Monday, March 27, 2006

LOOK WHO'S PACKIN'  

Ronald Lauder has joined trigger-happy tycoons Donald Trump and Seagrams scion Edgar Bronfman Sr. as the richest men in the city packing heat, according to the NYPD's gun-permit list.

Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and multimillionaire Marvel Comics CEO Isaac Perlmutter are the newest gun-club members licensed to carry a weapon - topping a list that already included "Mean Streets" actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, "Scarface" producer Martin Bregman and shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.

These boldfaced names are among more than 38,000 licensed gun owners in the city; the number has steadily declined in recent years as fewer people apply for permits - and fewer are approved.

"The review is thorough and it may include a site visit," said Police Inspector Michael Coan. "Permits are reviewed upon renewal to ensure proper cause exists to continue the permit."

Other gun-toting notables - who have a license to carry as opposed to a permit to keep their weapon only at a home or business - include anti-gun activist Fernando Mateo and Giuliani Partners execs Richard Sheirer and Anthony Carbonetti - an in-law of the notorious booze-peddling Dorrian clan.

Republican Senate majority leader Joe Bruno and music czar Tommy Mottola remain licensed carriers, according to NYPD records through March 17.

Millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller and former TV Anchor John Roland are no longer on the list; the NYPD wouldn't say why not.

Former Manhattan Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder is also licensed to carry a firearm.

"You will see a lot of judges with [gun] permits, and I've also noticed over the years more women applying," said NYPD License Division Capt. Mike Endall.

Queens DA Richard Brown is the only elected prosecutor in the city with a gun license, but "he has his own security, so he doesn't walk around carrying a gun," said spokeswoman Nicole Navas.

Celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said he has carried a gun since 1961 during his days as a prosecutor.

"A man threatened to kill me, and since he was a murderer I thought it was time to get a gun," he said. "We live in a very disturbed age. There's all kinds of sickness."

Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz's lawyer, Barry Slotnick, is also strapped.

Last year 3,187 people applied for gun licenses, and 2,575, or 81 percent, were approved. In the same period, 141 licenses were revoked and 4,103 licenses were canceled.

In 2004, 3,454 applications were filed and 2,860 - or 83 percent - were approved; 189 licenses were revoked and 3,473 cancelled.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/63648.htm

posted by Matthew LeFande 10:55 AM
matt@lefande.com

U.K. drunk driver banned at 14 years old  

A 14-year-old girl was today locked up for drink-driving - and banned from getting behind the wheel for three years.

Leanne Black was in court just over a year after she committed the same offence aged only 12. As her sentence was passed at Newbury Youth Court, Leanne, thought to have been Britain’s youngest drink-driver, went berserk.

Screaming obscenities the angry teenager, dressed in a white tracksuit and gold chain, kicked over a chair then leapt forward and punched prosecutor Lesley Gilmore in the back.

The girl then hurled a jug of water at the three retreating magistrates.

Leanne, of Thatcham in Berkshire, was grabbed by security guards and bundled out of the courtroom. The hearing had to be halted.

Before the mayhem, magistrate Margaret Bates took the unusual step of allowing Leanne to be named. She ruled that public interest in the shocking case outweighed the court’s duty to protect a young person.

The court was told how, on the night of February 13, Leanne drank three cans of lager and then pinched her father’s car keys and drove off in his car - a replica of her previous drink-driving offence committed on Christmas Day 2004.

On this recent occasion, she drove off through Newbury to her sister's home. Realising the family Ford Mondeo was missing, Leanne’s parents alerted police.

On arrest near her sister’s home, Leanne yelled at officers: "What the f**k are you doing here! For f**k’s sake."

Waving her arms as the cuffs went on, she added: "Get the f**k off me."

Leanne later admitted taking a vehicle without consent, driving without a licence, drink-driving and driving while disqualified.

Despite the legal driving age being 17, Leanne was banned from driving for two years at a hearing last year.

Magistrate Bates banned Leanne for a further three years today.
An eight-month detention and training order was then imposed.

But as Leanne was told she would be spending half of the term in secure accommodation she erupted, giving the court a taste of what police had been subjected to.

Flanked by her parents and sister, Leanne had earlier told magistrates how she had mended her ways. This despite arriving at court to pelt the press with eggs.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006140124,00.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 10:45 AM
matt@lefande.com

Sunday, March 26, 2006

MPDC Mourns the Loss of Sergeant Gerard W. Burke Jr.  

At approximately 5:08 pm on Thursday, March 23, 2006, off-duty 39-year-old Sergeant Gerard W. Burke Jr., a 16-year-veteran with the Metropolitan Police Department's Third District, was operating his private vehicle southbound on 11th Street, NW. While in the 2800 block of 11th Street, NW, Sergeant Burke was utilizing his cell phone to contact Police Communications and check on a suspected stolen Honda being operated in front of him by a young teenager.

It was at this time that Sergeant Burke suffered an apparent medical emergency, and his vehicle crashed into other cars before coming to a stop. Sergeant Burke was taken to the Washington Hospital Center's MedStar Unit and pronounced dead. The driver of one of the vehicles struck by Sergeant Burke's vehicle was also taken to the Washington Hospital Center and treated and released.

The autopsy conducted by the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner indicates that the initial cause of death was due to a ruptured aorta and not the traffic accident. Chief of Police Charles H. Ramsey has ruled Sergeant Burke's death to be in the performance of duty.

It was later determined that the Honda had been stolen that same day from the 3600 block of New Hampshire Avenue, NW. The vehicle was recovered at approximately 1:22 am, on Friday, March 24, in the 1300 block of Spring Road, NW.

http://app.mpdc.dc.gov/newsroom/newsroom.asp?sid=358000

posted by Matthew LeFande 6:34 PM
matt@lefande.com

Pleading self-defense  

Crumbling rowhouses, liquor stores, and pockmarked streets highlight the neighborhood where D.C. city official Sandra Seegars lives—but a hand-painted sign near her home boasts, "There have been no murders on this block."

Miss Seegars draws a diagram on the back of an orange flier to illustrate how dangerous her neighborhood is. Crisscrossing lines in a grid represent a five-block area around her home. She points her pen to streets on her map: "Several people have been killed up here, and at least two in the last year here. There was a drive-by right here. There was a shooting right here, but the guy didn't die."

All those murders happened after the city's near-total prohibition on guns took effect in 1976. "How dare they have a gun when it's against the law?" she asks sarcastically. D.C.'s Firearms Control Regulations Act, unique in America, restricts anyone from owning a handgun not registered with city police 30 years ago. Police refuse to issue permits for any weapon obtained after that time. Weapons registered before that date must be stored "unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock or similar device," rendering the weapon useless.

Even though no one has ever been murdered while on Miss Seegars' block, she speaks of burglaries in terms of "the last time someone broke into my house." Several years ago someone set her car on fire. A prostitute standing on the corner described seeing a man in an orange, hooded shirt set the blaze.

