Costa Mesa man blew himself up, police believe

Local police and FBI agents looked for answers — and explosives — in a Costa Mesa home Monday after a man apparently blew himself up in a blast that shocked the quiet, suburban neighborhood where he lived alone.

Authorities who searched the scene said they found at least two explosive devices in the modest one-story home and detonated them, and they later discovered a rambling and worrisome 17,000-word essay online expressing a deep fear of government.

Police said it appears Kevin Harris, 52, intended to kill himself in the Sunday night explosion, which neighbors said sounded like a car crash or a garbage can tipping over.

Many of the homes in the neighborhood remained empty Monday as police patrolled the streets south of the 405 Freeway near Harbor Boulevard and investigators in white hazmat suits crept through the overgrown brush in the frontyard of the Bermuda Drive home.

Neighbors said Harris seemed odd yet harmless, though several said they tended to quicken their pace when they passed his home.

The essay, titled "The Pricker: A True Story of Assassination, Terrorism and High Treason," includes references to aliens, the O.J. Simpson trial, the U.S. government and "the pricker," which it describes as "an assassin's weapon that deposits biological agents into a victim's skin, on contact, without their knowledge."

Throughout the paper, the author — identifying himself as Harris — expresses belief that the U.S. government and its allies control the flow of information to the public and assassinate dissenters through freak accidents and diseases such as cancer and AIDS.

The essay claimed that the government was behind the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and John Lennon, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the death of Righteous Brothers singer Bobby Hatfield.

Family members described Harris as a brilliant and gentle person who had never expressed an interest in explosives or weaponry.

Carol Harris, his 82-year-old mother, said he had been diagnosed with a mental disorder, possibly schizophrenia.

She said that she hadn't seen her son in three years. She lives in Nevada and said that the last time they spoke, he told her was disconnecting his phone because he was getting unwanted calls. She said he didn't work and refused to let anyone enter his home.

"He was a very gentle person," she said.

Mark Harris, 57, said his brother was the youngest of five boys, and although the others were smart and high achieving — one is a professor, another a pharmacist — Kevin was the smartest.

"For us it's very troubling that he ended this way," Mark Harris said. "How he got off on his ideas on what you might call conspiracy theories … it's always been troubling to anybody who knows him because he's so smart."

Kevin Harris' home, practically hidden behind tall bushes and trees, was wrapped in foil, and when authorities entered, it was hard to see because all the windows had been covered, police said.

Harris posted messages on a tree on the edge of his yard, neighbors said. Sometimes the essay was there; other times there were cryptic notes.

David Rosendahl said he runs in the area regularly and started noticing odd notes posted to the tree about four or five months ago. He snapped a photo of the latest note Saturday morning.

"For your information: My introspection and my adversaries behavior have convinced me that electronic mind reading is now a reality," it read.

At other times, Rosendahl said, there was a clipboard and pen attached to the tree with papers allowing room for names, addresses and signatures — similar to voting logs, he said.

Doug and Jenny Nadasdy, who have lived in the neighborhood for years, said they saw Harris minutes before he died. Doug Nadasdy said he nodded at Harris and Harris nodded back, but that was the extent of their exchange.

On Sunday night, Harris was seen lying in his front yard. He refused medical attention when paramedics arrived.

A short time later, the explosion rocked the neighborhood, and police found Harris' body in the front doorway.

"It was a pretty powerful explosion," Costa Mesa Police Lt. Greg Scott said.

The online essay warned of dangers inside the home.

"I am at 3152 Bermuda Dr., Costa Mesa, CA, USA. You can tell it's me because I am the only one who can get into my house," the document read. "I think it may be dangerous for you to come to my house alone."

lauren.williams@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Immigration bill would be largest such effort ever attempted

WASHINGTON — After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of eight senators is poised to offer a sweeping bill to rewrite the nation's immigration laws this week, taking advantage of a changed political alignment that, for the first time in nearly a generation, appears to have opened the way for comprehensive legislation.

