A citizen of Italy was returned to his homeland and turned over to Italian authorities on Wednesday by officers from the Philadelphia office of detention and removal after completing a 46-month federal prison sentence.

The case developed in April of 2005 when Giuseppe Baldinucci, 64, was arrested in New York City after Italian authorities informed Homeland Security that he was wanted in Italy and may have fled to the United States. Fingerprint comparisons confirmed that Baldinucci was the person identified in the Italian warrant and also confirmed he had previously been deported from the U.S.

In October of 2005, Baldinucci was convicted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, for the offense of Re-Entry of a Previously Deported Alien in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Sections 1326(a) and 1326(b)(2). He was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Baldinucci was previously removed in September 1989 after having served a prison sentence for Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics.

Baldinucci has an outstanding arrest warrant issued in July of 1996 by the Italian Judicial Authorities in Palermo, Italy for the offense of criminal conspiracy. His outstanding Italian arrest warrant stems from the assistance he rendered to the then fugitive Giovanni Brusca, a well-known member of the Corleone Mafia Family. Some of the crimes the Italians attributed to BRUSCA include the 1993 bombing of the Uffizi gallery in Florence, the strangling of an 11-year old boy, and the murder of the Italian Anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone.

“Apprehending dangerous foreign fugitives hiding in the United States is a top priority of ICE and our international law enforcement partners, including the Italian authorities,” said Thomas Decker, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Florida. “ICE is committed to ensuring the integrity of the nation’s immigration system and it is in the interest of national security and justice around the world to capture and return wanted fugitives to their native countries to face justice.”

Last year the Philadelphia field office, which includes the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, deported 5,599 illegal aliens, including 2,437 criminal aliens and so far this year, the Philadelphia field office has deported 4,030 illegal aliens including 1,973 criminal aliens.

More than 900 criminal aliens, immigration fugitives, and immigration violators have been removed from the United States or are facing deportation today following a three-week enforcement surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Fugitive Operations Teams in California.

During the special operation, which concluded late yesterday, ICE officers located and arrested a total of 905 immigration violators throughout the state, including 137 here in the San Diego area. Of those arrested locally, 73 were immigration fugitives, aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation or who returned to the United States illegally after being removed. More than 40 percent of the aliens taken into custody in this area had criminal histories in addition to being in the country illegally.

Among those arrested by the Fugitive Operations Teams locally was a 30-year-old Mexican national who was convicted in 1997 for robbery and sentenced to four years in state prison. Last year, Cesar Hernandez-Gallardo lost his appeal to remain in the United States and failed to depart after being ordered deported by an immigration judge. ICE officers also arrested a 37-year-old Mexican national at his residence in Escondido, whose criminal record includes a prior conviction for burglary. He was ordered deported last June and lost his appeal to remain in the United States last month. The other criminal arrests included violent crimes for assault with a deadly weapon, carjacking, domestic violence and sexual assault.

In addition to the local Fugitive Operations Teams, ICE officers from the agency’s teams in Los Angeles and San Francisco were temporarily deployed to the area to assist with this enforcement action.

ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams are tasked with identifying and arresting foreign nationals who have ignored final orders of deportation or have returned to the United States illegally after being removed. The teams prioritize cases involving immigration violators who pose a threat to national security and community safety. These include child sexual exploiters, suspected gang members, and those who have convictions for violent crimes.

“ICE is committed to restoring integrity to this country’s immigration system and that means ensuring that the removal orders handed down by the nation’s immigration courts are carried out,” said Robin Baker, field officer director for ICE detention and removal operations in San Diego. “As a country, we welcome law-abiding immigrants, but foreign nationals who violate our laws and commit crimes in our communities should be on notice that ICE is going to use all of the tools at its disposal to find you and send you home.”

Since many of these individuals have already been ordered deported, they are subject to immediate removal from the United States. More than half of those arrested during the statewide operation have already been removed to their home countries. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody and are awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

The Fugitive Operations Program was established in 2003 to eliminate the nation’s backlog of immigration fugitives. Today, ICE has 75 teams deployed across the country, including 13 in California.

