acting as forward air controllers – directing pilots to targets – and communicating with Nato operational commanders. They have also been advising rebels on tactics, a task they have not found easy.

For the SAS it is a return to old stamping grounds. In one of their first successful missions in the second world war, they attacked airfields inLibya, destroying 60 aircraft. SAS battle honours include Tobruk in 1941 and a raid on Benghazi in 1942.

They returned to Libya in February this year, even before the UN mandate urging states to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces. Shortly afterwards, a group of SAS soldiers were seized, though quickly released, by nervous rebels south of Benghazi when their Chinook helicopter landed two MI6 officers with communications equipment.

SAS soldiers later advised Misrata-based rebel forces who secured the port city and helped to pass on details of the locations of Gaddafi's forces to British commanders in the UK and the Naples headquarters of Canadian commander of Nato forces, Lt Gen Charles Bouchard.

In what is hoped to be the endgame in the Libyan conflict and the fight to oust Gaddafi, a number of SAS soldiers are now advising the rebels as they storm the capital, Tripoli.

France is understood to have deployed special forces in Libya and Qatari and Jordanian special forces are believed to have also played a role.

UK riots: More than 1,000 being hauled before courts

London quieter overnight but looting and fires in 

Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere as police tackle marauding gangs

www.guardian.co.uk

Extra courts are being set up to deal with criminal charges from four nights of looting and rioting in English cities.More than 1,000 people have been arrested in centres including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol and Leicester.

The Metropolitan police arrested 81 people on Tuesday night in the capital, where it was much quieter with 16,000 police officers from forces around the country on the streets.

Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham bore the brunt of the latest rioting and looting, with trouble also erupting in Liverpool, Salford, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Bristol and Gloucester.In Birmingham a murder inquiry is under way after three British Asian men were killed by a car in a suspected hit-and-run. Police have not established whether there was any direct link to disturbances in the city apart from the sheer numbers on the streets.

In Manchester police warned looters: "We are coming for you" and in London a senior police officer said vigilante groups set up to protect shops and homes were hampering police operations.

There were reports of people seeking to prevent looting in suburbs including Enfield and Eltham, where there were supporters of the English Defence League present, and Southall, where Sikhs protected their temple.The Met's deputy assistant commissioner Steve Kavanagh told Sky News: "These are small pockets of people. They're frustrated, they're angry and that's totally understandable. But the support that we need is to allow those officers to prevent looting and prevent crime. The sadness of those images through the night and the night before last will affect everyone.

"Ironically, when you see those images with no police available, the police are now having to go and do the vigilantes as well as the other problems that they've got. That needs to stop."Downing Street slapped down an appeal from the London mayor, Boris Johnson, to think again about cutting police numbers following the urban unrest. It said cuts had to be made to deal with the UK's deficit.

David Cameron, the prime minister, chaired another meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee on Wednesday to discuss the continuing unrest.

In Manchester groups of young people repeatedly evaded police from the late afternoon onwards, breaking into upmarket shops and setting a branch of the Miss Selfridge clothing chain on fire. As evening fell up to 200 youths raided an off-licence and other shops in the main shopping precinct of Salford, a couple of miles to the west.

The violence ebbed in Manchester city centre around midnight and police regained control.Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester police criticised "unprecendented" criminality and on Wednesday warned: "Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on film." "We are coming for you from today, and no matter how long it takes we will arrest those people responsible."

Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor in the north-west of England, said: "Prosecutors have been working with police to prepare for just such an outcome, and charging those who committed crimes during the disorder last night is our top priority."

We have arranged for increased capacity in the courts to deal with these cases and will seek remands in custody wherever appropriate."

We are also advising on the charging of those caught in possession of property that was stolen. Anyone who handles stolen property is just as guilty of an offence as those who steal in the first place.

"Greater Manchester police said they had arrested more than 110 people overnight, while West Midlands police arrested 109 people following scenes of disorder in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich.Shops including a branch of Marks & Spencer and a hi-fi store were again targeted in Birmingham with reports of a gun being fired, while there were reports of large groups of people in West Bromwich town centre and vehicles being set on fire.

Police in Wolverhampton responded to reports of a large group of people in the city centre after shops were damaged.

In Nottingham a police station and college were firebombed with more than 90 people arrested, while in Leicester officers arrested 13 people following disturbances in the city centre.

Thames Valley police made 15 arrests linked to trouble overnight, including five people who were held in Milton Keynes for alleged criminal damage and public order offences.

The Metropolitan police said 81 arrests were made across the capital overnight, including 20 men who were detained in Harlesden.Scotland Yard confirmed a fire involving a number of vehicles broke out on an industrial estate in Tottenham and its cause was being treated as unexplained.The force said a 21-year-old man had been arrested in connection with a large fire that destroyed a furniture store in Croydon on Monday.

On Wednesday night, businesses and shops across London had shut down early in a bid to avoid attack from the gangs of youths who ransacked buildings across the city over the previous days.

There was trouble in the south-west of England with police coming under attack from gangs of youths. Mounted officers were sent to combat groups of youths, some with their faces covered, who were smashing shop windows in Gloucester city centre overnight, while a fire broke out in the Brunswick area. Gloucestershire police said nine arrests were made.In Bristol police arrested 19 people following a second night of trouble.

There were small outbreaks of disorder reported by Thames Valley police in Reading, Oxford and Milton Keynes, while 200 missile-throwing youths gathered in the south Liverpool area of Toxteth, causing disorder and damage, according to Merseyside police. The force said 35 arrests were made.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested since the violence erupted in London on Saturday night – 768 of them in the capital alone.Parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday to discuss the situation.

