Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

Twelve people were shot shortly after midnight Monday when gunfire erupted at a birthday party in Overtown.

Several people are now in the hospital, some barely clinging to life, as Miami police search for three shooters responsible for the mayhem that occurred at 12:45 a.m. outside a home in the 500 block of Northwest Fifth Street.

Some at the block party were gunned down as they ran. Others were shot as they sipped their drinks and listened to rap music. Most were teenagers.

Four people were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition and six others were taken to Jackson, according to Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll. Two people remained in critical condition Monday morning, police reported.

Kedricka Hughes, a 16-year-old who attended the party, said there was a peaceful atmosphere all evening. More than 200 people were at the block party, put together for Lawrence Smith's 20th birthday, according to several friends. He had advertised it on MySpace and had even hired a disc jockey.

Miami police officers had stopped by the house early in the evening, responding to a ''loud music'' complaint, and everything seemed calm.

But as the night progressed, things got out of hand.

A 19-year-old woman, who withheld her name out of fear, said she saw a big boy in a white T-shirt and jeans light a TNT bomb. Another man, maybe in his 20s, was holding an assault rifle, she said.

Two sisters, who also wished to remain anonymous, said that more than a dozen teenage boys from two different gangs convened near the disc jockey just before 1 a.m. They were huddled around an AK-47 that was leaning against the home's wall, the barrel pointing up.

When one sister saw that, she slowly walked away from the home.

''Everything was fine,'' Hughes said. ``And then they just started shooting.''

And lest you think this was merely a collection of assorted gang bangers and lowlifes:

Almost 10 people were sprayed with bullets and one person was hit by a car, according to police.

One of those shot was Michelle Coleman, 23, a business administration student at Florida A&M University, according to her family. Larry Coleman, her uncle, walked out of Ryder Trauma Center on Monday morning with a somber look on his face.

''She's not going to make it,'' he told reporters.

Michelle was shot in the chest, kidney and liver, he said. Doctors told him the chances for her survival were slim.

''It's a tough day, I tell you,'' he said. ``A tough, tough day.''

He said his niece had returned from college in the spring to help her mother, who was struggling financially.

Barking dogs and bursts of gunfire alerted Rose Godbolt McFarlane to the shooting. Several kids ran to her porch, begging to come in.

''They rushed in, about eight kids, teenagers,'' she said. 'They said, `Thank you, thank you.' ''

The teens were crying, she said.

''It was like we were in Vietnam,'' said McFarlane, 58, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years.

McFarlane said she held the hands of one of the shooting victims, who was bleeding and lying by a truck. She tried to calm him down until rescue workers got there.

'I said, `If you're alert, squeeze my hand.' He was struggling. I said, 'God will give you a second chance.' ''

Investigators believe the shooters had a specific target, according to Miami police Chief John Timoney. But that person was not among those sprayed by bullets. He was interviewed by detectives Monday.

Have we had enough yet? By the way, despite this and other horror stories, including the fact that the U.S. is THE gun shop for the hemisphere's ragtag assortment gangsters, kidnap rings and drug cartels, don't look to the Big 60 Democratic caucus in the Senate to bring back the assault weapons ban. Democrats are creatures of fear -- in this case, fear of the gun lobby. They leave it to the rest of us to fear our own neighborhoods.

Labels: Black America, crime, gun crimes, murder

Mention 'Sean Hannity' to Stanford Coins & Bullion and get a free guidebook.

Yup, that's Stanford as in Stanford Financial Group, or Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire who is apparently on the lam after being charged Tuesday in connection with a multi-billion-dollar fraud.

Labels: crime, Faux News, fraud, Sean Hannity

The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials.

Labels: Bush administration, CIA, crime, Muslims, rape, torture, worst president ever

Labels: crime, Florida, kids

Officers questioned William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Julian's mother, on Friday night, but he stopped talking when police suggested he take a polygraph test, law-enforcement sources said. Balfour has not been charged in the slayings.

Although the sources say Balfour remains the focus of the investigation, the motive remains murky. Police say there have been ongoing disputes between him and his estranged wife, Julia Hudson, and her family.

Hudson's mother and brother had thrown him out of their Englewood house in the past, sources said. Julia Hudson also told police that Balfour had threatened the family. A source said Balfour told Julia Hudson he would kill her if he found out she had a boyfriend, despite the fact that he had other girlfriends.

In another incident, sources said, Julia Hudson arrived Friday morning at Sunrise Bus Co. on payday and discovered her wages had been garnished because of unpaid car payments. Sources said Balfour had taken her car months earlier but promised to make the payments on the vehicle. After seeing her pay stub, Julia Hudson called Balfour to complain about the unpaid bills, sources said.

