Monday, October 2, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 7A
FBI looks into
Mark Foley
e-mail scandal
IN DRAG
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
FBI is examining former Rep.
Mark Foley's e-mail exchanges
with teenagers to determine if
they violated federal law, an
agency spokesman said yester-
day.
House Speaker Dennis Hast-
ert asked yesterday for a federal
investigation into the case - a
lurid scandal that has put House
Republicans in political peril.
"I hereby request that the
Department of Justice conduct
an investigation of Mr. Foley's
conduct with current and for-
mer House pages to determine
to what extent any of his actions
violated federal law," Hastert
(R-Il.) wrote in a letter to Attor-
ney General Alberto Gonzales.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko
confirmed Sunday that the FBI
is "conducting an assessment to
see if there's been a violation of
federal law." He had no further
comment.
The White House and Demo-
cratic leaders in Congress also
called Sunday for a criminal
probe. White House counselor
Dan Bartlett called the allega-
tions against Foley shocking,
but said President Bush hadn't
learned of Foley's inappropri-
ate e-mails to a 16-year-old boy
and instant messages to other
boys before the news broke last
week.
"There is going to be, I'm sure,
a criminal investigation into the
particulars of this case," Bartlett
said. "We need to make sure that
the page system is one in which
children come up here and can
work and make sure that they are
protected."
Foley (R-Fla.) quit Congress
on Friday after the disclosure of
the e-mails he sent to a former
congressional page and sexually
suggestive instant messages he
sent to other high school pages.
A law enforcement offi-
cial, who asked for anonym-
ity because the investigation is
ongoing, said agents from the
FBI's cyber division are look-
ing into the text of some of the
messages and checking to see
how many e-mails were sent and
how many computers were used.
They are also looking to see if
some of the teens who were sent
messages will cooperate with the
probe.
Senate Democratic Leader
Harry Reid of Nevada called
the Foley case "repugnant, but
equally as bad is the possibility
that Republican leaders in the
House of Representatives knew
there was a problem and ignored
it to preserve a congressional
seat this election year."
Reid said the case should be
handled outside Congress.
"Under laws that Congressman
Foley helped write, soliciting sex
from a minor online is a federal
crime," Reid said. "The alleged
crimes here are far outside the
scope of any congressional com-
mittee, and the attorney general
should open a full-scale investi-
gation immediately."
Ron Gushwa, a resident of Indiana, waits for a competition to begin at the
Michigan Sand Dragway in Mears, Mich. on Saturday. Gushwa races every
SDetainees at secret
prison held indefinitely
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -
Capt. Amanullah, a former muja-
hedeen commander, smooths his
black beard with his palm and
gives a deep and ironic laugh as he
recounts his 14 miserable months
in Bagram, the U.S. prison for
terror suspects in Afghanistan.
"There were lots of stupid
questions and accusations with
no proof," said the 56-year-old
veteran of combat against the
Soviet occupation. He insists he
was there only because Afghan
rivals lied about him to the U.S.
Army.
He's far from alone in his
assertion of innocence - or his
inability to make that heard for
so long. Like many who have
passed through the secretive jail
set up after the fall of the Taliban
regime, Amanullah found himself
entangled in a system where he
had no protection and no rights,
and not even the pressure of pub-
lic scrutiny that helped inmates at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or Abu
Ghraib, Iraq.
"There's been a silence about
Bagram, and much less political
discussion about it," said Richard
Bennett, the chief U.N. human
rights officer in Afghanistan.
Originally intended as a short-
term holding pen for al-Qaida and
Taliban suspects later shipped
to Guantanamo, Bagram has
expanded and acquired its own
notoriety over abuse allegations
though attracting much less inter-
national attention than the U.S.
detention facility in Cuba.
The U.S. plans to turn over the
Afghan nationals in its custody to
the Afghan government by next
summer. They will be sent to a
new high-security wing at the
Afghan government's main Poli-
charki prison in Kabul - scene of
repeated deadly riots and escapes
in recent years. But non-Afghans
currently held at Bagram will stay
in U.S. custody, officials say.
