2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 NATION/WORLD Holocaust denier sentenced to prison British historian retracts earlier denial, gets lighter prison sentence VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Right- wing British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday after admitting to an Austrian court that he denied the Holocaust - a crime in the country where Hitler was born. Irving, who pleaded guilty and then insisted during his one-day trial that he now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6 million Jews, had faced up to 10 years behind bars. Before the verdict, Irving conceded he had erred in contending there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentra- tion camp. "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," Irving testified, at one point expressing sorrow "for all the innocent people who died during the Second World War." Irving, stressing he only relied on pri- mary sources, said he came across new information in the early 1990's from top Nazi officials - including personal documents belonging to Adolf Eich- mann - that led him to rethink certain previous assertions. But despite his apparent epiphany, Irving, 67, maintained he had never questioned the Holocaust. "I've never been a Holocaust denier and I get very angry when I'm called a Holocaust denier," he said. Irving's lawyer said he would appeal the sentence. "I consider the verdict a little too stringent. I would say it's a bit of a mes- sage trial," attorney Elmar Kresbach said. State prosecutor Michael Klackl declined to comment on the verdict. In his closing arguments, however, he criti- cized Irving for "putting on a show" and for not admitting that the Nazis killed Jews in an organized and systematic manner. Irving appeared shocked as the sen- tence was read out. Moments later, an elderly man identifying himself as a family friend called out "Stay strong, David! Stay strong!" before he was escorted from the courtroom. Irving has been in custody since his November arrest on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews. Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived at the court carrying one of his most controversial NEWS IN BRIEF v, TURIN, Italy Coach checked into psych hospital An Austrian ski coach who bolted the Winter Games following a surprise anti- doping raid wound up in a psychiatric hospital - the latest stop on his bizarre flight from Turin, where authorities were still analyzing 100 syringes and other material seized from athletes' housing. Authorities took Walter Mayer into custody Sunday after he crashed his car into a police blockade 15 miles inside Austria's border with Italy. Police later took him to a psychiatric facility, Austria's ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel said. "Apparently he's still in there," Schroecksnadel said last night. "I believe that there was a danger of suicide - they had to take him to the hospital." Mayer was banished from the Olympics over allegations of blood doping at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. He resurfaced with the team in Turin, trigger- ing police raids late Saturday - the first-ever doping sweep by police on athletes competing at the games. Against the backdrop of the most stringent drug controls in Winter Games history, local authorities seized the syringes and 30 packages of antidepressants and asthma medi- cation, Italian prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello told Austrian television. One Austrian ath- lete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and medicines as police swarmed the house, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. CAIRO, Egypt Bin Laden vows to never be captured Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the Unit- ed States had resorted to the same "barbaric" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaida leader that was posted yes- terday on a militant Web site. The tape appeared to be a complete version of one that was first broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel, in which bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil. "I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape. BAGHDAD U.S. warns Iraq to settle on government The U.S. ambassador delivered a blunt warning to Iraqi leaders yesterday that they risk losing American support unless they establish a national unity govern- ment with the police and the army out of the hands of religious parties. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad delivered the warning as another 24 people, including an American soldier, died in a string of bombings, underscoring the need for the country to establish a government capable of winning the trust of all com- munities and ending the violence. DALLAS Radio Shack CEO resigns after inquiry RadioShack Corp.'s embattled president and CEO, David Edmondson, resigned yesterday following questions about his resume's accuracy. The Fort Worth electronics retailer said that its board accepted his resignation and has promoted Claire Babrowski - executive vice president and chief operat- ing officer - to acting CEO. Leonard Roberts, RadioShack's chairman and Edmondson's predecessor as CEO, said the move was necessary to restore the company's credibility. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS A story on yesterday's front page (Student dies in boarding accident) misidentified the name of a church in Livonia as St. Andrew's. It should have identified the church as St. Aidan's. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections @michigandaily.coin. AP PHOTO Right-wing British historian David Irving holds his book "Hitler's War" when arriving at a court in Vienna, yesterday. Irving is accused of denying the Holocaust and is facing up to 10 years in jail. books - "Hitler's War," which chal- lenges the extent of the Holocaust. Throughout the day, Irving sat qui- etly and attentively in the stifling court- room. Irving's trial was held amid new - and fierce - debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the print- ing and reprinting of unflattering car- toons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide. "Of course it's a question of free- dom of speech," Irving said. "The law is an ass." The court convicted Irving after his guilty plea under the 1992 law, which applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media." Austria was Hitler's birthplace and once was run by the Nazis. "He is everything but a historian ... He is a dangerous falsifier of history," Klackl said, calling Irving's statements an "abuse of freedom of speech." Klackl said the Austrian law does not "hinder historical works." "You have to look at each case indi- vidually," he said. "The point is, what is someone trying to do? It's the intent." Kresbach, however, said people "should have a right to be wrong" The verdict was welcomed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which also highlighted the issue of free- dom of speech. "While Irving's rants would not have led to legal action in the United States, it is important that we recognize and respect Austria's commitment to fight- ing Holocaust denial, the most odious form of hatred, as part of its historic responsibility to its Nazi past," the center's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, said in a statement. Kresbach said last month the con- troversial Third Reich historian was getting up to 300 pieces of fan mail a week from supporters around the world and was writing his memoirs in detention under the working title "Irving's War." Irving was arrested Nov. 11 in the southern Austrian province of Sty- ria on a warrant issued in 1989. He | ATTENTION FRESHMEN, SOPHOMORES, AND JUNIORS Look&W.. fcwla~v tried to win his provisional release on $24,000 bail, but a Vienna court rejected the motion, saying it con- sidered him a flight risk. Within two weeks of his arrest, he asserted through his lawyer that he had come to acknowledge the exis- tence of Nazi-era gas chambers. However, he has claimed previ- ously that Adolf Hitler knew little if anything about the Holocaust, and he has been quoted as saying there was "not one shred of evidence" the Nazis carried out their "Final Solu- tion" to exterminate the Jewish pop- ulation on such a massive scale. Irving, the author of nearly 30 books, has contended most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rathe than execution. In 2000, Irving sued American Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel in a British court, but lost. The presiding judge in that case, Charles Gray, wrote that Irving was "an active Holocaust denier ... anti- Semitic and racist." Mudslide may have left some survivors Underground sounds sustaining hope for survivors at buried school GUINSAUGON, Philippines (AP) - Rescue workers refused to give up hope of finding survivors in an ele- mentary school buried by up to 100 feet of mud, digging into the night day after detecting what the provin- cial governor called "signs of life." Sounds of scratching and a rhythmic tapping were picked up by seismic sen- sors and sound-detection gear brought in by U.S. and Malaysian forces. "To me, that's more than enough reason to smile and be happy," South Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias said. "The adrenaline is high ... now that we have seen increasing signs of.life." Still, it was hard to imagine survivors under the wet muck nearly four days after a mountainside collapsed and cov- ered the farming village of Guinsaugon, killing up to 1,000 people. No one has been pulled out alive since just a few hours after the disaster Friday morning. The search has focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports that some of the 250-300 children and teachers may have sent cell phone text messages to relatives soon after the disaster Friday. Under the glare of generator-powered lights, a multinational group of troops and technicians used high-tech gear like seismic sensors and sound- and heat- detection equipment alongside shovels and rescue dogs. They finally halted about 3 a.m. today until daybreak. A U.S. military spokesman said late yesterday that U.S. Marines digging at the site had found bodies, but no survivors. "I asked had they received or found any type of survivors, and the answer was (be firbidguu ulg 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www. mi chi gandaily. corn DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief fresard@michigandaily.com 647-3336 S~un.-Thurs. 5 p.m. - 2 am. 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