Monday, May 13th, 2013 — Good Morning, Stay Safe

NOTE: I'll be taking a week off from the newsletter and will be down in Washington, D.C. Be back next Monday, May 20th. Have a great week. - Mike

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Former Police Commissioner, Convicted Felon, Skell and Embarrassment Bernard Kerik

Kerik's coming home

By CINDY ADAMS — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Post'

Bernard Kerik, NYC's former police commissioner, USA's former Homeland Security Chief nominee, Cumberland, Md.'s current federal prison camp inmate, is home in two weeks.

Indicted for ethics violations. Sentenced to four years in Feb '10. He's out May 28, 9 a.m. He'll have served three years 11 days.

No airplane. No big-time fuss. Friends are driving him the five hours home.

May 23's original release date would've mandated time in a Newark halfway house. An updated 28th date is straight to Franklin Lakes, where he lives.

Prison eats not being exactly Le Cirque, soon-to-be ex-inmate No. 84888-054's waist has slimmed from 36 to 33. And he already ordered his first meal. Takeout from nearby pal Al's catering service The Brownstone: fresh mozzarella, shrimp scampi, beefsteak, rice balls and brownies.

Awaiting him is his wife of 15 years, Hala, plus age 10 and 13 daughters who hope "to take off from school that day." Celine sings well and, although never having auditioned for anything, hopes for show business. Animal lover Angelina wants to be a vet or an attorney.

Also waiting is 5-year-old Ducchess. A 98-pound German shepherd. Says Hala: "Once she smells him, she'll go crazy."

Friends who attended his going-away farewell dinner that May night remained in touch — even visiting in jail. When e-mail wasn't reliable or ran out of minutes, Bernie's handwritten communication was lined paper from yellow legal pads.

Some were simple two lines: "Just to let you know I'm thinking of you and I miss you." Or: "Taking one day at a time . . . seeing the family this weekend and can't wait. Visits break up the time . . . Worst is boredom. Days seem to drag on . . ."

Others were longer. "Hala tries to stay strong publicly but is disappointed by many friends that disappeared. Times like these teach you about life and people in general. Worrying about me here, bills, our financial worries, health issues, the future, the kids, and the devastating death of her sister's husband who was 48, she's stressed nearly beyond her tipping point.

"It's like the world is imploding. The worst is missing her and the girls. It's been a rough year for them. Seems more than we can bear . . ."

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NYPD Stop, ~~Question~~ and ~~Frisk~~ Search

What Racial Profiling? Police Testify Complaint Is Rarely Made

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Times'

He had naturally heard the accusations of racial profiling, from civil rights organizations and some politicians. But in more than a decade as the top chief in the New York Police Department, Joseph J. Esposito said he never once heard a private citizen complain about a racially motivated stop-and-frisk encounter.

"I have not had anyone come and tell me, 'I was stopped because I was a person of color,' " Mr. Esposito recently testified in the continuing stop-and-frisk trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

This seemed to catch the judge by surprise, especially when Mr. Esposito went one step further: no local community group or tenant association had ever made a racial profiling allegation to him.

"Not a single stop?" Judge Shira A. Scheindlin asked. "Our kids are being stopped. You've never heard that from any community group?"

But over the course of the trial, which began in March, that claim has been repeated by other police commanders, leading city lawyers to suggest that racial profiling is largely a fiction created by the civil rights lawyers who brought the case.

The plaintiffs who brought the suit, however, have argued that this testimony suggests that the New York Police Department is being willfully ignorant of the potential for racial bias, and that even when citizens do complain about their experiences of being stopped, the department refuses to consider the possibility of a pattern of race-based stops.

On Tuesday, for instance, a plaintiffs' lawyer observed that police paperwork reported that one person stopped had exclaimed, "Why don't you stop other people?"

"Did this raise any flags with you that these remarks might constitute an allegation of racial profiling?" the lawyer, Kasey Martini, asked. The officer who conducted that stop was among the four officers with the highest stop activity in the entire city: over one three-month period in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, he performed 134 stops, 95.5 percent of which involved blacks and Hispanics.

"No," the lieutenant, Charlton Telford, who supervised the officer responded. "Because it stated the demeanor of the person being stopped is angry. I don't know why he was angry."

"You know that even if a person does not specifically say that he or she believes she was stopped based on race, that race could have been a motivating factor in the incident, right?" a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jenn Borchetta, asked a high-ranking police official.

"I guess," responded Deputy Commissioner Julie L. Schwartz, an internal police prosecutor responsible for seeking discipline for misconduct by police officers. "A lot of other things could be motivating factors."

When Mr. Esposito testified last month, the lead city lawyer, Heidi Grossman, asked him, "How do you know that racial profiling is not happening, in your view, in the Police Department?"

"Well, we don't get complaints about it," he answered. (In fact, a police inspector later testified that Mr. Esposito's office receives about 30 complaints from the public involving race each year, which are labeled under a broad category of "general dissatisfaction.")

Inspector Kenneth Lehr, the commanding officer of the 67th Precinct, which covers East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and encompasses a Caribbean-American community, said that in his interactions with the community, "racial profiling has not come up."

"Someone hasn't come up to me and said, 'Hey, you know what? The cops in the 67, they stopped me because they're profiling,' " he said.

Inspector Lehr did acknowledge that citizens had complained about being stopped. But the nature of the complaints, he testified, was along the lines of "I was stopped for no reason or, you know, the officer didn't explain why I was being stopped and, you know, those types of scenarios."

"They haven't said, 'This officer stopped me because of a race issue,' " he said.

About 88 percent of stop-and-frisk encounters involve a black or Hispanic person, which the Police Department says reflects the neighborhoods where stops occur as well as the racial demographics of suspects for crimes.

But a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Gretchen Hoff Varner, suggested that Inspector Lehr was ignoring the obvious: "Has the person complaining about the stop been African-American or black?"

"Yes," Inspector Lehr said.

The plaintiffs' lawyers hope the judge finds significance in such moments.

They seek to prove not only that a pattern of race-based stops exist, but that department supervisors have acted with "deliberate indifference, the legal term for burying your head in the sand," Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the organization which brought the lawsuit, said in an interview.

Judge Scheindlin, who is deciding the case, seems most interested in the testimony on this topic from precinct commanders and higher-ranking officials in the department.

Whenever a commander claims to have never received a racial profiling complaint, Judge Scheindlin rarely misses an opportunity to follow up with more questions on the topic.

But it is hard to gauge whether the judge is skeptical of the commanders' veracity or finds their claims convincing and wants to make sure she is not missing anything.

"My community is a vocal, intelligent, educated community," a recently retired Bronx precinct commander, Charles Ortiz, (Deputy Insp. 43 Pct. - Mike) testified at one point.

"If there were issues about racial profiling and unlawful stops, I would know that from my community meetings."

He noted that he had an "open-door policy" with members of the community, adding, "my phone rings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — you can ask my family — with people from the community."

Judge Scheindlin wanted to make sure that she had heard the commander correctly.

"Let me make sure I understand," she said, asking Mr. Ortiz to list the communities in the 43rd Precinct.

After Mr. Ortiz obliged, the judge asked: "With all those communities, you never heard anybody complain to you about bad stops or racial profiling?"

