2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 NATION/WORLD Alito does damage control Bush's Supreme Court pick says he has learned to interpret the law and not advocate WASHINGTON (AP) - The Samuel Alito who argued against abortion rights in 1985 was "an advocate seeking a job" with the conserva- tive Reagan administration, the Alito who is now a U.S. Supreme Court nominee told Demo- crats yesterday. The current version "thinks he's a wiser per- son" with "a better grasp and understanding about constitutional rights and liberties," senators said as Alito tried to play down a 20-year-old docu- ment in which he asserted "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." At the same time, some anti-abortion groups warned Alito not to go too far if he hopes to retain their support. "A nominee who is willing to take the seem- ingly mandated Roe oath, whereby they testify that it is settled law, never to be overturned, is not the type of justice worthy of pro-life support," said Stephen Peroutka, chairman of the National Pro-Life Action Center. President Bush nominated Alito last month as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a crucial swing vote on contentious issues including abortion during her 24-year high court career. Alito was Bush's second choice after White House counsel Harriet Miers withdrew under criticism from conservatives. Liberals say they now are concerned that Alito and recently confirmed Chief Justice John Rob- erts would swing the Supreme Court to the right and perhaps overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decisionsthat established abortion rights. Alito, who served for 15 years as a judge on the 3rd- U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, worked Capitol Hill yesterday following the release of his 1985 application to be deputy assistant attor- ney general. In that document, the younger Alito touted his work in the solicitor general's office against abortion, work "in which I personally believe very strongly." Republicans said there was nothing wrong with that. "This man is a conservative," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. "He's been a conservative all his life, and in 1985 when he was applying for a job, he reiterated that fact in his application." But the 55-year-old judge said yesterday that things are different now, Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Edward Ken- nedy of Massachusetts said after meeting with him privately. WASHINGTON GOP rejects Iraq timetable request The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic effort yesterday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy. Senators also voted to endorse the Bush administration's military tribunals for pros- ecuting foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but to allow the detainees to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal court. On the question of a timetable for troop withdrawal, senators rejected the Demo- crats' proposal 58-40. Democratic leaders had advanced the measure in the wake of declining public support for a conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 U.S. lives and cost more than $200 billion. Republicans countered with their own honbinding alternative that the Senate approved on a 79-19 vote. Five Democrats sided with the majority party. JERUSALEM Rice announces Gaza border deal Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played the heavy yesterday to help seal a deal that was eluding Israelis and Palestinians and clouding a hopeful moment for Mideast peace. The agreement that Rice announced on opening Gaza's borders also test- ed her willingness to lay personal prestige on the line for a bargain that might not hold. During all-night negotiations in a Jerusalem hotel suite named for slain Israeli peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin, Rice let both sides know she wasn't leaving without agreemet on questions that arose from Israel's decision to end three decades of military occupation in the Gaza Strip. KYOTO, Japan Bush tells China to be more like Taiwan President Bush prodded China today to grant more political freedom to its 1.3 billion people and held up archrival Taiwan as a society that success- fully moved from repression to democracy as it opened its economy. In remarks sure to rile Beijing, Bush suggested China should follow Tai- wan's path. "Modern Taiwan is free and democratic and prosperous. By embracing freedom at all levels, Taiwan has delivered prosperity to its people and cre- ated a free and democratic Chinese society," the president said. Bush made his remarks in the advance text of a speech that was to be the cornerstone address of his Asian trip. From Japan, he will continue to South Korea, China and Mongolia. BAGHDAD Coalition kills 30 fighters in border offensive U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through most of an insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border yesterday, encountering pockets of fierce resistance, destroying five unexploded car bombs and killing at least 30 guerrilla fighters, the U.S. command reported. Three U.S. Marines died during the last two days of the operation to clea the town of Obeidi, a military statement said. More than 80 insurgents have been killed, mostly in airstrikes, in the same period, it said. Separately, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed yesterday in a roadside bombing near Baghdad, the U.S. command said. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS An article and headline in Monday'sedition of the Daily (agers destroy Huskies in final tune up) identified the Northern Michigan's men's basketball team as the Huskies. They are the Wildcats. HA letter to the editor in Thursday's editiilh'6f tlWDaily (Deplte o t fteMr real problem goes beyond Coke) incorrectly labeled letter writer Sean Germaine an LSA senior. Germaine is a Business senior. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. Mibe 13rbi w iI 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com t " AP PHOTO Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) shows Supreme Court nominee Samuel Aluto his Capitol Hill office In Washington yesterday. "He did indicate that he's an older person, that he's learned more, that he thinks he's a wiser per- son and he has a better grasp and understanding about constitutional rights and liberties," said Kennedy, a senior member of the Judiciary Com- mittee that will question Alito at his confirma- tion hearing beginning Jan. 9. The 1985 Alito was a young conservative law- yer hoping to advance, said Feinstein, also a member of the committee. "He said, 'I was an advocate seeking a job; it was a political job and that was 1985. I'm now a judge, I've been on the circuit court for 15 years and it's very different. I'm not an advocate, I don't give heed to my personal views, what I do is interpret the law,"' Feinstein said. Feinstein said she believes Alito is telling the truth, while Kennedy was a little more suspicious. Alito has told senators in his two weeks of private meetings that he has "great respect" for Roe v. Wade as a precedent, but he has not said he would vote to uphold it. Alito said he wrote the memo as "a member of the Justice Department that was interested in get- ting a job," Kennedy said. "So I asked him, 'Why shouldn't we consider that the answers you're giv- ing today are an application for another job?"' Senators said that Alito can expect to be ques- tioned carefully during his January confirma- tion hearings. "He's obviously an intelligent and informed nominee, but the real criteria that all of us look for is whether the nominee is going to have a core commitment to the constitutional values and the rights and liberties and interest of the American people," Kennedy said. 0i U.S. forces find 173 tortured Iraqis Discovery comes amid Sunni accusations the Interior Ministry abused detaineees BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's prime minister said yesterday that 173 Iraqi detainees - malnourished and showing signs of torture - were found at an Inte- rior Ministry basement lockup seized by U.S. forces in Baghdad. The discovery appeared to validate Sunni complaints of abuse by the Shiite-controlled ministry. The revelation about the mostly Sunni Arab detainees by Prime Minister Ibra- him al-Jaafari was deeply embarrassing to the government as critics in the United States and Britain question the U.S. strat- egy for building democracy in a land wracked by insurgency, terrorism and sectarian tension. "I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry pris- on and they appear to be malnourished," al-Jaafari said of Sunday's raid at a deten- tion center in the fashionable Jadriyah district. "There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture." One detainee had been crippled by polio and others suffered "different wounds," the deputy interior minister, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, said without elaboration. Al-Jaafari, a Shiite, promised a full investigation and punishment for anyone found guilty of torture. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the Bush administration found the reports troubling. "We don't practice torture, and we don't believe that others should prac- tice torture," said the spokesman, Adam Ereli. "We think that there should be an investigation and those who are respon- sible should be held accountable." But the head of Iraq's largest Sunni political party said he had spoken to al- Jaafari and other government officials about torture at Interior Ministry deten- tion centers, including the one where the detainees were found. Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the government routinely dismissed his complaints, calling the prisoners "former regime elements," meaning Saddam Hussein loyalists. U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, who com- manded the troops in Sunday's raid, said American and Iraqi forces plan to carry out checksat every .Interior Min- istry detention facility in Baghdad, the Los Angeles Times reported. It was not immediately clear why U.S. forces chose to move in on Sunday. "We're going to hit every single one of them, every single one of them," the Times quoted Horst as saying. Sunni politicians have been complain- ing of torture, abuse and arbitrary arrest by special commandos of the Shiite-con- trolled Interior Ministry since the current government took power last April. Sunnis have also accused the ministry of being behind "death squads," rumored to be made up of former members of Shi- ite militias, which target Sunnis in repri- sal for the killings of Shiites by Sunni Arab insurgents. Interior Minister Bayn Jabr has