english issue 26

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge said Wednesday she in-tends to strike a ban on male circumcision from the city’s November ballot. Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi said in a tentative ruling that the pro-posed law prohibiting circumci-sion of male children violates a California law that makes regu-lating medical procedures a function of the state, not cities. “It serves no legitimate purpose to allow a measure whose in-validity can be determined as a matter of law to remain on the ballot,” Giorgi wrote. Giorgi ordered San Francisco’s elec-tions director to remove the controversial measure from the ballot that would have made the city the first in the nation to hold a public vote on whether to outlaw the circumcision of minors. The citizens’ initiative, which made the ballot in May after supporters gathered the re-quired 7,163 signatures, would have made the practice a misde-meanor offense punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to one year in jail. The initiative did not offer exemptions for re-

ligious rituals such as the Jew-ish bris or Muslim khitan. The city attorney’s office, which had joined several Jewish organiza-tions in challenging the ban in court, said Giorgi plans to hear arguments on the issue Thurs-day before making her ruling fi-nal. Backers had argued the ban was necessary to prevent a form of genital mutilation from be-ing forced on children. Critics

contended the initiative posed a threat to constitutionally pro-tected religious freedoms and cited comic books and trading cards distributed by the mea-sure’s proponents that carried images of a blonde, blue-eyed superhero and four evil Jewish characters. The ban’s sponsor, anti-circumcision activist Lloyd Schofield, said that he disagreed with the judge’s interpretation

and deliberately crafted a lo-cal ordinance “because for 10 years, no one on a statewide or national level would even con-sider this.” Even if San Fran-cisco voters will not be able to make their views known, the attention surrounding the ballot initiative has been good for cir-cumcision opponents, Schofield said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The ACLU of Southern California is protesting the U.S. government’s attempt to block information from being released in a lawsuit over the FBI’s monitoring of Orange County mosques. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Jus-tice are trying to invoke the seldom-used state secrets privilege to avoid talking about how the FBI paid at least one informant to monitor mosques in 2006. They want the judge to toss the lawsuit. The ACLU said in a statement Friday that lawyers have filed a motion urging the court not to dismiss the case until it has ruled on whether the state secrets doctrine can properly be invoked. In February, the ACLU and oth-ers accused the FBI of carrying out surveillance at mosques because the agency was targeting Muslims.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An attorney for one of two Iraqi refugees arrested in Kentucky on terrorism charges is weigh-ing in on the question of wheth-er his client should be tried in a civilian court. Scott Wendels-dorf, public defender for Waad Ramadan Alwan, has argued in a motion that two counts of his client’s indictment should be dismissed because the Geneva Convention doesn’t allow those charges to be prosecuted in a U.S. civilian court. Wendels-

dorf said in The Courier-Jour-nal on Friday (http://bit.ly/nhWQHd ) that his motion filed July 19 is about the question of jurisdiction and not about the appropriateness of trying simi-lar cases in civilian courts. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has been pushing to have the two defen-dants tried at the Navy-run pris-on at Guantanamo Bay. A spokeswoman for the U.S. At-torney’s Office said prosecutors would file a response with the court.

Chicago area Muslims push for a ‘green’ Ramadan

Attorney: Terror suspect “ Waad Ramadan Alwan “

can’t be tried in Ky.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago-area Muslims say they’ve got an additional focus during the holy month of Ramadan — the envi-ronment. Officials with the Council of Islamic Organiza-tions of Greater Chicago launched several green initia-tives Monday, the first day of the Islamic month marked by fasting and prayer. The efforts follow a resolution adopted by Illinois legislators a few weeks ago designating Ramadan as a “Green Month.” Council spokeswoman Alexandra Maragha says Muslims already spend a lot of time reflecting during Ramadan and it seems like a natural extension to focus on the environment. The coun-

cil represents dozens of Muslim organizations, which are being asked to focus more on recy-cling and looking at solar ener-gy. Representatives from the council say they’ve also been working the Field Museum on an environmental study.

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3Entertainment & Sports

DETROIT (AP) — Aretha Franklin says she’s “extremely disappointed” over a lawsuit filed by her longtime songwriting partner over song roy-alties from her latest CD and copyright infringe-ment. Norman West of Lansing filed the suit July 15 against the Queen of Soul’s publishing company in Detroit federal court. The suit claims Springtime Publishing Inc. failed to sign a royalty agreement for “Put It Back Together

Again.” The song is on Franklin’s “Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love” CD, released in May. The suit also claims copyright infringe-ment over an earlier song, “Watch My Back.” Franklin didn’t immediately respond when news of the suit broke. But she issued a statement Tuesday saying West has “unmitigated gall” considering how she’s “personally assisted and advised him over the past 15 years.”

Muhammad Ali has expressed his sadness about the bombing and massacre in Norway. In a letter to the people of Norway written under his name, the boxing great says his “heart goes out to each of you as you deal with the unimaginable grief of your loss.” Ali wrote that no one should fear mul-ticulturalism. The man who confessed to the mas-sacre says the attacks were part of a plan to purge Europe of Muslims. Ali is a Muslim. He says

those who commit such acts “fail to understand that we share far more with our fellow beings than those aspects that set us apart.” Ali suffers from Parkinson’s syndrome. His spokesman says the former heavyweight champion communicat-ed his thoughts in the letter to his wife

“Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden” (Grove Press), by Brook Wilensky-Lanford: It’s a challenge: Choose the location for the origi-nal Garden of Eden from the 17 suggested by this book’s new map. In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, God is quoted as pinpointing the fruitful area where Adam and Eve would live. He names four rivers flowing out of it. Two of the riv-

ers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, largely in what is now Iraq, are familiar to anyone who has looked at war news in the last decade. They flow side by side, from Turkey in the north, south through Iraq into the Persian Gulf. The other two rivers — God calls them the Pishon and the Gihon — have not been finally identified. They’ve puzzled adventur-ous minds for centuries, including St. Augustine, Christopher Columbus and Emperor Wilhelm II, who led Germany through World War I. St. Augus-tine, an early commentator, had trouble deciding if the garden was a real place, finally concluding that it was. Columbus wrote Ferdinand and Isabella that if the area that impressed him — now northern Venezuela — could be conquered, it would help convert pagans to Christianity. The emperor some-times called “Kaiser Bill” got into trouble with German church people after he helped run a slide show on a controversial theory. Author Brook Wilensky-Lanford confuses the puzzlement a bit more by calling her survey “Paradise Lust.” This isn’t a sex manual, just wordplay on John Milton’s epic poem, “Paradise Lost.” She clarifies in her subtitle: “Searching for the Garden of Eden” and goes on to describe the persistent — some might say, passionate — pursuit over the centuries. Her witty and exhaustively researched book favors a theory in a 1987 article for the Smithsonian Maga-zine. It attributes the idea to Juris Zarins, then pro-fessor of archaeology at Southwest Missouri State University.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith will be getting Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the three will be honored with Oscar statuettes at the Governors Awards in November. The academy’s Board of Governors voted Tuesday to recognize the en-tertainment industry veterans. Winfrey will re-

ceive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which honors philanthropic and humanitarian contributions. The 57-year-old media mogul, who was nominated for a supporting actress Os-car for 1985’s “The Color Purple,” supports various charitable and educational causes, in-cluding her own namesake foundations and Academy for Girls in South Africa. Jones and Smith will receive honorary Oscars for their outstanding careers. Jones has appeared in more than 50 films. The 80-year-old actor — voice of Darth Vader — was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for “The Great White Hope.” His other credits include “Field of Dreams,” ‘’Pa-triot Games” and “The Hunt for Red October.” Smith was NBC’s first makeup man when he started his career in 1945. He won an Oscar in 1984 for his work on “Amadeus” and was nom-inated again in 1989 for “Dad.” Known as the “godfather of makeup,” he also worked on “The Godfather,” ‘’The Exorcist” and “Taxi Driver.” Smith also helped train many of today’s top movie makeup artists. Smith, Jones and Winfrey will receive their statuettes on Nov. 12 at the 3rd annual Governors Awards dinner at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center, just above the Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards are presented.