The bill would chart a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million people in this country without proper legal status, spend billions of dollars more on border security, create new legal guest worker programs for low-income jobs and farm labor, require new verification measures for most companies hiring new workers and significantly expand overall immigration to the U.S. for the next decade, according to an outline obtained by The Times' Washington bureau.

The legalization program would amount to the largest such effort any nation has attempted, affecting more than three times as many people as the Reagan-era immigration reform law. But it is only one part of the legislation, and perhaps not the portion with the greatest impact.

The agricultural workforce — where half the workers currently have no legal status — would be transformed by a new guest worker program that is designed to bring more than 300,000 immigrant farmworkers to the nation's fields over the next decade and provide field workers an expedited pathway to citizenship. A new visa program for housecleaners, landscapers and other low-skill occupations would be created, while high-tech industries would be allowed to double the number of foreign workers they use.

All told, the country's current inflow of about 1 million legal immigrants a year could grow by half over the next decade.

The bill also would probably spur a spending spree on the Southwest border as the government rolls out more surveillance technology, including unmanned drones and military-grade radar, to detect people crossing into the United States.

Although Congress has deadlocked repeatedly on immigration policy, leading figures in both parties expect that the legislation, expected to run hundreds of pages, stands an excellent chance of approval in the Senate, which plans to begin debate on it next month, and that some version of it could become law by year's end.

That would make the effort the first comprehensive immigration overhaul since the 1986 amnesty law signed by then-President Reagan.

"I think we are on the cusp of history here. This is a really big deal," said Marshall Fitz, an immigration expert at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington. "We are operating in a Washington environment that is so dysfunctional, so political, so partisan and yet on this issue.... eight members came together on this from a full ideological spectrum — that is historic."

Opponents warn that American workers will see their wages erode in the face of greater competition from migrants. Supporters counter that the bill would benefit the U.S. economy by bringing the current unauthorized population out of legal limbo and by providing a steady flow of legal workers for industries with labor shortages.

The legislative work in Washington reflects the changed dynamic in the country, as polls show a majority of Americans back some type of legal status for those living here without proper authorization.

Rather than viewing immigrants as a threat or burden to society, increasing numbers of Americans hold positive views of the contributions immigrants make, polls show.

That shift, along with the growing power of Latino voters, many of whom have made immigration reform a priority, appears to have broken a deadlock on the issue. After the overwhelming Latino vote for President Obama in 2012, many Republican strategists decided their party had little choice but to embrace reform. They tapped Sen. Marco Rubio, the rising tea party Republican from Florida, as their front man in talks with Democratic leaders and the handful of Republicans who had previously supported a legalization plan.

"What we have seen is, I think, a remarkable — in Washington — level of consensus between and support for bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform," said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday.

For months, the eight senators — four Democrats and four Republicans — have been meeting privately, often in the office of Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) steps from the Senate floor, as the contours of the bill took shape.

Securing the nation's borders against illegal crossings has long been a cornerstone of reform efforts. The new plan requires a secure border with Mexico before the other provisions of the bill, including the citizenship proposals, could take hold. It provides $3 billion to increase surveillance, including the use of unmanned aerial drones. The Southwest border would be considered secure if, within five years, 90% of those attempting to cross illegally are turned back in areas that have had more than 30,000 apprehensions a year.

An additional $1.5 billion would go toward a double-layer fence constructed with help from the National Guard. Money would also go to local authorities to prevent border crossings, to triple prosecutions in some areas, and to dispatch 3,500 more customs agents.

After five years, if the border security goals remain unmet, a commission of border state governors and attorneys general will be given money and authority to implement further measures. "We're confident it's achievable," Rubio said over the weekend in a Fox News interview.

Gaining citizenship would be a decadelong and costly process that would be tied to the border security provisions.

Six months after the bill becomes law, most of the 11 million people in the country without authorization — those who have been in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, and have no serious criminal record — would be eligible to apply for a new probationary legal status. That would allow them to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. They would be required to pay a $500 initial penalty as well as an application fee and back taxes. The probationary status would be good for six years and could then be renewed after payment of another $500 penalty.

