San Francisco School Administrators Schemed to Take Money, Documents Say

Abstract: A group of San Francisco Unified School District administrators, including an associate superintendent, engaged in a long-running scheme to funnel district money into their personal bank accounts via nonprofit community organizations, according to internal documents. The administrators worked out of the Student Support Services Department, which partners with community organizations to provide thousands of San Francisco students with health education, substance abuse counseling, violence prevention, after-school activities and other services. The scandal has stunned San Francisco educators and thrown Student Support Services into turmoil at a time when the district faces a $113 million deficit. Some vital student services have been threatened as investigators comb through millions of dollars of transactions dating back at least four years. Documents obtained by The Bay Citizen under a California Public Records Act request show that administrators directed money from community organizations into their own pockets. Some also fabricated overtime reports and falsified signatures on district contracts. The records also include copies of checks and invoices, suspension and termination notices and contracts bearing signatures that the district says were falsified. “It was a system developed by a small group of individuals operating outside of the budget and finance department,” said Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza, who participated in the district’s investigation. The documents, many redacted, show evidence of transactions totaling tens of thousands of dollars and possibly more. In an interview, Mr. Carranza said the district opened the investigation in June after a community organization raised questions to him about irregular accounting practices. The San Francisco district attorney’s office is conducting a separate investigation, according to Mr. Carranza and others familiar with the inquiry. A spokesman for that office declined to comment. The district’s investigation is focused on Associate Superintendent Trish Bascom, who is the former head of Student Support Services, and four of her co-workers. For years, until she retired in June, Ms. Bascom had primary control over money distributed to community organizations that were hired to provide services for the district. The department’s annual budget is nearly $20 million. The documents show that community organizations under contract to the district made payments directly to individual Student Support Services administrators. Mr. Carranza said such payments violated district regulations. Ms. Bascom’s lawyer, Stuart Hanlon, confirmed that Ms. Bascom had approved the payments, but he said the transactions conformed to district regulations. Mr. Hanlon said the payments were bonuses approved by Ms. Bascom to make up for salary cuts. “If they want to call it stealing, they can,” he said. “I would call the district incompetent. It wasn’t stealing. It was paying people bonuses for hard work.” Kevin Truitt, who succeeded Ms. Bascom, said investigators seized computers and documents shortly after he arrived at the end of June. The seizures, along with the removal of key department officials, forced Mr. Truitt and his staff to scramble to put programs in place. “I’m not privy to the documents or computer files pertaining to the department I now run,” Mr. Truitt said in an interview. The scandal has made it difficult for Student Support Services administrators to track financing for programs, according to one district official. In an e-mail, Mr. Carranza wrote that Student Support Services programs “are being fully funded. We are committed to ensuring that our students are not penalized for the actions of a few individuals.” In addition to Ms. Bascom, other administrators under investigation by the district include Meyla Ruwin, the department’s senior executive director; Betty Wong, Ms. Bascom’s assistant; and two of Ms. Bascom’s administrative analysts, Linda Lovelace and Lilian Capuli, according to Mr. Carranza and documents. Ms. Lovelace was fired in September, documents show, and she declined to comment for this article. Ms. Ruwin and Ms. Wong were placed on administrative leave, Mr. Carranza said. Neither could be reached for comment. Ms. Capuli received a termination notice on Sept. 7 but has requested a hearing to dispute the accusations, Tyler Paetkau, her lawyer, said. Mr. Paetkau, in a letter to the school district, said district officials were using Ms. Capuli as a scapegoat. “Ms. Capuli simply followed the directives given by her superiors,” the letter said. In an August letter informing Ms. Lovelace of her dismissal, the district accused her of supplementing her $83,000 salary with $26,126.64 in unauthorized district money during the 2009-10 school year. According to the district and invoices, the money was paid to Ms. Lovelace by Bay Area Community Resources, a Marin County organization that operates after-school programs for San Francisco students. Officials with Bay Area Community Resources could not be reached for comment. It is not known whether the group, or any other community organizations, are under investigation. Ms. Lovelace was in charge of administering contracts between the school district and Bay Area Community Resources. According to her termination letter, she signed contracts on behalf of officials who had not given her authorization and submitted false claims that she had worked 12-hour days during the school year. “Your conduct in intentionally requesting and receiving an additional four hours of compensation every single day is tantamount to stealing,” stated the dismissal notice, which was written by Roger Buschmann, the chief administrative officer. “Particularly at a time when the district faces a multimillion-dollar deficit and forced layoffs of many skilled and diligent professionals, such conduct is appalling.” Last May, documents show, Ms. Lovelace received a check for $40,000 from Edgewood Center for Children and Families, a San Francisco nonprofit that provides mental health, violence prevention and teacher coaching services to the district. The termination letter alleged that Ms. Lovelace had gotten money from Edgewood “for which you knew you had not provided services.” Jeff Davis, the Edgewood chief executive, declined to discuss details of the transaction except to say that all transactions involving the company had been authorized by the school district. Mr. Davis said Edgewood was cooperating with authorities. “Edgewood could make a payment on full authorization without knowing if the money was later misused,” Mr. Davis said. Mr. Carranza, the deputy superintendent, said the Edgewood payments had “absolutely not” been authorized by the district. In May, Edgewood issued a $15,000 check to Ms. Capuli, the administrative analysts, according to the documents. In a letter to Ms. Capuli, the district said the $15,000 payment appeared related to her approval of a $1,092.34 expense reimbursement to Ms. Bascom. It said there was no evidence Ms. Bascom had incurred the expense. “At the very least, your approval of this invoice without making any effort to evaluate the accuracy of the receipts being submitted is negligent,” the letter to Ms. Capuli said. “At worst, it seems to involve a quid pro quo, in which you were approving payment of district funds to Ms. Bascom on an improper submission in return for her approval of the $15,000 Edgewood payment to you.” Mr. Paetkau, Ms. Capuli’s lawyer, denied the accusation. Mr. Hanlon, Ms. Bascom’s lawyer, called it “totally false.”

San Francisco (Calif)
Frauds and Swindling
Education (K-12)
Bay Citizen The


Pooling Resources to Create New Dining Experiences

Abstract: The buildings that line the upper village stretch of Old Post Road South in Croton-on-Hudson are pretty dark at night. The delis, liquor store and offices typically are not open once the daylight disappears. But one evening a month, the street comes to life. That’s the night that Skillet restaurant takes over Grouchy Gabe’s Grill , a deli at 8 Old Post Road South. Temporary signs are put out front, brown paper sheets cover the Formica tables and candles cast a warm glow. The 6 and 8 p.m. seatings are sold out, and the place is packed with customers, many of them moving from table to table, introducing themselves, chatting and sometimes sharing their wine, which they bring themselves. “People stop in and ask what’s going on — they say that the lights and all the fun that people seem to be having drew them in,” said David Leveen, the self-taught chef who dreamed up the idea for Skillet. His first dinner was held on Oct. 24 and he has sold out all the seats at the monthly dinners ever since, purely through word of mouth. Call it an occasional restaurant. Skillet is just one example of the creative resource sharing that Westchester restaurateurs, bakers, caterers and other food entrepreneurs are employing to make it during these hard economic times. For Mr. Leveen, using Grouchy Gabe’s space is not only a way to try out his restaurant idea in a limited, low-cost way, but also to make use of the expertise of Gabriel Boivin, the deli’s owner, who has helped him with things like pacing the meals and buying local ingredients. “He’s paying me a minimal fee, so we’re both making a bit of money out of the arrangement,” Mr. Boivin said. “But for me, this is about making Grouchy Gabe’s a hip, charming place to be, about keeping my name out there. It helps keep the momentum going to always be associated with something new.” For Larry Nathanson, a co-owner of Milton Point Sweets , a Rye-based cookie business, sharing is a necessity. He said his business couldn’t survive without the kind of arrangement it has with Antonio Luciano Orza, owner of the Bread Factory in New Rochelle. Mr. Nathanson and his two partners use Mr. Orza’s kitchen on Sunday afternoons and weekdays during slower times. They cannot afford a bakery of their own at this point. The rent they pay is “helpful,” Mr. Orza said. “These are tough times. Customers are post-dating checks, that type of thing. No one wants to pay the baker. Plus, they’re nice people. It’s important to help each other during times like this.” That was the thinking of Nannette Conners, owner of the Provisions bakery and café in Pelham, when she allowed Scarborough Fair , a popular local caterer, to share her kitchen. Scarborough’s owner, John Byrne, lost his Bronxville lease after 20 years when the landlord increased his rent by 38 percent last April. He worked out of Provisions for several months, but he and Ms. Conners came up against one of the dangers of these kinds of deals: There just wasn’t enough space, and it was difficult to work out their schedules for using the kitchen. He is ironing out the details of an arrangement with a restaurant that has a second kitchen he can use in early mornings and afternoons. “Small businesses are not having an easy time in this economy,” Mr. Byrne said. “We’re getting squeezed by landlords, and we don’t have any recourse or protection.” All this maneuvering can create exciting new experiences for the public. Table Local Market in Bedford Hills was holding occasional music evenings in its 2,000-square-foot storefront for several months until the town made the owners stop because they lacked the appropriate permits. “We featured local farmers’ goods, and it was like a rave — a cool, underground kind of experience,” said Jonathan Pratt, who is a partner in Table. Mr. Pratt, the chef and co-owner of Peter Pratt’s Inn in Yorktown Heights and Umami Café in Croton-on-Hudson, was the chef at a fund-raising dinner in December at the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco. The group, which recently installed a state-of-the-art kitchen, turned the center into a kind of restaurant, using teenage members as waiters. It has been such a huge success that four to six dinners are being planned as part of a Chef’s Series. “We’re talking to Café of Love , Crabtree’s Kittle House , Bedford Post Inn and others about participating,” said Brian Skanes, the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club. He said the club had heard from bakers and other start-up food businesses seeking to rent the kitchen space. “People can’t afford to go out like they used to, so they’re looking for special experiences when they do.” “Special” is how Peter Drexler, a Croton resident, who got hold of the reservations number early on, described the dinners at Skillet. He and his companion, Sherry Lambert, have been to all of them. “It feels like a big family meal, and the food is fantastic,” he said. “I’ve never had an experience like this before — it’s a restaurant and it isn’t.” Mr. Leveen describes Skillet, which doesn’t advertise, as a kind of club. “People like the fact that not everyone knows about it,” he said. “The first dinner, when I finally came out of the kitchen to say hi to the diners, everyone applauded — it’s the closest I’m ever going to come to working in a rock ’n’ roll band.” Space Sharers SKILLET At Grouchy Gabe’s, 8 Old Post Road South, Croton-on-Hudson; (914) 361-9640. Dinner held once a month; the next one is Feb. 20. MILTON POINT SWEETS (914) 920-6302; miltonpointsweets.com . SCARBOROUGH FAIR (914) 337-2735; scarboroughfaironline.com . BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF NORTHERN WESTCHESTER 351 Main Street, Mount Kisco, (914) 666-8069; bgcnw.com .

