Islamic scholar expresses frustration

[cxt]

It might be just as effective to define "separatist" as the goal and "terrorism"as the means.

Its the use of murder and terror that gets factions labeled "terrorist"

And its a label factions bring on themselves.

Interesting to note that Ghandi, useing non-violent methods was able to pretty much drive the British Empire out of India in comparitivly short order.

By contrast the Kashmir "separatist" have made no real strides dispite decades of killing and terror.

Another good example would be Ireland. 100 + years of bombings, killing and terror did not get them any closer to their goals.

Stopping the killing did.

[Akil Todd Harvey]

USA TODAY reporter resigns after deception
By Blake Morrison, USA TODAY
USA TODAY foreign correspondent Jack Kelley was forced to resign last week after he repeatedly misled editors during an internal investigation into stories he wrote, the newspaper's top editors said Monday.
 
Jack Kelley

When neither the newspaper nor Kelley could verify a story he reported in Belgrade in 1999, Kelley essentially invented a witness to corroborate the account, the editors said in a statement published on the newspaper's Web site.

Kelley, 43, confessed to the deception in December, more than two months later, but only after the newspaper uncovered the hoax, editors said. In comments e-mailed to the newspaper late Monday, Kelley said he stands behind his work.

"Every story published under my byline has been accurate based on what I saw, the interviews conducted and the details available at the time," Kelley said in one e-mail. "I regret the mistake I made during the course of this investigation, which was not conducted in good faith."

The newspaper's statement offers the most detailed account yet of the downfall of Kelley, one of the most prominent reporters for the nation's largest newspaper and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize just two years ago. In the statement, Editor Karen Jurgensen says the newspaper decided to offer an account of its investigation "because Kelley made it public and because some published accounts have contained inaccurate information."

Left unresolved is the question at the foundation of the inquiry: whether Kelley might have embellished or fabricated stories.

When USA TODAY began the investigation in late May after top editors received an anonymous complaint from a staff member, the newspaper set out to examine the veracity of Kelley's work by looking at a sampling of stories from 1995 to 2001.

Now, seven months later, having declared the investigation over, top editors acknowledge they may never know whether there were inaccuracies in Kelley's stories.

"Given Jack's actions, obviously it's hard to have confidence in his work," said Executive Editor Brian Gallagher, who oversaw the newspaper's investigation.

Mark Memmott, the reporter asked to investigate Kelley, characterized his efforts to verify two of the stories involved as "preliminary."

In the statement to readers, Jurgensen says the newspaper has concluded its efforts.

"As to the other stories examined during the investigation, the editors either concluded they were accurate or that the passage of time and the difficulty of retracing events in distant war-torn countries made verification impossible."

The internal investigation began last summer, just weeks after Jayson Blair, a New York Times reporter, was found to have fabricated stories. Blair's fabrications led to the resignations of Blair and the Times' two top editors, Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd. The Blair case also prompted Gallagher to e-mail staff members May 14.

His e-mail called on anyone with concerns about the accuracy of stories USA TODAY had published to come forward.

About the same time, Gallagher had received an anonymous note. It made no specific allegations but suggested that some of Kelley's stories might have been embellished or made up (the newspaper would not release the note, though editors said Kelley was given a copy). Later that month, another staffer told a top editor about a complaint he had received about the Belgrade story.

Kelley had been with the newspaper since its launch in 1982. Moreover, he was a star. He traveled the world and risked his life to report in war-torn lands.

When not on the road, he often spoke at functions sponsored by the newspaper. He is married to Jacki Kelley, the senior vice president for advertising for USA TODAY.

But Kelley also had drawn the enmity of some staffers. His incredible stories from abroad were just that, some groused; not credible. And almost impossible to verify — at least without substantial effort.

Tracking down sources in foreign countries, especially if those sources were unnamed or the countries were at war, wouldn't be easy. And many journalists are hesitant to share suspicions with management about a colleague's work without facts to back up their concerns.

