Neo-Nazis protest outside Jewish temple in Riverside

Congregants at Temple Beth El who had gathered to celebrate the last night of Hanukkah were met by a group of neo-Nazi demonstrators who waved red-and-black swastika flags outside the Reform synagogue in Riverside on Friday evening.

Rabbi Suzanne Singer said she suspects that the demonstration -- the third such protest in recent months at the temple -- was connected to a counter protest held by members of the synagogue last September, when neo-Nazis protested at a day laborer site.

"It's not that were unconcerned," she said in an interview today. "We're just not going to allow them to dictate how we worship and how we live as Jews."

Ryan Lester-Wilson, 61, said he notice the group of less than 12, but ignored them and went straight inside the temple. When asked this morning why the temple was targeted, Lester-Wilson was at a loss.

"It's a temple," he said. "They're Nazis."

Singer said her synagogue continued with services.

Riverside Police Lt. Tim Bacon that said the demonstration was small and that a call was made to police Friday night, but could not say whether officers were sent to monitor the scene. Bacon said that despite other reported incidents of neo-Nazi demonstrations in Riverside in recent months, he does not consider Friday's incident part of a larger trend in the area.

"We don't have many problems," he said.

Lester-Wilson said that at the last demonstration, local church members joined with congregants at Temple Beth El, attending services in a show of solidarity.

The services Friday night were part of an annual holiday celebration, in which the temple invites community members from local churches and other groups to join in lighting dozens of menorahs.

Temple Beth El President Kara Gilman said the strong turnout by community members showed that the demonstrators' message was not mainstream.

"All this does is bring people closer together," Gilman said. "The message that they're trying to send isn't the message people in Riverside want."

Singer said her synagogue, a local Islamic center and several area churches will be raising banners outside of their respective buildings next month declaring, "We value diversity. Unity in love."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/neo-nazis-protest-outside-jewish-temple-in-riverside.html#more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Tijuana's security chief needs all of it he can get

Julian Leyzaola lives with threats and worse, plus the accusations.

by Richard Marosi

December 20, 2009

Reporting from Tijuana

Since he took over one of the most troubled police departments in Mexico, Julian Leyzaola has slapped the face of a corpse, led shoot-'em-ups on the street and ordered suspected crooked cops to stick close to his office in downtown Tijuana -- he wanted them as human shields.

"I told them, if they try to attack me in my office, you'll be right outside," Leyzaola said. "The first ones they kill will be you."

He's not being paranoid. Since he launched a crackdown on organized crime and police corruption two years ago, Leyzaola has survived at least four assassination plots, including the latest threat to blow up his headquarters. On police radio frequencies, crime bosses taunt Leyzaola, saying there's one easy way to stop the mayhem: Resign.

"Of course I won't," Leyzaola, who was a lieutenant colonel on leave from the army when he became Tijuana's secretary of public security, said in a recent interview. "If I quit under that type of pressure, I'll feel like a part of them, an accomplice of organized crime."

Leyzaola is credited by U.S. and Mexican officials with making gains in cleaning up the department, driving out many drug traffickers and, for much of this year, returning a semblance of normality to a crime-weary city.

But last week's surge in gang violence -- decapitations, dismemberments, hangings and shootouts that claimed the lives of more than 50 people -- showed the tenuousness of Leyzaola's gains.

And some say the security chief's offensive comes at a heavy price. Human rights activists accuse Leyzaola of involvement in the torture and beating of suspects, including suspected rogue officers.

Even the clean cops under him are anxious.

"I respect him," said one veteran officer, "but for him to succeed, we have to die."

Since Leyzaola's purge began, 43 police officers have been killed on the streets, most of them honest officers targeted by gangs. About 330 police officers have left the force, some fearing for their lives. And 130 officers have been arrested on corruption charges, some of them veterans personally detained by Leyzaola.

A Mexican police officer whose actions match his tough talk, Leyzaola in many ways is the model for the kind of law enforcement muscle the Mexican government needs to battle organized crime.

But critics see a little too much muscle: People arrested by Leyzaola's police officers have turned up bloodied and bruised in mug shots. And some officers suspected of corruption allege that he played a role in their torture this year.

When Mayor Jorge Ramos gave his state of the city address last month, a small group of protesters held up signs denouncing the public security secretary. But their boos were drowned out by loud applause from hundreds of people, including some widows of fallen police officers, who packed the glittery City Hall event.

To his supporters, Leyzaola, despite the controversies, is a worthy adversary of the gangs that have long controlled the city. He patrols the streets, wages gun battles and sneeringly calls criminals filthy and shiftless.

"We need an iron hand. Bravo!" read one e-mail comment in response to a recent newspaper article about Leyzaola.

Others take a more wary view. "Society doesn't care if he tortures," said Victor Clark Alfaro, director of Tijuana's Binational Center for Human Rights. "They just want results."

A long battle

Leyzaola, 49, battled drug traffickers long before arriving in Tijuana.

