Al Qaeda's No. 3 believed killed in Pakistan

The death of Sheik Said Masri, the terrorist network's operations chief and a relative of Osama bin Laden, would be a blow to Al Qaeda. U.S. officials say he was targeted in a drone strike.

By David S. Cloud, Tribune Washington Bureau

May 31, 2010

Reporting from Washington —

Al Qaeda's third-ranking leader — a close associate and relative by marriage to Osama bin Laden — is believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region, U.S. officials said.

The death of Sheik Said Masri, an Egyptian who is believed to act as the terrorist network's operational leader, would be the latest blow to Al Qaeda, which has suffered a steady degradation of its leadership and ability to mount attacks since the U.S. stepped up its campaign of missile strikes by unmanned aircraft in Pakistan's tribal region.

"We have strong reason to believe" that Masri is dead, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing intelligence information. "He was key to Al Qaeda's command and control. His death would be a major blow."

Masri, also known as Mustafa Abu Yazid, was believed to play a role in most of Al Qaeda's operations, including its finances and its continuing attempts to mount attacks. He is also thought to have been the key conduit to Bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, both of whom are thought to play a minimal role in the network's day-to-day activities because of their need to remain in hiding.

"Masri was the group's chief operating officer, with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning," the U.S. official said.

Like some other militant leaders, Masri has been erroneously reported dead in the past. U.S. officials discussed Masri's apparent death Monday after a statement began appearing on extremist websites announcing that he had been killed in Pakistan. It did not confirm how he was killed but said that his wife, three daughters and others were killed at the same time, according to the SITE Institute, a private group that monitors militant websites.

The statement claimed that Masri had been training Al Qaeda operatives to carry out future attacks.

"What he left behind will, with permission from Allah, continue to be generous and copious and to produce heroes and raise generations. His death will only be a severe curse by his life upon the infidels. The response is near."

U.S. officials would not discuss the reports that Masri's family members had been killed in the drone strike. He is thought to have married into Bin Laden's family in the years since the two arrived in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials say they take steps to minimize the risk of civilian deaths, but in cases when a senior Al Qaeda leader is found, they have to decide on firing a missile even if it means causing noncombatant casualties.

Although severely hobbled and relegated to an ever-smaller sanctuary in Pakistan, Al Qaeda has been able to replace leaders killed or captured, though there was no indication Monday who would take over as operations chief. Masri's apparent death followed the demise in Pakistan of two other senior Al Qaeda leaders, Abu Laith al Libi, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in December, and Hussein Yemeni, who was reported to have died in an attack in Miram Shah in March.

Under severe pressure over the last year, Al Qaeda has formed closer links with Pakistani militant groups, including Tehrik-e-Taliban, a violent organization that U.S. officials say was involved in training and financing the attempted bombing in Times Square this month.

Masri, who is believed to have been 56, had been involved with Islamic extremist movements for nearly 30 years after joining Zawahiri in a radical organization founded in Egypt. He spent three years in prison in connection with the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and later followed Bin Laden to Sudan and Afghanistan, where he was involved in the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks. A report issued by the 9/11 Commission said that Masri had been among the Al Qaeda leaders who had opposed the hijacking operation.

The U.S. has repeatedly captured or killed Al Qaeda members described as the organization's No. 3 leader since 2001. Masri ascended to the job a few years ago, an official said, and has issued several statements since then promising or taking credit for attacks, including the suicide bombing against a CIA base in Khowst, Afghanistan, last year that killed seven CIA employees and contractors.

Officials would not discuss where the attack occurred in the tribal areas. Many of the U.S. drone strikes are carried out against militants whose identities are not fully known, but the CIA also looks for specific leaders such as Masri whose names are on an approved target list.

After the Times Square attempt, the White House has warned Pakistan that it needs to intensify its effort to crack down on militant groups in the tribal areas. The U.S. has also bluntly warned that it might take action beyond the current drone campaign if there is a successful attack against the U.S. that is traceable to Pakistan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-masri-20100531,0,5018810,print.story

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Veterans Affairs wants to be an advocate, not an enemy

An agency overhaul aims to eliminate a huge backlog of disability claims by 2015 and move to an electronic data system.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

May 31, 2010

John Lamie survived six roadside bombings in Iraq, only to have the Department of Veterans Affairs refuse to accept three months' worth of medical tests he underwent for jaw and shoulder wounds — tests performed by VA-approved doctors at VA facilities.

Casey Elder, who says she suffers migraines and memory loss from a roadside bomb in Iraq, has been told by the VA that the bombing did not cause those problems — despite a VA doctor's diagnosis that she suffered a traumatic brain injury.

