General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at the St. Regis Hotel on April 30 in Washington, DC. (Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor/Staff)
Top general: 5 bad habits for the Pentagon to fix (+video)
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the nation’s top ranking military officer, says there are at least five areas in US defense operations where bad habits have developed, which tighter Pentagon budgets will force the military to fix.
General Dempsey, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier this month told The New York Times that, “We’ve been living with unconstrained resources for 10 years, and, frankly, we’ve developed some bad habits,” which he vowed to overcome.
At a lunch with reporters hosted by the Monitor Tuesday, Dempsey was asked to be specific about the bad habits he saw. He immediately listed five areas which, he cautioned, were “not an all inclusive list.”
Here, in the general’s own words, is the list, in the order he gave it.
- “In our acquisition programs … there is certainly room to become more efficient.”
- “Over the years, our health-care costs have exceeded expectations in a, no-pun intended, unhealthy way.”
- “On infrastructure – and these are places where we could use the help of the United States Congress, actually – we haven’t had to reduce the scope and scale of our infrastructure accounts. I think we will have to do so under the budget authorities that we see coming our way.”
- “Even in operations, I think there [are] times when we probably overinvested. We might be able to accomplish the task in different areas of the world with fewer resources, if we forced ourselves to think about how to do that.”
- “Our reliance upon contractors is excessive, in particular in certain aspects of the use of contractors.”
Dempsey noted that under the Budget Control Act of 2011 “we were tasked to find $487 billion” in savings. In addition, the budget sequester will cut defense spending another $42.7 billion in the current fiscal year and, if it continues until 2023, “takes you to another $500 billion,” Dempsey said.
“It is not just a cliché to say that when you have all the resources you need, you no longer have the responsibility to think. So we are thinking,” Dempsey told a roomful of reporters. “We are trying to think our way through this challenge. And I think we will find opportunities to retain our level of effectiveness while becoming more efficient.”
But the general warned that, at some point, efficiency savings would be insufficient to meet the budget targets, and defense capabilities would be affected. “You know, you can’t wring that towel out too tightly,” he said of efficiency gains. And speaking of the combined cuts imposed by the Budget Control Act and by sequestration, he added, “There is a point at which you just can’t do that by becoming more efficient.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Dempsey to conduct a review of strategic choices facing the Pentagon with a target completion date of May 31.
“What you will see come out of the [Defense Secretary’s] strategic choices management review is that we will have to look at those places where we have grown most and decide whether that growth is justified, and my suspicion is we will find that, in many cases, it is not all justified,” Dempsey said.
Pedestrians pass the spot where the first bomb detonated on Boylston Street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, in Boston, last week. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
Did Boston bombers have help? Investigators checking female DNA evidence.
Investigators have found female DNA on a piece of one of the pressure cookers used as bombs in the Boston Marathon attacks, but it’s unclear whether the new evidence points to a third suspect, officials briefed on the probe told The Wall Street Journal.
The DNA does not conclusively indicate that the bombing suspects – brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – had an accomplice who helped to either build the bombs or dispose of the evidence. Officials said that the DNA could have come from a store clerk who handled the materials, or from a spectator at the bombing site.
But investigators are using the DNA evidence, as well as a fingerprint found on a bomb fragment, to probe several potential associates, including Katherine Russell, the widow of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two senior law enforcement officials told The New York Times.
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FBI agents visited Ms. Russell at her parents’ home in North Kingstown, R.I., on Monday. They left the house carrying bags labeled “DNA samples,” which will be used to see if the DNA belongs to Russell or the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, officials told CNN. Russell has been staying with her parents since April 19, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police.
"The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren't permitted to discuss specific aspects of the case," FBI spokesman Jason Pack told The Journal.
Russell has not been charged in the plot, and investigators say she is not currently a suspect. Her lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, has said that his client was shocked to learn of her husband’s alleged involvement in the attacks, and she has been cooperating with the investigation.
“We want to state what we stated before: Katie continues to assist in the investigation in any way that she can,” he said in an e-mail to The New York Times on Monday.
