Georgetown Security Law Brief

UK official: London attack could be terror-related

05/22/13:  The AP reports a British official says a violent attack near a London barracks is being investigated as a possible terrorist act. Police said two men attacked another man on Wednesday. One man is dead and two others were injured. A British government official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation said details had emerged that were indicative of a "terrorist-motivated attack." While details were scant, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing "truly shocking" and said he had asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government's emergency committee.

Man with ties to Tsarnaev killed by FBI officer in Florida

05/22/13:  The New York Times reports a man with ties to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect, was shot and killed by a law enforcement official in Orlando, Fla., as the FBI tried to interview him early Wednesday morning, according to a law enforcement official.  The man was identified as Ibragim Todashev, the official said. The FBI's Tampa field office released a short statement saying that it was “currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent” that had occurred in Orlando. “The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties,” the statement said. “The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time.” Early on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI's headquarters in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred, according to a law enforcement official. In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the FBI has sought to speak with people who knew Mr. Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, in an effort to learn how they were radicalized and to rule out the possibility that they had accomplices.

Torture victim’s body found near US base, Afghans say

05/21/13:  The New York Times reports the footless corpse of an Afghan man missing since November was found on Tuesday near the former American Special Forces base to which he was last seen being taken, according to Afghan officials and victims’ representatives. Afghan investigators said that after his disappearance, the man, Sayid Mohammad, was seen in a video being tortured by an Afghan-American named Zakaria Kandahari, whom the officials identified as the chief interpreter for an American Army Special Forces A Team stationed at the base. The American military denies that Mr. Kandahari is an American citizen, and said he was no longer working for the A Team when the video was made. Mr. Mohammad’s body was found about 200 yards outside the perimeter of the base, in Nerkh District in Wardak Province.Mohammad Hanif Hanafi, the district governor, said it was found by laborers digging a water ditch when they unearthed what appeared to be a military-style black body bag. Relatives of Mr. Mohammad said his corpse was largely complete, except both feet had been cut off. Afghan officials say the partial remains and clothing of another missing person had been found earlier near the base, which is now occupied by Afghan Special Forces after the American unit left in March. Afghan officials are seeking Mr. Kandahari’s arrest on murder, torture and abuse of prisoner charges, and accuse the American military of shielding him from capture.

Saudi Arabia detains 10 more in Iran spying case

05/21/13:  Reuters reports Saudi Arabia has detained 10 more people in a spying case it announced in March that it said was linked to Iran, state television reported on Tuesday. "Initial investigation carried out by the authorities led to the detention of 10 others for involvement in spying activities," state television news channel al-Ekhbariya reported, citing the Interior Ministry. It said the new group includes eight Saudis, a Lebanese and a Turk. In March Turki said Saudi security forces had arrested 18 people, including 16 Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese. In his statement, Turki said the Lebanese man held in March had now been released. All of the Saudis arrested in March were members of the kingdom's Shi'ite Muslim minority, leaders of that community said.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Islamists 'arrested' in Maiduguri

05/21/13:  The BBC reports about 120 militant Islamists have been arrested in Nigeria's north-eastern city of Maiduguri, as they were organising the burial of a commander, an army spokesman has said. The military has also recaptured five areas from the militants, he added. There has been no independent confirmation of what the army has said. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three north-eastern states last week to quell the insurgency by the Boko Haram group. It has carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations since 2009, saying it wants to establish an Islamic state across Nigeria. A second Islamist group, Ansaru, joined the insurgency in 2012, taking foreigners hostage. Officials say some 2,000 people have fled to neighbouring Niger, while more have crossed into Cameroon, since the army launched its offensive in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe last week. Some 2,000 soldiers were deployed to the region last week, in the biggest campaign to date against the Islamist militants.

Egypt sends extra troops to Sinai after abductions

05/20/13:  The BBC reports Egypt has increased its security presence in the Sinai peninsula, four days after seven members of its forces were abducted there. Armoured vehicles were seen crossing into northern Sinai on Monday in response to the kidnapping. A video emerged at the weekend apparently showing the men pleading for their release. The Egyptian president held emergency meetings with security chiefs on Monday morning. The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil in Cairo says the high level meetings and the troop deployment come amid speculation that force could be used to rescue the seven servicemen. President Mohammed Morsi has ruled out negotiating with the abductors, saying there was "no room for dialogue with the criminals". The kidnappers are said to be demanding the release of political detainees. The men, six police officers and a border guard, were captured while travelling in minibuses in northern Sinai, east of the city of El Arish. While the identity of their captors is unclear, reports suggest they are jihadist militants.

Ivory Coast: Duekoue massacre suspect Oueremi held

05/19/13:  The BBC reports authorities in Ivory Coast have arrested a militia leader suspected of a role in one of the worst massacres during 2011 post-election violence. Human rights groups say Amade Oueremi's fighters executed hundreds of supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo in the western town of Duekoue. Mr Oueremi was detained in a village close to a national park, where he had been based for more than 20 years. Some reports suggest the militia leader turned himself in. It was not immediately clear if he had been been charged with a crime. Human rights groups had criticised the new government's failure to arrest Mr Oueremi, saying that it showed it was not pursuing justice against both sides in the conflict, BBC Africa editor Richard Hamilton reports. Around 3,000 people were killed in Ivory Coast after Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge that his rival, Alassane Ouattara, had won a presidential run-off.