After Clay Hunt was shot through the wrist by a sniper in Iraq, the VA misplaced his disability paperwork for four months. Then he was required to visit a series of doctors to verify the extent of his wounds.

Many veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are being buffeted by a VA disability system clogged by delays, lost paperwork, redundant exams, denials of claims and inconsistent diagnoses. Some describe an absurd situation in which they are required to prove that their conditions are serious enough for higher payments, yet are forced to wait months for decisions.

"You fight for your country, then come home and have to fight against your own country for the benefits you were promised," said Hunt, 28, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine Corps sniper.

It took Hunt, who lives in Brentwood, 10 months to receive VA disability payments for his injuries after the agency misplaced his paperwork.

The VA, which still relies on a mostly paper-based system for disability claims, is overwhelmed by a flood of wounded veterans from the long Afghan and Iraq wars. That's in addition to the Vietnam War, Korean War and even World War II veterans.

Some veterans wait up to six months to get their initial VA medical appointment. The typical veteran of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars waits 110 days for a disability claim to be processed, with a few waiting up to a year. For all veterans, the average wait is 161 days.

The VA says a ruling on an appeal of a disability rating takes more than 600 days on average. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, an advocacy group, says the average delay is 776 days.

Up to 17% of veterans' disability ratings are incorrect, the VA says. Thousands of dollars in disability payments hinge on the ratings, which are determined by the VA. The agency says it hopes to eventually cut the error rate to 2%.

With the VA deluged with 90,000 new claims a month, the backlog has reached 175,000. The VA defines a backlogged case as one that takes more than 125 days to process.

"It makes veterans feel like they're fighting VA paperwork instead of the enemy," said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq veteran and executive director of IAVA, which has praised the quality of VA medical care but has criticized the claims process.

VA officials concede that many veterans face delays, mistakes and bureaucratic logjams. But they say they are instituting reforms that are making the system more efficient and equitable.

"We absolutely agree it takes too long to process a claim, and we absolutely have to do a better job," said Michael Walcoff, the VA's acting undersecretary for benefits.

Walcoff acknowledges that veterans have "a lot of negative feelings" toward the VA.

"A lot of veterans don't trust the VA because of the hoops we make them jump through" for some claims, he said. "We'll do whatever it takes to fix this system."

By 2012, the agency plans to move away from paper-based claims to an electronic data system. The VA has provided some veterans with advocates to guide them through what Walcoff concedes can be "a confusing, difficult process."

Another reform has allowed service members at many bases to file for VA disability payments before they leave active duty — giving them a head start on the claims process.

This spring, the VA expects to ease requirements for proving post-traumatic stress disorder, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Veterans will have to show only that the totality of circumstances during their service caused PTSD. Currently, they must prove that a specific "stressor" incident caused the disorder.

But a huge backlog remains. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, who has promised to eliminate the backlog by 2015, called it "one area in which we did not progress as I would have wanted."

In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in March, Shinseki promised "to change the culture inside VA to one of advocacy for veterans."

The Obama administration has proposed a 27% increase in the VA's budget for next year. The agency has hired 4,200 employees since 2007 to tackle the backlog and has increased overtime.

For 27,000 veterans in a pilot program, the average wait for benefits — after they finish the disability evaluation process — was reduced to one month, from six to eight months. Another pilot program puts VA employee advocates at 27 military bases, assisting nearly half of the veterans seeking disability benefits.

Tom Tarantino, a former Army captain and Iraq veteran who analyzes the disability system for the IAVA advocacy group, said the changes had made some things easier for veterans, "but I still see things that are so stupid, so ridiculous, it makes me want to slap my forehead."

Even with reforms, negotiating the disability system can be a maddening slog. Many veterans complain that the burden is on them to prove the severity of their wounds and also verify that they were injured during their service.

Often in severe pain or suffering psychological distress, many wounded veterans are overwhelmed by the task.

Lamie, 25, an Army combat engineer who risked his life uncovering and defusing roadside bombs in Iraq, declared bankruptcy in April. He is unable to work because of his combat injuries, he said, and VA delays have left him short of cash to support his wife and four children. He gets $311 a month in food stamps.

"I did everything the VA asked of me, but they block you at every turn," Lamie said from his home in Georgia. "They play with people's lives."

Last year at a VA facility on his Army base in Kansas, Lamie underwent exams for PTSD and wounds to his shoulder, knees and jaw. But after he left the Army and moved home to Georgia, the local VA office told him he'd have to take the tests again.

Those tests had resulted in a 50% VA disability rating, and Lamie began receiving a monthly disability payment. But he said his Army retirement pay was docked for the disability amount, reducing his monthly retirement check to $86, from $1,085.

