Tag Archives: Medill School

Florida postal worker who landed gyrocopter on Capitol Lawn pleads not guilty

  • Doug Hughes speaks after his hearing at the U.S. District Court. (Nick Kariuki/MEDILL NSJI)
    Doug Hughes speaks after his hearing at the U.S. District Court. (Nick Kariuki/MEDILL NSJI)

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) — Doug Hughes, the Florida mail carrier who landed his gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol’s West Lawn last month, appeared in court on Thursday to plead not guilty to all six federal charges against him.

Among the charges against Hughes are two felonies: operating an aircraft without a license and flying an unregistered aircraft. He faces up to nine and half years in prison.

“As long as I’m free I’m going to introducing voters to groups with solutions to problems of corruption that the vast majority of voters recognize and oppose.” Hughes said after the hearing.

On April 15, tax day, Hughes piloted the low-altitude aircraft from Gettysburg, Pa., to Washington, landing on the Capitol lawn.

Hughes carried 535 two-page letters, one for every member of Congress, highlighting the need for campaign finance reform because of what he sees as the corrosive effect of money politics. He described his actions as an act of civil disobedience.

“I’ll never do anything like this again, but I would do it exactly the way I did,” Hughes said.

Capitol Police arrested Hughes after he landed the small aircraft. He was later released on bail and remained under house arrest in Ruskin, Fla., where he wore an ankle monitor.

Mag. Judge Alan Gray allowed Hughes to move within Hillsborough Count,y where he lives, though he still must wear the monitor.

The judge also refused to let Hughes visit the Capitol, White House and other areas in Washington, which he was banned from doing immediately after the incident.

Hughes was also put on administrative leave from his job at the U.S. Postal Service.

The postal worker’s protest has raised concerns from lawmakers about the security of the Capitol. Hughes flew across 30 miles of some of the nation’s most restricted airspace on his route to D.C.

The Tampa Bay Times wrote about Hughes’s protest plans before the flight. He also informed the Secret Service and other news organizations by email and live-streamed the event on The Democracy Club, a website dedicated to congressional reform.

Hughes has stated his frustration at the focus on the security concerns raised, rather than the reasons for his flight:

“I have faith in a jury of my peers and will accept whatever consequence I must,” Hughes wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “I simply hope by putting my freedom on the line, others might realize how precious their freedom is and join those of engaged in this fight to preserve and protect our government of, by and for the people.”

Members of CODEPINK, the women-led grassroots activist group, presented Hughes with a framed stamp after the hearing.

Published in conjunction with UPI Logo

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NSJI panel teaches journalists how to build local law enforcement’s trust

(Beth Werge/MEDILL NSJI)

(Beth Werge/MEDILL NSJI)

The Evanston police chief, a police commander who routinely deals with the media and a former federal prosecutor emphasized the importance of building relationships between reporters and law enforcement officers.

The three men spoke to the Medill community of about 30 students, faculty and staff members Thursday on what they believe works for and what works against journalists in pursuing news about crime and punishment.

Chief Richard Eddington, Cmdr. Joe Dugan and former Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Cramer all emphasized the importance of building relationships with members of law enforcement and they also explained some of the rationale behind various different police department practices.

“A huge part of it is credibility,” said Dugan, who recently became the department’s spokesman. “It’s important to build relationships.”

Cramer added that it’s a good idea to start small and build on that rather than expect instant acceptance. “You can start slowly,” he said. “Try to get broader information with generic questions. That gets a rapport going. But you’re not going to go zero to sixty (in building trust).”

Eddington said authorities are willing to work with journalists but that cooperation needs a solid foundation.

“We’re looking for professional partners to get this information out to the public,” he said. “If you come prepared, if you’re willing to invest the time… It’s hard to make friends in a crisis. There’s no getting through all these things in a compressed time while you’re competing with other media outlets.”

Despite dramatic protests and conflict between citizens and police in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore in the last several months — and the potential threat of similar protests in a city like Chicago — Eddington said he feels that his dealings with journalists haven’t just changed, but also improved as of late.

“Our relationship with the media has changed multiple times,” Eddington said. “In the short time I’ve been in Evanston, it’s become much more social media driven, much more transparent.

“Talking to the press is like a forward pass,” he added. “Three things can happen; two are bad. There’s always going to be some standoffishness on our part, but I think we’re better behaved, we’re more transparent.”

