Monday, March 5, 2012
DEPUTY AG SPEAKS ON TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME WHILE IN MEXICO CITY
The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
“Deputy Attorney General James Cole Speaks at High Level Hemispheric Meeting Against Transnational Organized Crime Mexico City ~ Thursday, March 1, 2012
Mr. President, Madame Attorney General, Madame Minister, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished attorneys general and guests.
It is a distinct pleasure to be in Mexico City at today’s Hemispheric Meeting and to have the unique opportunity to speak with you – our shared partners in the Americas and Spain – about transnational organized crime, undoubtedly a global menace that we must work together to defeat. Organized criminals have adapted rapidly to the new, globalized world. They are, in fact, helping to shape that world, and not in a good direction. Our peoples, our governments, must prove equally adaptable if we are to prevail. The steps that the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. government as a whole, and our partners around the world are taking to address the threat cannot be overstated.
For many decades the fight against organized crime has been one of the highest enforcement priorities of the Department of Justice. Many dedicated agents and prosecutors over the past 80 years have devoted their careers to the battle against the families of La Cosa Nostra, Italian-American crime groups that at one time existed in most major cities in the United States. More recently, agents and prosecutors have brought an equal level of dedication to the fight against the narco-trafficking cartels, who have been and remain some of the most sophisticated and dangerous transnational organized crime groups in the world.
But even as we continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute these criminal groups, we are aware that the landscape of organized crime has been shifting. The advance of globalization and the internet, while hugely beneficial to people everywhere, has also created unparalleled opportunities for criminals to expand their operations and use the facilities of global communication and commerce to carry out their criminal activities across national borders.
In December 2010 the United States government completed a comprehensive review of international crime. That review concluded that in the previous 15 years transnational criminal networks have forged new and powerful alliances among themselves and with powerful figures in business and government, and that they are engaged in an unprecedented range of illicit activities that are destabilizing to nations and populations around the globe.
Our review noted that the new transnational organized crime groups pose special challenges to law enforcement. For example, some countries undergoing the transition from authoritarian rule often serve as fertile breeding grounds for organized crime. These countries face serious organized crime challenges that will stifle not only their own economic development, but will also have global implications in our increasingly interconnected world.
Organized crime groups in the past often featured rigid lines of authority and closed
memberships. This not only imposed a level of discipline, but it also made them easier to define and combat. The newer organizations often consist of loose networks of individuals or groups that may cooperate on an ad hoc basis to share expertise, skills and resources, while still operating independently and transcending national boundaries. This allows criminals to more easily evade law enforcement and to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. The decentralized nature of their operations also means that law enforcement can no longer cripple the network by arresting a few key leaders.
Because of the sophistication of the world economy, organized crime groups have developed an ability to exploit legitimate actors and their skills in order to further the criminal enterprises. For example, transnational organized criminal groups often rely on lawyers to facilitate illicit transactions. These lawyers create shell companies, open offshore bank accounts in the names of those shell companies, and launder criminal proceeds through trust accounts. Other lawyers working for organized crime figures bring frivolous libel cases against individuals who expose their criminal activities. Business owners and bankers are enlisted to launder money, and employees of legitimate companies are used to conceal smuggling operations. The range of illicit-to-licit relationships is broad. At one end, criminals draw on the public reputations of legitimate actors to maintain a facade of legality for their operations. At the other end are specialists with skills or resources who have been completely subsumed into the criminal networks.
The range of criminal activities that these transnational organized crime groups engage in is extremely broad. While our review concentrated on the crimes these groups were committing in the United States, we see evidence that these groups are committing the same crimes from locations in many other countries as well. I’d like to offer a few examples.
Transnational organized criminals are penetrating key strategic markets. Our review found that alliances between organized criminals and oligarchs from the former Soviet Union threaten U.S. businesses and domestic markets. Industry officials in certain sectors like commodities fear that quasi-licit firms and individuals with major organized crime ties are gaining market share. With their international business connections, large sums of money and political ties, some Eurasian oligarchs operate as quasi-legitimate business figures to open the doors of U.S. companies and markets to organized crime influence.
We also found that transnational organized crime groups increasingly use cyberspace to target U.S. consumers and businesses, using a variety of techniques to drain their bank accounts and steal their identities. In addition to “phishing”, advanced fee fraud schemes and Internet auction fraud, criminals use more sophisticated techniques such as the remote targeting of point-of-sale machines. The U.S. Secret Service estimates that criminals using anonymous web sites to buy and sell stolen identities have caused billions of dollars in losses to the United States’ financial infrastructure. Some estimates indicate that online frauds perpetrated by Central European cybercrime networks alone have defrauded U.S. citizens or entities of approximately $1 billion in a single year.
Transnational organized crime groups are increasingly engaging in a variety of public sector fraud, including frauds against the U.S. Government. Such crimes include food stamp and welfare fraud, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and government grant and loan program fraud. For example, in October 2010 seventy-three defendants, including a number of alleged members and associates of an Armenian-American organized crime enterprise, were charged with various health care fraud-related crimes involving more than $163 million in fraudulent billing to Medicare and insurance companies.
We also found that transnational organized criminal networks are increasingly active in stealing critical U.S. intellectual property, including through intrusions into corporate and proprietary computer networks. Theft of this kind of property, ranging from movies to proprietary designs of high-tech devices and manufacturing processes, causes significant business losses and erodes our competitiveness in the global marketplace. From 2005 to 2010 the yearly value of seizures in the United States of illegal products that violated intellectual property laws jumped from $93 million to $188 million. Products originating in China accounted for 66 per cent of these seizures in 2010.
Finally, transnational criminals prey upon weaknesses and differences in international transportation and customs security regimes. Specialized criminal networks feature prominently in the trafficking of narcotics, the movement of contraband items, the counterfeiting of goods and the smuggling and trafficking of humans into the United States. For example, between 2005 and 2007, we identified several Uzbek criminal networks engaged in human trafficking. They operated cleaning companies that exploited guest workers to service national hotel and retail chains, and they moved operations regularly to avoid detection. Similarly, drug cartels’ control of smuggling routes along the 2,000 mile border with the United States is a key to their ability to make money. Human traffickers have also exploited those same smuggling routes across the U.S.-Mexico border to target undocumented migrants for labor or sex trafficking.
What are the results of these disturbing trends and new patterns of crime? In short, our review concluded that transnational organized crime has risen to the level of a national security threat. Countries in key regions around the world are finding their governments penetrated, weakened and even taken over by organized crime, undermining their democratic institutions and prospects for economic growth. Economies, including critical markets and the world financial system are being subverted, exploited and distorted by organized criminals through corruption and violence, making it harder for legitimate businesses to compete in those markets and harder for those economies to develop and provide jobs for the law abiding citizens. Terrorists and insurgents are increasingly turning to organized crime to generate funding and acquire logistical support to carry out their violent acts. Cybercrime threatens sensitive government and corporate computer networks, undermines confidence in the international financial system, and costs consumers billions of dollars annually. And despite our many successes, illicit drugs remain a serious threat to the health, safety, security and financial well-being of our citizens.
These are sobering findings, made even more so by the fact that we recognize that our domestic law enforcement, working alone, cannot defeat these threats. Organized crime cases, involving informants, undercover agents, wiretaps, cooperating witnesses and sophisticated legal tools, are already among the most complex and challenging investigations undertaken by the Justice Department. Transposed to an international setting, where much of our evidence and many of our witnesses and defendants reside in other countries, and where the rules governing investigations that cross numerous borders are quite complex and at times inadequate, the demands of an organized crime investigation can quickly outstrip any level of resources that we are able to devote to it. The result in too many cases will inevitably be that the most culpable individuals are not brought to justice.
But, far from despairing, we believe that recognizing the scale of the challenges facing us is the first step to overcoming them. Under the leadership of the White House, the Department of Justice and other parts of the U.S. government came together and developed the Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, which was released in July of last year. The Strategy set out several overarching goals to be achieved by our government to meet the threat of transnational organized crime.
First, we must protect our citizens and the citizens and nationals of our partner nations from the harm, violence and exploitation of transnational criminal networks. Under the Strategy, we are targeting the networks that pose the gravest threat to safety and security, including those that traffic illicit drugs, arms and people, sell substandard, tainted and counterfeit goods, commit robberies, extortions and kidnappings, and seek to terrorize and intimidate through acts of torture and murder.