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Blue skies and strong ticket sales blessed this year’s Newport Folk Fes-tival, two days of veteran acts and up-and-comers from a variety of musical genres. An estimated 10,000 people attended the long-running festival Sunday at Fort Adams State Park, and they were treated to performances from Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Wanda Jackson and more than a dozen other acts on three stages set around New-port’s historic fort. Hundreds more fans listened from sailboats, kayaks and rafts just offshore. “We’ve been trying to get here for 40 years,” said Terry Reese, of Fallbrook, Calif., who attended the festival with her husband, Donn, to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. “We wanted to hear real music, music that’s not canned or pack-aged.” The festival, first held in 1959 and known

as the place where Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, sold out in advance for the first time this year. Festival creator George Wein decided ear-lier in the year to make the folk festival — and its sister, the Newport Jazz Festival — non-profit in an effort to ensure their long-term survival. The event’s mix of musicians from country, rock, blues and independent genres pleased festival-goer Jason Rosenstein, of Tiverton, R.I. He said that while the festival could rely on only older, established acts, it successfully injects a more youthful spirit by including many younger, up-and-coming bands. “There’s a lot of connecting going on, younger bands, older bands, different genres,” he said. “It’s a very positive energy.” It was a sentiment echoed by musicians including Taylor Goldsmith, of the band Middle Brother. Goldsmith said the Newport festival is his favor-ite festival for performing. The waterfront venue, with views of Newport’s harbor, is one reason. The crowd and the lineup are others, he said.”It’s less about the festival, less about the acting crazy and more about the music,” Goldsmith said. Har-ris performed the final set of this year’s festival, which began Saturday. Harris said she remem-bered hearing about the festival when she was a high school student listening to albums by Dylan, who was cheered by fans as an acoustic folk sing-er at the 1963 and ‘64 events but was jeered when he performed with an electric guitar in ‘65. “I knew there was something going on out here, and there still is,” Harris told the audience. As an en-core, folk pioneer Pete Seeger took the stage alongside Harris and several other musicians to lead the audience in singing two classics, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” The Newport Jazz Festival kicks off Fri-day at the same site

Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones to receive Oscars

Review: Garden of Eden imagined at 17 locations

10,000 fans attend RI’s New-port Folk Festival

Franklin criticizes songwriter over rights lawsuit

Muhammad Ali writes letter to people of Norway

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill is suffering from vocal problems and exhaustion, forcing the band on Monday to cancel its U.S. tour. The cancellation comes three days after Followill left the stage mid-show in Dallas due to what he called “ex-cessive” and “unbearable” heat. But other members of the family band said over the week-end that its problems go beyond dehydration, something that wasn’t addressed in a Monday statement. “Thanks to all our true fans for un-derstanding and helping us through this hard time,” Caleb Followill said on Twitter. Follow-ill’s exit led to vows to replay the show by his brothers, drummer Nathan and bassist Jared, and cousin guitarist Matthew on Twitter. But Jared Followill also acknowledged the band has “internal sicknesses & problems” that go be-

yond dehydration. A statement says the band is “devastated, but in order to give their fans the shows they deserve, they need to take this break.” They’ll return to the road in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sept. 28. The canceled shows will not be rescheduled. After years of buzz, the Nashville, Tenn., band named for the brothers’ father stormed the international scene with the singles “Sex on Fire” and “Use Some-body” from their breakthrough album, the multi-platinum “Only by the Night,” in 2008. They released their fifth album, “Come Around Sundown,” earlier this year. They’ve been bankable touring stars, though not without a few notable problems. They had to postpone some dates earlier this year when Nathan Fol-lowill tore his right biceps and labrum while working out. The band also walked off stage in St. Louis last year due to the large volume of pigeon poop falling from the rafters, but re-turned a few months later to make it up to fans. Caleb Followill told the crowd repeatedly last Friday that he was too hot and that his voice was suffering for it. At one point he said he was ill and would be back after taking a few minutes to recover, but he never returned. The Follow-ills, known for their sense of humor and will-ingness to circle the wagons when criticized, took to Twitter to apologize. Matthew Followill even went so far as to apologize to individual followers. Jared Followill tweeted Monday that he was “utterly depressed” and that “family has to come 1st.” But then he tried to lighten the mood.”Don’t jump to conclusions guys,” he wrote in a subsequent tweet. “We’re not break-ing up. BRB. Just got a text from Nathan..... Ummm.... Eesh. So about what I just said....... “ Then he posted: “Kidding! Kidding! Not break-ing up.

Kings of Leon cancel rest of US tour dates

Aug 11 - 25, 2011


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Aug 11 - 25, 2011


5Articles

The Obama administration may turn thousands of government-owned foreclosures into rental properties to help boost fall-ing home prices. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday it is seeking input from investors on how to rent homes owned by government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Admin-istration. The U.S. government rescued Fannie and Freddie in September 2008 and has funded them since the financial cri-sis. The mortgage giants own or guarantee about half of the na-tion’s mortgages and nearly all new mortgages. At the end of last month, the government owned roughly 248,000 foreclosed homes, officials said. About 70,000 of those are listed for sale.

But officials expect the number of foreclosures to soar in the coming months. Many foreclosures have been stalled so at-torneys general and federal regulators can investigate whether lenders cut corners and improperly handled thousands of cas-es. Once a settlement is finalized, foreclosures are expected to pick up again and further depress home prices. Converting the homes into rentals may reduce “credit losses and help stabi-lize neighborhoods and home values,” said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie. Homes in foreclosure sell at a 20 percent discount on average, which can hurt prices of surround-ing homes. It also might meet the growing demand for rentals.

Since the housing meltdown, nearly 3 million households have become renters. At least 3 million more are expected by 2015, according to census data analyzed by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and The Associated Press. A federal “request for information” released Wednesday included an option for previous homeowners to rent out the homes or for current rent-ers to lease to own. Private investors could also be allowed to manage the rental properties. Officials are also mulling whether to only implement the program in areas hit hardest by foreclo-sures and in those with high demand for rental housing, such as Arizona and Florida. The homes include single-family homes and condominiums. The deadline for responses is Sept. 15.

My parents were typical Asian parents. You must get straight A’s in all academic subjects. Being a sickly child, I managed to get my only failing grade ever in elementary school one year: in P.E. I trembled when I handed them my report card. But my father just glanced at that red score and shrugged, “Oh, it’s just P.E.” So when I decided to homeschool my chil-dren, I was at a loss as to what to do for P.E. What is the goal of physical “education” any-

way? That question led me on a long search for an answer, that stretched over a couple of decades.The first obvious an-swer is that children should learn to be fit. By the time they complete their 12-year grade school education, they should not only be “told” to be fit, they should internalize the knowledge and discipline necessary to keep themselves fit for the rest of their lives. It is obvious that public schools have failed in that aspect in this country, or we wouldn’t be having one third of Americans qualifiying as “obese”. Another unspecified frac-tion of the children are too thin and cannot catch up with any

athletic program. Since the main goal of PE is NOT to turn all school children into professional athletes, why then are school PE programs geared towards team sports, or what I call the “ball, ball, ball programs”? You know, basketball, baseball, football, etc? Such curricula have very successfully geared some children that way, but the great majority are failures at keeping themselves fit and healthy. I finally figured out that physical “education” for 12 years should give my children the following: a) physical fitness: the knowhow of how to keep fit, and an ingrained habit of keeping oneself fit; b) mastery of at least one sport: it is amazing how after 12 years of schooling, so many children are not good at any sport at all; c) experience with a variety of different sports. This was simple enough as a goal. Then, I tried to implement it. It’s amazing how sim-ple things can be and how versatile curricula can be once you have a final goal in mind. My first challenge was identifying a sport for my sons to specialize in. We lived in Jeddah then, and not in a compound, meaning that we did not have access to a swimming pool. I still tried to visit people who did have a pool now and then, but that did not make a good training program. My husband tried to include my sons when he would train his adult students in TaeKwonDo, but again this was not a program specifically geared for children. Finally, I hit on bowling. I dutifully took the children to a bowling alley every Wednesday, bought books that taught bowling and eventually

