FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A sniper who pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing an officer in 1995 said he waited in a foxhole-like position for the morning fog to clear before firing into a crowd of 1,300 fellow soldiers, calling it "the right thing at the time."
Sgt. William J. Kreutzer Jr.'s explanation for the shooting that also wounded 18 fellow soldiers came just before he pleaded guilty to one count each of premeditated murder, attempted premeditated murder and 16 counts of aggravated assault under an agreement that will spare him the death penalty.
Kreutzer was sentenced to death in 1996, but an Army appellate court overturned the conviction, saying his defense lawyers were ineffective. He now faces up to life in prison.
Kreutzer told the judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, that he was upset the day before the Oct. 22, 1995, shooting because he had to use his own money to buy supplies for soldiers in his unit at Fort Bragg, a sprawling Army base in eastern North Carolina. Kreutzer said he thought something drastic had to be done. He talked about how he selected guns, loaded them in the Towle Stadium parking lot and placed them in the trunk of his car. He said he tried to speak with a mental health professional at Womack Army Medical Center about what he'd planned to do, but no one was available.
The next morning, he said he found a foxhole-like position in a wooded area overlooking the stadium, then waited as fog cleared so he could see the soldiers warming up before their morning run. Soldiers in sweat pants and shirts scattered for cover when the shooting started. Maj. Stephen Badger, an intelligence officer, was killed.
Kreutzer's plea came during a pretrial hearing. Last week, the judge in the case ruled that Kreutzer was competent to again stand trial. Defense attorneys had argued Kreutzer suffered from a personality disorder that makes him unable to show remorse.
How does that make him incompetent to stand trial?
Kreutzer's sentencing hearing was scheduled March 24.
#2
You missed the point,
he had to buy OTHER SOLDIERS equipment.
(With his own money is not said, but implied)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/12/2009 15:32 Comments ||
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#3
That day was a mess. A couple of SF guys ambushed him in the woods but while it was all happening, I was having hand out pistols to MP's in pt uniform. Problem was, how would they identify the shooter if everyone is in pt's with a weapon.
NEW YORK Saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed," Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history and was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs to the applause of his seething victims in the courtroom.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.
Madoff earlier spoke softly but firmly to the judge as he pleaded guilty to 11 charges in his first public comments about his crimes since the scandal broke in early December. "I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," he said. "As the years went by, I realized my risk and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes."
Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one turned in his direction and tried to address him.
The fraud, which prosecutors say may have totaled nearly $65 billion, turned a revered money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.
Madoff described his crimes after he entered a guilty plea to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and two counts of international money laundering. He told the judge that he believed the fraud would be short-term and that he could extricate himself.
Prosecutors say the disgraced financier, who has spent three months under house arrest in his $7 million in Manhattan penthouse, could face a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison at sentencing.
After arguments began on whether Madoff should remain free on bail, his lawyer Ira Sorkin described the bail conditions and how Madoff had, "at his wife's own expense," paid for private security at his $7 million penthouse. Loud laughter erupted among some of the more than 100 spectators crammed into the large courtroom on the 24th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. The judge warned the spectators to remain silent.
George Nierenberg, the first of the three investors to speak, approached the podium glaring at Madoff, then said in the financier's direction: "I don't know if you had a chance to turn around and look at the victims."
At the hint of a confrontation, a marshal sitting behind Madoff stood up, and the judge directed Nierenberg to speak directly to the bench.
The plea does not end the Madoff saga: Investigators are still undertaking the daunting task of unraveling how he pulled off the fraud for decades without being caught. They suspect that his family and top lieutenants who helped run his operation from its midtown Manhattan headquarters may have been involved.
Madoff's plea was absent a cooperation agreement that would have required him to name potential co-conspirators. But in court documents, prosecutors have indicated that low-level employees were in on the scam and may be cooperating.
Court papers say Madoff hired many people with little or no training or experience in the securities industry to serve as a secretive "back office" for his investment advisory business. He generated or had employees generate "tens of thousands of account statements and other documents through the U.S. Postal Service, operating a massive Ponzi scheme," prosecutors said. The money was never invested, but was used by Madoff, his business and others, prosecutors said.
Authorities said he confessed to his family that he had carried out a $50 billion fraud. In court documents filed Tuesday, prosecutors raised the size of the fraud to $64.8 billion. Experts say the actual loss was more likely much less and that higher numbers reflect false profits he promised investors. So far, authorities have located about $1 billion for jilted investors.
In addition to prison time, he said Madoff faces mandatory restitution to victims, forfeiture of ill-gotten gains and criminal fines.
