From the Los Angeles Times

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Mexico army's failures hamper drug war

The army often relies on numbers over intelligence and falls back on time-worn tactics, such as highway checkpoints, of limited use against drug traffickers. The shortcomings alarm U.S. officials.

by Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

December 29, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Four years and 50,000 troops into President Felipe Calderon's drug war, the fighting has exposed severe limitations in the Mexican army's ability to wage unconventional warfare, tarnished its proud reputation and left the U.S. pointedly criticizing the force as "virtually blind" on the ground.

The army's shortcomings have complicated the government's struggle against the narcotics cartels, as the deadliest year of the war by far comes to a close.

Though long employed to destroy marijuana and poppy fields in the countryside, the army hadn't been trained for the type of operations needed to fight groups trafficking cocaine through border cities.

"The army has never worked in urban operations against drug trafficking, in urban cells," said Raul Benitez, a national security specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "It's the first time it is engaged in urban warfare. It has to learn."

Instead, the army often relies on numerical superiority over intelligence and has frequently fallen back on time-worn tactics, such as highway checkpoints, that are of limited use against drug traffickers, especially in cities.

Checkpoints have also been the scene of serious human rights violations, including deadly shootings of civilians. Allegations of abuse at the hands of the army, one of the most respected institutions in the country, have soared. Mexico's human rights commission this year received nearly double the number of complaints it had gotten in the previous three years combined.

The military has delivered important victories to the government by killing or capturing several senior cartel figures and confiscating large drug shipments. And the decision to put retired and active army officers in charge of police departments around the country has helped bring relative quiet to some violence-plagued cities, such as Tijuana.

But in places such as Ciudad Juarez, where Calderon has staked his political reputation, the death toll has skyrocketed since last year. Seven of every 10 stores have been forced to shut down as a result of extortion and threats, and nearly a quarter of a million people have fled the city in the last two years.

The failures have alarmed U.S. officials, who for more than a year have been training Mexican forces in counter-narcotics operations and who are footing a large part of the drug-war bill.

A series of secret diplomatic cables leaked recently revealed the United States' profound unease over Mexico's efforts, despite public assurances to the contrary, with stinging language criticizing the army as stymied by well-protected fugitive drug lords.

U.S. diplomats and Mexican intelligence officials say the Mexican military and police distrust each other, refuse to share intelligence and resist operating together, squandering important potential gains.

The Mexican army appears to have lost favor with U.S. officials who turn increasingly to the navy, whose special forces are more eager to work with the Americans and small enough in number to remain agile and less susceptible to corruption.

At the same time, however, the naval marines' small size confines them to limited commando operations taking out targeted cartel leaders or dismantling small cells, not the massive presence needed to rein in the most widespread violence and retake lost territory such as Juarez, the eastern border state of Tamaulipas or the Golden Triangle drug bastion where Durango, Chihuahua and Sinaloa states meet.

Not that the army has succeeded in those missions either.

"Mexicans are paying a high price … for a strategy that does not seem to have much impact," said Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on the Mexican military at Claremont McKenna College. "It is not reducing drug consumption in the U.S., it is not reducing drug-related income for the trafficking organizations, nor is it reducing their influence in other activities," such as kidnapping and people-smuggling.

"I don't see the army, or anyone else, winning this 'war' in the immediate future."

In the four years since Calderon launched an offensive against the cartels shortly after assuming office in December 2006, he has deployed more than 50,000 military troops, plus an estimated 30,000 federal police officers, to more than half of the country's 31 states.

In the diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website and published in numerous newspapers, U.S. officials noted that the army's inability to contain violence in Ciudad Juarez represented a demoralizing failure. Troops were eventually pulled out of Juarez and replaced with federal police officers.

Calderon's strategy relies in large part on taking down capos and splintering their organizations. In the short term, however, that has often led to more bloodletting as the battles for turf and succession escalate.

U.S. officials, who are giving Mexico $1.4 billion as part of the Merida Initiative to fight cartels and shore up law enforcement, repeatedly emphasize that their relationship with Mexican forces, including training exercises and intelligence-sharing, is stronger than ever.

Instead of relying on the army, however, U.S. efforts have focused on revamping the police and providing assistance to the navy special forces.

As The Times reported a year ago when marines killed drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, Washington has moved into an ever-tighter relationship with Mexican naval forces involving the exchange of real-time intelligence. In that Dec. 16, 2009, attack, U.S. officials supplied their Mexican counterparts with the precise location of Beltran Leyva, holed up in a luxurious apartment building in Cuernavaca. Beltran Leyva and four of his bodyguards died in the ensuing shootout.

What was unknown until the cables were leaked, however, is that the Americans gave that piece of intelligence to the army first, and the army refused to act. (The army did, however, kill Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel, this summer in an upscale Guadalajara suburb.)

