8A=THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
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American Taliban charged with conspiracy
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Prosecutors do not have to prove that American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh personally killed CIA agent Johnny Micheal Spann or other Americans, but only that he participated in a bread conspiracy with the Taliban, a federal judge said yesterday.
Responding to defense requests for thousands of documents related to Lindh's captivity in Afghanistan, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III noted that the young man is charged with engaging in a broad conspiracy.
"You are not required to show that he shot at Americans," the judge told prosecutors at a hearing on a variety of requests for information by Lindh's attorneys.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis told the judge "there is no allegation of personal involvement" by Lindh in the killing of Spann, a CIA agent who was slain during a prison uprising in Afghanistan at which Lindh was present.
Lindh's lawyers have said their client was held under horrific conditions after his capture in Afghanistan, and they have argued that any statements he made during that period should not be admissible.
In papers filed last Friday, the government denied this, saying that his food and medical care equaled that of U.S. soldiers.
But Ellis told both sides he would hear no arguments yesterday about the question of suppression of evidence.
The defense contends that Lindh spoke to the FBI under
oureus because he had been blindfolded, kept in a freezing metal container and bound with handcuffs that cut off his circulation. He also was wounded in the leg during a Taliban prison uprising. His lawyers want Ellis to bar the interview as evidence.
The FBI said Lindh described his Taliban activities and admitted he had learned from an al-Qaida instructor that Osama bin Laden had sent people to the United States to carry out suicide missions.
Prosecutors argue that when interviewed, Lindh received the same quality of medical care as wounded American troops, ate the same packaged meals and was given warm comforters. They deny he was bound with extra-tight restraints.
Lindh is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. Three of the 10 charges carry a maximum life sentence; the other seven have prison terms of up to 90 years.
The defense has accused the government of wrongdoing, contending that military officials altered interrogation reports so that Lindh would look guilty.
Prosecutors deny that, saying in court papers that reports in December and January "paint a similar portrait of the defendant as a man who, even after the catastrophic events of Sept. 11th ... maintained his allegiance to enemies of this country."
the government also challenges an accusation that it omitted from documents a Lindh statement that he was disillusioned after the Sept. 11 attacks — and would have left his unit but for fear of death.
Prosecutors say Lindh did not remark that he was disillusioned. Instead, they said, the word was placed in the report by a military interrogator who gave his own interpretation.
The defense not only sought documents but also access to "CS-1," a confidential U.S. source who spoke with Lindh in Afghanistan and was present at the prison uprising that resulted in the death of CIA officer Spann. Prosecutors said they might permit access to the source but would not reveal his identity to the defense.
Lawyers to sue insanity defense in office killing spree trial
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Jury selection began yesterday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing seven co-workers as revenge for his company's plan to garnish his wages to pay taxes he owed the IRS.
Lawyers for Michael "Mucko" McDermott plan to argue that he was legally insane and suffering from schizophrenia when he killed seven people at the offices of Edgewater Technology on Dec. 26, 2000.
Prosecutors, however, say the software engineer knew exactly what he was doing.
They will present evidence that he planned the shootings as revenge and that he took four guns and a stockpile of ammunition to work on the day of the shooting.
when police responded to the shooting, they found McDermott sitting motionless in a chair, an AK47-style semiautomatic rifle beside one foot, a 12-gauge shotgun beside the other.
The only thing he said when officers arrested him was, "I don't speak German."
McDermott's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, plans to call three psychiatrists who will testify that McDermott has schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations. He will ask the jury to find McDermott innocent by reason of insanity, arguing that his mental illness made him unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct.
The use of an insanity defense is seen by some lawyers as a defense of last resort because, in most
cases, it fails. They point to the case of Andrea Yates, the Texas woman convicted of murder March 12 in the drownings of her five children.
March 12th in the office — "If anyone was insane — killing her own children — she was, but the jury didn't even buy that," said Boston defense lawyer Stephen Hrones.
Boston attorney Norman Zalkind used an insanity defense for a man who killed his wife in 1995 after she complained that he burned their dinner. Richard beat his wife to death with a rock, then impaled her heart and lungs on a stick because he believed she was an alien planning to kill him. Zalkind said
"He was very,very crazy—as insane as you can get —but after five days,the jury still came back and said guilty,"Zalkind said.
If the jury were to find McDermott innocent by reason of insanity, he could be ordered committed to a state mental hospital, with annual evaluations to determine whether he should remain committed. If convicted of murder, he faces life in prison without possibility of parole.
Attorney Joseph Balliro, who used an insanity defense unsuccessfully last year in the murder trial of Dr. Richard Sharpe, a dermatologist convicted of killing his wife, said the biggest hurdle defense attorneys face is jurors' fears that the defendant will eventually be released from a hospital.
"When they look at him and listen to what he has admitted doing — this horrible crime — they are concerned about whether or not some psychiatrist says in a year or two that he's no longer a danger to the community and he'll get released," Balliro said.
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Silicon Valley still rules, but an annual survey of America's most Internet-savvy cities found that Boston and Salt Lake City made huge strides over the past year.
Boston jumped 12 places to No.4 in this year's survey, published in the May edition of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. Salt Lake City jumped 25 places to sixth, though the magazine said it could be a one-time spike caused by the recent Winter Olympics.
San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas, stayed in the top three spots, which they've held in all but one of the five surveys.
Don Willmott, the magazine's technology editor, said the biggest news may have been the fact that numbers were up almost everywhere, despite the recession. It took a score of 36 out of 40 to win this year, up from 33.3.
"Everyone's getting better." Willmott said.
The magazine uses a formula that measures more than just
TUESDAY,APRIL2,2002
Internet use and high-tech jobs to get a sense of which communities make the most of the Web. Willmott said that analysis included basic stats, the extent to which businesses are online and how sophisticated the users are.
"We measure that by how often they shop and how many have gotten fast access," he said.
The formula also includes an evaluation of content available in the area, including a ranking of how well local government uses the Net. That helped give Boston a boost.
"It really is one of the best city Web sites." Willmott said of city-of-boston.gov.
Top-ranked San Francisco has the highest percentage of households using the 'Net (78.8), is No. 2 in online spending per user ($356) and in domains per 1,000 firms (4,163), and sixth in broadband use and interest (54.9 percent).
The data is compiled from Forrester Research and Matthew Zook of the Internet Geography Project.
O'Hare airport metal detector malfunctions
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Hundreds of passengers at O'Hare International Airport had to be rescreened early yesterday after a metal detector malfunctioned on one concourse, police said.
Police were called around 8:20 a.m. to help with crowd control as passengers in part of Terminal 3 were forced to go back through security, Officer Thomas Donegan said.
The metal detector malfunctioned and was not unplugged as had been reported by police, said Tony Molinaro of the Federal Aviation Administration
Donegan said the machine was down for about 40 minutes.
Terminal 3 serves passengers on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Representatives of the two airlines said they did not know how many passengers were affected. Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Monique Bond said the disruption came at a relatively slow time and no one had to be removed from planes to be re-screened.
On Sunday, a malfunctioning metal detector at the albuquerque, N.M., airport failed to catch a man carrying a hunting knife, and officials said they had no idea how long the machine had not been working.
Some 800 to 1,200 passengers had to be re-screened after the incident, causing delays, airport spokeswoman Maggie Santiago said.
The metal detector was improperly calibrated at a setting too low to pick up the knife, the Transportation Security Administration said. There was no evidence the error was anything more than a mistake, but investigators were looking into the matter.
The man with the knife, worn in plain sight on his belt, was questioned and released, Santiago said.
"We are kind of calling it an innocent breach of security. They determined no criminal intent," Santiago said.
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