One hundred eleven years ofeditorialfreedom
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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
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Friday
December 7, 2001
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Taliban
begin to
surrender
Kandahar
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Tal-
iban forces began handing in their
weapons in the southern Afghan city
of Kandahar today as part of a surren-
der deal with opposition forces,
according to a Pakistan-based news
service close to the Islamic militia.
The report, by the Afghan Islamic
Press, could not be independently veri-
fied immediately.
The news service quoted Taliban
leaders in Kandahar as saying they had
ordered their fighters to give their
weapons to a commission made up of
Muslim clerics, local tribal elders and
some opposition commanders.
Similar surrenders were also taking
place in nearby Lashkargah, the capital
of Helmand province, the agency said,
as well as in several other centers in
the region. The surrenders reportedly
started early this morning.
In Washington, Haron Amin, a
spokesman for the opposition northern
alliance, said he was unaware of the
report that a surrender was in progress.
In Florida, Maj. Ralph Mills at U.S.
Central Command declined to com-
ment. The Pentagon has refrained
from commenting on most reports of
military action until the following day.
The reports come a day after the
Taliban agreed to surrender Kandahar,
their last bastion and birthplace, if
their warriors were not punished and
safety was guaranteed to leader Mul-
Slah Mohammed Omar, who once
vowed to fight to the death.
The United States said it would not
accept any deal allowing the cleric to
go free.
The deal and apparent subsequent
surrender marked the final collapse of
the militant movement that imposed
strict Islamic rule on Afghanistan for
five years.
The report of the surrenders made no
mention of any resistance by Taliban
See AFGHANISTAN, Page 8
Interviews
Icompleted
with 20
e area men
By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
The lingering anxiety over whether
men in the Muslim and Arab commu-
nities will be subject to further FBI
Sinquiry should they decide not to inter-
view with the U.S. Department of Jus-
tice as a part of their nationwide
terrorism probe has left some feeling
indecisive about participating.
"Some want to schedule (an inter-
view), but some have chosen not to,"
said Haaris Ahmad, dire'ctor of Michi-
gan's Council for American/Islamic
Relations. "People are still deciding
what to do."
Twenty area men had conducted
interviews as of Wednesday, and about
200 men of the 560 in southeastern
Michigan who were sent letters asking
them to interview had responded,
according to the U.S. attorney's office
for the eastern district of Michigan.
Kenan Basha, vice president of the
Muslim Student Association, said peo-
ple who have received a letter are still
deliberating because they were not
given much time to respond.
"The news hasn't been able to fil-
ter," Basha said. He added that
although government officials have
promised they will not take any legal
See INTERVIEWS, Page 7
Photos by ALYSSA WOOD/Daily
Two students use protest signs to keep dry while listening to the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth speak at a rally In Fountain Square yesterday in Cincinnati, where the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals heard
arguments In the two lawsuits challenging the use of race as a factor in admissions to the University of Michigan.
Attorneys face barrage
of questions rom court
By Rachel Green
and Elizabeth Kassab
Daily Staff Reporters
CINCINNATI - Yesterday proba-
bly won't be the last time nine federal
judges in a crowded courtroom fire
questions about the merits of affirma-
tive action at attorneys for the Univer-
sity, the Center for Individual Rights
and the intervening defendants.
The arguments made by each side
were nearly identical to the claims
made at the district court level, but
with yesterday's appeals hearing the
pair of lawsuits challenging race-con-
scious admissions at the University
moved closer to an expected date
with the nine justices of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Both cases revolve around the 1978
opinion by Justice Lewis Powell in
Bakke v. Regents of California, in
which he stated that the use of race as
a factor in college admissions is a
compelling government interest.
The judges asked questions about
what constitutes a critical mass,
whether the University might revert
to the old undergraduate admissions
policies that have already been ruled
unconstitutional and whether the Uni-
versity currently employs a dual-track
admissions standard.
The judges also tried to use a hypo-
thetical admissions system that
focused on religion rather than race to
better understand how admissions
decisions.
"The questions reveal the crucial
things on the judges' minds," said
University President Lee Bollinger.