The navy "is well trained, well equipped and has shown itself capable of responding quickly to actionable intelligence," U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual wrote in a December 2009 cable. "Its success puts the army in the difficult position of explaining why it has been reluctant to act on good intelligence and conduct operations against high-level targets."

U.S. officials have found the navy a far more cooperative ally, describing its 2,000- to 3,000-strong commando forces as "willing, capable and ready." The army by contrast was viewed as slow and "risk averse."

The reasons are to be sought in the differing training, history and cultures of the two forces.

Army doctrine contains long lessons on the perceived expansionist ambitions of the United States, with the history of U.S. military interventions in Latin America a foremost topic. Consequently, the army has retained its long-standing wariness of the U.S., and that interferes with the intelligence-sharing central to the fight against drug cartels.

The navy, by contrast, is willing to share. It is a more goal-oriented force whose main task is interdiction at sea, a duty that fits more naturally with the work of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In addition to taking out Beltran Leyva, Mexican marines acting on U.S.-supplied information last month killed Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, alias Tony the Storm, a major leader of the Gulf cartel.

The army appears to be keenly aware of its shortcomings and has expressed interest in changing the nature of its relationship with U.S. authorities. In another leaked cable, the army's top commander, Gen. Guillermo Galvan Galvan, requested more U.S. help and acknowledged the need for rapid-deployment units that can better act on intelligence.

He described frustrated efforts to capture Mexico's most wanted fugitive, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, saying the Sinaloa cartel kingpin was moving around among 10 to 15 locations and was surrounded by "security circles of up to 300 men" and a network of spies that "make launching capture operations difficult."

U.S. officials said the army, following the navy's lead, has requested special operations training "for the first time."

Galvan acknowledged the risk to his institution's prestige that comes with its involvement in the drug war. Still, Galvan said he was reconciled to what many here see as an ominous prospect: The army anticipates fighting this treacherous war "for the next seven to 10 years."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-army-20101230,0,5694946,print.story

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Denmark terrorism plot thwarted with arrest of five suspected militants, authorities say

The reported target is the Copenhagen newspaper that published cartoons in 2005 lampooning the prophet Muhammad. Suspects described as 'militant Islamists' are arrested in Sweden and Denmark.

by Alexandra Sandels and Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times

December 30, 2010

Reporting from Beirut and London

Denmark Jyllands-Posten, Muhammad cartoon, terrorism: Five suspected militants arrested in Denmark terrorism plot

Scandinavian authorities thwarted what they describe as a terrorist attack in Denmark targeting the newspaper that published the infamous caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, arresting five suspected Islamic militants Wednesday.

According to a statement published by the Danish spy agency PET, the suspected militants' target was the Copenhagen offices of Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons depicting Muhammad, who founded the Islamic religion in the 7th century. The cartoons prompted an international uproar.

Jakob Scharf, head of the PET, described the suspects as "militant Islamists" with "connections to international terror networks" who had sought to penetrate the offices of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen and "kill as many as possible."

At a joint news conference held Wednesday in Copenhagen by Danish and Swedish intelligence, Scharf said the planned attack had been imminent.

"The attack would be carried out before Jan. 1 and one would have then entered the newspaper and using the machine gun, [killed] as many as possible," he said.

The alleged plot underscores what security officials see as a rising threat by Islamic extremists against Scandinavian countries that once considered themselves unlikely targets.

Denmark, Sweden and Norway, all with histories of relatively liberal immigration and asylum policies, contribute troops to the American-dominated force backing the government of Afghanistan. Islamic extremists see the mission as a foreign occupation of Muslim land.

Both Sweden and Denmark drew the ire of Islamic extremists after cartoonists published what many Muslims considered demeaning caricatures of Muhammad.

"Obviously the cartoons have been used very efficiently by militant Islamist groups worldwide in targeting Denmark specifically and trying explain why the violent extremism is necessary," Scharf said.

Kevin McGwin, managing editor of another Danish newspaper, the Copenhagen Post, told Al Jazeera news agency that the latest incident was the seventh attack or threat against the Jyllands-Posten building or someone connected with the newspaper since 2008.

"They have upped security both at their Copenhagen offices as well as … in another part of the country very seriously," he said.

Four of the five suspects were found in apartments in Greve, 12 miles from the Danish capital, Copenhagen, and the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev, according to the PET's statement. A fifth suspect was arrested in Stockholm, the Swedish capital.

Danish security authorities said they seized plastic strips that can be used as handcuffs, a gun with a silencer and live ammunition.

Scharf said at the news conference that the arrests were the result of a lengthy investigation by Danish and Swedish police and intelligence forces.

