8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
STUNTS
NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 9. 2006
Magician David Blaine, 33, left, submerged in an 8-foot acrylic sphere filled with water, presses his fingers against the sphere simultaneously with those of a well-wisher at Lincoln Center in New York on Monday. Blaine, wearing a diving helmet, has spent almost a week in an aquarium shirtless and plans to end the stunt tonight by holding his breath under water longer than 8 minutes, 58 seconds.
Blaine refuses to surface
BY PAT MILTON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — On the last day of a weeklong endurance challenge inside an aquarium, David Blaine faced one final feat: holding his breath for nearly 9 minutes while freeing himself from heavy chains and handcuffs.
"He is pushing his body insanely to the limits," said Dr. Murat Gunel, who headed Blaine's medical team.
Gunel, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine, and other medical experts, had monitored the 33-year-old illusionist's condition 24 hours a day.
Large crowds gathered all day Monday for a closer look at Blaine, who was submerged in an 8-foot snow globe-like tank on the plaza of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He used an oxygen tube to breathe, and was fed and relieved himself by tubes.
Gunel said the challenge had caused liver damage, sharp pains in Blaine's feet and hands, some loss of sensation and rashes all over his body.
Blaine planned to put on chains and handcuffs, remove
his oxygen tube and then escape while holding his breath longer than the record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. The finale was to air live in a two-hour ABC special, "David Blaine: Drowned Alive," on Monday night.
Kirk Crack, the magician's trainer and diving expert, said if there were any signs that Blaine was becoming unconscious, divers would immediately jump into the tank, free him from the chains and bring him to the surface.
Blaine started training in December, with some help from Navy SEALS. He lost 50 pounds
As early as the second day of his challenge, Gunel said, there was evidence that Blaine was suffering liver failure; the medical team consulted with medical experts at NASA before stabilizing his condition.
Blaine's underwater environment is similar to the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in outer space, he said.
"I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused me," said Gunel. "He said he did not want to let the people down."
CIA chief nominee attracts concern
INTELLIGENCE
BY KATHERINE SHRADER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Bush's nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA chief ignited a confirmation fight Monday over the intelligence veteran's ties to the controversial eavesdropping program and his ability to be independent from the military establishment.
With Hayden at his side, Bush urged senators to promptly approve the former National Security Agency head, who one year ago was confirmed unanimously to be the nation's first deputy director of national intelligence.
signing the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. Disclosure of the program late last year sparked an intense civil-liberties debate over whether the president can order the monitoring of international calls and e-mails in the U.S. without court warrants.
"While I am not opposed to his nomination, senators—including myself will have important questions which they will want addressed."
California Rep. Jane Harman, the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, joined colleagues in saying Hayden had
Pat Roberts
Senate Intelligence chairman
"Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position." Bush said in the Oval Office. "He knows the intelligence community from the ground up."
CIA Director Porter Goss announced his resignation last week after tussling with Hayden and his boss, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, about the agency's autonomy and direction.
Even before Hayden's nomination became official, Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers had begun questioning whether he was the right choice to head the spy agency.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., stopped short of endorsing Hayden: "While I am not opposed to his nomination, senators — including myself — will have important questions, which they will want addressed."
Hayden is credited with de-
become part the "White House spin machine" though intelligence professionals typically eschew partisan politics.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has said that he would use a Hayden nomination to
raise questions about the legality of the eavesdropping program, and he has not ruled out holding up the nomination in the meantime.
Several Republicans, including House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, RGa., have called Hayden's military background troublesome in this case.
Hayden, 61, would be the seventh military officer to head the CIA since 1946. But his nomination comes at a time when lawmakers are particularly concerned about the influence of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Seeking to ease concerns about military leadership at the CIA, Negroponte said a retired veteran of the agency's clandestine service, Steve Kappes, was a leading contender to replace the CIA's current deputy director, Vice Adm. Albert Calland III.
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