Mr. Ortiz acknowledged that he has heard complaints about stops.

"But it's not about the legality of the stop. It's how the officers, when they stop them, how the residents feel when they walk away."

She asked again: "Did anybody ever complain about racial profiling?"

"No, ma'am," Mr. Ortiz said.

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Civil rights advocates seek to sway young voters to vote for mayoral candidates who oppose stop-and-frisk
The NYCLU and other advocacy groups are registering young voters in neighborhoods with high rates of police street interrogations

By Simone Weichselbaum — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Daily News'

The stop-and-frisk movement is banking on Brooklyn and the Bronx to sway the race for mayor to the left.

Armed with voter-registration forms, civil rights advocates are visiting neighborhoods with high counts of police street interrogations, reasoning that young people will help elect a candidate who will revamp the controversial NYPD practice.

"We want a mayor who is going to pursue criminal justice policies that are not just about solving crimes or stopping crimes," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman.

NYCLU is part of Communities United for Police Reform, a patchwork of about a dozen nonprofits leading the sign-up-to-vote drive across the city.

Volunteers poured into 13 neighborhoods across the city since they kicked off their campaign last week.

About 1,000 new voters have already been signed up.

"Stop-and-frisk is a critical issue in the mayoral election," Lieberman said.

Kings County led the city in NYPD street stops in 2011, police data showed. And a NYCLU analysis said the central Bronx — where cops patted people down 80% of the time — had the highest frisk rate in 2011.

Meanwhile, 14- to 24-year-olds were involved in 49% of police stops citywide that year.

Despite the daily complaints of police harassment from teens and twenty-somethings, political experts said the young rarely vote — even during an election cycle in which the issues that affect them could be the focus.

Voters under the age of 30 made up 4% of the ballots cast when Mayor Bloomberg snagged his third term in 2009, according to an estimate by the New York City Campaign Finance Board.

"There is no question that young people vote less frequently than older voters," said NYCCFB spokesman Matt Sollars.

The only mayoral hopeful to call for an end to the controversial NYPD practice has been City Controller John Liu. During a candidates debate Thursday at a Harlem church, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio called it a "broken policy."

Others have been less critical, but have called for reforms ranging from increased city oversight to upping the number of veteran cops in areas where stops have been most common.

"The issue of stop-and-frisk is immensely complicated, but the politics of it are very straightforward," said Michael Tobman, a city-based campaign consultant.

Because of the number of candidates vying to run City Hall, relatively few votes could influence the outcome of the Democratic primary, which is only four months away, Tobman said.

Still, the challenge will be convincing black and Latino men under the age of 30, from the city's stop-and-frisk hotzones, to vote in the next election.

"The youth don't care about politics. They are just looking about how to get their next dollar," said Antonio Avera, 24, a fashion designer from Brownsville.

"The only people who care are our grandmothers."

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114 Minutes With Jumaane Williams
The city councilman spends a day at the stop-and-frisk trial.

By Jennifer Gonnerman — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'New York Magazine' / New York, NY

O n a recent Monday morning, 37-year-old City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams drives from Brooklyn into Manhattan, his radio blasting Jadakiss, and slides his BMW into a parking space near City Hall. A few blocks away, the trial of Floyd et al. v. City of New York—the lawsuit challenging the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policies—is about to kick off another week of testimony. "This is 2013. It's not like 1963," Williams says, walking toward the federal courthouse in a black corduroy jacket, dreadlocks tied back. "It's crazy. I don't understand why we have to argue in court that you shouldn't profile people simply by how they look."

A Department of Correction van rolls up, and the officer in the driver's seat leans out. "Keep up the good work, man!" he hollers, flashing a peace sign.

"Thank you, brother," Williams says. "I appreciate it."

"There's a lot of us out there with you!" the driver shouts before speeding off.

Williams turns toward the courthouse and says, "I have no idea who he is."

Since winning his seat in 2009, Williams has become one of the most vocal critics of the NYPD, arguing that the police have been overly aggressive in stopping and searching innocent people. (Officers made a record 685,724 street stops in 2011 and another 532,911 stops in 2012.) Williams has been pushing a bill he co-wrote with Councilman Brad Lander to create an independent inspector general for the NYPD.

In recent weeks, Williams, who happens to be the only member of the City Council with Tourette's, has watched his profession get battered in the press. He won't talk about specific politicians—not State Senator Malcolm Smith nor fellow councilman Dan Halloran nor anyone else. But he will say, "Power and money make people act unscrupulously—and that transcends politics."

Shortly before 9:30 a.m., he enters the hallway outside Courtroom 15C only to encounter a security officer who informs him that every seat is already filled. "What time do you have to get here?" Williams says, shaking his head. "Goddamn it!"

He rides back down the elevator and walks to another courthouse. When he steps into the overflow room, he spots a 17-year-old with tattoos covering both arms. "There's Aboti!" Williams shouts, hurrying over to give him a hug. Kasiem Aboti Walters belongs to Williams's church and works with a youth group supported by his office. When Williams takes a seat in the fourth row, the teen sits beside him.

By way of introduction, Williams says, "He learned a good lesson about having I.D. last year."

As Walters tells it, two police officers stopped him on his way to Tilden Educational Campus one weekend afternoon. He recalls, "They said there had been a robbery in the area." Walters had just come from a shoot for a music video he was making about the police, and his bag held the props: ski mask and handcuffs. After peering inside the bag, the cops detained him for about three hours—until he thought to mention that he knew Councilman Williams. "Other than that, I don't know when I would've gotten out," he says.

Williams, whose district includes Flatbush and East Flatbush, can relate. During the West Indian Day parade in 2011, he and another city official entered a sidewalk on Eastern Parkway cordoned off to the public, only to have cops snap handcuffs on them. (They were trying to get to an event at the Brooklyn Museum and had received permission from other officers to walk there.) The NYPD later explained that the police never actually arrested them. "I don't know the definition of arrest," Williams says, "if I'm cuffed and I can't leave."

At 10 a.m., Judge Shira A. Scheindlin appears on the screen, along with this morning's witness: State Senator Eric Adams, a 22-year NYPD veteran and frequent NYPD critic. Williams scoots forward, draping his arms over the wooden bench in front of him, eyes fixed on the screen.

Fifty or so people now fill the rows, and everyone watches the trial silently—everyone except Williams. His body hops in place; his back slams against the bench so hard that the vibrations ricochet down the row. Watching him is a jarring sight, but Williams appears unfazed. Later, he explains that he rarely thinks about his Tourette's anymore—except when he glimpses himself on TV, and then he'll say to himself, "Damn, that's distracting."

His tics subside partway through Adams's testimony. When the judge and a city lawyer dance around the question of how effective the NYPD's use of stop and frisk is in reducing crime, Williams gets fired up, turning to me and whispering: "You should stop, question, and frisk bankers coming out of Wall Street and go through their briefcases to see where the next financial crime is going to be! That would be more effective."

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Brooklyn North Homi: Alleged Flaking and Allegations of Flawed Investigative Practices

Scrutiny on Prosecutors After Questions About Brooklyn Detective's Work

By FRANCES ROBLES — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Times'

As the Brooklyn district attorney's office pledged a complete review of about 50 murder cases after questions arose regarding the conduct of the detective assigned to them, renewed scrutiny has also focused on the role prosecutors play in what turn out to be wrongful convictions, and whether they should be held responsible when justice goes awry.