"I think we should have guns at least in our homes and be allowed to have them loaded," Miss Seegars says—but such comments anger her boss, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, a pro-gun-control Democrat like almost every other members of the D.C. city council.

When the U.S. House of Representatives voted in 2005 to allow residents to defend themselves with guns in their homes, Mr. Williams called the amendment "a slap in the face." Nearly every member of the city council protested lifting the gun ban, and the Senate never acted on the bill.

Miss Seegars vocally opposes her colleagues and, as head of the D.C. Taxi Cab Commission, wants taxi drivers to be able to protect themselves from thugs by carrying a holstered pistol. A Metropolitan Police press release on Dec. 23, 2005, detailed six taxicab robberies since November.

Not all cab drivers could arm themselves legally—some are felons and many are not U.S. citizens—but, Miss Seegars says, criminals "wouldn't know which ones did and which ones didn't have a gun." Under her proposal cab drivers would "need to go through all the proper regulations and training [and] be a citizen of sound mind." She estimates that 700 of the 7,000 drivers she represents would be both able and willing to carry a weapon on the job.

Her proposal has stirred up controversy, as did her earlier comment that cab drivers should avoid dangerous, low-income black neighborhoods and "dangerous looking" passengers, such as the "young black guy . . . with his hat on backwards, shirttail hanging down longer than his coat, baggy pants down below his underwear and unlaced tennis shoes."

Appalled city officials called her statements racist, and interim commission chairman George W. Crawford said that drivers following Miss Seegars' recommendations would be subject to a $500 fine and license suspension or revocation.

But Miss Seegars, a street-tough black woman, knows about dangerous neighborhoods. Raised in public housing until she was 18, her brothers became involved in drugs and thug activity. Her oldest brother, James Seegars, took up robbing banks in the mid-1970s, until a friend who betrayed him shot him in the head. Her younger brother, Marvin Seegars, was one of the "Pizza Hut Bandits" who targeted those restaurants and stuffed employees into freezers before making off with cash. He is serving a life-plus-20-year sentence for murdering a man in 1980.

Part of the reason Miss Seegars is so adamant about legalizing guns is because she is familiar with the mindset of bad guys: "I know from my brothers being criminals that they like easy targets. . . . The drivers are just out there trying to make a living, and they're going to get killed for a couple dollars."

The Metropolitan Police's Third District Auto Theft Unit agrees with Miss Seegars. Officer Farid Fawzi stood up from behind his desk in the basement-level office of the police station when asked about guns and said, "Make them legal. In [Prince Georges County, Maryland] you can have a gun and even though things are getting bad now, they have never had the problems we have." Gathering his gear from around the office, he strapped on a Kevlar vest and continued: "I think it would be interesting to see what kind of changes there would be if guns were legal. I know shootings would be up . . ."

Officer Norman Rahman interjected: "Just at first."

"Sure, for a while," Officer Fawzi said, "until we go through the whole campaign of training residents about how to use guns to defend themselves. When you live in the city what are you supposed to do to defend yourself?"

Officer Joe O'Rourke walked through the door and joined the discussion: "I feel no safer working in a city with strict gun laws than in a city without gun laws." He should know. Before joining D.C.'s Third District, the well-traveled officer served 26 years on the New York City police force, then spent several years in the Secret Service and a little while with police departments in Florida.

If stricter gun laws stopped crime, D.C. would be the safest place in the country. But crooks still have guns and the homicide rate has been among the worst in the nation for more than 20 years. Guns are prevalent on D.C. streets in spite of aggressive law enforcement. MPD recovered 2,316 guns in 2005.

Guns alone are not the problem to Officer Fawzi. He owns nearly a dozen. He is, however, aggressive about enforcing the law because in D.C. illegal guns are owned by people wanting to commit illegal activities. Officer Fawzi says a legal gun in well-trained hands can save lives: "I think everyone should have a gun in their house for self-defense."

And as for the risk of his gun falling into the hands of the crook? "Train yourself so it won't be used against you. You go to school to learn how to drive. Learn how to use a gun."

The controversy about gun laws is one that top city officials do not want. Late last year Miss Seegars learned that she will not be reappointed for another term. That very day a cabdriver was killed during a robbery. She says, "I really wasn't too concerned about guns until I was appointed to the taxicab commission. City officials get mad at me for not touting the government line. But just that someone would think about [drivers] enough to say that they should be allowed to arm themselves to defend themselves. That means a lot to them."

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11675

posted by Matthew LeFande 4:12 PM
matt@lefande.com

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?  

Following are summaries of five documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which the U.S. government has released.

The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more.

The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm.


"U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador"

Documents dated March 5-8, 2003

Two Iraqi documents dated in March 2003 — on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion — and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According to the documents, the plan was disclosed to the Iraqis by the Russian ambassador.

The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.

The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state "Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk." The information was obtained by the Russians from "sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar," according to the document.

This document also includes an account of an amusing incident in which several Iraqi Army officers (presumably seeking further elaboration of the U.S. war plans) contacted the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and stated that the ambassador was their source. Needless to say, this caused great embarrassment to the ambassador, and the officers were instructed "not to mention the ambassador again in that context."

(Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the oil for food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil — worth roughly $1.5 million. )


"Osama bin Laden Contact With Iraq"

A newly released prewar Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. According to the document, Saddam's presidency was informed of the details of the meeting on March 4, 1995, and Saddam agreed to dedicate a program for them on the radio. The document states that further "development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what's open [in the future] based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation." The Sudanese were informed about the agreement to dedicate the program on the radio.

The report then states that "Saudi opposition figure" bin Laden had to leave Sudan in July 1996 after it was accused of harboring terrorists. It says information indicated he was in Afghanistan. "The relationship with him is still through the Sudanese. We're currently working on activating this relationship through a new channel in light of his current location," it states.

(Note: This document is handwritten and has no official seal. Although contacts between bin Laden and the Iraqis have been reported in the 9/11 Commission report and elsewhere (e.g., the 9/11 report states "Bin Ladn himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995) this document indicates the contacts were approved personally by Saddam Hussein.

It also indicates the discussions were substantive, in particular that bin Laden was proposing an operational relationship, and that the Iraqis were, at a minimum, interested in exploring a potential relationship and prepared to show good faith by broadcasting the speeches of al Ouda, the radical cleric who was also a bin Laden mentor.

The document does not establish that the two parties did in fact enter into an operational relationship. Given that the document claims bin Laden was proposing to the Iraqis that they conduct "joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia, it is worth noting that eight months after the meeting — on November 13, 1995 — terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh, killing 5 U.S. military advisers. The militants later confessed on Saudi TV to having been trained by Osama bin Laden.)


