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Journalists paid to write for military Web site Pentagon is investigating the practice The Associated Press Updated: 5:08 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2005 WASHINGTON - The Pentagon’s chief investigator is looking into the military’s practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday. At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon’s inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists. The Balkans Web site, called Southeast European Times, as well as a second aimed at audiences in North Africa, have no immediately obvious connection to the U.S. government but contain a linked disclaimer that says they are “sponsored by the U.S. European Command.” That is the military organization based in Germany responsible for U.S. forces and military activities in Europe and parts of Africa. The second site, called Magharebia and aimed at the Maghreb region that encompasses Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, is still in development and has not reached the stage of having paid correspondents, said Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Kaufman, a European Command spokesman. Both sites carry news stories compiled from The Associated Press, Reuters and other news organizations. The Pentagon’s role in these Web sites was first reported by CNN on Thursday. ‘Information operations’ The Balkans Web site also has articles and commentary by about 50 journalists who Kaufman said are paid by European Command through a private contractor, Anteon Corp., an information technology company based in Fairfax, Va. The Web sites are examples of what the military calls “information operations,” or programs designed to influence public opinion by countering what the Pentagon considers to be misinformation or lies that circulate in the international news media. The Pentagon’s use of the Web sites has raised questions about blurring the lines between legitimate news and what some would call government propaganda. The Balkans site grew out of the U.S. air war against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 1999, Kaufman said. It sought to counter what U.S. officials considered a Serb propaganda machine that made effective use of the Internet. The site aimed at North Africa was started in October 2004 and is a new weapon in the global war on terror. “This specifically is trying to reach a youthful audience that is potentially ripe for extremist messages and terrorist recruitment,” Kaufman said. “It’s very much an effort to provide a voice of moderation, but it’s not disinformation. Every printed word is the truth.” Journalists’ identities not disclosed Kaufman said information warfare experts at European Command do not edit the stories written by contributing journalists for Southeast European Times, but they “review” the stories after they are processed by Anteon editors, and they sometimes change the headlines. He cited as an example a proposed headline that originally read, “Croatian Prime Minister Remembers Holocaust Victims,” which European Command changed to “Croatian Prime Minister Remarks on Dangers of Extremism,” which Kaufman said “more closely reinforced” the U.S. message. About 50 paid correspondents contribute to Southeast European Times, including one American journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Kaufman said. Another European Command spokesman, Air Force Maj. Sarah Strachan, said many of the journalists work primarily for news organizations, although she said the details of those employers could not be provided for privacy reasons. In a letter Thursday to the Pentagon inspector general, Di Rita asked for a comprehensive review in light of recent disclosures that other government agencies paid journalists to promote administration policies. “I have no reason to believe there might be a problem,” Di Rita wrote, but he said a review was called for in view of the Defense Department’s size and its complex budgeting structure. Previous case involved Education Department Without mentioning him by name, Di Rita alluded to the case of commentator Armstrong Williams, who was hired by the Education Department — through a contract with a public relations firm — to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law. Two other cases of columnists being paid to help promote administration policies have come to light in recent weeks, and Bush said Jan. 26 that the practice must stop. “It would be most helpful to review activities going back six to eight years, as I assume many existing relationships have continued for that many years or longer,” Di Rita wrote, noting the Southeast European Times operation. “It would be appropriate to review that activity and others like it.” It was not clear Friday whether other U.S. military commands have similar Web site operations. Navy Capt. Hal Pittman, the chief spokesman at Central Command, responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, said, “We’re reviewing the utility of this kind of Web site.” © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6915347/     Government keeping more secrets in name of national security By LANCE GAY Scripps Howard News Service February 02, 2005 WASHINGTON - Federal agencies are using secrecy rules developed after the 9/11 attacks to hide embarrassing or controversial reports and data that the federal government once routinely made public. Environmental groups, scientific organizations and animal-rights advocates are complaining about increasing difficulties in obtaining information on what government inspectors are finding about worker safety at nuclear power plants, toxic releases at chemical plants, or tests on live animals in scientific laboratories. In February 2002, the U.S. Agriculture Department removed from its Web site annual reports on how scientific laboratories are treating animals during experiments. The department said it wanted to see whether the reports contained "homeland security information." Martin Stephens, vice president for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States, said the Justice Department ruled that the material the government is required to gather under the Animal Welfare Act doesn't involve security concerns, but the Agriculture Department has refused to release any recent reports or put the material back online. "It's pretty much the only source of this information," Stephens said. "Without these documents, we are in the dark about what's going on." He said the department's surveys reflect the prevalence of live testing on animals in scientific laboratories and require documentation for the rationale for withholding pain medication when tests are conducted. The government reports have also been used to document that some universities that publicly deny they are involved in live animal testing are experimenting with animals in their laboratories. The Humane Society filed suit this week seeking to obtain the documents. Agriculture Department spokesman Jim Rogers said he could not respond to questions on the issue because the matter is being litigated. Michele Boyd, legislative director for the watchdog group Public Citizen, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission removed data on worker safety issues and health effects for a proposed Louisiana Energy Services nuclear facility in southeastern New Mexico. "What health and worker safety information would be of interest to terrorists?" Boyd asked. She said workers at the plant and neighbors around it deserve to know what dangers they are facing. "We scream about it, and they don't particularly care," Boyd said. The agency initially posted information from an environmental impact statement on its Web site, but then withdrew some materials in December that discussed the potentially lethal consequences of accidents. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined activists in protesting the withdrawal of the documents, saying it makes it impossible for citizens to make informed decisions about the facility. Many other agencies are using the post 9/11 crack down to keep secret data that once was public: - The Environmental Protection Agency is no longer releasing the information it gathers when chemical plants dump toxic substances. - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is refusing to release publicly documents that it prepared in secret on the dangers of liquefied natural gas terminals under construction along America's coastlines. The commission claims the material is "critical energy infrastructure information." - Despite bitter complaints from the nation's mayors, the Homeland Security Department won't tell police and fire departments when dangerous shipments of hazardous materials move through their jurisdictions. South Carolina authorities weren't alerted to the presence of a Norfolk and Southern Railroad tanker carrying chlorine until it exploded on a railroad siding, killing nine people. There are 90,000 shipments by rail of chlorine each year, and the federal government cites the need to keep the information from terrorists as justification for secrecy. - The Justice Department had been withholding details of what's been happening in secret proceedings against immigrants since 9/11. After losing a lawsuit over the issue, the department presented the People for the American Way Foundation with a ,000 bill this week for rounding up documents on the cases. A study by the Rand Corp. last year of the 36 Web sites and more than 600 public data bases shut down after 9/11 concluded government efforts to censor information was ill-advised and ineffective. Terrorists would not be interested in much of the information and, in any event, it could be obtained elsewhere in textbooks, trade journals or through non-government sites, the study concluded. But government secrecy is expanding. The Department of Homeland Security issued regulations last June telling government agencies they no longer need to release environmental impact statements, and secrecy rules are being applied not only to documents the government gathers, but also to information the government finances. The Council on Government Relations, representing the nation's university system, protests that scientists are facing unprecedented new rules written into research contracts requiring them to suppress sensitive but unclassified materials and also to receive special approval if foreigners are involved in the government-financed research. Albert Teich, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said that unlike classified research for which there are written rules, there are no firm guidelines on how to handle sensitive but unclassified information. In a December 2004 report, the Congressional Research Service found the way government agencies handle sensitive but unclassified materials differs widely across the government. "This is a gray area," he said. He worries the bureaucracy is treating the material over-cautiously to avoid recriminations if U.S. government documents later show up in a cave in Afghanistan. Teich said tightly applied rules prevent necessary scientific exchange, and a preoccupation with secrecy hurts America's long-term economic health. "The whole scientific enterprise moves forward on the free exchange of ideas and information," he said. "We could be shooting ourselves in the foot if we do anything that slows down this sort of research." Contact Lance Gay at GayL(at)SHNS.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com       CIA Faces Pressure to Divulge Ties to Ex-Nazis Wed Feb 2, 2005 02:25 PM ET By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator demanded on Wednesday that the CIA director release thousands of pages of documents detailing the agency's ties with former Nazis who aided in Cold War espionage against the Soviet Union, officials said. Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, Republican co-author of a 1998 bill ordering the disclosure of government records on Nazi war criminals, wants CIA Director Porter Goss to say publicly why his agency has not agreed to divulge the records. DeWine has asked Goss to appear this month at an open hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which the Ohio lawmaker sits, a Senate aide said. The CIA had no immediate comment on the invitation. "Sen. DeWine wants an explanation from the CIA. Our hope would be to have (Goss) there and that's what we're working toward," said DeWine spokeswoman Amanda Flaig. The CIA has already released an estimated 1.25 million pages of documents about Nazi war criminals. Most are records of the agency's wartime predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services. The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 requires federal agencies to make public records of individuals alleged to have committed Nazi war crimes by turning them over to a special working group. The working group, known formally as the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, includes officials from the National Archives, the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and other agencies. Goss co-sponsored the legislation during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he led the chamber's intelligence committee. But the CIA has refused to disclose documents about its postwar dealings with former Nazis who have not been accused of war crimes but belonged to organizations like the German Nazi party and the SS, congressional officials said. Some of the material is believed to deal with former Nazis who joined the allied Cold War effort against the Soviet Union in Europe, the officials said. The CIA defines the 1998 law to require only the disclosure of documents on war criminals. "Any material identified in our files as dealing with the commission of war crimes has been released," a CIA spokesman said. But congressional officials and public members of the working group interpret the statute to require disclosures on any individual connected with organizations involved in war crimes. "Where material has been withheld, the auditors from the working group have been able to see that material. This has not been a closed process in that respect," the CIA spokesman said. But with the working group scheduled to dissolve at the end of March, lawmakers, including DeWine and Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, have joined group members in pressuring the CIA for a fuller disclosure. Lawmakers also intend to introduce legislation extending the life of the working group by up to two years. "The group has already been extended by one year. But they still haven't gotten the documents because of CIA intransigence," said a congressional aide. © Reuters 2005

Danger for Tourists in Mexican Border Towns Parents of Missing American Women Believe They Have Received Little Help From Authorities Feb. 5, 2005 - In the last six months, more than two dozen Americans have been abducted or have vanished along the border in Mexico, up from just three or four reported abductions each year since 2000. On Friday, two Mississippi men were found dead on a highway near a Mexican border city, one shot in the head. The U.S. State Department has issued a safety warning for Americans traveling along the border -- its third since August. Authorities believe that the drug cartels operating on the Mexican side of the border are fighting over power and territory. They say beautiful women walking the streets become the spoils of war, and there's little American authorities can do about it. Parents Wait and Worry Two of those missing young women are Brenda Cisneros, 23, and Yvette Martinez, 27. The last time the women were seen was Sept. 17, 2004. It was Cisneros' birthday, and the best friends had left their homes in Laredo, Tex., to attend a concert on the Mexican side of the border. Their parents are still waiting for them to come home. "It's hell," said Martinez's mother, Antonieta Slemaker. "It's very hard, my heart is broken. I need her. I miss her. And I need to know, where is she?" Martinez's parents are risking their lives by speaking out. The Mexican drug lords do not like the attention. The FBI believes other parents are not coming forward, and some of them may be quietly paying off ransoms. Little Help from Authorities William Slemaker, Martinez's stepfather, told "Good Morning America" they won't be stopped by fear of retaliation. "It's been four months. Fear alone is not going to deter us," he said. Slemaker says the Mexican police have been no help to them, and American officials have little authority to do anything. So Slemaker went searching on his own. He found Yvette's car at an impound run by the local police. "They had it way in the back, like they were hiding it," Slemaker told ABC News' Steve Osunsami. Despite the dangers and the lack of help from Mexican authorities, the families of Martinez and Cisneros are not giving up. They have set up a Web site where anyone can leave an anonymous tip. So far, they haven't received a single clue. Now Antonieta and William Slemaker are warning other parents not to let their children cross the border. "Even if they are adults, advise them not to go," said Antonieta. Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Venture   Man Again Sent to Prison for Junk in Yard Florida Man Again Sent to Prison for Stockpiling Airplane Parts and Other Junk From His Yard The Associated Press Feb. 1, 2005 - A man who defied officials for more than 13 years by refusing to remove airplane parts and other junk from his yard was sentenced to three years in prison. Alan Wayne Davis, 49, had been placed on house arrest in September after serving nearly a year in prison for illegal dumping and creating and maintaining a public nuisance. On Monday, a judge sentenced Davis to three years in prison for violations of his house arrest, including failing to return home from work on time and keeping part of a World War II fighter plane in his yard. "Mr. Davis is marching to the beat of his own drum at all times," the judge said. Davis, a mechanic and welder, claims he's the victim of a government conspiracy and that he's merely fighting to protect his property rights. He was an artist, he insisted, and the pieces of junk were his supplies. But neighbors and officials said Davis' lawn is an eyesore and he's flaunted the law for years. Once, when a judge ordered him to move the trash, he put it on his roof. In the hallway outside the courtroom, his wife, Aileen Davis, said, "This is crazy. This is a victimless crime." Information from: The Orlando Sentinel, Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures     Teens Sued for Cookie Delivery to Neighbor Two Colorado Girls Forced to Pay Neighbor After Anonymously Leaving Cookies on Her Doorstep Feb. 5, 2005 - A pair of Colorado teens surprised a neighbor by baking cookies -- no charge. It cost them . Taylor Ostergaard, 18, and Lindsey Zellitti, 19, decided to stay home from a dance in July in order to surprise their neighbors with an anonymous delivery of homemade cookies. But one of their neighbors, Wanita Renea Young, 49, became so terrified she suffered an anxiety attack and called the police. Young sued the girls and this week was awarded to recoup her medical bills. The two teens recounted the incident on "Good Morning America," and said that though they were disappointed by the judge's decision, they weren't angry and would continue to do good deeds. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished After finishing farm chores for the evening, Ostergaard asked her father if she and Zellitti could bake cookies and deliver them to a few neighbors in rural Durango. "We think outside the box a little more than usual," said Zellitti. "We just wanted to do something nice for other people, [to] let them know other people care about them even though they didn't know who it was." The girls knocked on the doors only of homes with lights on, left the cookies on the porch and ran away, wanting to keep their good deed anonymous. The packages included heart-shaped cards that read: "Have a great night. From the T and L Club." At around 10:30 p.m., they knocked on Young's door. Young, whose home had reportedly been burglarized before, became frightened and called the police. The police determined no crime had been committed. But the next day, Young was admitted to the hospital suffering from an anxiety attack. Despite receiving a note of apology from the girls and an offer to pay her medical bills, Young ended up suing them. On Thursday, a Durango judge ordered the girls to pay about for Young's medical bills. She was awarded nothing for pain and suffering. "I know there wasn't any intent to cause harm, but I think that they made some poor choices," Young has said. "I think there should have been some accountability." Offers of Support Ostergaard said they never would have delivered the cookies to Young had they known about her past problems. "We had no idea about the burglars," she said. "We felt so horrible when we found out that we had caused someone harm or made them feel upset." The girls said they were surprised but still respected the judge's decision. "It kind of startled us because we were trying to do something nice. It was kind of a blow," said Zellitti. But now the girls are getting support from all over the country, including monetary contributions to pay their fine. "America's been wonderful," said Zellitti. "They're just supporting us, making us feel so much better about this." Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures     Posted on Mon, Jan. 31, 2005 Akron gives fingerprint meal system high grade More students eat free; funding may benefit By Stephanie Warsmith Beacon Journal staff writer A controversial cafeteria system that identifies Akron Public School students from their fingerprints has proved beneficial for the district, school leaders say. More middle-school students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches now are taking advantage of them. That helps both the students and the district. ``What we've accomplished is taking that stigma away,'' Debra Foulk, coordinator of the Akron schools' Child Nutrition Services, said last week. The high-tech system, dubbed iMeal, is being used in every Akron middle school and was installed in the last two weeks at Central-Hower, East and Buchtel high schools. It is expected to be added to the rest of the district's high schools before spring break in March, Foulk said. In a divided vote, the Akron school board voted in April 2003 to spend ,000 on a new cafeteria system to replace the meal ticket program in place for nearly two decades. The money came from the district's meal program budget, which pays for itself. Some board members and parents were concerned about privacy issues involved with taking students' fingerprints. Only one other Ohio district -- Garfield Heights -- was using this technology when Akron chose to adopt it. The iMeal system includes new touch-screen registers, software and fingerprint-imaging scanners. Students' fingerprints are put into a scanner that makes a template of binary numbers corresponding with the unique swirls and arches of each print. When students go through the lunch line, they place their finger on a scanner that identifies them based on the stored template. Designers of the system say the original fingerprints are deleted. The system began being phased in to Akron's school cafeterias beginning last April. It will not be used in elementary schools, where all students are receiving free meals. Students have the option of using personal identification numbers rather than fingerprints. Foulk said only about 4 percent of the students have chosen the PIN option. Several schools using iMeal have seen increases in the number of students taking advantage of free and reduced-price meals, Foulk said. At Litchfield Middle School, for example, she said the proportion of eligible students taking advantage of free lunches increased 6 percentage points -- from 77 percent to 83 percent -- between October of 2003 and October of 2004. Similarly, the percentage of the school's students receiving reduced-priced lunches rose from 63 percent to 73 percent during the same period. School leaders think additional Akron schools could become eligible for federal Title 1 funding in the next school year. This funding is doled out based -- among other factors -- on the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-priced lunches. Parents who do not want their children fingerprinted may obtain an opt-out form in the school office or cafeteria, or by calling the district's child nutrition office at 330-761-1335. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com     AMS critical of Iraq elections By Lawrence Smallman Sunday 30 January 2005, 23:42 Makka Time, 20:42 GMT   Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars has told Aljazeera that the low turnout by Sunni Arabs in elections was due to a lack of real choice and military occupation.   