August 1, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Mexican federal police on Saturday rescued two of four journalists kidnapped five days earlier by a drug gang in northern Mexico, authorities said.

The case highlighted the dangers faced by journalists in Mexico, where criminal gangs often seek to silence news coverage or slant it in their favor. The captors had demanded the airing of homemade videos that linked a rival gang to corrupt police in the states of Durango and Coahuila.

Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said intelligence work led to a predawn operation that freed cameramen Javier Canales of Multimedios Laguna and Alejandro Hernandez of Televisa from a house in Gomez Palacio, Durango.

Hernandez told reporters at a news conference that the hostages were beaten and threatened. He showed reporters a head wound that he'd suffered a day earlier.

Televisa reporter Hector Gordoa was freed by his captors Thursday. The whereabouts of the fourth captive, Durango newspaper reporter Oscar Solis, was not immediately clear, although there were reports that he had been released.

The journalists were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime.

The kidnappings produced an outcry. On Thursday, Televisa broadcast a black screen in place of the scheduled magazine-style program that employs its captured staffers. Mexico's interior minister, Francisco Blake, went before cameras Friday to condemn the crime.

At least 30 journalists have been killed or have gone missing since President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006. On Friday, attackers hurled grenades at the Televisa station in the border city Nuevo Laredo.

In the Durango case, Televisa and Milenio Television agreed to air three videos that claimed ties between the Zetas gang and corrupt police. Garcia Luna said the kidnapping was carried out by a group tied to the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Local journalists have said that cartel is in control in the Durango prison.

Federal officials said inmates were permitted to leave the prison for a short time with weapons borrowed from guards to kill rivals. The attacks included a July 18 shooting at a party across the state line in Torreon, Coahuila, that killed 17 people.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-journalists-20100801,0,6867629,print.story

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

An atheism debate writ large, on billboards

In North Carolina, a church group and an atheist group put up dueling signs quoting their respective versions of the Pledge of Allegiance. Each group accuses the other of rewriting U.S. history.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

August 1, 2010

In the Internet age, the nation's culture wars are often waged through online blogs and e-mails. But across North Carolina, a heated church-state debate is playing out on an old-fashioned canvas: highway billboards.

An atheist group has erected six billboards with the phrase "One Nation Indivisible," leaving the words "Under God," from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Outraged, a church group has responded by putting up a dozen billboards featuring the phrase "One Nation Under God."

The dueling billboards have stirred up a long-simmering debate in this Bible Belt state over just what the Founding Fathers intended when they prohibited the establishment of government-endorsed religion. The 1st Amendment to the Constitution reads, in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Jennifer Lovejoy, a retired Army noncommissioned officer and an atheist, says the Constitution bans the type of prescribed religion reflected in the "Under God" phrase in the pledge.

"The Founding Fathers were adamant about separation of church and state. Many of them feared God, but they feared religion more," said Lovejoy, an Asheville resident and a member of Western North Carolina Atheists, part of the North Carolina Secular Assn., which raised money for the billboards.

The "One Nation Indivisible" billboards went up just before the July 4 weekend in Asheville and five other North Carolina cities along the Interstate 40 and Interstate 85 corridors.

The Rev. Ralph Sexton Jr., pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, was offended. The Asheville billboard was near his church — and not far from the Billy Graham Freeway.

Sexton and other church leaders, under the banner of a coalition called We Still Pray, raised money for the "One Nation Under God" billboards to counter what Sexton calls "political correctness gone amok." The billboards were erected in the same six cities and will remain for at least another month.

"We were established as a Christian nation, so don't try to rewrite history and sanitize it to write out God," Sexton said.

Lovejoy said it's the church group that's rewriting history. She points out that the original pledge did not contain "under God" when it was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy. The phrase was added by Congress in 1954 at the height of the Cold War against the communist Soviet Union.

"Her problem is that she doesn't know American history," Sexton said of Lovejoy. He contends that the pledge has religious underpinnings.

He insists that the Constitution seeks to protect religion from government interference but does not ban religion in government.

"We are a nation built on Christian principles," Sexton said. "Our Founding Fathers intended not that God be out of government, but that the government stay out of the church."

Lovejoy, the wife of a retired military policeman who is also an atheist, said her group's billboards were in response to a controversy in Asheville in December, when a city councilman refused to obey an obscure provision in the North Carolina Constitution that disqualifies public officeholders "who shall deny the being of Almighty God." The councilman, Cecil Bothwell, is an atheist.

When he was sworn in to office, Bothwell recited an alternative oath that did not involve affirming a belief in God or swearing on a Bible. State religious tests for officeholders were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1961.

Lovejoy said she was also motivated by a Baptist minister who held Bible studies and prayer sessions for a high school football team that included her sons, who do not consider themselves Christians.

Sexton said his We Still Pray group was formed in 2000 to protest a court ruling that prohibited student-led prayer in public schools. The group held a prayer rally at an Asheville high school.

The atheist group's billboard on the Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte was defaced by someone who painted in the words "under God" below "One Nation Indivisible."

Other than that incident — and a few blogs and online news site comment sections peppered with obscenities and insults — the billboard debate has remained civil.

