title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: From 1994 to 2001, Wolfowitz served as Professor of International Relations and Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He was instrumental in adding more than $75 million to the university's endowment, developing an international finance concentration as part of the curriculum, and combining the various Asian studies programs into one department. He also advised Bob Dole on foreign policy during his 1996 US Presidential election campaign, which was managed by Donald Rumsfeld.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: According to Kampfner, "Wolfowitz used his perch at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as a test-bed for a new conservative world vision." Wolfowitz was associated with the Project for the New American Century (PNAC); he signed both the PNAC's June 3, 1997 "Statement of Principles", and its January 26, 1998, open letter to President Bill Clinton.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In February 1998, Wolfowitz testified before a Congressional hearing, stating that the current administration lacked the sense of purpose to "liberate ourselves, our friends and allies in the region, and the Iraqi people themselves from the menace of Saddam Hussein."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In September 2000, the PNAC produced a 90-page report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century", advocating the redeployment of US troops in permanent bases in strategic locations throughout the world where they can be ready to act to protect US interests abroad. During the 2000 US Presidential election campaign, Wolfowitz served as a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush as part of the group led by Condoleezza Rice calling itself The Vulcans.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: From 2001 to 2005, during the George W. Bush administration, Wolfowitz served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense reporting to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: The September 11 attacks in 2001 was a turning point in administration policy, as Wolfowitz later explained: "9/11 really was a wake up call and that if we take proper advantage of this opportunity to prevent the future terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction that it will have been an extremely valuable wake up call," adding: "if we say our only problem was to respond to 9/11, and we wait until somebody hits us with nuclear weapons before we take that kind of threat seriously, we will have made a very big mistake."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In the first emergency meeting of the National Security Council on the day of the attacks, Rumsfeld asked, "Why shouldn't we go against Iraq, not just al-Qaeda?" with Wolfowitz adding that Iraq was a "brittle, oppressive regime that might break easily—it was doable," and, according to John Kampfner, "from that moment on, he and Wolfowitz used every available opportunity to press the case." The idea was initially rejected, at the behest of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but, according to Kampfner, "Undeterred Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz held secret meetings about opening up a second front—against Saddam. Powell was excluded." In such meetings they created a policy that would later be dubbed the Bush Doctrine, centering on "pre-emption" and the war on Iraq, which the PNAC had advocated in their earlier letters.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: After the September 11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan to fight Al-Qaeda, which had orchestrated the attack. The invasion of Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001. On October 10, 2001, George Robertson, then Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, went to the Pentagon to offer NATO troops, planes and ships to assist. Wolfowitz rebuffed the offer, saying: "We can do everything we need to." Wolfowitz later announced publicly, according to Kampfner, "that 'allies, coalitions and diplomacy' were of little immediate concern."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Ten months later, on January 15, 2003, with hostilities still continuing, Wolfowitz made a fifteen-hour visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, and met with the new president Hamid Karzai. Wolfowitz stated, "We're clearly moving into a different phase, where our priority in Afghanistan is increasingly going to be stability and reconstruction. There's no way to go too fast. Faster is better." Despite the promises, according to Hersh, "little effort to provide the military and economic resources" necessary for reconstruction was made. This criticism would also re-occur after the 2003 invasion of Iraq later that year.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On April 16, 2002, the National Solidarity Rally for Israel was called in Washington to promote US support and collaboration with Israel. Wolfowitz was the sole representative of the Bush administration to attend, speaking alongside Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. As reported by the BBC, Wolfowitz told the crowd that US President George W. Bush "wants you to know that he stands in solidarity with you". Sharon Samber and Matthew E. Berger reported for Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that Wolfowitz continued by saying that "Innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying as well. It is critical that we recognize and acknowledge that fact," before being booed and drowned out by chants of "No more Arafat."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Following the invasion of Afghanistan the Bush administration had started to plan for the next stage of the War on Terror. According to John Kampfner, "Emboldened by their experience in Afghanistan, they saw the opportunity to root out hostile regimes in the Middle East and to implant very American interpretations of democracy and free markets, from Iraq to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Wolfowitz epitomised this view." Wolfowitz "saw a liberated Iraq as both paradigm and linchpin for future interventions." The 2003 invasion of Iraq began on March 19.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Prior to the invasion, Wolfowitz actively championed it, as he later stated: "For reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason"


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: The job of finding WMD and providing justification for the attack would fall to the intelligence services, but, according to Kampfner, "Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz believed that, while the established security services had a role, they were too bureaucratic and too traditional in their thinking." As a result, "they set up what came to be known as the 'cabal', a cell of eight or nine analysts in a new Office of Special Plans (OSP) based in the U.S. Defense Department." According to an unnamed Pentagon source quoted by Hersh, the OSP "was created in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed to be true—that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Within months of being set up, the OSP "rivaled both the CIA and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA, as President Bush's main source of intelligence regarding Iraq's possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda." Hersh explains that the OSP "relied on data gathered by other intelligence agencies and also on information provided by the Iraqi National Congress, or I.N.C., the exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi." According to Kampfner, the CIA had ended its funding of the INC "in the mid-1990s when doubts were cast about Chalabi's reliability." Nevertheless, "as the administration geared up for conflict with Saddam, Chalabi was welcomed in the inner sanctum of the Pentagon" under the auspices of the OSP, and "Wolfowitz did not see fit to challenge any of Chalabi's information." The actions of the OSP have led to accusation of the Bush administration "fixing intelligence to support policy" with the aim of influencing Congress in its use of the War Powers Act.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Kampfner outlined Wolfowitz's strategy for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which "envisaged the use of air support and the occupation of southern Iraq with ground troops, to install a new government run by Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress." Wolfowitz believed that the operation would require minimal troop deployment, Hersh explains, because "any show of force would immediately trigger a revolt against Saddam within Iraq, and that it would quickly expand." The financial expenditure would be kept low, Kampfner observes, if "under the plan American troops would seize the oil fields around Basra, in the South, and sell the oil to finance the opposition."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On March 27, 2003, Wolfowitz told the House Appropriations Committee that oil revenue earned by Iraq alone would pay for Iraq's reconstruction after the Iraq war; he testified his "rough recollection" was: "The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. Now, there are a lot of claims on that money, but ... We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." By October of that year, "Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said 'prewar estimates that may be borne out in fact are likelier to be more lucky than smart.' [He] added that earlier estimates and statements by Mr. Wolfowitz and others 'oozed with uncertainty.'" Di Rita's comments came as a much less optimistic secret Pentagon study—which had been complete at the time of Wolfowitz's testimony—was coming to public light, and when actual production results in Iraq were coinciding with those projected in the less optimistic Pentagon study.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: During Wolfowitz's pre-war testimony before Congress, he dismissed General Eric K. Shinseki's estimates of the size of the post war occupation force which would be needed. General Shinseki testified to the US Senate Armed Services Committee on February 25, 2003, that "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would probably be required for postwar Iraq. By contrast, Wolfowitz estimated that fewer than 100,000 troops would be necessary in Iraq. Two days after Shinseki testified, Wolfowitz said to the House Budget Committee on February 27, 2003:There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army—hard to imagine.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On October 26, 2003, while in Baghdad staying at the Al-Rashid Hotel Wolfowitz narrowly escaped an attack when six rockets hit the floors below his room. Army Lt. Col. Charles H. Buehring was killed and seventeen other soldiers were wounded. Wolfowitz and his DOD staffers escaped unharmed and returned to the United States on October 28, 2003.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In March 2005, Wolfowitz was nominated to be president of the World Bank by US President George W. Bush. Criticism of his nomination appeared in the media. Nobel Laureate in Economics and former chief economist for the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz said: "'The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world.'" In a speech at the U.N. Economic and Social Council, economist Jeffrey Sachs also opposed Wolfowitz: "It's time for other candidates to come forward that have experience in development. This is a position on which hundreds of millions of people depend for their lives ... Let's have a proper leadership of professionalism."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In the US, there was some praise for the nomination. An editorial in "The Wall Street Journal" stated: Mr. Wolfowitz is willing to speak the truth to power ... he saw earlier than most, and spoke publicly about, the need for dictators to plan democratic transitions. It is the world's dictators who are the chief causes of world poverty. If anyone can stand up to the Robert Mugabes of the world, it must be the man who stood up to Saddam Hussein.He was confirmed and became president on June 1, 2005. He soon attended the 31st G8 summit to discuss issues of global climate change and the economic development in Africa. When this meeting was interrupted by the July 7, 2005 London bombings, Wolfowitz was present with other world leaders at the press conference given by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Several of Wolfowitz's initial appointments at the Bank proved controversial, including two US nationals (Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems) formerly with the Bush administration, whom he appointed as close advisors with $250,000 tax-free contracts. Another appointee, Juan José Daboub, faced criticism, including from his colleagues, for attempting to bring policies on climate change and family planning towards a more conservative position.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Wolfowitz gave special emphasis to two particular issues. Identifying Sub-Saharan Africa as the region most challenged to improve living standards, he traveled widely in the region. He also made clear his focus on fighting corruption. Several aspects of the latter program raised controversy. Overturning the names produced by a formal search process, he appointed a figure linked to the US Republican party to head the Bank's internal watchdog. Member countries worried that Wolfowitz's willingness to suspend lending to countries on grounds of corruption was vulnerable to selective application in line with US foreign policy interests. In a debate on the proposed Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy at the Bank's 2006 Annual Meetings, shareholders directed Wolfowitz to undertake extensive consultations and revise the strategy to show how objective measures of corruption would be incorporated into decisions and how the shareholders' representatives on the Bank's Board would play a key role. Following the consultations and revisions, the Board approved a revised strategy in spring 2007.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: After President George W. Bush nominated Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, journalists reported that Wolfowitz was involved in a relationship with World Bank Senior Communications Officer (and Acting Manager of External Affairs) for the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office Shaha Ali Riza. According to Richard Leiby, of "The Washington Post", Riza is "an Oxford-educated British citizen, was born in Tunisia and grew up in Saudi Arabia. She is known for her expertise on women's rights and has been listed on the bank's Web site as a media contact for Iraq reconstruction issues." According to Leiby and Linton Weeks, in their essay "In the Shadow of a Scandal", Riza's employment at the World Bank predated Wolfowitz's nomination as Bank president: "Riza started at the World Bank as a consultant in July 1997 and became a full-time employee in 1999"; and the relationship between Riza and Wolfowitz pre-dated it as well: In the early 1990s, Riza joined the National Endowment for Democracy and is credited there with development of the organization's Middle East program. Wolfowitz was on the endowment's board—which is how Riza first met him, according to Turkish journalist Cengiz Candar, a friend of the couple. "Shaha was married at the time and Paul was married," Candar recalled, and it wasn't until late 1999—after Riza divorced and Wolfowitz had separated from his wife of 30 years, Clare Selgin Wolfowitz—that the couple began dating."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: When Wolfowitz was considered for head of the CIA after the 2000 election, Clare Wolfowitz wrote President-elect George Bush a letter telling him that her husband's relationship with a foreign national—Riza—posed a national security risk. It has been reported that Scooter Libby intercepted the letter. Sidney Blumenthal also reported on the letter Clare Wolfowitz wrote:


