U.S. AFRICA COMMANDER TELLS REPORTERS EFFORTS MADE TO PROTECT MILITARY PERSONNEL FROM EBOLA

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Left:  Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of U.S. Africa Command, describes the Defense Department's response to Ebola during a news conference at the Pentagon, Oct. 7, 2014. DoD photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz.  


Rodriguez Pledges Every Effort to Protect Military From Ebola
By Nick Simeone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2014 – Everything possible will be done to mitigate risks of exposure to Ebola by U.S. military personnel deployed to Liberia to contain the epidemic, the commander of U.S. Africa Command said today.
There are no plans for the U.S. military to provide direct care to Ebola patients, Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez told reporters at the Pentagon. Personnel from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center will, however test for Ebola at mobile labs from samples collected from area clinics and health care providers.
Trained to guard against exposure

Rodriguez said the three or four people who will staff each lab will be trained to the highest level and will be prepared to guard against exposure.

“They can operate in a nuclear, biological and chemical environment,” he noted. “They are specifically trained to do that, and that's their primary skill set.”

Pressed by reporters to explain the risks to Americans operating the mobile labs, Rodriguez strongly discounted the likelihood of contamination. “It’s a very, very high standard that these people have operated in all their lives, and this is their primary skill,” he emphasized. “This is not just medical guys trained to do this.”
National security priority.

Seven such labs are expected to be set up in Liberia for Ebola testing. The U.S. military presence in the West African nation is expected to grow to up to 4,000, with personnel establishing a hospital facility and providing logistics and engineering support, as well as training of up to 500 health care workers per week to help treat patients and prevent the spread of the virus, which President Barack Obama yesterday called a national security priority.

Seventeen Ebola treatment facilities are expected to be set up in Liberia by November, Rodriguez said, acknowledging that the pace of operations has been challenging. “Their whole nation is overwhelmed,” the general said. “Their health facilities are overwhelmed. That’s all broken down, so we have to bring in everything at the same time.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called the Ebola outbreak in West Africa the largest in history, with more than 3,400 deaths reported. Nearly that number of cases alone has been reported in Liberia, where the disease continues to spread.

Ensuring safety of U.S. personnel

About 240 Defense Department personnel are currently in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, and another 108 are in nearby Senegal in support of U.S government efforts to stop the spread of the virus. More personnel are expected to flow into the region in the coming days, and Rodriguez said everything will be done to ensure their safety.

“By providing pre-deployment training, adhering to strict medical protocols while deployed and carrying out carefully planned reintegration measures based on risk and exposure,” the general told reporters, “I am confident that we can ensure our service members’ safety and the safety of their families and the American people.”

Rodriguez said the U.S. military could be deployed to Liberia in significant numbers for up to a year to support efforts led by the U.S. Agency for International Development to stop the spread of the virus.

U.S. MILITARY LOOKING FOR NEXT-GEN TECHNOLOGIES

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

DoD Seeks Next-generation Technologies, Kendall Says

By Claudette Roulo

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2014 – The Defense Department is starting a long-range research and development initiative intended specifically to deliver technologies capable of providing the next generation of dominance on the battlefield, the undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics said today.

The study is modeled after a similar one conducted in the 1970s that ultimately led to many of the technologies being used today, Frank Kendall told an audience at the International Test and Evaluation Symposium in Crystal City, Virginia.

“It's time to kind of rethink what's going to give us dominance in the future,” he said, adding that he expects the program will inform next year’s budget cycle.
Individual technology programs have had a strategic emphasis over the years, Kendall said, but it’s time to have that same emphasis at the DoD level. “We need to think about what's going to give us the next generation of dominance on the battlefield and make sure we're focused on the things that have that potential,” he said.

The undersecretary noted the initiative will be overseen by the department’s best technical minds, including Stephen Welby, deputy assistant secretary of defense for systems engineering; Alan Shaffer, principal deputy to the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering; Dr. Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and Katrina McFarland, assistant secretary of defense for acquisition.

A revolution in military affairs

The 1970s study did a thorough job, Kendall said, noting that it yielded the idea for smart munitions and smart seekers for missile defense systems.

“With one or two exceptions, the technologies that were identified as the ones we should be focusing on were pursued and were pursued successfully,” he added. “It did the same thing, basically, in communications and in [the] electronic warfare side of communications in terms of protecting data links and so on.”
Kendall credited the initiative with “sowing the seeds” for today’s capabilities and revolutionized the efficiency of battlefield performance -- meaning fewer troops were needed to meet particular objectives.

This new efficiency was demonstrated dramatically in the first Gulf War, he said.
“We had a suite of things that included stealth -- and even the classified version of this study doesn't talk about stealth, because at the time, it was completely under wraps -- but smart munitions, wide-area sensors, networking and stealth combined are … the revolution that we unleashed on the world in the first Gulf War,” Kendall said.

The world was watching

Other countries took note of the effect technology had on the battlefields of Kuwait, he said.

“We were expected to have about 10,000 casualties in the first Gulf War and we had a few hundred. … We demonstrated the ability to take out a relatively modern conventional force very, very efficiently, very, very quickly,” Kendall said. “Nobody watched that more than the Chinese.”

Russia was watching, too, the undersecretary noted. A lot of theories were generated about what the quick victory and the successful employment of the new technologies portended, he said.

“We have ridden that set of capabilities ever since,” Kendall said. “We used it in Serbia, very effectively. We used it when we went into Afghanistan, went into Iraq, used it in Libya, we're using it right now. But a lot of time has gone by since 1991, and people have had a chance to respond. They've also had a chance to build similar capabilities.”

Nations are building smarter weapons, the undersecretary said, and those weapons are proliferating around the world.

“Nobody has a monopoly on technology,” Kendall said. “It never stands still. And once you've seen that someone else has solved the problem and knows how to do something, it's not hard for you to do the same thing as well.”