"The good part of all of this," Sexton said, "is that we're talking to each other about an important issue."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hometown-asheville-20100801,0,4386428,print.story

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

From the New York Times

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

The Mexican Border’s Lost World

By MARC LACEY

TIJUANA, Mexico — Never a particularly pretty place, the border is at its ugliest right now, with violence, tensions and temperatures all on high.

Once thought of by Americans as just a naughty playland, the divide between the United States and Mexico is now most associated with the awful things that happen here. In towns from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, drug gangs brutalize each other, tourists risk getting caught in the cross-fire, and Mexican laborers crossing the desert northward brave both the bullets and the heat. Last week, a federal judge in Arizona blocked portions of new far-reaching immigration restrictions that she said went way too far in ousting Mexicans. Meanwhile, National Guard troops are preparing to fill in as border sentries.

All these developments are unfolding in what used to be a meeting place between two countries, a zone of escape where cultures merged, albeit often amid copious amounts of tequila. The potential casualties at the border now include a way of life, generations old, well-documented but decaying by the day.

The flow of people at the border has never been one way. The 1,969-mile stretch has long been a netherworld crossed by Americans in search of forbidden pleasures as much as by Mexicans desperate for work.

It is an area neither completely Mexico nor completely El Norte. And a dollop of danger, a quest for sin, was always part of its charm.

The modern story begins with Prohibition, when Mexico became the place for thirsty Americans to go for a cheap, legal drink. Over the years, the lure of cheap booze gave way to quickie divorces, dog races, strip shows, slot machines and brothels where fathers sometimes brought their sons when they hit 16. Through it all, there were plenty of drugs — medicinal (cut rates with no prescriptions) as well as illegal (marijuana, cocaine, heroin).

“The spice of danger adds a zest to the pleasure of thousands who visit them from this side of the frontier,” The Times wrote of the towns of Tijuana and Agua Caliente, in a feature article describing the raging drinking and gambling scene there. The year was 1930.

Name it and one could find it in the back alleys of Tijuana or Juárez back then, The Times wrote of Ciudad Juárez in 1925: “Juarez gambles spasmodically; peddles dope; obsequiously caters to the pennies which the terpsichorean neckers recklessly fling to the kitty; sells rotten whisky and green beer at exorbitant prices and maintains a street gloriously called Calle Diablo (street of the devil), where thoughtless men can go and, at a base price, acquire bitter regrets.”

World War II only boosted the market for a generation of soldiers on leave, and for postwar adventurers seeking music and thrills and sex. Jack Kerouac, in “On the Road,” described their welcome this way:

“Then we turned our faces to Mexico with bashfulness and wonder as those dozens of Mexican cats watched us from under their secret hatbrims in the night. Beyond were music and all-night restaurants with smoke pouring out of the door. ‘Whee,’ whispered Dean very softly.

“ ‘Thassall!’ A Mexican official grinned. ‘You boys all set. Go ahead. Welcome Mehico. Have good time. Watch you money. Watch you driving. I say this to you personal, I’m Red, everybody call me Red. Ask for Red. Eat good. Don’t worry. Everything fine. Is not hard enjoin yourself in Mehico.’

“ ‘Yes!’ shuddered Dean and off we went across the street into Mexico on soft feet.”

In the 1960s, Mexico firmly solidified its place as America’s marijuana and heroin provider. As commerce — licit and illicit — grew, politicians and police protected it. But the rules of engagement that once protected innocents eventually began to break down. Nowadays, anything goes.

In 1958, Orson Welles used the border as backdrop for his classic noir film “Touch of Evil.” (“This isn’t the real Mexico,” says the character Mike Vargas. “You know that. All border towns bring out the worst in a country. I can just imagine your mother’s face if she could see our honeymoon hotel.”) And in the 1990s, Cormac McCarthy set his trilogy of “Border” novels there as well, infusing his writing with adventurous tales and tragic love affairs, some involving prostitutes.

But little that any of the writers or filmmakers came up with rivals today’s real-life spate of killings by men with no compunction about pulling the triggers on their automatic rifles as their drug gangs defy the authorities and fight for pre-eminence.

The naughtiness that used to give the border its flair seems innocent now. The prostitutes, hustlers and con men who once had free rein are, like everyone else, scared out of their wits. The easy smiles of Kerouac’s Mexican border guards, welcoming free-spending tourists, are giving way to fences and armed American soldiers.

And as this happens, longtime lovers of the border fear most for the back-and-forth itself — for the interchange, even if asymmetrical and exploitive, of poorer Mexicans and free-spending Americans that over the generations has, to some degree, fostered understanding between the two countries.

“The relationship that once existed between the two sides is broken,” lamented Luis Ituarte, who splits his time between Los Angeles, where he promotes the arts, and Tijuana, where he runs a cultural center. “There used to be so much mixing. Young people in San Diego would go for the night to Mexico. As a young boy in Tijuana, a night out in San Diego was something I did all the time. You got to know people on the other side.”

As the violence rises — on July 15, officials reported the first car bombing of Mexico’s drug war, in Juárez — tourism has flagged all along the border. Even the State Department forbids its own officials to drive through the border crossings. The latest State Department travel warning speaks of “large firefights” in broad daylight, of grenades being hurled and of highways blocked by outlaws.

Juárez and Tijuana, it notes, have been particularly deadly places for Americans. Other Mexican border towns are depressing shadows of their former selves, with boarded-up storefronts and “Se Vende” signs as common as prostitutes and offers of cheap Viagra.

