The Legal Street News October 22

W A S H I N G -TON (AP) — TheCIA station chief inLibya reported toWashington within24 hours of lastmonth's deadlyattack on the U.S.Consulate thatthere was evi-dence it was car-ried out by mili-tants, not a spon-taneous mobupset about anAmerican-madevideo ridiculingIslam's ProphetMuhammad, U.S.officials have toldThe AssociatedP r e s s .

It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable out-side the CIA at that point and how high up in theagency the information went. The Obama admin-istration maintained publicly for a week that theattack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi thatkilled U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and threeother Americans was a result of the mobs thatstaged less-deadly protests across the Muslimworld around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 ter-ror attacks on the U.S.

Those statements have become highlycharged political fodder as the presidential elec-tion approaches. A Republican-led House com-mittee questioned State Department officials forhours about what GOP lawmakers said was laxsecurity at the consulate, given the growth ofextremist Islamic militants in North Africa.

And in their debate on Tuesday, PresidentBarack Obama and Republican challenger MittRomney argued over when Obama first said itwas a terror attack. In his Rose Garden addressthe morning after the killings, Obama said, "Noacts of terror will ever shake the resolve of thisgreat nation, alter that character or eclipse thelight of the values that we stand for."

But Republicans say he was speaking gener-ally and didn't specifically call the Benghazi attacka terror attack until weeks later, with the presidentand other key members of his administrationreferring at first to the anti-Muslim movie circulat-ing on the Internet as a precipitating event.

Now congressional intelligence committeesare demanding documents to show what the spyagencies knew and when, before, during and afterthe attacks.

The White House now says the attack proba-bly was carried out by an al Qaida-linked group,

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C I A F O U N D M I L I T A N T

L I N K S A D A Y A F T E R

L I B Y A A T T A C K

In The News This Week

with no publicd e m o n s t r a t i o nb e f o r e h a n d .Secretary of StateHillary RodhamClinton blamed the"fog of war" for theearly conflictinga c c o u n t s .

The officialswho told the APabout the CIAcable spokea n o n y m o u s l ybecause theywere not author-ized to releasesuch informationp u b l i c l y .

Congressionalaides say they

expect to get the documents by the end of thisweek to build a timeline of what the intelligencecommunity knew and compare that to what theWhite House was telling the public about theattack. That could give Romney ammunition touse in his foreign policy debate with Obama onMonday night.

The two U.S. officials said the CIA stationchief in Libya compiled intelligence reports fromeyewitnesses within 24 hours of the assault on theconsulate that indicated militants launched theviolence, using the pretext of demonstrationsagainst U.S. facilities in Egypt against the film tocover their intent. The report from the station chiefwas written late Wednesday, Sept. 12, andreached intelligence agencies in Washington thenext day, intelligence officials said.

Yet, on Saturday of that week, briefing pointssent by the CIA to Congress said "demonstrationsin Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by theprotests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo andevolved into a direct assault."

The briefing points, obtained by the AP,added: "There are indications that extremists par-ticipated in the violent demonstrations" but did notmention eyewitness accounts that blamed mili-tants alone.

Such raw intelligence reports by the CIA onthe ground would normally be sent first to analystsat the headquarters in Langley, Va., for vettingand comparing against other intelligence derivedfrom eavesdropping drones and satellite images.Only then would such intelligence generally beshared with the White House and later, Congress,a process that can take hours, or days if the intel-ligence is coming only from one or two sourceswho may or may not be trusted.

CIA FOUND MILITANTLINKS A DAY AFTER LIBYA

ATTACKThere was evidence it was carried out by mili-

tants, not a spontaneous mob..

CONFLICTING IMAGESEMERGE OF NY TERROR

SUSPECT

That image seemed startlingly at odds with the

Bangladesh native's arrest in an FBI sting this

week on charges of trying to blow up the

Federal Reserve Bank.. Page 2

GUN INDUSTRY THRIVESDURING OBAMA'S TERM IN

OFFICE

President Barack Obama has presided over a

heyday for the gun industry despite predictions

by the National Rifle Association.

Page 3

FLORIDA ACCIDENTSTATISTICS

Accident Statistics from Florida Department

of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4

FLORIDA ACCIDENTREPORTS

This Weeks Accident Reports from Various

countys in Florida. Page 5

US MAY SOON BECOMEWORLD'S TOP OIL

PRODUCER

U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United

States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the

world's biggest producer.

Page 6

ENVOY ARRIVES IN SYRIAAMID CALLS FOR TRUCETurkey and Germany on Friday threw their

weight behind calls for a Syrian cease-fire dur-

ing a Muslim holiday next week. Page 7

25 PRIMATE SPECIESREPORTED ON BRINK OF

EXTINCTION

Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs,

lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinc-

tion and need global action to protect them from

increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking,

Page 8

FLORIDA MAN CHARGEDIN NY DINOSAUR FOSSILSC A S EA Florida man was charged Wednesday with

smuggling dinosaur fossils into the United

States. Page 8 Continued on page 3

n this Sept. 13, 2012 file photo, a Libyan man investigates the inside of theU.S. Consulate, after an attack that killed four Americans, includingAmbassador Chris Stevens on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, inBenghazi, Libya. U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that the CIA stationchief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month’s deadlyattack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by mil-itants, not a mob upset about an American-made, anti-Muslim movie. It isunclear whether anyone outside the CIA saw the cable at that point or howhigh up in the CIA the information went.

