Clinton-Bush fundraising team says donations safe with them

The duo, put together by President Obama, say contributions to help the devastated country will be used wisely. In multiple interviews, they talk about short- and long-term goals.

By Mark Silva

January 17, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The bipartisan team of former Presidents Clinton and Bush, recruited by President Obama to spearhead private fundraising for the relief of Haitian earthquake victims, promised today to ensure that the money they were raising would be well-spent in a nation now reeling in chaos.

The two former presidents made their appeals in a full round of five Sunday-morning news shows.

One of their aims was to make sure money donated was well spent, they said in interviews taped Saturday following their public appearance at the White House with Obama.

"We can assure them there will transparency and the money will be accounted for and then, more importantly, spent on programs that will be effective on the ground," Bush said on "Fox News Sunday."

"We were asked, first, because people know that if they send funds through us, we'll see that it is effectively spent," Clinton said on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

"The fundamental question for the country is, 'Do we care?' " Bush said on ABC News' "This Week." The answer is yes, he said, and part of the reason is the establishment of a stable democracy in Haiti.

"They want to build a modern country," Clinton said on ABC.

"Both of us have been through crises," Bush said during the former presidents' appearance on NBC News' "Meet the Press." Inevitably, he said, media attention will shift to other parts of the world.

"Our job is to remind people that there is still an ongoing need," Bush said. "That's part of the purpose of the fund, to say to the American people that rebuilding is a long-term project."

Several days after an earthquake that claimed at least 50,000 lives, with estimates of fatalities exceeding 100,000, directors of the relief effort say teams still are focused on finding trapped victims.

"This is still an active rescue mission," said Rajiv Shah, director of USAID, in an interview today on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Bush will not be going to Haiti any time soon, he said, but Clinton, the special United Nations envoy to Haiti, may do so.

"I may go in a few days because of my U.N. job," Clinton said on Fox. "But if I do, I'm going to try to stay out of the way. . . . I agree with President Bush that we don't need more people down there now unless they are literally delivering, providing food, water, shelter, medicine, medical care. It's chaos."

Bush, in their appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," was asked how they will define success in the Haitian relief effort.

"For me, success is helping save lives in the short term, and then we can worry about the long term after the situation has been stabilized," Bush said.

"But I think it's a legitimate question. You know, do we want to put money into a society that hasn't benefited after we've stabilized?" he said. "And the answer is, I think we do, just so long as we work with the government to develop a strategy that makes sense. To say the country can't succeed is too defeatist as far as I'm concerned."

Bush, voiced his concern about "shysters" who try to take advantage of crises -- as he put it on "Meet the Press." On CNN, he said of the drive that he and Clinton were leading: "We're a safe haven."

Clinton was asked on "Meet the Press" why rebuilding Haiti mattered.

"No. 1, it has the highest AIDS rate in the Caribbean," Clinton said. "No. 2, it's the poorest country in the Caribbean, and it's holding the whole region back. . . . No. 3, they actually have shown a willingness to change. . . .

"If they could succeed where they have failed for 200 years, that will change our idea of what is possible not only here but in Africa and Southeast Asia and everywhere else," Clinton said. "That's worth it all over the world."

Each was asked how they have responded personally.

"I've been watching TV from Dallas, Texas, and I feel sick to my stomach," Bush said in the Fox interview. "I feel it's really emotional. And that's the way it is for a lot of Americans. And therefore a lot of Americans are going to want to help. And our job is to make sure their help is not squandered, that it is spent properly."

"I've been almost equally moved just by what we've all seen on television," Clinton said on Fox. "And I'm just grateful that we're in a position to help, you know, because I think every American who has watched this, and probably every citizen in the world has watched this, said, gosh, I wish I could do something."

Bush, who made the support of faith-based initiatives part of his White House agenda, spoke to the work of missionaries in Haiti.

"A lot of people hear the call to love a neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves," he said on Fox. "My own church, Highland Park United Methodist Church, had a group of church members in an eye clinic. They fortunately came out, sadly one person died.

"But Haiti has been a focus for a lot of the faith-based groups because they see incredible suffering and great poverty and great need. The ultimate recovery of Haiti is going to be aided by faith-based -- the faith-based community. It's not going to be only faith-based community, but it will be helped by the faith-based community."

Bush organized a similar presidential fundraising team for the relief of victims of the South Asian tsunami in 2004 -- Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush raised money for relief.

Bush, however, suffered widespread criticism for his administration's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast the year before.

"People love to point fingers," Bush said on CNN's "State of the Union." "But what people should focus on in Katrina is . . . how the American people responded to help a neighbor in need.

"Same situation here," Bush said. "And whether it be the tsunami or whether the earthquake in Pakistan or the tornadoes that hit during my presidency, there was always an outpouring of support.

"And all I wanted to do and Bill wants to do is to be a part, lend our hand," he said on CNN. "One of the things I am concerned about is that . . . during these crises, all kinds of fake charities spring up, that, you know, take advantage of people's goodwill, and we're a safe haven.

"We will make sure the money is accounted for, and there's transparency, and properly spent."

Do these two think of one another as friends, the former presidents were asked on CBS.

"Yeah, I do," Bush said. "My mother calls him my fourth brother."

"Me too," Clinton said, joking that he was "the black sheep of the family."

Both Clinton and Bush were reluctant, on "Face the Nation," to address the contention of radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh that Obama was playing the Haitian relief effort for political advantage.

"Now is not the time to focus on politics," Bush said.

The website that the White House has established for the presidents' fundraising drive: www.clintonbushhaitifund.org
.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-haiti-bush-clinton18-2010jan18,0,4362251,print.story

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OPINION

Haiti quake brings dose of reality

The United States too often gets caught up in meaningless controversies.

By Gregory Rodriguez

January 18, 2010

I don't know about you, but images of the tragedy in Haiti made me feel pretty silly about having paid so much attention recently to Tiger Woods' sex life, Harry Reid's gaffes or Conan O'Brien's future. There's nothing like real pain and suffering to make us realize that the stuff we tend to obsess about can be pretty meaningless.

I was interviewing a writer in a hotel lobby in Bucharest, Romania, last October, when he glanced at the CNN coverage of the "balloon boy" aftermath and interrupted himself to ask, "Is that what you people in America care about?"

Yes, I confessed, and tried my best to explain the connection between our frenzied response to mostly meaningless, manufactured dramas and bungee jumping.

In relatively strifeless, wealthy, stable democracies, we seek to add an element of excitement to our predictable lives by, say, jumping off Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge attached to a rubberized cord. We engage, in other words, in ritualized, controlled risk-taking to make us feel like we are really alive. And taking sides in trumped-up controversies, or just watching a less-than-earthshaking disaster unfold, is a similar civic phenomenon. In a nation where individual isolation is becoming the order of the day, ritualized contention and alarm over almost anything make us feel like we're connected, part of something important and in the thick of things.