Last year, the nation’s fugitive alien population declined for the first time in history and continues to do so - in large part due to the work of the Fugitive Operations Teams. Estimates now place the number of immigration fugitives in the United States at slightly under 573,000, a decrease of more than 59,000 since October 2006. Given the success of the fugitive operations effort, Congress has authorized ICE to add 29 more Fugitive Operations Teams in fiscal year 2008.

ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program is an integral part of the comprehensive multi-year plan launched by the Department of Homeland Security to secure America’s borders and reduce illegal migration. That strategy seeks to gain operational control of both the northern and southern borders, while re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are removed from the country quickly and efficiently.

The Center for Empowered Living and Learning (The CELL)  held a reception yesterday in Denver to introduce its inaugural exhibit, entitled “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism.”

The CELL is a non-profit, non-partisan institution dedicated to educating citizens on the most important issue of our time — terrorism. The exhibit will make available to the public for the first time learning tools that are capable of teaching citizens about the true nature of terrorism and how it affects each and every one of us in our daily lives.

“The CELL is becoming one of the most talked-about institutions to take root in our great city,” said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. “The exhibit does a great job of addressing and explaining the difficult subject of terrorism, and while it is a serious experience, The CELL allows individuals to educate and ultimately empower themselves in the goal of terrorism prevention.”

The keynote speaker at Wednesday’s reception was Brian Jenkins, a senior advisor to the RAND Corporation, and an expert in terrorism, counterinsurgency and homeland security. He is a highly-respected author and commentator and was part of The CELL’s content development team. Mayor John Hickenlooper and The CELL founder Larry A. Mizel introduced Jenkins to the audience.

“It is our intent that once people experience The CELL exhibit, they will be more engaged and focused on the need for community involvement and preparedness in response to the current ongoing global terrorism threat,” said Melanie Pearlman, Executive Director of The CELL. “This is an educational and interactive exhibit that uses state-of-the-art multi-media tools, and was created in consultation with world-renowned terrorism experts and designed by Academy Award-winning artists.”

“We are pleased to have introduced the exhibit today in front of many visitors who are here in Denver attending the Democratic National Convention,” said Pearlman. “They might not otherwise get the opportunity to explore this complex subject matter in a state-of-the-art facility,” Pearlman added. During the past three days of the DNC, The CELL has played host to such dignitaries as Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Jim DeMint, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, as well as CELL contributor and former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani.

The CELL also intends to begin working with universities, first-responders and law enforcement officials on programs and outreach that will promote greater awareness and more effective means of combating terrorism. Early efforts have already included co-hosting a seminar with the Naval Post Graduate School on preparedness and response coordination for the Democratic National Convention activities here in Denver for local business and first- responder communities.

The design, concept and production of The CELL and its exhibit began in 2004. It will be open to the public beginning Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

The Center for Empowered Living & Learning is located within the Denver Civic Center Cultural Complex, adjacent to the new Denver Art Museum. For more information, please visit http://www.thecell.org/.

Source: Center for Empowered Living and Learning

Bernard ”Bernie” Ward, 57, a San Francisco resident who worked as a radio talk show host and was a frequent Fox News Channel and CNN guest representing the liberal-left viewpoint, was sentenced on Thursday to serve 7 years in federal prison.

The sentence includes a lifetime of supervision once he’s released, according to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division.

On May 8, 2008, Ward pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography through the Internet. According to the plea documents, Ward admitted that in December 2004, he used an online screen name to engage in an Internet chat conversation with an unknown individual also using a screen name.

During that conversation, Ward admitted that he sent an image of child pornography depicting nude children engaged in sexually explicit conduct via his e-mail account.

Ward also admitted that he used the same e-mail account to distribute 15 to 150 images of child pornography to other individuals. These images involved prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, some with sadistic, masochistic or violent conduct.