"We have laid the foundation and
more for both the legal and the public
discussion of these issues. After the
court renders their decision in this
case I predict it will go to the
Supreme Court."
The courtroom was packed with
spectators in folding chairs in addi-
tion to the regular benches. The over-
flow crowd was directed to two rooms
where the proceedings were shown on
televisions. Court Clerk Leonard
Green estimated there were 150 to
160 people in the actual courtroom,
while an additional 150 to 200 people
watched a video feed in two rooms
two floors above the actual proceed-
ings. The courtroom usually seats 50
to 60 people. "We accommodated an
extra hundred people into what would
have been a full boat," Green said.
"We've seldom drawn a crowd like
this," Chief Judge Boyce Martin said
See HEARING, Page 7
LSA junior James Justin Wilson has an anti-affirmative action poster ripped
away from him during the rally. Wilson later told Cincinnati Police that several
angry affirmative action supporters took his sign and threatened to push him
off the skywalk where he was standing directly above the speakers.
Rain dampens turnout but not spirit at rally
By Rachel Green
And Elizabeth Kassab
Daily Staff Reporters
CINCINNATI - Huddled under a rainbow
of umbrellas and clutching soggy posters, hun-
dreds of affirmative action supporters con-
verged on downtown's Fountain Square, one
block from the courthouse where nine judges
were preparing to decide whether universities
are breaking the law by considering race in col-
lege admissions.
Persistent rain hampered the turnout at yes-
terday's rally. Cincinnati Police Lt. Kurt Byrd
said between 300 and-*400 people attended the
events, including a march from the University
of Cincinnati campus into the city.
The march led to Fountain Square, where a
rally featured keynote speakers Jeff Johnson,
national director of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People youth and
college division, and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth,
a vocal Cincinnati civil rights advocate.
"Affirmative action matters to me, and I will
go wherever affirmative action is being attacked,"
said RC junior Monique Luse, co-founder of
Students Supporting Affirmative Action and co-
chair of the Minority Affairs Commission on the
Michigan Student Assembly.
"I'm a student at the University of Michigan,
and my school is being attacked, and I want to
express my voice with my presence."
Rackham student Jessica Curtin, a member of
the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and
Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means
Necessary, said the weather only helped partici-
pants realize the reason for being at the rally.
"I'm proud of the determination and the
energy and the sense that the protest was a real
historic step," she said.
Not everyone at the rally was there to protest;
some came merely to observe.
Police officers lined the perimeter of the
square, hiding under skywalks to keep dry
while monitoring the crowd. Byrd said the only
confrontation came around 1 p.m., when James
Justin Wilson, an LSA junior who opposes
See RALLY, Page 7
On 6tha:
remember
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) - Kunio
Iwashita, a Zero fighter pilot during World
War II, says it was only on Sept. 11 -- six
decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor -
that he realized how Americans must have
felt back then.
"I was very impressed with all the flags on
buildings and cars, with the patriotism Amer-
icans showed after Sept. 11," said Iwashita,
who was visiting relatives in Boston that day.
"I realized what a big, strong country Ameri-
ca is. I had no idea about that" in 1941.
nniversary,
original da,
veterans from both sides gathered for Friday's
60th anniversary of the most infamous sneak
attack of the 20th century.
This year, the gathering takes place in the
shadow of another war, triggered by a sur-
prise attack that has been likened to Pearl
Harbor.
At a Pearl Harbor event on Wednesday, fel-
low veterans applauded as Iwashita embraced
one of his former enemies, Jim Daniels, 86,
of Kailua, Hawaii. They all shook hands and
stood at attention as a bugler played taps at
Americans
Sinfamy
Navy service aboard the USS Arizona
Memorial, held each year at 7:50 a.m., the
time the Dec. 7, 1941, attack began. Later in
the morning, about 3,000 people - including
an estimated 800 Pearl Harbor survivors -
will attend a service at the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific.
President Bush will mark the anniversary
across the country with a speech aboard an
aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Va.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor killed
2,390 Americans and plunged the United
. I
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AP FILE PHOTOu