hearsay convictions

[Russ Spence]

The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.

According to a copy of the manual obtained by The Associated Press, a terror suspect's defense lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence in the person's defense until the government has a chance to review it.

The manual, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday and scheduled to be released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court

The Pentagon manual could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush administration and Congress — now led by Democrats — over the treatment of the nation’s terrorism suspects.

Last September, Congress — then led by Republicans — sent Bush a bill granting wide latitude in interrogating and detaining captured enemy combatants. The legislation also prohibited some of the worst abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but granted the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible.

Long road to bill's passage
Passage of the bill, which was backed by the White House, followed more than three months of debate that included angry rebukes by Democrats of the administration's interrogation policies, and a short-lived rebellion by some Republican senators.

The Detainee Treatment Act, separate legislation championed in 2005 by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., prohibited the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of military and CIA prisoners. It was approved overwhelmingly by Congress despite a veto threat by Bush, who eventually signed it into law.

 

[Russ Spence]

geneva convention

The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants — the Bush administration's term for many of the terrorism suspects captured on the battlefield — "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized people," according to the document.

As required by law, the manual prohibits statements obtained by torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as prohibited by the Constitution.

However, the law does allow statements obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge.

Nearly 400 detainees suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban are still being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while about 380 others have been transferred or released. The Defense Department is currently planning trials for at least 10 suspects.

Geneva Conventions violated?
Democrats have said they would like to revisit detainee legislation and address concerns that the bill gives the president too much latitude interpreting standards set by the Geneva Conventions on prisoner treatment — and may deny detainees legal rights.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he planned to scrutinize the manual to ensure that it does not “run afoul” of the Constitution.

“I have not yet seen evidence that the process by which these rules were built or their substance addresses all the questions left open by the legislation. This committee will fulfill its oversight responsibility to make sure this is the case,” Skelton said in a written statement.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and some Democrats have said the legislation will be shot down by the courts as unconstitutional because it bars detainees from protesting their detentions. Under the law, only individuals selected for military trial are given access to a lawyer and judge; other military detainees can be held until hostilities cease.

 

[Russ Spence]

life in prison

A truck driver was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison Thursday for his role in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt — a journey that ended in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed in a sweltering tractor-trailer.

Tyrone Williams, 36, was convicted last month on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting immigrants.

More than 70 immigrants were locked for hours inside his trailer during the 2003 trip from South Texas to Houston. Nineteen died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation. Williams abandoned the container near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

Williams looked down as the decision was read and gave no visible reaction. His attorney wept and wiped his eyes with a tissue.

A jury deliberated for 5½ days before sentencing Williams. The sentence comes with no possibility for parole.

Defense attorneys said Williams never intended for the immigrants to die and questioned why he was the only defendant in the case facing the death penalty. But prosecutors said Williams deserved to die because he knew the immigrants were dying and did not help them.

They also noted he failed to take life-saving measures, like turning on the trailer's air conditioning, although some survivors testified they thought it had been turned on.

Williams, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., is one of 14 people charged in the case.

In May 2003, Williams’ tractor-trailer was packed with more than 70 immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic. As temperatures skyrocketed inside the airtight refrigerator truck, the immigrants kicked walls, clawed at insulation, broke out taillights and screamed for help.

Williams' family, including his mother and father, begged the jury to spare his life during emotional testimony presented at the retrial's punishment phase.

Relatives of victims demand justice
Relatives of the 19 victims also testified, demanding justice and telling jurors their loved ones did not deserve to die the way they did.

This was the second time Williams was tried for the smuggling deaths.

In 2005, a jury convicted Williams on 38 transporting counts, but he avoided a death sentence because the jury couldn't agree on his role in the smuggling attempt. The jury deadlocked on the 20 other counts.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the verdict, saying the jury failed to specify his role in the crime.

 

[Russ Spence]

missouri man

A pizzeria manager pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy who was found four days later in the man’s apartment with another boy who had been missing for more than four years.

But moments later the chief prosecutor in the case said Michael Devlin, 41, had actually confessed to kidnapping Ben Ownby.

"Basically, when Mr. Devlin was taken into custody he did confess that he had kidnapped Ben Ownby," Franklin County prosecutor Robert Parks told reporters after the arraignment.


He did not elaborate and Devlin's attorneys refused to comment.

Devlin is charged with abducting Ben after the boy stepped off a school bus earlier this month.

Devlin, also a part-time funeral home employee, remained in the Franklin County Jail during the arraignment, appearing through a video hookup. He is jailed on $1 million bond.

Devlin’s defense attorneys told reporters they wanted the case moved from Franklin County.

“There’s no way we can get a fair trial in this county with the amount of attention it’s gotten,” defense attorney Michael Kielty said.

Found in Devlin's apartment
On Wednesday, Devlin was also charged with kidnapping 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing since October 2002.

Both boys were found at Devlin’s apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood.

“Shawn was abducted against his will,” Washington County, Mo., prosecutor John Rupp said. “Period. End of story.”