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Gospel singer George Beverly Shea dead at 104

CHARLOTTE, N.C.  — George Beverly Shea, the booming baritone who sang to millions of Christians at evangelist Billy Graham's crusades, has died after a brief illness. He was 104.

Spokesman Brent Rinehart of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says Shea died Tuesday night after a brief illness.

Shea was well-known as a gospel soloist before he and Graham met in the early 1940s. He joined Graham's crusade team in 1947 and stayed until Graham's declining health ended most of the evangelist's public appearances nearly 60 years later.

Besides his distinctive voice, Shea was known for his trademark rendition of "How Great Thou Art" and his inspirational "The Wonder of It All."

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Wendy Greuel seeks $175 million in savings in L.A. budget

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel said Monday that she would seek an extra $175 million in savings from the city's budget by using such strategies as cutting the City Council's discretionary funds and changing the investment practices of its employee retirement systems.

Appearing with several business leaders, Greuel said her budget plan would generate $60 million in savings per year by reducing the size of public employee health benefits and worker compensation outlays by 10%. Another $40 million could be found, she said, by modifying the way the city's pension boards invest and cutting the amount they spend on consultants.

"We believe that $40 million is a conservative number," Greuel told the group. "It's been a long time since anyone has looked at those investment practices."

The proposal was unveiled after months of complaints from civic leaders that Greuel, the city controller, and her opponent, Councilman Eric Garcetti, have offered too few ideas for closing the budget shortfall. That gap has been described by the city's top budget official as being somewhere between $150 million and $165 million, although some say it is considerably lower.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who leaves office June 30, plans to unveil his final budget Monday. A 12-member commission on the city's economic woes, set up by Council President Herb Wesson and co-chaired by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor, held its first meeting Monday. That session was not open to the public, and Kantor would not say where or when it occurred.

Monday's proposal offered Greuel a chance to reposition herself on the budget after taking heat over the public employee unions that have put more than $2 million into the effort to elect her. As she sought that union support over the last few months, she went after Garcetti over his backing of layoffs, furloughs and an ordinance that hiked the retirement age for future city workers.

Greuel said the city did not properly negotiate that ordinance with its civilian employee unions.

Greuel's budget strategy was laid out at an event where she picked up the endorsement of the Central City Assn., a downtown organization focused heavily on real estate development. The group's top executive, Carol Schatz, said it was significant that Greuel has support from both labor leaders and business groups.

Appearing with Schatz, Greuel repeated her promise to sit with union leaders and discuss a hike in the retirement age for existing city workers. She said city leaders have not done enough to cut retirement costs, which have been consuming a greater share of the budget for basic services.

Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman said Greuel's plan includes two key ideas that Garcetti has discussed for several weeks: securing greater healthcare contributions from city employees and collecting unpaid taxes from parking lot operators. And he argued that Greuel's idea of hiking the retirement age of current employees would save nothing.

State law prohibits city leaders from cutting the retirement benefits of existing workers unless they provide other benefits of equal financial value, Millman said. Greuel's own budget presentation has numbers showing that retirement cost projections for the current fiscal year are $263 million lower than had been expected in 2010, he said.

"It's pretty clear that she's acknowledging some of the pension reforms that Eric Garcetti negotiated," Millman said.

Greuel's remarks drew praise from Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., who said she had offered a comprehensive budget strategy. A more skeptical reception came from George Aliano, who serves on the board that administers retirement benefits for retired police officers and firefighters.

If the candidates want to secure pension savings, they should look at the raises they have awarded, said Aliano, a retired police officer. "The more they do that, the larger the bill becomes," he said.

Garcetti and Greuel voted in 2007 for a five-year package of raises totaling 25% for civilian employees. That deal now covers seven years.

