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While waiting for the latest "Bile Rain"

From our "LEO" "ex-Spurt"

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122471802693160527.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Border-Crossing Cards Can Be Copied
By KEITH J. WINSTEINArticle
Comments
more in Tech �New U.S. border-crossing cards can be copied and remotely disabled with off-the-shelf equipment, researchers said, the latest finding of security weaknesses in wireless technology.

The Department of Homeland Security, which has reviewed the findings, said it was aware of the possibility of electronic mischief and wasn't concerned.

The study, by researchers at the University of Washington and the RSA Laboratories division of EMC Corp., examined state and federal ID cards issued for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which tightens border security at land and sea crossings in North America beginning next June.

Such cards, including "enhanced" state drivers' licenses and U.S. passport cards, contain a tiny radio chip and transmit an identification number as the bearer drives up to a border crossing. That allows officials to speed up crossings for holders because identifying documents don't need to be inspected by hand.

But the cards' private identifying information -- a confidential, 10-digit ID number for each individual -- can be remotely extracted with equipment costing about $2,000, the researchers found, even from more than 30 feet away. The study results don't apply to U.S. passports, which include a more sophisticated security scheme.

The ID number from crossing cards can be copied to a new card costing about 10 cents, allowing somebody else to masquerade as the cardholder. At a border crossing, the cardholder's photo would also pop up on a guard's screen, so any impostor would need a similar appearance. The cardholder wouldn't know that their card has been copied.

Reproducing a crossing card is easy in part because the government's cards don't employ an anticopying feature, the study found, even though a Homeland Security document issued earlier this year touted the technique and said it would be employed.

In addition, new radio-enabled drivers' licenses issued by the state of Washington can be remotely "killed," or disabled, by a malicious transmission sent via radio, the study says. Four other states -- Arizona, Michigan, New York and Vermont -- issue or are planning radio-enabled drivers' licenses. Whether those states' licenses can be copied or killed isn't known. A spokeswoman for Washington's department of licensing said the state is looking into deactivating the "kill" feature in the future.

RSA, which sells computer-security tools and has proposed more protections in radio ID cards, is posting the findings on its Web site. "There is a critical infrastructure evolving around RFID," said Ari Juels, a researcher at the company, using the abbreviation for radio-frequency identification. "If we don't build in protections now, it will be much harder to build them in later," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security said fooling an immigration officer would require more than a forged ID card. The study raised "issues that we were aware of, but certainly issues that we feel have been addressed," said Kathleen Kraninger, the department's deputy assistant secretary for policy.

Write to Keith J. Winstein at keith.winsteinwsj.com

^

Hell this isn't nothing new, folks have been copying DL's and other types of ID cards for years. You act like you stumbled across something new. It's a game of cat & mouse. As soon as one high tech group comes out with a computer proof anti tamper card. The card hackers go to work try to copy it.

Sure would seem that empty vessels make the most noise,

would it not ?

Ringing "Hollow" is not my job,.....sport.

GTC

The title of this one is just to funny to pass up,

and I did need a good grin / gut laugh

BWAAAaaaaaa-HHHaaaaaaa


Mortgage Prospects Dim for Illegal Immigrants


By MIRIAM JORDANArticle
Comments
more in Real Estate Main �Jose Luis Hernandez rose from vegetable chopper to sous chef at an exclusive New York restaurant -- and saved $100,000 along the way. Recently, the illegal immigrant from Mexico contacted real-estate agents in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he currently rents an apartment.

"I wanted to use my money as a down payment on a house," says Mr. Hernandez, 32 years old. In doing so, he sought to join thousands of undocumented workers who in recent years have purchased homes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, instead of a Social Security number. The Internal Revenue Service doesn't give Social Security numbers to illegal immigrants; it issues ITINs, which enable them to open bank accounts and report their income to the government for tax purposes.

But Mr. Hernandez quickly learned that things have changed. He says he was told that, "unfortunately, if you don't have a Social Security number, you cannot buy property."

Dubbed ITIN mortgages, the loans that made homeownership a reality for thousands of undocumented workers have withered -- although not because they underperformed.

The loan program highlights contradictions in U.S. polices toward illegal immigrants. Even as the Department of Homeland Security sought to deport them, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. goaded banks and credit unions to bring undocumented immigrants into mainstream banking if they could prove they had steady income and were creditworthy. Beginning in 2003, when banks and credit unions first offered mortgages to undocumented immigrants, the small segment blossomed. The mortgages performed better than some others, partly because of stringent lending criteria and because they usually had fixed rates over a period of time.