Second, we must help partner countries strengthen governance and transparency, break the ability of transnational criminal networks to corrupt public officials, and sever alliances between criminals and governments. We recognize that we need willing, reliable and capable partners to combat the corruption and instability generated by transnational organized crime. We are actively working with our international partners to develop capabilities to strengthen public safety, security and justice institutions to fight these threats.
Third, we must break the economic power of transnational criminal networks and protect our markets and financial systems from penetration by organized crime. We have already begun a program of attacking the financial underpinnings of the top transnational criminals, stripping them of their illicit wealth, cutting off their access to the financial system, and exposing their criminal activities hidden behind legitimate fronts.
Finally, we must build international consensus, multilateral cooperation, and public-private partnerships to defeat transnational organized crime. Stopping organized crime is not a task limited to one government, or even many governments. We must build new partnerships, new networks, with industry, finance, academia, civil society and non-governmental organizations, to combat organized crime networks. We must protect press freedoms so that the media and journalists can expose the harms inflicted by organized crime. We are working to deepen our understanding, information sharing and cooperation with foreign partners and multilateral institutions, and through this we will further international norms against tolerating or sponsoring crime in all its forms, including cyberspace.
To achieve these goals, the Strategy set in motion actions across the U.S. government, starting new initiatives and enhancing existing ones, and bringing the different agencies together so that we could have the greatest impact on organized crime.
At the Justice Department, we had already begun to tackle transnational organized crime. We recognized that part of the challenge posed by transnational organized crime lay in the fact that information concerning these groups was scattered across the federal law enforcement community. We therefore began by bringing together the heads of nine federal law enforcement agencies, from the FBI, DEA and ICE to the Postal Inspectors and Department of Labor, to advise the Attorney General in an Organized Crime Council. Their deliberations resulted in the creation of the International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center in 2009. This Center pools the resources of the nine agencies, plus federal prosecutors, in a setting where all of the agencies’ relevant information can be sifted to produce a complete picture of the workings of a criminal organization. Furthermore, the Center produces this picture in a form that can immediately be put to use by agents investigating the organization. We also created a top target list for organized crime groups common to all nine federal agencies. At a minimal cost, these steps did much to unify the disparate efforts of many agencies and provide a single focus on the greatest perceived transnational organized crime threats.
As part of the Administration’s overall Strategy, the Justice Department also took a hard look at the legal tools that we are using to fight organized crime. We found that many of our statutes had not kept up with developments in the criminal world. Our money laundering statutes, groundbreaking when first enacted, had gaps when applied to illicit proceeds in the U.S. that were generated by criminal activity in other countries. Our famous anti-racketeering statute, known as RICO, did not explicitly cover some of the crimes being committed by transnational organized crime groups – like foreign bribery or certain types of computer fraud – and recent court decisions made it unclear whether RICO could even be used to prosecute an organized crime group if most of their activities were transnational in nature. To remedy these and other gaps the Department prepared a series of legislative proposals that were announced at the same time as the Strategy and that are now beginning to work their way through Congress.
The Strategy recognized that agencies outside the category of law enforcement had a critical role to play in the fight against transnational organized crime. Most importantly, perhaps, the Strategy was accompanied by an Executive Order, signed by the President, which directed the Treasury Department to establish a sanctions program to block the property of and prohibit transactions with significant criminal networks that threaten national security, foreign policy, or economic interests. This power had previously been restricted to terrorists and narcotics kingpins, but was now extended to other transnational organized crime groups. By shutting designated individuals and their companies out of the U.S. financial system, these sanctions programs have the power to affect criminals operating around the world. Just last week the Treasury Department announced the first individual sanctions under this order, naming seven members and associates of the Brothers’ Circle Eurasian organized crime group and two members of the Japanese Yakuza criminal organizations, and prohibiting U.S. individuals and companies from doing business with them. The Justice Department and the Treasury Department are working closely with each other to further develop this program.
The Strategy also took direct aim at those criminals who try to portray themselves as legitimate businessmen and seek to gain respectability by traveling to and conducting business in the United States. A Presidential Proclamation under the Immigration and Naturalization Act gave the State Department the power to deny U.S. entry to transnational criminal aliens and others who have been targeted for financial sanctions. The State Department was also directed to establish a new rewards program, expanding upon the success of the narcotics rewards program, to obtain information that leads to the arrest and conviction of leaders of transnational criminal organizations that pose the greatest threats to national security.
To tie these efforts together, the Strategy also directed the establishment of an interagency working group to identify those transnational organized crime threats that present a sufficiently high national security risk and coordinate the work of the whole spectrum of U.S. agencies in acting against that threat.
Woven throughout the Strategy is the recognition that transnational organized crime is a threat to law abiding citizens of all nations, and that nations must work together if it is to be defeated. We understand that nations are affected by transnational organized crime in different ways, and that different nations have different capabilities to fight these groups. But we must come together and combine those capabilities if we hope to ultimately prevail against this growing menace.
We welcome today’s Hemispheric Meeting sponsored by our Mexican hosts and the OAS as a sign that our concerns are shared by our partners in the Americas. Our work at this conference is critically important, for it is here over the next two days that we can reach a common understanding of the problem of transnational organized crime, and begin to craft a united response. Looking out among you, I am confident that we will succeed.
Thank you, again, for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. It is a positive step that we are here together, forging a path forward to combat this evolving global threat. “
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT CONGRATULATES RUSSIAN PEOPLE ON ELECTION
The following excerpt is from a U.S. Department of State e-mail:
“Presidential Elections in Russia
Press Statement Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
March 5, 2012
The United States congratulates the Russian people on the completion of the Presidential elections, and looks forward to working with the President-elect after the results are certified and he is sworn in.
The United States endorses the preliminary report of the observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and welcomes the many other assessments of the Russian presidential election by Russian election monitors. We note the statement by the head of delegation for PACE that the election had a clear winner with an absolute majority. We also note, however, the OSCE’s concerns about the conditions under which the campaign was conducted, the partisan use of government resources, and procedural irregularities on election day, among other issues.
We urge the Russian Government to conduct an independent, credible investigation of all reported electoral violations. As underscored in the OSCE report, we also note the new steps that the Central Election Commission took to increase transparency of the voting process since the parliamentary elections last December. We urge Russian authorities to build on these steps to ensure that the procedures for future elections will be more transparent.
We are encouraged to see so many Russian citizens voting, monitoring voting in their local precincts, exercising their constitutional right to free assembly, and expressing their views peacefully about the political and electoral processes. The number of Russian election observers who monitored this vote is unprecedented and a sign that Russian society seeks to participate in the improvement of Russia’s democratic institutions. We also recognize the government’s efforts to reform the political system, including the reintroduction of direct elections for governors, the simplification of party registration procedures, and the reduction in the numbers of signatures needed to register presidential candidates.”
HOW TO E-FILE
The following excerpt is from a USA.gov. e-mail:
“Last year, nearly 100 million taxpayers e-filed their federal income taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It’s the safest, fastest, and easiest way to submit your tax return.
If you e-file, you can expect to get your refund in half the time. If you owe money, you have more payment options.
There are four ways to e-file your federal income taxes:
Free File - if your income was $57,000 or less, you can use Free File for free tax preparation and e-filing.
Free File Fillable Forms - regardless of income, you can use online Fillable Forms. Fillable Forms are an electronic version of the IRS paper forms. This is a good option if you are comfortable preparing your own tax return, but want the advantages of fast, secure, and free e-filing.
Commercial Tax Software - you can buy your own tax preparation software, prepare your own return, and press send to e-file.
Tax Preparer - Find a tax professional you trust to prepare and e-file your return. Nearly all tax preparers use e-file now and many are now required by law to e-file.”
DHHS SAYS NO MORE LIFETIME CAPS ON HEALTH BENEFITS
The following excerpt is from the Department of Health and Human Services:
“Health reform law ends lifetime limits for 105 million Americans
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a new report today on how the health reform law has eliminated lifetime limits on coverage for more than 105 million Americans. Before health reform, many Americans with serious illnesses such as cancer risked hitting the lifetime limit on the dollar amount their insurance companies would cover for their health care benefits.
