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Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Prosecutor close to French president in court over allegations of spying on Le Monde journalists investigating Bettencourt scandal The threat to Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid from corruption scandals intensified on Wednesday after a leading state prosecutor close to the president was summoned before judges over an alleged dirty tricks campaign to spy on journalists. Seven months before the presidential election, Sarkozy, who once promised to be Mr Squeaky Clean of French politics, has seen his close circle come under pressure in a series of corruption investigations whose plots thicken by the day. Investigators are untangling a web of scandals involving alleged illegal party-funding with banknotes variously stuffed into bags, briefcases and brown envelopes, as well as phone interceptions. As the beleaguered president unveiled his austerity budget on Wednesday, his government was waging a public relations war to try to dampen the talk of sleaze and to stress that Sarkozy himself had not been personally implicated. But with his closest allies being dragged into investigations, questions were being raised over Sarkozy’s role. Coupled with the humiliating political defeat of the senate falling to the left for the first time in more than 50 years, voices in Sarkozy’s own ruling party even began to question whether he was the best candidate to stand for the right in the 2012 presidential race. The latest scandal involves an alleged “cabinet noir”, or office of shady operations, at the highest reaches of the state after Le Monde complained that the secret services had spied on its journalists to uncover their sources. French state intelligence agencies are accused of illegally obtaining detailed phone records of every call and movement of Le Monde’s investigations editor Gérard Davet in order to uncover his source on a story about the Bettencourt affair – the family saga which exploded into a series of tax-evasion and illegal party funding scandals that were extremely damaging to the French right. The source of one story was uncovered as an official in the justice ministry and was swiftly demoted by the government and posted to French Guiana. Le Monde claims two other journalists’ phone records were illegally obtained. The episode was seen as an attempt by the highest echelons of the French state to lean on the media and its sources and scare them into silence. Opposition Socialists are demanding an independent commission examine whether the president’s circle used state intelligence agencies to try to limit the damage to the ruling right UMP party from the growing Bettencourt scandal. Le Monde reported on Wednesday that the magistrate and French state prosecutor, Philippe Courroye, seen as close to Sarkozy, was to be interviewed by a Paris judge as part of the investigation into the spying scandal. The paper said a judge had written to Courroye to summon him for questioning and warn him he could be charged in the case. If so, it would a first in French legal history. The case threatens to raise questions about the president’s influence over state prosecutors. Courroye issued a statement dismissing all allegations and saying he was outraged by the “calumny” against him. He has denied being too close to Sarkozy. The president decorated him with an honour in 2009 and announced they were friends. Two other key figures of Sarkozy’s circle, the head of the secret services, Bernard Squarcini, and chief of police, Frédéric Péchenard, are also to be summoned as witnesses by the judge investigating spying on journalists. The spying saga – described by one magazine editor as evidence of France’s “banana republic” – is the latest in a bewildering array of corruption investigations to hit the right. The Bettencourt affair continues to damage Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party. One inquiry is focused on whether Sarkozy or his party members took brown envelopes of cash from the billionaire L’Oréal shampoo heiress Liliane Bettencourt for illegal party funding. Bettencourt’s former accountant told Liberation on Wednesday that the elderly widow handed Sarkozy’s party treasurer 50,000 euros in cash five months before the 2007 presidential election. In another affair known as “Karachigate”, two of the president’s closest friends, including his best man at his marriage to Carla Bruni, have been charged by judges investigating alleged kickbacks on arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s. Judges are examining whether kickbacks illegally funded the presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor, former rightwing prime minister Édouard Balladur. The former interior minister Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy’s oldest friend, faces a legal complaint for leaning on witnesses after he was recording calling one of Sarkozy’s allies who has been charged the Karachi case and warned him that his estranged wife had been “blabbing” too much to investigators. Hortefeux has counter-sued for defamation, denying the charges. The scandals facing Sarkozy The Bettencourt affair : An investigation into whether the billionaire L’Oréal heiress handed envelopes of cash to Sarkozy’s treasurer, party members or even Sarkozy himself to illegally fund his previous presidential campaign. Allegations that the Élysée leant on the judiciary to try to stifle the affair. Eric Woerth, Sarkozy’s treasurer and former budget minister, denies involvement. Karachigate : Allegations that kickbacks from French arms sales to Pakistan in the early 1990s secretly funded the failed presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s mentor Édouard Balladur. Sarkozy was his campaign spokesman. Sarkozy’s office said he had nothing to do with the case. The Lagarde-Tapie affair : Former finance minister Christine Lagarde is under investigation for a 285m euro arbitration deal in favour of the controversial tycoon and Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie. Did Sarkozy order the deal and did he personally benefit? The government spokeswoman said justice should be allowed to take its course and the presumption of innocence respected. Briefcases of African cash : An Africa expert close to Sarkozy claimed the former president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin received briefcases of banknotes from African leaders to fund party politics. Others suggest this practise continued under Sarkozy. The interior minister said allegations against Sarkozy were “scandalous”. Nicolas Sarkozy France French elections 2012 Europe Le Monde Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk

Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Andy Burnham calls for Ucas-style applications system for apprenticeships

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Shadow education secretary says teenagers should be able to apply for apprenticeships in the same way they do for university The shadow education secretary has called for the creation of a national Ucas-style system for apprenticeships to provide a clear path for teenagers who do not go to university. Andy Burnham told delegates at the Labour party conference in Liverpool: “As a country, we haven’t focused anything like enough on the opportunities for the 50% or more of kids who don’t plan to go to university. Young people who want to head towards work or an apprenticeship are left to fend for themselves.” Burnham’s speech echoed Blair’s “education, education, education” mantra. He said because of the foundations laid by Blair, Labour could go further towards: “aspiration, aspiration, aspiration”. Before his speech, delegates were addressed by Andrew Chubb, a headteacher from Hull, who said the government’s English baccalaureate was damaging and divisive. The English baccalaureate is awarded to pupils who achieve good GCSE passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language and geography. Chubb has launched an alternative called the modern baccalaureate for pupils who gain passes in eight GCSE subjects including English, maths, science and information and communications technology. Burnham called for a true baccalaureate , which would prepare young people for the modern world. He argued that the education secretary, Michael Gove, was promoting Latin and ancient Greek – two of the GCSE options in the English baccalaureate – over engineering, ICT and business studies. “I want as many children as possible to take the subjects in the English baccalaureate. But they are not right for everyone. And yet the message is clear – any school or student who doesn’t succeed is second best. As we have heard today, there is a growing grassroots rejection of Mr Gove and his elitist and divisive policies.” Burnham said free schools “can embody the comprehensive ideal”, but warned this ideal was under attack from changes to the school admissions code and the use of the English baccalaureate as a measure. Before his speech, the conference was also addressed by Yvonne Sharples, a headteacher from a school in Speke, who endeared herself to delegates by declaring: “I was never really cut out for school – I was naughty.” She praised her teachers, who “kept on nurturing me”. Her school has been turned around after going into special measures, the Ofsted term for a failing school. It has gone from 1% of children achieving five good GCSE passes, including English and maths, to 29% this summer. She criticised Gove’s decision to raise the minimum standard for secondary schools from 30% to 35% last year. “In Mr Gove’s eyes we are a failing school,” she said. “Shame on you, Michael, how dare you? 47% of my students gain English GCSE. They believe they’re the best kids in the world because that’s what we tell them.” Labour conference 2011 Andy Burnham Labour Labour conference Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk

Andy Burnham calls for Ucas-style applications system for apprenticeships

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Briton attacked by shark in South Africa

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Great white shark sighted as 42-year-old man fights for life after reportedly losing parts of both legs at Fish Hoek in Cape Town A Briton has been attacked by a shark while swimming in South Africa, authorities said. The 42-year-old man is fighting for his life after the attack by a great white at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. Reports said the man, who is believed to live in the city, was rescued by a bystander after he ignored shark warnings to go swimming. National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon told the South African Press Association (Sapa): “It appears he was rescued from the water by a bystander who left the scene before we could identify him. “On arrival, a 42-year-old man was found on the shore suffering complete amputation of his right leg, above the knee, and partial amputation of his left leg, below the knee.” Lambinon said the victim was believed to live in the suburb of Plumstead. He was stabilised at the scene and then airlifted to Constantiaberg medi-clinic in a critical condition. Lambinon added: “The man was conscious when paramedics attended to him on the beach, but was sedated on-scene by paramedics in their efforts to stabilise the patient.” The city of Cape Town told Sapa that, when the man entered the water, the beach was still closed. A shark flag, indicating the presence of a great white, was flying. A shark spotter stationed on the beach was warned by a spotter on the mountain that someone had entered the water. The spotter then ran to Clovelly Corner to try to get the swimmer out of the water, but the attack took place before he could reach him. Spotters had sighted the shark 90 minutes before the attack, and closed the beach. The white shark flag was raised and the siren set off. The victim of the attack was the only person in the water at the time. The beach, together with another three locally, was closed as a precaution until further notice. The shark was still in Fish Hoek Bay in the afternoon and being monitored by the spotters. South Africa Africa Marine life Wildlife guardian.co.uk

