DRONE News ( The X-47B is the first drone designed to take off and land on a carrier )

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (AP) — A drone the size of a fighter jet took off from the deck of an American aircraft carrier for the first time Tuesday in a test flight that could eventually open the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft from just about any place in the world.

The X-47B is the first drone designed to take off and land on a carrier, meaning the U.S. military would not need permission from other countries to use their bases.

"As our access to overseas ports, forward operating locations and airspace is diminished around the world, the value of the aircraft carrier and the air wing becomes more and more important," Rear Adm. Ted Branch, commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, said after the flight off the Virginia coast. "So today is history."

The move to expand the capabilities of the nation's drones comes amid growing criticism of America's use of Predators and Reapers to gather intelligence and carry out lethal missile attacks against terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Detroit ( A Saudi man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan -with a pressure cooker ) Smh?

AP Nasser Almarzooq told The Associated Press on Monday that he’d asked his uncle, Hussain Al Khawahir, to bring him a pressure cooker because the ones he bought in the U.S. didn’t work. (Oh of course, everyone knows Saudi technology is so much superior to American technology)

Almarzooq says he’s concerned about his uncle and hasn’t been told anything since his Saturday arrest. Almarzooq goes to the University of Toledo and says his uncle was coming to visit him for a couple weeks.
Al Khawahir is accused of using a passport with a missing page and making false statements about why he was traveling with the pressure cooker.
A Saudi man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after federal agents said he lied about why he was traveling with a pressure cooker, according to a court documents filed Monday. Two pressure cookers were used in last month’s Boston Marathon bombings

WASHINGTON ( Labor, Activists Call on Obama to Halt Deportations -300,000 a year )

Labor, Activists Call on Obama to Halt Deportations

WASHINGTON – Organized labor and activist groups asked President Barack Obama on Monday that he halt deportations of undocumented immigrants who would be eligible for legalization under bills pending in Congress.

“The deportations must stop, and they must stop right now,” Ana Avendaño, spokeswoman on immigration topics for the AFL-CIO, said in a teleconference.

The Senate has already begun the process of amendments on a bipartisan bill that will seek to resolve the status of the close to 11 million foreigners estimated to live and work in the United States without authorization.

The Obama government has said its priority is the detention and deportation of immigrants who commit serious crimes, but since 2009 it has maintained a deportation rate of more than 300,000 people annually.

The process of immigration reform faces even more difficulties in the House of Representatives, where Republicans have the majority, than in the Senate.

In the meantime, Obama can exercise his authority to suspend deportations, Thomas Saenz, head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said.

“We are asking the president to exercise discretion and cease deportations for those who qualify under the proposal of the Group of 8,” Saenz said, referring to the bipartisan Senate bill.

Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said that Obama “cannot be a bystander in the process.” EFE

JERUSALEM ( Ancient Mosaic Found in Southern Israel ) 1,500 years old

 

JERUSALEM – Archaeologists have found a mosaic dating back around 1,500 years in an area in the northern part of Be’er Sheva, the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

“The well-preserved mosaic is decorated with geometric patterns and its corners are enhanced with amphorae (jars used to transport wine), a pair of peacocks, and a pair of doves pecking at grapes on a tendril. These are common designs that are known from this period; however, what makes this mosaic unique is the large number of motifs that were incorporated in one carpet,” the authority said.

The colorful mosaic, which dates back to the Byzantine period, was discovered in the fields of Kibbutz Bet Qama, the authority said in a statement.

“The main building at the site was a large hall 12 meters long by 8.5 meters wide and its ceiling was apparently covered with roof tiles. The hall’s impressive opening and the breathtaking mosaic that adorns its floor suggest that the structure was a public building,” the authority said.

Archaeologists said the site would have required extensive resources to develop at the time it was built.

“The site, which was located along an ancient road that ran north from Be’er Sheva, seems to have consisted of a large estate that included a church, residential buildings and storerooms, a large cistern, a public building and pools surrounded by farmland. Presumably, one of the structures served as an inn for travelers who visited the place,” the authority said.

The estate was located between Jewish and Christian settlements. EFE

WASHINGTON ( Former Homeland Security Agents Indicted for Role in Records Falsification Scheme )

Former Homeland Security Agents Indicted for Role in Records Falsification Scheme

WASHINGTON – A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG) special agent in charge and another special agent were indicted in the Southern District of Texas for their roles in a scheme to falsify records and to obstruct an internal field office inspection, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Armando Fernandez of the FBI San Antonio Field Office.

The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Brownsville, Texas, charges Eugenio Pedraza, 49, of McAllen, Texas, with six counts of falsification of records in federal investigations, five counts of obstructing an agency proceeding, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of conspiracy. The indictment also charges Marco Rodriguez, 40, of Mission, Texas, with two counts of falsification of records in federal investigations, two counts of obstructing an agency proceeding, and one count of conspiracy.

DHS-OIG is the principal component within DHS with the responsibility to investigate alleged criminal activity by DHS employees, including corruption affecting the integrity of U.S. borders.

According to the indictment, in September 2011, DHS-OIG conducted an internal inspection of its McAllen Field Office to evaluate whether its internal investigative standards and policies were being followed. At that time, Pedraza was the special agent in charge of the McAllen Field Office, and Rodriguez was a special agent stationed there. According to the indictment, in anticipation of the inspection, Pedraza allegedly directed Rodriguez and other DHS-OIG employees to engage in a scheme to falsify documents in open criminal investigative case files, including numerous investigations in which DHS employees were suspected of participating in the unlawful smuggling of undocumented aliens and/or narcotics into the United States.

