Interesting, but it occurred the day after I got a response from the Catalina Stables about my plans to take the family there while visiting.
It's "Business as Usual" on Catalina Island! Both Avalon and Two Harbors Welcome Visitors
Our community is so grateful to the hundreds of firefighters who risked their lives to save our community and our island! We are now doing everything we can to facilitate a smooth and fast transition of equipment back to the mainland, where they can be immediately available for other communities who find themselves in need. All communities in Southern California need to support each other during this period of unprecedented drought.
Catalina Express resumes boat service to Two Harbors TODAY!
Avalon Schools reopens TODAY!
Wednesday, May 16 @ 8:30 am
The fire is 100% contained! Several new photographs have been posted to the Fire Photos page.
Tuesday, May 15 @ 10:45 am
Fire Quick Facts as of 6:00 pm, Monday, May 14:
4,750 acres burned
97% contained
Total personnel & equipment currently assigned include 317 firefighters, 30 engines, and 18 camp crews
Total fire suppression costs to date: $4,400,000
14 Firefighter injuries, all minor
The Catalina Island Golf Course will reopen Wednesday, May 16.
Monday, May 14 @ 10:30 am
Here are the fire "quick facts" as of 6:00 am this morning:
4,750 acres burned
81% containment
Full containment expected at 6:00 pm Tuesday, May 15
Total personnel/equipment currently assigned include 435 firefighters, 37 engines, 18 camp crews, and 2 helicopters
Total fire suppression cost to date: $3,300,000
Demobilization continues, with personnel and equipment returning to the mainland by barge from both Avalon and Two Harbors
Electricity and gas have been restored to all areas of Avalon
The City of Avalon is open for business as usual! Employees of local businesses still on the mainland are urged to return to work as soon as possible
Sunday, May 13 @ 10:20 am
There WILL be a decision about allowing visitors back on the island later this afternoon. Probably around 1:00 pm;
The island's water supply is in great shape! There was no fire damage to Wrigley Reservoir or any of the Baker storage tanks on the West side of Avalon. Testing shows great water quality. Generators are operating the pumping equipment that brings water to both ends of the island. In fighting the fire, the usage was about equal to that used by visitors on a busy day in July or August. Water supplies are more than adequate for the island's consumption and fire suppression;
Avalon Schools will reopen WEDNESDAY, May 16. SCE is still restoring power and LBUSD needs to complete its assessment of the facility;
LA County Fire has begun its demobilization process. Equipment in the field is returning to the mainland by barge from Two Harbors. Equipment in Avalon will be going out on barges from Pebbly Beach. This process is going to take several days.
Fire Fast Facts as of 6:00 am Sunday, May 13: * 4,200 acres burned * 69% containment. Full containment expected Tuesday, May 15 at 6:00 pm * Current assets include 660 firefighters, 41 engines, 22 camp crews, and 5 helicopters * Fire suppression cost to date: $2,100,000
Saturday, May 12 @ 10:15 pm
The following was learned from a briefing by LA County Fire at 6:00 pm Saturday evening:
From the 6:00 pm briefing this evening we have learned the following:
* The fire line above Silver Canyon on the South side of the island is contained;
* The fire line above White's Landing is contained, despite having jumped the Airport road. Tomorrow's efforts will concentrate on the White's Landing canyon area;
* Tomorrow's efforts will also concentrate on a line from Frog Rock to Willow Cove; Camps at Toyon Bay and Gallagher's are OK;
* Weather forecast for tonight is a copy of last night - no wind, lots of humidity and fog. Great for the fire!!!
* Demobilization will begin Sunday, with the release of several units to return to the mainland. All equipment will be shipped back to the mainland by barge;
* GAS SERVICE: RESIDENTS NEED TO CALL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON TO HAVE THEIR GAS SERVICE RESTORED. EDISON WILL NOT ENTER HOMES UNLESS THEY ARE REQUESTED TO DO SO, AND EDISON, NOT RESIDENTS, NEEDS TO RELIGHT PILOTS. IF YOU DON'T HAVE GAS SERVICE, IT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT CALLED TO REQUEST IT. GAS SERVICE WILL BE RESTORED NO LATER THAN MONDAY FOR ALL WHO REQUEST RESTORATION. CALL 1-800-367-8851;
* Verizon Cellular Service: Verizon's cell tower was severely damaged and needs to be replaced. SCE is attempting to replace the tower tonight, and normal Verizon cell service is expected Sunday;
* Two Harbors & the West End: SCE needs to install 50 power poles and 60,000 feet (12 miles) of line in order to restore power to Two Harbors & the West End. It is anticipated that this will take one week (that's amazing!!). This is a temporary fix. The final fix will take a couple of months. SCE is bringing several crews from the mainland to do this work. Housing on weekends is becoming a problem. If you have any housing you can devote for these crews, please contact Pat Jamieson at the Chamber: 310-510-7609 or pjamieson@CatalinaChamber.com. Pat will be coordinating this housing effort. We'll need housing on weekends for a couple of months.
* Visitors: We're still waiting on the official word of when visitors will be allowed on the island. We're anticipating this will be Tuesday, but this still needs to be confirmed. The main issue is congestion in getting all the fire equipment off the island. Everyone in the decision-making chain of command wants to allow visitors as soon as possible, so long as it does not interfere with firefighting and demobilization efforts. The Chamber has impressed on decision-makers that a decision one way or the other needs to be made soon, so visitors can make plans. We hope to have a decision sometime Sunday.
And finally, in preparation for the return of visitors, consider talking to your employees about sharing their experiences with our visitors. We know they will be interested. All of us should feel free to share our experiences, fears, joys and sorrows with our visitors. That's the personal side of this story - the human interest side. We should be willing to share.
We'll have another update Sunday, probably mid-day.
Saturday, May 12 @ 11:45 am
Catalina Express will continue to offer free transportation back to the island through their last scheduled sailing tonight, May 12 to anyone who evacuated Thursday. Residents returning Sunday or later will need to pay the normal boat fare.
Air quality in Avalon is very good! Prevailing winds have blown the smoke away from town and there is no health hazard.
The cruise ships that call at Avalon weekly are more than welcome to visit this coming Tuesday and Wednesday! All visitor activities will be available, except for golf cart rentals and tours into the island's Interior. Golf cart rentals are being restricted so as to not cause congestion with emergency services vehicles.
During a meeting this morning with Avalon City Fire Department Chief Steven Hoefs, we learned the following:
The fire has consumed 4,471 acres and the suppression cost to date is $1,000,000.
There are some 771 firefighters, 46 engines, 29 camp crews, 9 helicopters and 5 fixed wing aircraft fighting the fire.
Today's efforts are concentrated above White's Landing on the North side of the island, and above Silver Canyon on the South side.
Southern California Edison has restored power to all of Avalon with the exception of Avalon Schools. Avalon Schools will be closed on Monday, while a Long Beach Unified School District assessment team inspects the facility. Gas service should be fully restored by late Sunday.
Business owners who lost property in Avalon Canyon, Quail Canyon or Falls Canyon may arrange for an escorted inspection of their property by contacting Deputy Burt Lyon, LA County Sheriff's Department.
Several restaurants have reopened, including Steve's Steak House, Eric's on the Pier, Avalon Seafood, Coyote Joe's,Catalina Cantina, El Galleon, and Antonio's.
Photos of the fire and aftermath will be posted here this afternoon.
Saturday, May 12 @ 8:20 amAccording to NBC News and CNN, the fire is now 50% contained and full containment is expected sometime Monday, one day earlier than previously expected. Cool, moist weather greatly assisted firefighters overnight in making great progress on containing the fire. Visitors are still not permitted to travel to the island. Residents who evacuated last Thursday are encouraged to return home.
Friday, May 11 @ 5:15 pmAt a press conference at 4:00 pm this afternoon, the following information was released:
The fire, which began at 12:31 Thursday, May 10, has burned 4,200 acres and is approximately 35% contained. Full containment is expected by sometime Tuesday.
One residence in Avalon Canyon was destroyed, and 6 industrial buildings in Quail Canyon suffered damage, some severe.
A 50-Member management team from LA County Fire worked with Avalon Fire Department in fighting the fire. Other agencies participating include the California Department of Forestry, US Navy, US Coast Guard, and many local businesses provided support to these agencies.
Island residents who evacuated to the mainland may return to the island, and residents evacuated from the West end of town may return to their homes. Avalon Canyon and all roads leading into the Interior remain closed.
Avalon Schools is without power, and school will be closed on Monday, May 14.
Restaurants currently open include: 1. Antonio's: Open for take-out pizza tonight; Open at 8:00 am for breakfast, lunch & dinner Saturday; 2. El Galleon is open with a full menu; 3. Avalon Bake Shop is open for donuts & coffee.
About 10% of Southern California Edison's electric customers in Avalon are without power, and about 15% of SCE's gas customers have no gas. Initial estimates are that there are 50-60 downed power lines in the Avalon area. Residents returning to their homes may find they have no power or gas, and should be prepared to seek shelter with family or friends, or go to the Casino Theater. DO NOT attempt to relight pilots yourself - SCE will do it for you. DO NOT use candles for light. SCE is working 24 hours a day to restore power and will do so until it is restored to all customers.
