o The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, Aprill1, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Christian militia
infiltrated by agent
Rough winter weather forced
members of a Midwest Christian
militia to cut short a road trip to a
rally in Kentucky, so suspected ring-
leader David Brian Stone used time
in the van to hone his speech on
the "New World Order" he feared,
authorities said Wednesday.
"We are the American military.
We outnumber them," a speaker
identified as Stone says on an audio
tape recorded by an undercover FBI
agent. "People should not be afraid
of the government. The government
" should fear the people."
The agent, who infiltrated
the Hutaree group and had built
explosives under Stone's direction,
accompanied Stone and others as
they tried to attend a Feb. 6 meeting
of militias in Kentucky, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet
said during a detention hearing in
U.S. District Court in Detroit.
"Now it's time to strike and take
our nation back so we will be free
of tyranny," Stone, 44, of Clayton,
Mich., says on the recording played
in court. "The war will come wheth-
er we are ready or not."
Stone and eight other suspect-
ed Hutaree members, self-pro-
claimed "Christian warriors" who
trained themselves in paramili-
tary techniques in preparation for
a battle against the Antichrist, are
charged with seditious conspiracy,
or plotting to levy war against the
U.S. They were arrested after a
series of weekend raids across the
Midwest.
MANAMA, Bahrain
Navy plane crashes
in Persian Gulf
A U.S. Navy aircraft crashed in
the Persian Gulf region yesterday
and one of the four crew members
was missing, the military said.
Search and rescue efforts were
under way, the U.S. Navy said in a
statement. Three crew members
were rescued.
The E-2C Hawkeye, which is
primarily used to detect incoming
aircraft with its 24-foot diameter
radar, crashed in the North Ara-
bian Sea after the it "experienced
mechanical malfunctions," the
statement said.
The plane was used for command
and control functions and oper-
ated from the aircraft carrier USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Helping in the search for the
missing crew member were the
Eisenhower and several of its air-
craft, helicopters from guided mis-
sile destroyer USS Carney and a
replenishment ship.
The Navy is investigating.
LANSING, Mich.
Mich. constitutional
convention on
November ballot
Secretary of State Terri Lynn
Land is urging lawmakers to pass
bills that would clarify rules for
a possible constitutional conven-
tion.
Michigan voters will decide in
November if a constitutional con-
vention should be held to revise or
replace the state's 1963 constitu-
tion.
Land says the bills would
require convention delegates to
be U.S. citizens, set dates to elect
the delegates and apply campaign
finance and lobbying laws to them.
The measures also would set July
12, 2011 as the starting date for the
possible convention.
The Republican secre-
tary of state says failing
to pass the bills soon "will
throw the process into chaos."
PHILADELPHIA
Nightclub to close
on school premises
A charter school cafeteria will
no longer double as a nightclub on
nights and weekends, city education
officials announced yesterday after
inspecting the facility.
Owners of the Harambee Insti-
tute of Science and Technology
Charter School have removed all
banquet supplies and equipment,
including alcohol, from their build-
ing, which on weekdays educates
about 450 students in kindergarten
through eighth grade.
Philadelphia district officials had
demanded an end to the school's
arrangement with Club Damani,
which had been operating on the
premises during off-hours despite
an expired liquor license.
Murderer
of abortion
doctor faces
life in prison
Rowan Towers in Trenton, N.J. was the site of a party where police say a15-year-old sold her 7-year-old sister to have sex
with as many as seven men and boys. The teenager also took money to have sex with others at a party in the Trenton apart-
ment on Sunday. -
Teenager sells stepsister
for sex at apartment party
Seven-year-old was
gang-raped as
stepsister took
money, stood by
TRENTON (AP) - It started
with a seemingly innocent party
invitation. A 15-year-old girl and
her 7-year-old stepsister were
headed to an apartment down
the street from their home near
the New Jersey Statehouse,
where they had been hang-
ing around outside on a Sunday
afternoon.
For the younger girl, police
say it quickly descended into a
horrifying ordeal in which she
was gang-raped by as many as
seven men as her sister not only
watched, but got paid by those
who did it.