A Swedish security spokesman told The Times that four of those arrested live in Sweden and one in Denmark, and that three are Swedish nationals. One suspect is a Tunisian national, said Petter Liljeblad, spokesman for the Swedish security service, SAPO.

The arrested people have been under close scrutiny by SAPO, according to Swedish intelligence chief Anders Danielsson, who spoke at the news conference.

"A few months ago we got in touch with our Danish colleagues and decided that we would make a joint action," he said.

Some of the members of the militant group traveled to Denmark on Tuesday night, the PET statement said. The men were under surveillance during the entire trip, Danielsson said. "We knew that there were weapons in the car," he said.

The agency described the suspects arrested in Denmark as: a 44-year-old Tunisian national; a 29-year-old Lebanese-born Swedish national; a 30-year-old Swedish citizen of unknown ancestry; and a 26-year-old Iraqi seeking asylum in Denmark.

A 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin was arrested in Stockholm, the PET statement said.

Danielsson said that the person arrested in Sweden had chosen to not go along with the others to Denmark and that he was taken peacefully by a Swedish task force.

A statement released by Swedish security forces said that police had yet to find any connection between the alleged newspaper plot and a failed Dec. 11 Stockholm suicide bombing that injured two bystanders and killed the attacker, an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/la-fg-denmark-arrests-20101230,0,910787,print.story

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Sale of French warships to Russia raises alarm in NATO

Eastern European countries fear the deal, worth at least $1.3 billion, will let Moscow exert greater control over coastal regions.

by Kim Willsher, Los Angeles Times

December 29, 2010

Reporting from Paris

France is selling at least two warships to Russia in an unprecedented military deal that has angered the United States and other NATO countries.

The contract for the Mistral-class helicopter carriers, worth at least $1.3 billion, is Russia's biggest military purchase since the end of the Cold War and the first between Moscow and a NATO country.

The French reaction to the sale was jubilation, with the presidential palace's website declaring, "France's naval industry has won."

However, the deal also has provoked disquiet in some of Russia's Eastern European neighbors.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene criticized the decision to sell "extremely complex offensive weaponry to a third party, a country where the level of democracy is not one we can feel safe about."

"It's a big mistake," she said.

The amphibious assault ships being sold to Russia — it may buy as many as four — can hold 16 helicopters, dozens of tanks, 70 armored vehicles and 450 troops for up to six months. For shorter periods, the number of troops rises to 700.

The vessels can also carry landing barges and hovercraft, allowing for the rapid deployment of vehicles, tanks and soldiers from ship to shore, enhancing Russia's control over coastal regions and striking power in conflicts like the one with Georgia in 2008.

There are a 69-bed hospital on board, two-bed cabins for the sailors and a fully equipped sports hall. When the French sent a Mistral to St. Petersburg in November 2009 to shop it to the Russians, Le Figaro newspaper reported that one French sailor described it as the "Rolls-Royce of warships."

The vessels will be built by a French shipyard consortium in partnership with Russia's state-run United Shipbuilding Corp. Building will begin at the Saint-Nazaire docks in western France in 2011, with the first ship to be delivered at the end of 2013 and the second a year later. It is estimated that each ship will cost about $655 million.

The French overcame competition from Spanish, Dutch and South Korean firms. A major attraction of the French bid was that it was free of American components, licenses or technology, Russian officials said.

The deal was struck after tortuous negotiations lasting 18 months between Paris and Moscow. Serious talks began in 2009 shortly after France rejoined NATO's military network; French President Charles de Gaulle had withdrawn the country's forces from the alliance's command in 1966.

A sticking point in the negotiations had been France's initial refusal to agree to the ships to be fitted with state-of-the-art command-and-control technology.

The Russians told journalists that their "interests in this area had been satisfied" and that Russia would receive the technology to produce the Mistral's command-and-control system itself.

In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov acknowledged that Russia has "some need for foreign technology because, in certain areas of armament, we unfortunately lag behind. Our military equipment does not correspond to the demands of our age."

He added that Russia doesn't have a history of manufacturing Mistral-type ships and that "to catch up now would be pointless."

North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries along the Baltic Sea are said to be worried, notably Poland and the Baltic states. An unnamed diplomat from one of these countries told Le Monde newspaper: "The damage to France's image is considerable. The capital of political sympathy that Nicolas Sarkozy has garnered since 2007 in these regions has disappeared with this Mistral business."

Attempting to allay such fears, Nikolai Makarov, head of Russia's Armed Forces General Staff, told the Moscow Times that the ships would be deployed in the Pacific to defend the Kuril Islands, whose ownership is fiercely disputed by Japan.

Washington has also expressed disapproval of the deal. Le Monde said an American diplomatic telegram given to WikiLeaks showed that President Obama's administration viewed the sale as a "bad political signal [which] detracted from President Sarkozy's personal engagement to resolve the Georgian crisis of 2008."

