2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 9, 2006 NATION/WORLD Students arrested for church fires GUANTANAMO BAY Volunteer lawyers represent prisoners Fires struck nine Alabama churches last month; suspects say it started as a joke BIRMINGHAM Ala. (AP) - Three college students, including two aspiring actors known around campus as pranksters, were arrested yesterday in a string of nine church fires that spread fear across Ala- bama last month. Federal agents said the defendants claimed that the first few blazes were set as "a joke"sland that the oth- ers were started to throw investiga- tors off the track. Gov. Bob Riley said the fires did not appear to be "any type of con- spiracy against organized religion" or the Baptist faith. With the arrests, he said, "the faith-based community can rest a little easier." Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee Debusk Jr., both 19-year- old students at Birmingham-Southern College, appeared in federal court and were ordered held on church arson charges pending a hearing Fri- day. Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20-year-old junior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was also arrested. The fires broke out at five Bap- tist churches in Bibb County south of Birmingham on Feb. 3 and four Baptist churches in west Alabama on Feb. 7. The federal AlcoholTobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency had made the investigation its top pri- ority, with scores of federal agents joining state and local officers. "While all three are entitled to have 'their day in court, we are very hopeful that this is the end to the fear that has been rampant in West Alabama," said Rep. Artur Davis, (D-Ala.) Five churches were destroyed and four damaged. In many cases, the fire was set in the sanctuary near the altar. No one was injured. Acquaintances said DeBusk and Moseley were both amateur actors who were known as pranksters and dreamed of becoming stars. They performed in campus plays and appeared in a documentary film. Moseley confessed to the arsons after his arrest, investigators said in court papers. The papers said Moseley told agents that he, Cloyd and Debusk went to Bibb County in Cloyd's sport utility vehicle on Feb. 2 and set fire to five churches. A witness quoted Cloyd as saying Moseley did it "as a joke and it got out of hand." Moseley also told agents the four fires in west Alabama were set "as a diversion to throw investigators off," an attempt that "obviously did not work," the court papers said. Investigators had said earlier that they were looking for two men seen in a dark SUV near a couple of the church fires. Agents said previously that there appeared to be no racial pattern in the fires; some were white congre- gations, some were black ones. The three students are white and all either AP PHOTO In this artist's rendering, Benjamin Nathan Moseley, left, and Russell Lee DuBusk Jr., right, appear before a judge at the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Ala. attend or previously were enrolled at Birmingham-Southern, a Method- ist-affiliated liberal arts college. Jim Parkerpastor of Ashby Baptist Church at Brierfield, a Bibb County church destroyed in the spree, said the congregation had been worried that the arsonists had some "political or religious agenda." He said he had spoken to federal agents and under- stood the defendants were promising students from good families. "We really are concerned about them as people," he said. "I would just like to know what they were thinking." Hundreds of volunteer lawyers representing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are scouring more than 5,000 pages of newly released documents for clues they hope may one day help win the detainees' freedom. Many of the attorneys said the documents could help locate or identify witnesses or finally prove to family members that a loved one is being held at the U.S. mili- tary prison in Cuba. Still, it is far from clear what legal rights the 500 or so prisoners have to contest their detention in U.S. courts, and how much use they can make of the new documents. "The most frustrating part of it, these guys are wasting away in Guantanamo while the courts go about this process of sorting out their rights," said attorney Eldon Greenberg, who is representing two young Syrians detained as enemy com- batants for more than four years. WASHINGTON GOP votes to block sale of U.S. ports In an election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly yesterday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations. Democrats clamored for a vote in the Senate, too. By 62-2, the House Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. Bush has promised to veto any such measure passed by Congress, but there is widespread public opposition to the deal and the GOP fears losing its advantage on the issue of national security in this fall's elections. "This is a national security issue," Rep. Jerry Lewis, the chairman of the House panel, said, adding that the legislation would "keep America's ports in American hands." VIENNA, Austria Iran threatens U.S. over U.N. involvement Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" yesterday if the U.S. tries to use the U.N. Security Council as a new and potent lever to punish Teh- ran for its suspect nuclear program. Washington warned that Tehran has enough nuclear material for up to 10 atomic bombs. The rhetoric reflected the intensity of the debate at a meeting of the Interna- tional Atomic Energy's 35-nation board over a critical report on Iran's nuclear program. The meeting ended late yesterday, formally opening the path to Secu- rity Council action that could range from a mild statement urging compliance to sanctions or even military measures. NEW ORLEANS Bush receives mixed greeting in Big Easy Six months after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush got a close-up look yesterday at the mountains of debris, the abandoned homes and the board- ed-up businesses that are shocking reminders of the "pain and agony" New Orleans endures still. In the devastated Lower Ninth Ward, few residents were around to tell Bush how they felt. But two young women held up a sign for his motorcade that said, "Where's my government?" Farther up the road, a man waved a flattened card- board box on which he had written, "Pres. cut the red tape and help us:" - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS A story on yesterday's front page (Award mixes poetry, engineering ) incorrectly stated that former Roger M. Jones Fellowship Abroad winner Paul Albertus attends Stanford University. He is working toward his doctorate at the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com *1 Upcoming shows at MIDNIGHT MOVIES EVERY OTHER SATURDAY NIGHT DAVID LYNCH'S MULHOLLAND DR. R, MARCH 11 @ MIDNIGHT FOR MORE INFO VISIT WWW.MICHTHEATER.ORG/STATE.PHP " " U Think you know it all? The Campus Information Centers are hiring! Applications are available online or at one of our two locations-in the Michigan Union or Pierpont Commons. Applications are due by Friday, March 17! DONN M. 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