USA TODAY editors, however, held up Kelley as a model staffer. He was selected Staffer of the Year for 2001 and nominated five times for Pulitzer Prizes.

In his e-mail Monday, Kelley said he believes the anonymous note was the result of "professional jealousy."

But Gallagher said the note became secondary after a staffer came forward with concerns about the Belgrade story.

"We started out with the assumption not that Kelley was guilty but rather that he was not," Gallagher said. "We were looking for the ability to confirm the accuracy of the story and therefore give us confidence in Kelley's work."

Reporter Memmott, a former deputy managing editor at the newspaper, was asked to investigate.

Memmott had supervised Kelley and edited some of Kelley's stories, including at least one of the seven that he was asked to scrutinize.

When told of the anonymous letter and the other complaint, Kelley reacted "exactly as I would want an employee to react in those circumstances," Gallagher said. "He was distraught" but offered to help Memmott verify his stories. He even endorsed the choice of Memmott to investigate, Gallagher said.

The stories Memmott was asked to examine were written from 1995 to 2001, Memmott said. Jurgensen, in an interview Monday, said editors "reviewed a fair amount of Jack's work and decided that those were stories we wanted to know more about."

One was the Belgrade story that was the subject of the complaint from a staffer. It was published July 14, 1999, on page one.

The story cites "Yugoslav army documents" that, according to the story, were "the strongest and most direct evidence linking" then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to "ethnic cleansing."

The newspaper's statement said Kelley told Memmott he had made numerous calls to Yugoslavia to track down sources and translators. Memmott said phone records he later examined showed Kelley had made only a single call to Yugoslavia — and apparently to a wrong number.

In his e-mail Monday night, Kelley said he made "several" calls to Yugoslavia. But most "were not placed from my desk."

The newspaper's statement says Kelley also offered different accounts of how he came to see the army documents. One account involved a single translator; another involved two translators who helped him interview a human rights investigator in Belgrade. Kelley said in his e-mail he "always maintained that there were two translators."

Memmott contacted the activist whose name Kelley provided, but she could not remember talking to Kelley, the statement says. Kelley then gave Memmott the name and phone number of the translator he said was present, the statement says. Despite his efforts, Memmott could not find the translator.

When Memmott told Kelley he could not locate the translator, Kelley said he recalled that a second translator was present and put Memmott in contact with her. That translator said that only she and Kelley interviewed the activist, not a second translator, the statement says. In addition, her recollection of the interviews were not consistent with Kelley's story.

When neither Kelley nor Memmott could find anyone to confirm the story, Kelley "panicked," he told The Washington Post last week. He arranged for a woman who had worked for him on other assignments to pose as the translator that Memmott had been unable to locate, the newspaper determined and Kelley confirmed to The Post.

The woman telephoned Memmott, who said he grew suspicious when she would not give him a way to contact her. In addition, her story seemed a verbatim account of Kelley's two-translator story, even though Kelley and the woman insisted they had not spoken recently, Memmott said.

Memmott taped the calls of the translator and kept track of the numbers from which the woman was calling. One was a Texas number that belonged to a different translator — a woman Kelley had hired years before, when on assignment in Russia. Memmott found the Russian translator's name in Kelley's 1995 and 1996 expense reports, he said.

Unbeknownst to Kelley, USA TODAY hired a private security firm to talk with the Russian translator and compare her voice with the tape of the woman who had spoken to Memmott and vouched for Kelley's story. The voices matched, the statement says.

While the newspaper investigated the ruse, Kelley continued to perpetuate it, the statement says. During one meeting with Memmott and Gallagher, Kelley brought in a photo of the woman he said was his Belgrade translator, the statement says.

By Nov. 11, the statement says, "Kelley's cooperation with the investigation ended" after he hired a lawyer. In mid-December, about two weeks after the newspaper told Kelley that they knew of the hoax — and more than two months after the Russian translator had begun posing for Kelley — Kelley confessed to the publisher of USA TODAY, Craig Moon, the statement says.

Kelley subsequently told Memmott and Gallagher the woman had offered to pose as the translator, "and he took her up on the offer," Memmott recalled.

