Times Square suspect had Taliban ties

Washington (News Today) - Investigators believe that Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad had ties to TTP, a Pakistani Taliban group, a senior law enforcement official and a U.S. intelligence official said Thursday.

The law enforcement official said the extent of Shahzad's involvement with TTP has not been determined and could range from communications to training, and does not necessarily mean that TTP directed the attack.

TTP released a video making a claim of responsibility for the attack on a website established the day before the failed bombing attempt, but a spokesman for TTP has denied any connection with the 30-year-old Pakistani-American.

A U.S. official said earlier in the day that connections to TTP were "plausible," but noted that numerous connections among insurgent groups in Pakistan made it difficult to zero in on a single responsible group.

The advance came shortly after a senior U.S. official said that new leads developed from the Pakistani end of the investigation show Shahzad likely had training in Pakistan from extremists. The official has direct knowledge of discussions between senior U.S. and Pakistani officials about the case.

"Did he receive help in Pakistan? Yes he did," said the official. The official said Shahzad is believed to have received training of some sort but would not say if the training was specific to the Times Square bombing attempt.

The official and another U.S. official said investigators had not concluded from which group Shahzad may have received help.

Also Thursday, a high-level team of U.S. and Pakistani investigators grilled Shahzad's father and interrogated four people linked to a notorious Pakistani militant group, intelligence officials said.

The interrogators questioned Bahar Ul Haq in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar. The retired senior Pakistani air force officer is the father of Shahzad.

Ul Haq -- who lives in the Peshawar suburb of Hayatabad -- was neither detained nor arrested, the source said.

Another official said the team was also questioning four men suspected of having links to the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Banned in Pakistan, the group's aim is to unite the disputed territory of Kashmir with Pakistan and to expel foreign troops from Afghanistan, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. It is also close to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. India and Pakistan have had disputes over Kashmir for decades.

Shahzad told investigators he recently received bomb-making training in the Waziristan area of Pakistan, sources said. North and South Waziristan are regions in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas; both border Afghanistan.

Officials said they suspect that Shahzad may be part of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group fighting Pakistani forces. While the Pakistani Taliban has praised Shahzad in the wake of the failed bombing, it has denied a link to the man.

In recent days, authorities in Pakistan have rounded up a number of people for questioning.

One was Muhammed Rehan, an alleged associate of Shahzad who allegedly has links to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a senior Pakistani official said. Rehan allegedly was instrumental in making possible a meeting between Shahzad and at least one senior Taliban official, the official said.

The official said that Rehan drove Shahzad on July 7 to Peshawar. At some point, they headed to the Waziristan region, where they met with one or more senior Taliban leaders, the official said.

Several officials in Karachi said Rehan was picked up in Karachi's North Nazimabad district. They said others were taken into custody for questioning on Wednesday, but they could not say how many, who they were or where they were seized.

It was not clear if Rehan was one of the four with alleged Jaish links being questioned on Thursday.

Others taken in for questioning include Iftikhar Mian, the father-in-law of the suspect, and Tauseef Ahmed, a friend of Shahzad. They were picked up in Karachi on Tuesday, two intelligence officials said.

Meanwhile, efforts to determine what may have motivated the suspect continued. An official familiar with the investigation said Wednesday that Shahzad felt Islam was under attack.

Any grudge Shahzad may have held against the United States appears to have developed recently, according to a senior U.S. official who is familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly.

The investigation has found nothing to indicate that Shahzad had any long-standing grudge or anger toward the United States, the official said.

In Connecticut, where Shahzad was living, a prominent member of the Pakistani-American community said Thursday that he had maintained a low profile and appeared to have become more religious over the past year.

CNNMoney: Faisal Shahzad's $65,000 home equity piggy bank

"He was somebody who was under the radar; he was never a part of our community, never a part of our events or meetings," said Dr. Saud Anwar, founder and past president of the Pakistani American Association of Connecticut.

After news broke about the suspect, the pulmonologist sent out e-mails to others in the community to dredge up what he could about Shahzad.

"As a physician, I look at it as a disease," Anwar said of Shahzad's apparent radical turn. "I try to understand what led to the disease ... how we can prevent a disease like this."

Anwar said his e-mails turned up a man who studied with Shahzad at the University of Bridgeport and had stayed in touch with him since then, but does not want to be identified publicly.