Visitors will not be permitted to visit Catalina Island until further notice. Please continue to check this site for updates on this situation. There are various reasons for this restriction: 1. Safety is still a concern. Just 35% of the fire has been contained; 2. Approximately 30% to 40% of local residents voluntarily left the island Thursday evening. That represents a significant portion of Avalon's labor force. Local businesses are simply unable to provide a high level of service until all employees have returned. 3. The business community is very much involved in housing and feeding the 700+ firefighters on the Island. Their efforts must be directed to helping these individuals until their services are no longer needed.
The community of Two Harbors on the West End of Catalina Island is without power and telephone service due to numerous downed lines in the interior of the island.
The First Communion scheduled at St. Catherine's Catholic Church this Sunday has been cancelled.
The Chamber of Commerce Mixer scheduled for next Wednesday, May 16 has been cancelled.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Britain’s Prince Harry won’t serve in Iraq
LONDON - Britain’s Prince Harry will not be sent with his unit to Iraq, Britain’s top general said Wednesday, citing specific threats to the third in line to the throne and the risks to his fellow soldiers.
Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the army chief of staff who recently traveled to Iraq, said the changing situation on the ground exposed the prince to too much danger. Media scrutiny of Harry’s potential deployment exacerbated the situation, he said.
“There have been a number of specific threats, some reported and some not reported, that relate directly to Prince Harry as an individual,” Dannatt said. “These threats exposed him and those around him to a degree of risk I considered unacceptable.”
Clarence House, the office of Harry’s father, Prince Charles, issued a statement declaring Harry’s disappointment that “he will not be able to go to Iraq with his troop deployment as he had hoped.”
“He fully understands Gen. Dannatt’s difficult decision and remains committed to his army career,” the statement said. “Prince Harry’s thoughts are with the rest of the battle group in Iraq.
The Defense Ministry had long said the decision would be kept under review amid concerns for the security of Harry, a second lieutenant, and other soldiers serving with him. The 22-year-old prince is a tank commander trained to lead a 12-man team in four armored reconnaissance vehicles.
The move comes as Britain is preparing to hand over much of its security responsibilities to Iraqi security forces, concentrating troops at Basra Palace and Basra Air Base.
Insurgent groups looking to target Cornet Wales — as his rank is called in the Blues and Royals regiment — would have had a concentrated area in which to look for him.
'Widespread knowledge' citedDefense officials had previously said Harry could be kept out of situations where his presence could jeopardize his comrades. There had been speculation he would have been shadowed by bodyguards.
“A contributing factor to this increase in threat to Prince Harry has been the widespread knowledge and discussion of his possible deployment,” Dannatt said.
Harry would have been the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict with Argentina in 1982.
There have been reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince, including claims his photograph had been widely circulated among militants.
The younger son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, Harry has been a frequent face on the front of Britain’s tabloid newspapers, which have constantly covered his party-going lifestyle at glitzy London nightclubs.
Harry would have been the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict with Argentina in 1982.
Photo making the rounds?There have been reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince, including claims his photograph had been widely circulated among militants.
The younger son of the late Princess Diana, Harry has been a frequent face on the front of Britain’s tabloid newspapers, which have constantly covered his party-going lifestyle at glitzy London nightclubs.
Dannatt paid tribute to Harry in his statement, describing him has a professional soldier whose presence will be missed in Iraq.
“I commend him for his determination and his undoubted talent, and I don’t say that lightly,” Dannatt said. “His soldiers will miss his leadership in Iraq, although I know his commanding officer will provide a highly capable substitute troop leader.”
Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the army chief of staff who recently traveled to Iraq, said the changing situation on the ground exposed the prince to too much danger. Media scrutiny of Harry’s potential deployment exacerbated the situation, he said.
“There have been a number of specific threats, some reported and some not reported, that relate directly to Prince Harry as an individual,” Dannatt said. “These threats exposed him and those around him to a degree of risk I considered unacceptable.”
Clarence House, the office of Harry’s father, Prince Charles, issued a statement declaring Harry’s disappointment that “he will not be able to go to Iraq with his troop deployment as he had hoped.”
“He fully understands Gen. Dannatt’s difficult decision and remains committed to his army career,” the statement said. “Prince Harry’s thoughts are with the rest of the battle group in Iraq.
The Defense Ministry had long said the decision would be kept under review amid concerns for the security of Harry, a second lieutenant, and other soldiers serving with him. The 22-year-old prince is a tank commander trained to lead a 12-man team in four armored reconnaissance vehicles.
The move comes as Britain is preparing to hand over much of its security responsibilities to Iraqi security forces, concentrating troops at Basra Palace and Basra Air Base.
Insurgent groups looking to target Cornet Wales — as his rank is called in the Blues and Royals regiment — would have had a concentrated area in which to look for him.
'Widespread knowledge' citedDefense officials had previously said Harry could be kept out of situations where his presence could jeopardize his comrades. There had been speculation he would have been shadowed by bodyguards.
“A contributing factor to this increase in threat to Prince Harry has been the widespread knowledge and discussion of his possible deployment,” Dannatt said.
Harry would have been the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict with Argentina in 1982.
There have been reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince, including claims his photograph had been widely circulated among militants.
The younger son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, Harry has been a frequent face on the front of Britain’s tabloid newspapers, which have constantly covered his party-going lifestyle at glitzy London nightclubs.
Harry would have been the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict with Argentina in 1982.
Photo making the rounds?There have been reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince, including claims his photograph had been widely circulated among militants.
The younger son of the late Princess Diana, Harry has been a frequent face on the front of Britain’s tabloid newspapers, which have constantly covered his party-going lifestyle at glitzy London nightclubs.
Dannatt paid tribute to Harry in his statement, describing him has a professional soldier whose presence will be missed in Iraq.
“I commend him for his determination and his undoubted talent, and I don’t say that lightly,” Dannatt said. “His soldiers will miss his leadership in Iraq, although I know his commanding officer will provide a highly capable substitute troop leader.”
Good 'Ol Chicago (and its constabulary)
CHICAGO - A police officer pleaded not guilty Wednesday to beating a female bartender, and to threatening to arrest bar employees in a failed attempt to suppress a video of the attack that has been viewed around the world.
In a brief hearing, Anthony Abbate’s attorney entered not guilty pleas to all 15 felony counts of aggravated battery, official misconduct, intimidation, conspiracy and communicating with a witness.
“He’s pleading not guilty because he is not guilty,” Peter Hickey said after the hearing. “And we expect at the end, the conclusion of the trial, that that’s what the outcome will be.”
The charges stem from an alleged beating Feb. 19 at a tavern on Chicago’s northwest side that occurred after bartender Karolina Obrycka apparently refused to serve the off-duty officer any more drinks.
Incident caught in tapeVideotape from a surveillance camera in the tavern shows a man police say is the 250-pound Abbate punching, beating and throwing the 115-pound Obrycka to the floor.
The video was broadcast repeatedly, embarrassing the city and prompting criticism of the police department because Abbate originally faced only a misdemeanor until the footage became public.
The indictment alleges that Abbate, using a woman as an intermediary, threatened to plant drugs on bar employees and arrest customers for drunken driving if the video was turned over to authorities.
Abbate, a 12-year department veteran, has not commented on the charges and declined to comment Wednesday.
More officers charged in attacksThree other officers were scheduled to appear in the same courthouse Wednesday on charges stemming from another alleged bar fight.
The officers, charged with aggravated battery, are accused of beating up four businessmen at a Chicago bar in December.
In a federal lawsuit filed this month, the businessmen claim the off-duty officers attacked them while they were playing pool. They contend they suffered broken ribs, broken facial bones, injured vertebrae and bruises, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
In a brief hearing, Anthony Abbate’s attorney entered not guilty pleas to all 15 felony counts of aggravated battery, official misconduct, intimidation, conspiracy and communicating with a witness.
“He’s pleading not guilty because he is not guilty,” Peter Hickey said after the hearing. “And we expect at the end, the conclusion of the trial, that that’s what the outcome will be.”
The charges stem from an alleged beating Feb. 19 at a tavern on Chicago’s northwest side that occurred after bartender Karolina Obrycka apparently refused to serve the off-duty officer any more drinks.
Incident caught in tapeVideotape from a surveillance camera in the tavern shows a man police say is the 250-pound Abbate punching, beating and throwing the 115-pound Obrycka to the floor.
The video was broadcast repeatedly, embarrassing the city and prompting criticism of the police department because Abbate originally faced only a misdemeanor until the footage became public.
The indictment alleges that Abbate, using a woman as an intermediary, threatened to plant drugs on bar employees and arrest customers for drunken driving if the video was turned over to authorities.
Abbate, a 12-year department veteran, has not commented on the charges and declined to comment Wednesday.
More officers charged in attacksThree other officers were scheduled to appear in the same courthouse Wednesday on charges stemming from another alleged bar fight.
The officers, charged with aggravated battery, are accused of beating up four businessmen at a Chicago bar in December.