So you're an arms dealer, you want to win a contract in India, and you rather liked the look of those dancing scenes in Slumdog Millionaire. What do you do next?
Well, if you're the Israeli firm Rafael, the obvious (but no less excruciating) answer is to make a Bollywood movie promoting your military hardware.
Doesn't sound like it has any of the ingredients for one of those classically romantic Indian films does it? Trust me. You truly have no idea how bad, or hilarious, this could be until you see it...
How it got in his underwear, he doesn't know.
[rimshot]
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal, it's delicious. Be sure to tip your waitress. Okay, okay, enough with the Henny Youngman schtick...
When a dark intruder smashed through his bedroom window and repeatedly bounced on his bed, Beat Ettlin at first was relieved to discover it was a kangaroo.
"My initial thought when I was half awake was, 'It's a lunatic ninja coming through the window,"' the 42-year-old told The Associated Press on Monday. "It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."
But his relief was short-lived. As Ettlin cowered beneath the sheets with his wife and nine-year-old daughter at 2am Sunday, the frantic kangaroo bounded into the bedroom of his 10-year-old son Leighton Beman, who screamed, "There's a 'roo in my room!"
"I thought, 'This can be really dangerous for the whole family now,"' Ettlin said.
The ordeal played out over a few minutes in the family's house in Garran, an upmarket suburb in the leafy national capital of Canberra.
Ettlin, a chef originally from the Swiss city of Stans, said he jumped the 40kg marsupial from behind and pinned it to the floor. He grabbed it in a headlock and wrestled the trashing and bleeding intruder into a hallway, toward the front door.
He used a single, fumbling hand to open the front door and shoved the kangaroo into the night.
"I had just my Bonds undies on. I felt vulnerable," he said, referring to a popular Australian underwear brand. If he'd been wearing Underoos, it would've been hilarious.
The kangaroo, which Ettlin said was around his height, 176cm, left claw gouges in the wooden frame of the master bed and a trail of blood through the house. The animal was cut when it came crashing through the bedroom window.
Ettlin, who had scratch marks on his leg and buttocks and was left wearing only his shredded underpants, described himself as "lucky".
Posted by: Mike ||
03/12/2009 16:34 ||
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To subdue a kangaroo, grab it by the base of the tail. This bloke is lucky he wasn't disembowelled.
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, March 11 (UPI) -- A man who jumped into the Canadian side of the Niagara River Wednesday survived the 167-foot plunge over Horseshoe Falls, authorities said. The man, whose name wasn't available but was said to be in his late 30s, was in the frigid waters for more than 40 minutes before a firefighter using special equipment was able to pull him to safety, The Buffalo News reported.
The man was clothed when he went in, but was naked when rescued. Presumably, the force of the churning falls stripped him of his clothes, the newspaper said.
The man reportedly was hospitalized with a head injury and hypothermia, officials said. Officials said the man either would not, or could not, help emergency responders with his rescue. An initial attempt to get him to grab onto a pole offered by rescuers aboard a helicopter were fruitless, the News said.
The pilot, Ruedi Hafem, then positioned the helicopter so it produced winds that pushed the man closer to shore.
Niagara Falls Fire Chief Lee Smith said it appeared the man wouldn't have lasted much longer. "It's amazing that he survived that long," Smith said. "He was very close to not being able to keep himself afloat anymore."
To survive the plunge over the falls unprotected is rare. A U.S. man became only the second to go over Niagara Falls and live to tell about it in 2003. The first person to do it was Roger Woodward, who went over Horseshoe Falls after the boat he was in capsized in 1960, when he was 7 years old.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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This sounds a bit fishy to me. Forty minutes in water that cold? Assuming that the water temp was around 35-38 degrees (parts of the lakes are still frozen, so that makes sense) and being naked, he should have lost consciousness after about 10-15 minutes, and been dead in a half hour or less.
There's more to this than the story tells.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/12/2009 6:27 Comments ||
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#2
If it was a suicide attempt, the perp/victim probably feels even worse about himself than before.
The teenage daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her fiance have broken up just over two months after the birth of the couple's child.
People.com reported Wednesday that sources said the split between Bristol Palin, 18, and Levi Johnston, 19 occurred a few weeks ago, and Johnston confirmed to the Associated Press that he and Bristol mutually decided to end their relationship "a while ago." He did not elaborate. Palin said in a statement to the Associated Press that she is "devastated."
The young Palin told FOX News' Greta van Susteren that they intended to get married after they both finished high school.