Justice Department lost track of terrorists, report says

05/17/13:  The New York Times reports the Justice Department temporarily lost track of two former terrorists who had participated in its witness protection program and until recently did not disclose the fictitious identities it created for terrorism-linked witnesses to the agency that generates watch lists, allowing some who were on the no-fly list to take commercial flights under their new names, according to a new report. A public summary of the classified report, issued Thursday by the office of the Justice Department’s independent inspector general, Michael Horowitz, revealed that the internal watchdog raised alarms with senior department officials in early 2012 about how the witness protection program was dealing with terrorism-related witnesses, leading to an overhaul of its procedures. In a response to the report, Armando Bonilla, a senior counsel in the office of the deputy attorney general, said that department officials agreed that terrorism-related witnesses needed greater monitoring and that changes had been put in place, including a ban on commercial flights for all participants who had a “no-fly” status under their real names. But he also defended the use of the program for terrorism cases, saying that it had been key in securing cooperation from witnesses necessary for successful prosecutions, that no “terrorism-linked witness ever has committed a single act of terrorism after entering the program” and that an FBI review of participants revealed none who posed a threat to national security.

Concerns arise on US effort to allow internet ‘wiretaps’

05/17/13:  The New York Times reports surveillance can be a tricky affair in the Internet age. A federal law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act allows law enforcement officials to tap a traditional phone, as long as they get approval from a judge. But if communication is through voice over Internet Protocol technology — Skype, for instance — it’s not as simple. That conversation doesn’t pass through a central hub controlled by the service provider. It is encrypted — to varying degrees of protection — as it travels through the Internet, from the caller’s end to the recipient’s. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has made it clear it wants to intercept Internet audio and video chats. And that, according to a new report being released Friday by a group of technologists, could pose “serious security risks” to ordinary Internet users, giving thieves and even foreign agents a way to listen in on Americans’ conversations, undetected. The 20 computer experts and cryptographers who drafted the report say the only way that companies can meet wiretap orders is to re-engineer the way their systems are built at the endpoints, either in the software or in users’ devices, in effect creating a valuable listening station for repressive governments as well as for ordinary thieves and blackmailers.

Criticized on seizure of records, White House pushes news media shield law

05/16/13:  The New York Times reports under fire over the Justice Department’s use of a broad subpoena to obtain calling records of Associated Press reporters in connection with a leak investigation, the Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters in keeping their sources and communications confidential. President Obama’s Senate liaison, Ed Pagano, on Wednesday morning called the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and asked him to reintroduce a version of a bill that he had pushed in 2009 called the Free Flow if Information Act, a White House official said. The bill would create a federal media shield law, akin to ones most states already have, giving journalists some protections from penalties for refusing to identify confidential sources in federal law enforcement proceedings, and generally enabling journalists to ask a federal judge to quash subpoenas for their phone records. Hours later, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing that covered a wide range of topics but repeatedly returned to the AP phone records. Lawmakers from both parties sought to grill him over why federal investigators secretly used a subpoena this year to obtain a broad swath of toll records — logs of calls sent and received — for several AP bureaus and reporters, without advance notice.

Turkey arrests four over bombings near Syrian border

05/16/13:  Reuters reports four suspects were arrested in Turkey late on Wednesday in connection with car bombings that killed 51 people in a town near the Syrian border at the weekend, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. The two bomb blasts in Reyhanli fanned fears that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighboring states. Damascus has denied Turkish allegations it was involved in the blasts. Turkish prosecutors sent eight suspects to a court in the southern city of Adana after questioning and the court released four, remanding the other four in custody, the agency said. It was not clear what charges they were facing. A total of 17 people have been detained in connection with the attacks and police were continuing to question the remaining suspects.

Phone records of journalists seized by US

05/14/13:  The New York Times reports federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press in what the news organization said Monday was a “serious interference with A.P.’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.”  The A.P. said that the Justice Department informed it on Friday that law enforcement officials had obtained the records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones. It said the records were seized without notice sometime this year. The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggested they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the Central Intelligence Agency’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. The disclosures began with an Associated Press article on May 7, 2012, breaking the news of the foiled plot; the organization had held off publishing it for several days at the White House’s request because the intelligence operations were still unfolding. In an angry letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday, Gary Pruitt, the president and chief executive of The A.P., called the seizure, a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into its news gathering activities. Justice Department regulations call for subpoenas for journalists’ phone records to be undertaken as a last resort and narrowly focused, subject to the attorney general’s personal signoff. Under normal circumstances, the regulations call for notice and negotiations, giving the news organization a chance to challenge the subpoena in court.

EMT at fertilizer plant blast faces charge of possessing bomb parts

05/11/13: The New York Times reports Texas authorities said on Friday that they had opened a criminal investigation into last month’s deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed 14 people and injured some 200 others. The announcement came hours after a paramedic who responded to the explosion was arrested on a charge of possessing the components of a pipe bomb, though law enforcement officials declined to say whether the charge was related to the blast.  Earlier Friday, Bryce Reed, 31, an emergency medical technician who has said he helped evacuate people after the April 17 blast, was taken into federal custody, according to the United States attorney’s office. Mr. Reed appeared briefly in federal court in Waco on Friday but did not enter a plea, the authorities said. An affidavit sworn out by Douglas J. Kunze, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the authorities had found the parts of a pipe bomb, including potassium nitrate powder, which is used in fertilizers and gunpowder. Though Mr. Reed was not in possession of the materials, he admitted to having possessed them, according to the affadavit. Investigators have said the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, which was being stored at the fertilizer plant, but have not said whether a fire that preceded the blast had ignited the chemical. Ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used as a fertilizer, is difficult to ignite if handled carefully and properly stored, but it has also been used in a number of terrorist attacks, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Egypt 'al-Qaeda linked plot on Western embassy' foiled