Sarkozy claimed credit for brokering a cease-fire and a Russian withdrawal from Georgia after Moscow sent troops deep into the country during a five-day war in August 2008.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-france-warships-20101230,0,7864453,print.story

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Times coverage: Victims of gang violence

Even as violence in Los Angeles County has fallen to levels not seen in decades, the toll on those victimized remains high.

Photographer Barbara Davidson spent two years documenting how victims and their families endured the aftermath of violence. A three-part series featuring her photos and video, as well as stories by Kurt Streeter, began Wednesday.

Streeter writes of the people who shared their stories:

They spend years struggling against pain that is sometimes physical and almost always emotional. The struggle bends lives in different ways. But for those left behind — maimed victims, husbands, mothers, best friends of the dead — there is no forgetting. They are the survivors.

They spend years struggling against pain that is sometimes physical and almost always emotional. The struggle bends lives in different ways.

Some dip into long periods of depression, battling to keep their relationships, their jobs and their hope afloat. Some become activists. They join committees, stuff envelopes, speak at high schools and work to change laws. Some lack the means to leave their dangerous neighborhoods and are trapped in view of the crime scene. They say their prayers and cling to the notion that nothing bad will ever happen again.

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/post/times-coverage-victims-gang-violence/

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Caught in the crossfire

After the smoke clears, physical and emotional pain endures for crime victims and their families.

December 29, 2010

It often chooses its victims blindly, bursting boldly into view, shocking, inexplicable and seemingly without warning.

Violence may be lessening in Los Angeles but it still casts a dark cloud over many parts of the county and its surroundings.

A reminder came recently when Aaron Shannon Jr., a 5-year-old dressed in his Spiderman costume, was killed on Halloween, police say, by gang members who shot into his backyard. Such tragedies understandably grab attention from the media and a mournful public. Then, typically, the spotlight fades.

But for those left behind -- maimed victims, husbands, mothers, best friends of the dead -- there is no forgetting. They are the survivors.

They spend years struggling against pain that is sometimes physical and almost always emotional. The struggle bends lives in different ways.

Some dip into long periods of depression, battling to keep their relationships, their jobs and their hope afloat. Some become activists. They join committees, stuff envelopes, speak at high schools and work to change laws. Some lack the means to leave their dangerous neighborhoods and are trapped in view of the crime scene. They say their prayers and cling to the notion that nothing bad will ever happen again.

Rose Smith is a survivor.

On a May evening three years ago, Smith, a pregnant mother of two, was returning from the market when she heard a group of men arguing and then the crackle of gunfire. She was not a target, but nonetheless was struck by bullets in her arm, jaw, shoulder and back.

One of the bullets had shattered vital nerves in her spinal cord. Doctors told Smith she would never walk again. Somehow, though, she did not lose her baby, and months later gave birth to a healthy daughter named Miracle.

Moving forward has not been easy. After grueling months of physical therapy, Smith and husband Tyrin Tisdale cobbled together enough money to relocate to a tiny apartment not far from USC. But Smith, bound to a wheelchair, lost her job as an office administrator and has not been able to find another. Tisdale is paid $9 an hour by the state to be Smith's caretaker, but they remain at the edge of an economic cliff.

Sometimes things seem unbearable. It isn't just that Smith can't walk, or has a hard time picking up a pair of socks. It's not the arguments with Tisdale that seem to come from nowhere. It's the throbbing pain that robs her of peace during the days and sleep at night.

"There are some days when I can't even get off the bed because my legs have spasms so bad," she says. "The nerve pain in my legs is burning -- a tingling sensation to the hundredth power. The kids know. If I haven't got up … they come to the room: 'Mommy, you OK, you need something?' "

There is also the anxiousness that comes when she thinks about the shooting and its aftermath.

What if she had left the apartment five minutes earlier?

Then there is the gunman. Police say they have a suspect, but he hasn't been caught. Does he ever bother to think about what he did and the lives he harmed?

"I did everything I could to live my life the right way," she says. "Stayed out of trouble, had my goals, worked hard. … So I always end up going back to this one thing:

"Why me?"

Even though the rate of violent crime is declining in Los Angeles County (last year, for example, the LAPD investigated 314 new murders, a number not seen since the 1960s) the roster of survivors keeps growing. If there is anything universal to the group, it is the search for answers.

Like Smith, Jamiel Shaw is plagued by questions.

His son, Jamiel II, a football player at Los Angeles High School, was shot and killed in 2008 as he walked home from a shopping trip. Once unassuming, Shaw now crusades against violence, haranguing Los Angeles officials to change their policies toward undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds -- like the alleged 18th Street gang member awaiting trial in Jamiel's slaying.