Cecilia Balli, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin who grew up on the border, recalls how Charro Days, a holiday celebrating the common traditions in Brownsville, Texas, and the Mexican town of Matamoros, used to be a truly cross-border affair, with parades marching across the line.

The last one she attended, earlier this year, was guarded by heavily armed police officers on the American side, and most of the revelers gave up on the idea of crossing back and forth, because of the lengthy lines at the immigration office and fears of violence.

At the other end of the border, Friendship Park once connected San Diego and Tijuana and allowed residents on both sides to picnic together. It now is bisected by barriers that keep Mexicans and Americans well away from any contact.

Not all is dire. The big-name international brands that operate maquiladora factories continue to operate, taking advantage of free trade and cut-rate labor. And one can still find some art museums, fancy business districts and upscale housing developments along the border — where leaders have made special efforts to show that lawlessness is not always the rule. Tijuana, in fact, is planning a high-tech conference in October, with high-profile participants like Al Gore and Carlos Slim (and their bodyguards).

There is also some talk of addressing the sociological problems of border communities by doing things like building more soccer fields for wayward youth. Border experts cite the need for a “21st-century border,” one that uses technology to allow legal trade to flow while slowing the illegal transfers going both ways.

But as I cross back and forth at some of the border’s most troubled points, I find that even a journalist faces scrutiny going both ways. American authorities grilling those entering the United States wonder just what an American could possibly be doing south of the border in this climate. And entering Mexico elicits surprise as well from the American inspectors who now regularly stop southbound cars, looking for gun traffickers and money launderers.

“You sure you want to go down there?” one of them said to me recently.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/weekinreview/01lacey.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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

Economic Indicator: Even Cheaper Knockoffs

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

In this economy, even counterfeiters are trading down.

After years of knocking off luxury products like $2,800 Louis Vuitton handbags, criminals are discovering there is money to be made in faking the more ordinary — like $295 Kooba bags and $140 Ugg boots. In California, the authorities recently seized a shipment of counterfeit Angel Soft toilet paper.

The shift in the counterfeiting industry, which costs American businesses an estimated $200 billion a year, plays to recession-weary customers looking for downmarket deals, the authorities say. And it has been fueled in part by factories sitting idle in China. Almost 80 percent of the seized counterfeit goods in the United States last year were produced in China, where the downturn in legitimate exports during the recession left many factories looking for goods — in some cases, any goods — to produce.

“If there is demand, there will be supply,” said John Spink, associate director of the Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program at Michigan State University. In China, he said, “It’s all of a sudden them saying, ‘We have low capacity. What can we make?’ ”

The answer is increasingly knockoffs of lesser-known brands, which are easy to sell on the Internet, can be priced higher than obvious fakes, and avoid the aggressive programs by the big luxury brands to protect their labels, retail companies and customs enforcement officials say.

The results: Faux Samantha Thavasa bags for $113 and Ed Hardy hoodie sweatshirts for $82.50. And, bizarrely, imitations that are more expensive than the real ones: In 2007, Anya Hindmarch sold canvas totes that said “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” for $15. Now fakes are available on the Web for $99.

“If it’s making money over here in the U.S., it’s going to be reverse-engineered or made overseas,” said Jonathan Erece, a trade enforcement coordinator for United States Customs and Border Protection in Long Beach, Calif. “It’s like a cat-and-mouse game.”

The traders in mid-price fakes are employing another new trick: by pricing the counterfeits close to retail prices — which they can do when the original product is not too expensive — they entice unsuspecting buyers. Any savvy shopper, for example, knows a Louis Vuitton bag selling for $100 cannot be the real thing. But when NeimanMarcus.com, an authorized retailer for Kooba bags, sells them for $295, and a small Web site sells them for $190, a deal-hunting consumer could think she has scored a bargain. (She hasn’t. The $190 bag is a fake.)

“If the price points are somewhat close, some consumers get duped into believing they’re getting a real product,” said Robert Barchiesi, president of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, a trade group. “They might be looking for a bargain, but a bargain to buy real goods.”

The counterfeiters are also lifting photos and text from legitimate Web sites, further fooling some shoppers.

“The consumer is blind as to the source of the product,” said Leah Evert-Burks, director of brand protection for Ugg Australia’s parent company, the Deckers Outdoor Corporation. “Counterfeit Web sites go up pretty easily, and counterfeiters will copy our stock photos, the text of our Web site, so it will look and feel like” the company site, she said.

While all of it is illegal, the authorities do not publish statistics on what brands’ products are being counterfeited. But designers and trade experts said the downmarket trend in counterfeiting became more noticeable over the last year, as counterfeiters got more inventive. The field is big: the total value of counterfeit goods seized by United States customs officials increased by more than 25 percent each year from 2005 to 2008, using the government’s fiscal calendar. In fiscal 2009, as imports over all dropped by 25 percent, the value of counterfeit products seized dropped by only 4 percent to $260.7 million.

The official statistics capture only a piece of the problem, companies and experts say, because so many counterfeiters market directly to customers on the Internet and many of those sales go undetected by the authorities.

“Online is much harder” to patrol and enforce, said Todd Kahn, general counsel for Coach, the handbag and accessories company.