In an interview broadcast before polling stations closed on Sunday, Muhammad al-Kubaysi said low turnout in places such as Baghdad, Baquba and Samarra could have been prevented if there had been more time to create a genuine election. "The voter goes to the polling stations not knowing who he is voting for in the first place. There are more than 7700 candidates, and I challenge any Iraqi voter to name more than half a dozen." He also criticised the huge number of groups on voting lists in which it was virtually impossible to know who was standing for election and what the candidate's background was. "Their names have not been announced but have been kept secret ... elections should never have been held under these present circumstances," he said. "Even 80% of Iraqis living abroad in complete safety refused to register their names. This shows that the low turnout in many areas is not a security problem. "Rather, it demonstrates a growing Iraqi awareness that these elections are indeed an American and not Iraqi initiative", al-Kubaysi said. Not a solution The AMS spokesman added that it would be wrong for the US to assume that any new government could legitimise the continued US military presence in the region. "The elections are not a solution to the Iraqi problem, because this problem is not an internal dispute to be resolved through accords and elections. It lies in the presence of a foreign power that occupies this country and refuses even the mere scheduling of the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq", he said. Al-Kubaysi said AMS believed political consensus among Iraqi parties could only be reached once the foreign military presence left the country and all parties had to rely on debate rather than use of force. "We have consistently argued that elections can only occur in a democracy that enjoys sovereignty. Our sovereignty is incomplete. Our sovereignty is usurped by foreign forces that have occupied our land and hurt our dignity." Asked whether the influential group was looking to upset a transition to democracy by rejecting elections, al-Kubaysi replied: "These elections ... are a means of establishing the foreign forces in Iraq and keeping Iraq under the yoke of occupation. They should have been postponed."     Iraq officials admit irregularities in poll Wednesday 02 February 2005, 3:29 Makka Time, 0:29 GMT   Tens of thousands of Iraqis - mainly Sunni Arabs - may have been denied their right to vote on Sunday because of insufficient ballots and polling centres, Iraqi officials have said. Officials began compiling election results from around the country on Tuesday, but they said many citizens arrived late on Sunday to find ballot sheets had run out, possibly skewing results. If true, the allegation that many voters were turned away could further alienate Sunnis who already say that they have been left out of the political process. Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawir said extra ballots had to be supplied to Iraq's third city of Mosul, which is mainly Sunni Arab, after twice running out on election day. "Also, tens of thousands were unable to cast their votes because of the lack of ballots in Basra, Baghdad, and Najaf," said al-Yawir. Deprived from voting Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission acknowledged that some Iraqis were unable to vote because pre-election intimidation in two Sunni Arab provinces hampered preparations."The elections took place under difficult conditions and this undoubtedly deprived a number of citizens in a number of areas from voting," said Husain al-Hindawi, who leads the commission that organised the poll. "The security situation was difficult in these areas and there may have been a shortage of materials in this area or that... Some centres were opened quickly, at the last moment." Al-Hindawi said the commission was setting up an external committee made up of three Iraqi lawyers to investigate complaints. Each case would be explained in a detailed report. Electoral sabotage Mishaan Jiburi, a candidate and national assembly member, accused the commission of deliberately supplying insufficient materials in some Sunni areas, believing few would vote. Arab voters who initially intended to boycott the polls in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk apparently had changed their minds after realising they would lose to Kurds. But by the time they arrived to vote, ballot sheets were gone, he said. "I think the decision came from Baghdad. They were concerned with keeping Sunnis out of the game," he said. Jiburi said ballot sheets were 36,000-40,000 short in Hawija, a largely Sunni Arab area southwest of oil-rich Kirkuk. He estimated a shortfall of 28,000 ballot papers in Baiji, a northern Sunni city, and 6000 in nearby Shirqat. Poor security "I had a large number of voters in these areas. I am sure we will be in parliament, but if these people had been able to vote we would have won more seats," Jiburi said. Of 5244 polling centres planned, 28 did not open, many in western Baghdad, because of poor security, the commission said.     While there were 63,000 polling booths across Iraq, there were just 33,763 independent local monitors and 622 international monitors, it added. Final results are not expected for up to a week. Hearts and minds Nevertheless, Iraqi leaders stepped up efforts on Tuesday to persuade Sunni Muslims to return to the political process as the final vote count got under way. Al-Yawir said all parties - except those tainted by the deadly violence that has gripped Iraq since Saddam Hussein's overthrow in April 2003 - should take part in negotiations after the election. "We must all become involved in a dialogue and reconciliation ... with everyone. All those who were not involved in violence must be part of the political process," he said. "There were no winners or losers" in the election he added, calling it "a victory for Iraq". The election is likely to see Shia groups take power in Iraq.     'I saw forklift abuse' - soldier A British soldier has told a court martial how an Iraqi detainee was tied to a forklift truck and repeatedly driven into a wall by other soldiers. Pte David Coxon was at the trial of three soldiers accused of abusing Iraqis in Basra in 2003. He told the court in Germany how around 20 soldiers laughed and jeered as an Iraqi eventually fell from the fork. But defence lawyers say he invented the story to deflect from his own role in forcing Iraqis to simulate sex acts. Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, and L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, both of Newcastle upon Tyne, deny all the charges they face. L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, admits one charge of assaulting a prisoner but denies another charge. You knew that if you mentioned being present at the sex show [to the military police] you were in big trouble Stephen Vullo Defence counsel The soldiers are all from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Pte Coxon, who held the rank of Lance Corporal at the time of the incidents, claimed he knew abuse was happening. He said he was woken up by the sound of a forklift truck and went out to see what was happening. "I knew they were being beaten up and things like that, and I didn't want anything to do with it, so I walked away," he told the court. Pte Coxon, who went absent without leave for almost a year following the incidents, described the scene as "like watching a football match". He said he went straight back to bed. 'Big trouble' But lawyers for the three soldiers say Pte Coxon was "deeply involved" in a later incident where Iraqis were forced to simulate sex acts. Stephen Vullo, for L/Cpl Cooley who was pictured driving a forklift with an Iraqi tied to the fork, argued the whole story was false. He said Pte Coxon and two other soldiers concocted it to deflect attention from the "sex show". "You knew that if you mentioned being present at the sex show [to the military police] you were in big trouble," said Mr Vullo. Pte Coxon denies being present while Iraqis were forced to simulate sex. Evidence of the alleged abuse came to light when a set of photographs was left for processing at a shop in Tamworth, Staffordshire. A film developer called police because she was "disturbed by the content". The soldiers are being tried before Judge Advocate Michael Hunter and a panel of British officers in Osnabrueck, Germany, where their regiment is based. The case continues. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4224167.stm Published: 2005/01/31 19:13:20 GMT       Soldier tells of UK 'war crimes' A soldier who believes he saw UK troops abusing Iraqi prisoners has told a court martial he felt at the time that their actions constituted "war crimes". Cpl Jonathan Petrice was at the trial of three soldiers accused of abusing Iraqis at a Basra aid camp in 2003. He said he saw one of the three, L/Cpl Darren Larkin, threaten Iraqis with a metal pole and force them to undress. But under cross-examination at the court in Germany, he admitted he could no longer be sure who he had seen. L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, admits one assault but denies forcing Iraqis to undress in front of each other. Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, and L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, both of Newcastle upon Tyne, deny all the charges they face. It has just really conflicted me as to whether it was him or not Cpl Jonathan Petrice The soldiers are all from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Cpl Petrice originally said he saw L/Cpl Larkin standing yards from a naked Iraqi and a second man who was undressing. "The exact words he said I don't quite recollect - it was of an aggressive nature," he said. The soldier identified as L/Cpl Larkin then said "something regarding getting undressed" to the detainee, according to Cpl Petrice. He said he was only outside for a matter of seconds before he left the scene. But under cross-examination Cpl Petrice said he had been confused by images of L/Cpl Larkin published in the press. He said the man he witnessed was dressed in combat trousers but he had seen L/Cpl Larkin wearing boxer shorts in photographs. "It has just really conflicted me as to whether it was him or not," said Cpl Petrice. Evidence of the alleged abuse came to light when a set of photographs was left for processing at a shop in Tamworth, Staffordshire. A film developer called police because she was "disturbed by the content". The soldiers are being tried before Judge Advocate Michael Hunter and a panel of British officers in Osnabrueck, Germany, where their regiment is based. The case continues. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4226335.stm Published: 2005/02/01 14:59:07 GMT       Britons allege Guantanamo abuse Three British men held by the US in Guantanamo Bay for more than two years have compiled a report alleging abuse and humiliation while in captivity. The document, to be released in New York on Wednesday, was being passed on to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The accusations include beatings and one of the men, Ruhal Ahmed, claimed a US guard pointed a gun at his head, in front of a British interrogator. The UK Ministry of Defence said it would investigate any such allegations. There was never any suggestion on the part of the British interrogators that this treatment was wrong Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Asef Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul - all from Tipton in the West Midlands - returned to Britain in March having spent more than two years without legal representation in American custody - first in Afghanistan, then at Guantanamo Bay. They were then released without charge by British police. Their experiences in captivity now form the basis of a 115-page report, Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. The allegations include: they were repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, forcibly injected with drugs, deprived of sleep, hooded, photographed naked and subjected to body cavity searches and sexual and religious humiliations one American guard told the inmates: "The world does not know you're here - we would kill you and no-one would know" Mr Iqbal said when he arrived at Guantanamo, one of the soldiers told him: "You killed my family in the towers and now it's time to get you back. Mr Rasul said an MI5 officer had told him during an interrogation that he would be detained in Guantanamo for life the men said they saw the beating of mentally ill inmates another man was left brain damaged after a beating by soldiers as punishment for attempting suicide the Britons said an inmate told them he was shown a video of hooded men - apparently inmates - being forced to sodomise one another guards threw prisoners' Korans into toilets and tried to force them to give up their religion The men allege that when a new camp commander, Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, took charge, new practices began, including the shaving of beards, playing loud music, shackling detainees in squatting positions and locking them naked in cells. Mr Ahmed said Foreign Office officials "did not seem to care or even ask him about the conditions". The report says: "It was very clear to all three that MI5 was content to benefit from the effect of the isolation, sleep deprivation and other forms of acutely painful and degrading treatment, including short shackling. "There was never any suggestion on the part of the British interrogators that this treatment was wrong." All the time I was kneeling with a guy standing on the backs of my legs and another holding a gun to my head Ruhal Ahmed The Foreign Office said the United States had been asked to examine the allegations and would be responding to them fully. But a spokesman said none of the Britons at Guantanamo had made it aware of any allegations of systematic abuse, either when they were detained in the camp or on their release. A statement said: "Throughout we have sought to meet the twin objectives of pursuing the fight against international terrorism whilst safeguarding the interests of the British citizens detained aboard." All three men said they had made either written or verbal complaints to British embassy officials while they were being held. The trio said they had eventually wrongfully confessed to appearing in a video with al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and Mohammed Atta, one of the 11 September hijackers. There was not a single method that was not used to break their will Lawyer Gareth Pierce Mr Rasul was actually working in a Curry's electronics store in the West Midlands at the time the video was filmed, the report says. In the report, it is understood Mr Ahmed says shortly after his capture in northern Afghanistan in 2001 he was questioned by a British interrogator, who identified himself as an SAS officer, while an American soldier held a gun to his head, threatening to shoot him. The UK Ministry of Defence acknowledged that such behaviour is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and has promised to investigate any such allegation. For its part, the Pentagon has dismissed the claims of abuse as a fabrication. Lawyer Gareth Pierce told BBC News: "There was not a single method that was not used to break their will to make them confess to something they were not guilty of, and all three did." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3533804.stm Published: 2004/08/04 22:22:21 GMT     Kerry blames defeat on Bin Laden US Democratic Senator John Kerry says a video message from Osama Bin Laden sealed his defeat in a presidential race dominated by the 9/11 attacks. Mr Kerry told NBC TV his opinion poll lead over President George W Bush fell away after the tape was broadcast. He said national security was the decisive issue in the November 2004 poll, won eventually by President Bush. Osama Bin Laden's video, shown days before the vote, urged Americans to back neither Mr Bush nor Mr Kerry. "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands," said the al-Qaeda figurehead, claiming that the best way for the US to avoid fresh attacks was to call off its "war on terror". Ratings loss Mr Kerry said he was proud of his presidential campaign, claiming it had brought "millions of new voters" into the political process. "Many Republicans say we beat their models by four or five points," he said. "I won the youth vote. I won the independent vote. I won the moderate vote." But, Mr Kerry said, he had faced a difficult task in persuading a country at war "to shift horses in midstream". "I believe that 9/11 was the central deciding issue in this race," he said. He said the impact of Bin Laden's message was evident by the dent in his ratings that followed its appearance. "We were rising in the polls up until the last day when the tape appeared. We flat-lined the day the tape appeared and went down on Monday." Attack on Rice Mr Kerry also renewed attacks on President Bush over his handling of the conflict in Iraq. He argued that a new Iraqi security force was not being forged rapidly enough and that the government's attitude had made the US less safe. "I believe this administration has set back America's interests and security on a global basis. And over the next few months, I intend to lay out very, very clearly exactly how they've done and how we can do a better job." Senator Kerry recently attacked Condoleezza Rice in the run-up to her confirmation as Secretary of State. He told NBC she was the "principal architect, implementer and defender" of a policy that had made the US less secure. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4222647.stm Published: 2005/01/31 12:47:17 GMT     Posted on Mon, Jan. 31, 2005 Akron gives fingerprint meal system high grade More students eat free; funding may benefit By Stephanie Warsmith Beacon Journal staff writer A controversial cafeteria system that identifies Akron Public School students from their fingerprints has proved beneficial for the district, school leaders say. More middle-school students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches now are taking advantage of them. That helps both the students and the district. ``What we've accomplished is taking that stigma away,'' Debra Foulk, coordinator of the Akron schools' Child Nutrition Services, said last week. The high-tech system, dubbed iMeal, is being used in every Akron middle school and was installed in the last two weeks at Central-Hower, East and Buchtel high schools. It is expected to be added to the rest of the district's high schools before spring break in March, Foulk said. In a divided vote, the Akron school board voted in April 2003 to spend ,000 on a new cafeteria system to replace the meal ticket program in place for nearly two decades. The money came from the district's meal program budget, which pays for itself. Some board members and parents were concerned about privacy issues involved with taking students' fingerprints. Only one other Ohio district -- Garfield Heights -- was using this technology when Akron chose to adopt it. The iMeal system includes new touch-screen registers, software and fingerprint-imaging scanners. Students' fingerprints are put into a scanner that makes a template of binary numbers corresponding with the unique swirls and arches of each print. When students go through the lunch line, they place their finger on a scanner that identifies them based on the stored template. Designers of the system say the original fingerprints are deleted. The system began being phased in to Akron's school cafeterias beginning last April. It will not be used in elementary schools, where all students are receiving free meals. Students have the option of using personal identification numbers rather than fingerprints. Foulk said only about 4 percent of the students have chosen the PIN option. Several schools using iMeal have seen increases in the number of students taking advantage of free and reduced-price meals, Foulk said. At Litchfield Middle School, for example, she said the proportion of eligible students taking advantage of free lunches increased 6 percentage points -- from 77 percent to 83 percent -- between October of 2003 and October of 2004. Similarly, the percentage of the school's students receiving reduced-priced lunches rose from 63 percent to 73 percent during the same period. School leaders think additional Akron schools could become eligible for federal Title 1 funding in the next school year. This funding is doled out based -- among other factors -- on the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-priced lunches. Parents who do not want their children fingerprinted may obtain an opt-out form in the school office or cafeteria, or by calling the district's child nutrition office at 330-761-1335. Big brother or the mark of the beast? By Becky Blanton - Sierra Times.com If homeland security’s extreme precautions against terrorists haven’t gotten under your skin, look again. That’s just what they’re about to do — with VeriChips. A VeriChip is a rice-sized radio frequency identification microchip designed for tracking everything from products to people. The company who created the chip — Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) — has announced that organizations in Brazil and Mexico have begun implanting the chips in children. And, the Department of Defense announced Oct. 23 that the government will begin using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices throughout the military and the U.S. for product inventory beginning in 2005. U.S. companies such as Wal-Mart also expect to be using RFID tags in 2005. Depending on the public’s response, some American’s can expect to find VeriChips being offered in the U.S. as part of a child-identification program very soon. DoD claims RFID technology greatly improves the management of inventory by providing hands-off processing for everything from ordnance to office supplies. The RFID tags will be applied to everything in the military except sand, gravel, liquids and similar items. Dod expects the system to not only speed up the inventory process, but make it more accurate and less susceptible to human error. Soldiers won’t be chipped — yet. At least not in the United States. However, the VeriChip is now being used to track people outside the United States. ADS has a program called VeriKid. Under the program children are implanted with a VeriChip — an RFID device, using a large needle which injects the device under the skin. The chip gives off a 125-kilohertz radio frequency signal which is transmitted to a nearby scanner or hand held wand. Scanners read the transmitted ID number and use it to identify the child through a database. When a “chipped” child is abducted or missing, authorities place scanners in areas where the child might turn up — such as shopping malls, bus stations, airports and other areas. If the child goes by the scanner, the chip triggers the scanner and alerts authorities to the location. Both Brazil and Mexico have implemented the program for “security purposes” and to track abducted and missing children. Mexico's National Foundation of Investigations of Robbed and Missing Children estimates that 133,000 children in Mexico have been kidnapped over the past five years. According to VeriChip, Mexico launched their VeriKid program earlier this month to protect children from abduction. The company claims the chip will alert whether the child is unconscious, asleep, silenced or even dead. Brazil has ordered 10 wall-mounted VeriGuard scanning devices to be used as part of their security system which will be launched in Brazil in mid-November. That program, VeriChip claims, will be the first in which implantable chips will be used as part of a building access security system for adults. VeriChip claims their original purpose for the program was medically focused — not for security. The company wanted to be able to identify people with specific medical needs, even if they were brought into a hospital unconscious. But VeriChip claims the chip goes far beyond medical uses the company claims. Parolees could be chipped to make sure they do not break parole. Sex offenders could be tracked even if they did not register with the city as required by law. It sounds good to some, but opponents to the chips claim that while the RFID’s provide some measure of security, they do so at the severe expense of personal privacy. The chip can be linked to any kind of information — including financial, medical, criminal history or past convictions, drug use etc. and those with scanners or access to scanners would have access to that information as well. Law enforcement wouldn’t even have to stop a person on the street to question them. A patrol car mounted scanner could relay the person’s criminal history faster than a cop could type in a license plate number. If that becomes the case, then the scanners might start popping up anywhere – highway overpasses, libraries, schools, or stores. Those with access to the central database would be able to follow chipped people wherever they went. The chip would easily become an embedded leash and the refrain, “Home of the free,” would take on an entirely different meaning.       $1.5M Homemade Bar Code Scam NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 31, 2004 (AP) Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over the last decade. Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold. The Uniform Product Code identifier brings up a product's name and price on a store cashier's screen. Authorities said they're still calculating the total stolen from Wal-Mart and two other unidentified retail chains by the four suspects and up to 30 accomplices. "They were ranging all over the country," Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley said. Arrested Tuesday on charges of theft of more than ,000 were sisters Julie Marie Simmons, 35, and Laura Simmons Howerton, 39, and their husbands Michael Poore, 29, and Dewey Howerton, 39. The four share a house in the Nashville suburb of Portland. The ring avoided detection in part by visiting stores at the busiest times, Portland Police Detective Don Hardin said. Hardin, who declined to name the other chains at the companies' request, said other arrests could come as soon as next week. Authorities began making their case in January after investigators in neighboring Macon County found about ,000 in stolen Wal-Mart merchandise and an informant who led them to the two couples. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Sharon Weber declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but said the company has been active in the investigation. Authorities say they believe the ring struck Wal-Marts in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The four were in jail Thursday awaiting a Jan. 5 court hearing. They face from eight to 20 years if convicted on the theft charges. Authorities say further charges are likely.     Busts In Bar Code Scam ATLANTA, Dec. 5, 2003 (AP) Secret Service agents arrested three people Thursday on charges of defrauding Home Depot and Lowe's stores across the South out of ,000 in rugs and other merchandise by switching the bar codes on products. The three allegedly took bar codes from cheaper items and affixed them to expensive rugs at Home Depot and Lowe's stores in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. They would then go through the checkout lines and leave with rugs worth hundreds of dollars for each, authorities said. Investigators said the rugs were later returned at other Home Depot and Lowe's stores for a refund. In Home Depot's case, the store routinely gives store credit in the form of a gift card if items are returned without a receipt. The suspects, David Oliver, 34, of Hampton, Ga., his wife, Mindy Oliver, 38, and Marcus Abercrombie, 33, of Duluth, Ga., were charged with conspiracy as well as possession and trafficking of the gift cards. According to the agents, the suspects sold the gift cards on eBay or through Abercrombie's pawnshop and bought items with the gift cards that were sold on eBay. There was no answer Thursday at Abercrombie's pawnshop or his home. Phone numbers for the Olivers were not listed. It's not clear if the three have lawyers. Authorities said they would likely appear in court by Friday. Authorities are investigating at least a half-dozen other people in the scheme. In June, Home Depot learned of the scheme when an employee noticed numerous rugs were being bought for when they looked more expensive. The crimes were reported to the Secret Service, which specializes in electronic crimes. Atlanta-based Home Depot, the nation's largest home improvement store chain, said in a statement said it had taken steps to prevent such schemes. A spokesman would not elaborate, saying the details would only help thieves. Wilkesboro, N.C.-based Lowe's, with about half as many stores, is the nation's second-largest chain.       Bye-Bye Bar Codes WASHINGTON, July 8, 2003 (AP) Razor blades and medicines packaged with pinpoint-sized computer chips and tiny antennae that eventually could send retailers and manufacturers a wealth of information about the products — and those who buy them — will start appearing in grocery stores and pharmacies this year. Within two decades, the minuscule transmitters are expected to replace the familiar product bar codes, and retailers are already envisioning the conveniences the new technology, called “radio frequency identification,” will bring — even as others are raising privacy concerns. A grocery store clerk will know immediately when the milk on the shelf has expired, for example, and replace it before a customer can choose it. Stores could quickly pull from the shelves tainted and damaged products that are recalled or have expired, especially important in health care items. “It would help you manage your inventory a lot better,” says Todd Andrews, spokesman for the Rhode Island-based CVS pharmacy chain that will soon test the chips and antennae on its prescription medicines. CVS's 4,000 stores fill millions of prescriptions each year but many customers forget to pick them up. “If you could utilize RFID technology to tell you that a prescription is in the waiting bin, maybe the product could say: 'I've been here 10 days and I haven't been picked up yet.' Then, you could call the patient,” Andrews says. The technology builds upon the UPC (Uniform Product Code) symbol and bar codes that, when read by a scanner, enable manufacturers and retailers to keep up with their prices and inventories. A computer chip smaller than the head of an ant and a thin antenna attached to a bottle, box, can or package will alert retailers and suppliers when a product is taken off a store shelf or moved out of a warehouse. A radio signal is beamed to an electronic reader, which then delivers a message to a computer in the store or factory. CVS, Procter & Gamble and The Gillette Co. are among the 100 retailers and manufacturers that have put up a total of million for research on the new tags at the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Other Auto-ID labs at the University of Cambridge in England, Adelaide University in Australia, Keio University in Japan and USG-ETH in Switzerland are also working on the technology. Radio frequency identification technology is not new. The tiny chips and small antennae already are familiar to workers equipped with security cards that, when waived in front of a receiver, unlock the doors to their offices or relay information about the bearer to a guard. The technology's potential for sending retailers and others information about consumers is already raising privacy concerns, however. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of a watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said retailers should be required to disable the tags before a consumer leaves a store. “Simply stated, I don't think most people want their clothes spying on them,” Rotenberg said. “It's also clear that there could be some very invasive uses of these techniques if merchants use the tracking technology to spy on their customers after purchase.” Researchers developing RFID tags for products so far have focused on the supply chain and limited the range at which a product could be detected. Once their use becomes universal the cost of the tags could be as little as a nickel each, they say. Sanjay Sarma, the lead researcher at the Auto-ID Center in Massachusetts, says that by adding more functions to the chip, installing a battery and attaching a longer antenna, a receiver far away could read all the information on a chip, including its exact location. Homes equipped with receiver-readers could alert consumers when they are running low on orange juice or their prescription for heart medicine is about to expire. Hooked up to a national network like the Internet, the at-home devices could also provide details to marketers about a family's eating and hygienic habits. Sarma acknowledges that gigantic privacy concerns the technology raises, saying one way to address them would be letting consumers disable the chips once they leave a checkout counter. “Any technology can be abused and we've got to be prepared, be watchful for the abuse,” Sarma said. Ron Margulis, a spokesman for the National Grocers Association, said the privacy concerns are far outweighed by the benefits of RFID. Retailers, he said, could respond much more quickly to product recalls and prevent people from becoming ill from tainted products. “You do give up a bit of privacy but the benefit could be that you live,” said Margulis.     FDA OKs Implantable Info Chip WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2004 (AP) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable computer chip that can pass a patient's medical details to doctors, speeding care. VeriChips, radio frequency microchips the size of a grain of rice, have already been used to identify wayward pets and livestock. And nearly 200 people working in Mexico's attorney general's office have been implanted with chips to access secure areas containing sensitive documents. Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions in July asked the FDA for approval to use the implantable chip for medical uses in the United States. The agency had 60 days to reply to the "de novo" application. It's the first time the FDA has approved the use of the device, though in Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips have been implanted in patients. The chip's serial number pulls up the patients' blood type and other medical information. With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches. Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code — similar to the identifying bar code on products sold in retail stores — that releases patient-specific information when a scanner passes over the chip. At the doctor's office those codes stamped onto chips, once scanned, would reveal such information as a patient's allergies and prior treatments. The FDA in October 2002 said that the agency would regulate health care applications possible through VeriChip. Meanwhile, the chip has been used for a number of security-related tasks as well as for pure whimsy: Club hoppers in Barcelona, Spain, now use the microchip much like a smartcard to speed drink orders and payment.     FDA To Require Bar Codes On Meds WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2004 (AP) Almost all medications given in the hospital soon must bear a supermarket-style bar code that health workers will match to patients to help ensure they get the right dose of the right drug at the right time. The code, just an eighth of an inch tall on individual pill packs, is a major new requirement for manufacturers. The Food and Drug Administration says the requirement could cut in half the drug errors now thought to kill about 7,000 hospitalized patients a year. "Medication errors are a serious health problem, but they're a preventable problem," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in announcing the regulation Wednesday. Added FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, "This is a proven approach to reducing errors." He said the change could prevent half a million adverse events - new or worsening symptoms resulting from the treatment that patients received - in the next 20 years and save billion a year. Hospitals, patient advocates and drug manufacturers eagerly have awaited the rule. In fact, the FDA heeded pleas to speed up enforcement. All new medications will have to bear bar codes within 60 days of FDA approval; medicines already on the market must bear them within two years, a year earlier than first planned. Drug errors can happen when busy health workers misread a patient's chart and administer the wrong drug or wrong dose, or give a drug to the wrong patient, or give a drug too often. When patients are admitted to a hospital that uses a bar code system, they are given a wristband with their own identifying code. After the wristband and the intended medicine are scanned, if the drug does not match the patient's medical chart, a computer beeps an alarm. Errors plummeted when veterans hospitals adopted bar codes several years ago, re-labeling all their in-house drugs for electronic identification. But as of December, only about 125 of the nation's 5,000-plus hospitals were using bar code systems, according to Bridge Medical Inc., a leading manufacturer of bar code readers. That is partly because only about 35 percent of their pharmaceutical supplies came with the codes affixed to them. The government's new rule means more hospitals probably will start using the safety system because virtually all the prescription drugs and most over-the-counter medicines that they administer - including blood products and vaccines - will arrive already with a bar code. Hospitals will not be required to use the codes. But the regulation does set standards to ensure that even the cheapest, most basic scanner will recognize any medicine. Nursing homes likely will use the systems, too, McClellan said. The challenge, say manufacturers, has been getting bar codes onto medications in useful ways. For example, attaching a bar code to a bottle of 100 pills does not really help; hospitals dispense a pill at a time to different patients. Last year, Pfizer Inc. led the way in making bar codes tiny enough to fit onto blister packs of individual pills, so each could be scanned at bedside. Baxter Healthcare Corp. had to figure out how to imprint bar codes onto IV bags - a challenge because their clear background interfered with traditional bar code scanning. A type of reverse-image printing worked, said the company's bar code chief, Joe Mase. All Baxter products should bear bar codes by early next year, he said. According to Bridge, the bar code maker, a hospital's cost for bar code scanning technology can range from ,000 to over $1 million, depending on its size and how complex a system it desires. For example, basic software may just ensure that a patient really gets the heart drug digoxin and not the epilepsy medicine Dilantin. A more sophisticated system could add such safeguards as sounding an alarm when doctors prescribe a drug that a patient is allergic to or that will interact dangerously with his other medicines. Bar coding is just the first step in a promised wave of safety technology. For all its benefits, a bar coded wristband is not easy to read if it gets wet or the patient is on an emergency-room gurney or operating table. Next-generation systems promise to use radio frequency waves, tiny transmitters like those used by highway tollbooths to read speed passes, that will let nurses identify patients from across the room.     No Apology For 9/11-Nazi Remark DENVER, Feb. 5, 2005 (AP) A professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi refused to apologize, but said his treatise was a "gut response" in his first public comments since the University of Colorado began a review that could lead to his dismissal. "I don't believe I owe an apology," Ward Churchill said Friday on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" program. He defended the essay in which compared those killed in the Sept. 11 attack to "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate European Jews. He said the victims were akin to U.S. military operations' collateral damage — or innocent civilians mistakenly killed by soldiers. "I don't know if the people of 9-11 specifically wanted to kill everybody that was killed," he told Zahn. "It was just worth it to them in order to do whatever it was they decided it was necessary to do that bystanders be killed. And that essentially is the same mentality, the same rubric." In an interview published Saturday in the Rocky Mountain News, Churchill added, "This was a gut response opinion speech written in about four hours. It's not completely reasoned and thought through." Churchill said his speech had been misinterpreted. "They take, as is usually the case with propaganda, some kernel of truth to anchor, and then they go wild. I never said anything about 'justifying.' I never said anything about 'advocating.' I never called for the deaths of millions of Americans," he said. The university's Board of Regents apologized to all Americans on Thursday, especially those targeted by the attacks. The furor over Churchill's essay erupted last month after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Campus officials discovered that an essay and follow-up book by Churchill characterized the Sept. 11 attacks as a response to a long history of U.S. abuses abroad, particularly against indigenous peoples. Churchill, who recently resigned as chairman of the ethnic studies department but remains a tenured professor, said he would sue if he were dismissed.       Radio-Tagged Product Codes Debut Sept. 16, 2003 (AP) Backers of new radio-tagged product codes, a kind of souped-up bar code, are heralding this as the week the technology finally moves off the drawing board and into the real world. Unlike traditional bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification tags do not need to pass under a laser reader. They are already commonly used by drivers with "speed passes" at toll booths, by U.S. military quartermasters and by ranchers tracking livestock from "farm to fork." But the MIT lab developing the technology, and sponsors such as Wal-Mart, Gillette and Procter & Gamble, are calling a symposium this week in Chicago the beginning of the next step: embedding the chips in shipping crates to help big companies save billions by tracking their products from factory to warehouse to storeroom. For now, the focus is on helping businesses make sure there is enough product to fill the shelves but not so much as to clog up supply lines or waste away in warehouses. Using RFID to track individual products all the way to the checkout line is further down the road, when costs come down. "The symposium is intended to be a bit like a starting pistol for this new technology," said Kevin Ashton, executive director of MIT's AutoID Center. "It's where we cross the line from research to reality." For some, however, RFID is moving a little too quickly. The technology got a push - some say a kick in the rear - this summer when Wal-Mart told its top 100 suppliers to deliver RFID-tagged products by Jan. 1, 2005. With nearly million in sales per day in 2002, Wal-Mart had the clout to give orders, and the announcement sent suppliers scrambling to respond. Some of those suppliers, like Procter & Gamble, were already enthusiastically pursuing RFID on their own. But a new research report suggests others are feeling rushed to implement it. They are also worried that if a common set of RFID standards fails to emerge, they will have to build a new system for every customer. And if standards do emerge, they worry they will be forced to share information with competitors. "With every supplier, there are two camps," said Kara Romanow, an analyst with AMR Research, whose report estimated companies would spend billion trying to meet the Wal-Mart deadline. "There's the camp that believes the end vision and has really bought into the hype. Then there are the people that are charged with implementing it that are scared." Some privacy advocates, who contend the technology will soon be used to track people and their personal information, are also worried that RFID is moving too fast. Katherine Albrecht of the privacy group Caspian said consumer advocates should have been invited to the Chicago symposium to discuss their concerns. "It's such a once-sided conversation about the needs of businesses, with so little input from the citizens and consumers who are the major stakeholders in society," she said. Ashton, of the AutoID center, said that privacy advocates should be part of the debate and that as the technology develops, safeguards will be adopted: Any customers who end up with RFID technology in their hands will be notified, given the option of turning it off, and given control over how any information is used. The 1,000 people attending the Electronic Product Code symposium are likely to have questions about privacy, as well as standards and the rush by the "Wal-Mart 100" to comply with the company's mandate. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart has a long tradition of setting tough rules for its suppliers, but experts say this is the toughest directive yet, given the tight deadline and the novelty of the technology. Experts say some companies are doing the minimum to comply, but others are investing heavily, figuring the technology will eventually cut their costs. After all, when Wal-Mart adopted bar codes in the 1980s and helped make the technology an everyday product, suppliers also eventually made good use of it. "Although Wal-Mart makes self-serving recommendations and mandates, ultimately if you look at the track record starting with the bar code and them really pushing it, you find these have really taken costs out of the supply chain," said Tom Roberts, a vice president at webMethods, a Fairfax, Va., business advising clients such as Black & Decker on Wal-Mart compliance. Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams said suppliers want to know what will be asked of them but are not complaining. The company will bring suppliers together this fall to discuss the mandate. Some estimates put logistical costs at 5 cents on every dollar of goods sold, and analysts have predicted the technology could save Wal-Mart more than $1 billion per year. "We do track inventory and we do track it fairly well," Williams said. "But here with RFID, it'd be almost like moving from the telegraph age to the age of the Internet."       Smart Shelves, Faster Checkout NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2005 (Christian Science Monitor) This story was written by the Christian Science Monitor's Ron Scherer. In the future world of shopping, customers might encounter: Overhead cameras that beam lines of light to help shoppers navigate through store aisles. Salesclerks who can tell — instantly — if something is in or out of stock. Computers that track customers' buying preferences at department stores. These are just some of the ways that retailers are hoping to use technology to make shopping feel more like an adventure and as easy as buying online often is. The goal for retailers is to eliminate the most frustrating moments — such as spending too much time at checkout or discovering that a wanted item is out of stock after a drive to the mall. Some solutions to these problems were on display here this week at the annual convention of the National Retail Federation (NRF). "Most of the technology is available today," says David Meany of Cisco Systems. "But you are not going to see it applied until the retailers find it valuable — whether it's increasing productivity or adding value for their customers." The ideas might well be timely because it appears that retailers plan on spending money this year to upgrade their stores (after reducing capital spending last year). According to a study, in the next 12 months more than half of the retailers queried plan to replace or upgrade their point-of-sale systems, while 33 percent will redesign and relocate stores. "This is a change from the last two years, where the top priority was cost reduction," says Scott Hardy, a managing director at BearingPoint Inc., the McLean, Va., consulting firm that did the survey with the NRF Foundation. The spending will come against a backdrop of modest sales gains for the industry. NRF economist Rosalind Wells has projected 3.5 percent growth in 2005, which would make it the slowest period since the 2001 recession. "Consumers will be faced with rising interest costs and won't have the stimulus provided by tax cuts," she says. "They will also be faced with higher energy costs and slow wage growth." Enter technology, which may inspire consumers to at least visit the mall to see what's new. One such attraction might be "smart shelves." Through the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which are basically small tags with a computer chip that transmits a radio signal, retailers can tell exactly where an item is. "A lot of times the merchandise is in the store, but it's in the back room or in overstock, and this technology locates it," says Mr. Hardy. The technology also allows the retailer to keep a profile of what each customer purchases. "Without your saying anything, the retailer will know what you've bought in the past and can offer you other items you might be interested in," says Chris Enright of IconNicholson, which is adapting the technology. Eventually, the technology will also help consumers check out faster, especially in self-checkout lanes. Instead of running a bar code over a reader, an RFID receiver will instantly add up all the items in a bag and charge the consumer's account. It will also catch those who "forgot" to check out. Retailers have also been intrigued with ceiling projectors or cameras, which would allow a store to guide a consumer to a product and possibly even answer questions. IBM is developing the system and says it turns almost every surface in a store into a potential "touch screen." Shoppers can also expect to see more "smart kiosks." In the not-too-distant future, consumers will be able to download music to their iPod or other devices at their supermarket, Wal-Mart, or other store. "You're likely to see it in retail stores, restaurants, bars, lots of different places," says Ed Tuhkanen of TouchTunes Corp., which builds the jukebox-looking machines.   