Recalling other stories and advice, the three repeated the importance of journalists following the law, staying safe and being respectful of crime scenes.

When there are police perimeters set up, for example, “It’s not because we don’t want you to have the story,” Eddington said. “It’s because we don’t have enough assets to protect you.”

As for when it’s appropriate to share “off-the-record” information?

“Only with someone that I have a longtime relationship with,” Eddington said. “There has to be a mutual understanding. But sometimes that background information is crucial to painting the mosaic of what’s coming next.”

The hour-long discussion was hosted by the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative.

For more information about the NSJI at Northwestern University, visit nationalsecurityzone.org or contact Tim McNulty at timothy-mcnulty@northwestern.edu.

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Al Qaida a bigger threat than ISIS, ex-CIA honcho warns

Michael Morell (on left) says al Qaida is a greater threat than ISIS. (Tanni Deb/MEDILL NSJI)

Michael Morell (on left) says al Qaida is a greater threat than ISIS. (Tanni Deb/MEDILL NSJI)

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State group has attracted foreign recruits for its war in Iraq and Syria because the extremist network has what it sees as a compelling story to share with them, according to the CIA’s former deputy director.

“Their narrative is that the West, the United States, the modern world is a significant threat to their religion [and] that they have an answer to that threat to their religion, which is the establishment of this caliphate,” said Michael Morell, who held the post from 2010 to 2013. They say “they are being attacked by the United States … and because they are being attacked as they try to set up this caliphate to protect their religion, they need support.”

Morell is the author of “The Great War of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism, From al Qa’ida to ISIS,” published this month. Indeed, ISIS presents a clear threat, he said Monday at the National Press Club in Washington. But it’s al Qaida, which perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and continues to have widespread influence abroad, that remains a greater danger, he added.

“The most significant threat to the homeland today,” Morell said, “still comes from al Qaida.”

ISIS seeks support in two ways, he said. It wants fighters to carry out its war in the Middle East, and it urges people to attack Americans and other coalition nations in their homelands.

The U.S., on the other hand, doesn’t really have a strong counter narrative, he said.

“Not because we’re not doing our job, but because it’s really hard to have a counter narrative in a conversation about a religion where we have absolutely no credibility,” he said.

Morell was an intelligence analyst who delivered daily briefings to then-President George W. Bush in 2001. He also assisted with planning the 2011 raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. His new book includes his assessment of the CIA’s counterterrorism successes and failures of the past two decades, and highlights growing threats from terrorist groups that could impact the U.S.

Three al Qaida groups in particular pose the greatest threat to the U.S., he said.

Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, remains the most dangerous, Morell said. The international terrorist organization was responsible for the last three attempted attacks against the U.S.: the would-be Christmas Day underwear bomber in 2009, the printer cartridge plot in 2010 and the nonmetallic bomb plot on an airliner in 2012.

“They have the capability to bring down an airline in the United States of America tomorrow,” Morell said.

The second most dangerous, he said, is the Khorasan Group, which has operatives from Pakistan. It was formed to assist the jihadist organization Jabhat al-Nusra in its fight against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the goal of using Syria as a base of operations to attack the West.

Finally, the third group is al Qaida’s senior leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said.

But Morell did not downplay the ISIS threat — either on the battlefield or in its attempts to radicalize young men and young women around the world.

“The first and probably the most important right now is the stability of the entire Middle East. ISIS threatens the territorial integrity of Syria, the territorial integrity of Iraq and the potential for spillover to the rest of the region,” Morell said.

ISIS killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians and security forces and caused thousands to flee their homes as it captured the city of Ramadi in central Iraq on Sunday, according to multiple news reports.

Morell said that Islamic educators are needed to inform people who may consider joining terrorist groups.

“We really need the leaders of Muslim countries, we need leading Muslim clerics [and] we need Muslim teachers to have this dialogue in those countries themselves.”

Published in conjunction with Military Times Logo

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The Marines: Training for war with virtual combat

Simulator

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Ca. — The United States Marines are not afraid of relying on computer technology when it comes to saving time and resources in combat convoy training. Saving thousands of dollars per exercise, Marines at this sprawling base here are using a Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer to practice maneuvering through a foreign landscape while in a military vehicle convoy.

The Lockheed Martin Corporation developed the VCCT system in 2004. Before it, the military would train its Marines and soldiers with classroom lectures and videos.