"He recalled him as a regular individual, outgoing, interacting with people, interested to learn, not isolated," Anwar said.

But, in the past year or so, "he felt there was a change in his personality," Anwar said, explaining that Shahzad appeared to become introverted, asocial and "a little bit more religious."

Anwar added, "There was a little anger in there. [The friend] felt [Shahzad] was looking at things as true black and white."

Returning to his disease analogy, the physician said that, after Shahzad returned from Pakistan early this year, "The disease became a little bit more progressive, much stronger."

Shahzad told his friend that, as a Pakistani-American, he was looking for work in the Middle East "because he was having challenges with his job over here," Anwar said.

"He just mentioned that he was seeking something. I don't know if he found anything or not."

Shahzad has admitted he drove a Nissan Pathfinder into Times Square on Saturday night and attempted to detonate the vehicle, which was packed with gasoline, propane tanks, fireworks and fertilizer, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York.

The previous day, he carried out a dry run, parking his Isuzu SUV on West 38th Street between 9th and 10th avenues a few blocks from Times Square to be used the following day as a getaway car, a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told said.

But on Saturday, after he left the smoking Pathfinder on West 45th Street just west of Broadway and walked to the Isuzu, he realized he didn't have the Isuzu keys, the source said. So he headed to Grand Central Terminal and boarded a train to Connecticut.

Two store owners on West 38th Street said they had turned over surveillance tapes to authorities at their request.

After a 53-hour police manhunt, Shahzad was arrested late Monday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after boarding a flight bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates. His final destination was to have been in Pakistan.

Read complaint filed in federal court Tuesday (PDF)

He has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, and three other counts in connection with the incident. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Source : CNN

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Suspect in UVA student's death had previous arrest By the CNN Wire Staff

(News Today) - The suspect in the killing of a University of Virginia student was arrested in a 2008 incident in which he threatened a police officer and was shocked with a stun gun, according to a police statement.

George Huguely, 22, was arrested hours after a roommate found Yeardly Love's body in her off-campus apartment in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday morning.

Huguely, who was also a UVA student until resigning after his arrest, and Love played on the men's and women's lacrosse teams, respectively.

CNN affiliate WDBJ got a police statement recounting an encounter between an intoxicated Huguely and Lexington, Virginia, Police Officer R.L. Moss.

Affidavit: Lacrosse player killed in fight after breakup

According to the statement, Moss came across Huguely as he stumbled into traffic outside of a fraternity house at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.

After ignoring the officer's calls to stop, Huguely was approached by Moss who, after speaking with Huguely, decided to arrest him for public drunkenness, the statement says.

At that point, Huguely started making threats, including death threats, against the officer, according to the statement.

"He became more aggressive, more physical towards me, started to calling me several other terms that I'm not going to state now," she told WDBJ.

Moss got into a brief "tussle" with Huguely before resorting to her stun gun to get him under control, the statement says.

At a court hearing the next month, Moss wrote she was surprised to learn that Huguely was so intoxicated that he didn't remember being shocked with the stun gun or threatening the police officer.

Court records show that Huguely pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and public intoxication, WDBJ reported. He was given a suspended jail sentence and a fine.

Source : CNN

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Questions surface over Times Square investigation

(News Today) - Questions remained in the days following the dramatic arrest of the Times Square bombing suspect, who was captured only minutes before his plane was due to take off for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Faisal Shahzad was able to board Emirates Flight 202 late Monday despite being put on a no-fly list earlier in the day, but at the time of his ticket purchase, the airline had not refreshed its information so his name did not raise any red flags, a senior counterterrorism official said.

Authorities had tailed Shahzad throughout the day, but lost him before he arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he was ultimately arrested, the official said.

However, an FBI official responded that surveillance operations are designed with redundancies in place, and that agents had to avoid tipping off Shahzad that he was being followed.

At a Tuesday news conference, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended surveillance efforts.

"I was here all yesterday and through much of last night and was aware of the tracking that was going on, and I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him," Holder said.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, noted that, along with a Nigerian man who tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, this is the second high-profile incident in recent memory where someone on the U.S. no-fly list has managed to board a plane.

