Saturday, April 12, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Boston's Legacy: Can Crowdsourcing Really Fight Crime? – NBC
By Julianne Pepitone
First published April 12 2014


For many, the first images of the Boston Marathon bombing -- a cloud of dark smoke rising up over Boylston Street -- came from Twitter or Instagram. The FBI received thousands of hastily snapped photos as they hunted the culprits. But does a camera in every pocket actually make snaring criminals any easier?

"The Internet is a force multiplier," Lenny DePaul, the retired former chief inspector of the U.S. Marshals service, told NBCNews. "We can't knock on one million doors, so the speed of the Internet is a major advantage when it comes to sharing information."

The new age of social-media tips may seem worlds away from the seasoned cop on the beat -- but it's become another trove of potential clues to be used in all sorts of investigations.

Richard DesLauriers, who was the Boston FBI's Special Agent in Charge at the time of the bombing, told NBCNews the popularity of personal gadgets and the Internet “means a wider range of people who have the ability to help law enforcement.”

DesLauriers, now a vice president for security at Penske Corp., made use of the new media landscape in the hunt for both the bombing suspects and gangster Whitey Bulger.
Immediately after the bombing DesLauriers specifically appealed to the public to send in photos, videos and any other information that might be relevant. As a result, 120 FBI agents sorted through more than 13,000 videos and 120,000 photos in the days after the bombing.

"Collecting as much evidence around the scene of a crime is the first thing you do in trying to identify individuals, and video is often the most compelling evidence," DesLauriers told NBCNews.

A video was indeed the "eureka moment" in the Boston Marathon bombing case, DesLauriers said. But it didn't come from one of the thousands of video clips civilians sent in.

Instead, it was more traditional police work. Among other considerations, an eyewitness account from bombing victim Jeff Bauman -- who lost both his legs to the sideline explosives -- helped investigators comb through the hours of video. Bauman had locked eyes with the man who eventually became a prime suspect: Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Eventually, investigators found a clip from a surveillance video that they believed showed at least one suspect.

"That video was instrumental in assisting us," DesLauriers said. "We didn’t know identity at the time, but we had the visual image we needed."

The most effective use of social media for police work might not be in gathering clues, but as a tool to keep the public up-to-date on the latest information, according to a new report from the Harvard Kennedy School and co-authored by former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis.

Twitter and other social platforms were effective, the report said, because law enforcement had been using them for both major crimes and the average incidents that occur in every city daily.

"Years ago, moving a public statement on a major incident such as a homicide was significantly time-intensive, requiring interoffice memos as well as the writing and screening of statements,” the Harvard report said. "The use of social media allows the police to push information to the public directly and instantaneously."
The openness of social media also means the police can get a flood of information -- tweets, videos, Instagram photos -- from well-intentioned citizens, amateur gumshoes, and cranks alike. The likelihood is that the vast majority of those bits and pieces won’t add up to a clearer puzzle.

"When you get thousands of messages that are potential leads, you need to exhaust all possibilities," said DePaul, the former U.S. Marshals chief inspector. "It can work against you because it takes up a lot of time."

The public has nonetheless played a role in solving several major crimes, from the D.C. sniper case in 2002 to the media campaign that ended the nearly two-decade search for Bulger.

But, DesLauriers acknowledged, "a counterterrorism investigation like the marathon is quite different from a fugitive search."

Maki Haberfeld, a police science professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said crowd-sourcing crime is best suited to specific types of investigations.
"Social media makes sense in extreme situations, a quick and active response like the Boston case," Haberfeld said. "But it doesn't lend itself to all situations."
In the end, DePaul said, people on the ground are still what make or break cases.
"We can't be everywhere, though we try," DePaul said. "Even with cameras up at every bank and 7-Eleven, you just can't beat the aid of the people."