Restaurants
Westchester County (NY)
Cooking and Cookbooks


Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects

Abstract: C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding , the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, 266 times on two key prisoners from Al Qaeda , far more than had been previously reported. The C.I.A. officers used waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah , according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. Abu Zubaydah has been described as a Qaeda operative. A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 that Abu Zubaydah had undergone waterboarding for only 35 seconds before agreeing to tell everything he knew. The 2005 memo also says that the C.I.A. used waterboarding 183 times in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed , the self-described planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The New York Times reported in 2007 that Mr. Mohammed had been barraged more than 100 times with harsh interrogation methods , causing C.I.A. officers to worry that they might have crossed legal limits and to halt his questioning. But the precise number and the exact nature of the interrogation method was not previously known. The release of the numbers is likely to become part of the debate about the morality and efficacy of interrogation methods that the Justice Department under the Bush administration declared legal even though the United States had historically treated them as torture. President Obama plans to visit C.I.A. headquarters Monday and make public remarks to employees, as well as meet privately with officials, an agency spokesman said Sunday night. It will be his first visit to the agency, whose use of harsh interrogation methods he often condemned during the presidential campaign and whose secret prisons he ordered closed on the second full day of his presidency. C.I.A. officials had opposed the release of the interrogation memo, dated May 30, 2005, which was one of four secret legal memos on interrogation that Mr. Obama ordered to be released last Thursday. Mr. Obama said C.I.A. officers who had used waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods with the approval of the Justice Department would not be prosecuted. He has repeatedly suggested that he opposes Congressional proposals for a “truth commission” to examine Bush administration counterterrorism programs, including interrogation and warrantless eavesdropping. The Senate Intelligence Committee has begun a yearlong, closed-door investigation of the C.I.A. interrogation program, in part to assess claims of Bush administration officials that brutal treatment, including slamming prisoners into walls, shackling them in standing positions for days and confining them in small boxes, was necessary to get information. The fact that waterboarding was repeated so many times may raise questions about its effectiveness, as well as about assertions by Bush administration officials that their methods were used under strict guidelines. A footnote to another 2005 Justice Department memo released Thursday said waterboarding was used both more frequently and with a greater volume of water than the C.I.A. rules permitted. The new information on the number of waterboarding episodes came out over the weekend when a number of bloggers, including Marcy Wheeler of the blog emptywheel , discovered it in the May 30, 2005, memo. The sentences in the memo containing that information appear to have been redacted from some copies but are visible in others. Initial news reports about the memos in The New York Times and other publications did not include the numbers. Michael V. Hayden , director of the C.I.A. for the last two years of the Bush administration, would not comment when asked on the program “Fox News Sunday” if Mr. Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times. He said he believed that that information was still classified. A C.I.A. spokesman, reached Sunday night, also would not comment on the new information. Mr. Hayden said he had opposed the release of the memos, even though President Obama has said the techniques will never be used again, because they would tell Al Qaeda “the outer limits that any American would ever go in terms of interrogating an Al Qaeda terrorist.” He also disputed an article in The New York Times on Saturday that said Abu Zubaydah had revealed nothing new after being waterboarded, saying that he believed that after unspecified “techniques” were used, Abu Zubaydah revealed information that led to the capture of another terrorist suspect, Ramzi Binalshibh. The Times article, based on information from former intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abu Zubaydah had revealed a great deal of information before harsh methods were used and after his captors stripped him of clothes, kept him in a cold cell and kept him awake at night. The article said interrogators at the secret prison in Thailand believed he had given up all the information he had, but officials at headquarters ordered them to use waterboarding. He revealed no new information after being waterboarded, the article said, a conclusion that appears to be supported by a footnote to a 2005 Justice Department memo saying the use of the harshest methods appeared to have been “unnecessary” in his case.

Waterboarding
Interrogation
Torture
Abu Zubaydah
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
CIA
Terrorism
Michael V Hayden
Detainees
US


Time Line Following Detective Kevin Spellman’s D.W.I. Crash

Abstract: One day after the arrest of an off-duty police detective on charges he killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, the authorities provided more details about the five-hour gap between the accident and the time the police were able to obtain a sample of the detective’s blood, saying the detective’s case was processed more quickly than is normal in such cases. Prosecutors said the detective, Kevin C. Spellman, 42, a 22-year veteran of the force, was driving a Chevrolet Malibu that struck and killed Drana Nikac, 67, as she crossed Kingsbridge Avenue in the Bronx early on Friday morning. He was charged with second-degree vehicular homicide, criminally negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated. It was the second time in five weeks that an off-duty police officer was charged with killing a civilian when driving drunk. On Sept. 27, Officer Andrew Kelly, 30, was arrested after the sport-utility vehicle he was driving struck Vionique Valnord-Kassime as she tried to flag a cab, the authorities said. In that case, prosecutors said Officer Kelly refused a breath test at the scene, and a blood test seven hours later showed he had no alcohol in his system. He has pleaded not guilty. Police officials said they worked quickly to process Detective Spellman’s case in the hours between the 6:30 a.m. accident, and noon, when they drew the blood sample. Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney, said his office also moved promptly, and he disputed the idea that the time frame of more than five hours represented any kind of delay. “Focusing solely on a time line in a vacuum is an oversimplification of what’s involved,” Mr. Reed said in a statement. “The mere notification of an incident is not the same as having all of the information that the law requires before a search warrant can be issued.” On Friday morning, a sergeant at the scene told prosecutors that Detective Spellman’s speech was slurred, his eyes were glassy and he smelled of alcohol, according to the text of the criminal complaint. About 7:40 a.m., another officer heard Detective Spellman say that had not seen the victim, who “came out of nowhere,” the complaint said. At 8 a.m., Detective Spellman refused a breath test at the scene, according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. Shortly afterward, police officials contacted prosecutors to make them aware of the case, Mr. Browne said. Detective Spellman was taken to the 45th Precinct station house, and by 9:46 a.m., he was videotaped refusing a second, more sophisticated breath test, Mr. Browne said. With that refusal, police officials and prosecutors set about trying to obtain the blood sample. Shortly after 10 a.m., a sergeant who had been at the scene of the accident arrived at the Bronx district attorney’s office to work with prosecutors on an application for a court order. Mr. Reed said that by law, a police officer was required to request such an order in person. In the meantime, officials with the Internal Affairs Bureau ordered Detective Spellman be taken to Jacobi Medical Center to await a blood test. State Supreme Court Justice Harold Adler signed an order to take the detective’s blood at 11:39 a.m. Friday, said Kali Holloway, a spokeswoman for the State Office of Court Administration. By noon, Detective Spellman’s blood was drawn, the authorities said.