Police found materials used to make the bomb in the apartment where Russell and her husband lived in Cambridge, Mass., Reuters reported. But Mr. DeLuca said Russell did not know about her husband’s activities because she worked when Mr. Tsarnaev was at home watching their daughter.
Even if the female DNA turns out to be Russell’s, it is not proof that she participated in building the bomb or plotting the attack, experts say.
“It certainly becomes a circumstantial piece that says she may have handled the device or parts of the device and that opens the door she may have known,” said John Miller, a former assistant FBI director, Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.”
"What they found in the apartment was black powder and parts, but not the work bench you would need to have to make these bombs. They are still looking for that another place,” Mr. Miller said.
A law enforcement official told The Times that the FBI does not believe that the Tsarnaev brothers were connected with a terrorist network, but there is skepticism about whether other people knew about their plans or helped them destroy evidence. There is no hard evidence to support that theory, but it’s possible that people close to the Tsarnaevs may have unknowingly disposed of evidence, officials told The Journal.
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President Obama listens to Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx after naming him to replace Ray LaHood as Transportation Secretary at the White House in Washington on Monday. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Obama adds cabinet diversity by picking Anthony Foxx for Transportation
By nominating Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx to be his next Transportation secretary, President Obama adds some additional racial diversity to his administration, comes a step closer to completing his second term Cabinet, and moves a youthful African American politician into the national spotlight.
In a ceremony in the White House East Room Monday afternoon, Mr. Obama called Mayor Fox "one of the most effective mayors Charlotte has ever seen,” and detailed Foxx's transportation experience.
"Since Anthony took office, they have broken ground on a new street car project that is going to bring modern electric tram service to the downtown area, they have expanded the international airport, and they are extending the city’s light rail system," the president said. "All of that has not only helped to create new jobs, it has helped Charlotte become more attractive to business.
"So I know Anthony’s experience will make him an outstanding transportation secretary."
Foxx accepted the job offer in the Obama administration after announcing April 5 that he would leave the mayor’s office at the end of the year to spend more time with his family. “I never intended to be mayor for life,” he told the Charlotte Observer. The nominee, who turns 42 this week, has two children born after he joined the Charlotte City Council in 2005.
If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would be the second African American in Mr. Obama’s Cabinet, joining Attorney General Eric Holder. Foxx is the first African American among Obama’s picks for his second term team. The lack of diversity has been the target of criticism from politicians and comedians alike.
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D) of Ohio, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to Obama in March complaining that of his appointments up to that time, “none of them have been African American.” She added, “the people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.”
At Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner, Conan O’Brien referred to the president’s aging appearance saying, “Mr. President, your hair is so white it could be a member of your cabinet.”
It has taken Obama an unusually long time to announce his choices for his second-term cabinet. Second-term presidents usually move faster seeking to get their team in place before lame-duck status kicks in. For Obama, that likely will come as the 2014 congressional elections draw closer. The president, meanwhile, is close to nominating candidates for two remaining posts, with Chicago hotel magnate Penny Pritzker seen as the likely candidate for Commerce secretary and White House international economics adviser Michael Froman in line to be United States Trade Representative, The New York Times reports.
The Transportation Department has been in the headlines lately as automatic budget cuts from the "sequester" pushed the Federal Aviation Administration to furlough air traffic controllers, triggering airport delays. Last week, Congress acted to give the Department more flexibility to deal with the budget cuts, hoping to restore air travel to normal.
The cabinet post would be “by far the biggest job of Foxx’s career,” notes the Charlotte Business Journal. “He is a part-time mayor in a city government with a budget of less than $2 billion and about 7,000 employees,” the Journal says.
In his 2014 budget, the president is seeking $77 billion for the Transportation Department, which has responsibility for America’s roads, bridges, transit systems, border crossings, railways, and runways. The department has almost 60,000 employees.
The new position would make Foxx one of the nation’s most visible African-American politicians. “This would let him move on from municipal government while retaining a public profile that could set him up for a gubernatorial or senatorial run down the road,” notes Slate’s Matthew Yglesias.
