U.S. beefs up defenses near Iran

New antimissile systems are being set up in Persian Gulf countries, including early-warning radar and missile batteries. Washington emphasizes that the measures are intended to be defensive.

By Julian E. Barnes

January 31, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The Obama administration has increased the U.S. military presence near Iran and is accelerating installation of antimissile systems in nearby countries, officials said Saturday, as the White House builds pressure for stern new sanctions against Tehran.

New air defense systems are being delivered to Persian Gulf countries, and specially-equipped cruisers -- a linchpin of the U.S. missile defense system -- are being deployed in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the officials said.

The moves are intended to reassure Gulf countries that they would be protected against possible offensive action from Tehran, which is under intensified international pressure to refrain from developing nuclear weapons.

U.S. officials stressed the defensive nature of the actions being taken throughout the region.

The partnership between the U.S. and Gulf countries, described by a senior U.S. official on Saturday, is likely to include early-warning radar systems and missile defenses that will be integrated with U.S. systems, including those on the cruisers and elsewhere.

The initiative involves the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, four countries with close military ties to the U.S.

"Iran and President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad have scared those on the west side of the Gulf right into our arms," said the senior official.

U.S. officials also hope the moves will alleviate concerns about Iran within Israel, which has said it has the right to launch military strikes to prevent Iranian progress toward development of weapons.

The Obama administration has stepped up pressure on Iran to take part in talks aimed at reconciling its civilian nuclear efforts with international concerns that Tehran's true goal is developing nuclear weapons.

A chief mission of top administration officials in recent weeks has been to build international support for intensified economic sanctions. The willingness of the Persian Gulf states to accept additional aid could help signal to countries opposed to the sanctions, such as China, that Iran poses concerns to areas besides the United States, Europe and Israel.

U.S. officials said the expanding partnership between U.S. and Persian Gulf countries is a direct result of the wariness of Gulf leaders concerning Ahmadinejad's intentions and actions in the region.

President Obama took office last year vowing to negotiate with Iran, but hopes for talks faded last fall after a package of proposed accords withered under Iranian inaction.

In meetings last week in London, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to solidify international support for harsher sanctions, and Obama warned in his State of the Union speech that diplomatic overtures to Iran would be combined with "consequences" if Tehran failed to cooperate.

Obama administration officials also have stressed their aversion to U.S. military action, and have taken strides to assure that their actions convey a protective posture.

In a speech to the Institute of the Study of War in Washington on Jan. 22, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, offered broad details of the expanded U.S.-Gulf partnerships. He said then that the measures were being driven by a fear of Iranian actions in the region.

In the speech, Petraeus said that two Patriot missile batteries had been deployed in each of four different countries, which he did not name, and that Aegis ballistic missile cruisers were now stationed full time in the Gulf.

Early-warning agreements between various countries in the region, Petraeus said, were enabling the U.S. to create a "common operational picture" for the region to counter the Iranian missile threat.

"Iran is clearly seen as a very serious threat by those on the other side of the Gulf front, and indeed, it has been a catalyst for the implementation of the architecture that we envision and have now been trying to implement," Petraeus said.

Developing an integrated warning system across a broad geographic expanse could help U.S. forces to quickly shoot down an Iranian missile.

U.S. officials hope that the expansion of the early-warning system also has the effect of calming Israeli concerns about Iran; they believe a preemptive strike by Israel could provoke a war.

Officials from both the Bush and Obama administrations have told Israeli officials they do not need to launch a strike against Iran.

The Obama White House believes that time remains to continue a diplomatic approach to halt Iranian weapons systems.

In Iran, however, the latest moves are likely to serve as reminders of the 1988 incident in which a U.S. Aegis cruiser shot down a civilian Iranian airliner, killing nearly 300 people.

The antimissile systems probably will mean some additional U.S. troops in the region. Patriot missiles are usually deployed with at least a small contingent of U.S. military personnel.

The presence of additional forces should not be a major issue within the four countries accepting the stepped-up defenses. Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all host major U.S. bases, and the government of the United Arab Emirates has a long-standing relationship with the American military.

U.S. officials also are working with allies in the Gulf to ensure freedom of navigation in the region. Arab countries worry that during a crisis, Iran could try to prevent their ships from traversing the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off their oil export business.

Obama administration officials also hope to head off an expanded nuclear arms race in the region. If Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon, or is seen as making progress toward acquiring one, wealthy Arab Gulf governments could seek their own weapons, a scenario Washington views as potentially volatile.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-us-iran31-2010jan31,0,4325559,print.story

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Lead investigator in the killing of Bobby Salcedo is slain in Mexico

Authorities would not speculate on whether his death is linked to the killing of the El Monte educator.

By Tracy Wilkinson and Jill Leovy

January 31, 2010

Reporting from Los Angeles and Mexico City

The lead investigator in the slaying in Mexico of El Monte educator Augustin Roberto "Bobby" Salcedo has been killed in an ambush, officials said Saturday.

It was not clear whether the death of investigator Manuel Acosta will have any effect on the case, in which little progress had been reported. Authorities would not speculate on whether Acosta's killing was related to Salcedo's.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers and judicial officials have been slain in Mexico in recent years, often in an effort to thwart investigations and silence witnesses. It is a tactic that usually works, as the vast majority of crimes in Mexico go unresolved.

Salcedo, an El Monte school board member, was visiting his wife's relatives during the Christmas holidays in Gomez Palacio, a city in Durango state that has become increasing violent as drug traffickers battle for turf. He and five friends were yanked from a bar after midnight on Dec. 30 by gunmen. They were killed, and their bodies were dumped in a field on the outskirts of town.

Acosta, in an interview with the Times, had pledged to get to the bottom of the killings.

But on Jan. 15, Acosta was ambushed by gunmen in a five-seat red pickup truck, the kind frequently used by drug traffickers. He was hit as he returned to his office from another deadly crime scene.

Acosta, 42, survived comatose and in critical condition. Authorities did not disclose the attack, saying they hoped to better protect Acosta by letting his assailants assume he was dead.

But on Tuesday he died. His injuries included gunshot wounds to the chest and torso.

His death was first reported in the Milenio newspaper in a dispatch from Gomez Palacio and confirmed Saturday to The Times by Martin Chavez, spokesman for the city.

Chavez declined to discuss whether Acosta's death dealt a setback to the Salcedo investigation, one of several cases the agent was handling. The case will be handed over to one of two investigators in Acosta's department. Chavez referred a reporter to the state prosecutor's office in Gomez Palacio. Calls there went unanswered Saturday.

Salcedo's widow, Betzy, reached by telephone, was startled by the news. She said the family had not been informed of any progress in the search for her husband's killers. "I don't know what to say," she said.

El Monte Mayor Andre Quintero, who was a friend of Salcedo's, called the news "devastating."

"On behalf of my community, we are so grateful for Mr. Acosta's life and work and for trying to get justice for Bobby and for other people," he said.

The killing is one more reason to redouble efforts against Mexican cartels, Quintero said, adding: "We have to persevere. We have to give the Mexican government the support they need to continue hunting down these evil people."

The FBI recently joined the case and has sent investigators to Mexico to assist in analyzing evidence from the site where the bodies of Salcedo and the five other men were found. FBI participation had created expectations among some people that this case might not end up in the same swirl of impunity that most Mexican cases do.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-El Monte), who has pushed for strong response to the Salcedo case, said Saturday she was dismayed by the news. Salcedo's death was shocking, she said, and Acosta's "doubly shocking."

