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From the Los Angeles Times

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Virginia man accused of plotting to bomb D.C. area subway stations

Prosecutors say the suspect's plan was 'to kill as many military personnel as possible' by placing bombs during rush hour.

Richard A. Serrano, Tribune Washington Bureau

October 27, 2010

Reporting from Washington

A naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly spent six months casing crowded Metro subway stations around the Pentagon in what prosecutors said was a plan "to kill as many military personnel as possible" by placing explosive devices on the trains and detonating them during rush hour.

Prosecutors said Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old resident of Ashburn, Va., in the Washington suburbs, wanted to stage a series of coordinated bombings on the trains on behalf of Al Qaeda terrorists whom he did not realize were FBI undercover operatives.

According to a federal indictment, Ahmed repeatedly scouted commuter traffic at several subway stations leading in and out of the Pentagon in Virginia, and reported his findings to the undercover operatives.

So detailed was his surveillance, the indictment said, that Ahmed suggested that bombings between 4 and 5 p.m. would "cause the most casualties" and that explosives should be snuck aboard the trains on "rolling suitcases."

Ahmed, in a long beard and casual clothes, appeared in federal court on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility.

A former network planning engineer and computer scientist in New York, he said he could not afford a lawyer. He did not enter a plea in the case. If convicted, he could receive up to 50 years in prison.

Neil H. MacBride, the U.S. attorney in eastern Virginia, called it "chilling" that someone was "casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous attacks."

The Ahmed case, which President Obama was briefed on before the arrest, is the latest in a string of alleged bomb plots by so-called homegrown terrorists. David Krist, assistant attorney general for national security, said it "underscores the need for continued vigilance against terrorist threats" in this country.

The nine-page indictment gave this scenario:

Ahmed met in April at a hotel in Dulles, Va., with an undercover operative posing as a courier for a terrorist organization. A month later he met at a hotel in nearby Sterling, Va., and told another operative that he "might be ready to travel overseas to conduct jihad" in January after he completed a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in November. He also agreed to "watch and photograph" the Arlington National Cemetery subway station "in order to obtain information about their security and busiest periods."

Ahmed twice scouted the station in July, and made a "recording of video images," the indictment said. He sent an e-mail signaling his surveillance was done. He gave a thumb drive containing the video to the undercover operative, and agreed to assess security at two other stations -- the Arlington courthouse and the Pentagon mall.

Ahmed also said he wanted to donate $10,000 to his "brothers overseas," and would send the money in $1,000 increments "in order not to raise any red flags."

In August he scouted the other two stations, and in September gave a thumb drive of images from those stops to the operative, the indictment said.

Then on Sept. 28, in a lengthy meeting at a hotel in nearby Herndon, Va., Ahmed told the operative that "between 4 and 5 p.m. would be the best time to stage an attack to cause the most casualties." He also suggested another station at Crystal City be hit.

He sketched diagrams of the stations, and suggested explosives be hidden inside "rolling suitcases" rather than more conspicuous "backpacks." The indictment added that Ahmed told the operative he "wanted to kill as many military personnel as possible."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-1028-subway-terror-20101027,0,7130651.story

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Pakistani criminal justice system proves no match for terrorism cases

The courts, hamstrung by shoddy police work, antiquated procedures and witnesses who clam up, have a dismal track record.

By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

October 28, 2010

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan

To find the office of the prosecutor in charge of putting Islamabad's bomb builders and terrorist masterminds behind bars, visitors must wend their way through the midday bustle of shoppers and descend into a dingy basement alcove, next to the Valley Tour travel agency.

There, Mohammed Tayyab will confess that he isn't at all proud of his track record. He has handled 45 cases in the last year. He has won just four.

"It's very low — I admit it," Tayyab says, heaving a sigh.

Some of the cases he has lost were infamous terrorist attacks: The truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel that killed more than 50 people in the Pakistani capital in September 2008, and the June 2008 car bombing of the Danish Embassy that killed six people. The latter, Tayyab's most recent terrorism case, ended in the acquittal this fall of three men charged with helping plan the attack.

It's not that the prosecutor isn't aggressive enough or lacks legal acumen. But the cases Tayyab takes on seem doomed from the start. More often than not, they're based on shoddy police work, and only get to court because of antiquated judicial procedures that don't allow prosecutors to reject flimsy, poorly investigated cases.

"Our criminal justice system is weak," Tayyab says. "It's rubbish and needs a lot of improvement."

A country pummeled by a continual barrage of suicide bombings, assassinations and militant ambushes needs a well-oiled criminal justice system that keeps terrorists off the streets after they're nabbed and sends a signal that extremists cannot supplant law and order. Instead, the message Pakistanis get is that when it comes to terrorism cases, criminal justice in their country is hopelessly ineffective.

Legal experts say militants are walking free because police investigators lack basic evidence-gathering techniques to build solid cases. Investigators eager to get terrorism investigations off their desks are also prone to framing Pakistanis on trumped-up charges. More often than not, judges see through the frame-ups and acquit the defendants.

In Punjab, Pakistan's largest and wealthiest province, nearly three of every four terrorism cases in 2009 and the first six months of this year ended with acquittals, according to provincial court records. And while army offensives have dented militant activity in the restive Swat Valley and parts of the largely ungoverned tribal badlands along the Afghan border, experts say a reliable justice system buttressed by sound police work is essential to a broader containment of terrorism.

"If we don't get convictions, there will be no end to terrorism," says Sabah Mohyuddin Khan, a lawyer and former Islamabad judge. "Everyone should be worried about this. Unless killers are convicted, they'll have a free hand."

While acts of terrorism typically are complex crimes committed by highly trained, organized militant groups, the police assigned to investigate those crimes lack the sophisticated training to probe such cases.

"It's like fighting a war in the air with a Cessna," says former Interior Secretary Ilyas Mohsin. "[The police] do not have the facilities, the training or the equipment."

Any overhaul of Pakistan's criminal justice system, legal experts say, should start with a wholesale modernization of the country's outdated legal code so that prosecutors have more authority over terrorism investigations. Currently, when police submit a weak, flawed terrorism case for prosecution, criminal law in Pakistan does not give prosecutors the discretionary power to reject it.

The Danish Embassy bombing case is an ideal example. Tayyab's star witnesses were two Islamabad police constables who said they had seen two men in a car signal the car bomber to pull up to the embassy wall. Moments later, the car bomb exploded, blowing a gaping hole in the embassy wall. The men in the car sped off.

No arrests were made until a year later, when three men were charged in Islamabad's next-door city, Rawalpindi, with murder. The Islamabad constables said when they saw two of those men in a lineup, they identified them as the men who had signaled the embassy bomber.

Even Tayyab acknowledged having doubts about the constables' claim of remembering the faces of two men they had seen only momentarily a year before. The judge was just as skeptical.