Prosecutors working for the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, recently found that flawed police work by the detective, Louis Scarcella, and a partner led to the conviction of a man in the 1990 killing of a Brooklyn rabbi. A judge recently ordered the release of the man, David Ranta, after he spent 23 years in prison for the rabbi's murder.

On Sunday, Jeffrey Deskovic, who served 16 years behind bars for the rape and murder of a woman in Westchester County that he did not commit, vowed that a foundation he established would conduct its own review of Mr. Scarcella's work, to find out if anyone else had been wrongfully convicted.

"Considering that Scarcella was working in tandem with the prosecutors, relying on the D.A. to do the investigation is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse, particularly when exposing the cases would mean exposing prosecutorial complicity," Mr. Deskovic said.

At least two protests have been planned this week against Mr. Hynes, who is in the midst of a primary campaign for a seventh term. On Tuesday, relatives and friends of inmates seeking to have their convictions overturned are planning a rally outside CBS to protest its decision to offer Mr. Hynes a reality TV show. Another protest is scheduled for Thursday outside Mr. Hynes's office on Jay Street in Brooklyn.

The attention to Mr. Hynes underscores a growing public awareness of wrongful convictions and the culpability of prosecutors.

In March, when Mr. Ranta was freed, Mr. Hynes's office acknowledged problems with the prosecution.

The mistakes were largely pinned on Mr. Scarcella, who according to an inquiry by Mr. Hynes's office let informants out of jail to visit prostitutes, often had no notes to back up his interviews and told a witness to pick Mr. Ranta out of a lineup. Mr. Scarcella, who retired in 1999, has denied any wrongdoing.

A review by The New York Times showed that the detective played a key role in other questionable convictions. Inmates said he made up confessions, and Mr. Scarcella acknowledged having used the same crack-addicted prostitute as an eyewitness on at least six different occasions.

Legal experts say the office is playing the role of a champion against injustice after spending decades defending weak cases under Mr. Hynes and his predecessor, Elizabeth Holtzman.

"The disturbing thing is the way they are making this look like a rogue detective, when a lot of detectives in the late '80s and '90s were operating that way," said Joel Rudin, a lawyer who sued the city on behalf of Jabbar Collins, a man exonerated after serving 16 years for a Brooklyn murder. Prosecutors "knew what was going on and took advantage of it to get convictions."

A New York State Bar Association study of 53 exonerations concluded that more than half the wrongful convictions it reviewed were the result of "government practices," including prosecutorial misconduct. That 2009 study found no public disciplinary steps against prosecutors, Mr. Rudin noted.

Last month, ProPublica, an independent investigative news organization, reported that its analysis of 10 years of state and federal court rulings in New York found more than 24 instances in which judges found prosecutorial misconduct. The analysis showed that while the cases were thrown out, only once was a prosecutor disbarred, censured or suspended.

Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for Mr. Hynes, said the statute of limitations would prevent criminal charges from being filed against Mr. Scarcella or anyone else responsible for a faulty verdict in his cases. (Prosecutors could face disciplinary charges before an appellate court grievance committee and judges could be brought before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.)

"Our first responsibility is to determine if there are any innocent people in jail," Mr. Schmetterer said on Sunday. "In the event there are, we will seek to drop charges and determine what went wrong to ensure there is no reoccurrence."

Mr. Deskovic, who set up the foundation that bears his name after his release in 2006, said his office had a backlog of some 800 requests from inmates. He added that as a first step in his inquiry on Mr. Scarcella, his staff would try to determine how many of the requests, if any, stem from Mr. Scarcella's cases.

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Ray of light for cons jailed in slays after work by retired NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella comes under cloud
Brooklyn DA to reopen about 50 murder cases after conviction of David Ranta is tossed amid charges of coercing suspects and witnesses

By Simone Weichselbaum , Vera Chinese AND Barry Paddock — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Daily News'

Now that every murder conviction linked to a retired NYPD detective will be reexamined, men he put behind bars are hoping their names will at last be cleared.

About 50 cases that Detective Louis Scarcella worked will be reopened by the Brooklyn district attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit in the wake of a judge's decision to toss David Ranta's conviction two months ago.

Ranta served more than two decades in prison in the killing of a Brooklyn rabbi before Scarcella's shoddy police work came to light. One witness, only 13 at the time of the investigation, claimed Scarcella coached him to pick Ranta out of a lineup.

Ranta, 58, was not the first man freed because of questions about the integrity of Scarcella's work.

"It's despicable, in this time and age, for people who are innocent to still be sitting in jail," said Derrick Hamilton, who was paroled in 2011 after the Daily News reported Scarcella's only witness had recanted her claim that Hamilton killed her boyfriend.

Hamilton, 47, is still fighting to get a judge to officially clear his name.

"Now that it's revealed that Scarcella is who he is and his real character is coming out, I'm hopeful," Hamilton said.

When Scarcella arrested him, the detective made a shocking admission, according to Hamilton.

"He told me, 'I know you didn't commit this murder, but I don't care,' " he said.

Hamilton, who had previously done six years in prison on a manslaughter rap, says Scarcella told him he was being pinned for the new case because he didn't do enough time for the old one.

Scarcella, 61, decline to comment as he entered his Staten Island home Sunday.

"I'm sorry I can't speak to you," he said. "Enjoy Mother's Day."

A spokesman confirmed Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was reviewing about 50 cases tied to Scarcella, but declined to comment further.

In a 1985 murder Scarcella investigated, Alvena Jennette, 49, was convicted with his brother Darryl Austin. Jennette was released in 2007, but his brother died in prison.

The only witness to their crime was drug addict Teresa Gomez.

Gomez claimed in court to have also seen two separate murders by Jennette's stepbrother, Robert Hill, who was acquitted of the first and convicted of the second murder. He remains in prison.

Gomez testified in court in other murder cases Scarcella investigated, The New York Times reported, and may have been rewarded for her cooperation.

"How is it possible a detective could use a witness in that many murder trials without any red flags being raised?" Jennette asked.

Because he is out of prison, Jennette's case will likely be a lower priority for review.

"I still have a murder conviction," said Jennette, a construction worker. "Do you know how hard it is to find a job?"

Lawyer Ron Kuby is representing another man Scarcella helped put away, Shakaba Shakur, 48, who is 26 years into a 40-years-to-life murder sentence.

Kuby says Shakur's confession, which his client denies ever making, parallels Ranta's questionable confession.

Scarcella somehow managed to get admissions — which were not witnessed, recorded or written.

"You'd think after two or three or five of these magical confessions, some judge somewhere would say, 'Hmm . . . ' " Kuby said.

Kuby acknowledges not all of the people Scarcella arrested can be innocent.

"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then," he said.

With Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Erin Durkin

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Shady Past Of NYPD Detective Prompts Review Of 50 Murder Cases

By Christopher Robbins — Sunday, May 12th, 2013; 11:15 a.m. 'The Gothamist' / New York, NY

The Brooklyn DA's office is currently reviewing 50 murder convictions involving retired NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella, who helped wrongfully convict a recently released man who served 23 years for a murder he didn't commit. Previously the DA's office said they had "ruled out" reviewing Scarcella's cases, but the Times seems to have forced their hand after plunging into Scarcella's shocking record and finding that the detective used the same crack addict as a witness for at least six different murders.

Teresa Gomez died in a hit and run incident several years ago, but in the late '80s she was a drug addicted prostitute who lawyers called "Louie's go-to witness." She once told Scarcella that she witnessed a fatal shooting through a keyhole, but an investigation later showed no keyhole existed. Her testimony was often incoherent and contradictory, and, as one prosecutor would later write, "It was near folly to even think that anyone would believe Gomez about anything."

When asked about Gomez, Scarcella said he couldn't remember many of the details of the cases she was involved in, but that he "stood by her 100 percent."

The Times found the former prosecutor's anecdote on a Google Groups cigar forum in which members recounted their first and last cigars. Neil Ross, who is now a Manhattan criminal court judge, waxes nostalgically about how his first real "cigar was given to me by a legendary detective of the Brooklyn North Homicide Squad named Louis Scarcella" in celebration of a conviction, and recounts many of the details that show up in the Times' report.

"Damn, do lawyers ever run on, or what?" Ross writes at the end of his yarn. When asked about Ross' comments on Gomez's unreliability, Scarcella told the paper, "That is horrible. I don't know what else to say."

Scarcella, who once appeared on Dr. Phil to boast about how he lied to witnesses to force confessions, estimates that he worked on roughly 175 homicide cases himself, and assisted in another 175 before retiring in 1999.

When told the Brooklyn DA's office was reviewing 50 of his cases, he said, "Are you kidding me? Wow. This is quite a bit of a shock. Let them look at my convictions. I will help them if they need me. I don't know what else to say. I expect he will find nothing."

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Did the NYPD's star homicide detective rig evidence to secure dozens of convictions?
Louis Scarcella's investigations are being re-examined after witnesses have recanted

By Tim Walker — Sunday, May 12th, 2013 'The Independent' / London, England

In 1991 Mr Ranta, who is now 58, was convicted of shooting dead a rabbi, Chaskel Werzberger, during a botched jewelry robbery in Brooklyn, New York. He was freed in March this year, following an investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit, which spoke again to a witness who had claimed to have seen Mr Ranta near the murder scene. Menachem Lieberman, who was 13 at the time of the murder, recanted his testimony, saying he had been coached to pick Mr Ranta from a police line-up by a homicide detective named Louis Scarcella.

With questions now being asked about the legitimacy of several more of Mr Scarcella's investigations, the Brooklyn District Attorney (DA) announced last week that its Conviction Integrity Unit would re-examine every one of the celebrated NYPD detective's murder cases that resulted in a conviction. Mr Scarcella, 61, denies ever having used unethical tactics to secure a conviction, but Mr Ranta's trial lawyer has described him as a "cowboy" who "did a lot of bad things".

Mr Scarcella joined the Brooklyn North homicide squad in 1987, in the midst of New York's crack epidemic, at a time when the city saw up to six murders a day. As the lead officer on an estimated 175 homicide investigations, he earned a reputation for solving splashy cases such as the stabbing death of a dance choreographer and the murder of a subway worker, who died after two teenagers torched a ticket booth. Mr Scarcella retired from the force in 1999, and told The New York Times this week that he was shocked by the DA's inquiry. "Let them look at my convictions," he said. "I will help them if they need me. I don't know what else to say. I expect he will find nothing."

The probe was spurred partly by a Times investigation of several Scarcella cases, which found that police had allowed convicted criminals to leave jail, smoke crack and visit prostitutes if they agreed to incriminate Mr Ranta. In another instance, a single drug-addicted prostitute acted as a crucial eyewitness to a number of homicides to which Mr Scarcella was assigned. Teresa Gomez, who later died in a hit-and-run accident, even testified against the same man twice, for two separate murders. (He was convicted of the second.)

Derrick Hamilton was convicted of murder in the same year as Ranta. But two years ago he was released, when the sole witness in his case withdrew her testimony, and more than 10 others came forward to support his alibi. Mr Hamilton, now 47, is attempting to prove he was set-up by Mr Scarcella, whom a court affidavit accuses of coercing the witness.

Martin Marshak, a defense lawyer who represented a number of people arrested by Mr Scarcella, said, "I don't want to say he manufactured witnesses, but he got people to say what he wanted them to say." Accused of delivering false confessions, Mr Scarcella agreed he had a gift for obtaining incriminating statements from difficult witnesses, but always by entirely legitimate means. "You're right," he said. "There were cases where suspects talked to one detective and they got nothing, and they called me and I got statements. A lot of guys don't know how to talk to people."

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Cops rip pols' bid to bare evidence

By LARRY CELONA and DAN MANGAN — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Post'

Cops are panicking over a proposed law that would require prosecutors to promptly turn over the names of crime witnesses to defense lawyers — a change NYPD detectives worry will hurt their ability to crack cases.

"This could jeopardize a lot of investigations, especially serious ones, like murders," a veteran detective told The Post.

That cop and others said that if the bill proposed by state Sen. Diane Savino (D-SI) passes, it will scare off witnesses to crimes because police will be unable to promise them confidentiality for at least the earlier parts of a case.

But defense lawyers and legal-defense groups say the bill is long overdue — especially in light of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes' ordering a review of 50 murder cases handled by a decorated homicide detective whose record is now in question.

Retired Detective Louis Scarcella had allegedly coached witnesses to finger David Ranta for the 1990 slaying of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in Williamsburg.

Ranta was sentenced to 37 years prison, but prosecutors got a judge to free him in March after Hynes' conviction-integrity unit found his conviction was unjust.

Defense lawyer Joe Tacopina praised the proposed bill.

"This could be the catalyst for change in New York state — a change that is long overdue," said Tacopina, a former prosecutor.

Such a change would bring New York in line with 36 states that have a "presumptive disclosure" system giving defense lawyers evidence shortly after a case is filed.

Defense lawyers say the bill will cure a grossly unfair system in which district attorneys can wait until trial to turn over witness names and police reports to a defendant's lawyers.

Earlier disclosure of such information, they say, would give defense lawyers enough time to investigate witnesses and reports, helping them to either exonerate their clients or convince them to take a plea bargain.

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'One Police Plaza'

Lhota's Brass Balls

By: Leonard Levitt – Monday, May 13th, 2013 'NYPD Confidential.Com'

(Op-Ed / Commentary)

Joe Lhota may or may not be the wildest and craziest of this year's mayoral candidates. But he does have the brassiest set of balls.

Just days after he described the Port Authority Police -— who lost 37 officers in the World Trade Center terrorist attack — as nothing more than "mall cops," his campaign, according to the Daily News, was mailing out photos of himself, posing with his former boss, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, at Ground Zero shortly after 9/ll.

Let's be clear about our feelings for Lhota, who most recently headed the state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. As a top aide to Giuliani, he was, unlike others, always professional and restrained — even when this reporter questioned whether Rudy's final destination would be the White House or a lunatic asylum.

