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USA TODAY - L awrence J ournal -W orld THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
NATION/WORLD NATION
Gyrocopter pilot basking in notoriety Florida man indicted on 2 felonies, 4 other counts in DC flight Fredreka Schouten @fschouten USA TODAY
Doug Hughes, the Florida postal worker who landed a gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol grounds last month and set off alarms about airspace security, made a lower-key return to the nation’s capital Wednesday. He arrived by car, wearing a GPS-empowered ankle bracelet that transmits his every move to federal authorities. He’s no less passionate, however, about the cause that could cost him his job and freedom — overhauling the nation’s campaign-finance system and ending what he sees as the WASHINGTON
rampant corruption on Capitol Hill. “Overall, Congress is in it for the money,” Hughes said during an interview en route to Washington, where he’s scheduled to be in court Thursday. “They are in it for themselves. They are doing what special interests tell them to do, and we’ve been cut out of the political process. “But we are the political body that has power over Congress, and we can bring this thing back.” Late Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced a six-count grand jury indictment against Hughes, 61. He was charged with two felonies — operating an aircraft without a license and flying an unregistered aircraft. He also was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of violating national defense airspace and one count of improperly putting the U.S. Postal Service logo on his gy-
“We are the political body that has power over Congress, and we can bring this thing back.” Doug Hughes, activist
JACK GRUBER, USA TODAY
Gyrocopter pilot Doug Hughes
rocopter during his protest. He faces up to three years in prison on each of the felony counts and up to a year on the charges of violating the no-fly zone in Washington. Hughes has become a celebrity, particularly among activists laboring to reduce the influence of big money in U.S. elections. Hundreds have sent letters and emails to him since he landed his
tiny aircraft on the West Front of the Capitol on April 15. During his brief visit, he’s staying at the Capitol Hill home of the co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink. He recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, expressing “disgust” for the unlimited money swamping U.S. elections. A PR firm, ReThink Media, is providing pro-bono help to promote his activities. Hughes is using the notoriety from his stunt to highlight what he views as solutions, ranging
HISTORY
from measures to replace big campaign contributions with taxpayer financing to a proposal that would require federal contractors to disclose their political spending. Hughes alerted The Tampa Bay Times of his plans before driving the craft to a small airport in Gettysburg, Pa., and flying his solo mission to Washington. He buzzed low over the National Mall and landed, carrying 535 letters about campaign-finance reform that he intended to deliver to all 535 members of Congress. He was immediately arrested. Hughes said he’ll “never do anything like this again.” For starters, he suspects he will be barred from every piloting any kind of aircraft again. He hopes to strike a plea deal with the feds. “Was it worth it? Absolutely,” he said. SWITZERLAND
Hepburn’s gravesite once center of conflict Dispute with sons divided small village Helena Bachmann Special for USA TODAY TOLOCHENAZ ,
INSIDE NIXON’S INTERNAL WAR Newly released papers show military thought president caved in to Japan
“I must emphasize that the price we would pay for Okinawa, even after a settlement of the Vietnam war, would be extremely heavy.” Army Col. Alexander Haig
Ray Locker @rlocker12 USA TODAY
The military’s top officers believed President Nixon was risking national security and caving in to political pressure when he decided in 1969 to push for the return of control over the island of Okinawa to Japan, documents released Wednesday by the National Archives show. “While there may be a political necessity of settling the Okinawa problem as quickly as possible, the US government, in its desire to attain an early and amicable solution of this issue, should recognize fully the adverse consequences of Okinawa’s reversion under conditions which fail to provide adequate safeguards for our military requirements,” wrote Gen. Earle Wheeler, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a March 29, 1969, memorandum to Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. Even at this early stage in his presidency, Nixon was bedeviled by leaks. One day after Wheeler’s memo was sent to Laird, details of it were included in a New York Times report about Okinawa’s status and Nixon’s plans. U.S. forces captured Okinawa in 1945 after an 82-day battle that saw more than 12,500 American troops killed or missing. The fierce fighting on Okinawa was