In a federal lawsuit filed this month, the businessmen claim the off-duty officers attacked them while they were playing pool. They contend they suffered broken ribs, broken facial bones, injured vertebrae and bruises, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Khat: Is it an illicit drug... or an herbal double-espresso?
When federal drug enforcement agents announced last summer that they had arrested scores of suspects in an “international narcotics-trafficking organization” with operations in New York and Seattle, they hailed it as the first major crackdown on khat — a plant grown in the Horn of Africa and chewed like tobacco for its stimulant buzz.
But more than nine months later, prosecutors in Seattle have dismissed charges against all but a handful of defendants, and the few expected to go to trial next month are considered to have a good chance of avoiding jail. The New York case, meantime, is teetering on a fine legal argument over whether khat is a powerful illicit stimulant or something more akin to a double espresso.
The dual cases have rocked close-knit Somali communities in the United States, raising fears among the mostly Muslim immigrants that the defendants could be deported back to the violence and chaos they fled. They also are concerned that the lives of those left behind will be complicated by the government’s implications that the khat trade is somehow linked to terrorist networks in northeastern Africa.
The government’s zeal in pursuing khat smugglers also has raised questions about its priorities. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration led the 18-month-long investigation that spanned three continents, involved a dozen federal, state and local agencies and required thousands of hours of wiretapping. Dozens of court-appointed attorneys have represented defendants who could not afford lawyers.
‘An extremely expensive fight’“There’s no question that it is an extremely expensive fight,” said Eric Sterling, president of the nonprofit Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. “My understanding of the use of khat is that it should be a very low priority for federal law enforcement. … I think these cases are largely a waste of very precious federal criminal justice resources.”
The crackdown, which was dubbed “Operation Somali Express,” by the DEA, went public with the unsealing of federal indictments on July 26. Prosecutors in the Southern District Court of New York charged 44 people with a range of khat-related crimes — including money laundering and conspiracy to import and distribute the leaves. In Seattle, 18 defendants were charged with conspiring to import and distribute the substance.
“Operation Somalia Express struck at the heart of a significant trafficking organization that was sending drugs to the United States,” DEA special agent Rodney Benson in Seattle said in a press release announcing the indictments. “This drug has the same dangerous and damaging effects as other drugs and some of the huge profits from the khat trade were being returned overseas.”
But many experts challenge that assertion, noting that khat has been used in social and religious settings in Somalia and surrounding countries for centuries and is legal in the majority of Western countries.
The World Health Organization has studied khat repeatedly over the years, most recently in 2006 when it assessed its health impact as quite modest. It also has concluded that it does not merit international control.
“No one except the U.S. government asserts khat is particularly addictive,” said Bob Burrows, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Washington, who spent eight years in Yemen, another khat-chewing society. “Another thing is there is no hallucinating. Khat gives a sense of well being. It’s a very social thing.”
Major federal resourcesOperation Somalia Express was large, even in the context of the war on drugs.
The DEA, which received the lion's share of the $13.8 billion budget for U.S. drug control efforts in fiscal 2007, declined to estimate the cost of the operation. But when asked if this was a major law enforcement effort, DEA special agent Erin Mulvey replied, “Absolutely. …It was one of the largest concerted efforts among DEA and (other enforcement) agencies.”
In addition to yielding 62 suspects, the operation resulted in the seizure of 5 tons of khat —roughly $2 million worth of the plant, according to the DEA — in the New York case.
Information from that probe prompted a sting in Seattle, where the federal Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, working with a dozen other agencies, seized another 1,000 pounds of khat.
Trafficking in what?For most Americans, the only reference point for khat could well be “Black Hawk Down,” the 2001 movie in which glassy-eyed Somali boy-soldiers face off with U.S. Special Forces. In the fictionalized account of the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, an Army Ranger warns his comrades before a confrontation with local militiamen that they should exercise abundant caution because by late afternoon their foes will be “all f----d up on khat.”
Khat has been used in social and religious settings in Somalia and surrounding countries for centuries, mainly by men. Taxi drivers, students — and boy-soldiers — use it stay alert and quash hunger. Migrants from the Horn of Africa, including some 150,000 Somalis who have come to the United States since the early 1990s, brought the habit with them.
Most khat users chew it — storing the wad of leaves in a cheek while swallowing the juices, though it also can be made into tea. They describe the effects as wakefulness, euphoria and talkativeness. Its defenders liken it to coffee drinking in other cultures.
There are side effects associated with khat use, however, such as insomnia, followed by exhaustion and testiness, and a list of more serious risks for long-term users. Women complain that it makes men lazy, sexually impotent and is a waste of scant financial resources.
Like most vices, its impact on society is hotly debated.
Sgt. Ben Casuccio, a narcotics officer with the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department, said the drug has had a negative impact on the large Somali community in his city and is a potential "gateway drug" to stronger substances.
"These people, as soon as it comes in, they start using it. ... Other people in the community complain about problems it causes," including domestic disputes and making users not to want to go to work, he said.
But many experts say there is no evidence that its appeal extends beyond its cultural pull.
“This is a very culturally specific drug,” said Peter Reuter, a professor at the University of Maryland’s department of criminology. “It’s so hard to think that there’s a great public issue here. It’s not that khat has become the new yuppie drug. … It’s got no cachet.”
Khat is legally imported in many Western countries, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, and is freely used among African immigrants in those nations. It is barred in some other countries, such as Sweden, while Australia allows khat importation only for personal use.
The United States has taken a hard line on khat, but the law that applies to it is ambiguous. It is this legal gray area that is being debated in court.
“There are issues in this case that are not issues (in other drug cases),” said Sam Schmidt, an attorney for one of the defendants in the New York case. “If it’s a cocaine or marijuana case, you don’t have issues about whether it is a drug or not.”
Fresh khat contains cathinone, a stimulant that is internationally controlled under United Nations agreements and listed as a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States, alongside heroin and LSD.
Disappearing evidenceBut the cathinone in khat begins breaking down the moment the plant is harvested and begins its long journey from the highlands of east Africa to U.S. cities. Even the DEA agrees that after about 48 hours — and no more than 72 — the cathinone is essentially gone, leaving behind a milder stimulant, cathine, possession of which is a misdemeanor. The typical shipping time, from the field in Africa, via Europe to end users in the United States, is about four days.
Rapid cathinone decay creates urgency for sellers and enforcers alike. Traffickers often wrap it in banana leaves to try to preserve its freshness during shipping.
And law-enforcement agencies that intercept khat typically rush it to the nearest lab in refrigerated containers to test it before the active ingredient vanishes.
The levels of cathinone in khat seized during raids in New York were “detectable,” which the government maintains is enough to convict. But defense attorneys have challenged the tests, arguing that they may have reversed the breakdown process and produced traces of cathinone from cathine.
Defense attorneys also have filed motions seeking to suppress evidence gained from wiretapping, arguing that DEA did not have probable cause to believe that any of the banned substance would be present in the khat by the time it arrived in the United States.
One such motion already has been rejected, but U.S. District Judge Denise Cote made it clear in remarks accompanying her ruling that prosecutors must prove that the defendants conspired to import and traffic cathinone, not just khat.
Not always a federal priorityIn the past, khat has not been taken very seriously by federal authorities.
Federal sentencing guidelines equate possession of 100 kilograms of khat — roughly three or four large suitcases full — with possession of 1 kilogram of marijuana or 1 gram of heroin.
For years, when travelers were caught at the airport carrying khat, the plant would be seized and the travelers sent back home. And khat is not once mentioned in the 95-page National Drug Control Strategy for 2007.
Some states also are taking a tougher stance.
Mike Weinman, legislative liaison from the Columbus Police Department, is pressing for changes in Ohio — home to about 40,000 Somali immigrants — that would make it easier to prosecute khat possession cases.
"The problem is getting worse," he said. "We've got officers who are walking into bars where everyone is chewing khat. What do you do with these people? The officers call narcotics and there's not really much they can do."
The exception to that rule is the 2001 case of Mahad Samatar, who was prosecuted in Ohio's first khat trial. Samatar was arrested after picking up a 66-pound khat shipment that was intended for guests at a Somali wedding. Despite being a first time offender, Samatar received a mandatory-minimum 10-year sentence. Many in the community believe the heavy penalty, which came right after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, was the result of a prevailing anti-Muslim mood.
Terrorists profiting from khat?Lawyers, defendants and some law enforcers argue that the reason behind the federal turnaround on khat was the belief that the khat profits are funding terrorist groups operating in the Horn of Africa.
After the indictments, FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon said that the continuing probe would seek to determine the "ultimate destiny of the funds," which intelligence suggested was based in "countries in east Africa which are a hotbed for Sunni (Muslim) extremism and a wellspring for terrorists associated with al-Qaida."
Media coverage of Operation Somali Express amplified the alleged terrorism connection. ABC’s “Nightline” program, which was allowed by federal officials to cover the operation before it became public, broadcast a program on July 26, titled, “Drug of the Terror Lords.”
“What was at stake?” it asked rhetorically. “Stopping the spread of a new drug menace which could be helping fund terrorism.”