Chu said she was struck by the brazen nature of the killing. So certain of impunity are the cartels "that they would murder the lead investigator in a case such as this one," Chu said. "It shows the degree to which the drug cartels are out of control."

Chu said she wants the investigation to be put into the hands of federal authorities in Mexico instead of local ones, an argument she made recently to Carlos Pascual, U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

Mexican law requires that cases meet certain legal requirements to qualify for federal investigation, she said. Pascual has agreed to look into the issue. But hearing of Acosta's death "gives me further resolve to push to have this made a federal case," Chu said.

Chu affirmed that the FBI is "involved and actively working" on the case and that forensic evidence is being analyzed.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined to comment on Acosta's death, saying only that the FBI "will continue to provide whatever assistance is requested from the Mexican government."

The death of Salcedo, a doctoral student at UCLA, sent shock waves through the Los Angeles area, where he was born and raised. A few days after the killing, about 5,000 people gathered for a vigil in his honor in El Monte, where he had been a beloved teacher, coach and school administrator. He is believed to have been the first U.S. elected official killed in the 4-year-old Mexican drug war.

Quintero, the El Monte mayor, said Salcedo's death continues to resonate locally. "Not a day goes by that I don't introduce myself and the minute I say 'El Monte,' the first thing that comes out of their mouth is, 'I'm sorry about Bobby.' "

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-salcedo31-2010jan31,0,861320,print.story

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U.S. citizen in CIA's cross hairs

The agency builds a case for putting Anwar al Awlaki, linked to the Ft. Hood shootings and Christmas bomb attempt, on its hit list. The complications involved are a window into a secretive process.

By Greg Miller

January 31, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The CIA sequence for a Predator strike ends with a missile but begins with a memo. Usually no more than two or three pages long, it bears the name of a suspected terrorist, the latest intelligence on his activities, and a case for why he should be added to a list of people the agency is trying to kill.

The list typically contains about two dozen names, a number that expands each time a new memo is signed by CIA executives on the seventh floor at agency headquarters, and contracts as targets thousands of miles away, in places including Pakistan and Yemen, seem to spontaneously explode.

No U.S. citizen has ever been on the CIA's target list, which mainly names Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, according to current and former U.S. officials. But that is expected to change as CIA analysts compile a case against a Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico but now resides in Yemen.

Anwar al Awlaki poses a dilemma for U.S. counter-terrorism officials. He is a U.S. citizen and until recently was mainly known as a preacher espousing radical Islamic views. But Awlaki's ties to November's shootings at Ft. Hood and the failed Christmas Day airline plot have helped convince CIA analysts that his role has changed.

"Over the past several years, Awlaki has gone from propagandist to recruiter to operational player," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official.

Awlaki's status as a U.S. citizen requires special consideration, according to former officials familiar with the criteria for the CIA's targeted killing program. But while Awlaki has not yet been placed on the CIA list, the officials said it is all but certain that he will be added because of the threat he poses.

"If an American is stupid enough to make cause with terrorists abroad, to frequent their camps and take part in their plans, he or she can't expect their citizenship to work as a magic shield," said another U.S. official. "If you join the enemy, you join your fate to his."

The complications surrounding Awlaki's case provide a rare window into the highly secretive process by which the CIA selects targets.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment, saying that it is "remarkably foolish in a war of this kind to discuss publicly procedures used to identify the enemy, an enemy who wears no uniform and relies heavily on stealth and deception."

Other current and former U.S. officials agreed to discuss the outlines of the CIA's target selection procedures on the condition of anonymity because of their sensitive nature. Some wanted to defend a program that critics have accused of causing unnecessary civilian casualties.

Decisions to add names to the CIA target list are "all reviewed carefully, not just by policy people but by attorneys," said the second U.S. official. "Principles like necessity, proportionality, and the minimization of collateral damage -- to persons and property -- always apply."

The U.S. military, which has expanded its presence in Yemen, keeps a separate list of individuals to capture or kill. Awlaki is already on the military's list, which is maintained by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command. Awlaki apparently survived a Dec. 24 airstrike conducted jointly by U.S. and Yemeni forces.

The CIA has also deployed more operatives and analysts to Yemen. CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappes was in the country last month, just weeks before a Nigerian accused of training with Al Qaeda in Yemen boarded a jetliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

From beginning to end, the CIA's process for carrying out Predator strikes is remarkably self-contained. Almost every key step takes place within the Langley, Va., campus, from proposing targets to piloting the remotely controlled planes.

The memos proposing new targets are drafted by analysts in the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center. Former officials said analysts typically submit several new names each month to high-level officials, including the CIA general counsel and sometimes Director Leon E. Panetta.

Former officials involved in the program said it was handled with sober awareness of the stakes. All memos are circulated on paper, so those granting approval would "have to write their names in ink," said one former official. "It was a jarring thing, to sign off on people getting killed."

The program is governed by extensive procedures and rules, but targeting decisions come down to a single criterion: whether the individual in question is "deemed to be a continuing threat to U.S. persons or interests."

Given that standard, the list mainly comprises Al Qaeda leaders and those seen as playing a direct role in devising or executing attacks. Espousing violence or providing financial support to Al Qaeda would not meet the threshold, officials said. But providing training to would-be terrorists or helping them get to Al Qaeda camps probably would.

The list is scrutinized every six months, officials said, and in some cases names are removed if the intelligence on them has grown stale.

"If someone hadn't popped on the screen for over a year, or there was no intelligence linking him to known terrorists or plans, we'd take him off," the former official said.

The National Security Council oversees the program, which is based on a legal finding signed after the Sept. 11 attacks by then-President George W. Bush. But the CIA is given extensive latitude to execute the program, and generally does not need White House approval when adding names to the target list.

The only exception, officials said, would be when the name is a U.S. citizen's.

The CIA has at times considered adding Americans' names to the target list. None were ever approved, the officials said, not because their citizenship protected them but because they didn't meet the "continuing threat" threshold.

Adam Gadahn, a California native now believed to be hiding in Pakistan, has been indicted on charges of treason and providing support to Al Qaeda. But Gadahn, former officials said, has mainly served in a propaganda role.

Officials said that whether Awlaki is added to the list hinges more on intelligence agencies' understanding of his role than any concern about his status as a U.S. citizen.

"If you are a legitimate military target abroad -- a part of an enemy force -- the fact that you're a U.S. citizen doesn't change that," said Michael Edney, who served as deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council from 2007 until 2009.

Awlaki, 38, was known for delivering fiery sermons at mosques in San Diego and suburban Virginia before moving to Yemen in 2004. Because of his radical online postings, he has been portrayed as a catalyst or motivator in nearly a dozen terrorism cases in the U.S. and abroad.

But it was his involvement in the two recent cases that triggered new alarms. U.S. officials uncovered as many as 18 e-mails between Awlaki and Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major accused of killing 13 people at Ft. Hood, Texas. Awlaki also has been tied to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of attempting to detonate a bomb on a Detroit-bound flight.

"Awlaki's interested in operations outside of Yemen, and he's trying to recruit more extremists, including Westerners," said the U.S. counter-terrorism official. "His knowledge of Western culture and language makes him valuable to [the offshoot] Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula.