The son and grandson of military officers, he attended the Heroico Colegio Militar, Mexico's West Point, and spent many years raiding marijuana and poppy fields in rural operations that he said often led to shootouts with traffickers.

That confrontational approach didn't exist when Leyzaola was hired in 2007 to be the director of the Tijuana police department. A year later, Leyzaola was promoted to secretary of public security, which expanded his authority.

Many officers in the 2,100-member Tijuana police force had long functioned as an arm of the hometown Arellano Felix drug cartel, acting as lookouts, drivers and providing protection for traffickers on their criminal rounds across the city.

Police often avoided shootouts or pursuits, Leyzaola said. They also refused to sign the criminal complaints necessary to prosecute suspects. Leyzaola took to the streets daily with his bodyguards and engaged in high-speed chases and gun battles that sometimes ended in bloodshed. He also personally signed more than 200 criminal complaints, he said.

"Organized crime groups were the owners of the city," Leyzaola said. "They weren't used to someone defying their orders."

Officers who defy Leyzaola don't last long. Several high-ranking officers with alleged links to organized crime have been arrested, including the longtime police liaison to U.S. law enforcement, Javier Cardenas, who was a friend of the mayor.

Leyzaola said that when a former military officer came to his office and offered him a large bribe from a major organized crime group, he pulled his weapon and personally delivered him to authorities in Mexico City.

The anti-corruption message has reached the rank and file.

The veteran officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said many police officers no longer pad their salaries by working for trafficking groups, and the big cars and nice homes that the most corrupt officers once enjoyed are a thing of the past.

"A lot of us used to work for them. But now a lot of cops are scared of going to jail, or losing their jobs," said the officer.

Leyzaola is different from most police officers, he said. "He's military, old school. He wakes up every day and salutes the . . . flag," he said. "We're regular civilians."

Targeting police

Organized crime has lashed back. One of Mexico's most wanted crime bosses, Teodoro Garcia Simental, is believed to be the force behind a relentless campaign of threats and killings of officers aimed at getting rid of Leyzaola.

In April, gunmen shot down seven officers in 45 minutes. After the shooting of another police officer in July, Garcia threatened to kill five officers a week. At least 15 have died since then.

Gunmen so far have failed to get a shot at Leyzaola, who travels in an armored SUV surrounded by 15 bodyguards. But they have hatched several plots. The most serious was foiled last month, when more than 20 suspected gunmen were arrested just before planning to ambush Leyzaola in fake military vehicles.

When Leyzaola got word of the plan to blow up his headquarters, he switched offices to a bunker-like tower in Tijuana's Zona Rio neighborhood, where a large security detail employing sandbag barriers prevents unauthorized cars from parking under the building.

"He's a marked man. They want Leyzaola gone because he's effective. He takes this seriously, unlike a lot of these jackass cops," said one U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment.

Leyzaola seems unfazed by the siege-like conditions. A slim man with thick eyebrows, he listens to soft rock music stations and jogs every morning in the park-like grounds of the Morelos military base, where he lives. He says he is just doing the job he was hired to do and has no political ambitions.

"I don't feel pressure," he added.

But he has shown flashes of anger. At a funeral for three police officers last year, he lashed out at journalists for taking photographs of grieving family members.

Last month, reporters witnessed his most troubling outburst. After arriving at the scene of a shootout, Leyzaola was informed that one officer who had saved a woman from the crossfire had died.

He walked up to an ambulance gurney holding a dead suspect, pulled back the sheet, and struck the corpse across the face.

"Why did you die? You should have stayed alive," said Leyzaola, recalling his thoughts at the time. "Not even death is a worthy punishment for what you did."

The most serious allegations against Leyzaola stem from a roundup in March of officers suspected of corruption. They were taken to the Morelos base, where 25 of them said they were tortured, according to a report by Amnesty International and testimony given to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington.

Several police officers said Leyzaola had personally delivered them to the base, shackled and blindfolded. Two of them said they recognized Leyzaola's voice while they were being beaten, according to the reports. The torture allegedly included electric shocks applied to their feet and genitals.

Francisco Sanchez, the head of a local human rights group, said authorities' crackdown on organized crime is necessary, but so is respect for the rule of law and human rights.

"It's unclear if he actively participated in the torture, but the evidence suggests that he doesn't respect the law and should be investigated," Sanchez said.

Leyzaola denies any involvement, saying he merely arrests suspects and delivers them to the army base, where federal authorities take custody. He said he has no intention of backing down in the struggle against the drug bosses.

"If you attack me, I'll retaliate," Leyzaola said.

"If you attack again, I'll retaliate with greater force. And if you attack me again, I'll keep retaliating, again and again and again."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-tijuana-police20-2009dec20,0,5936287,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FORGOTTEN WARRIORS

Foreign interpreters hurt in battle find U.S. insurance benefits wanting

For Iraqis and Afghans killed or injured while working for the U.S. military, benefits have often fallen far short of what was promised to them and their families.

by T. Christian Miller

December 18, 2009

After the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military discovered that rebuilding the country and confronting an insurgency required a weapon not in its arsenal: thousands of interpreters.