"It was in my mind that it's unsafe to rely on this," Tayyab says. "And the judge agreed. He said, 'It's unnatural. They had no ample opportunity to note the features of these people. How can you say this is possible?' "

Tayyab had a stronger case against two men charged with helping plan and oversee the truck bomb attack on the Marriott, a swanky five-star hotel that is a hub for diplomats and Western businesspeople. The key witnesses were two friends of the men charged. They told investigators they had been with the defendants before the attack and heard the men discussing how they would carry out the bombing.

During the investigation, the witnesses gave recorded statements to a magistrate, which under Pakistani law made the statements admissible in court. But when the case came to trial, the witnesses recanted. In terrorism cases in Pakistan, witnesses often recant once in the courtroom, fearing the defendants' militant colleagues will track them down.

"They said the police had made them become witnesses, that the statements they made before the magistrate [were the] result of being threatened," Tayyab says. Though the defendants presented no evidence of duress, the judge accepted their recantations.

In many cases, key witnesses in terrorism cases do not even show up in court, fearing retribution from militant groups. Cases involving sectarian killings in southern Punjab province have stalled for years because witnesses refused to testify or were killed beforehand. Pakistan lacks any kind of protection program to safeguard witnesses in terrorism cases. "We are not that organized," Mohsin says.

The country's top judges have taken notice of the rising tide of acquittals in terrorism cases. Spurred by the June 19 acquittal of a man charged in the March 2009 siege on a Lahore police academy, the city's high court chief justice, Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, said, "It is an alarming state of affairs that a number of accused have been acquitted by trial courts due to defective investigation and lack of sufficient evidence and, as such, failure of the prosecution to prove cases."

In the Lahore attack, militants armed with automatic rifles, grenades and suicide vests overran the academy and held it for eight hours, killing at least eight recruits and instructors and wounding more than 100 others. The lone man arrested, Hijrat Ullah, was caught at the academy grounds in the midst of the attack, wielding a hand grenade and trying to blow up a helicopter.

Ullah was convicted of possession of a hand grenade and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But citing insufficient evidence, a judge acquitted him in a separate trial on terrorism charges stemming from the attack. Ullah could have received life imprisonment.

Pakistani officials say they do not have the financial resources to train police or buy the forensic equipment needed to adequately investigate and prosecute terrorism cases. But some of those on the judicial front lines counter that the country cannot afford to avoid tackling the problem any longer. Militants continue to strike virtually every week, and the list of terrorism defendants continues to grow.

"To improve," Tayyab says, "it will take time. The problem is that we have no time."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-acquittals-20101028,0,6815868,print.story

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Gunmen kill 15 at carwash, in latest Mexico massacre

The attack took place in the Nayarit state capital, Tepic. State authorities said 13 of the victims, all men, worked at the carwash and that most were clients of a drug rehab center.

By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

October 28, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

In Mexico's third mass shooting in less than a week, gunmen opened fire Wednesday at a carwash in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, killing at least 15 people.

The midmorning attack took place in the state capital, Tepic, rocked this year by bouts of drug-related violence.

Nayarit authorities said 13 of the victims, all men, worked at the carwash and that most were clients of the same drug treatment center, Alcance Victoria (Victory Outreach). As for the remaining two killed, one was found dead at a nearby fruit stand and the other was shot while arriving at the carwash on a motorcycle.

The Sol de Nayarit newspaper said on its website that three victims wore matching T-shirts emblazoned with "Fe y Esperanza," or "Faith and Hope." The website showed bodies scattered in the area where cars are washed.

A witness told W Radio that men arrived in two SUVs, carrying rifles. When the gunmen got out of the vehicles, the witness said, shots erupted first from inside the carwash. The men with rifles then opened fire on the manager and workers, he said.

Officials did not specify a motive for the attack, though it bore signs of organized crime. Three people were wounded. It was unclear whether any customers were hurt.

The attack was the country's third massacre in recent days. On Sunday, gunmen fatally shot 13 men at a private drug treatment center in Tijuana. Two days earlier, attackers opened fire on a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, killing 14.

President Felipe Calderon, appearing at a forum on public safety in the central state of Morelos, asked for a minute of silence for the victims of the three attacks.

"These are acts perpetrated by unscrupulous criminals who snatch life from innocent people, most of them young people with life ahead of them, young people struggling to build a future, to overcome addictions, to study," Calderon said.

In June, Nayarit's governor, Ney Gonzalez Sanchez, closed the state's schools three weeks early after shootouts left more than 30 people dead over several days. He said he was shortening the school calendar to prevent a public "psychosis."

Nayarit, with pretty beaches and a growing tourist industry, has seen fighting between traffickers explode this year, with at least 155 people killed, according to a tally by the daily newspaper Reforma. Last year, 22 were killed.

Some transplants from Nayarit have gained notoriety on the U.S. side of the border by creating a successful network for peddling black-tar heroin.

In Guerrero state Wednesday, three men and a woman were shot dead in a residential area of the resort city of Acapulco, where cartel fighting has left at least 18 people dead in recent days. The spate of violence appears to pit leaders of the Beltran Leyva group against a breakaway faction once led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie," who was arrested by police in August.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-violence-20101028,0,2415762,print.story

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Signe Margit, 59 She had two master's degrees but was homeless. Trained to be a teacher, she had filed for bankruptcy and appeared to have recurring money troubles.

Portrait emerges of woman whose mummified body was found in car Though she had two master's degrees, she had filed for bankruptcy and was homeless when she was befriended by a real estate agent who let her sleep in a car. But after she died in the front seat, it was not reported to authorities. by Joseph Serna Los Angeles Times October 28, 2010 The two women met last year at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley and were unlikely acquaintances. One was a Costa Mesa real estate agent, the other a homeless woman who frequented the park. The real estate agent allowed the woman to sleep in her father's old sedan. But sometime in the last 10 months, the homeless woman died in the car. And for reasons that Costa Mesa police are still trying to determine, the real estate agent decided not to report the woman's death to authorities. Detectives said she drove the car with the mummifying corpse covered with clothing in the passenger's seat. She used baking powder to reduce the smell.

Police discovered the body of Signe Margit, 59, last week when officers responded to a report of a car parked illegally on a Costa Mesa street. When they approached the vehicle, they were overpowered by a strong odor. When they looked inside, they spotted a leg underneath clothing in the front passenger seat.

Authorities are still trying to determine whether the real estate agent broke the law by not reporting the body. She has not been arrested, and officials declined to release her name.

But a portrait of Margit is slowing emerging.

Family members told detectives that Margit held two master's degrees. In 2001, she was issued a pre-intern teaching certificate for cross-cultural, language and academic development emphasis in California, according to records.

The certificate allowed her in-class teaching experience with children who had emotional problems and mild to moderate learning disabilities. During some of this time, she worked with special education students at Audubon Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Over the next decade, records show her living in a dozen cities throughout California, Texas and Washington. During this period, she filed for bankruptcy and appeared to have recurring money troubles. At one point, she reported in court records that she owned a 1999 Toyota Corolla, some clothing, $50 worth of jewelry and not much else.