That is particularly true for smaller brands, as Anna Corinna Sellinger, co-founder and creative director of the New York clothing and accessories company Foley & Corinna, learned.

A couple of years ago, she began checking out which Foley & Corinna items were selling on eBay. Her city tote, which now retails for $485, was a popular item, but on some listings “there was something off — it’s a color I never did, or a leather I never did,” she said.

As other sites proliferated, and Ms. Corinna Sellinger noticed more and more Internet fakes, she stopped looking altogether. “It’s just too frustrating,” she said. “You can try to do something, but it’s so big and so fast.”

While Ms. Corinna Sellinger basically had herself and a computer to patrol for fakes, big companies use legal teams who train customs officials on the nuances of their product, monitor the Web, ask Internet service providers to take down copycat sites and file lawsuits against sellers. (The brands only go after sellers; the law in the United States does not prohibit consumers from buying counterfeit products.)

Ugg Australia, the popular boot brand, developed a full enforcement program after it realized how prevalent copies of its boots were. In 2009, 60,000 pairs of boots were confiscated by customs agents globally, Ms. Evert-Burks said. In the same year, the company took down 2,500 Web sites selling fake products, along with 20,000 eBay listings and 150,000 listings on other trading sites like Craigslist and iOffer. That’s despite the relatively low price of real Ugg boots, which cost around $140 for a basic model.

Under similar programs, Versace won $20 million in a recent lawsuit against counterfeiters, while Gucci, Louis Vuitton and other luxury brands have been pursuing similar cases. Coach last year announced “Operation Turnlock,” in which it would file civil lawsuits against counterfeiters, and it has sued 230 times, Mr. Kahn said. At Liz Claiborne Inc., which owns brands like Juicy Couture and Kate Spade, the company has gone after 52 Web sites selling counterfeits, and removed 27,000 auction listings so far this year.

The lesson for many counterfeiters has been that they have a better chance of getting away with it if they copy smaller brands like Foley & Corinna — even though Foley & Corinna, while popular with celebrities and fashion types, is not widely recognized as a status brand and its bags can be had for as little as $126 on the brand’s own Web site.

“Once it’s out there a lot, people won’t even want the real one because then they’re like, ‘People are going to think it’s fake,’ ” Ms. Corinna Sellinger said. “It takes the product away from the designer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/business/economy/01knockoff.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

Immigration Policy Aims to Help Military Families

By JULIA PRESTON

The Obama administration, responding to requests from Democratic and Republican lawmakers, has taken steps to make it easier for illegal immigrants who are spouses and family members of Americans serving in the military to gain legal status.

The new policy was described in an internal memorandum from Citizenship and Immigration Services that was released last week by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and caused a furor in Washington on Friday.

The memo outlined measures that the agency could take under existing laws to “reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization,” instead of waiting for Congress to pass an immigration overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

With the title “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” the memo prompted protests from Mr. Grassley and other Republicans that the Obama administration was trying an end run around Congress, rather than confronting a divisive debate on immigration legislation during an election season. The memo was first reported on the Web site of The National Review, a conservative magazine.

Officials of the immigration agency denied on Friday that they were pursuing any plan to legalize millions of illegal immigrants by fiat.

Aside from a title that administration officials acknowledged was provocative, the memo describes possible changes to the immigration agency’s interpretation of immigration law, including several that have been recommended by lawmakers from both parties to make it easier for immigrants who are trying to work within the system to gain legal status.

According to the memo, one of those changes has been quietly put into practice since May. The new policy allows illegal immigrants who are spouses, parents and children of American citizens serving in the military to complete the process of becoming legal residents without having to leave the United States — a procedure that is known in immigration law terms as granting parole. The memo says agency officials approved the new parole approach “to preserve family unity and address Department of Defense concerns regarding soldier safety and readiness for duty.”

In a letter on July 9, 18 members of the House, including nine Republicans, urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to make broader use of that measure and several others to “provide some relief” to active-duty soldiers with close relatives who did not have legal immigration status. The measures the lawmakers advocated are also proposed in the immigration agency’s memo, including the broader use of “deferred action,” a power that allows immigration authorities to cancel deportations.

Among the Republicans signing the letter were Representatives William M. Thornberry of Texas and Representative Michael R. Turner of Ohio, both members of the House Armed Services Committee, as well as Representatives Mike Pence of Indiana and Sam Johnson of Texas. Mr. Turner and Mr. Johnson are staunch opponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants. The letter was also signed by Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the Democrat who is chairwoman of the House immigration subcommittee.

Department of Homeland Security officials estimate that many thousands of military service members have close relatives who are illegal immigrants. Under a legal Catch-22 in immigration law, those families could face as much as 10 years of separation if the immigrant relative leaves the United States to pursue a legal visa.

The representatives’ letter cited the case of Lt. Kenneth Tenebro, an Army officer and American citizen who had served in Iraq. His Philippine-born wife, Wilma, had been caught in that same legal bind. On July 6, the immigration agency granted deferred action for one year for Mrs. Tenebro, suspending the threat of deportation and offering her new channels to fix her status. Until now, officials said, they have applied the new policy for the military on a case-by-case basis.