"What if this guy had been sent back to his home country a long time ago?" Shaw asks. "What if he had never been allowed to walk our streets? Or if he'd never seen my boy that day? That's all I have, a lot of 'what ifs.' I don't have my son."

Wendoly Andrade has questions too.

Last summer, her 4-year-old son, Josue, was playing in front of the family's apartment on a narrow Long Beach street when a gunfight erupted down the block. One of the bullets struck Josue just above the neck, behind his right ear. Somehow, he survived.

Today, Josue at first appears unharmed by the violence. The tow-headed boy looks sturdy and healthy. But the reality is very different.

Josue suffers from severe memory loss that has affected his ability to learn. He has trouble balancing and sometimes just falls to the ground. He is frequently seized by uncontrollable rage.

"Now I am always worrying about his future, how far behind he might be because of what happened," says Andrade, who can't afford to move out of the neighborhood.

"I do not know what will happen to my son's life. … What would his future be like if he had never been shot?"

Tori Rowles has her questions, too.

Last fall, as she walked with her best friend from a high school football game in Long Beach, suspected gang members shot brazenly into a crowd. When the shooting stopped, Melody Ross, 16, lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. "She called my name," Rowles remembers. It was the last she would hear from her friend, who died that night.

A high school senior, Rowles says that without the fun -loving, effervescent Melody at her side, nothing is as she'd imagined. Like so many other survivors, many of her questions will never be answered.

She can't figure out why she lived and her friend did not. "She was a way better person than I am and she made more people happy than I do," Rowles says. "I was closer [to the gunfire]. … I just don't understand. Why her?"

This is the first story in a three-part photo essay following what victims and families endure in violence's aftermath.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-gangviolence-html,0,6290501.htmlstory

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A Rose Parade float marks gift of life

As you watch the New Year's parade, spare a thought for the 100,000 terminally ill people on the transplant waiting list. Every day, 17 of them die because of an acute shortage of donated organs.

by Reg Green

December 30, 2010

On Dec. 24, 2007, 20-year-old Cora Brittany Hill of Orlando, Fla., received the ultimate Christmas gift: a new pair of lungs. At the time, cystic fibrosis was killing her. Her lungs had been so nearly destroyed by the disease that every breath had to be forced in and out. New, healthy lungs were her only hope, and she got them, thanks to the benevolence and foresight of the family of a stranger who had just died.

But transplants, though they have an impressively high rate of success, are not infallible. In time the new lungs failed and Cora, in chronic pain and too weak for another transplant, could be sustained only on a ventilator.

Calmly, but definitively, she told her family in December 2009 that she wanted to be taken off life support and donate her kidneys, in time for Christmas, to whoever on the waiting list needed them most. And that is what happened. Just as she had received a gift of life two years earlier, on Christmas Eve last year, Cora gave one herself. As her mother, Dee, sublimely put it: "Two families knew the joy of new life on the night that miracles happen."

Cora is one of 60 organ donors whose floral portraits will be carried on the Donate Life float in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day. Their stories are both tragic and inspiring, because that is the story of transplantation: One life is lost, but another — often several others — are suddenly revitalized.

The float will carry floral portraits of two babies, Joseph Quiambao of Albuquerque and Jacob Campbell of Horseheads, N.Y. Both boys died when they were just weeks old. Imagine the courage and generosity of their parents in making an instant decision to allow the infants' organs to go to others. The portraits of two police officers, David Curtis and Jeff Kocab, will ride side by side. Partners on the Tampa police force, the men were shot during a routine traffic stop. Ben Kopp's floral portrait will also be on the float. A 21-year-old soldier from Rosemount, Minn., Kopp died in a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but his heart, liver and kidneys are keeping other people alive.

In addition to the portraits, 30 people whose lives have been transformed by organ donation will ride on, or walk alongside, the float. One of them is 62-year-old Phil Van Stavern, who at one time was so sick that it looked as if he might have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

"There were many days when I didn't think I would be able to get up and go to work," he says, "but I didn't want my sons to see me give up, and I didn't want to scare them." He was saved by his older brother, Neil, who donated one of his kidneys to him. Twenty-two years later, both men have busy and fulfilling careers, Neil as a veterinarian and Phil, appropriately, as interim chief operating officer of Life Share Oklahoma.

Then there is Ann Lopez, who donated a kidney five years ago to her husband, television personality George Lopez, and, although they are divorcing, she says, "I feel blessed to have been able to give him the gift of life."

As you watch the parade, spare a thought for the 100,000 terminally ill people on the transplant waiting list. Every day, 17 of them die because of an acute shortage of donated organs. This can be cured only by newly bereaved families putting their grief aside to help someone who still has a chance.

