NNA Breaking News 12/17/98<<<<
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NNA Breaking News 12/17/98
US News
1. Rudolph manhunt finds only skeptics
2. Feds Crack Alleged Green Card Ring
3. Black Panther fights prosecution's bid to reinstate sentence
4. 2 Black Teens Shot Dead in New Orleans
World News
5. Russian Communist says too many jews close to Yeltsin.
6. Protests against far right offices in former jewish home.
7. French National Front to rule December 23 on mutineers
8. Zimbabwe's Banana under arrest
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[This article should be titled "Brutal Federal Tyrants Terrorize
American town". Federal treason agencies will spare no expense to
"arrest" an American dissident citizen, yet give aid, food, and
shelter to non-white criminal alien invaders posing as "immigrants".
It's interesting to see here how federal thugs have sequestered
themselves behind razor wire in a compound or fort not unlike a
besieged Roman garrison in ancient occupied Breton.]
Rudolph manhunt finds only skeptics
ANDREWS, N.C.People in these parts are convinced the federal manhunt
for bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph is not going to end well.
''I don't think it will be quiet,'' says Jack Thompson, who served 12
years as Cherokee County sheriff until his defeat last month. ''I
don't think Eric will come out and say, 'I give up,' and it won't
end quiet and peaceful.''
The other prevailing theory is that Rudolph is not hiding in the bush,
even though federal authorities have concentrated their efforts on a
cave-to-cave search through the lush Nantahala National Forest in the
Appalachian Mountains.
''He's in somebody's basement, eating good people's cooking and
watching CNN,'' says Tim Rasmussen, a local lawyer. ''It would be
naive to believe he doesn't have help.''
How else, the locals say, to explain the part-time carpenter's success
at eluding a federal manhunt that has dragged on for nearly 11 months?
Rudolph, 32, has been sought since Jan. 29. He is charged with four
bombings in Georgia and Alabama that killed two people and wounded
more than 110, including the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta
and the bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham in January. A
cameraman also died several hours after the Olympics blast.
Since Rudolph disappeared, he has eluded a team of up to 200 federal
agents, Forest Service tracking guides, bloodhounds and helicopters
equipped with heat sensors designed to detect body warmth. Despite a
$1
million reward offered by the Southeast Bomb Task Force, headquartered
in a defunct sewing machine factory here, no one has come forward with
information that has helped the search.
Not even the weather has cooperated. The unseasonably warm nights of
late November and early December hampered the effectiveness of the
heat-seeking equipment. Still, the federal team has expanded again to
200 for the winter search.
Jackie Foust, who runs the Cherokee Restaurant, has added ''Rudolph
burgers'' to her menu. They come with an onion ring on top: ''It's
supposed to signify that the FBI's running around in circles,'' she
says.
The hill country here, just south of the Great Smokey Mountains
National Park, turns out to be a good place to be a fugitive. The
terrain is rugged, the people remote. Agents have looked through
300 caves and abandoned mines and brushed up against a prickly
population full of independent-minded families skeptical of federal
authority.
''Do you remember what they used to do in these mountains in the '20s
and '30s, sis? Moonshine,'' says David Luther, whose family has lived
in the hollows for generations. ''Who do you think it was that used to
lock our grandfathers up for making moonshine?''
The only sighting of Rudolph was in July, when he contacted George
Nordmann, owner of a health foods store, seeking supplies. Nordmann
waited several days before calling investigators, and by then the
trail
was cold again.
The 2,500 residents of Andrews have mixed views about their place in
the spotlight. The manhunt has been a boon to the local economy the
motels are full of investigators but there is also distress over how
Andrews is playing to the outside world.
''I went down to the TV cameras one day and asked them: 'Couldn't you
please interview someone who has all their teeth?' '' sighs Kandy
Barnard, 45, a local realtor.
Terry Turchie, one of the lead investigators, says the agents are
looking into reports of suspicious activities, including prowlers
and barking dogs ''at unusual hours, often for many nights in a row.''
Burke West, a farmer, says he wishes the agents well, but doesn't put
much stock in barking dogs as a clue: ''Dogs bark all the time here. A
lot of times they get a chorus going.''
Rudolph, meanwhile, has become something of a mythical figure. In the
talk around town, his mountaineering acumen approaches Rambo-esque
proportions.
One story has Rudolph confounding bloodhounds brought in from Texas,
including a dog sired by a hound so skilled it once tracked two prison
escapees by following the tire tracks on the getaway car.
Not many people think the agents are going to stumble across him in
the
wilderness.
