2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 10, 2006
NATION/WORLD
Dubai company
relinquishes stake
m U.S. ports
NEWS IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON
Bush saves Patriot Act from expiration
A day before parts of the USA Patriot Act were to expire, President Bush signed
into law a renewal that will allow the government to keep using terror-fighting tools
passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Bush's signature came two days after the House gave final approval to the leg-
islation over objections that it infringes on Americans' privacy. The president said
the law has been vital to protecting Americans from terrorists.
"The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was.designed to do," Bush
said during a signing ceremony in the White House East Room. "It has helped us
detect terrorist cells, disrupt terrorist plots and save American lives."
Sixteen provisions of the old law were set to expire today. Political battles over
the legislation forced Congress to extend the expiration date twice.
To get the legislation renewed, Bush was forced to accept new curbs on the Patri-
ot Act's powers.
WASHINGTON
0
e Announcement may
mark end to politically
volatile controversy
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bowing
to ferocious opposition in Congress, a
Dubai-owned company signaled sur-
render yesterday in its quest to take over
operations at U.S. ports.
"DP World will transfer fully the U.S.
operations ... to a United States entity,"
the firm's top executive, H. Edward
Bilkey, said in an announcement that
capped weeks of controversy.
Relieved Republicans in Congress
said the firm had pledged full divesti-
ture, a decision that one senator said
had been approved personally by the
prime minister of the United Arab
Emirates.
"The devil is in the details," said Sen-
ate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada, reflecting a sentiment expressed
by numerous critics of the deal.
The announcement appeared to
indicate an end to a politically tinged
controversy that brought President
Bush and Republicans in Congress to
the brink of an election-year veto bat-
tle on a terrorism-related issue. The
White House expressed satisfaction
with the outcome.
"It does provide a way forward and
resolves the matter,"presidential spokes-
man Scott McClellan said.
"We have a strong relationship with
the UAE and a good partnership in the
global war on terrorism and I think their
decision reflects the importance of our
broader relationship," he said.
A leading congressional critic of the
ports deal, Rep. Peter King, applaud-
ed the decision but said he and others
would wait to see the details. "It would
have to be an American company with
no links to DP World, and that would
be a tremendous victory and very grati-
fying," said the New York Republican,
chairman of the House Homeland Secu-
rity Committee.
"This should make the issue go away,"
said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
The Tennessee Republican was one of
several GOP leaders to tell President
Bush earlier in the day that Congress
was ready to ignore his veto threat and
scuttle the deal.
Several Republican officials, speak-
ing on condition of anonymity, said
Frist and Sen. John Warner, (R-Va.),
chairman of the Armed Services Com-
mittee, had been privately urging the
firm to give up its plans.
After weeks of controversy - and
White House veto threats that spokes-
man Scott McClellan renewed at mid-
morning yesterday - the end came
unexpectedly.
The House Appropriations Commit-
tee voted 62-2 on Wednesday to block
the deal, and GOP congressional lead-
ers privately informed the president yes-
terday morning that the Senate would
inevitably follow suit. Senate Democrats
clamored for a vote, increasing pressure
on Senate Republicans to abandon the
president.
AP PHOTO
Longshoremen unload wood pulp from a cargo ship at the Tioga Marine
Terminal In Philadelphia.
It was unclear how DP would manage
the planned divestiture, and Bilkey's
statement said its announcement was
"based on an understanding that DP
World will not suffer economic loss."
The firm finalized its $6.8 billion
purchase yesterday of Peninsula &
Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the
British firm that through a U.S. subsid-
iary runs important port operations in
New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New
Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. It also
plays a lesser role in dockside activities
at 16 other American ports.
Despite the furor, the company's U.S.
operations were never the most prized
part of the global transaction. DP World
valued its rival's American operations at
less than 10 percent of the nearly $7 bil-
lion total purchase.
But that portion of the deal set off
a political chain of events unlike any
other in Bush's five years in office.
Republicans denounced the deal,
saying they were worried about
the effects it would have on efforts
to make ports safer from terrorist
threats. Democrats did likewise, and
capitalized on the issue as well as a
way to narrow the polling gap with
the GOP on issues of national secu-
rity.
Rumsfeld: Iraqis would handle civil war
Dealing with a civil war in Iraq would be the responsibility of Iraq's own secu-
rity forces, at least initially, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress
yesterday.
Testifying alongside senior military leaders and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, Rumsfeld said he did not believe Iraq would descend into all-out civil war,
though he acknowledged that sectarian strife had worsened.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the situ-
ation in Iraq had evolved to the point where Sunni-Shiite violence was more of a
threat to U.S. success there than the insurgency, which continues taking a deadly
toll on Iraqi and American troops, and to impede efforts to stabilize the country.