"Eventually, we'd like to get married. We're focusing on, like, getting through school and just getting an education and stuff, getting a career going," Palin said. She also told FOX News that her and Johnston didn't find being young parents "glamorous," and they both felt having kids should wait.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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It didn't help that the Dems got the young man fired from his apprenticeship job on the north slope, where he was earning good money and could have supported them after marriage.
#5
Our leaders should be ashamed that in the political pursuit of the presidential elections we allowed these kids to be destroyed as pawns. No one at their age could survive the attacks by our left wing press. There are hundreds of kids in the same situation, high school pregnancies, with them and their families trying to sort through all the issues and keep their families together. What our press did was shameful, what our new president DID NOT DO to stop it was inexcusable!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/12/2009 11:15 Comments ||
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#6
grom - Levi's a surprisingly popular name in middle America. One of the girls here at work has a preteen son named Levi. Never asked whether it's an Elton John reference or biblical.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/12/2009 11:39 Comments ||
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#7
Not surprising with how the MSM went after Levi's mom like a pack of wolves. Disgusting.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/12/2009 17:55 Comments ||
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#15
Deacon, the English pronunciation is Leevi. The Hebrew word would be pronounced Lay-vee. The descendants of the tribe of Levi were the temple attendants, not the priests.
Grom, actually priest would be Kohen, pronunced Ko-hayn. The descendants of Aaron (of the tribe of Levi) were the priests. These days except for very few purposes neither distinction matters.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/12/2009 20:40 Comments ||
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China is forging ahead with an overseas spending splurge, snapping up resources especially oil at bargain prices and strengthening its long-term prospects for growth before Western economies can bounce back.
A series of high-profile energy deals and mining bids in the past month marked an end to the nervousness that appeared to impinge on Communist Party leaders at the outset of the global financial crisis. Attention has turned from hoarding foreign exchange reserves worth close to $2 trillion to locking up future supplies. Oil has emerged at the top of China's shopping list.
In February, China secured oil supply deals totaling $41 billion with Russia, Brazil and Venezuela.
Among the most lucrative: an agreement reached with Russia, in which China will lend $25 billion to Russian oil giant Rosneft and oil pipeline company Transneft. In return, according to Russian news reports, China will receive 300,000 barrels of crude a day for the next 20 years at a rate of about $20 a barrel less than half the current price of $45.
While touring Latin America, Vice President Xi Jinping signed a deal to lend $10 billion to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras. China will receive up to 160,000 barrels a day, again over a 20-year period.
A subsequent announcement from China's National Energy Administration further clarified Beijing's intentions. China is considering setting up a fund for China's three state-owned energy giants PetroChina, Sinopec and the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) to purchase oil and gas companies overseas. The firms will benefit from low-interest loans and direct capital injections, the announcement said.
The oil deals complement efforts to buy into the Australian mining industry. China's biggest aluminum producer, Chinalco, has submitted a bid of $19.5 billion to buy an 18 percent stake in beleaguered mining company Rio Tinto. Chinese firm Minmetals has offered $1.7 billion for Oz Minerals.
China also is seeking diversification of its foreign exchange reserves, now heavily in dollars. The head of China's energy bureau, Zhang Guobao, said earlier this week that China should accumulate more gold and uranium as well as other strategic commodities.
Posted by: ed ||
03/12/2009 13:05 ||
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In return, according to Russian news reports, China will receive 300,000 barrels of crude a day for the next 20 years at a rate of about $20 a barrel less than half the current price of $45.
And if Russia keeps up its end of the bargain, they'll still be receiving that $ 25.00/bbl oil for its plastics refineries and its factories even if oil rebounds to the point where we're paying $ 80/bbl.
ahem.... they'll throw in a Carrier cheap, too. It just needs some work, k? Which they'll do for time and materials, plus shipping and handling, plus...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/12/2009 20:59 Comments ||
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#3
Now you know why oil has gone up $10/barrel even as economic data is worsening.
Posted by: ed ||
03/12/2009 21:02 Comments ||
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#4
Frank, what's the price Russia is charging (oh, to take one example) Ukraine for the same oil they're providing TODAY to China for $ 25/bbl?