05/11/13:  The BBC reports Egyptian police have arrested three al-Qaeda militants planning a suicide attack on a Western embassy, the country's interior minister says. Mohammed Ibrahim did not specify which embassy had been targeted, but said a quantity of chemicals had been found. Mr Ibrahim gave the names of three men and said they were planning attacks in both Cairo and Alexandria. The plot was said to be in its final stages, he said. At a news conference, the minister gave details about the discovery of 10kg (22lbs) of explosive material, a computer with files containing information on bomb-making and a flash memory with instructions on how to build rockets. "The interior ministry was able to direct a qualitative blow to a terrorist cell which was planning to carry out suicide attacks against vital, important and foreign establishments," Mr Ibrahim told reporters. One of the three suspects had been in touch with al-Qaeda in Algeria and had travelled to Iran and Pakistan for training, he said. All three men, described as jihadists, had been in touch with an al-Qaeda militant in Pakistan as well as another in the Sinai peninsula, he said.

FBI Says Data About Probe Of Bombing Suspect Was Shared

05/10/13:  NPR reports Boston Police Chief Edward Davis told Congress on Thursday that before the Boston Marathon bombings, his department wasn't aware the FBI had questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev in recent years about whether he had been in contact with Muslim extremists in Dagestan. As far as he knew, Davis said, the FBI did not share that information with local authorities. The chief conceded that even if his department had known, that might not have prevented the April 15 blasts at the Boston Marathon — which the now-deceased Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzohkhar, are accused of carrying out. Later on Thursday, the FBI's Boston Division released a statement from Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers in which he says the bureau's "assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev" was entered into a database which representatives of the Boston Police can access.

Tunisian is accused of proposing contamination of water or air in US

05/10/13:  The New York Times reports a Tunisian man has been accused of seeking to develop a terrorist network in the United States and of proposing to poison the water or air to kill up to 100,000 people, federal prosecutors said in court papers unsealed on Thursday. The man, Ahmed Abassi, 26, who came to the United States from Canada in March and was arrested last month at Kennedy International Airport, told the authorities that he may also have “radicalized” one of two men arrested recently in Canada in an elleged Qaeda-linked plot to derail a passenger train. Mr. Abassi was arraigned on May 2 in a sealed court proceeding before a federal judge in Manhattan. A prosecutor asked at the time that the case remain secret for one week to determine whether Mr. Abassi would be “in a cooperative posture with the government,” a transcript shows. The government has not said whether Mr. Abassi agreed to cooperate, and Mr. Abassi’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. She did say that her client “flatly denies the accusations in the indictment.” On Thursday, Mr. Abassi appeared again in court, this time in public, and the judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, had the court papers and transcript of the May 2 hearing unsealed.

FBI pushes for more online snooping powers, fines for violators

05/08/13:  The Washington Times reports the White House is likely to fulfill the FBI's request for more authority to eavesdrop online, administration and law enforcement insiders said.  The FBI has been arguing for expanded powers to monitor Internet communications, saying advances in technology have made it easier and faster for suspects to “go dark,” Newser reported. The White House is now poised to agree to these requests, The New York Times reported. On the horizon: The FBI’s ability to fine companies that don’t comply with wiretap orders. Foreign companies could be hardest hit, Newser reported. They could face fines of $25,000 per day for not giving the FBI access to communications. Technology companies — and privacy-rights activists — aren’t pleased. “We’ll look a lot more like China than America after this,” said one lawyer in the Newser report. And a spokesman for the Center for Democracy and Technology said the expanded FBI authorities “would also mean that innovators who want to avoid new and expensive mandates will take their innovations abroad and develop them there,” Newser reported.

Military sex-assault reports up; changes ordered

05/08/13:  The Washington Times reports sexual assaults in the military are a growing epidemic across the services, and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to Pentagon documents. Troubling new numbers estimate up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year in survey results released days after the Air Forces’s head of sexual assault prevention was arrested last weekend on charges of groping a woman in a suburban Virginia parking lot. That arrest followed a series of scandals including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults on trainees at a Texas base. Officials also are reconsidering the tradition of allowing commanding officers to overturn military jury verdicts, such as an officer did recently in favor of another officer convicted of sexual assault. The Associated Press obtained documents and memos related to a new Pentagon report slated for release Tuesday. The documents show that the number of sexual assaults actually reported by members of the military rose 6 percent to 3,374 in 2012. But a survey of personnel who were not required to reveal their identities showed the number of service members actually assaulted could be a many as 26,000, but they never reported the incidents, officials said Tuesday. That number is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011. The statistics highlight the dismal results that military leaders have achieved in their drive to change the culture within the ranks, even as the services redoubled efforts to launch new programs to assist the victims, encourage reporting and increase commanders’ vigilance.

Man arrested over alleged Minnesota 'local terror plot'

05/07/13:  The BBC reports federal agents in Minnesota say they have foiled a terror plot after arresting a man with pipe bombs, guns and Molotov cocktails in his home. Buford Rogers, 24, was arrested on Friday and faces one charge of being a convict in possession of a weapon. The alleged plot, apparently caught in the planning stage, may have been aimed at residents of Montevideo, about 130 miles (209km) west of Minneapolis. Authorities did not say if Rogers was suspected of acting with others. "The FBI believed there was a terror attack in its planning stages," said FBI spokesman Kyle Loven. "We believe there would have been a localised terror attack, and that's why law enforcement moved quickly to execute the search warrant on Friday to arrest Mr Rogers." The law enforcement agency added it believed the lives of some local residents had been saved as a result of the arrest. A Romanian AKM assault rifle was among the weapons found at Rogers's mobile home in Montevideo, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in Minnesota. Rogers was previously convicted for a felony and is prohibited from owning a firearm.