Mr. Grassley and 11 other Republican senators who signed a letter this week to Secretary Napolitano about the immigration agency memo, said they were concerned that immigration officials would use their discretionary powers to grant a blanket legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

“We remain concerned about potential plans for a large-scale effort to offer parole or to defer action on undocumented aliens in the United States,” the senators wrote. “We do not believe that such actions should be used for a large population of illegal aliens or used to bypass Congress and the legislative process.”

Mr. Grassley and a group of Republicans had written a similar letter on June 21.

Administration officials sought to play down the memo. They said the proposals were largely “notional” and most had not been approved as policy by Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. However, the memo is signed by some of the highest officials in the agency, including Roxana Bacon, the general counsel, and Denise Vanison, the chief of the office of policy and strategy.

The memo finds that it is “theoretically possible to grant deferred action to an unrestricted number of unlawfully present individuals,” but rejects that option as politically “controversial” and too expensive. The memo suggests the agency could instead “tailor the use of this discretionary option for particular groups.”

Christopher Bentley, the spokesman for the immigration agency, said, “To be clear, D.H.S. will not grant deferred action or humanitarian parole to the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01immig.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

American Muslims Make Video to Rebut Militants

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

A recent spate of arrests of Muslims accused of terrorism in the United States has revealed that many of them were radicalized by militant preaching they found on the Internet.

Now nine influential American Muslim scholars have come together in a YouTube video to repudiate the militants’ message. The nine represent a diversity of theological schools within Islam, and several of them have large followings among American Muslim youths.

The video is one indication that American Muslim leaders are increasingly engaging the war of ideas being waged within Islam.

“We need to shepherd our own flock and to say that, theologically, these things are unacceptable,” said Imam Suhaib Webb, the educational director for the Muslim American Society, a grass-roots group in Santa Clara, Calif., who is among the nine in the video. “The Prophet Muhammad, when on the battlefield, saw that amongst the enemy there were innocent women and children killed, and he was openly angry. He is prohibiting us from killing the innocent. It is very clear.”

Mr. Webb said in an interview on Friday that as a white convert from Oklahoma, he had become deeply alarmed in the past year at the number of converts who had been arrested on charges of planning or carrying out violence in the name of Islam.

In July alone, one American convert in Virginia and another in Alaska who were arrested and accused of having ties to terrorism were both said to have been influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born militant cleric now hiding in Yemen who maintains an active Web site.

Ihsan Bagby, an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, who is also in the video, said, “We’re hoping that that loner out there who, because of internal turmoil, starts listening to the wrong people, that this message also filters into his ear.”

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said of the video: “It can be a powerful outlet. It is the kind of thing that, formatwise, is matching what’s being done by the jihadist groups.”

He said that some of the scholars in the video were politically controversial but had credibility among many Muslims because they were not seen as “sell-outs.”

“Some would argue that they might be more effective than those perceived as more establishment figures,” said Mr. Gartenstein-Ross, the author of “My Year Inside Radical Islam.”

Among the nine are several converts to Islam who are popular because they are steeped in both American culture and Islamic scholarship. They include Sheik Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, scholars who have founded Zaytuna College, an Islamic seminary in Hayward, Calif.

The video, which is about five and a half minutes long, opens with ominous music, like that used in some of the jihadists’ propaganda videos, and the words “Believers Beware: Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice.”

“Many people are saying that there are so many issues of injustice taking place around the world,” Imam Mohamed Magid, leader of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, a mosque in Virginia, says in the video. “That is true, we acknowledge the injustice taking place around the world. But we believe there is a way to address the injustice — not by taking innocent people’s lives.”

Edina Lekovic, director of policy and programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the advocacy group that produced the video, said they intentionally chose scholars who represent a diversity of theological streams.

“We didn’t want to just target the liberals or the conservatives or ultraconservatives,” Ms. Lekovic said. “The point was to show that no matter where you stand on the religious spectrum, we all have a shared belief and shared outrage by the events that are taking place.”

She said the only criticism the council had received was that there were no female scholars in the video — a fact she attributed to scheduling problems. She said the council expected to make another video that would include women. The group is also preparing another version, without the music, for Muslims who consider music haram, or forbidden.

Mr. Magid said in an interview: “This is the beginning of a greater effort. Imams have to be virtual imams, answering questions on the Web, having blogs. We have to have open discussions for youths to talk about what is frustrating them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01imams.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

Many Indigent Refugees to Lose Federal Assistance

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration is about to terminate cash assistance for thousands of indigent refugees who are severely disabled or over the age of 64.

“You will lose your Supplemental Security Income on Oct. 1,” the agency says in letters being mailed to more than 3,800 refugees.

All fled persecution or torture. Many are too old or infirm to work and are not yet eligible to become United States citizens.

Federal law sets a seven-year limit on payments to refugees. The maximum federal payment is $674 a month for an individual and $1,011 a month for a couple. In 2008, Congress provided a two-year extension of benefits for elderly and disabled refugees, asylum seekers and certain other humanitarian immigrants, including victims of sex trafficking.

The extra eligibility period is now ending, and Congress has not taken action to extend it.

Among those expected to lose benefits are a Sudanese couple, Obid Sharif and Buthaina Elamin Adam, both 73. They came to this country in 2000, obtained asylum and live in Reston, Va.

They have permanent resident status, or green cards, but cannot apply for citizenship for several years.