“For years, Americans with lifetime caps imposed on their health insurance benefits have had to live with the fear that if an illness or accident happened, they could max out their health coverage when they needed it the most,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Now, because of the health care law, they no longer have to live in fear of that happening.”
The end of lifetime limits is one of many new consumer rights and protections in the law for Americans nationwide. In the report, HHS provides data on the number of people in each state that benefit from this component of the law. The Obama administration also released updated state data on other ways the new law has impacted Americans, including the number of people with Medicare receiving new preventive benefits and the various grants awarded to states.
While some plans provided coverage without dollar limits on lifetime benefits, 105 million Americans were previously in health plans that had lifetime limits. HHS estimates that 70 million people in large employer plans, 25 million people in small employer plans, and 10 million people with individually purchased health insurance had lifetime limits on their health benefits prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
This includes 39.5 million women and 28 million children; 11.8 million Latinos and 10.4 million African Americans.”
ISS GOVERNMENTS TOUT THE BENEFITS OF THE SPACE STATION
The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
I“WASHINGTON -- The heads of the International Space Station (ISS)
agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met
in Quebec City, Canada, on March 1, 2012, to review the scientific,
technological, and social benefits being produced through their
collaboration, and to discuss plans for further broadening these
benefits by continuing to advance the human exploration of space.
In reviewing the history of ISS development and the recent transition
to a productive research and applications phase, three major areas of
success were discussed: the historic engineering achievements, the
unprecedented international partnership, and the ongoing progress
being made through science. The heads noted that human exploration of
space continues to yield valuable benefits to society and is
strengthening partnerships among space-faring nations.
The heads also recognized the new opportunities for discovery made
possible by maximizing the research capabilities of the ISS, as well
as the growth in commercial endeavors and positive educational impact
brought about by this permanent human presence in space. Biology,
biotechnology, and human physiology research are producing new
insights into human health on Earth with the development of promising
applications supporting future medical therapies. Also a wide range
of fluids and materials research yields a promising way for better
and smarter materials and production processes on Earth. Observations
captured from the ISS in the fields of x-ray astronomy, high-energy
particle physics, and Earth remote sensing hint at discoveries to
come as the ISS is increasingly used as a platform for the
installation and operation of a wide variety of instruments
supporting Earth and Space Sciences. Technology demonstrations in
environmental control, robotic servicing, and advanced
telecommunications and teleoperations are making it possible to
eventually further extend human presence in space and continue to
broaden improvements to the quality of life on Earth.
Recognizing the inspirational nature of the ISS as a human-tended
outpost in space, the agency leaders applauded its strong role in
motivating young people around the world to learn about science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 40 million
students have participated in human spaceflight to date through
communications downlinks and interactive experiments with station
crew members.
Highlighting the continued growth in the international user community,
the first biannual “International Space Station Utilization
Statistics” was released. The partnership also published
“International Space Station Benefits for Humanity,” illustrating
specific successful humanitarian accomplishments in education, human
health, Earth observation and disaster response that will improve the
lives of many throughout the world.
The ISS partnership began considering long-range opportunities to
further advance human space exploration, so benefits from the ISS
program will continue to grow through future exploration missions. In
the near term, the heads of agencies committed to increase use of the
ISS as a test bed in space for the demonstration of critical
technologies and the mitigation of human health risks for exploration
as a joint effort. For the long-term, they discussed opportunities to
use the ISS as a foundation for the development of future exploration
capabilities. The ISS partnership has created a global research
facility in space that is unprecedented in capability and unique in
human history. The heads of agency re-confirmed the importance of
using the facility to benefit society today and provide a
technological basis for continued human exploration of space in the
Future.”
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SAYS THERE IS A GROWING U.S.-INDIA PARTNERSHIP
The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:
"Talks Reaffirm Growing U.S.-India Partnership
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 2, 2012 - Recent bilateral security talks between the United States and India reaffirmed the importance of the partnership between the two nations and the growing U.S. interest in advancing it, as reflected in the new defense strategic guidance, a senior official said today.
Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James N. Miller joined Indian Defense Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma in co-chairing the 12th annual U.S.-India Defense Policy Group dialogue in New Delhi Feb. 21 and 22.
The trip, Miller's first since assuming his post, demonstrates the United States' commitment to its relationship with India, Robert Scher, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said during a media roundtable.
Scher noted that India is the only country the new strategy guidance specifically identifies for increased engagement, reflecting the priority both President Barack Obama and the Defense Department place on the partnership.
The annual Defense Policy Group meetings aim to advance the two countries' strategic defense relationship, enabling them to set priorities, take stock of progress and work through hurdles that stand in the way, Scher said.
The agenda focused on four basic areas: defense procurement and production, technical cooperation, military-to-military cooperation and technical security, he explained.
Miller and Sharma agreed to continue concentrating on maritime security cooperation, defense trade and developing new, cooperative research and development projects for the upcoming year, Scher said.
They also reiterated the importance of maintaining a "robust dialogue on technical security," he said, and for the first time this year, exchanged best practices involving strategy developments and capabilities-based planning.
Both leaders expressed an interest in increasing personal interactions at all levels in their defense and military establishments through continued dialogue, exercises, personal exchanges and training associated with defense sales, Scher said.
While in India, Miller visited India's national defense college, addressing students there and sharing with them the United States' interest in advancing its partnership with India.
"The key theme was the need to build people-to-people ties," Scher said. Miller recognizes, he said, that "it is really the next generation of U.S. and Indian defense leaders and officers who will determine whether we will succeed in realizing the full potential of the U.S.-Indian relationship."
The dialogue reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-India defense relationship, Scher told reporters.
"There is genuine, positive sentiment on both sides and a real desire to grow the relationship in a positive direction," he said. "A strong bilateral relationship is clearly in the U.S. interest and benefits both countries."
PARENTS AND ILLEGAL REMOVAL OF CHILDREN TO OVERSEAS LOCATION
The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
March 1st, 2012
"The abduction of a child is every parent’s worst fear. Yet all too frequently, it is a parent who is the abductor. When one parent takes a child to a foreign country, the mother or father who is left behind faces not only a heartbreaking loss, but a daunting legal process in an unfamiliar legal system. Without legal assistance, parents may never be able to bring their children home. To help ensure that parents get the services they need, in December 2011 the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) issued new guidance to its grantees. The guidance clarifies that LSC grantees have the authority to represent indigent foreign nationals in Hague Convention cases brought in United States courts for the return of, or access to, their children.
The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty that provides parents with a legal mechanism to return “wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained” children to their country of “habitual residence.” Once there, the legal system of that country will resolve any custody disputes. The Convention also seeks to promote the enjoyment of visitation when a parent and child/ren live in different treaty-partner countries. Hague Convention cases are designed to be fast (courts may be asked to explain delays in decision-making after six weeks), and children found to be “wrongfully removed or retained” are to be returned forthwith. However, not all cases resolve swiftly.
Leyda Cuellar, a Panamanian woman, learned this after her estranged husband abducted their young daughter in an Australian airport. From there he fled to the United States with Cuellar’s passport, leaving her stranded. Cuellar filed a Hague Convention case in the United States to return her daughter to Panama, where they both had lived.
A woman of limited financial means, Cuellar fortunately found pro bono attorneys from a private firm in the United States to represent her. Her attorneys successfully litigated her case all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Almost two years after the abduction, Cuellar was ultimately reunited with her daughter.
As Cuellar discovered, legal representation can be essential to foreign parents with abducted children in the United States. LSC issued this new guidance to help ensure that no parents lose their children through abduction simply because they cannot afford attorneys’ fees. The guidance reiterates that, under current federal and international law, legal services providers may represent indigent foreign parents in Hague Convention return and access cases in United States courts regardless of whether they reside abroad or in the United States. Hague Convention cases can also be fee-generating, which allows pro bono attorneys like those who represented Leyda Cuellar to recover legal fees and expenses.
LSC developed the guidance in consultation with the Department of State and the Department of Justice’s Access to Justice Initiative (ATJ). ATJ has actively supported efforts to ensure that foreign parents of abducted children, regardless of their income, have access to legal services in the United States for these cases.