The most effective thing you can do to help is to have a conversation with your family while death is still far away. Then, if you decide in favor of donating organs when you die, go to http://www.donatelife.net and register as an organ and tissue donor.

I have met hundreds of donor families over the years and can scarcely remember one who regretted it. Time and again they emphasize the same point: "It was the one good thing that came out of a terrible time." It is those who said no who are often remorseful; they feel they have missed an opportunity to change the world for the better that they may never have again.

Reg Green (www.nicholasgreen.org) is the author of "The Nicholas Effect," a book detailing the story of his son, Nicholas, 7, who was shot during an attempted robbery while the family was on vacation in Italy. Nicholas' organs were donated to seven Italians.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-green-organ-transplant-20101230,0,7544649,print.story

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A Giving Pledge for the common citizen

Americans who can afford it should contribute the tax windfall they receive to charities that promote the programs -- job creation, housing, education and the like -- they believe a just government should pursue.

by Jacob S. Hacker and Daniel Markovits

December 30, 2010

The tax bill passed this month perpetuates the huge unfunded giveaways to the rich that have for a generation increasingly divided our nation. Rebuilding the American middle class requires tackling this growing divide head-on. If our politicians won't or can't, then ordinary Americans must and can.

Those who believe the tax deal gives too much to the top should devote at least some of their tax cuts to charitable causes that embody fairer policies and send a clear political message: We are in this together.

The need is pressing. Despite the recession's end, high unemployment and ongoing economic instability continue to inflict hardship on millions of workers and their families. Meanwhile, Wall Street bonuses are rising again and the richest continue to prosper.

Our broken political institutions are blocking an adequate public response. The tax deal has some good elements. The payroll tax holiday will boost employment (but it could also create risks for Social Security's long-term standing). The extension of unemployment benefits, so vital for the jobless and for encouraging a fragile recovery, should never have been controversial. But the Republican Party has insisted, as the price for begrudgingly permitting a modest amount of spending on recovery, that the rich get more than their fair share.

This is bad policy. The outsized tax cuts for the richest Americans and their heirs subvert the principle that those who benefit the most from the American project should pay the most to carry it forward — "not for class warfare reasons," President Clinton reminds us, but "for reasons of fairness and rebuilding the middle class in America."

These "reasons of fairness" apply especially in hard times, when those with the biggest cushions should take on a commensurate share of the burdens. When political institutions use taxes paid by all to bail out institutions that are perceived to benefit only the wealthy few, our sense of shared fate is threatened. The economy looks less and less like a common project and more and more like an exclusive party to which only some Americans are invited but for which all have to pay.

To their credit, many of the most fortunate Americans believe they should contribute more. The Giving Pledge campaign, started by two of the nation's wealthiest citizens, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, encourages the super-rich to donate half or more of their fortunes to charity.

But that does not mean the rest of us have to sit by. Ordinary Americans can, as in earlier periods of national crisis, join together to invest our private actions with public meaning. We cannot make law or fiscal policy, of course. But we can and should act to mimic sound and decent policy.

Americans who can afford it should contribute the windfall that they receive because of the Republicans' obstructionist demands to charities that promote the programs — job creation, housing, education and the like — that they believe a just government should pursue.

This would be a kind of Giving Pledge for the common citizen, a way of converting the private generosity that so many Americans demonstrate into public solidarity. It would be an expression of the indelible idea embodied in our Pledge of Allegiance of "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Pursued under this banner, philanthropy would become "political" in the best sense of the word.

We have created a website to assist in this task, GiveItBackforJobs.com. Yet we mean our effort only as a signal of the need for a broad national movement to protest the ongoing forfeiture of the public good for private gain.

Nothing can take the place of a just tax policy. But political philanthropy can provide immediate help to struggling families. And through its public purpose, it can serve as a form of protest that reclaims American ideals from a legislative process that has squandered them. By putting our money where our mouths are, perhaps we can light a path to better policies — and a better American politics.

Jacob S. Hacker is a professor of political science at Yale University and the coauthor of "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class." Daniel Markovits is a professor at Yale Law School and the author of "A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy in a Democratic Age."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hacker-charity-20101230,0,3632198,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Ohio Court Limits Power of Localities on Gun Laws

by BOB DRIEHAUS

CINCINNATI — The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a 2006 law that prohibits cities and other local governments from enforcing ordinances that are more restrictive than state gun laws.

The City of Cleveland had challenged the statute in order to continue enforcing ordinances that officials said were tailored to fight urban gun violence, including registration of handguns, restrictions on children's access to firearms and prohibitions on the possession or sale of assault weapons. Banning such ordinances would violate the state's home-rule laws, the city argued.

But in a decision released Wednesday, the court upheld the statute, 5 to 2.