even bought my son his own ball and shoes. Then we moved to Arizona. Sports programs everywhere. The first 6 children soon acquired their black belts in TaeKwonDo and all became swim team champions. Two of them even broke records at state wide competitions. My sons eventually all became lifeguards (nice income over the summer), swim coaches and swim team coaches. My daughters have now taken up Wushu. The point is that, it is feasible to excel at one or two particular sports, whether you are in school or homeschooled. I personally know several families whose children have achieved the same if not more. As to fitness, few schools around Arizona implement an all-round fitness program, in the sense of keeping fit and keeping a healthy lifestyle. This involves of course, teaching the children the knowledge of balanced nutrition and activity-centered lives. I’m afraid, Parents, that this will have to be your job. Making these a family affair works very efficiently. Drag-ging my kids on hikes at first was, well, a drag. But seeds tend to grow into trees. Now, my older children have an annual rite. They hike across South Mountain every winter break, taking the better part of an entire day to do so. My daughters invent all sorts of vegetarian dishes to improve the nutritional balance of our family diet. Fitness is a life-long struggle. The job is never over. But it can be joyful. I wish you all a lot of joy in your family’s fitness plans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s budget deficit has topped $1 trillion for a third straight year, adding pressure on Congress and the White House to make more progress a long-term plan to shrink the growing imbalance. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit through July totals $1.1 trillion. Three years ago, that would have been a record high for the full year. This year’s deficit is on pace to exceed last year’s imbalance of $1.29 trillion but fall short of the record $1.41 trillion set in 2009. For the first 10 months of the budget year, spending has risen 2.4 percent while revenue has climbed 8 percent. That’s a sign that more people are working and paying taxes, although unemploy-ment remains high at 9.1 percent. Record deficits have forced President Barack Obama and Congress to create a 12-member committee of lawmakers tasked with reducing the imbalance over the next decade by $1.2 trillion. If the panel splits and can-

not agree on a plan, severe across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect automatically. The committee was a key part of a deal forged last week that allowed the government to boost its borrowing limit. But the deal fell short of the $4 trillion in cuts that Standard & Poor’s said was needed to achieve a credible deficit plan. As a result, S&P downgraded the U.S. government’s credit from AAA to AA+. The deficits prompted a political back-lash that allowed Republicans to take control of the House in last year’s elections. While both parties say they are committed to reducing the deficits, Republicans are opposed to tax increases and Democrats are fighting to protect entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare from big cuts. Before 2009, the deficit had never come close to $1 trillion in a single year. The soaring deficits have reflected increased government spending in response to a deep recession plus a loss of tax revenues as mil-

lions of people lost their jobs.The government last recorded a budget surplus in 2001, when revenues were $127 billion greater than spending. The surpluses were expected to total $5.6 trillion over the next decade. But the country was back in the red by 2002. The deficit grew after President George W. Bush won ap-proval for broad tax cuts and launched the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, Bush’s last full year in office, the deficit reached $454.8 billion, a record at that time. And when the econ-omy plunged into a deep recession, the yearly imbalance topped $1 trillion. Higher spending on unemployment insurance and food stamps, and a sharp contraction in tax revenues, widened the deficit. And it grew even more after the Obama administra-tion backed a $787 billion stimulus program to boost the econ-omy. The deficit also worsened after Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to extend Bush’s tax cuts for two more years.

Why Physical Education? Dr. Fawzia Mai Tung

Gov’t considers turning foreclosures into rentals DEREK KRAVITZ

Standard and Poor’s is not alone, is far from indepen-dent, and is anything but re-spected. On Friday, August 5, it announced down-rating the US government debt. This precipitated a two day stock market tsunami of liquida-tion until Tuesday afternoon August 9. Then Federal Re-serve Bank figurehead Ben Bernanke announced an un-precedented promise that the FED would guarantee to keep interest rates at near zero

through 2013. This is like guaranteeing farmers what the weather will be! It is a gift to the banks who can now plan on free money for nearly three years! The American people do not get free money, they must continue to borrow from Wall Street at bank rates, and it is no suprise this brought a flash recovery to the stock market. Banks will now bor-row free money from Ben Bernanke and buy stocks to hold through 2013 without investing a dime. The problem is this Bernanke scheme sets up the chess board for the sure and total demolition of the dollar in world markets. Two and a half years from now the Dollar will look like ground zero at the world trade center...ashes. There is no way to predict how high consumer prices will go! Standard & Poor’s is an integrated part of the Wall Street money laundering and mar-keting team. It acts as the confidence, or PR man for securi-ties salesmen, playing “mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” with hundreds of companies and munici-palities who want to monger securities to the public pension plans and mutual funds that most of us own in our 401-K. S& P legitimizes bond and stock sales by rating the issuers. It, along with Moody’s and Fitch, rate everything under the sun for a fee, paid for by the organization being rated. It is a 100% conflict of interest. Raters operate within this Wall Street code of non-ethics, which seems to mean anything for a price. In the years leading up to the 2007 mortgage crash, S&P rated a swarm of shlock mortgage securities, each one

manufactured from an overflowing bin of dubious mort-gages, issued by banking giants, including Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Goldman Sachs. Most of these collapsed in spite of their lofty ratings. Nearly everyone but Bernard Madoff got a top rating from S&P for a fee, and Madoff probably did not ask, else he, too, would have ben wearing a triple-A stamp as he marched off to pris-on. S&P’S rating of the US debt means nothing because the U.S. has a franchised central bank, owned by bankers who I will call “The Outfit.” It has the power to print all the money it needs. How can a country default, if it can print its way out of any debt? Printing dilutes our money. Big govern-ment never defaults on debts, they just replace the worthless money it has destroyed with a new piece of paper money. European governments have done this dozens of times. Stan-dard and Poor’s, like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Fannia Mae and more, all take their cue from The Outfit. I do not mean Ben Bernanke, but those who run the FED and who own most of our Congressmen. They are silent and invisible figures, above it all. They have names, but they are too big to join clubs or sign their names to documents. I don’t know the names of the Outfit’s kingmakers, and I don’t know what they look like any more than I know what God looks like. But I know both God and the kingmakers are there. I can name their acts and feel their breath. God gives for the tak-ing all he has made; the kingmakers take all God gifts from us without conscience, leaving children in rags. The Outfit’s kingmakers put Standard and Poor’s up to downgrading the U.S. on Friday night in front of the whole world. They also put Ben Bernanke up to his outrageous promise that will save the stock market, but destroy the dollar for all time. The Out-fit’s acts will not only destroy the dollar forever within just three years, but it will force every country capable of printing unlimited money to either accept a bitter recession or join in destroying its own currency in harmony with the U.S. All who refuse to cast their currency into the trash bin will find their goods and services priced out of the world market, with fewer buyers today, and bitter recession tomorrow. A rising currency means less exports. Falling currency means rising exports but higher prices for the folks at home, and the de-struction of middle class savings. Americans will pay more

for everything they consume because the dollar will be worth much less. The ultimate scheme: Most of the world leaders quickly chose to start printing by Monday morning. Others, including China, held meetings. If S&P has indeed simply carried out a task in a greater plan, what is that scheme? No one at the Outfit called to tip me off what to expect next, but there is only one logical answer: The Outfit’s next phase of the deliberate dollar devastation will be to attempt to install a world currency to replace the Dollar, Euro, Yen, Pound and the currency of every other country that will bow to the will of the Outfit. This is how the Euro came to be, and every one of the 20 or so members have agreed to allow the Euro-pean Central Bank to do the printing for each and dictate each member’s financial policy. The EU Central Bank dictates how much printing press loans each country will be given to meet its needs. They can borrow but they can not print. Every country in the world currency scheme will be asked to surrender its printing press (ours is the Federal Reserve of New York) to the will of a world bank, and as you know, the “World Bank” and International Monetary Fund both al-ready exists, but are not yet empowered; America must first be brought to its knees in a dollar crises. The first half of this crisis was accomplished by the real estate bubble and bust in 2008. The Outfit’s plan to hold interest rates at zero for banks means unlimited printing for banking prosperity but a total destruction of the dollar. Some countries will compete rather than join the Outfit. China, now the largest economy, will try to forge a common trading partnership with other new independent countries including Brazil, Japan, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and any other Arab country left standing in the Middle East. Perhaps this explains why Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Libya are being destroyed in front of our eyes, so that they can be merged into the Outfit’s World Bank System. There is only one antidote: Congress must take over and nationalize the FED now, arrest its leaders (if they can be found) and charge them with sedition. For this to happen, you and I must take over Congress and throw out 75% of its members, plus the Outfit agents hidden among the White House staff. Ask God if this is possible. Your alternative is slavery to the Outfit’s world financial system that you can neither define nor comprehend.

Standard & Poor’s Down Rate and the Dollar TsunamiThe Scheme for a World Currency

Charles E. Carlson

Federal deficit tops $1T for 3rd straight year MARTIN CRUTSINGER

Aug 11 - 25, 2011


6 National

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man accused of using the Internet to promote violence against Amer-icans through posts he made as moderator of a popular, interna-tionally known Islamic extrem-ist Web forum has agreed to plead guilty. Emerson Begolly, who remains incarcerated, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia last month on charges he encouraged attacks on public buildings and mili-tary facilities, transportation systems, cellphone towers and water plants in the United States on posts to the Ansar al-Muja-hideen English Forum. Accord-ing to a document signed by Begolly on Monday and filed on Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., he in-tends to plead guilty to the first count of that indictment after the case is transferred to U.S.