"Whatever went wrong, I hope they get their acts together and correct it," Rangel said. "The good thing about this is that nobody was hurt in either case, but ... someone ought to come up with the answer and see that it doesn't happen again."

Shahzad was arrested shortly before midnight Monday at JFK airport after U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which reviews all flight manifests, caught his name when the airline sent the agency its passenger list, according to the counterterrorism official.

The terror plot may dominate discussions Wednesday as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg travels to Washington for a previously scheduled Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on terrorism.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and ranking member of the committee, has already expressed concerns.

"A key question for me is why this suspect was allowed to board the plane in the first place," Collins said, according to the New York Times. "There appears to be a troubling gap between the time they had his name and the time he got on the plane."

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN that U.S. intelligence efforts have to be better.

"Being lucky can't be our national security strategy," Hoekstra said. "We were lucky on Christmas Day. We were lucky last week."

Source : CNN

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Times Square bomb suspect 'didn't like the sunlight'

(News Today) - A suspect charged in the failed Times Square car bombing is a Pakistani who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2009 and used to work as a financial analyst in Connecticut.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, most recently of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was arrested Monday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as his flight to Dubai was about to take off, law enforcement officials said.

Federal authorities had put him on a no-fly list earlier in the day, with investigators having determined that he had purchased the vehicle used in Saturday's failed bombing attempt, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said Tuesday.

Customs and Border Protection agents reacted quickly to the name match and made the arrest, Pistole said.

Shahzad has been charged with five counts in connection with the case, according to documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York. According to the documents, he admitted to law enforcement officials that he attempted to detonate the bomb and that he recently received bomb-making training in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.

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

Shahzad has a Karachi identification card, a sign of Pakistani residency, and his family is from northwestern Pakistan, according to Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

His father is a retired senior officer in the Pakistani Air Force, Shahzad's cousin, Kafayat Ali, said on Tuesday. The father, Bahar Ul Haq, a former air vice marshal, lives in the Peshawar suburb of Hayatabad in Pakistan.

Shahzad came to the United States and attended college, earning a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems from Connecticut's University of Bridgeport in 2000. He earned an MBA at the school in 2005.

He started working as a junior financial analyst for Affinion Media Group in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 2006, leaving voluntarily in June 2009, according to Affinion spokesman Michael Bush.

Before what the court document says was Shahzad's trip to Pakistan, he lived in Shelton, Connecticut. A woman who said she had lived next door to him in Shelton told CNN on Tuesday that the man she knew didn't say much and claimed to work on Wall Street in New York.

"He was quiet. He would wear all black and jog at night. He said he didn't like the sunlight," Brenda Thurman said.

She said Shahzad, his wife and two children and his wife's two sisters lived next to her for about three years, moving out in July 2009. People whom she believes were plainclothes law enforcement officers appeared to be staking out the house Monday, Thurman told CNN affiliate WTNH-TV.

The neighbor said she often saw Shahzad leaving the home in the morning and returning in the evening. She also saw him in his yard with his children, a boy and a girl, and the family usually wore traditional Muslim attire, she told WTNH-TV.

She said she never suspected he might be involved in a possible terror attack.

"I didn't think he was capable of doing something like that. ... I'm very shocked," she said.

Thurman said her daughter often played with Shahzad's daughter, but she herself didn't have much contact with the family.

Shahzad's wife spoke English, but was apparently so insecure about her language ability that she told people she did not, Thurman said.

"I never knew she spoke English until it was time for her to move," Thurman said.

Shahzad's wife told Thurman in July 2009 that the family was moving to Missouri. A few weeks after they left their home, the lender foreclosed on the property and changed the locks, the neighbor said.

At the Bridgeport residence where authorities say he lived most recently, agents with the FBI and local police, including members of a bomb squad, conducted a search, and investigators removed filled plastic bags.

Cell phone calls conducted for the purchase of the vehicle used in Saturday's bombing attempt helped lead police to the suspect, law enforcement sources said.

Sources said investigators got cell phone information from the daughter of the Nissan Pathfinder owner. She sold the vehicle to Shahzad on behalf of her father.

She had been talking on the phone to Shahzad in arranging the purchase of the SUV, which was advertised for sale on Craigslist.