"Osama bin Laden and the Taliban"

Document dated Sept. 15, 2001

An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghan informant, who's only identified by a number, told them that the Afghan consul Ahmed Dahastani claimed the following in front of him:

That OBL and the Taliban are in contact with Iraq and that a group of Taliban and bin Laden group members visited Iraq
That the U.S. has proof the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" agreed to cooperate to attack targets inside America.
That in case the Taliban and bin Laden's group turn out to be involved in "these destructive operations," the U.S. may strike Iraq and Afghanistan.
That the Afghan consul heard about the issue of Iraq's relationship with "bin Laden's group" while he was in Iran.

At the end, the writer recommends informing "the committee of intentions" about the above-mentioned items. The signature on the document is unclear.

(Note: The controversial claim that Osama bin Laden was cooperating with Saddam Hussein is an ongoing matter of intense debate. While the assertions contained in this document clearly support the claim, the sourcing is questionable — i.e., an unnamed Afghan "informant" reporting on a conversation with another Afghan "consul." The date of the document — four days after 9/11 — is worth noting but without further corroboration, this document is of limited evidentiary value.)


"Election Campaign Laws in France"

Documents dated July-August 1999

Correspondence regarding election campaigns in France. This includes a document from the Iraqi intelligence service classified as "secret," ordering the translation of important parts of a 1997 report about campaign financing laws in France. It also includes a document from the foreign minister's office indicating the report was attached. The attached translated report included very detailed information about all the regulations regarding financing of election campaigns in France. Translation was done by someone called Salam Abdul Karim Mohammed.

(Note: This is an intriguing document that suggests Saddam Hussein's regime had a strong interest in the mechanics and legalities of financial contributions to French politicians. Several former French politicians are implicated in receiving oil vouchers from Iraq under the U.N. Oil for Food program.)


"Hiding Docs from the U.N. Team"

Document dated March 23, 1997

A letter from the Iraqi intelligence service to directors and managers advising them to follow certain procedures in case of a search by the U.N. team, including:

Removing correspondence with the atomic energy and military industry departments concerning the prohibited weapons (proposals, research, studies, catalogs, etc.)
Removing prohibited materials and equipment, including documents and catalogs and making sure to clear labs and storages of any traces of chemical or biological materials that were previously used or stored
Doing so through a committee which will decide whether to destroy the documents
Removing files from computers.

The letter also advises them on how they should answer questions by U.N. team members. It says the intelligence service should be informed within one week about the progress made in discarding the documents.

(Note: This document is consistent with the Report of the Special Adviser to the Director of Central Intelligence, which described a pattern of deception and concealment on the part of Saddam Hussein's government toward the U.N. inspectors in the mid to late 1990s. Hussein halted all cooperation with those inspectors and expelled them in October 1998.)


"Al Qaeda Presence in Iraq"

Document dated August 2002

A number of correspondences to check rumors that some members of al Qaeda organization have entered Iraq. Three letters say this information cannot be confirmed. The letter on page seven, however, says that information coming from "a trustworthy source" indicates that subjects who are interested in dealing with al Qaeda are in Iraq and have several passports.

The letter seems to be coming from or going to Trebil, a town on the Iraqi-Jordanian border. Follow up on the presence of those subjects is ordered, as well as a comparison of their pictures with those of Jordanian subjects living in Iraq. (This may be referring to pictures of Abu Musaab al Zarqawi and another man on pages 4-6.) The letter also says tourist areas, including hotels and rented apartments, should be searched.

(Note: This document indicates that the Iraqis were aware of and interested in reports that members of al Qaeda were present in Iraq in 2002. The document does not support allegations that Iraq was colluding with al Qaeda.)


http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1734490&page=1

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:17 PM
matt@lefande.com

Monday, March 20, 2006

FBI Too Poor To Give NY Agents Email  

The FBI cannot afford to give agents at the heart of the war on terror access to email.

Budget constraints mean some staff in New York are being denied accounts.

Mark Mershon, the agency's top official in the Big Apple, said: "As ridiculous as this might sound, we have real money issues right now.

"The Government is reluctant to give all agents and analysts dot-gov accounts.

"We just don't have the money, and that is an endless stream of complaints that come from the field."

Senator Charles Schumer called for better access to technology for agents.

He said: "The FBI should have the tools it needs to fight terrorism and crime in the 21st century, most of all in New York City."

FBI officials in Washington denied that cost-cutting was putting agents at a disadvantage.

Spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said e-mail addresses are still being assigned, adding that the city bureau's 2,000 employees would all have accounts by the end of the year.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13514723,00.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 3:54 PM
matt@lefande.com

Alabama judge ordering Hispanics to leave state  

Illegal Hispanic immigrants booked on minor offenses in Hoover last year were often put in jail without bond and ordered to leave the country by Jefferson County District Judge Robert Cahill, who is not an immigration judge.

Hoover officials call their actions good policing. They and Cahill say they have no arrangement to target Hispanics arrested in Hoover, a city coping with its uneasy role as a hub for Hispanic day labor.

But advocates and other legal experts question the practices that elevate misdemeanor cases like jaywalking to include felony charges and deportation.

Last year Jefferson and Shelby counties had at least 48 cases where Hispanics stopped for misdemeanors were found with false identification cards and charged with felony criminal possession of a forged instrument. In 25 of those cases, county district judges ordered that no bond be allowed, which meant defendants could not leave jail. Twenty-three of those 25 no-bond cases were Hispanics arrested by Hoover police.

Twenty-one of the 25 “no bond” orders came from Cahill, who is also a Hoover resident. The judge, a grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants, speaks his mind from the bench and counts police as his biggest supporters.

Cahill says he works hard to be accessible to officers when they ask him for search warrants or no-bond orders. “You don’t sit and play 20 questions when you have developed a rapport with them; if they have a reason, you accept it,” he said.

Beyond the no-bond orders, Cahill took a further step in 11 cases where a Hispanic defendant pleaded guilty in his courtroom - he banished the defendants from Alabama. Nine of the 11 Hispanics that Cahill ordered out of Alabama had been arrested by Hoover police.

Cahill, for example, ordered Leopoldo Chipahua-Gomez, who was 19 and said he worked at the Bottega Italian restaurant, “to leave Alabama and not return,” a Jefferson County court file shows. He ordered J. Carmen Pacheco-Villa, who was 38 and said he worked at the Birmingham Country Club, to “leave Alabama and USA.” And he ordered Gustavo Flores, 32, no occupation listed, to “leave Alabama and go to Mexico.”

Cahill said for years he has ordered defendants, not just Hispanics, to leave a city or leave the state. He said neither lawyers nor defendants have questioned such orders.

“If I can’t, somebody could appeal it,” Cahill said. “If I can’t do it, then someone should tell me I’m wrong.”