Police believe that Balfour went to the Hudson family home Friday and shot through the front door, striking Hudson's brother, Jason. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, came into the living room, screaming, and Balfour shot her as well, sources said. Shell casings were also found in the child's room, but there were no bullet holes or other signs of violence there. Much of the account of what police believe happened that day came from an interview with a girlfriend of Balfour's, sources said.

The sources also said Balfour's girlfriend contradicted his alibi and told police that he was involved in the slayings.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that more than one person was involved, though Supt. Jody Weis said Monday that Balfour was currently their only "person of interest."

More on Balfour here.

Labels: celebrities, crime, Jennifer Hudson, murder

Jennifer Hudson (left) pictured with her mother, Darnell Donerson (center)

Labels: celebrities, crime, Jennifer Hudson

The Hollywood star's older sister, Julia Hudson, discovered the victims after returning home from her day shift at a bus company and summoned the police, reportedly telling them her son, Julian King, was missing.

Law enforcement agencies immediately issued an all points bulletin for the boy, who remained missing today.

The shooting victims were Hudson's mother, Darnell Donnerson, 57, and her brother, Jason Hudson, 29, in what police described as domestic violence.

Mr Donnerson suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Ms Hudson was shot in the chest, according to the Cook County Examiner's Office.

News reports and neighbours identified the suspect as William Balfour, Julia Hudson's estranged husband and the step-father of her son.

Neighbours reported hearing gunshots at Donnerson's home in the gritty Englewood neighbourhood on the city's South Side, but no one raised the alarm for several hours, authorities said.

"I just can't fathom something like this happening," Ethel Grisom, a longtime family friend, told the Chicago Tribune.

"The entire family were just real friendly people who enjoyed being together. This is going to be devastating for them."

There were no signs of forced entry to the home, according to Joseph Patterson, deputy chief of patrol of the Chicago Police.

On his MySpace page, Mr Balfour described himself as a "proud parent" and played up his links to Jennifer Hudson.

"I might as well let you all know that Jennifer Hudson is my wife's sister. I'm proud of her and wish her nothing but the best in what she do. But don't hit me up asking 'bout her, other than that it's on!" he wrote.

A slide show on the same site featured family snaps of Jennifer alongside shots of a bare-chested Balfour flexing his muscles for the camera.

Labels: celebrities, crime, Jennifer Hudson

(New York Daily News) WASHINGTON - FBI officials had been ready to "completely overwhelm" anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins with the evidence against him when he killed himself, but his former boss is dubious that agents really had a case.

After years of bungled leads and investigative missteps - including the $5.8 million it cost feds to settle a lawsuit with an earlier target of suspicion, Ivins' colleague Steven Hatfill - the FBI and federal prosecutors took their time to build a damning file on the anthrax vaccine specialist.

"The agents kept this close-held," a U.S. counterterrorism official briefed on details of the Ivins probe told the Daily News on Saturday. "They took their time until they had enough evidence to completely overwhelm Ivins, and they expected him to plead guilty."

After Ivins committed suicide, the Justice Department acknowledged "developments" in the "Amerithrax" attacks that killed five people in the months after 9/11. It did not mention Ivins.

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, whose office received a poisoned letter in 2001, said Saturday that it was time for answers.

"It's been seven years; there's a lot of unanswered questions, and I think the American people deserve to know more than they do today," he said.

The former head of the Fort Detrick lab where Ivins worked also says it's time for the FBI to lay its evidence on the table.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Adamovicz told The News that the FBI's probe into the 2001 anthrax killings had upended the work of the lab by turning scientists into suspects - and pushed his pal over the edge.

"I just cannot see that Bruce would in any way, shape or form be responsible for something like that," he said. "I'd like to see these charges substantiated, because just like [with] Dr. Hatfill, there could be nothing to these allegations."

He said the FBI has created a psychologically toxic atmosphere for scientists at Fort Detrick.

"We were there processing information for agents and then one day they turned around and treated us all like suspects," he said. The agents' criteria for additional suspicion was "who's working the most overtime," said Adamovicz, who also was questioned by the feds.

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was "beaten up" during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.

"They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official told The News.

On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, "There may be some possible link" to Bin Laden, adding, "I wouldn't put it past him." Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden's henchmen were trained "how to deploy and use these kinds of substances, so you start to piece it all together."

But by then the FBI already knew anthrax spilling out of letters addressed to media outlets and to a U.S. senator was a military strain of the bioweapon. "Very quickly [Fort Detrick, Md., experts] told us this was not something some guy in a cave could come up with," the ex-FBI official said. "They couldn't go from box cutters one week to weapons-grade anthrax the next."

Daschle said the FBI has not given him any new updates. He also raised questions about the quality of the investigation, noting that the government recently paid out almost $6 million to a former Army scientist, Steven Hatfill, who accused authorities of unfairly targeting him in the anthrax case.