This is especially true with most political scandals. You could say that all the moral outrage over a politician's sex life or slip of the tongue lets us think we make a difference in the halls of power. As UC Santa Cruz sociologist Andrew Szasz puts it, these recurrent episodes are a little like professional wrestling. Like a WWE match, scandals demand a suspension of disbelief, "this time in the phoniness of what passes daily for democratic participation. One is rewarded with the feeling of witnessing and being swept up in important political events. Nonparticipation is replaced for the moment by exciting, spectator participation."

And the end result? The public feels good about its involvement, the political system is stabilized, and the hard issues go on as ignored as ever.

In other words, fights, scandals and recurrent moral outrage give a fragmented nation the illusion that we're all involved in something important even while we're not. In particular, we are suckers for a battle. Frame anything as a dispute, as "us versus them," or as a potential "gotcha," and you have our attention. If there's a potential winner or loser, and especially if the mighty can be made to fall in a way that's advantageous to our side, we're deeply engaged. However meaningless, corrosive or inauthentic, we'll choose contention over rational debate any day. With knee-jerk ease, it allows us to take sides, reaffirm our biases and feel superior to our enemies.

The devolution of media and the rise of the blogosphere are making us even more of a controversy- and outrage-obsessed society. Because new media tend to focus on niche markets, outlets leverage their biases to engage their specialized audiences. That explains why a December study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism suggests that bloggers are significantly more likely to focus on controversy than is the mainstream media. In the week of Nov. 30, for instance, when the biggest story in mainstream news was President Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, the blogosphere was focusing on the controversies over the Swiss ban on minarets and the hacked e-mails from a British climate change research unit.

The great American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes invented what he called the hydrostatic paradox of controversy. If you take a bent tube, he said, one arm of which is the size of a pipestem and the other big enough to hold the ocean, and fill it with water, the liquid will stand at the same height in one arm as in the other. "Controversy," he continued, "equalizes fools and wise men in the same way. And the fools know it."

There is nothing wrong with a good public fight over important issues. But beating any little thing into a froth of disputation -- Jay vs. Conan! Tiger vs. his wedding vows! Reid vs. phantom offended black folk! -- is a criminal waste of our civic energy.

It's also subject to the law of diminishing returns. You can only bungee jump so many times before the thrill is gone. That means the fights we pick and the scandals we chase are going to have to get a whole lot messier to keep us tuned in.

Except, of course, when a 7.0 earthquake reminds us of what is really important.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez18-2010jan18,0,1690348,print.column

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OPINION

'911 immunity laws' for underage drinkers

The ideal approach to dealing with the problem is a combination of educating kids about the signs of trouble and decriminalizing calls for help.

By Caroline Cook

January 18, 2010

My town, the sleepy Bay Area suburb of Orinda, isn't in the news often. But it made headlines around the state last year after Joe Loudon, a well-loved high school sophomore, died at a party on Memorial Day weekend.

I don't know if it's because I had known Joe since kindergarten, or because I write opinion pieces for my school newspaper, or because my mom, a lawyer, is representing the teenage host of the party, who is facing criminal charges, but I can't stop thinking about how to prevent another death like Joe's.

There was alcohol at the party where Joe died. The coroner found that he had been drinking -- though not enough to be legally drunk -- but didn't determine a cause of death. A lot of people in town believe that Joe died, at least in part, because other underage drinkers at the party were reluctant to call 911 for fear of being punished.

In all 50 states, only persons age 21 and over can legally possess and consume alcohol. In many of them, including California, partyers who call 911 to get help for an intoxicated or unconscious friend can be prosecuted for violating the law.

Other states, including Colorado, New Jersey and Texas, are more enlightened. They have addressed incidents of underage drinking deaths by enacting "911 immunity laws." The laws grant immunity from prosecution, in certain situations, to an underage person calling 911 in an emergency to help an inebriated friend.

Of course, it might be better if teenagers didn't drink, but they do, and that isn't likely to change. In Northern California, where I live, the 2007 California Healthy Kids Survey found widespread alcohol consumption by students in my high-achieving high school district. Thirty-eight percent of ninth-graders and 68% of 11th-graders admitted consuming alcohol at least once, with 22% and 43%, respectively, having consumed alcohol within the last 30 days. In Los Angeles County, the survey found that 48% of ninth-graders and 63% of 11th-graders had imbibed; 28% and 36% respectively within the last 30 days. These numbers are not far out of line with national statistics.

Binge drinking -- defined by the Healthy Kids survey as the consumption of five or more drinks on a single occasion -- is more prevalent among teenagers than other age groups. This form of drinking is particularly dangerous and may result in unconsciousness, aspiration of vomit, asphyxia, alcohol poisoning and other medical emergencies leading to death. Teens are often skeptical of the warnings they've received about the dangers of alcohol, and so don't recognize when someone is in immediate and critical need of help.

The ideal approach to dealing with the problem is a combination of educating kids about the signs of trouble and decriminalizing calls for help. Cornell University has created a "medical amnesty" program that could be a model. The school provides students with information about how to identify signs of alcohol poisoning and what to do in an alcohol-related medical emergency. A university-wide amnesty policy to protect 911 callers from disciplinary action encourages students to summon help. And substance-abuse counselors work with those involved in alcohol-related emergencies, providing education about alcohol abuse. In addition to a rising rate of 911 calls in alcohol-related emergencies, the number of students involved in alcohol counseling doubled during the study.

California needs to adopt this sort of comprehensive approach to prevent underage, alcohol-related deaths. Education alone won't prevent binge drinking any more than preaching abstinence prevents teen pregnancy. Nor has the threat of punishment done much to prevent teen alcohol use.

When Joe Loudon died, my community lost an amazing student, athlete, volunteer and role model. Since Joe's death, teenagers have died from apparently alcohol-related causes in South Pasadena and Gilroy. How many more will it take before California takes action that could save lives?

Caroline Cook is a junior at Miramonte High School in Orinda, where she writes for her school paper, the Mirador.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-cook18-2010jan18,0,6293913,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Sex offenders behind bars: How long?

Using the civil commitment process to lengthen a criminal sentence is dishonest and dangerous.

January 18, 2010

When we learned that the Supreme Court was reviewing a law that allows the federal government to confine prisoners indefinitely even after they have completed their prison sentences, we naturally assumed that the legal issue involved due process for the prisoner.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case last week when the court heard arguments over the constitutionality of the indefinite detention of "sexually dangerous" prisoners. The justices' questions mostly focused on whether Washington, as opposed to the states, has the authority to do so -- not whether indefinite detention is allowable.

That issue of federalism isn't unimportant, but the more pressing question is whether civil commitment for a mental condition is being misused to force felons to remain in prison after they've completed their legal sentences.

The court gave states that power in 1997 when it ruled 5 to 4 that Kansas had properly committed a sex offender who was about to be released. The state had enacted a law allowing for the confinement in a state hospital of "any person who has been convicted of or charged with a sexually violent offense and who suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder which makes the person likely to engage in the predatory acts of sexual violence." As Justice Stephen G. Breyer noted in his dissent, the commitment in that case "was not simply an effort to commit [the prisoner] civilly, but rather an effort to inflict further punishment upon him." The same abuse of civil commitment is possible under the federal statute being challenged on federalism grounds.