To fill the gap, the Pentagon turned to Titan Corp., a San Diego defense contractor, which eventually hired more than 8,000 interpreters, most of them Iraqis.

For $12,000 a year, these civilians served as the voice of America's military, braving sniper fire and roadside bombs. Insurgents targeted them for torture and assassination. Many received military honors for their heroism.

At least 360 interpreters employed by Titan or its successor company were killed between March 2003 and March 2008, and more than 1,200 were injured. The death toll was far greater than that suffered by the armed forces of any country in the American-led coalition other than the United States. Scores of interpreters assisting U.S. forces in Afghanistan also have been killed or wounded.

An insurance program funded by American taxpayers was supposed to provide a safety net for interpreters and their families in the event of injury or death. Yet for many, the benefits have fallen painfully short of what was promised, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica found.

Interviews, corporate documents and data on insurance claims show that:

* Insurers have delayed or denied claims for disability payments and death benefits, citing a lack of police reports or other documentary evidence that interpreters' injuries or deaths were related to their work for the military. Critics, including some U.S. Army officers, say it is absurd to expect Iraqis and Afghans to be able to document the cause of injuries suffered in a war zone.

* Iraqi interpreters taken to neighboring Jordan for medical treatment say they were pressured to accept lump-sum settlements from insurers, rather than a stream of lifetime benefits potentially worth more, and were told that if they didn't sign, they would be sent back home -- a potential death sentence for Iraqis associated with the American war effort.

* Interpreters who have immigrated to the United States as refugees have ended up penniless, on food stamps or in menial jobs because their benefits under the U.S. insurance program are based on wages and living costs in their home countries. Payments intended to provide a decent standard of living in Iraq or Afghanistan leave the recipients below the poverty level in this country.

Iraqi Malek Hadi was working with U.S. military police outside Baghdad when a homemade explosive detonated beneath his Humvee in September 2006. The blast tore off his right leg, mangled the left and sheared off several fingers.

Today, Hadi, 25, lives alone in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Arlington, Texas. He struggles to climb the stairs to his second-floor apartment on crutches. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder but is not receiving treatment because his insurer has refused to pay for it.

He lives on $612 a month in disability payments, the maximum available under the war-zone insurance system.

"When we were in Iraq, we were exactly like the soldiers," Hadi said. "Why are we treated differently now?"

Retired U.S. Army Col. Joel Armstrong, who served in Iraq and was a leading proponent of the 2007 troop buildup, or "surge," that helped reduce violence in the country, said Iraqi interpreters were crucial to the strategy's success.

"Without them, you really can't operate effectively as a force. It's just impossible," Armstrong said. It is deplorable, he added, that interpreters injured while assisting American troops have had to fight for benefits.

"Every American should feel terrible about it," he said. "It's a shame."

American International Group Inc., or AIG, the principal provider of insurance coverage for interpreters in Iraq, declined to answer detailed questions on its policies or comment on specific cases.

Marie Ali, a spokeswoman for the AIG unit that sold the coverage, said the company "is committed to handling every claim professionally, ethically and fairly. In all cases, it is our policy to respect the privacy of our customers and claimants and not discuss the specifics of individual claims."

Claims and disputes

Under a World War II-era law known as the Defense Base Act, companies working under contract for the U.S. military overseas must provide workers' compensation insurance for their employees, both Americans and foreign nationals. The cost of the coverage is built into Pentagon contracts and so is ultimately paid by taxpayers.

The insurance system, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, once handled a few hundred claims a year. It expanded dramatically after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq because of the Pentagon's heavy reliance on civilian contract workers to drive fuel trucks, cook meals and provide other support services.

Today, there are more civilian workers than uniformed troops in the two battle zones, and more than 1,700 contract workers have died.

Interpreters in Iraq were covered by insurance purchased by their employer, first Titan Corp. and later L-3 Communications, a New York defense contractor that acquired Titan in 2005. L-3 paid AIG more than $20 million a year in premiums, according to corporate records.

Once a worker files an injury claim, the employer's insurer must begin paying benefits within two weeks or file a "notice of dispute."

Interpreters who suffered the worst injuries, such as loss of a limb or severe brain damage, typically received compensation relatively quickly. That is because they were treated at U.S. military facilities in Iraq, where staff members documented their injuries.

In other cases, AIG often had difficulty establishing to its satisfaction that interpreters' injuries or deaths were work-related. The company routinely filed notices of dispute while it investigated the claims.

"Even determining the facts of an accident -- the location and the circumstances -- can be a challenge," Charles Schader, AIG's president of worldwide claims, told a congressional panel in June. "Without sufficient information, examiners cannot make timely final determinations within 14 days."

To pay death benefits, AIG required police reports or other supporting documents, according to former L-3 officials. Internal L-3 records from 2005 show that AIG examiners sent to Iraq were able to find documentation deemed necessary for benefits in only half the cases examined.

"If you're missing one piece of documentation, you got denied," said Colleen Driscoll, who oversaw the handling of interpreters' insurance claims for L-3. "These guys get murdered coming and going to work, and AIG turns them down because they don't have a letter from the insurgents."

