MS-13 GANG MEMBERS & DRUG CARTEL LEADERS ARE BEING PROSECUTED & DEPORTED AFTER 8 YRS OF ROAMING FREE

MS-13 GANG MEMBERS & DRUG CARTEL LEADERS ARE FINALLY BEING PROSECUTED AND DEPORTED AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF ROAMING FREE:

OBAMA & KEY DEMS ALLOWED MS-13 GANG MEMBERS TO COMMIT CRIMES AND BLAMED THOSE CRIMES ON BLACK MEN.

UNDER OBAMA TEMP AGENCIES AND OTHER EMPLOYERS HIRED LATINO MEN NOT BLACK MEN.

UNDER OBAMA POLICE WERE ORDERED TO ATTACK BLACK MEN WHILE IGNORING MS-13 GANG MEMBERS.

OBAMA & KEY DEMS DIVIDED THIS COUNTRY TO WIN 2016 ELECTION YET THEY STILL LOST.

TRUMP IS MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN AND HEALING BLACK & LATINO COMMUNITIES BY PUTTING THINGS BACK IN ORDER.


Sources: Breitbart, Newsmax, Fox News, Youtube


**** Trump to MS-13: We’re Sending You ‘The Hell out of Our Country


Speaking at a rally in Harrisburg, PA, President Donald Trump assured American citizens that the Salvadoran gang known as MS-13 would be quickly removed from the country.

Following chants of “build that wall,” President Trump addressed the crowd in relation to the deadly Salvadoran gang MS-13:

“We will build a wall folks, don’t even worry about it. Go to sleep. As the final thing we needed, we need it.” said President Trump in relation to the wall, adding:

If the Democrats knew what the hell they were doing, they would approve it so easy because we want to stop crime in our country. Obviously, they don’t mind illegals coming in. They don’t mind drugs pouring in. They don’t mind MS-13 coming in.

We are getting them all out of here. Members of congress who will be voting on border security have a simple choice. They can either vote to help drug cartels and criminal aliens trying to enter the United States, like frankly, the Democrats are doing, or they can vote to help American citizens and American families be safe.

That is the choice.

President Trump continued:

At the heart of my administration’s efforts to restore the rule of law has been a nationwide crackdown on criminal gangs, and that means taking the fight to the sanctuary cities that shield these dangerous criminals from removal. The last very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders and enter into our communities, where they wreaked havoc on our citizens. The bloodthirsty cartel known as MS-13 has infiltrated our schools, threatening innocent children.

We have seen the horrible assaults and many killings all along Long Island where I grew up. We are seeing the vicious spread of transnational gangs into all 50 states and the human suffering they bring with them. I have been with the parents.

It is devastation. A very respected General recently told me that MS-13 are the equivalent in their meanness to Al Qaeda. My administration will not rest until we have dismantled these violent gangs, and we are doing it rapidly, and we are sending them the hell out of our country.

At this point, President Trump received. thunderous applause. He went on to say, “We are sending them back home where they belong. One by one, we are finding the illegal immigrant drug dealers, members and killers and removing them from our country. Once they are gone, you see what we are doing. They will not let them back in. They are not coming back.”

ELAINE DUKE STEPS UP AS NEW DHS ACTING SECRETARY (SHAKE-UP)

ELAINE DUKE STEPS UP AS NEW DHS ACTING SECRETARY (SHAKE-UP):

WHO IS SHE?

DUKE IS AN EXTREMELY QUALIFIED PUBLIC SERVANT WHO WON'T WATER DOWN OR SUPPORT UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS WHEN THEY SHOULD IN FACT BE LINING UP TO BECOME LEGAL U.S. CITIZENS.

TRUMP KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING AND IS FOCUSED ON RESULTS.

JUST CONTINUE TO TRUST HIM AND PRAY FOR HIS SUCCESS.


Sources: CNN


****Who is Elaine Duke, the deputy at Homeland Security?


With Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly being tapped as President Donald Trump's new White House chief of staff, leadership of the agency responsible for protecting the nation at home will fall to Elaine Duke, the deputy secretary.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Kelly will remain the secretary until Monday, and then Duke will take over in an acting capacity.

The longtime veteran of government brings an expertise in business management and government acquisition to the role, with many of her past positions focused on the operational side of the bureaucracy.

Duke was sworn in as deputy secretary in April after a seven-year stint in the private sector. She was confirmed by the Senate on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, 85-14.

"I am grateful to have this opportunity to further mature the Department and continue improving its efficiency and effectiveness," Duke testified at her confirmation hearing for the deputy position. "If confirmed, I promise to lead DHS in enforcing the law with respect and integrity. I will be honest in my assessments and recommendations, and relentless in pursuing excellence. Such commitments are critical at this juncture in homeland security."

Since taking office, Duke has taken a lead role in many of the agency's priorities, including an effort to increase security on large electronics in carry-ons on airplanes traveling to the US.

A public servant for nearly three decades, Duke spent the last eight years of her tenure with government at DHS, serving in a Senate-confirmed position as undersecretary for management from 2008 to 2010.

After working at DHS, she worked as the principal of Elaine Duke & Associates, described in her DHS bio as an acquisition and business consulting firm.