But as one of Rudy's top aides, he didn't always give the mayor such good advice. Not many people outside Giuliani's inner circle know this, but Lhota was one of those aides who supported Bernie Kerik as police commissioner over the then Chief of Department Joe Dunne.

Dunne, saying he loved the NYPD so much he would have stayed as dogcatcher, ended up with the consolation prize of First Deputy. A year later on 9/11, while nursing a torn Achilles tendon, he, shortly after the planes struck the Twin Towers, was hobbling around Ground Zero on crutches.

Bernie ended up in a federal pen.

Next time Lhota presents his law-and-order bona fides, reporters should ask him whether he seriously believed Kerik was more qualified than Dunne or whether he wanted to score points with Rudy.

His apology notwithstanding, Lhota's disparagement of the Port Authority Police reflects Rudy's own feelings about the Port Authority during his eight years as mayor.

As early as 1994, his first year in office, Rudy wanted the NYPD to take over security at the city's airports, which are run by the Port Authority.

Former Chief of Department, Louis Anemone, a one-time Giuliani favorite, recalled last week that he was sent to a meeting with Port Authority officials and told to request a copy of a security report of the JFK airport. "I was politely refused over a cup of coffee and Rudy turned up the media hype about the Port's failings until he lost interest and focused on the Housing and Transit Police instead."

A few years later, Giuliani was back at it, calling JFK's airport security "lax."

"We remain very concerned about the situation with security at the airports," proclaimed that paragon of security expertise, Marilyn Mode, the NYPD's spokeswoman under another Giuliani favorite, Police Commissioner Howard Safir.

"We have been extremely successful in reducing crime in the city — we offered to assist them and they chose not to accept our expertise," Mode added.

Even Kerik got into the security act. Following a snowstorm that closed JFK in January 2001, and led Giuliani to criticize the Port Authority's lack of snowplows, Kerik pointed out that auto theft at JFK was up 98%, from 44 in 1999 to 87 in 2000, and that grand larceny at LaGuardia rose 17%, to 230 incidents in 2000.

"There is no reason why there should be an increase [in crime] at the airports when the city is experiencing declines year after year," said Kerik, who then threatened to sue to take over airport security.

Current police commissioner Ray Kelly, who is in many ways Rudy's mirror image, has similar feelings about the Port Authority Police. But unlike Lhota, he is too disciplined to express them publicly.

Instead, his actions speak louder than his words.

In 2002, he persuaded then New Jersey Governor James McGreevey to appoint his friend, retired NYPD Inspector Charlie De Rienzo, to head the Port Authority Police. Charlie lasted two years.

When he was told to clean out his desk, Kelly took him back as a $153,557-a-year Deputy Commissioner, creating a position as head of the NYPD's "Facilities Management Division," which oversaw Building Maintenance, Plant Management and Headquarters Custodial sections. At Police Plaza, they referred to this as Mops and Brooms.

Like Rudy, Kelly didn't give up easily when it came to the Port Authority.

In 2006, Kelly, attempted to take over security at Ground Zero, which is also run by the Port Authority Police, creating an urban version of a Mexican standoff.

Kelly stationed NYPD patrol cars round-the-clock outside the gates to the four entrances on West and Liberty Streets — supposedly to guard against terrorism. Inside the gates, guarding the building site, sat the Port Authority Police. The two agencies didn't communicate.

The struggle continues today over control of the site. This time, though, Kelly has a formidable opponent — Dunne — who was appointed last year to head to the Port Authority Police.

Lhota — who no doubt recognizes the similarities between Kelly and Giuliani — recently expressed his "respect" for Kelly. But he has hinted he would not retain him as commissioner. That's probably in part because of the long-standing feud between Kelly and Giuliani, which began when Giuliani fired Kelly when he became mayor and brought in Bill Bratton. Kelly has never forgiven either of them.

Meanwhile, the kindest words about Lhota and his "mall cops" remark came from Anemone, a victim of his own intemperance while Chief of Department, but who late in life sounds increasingly like a statesman.

"I like Joe Lhota very much. He's a competent guy," Anemone said. "There is no defending him over his boneheaded remarks. They [the Port Authority Police] lost 37 people during the 9/11 attacks, all of them running into the inferno after the planes struck. Let's not forget that. I was happy to see Joe apologized afterwards."

- -

HYNES STILL OUT THERE. Five hundred people attended the annual and elegant dinner of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives [NOBLE], who gave a public service award to, of all people, Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes.

The news about Hynes, running for re-election for yet a seventh term, keeps getting worse. As if railroading Jabbar Collins, who served 16 years for the murder of a Brooklyn rabbi that he didn't commit, wasn't bad enough, an investigation by the NY Times revealed 12 more questionable murder convictions involving retired homicide Detective Louis Scarcella. Hynes's response: his own "Conviction Integrity Unit" to reinvestigate. [Ha, ha. The joke's on anyone who takes that seriously.]

NOBLE's award for Hynes reflects his longstanding ties to black law enforcement groups, which go back at least as far as his prosecution of the white Howard Beach teenagers who chased a black kid to his death on the Belt Parkway in Queens three decades ago. Two black candidates are running against him but Hynes, closing in on 80, is proving to be a tough old bird.

Two no-shows at the dinner: former NYPD Captain and current State Senator Eric Adams, whose name has surfaced in the wide-ranging federal corruption probe of the Senate, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta Lynch, who is prosecuting many of these cases.

- -

GET LOST, MORT. Former police reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy was one of the many Daily News staffers caught in News owner Mortimer Zuckerman's latest editorial bloodletting. She was savvy, gutsy and honest, qualities that represented the best of what the News was once about. No longer.

Memo to my friend Art Brown, editor of the News's mostly insane editorial pages yet one of the best newsmen in this burg: Loyalty is not part of Zuckerman's DNA. Better start looking around.

Edited by Donald Forst

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The booze cruise is over: DWI busts soar as NYPD cracks down

By REBECCA HARSHBARGER, JESSICA SIMEONE, NATASHA VELEZ and KENNETH GARGER — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Post'

Boozed-up city drivers, who shouldn't get behind the wheel in the first place, had better watch out.

The NYPD is putting the heat on drunken drivers, making nearly 20 percent more DWI arrests so far this year compared with the same period in 2012.

The spike is being fueled by Greenwich Village's Sixth Precinct — where cops have locked up more than 170 drivers this year as of May 5. That's a more than a 100 percent increase from the same period last year, when they busted 81 drivers.

Police in the precinct have stepped up enforcement at bars and clubs, issuing summonses for overserving and underage drinking — particularly after the death of Broadway actress Shana Dowdeswell from alcohol poisoning in December. Checkpoints have also been set up to grab boozy drivers. One of the hot spots is the intersection of Houston and West streets.

Many workers in the city's vibrant night-life industry embrace the beefed-up police presence.

Hugh Packer, 33, a bouncer at Actors Playhouse in the West Village, said he and the other bar employees work closely with Sixth Precinct cops to help them nab sloshed drivers.

"If we see someone stumbling out of the bar and getting into a car, we take a picture of the license and call or text it [to the police]," Packer said. "We have a good relationship."