Rumsfeld previously had been reluctant to say what the U.S. military would do
in the event of civil war, but in an appearance before the Senate Appropriations
Committee he was pressed on the matter by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa).
LOS ANGtLES
Water spotted on one of Saturn's moons
The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water gey-
sers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the
celestial object harbors life.
The surprising images from the moon Enceladus represent some of the most
dramatic evidence yet that water in liquid form may be present beyond the Earth.
Excited by the discovery, some scientists said Enceladus should be added
to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extrater-
restrial life.
Scientists generally agree several ingredients are needed for life to emerge, includ-
ing water in liquid form and a stable heat source. But so far, the evidence of any large
amounts of water in liquid form on celestial objects beyond Earth is circumstantial
and indirect, based on scientists' analysis of rocks and other data.
SABLE-SUR-SARTHE, France
Teacher who held students hostage surrenders
A former teacher armed with a handgun that fires rubber bullets took nearly two
dozen people hostage, holding them in a classroom at his former school and freeing
them unharmed hours later, officials said.
The 33-year-old man, identified as Nicolas Vilpail, was on medication and appar-
ently under the influence of alcohol. He surrendered calmly yesterday evening after
holding 23 people - 21 of them teenage students - captive for more than four
hours, police and local officials said. There were no injuries.
Vilpail had taught at the Colbert de Torcy High School, outside Le Mans, until
two years ago, school officials said. He was armed with a gun that fires rubber
bullets, police said, adding that the weapon was nevertheless dangerous. He sur-
rendered after hours of negotiations, said Jean-Luc Prigent, a top aide in the local
administration.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
CORRECTIONS
Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
U.S. to hand over notorious prison to Iraqis
New lockup near
Baghdad airport to house
former prisoners within
three months
BAGHDAD (AP) - The American
military said yesterday its new lockup
near Baghdad airport to house security
prisoners now held at the notorious Abu
Ghraib prison should be ready within
three months.
Once the U.S. moves prisoners to the
new prison at Camp Cropper, a process
that will take months, Abu Ghraib will
be returned to Iraqi prison authorities,
said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. mili-
tary spokesman in Baghdad.
Lt. Col. Kier-Kevin Curry, a spokes-
nan for U.S. military detainee opera-
tions, said completion of the new prison
at Camp Cropper would set the transfer
in motion.
"We will transfer operations from
Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper
once construction is completed there.
No precise dates have been set, but the
plan is to accomplish this (completion
of construction) within the next two to
three months," Curry said.
"Once we transfer operations
from Abu Ghraib, the facility will
be turned over to the Iraqi govern-
ment," Curry said.
Abu Ghraib came to symbolize
American mishandling of some pris-
oners captured in Iraq, both during the
U.S.-led invasion three years ago and
in the fight to subdue the largely Sunni
Muslim insurgency since then.
Widely publicized photographs of
prisoner abuse by American military
guards and interrogators at Abu Ghraib
the led to intense global criticism of the
U.S. war in Iraq and fueled the insur-
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gency.
Planning for the new facility at Camp
Cropper began in 2004, Johnson said.
"Abu Ghraib prison is in a region that
has been susceptible to attacks and it is
difficult to support logistically, so there
has always been the intention to move
detainees to a more secure location,"
Johnson said. "There are other asso-
ciations with Abu Ghraib that are more
emotional, but the primary reason for us
has always been security."
Saddam Hussein and his co-defen-
dants have been held at Camp Cropper
since their capture.
Detainees
questioned
for wearing
Casios
U .S. military says digital
watches worn by prisoners
are possible evidence of
terrorist ties
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)
- Are they bomb timers, or just time
pieces? Common Casio watches, some
worth less than $30, have become part
of the often ambiguous web of evidence
against detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. military cites the digital
watches worntbyprisoners when they
were captured as possible evidence
of terrorist ties. Casios have been
used repeatedly in bombs, after all,
including one used by the architect of
the 1993 World Trade Center attack;
the explosive device was set off on a
Philippine Airlines flight, killing a
passenger.
Wearing a Casio is cited among the
unclassified evidence against at least
eight of the detainees whose transcripts
were released by the Pentagon after a
Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by
The Associated Press.
The prisoners, who stand accused
of links to al-Qaida or to the Taliban
in Afghanistan, say they have been
shocked that wearing a cheap watch sold
worldwide could be used against them.
"Millions and millions of people have
these types of Casio watches," Mazin
Salih Musaid, a Saudi detainee, told his
military tribunal.
Even guards at Guantanamo wear
Casios, noted Usama Hassan Ahmend
Abu Kabir, a Jordanian accused of
belonging to a group linked to al-Qaida,
the terror organization that carried
out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United
States.
"I have a Casio watch due to the fact
that they are inexpensive and they last
a long time," the 34-year-old detain-
ee told a tribunal. "I like my watch
because it is durable. It had a calculator
and wasiwatrroof and beforey orvers
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