SQUIRREL-KILLERS
Update Briefs #3, Part D
December 3, 2015
Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor
FIRST NEGATIVE BRIEFS
18. IMMIGRATION SURVEILLANCE
SECOND NEGATIVE BRIEFS
19. BANK SECRECY ACT: ABOLITION Disad
20. ISIS TERRORISM Disad
21. TSA SURVEILLANCE CURTAILMENT Disad
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SK/UPDATE3-18. IMMIGRATION SURVEILLANCE
1. ICE (IMMIGRATION/CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT) TARGETS CRIMINALS
SK/UP3-18.01) Sarah Parvini, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 15, 2015, p. B4,
LexisNexis Academic. Federal agents have arrested 50 fugitives in cities across the
United States, including Los Angeles, who are suspected of murder and other human
rights violations abroad, officials announced Friday. The arrests mark the second time
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have targeted suspected war
criminals illegally seeking shelter in the United States, the agency said. The investigation,
dubbed Operation No Safe Haven II, concluded Thursday. Of the 50, seven were arrested
in Los Angeles. Most of them are from Central America, according to ICE spokeswoman
Jennifer Elzea. Five were arrested in San Francisco.
SK/UP3-18.02) Sarah Parvini, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 15, 2015, p. B4,
LexisNexis Academic. In a statement, ICE said it was "committed to rooting out known
or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the United States." Those
suspected of human rights violations "didn't need to pull the trigger" to be considered
criminals, Elzea [ICE spokeswoman] said. "Substantial involvement is still a human
rights violation," she said.
SK/UP3-18.03) Ciara O’Rourke, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, April 3,
2014, p. B1, LexisNexis Academic. However, since June 2009, nearly 4,600 people
living in the country without legal permission have been deported after being booked into
Travis County Jail, according to federal officials. Of those, nearly 4,000 had criminal
convictions, and 1,400 were convicted of so-called "Level 1" offenses, which include
homicide, sexual assault and drug crimes that result in a sentence of more than a year.
SK/UP3-18.04) Editorial, THE PHILADEPHIA DAILY NEWS, July 18, 2014,
pNA, LexisNexis Academic. The local ICE office covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia
and Delaware and doesn't break down deportations by locality. ICE officials tell me there
were 5,800 "removals" last year and two-thirds were convicted criminals. The other onethird were gangbangers and others who threaten the community.
2. SECURE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM TARGETS CRIMINALS
SK/UP3-18.05) Ciara O’Rourke, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, April 3,
2014, p. B1, LexisNexis Academic. Launched under the Bush administration and
expanded under President Barack Obama, Secure Communities is aimed at helping
agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identify jail inmates for possible
deportation by comparing their fingerprints with immigration databases. When people are
arrested in Travis County, which started participating in the program in June 2009, their
fingerprints are shared with local, state and federal law enforcement databases, including
ICE's. If ICE suspects that person is in the country illegally, the agency will request a
detainer that keeps the person in custody an extra 48 hours after he or she has posted bail
or otherwise been cleared for release.
SK/UP3-18.06) Editorial, THE PHILADEPHIA DAILY NEWS, July 18, 2014,
pNA, LexisNexis Academic. It started in 2009 when illegal-immigrant sympathizers
demanded the city [Philaselphia] end participation in "Secure Communities," a federal
program in which local police provide names to ICE and hold suspects for up to 48 hours
while ICE runs checks on them. The purpose: to identify and deport criminals.
SK/UP3-18.07) Maryanne Taylor Peterson, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, August
22, 2014, p. 1, LexisNexis Academic. According to the ICE website, Secure
Communities is a federal law that identifies criminal aliens who are in the country
illegally. As of April 30, 283,000 criminal aliens have been removed from the country.
3. ICE IS REDUCING IMMIGRANTS’ TIME AT PROCESSING CENTERS
SK/UP3-18.08) Patrik Jonsson, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
August 22, 2015, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. As Republican presidential candidates
toughen their stances on America's undocumented residents, a federal judge in California
has ruled that a policy based on "fear-mongering" by the Obama administration violated
the rights of migrant mothers and children who crossed into the US last year. On Friday,
US District Judge Dolly Gee called the Obama administration's argument that releasing
some 1,400 children and mothers from three detention facilities in Texas and
Pennsylvania would inspire more illegal border crossings "speculative." Judge Gee
ordered the government to release them "without unnecessary delay."