Luis Candellario, a bouncer at Henrietta Hudson, told The Post that he is sick of boozed-up drivers in the Village. He lost his wife and daughter to a drunken driver in Puerto Rico 15 years ago.

"They come out of all the wine bars and hop right in their cars," he said. "It's a shame. I don't get these people. They should just take cabs, but some people don't change."

If he sees a patron stumble out of the Hudson Street lounge with a set of car keys, Candellario confiscates them.

"We won't let them drive," he said.

Other precincts have had spikes in DWI arrests as well, including two in Queens: the 102nd Precinct, which includes Kew Gardens, and the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights.

Those commands have seen an increase in busts of 26 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively.

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NYPD police training assistance in Haiti to be awarded

By Unnamed Author(s) (The Associated Press) — Monday, May 13th, 2013; 6:42 a.m. EDT

The NYPD is being recognized for its role in providing police training assistance in Haiti.

The law enforcement agency will receive the first State Department Excellence in Overseas Criminal Justice Assistance Award on Monday.

It is given in recognition of its contribution to the State Department's efforts "to strengthen the rules of law and enhance U.S. diplomacy in Haiti."

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly will receive the award on behalf of the department in a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Creole-speaking NYPD officers have been training and mentoring Haitian police officers since 2010. They've been providing training in conducting investigations, anti-kidnapping strategies and general policing support.

The costs of the NYPD assistance are reimbursed by the State Department.

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NYPD Receives Award For Post-Earthquake Efforts In Haiti

By Unnamed Author(s) — Sunday, May 12th, 2013; 11:08 a.m. 'NY 1 News'

The NYPD will be honored with a first-of-its-kind award from the State Department.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will be presented with the U.S. Secretary of State's Excellence in Criminal Justice Assistance Award.

The department is being awarded for its work in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country.

Dozens of Creole-speaking officers from the city have been deployed to Haiti, helping the country's police force with investigative and anti-kidnapping strategies.

It's part of a collaboration between the NYPD and the State Department to improve criminal justice systems around the globe.

Kelly has a history with Haiti -- he led a police monitoring program there for two years in the 1990s.

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Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Post' Editorial:

Cops & bikers

Mike Bloomberg has a big problem when he starts making John Liu look mayoral.

It started when Mike went off last week, praising his signature initiative to turn city streets into a car-free haven for bicycles. "I don't think anybody would have the nerve to roll back the bicycle lanes," he said.

But the city comptroller, who has never been accused of a lack of nerve, seems eager to take Bloomberg on here. At a recent mayoral forum, Liu said bluntly that the bike lanes should never have been installed in the first place. And he's been sounding the alarm about what will happen when Bloomberg's next big plan — the bike-share program — hits the streets.

This program begins on Memorial Day. It will mean 6,000 rental bicycles dumped at hundreds of kiosks around Manhattan and Brooklyn. And that's just the start, because plans are to expand the program to 10,000 bikes in three boroughs. Considering how cyclists already flout basic traffic laws in ways that make seasoned cabbies blush, it's a scary thought.

But the biggest problem with the city's bike lanes is that the NYPD has neither the manpower nor the funding to tackle the challenge of enforcing the rules of the road when 10,000 cyclists suddenly start hitting the streets around town.

We'll have to wait for the election to see if Mike's right in predicting that his successor won't have the nerve to end the bike lanes. But for New Yorkers who every day see bikers run through traffic lights and stop signs, the one certainty is that it's not going to get better — because the city has no real way to enforce the rules of the road.

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Bright lights lure gangs to Times Square for photo shoots at TKTS booth
The violent crews are taking the pictures to promote their criminal ways on Facebook and other social media sites, cops say.

By Thomas Tracy — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Daily News'

The Great White Way has become the Great Gang Way.

Violent street crews make routine pilgrimages to the TKTS booth in Times Square, police said — but they're not grabbing discount tickets to "Cinderella."

The gang members are taking group photos on the booth's red steps to promote their criminal ways on Facebook and other social media sites, cops claim.

"They take team photos there like they are the Yankees or the Mets," explained Assistant Commissioner Kevin O'Connor of the NYPD's Juvenile Justice Division, who said the bizarre ritual is practiced by gangs across the five boroughs.

"Times Square has always been the center of the city, and kids always come down to get their picture taken. (The gangs) do the same thing. The staircase is their stage."

These Broadway-loving gang members aren't the pirouetting Jets and Sharks. Crews affiliated with the Bloods and Crips are among those coming to Broadway and W. 47th St. to take their class photo, police said.

The crews flash gang signs in many of the pictures, which have captions that read, "This isn't half of us."

O'Connor said his investigators noticed the TKTS staircase was used as a backdrop on a number of online photos posted by unaffiliated gang members during the NYPD's ongoing Operation Crew Cut, where cops track the activities of gang members through social media.

"They post the photos online to promote themselves and who they're affiliated with," O'Connor said.

But cops said these crews appear to be on their best behavior when they come to Times Square and have not engaged in violence.

Millions have flocked to the TKTS steps since they opened in 2008. On Friday, a new bride took photos on the steps in her wedding dress, and a half dozen NYU Poly graduates in their gowns.

Visitors to Times Square said a group of gang bangers would probably go unnoticed — as long as they weren't violent.

"This is New York City," said Rona Latta, 48, who was visiting from Pennsylvania. "I just saw a woman with no clothes on! Anything goes."

New Jersey resident Mike Rupp, 37, agreed.

"It's Times Square. What are you going to do, let them scare you away?" he asked.

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New York State

New York State to Ask Smartphone Makers to Help Prevent Thefts

By THOMAS KAPLAN — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Times'

Concerned about an increase in smartphone thefts, the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, is trying to get the nation's largest cellphone makers to do more to discourage the thefts.

Mr. Schneiderman will announce on Monday that he has sent letters to top executives of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung seeking information from their offices about security protections, and asking for their cooperation in working on new measures to reduce theft.

He said that he was asking the companies to meet with lawyers from his office to discuss the issue and that he was inviting company officials to work with his office to develop new antitheft measures in consultation with a mobile security company, Lookout, which is advising his office.

"This is a multibillion-dollar industry that produces some of the most popular and technologically advanced consumer electronic products in the world," Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement.

"Surely we can work together to find solutions that lead to a reduction in violent street crime targeting consumers."

The attorney general's action is the latest sign of increased attention to what some have described as a national epidemic of smartphone theft, often called "Apple picking."

Some law enforcement officials have complained that carriers and handset makers are not doing enough to combat thefts, since they can stand to profit from the sale of replacement phones.

The sale of cellphone handsets brought in $69 billion in the United States last year, according to the market research firm IDC.

The problem has been particularly acute in New York City, where the police and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that crime would have declined in 2012 had it not been for a surge of thefts of devices like iPhones and iPads.

The New York Police Department aggressively pursues cases involving the theft of Apple devices and works with Apple to track down the pilfered devices.

And nationally, the Federal Communications Commission and the wireless phone industry are forming a central database to track stolen phones and prevent them from being reused.

In the letters, sent on Friday, Mr. Schneiderman cited a number of violent confrontations in New York that centered on cellphones, including a fight over an iPhone on a Queens subway platform in February in which three people were stabbed, and the fatal shooting of a Bronx man in April 2012.