“East Africa is the home to several of the East African al-Qaida cell members,” John Demarest, an FBI agent working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, said in the report. “Somalia offers shelter, logistics, through various local jihadi group there, within Mogadishu and surrounding communities. They offer a training venue, funding, jobs and the like.”
Many Somali immigrants also see an anti-terrorism agenda behind the khat crackdown.
‘Part of the ongoing war on terror’“It is clearly part of the ongoing war on terror,” said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center. “… The feds are looking for any excuse to lock people up and hopefully stumble across some connection to terror.”
In the more than two years since Operation Somalia Express got under way, no terrorism-related charges have been filed and no connections between the khat trade and terrorists has been revealed.
A DEA spokeswoman would not comment on whether any evidence has surfaced tying the khat trade to terrorism, saying that was the domain of the FBI. The FBI said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Some experts remain confident the links will turn up. Among them is Harvey Kushner, a criminal justice professor at Long Island University, who has long argued that khat money is funding al-Qaida or associated terror organizations.
Kushner, a TV pundit who has acted as a counterterror consultant for the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, devoted an entire chapter to the notion of a khat-terrorism link in his 2004 book “Holy War on the Home Front.”
“This has been my baby,” he said. “I’ve been lobbying for years to get cooperation between governments, especially United States and (Great Britain), on this. My hope is we’ll be able to show a money trail funneled back to terrorist activities including Somalia, East Africa and other places in the world where al-Qaida has a strong foothold.”
But many Somalis and Africa scholars question the logic of such a link. They point out that the Islamic Courts Union, the fundamentalist Islamic government that briefly took power in Somalia last year, tried to ban the use of khat.
Islamic government toppledThe government was subsequently toppled — in part because of its unpopular position on khat — and supplanted by an interim government with the assistance of U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces.
“I think the whole premise (of a khat-terror link) is really quite questionable,” said Ruth Iyob, professor of African politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “The biggest crowd to profit from khat was the warlords who were supported by the U.S. government.”
Proving such a link, if one exists, is complicated by the way that khat arrives in the United States.
In the New York case, authorities allege that the tons of khat came in 20- to 30-pound bunches, usually carried by dozens of couriers before finally arriving in commercial air express packages from Europe. The challenge for prosecutors will be to create a paper trail linking the shipments to one another.
With the trials scheduled to begin next month in both the New York and Seattle cases, the pool of defendants is shrinking.
Of 18 original defendants in the Seattle case, only five are now headed for trial on June 19. Two were dismissed for mistaken identity and five others were freed after prosecutors decided they were peripheral to the case.
Two defendants who were described in the indictments as ringleaders of the khat-smuggling operation pleaded guilty to agricultural felonies — a crime punishable by 12 months probation and $1,000 fine. Four others have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.
In a new indictment filed on April 5, the five remaining defendants are charged with conspiring to import and distribute cathinone. The charges could bring up to 40 years in prison, but given sentencing guidelines and other considerations, it would be surprising if they received a harsher punishment than the alleged ringleaders, observers say.
“They need to avoid disparity in sentencing,” said attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith, who represented a defendant in the Seattle case against whom all charges were dropped.
N.Y. prosecutors focus on eight In New York, meanwhile, Judge Cotes ordered the prosecution to divide the defendants into smaller groups for trial. The prosecution selected eight defendants against whom it believes the evidence is most convincing for a trial scheduled to start on June 4, including the only four who have been held in prison since last year’s roundup. One of those major players — who had been indicted for a continuing criminal conspiracy, which carries a minimum 20 years — recently agreed to a plea deal that should substantially reduce his prison time.
The outcome of that trial will likely determine whether the other 36 defendants will stand trial or, if guilty verdicts are handed down, seek plea bargains.
Critics say common sense suggests there will be only one trial, but also indicates that common sense is not necessarily the driving force behind the khat cases.
"Hell hath no fury like a zealous federal prosecutor on a mission," said Tim Gresback, a Moscow, Idaho, defense attorney who has been following the federal cases. "If your ideology impels you to conclude that an expensive prosecution of Somalis for chewing on a shrub will somehow reduce terrorism, common-sense financial considerations become irrelevant. When obsessed with terrorism you see it everywhere, even hiding in a shrub."
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
The tale of khat
From farm to market
•
Horn of Africa: Producers and users
•
Legal khat trade
•
Smuggling to the United States
Primary khat producers are highland areas in east Africa—mainly Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya. The cash crop has replaced coffee growing in parts of Ethiopia, and profits from khat exports have surpassed those from tea in Kenya. The biggest consumer market in the continent is Somalia, which produces some khat, but imports most from Kenya and Ethiopia. Somalia’s long tradition of chewing khat once was confined to adult men for socializing or praying, but it has become popular among other groups, especially teenaged boys. The plant is an economic mainstay for many in the region, from growers in the highlands to some 50,000 vendors in Somalia. The khat trade in war-torn Somalia is partly controlled by warlords who use the proceeds to fund their militias.
But more than nine months later, prosecutors in Seattle have dismissed charges against all but a handful of defendants, and the few expected to go to trial next month are considered to have a good chance of avoiding jail. The New York case, meantime, is teetering on a fine legal argument over whether khat is a powerful illicit stimulant or something more akin to a double espresso.
The dual cases have rocked close-knit Somali communities in the United States, raising fears among the mostly Muslim immigrants that the defendants could be deported back to the violence and chaos they fled. They also are concerned that the lives of those left behind will be complicated by the government’s implications that the khat trade is somehow linked to terrorist networks in northeastern Africa.
The government’s zeal in pursuing khat smugglers also has raised questions about its priorities. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration led the 18-month-long investigation that spanned three continents, involved a dozen federal, state and local agencies and required thousands of hours of wiretapping. Dozens of court-appointed attorneys have represented defendants who could not afford lawyers.
‘An extremely expensive fight’“There’s no question that it is an extremely expensive fight,” said Eric Sterling, president of the nonprofit Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. “My understanding of the use of khat is that it should be a very low priority for federal law enforcement. … I think these cases are largely a waste of very precious federal criminal justice resources.”
The crackdown, which was dubbed “Operation Somali Express,” by the DEA, went public with the unsealing of federal indictments on July 26. Prosecutors in the Southern District Court of New York charged 44 people with a range of khat-related crimes — including money laundering and conspiracy to import and distribute the leaves. In Seattle, 18 defendants were charged with conspiring to import and distribute the substance.
“Operation Somalia Express struck at the heart of a significant trafficking organization that was sending drugs to the United States,” DEA special agent Rodney Benson in Seattle said in a press release announcing the indictments. “This drug has the same dangerous and damaging effects as other drugs and some of the huge profits from the khat trade were being returned overseas.”
But many experts challenge that assertion, noting that khat has been used in social and religious settings in Somalia and surrounding countries for centuries and is legal in the majority of Western countries.
The World Health Organization has studied khat repeatedly over the years, most recently in 2006 when it assessed its health impact as quite modest. It also has concluded that it does not merit international control.
“No one except the U.S. government asserts khat is particularly addictive,” said Bob Burrows, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Washington, who spent eight years in Yemen, another khat-chewing society. “Another thing is there is no hallucinating. Khat gives a sense of well being. It’s a very social thing.”
Major federal resourcesOperation Somalia Express was large, even in the context of the war on drugs.
The DEA, which received the lion's share of the $13.8 billion budget for U.S. drug control efforts in fiscal 2007, declined to estimate the cost of the operation. But when asked if this was a major law enforcement effort, DEA special agent Erin Mulvey replied, “Absolutely. …It was one of the largest concerted efforts among DEA and (other enforcement) agencies.”
In addition to yielding 62 suspects, the operation resulted in the seizure of 5 tons of khat —roughly $2 million worth of the plant, according to the DEA — in the New York case.
Information from that probe prompted a sting in Seattle, where the federal Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, working with a dozen other agencies, seized another 1,000 pounds of khat.
Trafficking in what?For most Americans, the only reference point for khat could well be “Black Hawk Down,” the 2001 movie in which glassy-eyed Somali boy-soldiers face off with U.S. Special Forces. In the fictionalized account of the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, an Army Ranger warns his comrades before a confrontation with local militiamen that they should exercise abundant caution because by late afternoon their foes will be “all f----d up on khat.”
Khat has been used in social and religious settings in Somalia and surrounding countries for centuries, mainly by men. Taxi drivers, students — and boy-soldiers — use it stay alert and quash hunger. Migrants from the Horn of Africa, including some 150,000 Somalis who have come to the United States since the early 1990s, brought the habit with them.
Most khat users chew it — storing the wad of leaves in a cheek while swallowing the juices, though it also can be made into tea. They describe the effects as wakefulness, euphoria and talkativeness. Its defenders liken it to coffee drinking in other cultures.
There are side effects associated with khat use, however, such as insomnia, followed by exhaustion and testiness, and a list of more serious risks for long-term users. Women complain that it makes men lazy, sexually impotent and is a waste of scant financial resources.
Like most vices, its impact on society is hotly debated.
