Convicted Marine apologizes to Iraqi civilians (AP)

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. ? When Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich finally spoke in court he did not address the judge but instead directed his words at the Iraqi family members who survived his squad's attacks in 2005 that left 24 unarmed civilians dead.

The 31-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine apologized for the loss of their loved ones and said he never intended to harm them or their families. He went on to tell the court that his guilty plea in no way suggests that his squad behaved badly or dishonorably.

"But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results," Wuterich said in an unsworn statement.

The lone Marine was convicted of a single count of negligent dereliction of duty. He faces having his rank reduced but he will not go to jail as a part of a plea agreement that abruptly ended his long-awaited manslaughter trial.

Wuterich, who admitted to instructing his men to "shoot first, ask questions later," defended his order to raid homes in Haditha after a roadside bomb killed a fellow Marine. He said his aim was "to keep the rest of my Marines alive."

His sentence Tuesday ended a six-year prosecution that failed to win any manslaughter convictions. Eight Marines were initially charged; one was acquitted and six others had their cases dropped.

The plea deal that dropped nine counts of manslaughter sparked outrage in the besieged Iraqi town and claims that the U.S. didn't hold the military accountable.

"I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair," said survivor Awis Fahmi Hussein, showing his scars from a bullet wound to the back.

Military judge Lt. Col. David Jones initially recommended the maximum sentence of three months for Wuterich, saying: "It's difficult for the court to fathom negligent dereliction of duty worse than the facts in this case."

Then he opened an envelope containing the plea agreement to learn its terms ? as is procedure in military court ? and announced that the deal prevented any jail time for the Marine.

"That's very good for you obviously," Jones told Wuterich.

Jones did recommend that the sergeant's rank be reduced to private, which would dock his pay as a result, but he decided not to exercise his option to cut it by as much as two-thirds because the divorced father has sole custody of his three daughters. The rank reduction has to be approved by a Marine general, who already signed off on the plea deal.

Defense attorney Neal Puckett said Wuterich has been falsely labeled a killer who carried out a massacre in Iraq. He insisted Wuterich's only intention was to protect his Marines.

"The appropriate punishment in this case, your honor, is no punishment," Puckett said.

Wuterich, who hugged his parents after he spoke, declined comment on Jones' decision. Puckett and his co-counsel Haytham Faraj, said in a statement: "We believe justice prevailed for Staff Sgt. Wuterich and in turn, he wishes it was within his power to impart the same measure of justice to the families of the victims of Haditha."

Wuterich directly addressed family members of the Iraqi victims, saying there were no words to ease their pain.

"I know that you are the real victims of Nov. 19, 2005," he said.

He went on to tell the court: "When my Marines and I cleared those houses that day, I responded to what I perceived as a threat and my intention was to eliminate that threat in order to keep the rest of my Marines alive," he said. "So when I told my team to shoot first and ask questions later, the intent wasn't that they would shoot civilians, it was that they would not hesitate in the face of the enemy."

"The truth is I never fired my weapon at any women or children that day," Wuterich later told Jones.

The contention by Wuterich, 31, of Meriden, Conn., contradicts prosecutors and counters testimony from a former squad mate who said he joined Wuterich in firing in a dark back bedroom where a woman and children were killed.

Prosecutors argued that Wuterich's knee-jerk reaction of sending the squad to assault nearby homes without positively identifying a threat went against his training and caused needless deaths of 10 women and children.

"That is a horrific result from that derelict order of shoot first, ask questions later," said Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan.

Military prosecutors worked for more than six years to bring Wuterich to trial on manslaughter charges that could have sent him away to prison for life. But only weeks after the long-awaited trial started, they offered Wuterich the deal.

It was a stunning outcome for the last defendant in the case once compared with the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

The Haditha attack is considered among the war's defining moments, further tainting America's reputation when it was already at a low point after the release of photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.

During the trial before a jury of combat Marines who served in Iraq, prosecutors argued Wuterich lost control after seeing his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a rampage, blasting their way in with gunfire and grenades. Among the dead was a man in a wheelchair.