"Taking him off the street," the official said of Awlaki, "would deal a blow to the group."

The CIA has carried out dozens of Predator strikes in Pakistan over the last year. The program is not foolproof, as drone strikes often kill multiple people even when the intended target escapes. The CIA has also made grievous mistakes in counter-terrorism operations, including capturing individuals misidentified as terrorism suspects. But the program remains valuable to U.S. officials.

President Obama alluded to the campaign in his State of the Union speech last week, saying that during his first year in office, "hundreds of Al Qaeda's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed -- far more than in 2008."

Many of those strikes were aimed at gatherings of militant groups or training complexes, current and former officials said. In such cases, the CIA is free to fire even if it does not have intelligence indicating the presence of anyone on its target list.

The CIA has carried out Predator attacks in Yemen since at least 2002, when a drone strike killed six suspected Al Qaeda operatives traveling in a vehicle across desert terrain.

The agency knew that one of the operatives was an American, Kamal Derwish, who was among those killed. Derwish was never on the CIA's target list, officials said, and the strike was aimed at a senior Al Qaeda operative, Qaed Sinan Harithi, accused of orchestrating the 2000 attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-cia-awlaki31-2010jan31,0,7941535,print.story

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Skilled at surviving on the edge

Even before the Haiti earthquake, life was a struggle for 11-year-old Clifford, one of Port-au-Prince's thousands of street children. He spends his days hustling for coins and queuing for food.

By Scott Kraft

January 31, 2010

Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

Clifford Berrette, 11 years old and 4 feet tall, moved like a determined little man through the choking exhaust of the bus terminal in scuffed white sneakers, unnoticed in the crush of people hurrying to leave town.

He picked up a rag from the ground and began to wipe the dirt off a blue minibus, clambering up bumpers and tires to reach the high spots. A taller boy started to clean the vehicle too, but Clifford wasn't going to let him horn in; he shoved him away. Then he extended a small palm to the driver.

"Pretty good job with just a rag," driver Gilbert Pierre said, handing Clifford 25 gourdes, about 50 cents. Beaming with pride, Clifford retreated to the shade, removed one of his sneakers and put the money inside.

It would be safe there until he could give it to his mother. "She promised to cook food tonight if I brought her money," he said.

A child made the man of the family too soon, Clifford works the margins of an urban landscape that's all margins. He's what Haitians call a kokorat , one of more than 4,000 children who work the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, hustling for coins and food, and sleeping wherever they grow tired.

In the nearly three weeks since a massive earthquake struck, Clifford has moved through the maze of ravaged streets -- his streets -- like a post-apocalyptic Oliver Twist. Following him over the last week, it was clear that Clifford was a skilled survivor in a hard, unforgiving city of survivors.

But something else was clear: He was just a little boy.

The massive earthquake strikes

Clifford was begging for loose change outside the presidential palace when the quake knocked him to the ground -- five times, he said -- and the palace crumbled behind him. He didn't know it, but his mother and 5-year-old sister also were on the street, panhandling in front of the main cathedral, which also was toppling.

Begging probably saved their lives.

His mother, Natalie Pierre Charles, hurried back to their home, a one-room shack on St. Aude Road. She had left her younger daughter, who was 2, with a neighbor. The neighbor escaped with a broken leg, but Charles' daughter didn't make it out. Her body still hasn't been recovered.

For nine days, Charles searched for her son in his usual begging haunts. She asked friends if they'd seen him, but they all said they thought he was dead. She went to stay with an uncle, sleeping in the open foyer of his collapsed home.

Clifford had spent that first night sleeping on a concrete wall in the Champs de Mars, a park across from the palace, where thousands had gathered. The next day, he panhandled some change, and then he did what any kid might do: He used the money to rent a bike for an hour.

"I didn't have anything to do for fun," he said.

He spotted his mother on the street a day later, but he hid. "I thought she'd be mad at me," he said.

It wasn't until a week later that his mother found Clifford, eating rice someone had given him. Her first words were: "Can I have some of what you're eating?"

As they ate, she told him that his baby sister had died in the quake. For the first time in a week, he cried.

10 days after the quake

Clifford, wearing a tattered shirt, was at a Total gas station near the uncle's house, begging for coins from a long line of motorists and passengers. He was barefoot; he had taken his shoes off and put them out of sight so he looked even more deprived. His usual sweet-faced smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of utter misery as he held out his hand.

The take, after an hour, was about 50 cents.

Then he walked to the national soccer stadium, where displaced people had gathered, now a brutally hot bowl smelling of cooking fires and urine. He joined a group of boys kicking a soccer ball and was soon racing nimbly up and down the field, his worries left behind.

Later, American troops arrived to give out packages of food, and a mass of people crushed toward them. Clifford scaled a gate and wormed his way along the ground, popping up along a fence in front of the troops. But the food was gone before it was his turn.

Clifford spent the night with the family of a friend he'd made on the soccer field. He didn't know the boy's name.

12 days after

Clifford decided he wanted his soccer ball, so he made his way home, to the shack on St. Aude Road.

"Everything's crumbled," he said, trying to absorb what he saw. Homes and businesses on the twisting dirt road had collapsed and left piles of broken cinder block on the road, which was slashed with deep gashes opened by the quake. Some buildings tilted precariously on their foundations, as if seen through a fun-house mirror.

Clifford climbed over the wreckage to a rocky ravine and the small room where he, his mother and two sisters had slept on a single piece of plywood covered with carpet. The shack's rusted, corrugated-iron walls and roof were intact. Goats and pigs roamed nearby.

As he approached the door, Clifford saw something covered in blue plastic. Was it a body? He was too afraid to find out, soccer ball or no soccer ball. He fled.

That night, Clifford decided that he wanted to stay with his mother. He fell asleep on a sheet of cardboard with his sister, Bebe, and a friend.

13 days after

In the morning, a long queue formed near the palace, where United Nations troops from Brazil were handing out family packs of food.

Clifford, wearing a blue shirt that someone had given his mother, cut in line. But by the time he got to the front, the soldiers had run out of food packs and were handing out packages of crackers and two bottles of water. He didn't mind -- he had scored.

As he walked away, he ran into his mother and gave her some of his crackers and the water. Then he sneaked back into line for another handout.

Sitting in the shade of an almond tree, he shared his food and water with several passersby. "When he has, he gives," his mother said. "He's a good boy."

Later, he tried to cut in line again. But this time people complained to one of the blue-helmeted soldiers, who gently shooed him away.

As the sun set, he walked back to the stadium, dodging pedestrians and the groaning, brightly painted buses known as tap-taps . He was tired, and all he wanted to do was play soccer.

14 days after

Clifford was back at the gas station. He hadn't eaten since the day before at the stadium. ("A nice lady there gave me some rice and gravy," he said.) And his mother had told him that she'd make him a meal if he brought her some money.

It was tough going. "Even when they have money, they won't give," he said. He took a break to watch with fascination as a woman skillfully used a knife to peel oranges, which she was selling from a plastic bucket. A young pastor driving a pickup took pity on him and gave him 50 gourdes -- about $1.

The Creole word for begging is bwose , and the streets are filled with people doing it. "I sometimes feel really bad when I have to bwose ," Clifford said. He'd rather have a job, he said, but that's not an option for a young boy.