‘Unbelievable’

Legal experts say state judges ordering defendants to leave the country is out of the ordinary.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Judge John Hardwicke, when told of the “leave” orders. Hardwicke is executive director of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges, a nonprofit, professional organization of judges and other legal professionals based at the University of Baltimore’s School of Law. “I just don’t see constitutionally how that could be done,” he said. “A state judge has no authority beyond the territory of that state. Those are federal matters, not state matters.”

Others agree.

“The only kind of judges who can order aliens removed from the country are immigration judges,” said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the part of the U.S. Department of Justice that handles immigration cases. In some instances, other federal judges can also become involved in immigrant deportation, she said.

The director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in Boston, which works on behalf of immigrants, says an Alabama judge enforcing immigration law is as inappropriate as if he were enforcing Mississippi law.

“I’ve never heard of this before,” said Dan Kesselbrenner, of the National Immigration Project. “Most judges realize it’s not their role. Immigration judges decide who can stay and who can go.”

Kesselbrenner said state law doesn’t allow banishment orders, and numerous appeals cases have upheld that position.

Cahill said his own ethnic heritage, as well as his status as the first Republican Catholic elected to office in Jefferson County, makes him extremely sensitive to discrimination.

“You are not going to pick on someone intentionally because they are Hispanic - or Italian or Korean,” Cahill said. “But if they are charged with a crime, you don’t get a pass just because you are not a citizen.”

Spurs lawsuit The practices by Hoover police and Judge Cahill have prompted a class action lawsuit against Cahill, the City of Hoover and Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis.

The lead plaintiff is Anel Mancera-Ramirez, 27, an illegal Hispanic deported in 2005 by federal immigration agents. The cleaning worker was put in jail under a no-bond order from Cahill after she had a fender-bender accident in May. Hoover police found her false U.S. identification after she presented her valid Mexican voter ID.

Unable to understand English, Mancera-Ramirez said she had no idea why an officer handcuffed her.

“When they put them on, I cried,” she said in a telephone interview from Mexico, speaking through an interpreter. “I’d never been arrested. I thought they were taking me to jail for not having a license and the next day I’d be given a ticket for no license and let go.”

Mancera-Ramirez said she spent two days in jail before learning the charges against her in a courtroom hearing.

Her federal class-action lawsuit says her rights under the constitution were violated when police searched her purse without permission, found the forged U.S. identification, and held her without bond.

Mancera-Ramirez, who was held in jail three weeks before pleading guilty, charges that the city unconstitutionally used laws and ordinances to stop, arrest, detain, convict and deport Hispanic immigrants because of their race and ethnic origin.

Derzis declined comment because of the lawsuit.

“We’re not responsible for them getting deported,” Hoover Assistant Police Chief A.C. Roper said. “We just make the arrests.”

Attorney George Huddleston III filed the class action lawsuit. He believes Hoover has worked with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to learn the best ways to take misdemeanors and establish the felonies needed for “no bond” orders and deportation.

“I believe they are cracking down on jaywalkers and those who reject seatbelts because they are cracking down on Hispanics, as the mayor and some of the City Council promised to do before taking office,” he said.

Ellis Bingham III, a Bessemer-based lawyer specializing in criminal immigration law, said Hoover police have long overreacted in immigration cases. The number of no-bond cases has declined since the class action lawsuit was filed, he said.

“That practice was really pushed by the City of Hoover,” Bingham said. “The climate has become a little more relaxed. This Latino community, for a period of about six months, was really stressed out over things like the dragnets set up by Hoover police. They did not want to pursue action because they were petrified.”

A jaywalker, a renter

Hoover police reports show a variety of minor incidents led to arrests of people who were later charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument and then got “no bond” orders from Cahill at the Jefferson County District Criminal Court.


Landscaper Colin Angel Alcantara, for example, was arrested on June 16 for jaywalking in the 3300 block of Lorna Road at 9 a.m. Cahill ordered no bond, but another judge later allowed bond. Alcantara pleaded guilty to the felony charge in circuit court, and he received a two-year suspended sentence.

Nahum Montes Valentin was arrested on May 29 when he walked into the leasing office at the Colonial Grand at the Galleria apartment complex at 3:11 p.m. to rent an apartment. A police officer happened to be inside when Valentin presented a Social Security card, the police report said. Cahill ordered Valentin to “leave Alabama.”

Cesar Garcia and Aguilar Luis Zuniga were stopped for an improper turn on May 30 at 6:55 p.m. Zuniga was the driver and Garcia the passenger. Cahill ordered both to leave Alabama, and also ordered Garcia to “remain in Mexico” and “do not return.”

Edwin R. Perez was arrested around 8:15 a.m. June 2 when someone complained about people stopping cars in the 3300 block of Lorna Road and asking motorists for work. The officer stopped Perez and asked for identification, and Perez presented a California state identification card in the name of Alfonso Lopez. Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam later allowed bond and Perez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal possession of forged instruments, rather than the original felony charge. His sentence was the time he had already spent in jail.

Oswaldo Rodriguez Alvarado was arrested at 8:43 a.m. Oct. 13 when he was a passenger in the front seat of a car and not wearing a seatbelt. District Judge Sheldon Watkins later allowed bond and Alavarado was given a suspended sentence and two years probation after he pleaded guilty.

Many of the police reports said that the Hispanics who were arrested said they had bought their false identification cards for amounts ranging from $50 to $450. One man said he needed the cards to get work.

Targets of police?

As a son of Greek immigrants, Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos says Greek was his first language. He bristles at the suggestion that Hoover targets Hispanics, though during his campaign, he stressed his interest in working with federal officials to crack down on Hispanic day laborers on Lorna Road.

In 2005, Hoover ended its lease with the Multicultural Resource Center assistance agency, forcing its relocation. The organization allowed Hispanics to gather and solicit work from the center’s parking lot. Hoover council members also passed an ordinance limiting housing and apartment occupancy to two adults per bedroom to address overcrowding. Opponents, including Hoover councilman Mike Natter, said the measures single out Hispanics.

The police do not target any specific group of people, Petelos said. “What matters is whether you’re violating the law.”

Petelos also said there is no arrangement with Cahill to set up a Hoover municipal immigration agency.

The mayor has known the judge for years through his wife, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Teresa Petelos, but said he has not asked for Cahill’s help with Hoover’s Hispanic population. All three are Republicans.

Assistant Chief Roper said Hoover police “have no special arrangement with Judge Cahill beyond a good working relationship with him and various other judges.”

Police sometimes ask a judge for a higher bond amount or no bond, Roper said, and one of the primary factors is whether police can positively identify the defendant.

“If we can’t verify who the defendant is, it’s virtually impossible to have an expectation that that person will show up for court,” he said.

Others say the procedures are inconsistent.

“There are U.S. citizens who don’t have birth certificates and they get bond,” said Kesselbrenner, of the National Immigration Project. “Immigration courts set bond all the time.”