"From the very beginning I've had real concerns about the quality of the investigation," Daschle said in a broadcast interview. "Given the fact that they already paid somebody else $5 million for the mistakes they must have made gives you some indication of the overall caliber and quality of the investigation."

"Unfortunately, it doesn't bring anything to closure," Daschle said. "This probably further complicates their ability to get to the facts."

He said he did not know if the investigation involving Ivins "is just another false track and a real diversion of where they need to be. We don't know and they aren't telling us."

• Death by anthrax

Labels: anthrax attacks, Bush administration, conspiracies, crime, domestic terrorism

(Los Angeles Times) Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.

Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifton.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after ingesting a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague, who declined to be identified out of concern that he would be harassed by the FBI.

The FBI's new top investigators -- Vincent B. Lisi and Edward W. Montooth -- instructed agents to reexamine leads or potential suspects that may have received insufficient attention. Moreover, significant progress was made in analyzing genetic properties of the anthrax powder recovered from letters addressed to two senators.

The renewed efforts led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents first questioned scientists in December 2001, a few weeks after the fatal mailings.

By spring of this year, FBI agents were still contacting Ivins' present and former colleagues. At USAMRIID and elsewhere, scientists acquainted with Ivins were asked to sign confidentiality agreements in order to prevent leaks of new investigative details.

Ivins, employed as a civilian at Ft. Detrick, earlier had attracted the attention of Army officials because of anthrax contaminations that Ivins failed to report for five months. In sworn oral and written statements to an Army investigator, Ivins said that he had erred by keeping the episodes secret -- from December 2001 to late April 2002. He said he had swabbed and bleached more than 20 areas that he suspected were contaminated by a sloppy lab technician.

LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?

MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine …. I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don’t have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.

LETTERMAN: Oh is that right?

MCCAIN: If that should be the case, that’s when some tough decisions are gonna have to be made. (video here)

RUSSERT: Senator McCain, let me pick up on your point about a post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan. There is a lot of discussion, concern on the ground whether that's feasible. And some are suggesting our military campaign is being limited until we get a post-Taliban regime in place. How do you see it?

MCCAIN: I think that might be partially the case from the reports that we have that there has not been the kind of air attacks in the areas where the Northern Alliance are fighting the Taliban forces.

I'd be a little reluctant to not to pursue this conflict as vigorously as possible.

MCCAIN: We were worried about the departure of Saddam Hussein that there might be chaos might ensue. I think most of us, in retrospect, would have liked to have seen Saddam Hussein gone. So I think we ought to overthrow them as quickly as possible.

I don't believe there's any such thing as a moderate Taliban, although I would be interested to hear from one.

Them? Recall that the question was about Afghanistan, and the prior discussion was about Osama bin Laden. Unbelievably, Russert didn't pick up on the switch from Afghanistan to Iraq. Later in the discussion, the Senators get right to the point, calling for an invasion of Iraq:

RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, should we include Iraq as a military target in this war against terrorism?

LIEBERMAN: Well, of course, I feel that so long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Iraq, the United States is in danger. And I think if you look at the words of the president's statement to Congress, again, the war against terrorism, it says, we're not going to be safe until we rid the world of people who have the capacity and the intention to strike at civilians to achieve political ends.

There is some evidence to suggest that Saddam Hussein may have had contact with bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network, perhaps even involved in the September 11 attack. That raises my suspicions.

But the more important point is, we know that Saddam would like to do us the worst kind of ill. We know that he has worked on chemical and biological weapons and, in fact, has used them against his own people and against the Iranians. In my opinion, therefore, Saddam is a terrorist.

And, therefore, we should--it should be a centerpiece of our policy after we finish the business in Afghanistan and bin Laden to end that regime. It begins for me by supporting the Iraqi opposition, the people within Iraq that want to get rid of him. But then, ultimately there has to be an American and, I hope, allied military component to that. Because as long as Saddam is there, our lives are threatened.

RUSSERT: Would you have any problem expanding President Bush's orders to the CIA to go after Osama bin Laden to include Saddam Hussein?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I leave that to the president. But as a matter of principle and morality, of course not.

RUSSERT: Senator McCain?

MCCAIN: I think Joe's right.

And a bit later:

RUSSERT: But after Afghanistan, you'd have no problem going after Saddam Hussein?

MCCAIN: If Saddam Hussein continues to develop weapons of mass destruction, the means to deliver them, there are ties to terrorist organizations, then we have to give him his choice. We have to give the Syrians a choice. We have to give other countries a choice. Because we've got to--if anyone thinks that, just by taking care of bin Laden, we've taken care of the problem, they obviously are not aware of the extent of the challenge we have.

RUSSERT: If Saddam refuses to allow inspectors into his country, is that enough for us to say, either give us inspectors or face military action?