The Department of State serves as the U.S. Central Authority for the Hague Child Abduction Convention (“USCA”). The USCA administers the Hague Convention Attorney Network, which comprises volunteer attorneys who offer pro bono or reduced fee representation to income-eligible parents in treaty-partner countries. Many LSC grantees participate in the Attorney Network, and others are welcome to join; however, enrolling is not a prerequisite to representing parents in Hague cases. Information about the Attorney Network is available on the State Department’s website and click “For Attorneys & Judges” on the left hand toolbar.
Sign up to be a part of the State Department’s Attorney Network (PDF)
Since its launch in 2010, the Access to Justice Initiative has worked to help the justice system efficiently deliver outcomes that are fair and accessible to all, irrespective of wealth and status. The Initiative’s staff works within the Department of Justice, across federal agencies, and with state, local and tribal justice system stakeholders to increase access to counsel and legal assistance, and to improve the justice delivery systems that serve people who are unable to afford lawyers."
The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty that provides parents with a legal mechanism to return “wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained” children to their country of “habitual residence.” Once there, the legal system of that country will resolve any custody disputes. The Convention also seeks to promote the enjoyment of visitation when a parent and child/ren live in different treaty-partner countries. Hague Convention cases are designed to be fast (courts may be asked to explain delays in decision-making after six weeks), and children found to be “wrongfully removed or retained” are to be returned forthwith. However, not all cases resolve swiftly.
Leyda Cuellar, a Panamanian woman, learned this after her estranged husband abducted their young daughter in an Australian airport. From there he fled to the United States with Cuellar’s passport, leaving her stranded. Cuellar filed a Hague Convention case in the United States to return her daughter to Panama, where they both had lived.
A woman of limited financial means, Cuellar fortunately found pro bono attorneys from a private firm in the United States to represent her. Her attorneys successfully litigated her case all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Almost two years after the abduction, Cuellar was ultimately reunited with her daughter.
As Cuellar discovered, legal representation can be essential to foreign parents with abducted children in the United States. LSC issued this new guidance to help ensure that no parents lose their children through abduction simply because they cannot afford attorneys’ fees. The guidance reiterates that, under current federal and international law, legal services providers may represent indigent foreign parents in Hague Convention return and access cases in United States courts regardless of whether they reside abroad or in the United States. Hague Convention cases can also be fee-generating, which allows pro bono attorneys like those who represented Leyda Cuellar to recover legal fees and expenses.
LSC developed the guidance in consultation with the Department of State and the Department of Justice’s Access to Justice Initiative (ATJ). ATJ has actively supported efforts to ensure that foreign parents of abducted children, regardless of their income, have access to legal services in the United States for these cases.
The Department of State serves as the U.S. Central Authority for the Hague Child Abduction Convention (“USCA”). The USCA administers the Hague Convention Attorney Network, which comprises volunteer attorneys who offer pro bono or reduced fee representation to income-eligible parents in treaty-partner countries. Many LSC grantees participate in the Attorney Network, and others are welcome to join; however, enrolling is not a prerequisite to representing parents in Hague cases. Information about the Attorney Network is available on the State Department’s website and click “For Attorneys & Judges” on the left hand toolbar.
Sign up to be a part of the State Department’s Attorney Network (PDF)
Since its launch in 2010, the Access to Justice Initiative has worked to help the justice system efficiently deliver outcomes that are fair and accessible to all, irrespective of wealth and status. The Initiative’s staff works within the Department of Justice, across federal agencies, and with state, local and tribal justice system stakeholders to increase access to counsel and legal assistance, and to improve the justice delivery systems that serve people who are unable to afford lawyers."
RAPID OCEAN ACIDIFICATION MAY DOOM MANY SPECIES
"Oceans Acidifying Faster Today Than in Past 300 Million Years
March 1, 2012
The oceans may be acidifying faster today than they did in the last 300 million years, according to scientists publishing a paper this week in the journal Science.
"What we're doing today really stands out in the geologic record," says lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. (Image
Credit: NOAA ).
"We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out--new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about--coral reefs, oysters, salmon."
The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air.
The gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor.
If too much carbon dioxide enters the ocean too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and shell-building.
In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, the researchers found evidence for only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed as fast as today: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM.
In ocean sediment cores, the PETM appears as a brown mud layer flanked by thick deposits of white plankton fossils.
About 56 million years ago, a mysterious surge of carbon into the atmosphere warmed the planet and turned the oceans corrosive.
In about 5,000 years, atmospheric carbon doubled to 1,800 parts per million (ppm), and average global temperatures rose by about 6 degrees Celsius.
The carbonate plankton shells littering the seafloor dissolved, leaving the brown clay layer that scientists see in sediment cores today.
As many as half of all species of benthic foraminifera, a group of one-celled organisms that live at the ocean bottom, went extinct, suggesting that deep-sea organisms higher on the food chain may have also disappeared, said paper co-author Ellen Thomas, a paleoceanographer at Yale University.
"It's really unusual that you lose more than 5 to 10 percent of species," she said.
Scientists estimate that ocean acidity--its pH--may have fallen as much as 0.45 units as the planet vented stores of carbon into the air.
"These scientists have synthesized and evaluated evidence far back in Earth's history," said Candace Major, program officer in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
"The ocean acidification we're seeing today is unprecedented," said Major, "even when viewed through the lens of the past 300 million years, a result of the very fast rates at which we're changing the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans."
In the last hundred years, rising carbon dioxide from human activities has lowered ocean pH by 0.1 unit, an acidification rate at least 10 times faster than 56 million years ago, says Hönisch.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that pH will fall another 0.2 units by 2100, raising the possibility that we may soon see ocean changes similar to those observed during the PETM.
More catastrophic events have happened on Earth before, but perhaps not as quickly.
The study finds two other analogs for modern day ocean acidification--the extinctions triggered by massive volcanism at the end of the Permian and Triassic eras, about 252 million and 201 million years ago, respectively.
But the authors caution that because ocean sediments older than 180 million years have been recycled back into the deep Earth, scientists have fewer records to work with.
During the "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian, about 252 million years ago, about 96 percent of life disappeared.
Massive eruptions from what is known as the Siberian Traps in present-day Russia are thought to have triggered earth's biggest extinction.
Over 20,000 years or more, carbon in the atmosphere rose dramatically.
Scientists have found evidence for ocean dead zones, and preferential survival of organisms predisposed to carbonate-poor seawater and high blood-carbon levels, but so far they have been unable to reconstruct changes in ocean pH or carbonate.
At the end of the Triassic, about 201 million years ago, a second burst of mass volcanism associated with the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea doubled atmospheric carbon and touched off another wave of die-offs.
Coral reefs collapsed and an entire class of sea creatures, the eel-like conodonts, vanished.
On land, large plant-eating animals gave rise to meat-eating dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex as the Jurassic era began.
A greater extinction of tropical species has led some scientists to question whether global warming rather than ocean acidification was the main killer at this time.
This study finds that the most notorious of all extinctions, the one that ended the Age of Dinosaurs with a falling asteroid 65 million years ago, may not have been associated with ocean acidification.
The asteroid impact in present-day Mexico 65 million years ago released toxic gases and possibly set off fires that sent surges of carbon into the air.
Though many species of plankton went extinct, coral reefs and benthic foraminifera survived.
In lab experiments, scientists have tried to simulate modern ocean acidification, but the number of variables currently at play--high carbon dioxide and warmer temperatures, and reduced ocean pH and dissolved oxygen levels--make predictions difficult.
An alternative to investigating the paleo-record has been to study natural carbon seeps from offshore volcanoes that are producing the acidification levels expected by the year 2100.
In a recent study of coral reefs off Papua New Guinea, scientists found that during long-term exposure to high carbon dioxide and pH 0.2 units lower than today--at a pH of 7.8 (the IPCC projection for 2100)--reef biodiversity and regeneration suffered.”
FORMER FDA CHEMIST USES NON-PUBLIC INFORMATION TO TRADE STOCKS AND GOES TO PRISON
The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
Monday, March 5, 2012
“WASHINGTON – Cheng Yi Liang, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chemist from Gaithersburg, Md., was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for engaging in insider trading on multiple occasions based on material, non-public information he obtained in his capacity as an FDA scientist. Liang was previously ordered to forfeit $3.7 million representing the proceeds of the insider trading scheme.