District Court in Pittsburgh. The count to which Begolly, 22, will plead guilty carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but he has not agreed to plead guilty to a more serious count of dis-tributing information about ex-plosives and weapons of mass destruction, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence. That likely means federal prosecu-tors are prepared to drop that charge. Begolly’s federal public defender, Marketa Sims, did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday. But a U.S. District Court senior judge scheduled a change of plea hearing for Aug. 9 in a sep-arate indictment returned ear-lier this year in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported that development, which pertains to charges that

Begolly fought with and bit two FBI agents who approached him in a parked car while others searched his divorced parents’ Pittsburgh-area homes on Jan. 4 while investigating his Internet activities. Begolly, of Mayport, in western Pennsylvania, also is charged with using and carry-ing a firearm during a crime of violence because federal pros-ecutors contend he reached for a loaded 9mm pistol hidden in the military field jacket he was wearing that day. Begolly’s at-torney had argued in trying to keep him out of jail pending tri-al that his response was violent because he has Asperger’s syn-drome, which was aggravated by FBI agents sneaking up on him as he sat in his mother’s parked car. Unbeknownst to Begolly, his mother had agreed with the FBI to drive him to a neutral

location while the homes were searched. Because Begolly has already pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in Pennsylvania, the scheduled change of plea hearing means he has agreed to plead guilty or no contest to at least one of those charges, too. The U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh declined to comment on the change of plea hearing. The federal prosecutor in Alex-andria, Va., said the court paper Begolly signed to transfer his case to Pennsylvania speaks for itself. Federal prosecutors from Virginia are expected to join their counterparts in Pittsburgh for a news conference follow-ing Begolly’s court appearance there, which would suggest the cases will be disposed of at the same time.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A United Arab Emirates naval officer was acquitted Friday of keeping an unpaid servant af-ter a judge concluded that the woman’s testimony “doesn’t have the ring of truth.” Col. Arif Mohamed Saeed Mohamed Al-Ali embraced his defense attor-ney and wept after Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi found him not guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence of fraud in foreign labor contracting. Earlier this week, Lisi acquitted him of ly-ing to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.Elizabeth Cabitla Balleste-ros, who testified twice at trial, had claimed Al-Ali didn’t pay her for long hours of cleaning, cooking and baby-sitting and forced her to sign a document that acknowledged her pay. “The complaining witness’s tes-timony simply doesn’t have the ring of truth,” Lisi said. Balles-teros, who also filed a civil law-suit, left the courtroom without commenting. Her civil attorney, Ivy O. Suriyopas, called the verdict a “gross miscarriage of justice.” Defense attorney Rob-

ert C. Corrente said Ballesteros made up her story in search of a payday. “This woman is a path-ological liar who concocted this story to extort him,” Corrente said. “Her story on its face was ridiculous. I think it’s a disgrace that somebody of his distinction was treated like this.” Ballester-os accompanied Al-Ali’s family last year to Rhode Island, where he was studying for a year at the U.S. Naval War College in New-port. He has since completed the program, and his wife and five children returned to the UAE in April after Al-Ali said they were shunned as a result of the crimi-nal charges. The trial pitted the word of Ballesteros, a Filipina mother seeking a better life for her children, against the testi-mony of Al-Ali, her educated and wealthy boss. Lisi said she had doubts about Ballesteros’s story even before Al-Ali took the stand in his own defense. She questioned why a naval of-ficer with 30 years of service would jeopardize his opportu-nity to be among a select few to study in the U.S. by scamming a woman who had worked for him

for three years and cared for his youngest son since infancy. “It simply doesn’t make sense,” she said. Lisi said she found “rather odd” Ballesteros’s account of claiming to be forced to sign a payment receipt indicating she received 12 monthly payments of $1,600 before leaving for the U.S. She called Ballesteros’s desire to go back to the Philip-pines after seeing the size of the rented East Greenwich home for the first time “very strange.” Lisi also called Ballesteros’s testimony that she worked long hours cleaning the house, wash-ing two cars daily, cooking, do-ing laundry and ironing for a family of seven “exaggerated.”She also highlighted the vastly differing accounts of a note Ballesteros said she left before leaving the house on Oct. 7. She testified that the note thanked Al-Ali for bringing her to the U.S. and told the family she loved their children. Al-Ali de-nied ever receiving such a note.“If he had done what is alleged in this indictment, why if she left a note, would he call the police and call attention to himself? It

doesn’t make sense,” Lisi said.Al-Ali’s story, Lisi said, was “plausible.” Lisi added Al-Ali’s wealth and access to cash in his home also checked out. She also said she believed Al-Ali’s story about attempting to accompany his family back to the UAE with the intention of returning to the U.S. Officials arrested Al-Ali at a New York airport after he boarded the plane with his fam-ily. Authorities portrayed it as an attempt to flee. Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha defended the decision to pros-ecute Al-Ali. “We of course ac-cept and respect Judge Lisi’s de-cision,” he said in a statement. “That said, we believed, and continue to believe, that there was probable cause to bring this case, and that it was important, under these circumstances, to give Ms. Ballesteros an oppor-tunity to be heard.” Suriyopas, of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said Ballesteros will continue with her lawsuit against Al-Ali and his wife, Samah Alhar-moodi, in which she is seeking $200,000 in damages.

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — As the rubble of ground zero smoldered in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the investigation was just as hot across the Hudson River in New Jersey. More than 1,100 Arabs and Muslims — most of them from New York and northern New Jersey — were rounded up and detained as the FBI feverishly searched for additional terrorists. In few places was the spotlight as white-hot as in Paterson, where as many as six of the 9/11 hi-jackers lived or spent time in the weeks before the attacks. As agents went knocking on doors, asking questions about religious practices, finances and acquaintances, many Mus-lims were cowering on the other side, terrified of being thrown in jail for crimes they knew nothing about. A young, soft-spoken Muslim immigra-tion attorney named Sohail Mohammed represented many people rounded up in New Jer-sey in the post-9/11 dragnet. Along the way, he gained the respect and friendship of many top law enforcement officials for his efforts to build bridges

between the Muslim commu-nity and law enforcement and to help defuse tensions in those incredibly tense days. He won over one official whose favor would prove crucial nearly a decade later: the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie.Christie, now the state’s gov-ernor and a darling of the Re-publican party, nominated Mo-hammed to a Superior Court judgeship. Mohammed was sworn into office last week, be-coming New Jersey’s second Muslim judge. Mohammed, 47, says his religion has noth-ing to do with how he’ll per-form his new job. “My faith, my ethnicity: that means noth-ing here,” he said. “It’s not an issue.” Not everyone agreed.After Christie nominated Mo-hammed in January for the judgeship, the tough-talking, crime-busting former federal prosecutor found himself ac-cused of cozying up to Islamic radicals. “Governor Christie’s Dirty Islamist Ties,” one of the kinder Internet headlines read.Christie, whom GOP loyal-ists are now begging to run for president, stuck with Moham-med despite a vicious cam-

paign by conservative bloggers who denounced Christie and raised fears that Mohammed would introduce Islamic Sharia law into the courts. I’m happy he’s willing to serve after all this baloney.” The fallout from the terror attacks was quick and extreme in Paterson, home to the nation’s second-largest Arab-American community af-ter Dearborn, Mich. Carloads of people descended on the city’s Arab quarter, scream-ing obscenities and throwing things at veiled women on the sidewalk. Some radio hosts broadcast — falsely — that Arabs were dancing in the streets and on rooftops when the World Trade Center’s tow-ers fell. Robert Passero, Pas-saic County’s Superior Court assignment judge at the time, was feeling the pressure as well. “They were recommend-ing I close the courthouse be-cause tempers were high,” he said. “There were people from out of town riding through south Paterson making threats. It was very tense.” Passero had known Mohammed for years, taking an interest in him after the young man sat through one

of his cases as a juror, then im-plausibly called the judge’s of-fice the following week to say he loved jury duty so much he wanted to do it again. Seeing the makings of a future lawyer, the judge encouraged Moham-med to go to law school, then mentored him along the way, even as Mohammed started a solo practice concentrating on immigration law. Mohammed would get numerous calls each week from worried Muslims saying FBI agents had knocked on their doors and asked for personal information, includ-ing where they worshipped, the names of others who attended the mosque and whether they had ever declared bankruptcy.“After 9/11 we wanted to forge a better relationship with the Muslim community, we want-ed to understand them better, we wanted them to understand us better, explain our job, and that we are there to protect them, too,” said Charles McK-enna, an assistant U.S. attorney at the time and now head of New Jersey’s Office of Home-land Security. “But we didn’t have many entrees into that community.