Sheriff Kevin Schroeder would not say whether Shawn was held captive at the apartment for the entire time.

Shawn’s parents told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn’t told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers.

Kidnapped boy tells Oprah he was frozen by terror
Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

1991 disappearance
Devlin also is under investigation in the 1991 disappearance of another Missouri boy who still has not been found, The Associated Press has learned.

• Defense wants case moved
Jan. 18: "There's no way we can get a fair trial in this county," defense attorney Michael Kielty said.

Devlin is the “most viable lead” in the case of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared in 1991 and has never been found, Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies said.

Rupp said in a statement that Devlin was charged with kidnapping and armed criminal action. The statement does not name Shawn, but uses the initials SDH.

While it is MSNBC.com’s and The Associated Press’ policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse in most cases, Shawn’s case has been widely publicized and his name is well-known. Also, the family has gone public, conducting several national interviews.

A probable cause statement released by Rupp said Devlin “abducted SDH utilizing force for the purpose of terrorizing the victim. After securing SDH, Michael Devlin flourished a handgun in order to gain compliance of the minor child. Michael Devlin then transported him out of the county and concealed his whereabouts for four years and three months.”

Rupp and Schroeder would not discuss evidence in the case beyond the probable cause statement.

 

[Russ Spence]

pregnant teens -- assault

Three pregnant teens living in a group home whacked the director in the head with a frying pan, tied her up and then fled in a stolen minivan, police said.

The director, who was tied up with power cords Tuesday, eventually broke free and called police, police Sgt. Shauna Greening said. She also freed another pregnant teen tied up in the attack, she said.

Authorities believed the teens — two 15-year-olds and one 16-year-old — left the state and a search was under way. Police said the teens also stole the director's purse, checkbook, credit cards, cell phone and video camera.


The motive wasn't clear. Parents of the girls, who are from California, Texas and Illinois, were notified, police said.

The home, which is a place for struggling pregnant teens, is in Utah County, about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. Pregnant teens are typically sent there by parents to get away from problems with drugs or boyfriends, and they attend class and learn about prenatal care, childbirth and adoption while staying at the home, according to police.

 

[Russ Spence]

soldier pleas

- The second of five 101st Airborne Division soldiers accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl along with executing three of her family members last year in Iraq has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, his attorney said Thursday.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, of Barstow, Calif., is expected to plead guilty to rape and premeditated murder during a hearing next month at Fort Campbell, attorney William Cassara said.

“Sgt. Cortez is going to go in and accept the responsibility for his part in what occurred,” Cassara said. “Our version of events is that he knew what was going to take place and participated as an observer.”

Story continues below ↓Cassara would not discuss specific details of the agreement, but said Cortez will no longer face the death penalty. As a matter of protocol, military prosecutors won’t discuss the case.

The March 12 death of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, her parents and younger sister were considered among the worst in a series of alleged atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

Spc. James P. Barker, 24, of Fresno, Calif., pleaded guilty to rape and murder in November as part of an agreement to testify against the others. He was sentenced to 90 years in military prison.

Two others — Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, of Chambersburg, Pa., and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 23, of Huffman, Texas — await courts-martial in the coming months on charges related to the attack.

A fifth person, former private Steven D. Green, 21, of Midland, Texas, faces federal charges of rape and murder. Green, the alleged ringleader in the attack, was discharged from the military before the allegations surfaced in June.

Green will be tried in U.S. District

 

[Russ Spence]

al-quida

A top al-Qaida-linked militant, long wanted by U.S. and Philippine authorities for deadly terror attacks, has been killed in a clash with troops in a major blow to his rebel group, the military said Wednesday.

Jainal Antel Sali Jr., popularly known as Abu Sulaiman — a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group — was fatally shot in a fierce gunbattle Tuesday in a clash with army special forces, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said, confirming earlier reports of the militant's death.

Sulaiman claimed responsibility for a February 2004 bombing that triggered a ferry fire, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terror attack.



He also was accused of masterminding the kidnapping of three Americans and Filipino tourists from the southeastern island of Palawan in 2001.

One of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded. American missionary Gracia Burnham was wounded and rescued by army commandos after a year in jungle captivity, but her husband, Martin, was killed during the operation.

The kidnappings prompted Philippine authorities to allow the deployment of U.S. troops in the southern Mindanao region to train and arm Filipino soldiers working to wipe out the resilient Abu Sayyaf.

More than 7,000 troops have been hunting Sulaiman and other militants on Jolo island since Aug. 1 in a U.S.-backed campaign called "Oplan Ultimatum."

 

[Russ Spence]

more al-qaida

An al-Qaida-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed responsibility Thursday for an attack on a convoy of a Western democracy institute that killed an Ohio woman along with three security contractors in Baghdad.

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute identified its slain staffer as Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich of Perry in northeast Ohio. Three security contractors from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq also were killed in the ambush Wednesday. Two were wounded, one seriously.