Boston Marathon suspects 'planned 4 July attack'

05/04/13:  The BBC reports the Boston Marathon bombing suspects initially planned to attack the city's 4 July Independence Day celebrations, US media have reported. But they finished making the bombs more quickly than expected at Tamerlan Tsarnaev's home, anonymous US officials are quoted as saying. It is unclear if they planned to target a specific event, but Boston hosts major 4 July festivities each year. Meanwhile, the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been claimed by family. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety confirmed a funeral home hired by his relatives picked up the remains on Thursday.

Dutch police may get right to hack in cyber crime fight

05/04/13:  The BBC reports the Dutch government has announced plans to give police far greater powers to fight cybercrime. Under a new bill, investigators would be able to hack into computers, install spyware, read emails and destroy files. They could also break into servers located abroad, if they were being used to block services. Critics say the proposed measures are unnecessary and could set a dangerous precedent for people living under oppressive governments. Use of the powers would be subject to the approval of a judge, the government stresses. The bill would also make it a crime for a suspect to refuse to decipher encrypted files during a police investigation. It is expected the draft legislation will be put to parliament by the end of the year.

Terror watch list grows to 875,000

05/04/13:  The Washington Times reports the number of names in a secret US database of suspected terrorists has swollen to 875,000 from 540,000 only five years ago, in part because of rule changes introduced after al Qaeda's failed underwear bomb plot in 2009. The new figures were released Friday by the US National Counterterrorism Center, which manages the database, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE. A senior intelligence official explained the changes to The Washington Times.  US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have software tools for sorting through the data to find what they need, the official said, “They use the database every day and get the results they desire.” As of December 2012, a factsheet from the center states, TIDE contained over 875,000 entries. Each one represents a known or suspected terrorist and includes all their known aliases and spelling variations on their name, the official said. Less than one percent, or fewer than 9,000, were Americans, including both citizens and legal permanent residents, he said, adding the center does not release exact numbers.

Bomb suspect's buddies covered for him, feds say

05/02/13:  CNN reports a laptop, some empty fireworks and a jar of Vaseline landed three friends of Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in jail Wednesday, charged with trying to throw investigators off their buddy's trail. Those are the items federal prosecutors say Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos took from Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in the hours after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, the suspects in the marathon bombings. According to FBI affidavits, they quickly recognized their friend from the pictures. When Kadyrbayev texted his friend to tell him "he looked like the suspect on television," Tsarnaev texted back "lol" and added, "come to my room and take whatever you want," the affidavit states. Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev went to the room, where Kadyrbayev noticed a backpack containing fireworks that had been "opened and emptied of powder," according to the affidavit. "Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the marathon bombing," the affidavit states. All three are accused of removing items from Tsarnaev's dorm room after the April 15 bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260. According to the affidavit, they left with the backpack, the Vaseline -- which Tazhayakov believed could be used to make bombs -- and Tsarnaev's laptop.

FBI says okay to continue questioning terrorism suspect who asks for lawyer

05/01/13: Politico reports the FBI says its agents are on solid legal ground if they continue to question a terrorism suspect who has asked for an attorney, as they reportedly did with Boston Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  The February 2011 article by Carl Benoit, a lawyer and FBI Academy instructor, points to two federal appeals court rulings that concluded such questioning was constitutional and that evidence obtained as a result could be used in court.  The article appeared in the Law Enforcement Bulletin, an FBI publication aimed at “the larger policing community.”  The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Tsarnaev “asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored.”  DOJ’s current policy on questioning terror suspects without Miranda warnings does not give explicit guidance, at least publicly, about how to proceed if a suspect invokes his right to counsel.

Panel seeks to fine tech companies for noncompliance with wiretap orders

04/30/13:  The Washington Post reports a government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Face­book and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur, according to current and former US officials familiar with the effort. Driven by FBI concerns that it is unable to tap the Internet communications of terrorists and other criminals, the task force’s proposal would penalize companies that failed to heed wiretap orders — court authorizations for the government to intercept suspects’ communications. But law enforcement officials say the cloak drawn on suspects’ online activities — what the FBI calls the “going dark” problem — means that critical evidence can be missed. “The importance to us is pretty clear,” Andrew Weissmann, the FBI’s general counsel, said last month at an ANA discussion on legal challenges posed by new technologies. “We don’t have the ability to go to court and say, ‘We need a court order to effectuate the intercept.’ Other countries have that. Most people assume that’s what you’re getting when you go to a court.” There is currently no way to wiretap some of these communications methods easily, and companies effectively have been able to avoid complying with court orders. While the companies argue that they have no means to facilitate the wiretap, the government, in turn, has no desire to enter into what could be a drawn-out contempt proceeding. Under the draft proposal, a court could levy a series of escalating fines on firms that fail to comply with wiretap orders. A company that does not comply with an order within a certain period would face an automatic judicial inquiry, which could lead to fines. Instead of setting rules that dictate how the wiretap capability must be built, the proposal would let companies develop the solutions as long as those solutions yielded the needed data. That flexibility was seen as inevitable by those crafting the proposal, given the range of technology companies that might receive wiretap orders. Smaller companies would be exempt from the fines. The proposal, however, is likely to encounter resistance, said industry officials and privacy advocates.

 

UK concerned over treatment of British drug suspects in UAE

04/28/13: The Miami Herald reports the British government has expressed concern to United Arab Emirates authorities over allegations that three Britons held in Dubai on drug charges were abused.  Grant Cameron, Suneet Jeerh, and Karl Williams were arrested while on vacation in July and accused of possessing synthetic cannabis.  Reports said Williams was given electric shocks to his testicles, while all three men were threatened with guns and made to sign documents in Arabic, a language they do not understand.  The men deny the drug charges; a judge is due to deliver verdicts in their trial on Monday.  London’s Foreign Office said Sunday that British officials “have raised, and continue to raise, these allegations at the most senior levels.”  It called for a “full, impartial and independent” inquiry into the claims.