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: This embittered letter remained a closely guarded secret, although a former high official of the CIA told me about it. Chris Nelson also reported it on April 16 in his widely respected, nonpartisan foreign policy newsletter: "A certain Ms. Riza was even then Wolfowitz's true love. The problem for the CIA wasn't just that she was a foreign national, although that was and is today an issue for anyone interested in CIA employment. The problem was that Wolfowitz was married to someone else, and that someone was really angry about it, and she found a way to bring her complaint directly to the President. So when we, with our characteristic innocence, put Wolfowitz on our short-list for CIA, we were instantly told, by a very, very, very senior Republican foreign policy operative, 'I don't think so.' " The "Daily Mail" of London also reported on his wife's letter when Wolfowitz was appointed president of the World Bank in 2005.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: According to the London "Sunday Times" on March 20, 2005, despite their cultural differences:Riza, an Arab feminist who confounds portrayals of Wolfowitz as a leader of a "Zionist conspiracy" of Jewish neoconservatives in Washington ... [and who] works as the bank's senior gender co-ordinator for the Middle East and North Africa ... not only shares Wolfowitz's passion for spreading democracy in the Arab world, but is said to have reinforced his determination to remove Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime.The relationship created further controversy over Wolfowitz's nomination to head the World Bank, because the bank's ethics rules preclude sexual relationships between a manager and a staff member serving under that manager, even if one reports to the other only indirectly through a chain of supervision.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Wolfowitz initially proposed to the World Bank's Ethics Committee that he recuse himself from personnel matters regarding Riza, but the committee rejected that proposal. Riza was "seconded to the State Department", or placed on "external assignment", assigned "a job at the state department under Liz Cheney, the daughter of the vice-president, promoting democracy in the Middle East". She "was also moved up to a managerial pay grade in compensation for the disruption to her career", resulting in a raise of over $60,000, as well as guarantees of future increases; "The staff association claims that the pay rise was more than double the amount allowed under employee guidelines." A promotion and raise had been among the options suggested by a World Bank ethics committee that was set up to advise on the situation. According to Steven R. Weisman, however, in a report published in "The New York Times", the then-current chair of the committee emphasized that he was not informed at the time of the details or extent of the present and future raises built into the agreement with Riza. Wolfowitz referred to the controversy concerning his relationship with Riza in a statement posted on the website of the World Bank at the time (April 12, 2007).


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In early 2007, Fox News published on a series of investigative stories on the World Bank, based in part on leaks of internal bank documents. On April 11, 2007, Reuters and Al Kamen in "The Washington Post", reported that Wolfowitz and the World Bank board had hired the Williams & Connolly law firm to oversee an investigation into the leaking of internal bank documents to Fox News. Those reports cite an internal memo to the bank staff later posted on the internet, dated April 9, 2007, in which the World Bank's general counsel, Ana Palacio, states that the Bank's legal staff was scrutinizing two articles by investigative reporter Richard Behar published on the website of Fox News on January 31 and March 27, 2007. A day after the second report published by Behar, on March 28, 2007, Kamen had disclosed that "Bank records obtained by the Government Accountability Project" documented pay raises in excess of Bank policies given to Shaha Riza.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On April 12, 2007, the London "Financial Times" reported that, in a 2005 memorandum, Wolfowitz had personally directed the Bank's human resources chief to offer Riza a large pay rise and promotion, according to two anonymous sources who told the "Financial Times" that they had seen the memo. The memo was part of a package of 102 pages of documents released by the bank on April 14, 2007.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On April 14, 2007, after reviewing these documents, the "Financial Times" concluded that it was "a potentially fatal blow" to Wolfowitz. In contrast, Fox News concluded that the new documents might offer Wolfowitz a "new lifeline" in the scandal, because the Bank's ethics committee had launched a review of the Riza compensation case in early 2006 and concluded that it did not warrant any further attention by the committee.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Wolfowitz failed, on April 19, 2007, to attend a high-profile meeting and the controversy led to disruption at the World Bank when some employees wore blue ribbons "in a display of defiance against his leadership."


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: World Bank Group's board of executive directors and staffers complained also that Wolfowitz was imposing Bush Administration policies to eliminate family planning from World Bank programs. According to Nicole Gaouette, in her report published in the "Los Angeles Times" on April 19, 2007, Juan José Daboub—the managing director whom Wolfowitz had appointed who has also been criticized for overly-conservative policies concerning climate change and "a Roman Catholic with ties to a conservative Salvadoran political party"—repeatedly deleted references to family planning from World Bank proposals.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On May 14, 2007, the World Bank committee investigating the alleged ethics violations reported (in part):


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: Wolfowitz appeared before the World Bank Group's board of executive directors to respond on May 15. Adams speculated that "With Mr Wolfowitz so far refusing to step down, the board may need to take radical action to break the stalemate. Members have discussed a range of options, including sacking Mr Wolfowitz, issuing a vote of no confidence or reprimanding him. Some board members argue that a vote of no confidence would make it impossible for him to stay in the job." By Wednesday, May 16, 2007, "The New York Times", reported that "after six weeks of fighting efforts to oust him as president ... Wolfowitz began today to negotiate the terms of his possible resignation, in return for the bank dropping or softening the charge that he had engaged in misconduct ..." After expressions from the Bush administration that it "fully" supported Wolfowitz as World Bank president and its urging a "fair hearing" for him, President Bush expressed "regret" at Wolfowitz's impending resignation.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: On May 17, 2007, the World Bank Group's board of Executive Directors announced that Paul Wolfowitz would resign as World Bank Group president at the end of June 2007.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: As a visiting scholar of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Wolfowitz has blogged for the group and appeared in group events. In 2011, he wrote columns that appeared in publications such as "The Independent", "The Sunday Times", and "Newsweek".