Bagram's estimated 500
inmates are mostly Afghans,
but also are believed to include
Arabs, Pakistanis and some Cen-
tral Asians. They wear the same
orange jump suits and shaven
heads as the "enemy combatants"
at Guantanamo, but lack even
the scant legal rights granted to
the inmates at that facility, such
as the right to appear at military
hearings that assess whether they
pose a security threat. In some
cases, they have been held with-
out charge for three to four years,
rights workers say.
New legislation would extend
anti-torture protections to all
prisoners in U.S. custody. But
only those hand-picked by the
president or the military would
get rights to legal representation
and a hearing. So far, that has
been accorded to only a handful
of men at Guantanamo, and none
held at Bagram or in Iraq, where
more than 13,000 are in U.S. cus-
tody without charge.
At least two of the eight peo-
ple reported to have died in U.S.
custody since the invasion of
Afghanistan in late 2001 were at
Bagram. At least 15 American
servicemen have been charged
with prison abuse following the
December 2002 deaths of those
two Afghan nationals, Dilawar
and Habibullah. The heaviest
punishment handed down has
been five months in jail.
CAMPAIGN
Continued from page 1A
mined to hold onto their six-seat
margin.
Six members of the University's
College Republicans also traveled
to the 13th District Saturday to
campaign for Pappageorge.
"This could be the winning vote
right here in this house," said Jor-
dan Fennema, vice chair of the
University's chapter of the College
Republicans, as he bounded up
to the door of a modest two-story
home in the middle-class suburb of
Royal Oak.
Like Republican campaigns
nationwide, the Pappageorge cam-
paign is armed with data from the
Republican National Committee's
Voter Vault database. The cam-
paign equipped the College Repub-
licans with detailed information
about the voters they were meeting,
such as whether they are anti-abor-
tion or own guns.
The visits from the College
Republicans and College Demo-
crats come amid a torrent of
campaign advertising targeted
at undecided voters in Oakland
County.
When the Democrats knocked
on one Berkley door, the agitated
resident who answered gave a terse
response.
"I'm voting for (Granholm),
that's it," he said, confused about
for whom the volunteers were cam-
paigning.
Pappageorge campaign manager
Justin Winslow acknowledged the
barrage of campaign material that
voters are facing.
"You're sort of walking into
ground zero for a lot of people
there," he said. "Everyone is vying
for those votes"
The Michigan Democratic Party
is running advertisements on cable
TV in support of Andy Levin. The
Michigan GOP recently sent mail-
ings to voters in the district trying
to paint Levin asa liberal interloper
from Washington.
Levin moved to the district in
May, but he grew up in Berkley
and went to graduate school at the
University of Michigan.
Levin's last name will be help-
ful in the November 7 contest. His
father, Sander Levin, has represent-
ed parts of the district since 1982.
The elder Levin also mounted two
unsuccessful campaigns for gover-
nor in 1970 and 1974. Andy Levin's
uncle, Carl Levin (D-Mich), is an
influential U.S. senator.
But Andy Levin isn't relying just
on his name to beat Pappageorge.
"People do love my dad and my
uncle out there and that is great,"
he told the College Democrats on
Saturday. "But they need to learn
to love me."
The 13th District race highlights
many of the issues facing Michi-
gan.
Reeling from the effects of lay-
offs and a stagnant state econo-
my, jobs are a key issue. While
the district is currently held by a
Republican, the traditionally con-
servative county has been trending
Democratic over the past six years.
In 2004, Democratic presidential
nominee John Kerry won 47 per-
cent of the vote in the district.
As in the race for governor, can-
didates in Oakland County are shy-
ing away from potentially divisive
social issues.
