My Life and Times

What Else Is News?By David Wallace-WellsPosted Monday, March 14, 2005, at 4:32 PM PT
Bloggers respond to a New York Times expose about the proliferation of government-made segments, rave about today's massive anti-Syrian rally in Beirut, and work themselves into a frenzy over a new edition of AOL's Terms of Service.
What else is news?: In Sunday's New York Times, David Barstow and Robin Stein reported on local television stations that air segments that look like regular news stories but are actually produced by the federal government to promote particular policy initiatives.
"Perhaps if 'real' news were, well, better, it would be harder to pass off the fake stuff," says University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit. "What distinguishes TV news from propaganda these days?" asks liberal blogger Philocrites, who adds that "news directors at many of the country's TV stations don't know or don't care." "Fake News from A Fake White house," vents Media Matters for America employee Oliver Willis.
Most liberal bloggers are surprisingly even-keeled about the story, though. At Crooked Timber, Australian economist John Quiggin says it "would take much more than this to surprise me in relation to the Bush Administration, and in any case, the practice apparently began under Clinton." What surprises Quiggin is that the story focuses so tightly on politics. "The report showed no concern about the fact (news to me) that corporations have been [using prepackaged segments] for years, more or less openly, to the extent that those involved in producing 'video news releases' have their own association, annual awards and so on."
Quiggin, Instapundit, and Wizbang all compare the phenomenon to print journalists who crib their stories from press releases. But Quiggin thinks that "the video news release goes way beyond this. The closest analog in the print world is those supplements, designed to look like news, with 'advertisement' in small print at the bottom of the page."
Read more about the Times article here.
Another Monday, another march: In a rally the New York Times said "was probably the largest demonstration ever seen in Lebanon," close to a million people, and perhaps as many as two, gathered in downtown Beirut today to protest the presence of Syrian forces in the country. Nationalist rallies have been held every Monday in Beirut since former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed February 14th, but "organizers were determined to make this one especially large in response to the pro-Syrian march last Tuesday."
The most-cited round-up is at Publius Pundit, where Robert Mayer reports that roads as far as five kilometers from the rally were completely blocked by the converging crowds. At the rally, Legislator Marwan Hamadeh declared that the protest was "writing the end of President Lahoud's police state and its Syrian backers." Mayer also points to the poster freedomfighter at the Lebanese Forces Forum, who writes that cities and villages across Lebanon have virtually emptied into Beirut, and declares the "demonstration will leave its mark for decades if not centruies to come." Raja Abu Hassan, a student writing at The Lebanese bloggers, calls, "HEY… PLANET EARTH: DO YOU SEE???? DO YOU SEE???"
"When Hizbullah had its rally, various eeyores said, see, that's bigger than the pro-freedom opposition rallies that have filled Beirut. Well, take that," declares Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis. Writing at conservative clubhouse The Corner, Lebanese academic Walid Phares notes approvingly that whereas the "Hizbollah march was fully financed by Iran, Syria and Lebanon's intelligence services (per sources), the Monday democracy demo is financed by local fundraisers, businesses and local municipalities." Philadelphian freelance journalist Sam Jaffe believes that "the real prize…isn't about headcounts. It's about votes. The parliamentary vote scheduled for May will be the most important vote in the Middle East—ever."
Read more about the rally here.
Instant mess: On Friday, political consultant Ben Stanfield of Thrashing Through Cyberspace examined AOL's new service agreement and found that the company, in Stanfield's words, "Grants Itself Permission To Steal Your [AOL instant messenger] Conversations." (Read comments on Stanfield's post at tech hub Slashdot.)
Following a voluminous backlash, an AOL spokesman told the Houston Chronicle that AOL does not monitor IM conversations. Further analysis at Slashdot allows for the possibility that it "could be that they don't actually take advantage of its terms, but the Terms of Service seem to broadly favor AIM's right to do exactly what they say they're not doing; rather than drawing any distinction between IM services and public forum posts, the actual terms seem clearly to apply to all AIM products." Silicon Valley computer buff Greg Yardley says this version of AOL's Terms of Service has been in effect for more than a year. Yardley is mystified by the outrage. "It's the Internet," he writes. "You don't have any privacy. You haven't for ages. You gave it up willingly many, many Terms and Conditions ago." Business analyst Ben Silverman agrees. "Want to start a controversy online?" he asks. "All you have to do is follow one easy step: Make a big deal out of old news."
Read more about AOL here.
Have a question, comment, or suggestion for Today's Blogs? Email todaysblogs@slate.com. David Wallace-Wells is a Slate intern.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2114825/

Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Word of MouseBy Jay DixitPosted Monday, March 14, 2005, at 4:10 AM PT
The Los Angeles Times leads with Disney's announcement that Robert Iger will succeed Michael Eisner as chief executive. The Washington Post leads with news that China has authorized the use of force to stop Taiwan from moving toward independence. The New York Times and USA Today both lead with aviation stories, the NYT that noncommercial planes are potential terrorist targets, and USAT reporting that airports are pushing for $5 billion to improve luggage screening. The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide news box with word that Hezbollah may fill a leadership void left by Syria in Lebanon.
Everyone fronts Disney's announcement that its No. 2, Robert Iger, has been named CEO and will succeed Michael Eisner. Iger has been president and COO since 2000 and rose up through the ranks of Disney's network TV business as a studio supervisor and weatherman. Michael Eisner will step down in September, a year earlier than planned. The NYT reports that Disney's board wasn't planning to announce its decision so soon, but called a meeting after eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the only serious outside candidate, bowed out. But the WSJ says that Whitman withdrew only because she felt the board was already set on Iger. The NYT reports that Iger was given credit for Desperate Housewives and Lost, hits that helped reverse ABC's fortunes. But as the WP reports, James B. Stewart's book DisneyWar portrays Iger as opposing those two shows.
The WP reports that China has passed legislation authorizing the use of force to prevent Taiwanese secession, formalizing its longstanding threat to attack if Taiwan moves toward independence. Taiwanese leaders called the antisecession law a "blank check" to invade and may use the law to rally anti-Beijing sentiment. One of the law's "dangerous ambiguities" is that it fails to define formal independence. After all, Taiwan has governed itself, held elections, and conducted diplomacy with foreign countries for the past 50 years.
The NYT obtains and summarizes an internal report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security that concludes that noncommercial planes and helicopters are vulnerable to terrorist hijacking. A majority of domestic security spending since 9/11 has gone to upgrading aviation security, but noncommercial planes are often stored at small airports with little or no security. Planes are "tempting" targets for terrorism because they lend themselves to "spectacular" attacks; terrorists like helicopters because of their "nonthreatening appearance," even when skimming over cities. The planes could be used for "suicide attacks on landmarks" or to "spray toxins."
The WSJ reports that if Syrian troops withdraw from Lebanon as promised, Hezbollah could become a political focus (subscription required). Taking great care not to imply that Syria actually will withdraw, the paper reports that Hezbollah has become popular in Lebanon by providing social services and attacking Israel. The group recently flexed its political muscle by staging a pro-Syria, anti-U.S. rally, and may play a more central role as Lebanon determines how much influence Syria will have in its politics.
USAT leads with news that airports are asking the federal government for $5 billion for a new bag-screening system to better detect bombs and speed up passenger lines. The new system would save billions by using conveyer belts, rather than people, to carry bags to bomb detectors. The Bush administration agrees that the new system is cheaper, more reliable, and more effective, but says airports should pay for it themselves.
The LAT highlights a disturbing trend among U.S. soldiers in Iraq: making music videos using amateur war footage. American soldiers are creating "fast-paced, MTV-style music videos" using footage of firefights and killings. Some videos are meant to be funny or patriotic, but most are gory. "This isn't some jolly freakin' peacekeeping mission," explained one soldier.
USAT fronts the results of a study that shows that pollution from other countries is canceling out efforts to improve U.S. air quality. The U.S. is cutting emissions, but China and other countries are increasing theirs, resulting in an unwelcome import. "Mercury from China, dust from Africa, smog from Mexico"—all find their way into the U.S., oblivious to political boundaries.
In yet another front about Tom DeLay's ethics, the WP reports that Republicans are starting to worry. Although they don't agree with the charges about his overseas travel and ties to lobbyists, Republicans are losing hope that DeLay can survive politically. "The situation is negatively fluid," said one consultant. "If death comes from a thousand cuts, Tom DeLay is into a couple hundred."
The WP fronts news that the battle over teaching evolution is intensifying, propelled by "a polished strategy crafted by activists on America's political right." Emboldened by President Bush, who has said he believes the jury is still out on evolution, policymakers in 19 states are weighing proposals that question evolution. Most of the proposals don't explicitly mention the Bible, but they do propose teaching "intelligent design," which states that life on earth is so complex that it could only have been designed by an intelligent agent.
Tigers playing poker … The NYT reports "a gambling revolution on the nation's college campuses." Fired up from ESPN, students are playing poker on campus, in casinos, and online. One Princeton student is rolling so high that he's not bothering to study for exams or apply for jobs. "My parents said I should do something useful, and I made $10,000," he said. "I thought that was pretty useful."Jay Dixit is a writer in New York. He has written for the New York Times and Rolling Stone.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2114771/

The Arc de Triomphe.

March 14, 2005 CONNECTIONS In Battle of Mutual Hostility, U.S. Is Outmatched by France By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