Identity can be established through fingerprints, other documents, or the verification of family members, employers, Kesselbrenner said.

In 2003 and 2004, bonds were allowed in every case of Hispanics charged with criminal possession of forged instruments in Jefferson County’s Birmingham district, where Cahill is judge. In 2005, bonds were allowed in 16 of 40 cases in that district. In four of the cases where Cahill ordered no bond, a different judge later allowed bond.

Cahill said numerous legal channels exist for a client’s attorneys to request bond. “If any attorney is worth his salt, he says, ‘Judge, I want a bond hearing,’” he said.

In other Alabama counties with high Hispanic populations, bonds were allowed for those charged with criminal possession of forged instruments in 2005. They were allowed in all 11 cases in Franklin and DeKalb counties, and in both cases in the Bessemer Cutoff district of Jefferson County.

In Shelby County, bonds were allowed in five out of the six cases in 2005. The single no-bond order was an Hispanic arrested by Hoover police. Hoover lies partly in Shelby County.

What caused the sudden surge of Hispanics arrested with false identification in Hoover last year?

Assistant Chief Roper said it was the result of ICE agents teaching Hoover police how to spot forged documents.

Officers had begun to see more forged documents being presented, Roper said. “This issue is a national problem, but the only difference is our department has decided to do something about it.”

More than 70 officers from the traffic, patrol and investigations divisions had four training sessions with ICE agents in May 2005. Arrests of Hispanics for criminal possession of forged instruments rose sharply after that.

Both Cahill and Watkins said they had heard that ICE agents in North Alabama stepped up efforts in part of 2005 to deport illegal immigrants with false identification.

“I know for a while they were doing it, and then they didn’t have the folks to do it,” Watkins said.

ICE officials declined comment. “Since apparently there is now litigation involved surrounding this issue, we will be unable to provide anything additional until the matter is resolved,” said ICE spokesman Temple Black, who is based in New Orleans.

Watkins said he and Cahill, who holds the same position, have never had a conversation about handling forged document cases.

“He does his court, I do my court,” Watkins said. Though Watkins did order three Hispanics held without bond in 2005, he said he is fair to Hispanics.

“I have hundreds and hundreds of traffic tickets with Hispanics,” Watkins said. “I give them time to pay. I dismiss cases. I’m treating them like any other person, whether they have green cards or not.”

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?stories/hisp19.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 9:03 AM
matt@lefande.com

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Man facing pot possession charge offers judge his phone number  

A Maine man who was brought from the county jail to Portsmouth District Court Monday on marijuana possession charges, acted as court jester by cracking wise, including offering the female judge his phone number.

Colin French, 30, of 426 Newdawn Road Sanford, was arraigned Monday on a class A misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession, following his arrest earlier the same day. According to an affidavit written by arresting officer Rochelle Jones, French was arrested Monday at 12:50 a.m., after she was dispatched to the area of the Lafayette Road Market Basket.

Jones’s report to the court says when she arrived, French was carrying a four-pack of beer, appeared intoxicated and asked her for a ride to a nearby hotel, explaining that city taxis were no longer running. Jones also quoted French as telling her, "They should’ve sent a guy because I can be really aggressive" and, "They should’ve sent more guys because I can be a handful."

Jones then patted French down, and during the process he told her he had a knife; instead she found a bag of marijuana and a pipe. She reported to the court that he has no permanent address, is not employed and told a bail commissioner he would not show up for court.

Brought to the court by sheriff’s officers, French entered a guilty plea, telling Judge Sawako Gardner he was "guilty as charged" and "absolutely, positively, 100 percent guilty." On a waiver of rights form, where French was required to write his address, he penned, "of earth."

Prosecutor Karen Springer recommended a $250 fine and 30 days in the House of Corrections, with all of it suspended provided French remains arrest-free for one year.

When asked by the judge if he had anything to say, French said "yes" and recited his telephone number.

The judge adopted Springer’s recommended sentence and gave him credit for one day served in the county jail.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/03142006/news/92460.htm

posted by Matthew LeFande 10:21 AM
matt@lefande.com

Friday, March 10, 2006

Meth Officers Want State to Step In  

They didn't hesitate to take down meth labs in our neighborhoods. Now, they're sick, tired, and worried no one cares about their conditions.

"Yeah I'm mad. I'm past the point of, 'Let's talk about it.'"

"I've heard a lot of officers say, 'Let's not do meth labs anymore.'"

Tonight, a follow-up to an Eyewitness News Investigation, that found dozens of sick Utah police officers. The common link is meth lab investigations. So what's been done, or more importantly, what has NOT been done?

As of tonight, we've documented 84 Utah officers who are sick, dying, or already dead. The officers are asking us, who's going to help?

The video: an officers story beginning to end. Officer Shaun Adamson was dead at 43, from a seizure.

Kolby Adamson, Son of Shaun Adamson: "My mom did a lot of research and the only thing she could find out is doctors would say exposure to certain chemicals would cause seizures."

He raided Meth labs in the '90's, issued only rubber gloves. We uncovered government reports and warnings about what the chemicals used to make meth can do to people who are exposed. Does it explain Aundre Leavitt's brain lesions?

Sgt. Aundre Leavitt, Provo Police Department: "You look at big, strong guys who were in there trying to protect the community and doing their job. Now they're dead."

Al Taylor, State Dept. of Corrections: "I have papillary thyroid cancer."

As a SWAT officer for the state, Al Taylor recalls fire, smoke, his skin burning at raids. State officials flew in an expert who warned, officers need protection. That was in '96

Al Taylor, Utah Department of Corrections: "I left the SWAT team in 2002, and still I hadn't received the equipment that we needed. And we had asked for it and asked for it."

He works three jobs, drained savings, and owes thousands for treatment.

Dennis Harris, Utah County Sheriff's Office: "We have police officers who are going bankrupt because they can't afford their medical bills, and that is wrong."

Sgt. Shaun Bufton, Utah County Sheriff's Office: "I'm mad, yeah I'm real mad. I'd like to know from legislators, if that was there son or their daughter doing undercover drug work, how fast would laws change?"

So far the message to the meth lab officers is: your medical bills are your problem. Utah lawmakers canned a proposal to compensate those with cancer.

Fifty-five are tangled in workers comp claims. Others have asked their local governments for help, with no reply. Now, they face a fight that could take years, and they are afraid no one is listening.

We took it to the man who heads the Utah Department of Public Safety. He says it's time the state steps in.

Robert Flowers, Utah Department of Public Safety: "I think they should be compensated. I think they should be taken care of medically like you would do any injury --someone goes out and gets in an accident, gets hurt during an arrest, they get shot, they can't work on duty-- they fall in the same camp as those individuals."