SK/UP3-18.09) Molly Hennessy-Fiske & Cindy Carcamo, LOS ANGELES
TIMES, August 8, 2015, p. A6, LexisNexis Academic. In their response filed late
Thursday night, Justice Department lawyers urged the judge to reconsider her ruling,
arguing that the facilities had improved in recent weeks and were being transformed into
short-term "processing centers." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs
the family detention centers with contractors, now aims to hold immigrants with credible
asylum claims no longer than 20 days, and most are being released within about two to
four weeks. This week, according to an ICE spokesman, about 1,400 parents and children
were being held at the country's three immigrant family detention centers, two in Texas
and one in Pennsylvania.
SK/UP3-18.10) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, October 24,
2015, p. A8, LexisNexis Academic. On deadline to improve immigrant family detention
centers, Obama administration officials said they had converted the facilities into shortterm processing sites, holding more families in recent months but for less time.
SK/UP3-18.11) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, October 24,
2015, p. A8, LexisNexis Academic. Government attorneys appealed the orders, arguing
that the centers have made improvements and aim to hold immigrant families no longer
than 20 days, which Gee has said "may fall within the parameters" of the Flores
settlement. "In light of the Oct. 23 deadline for compliance with the court's Flores order,
[Homeland Security] has worked diligently to ensure that we are in compliance with all
aspects of the court's order," said Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for the department's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the centers.
SK/UP3-18.12) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, October 24,
2015, p. A8, LexisNexis Academic. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson announced that family detention facilities were being converted into short-term
processing centers where immigrants would be interviewed and screened quickly, "rather
than detained for a prolonged period of time." "Family residential centers are an
important part of the U.S. government's comprehensive response to the increased number
of undocumented families arriving at our borders," said Jennifer Elzea, the ICE
spokeswoman.
SK/UP3-18.13) Seth Robbins [Associated Press], CHICO ENTERPRISERECORD (California), August 8, 2015, p. A3, LexisNexis Academic. Immigration
authorities have vowed to make the detention facilities more child-friendly and to provide
better oversight. Homeland Security and ICE officials say they are looking to release
families as soon as they pass the interviews that are the first hurdle to being granted
asylum. In Thursday's filing, lawyers for the government argued that ICE now aims to
detain families no longer than 20 days and that most are being released within about two
weeks. Last year the majority of families spent more than a month in detention, and some
were detained several months. In recent weeks, more mothers have been released with
their children. Bonds have been drastically reduced, and many of the women have been
fitted with electronic ankle monitors, according to immigrant rights lawyers.
SK/UP3-18.14) Oliver Laughland, THE GUARDIAN, August 7, 2015, pNA,
LexisNexis Academic. The response filed late on Thursday, however, argues that a raft of
reforms aimed at speeding up the processing of protection claims at the centres,
announced by homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson in June, should mitigate against
Gee's decision by shortening the average time of detention. The submission argues that
60% of detainees brought to the centre between 28 June and 11 July had been released or
removed within 30 days, compared with the last six months of 2014 when just 21% had
been released within a month.
4. ANKLE MONITORS ARE AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO DETENTION
SK/UP3-18.15) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 2, 2015,
p. A10, LexisNexis Academic. GPS ankle monitors are becoming standard equipment for
immigration officials along the border. In July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
or ICE, used about 9,300 ankle monitors at a time -- 40% more than about six months
ago. They are run by a government contractor, BI Inc., a subsidiary of the country's
second-largest prison company, which also operates immigration detention centers.
Officials say the monitors are a cheap and effective way to ensure that immigrants
released from detention attend court hearings.
SK/UP3-18.16) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 2, 2015,
p. A10, LexisNexis Academic. The monitors cost an average of $5 a day per person,
according to an ICE spokesman, and are part of the agency's Alternatives to Detention
program, which also may require immigrants to report by phone or in person. In contrast,
detention costs an average of $130 per day per person, and can cost over $330 at some
detention centers.
SK/UP3-18.17) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 2, 2015,
p. A10, LexisNexis Academic. The ankle monitors are part of the government effort to
handle the surge of thousands of children and families, mostly Central Americans, who
have been crossing into the U.S. for more than a year. The U.S. went from one 95-bed
immigrant family detention center in Pennsylvania to three, the two newest in Karnes
City and Dilley, Texas. By year's end, the centers will have a total of 3,700 beds.
