75% of arizona police departments tested refused to obey arizona public records laws. 50% of other arizona government buerocrats refused to obey arizona public records laws.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1219openshut19.html

State's not-so-public records

One-quarter of agencies surveyed failed to meet access requirements

By Jacques Billeaud and Enric Volante

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

Cynthia Weber thought sheriff's investigators didn't care enough about who killed her brother and left his body burning in the desert near Tucson, so she tried to solve the case without them.

But when she asked for the sheriff's files of the case - documents presumed by state law to be public records - she received only about 10 pages. She had to hire a private investigator and an attorney and spend thousands of dollars before she pried loose more than 800 pages.

"It's just been so long and so grueling and so hard to get these files," Weber said. "And I know that there are just so many more that they just won't give us." advertisement

A recent test of compliance with Arizona's Public Records Law suggests that, like Weber, citizens seeking information from the state's police agencies, school districts, or county and municipal officials likely will encounter delays and hassles.

But should they?

About half the agencies in the test delayed release of the records, and nearly one in four failed to turn them over within a week or never provided them.

News organizations, including The Arizona Republic, led by the Associated Press Managing Editors of Arizona, sent journalists acting as regular citizens to 119 government agencies across Arizona over three days to audit compliance with the Public Records Law.

Some agencies handed over records with little or no trouble. Others displayed ignorance of the law, fumbled their handling of the request, accused requesters of being rude when they declined to answer invasive questions, asked auditors to show a driver's license or said approval was first needed from bosses or lawyers.

The audit aimed to find out how ordinary citizens would be treated when asking for records. Auditors were instructed to identify themselves by name but not to volunteer the names of their employers or why they wanted the documents.

Citizens who accompanied auditors as observers on some visits were satisfied with how the requests were handled. But the citizens were unaware that officials sometimes failed to mail records as promised.

Among the specific findings:

• A quarter of the school districts surveyed Sept. 14-16 flunked the test, even though a school public-relations employee in Phoenix circulated an e-mail to colleagues alerting them of the audit roughly two hours after it began.

• In Nogales, an auditor reported that the interim city attorney misstated the law, thumbed through a law book to prove his point and was unable to find any such passage.

• After failing a similar audit in 2001, the Cottonwood Police Department provided a textbook example of access to records, furnishing a report on a vehicle break-in within minutes.

Advocates for open records said the audit's conclusions reflect ignorance of the law on the part of some public employees, a feeling that handing over records is a burden rather than an obligation, and a government culture in which some workers believe the documents belong to their agencies, not the people.

Although state law requires government agencies to let any person inspect public records during office hours, officials said it is often difficult to hand over documents right away.

They said they try hard to provide records to people, but they don't always have the resources to fill requests on the spot.

It takes time for employees who already have a full slate of duties to track down records, blacken out confidential information and photocopy them, they said.

The law doesn't specify a deadline for handing over documents. It was amended in 2002 to require records to be provided "promptly," and by mail if requested.

"The general presumption is that if somebody walks in and asks for a piece of information, they will get it without unreasonable delay and without the type of identification procedures you described," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Relatively simple records should be handed over immediately when possible or within a few days, Goddard said.

Audit participants requested drug and violence reports from public-school offices, accounts of property crimes from police and sheriff's offices, and records of meals, travel and other expenses incurred by city and county managers.

Agencies that didn't hand over records or mail them in envelopes postmarked within seven days of an auditor's visit were found to have flunked.

It took Cynthia Weber eight months and her lawyer's threat to sue the Pima County Sheriff's Department to get a huge batch of records in the investigation of the death of her brother, Jeff Glen Smith.

Weber had concluded a year after her brother's death that investigators were never going to find the culprit because Smith was suspected of having worked in a migrant smuggling operation. "He was my baby brother," Weber said. "Nobody deserves what they (have) done to him."

Detectives and their legal adviser reviewed the files page by page and reluctantly released 873 more pages, plus hundreds of photos and tapes.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which passed the audit, said it never neglected the case and it withheld records only because releasing more than a few would threaten its ability to find the killers.

The Arizona Supreme Court has said detectives can't withhold broad records just because an investigation remains open.

Lt. Michael G. O'Connor, head of the sheriff's homicide unit, said he believed that releasing the records jeopardized the case but that the law required the documents be disclosed.

In the audit, nearly three in four police agencies and school offices passed the test, compared with an 86 percent compliance rate for city and county managers' offices.

About two hours after the audit began, many school public-relations workers received an e-mail warning about two auditors who appeared at a Phoenix district office asking for a violence and drugs report.

In his e-mail, Phoenix Union High School District spokesman Craig Pletenik said he was "ambushed" by the two people. After questioning one of the two, Pletenik said he learned one was a newspaper reporter.

"They seemed more interested in the process and how we responded rather than the information itself," Pletenik said.

Two days later, Scottsdale Unified School District spokesman Tom Herrmann wrote: "My thanks for the warning. . . . We were able to (respond) within 10 minutes."

The e-mails, sent over a listserv run by the Arizona School Public Relations Association, were obtained through the Public Records Law.

Nedda Shafir, president of the public-relations group and spokeswoman for the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, said the alert didn't skew the audit's results.

"Why did they send it out, then?" state Rep. Linda Gray, a top education advocate at the Legislature, said, laughing at the claim.

Gray said the heads-up e-mail reflects the natural desire for government employees to appear in a favorable light.

She said it was unacceptable for a quarter of districts either to refuse to release the report or to take too long to produce it.

"The whole intent is to inform parents, and if the districts are not willing to give information to parents, they are not in compliance with the statute," Gray said.

Ignorance of records law appeared most often among the receptionists and clerks, usually the first point of contact in records requests.

But, in one case, an auditor reported that one of the people whose job it is to know the law demonstrated ignorance.

The auditor reported that Luis Parra, interim city attorney for Nogales, erroneously insisted the city had 10 days to respond to a request.

To prove his point, Parra pulled out a law book. Although he was unable to locate a provision, Parra maintained he was correct, the auditor reported.

The attorney also claimed the records law requires people requesting records to provide addresses and phone numbers. Parra flipped through the book again and insisted he was right, even though he couldn't find such a passage, the auditor said.

"We can't have just anyone walk in and show them these records," Parra told the auditor.

In an interview this month, Parra disputed parts of the auditor's account, particularly the assertion that the law requires requesters to provide addresses and phone numbers.

He said he might have mentioned a 10-day deadline for filling records requests, even though at the time he wasn't sure that there was such a requirement. "It's very hard to pretty much have dates on the top of my head," Parra said.

In a similar audit by news organizations in 2001, the Cottonwood Police Department stood out as one of the agencies that most vehemently denied a public-records request.

During this year's audit, clerk Nadine Flores provided the requested record within minutes. Unlike some of her counterparts, Flores didn't ask why the record was sought or raise the possibility that the record wouldn't be available during the visit.

"Usually when a person walks in, we try to get them the report the day they walk in," she said. "That is typical for us."

Tom Heck, superintendent of the Litchfield Elementary School District and president of the Arizona School Administrators Association, said it's human nature for some public employees to hesitate in handing out information, fumble around for records and inquire why requesters want documents.

Even so, Heck said, schools need to train employees about which records are open.

Prompt access to public records from schools hinges largely on whether a district is big enough to have a designated person to handle such requests, Heck said.

"The bigger districts are more prepared for your test," said Heck, who doubles as the official spokesman for his small district. "If you came to me, I'd say I'd have to figure it out."

A number of variables - staffing levels, the complexity of requests, the need to delete privileged information - make it difficult to generalize about the availability of records at local government agencies across the state, said Debbie Spinner, city attorney for Mesa and president of the Arizona City Attorneys Association.

Spinner said her office trains Mesa employees on records law and advises them if questions arise. An employee in the City Manager's Office also is designated to handle requests.

"We take public-record requests really seriously and jump on them as quickly as we can," Spinner said.

Mesa's Police Department passed the test, but its City Manager's Office didn't.

Advocates for open records said some hurdles to getting records promptly are the result of well-intentioned yet misguided efforts: trying to protect a public official from embarrassment, fear of making a mistake or angering a superior.

Other barriers, however, are the result of obstructionism, said Eric Ehst, a board member of the Arizona Advocacy Network, a group that pushes for more citizen participation in government.

Ehst criticized advice that the school public-relations group received at a seminar it held last month.

Donn Williams, policy services director of the Arizona School Boards Association, recommended that districts claim all personnel records are confidential, thus allowing officials to refuse such requests.

Williams told the group: "The way I look at it is that you tell them it's confidential, you stonewall as long as you can, and whenever they come back with an attorney's opinion or any attorney general's opinion or something like that, you do 'mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa,' and you give them the stuff.

"It sounds a little funny, but that's essentially the way we recommend you do it, because more often than not, people won't pursue it after that first round."

Williams said he wasn't advising people to obstruct or mislead the public.

Williams said he meant that officials should stall long enough to determine whether a record is public so they don't expose the government to liability.

He said he probably used the wrong word when he said "stonewall."

Ehst said denying or unreasonably delaying the release of records robs taxpayers of the chance to see for themselves what the government is doing in their name.

"If information isn't available to the public," Ehst said, "then government can overstep its bounds with impunity because the public doesn't know what it's doing."

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special19/articles/1218openshut-police-ON.html

Testing Arizona's Public Records Law at police stations

Associated Press

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

On three consecutive days in September, journalists visited about 120 government agencies across Arizona to test how they apply the state's Public Records Law. They sought the same types of records from three types of agencies - law enforcement, city or county managers offices, and schools. They identified themselves by name only because the law does not require a reason when making a records request and so they would be treated as average citizens. Overall, they could not see the records in about half their visits - despite the law's requirement that "public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to any person at all times during office hours." And despite the recent addition of the word "promptly" to this requirement.

RECORD SOUGHT: Auditors identified a specific property crime through newspaper stories or other means and asked for the agency's report on the crime. The following summaries represent nearly all the agency visits in this category.

APACHE COUNTY SHERIFF advertisement

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

Three people reviewed the request. Driver's license was requested but after objection, not required.

APACHE JUNCTION POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

Was told that citizens usually need an appointment. To see record, had to provide address and phone on a "Public Records Request and Letter of Clearance Form."

AVONDALE POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

A written request was required.

BISBEE POLICE

Saw records in visit? Yes

Fee: 20 cents per page

Had to drive from police department, to City Hall, back to police department. Was told it would be a couple of days but "maybe" could see it that day.

BUCKEYE POLICE

Saw record in visit? No.

Fee: $7

Agency said it would call back with records but never did.

CAMP VERDE MARSHAL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $2

Was required to allow photocopying of driver's license to get record. Clerk would not give full name.

CASA GRANDE POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

First clerk said if the auditor wasn't involved in the case, then she couldn't see it. Informed about the law, a clerk nearby relented.

COTTONWOOD POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $3

Clerk helped find case number, retrieved report and turned it over in five minutes with few questions asked.

COCONINO COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $6

Auditor wasn't asked to reveal details of identity.

DOUGLAS POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 20 cents per page

Record turned over within eight minutes by clerk/dispatcher on duty, no questions asked.

EL MIRAGE POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor was asked for purpose of records request.

ELOY POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $7.50

Had to fill out police form with phone and driver's license number, walk a block to finance department and pay fee. Asked why $7.50, was told, "I don't know. That's just what we charge."

FLAGSTAFF POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $6

No written request was required.

FLORENCE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

Clerk was going to a meeting, too busy to handle request. Requester was told to fill out form. Record mailed 12 days later.

GLENDALE POLICE

Saw record in visit? No.

Fee: $5

Was told to fill out form; time for review and redacting was needed. Got record later.

GREENLEE COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: No

No written request was required.

GOODYEAR POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $3

Three people in on decision to deny the record. Was told police chief must review all such requests.

KINGMAN POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $4.50

No written request was required.

LAKE HAVASU POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $3

Police provided a photocopy of a record. Names of some people involved in the incident were edited out.

MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $3.50

Filled out a form, received document a week later.

MARANA POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $2.50

Auditor cited the Public Records Law in making his request.

MESA POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

Was told record would take at least two weeks by mail. Picked it up the following week. Detailed form required, asking "purpose of request" with following options - victim, witness, insurance claim or other.

NOGALES POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $2.50

Five people involved in decision. Went from police to county attorney, back to police, then chief of police ordered the record released.

ORO VALLEY POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $2

No written request was required.

PARADISE VALLEY POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

Paid fee to get record by mail later. Fee was returned by mail with note saying they couldn't find record.

PAYSON POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $3

Was told policy calls for seven to 10 days for processing records request. Form asks what record will be used for. Record mailed 12 days later.

PEORIA POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $1.60

Was asked repeatedly why wanted record if not victim.

PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 60 cents

Request turned over to detective, who provided documents a few days later.

PINAL COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $7.50

Said they would send it if approved by the supervising sergeant. Mailed 14 days later.

PRESCOTT POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $1.50

Requester was asked repeatedly if she was victim. Did not give name, so "refused" was stamped on form where name was requested.

PRESCOTT VALLEY POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Auditor wasn't asked to detail her identity.

SAN LUIS POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $3

The employee waiting on the auditor was helpful.

SAFFORD POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

Written request was required.

SCOTTSDALE POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

Would not supply report without victim name or exact address of crime.

SHOW LOW POLICE

Saw records in visit? Yes

Fee: $5

First was told it would have to be mailed, later told it was available. Request form calls name, address and phone number "required" information. Under "voluntary information," the form asks requester to explain reason for seeking report and state involvement in the case.

SIERRA VISTA POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 20 cents per page

Had to fill out a form, got record in 15 minutes, no questions asked.

SURPRISE POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

Clerk said incident under investigation so report not available yet. Initial report said to be available only to victim.

TEMPE POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $5

First told, "You can't just sit here and view them. We're not set up that way." Then supervisor said records could be viewed in a few days by appointment. Made one.

TUCSON POLICE

Saw record in visit? Yes.

Fee: 25 cents per page

Staff pointed out that first crimes inquired about were handled by another agency (auditor's error). Once a Tucson police record was requested, it was provided promptly.

YAVAPAI COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw records in visit? No

Fee: None

Records supervisor said inspection requires having a specific case number or social security number of someone involved.

YUMA POLICE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 25 cents.

No written request was required.

YUMA COUNTY SHERIFF

Saw records in visit? No

Fee: $3

Was told it would take five business days to receive a copy of report.

