Councilman Marion Barry

This man clearly has nine lives. Once again, he dodges jail time. The legend lives on.

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON –– A federal judge extended D.C. Council member Marion Barry’s probation for two more years, ruling that the former mayor violated the terms of his probation by failing to file tax returns in a timely manner.

In an 18-page opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson rejected a request by prosecutors to have Barry placed on home detention.

Prosecutors originally asked Robinson to revoke Barry’s probation and send him to jail because he had failed to file his 2007 tax returns in a timely manner. He also had not filed tax returns on time in eight of the past nine years, prosecutors said.

But at a hearing last month, they backed off that request after learning that local jails did not have proper facilities or staffing to care for someone with his ailments. Barry, 72, is recovering from a kidney transplant.

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Series May Be Gone, But the Mob Isn't

The Sopranos tv series may have gone off the air, but the government says the traditional mob continues on.

By DON JORDAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Nearly a dozen Palm Beach and Broward county residents were indicted today (Thursday) after federal prosecutors outlined their alleged roles in a organized crime ring specializing in fraud, illegal narcotics, gambling and mob-style shakedowns.

The crew operated out of South Florida, but regularly reported and paid tribute to the powerful Bonanno Family, a New York City-based Mafia unit, according to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.

Boynton Beach resident Thomas Fiore, 46, is an associate of the Bonanno family and leads its South Florida operation, prosecutors said. Each of the 11 alleged criminals were indicted on federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, charges after a two-year undercover investigation.

The other defendants include Billie Robertson, 34, and Lee Klein, 39, both of Boynton Beach; Daniel Young, 57, and Guy Alessi, 81, both of Delray Beach; Kenneth Dunn, 44, and Nicholas Fiore, 49, both of Boca Raton; and Frank D’Amato, 48, of West Palm Beach. The indictment also included Coral Springs residents Pasquale Rubbo, 43, Joseph Rubbo, 45, and Marc Broder, 42.

None of the defendents are formally inducted, or “made” members of the Bonanno family.
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OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Terrorist Plots Authorities Have Uncovered Since 9/11 (AP)
• NYC Rabbi and Imam Unite to Denounce Terrorism (WCBSTV.Com)
• Feds Investigating Lehman Brothers (Wall Street Journal)
• New Immigration and Customs Enforcement Program on Secure Communities Getting Attention (Security DeBrief)
• Fed Judges Have Some Concerns About Lawyers’ Attire in Court (Wall Street Journal)
• Top 10 FBI Stories of the Week (FBI Press Room)

By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald Columnist
Like the Mounties, they finally got their men. And all it took was three years, three trials and millions of taxpayer dollars.

At that price, you’d like to feel a certain satisfaction from last week’s guilty verdict against five men from inner-city Miami who stood accused of conspiring with al-Qaida to launch terrorist attacks in this country. You’d like to feel you’d seen justice done. Instead, you are left with the nagging suspicion that all you’ve seen is justice miscarried.

Prosecutors say the seven men arrested at a Liberty City warehouse in June 2006 were a homegrown terror cell conspiring with an FBI informant they thought was an al-Qaida representative to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and other sites. The feds made their case with secret recordings, testimony that the men swore an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida and photos of possible terror targets taken by the defendants.

But the defense said the seven were just the hapless members of a would-be religious sect who thought they had found a patsy who’d give them money as long as he believed they were planning a terrorist strike. All they wanted, they said, was cash — to finance their sect.

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It’s dumbfounding to uncover these type of homegrown plots. Who knows how many other little groups there are out there.

By MICHAEL WILSON
New York Times
NEW YORK — They were four ex-convicts – one a crack addict, another whose most recent arrest involved snatching purses – and they gathered their terror tools as they went.

They bought cellphones, the authorities said; they bought a camera in a Wal-Mart to take photographs of the synagogues in New York City that they wanted to blow up. When their attempt to buy guns in Newburgh, N.Y., fell through – their gun dealer told them she had sold out – they drove downstate, buying a $700 pistol from a Bloods gang leader in Brooklyn.

After months of planning, the authorities allege, the men had their first real scare this month, driving to Stamford, Conn., to pick up a surface-to-air missile that was waiting for them in a warehouse. One of the men in the car believed they were being followed by law enforcement, so they returned to Newburgh, drove around until they were satisfied they were in the clear, then went back to Stamford for their missile and bombs.

They brought them back to Newburgh, locked them in a storage container, and celebrated, shouting, “Allah akbar!”

These details as told by the authorities describe a homegrown terror plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down a military aircraft in Newburgh. The outlines of the plan were fleshed out on Thursday, in court hearings, documents and interviews, as were bits and pieces of the checkered life stories of the four men charged in the plot.

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