Today Thursday Friday
High: 59 High: 59 High: 58
Low: 38 Low: 38 Low: 40
Precip: 10% Precip: 0% Precip: 20%
IN BRIEF
Thousands of people
turned away from polls
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s interim
president said Tuesday that tens of
thousands of people may have been
unable to vote in the country’s his
toric weekend election because
some polling places — including
those in Sunni Arab areas — ran out
of ballots.
As clerks pounded vote-count tal
lies into computers to compile final
results, President Ghazi al-Yawer
also said chaos and a power vacu
um in Iraq mean U.S. forces need to
stay for now, even though a new
government will be formed after the
results are known.
Pope John Paul II rushed
to hospital for flu
ROME — Pope John Paul II was
hospitalized on Tuesday after he
suffered inflammation of the throat
and had difficulty breathing, the
Vatican said.
In a post-midnight statement,
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navar
ro-Valls said it was decided to ur
gently hospitalize the 84-year-old
pope at 10:50 p.m. after he suffered
complications from the flu.
Medicare to cover Viagra,
similar performance drugs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sexual
performance drugs such as Viagra
will be covered in Medicare’s
new prescription drug program,
a lifestyle rather than lifesaving
benefit that conservatives and
watchdog groups say the govern
ment shouldn’t provide.
Like those for maladies such as
high blood pressure and heart dis
ease, prescriptions for Viagra and
similar drugs in its class will be
tightly controlled. The new pre
scription coverage begins Jan. 1 and
is expected to cost more than $500
billion over the next decade.
Military death benefit
called too narrow
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawmak
ers and military officials said Tuesday
that President Bush’s proposal to
boost government payments to fami
lies of U.S. troops killed in Iraq,
Afghanistan and other war zones
was a good start but too narrow. Re
publicans suggested that those who
die while training for combat mis
sions also should be eligible for the
increased death benefits. Democrats
argued that the benefits should ex
tend to all military personnel who die
while on active duty.
— The Associated Press
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Videos of prison riot squads surface
BY PAISLEY DODDS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico —
Videotapes of riot squads subduing
troublesome terror suspects at the
U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay show the guards punching
some detainees, tying one to a gur
ney for questioning and forcing a
dozen to strip from the waist
down, according to a secret report.
One squad was all-female, trauma
tizing some Muslim prisoners.
Investigators from U.S. Southern
Command in Miami, which oversees
the camp in Cuba, wrote the report
that was obtained after spending a
little over a week in June reviewing
20 hours of videotapes involving
“Immediate Reaction Forces.”
The camp’s layout prevented
videotaping in all the cells where the
five-person teams — also known as
“Immediate Response Forces” — op
erated, the report said. Reviewers
said they did not look at all the avail
able videotapes.
Although the report cited several
cases of physical force, reviewers
said they found no evidence of sys
temic detainee abuse, according to
the six-page summary dated June
19, 2004. An official familiar with
the report authenticated it, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
The tapes raised questions about
mistreatment and misconduct, how
ever, said the investigators, who sug
gested some clips needed more
scrutiny to rule out abuse. The mili
tary has cited 10 substantiated cases
of abuse at Guantanamo, and an
nounced Tliesday an extension
would be granted for an investiga
tion to interview witnesses in the
United States and abroad.
One such clip the investigators
flagged was from Feb. 17, 2004. It
showed “one or more” team mem
bers punching a detainee “on an
area of his body that seemingly
would be inconsistent with striking
a pressure point,” which is a sanc
tioned tactic for subduing prisoners.
In five other clips showing de
tainees who appeared to have been
punched by team members, the in
vestigators said, “The punching was
in line with accepted law enforce
ment practice of striking the pres
sure point on the back of the thigh to
temporarily distract the detainee.”
In other “questionable” cases,
reviewers said a video showed a
guard kneeing a detainee in the
head, while another showed a
team securing a detainee to a gur
ney for an interrogation.
A separate clip captured a platoon
leader taunting a detainee with pep
per spray and repeatedly spraying
him before letting the reaction team
enter the cell, reviewers wrote.
Investigators also noted about a
dozen cases in which detainees
were stripped from the waist down
and taken to the “Romeo block,” of
the camp. No female guards were in
volved, they said.
Romeo block is a camp section
where prisoners were often left
naked for days, said two former
detainees, Britons Shafiq Rasul
and Asif Iqbal, who were released
last year.
Although no female guards were
videotaped in any of the stripping
cases, investigators cautioned the
U.S. government about using the all
female team to handle disruptive de
tainees, citing religious and cultural
issues. Many of the prisoners are
Muslim men and under strict inter
pretations of Islam view contact
with women other than their wives
as taboo.
Commentator: Meeting adjourned abrubtly after heated debate
Continued from page 1
the Commentator made Hill-Meyer
feel unsafe. Hill-Meyer, who
later filed a formal grievance
against the publication, said Hill
Meyer was targeted because of
transgender identity.
Although PFC members said before
the meeting they would recall that de
cision, giving the impression that the
mission statement might be passed,
no approval came at Tliesday’s meet
ing. Instead the PFC engaged in more
than an hour of deadlocked discus
sion on everything from PFC’s role to
the legal implications of choosing to
de-fund the Commentator.