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special19/articles/1218openshut-offices-ON.html

Open records audit of city and county managers offices

Associated Press

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

On three consecutive days in September, journalists visited about 120 government agencies across Arizona to test how they apply Arizona's Public Records Law. They sought the same types of records from three types of agencies - law enforcement, city or county managers offices, and schools. They identified themselves by name only because the law does not require a reason when making a records request and so they would be treated as average citizens. Overall, they could not see the records in about half their visits - despite the law's requirement that "public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to any person at all times during office hours." And despite the recent addition of the word "promptly" to this requirement.

RECORD SOUGHT: Most recent expense report from a top administrator - either city or town manager, county manager or mayor. The following summaries represent nearly all the agency visits in this category.

APACHE COUNTY MANAGER advertisement

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told that the person who would handle the request was at the landfill for routine disposal of records. Record sent by mail within a week.

AVONDALE CITY HALL

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 40 cents

Was told that request must first go through attorney's office and then budget department. Staff called the next day for pick up.

BULLHEAD CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 18 cents per page

Was asked repeatedly why the information was requested. Required to fill out form but did not answer why. Record arrived by mail in six days.

BUCKEYE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

No written request was needed.

CAMP VERDE TOWN MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told that time was needed to find credit card records and remove non-public information. Provided stamped envelope; received record in mail next day.

CASA GRANDE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was informed that request was unusual; city clerk and city attorney must review it. At clerk's request, left a detailed handwritten note. Record was postmarked a week later.

CHANDLER CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told staff needed time to generate report. Picked it up the next day.

COCHISE COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

An employee who provided records said there was no question that the requested documents were public records.

COCONINO COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Secretary said she would research and provide it. Never received receipt, just a letter from secretary stating the cost of a lunch.

COTTONWOOD CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $19.21

Told by city employees a request including rationale must be submitted in writing to the manager himself. Record was postmarked 13 days later; bill included $18 for an hour's "research."

DOUGLAS CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 50 cents

During visit, was provided with a printout of all employee expenses. Then the manager's expenses were singled out in an e-mail sent next day.

EL MIRAGE

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

An employee said the policy was to get records within 72 hours.

ELOY CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

In and out with record in three minutes.

FLAGSTAFF CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

No written request was needed.

FLORENCE TOWN MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Asked to file request on blank paper. Record mailed next day; 25 cents per page copy fee not charged. Was told later that attorney reviews requests for personnel records - and one time when a business seeking a town contract "wanted to use the information to undercut the company that had the town's business."

GILA COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $1.50

Only delay was in hunting up the form that had to be filled out.

GLENDALE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 20 cents per page

Was told during visit there was no such thing as expense report, then by phone later that there was. It had not arrived by mail more than a week later.

GOODYEAR CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Delay needed to retrieve record from another department. Had trouble with attempt to e-mail it that day, so it was faxed the next day.

GRAHAM COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor was asked why she wanted the records.

GREENLEE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor was asked why she wanted the records.

KINGMAN MAYOR

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

The city requested the purpose of the request.

LAKE HAVASU CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 50 cents per page

Filled out city form, had to call back twice before record was made available six days later at City Hall. Form asks whether requester is seeking information for a claim against the government.

MARANA TOWN MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 25 cents

A written request was required.

MARICOPA COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Staff members suspected requester was a reporter so they called newspaper to confirm. Normal 25-cents-per-page fee not charged when record faxed later.

MESA CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Five people considered request before saying there is no expense report, that the city manager pays for things "out of his own pocket." It was discovered later that the city manager did file expense reports.

NOGALES CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Request went to interim city attorney, who insisted state law allows 10 days to respond and said, "We can't have just anyone walk in and show them these records."

PARADISE VALLEY TOWN MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Clerks were unaware of expense reports and would not allow inspection of previous month's overall budget figures because they hadn't been audited.

PAYSON CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 20 cents per page

Was told staff was busy with payroll and a funeral the next day so records would be sent by mail; postmarked five days later. Form required, they said, because city attorney often reviews requests.

PEORIA CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

A secretary and a finance department employee said they do not have access to the records. Was told to fill out a form.

PHOENIX CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told the written request would be reviewed by the public records office and probably finance. Record later provided.

PIMA COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor wasn't asked to detail his identity.

PINAL COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Was asked why we wanted the record but not required to tell. Public relations man remained with requesters the whole time, trying to determine why they were there.

PRESCOTT CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told that all records requests are reviewed by legal department. Staff asked three times if requester was part of some "group or organization."

PRESCOTT VALLEY TOWN MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Was told the staff would need 48 hours to assemble the information requested.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 25 cents per page

Record was provided within five minutes.

SCOTTSDALE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes.

Fee: None

Filled out form with clerk, was sent to finance department. Four pages of records were provided with no questions in 15 minutes.

SHOW LOW CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No.

Fee: None

Was told all requests require legal review. Asked how the office interprets "promptly" from state law, clerk said days or weeks but not a month. Record sent by mail, postmarked three days later.

SOMERTON CITY HALL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 25 cents

Auditor was asked why he wanted the records.

SURPRISE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: 50 cents per page

Clerk said finance department even added a top sheet to help understand the information better. In and out within 15 minutes.

TEMPE CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Guard said requester would probably need appointment but receptionist provided a form and said it would take a couple of days. City manager himself later phoned to ask who wanted the record and why.

TUCSON CITY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Receptionist led requester to an administrator, who had two pages copied and, without prompting, explained each item line by line.

YAVAPAI COUNTY MANAGER

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Told on a Thursday that records are in a warehouse so call back Monday. Provided with two pages of expenditure statements and a reimbursement stub.

YUMA CITY ADMINISTRATION OFFICE

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: $3

Auditor wasn't asked to detail identity.

YUMA COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: 25 cents per page, $7.75

Was told records are in another building so not available until next day. After checking written form, staff deduced that requester was a reporter.

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special19/articles/1218openshut-schools-ON.html

Open records audit fo school districts around Arizona

Associated Press

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

On three consecutive days in September, journalists visited about 120 government agencies across Arizona to test how they apply Arizona's Public Records Law. They sought the same types of records from three types of agencies - law enforcement, city or county managers offices, and schools. They identified themselves by name only because the law does not require a reason when making a records request and so they would be treated as average citizens. Overall, they could not see the records in about half their visits - despite the law's requirement that "public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to any person at all times during office hours." And despite the recent addition of the word "promptly" to this requirement.

RECORD SOUGHT: Auditors identified a specific school or school district and asked them for a school violence report, which federal law requires them to keep. The following summaries represent nearly all the agency visits in this category.

BUCKEYE UNION HIGH SCHOOL advertisement

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Four people considered request and superintendent provided repeated assurances that it would be made available. After a week, had received nothing.

CLIFTON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

The following were given as reasons the report could not be viewed: No time, no staff available, report not kept, unclear which report was sought, need to check with the state, computer problems.

DYSART HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor wasn't asked to reveal details of his identity.

ELOY INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: "Nada"

Receptionist sent requester to principal, who said that she could not get to it but that district office next door could. Clerk there found and provided it in 20 minutes. Asked for the charge, she said "Nada."

FLAGSTAFF UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Three staff members did not know where to find the report but had heard of it. Said they would check with someone else and call back later.

FOUNTAIN HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Requester was required to reveal who she was to get document. Said she was reporter but refused to say why she wanted it. Superintendent asked, "Well, can you politely tell me why you want it?"

GILBERT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Requester was asked whether she was a reporter. Was required to answer to get document. Was told that the question is asked of all who seek public documents so they can direct them to the proper person.

GLOBE HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Was referred to assistant principal at high school, then to district office in another building. Record was provided there within 15 minutes.

HIGLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Started at district office, sent to high school. First staff members there never heard of record, was referred to principal, who asked repeatedly but did not insist on identity and purpose.

KINGMAN HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

The auditor didn't have to cite Arizona's Public Records Law in making the request.

KYRENE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Four people handled the request. Requester was asked twice if she was a "concerned parent or community member" but was not required to say. Received a phone call three days later, e-mailed report in 15 minutes. Caller said she had been busy.

LAKE HAVASU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

No written request was required.

MARANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Informed staff that the law does not require a requester to reveal whom he or she is with. Record provided courteously and promptly.

MESA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Refused repeated requests to say why the record was being sought, noting that the Public Records Law does not require this. Was told, "Well, I don't know that it is a public record." Twenty minutes later, requester was contacted and told the record would be available immediately. Received it in mail three days later.

PAYSON HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Administrator acknowledged that the report is a public record but could not access it; his secretary had removed it to include in a report and was off that day.

PEORIA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

New employee didn't have computer password yet to access the report. Staff later contacted requester and record was mailed.

PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

The district's media spokesman sent an e-mail to his counterparts in other school districts to say that auditors had asked for a violence and drugs report.

PRESCOTT HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: No

Was provided a computer printout right away and a Web address, too, to find further information about the school.

SAFFORD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Office staff didn't ask the auditor to detail her identity.

SCOTTSDALE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Clerk took request in writing but said the record cannot be viewed right away because staff is busy. Pressed to make it available, she called a supervisor. Clerk asked whether the law really requires inspection promptly then said, "You're persistent. That's good."

SHADOW MOUNTAIN HIGH

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor wasn't required to say why he wanted the records.

SHOW LOW HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Principal was alone in office during visit, rushing to a meeting, and asked for a handwritten request so record could be mailed later. Requester never received it.

ST. JOHNS HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: $1.20, 10 cents per page

Requester resisted attempts to reveal reason for request, saying law does not require it. Principal called this "adversarial," saying he doesn't have to drop everything to produce a record. He said it would take one to four hours to start looking for record so he was asked to mail it and accept the fee in advance. Principal said he would pay for it instead, but an invoice came in the mail. The auditor later received the records.

ST. JOHNS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

District said violence and drug report was kept at high school, not in district office.

TANQUE VERDE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Saw record in visit? Yes

Fee: None

Auditor wasn't asked to say why she wanted the records.

TOLLESON HIGH SCHOOL

Saw record in visit? No

Fee: None

Told by superintendent's assistant that everyone was too busy and the records custodian was sick that day. Was advised to come back next day. Requester called again later and assistant said she would try to get the records. Had not received anything after a week.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1219openshut-side19.html

Peoria district, parents clash over documents

Louie Villalobos

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

Last September, a group of parents in the Peoria Unified School District filed a public-records request to find out how much money the district was spending on the financially troubled Challenger Learning Center.

Instead of getting the documents it was legally entitled to, the Peoria United Parent Council got a letter from a district lawyer demanding that it pay for the gathering and copying of the documents.

"That tells us they don't care if parents have questions," said Kim Olsen, vice president of the parents group. advertisement

The request focused on the financial relationship between the school district, headquartered in Glendale, and the Challenger Space Center in Peoria. The parents group formed over the summer because of concerns about the district's involvement in the center, which amassed a debt of nearly $1 million over the past four years. The Peoria district has funded some of the staff salaries at the center.

Parents said enough is enough in July when the district's governing board decided to use $165,000 of its budget toward the operation of the center.

Under an agreement signed by the district and the center in 2000, that money does not have to be repaid. Money for Challenger staff salaries must be repaid.

The school district's attorney told parents that it would cost 5 cents per page for the "voluminous" request. The letter also said the documents requested had confidential information that would need to be redacted at $15 per hour. The letter then asked the parents to call the law office if they wanted to proceed with the request.

It was the only time this year that the district responded to a FOI request through its lawyer. In five other cases, the documents were turned over relatively quickly.

Those requests, some of which sought the same information the parents group was seeking, were from the media. In fact, stacks of documents on the issue were released to The Arizona Republic in May at no charge.

Greg Donovan, outgoing board president, said the charges were fair because the parents asked for the documents and Challenger-related questions so much that staff members were spending too much time on the parent group inquiries.

"When have you crossed the line?" he said. "If you keep asking and asking and asking, we're going to have to start charging you."

Instead of paying, the parents group asked the Arizona Attorney General's Office to investigate the district's relationship with the space cen- ter.

Olsen said the letter to the Attorney Generals Office would not have been sent had the district simply provided the documents.

Olsen said the Attorney General's Office has initiated an investigation. A spokesperson for the office would not confirm an investigation was taking place.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1220openshut20.html

Snags likely in search for records

Jacques Billeaud and Enric Volante

Dec. 20, 2004 12:00 AM

Parents trying to get reports on violence and drugs at their children's schools or homeowners seeking information from police about a burglary around the corner stand a good chance of having their motives scrutinized and getting requests for personal information when they ask for public records.

If they decline to answer questions from public employees about why they want records, they might still get the information. But some government agencies might respond with suspicion and hostility or just refuse to hand over documents, even though state law doesn't require people to state their purpose.

A recent test of Arizona's Public Records Law found that about half of the 119 local government agencies surveyed wanted to know why a person was requesting records that the law presumes are open to the public. advertisement

The goal was to audit compliance with the records law over three days and document how people might be treated when seeking records.

News organizations, led by the Associated Press Managing Editors of Arizona, sent journalists acting as regular citizens across the state Sept. 14-17. They requested reports about violence and drugs from school offices, property crime records from police agencies and expense documents submitted by city and county managers.

Auditors were instructed to identify themselves by name but not to disclose their employers or why they wanted the documents.

Some agencies told auditors that they had to complete records request forms and provide addresses and phone numbers before they could see documents. In a few cases, auditors were asked to show a driver's license.

Even though some agencies require answers to those questions, the law doesn't. In any case, the level of information sought from auditors varied among agencies.

A high school principal in St. Johns accused an auditor of being "adversarial" when he declined to say why he wanted the records.

Similarly, a school superintendent in Fountain Hills complained that an auditor, who repeatedly declined to say why she wanted records, was rude.

The audit also contributed to a change in records policy in Camp Verde, where one type of request form no longer requires people to state their purpose.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said the only acceptable inquiry of a person requesting records is whether it's for "commercial purposes," such as businesses reproducing documents for sale.

Such distinctions require a sophisticated understanding of the law from receptionists and front-desk clerks, who often are the public's first point of contact in public-records requests, Goddard said.

"Those folks are usually without (records) training," Goddard said.

Some officials say it's human nature for government employees to ask about a person's interest in records and that the question can help narrow and speed document searches.

"I think that's fine if they ask, but regardless, they are still required to give out the information," said state Rep. Linda Gray, a top education advocate at the Legislature.

When an auditor told him that the law didn't require a person to provide a purpose for records, St. Johns High School Principal Larry Heap seemed less cooperative in providing a violence and drugs report.

Heap accused the auditor of being "adversarial," saying he didn't have to drop everything to find the records.