He strolled a few blocks to Portail Leogane, the staging point for buses headed to the countryside south of Port-au-Prince. As he walked, he playfully twirled a long strip of sugar cane bark he had picked up from the road. A one-legged man struggling with crutches caught his eye, and he walked up for a closer look, staring unselfconsciously from a few feet away.

At the terminal, sweltering passengers were sitting inside large buses, awaiting departure. Looking up at the windows, Clifford called out, asking passengers if they needed anything. One said he wanted a cellphone case, so Clifford found a peddler. That got him a tip of about 10 cents.

As he roamed the station, he paused to write the word "police," in English, on the dusty window of a minivan. He grinned impishly and looked around to see if he'd been seen. Then he rubbed it out with his hand.

Later, Clifford said he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, "because then no one will mess with me."

Natalie Charles is a small, thin woman of 27. When Clifford was 9, she worked as a cleaning woman. She earned enough to pay the $14-a-month rent on the shack and had enough to put Clifford in school. The school fees were about $30 a year; she paid them what she had, $20.

Each night, she remembers, Clifford would come home from school and show her how he was learning to write his name. "He's a very intelligent boy," she said.

But she couldn't pay the $10 she owed and, after three months, the school kicked him out.

She has relied on her son to support her since they were reunited after the quake. She's tried to beg for money, she said, but "people tell me they are as bad off as I am." A child, she knows, particularly one as cute as Clifford, has an easier time. And survival, not guilt, was foremost on her mind.

Charles never knows, from one night to the next, whether her son will be home.

"Clifford doesn't like to be around a lot of people at night," she said. "It's difficult for him to share a bed."

Her dream is that someday, someone "will help me take care of him, so he can do something good with his life, something better than he's doing now."

15 days after

In the afternoon, Clifford was back in front of the palace, where the U.N. soldiers were handing out large bags of rice to hundreds of people lined up in the sweltering heat.

Clifford sneaked into the line, made it to the front, and collected his rice. Struggling to hold the bag with both arms, he headed off to see his mother, but a man cut him off and demanded that he hand over the rice.

Frightened, Clifford gave him half the bag -- but he made sure he got some money too, about $3.

That night, Clifford's mother borrowed charcoal from a friend. She was going to make Clifford and his sister a proper dinner.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-boy31-2010jan31,0,5719070,print.story

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OPINION

The sit-ins that changed America

The civil rights movement was energized by these '60s-era protests.

By Andrew B. Lewis

January 31, 2010

The "sixties" were born on Feb. 1, 1960, 50 years ago this week, when four African American college students staged the first sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. Since then, the mythology of the '60s has dominated the idea of youthful activism.

Of the three big events of the early civil rights movement -- the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott and the sit-ins -- the sit-ins have always been the least understood and, yet, the most important for today's young activists.

We forget how troubled the civil rights movement was in January 1960. It was six years after Brown, but fewer than 1 in 100 black students in the South attended an integrated school. And during the four years after the end of the bus boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to build on that victory. Many worried that the civil rights movement had ground to a halt. Then Greensboro changed everything.

In the time before Twitter, the rapid spread of the sit-ins was shocking. The first sit-in was an impulsive act, led by college students. They spread to Nashville, Atlanta, Miami, Durham, N.C., and Little Rock, Ark. -- more than 70 cities and towns in eight weeks. By summer, more than 50,000 people had taken part in one.

At the time, this was not just the largest black protest against segregation ever; it was the largest outburst of civil disobedience in American history. The sit-ins rewrote the rules of protest. They were remarkably egalitarian: Everyone participated; everyone was in equal danger. And they went viral because they were easy to copy. All one needed for a sit-in was some friends and a commitment to a few simple principles of nonviolent protest.

Most important, the sit-ins were designed to highlight the immorality of segregation by forcing Southern policemen to arrest polite, well-dressed college students sitting quietly just trying to order a shake or a burger. The students believed deeply in Thoreau's idea that the only place for a just person in an unjust society is jail.

The contrast with King's early efforts was stark. He had worked hard during the bus boycott to prevent arrests. To his thinking, only protests that remained within the bounds of the law could win the war against Jim Crow. The NAACP similarly believed in the power of the courts to end school segregation. But such efforts were so bureaucratic that ordinary African Americans often felt more like observers than participants.

To their African American contemporaries, the college students seemed the unlikeliest group to revive the civil rights movement. Just three years earlier, E. Franklin Frazier, the eminent black sociologist, had condemned them for believing that "money and conspicuous consumption are more important than knowledge." What did Frazier miss?

He failed to see how the comfort of postwar affluence and popular culture bred agitation and activism as easily as it did indifference and apathy. The sit-ins owed more to Little Richard and Levi's than to Jesus and the Bible.

Youth culture in the '50s often made it seem that generation mattered more than race. After all, weren't African American couples sharing the dance floor with white ones on the hit teen show "American Bandstand"? Yet, in their everyday lives, black teens still felt the sting of segregation. The first thing the Greensboro Four did before starting their sit-in at Woolworth's was to purchase some school supplies at the store. If their money was good enough for pencils, why weren't they good enough to have a seat at the counter?

To many Americans, the sit-ins were unnerving. In a 1961 Gallup Poll, 57% of those who responded said the protests hurt the civil rights movement. Black elders such as King and NAACP head Roy Wilkins tried to control the sit-ins by co-opting the students as junior partners.

The students instead formed their own organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC soon emerged as the most dynamic, creative and influential civil rights organization in the '60s. It produced a generation of black leaders, including John Lewis, Julian Bond, Bob Moses, Stokely Carmichael, Marion Barry and dozens of others.

SNCC took the movement to the most violent reaches of the Deep South. Its aggressive tactics -- the courting of arrests and the willingness to risk beatings -- forced the confrontation with racial segregation that compelled congressional intervention. The great milestones of the movement -- the freedom rides, Freedom Summer, Selma, Birmingham -- grew from the tactical innovation of the sit-ins. King may have stirred the nation's soul with the movement's poetry, but SNCC moved it to action with the prose of its grass-roots organizing.

Fifty years later, my students tend to see SNCC's members as mythic figures, a "greatest generation" of activists whose achievements they cannot equal. But I remind them of what they have in common with the SNCC generation. Both have been condemned by adults for their materialism, pop culture and assumed political apathy. Both grew up in a period of relative prosperity that left them comfortable but also unsatisfied. Both came of age when new forms of communication -- TV then, the Internet now -- unsettled politics.

There are many lessons from the sit-ins relevant to the lives of today's young people. Before it was a bumper sticker, SNCC lived out the true meaning of "think globally, act locally." But the most important lesson is to stop looking at the '60s as the manual for modern activism. What made the sit-ins so powerful is how they broke away from the prevailing wisdom to create a new model for change. Look forward, not back, I tell them. It's not your parents' movement anymore.

Andrew B. Lewis is the author of "The Shadows of Youth: The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lewis31-2010jan31,0,340583,print.story

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OPINION

To rebuild Haiti, start with its young people

A 700,000-strong national civic service corps would harness untapped labor rapidly and instill national pride and confidence.

By Robert Muggah and Robert Maguire

January 31, 2010

Haiti will need big ideas to recover and rebuild in the aftermath of the devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake this month. The reported death toll has topped 150,000, and the reconstruction needs are incalculable. How about starting with a 700,000-strong national civic service corps made up of Haitian youth? There are many reasons why such an entity makes a lot of sense.