In a separate interview, Greuel accused Garcetti of spinning out big ideas without saying how he would pay for them. She cited his statements about rejuvenating 20 "great streets" in Los Angeles, offering summer jobs to teens around the city and capping a portion of the 101 Freeway in Hollywood and covering it with a park.

"You have to be able to say how you are going to pay for it, so the public knows," she said.

Garcetti's team said the freeway park was mentioned in response to a question at last week's debate about big dreams for the city. The park, Millman said, is a "shoot-the-moon idea" that community groups have only begun to study, not a project that would burden the city treasury in the near term.

Millman also said federal tax credits could help pay for the street improvements envisioned by Garcetti.

Greuel said a summer job for every L.A. teen would cost $325 million. Garcetti's camp said the councilman was referring to the 10,000 underprivileged kids who were turned away after applying for summer jobs.

Millman pegged the cost of helping them at $20 million, saying half the money could come from federal block grants and the rest from private sources.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this report.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Costa Mesa man blew himself up, police believe

Local police and FBI agents looked for answers — and explosives — in a Costa Mesa home Monday after a man apparently blew himself up in a blast that shocked the quiet, suburban neighborhood where he lived alone.

Authorities who searched the scene said they found at least two explosive devices in the modest one-story home and detonated them, and they later discovered a rambling and worrisome 17,000-word essay online expressing a deep fear of government.

Police said it appears Kevin Harris, 52, intended to kill himself in the Sunday night explosion, which neighbors said sounded like a car crash or a garbage can tipping over.

Many of the homes in the neighborhood remained empty Monday as police patrolled the streets south of the 405 Freeway near Harbor Boulevard and investigators in white hazmat suits crept through the overgrown brush in the frontyard of the Bermuda Drive home.

Neighbors said Harris seemed odd yet harmless, though several said they tended to quicken their pace when they passed his home.

The essay, titled "The Pricker: A True Story of Assassination, Terrorism and High Treason," includes references to aliens, the O.J. Simpson trial, the U.S. government and "the pricker," which it describes as "an assassin's weapon that deposits biological agents into a victim's skin, on contact, without their knowledge."

Throughout the paper, the author — identifying himself as Harris — expresses belief that the U.S. government and its allies control the flow of information to the public and assassinate dissenters through freak accidents and diseases such as cancer and AIDS.

The essay claimed that the government was behind the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and John Lennon, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the death of Righteous Brothers singer Bobby Hatfield.

Family members described Harris as a brilliant and gentle person who had never expressed an interest in explosives or weaponry.

Carol Harris, his 82-year-old mother, said he had been diagnosed with a mental disorder, possibly schizophrenia.

She said that she hadn't seen her son in three years. She lives in Nevada and said that the last time they spoke, he told her was disconnecting his phone because he was getting unwanted calls. She said he didn't work and refused to let anyone enter his home.

"He was a very gentle person," she said.

Mark Harris, 57, said his brother was the youngest of five boys, and although the others were smart and high achieving — one is a professor, another a pharmacist — Kevin was the smartest.

"For us it's very troubling that he ended this way," Mark Harris said. "How he got off on his ideas on what you might call conspiracy theories … it's always been troubling to anybody who knows him because he's so smart."

Kevin Harris' home, practically hidden behind tall bushes and trees, was wrapped in foil, and when authorities entered, it was hard to see because all the windows had been covered, police said.

Harris posted messages on a tree on the edge of his yard, neighbors said. Sometimes the essay was there; other times there were cryptic notes.

David Rosendahl said he runs in the area regularly and started noticing odd notes posted to the tree about four or five months ago. He snapped a photo of the latest note Saturday morning.

"For your information: My introspection and my adversaries behavior have convinced me that electronic mind reading is now a reality," it read.

At other times, Rosendahl said, there was a clipboard and pen attached to the tree with papers allowing room for names, addresses and signatures — similar to voting logs, he said.

Doug and Jenny Nadasdy, who have lived in the neighborhood for years, said they saw Harris minutes before he died. Doug Nadasdy said he nodded at Harris and Harris nodded back, but that was the extent of their exchange.