Persis Pohowalla stressed that PFC
members needed to stay viewpoint
neutral, and their main goal was to re
view the Commentator’s budget, not
its content.
“Even though we fund groups, that
does not mean we support them,” Po
howalla said. “We just fund them.”
But Quiroz did not agree, saying
that the PFC is responsible for looking
at how student fee-funded groups af
fect other students on campus. Quot
ing from the ASUO’s Green Tape
Notebook, Quiroz said, “each pro
gram ... must submit a goal state
ment which allows each Finance
Committee to determine for itself
whether the program or activity
meets the statutory standard of
ORS 351.070(3) (d), which author
izes the (Oregon State Board of
Higher Education) to collect fees to
fund programs for the cultural and
physical development of students.”
“That’s what the rules say, we
do have the power, you cannot
deny this,” Quiroz said.
In Quiroz’s view, the Commenta
tor is not is not promoting
that development.
“I’m in no way trying to silence the
voice of the Oregon Commentator,”
Quiroz said. “We have a duty to pro
tect those who are threatened by
groups that are funded by incidental
fees. What message are we sending to
those who turn to us when all others
have turned against them?”
Hill-Meyer said during the hearing
that after consultation with adminis
tration on campus, coming to the PFC
seemed like the only viable solution.
“Some might argue on an ideologi
cal level that to remove funding of a
publication on the basis of its content
is a form of censorship,” Hill-Meyer
said, reading from a statement. “But
you must also remember that to pro
vide funds to a publication is a form
of sponsorship, and to provide funds
to a publication that prints hate and
justifies violence is a sponsorship of
hate and violence.”
But Commentator Editor in Chief
Tyler Graf reiterated that comments
made about Hill-Meyer were sup
posed to be satirical.
For more articles on the Commentator’s budget
process this year, visit www.dailyemerald.com.
Tempers flared, and there was boo
ing and cheering as attendees traded
remarks. Pohowalla was hard-pressed
to keep order, forcefully banging her
gavel several times and limiting each
speaker’s time to about two minutes.
PFC member Jael Anker-Lagos,
who also called for viewpoint neutral
ity, tried twice to get a motion to ap
prove the budget on the table with no
support from the other members.
“I really do think that PFC should
remember why you were elected,”
Pohowalla said. “I’m trying to do the
best job that I can do.”
ASUO President Adam Petkun
reminded the PFC that the Com
mentator had not been found guilty
of breaking any rules, citing the
Southworth Supreme court deci
sion that states that universities
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must conduct a viewpoint-neutral
allocation process.
“This isn’t a court of law,”
Petkun said. “I don’t think we can
say that (the Commentator’s) mis
sion isn’t important to the mission
of the University.”
But a motion to approve the mis
sion statement failed 2-4-0, with
only Pohowalla and Anker-Lagos
voting in support of it.
Graf said the PFC had overstepped
its boundaries and that the Com
mentator had done nothing wrong.
“I think it’s going to set a very nega
tive precedent,” Graf said. “The PFC
is making a subjective statement
about our content.”
Others called into question Hill
Meyer’s decision to use the PFC as
a means to address the Commenta
tor’s content.
“Toby what you’ve done tonight,
it’s blatantly illegal,” Adrian
Gilmore, last year’s PFC chair and
Commentator contributor said.
“There’s a reason why free speech
is the First Amendment.”
Commentator publisher Dan
Atkinson agreed.
“If we have violated a rule, take
it up with judicial affairs,”
Atkinson said.
But some PFC members were
adamant.
“If I’m disobeying an unjust law,
then I feel justified in doing so, and
the executive can fire me for doing it,”
Kieffer said, adding later that he
wanted to make decision “he could
live and die with.”
“So you’re saying the First
Amendment is an unjust law,” Graf
countered. “Are you insane?”
Graf said it was not the job of a
“bunch of undergraduates” to de
termine what constituted hate
speech, and that the Commentator
did not habitually have content
that intentionally put people
in danger.
:i 1:1 l:i l:i l:i lzi lti l-i lii lti l-i lti i-i l*i i*i l-i l-i i
“Whose job is it to define hate?
Is it your job?” he asked. “The
precedent is against you. State law
is against you.”
Students on both sides of the de
bate also joined in the fray.
“As a student who pays inciden
tal fees, I refuse to allow my fees to
promote hate and incite violence,”
senior Stacy Borke said, eliciting a
round of applause.
But there was still no agreement.
“You have forsaken free speech
by closing down a publication,”
junior Matt Haulk said, and his
share of cheering followed. “You
have betrayed your position of
power.”
With one minute to spare and no
progress in the decision-making,
Quiroz quit and Pohowalla was
forced to adjourn the meeting till a
later date.
After the meeting, Graf said the
Commentator is planning to take
legal action.
“I think tonight has been one of
the worst nights in student govern
ment history,” Graf said.
He added that he did not think
Quiroz was qualified for his posi
tion on the budget committee.
“He obviously had a bone to
pick with us,” Graf said. “I’m glad
he’s gone.”
Atkinson echoed these sentiments.
“We have one less incompetent
government official to worry
about,” Atkinson said.
After resigning Quiroz declined
to comment.
Pohowalla had no comments
about Quiroz’s resignation.
Petkun said he was “surprised
and a little disappointed.”
ayishayahya@ daily emerald, com
021340
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