Driscoll, a former United Nations refugee official, left L-3 in 2007. She said the cause was a dispute with company executives over treatment of injured interpreters.

She and another former L-3 official, Jennifer Armstrong, said their experience suggested that 10% to 20% of the company's Iraqi workers who should have received benefits were denied.

Armstrong said that in one instance, a slain interpreter's widow and children had to live for months in the company's compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad while they waited for death benefits to be approved. It was too dangerous for the family to remain in their home, and they could not afford to relocate, she said.

"The Iraqis were looked at as second-class citizens," said Armstrong, who now works for another defense contractor. "It just became a business. When it became a business, you lost sight of the goal."

L-3 did not respond to requests for comment.

In Jordan

AIG arranged for many of the most severely wounded Iraqis to be transferred to Jordan, where medical facilities were better and interpreters did not face the risk of assassination.

Emad Hatabah, a Syrian-trained physician who had been medical director of AIG's Jordanian subsidiary, exercised broad authority over their care. A medical evacuation company that Hatabah owned transported interpreters from the war zone. He selected their doctors and arranged stays at hotels and rehabilitation clinics.

Once their treatment was concluded, Hatabah presented interpreters with settlement agreements providing for lump-sum payments, in return for which AIG would be released from further liability.

Several Iraqis said Hatabah pressed them to sign and told them that if they refused, they would be sent back to Iraq.

In spring 2007, more than a dozen interpreters sent L-3 officials a petition complaining of "bad treatment" by Hatabah and asserting that he had threatened to have them deported.

One of the interpreters, Ali Kanaan, suffered hearing loss and burns to more than a third of his body as a result of a 2006 suicide bombing.

Hatabah offered him a $62,000 settlement on AIG's behalf, records show. Kanaan said that when he resisted, Hatabah told him that if he didn't accept the lump sum, he would have to return to Iraq to pursue a claim for disability benefits.

Kanaan decided to take the offer.

"If you obey Dr. Emad's rules, you'll be fine," he said. "If you don't, you got kicked out."

Kanaan later immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee. Now 23, he works 12 hours a day in a cigarette store in a Denver suburb. At night, he cleans the stove hoods in restaurant kitchens. The caustic chemicals irritate his skin grafts, he said.

Hatabah, interviewed in Amman, the Jordanian capital, said the interpreters received exemplary care. He denied pressuring any of them to sign settlements or threatening to send them back to Iraq.

Hatabah said AIG's office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, sent him settlement agreements and his only role was to witness the signing. He said that because he is employed by AIG, he took care never to act as the treating physician for any interpreters, in order to eliminate even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

"I believe we did more than a good job," Hatabah said. "It was a perfect job."

Few know rights

Interpreters and other injured workers can appeal insurers' denials through a dispute resolution system in the Department of Labor. Ultimately, an administrative law judge decides the matter. The department must approve all settlements, and officials are supposed to review offers with the affected workers to make sure compensation is adequate.

"The whole purpose is to recognize that a guy who's never had a $100,000 check in his life before is a sucker for a bad deal," said Joshua Gillelan, a former lawyer for the department who now represents civilian workers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But few Iraqis know they have rights in the system, and interpreters interviewed for this report said the Labor Department never contacted them about settlement offers.

"Nobody called me or told me or did anything for me," said Nazar Taei, 40, whose legs were riddled with shrapnel during a mortar attack in 2006.

After he arrived in the U.S. as a refugee, AIG offered Taei an $18,500 settlement, he said. He was dissatisfied with the amount, but accepted it.

"I told AIG, 'Is this enough for somebody to start his life, who lost his job, a part of his life?' " recalled Taei, a Denver resident who recently enlisted in the U.S. Army and hopes to become an interpreter. "They said, 'Those are the rules. We can't do anything for you.' "

In at least one case, an AIG representative discouraged Iraqis from contacting the Labor Department. In an e-mail exchange last year, the father of an L-3 interpreter killed in a car bombing wrote to AIG, seeking to speed payment of death benefits.

The father, who revealed details of the case on condition of anonymity, asked an AIG examiner in Dubai about contacting Labor officials.

"I wouldn't advice [sic] you to do so," the examiner replied by e-mail. "You would be taking the full responsibility of the outcomes."

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis declined requests for an interview. In a statement, the Labor Department said the increase in the use of civilian contract workers in Iraq and Afghanistan has posed formidable challenges for the war-zone insurance system. The department has no employees posted in Iraq, Afghanistan or surrounding countries, nor any speakers of Arabic or Afghan dialects.

The statement said Labor depends on insurers and defense contractors to inform workers of their rights and to report injuries.

"There is no way to comprehensively monitor compliance as the many levels of subcontracting to workers from around the globe makes such oversight impossible," the statement said. "We understand and are concerned about the fact that we are unable to place staff at the front lines to ensure that all workers understand their rights."