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In February 2013, Wolfowitz publicly supported legal recognition for same-sex marriage in an amicus brief submitted to the US Supreme Court.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In August 2016, Wolfowitz announced his intention to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, despite having "serious reservations about her." However, in a December interview on Fox Business, Wolfowitz claimed that he did not in fact vote for Clinton.


title: Paul Wolfowitz

text: In January 2017, Wolfowitz wrote an op-ed in "The New York Times" commenting on a "dissent cable" that had been signed by 1,000 Foreign Service Officers criticizing President Trump's executive action on immigration.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael the Archangel is referenced in the Old Testament and has been part of Christian teachings since the earliest times. In Catholic writings and traditions he acts as the defender of the Church and chief opponent of Satan, and assists people at the hour of death.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: A widely used "Prayer to Saint Michael" was brought into official use by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and was recommended by Pope John Paul II in 1994.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Catholic tradition calls Michael, Gabriel and Raphael "archangels". The word archangel comes from the Greek words "arche" (prince) and "angelos" (messenger). Michael means ""Who is like God?"" (a rhetorical question), Gabriel means ""Power of God"" or ""Strong One of God"" and Raphael means ""God has healed"". Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are named in the Bible as angels. (Roman Catholics accept as canonical the Book of Tobit, in which Raphael is named.) Only Michael is called an archangel in the Bible. The feast of these angels is celebrated on September 29. In addition to these three Archangels, the Eastern Catholic Churches also venerate Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel and Jerahmeel. The Synaxis of the Holy Archangels is on November 8.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Traditionally, seven Angels were considered to be of special significance, who stand before the Throne of God. Within the hierarchy of the angels, at the highest level, St. Michael is a princely seraph, an angel of supreme power and the leader of God's army.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Christian art often portrays archangels together. Archangels Michael and Gabriel are jointly depicted on Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a Byzantine icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary that has been the subject of widespread Catholic devotions for centuries.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: In Roman Catholicism, Saint Michael has four distinct roles. First, he is the "Enemy of Satan" and the fallen angels. He defeated Satan and ejected him from Paradise and will achieve victory at the hour of the final battle with Satan. Secondly, he is the "Christian angel of death": at the hour of death, Saint Michael descends and gives each person the chance to redeem oneself before passing. Saint Michael's third role is "weighing peoples' merits" (hence the saint is often depicted holding scales) on Judgment Day. And finally, Saint Michael is the "Guardian of the Church".


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael is viewed as the commander of the Army of God. From the time of the apostles, he has been invoked and honored as the protector of the Church. Scripture describes him as "one of the chief princes" and the leader of heaven's forces in their triumph over the powers of hell.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael defeats Satan on two occasions, first when he ejects him from Paradise, and secondly in the final battle of the end times when the Antichrist will be defeated by him. Noted hagiographer Alban Butler, defined the role of Saint Michael: "Who is like God?" was the cry of Archangel Michael when he smote the rebel Lucifer in the conflict of the heavenly hosts. And when Antichrist shall have set up his kingdom on earth, it is St Michael who will unfurl once more the standard of the cross, sound the last trumpet, bind together the false prophet and the beast and hurl them for all eternity into the burning pool.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael is the traditional prototype of the "spiritual warrior", a paradigm extended to other warrior saints. This conflict against evil may at times be viewed as an interior battle. The concept of the warrior saint has extended to other Catholic saints, beginning with examples such as Saint George and Saint Theodore of Amasea.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael is one of the angels presumed present at the hour of death. Traditionally, he is charged to assist the dying and accompany them to their particular judgment, where he serves as an advocate. Cemetery chapels are often dedicated to him, where Masses are offered in his honor on behalf of the departed.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: In Catholic tradition, on Judgment Day Saint Michael weighs souls based on their deeds during their life on earth. Saint Michael is often portrayed in art with scales.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: This role of Saint Michael was depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In this depiction, angels hold up two books: the smaller book held by Saint Michael records the names of the blessed, while the larger book is a list of the damned.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The tradition of Michael as prince-protector of the Jewish people was adopted by the Christian Church. Saint Michael has long been recognized as the protector and guardian of the Church itself and the angel of the Blessed Sacrament. In a 2007 address Pope Benedict XVI urged the bishops he was ordaining to take Michael as a model in making room in the world for God, countering denials of him and thus defending humankind's greatness, and in acting as "true guardian angels" of the Church. Saint Michael is also the guardian angel of the pope and has been invoked as the patron and guardian angel of many countries as well as specific professions.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: "Of all the angels, Michael was by far the most important in the Middle Ages." The earliest indications of a cult of St. Michael occur in the Near East. The emperor Constantine built the "Michaelion" at Chalcedon on the site of an earlier temple. Other sanctuaries were located at healing springs in Anatolia, Antioch, and Egypt. Identification of St Michael with the gift of healing can be seen in Gregory the Great leading a devotional procession in 590 when the city of Rome was afflicted with a plague that killed his predecessor. Gregory reportedly saw a vision of Saint Michael atop the Mausoleum of Hadrian. The archangel sheathed his sword, suggesting to the pope that the peril was ended. He subsequently renamed the Mausoleum "Castel Sant'Angelo" (Castle of the Holy Angel) in honor of St. Michael.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The "Visio Sancti Pauli", written in the late fourth or early fifth century, presents St Michael as an advocate for sinners, guarantor of rain, and thus a patron of agriculture. The Greek, Syrian, and Coptic Churches had venerated St. Michael since at least the early sixth century. The cult of St. Michael was widespread in the British Isles during the Middle Ages.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Legends include a number of reported appearances of Saint Michael, where sanctuaries or churches were later built or dedicated to him. These include Monte Gargano in Italy early in the 6th century where the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, the oldest shrine in Western Europe, is dedicated to Saint Michael. Early in the 8th century, Saint Michael reportedly appeared three times to Saint Aubert, the bishop of Avranches in Normandy, France, and instructed him to build a church on the small island now known as Mont Saint-Michel. Several healings were reported when the church was being built and Mont Saint-Michel still remains a Catholic pilgrimage site.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The role of Saint Michael as protector and guardian has also led to the design of statues that depict him, and the construction of Churches and monasteries at specific locations. Because most monastic islands lie close to land, they were viewed as forts holding demons at a distance against attacks on the Church. Monasteries such as Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, France, and Skellig Michael, off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, dedicated to the Archangel are examples of these. Another notable structure is that of St Michael's Mount, located in Mounts Bay, near Penzance, Cornwall – a stunning island castle that resembles Mont Saint-Michel, and can only be reached on foot at low tide.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: St. Bernard of Clairvaux recommended the invocation of Saint Michael at times of temptation and sorrow: "Whenever any grievous temptation or vehement sorrow oppresses thee, invoke thy guardian, thy leader, cry out to him, and say, 'Lord, save us, lest we perish!'"


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: St. Francis of Assisi was especially devoted to Saint Michael and would fast for about forty days from the feast of the Assumption (August 15) to Saint Michael's feast day on September 29. Some Franciscan communities continue to observe the period from August 15 to September 29 as "St. Michael's Lent", a time of fasting and prayer.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: In editions of the Roman Missal before 1970, Saint Michael was mentioned in the Confiteor as recited by the priest and again in the altar server's response at Mass. He was mentioned also in celebrations of Solemn Mass when the priest put incense in the thurible, reciting the prayer: "Per intercessionem beati Michaelis Archangeli, stantis a dextris altaris incensi, et omnium electorum suorum, incensum istud dignetur Dominus benedicere, et in odorem suavitatis accipere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen." (Through the intercession of Blessed Michael the Archangel, standing at the right hand of the altar of incense, and of all his elect, may the Lord kindly bless this incense and accept it as a savour of sweetness).


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Until Pope John XXIII revised it in 1960, the General Roman Calendar had not one but two feasts of Saint Michael, one on 29 September, the other on 8 May.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of grocers, paramedics, mariners, paratroopers, police officers, and military personnel.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: A large number of Roman Catholic churches around the globe are dedicated to Saint Michael, from Hammerfest, Norway, to Oeste Catarinense in Brazil. Saint Michael's feast day of September 29 has been solemnly celebrated in many locations since the fifth century. And many churches that honor Saint Michael are dedicated on the 29th of September, e.g., Pope Boniface IV dedicated Saint Michael's Church in Rome on that day in 610.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Devotions to Saint Michael have a large Catholic following, and a number of churches are dedicated to him worldwide.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Roman Catholic devotions to Saint Michael have been expressed in a variety of forms, including a chaplet and scapular. A number of prayers, novenas, and hymns are directed to him.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: "Saint Michael the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Pope Leo XIII added a Prayer to Saint Michael to the Leonine Prayers in 1886. Although these prayers are no longer recited after Mass, as they were until 1964, Pope John Paul II encouraged the Catholic faithful to continue to pray it, saying: "I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness." Like any other novena, the novenas to Saint Michael are prayed on nine consecutive days.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: A prayer to St. Michael for protection is found in the Carmina Gadelica, collected by Alexander Carmichael in the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The "Chaplet of Saint Michael" is a chaplet attributed to a private revelation by Saint Michael to the Portuguese Carmelite nun Antónia d'Astónaco in 1751.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The "Scapular of St. Michael the Archangel" is a Roman Catholic devotional scapular associated with Saint Michael. Pope Pius IX gave to this scapular his blessing, but it was first formally approved under Pope Leo XIII who sanctioned the Archconfraternity of the Scapular of Saint Michael.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: A prayer to Saint Michael is included in the Rite of Exorcism in the Roman Ritual, and was retained, in edited form, in the 1999 revision of the rite. At the Benedictine Metten Abbey dedicated to Saint Michael the exorcism formula Vade Retro Satana was discovered in the 17th century.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Through the centuries, Catholic devotions to Saint Michael have resulted in a number of poems and hymns.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Rabanus' hymn, "Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels" ("Christe, sanctorum decus Angelorum"), sung for the commemoration of Saint Michael and All Angels, and to include the archangels Gabriel and Raphael, is found in English translation in The Hymnal 1982 (of the Episcopal Church), and was harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The hymn ""Te Splendor"" to Saint Michael (which derives its name from the fact that in Latin it begins with "Te splendor et virtus Patris") is published in the Raccolta collection of prayers.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Saint Michael symbolizes the victory of good over evil, and he has been widely represented in art through the ages.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: Depictions of Saint Michael often portray the scene where Satan, or the fallen angels, are helpless below the sword or spear of a triumphant Saint Michael. In some depictions, the Latin phrase "Quis ut Deus?" can be seen on the shield of Saint Michael. The phrase means "Who is like God?" and Saint Michael asks it scornfully as he slays Satan, represented as a dragon, or a man-like figure, at times with wings.