Chinas Defense Ministry is demanding that the U.S. Navy end surveillance missions off Chinas southern coast after a weekend confrontation between an American vessel and Chinese ships. In its first public comment on the issue, the ministry repeated earlier Chinese statements that the unarmed U.S. ship was operating illegally inside Chinas exclusive economic zone. The Chinese sides carrying out of routine enforcement and safeguarding measures within its exclusive economic zone was entirely appropriate and legal, ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said in a statement faxed to reporters today. We demand the United States respect our legal interests and security concerns and take effective measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
The Navy on Wednesday assigned a destroyer escort to the ship that narrowly missed colliding with the Chinese vessels Sunday. A defense official, speaking on background, confirmed Wednesday that the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon is keeping a close eye on the surveillance ship Impeccable, which continues to operate in the South China Sea. Yes. It's American... Rear Admiral Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon was born on July 25, 1910, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The second youngest of five Chung-Hoon children, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in May 1934. While at the Naval Academy, he was a valued member of the Navy Football team. He is a recipient of the Navy Cross and Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of USS Sigsbee (DD 502) from May 1944 to October 1945. In the spring of 1945, Sigsbee assisted in the destruction of 20 enemy planes while screening a carrier strike force off the Japanese island of Kyushu. On April 14, 1945, while on radar picket station off Okinawa, a kamikaze crashed into Sigsbee, reducing her starboard engine to five knots and knocking out the ship's port engine and steering control. Despite the damage, Admiral Chung-Hoon, then a Commander, valiantly kept his anti-aircraft batteries delivering "prolonged and effective fire" against the continuing enemy air attack while simultaneously directing the damage control efforts that allowed Sigsbee to make port under her own power. After retiring from the Navy in 1959, Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon was appointed by William Quinn, Hawaiis first elected governor since statehood, to serve as director of the state Department of Agriculture. Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon died in July 1979.
The Impeccable, which is unarmed and manned by civilian mariners, deploys and tows sonar equipment used to locate and track submarines. American officials contend the ship has been careful to stay in international waters.
The United States says five Chinese vessels approached the Impeccable, ignoring requests to keep their distance, and that one got so close that the Americans employed fire hoses to repel it.
The new U.S. effort to protect the ship came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi conferred at the State Department, their second meeting in less than a month. The important point of agreement coming out of my discussions with Minister Yang is that we must work hard in the future to avoid such incidents and to avoid this particular incident having consequences that are unforeseen, Clinton told reporters. Yang, who did not speak after the meeting , is to meet today with President Barack Obama and his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Randy Forbes, a Chesapeake Republican who is co-chairman of the Congressional China Caucus, said he expects to introduce a resolution today condemning the Chinese harassment of U.S. forces. Sundays incident was one of a series, and the close approach clearly a deliberate action, he said.
Forbes praised the Navys assignment of a warship to protect the Impeccable but added that Congress must send a clear, loud message that the United States will protect the right of its ships to operate in international waters.
The latest incident appears to be part of a wider and dangerous cat-and-mouse game between U.S. and Chinese submarines and their hunters, Hans M. Kristensen, a nuclear weapons analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, wrote Tuesday on the groups Web site. Kristensen said its likely there have been more close encounters, so far unreported by either country. We dont know whats going on below the surface, he asserted.
The Obama administration is seeking Chinese cooperation on a host of foreign policy matters, including efforts to confront Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan and help sta nch the worldwide economic meltdown.
#1
The battle of ideas behind China's naval agression.
By James Kraska and Brian Wilson
Chinas bold and dangerous maneuvers against the USNS Impeccable, a U.S. Navy military survey vessel, which was operating about 120 km from the island of Hainan in the East China Sea is the latest salvo in Chinas ongoing campaign to upset traditional notions of freedom of navigation in order to deny access to its coastal waters, or littorals, by foreign warships, and aircraft. The event marks the first test of the Obama administration regarding Chinas efforts to reshape the international law of the sea.
Following the Cold War, the littorals have emerged as the primary maritime battleground for peace and stability. International law, as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, recognizes that all states enjoy the right to conduct military activities throughout the near shore environment -- generally beyond the 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial sea and extending out to 200 nm (one nm = 1.85 km). This coastal zone is the primary operating area for Seabasing, amphibious, expeditionary, and littoral operations, and generally encompasses the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of a coastal state, a special resource zone created by the Law of the Sea. Although coastal states have exclusive rights to exploit natural resources in the zone, they cannot claim a security interest in the area, agreed Shen Dingli, director of the Center of American Studies at Shanghais Fudan University. Regardless, China wants to exert control that extends beyond its economic interests, creating the potential for conflict with the U.S. Navy. Dingli stated, China considers that international law only allows innocent passage for military vessels [in the EEZ], not activities that could be considered to have a military purpose.
Chinese sailors getting drenched by fire hoses while harassing a U.S. Navy ship might make a great headline,, but the real fight is going on much more quietly on land. China has recently begun to engage in a resourceful legal warfare, or lawfare strategy to deny access to its coastal seas to warships and aircraft of the United States, Japan, and other countries in the region. This strategy, which was set forth in a recent Chinese defense white paper, proposed thegradual extension of strategic depth for offshore defensive operations, and for enhancing [Chinese] capabilities in integrated maritime operations and nuclear counterattacks.