Spellman Kevin C
Bronx (NYC)
Nikac Drana
Accidents and Safety
Drunken and Reckless Driving
Police Department (NYC)


Bighorn Sheep Return to Pike National Forest in Colorado

Abstract: SEDALIA, Colo. — The mechanics were simple. A trailer latch popped, a gate swung open and three wild bighorn sheep — two females, presumably pregnant, and a year-old lamb, definitely frisky — trotted up the rocky slope of Thunder Butte under a pale afternoon sun. It is the back story of the animals’ release this week by wildlife biologists here in the mountains southwest of Denver that can stagger the mind with its complications of coincidence, historical accident, devastation and hope. A truck breakdown on a highway in February 1946 played a role, believe it or not, as did the biggest Colorado wildfire in memory, the Hayman, in June 2002. The fire roared through the cliffs in the Pike National Forest with flames hundreds of feet high, scouring the land of trees across 138,000 acres. Human intervention, from the mining boom in the late 1800s, when timber was cut by the trainload for fuel and construction, through the bighorn reintroduction program in the Hayman burn area by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, begun last year, completed the circle of natural and wild that brought the bighorns home. They were last seen in this area in the mid-1960s. However the pieces fit, biologists and land managers say a bighorn homecoming to the Hayman is a powerful reaffirmation of hope in the West for a creature that has long symbolized the ideals of sure-footed survival in the high lonesome aeries where they evolved and still persist. Sheep restoration began here last year with the first 12 animals and continued with 12 more this month. “We’re back,” Janet George, a senior biologist at the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said as the animals peered around at their new home (their eyesight is excellent, which is why they stake out rocky perches, the better to spot approaching predators). “This was historically bighorn range, and then it couldn’t sustain a sheep herd any more,” Ms. George said. “And now nine years after the fire, it can again.” But back to that truck accident. In early 1946, state wildlife managers were hauling 14 bighorns near Colorado Springs, intending to start a herd of transplants near Pikes Peak. When the truck broke down, the animals were instead released right where they were. The 14 pioneers — 10 ewes, 2 rams and 2 lambs — drifted north and established vibrant herd from which the Hayman group was drawn for release. The accidental but successful herd created the gene pool, and the Hayman fire restored a habitat of treeless rock that bighorns love, and where they seek shelter from predators who cannot match them in cliff-side clambering. Their agility is partly due to unique hooves that have evolved specifically for climbing rocks, with a hard outer wall and a soft inner wall for traction. Combined with iron-lunged endurance, they can even sometimes evade mountain lions, which are fierce and fast but quickly winded. It is a life and a niche in the high rocky places, where — crucially — humans usually do not build ranches or mansions, that has allowed the bighorns’ numbers to hold strong along the spine of the Rockies from Colorado through Wyoming, Montana and into Alberta, Canada, each of which has bighorn populations estimated at 7,000 animals or more. But the Hayman burn site is as much a character in this saga as the animals, and the healing from its giant scar has been slow. On June 8, 2002, a United States Forest Service employee named Terry Barton said that she burned a letter from her estranged husband at a campground, and that the fire spread. Ms. Barton ultimately pleaded guilty to arson and spent six years in prison. Hayman was also calamitous for Denver’s water system, which has spent millions of dollars rebuilding and cleaning a reservoir in the burn area that became clogged with sediment from eroding soils that were no longer held in place by grasses and trees. Ms. George, the state biologist, said it would take decades before Thunder Butte became reforested. That is very good news for the sheep, which have survived in part by avoiding forests, where predators like lions can drop from above. But that is also assuming that the historical cycle of rebirth and growth repeat in the same way. With climate change and planetary warming in the decades to come, Ms. George said, the next-generation forest here might be very different from the one that was erased by Hayman. Meanwhile, as the three new residents disappeared up into the rocks, another biologist with the Division of Wildlife, Heather Halbritter, was tracking the nine sheep released earlier this month from that same post-1946 group, using the radio-beacon collars they had been fitted with. “They’re in those rocks, up along the ridgeline,” she said, waving the tracking device and pointing in the very direction the newcomers were going. A herd reunion might be in the offing. Then the two ewes and their tag-along lamb stopped on a cliff. As if posing for a picture, or assessing the strangely beautiful moonscape of the Hayman, they stood in silhouette. “That’s what sheep do,” Ms. George said. “They climb out on a rock and look.”


Vatican: Leak of Documents Is Called a ‘Brutal’ Personal Attack on the Pope

Abstract: The Vatican on Tuesday denounced the theft of secret papal documents as a “brutal” personal attack on Pope Benedict XVI . The Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, left, said in the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, that the publication of stolen documents in a recent book by an Italian journalist was a “criminal” act. The newspaper also said the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, who has been accused of leaking the pope’s confidential correspondence, had been in possession of “a large number” of the pope’s private documents. Mr. Gabriele, 46, was arrested last week and charged with theft. The Vatican said a cardinals commission was investigating whether others were involved.

Classified Information and State Secrets


Terry Collins Hopes Communication Will Temper Intensity

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Next to the lineup card in the Mets ’ clubhouse Saturday was a sheet telling 15 players to see the manager. This was not another round of cuts, unless the Mets were axing every veteran on the roster. All of the listed players had one thing in common: at least five years in the major leagues. The manager, Terry Collins , wanted to allow each player to choose a day off before the end of spring training, a reward for enduring the six-week grind. “He has a pulse for what it’s like to be a player,” starter R. A. Dickey said. “This is a very hard game to play. It really does send a nice signal to know that the guy that’s leading the ship here hasn’t forgotten what it’s like.” Collins peaked as a player in the minors, as did his mentor, Manager Jim Leyland of the Tigers, who is his inspiration for wearing No. 10 . But while Leyland is known for rapport with his players, Collins joined the Mets with the opposite reputation. After five second-place finishes in Houston and Anaheim, Collins resigned from the Angels in September 1999 when some of his players had turned on him . It was the kind of episode that could end a major league managing career, and Collins thought it had ended his, until the Mets hired him last November. Collins said he realized now that his intensity worked against him, and he will not let it happen again. “I’ve thought about it a lot,” he said. “I took it way too serious. Even though I enjoyed it, I didn’t enjoy it. It was all about the winning, winning, winning, instead of enjoying being around these guys and watching them play, enjoying the experience and the challenge of competing. That’s what I love to do. “There was that thing that I had to prove something. I still want to prove that we’re good enough, but I don’t think it’s the same type of attitude I had in the past. And with that comes the fact that these guys are human beings, and they need communication.” At 61, Collins is the majors’ fourth-oldest manager, behind Leyland, Charlie Manuel and Tony La Russa, but he retains a youthful energy. When David Wright arrived in January, weeks before the reporting date, he was startled to see Collins on the job already, eager to get to work. “He came down and brought the same intensity, the same energy in January,” Wright said. “I’ve never seen a manager come down early, much less months early.” Intensity and energy are words that follow Collins everywhere. They were not applied as often to Jerry Manuel, his cerebral predecessor, and in that way the Mets followed the classic pattern for the hire, replacing low-key with fired-up. Fans will like Collins if he wins, of course; that is by far the most important factor as the Mets try to stop a nearly constant tide of bad news, on and off the field. But even if the team does not contend, fans should at least relate to Collins. They will know he cares, the Mets believe, by the way the team’s effort reflects his personality. “The manager’s going to have a big impact on how the team is perceived by fans in New York,” General Manager Sandy Alderson said. “I think that’s been apparent down here and will become more apparent as time goes on.” Collins’s first two Angels teams contended for division titles with a daring base-running style exemplified by Darin Erstad , the retired outfielder Collins has tried to hire for the Mets. Erstad and others helped translate Collins’s message to the field, acting as the kind of conduit Wright believes he can be now. “You want to bring energy and excitement, you want to play with emotion,” Wright said. “That’s his kind of personality as a manager so far, and that’s a mirror image of the kind of player I think that I am. I don’t think I have to act or do anything differently.” Collins has told players that any mistakes they make should come from playing aggressively. If aggressiveness turns to recklessness, Collins said, that can be fixed. It is much harder, he said, to change the mind-set of a player who is satisfied by simply getting to the next base. Collins has always believed that, but the message was crystallized by the Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who coached with Collins on the Tampa Bay staff in 2001. Boggs said his father once told him, “Few men dare to be great,” and Collins said he has never forgotten it. “I want those guys that are willing to be great,” Collins said, and he was just getting rolling. He spoke excitedly about focus and preparation and greatness, and seemed to know how it would sound, and how it would reinforce his image. But Collins really believes in it. He listens to players more now, but his essence is the same. “Hopefully, the energy — or whatever people want to say, the intenseness that I have — may work here,” Collins said. “This may be the one place where it works out.”