“Supplemental Security Income is their only source of income,” said their son, Haitham Mahmoud. “Without it, life for them will be really difficult.”

Mr. Mahmoud said his father, who has prostate cancer, and his mother, who has heart trouble, would probably lose their health insurance when their cash benefits were cut off.

The extension of benefits in 2008 had bipartisan support. Indeed, President George W. Bush had asked Congress to extend the deadline, saying that “some individuals have been unable to obtain citizenship within the seven-year time limit.”

But no bill has been introduced in either chamber of Congress to help refugees facing the loss of benefits this year.

“It’s clear that any bill designed to help needy populations has a hard road to travel,” said Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee that is responsible for the program.

It was only with great difficulty that Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits for 2.5 million Americans last month, Mr. McDermott pointed out.

As a senator, President Obama was co-sponsor of a bill extending refugees’ eligibility for cash assistance, and as a presidential candidate he emphasized his support for it. But the administration has not taken a position this year.

Mark Hinkle, a spokesman for Social Security, said the administration had not sent Congress a proposal to extend benefits.

Kenneth S. Baer, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, said, “The administration has been following this issue closely and consulting with stakeholders and members of Congress to develop an appropriate response.”

Tyler T. Moran, policy director of the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group for low-income immigrants, said: “Advocates have been in touch with White House and Social Security officials, urging them to weigh in with Congress on this issue. To date, nothing has happened. We remain hopeful.”

The refugees and asylum seekers come from countries like Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Somalia and Vietnam. They include Jews who fled religious persecution in the former Soviet Union, Iraqi Kurds oppressed by Saddam Hussein and Hmong tribesmen who fought with American forces in the Vietnam War.

Many Jewish refugees from Russia were 70 or older when they were admitted to the United States and have had difficulty learning English, said Melanie Nezer, director of the Washington office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Some are homebound, do not know how to apply for citizenship and do not realize that help is available, Ms. Nezer said. Some, she said, have difficulty paying the application fee for naturalization, which is at least $595 and may be as high as $675.

Others likely to lose benefits include Olga Muhtarova, 79, who received asylum after coming to the United States from Uzbekistan in 1998. Her friend Gretchen Vogelzang, who helps her deal with government agencies, said: “She would love nothing more than to become a U.S. citizen. She’s making a good-faith effort to do so, taking classes in English and civics.”

But, Ms. Vogelzang said, “Olga is going to lose her S.S.I. because she got a green card last year and will not be able to apply for citizenship until 2014.”

After receiving a green card, an immigrant must ordinarily wait five years before becoming eligible for citizenship.

Another immigrant, Ajisa Suljic, fled Bosnia in 2002, having lost her husband, father and two brothers in the war there. Ms. Suljic, 52, is severely depressed and has received Supplemental Security Income because of a medical disability.

Her daughter, Munisa, said Ms. Suljic had applied for citizenship but could not afford the fee or get a waiver.

Mr. Hinkle, the spokesman for Social Security, said that refugees receiving cash assistance might qualify for an additional year of benefits if they could show that they had filed applications for citizenship with the Department of Homeland Security. He said he did not know how many applications were pending.

Congress set a time limit on assistance for refugees as part of a comprehensive welfare law adopted in 1996. The stated purpose of the restrictions was to control costs, promote self-sufficiency and ensure that “the availability of public benefits not constitute an incentive for immigration to the United States.”

Lawmakers assumed that refugees who still needed help could become citizens and qualify for benefits beyond the time limit. But for many refugees that has proved impossible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01benefits.html?adxnnl=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1280664001-7dBiwHadu9VygFEZur/

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

Old Weapons Off Hawaii Should Stay Put, Army Says

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HONOLULU (AP) — Chemical weapons dumped in deep water five miles south of Pearl Harbor after World War II should remain at the site because moving them could pose more of a threat to people and the environment, the Army says.

Records show that the Army dumped 16,000 bombs at the site after the war; each of the bombs contained 73 pounds of the chemical agent mustard.

J. C. King, the Army’s assistant for munitions and chemical matters, said in a statement on Friday that the Army was reviewing a University of Hawaii study on the weapons that was released earlier in the week.

Margo Edwards, a senior research scientist at the university, said the study showed that the munitions were not a hazard, but that they were deteriorating and should continue to be monitored.

Ms. Edwards’s team made 16 dives in submersible vehicles to depths of 2,000 feet over three years, and she said she saw more than 2,000 munitions on the ocean floor.

The spots where the military has dumped chemical weapons off Hawaii are normally too deep to be reached by the public. They are also marked on nautical charts, and ships do not trawl in these areas.

Mr. King said the military’s Explosives Safety Board believes that the safest approach to underwater munitions is to leave them in place and educate people about what to do if they find a shell. However, he said, the board also believes that weapons posing an imminent and substantial danger should be removed.

Mr. King said studies like the one conducted by the University of Hawaii helped the Army better understand the effects munitions might have on the environment and the effects the ocean may have on the weapons.

The Army intends to expand the area studied off Hawaii, if financing is available. The Army also plans to determine, in coordination with the rest of the military, how it should monitor underwater weapons sites over time, Mr. King said.