Faraj said the government was working on false notions and the deal was reached last week when prosecutors recognized their case was falling apart with contradictory testimony from witnesses who had lied to investigators. Many of the squad members had their cases dropped in exchange for testifying. Prosecutors have declined to comment.

Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel said the deal was the result of mutual negotiations and does not reflect how the case was going for the prosecution. He said the government investigated and prosecuted the case as it should have.

Wuterich plans to leave the Marine Corps and start a new career in information technology. His lawyers said they plan to petition for clemency.

___

Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Mazin Yahya in Baghdad, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Raquel Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_marines_haditha

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Obama: America about hard work, not handouts (AP)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa ? President Barack Obama, promoting his opportunity-for-all economic agenda in the state that helped him get elected, said Wednesday that "America is not about handouts" but people do expect their shot at success. Following up on his State of the Union address, he defended the government's role in ensuring fairness and rejected criticisms about class warfare.

"There's no reason why we can't restore the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well," Obama said from a manufacturing plant. He said most people don't have unrealistic ambitions about their economic future but they do want to own a home, save for retirement and "achieve that small measure of an American dream."

Obama spoke at the start of a three-day tour of politically crucial states to sell his 2012 economic policy goals and pitch his presidency to a divided public. Fresh from his address to a joint session of Congress, Obama sought to boost his ideas for more manufacturing on American soil by showcasing a conveyor belt component manufacturer in Iowa and an Intel plant in Arizona.

Running for re-election against Republicans who've questioned his economic stewardship, the president said he wants to restore the basic promise of America, "and it starts with manufacturing." Inside the factory, speaking to roughly 300 workers and guests, Obama was flanked by machinery and a banner with his latest slogan: "America Built to Last."

Presidential travel following the State of the Union is commonplace, allowing presidents to temporarily bask in the afterglow of their prime-time performances, milking their message before key constituencies.

Obama will highlight energy security Thursday in Nevada and Colorado and wrap up Friday by pushing education and training proposals at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Republicans have blasted Obama for offering divisive politics and pushing a greater role for government intervention in people's lives. "Iowans are still waiting for Obama to deliver on the promises of his campaign and his first term," said Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

Obama shot back that Republicans would prefer a world in which people are left on their own, saying he wants to lead a nation in which hard work has rewards.

"America is not about handouts," he said. "America is about earning everything you've got."

Obama toured Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing, a small family-owned Cedar Rapids company that builds giant conveyor belt screws, working primarily with the ethanol and food industries

The president is pushing a litany of tax proposals that he said would boost manufacturing jobs, from removing tax deductions for companies when they move their operations overseas to creating a new tax credit to offset expenses for moving operations back to the U.S. Other proposals included doubling tax deductions for advanced manufacturing, extending tax credits for clean energy projects and creating new tax credits to encourage companies to relocate in communities that suffered a major job loss, like the closing of a plant.

Obama economic advisers said the administration would seek a minimum corporate tax for multinational companies, closing a loophole that allows companies to shift profits overseas.

Obama's trip comes amid signs of economic improvements, even as battling Republican presidential contenders appeal to conservatives by sounding increasingly hostile to his policies.

Underlying the president's specific policy proposals will be the election-year economic fairness argument that he has been refining since he spelled it out in Osawatomie, Kan., last month, including higher taxes on the wealthy. Reinforcing the political subtext of the trip is the fact that four of the five states he will visit will hold Republican presidential caucuses or primaries within the next month. The two caucuses ? in Nevada and Colorado ? come within two weeks of his visit.

Obama has made a point of grabbing headlines in states in the midst of Republican presidential contests, eager not to cede the political message to his rivals.

What's more, of five paths that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has charted to win re-election in November, all foresee winning Michigan, three require winning Iowa, two require Colorado and Nevada, and one has Arizona in the Obama win column. In 2008, of the five states he's visiting, Obama lost only Arizona, the home state of then rival John McCain.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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SEC Inspector General Kotz leaving agency (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? David Kotz, the tough internal watchdog at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is leaving the agency at the end of January to join a private investigative service.