A three-year fight

After the explosion blew off his leg in 2006, Malek Hadi was sent to Jordan for treatment. There, AIG offered him a $60,000 lump-sum settlement, he said.

Hadi rejected the offer and said he was deported to Iraq within a month.

He later returned to Jordan as a refugee. He had applied for disability benefits but was not receiving any, and he could not get an explanation from AIG, he said. He lived on handouts from family and friends while waiting for permission to immigrate to the U.S.

Internal AIG documents indicate that a claims examiner withheld Hadi's benefits in an effort to force him to accept the lump sum. Hadi was "clearly entitled" to benefits, a different AIG examiner wrote in a memo dated August 2008. The company had not paid because the previous examiner "was trying to get the claimant to decide whether to settle his claim," the memo said.

After arriving in the U.S., Hadi again contacted AIG, this time seeking medical treatment as well as disability payments. A psychologist working with a refugee agency in Texas had diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, Hadi's prosthetic right leg was causing sharp pains and his damaged left leg ached constantly.

AIG formally contested the claim, saying that he needed further medical evaluation. This summer, more than three years after Hadi lost his leg, AIG began paying him disability benefits of $612 a month. It still has not approved his request for medical treatment.

Hadi spends most of his days in his Arlington apartment, watching Arabic television and texting friends back home. "I lost my leg. My life is broken," he said. "For what?"

A favorite possession is a gold coin given to him by a member of the 89th Military Police Brigade after he was injured.

"Proven in Battle," it says.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-interpreters18-2009dec18,0,6865367,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. prison population headed for first decline in decades

The economy has states reconsidering whom to lock up, and for how long. Reforms in many state prisons and courts coincide with dropping nationwide crime rates.

Associated Press

December 20, 2009

Dallas

The United States soon may see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.

The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.

"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."

The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8% growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5% average annual growth of the 1990s.

Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.

In the past, prison populations have been lower when military drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

"People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted," said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.

The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't involved a draft.

Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they keep them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.

In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15% of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30% after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.

In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85% of their sentences. That's been reduced to less than 25%.

California's budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.

States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.

Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10% to 30% less than it costs to send someone to prison.

"I don't think they work -- I know so," said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.

The reforms in many state prisons and courts come as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.

"It's economically driven, but the science is there to support it," Austin said. "They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety."

One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state's prison resources.

"They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can't get out of," Austin said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-prison20-2009dec20,0,2525072,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Daily News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valley activists plan rally in push for immigration rights

With renewed debate over immigration reform expected in Congress next year, the San Fernando Valley could become a hotbed of activity as activists plan a massive rally and outreach efforts to draw attention to the cause.

Those supporters said their decision to bring the immigration reform issue into the heart of the Valley reflects a growing impatience with the pace of immigration change among immigrant advocates, labor and religious groups and a coalition of Democratic lawmakers.

"Our community, the greater community of the San Fernando Valley, has over a million immigrants all told," said businessman and immigration activist Robert Gittelson. "It is truly, truly a tragedy that probably several hundred thousand of our neighbors and our friends and our co-workers here are undocumented.

"If you think of the United States as a melting pot, we're at ground zero right here in the San Fernando Valley."

Gittelson is among the Valley-based immigration reform advocates who last week announced they are organizing an unprecedented immigration rights rally late next month. They hope thousands of people will march from the Van Nuys Civic Center to Church on the Way on Sherman Way.

The Valley rally scheduled for Jan. 23, they said, will be in support of recently introduced legislation that would open a path to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants nationwide.

Such legislation has been hotly opposed by Republican congressional representatives, and conservative groups like the Minuteman Project, which formed several years ago to monitor illegal border crossings.

Citizens' rights first

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, said with unemployment at a 26-year high and many Americans losing their homes, his first responsibility is for the welfare of legal citizens and residents.

"Congress must concentrate on ensuring (that) every person with a legal right to work in the United States has the opportunity for a job and does not have to compete against illegal immigrants to provide for their families," said Gallegly, whose office was the target of an interfaith rally calling for immigration reform earlier this month, in a written statement.

"We must put American families first."

Reform advocates say extending the pro-reform movement to the Valley was also part of a strategy to boost their ranks and present a more diversified face in the national debate.

"This movement is not so dissimilar from the African-American civil rights movements of the '60s and '70s and even today," said labor activist David Frelow of the Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition.

Invoking civil rights icons

"Let's not forget those immigrants have helped build this great nation and those who will continue to make this a great nation."

Frelow and others invoked the memories of United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., saying they hope that next month's immigration rally will take on the symbolism of right over might associated with historic marches led by Chavez and King.

"All of us have received some measure of grace from God, and we need to extend that grace of God to others," said the Rev. James A. Tolle, senior pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys. "And what better group of people than to extend it to the immigrants that are here in the United States.

"We're wanting to take the principles of Jesus Christ and apply them to our fellow human beings. We're to love our neighbors as ourself."

Advocates urge action

Immigration advocates had hoped Congress would pass reform legislation in 2009, but the issue was pushed to the back burner by the health care debate and other White House priorities, even though President Barack Obama had promised to undertake immigration reform within the first 100 days of his administration.