NHS hospital in spotlight after womens’ postnatal deaths

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Investigation raises questions over safety at Queen’s hospital in Romford, Essex after deaths of Violet Stephens and Sareena Ali The deaths of two women shortly after giving birth have raised questions about the safety of care at an NHS hospital which boasts the largest maternity unit in the country. Violet Stephens died at Queen’s hospital in Romford, Essex, in April, just one month after a review by the care watchdog said Queen’s was failing to meet essential maternity standards. An independent investigation into Stephens’s death, seen by the Guardian, reveals that she saw at least 30 different healthcare staff in the last three days of her life, including five consultant obstetricians, 11 junior doctors and 12 midwives. She was known to be at risk – two previous babies had been delivered by caesarean section because of complications linked to high-blood pressure – but she did not get the standard of care to which she was entitled, says the report. “The number and extent of service provision weaknesses revealed by this investigation casts doubt on the organisational integrity of the maternity services,” it says. Stephens’s death followed that of Sareena Ali in January. Ali, who was having her first baby, died of a heart attack brought on by a ruptured womb. She had been left without midwife support for two hours. While the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors were in the maternity unit – failing it on six different safety standards – Ali was lying on a life support machine in another part of the hospital. The CQC officers were not told. Queen’s, which is part of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Foundation Trust, says it is doing all it can to improve maternity care. But Sarah Harman, the solicitor representing the families of the two women, as well as around 20 less serious complaints, said: “On the basis of all the cases coming forward to me, this is a maternity department that is not providing safe care.” The CQC report in March demanded “immediate improvements” to ensure the safety of women giving birth at Queen’s, warning that it was short-staffed, midwives were under-skilled and some equipment did not work. Queen’s responded that it was hiring 49 more midwives, half of whom had already been recruited. But the independent inquiry into Stephens’s death, dated July, suggested there were still fundamental problems in the maternity unit when she died. The independent “serious untoward incident” inquiry into her death, carried out by a professor of complex obstetrics and a senior midwife, found that Stephens had suffered severe pre-eclampsia in her fourth pregnancy, as she had in her earlier ones. Pre-eclampsia is one of the most common conditions that kill women in childbirth. In Stephens’s case it became particularly serious because her liver was affected. The report found her case was not well managed and there were delays in giving her a caesarean and blood transfusions. In the antenatal clinic, she saw six different doctors and midwives. In the last three days at Queen’s, no less than 30 different healthcare staff were involved. It is well-documented, said the report, that the more handovers of information and responsibility there are, the greater the risks for the patient. “The severity and deterioration of VS’s condition was not recognised or managed in a co-ordinated way,” it said. “The tragedy at the centre of this investigation is the death of a mother, which most profoundly affects her family, friends and the three motherless children left behind.” The report found evidence of good care, kind staff and effective working but “significant factors were identified which prevented VS from receiving the standard of care she was entitled to expect and to which the trust aspires”. Ali was 27 when she died at Queen’s hospital in January. Her husband Usman Javed has said she was in agony in the labour ward, but midwives did not respond to his requests for help. She suffered a ruptured womb, which brought on a heart attack. Her baby was delivered by caesarean section but born dead. At one point a team tried to resuscitate Ali with a mask that was not attached to the oxygen cylinder. “When I first took on Usman’s case, I thought it was a tragic and isolated incident,” Harman said. “In the best hospitals that run good maternity services, a tragedy can arise which is not in line with the care they provide.” Other complaints Harman is pursuing against the hospital include two allegations of caesareans carried out without enough anaesthetic and women having to be re-admitted with serious illnesses because they were discharged too soon. Queen’s sees nearly 7,000 births a year. The CQC inspection was a “compliance review” – designed to ensure the hospital had met all the necessary standards in maternity and midwifery care. It had not. The CQC said improvements were needed in six essential areas, including the safety of equipment, staffing numbers and safe and appropriate care for women. Inspectors said they had “major concerns” over delays in going to theatre when a caesarean was needed, pain relief and women being left alone in labour. Staff spoke of being “very stretched” at busy times when it was “like working on a conveyor belt”. Averil Dongworth, chief executive of the trust, said of the report she commissioned into Stephens’ death: “I was very concerned to hear that we had failed to give this seriously ill woman the high standards of care that she should have been able to expect from us and would like to apologise for this on behalf of the trust. I’m determined these issues are addressed so every woman can be confident about our maternity service.” Following the death, staff held a special conference to learn lessons and new guidelines were put in place. The hospital now has one of the highest levels of specialist doctor coverage in the country and enough midwives for one-to-one care, Dongworth said. “These changes are part of a comprehensive action plan to improve our maternity service across the board and make sure every woman can have a good experience of childbirth in the safest possible environment.” A further review of services by the CQC is underway and will report in a few weeks’ time. Health NHS Childbirth Health & wellbeing Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk

Germany poised to vote in favour of European financial stability facility

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Resounding ‘yes’ vote will help accelerate plans to establish a permanent European monetary fund The German parliament is expected to approve enhanced powers for the eurozone’s bailout fund on Thursday as plans to set up a fully fledged European monetary fund (EMF) gather pace. Senior European officials believe Berlin will revisit proposals for an EMF – first raised by German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble in spring last year and revived by French president Nicolas Sarkozy in July this year – once the Bundestag vote is secured. The only question is the scale of the majority Chancellor Angela Merkel will win for expanding the financial guarantees available to temporary precursor of an EMF, the European financial stability facility (EFSF), with markets hoping for a reassuringly large margin of victory. On Wednesday the Finnish parliament approved the enhanced EFSF, the ninth out of the 17 eurozone states to do so. Separately, the European parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the so-called “six-pack” series of laws to impose tougher budgetary discipline on the eurozone’s 17 members and help to prevent the flare-up of future sovereign debt crises. It also emerged that the “troika” of experts from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank will be in Athens on Thursday to test whether Greece is complying with the terms of its rescue through savage budget cuts and can therefore be awarded the sixth and latest tranche of its initial €110bn (£95bn) bailout, worth €8bn. Merkel told Greek television that the second rescue package, worth €109bn, might have to be renegotiated amid suggestions this would entail bondholders accepting “haircuts” – write-offs on the debts they are owed – of up to 50% rather than the 21% agreed in July. Sources have indicated that Greece has enough cash to meet its bills, including the salaries of public servants, until the end of next month but that eurozone finance ministers will approve the release of the €8bn as early as 15 October, when they will hold an unscheduled meeting on the issue. Slovakia will not be voting on the enhanced EFSF until 25 October. None the less, this flurry of activity is viewed within the European commission as evidence that the eurozone, and the EU as a whole, can respond to demands – above all from the US – for greater urgency in tackling the debt crisis and thereby restore investor confidence. Some very senior figures even welcome the outspoken and unprecedented intervention last weekend by Tim Geithner, US treasury secretary, in favour of increasing the EFSF’s financial firepower from €440bn to closer to €2 trillion as providing a salutary spur to action. Schäuble has denounced his American counterpart in the run-up to Thursday’s key Bundestag vote. But he and his colleagues are said to be keen to relaunch the notion of an EMF armed with powers to analyse, prevent and help solve debt crises. On Wednesday, José Manuel Barroso, the commission’s president, gave his backing to bring in the eurozone’s permanent crisis resolution facility – the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – earlier than planned. The ESM is due to replace the EFSF in July 2013. He told MEPs in his annual state of the union address that the EFSF should be made both stronger and more flexible. When ratified by all 17 eurozone parliaments, it would be able to deploy precautionary intervention measures, initiate the recapitalisation of banks, and intervene in secondary markets (via bond purchases) to help avoid contagion. “Once the EFSF is ratified, we should make the most efficient use of its financial envelope. The commission is working on options to this end,” he said. “Moreover, we should do everything possible to accelerate the entry into force of the ESM.” The ESM could, senior sources indicated, be set up a year early in mid-2012 and serve as a transition to the EMF. That is the wish of Guy Verhofstadt, the ex-Belgian premier and pro-federalist leader of the liberal (ALDE) group of MEPs. He told Barroso in a letter that an EMF should be swiftly set up with sufficient funds and designed to operate under majority voting to speed decision-making. Barroso admitted that the EU was facing “the biggest challenge in all its history” and that the sovereign debt crisis was really a “crisis of political confidence” and a “baptism of fire for our whole generation”. He insisted that Greece would remain a member of the eurozone but that the answer to the crisis was to deepen economic co-ordination and integration. He reiterated his call for the creation of eurobonds and indicated that this might require changes to the EU treaties – a red rag to a bull in the UK. The commission president went further by hinting at further treaty changes to limit the use of unanimous voting, which allowed the slowest EU member states to dictate the speed of progress of all the others. “This is not credible also from the markets’ point of view; this is why we need to solve this problem of decision-making,” he said. European debt crisis Germany Euro Greece European Union Economics Europe David Gow guardian.co.uk