Dutch man arrested for huge cyberattack

04/28/13: BBC News reports Spanish police have arrested a Dutch man suspected of being behind one of the biggest cyberattacks in history.  The 35-year-old man was detained in Barcelona following a request from the Dutch public prosecutor.  The attack bombarded the websites of anti-junk mail outfit Spamhaus with huge amounts of data in an attempt to knock them offline.  It also slowed data flows over closely linked networks and led to a massive police investigation.  The suspect is believed to be Sven Kamphuis, the owner and manager of Dutch hosting firm Cyberbunker that has been implicated in the attack.  Spamhaus servers were hit with a huge amount of data in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.  It overwhelms a web server by sending it many more requests for data than it can handle.

Cairo court rejects Mubarak release request

04/28/13: Al Jazeera reports Cairo’s criminal court has rejected ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s second appeal calling for his release pending the investigation of illicit gain charges, granting the prosecution’s request to keep him detained.  The Cairo Criminal Court on Sunday ordered Mubarak to remain in jail for fifteen days while charges are probed; Mubarak can appeal the decision.  Mubarak is being detained pending the investigations of other corruption charges including taking funds allocated for maintenance of the presidential palaces for himself and his family.  The long-time autocrat was ousted during a 2011 public uprising and has spent more than two years in detention without a final verdict in the case, which alleges that he is responsible for the deaths of nearly 900 protesters during the uprising.

Bosnia: a President is arrested

04/27/13:  The New York Times reports the police on Friday arrested one of the country’s presidents and 18 other people in a corruption investigation in one of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s two main sections, a prosecution spokesman said. Zivko Budimir, a president of the Bosnian-Croat Federation, was among those suspected of “abuse of office, illegal intermediation, receiving and giving bribes, organized crime and drug trafficking,” the spokesman said.

New arrest reported in connection to ricin letters case

04/27/13:  NPR reports federal agents who are investigating poison-laced letters that were sent to President Obama and others have arrested Everett Dutschke, of Tupelo, Miss. The Daily Journal of Tupelo reports that the arrest occurred around 1 a.m. Saturday. In addition to the president, letters containing the poison ricin were sent to Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi state judge. No charges have been filed against Dutschke, but the AP reports that it has confirmation from the FBI that his arrest is tied to the ricin investigation. The FBI, the Capitol Police and other law enforcement personnel have searched Dutschke's property several times in the past two weeks, including Tuesday, when technicians in hazmat suits were sent to his home. Agents also searched his taekwondo studio in Tupelo. Federal authorities released Paul Kevin Curtis and dropped all charges against him Tuesday.

Suspected Iran link in Canadian rail plot puzzles terror experts

04/25/13:  CNN reports the Canadian announcement on Monday that they had thwarted a plot to attack a rail link between Canada and the United States has puzzled some terrorism experts, because Iranian authorities are widely seen as hostile to al Qaeda. Iran has denied the conspiracy could have been plotted from its territory. Canadian officials say they did not think the alleged conspirators were "state-sponsored" but suspect al Qaeda elements in Iran had provided two men in Canada with direction, guidance and information. As CNN National Security analyst Peter Bergen noted, "If these allegations are true, it would appear to be the first time that al Qaeda elements based in Iran have directed some kind of plot in the West." While Western intelligence agencies have long thought that al Qaeda operatives are present on Iranian soil, they were thought to be under some form of house arrest and under strict control. Many al Qaeda sympathizers and members took refuge in Iran in the aftermath of the post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan, including one son of Osama bin Laden, Saad bin Laden, and a son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Abu Ghaith left Iran in February this year and entered Turkey, but was subsequently arrested in Jordan and flown to the United States in March. But Iran has become increasingly hostile to al Qaeda as it has become a Sunni sectarian group, especially in Iraq and Syria, as much as an anti-western outfit. But the United States says there appears to have been some tactical co-operation between the Islamic Republic and al Qaeda. In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Iran of a "secret deal with al-Qa'ida allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory." Another aspect of the alleged Canadian plot is that it underlines the enduring interest of al Qaeda and its supporters in attacking railroad systems, seeing such operations as relatively cheap and easy to carry out -- with potentially devastating results.

 

US drops case against ricin letter suspect Paul Curtis

04/25/13:  The BBC reports US authorities have dropped the charges against a Mississippi man accused of sending letters poisoned with ricin to President Barack Obama and a senator. Paul Curtis was freed on Tuesday after prosecutors revealed the investigation had uncovered "new information". The letters addressed to the president and a Mississippi senator tested positive for the presence of the lethal toxin this month. Meanwhile, investigators in the case are searching the home of another man. Mr Curtis was arrested last week at his home in the town of Corinth, Mississippi and charged with sending letters to Mr Obama, Republican Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker and a judge from Lee County. But on Monday authorities searched Mr Curtis' home and found neither ricin nor ingredients for the poison, an FBI agent testified in court. A search of his computer yielded no evidence he had researched how to make the toxin, the agent said.