The auditor offered to make advance payment for postage. Heap then said he would pick up the costs to avoid delay. Instead, the auditor was mailed an invoice for $1.20. After paying the bill, he received the records.

Earlier this month, Heap declined to answer questions, saying only that his office complies with the records law.

Two employees of the Fountain Hills Unified School District asked an auditor the purpose of her inquiry.

An employee asked the auditor whether she was a reporter. Yes, the auditor said, though she declined to answer questions about her purpose.

Superintendent Marian Hermie then posed the same question, prompting the same response. "Well, can you politely tell me why you want it?" asked Hermie, who handed over the records later in the visit.

In an interview a month later, Hermie complained about the auditor's refusal to answer the question.

"Frankly, if this was an audit being conducted by your professional organization, I would like to go on record as saying her presence, conduct and attitude didn't speak very highly for your group," she said.

Debbie Spinner, Mesa city attorney and president of the Arizona City Attorneys Association, said she suspects some public employees ask for a purpose when they really mean to inquire whether the documents will be used for commercial purposes, for which the government can charge more.

Non-commercial uses include journalists gathering news for the public, motorists getting accident reports for insurance claims or people who are just curious.

"If it's a non-commercial purpose, the person doesn't have to state the purpose," Spinner said.

Like other request forms auditors came across, Camp Verde had a purpose question.

About six months ago, the question struck Town Clerk Deborah Barber as unnecessary, so she said she talked with the town attorney about it, but it remained on the form.

When reading the answer given by an auditor, Barber said she decided to take it up again with the new town attorney.

"I told them that they should not be asking that," said Brad Woodford, the town's attorney. "The law doesn't require it."

The question was eliminated from non-commercial request forms in Barber's office. The change came a day after the visit, and a month before Barber said she learned of the audit.

<#**#>

Arizona Public Records LAWS ARS 39-121

http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ArizonaRevisedStatutes.asp?Title=39

39-121. Inspection of public records

Public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to inspection by any person at all times during office hours.

39-121.01. Definitions; maintenance of records; copies, printouts or photographs of public records; examination by mail; index

A. In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Officer" means any person elected or appointed to hold any elective or appointive office of any public body and any chief administrative officer, head, director, superintendent or chairman of any public body.

2. "Public body" means the state, any county, city, town, school district, political subdivision or tax-supported district in the state, any branch, department, board, bureau, commission, council or committee of the foregoing, and any public organization or agency, supported in whole or in part by monies from the state or any political subdivision of the state, or expending monies provided by the state or any political subdivision of the state.

B. All officers and public bodies shall maintain all records, including records as defined in section 41-1350, reasonably necessary or appropriate to maintain an accurate knowledge of their official activities and of any of their activities which are supported by monies from the state or any political subdivision of the state.

C. Each public body shall be responsible for the preservation, maintenance and care of that body's public records and each officer shall be responsible for the preservation, maintenance and care of that officer's public records. It shall be the duty of each such body to carefully secure, protect and preserve public records from deterioration, mutilation, loss or destruction, unless disposed of pursuant to sections 41-1347 and 41-1351.

D. Subject to section 39-121.03:

1. Any person may request to examine or be furnished copies, printouts or photographs of any public record during regular office hours or may request that the custodian mail a copy of any public record not otherwise available on the public body's web site to the requesting person. The custodian may require any person requesting that the custodian mail a copy of any public record to pay in advance for any copying and postage charges. The custodian of such records shall promptly furnish such copies, printouts or photographs and may charge a fee if the facilities are available, except that public records for purposes listed in section 39-122 shall be furnished without charge.

2. If requested, the custodian of the records of an agency shall also furnish an index of records or categories of records that have been withheld and the reasons the records or categories of records have been withheld from the requesting person. The custodian shall not include in the index information that is expressly made privileged or confidential in statute or a court order. This paragraph shall not be construed by an administrative tribunal or a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent or require an order compelling a public body other than an agency to furnish an index. For the purposes of this paragraph, "agency" has the same meaning prescribed in section 41-1001, but does not include the department of public safety, the department of transportation motor vehicle division, the department of juvenile corrections and the department of corrections.

3. If the custodian of a public record does not have facilities for making copies, printouts or photographs of a public record which a person has a right to inspect, such person shall be granted access to the public record for the purpose of making copies, printouts or photographs. The copies, printouts or photographs shall be made while the public record is in the possession, custody and control of the custodian of the public record and shall be subject to the supervision of such custodian.

E. Access to a public record is deemed denied if a custodian fails to promptly respond to a request for production of a public record or fails to provide to the requesting person an index of any record or categories of records that are withheld from production pursuant to subsection D, paragraph 2 of this section.

39-121.02. Action upon denial of access; expenses and attorney fees; damages

A. Any person who has requested to examine or copy public records pursuant to the provisions of this article, and who has been denied access to or the right to copy such records, may appeal the denial through a special action in the superior court, pursuant to the rules of procedure for special actions against the officer or public body.

B. If the court determines that a person was wrongfully denied access to or the right to copy a public record and if the court finds that the custodian of such public record acted in bad faith, or in an arbitrary or capricious manner, the superior court may award to the petitioner legal costs, including reasonable attorney fees, as determined by the court.

C. Any person who is wrongfully denied access to public records pursuant to the provisions of this article shall have a cause of action against the officer or public body for any damages resulting therefrom.

<#**#>

of course canadians have not pissed off most of countries in the world by invading them, bombing them, or giving money to people to invade so people dont hate canada like they hate the USA

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1219canada-security19.html

Canadian security criticized

Report cites lack of border staffing

Beth Duff-Brown

Associated Press

Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

TORONTO - Canada's security net is full of holes, with most border crossings guarded by a lone staff member and airport security so lax that missing security badges and uniforms recently turned up for sale on eBay.

A new Senate security report calls for reform, a boost in defense spending and improved cooperation with the United States. Canadians have relied too long on luck to avoid a terrorist attack, it says, scolding: "Unfortunately, luck is notoriously untrustworthy."

The 315-page report by the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defense, the first released under the year-old government of Prime Minister Paul Martin, said most of Canada's 160 land and maritime border crossings have only one person at the posts. advertisement

"The potential damage to the Canadian economy and other consequences that would come with allowing a terrorist to infiltrate the U.S. through Canada are massive," the report said.

Securing the 4,000-mile border is paramount to prevent terrorist attacks and protect $1.4 billion in trade each day between the North American neighbors.

"All it would take is a serious terrorist incident, caused by someone slipping through Canada, to shut down the border, and that would be an absolute disaster," said Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in U.S.-Canadian relations.

The report, which some are calling alarmist and ineffectual as it comes from the politically appointed upper house of parliament, noted that Canadian forces have been hit with budget cuts of about 30 percent between 1988 and 2000.

"Despite NATO's recent expansions, Canada remains mired third-last among the 26 member countries, ahead of only Luxembourg and Iceland," the report said. Iceland has no armed forces.

Canada promised to spend $6.2 billion over five years to improve border security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The measures include better screening at the 89 federal airports, but critics say little has improved.

More than 1,000 airport security uniforms and badges disappeared in the first nine months of the year, some turning up on the eBay online auction site. Transport Minister Jean Lapierre ordered an investigation into the disappearance of the uniforms and badges, which are required to gain access to restricted areas.

Though many Canadians and foreigners complain about long lines and delays because of security checks at Pearson International Airport near Toronto, the report concluded that all checked baggage is not being comprehensively screened for explosives.

"Given that terrorists have proven themselves willing to commit suicide in order to achieve their goals, more rigorous inspection of checked baggage is required," it said.

According to the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, explosives detection systems have been deployed at most of Canada's largest airports, and the authority has pledged all checked baggage will be screened by year's end. The Senate committee, however, said it will take at least a year before that happens.

The coast guard, meanwhile, is a "toothless" agency that is unarmed and reports to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the report said.

"Despite its name, the coast guard doesn't play a serious role in guarding our coasts," the senators said, recommending the agency answer to the Department of National Defense for security assignments.

Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto professor who is one of Canada's leading academic experts on security and intelligence, acknowledges the report paints a bleak scenario.

But he said the committee hoped to push the Martin administration to keep up the momentum on security issues and prevent Canadians from becoming too complacent about their own safety.

<#**#>

http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/203385-9424-010.html

Nation In Brief

Police say they used Taser on 12-year-old boy

December 19, 2004

Pembroke Pines, Fla. -- Police used a Taser on a 12-year-old boy who attacked another special-needs student, the third time this fall that authorities in South Florida have used a stun gun on children.

Police said the student was Tasered on Dec. 10 after he tried to stab another student with a pencil on a school bus, then kicked and threatened an officer.

The boy was charged with several offenses, including aggravated assault and resisting a police officer with violence. He was released from custody.

Pembroke Pines Police Cmdr. David Golt said the officer used the Taser properly.

Tasers also were used on a 12-year-old girl who was caught skipping class and a 6-year-old boy. The boy was holding a shard of glass and had cut himself.

<#**#>

bush give medals to "yes men" who did nothing!!!! well they did say that IRAQ had WMD!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1215iraq-medals15.html

3 'pivotal' in Iraq honored

Presidential Medal goes to Bremer, Franks and Tenet

Ann Gerhart

Washington Post

Dec. 15, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Trumpeting America as liberator, the White House conferred the highest civilian honor Tuesday on three men intimately involved with the decision to invade Iraq or with the troubled aftermath of the invasion.

President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tommy Franks, the now-retired Army general who led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; former CIA Director George Tenet, who told Bush it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction; and L. Paul Bremer, who presided over the first 14 months of Iraq reconstruction.

Past recipients have included Mother Teresa, Fred Rogers, Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II.

Bush said he chose the trio because they "played pivotal roles in great events" and made efforts that "made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty."

Some Democrats questioned the choice.

"My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees," said David Wade, a spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who lost last month's presidential election to Bush. And Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that he "would have reached a different conclusion" on Tenet. "I don't think (he) served the president or the nation well," Levin said.

The president heralded Tenet for being "one of the first to recognize" the growing threat to America from "radical terrorist networks." He made no mention of the failures outlined by the 9/11 commission that forced the administration to overhaul the nation's intelligence operations.

He praised Franks for his Iraq war plan, which utilized "a force half the size of the force that won the Gulf War" to reach Baghdad in less than a month, "the fastest, longest armored advance in the history of American warfare." Bush did not note that more Americans have died after the toppling of Saddam Hussein than during that initial charge.

Bremer, Bush said, "worked day and night in difficult dangerous conditions" to rebuild Iraq and help leaders chart the country's political future. "Every benchmark . . . was achieved on time or ahead of schedule, including the transfer of sovereignty that ended his tenure," the president said. He did not add that the transfer was hurriedly arranged two days early because of fears insurgents would attack the ceremonies.

The Medal of Freedom was established by President Truman in 1945 to honor allies who had helped the war effort, and most initial recipients were not American citizens, said Jim Salmon, who tracks the medal's history for a Web site. In 1963, President Kennedy, by executive order, restricted the award so that it could be given only by the president.

<#**#>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1207GitmoAbuse07-ON.html

FBI letter complains of interrogation techniques at Guantanamo in '02

Associated Press

Dec. 7, 2004 10:20 AM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - FBI agents witnessed "highly aggressive" interrogations of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in 2002, and warned the same questionable techniques could have been used in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke, according to FBI documents obtained by The Associated Press and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In a letter obtained by AP, a senior Justice Department official suggested the Pentagon didn't act on FBI complaints about four incidents at Guantanamo, including a female interrogator grabbing a detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs, another where a prisoner was gagged with duct tape and a third where a dog was used to intimidate a detainee who later was thrown into isolation and showed signs of "extreme psychological trauma."

One Marine told an FBI observer that some interrogations led to prisoners "curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain," according to the letter dated July 14, 2004. advertisement

Thomas Harrington, an FBI counterterrorism expert who led a team of investigators at Guantanamo Bay, wrote the letter to Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, the Army's chief law enforcement officer who's investigating abuses at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and at Guantanamo.

Harrington said FBI officials complained about the pattern of abusive techniques to top Defense Department attorneys in January 2003, and it appeared that nothing was done.

Although a senior FBI attorney "was assured that the general concerns expressed, and the debate between the FBI and DoD regarding the treatment of detainees was known to officials in the Pentagon, I have no record that our specific concerns regarding these three situations were communicated to the Department of Defense for appropriate action," Harrington wrote.

Three of the four incidents mentioned in the letter obtained by AP occurred under the watch of Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who ran the Guantanamo camp from October 2002 to March 2004, and left to run Abu Ghraib prison. Last month, Miller was reassigned to the Pentagon, with responsibility for housing and other support operations.

The ACLU planned Tuesday to release internal government memos that underscore the friction between the FBI and the military over interrogation methods. The documents are among 5,000 the New York-based ACLU received under two Freedom of Information Act requests, said Anthony Romero, the union's executive director.

In one document obtained by the ACLU, an FBI agent recalls Miller wanting to "Gitmo-ize" the Abu Ghraib prison, where photographs surfaced of U.S. troops forcing Iraqi prisoners to strip and pose in sexually humiliating positions. Troops often refer to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo as "Gitmo."

"I am not sure what this means, however, if this refers to intelligence gathering as I suspect, it suggests he (Miller) has continued to support interrogation strategies we not only advised against but questioned in terms of effectiveness," reads the memo dated May 13, 2004, from an FBI agent whose name was redacted.

In another ACLU-obtained letter from an FBI agent to Harrington and dated May 10, an agent questioned whether harsh interrogation techniques turned up good information.

"In my weekly meetings with the Department of Justice we often discussed techniques and how they were not effective or producing intelligence that was reliable," according to the exchange, which was heavily redacted to remove references to dates and names.

"I finally voiced my opinion ...," the FBI agent says. "It still did not prevent them from continuing the ... methods."

Romero said the information "raises questions about the government's willingness to be forthcoming in these legal proceedings and shows that even the FBI has been uncomfortable with some of the tactics used at Guantanamo."

In the letter obtained by AP, Harrington told Ryder he was writing to follow up a meeting he had with the general the week before about detainee treatment, including "highly aggressive interrogation techniques being used against detainees in Guantanamo."

"I refer them to you for appropriate action," Harrington wrote.

Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the current commander of the mission in Guantanamo, said allegations of mistreatment and abuse are taken seriously and investigated. "The appropriate actions were taken. Some allegations are still under investigation," Hood told AP.

None of the people named in the letter are still at the base, a Guantanamo spokesman said, but it wasn't clear if any disciplinary action had been taken. The letter identified the military interrogators only by last name and rank, and mentioned a civilian contractor.