WSJ Economic Reporter: Best Way to Find a Job is to Have a Job

September 28, 2011 No Comment

The American Job Act also carries a provision that would protect the unemployed from being discriminated against when they apply for a new job. It seems like a logical step because Obama is trying to get American workers back to work. The many people who lost their jobs by no fault of their own, but as a repercussion of the financial collapse created by the banksters. Apparently Republicans and their mouthpieces are objecting to this protection even though they know workers are being discriminated against for being out of work for an extended period of time. Robert Pear: President Obama is backing legislation that would prohibit employers from discriminating against job applicants because they are unemployed. Under the proposal, it would be “an unlawful employment practice” if a business with 15 or more employees refused to hire a person “because of the individual’s status as unemployed.” Unsuccessful job applicants could sue and recover damages for violations, just as when an employer discriminates on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Obama’s proposal would also prohibit employment agencies and websites from carrying advertisements for job openings that exclude people who are unemployed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received reports of such advertisements but does not have data to show how common they are. You want data? How about some examples via Marketplace : After I spoke to Anderson, I poked around at CareerBuilder.com and I found this job: Medical-equipment sales, St. Petersburg, Fla. Only, it says in bold caps, “MUST BE CURRENTLY EMPLOYED” or you won’t get an interview and your resume will be deleted. I found similar ads that exclude the unemployed — for restaurant managers in Atlanta, Houston and Iowa City; a service manager in New Jersey; an executive assistant at a New York hedge fund. Those listings would be illegal under legislation proposed by Democrats in Congress. Enter Stephen Moore from the Wall Street Journal . He’s a big business gasbag who always gets airtime to prop up what’s best for Wall Street. This legislation actually ties him up in knots in this interview with Matthews. Chris exposes him as an idiot for siding with discrimination against workers out of work. The babbling Moore says it’s wrong to say the Irish need not apply and being out of work shouldn’t be held against you, but it’s your problem for not having a job so the company use your unemployment record against you because you should already have a job when you start looking for a new one. The only time workers had any real power looking for work was when the economy was humming and companies were expanding back in the Clinton days so people did actually look for more perks and better pay while they had a job, but with over 9 percent unemployment across this country, not having a job is only an indicator of a bad economy. Hardball: I have to ask you, to start off at the bat — let`s go with Steve — what is the case for employers being allowed to say, don`t waste my time if you`re unemployed looking for a job; you`re not going to even get an interview here? STEPHEN MOORE, SENIOR ECONOMIC WRITER, “THE WALL STREET JOURNAL”: Well, I don`t think it`s — I don`t think it`s right to say, like, you know, like Irish need not apply, unemployed need not apply. But I do think, Chris, that it is important for employers to be able to look at the worker job history, and if somebody`s been out of work for a long time, for better or for worse, that`s usually a negative on their resume. It doesn`t look — I always tell people, you know, the best way to find a job is to have a job. And so — (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: But, Steve, you`re being redundant. If you tell a person they can`t apply for a job because they have been out of work, then the next time they apply for a job, they will say, you have been out of work longer; therefore, you can`t apply for this job. It seems like it`s a redundant, vicious cycle you`re creating here. MOORE: Well — MATTHEWS: Don`t hire the unemployed, so they can be unemployed next week and not get hired by someone who won`t hire the unemployed. Isn`t that a problem you have just created right here on this show? MOORE: Well, this is why I think these — (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: You have just done it. You have stepped in it. MOORE: No, I think that — (LAUGHTER) MOORE: I think the — I think problem is — one of the big problems with the — half of the people who are unemployed now have been unemployed for more than six months. I think one of the reasons for that, and the statistics show this, is we keep extending unemployment insurance. That`s kept people unemployed longer than they would otherwise be, and it`s hurt their job market prospects. MATTHEWS: So, as they go out there to apply for a job, they`re told they can`t apply because they have been unemployed. But you say they don`t go looking for jobs because they have been getting benefits. Which is it? Are they looking for jobs and being rejected? MOORE: Right. MATTHEWS: Why would they put those signs up if they weren`t having people come in and looking for jobs or unemployed? They wouldn`t need to sign. MOORE: Look — (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: It`s a good question. You don`t know the answer, do you? Why would you tell a person not to apply for unemployment when they unemployed aren`t looking for jobs? You wouldn`t need the sign, would you? MOORE: Look, Chris, you`re taking out of context my words. I don`t think it`s fair for employers to say, if you don`t have a job, you can`t apply. But I do think it`s certainly legitimate for businesses to look at the work history. If somebody`s been out of work for two years, you`re less likely to want to hire that person than somebody who actually has been working. MATTHEWS: OK. Dana, let me ask you this about this. I didn`t know this was going on. And I`ll tell you one thing — I`m into politics, not hiring people. I think it sounds like hell. This is the worst I’ve heard. You don’t help a guy or a woman who`s out of work, say a plant closed. It`s not their fault, they`re living in some small town, all there is is the plant. There`s not another plant opening up. It`s not their fault.