During her tenure at DHS, Duke worked in management and as chief procurement officer. She also worked in acquisition at the Transportation Security Administration.

She took on that role less than a year after the September 11 attacks, according to an older speaker's biography.

Duke also worked at the Department of Defense before she arrived at DHS.

She went to New Hampshire College for her undergraduate degree in business and received an MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu.

According to DHS, she has received many honors during her public service career, including the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award, the DHS Secretary's Medal, the TSA Silver Medal for Customer Service, the Department of the Army Commander's Award for Public Service, and the Coast Guard's Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Duke is married and has two sons, according to her Senate testimony.

TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NEEDS CONGRESS ' SUPPORT SAYS DHS KELLY

"TRUMP'S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NEEDS CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT" SAYS DHS CHIEF JOHN KELLY:

I CONCUR.


Sources: AJC, CNN, YouTube


***** Homeland Security chief says Congress should “shut up and support” Trump efforts to slow illegal immigration


After almost three months of stepped up enforcement under President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Tuesday that new efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the United States are quickly paying off, as he said lawmakers in Congress who don’t like the enforcement changes by the Trump Administration should change the laws, or “shut up.”

If lawmakers do not the laws that we enforce, that we are charged to enforce, that we are sworn to enforce, then they should have the courage and the skill to change those laws,” Kelly said in a speech at George Washington University.

“Otherwise,” Kelly said of lawmakers, “they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”

In his speech, Kelly cited figures that show a steep drop in the number of people trying to ilegally cross the southern border of the United States.

“March apprehensions were 30 percent lower than February, and 64 percent lower than this time last year,” Kelly said in a speech at George Washington University in D.C.

“These numbers are lower because we’ve shown we are serious about border security, and enforcing our immigration laws,” the DHS chief.

Kelly noted a large drop in the number of families trying to make the crossing into the United States.

“While more than 16,000 family units were apprehended at the border in December, only 1100 were apprehended in March,” Kelly told his audience.

“This is a phenomenal drop in movement,” Kelly said.

RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS - DEMS' NEW EXCUSE FOR HILLARY'S 2016 LOSS

RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS - DEMS' NEW EXCUSE FOR HILLARY'S 2016 LOSS:

IT WASN'T RUSSIA BUT THE NSA & DHS.

HILLARY LOST BECAUSE NOT EVEN THE FEDS TRUST HER.

HILLARY LOST DUE TO BLUE COLLAR WHITE VOTERS & MANY LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED BLACK VOTERS CASTING BALLOTS FOR TRUMP.


Sources: Fox News, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, Youtube


***** Judge Napolitano Says It Was The NSA, Not The Russians Who Hacked DNC


Back in August, Judge Napolitano made some comments regarding the DNC hack.

On his show “Judge Napolitano’s Chambers”, Judge Nap shared his own thoughts on the leaked DNC emails:

The DNC and Clinton campaign decided to blame of all people, the Russians! They accused Vlademir Putin of being in cahoots with Donald Trump and having his intelligence services hack the DNC to expose e-mails to make Mrs. Clinton look bad and thereby benefit Donald Trump. But the Russians had nothing to do with it.

….a former high ranking NSA official who developed a software that the NSA now uses said the NSA hacked the DNC…the members of the intelligence community simply do not want Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States because she doesn’t know how to handle State secrets.

The left has been beating this ‘Russian drum’ for several months now. Russian hacking is one of the many false narratives that the left has been pushing in order to deny President Elect Trump his fully earned legitimacy.

In order to keep the Marxist agenda alive, the left must continue to foment civil unrest and division. The leftists need to get used to the new Republican party because the days of capitulating are over.

-----------------------------------------------


****** REPORT: FBI Director Comey Tells Trump That Russians Didn't Influence the Election

FBI Director James Comey has informed President-elect Donald Trump that there is "no credible evidence that Russia influenced the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election by hacking the Democratic National Committee and the e-mails of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign" according to a report from author and journalist Ed Klein.

Citing sources who were briefed on Comey’s conversations with Trump, Klein reports that Comey said that the only member of the U.S. intelligence community who was ready to assert that the Russians sanctioned the hacking was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan, who "takes his marching orders from President Obama."

"In Comey’s view, the leaks to the New York Times and The Washington Post alleging that the Russians tried—and perhaps even succeeded—in tilting the election to Trump were a Democratic Party effort to delegitimize Trump’s victory," Klein writes.

If Klein's reporting is accurate, this would be a powerful blow to the current left-wing narrative that the Russian government intervened on behalf of the President-elect during the 2016 presidential election

Americans Are Divided Over Arizona's New Immigration Law (Polls)

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

U.S. Split Over Ariz. Immigration Law


Michael Clausen owns the Quality Inn in Nogales, Ariz.

For now.

Clausen says the hotel, which caters to people streaming across the Mexican border just seven blocks away, is in danger of closing, thanks to the state’s new illegal immigration law and the official and unofficial boycotts it has inspired.

The Sunday night after Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law on April 23, “we had three rooms occupied out of 97 in the hotel,” Clausen said. At the border, there was virtually no line to get into the country, he said. Usually, the wait is 1½ to two hours.

“It just fell through the floor,” he said. “People stopped crossing the border.”

