The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 30, 2009 --10A
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Senate report: Bin Laden
was'within our grasp'
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eign Re
ape in 2001 laid cratic majority prepared the report
at the request of the chairman, Sen.
foundation for John Kerry, as President Barack
Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops
vigorated Afghan inAfghanistan.
The Massachusetts senator and
insurgency 2004 Democratic presidential can-
didate has long argued the Bush
HINGTON (AP) - Osama administration missed a chance to
en was unquestionably with- get the al-Qaida leader and top depu-
of U.S. troops in the moun- ties when they were holed up in the
Tora Bora when American forbidding mountainous areaof east-
leaders made the crucial ern Afghanistan only three months
tly decision notcto pursue the after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
t leader with massive force, a attacks.
eportsays. Although limited to a review of
eport asserts that the failure military operations eight years old,
or capture bin Laden at his the report could also be read as a
ulnerable in December 2001 cautionary note for those resisting
lastingconsequences beyond an increased troop presence there
e of one man. Bin Laden's now.
aid the foundation for today's More pointedly, it seeks to affix a
rated Afghan insurgency measure of blame for the state of the
amed the internal strife now war today on military leaders under
ering Pakistan, it says. former president George W. Bush,
members for the Senate For- specifically Donald H. Rumsfeld as
'lations Committee's Demo- defense secretary and his top mili-
tary commander, Tommy Franks.
"Removing the al-Qaida leader
from the battlefield eight years ago
wouldnothave eliminated the world-
wide extremist threat," the report
says. "But the decisions that opened
the door for his escape to Pakistan
allowed bin Laden to emerge as a
potent symbolic figure who contin-
ues to attract a steady flow of money
and inspire fanatics worldwide. The
failure to finish the job represents a
lost opportunity that forever altered
the course of the conflict in Afghani-
stan and the future of international
terrorism."
The report states categorically
that bin Laden was hiding in Tora
Bora when the U.S. had the means
to mount a rapid assault with sev-
eral thousand troops at least. It says
that a review of existing literature,
unclassified government records and
interviews with central participants
"removes any lingering doubts and
makes it clear that Osama bin Laden
was within our grasp at Tora Bora."
using it because it really does offer
a lot of benefits as far as transpar-
ency goes," Brusstar said.
While the student body can use
the website for general campus
information, MSA representatives
and committee and commission
members can use the website for
internal purposes, like accessing
attendance records.
Though Eta Kappa Nu's serv-
ers were always an option, MSA
didn't turn to the organization
earlier because representatives
feared hosting the site with a stu-
dent organization might be unre-
liable in the long term because of
the annual change in leadership,
Mahanti said.
But now that MSA needs a
short-term place to host the site
until the University updates its
software, Brusstar said he is con-
fident the Eta Kappa Nu servers
will be dependable, even though
his term as president will end with
the semester.
0i
KARIN cOOPER,CBSFACE THE NATION/AP
In this photo provided by CBs, Sen, Carl Levin, (D-Mich.), appears on CBS's "Face the Nation" in Washington yesterday.
Levin: Afghanistan troops
key to war'succenot U.S.
MSA WEBSITE
From Page 1A
team ran into problems when it
tried to launch the site on Univer-
sity servers.
According to Mahanti, the back-
end for the site had been written for
version 5.10 of the programming
language Process and Experiment
Automation Realtime Language,
or PEARL. The Information Tech-
nology Central Services servers
MSA had intended to use only had
support for version 5.8. -
Rather than wait for the Uni-
versity to upgrade, MSA decided to
host the site on servers provided by
Eta Kappa Nu, a student-run elec-
trical engineering and computer
science engineering honor society.
Mahanti said hostingthe site on
the Eta Kappa Nu servers is only
a temporary solution and that the
website will be transferred to Uni-
versity servers once the University
updates its software.
"Everything will actually
behave the same except it will be
hosted on student servers instead
of (ITCS), which is kind of cool
actually," Mahanti said.
Eta Kappa Nu allows students
to use its servers free of charge,
according to MSA Student General
Counsel Jim Brusstar, who is also
president of Eta Kappa Nu.
Engineering Rep. Pat Pannuto,
who is also a member of Eta Kappa
Nu, is in charge of putting MSA's
site on Eta Kappa Nu's servers. He
said he expects the website will be
up by the end of this week.