title: Saint Michael in the Catholic Church

text: The original meaning of the name Michael gave rise to the Latin phrase "Quis ut Deus?" which can be seen on his artistic portrayals of Michael defeating Satan.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Nolan Gerard Funk (born July 28, 1986) is a Canadian actor and singer known for portraying Hunter Clarington in the musical comedy-drama television series "Glee", Collin Jennings in the comedy-drama television series "Awkward", "Angel Eyes" in the drama series "Counterpart" and Conrad Birdie in the 2009 Broadway revival of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie".


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Funk was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2001, his first role came when he played a boy named Ryan in the "Seven Days" episode "The Brink". In 2002, he starred in the short film "Moon in the Afternoon" as Alexander and appeared in the "Taken" episode "High Hope" as Young Eric Crawford. In 2003, he appeared in Marvel live-action film "X2" as a captured X-Kid and guest-starred in Nickelodeon's series "Romeo!"s episode "Minimum Cool" playing a Bully named Booker. In 2004, he appeared in "The L Word" episode "Losing It" as a boy named Malcolm. From 2004 to 2006, he guest-starred in the Drama series Renegadepress.com playing Ben Lalonde. In 2005, he appeared as Zack Greenfield in the "Smallville" episode "Krypto". In 2006, he played Josh in "Hollow Man 2", guest-starred as Allan Harris in the "Killer Instinct" episode "While You Were Sleeping", appeared in the biographical film as Michael Imagidson, "The Dead Zone" episode "Independence Day" as Jake Phillips, the "Alice, I Think" episode "Wise Womyn" as Daniel Feckworth-Goose and guest-starred in the "Supernatural" episode "Croatoan" as Jake Tanner. In 2007, he starred in "My Name Is Sarah" as Kit and he had a recurring role in The CW series "Aliens in America" as a student named Todd Palladino. In 2008, he appeared in Miranda Cosgrove's music video for "Stay My Baby" as her love interest, appeared in "Deadgirl" as Dwyer and appeared in the "Class Savage" short film playing a Preppy Dealer.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: He received his first break when he was cast opposite Tammin Sursok in the starring role of the Columbia Records/Nickelodeon movie "Spectacular!". On January 12, 2009, he had his first live concert performance at a Hard Rock Cafe in New York City.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: He appeared in Lie To Me’s episode Pilot playing a boy named Dan, he appeared in Castle’s episode Hedge Fund Homeboys playing a student named Brandon and appeared as Kevin in the 18 short films. In 2010, he appeared in Jack's Family Adventure as Derek Vickery, in Bereavement as William, had a recurring role in Warehouse 13 as Todd, Triple Dog as Todd Spalding and in Detroit 1-8-7 as Trevor Elkin.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Funk played the title role of Conrad Birdie in the revival of the Broadway musical "Bye Bye Birdie", with a limited run at Henry Miller's Theatre from September 10, 2009 (previews) through January 24, 2010. Even though the show was mostly panned, he was a critical standout – cited as "Excellent" by John Lahr of "The New Yorker", and receiving praise from "New York Times" critic Ben Brantley. He also had a guest role as Todd, Claudia Donovan's love interest, on season two of the Syfy series "Warehouse 13". In 2012, Funk appeared opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Elisabeth Shue in "House at the End of the Street".


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Funk guest-starred in season four of "Glee", playing Hunter Clarington, the new frontman of the Dalton Academy Warblers. He then had a recurring role in season three of the MTV comedy-drama series "Awkward" as Collin Jennings.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Funk starred alongside Lindsay Lohan and James Deen in the 2013 erotic thriller-drama film "The Canyons", written by novelist Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader. That same year, Funk appeared in the third installment of the "Chronicles of Riddick" film series, "Riddick", playing a devoutly religious mercenary named Luna. The film was released on September 6, 2013, and opened at number one. In December 2013, Funk was announced as the face of Versace's spring/summer 2014 menswear campaign, photographed by famed photographers Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: Funk was a series regular on the first season of the critically acclaimed Starz series "Counterpart" starring J.K. Simmons. Funk spoke German in the show and played Angel Eyes, a cult-raised German assassin.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: In 2019, Funk was cast as a series regular on the HBO Max series "The Flight Attendant" opposite Kaley Cuoco.


title: Nolan Gerard Funk

text: In 2007, Funk was nominated for a Leo Award in the "Best Performance or Host in a Youth or Children's Program or Series" category for his work on "Renegadepress.com".


