NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 3
ON CAMPUS
'U' to host 21st
annual Engineering
fair today
The 21st Annual University of Mich-
igan Engineering Career Fair will be
held in the Duderstadt Center on the
first floor of the Michigan Union from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. This event gives
students the opportunity to speak with
companies from across the nation about
their career ambitions.
MSA to hold City
Council debate
The Michigan Student Assembly
will be holding a debate between
Ward two City Council candidates
Tom Bourque and Stephen Rapundalo.
The debate will be held at the South
Lounge of Mary Markley Residence
Hall tonight at 7:30 p.m. Free food
will be served.
Director will
discuss film on
Islam and culture
The Muslim Students' Association
is holding a free film screening tonight
from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m. at Hutchins Hall,
room 150. Following the screening,
there will be a question-and-answer
time with the director, Omar Mahmood.
He will be addressing the role of Islam
in American culture.
CRIME
NOTES
Two computers
stolen from The
Michigan Daily
Two computers were stolen from
the Student Publications Building
sometime this weekend. The comput-
ers belonged to the Sports section of
The Michigan Daily. The Department
of Public Safety says they believe that
access was gained through a broken
window on the first floor. Each com-
puter was estimated at $1,500. There
are no suspects at this time.
Caller reports
intoxicated man
with pants down
A caller reported that there was
an unknown male under West Hall
Arch with his pants down on Mon-
day in the early evening. Since the
man, who was not affiliated with
*the University, had his pants on by
the time the Department of Public
Safety arrived, he was only cited for
open intoxication, read trespassing
rules and then escorted off of Uni-
versity property:
Case of water
stolen from
East Quad
A caller reported an incident of lar-
ceny in East Quad when a case of water
was stolen yesterday. The water was sto-
len when it was left unattended in the
lobby. DPS does not have any suspects
at this time.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
University officials
refuse to release
details regarding
record tuition hike
Sept. 27, 1973 - University
officials refused to release infor-
mation explaining their rationale
for a record 24 percent tuition hike,
yesterday.
Director of the Office of Financial
Analysis, Frederick Oliver blocked
a request by a Daily staff reporter
to be given the statistical informa-
tion that would ultimately explain
the tuition hike. Oliver's decision
echoed a previous refusal to make
tic~ infnrmntinn nvnilnhle by C'hief
Army
rivate
ound
England faces up
to 10 years in prison
after being convicted in
prison scandal
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - Army
Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling
poses in photos of detainee abuse at
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison made her
the face of the scandal, was convicted
yesterday by a military jury on six of
seven counts.
England, 22, was found guilty of
one count of conspiracy, four counts
of maltreating detainees and one
count of committing an indecent act.
She was acquitted on a second con-
spiracy count.
The jury of five male Army officers
took about two hours to reach its ver-
dict. Her case now moves to the sen-
tencing phase, which will be heard by
the same jury starting today.
England tried to plead guilty in May
to the same counts she faced this month
in exchange for an undisclosed sentenc-
ing cap, but a judge threw out the plea
deal. She now faces a maximum 10
years in prison.
England, wearing her dark green
dress uniform, stood at attention yes-
terday as the verdict was read by the
jury foreman. She showed no obvious
emotion afterward.
Asked for comment after the verdict,
defense lawyer Capt. Jonathan Crisp said,
"The only reaction I can say is, 'I under-
stand."'
England's trial is the last for a group
of nine Army reservists charged with
mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib in
Iraq, a scandal that badly damaged the
United States' image in the Muslim world
despite quick condemnation of the abuse
by President Bush. Two other troops were
convicted in trials and the remaining six
made plea deals. Several of those soldiers
testified at England's trial.
Prosecutors used graphic photos of
England to support their contention
that she was a key figure in the abuse
conspiracy. One photo shows England
holding a naked detainee on a leash.
In others, she smiles and points to
prisoners in humiliating poses.
Sheehan and hundreds of others
arrested while protesting Iraq war
Protesters rallied at the front gate
of the White House to request a
meeting with President Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) - Cindy Sheehan, the Cali-
fornia mother who became a leader of the anti-war
movement after her son died in Iraq, was arrested yes-
terday along with hundreds of others protesting out-
side the White House.
Sheehan, carrying a photo of her son in his Army
uniform, rallied with other protesters in a park across
the street from the White House and then marched to
the gate of the executive mansion to request a meeting
with President Bush.