American Francophobia is not all it's cracked up to be. Actually it's not even a phobia. It is more like an expression of extreme distaste or disgust. Its character is evident in the invention of "Freedom Fries" or in the pouring of Bordeaux wine into sewers. It is theatrical and demonstrative. It tends toward ridicule. And usually it reacts to something very specific: it has a news peg. The latest peg was France's opposition to United States policies in Iraq. And repercussions from that confrontation are likely to overwhelm any partial reconciliations. They have already inspired a series of books critical of France, the most recent by American journalists who have lived there. In "Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese" (Encounter Books), for example, Denis Boyles sends off dispatches dripping in sarcasm about a country that, in his telling, let 15,000 of its elderly die in the heat wave of August 2003 as their relatives refused to cut short their summer vacations, surreptitiously dispatched arms to Iraq during the years of United Nations sanctions and the corrupt Oil for Food program, and readily exercises unilateral power when it prefers (in Ivory Coast) while condemning any hint of it elsewhere. A forthcoming book, "The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us - And Why the Feeling Is Mutual" (Sentinel), by Richard Z. Chesnoff, is less concerned with argument than with sentiment. But it ends with a list of French products to boycott, for those so inclined, and includes some French phrases the savvy American tourist might find handy when faced with French hauteur and hostility. ("Please be polite," is the translation of one, "we didn't raise pigs together.") The accumulated evidence of France's flaws can be compelling, but what pale stuff this is compared with Francophobia's French counterpart! Next month, the University of Chicago Press will publish a book that attracted much attention when it first appeared in France, in 2002: "The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism" by Philippe Roger (the translation is by Sharon Bowman). Mr. Roger, who teaches at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, almost single-handedly creates a new field of study, tracing the nuances and imagery of anti-Americanism in France over 250 years. He shows that far from being a specific reaction to recent American policies, it has been knit into the very substance of French intellectual and cultural life. While American Francophobia can seem transient, news oriented, associated with the political right and theatrical in character, French anti-Americanism - like a venerable Old World tradition - reaches far and deep. It is championed by both the left and right. And over its long evolutionary course, various scientific, philosophical, political, social and racial justifications have been offered. Mr. Roger suggests that its convictions are so fundamental that they are barely recognized, and they are spreading. Mr. Roger does not debate whether or not particular manifestations of anti-Americanism are justified or unjustified. Mostly, he seems to think them unjustified, but that doesn't matter: anti-Americanism is not the result of perceptions, rather, it determines them. Nor is he interested in counterexamples like Lafayette or Tocqueville except if they shed light on his theme. He points out, for example, that Tocqueville's classic dissection of democracy in 19th-century America was widely criticized for portraying a "sugar-coated America." "In its repetition and perpetuation," Mr. Roger writes, "French anti-Americanism must be analyzed as a tradition." It is, he suggests, a "discourse," a way of thinking and speaking about the world that has its own premises and logic. Before the founding of the United States, for example, one reaction to the Romantic idealization of the New World came in a series of scientific studies of the continent's plant and animal life. In 1768, the naturalist Cornelius De Pauw called America a "vast and sterile desert" whose climate nurtured "astonishingly idiotic" men. The natural historian Buffon claimed that its animals were stunted miniatures of their Old World counterparts. These assertions were so widely believed in France that Thomas Jefferson devoted considerable energy to their refutation. Naturalism's hostility then gave way to social condescension from both royalists and republicans. Scorn of America became a literary trope. In Balzac's novels, Mr. Roger points out, it is the "good-for-nothings" who go to America. In Stendhal's novels, various characters' disdain for the United States and what one calls the "culture of the god dollar" seem to echo the author's own convictions. Mr. Roger argues that during the Civil War, many in French society hoped that the South would be victorious partly because it would provide more opportunities for French power. But the war was also seen as a racial battle between Anglo-Saxons in the North and Latins - almost Franco-Latins - in the South. For France, the Civil War replicated the larger power struggle it was confronting in Europe. By the end of the 19th century, French writers also began to fear American power. One writer referred to Uncle Sam as "Oncle Shylock," resonantly adding anti-Semitism into the mix. In the 20th century, French politicians blamed the United States for joining the First World War too late, then for insisting that France repay its debts. Intellectuals like Sartre credited the Soviet Union with winning the Second World War and said that England and the United States invaded just to get in on the victory. After the war, Mr. Roger writes, "what was left to defend in France? Frenchness." Mr. Roger does not fully explain the reasons for an antipathy so far out of proportion to any nation's flaws, but his book stuns with its accumulated detail and analysis. Addressing his French readers, Mr. Roger argues that through this obsessive anti-American discourse, "we are shackled, unbeknownst to ourselves, to a whole past of repugnance and repulsions." With such a past, how can America's contribution to this confrontation hope to compete? Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top

# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 10:44 PM  0 comments

March 14, 2005
Government Report on U.S. Aviation Warns of Security Holes
By ERIC LICHTBLAU