SK/UP3-18.18) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 2, 2015,
p. A10, LexisNexis Academic. In June, Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson announced
several changes to family detention, including releasing on reasonable bonds and with
ankle monitors family members found to have a fear of persecution in their home
countries. Johnson told the House Judiciary Committee that ICE was "ramping up" its use
of ankle monitors and intended to more than double the total number monitored, from
23,000 last year to 53,000 in 2016.
SK/UP3-18.19) Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LOS ANGELES TIMES, August 2, 2015,
p. A10, LexisNexis Academic. ICE officials say ankle monitors are used "on a case-bycase basis with a priority for detention of serious criminal offenders and other individuals
who pose a significant threat to public safety. Those who are not subject to mandatory
detention and don't pose a threat to the community may be placed on some form of
supervision."
5. MANY LOCALITIES REJECT SECURE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
SK/UP3-18.20) Tracey Kaplan, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, September 15,
2015, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Before Kate Steinle was fatally shot July 1, most
California counties, including all in the Bay Area, had stopped cooperating with ICE by
mid-2014. Initially, many had complied with requests from ICE to hold inmates for an
extra 48 hours after their official release dates to give agents the option of detaining some
for possible deportation. But the California State Sheriff's Association advised its
members to stop complying with "ICE holds" after federal courts ruled the practice was
unconstitutional.
SK/UPDATE3-19. BANK SECRECY ACT: ABOLITION Disad
A. B.S.A. IS VITAL FOR PREVENTING CRIME & TERRORISM
1. MONEY-LAUNDERING IS A HUGE PROBLEM
SK/UP3-19.01) Philip J. Ruce [Thomas Jefferson School of Law], QUINNIPIAC
LAW REVIEW, 2011, LexisNexis Academic, p. 44. Money laundering, the process by
which the proceeds of criminal activity are disguised as funds that appear legitimate, is a
tremendous problem. The purpose of most criminal enterprises is of course to turn a
profit, and money laundering allows arms dealers, drug dealers, smugglers, human
traffickers, and terrorists to conceal the sources of their income. In other words, it makes
crime pay. To understand the scope of the problem, one should consider the fact that
money laundering is estimated to be a one to two trillion dollar business. The aggregate
amount of money laundered around the globe is somewhere between two and five percent
of the entire world's gross domestic product.
SK/UP3-19.02) Mark B. Skerry [U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office
of the General Counsel], SANTA CLARA LAW REVIEW, 2013, LexisNexis Academic,
p. 219. Countries that implement effective techniques to combat money laundering see
significant benefits to their economies. Anti-money laundering efforts can assist in
fighting crime and corruption, enhance the stability of financial institutions, and
encourage economic development.
2. BANKS LACK INCENTIVE TO COMBAT MONEY LAUNDERING
SK/UP3-19.03) Philip J. Ruce [Thomas Jefferson School of Law], QUINNIPIAC
LAW REVIEW, 2011, LexisNexis Academic, pp. 44-45. Considering the sheer
magnitude of illicit funds that are laundered, there is not always a tremendous incentive
for financial institutions to work to prevent it. A large account is, after all, a large
account, which means big fees and big commissions for a bank. The Bank Secrecy Act of
1970 ("BSA") was created to combat money laundering, primarily through reporting and
record keeping requirements. These requirements mandate that financial institutions file
documents and reports that the government considers likely to have a high degree of
usefulness in regulatory, criminal, and tax matters. Law enforcement use these various
documents to detect and deter money laundering and the crimes associated with it.
3. B.S.A. IS EFFECTIVE AGAINT MONEY LAUNDERING
SK/UP3-19.04) Courtney J. Linn [former Asst. U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of
California], SANTA CLARA LAW REVIEW, 2010, LexisNexis Academic, p. 407. The
Bank Records and Foreign Transactions Act of 1970 (BSA) requires financial institutions
to record (Title I) and report (Title II) information about their customers' transactions,
particularly those involving large amounts of currency. The requirements rest on the
Congressional finding that BSA records and reports have a high degree of usefulness for
law enforcement, tax, intelligence, and regulatory authorities.
SK/UP3-19.05) Philip J. Ruce [Thomas Jefferson School of Law], QUINNIPIAC
LAW REVIEW, 2011, LexisNexis Academic, p. 45. The biggest reporting tool in the
BSA's war chest is the Suspicious Activity Report ("SAR"). SARs must be filed by
financial institutions when the institution "knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect" that
a financial transaction has occurred that involves funds earned through illegal activities.