On Sunday night, Harris was seen lying in his front yard. He refused medical attention when paramedics arrived.

A short time later, the explosion rocked the neighborhood, and police found Harris' body in the front doorway.

"It was a pretty powerful explosion," Costa Mesa Police Lt. Greg Scott said.

The online essay warned of dangers inside the home.

"I am at 3152 Bermuda Dr., Costa Mesa, CA, USA. You can tell it's me because I am the only one who can get into my house," the document read. "I think it may be dangerous for you to come to my house alone."

lauren.williams@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Immigration bill would be largest such effort ever attempted

WASHINGTON — After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of eight senators is poised to offer a sweeping bill to rewrite the nation's immigration laws this week, taking advantage of a changed political alignment that, for the first time in nearly a generation, appears to have opened the way for comprehensive legislation.

The bill would chart a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million people in this country without proper legal status, spend billions of dollars more on border security, create new legal guest worker programs for low-income jobs and farm labor, require new verification measures for most companies hiring new workers and significantly expand overall immigration to the U.S. for the next decade, according to an outline obtained by The Times' Washington bureau.

The legalization program would amount to the largest such effort any nation has attempted, affecting more than three times as many people as the Reagan-era immigration reform law. But it is only one part of the legislation, and perhaps not the portion with the greatest impact.

The agricultural workforce — where half the workers currently have no legal status — would be transformed by a new guest worker program that is designed to bring more than 300,000 immigrant farmworkers to the nation's fields over the next decade and provide field workers an expedited pathway to citizenship. A new visa program for housecleaners, landscapers and other low-skill occupations would be created, while high-tech industries would be allowed to double the number of foreign workers they use.

All told, the country's current inflow of about 1 million legal immigrants a year could grow by half over the next decade.

The bill also would probably spur a spending spree on the Southwest border as the government rolls out more surveillance technology, including unmanned drones and military-grade radar, to detect people crossing into the United States.

Although Congress has deadlocked repeatedly on immigration policy, leading figures in both parties expect that the legislation, expected to run hundreds of pages, stands an excellent chance of approval in the Senate, which plans to begin debate on it next month, and that some version of it could become law by year's end.

That would make the effort the first comprehensive immigration overhaul since the 1986 amnesty law signed by then-President Reagan.

"I think we are on the cusp of history here. This is a really big deal," said Marshall Fitz, an immigration expert at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington. "We are operating in a Washington environment that is so dysfunctional, so political, so partisan and yet on this issue.... eight members came together on this from a full ideological spectrum — that is historic."

Opponents warn that American workers will see their wages erode in the face of greater competition from migrants. Supporters counter that the bill would benefit the U.S. economy by bringing the current unauthorized population out of legal limbo and by providing a steady flow of legal workers for industries with labor shortages.

The legislative work in Washington reflects the changed dynamic in the country, as polls show a majority of Americans back some type of legal status for those living here without proper authorization.

Rather than viewing immigrants as a threat or burden to society, increasing numbers of Americans hold positive views of the contributions immigrants make, polls show.

That shift, along with the growing power of Latino voters, many of whom have made immigration reform a priority, appears to have broken a deadlock on the issue. After the overwhelming Latino vote for President Obama in 2012, many Republican strategists decided their party had little choice but to embrace reform. They tapped Sen. Marco Rubio, the rising tea party Republican from Florida, as their front man in talks with Democratic leaders and the handful of Republicans who had previously supported a legalization plan.

"What we have seen is, I think, a remarkable — in Washington — level of consensus between and support for bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform," said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday.

For months, the eight senators — four Democrats and four Republicans — have been meeting privately, often in the office of Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) steps from the Senate floor, as the contours of the bill took shape.

Securing the nation's borders against illegal crossings has long been a cornerstone of reform efforts. The new plan requires a secure border with Mexico before the other provisions of the bill, including the citizenship proposals, could take hold. It provides $3 billion to increase surveillance, including the use of unmanned aerial drones. The Southwest border would be considered secure if, within five years, 90% of those attempting to cross illegally are turned back in areas that have had more than 30,000 apprehensions a year.