The nearby Tubac Golf Resort & Spa, built 50 years ago by Bing Crosby, saw more than $300,000 of business vanish in just a week as customers canceled reservations.

“They feel badly they have to pull out,” said Linda Cormier, the resort’s general manager. “But they are feeling strongly about the boycott.”

The Arizona law has sharply divided political figures across the country.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles became the largest city yet to boycott Arizona in a move that will likely affect some $8 million in contracts to the state.

Elected leaders in dozens of other cities — from San Francisco to St. Paul, Minn., and Boston to Boulder, Colo. — have called for boycotts of the state.

At the same time, polls show significant support for laws like it, and lawmakers have introduced similar measures, or have announced plans to do so, in at least 12 other states.

Boycotts could have real effects

The backlash began as soon as Brewer signed the measure, which requires law enforcement officers to check someone’s immigration status if they have reason to suspect that he or she is in the country illegally. It is scheduled to take effect in July.

The city councils of Tucson and Flagstaff voted to challenge the law in court, and the mayor of Phoenix, the state’s largest city, joined protests against it.

Earlier this month, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., called for a national boycott of his own state. Such boycotts are not just symbolic: They typically trigger reviews of contracts with Arizona businesses and ban municipal employees from traveling to the state on official business.

Industry and activist groups also weighed in, promising to cancel lucrative conventions and other public events. Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s largest black fraternity, switched its national convention in July from Phoenix to Las Vegas, at an estimated cost of $300,000 in penalties, while the American Immigration Lawyers Association voted to move its fall conference to another state.

Other groups announcing boycotts included the Service Employees International Union, representing 2.2. million workers; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, representing 1.3 million workers; and the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino activist organization.

The baseball players union pointedly noted that half of Major League Baseball’s teams conduct spring training in Arizona and called for the law to be repealed (Commissioner Bud Selig is also under pressure to yank the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix).

And the Republican National Committee came under intense pressure not to choose Phoenix for its 2012 national convention before party leaders selected Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday.

Mexico turns the tables

In what could be the ultimate insult, the Mexican government issued a travel warning to Mexicans “visiting, living or studying in the state of Arizona,” mimicking numerous such advisories the U.S. State Department has issued about traveling to Mexico.

The Mexican government — saying the law “violates inalienable human rights protected by international legal provisions and the U.S. Constitution” — sent officials to meet with U.S. groups challenging the law to coordinate “protection and consular assistance” and to provide legal representation for Mexicans in the state, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed.

It said Mexico would defend the rights of any Mexican nationals in Arizona, “regardless of their immigration status.”

Juan Carlos Escamilla, mayor of San Luis, Ariz., near the Mexican border, said such reactions had paralyzed business and government projects in the state.

San Luis had been set to take part in a business exposition next month in conjunction with the Arizona Mexico Commission, which fosters cooperation between Arizona and its neighbor to the south. But after Brewer signed the immigration law, Mexican officials dropped out, and the events were canceled.

“We feel that relationship we built so many years with our counterparts and our sister cities in Mexico, we’ve lost that, and it’s hurt,” Escamilla said.

Large majorities back law like Arizona’s
Protests against Arizona’s law have been held in various U.S. cities, some of them drawing thousands of people. But the law has also drawn considerable support across the country.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans — 64 percent — approved of the law in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday. The measure commanded a strong majority even though roughly the same percentage of respondents said they expected it to lead to discrimination against legal Latino immigrants.

Two other recent surveys, one by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal and the other by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press, mirrored those findings.

Idaho state Sen. Mike Jorgenson, a Republican, said people intuitively understood that illegal immigration diverted taxes and jobs that would otherwise go to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. That’s why he said he would introduce a measure in his state to crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants by private businesses.

“Illegal immigration is costing Idaho about $200 million a year in the form of education, crime, actually imprisonment,” Jorgenson argued, citing research by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce immigration levels. “... What’s it costing our indigent care through counties?”

In Utah, Republican state Reps. Steve Sandstrom and Carl Wimmer said they would introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law, which drew support from 65 percent of state residents in a survey released last week by NBC station KSL-TV and the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

“The states need to take steps, because illegal immigration has a legitimate impact on individual citizens and the economy,” Wimmer said. “Utah needs to be at the forefront of this discussion.”

Similar measures are in the works in Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Michigan, where Republican state Rep. Kim Meltzer said, “We have borders in place for a reason.”

Many hurdles before law takes effect

Back in Arizona, the immigration restrictions are scheduled to take effect in July, but first they must overcome numerous legal challenges. One of them could come from the federal government.

“We are considering all of our options. One of the things we are thinking about is the possibility of filing a lawsuit,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Beyond the widely cited civil rights concerns, Holder said the law could also be challenged on the grounds of “federal pre-emption,” saying it wasn’t clear that states had the authority to enforce immigration laws.

Janet Napolitano, who as secretary of homeland security oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also said she had “deep concerns with the law from the law enforcement perspective.”

“We think it will siphon and detract from resources that we need to focus on those in the country illegally who are committing the most serious crimes,” Napolitano said.

For Napolitano, the issue is an awkward one. To become President Barack Obama’s homeland security secretary, she resigned as governor of Arizona.

During her tenure, she had vetoed several similar immigration measures.

