The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, November 10, 2010- 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
KALAMAZOO, Mich.
50 river sites are
now free of oil
The U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency says crews have
finished cleanup at So sites in the
Kalamazoo River system where a
pipeline break spilled more than
800,000 gallons of oil.
officials from the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
briefed hundreds of people at a
meeting Monday night in Battle
Creek.
WWMT-TV says EPA official
Mark Durno reports 17 sites are
still being cleaned, while 24 other
sites are being monitored.
The spill from an Enbridge Inc.
pipeline happened in July near
Marshall. Much of the cleanup
has been finished, but the EPA
says some operation and mainte-
nance will continue.
The pipeline runs from
Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario.
DALLAS
Bush kicks off book
tour close to home
Former President George W.
Bush has started his book tour
with a signing stop at a store near
his Dallas home.
Bush arrived at the Borders
store shortly after 8 a.m. yester-
day to greet hundreds of people,
including some who said they had
been waiting outside since the
night before.
In his book, "Decision Points,"
the two-term president discuss-
es the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
his decisions to send troops to
Afghanistan and Iraq, and the
response to Hurricane Katrina.
Bush, wearing a coat and tie and
accompanied by security person-
nel, sat at a table to sign copies of
his books and chat with those who
gathered to meet him.
NEW YORK
Engineers begin
testing waterfalls at
9/11 memorial site
New York City engineers have
begun testing the waterfalls for the
Sept.11 memorial at ground zero.
The cascades are the largest
manmade waterfalls in North
America. They empty into massive
reflecting pools that mark spots
where the World Trade Center tow-
ers once stood.
Testing of the waterfalls for the
north pool began yesterday morn-
ing. The testing included switching
on the eight pumps to see how the
water will flow into the basin.
More than 350,000 gallons of
water streamed into the pool. It cir-
culated at 52,000 gallons per min-
ute.
Testing of the south pool water-
fall will begin next spring.
The 176-foot-perimeter pools are
the centerpiece of Michael Arad's
"ReflectingAbsence" memorial.
LONDON
Thinning ozone

could be leaving
whales sunburned
The thinning ozone layer could
be leaving the world's whales
scarred from severe sunburn,
experts said Wednesday.
A study of whales in the Gulf of
California over the past few years
shows that the sea-going mam-
mals carry blisters and other dam-
age typically associated with the
skin damage that humans suffer
from exposure to the ultraviolet
radiation. That makes it yet anoth-
er threat for the already endan-
gered animals to worry about.
Whales would be particu-
larly vulnerable to sunburn in
part because they need to spend
extended periods of time on the
ocean's surface to breathe, social-
ize, and feed their young. Since
they don't have fur or feathers,
that effectively means they sun-
bathe naked.
As Laura Martinez-Levasseur,
the study's lead author, put it:
"Humans can put on clothes or
sunglasses - whales can't."
Martinez-Levasseur, who
works at Zoological Society of
London, spent three years study-
ing whales in the Gulf of Califor-
nia, the teeming body of water
which separates Baja California
from the Mexican mainland.
Photographs were taken of the
whales to chart any visible dam-
age, and small samples - taken
with a crossbow-fired dart - were
collected to examine the state of
their skin cells.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.

A STDN ORAIAIO' UD T0:
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cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is being tried in absentia for inciting killing of foreigners.
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lilitary aid to tionofthe threat al-Qaida posesto
the fragile state.
men to double President Barack Obama called
President Ali Abdullah Saleh
next year last week to say the aid is part of
a broader, more comprehensive
A, Yemen (AP) - Yemen strategy to promote security as
ar more military aid than well as economic and political
has promised in the fight development.
escalating terrorism - bil- But Hesham Sharaf, a Yemeni
dollars more than Wash- deputy minister, said the proposed
as in mind. U.S. assistance is "nothing" com-
yet Yemeni authorities pared to what Yemen needs. Gov-
tle to show for the signifi- ernment officials are talking about
stern aid that has already a two-year program to develop
into the impoverished the armed forces that would cost
around $6 billion, he said.
ct, the al-Qaida offshoot Yemen says it needs to develop
aimed responsibility for its coast guard and acquire more
'd plot to send mail bombs than a dozen combat helicopters,
emen to the U.S. appears satellites and equipment such as
nboldened than ever. And night-vision goggles and spyware.
government seems to feel "Technology like satellites
hreatened by an increas- should be in Yemen's hands, not
rstless secessionist rebel- images handed down to us,"
he south, where it has little Sharaf said. "We must have spe-
than by militants linked cial Yemeni forces trained to use
aida in the Arabian Penin- combat helicopters, not Ameri-
cans. If they (Americans) go on
the Oct. 28 discovery of the ground, people will criticize
mail bombs, U.S. officials us and say we are weak."
sing Yemen for more and As part of its aid, the U.S. pro-
ooperation on intelligence- vides equipment and training
and more opportunities to Yemeni forces. But there are
n Yemeni counterterror- ongoing U.S. concerns that Yemen
ms. Yemen is the poorest could usethe equipment and those
in the Arab world and the forces against Shiite rebels who
sent's authority is weak in have fought government forces
itside the capital of San'a. intermittently for years in the
Defense Secretary Rob- north or a separate front against
es said over the weekend secessionists in the south.
e U.S. could do more to Many critics inside Yemen say
in Yemeni forces to com- the aid is going to fight govern-
orists. U.S. officials told ment opponents, particularly the
sociated Press last week southern secessionists, and that
litary aid to Yemen would Yemen is simply milking the West
to $250 million in 2011 - for money to carry out an agenda
oring the growing realiza- that doesn't necessarily make

