One hundred eleven years ofedorialfreedom
NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
www~michigandally.com
Thursday
January 17, 2002
Ivbf. CX114 No. so 'An Alrbof Michigan= 02002 The Michigan Daily;
Rivers
By Kara Wenzel
Daily Staff Reporter
"These four weeks have felt like a year to
me," Muslim Islamic Academy student Salim
Al-Churbaji said, referring to the month his
teacher, Rabih Haddad, has spent in jail.
Haddad, a local Muslim leader, was the
source of much discussion last night as
about 250 people gathered to hear a discus-
sion with U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann
Arbor) and Michael Steinberg, the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union of Michigan's
legal director.
"Many members of our campus look up
to (Haddad)," LSA junior and Students
:.
I.
Haddad
case
alarming
Allied for Freedom and Equality member
Fadi Kiblawi said.
Haddad was charged with having an
expired visa and is being investigated
because of his connection to the Global
Relief Fund, a charity organization the U.S.
Justice Department suspects of having links
to terrorism.
Haddad's students said they do not
believe he could possibly be connected to
any terrorist organizations.
"He told us the terrorist attacks are
against Islam, and the civilians in those
buildings on September 11 were innocent,"
Muslim Islamic Academy student Abdallah
Khatib said.
"If he is such a danger to society, how
can we all be there for him?" Khatib asked.
"He is more American than I am; he is
not a criminal," Al-Churbaji said.
The speakers and audience members
expressed their concern over allegations
that Haddad is not being allowed access to
his lawyers or being given a speedy and
fair trial.
" "When accused of a crime, we'll be
allowed to know the charges against us,
who made the charges, what the evidence
used against us is, have a lawyer, speak pri-
vately to the lawyer to plan our defense and
trial by jury in public," Rivers said.
Rivers said the secrecy surrounding Had-
"He is more American than I am; he is not a
criminal.
- Salim AI-Churbaji
Muslim Islamic Academy student, speaking of Rabih Haddad
dad's case is cause for alarm. All of Had-
dad's legal proceedings have been closed to
the public and the media.
"People who founded this government
wanted it to be different - they wanted it
to respect the rights of all individuals,"
Rivers said. "Not just people who are citi-
zens are protected under the 14th Amend-
ment to the Constitution."
Rivers was concerned that some citizens
believe Haddad is not entitled to a fair trial
because he is not a U.S. citizen.
"Persons - not citizens - is the word
used over and over in the 14th Amendment
... and that use is deliberate and meaning-
See HADDAD, Page 7A
Curry
pleads no
Angry law
student kills
" contest
to assat
By Jeremy Beuowitz
ult
3
in
Virginia
Daily Staff Reporter
Michigan freshman cornerback
Markus Curry, who was scheduled to
go to trial today on charges of domes-
tic assault and telephone tampering,
will be sentenced next month on one
count of assault after pleading no
contest to the charge at his jury selec-
tion Monday.
Curry's plea
meant two counts
of domestic
assault and tele-
phone tampering
were dropped. He
had previously
pleaded not guilty
to all charges.
Curry was
Curry arrested in
November after he allegedly assaulted
his girlfriend in South Quad Resi-
dence Hall and prevented her from
making a phone call. He was sus-
pended from the football team for the
rest of the season.
Steven Fishman, Curry's attorney,
said he hopes avoiding a trial will
close the issue and avoid any further
humiliation to his client. Curry has
never been in trouble before, he
added.
"This is a one-time incident event
that stemmed from an argument with
his girlfriend," said Fishman.
Fishman also strongly emphasized
that this trial would not have been a
huge spectacle if the defendant were
just a regular student. Because of
Curry's status as a football player, it
has created much unwanted attention,
he said. He said he hopes that once
See CURRY, Page 7A
Man shoots dean,
teacher,
th en op ens fre
on students
DAVID KATZ/Daily,
Students tumble in the snow between South and West Quad residence halls last night. Yesterday was the first time
this academic year that there was enough snow for the annual battle to determine bragging rights.
Annalsnowball battle
mareks rtr of win ter
GRUNDY, Va. (AP) - A struggling
Nigerian law school student went on a
campus shooting spree yesterday,
killing the dean, a professor and a stu-
dent before he was tackled by students,
authorities said.
The attack also wounded three stu-
dents at the Appalachian School of
Law. Two were in surgery yesterday
evening and the third was listed in fair
condition.
"When I got there there were bodies
laying everywhere," said Jack Briggs,
who was one of the first to arrive after
the shooting in this tiny mountain com-
munity in western Virginia.
Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Profes-
sor Thomas Blackwell were gunned
down in their offices, according to
school officials. Police said the third
person slain was student Angela Dales,
33.
The 42-year-old suspect, Peter
Odighizuwa, had arrived at school to
meet with the dean about his academic
suspension, which went into effect yes-
terday, State Police spokesman Mike
Stater said.