Nolan Gerard Funk


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Kermit Barron Gosnell (born February 9, 1941) is an American former physician and serial killer. He provided abortions at his clinic in West Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce birth, was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of one woman during an abortion procedure, and was convicted of several other medically related crimes.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell, based in the Mantua neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned and operated the Women's Medical Society Clinic, a non-compliant abortion clinic that was dubbed a "house of horrors" during the trial. He was a prolific prescriber of OxyContin. In 2011, Gosnell, his wife Pearl, and eight employees were charged with a total of 32 felonies and 227 misdemeanors in connection with deaths, illegal medical services, and regulatory violations. Pearl and the eight employees pleaded guilty to various charges in 2011 while Gosnell pleaded not guilty and sought a jury trial.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In May 2013, Gosnell was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, an adult patient at the clinic following an abortion procedure. Gosnell was also convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating Pennsylvania's 24-hour informed consent law. After his conviction, Gosnell waived his right to appeal in exchange for an agreement by prosecutors not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Gosnell was sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison for federal drug charges.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell was born on February 9, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of a gas station operator and a government clerk in an African-American family. He was a student at the city's Central High School from which he graduated in 1959. Gosnell initially attended the University of Pennsylvania, then graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor's degree. He received his medical degree at the Thomas Jefferson University in 1966.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: It has been reported that Gosnell spent four decades practicing medicine among the poor, including opening the Mantua Halfway House, a rehab clinic for drug addicts in the impoverished Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and a teen aid program. He became an early proponent of abortion rights in the 1960s and 1970s and, in 1972, he returned from a stint in New York City to open up an abortion clinic on Lancaster Avenue in Mantua. Gosnell told "The Philadelphia Inquirer" in October 1972: "As a physician, I am very concerned about the sanctity of life. But it is for this precise reason that I provide abortions for women who want and need them."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: That same year, Gosnell also performed fifteen televised second-trimester abortions, using an experimental "Super Coil" method invented by Harvey Karman. The coils were inserted into the uterus, where they caused irritation leading to the expulsion of the fetus. However, complications from the procedure were reported by nine of the women, with three of these reporting severe complications.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The 1972 "Inquirer" article also said that Gosnell was a "respected man" in his community, and a finalist for the Junior Chamber of Commerce's "Young Philadelphian of the Year" because of his work directing the Mantua Halfway House. By the late 1980s, however, public records showed state tax liens were piling up against the halfway house, and the abortion clinic had a $41,000 federal tax lien.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell has been married three times. His third and current wife, Pearl, had worked at the Women's Medical Society as a full-time medical assistant from 1982 until their marriage in 1990. They have two children. Gosnell has four other children from his two previous marriages. In covering his background, media commentators drew attention to the "incredibly diverse" portrayals of Gosnell, touching on both his community works the creation of the halfway house and teen aid program contrasted with portrayals of his practice as an abortion mill in which viable fetuses and babies were routinely killed following illegal late-term procedures.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In 2011, Gosnell was reported to be well known in Philadelphia for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women. It was also claimed that he charged $1,600–$3,000 for each late-term abortion, and made $10,000-$15,000 per day from the clinic. Gosnell was also associated with clinics in Delaware and Louisiana. Atlantic Women's Services in Wilmington, Delaware, was Gosnell's place of work one day a week. The owner of Atlantic Women's Services, Leroy Brinkley, also owned Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and facilitated the hiring of staff from there for Gosnell's operation in Philadelphia.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In total, 46 known lawsuits were filed against Gosnell over some 32 years of his career. Observers claimed that there was a complete failure by Pennsylvania regulators who had overlooked other repeated concerns brought to their attention, including lack of trained staff, "barbaric" conditions, and a high level of illegal late-term abortions.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The Women's Medical Society was raided on February 18, 2010, under a search warrant by investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pennsylvania State Police. The raid was the result of a months-long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Philadelphia Police Department, and the state's Dangerous Drug-Offender Unit into suspected illegal drug prescription use at the practice. The investigation had also revealed the suspicious death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old refugee from Bhutan, in 2009, which had in turn brought to light further information about unsanitary operations, use of untrained staff, and use of powerful drugs without proper medical supervision and control. Thus, when the February 2010 raid took place, staff from Pennsylvania's departments of state and health also attended, as these issues were under their remit:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell's license to practice was suspended on February 22, 2010, and these and other findings were presented to a grand jury on May 4, 2010. Public discussion focused on claims of unsanitary conditions and other unacceptable conditions at the practices. Media reports stated that furniture and blankets were stained with blood, that freely roaming cats defecated wherever they pleased, and that non-sterilized equipment was used and reused on patients. According to the grand jury report, patients were given labor-inducing drugs by staff who had no medical training. Once labor began, the patient would be placed on a toilet. After the fetus fell into the toilet, it would be fished out so as not to clog the plumbing. In the recovery room, patients were seated on dirty recliners covered in blood-stained blankets. Prosecutors alleged that Gosnell had not been certified in either gynecology or obstetrics. The grand jury estimated that his practice "took in $10,000 to $15,000 a night" of additional income from his exceedingly high level of prescriptions.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell was arrested on January 19, 2011, five days after the certification of the grand jury's report. He was charged with eight counts of murder. Prosecutors alleged that he killed seven babies born alive by severing their spinal cords with scissors, and that he was also responsible for the death in 2009 of Karnamaya Mongar. Gosnell's wife, Pearl, and eight other suspects were also arrested in connection with the case. The DEA, The FBI, and the Office of the Inspector General also sought a 23-count indictment charging Gosnell and seven members of his former staff with drug conspiracy relating to the practice's illegally prescribing highly addictive painkillers and sedatives outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania also alleged that Gosnell's former office staff at Women's Medical Society ran a prescription "pill mill". From June 2008 through February 18, 2010, Gosnell allegedly engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise by writing and dispensing fraudulent prescriptions for thousands of pills of the frequently abused tablets OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax, and the frequently abused syrups phenergan and promethazine with codeine. Authorities further alleged that Gosnell and his staff allowed customers to purchase multiple prescriptions under multiple names. For the first office visit, Gosnell allegedly charged $115, but around December 2009 he allegedly increased the initial office visit fee to $150. Staff at the clinic went from writing several hundred prescriptions for controlled substances per month filled at pharmacies in 2008 to over 2,300 filled at pharmacies in January 2010. Gosnell, with the assistance of his staff, is said to have distributed and dispensed more than 500,000 pills containing oxycodone; more than 400,000 pills containing alprazolam; and more than 19,000 ounces of cough syrup containing codeine.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell's lawyer stated that, "Everybody's made him the butcher, this, that and the other thing without any trial, without anything being exposed to the public and everybody's found him guilty, that's not right". He accused the government of a "lynching" and stated, "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give [back] to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia." Following his arrest, Gosnell claimed, "I'm very close to being destitute". However, records showed that he and his wife owned at least seventeen properties in four states, including a million dollar house in Brigantine, New Jersey.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Reports stated that state officials had failed to visit or inspect Gosnell's practices since 1993. The grand jury report noted that the medical examiner of Delaware County alerted the Pennsylvania Department of Health that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old who was thirty weeks pregnant; it is also claimed the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not act when they became aware of Gosnell's involvement in the death of Karnamaya Mongar.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Brenda Green, executive director of CHOICE, a nonprofit that connects the underinsured and uninsured with health services, told Katha Pollitt of "The Nation" that "it tried to report complaints from clients, but the department wouldn't accept them from a third party. Instead, the patients had to fill out a daunting five-page form, available only in English, that required them to reveal their identities upfront and be available to testify in Harrisburg. Even with CHOICE staffers there to help, only two women agreed to fill out the form, and both decided not to submit it. The Department of State and the Philadelphia Public Health Department also had ample warning of dire conditions and took no action."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In 2011, it was reported that none of Pennsylvania's 22 abortion clinics had been inspected by the government for more than fifteen years. Inspections (other than those triggered by complaints) had ceased under the governorship of Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, as they were perceived to create a barrier to women seeking abortion services.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The grand jury published its 280-page report in January 2011. It stated that, while some might see the issue and case through the lens of pro- and anti-abortion politics, it was in reality:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The grand jury concluded that the practice was a corrupt organization within the meaning of racketeering law, based upon what it considered evidence of deliberate "standard" use of "bogus" doctors, falsification of records, grossly unprofessional procedures with little or no regard for human life, and flagrant disregard for medical and abortion laws and their consequences. Key findings included:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The report divided offenses by Gosnell and other practice employees into three categories: "charges arising from the baby murders and illegal abortions; charges in connection with the death of Karnamaya Mongar; and charges stemming generally from the ongoing operation of a criminal enterprise". The charges recommended were:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The report also examined the failings of official parties, and the key findings, analyzed in two categories:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In 2011, Gosnell, his wife Pearl, and eight other clinic employees were charged in the case. Eight, including Gosnell's wife, subsequently pleaded guilty, most of whom would testify against Gosnell, and three of these pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, carrying a 20- to 40-year term. A gag order was imposed on both defense and prosecution in April 2011 to bar them from talking to the media before the trial. In December 2011, Pearl pleaded guilty to performing illegal abortions, conspiracy, criminal conspiracy and corrupt organization; due to spousal privilege, she would not have to testify against Gosnell, although she could still go to prison. Pearl had testified to the grand jury that she alone assisted on Sundays, and that her role was to "help do the instruments" in the procedure room and to monitor patients in the recovery room. Another employee testified that she assisted with late-term abortions "on Sundays or days we were closed [to] do special cases."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: As a result, the only employee to go on trial with Gosnell was Eileen O'Neill, who allegedly held herself out as a doctor at the clinic when she was not licensed. Her lawyer told jurors she never did so, and performed medical duties only under Gosnell's orders.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: On March 18, 2013, opening statements were given in a Philadelphia court. On April 23, after the prosecution had rested its case, the judge dismissed three of the seven first-degree murder charges (the next day the judge reinstated charges related to one and dismissed another, explaining the wrong charge had been mistakenly dismissed), the one count of infanticide, and all five charges of abusing a corpse Gosnell had been charged with, as well as six of the nine charges of theft by deception faced by O'Neill. No formal ruling has yet been given for these dismissals. Media sources following the trial have suggested that there may have been insufficient evidence of post-procedure life to sustain charges in law. Although prosecutors had argued the movements were voluntary and therefore signs of life, it was argued that the evidence offered by prosecutors was equally capable of being interpreted in some or all of these as single autonomous post-mortem motor movements or spasms instead of clinical signs of life, and additionally that none of the seven were capable of being alive as all had been previously killed clinically "in utero" by means of drugs as part of the procedure. Also, although staff had used descriptions such as "jumping" and "screaming" in their testimony, Gosnell's defense noted that testimony had shown only single movements or breaths, stating that the testimony was not evidence of "the movements of a live child", and the medical examiner had also testified that tests could not determine whether or not any of the 47 fetuses found had been born alive due to tissue deterioration.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The remaining four first-degree murder charges could still have led to the death penalty. The third-degree murder charges in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, the racketeering charge, and over 200 charges related to multiple violations of abortion law were also left standing. Gosnell's defense attorney rested his case summarily without calling or questioning any witnesses, and without Gosnell taking the stand in his defense, leaving the defense case until final arguments (under US law, a defendant may choose not to take the stand; if so then the jury is instructed that no inference or assumption may be drawn from this). O'Neill also did not testify in her defense. The case went to jury deliberation on April 30, 2013.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder (reduced to four counts at trial) and one count of third-degree murder, as well as infanticide (dismissed at trial), five counts of abusing a corpse (all dismissed at trial), multiple counts of conspiracy, criminal solicitation, and violation of a state law that forbids abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy. The non-murder charges included 24 counts of violating Pennsylvania's Abortion Act by performing illegal third-trimester abortions, 227 counts of violating a 24-hour waiting-period requirement, failing to counsel patients, and racketeering. His co-defendants were:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: On May 13, 2013, the jury reported that they were deadlocked on two counts. After returning to deliberations, the jury convicted Gosnell of three counts of murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and over 200 lesser counts including infanticide and racketeering. He was found not guilty on one of the counts of murder. The murder charges Gosnell was convicted of concerned babies referred to as Baby Boy A (also known as Baby Abrams and as Adam), Baby C and Baby D.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: On May 14, 2013, Gosnell struck a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to waive all his appeal rights regarding his conviction on the day earlier. In exchange, prosecutors allowed Gosnell to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The following day, Gosnell was sentenced to three life terms.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In December 2013, Gosnell was convicted of illegally distributing painkillers. He was charged with illegally distributing a "staggering" amount of painkillers such as Oxycontin, totalling hundreds of thousands of pills. Many of the drugs he distributed were later sold on the streets by drug dealers. Gosnell was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for the crimes.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In April 2011 the University of Pennsylvania Health System claimed as early as 1999 that they had provided to authorities reports about botched procedures by Gosnell. The only case for which any reports were produced was that of Semika Shaw, a 22-year-old, who died at the University of Pennsylvania hospital as a result of bleeding and sepsis caused by a botched procedure by Gosnell. Gosnell's insurers settled a lawsuit with family members of Shaw for $900,000. The health system also claims other undocumented reports were made orally, for which they did not have records.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee of the Pennsylvania State Senate, led by Robert M. Tomlinson, began a hearing in February 2011 to look into the failure of the Pennsylvania Department of State — which is responsible for licensing doctors — to provide any oversight of Gosnell's activities. At the same time, the Public Health and Welfare Committee of the state Senate, chaired by Pat Vance, conducted hearings on the Pennsylvania State Health Department's failure to put a stop to Gosnell's activities.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In part as a result of the grand jury report on Gosnell, in late 2011, Pennsylvania passed a law, SB 732, that places abortion clinics under the same health and safety regulations as other outpatient surgical centers. Among those who supported the bill was Democrat Margo L. Davidson, whose cousin Semika Shaw died as a result of procedures done by Gosnell. Davidson specifically linked her support for the additional regulations to her cousin's death, which she attributed to poor medical practices.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In May 2013, as a result of the Kermit Gosnell case, Representative Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), chair of the health-matters subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, began an inquiry into states' oversight of abortion clinics.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In June 2013, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Speaker of the House John Boehner said the bill was in response to Gosnell's convictions. The legislation was viewed as mostly symbolic, as it stood little chance of being approved by the Democratic-led U.S. Senate.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In February 2011, Governor Tom Corbett fired six employees and commenced action to fire eight others where for legal or contractual reasons, more extensive dismissal procedures were required. These included Basil Merenda, the acting head of the Pennsylvania Department of State; Christine Dutton, the Department of Health's chief counsel (who, in reaction to being questioned why the Department did not react to a death at Gosnell's clinic, said "people die"); and Stacy Mitchell, a deputy secretary in the health department (whom the grand jury cited as a key figure in the Health Department's indifference to, and non-regulation of, abortion clinics). Some of the people most connected by the grand jury report with the failure of the government to act, such as Janice Staloski, had retired by this point and so no action was taken against them.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The remains of the 47 fetuses and infants found at Gosnell's clinic were buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, though no headstone was used. In 2019, John and Loida McKeever installed a small memorial at the site, a statue of an angel. A sign around its neck reads: "In memory of the babies that were lost at 3801 Lancaster Avenue".