WASHINGTON, March 13 - Despite a huge investment in security, the American aviation system remains vulnerable to attack by Al Qaeda and other jihadist terrorist groups, with noncommercial planes and helicopters offering terrorists particularly tempting targets, a confidential government report concludes.
Intelligence indicates that Al Qaeda may have discussed plans to hijack chartered planes, helicopters and other general aviation aircraft for attacks because they are less well-guarded than commercial airliners, according to a previously undisclosed 24-page special assessment on aviation security by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security two weeks ago.
But commercial airliners are also "likely to remain a target and a platform for terrorists," the report says, and members of Al Qaeda appear determined to study and test new American security measures to "uncover weaknesses."
The assessment comes as the Bush administration, with a new intelligence structure and many new counterterrorism leaders in place, is taking stock of terrorists' capabilities and of the country's ability to defend itself.
While Homeland Security and the F.B.I. routinely put out advisories on aviation issues, the special joint assessment is an effort to give a broader picture of the state of knowledge of all issues affecting aviation security, officials said.
The analysis appears to rely on intelligence gathered from sources overseas and elsewhere about Al Qaeda and other jihadist and Islamic-based terrorist groups.
A separate report issued last month by Homeland Security concluded that developing a clear framework for prioritizing possible targets - a task many Democrats say has lagged - is critical because "it is impossible to protect all of the infrastructure sectors equally across the entire United States."
The aviation sector has received the majority of domestic security investments since the Sept. 11 attacks, with more than $12 billion spent on upgrades like devices to detect explosives, armored cockpit doors, federalized air screeners and additional air marshals.
Indeed, some members of Congress and security experts now consider airplanes to be so well fortified that they say it is time to shift resources to other vulnerable sectors, like ports and power plants.
In the area of rail safety, for instance, Democrats are pushing a $1.1 billion plan to plug what they see as glaring vulnerabilities. "This is a disaster waiting to happen," Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, said last week at a Senate hearing marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly train bombings in Madrid.
Still, the new aviation assessment, examining dozens of airline incidents both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks, makes clear that counterterrorism officials still consider the aviation industry to be perhaps the prime target for another major attack because of the spectacular nature of such strikes.
The assessment, which showed that the F.B.I. handled more than 500 criminal investigations involving aircraft in 2003, will likely serve as a guide for considering further security restrictions in general aviation and other areas considered particularly vulnerable, the officials said.
The report, dated Feb. 25, was distributed internally to federal and state counterterrorism and aviation officials, and a copy was obtained by The Times. It warns that security upgrades since the Sept. 11 attacks have "reduced, but not eliminated" the prospect of similar attacks.
"Spectacular terrorist attacks can generate an outpouring of support for the perpetrators from sympathizers and terrorism sponsors with similar agendas," the report said. "The public fear resulting from a terrorist hijacking or aircraft bombing also serves as a powerful motivator for groups seeking to further their causes."
The report detailed particular vulnerabilities in what it called "the largely unregulated" area of general aviation, which includes corporate jets, private planes and other unscheduled aircraft.
"As security measures improve at large commercial airports, terrorists may choose to rent or steal general aviation aircraft housed at small airports with little or no security," the report said.
The report also said that Al Qaeda "has apparently considered the use of helicopters as an alternative to recruiting operatives for fixed-wing aircraft operations." The maneuverability and "nonthreatening appearance" of helicopters, even when flying at low altitudes above urban areas, make them attractive targets for terrorists to conduct suicide attacks on landmarks or to spray toxins below, the report said.
The assessment does not identify who might be in a position to carry out such domestic attacks.
While law enforcement officials have spoken repeatedly about their concerns over so-called sleeper cells operating within the United States, a separate F.B.I. report first disclosed last week by ABC News indicated that evidence pointing to the existence of such cells was inconclusive.
The question of how well the government is protecting airline travelers surfaced again last month after the disclosure in a Sept. 11 commission investigation that in the months leading up to the attack, federal officials received 52 warnings about Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, some warning specifically about hijackings and suicide operations.
Federal officials now say they have taken a number of steps to tighten security for helicopters, chartered flights and the like in response to perceived threats, as they did last August in temporarily ordering federal security guards and tougher screening for helicopter tours in the New York City area.
Rear Adm. David M. Stone, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security who oversees the Transportation Security Administration, said that "the report validates T.S.A.'s sense of urgency in our daily efforts to secure aviation, and that same sense of urgency can be found in our work securing every other mode of transportation."
The report also sought to codify the various responsibilities for aviation security in the increasingly complex labyrinth of federal agencies, and it examined 33 terrorist plots against airplanes inside and out of the United States over the years.
Of the more than 500 criminal cases involving aircraft handled by the F.B.I. in 2003, two were hijackings in the United States involving flights from Cuba that landed in Florida. More than 300 episodes involved undeclared weapons or other problems at screening and security checkpoints, while 175 cases were triggered by on-board interference or threats against crew members, often involving alcohol.
In one case, a passenger sprayed perfume at a flight attendant "in a hostile manner," the report said.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top
 

# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 10:30 PM  0 comments

A family photo of Terry Ratzmann, the 44-year-old New Berlin, Wisconsin man who shot 11 persons, killing seven before killing himself with a 9mm handgun in Brookfield, Wisconsin at the Sheraton Hotel March 12, 2005. The victims were attending a Church of the Living God service when the shooting took place. Photo by Reuters (Handout)

March 14, 2005
After Shootings in Wisconsin, a Community Asks 'Why?'
By JODI WILGOREN