A 2007 Department of Defense report to Congress on Chinas military power explains that Chinese strategists have taken an increasing interest in international law as an instrument to deter adversaries prior to combat. Through an orchestrated program of scholarly articles and symposia, China is working to shape international opinion in favor of a distorted interpretation of the Law of the Sea by shifting scholarly views and national perspectives away from long-accepted norms of freedom of navigation and toward interpretations of increased coastal state sovereign authority. By doing so, China is misreading the law of the sea.
The United States should ensure navigational freedom and littoral access as a cornerstone of world maritime security. The U.S. Navy has spent hundreds of millions on building a new generation of high-tech Littoral Combat Ships and implementing Seabasing amphibious warfare tactics to effectively operate in the coastal zonecapability that is undermined by restrictive interpretations of the law. But all this planning will be for naught if China continues to advance on the battlefield of international law. The United States would be on a far stronger footing at diplomatic summits and military-to-military meetings if it joined the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. To ensure the right of U.S. vessels to enjoy unhindered global mobility, the United States should continue resisting excessive coastal state maritime claims through diplomacy and operational challenges.
#2
A simple question: Why isn't the Impeccable armed. Given the kind of violence that has been visited on US intelligence ships since the 60's, they should be more heavily armed rather than less.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/12/2009 11:17 Comments ||
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#3
I'm impressed with having the Chung-Hoon escort the intel ship. Sounds like an adult was on duty at the White House.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2009 11:20 Comments ||
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#4
Yeah - China has opened Confucious Institiutes everywhere these days. They are tools of Chinese foreign policy, and seek to influence thought. They're probably going to work, too.
#5
Doesn't China pull this kind of stunt for each new president? 8 years ago, it was with an intel P-3. Same area too.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
03/12/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#6
A simple question: Why isn't the Impeccable armed.
Because it's crewed by Civillians.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/12/2009 15:35 Comments ||
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#7
More specifically, the operating crew are civilian contract personnel; the technicians generally are Civil Service. USNS means that it is an auxiliary ship, a non-combatant.
#9
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > POSTER = CHINA'S PLAN SHOULD START SENDING SPY SHIPS TO GUAM AND HAWAII.
Also, STARS-N-STRIPES/MVARIETY > AMERICAN DREAN ENDS TO GUAM RUMOR FOR IRAQIS. Things getting so bad in America = Amerika, rumors have begun that Iraqis + Muslims seeking work will be sent to Guam.
* Lest we fergit, PAN-ASIAN ISLAMIST MILIT-TERR THREAT + GLOBAL-SOLAR WARMING INDUCED "EARTH/LAND CHANGES" [e.g. Indonesia-Sumatran HI-MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES] > result in ETHNIC DIASPORAS = MIGRATIONS TO NEW LANDS, espec to CONUS-NORAM via GUAM + OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDS, potentially destabilizing and disrupting TRADITIONAL LOCAL STATUS QUOS = ESTABLISHED ORDERS.
WASHINGTON President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.
"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," Obama said during an interview with journalists for regional papers, including a McClatchy reporter. "I don't have a particular tipping point in mind," he said. "I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens."
Already this year there have been 1,000 people killed in Mexico along the border, following 2008's death toll of 5,800, according to federal officials who credit Mexican President Felipe Calderon for a crackdown on drug cartels.
But the spillover on the border -- for example, to El Paso from neighboring Ciudad Juarez -- has created a political reaction. In a recent visit to El Paso, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for 1,000 troops to protect the border.
Obama was cautious, however. "We've got a very big border with Mexico," he said. "I'm not interested in militarizing the border." The president praised Calderon, "who I believe is really working hard and taking some extraordinary risks under extraordinary pressure to deal with the drug cartels and the corresponding violence that's erupted along the borders."
Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., chair of a key subcommittee on border security, will hold a hearing Thursday on Mexican border violence. "Last week Mexico sent an additional 3,200 soldiers to the border," Sanchez said in a prepared opening statement for the hearing, "increasing the total number of Mexican soldiers combating drug cartels to more than 45,000."
Sanchez chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security's subcommittee on border, maritime and global counterterrorism. "It should be noted that over 200 U.S. citizens have been killed in this drug war, either because they were involved in the cartels or were innocent bystanders," she said. "With those concerns in mind, it is essential that the Department of Homeland Security, along with other relevant departments, continue to pursue a contingency plan to address 'spillover' violence along our border."