The nomination comes as some black politicians are lamenting the apparent lack of progress for African American politicians in the time since Barack Obama made history and was elected president. Since the 2008 election, not one African-American has been elected to the Senate, although Mo Cowan (D) of Massachusetts was appointed to the body in February. The one African American governor, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, was elected before Obama, and when he leaves office after 2013 may leave the ranks of black governors empty.
“I don’t think Obama has given a lot of thought to what comes next in terms of African-American politics,” PBS NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill told Politico’s Jonathan Martin.
Lauren Howie, an Obama voter in 2012, poses outside the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on April 23. America's blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and, by most measures, surpassed the white turnout for the first time. (Mark Duncan/AP)
In a first, black voter turnout surpassed white turnout in 2012
For the first time, black voters went to the polls at a higher rate than white voters on Election Day 2012 – a shift that gave President Obama the margin of victory he needed to win the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and, as a result, a second term.
Had all racial groups turned out at the same rate as they had in 2004 or '08, Mitt Romney would have won the election, according to a new analysis of census data and exit polling by the Associated Press.
“The 2008 election was the first year when the minority vote was important to electing a US president. By 2024, their vote will be essential to victory,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who analyzed the data.
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For the next decade, whites and blacks will remain the two largest racial groups, but by 2024, 1 in 3 voters will be nonwhite, according to the AP analysis, released Monday.
During the 2012 campaign, politicos and pundits argued about whether the minority vote was the key to winning the election. Of all eligible voters in the US, 71 percent are white, 12 percent are black, 11 percent are Hispanic, 4 percent are Asian, and 2 percent other. But the number of minority voters matters less than their turnout rate, Dr. Frey told the Monitor in September.
“It depends on what degree minority voters’ enthusiasm and turnout balances the white voters’ enthusiasm and turnout,” Frey said.
Overall voter turnout declined from 62 percent in 2008 to 58 percent in 2012. White voters cast 72 percent of the total votes in 2012, down from 74 percent in 2004. That lower turnout rate accounted for 2 million to 5 million fewer white voters at the polls in 2012.
Black voters accounted 13 percent of the total votes cast in 2012, a repeat of 2008 – the first election in which their share of the total vote was larger than their share of the total population. States with significant black populations did not have as much of a decline in voter turnout as other states, said Michael McDonald, an associate professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who reviewed the analysis.
“The 2012 turnout is a milestone for blacks and a huge potential turning point,” Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University who has written extensively on black politicians, told the Associated Press. “What it suggests is that there is an 'Obama effect' where people were motivated to support Barack Obama. But it also means that black turnout may not always be higher, if future races aren't as salient.”
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that blacks turned out in large numbers due to Mr. Obama’s concentrated get-out-the-vote drive, and in spite of controversial voter ID laws that some experts say deters minorities from voting.
"Black turnout set records this year despite record attempts to suppress the black vote," Mr. Jealous said.
Minority demographics seem to favor Democrats – Obama won 93 percent of blacks, 71 percent of Hispanics, and 73 percent of Asians, the Monitor reported in November – a fact that is forcing Republicans to reevaluate their political strategies.
Although Latinos, at 17 percent of the population, are the fastest growing minority group in the US, they represent only 10 percent of the total votes cast in 2012. If 11 million immigrants here illegally become eligible for US citizenship – as they could under the proposed Senate immigration reform bill – the total share of Latino voters could spike to 16 percent by 2026.
“Democrats will be looking at a landslide going into 2028 if the new Hispanic voters continue to favor Democrats,” Frey said.
The last election showed that the Republican Party needs “a new message, a new messenger and a new tone,” said Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant who advises Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.
That's one reason some Republicans are eager to back some form of immigration reform, which could earn the support of minority votes, Mr. Ayres said.
• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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This photo added on April 18, 2013, to the VK page of Dias Kadyrbayev shows (from l.) Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, from Kazakhstan, with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square in New York. Tsarnaev used VK to stay connected to the global Chechen community. (VK/AP)
Bomb suspect Instagram account offers intriguing insights (+video)
So far the social media trail left behind by Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has offered only the barest hints that could connect him to a terrible act of terror. Indeed, his Twitter account – which he continued using after the bombings – is mostly notable for how ordinary it is.
But authorities have now located an Instagram account connected to Mr. Tsarnaev that was deleted only recently, according to a CNN report.