But amid the crackdown on illegal immigration and the economic slowdown, the market for immigrants who boast the alternative nine-digit taxpayer ID is dying.

"If you want to buy a house and you're here without papers, now you can forget it," says Jesus Benitez, a real-estate agent who caters to Hispanics in Brooklyn.

Lenders first began to retreat last year during the debate over illegal immigration. Many institutions received a barrage of attacks from clients who opposed the ITIN-mortgage scheme.

"I got hate mail, including death threats, from people hostile to immigrant lending," says Tim Sandos, who worked at Citigroup when that institution began underwriting ITIN mortgages for first-time, low-income buyers in a partnership with the housing arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn. Mr. Sandos is president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

The environment worsened after the defeat in Congress last spring of an immigration bill, sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), which was designed to put undocumented workers on the path to legalization. Amid calls for a crackdown, the Bush Administration began raiding workplaces believed to employ illegal immigrants.

Bank of Bartlett, a small bank that serves the greater Memphis area, endured the "political heat," says John Byrd, president of Bartlett Mortgages, a unit of the Tennessee bank. "We felt we were doing the right thing; these people had been working here many years and paying taxes." All told, the small bank originated about $20 million in ITIN mortgages over four years, each worth about $100,000.

Less than 5% of Bank of Bartlett's ITIN loans are delinquent. Nationally, for loans more than 90 days in arrears, ITIN mortgages had a delinquency rate of about 0.5% last year, compared with 9.3% for subprime mortgages, according to independent estimates. But the meltdown of the mortgage market and the ensuing financial crisis, have delivered a final death knell to the segment.

"If the market closed for plain-vanilla loans, it is now more than closed for loans that fall outside the traditional mortgage pattern," says Leonardo Simpser, chief executive of the Hispanic National Mortgage Association, a private-investment company in San Diego that underwrote several hundred million dollars in ITIN home loans.

Late last year, Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp. pulled the plug on insurance for the loans. "Between the marketing efforts, risk management and underwriting, the volume from a cost-benefit perspective did not warrant continuing," said Mike Zimmerman, senior vice president for investor relations.

Unwilling to shoulder the risk alone, Bank of Bartlett and others began withdrawing from the ITIN home-loan market -- though they continue to service their current clients.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hernandez says he has no choice but to leave his cash in money-market and savings accounts in two banks. "I have a lot of money but I cannot invest it...," he says. "It's frustrating."



Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122463690372357037.html

Holy Smokes,...what a WILD , ....and off the wall decision from a Kalifornicte court

from Judicial Watch

Link: http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2...s-against-san-francisco-sanctuary-policy

California Appeals Court Rules Against San Francisco Sanctuary Policy
Contact:
Press Office 202-646-5188

Washington, DC -- October 23, 2008
City Must Follow State Law Requiring Police Officers to Report Suspected Aliens Arrested on Drug Charges to Feds
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the First District Court of Appeal for the State of California has ruled in a Judicial Watch taxpayer lawsuit that the San Francisco Police Department must comply with a state law requiring police officers to notify federal authorities when they arrest a person for various narcotics offenses whom they suspect to be an alien, legal or illegal [Fonseca v. Fong, Case No. A120206].

The appellate court reversed a lower court ruling that the SFPD was not required to obey the law because the law in question, Section 11369 of the California Health and Safety Code, invaded the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration. Rejecting this argument, the appellate court remanded the case back to the trial court to determine if the SFPD's policies comply with Section 11369. According to the appellate court ruling issued on October 22, 2008:

...Section 11369 does not require any state or local law enforcement agency to independently determine whether an arrestee is a citizen of the United States, let alone whether he or she is present in the United States lawfully or unlawfully. Nor does the statute create or authorize the creation of independent criteria by which to classify individuals based on immigration status... All of those determinations, as well as the duty to tell an arrestee who may be in this country unlawfully to either obtain legal status or leave, are left entirely to federal immigration authorities...the statute is therefore not an impermissible state regulation of immigration.

As a result of the appellate ruling, San Francisco must now end its sanctuary policy that protects aliens arrested for certain drug offenses from being reported to ICE.

Section 11369 of the Health and Safety Code (Section 11369) states: "[w]hen there is reason to believe that any person arrested for a violation [of any of 14 specified drug offenses] may not be a citizen of the United States, the arresting agency shall notify the appropriate agency of the United States having charge of deportation matters." However, as Judicial Watch argued on behalf of its taxpayer client, Charles Fonseca, the SFPD prohibited police officers from complying with this law. As evidence of the SFPD's illegal behavior, Judicial Watch quoted a statement from the San Francisco Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that noted a "bare minimum of cooperation" between administrators of the San Francisco County Jail and ICE.

