The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September13, 2012 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Man charged in
graffiti painting at
state Capitol
A 20-year-old Lansing man
has been charged following an
investigation into graffiti spray-
painted on pillars at the state
Capitol and a nearby war memo-
rial.
State police say in a release
that Jeffery Handley was
arraigned Wednesday in Lansing
District Court on several mali-
cious destruction of property
charges.
Handley was arrested
Wednesday afternoon by Lan-
sing Community College public
safety officers.
Capitol security officers dis-
covered the graffiti Thursday.
The graffiti included stick fig-
ures on the columns and the
phrase "Give art a chance" on the
memorial.
LOSANGELES
Bank robbers toss
cash in street to
slow police chase
Suspected bank robbers flee-
ing county sheriff's deputies
hurled cash from a speeding SUV
on Wednesday, drawing people
into the streets until a pickup
blocked their path and they had
to surrender.
In a bizarre scene followed
by TV helicopters, a large crowd
pressed in as deputies with guns
drawn pulled two men from the
SUV in South Los Angeles. City
police came to their aid and
formed skirmish lines to move
the crowd back.
Along the pursuit's route, peo-
ple were seen scooping up the
money.
Police Department spokes-
man Cmdr. Andrew Smith said
it appeared the suspects threw
the money in hopes of drawing
* people into the roadway to block
the pursuing patrol cars.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
Military judge: No
0 TV broadcast of
Guantanamo trials
A military judge has rejected
a request to allow media outlets
to broadcast a war crimes tri-
bunal at the U.S. base in Guan-
tanamo Bay, Cuba, saying in a
ruling released Wednesday that
he lacks authority to grant such
access.
The judge, Army Col. James
Pohl, said the rules for military
commissions, a special tribunal
for wartime offenses, forbid tele-
vision or radio broadcasting of
the proceedings. He noted that
broadcast coverage is similarly
prohibited in federal civilian
courts in the United States.
The constitutional right to a
public trial is satisfied by allow-
ing members of the media and
the public to travel to Guanta-

namo to watch the proceedings,
he said.
ATHENS
Greeks toughen
hate crime laws
Greece will toughen sentenc-
ing for hate crimes, following a
surge in attacks against immi-
grants and violence involving
members of a far-right political
party, the country's justice min-
ister said Wednesday.
Antonis Roupakiotis said
racially motivated crimes would
carry a minimum three-year
prison sentence, under judicial
reforms due to be voted on in
parliament later this year. Cur-
rent guidelines generally do
not have specific provisions for
racial motives in sentencing, and
prison sentences for assault are
often suspended.
Migrant and human rights
groups have reported an alarm-
ing rise in assaults against most-
ly South Asian immigrants since
the start of the country's crip-
pling financial crisis.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

British police
coverd up mistakes
in 1989 soccer
stadium disaster

IBRAHIM ALAGURI/AF
Libyans walk on the grounds of the gutted U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans,
including Ambassador Chris Stevens, on Wednesday.
After consulate attack,
arines sent to Libya

Gov't releases
documents
detailing deaths of
96 spectators
LONDON (AP) - British
police tried to blame soccer
fans to cover up mistakes that
contributed to the deaths of 96
supporters who were crushed
at a stadium in 1989, according
to secret documents released
Wednesday following a lengthy
campaign by families of the vic-
tims.
Prime Minister David Cam-
eron apologized for Britain's
worst sports disaster and said
the country had been shamed by
its failure for more than 20 years
to disclose the errors that helped
lead to the death of Liverpool
fans at Hillsborough stadiun,
most of whom were crushed and
suffocated in a standing-room-
only section.
A government-appointed
panel that reviewed the papers
confirmed failures by police led
directly to the disaster and that
some injured fans were denied
medical treatment that could
have saved their lives, he said.
Police officers herded around
2,000 Liverpool fans into caged-
in enclosures that were already
full during an FA Cup semifinal
between Liverpool and Notting-
ham Forest on April 15, 1989, at
the stadium in Sheffield, central
England.
No individual or organization
has ever faced charges in con-
nection with the disaster.
Cameron said that evidence
contained in 400,000 pages of
previously undisclosed papers