Kotz, 45, probed everything from the agency's failure to catch convicted Ponzi swindler Bernard Madoff to bungled SEC contracts and even pornography-watching by agency employees.

But the hard-hitting lawyer has also drawn criticism from SEC staff who have complained his tactics have led to a culture of fear at the agency.

In December, Reuters reported that at least two SEC employees had filed formal complaints against Kotz, alleging he bullied witnesses and twisted facts to build a case against them.

Kotz plans to join Gryphon Strategies, a private investigative services firm where he will serve as a managing director in its Washington office. He will focus on conducting corporate fraud investigations and helping whistleblowers seeking to expose fraud, the SEC said.

"I am tremendously proud of the accomplishments of my office and the agency over the past four years," Kotz said in a statement. "The reports we have issued have not only been significant to the agency, Congress and the investing public, but they have also directly resulted in a transformation of many of the divisions and offices of the commission."

Kotz joined the SEC in December 2007 after previously working as the inspector general of the Peace Corps.

His aggressiveness has won him some fans, particularly in Congress. His exhaustive 477-page report on the agency's failure to snare Madoff prodded the SEC to be more assertive in implementing a new database to help track tips from informants.

Most recently, one of Kotz's past investigations helped lead the Justice Department to reach a civil settlement with a former SEC attorney over claims he improperly represented alleged Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford after departing the SEC. [ID:nL1E8CD9DB]

"David Kotz produced strong, conclusive reports, even as critics claimed he was too aggressive," said Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who has been a big supporter of Kotz's work. "An aggressive, independent inspector general is best for the agency in the long run, even if that's uncomfortable for management."

Kotz's successes have recently been shaded by growing concerns about his tactics.

Harvey Pitt, a former SEC chairman, was one of the first people to publicly lash out against Kotz during congressional testimony last year. He said on Tuesday that Kotz was a "rogue IG" who brought a "reign of terror" to the agency.

"While his departure did not come soon enough to spare many employees from the sting of his improper and harsh criticism, his departure is good news for an agency and its staff that have deserved better since Mr. Kotz's tenure began," said Pitt, who has represented some staffers pro bono in Kotz probes.

Kotz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

COMPLAINTS PILE UP

Kotz's announcement about his departure took many at the SEC by surprise on Tuesday.

In an interview with Reuters in the fall, Kotz had denied having any interest in moving on, saying "I enjoy my current position."

However, a little over a year ago, a headhunter was circulating his resume to top law firms in New York, but there was little interest, legal sources told Reuters late last year.

Criticism of Kotz has grown in the past 12 months.

Two SEC employees filed complaints against Kotz in 2011 with a government council that monitors the work of 73 inspectors general known as the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, or CIGIE.

The two staffers had previously been targets of Kotz's probes and later cleared of any wrongdoing.

One of those employees, SEC veteran enforcement attorney Nancy McGinley, was accused by Kotz of possible insider-trading in shares of companies such as Citigroup and Schlumberger.

The matter was referred for potential prosecution to the U.S. Justice Department and her name appeared in some media reports. The DOJ declined to prosecute, and McGinley said Kotz's aggressive investigation unfairly took a toll on her reputation.

In another complaint, the SEC's acting branch chief of acquisition policy, Linda Baier, made wide-ranging accusations about how she and her colleagues were treated in Kotz's various audits and investigations.

In her own case, she said Kotz retaliated against her after she told him she felt one of his reports did not go far enough in investigating potential misconduct by an employee in her division.

Shortly afterward, she said, he began investigating her behavior and accused her of pre-selecting a certain contractor for a job.

She also alleged that on at least two occasions, Kotz himself may have tried to circumvent competitive bidding rules so he could hire certain candidates to work in his office, including one former Peace Corps employee.

Kotz in prior interviews with Reuters denied all of the allegations made against him by Baier and McGinley.

In addition to the story by Reuters, several recent articles by Bloomberg have also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest after Kotz did a sit-down interview with a financial adviser who markets a "crash-proof retirement plan" through the Internet and a paid radio show.

The adviser later sold Kotz three tickets to a sold-out football game.