2 Legal Street News Monday October 22, 2012

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NEW YORK (AP) --

At the Missouri college

where Quazi Mohammad

Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis

enrolled, a classmate said

he often remarked that

true Muslims don't

believe in violence.

That image seemed

startlingly at odds with

the Bangladesh native's

arrest in an FBI sting this

week on charges of trying

to blow up the Federal

Reserve Bank in New

York with what he

thought was a 1,000-

pound car bomb.

"I can't imagine

being more shocked

about somebody doing

something like this," said Jim Dow, a 54-year-old Army veter-

an who rode home from class with Nafis twice a week. "I did-

n't just meet this kid a couple of times. We talked quite a bit.

... And this doesn't seem to be in character."

Nafis' family in Dhaka, Bangladesh, denied he could

have been involved in the plot. His parents said he was inca-

pable of such actions and came to America only to study.

Federal investigators, often accused by defense attorneys

of entrapping and leading would-be terrorists along, said the

21-year-old Nafis made the first move over the summer,

reaching out for accomplices and eventually contacting a gov-

ernment informant, who then went to federal authorities.

They said he also selected his target, drove the van loaded

with dummy explosives up to the door of the bank, and tried

to set off the bomb from a hotel room using a cellphone he

thought had been rigged as a detonator.

During the investigation, he and the informant corre-

sponded via Facebook and other social media, talked on the

phone and met in hotel rooms, according to a law enforcement

official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke

on condition of anonymity.

Nafis spoke of his admiration for Osama bin Laden,

talked of writing an article about his plot for an al-Qaida-affil-

iated magazine, and said he would be willing to be a martyr

but preferred to go home to his family after carrying out the

attack, authorities said. And he also talked about wanting to

kill President Barack Obama and bomb the New York Stock

Exchange, a law enforcement official said.

Investigators said in court papers that he came to the U.S.

bent on jihad and worked out the specifics of a plot when he

arrived. While Nafis believed he had the blessing of al-Qaida

and was acting on behalf of the terrorist group, he has no

known ties, according to federal officials.

Nafis, who at the time of his arrest Wednesday was work-

ing as a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan, was jailed with-

out bail. His attor-

ney has not com-

mented on the

case, but in other

instances where

undercover agents

and sting opera-

tions were used,

lawyers have

argued entrap-

m e n t .

Investigators

would not say

exactly how he

initially contacted

the government

i n f o r m a n t .

P o l i c e

C o m m i s s i o n e r

Raymond Kelly,

whose department

had a role in the arrest as a member of a joint federal-state ter-

rorism task force, said the entrapment argument rarely pre-

vails.

"You have to be otherwise not disposed to do a crime,"

Kelly said. "And if it's your intent to do a crime, and somehow

there are means made available, then generally speaking, the

entrapment defense does not succeed."

Nafis was a terrible student in his native Bangladesh, and

his middle-class parents said he persuaded them to send him to

study in the U.S. as a way of improving his job prospects.

They don't believe he was planning an attack.

His father, a banker, said Nafis was so timid he couldn't

venture out onto the roof alone.

"My son couldn't have done it," Quazi Ahsanullah said,

weeping.

"He is very gentle and devoted to his studies," he said,

pointing to Nafis' time studying at the private North South

University in Dhaka.

Belal Ahmed, a spokesman for the university, said Nafis

was put on probation and threatened with expulsion if he did-

n't bring his grades up. Nafis eventually stopped coming to

school, Ahmed said.

Ahsanullah said his son had argued that a U.S. degree

would give him a better chance at success in Bangladesh. "I

spent all my savings to send him to America," the father said.

Nafis moved to Missouri, where he studied cybersecurity

at Southeast Missouri State University. He also became vice

president of the school's Muslim Student Association and

began attending a mosque.

But he withdrew after one semester and requested over

the summer that his records be transferred to a school in

Continued on page 8

Bangladeshi Quazi Ahsanullah displays a photograph of his son QuaziMohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis as he weeps in his home in theJatrabari neighborhood in north Dhaka, Bangladesh

G U N I N D U S T R Y T H R I V E S D U R I N G

O B A M A ' S T E R M I N O F F I C E

N Y T E R R O R

S U S P E C TContinued from page 1

Street News Monday, October 22, 2012 3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- PresidentBarack Obama has presided over aheyday for the gun industry despite pre-dictions by the National RifleAssociation four years ago that hewould be the "most anti-gun presidentin American history." Gun buyers fearthat Obama wants to restrict their pur-chases, especially if he were re-elect-ed.

An analysis by The Associated Press ofdata tracking the health of the gunindustry shows that sales are on therise, so much that some gun manufac-turers can't make enough guns fastenough. Major gun company stockprices are up. The number of federallylicensed, retail gun dealers is increas-ing for the first time in nearly 20 years.The NRA is bursting with cash andpolitical clout. And Washington hasexpressed little interest in passing newgun laws, despite renewed calls to do so after recentdeadly shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin.