Sgt. Ben Casuccio, a narcotics officer with the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department, said the drug has had a negative impact on the large Somali community in his city and is a potential "gateway drug" to stronger substances.
"These people, as soon as it comes in, they start using it. ... Other people in the community complain about problems it causes," including domestic disputes and making users not to want to go to work, he said.
But many experts say there is no evidence that its appeal extends beyond its cultural pull.
“This is a very culturally specific drug,” said Peter Reuter, a professor at the University of Maryland’s department of criminology. “It’s so hard to think that there’s a great public issue here. It’s not that khat has become the new yuppie drug. … It’s got no cachet.”
Khat is legally imported in many Western countries, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, and is freely used among African immigrants in those nations. It is barred in some other countries, such as Sweden, while Australia allows khat importation only for personal use.
The United States has taken a hard line on khat, but the law that applies to it is ambiguous. It is this legal gray area that is being debated in court.
“There are issues in this case that are not issues (in other drug cases),” said Sam Schmidt, an attorney for one of the defendants in the New York case. “If it’s a cocaine or marijuana case, you don’t have issues about whether it is a drug or not.”
Fresh khat contains cathinone, a stimulant that is internationally controlled under United Nations agreements and listed as a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States, alongside heroin and LSD.
Disappearing evidenceBut the cathinone in khat begins breaking down the moment the plant is harvested and begins its long journey from the highlands of east Africa to U.S. cities. Even the DEA agrees that after about 48 hours — and no more than 72 — the cathinone is essentially gone, leaving behind a milder stimulant, cathine, possession of which is a misdemeanor. The typical shipping time, from the field in Africa, via Europe to end users in the United States, is about four days.
Rapid cathinone decay creates urgency for sellers and enforcers alike. Traffickers often wrap it in banana leaves to try to preserve its freshness during shipping.
And law-enforcement agencies that intercept khat typically rush it to the nearest lab in refrigerated containers to test it before the active ingredient vanishes.
The levels of cathinone in khat seized during raids in New York were “detectable,” which the government maintains is enough to convict. But defense attorneys have challenged the tests, arguing that they may have reversed the breakdown process and produced traces of cathinone from cathine.
Defense attorneys also have filed motions seeking to suppress evidence gained from wiretapping, arguing that DEA did not have probable cause to believe that any of the banned substance would be present in the khat by the time it arrived in the United States.
One such motion already has been rejected, but U.S. District Judge Denise Cote made it clear in remarks accompanying her ruling that prosecutors must prove that the defendants conspired to import and traffic cathinone, not just khat.
Not always a federal priorityIn the past, khat has not been taken very seriously by federal authorities.
Federal sentencing guidelines equate possession of 100 kilograms of khat — roughly three or four large suitcases full — with possession of 1 kilogram of marijuana or 1 gram of heroin.
For years, when travelers were caught at the airport carrying khat, the plant would be seized and the travelers sent back home. And khat is not once mentioned in the 95-page National Drug Control Strategy for 2007.
Some states also are taking a tougher stance.
Mike Weinman, legislative liaison from the Columbus Police Department, is pressing for changes in Ohio — home to about 40,000 Somali immigrants — that would make it easier to prosecute khat possession cases.
"The problem is getting worse," he said. "We've got officers who are walking into bars where everyone is chewing khat. What do you do with these people? The officers call narcotics and there's not really much they can do."
The exception to that rule is the 2001 case of Mahad Samatar, who was prosecuted in Ohio's first khat trial. Samatar was arrested after picking up a 66-pound khat shipment that was intended for guests at a Somali wedding. Despite being a first time offender, Samatar received a mandatory-minimum 10-year sentence. Many in the community believe the heavy penalty, which came right after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, was the result of a prevailing anti-Muslim mood.
Terrorists profiting from khat?Lawyers, defendants and some law enforcers argue that the reason behind the federal turnaround on khat was the belief that the khat profits are funding terrorist groups operating in the Horn of Africa.
After the indictments, FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon said that the continuing probe would seek to determine the "ultimate destiny of the funds," which intelligence suggested was based in "countries in east Africa which are a hotbed for Sunni (Muslim) extremism and a wellspring for terrorists associated with al-Qaida."
Media coverage of Operation Somali Express amplified the alleged terrorism connection. ABC’s “Nightline” program, which was allowed by federal officials to cover the operation before it became public, broadcast a program on July 26, titled, “Drug of the Terror Lords.”
“What was at stake?” it asked rhetorically. “Stopping the spread of a new drug menace which could be helping fund terrorism.”
“East Africa is the home to several of the East African al-Qaida cell members,” John Demarest, an FBI agent working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, said in the report. “Somalia offers shelter, logistics, through various local jihadi group there, within Mogadishu and surrounding communities. They offer a training venue, funding, jobs and the like.”
Many Somali immigrants also see an anti-terrorism agenda behind the khat crackdown.
‘Part of the ongoing war on terror’“It is clearly part of the ongoing war on terror,” said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center. “… The feds are looking for any excuse to lock people up and hopefully stumble across some connection to terror.”
In the more than two years since Operation Somalia Express got under way, no terrorism-related charges have been filed and no connections between the khat trade and terrorists has been revealed.
A DEA spokeswoman would not comment on whether any evidence has surfaced tying the khat trade to terrorism, saying that was the domain of the FBI. The FBI said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Some experts remain confident the links will turn up. Among them is Harvey Kushner, a criminal justice professor at Long Island University, who has long argued that khat money is funding al-Qaida or associated terror organizations.
Kushner, a TV pundit who has acted as a counterterror consultant for the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, devoted an entire chapter to the notion of a khat-terrorism link in his 2004 book “Holy War on the Home Front.”
“This has been my baby,” he said. “I’ve been lobbying for years to get cooperation between governments, especially United States and (Great Britain), on this. My hope is we’ll be able to show a money trail funneled back to terrorist activities including Somalia, East Africa and other places in the world where al-Qaida has a strong foothold.”
But many Somalis and Africa scholars question the logic of such a link. They point out that the Islamic Courts Union, the fundamentalist Islamic government that briefly took power in Somalia last year, tried to ban the use of khat.
Islamic government toppledThe government was subsequently toppled — in part because of its unpopular position on khat — and supplanted by an interim government with the assistance of U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces.
“I think the whole premise (of a khat-terror link) is really quite questionable,” said Ruth Iyob, professor of African politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “The biggest crowd to profit from khat was the warlords who were supported by the U.S. government.”
Proving such a link, if one exists, is complicated by the way that khat arrives in the United States.
In the New York case, authorities allege that the tons of khat came in 20- to 30-pound bunches, usually carried by dozens of couriers before finally arriving in commercial air express packages from Europe. The challenge for prosecutors will be to create a paper trail linking the shipments to one another.
With the trials scheduled to begin next month in both the New York and Seattle cases, the pool of defendants is shrinking.
Of 18 original defendants in the Seattle case, only five are now headed for trial on June 19. Two were dismissed for mistaken identity and five others were freed after prosecutors decided they were peripheral to the case.
Two defendants who were described in the indictments as ringleaders of the khat-smuggling operation pleaded guilty to agricultural felonies — a crime punishable by 12 months probation and $1,000 fine. Four others have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.
In a new indictment filed on April 5, the five remaining defendants are charged with conspiring to import and distribute cathinone. The charges could bring up to 40 years in prison, but given sentencing guidelines and other considerations, it would be surprising if they received a harsher punishment than the alleged ringleaders, observers say.
“They need to avoid disparity in sentencing,” said attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith, who represented a defendant in the Seattle case against whom all charges were dropped.
N.Y. prosecutors focus on eight In New York, meanwhile, Judge Cotes ordered the prosecution to divide the defendants into smaller groups for trial. The prosecution selected eight defendants against whom it believes the evidence is most convincing for a trial scheduled to start on June 4, including the only four who have been held in prison since last year’s roundup. One of those major players — who had been indicted for a continuing criminal conspiracy, which carries a minimum 20 years — recently agreed to a plea deal that should substantially reduce his prison time.
The outcome of that trial will likely determine whether the other 36 defendants will stand trial or, if guilty verdicts are handed down, seek plea bargains.
Critics say common sense suggests there will be only one trial, but also indicates that common sense is not necessarily the driving force behind the khat cases.
"Hell hath no fury like a zealous federal prosecutor on a mission," said Tim Gresback, a Moscow, Idaho, defense attorney who has been following the federal cases. "If your ideology impels you to conclude that an expensive prosecution of Somalis for chewing on a shrub will somehow reduce terrorism, common-sense financial considerations become irrelevant. When obsessed with terrorism you see it everywhere, even hiding in a shrub."
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
The tale of khat
From farm to market
•
Horn of Africa: Producers and users
•
Legal khat trade
•
Smuggling to the United States
Primary khat producers are highland areas in east Africa—mainly Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya. The cash crop has replaced coffee growing in parts of Ethiopia, and profits from khat exports have surpassed those from tea in Kenya. The biggest consumer market in the continent is Somalia, which produces some khat, but imports most from Kenya and Ethiopia. Somalia’s long tradition of chewing khat once was confined to adult men for socializing or praying, but it has become popular among other groups, especially teenaged boys. The plant is an economic mainstay for many in the region, from growers in the highlands to some 50,000 vendors in Somalia. The khat trade in war-torn Somalia is partly controlled by warlords who use the proceeds to fund their militias.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Man Drugged Wife & 2 Kids For 4 Years
But was it the man's fault?