Odighizuwa first stopped in the
office of Professor Dale Rubin to talk
about his grades and as he left report-
edly asked Rubin to pray for him,
police said.
He then walked to Sutin's and Black-
well's offices and shot them with a
.380-caliber pistol, Stater said. Wit-
nesses said Odighizuwa then went
downstairs into a common area and
opened fire on a crowd of students,
killing Dales and seriously wounding
three others.
Todd Ross, 30, of Johnson City,
Tenn., was among the students who
were outside when Odighizuwa left the
building. Ross said the suspect was
holding his hands in the air and
dropped the gun at his prompting.
Odighizuwa was promptly tackled
and "struggled after we got him on the
ground, but then just laid there," Ross
said. He said the suspect kept shouting,
'I have nowhere to go. I have nowhere
to go."'
Grund
VIRGINIA
0 10mi
0 1km
By Eflzabeth Kassab
and Louie Melzish
Daily Staff Reporters
A fire alarm in South Quad Residence Hall last night
sent its inhabitants scrambling outside to pack the newly-
fallen powder into ammunition for use in the annual assault
on West Quad.
East Madison Street became a battlefield as troops
clothed in everything from pajama pants to shorts and san-
dals pelted each other with snowballs.
"This is the most fun I've had all year," said LSA fresh-
man Nebojsa Stojkovic.
Though it's already January, the battle marked the unoffi-
cial beginning of winter on campus. The snowfall also
See SNOW, Page 7A
Airports brace for lengthy delays
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
The suspect was being held at the
Buchanan County Jail on three counts
of capital ,murder and three weapons
counts, authorities said.
Ellen Qualls, a spokeswoman for
Gov. Mark Warner, said Odighizuwa
had a history of mental instability that
:school officials knew about. Rubin, the
professor who spoke with the suspect
moments before the rampage, declined
comment after the shooting.
First-year student Justin Marlowe
from Richwood, WVa., said the sus-
pect had been in all of his classes.
"He was a real quiet guy who kept to
himself. He didn't talk to anybody, but
he gave no indication that he was capa-
ble of something like this," Marlowe
said.
He also said Odighizuwa had
flunked out a year ago and "the dean
bent over backward to get him enrolled
again."
The private law school, with an
enrollment of.about 170 students, was
closed for the rest of the week.
By Shabina S. Khatri
Daily Staff Reporter
As if travelers didn't have enough to gripe
about already with the lengthy waits at airports,
airline officials warn that those delays are about
to get a bit longer starting tomorrow, when new
security measures mandating the screening of all
checked luggage take effect.
The new Aviation and Transportation Act is
implementing these measures as the first step of
a policy that will require airlines to screen all
checked luggage will full explosive detection
systems by the end of this year. Only 10 percent
of the 1.4 billion bags checked each year are
presently subjected to screening.
The new law allows airlines to use a combina-
tion of four screening methods, said Hank Price,
public relations coordinator for the newly-created
Transportation Security Administration. These
methods include bag matching, manual search,
bomb sniffing dogs, explosive detection devices
and others approved by the TSA, he said.
But the Federal Aviation Association reports
that there are only 160 explosive detection
machines and 190 bomb-sniffing dogs at the
nation's 50 busiest airports. Because hand check-
ing luggage is time-consuming and subject to
human error, airlines will rely on bag matching
as the most realistic way of meeting the new
standards.
Under the bag matching procedure, every piece
of checked luggage is matched to a passenger that
has boarded the plane. Any baggage that does not
correspond to a person on the flight must be
See SECURITY, Page 7A
Sales of books rise during holiday
season as other industries struggle
By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
Sales of J.K. Rowling's best-selling
"Harry Potter" series indicate something
greater than the popularity of the young
wizard, according to some experts and ana-
lysts. Despite the current recession, the
"Harry Potter" books aren't the only ones
flying off bookshelves, leading some peo-
ple to believe rising book sales are hints
that reading is increasing in popularity.
Over the holiday season, both local and
chain book stores reported higher-than-
increases, with Shaman Drum reporting
holiday sales up 5 to 10 percent from last
year. Meanwhile other retail businesses,
including Kmart and Jacobson's, are either
fearing or filing for bankruptcy.
During years of substantial growth, 5 to
10 percent isn't considered anything
remarkable. But with last year's faltering
economy, businesses said they would take
all they could get.
"It isn't a huge increase, but in light of
all of our economic woes, any sign of
growth is actually really good," said Nancy
Rohlen, the trade store manager of Shaman
have remained steady so far in a wavering
economy, and different people are pointing
to different reasons.
Borders executives attributed their holi-
day success to big-name books that have
stolen much of the entertainment world's
attention, as well as to successful market-
ing.
"Our successful holiday season resulted
from record superstore traffic," said Borders
President and Chief Executive Officer Greg
Josefowicz in a written statement. "We did
particularly well in our core book category
and in popular products such as Harry Pot-
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Jeffrey Pickell, owner of Kaleidoscope Books and Collectibles on State Street, reads in his store