SK/UP3-19.06) Philip J. Ruce [Thomas Jefferson School of Law], QUINNIPIAC
LAW REVIEW, 2011, LexisNexis Academic, p. 50. SARs [Suspicious Activity Reports]
are one of the government's primary weapons in combating money laundering and other
financial crimes. These reports generate leads that various agencies use to launch
investigations and, hopefully, to make arrests and convictions.
SK/UP3-19.07) Josh Barro, THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 6, 2015, p. A13,
LexisNexis Academic. Still, privacy concerns need to be balanced with the entirely valid
purpose of anti-money-laundering laws, that is, disrupting the activities of illegal
businesses and tax evaders. Even in this case, there is a tax angle: Large cash transactions
that go unnoticed by the government might go unreported to the Internal Revenue
Service.
4. B.S.A. FACILITATES DETECTION OF CRIME AND TERRORISM
SK/UP3-19.08) Robert Almon et al., AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW,
2013, LexisNexis Academic, pp. 1053-1054. In 1970, Congress enacted the Currency and
Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, commonly referred to as the Bank Secrecy Act
("BSA"), to address tax evaders' and organized crime's increasing use of financial
institutions to launder unreported income. The BSA requires that financial institutions
maintain "certain reports or records where they have a high degree of usefulness in
criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings, or in the conduct of intelligence
or counterintelligence activities, including analysis, to protect against international
terrorism." This enhanced documentation of the deposit, transfer, and exchange of
currency can be used to uncover illegal concealment and thus improve the effectiveness
of law enforcement.
SK/UP3-19.09) Jesse Hamilton, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, March 11,
2013, p. A6, LexisNexis Academic. The Bank Secrecy Act was meant to curtail criminals
from injecting the proceeds of their crimes into the legitimate financial system. It has
since been used as a tool to combat international drug cartels and terrorist groups. Nine
federal agencies monitor the act, said Heather Lowe, counsel and government affairs
director at Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based group advocating tighter
controls on the flow of illicit money.
SK/UP3-19.10) Jessica Silver-Greenberg, THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 27,
2013, p. B2, LexisNexis Academic. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions
like banks and check-cashing services must report any cash transaction of more than
$10,000 and bring any dubious activity to the attention of regulators. The federal law also
requires banks to have complex controls in place to detect any criminal activity. Porous
monitoring, the authorities say, can enable drug dealers and terrorists to launder money
through the United States.
SK/UP3-19.11) Robert Almon et al., AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW,
2013, LexisNexis Academic, p. 1054. The increased interest in and importance of the
BSA is due to the recognition of the global scale on which illicit funds enter the flow of
commerce through legitimate financial institutions. The drug traffickers and global
terrorism groups rely heavily on financial institutions to integrate and move funds.
SK/UP3-19.12) Courtney J. Linn [former Asst. U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of
California], SANTA CLARA LAW REVIEW, 2010, LexisNexis Academic, p. 410. The
BSA's reporting and recordkeeping requirements make it difficult for crime proceeds or
sources of terrorist financing to enter the financial system without creating a paper trail.
Fearful of the paper trail left through BSA reports and records, criminals and terrorists
engage in evasive and high-risk transactions such as structuring, making it easier for law
enforcement agencies to detect their transactions amidst the huge volumes of legitimate
transactions that occur each day.
SK/UP3-19.13) Courtney J. Linn [former Asst. U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of
California], SANTA CLARA LAW REVIEW, 2010, LexisNexis Academic, p. 510. The
BSA acts as a barrier that criminals seeking to move illegitimate funds must confront and
avoid; it forces criminals to act in ways that increase their risk of detection.
B. ABOLITION OF B.S.A. WOULD BE CATASTROPHIC
1. FINANCIAL CRIMINAL OPERATIONS WILL FLOURISH
SK/UP3-19.14) LEGAL MONITOR WORLDWIDE, August 28, 2014, pNA,
LexisNexis Academic. House Republicans are agitating to dramatically curb federal bank
regulators' ability to combat money laundering, calling for changes in decades-old
financial fraud standards in an effort to aid payday lenders. Moving illegal cash through
the financial system has long been barred by money laundering laws. But under a bill
introduced by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), federal regulators would be forbidden
from doing anything to "restrict or discourage" a bank from doing business with any
company that has both a license to do business and a "reasoned legal opinion" from a
lawyer claiming that the business doesn't break the law. That's not a high hurdle to clear.
Obtaining a business license and hiring a lawyer is a routine money laundering tactic for
everyone from the mafia to terrorists to, more commonly, petty fraud scammers.