Lt. Col. Gerard Healy, an Army spokesman, said the female interrogator - identified only as Sgt. Lacey - is being investigated, but the Army wouldn't comment further or fully identify her.

The U.S. military says prisoners are treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit violence, torture and humiliating treatment. Still, at least 10 incidents of abuse have been substantiated at Guantanamo, all but one from 2003 or this year.

According to the letter obtained by AP, in late 2002 an FBI agent observed an interrogation where Sgt. Lacey whispered in the ear of a handcuffed and shackled detainee, caressed him and applied lotion to his arms. This occurred during Ramadan, Islam's holy month when contact with females is considered particularly offensive to a Muslim man.

Later, the detainee appeared to grimace in pain, and the FBI agent asked a Marine who was present why. "The Marine said (the interrogator) had grabbed the detainee's thumbs and bent them backward and indicated that she also grabbed his genitals."

In September or October of 2002, FBI agents saw a dog used "in an aggressive manner to intimidate a detainee," the letter said.

About a month later, agents saw the same detainee "after he had been subjected to intense isolation for over three months" in a cell flooded with light. "By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma ...," the letter said.

In October 2002, another FBI agent saw a detainee "gagged with duct tape that covered much of his head" because he would not stop chanting from the Quran.

Many detainees at Guantanamo have been held without charge and without access to attorneys since the camp opened in January 2002. The United States has imprisoned some 550 men accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or al-Qaida; only four have been charged.

American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org

<#**#>

ok i know the laws are stupid and suck but our stupid government rulers dont obey them very well

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/1217wilcoxes.html

Wilcox, husband charged for razing historical home

The E.S. Turner House, formerly located at 704 S. First. Ave., was torn down by Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband, Earl.

Yvonne Wingett

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband, Earl, are facing criminal charges for illegally tearing down a historic home just south of downtown Phoenix.

City prosecutors filed two misdemeanor counts against each for failing to apply for a permit and not submitting plans before demolishing the 105-year-old house.

The pair potentially face jail time, fines, probation and political embarrassment that already has eroded some of her credibility with some Valley residents.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed they went criminal," said Manuel Silvas, a central Phoenix attorney representing the couple. "The public and everybody will see there are many individuals that dropped the ball."

But city historic preservation officers don't recall another case in which a historic home has been demolished. They have said this case sets precedent, and the loss of the Queen Anne Cottage-style house at 704 S. First Ave. is a "substantial loss" for the city.

The Wilcoxes tore down the house last summer, after buying it weeks earlier. Mary Rose has said they plan to build a house there in the heart of Grant Park neighborhood, where Earl grew up and the couple operate El Portal Mexican restaurant and a boxing gym.

A two-month city investigation released earlier this month concluded the Wilcoxes did not apply for proper permits, which they have acknowledged.

The report also found that the house was in an "extremely intact" condition. And that the pair was legally notified of its historic designation " . . . and, as such, was aware of its historically designated status."

Mary Rose has disputed both claims, saying the E.S. Turner House was a crack house.

Her lawyer says the charges undermine the "overall efforts that Mary Rose and Earl . . . have done for their community."

The pair are scheduled to be arraigned at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 5 at Phoenix Municipal Court. If convicted, they face a maximum fine of $2,500 each, up to six months in jail and three years probation, said Brian Rock, assistant city prosecutor.

Political strategists and public relations experts say Mary Rose's years of public service will trump this incident.

"This is one of those things that in the moment seems like it could be the death nail for a political career," said Bob Grossfeld, a Democrat strategist. "But six months, a year or two down the road, it has minimal effect if any."

Republican strategist Jason Rose agreed.

"At the end of the day, no matter how upset or not upset they are, they're going to find that their supervisor, on the whole, has done an awfully good job," Rose said.

Officials in Gov. Janet Napolitano's office said a misdemeanor charge, or conviction, would not impact Earl's job status with the administration as special assistant for community outreach in the Office of Children, Youth and Families.

Staff reporter Robbie Sherwood contributed to this article.

<#**#>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1217saudi-detainee17.html

Detention in Saudi Arabia faces challenge

Associated Press

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A federal judge ruled Thursday that an American held in Saudi Arabia for suspected links to terrorism may be able to challenge his detention in a U.S. court because there is "considerable" evidence U.S. officials were behind the arrest.

The family of Ahmed Abu Ali, who grew up in Falls Church, Va., claims U.S. officials want to keep him in Saudi Arabia so he can be tortured for information.

U.S. District Judge John Bates did not rule on the legitimacy of the claims, but said there is "at least some circumstantial evidence that Abu Ali has been tortured during interrogations with the knowledge of the United States." advertisement

He rejected the government's request to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction and ordered federal lawyers to provide documents showing whether U.S. officials played a role in Abu Ali's arrest and detention.

The case is believed to be the first to challenge the U.S. government's position that Americans have no access to U.S. courts when they are arrested by a foreign government. Legal experts said it could set an important legal benchmark in the government's worldwide pursuit of terrorists.

"U.S. officials should not be free to avoid the limits of the law simply by making side arrangements with foreign governments to lock up people at our behest," said Georgetown University law professor David Cole, a frequent critic of Bush administration counterterrorism policies.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said officials were reviewing the decision and had no immediate comment.

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god lives in salt lake city and the elected officals there are corrupt too!

http://radio.ksl.com/index.php?sid=137619&nid=19

Radio Home Page » KSL News » Local News » Stories

Salt Lake Co. Adopts Tough Ethics Rules

Embarrassed by scandal, the Salt Lake County Council voted eight-to-zero last night to approve a package of ethics reforms.

(Dec 8, 2004) -- (Salt Lake City-AP) -- Embarrassed by scandal, the Salt Lake County Council voted eight-to-zero last night to approve a package of ethics reforms.

The reforms scrap car allowances for county executives; prohibit county contractors from making political donations to county candidates; cap campaign contributions and require county lobbyists to get registered.

Some politicians called them as much symbolic as anything.

Others say the reforms just scratch the surface.

The ethics overhaul was seen as crucial in rehabilitating a shaken public trust in county government, led by the downfall of Mayor Nancy Workman.

Councilman Joe Hatch called the overhaul the silver lining to the "guzzler-gate" and "hiring-gate" scandals.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://radio.ksl.com/index.php?sid=138544&nid=19

Some Not Convinced of Ethics Reform Plan

Some Salt Lake County Officials say a proposed fix to the county government's ethics problems looks fishy.

(Dec 13, 2004)

SALT LAKE CITY-(KSL News) -- Criticism this morning for a new ethics reform in Salt Lake County.

Council members say while workers will no longer be given a car allowance, the money has been rolled into their salaries.

Council member-elect Jenny Wilson says that looks like double-dipping.

Mayor-elect Peter Corroon says it is a costly loophole that needs to be closed. Other county executives say it's immaterial in the cost of doing business.

They also warn the measure allows employees to collect mileage reimbursement at taxpayer expense for any business-related travel

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1216bomb16.html

Newark screeners spot, lose fake bomb

Associated Press

Dec. 16, 2004 12:00 AM

NEWARK, N.J. - Baggage screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport spotted - and then lost - a fake bomb planted in luggage by a supervisor during a training exercise.

Despite an hours-long search Tuesday, the bag, containing a fake bomb complete with wires, a detonator and a clock, made it onto an Amsterdam-bound flight. It was recovered by airport security officials in Amsterdam when the flight landed.

"This really underscores the importance of the TSA's ongoing training exercises," said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, the agency responsible for screening passengers and baggage for weapons and explosives. "At no time did the bag pose a threat, and at no time was anyone in danger." advertisement

Earlier this month, French authorities lost a bag containing real explosives that were being used to train bomb-sniffing dogs. That led French authorities to prohibit using live explosives in future tests.

New Jersey Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg on Wednesday wrote to security agency chief David Stone, asking for an investigation.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1217driver17.html

Mesa officer arrested in abuse case

Senta Scarborough

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

A Mesa police officer was arrested Thursday, accused of inappropriately touching three females, including a 17-year old girl, while on duty earlier this year.

Officer Matthew Driver, 32, a four-year veteran, was arrested at his Apache Junction home. A Maricopa County grand jury indicted him Wednesday on six counts of sexual abuse, a Class 5 felony. He made his initial appearance in court Thursday evening and was held on a $27,000 cash-only bond.

Police said the incidents occurred in June and July and involved three females, ages 33, 23 and 17. Two of the three women reported the abuse to police. Mesa police investigators combed through Driver's contacts with the public and discovered a third incident. advertisement

None of the women knew each other, and all claimed Driver inappropriately touched them. Police discovered evidence that corroborated the women's allegations, according to court records.

Driver's arrest was the result of a five-month investigation by the department's Center Against Family Violence.

"While being investigated, he was placed on administrative suspension and not allowed to function as a police officer," Mesa Detective Tim Gaffney said. "If in fact Officer Driver acted as alleged in these complaints, it violates the law and the public trust we have tried so hard to gain."

Driver was required to stay at home during work hours while on paid suspension.

The case was forwarded to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, and police were notified Thursday that an arrest warrant had been issued for Driver, Gaffney said.

"There is a possibility that there are additional victims out there and that is why we are releasing this information and why we have a specific phone number set up where victims can call information in," Gaffney said. That number is (480) 644-4823.

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http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/1215annualreport.html

Christina Leonard

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 15, 2004 12:00 AM

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office spent more than $44,000 to print its annual report this year.

It's gold-embossed. It has glossy pages and foldouts. And it features 20 full-color photos of outgoing County Attorney Rick Romley.

The 46-page, taxpayer-funded report dwarfs others put out by the county. In fact, many of the county's other large departments, including the Integrated Health System, Sheriff's Office and Superior Court, don't print annual reports.

Special Assistant County Attorney Barnett Lotstein defended the report and said the office didn't put out an annual report last year in anticipation of this year's effort.

"You would expect an office with our power to produce a nice report," he said. "We don't do shoddy work."

Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, called the report a "taxpayer-funded campaign piece."

"It wasn't really an annual report," Brotherton said. "It's more along the lines of a taxpayer-paid 'Rick Romley: This is your life.'

"It obviously was aimed at enhancing his future political ambitions," Brotherton said of Romley, who is reported to be contemplating a run for governor against incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano in 2006.

Lotstein said the report was written and designed in-house. But the office had to pay about $3.50 apiece to print 12,500 copies. Lotstein could not provide printing costs for the 2002 report for comparison.

Each report cost an additional $3.11 to mail. Lotstein said he could not determine the mailing costs.

The report, called "Focus on Excellence," highlights programs and high-profile cases during Romley's 16 years in office. It includes photos of Romley during news conferences, with his family and even one taken during his tour of duty in Vietnam.

Romley wasn't available for comment on Tuesday afternoon. But Lotstein said his boss is proud of the report and feels "it's incumbent to report to the public what we do in the office."

About 7,000 copies have been distributed to citizens, law enforcement officials, legislators and the media.

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, who had not read the report by Tuesday afternoon, was taken off guard by the price tag.

"Let's just say Rick maybe had a lot to report," she said. "I'm kind of surprised because he's usually pretty frugal."

Reach the reporter at christina.leonard@arizonarepublic.com.

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put in kevin

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1217mental-oversight17.html

State offers mental aid deal

Judge to rule on system fix

Susie Steckner and Jodie Snyder

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

State health officials return to the courthouse today to explain how they intend to fix the Valley's troubled mental-health system, after a judge lambasted them two months ago for poor oversight.

The Arizona Department of Health Services gave a preview of sorts Wednesday when it announced an agreement that will require it to meet certain deadlines for better care.

The agreement is seen as a step toward ending a nearly 25-year-old lawsuit brought to force the state to improve services for people in Maricopa County with serious mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. advertisement

In October, Judge Pro Tem Bernard Dougherty chastised the state for its poor oversight. He also ordered the DHS to beef up services at five problem clinics as an interim step. He sternly told the state, "I want to be able to go to my grave knowing this has been resolved . . . and I intend for that to happen."

Among the judge's options today: accepting the new agreement, sending the parties back for more work or taking other action.

Since the hearings, ValueOptions, which has the $1.3 billion contract to run the system, has begun rewriting treatment plans and hiring more case managers; the DHS has hired more staff for on-site monitoring at clinics.

Dougherty called the hearings after an August audit by a specially appointed court monitor found that a lack of state monitoring had caused the state to be worse off in certain areas than it was four years earlier, despite an extra $230 million in funding.

In jeopardy are individuals whose lives are in limbo, families that crumble, and jails, hospitals and homeless shelters that are overrun with people in crisis, advocates say.

Documents requested by The Arizona Republic after the audit was released further reveal problems with the troubled system, specifically lax state monitoring.

The state documents, some of which date back two years ago, show DHS health officials in certain instances knew ValueOptions wasn't doing its job.

The firm consistently failed to meet key standards, had a disproportionately high number of complaints filed by clients and has been beset with concerns about how difficult it was to get care. State officials, in some cases, allowed the status quo or worked to accommodate the firm despite being warned by a top official at ValueOptions, at another state agency and at advocacy organizations to keep a closer watch, according to documents obtained through the state's Public Records Law.

The criticisms of the DHS are compounded by a separate failing review at the Arizona State Hospital, where federal regulators this summer found problems with patient care and threatened to pull Medicare funding. State officials received the results of a second review, which they say found minor concerns about dietary and documentation issues, but would not release them last week. DHS Director Catherine Eden says the problems at ValueOptions and the Arizona State Hospital, the two largest and most critical parts of state's behavioral health care network, don't reflect poorly on her office.

"I don't see it as we're not able to oversee behavioral health. In fact, if I did, I would step up to the table and say that to the governor and the public," Eden said. "But I don't see that at all, and I say that very seriously."

Advocates disagree, saying the recent reviews cast doubt on the DHS' abilities. The system and hospital wouldn't suffer deficiencies if there was "specific, visioned, directed leadership from a single oversight authority," said Charles Arnold, a Phoenix lawyer who went to court with a class-action lawsuit almost 25 years ago to force the state to improve care for Maricopa County residents with serious mental illnesses.

"They are not a partner. They are a contractor, and they are the ones who must oversee this," said Kathy Palmer, executive director of the Mental Health Advocates Coalition of Arizona.

A review of public records from the DHS, the Governor's Office and Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program, shows that the state failed to be an effective regulator. Among the issues:

• Failure to meet state requirements: For two years, state health officials allowed ValueOptions to fail a key standard that required people to get routine assessments within seven days of being referred to the firm. After the first failure, the DHS said it would work with ValueOptions to develop strategies to improve, and continued to say that after each failing review. After a year, AHCCCS had to weigh in.

