When I search for something too many times, I try to remember to post it here.  So, to drop the warnings for type safety when you know all is fine, you can do the following:

@SuppressWarnings(“unchecked”)
List<CustomerBean>    customers    = (List<CustomerBean>)session.getAttribute(CSRD_CONTACT_LIST);

The original blog I referenced in my original blog (I recall someone  laughing at the term “Legacy Web Application” back in 2000) is sadly gone. So, for those who may run into the following error:

“javax.enterprise.deploy.model.exceptions.DDBeanCreateException: [J2EE Deployment SPI:260142]The descriptor at ‘META-INF/annotation-manifest.xml’ in module

Here is the closest reference still available to help you out: http://blogs.oracle.com/jamesbayer/2007/08/changing_weblogic_annotations.html