Her successor was Jan Brewer.


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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

FBI Arrest 3 Suspects Connected With Faisal Shahzad

Cash Couriers Target of Northeast Raids, Source Says


Raids by Federal Agents in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey on Thursday are focused on a system of "cash couriers" who bring money into the United States from overseas, a source close to the investigation said.

Three people were taken into custody, according to a U.S. official -- two in Massachusetts and a third in Maine. A statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that three people were taken into custody on alleged immigration violations, but provided no further details.

All three are from Pakistan, according to a U.S. official. One is a so-called "visa overstay." Another was in the process of being removed from the United States, but had not yet been ordered removed, as he was attempting to adjust his status so that he could stay in the country, the official said.

A federal law enforcement source said the initial two detained were connected to the case, but said they were "collateral" in the sense that they may not have had direct knowledge of or input into the Times Square plot.

Investigators searched locations in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and in New York and New Jersey, a federal law enforcement source said.

Two locations on Long Island were among the targets of the raids, a federal law enforcement source told CNN. The FBI executed search warrants at both locations in Suffolk County, New York, in eastern Long Island, the source said. Tim Motz, a Suffolk County Police spokesman, said officers from that department were assisting federal agents. No arrests had been made.

Some of the money allegedly ferried by the cash couriers is thought to have been made available to finance operations like the abortive Times Square attack. The source close to the investigation said two individuals have been under surveillance at least since Wednesday, but could not confirm that they were two of the three individuals arrested in the raids.

The source said there is no direct evidence connecting those under surveillance to the Times Square attempted bombing, but they are being investigated for possible links.

"These searches are the product of evidence that has been gathered in the investigation since the attempted Times Square bombing and do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States," Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. "I share that information just to indicate that this is an ongoing investigation and that we are actively pursuing all those who were involved in it."

One of the searches took place in Watertown, Massachusetts, according to a federal law enforcement official. CNN affiliate WCVB-TV reported that two people were taken into custody in Watertown.

A Watertown resident who lives near the home where the search warrant was executed told WCVB he was sitting in his living room watching television at about 6 a.m. when he "heard an FBI agent scream, saying 'Don't move' or 'Put your hands up,' something like that."

"I thought I was dreaming, actually, because in a small town, who would think, you know, that you'd hear an FBI person?" said the man, who did not give his name in the interview posted on WCVB's website.

When he looked out the window, he said, he saw 15 or 20 FBI agents lined up, with their guns drawn and pointing at the house. He said after a few minutes, a couple of agents went inside the house. "I was expecting to hear gunshots or something, you know, but there wasn't ever any gunshots," he said.

After a few minutes, agents brought a man out in shackles, put him in a car and drove away, the man said. He said he'd never seen the man before, but noted that new residents have moved into the home every few years.

Photos from Watertown showed yellow police crime scene tape around a large white Colonial-style house. The photos were taken by WickedLocal.com, a local news website.

One photo showed a man in an FBI shirt talking with two other men. Another showed a man walking out of the house holding a plastic bag that appeared to contain an electronic or computer-related device or accessory.

Another search unfolded in Brookline, Massachusetts, where police were helping the FBI search a Mobil gas station on Harvard Street, said Lt. Philip Harrington of the Brookline Police Department.

Video from CNN affiliate WHDH-TV of Boston showed apparent law enforcement officers at the gas station. They were examining a parked gray four-door sedan, its two front doors and trunk open.

Diane Chung, who manages a Japanese fusion restaurant across from the gas station, said investigators were swarming the scene when she got to the restaurant around 9:30 a.m. She said the gas station was completely blocked off.

She said she hadn't seen authorities bringing anyone out of the gas station and hasn't seen them enter any other businesses in the area.

Michael Sobelman, owner of Michael's Deli on Harvard Street, took a stroll down the street to check out what he said was rare commotion along the retail and commercial stretch.

"You can see them taking stuff out," he said. "You'd never have thunk something like this is going on."

News media and police packed the area as three or four helicopters hovered over the scene. Sobelman said he saw the FBI load vehicles with material from the gas station.

"I'm shocked that it could happen in an affluent community like this," Sobelman said. "I tip my hat to the FBI and praise them for their work and their diligence and looking behind the scenes into everything."

A search warrant was also being executed at a home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, according to J.J. Klaver, FBI spokesman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No one was in custody. A federal law enforcement source told CNN raids were also being conducted at a business called Prompt Printing in Camden, New Jersey. The home in Cherry Hill was believed to be that of the shop's owner, the source said.

Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani American, is the only person charged in the May 1 attempted bombing at Times Square.

He was arrested while trying to fly out of New York two days after he allegedly attempted to set off a car bomb in the always-crowded tourist hotspot. The bomb failed to detonate.

Shahzad has been charged with five counts in connection with the case.

According to court documents, he admitted to law enforcement officials that he attempted to detonate the bomb and that he recently received bomb-making training in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.

Court documents also said that Shahzad returned to the United States via a one-way ticket from Pakistan on February 3. He had told immigration officials upon his return that he had been visiting his parents in Pakistan for the previous five months, the complaint said.

Holder said Shahzad was working with the Pakistani Taliban.