''A person could be laying 20 feet from you and you wouldn't see
them,''
says Mike Stephens, a local North Carolina wildlife agent who is
assisting.
Folks think the federal agents have as much chance of finding Rudolph
with their high-tech equipment as the Air Force had finding Suddam
Hussein with its smart bombs during the Gulf War.
''He will have to make a mistake,'' former sheriff Thompson says.
''He's going to have to come out again or get sick.''
Investigators say they are confident that Rudolph is still in the
area, and privately they say they believe he is still operating alone.
''We feel his camp is booby-trapped,'' says Stephens, the wildlife
agent. ''If he's setting up there, he's probably got two high-powered
rifles. He might try to kill two or three agents.''
In his encounter with Nordmann in July, Rudolph asked for the location
of the federal task force headquarters, according to Justice
Department
officials. At the time, the FBI was working out of an office building
near the post office. The sewing machine factory, where the task force
is now based, is fenced. When they moved in, investigators closed the
road leading to the plant.
It was inevitable that tensions between federal agents and the locals
would build.
Many here were put off at first, in the way people are in small towns,
by the big city agents speeding on the highway. The search helicopters
drone endlessly overhead.
Resident John Keller says he's so weary of the choppers he's thinking
of putting Christmas lights on the roof, spelled out to say: ''He's
Not Here.''
Last week, Turchie announced flights will be curtailing on Wednesday
nights and Sundays.
''It's like too many people in an elevator,'' Rasmussen says. ''We've
got highly adrenalized people with unlimited resources in this little
town. Tensions go up the longer the elevator is stuck between
floors.''
Phillip Rogers, a mechanic with incredibly bad timing, has learned
first-hand how tenuous relations are with the agents. Last month,
someone fired eight rounds into the task force compound. One bullet
grazed an agent's hair.
That same night, Rogers was in his backyard playing with his son's toy
laser. Unaware of the shooting, Rogers shined the laser toward a
helicopter as it passed over.
''I was trying to see how far it would go,'' he says.
A few seconds later, Rogers saw two red lasers on his chest.
''There were two red dots that hit me dead center on my heart,'' he
says. ''That was my first indication of 'Oh Lord, what in the world
have I done?'''
Rogers went down to the Andrews Police Department. The agents swooped
in and Rogers was hauled away to jail overnight. He was charged with a
misdemeanor, ''forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding,
intimidating and interfering with a federal officer.'' His trial is
set
for February.
Within days, leaflets began circulating through Andrews, asking
residents how long they were going to ''tolerate the presence of
these brutal tyrants.''
Rasmussen, Rogers' lawyer, says his client is lucky to be alive: ''If
he'd had a gun in his hand that night, they'd have killed him.''
--
Feds Crack Alleged Green Card Ring
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal law enforcement officials have
seized more than 22,000 counterfeit immigration cards and
arrested five people who allegedly produced and sold the
documents in the nation's capital.
``The group operated too long with impunity,'' Wilma A. Lewis,
U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Tuesday in
announcing the indictments and arrests of five Mexican citizens.
Federal officials say the bust will make it significantly
harder for undocumented workers in the Washington area to
obtain fake ``green cards,'' which confirm the holder's
permanent residence in the United States.
``We are confident that these arrests will have a definite
impact on the supply of those counterfeit documents in this
area,'' said Warren A. Lewis, district director of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and the brother of
the U.S. attorney.
Those arrested are Omar Hernandez-Garcia, 34, Jose Antonio
Guzman-Sanchez, 32, and Arturo Flores-Flores, 18, all of
Washington; and Juan Jose Penaloza-Perez, 25, and Mario
Martinez-Gonzalez, 32, both of Reading, Pa.
All five are illegal immigrants from Mexico and could face
deportation after they are tried on charges of conspiracy,
forgery and trafficking in false identification documents,
officials said.
If convicted, they each face fines in excess of $250,000 and 10 to 15
years in prison, Ms. Lewis said.
She said the arrests were made over the past several weeks, following
an eight-month investigation prompted by complaints that people were
selling fake green cards and Social Security cards for about $200 for
both.
INS and Secret Service agents seized the documents, which have a
street value of $3.3 million, Warren Lewis said.
The agents also seized a computer, a copier, a scanner, typewriters,
silk screens and laminating machines from two apartments in which
the papers allegedly were produced.
``This counterfeit ring was using sophisticated equipment that
produced a high-quality document,'' Warren Lewis said, adding that
additional arrests are pending.
