By Craig Whitlock, Friday, January 27, 5:57 PM

The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.

In response to requests from the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.

via Pentagon wants commando “mothership” – The Washington Post.

A group of Syria’s opposition “Free Army” has released a video showing what it was said were seven Iranians, including five members of the Revolutionary Guards, captured in the city of Homs.

The video showed travel documents of the captives, some of whom appeared to be speaking Farsi.

“I am Sajjad Amirian, a member the Revolutionary Guards of the Iranian armed forces. I am a member of the team in charge of cracking down on protesters in Syria and we receive our orders directly from the security division of the Syrian air force in Homs,” one of the captives said.

“I urge Mr. Khamenei to work on securing our release and return to our homes,” he added.

The armed Syrian opposition group, which called itself the “al-Farouq brigade of the Free Syrian Army,” also released a statement calling for Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamanei to “acknowledge in explicit and unambiguous words the existence of elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria in order to help the Assad’s regime in its crackdown on the Syrian people.”

The group also urged Khamanei to withdraw all Revolutionary Guard fighters from Syria, pledging that that it would then release all captive Iranian fighters.

The group said five of those abducted were military men working with the Syrian air force intelligence and two showed “civilian status” as employees in a power plant in Homs.

It added that all the seven captives entered Syria during the uprising and passports of the five military men did not contain visas, adding that it would soon release the two Iranians with civilian status.

via Free Syrian Army shows video of alleged Iranian fighters abducted in Homs.

They were known as Miller’s Boys, police officers who worked the 4-to-midnight shift, patrolling the largely working-class town of East Haven, Conn., including the small but growing Hispanic community that has spread out in recent years from New Haven.

The officers were more than well known in that community; according to residents and federal authorities, they were feared. They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior.

They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having “drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.”

And after it became known that the Justice Department was investigating the department, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, a picture of a rat appeared on a police union bulletin board, and in the locker room, an ominous note: “You know what we do with snitches?”

On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Sgt. John Miller and three of his officers — David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo — on charges of conspiracy, false arrest, excessive force and obstruction of justice over what the indictment described as years of mistreatment of individuals, especially Hispanics, and efforts to cover it up.

Following on the heels of a scathing Justice Department report in December that found the East Haven police had engaged in widespread “biased policing, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and the use of excessive force,” the indictment portrayed a harrowing picture of arbitrary justice for Hispanic residents.

“There is no place for excessive force in a police station or on the streets,” David B. Fein, the United States attorney for Connecticut, said in a news conference on Tuesday. “There is no place for false statements in police reports.”

“No person is above the law, and nobody — even a person arrested for a crime — is beneath its protection,” he added, saying there could be more arrests.

Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the F.B.I. office in New York, called the officers “a cancerous cadre that routinely deprived East Haven residents of their civil rights.”

The misconduct, according to prosecutors, reached to the highest ranks of the department and the police union. A high-ranking officer described as “Co-Conspirator No.1” — apparently the police chief, Leonard Gallo — made several calls to the supervisor of the priest, the Rev. James Manship of St. Rose of Lima Church, asking that he be moved out of his parish, the indictment said. The same commander also barred members of East Haven’s police commission, a supervisory body that was trying to investigate the complaints, from entering the department without his permission, but later rescinded the order.

Police union leaders also inquired about hiring a private investigator to follow the priest, the indictment said, though it was not clear if they followed through.

Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. of East Haven, who served from 1997 to 2007 and was then returned to office in 2011, said he stood by the police force. When he took office again, Mr. Maturo reinstated Chief Gallo, who had been put on paid leave by the previous mayor after the Justice Department began its investigation.

“I’m still very surprised, and it’s a sickening feeling to have your officers arrested, but nevertheless they’re innocent until proven guilty,” Mr. Maturo said.

As for larger problems in the department, he said, “I have confidence in all the men and women of our East Haven Police Department, from top to bottom.”

Each officer was charged with conspiracy against rights, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, and at least one other charge. Officers Spaulding and Cari were charged with the most serious count, obstruction, which carries a maximum of 20 years.

All four pleaded not guilty in Federal District Court in Bridgeport on Tuesday afternoon, while about two dozen friends, family and fellow union members and police officers looked on. All were released on bail except for Officer Zullo, whose paperwork had not yet been completed.