"It is now a full year, and VO has not met the minimum," AHCCCS reviewers told the DHS in a memo. "What have been/are the consequences for VO not meeting standard - has ADHS considered or initiated sanctions?"

The DHS replied that it was in discussions with the firm about its performance and had not issued sanctions. ValueOptions met the standard for the first time in April 2004.

In an interview, Leslie Schwalbe, deputy DHS director over behavioral-health services, said the DHS couldn't sanction the firm for that under its old contract. Asked about what more the state could have done, she said the state is "moving forward." Schwalbe acknowledged that not holding ValueOptions more accountable in this case was a "hard lesson to learn."

• Poor grievance and appeals process: The state knew client complaints were a perennial problem at ValueOptions. In 2003, its own report showed that ValueOptions had the greatest proportion of grievances filed against it compared with other state contractors. As part of its oversight duties, the DHS is supposed to make sure ValueOptions processed complaints in a timely manner, as required by the contract, but by spring 2004 ValueOptions had built up a large backlog of cases.

In March, the DHS was warned by Stephen Braun, then-head of ValueOptions' quality management department, that layoffs at ValueOptions "seriously limit" its ability to handle client complaints. At that time, ValueOptions had 61 backlogged cases of complaints from people about their care, a separate ValueOptions e-mail shows.

The DHS warned the firm, it missed multiple deadlines and wasn't fined until six months later.

After the firm got its warning about the backlog, it promised to have problems solved at the start of August. By the end of September, the firm was still out of compliance and blamed an increase in new grievances. The following month, the state fined ValueOptions $50,000. The fine came after Dougherty's October hearing; Schwalbe said the state needed to build a case before it could act.

• Delays in penalties: After awarding ValueOptions a three-year contract in February, the state found the firm didn't have its subcontracts negotiated to provide services such as counseling or housing for the next contract year beginning July 1. On June 29, ValueOptions told the DHS it would have all the contracts signed in one week. The firm missed that deadline, prompting the state to ask for weekly updates. Even though services were extended during negotiations, the situation caused uncertainty among provider agencies and patients. By Aug. 24, 49 out of 94 contracts still had not been signed, but the state took no action.

The DHS eventually fined ValueOptions $25,000 and threatened to impose more if all the contracts didn't get signed. The contracts were all signed. The fine came two weeks after the release of the searing court monitor's audit; Schwalbe again said the state needed to build a case before it could act.

• Making accommodations: The state believes it is entitled to financial information about ValueOptions' parent company, but for the past four months it has been rebuffed in attempts to get the documents. As of last week, it had not gotten them. In September, the state asked for financial information of Virginia-based FHC Health Systems Inc.

The information is seen as critical to make sure ValueOptions doesn't exceed the state-imposed profit cap, a constant concern among advocates and patients.

Instead, ValueOptions asked for guarantees the financial reports wouldn't be made public.

Rather than demanding the information, state health officials went to the Arizona Attorney General's Office to see if they could accommodate ValueOptions request to keep the documents secret.

In an interview, Eden said the records, if received by the state, would be public.

In addition to problems revealed by the public documents, the August audit showed problems with case management, treatment plans and the clinics.

Starting this summer, the state has taken steps to increase its oversight. Eden and Schwalbe said the changes are not solely because of the controversy generated by the audit and court hearing. Many of them reflect the state's new contract.

"They (the audit and new contract) really did come simultaneously. But both make us focus together . . . just makes us continually clarify where we need to be and to clarify our focus," Eden said.

Arnold doesn't buy it.

"I can't believe that in the absence of the audit and the resulting court participation these changes would have happened," he said.

In terms of Wednesday's agreement, which seeks to end the Arnold vs. Sarn lawsuit, some advocates credit Gov. Janet Napolitano for stepping in to get the deal signed. The agreement affects only the most seriously mentally ill, about 17,000 in the Valley; the entire system serves more than 50,000 adults and children.

Since the audit, the state has hired five people just to keep tabs on what is going on with ValueOptions' contract. Health officials have started asking more questions, right down to asking for new employees' names. Hiring became a critical issue because ValueOptions has had as many as 300 employee vacancies, causing case managers to handle up to 80 clients. The state acknowledges it should have known about the problem.

"And again, that's why it's so important that we're out there now," Schwalbe said.

When the mental-health system falters, it's clients like Corey Giuliano who feel the reverberations.

Giuliano, 31, lives at his parents' Fountain Hills home, his life on hold while he battles bipolar disorder. He no longer works, dates or sees friends. He doesn't leave the house except to go to medical appointments, rent movies or maybe catch an occasional dinner.

"I'm in this unbeatable lull of life right now," he said. He has been enrolled in the public system twice and got off to a slow start both times. At first, all the system could offer was medications; case management and services were non-existent.

This time around, he's finally in regular contact with a case manager and sees a therapist once a week.

But Giuliano said people with mental illnesses can't afford a slow start to care. "They don't go over and above the call of duty, but people like me need them to do that," he said.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1217copdui17.html

Former police officer guilty in DUI wreck

Jim Walsh

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

A former Scottsdale police officer will spend five to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to drinking "way too much," slamming into a sheriff's deputy and fleeing from the scene in May.

Kevin Scott Baxter, 31, left Maricopa County sheriff's Deputy Doug Matteson lying on the Superstition Freeway with injuries so severe that his left leg had to be amputated below the knee.

Baxter pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated assault and leaving the scene of a serious injury accident. He will be sentenced Feb. 3 by Superior Court Judge James Keppel. advertisement

Baxter, who resigned days after the May 1 collision, had a 0.173 percent blood-alcohol count more than three hours after he struck Matteson's motorcycle from behind, Deputy County Attorney Keith Manning said.

That's more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent at which Arizona drivers are presumed under the influence of alcohol.

Keppel allowed Baxter to remain free on bond at the request of Matteson's civil attorney, Anthony Coury. Baxter has agreed to appear for a deposition in preparation for a possible civil suit, Coury said.

"We're cooperating fully with the victim in this case, so we can do everything we can for him to be made whole or at least be compensated," said Cameron Morgan, Baxter's attorney.

Lt. Paul Chagolla, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Matteson has returned to work. Matteson, who did not attend the hearing, has been assigned to a desk job, taking police reports by telephone.

Court records describe the makings of a tragedy waiting to happen.

Baxter picked up a friend from college, Brian Sturtecky, at Sky Harbor International Airport. They dropped off Sturtecky's baggage at Baxter's Gilbert home, and the men drove to Scottsdale and went bar hopping.

Sturtecky told police that they stopped drinking at 2 a.m. at Mickey's Hangover and headed for Gilbert. Sturtecky said Baxter drank "way too much" before getting behind the wheel and that he also was inebriated.

Sturtecky said he was passed out in the passenger's seat of Baxter's green 1999 Ford Mustang when he heard a loud bang on U.S. 60 near Alma School Road.

"He saw bodies flying," a state Department of Public Safety report said. The visitor from Chicago said he asked Baxter what he hit. The officer responded that he didn't know.

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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1214scotus14.html

High court twice gives police benefit of doubt

David G. Savage

Los Angeles Times

Dec. 14, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - In a pair of victories for law enforcement, the Supreme Court on Monday made it harder to sue police for wrongly shooting a fleeing suspect or for arresting a motorist on false charges.

In both instances, the justices said the courts should give police officers the benefit of the doubt and not allow them to be sued for doing their jobs.

Monday's decisions reversed rulings of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the police violated the rights of the suspects by subjecting them to an "unreasonable seizure." advertisement

Nearly 20 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that police may not use "deadly force" to stop a fleeing felon, except when the officer has good reason to believe "the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others." Applying that rule has proven to be difficult, for police and courts.

The Washington state case of Brosseau vs. Haugen fell along what the Supreme Court called "the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force." Because it was not a clear-cut case of a wrongful shooting, the justices in an 8-1 decision ruled for the police officer and threw out the lawsuit against her.

On Feb. 21, 1999, Officer Rochelle Brosseau of Puyallup, Wash., near Tacoma, went to a home to arrest Kenneth Haugen, who was accused of selling drugs and stealing tools from a co-worker. Haugen hopped into his Jeep and fumbled with the keys. Brosseau ordered him to stop, drew her gun and smashed a hole in a window.

But when Haugen began to pull away, Brosseau shot him, hitting him under an arm. Though he sped from the driveway, he only got half a block, then pulled off the road and passed out. He sued the officer, alleging that the shooting was "unreasonable seizure" in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The federal courts have been split over whether a jury should hear Haugen's lawsuit.

A federal judge in Washington dismissed his claim, but the 9th Circuit revived it two years ago in a 2-1 ruling and said a jury should decide whether the shooting was an unreasonable use of force.

Judge William Fletcher pointed out that Haugen did not have a gun and was not charged with a violent crime, and there was no evidence that his flight presented a threat to others. "We reject an approach that would allow officers to shoot a suspect simply because he is fleeing, or is about to flee," he said. Judge Stephen Reinhardt joined him.

In dissent, Judge Ronald Gould said "the majority's sweeping position ... promises an easy escape to any felon willing to threaten innocent lives by driving recklessly." Five appellate judges who disagreed with the panel's decision urged the full 9th Circuit to reconsider the ruling.

When it did not, lawyers for Brosseau appealed to the Supreme Court. The attorneys general in 16 states and several police groups urged the court to reverse the 9th Circuit, which includes Arizona.

In an unsigned opinion Monday, the Supreme Court justices threw out Haugen's suit and said the officer deserved to be shielded, even if her actions may have been incorrect.

"Quality immunity shields an officer from suit when she makes a decision that, even if constitutionally deficient, reasonably misapprehends the law governing the circumstances she confronted," the court wrote. Brousseau saw Haugen as "a disturbed felon.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1217dimebag-gunman13.html

CIA runs secret detention center for al-Qaida held at Guantanamo

Dana Priest and Scott Higham

Washington Post

Dec. 17, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a detention facility for valuable al-Qaida captives that has never been mentioned in public, according to military officials and several current and former intelligence officers.

The buildings used by the CIA are shrouded by high fences covered with thick green mesh plastic and ringed with floodlights, officials said. They sit within the larger Camp Echo complex, which was erected to house the Defense Department's high-value detainees and those awaiting military trials on terrorism charges.

The facility has housed detainees from Pakistan, West Africa, Yemen and other countries under the strictest secrecy, the sources said. "People are constantly leaving and coming," said one U.S. official who visited the base in recent months. It is unclear whether the facility is still in operation today. The CIA and the Defense Department declined to comment. advertisement

Most international terrorism suspects in U.S. custody are held not by the CIA but by the Defense Department at the Guantanamo Bay prison. They are guaranteed access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and, as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year, have the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts.

CIA detainees, by contrast, are held under separate rules and far greater secrecy. Under a presidential directive and authorities approved by administration lawyers, the CIA is allowed to capture and hold certain classes of suspects without accounting for them in any public way and without revealing the rules for their treatment. and regional operations.

During the 1990s, the CIA typically had custody of half a dozen terrorists at any time and usually kept them in foreign prisons, mostly in Egypt and Jordan. But just two months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, CIA paramilitary teams working with foreign intelligence services had arrested dozens of people thought to have knowledge of upcoming attacks on the United States.

The CIA is believed to be holding about three dozen al-Qaida leaders in undisclosed locations, U.S. national security officials say. Among them are pivotal Sept. 11 plotters Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaida and the leader of Southeast Asia's Islamic terrorist movement, Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, who is also known as Hambali.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1218tucsoncop18.html

Tucson will fire lieutenant

Associated Press

Dec. 18, 2004 12:00 AM

TUCSON - A Tucson police lieutenant tied to a doctor's murder investigation will be fired, officials announced Friday.

Lt. Wendell Hunt was served with a notice of intent to discharge, Chief Richard Miranda announced in a press release.

Hunt was the target of an internal investigation after it surfaced that he had a connection to Dr. Bradley Schwartz, who is accused of hiring Ronald Bruce Bigger to kill Dr. Brian Stidham, a former medical practice associate of Schwartz. advertisement

Hunt, 49, a midtown patrol commander who has been with the Tucson Police Department for 17 years, has been on paid administrative leave since Nov. 4.

Hunt had been in a relationship with an employee of Schwartz at the time of the killing. In interviews with Pima County investigators, he admitted looking up some information on the case at the girlfriend's request shortly after the killing.

When questioned by investigators, Hunt said his only knowledge of Schwartz was through the girlfriend, whose name was blacked out in the released reports. But Schwartz called him while he was talking to investigators.

Hunt agreed to call Schwartz back on speakerphone while sheriff's investigators listened. During the call, Schwartz denied killing Stidham.

Last year, Hunt was suspended for 30 days for having sex in a patrol car with a woman he had invited on a civilian tour, authorities said. Hunt was demoted from sergeant to officer, but the demotion later was reversed.

Sgt. Marco Borboa, a department spokesman, said Hunt will have an opportunity to appear Dec. 28 before the termination review board to appeal the firing.

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ok i know they are stupid laws but our stupid rulers dont obey them very well

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1220mon1-20.html

Historical headache

Leveling an old house has crumbled Wilcox legacy

Dec. 20, 2004 12:00 AM

The Grant Park neighborhood south of downtown Phoenix represents both a memorable past and a cloudy future for Earl and Mary Rose Wilcox.

The couple obviously love the neighborhood. They are proud of the work they have put into the area for decades.

But it has become the scene of their sorriest public action, their most embarrassing political moment, their most painful public relations headache. advertisement

From now on, the Wilcoxes will be remembered not for investing in the hardscrabble neighborhood, not for honoring its past and believing in its future, but for destroying a historic home there.

Last week, Phoenix prosecutors filed criminal charges against the couple: two misdemeanor counts for demolishing a 105-year-old house that had been designated historic.

Earl, who works in the Governor's Office of Children, Youth and Families, and Mary Rose, a Maricopa County supervisor, will be arraigned in two weeks at Phoenix Municipal Court. If convicted, they face a maximum fine of $2,500 each, up to six months in jail and three years probation.

Phoenix city officials see this as a precedent-making case. They want to set an example.

They can't remember another case in which a historically designated property was just leveled by an owner. They don't want to see it happen again.

They don't want to coddle a powerful political figure like Mary Rose, who is also a former city councilwoman.

The Wilcoxes are alternately apologetic and defiant. They have said they are sorry. They have said they didn't realize it was historic. They have also said that the house was unsafe, falling down, taken over by transients and operating as a crack house.