MCCAIN: I can't know those kind of details, and there are other ways, diplomatic, economic, many other ways, we can put pressure on the Iraqis. So it would depend on the situation and the time. But I think we're going to be steadfast.

You start to see why Lieberman is backing McCain for the presidency. The two have been partners in the neocon cause for a long, long time... Back to the timeline, which picks up on the same Sunday...

By design, those attacks put the American population into a state of intense fear of Islamic terrorism, far more than the 9/11 attacks alone could have accomplished.

Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to Islamic terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC News -- to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, and I've written about this several times and in great detail to no avail, the role played by ABC News in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the anthrax attacks originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter.

During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax -- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."

ABC News' claim -- which they said came at first from "three well-placed but separate sources," followed by "four well-placed and separate sources" -- was completely false from the beginning. There never was any bentonite detected in the anthrax (a fact ABC News acknowledged for the first time in 2007 only as a result of my badgering them about this issue). It's critical to note that it isn't the case that preliminary tests really did detect bentonite and then subsequent tests found there was none. No tests ever found or even suggested the presence of bentonite. The claim was just concocted from the start. It just never happened.

That means that ABC News' "four well-placed and separate sources" fed them information that was completely false -- false information that created a very significant link in the public mind between the anthrax attacks and Saddam Hussein. And look where -- according to Brian Ross' report on October 28, 2001 -- these tests were conducted:

And despite continued White House denials, four well-placed and separate sources have told ABC News that initial tests on the anthrax by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland, have detected trace amounts of the chemical additives bentonite and silica.

MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS: • Atta Met Iraqi Official in Prague

Four well-placed and separate sources told ABCNEWS that initial tests detected bentonite, though the White House initially said the chemical was not found.

The first battery of tests, conducted at Ft. Detrick, Md., and elsewhere, discovered the anthrax spores were treated with the substance, which keeps the tiny particles floating in the air by preventing them from sticking together — making it more likely that they could be inhaled.

The inhaled form on anthrax is far more deadly than the skin form.

As far as is known, only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons, but officials caution that the presence of the chemical alone does not constitute firm evidence of Iraqi involvement.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had denied that bentonite was found on the letters, but another senior White House official backed off Fleischer's comments, saying "at this point" there does not appear to be bentonite.

The official said the Ft. Detrick findings represented an "opinionated analysis," that three other labs are conducting tests, and that one of those labs had contradicted the bentonite finding. But, the official added, "tests continue."

Fleischer added that no test or analysis has concluded that bentonite is present in the Daschle anthrax, and "no other finding contradicts or calls into question" that conclusion.

Reading from what he said was a sentence from the report prepared by scientists at Fort Detrick, he told ABCNEWS, "It is interesting to note there is no evidence of aluminum in the sample." Aluminum, Fleischer said, would also be present if bentonite was.

Russert: Do you still believe there's no evidence that Iraq was involved in September 11?

Cheney: Well, what we now have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that--it's been pretty well confirmed that he [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point, but that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue.

The Weekly Standard published two lengthy articles attacking the FBI for focusing on a domestic culprit and -- relying almost exclusively on the ABC/Ross report -- insisted that Saddam was one of the most likely sources for those attacks. In November, 2001, they published an article (via Lexis) which began:

On the critical issue of who sent the anthrax, it's time to give credit to the ABC website, ABCNews.com, for reporting rings around most other news organizations. Here's a bit from a comprehensive story filed late last week by Gary Matsumoto, lending further credence to the commonsensical theory (resisted by the White House) that al Qaeda or Iraq -- and not some domestic Ted Kaczynski type -- is behind the germ warfare.

• September 7-8: Bush and nearly all his top advisers blanketed the airways, talking about the dangers posed by Iraq:
  • On NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President Dick Cheney accused Saddam of moving aggressively to develop nuclear weapons over the past 14 months to add to his stockpile of chemical and biological arms.
  • On CNN, Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that "there will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but said, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
  • On CBS, Bush said U.N. weapons inspectors, before they were denied access to Iraq in 1998, concluded that Saddam was "six months away from developing a weapon." He also cited satellite photos released by a U.N. agency Friday that show unexplained construction at Iraq sites that weapons inspectors once visited to search for evidence Saddam was trying to develop nuclear arms. "I don't know what more evidence we need," Bush said.

• September 7, 2002: Judith Miller of The New York Times reports Bush administration officials said "In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium."

We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory. More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves.

Surely the question of who generated those false Iraq-anthrax reports is one of the most significant and explosive stories of the last decade. The motive to fabricate reports of bentonite and a link to Saddam is glaring. Those fabrications played some significant role -- I'd argue a very major role -- in propagandizing the American public to perceive of Saddam as a threat, and further, propagandized the public to believe that our country was sufficiently threatened by foreign elements that a whole series of radical policies that the neoconservatives both within and outside of the Bush administration wanted to pursue -- including an attack an Iraq and a whole array of assaults on our basic constitutional framework -- were justified and even necessary in order to survive.