After more than a year of placing several hundred angry phone calls to the VA and bombarding the agency with medical paperwork, Lamie was finally told last month that he would soon receive $3,300 a month in VA disability benefits.

The logjam was broken after Lamie stumbled upon a helpful VA employee in Valdosta, Ga. He phoned her 15 to 20 times and visited her office several times.

"They drag their feet, hoping you'll give up," Lamie said. "A lot of people do. Not me."

In Los Angeles, Hunt said he spent weeks visiting various doctors and putting together the 200-page packet of medical records that the VA later misplaced.

"I can track my pizza from Pizza Hut on my BlackBerry, but the VA can't find my claim for four months," he said.

Now he has developed memory loss, panic attacks and other symptoms of possible traumatic brain injury, he said. He is deciding whether to apply for increased benefits and dive once again into the VA bureaucracy.

When he volunteered for the Marine Corps, Hunt recalled, a selling point was lifelong medical care if he were wounded.

"But then the time comes to get those benefits, it turns into a lifelong battle with the VA to get what you were promised," he said.

Elder ultimately received VA benefits for wrist, arm and shoulder injuries from the roadside bombing in Iraq, where she was an Army military police officer. But when she began experiencing migraines, memory loss and vertigo, she filed a claim for traumatic brain injury.

A VA-approved neurologist diagnosed her with traumatic brain injury, she said. But after almost a year's wait, the VA denied her claim, saying the injuries weren't caused by her military service.

"Well, I didn't have these problems before I went into the service," she said from her home in Billings, Mont.

Now Elder worries that her symptoms will deteriorate into dementia — at age 25.

"I just want them to acknowledge that they broke my brain," she said.

Lamie said he had to fight for a year, "basically screaming and raising hell to get what I got."

The experience has left him drained and disillusioned. He said he couldn't even look at his old Army uniform anymore.

"I can't stand the sight of it after what I've gone through with the VA," he said. "I'm not proud anymore."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vets-20100601,0,6668768,print.story

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From the New York Times

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U.N. Report Says Iran Has Fuel for 2 Nuclear Weapons

WASHINGTON — In their last report before the United Nations Security Council votes on sanctions against Iran , international nuclear inspectors declared Monday that Iran has now produced a stockpile of nuclear fuel that experts say would be enough, with further enrichment, to make two nuclear weapons .

The report, by the International Atomic Energy Agency , a branch of the United Nations , appears likely to bolster the Obama administration's case for a fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran and further diminish its interest in a deal, recently revived by Turkey and Brazil, in which Iran would send a portion of its nuclear stockpile out of the country.

When Iran tentatively agreed eight months ago to ship some of its nuclear material out of the country, the White House said the deal would temporarily deprive Iran of enough fuel to make even a single weapon.

But Iran delayed for months, and the figures contained in the inspectors' report on Monday indicated that even if Iran now shipped the agreed-upon amount of nuclear material out of the country, it would retain enough for a single weapon, undercutting the American rationale for the deal.

The toughly worded report says that Iran has expanded work at one of its nuclear sites. It also describes, step by step, how inspectors have been denied access to a series of facilities, and how Iran has refused to answer inspectors' questions on a variety of activities, including what the agency called the “possible existence” of “activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”

A spokesman for the White House, Michael Hammer, said in a statement on Monday that the report “clearly shows Iran's continued failure to comply with its international obligations and its sustained lack of cooperation with the I.A.E.A.” He said the report “underscores that Iran has refused to take any of the steps required of it” by the Security Council or the I.A.E.A.'s board of governors, “which are necessary to enable constructive negotiations on the future of its nuclear program.”

Iran, which insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, has said that it has conducted no work on weapons, and argues that the evidence of work on warheads is forged.

Iran's nuclear progress had been expected to be a central subject at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday at the White House between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Mr. Netanyahu canceled the visit after a deadly raid by Israeli commandos on ships carrying supplies to Gaza.

But the I.A.E.A. report left hanging the question of whether Israel would ratchet up the pressure on Washington and its allies to show that they can deal with the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran diplomatically. Israeli officials have hinted, but never explicitly threatened, that they would take military action if diplomacy fails and Iran is close to weapons capability.

Administration officials have argued that the combination of the sanctions they expect to come out of the Security Council, along with other sanctions imposed by the United States and its European allies, may change Iran's calculus. But many inside and outside the administration are highly skeptical.

It has been four years since the Security Council first demanded that Iran cease all enrichment of uranium, citing its efforts to hide its activities and deceive inspectors. The country has openly defied those resolutions, telling inspectors that those demands — along with calls to allow inspectors to visit a series of facilities that could be useful in energy or weapons production — had been “issued illegally and have no legal basis.”