Read on and you'll find a suggestion that it all began with the wife - possible - who eventually became the victim of her own web of addiction (awesome story, just horrible):
CHESTER, S.C. - For nearly four years, a South Carolina man held his wife and two sons captive in a house infested with maggots and human waste, authorities said.
The boys slept on a bare mattress as their mother was kept in a drug-induced stupor in a house that was decrepit except for a tidy one-room illegal gambling parlor run by Danny William Dove, police said.
Police found maggots infesting the refrigerator. Human waste and used toilet paper littered the bathroom floor and the house smelled like a dead animal, according to police photographs and authorities who visited the home after Dove was arrested this week.
The living room was covered in trash and upturned furniture, the kitchen's cabinets were falling apart and dirty clothing was piled in waist-high heaps.
"There was chaos everywhere," Chester County Sheriff's Detective Scott Thompson said Thursday. "I don't think we'll ever really determine how it happened — how you get to live like that. I think he got so wrapped up in drugs and wanting to control everything, nothing else mattered."
Boys monitored via videoThe young boys, ages 4 and 8, didn't go to school. Police say they rarely were allowed out of the house and that a video camera monitored their room and the doors to the home. The boys' own grandmother says they're hard to understand unless they're cursing.
Dove, 45, plied his wife, Tamara, with prescription painkillers, cocaine and crack, and forbade her to go outside, police said. Thompson said he didn't expect the 37-year-old mother would be lucid enough to be interviewed for weeks.
"People don't understand why she just doesn't leave," Thompson said. "But with a little intimidation and a lot of drug use, this is what they grew to know as normal life."
Dove was charged with two counts of distribution of a controlled substance, two counts of criminal conspiracy, operating a gambling establishment and two counts of child neglect. He remained in jail Thursday without bond. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
But Dove's mother said her son held no one hostage and that his wife was the root of the couple's drug addiction.
"She's driven my son crazy," Helaine Young said in an interview at her home.
Once owned convenience storesYoung said she threw up when she visited the home with police, her first visit since Christmas 2005, when she said she left after being threatened by her daughter-in-law.
Young said her son was once a wealthy owner of several convenience stores, paying for anything his wife requested including baby sitters and house cleaners. Her son installed the cameras for the family's security when he renovated the home in a rural town near the North Carolina line, she said. The pair met about 13 years ago, Young said.
Young, who has taken care of the couple's 12-year-old son since he was an infant, said she's asked the Department of Social Services repeatedly over the last six years to investigate.
Messages left with Department of Social Services were not immediately returned Friday.
Dove's oldest child, 20-year-old Brittney Dove, said she and a friend used to take care of the boys when she stayed in the home. But she last saw them about three years ago, she said.
"She would not get out of the bed," Brittney said of the boys' mother. "It disgusts me that he's in jail. I'm not condoning what he did. There's no excuse for the child neglect. But she should be there, too. He honestly loved her. He was nothing but good to her."
'Cuss words' from boysThompson said the boys were socially inept.
"The oldest one can communicate, but it's on a 3- to 4-year-old, broken-English level," he said. "The 4-year-old jibber jabbers. It's rambling stuff."
Young said the two knew how to curse because that's what they heard at home.
"The cuss words were the plainest words you can hear from them," she said, recalling phone conversations with the boys.
The boys are living safely with a relative, Thompson said.
"Maybe now we've given these kids the chance of a normal life," Thompson said.
Read on and you'll find a suggestion that it all began with the wife - possible - who eventually became the victim of her own web of addiction (awesome story, just horrible):
CHESTER, S.C. - For nearly four years, a South Carolina man held his wife and two sons captive in a house infested with maggots and human waste, authorities said.
The boys slept on a bare mattress as their mother was kept in a drug-induced stupor in a house that was decrepit except for a tidy one-room illegal gambling parlor run by Danny William Dove, police said.
Police found maggots infesting the refrigerator. Human waste and used toilet paper littered the bathroom floor and the house smelled like a dead animal, according to police photographs and authorities who visited the home after Dove was arrested this week.
The living room was covered in trash and upturned furniture, the kitchen's cabinets were falling apart and dirty clothing was piled in waist-high heaps.
"There was chaos everywhere," Chester County Sheriff's Detective Scott Thompson said Thursday. "I don't think we'll ever really determine how it happened — how you get to live like that. I think he got so wrapped up in drugs and wanting to control everything, nothing else mattered."
Boys monitored via videoThe young boys, ages 4 and 8, didn't go to school. Police say they rarely were allowed out of the house and that a video camera monitored their room and the doors to the home. The boys' own grandmother says they're hard to understand unless they're cursing.
Dove, 45, plied his wife, Tamara, with prescription painkillers, cocaine and crack, and forbade her to go outside, police said. Thompson said he didn't expect the 37-year-old mother would be lucid enough to be interviewed for weeks.
"People don't understand why she just doesn't leave," Thompson said. "But with a little intimidation and a lot of drug use, this is what they grew to know as normal life."
Dove was charged with two counts of distribution of a controlled substance, two counts of criminal conspiracy, operating a gambling establishment and two counts of child neglect. He remained in jail Thursday without bond. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
But Dove's mother said her son held no one hostage and that his wife was the root of the couple's drug addiction.
"She's driven my son crazy," Helaine Young said in an interview at her home.
Once owned convenience storesYoung said she threw up when she visited the home with police, her first visit since Christmas 2005, when she said she left after being threatened by her daughter-in-law.
Young said her son was once a wealthy owner of several convenience stores, paying for anything his wife requested including baby sitters and house cleaners. Her son installed the cameras for the family's security when he renovated the home in a rural town near the North Carolina line, she said. The pair met about 13 years ago, Young said.
Young, who has taken care of the couple's 12-year-old son since he was an infant, said she's asked the Department of Social Services repeatedly over the last six years to investigate.
Messages left with Department of Social Services were not immediately returned Friday.
Dove's oldest child, 20-year-old Brittney Dove, said she and a friend used to take care of the boys when she stayed in the home. But she last saw them about three years ago, she said.
"She would not get out of the bed," Brittney said of the boys' mother. "It disgusts me that he's in jail. I'm not condoning what he did. There's no excuse for the child neglect. But she should be there, too. He honestly loved her. He was nothing but good to her."
'Cuss words' from boysThompson said the boys were socially inept.
"The oldest one can communicate, but it's on a 3- to 4-year-old, broken-English level," he said. "The 4-year-old jibber jabbers. It's rambling stuff."
Young said the two knew how to curse because that's what they heard at home.
"The cuss words were the plainest words you can hear from them," she said, recalling phone conversations with the boys.
The boys are living safely with a relative, Thompson said.
"Maybe now we've given these kids the chance of a normal life," Thompson said.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Oliver Stone brings his passion to anti-war ad
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- From "JFK" to "Natural Born Killers," director Oliver Stone's films have made him a lightning rod for controversy -- and his latest project is unlikely to change that.
Stone directed a new television ad that takes direct aim at the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.
Stone said the ad's message is simple:
"Support the troops. Listen to them. Bring them home," he told CNN. "Give them a life, not death." (Watch Oliver Stone explain why he's been angry for years )
Stone's ad, created for the political action group MoveOn.org, features John Bruhns, an Iraq war veteran whose tour ended in 2004.
"What I'm hoping people will see with this ad is that there are veterans that are coming home from this war that are very patriotic but are not going to blindly follow this president and this failed policy continually," Bruhns said.
Stone fought in Vietnam, an experience he turned into the Oscar-winning film "Platoon."
"Like in Vietnam," Stone said, "we are reaping a harvest of death and shame around the world."
"I get passionate sometimes about it," he said. "In my lifetime, I had two wars. What's going to be next?"
Stone and Bruhns are equally critical of President Bush for vetoing the supplemental appropriation bill that would have set a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. (Full story)
"I don't think he has any excuse at all to veto this bill," the Iraq veteran said.
"By vetoing it, he has said a defiant 'To hell with you' to the American people," said Stone.
Speaking later on CNN's The Situation Room, Stone disagreed with administration officials who say Iraq would descend into chaos if American troops were to pull out.
"If we would get out of there, there would be less pressure and they [the Iraqis] would seek to solve their own problems," he said.
"It is pretty bad right now. People are being killed every day in huge numbers. You can't be a civilian there. ... It's not a livable situation. We brought that havoc there. What could be worse?"
Stone acknowledged that "bloodshed could go up" immediately after an American withdrawal. But, he noted, "they said the same thing about Vietnam."
Given his opposition to the war and pessimism about its accomplishments, the director said that none of the soldiers who have died in Iraq died in vain.
"No man dies in vain," he said. "You die because you believe in something. You hope that the cause is worth it. ... You should be remembered for your sacrifice. That's not to say the war was right, but you honor the men who fought in the war."
