The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.
Police kill man
*after he refuses to
drop handgun
Police in Sterling Heights say
officers fatally shot a 39-year-old
man who refused to put down a
weapon and pointed it at officers.
Lt. Luke Riley tells The Macomb
Daily of Mount Clemens the dead
man was city resident Matthew L.
Moroni.
Riley says Moroni's wife called
police Friday night, saying her hus-
band was suicidal, had been drink-
ing and had cut himself. Moroni
was laid off several months ago.
Police say Moroni's grandfather
" left the house, followed by Moroni,
who was holding a handgun.
Three officers fired about a
dozen shots. They've been placed
on leave while detectives and the
Macomb County prosecutor inves-
tigate.
" Police say there was a large
stock of weapons and ammunition
in the house.
WASHINGTON
Biden's home to get
security upgrade
The vice president's official resi-
dence is getting a security upgrade.
The Washington Examiner
reported yesterday that the Navy
plans to install a 10-foot secu-
rity fence and additional security
checkpoints around Vice President
Joe Biden's residential compound
at the Naval Observatory in north-
west Washington.
The National Capital Planning
Commission has approved the $1.7
million project.
Plans call for about 1,600 feet
of security fence to replace a cable
barrier that separates the residence
from the rest of the Naval Obser-
vatory. They also include two new
guard houses, four new gates and
five new vehicle barriers.
The U.S. Secret Service, which is
payingfor the new guard posts, says
the upgrades are not a response to
any explicit threat to Biden or his
family.
EAST ORANGE, NJ.
Gunman shoots five
people at college
house party
A Seton Hall University stu-
dent who attended an off-campus
house party at which five people
were shot said the gunman stood
on her back as she lay on the floor
and didn't appear to be target-
ing anyone during the chaos she
described as "hell."
"He was just shooting he had
no intended target," said a text
message from the woman, whose
friend was the only person killed.
The woman spoke yesterday by
BlackBerry instant messenger on
condition of anonymity because
she feared for her safety while the
shooter remained at large. She said
she was too upset to talk over the
phone.
She described the Friday night
party, which lasted into early
Saturday, as a "typical fraternity
party" with at least 100 people at
the privately owned row house.
Students said the shooter was
kicked out of the party when he
refused to pay the cover charge.
The woman said she heard a
fight erupt before the man was
thrown out. Seconds later, she
said, he returned with a hand-
gun and started shooting as chaos
erupted.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras
Suspect of 18 shoe
factory worker
deaths killed
Authorities in Honduras say the
chief suspect in the massacre of
18 workers at a shoe factory ear-
lier this month has been killed in a
shootout with police.
Assistant Security Minister
Armando Calidonio said Sunday
that police were chasing alleged
street gang leader Jesus Santos
when he opened fire.
Calidonio says officers shot back
and killed Santos late Saturdaynear
San Pedro Sula, the northern Hon-
duras city where the shoe factory
employees were mowed down by
gunmen.
Police say seven men and two
youths participated in the attack.
Onlytheyouthshavebeendetained.
Authorities say the factory kill-
ings were part of a gang turf battle
in which the victims did not appear
to have been directly involved.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.
Feds trying to
quiet anti-war
advocates,
attorney says
OHN AMIS/POOL/AP
Bishop Eddie Long, left, prepares to speak at a news conference yesterday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Long has been accused of luring four young men into sexual relationships.
Ga. pastor vows to fight
sexual abuse allegations
'I'll fight like David
battled Goliath,'
megachurch pastor
says of charges
LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) - Cast-
ing himself as the Bible's ultimate
underdog, Bishop Eddie Long
went before thousands of faith-
ful supporters at his megachurch
yesterday and promised to fight
accusations that he lured four
young men into sexual relation-
ships.
"I feel like David against Goli-
ath. But I got five rocks, and I
haven't thrown one yet," Long
said in his first public remarks
since his accusers filed lawsuits
last week claiming he abused his
"spiritual authority." He stopped
short of denying 'the allegations
but implied he was wronged by
them.
"I have never in my life por-
trayed myself as a perfect man.
But I am not the man that's being
portrayed on the television. That's
not me. That is not me," he said.
Long's brief addresses to the
congregation at New Birth Mis-
sionary Baptist Church were met
with thunderous applause and an
outpouring of support during ser-
vices that were equal parts part
rock concert and pep rally. The
sanctuary was nearly filled to its
10,000-seat capacity for both the
8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. Many
lined up two hours before the
doors of the church opened.