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Sources: CNN, NY Daily News, Google Maps

Mayor Bloomberg vs Obama: White House Cuts NYC's Security Funding

White House Slashes NY Anti-Terrorism Funds


Eleven days after the botched plot to bomb Times Square, the Obama administration on Wednesday slashed some $53 million from the city's terror-fighting budget.

"For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don't get it and are not doing right by New York City," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

To top it off, the news arrives as President Obama comes to town today amid buzz he will meet with the very cops who helped thwart the bombing.

Obama will also be tapping the city's deep pockets for the Democratic Party.

"The President seems more interested in raising money for political campaigns than providing New York the money it needs to defend itself against Islamic terrorism," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

The cuts, to be announced today, target the annual allocations for transit and port security, legislators said.

The New York City area will get $111million for transit security in the final 2010 budget - a 27% chop from last year's $153 million. The port security program is getting chopped from $45 million to $33.8million - a cut of 25%.

"The fact that the Obama administration would cut New York's homeland security funding just 11 days after the Times Square car bomb attempt is dangerous and unconscionable," King said.

The Department of Homeland Security had forecast the cuts in December, but local leaders thought the administration would change its mind after a car packed with fireworks, propane and fertilizer nearly detonated in Times Square on May 1.

Another terror plot busted up last September targeted the city's subways.

"Just when we thought they finally realized a war on terror is going on, they do something like this," raged City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), head of the Council's Public Safety Committee.

"This leaves us more vulnerable to 'man-caused disasters,'" he said sarcastically, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's term for terror attacks.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler begged to differ with New York's interpretation, insisting his agency is "actively engaged in supporting New York City's first responders and overall preparedness."

He argued that in 2009, the administration gave the area more than $457 million for "terrorism and other threats." He blamed Congress for appropriating less money for 2010, and an administration official said if New York includes the cash it got from the economic stimulus bill passed in 2009, it's actually getting $47.3 million more than last year for ports and transit protection.

King was unimpressed by that math, arguing the stimulus cash is a one-time payout that won't be repeated.

"That's a story they're coming up with at the last minute, because an hour ago they were saying they couldn't give us the money because Congress only allocated $300 million," he said. "Actually, Obama only asked for $250 million."

King noted there is nothing stopping the administration from giving the city a bigger slice. "New York should get first shot, because we're the No. 1 target," he said.


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, NY Daily News, Politico, Youtube, Google Maps

Emirates Jet In JFK "No-Fly" Scare Is Released, False Match

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Emirates Jet Briefly Stopped At JFK In "No Fly" Scare


An Emirates airline jet that was briefly detained on a taxiway Thursday at New York's JFK airport was later allowed to leave for Dubai after officials checked the name of a passenger against the U.S. "no fly" list.

The passenger's name was found to be similar to one on the list, but not an exact match, officials said, describing the security scare as a "false alarm."

The pilots had requested permission to taxi for takeoff when Customs and Border Protection blocked the plane from taxiing.

The incident came days after a failed bomb attack on New York's Times Square that has heightened security concerns in America's most populous city.


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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Google Maps

Emirates Jet With "No-Fly" Passenger Halted At JFK

Emirates Jet Stopped At JFK Before Take-Off


U.S. Security Officials stopped an Emirates airline plane on a taxiway Thursday at New York's JFK airport in order to determine whether a passenger aboard is on the U.S. "no fly" list.

A senior government official told NBC News that Emirates Flight 204 was destined for Dubai.

The pilots had requested permission to taxi for takeoff when Customs and Border Protection blocked the plane from taxiing.

A federal official said there was a possible match between a passenger's name and a name on the no fly list.


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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Google Maps

Faisal Shahzad Received Terrorist Training In Pakistan

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From Suburban Father To A Terrorism Suspect


They took their places in the wood-paneled courtroom, 58 people from 32 countries. They listened as a federal magistrate banged the gavel and said it was “a wonderful day for the United States”— the day they would become Americans.

The magistrate talked about Thomas Jefferson and told the group that they could run for office — only the presidency and the vice presidency were off limits, according to a tape recording of the proceedings in a Bridgeport, Conn., courtroom last year, on April 17. On her instructions, they raised their right hands and repeated the oath of citizenship.

One man in the group was the Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzad, whose father or grandfather was a Pakistani military official and who, at 29, had spent a decade in the United States, collecting a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and landing a job with a Connecticut financial marketing company.

He had obtained citizenship through marriage to a woman who was born in Colorado — the authorities say she and their two young children are still in Pakistan, where they believe he was trained in making bombs last year in Waziristan, a tribal area that is a haven for militants.

On Saturday, the authorities said, Mr. Shahzad drove a Nissan Pathfinder packed with explosives and detonators, leaving it in Times Square.

About 7 p.m., as a robot from the bomb squad was being summoned to the S.U.V., Mr. Shahzad called his landlord from the train to Connecticut and said he had lost his keys; in a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday, the authorities said the keys had been locked inside the Pathfinder.

The landlord met him at the apartment that night to let him in. “He looked nervous,” said the landlord, Stanislaw Chomiak, who had rented him a two-bedroom apartment in Bridgeport since Feb. 15. “But I thought, of course he’s nervous, he just lost his keys.”