Stone directed a new television ad that takes direct aim at the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.
Stone said the ad's message is simple:
"Support the troops. Listen to them. Bring them home," he told CNN. "Give them a life, not death." (Watch Oliver Stone explain why he's been angry for years )
Stone's ad, created for the political action group MoveOn.org, features John Bruhns, an Iraq war veteran whose tour ended in 2004.
"What I'm hoping people will see with this ad is that there are veterans that are coming home from this war that are very patriotic but are not going to blindly follow this president and this failed policy continually," Bruhns said.
Stone fought in Vietnam, an experience he turned into the Oscar-winning film "Platoon."
"Like in Vietnam," Stone said, "we are reaping a harvest of death and shame around the world."
"I get passionate sometimes about it," he said. "In my lifetime, I had two wars. What's going to be next?"
Stone and Bruhns are equally critical of President Bush for vetoing the supplemental appropriation bill that would have set a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. (Full story)
"I don't think he has any excuse at all to veto this bill," the Iraq veteran said.
"By vetoing it, he has said a defiant 'To hell with you' to the American people," said Stone.
Speaking later on CNN's The Situation Room, Stone disagreed with administration officials who say Iraq would descend into chaos if American troops were to pull out.
"If we would get out of there, there would be less pressure and they [the Iraqis] would seek to solve their own problems," he said.
"It is pretty bad right now. People are being killed every day in huge numbers. You can't be a civilian there. ... It's not a livable situation. We brought that havoc there. What could be worse?"
Stone acknowledged that "bloodshed could go up" immediately after an American withdrawal. But, he noted, "they said the same thing about Vietnam."
Given his opposition to the war and pessimism about its accomplishments, the director said that none of the soldiers who have died in Iraq died in vain.
"No man dies in vain," he said. "You die because you believe in something. You hope that the cause is worth it. ... You should be remembered for your sacrifice. That's not to say the war was right, but you honor the men who fought in the war."
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
2005 London Transport Bombers Convicted... And Security Questions Raised
May 1, 2007 - The convictions should have been an unqualified victory for Britain’s intelligence and police agencies. Five British men were sentenced to life imprisonment after a jury found them guilty of planning to use one or more homemade fertilizer bombs to kill thousands in a public shopping mall or nightclub in 2004. Instead of bolstering confidence in British intelligence and security efforts, however, the yearlong trial—which, at a cost of £50 million ($100 million) was the most expensive criminal trial in British history—raised new questions about the competence of British counterterrorism agencies.
The arrests and this week’s conviction thwarted the plot, but the trial also revealed that two bombers who went on to carry out London’s deadly mass-transit attacks in July 2005 had come to the attention of British authorities on several occasions in the years before the bombings. Two of the July bombers, leader Mohammed Siddique Khan and his right-hand man Shehzad Tanweer, had at least four meetings with those convicted this week. These meetings took place while the government was conducting an intensive antiterror operation codenamed “Crevice”.
The problem was that, while tracking the Operation Crevice bombing conspiracy suspects, MI-5, Britain's domestic spy service, ran across more than 50 potential terror suspects, all of whose activities they thought should be monitored. As many as 2,000 different individuals who came into contact, however briefly, with the principal conspiracy suspects were entered in the Operation Crevice database, according to investigators who worked on the case. Of the 50 most interesting suspects, U.K. authorities classified 15 as “essential” targets for further investigation. But at the time, Khan and Tanweer, the future London transport bombers, weren’t thought to be very dangerous, so MI-5 simply listed them as “desirable” targets for further tracking. Due to limited resources, full-scale surveillance of the future bombers was never undertaken—with devastating results.
The ties between the Operation Crevice suspects and the July 7 bombers—and the surprising extent to which the latter were known by the authorities—unraveled slowly during the trial. At first, British officials appeared to claim that there were no connections. Three days after the 2005 attacks, then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the July 7 bombers “simply came out of the blue.” Clarke and other U.K. officials initially described the July 7 bombers as “clean skins”—intelligence parlance for operatives unknown to the authorities. But, over the last year, trial testimony painted a picture of a much more tightly interwoven web that linked the future London bombers with the "Crevice" conspirators closely. Last spring, for instance, Mohammed Junaid Babar, an Islamic militant raised in Queens, New York, who later became an FBI informant, testified that members of the Crevice cell and the July 7 attack had trained together in Pakistan in the summer of 2003.
Among the most disturbing information to surface in court during the lengthy "Crevice" trial was evidence indicating that the U.K.-based conspirators were in contact with high-level Al Qaeda operatives who were apparently close to what remains of the bin Laden terror network's central leadership, perhaps including Osama bin Laden himself.
Evidence introduced at the trial included a voluminous statement given to police by one of the suspects, in which he talked about meeting an apparent Al Qaeda leader in the years after 9/11 at a mosque in Luton, a gritty town north of London, which radical Islamic activists have sometimes used as a base. The Al Qaeda leader, identified at the trial as Abu Munthir (pronounced Munzr), in turn was described by U.S. and U.K. officials as a deputy to one of Al Qaeda's top leaders, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, who, according to evidence presented in court was also in contact with some of the Crevice suspects during visits by them to Pakistan. The Bush administration announced last week that Abdul Hadi, who at one point was believed by U.S. agencies to be the principal contact between what remains of Al Qaeda's high command and allied jihadi fighters in Iraq, had recently been transferred from the secret custody of the CIA to the U.S. military prison encampment at Guantanamo, Cuba. Intelligence sources indicated that Abdul Hadi was captured at an unspecified location sometime late last year and then detained and questioned in secrecy by the CIA until his recent transfer to Guantanamo. The fact that a close associate of such a high-ranking Al Qaeda leader was able to visit Britain after 9/11 may be one of the most disquieting revelations to surface during the Crevice trial.
As is standard procedure in British criminal trials, the judge in the Operation Crevice case issued an order prohibiting publication of information about the defendants’ links to suspects in other cases until the Crevice verdicts were delivered Monday. At one point, prosecutors had sought to introduce trial evidence indicating that the Crevice suspects had some contacts with the July 7 London bombers, but the judge ruled this information inadmissible and banned the U.K. press from disseminating it on the grounds that it could gravely prejudice the Crevice jury against the defendants they were about to judge. But when the larger story hit the headlines today, the news of MI-5’s early knowledge of Khan and Tanweer led to cries for a fresh inquiry into the July 7 bombings from victims of the attack as well as opposition politicians, who are now questioning whether the terrorist attacks of two summers ago might have been preventable after all.
Later today, a group of July 7 survivors and victims’ families delivered a letter to the Home Office demanding "an independent and impartial public inquiry" to provide “a comprehensive, accurate and definitive factual account” of the events surrounding July 7. Among them is Rachel North, a 36-year-old writer who survived the attack at London’s King’s Cross station, where 26 of the 52 deaths occurred. “The latest revelations are that the bombers were not ‘clean skins.’ Two were under surveillance and were known terrorists,” says North. “They should have been blinking red as serious threats. Clearly, decisions [MI-5] made led to 52 people being killed. It is very troubling.”
Likewise, the Conservative Party’s counterterrorism spokesman, David Davis, is also calling for an independent inquiry into the bombings. In a strongly worded editorial published in The Times of London today, Davis writes, “Public safety demands that we assess any shortcomings and put them right as a matter of urgency … The British public deserve no less.” The trial may be over, but the questions are likely to linger.
With Alison Moodie
The arrests and this week’s conviction thwarted the plot, but the trial also revealed that two bombers who went on to carry out London’s deadly mass-transit attacks in July 2005 had come to the attention of British authorities on several occasions in the years before the bombings. Two of the July bombers, leader Mohammed Siddique Khan and his right-hand man Shehzad Tanweer, had at least four meetings with those convicted this week. These meetings took place while the government was conducting an intensive antiterror operation codenamed “Crevice”.
The problem was that, while tracking the Operation Crevice bombing conspiracy suspects, MI-5, Britain's domestic spy service, ran across more than 50 potential terror suspects, all of whose activities they thought should be monitored. As many as 2,000 different individuals who came into contact, however briefly, with the principal conspiracy suspects were entered in the Operation Crevice database, according to investigators who worked on the case. Of the 50 most interesting suspects, U.K. authorities classified 15 as “essential” targets for further investigation. But at the time, Khan and Tanweer, the future London transport bombers, weren’t thought to be very dangerous, so MI-5 simply listed them as “desirable” targets for further tracking. Due to limited resources, full-scale surveillance of the future bombers was never undertaken—with devastating results.
The ties between the Operation Crevice suspects and the July 7 bombers—and the surprising extent to which the latter were known by the authorities—unraveled slowly during the trial. At first, British officials appeared to claim that there were no connections. Three days after the 2005 attacks, then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the July 7 bombers “simply came out of the blue.” Clarke and other U.K. officials initially described the July 7 bombers as “clean skins”—intelligence parlance for operatives unknown to the authorities. But, over the last year, trial testimony painted a picture of a much more tightly interwoven web that linked the future London bombers with the "Crevice" conspirators closely. Last spring, for instance, Mohammed Junaid Babar, an Islamic militant raised in Queens, New York, who later became an FBI informant, testified that members of the Crevice cell and the July 7 attack had trained together in Pakistan in the summer of 2003.