Their explanation strains credulity, however.

They had to know the Queen Anne Cottage-style house at 704 S. First Ave. was protected. It was right next door to their popular Mexican restaurant, El Portal.

And now it's gone, representing a "substantial loss" to the city. The Wilcoxes' action can be seen as incredibly impulsive, stupid or arrogant.

After all, practically everyone knows you can't knock down a building without a permit. It's as if they were trying to avoid the cost of a licensed contractor.

There is a cruel irony in all this.

Earl grew up in Grant Park, the old, heavily Hispanic barrio south of downtown. He established a midnight basketball league there. He was heavily involved in Friendly House and other social agencies in the neighborhood.

A few years ago, the Wilcoxes started investing there, first to open the restaurant, then a boxing gym, then buying additional properties, for their own home and future business expansion.

Earl wanted to reinvest in the neighborhood he grew up in.

And truth be told, he didn't have a lot of company thinking there was much of a future in Grant Park. But they're making a go of it.

That future has been compromised. And a historic house has been destroyed.

<#**#>

Hey laro I used to work down the street from your jail.  Your at 8901 S Wilmot Rd Tucson, AZ 85706 which is just south of I-10 and on Wilmot. I used to work at the IBM plant which is about 3 miles east of you on rita road. But since I-10 goes south east at an angle at that point the IBM plant is just north of I-10 on rita road. Its where the X is on the map. Its address is IBM Systems Group, 9000 South Rita Road, Tucson, Arizona 85744

I worked there for three months and I was the consultant in the “our projects f*cked up and we need to hire a consultant and blame him for all our problems” and after that they fired me.

The IBM plant is a pretty nice campus and a nice place to work. They also have a good cafeteria although the food is American food.

I wrote a bunch of C code to allow an IBM mainframe computer talk to the next generation tape drives which are mostly used to back up the mainframes hard disks.

Tucson pay sucks. They only offered me $37 an hours which I took for something to do. I though it would be cool to work in Tucson.  My prior job at the phone company in phoenix I was getting $50 and hour and after I was fired by IBM my next job was at cisco in san jose and I was getting $75 an hour.  While that sounds high I was probably underpaid in san jose. I thought the job was in san diego because I went thru a body shop in san diego. If I knew the job was in the silicon valley I would have asked $120 and hour and be happy if they knocked it down to a $100.

Even though I look like a long hair homeless bum I do make pretty good money when I work.

I should mention to that even though I was an unemployed bum for the last three years I just got another job. Im getting $40 an hour. I wont mention where I am working because I don’t want the government people that read your mail to shake me down. It is just doing some consulting work and I don’t know how long it will last but hey at least they are paying me money.

When I worked at IBM in  Tucson I lived by the university of Arizona over on Tucson blvd and speedway. Tucson is an OK place. The only major complain I have about Tucson is you can get an masala dosa any where.

I used to take I-10 to work I would get on at Campbell and get off on rita road. I know when I drove by your area there is a sign that says there is a prison nearby and that people should not pick up hitchhikers.

<#**#>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1220az-obit-agnos20-ON.html

Former sheriff dies in apparent suicide

Brent Whiting

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 20, 2004 06:24 PM

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Tom Agnos was found dead Monday in Sun City West in what authorities described as an apparent suicide.

Landscapers discovered his body about 1 p.m. on the back porch of his home, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who defeated Agnos in the September 1992 Republican primary.

Agnos, 68, a former assistant Phoenix police chief, had a head wound consistent with a gunshot blast, Arpaio said. Investigators did not find any signs of foul play, he added.

Agnos had remained out of the spotlight since losing his job amid public criticism that the sheriff's office, under his leadership, horribly botched the investigation into a 1991 massacre at a Buddhist temple in the far West Valley.

For his part, Arpaio said Monday that Agnos served honorably and should be remembered as a gentleman and a professional lawman.

Arpaio said he was informed by Agnos' widow, Shirley, that the former sheriff had been terminally ill with an very painful form of cancer.

He said Shirley Agnos released this statement:

"The physical pain Tom experienced only comes close to the pain he felt watching me suffer. We had a 43-year-long wonderful, loving marriage. He did not want to put me through additional pain."

In lieu of flowers, she requested that donations be made to cancer support groups or organizations engaged in cancer research.

Shirley Agnos apparently was across the street, visiting with a neighbor, when her husband died, Arpaio said.

In the meantime, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley described Tom Agnos' death as a sad day for law enforcement.

"I always liked and respected Tom," Romley said. "He will be missed. I extend my condolensces to his family."

Dave Thomas, a Phoenix police commander and a former police colleague, agreed. He described Agnos as "a gentleman in every detail."

"The man was a strong mentor for me," Thomas said. "He taught me many things about leadership and compassion, self-control and respect for citizens. He spent many hours teaching me about the finer details of police work.

As sheriff, Agnos claimed successes in streaming management, improving training, easing jail crowding and boosting staff morale.

He said his leadership had done much to do with way a cowboy image once attributed to the Sheriff's Office.

But his re-election effort in 1992 was dogged by criticism over his office's investigation of the August 1991 massacre of nine people at Wat Promkunaram, a temple west of Luke Air Force Base.

Within a week of the slayings, a task force representing several law enforcement agencies joined with sheriff's investigators in the probe.

Romley, the county attorney, said three years ago that the initial result of the probe was "not a shining moment."

An apparent break in the case came when five Tucson residents were taken into custody in September 1991, four of them charged with the murders after confessing to them.

But the break was bust. The four, ages 19-28, recanted their confessions and claimed they'd been coerced by deputies.

Eventually then won a lawsuit for false arrest after authorities concluded that Agnos and high-ranking deputies had bowed to political pressure and did a slipshod investigation.

They said the case was mismanaged from the beginning by Agnos and others, some of whom chided and berated deputies who doubted the guilt of the Tucson suspects.

In addition, Agnos and others wasted untold dollars and man hours in a vain attempt to link the Tucson men to the massacre, sheriff's officials said in 1993.

Charges against the Tucson suspects were dismissed after two Avondale High School students were charged with carrying out the massacre.

The pair, Johnathan Doody, a Thai native whose brother frequented the temple, and Alessandro "Alex" Garcia, were convicted and each was sentenced in 1992 to nearly 300 years in prison.

Their motive for killing nine innocent people: small-time robbery, authorities said. The reward: cameras, electronic equipment and $2,790 in cash.

Reach the reporter at brent.whiting@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-6937.

<#**#>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4685015,00.html

Seattle Archdiocese to Settle Abuse Cases

Tuesday December 21, 2004 3:16 AM

AP Photo LA202

SEATTLE (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle 12 claims of sexual abuse by priests, the majority involving a former pastor at several churches in the area.

Eleven of the settled cases involved the Rev. James McGreal, who was banned from the ministry and lives in a supervised church facility in Missouri.

The 12th claim involved the Rev. David Jaeger, who admitted in the mid-1990s that he inappropriately touched a 13-year-old boy at a youth camp in 1978. Jaeger is on administrative leave.

The archdiocese reached the settlements in talks last week. Three other claims are still being negotiated.

For 40 years until 1988, McGreal served in 10 Northwest parishes and the archdiocese is aware of 40 abuse victims from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, though victims' attorneys have said the number could be in the hundreds.

Elsewhere, a second person who alleges he was molested by a former Missouri priest has settled his lawsuit against the St. Louis' archdiocese and the one-time clergyman, a victims' advocacy group said Monday.

Attorneys refused to discuss specifics about the settlement involving the Rev. Bryan Kuchar, 38, currently serving three years in jail for sodomy against a boy who was 14 at the time of the abuse.

The settlement is the latest of 22 reached this year through mediation by the Archdiocese of St. Louis, with at least three other cases pending, said Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese.

In New Jersey, James F. Hopkins, 61, a former Roman Catholic priest, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy nearly nine years ago. He could get up to a 10-year prison term.

By accepting the agreement, Hopkins avoided the possibility of being convicted on the more severe charge of aggravated sexual assault, which can carry a prison sentence of 20 years.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002123516_dige18m.html

Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Archdiocese reaches settlement over abuse

Mediation talks this week between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and 15 people with claims of abuse by priests resulted in a $1.8 million settlement.

The archdiocese reached a definitive settlement with 12 people, including two parents of a man who said he'd been molested, and is close to a settlement with a 13th person, said archdiocese attorney Michael Patterson.

Twelve of the claims involved past molestation by the Rev. James McGreal, generally considered the archdiocese's most notorious offender.

Civil suits against McGreal, who is barred from ministry and living in a supervised church facility in Missouri, have resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements.

The other claim involved past molestation by the Rev. David Jaeger, who admitted in court proceedings years ago to inappropriately touching about 10 minors at a Catholic youth camp in the 1970s.

Jaeger is currently on administrative leave, and a decision on whether he should remain in ministry is being reviewed by the Vatican.

<*##*>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1219elephants19.html

Thai elephants ambush food trucks
Animals become living roadblocks

Sutin Wannabovorn
Associated Press
Dec. 19, 2004 12:00 AM

KHAO-ANG RUE-NI, Thailand - These pachyderms aren't just going after peanuts.

Elephants in a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand are using their oversize bodies as roadblocks, ambushing vehicles transporting sugar cane, tapioca and fruit, the sanctuary's chief says.

The estimated 200 elephants in Khao-Ang Rue-Ni sanctuary turn desperate, and wily, in the dry season, when water and food supplies shrink. It's then that the animals stage their heists, Yuo Senatham said.

Conveniently enough for the elephants, the dry season is also when hundreds of trucks travel through their lands, laden with newly harvested tapioca and sugar cane.

Yuo said a herd leader usually emerges from the jungle at dusk to block the road. When a vehicle stops, other elephants move in for the feast.

Signs urging motorists not to feed the elephants don't seem to be doing the trick.

"It's like the drivers are bribing the elephants, otherwise the elephants won't allow trucks to pass through," Yuo said.

The elephants, who have never hurt a motorist, sound a general retreat when wildlife officials arrive to scare them away with spotlights.

The sanctuary chief said he can't prevent the elephants from roaming near the road because the area used to belong to them.

"What we can do is prevent them from getting hurt and hurting people," Yuo said.

The Thai army cut the road through the 270,000-acre sanctuary in the 1980s to help ferry supplies to insurgents fighting the Cambodian government, Yuo said.

There are about 3,000 wild elephants in Thailand, according to the Forestry Department.

<*##*>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1222iraq-assess22.html

Mosul attack illustrates sophistication of rebels

Thomas E. Ricks

Washington Post

Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - In April 2003, as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was ending, the Pentagon projected in a formal planning effort that the U.S. military occupation of the country would end this month.

Instead, this month brought the deadliest single incident of the war for U.S. forces, with dozens of casualties suffered Tuesday by U.S. troops, civilian contractors and Iraqi soldiers when a U.S. base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was blasted at lunchtime.

It was one of the most devastating attacks against Americans in Iraq since the start of the war. advertisement

Before Tuesday, the worst incidents were the deaths of 17 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division in the November 2003 collision of two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, also in Mosul, and, two weeks before that, the loss of 15 soldiers when a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter crashed west of Baghdad.

The major difference between the latest attack and those earlier incidents is that it was an attack on a U.S. base rather than on troops in transit in vulnerable aircraft. That difference appears to reflect both the persistence of the insurgency and its growing sophistication as experts noted that it seemed to be based on precise intelligence. Most disturbingly, some officers who have served in Iraq worried that the Mosul attack could mark the beginning of a period of even more intense violence preceding the Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

"On the strategic level, we were expecting a horrendous month leading up to the Iraqi elections, and that has begun," retired Army Col. Michael Hess said.

If anti-American violence does hit a new level, pressures will increase on the Bush administration to either boost the U.S. military presence in Iraq or find a fast way to get out.

The adequacy of troop numbers is one of the questions provoked by Tuesday's action, said Charles McComas, a veteran special-forces soldier who served in Afghanistan before retiring. "Do we have the right forces and enough of them to do the offensive patrolling to reduce the chances of this happening again?" he asked.

A private-sector security expert who recently left Baghdad after more than a year there agreed, noting that the United States originally put an entire division into the Mosul area, the 101st Airborne, but replaced it earlier this year with a force about half that size, only to see insurgent attacks increase. "We have replaced a division with a brigade and think we can offer the same amount of security," he said, insisting on anonymity because his opinions are so at odds with the official U.S. government view.

The attack also indicates that the insurgency is growing more sophisticated. One of the basic principles of waging a counterinsurgency is that it requires patience. "Twenty-one months (the length of the occupation so far) is not a long time to tame the tribal warfare expected there," said retired Marine Lt. Col. Rick Raftery, an intelligence specialist who operated in Iraq in 1991. "My guess is that this will take 10 years."

Another principle, less noted but painfully clear Tuesday, is that insurgents also tend to sharpen their tactics as time goes by.

"The longer you are anywhere, the more difficult it becomes," said Hess, who served in northern Iraq in 1991. "They have changed their tactics a lot in the year-plus."

Several experts said that insurgents appear to have acted on accurate intelligence. Kalev Sepp, a former special-forces counterinsurgency expert who recently returned from Iraq, said, "(The attack) was carried out in daylight against the largest facility on the base at exactly the time when the largest number of soldiers would be present. This combination of evidence indicates a good probability that the attack was well-planned and professionally executed."

<#**#>

a question for kevin and laro.

do you guys have access to the news on a daily basis?

are newspapers allowed into the jails? do they censor

and snip articles from the newspapers they think are bad for you?

are newspapers illegal in your cells and maybe you can

just get them in the prision library if im not being

dumb enough to think a library exists.

how about magazines like newsweek and time? can you get them.

i know sheriff joe considers you a source of revenue. do they

charge you outrages prices if you wish to buy a newspaer,

assuming a newspaper is not dangerous contraband?

do you have access to radio stations? somebody said that sheriff

joe let kevin have a radio in his cell and he can get the news

from it? same think for tv stations although the tv news is

the pitts compared to the printed media.

<#**#>

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1222iraq22.html

Mess hall blast kills 22

Attack on U.S. is single deadliest since Iraq war began

Wire services

Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

BAGHDAD - An explosion tore through a crowded U.S. military chow tent in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people in the deadliest attack on a U.S. military installation in the 21 months since the war in Iraq began.

Fifteen of the dead were U.S. soldiers who had just sat down to lunch.