Haiti is a young country. An estimated 70% of the population is under 30; the 15-to-29 segment alone makes up 50% of the population. Demographers have long cautioned how excessively youthful populations can potentially exacerbate underdevelopment and accentuate political instability.

Although Haiti registers among the lowest levels of education in the Western Hemisphere, Haitian youth are a wellspring of creativity, talent and potential. You don't need to be a community-development specialist to know that they are stifled by a lack of meaningful opportunities.

Fortunately, Haiti has an enabling environment to set up a civic service corps. Article 52 of the Haitian Constitution commits citizens to national service, though it has never been activated. What is more, there are many Haitian and international organizations mobilized and ready to help the government get this going.

A civic service corps would get the young and able out of the tent cities in and around Port-au-Prince and into work. They could start with the once-iconic center of the capital, but also could begin planting trees, working the fields and providing services in Haiti's countryside. At a minimum, this would reverse generations of unfair stigmatizing of the youth there.

This plan would also harness untapped labor rapidly. Before the Jan. 12 earthquake, 50% of youth in their 20s were out of work. Putting them in service toward rebuilding the capital and outlying areas would be a first step to restoring their and their country's pride and dignity.

A civic service corps would also multiply international efforts to promote recovery after the world moves on to the next crisis. Hundreds of humanitarian agencies, donor governments and nongovernmental organizations are facing monumental challenges in coordinating relief assistance. Although everyone involved is committed to rapid disbursement, transaction costs are monumental. A civic service corps would allow for a more rapid form of transferring capital.

Direct support to such a corps would inject serious liquidity into the Haitian economy and stimulate recovery from the bottom up. Rather than food-for-work schemes, international best practice recommends proposals that promote direct monetary transfers to beneficiaries. Haitian youth and their families have urgent needs and don't need paternalistic programs that curb their choices. With proper oversight and financial safeguards, a civic service corps would circumvent unnecessary administrative costs.

Further, a civic service corps would restore national pride and confidence in Haitian public institutions. During past decades, the state provided relatively few services to Haitians, particularly outside the capital. In some cases, state entities were downright predatory. As a result, nonstate providers, including gangs and shady middlemen, filled the gap. A civic service corps -- wearing the Haitian colors and acting as first responders or organizations demonstrating the government's presence on the ground -- would show that the government is serious about supporting citizens. It would be a symbolic first step toward renewing the social contract with the people.

A civic service corps also makes sense for long-term risk and emergency planning. Haiti is situated in the path of hurricanes and on a fault line, and can expect more disasters. Training 700,000 young people -- especially young women -- in the basics of first aid, emergency response, community policing and other skills would greatly mitigate the consequences of future calamities. With disciplined training and management, the corps could provide more intensive training in specialized areas -- engineering, telecommunications and public health.

An initial step to getting Haiti's youth to work could include the preparation of a road map for future meetings on Haiti, including the U.N. donor conference scheduled for March. Any final plan would need to draw on the invaluable experiences of ongoing efforts to mobilize youth in Haiti. These include the work of the Brazilian nongovernmental organization Viva Rio and its supporters. Before the earthquake, Viva Rio and Brazilian peacekeepers had recruited and trained hundreds of Haitian youth, including former gang members, to provide relief services in Haiti's slums. This program could be reactivated and scaled up quickly.

A civic service corps could draw on the lessons from such groups to target and recruit youths for, say, up to two years. The Haitian government would, of course, need to be the one to manage the undertaking, with direct oversight from the president's office and the Interior Ministry.

And there are many countries that could provide advice and support. Nongovernmental groups and private donors could also play a key role in mobilizing support and transferring essential skills.

Haiti's youth are the future of the nation, and they are central to Haiti's recovery. A civic service corps is a large-scale way to quickly mobilize them to act as catalyst for long-term, progressive changes.

Robert Muggah, based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, is a principal of the SecDev Group and is currently advising multilateral and bilateral organizations on Haiti's recovery. Robert Maguire is on the faculty of Trinity Washington University and chairs the Haiti Working Group of the United States Institute of Peace in Washington.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-maguire31-2010jan31,0,2642395,print.story

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EDITORIAL

China, and children as a commodity

It seemed a perfect match, until adoption became big business in China.

January 31, 2010

Over decades now, infertility or the simple desire to offer a child the chance for a better life has sent would-be parents to China in search of a baby to adopt. For so many, it was the perfect match. On one side of the Pacific were well-to-do couples yearning to share their love and good fortune; on the other were a plethora of little girls abandoned by impoverished parents in need of a son to support them in old age, or in violation of the country's so-called one-child policy.

No one liked to think of adoptions in unseemly market terms, but in fact this was a case of supply and demand. Whether paying for egg donors and surrogate mothers in the United States, or for lawyers and adoption agencies abroad, those who sought children knew that lots of money changed hands -- $15,000 to $30,000 in paperwork, travel and fees for a Chinese baby. Still, why call it commerce when such aching needs were concerned, and what did it matter if everyone was better off?

That's how it seemed, anyway, as tens of thousands of babies arrived in the United States in the 1990s and 2000s from Hunan, Guangdong and other provinces with names previously unknown to many of the adoptive parents. The overwhelming majority of adoptees were girls, moving from an often-soulless orphanage into the tearful embrace of a new family and a newly decorated bedroom in the likes of Indiana, Minnesota or California.

Unfortunately, not everything was as it seemed. Although many of the babies indeed were abandoned, demand ultimately began to outpace supply, and as Barbara Demick of The Times' Beijing Bureau recently reported , some babies were taken from birth parents in remote villages by coercion, fraud or kidnapping. Official orphanages, which received $3,000 per child from the adoptive parents, began paying up to $600 per newborn in expenses and more to finders, some of whom were government officials. In recent years, some Chinese parents have begun to talk about how they were threatened or tricked into giving up their daughters, sometimes in lieu of fines they could not afford for having a second or third child.

Chinese law prohibits commerce in children, and in 2005 the government conducted a high-profile prosecution of a trafficking ring in Hunan province for receiving payments to procure 85 babies who were then placed abroad with unwitting adoptive parents. Demick spoke with one of the traffickers, recently released from jail, who said he had purchased newborns in Guangdong province and supplied them to orphanages in Hunan. He said his supplier sold more than 1,000 babies to orphanages in Hunan and Jianxi provinces, which frequently disguised the children's origins, saying they had been discovered at a market or near a bridge in Hunan. "The merchandise may have been human, but it was a trading business like any other. Cash on delivery; prices set by laws of supply and demand. . . . The orphanages would often phone in their orders and haggle over the price," Demick wrote.

Chinese officials have told foreign agencies and governments that the Hunan case was an aberration, but a report to the Dutch parliament last year by the Netherlands-based World Children claimed the agency had evidence that the backgrounds and identities of Chinese children put up for adoption more recently had been changed, and that children still were being traded for cash. Moreover, although the Chinese government acknowledged that the children in the Hunan case had been sent abroad, it did not clarify where all of them went, according to the report.

Chinese adoptions have dropped dramatically from their peak in 2005, when nearly 8,000 babies arrived in the United States. Last year the number was about 3,000, due to a scarcity that stems from many causes. Chinese society is wealthier, with more families able to support an illegal child or two. Domestic adoptions are on the rise, and the attitude toward girls has changed along with opportunities for them in China's urbanized economy; women too can support parents in their old age.