Donald Cretella, a lawyer for Sergeant Miller, said the sergeant would be vindicated. “Nothing in the indictment is a surprise to us,” Mr. Cretella said, “and it doesn’t appear that Sergeant Miller did anything illegal. He’s a 16-year veteran police officer. He’s been decorated, he’s a wonderful officer, and hopefully we’ll address all this, and he can get on with his life.”

Chief Gallo did not respond to a request for comment.

Fred Brow, chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners, would not comment on any particular officer, but said he had no quarrel with the overall picture the indictment and the December report painted of the department and its dealings with Hispanic residents. And he said it was irresponsible for the mayor to have returned Chief Gallo to his job.

“It appears that there was just a total lack of leadership and supervision, and that has to start at the top,” he said.

The New Haven area has long been a place where immigration issues have played out in public life. New Haven has been welcoming of Hispanic residents, but some other communities have been less so. The area’s immigrant community has been centered in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, and now reaches over the border into East Haven.

The issue gained particular visibility in February 2009, when Father Manship began investigating accusations by his parishioners of harassment and abuse by the East Haven police. His clash with the police — he was arrested and accused of disorderly conduct while videotaping officers, but the local prosecutor dropped the case — led to a class-action lawsuit against East Haven by Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, as well as the investigations by the Justice Department.

The accusations against the officers center on their conduct at or outside businesses frequented by Hispanics like Los Amigos grocery, La Bamba restaurant and bar and My Country Store, and their treatment of suspects in custody.

Sergeant Miller, who is also president of the department’s police union, is accused of assaulting a suspect being restrained by two officers and then reprimanding one of them for reporting it. When another officer used excessive force in his presence, he took no action to investigate, reprimand or discipline the officer, the indictment said.

Outside Guti’z Bakery on Main Street, a customer, Mayra Mendoza, said she had seen police officers sitting in a parking lot across the street, watching customers come and go from the bakery, taking down license plate numbers. “They wanted to cause problems,” said Ms. Mendoza, who lives in East Haven. She said the police needed “to respect Spanish people more.”

“We come here to work and have a family. We pay taxes, we pay mortgages,” she added. “This is our city. I’m a citizen here; my kids are citizens here.”

Father Manship said he was grateful the United States attorney’s office took the complaints so seriously. Still, he said, “It’s not a happy day.”

via East Haven, Conn., Police Officers Accused of Mistreating Latinos – NYTimes.com.

Sgt Frank Wuterich pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty

A US marine who admitted charges linked to the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2005 should face no time in detention, a judge has recommended.

The decision by the judge at Camp Pendleton, California, must be approved by the commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command.

Sgt Frank Wuterich faced a maximum of three months after admitting dereliction of duty in a plea deal.

He was one of eight marines charged over the killings at Haditha.

The charges against six were dropped or dismissed, and one was acquitted.

Military judge Lt Col David Jones said his hands had been tied by the terms of the plea agreement. However, he said he would recommend that Wuterich’s rank be reduced to private.

The judge said he had decided not to dock the marine’s pay because Wuterich is divorced with sole custody of his three young children.

Prosecutors had asked that Wuterich receive the maximum sentence of three months confinement, reduction in rank and forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay.

‘Horrific result’

Wuterich’s guilty plea ended the trial at Camp Pendleton nearly seven years after the killings.

Prosecutors had argued that on the day of the killings Wuterich lost control after seeing a friend blown apart by a bomb, before leading the soldiers under his command on a rampage.

They said his decision to send his squad to attack nearby homes went against his training.

“That is a horrific result from that derelict order of shooting first, ask questions later,” Lt Col Sean Sullivan told the court.

Among the dead were women, children and elderly people, including a man in a wheelchair.

via BBC News – US marine in Haditha case ‘should serve no time’.

By afp

SANA’A

Al-Qaeda fighters agreed on Tuesday to withdraw from the central Yemeni city of Rada, which they seized a week ago, a military source said.

“Tribal mediation carried out by Sheikh Hashed Fadhl al-Qawsi succeeded, after three days of talks, to convince the armed Al-Qaeda men to leave Rada,” a senior official told AFP.

“Members of Al-Qaeda began evacuating public buildings that they had occupied” after taking the town on Jan. 16, the source said.

“They are leaving the location without resistance,” he added.