NSF SUPPORTS DIVERSITY WITH ASTRONOMY PROGRAM

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Making stars

Astronomy program provides tools, support to enhance diversity

October 7, 2014

Like so many other children, Fabienne Bastien did not like to go to sleep at bedtime.

She recalls her mother lying alongside her, telling her to look out her window into the night sky because her guardian angel was there. And as she searched for this elusive guardian angel, what she found instead was the moon and stars, among other astronomical delights.

Despite Washington, D.C., metro-area light pollution that can restrict one's view of the cosmos, Bastien pinpoints that moment as the one when she got hooked on astronomy, knowing it held her future, if not an actual guardian angel.

Many astronomers and astrophysicists speak of that same source of inspiration. But, while our solar system's immensity and beauty have an almost universal appeal, the astronomy and astrophysics career field has had very little representation from minority populations.

In a study done by the American Astronomical Society, which includes most professionals and many students in these fields, only 21 percent of its members is female, which is light-years ahead of the representation of African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos--1 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Not surprisingly, those numbers have prompted a call for diversity within the astro community.

In 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) started a program called Partnerships in Astronomy and Astrophysics Research and Education (PAARE, pronounced "pair"). Its goal was to identify and explore ways to repair "leaks" in the astronomy/astrophysics career pipeline for minority students. In many cases, minority students would start out studying astronomy, but they weren't making it all the way through the pipeline to pursue science careers.

When Bastien finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, she too wasn't sure whether she was appropriately prepared for the rigors of a grad school education in astronomy.

"I was petrified of grad school," she said. "I hadn't taken advantage of research opportunities as an undergrad largely due to personal challenges. But also because our department was so big, I fell between the cracks there."

PAARE aimed to make the face of astronomy more inclusive by seeing that minority students like Bastien got the right mix of resources, mentoring and encouragement. The partnership found that this required a multi-faceted approach that could target those pipeline points where "leaks" were most likely and "pair" some strong astronomy programs with schools that have more diverse populations, providing mentoring and support.

In Bastien's case, the PAARE Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program proved to be one where she not only got her Ph.D., but had the opportunity to analyze stellar variability data, which led to a paper in Nature, being named a Hubble fellow and to her current postdoctoral work at Penn State.

The leaky pipeline

"We currently fund several highly complementary PAARE partnerships, which attack the leaky pipeline at different stages," said Dan Evans, the NSF program director who manages PAARE funding for the Division of Astronomical Sciences. "We're deeply concerned about the underrepresentation of minority students in astronomy and are massively proud of the successes of the students and staff who have participated in PAARE. We are exposing students to cutting-edge research. We are providing important new opportunities. And mentoring is utterly critical."

Though the partnerships target different points in the pipeline, they all emphasize mentoring, access to research opportunities and resources early on. They also emphasize an infrastructure that can address both academic and personal issues that might hinder progress.

"Queens is the most diverse county in the country," said Tim Paglione, director of AstroCom NYC, a partnership between astronomers at the City Universities of New York (CUNY), the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University. Of the current PAARE partnerships, this is the only one that focuses exclusively on undergraduate students, targeting freshmen and sophomores. It also has the added challenge of CUNY being located throughout New York City, creating unique transportation issues that can deter students who feel inadequately prepared or supported.

That's why this program only accepts four new students each year. It supports students with summer fellowships, school scholarships, transportation stipends and program-provided laptops. It also provides long-term career mentors, research mentors, travel to observatories and professional meetings and membership in the American Astronomical Society.

"The problem is gigantic, but our astronomy field is also small," Paglione said. "That means even with our little program, we can have an impact. If we graduated two students each year from underrepresented groups who then went onto graduate school, we would be one of the leading programs in the country."

Keivan Stassun started a PAARE-like partnership even before PAARE existed, using funding from his NSF CAREER award in 2003 to develop the Fisk-Vanderbilt program, which focused on the potential pipeline leak at this juncture.

"That CAREER award gave me seed funding to do things like develop a website and recruit a couple of students as research assistants," Stassun said. "The CAREER grant got the whole thing going, both in terms of cash and caché as I got buy-in from both universities."

Broader than just astronomy, Stassun' s program has admitted 78 students in physics, biology, chemistry, materials science and astronomy, with the belief that they can impact these STEM disciplines as well. "This felt like the perfect program for me," Bastien recalled. "The extra encouragement helped. I was immediately working on real science--on rare eruptive young stars--because they serendipitously had these data they needed analyzed."

Another potential leak in this pipeline comes right after college, and South Carolina State University (SCSU) partnered with the NSF-funded National Optical Astronomy Observatory and Clemson University to address the loss of minority astronomy students at this stage of their education.

"We hoped to mirror Keivan's success at Vanderbilt," said Don Walter, who started the Partnership in Observational and Computational Astronomy, based on an undergraduate physics curriculum at SCSU. "We overestimated the number of students we'd get involved, so we haven't yet seen the numbers at the grad program that we hoped for, but the momentum is there, and we believe we have the right supports in place."

The SCSU partnership admittedly has had different obstacles and issues. It doesn't have full-time researchers because SCSU is a predominantly undergraduate school. The astrophysics portion of the curriculum is a concentration, not a degree. And the STEM graduate programs are a few hours away at Clemson, not nearby.

Mentoring makes the difference

"We try to spend a lot of time with our students as soon as possible. Because they don't take their first physics courses until their second year, it would be easy for them to get lost," Walter said. "I'll ask them to come by to make sure we connect early on--even waiting outside their classrooms if my emails don't bring them in. Students need early interaction."

This is a common theme throughout PAARE partnerships. Interaction with other students at the same and more advanced levels, as well as faculty, seems critical to success.

"We've added a number of mentoring layers," Stassun said about the Fisk-Vanderbilt program. "We assign to all incoming students a pair of peer mentors known as 'bridge buddies' who are students just one year ahead, and another mentor who is a few years further ahead. That way, they can see their future in front of them. We now also have a postdocs association, where the postdocs spend three-quarters of their time on their own research, but also a quarter of their time mentoring. They hold office hours, so students can talk to them, which offers a different perspective from faculty advisers."