The military used the ocean as a dumping ground for munitions from 1919 to 1970.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01weapons.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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

From Google News

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

Cluster bomb ban comes into effect

The treaty prohibits signatories from using, producing and stockpiling the weapons

A global treaty banning cluster munitions has gone into force.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which became binding international law on Sunday, prohibits the use, production and stockpiling of the weapon, which is blamed for killing and maiming tens of thousands of civilians.

Thomas Nash, from the Cluster Munition Coalition, a network of 200 civil society organisations, hailed the ban.

"This is the most significant piece of international humanitarian law to enter into force since the land mine ban 10 years ago. From this moment on, countries have a legal obligation to assist the victims," the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

The treaty requires signatories to destroy stockpiled cluster munitions within eight years, clear contaminated areas within 10 years and help affected communities and survivors.

The Convention on Cluster Bombs was first adopted in May 2008 and ratified by 37 states including Britain, France, Germany and Japan, which all have significant stocks.

Deadly 'toys'

Cluster bombs are dropped from planes or fired by mortars before the canisters open mid-air, releasing bomblets that scatter over a wide area. Most explode immediately, but those that fail to detonate on impact can claim victims many years after the end of the conflict.

More than two dozen countries have been affected by cluster bombs and activists say three out of five casualties occur during day-to-day activities.

Most of the victims are children and some are killed when they mistake the bomblets for toys.

The United Nations estimates almost half of all casualties are from Laos, where people are still at risk of being injured from unexploded bomblets.

Between 1964 and 1973, at the height of Vietnam War, the US military dropped more than 2 million tons of explosive ordnance, including an estimated 260 million cluster munitions, mainly to disrupt enemy supply lines that passed through Laos.

It is thought that around 30 per cent of bomblets failed to explode on impact, and over two-thirds of the country is still contaminated. Experts say they kill or injure about 300 people a year.

Significant stocks

Countries that have signed the treaty into law include the UK, France, Germany and Japan, all of which have significant stocks of the weapon.

But the Cluster Munition Coalition said it needs to persuade more states to sign.

The United States, the world's largest producer with the biggest stockpile of 800 million submunitions, has refused to sign the treaty so far, although it says it will ban the weapon from 2018.

China, Russia and Israel have also stayed away and do not disclose their stocks.

Lou Maresca from the International Committee of the Red Cross told Al Jazeera: "We've often seen that the establishment of a new international humanitarian law treaty can nevertheless impact on states which are not a party to it.

"We've already seen that the existence of this treaty has helped change the practice and provoke a re-evaluation of the role of cluster munitions even in major military powers."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/20108161921618518.html

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

Arizona immigration clash headed for controversial appeals court

By Howard Mintz

08/01/2010

The epic legal struggle over Arizona's immigration crackdown has landed in a San Francisco-based federal appeals court that is all too familiar with being the center of the nation's attention — and its inevitable label as the nation's most liberal court

From once striking down the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools to overturning death sentences with regularity, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has long been a favored target of conservatives who have jumped at any chance to blast the country's largest appellate court. Some groups supporting Arizona's strict immigration law already have said they believe their best chances lay in the U.S. Supreme Court, not the 9th Circuit.

But as the Arizona case reaches its marbled doorstep, having inflamed the national debate over illegal immigration, the 9th Circuit is not so easy to stereotype. While still considered more liberal than most appeals courts, this is not former President Jimmy Carter's 9th Circuit. The appeal of last week's decision by an Arizona judge blocking the most controversial provisions of Arizona's immigration law is just as likely to be decided in the coming months by the 9th Circuit's moderate to conservative judges as by its liberal wing.

"It's changed radically," said Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis law school and a clerk during the 1980s for 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the so-called "liberal lion" of the federal judiciary. "It's a much more conservative court. You've had eight years of President (George W.) Bush nominating people, and he didn't nominate any liberals."

The 79-year-old Reinhardt, who has insisted for years that even former President Bill Clinton's appointees were not liberal enough, bristles at the fact the 9th Circuit remains tethered to its reputation as a liberal court.

"With the 9th Circuit, people get ideas," Reinhardt said. "It clearly is not a liberal court. It clearly is a moderate to conservative court."

Of course, not everyone agrees, and the 9th Circuit is still dominated by appointees of Democratic presidents, particularly Clinton. Even with an infusion of seven Bush picks, Republican appointees make up just 10 of the court's 25 full-time judges, with four vacancies available for the Obama administration to fill. (The White House has nominated Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu and Arizona federal Judge Mary Murguia to fill two of those, and Republicans have targeted Liu as a potential liberal.)

The court shapes the law for nine western states, including California, and has had a hand in deciding a host of crucial cases over the years, from California's recall election and a challenge to Proposition 209, to blocking executions and, of course, its infamous 2002 ruling barring the pledge in schools because it contains the phrase "under God," a ruling later set aside by the Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit, at some point, also will inherit the challenge to California's same-sex marriage ban.

Is it still liberal? 9th Circuit Judge Carlos Bea, a Bush appointee, believes so, saying overall it is "predictably more liberal in its decisions" than most other federal appeals courts. Arthur Hellman, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and 9th Circuit expert, says that challengers to the Arizona immigration law would surely prefer to be in the 9th Circuit than anywhere else.

"The odds are better in the 9th Circuit than any other circuit," Hellman said. "It is still a court that is more liberal overall than most, if not all, of the other federal circuits."