BROOKFIELD, Wis., March 13 - Two weeks ago, Terry Ratzmann stalked out of a meeting of his church, upset about something in the sermon. On Saturday, he stormed in late to the weekly service at the Sheraton hotel here and without a word began spraying the congregation with bullets.
The authorities remain unsure whether Mr. Ratzmann's rampage, which killed seven members of the Living Church of God, including the pastor, and ended in suicide, was a result of religious frustration. Church members said he had been suffering from depression and had just lost his job.
What they do know is that Mr. Ratzmann, 44, a computer programmer with a fondness for gardening who had no criminal record, ignored pleas from a friend to stop, instead popping a second magazine into his 9-millimeter handgun and firing 22 bullets in a minute or less.
"Nobody has told us anything from prior actions or prior contacts where they would have anticipated anything like this happening," Capt. Phil Horter of the Brookfield Police Department said at a news conference in this Milwaukee suburb on Sunday morning. "At this point we're unable to determine if he had specific targets or if he just shot at random. At this time, we have no clear motive."
The day after the worst mass killings in this state since 1914, when the chef at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's estate in Spring Green, killed seven people, the police were combing through encrypted files on three computers taken from the home where Mr. Ratzmann lived with his mother and sister. No suicide note was found. At the same time, neighbors were trying to reconcile the quiet man who brought them tomatoes and zucchini with the carnage wrought at the hotel. And church members here and across the country searched for meaning in the killings.
"Sometimes he was up and sometimes he was down," Kathleen Wollin, 66, a church member who was present Saturday, said of Mr. Ratzmann. "When he was down, you couldn't talk to him." Several weeks ago, Ms. Wollin recalled, Mr. Ratzmann showed her pictures of a recent trip to Australia, "and he was fine." But, she added, "people tell me he wasn't talking lately."
Sunday evening, two dozen people said the Lord's Prayer and held candles in the frigid night air in a vigil outside the Sheraton.
The Living Church of God was founded in the mid-1990's by Roderick C. Meredith after he was kicked out of one of the many groups that splintered from the Worldwide Church of God upon the death of its leader, Herbert W. Armstrong. It claims 7,000 members in 288 congregations. Many of them, like the one here, meet in hotels or other public spaces with itinerant pastors.
The Living Church holds that people from Northwest Europe are descendants of the Bible's 10 lost tribes of Israel, "possessors of the birthright promises and accompanying blessings" of Abraham's descendants, according to a statement of beliefs from its Web site. It observes the Sabbath on Saturday and counsels members to remain apart from the secular world by not participating in juries, politics or the military.
The church's view of history, which asserts that humankind is moving inexorably toward the "end times," when the world will go through a series of cataclysms before the second coming of Christ, is not uncommon among evangelicals. While most evangelicals eschew specific predictions about "end times," however, Dr. Meredith preached in a recent sermon broadcast internationally that the apocalypse was close, warning members to pay off credit-card debt and hoard savings in preparation for the United States' coming financial collapse.
Sherry Koonce, 47, said her brother, Glenn Diekmeier, a deacon in the church, was at the podium on Saturday warming people up for the pastor's sermon when Mr. Ratzmann burst through the back door.
"He did not see the gun, he didn't see that he had a gun, he heard the shot," Ms. Koonce said of her brother. "When he heard the shooting stop, he got up and he saw what happened. He saw my dad and he went over by him. He looked and he wasn't moving. The paramedic checked and there was not a pulse."
In addition to Ms. Koonce's father, Harold Diekmeier, 74, of Delafield, Wis., who had been a member of the church and its progenitors since 1972, the dead included the pastor, Randy L. Gregory, 51, and his 16-year-old son, James, of Gurnee, Ill.; Gloria Critari, 55, and Richard W. Reeves, 58, both of Cudahy, Wis.; Gerald A. Miller, 44, of Erin, Wis.; and Bart Oliver, 15, of Waukesha.
The pastor's wife, Marjean, 52, was injured, along with three others: Angel M. Varichak, 19; Matthew P. Kaulbach, 21; and a 10-year-old girl named Lindsay whose last name was not released.
At the Sheraton on Sunday afternoon, two of Bart Oliver's friends laid a white cardboard sign saying he would be missed, along with a poem, on a shrine that included eight wooden crosses, two dozen bouquets, stuffed animals and pictures.
"Do not stand at my grave and cry," read the poem, by Mary Frye, which the teenagers pulled off the Internet. "I am not there. I did not die."
Mr. Gregory, a former engineer at I.B.M., became a paid minister in the church about five years ago, and moved from Texas to Gurnee so he could minister to congregations in both Chicago and Milwaukee. Neighbors said they could set their clocks by Mr. Gregory's daily 2 p.m. stroll around their subdivision. They said the family was gone most of the weekend conducting church services in multiple locations.
"The church was everything" to the family, said a neighbor, Toni D'Amore. "Their social activities were pretty much with the church."
The police said there were 50 to 60 people in the hotel conference room for Saturday's service, which started at 12:30 p.m. rather than at the usual 10 a.m. because it was to be followed by a potluck dinner and a talent show. When Mr. Ratzmann began shooting from the back of the room, Captain Horter said, church members "took what action they thought to be necessary, safeguarding themselves, safeguarding family members, safeguarding others."
Ms. Wollin said she was seated in the front and "heard pop-pop."
"I turned around, I saw Terry shooting, I hit the ground," she said.
The first 911 calls from church members' cellphones came in at 12:51 p.m., and officers arrived on the scene three minutes later. Mr. Ratzmann, the police said, was against the wall at the back of the room, dead of a gunshot to the head.
In searching Mr. Ratzmann's home, about two miles away in New Berlin, the police found 9-millimeter bullets that, with the 22 shots fired and those remaining in the handgun, added up to the 50 that come in a box. They also recovered a .22-caliber rifle and the computers, but nothing to explain the massacre. They are trying to construct a timeline of Mr. Ratzmann's activities in the 24 hours before the killings.
No one answered the door on Sunday at the Ratzmanns' wood-frame house, where someone had left a bouquet of flowers and two teddy bears. A woman who picked up the telephone there said only, "At this time the family really has nothing to say."
Neighbors said Mr. Ratzmann was a computer programmer and had lately been out of work. A spokeswoman for Adecco, a human resources firm, said Mr. Ratzmann was an employee of the firm and had recently been on assignment for GE Healthcare, which released a statement saying the company was cooperating with investigators and offering prayers to the victims' families.
Shane Colwell, who lives across the alley, said he and Mr. Ratzmann traded tools as they both built garages. He said Mr. Ratzmann caught rabbits in "humane traps" and drove them 20 miles away rather than shooting them, and he wore a tie, jacket and dress pants for services every Saturday.
Mr. Colwell said he last spoke to Mr. Ratzmann two days before the shooting, while shoveling snow. Mr. Ratzmann was getting seedlings ready for planting, Mr. Colwell said, and was planning a camping trip out West for the summer.
"I didn't know things were this bad; had I known, I would have tried to talk to him," he said.
Kenneth Stump, 83, a retired warehouse worker who lived next door, said Mr. Ratzmann took him acid-free tomatoes "because he knew I couldn't eat stuff with acid." Mr. Stump said Mr. Ratzmann picked up his lawn clippings to fertilize his garden and would help Mr. Stump move firewood from the garage.
On Saturday, Mr. Stump said he saw Mr. Ratzmann leaving for the Sheraton. He waved, and Mr. Ratzmann waved back.
Reporting for this article was contributed by David Bernstein from Gurnee, Ill., Daniel I. Dorfman from Wisconsin, Neela Banerjee from Washington and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top

# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 9:34 PM  0 comments

Diane Clohesy hugs her five-year-old son Casey at a makeshift memorial outside the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin, March 13, 2005. A New Berlin man, Terry Ratzmann, opened fire with a 9mm pistol killing eight persons, including himself, and wounding four others in Brookfield, Wisconsin on March 12, 2005. The victims were attending a Church of the Living God service at the hotel when the shootings occurred. (Allen Fredrickson/Reuters)