Boston bombing suspect faces civilian court, not ‘enemy combatant’ status

04/23/13:  The Washington Times reports federal prosecutors charged suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the deadly attack on the Boston Marathon, as the Obama adminstration opted for a civilian court with a possible death sentence over dubbing him an “enemy combatant” for investigative reasons. Tsarnaev is conscious and responded to questions from authorities in writing, but the criminal complaint shed no light on the motive of the attack. An affidavit in the case by FBI agent Daniel R. Genck said Tsarnaev was seen using a cellphone after placing a knapsack on the ground at the second explosion site and that he was calm when the first explosion triggered chaos around him. The charges were filed exactly one week after the deadly explosions, which survivors, residents and state officials remembered with a moment of silence across Boston.  White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration had no choice but to charge Tsarnaev in federal court. He said US citizens cannot be tried by military tribunals, adding that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the federal court system has been used to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists. Tsarnaev became a naturalized US citizen on Sept. 11 last year.  Mr. Grahan agrees that Tsarnaev isn’t eligible for a military tribunal because he was not caught on a foreign battlefield.

Spain holds two North African 'al-Qaeda suspects'

04/23/13:  The BBC reports Spanish police have arrested two North African suspects thought to be linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. An Algerian identified as Nou Mediouni was arrested in Zaragoza, northern Spain, the interior ministry said. The other suspect, a Moroccan named Hassan El Jaaouani, was arrested in Murcia in the south. They have "a similar profile to the two suspects who carried out the Boston attacks", the ministry said. French police had helped to track them down. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is among several Islamist groups fighting French and West African troops in Mali. It has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but in 2007 it emerged as an international jihadist group linked to Osama Bin Laden's network. AQIM says its aim is to spread Islamic law and it is known for kidnapping Westerners and extracting ransoms. It is not clear whether the pair arrested in Spain are suspected of planning any attacks. Their similarity to the Boston marathon bombers was not explained in the ministry statement. Moroccan Islamists linked to al-Qaeda were found guilty of the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 1,800.

Two are accused in Canada of plotting train derailment

04/23/13: The New York Times reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Monday announced the arrest of two men who are accused of planning to derail a passenger train in an Al Qaeda-linked plot. The police, saying the investigation was continuing, offered little in the way of details or evidence at a news conference in Toronto. Canadian politicians and government officials were similarly reticent. Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said that the two suspects had received “direction and guidance” from “Al Qaeda elements living in Iran,” but that there was no evidence that the effort had been sponsored by the government of Iran. He declined to explain how the link to Al Qaeda had been made. The suspects were identified as Chiheb Esseghaier, 35, who has been living in Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 30, of Toronto. The police said the men were not Canadian citizens, but declined to identify their nationalities or to describe their immigration status in Canada. Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan said the two men had studied train movements and rail lines in and around Toronto, and had been plotting to attack a train operated by Via Rail Canada, the government-owned rail system, within Canada. The police emphasized that the public had never been in “imminent danger.” Officials said that the suspects had been under constant observation and that contingency plans had been made. Both the police and David Jacobson, the United States ambassador to Canada, indicated that the FBI and other American law enforcement and intelligence agencies were involved in the investigation. No one, however, offered any specifics about that involvement or indicated if the plot had a cross-border element.

Boston bombs: Tsarnaev brothers 'planned more attacks'

04/23/13:  The BBC reports the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon were probably planning further attacks, the city's police commissioner has said. Ed Davis told CBS News that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been carrying homemade bombs and grenades which they threw at police when cornered. A top US interrogation group is waiting to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in a serious condition in hospital. His elder brother died during a gunfight with police on Thursday night. Two women and an eight-year-old boy were killed in Monday's blasts, close to the finish line of the marathon. A police officer was killed and a transport officer shot in the thigh during the operation to track down the brothers. Speaking to CBS's Face the Nation, Mr Davis said: "We have reason to believe, based upon the evidence that was found at that scene - the explosions, the explosive ordnance that was unexploded and the firepower that they had - that they were going to attack other individuals." He said more than 250 rounds of expended ammunition were found at the scene, and that the ground was "littered with unexploded improvised explosive devices that we had to point out to the arriving officers". Boston police chief Ed Davis said improvised devices were strewn around the area. Another device was found inside a car the brothers had earlier hijacked. Officials were now trying to trace all the weapons used by the brothers, he said, adding that this would be a "significant part of the investigation".

Analysis: Four reasons Senators Graham and McCain are wrong

04/20/13:  Lawfare posted, in an article by Benjamin Wittes, that Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain were quick out the box last night in declaring that the Obama administration should hold Dzhokar Tsarnaev in military detention: "Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing we should want is for him to remain silent. It is absolutely vital the suspect be questioned for intelligence gathering purposes... Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel. Our goal at this critical juncture should be to gather intelligence and protect our nation from further attacks." Bobby quickly explained why this is both unncessary and a bad idea; this very find Wall Street Jouranl blog sketches out why it would pose legal problems as well. But the idea has had legs on Twitter, so I want to bring together in one place  and explain the several distinct but overlapping reasons why it would be not merely ill-advised but absolutely nuts to try to treat Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant. First and most important, Tsarnaev may not be an enemy combatant.   Second, assuming for a moment that the facts as they emerge would support an enemy combatant designation, Tsarnaev is reportedly a naturalized American citizen, and the government’s appetite for the detention of American citizens under the laws of war has waned—and rightly so. This began under the Bush administration, which tried twice—in the early cases of Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla—to detain US citizens under the laws of war and ultimately backed down both times. The question of whether such detention is legally appropriate for a US citizen captured by law enforcement remains an open one.  He was certainly captured in the United States, and the military detention of domestic captures is problematic for many of the same reasons that the detention of the citizen poses difficulties. Fourth, military detention offers no clear advantages in this case and has several big disadvantages. 