Given the conventional (though disputed) consensus that all sex offenders are incorrigible, it's not surprising that officials would try to use the civil commitment process to dispense with the protections of criminal law. To convict a defendant of rape or child molestation, prosecutors must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. Under the law being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the government merely needed to show "clear and convincing evidence" of an inmate's dangerousness.

The federal government and the states have rightly adopted a harder line against sex offenses, and have in some cases subjected offenders -- even those who have served their sentences -- to registration and monitoring. But using the civil commitment process to lengthen a criminal sentence is dishonest and dangerous. If the court were to strike down this section of the 2006 law, both Washington and the states might take a new look at this problem and better balance constitutional rights and public safety.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-sex18-2010jan18,0,1792697,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Heeding the call to serve

WASHINGTON - A retired teacher went back to a classroom in need. A barber is giving time to a child whose first years remind him of his own. A college graduate decided to help kids learn instead of helping investors on Wall Street.

When President Barack Obama called for Americans to volunteer, all three listened.

Loretta Martin, 61, a retired elementary teacher from Beachwood, Ohio, said Obama motivated her when he said it doesn't take much time to make a difference. "He really pushes it and I hear it all the time now," she said.

Martin, who volunteered for Obama's presidential campaign, started in October tutoring first-graders for about 15 hours a week through Experience Corps. The nonprofit organization places people age 55 and older into elementary schools to help students with reading and writing.

"I knew that I had the skills to help and I wanted to use those skills," said Martin, who's worked as a literacy coach. "It's really rewarding to see what a little bit of time can make in the lives of kids - just a little bit of attention makes a big difference."

Since taking office in January 2009, Obama has made it a priority to bolster national service programs. Both he and first lady Michelle Obama have lectured at length on the topic, challenging others to donate their time to causes in their neighborhoods as a way to help where government alone cannot.

"We need your service right now, at this moment in history," Obama said in April, when he signed into law a

$5.7 billion bill to expand national service programs such as AmeriCorps. "I'm not going to tell you what your role should be. That's for you to discover. But I'm asking you to stand up and play your part."

The Obamas practice what they preach. They've planted trees, packed backpacks for the military and passed out Thanksgiving favorites at a food pantry. The president started "United We Serve," a nationwide service initiative.

They planned to participate in a service event today, the federal holiday commemorating the birth of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Obama has drawn attention to community service and started a dialogue about how to help, according to organizers and nonprofit groups.

Anecdotally, they hear of people who've joined their causes because of the president. But they say it's hard to pinpoint whether service overall is up because of his call for action. High unemployment and an already eager-to-serve generation of youths also have spurred interest in lending a hand.

"He has brought a spotlight to the grass-roots efforts that have really been there for some time and now are getting traction because of his impetus," said Experience Corps' chief executive, Lester Strong.

"I think we have yet to see what the full effect will be," Strong said.

More people have become interested in the last year, Strong said, though the number of participants has remained about the same because of funding. In Baltimore, a couple dozen people are already on the group's waiting list for next fall.

Online applications to AmeriCorps more than doubled last year, reaching the highest in the program's history, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps. Almost 247,000 people applied in 2009, compared with 91,000 in 2008. The Clinton-era program has 75,000 enrollees who clean parks and build homes, among other tasks.

Some nonprofit groups have seen an increase in applicants since Obama took office. City Year, a program in which young adults serve as tutors and mentors to kids for a year, had a record number of applicants for the 2009 school year - nearly 7,000 for 1,550 positions. Habitat for Humanity's alternative school break program had at least an 8 percent increase in its summer participants. Big Brothers Big Sisters said it's had a slight increase in the number of black men enrolling at affiliates.

Micheal Johnson, 38, joined Big Brothers Big Sisters in October after a group of black fraternity members recruited for the program at his barber shop in Lewisville, Texas.

Raised by a single mom, Johnson had a Big Brother from third grade until he graduated from high school. With three kids of his own, he said he couldn't keep waiting until it was the right moment in his life to help another child. Now he mentors a 10-year-old boy.

"You know, I had to see a man to be a man," Johnson said. "I see myself in my little brother. It's like the same stuff that he was struggling in, I was struggling in, too."

Patrick Meyers, 22, of Ridgewood, N.J., said he was inspired by how the Obamas served their Chicago hometown.

In his 20s, the president worked as a community organizer on the city's South Side. Michelle Obama was the founding executive director of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps community service program that trained young people for jobs in the nonprofit world.

"I thought about the community that I grew up in and what kind of impact I had so far, and it was minimal," Meyers said. "I thought that I needed to do more and give back."

Meyers earned a bachelor's degree in finance, with a minor in economics in last May from the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pa. He applied for City Year in Miami right before graduation. When he started college, he said he thought he'd get a job as an entry level analyst at an investment bank on Wall Street. Now, he helps students with math problems and spends four days a week working at an after-school program.

Obama is not the first president to push national service.

President John F. Kennedy launched the Peace Corps. President Richard Nixon established a National Volunteer Week. President George H.W. Bush created the Daily Point of Light Award to honor volunteers.

"This isn't about one president," said Michael Brown, chief executive and co-founder of the nonprofit City Year, based in Boston. "It's about the American presidency. It's part of the role of the American president to call on people to serve."
.

On the Net: Habitat for Humanity: http://www.habitat.org/ Big Brothers Big Sisters: http://www.bbbs.org/ City Year: http://www.cityyear.org/ AmeriCorps: http://www.americorps.gov Government's volunteer site: http://www.volunteer.gov/ Experience Corps: http://www.experiencecorps.org

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14213128

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Helping Haiti

Helping Haiti

The world's attention this past week has been on the terrible images of destruction in Haiti, which was nearly leveled by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake on Tuesday. The Friendly Fire bloggers weighed in on the politics of Haitian relief. The following exchange is excerpted from their discussion at www.insidesocal.com/friendlyfire.

Where was the relief before Tuesday?

THE heartbreaking and pathetic scene I and a group of other American visitors witnessed at the small beach town in northern Haiti still haunts me. We had no sooner arrived at the beach when a contingent of Haitian police and local officials frantically waved away a throng of the town's residents who had poured onto the beach to hawk food, trinkets, carvings and tattered clothing items - but mostly to beg.

Their torn T-shirts and ragged shorts, and emaciated, hollow-eyed looks bespoke of more than Haiti's legendary poverty. It spoke of the sheer, utter desperation to get anything from those they regarded as rich foreign tourists.

I and thousands of other visitors to Haiti have routinely witnessed that tormenting scene during the past decade. Yet, it took a murderous earthquake, clips of bodies sprawled in the streets, a collapsed palace and shanties, torn streets, and the shocked expressions on children's faces for the U.S., legions of public agencies and private donors to leap over themselves to promise to send food, medical supplies, clothing, building materials, construction teams, security forces and cash to Haiti.