The inspectors reported Monday that Iran has now produced over 5,300 pounds of low-enriched uranium, all of which would have to undergo further enrichment before it could be converted to bomb fuel.

The inspectors reported that Iran had expanded work at its sprawling Natanz site in the desert, where it is raising the level of uranium enrichment up to 20 percent — the level needed for the Tehran Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients. But it is unclear why Iran is making that investment if it plans to obtain the fuel for the reactor from abroad, as it would under its new agreement with Turkey and Brazil.

Until recently, all of Iran's uranium had been enriched to only 4 percent, the level needed to run nuclear power reactors. While increasing that to 20 percent purity does not allow Iran to build a weapon, it gets the country closer to that goal. The inspectors reported that Iran had installed a second group of centrifuges — machines that spin incredibly fast to enrich, or purify, uranium for use in bombs or reactors — which could improve its production of the 20 percent fuel.

The inspectors also noted that the agency had finally succeeded in setting up a good monitoring system for the 20 percent work after a rocky start in February, when Iran began raising the enrichment levels. “A new safeguards approach is now being implemented,” the report said.

But the report called the equipment upgrades and the continuing enrichment “contrary to the relevant resolutions of the I.A.E.A.'s Board of Governors and the Security Council.” Both have called on Iran to cease its uranium enrichment because of outstanding questions about Tehran's intentions. The sanctions, if passed, are intended to compel Iran to comply with that demand by the Security Council.

Last fall, President Obama, along with the leaders of Britain and France, denounced Iran for secretly building a second enrichment plant near the city of Qum, without alerting inspectors until just before the three leaders' countries announced they had discovered the facility. But curiously, the report suggested that now, with its existence revealed, Iran might be losing interest in it. The report said that Iran had installed no centrifuges in the half-built enrichment facility, which is located inside a mountain near a military base.

Iran has sought to locate many of its nuclear facilities in underground sites so as to lessen their vulnerability to aerial attacks. In the new report, the inspectors said that the Iranians disclosed that a new analytical laboratory planned for construction amid a warren of tunnels at Isfahan “would have the same functions as the existing” unprotected laboratory there.

The report quoted an Iranian letter as saying the second, underground laboratory was needed “to meet security measures.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/middleeast/01nuke.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Jamaica Strains to Fill Void Left by Gang Bosses

By KAREEM FAHIM

KINGSTON, Jamaica — When the powerful don of a downtown neighborhood, Matthews Lane, was sentenced to life in prison for murder, the Jamaican government promised the residents they would not be forgotten.

Quickly, the drains were cleaned and the sewers fixed. Jobs and new housing were on the way, residents were told. The police promised to provide the security previously handled by the don, a crime boss named Donald Phipps, known as Zekes, in one of the garrison communities of Kingston essentially outside government control.

But four years later, residents still regard the police as “them” and are hard pressed to name a project completed by the government. A cadre of the don's underlings, including his son, stepped into the vacuum and asserted their power. Though they are not as effective as Mr. Phipps in providing work or security, they still control Matthews Lane — and it is still a garrison.

“It's our culture,” said Michael Petersens, 45, who grew up in the neighborhood. “Zekes not the first don or the last don.”

The pattern in Matthews Lane underscores the challenges the government faces as it tries to exert influence in a neighboring community called Tivoli Gardens. State security forces raided the neighborhood last week to execute an arrest warrant for Christopher Coke , the don of Tivoli Gardens, who is wanted in the United States on gun and drug trafficking charges.

Since the fighting started, the government has asked at least 10 other dons to surrender to the authorities in what officials say is an attempt to end the reign of the criminal gangs.

Now Mr. Coke is on the run, and Tivoli Gardens is a garrison of a different sort, its narrow streets full of heavily armed soldiers, police officers and pockets of seething anger. At least 70 people were killed in circumstances that have not been fully explained . The government has not said whether any of the people killed by security forces were armed. And although almost a thousand people were arrested and detained for days, all but 10 of them were eventually released without charge.

As of Monday, the country's prime minister, Bruce Golding , who represents Tivoli Gardens in Parliament, had not yet visited his constituents.

Walking near buildings in a part of the neighborhood gutted by fire, Brizzel Nelson-Robinson, whose husband was detained for several days and their small shop ransacked in the unrest last week, summed up the changed environment. “We don't feel safe,” she said.

According to Mark Shields, a former deputy commissioner in the Police Department, early attempts to help Matthews Lane after Mr. Phipps's arrest seemed hopeful. “We were able to disrupt extortion to a degree,” he said, acknowledging that attention from the state quickly faded.