At a hearing this week, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who visited Mexico last month as part of a congressional delegation tour, praised the so-called Merida Initiative -- a drug cartel fighting agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that provides Mexico with $1.4 billion to control drug trafficking. "From helicopters and surveillance planes to non-intrusive inspection equipment, the U.S. investment is intended to provide the hardware necessary for the Mexican government to extend its authority to those remote and hard-to-access parts of the country ravaged by the drug trade," said Granger.
That agreement between Calderon and President George W. Bush will be updated, Obama said. "We expect to have a comprehensive approach to dealing with these issues of border security that will involve supporting Calderon and his efforts in a partnership, also making sure we are dealing with the flow of drug money and guns south, because it's really a two-way situation there," said Obama. "The drugs are coming north, we're sending funds and guns south," he said. "As a consequence, these cartels have gained extraordinary power. Our expectation is to have a comprehensive policy in place in the next few months."
#5
Yep. Certainly no real interest in the movement North.
Justice Dept. Investigates Arizona Sheriff for Enforcing Immigration Law
Thursday, March 12, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.
Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Robert Scott (D-Va.) requested the investigation, and activists groups such as National Day Laborer Organizer Network and ACORN launched petition drives and rallies in support of the probe.
The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Securitys Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)
In a letter dated March 10, 2009, Loretta Smith, acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, detailed what her department would be investigating:
"This is to inform you that the United States Department of Justice is commencing an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (''MCSO'') pursuant to the pattern or practice provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994,42 U.S.C. §14141 ("Section 14141") and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968,42 U.S.C. § 3789d ("Safe Streets Act"), and pursuant to the prohibitions against national origin discrimination in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d-7 ("Title Yr') and the Safe Streets Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3789d(c)."
The letter continues: "The investigation will focus on alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures conducted by the MCSO, and on allegations of national origin discrimination, including failure to provide meaningful access to MCSO services for limited English proficient (LEP) individuals."
"In conducting the investigation, we will seek to determine whether there are violations of the above laws by the MCSO," the letter says.
Sheriff Arpaio's efforts to enforce immigration laws have been the focus of previous criticism, but Arpaio has defended his department and the results his ICE-trained officers have netted.
Concerning the DOJs investigation, Arpaio told CNSNews.com: I will not back down. What I am doing is upholding the laws of the state of Arizona, and I will not be persuaded to turn my back on my oath of office as sheriff of this county.
In an August 2008 press release, Arpaio's office detailed those results.
"While the Sheriffs illegal immigration and human smuggling operations conducted on the streets and roadways here have netted nearly 2,300 arrests, another very successful effort to locate illegal aliens has been quietly happening inside Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaios jails," the release said.
It continues: "Despite the growing criticism of the Sheriffs illegal immigration fight by some valley politicians and activists, Sheriff Arpaio says 60 detention officers trained by ICE officials have conducted over 106,000 interviews and investigations of inmates booked into jail since April of 2007.
"In those 18 months, 16,000 inmates were determined to be illegal aliens. Either they have already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the valley. The work being done be Arpaios detention staff is a likely contributor to the recent reduction in crime in the valley, the press release added.
"That number of 16,000 represents a full one-third (1/3) of all inmates in the United States who have had holds placed on them after being identified by jail or prison officials as illegal aliens."
The press release goes on to say that 20 percent of inmates in the Maricopa County Jail are illegal aliens and that of those, 2,000 illegal aliens - 70 percent - were arrested for felony crimes.
Those felony crimes committed included the following: forgery, 12 percent; kidnapping, 10 percent; aggravated assault, 7 percent; driving under the influence, 7 percent; drug charges, 27 percent; robbery, 3 percent; murder, 3 percent; and theft, 4 percent.
The Democratic Congress members have also asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to launch an investigation into the training provided by ICE.
#6
He won't use troops under State control. He'll bring in the Regular Army or Federalize the National Guard with NORTHCOM C2 (command & control). A state of emergency will be declared first, along with martial law, evacuation of residents along border areas, suspension of 2nd Amendment, etc.
USNORTHCOMs AOR includes air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida. The defense of Hawaii and our territories and possessions in the Pacific is the responsibility of U.S. Pacific Command. The defense of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is the responsibility of U.S. Southern Command. The commander of USNORTHCOM is responsible for theater security cooperation with Canada and Mexico.
#11
"I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens"
Apparently it's ok for thousands of illegal immigrants to come in and kill US citizens, though.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/12/2009 18:54 Comments ||
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Exhausted after an all-night debate but assured of victory, Republicans today rammed a bill requiring Texas voters to present identification papers through the first Senate vote on the bitterly partisan issue.