We would like to believe that another reason for the scarcity is that the Chinese government is vigorously enforcing existing anti-trafficking laws under the Hague convention on intercountry adoption. U.S. officials say they have no evidence of ongoing violations. They note that with a wait now of three to five years for newborns, nearly half of those coming to the United States are older or special-needs children who have been in care for a while. But many who follow the issue closely believe abuses persist, although no one seems to know how widespread they are.

There is a cultural divide between the Chinese system's tendency toward secrecy and Americans' belief in their right to know. Given that China is still the largest source of adopted babies in the United States, however, it is imperative that U.S. officials demand openness and transparency regarding the background of these children, and that U.S. agencies deal only with proven, reputable orphanages in China. The Chinese must bend over backward to clarify the origins of babies and to create a thorough databank of information to ensure that all babies are offered for adoption voluntarily. No parent should be forced or tricked into relinquishing a child.

The donations that adoptive parents are required to pay to orphanages -- raised to about $5,000 last year -- also should be dropped or redirected. The Chinese government considers this a social welfare fee to help fund the orphanages and care for the children who are still there, many of them with special needs. It should fund these orphanages in a way that does not create local incentives to find more babies for adoption.

In the past, Americans may not have dreamed that their pursuit of parenthood could create a market for abandoned or abducted children -- obviously that was never their intention. But now that the issue has come to light, they too must be vigilant. Their children inevitably will ask where they came from, who they are and why they were put up for adoption. For the sake of both parents and children, they should have answers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-china31-2010jan31,0,5769688,print.story

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From the New York Post

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School creep's detention haul

By SUSAN EDELMAN and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

January 31, 2010

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education "rubber room" working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much."

A DOE hearing officer gave him a slap on the wrist -- a week off without pay -- for "conduct unbecoming a teacher." He was cleared to return to teaching.

Instead, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has kept the scruffy 64-year-old in a Brooklyn rubber room, deeming him too dangerous to be near kids, officials said.

The DOE can't fire him.

"We have to abide by the union contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

So Rosenfeld simply collects his $100,049 salary -- top scale for teachers -- plus full health benefits and the promise of a fat pension, about $82,000 a year if he were to retire today.

His pension will grow by $1,700 each year he remains. He could have retired at age 62, but he stays.

He has also accumulated about 435 unused sick days -- and will get paid for half of them when he retires.

With city teachers trying to negotiate a 4 percent pay hike, Rosenfeld stands to get the raise.

All this largesse comes as Mayor Bloomberg threatens to cut 2,500 teachers to help close a $4 billion budget gap.

Meanwhile, the multimillionaire Rosenfeld lords over the rubber room, where he is the oldest and most veteran of 100 teachers.

He reports promptly at 7:30 a.m. to the cavernous "reassignment center" on Chapel Street and spreads out at a table cluttered with used paper cups, plastic utensils, bags of food, news clippings and files.

He "smells like he hasn't taken a shower in months," an insider said.

A licensed attorney since 1973, Rosenfeld frequently talks on the phone to clients and other lawyers, insiders say.

"He's always working," one said.

City rules forbid staffers to conduct business on DOE time.

He refers to himself as "Dr. Rosenfeld" and often insults fellow teachers, calling them "losers" and "deadbeats."

He also doles out legal advice to his rubber roommates.

"He's very smart. He helps everybody in the room with their DOE cases and outside legal cases," a colleague said. "He doesn't charge them, but people buy him food, take him out to dinner."

He hung up when The Post reached him on his cellphone. Further calls to the cell got the greeting: "Hello, you have reached the law offices of Alan M. Rosenfeld."

Rosenfeld oversees a real-estate empire that includes family homes in Queens worth an estimated $7.8 million, according to city records.

The Post found he holds the deeds to 12 properties, mostly one-, two- and three-family homes in Forest Hills, Rego Park and Glen Oaks.

He co-owns a three-family brick home on 67th Road in Rego Park with a market value of $1 million, records show.

A $674,000, two-story building on Saunders Street in Rego Park is listed as his address and has a shingle outside marked "Alan M. Rosenfeld, Attorney at Law." A smaller shingle underneath reads, "Lic. Real Estate Broker."

After joining the DOE as a substitute 41 years ago in 1968, he went full time in 1970, teaching at several Queens elementary and middle schools until the 2001 charges.

The DOE responded to questions about Rosenfeld in a statement, saying Klein had ordered "a handful" of such teachers to stay out of classrooms because they posed a risk to kids.

"This is not an ideal system, but given the realities of cumbersome state laws and the union contract, we need to balance our obligation to safeguard children with our legal obligation of fairness to teachers," it reads

‘Rubber' baron

Alan Rosenfeld, 64, has parlayed disgrace into a multimillion-dollar empire:

* He has made $700,000 in taxpayerfunded salary in eight years — with no job but to sit in a DOE “rubber room.”

* He makes top scale for city teachers — $100,049 a year — and is entitled to raises.

* He owns 12 properties in Queens with an estimated total market value of $7.8M.

* With his perfect attendance, he has accumulated 435 unused sick days. When he retires, he is paid for half.

* The 41-year veteran could collect a basic pension of $82,000 a year if he retired today.

* His pension grows $1,700 each year he puts off retirement.

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/local/queens/school_creep_bQL5kouK80obW5MhZRyq7J

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This is what the terrorists did to me -- and why they should be tried at Gitmo

By LOUIS PEPE

January 30, 2010

President Obama finally listened to the outcry of New York, and is considering moving the trial of 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other al Qaeda members out of the city, perhaps to Guantanamo Bay.

Finally, some wisdom.

It would be better there. It's military. They're not going to mess around. These dangerous terrorists will not be allowed to spread their hate, or hurt anyone else.

Nobody knows better than me.

I was a federal prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. In 2000, I was with a prisoner, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, taking him back to his cell. His cellmate was Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. They were accused of bombing two embassies in Africa in 1998. Later they said that they worked with Osama bin Laden and that they helped set up al Qaeda.

We were back at their cell. It's only me and those two guys. No supervisors. Just the three of us. Somehow, they slipped out of their handcuffs.

They sprayed me with some kind of hot sauce. I couldn't see. They pulled me into the cell and hit me — boom, boom. They hit me so much, I swear to God, like a hundred times.

I hit my radio. I thought help would come.

They wanted the keys for the other prisoners, but they couldn't find them. They were in my front pocket. I used to be big, 300 pounds, and I was laying on them. I gave them my car keys.

About halfway through, they used a comb — thick and long, about 10 inches, with a handle. They'd taken the teeth out and sharpened it like a knife.

They put it in my left eye. It went three inches into my brain.

Nobody came. I kept calling and nothing. I was in there with them for an hour. It was f- - -ed up.

With my blood, they made the sign of the cross on my chest because they thought I was dead.

Finally, 12 guards came to my aid. They said they had the wrong keys.

When it was over, I got up and walked down toward the infirmary. I wanted to show them I could do it.

I thought I would go to a doctor right away. They kept me at the infirmary.

Finally, I was taken to Bellevue. I thought I was dead. I went into a coma.

They did surgery. I lost my left eye and suffered some brain damage. It was like I had a stroke.

For two years, I couldn't speak. I couldn't write. I couldn't walk. My right eye is perfect — straight ahead. But I can't see to the side. It's like a horse with blinders.