ABC News already knows the answers to these questions. They know who concocted the false bentonite story and who passed it on to them with the specific intent of having them broadcast those false claims to the world, in order to link Saddam to the anthrax attacks and -- as importantly -- to conceal the real culprit(s) (apparently within the U.S. government) who were behind the attacks. And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later.

He's right, and ABC has some explaining to do, as do four "highly placed sources" in the Bush administration.

One last piece of the time line, which I left out above but which is, in light of Greenwald's reporting, and ABC News' curious dealings, more than a little relevant:

2006

March 27: The Supreme Court declines to block Hatfill's suit against the Times.

April 11: It's reported that Hatfill's lawyers have questioned at least two journalists and are subpoenaeing other reporters, seeking the identities of their confidential government sources.

Oct. 23: A federal judge orders The New York Times to disclose a columnist's confidential sources as part of a libel lawsuit filed over the newspaper's coverage of the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Dec. 2: The New York Times asks a federal judge to dismiss Hatfill's lawsuit.

2007

Jan. 12: A federal judge dismisses libel lawsuit filed against The New York Times by Hatfill.

Feb. 2: Explaining his ruling, the judge says a New York Times columnist did not act with malice when writing about whether a Hatfill was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Aug. 13: A federal judge says five journalists must identify the government officials who leaked them details about Hatfill.

Oct. 2: Hatfill asks a federal judge to hold two journalists in contempt for refusing to identify the government officials who leaked details about the investigation into the attacks.

2008

March 7: A federal judge holds a former USA Today reporter in contempt and orders her to pay up to $5,000 a day if she refuses to identify her sources for stories about Hatfill.

March 11: A federal appeals court blocks the fines.

June 27: The federal government awards Hatfill $5.8 million to settle his violation of privacy lawsuit against the Justice Department.

That payoff looks a lot more interesting now, no?

Labels: anthrax attacks, Bush administration, conspiracies, crime, domestic terrorism

Jim Adkisson, the man who shot two people to death in a Tennessee Unitarian church this week because he was angry at “liberals and gays,” had an array of right-wing books at his home. Inside his house, “officers found ‘Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder’ by radio talk show host Michael Savage, ‘Let Freedom Ring’ by talk show host Sean Hannity, and ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly.”

• Guns don't kill people ... right wing gun nuts do

Labels: Bill O'Reilly, crime, gun nuts, guns, Michael Savage, right to bear arms, right wing nut-jobs, Sean Hannity, shootings

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Knoxville's police chief says the man accused of a shooting that killed two people at a Tennessee church targeted the congregation because of its liberal social stance.

Chief Sterling Owen IV said Monday that police found a letter in Jim D. Adkisson's car. Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a "stated hatred of the liberal movement."

Adkisson is charged with first-degree murder. Police say a gunman entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church during a children's performance Sunday. No children were hurt.

The church is known for advocating women's and gay rights and founding an American Civil Liberties Union chapter.

"It appears he was acting alone," Chief Sterling Owen IV tells reporters. "In his written statement, he does not describe any affiliation with anybody and the subsequent search at his residence shows that it appears he was operating alone."

The chief says Adkisson fired three times with a 12-gauge shotgun. They recovered 76 shotgun shells at the Tennessee Valley Universalist Church. The gun was purchased last month at a pawn shop.

"I do not believe he expected to leave there alive," Owen says.

Owen says officers were at the church within minutes of receiving a call for assistance.

The FBI and ATF are assisting with the investigation.

Knoxville News Sentinel reports that the four-page leter that investigators recovered from Adkisson's truck "indicates he had been planning the shooting for about a week."

Good thing he's got the individual right to bear arms. Otherwise he would have had to resort to something weak and liberal; very strong language, perhaps. Just a bit more, from the aforementioned Knoxville News Sentinel:

Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation.

“It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance,” the chief said. The church has a “gays welcome” sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

The church’s Web site states that it has worked for “desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights” since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers.

Officers recovered 76 shells for a 12-gauge, semiautomatic shotgun inside the church. Among those shells were three spent rounds. He had carried the shotgun inside the church in a guitar case, Owen said.

“He certainly intended to take a lot of casualties,” the chief said.

Church members praised Greg McKendry, 60, who died as he attempted to block the gunfire. Church member Barbara Kemper told The Associated Press that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."

"Greg McKendry was a very large gentleman, one of those people you might describe as a refrigerator with a head," said church member Schera Chadwick. "He looked like a football player. He did obviously stand up and put himself in between the shooter and the congregation."

A second victim was identified as Linda Kraeger, 61. She died at a hospital hours later, Kenner said.

Five others remained hospitalized Monday in critical and serious condition. Two others were treated and released Sunday.

Very sad story.