With this technology now in use at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Ca., units are able to train to whatever scenario they might encounter on an upcoming deployment overseas. “You can come in here and tell me, specifically, this is what we want to train to and I am able to build whatever you want,” said Ryan Brown, former Marine and the Electronic Maintenance Technician for the system at the base.

“So what they’re doing is training to move multiple vehicles from point A to point B, keeping a distance, keeping a speed and doing check points and radio communications the entire time,” said Mike King the operations officer for the Marine’s more than half-million acre base..

The system is not meant to eliminate actual convoy training completely, but simulating missions saves time and fuel while creating practical experience, King said. When Marines and Navy sailors used to go through the training, King would put them in vehicles, send them onto the course and watch as they’d make a mistake, have to back up, refuel, and get briefed and set up again. “In here,” he says, “all Ryan has to do it hit a couple buttons.” The VCCT is an opportunity for Marines to practice common procedures such as discovering an improvised explosive device in the road, and setting up a perimeter of the area to safely move around the area until it is discharged.

Within the training, Marines operate Humvees, communicate with others in the convoy, and carry electronic weapons to fire at enemy combatants. The system trains Marines to keep a safe following distance between vehicles in case of an IED explosion.

With 360-degree screens in the room, the training can appear to be a glorified shoot and kill video game. But Brown and King say Marines can spend hours in the simulator without firing a round.

Brown sees the VCCT as an opportunity to focus on fixing weaknesses within the unit without holding up the larger battalion. “That’s the point of coming here,” he says, “you make the mistakes here before going out of the country” The simulator has detailed databases that can mimic the conditions of key Iraqi battlegrounds like Fallujah, Baghdad and Tikrit, as well as others that serve different purposes.

The system is currently set up to focus on Middle Eastern regions, but Brown said it can be reconfigured to look like Ukraine or similar terrain if that is what a unit needs training for.

“A simulation never fully replaces live training, but we can come close here,” said Brown.

The Marines are currently seeking to extend their contract that allows them to use the Lockheed Martin technology.

As good as the advanced technology is, overreliance on it could compromise the basic skills that Marines need in the field, like reading a map and compass, Brown says, “What happens when the technology fails?”

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Female veterans, Maryland natives transition to life after active duty

In a May 8 piece for Southern Maryland Newspapers Online published on SoMdNews.Com, staff writer Sara K. Taylor tells the stories of two female veterans’ journeys from active-duty military careers (in the Navy and Air Force) to college students. The story does a stellar job of tackling the issue of veteran education as well as the unique challenges faced by female veterans transitioning into civilian life, through a local lens.

Read it here.

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Remember the Alamo? Poll shows GOP voters torn as to whether Texas is under military attack

According to a May 14 story on Texas’ KVUE.com, a poll by a “left-leaning polling firm” found that 32 percent of would-be voters in the Republican primary feared that the Jade Helm 15 military training exercise was actually a government conspiracy to invade Texas. The conspiracy theory, notably backed by actor Chuck Norris, has garnered national attention, despite the fact that civ-mil training exercises take place on a regular basis throughout the U.S.. This piece did a great job of tracking the national political implications of a local military story that happened to pick up national traction.

Read it here.

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Defense Department shows off cutting-edge tech

WASHINGTON — More than 100 display booths popped up in the Pentagon courtyard for the first-ever Defense Department Lab Day. These innovations, most of which are still under development, were designed by about 38,000 scientists and engineers.

Published in conjunction with USA Today Logo

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North Korea turning to human trafficking for foreign currency

WASHINGTON – To generate new income sources, the North Korean government has engaged in state-sponsored trafficking of its citizens, sending them to work as forced laborers in other countries and confiscating all or most of their wages, an issue of increased focus in the international community.

“I see it as just starting to get attention. It’s an emergent issue on the international agenda,” said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Both the Korea Economic Institute and the House’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held meetings in Washington D.C. in April and May to address the trafficking.

North Korea, frequently ranked as the world’s worst human rights abuser, has lured between 50,000 and 60,000 citizens to work in industries around the globe with the promise they would keep their wages, according to a paper from the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights presented on Tuesday. Instead, the wages are sent to the North Korean government, generating as much as $2.3 billion per year.