Why did it take a natural tragedy for this? Haiti's sorry history of American occupation, brutal dictatorial and military rule, destitution, food crises, devastating hurricanes in 2008, and international meddling in the nation's internal politics is well known.

A colossal earthquake brought the world attention to Haiti. The questions are why did it take that and what will it take for the world to stick around after the rubble is cleared and help transform Haiti into the democratic, self-supporting nation?

Haiti itself bears some blame

Earl, part of Haiti's problems stem from its history, which is like a slippery slope. No matter how many times Haitians tried to ascend that slope, they always slid back down.

Seeing that the country was a gateway into the Caribbean, first the Spanish took over and then the French, making the colonialism that followed no picnic. When the French left, the place collapsed. But being under colonial rule was only part of the problem. The other part was that a of rogues gallery of elected officials and dictators.

How can you blame the West or the world for problems that Haiti created, including those brought on by Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier? While there are links to poverty, one doesn't always have to be a gateway to the other.

Forget about Haiti's debt to the World Bank. Many countries owe them big.The best thing to do for that ravaged country after all the relief and aid, is to send them a peacekeeping task force to train them and help them produce things that they can export to bolster their sagging economy.

Proud to be an American

Today, I am almost sinfully proud of America. There is no more generous nation or people when disaster strikes and there is suffering. An earthquake or hurricane, a tsunami or flood in some faraway land - even that of an enemy - and we are there.

Yes, I know we let ourselves down with Katrina. We are not always efficient or effective, but we usually mean well.

When there was an earthquake in Pakistan, we were there - unselfishly and without political motives. When the Christmas Tsunami struck Thailand, India, Indonesia and all the way to the eastern coast of Africa, we sent aid, doctors, rescue workers, hospital supplies, hospital ships, blankets, water and food. When the earthquake hit Iran, we were ready to go - regardless of our political relations.

Our response, both personally and institutionally, to the horribly tragic earthquake in Haiti is inspiring and fills me with patriotism and pride.

We dispatched aid immediately. No focus groups. No spin. No hearings. Hospital ships were on their way within hours. Rescue specialists, both human and canine, are already there. Troops, which really are peacekeepers, are landing even as I write. They are not there to stay. They are not occupying the country.

They will not rob the people of their few resources. They risk life to keep the peace and let food, water, medicine be distributed without fear of riots or bullies or thieves. We are doing what is right, entirely for the right reasons.

From the private sector the response has been equally heartening. The Red Cross and religious groups across the religious spectrum have jumped at the chance of being of service to people, people not necessarily of their same faith, simply because there is need. Nations from Venezuela to Iceland, Canada to Cuba are also giving.

We come, we help and we don't stay. This is what America does best. This is America at our best.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_14207759

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Haiti Authorities Battle Looters

A Haitian police officer attempted an arrest Sunday as thousands of people started looting sections of downtown Port-au-Prince.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Thousands of looters played a deadly version of cat-and-mouse with police in the earthquake-shattered capital on Sunday, stripping stores of canned goods, wash basins and other wares along block after block of a downtown thoroughfare.

The stealing surged and ebbed as police, far outnumbered by the teeming mob of mostly young men and some women, occasionally passed through the section of Boulevard Jean Jacques Dessalines. Sometimes the officers stopped and fired some shots or arrested a looter or two, and sometimes they simply drove through.

Journalists saw one looter shot in the head and fall dead during one clash when several shots were fired. A few blocks away, later, other police were slapping, kicking and arrested suspected looters.

Two trucks carrying soldiers from the United Nations mission in Haiti passed through the crowd at one point, and did not stop. One of the soldiers took pictures with a pocket-sized camera.

Security has been a major concern since Tuesday's quake, which collapsed entire police stations and barracks and reduced the snow-white Ministry of Justice to hand-sized rubble. It is believed that hundreds of police officers were lost.

Several fights broke out over large shiny silver wash bowls. A woman emerged from the group victorious with the bowl, and near her side was a girl toting a wooden club. She also nabbed a bottle of shampoo. Many of the looters worked in teams with similar makeshift bodyguards.

How to Help

• American Red Cross
  
  
• UNICEF
  
  
• Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund
  
  

Standing at the edge of the mob, 18-year-old Reginald Elacen suggested the police should be allowing the badly damaged stores to be emptied, and helping keep order. "We really don't have a choice," he said, referring to the desperate needs of Haitians who lost everything in the quake. "If the police would help, it could be done without violence."

The looters appeared to have virtual control of about a ten-block long section of the boulevard, and some of the side streets as well. Still, just a few blocks away on the road, a store owner was calmly overseeing an orderly emptying of his broken shop. He was using a kind of bucket-brigade of some 30 young men stretching over the store's shattered roof, handing out goods can by can.

"It's a bad situation," the Jordanian soldier said, referring to the looting.

Not far from there, U.S. Marines set up a similar cordon around another search-and-rescue team from Fairfax County, Va. They were checking shattered homes but had not found anyone alive yet, officers said.

Also across the city, residents held Sunday religious services. Nearly all the grand churches of Port-au-Prince -- Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, to name a few -- are ruined, as are even many of smaller ones.

About 500 people gathered at what apparently was the only standing large church left in the capital. They spilled outside the building, some sitting on its stoop. A priest told the audience they would "We will honor the dead whether they were present or not.

A woman leading the singing in front appealed to them: "Put your hands in the air to thank God nothing happened to you! Give thanks because you are here today! Give thanks because you're not lost!"

The audience members readily obliged, "Merci, merci, merci," they chanted, waving their arms to the ceiling.

The only sign of damage to the blue and white structure was a statue of the Virgin Mary in front that lay on its side.

"We're in God's hands and we've lost everything but he gives us strength and hope and we came here to honor him," said Avila Pierre, an elderly woman perched on the steps outside the church.

When asked why the church stood as buildings nearby fell during the tremors she said, "Only God knows why."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703569004575009012833838330.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLENews#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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Social Security rarely uses E-Verify

by Stephen Dinan

Despite helping run the government's electronic database designed to weed out illegal-immigrant workers, Social Security failed to run E-Verify checks on its own employees nearly 20 percent of the time.

An audit by the Social Security Administration's inspector general says the agency outright failed to check 19 percent of its hires in 2008 and 2009, and of the checks it did run, nearly half of them weren't performed in a timely manner.

It's all the more embarrassing because the agency, along with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, runs E-Verify, the tool the government expects to become mandatory for all U.S. businesses.

"It's telling, I suppose, that an agency that should be tops at implementing E-Verify is missing some major pieces of it," said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, who has been a longtime critic of the program. "Here's an organization that is expected to understand government processes, and it hasn't done so. I don't see it as fair to expect the public at large to do 100 percent better."

Some businesses and immigrant rights groups have balked at using E-Verify, arguing that its error rate is too high. But other businesses and many lawmakers have embraced E-Verify as a way to prove to authorities and to customers that they are trying to keep a legal work force.

Social Security officials didn't return a message seeking comment about the audit.