Modern crime solving is no longer mainly dependent on foot patrols and canvassing. Recently “120 FBI agents sorted through more than 13,000 videos and 120,000 photos” after the Boston bombing. Jeff Bauman was a bombing victim who “locked eyes” with Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the time of the attack. His account gave the police the image they needed to find in the photos and videos. The social media are particularly helpful in spreading accurate information to the public. DesLauriers of Penske Corp. stated that “a counterterrorism investigation like the marathon is quite different from a fugitive search." This use of social media is especially important for “extreme situations, a quick and active response” such as the bombing.

It was amazing to me that out of all those people in the crowd the actual bombers were identified within hours. When I look at images from security cameras and crowd shots they usually look fuzzy and not very good for identification purposes. I have heard that modern technology can clear up those videos in many cases, though, turning them into good evidence.

According to a report at the time of the crime, the bomber stood out from the crowd in the eyes of one witness because he showed no interest in the race and was instead scanning the crowd, perhaps to tell whether or not he had been spotted. The witness luckily got a very good look at him and was able to identify him later. He was caught several days afterward hiding inside a boat in a residential yard. His brother had previously been shot and killed.




Iran: We'll Take Abutalebi's U.S. Visa Ban To United Nations – NBC
Reuters
First published April 12 2014

Iran on Saturday dismissed a U.S. decision to deny a visa to its proposed new envoy to the United Nations, Hamid Abutalebi, saying it would take up the case directly with the world body.

“We do not have a replacement for Mr. Abutalebi and we will pursue the matter via legal mechanisms anticipated in the United Nations," Abbas Araghchi, a senior Foreign Ministry official, was quoted by Iran's official IRNA news agency as saying.
The United States said on Friday it would not grant a visa to Abutalebi, citing the envoy's links to the 1979-1981 hostage crisis.

Washington objects to Abutalebi because of his suspected participation in a Muslim student group that seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The veteran diplomat has acknowledged that he acted as an interpreter for the militants who held the hostages.

U.S. President Barack Obama had come under strong domestic pressure not to allow Abutalebi into the country to take up his position in New York, raising concerns that the dispute would disrupt delicate negotiation between Tehran and six world powers including Washington over Iran's nuclear programme.


Foreign Ministry official Abbas Araghchi, is reported to have said that Iran does not have a replacement for Abutalebi and will appeal the US decision. Obama made the move “under strong domestic pressure.” This US move may be against International law. See the following statement from Slate.


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/04/10/hamid_abutalebi_iran_s_new_u_n_ambassador_may_have_participated_in_the_hostage.html

The 1947 basing agreement between the U.S. and the United Nations stipulates that “the federal, state or local authorities of the United States shall not impose any impediments to transit to or from the headquarters district of representatives of Members or officials of the United Nations.” This is why leaders like Fidel Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Robert Mugabe, and Muammar al-Qaddafi—who would not normally be welcomed in the United States—have been able to attend the U.N. assembly. 

The U.S. has denied visas to lower-ranking Iranian officials hoping to attend the assembly, and last year left a visa request by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir—under indictment by the International Criminal Court—unprocessed until he called off his plans to travel to New York. But denying a visa to an ambassador would be more dramatic. 

Top Comment
Over at the international law blog Opinion Juris, Julian Ku writes that if Abutalebi’s visa is denied, “the U.N. would be well within its rights to claim a violation of the Headquarters Agreement and to demand an arbitration that it would have a good chance of winning.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/iranian-official-hamid-abutalebi-will-not-get-visa-un-ambassadorship-white-house-1570830

After hearing about anger from the former hostages' over Abutalebi, members of Congress jumped to pass legislation banning him, seeing the issue as a chance to look tough on Iran weeks after a new sanctions bill stalled in the Senate. Unusually, the legislation passed unanimously in both chambers of the normally divided Congress this week.

Many members of Congress, even Obama's fellow Democrats, are deeply skeptical about Iran, despite the administration's efforts to ease tensions with the long-time U.S. adversary. They had made clear they considered Iran's selection of Abutalebi as a rebuke of the United States.

"I appreciate the president doing the right thing and barring this acknowledged terrorist from coming into the country," Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said on Fox News.  