She returned to Los Angeles County a few years ago. Costa Mesa police Sgt. Ed Everett said she was working in a job he declined to identify in Los Angeles County for three years until she was let go in August 2009.

Some time after that, she met the real estate agent in Mile Square Regional Park.

Margit's family told police the last time they heard from her was in December, when they reported her missing. That's the last time anyone reported seeing her alive, police said.

Margit's death did not appear to be the result of foul play, and detectives are trying to figure out why the real estate agent, in her 50s, chose to drive around with a foul-smelling corpse.

Costa Mesa police Det. Mike Cohen said it appears she had befriended the transient woman for altruistic reasons. He added that the real estate agent was "very calm and very articulate" when talking about Margit's death.

Police said the real estate agent herself had fallen on hard times and was living at the home of a friend for a few days. It was outside that friend's home where police discovered the corpse Oct. 18.

After breaking into the car, police found a body "seated in a reclined position in the front passenger seat with clothing items covering them," according to the police report on the case. "It was evident they had been deceased for some time. The body was found to be in a mummified state."

The Orange County coroner was unable to immediately determine a cause of death; toxicology results are pending.

Detectives continue to look into Margit's background but said they were grateful for the help from the public, which has provided key details.

"In this particular case, the public was a big help because initially we didn't know, other than a potential first name, we didn't have any information to reference her," Everett said. "Luckily for us, her first name was unusual … we got several tips from different individuals calling about Signe."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mummy-20101028,0,5871551.story

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Senior citizens should be immunized for whooping cough, federal panel says

Senior citizens should be vaccinated against whooping cough if they expect to be in contact with newborn infants, a federal health committee in Atlanta said Wednesday.

The vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention largely endorsed what California health officials have been saying since the summer: People 65 and older should get the Tdap shot, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

California is undergoing its worst outbreak of whooping cough in 60 years: Ten newborns have died, and more than 6,000 people in the state have been infected this year. The only way to protect the newborns is to prevent coughing family members and caregivers from infecting the babies.

Newborns are at the highest risk of dying from whooping cough.

The committee in Atlanta also said adolescents and adults who have not received a dose of the Tdap vaccine, or who do not know if they received the vaccine, should be inoculated immediately.

The Tdap shot was licensed for use in adolescents and adults up to age 64 in 2005 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But in light of the accelerating outbreak, and with evidence that the inoculation is safe for seniors, California officials in July said anyone over 65 should also receive the Tdap vaccine.

Despite the state's recommendation, some physicians have been giving erroneous, outdated information to some older patients on whether they can get the shot. In August, Medicare issued a statement backing the California recommendation and confirmed that the Tdap shot is covered under the Part D drug plan. 

Here's a full list of the advisory committee's recommendations:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/federal-panel-says-senior-citizens-should-be-immunized-for-whooping-cough.html#more

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EDITORIAL

The world of women

Two new U.N. reports show that women and girls have made progress or held steady in work, education, poverty and life expectancy, but they continue to lag behind men in most of those categories. And sexual violence is a universal phenomenon.

October 28, 2010

Two recent United Nations reports on the condition of women around the world contain the standard mix of good and bad news: Women and girls have made progress or at least held steady in many of the policy areas examined — including work, education, poverty and life expectancy — but they continue to lag behind men in almost every one of those categories. And sexual violence against women and girls is a universal phenomenon.

But the reports are remarkable on two fronts. First, they are more comprehensive than previous studies, because most countries now keep sex-disaggregated data on, among other things, population, school enrollment, employment, child labor and the number of women serving in government. This allows researchers to present increasingly accurate snapshots of women's lives, particularly in developing nations. Second, the reports suggest a way forward. In almost every instance of progress or advancement for women, whether in the work world or attaining political power, there is a correlation with education.

In the last 10 years, girls have moved toward parity with boys in elementary school enrollment, with especially large gains made in Africa and southern Central Asia. In Kenya, for example, 1.2 million children flooded primary schools in January 2003 when the government abolished school fees. Girls in particular had been disadvantaged by the fees because poor families, forced to choose which child to educate, had given preference to boys. Globally, enrollment of women in universities has also increased dramatically.

Where girls have the greatest access to education, they marry later, have fewer children and more economic opportunity. In Europe, women are on average age 30 or older when they first marry, according to the report, whereas in some developing countries, such as Mali and Niger, they do so before age 20.

Sexual violence against women, particularly during war, causes long-term trauma. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, rape victims are still suffering physically and psychologically 15 years after the war ended. That bodes ill for places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where women are being systematically assaulted.

In developed countries, women face fewer obstacles to education but bump against a thick glass ceiling. They continue to be underrepresented among legislators and senior managers, and overrepresented among clerks and service workers. And they still earn less than men. In the home, women spend about five hours a day on childcare and chores, while men average two hours. Except in a few places: In the United States, for instance, men have reached parity with women in hours spent on chores and housework. Now that's progress.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-women-20101028,0,6423877,print.story

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OPINION

The former U.S. naval intelligence analyst has already served far too long for giving classified information to Israel.

By Lawrence Korb

October 28, 2010

About 25 years ago, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst, betrayed his country by providing highly classified information to Israel. Even though Israel was and still is a U.S. ally and is routinely supplied with U.S. intelligence, Pollard deserved to be severely punished for his actions. However, the punishment should fit the crime. In his case, it does not.

After his arrest and indictment by a grand jury, Pollard agreed to plead guilty to one count of giving classified information to a U.S. ally. In return for his guilty plea — which spared the government the embarrassment of conducting a trial involving highly sensitive information — and his cooperation with the U.S. government, the U.S. attorney pledged not to seek a life sentence for Pollard.

This seemed like a reasonable resolution. The average sentence meted out to individuals convicted of giving classified information to an ally is seven years, with average time served about four years.

Despite the terms of the plea bargain, in 1987 Pollard was sentenced to life, a sentence generally reserved for spies such as Aldrich Ames, who pleaded guilty to giving classified information to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, information that led to the loss of many lives.

The question is why Pollard received such a harsh sentence and why he still languishes in prison despite the pleas of hundreds of U.S. legislators, dozens of distinguished attorneys (including a former solicitor general), a former CIA director, one former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and several Israeli leaders to have him released.

There are at least three reasons for this state of affairs.

First is the victim impact statement of my former boss, Caspar Weinberger, the secretary of Defense at the time of Pollard's arrest. The statement, much of which remains classified, implied that some of the information that Pollard had supplied to Israel made its way to the Soviet Union. Weinberger argued that Pollard was no different from spies who provided information to the Soviets and was guilty of treason.