“Law-abiding gun owners would face a confusing patchwork of licensing requirements, possession restrictions and criminal penalties as they travel from one jurisdiction to another” without a uniform statute, according to the ruling, written by Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer dissented, arguing that the statute “infringes upon municipalities' constitutional home-rule rights by preventing them from tailoring ordinances concerning the regulation of guns to local conditions.”

Robert J. Triozzi, Cleveland's law director, who led the city's lawsuit, said that gun owners would now be able to walk through a public square with rifles, handguns and assault weapons, and that safety rules for possession of guns near children would also be removed, endangering residents. Ohio bans some assault weapons, like sawed-off shotguns, but Cleveland banned a broader array.

“The inability to control guns in Cleveland, where large numbers of people live, work and gather in close proximity to one another, limits proactive strategies for protecting our community and puts all of us at greater risk,” said Marty Flask, Cleveland's public safety director.

Mr. Triozzi said the broader implication of the decision was a shift in power toward state legislators and away from city councils.

“All the Legislature has to do is to declare that a given issue is their turf, and there will be no ability for municipalities to enact any meaningful legislation to make their situation better,” he said.

The ruling was hailed by the National Rifle Association, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, who lost his re-election bid in November to Mike DeWine.

Mr. Cordray said revisions to state gun laws in 2006 provided a comprehensive set of rights and responsibilities applicable throughout the state. “This is an important victory for every gun owner in Ohio,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30ohio.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Primero Hay Que Aprender Español. Ranhou Zai Xue Zhongwen.

A quiz: If a person who speaks three languages is trilingual, and one who speaks four languages is quadrilingual, what is someone called who speaks no foreign languages at all?

Answer: an American.

Yet these days, we're seeing Americans engaged in a headlong and ambitious rush to learn Chinese — or, more precisely, to get their kids to learn Chinese. Everywhere I turn, people are asking me the best way for their children to learn Chinese.

Partly that's because Chinese classes have replaced violin classes as the latest in competitive parenting, and partly because my wife and I speak Chinese and I have tortured our three kids by trying to raise them bilingual. Chinese is still far less common in schools or universities than Spanish or French, but it is surging and has the “cool factor” behind it — so public and private schools alike are hastening to add Chinese to the curriculum.

In New York City alone, about 80 schools offer Chinese, with some programs beginning in kindergarten. And let's be frank: If your child hasn't started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything.

Just kidding. In fact, I think the rush to Chinese is missing something closer to home: the paramount importance for our children of learning Spanish.

Look, I'm a fervent believer in more American kids learning Chinese. But the language that will be essential for Americans and has far more day-to-day applications is Spanish. Every child in the United States should learn Spanish, beginning in elementary school; Chinese makes a terrific addition to Spanish, but not a substitute.

Spanish may not be as prestigious as Mandarin, but it's an everyday presence in the United States — and will become even more so. Hispanics made up 16 percent of America's population in 2009, but that is forecast to surge to 29 percent by 2050, according to estimates by the Pew Research Center.

As the United States increasingly integrates economically with Latin America, Spanish will become more crucial in our lives. More Americans will take vacations in Latin America, do business in Spanish, and eventually move south to retire in countries where the cost of living is far cheaper.

We're already seeing growing numbers of Americans retire in Costa Rica, drawn by weather and lifestyle as well as low costs and good health care. We'll also see more and more little bits of Florida that just happen to be located in Mexico, Panama or Dominican Republic.

Another reason to bet on Spanish is that Latin America is, finally, getting its act together. Of all regions of the world, it was arguably Latin America that rode the recent economic crisis most comfortably. That means that Spanish study does more than facilitate piña coladas on the beach at Cozumel. It'll be a language of business opportunity in the coming decades. We need to turn our competitive minds not only east, but also south.

Moreover, Spanish is easy enough that kids really can emerge from high school with a very useful command of the language that they will retain for life, while Mandarin takes about four times as long to make the same progress. Chinese has negligible grammar — no singular or plural, no verb conjugations, no pesky masculine and feminine nouns — but there are thousands of characters to memorize as well as the landmines of any tonal language.

The standard way to ask somebody a question in Chinese is “qing wen,” with the “wen” in a falling tone. That means roughly: May I ask something? But ask the same “qing wen” with the “wen” first falling and then rising, and it means roughly: May I have a kiss?

That's probably why trade relations are so strained between our countries. Our negotiators think they're asking questions about tariffs, and the Chinese respond indignantly that kissing would be inappropriate. Leaving both sides confused.

In effect, Chinese is typically a career. Spanish is a practical add-on to your daily life, meshing with whatever career you choose. If you become a mechanic, you'll be able to communicate better with some customers. If you're the president, you'll campaign more effectively in Texas and Florida.