At SCSU, one of the biggest challenges actually has been personal and financial problems that interfere with students staying in school.

"Some good students have had major personal or family issues," he said. "Money is tight, and many students find it too difficult to balance school life with demands in their personal lives. One female student in our physics program was an A-B student, but in the middle of the semester, her parents asked her to return home to care for a sick brother. She would have been a good undergraduate student and good graduate student."

Success determined by grit?

Interestingly enough, the admissions process for these PAARE partnerships has gone beyond evaluating just grades and test scores.

Stassun referred to a Nature article that he published this year with colleague Casey Miller about the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, gender and ethnic bias that was discovered using published data from the Educational Testing Service that makes those tests. Their study found that women score approximately 80 points lower than men on the test's math section; and African Americans, approximately 200 points lower than Whites and Asians, on average.

For that reason, Stassun and his team put together a different set of metrics to measure something he refers to as "grit" or performance character.

"We found that the most successful students weren't necessarily the ones with the highest test scores," he said. "Graduate school is about persistence, so it makes sense to try and determine a candidate's capacity for being persistent. Consequently, we have achieved a very large, diverse program with a 90-percent Ph.D. persistence rate versus the national rate which is barely better than 50 percent." In other words, 90 percent of the students at Fisk-Vanderbilt are getting their doctoral degrees. He credits that success to careful, yet diverse selection and smart mentoring.

"PAARE funding makes a difference," Walter said. "In the August American Institute of Physics newsletter, SCSU was tied for eighth position nationally in terms of African American physics bachelors of science degree graduates during the five-year period, 2008-2012. We'd only graduated 12, but because the pool is so small, we're one of the top schools. PAARE helped us provide our students with meaningful internships at places like the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which keeps their interest alive while giving them important experience."

Ariel Diaz, who attends the CUNY program, is a PAARE student who has benefitted from those experiences and demonstrated his "grit." A former Marine, he lives in New York City with his ailing father, whom he cares for. His astronomy interest was piqued in an introductory class that was far from the "easy A" he thought it would be. However, he found he really enjoyed the class, and Paglione's team recognized a student who had the wherewithal to succeed. Today, Diaz sifts through X-ray data from Chandra Observatory, looking for signals that could indicate black holes or other astronomical events.

"He's grown as a student. He's building a vision of himself in this career," Paglione said. "And honestly, that's what we want to do here. We want our students to see that future in themselves."

-- Ivy F. Kupec
Investigators
Donald Walter
Keivan Stassun
Timothy Paglione
Related Institutions/Organizations
Fisk University
CUNY York College
University of Texas at El Paso
South Carolina State University

WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE CARE FOR MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

October 06, 2014

FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Executive Actions to Improve Quality of Care for Medicare Beneficiaries

Today, the Administration announced new executive actions and the President signed into law legislation that will improve the quality of care for nursing home and home health patients. The President signed the Improving Medicare Post Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), bipartisan legislation that puts in place new and streamlined quality measures for nursing homes, home health agencies, and other post-acute care providers participating in Medicare. The Administration also took additional steps to improve care for nursing home and home health patients through new executive actions that will:

Expand and strengthen Medicare’s widely-used Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes, also known as Nursing Home Compare.
Improve quality home health care received by Medicare beneficiaries through a proposed rule that strengthens patient rights, improves communication, and focuses on patient well-being.
Actions to Improve Medicare’s Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes

Today, the Administration announced plans to expand and strengthen Medicare’s widely-used Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes, also known as Nursing Home Compare.  The rating system is a consumer service that offers useful information to the public about the quality of care in the 15,800 nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid.  Users may sort through nursing homes in their area through an online tool at CMS’ Nursing Home Compare website.

The Five Star Quality Rating System offers the most comprehensive overview of nursing home quality in the U.S., in an easy to understand format, based on data from onsite inspections conducted by trained, objective surveyors from state public health departments and CMS; Quality Measures submitted by the nursing homes is used to calculate certain quality measures, such as the prevalence of pressure ulcers, use of restraints, and the extent of injurious falls; and information about the staffing levels in nursing homes.

While the onsite inspections form the core of the rating system, CMS has been concerned that the quality measures and information about staffing levels rely on self-reported data from nursing homes that have been difficult to verify.

Beginning in January 2015 CMS will initiate the following steps to improve the reliability and utility of data displayed on Nursing Home Compare as well as to help nursing homes improve:

Nationwide Focused Survey Inspections:  In FY 2014 CMS piloted special surveys of nursing homes that focused on verifying performance on resident assessments and the data set that is used in the quality measures.  Effective January 2015, CMS and states will implement these focused survey inspections nationwide for a sample of nursing homes nationwide.  Expansion of these inspections will enable better verification of both the staffing and quality measure information that is part of the Five-Star Quality Rating System.

Payroll-Based Staffing Reporting: Using new funding provided by the IMPACT Act of 2014, signed by the President today, CMS will implement a system of quarterly electronic reporting that is auditable back to payrolls to verify staffing information.  This new system will increase accuracy, improve the timeliness of the data, and allow for the calculation of quality measures for staff turnover, retention, types of staffing, and levels of different types of staffing.  This data will not only allow for better information available to the public, but may equip nursing homes with better data by which to improve staffing and quality of care.  CMS expects that pilot testing will occur in fiscal year (FY) 2015, with nationwide reporting by all nursing homes by the end of FY2016.

Improved Scoring Methodology: CMS will revise the scoring methodology by which we calculate each facility’s Five Star rating. The revised scoring methods will place more emphasis on data that is verified by independent sources rather than data that is self-reported by nursing homes.
Timely and Complete Inspection Data: CMS will also strengthen requirements to ensure that states complete inspections of nursing homes in a timely and accurate manner, and maintain a user-friendly website for public viewing.
Additional Quality Measures: CMS will increase both the number and type of quality measures used in Nursing Home Compare.  The first additional measure starting January 2015 in the ratings system will be the extent to which anti-psychotic medications are in use. More measures will be added later, including data on re-hospitalization and rates of returning beneficiaries to home that use Medicare claims as the source of information.
Actions to Improve Quality Home Health Care Received by Medicare Beneficiaries

In conjunction with today’s efforts to improve the quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a proposed rule that strengthens patient rights, improves communication, and focuses on patient well-being. These rules are designed to improve the quality of home health services for Medicare beneficiaries.