NJ Muslim:

From 9/11

detainee lawyer

to judge

W.Pa. man to plead to Islamic terror posts

UAE officer cleared of charges in RI servant case

SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle-area Muslim man is suing his former employer, claiming he was fired as a security guard for refusing to shave the beard he wears for reli-gious reasons. Abdulkadir Omar, 22, filed his federal lawsuit July 15 in Seattle against Sacramento-based American Patriot Security, seeking back pay and unspecified damages for emotional pain and loss of en-joyment of life, among other rea-sons. “Growing up in this country, where the Bill of Rights guaran-tees freedom of religion, I was let down,” Omar said Thursday at a press conference. According to the lawsuit, Omar was hired by a local manager of the security company in May 2009 and earned $9 an hour guarding a FedEx warehouse in Kent, Wash. He said he started the

same day he was hired, and was not told about the clean-shaven policy. In November 2009, a supervisor from headquarters told him he had to shave his beard because of com-pany policy. Omar responded that his beard is part of his religious beliefs and refused. He was sus-pended, and then fired the following spring, the lawsuit said. A represen-tative from American Patriot Secu-rity declined to answer questions. “Everyone in the company is clean shaven,” Omar said. “And I chose not.” Omar filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found that he was wrongfully terminated and had the right to sue, according to a press release by the Council for Ameri-can-Islamic Relations.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. At-torney General Eric Holder has in-voked state secrets rules to prevent information from being released in a lawsuit filed by Southern Cali-fornia Muslims who claim the FBI monitored their activities solely because of their religion. In a le-gal declaration filed late Monday, Holder makes a rare assertion of the state secrets privilege, arguing that it could cause significant harm to national security if the government is forced to reveal the subjects of a mosque-surveillance operation in 2006 and describe how the monitor-ing was carried out. A judge must weigh the request, which comes af-ter many details from the investiga-tion, dubbed Operation Flex, have already been made public. The key informant in the case, Craig Mon-teilh, turned against the FBI and described how his agency handlers taught him to ingratiate himself into the Orange County Muslim com-

munity then secretly gather cell phone numbers, email addresses and record conversations. Monteilh claims the FBI even told him to talk openly about jihad in an attempt to solicit terrorist sentiments from community members. But instead of responding to his violent rhetoric, mosque-goers called the FBI to say they were worried about his state-ments. Holder’s declaration came in a motion to dismiss the bulk of a lawsuit filed against the FBI in February by the ACLU of South-ern California and the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Many of the al-legations were based on Monteilh’s claims. The FBI has said it does not initiate counterterrorism operations based solely on a group’s religion.In its filing, the agency said a range of details Monteilh provided for Operation Flex remain properly protected counterterrorism investi-gative information.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Navy has ended the search for a 21-year-old sailor from Ten-nessee who went missing from the USS Boxer in the Gulf of Aden, and his family is holding a memo-rial service for him in Nashville. The Navy said in a statement that it ended the search on Friday for Cryptologic Technician (Interpre-tive) 2nd Class Matthew Bergman of Franklin, who failed to report for duty on July 26.U.S. Naval Forces Central Com-mand said Bergman did not report to watch and after a search of the ship, they called a man overboard. Other ships and aircraft joined in the search that spanned four days but they were unable to locate him.“After a thorough review of search

and rescue data collected during this period, Navy officials determined that every reasonable effort had been expended and expectations for recovery no longer existed,” the Navy said in Monday’s statement.Joseph Bergman said on Tuesday that his son was an Arab linguist who had been temporarily assigned to the San Diego-based USS Boxer. A public memorial for Bergman is scheduled for Saturday at Christ Church of Nashville. Matthew Bergman went to Franklin High School and decided to enlist dur-ing his senior year, his father said. He wanted to travel and learn lan-guages, so his father suggested that the Navy could provide him with training and opportunities to work overseas.

Chicago Judge: Unseal Mumbai terror trial documents

Government wants to keep secrets in FBI lawsuit

Navy ends search for sailor missing at sea

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A man convicted of plotting to blow up the federal building in Spring-field began serving a 28-year prison sentence this week. The Pantagraph reports ( http://bit.ly/ofCfke ) that Michael C. Finton reported to the federal prison at Marion on Tuesday. A prison spokesman said he will be assigned a job such as landscaping or food service. The former Deca-tur fry cook pleaded guilty in May

to working with undercover federal officers whom he thought were al-Qaida terrorists. He thought he was detonating a bomb with a cell phone but the explosives were fake and Finton was arrested. Court records indicate Finton was in state prison for aggravated robbery and aggra-vated battery from 1999 to 2005. In prison he converted to Islam and started using the name Talib Islam.

CHICAGO (AP) — Men and women in conservative dress sat quietly before the start of a what promised to be a typical Pakistani Muslim community gathering, un-til Ifti Nasim — the gay Pakistani Muslim poet, activist and Chicago radio show host — strode in wear-ing leather pants, a leather overcoat and pimp hat with feather. The dis-play elicited smiles, and some eye rolls, from audience members. But most at the gathering for dignitaries and business leaders were captivat-ed when he read poems dealing with being Muslim in a post 9-11 world, with some yelling the Urdu word for “repeat” throughout the perfor-mance. It was a not an uncommon reaction to Nasim, who for most of his life managed to occupy an un-usual — and often difficult — space.

He lived as an openly gay Muslim man in Chicago’s South Asian en-clave, while garnering respect from more conservative Muslims with his volumes of poetry, provocative humor, flamboyant fashion and ad-vocacy for several Chicago orga-nizations.Nasim died at a Chicago hospital late Friday following a heart attack, his sister Ajaz Nasreen told The Associated Press. He was 64. “It is a big loss for the commu-nity,” said longtime friend and busi-ness partner Rana Javed, who ran a local South Asian program, “Sar-gam Radio,” and newspaper with Nasim for years. The respect Nasim earned in the community was evi-dent at his funeral services and buri-al Saturday, when hundreds packed into a Chicago mosque to pay their respects and read Quran.

Convicted terrorist begins 28-year sentence

Pioneering gay Pakistani Muslim poet dies at 64

Aug 11 - 25, 2011


7National

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Obama administration is challenging Alabama’s new law that would let police detain those stopped for traffic offenses who they suspect are in the country illegally, a statute described as one of the toughest immigra-tion regulations nationwide. In a complaint Monday, the U.S. Jus-tice Department said Alabama’s law conflicts with federal law and undermines federal immi-gration priorities. The lawsuit argues that the state law also expands opportunities for po-lice to push immigrants toward jail for various new immigration crimes. The law is set to take ef-fect Sept. 1. It also makes it a crime to knowingly give a ride or provide shelter to an illegal immigrant and requires schools to report the immigration status of students. Alabama employ-ers would be required to use a federal system called E-Verify to determine if new workers are in the country legally. The Justice Department, in its filing in Birmingham federal court, said a state cannot set its own immigration policy and cannot pass laws that conflict with fed-

eral immigration laws. “To put it in terms we relate to here in Alabama, you can only have one quarterback in a football game. In immigration, the federal gov-ernment is the quarterback,” said Joyce Vance, U.S. Attor-ney for the Northern District of Alabama. Already the law is fac-ing mounting opposition. Also Monday, a coalition of religious leaders challenged its legality. The lawsuit by Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Episcopal bishops says it “makes it a crime to follow God’s command to be Good Samaritans.” Last month, a coalition of civil and immi-grant rights groups also asked a court to bar the law from tak-ing effect. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn in Birming-ham has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 24 to consider that. The law’s sponsor Republican state Rep. Micky Hammon defended it. “The Obama administration and the federal bureaucrats have turned a blind eye toward the immigration issue and refuse to fulfill their constitutional duty to enforce laws already on the books. Now, they want to block our efforts to secure Alabama’s

borders and prevent our jobs and taxpayer dollars from disappear-ing into the abyss that illegal immigration causes,” Hammon said. “Allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to run unchecked under the radar threatens our homeland security and insults those who come here legally,” he added. The law re-quires public schools to deter-mine the immigration status of its students and whether they qualify for classes in English as a second language. Opponents contend that provision could have a chilling effect by — for instance — potentially discour-aging parents in the U.S. illegal-ly from enrolling children even if those youngsters are citizens. Officials counter that the state’s tough stance won’t prohibit any child — illegal immigrant or not — from enrolling in public school. In a Department of Jus-tice statement, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Se-curity Secretary Janet Napoli-tano said immigration enforce-ment is the job of the federal government. “Legislation like this diverts critical law enforce-ment resources from the most

serious threats to public safety,” Napolitano said. The Justice Department’s complaint quoted Birmingham police chief A.C. Roper as saying the law would divert scarce resources from lo-cal policing priorities to immi-gration enforcement. Last year, the justice department obtained a preliminary injunction against a similarly tough Arizona im-migration law. The ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project di-rector Cecillia Wang said she welcomes the lawsuits. As one of the attorneys in the civil rights lawsuits, she said the various legal challenges highlight the problems with the law that the Legislature passed in June.“It is a law that really tramples on civil rights, civil liberties and religious freedoms in the state of Alabama,” Wang said. Ohers disagree. A spokesman for Alabama Republican House Speaker Mike Hubbard said it was disappointing that the feder-al government has not enforced immigration law. “If the fed-eral government wants to help it should do its job, close the bor-der and enact serious immigra-tion reform,” said Todd Stacy.