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The family of Karnamaya Mongar brought a wrongful death suit against Gosnell and sought to freeze his assets to prevent him from transferring them to other people to avoid paying. In September 2015, a judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas court awarded nearly $4 million in compensatory damages to Mongar's daughter, Yashoda Devi Gurung. However, reports that Gosnell had few assets by this time made it doubtful whether any of the money would be paid.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell's arrest has been the subject of much public comment and expressions of condemnation and shock by senior public figures of all parties. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D-PA) said, "I think it's quite clear that, if these allegations are true, we've had a monster living in our midst" while vowing to watch the city's remaining abortion clinics more closely. Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) criticized Department of Health officials saying, "I was flabbergasted to learn that the Department of Health did not think their authority to protect public health extended to clinics offering abortion services", while incoming Governor Tom Corbett (R-PA) stated through a spokesperson that he was "appalled at the inaction on the part of the Health Department and the Department of State," and Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams said, "My comprehension of the English language can't adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell... Pennsylvania is not a third-world country... There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Gosnell also practiced in other states, including Delaware. In January 2011, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D-Delaware) promised a wide-ranging investigations into the abortions Gosnell performed in Delaware saying; "I'm disturbed by the allegations that were handed up by the grand jury in Philadelphia".


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: A spokesperson for the NAF noted that Gosnell had been rejected for membership following inspection because his clinics did not meet appropriate standards of care, but that "they'd cleaned the place up and hired an RN [registered nurse] for our visit. We only saw first-trimester procedures." She added that, "Unfortunately, some women don't know where to turn. You sometimes have substandard providers preying on low-income women who don't know that they do have other (safe) options." A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood in Southeastern Pennsylvania, condemned Gosnell, saying, "We would condemn any physician who does not follow the law or endangers anyone's health... All women should have access to high-quality care when they are vulnerable and facing difficult decisions." Dayle Steinberg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, says she knew that Gosnell had provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, but says she hadn't heard of any problems at his clinic until the allegations surfaced. She has been quoted as stating that "when Gosnell was in practice, women would sometimes come to Planned Parenthood for services after first visiting Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, and would complain to staff about the conditions there. We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health." She clarified that "when Gosnell was arrested, I asked our staff if anyone had ever heard of him, and clinic staff members reported that a few women over the years said they were concerned about the uncleanliness of his facility and came to Planned Parenthood instead... if we had heard anything remotely like the conditions that have since come to light about Gosnell's facility, of course we would have alerted the state and other authorities".


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Kermit Gosnell himself gave an interview to Fox affiliate WTXF-TV in February 2011, in which he stated that:


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: A perception had built up among some journalists and anti-abortion groups that there had been a reluctance to report on the trial among mainstream media. In an April 11, 2013, opinion column for "USA Today", Kirsten Powers wrote: "A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months", and that national press coverage was represented by a "Wall Street Journal" columnist who "hijacked" a segment on "Meet the Press", a single page A-17 story on the first day of the trial by "The New York Times", and no original coverage by "The Washington Post". While Powers is credited by some for drawing media coverage to the Gosnell trial, Dave Weigel at Slate.com reported it was conservatives' aggressive use of social media, especially Twitter, that "goaded" the press into covering the trial. According to Weigel, Troy Newman, president of the Kansas-based anti-abortion Operation Rescue, had organized a Twitter campaign using "#Gosnell" to break the "Gosnell Media Blackout."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Key to that social media campaign was a picture of rows of empty media seats in the Gosnell courtroom taken by Calkins Media columnist J.D. Mullane. Mullane told Weigel he was struck by the absence of media at the trial, and took out his iPhone and snapped the picture, tweeting it later that night. "Mullane retweeted the photo a few more times, with different captions, because it had been packed into a snowball (of criticism)" which included Powers's column for "USA Today", Weigel wrote. The empty seats photograph was used by anti-abortion activists to show "proof" of media dereliction. Weigel wrote: "It worked. An estimated 106,000 #Gosnell tweets later, on April 15, Mullane reported that major networks and newspapers had sent their reporters to cover the trial—Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post."


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: Writing for "The Washington Post", Melinda Henneberger responded that "we didn't write more because the only abortion story most outlets ever cover in the news pages is every single threat or perceived threat to abortion rights. In fact, that is so fixed a view of what constitutes coverage of that issue that it's genuinely hard, I think, for many journalists to see a story outside that paradigm as news. That's not so much a conscious decision as a reflex, but the effect is one-sided coverage". Explaining why some of her colleagues did not report on the story, Henneberger wrote, "One colleague viewed Gosnell's alleged atrocities as a local crime story, though I can't think of another mass murder, with hundreds of victims, that we ever saw that way. Another said it was just too lurid, though that didn't keep us from covering Jeffrey Dahmer, or that aspiring cannibal at the NYPD." Writing for Bloomberg View, Jeffrey Goldberg said that this story "upsets a particular narrative about the reality of certain types of abortion, and that reality isn't something some pro-choice absolutists want to discuss".