Obama has made no promises to impose new guncontrol legislation and doesn't have the support inCongress or among voters even if he did. During thisweek's presidential debate, Obama suggested renew-ing a U.S. ban on assault weapons and coming upwith an overall strategy to reduce violence, but bothObama and Republican presidential nominee MittRomney said the government needs to enforce gunlaws already on the books.

"The driver is President Obama. He's the best thingthat ever happened to the firearm industry," said JimBarrett, an industry analyst at C.L. King & AssociatesInc. in New York.

Tennessee lawyer Brian Manookian said he neverconsidered himself a gun enthusiast like others in hisstate. He owns only one handgun. But the firearmsindustry has proved so lucrative for him that he'senthusiastic now. Manookian and his business part-ner, Gary Semanchik, opened a $5 million firearmsretail and training complex in September in Nashville.

Inventory is selling three to four times faster thanthey expected since the facility opened.

"It is a very strong investment," Manookian said.

Others agree. For the first time since 1993, the num-ber of federally licensed retail gun dealers in the U.S.increased slightly in 2010 and 2011, as the country

added 1,167 more licensed retail gun dealers,according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearmsand Explosives records. After the assault weaponsban in 1994, the number of gun dealerships droppedannually until 2010. As of October 2012, there were50,812 retail gun dealers - that's 3,303 more than in2009.

"Business has been very good," said FrederickPrehn, who a year ago opened a small gun storeabove his dentistry practice in Wausau, Wis. In thepast year, Prehn has relocated twice to larger spacesand gone from one employee to eight.

Some gun store owners can't keep shelves stocked,said Brian Jones, owner of Bullseye Shooter's supplyin Painted Post, N.Y. Jones said he opened his gunstore in November 2010. In his first year, Jones saidhe sold between 600 and 700 guns. A little more thanhalfway through his second year, he's already sold700.

For the first time in the company's history, SturmRuger & Co. Inc. stopped taking orders for a couplemonths this year. Ruger, one of the nation's largestgun manufacturers, has since resumed taking orders,though gun-sellers say demand is still outpacing pro-duction.

Obama is not yet through his first term, but the feder-al government already has conducted about as manybackground checks for gun owners and prospectivebuyers on his watch as it did during the first six yearsof George W. Bush's presidency. In the first 3 1/2years of the Bush administration, the FBI conductedabout 28 million background checks. During thesame period of the Obama administration, the FBIconducted more than 50 million. The gun industryuses the number of background checks on gun own-ers as a reliable indicator of demand.

Ruger and Smith & Wesson represent nearly 30 per-cent of the U.S. gun manufacturing industry and leadthe market in production of pistols and revolvers,according to government statistics. The two compa-nies have been running production lines around theclock, hiring workers and operating at maximumcapacity, said Barrett, an industry analyst who alsoowns Ruger stock.

Ruger's sales have increased 86 percent sinceObama took office, and Smith & Wesson's sales havegone up nearly 44 percent, compared with 18 percentfor overall national retail sales.

And the companies have big expectations for theindustry's future, as they're spending more money onresearch and development than ever before.

"Wouldn't you want to be in a business where cus-tomers are just begging to hand you money?" saidBill Bernstein, owner of East Side Gun Shop inNashville, Tenn.

The NRA itself has done well, too. The lobbyingorganization has had more cash on hand during theObama years than it did since 2004, finishing 2010

with more than $24 million,according to the most recentfigures available.

"Which makes it incrediblyironic that the gun lobby isopposing Obama," said DanGross, president of the BradyCampaign to Prevent GunViolence. Gross said Obama,who initially campaigned toreinstate the assault weaponsban that expired under Bush,has done what he said was"disappointingly little" on guncontrol.

But the gun lobby says thesuccess of the industry doesnot indicate that Obama isgood for Second Amendmentrights.

"This is the most dangerous election in our lifetimes,"NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre said inFebruary, a point he's made regularly during theNRA's campaign to defeat Obama.

The NRA stands by its 2008 predictions that Obamawould be anti-gun. NRA spokesman AndrewArulanandam noted Obama's appointment of twoSupreme Court justices whom the NRA considersanti-gun, plus Obama's support of a United Nationsarms trade treaty and the botched gun-walking oper-ation called Fast and Furious, which the NRAbelieves was concocted as part of a plan to enforcenew gun restrictions.

"Gun owners and hunters fear that a second Obamaadministration with no future political campaigns toworry about will try to destroy this great Americanfreedom," Arulanandam said.

It is hard to find a single aspect of the gun world thatisn't thriving.

Fears of a Democratic president taking office andissuing stricter gun control laws led to an initial spikein gun sales in 2008, giving gun dealers some of thehighest profit margins they've ever seen. But evenafter it became clear Obama was not going to makegun control a priority as president, the industry hascontinued to do well.

Fear of crime may be driving some sales. The num-ber of violent crimes rose by 18 percent in the U.S. in2011, according to Justice Department figuresreleased this week. It was the first year-to-yearincrease for violent crime since 1993, marking theend of a long string of declines.

Firearms sales typically increase during poor eco-nomic times, said Steve Sanetti, chief executive offi-cer and president of the National Shooting SportsFoundation, a trade association for the industry. MoreAmericans are hunting and shooting for recreation aswell, he said. Sanetti attributes that to military ser-vicemen and women with firearms experience return-ing to civilian life and wanting to keep up with shoot-ing as a pastime. He also said recreational shootingis a relatively cheap and accessible hobby, drawing innew buyers.