Collins Terry L
New York Mets
Baseball
Coaches and Managers


Back to Art, Havel Meditates on Power

Abstract: PRAGUE VACLAV HAVEL ’S new absurdist tragicomedy, “Leaving” — his first play in about 20 years — depicts a womanizing former political leader who grudgingly confronts the political wilderness. Much has been made of the parallels between the plot and Mr. Havel’s life. The main character, Vilem Rieger, the chancellor of an unnamed country, leaves office and is being pushed from his extravagant government villa by a pompous former deputy, Vlastik Klein. He just happens to share the initials of Vaclav Klaus, Mr. Havel’s archrival, who succeeded him as president of the Czech Republic . Mr. Havel, who stepped down as president five years ago, acknowledged that the play — which will have its foreign premiere in London in September before going to the United States — is a semiautobiographical “King Lear”-like meditation on the seductiveness of power. But he insisted he was happy to have exited the stage — at least the political one — and to have escaped a tumultuous life that, he contended, had accidentally thrust him into the spotlight. “I understand, especially when one is looking at me from a distance, that I might seem as some kind of fairy-tale hero who banged his head against the wall until the wall fell, and then reigned,” he said on a recent day, looking more like an aging hippie than an elder statesman in his signature blue jeans, and appearing withdrawn, frail and a little exasperated. The once ever-present pack of cigarettes was conspicuously absent. (Mr. Havel gave up smoking after battling lung cancer.) “It makes me blush slightly because I know my mistakes,” he continued. “On the other hand, I do not ridicule it because people need these kinds of stories.” Now 71, with sparkling but sunken eyes and a mere whisper of a voice, Mr. Havel was emphatic that he was ready to disappear after what many critics hoped would not be his last artistic statement. One of the cold war’s most celebrated dissidents could be forgiven for craving invisibility. He has led a revolution that overturned four decades of Communism in his native Czechoslovakia, languished five years in prison, written 19 plays, survived nearly drowning, and served 13 years as president — all while remaining one of his generation’s most nonconformist writers. “I have had a very adventurous life, but not because I have an adventurous nature or yearned for a life full of adventure,” he said. “Fate just wanted it this way.” Yet while the West has lionized him, in his native Czech Republic, 19 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he remains a source of ambivalence, if not sometimes downright resentment. “Havel gets attention in the West by saying banal, kitschy things,” said Bohumil Dolezal, a leading right-wing commentator, who once worked for Mr. Klaus. “One who tries to be responsible for everything isn’t responsible for anything.” Why such contempt for a figure some have compared with Gandhi? Some have contended that for someone who claimed to be a reluctant president, Mr. Havel held on to power too long. Others, like Erik Tabery, a Czech journalist who is writing a book about the Czech presidency, said some Czechs resented Mr. Havel because he held up an uncomfortable mirror to their own history of chronic passivity. “While the Communists ruled for 40 years, most Czechs stayed at home and did nothing,” he said. “Havel did something.” Mr. Havel has his own theory. “If you look at somebody for a long time and you encounter him over such a long time, on television in the evening, it will eventually begin to annoy you slightly,” he said. “The person will begin to bore you, especially if he keeps repeating minority views.” In any case, he stressed, he has no desire to be worshiped or, worse, slavishly obeyed. In “Leaving,” Mr. Havel’s voice bellows from offstage, telling the actors how to behave, warning them not to overact, even giving orders on what they should drink — cinnamon with beer. Rather than reflecting a control-freak who wants to stage-manage life and art, Mr. Havel said, the voice was meant to mock his own authority. “When, for example, I said that I did not like a certain dog, there was always some overambitious person ready to shoot that dog,” he said. “And that bothered me.” BORN into a wealthy bourgeois family in 1936, Mr. Havel first rose to prominence as a chain-smoking rebel intellectual in the 1960s. In 1968, when the Red Army invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress a democratic blossoming known as the Prague Spring, Mr. Havel denounced the invasion, and his plays were censored. Looking back at the Prague Spring as its 40th anniversary was about to be observed in August, Mr. Havel said the event laid bare Communism’s incompatibility with freedom and “rid the Western left of their illusions.” In 1977, he led a group of Czechoslovak intellectuals who wrote and signed Charter 77, a document that called for the government to respect human rights. Refusing to back down, he was labeled an enemy of the state and imprisoned. Mr. Havel is credited with overseeing the smooth transition from Communism to liberal capitalism after leading a 10-day Velvet Revolution in 1989, so velvety that not a single bullet was fired. Once elected the president of a newly democratized Czechoslovakia — a role he says was more duty than aspiration — he linked the country firmly to the West. He cleared the way for the Czech Republic to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and the European Union five years later. His star status drew world leaders and dignitaries to Prague, from the Dalai Lama, with whom Mr. Havel meditated for hours, to Bill Clinton, who serenaded him on his saxophone. Calling on the former dissident became a politically redemptive act. Yet his presidency, which ended in 2003, was marked by a jovial eccentricity that repelled as well as endeared. He invited the Rolling Stones to the imposing Prague Castle, the office of the president; allowed a large neon-red heart to be erected on a side of the castle; hired women as bodyguards; and drove along the castle’s endless corridors in a red pedal scooter. Critics called him a reluctant leader who learned to like power too much. One of his first big political setbacks occurred shortly after he took office, when he stubbornly resigned in 1992 to protest the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The country’s dismemberment into two separate states, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, happened anyway, presaging secessionist movements in other parts of Europe. (Mr. Havel was elected president of the Czech Republic in January 1993.) He also alienated many Czechs by refusing to ban the Communist Party or take to task the system that had allowed neighbors to inform on one another. Some lauded him for avoiding witch hunts, but others demanded justice. Many Czechs were disappointed in 1997 when he married Dagmar Veskrnova, an actress almost 20 years his junior known for her role as a topless vampire, less than a year after the death of his widely revered wife, Olga. MR. HAVEL never joined a political party, preferring to embrace a kind of civic politics in which he could remain “citizen Havel.” But even his admirers say his attempt to try to remain aloof from the tribal battles of political life was naïve. If he has any failing, it is that he “was too well brought up to confront the political arrogance of others and can’t cope if he has to tell someone bad news,” said Lubos Dobrovsky, one of his oldest friends, who ran his office when he was president. It is perhaps a sign of Mr. Havel’s mixed legacy that his successor is Vaclav Klaus, a right-wing maverick who has fashioned himself as the anti-Havel by railing against issues Mr. Havel championed, like the European Union and the fight against climate change . In the play, Vlastik Klein, Mr. Klaus’s doppelgänger, orders a cherry orchard to be cut down and replaced with a casino, shopping mall and brothel — a barely veiled attack on Mr. Klaus’s brand of unbridled capitalism, which Mr. Havel resists. And what, if anything, disappoints Mr. Havel about the state of contemporary capitalist culture, whose forces he helped unleash as a dissident? “I do not like the ads on the shirts of hockey or football players,” he said. “You’d think Coca-Cola is playing against Pepsi-Cola.”

Czech Republic
Havel Vaclav
Politics and Government
Writing and Writers


Chiefs Eliminate the Staggering Broncos From Playoff Contention

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With their postseason spot secured, the Kansas City Chiefs turned to Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill to roll past the Denver Broncos, 33-10, on Sunday night and keep their A.F.C. West title hopes alive. Kelce had 11 catches for 160 yards and a touchdown, and Hill took a handoff 70 yards for another score as the Chiefs beat the Broncos for the third straight time and eliminated Denver, the Super Bowl champion, from postseason contention. Kansas City punctuated the win when the 346-pound defensive tackle Dontari Poe, who had lined up at quarterback, threw a jump pass to Demetrius Harris with under two minutes left. The Chiefs had already been assured of a wild-card berth when Pittsburgh beat Baltimore earlier in the day. But a win next weekend in San Diego, coupled with a loss by Oakland in Denver, would give the Chiefs their first division title since 2010, not to mention a first-round bye and a home playoff game. Meanwhile, the Broncos trudged through another inept offensive performance. Trevor Siemian completed 17 of 43 passes for 183 yards and threw a game-ending interception, and the only touchdown drive he led came after a pick had given him the ball at the Kansas City 6. Justin Forsett scored two plays later. The lackluster performance came a week after a dismal showing in a 16-3 loss to New England led to a locker-room shouting match between the Broncos’ offense and defense. The team played down any kind of disharmony this week, but its performance on a sloppy, soggy night at Arrowhead Stadium only seemed to underscore the rift during a most frustrating season. Kansas City took control of the prime-time matchup from the opening bell. Alex Smith capped a 77-yard touchdown march with a 10-yard keeper in the first quarter, and Hill outran the banged-up Broncos a few minutes later to give the Chiefs a 14-0 lead. It was the fourth touchdown Hill had scored against the Broncos this season. Forsett’s touchdown gave the Broncos fleeting hope, but that hope was dashed moments later. Kelce took a screen pass and followed perfectly executed blocking for an 80-yard touchdown and a 21-7 lead. The Chiefs’ defense took care of the rest to make it a festive night for their fans. The biggest hit of the night came when a security guard tackled a fan who had run onto the field. Of course, the tackle occurred after the fan had run about 90 yards untouched, so in that respect the security force was not a whole lot better than the Broncos’ first-half defense. Broncos cornerback Kayvon Webster was taken from the field on a cart after being hit high by Chiefs linebacker Terrance Smith while covering a touchback in the second quarter. Webster’s head was snapped back by the block, and he was being evaluated for a concussion. He did not return. Broncos defensive end Derek Wolfe left in the first half with a neck injury and did not return. Denver was already without leading tackler T. J. Ward and tight ends Virgil Green and A. J. Derby because of concussions and linebacker Brandon Marshall because of a hamstring injury.

Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Travis Kelce
Tyreek Hill
Super Bowl
Football
NFL
Super Bowl 2015
Kansas City MO


iDesign Kit for Barbie From Mattel

Abstract: Aspiring fashion designers can now mix and match Barbie’s dresses, shoes and handbags using Barbie iDesign, the information-age equivalent of the paper doll. The iDesign kit, available now at mattel.com and in stores for about $30, includes 50 clear plastic cards, each representing a piece of clothing or an accessory, along with software for Windows and a card reader that connects to a computer via the U.S.B. port. When you swipe a card through the scanner, an outfit appears on an on-screen model, who can then appear on a magazine cover or in a fashion show. The shows can be customized with different themes and music, and the magazines can be printed. You can also design an outfit away from the computer, by simply stacking the cards on top of one another. Four computer games extend the card play, with timed design challenges and a tricky style-guessing game. Additional $5 card sets come in themes like rocker, school, casual, party, sporty, beach bling and princess, making it possible to change the look of your virtual Barbie with the swipe of a card. If only picking real outfits were that easy. WARREN BUCKLEITNER