The sentence was announced today by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Elton Malone, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations, Specials Investigations Branch.
“Taking advantage of his special access as a chemist at the FDA, Mr. Liang used sensitive inside information to reap illegal profits in the pharmaceutical securities market,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “For years, he exploited his position in the agency to make easy money on the stock market. But today’s sentence shows that easy money has consequences. Investors engage in insider trading at their peril.”
“Cheng Yi Liang bought and sold stocks based on non-public information, and he tried to conceal his crimes by using the names of friends and relatives,” said U.S. Attorney Rosenstein. “Mr. Liang violated his duty of loyalty to the FDA and profited from inside information.”
“Liang brazenly sought to profit based on sensitive, insider information. What he didn’t know is that investigators have been utilizing sophisticated technical tools to identify and track criminal behavior,” said Special Agent in Charge Malone of HHS-OIG. “We will continue to insist that federal government employee conduct be held to the highest of standards.”
“Mr. Liang breached the trust of his employment by obtaining sensitive information and using it for his own profit,” said Assistant Director in Charge McJunkin. “Together with our partner agencies, the FBI will continue to pursue and hold accountable those who perpetrate such financial crimes, as we work to protect American taxpayers and our financial markets.”
Liang, 58, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow in the District of Maryland. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 18, 2011, to one count of securities fraud and one count of making false statements.
According to court documents, Liang had been employed as a chemist since 1996 at the FDA’s Office of New Drug Quality Assessment (NDQA). Through his work at NDQA, Liang had access to the FDA’s password protected internal tracking system for new drug applications, known as the Document Archiving, Reporting and Regulatory Tracking (DARRTS) system. FDA uses DARRTS to manage, track, receive and report on new drug applications. Liang reviewed DARRTS for information relating to the progression of experimental drugs through the FDA approval process. Much of the information accessible on the DARRTS system constituted material, non-public information regarding the pharmaceutical companies that had submitted their experimental drugs to the FDA for review.
In his plea, Liang admitted that between in or about July 2006 and in or about March 2011, using material, non-public information from DARRTS and other sources, he traded in the securities of pharmaceutical companies in violation of the duties of trust and confidence he owed the FDA. Liang utilized accounts of relatives and acquaintances, including his son, to execute the trades. When the FDA insider information about a company’s product was positive, Liang purchased securities through the accounts he controlled. When the FDA insider information was negative, Liang would sell short a company’s stock. After the FDA’s action with respect to a drug was made public, Liang executed trades to profit from the change in the company’s share price as a result of the FDA announcement, resulting in total profits gained and losses avoided of $3,776,152.
During the time he was employed by the FDA, Liang was required to file a confidential financial disclosure form, disclosing, among other things, investment assets with a value greater than $1,000 and sources of income greater than $200. During the time period of his insider trading scheme, Liang annually filed these forms and failed to disclose using various brokerage accounts under his control or his income from the illicit securities trading. For example, on Feb. 16, 2010, Liang signed and submitted the 2010 confidential financial disclosure form, failing to disclose that during 2009 he earned approximately $1,040,000 from trading on material, non-public information obtained from the FDA.
In related actions, the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS) filed a civil complaint in the District of Maryland for forfeiture of proceeds related to the insider trading scheme. To date, the government has obtained over $1 million through the civil forfeiture of nine bank and brokerage accounts. The forfeiture of two real properties – a house and a condominium in Montgomery County, Md. – is still pending. Liang previously consented to the entry of final judgment as to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) civil enforcement action against him, also in the District of Maryland.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Kevin Muhlendorf and Thomas Hall of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Salem for the District of Maryland, and AFMLS Senior Trial Attorney Pamela J. Hicks and Trial Attorney Jennifer Ambuehl. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the HHS-OIG. The department acknowledges the substantial assistance of the SEC, in particular its Market Abuse Unit, which referred the matter to the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
This prosecution is part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.”
Sunday, March 4, 2012
"COAX THIEF" SELLER FOUND GUILTY OF INTERNET SERVICE THEFT
The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
Friday, March 2, 2012
“WASHINGTON – A Redmond, Ore., man was convicted yesterday of seven counts of wire fraud by a federal jury in Boston, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts announced today.
Ryan Harris, 26, was the owner of TCNISO, a company that distributed products enabling users to steal Internet service. From 2003 through 2009, Harris developed and distributed hardware and software tools that allowed his customers to modify their cable modems so that they could disguise themselves as paying subscribers and obtain Internet service without paying. The products included a “packet sniffer,” which Harris dubbed “Coax Thief.” “Coax Thief” surreptitiously intercepted (or “sniffed”) Internet traffic so that the user obtained the media access control addresses and configuration files of surrounding modems. TCNISO and Harris also offered ongoing customer support, primarily through forums that it hosted on the TCNISO website, to assist customers in their cable modem hacking activities.
“Mr. Harris tried to hide behind the banner of freedom of access to the Internet, but the evidence established that he built a million dollar business helping customers steal Internet service,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.
U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said, “The Internet is an incredible resource that has transformed the way we conduct business. Unfortunately, it has also become a breeding ground for criminals. We will continue to prioritize the prosecution of those who wish to utilize our communication systems to conduct illegal activity and inflict harm on others.”
Each count carries a maximum prison term of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 23, 2012, at 3 p.m. before Chief District Court Judge Mark Wolf, who presided over the trial.
The case was investigated by the Boston Field Office of the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Bookbinder of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts’s Cybercrimes Unit and Trial Attorney Mona Sedky from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.”
OXYGEN FOUND ON SATURN'S MOON DIONE
The following excerpt is from the National Science Foundation website:
"Oxygen detected in atmosphere of Saturn’s Moon Dione
Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies
LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, March 2, 2012—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and an international research team have announced discovery of molecular oxygen ions (O2+) in the upper-most atmosphere of Dione, one of the 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet. The research appeared recently in Geophysical Research Letters and was made possible via instruments aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which was launched in 1997.
Dione—discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini (after whom the spacecraft was named)—orbits Saturn at roughly the same distance as our own moon orbits Earth. The tiny moon is a mere 700 miles wide and appears to be a thick, pockmarked layer of water ice surrounding a smaller rock core. As it orbits Saturn every 2.7 days, Dione is bombarded by charged particles (ions) emanating from Saturn’s very strong magnetosphere. These ions slam into the surface of Dione, displacing molecular oxygen ions into Dione’s thin atmosphere through a process called sputtering.
Molecular oxygen ions are then stripped from Dione’s exosphere by Saturn’s strong magnetosphere.
A sensor aboard the Cassini spacecraft called the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected the oxygen ions in Dione’s wake during a flyby of the moon in 2010. Los Alamos researchers Robert Tokar and Michelle Thomsen noted the presence of the oxygen ions.
“The concentration of oxygen in Dione’s atmosphere is roughly similar to what you would find in Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 300 miles,” Tokar said. “It’s not enough to sustain life, but—together with similar observations of other moons around Saturn and Jupiter—these are definitive examples of a process by which a lot of oxygen can be produced in icy celestial bodies that are bombarded by charged particles or photons from the Sun or whatever light source happens to be nearby.”
Perhaps even more exciting is the possibility that on a moon with subsurface water, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa, molecular oxygen could combine with carbon in subsurface lakes to form the building blocks of life. Future missions to Europa could help unravel questions about that moon’s habitability.
Two sensors aboard Cassini built by Los Alamos National Laboratory are expected to come into play beginning later this month, and again in April and May, when the Cassini spacecraft flies by the moon Enceladus. The moon is one of the brightest objects in our solar system, reflecting back nearly all of the sunlight that strikes it, thanks to a shimmering surface of snowy ice crystals. The moon also unleashes plumes of material from its south polar region. Los Alamos’ ion-beam spectrometer and ion-mass spectrometer may help answer key questions about the composition of these plumes."
SECRETARIES PANETTA AND SHINSEKI DISCUSS VETERANS AFFAIRS
The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:
"Panetta, Shinseki Discuss Issues of Common Concern
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2012 - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta welcomed Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to the Pentagon yesterday for the latest in a series of regular meetings the two secretaries have held on issues of common interest to both departments.