Flowers told Eyewitness News he will involve the Governor, form a task force, and move quickly. Of the 84 cases we've documented, 30-percent are cancer. The newest case is liver cancer; the officer's age, 37.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=169947

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:12 AM
matt@lefande.com

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Immigration officers barred from key data  

Many immigration officers handling requests for green cards, citizenship and other immigration benefits do not have access to key law enforcement and national security databases, said a top federal security official who quit over the issue.

The officers' access to the databases, which would allow them to check whether an applicant had a criminal record or was on the terrorism watch list, was cut off because the government has failed to complete required background checks on the immigration adjudicators.

Michael Maxwell stepped down last month as director of the Office of Security at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and sought protection under the federal whistle-blower protection law. He claims that senior agency officials had been retaliating against him for telling Congress about what he described as serious national security vulnerabilities that persisted despite his warnings to those running the agency.

In addition, Maxwell claims the agency lacks the resources to handle some 500 allegations of criminal misconduct against agency employees, including allegations of espionage and acceptance of bribes.

Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Angelica Alfonso declined requests for an interview. She released a statement yesterday that said the agency is confident of its processes, and that it takes the allegations seriously.

“To this end, USCIS has referred the allegations to the inspector general for further investigation,” her statement said.

Beyond their implications for efforts to prevent terrorism, Maxwell's allegations raise questions about proposals by President Bush and members of Congress to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants after clearing them through security checks.

Maxwell declined requests for on-the-record interviews.

One of his attorneys, Rosemary Jenks, said his concerns demonstrate an underlying tension between Citizenship and Immigration Services' dual missions of providing immigration benefits to applicants and of protecting national security.

“They always look for a shortcut when it comes to security,” Jenks said.

She noted that acting CIS Deputy Director Robert Divine is a former member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which lobbies for generous immigration policies.

Jenks is director of government relations for NumbersUSA, a grass-roots group that lobbies to restrict immigration and opposes proposals for legalization of undocumented immigrants.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a Judiciary Committee member whose staff has been briefed by Maxwell, wrote a letter last week to Emilio Gonzalez, the new CIS director, that echoed Maxwell's concerns.

Maxwell has warned about problems that keep vital information about applicants walled off from CIS employees who decide whether to grant immigration benefits.

That information is held in a database controlled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a separate part of the Department of Homeland Security, which has strict policies intended to keep the information from falling into the wrong hands.

Adjudicators for Citizenship and Immigration Services are given access to the database only after they have received a security clearance. But Maxwell has told Congress that the agency has been unwilling to pay for background investigations that Customs and Border Protection requires, his lawyer said.

“If this agency had simply bellied up and paid to have proper investigations done, this problem would not exist,” Jenks said.

In a statement yesterday to Copley News Service, Grassley said, “It's time for CIS to focus on combating internal fraud and protecting national security. . . . How can we expect CIS to take care of 11 million immigrants when they can't take care of their own house?”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060307-9999-1n7whistle.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 5:14 PM
matt@lefande.com

Police Officer Delayed Red Traffic Signal To Check Tags  

A Tampa police sergeant awaiting discipline in four internal investigations may have violated motorists' Fourth Amendment rights by manipulating traffic signals to check license plates, public records show.

Sgt. Gene Strickland told his supervisors in a May memorandum released Tuesday that he wanted to put a dent in downtown auto thefts. So he electronically manipulated traffic signals at three Tampa Heights intersections near public housing complexes, keeping the signals red long enough to run a computer check on a motorist's license plate.

"The tag comes back clean, I turned it green," Strickland said Tuesday.

At the time, the move earned Strickland a mild rebuke. On Tuesday, though, when informed of the tactic City Councilman Kevin White and a law professor questioned its merits.

"What he's done is set up an electronic roadblock" to check people's records without reasonable suspicion of a crime and without probable cause, said Charles Rose, a constitutional law professor at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport. "Cops just can't stop people because they want to; they've got to have reason."

By that logic, evidence discovered during such an operation likely would not hold up in court, Rose said.

Concerns about possible violations of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure, led supervisors to order Strickland to stop the practice in June 2005.

"If you hold someone for longer than the light's cycle, the police have in essence detained them," Police Chief Stephen Hogue said Tuesday. "It was in a gray part of the law that I didn't feel comfortable with."

Rigging the traffic lights earned Strickland a "pending file entry," a note in his personnel file that is purged after one year. Tampa police on Tuesday released the note and Strickland's May 2005 memorandum explaining the maneuver in response to a Tampa Tribune public records request regarding Strickland. The 25-year veteran awaits discipline regarding his decisions as a supervisor, including handling of a hostile work environment on his now-disbanded squad.

Strickland, 49, called the traffic-light technique a "tactical ploy."

The idea, he said, was to avoid a dangerous police pursuit by boxing in a stolen car while it was stopped.

Strickland said he used the tactic about four times between midnight and 3 a.m. He studied statistics regarding where many stolen cars were recovered in his district and chose three intersections he thought car thieves might use: East Scott Street and North Nebraska Avenue, North Boulevard and West Ross Avenue, and North Florida and East Indiana avenues.

Councilman White said he would like to see the data that led Strickland to choose the intersections. Each is on the fringe of public housing complexes, he said.Census data show 22.5 percent of the families in Tampa Heights have income below poverty level.

Strickland defended his strategy: "The last thing I've ever done to anybody is violate anybody's specific rights - or target any individual. That couldn't be farther from the truth."

The technique was "totally unobtrusive to any motorist," he said.

"Nine times out of 10, I gave them a green light earlier than they would've gotten it," he said.

The memos do not say how many motorists were checkedor on which dates the technique was used. Strickland on Tuesday did not recall any citations that resulted from it. The memos state no one was cited for running the manipulated signals while red.

The tactic came to light when Maj. George McNamara, then Strickland's supervisor in District 3, read about it on an activity report and asked Capt. Russell Marcotrigianoto look into it.

Police manipulate traffic signals for crowd control, such as leaving them green longer around Raymond James Stadium after a football game, Marcotrigiano said Tuesday. Strickland's results showed the tactic wasn't an efficient way to find stolen cars, he said, plus it didn't "look good."

White said Strickland appears to have been "trying to do some proactive police work." But doing that by "manipulating the system" is wrong, he said.

"That's not acceptable at all, in any area of town," White said. "I think Tampa Police Department standards are higher than that."

http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB5S785JKE.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:26 AM
matt@lefande.com

Monday, March 06, 2006

Lawyers challenge DUI test  

Timothy Muldowny’s lawyers decided on an unconventional approach to fight his drunken driving case: They sought computer programming information for the Intoxilyzer alcohol breath analysis machine that determined he was drunk to see whether the test was accurate.

Their strategy paid off.

The company that makes the Intoxilyzer refused to reveal the computer source code for its machine because it was a trade secret. A Seminole County, Florida judge tossed out Muldowny’s alcohol breath test — a crucial piece of evidence in a DUI case — and the ruling was upheld by an appeals court in 2004.