SK/UP3-19.15) Harry Bruinius, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
January 7, 2014, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. But this merry-go-round of cash was a
classic Ponzi scheme, and on Tuesday, the US Department of Justice demanded a $1.7
billion criminal penalty from JPMorgan, now America's largest bank with about $2.4
trillion in assets. The penalty is part of a "deferred-prosecution agreement" in which the
bank is charged with two felony violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires
banks to inform the government of any suspicious activity. It is the largest penalty ever
issued for a violation of that law, and the agreement allows the Justice Department to
pursue criminal charges again if JPMorgan does not abide by the terms of Tuesday's
settlement. The bank was required to admit to the violations and to agree to overhaul its
own safeguards against the kind of money-laundering Madoff was conducting in
JPMorgan accounts.
SK/UP3-19.16) Harry Bruinius, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
January 7, 2014, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. "J.P. Morgan failed to carry out its legal
obligations while Bernard Madoff built his massive house of cards," said George
Venizelos, FBI assistant director-in-charge, in a statement. "It took until after the arrest of
Madoff, one of the worst crooks this office has ever seen, for J.P. Morgan to alert
authorities to what the world already knew." The bulk of the $1.7 billion will be used to
compensate the victims of Madoff's scheme, in which investors lost about $18 billion.
2. TERRORIST OPERATIONS WILL FLOURISH
SK/UP3-19.17) Ben Protess, THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 13, 2015, p. B1,
LexisNexis Academic. Pursuing a trail of illicit money from Geneva to Paris with stops
in London, the United States authorities built a sweeping crackdown on some of Europe's
biggest banks. On Thursday, that trail led to Commerzbank of Germany, which agreed to
pay nearly $1.5 billion and dismiss some of its employees to resolve an array of charges
in the United States. The case, the latest black eye for a giant global bank accused of
sending tainted money through the American financial system, closes the book on several
investigations into Commerzbank, one of Germany's largest lenders. One strand of the
case focused on Commerzbank's dealings with Iranian companies blacklisted by the
United States, showing that the bank processed hundreds of millions of dollars through
New York on their behalf.
SK/UP3-19.18) Ben Protess, THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 13, 2015, p. B1,
LexisNexis Academic. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan who
handled the Olympus part of the case, noted that “Commerzbank stands charged with
Bank Secrecy Act criminal offenses for its acute, institutional anti-money laundering
deficiencies that allowed over a billion dollars of the Olympus fraud to flow through its
New York office.” And Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney who focused
on dealings with Iran and Sudan, said, “We have sanctions in place to prevent rogue
nations and terrorists from accessing the U.S. financial system.”
SK/UP3-19.19) Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg, THE NEW YORK
TIMES, December 11, 2012, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. HSBC's actions stand out
among the foreign banks caught up in the investigation, according to several law
enforcement officials with knowledge of the inquiry. Unlike those of institutions that
have previously settled, HSBC's activities are said to have gone beyond claims that the
bank flouted United States sanctions to transfer money on behalf of nations like Iran.
Prosecutors also found that the bank had facilitated money laundering by Mexican drug
cartels and had moved tainted money for Saudi banks tied to terrorist groups.
3. DRUG CARTELS WILL FLOURISH
SK/UP3-19.20) Katen Attiah, THE WASHINGTON POST, March 6, 2015, p.
A17, LexisNexis Academic. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States began
looking more seriously at the role that global money flows play in financing terrorism.
The Patriot Act and the Bank Secrecy Act compel banks to assist government efforts to
detect money laundering and terrorism. Institutions can be hit with gargantuan fines for
failing to comply: In 2012, HSBC was fined almost $2 billion to resolve a laundering
case involving Mexican drug lords.
SK/UP3-19.21) Danielle Douglas, THE WASHINGTON POST, November 6,
2012, p. A12, LexisNexis Academic. Financial firms have in the past primarily dealt with
their direct regulators on managing money-laundering controls. But in the aftermath of
the financial crisis, Justice has launched more criminal cases under the Bank Secrecy Act,
a law requiring financial institutions and their employees to combat money laundering.
Attempts to contact officials at the agency were not successful. Justice exacted its biggest
fine under the law in 2010, when Wachovia agreed to pay $110 million for failing to stop
millions of dollars of Colombian and Mexican drug money from being laundered through
accounts at the bank.