The meeting included a discussion with disabled veterans, two of whom are on the U.S. Paralympic team, about their experiences as they left active service and transitioned to veteran status.
The Paralympic athletes told the two Cabinet members how their respective departments' adaptive sports programs helped them to recover from their injuries and gave new purpose to their lives after the military.
"It is clear that there is a lot of good work being done to help our service members have the smoothest transition possible to veteran status and civilian life," Panetta said. "But there are still too many stories of programs that are poorly connected between our departments and that are time-consuming and plain confusing for our service members and veterans."
Shinseki said he and Panetta are committed to continuing the progress DOD and VA have made.
"The vision Secretary Panetta and I share is to provide an integrated, seamless experience to our people across their lifetime -- from when they raise their hand to take the oath, to when they leave active service and join the veteran ranks, to when they are laid to rest with final honors," he said. "Over the past three years, VA and DOD have made significant progress, but more work remains."
In their meeting, Panetta and Shinseki focused on five areas in which the two departments have joined efforts on behalf of the nation's service members and veterans: the Disability Evaluation System, electronic health records, transition programs, joint pharmacy initiatives and recovery coordination for the wounded, ill and injured.
The two secretaries said they were pleased with the status of plans to implement President Barack Obama's directive to develop a new model for the Transition Assistance Program to ensure that all service members are career-ready when they leave the military.
They also discussed improvements to the Integrated Disability Evaluation System as a result of $400 million recently added to the Defense Department budget over the next five years and VA's commitment to increase the number of personnel supporting administration of the system.
With more than 24,300 service members currently being evaluated for disability ratings through IDES, officials said, the secretaries stressed the importance they attach to shortening the time service members spend waiting for their ratings before they can complete their transition from active duty to veteran status.
Panetta and Shinseki also discussed steps forward on electronic health records, noting that the interagency office established by the two departments to lead the way in building the joint integrated electronic health records system now has new leadership.
The secretaries also received an update on development of the graphical user interface program, in which they learned that doctors at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center at North Chicago now can view both VA and DOD patient records simultaneously on a single monitor.
The Lovell Center is a first-of-its-kind partnership between VA and DOD to provide integrated care to service members and veterans in the same facility, officials explained. It has been a testing ground for the departments' efforts to deliver a fully integrated electronic health record for all service members and veterans.
Officials said Panetta and Shinseki plan to meet in Chicago in May to visit the Lovell Center and to review progress on deliverables the two departments have committed to achieve by the end of the year, including:
-- A detailed implementation plan for the revised transition assistance program;
-- Spurring development of electronic transfer of patient files to reduce processing and mailing costs and disability evaluation processing times; and
-- Finalizing a contract for joint pharmacy capability at the Lovell Center."
NASA'S KEPLER TEAM RELEASES THIRD CATALOG OF OVER 1,000 NEW PLANET CANDIDATES
“Since science operations began in May 2009, the Kepler team has released two catalogs of transiting planet candidates. The first catalog (Borucki et al, 2010),released in June 2010, contains 312 candidates identified in the first 43 days of Kepler data. The second catalog (Borucki et al, 2011), released in February 2011, is a cumulative catalog containing 1,235 candidates identified in the first 13 months of data.
Today the team presents the third catalog containing 1,091 new planet candidates identified in the first 16 months of observation conducted May 2009 to September 2010. These are the same candidates that the team discussed at the Kepler Science Conference held at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2011.
Here are the highlights of the new catalog:
Planet candidates smaller than twice the size of Earth increased by 197 percent, compared to 52 percent for candidates larger than twice the size of Earth.
Planet candidates with orbital periods longer than 50 days increased by 123 percent, compared to 85 percent for candidates with orbital periods shorter than 50 days.
Since the last catalog was released in February 2011, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 88 percent and now totals 2,321 transiting 1,790 stars.
The cumulative catalog now contains well over 200 Earth-size planet candidates and more than 900 that are smaller than twice Earth-size. Of the 46 planet candidates found in the habitable zone, the region in the planetary system where liquid water could exist, ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size.
The number of planetary systems found with more than one planet candidate also has increased. Last year, 17 percent, or 170 stars, had more than one transiting planet candidate. Today, 20 percent, or 365, stars have more than one.
"With each new catalog release a clear progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods is emerging, " said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University in California. "This suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant."
Nearly 5,000 periodic transit-like signals were analyzed with known spacecraft instrumentation and astrophysical phenomena that could masquerade as transits, which can produce false positives. The most common false positive signatures are associated with eclipsing binary stars- a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from the vantage point of the spacecraft.
The Kepler space telescope identifies planet candidates by repeatedly measuring the change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars in search of planets that pass in front, or "transit," their host star. Kepler must record at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.
The findings are published in the "Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler III: Analysis of the First 16 Months of Data". The catalog is available at the Kepler data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute and can be downloaded from theNASA Exoplanet Archive.
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission's development.
Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington."
NEW PIPELINE AMONG TOPICS DISCUSSED BY U.S AND THE AFGHAN MINISTER OF MINES
The following excerpt is from the U.S. State Department website:
“Visit of Afghan Minister of Mines Shahrani
Media NoteOffice of the SpokespersonWashington, DC
March 2, 2012
The State Department was pleased to welcome Afghan Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani to Washington, D.C. March 1-2 for meetings with a number of Administration officials, including U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Marc Grossman, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake, Jr., and the Secretary’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Richard Morningstar.
In his meetings at the Department of State, Minister Shahrani described recent progress in attracting international investment to develop Afghanistan’s extractive resources as well as Afghanistan’s engagement with its neighbors to advance the New Silk Road vision, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline. Minister Shahrani noted steps that the Government of Afghanistan is taking to ensure the process of awarding contracts and the management of revenue is transparent, consistent with international best practices, and for the benefit of the Afghan people. Ambassador Grossman reiterated U.S. support for the Government of Afghanistan’s continuing reform efforts intended to promote sustainable growth and spur private sector investment, especially in key sectors such as mining.
Minister Shahrani and State Department officials also discussed their plans to attend the upcoming Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan, to be hosted by the Government of Tajikistan from March 26-27, which will be an occasion for the countries of the region to discuss continued economic integration along the New Silk Road.”
FORMER CEO MUST PAY $10 MILLION IN SECURITIES FRAUD CASE
The following excerpt is from the SEC website:
"Washington, D.C., March 2, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a federal judge has ordered the former CEO of Brookstreet Securities Corp. to pay a maximum $10 million penalty in a securities fraud case related to the financial crisis.
The SEC litigated the case beginning in December 2009, when the agency charged Stanley C. Brooks and Brookstreet with fraud for systematically selling risky mortgage-backed securities to customers with conservative investment goals. Brookstreet and Brooks developed a program through which the firm’s registered representatives sold particularly risky and illiquid types of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) to more than 1,000 seniors, retirees, and others for whom the securities were unsuitable. Brookstreet and Brooks continued to promote and sell the risky CMOs even after Brooks received numerous warnings that these were dangerous investments that could become worthless overnight. The fraud caused severe investor losses and eventually caused the firm to collapse.
The Honorable David O. Carter in federal court in Los Angeles granted summary judgment in favor of the SEC on February 23, finding Brookstreet and Brooks liable for violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as well as Rule 10b-5. The judge entered a final judgment in the case yesterday and ordered the financial penalty sought by the SEC.
“Brooks’ aggressive promotion and sale of risky mortgage products to seniors and other risk-averse investors deserves the maximum penalty possible, and that is what he got,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Those who direct such exploitative practices from the boardroom will be held personally accountable and face severe consequences for their egregious actions.”
Rosalind Tyson, Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, added, “The CMOs that Brookstreet sold its customers were among the most risky of all mortgage-backed securities. This judgment highlights the responsibility of brokerage firm principals to ensure the suitability of the securities they sell to customers.”
In addition to the $10,010,000 penalty, Brooks was ordered to pay $110,713.31 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest. The court’s judgment also enjoins both Brookstreet and Brooks from violating Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act as well as Rule 10b-5.