An additional $1.5 billion would go toward a double-layer fence constructed with help from the National Guard. Money would also go to local authorities to prevent border crossings, to triple prosecutions in some areas, and to dispatch 3,500 more customs agents.

After five years, if the border security goals remain unmet, a commission of border state governors and attorneys general will be given money and authority to implement further measures. "We're confident it's achievable," Rubio said over the weekend in a Fox News interview.

Gaining citizenship would be a decadelong and costly process that would be tied to the border security provisions.

Six months after the bill becomes law, most of the 11 million people in the country without authorization — those who have been in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, and have no serious criminal record — would be eligible to apply for a new probationary legal status. That would allow them to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. They would be required to pay a $500 initial penalty as well as an application fee and back taxes. The probationary status would be good for six years and could then be renewed after payment of another $500 penalty.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

With Al Qaeda shattered, U.S. counter-terrorism's future unclear

WASHINGTON — Skilled in tracking foreign terrorists, Jarret Brachman once was a sought-after expert on Al Qaeda, advising several federal agencies and speaking regularly around the country.

Now the former research director of the Combating Terrorism Center, a think tank at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, has turned his focus away from Islamic militants. He spends most of his time consulting with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies about threats from domestic extremists and antigovernment militias.

"I have totally re-branded my career," Brachman said. "I still do the Al Qaeda stuff, but there's no interest, no demand.... We've broken Al Qaeda's back, strategically."

Thanks to drone missile strikes and other counter-terrorism operations, the network founded by Osama bin Laden has been so eviscerated that U.S. intelligence agencies no longer fully understand the organizational structure below its nominal leader, Ayman Zawahiri, according to defense officials. The CIA has killed Zawahiri's top lieutenants almost as quickly as they are identified.

Obama administration officials say the global network is in transition. They say it has decentralized from a top-down group based in Pakistan into smaller, far-flung and largely autonomous factions.

Affiliates in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Mali and Somalia remain dangerous, the officials say, so U.S. forces can't relax their focus.

"The threat from Al Qaeda and the potential for a massive coordinated attack on the United States may be diminished, but the jihadist movement is more diffuse," James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. "Lone wolves, domestic extremists and jihad-inspired affiliated groups are still determined to attack Western interests."

U.S. intelligence officials note that the most active Al Qaeda franchise still publicly aspires to attack the U.S. homeland. In 2009, the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula failed in an effort to bomb a passenger jet over Detroit, and in 2010, it sought to send bomb-laden packages to two Jewish institutions in Chicago.

Since then, however, a new Yemeni government and scores of U.S. drone strikes have gutted the group. Last year, Western intelligence agencies penetrated the Yemeni franchise with a double agent who helped thwart another plot to blow up an aircraft.

A growing group of analysts and former government officials say the threat from Al Qaeda affiliates is overblown. Most terrorist groups are focused on local concerns, not on America, and have little or no ability to organize a broader plot.

"To the best of our information, there is nobody out there with both the desire and the capabilities to cause any serious damage to the U.S. in any way at this moment," said Rosa Brooks, a former deputy assistant secretary of Defense.

As Al Qaeda recedes as a direct threat, the CIA and special military forces appear to have throttled back on targeted killings. They have launched 16 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen this year, according to the Long War Journal, which tracks reports of the attacks. That pace is much slower than in 2012, which saw 88 strikes over the course of the year.

The Obama administration also has begun bringing accused terrorists into civilian courts, rather than before military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. In March, it brought three terrorism suspects into New York courtrooms after they were captured overseas.

"There's clear recognition, from the White House on down, that as we wind down these wars we need to address the hard question of what does a sustainable counter-terrorism policy look like for the next phase," said Shawn Brimley, who left the White House last year as director for strategic planning on the National Security Council.