These updates to home health agency conditions of participation (CoPs) make substantial revisions to the existing CoPs.  They focus on the care needs of patients and will clarify the operational and quality expectations for the approximately 12,500 home health agencies participating in Medicare. There are more than five million people with Medicare and Medicaid benefits who receive home health care services each year.

The proposed regulation, will include these proposed updates:

A clear explanation of patient rights, including a requirement to communicate with patients in a language and manner that they understand, and a requirement that home health agencies must take measures to assure and protect those rights.
An expanded comprehensive patient assessment requirement that focuses on all aspects of patient well-being.

An integrated communication system, increasingly enabled by health information technology, that ensures that patient needs are identified and addressed, care is coordinated among all disciplines, and that there is active, timely, needs-based communication between the home health agency and the physician.
A data-driven, agency-wide quality assessment and performance improvement program that continually evaluates and improves agency care for patients.
An expanded patient care coordination requirement that makes a licensed clinician responsible for all patient care services, such as coordinating referrals and assuring that plans of care meet each patient’s needs at all times.
Comments and feedback are requested to inform final rulemaking in 2015.

IMPACT Act

The President signed the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, bipartisan legislation that puts in place new and streamlined quality measures for nursing homes, home health agencies, and other post-acute care providers participating in Medicare.

The Act will facilitate patients comparing outcomes across different care settings, supporting better choices and better outcomes for patients. In addition, the IMPACT Act funds a key improvement to nursing home oversight, the collection of staffing data. Nursing and other staffing levels are closely correlated with quality in nursing homes and current data collection efforts have produced data of uneven reliability. The IMPACT Act also institutes more routine surveys of hospice providers, ensuring program standards are met for the benefit and safety of patients.

TWO PEOPLE SENTENCED FOR FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

JUSTICE NEWS

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, October 6, 2014

Two Michigan Men Sentenced to Prison for Filing False Claims Against Internal Revenue Service

Two Detroit area men were sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for conspiracy and filing $3.4 million in false claims against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Justice Department and IRS announced.

Jason McGuire, 38, of Detroit, was sentenced to serve 63 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and to pay $1.675 million in restitution.  Delvin Davis, 37, of Saint Clair Shores, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 42 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and to pay $1.146 million in restitution.

On Jan. 30, McGuire and Davis were found guilty by a jury in Detroit of conspiracy to file false claims in the form of false individual income tax returns and false trust tax returns.  The defendants were also found guilty of filing or aiding and abetting in the filing of false, fictitious and fraudulent claims; McGuire was found guilty of 18 such counts and Davis was found guilty of five counts.  Witness testimony revealed that the defendants attended the same high school in Detroit and started the scheme in 2008.  Prior to that time, McGuire had worked as a mechanic and Davis had worked as a mortgage broker and operated a credit repair business.

According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, McGuire and Davis recruited individuals from the Detroit area with whom they had existing, long-standing business and personal relationships to sign fraudulent trust and income tax returns.  McGuire had the taxpayers sign blank trust return forms, and the taxpayers never saw the filled-out forms before they were filed.  McGuire attached bogus forms to the income tax returns.  McGuire included fictitious withholdings in both types of return forms which resulted in the taxpayers receiving large refunds.  The defendants recruited at least nine different taxpayers to participate in the fraudulent scheme.  The IRS received returns requesting more than $3.4 million in false refunds and paid more than $1.5 million in false refunds as a result of the fraudulent scheme.  Several taxpayers testified at trial that they were required to pay fines and interest to the IRS as a result of the false tax returns that the defendants submitted.

This case was investigated by special agents from IRS – Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Stafford for the Eastern District of Michigan and Trial Attorney Mark McDonald of the Tax Division.

DOJ ANNOUNCES INDICTMENTS IN IMITATION PRESCRIPTION DRUG SMUGGLING CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Three Indicted in Prescription Drug Smuggling Ring

The Department of Justice announced today that three Athens, Texas, residents have been indicted on charges associated with their alleged smuggling of imitation, unapproved, and misbranded prescription drugs from China.

Wanda Hollis, 63, Tom Giddens, 57, and Catherine Nix, 41, were each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to smuggle merchandise into the United States, seven counts of causing the introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead, seven counts of smuggling and one count of tampering with a witness.  Giddens was also charged with two additional counts of tampering and Nix was charged with one additional tampering count.  The defendants were also charged with misdemeanor counts of causing misbranded imitation drugs to be introduced into interstate commerce.  Nix was arrested on October 2 in Athens.  Giddens and Hollis surrendered this morning.

According to the indictment, the defendants conspired to smuggle at least 30 known shipments, totaling approximately 100,000 pills, from China to Texas.  As alleged in the indictment, the shipments contained bogus imitations of Xanax, Valium, sibutramine, Cialis, Viagra and Stilnox, which is marketed in the United States as Ambien.  None of the pills seized and tested were legitimate, and all either contained incorrect active ingredients or were sub-potent.  The defendants also attempted to conceal their smuggling by using shipping labels that concealed the contents of their shipments, including customs declarations falsely describing the contents as “gifts” or “toys” with low declared monetary values, and by using multiple addresses in an effort to reduce the likelihood of seizures by U.S. Customs authorities.  Additionally, the indictment states that the defendants instructed family members to destroy evidence once they became aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was investigating them.

“The smuggling and sale of counterfeit prescription drugs puts the public's health and safety at risk,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “Consumers should know that the drugs they are buying are what they purported to be and not misbranded to look like name-brand products that could ultimately do them more harm than good.”