Second, at the time of his arrest, the Israeli government refused to acknowledge that Pollard was one of its agents, claiming that he was part of a rogue operation. Not surprisingly, the Israelis also steadfastly refused to return the reams of documents that Pollard had delivered to them or debrief the U.S. about their contents. This added fuel to the notion that Pollard was working for the Soviets or another U.S. enemy rather than for an American ally.

Third, Pollard was an unsympathetic character. He not only took about $45,000 from the Israelis in exchange for the information he handed over, he gave two highly publicized interviews from jail before his sentencing, one with Wolf Blitzer and another with Mike Wallace. In these interviews, which the government claimed were not authorized, he didn't express remorse but instead attempted to rationalize his behavior.

But none of these conditions exists now. Weinberger's contention has been debunked. Information that Pollard gave to Israel did not make its way to the USSR. Instead, the information that the Soviets received during the 18 months Pollard was spying for Israel most likely came from Ames and Robert Hanssen, a onetime FBI agent who spied for the USSR and Russia from 1979 to 2001.

R. James Woolsey, the CIA director from 1993 to 1995, stated after examining the Pollard case file that none of Pollard's information went to the Soviet Union. Moreover, Woolsey now believes that Pollard has served long enough and should be released. And in a 2004 interview, Weinberger himself admitted that in retrospect, the Pollard matter was comparatively minor. In fact, he does not even mention it in his memoirs.

In 1998, the Israeli government finally admitted that Pollard was one of its agents, granted him Israeli citizenship and has sought clemency for him from three U.S. presidents. Finally, Pollard himself not only expressed remorse before the sentencing judge but has done so several times publicly over the past 25 years (and the government has conceded that the jailhouse interviews had to have been authorized).

One president actually agreed to grant clemency to Pollard. In October 1998, President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked out an agreement to release Pollard as a way of facilitating an Arab-Israeli peace agreement. However, the deal was scuttled when George Tenet, the CIA director at the time, threatened to resign. Tenet was apparently concerned about the signal Pollard's release would send to the intelligence community and believed he still had information that could jeopardize national security.

Some now argue that Pollard should be released because it would improve U.S.-Israeli relations and enhance the prospects of success of the Obama administration's Middle East peace process. Although that may be true, it is not the reason I and many others have recently written to the president requesting that he grant Pollard clemency. The reason is that Pollard has already served far too long for the crime for which he was convicted, and by now, whatever facts he might know would have little effect on national security.

Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-korb-pollard-20101028,0,5829475,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Defunding bullies

Schools, including colleges, will be required to adopt anti-bullying plans after an incident or face the possible loss of federal aid.

October 28, 2010

School officials invariably express great sorrow when campus bullying leads to tragedy; they also usually say that they are shocked to find that anyone was being harassed, even when the victim or parents have complained. But nothing actually gets schools to change their behavior like the promise of money or the threat of its removal. That's why it was heartening to learn that the U.S. Department of Education took its first strong steps against bullying this week by announcing that schools might lose federal funding for failing to stop bullying of gay students on campus.

There are federal civil rights laws that, at least theoretically, prohibit harassment of students on the basis of race, national origin, gender or religion, and in his announcement, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told schools to use them to enforce rules against bullying. In addition, the department will use court rulings on gender discrimination to include gay and lesbian students among those protected groups. Schools, including colleges, will be required to adopt anti-bullying plans after an incident or face the possible loss of federal aid. The U.S. Department of Justice also might be brought in to investigate. The new get-tough policy came after the recent suicides of five gay teenagers who had been harassed at school, as well as the suicides of several straight teenagers who had been bullied.

The Education Department is right to use all the powers at its disposal, and it should indeed take tough legal action when schools fail to protect vulnerable populations. But federal civil rights laws are an awkward tool for changing student culture on campus, and even department officials concede that the laws would be invoked only in the most extreme cases. And what about the bullying of students who don't fall within one of the protected categories? All students have the right to feel safe on campus. The tolerant attitude toward bullying among many school officials is as unacceptable as the harassment itself.

It's too bad the Education Department took so long to take steps against bullying. It could have used the Race to the Top program, under which states receive large federal grants for agreeing to education reforms, to push for meaningful state laws that would create effective anti-bullying programs for all public schools, and require the schools to use them.

That opportunity was missed, but there will be others. Many schools have successfully changed campus culture. We already know what works — a combination of educating students and the community to understand that cruel behavior hurts others in terrible ways, and disciplining the bullies rather than trying to get the victims to change. Duncan should use both his funding clout and his bully pulpit to send an insistent message that states and individual schools must use both weapons against the kinds of bullying that make school a daily misery for too many students.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-bully-20101028,0,7880606,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Activist Tells of Torture in North Korea Prison

SEOUL, South Korea — An evangelical activist from Arizona, imprisoned by North Korea last year after he illegally entered the country on Christmas Day, appeared Wednesday on South Korean television and spoke for the first time about his treatment by his captors.

The activist, Robert Park, 29, a Korean-American who was released in February after 43 days of detention, gave a harrowing account of his imprisonment, which he said included beatings, torture and sexual abuse.

“The scars and wounds of the things that happened to me in North Korea are too intense,” Mr. Park said in an interview with the South Korean broadcaster KBS. “As a result of what happened to me in North Korea, I've thrown away any kind of personal desire. I will never, you know, be able to have a marriage or any kind of relationship.”

Mr. Park said he attempted suicide soon after he returned to the United States. He told the magazine Christianity Today that he had been “in and out” of psychiatric hospitals for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. He had crossed into North Korea over the frozen Tumen River, which forms the border with China. He carried only a Bible and some letters urging the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il , to close prison labor camps in the North, free all its prisoners and resign.

Analysts in Seoul said such personal affronts to Mr. Kim were forbidden in the North and typically drew long prison terms or death sentences. But Mr. Park told friends in Seoul before he left that he would die with political prisoners in the North if Mr. Kim refused to free them.

Mr. Park read a confession on North Korean television, after which North Korean officials said they “decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrongdoings into consideration,” according to a report at the time by the North's official news agency, K.C.N.A.

But Mr. Park said Wednesday that the apology was a fake, and that the statement had been dictated to him.

He said that he had a new appreciation for the harshness and cynicism of the North Korean government, which he vowed to devote his life to fighting.

“They have really thought about this,” he said. “How can we kill these people? How can we starve these people? How can we enslave these people? How can we control these people?”

Robert R. King, President Obama 's envoy on North Korean human rights issues, has called North Korea “one of the worst places in terms of lack of human rights.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/asia/28seoul.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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New Bin Laden Tape Threatens France

PARIS — Osama bin Laden warned France in an audiotape broadcast by Al Jazeera television on Wednesday that it would face killings and kidnappings if it did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

He also justified the kidnapping of five French citizens in Niger last month, saying that France mistreated its Muslims.

“The equation is very clear and simple: as you kill, you will be killed; as you take others hostages, you will be taken hostages; as you waste our security we will waste your security,” Mr. bin Laden said.