China will probably be the world's largest economy within our children's lifetimes and a monumental force in every dimension of life. Studying Chinese gives you insight into one of the world's great civilizations and creates a wealth of opportunities — plus, it'll be a godsend if you're ever called upon to pronounce a name like, say, Qin Qiuxue.

So, by all means, have your kids dive into the glamorous world of Mandarin. But don't forget the language that will likely be far more important in their lives: el idioma más importante es Español!

(In case you were wondering, that headline says: First learn Spanish. Then study Chinese.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/opinion/30kristof.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Woman to Be Charged With Murder in Case of Missing Houston 12-Year-Old

December 30, 2010

FoxNews.com

A woman is expected to be charged with capital murder in connection to the disappearance of a 12-year-old boy, MyFoxHouston.com reported late Wednesday.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office accepted the charges against Mona Yvette Nelson, 44, after burned remains found Tuesday were positively identified as Jonathan Foster's, the site reported.

Investigators say Nelson is a family acquaintance. Detectives questioned her throughout the day and, police say she admitted to being with Jonathan but has not confessed to killing him.

No motive has been released.

Earlier in the week police questioned Jonathan's mother and stepfather, Angela and David Davis, which is standard procedure.

"I never pointed the finger at anybody. I just said there's a time frame people came by and that's the people that came by," the mother said. "My husband took a polygraph, and he passed. He is not in it at all. He's innocent. He is just as distraught and upset as I am.”

Foster was last seen Christmas Eve at his family's apartment in northwest Houston. He had been left home alone while his mom was at work, and his stepfather was the last to report seeing the boy alive when he checked in around 1:45 p.m.

Texas Equusearch stopped looking for the boy on Tuesday after the body was found.

Police say evidence suggests that the body was burned at another location and then dumped in a ditch.

From the start detectives got conflicting statements from family and neighbors, which is why they say they didn't issue an Amber Alert until Monday night.

The DA's office is requesting Nelson be held without bond. She has a criminal record dating back to 1984, including aggravated robbery, making a terroristic threat, marijuana possession and theft.

Anyone with information is asked to call Houston Police Homicide at 713-308-3600 .

Click here to read more on this story from MyFoxHouston.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/30/woman-charged-murder-case-missing-houston-year-old/

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From ICE

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Top Story: ICE deputy director and world leaders pool resources at BCASS Conference

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) role in national security extends far beyond our country's borders. The agency relies on partnerships with other countries to investigate and dismantle criminal networks across the globe.

Earlier this month, military, political and law enforcement leaders from across the world traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the inaugural Border Control, Airport and Seaport Security (BCASS) exposition. The conference focused on how nations can pool knowledge and resources to make the world a safer place.

ICE Deputy Director Kumar Kibble spoke at the event and highlighted how ICE combats criminal networks by building partnerships with countries across the world.

"Sharing law enforcement intelligence with our international partners and conducting joint transnational investigations leads ICE to unfathomable criminal networks," said Kibble."  "We intend to share best practices in law enforcement techniques, arrange joint investigative teams and offer investigative and prosecutorial assistance in the pursuit of convictions and prosecutions of customs violators."

Kibble shared successes from a recent investigation called Pacific Rim where ICE and its foreign counterparts disrupted an international money laundering and drug trafficking network that spanned every continent on Earth except for Antarctica.  Drug smugglers - responsible for 42 percent of Colombian cocaine entering the United States from 2003 to 2009 - brought tons of cocaine into the United States on yachts and semi-submersibles along the Mexico/United States maritime border. As the result of international cooperation, Pacific Rim netted five guilty pleas, 16 indictments and 18 arrests along with seizures totaling approximately $155 million in currency, 3.3 tons of cocaine, $37 million in criminal forfeitures, and $179 million in property.   These seizures helped to identify previously unknown smuggling routes.  In addition, the operation's success significantly impacted the flow of drugs into the United States and smuggling of illegal proceeds out of the country.

"Pac Rim exemplifies how smuggling and laundering illicit cash is the grease that keeps these slick operations running, and how important our global partnerships are to stopping them.  ICE is determined to dry up and deprive these criminals and criminal organizations of their sole motivator-money," said Kibble.

Kibble also discussed establishing similar partnerships in the UAE to bring down criminal networks. New this year, ICE established a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Customs Administration (ADCA) and the UAE Minister of the Interior for a new immigration academy.

Major General Khamis bin Hasher Al Mehrezi from the UAE Ministry of Defense echoed Kibble's call for global partnerships, "Modern technologies have recently played an effective and very important role in detecting threats, defining them, tracking them, tackling them and preserving security. Yet cooperation and coordination on both national and international levels is equally important."

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1012/101229uae.htm

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