BEIJING (AP) — America’s debt crisis and economic mal-aise are shaking confidence in its global leadership. Many governments see Washington’s paralysis as political theater ahead of a presidential elec-tion and wonder how Ameri-can hardliners can be allowed to hold up a deal and bring a globalized economy to the brink. International bankers are concerned that a U.S. de-fault would cause a crash of the dollar, the world’s reserve currency, battering economies from Asia to Africa and pos-sibly sparking political unrest. Already, U.S. trade partners are worried about depending too heavily on one country and looking to diversify, just as China is expanding into Latin America and other markets his-torically dominated by the U.S.Across the globe, allies fear that the drama between Re-

publicans and Democrats has eroded U.S. credibility, further weakening the superpower’s ability to exercise influence in the Middle East and other trouble spots. 2 deadline. Most took for granted that the sheer size of the world’s biggest economy, together with U.S. military might and the fact that no other government is poised to take Washington’s place, means it will remain a leading power for the forseeable future. “I think nothing will shake the basis of our alliance,” said a South Korean deputy defense minister, Lim Kwan-bin, when asked whether Washington’s problems might weaken its 60-year military partnership with Seoul. This week, Sec-retary of State Hillary Rod-ham Clinton tried to reassure Asian governments during a trip to the region. In Hong Kong, she said the debt de-

bate was “messy” but was the way a democracy reaches “the right solution.” Maybe so. But still few doubted that the debt crisis is taking its toll on U.S. prestige and influence. The showdown is playing out in a world that began to change in earnest with the U.S. financial crisis in 2008, when emerging economies such as China, Bra-zil and South Africa began to challenge Washington’s status as the lone superpower and to assume a greater voice in glob-al affairs. Central banks around the world have been moving out of dollars and into other currencies, a trend that would likely accelerate if a U.S. debt crisis diminishes the status of Treasury debt, traditionally one of the lowest-risk investments. “The turmoil we’re seeing will pose the question of the (role of the) U.S. dollar in the inter-national monetary system in

a much more acute form than we’ve seen before,” said Said Nasser Saidi, a former Leba-nese trade minister and chief economist for Dubai’s govern-ment-run Dubai International Financial Center. China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt, has appealed for Washington to act responsibly and protect investors. The Chi-nese government has stayed silent on the strategic impli-cations of the U.S. financial struggles, perhaps because it is torn between its ambitions and economic necessity. Beijing wants Washington to reduce its military presence in Asia and has called for a global currency to replace the dollar. But China also depends on Americans to buy Chinese exports, and owns $1.1 trillion in Treasury debt, or about 8 percent of the total U.S. debt.

US malaise,

debt stalemate

shake allies

globally

Largest US human trafficking case in question

Justice Dept. challenges tough Ala immigration law

Last of Arizona immigration protesters on trial

Muhammad Ali writes letter to people of Norway

Ruling over Pa. town’s immigration law vacated

Attorney: Terror suspect can’t be tried in Ky.

Glenn Beck says Norway camp like ‘Hitler Youth’

PHOENIX (AP) — The president of a national religious organiza-tion and five others went on trial Friday in Phoenix a year after they were arrested while protest-ing Arizona›s tough immigration law and a crackdown on illegal im-migrants. The Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Boston-based Uni-tarian Universalist Association, is charged with a misdemeanor count of failure to obey an order. Morales lives in Arvada, Colo. and Salem, Mass., and was elected as the first Latino president of the as-sociation in 2009. Also on trial in the same courtroom is Salvador Reza, the leader of an immigrant-rights group based in Phoenix and a longtime opponent of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his immigration crackdowns.Other de-

fendants include a UCLA graduate student in art, a security guard at a local music venue and an official at the Arizona branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers In-ternational Union. The group is the last of the so-called human-chain trials. On July 29, 2010, dozens of protesters took to Phoenix streets on the day SB1070 was set to take effect. A judge put the most conten-tious parts of the law on hold, and the fight likely is headed to the Su-preme Court. Arpaio organized an immigration sweep on the same day. He has conducted nearly 20 such sweeps, sending deputies and volunteer posse members to often heavily Latino areas of Phoenix to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders.

The Associated PressMuhammad Ali expressed his sad-ness about the bombing and massa-cre in Norway, saying he is heart-broken by the senseless deaths and the reasoning of the man behind them. In a letter to the people of Norway written under his name, the boxing great says his “heart goes out to each of you as you deal with the unimaginable grief of your loss.” Ali wrote that the richness of diversity is something that makes the world a better place and that no one should fear multiculturalism. People, he said, have the same ide-als no matter what religion or race they are. “I see the same wishes for our children to have happy, healthy lives; I see the same concerns for others less fortunate than ourselves; I see the same desire for peace and dignity,” Ali said. The man who

confessed to carrying out the mas-sacre, Anders Behring Breivik, has said the attacks were part of a plan to start a cultural revolution and purge Europe of Muslims while also punishing politicians who have embraced multiculturalism.Ali, a Muslim, said those who com-mit unspeakable acts in the name of race and religion “fail to under-stand that we share far more with our fellow beings than those as-pects that set us apart.” He went on to say that the best way to honor the victims in Norway is to reach out and embrace others in a celebration of common human values and as-pirations. “The collective power of such individual proactive acts can have a tremendous aggregate im-pact and provide a lasting honor to those who are no longer able to take such action themselves,” Ali wrote.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A fed-eral appeals court has vacated its ruling that declared a northeastern Pennsylvania city’s illegal immi-gration law to be unconstitutional, setting the stage for a new round of arguments. The move by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Cir-cuit Court of Appeals last Friday was expected after the U.S. Su-preme Court ordered it to take an-other look at Hazleton’s Illegal Im-migration Relief Act. The appeals court had blocked Hazleton from enforcing regulations that would deny permits to business that hire illegal immigrants and fine land-lords who rent to them, saying they usurped the federal government’s exclusive power to regulate immi-gration. The Supreme Court threw out the appeals court ruling in June after the justices upheld a similar

employer-sanctions law in Arizona. Officials in Hazleton have argued that illegal immigrants brought drugs, crime and gangs to the city of about 25,000, overwhelming police, schools and hospitals. The city’s 2006 Illegal Immigration Relief Act inspired similar laws around the country, including the one in Arizona. A companion mea-sure would require prospective ten-ants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit. The laws have never been enforced. Hispan-ic groups and illegal immigrants sued to overturn the measures, and a federal judge struck them down following a trial in 2007. Friday’s order from the 3rd Circuit does not mean that Hazleton can begin implementing the laws. The district court’s ruling remains in force.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An at-torney for one of two Iraqi refugees arrested in Kentucky on terrorism charges is weighing in on the ques-tion of whether his client should be tried in a civilian court. Scott Wendelsdorf, public defender for Waad Ramadan Alwan, has argued in a motion that two counts of his client’s indictment should be dis-missed because the Geneva Con-vention doesn’t allow those charges to be prosecuted in a U.S. civilian court. Wendelsdorf said in The

Courier-Journal on Friday (http://bit.ly/nhWQHd ) that his motion filed July 19 is about the question of jurisdiction and not about the appropriateness of trying similar cases in civilian courts. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has been push-ing to have the two defendants tried at the Navy-run prison at Guanta-namo Bay. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said pros-ecutors would file a response with the court.