The dead included 20 Americans, 15 of them service members and five civilian contractors. Two Iraqi soldiers also were killed. More than 60 people were wounded, including 42 U.S. troops, Capt. Brian Lucas, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said early today. Halliburton Co., a Houston-based company whose subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root supplies food service and other support activities for U.S. troops in Mosul, said seven of its workers were killed. Halliburton did not give the nationalities of the dead, but they apparently included the five American civilians. The two other deaths, if correct, would boost the overall toll to 24. advertisement

Inside the tent, U.S. soldiers, including some from the Virginia-based 276th Engineer Battalion, reacted quickly. With people screaming and thick smoke billowing, soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot, said Jeremy Redmon, a reporter for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch embedded with the troops in Mosul.

In an online assertion of responsibility for the attack, a radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, described "a suicide operation." Military officials said the cause of the blast was under investigation, but early indications pointed to a rocket attack.

Some security experts, however, said the extent of injuries indicated that it was possible a bomb had been planted inside the hall.

President Bush said that the explosion should not derail Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30 and that he hoped relatives of those killed know that their loved ones died in "a vital mission for peace."

"I'm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq," he said.

Portland (Maine) Press Herald photographer Gregory Rec, who was sleeping about a quarter-mile from the mess hall when he was awakened by the loud explosion, said he rushed to the scene, where a soldier told him "he heard a whoosh, he looked up and saw a fireball halfway between the ceiling and the floor."

The attack at Forward Operating Base Marez came hours after British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad and spoke of a "battle between democracy and terror."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, responding to a question about how Iraqis will be able to safely get to about 9,000 polling places if U.S. troops can't secure their own bases, said there is "security and peace" in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces.

Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, was relatively peaceful in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year. But insurgent attacks in the largely Sunni area have increased dramatically in the past year, particularly since the U.S.-led military offensive in November to retake Fallujah from militants.

Like most mess halls at U.S. bases in Iraq, the dining area at Base Marez is covered with a tent. Insurgents have fired mortars at the mess hall more than 30 times this year, Redmon said.

Mortar attacks on U.S. bases, particularly on the huge white tents that serve as dining halls, have been frequent in Iraq for more than a year. Just last month, for example, a mortar attack on a Mosul base killed two troops with Task Force Olympia, the reinforced brigade responsible for security in much of northern Iraq.

Bill Nemitz, a columnist with the Portland Press Herald who was embedded with the Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion in Mosul, told CNN that he heard "a lot of discussion" about the vulnerability of the tent.

The base is also used by members of the Stryker Brigade, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., a military official said.

Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia, acknowledged the tent's vulnerability and told CNN the military is building a new dining facility at the base, a concrete structure that Nemitz said was supposed to have been ready for Christmas.

"There is a level of vulnerability when you go in there and you don't feel like there's a ... hard roof over your head," Hastings told CNN.

Base Marez, also known as the al-Ghizlani military camp, is three miles south of Mosul and is used by both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government's security forces. It once was Mosul's civilian airport but is now a heavily fortified area surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire. Its two main gates are guarded by U.S. troops; Iraqi national guard members man checkpoints outside to prevent cars from getting close without being searched.

Redmon said the dead included two soldiers from the Virginia-based unit, which had just sat down to eat. The force knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats as a fireball enveloped the top of the tent and shrapnel sprayed into the area, Redmon said.

Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters, while others wandered around in a daze and collapsed, he said.

"I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her.

A huge hole was blown into the roof of the tent, and puddles of blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor, Redmon said.

Near the front entrance, troops tended a soldier with a serious head wound, but within minutes, they zipped him into a body bag, he said. Three more bodies were in the parking lot.

"It was very hard to watch and very chaotic, but at the same time what amazed me was that within 20 minutes the worst of the wounded, the ones who needed the most attention, were out of there. It was just a remarkable effort by all the soldiers involved," Redmon said.

<#**#>

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041221-2548.shtml

Borderland    Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Eyewitnesses most common reason for mistaken IDs

Tammy Fonce-Olivas and Daniel Borunda

El Paso Times

Learn more about the Eyewitness Identification Research Laboratory at UTEP at http://eyewitness. utep.edu/

Mistaken eyewitness identification is the most frequent problem leading to a person being wrongly sent to prison, said a UTEP professor who is a national expert in the field.

"It's hard to estimate how frequently it occurs. It may occur as much as 5 percent of the time, some studies have estimated," said Roy S. Malpass, director of the criminal justice program and a psychology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Mistaken eyewitness identification appears to have played a key role in Brandon Moon's conviction for a 1987 sexual assault in West El Paso. The victim identified Moon as her attacker in a police lineup and later in court.

But new DNA evidence conclusively proves that Moon could not have been the attacker, the district attorney and defense lawyers now agree. Moon is expected to be exonerated at a court hearing today based on the new evidence.

Several factors can make eyewitness recollection unreliable, Malpass said. Memory can be influenced by fear. And people tend to remember people of their own race better than those of other races, said Malpass, who has studied eyewitness identification since the 1960s.

"The single most important thing about witness memory is it can be contaminated," Malpass said.

Despite the problems, the judicial system relies heavily on the recollection of witnesses and victims, according to local law experts.

"It has to be taught, the pitfalls and the strong points. Don't get me wrong, it's not totally reliable, but law enforcement has to be trained on it," said Vince Pokluda, director of training for the El Paso County Sheriff's Department.

Pokluda said eyewitness identification is incorporated into the 48 hours of criminal investigation training given at the academy for sheriff's deputy recruits. Officers are taught to seek out eyewitnesses because "the more sources of information you can get to nail the identification of either an innocent or responsible party the better off you are," he said.

Moon's lawyer said many cases of incorrect identification are created by poor police work.

"This case is just another example of something that we have known for well over a decade -- that a mistaken eyewitness identification is the single leading cause of wrongful convictions in America," said Nina Morrison, a lawyer for the New York-based Innocence Project.

"You wonder how many more cases like this will it take before those in charge of administering lineups and photo spreads start to take seriously the research that shows that there are so many ways we can do it better and to avoid the risk and error and permit someone like Brandon from going to prison for something that he didn't do," she said.

Eyewitness testimony continues to heavily influence the outcome of trials, said Joe Spencer, a longtime defense attorney.

"Surely, it weighs a lot in court if you have a victim that points at the defendant and says, 'That's him; I know it's him,' " Spencer said. "Jurors want to believe the victim because the victim, I'm sure, is being sincere and doesn't want to make a mistake. But you can't rely on that testimony because studies have shown how unreliable it is."

Tammy Fonce-Olivas may be reached at tfonce@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.; Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

<#**#>

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041222-2903.shtml

Lab errors erode confidence in system, some lawmakers say

Gary Scharrer

Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Some key Texas lawmakers say crime lab errors resulting in conviction of innocent people such as Brandon Moon must be corrected or the public will lose confidence in the criminal justice system.

The Moon case and hundreds of tainted cases handled by the Houston Police Department's crime lab have inspired legislative hearings intended to find out what happened and how to fix those problems.

"I think, temporarily, the publicity given to the Brandon Moon case and those cases coming out of the Houston lab erode the public's confidence in the forensic evidence and analysis of that evidence," state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, said Tuesday.

State Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, will collect testimony at a hearing Jan. 4 in Houston to learn why criminal forensic labs are making so many mistakes.

"We want to review the El Paso case carefully and learn what happened and to make certain we do everything possible to prevent another similar incident," Whitmire said. "I don't think we know the depth of the problem."

Moon's lawyers contend that sloppy or faulty analysis of semen at the scene of a 1987 sexual assault of a West Side homemaker played a crucial role in influencing an El Paso jury to convict the former UTEP student and sentence him to 75 years in prison. He was released Tuesday because of DNA testing showing that Moon was "conclusively excluded" as the rapist.

The Department of Public Safety's crime laboratory in Lubbock handled the evidence, and prosecutors touted the DPS as being "like the FBI of Texas" before agency serologist Glen David Adams testified at Moon's trial.

The DPS expert told the El Paso jury that the semen from the assailant came from a person whose blood type could not be detected in such bodily fluids as saliva or semen. Such a person is considered a non-secretor. Adams determined that the crime scene evidence came from a non-secretor and told jurors that the victim's husband and son were secretors.

Moon was part of a small group of the population who could have left the semen, according to the DPS serologist. But Adams' analysis was faulty because he failed to properly identify the victim and her husband also as non-secretors, Moon's lawyers said.

Duncan agreed that the state needs to fix the problems, of the type coming out of the Department of Public Safety's Lubbock office, that helped convict Moon.

Those DPS tests performed by serologist Adams "were far from 'reliable' -- indeed, they appear to be marred by incompetence, fraud, or both," Moon's lawyers said in court papers.

"A very strict review of these labs is appropriate in order to repair the public's confidence in those labs," Duncan said. He is the author of legislation that state lawmakers passed in 2001 giving inmates such as Moon another chance to prove their innocence through DNA testing.

Adams, who no longer works for the DPS, declined opportunities to rebut criticism or to defend his work.

In a statement, DPS officials in Austin said Adams' trial testimony concluded that Moon could not be eliminated as a suspect. The evidence was tested in 1987 using the most up-to-date serology tests available at the time.

Gary Scharrer may be reached at gscharrer@ elpasotimes.com; (512) 479-6606.

<*==*>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/22/national/22release.html

Free After 17 Years for a Rape That He Did Not Commit

By BARBARA NOVOVITCH

Published: December 22, 2004

EL PASO, Dec. 21 - For his first day back "in the world" as a free man after nearly 17 years, Brandon Moon made sure he was dressed in blue, his favorite color, carrying a white cowboy hat, symbol of all Western good guys. He wore the horsehair belt a fellow prison craftsman made at his request and a belt buckle of his own design, an Eye of God cross embellished in nickel, brass and copper and set with a zircon stone.

Shown by DNA testing to have been wrongly convicted of rape in 1988, Mr. Moon was released from prison at a court hearing here on Tuesday afternoon - the latest among 154 men and women in the United States exonerated by such tests.

Mr. Moon and his parents were in the packed courtroom to hear the El Paso district attorney, Jaime Esparza, apologize for the wrongful conviction, for himself and for the State of Texas. With them were Barry Scheck, a lawyer from New York whose 12-year-old Innocence Project has accounted for more than half of those exonerated, and another lawyer from Mr. Scheck's office, Nina Morrison.

"I know we can't give you back your years," Mr. Esparza said, "and for that I'm extremely sorry."

Mr. Moon responded, "I accept your apology."

The El Paso case suggested that Texas's crime laboratory scandals are not limited to Houston, where two other convicted Texans were exonerated earlier and two grand juries have investigated tainted evidence after a landmark DNA testing statute passed in 2001 by the Texas Legislature.

In the courtroom, Mr. Scheck said he would ask for an audit of all cases using evidence from the Department of Public Safety's former blood-testing expert, Glen David Adams, whose incorrect scientific results helped to convict Mr. Moon on three counts of aggravated sexual assault, resulting in a 75-year sentence, and sample checks of other crime laboratory evidence. Mr. Adams worked at the Lubbock crime laboratory from 1986 to 1991. The department said that his whereabouts now were unknown.

Mr. Scheck also called for pilot programs in eyewitness identification, citing mistaken identity as the "single greatest cause of innocents being convicted."

David Dow, a law professor at the University of Houston, said that reforms were particularly urgent in Texas because "the pace of executions here is so much greater than in any other state."

In Mr. Moon's case, the prosecution presented eyewitness testimony from the rape victim herself and three other women whose rapes followed a similar pattern. The rape victim picked out Mr. Moon from a photograph and police lineup, in which he was the only blue-eyed white male, a full 18 months after the attack.

Mr. Scheck and Ms. Morrison both praised their client's efforts from prison to act as his own lawyer but said his pleas for DNA testing were fully heard only after the Innocence Project got involved last May and had a semen-stained bathrobe and a comforter from the bed where the rape took place re-examined.

Mr. Moon, now 43, was "bounced around the courts like a Ping-Pong ball," Ms. Morrison said. "We only came in at the ninth inning." Counting the years, Mr. Moon said in an interview on Sunday before his release that he felt as if he had played for 17 innings - "it was a very long game."

"The courts are so hostile to pro se litigants," said Ms. Morrison, referring to those who represent themselves. "The instinct is to deny, deny, deny." Still, after DNA results established Mr. Moon's innocence, "it took less than a week" for Mr. Esparza "to do the right thing," Ms. Morrison added.

Mr. Moon, a four-year Army veteran, was a sophomore at the University of Texas at El Paso in 1987 when he was arrested on the rape charge. A member of the Air Force R.O.T.C., he had hoped to become a "lifer" in the Air Force and to fly fighter jets after his graduation.

Instead he spent his prison years learning about blood tests and law in the prison libraries.

Mr. Moon said an expert on flaws in eyewitness identification, Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus of the University of Washington, had been "a tremendous help to me in understanding" what to do.

In prison, Mr. Moon also spent his time learning to make jewelry and belt buckles, which he described as "my therapy"

Mr. Moon's defense lawyer in 1988 was Norbert Garney, now a federal magistrate judge in El Paso. Mr. Garney produced two witnesses who partly corroborated Mr. Moon's alibi, but Mr. Adams's serology analysis, incorrectly describing Mr. Moon's blood sample as putting him among just 15 percent of the population who could possibly have been the source of semen stains, was the only scientific evidence presented. All other trace evidence analysis, including pubic hairs, excluded him.

Judge Garney declined to comment on the case on Monday.

"I have a lot of faith in the justice system," Mr. Moon said on Tuesday, adding that "it's made up of humans, and we make errors." He offered advice to other prisoners who know they are innocent: "No matter what you do, don't ever give up."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Breaking-News/DNA-tests-clear-man-after-17-years-jail/2004/12/22/1103391817569.html?oneclick=true

DNA tests clear man after 17 years jail

December 22, 2004 - 2:14PM

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A man who served nearly 17 years for rape was freed from prison after DNA tests determined he was not responsible for the crime.

Brandon Moon, 43, joined his parents, Frank and Shirley Moon, for the drive to their home in Kansas City, Missouri, following his release from the El Paso County jail. He said he felt "numb."

"Have you ever had Novocain? It's a lot like that, just from head to toe," he told The Associated Press.

Moon had been serving a 75-year sentence after his 1988 conviction for sexual assault. The El Paso district attorney and defence lawyers filed a successful joint motion to vacate the conviction.

Nina Morrison, an attorney with the New York-based Innocence Project, said he would be released on $US1 bond until his conviction is officially vacated by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

"My office and the state of Texas, in the interest of truth, recognise the injustice Mr Moon has suffered," said El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza, who did not prosecute Moon.

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AdvertisementHe may be eligible for compensation from the state of $US425,000 ($A555,918), or up to $US25,000 ($A32,701) for every year of his incarceration.