The Nissan Pathfinder was parked in Times Square containing propane tanks, fertilizer and gasoline on Saturday night. After police retrieved the vehicle identification number of the Pathfinder, they located the registered owner of the vehicle.

The sources said the owner's daughter had met with Shahzad at a Stratford, Connecticut, grocery store, for the sale. Shahzad took the car for a test drive in the parking lot and bought the vehicle for $1,300 in cash.

Bridgeport is a working class city of 130,000 on Long Island Sound, 66 miles northeast of New York City. Per capita income there is 26 percent below the national average, and 27 percent of its residents are foreign-born, more than twice the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Source : CNN

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Bomb plot suspect arrested trying to catch flight to Dubai

New York (News Terupdate) - A U.S. citizen has been arrested in the Times Square bombing probe, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced early Tuesday.

Faisal Shahzad was arrested at JFK airport in New York as he prepared to board a flight to Dubai, Holder said.

"It is clear the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," Holder said. "We will not rest until we bring everyone responsible to justice."

Law enforcement officials said the suspect is the person who bought the Nissan Pathfinder used in the bombing attempt.

Earlier, a law enforcement official said the buyer is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, and that investigators are looking at more than one person in connection with the unsuccessful bombing.

CNN has learned that the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigating the bombing attempt is considering the possibility that the attempt involved more than just a "lone wolf."

According to a source familiar with the investigation, investigators believe the plan was an intended terrorist attack to set off explosives in the heart of midtown Manhattan on Saturday night, but the individuals didn't have the expertise to detonate their device.

The Nissan Pathfinder had been sold three weeks ago in a cash deal with no paperwork exchanged, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN earlier Monday. The $1,800 deal was closed at a Connecticut shopping mall, where the buyer handed over the money and drove off, the source said.

The seller described the buyer as a man in his late 20s to early 30s, and investigators are checking into phone records between the two, the source said.

A bomb made up of propane tanks, fertilizer and gasoline failed to detonate inside the SUV. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the device could have produced "a significant fireball" in the heart of Midtown Manhattan on Saturday night had it detonated properly.

Earlier, authorities said they were searching for two people they wanted to question in connection with the would-be bomb. A video obtained from a tourist in the area shows a person apparently running north on Broadway, while another video shows a balding man with dark hair removing a shirt and putting it in a bag before walking out of view of the camera, which was inside a restaurant.

"These are not suspects," Kelly said. "These are people we would like to speak to."

The question of who was behind the failed bomb attempt was the subject of intense scrutiny Monday. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said investigators have some "good leads," but he declined to elaborate. And Kelly said it was "too early to say" whether the attempt was carried out by a lone wolf, international terrorists, or any other type of network.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared on a video released less than 24 hours after the attempt, claiming Taliban fighters were prepared to inflict "extremely painful blows" in major U.S. cities. But a senior U.S. military official said there was no "credible evidence" at the early stages of the investigation that the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the Times Square bomb incident.

And one counterintelligence official told CNN there was no evidence of any communications among terrorist organizations overseas about the device after Saturday night's attempt. "People overseas were not giving high fives ... or saying anything about the bomb not working," the official said. "There is no indication that there was that kind of tie."

Another U.S. official with direct awareness of the latest U.S. understanding of the incident said the Pakistani group has never shown "trans-national capabilities" like other groups, such as al Qaeda. But such a possibility is "not something one can rule out at this early stage," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

But Pakistan's Taliban movement has been linked to a 2008 plot to blow up subway stations in the Spanish city of Barcelona, and at least two of the 11 men convicted in the plot came to Barcelona from Pakistan, Spanish prosecutors said.

And Jim Cavanaugh, a former agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the bomber could have been "internationally inspired," but the device showed little sign that a group like al Qaeda was behind it. "Their bombs would be better funded, better fused, better materials, better knowledge," he said.

The device inside the Pathfinder was made up of propane tanks, gasoline and fertilizer that turned out to be of a non-explosive grade, along with a metal pot containing wiring and firecrackers. More firecrackers were found in a can on the back seat of the vehicle, sandwiched between two full, five-gallon gasoline cans and connected by wires to clocks.

Cavanaugh called the bomb "a Rube Goldberg contraption" that would have been difficult to set off.

"That does not mean that the bomb's not deadly," he said. Someone close by could be hurt or killed. "But it's not a very reliable working system, a fusing and firing system, at all," he told CNN.

