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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1954821/posts
Syrian man gets six months prison for N.Y. attack hoax
Swissinfo ^ | January 16 2008 | Reuters
Posted on 01/16/2008 2:42:32 PM PST by knighthawk
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Syrian man convicted of giving a false tip to a New York City anti-terrorism hotline, leading to five innocent men being investigated on suspicion of terrorism, was sentenced on Wednesday to six months in prison.
Rimon Alkatri, 35, was convicted in November of calling a hotline to offer a tip about five fellow Syrians whom he accused of planning a suicide attack on New York City subways over the July 4 holiday weekend.
City officials dispatched dozens of police, conducted round-the-clock surveillance and sought help from Israeli law enforcement, prosecutors told a jury at the New York State Supreme Court.
The public was not informed until after Alkatri’s arrest. Police later learned four of the five men he implicated were former business associates with whom he had disputes.
“I’m sorry about what I did,” Alkatri told Judge Raymond Wiley on Wednesday.
But Wiley said that Alkatri had to take responsibility for the suffering of the men he named, who were interrogated and whose homes were searched. A less professional police force “would have locked these gentlemen up and asked questions later,” the judge said.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Fares Almari, one of the victims, said he was disappointed.
“Six months only?” Almari said. “We’ve been suffering for one and a half years. I will work all of my life to sue this guy. I will spend each dollar I have.”
Alktari will face deportation proceedings following his release.
(Reporting by Edith Honan, editing by Alan Elsner)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1954807/posts
“[Mexican]Shootings target police, families”
SignOnSanDiego.com ^ | January 16, 2008 | Sandra Dibble
Posted on 01/16/2008 2:16:54 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
6 killed, 5 injured in three incidents
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “TIJUANA – A high-ranking police commander, his wife and his 11-year-old daughter were among six people killed in a burst of overnight violence in Tijuana that has left residents shaken and law enforcement officials vowing to fight harder than ever against organized crime.
The killings occurred in three parts of the city over six hours late Monday and early yesterday. By the time the violence was over, heavily armed men also had killed two other Tijuana police officers and a civilian, and wounded three adults, a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.
It remained unclear yesterday whether the shootings were linked.
The fact that children were shot has raised fears that violence has reached new levels in this city plagued by drug-related bloodshed. While law enforcement officials have been targeted, their families have largely been spared.
The attacks come a week after President Felipe Calderón’s government dispatched 1,000 federal police to Baja California, 500 of them to Tijuana to help state and local law enforcement agencies fight organized crime. Yesterday, federal troops helped guard Tijuana’s police headquarters. A few blocks away, soldiers kept watch over the state medical examiner’s office.
“It would be hard to have a day sadder than this one,” said Alberto Capella, Tijuana’s secretary of public safety, seated with top state and federal law enforcement officials at a packed news conference.
“We are not going to bow down; on the contrary, it gives us greater strength and determination.”
His own house was shot up by gunmen in November, shortly before he was appointed to his city post by Mayor Jorge Ramos, who has pledged to make public safety a hallmark of his administration.
In each of the three incidents, the assailants used AK-47 assault rifles.”