Nation/World Today in History Associated Press
Today is Thursday, Aug. 22, the 234th day of 2013. There are 131 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 22, 1485, England’s King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, effectively ending the War of the Roses. On this date: In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. In 1846, Gen. Stephen W. Kearny proclaimed all of New Mexico a territory of the United States. In 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln responded to Horace Greeley’s call for more drastic steps to abolish slavery; Lincoln replied that his priority was saving the Union, but he also repeated his personal wish “that all men everywhere could be free.” In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II. In 1922, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins was shot to death, apparently by Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty that Collins had cosigned. In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. conducted its first experimental television broadcast, using a 30-line mechanical system. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle survived an attempt on his life in suburban Paris. In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to South America. In 1972, a hostage drama began at a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn, N.Y., as John Wojtowicz (WAHT’uh-witz) and Salvatore Naturile seized seven employees during a botched robbery; the siege, which ended with Wojtowicz’s arrest and Naturile’s killing by the FBI, inspired the 1975 movie “Dog Day Afternoon.” In 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif. Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. Ten years ago: Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse. Texas Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 people arrested in the 1999 Tulia drug busts and convicted on the testimony of a lone undercover agent. (The agent, Tom Coleman, was later found guilty of aggravated perjury and sentenced to 10 years’ probation.) In Brazil, a rocket exploded on its launch pad during tests just days before liftoff, killing 21 workers.
Out of the Blue
Munchies fetch $50 online
SEATTLE (AP) — A few eBay users are seeing a money-making opportunity in the free bags of chips that were given out by police over the weekend at Seattle’s pot festival known as Hempfest. An unopened Doritos bag from Hempfest had drawn eight bids by Monday afternoon, pushing the price to $58. One bag listed as “used” was fetching $50. The nacho - cheese flavored Doritos were a popular topic surrounding the event because Seattle police distributed them for free along with stickers designed to inform pot consumers about the state’s legal pot law. Officers handed out only 1,000 bags of chips at an event that draws as many as 85,000 people per day.
Sidney Daily News, Thursday, August 22, 2013
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Bradley Manning gets stiffest punishment David Dishneau and Pauline Jelinek Associated Press
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning stood at attention in his crisp dress uniform Wednesday and learned the price he will pay for spilling an unprecedented trove of government secrets: up to 35 years in prison, the stiffest punishment ever handed out in the U.S. for leaking to the media. Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, showed no reaction as military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the sentence without explanation in a proceeding that lasted just a few minutes. A gasp could be heard among the spectators, and one woman buried her face in her hands. Then, as guards hurried Manning out of the courtroom, about a halfdozen supporters shouted from the back: “We’ll keep fighting for you, Bradley!” and “You’re our hero!” With good behavior and credit for the more
AP Photo | Patrick Semansky
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday before a sentencing hearing in his court martial. The military judge overseeing Manning’s trial sentenced Manning to 35 years in prison for giving US secrets to WikiLeaks.
than three years he has been held, Manning could be out in as little as seven years, said his lawyer, David Coombs. The soldier was also demoted and will be dishonorably discharged. The sentencing fired up the long-running debate over whether Manning was a whistleblower or a traitor for giving more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents, plus
battlefield footage, to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. By volume alone, it was the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history, bigger even than the Pentagon Papers a generation ago. In a statement from London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange decried Manning’s trial and conviction as “an affront to basic concepts of Western justice.” But he called the sentence a
“significant tactical victory” because the soldier could be paroled so quickly. Manning could have gotten 90 years behind bars. Prosecutors asked for at least 60 as a warning to other soldiers, while Manning’s lawyer suggested he get no more than 25, because some of the documents he leaked will be declassified by then. Military prosecutors had no immediate comment on the sentence, and the White House said only that any request for a presidential pardon would be considered “like any other application.” The case was part of an unprecedented string of prosecutions brought by the U.S. government in a crackdown on security breaches. The Obama administration has charged seven people with leaking to the media; only three people were prosecuted under all previous presidents combined. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst from
Syrian activists claim deadly ‘toxic gas’ attack
Mubarak under house arrest Sarah el Deeb Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s prime minister ordered Wednesday that deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak be placed under house arrest after he’s released from prison following more than two years in detention. The announcement came hours after a court ordered Mubarak be released for the first time since he was first detained in April 2011, a move threatening to further stoke tension in a deeply divided Egypt. Many feared Mubarak’s release would amplify Islamist allegations that last month’s military coup was a step toward restoring the old regime. Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement that he ordered Mubarak be put under house arrest as part of the emergency measures put in place this month. The decision appeared designed to ease some of the criticism over Mubarak being freed from prison and ensure he appears in court next week for a separate trial. Prison officials said Mubarak may be released as early as Thursday. It is not clear where Mubarak will be held under house
arrest, whether in one of his residences or in a hospital considering his frail health. Since his ouster, Mubarak’s supporters have released conflicting details about his health, including that the 85 year old suffered a stroke, a heart attack and at times went into a coma. His critics called these an attempt to gain public sympathy and court leniency. His wife, Suzanne, has been living in Cairo and keeping a low-profile, occasionally visiting Mubarak and their two sons in prison. But security officials said Mubarak was more likely to be moved to a military hospital because of his ailing health. The order for Mubarak’s release followed an appeal by his lawyers in one of his corruption cases. He is also on trial on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising against him that could put him back behind bars. He faces investigation into at least two other corruption cases as well. The prospect of Mubarak being freed, even if only temporarily, would feed into the larger crisis bedeviling Egypt: the violent fallout from the July 3 coup that unseated President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who became Egypt’s first freely elected president following Mubarak’s ouster.
Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam Associated Press
No defense from suspect in 2009 Fort Hood shooting Michael Graczyk and Paul J. Weber Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — The soldier on trial for the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood refused to put up a fight on Wednesday, resting his case without calling a single witness or testifying in his own defense. Maj. Nidal Hasan could face the death penalty if convicted for the attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at the Texas military base. But when given the
chance to rebut prosecutors’ lengthy case — which included nearly 90 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence — the Army psychiatrist declined. About five minutes after court began Wednesday, a day after prosecutors rested their case, the judge asked Hasan how he wanted to proceed. He answered: “The defense rests.” The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, then asked Hasan: “You have the absolute right to remain silent. You do not have to say anything. You have the right to testify if you choose. Understand?”
Crescent, Okla., digitally copied and released Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables while working in 2010 in Iraq. He also leaked video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters photographer. Manning said he did it to expose the U.S. military’s “bloodlust” and generate debate over the wars and U.S. policy. He was found guilty by the judge last month of 20 crimes, including six violations of the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life in prison without parole. Whistleblower advocates said the punishment was unprecedented in its severity. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists said “no other leak case comes close.” The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and other activists condemned the sentence.
Hasan said he did. When the judge asked if this was his personal decision, he answered: “It is.” Osborn then adjourned the trial until Thursday to give prosecutors time to prepare closing arguments, and jurors were led out of the courtroom. Hasan’s move wasn’t completely unexpected, considering he has made no attempt since his trial began two weeks ago to prove his innocence. He has sat mostly in silence, raising few objections and questioning only three prosecution witnesses.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian anti-government activists accused the regime of carrying out a toxic gas attack that killed at least 100 people, including many children as they slept, during intense artillery and rocket barrages Wednesday on the eastern suburbs of Damascus that are part of a fierce government offensive in the area. The attack coincided with the visit by a 20-member U.N. chemical weapons team to Syria to investigate three sites where attacks allegedly occurred during the past year. Their presence raises questions about why the regime — which called the claims of the attack Wednesday “absolutely baseless” — would use chemical agents at this time. Shocking images emerged from the purported attack, showing pale, lifeless bodies of children lined up on floors of makeshift hospitals and others with oxygen masks on their faces as they were attended to by paramedics. One appeared to be a toddler clad in diapers. There was no visible blood or wounds on their skin. The reported death toll Wednesday would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in Syria’s civil war. There were conflicting reports, however, as to what exactly transpired and the death toll ranged from a hundred to 1,300. Syria’s Information Minister called the activists’ claim a “disillusioned and fabricated one whose objective is to deviate and mislead” the U.N. mission. France’s president demanded the United Nations be granted access to the site of Wednesday’s alleged attack, while Britain’s foreign secretary said if the claims are verified it would mark “a shocking escalation of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.” The White House said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” by the reports. Spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House had requested that the U.N. “urgently investigate this new allegation.” “If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the U.N. team’s immediate and unfettered access to this site,” Earnest said.
Nixon tapes span Watergate, Soviet summit Gillian Flaccus and Sarah Parvini Associated Press
YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) — In the hours after President Richard Nixon delivered his first major national address about Watergate, two future presidents called him to express their private support, according to audio recordings released Wednesday. The April 30, 1973, calls with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were captured on a secret recording system that Nixon used to tape 3,700 hours of conversations between February 1971 and July 1973. The final chronological installment of those tapes — 340 hours — were made public by the National Archives and Records Administration, along with more than 140,000 pages of text documents. Seven hundred hours remain sealed for national security and privacy reasons. Reagan, governor of California at the time, called late in the evening of April 30 to support Nixon after the 37th president delivered
AP Photo | File
In this April 29, 1974, file photo, President Richard M. Nixon points to the transcripts of the White House tapes after he announced during a nationallytelevised speech that he would turn over the transcripts to House impeachment investigators, in Washington. The last 340 hours of tapes from Nixon’s White House were released Wednesday, along with more than 140,000 pages of text materials.
a landmark speech about the Watergate scandal, which was rapidly ensnaring him. Two top White House staffers and close Nixon confidants, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, had resigned earlier in the day, as well as Attorney General Richard Kleindienst as the scandal picked up speed. White House counsel John W. Dean III was also fired
that day. In the speech, Nixon defended the integrity of the White House and said he was not aware of or connected to the Watergate breakin. He stressed that he supported punishment for those involved in possible criminal actions and said he accepted responsibility for ceding the authority of his campaign to others whose “zeal
exceeded their judgment and who may have done wrong in a cause they deeply believed to be right.” Reagan told Nixon the speech was the right one to make and sympathized with the staff exodus. “I just want you to know, we watched and my heart was with you. I know what this must have been and what this must have been in all these days and what you’ve been through,” Reagan said. “You can count on us, we’re still behind you out here and I wanted you to know that you’re in our prayers.” That same evening, Bush, who had recently been appointed chairman of the Republican National Committee, called to say he had watched the speech with “great pride.” This time, however, an angry and exhausted-sounding Nixon complained to Bush about the reaction from TV commentators. “The folks may understand,” Nixon said, before adding later: “To hell with the commentators.”