Cyanide Suspected In Sickening 7 L.A. Firefighters

As the fire and homicide investigation continues, officials say several firefighters were exposed to cyanide gas in two separate incidents as they were mopping up hot spots near the small city of Acton on the northern edge of the massive blaze.

The poisonous cyanide fumes are suspected in acute breathing problems suffered by Los Angeles firefighters battling the Station Fire in the Aliso Canyon. One firefighters suffered life-threatening respiratory arrest and remains in hospital after she was knocked out by noxious fumes on Sept. 1 near Acton.

Two days later, six firefighters suffered severe breathing difficulties in another part of the Aliso Canyon.

“On Sept. 1, a firefighter working on the Station Fire in the Aliso Canyon area of Acton was overcome by noxious fumes,” said the Los Angeles County Fire department. “The firefighter suffered respiratory arrest and was taken to a local medical facility for further treatment and evaluation.”

The firefighter remains in hospital.

“On Sept. 3, six firefighters were transported to a local hospital after being overwhelmed by unknown fumes in a different part of Aliso Canyon. The firefighters were treated and released,” said a statement.

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department HAZMAT unit responded to the two separate areas of Aliso Canyon to investigate the cause of the respiratory illnesses,” officials said.

After examining the sites, the Sheriff’s HAZMAT personnel detected trace cyanide concentration of 48 parts per million in the Alison Canyon area.

“In the area where the six firefighters were injured, the Sheriff’s HAZMAT unit found smoldering spots of fire, but no contamination traces of chemicals. The HAZMAT unit also found galvanized materials, baling wire, cans and bottles.

“During the investigation and rehabilitation, the sites of both the inhalation injuries have been cordoned off and secured.

Medical personnel have been advised of the Sheriff’s HAZMAT unit findings,” said a press release issued in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Authorities do not have an idea where the cyanide came from.

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From The Los Angeles Times

Officials said 10 firefighters had been taken to a hospital in two separate incidents, in which it appears they had stumbled upon hazardous materials. At one of those sites, health officials detected cyanide and one firefighter remains in the hospital. Officials are still not sure where the cyanide came from.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has said investigators are probing the deaths as homicides. A source told The Times that “material that didn’t belong there” has been found at the site suspected to be where the fire started, a twice-scorched slope cordoned off by crime scene tape near Mile Marker 29 along Angeles Crest Highway.

The source would not identify the suspicious substance but said it was found in the brush off the highway, within walking distance of the turnoff at the center of the arson probe. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was an ongoing investigation, said the substance was taken to a lab for testing. The material is not a device, according to the source.

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Man Sentenced For Role In Domestic Terror Plot

A man was sentenced to 70 months in prison today for his role in a domestic terrorism plot to wage war on the United States by attacking Jewish synagogues and military bases. Hammad Riaz Samana is the fourth member of Jami’yyat Ul-Islam Is-Shaheeh, or JIS, a prison-founded group that wanted to make a political statement that also had plans to attack the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles and El Al Israel Airlines at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Samana was 21 when he was charged in the case in July 2005, along with the cell’s mastermind, Kevin James, and members Levar Haley Washington and Gregory Patterson.

The group committed armed robberies of 11 gas stations, including two in Fullerton, to buy weapons and gear for the attacks. Authorities said gas stations were chosen as targets because of the symbolism of the oil.

Samana had a smaller role in the plot, and conducted computer research on the terrorism targets, and was the getaway driver for one of the armed robberies, according to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney at today’s sentencing hearing.

Carney acknowledged he was imposing a substantially lighter sentence on Samana than those given to the other men.

via Man sentenced for role in plot to kill Jews, attack military bases | samana, months, carney, sentenced, prison – News – OCRegister.com.

Man Accused of Making Threats Against White House

UPDATE: Suspect in custody A man accused of making threats against the White House led officers on a wild freeway chase that ended in a standoff outside the Federal Building.The man was wanted on various local warrants, says police Sgt. Kevin Lowe. His is also wanted for questioning by the Secret Service as part of a federal inquiry into threats against the White House, says Lowe.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says the suspect made a threat but would not give details.

Police have not publicly identified him.

But the Daily Breeze is reporting that the red Volkswagon Beetle is registered to Joe Moshe, a resident in the 8300 block of Creighton Avenue.

Neighbors who did not want to be identified said Moshe “sounds like he could be dangerous,” but he has never caused any significant trouble for them.

“He’s got issues. He doesn’t take his medication, he doesn’t do that well,” a neighbor told the newspaper.

Neighbors told the newspaper that said Secret Service agents in suits and driving government cars appeared on the street Wednesday night.

They tried to speak with Moshe, but he did not answer the door, neighbors said.

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Counter-terrorism Investigators Find Alleged Identity Theft Ring

On a spring day last year, a Pakistani man came to Shamsha Laiwalla looking for help. He told her he had recently jumped off a cargo ship docked in the Port of Los Angeles and was now looking to buy a new identity.