France has about 3,750 troops in Afghanistan, making it the fourth biggest contributor to the international military mission.

Al Qaeda 's North African affiliate claimed responsibility last month for the kidnapping of five French citizens in northern Niger. The five were connected to Areva, the French nuclear engineering giant, and to a subsidiary of the major French construction group Vinci. In July, the affiliate said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker who had been abducted in Niger three months earlier.

“The taking of your experts in Niger as hostages while they were being protected by your proxy there,” Mr. bin Laden said, “is a reaction to the injustice you are practicing against our Muslim nation.”

Mr. bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, said the injustice included France's controversial ban on Muslim veils that cover the face, scheduled to start in April.

“If you unjustly thought that it is your right to prevent free Muslim women from wearing the face veil, is it not our right to expel your invading men and cut their necks?” Mr. bin Laden asked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/europe/28osama.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Murderer Executed in Arizona

The State of Arizona executed Jeffrey Landrigan late Tuesday night after the Supreme Court lifted a lower court's injunction blocking the lethal injection. 

Last-minute appeals for Mr. Landrigan, convicted of murder in 1990, focused on the origins of one of the drugs used in the state's three-drug execution protocol. 

Shortages of barbiturates used in executions has led to delays in several states. The only domestic manufacturer approved by the Food and Drug Administration to make sodium thiopental, the barbiturate used in Arizona, is Hospira Inc; it suspended production of the drug a year ago because of supply issues, and is expected to be producing it again in the first quarter of next year. 

With no supplies coming from sources approved by the F.D.A., Judge Roslyn O. Silver of Federal District Court had demanded that the state provide information about the origins of Arizona's drug in order to know whether there were risks of impurity or efficacy that could violate Mr. Landrigan's rights under the Eighth Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment.  

The state refused to detail the origins of the drug or the process used to obtain it in open court, citing the state's confidentiality laws, though officials said it had come from England. Thus “the court is left to speculate,” Judge Silver wrote, “whether the non-F.D.A. approved drug will cause pain and suffering.” 

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the order, stating that the state should provide a full accounting. “Because we do not know what was before the district court due to the state's failure to provide the materials, we cannot say the district court abused its discretion in granting a temporary stay,” the judges wrote on Tuesday. Later in the day, the full Ninth Circuit refused to rehear the case, resulting in the state appealing to the Supreme Court. 

In a one-page order issued Tuesday night explaining the 5-to-4 vote to vacate Judge Silver's temporary restraining order, the Supreme Court stated that Judge Silver's reasoning was flawed, because the case affirming the constitutionality of the three-drug execution method, Baze v. Rees , had a high standard of proof that an execution method would cause harm.  

The court stated that “speculation cannot substitute for evidence that the use of the drug is ‘sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering,'” citing the decision in Baze v. Rees. and the court added, “There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect.” 

The five justices who voted for lifting the stay were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.; Antonin Scalia; Clarence Thomas; Samuel Alito; and Anthony M. Kennedy. The four justices who voted to uphold Judge Silver's stay were Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Stephen G. Breyer; Sonia Sotomayor; and Elena Kagan, her first publicly released vote. They did not issue an opinion. 

Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University , said that the lesson of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Landrigan case was “crime pays.” 

He explained: “The state flatly stonewalled the lower courts by defying orders to produce information, and then was rewarded at the Supreme Court by winning its case on the basis that the defendant had not put forward enough evidence. That is an outcome which turns simple justice upside-down and a victory that the state should be ashamed to have obtained.” 

Proponents of the death penalty saw the outcome, instead, as a victory for the rule of law. Kent S. Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation , a victims' rights group, wrote on the group's blog that the case draws a bright line for other attempts to stay executions, and singled out a procedural stay in California, where Judge Jeremy Fogel of Federal District Court has delayed the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown Jr. over questions concerning the state's drug protocols. 

“Judge Fogel now has a clear directive from the high court that unless the new California protocol fails this 'sure or very likely' standard, he should allow executions to proceed,” Mr. Scheidegger wrote. “The protocol surely passes.” 

In an interview, Mr. Scheidegger said, “The Supreme Court told the Ninth Circuit and the District Court that they had applied too loose a standard in granting a stay.” The new decision, he said, “sends a message” that “speculation about problems with the source is not sufficient to stay an execution.” 

Ty Alper, the associate director of the death penalty clinic at the University of California, Berkeley , said that the Supreme Court's decision did not end the story, arguing that “it explicitly leaves the door open for a challenge in a case where petitioners can show that the drug was unlawfully obtained.”  

The fact that the F.D.A. has not approved foreign sources of sodium thiopental, he said, suggested that “it's very likely that a petitioner will be able to make this showing in a case where there is more time to litigate the issue than there was in the Arizona case.” 

With the stay in Arizona lifted, Mr. Landrigan was executed at 10:26 p.m. local time. 

Mr. Landrigan murdered Chester Dyer in 1989 in Phoenix, after having escaped from an Oklahoma prison where he was being held on another murder conviction. 

According to The Arizona Republic , Mr. Landrigan offered his last words in a strong voice and a heavy accent from his native Oklahoma.  

“Well, I'd like to say thank you to my family for being here and all my friends,” he said, “and Boomer Sooner.” 

The Sooners is the team nickname at the University of Oklahoma.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/us/28execute.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Meningitis Booster Urged for Teenagers

ATLANTA — Federal vaccine advisers recommended on Wednesday that 16-year-olds be given a booster dose of a vaccine against meningococcal meningitis and that people ages 11 to 64 get a booster to protect against whooping cough , diphtheria and tetanus .

The reason for the meningitis recommendation is that two popular vaccines against the disease do not seem to work as well as hoped. Instead of providing 10 years of protection, they may work for only five years or less.

That is not long enough to protect teenagers and young adults through the riskiest years because the vaccine is usually given at 11 or 12 years of age. The hope is that a booster dose at 16 would yield protection through the first few years of college, when outbreaks occur most often.

Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices debated whether to recommend that the first dose simply be delayed by three or four years or to add a second dose. The vaccine is about $100 a dose, and the disease is rare. So adding a second dose ensures that every death averted would be expensive. Federal officials estimated that while the current strategy prevents 9 deaths each year, delaying the first dose would prevent 14 deaths and adding a second dose would prevent 24.

Since the federal government pays for about half of all vaccines, the additional cost would be partly borne by taxpayers. The committee voted 6 to 5 to support a booster, but for the recommendation to take effect, the Department of Health and Human Services would need to endorse it, which generally happens but not always.

Dr. Janet Englund, a committee member from Seattle Children's Hospital, said that delaying the vaccine by three or four years would result in fewer teenagers being vaccinated. A smaller share of 16-year-olds are vaccinated compared with preteenagers, she noted. And because teenagers may drop out of high school, she said, “by moving the age up, I very strongly fear we're going to be missing at-risk youths.”