Second Bombing Suspect caught after frenzied hunt paralyzes Boston

04/20/13:  The New York Times reports the teenage suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, whose flight from the police after a furious gunfight overnight prompted an intense manhunt that virtually shut down the Boston area all day, was in serious condition at a Boston hospital Saturday morning after the police found him in nearby Watertown, Mass., officials said.  The suspect, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, was found hiding in a boat just outside the area where the police had been conducting door-to-door searches all day, the Boston police commissioner, Edward Davis, said at a news conference Friday night. “A man had gone out of his house after being inside the house all day, abiding by our request to stay inside,” Mr. Davis said, referring to the advice officials gave to residents to remain behind locked doors. “He walked outside and saw blood on a boat in the backyard. He then opened the tarp on the top of the boat, and he looked in and saw a man covered with blood. He retreated and called us.” “Over the course of the next hour or so we exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was inside the boat, and ultimately the hostage rescue team of the FBI made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect, who was still alive,” Mr. Davis said. He said the suspect was in “serious condition” and had apparently been wounded in the gunfight that left his brother dead. A federal law enforcement official said Mr. Tsarnaev would not be read his Miranda rights because the authorities would invoke the public safety exception to question him extensively about other potential explosive devices or accomplices and to try to gain intelligence.

FBI agents interviewed bombing suspect in 2011

04/20/13:  CNN reports FBI agents interviewed one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings two years ago, but found no connection with terror groups. Agents interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of a foreign government that suspected he might have ties to extremist groups, the FBI said Friday. "The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer," the FBI said, "and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups." An FBI official declined to name the foreign government, but said the FBI took a number of investigative steps to check on the request, including looking at his travel history, checking databases for derogatory information and searching for Web postings. Agents also interviewed Tsarnaev's family members, the FBI said, but did not detect terrorist activity. "The FBI did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign government in the summer of 2011," the FBI's statement said. "The FBI requested but did not receive more specific or additional information from the foreign government."

Two US citizens found guilty in NY in Taliban case

04/20/13:  The Miami Herald reports two US citizens have been found guilty in New York of conspiring to provide material support to the Taliban and conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles. US Attorney Preet Bharara (buh-RAH'-ruh) says Friday Alwar Pouryan (AH'-wahr per-AHN') and Oded Orbach (OH'-ded OR'-bahk) face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for the anti-aircraft missile count. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4. The two men were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, last February. Authorities say the men were approached by US government witnesses posing as representatives of the Taliban. They say the men thought they were arranging the sale in 2010 of lethal weapons to members of a dangerous drug organization with terrorism links. Lawyers for the men haven't returned calls seeking comment.

 

One of two suspects in Boston Bombing killed

04/19/13:  The Associated Press reports the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed an MIT police officer and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle overnight that left one of them dead and his brother on the loose, authorities said Friday as thousands of officers swarmed the streets in a manhunt that all but paralyzed the Boston area. The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and a family member as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings. They lived near Boston and had been in the US for about a decade, an uncle said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight, officials said. His 19-year-old brother — dubbed Suspect No. 2 and seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday's deadly bombing at the marathon finish line — escaped. The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the unfolding case. Authorities in Boston suspended all mass transit and warned close to 1 million people in the entire city and some of its suburbs to stay indoors as the hunt went on. Businesses were asked not to open. People waiting at bus and subway stops were told to go home. From Watertown to Cambridge, police surrounded various buildings as they searched for Suspect No. 2. Around 8:30 a.m., officers sprinted toward a house in Watertown, and reporters were pushed back more than a block as helicopters buzzed overhead. SWAT teams, FBI agents and armored vehicles assembled at the scene as sharpshooters across the street trained their guns at the house.

Guinea-Bissau armed forces chief charged in NYC

04/19/13: The Miami Herald reports the armed forces chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau has been charged in New York in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and aid a foreign terrorist organization. Federal authorities on Thursday announced the indictment of Antonio Indjai (ihn-JY'). They say a sting operation carried out by US drug enforcement agents resulted in the charges. Indjai has been subject to a United Nations travel ban since authorities say he participated in an April 2012 coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau. The indictment was unsealed two weeks after a former navy chief of Guinea-Bissau was brought to New York for trial following his arrest at sea by federal drug agents. Four others charged in the conspiracy were brought to the US for trial at the same time. Indjai isn't in custody.

Suspect denies mailing poisoned letter to Obama

04/19/13:  The New York Times reports a Mississippi man charged with sending ricin-laced letters to the president and other officials was described Thursday as a good father, a quiet neighbor and an entertainer who impersonated Elvis at parties. Other accounts show a man who spiraled into emotional turmoil trying to get attention for his claims of uncovering a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market. Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, wrote numerous Web posts over the past several years describing the event that he said "changed my life forever": the chance discovery of body parts and organs wrapped in plastic in small refrigerator at a hospital where he worked as a janitor more than a decade ago. He tried to talk to officials and get the word out online, but he thought he was being railroaded by the government. Authorities say the efforts culminated in letters sent to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a judge in Mississippi. "Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die," the letters read, according to an FBI affidavit.

Boston Marathon 'bombing suspect' seen on video

04/18/13:  The BBC reports officials investigating the Boston Marathon bombings say they have found images of a potential suspect from surveillance camera footage. Boston City Council President Stephen Murphy said a man was seen dropping off a bag at the scene on Monday. Earlier, the FBI denied reports that a suspect had been arrested. Three people died in the twin blasts. President Obama is due to visit Boston on Thursday for a service honouring the victims. More than 170 people were wounded and dozens remain in hospital, many of them seriously injured. Mr Murphy said detectives had spotted the potential suspect in surveillance footage from a nearby store, AP news agency reported. He said he didn't know if investigators had identified the man, but added: "They may be on the verge of arresting someone and that's good." A planned FBI news conference outlining the progress of the investigation was postponed on Wednesday afternoon. Earlier, police and journalists arrived at a courthouse in Boston amid confusion over whether a suspect had been held in connection with the attacks. "Contrary to widespread reporting, there have been no arrests made in connection with the Boston marathon attack," the FBI said in a statement. "Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate."

