Tag Archives: FBI

U.S. FBI calls ‘anomalous health incidents’ a top priority

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday the issue of “anomalous health incidents” – widely known as Havana Syndrome – is a top priority and it will continue to investigate the cause of such incidents and how to protect staff.

Around 200 U.S. diplomats, officials and family members overseas are believed to have been struck by the mysterious ailment – with symptoms including migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness. It was first reported among U.S. officials in the Cuban capital in 2016.

“The issue of anomalous health incidents is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues across the federal government is paramount,” the FBI said in a statement.

It added that it would keep working with the intelligence community to “identify the cause of these incidents and determine how we can best protect our personnel.”

Sufferers and lawmakers have criticized U.S. agencies, saying they have not taken the illness seriously enough. Current and former U.S. officials said the FBI historically had been skeptical about the existence of Havana Syndrome.

“The FBI takes all U.S. government personnel who report symptoms seriously,” the FBI statement said, adding it had messaged its staff on how to respond and how to report if they experience an incident, and where they can receive medical treatment.

Lawyer Mark Zaid, who represents Havana Syndrome victims, said historically the FBI had “been less than helpful, particularly by claiming victims are suffering psychosomatic symptoms even though they never interviewed the individuals…I suspect that is about to change.”

To lead an agency task force on Havana Syndrome, CIA director William Burns recently chose a career undercover spy who participated in the search that led to the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

A U.S. government source said U.S. agencies do not currently have a solid view of the syndrome’s cause but that investigating its origins and spread has been a high priority for the CIA.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by David Gregorio)

Haiti gang seeks $1 million per person for kidnapped missionaries

(Reuters) -A Haitian gang that kidnapped a group of American and Canadian missionaries is asking for $17 million — or $1 million each — to release them, according to a top Haitian official.

Justice Minister Liszt Quitel told Reuters that talks were underway with kidnappers to seek the release of the missionaries abducted over the weekend outside the capital Port-au-Prince by a gang called 400 Mawozo.

The minister confirmed the hefty ransom fee, telling Reuters “they asked for $1 million per person.” The fee was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.

CNN reported earlier on Tuesday the kidnappers first called Christian Aid Ministries – the group to which the victims belonged – on Saturday and immediately conveyed the price tag for the missionaries release. The FBI and Haitian police were advising the group in negotiations, the minister said.

Several calls between the kidnappers and the missionary group have taken place since their disappearance, the minister told CNN.

The Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries called for prayers for the “Haitian and American civil authorities who are working to resolve this situation” in a statement.

The group of 16 Americans and 1 Canadian includes six women and five children, including an eight-month old baby, the missionary organization said. They were abducted in an area called Croix-des-Bouquets, about 8 miles (13 km) outside the capital, which is dominated by the 400 Mawozo gang.

Five priests and two nuns, including two French citizens, were abducted in April in Croix-des-Bouquets and were released later that month.

Quitel told the Wall Street Journal that a ransom was paid for the release of two of those priests.

Kidnappings have become more brazen and commonplace in Haiti amid a growing political and economic crisis, with at least 628 incidents in the first nine months of 2021 alone, according to a report by the Haitian nonprofit Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, or CARDH.

Haitians on Monday mounted a nationwide strike to protest gang crime and kidnappings, which have been on the rise for years and have worsened since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Shops were open again on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince and public transportation had starting circulating again. Transport sector leaders had pushed for the strike, in part because transport workers are frequent targets of gang kidnappings.

The FBI said in a statement on Monday that it is part of a U.S. government effort to get the Americans involved to safety.

Kidnappings in Haiti rarely involved foreigners.

The victims are usually middle-class Haitians who cannot afford bodyguards but can nonetheless put together a ransom by borrowing money from family or selling property.

The growing crisis in Haiti has also become a major issue for the United States. A wave of thousands of Haitian migrants arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border last month, but many were deported to their home country shortly after.

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn, Brian Ellsworth and Gessika Thomas; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Alistair Bell)

FBI involved in effort to recover U.S. missionaries kidnapped in Haiti – source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI will assist in the investigation and efforts to locate and free a group of U.S. Christian missionaries who have been kidnapped and are being held by a criminal gang in Haiti, a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters on Monday.

The Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries organization on Sunday said a group of its missionaries had been kidnapped in Haiti. The group includes 16 Americans and one Canadian.

They were in Haiti to visit an orphanage when their bus was hijacked on Saturday outside the capital Port-au-Prince, according to accounts by other missionaries, amid a spike in kidnappings following the murder of President Jovenel Moise.

The incident is a further sign the Caribbean nation’s gangs are growing increasingly brazen amid political and economic crises.

Specific details of the role the FBI will play in trying to free the missionaries were not immediately available. The FBI’s national press office said in a statement it was referring questions on the kidnapping to the State Department.