 

A makeshift memorial of flowers has been placed outside a Sheraton Hotel March 13, 2005 after a New Berlin man, Terry Ratzmann, opened fire with a 9mm pistol killing eight persons, including himself, and wounding four others, police said in Brookfield, Wisconsin, March 12, 2005. The victims were attending a Church of the Living God service at the hotel when the shooting occurred. REUTERS/Allen Fredrickson

 

Peter Leiby, Director of Operations at the Brookfield Sheraton Hotel, brings flowers left at the hotel's main desk from anonymous donors in the community to a makeshift memorial, March 13, 2005. A New Berlin man, Terry Ratzmann, opened fire with a 9mm pistol killing eight persons, including himself, and wounding four others, police said in Brookfield, Wisconsin March 12, 2005. The victims were attending a Church of the Living God service at the hotel when the shooting occurred. REUTERS/Allen Fredrickson

 

Monday, March 14, 2005
Bode Miller's path to the World Cup overall title, which he secured yesterday, began as a free-spirited 2-year-old in the hills of New Hampshire March 13, 2005 Miller Breaks the Curse to Reclaim the World Cup for the U.S. By NATHANIEL VINTON

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, March 12 - The newest icon in the sport of Alpine skiing grew up free as a bird. He is Bode Miller, who was home-schooled in the woods near Franconia, N.H. Those who trekked up the steep half-mile path leading to the fairy-tale cabin his parents had built were sometimes shocked to find a 2-year-old boy playing in a rushing mountain stream beside the house. They wanted him to "discover his limits," say his parents, who speak with the same faraway soulfulness as Miller, who clinched the overall World Cup title by finishing second in Saturday's giant slalom. Miller, the most talented ski racer in the world, has earned the most respected trophy in the sport, something no American has held in 22 years, when Phil Mahre took the men's and Tamara McKinney the women's. "Like it was with the Red Sox, it was becoming embarrassing," said Miller, who spent the week reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." "It was a different thing than a sports record. It became some kind of a curse." With one race left, Miller has an insurmountable 204-point advantage over Benjamin Raich of Austria, who clinched the giant slalom title by placing third on Saturday. Miller was 68-hundredths of a second behind Stephan Goergl of Austria, who won in 2 minutes 10.51 seconds. Raich was 0.80 behind. The overall title represents success throughout the World Cup season, in all disciplines, against all racers. "If you're looking for mass recognition, then the Olympics are the most important, especially in the U.S.," Miller said. "If I was looking to prove that I was the best ski racer in the world, then I feel like I've done that." Miller learned to ski by sliding down the path to the main road on an early incarnation of a snowboard. His preternatural talent was nurtured at Cannon Mountain, where an outcropping jutted improbably from the hillside, looking like the face of Abraham Lincoln. The Old Man of the Mountain appeared on New Hampshire's license plates, road signs and commemorative quarter. It drew thousands of tourists a year, and its sudden collapse, on a foggy morning in May 2003, was an existential crisis for the region, as well as an economic one. "But if you ever went up there and saw it, it was like a travesty to nature," Miller said. "They had it chained up there. It was all man-made and manufactured. That's one of the things that was supposed to be cool about it: that it's not man-made." Miller, a phenomenally versatile and creative skier who puts authenticity first, was pleased by the landmark's sudden disintegration. "I think it's awesome," he said. "I totally support that. It should have fallen off years ago." It is not the first time he has taken gravity's side. Miller, 27, competed in 33 races from late November through Saturday. He won the first two downhills of the season, silencing critics like the Austrian Olympic great Karl Schranz. In December, when Miller won in four disciplines in a record-setting 16 days, the victories came in Canada, Colorado, France and Italy. "Only a very few people have managed it in the past," said Marc Girardelli, a five-time overall winner who was an all-rounder like Miller. "The movements in downhill are completely different from slalom and then giant slalom. You have to combat specialists. They only train in their specialist event. You have no recreation time for your mind." Or for your body. Miller says he is so battered from the long season that he can hardly walk up a set of stairs. "I pretty much limp around all the time now," he said. "When I actually get in the course, I just black it out or have enough adrenaline." Miller has spent his entire ski racing career trying not to be manufactured, resisting orthodox technique and ignoring every authority in the sport who proposed that he be more strategic in his approach to this grueling, tricky circuit. "I just think that kids have a natural ability to learn on their own a lot more than they learn in a structured environment," said Miller's mother, Jo, who home-schooled him and let him roam the forests near his house. "A child's natural curiosity drives them into all kinds of experiences that if you're sitting in a schoolroom you don't experience." She said she could tell him what to do, and that "maybe in a few days he might come a little bit towards what I'm saying, and it'll be his idea." But Miller has resisted nearly every coach who tried to instill orthodox skiing technique in him, and that stubbornness drives coaches crazy. "Even the geniuses, the Pelés and Gretzkys, they had to do more than just show up," said Phil McNichol, head coach of the United States Ski Team. "He wants to be so self-reliant and nonconformist. But he wants to be in a sport which is by definition conformist, with rules and scoring and structure and a team." McNichol and the other coaches established a tenuous truce with Miller, hoping to keep him in their uniform so that his talents may rub off on his young teammates. But Miller is not completely with the program. Last season, he became sick of the team hotels. To regulate his environment, Miller found a sponsor for a 31-foot motor home, and paid his best friend from childhood to be his driver and cook. What was meant as a retreat from European fans and reporters only increased the fascination. "The fact that he lives in this mobile home shows that he is a good P.R. man for skiing," Gian Franco Kasper, the president of the International Ski Federation, said, chuckling. "That's normal in the U.S., I know, but here gypsies have them. It's something for gypsies normally." On Sunday, Miller will receive the 18-pound trophy - the grosse kristallkugel to the Austrians, who have taken the overall title the past five years. The coveted prize is going back to Miller's family compound near Franconia - no replacement for the Old Man, but a monument to nature's anomalous productions. Miller has not forgotten the folly of the Old Man. "Maybe we shot ourselves in the foot," he said, referring to the Franconia natives who strapped the Old Man to the hillside with rebar and cement. "That's the kind of thing that anxiety and stupid human nature tends to screw up. "If it had been left entirely alone, maybe it would have crumbled off and turned into, you know, an eagle or something, sitting on the cliff, and it would have been the Old Eagle on the Hill.' " American Wins Cup Race LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, March 12 (AP) - Sarah Schleper of the United States recorded her first World Cup victory in the season's final slalom Saturday, and Janica Kostelic finished second to close in on the overall leader, Anja Paerson. Schleper covered the two runs on the Silvano Beltrametti course in 1 minute 29.13 seconds, maintaining her lead from the first run. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top

# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 7:02 PM  0 comments

March 10, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
A Defense That's Offensively Weak
By MAUREEN DOWD

In sports, the offense is more glamorous. It moves the ball, it scores, and everybody breaks out the high-fives. It's all about flash and glory.

Defense, on the other hand, toils in anonymity. It's about wrestling in the trenches, digging in your heels and fighting the opposition for every inch. The most important unit of the last undefeated team in the National Football League, the 1972 Miami Dolphins, was tagged the No-Name Defense.

Republicans understand the publicity advantage of a relentless offense. They had a flashy offense in W.'s two presidential campaigns and two wars, and in their war on the press.

In his 2002 pre-emptive doctrine, laying the groundwork for attacking Iraq, President Bush was reputed to have written the line, "We recognize that our best defense is a good offense."

W. successfully confused Americans by labeling the invasion of Iraq an offensive thrust in the war on terror, even though Iraq had played no role in the 9/11 attacks, had no ties with Al Qaeda and had no weapons to share with terrorists. But 9/11 was an emasculating blow, and the White House had to strike back at somebody.

What the administration doesn't acknowledge, as it crows about democracy blooming in the Iraqi desert, is that our defense against terrorists who want to attack here is full of holes, and that the war in Iraq may have made it even worse. Despite the promising election, the war has created more insurgents and given them a training ground. It has siphoned off attention, money and troops that could have been used to catch Osama, pursue Al Qaeda and secure our own country. And it has alienated not only many Arabs, but also allies who were eager, after 9/11, to help us fight Al Qaeda - even Italians are mad now.

Every time we turn around, some administration official charged with our protection is claiming that it will take three more years, or five more, to fix something that should have been put in place right after 9/11 - or even 20 years ago.

The F.B.I. has abandoned its latest computer follies: the $170 million effort to upgrade the bureau's computer system so analysts can accomplish such difficult tasks as simultaneously searching for "aviation" and "schools." Now it's going to take at least three and a half years to develop a new system. Bill Gates has been donating computers and software to poor grade schools; maybe he could take pity on the poor F.B.I. and donate a system that works.

One of the first big stories I covered was the homecoming of the hostages from Iran in 1981. Nearly a quarter of a century later, we still don't have good intelligence on Iran. The Times reported yesterday that a bipartisan presidential panel is set to report that the lack of American intelligence on Iran's nuclear capability is scandalously inadequate. Our intelligence on Iraqi weapons systems was so bad that we had to go to war to find out that Iraq didn't have any.

Our intelligence services are only now trying to recruit agents who speak Arabic and Farsi? Who didn't realize after the Iranian hostage crisis that it might be smart to invest in some spies who could infiltrate the places that were calling us Satan? President Carter lost an election because he didn't know what was going on in Iran, and President Bush still doesn't know.

Now that they've belatedly started to recruit Arabic speakers - after the military forced out more than 300 linguists considered important to the war in terror in the past decade because they happened to be gay - our intelligence agencies are not sure whether they're signing up the good guys or the bad guys. We can't get into Al Qaeda's inner councils, but has Al Qaeda gotten inside ours?

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that about 40 Americans seeking jobs at U.S. intelligence agencies were turned away because of possible ties to terrorist groups. Paul Redmond, a longtime C.I.A. officer, said it was an "actuarial certainty" that spies had infiltrated U.S. security agencies: "I think we're worse off than we've ever been."

At the same time, dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists have been allowed to buy firearms legally in our country, according to a G.A.O. investigation. No wonder Porter Goss, the new C.I.A. director, seems dazed and confused.

While the president and the neocons try to remake the Middle East to help future generations, can't they find a little time to remake our security to protect this generation?


E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com



Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top

 

In Taiwan earlier this month, protesters object to Beijing's anti-secession law, which would bar the island from declaring formal independence.