Kevin Barry, a former New York bomb squad member, said the device had "no known signature" -- a style of construction that might link it to known terrorist groups. That suggests it was the work of either an individual or a new organization, said Barry, who is now an adviser to the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.

Barry said the detonating mechanism lacked the energy needed to properly set off the explosion.

New York police have been examining the device for clues such as fingerprints, hair and fibers since Saturday. The vehicle and bomb components were taken to the FBI's forensic laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, on Monday, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday evening.

Source : CNN

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Judge allows bail for militia suspects

(News Terupdate) - Nine people who federal prosecutors say belong to a "Christian warrior" militia can be released on bail until the criminal charges against them are resolved, a judge has ruled.

A federal grand jury has indicted the nine on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.

The government appealed the decision Monday afternoon and filed a motion to stay the order.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts in Detroit, Michigan, ruled that the nine, members of a group called Hutaree, can be released but will be confined to their homes and will be electronically monitored. Some of the nine are prohibited from using the internet.

The defendants will also be required to surrender all weapons and gun permits they hold, court documents show.

They will be expected to either seek or maintain employment while they await their trial, and they are restricted from consuming alcohol and drugs. They must also surrender their passports.

The government failed to convince the court that the nine presented a danger to the community or were flight risks, the court order states.

The judge considered the seriousness of the alleged offenses and the evidence that the government held in making her decision.

Some of the evidence that the government has against the Hutaree members includes a video of a U.N. flag being burned as a Hutaree flag is raised and a speech given by one of the members about reclaiming America.

The government also presented transcripts of conversations among Hutaree members referring to a real "operation" that was to happen in April.

The court found the evidence not specific enough to warrant the detentions of the nine until their trial.

In its appeal, the government argued that the militia members were recorded speaking expressly about killing a police officer and then bombing a police officer's funeral as a way to kill several law enforcement officers.

Source : CNN

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Whistle Blower Susno Possibly Named Suspect

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - Lawyers of case brokerage whistle blower Susno Duaji, a former National Police chief detective, expressed concern on Thursday that police investigators will name him a suspect.

"There is an indication that Susno will be named a suspect and detained. There are rumors to that effect. So, it is just logical if we are worried," M. Assegaf, one of Susno’s lawyers, said at the Police Headquarters on Thursday.

Susno Duadji became popular for having revealed a Rp25 billion-worth tax fraud case involving rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan and made a public statement suggesting that case brokering practices were rife in the police force.

Apart from rumors that the former chief of the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) would be named a suspect, his lawyers were also suspicious about the police summons which did not contain the name of a suspect.

Susno did not show up for questioning as a witness on Thursday because the summons did not include the name of a suspect. Assegaf said his client was reluctant to come to the national police headquarters because the summons did not specifically mention the names of the suspects in the case for which he was to be questioned.

"Our client is very sorry for not being able to meet the police’s summons," he said.

Assegaf said members of Susno Duadji’s lawyers’ team had met with the National Police’s chief detective, Commissioner General Ito Sumardi, to ask him about the absence of the suspects’ names in the summons. He said previous police questioning processes were conducted professionally but there were indications the police would later name Susno a suspect and arrest him.

"It has become a rumor. Of course, we are concerned," he said.

In the meantime, Chief Criminal Investigator Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said that police independent investigators had the authority to change Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji’s status from witness to suspect and to detain him.

"There is a rule which stipulates that the team of independent investigators has the full right to carry out investigation, including naming Pak (Mr) Susno a suspect and detain him," Ito said.

Comr. Gen. Ito made the statement in connection with the failure of Susno Duadji to meet the police’s first summons on Thursday and the fear of Susno’s lawyers that their client would be named a suspect and detained.

The independent investigators would have questioned former chief Susno Duadji at Police Headquarters on Thursday in connection with tax official Gayus Tambunan tax fraud case and alleged money embezzlement at PT Salma Arowana Lestari. Because he did not show up on Thursday at the police headquarters for examinations, investigators sent Susono a second summons on Thursday for questioning on Monday.

"The summons was sent on Thursday," Police Headquarters’ Spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

The police spokesman said Susno’s lawyer questioned the summons as it did not mention the name of the suspect nor the case over which Susno would be questioned, and that this was the reason his client had not met the summons. Edward Aritonang said the Code of Criminal Procedures (Kuhap) did not require a summons to mention the name of a suspect.