U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement: "Hamid Abutalebi's nomination would have been a slap at all American victims of terrorism, not just those taken hostage in 1979. We're glad the Obama Administration made this choice, and Iran should stop playing these games."
The White House is still reviewing the legislation, which would need Obama's signature to become law.
"We concur with the Congress and share the intent of the bill," Carney said.


The US is apparently going to be looking a good deal tougher after the Ukraine crisis and the opinion among many that we have been too soft. From what I have seen about Russia's moves, I tend to agree.




Pro-Russian Gunmen Seize Police Station in Eastern Ukraine
First published April 12 2014

A few dozen pro-Russian gunmen seized a police station Saturday in Slavyansk in Ukraine's restive eastern industrial heartland amid spreading protests in favor of the heavily Russified region joining Kremlin rule. The attack and a failed assault on the prosecutor's office in the local capital Donetsk underscored the volatility of a crisis that EU and US diplomats hope to calm when they gather their Moscow and Kiev counterparts for four-way peace talks in Geneva on Thursday.


“Four-way peace talks” are due to occur on Thursday. This website names Russia, US, Ukraine and the EU as the participants – http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/four-way-ukraine-talks-in/1068670.html.

“Kerry is likely to join Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

On the Ukrainian side, it is believed that Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya will attend, but there has been no confirmation of that.”

The United States said earlier this week that it had only low expectations for the meeting which will be the latest step in a flurry of diplomacy aimed at de-escalating the worst European security crisis in decades.

"I have to say that we don't have high expectations for these talks, but we do believe it is very important to keep that diplomatic door open and will see what they bring," Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland told lawmakers.




Doctor going to prison for waterboarding girl, 11 – CBS
By Crimesider Staff AP April 11, 2014

GEORGETOWN, Del. - A former Delaware pediatrician has been sentenced to three years in prison for waterboarding the daughter of his longtime companion by holding her head under a faucet.

A judge also sentenced Melvin Morse, 60, to probation on Friday for other charges related to the then-11-year-old girl's abuse. Morse was charged with three felones, one for waterboarding and one for suffocation by hand, after the girl ran away in July 2012 and told authorities of the abuse she had suffered.

On Feb. 13, he was convicted of one felony - waterboarding in the bathtub - and five misdemeanors.

Morse, whose medical license was suspended after his arrest, has written several books and articles on paranormal science and near-death experiences involving children. He has appeared on shows such as "Larry King Live" and the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to discuss his research, which also has been featured on an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" and in an article in "Rolling Stone" magazine. Morse denied police claims that he may have been experimenting on the girl, now 12.,
The girl's mother, Pauline Morse, 41, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor endangerment charges and testified against Melvin Morse.

Pauline Morse and her daughter testified that Melvin Morse used waterboarding as a threat or a form of punishment. Waterboarding as used in the past by U.S. interrogators on terror suspects simulates drowning. Many critics call it torture.
According to testimony, the allegations of waterboarding surfaced after the girl ran away. She went to a classmate's home the morning after Morse grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her across a gravel driveway into the home, where she was spanked and warned of worse punishment the next day. When investigators questioned the girl, she told them about what she called waterboarding.

Defense attorneys said "waterboarding" was a term jokingly used to describe hair washing.

The girl and her younger sister remain in foster care but are allowed supervised visits with Pauline Morse. Pauline Morse said she hoped her cooperation with prosecutors will bolster her chances of being reunited with her daughters.

Melvin Morse's attorney had asked the judge for mercy, saying his client is suffering from prostate cancer and other health conditions. But prosecutors said Morse deserved prison time for years of emotional and physical abuse of the girl.

Before he was sentenced, Morse turned to the girl, apologized and told her he hopes that one day she can forgive him.




