Bye Bye New York?

After insisting a federal court in New York was the place to be, the Obama administration appears to be  inching toward a reversal of all that.

The Washington Post reports that the presidents advisers “are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said.”

The move might make some folks on both sidesof the political isle happy. But it doesn’t look so great for Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. who was adamant about a New York trial.

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A federal judge in Phoenix sharply criticized the FBI tactics Thursday as he sentenced an Arizona man to 18 months in prison for lying to agents investigating the Muslim charity the Holy Land Foundation, which raised money for the Palestinian group Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled a terrorist group, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake said he gave Akram Musa Abdallah a low sentence because the defendant caused little harm to the government.

But he criticized the FBI agents who questioned Abdallah in 2007, saying it appeared they tried to get Abdallah of Mesa, Az.,  to change his story to help build the case, the AP reported.

By Allan Lengel

A remorseful New York imam, as expected, pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to FBI agents in the subway bombing plot.

The Associated Press reported that a tearful Ahmad Afzali told the judge that he wanted to help authorities but lied under grilling by the FBI.

He had tipped off al Qaeda associate Najibullah Zazi that he was under surveillance by authorities in New York.  Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up the New York subway system.

AP said his guilty plea spares him serious jail time, but will force him to leave the country.

He also  told the judge  he was sorry for lying about his conversations with Zazi.

“In doing so, I failed to live up to my obligation to this country, my community, my family, and my religion,” he said, according to AP. “I am truly sorry.”

The plea agreement says that Afzali could get up to six months in jail and that he would have to leave the country within 90 days after serving his sentence.

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FBI Dir. Robert Mueller/fbi stock photo

FBI Director Robert Mueller warned Thursday that cyber terrorism threats are an ever growing problem “that could have the same impact as well-placed bombs.”

“In the past 10 years, al Qaeda’s online presence has become as potent as its physical presence,” Mueller said during a speech at the RSA Cyber Security Conference in San Francisco. “Extremists are not limitiing their use of the internet to recruitment or radicationlaizaiton, they are using it to incite terrorism.”

“We in the FBI, with our partners in the intelligence community, believe the cyber terrorism threat is real, and it is rapidly expanding,” he said. “Terrorists have shown a clear interest in pursuing hacking skills. And they will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders, with an eye toward combining physical attacks with cyber attacks.”

The following is a full text of his speech.

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Mexico on Wednesday extradited drug kingpin Oscar Arriola to Colorado to face drug charges, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced on Thursday. He will appear in court in Colorado Thursday.

Authorities said he was flown on a DEA plane from Mexico to El Paso, Tex, to Denver.

Arriola had been custody in Mexico since his arrest on February 2, 2006.

Authorities alleged that Arriola headed an international cocaine ring that smuggled more than 2 tons of cocaine per month into the U.S.

“We deeply appreciate the cooperation we’ve received from Mexico in the extradition of Oscar Arriola to the United States to face this serious federal drug charge,” DEA Special Agent in Charge in Denver Jeffrey D. Sweetin said in a statement.

“According to the allegations, his organization’s drug trafficking in Mexico and the United States allowed him to amass incredible wealth, at the expense of the citizens of both countries,” he said.”He will now be held accountable in U.S. District Court in Colorado for those illegal activities.”

DETROIT — Michigan attorney John Stephen Shelly found a way to supplement his income from his law practice.

The 49-year-old ran part of a gambling ring out of his law offices in suburban Detroit in St. Clair Shores as well as bars in Detroit and Dearborn, authorities said.

Earlier this week, he and associate David Stronski, 55, of Grosse Point Park pleaded guilty to being part of a multi-state sports betting ring for college and pro sports that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities say the operation made as much as $25,000 a week.

One of the Rembrandt Pieces Stolen

Advances in DNA testing aren’t just being used to solve murders and rapes.

The FBI is hoping to take advantage of the new advances by submitting evidence from the great art heist 20 years ago at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston which included three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, the Boston Globe reports. It is believed to be the largest heist in world history in terms of dollars.

The FBI on the case declined to say what had been submitted for analysis, but the Globe reported that people familiar with the case “said it would probably include long strips of duct tape used to tie up the museum’s two night watchmen, whom the thieves overpowered to get access to the artwork.”

“If they left any sweat on that duct tape, a sample could be drawn, and with that sample there’s the possibility of a result,” Dr. Bruce Budowle, former senior scientist of the FBI’s Quantico lab told the Globe.

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