London Riots: Violence Escalates Across London

www.telegraph.co.uk

Police last night appeared to be losing the battle to take back control of London’s streets as violence, rioting and looting escalated across the capital.

As disturbances entered a third day, the scale of civil disobedience reached unprecedented levels, with incidents in all corners of the capital.
The violence, which began in Tottenham, north London on Saturday spread south and east to Brixton, Streatham, Walthamstow, Edmonton, Enfield, Oxford Circus and Islington on Sunday.
By last night further outbreaks of disorder involving hundreds of hooded yobs had taken place in Hackney, Clapton, East Ham, Lewisham and Clapham Junction. Property and shops were set on fire in Peckham and Croydon.
David Cameron last night announced he would cut short his family holiday in Italy to return to deal with the crisis.
Earlier, Boris Johnson, the London mayor, was forced into an embarrassing climbdown when he announced that he too was coming back hours after his deputy said that to do so would be to reward the rioters.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, who also cut short her holiday, refused to be drawn when asked if Britain’s streets were becoming “lawless”.
As violent confrontations, organised using mobile phone instant messaging systems, spread, Birmingham became the first city outside London to experience trouble with rioters smashing city centre shop windows.

The first wave of attacks in the capital took place in broad daylight as the evening rush hour began. In some of the worst scenes yesterday, youths clashed with riot officers on Mare Street in Hackney, east London, throwing rocks and missiles. One police officer said looted machetes had been used to try to attack officers.
Police were pelted with fireworks and petrol bombs, patrol cars were smashed while other vehicles and buildings were set alight.
Riot officers, whose numbers had been quadrupled in anticipation of widespread violence, seemed largely powerless to intervene as they were outnumbered.
Other areas including Barking, Brent Cross, Palmers Green, Kilburn and Shepherds Bush were expecting violence as gangs of youths congregated. Shops across the capital closed early amid fears that the riots would spread further. Teams of riot officers were on standby in every borough in London.
West Midlands Police confirmed that extra officers were on patrol after the force became aware of a message circulated on social networking sites suggesting that Birmingham city centre would be targeted.
But with no sign that the tactic of increasing police numbers was succeeding, the Government and police faced growing questions over their handling of the riots.
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, heard during a visit to Tottenham that locals felt police had deserted them. “There was nobody there to protect us”, one resident told him.
Police admitted they were struggling with the number of incidents as rioters used social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to plan their violence. Former police officers said that the sporadic nature of the riots was unprecedented.
Police said they were monitoring these sites and would prosecute people who used the internet to incite violence. One message posted called for a police officer to be killed.

However, much of the planning apparently took place on BlackBerry smartphones, which have a free messaging system. Police are unable to monitor these messages, but BlackBerry’s manufacturer said it would try to co-operate with detectives.
Roy Ramm, a former Scotland Yard commander, said the Met could lose control of London’s streets. “That has to be a possibility and the Home Secretary and [Met] commissioner are going to have to make some difficult decisions.” He said that by using mobile phones and social networks “these people can mass and change direction very quickly and the police tactics are being subverted”.
Last night more than 200 people had been arrested, the majority of them teenagers. The youngest was an 11 year-old, who was charged with burglary. Twenty seven people had been charged with a variety of offences.
Scotland Yard has been stung by accusations of a power vacuum at senior level. It is without a commissioner following the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson last month.
Tim Godwin, the acting commissioner, made a brief statement to reporters yesterday but it was not until last night, following a meeting with the Home Secretary, that he appeared on television to condemn the worst riots in more than a quarter of a century.
He urged parents to contact their children to get them indoors.
Mr Godwin said that while the violence on Saturday was rooted in frustration over the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four shot dead during a police operation, later disorder on Sunday was “pure criminality”.
Stephen Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner, added: “On occasions like this it is the burglars, the thugs and the bullies that are trying to make the most of the opportunity.”
There were fears that tensions may rise further today when the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirms that a bullet that hit a police officer’s radio in the incident in which Duggan died was a police issue bullet.
Talks have been held with the organisers of Notting Hill Carnival, which takes place at the end of this month, as fears grow that it could become a focal point for violence.
Police have already admitted that they had no choice but to allow looters to steal from high street shops on Saturday evening as they had to focus on the dozens of burning buildings and rioting in Tottenham.

Former Met commanders said the riots were unprecedented in their sporadic and spontaneous nature.
Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistant police commissioner who was a sergeant during the Brixton riots in the 1980s said: “We have not faced this situation before.
“In the absence of intelligence it is a major difficulty for the police, and the fact it is sporadic and widespread.”


CTTA Teaches Intelligent Crowd Control Methodology
Intelligent Crowd Control Methodology (Trade Mark Pending) is an important aspect of CTTA`s training curriculum. This approach adheres to Canadian government guidelines respecting human rights.
Intelligent Crowd Control Methodology allows law enforcement personnel to effectively maintain the peace in a manner that protects the individual demonstrator from injury.
The Canadian Tactical training Academy developed this comprehensive proprietary methodology in response to legal requirements in Canada.
Acceptance and demand for this approach in world markets soon followed.
Governments, armed forces, and police departments desire to maintain the respect of its citizens even under adverse conditions.
News clips of bloodied demonstrators on the evening news do not engender respect; quite the opposite, they produce an even more violent response by the crowd.
Intelligent Crowd Control Methodology helps the law enforcement officer control the situation without causing unnecessary harm to the subjects in a manner which ensures his own safety.
The Canadian Tactical training Academy (CTTA) is an organization devoted to worldwide training of peace and law enforcement officers, as well as all other professionals involved in the fields of security, investigation, protection and the maintenance of order.
The Academy also provides tailored security and safety-oriented civilian training at both the individual and corporate levels.

www.ctta-global.com
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