After emotional pleas to stop the bill, and expert and public testimony that begin Tuesday and didn't end until shortly before 9 a.m.today, the so-called "Voter ID" bill passed a special Senate panel 20-12.
The "committee of the whole" includes all 31 senators and Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. While the bill must still get a final Senate vote, today's action all but assures it will pass and be sent to the House as early as Monday.
The bill is being driven by Senate Republicans over fierce opposition from Democrats, who promised a legal challenge if the bill ultimately passes.
Yup, no one ever asks the Dhimmis why it is I have to show an ID to cash a check and drive a car but not to vote ...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Cliff's Notes for non-native speakers of Associated Pressese:
Republicans today rammed
the bitterly partisan issue
emotional pleas to stop the bill
bill is being driven by Senate Republicans
fierce opposition from Democrats
author of the bill conjured up images of the old Daley political machine in Chicago
Many lawyers and political activists were arrested in Rawalpindi and Islamabad amid crackdown before the lawyers' long march and sit-in on Wednesday, Geo News reported. Since we're talking about the government of Pakistain, they'll half-ass it, round up cannon fodder and beat the crap out of them, toss a few big turbans into house arrest and let them go too early.
Over 50 persons were arrested belonging to Pakistan Muslim League (N), Tehreek-e-Insaaf (TI), Jamt-e-Islami and many lawyers while Chairman PML (N) Raja Zafar-ul-Haq was placed under house arrest. As many as 29 persons were arrested from Rawalpindi following the commencement of crackdown in between Tuesday and Wednesday night while police raids are underway at many political activists and lawyers' houses. On several occasions, police did not bother to be assisted by women police to barge into homes violating the sanctity of veil-taking ladies. Scores of political activists and lawyers went in hiding after the reports with regards to crackdown came. Meanwhile in Rawalpindi, lawyers took out rallies in protest against arrests and staged sit-in on several places. Meanwhile, police and rangers were deployed on many entrances of federal capital Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to change the country's destiny, urging the masses to defy the government's efforts to quash the lawyers' long march.
"Today is a defining moment in Pakistan's history. We can change the destiny of this country. Pakistan stands at a crossroads today and it is your duty to save it," Nawaz told a rally in Abbottabad.
Authorities have rounded up dozens of political activists and lawyers in a bid to thwart their planned protest on March 12 (today), and outlawed demonstrations in Islamabad, as well as in Punjab and Sindh, through which the rally was scheduled to proceed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif can be held under house arrest if the law and order situation worsens, Punjab Home Secretary Rao Iftikhar Ahmed said on Wednesday. Oh, house arrest, is it? With a telephone to keep in touch and a teevee to see how things are going and herds of lackeys to wait upon him hand and foot and to carry messages to the old myrmidons. That's sure to work well. Have they thought about just having him disappear? That'd work better, and result in fewer casualties in the long run. But we're discussing Pakistain, where life is cheap. Where some lives are cheaper than others ...
Addressing a press conference at the Punjab Civil Secretariat, he said security of the people was the government's responsibility, adding that no one would be allowed to take law in their hands. He said no parliamentarian had been arrested in any part of the province. However, the government had arrested around 300 political workers who could disrupt law and order, Iftikhar said. He said the army had not been deployed in any part of the province, adding that rangers were on standby. Additional Chief Secretary Taimoor Azmat Usman was also present on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Australia threatened on Thursday to become the next nation to abandon the upcoming United Nations anti-racism conference scheduled for next month, dubbed "Durban II."
Canada was the first nation to announce that it would not attend the conference, named for the U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that was held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
Israel and the United States soon followed, as did Italy, the first European nation to announce its intentions to boycott the conference due to concrete indications that this second incarnation would target Israel for recriminations, in much the same way as did the first.
While drafting the initial protocols for the conference, the planning panel chaired by Libya and including Iran, Pakistan, Syria and Cuba requested that provisions against Holocaust-denial be deleted.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith issued a statement saying that his government would "give very careful consideration to what, if any, changes are made to the text to see whether it is appropriate for Australia to participate in the conference. If we form the view that the text is going to lead to nothing more than an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic harangue and anti-Jewish propaganda exercise, then Australia will not be in attendance," he said firmly.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) called on the European Union (EU) this week to pull out of the conference as well. In a statement issued by EJC president Moshe Kantor, the organization said "there is simply no alternative other than a boycott by the EU presidency and EU nations."
Durban II is scheduled to be held at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva on April 20-24.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Ousted billionaire Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra has been joking that the seizure of his assets in a military coup had helped shield his wealth from the worst of the financial crisis.