Mr. Schneiderman also referred to various marketing claims made by each company about the security features of their phones, and expressed doubts about whether the products are living up to those claims.

His office said he had jurisdiction to get involved in the matter because New York State law empowered him to enforce statutes barring deceptive trade practices.

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Boston, Massachusetts

Kerry, Boston Police to formalize cooperation agreement

By Unnamed Author(s) (New England Cable News) — Monday, May 13th, 2013; 5:40 a.m. EDT

(NECN) - Monday marks four weeks since the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 200 others.

Monday, the Boston Police Department will join a state department effort aimed at strengthening cooperation with overseas law enforcement.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis will formalize the agreement Monday.

Boston Police will send officers overseas to train their foreign counterparts and building intelligence channels aimed at tracking international crime.

Police in New York and Chicago have used the partnership to develop information on terrorism threats and drug trafficking.

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Oakland, California

'Super-cop' William Bratton and top brass shake-up at OPD

By Ann Garrison — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The San Francisco Bay View' / San Francisco, CA

Oakland had three acting police chiefs in five days last week, and on Thursday, the police department's controversial consultant, William Bratton, released his six-page report which criticized OPD's top brass.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Interim Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan announced his sudden decision to step down and seek medical retirement, effective immediately. In accordance with department procedure, Assistant Chief Anthony Toribio then took his place as acting chief, but for only two days.

On Friday former Deputy Chief Sean Whent became interim chief, and Toribio returned to captain's rank. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan then announced that Oakland would spend $30,000 on a headhunter's nationwide search for a permanent chief.

Three new deputy chiefs who share Interim Chief Whent's experience in investigating OPD internal affairs were also named, leaving only one of the previous week's top five commanders in place.

The Oakland Tribune reported that unnamed inside sources told them Jordan "raced for the door" because Thomas Frazier, the court appointed federal compliance officer brought in to clean up the department, planned to seek his ouster.

On Thursday, in between Jordan's announcement and Whent's appointment, the OPD officially released a report by its consultant, William Bratton, titled "Oakland Crime Reduction Project, Bratton Group Findings and Recommendations," which said that the OPD must more rigorously apply his Compstat policing model to make it work and criticized top brass for not doing so.

No one seems to have reported that William Bratton, rather than federal compliance officer William Frazier, was behind this week's sudden shakeup in the OPD chain of command. However, back on Jan. 22, the day that the Oakland City Council met and voted to contract with Bratton as an OPD consultant, Berkeley law professor Frank Zimring, who authored a book praising Bratton's work in New York City, told KPFA Upfront Host Brian Edwards-Tiekert that Bratton would not be effective unless he was effectively in charge:

"The reason that you have an outsider coming in is that you have too many different perspectives. You've got a mayor, you've got a police chief, you are soon going to have a director of compliance with a long, ineffective consent decree. And everybody's got to be on the same page.

"So the good news about a consultant would be if everybody wants to work with him. Then, it seems to me, Bratton's credibility could be a real down payment towards changes in Oakland. If, on the other hand, it's just going to be one more player with another set of perspectives, that's the last thing Oakland needs."

No Oakland officials have suggested that William Bratton, who is a former chief of both the New York City and Los Angeles police departments, might be recruited by Oakland's headhunter, though popular Oakland blogger Zennie Abraham joked, on April Fool's Day this year, that Bratton already has the top job.

Abraham was prescient at least regarding Interim Chief Howard Jordan's imminent departure.

In 2009, Businessweek reported that Bratton had become chairman of Altegrity Risk International, a new division of Altegrity, a billion dollar company owned by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.

Altegrity Risk International was created to bid on highly lucrative State Department contracts to help train police forces in 14 "post-conflict" nations, including East Timor, Haiti and Afghanistan. Bratton described this turn in his career as "like the Peace Corps but better paying."

Bratton went on to become the CEO of Kroll Associates, a similar business, which has since been acquired by Altegrity. He later stepped down as Kroll's CEO but remained as its senior advisor. He also serves as vice chair of the Advisory Council of the Homeland Security Department.

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Immigration Enforcement / Illegal Aliens

Too many questions remain on border security, CFR study shows

By Stephen Dinan — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The Washington Times' / Washington, DC

Beefed-up border security has been responsible for only a third of the recent drop in illegal immigration, while economic changes account for the rest, according to a new independent study released Monday that could derail the Senate immigration debate.

At a time when the success or failure of the new immigration bill depends on how secure the border is, the Council on Foreign Relations report said it's surprising just how little is known about border security, and how little effort the administration and Congress have made to try to get a handle on the situation.

"Given the significant public controversy over illegal immigration, the need for objective measures and analysis has long been clear, but since the early 2000s the federal government has had a great deal of difficulty in responding to it," wrote Bryan Roberts, Edward Alden and John Whitley, the report's authors.

And the report said that even though the economic situation south of the border is improving, pressure for illegal immigration is likely to remain high, chiefly because the wage gap between the U.S. and those countries still makes working here illegally an attractive option.

The immigration bill being debated in the Senate Judiciary Committee calls for more spending on border security, but lawmakers last week specifically rejected tying future legalization to successes along the border.

Instead, the bill as it currently stands would grant quick legal status as long as the Department of Homeland Security submits another plan promising security.

The CFR report studied several different methods of measuring crossings and concluded that a decade's worth of stiffer border security has likely made some difference. For example, the likelihood of being caught on an illegal crossing is now between 50 and 60 percent, up from between 30 to 45 percent in 2000.

But the report authors said the federal government still doesn't have a good handle on exactly what works, and they said that should be a top priority for the administration.

"Indeed, most of the public debate about border security has been about inputs — whether the United States has enough Border Patrol agents, enough surveillance, enough fencing," the authors wrote. "The government does not report most outputs, however, nor does it report outcomes."

The authors said the administration could fairly easily begin to report outcomes — and in fact has done so in the past. But the authors said getting those measures is a question of "political leadership."

Several Republican senators tried to force the government to come up with new measures during the Senate Judiciary Committee's first votes on the immigration bill last week.

But committee Democrats, joined by two Republicans, rejected each of those efforts, saying that it would be too expensive, too harsh and unnecessary.

The CFR report could reopen many of those tricky questions — particularly in the GOP-controlled House, where top Republicans have said they will insist the Homeland Security Department come up with real yardsticks for security.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is considered a linchpin in the immigration debate, told The Washington Times last week that he believes the bill as written does enough on border security, but he said he's willing to alter it if it means voters gain confidence the new law will work.

"I want us to get a consensus on that issue that I've outlined, which is this balance between, does Congress dictate to DHS specifically what it needs to do on the border, vs. allowing them the flexibility — the people on the ground — to decide what the best practices are," Mr. Rubio said.

"I still believe at the end of the day the bill as it's currently structured will work, because if you give the experts— and it's not just DHS, it's the Border Patrol and the people down there — if you're giving them access to $5.5 billion to secure the border, I believe it will improve the border," the senator said. "I personally believe that. But the important thing is to build a consensus of confidence, so people actually believe it's actually going to happen, and it's actually going to work."