"In fact, Pak (Mr) Susno was to be questioned to identify or determine the suspect," the police headquarters’ spokesman said. The two-star general said the format of the second summons was the same as the first one, namely it did not contain the name of a suspect.

Edward said the questioning would be about the public remarks Susno had once made alleging there was a case-brokering network bigger than the one involving tax official Gayus Tambunan with Sjahril Djohan as the key player. When questioned by the police’s independent investigation team, Sjahril Djohan had linked Susno’s name with a money embezzlement case involving PT Salma Arowana Lesteri, which was doing an arowana breeding business.

Another member of Susno Duadji’s lawyers’ team, Ari Yusuf Amir, had previously said the police investigators assigned to question Susno on Thursday were the same as those who had quizzed him on April 20 and April 22. Police had so far quizzed Susno three times over the Gayus Tambunan and arowana fish cases.

Tambunan is now a suspect in tax fraud case worth Rp25 billion which also involved his lawyer, Haposan Hutagalung. During the April questioning, police questioned Susno about the arowana fish case because it might have involved Haposan Hutagalung and Sjahril Djohan. The latter was also allegedly involved in the Gayus Tambunan case.

The arowana fish case was related to a dispute between a Singaporean businessman (only identified as HKH) and his Indonesian counterpart (only identified as AS alias Am). HKH reportedly had given Rp100 billion to his Indonesian partner to engage in the arowana fish business in Pekanbaru, Riau Province. The Singaporean businessman had also handed over arowana fingerlings with a total value of Rp32 billion. The dispute occurred when he was still the national police’s chief detective.

On the summons for Susno’s questioning on Monday, Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri has confirmed it. Danuri said a followup summons had to be issued to Susno Duadji who did not meet a first summons.

Danuri said that based on existing procedural rules, a second summons would be sent if the first summons was not fulfilled. If Susno remained defiant and did not meet the second summons, the third summons would be sent with an order to bring him to the police headquarters for questioning.

"It will depend on the investigators," the police chief said.

Source : kompas.com

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Death penalty sought for Fort Hood shooting suspect

(News Terupdate) - The Army officers responsible for prosecuting the Fort Hood shooting suspect will be seeking the death penalty, the suspect's attorney told CNN.

John Galligan -- the attorney for the suspect, Maj. Nidal Hasan -- said that the filing of a memo by the prosecutors Wednesday indicated that finding Hasan guilty of more than one of the murders would constitute the "aggravating factor" necessary for the Army to seek the death penalty.

Thirteen people died in the shooting spree at the Texas base last November.

"It is the first 'formal notice' but, of course, it has been a virtual given from the start," Galligan wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "In short, the Army has been pursuing death from the git-go."

The actual decision to seek the death penalty occurs after an Article 32 hearing. The hearing -- the military justice system's rough equivalent of a grand jury hearing -- is scheduled to start June 1 at Fort Hood in Texas.

Source : CNN

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Competency tests ordered for suspect in airline flight diversion

Bangor, Maine (News Terupdate) - A federal magistrate ordered a competency evaluation Wednesday for the former Air Force intelligence specialist accused of making false bomb threats Tuesday that diverted an international commercial flight.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk ordered the evaluation at the request of the public defender representing Derek Stansberry at a short hearing in Bangor, Maine.

Federal investigators allege Stansberry told air marshals on a Delta flight Tuesday that he had dynamite in his backpack and explosives in his laptop, court documents released Wednesday say. The flight was diverted to Maine, where a police bomb squad found no explosives on board.

The federal complaint against Stansberry, 27, of Riverview, Florida, charges him with two felony counts of interfering with flight crew members and knowingly giving false information about possession of an explosive device.

"Making false bomb threats on an aircraft and interfering with the flight crew are serious crimes that have serious consequences," U.S. Attorney Paula D. Silsby said in a statement released Wednesday. "Today's charges should serve as a reminder that the federal government will not tolerate this activity. This case also highlights the extensive resources required to address threats that prove to be false -- resources that could be better utilized addressing real threats."