denied any role in such killings. Kamal, the deputy interior minister, was quoted by CNN as saying the skin "In order to search for one terrorist, they detain hundreds torture them bruta of innocent people and of some of the detainees in the Baghdad center had peeled off parts of their bod- ies. He later declined to confirm the alle- gation to The Associated Press. Sunni Arab complaints have taken on new urgency because of American efforts to encourage a big Sunni turnout in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections in hopes of undermining Sunni support for the insurgency. In recent days, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan have all visited Iraq to promote Sunni participation. U.S. officials have also been pressing the majority Shiites and their Kurdish allies to reach out to the minority com- munity - which dominated the country during Saddam's regime. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, have expressed their "deep concern" over the condition of the detainees "at the highest level" of the Iraqi government, a U.S. Embassy statement said. "We agree with Iraq's leaders that the mistreatment of detainees is a serious matter and totally unacceptable," the statement added. But the case also raises troubling ques- - Mohsen Abdul-Hamid Leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party tions about the training and discipline of Iraqi security forces, which Washington hopes can assume a greater role in fighting the insurgents so that U.S. and other inter- national troops can begin to go home. Interior Ministry commandos, who are separate from the Iraqi army, spearhead the Iraqi government's campaign against the insurgency. Those commandos arrest- ed more than 300 suspects last week in Diyala province after attacks on police checkpoints and a truck bomb that killed about 20 people in a Shiite village. Many Sunnis fear that methods used by the Interior Ministry forces - known by fearsome names such as the Scorpions and the Wolf Brigade - are setting the stage for sectarian war. "In order to search for one terrorist, they detain hundreds of innocent people and torture them brutally," Sunni politi- cian Abdul-Hamid said. Kamal, the deputy interior minister, said all detainees found at the center had been arrested under legal warrants issued by judges. "They were mistreated and you know what happens in prison,"Kamal told The Associated Press. "We will try to make sure that such acts are not repeated in the future." JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief pesick@michigandaily.com 647-3336 Sun.-Thurs. 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. JONATHAN DOBBERSTEIN Business Manager business@michigandaily.com 764-0558 Mon-Fri. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. CONTACT INFORMATION News Tips Corrections Letters to the Editor Photography Department Arts Section Editorial Page Sports Section Display Sales Classified Sales Online Sales Finance Newsroom: 763-2459 Office hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. news@michigandaily.com. corrections michigandaily.com tothedaily@michigandaily.com photo@michigandaily.com 764-0563 artspage@michigandaily.com 763-0379 opinion@michigandaily.com 763-0379 sports@michigandaily.com 764-8585 display@michigandaily.com 764-0554 classified@michigandaily.com 764-0557 onlineads@michigandaily.com 615-0135 finance@michigandaily.com 763-3246 0 0. 0 rowding.Wt w mg. nma h anting. Man0WmInry g Thusdy* vmber I7. 7p $1.00 BEFORE 6:00PM - $1.50 AFTER 6:0OPM TUESDAY 50C ALL SHOWS ALL DAY SERENITY 12:15 2:45 7:45 PGJ3 TWO FOR THE MONEY 5:15 10:15 R THE GREATESTGAME EVER PLAYED 4:55 9:20 PG MARCH OF THE PENGUINS 12:30 3:007:25 G 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN 12:00 2:25 4:50 7:15 9:40 R CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY 12:00 2:30 7:30 PG MR. & MRS. SMITH 5:00 9:45 PGl3 EDITORIAL STAFF Aison Go Managing Editor go@michigandaily.com Farayha Arrine Managing News Editor arrine@michigandaily.com NEWS EDITORS Donn M. Fresard, Anne Joling, Michael Kan, Jameel Naqvi Suhael Momin Editorial Page Editor momin@michigandaily.com Sam Singer Editorial Page Editor singer@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Emily Beam, Christopher Zbrozek Ian Herbert Managing Sports Editor herbert@michigandaily.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Megan Kolodgy, Sharad Mattu, Matt Singer, Matt Venegoni, Stephanie Wright SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Scott Bell, H. Jose Bosch. Gabe EdelsonJack Herman, Katie Niemeyer, Kevin Wright Adam Rottenberg Managing Arts Editor . rottenberg@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITORS: Alexandra M. Jones, Melissa Runstrom ARTS SUB EDIORS:Jeffrey Bbmer, Vcoia Edwards. PmnitMataso, Evan Mcan , BernieNgen Ryan Weiner Managing Photo Editor weiner@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITORS: Forest Casey, Jason Cooper ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS: Trevor Campbell, Ali Olsen, David Tuman Ashley Dinges Assistant Managing Editor, Design dinges@michigandaily.com Eston Bond Managing Online Editor eston@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE ONLINE EDITOR: Angela Cesere, Phil Dokas Doug Wernert Magazine Editor - wernert@michigandaily.com BUSINESS STAFF 1whiafn'mL~rs. l; ,l , C IA. t U I EM55 NEvs ~wnvr.