The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Steve Grocki, Jennifer Leonardo and Michael Yoon of the  Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and investigated by the FBI.

Bernie Ward was a former talk host with KGO 810 AM in San Francisco and was billed by KGO as “The Lion of the Left,” was the host of both The Bernie Ward Show, a nightly news/talk show that ran weekdays 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and the three-hour GodTalk on Sunday mornings.

In December 2007, Ward was dismissed from KGO following the federal grand jury indictment charging him the distribution of child pornography. He subsequently admitted to one of the felony charges in a plea bargain with federal prosecutors and on August 28, 2008, Bernie Ward was sentenced.

Ward is a former Catholic priest and later worked as a high school teacher. His interest in Liberal politics came about when he worked for then-Representative Barbara Boxer.

Ironically, Ward received the Scripps Howard Award for journalism as a result of his ten-part series, Heaven Help Us, which explored allegations of financial and sexual misconduct of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us

In the midst of the Democrat National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Democrat Congressman Luis Gutierrez urged immigrants to join him in supporting Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election.

While the representative from Illinois did not come out and tell illegal and legal immigrants to vote for Obama, it’s difficult to see how immigrants can help Obama except by voting for him.  And most states do little, if anything, to prevent voter fraud.

“If you want change, it is time for Latinos and for immigrants to rally behind the next President of the United States, Barack Obama. Tonight, I ask my friends in the Latino community, in the immigrant community, please join me, because Barack Obama is the change we need,” said Rep. Gutierrez

“[W]hen Barack Obama occupies the White House, that is the community our president will defend and respect by fighting for comprehensive immigration reform. Reform that keeps mothers and children and families together. Reform that brings hard-working people out of the shadows of disgrace and into the sunlight of dignity. That enforces our laws, keeps our borders secure, and our nation safe,” Gutierrez added.

Most of the mainstream media ignored the speech so as not to let Americans know what an Obama presidency will truly mean: no more borders, more aliens, more welfare, and more crime.

Congressman Gutierrez has been a long-time proponent of amnesty and opponent of immigration enforcement. He even went so far recently as to openly call for a suspension of all such immigration enforcement actions until Congress passes “comprehensive” immigration reform.

In an article I wrote earlier this month, I exposed Gutierrez and his recent remarks.
Adopting the rhetoric of the radical left, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) explicitly compared the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to those of Nazi Germany’s most infamous secret police force, the Gestapo.

Also, in an article appearing in the online publication The Politico on August 6, Gutierrez lowered himself to using inflammatory rhetoric simply unacceptable for a member of Congress. “You know who is in charge now? The Gestapo agents at Homeland Security. They are in charge,” Gutierrez told The Politico.

In recent months ICE has increased its efforts to enforce laws against the employment of illegal aliens. In addition to arresting people for violations of US immigration law, ICE has also taken action against people involved in identity theft and the employment of underage workers.

Working with local law enforcement agencies, ICE is showing some success in capturing large numbers of illegal aliens who are members of organized crime gangs such as MS-13, the Mexican Mafia and others. In one report, obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, ICE revealed that its agents arrested over 10,000 criminal aliens who are being charged with murders, rapes, robberies and other violent crimes.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us

The US Navy, US Coast Guard and SRI International — a private security firm – are deploying a suite of advanced port security technologies, trained personnel, and are executing tactical procedures as part of a homeland security experiment in the waters of Tampa Bay through the end of August.

Collectively described as an “Adaptive Force Package,” the suite supports local incident response under the command of the Coast Guard, Captain of the Port, with the involvement of numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies from the Tampa Bay region. The experiment began on Aug. 20 and will conclude on Aug. 28. Civilian and military visitors will be invited to a briefing and will have an opportunity to observe Adaptive Force Package technology at the conclusion of the experiment.