Melvin Morse, who has written “several books and articles on paranormal science and near-death experiences involving children” has been convicted of three felonies and sentenced to three years in prison. Police accused him of experimenting on the girl. His wife Pauline Morse pleaded guilty to misdemeanor endangerment and testified against Morse, stating that he used waterboarding as a punishment. His attorney claimed that waterboarding was a joking term for hair washing. His daughter ran away after being dragged by her ankle across a gravel driveway into their house, where she was spanked and warned of “worse punishment” to come. The girl and her sister are in foster care with supervised visitation from their mother. Morse apologized to the girl and asked for forgiveness.

People who believe in “paranormal science” and other forms of supernatural manifestations are, to my way of thinking, not fully sane, though many religions do involve such beliefs, and many religious “experiences” are basically hallucinations. I hate to see such things allowed as “freedom of religion” if they end in a crime, when a mental health examination is warranted. The law tends simply to call actions of this type a crime. If he was “experimenting on his daughter” as evidence for his beliefs, he should be committed to an asylum. A simple jail term isn't likely to improve his thinking.




New documentary series explores climate change through ordinary lives
CBS News April 11, 2014

Climate change is often addressed among scientists and policy makers, but a new documentary explores how global warming impacts the lives of ordinary citizens across the world.

In a new Showtime series called "Years of Living Dangerously," journalists and Hollywood stars trek through regions like the Middle East, the Arctic and even the United States to learn more about the issue.

One of those journalists is Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman who explained how an extended drought, fueled by climate change, contributed to civil unrest in Syria, which has been mired in violence ever since.

"Beginning in 2006 and lasting until 2010, Syria experienced the worst drought in its modern history," Friedman said Friday on "CBS This Morning." "About a million Syrian farmers and herders left the land and basically flocked into the major cities in the homeland [like] Damascus where they really overwhelmed the infrastructure."

However, then-President Bashar Assad's government did nothing to help them, Friedman said.

"The drought didn't cause the revolution, but when the revolution came, all these farmers and herders could not wait to join."

Friedman has written extensively about the Middle East, covering issues including the water shortage in Yemen and Egypt's bread crisis, but he said he has never spent an extended period of time only talking to Arab environmentalists.

"They're a remarkable community. Small, but extremely able," he said.

Friedman said talking to the Arab environmentalists gave him a whole new perspective on the region.

"One thing young Arabs will tell you is, 'Hey, we've tried everything. We tried nationalism, socialism, communism, Islamism, capitalism, liberalism, and nothing worked,'" he said. "And I tell them there's one '-ism' you haven't tried -- and that's environmentalism."

Environmentalists start with the commons, he said. "They understand that there's no Shiite heir, Sunni heir if we don't protect the commons, nobody's going to breathe."
Syria isn't the only place highlighted in this documentary series about climate change. In a separate episode, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl reported from a glacier in Greenland, where she witnessed "ice quakes."

"So not only are the glaciers falling into the ocean, but they're melting from the top and it looks like a white blouse with blue polka dots," Stahl said.
Climate change's effect on Greenland is being felt elsewhere in the world - rising sea levels have brought more disastrous floods than in previous generations, Stahl said.

"That's because the ice is melting, it's affecting the sea water all along the eastern shore of the United States," she said. "So we're feeling the impact here. You see it when you're there, and you feel it when you come home."

Stahl and Friedman are two of the 14 correspondents reporting for the documentary series. Others include Harrison Ford, Jessica Alba and Matt Damon.

Friedman said while he cannot predict how climate change skeptics will react to the documentary series, there is power in telling the story through the experiences of "real people living in real communities."

"Al Gore did an amazing job with 'Inconvenient Truth,' but that was one man telling millions," Friedman said. "What this series is about is millions telling many more millions about how climate change is impacting their real lives."