NEW YORK (AP) — Radio talk show host Glenn Beck said on his show that the camp in Norway where a gunman opened fire on young people sounds “like Hitler Youth.” On his radio show Mon-day, the former Fox News Chan-nel host was discussing last week’s attacks where at least 76 people were killed. In an aside, he talked about the Utoya Island camp run by the ruling Labor Party for young-sters interested in politics. The camp “sounds a little like the Hit-ler Youth or whatever,” Beck said. “Who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.” The camp was targeted by the gunman, who claimed he was trying to save Europe from what he says is Mus-

lim colonization. The Labor Party has advanced a policy of ethnic tol-erance. Torbjorn Eriksen, a former press secretary to Norway prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, told The Daily Telegraph in England that the comments were a “new low” for Beck. “Young political activ-ists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about,” Eriksen said. “Glenn Beck’s com-ments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful.” Beck made his comments during a discussion about problems that he predicted Europe would face because of an increased Muslim population.

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. government›s largest-ever human trafficking case, involving alleged exploita-tion of about 600 agricultural workers from Thailand, was put in jeopardy after all charg-es were dismissed in a related prosecution of a Hawaii farm, attorneys said Friday. Federal authorities have accused Los Angeles-based labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc. A trial against Global Hori-zons CEO Mordechai Orian is set for Febru-ary in Honolulu. But after U.S. prosecutors on Thursday abruptly dropped similar accu-sations that owners of Hawaii›s AlounFarms economically entrapped 44 Thai laborers, the fate of the case against Global Horizons became unclear. Both Global Horizons and

Aloun Farms were accused of using the same tactics to keep foreign workers in their service: false promises of lucrative jobs, passports confiscated and threats of depor-tation. Global Horizons supplied 33 work-ers to Aloun Farms for six weeks in 2003, before the time when mistreatment was al-leged at Aloun. The workers used their an-cestral lands as collateral to get loans of up to $20,000 each that they paid recruiters to land the jobs. Then when they reached U.S. farms, federal prosecutors allege they were told they›d be sent back to Thailand if they complained about work conditions or pay, leaving them no recourse to repay their debts. Once the Thai laborers recruited by Global Horizons arrived in the United States

starting in May 2004, they were put to work and sent to sites in states including Hawaii, Washington, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.The federal case against Alec and Mike Sou of Aloun Farms fell apart when lead prosecu-tor Susan French conceded she inaccurately stated to a grand jury that workers couldn›t be charged recruiting fees when the labor-ers traveled to Hawaii in 2004. The law was changed in late 2008 to prohibit recruiting fees. French, a Washington, D.C.-based trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice›s Civil Rights Division, stepped down from the prosecution team shortly afterward be-cause of unspecified health issues.

Aug 11 - 25, 2011


8 International & Business

JERUSALEM (AP) — Syr-ian leader Bashar Assad must step down, Israel’s president declared Tuesday, sending his message to Israel’s neigh-bor at an unprecedented news conference with Arab media.Israel’s government has large-ly kept quiet as anti-govern-ment protests swept the Arab world in recent months. While some Israeli officials have predicted the Assad regime will fall, President Shimon Peres’ comments marked the first time an Israeli leader has openly called for the end of the Syrian regime. Peres only has a ceremonial role as Israel’s president, but is considered Israel’s elder statesman and, as a Nobel peace laureate, is well known beyond Israel’s borders. Peres alleged that Assad’s forces killed some 2,000 civilians and impris-oned tens of thousands during the four-month-old uprising. “Assad must go,” Peres said. “The sooner he will leave, the better it will be for his peo-ple,” Peres said. Syrian rights groups have put the death toll at more than 1,600. Peres also praised the protesters. “It is easy to go out and demon-strate, but when they shoot at

you? It is amazing,” the presi-dent said. “Their courage and firm stance are honorable.”He suggested that regime change could help pave the way for an eventual peace treaty between Israel and Syria. “Those who seek peace will prevail,” he said.Israel and Syria are bitter en-emies, but their border has been mostly quiet during the four-decade rule of the Assad family. Some in Israel are un-easy about the prospects of instability in Syria if Bashar Assad is deposed.As president, Peres has large-ly refrained from voicing po-litical opinions, making Tues-day’s comments all the more unusual. The setting was also unprecedented, with Peres speaking to about 30 corre-spondents from leading Arab news organizations, includ-ing some from countries that do not have diplomatic rela-tions with Israel. Peres spoke just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inter-view on Al-Arabiya TV, his first with an Arab media outlet since taking office two years ago. In the interview, Netan-yahu took a more diplomatic line toward Syria, saying the

country’s young people de-serve a better future but only Syrians could determine who their leader should be. The interviews have highlighted Israel’s efforts at engaging its neighbors as Mideast up-heaval continues, and as the Palestinians seek statehood recognition at the U.N. this September. Peres claimed Is-rael is “closer than ever” to peace with the Palestinians and insisted gaps between the two sides could be bridged before the U.N. vote in Sep-tember. Peace talks have been deadlocked since 2008 over issues like borders, Palestin-ian refugees and Israeli settle-ments expansion on war-won lands. In the 1990s, Peres

won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestnians. Peres has hosted Arab jour-nalists before, but this was his first official news conference aimed at a wide range of Ar-abic-language outlets. Peres aides tried to ensure a smooth entry procedures for the jour-nalists, following complaints of humiliating security exami-nations at Netanyahu events. Cameraman Haitham Omari was made to drop his pants as part of a lengthy security check before taping Netan-yahu’s interview with Al-Ara-biyah TV last week. On Tues-day, the security check for the Peres news conference took just a few minutes.

CAIRO (AP) — From Syria to Libya and Egypt, the upris-ings and unrest gripping the Arab world have cast a pall on the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when the traditional focus on piety will likely be eclipsed by more unrest. Food prices — part of the economic hardships that catalyzed the ouster of the Egyptian and Tunisian lead-ers — are still climbing. And protesters have shown little patience for conciliatory ges-tures by governments after de-cades of empty promises.With momentum strong to drive out authoritarian re-gimes, there is no sign that op-position forces will ease up on protests — even with the diffi-culties of the month of dawn-to-dusk fasting that begins Monday. Predictions of a tense Ramadan have already started to be realized. Libyan rebels are turning their weapons on each other, dimming hopes for the overthrow of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. Syrian security forces escalat-ed their crackdown on protest-ers the day before Ramadan on Sunday, killing more than 70 people. And the violence in Syria is only expected to intensify throughout the holy month. In Egypt, Cairo’s Tah-rir Square is once again a tent encampment and the joyous

celebrations that accompanied Hosni Mubarak’s fall on Feb. 11 have given way to anger and impatience over the slow pace of change. In response to the pressure from a new round of protests, the judiciary is promising to put Mubarak, his security chief and his two sons on trial this week for a range of charges from corrup-tion to ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising. The hearings are to be carried live on state television, broad-casts that could easily out-shine the Ramadan television serials that Egyptians love to watch during the month. Ra-madan falls this year during the scorching summer, when tempers already running hot could easily boil over, espe-cially as Egyptians complain about the continued rise in food prices and the general economic malaise after the uprising. Food prices typical-ly spike during Ramadan, and the extravagant dinners many put on to break the daily fast drive a deep hole in household budgets. “Before the revolu-tion, Egyptians were like kin-dling waiting for a match,” said Mahmoud El-Askalany with the consumer group Citi-zens Against the High Cost of Living. He was talking about the sense of frustration over soaring prices of food and

consumer goods, as well as the gross income inequality and nepotism that prevailed before the Arab uprisings. In Syria, protests and the gov-ernment’s violent crackdown on them are expected to esca-late during the month ahead, deepening a spiral of violence that has already killed at least 1,600 people since the upris-ing began in mid-March. Lib-ya’s civil war remains mired in a stalemate, and across the oil-rich OPEC member, the fighting has battered what was once an economy on the cusp of sharp growth. While Liby-ans in government-held Tripo-li grapple with dayslong gaso-line lines and food and cash shortages, rebels in the east have clashed with a rogue fac-tion while battling forces loyal to Gadhafi. In addition, one of the rebels’ chief commanders was killed in yet unexplained circumstances after the rebels themselves arrested him.In much of the Arab world, protesters hope the pressure Ramadan places on food pric-es will inspire more people to challenge their leaders. Jor-danian activists, for instance, say Ramadan inflation could fuel their campaign aimed at wresting greater reforms from King Abdullah II. Sev-eral Arab governments, mean-while, are trying to ease eco-

nomic hardship.In Bahrain, a tiny island na-tion off Saudi Arabia’s coast where the ruling Sunni minor-ity has been trying to quash an uprising by the majority Shiites, the king ordered in-creases in the salaries of civil servants, members of the mili-tary and retired government employees. In nearby Qatar, authorities have ordered re-duced prices on 267 types of food and other commodi-ties — 100 items more than last year’s Ramadan season list of price caps, according to The Peninsula daily. Such efforts are expensive in na-tions such as Egypt where the economy has already been hard hit by the unrest. Food inflation in Egypt stood at 19 percent in June versus a year earlier, double the core infla-tion rate and slightly higher than pre-revolutionary levels. To offset the blow, the Cabinet announced last week that the government would shoulder 50 percent of the cost of food rations, which tens of millions of Egyptians can buy.For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Ramadan is another month of hardship. The Pales-tinian Authority, reeling from a debt crisis, is paying tens of thousands of people only about half their normal sala-ries.

