U.S.: Detainees can be tried based on hearsay

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Draft manual relaxes rules on convicting, executing terror suspects

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.

According to a copy of the manual obtained by The Associated Press, a terror suspect's defense lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence in the person's defense until the government has a chance to review it.

The manual, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday and scheduled to be released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.

Last September, Congress — then led by Republicans — sent Bush a bill granting wide latitude in interrogating and detaining captured enemy combatants. The legislation also prohibited some of the worst abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but granted the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible.

Long road to bill's passage
Passage of the bill, which was backed by the White House, followed more than three months of debate that included angry rebukes by Democrats of the administration's interrogation policies, and a short-lived rebellion by some Republican senators.

The Detainee Treatment Act, separate legislation championed in 2005 by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., prohibited the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of military and CIA prisoners. It was approved overwhelmingly by Congress despite a veto threat by Bush, who eventually signed it into law.

The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants — the Bush administration's term for many of the terrorism suspects captured on the battlefield — "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized people," according to the document.

As required by law, the manual prohibits statements obtained by torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as prohibited by the Constitution.

However, the law does allow statements obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge.

9-year-old runaway sneaks onto flights

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Glad to see Homeland Security is working!! If a 9 year old can sneak onto a plane, so can a terrorist!

I feel so safe knowing they cannot even stop a 9 year old!!!

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LAKEWOOD, Wash. - A 9-year-old boy with a history of stealing cars and running away sneaked onto a plane bound for Texas, getting caught after flubbing an airport connection, officials said.

Semaj Booker apparently found a Southwest Airlines boarding card and made it through airport security Tuesday, hopping two separate flights but landing in San Antonio - short of his Dallas destination, police said.

"The only thing I have to offer on that is that we're looking into it," Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said.

The fourth-grader remained Wednesday in juvenile custody in San Antonio. He had been trying to get to his grandfather in Dallas, where he used to live.

Southwest Airlines' boarding policy, which invites people to board in groups instead of by assigned seats, may have aided Semaj, Lakewood police Lt. David Guttu said. He said he didn't know whether the boy had a ticket.

The boy was unhappy after his family moved to Lakewood, outside Tacoma. His odyssey began Sunday when he stole a car that was left running outside a neighbor's house, only to be spotted by police near the interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 512.

Police pursued Semaj at speeds up to 90 mph until he took an exit and the engine blew, after which the car went over a curb and coasted into a tree. He refused to come out of the car, so officers broke a window to unlock a door and immediately recognized him as a frequent runaway and car thief, Guttu said.

Last month he also crashed a stolen car before being caught by police in Tacoma and more recently was caught in Seattle in a stolen car that had run out of gas, said his mother, Sakinah Booker.

She believes he learned to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation.

Because of those earlier episodes, she said, she had told police not to bring him home if he got into more trouble, but after the latest episode officials at Remann Hall, Pierce County's juvenile detention center, refused to admit him, partly because of his young age.

"Putting a 9-year-old in our facility with our population is not a good thing," said Shelly Maluo, the county's juvenile court administrator.

As a result, he was taken home again, but by 6 a.m. Monday he again had been reported missing. The next day, Guttu said, police got a call from a juvenile lockup in San Antonio saying, "We've got your runaway."

Booker said she had hoped to soon move her four sons back to Dallas, but Semaj grew tired of waiting.

Semaj was "incredibly motivated to get to Texas," Guttu said. "He doesn't want to live in Washington state."

Booker said her son dislikes the neighborhood where the family lives and is afraid of a sex offender who lives nearby.

"He does not like it here at all," she said.

Man feeds world for God

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This is wonderful! We need more of this from everyone in the world, and we'd be better off.

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In less than six months, Steve Kasha and volunteers with Woodstock-based SERV Ministries International have orchestrated a mission that in March will deliver a million meals to the needy in Kenya.

Two more containers, each bearing a million meals, will be sent this year, with plans for monthly shipments next year.

The 39-year-old Kasha said he's fulfilling a vision he received when he was 18. In August 2006, Kasha found himself on an airplane to Kenya, exactly 21 years after the day he got the vision.

"God came to me through a person that I love. My grandmother spoke the words that I was to feed the children," said Kasha. "I spent the next 10 years floundering around, learning my faith, my Christian walk."

In 2000, Kasha founded SERV and began what he now believes was a training period to reach out into the world.

Churches from Jasper to south Atlanta and west Cobb to Alpharetta, participate in the ministry by making donations ($10 feeds 50 people), or traveling to the mission fields.

While it's costly to send the containers, at $40,000 for the container and $8,000 for shipping, Kasha insists the goal of SERV is not to beg for money or meet quotas.

Kasha wants to offer opportunities for Americans to serve others and show Kenyan pastors and residents how to care for each other.

"We're trying to empower the local pastors. We bring in the food, but we can't do everything or be there all the time," said Kasha. "Even though we accompany them with the food, we give it to them to give to the people."

Each 2.2-pound food bag contains 50 meals of dehydrated potatoes, carrots and soy meal enriched with vitamins. Between his August visit and his return in November, Kasha noticed that many people had died in that short period. Conditions are dire, with folks who live in the more rural areas forced to walk seven to 10 miles a day just to get water.

There's no time to waste, says Kasha. "What we have, people are literally dying for."

To make a donation or find out more about joining a mission team, call SERV at 770-516-1108, e-mail skasha@servintl.org or visit www.servintl.org.

A meeting for information on the Kenya ministry will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Hickory Flat United Methodist, 4056 E. Cherokee Drive, Canton. www.hickoryflatumc.org

SERV also has established a feeding center in Mexico, where 200 to 300 children are fed throughout the year.

As many as 18 to 20 mission teams visit Mexico each year to build churches and work with the children.

In the Dominican Republic, SERV built and helps support a church and a school in Aguas Negras. Joey Hatchell, pastor of Faith United Methodist in Smyrna, said SERV is building a 60-bed orphanage in Puerta Plata, an impoverished area where medical teams frequently visit.