In nearly a dozen years in this country, Mr. Shahzad had gone to school, held steady jobs, bought and sold real estate, and kept his immigration status in good order, giving no sign to those he interacted with that he had connections to terrorists in Pakistan. Nor was there any indication that he would try to wreak havoc in one of the world’s most crowded places, Times Square.

His neighbors in Connecticut said the things neighbors always say about someone who suddenly turns up in the headlines — he was quiet, he was polite, he went jogging late at night. Like so many others, he lost a house to foreclosure — a real estate broker who helped him buy the house, in Shelton, Conn., in 2004 remembered that Mr. Shahzad did not like President George W. Bush or the Iraq war.

“I didn’t take it for much,” said the broker, Igor Djuric, “because around that time not many people did.”

George LaMonica, a 35-year-old computer consultant, said he bought his two-bedroom condominium in Norwalk, Conn., from Mr. Shahzad for $261,000 in May 2004. A few weeks after he moved in, Mr. LaMonica said, investigators from the national Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed him, asking for details of the transaction and for information about Mr. Shahzad. It struck Mr. LaMonica as unusual, but he said detectives told him they were simply “checking everything out.”

Mr. Shahzad was born in Pakistan in 1979, though there is some confusion over where. Officials in Pakistan said it was in Nowshera, an area in northern Pakistan known for its Afghan refugee camps. But on a university application that Mr. Shahzad had filled out and that was found in the maggot-covered garbage outside the Shelton house on Tuesday, he listed Karachi.

Pakistani officials said Mr. Shahzad was either a son or a grandson of Baharul Haq, who retired as a vice air marshal in 1992 and then joined the Civil Aviation Authority.

A Pakistani official said Mr. Shahzad might have had affiliations with Ilyas Kashmiri, a militant linked to Al Qaeda who was formerly associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India militant group once nurtured by the Pakistani state. But friends said the family was well respected and nonpolitical.

“Neither Faisal nor his family has ever had any links with any jihadist or religious organization,” one friend said. Another, a lawyer, said that “the family is in a state of shock,” adding, “They believe that their son has been implicated in a fake case.”

Mr. Shahzad apparently went back and forth to Pakistan often, returning most recently in February after what he said was five months visiting his family, prosecutors said. A Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Shahzad had traveled with three passports, two from Pakistan and one from the United States; he last secured a Pakistani passport in 2000, describing his nationality as “Kashmiri.”

Mr. Shahzad’s generation grew up in a Pakistan where alcohol had been banned and Islam had been forced into schools and communities as a doctrine and a national glue.

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“It’s not that they don’t speak English or aren’t skilled,” a Pakistani official explained. “But in their hearts and in their minds they reject the West. They can’t see a world where they live together; there’s only one way, one right way.”

According to immigration officials, Mr. Shahzad arrived in the United States on Jan. 16, 1999, less than a month after he had been granted a student visa, which requires a criminal background check.

He had previously attended a program in Karachi affiliated with the now-defunct Southeastern University in Washington; a transcript from the spring of 1998, found in the garbage outside the Shelton house, showed that he got D’s in English composition and microeconomics, B’s in Introduction to Accounting and Introduction to Humanities, and a C in statistics.

He enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, where he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering in 2000, followed by a master’s in business administration in 2005.

“If this hadn’t happened I would have long forgotten him,” said William Greenspan, Mr. Shahzad’s adviser as an undergraduate. “There are a lot of students you get to know; they call you up once in awhile to say hello, they got a nice job. After he left U.B., I never heard anything from him.”

In January 2002 Mr. Shahzad obtained an H1B visa, a coveted status meant for highly skilled workers and good for three years, with a possible extension. Records show that Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics giant, applied for a visa for Mr. Shahzad; he worked there as a temporary clerk in the accounting department in 2001, through an employment agency called Accountants Inc., according to a timecard found in his trash.

Officials at the cosmetic company confirmed that they hired Mr. Shahzad to work in the accounting department at the Stamford, Conn., office on Jan. 31, 2002; he left on June 14, 2006 to join another company. In 2006, Mr. Shahzad took a job as a junior financial analyst at Affinion Group in Norwalk, a financial marketing services company. Michael Bush, the company’s director of public relations, said Mr. Shahzad resigned in mid-2009; government officials said he was unemployed and bankrupt by the time of his arrest.

After his marriage, to Huma Mian, he petitioned the immigration agency in 2004 to change his status; he wanted to become a permanent resident, another step on the path to citizenship.

Ms. Mian had just graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a business degree, according to Bronson Hilliard, a university spokesman. She lived in dormitories and in family housing, sharing her quarters with a sister or a cousin, Mr. Hilliard said.

Her parents lived in the Denver suburb of Aurora. A neighbor in their condominium complex, Johnny Wright, remembered that her new husband had visited the family only once before she joined him.

“He seemed educated,” Mr. Wright said. “Didn’t make a lot of conversation.”

The Mians moved out in 2008, leaving a post office box overseas as a forwarding address. Meanwhile, Mr. Shahzad applied for citizenship that October.

Shortly after his naturalization ceremony in the Bridgeport courthouse, his name appeared on a case in another Connecticut court, a foreclosure action by Chase bank.