"It's funny how on the west side
of the state (campaign) literature
is like 'pro-life, pro-gun' and the
economy is at the bottom," said
Fennema, an LSA senior from
Grand Rapids. "It's more danger-
ous to talk about (social issues)
over here."
But the importance of social
issues wasn't lost on Fennema and
his campaigning companion, Kine-
siology junior Allison Schneider.
They hesitated before knocking
on one door on their list because
of a rainbow flag a symbol of
gay pride - planted in a flower pot
outside.
Sander Levin said that because
the election will be close, the cam-
paign cannot afford to take any
votes for granted.
"If this is a close race, and it's
likely to be, the person-to-person
work you're doing makes a differ-
ence of 3 to 4 percentage points,"
he said.
CRIME
Continued from page 1A
gency room the morning after
the assault and had surgery six
days later.
Zatkoff told police the next
morning that he could not
remember what happened the
previous night.
Last Wednesday, Truth Cau-
cus posted pictures of a disfig-
ured Zatkoff under the headline
"Hate Crime: College Republi-
can Allegedly Beaten By Lib-
eral Thugs."
The post cited a source close
to Zatkoff who said he may have
been attacked by members of the
pro-affirmative action group By
Any Means Necessary or a gay
rights group. The story attracted
national attention and was soon
picked up by other sites like
Wonkette.com, a Washington
gossip blog, and dailykos.com, a
well-known liberal blog.
Last Thursday, Don Carlson,
state chair of the Michigan
College Republicans, issued a
statement urging students to
"Keep (Justin) in your prayers"
during his surgery and to
"Travel in groups when pos-
sible, especially until the elec-
tions are over."
Carlson also included a link
to the post on truthcaucus.com
alleging that it was liberals who
had beaten Zatkoff.
The police report tells a much
different story.
Police said Zatkoff received
his puffy purple left eye during a
fight with a high school friend.
Zatkoff was at a friend's
party on the 1100 block of
White Street on Sept. 23 when
he engaged in what the police
report called "horseplay" with
a friend. Fueled by alcohol, Zat-
koff was belligerent.
"When Zatkoff drinks, he gets
a little out of control," the report
quoted one of Zatkoff's friends.
"At this particular party Zatkoff
was being obnoxious."
Another one of Zatkoff's
friends eventually admitted to
police that it was he - not a
gang of angry liberals - who
punched Zatkoff.
After learning of the friend's
confession, Carlson said his
statement had not been politi-
cally motivated.
"I wanted people to be warned
of it and be careful," he said.
"That's just good advice."
Rob Scott, chair of the Michi-
gan College Republicans, said it
is an unfortunate situation and
he is glad no one was attacked
for their personal beliefs on pol-
itics.
"It sounds like a lot of people
who didn't know the full story
started talking about this and
it got blown out of proportion,"
Scott said. "It's the importance
of real journalism over blog-
ging, I guess."
r
Study: Ads for high-fat
dfoods target toddlers
CHICAGO (AP) - When
Susan Connor's 3-year-old son
started humming the McDon-
ald's jingle, a research project
was born.
Connorknew where he'd heard
the fast food giant's catchy tune
- on the Disney Channel dur-
ing "The Wiggles," a show for
preschoolers.
"He had absorbed that from
watching TV," said Connor,
whose study on food ads aimed
at toddlers appears in the Octo-
ber issue of Pediatrics. "It would
be a marketer's dream to know
they were that successful."
Messages for high-fat, high-
sugar foods permeate pro-
gramming for preschoolers on
Nickelodeon, the study found.
On the Disney Channel's shows
for the youngest children and
even on Public Broadcasting
Service shows such as "Ses-
ame Street," companies woo
tots' loyalty by linking logos,
licensed characters and slogans
with fun and happiness.
Disney and PBS promote
themselves as ad-free, but fast
food companies dominated
sponsor messages during pro-
gramming for toddlers, Connor
found, making up 82 percent
of sponsor messages on PBS
preschool programming and 36
percent of messages on Disney's
toddler block of shows.