In an official response submitted to the inspector general, Social Security officials said they accepted all of the inspector general's criticisms. But the response also said the officials disagreed with the finding that every new hire must be screened.

Bill Wright, a spokesman for USCIS, which administers E-Verify, wouldn't comment on the audit but said his agency is working on tools to help businesses use the system.

"USCIS is committed to ensuring that all employers and agencies enrolled in E-Verify use the program properly, and we are continuing to develop compliance assistance resources to help them," he said.

Employers run the name of a new hire through E-Verify, and the system sends back either a confirmation that the employee is authorized to work in the U.S. or a tentative non-confirmation. Employees then have a chance to resolve the problem, which in some cases results from something as simple as a failure to alert the government about a name change after marriage.

In other cases, though, the employee is not authorized to work in the U.S.

Employers are not supposed to run names through the database before hiring someone because of the chance of error in initial non-confirmations.

The audit said Social Security hired 9,311 people in 2008 and 2009 but failed to run E-Verify checks on 1,767 of them.

Of the others, the agency ran E-Verify checks on 1,874 people too early, in violation of the terms of use. Those terms also specify that employers must begin the E-Verify check within three days of the date they hire someone. Social Security ran checks on another 1,784 hires after three days.

Of the 19 percent of names that were never checked at all, the audit said, 44 of them should have been flagged as potential problems.

The Obama and Bush administrations pushed E-Verify as a key component to helping businesses hire legal workers.

All federal agencies are required to check their new hires against the system. As of September, federal contractors also are required to check new employees. Some states have gone so far as to require all businesses to check new employees.

A mandatory verification system is almost certain to be a part of any immigration bill enacted in Congress, and the penalties for failure to use the system are likely to be severe.

"When this happens in the government sector, well, the upshot is an IG report. But in the private sector, you're talking about investigations and penalties," Mr. Harper said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/social-security-often-fails-to-use-e-verify-tool-i//print/

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Census to break down origins of indigenous

by Juliana Barbassa and Manuel Valdes

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADERA, Calif. | Most Americans will find it easy to check a box on the U.S. census form describing their ethnicity: White. Black. American Indian.

But it's not so simple for indigenous immigrants — the Indians of Mexico and Central America. They often need more than one box because their ancestry can cover multiple census categories. They also must overcome a significant language barrier and a mistrust of government.

For the 2010 count, the Census Bureau wants to tally immigrant indigenous groups for the first time, to get a more complete snapshot of a growing segment of the immigrant population.

The bureau will tabulate handwritten entries specifying that the respondent belongs to a Central American indigenous group such Maya, Nahua, Mixtec or Purepecha. The list of populations that will be counted will be made public when results are released in 2011, said Census Bureau spokeswoman Michele Lowe.

"We're always striving to present an accurate portrait of the American people, and this is part of that effort," she said.

An accurate count is important to the indigenous groups and to the federal government, which allocates resources to state and local governments according to the results.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that indigenous migrants make up 17 percent of the country's farmworkers, and may represent up to 30 percent of California's farmworker population. Florida also has a large indigenous immigrant population.

Indigenous organizations are working independently within their own communities to dispel apprehension and encourage participation in the federal survey. They speak many languages, making a single educational campaign impossible.

Many have encountered discrimination in their home countries because of their indigenous origin, and in this country for their immigrant status. All this makes them less likely to volunteer sensitive personal information to a government agency.

"In the past, many people wouldn't want to say they were indigenous," said Santos Miguel Tzunum Vasquez of the Asociacion Esperanza Maya Quiche in Florida. "Even I hid it sometimes."

Mr. Vasquez's organization was founded to help the survivors of a 1997 massacre in a village in Guatemala called La Esperanza. Guatemala's 36-year civil war left tens of thousands of civilians dead, many of them indigenous civilians who were suspected of helping insurgents.

Mr. Vasquez feels safer in the United States — enough to look forward to telling the government of his indigenous background.

"I'm proud of what I am. I am indigenous, I am Maya," he said. "That is what I will say."

Political awareness and organizing within indigenous groups, particularly in California and Florida, has helped, said Jonathan Fox, a professor of Latin American and Hispanic studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

"More indigenous migrants are willing to come out in public and claim their ethnic identity," Mr. Fox said, but that progress hasn't been equal across the country.

The Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities in Fresno represents indigenous immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The organization has launched a campaign promoting participation in the census through workshops, public forums, fliers and radio broadcasts.

"We want to be counted as we are — as Mixtecos, Zapotecos, Triques," said Rufino Dominguez, executive director of the organization. "It's important so everyone knows we are here, and that there are many of us."

Oralia Maceda, a Mixtec community organizer with the Binational Center, told a recent gathering of indigenous women in the rural Central Valley town of Madera, Calif., that the tally can have implications for their everyday lives. Census data will help determine how more than $300 billion in federal funds are distributed to state and local governments each year.

The women had been debating how to get a community clinic — the only one they can access — to provide interpreters in their language. They were told that knowing how many indigenous live in the county, and which languages they speak, will help.

Hundreds of miles north, in the naval town of Bremerton, Wash., a community of 350 Mam speakers from Guatemala discussed the 10-question form. Hoisting a giant printout of the census questionnaire, lawyer Andrea Schmitt spoke in Spanish to the group. Mariano Mendoza, a group leader, interpreted in Mam, a tonal Mayan language that about 50,000 people in the world speak.

Ms. Schmitt pointed out two questions that will be important for indigenous immigrants: race and ethnicity.

Question 8 asks whether they consider themselves to be "of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin." The next question asks their race. The Census Bureau recommends that indigenous immigrants from Latin America choose "American Indian or Alaska Native" as their race, then write in the name of their community.

"If everyone agrees to put down Maya, the government will have an idea that in Bremerton there's a group that is Maya that speaks a language that is not Spanish," she said.

Her remarks cause some confusion. A man in the crowd said he put down Hispanic in other government paperwork. "Is it lying?" he asked.

Ms. Schmitt clarified that it isn't, and makes an important point. The Census Bureau cannot share information — any information, including immigration status — with other branches of the federal government.

"They're really torn. They're afraid there will be a backlash," said Lourdes Villanueva of the Redlands Christian Migrant Association in Florida. "But there is a lot of excitement, too. They want to be counted, and to be counted as indigenous."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/census-to-break-down-origins-of-indigenous//print/

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Muslim question persists in Army shooting

by Bill Gertz

Fear of offending Muslims or being insensitive to religion was likely a key factor to why Army supervisors missed signs that the suspect in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage was a Muslim extremist, according to national security experts.

Senior Pentagon officials last week sought to play down or sidestep questions about why Army supervisors and FBI counterterrorism officials missed warning signs or failed to take action against Army Maj. Nidal Hasan before the Nov. 5 attack, which killed 13 people — all but one them soldiers.

Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a C-SPAN interview Sunday that committee hearings set for Wednesday will examine the two "disconnects" related to Army personnel reports: that Maj. Hasan was promoted despite signs that he had become radicalized, and that intelligence reports indicating the major had terrorism links apparently were ignored.