Parhamovich, 28, a graduate of Marietta College, had been working with NDI in Iraq since late 2006 as a communications specialist advising Iraqi political parties on how to reach out to voters and constituents. She was helping "build the kind of national level political institutions that can help bridge the sectarian divide and improve Iraqi lives," NDI said.
Telephone messages left at a home number listed under Parhamovich's name on Thursday were not immediately returned.

"It's a sad time," said Perry High School principal Doug Jenkins, the middle school principal when Parhamovich attended the senior high school.

NDI's chairman, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, said, "There is no more sacred roll of honor than those who have given their last full measure in support of freedom. Yesterday, in Iraq, Andrea Parhamovich and our security personnel were enshrined on that list.


"They did not see themselves as heroes, only people doing a job on behalf of a cause they believed in. They were not the enemies of anyone in Iraq; they were there to help," Albright said.

The institute supports democratic processes and institutions worldwide. Its staffers in Baghdad run training programs in democracy and political participation, as well as women's rights. The group has had staffers in Iraq since June 2003.

Wednesday attack
Gunmen opened fire on the three-vehicle convoy on Wednesday in Yarmouk, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad.

"Praise be to God, in an attack with light and medium weapons and RPG's in the Yarmouk area in Baghdad on Jan. 17, two SUVs belonging to the Zionist Mossad were destroyed and a third one was severely damaged," said a statement posted Thursday on an Islamic Web site.

The statement was signed by the spokesman of the "Islamic state in Iraq," the so-called Islamic government that al-Qaida in Iraq and several other Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgent groups declared earlier last year. The statement's authenticity could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on a Web forum where Sunni insurgents often release messages.

The group did not say anything about how many were killed or their nationalities but al-Qaida, usually refers to foreigners whose nationalities unknown to it as members of the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Parhamovich was the first full-time worker for the group to be killed in Iraq. A security contractor for the organization was killed in March 2004.

 

[Russ Spence]

pot raid in L.A.

Federal drug agents raided nearly a dozen medical marijuana clinics in California, seizing several thousand pounds of processed marijuana, along with weapons and money, authorities said.

Several people were detained, although no arrests were made after five dispensaries in West Hollywood and six others in Venice, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley were searched Wednesday, said Sarah Pullen, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The raids highlighted a conflict between a California state law and the federal drug agency.

California voters in 1996 approved the Compassionate Use Act, which makes marijuana available by prescription for medicinal uses. The DEA, which does not recognize California laws legalizing medical marijuana use, has recently increased its enforcement.

Under seal
Pullen declined to provide details of the latest investigation, saying the search warrants remained under seal.

"But obviously we are looking for marijuana and other illegal drugs, marijuana edibles and evidence of ongoing criminal activity and anything from paperwork to documents — you name it," Pullen said.

City officials in West Hollywood said they were surprised by the action, learning of the raid as it was happening. City spokeswoman Helen Goss said West Hollywood has a "long-standing commitment" to the use of medical marijuana for people suffering from illnesses like HIV and AIDS.

Agents in bulletproof vests, gloves and face masks left a West Hollywood storefront with boxes and trash bags filled, as about 50 protesters booed and shouted "states' rights."

At one dispensary, The Farmacy on Santa Monica Boulevard, amateur videographers and others mobbed officers filling three cars with evidence.

"Today's enforcement operations show that these establishments are nothing more than drug-trafficking organizations bringing criminal activities to our neighborhoods and drugs near our children and schools," said Ralph W. Partridge, head of the DEA in Los Angeles.

 

[Russ Spence]

oprah show

The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn’t told them directly, but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.
Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

The comments were broadcast the day pizzeria worker Michael Devlin pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping another boy, Ben Ownby, 13, who was found last week in Devlin’s apartment with Shawn, who was on the show Thursday with his parents.

Devlin’s attorney, Michael Kielty, declined to respond to the claim of sexual abuse, saying he hasn’t seen evidence in the case. “The only thing I have is an allegation,” he said.

Authorities have said that Devlin confessed to kidnapping Ben, but Kielty would not discuss that.

While it is MSNBC.com’s and The Associated Press’ policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse in most cases, Shawn’s case has been widely publicized and his name is well-known. Also, the family has gone public, conducting several national interviews.

'Mentally he's not the same'
Pam Akers said she did not know when Winfrey asked if her son was tortured, but her husband, Shawn’s stepfather, stressed that something happened to dramatically change the boy.

“I have no doubt that mentally he’s not the same boy he was,” he said.

Shawn told Winfrey he always hoped for a reunion with his family.

“I prayed that one day my parents would find me and I’d be united,” he said.

Shawn said he was not ready to discuss details of his abduction and the subsequent 51 months he spent living with Devlin. Winfrey said the boy told her off-camera that he was “terrified” to contact his parents during the last four years.

The boy’s parents told Winfrey they have not asked their son what happened on the advice of child advocacy experts, but are convinced their son did not contact them out of fear for his life, theirs or other members of their family.

“There has to have been something held over his head,” Craig Akers said. “There’s no way in the world that if he was able to do whatever he wanted to do ... there’s no doubt in my mind he would have (come home).”