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The "Los Angeles Times", "The Atlantic", "Slate", and "Time" all published opinion columns where the writer thought the incident was not getting as much media coverage as it deserved. Megan McArdle explains that she didn't cover it because it made her ill, but also how being pro-choice influenced writers saying "most of us tend to be less interested in sick-making stories if the sick-making was done by 'our side,'" saying, "this story should have been covered much more than it was — covered as a national policy issue, not a 'local crime story.'" Martin Baron, "The Post"'s executive editor, claims he wasn't aware of the story until Thursday, 11 April, when readers began emailing him about it, saying "I wish I could be conscious of all stories everywhere, but I can't be". They ultimately decided that, in fact, the story warranted attention because of "the seriousness and scope of the alleged crimes and because this was a case that resonated in policy arguments and national politics", adding "In retrospect, we regret not having staffed the trial sooner. But, as you know, we don't have unlimited resources, and ... there is a lot of competition for our staff's attention". He insisted that "we never decide what to cover for ideological reasons, no matter what critics might claim. Accusations of ideological motives are easy to make, even if they're not supported by the facts". "The New York Times" also acknowledged the lack of coverage and reported on the online campaign and subsequent increase in coverage of the case. While Powers' piece clearly sparked debate among journalists, Katherine Bindley also highlights contrasting views, as does Paul Farhi. A column on Salon.com questioned whether the Gosnell case was an example of liberal media bias, saying that conservative media and politicians had also given little attention to the story until April 2013.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In April 2013, 71 other Members of Congress joined Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn in a letter condemning the media "blackout" on the Gosnell trial.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: In early 2014, filmmakers Ann McElhinney, Phelim McAleer, and Magdalena Segieda announced they would be producing a true crime drama film of the Gosnell crimes. Nick Searcy would direct, and John Sullivan would serve as executive producer. The title for the film is "Gosnell: America's Biggest Serial Killer". The producers raised money for production of the movie on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, receiving $2.3 million from backers. Andrew Klavan was hired to be the screenwriter for the movie. Earl Billings portrays Gosnell, and Dean Cain takes the part of Detective James Wood.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: The producers announced on June 26, 2018, that they had signed a distribution deal for the movie, which opened in about 750 theaters on October 12, 2018.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: As well, the filmmakers wrote a book titled, "Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer". The book was released on January 24, 2017. The book quickly rose to the number three spot on Amazon's "Best Seller" list, and number one on their "Hot New Releases" list.


title: Kermit Gosnell

text: A documentary about the case titled "3801 Lancaster: American Tragedy" was released in 2013, with clips from it shown on media outlets such as CNN. The documentary was made by David Altrogge and won Best Short Film at the 2013 Justice Film Festival.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Despite this, Japan maintains the Japan Self-Defense Forces, a "de facto" defensive army with only strictly offensive weapons like ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons prohibited.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In July 2014, instead of using Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution to amend the Constitution itself, the Japanese government approved a reinterpretation which gave more powers to the Japan Self-Defense Forces, allowing them to defend other allies in case of war being declared upon them, despite concerns and disapproval from China and North Korea, whereas the United States supported the move. This change is considered illegitimate by some Japanese political parties and citizens, since the Prime Minister circumvented Japan's constitutional amendment procedure. In September 2015, the Japanese National Diet made the reinterpretation official by enacting a series of laws allowing the Japan Self-Defense Forces to provide material support to allies engaged in combat internationally. The stated justification was that failing to defend or support an ally would weaken alliances and endanger Japan.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The failure of the collective security of the League of Nations led to the realization that a universal system of security could only be effective if nations agreed to some limitation of their national sovereignty with regard to their right to belligerency, and if the Security Council which had been a "closed shop" during League of Nations times, would open itself up to UN Members who would cede constitutional powers in favor of collective security. Like the German Article 24, which was incorporated in the post-war German Constitution, and which provides for delegating or limiting sovereign powers in favor of collective security, Article 9 was added to the Constitution of Japan during the occupation following World War II.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The source of the pacifist clause is disputed. According to the Allied Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur (in statements made at a time when the U.S. was trying to get Japan to re-arm), the provision was suggested by Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, who "wanted it to prohibit any military establishment for Japan—any military establishment whatsoever". Shidehara's perspective was that retention of arms would be "meaningless" for the Japanese in the post-war era, because any substandard post-war military would no longer gain the respect of the people, and would actually cause people to obsess with the subject of rearming Japan. Shidehara admitted to his authorship in his memoirs "Gaikō Gojū-Nen" ("Fifty Years' Diplomacy"), published in 1951, where he described how the idea came to him on a train journey to Tokyo; MacArthur himself confirmed Shidehara's authorship on several occasions. However, according to some interpretations, he denied having done so, and the inclusion of Article 9 was mainly brought about by the members of the Government Section of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, especially Charles Kades, one of Douglas MacArthur's closest associates. There is, however, another theory by constitutional scholar Toshiyoshi Miyazawa, which is supported by significant evidence provided by other historians, that the idea came from MacArthur himself and that Shidehara was merely a pawn in his plans.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The House of Representatives amended the Article and added “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order,” to Paragraph 1 and “In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph,” to Paragraph 2. Hitoshi Ashida made this tenor. SCAP did not object to this amendment. Many scholars think the Government of Japan does not renounce the right (to have power) of self-defence because of this amendment.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The article was endorsed by the Diet of Japan on 3 November 1946. Kades later made statements, like MacArthur at a time when the U.S. was trying to get Japan to rearm, that suggested he had initially rejected the proposed language that prohibited Japan's use of force "for its own security", believing that self-preservation was the right of every nation. The historical record, however, casts doubt on this revisionist interpretation.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Soon after the adoption of the Constitution of Japan in 1947, the Chinese Civil War ended in victory for the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). As a consequence, the United States was left without the Republic of China (ROC) on Mainland China as a military ally against communism in the Pacific. There was a desire on the part of the United States occupation forces for Japan to take a more active military role in the struggle against communism during the Cold War.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: If Article 9 is looked upon as a motion to abolish war as an institution—as envisaged in the 1961 McCloy–Zorin Accords—then the Korean crisis was the first opportunity for another country to second the Japanese motion and embark on the transition toward a true system of collective security under the United Nations. In fact, however, in 1950, following the outbreak of the Korean War, the U.S. 24th Infantry Division was pulled out of Japan and sent to fight on the front lines in Korea, and so Japan was left without any armed protection. MacArthur ordered the creation of a 75,000-strong to maintain order in Japan and repel any possible invasion from outside. The NPR was organized by United States Army Col. Frank Kowalski (later a U.S. congressman) using Army surplus equipment. To avoid possible constitutional violations, military items were given civilian names: tanks, for instance, were named "special vehicles". Shigesaburo Suzuki, a leader of the Japan Socialist Party, brought suit in the Supreme Court of Japan to have the NPR declared unconstitutional: however, his case was dismissed by the Grand Bench for lack of relevance.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: On 1 August 1952, a new was formed to supervise the NPR and its maritime component. The new agency was directly headed by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida. Yoshida supported its constitutionality: although he stated in a 1952 Diet committee session that "to maintain war potential, even for the purpose of self-defense, [would] necessitate revision of the Constitution". He later responded to the JSP's constitutionality claims by stating that the NSF had no true war potential in the modern era. In 1954, the National Safety Agency became the Japan Defense Agency (now Ministry of Defense), and the National Police Reserve became the .


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In practice, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are very well equipped and the maritime forces are considered to be stronger than the navies of some of Japan's neighbors. The Supreme Court of Japan has reinforced the constitutionality of armed self-defense in several major rulings, most notably the Sunakawa Case of 1959, which upheld the legality of the then-current U.S.–Japan Security Treaty.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In July 2014, Japan introduced a reinterpretation which gave more powers to its Self-Defense forces, allowing them to defend other allies in case of war declared upon them. This move potentially ends Japan's long-standing pacifism and drew heavy criticism from China and North Korea, while the United States supported this move.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In September 2015, the Japanese National Diet made the reinterpretation official by enacting a series of laws allowing the Japan Self-Defense Forces to provide material support to allies engaged in combat internationally. The stated justification was that failing to defend or support an ally would weaken alliances and endanger Japan.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan is best understood as having three distinct elements: (1) a provision that prohibits the use of force (paragraph one); (2) a provision that prohibits the maintenance of armed forces or "other war potential" (paragraph two, clause one); and (3) a denial of the rights of belligerency. It is helpful to keep these distinct elements in mind in considering the operation and effect of Article 9. Paragraph one, which prohibits the use of force has been highly effective in constraining Japanese foreign policy, with the result that Japan has not used force or been engaged in armed conflict since the promulgation of the Constitution. During the Gulf War of 1991, the government of Japan sought to join the U.S. coalition formed to drive Iraq out of Kuwait, but was informed by the Director of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau that doing so would constitute a use of force in violation of Article 9 paragraph one - so Japan was limited to providing financial assistance.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The second element of Article 9, which prohibits Japan from maintaining an army, navy or air force, has been highly controversial, and arguably less effective in shaping policy. From one perspective, one implication of the provision is that in strictly legal terms, the Japan Self-Defense Forces are not land, sea or air forces, but are extensions of the national police force. This has had broad implications for foreign, security and defense policy. According to the Japanese government, war potential' in paragraph two means force exceeding a minimum level necessary for self-defense. Anything at or below that level does not constitute war potential." Apparently when the JSDF was created, "since the capability of the JSDF was inadequate to sustain a modern war, it was not war potential". Seemingly, the Japanese government has looked for loopholes in the wording of the peace clause and the "constitutionality of the Japanese military has been challenged numerous times". Some Japanese people believe that Japan should be truly pacifist and claim that the JSDF is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, however, has ruled that it is within the nation's right to have the capacity to defend itself. Scholars have also discussed "constitutional transformation ... [which] occurs when a constitutional provision has lost its effectiveness but has been replaced by a new meaning".