Voters have made clear that gun control isn't a priori-ty. A recent AP-National Constitution Center pollfound that 49 percent of adults felt laws limiting gunownership infringe on the public's right to bear arms,while 43 percent said such laws do not infringe onthose rights. After the recent mass shootings inColorado and Wisconsin, 52 members of Congresssponsored a bill to track bulk sales of ammunition,but the legislation went nowhere.

Bernstein and others attribute some of the industry'ssuccess to all but one state - Illinois - offering permitsto carry a concealed weapon. In some cases, peoplehave been buying guns because they're afraid of theday they won't be able to.

"Any gun owner might fear that," said Justin Paulson,a 22-year-old grad student in Nashville who recently

Brooklyn. The university declined to identify which school.

Dow, his former classmate at Southeast Missouri State,

said Nafis spoke admiringly of bin Laden. At the same time,

"he told me he didn't really believe bin Laden was involved in

the twin towers because he said bin Laden was a religious

man, and a religious man wouldn't have done something like

that," Dow said.

He said Nafis gave Dow a copy of the Quran and asked

him to read it. But he "didn't rant or rave or say crazy stuff,"

Dow said.

"What really shocked me the most was he had specifical-

ly spoken to me about true Muslims not believing in violence,"

Dow said.

Dion Duncan of St. Louis, a fellow student and member

of the Muslim organization, said: "Nafis was a good kid. He

showed no traces of anti-Americanism, or death to America, or

anything like that. He was a trustworthy, honest kid."

"He was polite and courteous. He was helpful. All the

things you would expect from a good Muslim kid. He prayed

4 Legal Street News Monday October 22, 2012

Data From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov

________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, October 22, 2012 5

A U T O A C C I D E N T S I N S O U T H F L O R I D ATHIS WEEK

http://www.worldwildlife.org

http://www.aging-research.org

Two Lakeland men are dead after a crash onState Road 60 in the southern part of the county.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers said AlexanderHerrera was traveling westbound on S.R. 60 whenhe lost control of the Toyota Matrix in the rain.

The Matrix crossed into the eastbound lanesand into the path of Wade and Brenda Neely, whoare from Port St. Lucie.

The front of the Neely’s Chrysler struck the rightside of the Matrix.

Troopers said the Matrix then traveled onto thesouthbound shoulder of S.R. 60 where it partiallyoverturned. Herrera was ejected.

Herrara, 37, and his passenger, 38-year-oldMisael Alonso, were pronounced dead on the scene.

The Neelys were taken to Orlando RegionalMedical Center with critical and serious injuries.

The crash remains under investigation.

Injured Vero Beach motor-cyclist in stable condition

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A motorcyclist injuredSaturday was in stable condition at LawnwoodRegional Medical Center & Heart Institute in FortPierce, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Randy Dale Baker, 54, of the 3400 block of FirstStreet, Vero Beach, was injured when he swerved toavoid a collision at 26th Street and 43rd AvenueSaturday afternoon.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Alane M.Decheubell, 49, of the 5400 block of 25th Place,Vero Beach was westbound on 26th when she wasdistracted by a cellphone and ran through a red lightat 43rd. Baker avoided hitting her but lost control ofthe motorcycle and hit a low concrete barrier on anearby canal, FHP said.

Baker was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash,FHP said.

October 17, 2012

October 16, 2012

Driver killed in Bayshorecrash had drugs in system,

The University of South Florida student who died ina crash on Bayshore Boulevard in May had drugs inhis system, according to officials.

According to Tampa Police, 19-year-old MichaelAgana had marijuana and LSD in his system on May11 when his Toyota Camry crashed through the con-crete barriers on Bayshore and ended up in the bay.

Agana later died at Tampa General Hospital.

Officials said while drugs are believed to have con-tributed to the crash, the investigation is still ongoing

Texting + Drunk Driving ='Perfect Storm'

Man on riding mower hit,killed by car

October 18, 2012

A 33-year-old construction worker whose wife wasout of town had consumed three Miller Lite beers in90 minutes the night of July 2, 2012. Later that night,his Dodge Ram struck a stopped car at the intersec-tion of U.S. Route 19 and Main Street in New PortRichey, causing a four-car pileup, according to theTampa Bay Times. While the New Port Richey policereport said that an officer noticed the man’s “dazedexpression, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech,along with the ‘obvious odor’ of booze on hisbreath,” the report also said the construction workeradmitted he had been “texting and not paying atten-tion.”

“It was a perfect storm,” New Port Richey policeChief James Steffens told the Times in regards tothe combination of texting behind the wheel whileintoxicated. The Times also noted that tests showedblood alcohol levels of 0.15 and 0.146, or nearlytwice the legal limit for intoxication in Florida. “This isa very good example of something being 100 per-cent preventable.”

The Times noted that texting while driving “remainslegal in Florida, but the issue has been hotly debat-ed.” Steffens told the Times, “I think it will be for along time to come.” The video above shows FloridaState Representative Irv Slosberg saying it was timefor a texting ban following a fatal accident lastSeptember.