--
Black Panther fights prosecution's bid to reinstate sentence
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, a former Black Panther
whose murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years
behind bars, was back in court fighting prosecutors' efforts to
return him to prison.
Pratt maintains he was a political prisoner railroaded by Julius
Butler, an ex-felon and professional informer whose alliance with
law enforcement wasn't revealed until years after Pratt's conviction.
Butler was the key witness at Pratt's 1972 trial.
Prosecutors told the 2nd District Court of Appeals on Tuesday,
however, that belated revelations in Pratt's case were insignificant
and would not have changed the trial's outcome.
``New facts have come to light but they cannot change the jury's
verdict that Elmer Pratt killed Caroline Olsen,'' prosecutor Harry
Sondheim told the court.
Pratt, now known as Geronimo ji jaga, was convicted of murdering
the schoolteacher in 1968 and was sentenced to 25 years to life in
prison. He claimed he was in Oakland for Black Panther meetings when
she was killed, and that FBI agents and police hid and possibly
destroyed wiretap evidence that would prove it.
Pratt, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was released from prison
in June 1997 after an Orange County judge reversed his murder
conviction, finding that prosecutors during the trial deliberately
withheld the fact that Butler was a felon and an FBI informant.
The case has become a cause celebre - dozens of supporters, including
actors Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, attended Tuesday's proceeding.
``In terms of legal justice it's been a travesty. ... It's gone on
for 27 years and it's about time for it to stop,'' Penn said outside
court.
The most stirring argument in court came from lawyer Mark Rosenbaum
of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who
called prosecutors' continued pursuit of Pratt ``immeasurable evil.''
``Twenty-seven years is enough injustice for any single soul,''
Rosenbaum said.
Outside court, Pratt said he felt he was ``represented with the
best of legal eloquence. We should stop these vendettas by
small-minded people trying to get promotions.''
The court has 90 days to issue an opinion. If prosecutors lose,
they could appeal to the California Supreme Court.
--
2 Black Teens Shot Dead in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A gunman crashed through the window of a ground
floor city housing project apartment early Tuesday and fatally shot
two girls, ages 13 and 14, and shot the younger girl's sister in the
eye.
The mother of two of the girls told police a male intruder came into
their apartment at about 1 a.m. and fired several shots at her.
But he missed as she ducked into another room and the gunman went
inside the girls' bedroom, sprayed it with bullets and fled, police
said.
Police had no suspect or motive.
Killed in the shooting was 13-year-old India Sanders and her friend,
Lashandra Brown, 14. Alma Sanders, 16, was in stable condition with
an injury not considered life threatening.
--
World News
Russian Communist says too many jews close to Yeltsin.
MOSCOW, Dec 15 (AFP) - A Communist Party deputy on Tuesday
blamed the country's problems on an alleged predominance of Jews
close to President Boris Yeltsin and in the government, Interfax
news agency said.
Victor Ilyushin made the remarks while presiding over the
security committee of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, and
called for ethnic quotas for government posts.
The committee was examining an accusation of "genocide against
the Russian people" lodged by certain deputies calling for Yeltsin
to be sacked.
The deputies hold Yeltsin responsible for Russia's economic and
social crisis, which has worsened conditions for the general public
since the ruble was devalued in August.
Ilyushin spoke of "genocide on a large scale," which would not
have been possible "if there had been more native Russians in Boris
Yeltsin's entourage and in the government rather than
representatives of a single nationality, the Jews."
An official in the presidential administration condemned
Ilyushin's "wild" remarks, which he said aimed to "provoke
nationalist and religious hostility."
The goal of such comments was to "destabilise the situation to
allow a takeover of the government by force," the ITAR-TASS agency
quoted the official as saying.
The Communist Party, which holds a majority in the Duma, last
month blocked two attempts to condemn anti-semitic remarks made by
of one of their number, retired general Albert Makashov.
Makashov had uttered death threats against Jews and also called
for ethnic quotas in government bodies.
--
Protests against far right offices in former jewish home.
BERLIN, Dec 15 (AFP) - Several hundred people demonstrated
Tuesday against a far-right party setting up offices in a Berlin
home seized from a Jewish family in 1936 by the Nazis.
The presence of the Republicans in the home of former cigarette
magnate Joseph Garbaty would be a "mockery of Jews who were
dispossessed and killed," Berlin Jewish community leader Andreas
Nachama told the protestors, who walked with lit candles.
Several state members of parliament were present at the
demonstration in the Pankow district in eastern Berlin.
But the Republicans have a legal right to rent the building, the
Berlin administration said, as the Garbaty family has already been
compensated for its losses under the Nazis and has not asked for
their home back.