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The Liberal Democratic Party has advocated changing the context of Article 9 since 1955, when Article 9 was interpreted as renouncing the use of warfare in international disputes but not the internal use of force for the purpose of maintaining law and order. However, the LDP's longtime coalition partner Komeito have long opposed changing the context of Article 9. The LDP have never had the necessary supermajority (two-thirds of votes in both Houses) in the National Diet to change the Constitution, despite it having a supermajority with Komeito from 2005 to 2009 and from 2012 to the present day.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The opposing party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, tends to concur with the LDP's interpretation. At the same time, both parties have advocated the revision of Article 9 by adding an extra clause explicitly authorizing the use of force for the purpose of self-defense against aggression directed against the Japanese nation. The Japan Socialist Party, on the other hand, had considered the JSDF as unconstitutional and advocated the full implementation of Article 9 through the demilitarization of Japan. When the party joined with the LDP to form a coalition government, it reversed its position and recognized the JSDF as a structure that was constitutional. The Japanese Communist Party considers the JSDF unconstitutional and has called for reorganization of Japanese defense policy to feature an armed militia.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: At present, the government interprets Article 9 to mean that Japan cannot possess "offensive military weapons"; this has been interpreted to mean that Japan cannot have ICBMs, nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers or bomber fleets. This has not inhibited the deployment of submarines, AEGIS-equipped destroyers, a helicopter carrier, and fighter aircraft, which have substantially more defensive potential.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Since the late 1990s, Article 9 has been the central feature of a dispute over the ability of Japan to undertake multilateral military commitments overseas. During the late 1980s, increases in government appropriations for the JSDF averaged more than 5% per year. By 1990 Japan was ranked third, behind the then-Soviet Union and the United States, in total defense expenditures, and the United States urged Japan to assume a larger share of the burden of defense of the western Pacific. (Japan has a guideline of a limit of 1% of GDP on defense spending; however, Japan defines a number of activities as non-defense spending.) Given these circumstances, some have viewed Article 9 as increasingly irrelevant. It has remained, however, an important brake on the growth of Japan's military capabilities. Despite the fading of bitter wartime memories, the general public, according to opinion polls, continued to show strong support for this constitutional provision.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Evidently, opinions range from one extreme of pacifism, to the other extreme of nationalism and complete remilitarization. The majority of Japanese citizens approve the spirit of Article 9 and consider it personally important. But since the 1990s, there has been a shift away from a stance that would tolerate no alteration of the article to allowing a revision that would resolve the discord between the JSDF and Article 9. Additionally, quite a few citizens consider that Japan should allow itself to commit the Japan Self-Defense Forces to "collective defense" efforts, like those agreed to on the UN Security Council in the Gulf War, for instance. Japan's ability to "engage in collective defense" has been argued. The involvement of Japan in the Gulf War of 1990, or lack of involvement, has provoked significant criticism. Despite U.S. pressure on Japan to assist America in Iraq, Japan limited their involvement in the war to financial contribution primarily because of domestic opposition to the deployment of troops. As a result of the painfully ardent disapproval from the U.S. during the Gulf War, Japan was quick to act after the September 11 attacks in 2001. It was clear that "the 11 September attacks led to increased U.S. demands for Japanese security cooperation". On October 29, 2001, the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law was passed, which "further broadened the definition of Japan's self-defense". The law allowed Japan to support the U.S. military on foreign territory. This law provoked "citizen groups [to] file lawsuits against the Japanese government in order to stop the dispatch of JSDF troops to Iraq and to confirm the unconstitutionality of such a dispatch", though the troops sent to Iraq were not sent for combat but for humanitarian aid. Japan has actively built U.S.-Japan relations precisely because of Article 9 and Japan's inability to engage in an offensive war. It has been debated that, "when [Koizumi] declared support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq in March 2003, and when he sent Japanese forces to aid the occupation in January 2004, it was not Iraq that was in the Japanese sights so much as North Korea". Japan's unstable relations with North Korea, as well as other neighboring Asian countries has forced Japan to batter and bend Article 9 to "permit an increasingly expansive interpretation" of the constitution in the hopes of guaranteeing U.S. support in these relations.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: Former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi said in a speech, he called for abolishing Article 9, saying if Japan were to become a: "respectable member (of) the community of nations it would first have to revise its constitution and rearm: If Japan is alone in renouncing war ... she will not be able to prevent others from invading her land. If, on the other hand, Japan could defend herself, there would be no further need of keeping United States garrison forces in Japan. ... Japan should be strong enough to defend herself."


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In May 2007, the then Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe marked the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Constitution by calling for a "bold review" of the document to allow the country to take a larger role in global security and foster a revival of national pride. Aside from Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, as of 2012, the Japan Restoration Party, Democratic Party of Japan, People's New Party, and Your Party support a constitutional amendment to reduce or abolish restrictions imposed by Article 9.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: On 7 September 2018, candidate in the 2018 LDP Leadership Election, Shigeru Ishiba criticized Shinzo Abe for shifting his stance on Article 9 revision. Ishiba advocates the removal of Paragraph 2 of Article 9 which denies Japan's "right of belligerency." This is based on a LDP draft of changes for the law in 2012. In May 2017, Abe changed his stance to keep both the first and second paragraph of article 9 while adding a reference to the Japan Self-Defense Forces.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In January 2019, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in the National Diet that long-range cruise missiles are not banned under Article 9 of the Constitution.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: On 21 October 2019 a senior U.S. military officer in Tokyo said that "Japan’s avoidance of offensive weaponry under its constitution is no longer acceptable." The officer stated that Japan needs to rethink its rejection of offensive weapons and that the government should discuss it with the public. The officer said that the government of Japan should inform the public about the threats of China and North Korea.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: A constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority and pass referendum to effect it (as per Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution). Despite numerous attempts by the LDP to change Article 9, they have never been able to achieve the large majority required, as revision is opposed by a number of Japanese parties including the DPJ and the Japanese Communist Party.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In the Italian Constitution Article 11 is similar to the Japanese analogue, but the use of military forces is permitted for self-defense (articles 52 and 78) and also for "peace-keeping" purposes, if agreed with international organizations:


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: The German Constitution emphasizes the obligations of International Law as being part - and taking precedence within - federal law (Art. 25 GG) and forbids international acts of aggression, including offensive wars (Art. 26 GG). It does not, however, forbid a standing military.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In July 2014, Japan's government approved a reinterpretation of this article. This reinterpretation would allow Japan to exercise the right of "collective self-defense" in some instances and to engage in military action if one of its allies were to be attacked. It is considered by some parties as illegitimate, posing a serious danger to Japan's democracy since the Prime Minister circumvented the constitutional amendment procedure, dictating a radical change to the meaning of fundamental principles in the Constitution by way of Cabinet fiat without Diet debate, vote, or public approval. International reaction to this move was mixed. China expressed a negative view of this reinterpretation, while the US, Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia reacted positively. The government of South Korea did not oppose the reinterpretation, but noted that it would not approve of JSDF operations in and around the Korean peninsula without its request or approval, and called upon Japan to act in a way that would win the trust of neighboring states.


title: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

text: In May 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Abe set a 2020 deadline for revising Article 9, which would legitimize the JSDF in the Constitution. Abe retired in 2020 due to health problems without revising Article 9.


title: Burpee (exercise)

text: The burpee, a squat thrust with an additional stand between repetitions, is a full body exercise used in strength training. The movement itself is primarily an anaerobic exercise, but when done in succession over a longer period can be utilized as an aerobic exercise.


title: Burpee (exercise)

text: The basic movement as described by its namesake, physiologist Royal H. Burpee, is performed in four steps from a standing position and known as a "four-count burpee":


title: Burpee (exercise)

text: Moves 2 and 3 constitute a squat thrust. Many variants of the basic burpee exist, and they often include a push-up and a jump.


title: Burpee (exercise)

text: The exercise was invented in 1939 by US physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee Sr., who used it in the "burpee test" to assess fitness. Burpee earned a PhD in applied physiology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1940 and created the "burpee" exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a quick and simple fitness test, which may be used as a measure of agility and coordination. The original burpee was a "four-count burpee" consisting of movements through four different positions, and in the fitness test, the burpee was performed four times, with five heart rate measurements taken before and after the four successive burpees to measure the efficiency of the heart at pumping blood and how quickly the heart rate returns to normal.


title: Burpee (exercise)

text: The exercise was popularized when the United States Armed Services made it one of the ways used to assess the fitness level of recruits when the US entered World War II. Although the original test was not designed to be performed at high volume, the Army used the burpee to test how many times it can be performed by a soldier in 20 seconds – eight burpees in 20 seconds is considered poor, 10 is fair, 13 or more excellent. The Army also considered that a soldier fit enough for the rigor of war should be able to perform 40 or 50 burpees non-stop in an easy rhythm.