Representatives of key congressional committees overseeing foreign affairs and law enforcement said they had not been briefed on FBI involvement in efforts to locate and free the missionaries.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Former U.S. Navy engineer, wife face judge in submarine espionage case

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and his wife on Tuesday faced their first court hearing on charges they attempted to sell secrets about nuclear submarines to a foreign power in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Wearing orange prison jumpsuits, they briefly appeared at a federal courthouse in Martinsburg, West Virginia, for a formal reading of the criminal charges against them. They have not yet been asked to enter a plea to the charges.

Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were arrested on Saturday in Jefferson County, West Virginia, following a yearlong sting operation by undercover FBI agents, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Toebbe, 42, a nuclear engineer with top-secret security clearance, is accused of sending Navy documents to an unnamed foreign entity in 2020, along with instructions for how to obtain additional information.

The Toebbes did not speak other than to briefly answer the judge’s questions, indicating they understood their rights.

The Justice Department did not name the country involved.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble scheduled a court hearing for Friday on the Justice Department’s request that the Toebbes be jailed while they await trial.

The Toebbes will remain in jail while they await Friday’s hearing.

No lawyer was present for the couple at Tuesday’s initial 15-minute court appearance. The judge told them they qualify for court-appointed legal counsel.

Toebbe, with the aid of his 45-year-old wife, allegedly sold secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign official over the course of several months, the Justice Department said.

At one point, Toebbe hid a digital memory card containing documents about submarine nuclear reactors in half a peanut butter sandwich at a “dead drop” location in West Virginia while his wife acted as lookout, the Justice Department said.

The memory card contained “militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors,” according to a federal court affidavit.

Another memory card was concealed in a chewing gum package, the Justice Department said.

Toebbe received separate cryptocurrency payments totaling $100,000, according to the Justice Department.

Officials said Toebbe and his wife, who are from Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested after placing another memory card at a drop site in West Virginia. They were charged with conspiracy and “communication of restricted data,” according to a criminal complaint.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis)

Haiti former first lady calls for help in unraveling husband’s murder

By Dave Sherwood

(Reuters) – The widow of Haiti’s slain President Jovenel Moise called on the international community to help track down those responsible for gunning down her husband in a late night raid by suspected mercenaries at the couple’s home in July.

Moise’s assassination plunged the Caribbean nation, already plagued by hunger and gang violence, further into chaos, and triggered a hunt for the masterminds across the Americas.

Wearing a black dress and sling following the injuries she suffered during the attack, Martine Moise told Reuters in a room flanked by bodyguards on Monday that while Haitian authorities had made some advances, she feared progress had slowed.

“I feel that the process is… stalling a little,” she said. “The people that did this are still out there, and I don’t know if their name will ever be out. Every country that can help, please help.”

Nearly two months after the July 7 assassination of her husband, key aspects of the murder remain shrouded in mystery. Haitian police have arrested more than three dozen suspects, including 18 Colombian mercenaries, an obscure Haitian-American doctor they say aspired to be president, and the head of Moise’s security team.

But they have made public little in the way of evidence.

“Those people (they have arrested) did it, but someone gave the orders, someone gave the money,” Moise told Reuters.

She said she had spoken twice with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and felt they could “find the people that financed that odious crime.”

As security worries have dogged the investigation in Haiti, one judge investigating the case stepped down, citing concerns for his safety.

First lady Moise said Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is also now dealing with the aftermath of an August earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people, must call for elections as soon as possible to ensure stability.

“I think the advice that my husband would give him (is) try to have an election. With the election you can have peace, you can think long term,” she said.

Elections initially slated for September have been postponed until November, and some have speculated they could be delayed further following the quake.

“If they want elections to happen, (they) will,” said Moise.

Moise confirmed previous comments she had made in interviews on her interest in running for president herself but said that she would take care of her family first.

“I want to run for president. I won’t let the vision of the president die with him. With the earthquake too, there’s a lot to be done in Haiti,” she said.

HAITI RUMOR MILL

Amid the ongoing investigation and arrests, conspiracy theories about the murder in Haiti have swirled for weeks.

Friends of the murdered president have told Reuters he feared for his life immediately before he was killed.

His wife on Monday said he had not talked to her of a specific plot against him.

“If he knew he would talk about it… but he never did,” she said. “Because having Colombians, having soldiers here in Haiti, they are here for something.”

She denied social media rumors that Moise had squirreled away millions in cash in his official residence in the upscale suburb of Petion-Ville.

“It is a president. There is some money. But the amount of $48 million that I heard in social media, that can’t be true. Where in the room (can you stick) $48 million?”

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

FBI probe shows amount of chemicals in Beirut blast was a fraction of original shipment

(Reuters) – The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up at Beirut port last year was one fifth of the shipment unloaded there in 2013, the FBI concluded after the blast, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.