It's better now. I have a gym in my apartment in Coney Island. I do 500 sit-ups a day. I have a speech therapist and a massage therapist. I get up at 3 in the morning, eat some breakfast, cereal and a banana. I can dress myself.

But for 10 years, I was pretty much in isolation. Now I can walk a little. I go to the boardwalk twice a day. I have a cellphone and sometimes talk to girls. I'm 52. I'd like to have a girlfriend, maybe a baby.

And I have my family — my mom, my sister. They're right here. I have a nice home.

I'm not really friends with the other guards. They know they messed up.

Do you know they never found the handcuffs for Salim? After the attack, his set was not there. They still don't know where the cuffs went 10 years later. It looks very stupid.

They won't give out the results of the investigation into the attack. I think there's something fishy.

I'm still afraid of Salim. When I was in the hospital, there were death threats. Salim wants to do something one more time.

These people want to kill and go to Allah and have 10 girls. That's just the way they are.

They want to become martyrs. They want jihad. They want to kill people. And that's all they want.

Federal prison officials are still naive. They give these terrorists toothbrushes, squirt bottles, items that can be used as weapons. Caught up by political correctness, they let them out of handcuffs to pray, leaving guards unprotected.

It's going to happen again — unless the trial gets moved to where it belongs, a military prison.

We don't need Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York City. President Obama should do the right thing and keep him at Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/this_they_what_gitmo_terrorists_YFcFeMXZOxAm4t9cJzTcMN

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From the Washington Times

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10 detained for crossing Haiti border with orphans

Frank Bajak

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. The Baptist church members from Idaho called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission," meant to save abandoned children from the chaos following Haiti's earthquake.

The Americans were being held in the capital after police at the border challenged the paperwork. Their detention was confirmed by Haitian Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue. U.S. consular officials were meeting with the Americans at the jail.

"There are allegations of child trafficking and that really couldn't be farther from the truth," said Sean Lankford of Meridian, Idaho, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were among those detained.

The children "were going to get the medical attention they needed. They were going to get the clothes and the food and the love they need to be healthy and to start recovering from the tragedy that just happened," Lankford told The Associated Press.

The group had intended to take the children to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage. They thought they had the proper paperwork, said Lankford.

"The plan was never to go adopt all these kids. The plan was to create this orphanage where kids could live. And kids get adopted out of orphanages. People go down and they're going to fall in love with these kids, and many of these kids will end up getting adopted."

Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.

Officials estimate that thousands of kids have been separated from their parents or orphaned by the earthquake.

Five of the 10 being held are from the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, and the others are from the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with those detained via text message and phone calls, he said.

"Of course I'm concerned for my wife and my daughter," he said. "They were hoping to make a difference and be able to help those kids."

The group described their plans on a Web site where they also asked for tax-deductible contributions, saying they would "gather" 100 orphans and bus them to the Dominican resort of Cabarete, before building a more permanent orphanage in the Dominican town of Magante.

"Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanent facility is built," it says on their Web site.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/31/10-detained-crossing-haiti-border-orphans//print/

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From Fox News

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U.K. Couple Kidnapped by Pirates Beg for Urgent Help

January 31, 2010

A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates in October said they were not being treated well and needed urgent help, according to an AFP reporter who met them in captivity.

"Please help us, these people are not treating us well," said Rachel Chandler, captured by pirates with her husband Paul as they sailed their yacht, the Lynn Rival, in the Indian Ocean on Oct. 23.

SLIDESHOW: British Couple Kidnapped by Pirates

They were brought ashore and held in separate locations in central Somalia.

Rachel Chandler made her plea to a surgeon who was allowed to briefly examine the pair Thursday, accompanied by an AFP photographer, the first journalist to see the Chandlers since their capture.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584407,00.html

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Three American Hikers Held in Iran Six Months Now

January 30, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS — 

It's been six months since three young Americans were taken into custody in Iran, and the mother of one said even hiring an attorney in Iran has brought no new information on how they are doing.

"It's like there's this brick wall in front of us, and we can't get through," Cindy Hickey, the mother of Shane Bauer, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The concern for me as a mother is how this has to be taking a toll on them psychologically, and I would like someone to see them physically to tell me that they're in OK health."

Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were hiking in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region in July when they accidentally crossed the border, their families have said. All three are graduates of the University of California at Berkeley.

Iran's foreign minister said in late December that the three would be tried in court, but he did not say when a trial would begin or what the three would be charged with other than to say they had "suspicious aims." Earlier, the country's chief prosecutor said they were accused of spying.

Their families say that's ludicrous and last month hired an Iranian attorney to press the case. But Hickey, who lives in the state of Minnesota, said the attorney, Masoud Shafie, has been denied visits with the three and hasn't received any information on charges.

"He's being told it's not time, it's not time," Hickey said. "We don't understand this lack of movement."

The last time anyone sympathetic saw the three was at the end of October, when Swiss diplomats were granted a short visit. The U.S. has no diplomatic relationship with Iran and is represented in such matters by the Swiss. At the time, the diplomats said the three were in good health.

Their jailing comes amid continued tension between the U.S. and Iran over that nation's nuclear program.

It also parallels in some ways the captivity of Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American who grew up in the state of North Dakota, and like Bauer, worked as a freelance journalist. Saberi was jailed in Iran in February 2009, tried and convicted of espionage — but then released to return to the U.S. after about four months.

"I knew this wasn't going to be done overnight," Hickey said. "But I never dreamed we'd be in the same place six months later."

The hikers have family in California, Colorado, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

The families issued a joint written statement Saturday urging Iran to release their relatives.

"If the Iranian judiciary has concluded that Shane, Sarah and Josh entered Iran without proper documentation, then surely six months in prison is sufficient punishment for any violation of regulations that may have occurred," the families said.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584392,00.html

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American Detained in North Korea Seeks Asylum

January 30, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea  — 

An American man detained by North Korea after allegedly entering the communist country illegally has sought asylum and wants to join its military, a news report said Saturday.

South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the man crossed into North Korea from China on Monday.

It said an unidentified source in North Korea told the newspaper the 28-year-old man said he came to the country because he did not "want to become a cannon fodder in the capitalist military," and "wants to serve in the North Korean military" instead.

The National Intelligence Service, South Korea's top spy agency, said it could not immediately confirm the report. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it had no such information.

On Thursday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported an American was arrested Monday for trespassing and his case was under investigation.

It was the second case of a detained American in North Korea in the past month, further complicating a relationship that has been badly strained for years over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and periodic testing of missiles in defiance of repeated U.N. Security Council warnings.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the North Koreans, in a bare-bones message through their representative at U.N. headquarters in New York, provided no identifying information about the detainee.

Crowley said the U.S. has asked Swedish government intermediaries to gain access to the detainee. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. interests there as Washington has no diplomatic relations with the North.

In late December North Korea said it was holding a U.S. citizen for illegally crossing the North Korea-China border. It did not identify the man, but the State Department has said he is Robert Park, an American missionary.

South Korean activists say Park entered the North on Christmas Day to raise the issue of human rights and call on its leader, Kim Jong Il, to step down and free hundreds of thousands of people reportedly held in political camps.