Since then, DUI suspects in Florida, New York, Nebraska and elsewhere have mounted similar challenges. Many have won or have had their DUI charges reduced to lesser offenses. The strategy could affect thousands of the roughly 1.5 million DUI arrests made each year in the United States, defense lawyers say.

"Any piece of equipment that is used to test something in the criminal justice system, the defense attorney has the ability to know how the thing works and subject its fundamental capabilities to review," said Flem Whited III, a Daytona Beach attorney who is a nationally recognized expert on DUI defense.

The Intoxilyzer, manufactured by CMI Inc. of Owensboro, Ky., is the most widely used alcohol breath testing machine in the United States and is involved in the vast majority of these legal challenges. It is used exclusively by law enforcement agencies in 20 states, including Florida, and by at least some police agencies in 20 other states, according to the company.

Most states have “implied consent” laws for motorists requiring DUI suspects to blow into a breath analysis machine if asked to do so by a police officer.

“The breath test is an integral part of any prosecution,” said Earl Varn, an assistant state attorney in Sarasota.

In Florida, state law currently considers a breath test valid if the machine is approved by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the person administering the test is qualified to do so. The law also says that a defendant is entitled to “full information concerning the test taken” if such a request is made.

The meaning of that phrase is the key to the DUI challenges in Florida and other states with similar laws.

DUI defense lawyers insist that “full information” means every minute detail about the Intoxilyzer, including the source code used by its computer processor to analyze breath samples, should be subjected to review by expert defense witnesses. Some judges have agreed.

“It seems to us that one should not have privileges and freedom jeopardized by the results of a mystical machine that is immune from discovery,” the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled in Muldowny’s case, which resulted in his charges being reduced to reckless driving.

Judges in the Florida counties of Manatee, Sarasota, Seminole and Volusia counties are among those who have ruled in recent months that the defense was entitled to the Intoxilyzer’s source code to see if the test results are reliable.

But many judges in other counties have ruled the opposite way, including a panel of judges in Palm Beach County that denied challenges Wednesday by 1,500 DUI defendants who sought the source code under state public records laws.

The tactic has led lawmakers to introduce a measure in the Florida Legislature to clarify that such source codes don't have to be produced for DUI defendants.

Last November, a similar challenge in Omaha, Neb., was rejected on grounds that Nebraska did not have the source code. In Rochester, N.Y., a DUI suspect whose lawyer was seeking the source code was convicted of a lesser charge when the technician who maintained the machine was unavailable to testify.

Because CMI has refused to divulge its source code, Florida officials have argued in court that they cannot produce it for DUI defendants. Although most state judges have upheld that view, others have not.

“The state may not wash its hands of its duty to produce this information by claiming that it does not have it,” said Volusia County Court Judge Mary Jane Henderson in a December 2005 decision.

FDLE officials say that even if the state had access to the source code it is not necessary to test the validity of the test results. Laura Barfield, alcohol testing program manager at FDLE, said each of the 408 Intoxilyzer 5000s used in Florida — soon to be replaced by the 8000 model — are regularly run through painstaking tests at the state and local levels.

“You don’t need the source code to know the machine is providing accurate results,” Barfield said.

For its part, CMI said there is no evidence that its Intoxilyzer is inaccurate, noting that a review of 80,000 tests in a 2002 Arizona case produced no evidence of mistakes.

In a written statement provided to The Associated Press, the company said also said the source code is not a crucial element in proving the Intoxilyzer’s accuracy and is a proprietary trade secret that could create havoc if computer hackers obtained it.

“Exposure of the source code could not only be detrimental to CMI from a commercial standpoint, but it could also be detrimental to customers of CMI,” the company said. “Disclosure of this information could compromise the integrity of test data that is stored in the instrument.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11685394/from/RS.4/

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:27 AM
matt@lefande.com

Friday, March 03, 2006

Oscars for Osama  

Nothing tells you more about Hollywood than what it chooses to honor. Nominated for best foreign-language film is "Paradise Now," a sympathetic portrayal of two suicide bombers. Nominated for best picture is "Munich," a sympathetic portrayal of yesterday's fashion in barbarism: homicide terrorism.

But until you see "Syriana," nominated for best screenplay (and George Clooney, for best supporting actor) you have no idea how self-flagellation and self-loathing pass for complexity and moral seriousness in Hollywood.

The "Syriana" script has, of course, the classic liberal tropes such as this stage direction: "The Deputy National Security Advisor, MARILYN RICHARDS, 40's, sculpted hair, with the soul of a seventy year-old white, Republican male, is in charge" (Page 21). Or this piece of over-the-top, Gordon Gekko Republican-speak, placed in the mouth of a Texas oilman: "Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. . . . Corruption . . . is how we win" (Page 93).

But that's run-of-the-mill Hollywood. The true distinction of "Syriana's" script is the near-incomprehensible plot -- a muddled mix of story lines about a corrupt Kazakh oil deal, a succession struggle in an oil-rich Arab kingdom, and a giant Texas oil company that pulls the strings at the CIA and, naturally, everywhere else -- amid which, only two things are absolutely clear and coherent: the movie's one political hero and one pure soul.

The political hero is the Arab prince who wants to end corruption, inequality and oppression in his country. As he tells his tribal elders, he intends to modernize his country by bringing the rule of law, market efficiency, women's rights and democracy.

What do you think happens to him? He, his beautiful wife and beautiful children are murdered, incinerated, by a remote-controlled missile, fired from CIA headquarters in Langley, no less -- at the very moment that (this passes for subtle cross-cutting film editing) his evil younger brother, the corrupt rival to the throne and puppet of the oil company, is being hailed at a suitably garish "oilman of the year" celebration populated by fat and ugly Americans.

What is grotesque about this moment of plot clarity is that the overwhelmingly obvious critique of actual U.S. policy in the real Middle East today concerns America's excess of Wilsonian idealism in trying to find and promote -- against a tide of tyranny, intolerance and fanaticism -- local leaders like the Good Prince. Who in the greater Middle East is closest to the modernizing, democratizing paragon of "Syriana"? Without a doubt, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, a man of exemplary -- and quite nonfictional -- personal integrity, physical courage and democratic temperament. Hundreds of brave American (and allied NATO) soldiers have died protecting him and the democratic system they established to allow him to govern. On the very night the Oscars will be honoring "Syriana," American soldiers will be fighting, some perhaps dying, in defense of precisely the kind of tolerant, modernizing Muslim leader that "Syriana" shows America slaughtering.

