Eagles parade: Philadelphia fans prepare for big Super Bowl celebration

(GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA) — The U.S. Department of Defense on Monday announced that Guantanamo Bay detainee Ridah Bin Saleh al-Yazidi had been repatriated to Tunisia, a transfer that leaves 26 detainees at the U.S. facility in Cuba.

Yazidi arrived at Guantanamo Bay the day it opened on Jan. 11, 2002, and was never charged. He was handed over to the Tunisian government, the Pentagon said in a press release on Monday.

“On Jan. 31, 2024, Secretary of Defense (Lloyd) Austin notified Congress of his intent to support this repatriation and, in consultation with our partner in Tunisia, we completed the requirements for responsible transfer,” the press release said.

The transfer came days after the Pentagon announced the repatriations of three other detainees, as the Biden administration pushes to reduce the number of people held at the notorious facility.

The Pentagon said in a press release earlier this month that Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, who are both Malaysians, were sent to their home country to serve the remainder of a 5-year sentence imposed in June. Officials had also announced the transfer of Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu to Kenya.

Fourteen of the remaining 26 detainees are eligible for transfer, according to the Pentagon. Another three are eligible for periodic review.

“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Pentagon said in a statement announcing Bajabu’s repatriation earlier this month.

The cases of seven other detainees are ongoing under military commissions, the tribunal process under which detainees are tried. Two detainees have been convicted and sentenced by those commissions.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(DENVER, Co.) — Law enforcement agencies in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area are investigating a rise in burglaries targeting Asian homes, businesses and places of worship across the community.

There have been around 100 reported burglaries of Asian homes across the state this year, according to Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.

The sheriff’s office in Douglas County — which is south of Denver — told ABC News that there have been around 14 burglaries targeting homes of Asian business owners since the beginning of the year. Seven of these have happened since September, it noted.

In an interview that aired on Tuesday, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly told ABC News Live’s Diane Macedo that there is a “multi-jurisdictional investigation” into a “sophisticated” operation, where the burglars are using “WiFi jammers to subvert alarm systems” and even conducting their own surveillance by setting up cameras near the homes of their victims to ensure that they are away when the burglars strike.

“Many times, these criminals will enter from the back, dressed as utility workers, are wearing vests,” Weekly said. “They’re very methodical. They plan these burglaries early, and they’ve made off with over $2.5 million that we’re aware of.”

The Douglas County Sheriff’s office first warned the community of these burglaries in an Oct. 31 statement and so far, no arrests have been made, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

Asked why Asian business owners appear to be targeted, Weekly said that some are known to keep “large amounts” of cash in their homes, as opposed to depositing the money in a bank.

Lisa Nguyen, the owner of a plaza of Asian-owned businesses, told ABC News that one of the businesses in her plaza was burglarized.

“They are destroying small businesses,” Nguyen said in Tuesday’s interview. “The amount of money that they took is detrimental to, you know, them being able to operate.”

She’s also president-elect of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, and said that the home of one of her real estate clients was burglarized twice since September.

According to Nguyen, who shared surveillance video of both burglaries with the ABC News, $17,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from a convenience store in her plaza.

She said a burglary of that scale puts families in a position where “multiple months of rent have been stolen” and “could cause businesses to completely shut down.”

Weekly urged the community to notify law enforcement if they see anything suspicious and advised residents to keep their homes locked, install lights on their property and to implement multiple security measures to safeguard their homes, as well as to communicate with their neighbors.

“It’s really critical if somebody sees something, call law enforcement so we can get out there,” Weekly said.

Weekly held a town hall on Monday night, along with Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown, the Organized Crime Unit and 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, to address the issue and share safety information with the community.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s office also partnered with the Colorado Asian Chamber of Commerce to distribute safety tips and urge anyone who has experienced a burglary or seen anything suspicious to come forward.

Nguyen said that she hopes an arrest will be made soon.

“I think my message is just that somebody literally has to know something out there,” she said. “And you know, that’s all it’s going to take is for somebody to come forward.”

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(NEW ORLEANS) — The anticipation surrounding Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans is not just about which team will win, it’s whether or not the city can pull the game off without a serious security breach.

New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls in previous years, but Sunday’s game at the Superdome is different. Just over a month before Sunday’s kick-off, the city was the target of a terrorist attack on New Year’s Day in which a driver racing down Bourbon Street killed 14 people, injured 57 others, and heightened fears among locals that the city is unprepared for the estimated 100,000 visitors expected to arrive this week.

“New Orleans never had a reputation as a high target type place” for terrorism, “it was always ‘the Big Easy,'” said Eric Cook, executive chef and owner of St. John, a restaurant in the city’s Central Business District that is just a short walk from the stadium. The attack, he said, “really made everyone realize we’re all vulnerable at any time. I have concerns about it, I really do.”

Security concerns were heightened this week after President Donald Trump announced he is planning to attend the game, a first for any sitting president.

NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier said the NFL changed its security plan since the attack and is “constantly monitoring what is going on in the environment and security worlds” in the days leading up to the game. She said more than 2,700 state, federal, and local law enforcement will be present in and around the Superdome and private drones are prohibited. She declined to talk in specific about other measures the league is taking, citing security concerns.

In the weeks following the Bourbon Street attack, the FBI gave the game a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) 1 rating, “defined as a significant event with national and/or international importance that requires extensive federal interagency support,” according to a threat assessment the agency released in late January.

The FBI said the game, along with days of activities leading up to kick-off, make it “an attractive target for foreign terrorist organizations, homegrown violent extremists, domestic violent extremists, lone offenders, hate crime perpetrators, and those engaged in other reportable targeted violence due to their potential to cause mass casualty incidents and draw attention to ideological causes.”

The report warns that a copycat attack is possible since “vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the west.” Other factors contributing to the threat environment is unrest in the Middle East, the high number of pre-game events in the city, the use of unauthorized unmanned aircraft systems, and the potential of cyberattacks “designed to facilitate short-term financial gain or highly visible, symbolic disruptions.”

Eric DeLaune, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, is tasked with coordinating federal efforts around the Super Bowl. “In the days ahead, there will be a significant increased law enforcement presence in New Orleans, some of which will be visible and obvious,” he told reporters Monday.

A congressional delegation led by Alabama Rep. Dale Strong, the chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology, this week toured the site of the Bourbon Street attack and the Superdome before a briefing by the NFL and law enforcement officials.

“This tragedy could happen in any state, any city—that is why it is so important that we invest in local law enforcement and give them the capabilities they need to prevent crimes before they happen,” Strong said in a statement

Guns allowed, but not coolers

The Bourbon Street attack triggered a state of emergency from the state, which Gov. Jeff Landry followed up weeks later with an executive order that established a wide security perimeter around Bourbon Street, from Canal to St. Ann Streets and Royal to Dauphine Streets. Coolers and ice chests are prohibited and bag checks conducted by the Louisiana State Police will start Wednesday at every entry point leading to Bourbon Street.

For French Quarter residents like Glade Bilby, who has called the neighborhood home for more than 40 years and is president of French Quarter Citizens, a non-profit that focuses on quality of life issues, the added security is “welcome.” He said, however, the security focus on Bourbon Street is limiting.

Another attack “could happen anywhere,” he said. “If this happened on Barracks, Gov. Nichols, it still affects the French Quarter which is an international brand. If you’re really intent on doing evil, you’ll be able to do it no matter what.”

Bilby is among many here who have been vocal all week about the contraction established by Landry which prohibits coolers into the security perimeter while state law allows people to carry in firearms without a permit. “That’s very problematic. It ties one hand behind law enforcement’s back,” Bilby said.

When Landry took office last year, he signed into law legislation to allow for the carrying of a concealed handgun without a permit or training. He rejected pleas from lawmakers in New Orleans to make the French Quarter and other entertainment districts in the city exempt. That means, according to Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche “there’s nothing that can be done legally with respect to people bringing firearms into the French Quarter.”

If law enforcement discovers a checked bag contains a handgun, “they have no recourse but to let them walk into the French Quarter, and that poses a real threat,” Goyeneche told WWL radio last month.

Landry’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. He has not commented on rejecting the carve-out on his gun legislation for the French Quarter but said upon signing the gun bill: “It’s fundamentally clear—law-abiding citizens should never have to seek government permission to safeguard themselves and their families.”

New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said the city will continue to advocate to state lawmakers that an exception should be made to prohibit conceal carry in the French Quarter because the environment is so unique.

“You have so many tourists packed into a small space and we’re encouraging people to drink alcohol inside and outside. That’s the ethos of what is going on there,” he said. “Alcohol and guns don’t mix. This is not a partisan issue.”

Investigations pending

Besides the refusal to carve out the French Quarter as a gun-free zone, concerns remain that the city hasn’t learned a lesson from the security gaps that safety officials have said made it easier for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, to drive a truck for at least three blocks in the early morning of New Year’s Day.

Two investigations — one by the city council and a second launched by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill — are looking into why protective columns designed to block vehicle traffic were removed and why other anti-vehicle barriers were not deployed.

“The People of Louisiana deserve answers,” said Murrill. “We are committed to getting a full and complete picture of what was done or not done, and more importantly, what needs to change so we can prevent this from ever happening again.”

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told the city council she hired former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton to serve as a consultant to investigate the security lapses.

Bratton did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the investigation.

Still, for all the promises and pending investigations and final reports, the big game will still proceed Sunday. Cook said an outcome without a major safety incident will be critical for businesses like his own that saw traffic drop following the New Year’s Day attack.

“We hope the success of this weekend will generate more trusting folks to come down here and visually see that New Orleans is open for business and we’re safe and we’re prepared,” Cook said.

Giarrusso admitted that New Orleanians are “weary and wary” but have no choice but to move forward.

“The whole point of terrorism is to prevent people from doing what in free society people are allowed to do,” he said. “We have to find a sweet spot of finding reasonable safety protection for people and ensuring we’re leading our lives the way we’re supposed to.”

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