As the first anniversary approaches on Aug. 4, major questions remain unanswered, including how a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate – which can be used to make fertilizer or bombs – was left unsafely stored in a capital city for years.

The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, killing more than 200 people, wounding thousands, and devastating swathes of Beirut.

The FBI’s Oct. 7, 2020 report, which was seen by Reuters this week, estimates around 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded that day, much less than the 2,754 tonnes that arrived on a Russian-leased cargo ship in 2013.

The FBI report does not give any explanation as to how the discrepancy arose, or where the rest of the shipment may have gone.

In response to a detailed request for comment, an FBI spokesperson referred Reuters to the Lebanese authorities.

FBI investigators came to Beirut after the blast at Lebanon’s request.

A senior Lebanese official who was aware of the FBI report and its findings said the Lebanese authorities agreed with the Bureau on the quantity that exploded.

Many officials in Lebanon have previously said in private they believe a lot of the shipment was stolen.

The ammonium nitrate was going from Georgia to Mozambique on a Russian-leased cargo ship when the captain says he was instructed to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut and take on extra cargo.

The ship arrived in Beirut in November 2013 but never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects. No one ever came forward to claim the shipment.

The senior Lebanese official said there were no firm conclusions as to why the quantity that exploded was less than the original shipment. One theory was that part of it was stolen. A second theory was that only part of the shipment detonated, with the rest blown out to sea, the official said.

The FBI report said “an approximate amount reaching around 552 metric tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in warehouse 12.”

It noted the warehouse was large enough to house the 2,754 tonne shipment, which was stored in one-tonne bags, but added “it is not logical that all of them were present at the time of the explosion.”

(Editing by William Maclean)

Fistfights over fuel in U.S. Southeast: pipeline outage Day 6

By Stephanie Kelly

(Reuters) – Fuel shortages worsened and tensions rose in the southeastern United States on Wednesday, as the shutdown of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network entered its sixth day and Washington officials pledged new steps to alleviate supply issues.

Fistfights at gas stations were reported as tensions bubbled. One video showed an altercation between two customers at a station in North Carolina.

A ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline last week halted 2.5 million barrels per day of fuel shipments. The pipeline stretches 5,500 miles (8,850 km) from U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries to consumers in Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states.

Nearly 60% of gas stations in metro Atlanta were without gasoline, tracking firm GasBuddy said. Its survey showed 65% of stations in North Carolina and 43% in Georgia and South Carolina without fuel. Virginia also reported high outages.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the administration is addressing the fuel shortages and helping restore Colonial operations, including moving gasoline to places that need it.

“Our top priority right now is getting the fuel to the communities that need it, and we will continue doing everything that we can to meet that goal in the coming days,” Buttigieg told reporters at the White House.

There was no word from Colonial on a resumption of full operations after the most disruptive cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. Its top executive would decide by the end of Wednesday if it were possible to restart, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday.

The supply crunch sparked panic buying in the U.S. Southeast, bringing long lines and high prices at gas stations ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of May, the traditional start of the peak summer driving season.

At a Citgo station in East Atlanta, Charles Williams, 66, an Atlanta-based musician, filled his wife’s Mini Cooper, after seeing people with large jerry cans loading up.

“I wouldn’t say I know they’re hoarding, but I don’t know if they’re helping,” he said. “If gas is getting sold out everywhere, yeah, it’s time to start to worry.”

Privately owned Colonial Pipeline opened portions of the line manually in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey and the Carolinas. It also accepted 2 million barrels of fuel to begin efforts to “substantially” restore operations by week’s end, the company has said.

The average national gasoline price rose to above $3.00 a gallon, the highest since October 2014, the American Automobile Association said.

HOARDING CREATING MORE SHORTAGES

Fuel industry representatives urged consumers to stop panic buying. They noted the country has plenty of gasoline supplies and said hoarding is creating shortages in areas not served by the pipeline.

“Retailers right now have sold several days worth of inventory within a few hours,” said Rob Underwood, President of the Energy Marketers of America.

Four southeastern states – Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia – joined federal regulators in relaxing driver and fuel restrictions to speed deliveries of supplies. Georgia suspended sales tax on gasoline until Saturday.

The FBI has accused a shadowy criminal gang called DarkSide of the ransomware attack. The group, believed to be based in Russia or Eastern Europe, has not directly taken credit for the Colonial hack, but on Wednesday it claimed to have breached systems at three other companies, including an Illinois tech firm.

Russia’s embassy in the United States rejected speculation that Moscow was behind the attack. President Joe Biden on Monday said there was no evidence so far that Russia was responsible.

REFINERS, AIRLINES REACT

It is unknown how much money the hackers are seeking, and Colonial has not commented on whether it would pay.

Gulf Coast refiners that move fuel to market on the Colonial Pipeline have cut processing. Total SE trimmed gasoline production at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, and Citgo Petroleum pared back at its Lake Charles, Louisiana, plant.