While we are still waiting for the Sunshine State toenact a texting ban similar to what many other statesacross the country have in place, Steffens pointedout that a texting driver can still be charged withcareless driving. This accident makes us recall thestudy by Car and Driver that found texting while driv-ing is actually more dangerous than drunk driving,but the danger is clearly increased when both ofthose factors are involved. Drunk driving or textingwhile behind the wheel are both dangerous activitieson their own, but the danger for other motorists isincreased exponentially when a motorist is doingboth at the same time.

October 20, 2012

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. -- A 55-year-old man washit and killed by a car Tuesday as he was by mow-ing the grass on US 1.Sowards was on the northbound side's outsidegrass shoulder. Sowards came to a culvert, accord-ing to a release from the Florida Highway Patrol, anddrove his mower tractor into the outside travel laneof US 1, into the path of a 4-door Lexus, also head-ed northbound.The impact caused Sowards to be ejected from thetractor, causing him to strike his head on the road-way.Sowards was pronounced deceased at the scene.The driver of the Lexus, who was wearing a seatbelt,was not injured.

www.veteransvoice.org

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CONTACT THE LEGAL STREET NEWS

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888-708-3576

Overturned fuel tankershuts down part of I-4 in

Polk County

October 19, 2012Lakeland, Florida - An overturned gas tanker hasshut down all eastbound lanes of Interstate 4 inPolk County. The Florida Highway Patrol suggestsmotorists use Exit 28 (Memorial Boulevard) or thePolk Parkway as detours. Tolls for eastbound SR-570 have also been temporarily suspended to helpdrivers detour around the crash.

FHP says at about 5 am, the tractor trailer was oneastbound I-4, west of Kathleen Road. The driverreportedly fell asleep at the wheel and lost controlof the vehicle. The tractor trailer hit a guard rail andoverturned onto the roadway.

At the time of the crash, the tanker was carrying8,700 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. FHP says1,100 gallons or more leaked onto the interstate.

The driver, 33-year-old Lucius Lawrence, wastaken to the hospital for minor injuries. He hasbeen cited for careless driving.

As of 9:30 a.m., I-4 remains shut down as Hazmatcrews continue to clean up the spilt fuel. Traffic isbacked up all the way to Ybor City. It may be sev-eral more hours before the road is reopened.

Congress crash throughBoca raton

8:55 a.m., crash on southbound I-95 nearCongress Avenue through Boca Raton, no travellanes blocked;

8:12 a.m., crash on northbound I-95 near SunriseBoulevard, no travel lanes blocked; Volume-relat-ed delays and congestion are evident beyondSunrise Boulevard;

8:10 a.m., debris on northbound I-75 near IndianTrace in Weston, use caution through the area.

October 18, 2012

Two Lakeland men aredead after a crash on State

Road 60

October 17, 2012

One person taken to trau-ma center after wreck on

U.S. 1

large sums required todevelop new techniquesand search new placesfor oil. Over the pastdecade, oil has aver-aged $69 a barrel.During the previousdecade, it averaged$21.

- Production in theGulf of Mexico, whichslowed after BP's 2010well disaster and oilspill, has begun to climbagain. Huge recentfinds there are expectedto help growth continue.

- A natural gas glutforced drillers to dra-matically slow naturalgas exploration begin-

ning about a year ago. Drillers suddenly had plentyof equipment and workers to shift to oil.

The most prolific of the new shale formationsare in North Dakota and Texas. Activity is also ris-ing in Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio and other states.

Production from shale formations is expectedto grow from 1.6 million barrels per day this year to4.2 million barrels per day by 2020, according toWood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm. Thatmeans these new formations will yield more oil by2020 than major oil suppliers such as Iran andCanada produce today.

U.S. oil and liquids production reached a peakof 11.2 million barrels per day in 1985, whenAlaskan fields were producing enormous amountsof crude, then began a long decline. From 1986through 2008, crude production fell every year butone, dropping by 44 percent over that period. TheUnited States imported nearly 60 percent of the oilit burned in 2006.

By the end of this year, U.S. crude output willbe at its highest level since 1998 and oil imports willbe lower than at any time since 1992, at 41 percentof consumption.

"It's a stunning turnaround," Burkhard says.

Whether the U.S. supplants Saudi Arabia asthe world's biggest producer will depend on theprice of oil and Saudi production in the yearsahead. Saudi Arabia sits on the world's largestreserves of oil, and it raises and lowers productionto try to keep oil prices steady. Saudi output isexpected to remain about flat between now and2017, according to the International EnergyAgency.

But Saudi oil is cheap to tap, while the methodsneeded to tap U.S. oil are very expensive. If theprice of oil falls below $75 per barrel, drillers in theU.S. will almost certainly begin to cut back.

The International Energy Agency forecasts thatglobal oil prices, which have averaged $107 perbarrel this year, will slip to an average of $89 overthe next five years - not a big enough drop to leadcompanies to cut back on exploration deeply.

Nor are they expected to fall enough to bringback the days of cheap gasoline. Still, more of themoney that Americans spend at filling stations willflow to domestic drillers, which are then more likelyto buy equipment here and hire more U.S. workers.

"Drivers will have to pay high prices, sure, butat least they'll have a job," Verleger says.

6 Legal Street News Monday October 22, 2012________________________________________________________

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NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. oiloutput is surging so fast that theUnited States could soon overtakeSaudi Arabia as the world's biggestproducer.