Moon said he never lost faith when officials wouldn't listen while he maintained his innocence. "They're listening now," he said.

He said his future plans are not yet set. "At least in part I'll continue making belt buckles, which has kind of kept me going over the years," he said of his silversmith work.

"What I'll be doing other than that, I don't know."

The motion to vacate Moon's conviction was based on recent DNA tests by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which defence attorneys and Esparza say prove Moon did not commit the April 1987 aggravated sexual assault.

Serologist Glen Adams had testified Moon was among the 15 per cent of the population that could have possibly have been the source of semen evidence. Innocence Project lawyers contended the testimony implied Moon was the likely rapist - despite other biological evidence that exonerated him.

"This case shows that the well-documented problems of crime lab error ... occur all over Texas," said lawyer Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project co-director.

"This is also a classic case where faulty eyewitness identification procedures implicated the wrong man."

DPS officials disputed that analysis.

"During the original trial, the DPS analyst's testimony concluded that Brandon Moon could not be eliminated as a suspect," the agency said in a statement.

The victim identified Moon from a police photo, but told police she couldn't remember whether her attacker had a mustache or identify the colour of his eyes.

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041222-2902.shtml

17-year ordeal finally ends for freed El Pasoan's family

Charles K. Wilson

El Paso Times

Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times

Brandon Moon, in hat, walked out of district court Tuesday between his lawyers, Nina Morrison and Barry Scheck, after being released during a hearing at the El Paso County Courthouse.

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Frank and Shirley Moon waited for 17 years. And when the moment came, they let their emotions show with hugs, a few tears and smiles Tuesday after their son Brandon was freed from prison.

The family's ordeal came to a close when Senior District Judge Sam Paxson accepted a request to vacate Brandon Moon's conviction in a 1987 rape case.

The Moons called Tuesday's hearing a gift, but not theirs. They wanted the focus on their son.

"Go to him," Frank Moon told a reporter and offered a thumbs-up. "Not me. Talk to Brandon."

Frank Moon arrived early for the court hearing with a white cowboy hat meant to reflect his 43-year-old son's innocence.

"He asked (me) to bring a white hat, a good-guy hat," Frank Moon said. "And to salute some (Department of Public Safety) troopers."

Saturday, the Moons -- "working on 49 years of marriage" -- will gather with their five children and other family members at their home near Kansas City, Mo., and celebrate Christmas together, Shirley Moon said.

The tension the family had felt for years lingered before and during the hearing. "Can we go hide someplace?" Shirley Moon asked at one point. Napkins dabbed at tears as the hearing progressed.

Shirley Moon brought a tan belt for her son, who was dressed in a blue shirt and sweater, new blue pants still showing the folds, and new black loafers.

She held another blue shirt on a hanger as she waited for Brandon Moon to finish paperwork to walk out of the county jail.

"What can you say?" Frank Moon said. "He was practically dead, but now he's resurrected. I just thank God."

He also said he will be eternally grateful to the Innocence Project, which took up Moon's case.

After the hearing, the Moons resisted calls to join their son in front of the news media. This day, Shirley Moon reiterated, was for her son.

"He's the one who suffered," she said. "We suffered, too, but that was a lot different. We were free."

To help

The Life After Exoneration Program provides assistance to people wrongly convicted and imprisoned for long periods.

Donations to the program are tax-deductible, and all the money goes to clients.

Contributions may be sent to LAEP/Tides Center, 760 Wildcat, Berkeley, CA 94708.

Online: http://www.exonerated.org

Charles K. Wilson may be reached at cwilson@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041222-2903.shtml

Lab errors erode confidence in system, some lawmakers say

Gary Scharrer

Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Some key Texas lawmakers say crime lab errors resulting in conviction of innocent people such as Brandon Moon must be corrected or the public will lose confidence in the criminal justice system.

The Moon case and hundreds of tainted cases handled by the Houston Police Department's crime lab have inspired legislative hearings intended to find out what happened and how to fix those problems.

"I think, temporarily, the publicity given to the Brandon Moon case and those cases coming out of the Houston lab erode the public's confidence in the forensic evidence and analysis of that evidence," state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, said Tuesday.

State Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, will collect testimony at a hearing Jan. 4 in Houston to learn why criminal forensic labs are making so many mistakes.

"We want to review the El Paso case carefully and learn what happened and to make certain we do everything possible to prevent another similar incident," Whitmire said. "I don't think we know the depth of the problem."

Moon's lawyers contend that sloppy or faulty analysis of semen at the scene of a 1987 sexual assault of a West Side homemaker played a crucial role in influencing an El Paso jury to convict the former UTEP student and sentence him to 75 years in prison. He was released Tuesday because of DNA testing showing that Moon was "conclusively excluded" as the rapist.

The Department of Public Safety's crime laboratory in Lubbock handled the evidence, and prosecutors touted the DPS as being "like the FBI of Texas" before agency serologist Glen David Adams testified at Moon's trial.

The DPS expert told the El Paso jury that the semen from the assailant came from a person whose blood type could not be detected in such bodily fluids as saliva or semen. Such a person is considered a non-secretor. Adams determined that the crime scene evidence came from a non-secretor and told jurors that the victim's husband and son were secretors.

Moon was part of a small group of the population who could have left the semen, according to the DPS serologist. But Adams' analysis was faulty because he failed to properly identify the victim and her husband also as non-secretors, Moon's lawyers said.

Duncan agreed that the state needs to fix the problems, of the type coming out of the Department of Public Safety's Lubbock office, that helped convict Moon.

Those DPS tests performed by serologist Adams "were far from 'reliable' -- indeed, they appear to be marred by incompetence, fraud, or both," Moon's lawyers said in court papers.

"A very strict review of these labs is appropriate in order to repair the public's confidence in those labs," Duncan said. He is the author of legislation that state lawmakers passed in 2001 giving inmates such as Moon another chance to prove their innocence through DNA testing.

Adams, who no longer works for the DPS, declined opportunities to rebut criticism or to defend his work.

In a statement, DPS officials in Austin said Adams' trial testimony concluded that Moon could not be eliminated as a suspect. The evidence was tested in 1987 using the most up-to-date serology tests available at the time.

Gary Scharrer may be reached at gscharrer@ elpasotimes.com; (512) 479-6606.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10469908.htm?1c

Posted on Tue, Dec. 21, 2004

Man convicted of 1987 rape expected to be released

Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas - A man who served nearly 17 years for rape was freed from prison Tuesday after DNA tests determined that he was not responsible for the crime.

Brandon Moon, 43, joined his parents, Frank and Shirley Moon, late Tuesday afternoon for a long drive to their home in Kansas City, Mo., following his release from the El Paso County jail.

Asked what he was feeling in his first moments as a free man, Moon told The Associated Press, "Numb. Have you ever had Novacain? It's a lot like that, just from head to toe. "

Moon, a former University of Texas at El Paso student, had been serving a 75-year sentence after his 1988 conviction on three counts of sexual assault.

Throughout his years behind bars, he maintained his innocence and said he never lost faith when others wouldn't listen to him.

"They're listening now," he said.

Moon said he doesn't know what the future holds for him.

"At least in part I'll continue making belt buckles, which has kind of kept me going over the years," he said, referring to his silversmith work while in prison. "What I'll be doing other than that, I don't know."

The El Paso district attorney and defense lawyers filed a successful joint motion in court to vacate Moon's conviction.

Nina Morrison, an attorney with the New York-based Innocence Project, said Moon would be released on $1 bond until his conviction is officially vacated by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

Jaime Esparza, district attorney for El Paso County for the past 10 years, apologized to Moon for his wrongful conviction.

"My office and the state of Texas, in the interest of truth, recognize the injustice Mr. Moon has suffered," Esparza said.

Moon, who accepted the apology, may be eligible for compensation from the state of up to $25,000 for every year of his incarceration.

Moon's case was taken up this fall by the Innocence Project, which handles only cases in which DNA evidence can be used to prove the innocence of a convicted person.

In this case, the challenge focused on testimony by a blood-typing specialist at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab in Lubbock.

DPS serologist Glen Adams testified that Moon was among the 15 percent of the population that could have possibly have been the source of semen evidence presented at Moon's trial in El Paso.

Innocence Project lawyers contended that Adams' testimony implied that Moon was the likely rapist, despite that hair samples and other biological evidence exonerated him.

"This case shows that the well-documented problems of crime lab error ... occur all over Texas," said lawyer Barry Scheck, Innocence Project co-director. "This is also a classic case where faulty eyewitness identification procedures implicated the wrong man."

But DPS officials in Austin disputed that Adams made any suggestion that Moon was guilty.

"During the original trial, the DPS analyst's testimony concluded that Brandon Moon could not be eliminated as a suspect," the agency said Tuesday in a written statement. "The evidence was tested in 1987 using the most up-to-date serology tests available at the time, tests that were commonly used by laboratories across the United States."

DPS also said that Adams balanced his testimony by stating that pubic hair found at the scene did not match Moon, the victim or any of the victim's family members.

The victim, who was assaulted at gunpoint in her home in April 1987, identified Moon from a police photo, but she told police she couldn't remember whether her attacker had a mustache or identify the color of his eyes.

The Innocence Project concluded that the victim simply misidentified Moon as her attacker.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1222iraq-contractor22.html

U.S. contractor pulls out of Iraqi reconstruction

T. Christian Miller

Los Angeles Times

Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the country's growing violence and its effect on reconstruction.

Contrack International Inc., the leader of a partnership that won one of 12 major reconstruction contracts awarded this year, cited skyrocketing security costs in reaching a decision with the U.S. government last month to terminate work in Iraq.

"We reached a point where our costs were getting to be prohibitive," said Karim Camel-Toueg, president of Arlington, Va.-based Contrack, which had won a $325 million award to rebuild Iraq's shattered transportation system. "We felt we were not serving the government and that the dollars were not being spent smartly."

Although a few companies and non-profit groups have pulled out of contracts in Iraq because of security concerns, Contrack's is by far the largest to be canceled to date, U.S. officials said. The move has led to fears that Iraq's mounting violence could prompt other companies to consider pulling out or discourage them from seeking work in Iraq.

U.S. reconstruction officials said the termination of Contrack's contract, which was not previously disclosed, would not hamper rebuilding. They said they were planning to put the contract up for rebidding, a process that can take months, and were hopeful Iraqi companies would participate. So far, most major contracts have been won by U.S.-based multinational companies.

Contrack's partnership was supposed to construct roads, bridges and transportation terminals in Iraq. It wound up refurbishing only a handful of train depots, according to company officials.

Nonetheless, the company was paid about $30 million during the eight months it was under contract, mostly for site assessments and design work, company and U.S. officials said.

"It's not a terrible loss," said Amy Burns, spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Iraq Project and Contracting Office, which oversees the bulk of the reconstruction work in Iraq. "It actually may be good that we're both moving on."

But reconstruction experts say Contrack's withdrawal may foretell trouble with other contractors.

"It's a very bad sign," said Michael O'Hanlon, a scholar at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington who has closely followed the reconstruction process. "If this is how other private companies are thinking, it's a very bad potential warning."

Coming as U.S. reconstruction officials have been touting signs of progress, Contrack's withdrawal is a signal of the continuing difficulty facing the massive, $18.4 billion effort to rebuild Iraq.

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Slave labor at the Arizona state Prison System????

I didn't call but I bet the phones are also answered

by slave labor they pay 10 cents and hour and force

to work at gun point and then say with a straight

face that they are "real employees" not slaves

Wed, Dec 22, 2004

Arizona Republic

License-plate chic

Looking for an unusual enviornmentally friendly gift?

Arizona prison inmates have begun recycling old

license plates into purses. The inmates, working for

Arizona Correctional Industries are turning out

two types of purses that can be purchased by the

public. The "barrel purse," at $64.75, features

two recycled license plates wrapped around

6-inch chrome baby moon hubcaps.

The "box-style purse," $38.50, has a square box

shape and is also made from two recycled license

plates. Both feature recycled rubber snap closures.

Order online at http://www.aci.state.az.us/purse.htm

or call (602)272-7600

Arizona Correctional Industries

3701 West Cambridge Ave.

Phoenix, Arizona

85009

Stylish purses made by prison inmates at Arizona State Prison. I called and asked if “slaves” were used to make then and they said “slaves” were not used to make the purses and that the purses were made by “prison inmates”.

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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/northphoenix/articles/1222phx-library1222Z3.html

City OKs 'no porn' policy staff

Phoenix will add librarian, 3 assistants

Ginger D. Richardson

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

Phoenix officials have agreed to spend an extra $175,000 to add a full-time librarian and three assistants to help implement the city's new "no pornography" policy at all public libraries.

The Phoenix City Council voted in September to ban access to adult Web sites despite objections from civil liberties groups that said the action restricted people's First Amendment rights.

The council made the decision after hearing that police officers had arrested a child molester who said that he had downloaded child pornography on a computer at a public library.

"As a result of this one specific case, we've discovered that this behavior has been going on all the time," said Vice Mayor Peggy Bilsten, who ardently fought to implement the new policy, along with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

The computers in Phoenix's libraries now filter all Web sites that are classified as pornographic, and, unlike before, residents no longer have the option of having an unfiltered Internet session.

When adults reserve a computer, they can choose between a "basic" filtering session that blocks pornography or can choose an additional level of filtering that also blocks sites that include violence or other material that may not be appropriate for children.

An adult, per federal guidelines, is defined as anyone age 17 or over.

Computers in the children's and teen areas are automatically filtered for materials that may be objectionable for minors, city officials said.

The extra staff members are needed to help patrons with questions they may have about the new policy and to better monitor users' activity.

The council installed the filters despite objections from the ACLU, the American Library Association and other First Amendment advocates who said the devices are overly broad and imprecise. Officials of those groups say the filters can't block certain kinds of pornography - such as child porn, for example - and sometimes have been known to deny users access to legitimate information and materials.

Bilsten said she believes the city's software is working as it should.

"I am confident that we have the best filtering system available," she said, "and if we don't, we'll get a better one."

In addition, the city has taken several steps to try to provide a "safe" environment for those using the public library, officials said.

For example, the library has implemented a computer logging system that monitors, tracks and saves all uploading and downloading at the terminals. The information will be maintained for 30 days and will be accessible to law enforcement agencies if they are armed with a court order.

In addition, printers for the computers have been moved closer to reference desks so that staff can keep an eye on what materials are being printed out.

Phoenix officials estimate that residents schedule nearly 400,000 public computer sessions at the library each year.

Reach the reporter at ginger.richardson@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2474.

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