Barbie (Doll)
Computers and the Internet
Apparel


No. 16 Oregon Holds Off Purdue in Second Overtime

Abstract: LaGarrette Blount ran 3 yards for a touchdown in the second overtime Saturday to help No. 16 Oregon come from behind for a 32-26 victory at Purdue. Oregon (3-0) trailed, 20-3, early in the second quarter, but the Ducks tied the game late in the third, and Purdue kicker Chris Summers missed a 44-yard field-goal attempt as time expired in regulation. The Ducks gained 469 yards in regulation, but had four turnovers and scored just one offensive touchdown before overtime against Purdue’s bend-but-don’t-break defense. Somehow, the Ducks still managed to win the four-hour game played in near 90-degree heat and humidity. “I think it’s a great test for us,” Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti said. “Not just a tough-weather game, but with the reality of what we did to ourselves, then we came back from that.” On Purdue’s first play of the first overtime, Curtis Painter threw down the sideline for Greg Orton, and Oregon’s Walter Thurmond was called for pass interference to give Purdue the ball at the Oregon 10. Summers made a 22-yard field goal to force a second overtime. 79-Year Low for U.C.L.A. ¶Max Hall tied a team record with seven touchdown passes and No. 18 Brigham Young handed U.C.L.A. its worst loss in nearly 80 years, overwhelming the visiting Bruins, 59-0. B.Y.U. (3-0) forced four turnovers and blocked a field-goal attempt. In 1929, U.C.L.A.(1-1) was routed by Southern California, 76-0, and two weeks later by Stanford, 57-0. No, It’s Not a Baseball Score ¶Wes Byrum kicked a 36-yard field goal in the second quarter and that was all No. 9 Auburn needed for a 3-2 victory at Mississippi State. Auburn (3-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) committed three turnovers and missed two field goals, but allowed only 116 yards to Mississippi State (1-2, 0-1). Mississippi State scored with 7 minutes 5 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Auburn offensive lineman Ryan Pugh was called for holding in the end zone, giving the Bulldogs 2 points. Long Trip for Cal ¶After a trip across the country and a noon kickoff, No. 23 California was outplayed until the closing minutes in a stunning 35-27 loss at Maryland. Coming off a 10-point loss to unheralded Middle Tennessee State, the Terrapins (2-1) were given little chance against California (2-1), which had totaled 104 points in disposing of Michigan State and Washington State. California scored three touchdowns in the final seven minutes. No Problem Staying Unbeaten ¶Sam Bradford completed 18 of 21 passes for 304 yards, matched his career high with five touchdown passes and ran for a sixth score to lead No. 3 Oklahoma to a 55-14 victory at Washington. Oklahoma (3-0) handed Washington (0-3) its largest margin of defeat at home since 1929, when it lost, 48-0, to Southern California. ¶Chase Daniel threw for 405 yards and 4 touchdowns to lead No. 6 Missouri to a 69-17 victory against visiting Nevada. Daniel led Missouri (3-0) to seven touchdowns and a field goal before exiting. Nevada fell to 1-2. ¶John Parker Wilson passed for 215 yards and 2 touchdowns and the freshman Mark Ingram ran for two touchdowns, leading No. 11 Alabama to a 41-7 victory against visiting Western Kentucky. The Crimson Tide (3-0) gave Coach Nick Saban a start-to-finish effort against the Hilltoppers (1-2), who began moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision last season. ¶Graham Harrell threw for 418 yards and 5 touchdowns, 3 to Michael Crabtree, to lead No. 12 Texas Tech to a 43-7 rout of visiting Southern Methodist. Texas Tech (2-0) ran for 180 yards. S.M.U. (1-1) turned the ball over on three of its first four possessions. ¶Matt Asiata scored three touchdowns rushing and Brian Johnson threw for two more and No. 22 Utah beat host Utah State, 58-10. The Utes (3-0) claimed their 11th consecutive victory in the series against the Aggies (0-3). Big Victory at a Price ¶Charles Scott Scott ran for touchdowns of 39 and 43 yards, Trindon Holliday scored on a 92-yard punt return and No. 7 Louisiana State cruised to a 41-3 victory against visiting North Texas. The L.S.U. starting linebacker Darry Beckwith left the game with an apparent right knee injury. Beckwith could not put pressure on his leg as trainers helped him to the sideline, where he was given crutches. L.S.U. officials did not specify the extent of the injury. Closer Than Expected ¶Patrick Pinkney threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Jamar Bryant with 1:41 left to play as No. 14 East Carolina rallied for a 28-24 victory at Tulane. The Pirates (3-0, 1-0 Conference USA) vaulted into the national rankings by upsetting Virginia Tech and West Virginia in consecutive weeks, but barely escaped having Tulane (0-2, 0-1) pull the same trick on them. ¶Matt Eller’s 27-yard field goal with 1:40 left helped No. 24 Illinois hold off visiting Louisiana-Lafayette, 20-17. Illinois (2-1) did not put the game away until Garrett Edwards recovered an onside kick by Louisiana-Lafayette (0-2) with less than 20 seconds left.

Football
Purdue University
College Athletics
Oregon State University


Matt Kemp Has Standout Season Amid Dodgers’ Trying One

Abstract: PHOENIX — Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp was running out of time in his quest for the triple crown. It was a sensitive area, and there was an obvious way to manage it, but when Don Mattingly found Kemp in the trainer’s room Tuesday at Chase Field, he opted to do nothing. Mattingly, the Dodgers’ manager, resisted the impulse to move Kemp from third in the lineup to leadoff to perhaps give him an extra plate appearance so he might improve his numbers. The Dodgers were facing playoff-bound Arizona, which was battling for home-field advantage in the first round. Mattingly felt he owed it to the Diamondbacks — and to baseball — not to tinker with his best lineup. “I think we should just play it straight,” Mattingly said he told Kemp. “It doesn’t seem like we should be trying to play for numbers right now.” The big picture was paramount during Mattingly’s 14-year career as a first baseman with the Yankees, his only major league team. “That’s the way I was always taught,” he said. Mattingly received no push-back from Kemp, who said, “I told him if it happens, it happens.” Entering the season finale, Kemp 27, had a league-leading 124 runs batted in, was tied for the league lead in home runs with 38 and was third in the batting race at .324. On Wednesday night, he hit his 39th homer and drove in two runs to give him 126 R.B.I. No National League player has won the triple crown since Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937. The last player to win it was Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Kemp got a bonus at-bat Tuesday when the game went into extra innings, and he did not waste it, singling to center to drive in a run. He reached second on an error by outfielder Chris Young and scored on James Loney’s single. The Dodgers scored five runs to go ahead, 6-1, but the Diamondbacks, as they have all season, stormed back. They scored six runs, the last four on a grand slam by Ryan Roberts, for a 7-6 victory. Kemp finished behind the N.L. batting leader, Jose Reyes of the Mets, by 13 percentage points. “There’s a bunch of times I hit balls right at somebody or somebody made a diving catch or I just missed beating out the throw to first,” Kemp said. “That’s baseball.” As the triple crown race wound down, Kemp was content to let others do the math. The only player whose numbers he had been following closely, he said, was his friend Prince Fielder. Kemp could not tell you what Fielder’s Milwaukee teammate Ryan Braun, who finished second in the batting race, did Tuesday night. But Kemp did know that Fielder had tied him with 38 homers. “Me and Prince are sending text messages to each other all the time,” Kemp said Tuesday. “I told him at the beginning of the season I was trying to get more R.B.I.’s than him. He had three home runs tonight, so I guess I better get with it.” In the visitors’ dugout during batting practice, a first-aid kit the size of a briefcase was open to reveal a murderers’ row of misery. Tums. Maalox. Pepcid. Imodium. Bufferin. Excedrin. Tylenol. The season has been one long headache for the Dodgers, who started 36-46 and have seen their owner challenge his wife in divorce court and the baseball commissioner in bankruptcy court. On the field, Kemp, pitcher Clayton Kershaw (21-5) and Andre Ethier, who hit safely in 30 consecutive games, have provided the only real relief. “The season that Matt’s having is taking the team’s mind off of everything else,” said Junior Spivey, a former Diamondbacks infielder who stood with Kemp’s mother in the corridor outside the visitor’s clubhouse after Tuesday’s game, waiting to say hello. Kemp’s season has been so sublime, he has won over more than one person with allegiances to the Arizona franchise. The Diamondbacks fans stopped chanting “Beat L.A.!” long enough to politely applaud when Kemp came to bat. “I get some love when we’re in other teams’ ballparks,” said Kemp, who was booed at Dodger Stadium last season, when he batted .249 with 28 homers and 89 R.B.I. after signing a two-year, $10.95 million contract. Toward the end of that season, Kemp delivered what was generally dismissed as a not-so-funny joke, saying that in 2011 he would hit at least 40 homers and steal 40 bases to join a club with only four members: Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano. Who’s laughing now? Kemp had 39 homers and 40 stolen bases. Kemp said it was “whack” — a slang word for crazy that he uses often — to imagine his 40-40 goal dying on the warning track and winding up as the league’s most valuable player anyway. “I’ve never been really this individual that’s been greedy, trying to get mine,” Kemp said. The M.V.P. race appears to be a dead heat between Kemp and Braun. The voters will have to decide who is fundamentally more valuable: a star on a talented playoff team or a star who carries a lesser team by himself. “I think it’s easier for the guy in the playoff hunt to put up big numbers because he’s not worrying about himself,” said Mattingly, who was the American League M.V.P. in 1985. “His focus, and the focus of the guys around him, is all on winning.” Except on the days when Kershaw pitches, Kemp is the bright light around which the news media flutter. The attention might have bothered him if not for his high-profile relationship with the singer Rihanna, which ended in December. They were trailed by paparazzi as they crisscrossed the country and circumnavigated the globe. “There was more attention paid to me as far as other situations that were going on in my life,” Kemp said. “So, yeah, I think it did help.” He laughed and added: “There’s some beastly paparazzi out there, especially in New York and L.A. You all are pretty harmless.”