"This landmark ruling strikes at the heart of the sanctuary movement for illegal aliens. San Francisco and other sanctuary cities are not above the law. This court ruling exposes the lie behind the argument that state and local law enforcement cannot help enforce immigration laws," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Get yer' vomit protection on,....this'll induce "rain"

Get down on your knees,.......and ACCEPT this,

BOW YOUR HEADS,

............DARE,...

just go ahead and DARE to conflict ,....

with the "Majesty of the law"

OOOOOHhhoohh,...they're so scary.


Link: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-police-officers-shot,0,4368378.story

Man suspected of shooting NYPD officers in subway station is arraigned in hospitalBy COLLEEN LONG | Associated Press Writer
11:13 PM EDT, October 23, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) _ A man accused of shooting two police officers in the New York City subway said he would have kept firing had he not been shot by another officer, according to court documents released Thursday.

Raul Nunez was arraigned at his bed at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital by a Queens judge on charges of attempted murder in the shooting during the Tuesday evening rush hour. He was being held without bail.

Officers Jason Maass and Shane Farina were wounded as they tried to arrest Nunez, who had illegally used a student MetroCard to enter a subway station in Queens, prosecutors said.

Nunez apparently used one of the officer's guns in the shooting.



"I saw the gun and I grabbed it and went wild," Nunez told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed by Queens prosecutors. "I would have kept shooting but the other cop shot me and broke my leg. They started to put me in cuffs and I just grabbed the gun."

Defense attorney Kenneth Deane had no immediate comment.

Nunez said he found the subway pass on the train last week, and he struggled with the officers when they tried to arrest him, according to court papers.

"We fell down and I saw a silver gun on the ground," he said, according to the complaint. "I picked up the gun and shot the officer from about 2 feet away."

After fleeing to the upper level on an escalator, Nunez was confronted by Lt. Gary Abrahall, police said. He fired three more times before Abrahall fired six shots, hitting Nunez four times, they said.

Nunez, 32, is from the Dominican Republic and was deported in 1998 by an immigration judge after a drug arrest in New York. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say they're investigating how he got back into the country.

He reportedly told authorities he resisted because he was afraid he would be deported again if he was arrested.

Farina, who was shot near his sternum and suffered a fractured rib, remained in critical condition but was stable. Maass, who was shot in the lower back, was released early Wednesday from a hospital. Both officers were wearing bulletproof vests, police said.

Nunez was shot twice in the left leg and once in the torso and right leg. His condition wasn't immediately available Thursday.

Nunez could face 25 years to life in prison and deportation if convicted. He also faces a charge of re-entering the country after deportation, federal immigration officials said.

ees Nunez speak cheet,

............O entendemos,...?

No?

GTC

Hard data,...

The poor widdle teengs,.....

musta' had "Issues" while they were earning / learning to kill,.....

by a culture 3 full generations old.

Link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20081023-1616-ca-gangraids.html\

Alleged gang members indicted after NorCal sweep


Save This Email This Print This Most Popular


ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:16 p.m. October 23, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO � Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Thursday that charges 29 people with alleged connections to the notorious MS-13 street gang.
The charges come a day after authorities announced federal raids in San Francisco, Richmond and South San Francisco as part of a three-year undercover investigation.



AdvertisementThe 52-count indictment includes charges for alleged drug and firearms trafficking, attempted murder, robbery, assault and other violent crimes. More than 20 people were indicted on federal racketeering.
MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, has roots in El Salvador. Salvadoran national police also assisted in the investigation, said Marcy Forman, an investigations director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

�With each takedown, it's a significant victory and it makes it difficult to replenish (their ranks),� U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello said. �This is what the people want and need.�

Members of San Francisco's 20th Street clique, a faction of MS-13, have ties to at least five slayings in San Francisco, including the June 22 shooting deaths of Tony Bologna and his sons Matthew and Michael. Police said the family was mistaken for gang rivals and targeted after an earlier shooting.

MS-13 member, Edwin Ramos, faces murder charges in the Bologna slayings.

Another member, Erick Lopez, is in custody on federal weapons charges after he was found with the weapon that police said was used in the March 29 slayings of Ernad Joldic and Phillip Ng in San Francisco. Lopez hasn't been charged.