one consideration used by President Truman when he decided to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead of launching a U.S. invasion of the home islands of Japan. By 1969, however, pressure was building inside Okinawa for the United States to turn the island over to Japanese control. Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato was pushing for the reversion, and Nixon wanted to maintain close relations with Sato. Wheeler’s memo showed the military believed Okinawa provided advantages for U.S. forces that other bases did not, such as the ability to locate nuclear weapons there. “Okinawa remains the most important US military base system in the western Pacific,” Wheeler wrote, “providing a number of installations performing a wide variety of major military functions. … Without the continued unrestricted use of Okinawan bases, it is doubtful that US military forces could meet the essential requirements of the US strategy for the Pacific in the foreseeable future.” Inside the White House, Army Col. Alexander Haig, then a top aide to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, echoed some of the military’s concerns about Okinawa in an April 2, 1969, memorandum to Kissinger also released Wednesday. “I must emphasize that the price we would
AIR FORCE MAGAZINE
pay for (redacted) Okinawa, even after a settlement of the Vietnam war, would be extremely heavy.” Haig’s memo also mentioned differences he had with fellow NSC staff member Richard Sneider on Okinawa, saying a Sneider suggestion “was more forthcoming than we need be in our initial dealings with the Japanese.” Nixon moved ahead with plans to bar nuclear weapons from Okinawa as part of the reversion policy. A June 3 New York Times article reported that in another leak that angered Nixon. Nixon’s anger over leaks, primarily one about the bombing of Cambodia that was not revealed to the American public, led him to authorize on May 9, 1969, a series of secret wiretaps by the FBI on government officials and journalists. The first four wiretaps were on NSC aides Morton Halperin, a key Kissinger deputy, Daniel Davidson, and Helmut Sonnenfeldt and Air Force Col. Robert Pursley, Laird’s aide. A wiretap of the telephone of Sneider, who later become ambassador to South Korea, was started May 20. The wiretaps, which were revealed for the first time in February 1973, were part of what became the second article of the planned impeachment of Nixon. He resigned Aug. 9, 1974, before the House of Representatives voted to impeach him.
Henry Kissinger, left, was President Nixon’s national security adviser.
SWITZERLAND
On any given day, this laid-back Swiss village is abuzz with activity. Tourists arrive by busloads to see a simple stone cross that marks the final resting place of one of the world’s most famous actresses, Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn, who would have turned 86 this month, spent her last 30 years here. But 22 years after she died of cancer, the memory of an old conflict lingers. Several years after Hepburn’s death, a dispute arose between some residents and the screen legend’s two sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti. At its center was an old two-room schoolhouse that villagers converted into a small museum dedicated to Hepburn’s work as an actress and UNICEF ambassador. The sons donated some of their mother’s belongings — her Academy Award for Roman Holiday, photographs, original film posters — with the understanding they would be on loan for only five years. When the time came to give the items, back, villagers became angry because they realized that without these exhibits the museum would have to close. The sons also objected to what they saw as over-commercialization of their mother’s memory, such as the sale at the museum of “Audrey Hepburn chocolates” or lavender from her garden. The villagers countered that all the proceeds from the sales were donated to various children’s charities of which Hepburn herself would have approved. The museum did close, amid much bitterness, in 2002. Villagers divided into two camps: those supporting the sons and others who thought Ferrer and Dotti acted unfairly. There is a third camp — those who believe that, for Hepburn’s sake, old resentments should be put to rest. So a decade after the museum’s closing, residents gathered to dedicate a small sculpture of the actress, a gift from her sons that was unveiled by Dotti. The conflict still comes up in conversations here, but mostly it’s about the warm memories of Hepburn that form her legacy in the village she had called “home.”
MICHEL GANGEN AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Audrey Hepburn’s coffin is carried by, from left, sons Luca Dotti and Sean Ferrer and her companion, Robert Wolders, in 1993.