Labels: crime, guns, right to bear arms, shootings

"I cannot live the next 6-8 years behind bars for what both you and I have come to regard as this 'modern day lynching,'" Palfrey wrote. Local Florida police released the notes to the media Monday morning. Palfrey said she did not want to face leaving prison as a "penniless and very much alone woman."

Labels: crime, D.C. madam

Pastor's arrest, payouts linked
BY SCOTT HIAASEN AND MICHAEL VASQUEZ
The arrest of a prominent Liberty City minister on theft charges Thursday was part of a continuing investigation into the financial dealings of Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones.

The Rev. Gaston Smith, who was charged with misspending a $25,000 county grant to a nonprofit he ran, passed along $4,000 from that grant to a company owned by Spence-Jones' family, records show.

The checks are among a series of questionable payments to the first-term commissioner from public dollars set aside for urban redevelopment that police say began before she won her seat in November 2005.

During a press conference Friday announcing Smith's arrest, Miami-Dade Police said the two checks to Spence-Jones' company from the minister's charity, Friends of MLK, were among several payments under investigation. But police would not discuss these checks.

Smith's attorney, Michael Tein, said Spence-Jones received a total of $8,000 from Smith -- with half coming from his church -- as a consultant to help raise money for the charity.

Spence-Jones received at least one check while working on Mayor Manny Diaz's staff before she was elected to the commission.

Spence-Jones stressed late Friday that she had not been charged with any wrongdoing. ''Yes, they did go over there investigating me, but they found no illegal activities on my part -- and that's why nothing happened to me,'' she said.

Spence-Jones' attorney Richard Alayon said she had ''verbal permission'' to work for Smith's organization while on the city payroll. Suzanna Valdez, the mayor's chief of staff, said Spence-Jones' supervisor at the time ``did not authorize her to do outside work.''

Spence-Jones insisted Friday that she did obtain written approval from the mayor's office and filed the document with the city clerk. The city could not immediately provide that document Friday, but Spence-Jones noted that it was filed during a time when the clerk's office was relocating -- complicating its retrieval.

While on the commission, Spence-Jones has backed housing deals transferring city land to another nonprofit run by Smith, senior pastor at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Tein said the payments to Spence-Jones were unrelated to the land deals, and the city attorney found Spence-Jones had no conflict of interest. ...

... Detectives are chasing allegations that Spence-Jones asked a condo developer to pay $100,000 in consulting fees to two allies -- former County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler and campaign advisor Barbara Hardemon -- to win her support. Hardemon and Carey-Shuler say they did nothing wrong.

Investigators are also examining $100,000 in county grants to Karym Ventures, a business owned by Spence-Jones' family.

The grants to both Karym Ventures and Friends of MLK were approved by Carey-Shuler in 2004 and funneled through the Metro Miami Action Plan Trust, a county-affiliated anti-poverty agency.

Friends of MLK was supposed to use its grant to help revitalize Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Liberty City, county records show. But the contract also allowed for vague expenses including fundraising, community outreach and administrative costs. County officials say they never received receipts from Friends of MLK.

Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said Smith used the money for ''his own personal gain,'' including hotel bills and plane tickets. More than $10,000 was taken out in ATM withdrawals over three months -- including a $500 withdrawal at a martini bar at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas.

''Nothing shows any work done so far,'' Parker said.

Tein said Smith used the $25,000 as seed money to promote and expand the organization, in part by traveling to religious conferences. He said most of the cash withdrawals were used to pay an employee of Friends of MLK. Another $1,000 paid for a scholarship for a student at a train-conductor course in Jacksonville.

Tein said Smith mixed the funds of his nonprofit agencies and his church, but that Smith has repaid Friends of MLK for much of the money.

''The pastor viewed the business of MLK as virtually the same business as the church,'' Tein said. ``They will never be able to show that Pastor Smith stole from MLK or anybody else.''

Tein said he met with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle less than two weeks ago in an effort to convince her Smith committed no crime. He believes detectives ''leapfrogged'' the prosecutor to make an arrest.

Labels: corruption, crime, Florida

Miami Herald, Jan. 15 - The news of the arrest of a 32-year-old man on charges he killed Stepha Henry, the 22-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., who has been missing since Memorial Day weekend, provided mild relief to her father Steve Henry. [FYI: The man pictured in the photo at left is the suspect, Kendrick Williams, on the night he and Stepha went to Peppers Cafe in Broward County. When Gary Johnson and other members of the Watch Group went out with Texas Equusearch to try and find Stepha with other volunteers, they were looking for the white tank top and black blouse that Stepha has on in this pic, which was taken some time on the night of May 29.]

''We've been looking for Stepha for so long,'' he said Tuesday afternoon. ``They say they have this guy. We are sad but we are happy. Maybe he will lead us to her.''