Dr. James Turner, a liaison representative to the committee from the American College Health Association, said that if the vaccines were truly so ineffective after five years, more meningitis cases would be popping up on college campuses. But he said a recent survey of 207 schools found just 11 cases, and fewer than half of those cases would have been prevented by vaccination because of differences in strains of the disease.

“If there is waning immunity , we're not seeing any emerging disease yet,” he said. “So I don't know that there's a lot of urgency today in deciding on a booster.”

Meningococcal meningitis is a horrifying disease. It strikes so quickly that often only a day passes between the first signs of illness and the death of the child. Lori Buher of Mount Vernon, Wash., told the committee about how her 6-foot-4, 14-year-old son, Carl, was playing football one day and was being airlifted, near death, to Seattle Children's Hospital the next. His heart stopped three times during the flight.

Carl survived but lost both legs below the knee, as well as three fingers and the use of his knuckles. He underwent 11 skin graft operations. She urged a booster shot, she said, because vaccination at age 11 would have saved Carl from his illness. His illness struck in 2003, before the current vaccines were approved.

“I can't tell you what it would have meant if we'd been able to vaccinate him at 11,” Ms. Buher said.

Separately, the committee discussed a growing epidemic in California of whooping cough, also known as pertussis. The state so far this year has had 6,257 cases, the most since 1960. Ten infants have died in California this year, and cases have risen nationally as well.

One way to prevent infant deaths is to vaccinate family members. The committee voted to recommend a booster shot of a vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis to those between ages 11 and 64, and to those over 65 if they come in close contact with infants. The committee said uncertainty about whether someone had recently received a combined tetanus and diphtheria vaccine should not rule out getting the combined vaccine that also protects against pertussis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/health/policy/28vaccine.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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European Officials Broadly Criticize U.S. Airport Security Methods

LONDON — Several European officials questioned American requirements for airport security on Wednesday, a day after the chairman of British Airways criticized Britain for bowing too quickly to Washington's demands.

The chairman, Martin Broughton, said at a conference on Tuesday that Britain should not “kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done” with aviation security procedures.

Especially irritating, Mr. Broughton said, according to The Financial Times, was the requirement that passengers take off their shoes and remove their laptops from their luggage during security checks. The practice should be abandoned, he said. A representative for British Airways confirmed that he made the remarks.

The complaints added to the discontent and frustration among passengers, airlines and airport operators in Europe over the ever-changing safety requirements and the long waiting times at security screening points in airports. Executives from other carriers and airports echoed the criticisms from British Airways.

Some airlines have repeatedly called for more sophisticated scanning machines to replace procedural safety measures like requiring passengers to pack liquids separately.

Virgin Atlantic said on Wednesday that it had pleaded “for many years” for new security procedures that would be “effective but quicker and less intrusive on our passengers.”

Lufthansa of Germany was more circumspect, The Associated Press reported. A Lufthansa spokesman, Jan Baerwald, told The A.P. that airlines have “had more and more regulations since 9/11.”

But, he added, “I'm not going to say it is Lufthansa's opinion that it is too strict — that is not for us to say.”

BAA, the company that operates Heathrow airport, argued that there was room to consider an overhaul of the current safety regulation and said that it was “committed to ensuring passengers are safe and that we also constantly improve the levels of service we offer.”

Mr. Broughton specifically criticized the United States for burdening European airports and airlines with what he called “redundant” checks, added a new twist to the debate.

He also criticized Washington for not imposing certain safety restrictions on domestic flights that it requires from flights to and from the United States.

Even within Britain, however, there have been discussions about updated airport security. A plan by the British government this year to introduce body scanners at airports was met with strong opposition in Parliament. The new coalition government is now reviewing the need for scanners and whether they violate the privacy of passengers. (The United States has started to introduce body scanners in some airports.)

Mike Carrivick, chief executive of the Board of Airline Representatives, which represents more than 80 airlines, including British Airways, Delta and Continental, joined Mr. Broughton's call for a safety overhaul and said “let's step back and have a look at the whole situation.”

“Every time there is a new security scare, an extra layer is added on to procedures,” Mr. Carrivick said. “Let's look at technology and see what we can do so that passengers don't have to take off their shoes.”

The Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday in Washington that officials “constantly review and evolve our security measures based on the latest intelligence.” It also said it “works closely with our international partners to ensure the best possible security.”

The British government on Wednesday distanced itself from the debate and said that the additional security rules requested by Washington were a matter for the airlines flying passengers to the United States. But a representative for the Department for Transport in Britain added that the coalition government was reviewing its airport security regulation and considering giving airport operators more flexibility in how they meet certain security goals.

British airport security regulation, like that of other European countries, is based on standards set by the European Union . “Our security measures go further than the minimum set by the E.U., and we have one of the safest systems in the world,” the British airport representative said.

The European Commission also criticized air security measures for entry to the United States , saying that a so-called Electronic System for Travel Authorization was impeding travel, difficult to comply with and raised a possible threat to privacy.

The system requires European passengers to register before traveling to the United States, which “represents a burden for European citizens,” Michele Cercone, a spokesman for the commission, told a news conference in Brussels. The procedure is also “inconsistent with the commitment by the U.S. to facilitate trans-Atlantic mobility.”

Mr. Cercone said commission authorities were examining whether the system was “tantamount” to introducing visas on all European Union nationals. Citizens from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania must get a visa to travel to the United States. And while citizens from all other European Union countries are covered by a visa waiver program, they must still register. An estimated 13 million Europeans traveled to the United States in 2009.

He said that the system had become vulnerable to “scam” Web sites and “fraudulent operations.” That, he said, should prompt the United States to “give a second thought” to the system.

In addition, it was unclear to the European authorities whether privacy was adequately protected, even when Europeans were able to pay for the registration by credit card. Mr. Cercone said the commission wanted to know whether credit card details were retained or used for purposes other than those for which they were collected, and he suggested that there needed to be safeguards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/business/global/28air.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

The Age of Alzheimer's

OUR government is ignoring what is likely to become the single greatest threat to the health of Americans: Alzheimer's disease, an illness that is 100 percent incurable and 100 percent fatal. It attacks rich and poor, white-collar and blue, and women and men, without regard to party. A degenerative disease, it steadily robs its victims of memory, judgment and dignity, leaves them unable to care for themselves and destroys their brain and their identity — often depleting their caregivers and families both emotionally and financially.

Starting on Jan. 1, our 79-million-strong baby boom generation will be turning 65 at the rate of one every eight seconds. That means more than 10,000 people per day, or more than four million per year, for the next 19 years facing an increased risk of Alzheimer's. Although the symptoms of this disease and other forms of dementia seldom appear before middle age, the likelihood of their appearance doubles every five years after age 65. Among people over 85 (the fastest-growing segment of the American population), dementia afflicts one in two. It is estimated that 13.5 million Americans will be stricken with Alzheimer's by 2050 — up from five million today.