Patrick S. Poole, a counterterrorism consultant to government and law enforcement, said the Pentagon report did not address the problem of political correctness in the military "that allowed for Maj. Hasan's continued rise despite his poor performance." Mr. Poole said an "atmosphere of intimidation" exists in the military regarding Islamist threats that "prevented any substantive complaints to [Maj. Hasan's] increasingly extremist statements."

"Everyone along the way was content to give him a pass," Mr. Poole said.

Former Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr., who co-led a Pentagon review of the shooting, dismissed concerns that Maj. Hasan's religion was a factor in performance reviews during his career as an Army medical counselor.

When asked whether the immediate problem at Fort Hood, Texas, was Islamist radicalization, Mr. West declined to single out Islamists. "Our concern is not with the religion," he told reporters at the Pentagon. "It is with the potential effect on our soldiers' ability to do their job."

Mr. West said "radicalization of any sort" is the issue and that "our concern is with actions and effects, not necessarily with motivations."

Adm. Vernon E. Clark, a former chief of naval operations and the investigation's other co-leader, declined to answer when asked whether political correctness led to the Army security failures. He suggested that the matter is addressed in a secret annex to the report that he and Mr. West helped produce.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on whether political correctness contributed to the security lapse.

The Pentagon's review, made public Friday, blamed a series of failures within the military for preventing Maj. Hasan from being identified as a threat despite having sent e-mails to an al Qaeda cleric in Yemen months before the shootings.

The review concluded that the Army is ill-equipped to deal with "insider" threats. Mr. West and Mr. Clark said several Army officers appear to have been negligent in assessing Maj. Hasan in personnel reviews and other incidents during his career and likely will be punished.

The public version of the report, "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood," makes no mention of Islamist extremism, and refers to the internal security threat posed by unspecified "external influences" on troops.

An appendix to the report on risk factors appears to play down the Islamist threat by stating that "religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor; most fundamentalist groups are not violent, and religious-based violence is not confined to members of fundamentalist groups."

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a former military medical doctor, said political correctness is a major problem for the military and the government as a whole in dealing with Islamism.

"The culture in the military and the U.S. government is that you just don't touch religion," said Dr. Jasser, president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy. As a result, the military is ill-equipped to deal with the threat posed by radicalized Muslims, he said in an interview.

Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said the military's failure to understand the problem of radical Islamism is the reason the Fort Hood shootings were not prevented.

"The military is still mired in this murderous political correctness," Mr. Emerson said, adding that religion, contrary to what Mr. West said, is "every part of the problem" in the shootings.

"Hassan's jihadist beliefs were that infidels should be killed in the military," Mr. Emerson said.

Mr. Emerson said the neglect of Islamist extremism "stands in sharp contrast to the military's decision to weed out white supremacists a few years back at Fort Bragg by throwing out any serviceman who supported the Ku Klux Klan."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters Friday that the review uncovered shortcomings in defending against external influences on the military.

"It is clear that as a department, we have not done enough to adapt to the evolving domestic internal security threat to American troops and military facilities that has emerged over the past decade," he said.

Dr. Jasser said he fears that the Army will use several officers as Fort Hood "scapegoats" although they were never provided the training and directives needed to identify those prone to conducting terrorist attacks.

"We need to begin a national conversation on what is fueling terrorists and that terrorism is simply a symptom of those who mix religion with a global political goal of creating an Islamic state," he said. "Until we address that, we're going to see people who are threats fall through the filter."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/muslim-question-persists-in-army-shooting//print/

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'09 seen as a high for terror charges

by Devlin Barrett

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal prosecutors charged more suspects with terrorism in 2009 than in any year since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, providing evidence of what experts call a rise in plots spurred by Internet recruitment, the spread of al Qaeda overseas and ever-shifting tactics of terror chiefs.

A review of major national security cases by the Associated Press found 54 defendants had federal terrorism-related charges filed or unsealed against them in the past 12 months.

The Justice Department would not confirm the figure or provide its own. But an agency spokesman said 2009 had more defendants charged with terrorism than any year since the 2001 attacks. The year that came closest was 2002, said the spokesman, Dean Boyd.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, called it "an extraordinary year across the board," adding that the wide range of cases show al Qaeda "is in it for the long haul and we need to be as well."

The rate of terrorism charges accelerated in September, when authorities disrupted what they said was a burgeoning plot to detonate bombs aboard New York commuter trains. The quick pace of cases continued until the end of the year, with an attempted Christmas bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

One day alone was particularly heavy: On Sept. 24, federal prosecutors announced charges in five separate terrorism cases in Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Texas.

David Kris, the top terrorism official in the Obama administration's Justice Department, marveled at the volume of terrorism cases when he spoke at a conference of lawyers in November.

"The last several weeks or months have been kind of a crucible experience for us," Mr. Kris said.

What truly constitutes a terrorism case can be a matter of legal and political debate.

In counting major terrorism cases, the AP used a rigorous standard that produced a conservative count. The various charges that made the list include conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to murder people abroad and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The list also includes some cases that did not involve Islamic terrorists, such as the kidnapping of a U.S. citizen in Panama.

But the 54 defendants do not include, for example, those charged only with lying to agents in a terrorism investigation, or the Army psychiatrist in the Fort Hood, Texas, military base shooting who faces non-terrorism murder charges brought by military prosecutors instead of civilian charges. Nor do the 54 include the five Washington, D.C.-area youths charged in Pakistan. If all those cases were also added — and some commentators do count them — the total number of defendants would be 63.

As hectic as 2009 was, counterterrorism officials will only be busier this year as the administration prepares to bring some Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees to trial in the U.S., predicted Patrick Rowan, who was President George W. Bush's top Justice Department counterterrorism official and now works at the private law firm McGuire Woods.

"It is going to be an extremely busy and challenging year because of these Gitmo [Guantanamo] cases coming in that are going to place tremendous stress on the prosecutors, the judicial system, and the FBI," Mr. Rowan said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/09-seen-as-a-high-for-terror-charges//print/

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Navigating new naval threats

by Adm. James A. Lyons

Terrorist's threats against the U.S. Navy are nothing new. The latest threat declared on Dec. 31 that al Qaeda plans to target areas of naval interests, including ship movements and logistic support services by other countries. Data on possible weapons aboard as well as information on crews and their families does add a new dimension. As a result, the U.S. Navy stated that the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is aware of the threat and has heightened its alert posture in the Middle East. However, let's be clear: This is not a law enforcement issue. It requires all the elements of our national intelligence agencies working with those of our allies to defeat the threats.

With known al Qaeda "sleeper cells" here in the United States, we need to broaden our area of concern to include not only our domestic naval facilities but our broader maritime environment. This should include our liquified natural gas terminals, major commercial ports and facilities. The closure of a major seaport shipping channel such as at Long Beach due to a terrorist attack could have a devastating impact.