fighting al-Qaidaits top priority
Soon after the mail bombs were
detected, other government offi-
cials echoed Sharaf's call for more
equipment and assistance to fight
al-Qaida.
The failed attacks exposed
the government's lack of success
against al-Qaida and its growing
threat to the regime and showed
that the group was using Yemen as
a base to plot international attacks.
Yemen is clearly expected to
show how it is using the aid it has
been given. In addition to asking
for more intelligence cooperation,
a U.S. official said Washington
also wants to have access to pris-
oners allegedly from al-Qaida.
Much Western aid has poured
into Yemen's security and mili-
tary agencies in the 10 years
since al-Qaida bombers steered
an explosives-laden boat into the
Navy destroyer USS Cole that was
refueling at a Yemeni port, killing
17 U.S. sailors.
In the past five years, U.S.
military assistance to Yemen has
totaled about $250 million. That
covered programs to train and
equip Yemeni forces to combat
al-Qaida, as well as buy boats and
other equipment for the airport
and seaports. It also paid for train-
ing senior officers here and in the
U.S.
About 50 elite U.S. military
experts are in the country training
Yemeni counterterrorism forces -
a number that has doubled in the
past year.
At least four new security
branches to combat terrorism
as well as a new anti-terrorism
administration in the air force
were created, with much Western
financing and technical support.

Prosecutor: No charges will be
filed in CIA video tapes probe

Three-year
investigation
comes to a close
WASHINGTON (AP) - A spe-
cial prosecutor cleared the CIA's
former top clandestine officer and
others yesterday of any charges
for destroying agency videotapes
showing waterboarding of ter-
ror suspects, but he continued
to investigate whether the harsh
questioning went beyond legal
boundaries.
The decision not to prosecute
anyone in the videotape destruc-
tion came five years to the day
after the CIA destroyed its cache'
of 92 videos of two al-Qaida
operatives, Abu Zubaydah and
Abd al-Nashiri, being subjected
to waterboarding, which evokes
the sensation of drowning. The
deadline for prosecuting someone
under most federal laws is five
years.
The part of the nearly 3-year-
old criminal investigation that
examines whether U.S. inter-
rogators went beyond the legal
guidance given them on the
rough treatment of suspects will
continue, a Justice Department
official said. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because
that part of the probe is still under
way.
CIA Director Leon Panetta
said the agency welcomes the
decision and that "we will con-
tinue, of course, to cooperate with
the Department of Justice on any
other aspects of the former pro-
gram that it reviews."
Jose Rodriguez, who was the
CIA's top clandestine officer
when the tapes were destroyed,
worried that the videos would be

devastating to the agency if they
ever surfaced and approved their
destruction. Rodriguez's order
was at odds with years of direc-
tives from CIA lawyers and the
White House.
Rodriguez'lawyer, Robert Ben-
nett, said the department made
"the right decision because of the
facts and the law" and called his
client "a true patriot who only
wanted to protect his people and
his country."
In January 2008, President
George W. Bush's last attor-
ney general, Michael Mukasey,
appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney
John Durham as a special pros-
ecutor to investigate the video-
tape destruction. Later, President
Barack Obama's attorney general,
Eric Holder, added the inquiry
into the conduct of the harsh
questioning. .
A team of prosecutors and FBI
agents led by Durham has con-
ducted an exhaustive investiga-
tion into the matter, said Matthew
Miller, chief Justice Department
spokesman.
"As a result of that investiga-
tion, Mr. Durham has concluded
that he will not pursue criminal
charges for the destruction of the
interrogation videotapes," Miller
said.
The department's carefully
phrased announcement did not
rule out the possibility of charg-
ing someone with lying to inves-
tigators looking into the tape
destruction.
Separately, the Justice Depart-
ment advised the House and Sen-
ate judiciary committees that
it had reviewed newly found
e-mails sent by Bush administra-
tion lawyer John Yoo and stands
by a conclusion that Yoo did not
commit professional misconduct

in authorizing CIA interrogators
to use waterboarding and other
harsh tactics. The department's
letter tothe committees, obtained
yesterday by The Associated
Press, stood by the earlier find-
ing that Yoo had merely exhibited
poor judgment.
CIA officers began the video-
taping to show that Zubaydah was
brought to a secret CIA prison in
Thailand already wounded from
a firefight and to prove that inter-
rogators followed broad rules
Washington had laid out.
Almost as soon as taping began,
top officials at agency headquar-
ters in Langley, Va., began dis-
cussing whether to destroy the
tapes, according to current and
former U.S. officials and others
close to the investigation.
Dozens of CIA officers and
contractors cycled in and out of
Thailand to help with the ques-
tioning. If those videos ever sur-
faced, officials feared, nearly all
those people could be identified.
During the investigation,
agency lawyers were forced to
turn over long lists of documents,
including classified cables from
around the world. Former CIA
Director Porter Goss was sum-
moned before a grand jury, as
were the agency's former top law-
yer, John Rizzo, and its current
station chief in London.
Despite standing orders from
the Bush White House not to
destroy the tapes without check-
ing with administration officials,
momentum for their destruction
grew in late 2005 as the CIA Thai-
land station chief, Mike Winograd,,
prepared to retire, the current and
former U.S. officials have said.
Winograd had the tapes in his
safe and believed they should be
destroyed, officials said.