Just as President John F. Kennedy, in 1961, dedicated the United States to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade, we must now set a goal of stopping Alzheimer's by 2020. We must deploy sufficient resources, scientific talent and problem-solving technologies to save our collective future.

As things stand today, for each penny the National Institutes of Health spends on Alzheimer's research, we spend more than $3.50 on caring for people with the condition. This explains why the financial cost of not conducting adequate research is so high. The United States spends $172 billion a year to care for people with Alzheimer's. By 2020 the cumulative price tag, in current dollars, will be $2 trillion, and by 2050, $20 trillion.

If we could simply postpone the onset of Alzheimer's disease by five years, a large share of nursing home beds in the United States would empty. And if we could eliminate it, as Jonas Salk wiped out polio with his vaccine, we would greatly expand the potential of all Americans to live long, healthy and productive lives — and save trillions of dollars doing it.

Experience has taught us that we cannot avoid Alzheimer's disease by having regular medical checkups, by being involved in nourishing relationships or by going to the gym or filling in crossword puzzles. Ronald Reagan suffered the ravages of this disease for a decade despite the support of his loving family, the extraordinary stimulation of his work, his access to the best medical care and his high level of physical fitness. What's needed are new medicines that attack the causes of the disease directly.

So far, only a handful of medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat Alzheimer's, and these can only slightly and temporarily modify symptoms like forgetfulness, disorientation and confusion. None actually slows the underlying neurodegeneration.

In the mid-1980s, when our country finally made a commitment to fight AIDS, it took roughly 10 years of sustained investment (and about $10 billion) to create the antiretroviral therapies that made AIDS a manageable disease. These medicines also added $1.4 trillion to the American economy. The National Institutes of Health still spend about $3 billion a year on AIDS research, while Alzheimer's, with five times as many victims, receives a mere $469 million.

Most of the medical researchers who study Alzheimer's agree on what they have to understand in order to create effective drugs: They must find out how the aberrant proteins associated with the disease develop in the brain. They need to model the progression of the illness so they can pinpoint drug targets. And ultimately they must learn how to get drugs to move safely from the blood into the brain.

A breakthrough is possible by 2020, leading Alzheimer's scientists agree, with a well-designed and adequately financed national strategic plan. Congress has before it legislation that would raise the annual federal investment in Alzheimer's research to $2 billion, and require that the president designate an official whose sole job would be to develop and execute a strategy against Alzheimer's. If lawmakers could pass this legislation in their coming lame-duck session, they would take a serious first step toward meeting the 2020 goal.

Medical science has the capacity to relegate Alzheimer's to the list of former diseases like typhoid, polio and many childhood cancers. But unless we get to work now, any breakthrough will come too late to benefit the baby boomers. Whether the aging of America turns out to be a triumph or a tragedy will depend on our ability to fight this horrific disease and beat it before it beats us.

Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court. Stanley Prusiner, who received the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine, is the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. Ken Dychtwald, a psychologist and gerontologist, is the chief executive of a company that consults with businesses about the aging world population.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opinion/28oconnor.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

End the War on Pot

LOS ANGELES

I dropped in on a marijuana shop here that proudly boasted that it sells “31 flavors.” It also offered a loyalty program. For every 10 purchases of pot — supposedly for medical uses — you get one free packet.

“There are five of these shops within a three-block radius,” explained the proprietor, Edward J. Kim. He brimmed with pride at his inventory and sounded like any small businessman as he complained about onerous government regulation. Like, well, state and federal laws.

But those burdensome regulations are already evaporating in California, where anyone who can fake a headache already can buy pot. Now there's a significant chance that on Tuesday, California voters will choose to go further and broadly legalize marijuana.

I hope so. Our nearly century-long experiment in banning marijuana has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did, and California may now be pioneering a saner approach. Sure, there are risks if California legalizes pot. But our present drug policy has three catastrophic consequences.

First, it squanders billions of dollars that might be better used for education. California now spends more money on prisons than on higher education. It spends about $216,000 per year on each juvenile detainee, and just $8,000 on each child in the troubled Oakland public school system.

Each year, some 750,000 Americans are arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Is that really the optimal use of our police force?

In contrast, legalizing and taxing marijuana would bring in substantial sums that could be used to pay for schools, libraries or early childhood education. A Harvard economist, Jeffrey A. Miron , calculates that marijuana could generate $8.7 billion in tax revenue each year if legalized nationally, while legalization would also save the same sum annually in enforcement costs.

That's a $17 billion swing in the nation's finances — enough to send every 3- and 4-year-old in a poor family to a high-quality preschool. And that's an investment that would improve education outcomes and reduce crime and drug use in the future — with enough left over to pay for an extensive nationwide campaign to discourage drug use.

The second big problem with the drug war is that it has exacerbated poverty and devastated the family structure of African-Americans. Partly that's because drug laws are enforced inequitably. Black and Latino men are much more likely than whites to be stopped and searched and, when drugs are found, prosecuted.

Here in Los Angeles, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at seven times the rate whites are, according to a study by the Drug Policy Alliance, which favors legalization. Yet surveys consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks.

Partly because of drug laws, a black man now has a one-in-three chance of serving time in prison at some point in his life, according to the Sentencing Project, a group that seeks reform in the criminal justice system. This makes it more difficult for black men to find jobs, more difficult for black women to find suitable husbands, and less common for black children to grow up in stable families with black male role models. So, sure, drugs have devastated black communities — but the remedy of criminal sentencing has made the situation worse.

The third problem with our drug policy is that it creates crime and empowers gangs. “The only groups that benefit from continuing to keep marijuana illegal are the violent gangs and cartels that control its distribution and reap immense profits from it through the black market,” a group of current and former police officers, judges and prosecutors wrote last month in an open letter to voters in California.

I have no illusions about drugs. One of my childhood friends in Yamhill, Ore., pretty much squandered his life by dabbling with marijuana in ninth grade and then moving on to stronger stuff. And yes, there's some risk that legalization would make such dabbling more common. But that hasn't been a significant problem in Portugal , which decriminalized drug use in 2001.

Likewise, medical marijuana laws approved in 1996 have in effect made pot accessible to any adult in California, without any large increase in usage. Special medical clinics abound where for about $45 you can see a doctor who is certain to give you the medical recommendation that you need to buy marijuana. Then you can visit Mr. Kim and choose one of his 31 varieties, topping out at a private “OG” brand that costs $75 for one-eighth of an ounce. “It's like a fine wine, cured, aged, dried,” he boasted.

Or browse the online offerings. One store advertises: “refer a friend, get free joint.” And the world hasn't ended.

One advantage of our federal system is that when we have a failed policy, we can grope for improvements by experimenting at the state level. I hope California will lead the way on Tuesday by legalizing marijuana.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opinion/28kristof.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the White House

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An Event to End Violence Against Women

This afternoon, we marked Domestic Violence Awareness Month with the President and Vice President by highlighting the Obama Administration's unprecedented coordination and cooperation across the entire government to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence and enable survivors to break the cycle of abuse. 