Reader

What's the big deal about this Nunuz case in NY? Sad to hear that two NYPD officers were wounded though. Is it because he was deported and came back into the US? He probably didn't cross the Az. border if he was from the Dom. Repub.

I know that you put alot of impact on MS-13, but remember they are only ONE of many other Hispanic gangs, that operate in and out of this country.

.........Yadda,...

GTC

peestol fight,

...funny,....no "Woungs or Deats"

ees better like Dat'....joo mus 'maintain' a sense of Joomor

Link:http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_10789916

Border Patrol agent fires shots at man allegedly holding gun in Mexico
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 10/23/2008 05:36:50 PM MDT


EL PASO - A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired gunshots at a man in Mexico who pointed a handgun at him during an immigrant smuggling attempt Wednesday evening along the Rio Grande in the Riverside area in the Lower Valley, officials said Thursday.
The shooting is under investigation and there were no known injuries, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

On Wednesday evening, Border Patrol agents were responding to a group making an illegal crossing when the suspected smuggler ran back to Mexico where he was joined by another person and they began throwing rocks at the agents, Mosier said.

"The smuggler took position behind a small tree, pointed a handgun and yelled he was going to kill them," Mosier said. The agent then fired three rounds from his service-issued handgun, according to the preliminary investigation.

Prayers for the Family,

rough town Phoenix.

link: http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=979882

Officer killed by suspected illegal immigrant drunk driver
October 25th, 2008 @ 10:30am
by Jim Cross/KTAR

A 25-year-old police officer is dead at the hands of a suspected drunk driver in the country illegally.

Officer Shane Figueroa was responding to a shots fired call at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday when 50-year-old Jose Gonzalez slammed his pickup truck into the officer's car near 19th Avenue and Roeser Road.

"As we were interviewing him last night, he advised us that he was an undocumented worker from Mexico," said Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris.

"He has been booked into county jail. We are doing further investigation not only on the accident, but on the background of the individual [as well]."

There are four warrants for Gonzalez's arrest under a different name, two of which are for DUI. He was booked on charges including manslaughter and assault.

Gonzalez suffered minor injuries, while his passenger, described by police as an adult male, was seriously hurt.

Chief Harris and Mayor Phil Gordon held a 9 a.m. news conference at Desert Horizon Precinct. Gordon did not speak at the conference.

Figueroa had served less than three years as a Phoenix police officer. He leaves behind a wife and three-month-old daughter.

Listen to audio of Sergeant Andy Hill and Chief Jack Harris at the press conference.

Sad to hear of the death. What do you expect with a city with a high undocumented alien population, in a city less then 200 miles North of the border. This in a state that a very important US Sen. who really doesn't care about strict border or immigration issues.

Would you of posted this death of this LEO, had he not been killed by an undocumented Hispanic? What if he was ran over, by a senior American citizen, would you of posted it??

Originally Posted By: crossfireoops
Yup,....well I would just interject into that little advisory that we're not discussing "Illegal Aliens"

....we're discussing MS13.

Dig ?

GTC



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It still doesn't matter if they belong to a gang or a church group. There still hands off. Hell the Italian Mafia and the KKK have killed more folks inside the USA, then Hispanic gangs like MS13 ever have.

Wow. A response to a 2 year old dead thread?

Come on, bro....you're killing me. I imagine everyone on the 'fire knows about the dangers on the border and on both sides of the border.

It's all connected, as far as the gangs go, do you not believe that Hispanic gangs in this country have illegals as members? They join for protection from other gangs, and for the money made by selling illegal narcotics. The illegals, the gangs, the drugs, the violence, it's all connected. But as i've stated, there's other organized criminal organizations, that are as dangerous and have caused as many deaths in the country as the Hispanic gangs.

White Outlaw M/C gangs, probably kill as many, over their turf & drug wars. The interesting point is that they normally are killing other gangmembers, or folks involved in criminal activity of one degree or the other.

He's got everything, i've ever said, broken down and ready to post at a moments notice. Stan, be ready for a cussing from Cross, you said something, not in line with his beliefs.

"Now your putting words in peoples mouth Crossie, if your going to quoate me, at least get it right word for word. "

I DID get your words right, though,....didn't I ?

And I'm far from being the only one that's a bit perplexed at just WHY you are posting chit like THIS, and continue to do so,.....

"t still doesn't matter if they belong to a gang or a church group. There still hands off. Hell the Italian Mafia and the KKK have killed more folks inside the USA, then Hispanic gangs like MS13 ever have."