“A key element of FDA’s mission to protect the public’s health is to ensure that safe and effective prescription drugs are properly distributed via the supply chain and dispensed to the ultimate consumer, and that includes ensuring that those prescription drugs contain the treatments that patients expect,” said Acting Director Philip J. Walsky of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.  “We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those who would put the public’s health at risk by introducing illegal prescription drugs.”

This case was investigated by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John W.M. Claud of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.



Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

DARPRA DEMONSTRATES FIVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES UNDER DEVELOPMENT

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

DARPA Officials Show Hagel Technologies Under Development

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2014 – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program personnel demonstrated five technologies under development to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in the secretary's conference room yesterday.
DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar provided the secretary with a demonstration of the agency's latest prosthetics technology.

The wounded warrior demonstrating the device was Fred Downs Jr., an old friend of Hagel's who lost an arm in a landmine explosion while fighting in Vietnam. Hagel hugged him and shook his mechanical hand, with Downs joking, "I don't want to hurt you."

"He and I worked together many years ago," said Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts during his service as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam. "How you doing, Fred? How's your family?"

Downs demonstrated how he controls movements of the arm, which appeared to be partly covered in translucent white plastic, with two accelerometers strapped to his feet. Through a combination of foot movements, he's able to control the elbow, wrist and fingers in a variety of movements, including the “thumbs-up” sign he gave Hagel.

It took only a few hours to learn to control the arm, Downs said.
"It's the first time in 45 years, since Vietnam, I'm able to use my left hand, which was a very emotional time," he said.

Dr. Justin Sanchez, a medical doctor and program manager at DARPA who works with prosthetics and brain-related technology, told Hagel that DARPA's arm is designed to mimic the shape, size and weight of a human arm. It's modular too, so it can replace a lost hand, lower arm or a complete arm.
Hagel said such technology would have a major impact on the lives of injured troops.

"This is transformational," he said. "We've never seen anything like this before."
Next, Sanchez showed Hagel a video of a patient whose brain had been implanted with a sensor at the University of Pittsburgh, allowing her to control an arm with her thoughts.

Matt Johannes, an engineer from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, showed Hagel a shiny black hand and arm that responds to brain impulses. The next step is to put sensors in the fingers that can send sensations back to the brain.

"If you don't have line of sight on something you're trying to grab onto, you can use that sensory information to assist with that task," Johannes said.
The tactile feedback system should be operational within a few months, he said.
"People said it would be 50 years before we saw this technology in humans," Sanchez said. "We did it in a few years."

Next, officials gave Hagel an overview of the DARPA Robotic Challenge, a competition to develop a robot for rescue and disaster response that was inspired by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan.

Virginia Tech University's entrant in the contest, the hulking 6-foot-2-inch Atlas robot developed by Boston Dynamics, stood in the background as Hagel was shown a video of robots walking over uneven ground and carrying things.

Brad Tousley, head of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, explained to Hagel that Hollywood creates unrealistic expectations of robotic capability. In fact, he said, building human-like robots capable of autonomously doing things such as climbing ladders, opening doors and carrying things requires major feats of engineering and computer science.

Journalists were escorted out before the remaining three technologies could be demonstrated because of classified concerns. A defense official speaking on background told reporters that Hagel was brought up to date on the progress of three other DARPA programs:

-- Plan X, a foundational cyberwarfare program to develop platforms for the Defense Department to plan for, conduct and assess cyberwarfare in a manner similar to kinetic warfare;

-- Persistent close air support, a system to, among other things, link up joint tactical air controllers with close air support aircraft using commercially available tablets; and

-- A long-range anti-ship missile, planned to reduce dependence on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, network links and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. Autonomous guidance algorithms should allow the LRASM to use less-precise target cueing data to pinpoint specific targets in the contested domain, the official said. The program also focuses on innovative terminal survivability approaches and precision lethality in the face of advanced countermeasures.

(From a pool report.)

10/6/14: White House Press Briefing

AIRSTRIKES CONTINUE IN IRAQ, SYRIA

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Airstrikes Pound ISIL in Syria, Iraq

From a U.S. Central Command News Release

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 7, 2014 – U.S. and partner-nation military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria yesterday and today, using attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct nine airstrikes, U.S. Central Command officials reported.

Separately, officials added, U.S. military forces used attack and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct four airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq.

In Syria, two airstrikes west of Hasakah successfully struck multiple ISIL buildings, including an air observation building and staging areas, officials said, and another airstrike northeast of Dayr az Zawr successfully struck an ISIL staging area and an IED production facility.

An airstrike south of Kobani destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles and damaged another, and another strike southeast of Kobani destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery. Two airstrikes southwest of Kobani damaged an ISIL tank, and another strike south of Kobani destroyed an ISIL unit.

In addition, an airstrike southwest of Rabiyah struck a small group of ISIL fighters.

U.S. forces employed Air Force attack, fighter and bomber aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also participated in these airstrikes, Centcom officials said, and all aircraft safely left the strike areas.

In Iraq, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle firing on Kurdish Peshmerga forces northeast of Sinjar. Three more airstrikes northeast of Sinjar destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles and struck a small group of ISIL fighters.
To conduct these strikes, U.S. forces employed Air Force attack and remotely piloted aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations, officials said. Belgium also participated in these airstrikes, officials added, and all aircraft left the strike areas safely.

PRESIDENT OBAMA PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON THE EBOLA OUTBREAK

NSF VIDEO: HIGH-TECH HARVEST ENGINEERING AGRICULTURE'S FUTURE

AG HOLDER CALLS CUTS TO EARLY VOTING CUTS IN OHIO "A MAJOR STEP BACKWARD"

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Attorney General Holder Calls Cuts to Early Voting a 'Step Backward' as Restrictions Take Effect in Ohio, Elsewhere

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision late last month to allow Ohio’s new voting law to go into effect, Attorney General Eric Holder criticized the law’s restrictions on early voting, which he said were “heavily used” by African-American voters.