Last year, North Korea freed two U.S. journalists — who had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and "hostile acts" — to former President Bill Clinton during a visit to Pyongyang.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584360,00.html

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Suspects in Phoenix Policeman Killing Led Police on 50-Mile Chase

January 30, 2010

GILBERT, Ariz. — 

Two men suspected in the fatal shooting of a policeman led dozens of Arizona law officers on a 50-mile midnight chase, but couldn't shake pursuers despite firing bullets and spreading debris, officials said.

The suspects tossed out wrenches, other tools and an air compressor tank during the chase around midnight Thursday, police said. A half-dozen police cruisers were disabled after hitting debris or being struck by bullets.

Despite the lethal efforts, the numbers of law officers continued to grow even as damaged law enforcement vehicles dropped out and the officers inside hitched rides with fellow pursuers.

The chase ended near the small mountain mining community of Superior as violently as it began. The suspects jumped out and opened fire on police before falling to the ground in a hail of bullets. Both are expected to survive.

Authorities said the two men were initially pulled over by Gilbert police Lt. Eric Shuhandler, 42, near the southeast Phoenix suburb of Gilbert at about 11 p.m. on Thursday.

Shuhandler, a 16-year veteran, was shot in the face as he walked back toward the pickup after finding the passenger had an arrest warrant, said Gilbert police spokesman Sgt. Mark Marino. Shuhandler, the father of two girls, was rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight.

The suspects were identified as Christopher A. Redondo, 35, of Globe, and Daimen Irizarry, 30, of Gilbert, Marino said.

Redondo is believed to have been the gunman and Irizarry the driver who led officers from multiple law enforcement agencies on the pursuit.

"It is nothing short of a miracle that no officers or members of the public were injured or killed," Gilbert Police Chief Timothy Dorn said Friday.

Shuhandler stopped the suspects' work truck for having an obscured license plate, Marino said. Shuhandler went back to his patrol car and found that the passenger, Redondo, apparently had an arrest warrant. He called for backup and was walking back to the passenger side of the truck when he was shot, about 12 minutes after pulling two men over.

Other officers saw the fleeing truck and a high-speed chase began along U.S. 60, which is a freeway in the metro area but turns into a two-lane highway as it nears Superior.

Once in the mountains, the truck stopped in the middle of the highway and both men jumped out, said Lt. Steve Harrison of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

"They engaged in what only can be described as a gun battle with officers," he said.

Both suspects were wounded in the lower extremities, taken into custody and hospitalized. Both were in stable, non-life-threatening condition Friday, according to Harrison.

Despite the law enforcement entourage, no officers other than Shuhandler were hurt.

Two more police vehicles were involved in a collision at the end of the chase, Marino said.

Redondo spent nearly four years in an Arizona prison for aggravated assault and related charges and was released in June 2008, according to Arizona Department of Corrections online records.

Irizarry pleaded guilty to assault in Pinal County Superior Court in 2004 and was sentenced to probation, online court records show. An arrest warrant was issued in 2006.

Shuhandler was wearing body armor, Marino said. "Unfortunately he was shot in the head."

He is survived by his ex-wife, daughters, ages 10 and 12, his parents and a sister, Marino said. Services were pending.

"Right now our entire department is in mourning," Marino said.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584386,00.html

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Police Officers Under Attack  (video)

'Hannity' investigates rise of disturbing trend

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3995214/police-officers-under-attack

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Va. Tech Student's Death Investigated as Homicide After Body Found at Farm

January 29, 2010

Police have confirmed that the human remains discovered Tuesday on a Virginia farm are those of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, last seen attending a Metallica concert.

The cause and time of Harrington's death have not been determined, said investigators, who have shifted to a homicide investigation.

Her father, Dan Harrington, issued a statement Wednesday: "Morgan's mother, Gil, and I are overwhelmingly saddened by yesterday's discovery, but we are also relieved because our questions can now be answered and we can give our daughter a proper burial."

At a brief news conference in Charlottesville, Dan Harrington said the location of the remains convinced him that someone local was linked to his daughter's death. The remains were found on an isolated, 700-acre cattle farm about 10 miles outside of Charlottesville.

"This is not a random place that someone came upon accidentally," he told reporters. "This is known to someone here. It's a local person."

Investigators said Wednesday the confirmation was based on dental records provided by Harrington's family.

Harrington, a 20-year-old junior at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, hadn't been seen since October, when she was separated from her friends at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville.

The skeletal remains were discovered Tuesday morning on the Anchorage Farm by owner David Bass.

Bass told The Associated Press he was feeding his cattle at the time and saw the remains from his tractor. He declined additional comment.

"I looked down and saw what looked like a human skull and my first thought was that it was Morgan Harrington," Bass told WTVR.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584069,00.html

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Discovery of Va. Tech Student's Remains Triggers Surge in Credible Tips

January 29, 2010

RICHMOND, Va.  — 

The discovery of Morgan Harrington's remains triggered a surge in credible tips to investigators seeking answers to the Virginia Tech student's disappearance and death three months ago, her parents said Friday.

Gil and Dan Harrington also said "a wealth of physical evidence" has been collected in the remote hayfield 10 miles southwest of Charlottesville where a farmer found their daughter's bones Tuesday.

SLIDESHOW: Morgan Harrington Vanishes at Concert

"I think people are starting to come out of the woodwork and people who are in jail are trying to broker information for privileges or time or advantages for them," Gil Harrington said.

A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police confirmed investigators have "received numerous tips" since the remains were discovered and are assessing them. Corinne Geller said she could not comment on evidence.

Morgan Harrington, 20, had been the focus of an intense search since she became separated from friends Oct. 17 while attending a Metallica concert at an arena at the University of Virginia.

A coroner has not determined the cause of her death.

The Harringtons, who are convinced their daughter was abducted and murdered, devoted their energies the past three months to finding Morgan. They created a Web site, organized searches, distributed posters and put up highway billboards with her image.

Now they are attempting to cultivate more support and awareness of the problem of missing adults. They met with Virginia's two U.S. senators and other legislators last week and are seeking public funding for the National Center for Missing Adults.

The Harringtons — he's a doctor, she's a nurse — said they didn't know what to do or where to turn after they learned of their daughter's disappearance.

They were told, for instance, that once someone is reported missing their possessions should not be disturbed, to ensure investigators can examine belongings that have not been tampered with.

"Someone should tell the parents: Close the bedroom door, do not touch anything of that individual, because police are going to need that stuff," Dan Harrington said. "We're sleeping in her bed because we're crying and contaminated things that can be used for dogs and searches."

The search for Harrington stirred intense interest, even surprising the Roanoke couple.

"The kindness we have received has been unbelievable," Dan Harrington said.

But some elements in the media and on the Internet has also disturbed the couple — particularly suggestions that their daughter's attire or behavior was somehow responsible for her suspected abduction and death.

"No matter what Morgan did, she deserved to be safe walking the streets of Charlottesville, the streets of the University of Virginia, so those comments really, really made me angry," Dan Harrington said.

Their public activism, they said, is counter to their private nature. Their advocacy, they said, is intended to keep interest in the case alive, and to honor their daughter.

"We want to be able to show how you get through tragedy, and how you can be public about that and maybe help people," Dan Harrington said. "Secondly, Morgan had short life of 20 years. She should not be forgotten."

In keeping with that wish, they are establishing a scholarship fund in her memory at the new Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute in Roanoke, which accepts its first class this year, and with Omni Orphan Medical Network International, which provides medical care in Africa and elsewhere.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584324,00.html

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