Black Panther arrested in Portugal decades on from hijacking US flight

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Fingerprints on ID card lead police to hamlet where George Wright, 68, lived for years with Portuguese wife and children A 1970s militant who carried out one of the most brazen plane hijackings in the US lived for decades in a seaside hamlet in Portugal with his Portuguese wife and two children, neighbours have said. George Wright, 68, was taken into custody by local police on Monday at the request of the US government, which is seeking his extradition for escaping from a New Jersey jail after being convicted of murder. Wright was also named as one of the hijackers of a Delta flight in 1972. The Portuguese news agency Lusa, citing unnamed police sources, said that the former Black Liberation Army member plans to fight any extradition. During a court appearance on Tuesday in Lisbon, Wright asked to be released pending the outcome of the US extradition request, and his request is being reviewed by Portuguese judicial authorities, said a spokeswoman for the US justice department. Until his arrest, Wright was living in Almocageme, 28 miles west of Lisbon. Fluent in Portuguese, he had no apparent profession but worked a series of odd jobs, most recently as a nightclub bouncer, said two neighbours. Wright married a Portuguese woman, identified by neighbours as 55-year-old Maria do Rosario Valente, the daughter of a retired Portuguese army officer. The couple had two children, Marco and Sara do Rosario Valente, now in their early 20s, who used their mother’s last name when they registered for swim classes at the local pool. It was unclear how Wright ended up in Portugal or when he learned Portuguese, but his wife worked as an occasional translator. The couple lived in a small whitewashed house in Almocageme, which lies close to broad Atlantic beaches. Wright was convicted of the 1962 murder of petrol station owner Walter Patterson during a robbery at his business in Wall, New Jersey. Patterson’s daughter told AP she wants Wright sent back quickly to the US. “I’m so thankful that now there’s justice for daddy,” she said on Wednesday. “He never got any kind of justice.” Wright possessed a Portuguese identity card that said he was born in Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony in west Africa. A photocopy of the document, shown to AP, bore the name Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos, an alias that US officials said Wright used. The identity card puts his age as 68. It was issued in 1993 and expired in 2004. Neighbours estimated the family had been in the village for at least 20 years but said they did mix much with other residents. None of them witnessed Wright’s arrest. Ricardo Salvador, who works at a local petrol station, said Wright had business cards with his first name as George and many locals called him that. “He was a very nice guy,” Salvador said. “He used to wave as he drove past and I’d shout out, ‘Hey, George!’” Most locals questioned by the AP said they assumed Wright was African, not American. “I never imagined George was in trouble,” said Salvador, 30. A fingerprint on Wright’s Portuguese ID card was the break that led a US fugitive task force to him. He was arrested by Portuguese authorities and is being detained in Lisbon. The US embassy in Lisbon referred all questions to the FBI, declining comment about the case and Wright’s extradition. Eight years into his 15- to 30-year prison term, Wright and three other men escaped from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in August 1970. The FBI said Wright became affiliated with an underground militant group, the Black Liberation Army, and lived in a “communal family” with several of its members in Detroit. In 1972, Wright dressed as a priest and using an alias hijacked a Delta flight from Detroit to Miami with four other BLA members and three children, including Wright’s companion and their two-year-old daughter. The other hijackers were not the men Wright escaped from prison with. The hijackers identified themselves to the Delta aeroplane passengers as a Black Panther group. After releasing the 86 other passengers in exchange for a $1m ransom delivered by an FBI agent wearing only swimming trunks the hijackers forced the plane to fly to Boston. There an international navigator was taken aboard, and the plane was flown to Algeria, where the hijackers sought asylum. The group was taken in by American writer and activist Eldridge Cleaver, who had been permitted by Algeria’s Socialist government to open an office of the Black Panther movement in that country in 1970. The Algerian president at the time professed sympathy for what he saw as worldwide liberation struggles. At the request of the American government, Algerian officials returned the plane and the money to the US. They then briefly detained the hijackers before allowing them to stay. The hijackers movements were restricted in Algeria, however, and the president ignored their calls for asylum and requests to return the ransom money to them. The group eventually made its way to France, where Wright’s associates were tracked down, arrested, tried and convicted in Paris in 1976. France, however, refused to extradite them to the US, where they would have faced longer sentences. Wright alone remained at large, and his capture was among the top priorities when the New York-New Jersey Fugitive Task Force was formed in 2002, according to Michael Schroeder, a spokesman for the US marshals service, who worked with New Jersey’s FBI and other agencies on the task force. The New Jersey department of corrections brought along all its old escape cases when the task force began operating, Schroeder said, and investigators started the case anew. They reviewed reports from the 1970s, interviewed Wright’s victims and the pilots of the plane he hijacked. An address in Portugal was one of several on a list of places they wanted to check out, but Schroeder said there was nothing special about it. “It was another box to get checked, so to speak,” he said. That changed last week, when details started falling into place with the help of Portuguese authorities. “They have a national ID registry,” Schroeder said. “They pulled that. That confirmed his print matched the prints with the DOC. The sketch matched the picture on his ID card.” By the weekend, US authorities were on a plane to Portugal. And on Monday, Portuguese police staking out Wright’s home found him there. United States Portugal Europe guardian.co.uk