Long became one of the coun-
try's most powerful indepen-
dent church leaders over the last
20 years, turning a suburban
Atlanta congregation of 150 to
a 25,000-member powerhouse
with a $50 million cathedral
and a roster of parishioners that
includes athletes, entertainers
and politicians. And there was
almost no sign yesterday that his
flock wanted to turn him away.
Followers prayed, sang and
embraced one another as they ral-
lied around their senior pastor.
Wearing a cream-colored suit as
he strode into the church sanctu-
ary hand-in-hand with his wife,
Vanessa, Long paused to soak in
the adoration.
During the second service,
however, one young man in a blue
shirt stood up and shouted: "We
want to know the truth, man!" He
was quickly escorted out and did
not return.
After the service, many
expressed unwavering support
for their leader.
"We know and we love Bishop,"
said Annie Cannon, a seven-year
member of New Birth. "We love
our place of worship. My son goes
to school here. We do everything
here."
It is unclear whether Long
faces any risk of being removed by
his church's board, but the allega-
tions at the very least guarantee
months of scrutiny as the lawsuits
move forward.
Long is a father of four who
has been an outspoken oppo-
nent of gay marriage and whose
church has counseled gay mem-
bers to become straight. Two
young men say he groomed
them for sexual relationships
when they were enrolled in
the church's LongFellows
Youth Academy, a program that
taught teens about sexual and
financial discipline. Two other
young men - one of whom
attended a satellite church in
Charlotte, N.C. - have made
similar claims.
The men say they were 17 or
18 when the relationships began.
Federal and state authorities have
declined to investigate because
Georgia's age of consent is 16.
"I've been accused. I'm under
attack. I want you to know, as
I said earlier, I am not a per-
fect man," Long said. "But this
thing, I'm going to fight."
Remarks come after
FBI raids in anti-war
activist's home
CHICAGO (AP) - FBI agents in
Chicago took a laptop and docu-
ments from the home of a Palestin-
ian-American anti-war activist in
an attempt to silence his advocacy,
an attorney said yesterday.
The FBI on Friday searched
eight addresses in Minneapolis
and Chicago, including the home
of Hatem Abudayyeh, who is the
executive director of the Arab
American Action Network, attor-
ney Jim Fennerty told The Associ-
ated Press.
"The government's trying to
quiet activists," Fennerty said.
"This case is really scary."
More than half a dozen agents
went to Abudayyeh's home on
Friday and took any documents
containing the word "Palestine,"
Fennerty said.
Abudayyeh, a U.S. citizen whose
parent immigrated from Palestine,
wasn't home at the time of the raid
because he was at a hospital with
his mother who is battling liver
cancer, Fennerty said.
A message left for an FBI
spokesman in Chicago wasn't
immediately returned yester-
day. The FBI has declined to give
details on the searches, saying the
agency was investigating criminal
activity not protected by the First
Amendment.
Warrants suggested agents
were looking for links between
anti-war activists and terrorist
groups in Colombia and the Mid-
dle East.
Fennerty said Abudayyeh has
done nothing wrong and doesn't
have any ties to terrorist groups,
including Hamas, the Islamic mili-
tant group thatseized power in the
Gaza Strip in 2007. His name was
also spelled "Hatam" on FBI docu-
ments.
"Hatem wouldn't even touch
Hamas," Fennerty toldAP. "Hatem
is a secular guy, he's not interested
in Hamas."
Abudayyeh, a longtime advo-
cate for immigrant rights, has had
close personal and professional
ties to the Arab American Action
Network for decades. But Fenner-
ty said he did not believe the group
to be the focus of the FBI's inves-
tigation.
Abudayyeh's parents immi-
grated to Chicago in the 1970s
and were instrumental in found-
ing a community center that later
led to the Arab American Action
Network. Abudayyeh joined the
group in 1999 and became execu-
tive director in 2003.
The nonprofit group advocates
for Arabs and new immigrants.
Recently, its focus has been to
combat anti-Arab and anti-Mus-
lim sentiment following the Sept.
11,2001, attacks.
Abudayyeh has not traveled to
Palestine in years, Fennerty said,
but he cares about the region and
has close cultural ties; his wife is
a Palestinian immigrant. In fact,
their courtship and marriage was
the focus of a PBS "New Ameri-
cans" documentary several years
ago. The couple now has a daugh-
ter.
"He's a very caring person,
active in his community and other
communities," Fennerty said.
"He's a father."
Abudayyeh didn't return mul-
tiple requests for comment and
neither his cell phone nor office
phone could take messages Sunday
because voicemail boxes were full.