On a recent day in Matthews Lane, Dale Bryan, 28, sat on a sidewalk with a screwdriver and tried to fix a fan. Mr. Phipps had gotten him his first job. In a neighborhood full of semi-employed young men, Mr. Bryan was one of the few with a steady job, at the airport.

He pointed to a stretch of fresh asphalt on the road in front of him, work the city had finally completed after leaving a hole in the street for years. “That's the only thing they do,” he said. “They just pass through.”

Mr. Shields said: “To sustain filling the gap is costly, and my concern is Jamaica does not have the resources to sustain it. Tivoli is a bigger area. I hope there is a strong plan to fill the vacuum created by removing dons. Otherwise they will be replaced by wanna-be-dons.”

In recent days, private business and church groups have promised to create new social programs in the garrison communities. An adviser close to Mr. Golding, Delano Seiveright, said the prime minister was committed to preventing a return of the dons.

“There is no doubt that the Bruce Golding government is resolute about a targeted social intervention package,” he said in an e-mail message. Mr. Seiveright predicted that more resources would be “pumped into deprived inner-city communities that have for years been slipping into the hands of criminal elements.”

In fact, money has flowed into those communities for decades, thanks to an arrangement in Jamaica in which politicians and dons share power. Through extortion and the drug trade, the dons provide security, and by steering contracts and other pork to the neighborhoods, the politicians count on the continued loyalty of voters.

The current unrest has shocked Jamaicans in part because it involves a politician's turning on the don in his district. Tivoli Gardens has voted for the Jamaica Labor Party, Mr. Golding's party, since the community was built in 1965 by Edward Seaga, who later became prime minister. At the time, “it was a place of opportunity,” Mr. Seaga contended in an interview. “It was a pleasure to behold.”

In the following decades, Tivoli Gardens and other poor neighborhoods became the headquarters of Kingston's criminal gangs, armed encampments that often fought with one another or the state. Yet they were part of the system: In 1992, when Mr. Coke's father died under mysterious circumstances, Mr. Seaga led his funeral procession.

Asked about a push to eject the dons, Mr. Seaga, a sharp critic of Mr. Golding, said: “If you say they shouldn't be allowed to operate, I'm with you. But I am not for law and order without justice. Because law and order without justice is to shoot people.”

Removing the dons is not the only challenge. According to Rivke Jaffe, an anthropologist at Leiden University who has studied downtown Kingston, many dons are more than just criminals who have inserted themselves between the impoverished streets and the bureaucracy. Mr. Coke does earn money from legitimate businesses.

They have provided residents with financial help and jobs. And while the police often treat their neighborhoods as lawless enclaves, some dons, like Mr. Coke and Mr. Phipps, provided some order among people who saw the police and other institutions as corrupt and capricious, Dr. Jaffe said.

And they provide a sense of belonging, she said. The dons are celebrated in the popular culture of places like Matthews Lane, where the annual dance is still called Spanglers, for Mr. Phipps's crew. The name Zekes appears on many wall murals, including one that features President Obama and the famed sprinter Usain Bolt .

At the same time, there is no way to vote a don out of power, and no way to decline his demands for extortion money. To cross a don, or even disagree, could mean death.

“There's no way we can dismiss the dons,” said Victor Cummings, a former Parliament member who is the half brother of Mr. Phipps. “We need to bring them into the system to reduce their power.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/americas/01jamaica.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Venting Online, Consumers Can Find Themselves in Court

After a towing company hauled Justin Kurtz's car from his apartment complex parking lot, despite his permit to park there, Mr. Kurtz, 21, a college student in Kalamazoo, Mich., went to the Internet for revenge.

Outraged at having to pay $118 to get his car back, Mr. Kurtz created a Facebook page called “Kalamazoo Residents against T&J Towing.” Within two days, 800 people had joined the group, some posting comments about their own maddening experiences with the company.

T&J filed a defamation suit against Mr. Kurtz, claiming the site was hurting business and seeking $750,000 in damages.

Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp have given individuals a global platform on which to air their grievances with companies. But legal experts say the soaring popularity of such sites has also given rise to more cases like Mr. Kurtz's, in which a business sues an individual for posting critical comments online.

The towing company's lawyer said that it was justified in removing Mr. Kurtz's car because the permit was not visible, and that the Facebook page was costing it business and had unfairly damaged its reputation.

Some First Amendment lawyers see the case differently. They consider the lawsuit an example of the latest incarnation of a decades-old legal maneuver known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp.

