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22 held in possible human smuggling try

By wire services
Published April 6, 2006

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A defense attorney for a Canadian teenager accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan asked the judge on Wednesday to halt proceedings because of a lack of established rules for the military trials.

The 18 men and four women, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, seemed to be in good physical condition after about two weeks in the container, said Michael Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Port of Seattle security guards spotted the group about 1 a.m.

Milne said there was no evidence of "any real criminal or terrorist activity . . . just an alien smuggling operation."

He said the stowaways appear to be part of an organized smuggling ring. He said he did not know how much they paid for the voyage or who ran the operation.

Milne said it could take investigators several days to determine whether the people will be deported, be held as material witnesses or face other proceedings, such as asylum hearings.

NEW YORK - People living in areas where bird flu has been found in poultry or wild birds should keep their cats indoors, say scientists who believe the potential role of felines in spreading the virus is being overlooked.

Cats have been known to become infected with the H5N1 virus, and lab experiments show they can give it to other cats, although nobody knows whether they can transmit it to people or poultry, the researchers say in the journal Nature.

Scientists know so little about H5N1 in cats that it's difficult to assess the risk they pose when infected, wrote virologist Albert Osterhaus and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, along with Peter Roeder of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Still, "we believe that the potential role of cats should be considered in official guidelines for controlling the spread of H5N1 virus infection," they wrote.

WICHITA, Kan. - Abortion foes are invoking a seldom-used Kansas law to try to force a grand jury to investigate the case of a mentally retarded woman who died after receiving a late-term abortion.

The case represents the latest skirmish over abortion in Kansas, which has become a major battleground, in part because of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few physicians in the country to perform abortions late in pregnancy.

On Friday, abortion opponents plan to present Sedgwick County with a petition signed by nearly 7,000 local residents asking a grand jury to look at the circumstances surrounding the death of Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old woman from Keller, Texas, whose family brought her to Tiller's clinic in Wichita for an abortion in January 2005.

In question is whether the woman had the mental capacity to consent to either sex or an abortion. Abortion foes say Tiller should be investigated on charges of involuntary manslaughter, mistreatment of a dependent adult and failure to report abuse of a child.

A 1970 Kansas law allows citizens to call for a grand jury investigation when they believe local law enforcement agencies have failed to act. Kansas is one of the few states with such a law.

DENVER - The city's mass transit agency and its largest employee union reached a tentative contract agreement Wednesday that could settle a three-day-old strike, a federal mediator said.

Union members planned to continue the walkout at least until they vote on the offer Friday, mediator Christel Jorgensen said. Details of the proposed pact would not be announced until after the vote, Jorgensen said.

Nearly 1,750 bus drivers, light-rail operators and mechanics walked off the job Monday in the city's first transit strike in 24 years.

JET CRASH: An F-16 fighter jet crashed Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean about 35 miles off Myrtle Beach, S.C., the Air Force said. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and was in stable condition.

POST OFFICE SLAYING: In Baker City, Ore., a postal worker killed a colleague by running over her and shooting her in the office parking lot, authorities said Wednesday. Grant Gallaher, 41, struck the woman with a postal vehicle as he drove into the lot Tuesday afternoon, officials said. The victim, Lori Leigh Hayes-Kotter, 49, worked 17 years at the post office.

"Sir, you should halt these proceedings . . . until the government gets the rules together," said Army Capt. John Merriam, an attorney for Omar Khadr, 19.

Shouting and table banging punctuated Wednesday's hearing at this isolated U.S. military base as the judge, Marine Col. Robert S. Chester, and another of Khadr's defense attorneys clashed over the lack of rules for the first military tribunals since the World War II era.

Chester said he would rule on Merriam's request to halt proceedings after he has read relevant material delivered by the defense.

Early in the session, Khadr said he was boycotting the proceedings because he has been kept in solitary confinement since March 30. Chester berated the defense attorney, Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, for not having warned him earlier of the situation.

As the voices grew louder, Vokey banged his hand on a varnished wood table and shouted that he hadn't had an opportunity to alert the judge.

"Every time we come down here there is an incredible burden just to do my job," Vokey shouted. Chester then called a recess.

Late Wednesday, Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand issued a statement saying no detainees at Guantanamo Bay are put in solitary confinement but adding that detainees "in a pretrial status are separated" from the general population.

Vokey and the judge also clashed about trial procedures to bring in a Canadian consulting attorney requested by the Toronto-born Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured.

Chester asked Vokey if he had filed a brief requesting a Canadian attorney as a consultant. Only lawyers who are U.S. citizens are permitted to directly participate. The judge then told Vokey that even if a brief was filed, he didn't know if he had the authority to allow a Canadian attorney into the courtroom.

"There are no rules here," Vokey retorted. "It seems kind of crazy, if the presiding officer doesn't have the authority to act on it, to go to the presiding officer."

In a separate hearing Tuesday, Chester refused to say if he would use international law, or military law or federal statutes as guidelines. The chief military prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, later said the judge can use several standards of law "to provide a full and fair trial."

Khadr has been charged with murder, attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and for planting mines targeted at American convoys.

Khadr is accused of killing Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., and wounding Army Sgt. Layne Morris of West Jordan, Utah, in the August 2002 firefight.

The wounded soldier and Speer's widow filed a lawsuit against Khadr and his father, a suspected al-Qaida financier who authorities believe was killed in Pakistan. In February, a judge awarded them $102.6-million in their suit, though they have been unable to collect the judgment and the family's assets are unknown.

[Last modified April 6, 2006, 02:00:13]