Miami-Dade detectives arrested Kendrick Lincoln Williams in New York on Tuesday morning.

[Kendrick Williams is known to the Henry family.
He is a Grenadian who also has Trinidadian roots.
He also has a wife and child...]

They found him sleeping inside a vehicle in a parking lot at Canarsie Pier, in the Jamaica Bay section of Brooklyn.

He was charged with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

Henry, an aspiring attorney and a recent John Jay College honors graduate, had been in South Florida over the Memorial Day weekend to celebrate her 16-year-old sister Shola's birthday. They were staying with relatives in Miami Gardens.

Henry spent several days shopping and going to the beach. On the night of May 29, before she was to leave, she called her mother and said she was going to a nightclub.

Williams picked her up in a dark-colored Acura Integra at her aunt's home. He had purchased the car in New York and driven it down to Florida, Miami-Dade police said.

The pair went to Peppers Cafe nightclub in Sunrise.

A camera crew taping a promotional video at the club that night captured footage of Henry inside the club.

It was the last time she was seen alive. ...

• Where is Stepha Henry?

Labels: crime, Stepha Henry

''We have confessions, but I'm not going to talk about the details of the confessions at this point,'' Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said at a news conference in Doral.

The family of suspect Jason Mitchell, 19, told The Miami Herald that he had attended a party for Taylor's half-sister, Sasha Johnson, at Taylor's Palmetto Bay home. Investigators believe Taylor's relatives may have bragged about his wealth.

Police also arrested Charles Wardlow, 18, a cousin of Johnson's boyfriend. Also cuffed were Eric Rivera, 17, and Venjah Hunte, 20. All face murder charges.

Investigators late Friday were still trying to figure out who shot Taylor.

As is common in such cases, the four gave detectives conflicting statements and blamed one another.

Under Florida law, anyone who commits a felony that leads to a death can be charged with murder.

Labels: crime, murder, Sean Taylor

Labels: crime, news

A woman with a baby was released by the hostage-taker early on, she told a witness, Lettie Tzizik, who spoke to WMUR.

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,' " the Web site reported.

Labels: crime, Hillary Clinton, mental health, news and current affairs

Labels: crime, media, O.J. Simpson

• Nooses across America

Labels: crime, racism

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for ''unrestricted rights'' for Cuban Americans to visit and send money to family in Cuba, just days before his first pilgrimage to Little Havana as a presidential candidate.
President Bush clamped down on family travel and remittances to Cuba in an effort to squeeze Fidel Castro. The policy has become a flash point in the Cuban-American community, which traditionally leans toward the GOP.

''Cuban-American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grass-roots democracy on the island,'' Obama wrote in an opinion column published in today's Miami Herald. ``Accordingly, I will grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island.''

Obama is expected to repeat his message Saturday at Miami-Dade County Auditorium, a site laden with nostalgia for Cuban exiles. It was there that President Ronald Reagan declared ``Cuba sí, Castro no'' during a landmark, anti-communist speech in 1983 that emboldened a Cuban-American community then on the political fringes.

About 1,100 tickets have been sold so far to Obama's speech, with the proceeds going to the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. The $30 entry fee is a fraction of the $2,300 donation typical of presidential fundraisers.

''This speech has so much symbolism and value, coming in the heart of the Cuban-American community,'' said the local party's chairman, Joe Garcia. ``Sen. Obama has come to the conclusion that the majority of Cuban Americans have come to, which is that more travel is good for freedom and good for democracy.''

A Florida International University poll in March of 1,000 Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade found that 55 percent support free travel to Cuba. But some exile groups argue that easing the restrictions would be a mistake.

''We regret that Sen. Obama has been so ill-advised as to assume that lifting sanctions against Cuba's dictatorial regime will bring about change,'' read a statement issued by the non-partisan Cuban Liberty Council. ``It is sad that he does not apply the same principles used to bring about change in South Africa where blacks were victims of the same apartheid as Cubans on the island.''

Obama's stance puts him at odds with Republican presidential field and could open the door for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, to continue a foreign policy spat that began during a televised debate last month. ...

• Another Dunbar Village
• Third teen arrested in Dunbar gang rape case
• Facing the future
  

Labels: crime, housing projects, kids, poverty

Labels: African-Americans, crime

Now this is a classic: woman gets drunk ... woman drives car ... woman gets caught ... woman is wearing this T-shirt:

Ha!

Labels: crime, drunk driving

• Third teen arrested in Dunbar gang rape case
• Facing the future

Labels: crime, housing projects, kids, poverty

One of the other two baby-thugs has reportedly confessed (the 14-year-old).

Previous:

• Facing the future
• Quick take headlines: to Panama and beyond!