Joseph Garbaty was forced to sell his business and leave his
home in 1936 when he fell victim to the anti-semitic Nazi policy of
Aryanization.
He died in Berlin in 1939 but his sons managed to emigrate from
Germany.
The former Garbaty home was used as the Bulgarian embassy under
the former communist East German regime.
It was sold just before German reunification in 1990 to the
chief of a temporary-worker travel agency Wolfgang Seifert.
Seifert, whose wife is close to the Republicans, rented the
house, which has been renovated, to the far-right group, who want to
move their headquarters there.
Seifert has defended himself, saying he rented another house to
leftists in the PDS party of former East German communists.
--
French National Front to rule December 23 on mutineers
Agence France-Presse
PARIS, Dec 15 (AFP) - The leadership of France's embattled far-right
National Front announced Tuesday it would decide next week the fate
of top party members who have been suspended for mounting a rebellion.
The xenophobic party that advocates shipping millions of foreigners
home said in a statement that its executive board, headed by founder
and leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, will meet December 23 to give a final
ruling on the suspensions.
But the seven top officials suspended, including Le Pen's would-be
heir and deputy Bruno Megret, said they considered any action against
them "null and void" and would not appear before the board.
They announced Tuesday that they were pushing ahead with plans for
an extraordinary party meeting on January 24, near the southern city
of Marseille, where there is strong backing for the dissidents.
The conference, which could lead to a vote on Le Pen's removal, will
be preceded on January 9 by a meeting of the national council, they
added.
Le Pen has denounced the extraordinary meeting as illegal, saying
it runs counter to the party's statutes.
The battle between the two camps has escalated in recent days with
a total split now appearing inevitable.
The National Front has regularly won the support of about 15 percent
of voters in France in elections in recent years, and political
observers see the split in the Front as a factor in a possible
new realignment of the French rightwing.
--
Zimbabwe's Banana under arrest
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Fugitive former President Canaan Banana,
convicted on sodomy and homosexual assault charges, was placed under
house arrest Wednesday after surrendering to police.
Banana was ordered to remain under police guard at his mansion in the
luxury Harare suburb of Mount Pleasant until a hearing next week.
The former president was convicted on Nov. 26 after he had fled the
country, first to neighboring Botswana and then to South Africa.
Banana said he had fled Zimbabwe to escape political persecution and
meet
with ''real friends,'' including President Nelson Mandela of South
Africa.
''I left the country because I was in possession of dangerous
information, so I had to share it with my real friends,'' the
63-year-old Banana said without elaborating.
The Harare High Court set Dec. 23 for sentencing on 11 gay sex
charges.
On Sunday, Mandela and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe discussed
Banana's case. Mandela said the two leaders reached a ''common
position'' on Banana, believed to be an agreement to persuade him to
return home, possibly as part of a deal for a light sentence or even a
pardon from Mugabe.
Banana, a Methodist minister and theology professor, served as
ceremonial president after independence in 1980 until 1987.
State prosecutors say Banana fled first to neighboring Botswana, where
he met with church and political officials, and then to South Africa,
entering both countries illegally after surrendering his passport
during his trial earlier this year.
Mandela triggered controversy when he saw Banana at his Pretoria
residence at Banana's request this month.
Attorney Erik Morris, acting for Banana on Friday, told the court the
politician had left the country ''not to defeat the course of justice
or evade punishment.''
''He had a political agenda and wished to meet with heads of state,
for he had matters to impart,'' Morris said.
Next week's hearing will also consider Banana's status after he jumped
bail and crossed international borders illegally, forfeiting his bail
of 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars and the title deed to his Harare home.
Chief state prosecutor Augustine Chikumira, who agreed to Banana's
house arrest, said that under Zimbabwe law, there was no maximum
penalty for Banana's convictions. Chikumira said Banana faced a fine
or
prison term.
Earlier, state prosecutors had said Banana faced up to 22 years in
jail for the 11 convictions.
Reports by the state media Wednesday said Banana had surrendered at
the border with South Africa on Tuesday and was whisked to Harare in
a limousine accompanied by Zimbabwean detectives.
Mugabe, at a church assembly last week, praised Banana for his
political
role combating racism in the church before independence in 1980. The
state media has also urged Zimbabweans to forgive Banana, seen as a
sign of a likely pardon.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Zimbabwe. Banana was prosecuted after
revelations of his predatory homosexuality were made in the trial of a
police inspector who killed a colleague for taunting him over a
three-year sexual relationship Banana forced on him while president.
--
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