Industries employing the laborers range from logging and mining to restaurants, and workers who complain or escape risk reprisal against themselves and their families who remain in North Korea, said Robert King, special envoy for North Korea Human Rights Issues at the State Department, at the House hearing.

Workers have been sent through bilateral contracts to around 40 countries, primarily Russia, China, Mongolia and nations in Africa, central Europe and the Middle East, according to a State Department Trafficking in Persons Report from March.

Snyder said the increased trafficking is one of North Korea’s ways of earning foreign exchange. Previously, the government sustained itself through other illicit means, such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting and weapon sales, but those income sources have been declining.

“They’re running a trade deficit with the rest of the world and it’s mostly shown in trade with China,” Snyder said.

“Whatever North Korea can do to make a profit it does, and much of it turns out to be illegal.”

One defector, Lim Il, told the Lantos commission that he had been a state employee in North Korea but went to Kuwait to work at a construction company, where he was required to put in 14-hour days under strict surveillance, with two days off per month.

“I think we were slave laborers,” Il said.

After escaping to the South Korean embassy, he learned that his salary had all gone to the Office of the Worker’s Party that manages foreign currency. “The money obtained through the export of laborers overseas [is] used as a personal fund for Kim Jong-un,” the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights paper said.

The U.S. and international community are facing difficulty curtailing the trafficking, said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch at the House hearing. The biggest reasons are that most of the work occurs in Russia and China, it provides North Koreans minimal exposure to the outside world which may help undermine the government, and officials have not decided whether to approach it from a sanctions or human rights perspective.

“To address this is going to require attention and focus from the international community,” Snyder said. “And the best way of doing that would probably be to make this an issue of concern for the counterparts.”

Published in conjunction with MarketWatch Logo

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TSA under fire for security flaws

TSAlogo

WASHINGTON – Facing scathing criticism, Transportation Security Administration officials were a no-show at a House hearing on Wednesday.

During a three-hour hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth took the TSA to task over systemic shortcomings in providing American aviation security throughout the agency’s almost 14-year history.

Despite government funding of more than $7 billion a year, “we remain deeply concerned about [TSA’s] ability to execute its important mission,” Roth said in a report prepared for the hearing.

The IG identified a series of deficiencies in TSA programs and operations through more than 114 audits and investigations since 2005, according to the report.

Among the findings:

  • Covert tests which smuggled simulated explosives and weapons found significant security vulnerabilities.
  • Billions of dollars spent on technology acquisitions “revealed no resulting improvement” in security.
  • Personnel repeatedly failed to follow security protocols.
  • Weaknesses in TSA equipment “have a real and negative impact on transportation security.”

“This report is an indictment of the failure of the TSA,” said chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. “Not just in one area, but in almost every one of their functions.”

The hearing also provided further critique of America’s aviation security.

Jennifer Grover, acting director of the Government Accountability Office’s Homeland Security and Justice section, noted TSA shortcomings in addressing screening errors, imaging technology, passenger risk assessment and expedited screening processes.

Although a lot of attention has been paid to passenger screening and security, “little progress has been made securing the far larger portion of the airport where passengers do not have access,” said Rafi Ron, president of transportation security consulting firm New Age Security Solutions.

Absent from the hearing was rebuttal from the TSA itself.

“We’ve had an exceptionally difficult time getting information from the TSA on some very basic matters,” said House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

According to Chaffetz, TSA Acting Administrator Melvin Carraway was invited to speak at the hearing, but Homeland Security “felt it was demeaning to have the acting administrator sit on the same panel as a non-governmental witness.”

“That’s absurd,” Chaffetz said. “That’s offensive.”

According to DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee, however, TSA Acting Deputy Administrator Mark Hatfield, Jr. was prepared to testify, but “Chairman Chaffetz declined to allow him to do so.”

“The Department of Homeland Security is respectful of Congress’ oversight responsibilities and is committed to transparency and accountability,” Lee said.

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Columnist lends local context to the logic behind California’s drought

In a May 13 piece for latimes.com, columnist George Skelton breaks down some of the geographical context behind California’s intense drought conditions for non-locals attempting to understand the root cause of the issue. The column touches on everything from rainfall averages and climate to changing topography and how different bodies of water within the state are connected.

The piece is a prime example of how localized geographical expertise can lend much-needed context to a national security issue – in this case, water security. It also proves that you can incorporate hard data and still create a compelling read.

Check it out here.

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