"Now there is only a brief window, and it's got to get done," said labor and immigrants rights activist Julio Marroquin. "It's got to get done sometime between January and June because then you get into the midterm (congressional) elections."

Some Democrats have voiced concerns that putting the controversial immigration issue at the forefront in an important midterm election year could present political challenges for Democratic congressional candidates and, ultimately, support of the president's agenda in Congress.

But immigrant rights activists say two years without significant progress on immigration reform risks demoralizing Latino voters who helped Democrats win control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008.

"There will never be a perfect time to pass immigration reform, just as there was never the perfect time to pass health care reform," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of the immigration reform group Movimiento Latino USA.

The immigration bill introduced last week by U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Illinois, is regarded by even supporters as just the first outline of reform legislation expected to take fuller shape when Congress returns from the holidays.

Under the Gutierrez bill, to gain legal status and possibly citizenship, illegal immigrants who are already here would have to prove they had been working, pay a $500 fine, learn English and undergo a criminal background check, among other provisions.

But many Republicans find such a path to citizenship unpalatable.

"The notion of granting amnesty, awarding illegal behavior is something that concerns me greatly," said Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14035779

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Washington Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by Alex Nowrasteh

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act (CIR ASAP) was introduced last week by Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat.

The co-sponsors are a mix of mostly left-wing groups, and the bill is a hodgepodge of different ideas and political compromises all too common in today's Washington. Consequently, few are enthusiastic about it, and many will be outraged.

Republican opposition leaders state that it would exacerbate the unemployment problem during a recession. That economic fallacy, and the readiness with which it is believed, could kill the good in this bill.

Besides a genuine desire to overhaul our flawed immigration system, there are other motivations to introduce CIR ASAP at this time. The health care bill is in serious trouble, and Democrats need a distraction. They also are worried about the midterm election. Throwing a bone to the pro-immigration camp, particularly Hispanics, could help increase turnout and shift votes to Democrats. Regardless, CIR ASAP is the beginning of another long political battle that will stretch long into next year.

But bringing millions of undocumented workers out of the shadows and streamlining immigration are in America's best interest. The best idea in the bill is allowing an unlimited number of visas for foreign graduate students from American universities. The bad ideas are increased paperwork and oversight for visas. But the worst idea is a proposed extension of the E-Verify system to all workers.

A modified E-Verify system would require both immigrants and citizens to prove their eligibility to work to a government-run database full of errors and incompetently run. This will hamper employers, discourage and reject legal employees and otherwise "Europeanize" America's labor market during a recession. Terrible idea.

Those regulations dissipate many, if not all, of the benefits of increased highly skilled green cards. The anti-immigration crowd may love this requirement but for the American economy, employers, and innovators it would be disastrous.

Ironically, a recession should be the best time to streamline immigration. During the boom times of the 1980s, 1990s and mid-2000s, the numbers of immigrants increased steadily while the unemployment rate repeatedly hit record lows. That is because there is no static number of jobs for immigrants to "take." Rather, immigrants fulfill a demand for jobs created in boom times. This experience is mostly lost in Washington, though.

Moreover, immigrants create a great number of economic opportunities for Americans. Highly skilled immigrant entrepreneurs, like Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Ozen Engineering founder Metin Ozen, employ Americans at the firms they start up. Intel, eBay, Yahoo!, and Sun Microsystems, which have created economic opportunity for millions of Americans, all include immigrants among their founders.

Many of today's highly skilled immigrants come in on H-1B visas. Rules and caps on the number of these visas issued each year hamper economic growth and entrepreneurship. H-1Bs and former H-1Bs have been in on the ground floor of new firms. As of 2008, one-third of all companies founded in Silicon Valley had Indian or Chinese immigrants as co-founders.

Moreover, expanding enterprises rely on H-1B workers to fill needed slots. According to the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy, each H-1B visa requested increases employment by five workers. Foreign skilled workers need support and management, so they typically do not substitute, but complement American labor. A firm willing to employ H-1B foreign workers employs Americans alongside them.

The CIR ASAP should just eliminate the cap for H-1B visas or, as has been suggested, recycle unused H-1B visas from the past. Instead, it creates a government agency to suggest "market" changes to the system. Markets do a much better job as markets.

When immigration rules are strict, employers are denied laborers. Customers are denied greater shopping choices at businesses owned by immigrants. Perhaps most important, technology consumers are denied the inventions of immigrants. Five of the eight American winners of Nobel Prizes in the sciences have been immigrants. How would it have helped America to have denied them entry?

Everyone agrees that criminals and terrorists need to be kept out. Let's focus our border resources on weeding out criminals instead of turning away laborers. Our immigration authorities should not waste time monitoring the pay scales of computer programmers or rounding up construction or agricultural workers. Such exercises make us less safe, weaken our economy, and waste everyone's time.