"I do not know whether I should condemn or thank the military junta that has frozen my assets in Thailand, otherwise I probably would have invested a lot in the stock exchange and lost it," he said.
Thaksin was speaking from Dubai by videolink to the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong after cancelling an earlier planned appearance over worries it would upset Chinese-Thai relations.
Thaksin said he was currently short of money and had "just enough" to cover his travel expenses and maintain his lifestyle. Despite this, he said he was considering investments in telecoms, where he made his first fortune.
Twice-elected Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and was sentenced in absentia in October to two years in prison for abuse of power linked to a 2003 land deal. His assets in Thailand were frozen and he has since hopped around the world, including a brief stint as the owner of English football club Manchester City.
General Motors has said it will not need $US2 billion ($3 billion) in loans it had requested from the US government to fund its operations in March "at this time".
"This development reflects the acceleration of GM's company-wide cost reduction efforts as well as pro-active deferrals of spending previously anticipated in January and February," GM said.
"GM will remain in regular contact with the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry on the status of GM's restructuring actions, its liquidity position, timing of future funding requests, and other relevant topics of mutual concern."
The struggling automaker said it had advised the presidential task force on the auto industry that the "2 billion of funding previously requested for March would not be needed at this time".
GM did not indicate whether those funds might be needed at some other time or if it planned to alter its request for an additional $US16.6 billion in emergency loans on top of the $US13.4 billion approved in December.
Thousands of Roman Catholics descended on the Connecticut statehouse Wednesday, as simmering resentment over bills they consider anti-Catholic reached a boiling point with a recent legislative attempt to give parishioners more say over parish financing.
The sponsors of the now-withdrawn proposal, both Catholics themselves, have received thousands of mostly angry e-mails from across the country, as well as threats on their lives, state Capitol police said.
Leaders of the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee pulled the bill from consideration Tuesday, but an estimated 3,500 people -- led by the archbishop of Hartford and the bishops of Bridgeport and Hartford -- rallied on the Capitol steps, demanding religious freedom.
"No other church or religion in this state is being subjected to this maltreatment," said the Rev. Michael R. Cote, bishop of Norwich. "Today it is the Roman Catholic Church. Who will be next?"
For some strange reason the two legislators didn't propose to take control of the mosques in the state away from the congregations and put lay people in charge of the finances. Instead they confined themselves to the Catholic Church. Pro'ly because the good Rev. Cote hasn't threatened to behead anyone ...
Some of the estimated 1.3 million Catholics in Connecticut -- a state of 3.5 million -- are angry about the General Assembly legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples and the state Supreme Court later approving gay marriage, as well as lawmakers approving millions of dollars in state funding for embryonic stem cell research and considering legislation that bans discrimination against transgendered people.
Catholics were also angered by a failed attempt in 2002 to require priests to report sexual abuse -- even if they learned about it during confession -- if a child was in imminent danger.
State Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull, a Roman Catholic, said many of his fellow faithful feel the latest bill meddles in church business and is "the straw that broke the camel's back."
"Traditional values promoted by the church and by the average citizen have been disregarded and ignored and reversed, frankly, over the past few years," he said in an interview.
The newest bill would have changed a little-known 1866 law that sets out rules for religious corporations. Under the proposal, each individual church's board would include seven to 13 lay members, giving them the power to control parish finances. The archbishop or bishop of the diocese would serve on the board but could not vote on issues.
Sorta missing the whole point of an apostolic church ...
Currently, under state law, individual Roman Catholic churches in Connecticut organize as corporations and file with the state. The archbishop or bishop, the vicar-general of the diocese, the pastor of the congregation and two lay members -- appointed annually by the bishop -- form the boards for each parish and handle most of its financial matters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Bad tactics---should have gone after synagogues first.
Uh, sort of. One is an "ex" priest and both are affiliated with Voice of the "Faithful", a group of people who dissent from the Church on numerous teachings. They should just become Episcopalians. They are already Protestants.
#6
What's with the quotes? Does the AP think that the legislatures meddling in church management is NOT maltreatment? I'm not even Catholic and I'm outraged.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
When a dark intruder smashed through his bedroom window and repeatedly bounced on his bed, Beat Ettlin at first was relieved to discover it was a kangaroo.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to change the country's destiny, urging the masses to defy the government's efforts to quash the lawyers' long march.
Former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif can be held under house arrest if the law and order situation worsens, Punjab Home Secretary Rao Iftikhar Ahmed said on Wednesday. 
Thousands of Roman Catholics descended on the Connecticut statehouse Wednesday, as simmering resentment over bills they consider anti-Catholic reached a boiling point with a recent legislative attempt to give parishioners more say over parish financing.