He and his wife had bought a newly built single-family house on Long Hill Avenue in Shelton in 2004 for $273,000, with a $218,400 mortgage, according to court papers.

They tried to cash in on the real estate boom, listing it for sale for $329,000 in 2006. It did not sell, said Frank DelVecchio, an agent who picked up the listing in 2008. The price then was $299,000. Later it was marked down to $285,000, and finally, $284,500.

In Shelton, neighbors remembered Mr. Shahzad’s walking early in the morning in sandals and loose-fitting shirts, and jogging late at night in black athletic clothes; his wife wore a long dress and a shawl covering her hair. They had toys in their garage and a little swimming pool in the back; last summer, friends went over for barbecues.

“He wasn’t unfriendly,” said Debbie Bussolari, a 55-year-old dental technician who lives across the street. “He seemed a little different.”

The family had several tag sales last summer, offering knickknacks and kid stuff, “things that you would give to Goodwill,” said Mary Ann Galich, 55, who lives behind the house.

“She was outside dealing with the people, and he was dealing with the money,” Ms. Galich recalled.

Davon Reid, 17, who lives next door, said the family moved in December: “It seemed like they picked up everything very quickly.” A few months later, a real estate broker let him in to check the place out, and it was a wreck.

“There was spoiled food and milk everywhere,” he said. “They just left everything. They left clothes in closets, the kids’ shoes, the woman’s shoes. And the kids’ toys.”

Three months ago, Mr. Shahzad signed a one-year lease on the two-bedroom apartment in Bridgeport. Mr. Chomiak, the landlord, said he usually saw Mr. Shahzad only when the rent was due, but he described him as a nice guy who furnished the apartment sparsely, and said he made a living selling jewelry in New Haven.

Other details took on significance in light of the arrest. When Mr. Chomiak went looking for Mr. Shahzad on Monday, he noticed a distributor cap and two small bags of fertilizer in the garage.

Mr. Shahzad, Mr. Chomiak said, mentioned that he wanted to grow tomatoes.


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TSA Allowed Faisal Shahzad To Board Plane, Like Umar Mutallab

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How Was Faisal Shahzad Able To Board Plane?


The Times Square bomb suspect was on the federal no-fly list and under surveillance but still managed to get aboard a jetliner bound for the United Arab Emirates, sources said Tuesday.

Faisal Shahzad had been under constant watch at his Bridgeport, Conn., home since 3 p.m. Monday and federal authorities had planned to arrest him there that evening, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. Authorities believe he decided to flee after being spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani suspect in Connecticut, one of the people said.

Shahzad somehow lost the investigators who were trailing him, the two people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident. It was unclear when Shahzad eluded investigators.

The night's events, gradually coming to light, also underscored the flaws in the nation's aviation security system, which despite its technologies, lists and information sharing, often comes down to someone making a right call.

A law enforcement official told NBC News that the Transportation Security Administration had alerted airlines, but the information hadn't yet gotten into airline systems. A senior U.S. official told NBC that if the system had worked properly, "He should have never been able to get on that airplane."

As federal agents closed in, Shahzad was aboard Emirates Flight 202. He reserved a ticket on the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport, paid cash on arrival and walked through security without being stopped.

By the time Customs and Border Protection officials spotted Shahzad's name on the passenger list and recognized him as the bombing suspect they were looking for, he was in his seat and the plane was preparing to leave the gate.

It didn't. At the last minute, the pilot was notified, the jetliner's door was opened and Shahzad was taken into custody.

After authorities pulled Shahzad off the plane, he admitted he was behind the crude Times Square car bomb, officials said. He also claimed to have been trained at a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless tribal region of Waziristan, according to court documents. That raised increased concern that the bombing was an international terror plot.

Not ‘in danger of losing him’

The Obama administration played down the fact that Shahzad had made it aboard the plane. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not talk about it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.

And Attorney General Eric Holder said he "was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him."

It may be that the airline either never saw or ignored key information that would have kept Shahzad off the plane, a fact that dampened what was otherwise hailed as a fast, successful law enforcement operation.

The senior U.S. official who spoke to NBC News said Shahzad's name was put onto the no-fly list about 11 a.m. Monday morning, some 12 hours before he was taken into custody.

A law enforcement official told NBC that the TSA sent notifications to airlines but the "information had not yet been populated in the airline's system to the point of triggering an automated alert."

Missed chances

The official said Shahzad's name should have set off alarms throughout the ticketing and boarding process. The system should have been triggered when he purchased the ticket.

If he purchased the ticket before his name was placed on the list, then the airline and authorities should have been alerted when he got his boarding pass, either from an agent or one of the self-service kiosks.

That's especially true on an international flight because his passport would have been electronically scanned before he was issued a boarding pass. Even at the boarding gate, there are systems that alert TSA and customs officials to someone on the no-fly list attempting to board a flight.

When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a Web forum where updates are sent if it were to have flagged him. Because they did not, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before takeoff, the official said.

Jet didn't leave the gate

There was also some confusion over whether the plane left the gate and was recalled.

The law enforcement officer told NBC News that Shahzad boarded the plane and the door was closed, but the plane didn't leave the gate. The door was reopened and Shahzad was removed from the plane.

The plane was then cleared to leave the gate and did so. Moments later, officials thought better of it and decided they needed to rescreen passengers and cargo and brought the plane back, the law enforcement official told NBC.