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Homeland Security

Cyberattacks Against U.S. Corporations Are on the Rise

By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTH — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Times'

WASHINGTON — A new wave of cyberattacks is striking American corporations, prompting warnings from federal officials, including a vague one issued last week by the Department of Homeland Security. This time, officials say, the attackers' aim is not espionage but sabotage, and the source seems to be somewhere in the Middle East.

The targets have primarily been energy companies, and the attacks appeared to be probes, looking for ways to seize control of their processing systems. The attacks are continuing, officials said. But two senior administration officials said Sunday that they were still not certain exactly where the attacks were coming from, or whether they were state-sponsored or the work of hackers or criminals.

"We are concerned by these intrusions, and we are trying to make sure they don't lead to something much bigger, as they did in the Saudi case," said one senior American official. He was referring to the aggressive attack last summer that affected 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco, one of the world's largest oil producers. After lengthy investigations, American officials concluded that Iran had been behind the Saudi Aramco attack.

Another official said that in the new wave of attacks, "most everything we have seen is coming from the Middle East," but he did not say whether Iran, or another country, appeared to be the source.

Last week's warning was unusual because most attacks against American companies — especially those coming from China — have been attempts to obtain confidential information, steal trade secrets and gain competitive advantage. By contrast, the new attacks seek to destroy data or to manipulate industrial machinery and take over or shut down the networks that deliver energy or run industrial processes.

That kind of attack is much more like the Stuxnet worm that the United States and Israel secretly used against Iran's nuclear enrichment plants several years ago, to slow Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapons capability. When that covert program began, President Obama, among other officials, expressed worry that its eventual discovery could prompt retaliatory attacks.

Two senior officials who have been briefed on the new intrusions say they were aimed largely at the administrative systems of about 10 major American energy firms, which they would not name. That is similar to what happened to Saudi Aramco, where a computer virus wiped data from office computers, but never succeeded in making the leap to the industrial control systems that run oil production.

The Washington Post first reported the security warning on Friday. Over the weekend the Obama administration described what had led to the warning. Those officials began describing the activity as "probes that suggest someone is looking at how to take control of these systems."

According to one United States official, Homeland Security officials decided to release the warning once they saw how deeply intruders had managed to penetrate corporate systems, including one that deals with chemical processes. In the past, the government occasionally approached individual companies it believed were under threat. Last week's warning "is an effort to make sure that the volume and timeliness of the information improves," in line with a new executive order signed by the president, one senior official said.

The warning was issued by an agency called ICS-Cert, which monitors attacks on computer systems that run industrial processes. It said the government was "highly concerned about hostility against critical infrastructure organizations," and included a link to a previous warning about Shamoon, the virus used in the Saudi Aramco attack last year. It also hinted that federal investigations were under way, referring to indications "that adversary intent extends beyond intellectual property to include use of cyber to disrupt business and control systems."

At Saudi Aramco, the virus replaced company data on thousands of computers with an image of a burning American flag. The attack prompted the defense secretary at the time, Leon E. Panetta, to warn of an impending "cyber 9/11" if the United States did not respond more efficiently to attacks. American officials have since concluded the attack and a subsequent one at RasGas, the Qatari energy company, were the work of Iranian hackers. Israeli officials, who follow Iran closely, said in interviews this month that they thought the attacks were the work of Iran's new "cybercorps," organized after the cyberattacks that affected their nuclear facilities.

Saudi Aramco said that while the attackers had attempted to penetrate its oil production systems, they had failed because the company maintained a separation between employees' administrative computers and the computers used to control and monitor production. RasGas said the attack on its computers had failed for the same reason.

But there are no clear standards for computer security, and the Homeland Security warning last week urged companies to take steps many computer professionals already advise. The suggestions were for "things most everyone should be doing on an everyday basis," said Dan McWhorter, the managing director of threat intelligence at Mandiant Corporation. His company conducted a study this year that identified a specific unit of the Chinese Army as the source of a number of attacks on American businesses and government organizations. "These are all threats people have been seeing coming for some time," he said.

Still, the warning underscored that most of the likely targets in the United States, including cellphone networks and electric utility grids, are in private rather than government hands. "The challenge will be managing our nation's offensive and defensive capabilities," said Evan D. Wolff, a partner at Hunton & Williams, who runs the firm's homeland security practice and focuses on cyberissues. "Unlike conventional weapons, this will require a very broad engagement across the private sector."

For the last four years, the Department of Homeland Security has said it needs to expand its cybersecurity force by as many as 600 hacking specialists to keep pace with the rising number of threats. But in the last four months, the department has been grappling with an exodus of top officials, including Jane Holl Lute, the agency's deputy secretary; Mark Weatherford, the department's top cybersecurity official; Michael Locatis, the assistant secretary for cybersecurity; and Richard Spires, the agency's chief information officer, all of whom resigned.

David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Nicole Perlroth from San Francisco. Michael S. Schmidt contributed reporting from Washington.

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Tough Times at Homeland Security
By NICOLE PERLROTH — Monday, May 13th, 2013 'The New York Times'

A new wave of cyberattacks is hitting American companies at a particularly vulnerable time for the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency charged with fending them off.

That is because the department has been grappling with the departures of its top cybersecurity officials. In the last four months, Jane Holl Lute, the agency's deputy secretary; Mark Weatherford, the top cybersecurity official; Michael Locatis, the assistant secretary for cybersecurity; and Richard Spires, the chief information officer, have all resigned.

Candidates currently being considered to fill their posts include Beltway officials and executives from the antivirus software makers Symantec and McAfee, according to people briefed on their professional backgrounds who were not authorized to speak publicly about the department's hiring process. But these people said the leading candidates lacked critical ties to Silicon Valley and to the hacking community from which Homeland Security has said it so urgently needs to recruit.

For the last four years, the department has said it needs to expand its cybersecurity force by as many as 600 skilled hackers if it is to keep pace with the influx of increasingly sophisticated threats.

"We need students," Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, told students at San Jose State University last year. "We need young people who really understand this technology who are creative and innovative."

But in the last 10 years, most students who graduated from the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, a National Science Foundation program that awards scholarships to students with cyberskills in exchange for a federal service commitment, went to the National Security Agency, where they work on offensive missions. At Homeland Security, the emphasis is on keeping hackers out, or playing defense.

Ms. Napolitano convened a 15-person task force last year to figure out how to attract more students. The task force included security experts from Facebook, the N.S.A. and the Idaho National Laboratory, the Energy Department's lead nuclear research center. Its co-chairman was Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a security training organization, and Jeff Moss, founder of the well-known Black Hat and Def Con annual hacking conventions in Las Vegas.

Among their recommendations: Make Homeland Security cool again by partnering with the organizers of hacking competitions, whose participants would much prefer to "move fast and break things" at Facebook or Twitter or Google, than cut through red tape at the Department of Homeland Security.

To make the department more than a bureaucratic afterthought, people inside the agency say they hope it will fill one of its top vacancies with a hacker "rock star" not unlike Mr. Moss, whose Las Vegas conferences annually draw the best minds in computer security, or Peiter Zatko, the hacker better known as Mudge, who recently left his position at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, for Google.

"Where is cyber at D.H.S. right now?" one person at the agency remarked. "Who is minding the shop? And what have we been talking about for the past four years?"

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Mike Bosak

Monday, May 13, 2013