SK/UP3-19.22) Jacob Bronsther [New York U.], THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
MONITOR, September 2010, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Mexico's cartels earn upward
of $39 billion annually in illicit proceeds from the United States, the Justice Department
estimates. To put that in context, it's roughly equal to the global annual revenue of
Google and Halliburton combined. What's more, we help them launder their money.
From 2003 to 2008, Wachovia Corp. alone laundered at least $110 million, according to
the Justice Department. Wachovia admitted to "serious and systematic" violations of the
Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay $160 million to resolve the criminal case against
them. American Express Bank International and Western Union have also recently agreed
to huge settlements with the government for laundering Mexican drug proceeds.
SK/UP3-19.23) Jessica Silver-Greenberg, THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 27,
2013, p. B2, LexisNexis Academic. In December, HSBC agreed to a record $1.92 billion
deal with authorities to settle accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations
like Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American
subsidiaries.
4. THOUSANDS WILL DIE
SK/UP3-19.24) Michael Smith, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, July 3, 2010,
p. A7, LexisNexis Academic. Wachovia admitted it didn't do enough to spot illicit funds
in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007.
That's the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in
U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico's current gross domestic product.
"Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a
virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," said Jeffrey Sloman, the federal
prosecutor who handled the case. Since 2006, more than 22,000 people have been killed
in drug-related battles that have raged mostly along the 2,000-mile border that Mexico
shares with the United States.
SK/UP3-19.25) Jacob Bronsther [New York U.], THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
MONITOR, September 2010, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Indeed, we are culpable for
the rise of all the Mexican drug cartels, whose $39 billion criminal enterprise has led to
more than 23,000 deaths since 2006, and brought a fledgling democracy to its knees.
SK/UPDATE3-20. ISIS TERRORISM Disad
A. ISIS POSES A HUGE TERRORISM THREAT TO U.S.
SK/UP3-20.01) Eric Schmitt & David D. Kirkpatrick, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
November 15, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS,
ISIL or Daesh, has for the first time engaged in what appears to be a centrally planned
campaign of terrorist attacks aimed at inflicting huge civilian casualties on distant
territory, forcing many counterterrorism officials in the United States and in Europe to
recalibrate their assessment of the group. “They have crossed some kind of Rubicon,”
said William McCants, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and author of “The ISIS
Apocalypse.” They have definitely shifted in their thinking about targeting their
enemies.”
SK/UP3-20.02) Jessica Mendoza, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
November 16, 2015, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. But on Monday, ISIS released a
videotaped message threatening Washington, D.C. The self-described Islamic State
warned that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as
France, and threatened to attack Washington, reported Reuters. Friday night's terrorist
attack in Paris, which killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 350, raised
tensions at airports and other points of entry across the US.
SK/UP3-20.03) Eric Schmitt & David D. Kirkpatrick, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
November 15, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. Defying Western efforts to confront
the Islamic State on the battlefield, the group has evolved in its reach and organizational
ability, with increasingly dangerous hubs outside Iraq and Syria and strategies that call
for using spectacular acts of violence against civilians.
SK/UP3-20.04) Eric Schmitt & David D. Kirkpatrick, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
November 15, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. The massacre in Paris on Friday,
following bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, and the downing of a Russian passenger jet over
Egypt, all claimed by the Islamic State, reveals a terrorist organization that has changed
in significant ways from the West's initial understanding of it as a group focused on
holding territory in Syria and Iraq and building a caliphate, or Islamic state.
SK/UP3-20.05) Eric Schmitt & David D. Kirkpatrick, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
November 15, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. When the Islamic State's Egyptian
arm claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian charter plane over Sinai two weeks
ago, some analysts wondered if the group's so-called Sinai Province of the Islamic State
had acted on its own and leapt out in front, even at the cost of risking a Russian military
backlash on the parent group in Syria and Iraq. But the attacks last week in Paris and
Beirut, which the Islamic State also said it carried out, appear to have settled that
question and convinced even skeptics that the central leadership was calling the shots.
“There is a radical change of perception by the terrorists that they can now act in Paris
just as they act in Syria or Baghdad,” said Mathieu Guidere, a terrorism specialist at the
University of Toulouse. “With this action, a psychological barrier has been broken.”