But legal experts and the judges themselves also say the 9th Circuit is more unpredictable than ever. While some of the Clinton appointees are decidedly liberal, most are considered centrist and a few quite conservative, such as Washington state's Richard Tallman.

One 9th Circuit Clinton appointee said the Bush judges have nudged the 9th Circuit to the center but, as Bea puts it, "not all of them vote in lock-step." It was a Bush appointee, Consuelo Callahan, who wrote a ruling last year invalidating California's violent video game law, an arguably conservative cause now before the Supreme Court.

On immigration issues, the 9th Circuit is generally in the corner of immigrant rights, particularly in asylum cases. The court has frowned on immigration restrictions that go too far, in 2000 ruling it illegal for the U.S. Border Patrol to consider "Hispanic appearance" in making an immigration stop.

But in 2008, the 9th Circuit upheld another Arizona immigration law that revokes the business licenses of employers who hire illegal immigrants. That decision, written by Carter appointee Mary Schroeder, is being heard in the Supreme Court's next term, a case some legal experts say will provide precedent for the broader Arizona immigration legal fight now unfolding in the 9th Circuit.

In fact, the 9th Circuit, which for years has been ridiculed as the appeals court most overturned by the Supreme Court, fared far better during the last term. Some 9th Circuit judges don't put much stock in that development, but others see it as evidence the 9th Circuit is no longer as much of a legal renegade.

"I'm pretty happy with the balance of the court," said Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, one of the court's few remaining Reagan appointees. "If you lined up the conservatives and the liberals, you'd say it's pretty close. A number of people, you just can't peg them."

In the 9th Circuit, a case such as the challenge to Arizona's immigration law in the end may depend on the luck of the draw — with so many judges, the random makeup of a three-judge panel that will hear the case first can be crucial. This is also true when the court votes to rehear a case with an 11-judge panel, a frequent development in hotly contested matters. An 11-judge panel last year heard a challenge to Alameda County's ban on gun shows, and it was an eclectic mix of Republican and Democratic appointees.

Legal experts say that may well be the type of 9th Circuit panel that considers Arizona's law and whether to uphold a Phoenix judge's preliminary injunction preventing much of it from going into effect.

"This is the quintessential case where it's a close legal issue, and it's one of those cases where the outcome on appeal will ultimately depend on the makeup of the panel," Hellman said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15649670?nclick_check=1

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

3 inmates escape from northwest Arizona prison

By AMANDA LEE MYERS (AP)

PHOENIX — Police used helicopters and dogs Saturday to search for three convicted murderers who escaped from a northwest Arizona prison, kidnapped two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to flee.

Department of Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said the men escaped Friday evening by cutting a hole through a perimeter fence at the medium-security Arizona State Prison in Golden Valley, about 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas. They should be considered especially dangerous because of the nature of their convictions, he said.

Officials identified the escaped convicts as Tracy Province, 42, who was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery; Daniel Renwick, 36, serving 22 years for second-degree murder; and John McCluskey, 45, serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.

Flagstaff police Sgt. James Jackson said a woman identified as Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, met the men and helped in their escape, and at about 5 a.m. Saturday, the group kidnapped two drivers of a semi-truck in Kingman and forced them at gunpoint to drive two hours east to Flagstaff.

The group left the drivers, unharmed, in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 and then fled in an unknown direction, Jackson said.

"The truck drivers were lucky to get away unscathed," he said. "I mean, they've been convicted of murder and they're escaping from prison."

Marson said Welch had visited one of the inmates, but he did not immediately know which one.

Pat Carter, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County sheriff's office, said Welch was seen at the prison before the escape driving a blue 1996 Chrysler Concord car with Arizona license plate ABL7584. The car hasn't been found.

Authorities urged anyone with information on the escaped prisoners to use caution and call police immediately.

Province was last seen wearing dark blue jeans, a dark purple polo shirt with red stripes, and white tennis shoes. McCluskey was wearing light-color blue jeans, a white button-up shirt with horizontal and vertical blue stripes, and white tennis shoes. There was no information about Renwick's clothing.

Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, operates the prison. The company operates 17 correctional facilities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Idaho and Ohio, according to its website.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hB0B5qIFEqMDeeaj_JGZgZMr6klQD9HAHC5G0

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

Florida church plans to burn Quran on 9/11 anniversary

Aug 1, 2010

MIAMI: A Florida church said it plans to publicly burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting threats from Islamic groups and warnings the move will trigger a rise in hate crimes.

The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida said on its Facebook page it will hold an "International Burn a Koran Day" on September 11, asking other religious groups to join in standing "against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!"

"Islam and Sharia law was responsible for 9/11," pastor Terry Jones said. "We will burn Qurans because we think it’s time for Christians, for churches, for politicians to stand up and say no; Islam and Sharia law is not welcome in the US," the organizer of the burning action added.

Reactions to the Koran burning announcement were swift. Members of the Al-Falluja jihadist forum have threatened to "spill rivers of your (American) blood" and "a war the likes of which you have never seen before".

Mainstream Muslim groups also denounced the move and lamented the sentiments promoted by the Gainesville church.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Florida-church-plans-to-burn-Quran-on-9/11-anniversary/articleshow/6242137.cms

.