The guided missile destroyer USS Cole was subjected to a terrorist attack in October 2000, during a brief fuel stop in Aden, Yemen. Part of the problem was that the Cole has fallen into a predictable pattern of operations for fueling our ships in Aden once they had transited the Suez Canal. Approximately, 25 routine naval fueling stops had been made to Aden over the previous few years. Further, 12 days advanced notice was required by the government of Yemen for these brief fuel stops. It is clear that all local port authorities, including the terrorists, had precise information on the Cole's movements.

This was despite a heightened security alert in Yemen at the time of the Cole's scheduled stop. The alert was sufficiently serious to cause the U.S. Embassy to be closed, but the Cole was never alerted. The brief fuel stop was looked upon as "business as usual," resulting in the tragic loss of 17 American sailors.

Clearly, we must assume that al Qaeda and their U.S. based "sleeper cells" have been studying our port and facilities. This is more than an issue for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. We need to review our current pattern of operations both here in the United States and for our deployed forces. For example, how are we rotating our ships to carry out their anti-piracy patrols; and where and how these ships are being provided logistic support?

When our ships are in a foreign port, no local barges should be permitted to approach a ship, whether at anchor or alongside a pier without first being inspected. In effect, an "exclusion zone" must be established around our ships. To enforce such a zone, our ships or the host country will have to provide a well-armed boat in the water to prevent any unauthorized craft from approaching our ships. We know this is a firm requirement established as a result of one of the first "Red Cell" exercises we conducted after the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

In the Cole bombing, after the second fuel stop, our ships were prevented from putting their boats in the water by the government of Yemen because they claimed it was in infringement on their sovereignty, and our Embassy agreed. What nonsense.

Our Rules of Engagement (ROEs) should also be reviewed. "Don't shoot until shot at" is the terrorist formula for success. We must assume that al Qaeda has information on our current ROEs and how we react to high-speed craft - for example, Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval boats aggressively maneuvering in the direction of our ships with their guns unmasked. The Iranians paid no attention to warnings issued by our ships. These aggressive actions cannot be accepted. The decision on whether actions by an approaching craft or boat are threatening must be left with the on-the-scene commander. He must not be bound by a rigid set of rules that he must go through before he can open fire. It must be his call and he must be confident that he will have the backing of his superiors in the chain of command.

For our domestic ports and facilities, the U.S. Coast Guard is charged with the responsibility for the security of our ports. With their limited resources, they do an excellent job; however, they are stretched thin and additional resources to counter a serious terrorist threat are required. In the near term, consideration should be given to augmenting existing U.S. Coast Guard resources with civilian professional security assistance personnel (former SEAL and Special Forces personnel) and additional armed patrol craft. We must remain proactive if we are to be successful in defeating the al Qaeda threat.

Retired Navy Adm. James A. Lyons was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/navigating-new-naval-threats//print/

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From Fox News

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5 Americans Detained in Pakistan Allege Torture

Monday , January 18, 2010

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SARGODHA, Pakistan — 

Five Americans being held in Pakistan on suspicion of terrorism alleged they were being tortured in comments shouted to reporters Monday as they were driven from court.

Police and prison authorities denied any ill-treatment, and said the men did not bring up their complaints in court.

The allegations could add to political sensitivities surrounding the case, which comes amid growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. Washington is also calling for the Muslim country to do more to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The five, all Muslims, were detained in December after being arrested at the house of one of their relatives in the Punjabi town of Saragodha.

Police have publicly accused them of plotting terror attacks in Pakistan, having links to al-Qaida and seeking to join militants fighting U.S. troops across the border in Afghanistan. Lawyers for the men say they were focused only on Afghanistan.

In Monday's hearing, police submitted a charge sheet and evidence to the court in which the men are accused of violating several sections of Pakistan's penal code and anti-terrorism law. The most serious charge is conspiracy to carry out a terrorist act, which could carry life imprisonment depending on what the act is, according to prosecutor Nadim Akram Cheema and police officer Amir Shirazi.

Prosecutors now have to decide whether the case is strong enough to charge the men and bring them to trial.

The men were inside a prison van when several of them shouted in unison, "We are being tortured" three times within earshot of reporters. The media and the public were not allowed to attend the court session.

Aftab Haanif, the deputy superintendent of Sargodha jail where the men are being held, denied any kind of torture and said they were receiving better food than regular inmates.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he had no immediate comment, but said consular officials had visited the men.

The five men are between the ages of 19 and 25 and all from the Washington area. They were reported missing by their families in late November after one of them left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

The next court hearing was set for early next month.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,583249,00.html

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Filipino WWII Veterans Still Waiting for Payments From U.S.

Sunday , January 17, 2010

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WAIPAHU, Hawaii — 

Gaudencio Sotio injured his left leg fighting to expel the Japanese military from the Philippines during World War II . Though Filipino, he was fighting under the command of the United States, which had colonized his homeland in the early 1900s.

Last February, the U.S. said it would pay a lump sum — $9,000 or $15,000 — to veterans like Sotio in lieu of pensions it had promised Filipino soldiers during the war but reneged on paying.

Since then, more than 11,000 surviving veterans now in their 80s and 90s received this much delayed monetary recognition of their service and sacrifice. But thousands of others are still waiting to receive their money as the federal government wades through a backlog of applications.

This bureaucracy moved too slowly for Sotio, who died Jan. 10. The 84-year-old applied for his benefit on Feb. 20 — almost 11 months ago — just days after the law authorizing the funds went into effect. His death came before the Department of Veterans Affairs was able to rule on his claim.

"My husband said: 'If the others are receiving, maybe I'm going to receive too,'" said Norma Sotio, his widow, as tears welled in her eyes. "It's one year already. If my husband received that money maybe he enjoy."

Part of the problem is that 40,000 people applied for the benefit when the VA had been expecting only half that number.

To cope, the VA added seven additional claims processors to its Manila field office.

The National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, which has over a century of documents for military servicemen and women, has also increased its staff to deal with the claims, and is now handling 800 lump sum payment queries a week, or twice as many as when the program started.

The VA expects these changes will allow it to plow through the existing application pile in about 10 weeks.

"We are committed to delivering these benefits in a compassionate and timely manner," said Willie Clark , the Western area director for the field operations office.

Ineligible applications may be slowing claims processing. The department has so far had to deny nearly 8,000 claims, mostly from people who hadn't served. Some were from veteran widows, children and other next of kin who aren't eligible. Some people filed more than one application.

Some 16,000 claims are still being reviewed.

The waiting has frustrated veterans who have already spent most of their lives pushing the government to fulfill its promises.

"The long delay is justice denied. That's the saying. It's really true — it's an injustice somehow," said Art Caleda, president of the Hawaii chapter of World War II Filipino-American Veterans.

About 400 applicants are in Hawaii, which has a large Filipino-American population. Most — or 65 percent — have been paid while 15 percent were denied. About 20 percent of the Hawaii claims are still pending, like Sotio's.

"There are veterans who were able to file their application claims but then they died. What is the use of that?" said Caleda. "They're not only frustrated, they are dying you know. They're dying."