For almost 30 years, the month of October has been a time to renew our commitment to ending one of the most tragic and senseless crimes in this country. We were honored to be joined today by a diverse audience from big cities and small towns, from tribes, women's organizations, survivors, domestic violence and sexual assault advocates, fatherhood programs, law enforcement agencies, and faith communities, all joined by a common purpose- to end violence against women.

Violence is still a significant barrier in many women's lives, and the Obama Administration is committed to taking concrete action to end domestic violence in this country. One-in-every-four women experiences domestic violence during their lifetimes and more than 20 million women in the U.S. have been victims of rape. 

Children suffer, too. Joe Torre, legendary baseball manager, spoke today about growing up in an abusive household; being afraid to come home when he saw his father's car parked in front of the house; and how he found refuge in baseball.   

Issues like this one remind us that there is still work to be done if we're going to make the promise of America real for every American – including women. That's why, last year, President Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls. He gave the Council an important mission – to make sure that all federal agencies consider the needs of women in every policy, in every program and in every piece of legislation he supports. Because of our focus on women and girls across the Administration, we have unprecedented coordination in the fight against domestic violence.

Today, the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Labor and FDIC announced new initiatives to protect victims of abuse and provide resources for families and communities to prevent abuse. Domestic violence and sexual assault are not just criminal justice issues – the scope and far-reaching effects of violence require a coordinated response across the Federal government. 

The initiatives announced and highlighted today demonstrate a broad, comprehensive response to reducing violence against women. Specifically, these concrete actions include steps to:

• Protect Children and Break the Cycle of Violence
  
  
• Improve Legal Protections for Victims of Domestic Violence
  
  
• Increase Sexual Assault Arrests and Successful Prosecutions
  
  
• Help Victims Regain Housing and Financial Independence

Those are just a few of the steps we're taking. But the bottom line is this: No one in America should live in fear because they are unsafe in their own home – no adult, no child.  And no one who is the victim of abuse should ever feel as though they have no way to get out. We need to make sure that every victim of domestic violence knows that they are not alone; that there are resources available to them in their moment of greatest need. As a society, we need to ensure that if a victim of abuse reaches out for help, we are there to lend a hand.

That's not just a job for government. That's a job for all of us. Thanks to all of you for the work you do in our communities. This Administration is going to stand with you in this fight every step of the way.

Additional details on how the Obama Administration is working to end violence against women can be found by downloading the fact sheet: Obama Administration Highlights Unprecedented Coordination across Federal Government to Combat Violence Against Women (pdf) .

Valerie Jarett is Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/27/event-end-violence-against-women

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From the Department of Justice

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Los Angeles Patient Recruiter Known as the “Red, White & Blue Man” Sentenced to 21 Months in Prison for Medicare Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON – A patient recruiter who sold the personal information of Medicare beneficiaries from San Diego and Los Angeles to fraudulent Los Angeles medical clinics and durable medical equipment (DME) companies was sentenced late yesterday to 21 months in prison in connection with a scheme to defraud Medicare, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced.

James Roland Fuquay, 49, was also ordered to pay $556,815 in restitution by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California. In addition, Fuquay was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Fuquay pleaded guilty on May 11, 2009, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to court documents, Fuquay was a patient recruiter known as the “Red, White & Blue Man,” which is a reference to the colors on a Medicare card. Fuquay in fact recruited Medicare beneficiaries from homeless shelters in San Diego and Los Angeles using the sales pitch, “Red, white, and blue. Let's make it do what it do.” Fuquay then paid the beneficiaries to go with him to fraudulent medical clinics and DME supply companies to receive medical services, power wheelchairs, hospital beds and other medical equipment the beneficiaries did not want, need or receive. Fuquay's network of Medicare beneficiaries and fraudulent DME supply companies was large enough for him to make approximately $220,000 in illegal recruiter fees.

According to court documents, one of the fraudulent DME supply companies that paid Fuquay to recruit beneficiaries was Airport Medical Supply, whose owner, Eli Gichon, pleaded guilty on Sept. 1, 2010, to health care fraud and tax charges. According to court documents, Airport Medical Supply operated out of a dry cleaning business where Gichon directed Fuquay and others to bring beneficiaries so that Gichon could take pictures of them sitting in power wheelchairs or standing next to empty hospital bed boxes. Gichon used these pictures to try to fraudulently prove to Medicare inspectors that he had in fact provided the beneficiaries with power wheelchairs and hospital beds. Gichon's sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 10, 2011.

The sentencing was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. for the Central District of California; Tony Sidley, Assistant Chief of the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse; Glenn R. Ferry, Special Agent-in-Charge for the Los Angeles Region of the Office of Inspector General for HHS (HHS-OIG); and Steven Martinez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney April Christine of the Central District of California with the assistance of Trial Attorney Jonathan T. Baum of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section. The case was investigated by FBI and HHS-OIG . The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of more than 825 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2 billion. In addition, HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) , go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-crm-1216.html

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From ICE

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Smuggler linked to Lancaster drop house pleads guilty to hostage-taking

Smuggled aliens were beaten and denied food

LOS ANGELES - An undocumented Guatemalan national faces a maximum sentence of life in prison after pleading guilty to charges arising from his involvement in a human smuggling scheme linked to a drop house uncovered last year in Lancaster, Calif., where aliens were held against their will, denied food and assaulted.

Pedro Marcos-Marcos, 29, whose trial was slated to begin Tuesday morning, instead pleaded guilty to five felony counts - including two counts of hostage taking, two counts of harboring undocumented aliens and one count of conspiracy. Marco-Marcos' sentencing is set for Feb. 7, 2011.

Marcos-Marcos was arrested Aug. 20 at his Los Angeles residence by agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations. He was identified by HSI agents as one of the ringleaders responsible for directing the brutal treatment of a Salvadoran national rescued from a Lancaster, Calif., smuggling drop house in Jan. 2009.

When HSI agents executed a search warrant at the home at 646 Martha Court, they discovered the Salvadoran and an Ecuadoran being held against their will. The Salvadoran told agents his captors had beaten him repeatedly and forced him to go days without food, all in an effort to collect $6,000 in outstanding smuggling fees.

"This case shows yet again the brutality and callousness of those involved in the human smuggling trade," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Los Angeles. "To the smugglers, these people are nothing more than a payday and they have no qualms about using threats and violence to try to collect what they think they're owed. We are working aggressively to disrupt this kind of activity and punish those responsible."

In addition to Marcos-Marcos, two other undocumented Guatemalan nationals were charged in connection with this scheme. Roberto Jose-Tomas, 24, and Diego Francisco-Lorenzo, 33, who were discovered by HSI agents at the drop house, previously pleaded guilty to hostage taking. They are both awaiting sentencing.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1010/101027losangeles.htm

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