Under the user name "jmaster1," Tsarnaev "liked" a photo of Shamil Basayev, a warlord in Chechnya who claimed to be the mastermind behind the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, in which 40 terrorists and 130 civilians were killed when Russian special forces pumped an unknown chemical agent into the building.
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He also "liked" another pro-Chechnya image that included a string of hashtags: #FreeChechenia #Jihad #Jannah #ALLAH #Jesus and #God.
"If I were an investigator right now, obviously the platform he deleted matters the most," said Juliette Kayyem, a CNN terrorism analyst.
On one hand, such online activity is hardly damning. "Likes" don't make a terrorist.
Yet the deleted Instagram account adds to the impression that Tsarnaev used certain corners of the Internet to carve out a more Chechen persona for himself online than he did in daily life.
His Twitter account, @J_tsar, appeared to mirror his outward life most closely, with Tsarnaev engaging in the stream of random banter that drives the microblogging site. Though he did quote from an Islamic cleric and obliquely reference the Boston bombing on his Twitter feed, most tweets talk about homework, hip-hop music, or his favorite TV shows.
It is on the Russian social networking site VKontakte that a slightly different Tsarnaev begins to emerge. For the most part, the portrait is still benign, with Tsarnaev spending the most time discussing his favorite soccer club, Chechnya's FC Terek Grozny. He even wrote some posts in the Chechen language and included a joke: “ 'A car goes by with a Chechen, a Dagestani and an Ingush inside. Question: who is driving?' Answer: 'The police.' ”
But through VK, Tsarnaev might have gained a somewhat warped view of Chechnya – a place he had never been, writes Slate's Mike Walker.
"Whatever Chechnya Dzhokhar came to know through VK was not wholly representative of the region. The majority of ethnic Chechen youth of Dzhokhar’s generation will probably harbor anti-Russian views and have especially negative thoughts about United Russia, Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, which has taken a hard stance against Chechen independence.... However, Chechnya is a decently stable place today: Regular airline flights come and go, soccer matches are held, new construction is undertaken."
"Part of the anti-Russian views on the part of young Chechens are probably a combination of the legacy of war and simply being young and angry," he adds. "Those who grew up outside of the region, though, may be captivated by a romanticized extremism and maybe more inclined to actually carry something out."
Given what is already known about Tsarnaev's online habits, it seems unlikely that authorities will find a smoking gun on Instagram – Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, who is also a suspect in the bombing case, posted much more radical content than did Dzhokhar.
Moreover, the Instagram website's terms of use suggest that it might not have much old content to share with authorities. "Given the volume of real-time content on Instagram, some information may only be stored for a short period of time."
But with Dzhokhar reportedly talking to authorities less now that he has been read his rights, and with Tamerlan dead, authorities will surely look everywhere for possible clues.
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Marines raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, Feb. 23, 1945. Alan Wood, who died April 18, was the Navy communications officer who supplied the American flag. ((AP PHOTO/Joe Rosenthal) )
Alan Wood dies, leaves legacy of Iwo Jima flag
Like many World War II veterans, after he returned home, Alan Wood didn't talk much about his role at Iwo Jima.
It wasn't until years later, Wood began to share that it was he who provided the American flag raised by US marines on the peak of Mount Suribachi in 1945.
Wood passed on April 18 in Sierra Madre, Calif. After the war, Wood worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, first as a technical artist and later as a spokesman.
Wood had recovered the famous Iwo Jima flag from a salvage depot at Pearl Harbor, and brought it aboard the Navy vessel LST-779, where he was a communications officer, according to the Pasadena Star News. His ship was among some 450 that had amassed for the 1945 US assault on the key Pacific island.
"I was on the ship when a young Marine came along," he explained in the newsletter. "He was dusty, dirty and battle-worn, and even though he couldn't have been more than 18 or 19, he looked like an old man.
" 'Do you have a flag?' he asked me. 'Yes,' I said, 'What for?' He said something like, 'Don't worry, you won't regret it.' "
The US military decided they need to take the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. It was to be a critical refueling stop for US aircraft in the assault on Okinawa, Japan. But the Japanese had some 20,000 soldiers dug in – literally in tunnels crisscrossing the island.