A flight attendant on Delta Air Lines Flight 273 -- which was traveling from Paris, France, to Atlanta, Georgia, Tuesday -- notified air marshals on board after Stansberry passed her a note stating that he was not an American citizen and had false documents, according to the complaint.

The complaint said statements in the note included, "My passports and identity are fake," "Please let my family know the truth" and "I was in Ouaga illegally."

"Ouaga" commonly refers to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa.

After the flight attendant handed the note to an air marshal on board, the affidavit says, another air marshal and a flight attendant moved Stansberry and his carry-on baggage to the back of the plane.

There, Stansberry told the air marshal that he had dynamite in his boots, which were in his backpack. He said a pressure switch would detonate the explosives, the affidavit said. He also claimed to have explosive material in his laptop and told the air marshal he had taken eight tablets of Ambien, a sleep aid, the court documents said.

Air marshals "built a bunker" around Stansberry's laptop and boots "to dampen the effects of any potential explosion," the complaint said.

After the diverted Airbus A330 landed in Bangor around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Bangor Police bomb squad used bomb-sniffing dogs and explosive detection devices to search the plane and all the baggage, but no explosives were found, the affidavit says.

The FBI took Stansberry into custody when the plane landed, and he told investigators he had taken one Ambien pill, a change from his earlier comment to the air marshal, the court documents say.

Stansberry was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force from June 2005 to June 2009, Air Force officials said. A senior airman and an intelligence specialist, he trained at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, and also was stationed at Hurlburt Field in Okaloosa County, Florida, they said. Stansberry also served in the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, according to service records.

Stansberry was employed in Burkina Faso under a U.S. Africa Command contract with defense contractor R4 Inc. as part of ongoing military-to-military cooperation activities between the two nations, according to a U.S. military source who asked not to be identified. But Stansberry has completed that temporary assignment, the source said.

Contacted by CNN at his home in Florida Tuesday, Richard Stansberry -- Derek Stansberry's father -- said his son had never been in trouble, and that his contractor job with the Air Force required him to stay out of trouble in order to keep his high security clearance. The elder Stansberry said he was not sure what happened on board the airplane, but hoped it was a misunderstanding.

Derek Stansberry was not flagged on any databases, law enforcement officials told CNN.

He will be evaluated for competency at the Penobscot County Jail, where he is being detained.

In his first court appearance Wednesday, he stood attentively next to his attorney and answered, "Yes, ma'am" a few times when asked whether he understood the charges against him and what was happening in the courtroom.

At one point, he asked the court, "Is there where I admit I'm guilty or not?"

Kravchuk, the federal magistrate, responded, "No."

The government has filed a motion to keep Stansberry in custody because of the nature of his threats and the fear that he may flee if released, court documents show.

Read the complaint

Kravchuk ordered that Stansberry be temporarily detained without bail. His next scheduled court appearance is May 3.

Passengers aboard the plane told CNN they were unaware of any disruption, but that the flight crew moved all the passengers forward in the partially filled cabin.

"I just felt like something was a little strange. You can just see in the flight attendants' faces that they were bothered by something, but ultimately I think they handled the situation really good," said Charde Houston of San Diego, California. "They didn't make anybody rattled. They could have but they didn't."

Delta put passengers in a hotel overnight Tuesday, providing them with a meal and vouchers for future travel. They were expected to leave for their destination in the same plane around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott told CNN.

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Homicide suspect leads cops on interstate chase

(News Terupdate) - A homicide suspect led authorities from two states on a 130-mile chase Tuesday morning and then surrendered following an hours-long standoff that closed a North Carolina interstate during morning rush hour, police said.

Arthur Duval Mims, 45, of Duncan, South Carolina, was taken into custody after the incident, said Sgt. Jeff Gordon, spokesman for the North Carolina Highway Patrol.

Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Hennelly said Mims went to his estranged wife's home and shot her along with a 16-year-old girl before setting the house on fire.

About 3:18 a.m. ET, authorities in Duncan responded to a report of a shooting at a Spartanburg County, South Carolina, residence, according to a statement issued by the sheriff's office.

Officers found that Mims' stepdaughter, who had been shot, had run to a neighbor's home to ask for help, and the neighbor called 911.

Authorities entered the home and saw smoke coming from an area near an upstairs bedroom, the statement said. A body was found in the bedroom.