Veggie Vision And Smart Carts HAWTHORNE, N.Y., Oct. 28, 2003 (AP) You just want to get a piece of fish and the makings of a salad, but your shopping cart keeps talking to you. There's a nice white wine in Aisle 6 that would go perfectly with your salmon, it beeps. Your favorite brand of salami is on sale and, by the way, it's been six weeks since you bought toilet paper. Nightmare or dream come true, the smart shopping cart is coming soon to a grocery near you, along with an array of other gizmos designed to make your trip to the supermarket more efficient and profitable - and to keep you coming back. Researchers at IBM recently assembled several of the high-tech machines for a demonstration at their Industry Solutions Lab in Hawthorne. Among them were the smart shopping cart, a computerized produce scale called "Veggie Vision," and a fascinating projection tentatively dubbed the "Everything Display." Some are being tested in stores while others are in various stages of development. Other companies including NCR, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard are also working on similar products, sometimes in partnerships. "We'll see more change in the next five years in the way people shop than in the last 20," said Dan Hopping, a consulting manager with IBM who specializes in store operations and merchandising. Kate Delhagen, a retail analyst with Forrester Research in Atlanta, said that until now, most shoppers have seen high-tech applications only at the checkout counter, with its credit card swiper and bar-code scanner. "But now, the number of applications is multiplying and consumers are becoming more familiar with computer interfaces. So there's a lot of experimentation, a lot of gadgets and gizmos, a lot of high-tech things happening in a lot of different stores." Many of the applications can be used in any retail setting, but grocers especially are "under tremendous pressure right now to create a better in-store experience for their customers or they're going to lose them on price to Wal-Mart," she said. The smart shopping cart looks like a normal one except for an interactive screen and scanner mounted near the shopper. Once the shopper swipes his store card, his shopping history is available for all kinds of purposes, from presenting a suggested shopping list to alerting him to discounts or reminding him about perishables purchased a month ago. If the customer scans her purchases herself for self-checkout, the cart will know about the salmon she just bought and can suggest a wine or a recipe. Hopping said a shopping cart could eventually be outfitted to interact with the shelves so a shopper could see an ad or an offer about chicken noodle soup just as he heads into the soup section. The smart cart raises concerns about privacy for many people. Hopping emphasized that consumers are free not to use a store card and thereby not have their purchases tracked, but he believes they will find that the convenience outweighs the intrusion. Kathryn Cullen, a technology specialist at Kurt Salmon Associates, a retail consulting firm, said some retailers are shying away from such extensive use of the store card, also known as a "loyalty card." "This is a very sensitive topic. I may not want the store to be broadcasting what I bought last time I was in here. You're getting closer and closer to being inside my home." On the other hand, she said, consumers have a history of eventually acceding to such intrusion for the sake of convenience. "Look at the E-Z Pass," she said. "They know where we're going but we use it to save time." On the horizon, the consultants say, is the day when every product is tagged with an RFID, or radio frequency identification chip, instead of a bar code. The chips, which don't have to be scanned, would allow shoppers to leave the store without checking out at all and get the bill on their credit card or store account. There doesn't seem to be any controversy about "Veggie Vision," a scale for fruits and vegetables that is hooked up to a digital camera and a library of hundreds of pictures of produce. When a shopper puts tomatoes on the scale, the machine evaluates their color, texture and shape to determine what they are, then weighs and prices the purchase. Not only can it tell an apple from a tomato, but unlike some checkout clerks, it can tell a McIntosh apple from a Red Delicious. The "Everything Display" is a computerized camera and projector that can flash an advertisement, for example, onto a bare wall in the format of a touch screen on a computer. There is no screen, but when a shopper reacts to the ad by touching a spot on the projection, the camera interprets the movement and the projector flashes the appropriate page onto the wall. "It turns any wall, or even a floor, into an interactive display," said IBM research scientist Tony Levas. "People react as if it were a touch screen. I think they think it is a touch screen."     The Global Throng WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2005 This column from the National Review Online was written by Victor Davis Hanson. Do we even remember "all that" now? The lunacy that appeared after 9/11 that asked us to look for the "root causes" to explain why America may have "provoked" spoiled mama's boys like bin Laden and Mohammed Atta to murder Americans at work? Do we recall the successive litany of "you cannot win in Afghanistan/you cannot reconstruct such a mess/you cannot jumpstart democracy there"? And do we have memory still of "Sharon the war criminal," and "the apartheid wall," and, of course, "Jeningrad," the supposed Israeli-engineered Stalingrad — or was it really Leningrad? Or try to remember Arafat in his Ramallah bunker talking to international groupies who flew in to hear the old killer's jumbled mishmash about George Bush, the meanie who had ostracized him. Then we were told that if we dared invade the ancient caliphate, Saddam would kill thousands and exile millions more. And when he was captured in a cesspool, the invective continued during the hard reconstruction that oil, Halliburton, the Jews, the neocons, Richard Perle, and other likely suspects had suckered us into a "quagmire" or was it now "Vietnam redux"? And recall that in response we were supposed to flee, or was it to trisect Iraq? The elections, remember, would not work — or were held too soon or too late. And give the old minotaur Senator Kennedy his due, as he lumbered out on the eve of the Iraqi voting to hector about its failure and call for withdrawal — one last hurrah that might yet rescue the cherished myth that the United States had created another Vietnam and needed his sort of deliverance. And then there was the parade of heroes who were media upstarts of the hour — the brilliant Hans Blixes, Joe Wilsons, Anonymouses, and Richard Clarkes — who came, wrote their books, did their fawning interviews on 60 Minutes, Nightline, and Larry King, and then faded to become footnotes to our collective pessimism. Do not dare forget our Hollywood elite. At some point since 9/11, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Whoopi Goldberg, and a host of others have lectured the world that their America is either misled, stupid, evil, or insane, bereft of the wisdom of Hollywood's legions of college drop-outs, recovering bad boys, and self-praised autodidacts. Remember the twisted logic of the global throng as well: Anyone who quit the CIA was a genius in his renegade prognostication; anyone who stayed was a toady who botched the war. Three- and four-star generals who went on television or ran for office were principled dissidents who "told the truth"; officers in the field who kept quiet and saved Afghanistan and Iraq were "muzzled" careerists. Families of the 9/11 victims who publicly trashed George Bush offered the nation "grassroots" cries of the heart; the far greater number who supported the war on terror were perhaps "warped" by their grief. There were always the untold "minor" embarrassments that we were to ignore as the slight slips of the "good" people — small details like the multibillion-dollar Oil-for-Food scandal that came to light due to the reporting of a single brave maverick, Claudia Rosett, or Rathergate, disclosed by "pajama"-clad bloggers without journalism degrees from Columbia, sojourns at the Kennedy School, or internships with the Washington Post. To put it into Animal Farm speak: elite New York Times, CBS News, and PBS good; populist bloggers, talk-radio, and cable news bad. In place of Harry Truman and JFK we got John Kerry calling the once-maimed Prime Minister Allawi a "puppet," Senator Murray praising bin Laden's social-welfare work, Senator Boxer calling Secretary of State Rice a veritable liar for agreeing with the various casus belli that Boxer's own Senate colleagues had themselves passed in October 2002. And for emotional and financial support, the Democratic insiders turned to George Soros and Michael Moore, who assured them that their president was either Hitlerian, a dunce, or a deserter. Then there was our media's hysteria: Donald Rumsfeld should be sacked in the midst of war; Abu Ghraib was the moral equivalent of everything from Saddam's gulag to the Holocaust; the U.S. military purportedly tried to kill reporters; and always the unwillingness or inability to condemn the beheaders, fascists, and suicide murderers, who sought to destroy any shred of liberalism. Meanwhile, the isolation of a corrupt Arafat, the withdrawal of 10,000 Americans from a Wahhabi theocracy, the transformation of the world's far-right monstrosities into reformed democracies, and the pull-back of some troops from Germany and the DMZ went unnoticed. What explains this automatic censure of the United States, Israel, and to a lesser extent the Anglo-democracies of the United Kingdom and Australia? Westernization, coupled with globalization, has created an affluent and leisured elite that now gravitates to universities, the media, bureaucracies, and world organizations, all places where wealth is not created, but analyzed, critiqued, and lavishly spent. Thus we now expect that the New York Times, Harper's, Le Monde, U.N. functionaries who call us "stingy," French diplomats, American writers and actors will all (1) live a pretty privileged life; (2) in recompense "feel" pretty worried and guilty about it; (3) somehow connect their unease over their comfort with a pathology of the world's hyperpower, the United States; and (4) thus be willing to risk their elite status, power, or wealth by very brave acts such as writing anguished essays, giving pained interviews, issuing apologetic communiqués, braving the rails to Davos, and barking off-the-cuff furious remarks about their angst over themes (1) through (3) above. What a sad contrast they make with far better Iraqis dancing in the street to celebrate their voting. There is something else to this shrillness of the global throng besides the obvious fact of hypocrisy — that very few of the world's Westernized cynical echelon ever move to the ghetto to tutor those they champion in the abstract, reside in central Africa to feed the poor, give up tenure to ensure employment for the exploited lecturer, or pass on the Washington or New York A-list party to eat in the lunch hall with the unwashed. Davos after all, is not quite central Bolivia or the Sudan. First, there is a tremendous sense of impotence. Somehow sharp looks alone, clever repartee, long lists of books read and articles cited, or global travel do not automatically result in commensurate power. So what exactly is wrong with these stupid people of Nebraska who would elect a dense, Christian-like George Bush when a Gore Vidal, George Soros, Ben Affleck, Bruce Springsteen, or Ted Kennedy warned them not to? If the American Left is furious over the loss of most of the nation's governorships and legislatures, the U.S. House, the Senate, the presidency, and soon the Supreme Court, the Europeans themselves are furious over America's power — as if Red America is to Blue America as America is to Europe itself. Thus how can a mongrel culture of Taco Bell, Bud Light, and Desperate Housewives project such military and political influence abroad when the soft, subtle triangulation of far more cultured diplomats and sophisticated intellectuals from France, Germany, and Scandinavia is ignored by thugs from Iran, North Korea, and most of the Middle East? Why would the world listen to a stumbling George Bush when it could be mesmerized by a poet, biographer, aristocrat, and metrosexual of the caliber of a Monsieur Dominique de Villepin? Why praise brave Iraqis lining up to vote, while at the same hour the defeated John Kerry somberly intones on Tim Russert's show that he really did go into Cambodia to supply arms to the mass-murdering Khmer Rouge — a statement that either cannot be true or is almost an admission of being a party to crimes against humanity if it is. Second, political powerlessness follows from ideological exhaustion. Communism and Marxism are dead. Stalin and Mao killed over 80 million and did not make omelets despite the broken eggs. Castro and North Korea are not classless utopias but thugocracies run by megalomaniac dictators who the world prays will die any minute. The global Left knows that the Cold War is over and was lost by the Left, and that Eastern Europeans and Central Americans probably cherish the memory of a Ronald Reagan far more than that of a Francois Mitterrand or Willy Brandt. But it is still more disheartening than that. In the 1960s and 1970s we were told that free-market America was becoming an anachronism. Remember Japan, Inc., whose amalgam of "Asian Values" and Western capitalism presaged the decline of the United States? Europeanists still assured us that a 35-hour work week, cradle-to-grave entitlement, and secularism were to be the only workable Western paradigms — before high unemployment, low growth, stagnant worker productivity, unassimilated minorities, declining birthrates, and disarmament suggested that just maybe something is going very wrong in a continent that is not so eager for either God or children. Perhaps the result of this frustration is that European intellectuals damn the United States for action in Iraq, but lament that they could do nothing in the Balkans. Democrats at home talk of the need for idealism abroad, but fear the dirty road of war that sometimes is part of that bargain — thus the retreat into "democracy is good, BUT..." So here we have the global throng that focuses on one purported American crime to the next, as it simmers in the luxury of its privilege, education, and sophistication — and exhibits little power, new ideas, intellectual seriousness, or relevance. In this context, the Iraqi elections were surely poorly attended, or illegitimate, or ruined by violence, or irrelevant, or staged by America — or almost anything other than a result of a brave, very risky, and costly effort by the United States military to destroy a fascist regime and offer something better in its place. Yet as Yeehah! Howard Dean takes over the Democratic party, as Kojo Annan's dad limps to the end of his tenure, and as a Saddam-trading Jacques Chirac talks grandly of global airfare taxes to help the poor, they should all ask themselves whether a weary public is listening any longer to the hyped and canned stories of their own courage and brilliance. Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His website is victorhanson.com.     Some troops got anthrax shots after judge banned them Feb 3, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – The US military gave anthrax shots to more than 900 soldiers after a federal judge ordered a halt to the mandatory vaccination program last October, according to news reports this week. The Department of Defense (DoD) said that 931 people were "mistakenly vaccinated" after US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the program stopped on Oct 27, 2004, according to a Feb 1 Associated Press report. The story said 150 service members were vaccinated in January. In a lawsuit brought by six service members and civilian defense workers, Sullivan ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had not followed proper procedures in approving the use of anthrax vaccine adsorbed for inahalational anthrax. DoD officials told Sullivan yesterday that the shots were given even though Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had called a halt to them after the court ruling, according to a Washington Post report today. The story said Col. Steven P. Jones, director of the military vaccine agency, told Sullivan that he ordered the removal of all remaining anthrax vaccine doses from military clinics after he learned that some vaccinations were continuing. About 1.2 million DoD and contractor personnel have received anthrax shots since the vaccination program began in 1998. Almost 500 service members have refused to take the vaccine, and more than 100 have been court-martialed for their refusal, the Post reported yesterday. The FDA recently issued an emergency order to allow DoD to resume the vaccination program because of what the Pentagon believes is an increased risk of anthrax attacks on US forces. The order says that troops must be allowed to refuse the shots without facing any penalties. DoD officials said this week that with the emergency order in hand, they will ask Sullivan to lift the injunction against the vaccination program. But they said it could take several weeks for the judge to issue a decision. See also: Feb 2, 2005, CIDRAP News story "FDA issues emergency order on military anthrax shots" http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/news/feb0205anthrax.html Previous CIDRAP News stories on the situation are available at: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/news/index.html       DRAFT LOOMS   Now That Election Is Over, Expect to See Conscription   By Greg Szymanski     Within a matter of weeks, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), plans to try and re-institute the military draft, saying the present voluntary system places an unfair burden of war among lower- and middle-class Americans while giving the rich a free ride from military service. Rangels statements are unpopular among most lawmakers and government watchdog groups. But they came on one of the bloodiest days of the Iraq war with over 35 Marines killed, bringing the total military casualties to more than 1,400 with over 10,000 injured or maimed.   Although the liberal Democrat has been an outspoken critic of President Bushs war policies, he said this week "the burden of war should be shared among all social groups," including the children of the wealthy and privileged. "Sometime soon Rep. Rangel is preparing to reintroduce legislation to reinstitute the military draft since he strongly feels everyone should share the burden of war," said Emile Milne, Rangels press representative and legislative director Wednesday from his Washington office. "He is essentially reintroducing legislation that failed to gain support last session. However, this time around, I think, it has a better chance of passing." Milne was referring to H.R. 163, Rangels previous pro-draft piece of legislation, which became a Democratic embarrassment and a political football during the 2004 presidential campaign. When charges started flying that Bush would bring back the draft if elected, Rangels bill became an obvious political liability for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who was taking a strong anti-draft position. OBVIOUS POLITICAL REASONS In a political move, Democrats quickly rushed the bill to the House floor, where it was summarily rejected by an overwhelming majority. Rangel even voted against his own legislation, for obvious tactical political reasons. With the election now over, opponents of the draft claim the path is now clear for politicians from both sides of the aisle to get behind the draft, with Rangel obviously leading the charge. In the face of strong criticism, Rangel still strongly supports a nationwide military draft, saying it is both a deterrent to war and a mechanism to force privileged Americans to share the wars burden. However, Bill Galvin, head of a group called the Center of Conscience and War, said both arguments are totally wrong since the draft has never made the Armed Services more equitable, racially or economically. "The affluent had and still have the means to gain medical deferments or to serve soft, safe positions," Galvin said, referring to people like President Bush, who served stateside in the National Guard and Vice President Cheney who avoided service completely in Vietnam by obtaining a deferment. "If Rep. Rangel and other pro-draft progressives really wanted to fix social and racial inequities, theyd be advocating for jobs, education and opportunity, not equal opportunity war making."   Whether the draft becomes a reality is still in political limbo. However, no one would argue that Bushs aggressive foreign military policies need more warm bodies and boots on the ground. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, former security advisors Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski were quoted as saying the U.S. requires at least 500,000 more troops to sustain the war in Iraq and reinstatement of the draft may be unpopular but necessary. "At best, Rangels bill merely plays into Bushs hands," said Galvin. "At worst, its a stealth measure intended to supply progressive political cover for pro-draft Democrats." A White House spokesman this week refused to comment on Rangels initiative, but said Bush has publicly opposed any legislation to reinstitute the draft. Privately, however, Galvin and others fear Bush is just waiting for the right moment "to spring the draft back on the American people" since he no longer has to worry about getting re-elected.   Greg Szymanski is a freelance investigative journalist and feature writer based in Ventura California. A law school graduate from Glendale University College of Law, he also specializes in constitutional issues as well as judicial indiscretion and injustice. Visit Szymanskis news web site at arcticbeacon.citymaker.com.       Drivers on Cell Phones Kill Thousands, Snarl Traffic By Robert Roy Britt LiveScience Senior Writer posted: 01 February 2005 01:52 pm ET Finally, empirical proof you can blame chatty 20-somethings for stop-and-go traffic on the way to work. A new study confirms that the reaction time of cell phone users slows dramatically, increasing the risk of accidents and tying up traffic in general, and when young adults use cell phones while driving, they're as bad as sleepy septuagenarians. "If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone," said University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer. "It's like instantly aging a large number of drivers." The study was announced today and is detailed in winter issue of the quarterly journal Human Factors. Traffic jams and death Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the journal's publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. The reason is now obvious: Drivers talking on cell phones were 18 percent slower to react to brake lights, the new study found. In a minor bright note, they also kept a 12 percent greater following distance. But they also took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked. That frustrates everyone. "Once drivers on cell phones hit the brakes, it takes them longer to get back into the normal flow of traffic," Strayer said. "The net result is they are impeding the overall flow of traffic." Strayer and his colleagues have been down this road before. In 2001, they found that even hands-free cell phone use distracted drivers. In 2003 they revealed a reason: Drivers look but don't see, because they're distracted by the conversation. The scientists also found previously that chatty motorists are less adept than drunken drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding 0.08. Separate research last year at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign supported the conclusion that hands-free cell phone use causes driver distraction. "With younger adults, everything got worse," said Arthur Kramer, who led the Illinois study. "Both young adults and older adults tended to show deficits in performance. They made more errors in detecting important changes and they took longer to react to the changes." The impaired reactions involved seconds, not just fractions of a second, so stopping distances increased by car-lengths. Older drivers more cautious The latest study used high-tech simulators. It included people aged 18 to 25 and another group aged 65 to 74. Elderly drivers were slower to react when talking on the phone, too. The simulations uncovered a twofold increase in the number of rear-end collisions by drivers using cell phones. Older drivers seem to be more cautious overall, however. "Older drivers were slightly less likely to get into accidents than younger drivers," Strayer said. "They tend to have a greater following distance. Their reactions are impaired, but they are driving so cautiously they were less likely to smash into somebody." But in real life, he added, older drivers are significantly more likely to be rear-ended because of their slow speed. Other studies in the journal found: Telephone numbers presented by automated voice systems compete for drivers' attention to a far greater extent than when the driver sees the same information presented on a display. Interruptions to driving, such as answering a call, are likely to be more dangerous if they occur during maneuvers like merging to exit a freeway. Things could get worse. Wireless Internet, speech recognition systems and e-mail could all be even more distracting. Are Cell Phones Really So Dangerous? Posted Feb. 2, 2005 at 10:15 a.m. ET Several readers wrote to LiveScience questioning whether cell phones were really so bad for drivers. Here is some additional information that helps illuminate the death statistic. The estimates of annual deaths reported in this week's article (2,600) may well be low. The number, for U.S. deaths related to drivers using cell phones, comes from a 2002 study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA). Researchers then estimated that the use of cell phones by drivers caused approximately 2,600 deaths. Because data on cell phone use by motorists are limited, the range of uncertainty is wide, those researchers said. The estimate of fatalities in that HCRA report ranged between 800 and 8,000. Importantly, the researchers noted (in 2002) that increasing cell phone use could be expected to cause the annual death estimate to rise. The 2002 estimate, for example, was up from an estimate of 1,000 deaths in the year 2000. Logic suggests the number -- though just an estimate -- could be much higher in 2005. The estimates are based largely on mathematical models, but they are not without basis. In 2001 in California, for example, "at least 4,699 reported accidents were blamed on drivers using cell phones, and those crashes killed 31 people and injured 2,786," according to an analysis by The Los Angeles Times. That number can expected to be low, because of the lack of formal procedures for noting cell phone use as a cause of a traffic accident. The Times also noted a 1997 study of Canadian drivers "who agreed to have their cell phone records scrutinized found that the risk of an accident was four times greater while a driver was using the phone." Each year, about 42,000 people die in U.S. auto accidents. Here is how the new University of Utah simulations were conducted: Participants in the simulator used dashboard instruments, steering wheel and brake and gas pedals from a Ford Crown Victoria sedan, surrounded by three screens showing freeway scenes and traffic, including a "pace car" that intermittently hit its brakes 32 times as it appeared to drive in front of study participants. If a participant failed to hit their own brakes, they eventually would rear-end the pace car. Each participant drove four simulated 10-mile freeway trips lasting about 10 minutes each, talking on a cell phone with a research assistant during half the trips and driving without talking the other half. Only hands-free phones were used to eliminate any possible distraction from manipulating a hand-held cell phone. Thirty times each second, the simulator measured the participants' driving speed, following distance and - if applicable - how long it took them to hit the brakes and how long it took them to regain speed.       