turned over to the families of
the dead on Wednesday detailed
sophisticated attempts by police
to turn the blame for the disas-
ter onto the victims and to sully
their reputations by insinuat-
ing that many were drunken,
and had histories of violence or
criminality.
"New evidence that we are
presented with today makes
clear that these families have
suffered a double injustice,"
Cameron told the House of
Commons. "The injustice of the
appalling events, the failure of
the state to protect their loved
ones and the indefensible wait to
get to the truth, and the injustice
ofthedenigrationofthe deceased
- that they were somehow at
fault for their own deaths."
. "On behalf of the govern-
ment - and indeed our country
- I am profoundly sorry for this
double injustice that has been
left uncorrected for so long," he
told legislators, many of whom
gasped audibly or wept as Cam-
eron discussed details of failures
by British authorities.
Though a report by the panel
said it was not possible to say
conclusively whether a better
response from emergency servic-
es could have saved specific indi-
viduals, panel member Dr. Bill
Kirkup told reporters that 41fans
had the "potentialto survive."
Cameron said that Attorney
General Dominic Grieve would
review the evidence and likely
apply to Britain's High Court to
overturn the verdict of an origi-
nal inquest hearing and order
a new hearing. An inquest jury
ruled in 1991 that the deaths
were accidental, but criticized
the local South Yorkshire Police
for its actions.

U.S. ambassador,
three other
Americans killed in
in Benghazi
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) -
The U.S. dispatched an elite
group of Marines to Tripoli on
Wednesday after the mob attack
that killed the U.S. ambassador
and three other Americans. Offi-
cials were investigating whether
the rampage was a backlash to
an anti-Islamic video with ties
to Coptic Christians or a plot to
coincide with the anniversary of
9/1L.
Tuesday's stunning attack
on the American Consulate in
Benghazi poses a daunting task
for U.S. and Libyan investiga-
tors: searching for the culprits in
-a city rife with heavy weapons,
multiple militias, armed Islamist
groups and little police control.
The one-story villa that serves
as the consulate was a burned-
out wreck after the crowd armed
with machine guns and rocket-
propelled grenades rampaged
through it. Slogans of "God is
great" and "Muhammad is God's
Prophet" were scrawled across
its scorched walls. Libyan civil-
ians strolled freely in charred
rooms with furniture and papers
strewn everywhere.
President Barack Obama
vowed in a Rose Garden address
that the U.S. would "work
with the Libyan government
to bring to justice" those who
killed Ambassador Chris Ste-
vens, information manager Sean

Smith and two other Americans
who were not identified. Three
other Americans were wounded.
Stevens was the first U.S.
ambassador killed in the line of
duty in 30 years.
"We reject all efforts to deni-
grate the religious beliefs of
others, but there is absolutely
no justification for this type
of senseless violence. None,"
said Obama, who also ordered
'increased security at U.S. diplo-
matic posts abroad.
Republican Mitt Romney
accused the Obama adminis-
tration of showing weakness in
the consulate killings, but the
president retorted that his rival
"seems to have a tendency to
shoot first and aim later." Some
in the GOP called Romney's
remarks hasty.
The mob attack on Tuesday
- the 11th anniversary of the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strike
in the U.S. - was initially pre-
sumed to have been a sponta-
neous act triggered by outrage
over a movie called "Inno-
cence of Muslims" that mocked
Islam's Prophet Muhammad
that was produced in the U.S.
and excerpted on YouTube. The
amateurish video also drew
protests in Cairo, where angry
ultraconservatives climbed the
U.S. Embassy's walls, tore down
an American flag and replaced it
with an Islamic banner.
But a U.S. counterterrorism
official said the Benghazi vio-
lence was "too coordinated or
professional" to be spontaneous.
The official spoke on condition
of anonymity because he was not
authorized to discuss the inci-

dent publicly.
The FBI was sending evidence
teams to Libya, a law enforce-
ment official said.
Libya's new leadership -
scrambling to preserve ties
with Washington after U.S.
help to overthrow former dicta-
tor Moammar Gadhafi - vowed
to find those behind the attack.
Interim President Mohammed
el-Megarif apologized to the
United States for what he called
the "cowardly" assault, which
also killed several Libyan securi-
ty guards at the consulate in the
eastern city.
Parliament speaker Omar al-
Houmidan suggested the attack
might have been planned, saying
the mob "may have had foreign
loyalties" - an apparent refer-
ence to international terrorists.
"We are not sure. Everything is
possible," he said.
A Libyan jihadist group, the
Omar Abdel-Rahman Brigades,
claimed responsibilityfor abomb
that went off outside the Beng-
hazi consulate in June, causing
no injuries. The group, which
also carried out several attacks
on the International Red Cross
in Libya, said at the time that the
bomb was revenge for the killing
of al-Qaida's No. 2, Abu Yahya
al-Libi, in a U.S. drone strike in
Pakistan.
About 50 U.S. Marines were
sent to Libya to guard U.S. dip-
lomatic facilities. The Marines
are members of an elite group
known as a Fleet Antiterrorism
Security Team, or FAST, whose
role isto respond on short notice
to terrorism threats and to rein-
force security at embassies.