Driven by high prices and newdrilling methods, U.S. production ofcrude and other liquid hydrocar-bons is on track to rise 7 percentthis year to an average of 10.9 mil-lion barrels per day. This will be thefourth straight year of crudeincreases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951.

The boom has surprised eventhe experts.

"Five years ago, if I or anyonehad predicted today's productiongrowth, people would have thoughtwe were crazy," says JimBurkhard, head of oil markets research at IHSCERA, an energy consulting firm.

The Energy Department forecasts that U.S.production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons,which includes biofuels, will average 11.4 millionbarrels per day next year. That would be a recordfor the U.S. and just below Saudi Arabia's output of11.6 million barrels. Citibank forecasts U.S. produc-tion could reach 13 million to 15 million barrels perday by 2020, helping to make North America "thenew Middle East."

The last year the U.S. was the world's largestproducer was 2002, after the Saudis drastically cutproduction because of low oil prices in the after-math of 9/11. Since then, the Saudis and theRussians have been the world leaders.

The United States will still need to import lots ofoil in the years ahead. Americans use 18.7 millionbarrels per day. But thanks to the growth in domes-tic production and the improving fuel efficiency ofthe nation's cars and trucks, imports could fall byhalf by the end of the decade.

The increase in production hasn't translated tocheaper gasoline at the pump, and prices areexpected to stay relatively high for the next fewyears because of growing demand for oil in devel-oping nations and political instability in the MiddleEast and North Africa.

Still, producing more oil domestically, andimporting less, gives the economy a significantboost.

The companies profiting range from independ-ent drillers to large international oil companies suchas Royal Dutch Shell, which increasingly see theU.S. as one of the most promising places to drill.ExxonMobil agreed last month to spend $1.6 billionto increase its U.S. oil holdings.

Increased drilling is driving economic growth instates such as North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming,

Montana and Texas, all of which have unemploy-ment rates far below the national average of 7.8percent. North Dakota is at 3 percent; Oklahoma,5.2.

Businesses that serve the oil industry, such assteel companies that supply drilling pipe and rail-roads that transport oil, aren't the only ones bene-fiting. Homebuilders, auto dealers and retailers inenergy-producing states are also getting a lift.

IHS says the oil and gas drilling boom, whichalready supports 1.7 million jobs, will lead to thecreation of 1.3 million jobs across the U.S. econo-my by the end of the decade.

"It's the most important change to the economysince the advent of personal computers pushed upproductivity in the 1990s," says economist PhilipVerleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Instituteof International Economics.

The major factor driving domestic productionhigher is a newfound ability to squeeze oil out ofrock once thought too difficult and expensive to tap.Drillers have learned to drill horizontally into long,thin seams of shale and other rock that holds oil,instead of searching for rare underground pools ofhydrocarbons that have accumulated over millionsof years.

To free the oil and gas from the rock, drillerscrack it open by pumping water, sand and chemi-cals into the ground at high pressure, a process isknown as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

While expanded use of the method hasunlocked enormous reserves of oil and gas, it hasalso raised concerns that contaminated water pro-duced in the process could leak into drinking water.

The surge in oil production has other roots, aswell:

- A long period of high oil prices has givendrillers the cash and the motivation to spend the

U S M A Y S O O N B E C O M E

W O R L D ' S T O P O I L P R O D U C E R

Continued on page 7

_____________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, October 22, 2012 7

BEIRUT (AP) -- Turkey and Germany on

Friday threw their weight behind calls for a

Syrian cease-fire during a Muslim holiday next

week as the international envoy for the conflict

arrived in Damascus to push for the plan.

The effort has taken on urgency after

activists in recent days reported some of the

heaviest air bombardments by President Bashar

Assad's military against rebel-held areas.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab

League envoy, was expected to meet Foreign

Minister Walid al-Moallem on Saturday. Brahimi

has called for a truce by both sides in the civil

war during the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday that

begins next Friday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

also said both sides should end hostilities "at

least" through Eid al-Adha.

"It is especially important for the Syrian

regime, which has launched bombs on its people

with planes and helicopters, to halt these attacks

immediately and without preconditions,"

Davutoglu said.

He said the opposition must abide by the

cease-fire as well.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle

also called for a cease-fire, saying it would be

"an important humanitarian glimmer of hope for

people in Syria."

Others who have joined the calls for peace

include Assad's allies in Iran. But both sides of

the conflict have flouted previous cease-fires.

Despite the push for a cease-fire, activists

reported more regime airstrikes Friday in the

northern Idlib province. There were no immedi-

ate details on casualties.

Dozens were reported killed Wednesday and

E N V O Y A R R I V E S IN SYRIA

A M I D C A L L S F O R T R U C E

Thursday in airstrikes on opposition targets

across Syria's north.

On Thursday, Syrian warplanes hammered a

strategic city captured by rebels, leaving behind

scenes of carnage captured on amateur videos

that showed a man holding up two child-sized

legs not connected to a body and another carry-

ing a dismembered arm.