SK/UP3-20.06) Eric Schmitt & David D. Kirkpatrick, THE NEW YORK TIMES,
November 15, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. Indeed, at a time when many Western
officials were most concerned about Islamic State-inspired, lone-wolf attacks -- terrifying
in their randomness but relatively low in casualties -- the attacks in Paris have revived the
specter of coordinated, high-casualty attacks planned with the involvement of a relatively
large number of perpetrators. American and European authorities said the Paris assault
bore the hallmarks of complex attacks conducted by Al Qaeda, or of the Mumbai plot in
2008, when 10 Islamic militants carried out a series of 12 shootings and bombings in the
Indian city, lasting four days and killing 164 people.
B. ATTACKS IN FRANCE PROVE RISK OF REDUCED SURVEILLANCE
1. FRENCH SURVEILLANCE IS LIMITED
SK/UP3-20.07) Katrin Bennhold & Eric Schmitt, INTERNATIONAL NEW
YORK TIMES, February 19, 2015, p. 4, LexisNexis Academic. By law, the domestic
surveillance powers of French intelligence agencies are limited. Wiretaps are still
governed by rules drafted in 1991, long before cellphones and the Internet became
ubiquitous. French intelligence agencies cannot legally track cars or bug apartments in
their own country. Since 2006, they have had some access to the metadata of electronic
communications, but they cannot spy on the content of emails.
2. LIMITED SURVEILLANCE ENABLED TERRORIST ATTACKS
SK/UP3-20.08) Editorial, CHARLESTON GAZETTE-MAIL (West Virginia),
November 19, 2015, p. 5A, LexisNexis Academic. The Paris attacks are a tragic reminder
of the need for vigilant surveillance against terrorism.
SK/UP3-20.09) Ewen MacAskill, THE GUARDIAN (London), November 19,
2015, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. The problem with this, as with almost every terrorist
incident since 9/11, is that the French intelligence agencies already knew at least three of
the attackers. Abelhamid Abaaoud was known as an accomplice of two jihadis killed in
Belgium in January. The police had a file on Omar Ismaïl Mostefai even before he
travelled to Syria in 2013, while Sami Amimour had been detained in 2012 on suspected
terrorist links. In other words, the failure of the French intelligence agencies is not that
they did not have enough data - but that they did not act on what they had. The three
could have been the subject of traditional targeted surveillance. While physical
surveillance is difficult in terms of staffing, keeping tabs on their communications is less
labour-intensive. Tracking such suspects does not require the collection of the
communications data - phone records, emails, Facebook postings, chat lines - of every
French citizen, only the suspects.
SK/UP3-20.10) Wesley Wark [Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Public &
International Affairs, U. of Ottawa (Canada)], OTTAWA CITIZEN, January 13, 2015, p.
C4, LexisNexis Academic. While the French Republic's security manhunt for the
perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket killings involved an
impressive and vast mobilization of forces, and while French society's response to the
attacks was awe-inspiring in its public show of support for free speech and unity,
questions have begun to emerge about the performance of French intelligence in failing
to prevent the attacks. The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has already stated that
there was a "clear failing ... when 17 people die, it means there were cracks." The three
French terrorists were all known, indeed well known, to the French authorities.
SK/UP3-20.11) Wesley Wark [Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Public &
International Affairs, U. of Ottawa (Canada)], OTTAWA CITIZEN, January 13, 2015, p.
C4, LexisNexis Academic. The fact that the Kouachis and Coulibaly may have taken
steps to adopt a low profile and stay out of the sights of French surveillance points to
another problem facing counter-terrorism agencies - the problem is one of perseverance.
At a high operational tempo, intelligence agencies are forced to change target sets
frequently. The challenge is in being able to maintain levels of lawful scrutiny of suspects
who may be further down the priority list but who may reactivate themselves.
SK/UP3-20.12) Wesley Wark [Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Public &
International Affairs, U. of Ottawa (Canada)], OTTAWA CITIZEN, January 13, 2015, p.
C4, LexisNexis Academic. French intelligence and security agencies are highly
experienced with terrorism threats and have particular knowledge and capabilities in the
Middle East, North Africa and the sub-Saharan region. But there are lessons to be
learned, for France, and for other countries, in the failures of counter-terrorism on display
last week. Those lessons point in four directions: perseverance in maintaining a strategic
watch on presumed lower-tier threats; better technological capabilities; better intelligence
sharing at home and abroad; and better external scrutiny.
SK/UP3-20.13) Katrin Bennhold & Eric Schmitt, INTERNATIONAL NEW
YORK TIMES, February 19, 2015, p. 4, LexisNexis Academic. The decision to drop
surveillance of the Kouachis was one in a series of developments that, in the aftermath of
the deadliest acts of terrorism in France since Algeria's struggle for independence in the
1960s, suggests substantial failures or weaknesses in French intelligence and law
enforcement. It also highlights security challenges facing other Western governments, as
Denmark was reminded this weekend when a native-born Muslim gunman in
Copenhagen killed two people in an attack that had numerous similarities to the rampage
in and around Paris last month.