The SEC is awaiting a court decision in a separate Brookstreet-related enforcement action filed in federal court in Florida. In that case, the SEC charged 10 former Brookstreet registered representatives with making misrepresentations to investors in the purchases and sales of risky CMOs. Two representatives settled the charges, and the SEC tried the case against the remaining eight representatives in October 2011.
The SEC has brought enforcement actions stemming from the financial crisis against 95 entities and individuals, including 49 CEOs, CFOs, and other senior officers.
ATLANTIC COAST AS A SPACE TOURIST MIGHT SEE IT ONE DAY
“An Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area are visible in the image that spans almost to Rhode Island. Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the New York City area are visible in the lower right quadrant. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are near the center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground. This image was taken on Feb. 6, 2012. Image Credit: NASA”
The above picture and excerpt are from the NASA website:
THE NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY AND THOMAS EDISON'S PREDICTION
(Left) "A bust of Thomas Edison at the NRL front gate honors his role in founding the Laboratory. (Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) "
2011 WAS BEST YEAR SINCE 2006 FOR FDIC INSURED INSTITUTIONS
The following excerpt is from an FDIC e-mail:
FDIC-Insured Institutions Earned $26.3 Billion in the Fourth Quarter of 2011
Full-Year Net Income of $119.5 Billion Is Highest Since 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2012
Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported an aggregate profit of $26.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, a $4.9 billion improvement from the $21.4 billion in net income the industry reported in the fourth quarter of 2010. This is the 10th consecutive quarter that earnings have registered a year-over-year increase. As has been the case in each of the past nine quarters, lower provisions for loan losses were responsible for most of the year-over-year improvement in earnings.
FDIC Acting Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said that "2011 represented the second full year of improving performance by the banking system. Banks reported higher positive aggregate earnings, the numbers of 'problem' banks and failures declined, and loan balances increased in the final three quarters of the year." He also noted that "insured institutions of all sizes continued to make substantial progress in improving their profitability."
A majority of all institutions (63 percent) reported improvements in their quarterly net income from a year ago. Also, the share of institutions reporting net losses for the quarter fell to 18.9 percent from 27.1 percent a year earlier. The average return on assets (ROA), a basic yardstick of profitability, rose to 0.76 percent from 0.64 percent a year ago.
Fourth-quarter loss provisions totaled $19.5 billion, about 40 percent less than the $32.7 billion that insured institutions set aside for losses in the fourth quarter of 2010. Net operating revenue (net interest income plus total noninterest income) was $3.8 billion (2.3 percent) lower than a year earlier, due to a $4.4 billion (7.4 percent) decline in noninterest income.
Asset quality indicators continued to improve as insured banks and thrifts charged off $25.4 billion in uncollectible loans during the quarter, down $17.1 billion (40.2 percent) from a year earlier. Noncurrent loans and leases (those 90 days or more past due or in nonaccrual status) fell for a seventh quarter, but the percentage of loans and leases that were noncurrent remained higher than in previous crises.
Financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the full year are contained in the FDIC's latest Quarterly Banking Profile, which was released today. Also among the findings:
Growth in loan portfolios continued. Loan balances posted a quarterly increase for the third quarter in a row. Total loans and leases increased by $130.1 billion (1.8 percent), as loans to commercial and industrial borrowers increased by $62.8 billion, residential mortgage loan balances rose by $26.0 billion, and credit card balances grew by $21.3 billion.
Money continued to flow into insured deposit accounts. Deposits in domestic offices increased by $249.7 billion (2.9 percent) during the quarter. More than three-quarters of this increase ($191.2 billion or 76.6 percent) consisted of balances in large noninterest-bearing transaction accounts that have temporary unlimited deposit insurance coverage. The 10 largest insured banks accounted for 73.6 percent ($140.7 billion) of the growth in these balances.
The number of institutions on the FDIC's "Problem List" fell for the third quarter in a row. The number of "problem" institutions declined from 844 to 813. This is the smallest number of "problem" banks since first quarter of 2010. Total assets of "problem" institutions declined from $339 billion to $319 billion. Eighteen insured institutions failed during the fourth quarter. For all of 2011, there were 92 insured institution failures, compared with 157 failures in 2010.
The Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) balance continued to increase. The unaudited DIF balance — the net worth of the fund — rose to $9.2 billion at December 31 from $7.8 billion at September 30. Assessment revenue and fewer expected bank failures continued to drive growth in the fund balance. The contingent loss reserve, which covers the costs of expected failures, fell from $7.2 billion to $6.5 billion during the quarter. Estimated insured deposits grew 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
In conclusion, Acting Chairman Gruenberg noted, "The industry is now in a much better position to support the economy through expanded lending. However, levels of troubled assets and 'problem' banks are still high. And while the economy is showing signs of improvement, downside risks remain a concern."
EPA PROPOSES TO LEAVE GREENHOUSE GAS PERMITTING THRESHOLDS ALONE
The following excerpt is from an EPA e-mail:
“EPA Proposes to Keep Greenhouse Gas Permitting Requirements Focused on Largest Emitters
Options to streamline process would help state and local permitting authorities
WASHINGTON –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing not to change the greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting thresholds for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Operating Permit programs. Today’s proposal is part of EPA’s common-sense, phased-in approach to GHG permitting under the Clean Air Act. EPA is also proposing steps that would streamline the permitting process for large emitters already covered by the agency’s program, including sources that account for nearly 70 percent of the total GHG pollution from stationary sources.
EPA’s proposal is consistent with its phased-in approach, announced in 2010, to “tailor” the requirements of the Clean Air Act to ensure that industrial facilities and state governments have the tools they need to minimize GHG emissions and that only the largest emitters need permits.
After consultation with states and evaluating the process, EPA believes that the current approach is working well, and that state permitting authorities are currently managing PSD permitting requests. Therefore, EPA has proposed not to include additional, smaller sources in the permitting program at this time.
EPAs GHG permitting program follows the same Clean Air Act process that states and industry have followed for decades to help ensure that new or modified facilities are meeting requirements to protect air quality and public health from harmful pollutants. As of December 1, 2011, EPA and state permitting authorities have issued 18 PSD permits addressing GHG emissions. These permits have required new facilities, and existing facilities that have chosen to make major modifications, to implement energy efficiency measures to reduce their GHG emissions.
The GHG Tailoring Rule would continue to address a group of six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The PSD permitting program protects air quality and allows economic growth by requiring facilities that trigger PSD to limit GHG emissions in a cost effective way. An operating permit lists all of a facility’s Clean Air Act emissions control requirements and ensures adequate monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting. The operating permit program allows an opportunity for public involvement and to improve compliance.
Under the approach maintained in this proposal, new facilities with GHG emissions of at least 100,000 tons per year (tpy) carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) continue to be required to obtain PSD permits. Existing facilities that emit 100,000 tpy of CO2e and make changes increasing the GHG emissions by at least 75,000 tpy CO2e, must also obtain PSD permits.Facilities that must obtain a PSD permit, to include other regulated pollutants, must also address GHG emission increases of 75,000 tpy or more of CO2e. New and existing sources with GHG emissions above 100,000 tpy CO2e must also obtain operating permits.
EPA will accept comments on this proposal for 45 days after it is published in the Federal Register. A public hearing will be held on March 20, 2012, in Arlington, Virginia to listen to public comment about the proposal. “
Saturday, March 3, 2012
U.S. UNDER SECRETARY ROSE GOTTEMOELLER REMARKS ON ARMS CONTROL IN THE INFORMATION AGE
The following excerpt is from a U.S. State Department e-mail:
“Arms Control in the Information Age
Remarks Rose Gottemoeller
Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Mykolas Romeris University
Vilnius, Lithuania
March 2, 2012
Thank you for the kind introduction. It is so wonderful to be back in Vilnius. I was here just over a year ago, shortly after the New START Treaty entered into force. I am happy to report that implementation of that Treaty is now well underway.
New START was just the beginning. President Obama made it clear in his now-famous Prague Speech that the United States is committed to the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. In order to pursue this goal, we know that we are going to have to think bigger and bolder. With this is mind, I have been challenging myself and my colleagues to think about how we use the knowledge of our past together with the new tools of the information age. I look out at a crowd like you and realize that I don’t need to convince you that the technologies of the 21st century are changing the world as we know it. While I may still be figuring out how to use my Ipad, I know it too. That is why I have been talking about arms control in the information age at universities around in the United States.