Mims' estranged wife was the one killed, Hennelly said, but authorities do not know whether she died from the gunshot or in the fire. The teenager was hospitalized, authorities said. The motive for the incident was unknown.

Duncan is about 14 miles west of the city of Spartanburg. Mims fled the scene in a white pickup before authorities arrived, the statement said. It was unclear how the police chase began.

The suspect traveled north on Interstate 85 and entered North Carolina, where authorities from that state picked up the chase, Gordon said. At one point, authorities used spike strips on the interstate in an attempt to stop the suspect's vehicle. Two of the vehicle's tires deflated, but the suspect continued northbound, Gordon said.

The vehicle stopped at mile marker 91 near Lexington, more than 30 miles north of where the spike strips had been deployed, Gordon said. But the suspect refused to surrender, triggering a standoff that closed both sides of I-85 for a two-mile stretch starting just before 5 a.m. ET, authorities said.

The Davidson County Sheriff's Department deployed its special response team, and negotiators tried to talk the suspect out of the car, Gordon said. He surrendered about 8:30 a.m. ET. The interstate was reopened shortly afterward.

Mims was alone in the vehicle, Gordon said. He faces charges of murder, assault and battery with attempt to kill and arson, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office.

The interstate closure "did back up traffic, there's no doubt," Hennelly said, but authorities diverted vehicles onto nearby U.S. 52.

"If it was going to happen, it happened in a place where we could detour it very easily," he said.

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Police close in on suspects in booby traps targeting gang task force

(News Terupdate) - Police in California say that with the arrests of 23 people this week, they are getting closer to those responsible for a string of brazen attacks against officers in a gang task force.

The booby trap-style attacks believed to be targeting the Hemet Police Department began in December when, police say, a natural gas line was rerouted into the task force's headquarters, risking an explosion. The most recent incident occurred in March, when four city code enforcement trucks were set ablaze in the Hemet City Hall parking lot.

None of the 23 suspects arrested Tuesday face charges directly related to the four attacks, but police are hopeful that they will lead them to the people responsible, Hemet Police Capt. Dave Brown told CNN.

"Tuesday's operation produced an enormous amount of property and evidence. The 23 people arrested were detained and interviewed, producing leads, and those leads are being followed up," Brown said.

The suspects were arrested throughout Riverside County on a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges -- from possession of weapons and stolen property to outstanding warrants and narcotics. Local and state law enforcement agencies participated in the raids, in which 35 locations were searched and evidence, including 16 weapons, was seized.

Read the names of the suspects

Some of those arrested have gang affiliations, Brown said, but it's still unclear whether the attacks are gang-related. A motive is still not known.

"Motive has been a missing piece, but once the suspects are identified, we believe a motive will follow," he said.

"Sometimes, in gang cases, the motive is clear from the beginning. But in this case, we're not even sure it's a gang case, and if so, we're not sure if one gang is operating independent of others or if there's some sort of cooperation between the gangs."

Hemet is one of eight local, state and federal agencies that make up the Riverside County Gang Task Force, which was formed in 2006 to address the growth of criminal street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

As the county expanded and its population grew, so did the presence and reach of organized crime. Since 1997, the number of gangs in Riverside County has grown from 266 to 391, according to the task force's website, and total gang membership has grown to 10,620 people countywide.

Authorities believe the attacks could be related because of their close timing and identical targets, John Hall, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said last month.

On New Years Eve, the unmarked headquarters of the Hemet Gang Task Force was filled with deadly natural gas. Two task force members detected the gas, backed away and reported it.

On February 23, a task force member at the Hemet headquarters opened a security gate outside the building, which launched a homemade zip gun attached to the gate. The weapon fired, missing the officer's head by inches.

The headquarters has since been moved to an undisclosed location, where extra security precautions are being taken, Hall said.

On March 5, criminals targeted a task force member who had parked an unmarked police car in front of a convenience store in Hemet. The officer found what appeared to be a homemade pipe bomb hidden underneath the vehicle.

The attacks have drawn the attention of state and federal law enforcement, which have contributed manpower and money to a $200,000 reward offered in the case.

The Hemet Police Department has set up a confidential tip line for anyone with information: 951-765-3897. People can also e-mail tip to: tips@cityofhemet.org.

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