It gets worse. The most pernicious element in the movie is the character at the moral heart of the film: the beautiful, modest, caring, generous Pakistani who becomes a beautiful, modest, caring, generous . . . suicide bomber. In his final act, the Pure One, dressed in the purest white robes, takes his explosives-laden little motorboat headfirst into his target. It is a replay of the real-life boat that plunged into the USS Cole in 2000, killing 17 American sailors, except that in the "Syriana" version, the target is another symbol of American imperialism in the Persian Gulf: a newly opened liquefied natural gas terminal.

The explosion, which would have the force of a nuclear bomb, constitutes the moral high point of the movie, the moment of climactic cleansing, as the Pure One clad in white merges with the great white mass of the huge terminal wall, at which point the screen goes pure white. And reverently silent.

Oliver Stone's "JFK" film taught a generation of Americans that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA and the FBI in collaboration with Lyndon Johnson. But at least it was for domestic consumption, an internal affair of only marginal interest to other countries. "Syriana," however, is meant for export, carrying the most vicious and pernicious mendacities about America to a receptive world.

Most liberalism is angst- and guilt-ridden, seeing moral equivalence everywhere. "Syriana" is of a different species entirely -- a pathological variety that burns with the certainty of its malign anti-Americanism. Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201209.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:37 AM
matt@lefande.com

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Why A Taliban At Yale?  

Americans who read the New York Times must have wrinkled their brows in puzzlement after reading the February 26, 2006 article about a former government official and spokesman for the Taliban walking the campus of Yale University as a student.
Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi has been granted special student status and the state department has awarded him entry into the United States on a student visa. This is an interesting turn of events for a person who could just as easily have ended up as a guest of the United States in a cell at Guantanamo Bay.

Prior to his arrival as a student, Rahmatullah had been imprisoned at Bagram Air Base. He had been a member of the Taliban government, serving both in Afghanistan and in the United States as Second Foreign Secretary and Ambassador-at-Large.

What the New York Times article fails to address is the rationale behind even allowing this individual into the United States, let alone as an International Student at a prestigious university. Another area not addressed in this account, is why Yale, which accepts only ten percent of all applicants, granted admission to this former Taliban officer.

Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is said to have a fourth grade education and has passed a high school equivalency examination. He does speak acceptable English. This, however, does not meet any of the requirements Yale has listed for its International Students accepted for Special Programs. According to the College Board, Yale requires all foreign students to score in the 700 to 790 range on both the SAT verbal and math tests. International students must also score 600 on the TOEFL exam and 250 on a computer exam. In addition, Yale states in its admission policy that those students enrolled in special programs must fund their own education and a Foreign Student Certification of Finances must be filed.

These requirements may have been met by Rahmatullah, but they are never even brought to question in the Times article. Another unanswered question is how a former member of a now non-existent government can cover the $31,460 Yale tuition and fees and $9,540 room and board costs.

Entry into Yale was smoothed by the intervention of CBS news cameraman Mike Hoover who had developed a friendship with the government official during several trips to Afghanistan, dating back to 1991. Hoover contacted an attorney in his hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. That attorney, Bob Schuster, who had earned his undergraduate degree at Yale, brought Rahmatullah to the attention of Richard Shaw, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. An interview was arranged.

According to the Times, Shaw said of the interview, “My perception was,’ It’s the enemy!’ But, the interview with him was one of the most interesting I’ve ever had. I walked away with a sense: Whoa! This is a person to be reckoned with and who could educate us about the world.”

John Fund, writing for the Opinion Journal does not view this admission as any great achievement, even though he quotes Richard Shaw as saying that...”another foreign student of Rahmatullah’s caliber had applied for special student status. We lost him to Harvard. I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Fund does not agree, saying “This is taking the obsession that U.S. universities have been promoting diversity a bit too far.

Regardless of how he gained admission, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is now strolling across the quad at Yale University. It is said he is doing well, earning a 3.33 grade point average. He should be scoring even higher. One of his first courses was titled “Terrorism - Past, Present and Future.”

http://newsbusters.org/node/4255

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:59 PM
matt@lefande.com

Kilted cops bare their assets  

THREE German police officers face disciplinary action after lifting their kilts at a fancy dress party while wearing nothing underneath, police said today.

"The three were drunk, wore kilts and then started a squabble with some colleagues," said Berlin police spokesman Klaus Schubert.

"One thing led to another and they started lifting their kilts over and over again to show their all - back and front. Some decent people thought this wasn't decent and complained to the police."

The three have been transferred to other police stations and face disciplinary action for wrongdoing out of duty hours.

Where else can you get this kind of news but at www.lefande.com?

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18334545-13762,00.html

posted by Matthew LeFande 8:54 PM
matt@lefande.com

Boston cops made $63M in overtime  

Huge overtime and detail checks pumped some Boston cops pay over $200,000 last year, raising questions about whether the officers were too pooped to patrol from working so many extra hours.

"Are they sharp for their regular shift?" asked Sam Tyler, executive director of the watchdog Boston Municipal Research Bureau. "We shouldn’t really have to wonder whether they can perform their duties as expected."

Boston police took home $27 million in detail pay and $36 million in overtime last year, some of it ordered by department brass. Seven officers collected more than $200,000 and 1,026 - or 36 percent of the department - earned six figures.

Some of the highest earners may not have the chance to make as much this year. Until a new pay tracking system was installed last September, officers were able to skirt a rule barring officers from working more than 96 hours in a week, said Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, whose $160,000 annual salary makes her the 107th highest paid.

"I’m always concerned about the health and welfare of our officers and some people who are making this amount of money are obviously pushing the limits, but we’re very, very closely monitoring it to ensure that there’s no fraud or abuse in the system," she said. "We put technology systems in place so we can determine exactly what officers are working when."

Eighty-five cops have been disciplined since last fall for violating the Department’s 96-hour rule, a BPD spokeswoman said. Patrolman’s Union President Thomas Nee could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Police staffing levels are at a low of recent years, but Mayor Thomas M. Menino said it wasn’t better economics to hire more officers and pay less in overtime, since OT can’t be predicted ahead of time. “You’ve just got to do the best you can to control them. We have strong controls and the commissioner only uses overtime when necessary,” he said.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=128674

posted by Matthew LeFande 7:58 AM
matt@lefande.com

Find ANY word Find ALL words  Find EXACT phrase    Help

2007
May Archives
April Archives
March Archives
February Archives
January Archives


2006
December Archives
November Archives
October Archives
September Archives
August Archives
July Archives
June Archives
May Archives
April Archives
March Archives
February Archives
January Archives

2005
December Archives
November Archives
October Archives
September Archives
August Archives
July Archives
June Archives
May Archives
April Archives
March Archives
February Archives
January Archives

2004
December Archives
November Archives
October Archives
September Archives
August Archives
July Archives
June Archives
May Archives
April Archives
March Archives
February Archives
January Archives

2003
December Archives
November Archives
October Archives
September Archives
August Archives
July Archives
June Archives
May Archives

Another Blog

Fight Spam! Click Here!


New Counter as of 11/10/2003