More than 250,000 Filipinos served alongside U.S. soldiers to defend the Philippines from the 1941 Japanese invasion. They formed the resistance during the subsequent Japanese occupation.

The U.S. military assured Filipinos they would be able to apply for U.S. citizenship and qualify for full U.S. veterans' benefits if they served. But one year after Japan 's surrender, the Rescission Act of 1946 declared that Filipinos were not in active service for the U.S. military during the war.

This stripped Filipinos of their status as U.S. veterans and denied them the benefits they were promised.

The veterans pushed for years to win back these benefits. Success came slowly and in bits. In 1990, Congress passed a bill allowing thousands to immigrate and become U.S. citizens. A decade later, the U.S. recognized the right of the veterans to be buried in national cemeteries.

Congress considered legislation authorizing pensions to Filipino veterans several times over the years. It finally settled on the lump sum solution when it included $198 million for the program in last year's economic stimulus bill .

The VA has distributed $136 million, or over two-thirds of the money, to date. It's prepared to ask lawmakers for additional funds if it appears it will exhaust the allocated amount. Veterans have until Feb. 16 to file.

Norma Sotio keeps a copy of her husband's application in their small apartment in an elderly housing complex in suburban Honolulu. It says Gaudencio Sotio served in the Commonwealth Army of the Philippines — a unit made up of U.S.-trained soldiers that was part of the U.S. Armed Forces of the Far East — during the war.

After the war he joined the New Philippine Scouts — a unit of Philippine citizens that served with the U.S. Armed Forces and later worked as a radio newscaster.

Gaudencio Sotio was a quiet man and never spoke much of the war, she said. But he kept a slim box full of medals, including a Purple Heart .

Because her husband applied before he died, Norma Sotio would receive his benefit if the VA determines he had a valid claim.

She says she'd share any money she receives with his children.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,583243,00.html

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Training of Airport Screeners Varies Greatly Worldwide

Sunday , January 17, 2010

FOX NEWS

Full-body scanners that reveal what's hidden under your clothing and million-dollar machines that analyze air puffs for traces of explosives are not the first line of defense that keeps terrorists from getting aboard an airplane.

The front-line defenders remain the airport screeners — the men and women who guide you through those machines — and their training varies greatly throughout the world.

The Transportation Security Administration says America's airport screeners are the cream of the crop. "TSA's officers are our greatest investment and we provide them with a significant amount of training, both before they start working in airports and after they're on the job," spokesman Greg Soule said in a statement to FoxNews.com. "We rely on the top notch people, training, and technology to keep the aviation system safe."

But critics say America's airport screeners are undereducated, undertrained and ill-equipped compared to their counterparts in other developed nations. And that, they say, puts American passengers at greater risk.

The requirements for the job are a "reflection of the fact that we have not professionalized the field," says Andrew Thomas, an aviation security expert and editor of the Journal of Transportation Security. He has called for an academic, degree-based program for potential screeners.

"There's no assurance that [screeners] are in fact possessing the requisite skills, knowledge and background to do that job," Thomas told FoxNews.com. 'There's nothing in there about aviation security."

To become one of the nation's roughly 49,000 full- and part-time transportation security officers (TSOs), applicants must be U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals, possess a high school diploma or have at least one year of full-time experience working in security, aviation screening or as an X-ray technician.

Screeners must be proficient in "reading, writing, speaking and listening" and undergo up to 100 hours of classroom and on-the-job training.

They must pass drug and alcohol screening for marijuana, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine and amphetamines. They must complete a medical evaluation, be able to lift and carry up to 70 pounds, have "customer service" skills and be able to "maintain focus and awareness" within stressful environments. Being able to walk up to two miles per shift is another prerequisite.

Successful candidates, who start at roughly $12 per hour and can earn up to $43,357 annually, must also pass a credit check and be less than $7,500 in debt, be clear of any delinquent federal or state taxes and not have any past-due child support payments.

According to TSA officials, more than 50 percent of TSOs have been employed by the agency for more than five years, and 25 percent are U.S. veterans.

Key skills, according to the TSA's Web site, are the ability to learn the "theories, dynamics and factors" in the aviation screening process, operating X-ray machines, working with persons of diverse backgrounds and communicating "non-technical" information effectively to others.

Those are specific criteria, but critics say the skill set doesn't match the job.

Thomas, who blasted the requirements as an "absolute joke," said U.S. screeners should be required to have secondary language skills — as is the case in many other nations — as part of a "globalized" field like aviation security. He also noted the lack of an "apprentice program" for aspiring screenes.

"Basic customer service skills are for a customer service job, and that's how they're treating it," Thomas said. "More important is the tangible ability to understand aviation security. That needs to be taught."

An airport screener's role is "completely different" in Israel, says Rafi Ron, former security director at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport.

"The main role is not the screening aspect so much as it is conducting interviews, and that calls for a completely different set of skills," Ron told FoxNews.com. "They're not screeners, they're profilers."

Ron said the typical Israeli airport screener is 21 years old, possesses a "strong, curious" personality, has completed military service and undergoes up to nine weeks of training before employment. Pay reportedly begins at about $11 per hour.

"The kind of people who we look for are above average intelligence, so when they run interviews they are not easily impressed [with potential security risks]," he said. "That leads to a very interesting and a very different approach."

A large percentage of the workforce are students, Ron said, and are typically not employed longer than five years.

"Because of the need for curiosity, after a few years, you get burnt out," he said. "You lose your curiosity. [Screeners] don't it make it a career."

In Belgium, screeners must be citizens and be fluent in French and Dutch, unlike the one-language requirement in the U.S. Basic training includes 40 hours of instruction and up to 64 hours on various aviation security fields such as X-ray machines. Successful candidates are then paid roughly $15 per hour, according to a 2000 report on aviation security by the U.S. General Accountability Office.

Screeners in the Netherlands are also required to be fluent in two languages — Dutch and English — and are trained initially to become general security officers before receiving specialized training to be certified as checkpoint screeners. At least 40 hours of training precedes two months of on-the-job instruction and 24 hours of additional instruction annually.

Canadian screeners, according to GAO figures, must be fluent in either French or English and receive 20 hours of classroom training in addition to 40 hours of on-the-job training. Once certified by the government, individuals must pass written and practical tests every two years to remain on the job.

Douglas Laird, former security director for Northwest Airlines, said the amount of training hours screeners receive in Europe typically "far exceeds" the hours of instruction screeners receive in the United States.

"There's no comparison," Laird said. "And what you find in Europe, the screeners stay employed much longer than in the United States. It's more of a career."

He said the amount of training in the United States is not inadequate, but additional hours would undoubtedly produce a "better product."

"The concept is good, but to be effective, you need hundreds of hours," Laird said. "You have to have people who really understand the process."

The best screeners, regardless of which airport they protect, develop an "innate sense" of whom to search and whom to pass through to the gate, Laird said.

"You need to be able to look at a crowded screen and determine what you're concerned with and cut out the noise," he said. "Some people can't do it very well."

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