Brusstar said this temporary
solution is a better option than
maintaining MSA's current web-
site, which he said "isn't the great-
est." He said the website will likely
be moved permanently to the ITCS
servers early next semester.
"(Mahanti) is thinking it's more
important to get the new website
up there and get people to start
Michigan senator's
remarks come days
before Obama's
expected policy shift
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
leading Senate Democrat on mili-
tary matters said Sunday that Pres-
ident Barack Obama's anticipated
plan for significantly expanding
U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan
must show how those reinforce-
ments will help increase the size of
the Afghan security forces.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the
Senate Armed Services Commit-
tee, said more Afghan army and
police are central to succeeding in
the 8-year-old war and more U.S.
trainers and equipment can help
meet that goal. But it's unclear,
Levin said, what role tens of thou-
sands additional combat troops
will play, and Obama has to make
a compelling case during a nation-
al address he's scheduled to give
Tuesday night from the U.S. Mili-
tary Academy at West Point, N.Y.
"The key here is an Afghan
surge, notanAmerican surge," said
Levin, D-Mich. "We cannot, by
ourselves, win (the) war."
Levin's remarks are a preview
of the possible roadblocks Obama
faces from his own party as he pre-
pares to sell a broader, more expen-
sive battle plan for Afghanistan to
an American public weary of the
conflict that began just weeks after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
At West Point, Obama is expected
to announce an increase of up to
35,000 more U.S. forces to defeat
the Taliban-led insurgency and sta-
bilize a weak Afghan government.
The escalation, which would take
place over the next year, would put
more than 100,000American troops
in Afghanistan at an annual cost
of about $75 billion. Obama is also
expected to outline his exitstrategy.
Democrats concerned over the
price tag have proposed a war tax
to pay for operations. Rep. David
Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the
House Appropriations Commit-
tee, has introduced legislation to
impose a war surtax beginning in
2011. The bill would exempt service
members and their families.
"If this war is important enough
to engageinthe longterm, it'simpor-
tant enough to pay for," Obey said.
Lawmakers want a greater com-
mitment from NATO allies so the
U.S. isn'tfooting the bill on its own.
"I've got a real problem about
expanding this war where the rest
of the world is sitting around and
saying, 'Isn't ita nice thing thatthe
taxpayers of the United States and
theU.Smilitaryaredoingthework
that the rest of the world should be
doing?'" said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a
Vermont independent.
British Prime Minister Gor-
don Brown has said several allied
nations will offer a total of 5,000
more troops. But speaking Sat-
urday at a news conference in the
Caribbean nation of Trinidad,
Brown also said Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's government must
meet specific benchmarks that
allow foreign troops to gradually
hand over control of the fighting to
local forces.
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MSA ELECTION
From Page 1A
distribute flyers in the Diag.
The Election Board also pur-
chased Facebook ads reminding
students to vote.
The election was originally
scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19, but
was rescheduled to today and
tomorrow because of a timing vio-
lation with MSA Compiled Code.
MSA members say the new dates,
which fall immediately after the
Thanksgiving break, are not opti-
mal because candidates didn't have
as much time to campaign immedi-
ately before the elections.
MSA President Abhishek Mah-
anti said the Thanksgiving break
might be "problematic," but that if
candidates work hard to campaign
during the election, voter turnout
will not be affected.
"I think candidates will have
a tough time mobilizing a lot of
people," Mahanti said. "But if they
do a good job e-mailing and have
a strong presence physically, we
might actually see it be OK."
There will be 14 schools holding
elections for 36 open seats, includ-
ing seven open Rackham seats, four
open Engineering seats and 11 open
LSA seats.
There are 13 Michigan Vision
Party candidates, 10 Defend Affir-
mative Action Party candidates and
16 independent candidates.
The polls opened at midnight
and will close tomorrow night at
11:59 p.m. Students can vote for can-
didates in their own colleges online
at vote.umich.edu.
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PACKARD PUB
From Page 1A
downturn. He said when his friend
told him about the open location on
Packard and State, he thoughtit was
"kind of a miracle, so to speak."
"Just by luck, just knowing
somebody else, they brought it to
my attention," Miller said. "Then
we lookedat it, and I fell in love
with the location, and that's why
we moved forward with it."