Among the most disturbing information to surface in court during the lengthy "Crevice" trial was evidence indicating that the U.K.-based conspirators were in contact with high-level Al Qaeda operatives who were apparently close to what remains of the bin Laden terror network's central leadership, perhaps including Osama bin Laden himself.
Evidence introduced at the trial included a voluminous statement given to police by one of the suspects, in which he talked about meeting an apparent Al Qaeda leader in the years after 9/11 at a mosque in Luton, a gritty town north of London, which radical Islamic activists have sometimes used as a base. The Al Qaeda leader, identified at the trial as Abu Munthir (pronounced Munzr), in turn was described by U.S. and U.K. officials as a deputy to one of Al Qaeda's top leaders, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, who, according to evidence presented in court was also in contact with some of the Crevice suspects during visits by them to Pakistan. The Bush administration announced last week that Abdul Hadi, who at one point was believed by U.S. agencies to be the principal contact between what remains of Al Qaeda's high command and allied jihadi fighters in Iraq, had recently been transferred from the secret custody of the CIA to the U.S. military prison encampment at Guantanamo, Cuba. Intelligence sources indicated that Abdul Hadi was captured at an unspecified location sometime late last year and then detained and questioned in secrecy by the CIA until his recent transfer to Guantanamo. The fact that a close associate of such a high-ranking Al Qaeda leader was able to visit Britain after 9/11 may be one of the most disquieting revelations to surface during the Crevice trial.
As is standard procedure in British criminal trials, the judge in the Operation Crevice case issued an order prohibiting publication of information about the defendants’ links to suspects in other cases until the Crevice verdicts were delivered Monday. At one point, prosecutors had sought to introduce trial evidence indicating that the Crevice suspects had some contacts with the July 7 London bombers, but the judge ruled this information inadmissible and banned the U.K. press from disseminating it on the grounds that it could gravely prejudice the Crevice jury against the defendants they were about to judge. But when the larger story hit the headlines today, the news of MI-5’s early knowledge of Khan and Tanweer led to cries for a fresh inquiry into the July 7 bombings from victims of the attack as well as opposition politicians, who are now questioning whether the terrorist attacks of two summers ago might have been preventable after all.
Later today, a group of July 7 survivors and victims’ families delivered a letter to the Home Office demanding "an independent and impartial public inquiry" to provide “a comprehensive, accurate and definitive factual account” of the events surrounding July 7. Among them is Rachel North, a 36-year-old writer who survived the attack at London’s King’s Cross station, where 26 of the 52 deaths occurred. “The latest revelations are that the bombers were not ‘clean skins.’ Two were under surveillance and were known terrorists,” says North. “They should have been blinking red as serious threats. Clearly, decisions [MI-5] made led to 52 people being killed. It is very troubling.”
Likewise, the Conservative Party’s counterterrorism spokesman, David Davis, is also calling for an independent inquiry into the bombings. In a strongly worded editorial published in The Times of London today, Davis writes, “Public safety demands that we assess any shortcomings and put them right as a matter of urgency … The British public deserve no less.” The trial may be over, but the questions are likely to linger.
With Alison Moodie
To Treat the Dead
May 7, 2007 issue - Consider someone who has just died of a heart attack. His organs are intact, he hasn't lost blood. All that's happened is his heart has stopped beating—the definition of "clinical death"—and his brain has shut down to conserve oxygen. But what has actually died?
As recently as 1993, when Dr. Sherwin Nuland wrote the best seller "How We Die," the conventional answer was that it was his cells that had died. The patient couldn't be revived because the tissues of his brain and heart had suffered irreversible damage from lack of oxygen. This process was understood to begin after just four or five minutes. If the patient doesn't receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation within that time, and if his heart can't be restarted soon thereafter, he is unlikely to recover. That dogma went unquestioned until researchers actually looked at oxygen-starved heart cells under a microscope. What they saw amazed them, according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "After one hour," he says, "we couldn't see evidence the cells had died. We thought we'd done something wrong." In fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later.
But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.
Biologists are still grappling with the implications of this new view of cell death—not passive extinguishment, like a candle flickering out when you cover it with a glass, but an active biochemical event triggered by "reperfusion," the resumption of oxygen supply. The research takes them deep into the machinery of the cell, to the tiny membrane-enclosed structures known as mitochondria where cellular fuel is oxidized to provide energy. Mitochondria control the process known as apoptosis, the programmed death of abnormal cells that is the body's primary defense against cancer. "It looks to us," says Becker, "as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die."
With this realization came another: that standard emergency-room procedure has it exactly backward. When someone collapses on the street of cardiac arrest, if he's lucky he will receive immediate CPR, maintaining circulation until he can be revived in the hospital. But the rest will have gone 10 or 15 minutes or more without a heartbeat by the time they reach the emergency department. And then what happens? "We give them oxygen," Becker says. "We jolt the heart with the paddles, we pump in epinephrine to force it to beat, so it's taking up more oxygen." Blood-starved heart muscle is suddenly flooded with oxygen, precisely the situation that leads to cell death. Instead, Becker says, we should aim to reduce oxygen uptake, slow metabolism and adjust the blood chemistry for gradual and safe reperfusion.
Researchers are still working out how best to do this. A study at four hospitals, published last year by the University of California, showed a remarkable rate of success in treating sudden cardiac arrest with an approach that involved, among other things, a "cardioplegic" blood infusion to keep the heart in a state of suspended animation. Patients were put on a heart-lung bypass machine to maintain circulation to the brain until the heart could be safely restarted. The study involved just 34 patients, but 80 percent of them were discharged from the hospital alive. In one study of traditional methods, the figure was about 15 percent.
Becker also endorses hypothermia—lowering body temperature from 37 to 33 degrees Celsius—which appears to slow the chemical reactions touched off by reperfusion. He has developed an injectable slurry of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly that he hopes to make part of the standard emergency-response kit. "In an emergency department, you work like mad for half an hour on someone whose heart stopped, and finally someone says, 'I don't think we're going to get this guy back,' and then you just stop," Becker says. The body on the cart is dead, but its trillions of cells are all still alive. Becker wants to resolve that paradox in favor of life.
As recently as 1993, when Dr. Sherwin Nuland wrote the best seller "How We Die," the conventional answer was that it was his cells that had died. The patient couldn't be revived because the tissues of his brain and heart had suffered irreversible damage from lack of oxygen. This process was understood to begin after just four or five minutes. If the patient doesn't receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation within that time, and if his heart can't be restarted soon thereafter, he is unlikely to recover. That dogma went unquestioned until researchers actually looked at oxygen-starved heart cells under a microscope. What they saw amazed them, according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "After one hour," he says, "we couldn't see evidence the cells had died. We thought we'd done something wrong." In fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later.
But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.
Biologists are still grappling with the implications of this new view of cell death—not passive extinguishment, like a candle flickering out when you cover it with a glass, but an active biochemical event triggered by "reperfusion," the resumption of oxygen supply. The research takes them deep into the machinery of the cell, to the tiny membrane-enclosed structures known as mitochondria where cellular fuel is oxidized to provide energy. Mitochondria control the process known as apoptosis, the programmed death of abnormal cells that is the body's primary defense against cancer. "It looks to us," says Becker, "as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die."
With this realization came another: that standard emergency-room procedure has it exactly backward. When someone collapses on the street of cardiac arrest, if he's lucky he will receive immediate CPR, maintaining circulation until he can be revived in the hospital. But the rest will have gone 10 or 15 minutes or more without a heartbeat by the time they reach the emergency department. And then what happens? "We give them oxygen," Becker says. "We jolt the heart with the paddles, we pump in epinephrine to force it to beat, so it's taking up more oxygen." Blood-starved heart muscle is suddenly flooded with oxygen, precisely the situation that leads to cell death. Instead, Becker says, we should aim to reduce oxygen uptake, slow metabolism and adjust the blood chemistry for gradual and safe reperfusion.
Researchers are still working out how best to do this. A study at four hospitals, published last year by the University of California, showed a remarkable rate of success in treating sudden cardiac arrest with an approach that involved, among other things, a "cardioplegic" blood infusion to keep the heart in a state of suspended animation. Patients were put on a heart-lung bypass machine to maintain circulation to the brain until the heart could be safely restarted. The study involved just 34 patients, but 80 percent of them were discharged from the hospital alive. In one study of traditional methods, the figure was about 15 percent.
Becker also endorses hypothermia—lowering body temperature from 37 to 33 degrees Celsius—which appears to slow the chemical reactions touched off by reperfusion. He has developed an injectable slurry of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly that he hopes to make part of the standard emergency-response kit. "In an emergency department, you work like mad for half an hour on someone whose heart stopped, and finally someone says, 'I don't think we're going to get this guy back,' and then you just stop," Becker says. The body on the cart is dead, but its trillions of cells are all still alive. Becker wants to resolve that paradox in favor of life.
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