US prisoner forbidden to read Pulitzer-winning history book

September 28, 2011 No Comment

Inmate sues under civil rights legislation, after Alabama jail withholds study of the historical treatment of black Americans A prisoner in an Alabama jail has claimed in a lawsuit that his jailers prevented him from reading a Pulitzer prize-winning book about America’s racial history, thereby violating his civil rights. Kilby Correctional Facility inmate Mark Melvin says he was sent Douglas Blackmon’s award-winning history book Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II in September 2010, but was told he was not allowed it, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Equal Justice Initiative in the US district court for the middle district of Alabama. The news comes as the US marks Banned Books Week , an annual nationwide celebration of the right to read. The complaint claims Melvin, serving a life sentence after being charged at 14 with helping his older brother commit two murders, was denied access to the book because of regulations which allow officials to withhold mail if it could be “an attempt to incite violence based on race, religion, sex, creed or nationality”. Based on original documents and personal narratives, Slavery By Another Name tells of the tens of thousands of “free” black Americans who were bought and sold as forced labourers decades after the official abolition of slavery. “[The book] is a Pulitzer prize-winning historical account of racial oppression and racial bias in the Southern United States [which] does not advocate violence or a violent ideology, nor does it attempt to incite violence based on race,” writes Equal Justice Initiative director and lawyer Bryan Stevenson in the complaint. Stevenson said in a statement that banning an award-winning book about racial history in the South was “not only misguided, but … injurious to anyone who is trying to advance our society on issues of race” . “The era of racial violence, lynching, and convict leasing in the South following Reconstruction is a deeply disturbing part of our country’s racial history that is important and must be understood if we are to make progress overcoming the legacy of slavery and racial subordination. We can’t cope with the racial history of this country by banning books or preventing people from reading about it – even incarcerated people, who retain basic rights and protections that were violated in this case,” he said. “The need for more informed thinking about race and discrimination is especially critical in prisons, which are disproportionately filled with people of colour.” The book’s author Blackmon, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, told the New York Times that “the idea that a book like mine is somehow incendiary or a call to violence is so absurd” . A spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections told the paper that officials had not seen the suit on Monday and could not comment. Banned Books Week Libraries United States Censorship Alison Flood guardian.co.uk

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