A -The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 27, 2006 413 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI48104-1327 www.michigandaily.com DONN M. 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The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. The Sago Mine near Tallmansville, W.Va., in v March, just after miners returned to resume coal production more than two months after an explo- sion killed 12 of their co-workers. Ex-Sago miners COmmit suicide Acquaintances say disaster haunted two men who oversaw mine safety MORGANTOWN, WVa. (AP) - Two miners whose jobs included watching over safety at the Sago Mine before the deadly explosion last January committed suicide in the past month. Neither man had been blamed for the disaster thatkilled 12 of their comrades, and neither one's family has defini- tively linked the suicides to the accident. But those who knew the men say there is little doubt the tragedy haunted them. "'m not sure anybody ever gets over it," said Vickie Boni, the ex-wife of one of them. "You live with it every day.' Both men were working at the Sago Mine on the day of the blast and had been questioned by investigators along with dozens of other witnesses. One former co-worker said at least one of the men felt investigators were treating him as if he had done something wrong. John Nelson Boni, whose job that day was to maintain water pumps, shot himself Saturday at his home in Volga, State Police said. William Lee "Flea" Chisolm, the 47-year-old dispatch- er responsible for monitoring carbon monoxide alarms and communicating with crews underground that morn- ing, shot himself at his Belington home Aug. 29, authori- ties said yesterday. State and federal mine-safety agencies have not deter- mined the cause of the Jan. 2 blast. But a spokeswomen for both agencies said that both men had been thoroughly inter- viewed and there had been no plans to talk with them again. Mine owner International Coal Group has said it believes a lightning bolt somehow ignited methane gas that had accumulated naturally in a sealed-off section of the mine. Boni, who was certified as a fireboss and occasion- ally conducted pre-shift inspections to ensure the safety of incoming crews, told investigators he had detected low levels of methane in that area five days earlier and reported his findings to a supervisor, who was not alarmed. As for Chisholm, he told investigators that a carbon monoxide alarm had sounded about 20 minutes before the explosion. Following ICG procedure, he alerted a crew inside the mine and asked it to verify the alarm because the system that had a history of malfunctions. NEWS IN BRIEFK WASHINGTON Bush orders part of intel report opened President Bush said yesterday that critics who believe the Iraq war has worsened terrorism are naive, and he ordered the partial declassification of a high-level intel- ligence analysis that has stirred heated election-season argument on the subject. Ata White House news conference, Bush acknowledged that the fighting in Iraq has been used as a recruitment tool for extremists - one finding of the intelligence assessment that suggests the Iraq war has nourished terrorists' ranks. But he rejected any suggestion that the war was a mistake. "I think it's naive. I think it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the offense against people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe," Bush said, stand- ing alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Many Democrats have argued that the U.S. needs to chart a new course to stabi- lize Iraqi society and eventually shift American military forces away. After three days of criticism concerning leaked portions of the intelligence anal- ysis, Bush asked National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to declassify key judgments of the 30-page assessment from the nation's top analysts who are spread across 16 different spy agencies. HOUSTON Former Enron exec gets six years in prison Andrew Fastow, the mastermind behind financial schemes that doomed Enron Corp., was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison for his role in the energy company's stunning collapse by a judge who felt he deserved leniency. Fastow, the former chief financial officer who cooperated with prosecu- tors in other cases related to Enron's 2001 implosion, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004. But the judge said he deserved a lighter sentence because Fastow has been persecuted after Enron's failure and because his family has suffered enough. Fastow's wife already has served a year for her role in the scandal. "Prosecution is necessary, but persecution was not," said U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt. "These factors call for mercy" MANCHESTER, England Blair defines his legacy in last Labour address Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his final address to his governing Labour Party, said yesterday that being the United States's strongest ally can be difficult but it is crucial to stay close to Washington in the fight against terrorism. The man who walked on stage in Manchester looked far different then the fresh-faced 41-year-old who took over the party in 1994. His hair is shot with gray, and the lines on his face are more pronounced - reflecting a turbulent 12 years that have seen British troops sent into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and suicide terror attacks on British soil. CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela to issue diplomatic protest to U.S. President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that Venezuela will summon the U.S. ambassador to issue a diplomatic protest because the foreign minister was temporarily detained by authorities at a New York airport. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro says authorities at John F. Kennedy Inter- national Airport attempted to frisk and handcuff him Saturday as he tried to catch a flight after attending a U.N. General Assembly session. "We're going to put out a protest note, and the U.S. ambassador in Venezu- ela will be called," Chavez told reporters. "And in that protest note, it says 'If that happens again, we would be obligated to give at least equal treatment to whomever.' - Compiledfrom Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS Due to an editing error, a story on yesterday's front page (DeVos joins debate on evolution) said Gov. Jennifer Granholm opposes the teaching of evolution in science classes. Granholm is against the teaching of intelligent design, not evolution.- Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. I 6 4 I I False rumors in bin Laden hunt After five years, terrorist still hiding behind false leads (AP) - He was blown up in the caves of Tora Bora. He was on dialysis and dying of kidney disease. He was in the hands of Pakistani intelligence and about to be turned over to the United States. Rumors of Osama bin Laden's death or capture go back years, and they have always proved greatly exaggerated. The latest came Saturday, when a leaked French intelligence document citing a "usually reliable" source said the Saudi secret service was convinced the 52-year-old al- Qaida terror chief had died of typhoid last month in Pakistan. Officials from Riyadh to Paris to Washington rushed to insist they had nothing to substantiate the report, but not before news of it reached every corner of the globe and renewed the debate about why the world's largest dragnet has failed to get its man. "There has been a grave failure five years after 9/11 that the true leaders of the attacks are still free, and that they are still alive," said Rohan Gunaratna, head of terror- ism research at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. Gunaratna cited comments by bin Laden's no. 2, Ayman al- Zawahri, released on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, as evidence the French report was erroneous. "Ayman al-Zawahri issued a statement on Sept. 11 in which he specifically refers to Osama bin Laden being alive," Gunaratna says. "There is no reason for al-Zawahri to lie, since he wants to keep his credibility within the movement." A Pakistani counterterrorism official with intimate knowledge of the hunt also dismissed the French report, saying nothing was known about bin Laden's health or location. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter. The denial was echoed by a purported spokesman for the Tal- iban, the former Afghan regime that sheltered bin Laden after the 9/I1 attacks. He also asked not to be named. The French report is not the first to allude to bin Laden suffering from a life-threatening illness. For years, intelligence services took seriously assessments that bin Laden might be suffering from kidney disease, and there were even reports he was forced to lug a dialysis machine from one mountain hideout to another. But in 2003, Amer Aziz, bin Laden's former doctor in Afghan- istan, shot down the reports. He told The Associated Press he gave bin Laden a complete physi- cal in 1999, and saw him again in November 2001 while he was on the run from U.S. forces, and found no sign of illness on either occasion. "If you are The lack o on dialysis, you have a the terror4 special look. I didn't see any 2004 has f of that," Aziz told a reporter muddied t] at his office in Lahore, Paki- stan following his release from U.S. custody. The latest video featuring fresh footage of bin Laden came out in 2004, just before the U.S. presi- dential elections. In it he appeared healthy and relaxed, particularly for a man who was believed to be hiding in the rugged mountains between Pakistan and Afghani- stan, or possibly in Afghanistan itself, in the remote, forested eastern province of Nuristan. The U.S. has conducted hun- dreds of search-and-seizure oper- ations in the region but has been stonewalled by an increasingly unfriendly local population. A number of audiotapes of the terror leader have come out since the 2004 video, the latest in June, and a video that featured what appears to be older footage of bin Laden was released in September. The lack of film of the terror chief since 2004 has further mud- died the waters. His decision to appear only on tape could be his way of heightening his mystique, or denying his pursuers visu- als that might reveal his where- abouts. Or it could be an effort to hide his state of health. Paul Wilkinson of the Centre )j t :l : for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the Univer- sity of St. Andrews in Scotland said the latest report of bin Lad- en's death could prompt his inner circle to advise him to deliver proof he is alive and healthy. He speculated that the French report may have been leaked to shake the branches and illicit just such a response from the terror leader, giving the intelligence community a chance to home in on "chatter" among terrorists. "It does create psychologi- cal pressure on the people and operatives" close to bin Laden, Wilkinson said. "There will be an expectation that he make some sort of appearance." The years f film of of false hope and genuine chief since close calls have contrib- urther uted to the aura that bin he waters. Ladenenjoys among his follow- ers. They have also added to the frustration of those charged with bringing him to justice. In 1998, following the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa, the U.S. launched 62 Tomahawk cruise missiles at two al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan. It was believed bin Laden was at one of them meeting with several of his top men, but left shortly before the missiles struck. Following the Sept. 11 attacks and the fall of the Taliban, Afghan militiamen fighting on behalf of the United States felt certain they had surrounded bin Laden at Tora Bora. Villagers reported seeing him hike into the mountains, and accounts of devastating airstrikes on the caves prompted rumors that bin Laden was dead. He wasn't. In the end, one of the Afghan warlords the United States was relying on for ground operations betrayed the others, Afghan fight- ers told the Associated Press, and bin Laden escaped into Pakistan. In 2003, Pakistani forces raided the village of Lattaka, near the border with Afghanistan, on intelligence that bin Laden might be hiding there. At e 0 0 a 0 0 a t i