Immigrants come and will continue to come because of economic opportunity. Yet typically it takes 15 to 20 years for a low-skilled laborer to get a green card - if he's lucky. Highly skilled workers and H-1B visa applicants fare hardly better. Anyone ambitious enough to seek a better life in a new country isn't going to wait for a labyrinthine bureaucracy.

Without a legal path to entry, many will continue to break the law and the economy will continue to suffer. CIR ASAP offers some positive reforms, but the politically motivated E-Verify program would be a disaster.

Alex Nowrasteh is an immigration policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a contributor to OpenMarket.org

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/20/comprehensive-redux//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by Kathleen Maloney-Dunn

The pornographers are winning the war against the children of the world. More than 4 million Internet Web sites depict in graphic and sickening detail the sexual exploitation of children, and more such Web sites come online every day. Twenty percent of the $14 billion earned annually by the "adult entertainment industry" is revenue from the Internet.

An investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Council, just concluded, finds that the number of Internet images of brutal rape, bondage and other depraved abuses of children have quadrupled since 2007.

The courts are making it difficult for the good guys. The U.S. Supreme Court decided earlier this year, on free speech grounds, to effectively kill a 1998 federal law protecting children from commercial Internet pornography. The court said parental filters on computers are weapons enough. But this, it seems to me, is out of touch with current digital technology trends and dangers. The effects of Internet pornography reach far beyond the computer screen.

I learned this firsthand as a lawyer at the International Criminal Court in The Hague last year, working on appeals involving child soldiers and the sexual enslavement of women and children in Congo, Uganda and Darfur. Dealing with war crimes cases at the office and throngs of prostitutes, many foreign, on the streets gave me a grim education in the proliferation of sexual trafficking of women and children across the globe.

Globalization, which enables the free flow of goods, services and ideas across national borders, has contributed to reducing women and children to mere commodities, to be purchased, used and sold through international flesh peddlers.

The World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, which met in Brazil last year, singled out Internet traffic as key to the sexual exploitation of children. Internet servers in the United States host 62 percent of the child pornography distributed online worldwide.

The trend is toward depicting ever younger children. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that the Internet is a common vehicle for pimping children, and Americans who think the sexual exploitation of children only happens in other countries should pay closer attention. Congressional committees estimate that at any given time as many as 300,000 American children are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation, including trafficking facilitated by the Internet.

Without effective "porn-proofing," a child today will encounter graphic, X-rated Internet pornography. Nine out of 10 children between ages 8 and 16 have been exposed to free pornographic pictures online, according to a survey by the London School of Economics.

Dr. Patrick Carnes, a psychologist who has extensively studied sexual addiction, estimates that two-thirds of American teenagers watch pornography online while doing their homework. "Parents are pretty oblivious about what they are doing. Kids are remarkably unsupervised."

There is wide agreement that Dr. Carnes is on to something. A new Harris Interactive-McAfee Poll substantiates that parents are often unaware of the risk to their children. More than 60 percent of teenagers polled say they know how to hide their online watching - and their responses - from their parents. "Kids are being traumatized by all this sexual stimulation, which the brain encodes 20 percent faster than any other stimulation," according to Dr. Carnes. "Patients say the traumatic images they see on the Internet are getting wired in their brains and they can't shake them, like the intrusive thoughts of post-traumatic stress disorder."

Predators patiently prowl the Internet and skillfully "groom" children online to win their unwitting co-operation for sexual exploitation. The increasing availability of interactive Web sites and the anonymity of the Internet entices children who are naturally curious to do things they might otherwise never do.

"Kids and other basically decent people who normally wouldn't get into this sleazy material do so because of the computer," says Kristina Bullock, mother of a teenage daughter and former lawyer for the National Law Center for Families and Children.

The latest challenge to parents is the swelling tide of "pocket porn," graphic images of penetration, group sex, bestiality and incest transmitted via mobile phones, video games, digital music players and hand-held computers. Global revenues from such "mobile porn" reached $1.7 billion in 2007.

Digital and electronic devices have effectively become pornography portals. Parents can filter and monitor children's Internet activity at home and establish porn-proofing rules for when children are elsewhere, but "it is like playing that old 'whack-a-mole' game to keep up with pornographers' advances on cell phones, PDAs and online games," says Donna Rice Hughes, a national leader on protecting children in cyberspace.

Peer-to-peer networks, which bypass most filters and, according to a 2007 Pediatrics journal study, pose the highest risk for children's unsolicited exposure to pornography, present additional challenges for parents.

The lucrative, multibillion-dollar pornography industry knows no bounds. Parents need more tools to beat the odds that their children will be sexually exploited, traumatized, or even trafficked as the global culture becomes increasingly coarsened, more violent and instantaneously accessible.

Kathleen Maloney-Dunn is a mother and international human rights lawyer in Portland, Ore.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/20/sexploitation-of-children//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Wall Street Journal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Military Denies Fort Hood Suspect Additional Lawyers for Defense

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood last month, won't get the two additional military lawyers his defense team has requested.