“It is a major step backward to allow these reductions to early voting to go into effect,” the Attorney General said in a video message posted on the Justice Department’s website.  “Early voting is about much more than making it more convenient for people to exercise their civic responsibilities.  It’s about preserving access and openness for every eligible voter, not just those who can afford to miss work or who can afford to pay for childcare.”

The Ohio law has been the subject of a lawsuit by civil rights groups and the Justice Department filed a brief in the case in July.  A federal judge ruled that the law violated the Voting Rights Act and blocked it from taking effect.  A federal appeals court judge upheld that ruling, but the Supreme Court disagreed and ruled the law should go into effect immediately. Absent the Court’s ruling, early voting would have begun in Ohio last Tuesday.

In North Carolina, the Justice Department has directly challenged a state law that cuts back on early voting and eliminates same-day registration.  While no ruling on the merits has been issued yet in that case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week to allow much of the law—including the reductions to early voting—to go into effect in the meantime.

The complete text of the Attorney General’s video message appears below.

“One of the Justice Department’s most solemn responsibilities is ensuring access to the ballot box for every eligible citizen.  And over the last six years, my colleagues and I have taken robust action to protect the voting rights of all Americans – including communities that have been too long overlooked and too often underserved.

“Before the Shelby County case was wrongly decided, we successfully challenged efforts in Texas and Florida that would have disproportionately disenfranchised citizens of color in those states, and South Carolina had to make changes to its voting restrictions.  It should not be lost on us that almost as soon as the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County was handed down, the state of Texas implemented a photo ID law that the courts had previously blocked, and that North Carolina implemented sweeping restrictions on voting rights.  The Department of Justice has now been forced to challenge those discriminatory laws in court.

“Our work has taken us to other parts of our nation as well.  We have worked to protect the voting rights of servicemembers, and to ensure accessible polling places throughout Indian Country and Alaska Native communities.  And we have fought back against discriminatory redistricting proposals that may make it more difficult for many Americans to make their voices heard.

“Despite these efforts, in some places, we’ve continued to see troubling new measures that unnecessarily restrict the ability of particular Americans to participate in the democratic process.  Ohio, for example, has imposed new restrictions that significantly reduce opportunities for early voting – opportunities that had in the past been heavily used by African-American voters.

“The early voting times targeted for cancellation – including weeknight and Sunday hours – previously provided critical opportunities for many people to get to the polls.  In 2012, tens of thousands of Ohio voters cast their ballots during the voting days that Ohio has now eliminated.  And studies suggest that these restrictions will disproportionately affect people with childcare responsibilities, hourly salaries, and reduced access to transportation – people who may have difficulty getting to the polls at any other time, and who are much more likely to be low-income or minority individuals.

“It is a major step backward to allow these reductions to early voting to go into effect.  The public should be demanding the state officials who seek to impose these restrictions to justify—clearly, factually, and empirically—why they are necessary.  Early voting is about much more than making it more convenient for people to exercise their civic responsibilities.  It’s about preserving access and openness for every eligible voter, not just those who can afford to miss work or who can afford to pay for childcare.  That’s why a number of states have expanded early voting in recent years.  Throughout our nation’s history, we’ve repeatedly seen that there is simply no good reason – no good reason – to reduce voting access.  Indeed, the arc of our nation’s history has, until recently, been to expand access to the ballot.  Restricting voting hours in ways that would disproportionately impact minority communities is not only unnecessary and unwarranted – it is out of step with our history of continually expanding the franchise.  It is contrary to our fundamental values of equality, opportunity, and inclusion.  And it is an affront to millions who have marched, and fought, and too often died to make real America’s most basic promise.  Three brave young men gave their lives in 1964, as did a courageous Detroit mother of five in 1965, so that others might be able to vote and be truly free.  Are we now to turn our back on those ultimate sacrifices?

“We at the Department of Justice will never rest in our efforts to ensure the right to vote.  Nor will I.  And today, I’m calling on election officials and other public servants at every level across the country – men and women who are charged with upholding America’s highest ideals – to consider their responsibilities not to political constituencies, but to the country we all serve.  To think about the deep unfairness of curtailing voting opportunities.  And to reflect on their place in the history of this country to which they are potentially consigning themselves.

“In a great nation governed both by and for the people, our advances have always been of our own making.  And going forward, it will be up to all of us to ensure that engagement in that democratic process remains the responsibility and the birthright of every American.”

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT ON EXPORT DATA RELEASE

FROM:  U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 

Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg Statement on the Release of Export Data from the Commerce Department

U.S. Exports Reach A Record-High $198.5 Billion in August

Washington, D.C. – Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg issued the following statement with respect to August’s record-high export data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Commerce Department. According to BEA, the United States exported $198.5 billion of goods and services in August 2014, the highest mark for any month ever recorded.

“These numbers are another clear demonstration that the global demand for products stamped ‘Made in America’ continues to grow. Ex-Im Bank is proud to support U.S. exporters and their workers as they expand their sales in the global marketplace, and create quality, middle class jobs here at home.”

Exports of goods and services over the last twelve months totaled $2.3 trillion, which is 47.1 percent above 2009 levels, and have been growing at an annualized rate of 8.6 percent over the last five years.

DOJ SAYS IT WILL NOT CHALLENGED TruSTAR PLATFORM

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Friday, October 3, 2014

Department of Justice Will Not Challenge Proposed Cyber Intelligence Data-Sharing Platform

The Department of Justice announced that it will not challenge a proposal by CyberPoint International LLC to offer a cyber intelligence data-sharing platform known as TruSTAR.   The TruSTAR platform allows members to share threat and incident data along with attack information and develop remediation solutions to help define more effective strategies across industries to prevent successful cyber attacks.