The city of Maaret al-Numan, located strate-

gically on a major north-south highway connect-

ing Aleppo and Damascus, was captured by

rebels last week and there has been heavy fight-

ing around it ever since. Rebel brigades from the

surrounding area have poured in to defend the

town. Online videos have shown them firing

mortars at regime troops, and they claimed to

have shot down a government helicopter on

Wednesday.

Since it was captured a week ago, the Idlib

province city and surrounding areas have been

the focus of one of the heaviest air bombard-

ments since Assad's military first unleashed its

air force against rebels over the summer.

Activists say more than 33,000 people have

been killed since the anti-Assad uprising started

in March 2011.

G U N

I N D U S T R Y

purchased a handgun from Bernstein's store.Paulson said he's been collecting guns since he was18. He's currently up to 16. He purchased his mostrecent handgun because he thought the one he hadwas too small to defend himself. And the timing of hispurchase was deliberate. "Chances are things mightbe a little tighter in terms of control come November,"he said.

Fears about new gun laws mean dollar signs for thegun industry.

Bernie Conaster, owner of Virginia Arms Co. inManassas, Va., has doubled the size of his suburbanWashington gun store, hired more employees andpaid bonuses since Obama has been in office.

"I certainly don't want to stoke the fire," saidConaster, "but I'll ride the wave while it's here."

Continued from page 3

Syrians rescue people from under the rubble of adestroyed building that was attacked by a Syrian forceairstrike, at Kfar Nebel town,

U.S. intelligence officials say in this case thedelay was due in part to the time it took to analyzevarious conflicting accounts. One official, speak-ing on condition of anonymity because he wasn'tauthorized to discuss the incident publicly,explained that "it was clear a group of peoplegathered that evening" in Benghazi, but that theearly question was "whether extremists took overa crowd or they were the crowd."

But that explanation has been met with con-cern in Congress.

"The early sense from the intelligence com-munity differs from what we are hearing now,"Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said. "It ended upbeing pretty far afield, so we want to figure outwhy ... though we don't want to deter the intelli-gence community from sharing their best firstimpressions" after such events in the future.

"The intelligence briefings we got a week to10 days after were consistent with what theadministration was saying," said Rep. WilliamThornberry, R-Texas, a member of the HouseIntelligence and Armed Services committees.Thornberry would not confirm the existence of theearly CIA report but voiced skepticism over howsure intelligence officials, including CIA DirectorDavid Petraeus, seemed of their original accountwhen they briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"How could they be so certain immediatelyafter such events, I just don't know," he said. "Thatraises suspicions that there was political motiva-tion."

National Security Council spokesman TommyVietor declined comment. The Office of theDirector of National Intelligence did not respond torequests for comment.

Two officials who witnessed Petraeus' closed-door testimony to lawmakers in the week after theattack said that during questioning he acknowl-edged that there were some intelligence analystswho disagreed with the conclusion that an unrulymob angry over the video had initiated the vio-lence. But those officials said Petraeus did notmention the CIA's early eyewitness reports. Hedid warn legislators that the account could changeas more intelligence was uncovered, they said,speaking on condition of anonymity because thehearing was closed.

Beyond the question of what was knownimmediately after the attack, it's also proving diffi-

cult to pinpoint those who set the fire that appar-ently killed Stevens and his communications aideor launched the mortars that killed two ex-NavySEALs who were working as contract securityguards at a fallback location. That delay isprompting lawmakers to question whether theintelligence community has the resources it needsto investigate this attack in particular or to wagethe larger fight against al-Qaida in Libya or acrossAfrica.

Intelligence officials say the leading suspect-ed culprit is a local Benghazi militia, Ansar al-Shariah. The group denies responsibility for theattack but is known to have ties to a leadingAfrican terror group, al-Qaida in the IslamicMaghreb. Some of its leaders and fighters werespotted by Libyan locals at the consulate duringthe violence, and intelligence intercepts show themilitants were in contact with AQIM militantsbefore and after the attack, one U.S. intelligenceofficial said.

But U.S. intelligence has not been able tomatch those reported sightings with the faces ofattackers caught on security camera recordingsduring the attack since many U.S. intelligenceagents were pulled out of Benghazi in the after-math of the violence, the two U.S. intelligence offi-cials said.

Nor have they found proof to back up theirsuspicion that the attack was preplanned, as indi-cated by the military-style tactics the attackersused, setting up a perimeter of roadblocks aroundthe consulate and the backup compounds, thenattacking the main entrance to distract, whilesending a larger force to assault the rear.

Clear-cut answers may prove elusive becausesuch an attack is not hard to bring about relative-ly swiftly with little preplanning or coordination in apost-revolutionary country awash with weapons,where the government is so new it still relies onarmed militants to keep the peace. Plus, the loca-tion of U.S. diplomat enclaves is an open secretfor the locals.


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NEW DELHI (AP) -- Twenty-five species of

monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the

brink of extinction and need global action to protect

them from increasing deforestation and illegal traf-

ficking, researchers said Monday.

Six of the severely threatened species live in the

island nation of Madagascar, off southeast Africa.

Five more from mainland Africa, five from South

America and nine species in Asia are among those

listed as most threatened.

The report by the International Union for

Conservation of Nature was released at the United

Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity being

held in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Primates, mankind's closest living relatives,

contribute to the ecosystem by dispersing seeds and

maintaining forest diversity.