Today, I will talk to you about our diplomatic toolbox, the changing nature of diplomacy, and the new technologies that can help us on the road to nuclear zero. You all are the first international university to hear this, so I would like to start out saying the same thing I tell students back in the United States—this is not a policy speech, this is an ideas speech.
Tools in the Toolbox
When it comes to pursuing the next steps in nuclear reductions, we have a lot on our plate, and getting to zero is going to take time and heavy effort. There can be no shortcuts. The United States and Russia still have a lot of work to do, as together we still control over 90% of the world’s nuclear stockpile. Proliferation and nuclear terrorism continue to be a serious security threat. And when we come to agreement on disarmament and nonproliferation measures, it will take hard, persistent work to implement those agreements. Even more complicated: the lower the numbers or the smaller the parts, the harder it will be to monitor compliance.
It is clear that we are going to need every tool we have, and many we have not yet developed or even thought of, to fulfill the Prague Agenda. That means the first thing we need to do is take stock of the tools we have in our diplomatic toolbox.
First up in the toolbox is the formal, legally-binding negotiation process, like the one we used for the New START Treaty. This process is responsible for the important Treaties and agreements that undergird our arms control and nonproliferation regime.
In the United States, we also have international agreements that do not require Senate advice and consent; they are called “executive agreements.” They too are legally binding. While these types of agreements are not used for reductions, they could be useful in securing agreements on confidence-building, verification or other actions that may be as important as future treaties.
Another way to makes changes in nuclear posture that was used in the past was through reciprocal actions that two countries take at the same time. The pros of such an approach include speed and flexibility. A con is that such arrangements may not be verifiable and can be reversed as a result of a change in policy.
Progress on reductions is sometimes difficult due to a lack of trust between parties. A solution for this is mutual confidence building measures, or CBMs. These measures help establish lasting stability, while at the same time taking into account each nation’s security interests. CBMs may include exchanging information about the size of the defense budget, giving notification of planned military activities, or even things as simple as issuing invitations for national holidays, cultural and sport events.
An important way to build mutual confidence is to work together on tough problems. One of the great unsung success stories of the early post-Cold War years is how U.S. and Russian scientists, sometimes with other scientists from the then Newly Independent States, worked together to ensure the continued safety and security of fissile material and warheads.
We can also use “alphabet soup” cooperative efforts, like Cooperative Threat Reduction or CTR. Introduced in 1991 by Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, the CTR legislation helped destroy a large amount of former Soviet weaponry, including hundreds of ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launchers. The CTR programs continue today and have expanded to tackle the threat posed by terrorist organizations or states seeking weapons of mass destruction (WMD) expertise, materials and equipment.
All these efforts will be key parts to moving forward, but it is not just what we have in our toolbox that is important, it is how we use those tools.
21st Century Diplomacy
Diplomacy today is very different than it was at the dawn of the nuclear age. More often diplomacy is happening in the open, and at quicker speeds. The world has changed and we diplomats have to work under new circumstances.
In my own experience, diplomacy has been changing before my eyes. I was a junior member of the U.S. START delegation in 1990-91, an experience that served me well when negotiating the New START Treaty. I remember how things were done back then: masses of paper had to be shuttled among delegation members—we were constantly burning up Xerox machines, and faxes flowed from Geneva to Washington and back. Remember the fax machines? It has disappeared like the dinosaur. In Geneva in 1990, if you had secret and urgent business with Washington, you had to sandwich yourself into a steaming hot secure phone booth and shout to make yourself understood at the other end.
When the New START negotiations began in April 2009, the world had changed. The U.S. and Russian delegations launched into the negotiations committed to keeping them respectful and businesslike, even when we did not agree. And we agreed to disagree in private. That was good considering how easily either delegation could have broadcast negative comments that would have reached Moscow or Washington before we could pick up a phone.
For me, the biggest change in how we did business was email. Instead of making hard copies and waiting days or weeks for the mail, we could get information around the delegation and to our leaders in Washington within hours, even minutes. Both classified and unclassified materials could be sent, decreasing necessary trips back to Washington.
After some discussion, we also agreed to exchange negotiating documents with the Russian team electronically, although on disks and not via email. Still, even CDs made a big difference to after-hours communication. There was a famous story about how in the 1990s, during the START talks, a member of the U.S. delegation had to hurl a satchel of negotiating documents over the fence of the Soviet mission to his counterpart, because no guard was there to open the gates late at night. Obviously, a CD could be handed more easily between the bars of the fence--which we did from time to time.
In my view, these new approaches to a formal negotiating process, especially our new digital toolbox, were a big factor in the fast pace of our negotiations--exactly one year from our first meeting to our last one. No longer bogged down by paper processes, things moved quickly. Nowadays, I don’t have to wait until the next time I travel to Geneva or Moscow to advance business with my counterparts; I can email or call from my home or office, and hopefully soon, I can walk across the hall and have a video-chat in our conference room.
New Technologies and Arms Control
These astonishing advancements in communication technologies over the past decades may not just be useful in diplomacy, they might also be able to aid in the verification of arms control treaties and agreements.
Our new reality is a smaller, increasingly-networked world where the average citizen connects to other citizens in cyberspace hundreds of times each day. They exchange and share ideas on a wide variety of topics, why not put this vast problem solving entity to good use? Or put another way, how can we use new media technologies by combining them with 222 years of U.S. diplomatic negotiating expertise?
Today, any event, anywhere on the planet, could be broadcast globally in seconds. That means it is harder to hide things. When it is harder to hide things, it is easier to be caught. The neighborhood gaze is a powerful tool and it could help us make sure that countries were following the rules of arms control treaties and agreements.
Open source information technologies improve arms control verification in at least two ways: either as a way of generating new information or as analysis of information that already is out there.
The DARPA Red Balloon Challenge, which you can google, is an example of the first. It demonstrated the enormous potential of social networking to solve problems and also showed how incentives can motivate large populations to work toward a common goal. Applying such ideas to arms control, a country could, for example, show it is complying with a treaty by opening itself to a verification challenge.
A technique like this—I call it a “public verification challenge”—might be especially valuable as we move to lower and lower numbers of nuclear weapons. Governments, in that case, will have an interest in proving that they are meeting their reduction obligations and may want to engage their publics in helping them to make the case.
It will then be necessary to work together to make sure nations cannot spoof or manipulate the verification challenges that they devise—that’s a big problem, but one I am sure you can tackle.
This kind of citizen-run verification and monitoring project could add to the standard international safeguards or verification of a country’s nuclear declaration. Once again, we have to bear in mind that there could be limitations based on the freedoms available to the citizens of said country—an issue to tackle in thinking through this problem.
The Information Age is also creating a greater talent pool of individuals. People can reach a broader, diverse market for their products and services. These private citizens can develop web base applications for e-book readers, cell phones and any touch pad communication devices. This “crowd sourcing” lets everyday people solve problems by getting innovative ideas out of their heads and onto the shelves.
Open source technology could be useful in the hands of inspectors. Smart Phone and tablet apps could be created for the express purpose of aiding in the verification and monitoring process. For example, by having all safeguards and verification sensors in an inspected facility wirelessly connected to the inspector’s iPad, he or she could note anomalies and flag specific items for closer inspections, as well as compare readings in real time and interpret them in context. Some of this is already happening. Another new application idea would take sensor readings and feed them into a 3-D virtual model of a facility, so an inspector could tailor an inspection in real time before he or she even steps inside.
As we think through new ways to use these tools, we should be aware that there may be trouble ahead. We cannot assume that information will always be so readily available. As nations and private entities continue to debate the line between privacy and security, it is possible to imagine that we are living in a golden age of open source information that will be harder to take advantage of in future.
In the end, the goal of using open source information technology and social networks should be to add to our existing arms control verification capabilities, and we will need your help to think about how it can be done.
So, as you have heard, we are thinking about a lot of new concepts. As I said at the outset, this is not about policy; this is about coming up with the bold ideas that will shape policy in the future. As the first set of university students outside the United States that has heard this, you have a head start on helping us find new ways to use the amazing information tools at our disposal to move the world closer to eliminating nuclear weapons.
Thank you again for inviting me here to speak. I would now love to take some questions.”
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