Israeli president says Syrian leader Assad must go

Arab unrest, high food prices cast pall on Ramadan

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syr-ian military tightened its suf-focating siege on the city of Hama on Saturday in its drive to crush the main center of the anti-regime uprising in the country, even as the for-eign minister promised that free parliamentary elections would be held by the end of the year in a gesture of re-form. Like previous reform promises, the new announce-ment is unlikely to have much resonance with Syria’s oppo-sition, which says it has lost all confidence in President Bashar Assad’s overtures.The four-year term of the current parliament expired earlier this year and Assad is expected to set a date for new legislative elections be-

fore the end of 2011 Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem pledged to press ahead with reforms and said the new parliament “will represent the aspirations of the Syrian people.” “The ballot box will be the determining factor and it will be up to the elected parliament to review adopted draft bills to decide on them,” he said during a meeting he held with Arab and foreign ambassadors in Damascus.But Syria was coming un-der increasing international criticism over the bloody siege of Hama, launched last Sunday after residents call-ing for Assad’s ouster took over the city of 800,000 and barricaded it against regime forces. Activists said Satur-

day that security forces killed 24 people around the coun-try a day earlier. Gulf Arab countries broke their silence on the bloodshed, calling Sat-urday for an immediate end to the violence and for the implementation of “serious” reforms in Syria. In a state-ment posted on its website, the six-nation Gulf Coopera-tion Council expressed deep concern and regret for “the escalating violence in Syria and use of excess force.”In Damascus and other cities, mourners held funerals Satur-day for several of those killed on Friday. Late Saturday, se-curity agents raided a house in a Damascus suburb where prominent opposition figure Walid al-Bunni had been hid-

ing. They arrested al-Bunni and his two sons, Iyad and Moayad, according to several rights groups and activists. The London-based Obser-vatory for Human Rights in Syria also said security forces arrested four activist broth-ers from the Khattab family after raiding their Damascus home. In Haman, the gov-ernment has ramped up its campaign, and tanks shelled the city Friday night, causing several casualties, one resi-dent said. He said there were reports that a hospital was hit in the bombardment. The res-ident sneaked out of Hama on Friday to try and get supplies and spoke to The Associ-ated Press by phone Saturday from the city’s outskirts.

Syria promises free election as it tightens siege

Italian parliament commission approves burqa ban

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood holds 1st open vote

After leak, Amnesty’s website blocked in Saudi

Malnourished Somali baby thriving as rare success

ROME (AP) — An Italian par-liamentary commission on Tues-day approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft passed by the constitutional affairs commission would prohib-it women from wearing a burqa, naqib or any other garb that cov-ers the face in such circumstanc-es. It would expand a decades-old law that for security reasons pro-hibits people from wearing face-covering items such as masks in public places. Women who vio-late the ban would face fines of €100 to €300, while third parties who force women to cover their faces in public would be fined €30,000 ($43,000) and face up to 12 months in jail. Italy, an over-whelmingly Catholic country

with a small Muslim minority, is the latest European country to act against the burqa. France and Belgium have banned the wear-ing of burqa-style Islamic dress in public, as has a city in Spain. The Belgium law cited security concerns. The Italian law was sponsored by Souad Sbai, a Mo-roccan-born member of Premier Silvio Berlusconi›s conservative Freedom People party, who said she wanted to help Islamic wom-en better integrate into Italian society. «Five years ago, no one wore the burqa (in Italy). Today, there is always more. We have to help women get out of this seg-regation ... to get out of this sub-mission,» Sbai said in a telephone interview.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s larg-est political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, held its first open internal election Saturday since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, in an attempt to bur-nish its democratic credentials ahead of parliamentary polls later this year. After decades spent un-derground because of an official ban, the public vote is also part of a concerted push by the Islamist group to show off its organization and dispel its reputation as a se-cretive and closed group. It looks poised to win big at the Novem-ber polls, largely because of its well-organized political machine and social outreach programs.Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie hailed Saturday’s vote, which chose three new members to the group’s executive board, saying “the open and transparent elections show the world that the

Brotherhood works in the open, to restore Egypt’s freedom and standing.” Speaking to the gath-ering at a luxury hotel in the Cai-ro neighborhood of Nasser City, he said the vote was one of the “fruits” of the Egypt’s uprising.Saturday’s vote marked a clear shift from the past, when the the Brotherhood was banned from public politics and its members and finances were targets of a constant security crackdown.The Brotherhood went to great lengths to showcase their inter-nal democratic practices, invit-ing cameras and journalists to the Saturday’s event where more than 100 members of the group’s policy making body cast ballots in tranparent boxes. “This is a sign that the group respects de-mocracy,” spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said. “Egypt has un-doubtedly changed a lot.”

CAIRO (AP) — Amnesty In-ternational said Saudi authorities on Monday blocked the group’s website inside the kingdom fol-lowing criticism of a controver-sial new anti-terrorism draft law.The London-based group said the bill, which was reviewed by a Saudi government committee in June and has yet to be passed, allows authorities to prosecute peaceful dissent as a terrorist crime. Amnesty on Friday posted on its website the full Arabic text of the anti-terrorism draft law along with an internal review of the law by a Saudi security com-mittee. Hours after the website was blocked Monday, Amnesty moved the text of the bill to anoth-er Amnesty-administered web-site called “Protect The Human

Blog”, which could be accessed by residents in the kingdom. “Al-though the Saudi authorities have blocked our main international site, they haven’t yet blocked any Amnesty U.K. site, as far as we know. So we’re hosting the Ara-bic version of the release for all to see,” the group said in an online statement. Although Saudi Arabia has not seen the kind of unrest that has gripped the Middle East, it has taken steps to prevent pro-democracy protests from spilling over into the oil-rich kingdom.Amnesty did not say how it ob-tained the draft bill, which labels offenses such as harming the reputation of the state and endan-gering national unity as terrorist crimes.

DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — Only 10 days ago, Minhaj Gedi Farah was too weak to cry and his skin crumpled liked thin leather un-der the pressure of his mother’s hands. Now doctors say the se-verely malnourished 7-month-old appears out of danger of joining the more than 29,000 children who already have died in the fam-ine. It’s a rare success story amid unimaginable misery for parents at the world’s largest refugee camp — a place where a father must bury two of his daughters one day, and their brother the next. Seven-month-old Minhaj though now weighs more than 8 pounds (3.8 kilograms) — still well be-low what he should for his age, but a major improvement from 7 pounds (3.2 kilograms) when he first arrived at a field hospital ward here. “He is in stable con-dition and he is doing well,” said Dr. John Kiogora of the Interna-tional Rescue Committee, who has been treating the infant since his arrival in late July. Startling photos of Minhaj’s twig-like arms and hollow cheeks made him the

frail face of the worst famine in 60 years. On Saturday, though, the wide-eyed baby looked around the ward inquisitively and became captivated with a journal-ist who was taking his picture. It’s a miracle for his mother, and a testament to just how hard doc-tors and other health care work-ers here are trying to save lives as more and more malnourished children arrive each day.“He has no problem compared to the past days,” said his mother Asiah Dagane, who now smiles broadly and frequently plants kisses on the baby’s cheeks. “Now he sleeps the bulk of the night. When he wakes up, he is hungry and wants milk.” Most parents have been far less for-tunate: New arrivals at Dadaab have described losing as many as four children to starvation and disease along the journey by foot from Somalia. Others made un-thinkable decisions about which children to take with them, and which to leave for dead under trees so that the entire family did not perish.

english issue 26

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Transcript of english issue 26