Baseball
Los Angeles Dodgers
Kemp Matt
Mattingly Don


Right-Wing Video Suggests D.N.C. Contractors Schemed to Incite Chaos at Donald Trump Rallies

Abstract: Two operatives who were working with the Democratic National Committee to help elect Hillary Clinton are no longer working in that role after an undercover video appeared to show them plotting to incite violence at Donald J. Trump’s rallies. The creatively edited video (which contains profane language) was the work of James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action , a right-wing organization that sends researchers around the country to spy on the inner workings of Democratic campaigns. The tape showed Robert Creamer , of Democracy Partners, and Scott Foval, formerly of People for the American Way and Americans United for Change, appearing to talk about plans to plant people outside of Trump rallies and instigate fights. “It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this,” Mr. Foval said in one clip of the video that describes how to get Mr. Trump’s supporters to start punching the people that they plant in line at his rallies. Violence at Mr. Trump’s rallies was widespread over the summer , as Mr. Trump was widely blamed for riling up his fans with bombastic language. At one point, he promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who roughed up protesters. The Democratic National Committee said in a statement that it contracted Mr. Creamer in June 2016 to do counterprogramming in cities where the Trump campaign was holding events. While the committee said it opposed the incitement of violence of any kind, it was also investigating any potential illegal activity by Mr. O’Keefe. “The practices described in the video by this temporary regional subcontractor do not in any way comport with our longstanding policies on organizing events, and those statements and sentiments do not represent the values that the committee holds dear,” Donna Brazile, the interim chairwoman of the D.N.C., said in a statement. “We do not believe, or have any evidence to suggest, that the activities articulated in the video actually occurred.” Mr. Creamer, who was portrayed by the narrator in the video as the “diabolical” mastermind of a team of Democratic consultants, said that Mr. Foval was no longer working with him and that he was stepping away from the campaign to avoid being a distraction. “We regret the unprofessional and careless hypothetical conversations that were captured on hidden cameras of a temporary regional contractor for our firm, and he is no longer working with us,” said Mr. Creamer, who is not seen on tape endorsing the plans to create chaos. “While none of the schemes described in the conversations ever took place, these conversations do not at all reflect the values of Democracy Partners.” Mr. Foval could not be reached for comment. The Clinton campaign denounced the tactics discussed in the video while expressing doubts about the measures employed by Mr. O’Keefe. “While Project Veritas has been known to offer misleading video out of context, some of the language and tactics referenced in the video are troubling even as a theory or proposal never executed,” said Zac Petkanas, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton. “We support the Democratic National Committee’s appropriate action addressing this matter and look forward to continue waging a campaign of ideas worthy of our democratic process.” Mr. O’Keefe’s organization put campaigns on notice last year that his investigators, who he considers to be journalists, would be aggressively working to infiltrate their operations this election cycle. While Mr. O’Keefe has been a thorn in the side of campaigns over the years, he has also had legal problems of his own. In 2010, Mr. O’Keefe pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and was fined for posing as a repairman to gain access to the office of former Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Three years ago, Mr. O’Keefe paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Acorn member after he posed as a pimp during an investigation of the activist group. In his latest video, Mr. O’Keefe said that he planned to release more damaging evidence of wrongdoing before the election.

Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton
2016 Presidential Election
Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
DNC
James E O'Keefe III
Civil Unrest


Ivory Coast Violence Forces Hundreds of Thousands to Flee

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — At least 700,000 people have fled their homes in Ivory Coast ’s main city, Abidjan, to escape the increasing violence and collapsing economy stemming from the nation’s political crisis, the United Nations said Friday. Daily gunfire spurred by Laurent Gbagbo ’s efforts to stay in power after losing a presidential election in November has pushed thousands of residents out of neighborhoods surrounding the city’s central districts, while the closing of banks and businesses have led to widespread unemployment. “The massive displacement in Abidjan and elsewhere is being fueled by fears of all-out war,” a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told reporters Friday in Geneva, estimating that 700,000 to one million people had already left their homes. “Bus terminals are overcrowded with passengers desperate to get seats on vehicles heading to northern, central and eastern parts of the country where there has been no fighting so far,” an agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said. In Abidjan, Mr. Gbagbo’s security forces have waged an armed campaign against neighborhoods loyal to the man recognized by international bodies as the winner of the presidential election, Alassane Ouattara, killing at least 25 people with mortar shells at a market last week, the United Nations said. This month, unarmed demonstrators against his rule were mowed down with machine-gun fire. Guerilla fighters have waged attacks against Mr. Gbagbo’s forces in Abidjan, while civilians, caught in the cross-fire, are now deserting neighborhoods wholesale. The United Nations and African political bodies have been unable to stop the attacks on civilians, despite the presence of a large United Nations peacekeeping force in Abidjan and repeated visits to the city by political leaders from across the continent seeking to mediate a settlement. At the United Nations, France and Nigeria are calling for additional sanctions on Mr. Gbagbo and his inner circle — to add to those imposed late last year by the European Union and the United States — as well as a ban on heavy weapons use in Abidjan. The United Nations estimates that nearly 500 people have been killed since the election; Mr. Ouattara puts the figure at nearly double that. The mortar attack last week may amount to “crimes against humanity,” the United Nations said, but a spokesman for Mr. Gbagbo later riposted with a blast against “Western media” for spreading “false information,” warning that international journalists there would be considered a “media extension of prevailing terrorism.” Fighting in the western part of Ivory Coast has also displaced tens of thousands of residents, according to the United Nations and aid agencies, as fighters loyal to Mr. Ouattara skirmish with militias and troops tied to Mr. Gbagbo. Towns near the Liberian border have been deserted by people fleeing to the neighboring country, the United Nations said, and there has been looting, rape and killing of civilians in the region. On Tuesday alone, Ms. Fleming said, 6,000 from Ivory Coast entered Liberia.

Ivory Coast
Gbagbo Laurent
Refugees and Displaced Persons
Civil War and Guerrilla Warfare