"Years of Living Dangerously," is the new documentary series that features drought in Syria, loss of ice in Greenland, and devastating floods. Lesley Stahl, Thomas Friedman, Harrison Ford, Jessica Alba and Matt Damon will be involved. More information is found in this Wikipedia article

Years of Living Dangerously
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Years of Living Dangerously is a 9-part Showtime documentary television series focusing on climate change that will premiere on April 13, 2014.[1][2] James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub and Arnold Schwarzenegger are executive producers of the series.[3] The episodes feature celebrity investigators, who travel to areas around the world and throughout the U.S. affected by global warming to interview experts and ordinary people and view the impacts of climate change. The celebrities include Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, Don Cheadle, America Ferrera, Schwarzenegger, Lesley Stahl, Mark Bittman, Ian Somerhalder, Olivia Munn and Michael C. Hall. Joseph Romm and Heidi Cullen are the chief science advisors.[4][5]

Schwarzenegger said that he had been thinking about why the issue of climate change has not yet resonated strongly with the public despite the warnings from the scientific community: "I think the environmental movement only can be successful if we are simple and clear and make it a human story. We will tell human stories in this project. The scientists would never get the kind of attention that someone in show business gets."




I do hope that this series will help to convince the religious right to pull back from their dogma and look at the increasing evidence. I don't think it's God's will that humans will refuse to use logic in order to maintain old ideas. The cooperation of all nations is needed. Global Warming is one reality that requires concrete actions to slow down the progression of the problem; so those who balk over whether or not mankind is powerful enough to destroy our environment by his careless polluting with greenhouse gases need to be fought in Congress and convinced with the increasing flow of information.




Pakistani Court Tosses Out Attempted Murder Charge Against Baby – NPR
by Bill Chappell
April 12, 2014

Weeks after he was fingerprinted and appeared in court on an attempted murder charge, baby Mohammad Musa Khan is no longer living under the shadow of a criminal conviction. His case has been termed absurd, ridiculous, and a sign of a justice system in need of reform.

A Pakistani court ruled Saturday that charges against the boy, who was reportedly nine months old when he was charged, will not be pursued. The case began when police met with resistance as they tried to cut off gas service in the neighborhood. Police said the boy, along with other residents, threw rocks at them.

Musa and his family were charged with "planning a murder, threatening police and interfering in state affairs," the BBC says.

The case sparked widespread disbelief and ridicule, after a video showed Musa in court holding his milk bottle as he sat on his grandfather's lap. Other images showed him crying as his fingerprints were recorded on paper.

The police inspector in the case has been suspended, reports Agence France-Presse. The agency adds that the charges against Musa "were in direct contradiction with Pakistan's minimum age of criminal responsibility, which was raised from seven to 12 years in 2013 except in terrorism cases."

Several of Musa's relatives remain in legal jeopardy over events that occurred in early February, when residents of their Lahore neighborhood allegedly attacked police.

From The Wall Street Journal:
"It started out as a raid by police on households who weren't staying their gas bills, in the lower middle class Muslim Town district of Lahore on Feb. 1. The police went into the neighborhood to disconnect defaulters from the piped gas network. Nonpayment of gas and electricity bills is a major challenge for Pakistan, and one of the causes of the country's energy crisis."

Members of Musa's family have said the push to cut off gas service was motivated by a land grab, accusing others of colluding with the police to pressure their area's residents.




How did baby Mohammad Musa Khan get into such a predicament? During an attempt by police to cut off gas service to the neighborhood, the boy joined a group of citizens who retaliated by throwing rocks at the authorities. The whole family, even included this toddler, were charged with interfering with “state affairs,” threatening the police and “planning a murder.” The Pakistani court threw the case out and the police official who brought the charges has been suspended. I am relieved to see that. The minimum age of criminal responsibility in Pakistan was just recently raised in 2013 from seven to twelve years old “except in terrorism cases.” Apparently seven year old kids can still be charged with terrorism.

The basis of the whole problem was non-payment of gas and electric bills, which is “a major challenge for Pakistan, and one of the causes of the country's energy crises.” Perhaps the group was thought to be boycotting the service. In this country the police don't enforce such things, but rather the utility company sends out its representative to cut the power off. I am glad I don't live in Pakistan, but when I read this case I had to laugh. At least it all ended well.