While some students expressed
excitement about the pub's open-
ing, some students who live in
apartments above the venue had
mixed feelings about the potential
increase in noise levels when the
bar opens.
LSA senior Allison Zarbo, who
lives above Packard Pub, said she
is worried the bar might affect her
academics negatively.
"If it's really noisy and I can't get
any sleep and my grades are start-
ing to suffer, I'll look into trying to
get out of my lease," she said.
However, she added that she
is also excited to have a bar just
downstairs, and that she plans to
go on occasion.
Engineering graduate student
Tim Mekaru said he is ambivalent
about living in such close proxim-
ity to a potentially noisy bar.
"I don't know how bad or good
it will be to have a bar below me,"
Mekaru said.
Both tenants said they were not
informed about the bar's opening
until they saw the "Coming Soon"
signs in the pub's front window.
Zarbo said she is surprised Arch
Realty, who manages the build-
ing, didn'tnotify the tenantsbefore
opening the bar.
Miller, the pub's owner, said the
leasing company had informed res-
idents of the new change.
"They made it aware (to) all the
tenants that moved in that there
could possibly be a bar moving in
there before they sign their leases,
so the landlord took care of that
on their part up front, and all the
students were acceptable of that,"
Miller said.
Arch Realty refused to comment
on the situation.
Mekaru said he didn't re-sign
his lease because he worried the
bar would be too noisy.
"Since the date to re-sign the
lease was so early, I didn't re-sign
on my apartment because I was
really kind of scared because what
if it's loud all the time and I can
never sleep and I can never study?"
Mekaru said.
LSA junior Jon Bassman agreed
with Miller that State and Packard is
the prime location for a bar. He said
he "isn't too big on the bar thing"
because of the trek it takes to get to
bars up South State Street and on
South University Avenue, but that
this new location will motivate him
to go.
"I'm looking forward to summer
to basically crossing the street, get-
ting hammered and coming back
without having to Pay for a taxi,"
Bassman said.
LSA senior Sean Yip also said
he thought the location was a good
choice.
"I think it's going to be good,"
Yip said. "There (are) not many
bars around here. I think it's going
to liven up the whole atmosphere
here around Packard."
Miller said the pub's construc-
tion is moving along and he hopes
to finish repairs in the next week.
He said plans are to start bringing
in furniture soon in advance of the
pub's planned January opening.
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1
START-UP
From Page 1A
Graham said he and Minor asked
Sillman and Klein to help them find
agents and handle their finances
because they trust them.
"A lot of things have happened in
my life where I've not known some-
body I can trust," Graham said in
a telephone interview with The
Michigan Daily last night. "(Jor-
dan) and Dan know a lot and this is
the best situation for me."
Sillman and Klein said they met
Graham and Minor through mutu-
al friends and have been close ever
since.
"These kids are family to us,"
Sillman said. "They come home for
the Jewish holidays. They know all
our families. And they really are
family."
And when the athletes came to
them for help finding an agent, they
gladly accepted.
Due to NCAA rules that prohibit
student-athletes from having paid
representatives, Klein and Sillman
did not form Compass Management
until the Monday after the football
game against Ohio State University.
During the season, though, the two
assisted the players by researching
potential agents.
"We felt when they asked us to
do this, we wanted to do it legally,
legitimately and correctly." Sill-
man said. "By forming a company
after the season, we could handle
all the affairs they asked us to
(handle)."
Sillman said a surprisingnumber
of professional athletes go bankrupt
because they don't know how to
manage their money. He added that
Compass Management was formed
to help its clients handle, invest and
budget their money wisely.
"There is a lot that needs to be
done with (a professional athlete's)
investment portfolios, CPAs, tax
and estate planners, insurance
agents, their large purchases and
so on," Sillman said. "We feel we
create a checks-and-balances sys-
tem to protect the player and help
them."
Sillman said they have already
helped Minor and Graham sign
with an agent. He added that the
company will now focus on ways
to "preserve (the players') wealth
and create business opportunities
for them."
The two football players are
currently the company's only cli-
ents, but Klein said they expect to
sign more athletes - in a variety of
sports - by June.
"Professionalathleteslosemoney
in all different leagues." Klein said.
"It's not only the NFL, it's the NBA
and the NHL (as well)."