After the Battle, Fighting the Bottle at Home

Abstract: Most nights when Anthony Klecker, a former marine, finally slept, he found himself back on the battlefields of Iraq . He would awake in a panic, and struggle futilely to return to sleep. Days were scarcely better. Car alarms shattered his nerves. Flashbacks came unexpectedly, at the whiff of certain cleaning chemicals. Bar fights seemed unavoidable; he nearly attacked a man for not washing his hands in the bathroom. Desperate for sleep and relief, Mr. Klecker, 30, drank heavily. One morning, his parents found him in the driveway slumped over the wheel of his car, the door wide open, wipers scraping back and forth. Another time, they found him curled in a fetal position in his closet. Yet only after his drunken driving caused the death of a 16-year-old cheerleader did Mr. Klecker acknowledge the depth of his problem: His eight months at war had profoundly damaged his psyche. “I was trying to be the tough marine I was trained to be — not to talk about problems, not to cry,” said Mr. Klecker, who has since been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder . “I imprisoned myself in my own mind.” Mr. Klecker’s case is part of a growing body of evidence that alcohol abuse is rising among veterans of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, many of them trying to deaden the repercussions of war and disorientation of home. While the numbers remain relatively small, experts say and studies indicate that the problem is particularly prevalent among those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as it was after Vietnam . Studies indicate that illegal drug use, much less common than heavy drinking in the military, is up slightly, too. Increasingly, these troubled veterans are spilling into the criminal justice system. A small fraction wind up in prison for homicides or other major crimes. Far more, though, are involved in drunken bar fights, reckless driving and alcohol-fueled domestic violence. Whatever the particulars, their stories often spool out in unwitting victims, ruptured families, lost jobs and crushing debt. With the rising awareness of the problem has come mounting concern about the access to treatment and whether enough combat veterans are receiving the help that is available to them. Having cut way back in the 1990s as the population of veterans declined, the Veterans Health Administration says it is expanding its alcohol- and drug-abuse services. But advocacy groups and independent experts — including members of a Pentagon mental-health task force that issued its report last year — are concerned that much more needs to be done. In May, the House and Senate passed bills that would require the veterans agency to expand substance-abuse screening and treatment for all veterans. “The war is now and the problems are now,” said Richard A. McCormick, a senior scholar for public health at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who served on the Pentagon task force. “Every day there is a cohort of men and women being discharged who need services not one or two or five years from now. They need them now.” For active-duty service members, the military faces a shortage of substance-abuse providers on bases across the country, while its health insurance plan, Tricare, makes it difficult for many reservists and their families to get treatment. In the breach, a few states, including California , Connecticut and Minnesota , have passed laws or begun programs to encourage alternative sentences, often including treatment, for veterans with substance-abuse and mental-health problems. In recent years, the military has worked to transform a culture that once indulged heavy drinking as part of its warrior ethos into one that discourages it and encourages service members to seek help. “The Army takes alcohol and drug abuse very seriously and has tried for decades to deglamorize its use,” said Lt. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman. “With the urgency of this war, we continue to tackle the problem with education, prevention and treatment.” That is a tricky mission in time of war. “The problem in today’s military is soldiers have to be warriors, killers, do war, but we don’t allow them any releases like we used to,” said Bryan Lane, a former special forces sergeant who sustained a traumatic brain injury in Iraq and has post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. “You can’t go out and drink, you can’t get into a fight. It’s completely unrealistic.” The military, he said, is trying to create a contradiction: “a perfect warrior, and then a perfect gentleman.” Warning Signs Grow Fort Drum, in the North Country of New York just outside Watertown, is home to the Army’s most-deployed brigade — the Second Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division. Late last year, several thousand soldiers returned after 15 months in Iraq. Some had served three, even four, tours, and they quickly overwhelmed the base’s mental health system. A study by an advocacy group, Veterans for America, found the demand for psychological help was so great, and the system so overburdened, that soldiers often waited a month to be seen. Many also did what generations of homecoming soldiers have done: they salved their wounds in local bars. With drinking off-limits in Iraq, at least openly, they were that much more likely to binge, that much less able to tolerate it. The base’s commander, Maj. Gen. Michael L. Oates, says that since his arrival in early 2007, misconduct related to substance abuse has reached “unacceptable” levels, despite a toughened regimen of education, designated-driver programs and penalties. “The rate of illegal drug use is slightly up; the rate of alcohol is more than slightly up,” General Oates said. “I’m not a teetotaler. I’m not against people drinking. I’m against misconduct.” By last March, he had seen enough. He ordered the base’s newspaper, The Fort Drum Blizzard, to publish the names and photographs of all soldiers charged with drunken driving. To date, at least 116 have appeared. Half were combat veterans who had returned in the last year, the general said, though others may have deployed earlier. Most returning soldiers readjust after a few months. But the general estimated that at least 20 percent turned to heavy drinking or drugs — typically “the first signal that there is something wrong.” Across the military, the precise dimensions of the problem are elusive, especially since the different branches largely keep their own statistics. Many studies do not distinguish between service members who have seen battle and those who have not. What is more, behavior becomes far harder to track when service members leave the military. Even so, a variety of surveys, as well as anecdotal evidence and rising alarm in many military communities, indicate growing substance abuse among recent combat veterans. Of particular concern are members of the National Guard and reserves, as well as recently discharged service members, who can lose their bearings outside the camaraderie and structure of the military. In the Army, which has the bulk of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s most recent survey of health-related behavior, conducted in 2005 but released last year, found that for the first time in more than 20 years, roughly a quarter of soldiers surveyed considered themselves regular heavy drinkers — defined as having five or more drinks at least once a week. The report called the increase — to 24.5 percent in 2005, from 17.2 percent in 1998 — “an issue of concern.” Perhaps the best monitor of recent combat veterans’ mental health is the Pentagon’s postdeployment survey. Reflecting concern about heavy drinking, the latest report, published last November, introduced a question about drinking habits. Of the 88,235 soldiers surveyed in 2005 and 2006, three to six months after returning from war, 12 percent of active-duty troops and 15 percent of reservists acknowledged having problems with alcohol. While drug use decreased substantially after 1980, when the military cracked down, it has increased slightly in the Army and the Marines since 2002, the behavioral survey said. Experts say that, in some cases, troubled combat veterans are more prone to use drugs after leaving the military. In general, studies find that drinking is more prevalent in the military than in the civilian population; the behavioral survey reported that heavy drinking among 18- to 25-year-old men in the Army and the Marines was almost twice as common as among their civilian counterparts. Heavy drinking or drug use frequently figures in what law enforcement officials and commanders at military bases across the country say is a rising number of crimes and other examples of misconduct involving soldiers, marines and recent veterans. “Alcohol and drug use starts a cascade of worse problems,” said Dr. McCormick, the task force member, who recently retired as director of mental health for the state veterans affairs system in Ohio . “It’s like throwing gasoline on fire.” Most cases involve low-level misconduct. From 2005 to 2006, for example, “alcohol-related incidents” — mostly drunken or reckless driving and disorderly conduct — more than tripled at Fort Hood, Tex., according to information released to the Pentagon task force. Other statistics showed a similar pattern throughout the Army, a task force member said. The Marines, filled with young men drawn by the corps’ hard-charging image, have traditionally had the military’s highest drinking rates. While the behavior survey showed a slight decrease in heavy drinking after 2002, it showed an increase in binge drinking. The Marines also reported a rise in alcohol-related incidents. Sometimes, though, substance abuse becomes a factor in major crimes. This year, a New York Times examination of killings in this country by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan found that drinking or drug use was frequently involved in the crimes. Last month, a soldier at Fort Bliss, outside El Paso , was charged with killing a woman in a drunken-driving accident — the third intoxicated soldier there accused of killing a civilian in six months, said the commander, Maj. Gen. Harold B. Bromberg. Substance abuse frequently figures in suicides , which reached a high in the Army last year; alcohol or drugs were cited in 30 percent of those 115 cases, the Pentagon reported. Running through many of these soldiers’ lives is combat trauma or other mental scars of war. Research has shown that the likelihood of mental health problems rises with the intensity of combat exposure. (In a recent RAND Corporation study, one in five veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of combat stress or major depression .) In turn, service members with such problems more often report heavy drinking or illicit drug use. In part, this dynamic is rooted in the warrior code. Trained to be tough and ignore their fear, many combat veterans are reluctant to acknowledge psychic wounds. Or they worry that getting help will damage their careers. And so, like Mr. Klecker, they treat themselves with the liquor bottle or illegal drugs. Raising Awareness In the last decade, the military has rolled out a number of programs to deal with excessive drinking. Soldiers carry call-a-cab cards. One base hands out portable breathalyzers. A new online campaign pokes fun at “That Guy,” a military man who drinks too much and ends up embarrassing himself and in trouble. Yet many experts and veterans advocates, as well as some military and government officials, agree that treatment continues to lag behind awareness — in terms of access, but also in the willingness to use what is there. Studies showing the prevalence of alcohol problems also consistently show how few of those problem drinkers receive treatment. In the Pentagon’s postdeployment survey, for example, fewer than a 10th of those reporting alcohol problems had been referred for treatment; only a small fraction received treatment within 90 days. Similarly, in the Pentagon task force data from Fort Hood, only 41 percent of those involved in alcohol-related incidents were referred to the alcohol program. Mental health experts call these results unsurprising. Just as many combat veterans self-medicate by drinking to quiet their mental storms, so they are loathe to acknowledge their drinking problems and seek treatment. Military policy can also hold them back. Service members are increasingly encouraged to seek treatment, without fear of punishment . Even so, signing up automatically alerts a commander. That certainty can stir fears of reprisal and discourage others, like chaplains or marital counselors, from referring troops for treatment. The Pentagon task force recommended changing this policy for soldiers who seek help early, before the drinking or drug use crosses into addiction. “It is a very difficult problem,” said Shelley M. MacDermid, a co-chairwoman of the panel and director of the Center for Families at Purdue University . “The likely result is that there are folks who want and need treatment who are not getting it, about whom commanders know nothing.” For users of hard drugs, treatment within the military is rare. The military generally discharges them, arguing that they can no longer do their jobs, and refers them to veterans clinics. However, some experts argue that the military should treat some who started using drugs after fighting in war. At Fort Drum, General Oates says he sometimes gives second chances to some soldiers who test positive. The Army has increased its substance-abuse budget from $38 million in 2004 to $51 million this year. The Marine Corps says its budget is rising, too. Still, recruiting treatment professionals “continues to be a challenge,” said Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general. Colonel Ritchie said the Army was recruiting overseas and at home for 330 jobs, and had filled slightly more than half. In the veterans health system, the cutbacks of the 1990s left only a small network of programs for the most extreme addicts. Today, veterans service organizations say, the system still needs more modern programs offering intense outpatient treatment, detoxification and stabilization services. Some smaller clinics offer bare-bones treatment or none at all, they say, and veterans in rural areas are hard-pressed to find help near home. At the veterans agency, officials say they share Congress’s goal of expanding programs. Dr. Antonette Zeiss, the deputy chief consultant for mental health, said the agency had “rebuilt” its programs in the last three years, adding that it had hired 510 counselors and has programs in 90 to 100 of its larger facilities, with 28 more to be added soon. It is also trying to address what many experts say is a growing need: programs for both substance abuse and combat stress. That need was underscored by a New Jersey study of 292 National Guard members who had returned from Iraq in the last year. The researchers found that 37 percent had experienced “problem drinking”; for those with post-traumatic stress disorder, the figure rose to 55 percent. Yet among those reporting both, 41 percent received mental health treatment but only 9 percent received help for substance abuse. Substance abuse, though, must often be treated first, experts say, since it is hard to treat someone for combat stress who is drinking or using drugs. Getting help can be difficult for many combat veterans who rely on the military’s Tricare health plan — reservists and National Guard members living far from veterans clinics or military bases, along with some retirees — the Pentagon task force found. Finding treatment programs that accept Tricare often ends in frustration, and few residential rehabilitation programs have the accreditation required by the plan. A small but growing number of state and local authorities are trying to bridge the gaps. Last January, a city court judge in Buffalo , Robert T. Russell, noticed a surge of recent veterans with substance-abuse and mental-health problems in the city’s courtrooms. He created the nation’s first Veterans Court, where, instead of jail, veterans arrested for low-level crimes, mostly tied to alcohol or drugs, are enrolled in treatment. Among them is Garry Pettengill. When Mr. Pettengill, 25, was medically discharged from the Army in 2006, he had been drinking heavily to cope with a back injury and insomnia . Back home with his wife and three children, he came further unglued. He could not keep a job. While his drinking abated, he said, he started smoking marijuana every day and then began selling it. Last February, he was arrested; out on bail, he fantasized about jumping out windows or hanging himself. A call to a suicide hot line sent him to a veterans hospital for nine days. Then he landed in Veterans Court. He has been clean for five months. “I get punished, obviously,” he said, “but they want to make sure I do get a job and don’t sell drugs and get the substance-abuse treatment I need.” A Troubled Return Home Anthony Klecker experienced the brutality of war early, enduring ambushes and firefights as one of the first marines to fight from Kuwait to Baghdad and on to Tikrit. What torments him most, though, is the uncertainty. As the gunner on the rear Humvee in a First Marine Division convoy, Corporal Klecker was charged with making sure that nothing — no cars, no Iraqis — came too close. In the distance, he saw a man in farmer’s robes running toward his convoy and fired a warning. Suddenly, a white civilian van came hurtling up the road. Mr. Klecker fired another warning, then let loose several bursts of machine-gun fire at the van and the man. The van stopped. Mr. Klecker said he did not know if he had killed them — though he assumed he did — or if they were innocent Iraqis. Still, he says: “I was proud. I had a lot of adrenaline. I did my job.” Later, though, the incident no longer seemed so clear-cut. “I started to feel a sense of shame,” he said, “shame about if I did the right thing or didn’t.” Before joining the Marines, Mr. Klecker drank and smoked marijuana, but not heavily, said his lawyer, Brockton Hunter. He was once stopped for drinking and driving, but the charge was downgraded to careless driving because his blood-alcohol level was just over the limit. After Iraq, he shipped out to Okinawa and did what many marines do there: he drank — a lot. But it was not until he left the Marines and returned home to suburban St. Paul that his panic attacks , nightmares and insomnia worsened. So did his drinking. He rarely spoke about the war, and only to other veterans. Soon he racked up arrests for drinking and fighting, and Mr. Hunter persuaded him to go to the Veterans Affairs center for help. As often happens, the experience did not take. Mr. Klecker says he was shuttled from one counselor to another. Trying to talk about Iraq threw him into a panic. He hit bottom on Oct. 28, 2006, when he drunkenly drove into a highway divider. It dislodged, trapping another driver, Deanna Casey, 16, of Minneapolis , who was killed when a tractor-trailer rammed her small car. “If I could switch my life with Deanna’s, I would in a heartbeat,” Mr. Klecker said. “I didn’t ask for help, and I should have.” Afterward, Mr. Klecker received a full veterans disability rating for combat stress. At Mr. Klecker’s trial for vehicular manslaughter, the judge recognized the war’s role in his disintegration and accepted his lawyer’s request for a special deal: After a year in jail, Mr. Klecker moved into an intensive inpatient program at the St. Cloud veterans facility to deal first with his drinking and then his combat stress. Deanna’s mother, Catherine Casey, a Minneapolis police officer, did not welcome the sentence. “There are a lot of young men and women who saw horrible things and have done terrible things and have to live with that,” she remembered thinking. “I thought, ‘Suck it up, Mr. Klecker.’ ” In time, though, she came to see him as “a good kid” who made “bad choices.” In prison, she said, he would get worse. Counselors say Mr. Klecker was a model patient. But he hit a rough patch during the four-week lull — a result of scheduling conflicts — between alcohol treatment and therapy for combat stress. Last November, still untreated for combat trauma, Mr. Klecker twice got into heated arguments with fellow patients, a violation of the program's rules. He was forced to leave the inpatient program and wait for an outpatient slot. In February, the judge ruled that Mr. Klecker could not serve his sentence at home and returned him to prison for 19 months.