The new CIA director, John Brennan, has indicated he is eager to move his agency away from targeted killings and back to its core responsibilities, spying and espionage. One option under discussion at the White House is to transfer much of the CIA's drone fleet to the Pentagon.

But drones aside, Brimley warned that America's immense counter-terrorism agencies and their supporters will resist ratcheting back, even at a time of shrinking budgets.

"You give a bureaucracy 10 years of unfettered growth and no real hard questions, and you're going to have an entire industry looking at Al Qaeda nodes as an existential threat," Brimley said.

There are also political hurdles. When a local Al Qaeda faction was linked to an attack that killed four Americans in September in Benghazi, Libya, it sparked turmoil in the U.S. presidential campaign and angry congressional hearings.

"It's very hard to work this problem from a coldly analytic perspective because that's not how the people who pay our bills, Congress and the public, think about it," said Philip Mudd, a former top CIA and FBI official who is author of a new book, "Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda."

Mudd contends that the intelligence machinery that "finds, fixes and finishes" terrorist leaders is needed for the foreseeable future, even if only in rare cases.

"Nobody can do what we do in terms of that kind of targeting work," he said.

ken.dilanian@latimes.com

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Prominent GOP donor Bob Perry dies

AUSTIN, Texas  — A family friend says Republican mega-donor Bob Perry, who built a Houston real estate empire and became among the most prolific political fundraisers in the country, has died. He was 80.

Former Texas state Rep. Neal Jones said late Sunday that Perry died Saturday night. He said Perry "passed away peacefully in his sleep." Jones did not offer further details.

Perry was a fixture of GOP fundraising in Texas — and nationally — dating back to former President George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial races in the mid-1990s. His largesse included giving big in 2004 to the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth campaign that sought to discredit then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2013

Perry was also a prominent financial supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but was not related.

"Mr. Perry was a wonderful friend to many all around the United States," Jones said. "With his passing we've lost a great patriot who has made a great difference in the lives of people all across the land. He will be surly missed."

 He is the founder of Houston-based Perry Homes, one of the largest homebuilders in Texas.

Last year alone, Bob Perry gave more than $18 million to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and organization that backed his candidacy. That ranked him third among all Romney donors, behind only Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons.

Perry was also involved in state politics. Late last year he gave $45,000 to George P. Bush, the 36-year-old nephew of former President George W. Bush who is now running for Texas Land Commissioner in his first bid for public office.

Perry's generosity extended to other statehouses, included in Wisconsin last year as Republican Gov. Scott Walker fought efforts for a recall. Perry donated at least $250,000 to help Walker keep his job, making Perry among the largest out-of-state donors. 

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Afghanistan faults U.S., Taliban for deadly airstrike

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban and U.S. military were both at fault in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan this month that killed 17 civilians, including 12 children, according to an Afghan government investigation. The inquiry raised the number of civilian deaths from an earlier total of 11.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has completed an investigation of the same incident in Kunar province, but its report is still under review, a coalition spokesman said.

The deaths of civilians in the Afghanistan war have been a highly sensitive political issue.

According to the Afghan investigation of the April 6 incident released Saturday, security forces were on a mission to arrest two Taliban commanders, Qari Mohammad Hanif and Ali Khan, when they were ambushed by gunmen with light and heavy weapons, resulting in the death of an American advisor.

U.S. forces then called in NATO airplanes, investigators said, both to remove the body and to strike homes believed to house attackers. Afghan investigators said the houses were made of wood and mud and quickly collapsed, resulting in the large number of casualties. In addition to those killed, 12 people were injured. Reports at the time said the Taliban fighters were also killed.

"As the reports confirm that armed Taliban were there in the area, we strongly condemn the use of civilians and their homes as shields by the Taliban," President Hamid Karzai said in a statement. But, he added, airstrikes on residential areas are not acceptable "under any name and for any purpose whatsoever."

Karzai added that the airstrike in a crowded residential area by the International Security Assistance Force violated human rights and breached an Afghan executive order banning the use of such weapons in populated neighborhoods.