While the battle for Iwo Jima took 36 days to complete, after just four days, a group of US Marines was sent to the 556-foot summit to plant a US flag. According to the US Navy Department Library, some 40 men from 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, led by 1st Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, raised the flag on Feb. 23, 1945.
"At 10:20 a.m., the flag was hoisted on a steel pipe above the island. This symbol of victory sent a wave of strength to the battle-weary fighting men below, and struck a further mental blow against the island's defenders," according to the official Navy history.
Three hours later, a second patrol was ordered to replace the flag with a bigger one. Some reports say it was to make the flag more visible, others say that an officer wanted the first flag as a souvenir.
That's where Alan Wood's flag was raised. And this was the now famous flag raising which was captured on film by Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal. His iconic photo earned him the 1945 Pulitzer Prize, and that image later became the basis for a monument in Washington D.C., near Arlington National Cemetery.
The two flags are now on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va.
A Southwest Airlines jet waits to depart in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Wednesday. The House votes on a bill Friday to allow the FAA to end furloughs for air traffic controllers. (Elaine Thompson/AP)
Flight delays coming to an end? House votes next on FAA furloughs.
The US Senate approved legislation late Thursday that would end furloughs for air traffic controllers and avoid potential delays for millions of air travelers. The House votes on the bill Friday morning and is expected to pass it, say lawmakers.
The Senate bill, which passed unanimously, allows the Federal Aviation Administration to transfer $253 million from other FAA programs to its operations account, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through Sept. 30, the end of the government's fiscal year.
“I am so happy that we were able to work together across the aisle in a bipartisan way to solve this problem,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine, who co-authored the legislation. “It’s nice to know when we work together we really can solve problems.”
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The furloughs of air traffic controllers stems from the “sequester,” the $85 billion in congressionally mandated automatic spending cuts that went into effect March 1. The FAA's share of that cut is $637 million.
As a result, the FAA reduced the work schedules of its nearly 47,000 employees, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, and thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers, and technicians who monitor and repair equipment in airport control towers. Employees are furloughed one day every two weeks, which results in a 10 percent cut in hours and pay, the FAA said.
For air travelers on Wednesday, 863 flights were delayed because of “employee furloughs due to sequestration,” the FAA said in a statement. An additional 2,132 flights were delayed because of weather and other factors.
"It will be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them these unnecessary delays,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement late Thursday. "But ultimately, this is no more than a temporary band-aid that fails to address the overarching threat to our economy posed by the sequester's mindless across the board cuts.”
Restoring air traffic controllers to full staffing would cost more than $200 million, plus another $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers that the FAA has proposed closing, policymakers estimate.
Sen. Mark Udall (D) of Colorado said he is “very confident” that the bill will pass the GOP-controlled House. "I know the House and its leadership in both caucuses will understand the importance of doing this for our economy," he said in a conference call late Thursday, reported The Wall Street Journal.
During a House hearing on Wednesday, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the staff furloughs were an unavoidable consequence of the sequester, though Republican lawmakers have said the FAA could have handled the budget cuts differently.
"How come you didn't tell us about this beforehand, the sequester, impact on the layoffs, the furloughs? Not a word. Not a breath," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R) of Kentucky asked Mr. Huerta at the hearing.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky said he is glad the bill excludes tax increases.
“Republicans have long said that the way to address these issues is through smarter cuts – not tax hikes or phony savings. And that’s what this legislation does,” Don Stewart, spokesman for Senator McConnell, told Politico.
– Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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This undated photo shows Brown University student Sunil Tripathi. The Rhode Island medical examiner's office on Thursday identified a body pulled from waters off a Providence park as that of Tripathi, missing since mid-March. (Courtesy of Brown University/Reuters)
Sunil Tripathi body found; Brown student was misidentified in Boston bombing
Among the mistakes in early reporting of the Boston Marathon bombing was the implication that Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, an Indian American, was somehow involved.
After the FBI released pictures and video of the bombing suspects, posters to online sites Reddit and Twitter speculated that Mr. Tripathi looked like one of the suspects.