The newspaper has not been able to find the second translator who, Kelley said, would corroborate the 1999 story.

The newspaper spent less money, effort and time trying to verify at least two of the seven stories Memmott said it earmarked for investigation. The stories were among the work that made Kelley a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.

In one, published Aug. 10. 2001, Kelley recounted how he "happened to be walking near the restaurant" where a suicide bomber struck moments later. Kelley wrote that he saw the bomber before the attack and describes him in detail.

Another story, published Sept. 4, 2001, contains an account of an attack on Palestinians by 13 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Memmott said he could not find anyone with first-hand knowledge of the attack.

When asked for sources to verify both stories, Memmott said, Kelley pointed him to one man: an Israeli undercover agent Kelley says was with him at the restaurant bombing earlier that year. Memmott said he was called by a man who identified himself as the Israeli agent.

The man said he was with Kelley outside the bombed restaurant but was not during the attack by settlers. Memmott said he never learned the full name of the man. He said he is certain only that he spoke with someone calling from Israel.

Jurgensen said editors believe Kelley's account of the restaurant bombing because his direct supervisor remembers Kelley calling her shortly after the bombing. She and Gallagher said confirming the Jewish settlers story appears to be impossible.

[/code][/list]

[Akil Todd Harvey]

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0%2 ... %2C00.html

Muslim Chaplain Charges Dropped
Associated Press
March 20, 2004

MIAMI - The Army's allegations last year were grave: A military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was linked to a possible espionage ring and eventually charged with mishandling classified information. Six months later, all charges against Capt. James Yee have been dropped.

"Chaplain Yee has won," his attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Washington, said in a statement Friday. "The Army's dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long overdue vindication."

Yee now faces only minor punishment and should be back at work soon. If convicted of all the original charges, he could have faced dismissal from the Army and a maximum of 14 years in prison.

In dismissing the charges, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which operates the detention center, cited "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence" if the case proceeded.

Yee's attorney rejected the notion that security concerns played a role and said Yee is owned an apology. Some Asian-American activists supporters of Yee, a 35-year-old Chinese-American, have accused the government of racial and religious profiling.

Charges against Yee had included mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order, making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly downloading pornography on his government laptop.

The U.S. Southern Command said in a release from its Miami headquarters that Yee will face nonjudicial punishment for two side issues, allegations of adultery and pornography, at a hearing Monday at Fort Meade, Md. Only minor punishment, such as duty restriction or a temporary pay cut, is expected.

Monday's hearing will be an Article 15 proceeding, the military's method for dealing with minor infractions, with minor penalties. Fidell said he objected to the hearing being scheduled so soon, saying he and Yee did not have time to prepare.

Yee then will allowed to return to his previous duty station at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Wash, where he previously was a chaplain. His wife and child live in Olympia, Wash.

Believed to be the first U.S. soldier detained in the war on terror, Yee spent 76 days in custody after the military initially linked him to a possible espionage ring at the Naval base. But the government failed to build a capital espionage case against him.

He was arrested Sept. 10 as he arrived at a Jacksonville, Fla., naval base, from Guantanamo, carrying what authorities said were classified documents. Some of the documents were taken from his backpack, and others came from his laptop and his quarters at Guantanamo, officials said.

Before he was charged, Yee had told The Associated Press in a January 2003 interview that one of his goals as chaplain was to clear up misunderstandings about Islam.

"A lot of people don't know Jesus is part of Islam but Muslims believe he was a prophet," Yee said. "Surely people can be more open-minded."

He also said he was concerned about the detainees' spiritual needs.

Telephone messages seeking comment from Yee's wife in Olympia were not immediately returned.

Yee was one of four Guantanamo Bay workers arrested as part of an investigation into possible security breaches at the prison where terrorism suspects are detained.

Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi, an Arabic translator for the Air Force, is accused of trying to deliver more than 180 written and e-mail messages from Guantanamo detainees to Syria. His next hearing is scheduled for March 24.