The label has traditionally referred to meritless defamation suits filed by businesses or government officials against citizens who speak out against them. The plaintiffs are not necessarily expecting to succeed — most do not — but rather to intimidate critics who are inclined to back down when faced with the prospect of a long, expensive court battle.

“I didn't do anything wrong,” said Mr. Kurtz, who recently finished his junior year at Western Michigan University. “The only thing I posted is what happened to me.”

Many states have anti-Slapp laws, and Congress is considering legislation to make it harder to file such a suit. The bill, sponsored by Representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Charlie Gonzalez of Texas, both Democrats, would create a federal anti-Slapp law, modeled largely on California's statute.

Because state laws vary in scope, many suits are still filed every year, according to legal experts. Now, with people musing publicly online and businesses feeling defenseless against these critics, the debate over the suits is shifting to the Web.

“We are beyond the low-tech era of people getting Slapped because of letters they wrote to politicians or testimony they gave at a City Council meeting,” said George W. Pring , a University of Denver law professor who co-wrote the 1996 book “Slapps: Getting Sued For Speaking Out.”

Marc Randazza, a First Amendment lawyer who has defended clients against suits stemming from online comments, said he helped one client, Thomas Alascio, avoid a lawsuit last year after he posted negative remarks about a Florida car dealership on his Twitter account.

“There is not a worse dealership on the planet,” read one post, which also named the dealership.

The dealership threatened to sue Mr. Alascio if he did not remove the posts. Mr. Randazza responded in a letter that although Mr. Alascio admitted that the dealership might not be the worst in the world, his comments constituted protected speech because they were his opinion.

While the dealership did not sue, that outcome is unusual, said Mr. Randazza, who conceded that sometimes the most pragmatic approach for a Slapp defendant is to take back the offending comments in lieu of a lawsuit.

In the past, Mr. Randazza said, if you criticized a business while standing around in a bar, it went “no further than the sound of your voice.”

Now, however, “there's a potentially permanent record of it as soon as you hit ‘publish' on the computer,” he said. “It goes global within minutes.”

Laurence Wilson, general counsel for the user review site Yelp, said a handful of lawsuits in recent years had been filed against people who posted critical reviews on the site, including a San Francisco chiropractor who sued a former patient in 2008 over a negative review about a billing dispute. The suit was settled before going to court.

“Businesses, unfortunately, have a greater incentive to remove a negative review than the reviewer has in writing the review in the first place,” Mr. Wilson said.

Recognizing that lawsuits can bring more unwanted attention, one organization has taken a different tack. The group Medical Justice , which helps protect doctors from meritless malpractice suits, advises its members to have patients sign an agreement that gives doctors more control over what patients post online.

Dr. Jeffrey Segal, chief executive of Medical Justice, said about half of the group's 2,500 members use the agreement.

“I, like everyone else, like to hear two sides of the story,” he said. “The problem is that physicians are foreclosed from ever responding because of state and federal privacy laws. In the rare circumstance that a posting is false, fictional or fraudulent, the doctor now has the tool to get that post taken down.”

The federal bill, in the House Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, would enable a defendant who believes he is being sued for speaking out or petitioning on a public matter to seek to have the suit dismissed.

“Just as petition and free speech rights are so important that they require specific constitutional protections, they are also important enough to justify uniform national protections against Slapps,” said Mark Goldowitz, director of the California Anti-Slapp Project , which helped draft the bill.

Under the proposed federal law, if a case is dismissed for being a Slapp, the plaintiff would have to pay the defendant's legal fees. Mr. Randazza would not disclose specifics on the legal fees he has charged his clients, but he said the cost of defending a single Slapp suit “could easily wipe out the average person's savings before the case is half done.”

Currently, 27 states have anti-Slapp laws, and in two, Colorado and West Virginia, the judiciary has adopted a system to protect against such suits. But the federal bill would create a law in states that do not have one and offer additional protections in those that do, Mr. Goldowitz said.

In Michigan, which does not have an anti-Slapp measure, Mr. Kurtz's legal battle has made him a local celebrity. His Facebook page has now grown to more than 12,000 members.

“This case raises interesting questions,” said the towing company's lawyer, Richard Burnham. “What are the rights to free speech? And even if what he said is false, which I am convinced, is his conduct the proximate cause of our loss?”

On April 30, Mr. Kurtz and his lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the suit by T&J, which has received a failing grade from the local Better Business Bureau for complaints over towing legally parked cars. Mr. Kurtz is also countersuing, claiming that T&J is abusing the legal process.

“There's no reason I should have to shut up because some guy doesn't want his dirty laundry out,” Mr. Kurtz said. “It's the power of the Internet, man.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us/01slapp.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Summer of Full Flights and High Fares

This is not going to be a good summer for air travelers.