Karzai's relations with partners of the international military coalition, particularly the United States, have been strained as foreign combat troops prepare to leave the country by late 2014. Political analysts say Karzai is seeking to distance himself in hopes of strengthening his credentials as a leader who has defended the nation's interests.

The investigation was done by a team from Kabul in consultation with 75 tribal and religious leaders from the province, which is often used by militants from northwestern Pakistan.

The U.S.-led coalition said it launched airstrikes in Kunar province that day but has not confirmed civilian casualties. It also said the strikes did not take place in an area with buildings.

According to a statement from the Afghan president's office, Karzai told President Obama on Tuesday that more such incidents could jeopardize a bilateral security pact aimed at allowing a limited U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014. The two sides have been trying to hammer out an agreement, but have failed to see eye to eye on whether U.S. soldiers would be immune from Afghan legal jurisdiction, a standard provision in all so-called status of forces agreements with foreign powers.

Atiqullah Amarkhail, a Kabul-based military analyst, said the U.S. and Afghan forces should have assumed that they would face a hostile reaction from neighbors when attempting to arrest the two Taliban commanders and employed more backup, obviating the need for airstrikes.

Although public protests of airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties have waned somewhat, the issue remains a sensitive one, Amarkhail said.

"People's tears have dried because it's happened so often," he said. "But the anger hasn't gone away."

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash in Kabul contributed to this report.

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Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons leads on bullet train contract

The top candidate to build the first 29 miles of California's bullet train in the Central Valley bid just under $1 billion, below the state estimate of the cost, project officials announced Friday.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority said Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, a joint venture of U.S. firms, submitted a bid of about $985 million and was ranked first out of five competitors. The team offered the "apparent best value" based on price and technical proposals, evaluators said.

Rail officials had estimated the cost of the initial section between Madera and Fresno at $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion. Construction is supposed to begin by July.

"Today is a significant milestone," said Jeff Morales, the authority's chief executive. "We received proposals from five world-class teams and are moving forward to deliver a world-class program. It's time to get to work in the Central Valley and create thousands of jobs."

Tutor Perini, based in Sylmar, is a key partner in the joint venture. The firm has worked closely in the past with unions. Labor has strongly supported the project and spent $1 million on the political campaign to win voters' approval of the system in 2008.

The high-speed rail board is expected to award the contract for the first section in the coming weeks.

Of the five bidders, the Dragados/Samsung/Pulice joint venture came in second with a bid of about $1.1 billion. California Backbone Builders involving Ferrovial and Acciona bid almost $1.4 billion and ranked third. Ferrovial, Acciona and Dragados are Spanish firms. Samsung is Korean.

California High-Speed Rail Partners, including Fluor and Skanska based in Sweden, was fourth with a bid of about $1.3 billion and California High Speed Ventures with Kiewit Infrastructure West and Granite Construction, both U.S. companies, was fifth in the rankings, with a bid of almost $1.54 billion.

In January, the five teams submitted their proposals, which were evaluated by a panel of state officials.

Building the first section will require a massive engineering feat that includes cutting a 1.7-mile trench through Fresno, erecting a 1.2-mile viaduct, three major bridges and using giant hydraulic jacks to create a tunnel beneath California 180 in the Fresno area.

The schedule is tight and delays would trigger penalties of $60,000 per day until reaching 10% of the contract, or as much as $150 million, which could wipe out much of the potential profit.

Critics of the project, including former World Bank executive William Grindley, have argued that the first bids will understate the full construction cost of the Fresno segment and are likely to contain provisions that could inflate the final bill.

Whether construction will begin as scheduled is also uncertain. The authority still does not own a single parcel of land for right of way along the Fresno-to-Madera route and a lawsuit is pending that could halt or delay the project if there is an unfavorable ruling.

The initial section is part of a 500-mile line between Los Angeles and San Francisco that will carry some trains at speeds faster than 200 mph. It is now estimated to cost at least $68 billion, the fourth revision over the years.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

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