4 UK men jailed for discussing acts of terrorism

04/18/13:  The Miami Herald reports four men were jailed in Britain on Thursday for discussing terrorist attacks, including plans to blow up an army reserve center using a bomb-laden toy car. Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, Umar Arshad and Syed Farhan Hussain - aged between 22 and 31 - pleaded guilty in March to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism between January 2011 and April 2012. Prosecutors said the Britons downloaded files containing instructions for an attack, bought survival equipment and collected money for terrorist purposes. They also admitted "facilitating, planning and encouraging" overseas travel for terrorist purposes. The men were recorded discussing sending a remote-controlled toy car carrying a homemade bomb under the gates of an army reservist center and speaking of using instructions in an al-Qaida manual to make an improvised explosive device. The four were arrested a year ago in the town of Luton, north of London, after an operation by police and the MI5 intelligence service. They were sentenced Thursday at London's Woolwich Crown Court. Iqbal and Ahmed were jailed for 16 years and 3 months, while Arshad received a sentence of six years and nine months. Hussain was jailed for five years and three months.

Mississippi man arrested for mailing suspected ricin

04/18/13:  The Miami Herald reports a Mississippi man accused of mailing letters with suspected ricin to national leaders believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and claimed "various parties within the government" were trying to ruin his reputation. Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Corinth, near the Tennessee state line. Authorities were waiting for definitive tests on intercepted letters that were addressed to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Preliminary field tests can often show false positives for ricin. Ricin is derived from the castor plant that makes castor oil. There is no antidote and it's deadliest when inhaled. An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said the two letters were postmarked Memphis, Tenn. It was not immediately known what charges Curtis faced. The letters had Washington on edge in the days after the Boston Marathon bombing. As authorities scurried to investigate three questionable packages discovered in Senate office buildings Wednesday, reports of suspicious items also came in from at least three senators' offices in their home states. The items were found to be harmless.

Boston combs mile-square crime scene after blasts

04/16/13:  The New York Times reports the day after two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, a mile-square area around Copley Square here remained cordoned off as a crime scene, and officials still had no one in custody. Investigators searched a house in a nearby suburb late Monday night, but later said the search had proved fruitless.  Three people were killed. The bombings also sent 176 people to area hospitals, including 17 who were critically injured. Late Monday night, law enforcement officials descended on an apartment building in the suburb of Revere, about five miles north of Copley Square, linked to a man the police took into custody near the scene of the bombings. But on Tuesday morning, one law enforcement official said investigators had determined that the man, who was injured in the blast and was questioned at the hospital, was not involved in the attack. Hundreds if not thousands of office workers avoided the city on Tuesday because of the closures. On Tuesday morning officials said that the only explosive devices found were the ones that exploded at the marathon — clarifying conflicting statements that were given Monday in the chaotic aftermath of the blast, when some law-enforcement officials had said that other devices were found.

Army policeman gets 16 years for trying to sell secrets to Russia

04/16/13:  The Washington Times reports a military policeman serving in the US Army was sentenced to 16 years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge for trying to sell secrets to an agent he believed was a Russian spy. Spc. William Colton Millay pleaded guilty to the spying charge last month, The Associated Press reported. A panel of eight military officials handed down the ruling Tuesday. Prosecutors said Millay was a white supremacist, sick and tired of the military and his country, and didn’t care that his sale of secrets would put his fellow soldiers in harm’s way, AP said. Defense lawyers countered that Millay was emotionally immature and that his attempt at espionage was aimed only at getting him some attention, AP reported. During testimony, an FBI official said Millay “expressed his disgust with the U.S. military” and offered to work for Russia. Millay said he could provide information on America’s Warlock Duke jamming system, which is used by the military to scan for roadside bombs, the agent testified, as AP reported.  Millay ultimately was arrested when he traded an envelope of information to the man he believed was a Russian official for $3,000, AP reported.

UN: Afghan opium production increases

04/15/13: The Miami Herald reports a UN report released Monday said opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high.  The boom in poppy cultivation is at its most pronounced in the Taliban’s heartland in the south, the report showed, especially in regions where troops of the US-led coalition have been withdrawn or are in the process of departing.  Increased production has been driven by unusually high opium prices, but also indicates that Afghans are turning to illicit markets and crops as the real economy shrinks ahead of the expected withdrawal of foreign combat troops at the end of 2014.  Afghanistan is by far the world’s largest producer of opium, last year producing 75 percent of the global crop.

Guinea-Bissau ex-navy chief in 'drugs arrest'

04/05/13:  The BBC reports the former chief of the navy in Guinea-Bissau has been arrested and is being transferred to the US, local media have reported. Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was picked up on a boat in international waters near Cape Verde, a local broadcaster said. He is described by the US as a kingpin in Guinea-Bissau's huge drugs trade. The small West African state is a staging post for gangs smuggling cocaine from Latin America to Europe. According to a report by the broadcaster RTC in Cape Verde - the island state off the west coast of Africa - US officials supported by Cape Verde police arrested Adm Na Tchuto and he is expected to face prosecution in the US. There has been no official comment from US officials. Fernando Vaz, a spokesman for Guinea-Bissau's government, confirmed the arrests to the Reuters news agency, saying the rear admiral had been arrested off the coast of Cape Verde in a boat flying the Panama flag. The Cape Verde islands lie about 1,000km (620 miles) west of Guinea-Bissau.