They face a potential combination of crowded flights, high fares and labor disruptions. And that does not even consider the possibility of more canceled flights because of new penalties for airlines that encounter long tarmac delays or the potential of continued disruption in Europe from the volcano ash drifting from Iceland.

Demand for business and leisure travel is expected to be stronger this summer than last, which means travelers will be fighting for seats that have been reduced significantly during the recession .

According to an analysis of first- and business-class travel in the first quarter by the International Air Transport Association, the trade group for the airline industry, the number of passengers traveling in these classes was 7.6 percent higher than in the period a year earlier. The number of passengers in economy was up 7.4 percent in the same period.

Growth in all classes of service is “being driven by business travel , rather than leisure,” the group's analysis said. “As business confidence and world trade have turned up sharply, business travelers have returned. Consumer confidence has not recovered in the same way as business confidence.”

Major corporate travel agencies in the United States are also reporting strong growth in flying by business travelers. Dale Eastlund, senior director of the consulting group of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the corporate travel management company, said airline bookings by North American corporate customers were up 15 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same period in 2009.

Michael Steiner, executive vice president of Ovation Corporate Travel in New York, said the number of airline transactions by Ovation's corporate customers was 22.5 percent higher in the first four months of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009, while the number of airline transactions by its leisure customers was up 39 percent.

These double-digit increases in demand are in no way being matched by similar increases in the number of seats. The Air Transport Association, the trade group of the American airline industry, said domestic capacity will be only 0.2 percent higher this summer than last, while capacity on international routes will be up 6.6 percent.

“Seats will be limited,” said Michael Derchin, airline analyst for CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Conn. “It's going to be a more difficult travel experience for business people, with 90 percent load factors in the peaks.”

The inevitable outcome of limited seats and stronger demand will be higher fares, at least compared with the greatly depressed levels of 2009.

Business- and first-class fares are up 10 percent globally from their “low point in mid-2009, but they're still a lot lower than they were prerecession,” said Brian Pearce, chief economist of the international airline industry group. “It indicates the development of a relative shortage of seats.”

From January to April, the average ticket price booked by a corporate customer of Ovation Travel climbed 16.2 percent, Mr. Steiner said.

Mathias Eichelberger, director of airline relations for Egencia, the corporate travel division of Expedia , agreed that fares were rising. “There are going to be very full flights with high prices, especially on trans-Atlantic routes,” he said. “I think leisure travel on the trans-Atlantic is going to come back stronger, with a stronger dollar and overall consumer confidence.”

Another result of more crowded flights could be a dearth of desirable seats, like those on aisles or in exit rows.

“Flights are going to be full,” Mr. Eastlund warned. “In many instances, business travelers will end up in the middle seat.”

And upgrades, which have not been plentiful recently — at Ovation Travel, for example, business traveler upgrades plummeted 21 percent from January to April — are expected to be even scarcer during the peak summer months.

“It will be much more challenging to get upgraded, because of the lack of capacity and the high number of frequent fliers,” Mr. Eastlund said.

Disruption in flying is also possible this summer because of labor problems. Already, British Airways has been dealing with on-again, off-again strikes by its cabin crew, while the management of American Airlines is preparing for a possible strike by its flight attendants.

The volcano in Iceland could also create further disruptions for travelers. Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg, co-president and co-owner of Valerie Wilson Travel, a corporate travel company in New York, said she was advising clients with connecting flights in any city in Europe “to build in a few extra hours for connecting time.”

The Transportation Department's new regulations governing tarmac delays could wreak further havoc with air travel this summer because of the potential for thunderstorm delays, some experts say. Under the new rules, the government has said it will fine carriers in the United States as much as $27,500 for each passenger if they keep people on domestic flights waiting for more than three hours on the tarmac without letting them get off.

“I guess airlines will err on the side of caution” if they are considering canceling a flight, Mr. Derchin said, adding that the result could be “more cancellations than normal.” And if capacity is tight, it could be hard to rebook passengers from canceled flights.

To make business air travel as manageable as possible, corporate travel executives suggest booking as far in advance as possible to get the lowest fares and best seats available, and developing a backup plan in case of delays.

They also point out that some frequent American travelers can use automated kiosks to pass through United States customs as part of the Global Entry program. The executives note, too, that the Transportation Security Administration runs a Black Diamond program at many of the major airports that designates security lanes for travelers familiar with the agency's rules.