The department’s position was stated in a business review letter to counsel for CyberPoint, from Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

CyberPoint’s proposed information sharing system is designed to address shortfalls in conventional, legacy information sharing services, while operating within the framework set forth in the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity Information.[1]  Assistant Attorney General Baer cited to the department’s April policy statement with the Federal Trade Commission to underscore that “the federal antitrust agencies recognize the important role that information sharing plays in securing the nation’s IT infrastructure.”  He further said that “[t]he antitrust laws are not an impediment to legitimate private-sector initiatives to share specific information about cyber incidents and mitigation techniques in order to defend against cyber attacks.”  In approving the proposed TruSTAR platform, he concluded that the operation of the TruSTAR platform, as proposed, would be unlikely to facilitate price or other competitive coordination.

CyberPoint is a privately held company that provides security products, services and solutions to commercial and government customers.  The TruSTAR platform is designed to collect incident reports that include specific and highly technical cyber-threat information, including current attack actors, targets of attack, contextual information regarding threats, and remediation solutions.  An important component of the TruSTAR platform is that members are able to submit incident reports with complete anonymity.  The TruSTAR platform also provides a community forum for members to anonymously collaborate with their peers on cyber threats and techniques for responding to them.  Before they are permitted to use the system, all members who participate in any aspect of information sharing on the TruSTAR platform must agree not to share competitively sensitive information.

Under the department’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the division currently intends to challenge the action under the antitrust laws based on the information provided.  The department reserves the right to challenge the proposed action under the antitrust laws if it produces anticompetitive effects.

A file containing the business review request and the department’s response may be examined in the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 1010, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the business review procedure.

[1] See Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission:  Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cyber Security Information (April 10, 2014) (“DOJ and FTC Antitrust Policy Statement”).

FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT PLEADS GUILTY IN BRIBERY TO OBSTRUCT A GRAND JURY CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Former FBI Special Agent and Co-Defendant Plead Guilty to Conspiracy, Bribery, and Obstruction of Justice Scheme

A former FBI special agent and a conspirator pleaded guilty in the District of Utah yesterday and today to participating in a bribery scheme to obstruct a grand jury investigation in exchange for the promise of cash and multimillion dollar business contracts offered by a businessman under investigation.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen of the District of Utah and Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz made the announcement after the guilty pleas were accepted by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell.

“No one is above the law, no matter what rank or badge a person might hold,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “Corruption by those entrusted to enforce the law strikes at the heart of our criminal justice system, and it will not be tolerated.  This case lays bare a disgraceful attempt by a veteran FBI agent to get rich by thwarting an ongoing investigation.  The Justice Department will fight corruption wherever we find it, even within the ranks of federal law enforcement.”

“These plea agreements demonstrate that Federal law enforcement officers who sell their badges for cash and frustrate the administration of justice will be held accountable for their actions,” said Inspector General Horowitz.  “Department employees are held to the highest standards, and we cannot permit our criminal justice system to be stained by such bribery and corruption.”

“When a law enforcement officer violates his oath and the public’s trust by breaking the law, he must be held accountable,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Christensen.  “In this case, former Agent Lustyik’s decision to enter into a conspiracy to obstruct a significant fraud investigation in Utah is a troubling reminder that corruption may exist even among those we entrust with protecting our citizens and upholding our laws.”

A 24-year veteran of the FBI, Robert Lustyik Jr., 51, of Sleepy Hollow, New York, pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2014, to an 11-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, eight counts of honest services wire fraud, obstruction of a grand jury proceeding, and obstruction of an agency proceeding.  A childhood friend of Lustyik, Johannes Thaler, 50, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of a grand jury proceeding and obstruction of an agency proceeding.  Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2015.

In court documents and at the plea hearings, Lustyik and Thaler admitted that from October 2011 to September 2012, Lustyik, while employed as an FBI counterintelligence special agent, and Thaler conspired to use Lustyik’s official position to obstruct a criminal investigation into Michael Taylor, a businessman who owned and operated American International Security Corporation and was under investigation for paying kickbacks to obtain a series of contracts from the Department of Defense worth approximately $54 million.  Taylor promised Lustyik and Thaler that in exchange for their help, he would provide them cash and multimillion dollar business contracts.  Taylor told the two men: “I’ll make you guys more money than you can believe, provided they don’t think I’m a bad guy and put me in jail.”

Court documents state that Lustyik attempted to obstruct the investigation into Taylor by opening Taylor as an official FBI source in an effort to persuade the FBI, the Justice Department and the prosecutors and law enforcement agents investigating Taylor that Taylor’s usefulness as a source outweighed the government’s interest in prosecuting him.  Lustyik also advocated on Taylor’s behalf directly to the prosecutors and law enforcement agents, urging them to use Taylor as a cooperating witness and emphasizing that indicting Taylor would threaten the nation’s security.

According to court documents, while Lustyik was obstructing the investigation into Taylor, Lustyik suggested that Thaler “blatantly” ask Taylor for money, emphasizing “he knows we are keeping him outta jail.”  Lustyik explained to Thaler that on his upcoming trip to meet Taylor in Lebanon, “Taylor is gonna hand you cash in Lebanon,” “[l]ike 150 gs.”  When Thaler asked Lustyik how he was supposed to bring that much cash back to the United States, Lustyik instructed him “[i]n your pants.  Or wire it?  They won’t stop 2 white guys at customs without a reason, [o]r I meet you at customs at JFK and cred you in.”

Court records state that during the conspiracy, Lustyik and Thaler acknowledged that Taylor was probably guilty, but they boasted about their success in using Lustyik’s official position to obstruct the investigation into Taylor, with Lustyik texting Thaler, “at this point IF he is indicted there is NO WAY he gets convicted even though he Prob did it.”  During the conspiracy, Lustyik texted Thaler, “I think we are rich by Christmas!!”  When Thaler asked why, Lustyik responded, “he [Taylor] is gonna be free!!!!!!!!”

Taylor pleaded guilty in the District of Utah to honest services wire fraud for his role in the scheme on Nov. 27, 2013.  He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 5, 2015.