More specifically, the indictment charges that at Pedraza’s direction, DHS-OIG employees allegedly created and placed into these investigative files backdated memoranda of activity that falsely reflected investigative activity by agents that had not occurred; backdated case review worksheets that falsely reflected supervisory case reviews that Pedraza had not conducted with his subordinate agents; and backdated, unsent letters that were signed by Pedraza and purported to inform the FBI of the opening of a DHS-OIG investigation.

According to the indictment, the scheme’s purpose was to conceal severe lapses in DHS-OIG’s investigative standards from individuals conducting an internal field office inspection. The scheme was allegedly devised to conceal Pedraza’s failure to ensure that investigations were being conducted promptly and thoroughly, his failure to provide his subordinates with adequate training and supervision, and his failure to ensure that the FBI was being timely notified of DHS-OIG’s investigations.

The indictment also charges Pedraza with allegedly directing two DHS-OIG employees to falsify memoranda of activity on additional occasions and with obstructing justice by removing the falsified supervisory case review sheets that he had created from DHS-OIG files after becoming aware of the FBI and grand jury investigation into his conduct.

In a related case, on January 17, 2013, Wayne Ball, a former DHS-OIG special agent, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas before U.S. District Judge Randy Crane to one count of a multi-object conspiracy to falsify records in federal investigations and to obstruct an agency proceeding for his participation in the scheme. Ball is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31, 2013.

The charge of falsification of records in federal investigations carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of obstructing an agency proceeding carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The charge of obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Each of these charges carry a maximum fine of $250,000.

An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Eric L. Gibson and Timothy J. Kelly of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. The case is being investigated by agents of the FBI, San Antonio Division.

ICE Deported ( Mexican Fugitive in Indiana Wanted for Cold blooded Murder )

ICE Deported Mexican Fugitive in Indiana Wanted for Aggravated Homicide

INDIANAPOLIS – A Mexican national unlawfully in the Unites States, who is a convicted cocaine dealer, was deported last Friday to Mexico where he faces charges of aggravated homicide for shooting a woman to death.

This deportation was conducted by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Chicago.

Efrain Rivera-Rico, 32, was deported via an ICE AIR Operations charter flight May 10 and turned over to the Mexican authorities at the Brownsville Port of Entry in Texas. The Attorney General for the Mexican State of Michoacan issued an arrest warrant for Rivera-Rico May 11, 2001, in connection with the March 2001 shooting death of a female passenger in a car he was driving.

According to the arrest warrant, on March 29, 2001, Rivera-Rico was driving a car with three passengers on the Patzcuaro-Tingambato Highway in the State of Michoacan. When a female passenger complained she was feeling ill, Rivera-Rico allegedly pulled off the road, took out a .38-caliber handgun, and shot Marce Judith Martinez-Camacho in the head. Rivera-Rico and another male passenger then allegedly removed the victim from the car, dragged her into a ditch, fired additional shots, and drove away leaving the body by the side of the highway.

Rivera-Rico entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and was residing in Seymour, Ind. On Oct. 5, 2009, Rivera-Rico was convicted of dealing cocaine in Jackson County, Indiana and sentenced to nine years in prison. ERO officers encountered Rivera-Riva at the Jackson County State Jail in February 2010 and placed a detainer on him to ensure that he would be turned over to ERO for deportation upon his release from prison.

Pursuant to the detainer, Rivera-Rico was released from Indiana Department of Corrections and turned over to ERO on April 2. In March, ICE was notified of the outstanding arrest warrant in Mexico by another federal law enforcement agency. As an illegal alien and aggravated felon, Rivera-Rico was ordered removed on April 11.

“Rivera-Rico thought he could evade justice and a possible prison sentence in Mexico by hiding in Indiana,” said Ricardo Wong, ERO Chicago field office director. “But the crimes he committed in Indiana for dealing drugs put him on our radar, and he now faces murder charges in Mexico. ICE officers help protect public safety by arresting and removing international fugitives who pose a threat to our communities.”

MEXICO ( Gunmen Attack Mayor of Santiago Amoltepec - The mayor was ambushed and shot )

Gunmen Attack Mayor in Southern Mexico
The mayor Luis Jimenez was ambushed by several armed subjects on Sunday night and is listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds, Milenio television reported

MEXICO CITY – The mayor of Santiago Amoltepec, a small town in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, was ambushed by gunmen and shot over the weekend, media reports said Monday.

Luis Jimenez is listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds, Milenio television reported.

The mayor was ambushed by several armed subjects on Sunday night.

Jimenez was attacked while driving on a rural road in Santiago Amoltepec.

The mayor had received death threats recently over a land dispute in the town, Milenio said.

Jimenez was airlifted to Oaxaca city, where he is being treated at a hospital for his wounds.

Oaxaca’s Sierra Sur mountains, where Santiago Amoltepec is located, have long been known for violent land disputes among its Indian communities.

In March 2009, Santiago Amoltepec and neighboring Textitlan signed a treaty ending a 20-year land dispute that claimed more than 200 lives.

The inhabitants of both communities depend on agriculture for their survival, a fact that fueled the quarrel over a parcel of 200 hectares (494 acres) located between the settlements.

More than half the residents of Santiago Amoltepec and Textitlan speak an indigenous language.

Most of Mexico’s roughly 11 million Indians – representing just over 10 percent of the country’s population – are concentrated in southern states such as Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas and Guerrero.

Sixteen of Mexico’s 62 surviving indigenous languages are spoken in Oaxaca. EFE