There is usually an alternative to air travel “if the potential for disruption is too great,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, travel analyst for Forrester Research . “Take the train, drive or turn to technology.” That way, he said, business travelers can avoid “the hassle factor and not compete for overhead bin space with families.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/business/01summer.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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It's Up to You, Mr. Holder

In 2003, Congress acknowledged the serious problem of rape in the nation's prisons and created a commission to develop a set of national standards for preventing and punishing these crimes. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission spent five years on the task, holding hearings, visiting prisons, interviewing officials, families, inmates, community groups, advocates, medical organizations, prosecutors, police and others.

It finally finished its work last year and sent a set of rigorous recommendations to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. He now must issue mandatory standards for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state correctional institutions that receive federal money. Predictably, state and local corrections officials determined to preserve the disastrous status quo are pushing back. Mr. Holder must hold the line.

The commission's report makes for disturbing reading. It estimated that in a year's time, at least 60,000 prisoners were raped. The commissioners also noted that rape in prison is not inevitable. In some places, strong, engaged managers had created “a culture within facilities” that promoted safety instead of tolerating abuse.

Those leaders appear to be the exception. The commission found that rape victims were often hesitant to report the crime for fear of reprisal. It also found that few correctional institutions ever received the monitoring or oversight that would enable officials to find out why sexual abuse had occurred or how to prevent it.

The commission's recommendations are sound. They include better screening of guards and more training to recognize and address the signs of sexual assault, better medical and psychiatric care for assault victims, better protection for the most vulnerable, a system that allows prisoners to report rape without facing reprisal and publicly accessible records that would permit rape prevention programs to be independently monitored.

Mr. Holder could have adopted the commission's standards. Instead, the Justice Department sought comment on the proposals, further delaying the process and increasing the dangers that the reforms will be watered down. Enough is enough.

The Justice Department needs to issue the toughest possible standards to end these horrors, and prisons need to rigorously implement them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/opinion/01tue3.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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Make Kendra's Law Permanent

ELEVEN years ago, when the New York Legislature passed Kendra's Law, few could have foretold what a resounding success it would be. At the time lawmakers were searching for a useful response to the tragic death of 32-year-old Kendra Webdale , who was pushed in front of a subway train in Manhattan by a stranger who had untreated schizophrenia.

The law, initially intended for a trial period of five years, permits state judges to order closely monitored outpatient treatment for a small subset of seriously mentally ill people who have records of failing to take medication, and who have consequently been rehospitalized or jailed or have exhibited violent behavior.

In 2005, Kendra's Law was extended for another five years. In all, more than 8,000 people have been treated under its provisions, and the results have been striking. A 2005 study of more than 2,700 people to whom the law was applied found that, after treatment, the rate of homelessness in the population fell by 74 percent, the number who needed to be rehospitalized dropped by 77 percent and the number arrested fell by 83 percent. And a study published this year found that people receiving treatment under Kendra's Law were only one-fourth as likely to commit violent acts, had a reduced risk of suicide and were functioning better socially than members of a control group.

It's hard to imagine a stronger argument for making the law permanent. And yet, as it comes up for renewal this month, the state Office of Mental Health is recommending only a five-year extension. Why the hesitation? Apparently, the Office of Mental Health is ambivalent about its star performer. In its latest five-year Statewide Comprehensive Plan for Mental Health Services, Kendra's Law is not even mentioned, and the program it supports — assisted outpatient treatment — is referred to briefly only twice.

Perhaps state mental health officials are responding to critics who consider the law politically incorrect because it mandates psychiatric treatment by court order, supposedly violating the patients' freedom to choose or forgo treatment. But these are people whose illness interferes with their ability to understand that they are sick and need medication. They do not have the choice to live freely and comfortably, but only to be homeless, in jail or in a psychiatric hospital.

The people who could be treated under Kendra's Law account for only one in 10 seriously ill psychiatric patients. But when these people are untreated, they also make up one-third of the homeless population, and at least 16 percent of the jail and prison population. These people are ubiquitous in city parks, public libraries and train stations. And a small percentage become dangerous, even homicidal.

The law has been a model of success, not only in New York but also in 44 other states that now have similar laws (including, most recently, New Jersey and Maine). Unfortunately, these laws are too rarely used. California, for example, has passed an equivalent to Kendra's Law known as Laura's Law, but has not enforced it. If it had, it might have prevented 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell from wandering the country last March, taking orders from his psychotic brain, despite his family's frantic attempts to get treatment for him. Mr. Bedell ultimately shot two security guards at the Pentagon, and was shot and killed by the officers he injured.

Kendra's Law saves lives. By keeping patients on medication, it also saves money that might otherwise be spent on rehospitalization, prosecution and incarceration. New York should take lasting advantage of both benefits by making the law permanent.

E. Fuller Torrey, the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center, is the author of “The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/opinion/01torrey.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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