Word of the raids sent a ripple
throughout activist circles.
One group of anti-war activists
in Chicago called an "emergency
meeting" on Chicago's South Side
yesterday to plan demonstrations
and rallies for Monday and Tues-
day.
"These raids are an attack on
the entire anti-war movement,"
said Maureen Murphy, a member
of the Palestine Solidarity Group
in Chicago. "Everyone in peace
and social justice is deeply con-
cerned."
FBI officials, who served six
warrants in Minneapolis and two
in Chicago, have said there was no
imminent threat to the commu-
nity. There were no arrests.
Those served were subpoenaed
to appear before a federal grand
jury in Chicago next month.
In Chicago, anti-war activists
Joe Iosbaker and his wife, Stepha-
nie Weiner, said the government
targeted them because they've
been outspoken against the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S.
funding of conflicts abroad. They
denied any wrongdoing.
The homes of longtime Min-
neapolis anti-war activists Mick
Kelly, Jess Sundin and Meredith
Aby were also searched.
Several activists said they
thought the searches amounted to
"fishing expeditions" in light of a
recent U.S. Supreme Court Deci-
sion.
In June, the Court rejected a
free-speech challenge to the law
from humanitarian aid groups
that said some provisions put
them at risk of being prosecuted
for talking to terrorist organiza-
tions about nonviolent activities.
The federal law cited in the search
warrants prohibits "providing
material support or resources to
designated foreign terrorist orga-
nizations."
Chavez rallies supporters
in congressional elections
Opponents attempt
to end Venezuela
president's 12-year
power streak
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -
Opponents of Venezuelan Presi-
dent Hugo Chavez tried to break
his long-standing monopoly on
power yesterday in congressio-
nal elections, while the firebrand
leader rallied his supporters urg-
ing them to "attack" through the
ballot box.
Voters formed long lines at
polling stations during elections
that stirred strong sentiment on
both sides of Venezuela's deep
political divide. After casting his
ballot, Chavez said turnout could
be as high as 70 percent.
"The people are speaking,"
Chavez said, calling it proof the
country has a healthy democ-
racy.
Opposition parties were try-
ing to end Chavez's domination
of the National Assembly for the
first time in his nearly 12 years in
the presidency. The vote is also
seen as a referendum on Chavez
himself ahead of the next presi-
dential election in 2012.
Polls suggest Chavez remains
the most popular politician in
Venezuela, yet surveys also have
shown a decline in his popular-
ity in the past two years as dis-
enchantment has grown over
problems including rampant vio-
lent crime, poorly administered
public services and inflation now
hovering at 30 percent.
The opposition, which boy-
cotted the last legislative
elections in 2005, stands to
dramatically increase its rep-
resentation beyond the 11 or so
lawmakers who defected from
Chavez's camp in the current
National Assembly. If Chavez's
coor& 0esi5rl roup
208 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 997-7030 www.salonxl.com
Featuring Products by
KERASTASE
H,-,, ARI
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, right, speaks with Aristobulo lzturiz, candi-
date for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
socialist-oriented government
fails to keep at least a two-thirds
majority of the 165 seats, oppo-
nents would have more clout in
trying to check his sweeping
powers.
"Democracy is at stake," said
Teresa Bermudez, a 63-year-
old Chavez opponent who stood
in a line that ran down a block
and around a corner in down-
town Caracas. She said she sees
the vote as a vital chance for the
opposition to have a voice and
achieve a more balanced legisla-
ture.
Chavez has fashioned him-
self as a revolutionary-turned-
president carrying on the legacy
of his mentor Fidel Castro, with
a nationalist vision and a deep-
seated antagonism toward the
U.S. government. He has largely
funded his government with
Venezuela's ample oil wealth,
touting social programs targeted
to his support base.
Chavez portrayed the vote as
a choice between his "Bolivarian
Revolution" and opposition poli-
ticians he accuses of serving the
interests of the wealthy and his
adversaries in the U.S. govern-
ment.
"We're with this man because
this man is the one who has real-
ly done things for this country,"
said Carmen Elena Flores de
Cordova, a 58-year-old lawyer
who dressed in signature Chavez
red for to vote. She pointed
to government projects in the
neighborhood as proof of prog-
ress: a new low-income apart-
ment building and cable cars
running up into a hillside slum.
Both political camps had wit-
nesses at polling stations. Sol-
diers stood guard during the
balloting, joined by civilians
belonging to the Bolivarian Mili-
tia created by Chavez.