Citgo said it was moving products from Lake Charles and “exploring alternate supply methods into other impacted markets.” Marathon Petroleum said it was “making adjustments.”

Several airlines have been transporting fuel by truck or fueling planes at destinations rather than at East Coast origins. American Airlines has made changes to two long-haul flights out of Charlotte, North Carolina – one of its hub airports – through Friday.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Rich McKay in Atlanta, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler, Steve Orlofsky and David Gregorio)

U.S. arrested two Yemenis on terror watchlist who tried to cross border from Mexico

By Ted Hesson and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. border agents in recent months arrested two Yemeni men on a terror watchlist in separate incidents as they crossed the border with Mexico illegally, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Monday.

The men, arrested in January and March near a port of entry in California, were on a U.S. government watchlist for terrorism suspects and a “no-fly” list, CBP said in a press release.

A group of Republican lawmakers that visited the border in El Paso, Texas, in March said border agents told them during the trip that some people caught crossing the border were on a U.S. terrorism watchlist. Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for easing some restrictions put in place by former President Donald Trump as the number of border crossings has risen in recent months.

One of the men, aged 33, was arrested on Jan. 29 after allegedly attempting to cross the border illegally near a port of entry in Calexico, California, CBP said.

Border agents found a mobile phone SIM card located beneath the insole of the man’s shoe, the agency said.

The second man, aged 26, was arrested on March 30 in the same vicinity.

A CBP spokesman said in a written statement that it is “very uncommon” for border agents to encounter people suspected of terrorism at U.S. borders, but that the arrests underscore the agency’s “critical” vetting efforts.

The agency did not provide the names of the men.

The watchlist is maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Terrorism Screening Center. The list contains “the identities of those who are known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities,” according to the FBI.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

White House cyber adviser says it will take months to investigate Russian hack

By Christopher Bing

(Reuters) – The White House’s top cybersecurity adviser said on Wednesday an investigation into a sprawling Russian hacking operation against the United States, known as the SolarWinds hack, will take several more months to complete.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger said that a total of nine federal agencies and 100 private-sector companies had been affected by the hack, which first came to light in December.

She also said that a number of the affected private-sector companies were technology companies, which were breached to facilitate access to other victims.

The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and several other U.S. government agencies have been digging into affected computer networks ever since the hacks’ discovery to find clues about the attackers. While multiple U.S. government officials have said the hackers came from Russia, they have offered little additional detail.

“We believe it took them months to plan and compromise,” said Neuberger. “It will take us some time to uncover this layer by layer.”

The Biden administration is currently working on set of cybersecurity policies to prevent a similar style attack, and Neuberger predicted some of these recommendations would become part of an upcoming “executive action.”

Government statements and public reporting have revealed that a diverse list of federal agencies were breached by the hackers, including the Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce departments. In those cases, the hackers typically attempted to steal emails belonging to high-ranking officials, Reuters previously reported.

“When there is a compromise of this scope & scale, both across govt & across the U.S. technology sector to lead to follow on intrusions, it is more than a single incident of espionage,” said Neuberger. “It’s fundamentally of concern for the ability for this to become disruptive.”

The recent government cyberattack is commonly referred to as the SolarWinds hack because of how the cyber spies exploited software created and sold by Texas technology company SolarWinds, which makes a popular network management tool that is commonly deployed across both U.S. government and private sector computer networks.

While SolarWinds was the first known supply chain victim of this hacking campaign, cybersecurity experts and government officials have cautioned that other technology companies were similarly exploited as part of the same operation.

(Reporting by Christopher Bing; Editing by Chris Reese, Nick Macfie and Jonathan Oatis)

Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) – U.S. law enforcement is investigating whether a woman took a laptop computer or hard drive from U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol and tried to sell the device to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing.

An FBI agent disclosed the detail in an affidavit released on Sunday night that outlined a criminal case against Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman accused of unlawfully breaching the Capitol building and directing people to Pelosi’s office.

The theft of electronic devices from congressional offices has been a persistent worry following the siege.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said after the attack that some of the thefts might have potentially jeopardized what he described as “national security equities.”

According to the affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the FBI received a tip from someone who stated they were a former romantic partner of Williams.

The tipster said Williams “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service,” the affidavit stated.

According to the tipster, “the transfer of the computer device to Russia fell through for unknown reasons and Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it,” the affidavit stated. The investigation remains open.

Williams could not be reached for comment.

According to the FBI, it appears Williams has fled an address near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that she shared with her mother, deactivated her phone number, and took down social media accounts.

A Pelosi spokesman, Drew Hammill, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two days after the Capitol siege, Hammill said a laptop used for presentations was stolen from a conference room in Pelosi’s office. It was unclear whether that device was the one Williams was accused of taking.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Brad Heath; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)