Flight teacher didn't violate Patriot Act Thomas Ropp The Arizona Republic Feb. 5, 2005 12:00 AM NORTHEAST VALLEY - Arizona's director of Homeland Security said his office is no longer investigating a Phoenix flight instructor who dropped bags of flour over the Tonto National Forest Sunday. Frank Navarette said pilot Joshua Parriott, 29, and passenger James Klein, 42, of Chandler were guilty of poor judgment but did not violate the Patriot Act, a 2001 law that gives federal law enforcement broad powers to investigate crime and terrorism. However, the men are not off the hook. On Thursday, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office brought three misdemeanor charges against them, and the Federal Aviation Administration could suspend or revoke Parriott's pilot's license and various certifications.Parriott has already lost his job as a flight instructor at Westwind School of Aeronautics at Deer Valley Airport, according to the Sheriff's Office. Parriott's record had previously been clean. Neither he nor Klein could be reached for comment. Parriott and Klein dropped the bags of flour near the Verde River over Needle Rock Recreation Area as a prank while friends engaged in a game of paintball. Nearby residents of Rio Verde notified the Sheriff's Office believing they had witnessed a terrorist dropping anthrax into a Valley water source. The incident occurred during the Iraqi elections, when the whole world was particularly alert to potential terrorist activity. Jeff Myers, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said he was "appalled."     9/11 Slur Prof Won't Apologize Saturday, February 05, 2005 DENVER â€” A professor who likened World Trade Center (search) victims to a notorious Nazi refused to apologize, but said his treatise was a "gut response" in his first public comments since the University of Colorado began a review that could lead to his dismissal. "I don't believe I owe an apology," Ward Churchill (search) said Friday on a televised interview. He defended the essay in which compared those killed in the Sept. 11 attack to "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann (search), who organized Nazi plans to exterminate European Jews. He said the victims were akin to U.S. military operations' collateral damage — or innocent civilians mistakenly killed by soldiers. "I don't know if the people of 9/11 specifically wanted to kill everybody that was killed," he said in the interview. "It was just worth it to them in order to do whatever it was they decided it was necessary to do that bystanders be killed. And that essentially is the same mentality, the same rubric." In an interview published Saturday in the Rocky Mountain News, Churchill added, "This was a gut response opinion speech written in about four hours. It's not completely reasoned and thought through." Churchill said his speech had been misinterpreted. "They take, as is usually the case with propaganda, some kernel of truth to anchor, and then they go wild. I never said anything about 'justifying.' I never said anything about 'advocating.' I never called for the deaths of millions of Americans," he said. The university's Board of Regents apologized to all Americans on Thursday, especially those targeted by the attacks. The furor over Churchill's essay erupted last month after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Campus officials discovered that an essay and follow-up book by Churchill characterized the Sept. 11 attacks as a response to a long history of U.S. abuses abroad, particularly against indigenous peoples. Churchill, who recently resigned as chairman of the ethnic studies department but remains a tenured professor, said he would sue if he were dismissed.     College Cancels Professor's Appearance Tuesday, February 01, 2005 CLINTON, NY â€” Hamilton College (search) said Tuesday it has received death threats and was canceling a panel discussion featuring a professor who provoked a furor when he compared Sept. 11 victims to Nazis. Hamilton spokesman Michael DeBraggio said multiple death threats were made against both college officials and guest speaker Ward Churchill, who resigned Monday as chairman of the ethnic studies department at the University of Colorado (search). In an essay written in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 (search) terrorist attacks, Churchill said the World Trade Center victims were "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews. Churchill also spoke of the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America. The essay attracted little attention until Churchill was invited to speak at Thursday at Hamilton College, about 40 miles east of Syracuse, N.Y. Despite resigning from his department chair, he will retain his teaching job.     Colorado Professor's Future on the Line Tuesday, February 01, 2005 DENVER â€” A panel discussion at Hamilton College (search) in New York featuring a Colorado professor was canceled after hundreds of death threats poured in because of an inflammatory essay he wrote comparing some of the Sept. 11 victims to Nazis and calling President Bush a terrorist. Hamilton has been on heightened security since the paper by Ward Churchill (search), published more than two-and-a-half years ago in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, resurfaced. Click here to read the essay, titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." College spokesman Michael DeBraggio said multiple death threats were made against both school officials and Churchill, who was to be a guest speaker at the panel discussion. Churchill resigned Monday as chairman of the ethnic studies department at the University of Colorado at Boulder (search), and the Board of Regents there is holding an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss his future. In the scathing essay, Churchill called the traders and other businesspeople who worked at the World Trade Center in New York "Eichmanns" — a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews. That's because he believes American foreign policy and the spread of capitalism around the world for U.S. profit are acts of genocide against Iraqi civilians and others in the same way as the Nazi movement was against the Jews during World War II. "As to those in the World Trade Center ... true enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire," Churchill wrote. In an interview with FOX News, Churchill admitted that his 20-page paper was "a harsh piece" and his views are unpopular. But he stands by his opinion that the attacks were retribution for harmful U.S. foreign policy. "Bush, at least in symbolic terms, is the world's leading terrorist," Churchill told FOX News in an interview. "He absolutely thumbs his nose at the rule of law. He's the head of a rogue state by definition, and it's a rogue state which dispenses carnage on people presumed to be inferior in some set of terms." The essay attracted little attention until Churchill was invited to speak Thursday at Hamilton College, about 40 miles east of Syracuse, N.Y. Since then, he has gotten several hundred threatening e-mails and some hostile reactions from Sept. 11 victims' families. He's also gotten hundreds of supportive e-mails and said that some of those in his corner are soldiers on the front lines of the war in Iraq. "There is a substantial sector of the population, including GIs that I'm corresponding with as a result of this in the Gulf right now, who say, your points are very solid and this is not right what we're doing here," Churchill told FOX. Though it's difficult for tenured professors to lose their jobs, a number of people — including Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (search) and some student Republicans — are up in arms over Churchill and his views and want him fired. "This guy has to go," said Isaiah Lechowit, president of the University of Colorado Student Republicans. "He's been out here just raving about this nonsense and the mindless drones over here are clapping and hooting and hollering for him. "What sickens me is the people out there clapping for this raving lunatic who applauds these terrorists for killing people on Sept. 11." Churchill says he has no intention of quitting, and his students don't want to see him go. Many are among his staunchest supporters. "He changes people's minds," said Albe Zakes, a University of Colorado junior who is a student of Churchill's. "He says controversial things. That is not a bad thing. "If you express your opinion and you have a strong opinion — an opinion that differs from the norm — people are going to try to cut you down and take you out of power. If you don't exercise your constitutional right and you don't challenge authority, I think that is being un-American." Some of Churchill's colleagues in the ethnic studies department held a brief press conference at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to rally around the scholar. They praised Churchill, mentioned numerous writing awards he's won and chastised the press for twisting his words. Churchill himself wasn't present at the event. FOX News' Carol McKinley, Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.     More Controversy Over Univ. of Colorado Professor Churchill Tuesday, February 01, 2005 This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," Jan. 31, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!" BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Impact" segment tonight, last Friday, we reported on a University of Colorado professor who believes that those Americans killed on 9/11 deserve their fate because they were participants in the capitalist system. That man, Ward Churchill (search), is now spreading his vile opinion around the country. Hamilton College (search), in upstate New York, was going to pay Churchill ,500 to speak, but after our report, he waived his fee. The fact is, however, some people associated with Hamilton lost loved ones on 9/11. How cruel is it letting this guy speak? Just so you know what we're talking about here, here's a quote from Churchill about the 9/11 killers: "They've given Americans a tiny dose of their own medicine," he says. "This might be seen as merely a matter of vengeance of retribution and, unquestionably, America has earned it." Very nice. Besides Churchill, the villains in this awful situation are Hamilton College President Joan Hinde Stewart (search) and Professor Nancy Rabinowicz (search), who invited the guy. Rabinowicz also tried to get 1960s radical Susan Rosenberg (search) hired by Hamilton. Rosenberg served 16 years in prison for possessing explosives. She was pardoned by Bill Clinton. That artist in residence appointment blew up, pardon the bun, when Rosenberg's past was exposed. So clearly, there are major problems at Hamilton College. And we will give you President Stewart's e-mail after this segment. Joining us now from Denver is Professor Paul Campos, who teaches law at U.C. Boulder. The professor is also the author of the book "The Obesity Myth." Am I being unfair to this Churchill guy? PAUL CAMPOS, UNIV. OF COLORADO PROFESSOR: No, I don't think so. I think it would be very difficult to be unfair to him actually. O'REILLY: But what is his agenda? What is he trying to do? I mean, it's so over the top and so hateful, it's hard to believe. CAMPOS: Well, it is incredibly over the top. And I would encourage everybody who's interested in this debate to actually read his essay, which is widely available on the Internet so you can decide for yourself whether these characterizations of it are accurate or not. Once I actually went and read the entire thing, I was so appalled, that I wrote a column about it, decrying and denouncing the idea that the University of Colorado would have as a tenured member of its faculty somebody who could be spewing this kind of disgusting nonsense in the context of a supposedly academic environment. O'REILLY: But then you go over to the — you know, I want to tell everybody you do write a column for "The Rocky Mountain News." But then you go into the freedom of speech area. And that's where all these academics are hiding. They're basically saying OK, we all deplore what Professor Churchill says, but it's freedom of speech. He has a right to do it and all of that. How do you answer? CAMPOS: Well, yes, he does have a right to do it in the sense that the government does not have the right to stop him from publishing what he wants to publish. And in that sense, yes, he has a First Amendment right, like all other Americans do, to say what he wants to say. That does not mean that if he engages in conduct, including publishing things that bring into question his professional competence that the University of Colorado, his employer, cannot sanction him for behaving in that fashion. O'REILLY: Well, that will happen on Thursday. After our report on Friday, professor, all hell's breaking loose across the country, both in Boulder and in Clinton, New York, where Hamilton College is. The board of regents for the University of Colorado are going to meet on Thursday. I fully expect they will sanction the professor, but that doesn't mean anything to him. He's an American hater. But here's the really bad thing about this. And here's why I'm involved with this. There are people at Hamilton — and I don't know if there are any at U.C. Boulder — but at Hamilton there are, who lost loved ones on 9/11. I mean, this guy, this is just cruel to say these people deserved it, they were little Nazis, which is what Churchill says that these people in the World Trade Center (search) and the Pentagon were little Nazis. And you know, there's — one of their sons is at Hamilton. How brutal is this? CAMPOS: Well, there's a real irony here, which is that Ward Churchill was acquitted a couple of weeks ago by a jury in Denver for, I believe, disturbance of the peace in regard to interfering, along with some other people, with a Columbus Day parade. And the claim of the defendants in that case, including Churchill, was that the Columbus Day marchers didn't have a First Amendment right not to have their march disrupted because Columbus Day celebrations are an incitement to genocide and are therefore hate speech. So in other words, this is a guy who goes around claiming that a Columbus Day Parade is hate speech and can be interfered with, but at the same time, is claiming that when he writes an incredibly hateful and just basically deranged sort of rant as a scholarly paper. O'REILLY: OK, so this guy — you know, we — it's funny, professor, because as soon as we started doing this story, then as I said, the whole country became engaged. This just happened. It just came across the wire that Churchill has resigned his chairmanship of the Ethnic Studies Department at U.C. Boulder. So he's under enormous pressure now. But here's the big issue. Number one, why is Boulder sanctioning a guy who hates his country the way this man does? And number two, why is Hamilton College, which is just as guilty, all right, inviting this man to come to spread the hatred? See, I'm not getting why this is happening. CAMPOS: Well, I can't speak to why Hamilton College is doing what it's doing, but I think the University of Colorado is doing absolutely the right thing at this point to launch an investigation to ask why is this person a tenured member of the faculty? O'REILLY: Yes, but they knew this for years. We — they're only doing this because we started reporting on it last Friday. They knew for years this guy was doing this kind of stuff. He's not a subtle guy. CAMPOS: Well, actually, the administrators and as far as I can tell, almost all of the faculty at the university were unaware of this essay. And that that, I think, is really quite unfortunate. O'REILLY: Yes. CAMPOS: And I think one of the things that needs to be investigated is why were we unaware that this person was publishing this sort of thing? And what should we do in regard to making sure the procedures so we know about what something is doing? O'REILLY: Yes. You know what this is all about? This is about political correctness once again. That's what this is about. This guy is a native American. He feels that genocide was perpetuated on his race. And therefore, he can hate his country and say anything he wants. The people bought into this in Boulder. And yes, he's a native American, we're not going to talk about it. And then in Hamilton College, they basically oh, yes, we want another radical in here to shake it up. We don't care what he says. And you know, it's an epidemic across the country in college campuses. Professor, I'll give you the last word. CAMPOS: Well, I think what you're seeing right now this week at the University of Colorado is that, in fact, standards are going to be enforced. And we're not just simply going to shrug our shoulders and say... O'REILLY: Well, we'll see. CAMPOS: ...First Amendment, free expression. O'REILLY: Right. CAMPOS: And there's nothing that we can do about it. O'REILLY: We'll see what happens when the regents meet on Thursday. Professor, thank you. And if you wish to voice your opinion to Hamilton College, the phone number is 315-859-4444. Or you can e-mail the school's president Joan Hinde Stewart at jstewart@hamilton.edu. Please keep your comments respectable. Any threats or bad language diminishes a worthy cause. We'll let these misguided people know they are doing wrong.     Prof Resigns as Department Chair Amid Furor Over 9/11 Remarks Monday, January 31, 2005 DENVER â€” A University of Colorado (search) professor who provoked a furor when he compared victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks to Nazis resigned as a department chairman on Monday but will retain his teaching job, the university said. In an essay written in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ward Churchill (search) said the World Trade Center victims were "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews. Churchill also spoke of the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America. The essay attracted little attention until Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College (search), about 40 miles east of Syracuse, N.Y. Churchill resigned as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department, telling university officials in a letter that "the present political climate has rendered me a liability in terms of representing either my department, the college, or the university." University officials welcomed the move. "While Professor Churchill has the constitutional right to express his political views, his essay on 9/11 has outraged and appalled us and the general public," interim CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano said in a statement. Susan Ramirez, a secretary at CU's ethnic studies department, said Churchill would appear at the college for a panel discussion titled, "Limits of Dissent." Churchill did not immediately return a message. Hamilton President Joan Hinde sent an e-mail to faculty on Sunday, repeating the position that "however repugnant one might find Mr. Churchill's remarks," the college was committed to his right of free speech and would not rescind its invitation. Hundreds of relatives of Sept. 11 victims have protested Churchill's upcoming appearance. William Doyle of 9/11 Families for a Secure America said people in the New York City region may charter a bus to the event. Administrators have moved Churchill's appearance to a building that can seat 2,000, instead of the originally planned 300.     Univ. of Colo. Faculty Backs 9/11 Slur Prof Wednesday, February 02, 2005 DENVER â€” As pressure mounts on a University of Colorado professor who ignited a furor by comparing the World Trade Center victims to Nazis, colleagues have come to his defense — on free speech grounds. The Boulder Faculty Assembly (search), a group representing professors at the campus, called Ward Churchill's (search) comments "controversial, offensive, and odious," but also expressed support for his right to express them. "The lifeblood of any strong university is its diversity of ideas which allows for the environment necessary to educate and train young learners and advance the boundaries of knowledge," said a statement released Tuesday by university spokesman Peter Caughey. "Debate is a fundamental characteristic of a university." [Click here to read Churchill's essay, titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens."] The university's Board of Regents planned to meet in an emergency session Thursday to discuss Churchill, who resigned as chairman of the university's department of ethnic studies this week. He remains a professor. Churchill failed to show up at a news conference scheduled Tuesday. Instead, four professors from the university's ethnic studies department expressed "unconditional support" for Churchill's "freedom of expression and First Amendment rights." In an essay written the day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Churchill said white-collar workers in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann (search), who ensured the smooth running of the infrastructure that enabled the Nazi genocide. Churchill also spoke of the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America. The essay and follow-up book, "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality," attracted little attention until Churchill was invited to speak Thursday at Hamilton College (search), about 40 miles east of Syracuse, N.Y. Citing death threats, the school Tuesday canceled the panel discussion featuring Churchill. In a statement released Tuesday, Churchill said he was not defending the Sept. 11 attacks, "but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. "I have never said that people 'should' engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy." Gov. Bill Owens called on Churchill to resign his faculty position, saying taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize his "outrageous and insupportable" views that defy the facts of history. Colorado Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald also said he should resign from CU, saying he was compromising the school's reputation. Republican members of the House also introduced a nonbinding resolution expressing sympathy for the Sept. 11 victims and criticizing Churchill's comments.   Univ. of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill Speaks Wednesday, February 02, 2005 This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," Feb. 1, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!" BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Continuing now with our "Top Story," the controversy over anti-American Professor Ward Churchill (search). As we mentioned, Governor Owens of Colorado wants him fired from the university and the Board of Regents there meets Thursday night on this matter. FOX News Correspondent Carol McKinley caught up with Churchill in Boulder. Here's some of what he had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WARD CHURCHILL, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: It's been said that I've justified and advocated what happened on 9/11. I considered it an inevitability.You do not justify inevitability. It is its own justification. You don't advocate it either. Advocate the inevitable? Pointless. Utterly misrepresenting what it was I was engaged in. I'll grant you this was a harsh piece. It was intended to be because the reality that's being imposed on the people who responded is extraordinarily harsh, far beyond anything that's been experienced by Americans on 9/11 or in the entire course of American history so far as I can tell. Bush, at least in symbolic terms, is the world's leading terrorist. He absolutely thumbs his nose at the rule of law. He's the head of a rogue state by definition, and it's a rogue state that dispenses carnage on people presumed to be inferior in some set of terms, whether they be racial or national or religious or otherwise, on the one hand, and of no particular utility to the empire, on the other. Try to have a little empathy and respect for other people and that will carry a long way, just in and of itself, towards alleviating the dynamic that produces 9/11, and, if things continue, undoubtedly and inevitably, we'll produce another one. CAROL MCKINLEY, FOX CORRESPONDENT: So -- and you -- OK. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. CHURCHILL: No. MCKINLEY: So you're predicting other 9/11s. CHURCHILL: Unless there is some fundamental change. But things have gone in the opposite direction, much to my dismay. So, you know, I've sort of taken my best shot at saying, hey, stop, think about this, and I'm paying the price of that, you see. It's to be purged in a way. There is this delighted political opportunism that goes into shooting the messenger here. (END VIDEO CLIP) O'REILLY: Now we've invited Churchill on "The Factor.” He says he's thinking about it. The problem with this guy is that he sees the USA as a country that persecutes people, a bad country. You just heard him say it. No matter what kind of evidence that you present, whether it be millions of people worldwide who have freedom because of the sacrifice of Americans, whether it be the billions of dollars in aid and trade exemptions we send abroad, whether it be the fact that very poor Americans have become rich Americans because of free enterprise, Ward Churchill would just shrug it off. He wants us to empathize with Al Qaeda (search). Yet he has little empathy for his fellow countrymen who died on 9/11. He sees the USA as a racist country run by human rights violators. So, of course, any attack on America is justified in his mind. Churchill's view is beyond extreme, but there is sympathy for him in the far left and the far right precincts in this country, both of which would like a new America, either socialist or fascist, depending on which group you analyze. Again, Churchill's entitled to his opinion, and we are entitled to shun him.   This Year's Deficit to Hit Record Billion Tuesday, January 25, 2005 WASHINGTON â€” The White House will project that this year's federal deficit (search) will hit billion, a senior administration official said Tuesday, a record partly driven by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The official, among three who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the estimate was a conservative one that assumed some higher spending than other analysts use. Last February, the White House projected that the 2004 shortfall would hit billion, only to see it come in at billion. The official said the figure represented progress because it would be smaller than last year's record billion shortfall when compared to the size of the growing U.S. economy. That ratio is a key measure of the deficit's potency. "Our projections will show we remain on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009," one of President Bush's (search) budget goals, the official told reporters. Even so, the number was among a blizzard of figures released Tuesday that illustrated how federal deficits remain a problem that Bush and Congress must reckon with. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (search) said that thanks to tax cuts and hurricane aid passed since its last calculations in September, the 10-year deficit had worsened since then by billion, not counting war expenditures. The congressional analysts projected that this year's deficit would hit billion — which would be the third highest ever — excluding war costs. Adding expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan operations would push this year's red ink to about billion, said Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst. Underscoring budget pressures hounding lawmakers, senior administration officials invited reporters to the White House to outline their upcoming request for an additional billion, or slightly more, to help pay this year's costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I am grateful that Congress in a strong bipartisan fashion has consistently voted to support our troops, and I urge it to do so again," Bush said in a written statement. There is little doubt lawmakers will follow Bush's lead, as they have repeatedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The latest proposal would bring war spending so far to about billion, including billion to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Congressional Research Service, which provides reports to lawmakers. Bush plans to send his 2006 budget to Congress on Feb. 7. It will not include a request for more war funds for that year, the officials said, saving that request for later. Tuesday's forecast by the Congressional Budget Office was widely awaited at the start of a year when Bush and Republicans are likely to propose tight spending restraints — and battle Democrats and some GOP lawmakers over those plans. The budget office projected billion in shortfalls for the decade ending in 2015. The office estimated that deficits would gradually fade into slight surpluses by 2012 — but not many were taking that forecast at face value. In making those estimates, the budget office assumed that current tax and spending laws would be unchanged, as it is required to do by law. The practice is designed to give lawmakers a neutral starting point to work from when crafting legislation. As a result, the budget office projections omitted war costs and some of Bush's top legislative priorities. The budget office said assuming U.S. troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan stays steady through next year and then declines gradually, those wars would add billion to the decade's deficits. Bush's proposal to prevent his tax cuts from expiring — and easing the impact of the alternative minimum tax on middle-income Americans, a move both parties favor — could add red ink exceeding .3 trillion, the budget office said. The budget office did not say how much Bush's plans to revamp Social Security would cost, but it has been estimated at $1 trillion to trillion. On the other hand, the budget office assumed most domestic programs would grow at the same rate as inflation. Keeping such spending at about the same level as this year for the entire decade — which Bush may come close to proposing — could reduce deficits by $1.3 trillion over the period, the budget office said. Republicans used the deficit figures to argue that budget savings must be found this year, including from popular benefit programs. "If we do nothing, our kids and grandkids will be overwhelmed by the costs of our inaction," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H. Democrats blamed Bush and the GOP for the daunting piles of red ink. "Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, but they can't control the budget and they can't escape responsibility for its dismal condition," said Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. The administration officials provided little new detail about their war package. They said of the billion, about billion would be for the Defense Department, with most of it for the Army. They said such spending would include personnel costs, the start of an effort to add at least 17 combat brigades to the Army and replacing worn out equipment. The rest of the money would largely be for aid the State Department would give to U.S. allies and for other expenses. Included would be money to help new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, to build an embassy in Baghdad and to aid victims of fighting in Sudan's Darfur province. They did not state whether the request would include aid for Indian Ocean countries staggered by the tsunami. But one said the United States was spending million daily there, and the administration would seek a "significant request, very generous assistance." The United States has already committed million to tsunami recovery efforts.   Gorbachev Calls Iraqi Elections “Fake” Created: 31.01.2005 14:51 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:51 MSK “MosNews" Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev called the Iraqi parliamentary elections a profanation. In an interview with the Interfax news agency, he said the elections are “very far from what true elections are. And even though I am a supporter of elections and of the transfer of power to the people of Iraq, these elections were fake.” “I don’t think these elections will be of any use. They may even have a negative impact on the country. Democracy cannot be imposed or strengthened with guns and tanks,” the agency quoted Gorbachev as saying. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it respected the results of Iraq’s elections. However, the statement said that it was important for the Iraqi people to acknowledge and accept the poll’s results. Russian President Vladimir Putin also welcomed the parliamentary elections in Iraq, calling it a “step in the right direction” and a “positive event”.         Washington, DC - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI and other offices of the US Department of Justice, seeking the release of documents that would reveal whether the government has been using the USA PATRIOT Act to spy on Internet users' reading habits without a search warrant. i-Newswire, 2005-01-31 - At issue is PATRIOT Section 216, which expanded the government's authority to conduct surveillance in criminal investigations using pen registers or trap and trace devices ( "pen-traps" ). Pen-traps collect information about the numbers dialed on a telephone but do not record the actual content of phone conversations. Because of this limitation, court orders authorizing pen-trap surveillance are easy to get -- instead of having to show probable cause, the government need only certify relevance to its investigation. Also, the government never has to inform people that they are or were the subjects of pen-trap surveillance. PATRIOT expanded pen-traps to include devices that monitor Internet communications. But the line between non-content and content is a lot blurrier online than it is on phone networks. The DOJ has said openly that the new definitions allow pen-traps to collect email and IP addresses. However, the DOJ has not been so forthcoming about web surveillance. It won't reveal whether it believes URLs can be collected using pen-traps, despite the fact that URLs clearly reveal content by identifying the web pages being read. EFF made its FOIA request specifically to gain access to documents that might reveal whether the DOJ is using pen-traps to monitor web browsing. "It's been over three years since the USA PATRIOT Act was passed, and the DOJ still hasn't answered the public's simple question: 'Can you see what we're reading on the Web without probable cause?'" said Kevin Bankston, EFF Staff Attorney and Bruce J. Ennis Equal Justice Works Fellow. "Much of PATRIOT is coming up for review this year, but we can never have a full and informed debate of the issues when the DOJ won't explain how it has been using these new surveillance powers." The law firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary assisted EFF in preparing the FOIA request and will help with any litigation if the DOJ fails to respond. Contact: Kevin Bankston Attorney, Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis Fellow Electronic Frontier Foundation bankston@eff.org         NYT: CIA holding onto Nazi papers WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The CIA refuses to provide documents sought by the U.S. government under a law requiring disclosure of classified records related to Nazi war criminals. Under the 1998 law, the spy agency has already provided more than 1.2 million pages of documents. Some of the papers made public last year showed a closer relationship between the U.S. government and Nazi war criminals than had previously been understood. But for nearly three years, the CIA has nixed requests for more records, Congressional officials and some members of a government working group told The New York Times. The officials believe the stance seems to violate the law and say the agency has sometimes agreed to provide information about ex-Nazis, but not about the extent of the agency's dealings with them after World War II. "I think that the CIA has defied the law, and in so doing has also trivialized the Holocaust, thumbed its nose at the survivors of the Holocaust and also at Americans who gave their lives in the effort to defeat the Nazis in World War II," said Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman from New York and a member of the group. Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All rights reserved.         In hearing on attorney general nominee, memo on interrogation methods will be a key issue Senate Judiciary Committee members will question White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales on Thursday. By Tom Curry National affairs writer MSNBC Updated: 9:48 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005 WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing Thursday morning for White House counsel Alberto Gonzales will be an inquest of sorts, as well as a public relations trial for the man President Bush has chosen to be the next attorney general of the United States On trial will be not only Gonzales, but the Bush administration’s interrogation of al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in Iraq, at the GuantanamoNavy base in Cuba and perhaps elsewhere. Gonzales’ adversaries, including the New York Times editorial page, Human Rights First, (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and some retired military officers such as Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, contend that he wrote one memo and approved another, written by former Justice Department official Jay Bybee, which either authorized or at least set the stage for torture of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees. “Legal opinions emanating from Mr. Gonzales … led ultimately to a multitude of violations of law that have brought disgrace on this country,” charged Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First. Another Gonzales foe, retired Gen. John Cullen of the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, accused him of deliberately avoiding seeking counsel from military judges “because he knew they would never sanction a departure from the requirements of the Geneva Convention, nor would they sanction torture.” Missing man at hearing Although Gonzales will be the target in Thursday’s hearing, the man directly implicated in what is now called “the torture memo” is Bybee, now a federal appeals judge sitting 2,400 miles away from Capitol Hill in Las Vegas. Principally at issue Thursday are two different memos, although the distinction between them has been and will likely continue to be smudged in the public debate. The first memo, just a bit more than three pages long, has Gonzales’ name on it, although the Washington Post reported Wednesday that it was drafted by Vice President Cheney’s legal counsel David Addington. It was submitted to Bush on Jan. 25, 2002. The second memo — 50 pages long — was written by Bybee and submitted to Gonzales on Aug. 1, 2002. The Gonzales memo reaffirms his opinion that the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war applies neither to al-Qaida members nor to Taliban detainees. The war against al-Qaida, Gonzales argued, “is not the traditional clash between nations adhering to the laws of war that formed the backdrop for” the Geneva Convention of 1949. Al-Qaida and Taliban detainees were not the traditional soldiers such as the United States faced in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. “In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scrip (i.e., advances of monthly pay), athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments,” Gonzales wrote. Fear of prosecution Gonzales warned that “prosecutors and independent counsels … may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges” against U.S. officials and soldiers based on a 1996 statute, the War Crimes Act, which prohibits the commission of a war crime, defined as any grave breach of the Geneva Convention. To avoid what he called “misconstruction or misapplication” of the 1996 law, Gonzales recommended that Bush deem the Geneva Convention inapplicable to al-Qaida and Taliban detainees. In his memo, Gonzales did not address the topic of torture. He did say that in its treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban members, the United States “will continue to be constrained by its commitment to treat the detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with” the 1949 Geneva Convention. Questions Gonzales is likely to be asked at Thursday’s hearing: How did his conception of “military necessity” square with humane treatment? Was “military necessity” meant to be understood as a euphemistic cover for mistreatment of detainees? The Bybee memo, which the Bush administration disavowed last week, said that a U.S. official or soldier accused of violating the torture statute in interrogating a suspect could invoke national defense to avoid prosecution if, for example, “an impending terrorist attack threatens the lives of hundreds if not thousands of American citizens.” There may be cases, Bybee wrote, where “an attack appears increasingly likely, but our intelligence services and armed forces cannot prevent it without the information from the interrogation of a specific individual.” Vote on Bybee On March 13, 2003, more than a year before his memo was leaked to the press, Bybee won Senate confirmation to a lifetime appointment on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bybee won support from now-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and even from ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who’d been frustrated by Bybee’s refusal during his confirmation hearing to explain what advice he’d given, as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, regarding treatment of al-Qaida suspects. While there are questions Senate Democrats would like to pose to Bybee, it is unclear whether the committee has any method of requiring him to explain his memo, even though it is pertinent to the question of whether Gonzales ought to be confirmed. Asked Tuesday to preview the Gonzales hearing, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told MSNBC.com, “I have a lot of questions I’m ready to ask about everything from his role in the death penalty cases in Texas to his role in the torture policy.” Asked whether there was any action the Senate could take to get answers from Bybee about his memo or hold him to account for it, Feingold replied, “I’m not ready to comment on that.” A primary focus of Thursday’s questioning of Gonzales will be why he asked Bybee to write the Aug. 1, 2002, memo and whether it was designed to justify techniques the CIA or other military interrogators were using to pry information out of al-Qaida suspects. As for the memo that Gonzales himself wrote, a Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee staff member told MSNBC.com Wednesday that U.S. soldiers had tried to justify their treatment of al-Qaida and other prisoners by saying that if the president had ruled that the Geneva Convention did apply to them, they would have treated the prisoners better. One of Gonzales’ defenders, former Reagan administration Justice Department official Douglas Kmiec, rejected this argument Wednesday in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. “Some service personnel have sought to justify shameful treatment of detainees by claiming that previous legal advice somehow invited or sanctioned their misbehavior,” Kmiec said. Gonzales did not sanction or invite prisoner abuse, Kmiec said. Praise for Gonzales While acknowledging that the Bybee memo “was surprisingly expansive in scope,” Kmiec said Gonzales “deserves substantial credit for returning the whole torture memo matter to the Department of Justice for rethinking. It is the hallmark of a wise counselor who has the courage — even in the face of national embarrassment — to see error, and to correct it.” The Senate Democratic staff member said that while Gonzales argued in his memo that the 1949 convention’s limits on questioning of detainees was obsolete, in fact the Geneva convention did not place significant limits on questioning of detainees or POWs. The Geneva Convention only places restraints on torture and coercion, the staffer said.  After the Bybee memo was leaked last June, Gonzales held a White House press conference in which he sought to minimize its importance: "These opinions were circulated among lawyers and some Washington policymakers only. To my knowledge, they never made it to the hands of soldiers in the field, nor to the president." A question Gonzales will likely get from Democrats: What specifically was there in the Geneva Convention’s ban on torture and coercion that he thought was burdensome or obsolete? Why did he seek to steer clear of Geneva Convention rules if they were consistent with treating the detainees humanely? While Leahy has urged Gonzales to turn over documents that might shed light on what interrogation techniques the Justice Department was approving, so far the Bush administration has refused to give additional documents to Leahy. If there were a “smoking gun” memo in which Gonzales justified torture, it is not yet in the hands of his interrogators. In 2001, when the Senate was weighing the nomination of Bush’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., considered a filibuster, although he later dropped that idea. What Democrats objected to then was Ashcroft’s conservative ideology; with Gonzales, the Senate Democrats have something far more dramatic and tangible: allegations that his legal advice ultimately led to torture. But so far, Senate Democrats are not threatening filibuster. In fact, one Democrat, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, will help formally introduce Gonzales to the committee, a ritual that does not necessarily reveal how Salazar will vote on the nomination, but indicates that Gonzales isn’t so politically radioactive that a Democrat won’t stand by his side.       Homeland Security Nominee Denies Involvement In Torture Policy POSTED: 6:51 am EST February 1, 2005 WASHINGTON -- As he prepares for his upcoming confirmation hearing, Homeland Security Secretary designee Michael Chertoff has denied advising the CIA on using specific torture techniques on terror suspects when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. Chertoff is expected to win confirmation easily following his Wednesday hearing, although Democrats said they plan to question him about his role in advising the CIA about torture standards. Meeting with Republican and Democratic staff members Monday, Chertoff said any legal advice he gave the CIA was broad and generalized - and merely from the viewpoint of "what a prosecutor would look for," one aide said. The Capitol Hill meeting, which lasted several hours, was described as cordial. Several aides who spoke on condition on anonymity said Chertoff grew slightly exasperated after repeated questioning over whether he had any role in approving techniques that critics said violated Geneva Conventions prohibiting violence, torture and humiliating treatment. Chertoff is a former federal prosecutor who is now a federal appeals court judge in Newark. He was chief of the Justice Department's criminal division when he was asked for guidance on whether CIA agents could be charged for using specific interrogatory techniques on terror suspects. Chertoff repeatedly told aides he gave only basic and generalized advice as "how a prosecutor would approach the statute." "He said that's something he said consistently to anyone and everyone that's asked," said an aide who attended the meeting. The meeting came as the American Civil Liberties Union urged lawmakers to press Chertoff during the Wednesday hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the extent he helped craft and supported several other controversial anti-terror policies. Although the group said Chertoff "has an accomplished record as a jurist and attorney," it charged him with supporting "national security policies that push, or breach, the outer limits of what is permissible under the Bill of Rights." The ACLU specifically homed in on policies allowing the detention of hundreds of Arab and Muslim men for minor immigration violations during the 9/11 investigations, and on the USA Patriot Act, which gives the government broad surveillance and law enforcement powers in terror cases. It questioned how Chertoff defined torture from the bench when he denied an asylum appeal by a Bangladeshi man who was beaten while in police custody abroad because of his political beliefs. White House spokeswoman Erin Healy, noting Chertoff's prosecution of racial profiling cases in New Jersey, said he "has a strong record in protecting civil liberties."     Summary: Teens Lack Constitution Knowledge By The Associated Press January 31, 2005, 11:05 AM EST THE ISSUE: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation sponsored a study of high school students' attitudes about the First Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly. THE FINDING: More than one in three students surveyed said the guarantees went too far, in sharp contrast to teachers and principals who were questioned. THE REMEDY: Better teaching of the Constitution and the rights that it protects, which the study suggests will be embraced by students once they know of them. Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press     From Magic City Morning Star J. Grant Swank Now We Learn: Human Chip Has Scary Side Affects By J. Grant Swank Jan 29, 2005, 08:11 All is not health-wise well with the chip. Is that why Digital Angel, manufacturer of the VeriChip, "Big Brother," is opting out, according to Investors.com? DACorp says nix to Applied Digital. Applied Digital apparently left out some vital data from its widespread touting of chip’s headway. Some of that hidden detail explains that the implant can be harmful to mortals. This of course gives a relief pause to those Christians who conclude that it just might be that the chip is part of the Mark of the Beast set-up for prohibiting believers from commerce once the AntiChrist sets up shop. Bible researchers point especially to the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, for symbolic specifics which theologians have translated into literal parlance. (See below). According to financialwire.net via COMTEX, health concerns have now surfaced widely enough for the general public to become privy to the public relations take. Risks to health include "adverse tissue reaction, migration of implanted transponder, failure of implanted transponder, electromagnetic interference, electrical hazards, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) incompatibility and needle stick." This information has now come to our attention via Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, or CASPIAN. WorldNetDaily provides quotes from Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, castigating those not totally candid about the chip and its health endangerment. In other words, the chip has been marketed in rose-tinted glasses rather than in candid medical profile. A sample of the chip danger points to persons needing an MRI. The chip may not be compatible with a MRI. Therefore, the human may have to choose between having a MRI and wearing the beneath-the-skin chip. The FDA has surfaced this problem in particular. "Electrical currents may be induced in conductive metal implants" which may bring about "potentially severe patient burns," according to the FDA. Furthermore, the chip could impair one’s privacy. In other words, wearing the chip 24 / 7 could open up an individual’s entire scope to the whomevers of the globe. Radio waves communicate data to those invisible readers behind screens who scan expansive detail about a person’s bio. Even "doorway portal readers" can vacuum in the specifics. The flip and danger baiting playthings of the Earth seem to be salivating for the chip, even using it to order drinks in buzzy bars of Europe. Easier that way, they say. So it goes with the souls who cling to cliff’s edge. But for the rest of us, caution is a given. FOOTNOTE: END TIMES PROPHECY: BOOK OF REVELATION, CHAPTER 13 Political Leader: Antichrist 1And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. The beast coming out of the sea is the yet-to-be-revealed political leader — Antichrist. He has ten horns; see Rev 17:12 to read that the ten horns are ten political leaders who will give their allegiance to the Antichrist. They will rule together for "one hour" — that is, a brief time in comparison to all of history. They will attack Christ’s work but eventually Christ will topple them (Rev 19:20). Some speculate that these ten will rule over the old Roman Empire geography that would place them in the present-tense European Union. Since "ten" is symbolic, the number does not necessarily have to tally a literal ten. Moreover, there is an aggressive effort within the EU to secularize all of Europe, hence the start of replacing any presence of God with Satan’s presence. The Antichrist also has seven heads; see Rev 17:9 to read that the seven heads represent seven hills on which the prostitute sits. (The prostitute is graphically described in Rev 17. She, Babylon, "the great harlot," is the religion of hell, that is, the prostituting of the true Christian faith). The city of seven hills in geography is Rome, the hills being Quirinal, Viminal, Esuiline, Palkatine, Caelian, Aventine, and Capitoline. The seven hills are also seven political rulers, "five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain only a little while. . ." (Rev 17:10) The five rulerships that are past tense are the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes-Persians and Gracians. The one that "is" is Rome of John’s day (the apostle John being the recipient of Christ’s revelatory vision). The one that has "yet to come" is the revived Roman Empire of the Antichrist rule. The Antichrist wears upon his head "blasphemy," that is, he is of Satan’s domain. 2And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast. The dragon is Satan who gives his dynamic evil presence to indwell the Antichrist. One of the beast’s heads is wounded. With the heads representing hills, then one of Rome’s hills will be attacked by an enemy to the Antichrist. However, the Antichrist will overthrow the attacker, retrieving the whole of his headquarters city. About the dragon, it is interesting how Christ uses that symbol in that Satan appeared at the start in Eden as a snake. By the close of the Church Age, the snake will have consumed scores of damned souls so as no longer to be handsomely slim but bloated to the size of a dragon. 4They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" Worldlings worship Satan, hence today’s open Satan worship as well as the supposedly more respectable apostasy consuming many within various denominations. When Christian truth is prostituted, such as concluding practicing homosexual lifestyles to be sanctioned of God, then Satan worship takes the place of Christian truth. Therefore, the Church of Satan may appear occultic and grotesque or refined but void of biblical truth. Clergy of Satan may be satanic priests and priestesses or they may be Protestant and Catholic clergy who have sold out their ministries to unbiblical teachings. The Church of Satan may be a coven or a sanctuary within the community. Worldlings will be enamored by the political charisma of the Antichrist so as to exclaim, "Who is like unto him. Who can ever even think of overpowering him?" 5There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Christians aligned to biblical truth of course readily will recognize the Antichrist to be hell’s stooge on earth. As the Antichrist gives forth with demonic conceit and "blasphemies," genuine believers will know him to be of Satan. The Antichrist rule in particular vengeance will be forty-two months, or 3 l/2 years, the last half of the almost-seven-year tribulation period (Rev 11:1-2). (It will be almost seven years for in Matthew 24:21-22 Christ predicts that that time frame will be abbreviated somewhat for the believers’ sake). During that time, knowing his rule is short, the Antichrist will vehemently curse God’s name, any truly Christian place of worship and blaspheme the holy powers of eternity. 7It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. The Antichrist, his political rule being global, will single out especially genuine Christians for persecution. 8All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. 9If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints. All unbelievers on the planet will worship the political leader in his offer of world peace. (Rev 4:1-2 pictures the Antichrist as a rider on a white horse, holding only a bow in his hand, a crown on his head. He goes forth to conquer. The Antichrist here is represented as one offering peace for he has only a bow — absent an arrow — in his hand. His crown represents his political power. With the offer of worldwide peace, he goes forth to lure all peoples).Religious Leader: The False Prophet 11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 12He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. Ruling alongside the political leader Antichrist will be the city-of-seven-hills’ religious leader False Prophet. Since he is false he is not of God. He is of Satan. He has two horns like a lamb. That is, he appears lamb-like or as a Christian, follower of the Lamb of God. In fact, he is just the opposite for when he opens his mouth he speaks the doctrines of the dragon (Satan). In other words, he endorses apostasies such as the present-day teaching that practicing homosexual lifestyles are approved of God. The False Prophet will acquiesce to the Antichrist. In reality, the political leader and religious leader will work in concert under demonic authority. This is similar to the political and religious dimensions that condemned Jesus to death — the Roman rule and the Judaic temple regime. All the more impacting is that both Antichrist and False Prophet will be overthrown by the Ultimate Political Leader / Ultimate Religious Leader — Christ — the King of Kings (politics) and Lord of Lords (religious). The False Prophet will order the world to bow down to the Antichrist. Christians will disobey that order; worldlings will obey that order. 13He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 14And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. The False Prophet will act out amazing fetes, including miracles (Matthew 24:23-25) for Satan can performs miracles just as he does daily via cultic practices. Such splendors will lure worldlings into allegiance to Satan. The False Prophet will include in his agenda making a statue of the Antichrist. The statue will particularly celebrate the fact that the Antichrist overthrew the enemy who previously had attacked one of Rome’s seven hills. 15And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. The False Prophet will cause the statue to speak. That of course is believable today, though when Christians read that prophecy in previous eras it might have seemed impossible. However, with machines now equipped with human voices, we now take that phenomenon as not a phenomenon at all. The False Prophet will command those in the environs of the statue to bow down to it, symbolizing their worshiping the Antichrist. Those who refuse will be martyred. 16And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. The False Prophet causes everyone to be marked on right hand or forehead with the symbol of the Antichrist rule — 666. Those with the mark are able to engage in commerce. Those without the mark will not be able to engage in commerce. For those without the mark, they will either die because of lack of food, fuel and medicine or the mark will be leveled just prior to the Second Coming so supplies last into the millennial reign. Or God will miraculously provide as He did for Hebrews during the forty-years wilderness sojourn, giving manna and quail for food as well as keeping shoes from wearing out. In Rev 14: 1 Christ reveals that genuine Christians will receive God’s mark upon their forehead. Could it be that 7 is that mark since 666 is Satan’s mark? Or, since Christ unfolded the Revelation mostly in symbolism, we could leave the literal understanding to the future. However, the symbolism given does represent 666 as less than the divine number of perfection, 7; that is, the work of Satan is less able than the work of God. In other words, God tops Satan. Satan’s 666 is his straining to be 7, an old satanic plot in seeking to overthrow the divine throne in order to be deity. (As an aside, there are 3 sets of sevens in Revelation: 7 trumpets, 7 seals, 7 bowls of wrath — 7 topping 3 sixes or 666). After studying Revelation 13, it is spiritually enriching to study Revelation 19, the Second Coming hope that sets forth the defeat of the Antichrist and False Prophet. "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. . ." (Rev 19:1). "The beast was captured and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone" (Rev 19:20). © Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Magic City Morning Star       Wal-Mart Begins RFID Process Changes The retailer has started deploying new applications and implementing new procedures aimed at using RFID data to reduce out-of-stocks. By Mark Roberti Feb. 1, 2005—Wal-Mart has begun rolling out the first applications and process changes based on radio frequency identification data at the original seven Wal-Mart stores in Texas that were outfitted with RFID readers. The aim of the applications is to reduce out-of-stocks by providing visibility into the location of goods with RFID tags. "They've been live for [three] weeks now," Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's manager of global RFID strategy, says of the applications in the seven stores. "We'll roll them out to the other 140 RFID-enabled stores in February." At each of the 104 Wal-Mart stores and 36 Sam's Clubs, the company has installed RFID readers at the receiving docks at the back of the building, near the trash compactors and between the back room and the retail floor. For the cases of goods that are shipped to the stores with RFID tags, Wal-Mart records their arrival by reading the tag on each case and then reads the tags again before the cases are brought out to the sales floor. By using sales data from its existing point-of-sales system, which is not using RFID, Wal-Mart subtracts the number of cases of a particular item that are sold to customers from the number of cases brought out to the sales floor. Based on that information, software monitors which items will soon be depleted from the shelves and automatically generates a list of items that need to be picked from the back room in order to replenish the store shelves. "By reading the tags on the cases that are brought out from the back room, we're able to see what items have actually been replenished," says Langford, instead of relying on people to record on a handheld computer what has been picked in the back room. Wal-Mart has developed a handheld RFID reader that acts like a kind of Geiger counter, beeping when an associate gets close to the item he or she needs to pick. That reduces the amount of time spent in the back room. The plan is to provide the handheld devices to associates in the original seven stores and then deploy them at the rest of the 140 stores during the course of the year. The retailer is also sharing data from all its RFID read points with its suppliers through Wal-Mart's Retail Link extranet. When a case is brought out to the sales floor, the system records that it's being put out on the shelves. When the case is read at the trash compactor, the status within the system is changed to "on shelf." Suppliers can get updates on the location of their goods within 30 minutes of the goods’ movement from one part of the store to another. Despite recent reports that Wal-Mart's RFID deployment is behind schedule, Langford indicates that the retailer is on track. Ninety-four suppliers shipped tagged product to Wal-Mart as of Jan. 31, and more are expected to begin shipping tag pallets and cases in February. "Some suppliers left their tag orders until late," Langford says. "Some haven't been able to get tags for whatever reason. Some did their testing late and found they needed a special form factor, which takes time to develop and manufacture." Wal-Mart plans to RFID-enable 600 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores and 12 distribution centers by the end of the year. In June 2004, the retailer met with its "next 200" suppliers to discuss how they will use the technology, beginning in January 2006. The company will carry out tagging reviews with them this coming spring. Langford says that these suppliers will not be asked to tag cases and pallets shipped to all 12 DCs and 600 stores at the start of next year but instead to the three DCs and 140 stores that currently RFID-enabled. "If a supplier wants to ship to all 600 stores, we won't hold them back," Langford says. "Some are eager to move quickly. The perception of RFID is changing. Certainly, the next 200 suppliers have more support and are probably more educated and are in better shape that the first 100, who were the trailblazers. The technology companies, integrators and consultants have learned a lot and are in a better position to help the next 200 suppliers." Langford says he's very pleased with the 98 percent read rate Wal-Mart has been achieving as goods arrive at the store receiving docks and as they are brought out to the retail floor. It's too early to say what impact RFID is having on product availability for the tagged cases, but Langford says, "The really exciting thing is we're starting to work more efficiently already."         from the January 31, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0131/p02s01-ussc.html San Francisco weighs merits of handgun ban A bold ballot initiative could make the city a pioneer in gun control. But will it cut crime, or simply infuriate the gun lobby? By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor SAN FRANCISCO - In a city so often intent on making brash political statements, Chris Daly's tone is decidedly practical. Last year, when the number of homicides nationwide fell unexpectedly and dramatically, murders in San Francisco surged. The district attorney called it an epidemic, police targeted new gang activity, and the mayor went door-to-door in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods to plead for calm - all to no avail. So, as a member of the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Daly got serious. He has proposed a ban on handguns in the city, prohibiting any resident from making, buying, or even owning them. If approved by voters this fall, the ballot measure would give San Francisco the toughest handgun laws of any major city in the United States. Daly insists that his proposal is simply about making San Francisco safer - being the vanguard of gun control is just a fringe benefit. Yet most experts are not convinced that handgun bans have any significant effect on crime, and some add that the ban's most likely outcome would be to provoke the national gun lobby in the same way that San Francisco's gay marriages riled cultural conservatives. Once again, this most liberal of cities stands poised to take the lead on one of the most controversial areas of public policy, rousing to action both those who would follow sout and those who would oppose such measures. "Laws like this have a symbolic meaning, but no effect other than to keep the issue inflamed," says William Vizzard, author of "Shots in the Dark: Politics, Policy, and Symbolism of Gun Control." On one hand, San Francisco's national influence on the topic of gun control is limited, given that only 11 states allow cities to devise gun laws. Yet cities - and particularly California cities - have been the incubators for some of the most far-reaching gun-control laws to spread across the country, including assault-weapons bans and monthly limits on how many guns one person can purchase. Whether the handgun ban would be a useful addition to this suite of gun-control laws, however, is uncertain. Two major US cities - Washington and Chicago - have had similar handgun bans in place for more than 20 years. Daly cites a 1991 study by the New England Journal of Medicine that suggests that the ban in Washington had an effect on violent crime in the years immediately after it began in 1976. Moreover, his plan is even tougher, requiring residents who own guns to turn them in - the Washington and Chicago plans had clauses that allowed those who owned guns before the ban to keep them. "With fewer handguns in the city, criminals will be much less likely to get their hands on one," says Daly, noting that handguns were involved in more than 60 percent of last year's 88 murders here. The long-term tends, though, have not been positive. Washington and Chicago perennially have some of the highest homicide rates in the US. Last year, when Chicago's homicide count dropped an unprecedented 25 percent, the reason was not the ban so much as a new vigilance in getting guns out of the hands of criminals - using laws already on the books in many states. "They were not trying to get guns out of law-abiding homeowners' hands," says Arthur Lurigio, chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at Loyola University in Chicago. "But when they encountered suspects, they were vigorously confiscating guns and trying to figure out where they can find more guns." Others agree that the greatest success in lowering murder rates has come when law-enforcement officials have made taking guns from criminals a top priority. "There is no cheap way out of this," says Philip Cook, a public-policy professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "Criminals have a way of getting guns no matter what the law is." That's not to say handgun bans are a bad idea, some analysts hasten to say, but rather that they might not necessarily be an effective crime-fighting tool all by themselves. In addition, they can make "reasonable" gun-control laws harder to pass, by bringing gun owners to a boil, says Dr. Vizzard. In Washington, the National Rifle Association already has its eyes on San Francisco. The city passed a similar measure in 1982, but it was struck down in court because it illegally usurped state authority. Daly believes his proposal solves the problem, but it will surely receive a stiff legal test if it passes in November. "The buzz is out there, and folks are watching with interest," says Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA. "This is a draconian gun ban... It is not a matter that ought to be taken lightly." He suggests that gun owners, feeling ever besieged by governments and gun laws, are more politically attuned than most Americans. And there is perhaps no better example than Paul Quinn. As a San Franciscan, he would have to turn over his handguns to authorities if the measure wins in November. To him, San Francisco's plan is less a criminal-justice mistake than a constitutional farce. He portrays himself as a moderate. Though he calls guns "marvels of engineering," he bought his first one only five years ago when he moved here; he fears the chaos that could erupt after a large earthquake. Now, he's a self-made Second Amendment scholar, quoting 19th-century court decisions about the authority of the Supreme Court and the inconsistency of American gun laws. The fight has come to his home turf. "It's nonsense," he says of the ballot measure. "It offends my sense of liberty much more than my sense of security." Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links Posted on Mon, Jan. 31, 2005 Tasers spark a lot of debate Lack of mandatory training stuns some By Tony Bridges DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER The public seems mighty charged up over the police use of Taser guns these days. While that has created all sorts of talk about the necessity of training for cops, ordinary citizens can buy and use Tasers with no more prep than a CD-ROM from the company. The devices are available online, either from Taser's own Web site or other security retailers. Only a few states outlaw their purchase, and Florida's not one of them. Of course, people may not be rushing to arm themselves with these "energy weapons" - prices start at more than and go up fast. "It's not the kind of thing the average street thug is going to have," said Officer Woody Kerse, a firearm and Taser instructor for the Tallahassee Police Department. "The people who would spend that kind of money are probably the ones who would apply them properly." Not familiar with the Taser controversy? Since the company introduced them in 1999, they've become one of the hottest items in law enforcement, marketed as the alternative to "deadly force." Thousands of agencies around the country now use them, including both Tallahassee police and the Leon County Sheriff's Office. The guns work by firing a pair of pronged darts that latch onto clothing or skin and send 50,000 volts of juice into the body in 5-second bursts. The electricity overrides the central nervous system and forces muscles to contract, causing a temporary paralysis. Painful, but better than a bullet, the thinking went. But then people started dying after police used Tasers on them. That's happened at least four times in Central and South Florida and as many as 70 times across the United States and Canada, according to a recent report by Amnesty International. Critics claim the devices are dangerous and directly responsible for the deaths. So far, evidence of that has been inconclusive, with many fatalities attributed to other factors. Then came the complaints about how cops were using electric guns - and on whom. Example: a 6-year-old boy in Miami shot with a Taser after he brandished a piece of glass in a school office. Results of the controversy have ranged from lawsuits to policies requiring more police training to a proposal in the Florida Legislature to ban cops from using them on school grounds. But no one's said much about civilians with Tasers. The company began selling the X26C Citizen Defense System - a modified version of the police issue - to the public in September. It has a slightly shorter range, lower power output with a longer shock time of up to 30 seconds than the model sold to police. It's also equipped with what Taser calls the Anti-Felon Identification system. When fired, the gun spits out tiny pieces of paper marked with a serial number cops can use to trace the owner. Price: $1,000. "We are proud and excited to offer our latest life-saving technology...to private citizens seeking responsible, non-lethal self-defense protection," a Taser news release read, in part. "Enhanced features, stopping power and reduced size will ensure that lives continue to be saved every day." Training? Not much. The X26C comes with a coupon for an hour of one-on-one instruction with a police officer. Two lower-end models that sell for and each come with training CD-ROMs. A Taser spokesman contacted twice did not respond to questions, including whether there were any local cops signed up as civilian trainers. Kerse said he thinks some training would be a good idea, but shouldn't be required. After all, a Taser isn't a lethal weapon - unlike a gun or a knife, according to the TPD officer. "And people don't have to have any specialized training to go buy a gun," he said. SELF-DEFENSE © 2005 Tallahassee Democrat and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.tallahassee.com/     Tracking Bodies Donated To Science BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 4, 2005 Shaken by scandals involving the black-market sale of body parts, University of California officials are considering inserting supermarket-style barcodes or radio frequency devices in cadavers to keep track of them. The high-tech fix is one of a number of reforms UC is proposing to reassure people that bodies donated to science will be used as intended and treated with respect. "We want these to be programs that really do work so we can maintain the public trust and know that we are doing everything possible to maintain and respect the great donation that these gifts represent," said Michael Drake, UC vice president for health affairs. Every year, thousands of bodies are donated to U.S. tissue banks and medical schools. Skin, bone and other tissue are often used in transplants. New medical treatments and safety equipment such as bicycle helmets are tested on various body parts. And cadavers are used to teach medical students surgical skills and anatomy. But there is also a lucrative underground trade in corpses and body parts, despite federal laws against the sale of organs and tissue. "There's more regulations that cover a shipment of oranges coming into California than there is a shipment of human knees that are going from a body parts broker in one state to Las Vegas," said Dr. Todd Olson, director of anatomical donations at Albert Einstein Medical School of New York. At UCLA, the Willed Body program was suspended by court order last spring after the director and another person were arrested in an investigation into the selling of body parts for profit. The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed. In 1996, donors' families sued the university, charging that the program had illegally disposed of thousands of bodies by cremating them along with dead lab animals and fetuses and dumping the ashes in the trash. In 1999, the director of the UC Irvine program was fired after being accused of selling spines to a Phoenix hospital. The university was also unable to account for hundreds of willed bodies. The director denied any wrongdoing and was never prosecuted. After the latest scandal, some people who had agreed to leave their bodies to science withdrew their offers. In response, UC has proposed a series of reforms, some of which are already in place. They include a better records system, electronic locks and surveillance cameras. Officials are also considering putting barcodes or radio frequency devices in cadavers that could be read by someone walking past the body with a handheld device. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags already are used by cars passing through automated toll plazas. UC officials said that they are still working out the details but that any body parts that became separated from the corpse would probably be tagged, too. Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said he has never heard of such devices being used to keep track of cadavers. He said a determined thief might be able to remove a barcode, and he warned that the new equipment has to be backed up by human oversight. "Most of this illicit trade in body parts is done by bad guys," he said. "Having the barcoded chips is great, but if you want to beat them you need to have someone come in occasionally and say, 'I'm doing an audit."' The university's Board of Regents is expected to review the plan this spring. Also, UC officials will decide in March whether to ask a judge overseeing lawsuits filed by donors' relatives for permission to reopen UCLA's 55-year-old willed-body program, which was getting about 175 donated bodies a year before it was suspended. Mike Arias, a lawyer for family members who have sued UC, greeted the proposed reforms with "somewhat guarded optimism," since UC had promised to create a model program after the mid-'90s problems. Still, Arias said he hopes the reform succeed and the UCLA program resumes, because it "serves too big of a public service." By Michelle Locke ©MMV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved       US Invokes Secrets Privilege in Torture Lawsuit IPS | February 3, 2005 NEW YORK - The Justice Department has again asserted "state-secrets privilege" in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained in the United States in 2002 and sent against his will to Syria, where he says he was tortured until his release a year later. The privilege was invoked "in order to protect the intelligence, foreign policy and national security interests of the United States," wrote Acting Attorney General James B. Comey in legal papers filed in the Eastern District of New York. "Litigating … plaintiff's complaint would necessitate disclosure of classified information," according to Comey, including disclosure of the basis for detaining him in the first place, the basis for refusing to deport him to Canada as he had requested, and the basis for sending him to Syria. He was never charged with any crime. Arar, who has been home in Ontario for more than a year, is being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a New York-based civil rights advocacy organization "Maher Arar's is a very significant case," said his attorney, Barbara Olshansky, in a statement. "It involves the torture and arbitrary detention of an innocent man seized and removed on the basis of uncorroborated and incorrect information, and puts to the test this administration's commitment to the eradication of torture." This is the third time the Department of Justice has invoked the "state-secrets privilege" in recent years. In 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) successfully used the statute to move for dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer who alleged that he was the victim of racial discrimination by the agency. That case is on appeal. The state-secrets privilege was invoked again in 2004 to block a lawsuit brought by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist hired by the FBI shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, was fired in 2002 after repeatedly reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency's translation program. She challenged her dismissal by filing suit in federal court. Last July, the court dismissed her case when outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state-secrets privilege. Her appeal will be heard in April. The Justice Department's inspector general conducted a classified investigation and concluded that Edmonds' allegations "were at least a contributing factor in why the FBI terminated her services." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a Washington-based human rights advocacy group that is defending Edmonds, has been sharply critical of the government. It said the district court "relied on the government's secret evidence but denied Edmonds the opportunity to prove her case based on non-sensitive evidence." That approach, it added, "made a mockery of the adversarial process and denied Ms. Edmonds her constitutional right to a day in court." The organization said "the government has relied on the state secrets privilege to cover up its own negligence," citing a 1948 Supreme Court case in which "the government claimed that disclosing a military flight accident report would jeopardize secret military equipment and harm national security." However, release of the accident report – nearly 50 years later – revealed that the cause of the crash was faulty maintenance of the B-29 fleet. Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria in 1970, came to Canada in 1987. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in computer engineering, Arar worked in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer. On a stopover in New York as he was returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia in September 2002, U.S. officials detained Arar, claiming he had links to al-Qaeda. He was deported to Syria, even though he was carrying a Canadian passport and asked to be returned to that country. Arar returned to Canada more than a year later, claiming he had been tortured during his incarceration. He accused U.S. officials of sending him to Syria knowing that it practices torture. U.S. officials have confirmed that "Mr. Arar's name was placed on a terrorist lookout list based on information received from Canada ," and that "the decision to remove Mr. Arar ... was made by U.S. government officials based on our own assessment of the security threat." Meanwhile, in Mr. Arar's home country, Canada, the case has taken on a high profile. Following extensive media interest, the government reluctantly agreed to a judicial inquiry into the case, which involves the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). According to the Toronto Globe, there is some suspicion that the government "is attempting to stall the inquiry into irrelevancy by tying it up in lengthy legal proceedings." "Although the government asked a judge to conduct a public inquiry, it seems determined to retain control over what information will be made public about Mr. Arar, especially as it relates to the activities of the CSIS and the RCMP," the Globe said. The U.S. State Department has refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry. Arar was transported to Syria under a U.S. government program known as "extreme rendering" – taking detainees to countries where prison authorities are known to practice torture. The program has been used extensively by the CIA, which uses leased Gulfstream business jets for its flights. The U.S. government has acknowledged that it engages in "extreme rendering," but insists that countries to which its prisoners are taken provide "diplomatic assurance" that they will be treated humanely. It is generally thought that the rendering practice may be responsible for some of the "ghost detainees" from Iraq and Afghanistan – U.S. prisoners whose identities have been hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.       Report: US Occupation Authority in Iraq Lost Track of Nearly By VOA News 31 January 2005 An audit by a U.S. inspector says the U.S.-led authority that governed Iraq after the 2003 invasion failed to keep track of nearly  billion it transferred to Iraqi ministries. The audit released Sunday by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says the Coalition Provisional Authority failed to establish control systems to verify how the money was spent, which opened it to corruption. In some instances, money was used to pay what the report calls "ghost" employees, explaining that out of 8,206 guards on the payroll at one ministry, only 602 could be accounted for. Former CPA chief Paul Bremer rejected the findings, saying the report assumes western-style accounting procedures could have been quickly set up during wartime. Mr. Bremer says delaying payment to Iraqi public servants could have created additional security threats.   Canadians Fight for Privacy  By Kim Zetter Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66497,00.html 02:00 AM Feb. 04, 2005 PT     Did Gonzales authorize torture? In hearing on attorney general nominee, memo on interrogation methods will be a key issue By Tom Curry National affairs writer MSNBC Updated: 9:48 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005 WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing Thursday morning for White House counsel Alberto Gonzales will be an inquest of sorts, as well as a public relations trial for the man President Bush has chosen to be the next attorney general of the United States. On trial will be not only Gonzales, but the Bush administration’s interrogation of al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in Iraq, at the Guantanamo Navy base in Cuba and perhaps elsewhere. Gonzales’ adversaries, including the New York Times editorial page, Human Rights First, (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and some retired military officers such as Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, contend that he wrote one memo and approved another, written by former Justice Department official Jay Bybee, which either authorized or at least set the stage for torture of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees. “Legal opinions emanating from Mr. Gonzales … led ultimately to a multitude of violations of law that have brought disgrace on this country,” charged Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First. Another Gonzales foe, retired Gen. John Cullen of the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, accused him of deliberately avoiding seeking counsel from military judges “because he knew they would never sanction a departure from the requirements of the Geneva Convention, nor would they sanction torture.” Missing man at hearing Although Gonzales will be the target in Thursday’s hearing, the man directly implicated in what is now called “the torture memo” is Bybee, now a federal appeals judge sitting 2,400 miles away from Capitol Hill in Las Vegas. Principally at issue Thursday are two different memos, although the distinction between them has been and will likely continue to be smudged in the public debate. The first memo, just a bit more than three pages long, has Gonzales’ name on it, although the Washington Post reported Wednesday that it was drafted by Vice President Cheney’s legal counsel David Addington. It was submitted to Bush on Jan. 25, 2002. The second memo — 50 pages long — was written by Bybee and submitted to Gonzales on Aug. 1, 2002. The Gonzales memo reaffirms his opinion that the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war applies neither to al-Qaida members nor to Taliban detainees. The war against al-Qaida, Gonzales argued, “is not the traditional clash between nations adhering to the laws of war that formed the backdrop for” the Geneva Convention of 1949. Al-Qaida and Taliban detainees were not the traditional soldiers such as the United States faced in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. “In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scrip (i.e., advances of monthly pay), athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments,” Gonzales wrote. Fear of prosecution Gonzales warned that “prosecutors and independent counsels … may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges” against U.S. officials and soldiers based on a 1996 statute, the War Crimes Act, which prohibits the commission of a war crime, defined as any grave breach of the Geneva Convention. To avoid what he called “misconstruction or misapplication” of the 1996 law, Gonzales recommended that Bush deem the Geneva Convention inapplicable to al-Qaida and Taliban detainees. In his memo, Gonzales did not address the topic of torture. He did say that in its treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban members, the United States “will continue to be constrained by its commitment to treat the detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with” the 1949 Geneva Convention. Questions Gonzales is likely to be asked at Thursday’s hearing: How did his conception of “military necessity” square with humane treatment? Was “military necessity” meant to be understood as a euphemistic cover for mistreatment of detainees? The Bybee memo, which the Bush administration disavowed last week, said that a U.S. official or soldier accused of violating the torture statute in interrogating a suspect could invoke national defense to avoid prosecution if, for example, “an impending terrorist attack threatens the lives of hundreds if not thousands of American citizens.” There may be cases, Bybee wrote, where “an attack appears increasingly likely, but our intelligence services and armed forces cannot prevent it without the information from the interrogation of a specific individual.” Vote on Bybee On March 13, 2003, more than a year before his memo was leaked to the press, Bybee won Senate confirmation to a lifetime appointment on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bybee won support from now-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and even from ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who’d been frustrated by Bybee’s refusal during his confirmation hearing to explain what advice he’d given, as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, regarding treatment of al-Qaida suspects. While there are questions Senate Democrats would like to pose to Bybee, it is unclear whether the committee has any method of requiring him to explain his memo, even though it is pertinent to the question of whether Gonzales ought to be confirmed. Asked Tuesday to preview the Gonzales hearing, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told MSNBC.com, “I have a lot of questions I’m ready to ask about everything from his role in the death penalty cases in Texas to his role in the torture policy.” Asked whether there was any action the Senate could take to get answers from Bybee about his memo or hold him to account for it, Feingold replied, “I’m not ready to comment on that.” A primary focus of Thursday’s questioning of Gonzales will be why he asked Bybee to write the Aug. 1, 2002, memo and whether it was designed to justify techniques the CIA or other military interrogators were using to pry information out of al-Qaida suspects. As for the memo that Gonzales himself wrote, a Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee staff member told MSNBC.com Wednesday that U.S. soldiers had tried to justify their treatment of al-Qaida and other prisoners by saying that if the president had ruled that the Geneva Convention did apply to them, they would have treated the prisoners better. One of Gonzales’ defenders, former Reagan administration Justice Department official Douglas Kmiec, rejected this argument Wednesday in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. “Some service personnel have sought to justify shameful treatment of detainees by claiming that previous legal advice somehow invited or sanctioned their misbehavior,” Kmiec said. Gonzales did not sanction or invite prisoner abuse, Kmiec said. Praise for Gonzales While acknowledging that the Bybee memo “was surprisingly expansive in scope,” Kmiec said Gonzales “deserves substantial credit for returning the whole torture memo matter to the Department of Justice for rethinking. It is the hallmark of a wise counselor who has the courage — even in the face of national embarrassment — to see error, and to correct it.” The Senate Democratic staff member said that while Gonzales argued in his memo that the 1949 convention’s limits on questioning of detainees was obsolete, in fact the Geneva convention did not place significant limits on questioning of detainees or POWs. The Geneva Convention only places restraints on torture and coercion, the staffer said.  After the Bybee memo was leaked last June, Gonzales held a White House press conference in which he sought to minimize its importance: "These opinions were circulated among lawyers and some Washington policymakers only. To my knowledge, they never made it to the hands of soldiers in the field, nor to the president." A question Gonzales will likely get from Democrats: What specifically was there in the Geneva Convention’s ban on torture and coercion that he thought was burdensome or obsolete? Why did he seek to steer clear of Geneva Convention rules if they were consistent with treating the detainees humanely? While Leahy has urged Gonzales to turn over documents that might shed light on what interrogation techniques the Justice Department was approving, so far the Bush administration has refused to give additional documents to Leahy. If there were a “smoking gun” memo in which Gonzales justified torture, it is not yet in the hands of his interrogators. In 2001, when the Senate was weighing the nomination of Bush’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., considered a filibuster, although he later dropped that idea. What Democrats objected to then was Ashcroft’s conservative ideology; with Gonzales, the Senate Democrats have something far more dramatic and tangible: allegations that his legal advice ultimately led to torture. But so far, Senate Democrats are not threatening filibuster. In fact, one Democrat, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, will help formally introduce Gonzales to the committee, a ritual that does not necessarily reveal how Salazar will vote on the nomination, but indicates that Gonzales isn’t so politically radioactive that a Democrat won’t stand by his side. © 2005 MSNBC Interactive URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6790622/     First Amendment no big deal, students say Study shows American teenagers indifferent to freedoms The Associated Press Updated: 10:20 a.m. ET Jan. 31, 2005 WASHINGTON - The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech. It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday. The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly. Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories. “These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.” The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says. When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did. Indifference, misunderstanding The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights. Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It’s not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can’t. “Schools don’t do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don’t know the rights it protects,” Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. “This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment.” The partners in the project, including organizations of newspaper editors and radio and television news directors, share a clear advocacy for First Amendment issues. Federal and state officials, meanwhile, have bemoaned a lack of knowledge of U.S. civics and history among young people. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has even pushed through a mandate that schools must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the date it was signed in 1787. The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, is billed as the largest of its kind. More than 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004. Lack of education The study suggests that students embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools don’t make the matter a priority. Students who take part in school media activities, such as a student newspapers or TV production, are much more likely to support expression of unpopular views, for example. About nine in 10 principals said it is important for all students to learn some journalism skills, but most administrators say a lack of money limits their media offerings. More than one in five schools offer no student media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years. “The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media,” said Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas project at Ball State University in Indiana. “Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms.” © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6888837/     N.Y. judge strikes down gay marriage ban Ruling says same-sex couple can’t be denied equal rights The Associated Press Updated: 4:44 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2005 NEW YORK - A judge declared Friday that a law banning same-sex marriage violates the state constitution, a first-of-its-kind ruling in New York that would clear the way for gay couples to wed if it survives on appeal. Gay rights activists hailed the ruling as a historic victory that “delivers the state Constitution’s promise of equality to all New Yorkers.” “The court recognized that unless gay people can marry, they are not being treated equally under the law,” said Susan Sommer, a Lambda Legal Defense Fund lawyer who presented the case. “Same-sex couples need the protections and security marriage provides, and this ruling says they’re entitled to get them the same way straight couples do.” State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled in favor of five gay couples who had been denied marriage licenses by New York City. The Supreme Court is New York’s trial level court. The couples brought a lawsuit arguing they were denied legal protections guaranteed under the constitution. The judge agreed and said the New York City clerk may not deny a license to any couple solely because the two are of the same sex. “Under both the federal and New York State constitutions, it is beyond question that the right to liberty” extends to protect marriage,” Ling-Cohan wrote. The ruling will not take effect for at least 30 days. The city Law Department issued a statement saying only, “We are reviewing the decision thoroughly and considering our options.” The judge ordered a copy of her decision sent to the state attorney general, who was not involved in the case. Calls to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office were not immediately returned. The ruling applies only in the city, but could extend statewide if upheld by the Court of Appeals in Albany. Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, said he was “disappointed” by the decision. “Redefinition of a law’s terms is for the legislature to do, not for a judge. She’s an activist judge legislating from the bench.” Mary Jo Kennedy and Jo-Ann Shain, one of the couples in the case, said they were thrilled by the ruling and believed it would offer their family increased legal protection. They have been together 23 years and have a 15-year-old daughter. “We’re just overjoyed,” said Shain. “We didn’t think it would ever happen. Kennedy said she wants to marry Shain as soon as possible. “I can’t wait,” she said. “We went to buy a (marriage) license in March 2004 and couldn’t get it. That’s what started this whole thing.” The judge noted that one plaintiff in the case, Curtis Woolbright, is the son of an interracial couple who moved to California in 1966 to marry. She said California then was the only state whose courts had ruled that interracial marriage prohibitions were unconstitutional. © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6914743/