The protesters later sat down on the pedestrian
walkway in front of the White House - knowing they
would be arrested - and began singing and chanting
"Stop the war now!"
Police warned them three times that they were
breaking the law by failing to move along, then began
making arrests. One man climbed over the White
House fence and was quickly subdued by Secret Ser-
vice agents.
Sheehan, 48, was the first taken into custody. She
smiled as she was carried to the curb, then stood up
and walked to a police vehicle as protesters chanted,
"The whole world is watching."
"It's an honor to be arrested with this group of
people," said Gary Handschumacher, 58, of Crawford,
Colo., who was waiting for police to arrest him.
Sgt. Scott Fear, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police,
said about 370 protesters were arrested over four and
a half hours.
All but one were charged with demonstrating with-
out a permit, a misdemeanor. One person faced a
charge of crossing a police line.
Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed last
year in an ambush in Sadr City, Iraq. She attracted
worldwide attention last month with her 26-day
vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch.
Yesterday's demonstration was part of a broader
anti-war effort on Capitol Hill organized by United for
Peace and Justice, an umbrella group. Representatives
from anti-war groups met yesterday with members of
Congress to urge them to work to end the war and to
bring the troops home.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush
is "very much aware" of the protesters and "recognizes that
there are differences of opinion" on Iraq.
"It's the right ofthe American people to peacefully express
their views. And that's what you're seeing here in Washing-
ton, D.C.," McClellan said. "They're well-intentioned, but
the president strongly believes that withdrawing ... would
make us less safe and make the world more dangerous."
The protest yesterday followed a massive dem-
onstration Saturday that drew a crowd of 100,000
or more, the largest such gathering in the capital
since the war began in March 2003.
On Sunday, a rally supporting the war drew
about 500 people. Speakers included veterans of
World War II and the war in Iraq, as well as family
members of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Bulletproof vests
investigated by
Justice Department
Defective vests
purchased for President
Bush and the first lady
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice
Department is investigating whether
a Michigan company sold defective
bulletproof vests for President Bush,
federal agents and local police and
then waited nearly two years to alert
customers that the body armor could
be unsafe.
A former research chief for Second
Chance Body Armor Inc. is coop-
erating with the criminal investiga-
tion and testified this month that the
Secret Service tested and bought some
of the defective vests for the president
and first lady Laura Bush. The Penta-
gon obtained the same armor for elite
troops who guard generals, according
to transcripts obtained by The Associ-
ated Press.
Many sales occurred well after Cen-
tral Lake, Mich.-based Second Chance
had been alerted that the Japanese-made
Zylon synthetic material in the vests was
degrading faster than expected from heat,
light and moisture exposure, allowing
bullets to potentially penetrate the armor,
according to the former employee's tes-
timony and other company documents.
Prosecutors have gathered docu-
ments showing that Second Chance was
alerted as early as 1998 by the Japanese
material maker, Toyobo Co., that there
were problems with Zylon maintaining
its protective properties under certain
conditions.
By 2001, Second Chance's research
chief, Aaron Westrick, was pleading
unsuccessfully with his company's pres-
idAnt to renlae the ves tsafter his own
company could pay for a replacement
initiative, the memo shows.
But Second Chance customers
were not alerted to the problems until
September 2003 - after a Califor-
nia police officer was shot to death
wearing the vest and a Pennsylvania
officer was seriously wounded.
In the interim, the Secret Service
paid $53,000 in 2002 to Second
Chance for body armor, enough to
equip the president and the security
detail that protects him and other
VIPs, federal procurement records
show.
Legal professionals and government
officials familiar with the inquiry con-
firmed Westrick's account about the
Secret Service and Bush. They said
the criminal investigation is in addi-
tion to a Justice Department lawsuit
filed last summer that accuses Second
Chance and Toyobo of fraud. The offi-
cials spoke only on condition of ano-
nymity, citing grand jury secrecy.
Robert H. Skilton, Second Chance's
lawyer, did not return calls to his office
last week. Some of the company's non-
Zylon assets have been sold and others
are in bankruptcy.
Westrick's lawyer, Stephen M.
Kohn, said Sunday that his client
was cooperating with the criminal
investigation.
"Greed prevailed over the safety
of police, soldiers and even the presi-
dent of the United States," Kohn said.
"The officials who personally profited
from selling the defective vests to law
enforcement must be held accountable
to the fullest extent of the criminal
code."
Throughout 2001 and 2002, agencies
from the Pentaion to locnl nolicehouht