The 22-year old philosophy major had been missing since March 15.
On Thursday a body found two days earlier in the water at a Providence, R.I., park by the university crew team was identified as that of Tripathi.
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Identified by dental records, the body was described by Providence Police Cmdr. Thomas Oates as having been in the water for "some time."
But before that, the burden on Tripathi’s family – and on many Indian Americans – was frightening.
He had left behind his cell phone and a note that apparently didn’t say much, writes Amy Davidson in the New Yorker. “But [it] was enough to remind his family of what they already knew: that he had suffered from depression, that they wanted him to come home, that they would do nothing but embrace him if he did.”
For hours – until brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the prime suspects in the Boston bombing – the Tripathi family agonized about what they knew to be wildly erroneous information posted about Sunil.
“What followed … was horrifying for those of us living away from our country of origin,” writes Shivangi Misra in Mint, an Indian business newspaper published collaboratively with the Wall Street Journal. “With each passing tweet, the chorus to establish Tripathi’s guilt grew. And with it, grew the fear of retribution that the Indian community in the US would likely face in the coming days.”
On Monday, Reddit general manager Erik Martin apologized for the "dangerous speculation" that "spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties."
In a blog post, reported by USA Today, Mr. Martin specifically apologized to the Tripathi family "for the pain they have had to endure."
"The Reddit staff and the millions of people on Reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened," he said. "We all need to look at what happened and make sure that in the future we do everything we can to help and not hinder crisis situations.”
The shoot-from-the-lip nature of social media continued after Tripathi’s body had been found and identified.
“Alas! An Indian killed by hyper nationalist racists in the US for mistaken identity,” one Facebook poster wrote, only to acknowledge some time later when the true circumstances of Tripathi’s death had been pointed out – by another Facebook poster – that “I should have been more circumspect.”
Brown University President Christina Paxson sent a message to the campus community Thursday saying Tripathi – the brother of two Brown graduates – would be remembered for his "gentle demeanor and generous spirit," the Associated Press reports. She described him as an accomplished saxophonist and a "serious, thoughtful, intellectually curious student and a brilliant writer."
In the statement Thursday, the family asked for their privacy to be respected and urged the public to “exercise caution and treat human lives with delicacy.”
“This last month has changed our lives forever, and we hope it will change yours too,’’ the family wrote. “Take care of one another. Be gentle, be compassionate. Be open to letting someone in when it is you who is faltering. Lend your hand. We need it. The world needs it.”
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Fires blaze aboard two fuel barges along the Mobile River after explosions erupted Wednesday night in Mobile, Ala. The explosions injured three workers who remained in critical condition Thursday, authorities said. (Dan Anderson/Reuters)
No foul play suspected in Alabama fuel barge explosions (+video)
Firefighters extinguished a massive fire in Alabama Thursday after explosions went off aboard two fuel barges overnight, critically injuring three people. The cause of the explosion is not immediately clear, but it appears to be accidental, fire officials said.
Vapors from unrefined gasoline had built up in the fuel barges, which were empty at the time of the explosion, US Coast Guard Lt. Mike Clausen told WALA Fox10 in Mobile, Ala., Thursday morning. A spark entered one of the barges, igniting the vapors and creating the first explosion. The force of the explosion caused the second boat to catch on fire, he said.
Mobile Fire-Rescue officials and the Coast Guard are waiting for the wreckage to cool before inspecting the barges to pinpoint where the spark originated.
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The initial explosion occurred at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, but firefighters allowed the fire to burn overnight after six other explosions went off during the night, Mobile Fire-Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
The barges, owned by Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine, were being cleaned at an Oil Recovery Co. facility on the Mobile River, said Kirby spokesman Greg Beuerman. The three injured individuals are workers at Oil Recovery, according to authorities.
The port is just east of downtown Mobile, where residents felt the heat from the explosions.
"It literally sounded like bombs going off around. The sky just lit up in orange and red," Alan Waugh, manager of the Ft. Conde Inn, told the Associated Press. "We could smell something in the air; we didn't know if it was gas or smoke."
He saw the explosion from his second-floor balcony and found black soot on his face when he went inside.