The investigation was conducted by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tom Hopkins of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General.  The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Peter Koski and Trial Attorney Maria Lerner of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and Trial Attorney Ann Marie Blaylock of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section.  Scott Ferber of the Counterespionage Section of the National Security Division also assisted in the prosecution.

10/6/14: White House Press Briefing

CYBER SECURITY CHIEF DISCUSSES CHALLENGES

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
DARPA Director Discusses Cyber Security Challenges
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

FORT MEADE, Md., Oct. 1, 2014 – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on new ways to protect information and systems that use the Internet, said Arati Prabhakar, the agency’s director.

The current mode of protection – “patch and pray” – really doesn’t work anymore, Prabhakar told the Washington Post’s Cybersecurity Summit today.
DARPA is working to improve cyber security, and Prabhakar discussed the historical background as National Cyber Security Awareness Month kicked off.

The Agency’s early days

The agency formed after the Soviet Union shocked the world with the launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957. Many Americans believed the United States had lost the space race and Soviet domination of space threatened the existence of the free world.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower created DARPA in response to this threat. The agency mission was not to develop the next technology, but to leap ahead to a whole new generation of technology.

And the agency has been successful. DARPA developed what became the Internet and the first information began flowing on it in 1969. The Pentagon agency has been working on cyber security ever since.

Current projects

One of the agency’s projects is to build software that is not hackable. “What that means is there is a mathematical proof that this particular function can’t be hacked from a pathway that wasn’t intended,” Prabhakar said in response to a reporter’s question. “That won’t solve the entire problem, but it might make it more manageable.”

The idea, she said, is to reduce the attack surface hackers can approach.
DARPA is also plumbing the dark depths of the Internet to find those who want to do harm. “You start by creating a different way to look at this vast information environment,” she said. A current project was based on the thesis that law enforcement might find a way to detect hidden networks that relate with hidden trafficking.

“We worked with law enforcement and found that the way they looked at the information space was the same way you or I would look at it,” she said. “You know: a Google search, a single-threaded walk through this environment.”
Finding patterns

DARPA tools dig deep holes through the Web to find patterns and linkages among sites.

“We were able to find a set of phone numbers that were very heavily linked to each other in back page ads where the sex trade is advertised,” she said. The agency gave 600 phone numbers to law enforcement, and they found “466 numbers that tied to criminal violations and they also found numbers that tied to fund transfers in the region around North Korea and they are working to find a human trafficking network.”

New moon shot

One of the hardest challenges for cyber is maintaining web security while the information explosion continues. There are 3 billion people already on the Internet, and that will only increase, Prabhakar said. She feels the same pressure for solutions as the DARPA director who helped with the moon shot in the 1960s.

“The moon shot for cyber security, in my view, is to find techniques that scale faster than the explosion in information,” she said.

It will not be a silver bullet, she said, but a combination of advancements where the cyber security problem will be manageable.

Incredible challenges

This movement is already underway, Prabhakar said. “The most critical systems get the most critical focused attention, whether in DoD or throughout our economy. It is incredibly challenging technically and very challenging from a practical and policy perspective.”

Prabhakar noted security would be absolute if the Internet was sealed off and only select people could use it.

“The power of information technology, and the reason we put up with all these problems, is that it is phenomenally capable for all the things that change how we live and how we work and how create national security,” she said. “You don’t want to cut out any of that capability off in the process of building cyber security.”

MAN ARRESTED BY FBI FOR TRYING TO SUPPORT OVERSEAS TERRORISM

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

FBI Arrests Suburban Chicago Man for Allegedly Attempting to Support Terrorism Overseas

A southwest suburban Bolingbrook man was arrested Saturday night for allegedly attempting to travel overseas to join a foreign terrorist organization operating inside Iraq and Syria, federal law enforcement officials announced today.  The defendant, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, a U.S. citizen, was charged with attempting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Khan was taken into custody without incident at O’Hare International Airport by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force before he attempted to fly to Vienna, Austria, on his way to Istanbul, Turkey.

Khan was charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.  He appeared this morning in U.S. District Court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox, and remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

According to the complaint affidavit, a roundtrip ticket was purchased for Khan on Sept. 26 to travel from Chicago to Istanbul, departing on Saturday, and returning later this week.

Law enforcement agents observed Khan passing through the security screening checkpoint Saturday afternoon at O’Hare’s international terminal.  Federal agents then executed a search warrant at Khan’s residence and recovered multiple handwritten documents that appeared to be drafted by Khan and/or others, which expressed support for ISIL, the affidavit alleges.  Some of those documents, including travel plans and materials referencing ISIL and jihad, are described in the complaint affidavit.

Khan was initially approached by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and was later interviewed later by FBI agents at the airport.

Attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The JTTF is comprised of Special Agents of the FBI, officers of the Chicago Police Department, and representatives from an additional 20 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.  The Justice Department’s National Security Division assisted in the investigation.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Illinois State Police also provided significant assistance.

The arrest and complaint were announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The investigation is continuing, they said.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Hiller and Angel Krull.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.      

14-1092
National Security Division (NSD)
National Security Division

President Obama Speaks at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial

FORMER STATE OF ALABAMA EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING IDENTITIES FROM STATE DATA BASES

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Former Alabama State Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Identities from State Databases Used to Request over $7 Million in Tax Refunds

Today, Tamika Floyd pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aggravated identity theft for her involvement in a Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Scheme (SIRF), announced Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino for the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. for the Middle District of Alabama.

According to the court documents, between 2006 and 2014, Floyd worked at the State of Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, both located in Opelika, Alabama.  At both jobs, she had access to the identification information of individuals.   Beginning in 2012, Floyd was approached to obtain names from her employer that would be used to file false tax returns.  Floyd agreed to steal the names and in turn provided them to her co-conspirator.  Most of the names stolen belonged to teenagers.  Floyd’s co-conspirators used the names she provided to file more than 3,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns that claimed more than $7.5 million in refunds.

A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

The case was investigated by special agents of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.  Trial Attorney Michael Boteler of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Brown for the Middle District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.