Alcohol abuse
Veteran
Pentagon
Drug Abuse
PTSD
Mental Health
Veteran Affairs
Medicine and Health


Citing Stability in Iraq, Bush Sees Troop Cuts

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Bush said Thursday that increased stability in Iraq would allow the withdrawal of more American forces there, reflecting an emerging consensus at the White House and the Pentagon, though a cautious one, that the war has turned a corner. Mr. Bush’s remarks, made in an unusual early morning statement outside the Oval Office, came as the month ended with the fewest number of deaths of American troops — 13 — since the war began in 2003, according to a group that tracks American casualties. Mr. Bush and his aides have been reluctant to declare the sharp drop in ethnic and sectarian violence over the last year as irreversible. Still, he gave the clearest indication yet that conditions in Iraq would allow him to begin reducing the number of American troops there before he leaves office in less than six months. There are now roughly 140,000 American troops in Iraq, as many as there were two years ago, when the conflict peaked. But Mr. Bush said that the turnaround in Iraq would allow “further reductions in our combat forces, as conditions permit.” He also said that the United States was “making progress” in negotiations with Iraq’s government over the terms for American forces to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year. An informal deadline for reaching an agreement expired on Thursday. Officials said that negotiations were continuing and predicted that there would be a deal, though it could take several more days or weeks. The administration propelled those negotiations after Mr. Bush agreed to a “general time horizon,” which many Iraqis like to view as a timetable for withdrawing American and other foreign troops and turning over security to Iraqi forces. Mr. Bush used his statement to highlight what he described as the success of his decision last year to deploy a “surge” of 30,000 American troops. He noted that violence had reached the lowest levels since spring 2004 and had remained at low levels for three consecutive months, even as the last of the additional forces left Iraq. American deaths have paralleled the ebb. The previous monthly low came in May, according to icasualties.org , which tracks the figures, when 19 soldiers died. Deaths among Iraq’s civilians and security forces fell to 865 in July from 975 in June, the Ministry of Interior reported. Mr. Bush said that Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, were confident enough to speak of “a degree of durability” to the gains. Mr. Bush also highlighted his decision, first announced in April, to reduce tours in Iraq to 12 months, from the current 15 months. The longer tours, imposed last year with the “surge,” badly strained forces and were widely unpopular in the Army. “We owe our thanks to all those who wear the uniform and their families, who support them in their vital work,” Mr. Bush said, speaking alone just after 8 a.m. on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office. “And the best way to honor them is to support their mission and bring them home with victory.” The issue of American forces has been a contentious one in American politics, and the reductions Mr. Bush foreshadowed could be announced in the thick of the presidential campaign. Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, has called for a withdrawal of all combat forces within a timetable of 16 months, a position the Republican contender, Senator John McCain, has ridiculed as defeatist. Mr. Bush praised what he called the growing proficiency of Iraq’s government and its security forces, noting that Iraq now had 192 combat battalions. Yet he appeared eager not to declare victory prematurely, something that has haunted him since he appeared before a “Mission Accomplished” banner in 2003. “We remain a nation at war,” he said. “Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, but the terrorists remain dangerous, and they are determined to strike our country and our allies again.” The American military disclosed on Thursday that soldiers had killed three unarmed people during an operation northwest of Samarra on Wednesday, and injured a fourth. Ali Salih Jubarah, a spokesman for Salahuddin Province, the region where the killings occurred, said that Dahia Hussein and her two sons, Ali Jassim and Muhammad Jassim, all civilians, were killed during a raid on a house. He identified the injured person as Ms. Hussein’s daughter, Sabeiha Jassim. The military said that soldiers had been fired on from the area where the people were killed and had arrested a man who “admitted working with explosives,” in the same area. It said that no weapons had been found with any of the Iraqis. Earlier in July, American soldiers killed the son and nephew of the governor of Salahuddin Province, and last week, the American military acknowledged that three Iraqis killed on their way to work near the Baghdad airport in June were civilians. In Mosul, in northern Iraq, a bomb on Thursday killed three policemen, wounding four others.

Iraq
Bush George W
United States Armament and Defense


Lawyer Who Advised Churches in China Faces Secretive Detention

Abstract: HONG KONG — A Chinese lawyer who has opposed a government campaign to tear down churches and church crosses faces up to six months in secretive detention after the police detained him and accused him of threatening state security, his colleague said on Tuesday. The lawyer, Zhang Kai, who is from Beijing, disappeared into custody a week ago while in Wenzhou, a commercial city on the coast of Zhejiang Province, where many members of the large and prosperous Christian community have fought the government’s efforts to reduce the presence of churches . Mr. Zhang was in Wenzhou advising a church when the police took him away last Tuesday, and they have since issued an order that could place him under secretive detention for six months, said Yang Xingquan, a colleague of Mr. Zhang’s from the Xinqiao Law Firm in Beijing. Mr. Yang, who was in Wenzhou looking for Mr. Zhang, cited information from the police and Christians in the city. The police refused to allow Mr. Yang to see Mr. Zhang, and they did not explain why they had charged him with endangering state security and “assembling a crowd to disrupt social order,” Mr. Yang said. Mr. Yang said he believed that Mr. Zhang’s assistant, Liu Peng, and another legal worker, Fang Xiangui, were also in secretive detention in Wenzhou. “We haven’t been told where Zhang Kai is or really why he’s been detained,” Mr. Yang said. “We’re still waiting to see whether we’ll be allowed to see him,” he said, citing comments from a police officer involved in the case. “Next, we’ll try to understand the circumstances and speak to people who had contact with him.” Mr. Zhang’s case combines two aspects of tightening restrictions on civic life in China under President Xi Jinping that have alarmed human rights advocates: an intense drive against human rights lawyers and restrictions on religion. Since July, hundreds of lawyers and activists who took on politically contentious causes, like abuse of police power and restrictions on expression, have been detained and questioned by the police , and several in Beijing have been charged with exploiting public grievances to undermine the government and enrich themselves. Their supporters have called the charges a travesty. Amnesty International estimated last month that more than 230 had been detained and that at least 26 were still held by the police. According to Mr. Yang, who said he had spoken to a police officer involved in the case, Mr. Zhang was being held under a form of detention called “ residential confinement .” The police, citing national security needs, have used that process to detain dissidents in secret without trial or access to lawyers or family. Mr. Zhang is one of the most energetic legal advisers of churches in Wenzhou who has opposed government efforts to remove crosses, or demolish some churches, which officials have said violate zoning rules. The churches and their supporters say the government’s real intention is to reduce the visibility and influence of the churches. “Christianity teaches us to submit,” Mr. Zhang said in July, according to Initium Media , a Chinese news website based in Hong Kong. “But what we ought to submit to is the Constitution and morality, not to illegal people and conduct.”

Lawyers
China
Zhang Kai
Christianity
Human Rights
Political prisoner
church,churches