"We thought it was an earthquake or something," Amanda Hobbs told AL.com, as she and a friend watched the barges burn from across the river. "I have never felt anything like that."
Nearly 500 employees living onboard the Carnival Triumph were evacuated because the cruise ship is docked across the river from the explosion, Mr. Huffman of Mobile Fire-Rescue said. It is undergoing repairs after an engine fire caused the ship to break down two months ago in the Gulf of Mexico, stranding passengers for several days.
Mobile Fire Chief Steve Dean told AL.com that the fire would not spread to nearby industrial properties, and residents were warned to stay away from the riverfront. The Coast Guard created a one-mile perimeter around the explosion, shutting sections of the shipping channel Thursday.
US Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega said the explosions occurred in a ship channel near the George C. Wallace Tunnel, which carries interstate traffic under the Mobile River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The tunnels are still open and operating.
– Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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In this 2010 photo, Kermit Gosnell is seen during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorney's office in Philadelphia. He is charged with murder in the deaths of infants who died during late-term abortion. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/AP)
Kermit Gosnell defense rests without calling any witnesses (+video)
The sensational and sometimes grisly trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell reached an important point Wednesday when Dr. Gosnell’s defense team declined to call any witnesses – including the defendant himself.
Closing arguments in the trial, now in its sixth week, are scheduled to be heard next Monday, after which the controversial case goes to the jury.
Gosnell faces the death penalty if he is convicted in the deaths of four newborns. Prosecutors allege that the infants were born alive and viable during late-term abortions. Gosnell is also charged in the 2009 overdose death of a Nepalese refugee who overdosed on sedatives while awaiting an abortion.
Gosnell is also charged with racketeering, performing illegal abortions, and failing to counsel women 24 hours before a procedure.
Gosnell had been charged in the deaths of seven children, but on Tuesday Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart ruled that prosecutors over the past month failed to make a case on three of the seven first-degree murder counts, involving aborted babies known as Baby B, Baby C, and Baby G.
Former employees called by the prosecution testified that Gosnell relied on untrained, unlicensed staff to sedate and monitor women as they waited for abortions – many of them beyond the 24-week limit under Pennsylvania law. Three workers have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder charges, admitting they helped medicate the adult victim or had a hand in killing infants born alive.
They told jurors that Gosnell had taught them the technique, and said they trusted that it was legal. At least one, though, admits she grew so concerned about conditions at the clinic that she took pictures of the outdated equipment, messy rooms, and stacked specimen jars containing the remains of aborted babies.
Defense attorney Jack McMahon has maintained that none of the infants was killed, reports CNN. Rather, he said, they were already deceased as a result of Gosnell previously administering the drug digoxin, which can cause abortion.
In what is likely a preview of his closing arguments, Mr. McMahon said, "There is not one piece – not one – of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive.”
The only employee to go on trial with Gosnell, unlicensed physician Eileen O'Neill, is charged with theft for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. Her attorney called character witnesses to testify, but rested her case Wednesday without calling Ms. O’Neill to the witness stand.
Antiabortion activists say the case hints at widespread problems.
"This is a very dramatic case compared to what happens in some other clinics," Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of the antiabortion group Americans United for Life, told NPR. "But in all honesty, it doesn't completely surprise us because we've been trying to get attention to low-grade conditions in abortion clinics across the country for many, many years."
"The fact that we regulate veterinary clinics and beauty parlors more than you do abortion clinics in this country, that's inexcusable," says Ms. Yoest. "And what it leads to is this kind of situation with Gosnell."
Abortion-rights advocates, on the other hand, see the Gosnell case – horrible as it is – as an argument for more publicly-supported facilities and services, especially for low-income women of the type drawn to Gosnell’s lower prices.
Carole Joffe, a sociology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in reproductive health, says a new Pennsylvania law passed in the wake of the Gosnell revelations has resulted in many abortion clinics that were providing perfectly safe care having to shut their doors.
"Pennsylvania used to have 22 facilities; now they have 13," she told NPR. "The city of Pittsburgh used to have four clinics, now they're down to two."
• This report includes material from the Associated Press.
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