A local dignitary, Ahmed Kalaz, confirmed the exit of Islamist fighters he described as close to Tarek al-Dahab, the brother-in-law of the Yemeni-American militant, Anwar al-Awlaqi, killed by a US strike last September.

via Al-Qaeda fighters agree to pull out of Yemen’s Rada ‘without resistance’.

The police foiled fresh attacks in the northern city of Kano on Monday, discovering 10 bomb-laden cars and hundreds of other unexploded devices from a wave of deadly violence last week. The attacks on Friday, claimed by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, killed at least 184 people and stoked fears of civil war. On Monday, the police said they had found large numbers of explosive devices, including 10 cars packed with bombs, and about 300 drink cans, eight powdered milk cans and eight 350-kilogram drums loaded with explosives. They also said that in the attacks on Friday, which mainly targeted police buildings, five of the assailants were suicide bombers.

via Nigeria – Toll Rises and New Attacks Are Foiled in City – NYTimes.com.

The French Senate has approved a controversial bill that makes it a criminal offence to deny that genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians during World War I.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman empire split. Turkey rejects the term genocide and says the number was much smaller.

The measure will now be sent to President Sarkozy for final approval.

The bill’s passage in the lower house caused major tensions with Turkey.

Ankara froze ties with France after the vote last month and promised further measures if the Senate backed the proposal.

In the event the Senate approved the bill by 127 votes to 86.

The BBC’s correspondent in Istanbul, Jonathan Head, says stronger Turkish measures could include the withdrawal of ambassadors and creating more barriers to French businesses in Turkey.

In the first reaction from Ankara, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin condemned the bill.

“The decision made by the Senate is a great injustice and shows total lack of respect for Turkey,” he told the CNN-Turk television channel.

The Turkish embassy in Paris warned that if President Sarkozy approved the bill, the damage done to relations between the two countries would be permanent.

“France is in the process of losing a strategic partner,” Turkish embassy spokesman, Engin Solakoglu, told AFP news agency.

Armenia described the vote as “historic”.

“This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights worldwide,” said Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, in a statement carried by AFP.

via BBC News – French Senate passes Armenian genocide law.

By Associated Press,

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

The GPS device helped authorities link Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction.

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said that the government’s installation of a GPS device, and its use to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a search, meaning that a warrant is required.

“By attaching the device to the Jeep” that Jones was using, “officers encroached on a protected area,” Scalia wrote.

All nine justices agreed that the placement of the GPS on the Jeep violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Scalia wrote the main opinion of three in the case. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor also wrote one of the two concurring opinions that agreed with the outcome in the Jones case for different reasons.

Justice Samuel Alito also wrote a concurring opinion in which he said the court should have gone further and dealt with GPS tracking of wireless devices, like mobile phones. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

A federal appeals court in Washington had overturned Jones’s drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.

The case is U.S. v. Jones, 10-1259.

via Supreme Court says search warrants needed when police use GPS devices to track suspects – The Washington Post.

The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran’s nuclear development program.

In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an oil exporting route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran should cut off oil to the EU immediately.

That might hurt Greece, Italy and other ailing economies which depend heavily on Iranian crude and, as a result, won as part of the EU agreement a grace period until July 1 before the embargo takes full effect.

Under the deal, EU governments will have to stop signing new contracts with Tehran from the moment the ban comes into place — probably as soon as this week — but will be able to fulfill existing contracts until July 1.

The United States, France, Britain and Germany accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb, but Tehran says its nuclear drive is peaceful.

via EU bans Iranian oil, Tehran responds with threats.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated at 9:10 a.m. ET: At least three people were killed as storms swept through Jefferson County near Birmingham, Ala., officials reported.

Two people were killed in Center Point and one in Oak Grove, said Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency spokesman Mark Kelly said.

A storm system produced a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove, Graysville, Fultondale, Center Point, Clay and Trussville.

“Center Point was hit pretty badly,” Kelly said.

“We have major, major damage,” said Bob Ammons, another Jefferson County EMA official, speaking of Center Point, Trussville and some unincorporated areas of the county.

“Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes,” added Yasamie Richardsond, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

In Clanton, about 50 miles south of Birmingham, rescuers were responding to reports of a trailer turned over with people trapped, City Clerk Debbie Orange said.

via U.S. News – 3 people killed as storms sweep through Alabama.