John P. Galligan, the retired Army colonel who is representing Maj. Hasan, asked the Army earlier this month to add the veteran legal officers to the defense team. In addition to Mr. Galligan, Maj. Hasan has a military-appointed defense counsel, Maj. Christopher Martin.

But Mr. Galligan said Friday night that the Army had denied his request, although he may be able to ask for different officers to join the defense.

Officials at Fort Hood couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Maj. Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 5 shootings. Maj. Hasan has not entered a plea in the case. He was paralyzed in the shootout and, although no longer in intensive care, remains in a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas

Military sources have said prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

The Army has several lawyers working for the prosecution, including Col. Michael E. Mulligan, a high-ranking prosecutor with experience in death-penalty cases

Mr. Galligan said he was concerned that the Army was making it difficult for Maj. Hasan to mount a proper defense.

"I think people are going to begin to see the patent unfairness with which this case is being handled," he said.

The Army is seeking to convene a panel soon to determine whether Maj. Hasan is sane enough to stand trial; Mr. Galligan is seeking to delay the examination.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126124436953498693.html#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York Can Do Better By Juvenile Offenders

The get-tough approach isn't working.

New York

What does $210,000 buy in New York State? These days, as two recent reports demonstrate, that's what it costs to lock up one child in a brutal juvenile justice system so dysfunctional that its reform-minded commissioner, Gladys Carrion, advises judges not to place children in her facilities.

We could not do worse. But 10 years of research shows that we know how to do much better—incarcerate less, and use the latest research to treat delinquents in community-based programs.

The Empire State runs one of the country's largest juvenile prison systems. At its height in 2005, it operated 31 facilities housing 2,500 children. Like many other states in the 1970s and '80s, New York responded to rising crime rates with a get-tough approach that included more punitive laws, more arrests, and more incarceration for both juveniles and adults. In an iconic moment in 1995, the state put razor wire fences around its juvenile facilities.

This approach doesn't work: Almost every boy and girl (nine out of 10 boys and four out of five girls) who leaves state custody is rearrested before the age of 28 and, even within just three years, 75% are rearrested. And the costs are jaw-dropping. This year the operating budget for the juvenile facilities will top $220 million.

There are other pernicious effects: the population is almost exclusively poor children of color, who are more likely than white children to be incarcerated after arrest and sentence. We must understand what is behind these numbers if we expect confidence in the legitimacy of the justice dispensed.

The U.S. Department of Justice graphically documented the persistent brutality and routine neglect of mental health needs of this population in a report it released this summer. Sparked by the death in custody in 2006 of a 15-year-old boy, the report summarized the results of a two-year investigation. The abuse included a 300-pound guard forcing a girl to the ground so violently (she had threatened to urinate on the floor) that the girl suffered a concussion; another girl with mental health issues was placed in isolation for three months without treatment. She apparently deteriorated in the process, never changed out of her pajamas, and was forcibly restrained at least 15 times.

There is good news. This week a task force set up by Gov. David Paterson released its report on how to reform the system. The governor is reviewing those findings, but the task force (of which I am a member) found that the state can cut costs and make its juvenile system more effective at controlling crime. It could do this by reserving incarceration only for those who pose a public safety risk.

With over half of the population of delinquents in prison in New York for misdemeanors, such as theft or criminal mischief, we know something is wrong. Either we are not good at figuring out who is a public safety risk, or judges have no alternatives to prison when they sentence low-risk kids.

The task force also recommended keeping low and some medium risk juveniles in community-based programs that involve therapy and engage their families. Children who have gone though these evidence-based programs have an 18% lower reincarceration rate than children who have been locked up. And whether in custody or in the community, the goal must be rehabilitation.

Two states have already shown how employing these methods reduces crime and saves money. Twenty years ago, Missouri replaced guards with counselors and cells with bunk beds, and focused instead on changing behavior through therapy rather than by physical restraints. Today only one in four of the youths who have gone through the state's system are reincarcerated within three years of release, compared to New York's rate of three in four.

In Washington state, the legislature funded a group of economists in the 1980s to tell it how to reduce crime and save money. Based on this group's analysis, the legislature recently shelved plans to build a new adult prison, determining that investments in treatment and prevention programs for juvenile delinquents and adult offenders will yield a lower prison population.

New York has also begun overhauling its system. Ms. Carrion, who supports the task force's recommendations, has pushed to close, merge or downsize 16 facilities, saving taxpayers over $28 million a year in operating costs (with about 1,600 juveniles incarcerated). And her agency is training staff to focus on treatment instead of restraints.

But the legislature needs to accelerate support for this work by paying for small facilities closer to home, community-based programs so that judges have a place to send low-risk kids, and mental health services for the half of the children in the system who are diagnosed with mental health issues by state psychologists. The state also needs to set up a method to use research to guide its policies to reduce and prevent crime.

If we reserve incarceration for public safety risks and implement research-proven methods of treatment and rehabilitation, we can make the system fairer as well as more effective and cheaper to run. This is what being tough on crime really means.

Ms. Glazer is the chair of the New York State Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, a member of the Governor's Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice and a former prosecutor.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574417350924776132.html#printMode

.