The Navy’s overarching goal of the experiment is to both demonstrate the platform’s independent employment of Mine Countermeasures Mission Modules developed for the Littoral Combat Ship and to address the US Fleet Forces and Commander of the Navy’s Third Fleet Sea Trials objective for this capability. This limited-objective demonstration will serve as a core event that will benefit Coast Guard and local authorities as they work to improve civil-military procedures and incident response utilizing the Incident Command System to safeguard our nation’s ports and waterways.

The experiment offers participants the opportunity to practice working together under the framework of a Department of Defense and Department of the Navy response to a Department of Homeland Security Maritime Operational Threat Response. The team will study the best use of command and control systems for guiding the flow of information from responding units to the key decision makers in the Unified Command. Further, the team will focus on ways to reduce risks to navigation and the general public while neutralizing an underwater threat.

The Coast Guard will be responsible for incident command in the experiment. Its role is to coordinate the response and actions of private-sector maritime stakeholders with military and civilian law enforcement actions.

SRI International will support in-water operations by surveying the underwater test area, deploying inert mine and improvised-explosive-device like-objects and providing surface support. The SRI team will also deploy specialized, high-resolution 3-D sonar for new change-detection technology that will be used to confirm the identity of any potential threat.

Forensic evidence will be gathered by the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation Team from Florida State University and analyzed by the National Forensic Science Technology Center Mobile Crime Lab.

Participants include the US Coast Guard and the Port of St. Petersburg, the Naval Mine Warfare and Antisubmarine Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Program Executive Office (Littoral and Mine Warfare), Office of Naval Research, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, SRI International’s Marine Technology Program and National Center for Maritime and Port Security, National Forensics Science Technology Center and Florida State University.

Source: The US Navy

A Brazilian man was charged by a federal grand jury in New Orleans for his role in a conspiracy to sell a network of computers infected with malicious software, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and Jim Letten, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, announced on Friday.

Leni de Abreu Neto, 35, of Taubate, Brazil, is charged with one count of conspiracy to cause damage to computers worldwide. The indictment alleges that more than 100,000 computers worldwide were damaged. If convicted, Neto faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and up to three years of supervised release. Neto also faces the greater of a $250,000 fine or the gross amount of any pecuniary gain or the gross amount of any pecuniary loss suffered by the victims.

According to the indictment, Neto participated in a conspiracy along with others, including an unindicted coconspirator, Nordin Nasiri, 19, of Sneek, Netherlands, to use, maintain, lease and sell an illegal botnet. As defined in the indictment, a botnet is a network of computers that have been infected by malicious software, commonly referred to as “bot code.”

Bot code is typically designed to permit an operator or controller to instruct infected computers to perform various functions, without the authorization and knowledge of their owners, such as launching denial of service attacks to disable targeted computer systems or sending spam e-mail. Installation of bot code is typically accomplished by “hacking” computers with particular security vulnerabilities. Bot code typically contains commands for infected computers to search local networks or the Internet for other computers to infect, thereby increasing the botnet’s size and power.

The indictment alleges that prior to May 2008, Nasiri was responsible for creating a botnet consisting of more than 100,000 computers worldwide, and that Neto used the botnet and paid for the servers on which the botnet was hosted. According to the indictment, between May and July 2008, Neto agreed initially with Nasiri to broker a deal to lease the botnet to a third party. The indictment alleges Neto expected the botnet to be used to send spam through the infected computers. Subsequently, Neto agreed with Nasiri to broker the sale of the botnet and underlying bot code to the third party for 25,000 euros.

Neto was apprehended by Dutch authorities on July 29, 2008, in the Netherlands and is currently in confinement in the Netherlands pending resolution of extradition proceedings. Nasiri was also apprehended by Dutch authorities and is being prosecuted by Dutch authorities in the Netherlands.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jaikumar Ramaswamy of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, with extensive assistance from Senior Counsel Judith Friedman of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The case is being investigated by the Cyber Squad of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, with assistance from the Dutch Hi-Tech Crimes Unit and the Cyber Section of the Brazilian Federal Police.