Conservation efforts have helped several species

of primates that are no longer listed as endangered,

said the report, prepared every two years by some of

the world's leading primate experts.

The report, which counts species and subspecies

of primates across the world, noted that

Madagascar's lemurs are severely threatened by

habitat destruction and illegal hunting, which has

accelerated dramatically since the change of power

in the country in 2009.

Among the most severely hit was the northern

sportive lemur, with only 19 known individuals left

in the wild in Madagascar.

"Lemurs are now one of the world's most endan-

gered groups of mammals, after more than three

years of political crisis and a lack of effective

enforcement in their home country, Madagascar,"

said Christoph Schwitzer of the Bristol

Conservation and Science Foundation, one of the

groups involved in the study.

"A similar crisis is happening in Southeast Asia,

where trade in wildlife is bringing many primates

very close to extinction," Schwitzer said.

More than half of the world's 633 types of pri-

mates are in danger of becoming extinct because of

human activity such as the burning and clearing of

tropical forests, the hunting of primates for food and

the illegal wildlife trade.

While the situation appears dire for some

species, wildlife researchers say conservation efforts

are beginning to pay off, with several primates being

removed from the list, now in its seventh edition.

India's lion-tailed macaque and Madagascar's

greater bamboo lemur have been taken off the

endangered inventory for 2012 after the targeted

species appeared to have recovered.

Also, conservation efforts have ensured that the

world did not lose a single primate species to extinc-

tion in the 20th century, and no primate has been

declared extinct so far this century, said Russell A.

Mittermeier, president of Conservation International

and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival

Commission's primate specialist group.

"Amazingly, we continue to discover new

species every year since 2000," Mittermeier said.

"What is more, primates are increasingly becoming

a major ecotourism attraction, and primate-watching

is growing in interest."

In a separate report on global urbanization

released Monday at the Hyderabad conference, the

United Nations urged urban planners to incorporate

green spaces in cities as more and more people move

away from rural areas in search of work.

Green areas in big cities perform important eco-

logical functions, such as "filtering dust, absorbing

carbon dioxide from the air and improving air qual-

ity," the Convention on Biological Diversity said in

its new assessment.

The "Cities and Biodiversity Outlook" is the

first global analysis of how urban land expansion

will impact biodiversity in the coming decades.

The world's total urban area is expected to triple

between 2000 and 2030, with urban populations set

to double to around 4.9 billion in the same period.

Data from the United Kingdom show that a 10

percent increase in tree canopy cover in cities may

result in a 3-4 degree Celsius decrease in ambient

temperature, thus reducing energy used for air con-

ditioning, the report said.

Urban biodiversity also delivers important

health benefits, with studies showing that proximity

to trees can reduce the prevalence of childhood asth-

ma and allergies.

8 Legal Street News Monday, October 22, 2012

2 5 P R I M A T E S P E C I E S R E P O R T -

E D O N B R I N K O F E X T I N C T I O N


F L O R I D A M A N

CHARGED IN NY

D I N O S A U R

F O S S I L S C A S E

Prokopi has been involved in a lawsuit inNew York over the auction because theMongolian government has said it maybelong to that country. Prokopi's attorneyin the lawsuit, Michael McCullough, hassaid his client is entitled to keep the crea-ture he spent a year putting together atgreat expense.

McCullough has said the U.S. governmentwas incorrect when it alleged that theskeleton pieces were brought into thecountry in one $15,000 shipment. He saidthere were three other shipments and only37 percent of the completed skeletoncame from one specimen.

Federal prosecutors said Prokopi misrep-resented the identity, origin and value ofthe skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus bataar,a dinosaur that lived approximately 70 mil-lion years ago.

Prokopi also is accused of illegally import-ing from Mongolia the skeleton of aSaurolophus, another dinosaur from thelate Cretaceous period that he sold to agallery in California along with fossils oftwo other dinosaurs native to Mongolia,Gallimimus and Oviraptor mongoliensis.He also imported the fossilized remains ofa Microraptor, a small, flying dinosaur fromChina, the complaint said.

MIAMI (AP) -- A Florida man was chargedWednesday with smuggling dinosaur fos-sils into the United States, including anearly complete Tyrannosaurus Bataarskeleton from Mongolia, federal prosecu-tors said.

Eric Prokopi, a self-described "commercialpaleontologist" who buys and sells wholeand partial dinosaur skeletons, was arrest-ed at his home in Gainesville, according toa complaint unsealed by prosecutors. Hewas charged with smuggling goods intothe U.S. and interstate sale and receipt ofstolen goods.

He also faces one count of conspiracy tosmuggle illegal goods, possess stolenproperty and make false statements. Ifconvicted on all of the charges, he couldface up to 35 years in prison.

Prokopi made an appearance Wednesdayin federal court in Gainesville, where U.S.

District Judge Gary R. Jones ordered himto be held on $100,000 bond. Prokopimust also surrender his passport and bekept under home detention. He did notenter a plea.

The arrest was handled by U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement'sHomeland Security Investigations.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bhararasaid the investigation "uncovered a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils."The U.S. government seized theTyrannosaurus skeleton earlier this yearafter it was sold by an auction house for$1.05 million.

Prokopi did not immediately respond to aphone call, but his attorney has said hedid nothing wrong.

The Legal Street News October 22

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