A8
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Vicksburg Post
‘His music was a message to me’ Obama backs U.S. Chilean miner lives out dream at Graceland trials for terrorism
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Edison Pena snaps a photo of an Elvis Presley display at Graceland Friday. would love to wear this outfit on the street, to go shopping. I’d be saying, ‘Why are you looking at me?” Some rooms made him emotional. Pena, 34, shook his head and exhaled as he learned that the last songs Elvis sang and played on his piano before he died were “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and “Unchained Melody.” Pena’s Graceland visit was an experience that fulfilled a dream, he said. “I was paralyzed, a lot of
images came to me,” said Pena. “There’s nothing impossible for God. That’s why I’m here.” The Chilean miners were trapped a half-mile below ground, in a collapsed goldand-copper mine. They were pulled out of the mine by a rescue capsule in October. Pena was reportedly among the most depressed of the trapped men and asked rescuers to send down a photo of the sun. He jogged regularly in the adjacent tunnels that
weren’t blocked by collapse. As a youngster, Pena would stand in front of the mirror, singing Elvis songs and mimicking his onstage style. So Pena, shrouded in darkness in the mine, sang Elvis songs to pass the time. After hearing that Pena was a big fan, Elvis Presley Enterprises sent various gifts to him in Chile, including a picture, DVDs, CDs, a book and sunglasses. “Viva Las Vegas” and “Jailhouse Rock,” were among the movies.
On occasion, he would move farther down in the collapsed mine, allowing him to belt out Elvis songs as loudly as he wanted without bothering his mates. “His music was a message to me, that I could get out,” Pena said. “We were living in death. It could have come at any time.” Shortly after his rescue, an invitation was extended for the trip to Memphis and a tour of Graceland, where Elvis lived for 20 years before he died there at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977. Since his rescue, Pena has received a flood of invitations to attend several events. Pena has run in the New York Marathon and appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman.” He also performed on stage with singer Olivia NewtonJohn in a concert in Santiago, Chile. His U.S. visit doesn’t end at Graceland. Today, he will cut a cake to celebrate Elvis’ 76th birthday, Jan. 8, 1935. Sunday, he will visit Elvis’ birthplace in Tupelo, Miss. Pena will leave Memphis on Monday for Las Vegas, where he will watch “Viva Elvis,” the popular show by Cirque du Soleil. “I don’t deserve so much attention,” Pena said.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama forcefully declared his support Friday for U.S. civilian trials of Guantanamo detainees, pledging to overturn language in a sweeping defense bill that would effectively block such trials anytime soon. “The prosecution of terrorists in federal court is a powerful tool in our efforts to protect the nation and must be among the options available to us,” the president said. “Any attempt to deprive the executive branch of that tool undermines our nation’s counterterrorism efforts and has the potential to harm our national security.” Obama made the comments even while signing the legislation, which a l so allows funding for a wide range of milPresident i t a r y a n d Barack Obama national security programs that the president said were too important to dispense with. The law prohibits the use of Justice Department dollars to transfer suspected terrorists held at the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States, where they could be tried in civilian court. That effectively prevents any such transfer during the period covered by the legislation — the 2011 fiscal year that runs through September. The language reflects deep concerns in Congress and the country about Guantanamo detainees being tried on U.S. soil. The first Guantanamo detainee tried in federal court was acquitted in November on all but one of more than 280 charges that he took part in the al-Qaida bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. That case ignited strident opposition to any further such trials.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Edison Pena stood in Elvis Presley’s “jungle room,” planted his foot, slightly swiveled his hips, and pointed to a chair with a teddy bear resting on it. “Oh let me be, your teddy bear,” said Pena, one of the rescued Chilean miners, surrounded by green carpet in one of his idol’s favorite rooms in Graceland. Pena’s impromptu, spot-on interpretations of many of Elvis’ hits, including “Teddy Bear,” highlighted his tour of Graceland on Friday. An avid and knowledgeable Presley fan, Pena was on a six-day trip to Memphis and Las Vegas paid for by local business and tourism groups. The invitation included a private tour of Elvis’ longtime home and burial place. Pena, who sang Elvis tunes to lift the spirits of 32 fellow Chilean miners while they were trapped underground for 69 days last year, shot video of the mansion with his cell phone. He broke into parts of “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Hound Dog” as he walked through rooms with displays of gold records, movie posters and flashy Elvis outfits. He knows little English outside of Elvis songs. In the high-ceilinged “racquetball room,” he pointed to a black jacket-and-pants combination and said in Spanish, “I
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