Labels: crime, kids

Walker and Avion Lawson, 14, will be held in jail cells with other teenagers for up to 21 days until the state attorney's office formally files paperwork charging them as adults. State Attorney Barry Krischer directed prosecutors to send them to adult court, an automatic decision anytime someone 14 or older is charged with a violent felony, spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

When that paperwork is filed, Walker and Lawson will be in the Palm Beach County Jail on charges that include armed sexual battery while wearing a mask, home invasion and aggravated battery.

If convicted, the maximum sentence for both is life in prison.

"I love my son," the father said. "I'm going to stick by him. I don't teach violence to my son, so it really puzzles me. Maybe he's just hanging out with the wrong crowd. I don't know."

He acknowledged that he hadn't spent as much time with his son as he should have after parting ways with the boy's mother. But he said his son is shy and timid, and they went to places like the Fun Depot arcade together.

"It's been awhile since I really spent a lot of time with him," the father said. In the meantime, his son has been getting into trouble with the law.

• Quick take headlines: to Panama and beyond!
  

Labels: crime, kids

Labels: crime, drugs

Labels: crime, current affairs, news

January 21, 2007 -- UNION, Mo. - The hulking pizza manager accused of snatching two boys in Missouri is so ashamed of his arrest, he can't face his own mom and dad.
"I don't know how I'm going to explain myself to my parents," said Michael Devlin, who is accused of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, in an exclusive interview with The Post.

"It's much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents."

Devlin agreed to two 15-minute interviews in a holding area at the Franklin County jail here, during which he talked about his lack of interest in sex, his passion for poker and video games, the amputation of his toes and his solitary confinement in a 10-by-7 foot cell.

But he refused to talk about the criminal charges he's facing, squinting his eyes and fidgeting in his chair when asked about the four years he allegedly held Shawn captive at his apartment in Kirkwood, Mo., and his alleged snatching of Ownby on Jan. 8.

"I will not discuss anything related to the case," he said.

Devlin, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 300 pounds, came out in an orange prison jumpsuit for both interviews.

He said he has had no visitors other than his lawyers despite having a large family - five siblings and his parents, who adopted him and three of his brothers - nearby.

Life, he said, had been good for him over the last four years, during which he allegedly forced Hornbeck to live with him by threatening to kill the teen and his family if he fled.

"I guess I was relatively happy," he said.

During the first sit-down on Friday, Devlin appeared red-faced and bleary-eyed and seemed downcast.

"I feel nothing," he said. "I hide my emotions from other people. I hide the way I feel."

He declined to answer if he's ever had a girlfriend but said he doesn't care about romantic relationships. "I was never really interested in that," he said. Asked if he was attracted to women, Devlin said, "I can't talk about that because it has to do with the case." ...

Video games became a pastime. He said his favorite was "Final Fantasy," an involved role-playing game developed in Japan in the 1980s.

If he weren't in jail, he said, "I'd be in front of my computer screen playing 'Final Fantasy XI,' " he said.

"I like 'Final Fantasy' because it has a network that can connect to people all over the world, from Europe to Japan."

Police say Devlin and Shawn were avid video-game players and may have spent hours playing games together.

Labels: Ben Ownby, crime, kidnappers, Michael Devlin, Shawn Hornbeck

"In cases like these, there might be a possibility that there might be other kids involved," Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke told a news conference.

Franklin County is home to Ben Ownby, 13, one of the boys Devlin is accused of kidnapping.

Toelke described Devlin, who will be arraigned today, as a sex offender but then took it back.

"People who commit these crimes don't just wake up one day and decide to be a sex offender," he said.

But in the next breath, the sheriff said he didn't have information that the 300-pound pizzeria manager was a sex offender. ...

The captor who held Shawn Hornbeck for more than four years kept him from fleeing by threatening to kill the boy and his entire family, investigators said Monday.

That helps explain why Shawn, 15, freed Friday when police tracked a second kidnapped boy to an apartment in Kirkwood, did not seize ample opportunities to run or summon help, according to the investigators....

Officials have determined that Shawn and Ben both were grabbed off the street and prevented from leaving Devlin's vehicle. And while all three were wired into the Internet and involved in computer games, there is no evidence of prior contact between Devlin and either boy, according to investigators.

Investigators have found no evidence that Devlin abducted any other children, sources said. But they are poring over computer equipment and videotapes obtained in a weekend search of his apartment, looking for evidence in Ben and Shawn's cases and any indication of other victims.

Investigators say they are puzzled that Devlin never has been accused of lesser offenses, which tend to be found among people who work their way up the crime ladder to child abduction.

Also on Monday, Washington County Sheriff Kevin Schroeder said Devlin owned a piece of vacant property there, about 20 minutes from where Shawn was kidnapped in the rural community of Richwoods.

Labels: Ben Ownby, crime, media, Michael Devlin, mysteries, Shawn Hornbeck

Labels: Bill O'Reilly, crime, Devlin, Shawn Hornbeck