The clown character Ronald
McDonald appears with shows
for toddlers on Disney and PBS.
And the cartoon mouse Chuck
E. Cheese pops up alongside
preschool programming on
PBS.
Connor, research manager of
Cleveland's Rainbow Babies &
Children's Hospital, said adults
who haven't seen children's pro-
grams lately will be surprised
by the findings.
FARM
Continued from page 1A
tuning to ensure that they grow
as fat as possible, as fast as pos-
sible.
Seeing this kind of misery,
Davies and Jackson became
vegans. Their convictions and
beliefs expanded along with their
collection of animals.
They began raising goats
for their son's 4-H Club. The
goats began breeding. They
grew attached. Because of their
convictions, they couldn't sell
them.
"We had some people say
'I'd like to buy a goat - could
we slaughter it in your yard?"'
Davies said.
Eventually, they began rescu-
ing more animals, like Gulliver,
a coffee-colored horse that was
used for veterinary research at
Ohio State University.
Or Tiberius, one of several
cats that came from a Virginia
prison.
Several years ago, inmates
rioted over the warden's attempt
to trap and kill about 300 over-
bred tabbies.
They even considered tak-
ing two cougars from Detroit,
but decided against it to avoid
angering their community.
Jackson - the self-described
"maintenance man" - still
works his old job, driving trucks
from Rockford, Mich. to Apple-
ton, Wisc.
But the farm is what's impor-
tant to him.
"We've poured our whole lives
into this," he said.
The result of their efforts
could be an Andrew Wyeth
painting, a relic of pre-highway
Middle America.
Vintage farm equipment rusts
on the hills. The air is filled with
the excited chirps of turkeys and
the low keening gurgle of pigs.
It has become one of about 10
major farm animal sanctuaries
in the country, and the largest in
the Midwest.
In rural Michigan - where
hunting and barnyard slaughter
are cultural norms - it can be
hard to maintain such beliefs.
But vegans make up only 0.2
percent of Americans and are
generally used to being a tiny
minority.
In front of a wall full of post-
ers proclaiming "Pigs are Beau-
tiful" and defaced images of
Ted Nugent, visitors gather, eat
dairy-free cheese and potatoes,
sip cider and chat. During the
Fall Festival this past weekend,
they went on mushroom hunts
and listened to live Celtic music
around a bonfire.
They are drawn together by a
common set of beliefs that sepa-
rate them from many of their
communities.
One common factor is their
tendency to humanize the ani-
mals. Many discussions at
SASHA about turkeys or cows
could easily be about a nieces or
nephews.
"They're just like people,"
said Davies, describing the sight
of cuddling pigs. "Their eyes
look just like ours."
Each member has a different
approach to living as a vegan in
the Midwest.
Volunteer Sunday Harvey
drives an hour from Milford to
the farm every Friday. She wears
a pin urging others to vote "no"
on a November ballot proposal
that would allow dove hunting
in Michigan.
Being vegan in a hunting state
like Michigan can be frustrat-
ing, she said, but is ultimately
rewarding.
"It's a struggle, just like any-
thing else," Harvey said.
Jenny Gordon used to carpool
with friends from Royal Oak to
volunteer. She now comes from
Ann Arbor, where she teaches
baton-twirling courses.
"Every time it was like I never
wanted to leave," she said.
Her experiences on the farm
have a particular significance.
"I'm not a religious person,
but I feel spiritually high," she
said as she pantomimed holding
a baby pig in her arms.
SASHA will continue to grow,
rescuing animals and encourag-
ing others to come "meet their
meat."
They're hoping to see more to
young people - like those from
the University - with similar
interests.
"We've got a lot of potential,"
Davies said. "But I'm trying to
be realistic, given our age."
The challenge now is to con-
vey their values to a new genera-
tion.
"You can't preach it to peo-
ple," she said. "They haver to
come to it themselves."
Like everything at SASHA,
the process will have to be
organic.
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