New York City soda ban
expected to be approved

Doctors say size
limit may improve
health, nutrition
NEW YORK (AP) - The era
of the supersized cola may come
to an end in New York City on
Thursday, when health offi-
cials are expected to approve
an unprecedented 16-ounce
limit on sodas and other sugary
drinks at restaurants, delis and
movie theaters. But will it actu-
ally translate into better health?
Doctors and nutrition
experts said the regulation's
success or failure may depend
on more than just the mod-
est number of calories it might
slash from people's diets. It will
hinge on whether the first-in-
the-nation rule starts a conver-
sation that changes attitudes
toward overeating.
"Ultimately it does come
down to culture, and it comes
down to taking some first steps,"

said Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, a
professor at the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine who has
studied the effect of govern-
ment regulation on the obesity
epidemic.
"There are so many factors
that are acting in this complex
disease. Obesity is not just a dis-
ease simply of people drinking
too much sugary soft drink," he
said. "Just attacking one thing,
individually, isn't going to do
much."
But if the rule is part of a
broader social and scientific
assault on the dangers of too
much sugar, he said, it could be
tremendously effective. He lik-
ened it to the drumbeat about
the dangers of smoking, which
took decades to translate into
results.
"People talk about it. It gets
ruminated at social parties. It
gets ruminated in politics and
the media. And all of a sudden,
you have an awareness," he
said.

California man confirms role in film

Anti-Muslim video
incited violence in
Libya, Egypt
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The
search for those behind the pro-
vocative, anti-Muslim film impli-
cated in violent protests in Egypt
and Libya led Wednesday to a
California Coptic Christian con-
victed of financial crimes who
acknowledged his role in man-
aging and providing logistics for
the production.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55,
told The Associated Press in an
interview outside Los Angeles
that he was manager for the com-
pany that produced "Innocence
of Muslims,"which mocked Mus-
lims and the prophet Muhammad
and may have caused inflamed
mobs that attacked U.S. missions
in Egypt and Libya.
U.S. officials are investigating
whether the assault on the con-
sulate was a planned terrorist
strike to mark the anniversary of
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and not
spontaneous.
Nakoula provided the first
details about a shadowy produc-
tion group behind the film.
Nakoula denied he directed
the film and said he knew the
self-described filmmaker, Sam
Bacile. But the cellphone num-
ber that AP contacted Tuesday
to reach the filmmaker who

identified himself as Sam Bacile
traced to the same address near
Los Angeles where AP found
Nakoula. Federal court papers
said Nakoula's aliases included
Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh
and others.
Nakoula told the AP that he
was a Coptic Christian and said
the film's director supported
the concerns of Christian Copts
about their treatment by Mus-
lims.
Nakoula denied he had posed
as Bacile. During a conversation
outside his home, he offered his
driver's license to show his iden-
tity but kept his thumb over his
middle name, Basseley. Records
checks by the AP subsequently
found it and other connections
to the Bacile persona.
The AP located Bacile after
obtaining his cell phone number
from Morris Sadek, a conserva-
tive Coptic Christian in the U.S.
who had promoted the anti-
Muslim film in recent days on his
website. Egypt's Christian Cop-
tic population has long decried
what they describe as a history
of discrimination and occasional
violence from the country's Arab
majority.
Pastor Terry Jones of Gaines-
ville, Fla., who burned Qurans
on the ninth anniversary of 9/11,
said he spoke with the movie's
director on the phone Wednes-
day and prayed for him. He said
he has not met the filmmaker in

person, but the man contacted
him a few weeks ago about pro-
moting the movie.
"I have not met him. Sam Bac-
ile, that is not his real name,"
Jones said. "I just talked to him
on the phone. He is definitely in
hiding and does not reveal his
identity. He was quite honestly
fairly shook up concerning the
events and what is happening.
A lot of people are not support-
ing him. He was generally a little
shook up concerning this situa-
tion."
The film was implicated in
protests that resulted in the
burning of the U.S. consulate
Tuesday in the eastern Libyan
city of Benghazi.
Libyan officials said Wednes-
day that Ambassador Chris Ste-
vens and three other embassy
employees were killed during
the mob violence, but U.S. offi-
cials now say they are investi-
gating whether the assault was a
planned terrorist strike linked to
Tuesday's 11-year anniversary of
the 9/11 terror attacks.
Nakoula, who talked guard-
edly about his role, pleaded no
contest in 2010 to federal bank
fraud charges in California and
was ordered to pay more than
$790,000 in restitution. He was
also sentenced to 21 months in
federal prison and ordered not to
use computers or the Internet for
five years without approval from
his probation officer.

U,.-,ui