March 13, 2005
The Two Faces of Rising China
By JOSEPH KAHN

BEIJING
CHINA'S leaders announced last week at the annual National People's Congress that they will give themselves legal authority to attack Taiwan if they decide that the disputed territory has ventured too far toward independence. It was their boldest ultimatum to date, backed by China's rapidly modernizing military.
But the banner headline in the next day's China Daily, the official English-language newspaper was: "Peace Paramount in Anti-Secession Bill."
Rising China has two faces. Its leaders want - arguably need - to be viewed as managing a new kind of emerging superpower, one that will not threaten neighbors or the world. Only a gentle giant can attract $60 billion in foreign investment and rack up $160 billion annual trade surpluses with the United States, the thinking goes.
Yet the Communist Party has also concluded it would lose power if it cedes Taiwan. The bill introduced last Tuesday, and set for passage Monday, is just the latest attempt to prove that the party will pay any price, including a war that might well involve the United States, to preserve China's territorial integrity.
"Our elites know China will have difficulty rising if the world worries about a new military threat," says Jin Canrong, a foreign policy expert at People's University in Beijing. "But China also cannot rise if Taiwan breaks away. And Taiwan will break away unless the threat of force is very real."
China has no immediate ambitions to shake the world order or challenge the United States, many analysts say. Washington wants to keep it that way. But Taiwan is bringing out China's aggressive instincts, with unpredictable results.
"I don't know which side is winning - the side that wants to fight for national interests, or the side that accepts international norms," says Philip Yang, a cross-strait expert at National Taiwan University in Taipei.
China has thrived because it devotes itself to economic development while letting the United States police the region and the world. Beijing sometimes decries American hegemony, but its leaders envision Pax Americana extending well into the 21st century, at least until China becomes a middle class society and, if present trends continue, the world's largest economy.
China insists it has no fights to pick. Its evolving foreign policy maxims - principles of peaceful co-existence, peaceful orientation, peaceful rise, peaceful development - have the same emphasis.
Beijing spends far more resources on domestic projects, like bridges, steel mills and office towers, than it does on the military. Its economic strategy depends more heavily on integration with the outside world than Germany or Japan did in the years before they asserted themselves in the first half of the 20th century.
"They want to have a peaceful rise because they have to," says Robert G. Sutter, a former National Security Council official who is now an Asia specialist at Georgetown University. "They have done a cost-benefit analysis and they have found that it is much too costly to be antagonistic" to the United States, he said.
China is smoothing relations with most big countries. It recently settled border disputes with India and Russia, backed the American war on terror, soft-pedaled territorial claims in the South China Sea, lured Southeast Asian neighbors into a trade pact, even stepped up foreign aid.
Taiwan is the big exception. Cross-strait relations have deteriorated since the mid-1990's. That is largely because Taiwan's independence movement has grown in popularity. Chen Shui-bian, the independence-leaning president, won two elections. But tensions have also risen because Beijing has shown little flexibility or creativity in accommodating Taiwan's democratically expressed wariness of the mainland.
Its strategy often seems limited to reflecting the certainty of an attack if Taiwan tries creating a separate legal identity. The anti-secession bill may have been introduced precisely because it appears to tie the leadership's hands - and make war seem inevitable - if Taiwan changes its formal name or redrafts sensitive clauses in its Constitution.
In a sense this is just more saber-rattling. China has long breathed fire about Taiwanese independence, so much so that Mr. Chen and many other politicians in Taiwan have discounted Chinese threats.
Their assumption is that China will not really attack because it ultimately cares more about domestic development, playing host to the 2008 Olympics, and avoiding a conflict with the United States than it does about securing its sovereignty over Taiwan.
But Beijing's leaders have also concluded that the Communist Party needs to draw the line on Taiwan's "splittists." The party has staked its reputation on restoring the Chinese nation to its rightful place in the world.
After the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese fold in 1997, Taiwan remains the most visible reminder of the dismemberment China suffered at the hands of foreign powers at the end of the Qing dynasty (though many Taiwanese claim the island did not belong to the mainland then any more than it does today).
China treats Taiwan as sovereign territory. So it insists its belligerence should not be seen as infecting its approach to other nations. Even the draft bill introduced this week devotes three sections to peaceful overtures to Taiwan. Only the final, fourth section notes the conditions under which China would consider other means, which the bill refers to vaguely as "nonpeaceful."
Yet there are signs that China cannot easily compartmentalize Taiwan. Military spending has surged in recent years, with the official budget rising to $30 billion in 2005. Western analysts say that actual spending may be two or three times higher.
The target is Taiwan. But China's new Russian-made Su-30MKK fighters and Kilo-class attack submarines could inflict plenty of damage on the United States Pacific fleet, and the build-up has alarmed Japan.
"Taiwan is a problem for America and Japan as much as it is for China because it is the excuse China has used to build up its military," said Mr. Jin of People's University. "If there were not the Taiwan issue, China would find it harder to justify this kind of spending."
A European diplomat in Beijing said last week that the anti-secession bill, especially if it prompts a tit-for-tat response from Taiwan, could raise the risk of conflict and cause the European Union to delay the lifting of its arms embargo on China, one of Beijing's top priorities.
Relations with Japan have grown testy. Historical animosity from Japan's occupation of China has played a role. But Japan recently discovered a Chinese submarine mapping the ocean floor in Japanese territorial waters, possibly preparing for a sea battle over Taiwan or contested energy resources. And Japan joined the United States in February in a public pledge to defend Taiwan, infuriating Beijing.
In its quest for energy, China has also curried favor with Iran and Sudan, oil-rich nations that have rocky relations with the West. It has threatened to use its veto at the United Nations to prevent international sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear program or Sudan for its alleged genocide.
"I see them as becoming less and less conciliatory on issues they consider to be vital interests," says Bonnie S. Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. She cited Japan and energy security as well as Taiwan as examples of China's more nationalist approach.
Increasingly there are two Chinas on the world stage. One has 19th century notions of sovereignty and historical destiny. The other embraces 21st century notions of global integration. The anti-secession bill looks like a victory for the atavists.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top

# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 11:55 AM  0 comments