On the surface, Laiwalla was not an obvious go-to person. She owns a seemingly innocuous vehicle registration company — one of the thousands in California that take care of DMV-related tasks for people willing to pay for the convenience.

For years, however, the 44-year-old Pakistan native has offered customers a startling menu of illegal services as the architect of an extensive fraud ring involving several DMV employees she regularly paid to produce licenses and other documents, according to Los Angeles police and federal officials. The names of at least some of her alleged clients have surfaced in ongoing federal investigations into national security issues, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.

The Pakistani man was, in fact, an undercover detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s counter-terrorism bureau, which is headed by Downing. For $3,500, Laiwalla told the detective, she could get a valid California driver’s license with his photo, an expertly forged birth certificate and a Social Security card, police say. All the documents would bear his new name, Francisco Gonzalez Rios.

via Counter-terrorism investigators find alleged identity theft ring – Los Angeles Times.

Swine Flu Ruled Out In 1 of 2 L.A. Deaths

At least one of the two deaths that were under investigation by the Los Angeles County Coroners Office was not caused by swine flu, a public health official said Tuesday during a news conference.

Los Angeles County public health officer Dr. Jonathan Fielding said Tuesday during a news briefing that news reports of two possible deaths were initially “misreported.”

“One is definitely not swine flu and the other one is still being looked at,” he said. But … I wouldn’t be surprised if we have deaths associated with influenza. And, if swine flu is like seasonal influenza, we would expect that we would have some deaths associated with it.”

Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey told the Los Angeles Times earlier Tuesday that a Bellflower, California-hospital reported the death of a 33-year-old Long Beach man who was brought in Saturday with symptoms resembling swine flu.

Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said Tuesday that swine flu was not found in a La Mirada man who died with flu-like symptoms.

Winter says lab testing is pending in the case of a Long Beach man, but swine flu is now not suspected.

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Techniques Worked – May Have Prevented Los Angeles Terror Attack

President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

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You ask how?

CIA Waterboarding Produced Intel That Stopped Attack on Los Angeles from Townhall.com

“Soon, you will know.”

That is the ominous statement an uncooperative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, told his Central Intelligence Agency interrogators when they initially asked him, after he had been captured, about additional planned al-Qaida attacks on the United States.

In March 2003, KSM became the third and final terrorist ever waterboarded by the CIA. The other two were Abu Zubaydah and Rahim Al-Nashiri.

On Tuesday, the CIA confirmed to Terry Jeffrey at Townhall that it stands by assertions credited to the agency in z 2005 memo that subjecting KSM to “enhanced techniques” of interrogation including waterboarding  caused him to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

The previously classified memo was released by President Obama last week.

Before they were waterboarded, both KSM and Abu Zubaydah did not believe Americans had the will to stop al-Qaida, the 2005 Justice Department memo says, citing information from the CIA.

“Both KSM and Zubaydah had ‘expressed their belief that the general U.S. population was ‘weak,’ lacked resilience and would be unable to ‘do what was necessary’ to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals,’” said the memo. “Indeed, before the CIA used enhanced techniques in its interrogation of KSM, KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon, you will know.’”

After he was waterboarded, KSM provided the CIA with information that allowed the U.S. government to close down a terror cell already “tasked” with flying a jet into a building in Los Angeles.

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FBI Sending Suspicious Powder To Headquarters

A suspicious substance mailed to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is on its way to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., for further testing.

FBI agents in Salt Lake City said they received a final report from the state health department on the white powdery substance in an envelope mailed to Temple Square last week. Tests were conducted to ensure it wasn’t ricin, anthrax or any other biological weapon.

“It is not any kind of biological agent or toxin or even a new strain,” FBI Special Agent Juan Becerra said Monday.

Envelopes with white powder were mailed to Temple Square, the LDS Church’s temple in Los Angeles, and a printing press belonging to the Catholic-affiliated Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Conn. Both churches were heavy backers of California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in that state.

The FBI has labeled its probe a domestic terrorism investigation. Becerra would not say whether the agency had identified any suspects in the case, but reiterated Monday that the FBI had no evidence that linked the threats to Prop. 8 or its opponents.

Many gay rights organizations have also decried the threats.

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Metrolink Commuter Train Crashes Into Freight Train At Least 10 Dead – Los Angeles

A Metrolink commuter train carrying 350 people collided head on with a freight train in the San Fernando Valley today, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens more.

• At least 10 dead, 40 injured
• Officials expect the death toll to mount
• Still unclear what caused the accident

Hours after the 4:30 collision, firefighters were still pulling trapped passengers from the devastated passenger car.

Metrolink Hotline: (800) 371-5465

The mangled car was left lying on its side with the Metrolink engine shoved back inside it.

The engine of the Union Pacific freight train was also on its side, with the rest of the train accordioned behind it.

Source – Live Video Coverage From KTLA