Emirates did not return repeated calls for comments. Earlier in the day, the company issued a general statement saying it was cooperating with investigators and takes every precaution to ensure its passengers' safety.

The reliance on airlines to check government lists has been a known problem for years. The government has long planned to take over the responsibility for matching passengers to watch lists, but the transition has taken longer than expected. The new program is still in the test phase for domestic airlines and is still months away from beginning with international carriers.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.

"There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them," Gibbs said. "If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked."


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Faisal Shahzad Tried To Leave U.S. After Times Square Terrorist Plot

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Times Square Bomb Suspect Nabbed At Airport


Authorities arrested a U.S. citizen in connection with the failed bombing attempt in New York's Times Square as he tried to leave the country, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, was arrested at 11:45 p.m. ET Monday night by Customs and Border Protection agents as he attempted to board an Emirates airlines flight to Dubai at New York's JFK airport, officials said.

"It is clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," Holder said.

Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, was accused of driving a car bomb into Times Square, authorities said. He will appear in Manhattan Federal Court later Tuesday.

A law enforcement official told news services Tuesday that Shahzad said he had no accomplices: "He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated."

Holder said the investigation was ongoing and that law enforcement officials had gathered "significant additional evidence." He urged Americans to remain vigilant.

"The American people should know that we are deploying every resource available and we will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice," Holder said.

Trip to Pakistan

Earlier, officials told The Associated Press that the suspect recently returned from a trip to Pakistan, where he has a wife. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was at a sensitive stage.

Shahzad will face charges "for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, FBI agent George Venizelos and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Emirates said in a statement that one passenger was stopped at the gate and a further two passengers were removed from on board the plane. It was unclear what happened to the other two.

"Full security procedures were activated including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers and baggage," an Emirates spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

Shahzad was being held in New York and couldn't be contacted. He has a Shelton, Conn., address and a phone number listed there wasn't in service. Investigators were searching his home.

Law enforcement officials said Shahzad bought the SUV, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, that was parked in Times Square on Saturday from a person in Connecticut three weeks ago. NBC News reported he paid $1,300 in cash for the vehicle, which had been advertised on website Craigslist.

NBC News earlier reported the suspect's name was on an e-mail that was sent to the car's seller last month.

The website Politico, citing an unnamed senior official, reported that a number from disposable cell phone used by the buyer of the SUV had led to the suspect's arrest.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official told Politico.

The suspect didn't still have the phone, the website reported, but agents were still able to locate the suspect.

In Bridgeport, the seller refused to answer questions put by the Times. "You can't interview her," said an unidentified man at the woman’s white clapboard house. "She already talked to the FBI."

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A man in his 40s who was seen in a security camera video apparently walking away from the SUV was initially a focus of the investigation.

But the New York police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, told the Times that while investigators still wanted to speak to that man, he might not be connected to the failed bombing. Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for the department, told the paper: "It may turn out that he was just somebody in the area, but not connected with the car bomb."

A metal rifle cabinet placed in the SUV's cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings.

However, police said it could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows.

Rube Goldberg contraption

James M. Cavanaugh, a former bomb expert with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who investigated car bombs and tracked the Unabomber, told The New York Times that the device and the way it was designed speak to a "grandiose purpose."

"I call this a Rube Goldberg contraption," Cavanaugh told the newspaper. "It's the 'swing-the-arm-with-the-shoe-that-hits-the-ball-and-knocks-over-a-stick-that-knocks-something-off-a-shelf' and it is all supposed to work."

He said that whoever made the bomb had "more desire than ability."

The Times also reported that Kevin B. Barry, an official with the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, said the attempted bomber had left many leads for detectives to follow.

“He was trying to cover his tracks, but he left more clues than a guy walking into a bank to rob it without a mask. This guy left everything here but his wallet," Barry said.

Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, which works with Fortune 500 companies, said the device, as described by authorities, "doesn't differ much at all from 'The Anarchist Cookbook'" — the underground 1971 manual for homemade explosives.

He said revelations that the fertilizer used could not have exploded suggested "this is amateur hour. My kids could build a better bomb than this."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg early Tuesday thanked law enforcement officials, saying that their "focused and swift efforts led to this arrest after only 48 hours of around-the-clock investigation. I hope their impressive work serves as a lesson to anyone who would do us harm."

A senior White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed six times yesterday about the investigation and was notified of Shahzad's arrest at 12:05 am Tuesday.

The Taliban in Pakistan said Sunday it planted the bomb to avenge the killing in April of al-Qaida's two top leaders in Iraq as well as U.S. interference in Muslim countries.

Some officials voiced skepticism about the claim. But former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, who last year oversaw an Obama administration strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, cautioned against dismissing a possible role by the Taliban.

"They have said they want to attack inside the United States," he said before the arrest was announced, adding there was "a very serious possibility" the incident involved "some Pakistani-American who has never built a car bomb before in his life but who is being coached either by phone or internet."

In Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said authorities had not been formally asked for help in the probe. "When the request comes, we will cooperate with the U.S. government," he told the AP.

The location of the bomb suggests a number of possible targets. The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show "South Park" that the group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a bear costume.


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