Their parents, none the wiser,
thought maybe they had run
away.
"We're talking about a kid who
told her sister to go into an apart-
ment and let people rape her,"
said Trenton police Capt. Joseph
Juniak. "It's unfathomable."
The teen has been charged
with aggravated sexual assault,
promoting prostitution and
other crimes. Her name was
not released because of her age,
but the county prosecutor plans
to ask the court to try her as an
adult. In the meantime, she is
being held at the Mercer County
Youth Detention Center.
When the girls didn't return
home by 4:30 Sunday after-
noon, their parents called police,
believing the older one had run
away from home and taken her
younger sister with her.
In fact, they were down the
street inside a 13th floor apart-
ment at Rowan Towers, a nearby
high-rise complex so dangerous
that Trenton police are hired as
security guards at night.
"They keep it clean on the out-
side, but it's what's on the inside
that you have to worry about,"
said neighbor William Johnson,
who says police are coming out
of the building all the time.
Inside apartment 13-C, police
said the 7-year-old was soon left
alone as her sister headed to a
back bedroom to sell sex to sev-
eral men. When she came out
into the living room, she handed
her 7-year-old sister money and
encouraged her to let the men
touch her.
"It went from touching to
straight out assault and rape,"
Juniak said. "They threatened
to kill her if she screamed or told
anyone."
Kansas without
abortion facility for
women more than
21 weeks pregnant
WHICITA (AP) - The man
who gunned down one of the
nation's few providers of late-term
abortions could be sent to prison
today for the rest of his life, but he
may have gotten what he wanted
all along: It is markedly harder in
Kansas to get an abortion.
Dr. George Tiller's clinic is
closed, leaving the state with no
facility where women can have
the procedure after the 21st week
of pregnancy. An early vow by one
of Tiller's contemporaries to fill
the gap hasn't materialized, and
state lawmakers are moving to
enact tough new rules to dissuade
other physicians from taking Til-
ler's place.
"The national anti-abortion
movement has a tremendous
victory here," said Dr. War-
ren Hern, a longtime friend of
Tiller who performs late-term
abortions in Colorado. "They
accomplished exactly what they
wanted, and they continue to
accomplish it."
But even as Scott Roeder faces a
mandatorylife sentence for killing
Tiller, many ponder the conflict-
inglegacies of his actions. Outside
Kansas, abortion rights support-
ers say there's been a surge in late-
term abortion practices by doctors
emboldened to pick up where Til-
ler left off.
"What he really did was murder
a doctor in church, and the effect
on abortion is negligible," said Dr.
LeRoy Carhart; a Nebraska doctor
who worked part-time for Tiller.
Carhart said yesterday he had
not given up on opening a prac-
tice in Kansas where women can
have a late-term procedure, even
though he admitted his plans were
in a state of flux given the rules
passed late Tuesday night by the
Kansas Legislature.
Some people on the other side
of the abortion debate aren't
taking comfort in the fate of
Roeder, 52, of Kansas City, Mo.,
who was convicted in January
of first-degree murder for fatally
shooting Tiller last May as the
doctor served as an usher in his
Wichita church. The only ques-
tion remaining today is whether
Roeder's imprisonment will
include a mandatory minimum of
25 or 50 years behind bars.
"Mr. Roeder was a setback to
the pro-life movement - and to
give him any sort of credit for
reducing or stopping abortion is
well beyond reason," said Troy
Newman, president of Operation
Rescue.
Roeder's militant sympathizers
disagree.
"He went ahead and laid down
his life to save unborn children
and to me that is the definition
of a hero - he gave up his life to
save someone else," said Rev. Don
Spitz, of Chesapeake, Va., who
runs the Army of God Web site
supporting violence against abor-
tion providers.
In Kansas, Tiller's killing has
practically erased late-term pro-
cedures and forced women to
Albuquerque, N.M., and Boulder,
Colo., among other places, to have
them.
Just three clinics in the state -
all located in or near the Kansas
City metro area - offer limited
abortion services for women up to
their 21st week of pregnancy.