SK/UPDATE3-21. TSA SURVEILLANCE CURTAILMENT Disad
A. DOWNING OF RUSSIAN PLANE REVEALS MASSIVE THREAT
SK/UP3-21.01) Ellen Nakashima, THE WASHINGTON POST, November 8,
2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. The hardening prospect that a Russian airliner was
brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a terrorist bomb is raising concerns that the
threat from the Islamic State has dramatically expanded, and it points to the potentially
deadly role of insurgents around the world who have allied themselves with the militant
group.
SK/UP3-21.02) Ellen Nakashima, THE WASHINGTON POST, November 8,
2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. On Saturday, the Islamic State's affiliate in Sinai,
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for downing the jet. Its brief statement said
that "Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to down a Russian airplane over Sinai
province," according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
SK/UP3-21.03) Ellen Nakashima, THE WASHINGTON POST, November 8,
2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. The apparent ability of the group to smuggle a bomb
on board a plane loaded with tourists is disturbing to U.S. security officials, who had
comforted themselves with the idea that the Islamic State appeared focused on
establishing its caliphate and was so far unwilling or unable to strike outside its
immediate area of operations. "This is the most significant terrorist-related airline
incident since 9/11," Hoffman [terrorism expert, Georgetown U.] said. "So the
repercussions for this have to be quite profound."
B. CURTAILING TSA SURVEILLANCE WOULD BE CATASTROPHIC
1. TSA SURVEILLANCE IS VITAL
SK/UP3-21.04) Jessica Mendoza, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
November 16, 2015, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Another, broader issue officials face is
the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) reliance on airport operators to vet
aviation workers - a matter that drew attention following the crash of a Russian charter
plane over the Sinai peninsula late last month. Concerns that a bomb may have brought
down the plane, and that attackers could have taken advantage of security gaps at the
Sharm el-Shiekh airport to get an explosive device aboard, led US national security
officials to scrutinize the airport security process here. The nation's 450 airports use
contractors from the TSA, which oversees travel security in the US, to check employees'
names against terrorism databases, and review their immigration status and criminal
histories.
SK/UP3-21.05) USA TODAY, November 13, 2015, p. 7A, LexisNexis
Academic. As individuals are becoming self-radicalized in ways that are virtually
impossible to monitor, preventing terrorism by an insider takes constant vigilance. A
worker who passes background checks today could be drawn to join the Islamic State
days or months later. Initial vetting is only the beginning. It's a shame this kind of
scrutiny is necessary, but the crash in Egypt suggests that the biggest terrorist threat to
jetliners these days isn't necessarily from passengers trying to board them.
2. TSA NEEDS GREATER SURVEILLANCE, NOT LESS
SK/UP3-21.06) USA TODAY, November 13, 2015, p. 7A, LexisNexis
Academic. While the TSA checks applicants against the government's consolidated
terrorist watchlist, these applicants are not automatically checked against a broader
database that a few years ago contained about 550,000 names of people with potential
links to terrorism. The TSA doesn't have automatic access to it, creating a weakness in
the vetting program. This particular database, known as TIDE, is important because it
contains raw data, sometimes uncorroborated, that might provide the first hint of a
terrorism connection. Remember the "underwear bomber" who attempted to blow up a
Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day of 2009? The Nigerian man had been added to
TIDE after his father tipped U.S. authorities to his son's radicalization. But he was not on
a watch list.
SK/UP3-21.07) USA TODAY, November 13, 2015, p. 7A, LexisNexis
Academic. TSA needs easy and complete access to TIDE, closing a hole that the agency
itself has sought to close since last year. While preliminary data in the TIDE listings
shouldn't disqualify a job applicant, the TSA at least ought to be aware of any potential
red flags.
3. PUBLIC SAFETY DEMANDS 100% EFFICACY
SK/UP3-21.08) Priscilla Alvarez, NATIONALJOURNAL.COM, June 16, 2015,
pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Terrorists only
have to be right once. To defend ourselves, we have to be right 100 percent of the time.
Millions of travelers pass through our nation's airports every year, and we need to know
the systems in place will protect them," said Republican Rep. Michael McCaul during a
hearing Tuesday.