"People were coming from all
over the world to have abortions
in Kansas," said Kari Ann Rinker,
a lobbyist for the National Orga-
nization for Women's Kansas
chapter. "Now they don't come
here because Dr. Tiller has been
killed."
Beyond the state, however,
abortion rights advocates say doc-
tors are increasingly offering the
procedure to ensure women have
access.
"Dr. Tiller's death was a dev-
astating loss to the provider com-
munity and his family, but he was
so admired and respected that his
death has inspired medical stu-
dents and providers to recommit
themselves to providing women
with the abortion care that they
need," said Vicki Saporta, presi-
dent of the National Abortion Fed-
eration.
Among them is Megan Evans,
a third-year medical student at
George Washington University
who said she hopes to include
abortion services as part of a
larger obstetrics and gynecology
practice.
"After he was killed, for me it
assured me this was the right field
to go into," she said.
In the wake of Tiller's murder,
Dr. Curtis Boyd of Albuquerque
decided to provide third-trimes-
ter abortions on a case-by-case
basis and hired two physicians
who had worked at Tiller's clinic.
Chechen militant group
responsible for bombings
fro
rev
ernet message President Dmitry Medvedev later
called the attacks "links of the
)m group cites same chain."
The suicide bombings in Mos-
enge as reason cow were the first in the capital in
for attack six years and served as a wake-up
call for many Russians, who had
come to feel insulated from the
their homes."
The 45-year-old Umarov fought
Russian forces in both separat-
ist wars in Chechnya over the
last 15 years. He took over the
leadership of the rebel movement
in 2006 following the killing by
Russian forces of Abdul-Khalim
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) violence raging in the country's Sadulayev. Umarov's importance
- A Chechen militant claimed predominantly Muslim southern further increased that year after
responsibility for the deadly corner. Shamil Basayev, the most feared of
attacks on the Moscow subway in Umarov blamed ordinary Rus- the rebels, was killed by security
an Internet message posted yester- sians for turning a blind eye to the forces. Basayev was accused of -
day, hours after two more suicide killing of civilians in the Cauca- or claimed responsibility for -ter-
bombers struck southern Russia in sus by security forces and warned rorist attacks on Russia during its
brazen defiance of Prime Minister of more attacks. wars in Chechnya, including the
Vladimir Putin. "I promise you that the war will hostage-taking raid on a school in
Doku Umarov, who leads come to your streets and you will the town of Beslan in 2004.
Islamic militants in Chechnya and feel it in your lives, feel it on your Moscow police have been on
other regions in Russia's North own skin," Umarov, dressed in high alert since the subway attacks,
Caucasus, said in a video posted fatigues, said in a video posted on increasingroadblocks on highways
on a pro-rebel Web site that Mon- kavkazcenter.com, a Web site that into the city. The police chief said
day's twin suicide attacks were rebels use to air their statements. thousands of officers have been
revenge for the killing of civilians There was no way to substanti- sent to patrol the subway, check on
by Russian security forces. ate Umarov's claim, and officials migrants from southern provinces
Umarov's statement appeared at Russian law enforcement agen- and inspect warehouses that could
after Putin vowed to "drag out ties refused to comment on Uma- hold arms caches.
of the sewer" the terrorists rov's claim. The Russian security The militants face logisti-
who plotted the subway bomb- chief has previously said the sub- cal challenges in carrying out
ings, which killed 39 people and way bombings were carried out bombings in Russia's northern
wounded scores of commuters by militants from the Caucasus. cities, since they would need to
during the morning rush hour. Umarov had previously transport explosives from south-
Yesterday's suicide bombings warned that "if Russians think ern bases and then store them.
in Dagestan, a volatile southern that the war is happening only on Natives of the North Caucasus,
province east of Chechnya, could television, somewhere far away in who tend to have darker hair and
have been planned by the same the Caucasus where it can't reach complexions, stand out in cities
group behind the Moscow bomb- them, then we are going to show like Moscow and are more likely
ings, Putin said. them that this war will return to to draw police attention.
"I don't rule out that this is
one and the same gang," he said
at a televised Cabinet meeting. U U
-Conpiledfrom
Daily wire reports