According to Bloomberg, CIGIE was also looking into both of those matters after Kotz self-reported them to the organization.

A spokesman for the independent unit of CIGIE that examines complaints against inspectors general could not immediately be reached for comment about the status of the employees' complaints or the concerns raised by the interview and football tickets.

(Reporting By Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by John Wallace and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/bs_nm/us_sec_kotz

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U.S. online piracy bill headed for major makeover (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? U.S. legislation aimed at curbing online piracy, which had appeared to be on a fast track for approval by Congress, appears likely to be scaled back or jettisoned entirely in the wake of critical comments over the weekend from the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

The legislation, known as SOPA in the House of Representatives and PIPA in the Senate, has been a major priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical firms and many industry groups, who say it is critical to curbing online piracy that costs them billions of dollars a year.

The legislation is designed to shut down access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Internet companies have furiously opposed the legislation and have ramped up their lobbying efforts in recent months, arguing the legislation would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.

Some Internet advocates have called for a boycott of any companies that support the legislation, and several popular websites, including community-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia and the social media site Reddit, have vowed to black out their sites this Wednesday in protest.

With public sentiment on the bill shifting in recent weeks and an implicit veto threat now emerging from the White House, Congressional staffers are resigning themselves to writing replacement language or possibly entirely new bills.

The White House said in a blog post over the weekend that it wouldn't support "legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Three key section of the existing legislation seem likely to remain, a person familiar with the matter says. They comprise provisions aimed at getting search engines to disable links to foreign infringing sites; provisions that cut off advertising services to those sites; and provisions that cut off payment processing.

But critical provisions that would require Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp. to cut off infringing sites through a technology known as DNS blocking are now likely to be eliminated.

Critics have said that such measures would only encourage people to navigate the web in riskier ways, with modified browsers or other tweaks that could lead to their Internet sessions getting hijacked by scammers.

Lawmakers had already been coming around to the realization they would have to hold back on the DNS-blocking provisions.

Before the holidays, an amended version of the House bill had added a "kill switch," or provision that service providers wouldn't have to block a site if it did "impair the security or integrity of the system."

On Thursday, Senator Patrick Leahy, who is sponsoring the Senate bill, said he planned to propose amending it so that the ramifications of blocking access to a site be studied before implementation.

On Friday, Representative Lamar Smith, who is sponsoring the House bill, said he planned to remove altogether the provision that would require service providers to block access to infringing foreign websites.

A Google official said in Congressional testimony in November that the company did not necessarily oppose disabling search engine links and cutting off advertising.

But it is not clear if eliminating the DNS-blocking provisions alone will be enough to mollify critics.

"Like many other tech companies, we believe that there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking U.S. companies to censor the Internet," a Google spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday.

In addition to concerns about the technical ramifications of DNS blocking and the practical issues associated with disabling services to individual websites, many in the Internet business fear the bills create far too much leeway to shut down websites without sufficient due process.

But supporters of the legislation are just as adamant that something needs to be done. Over the weekend, News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, whose holdings include Fox, complained that the White House had caved.

"So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," News Corp's chairman and chief executive officer posted on his personal Twitter account on Saturday."

The debate seems likely to intensify in the coming weeks. The White House said it would soon host a conference call among opponents of the existing bill.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Ilaina Jones; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/wr_nm/us_usa_internet_piracy

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Jerry Brown's defiant State of the State: California is still golden

With chronic budget woes engulfing California, many analysts had expected a 'gloom and doom' State of the State address from Gov. Jerry Brown. They got nothing of the sort. ?

California Gov. Jerry Brown defied expectations Wednesday, delivering a State of the State speech that was?unapologetically ambitious and even visionary despite a perpetual budget crisis that has, in recent years, dimmed the luster of the Golden State.

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Governor Brown had been expected to use his address to further persuade voters to support a ballot initiative that asks voters to raise taxes on themselves ? a last-ditch effort to solve California's chronic budget shortfalls. Instead, he attempted to rally Californians to a sense of common purpose and destiny.

The state which birthed Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Twitter, Facebook, and ?countless other creative companies ? is still the land of dreams,? he said.??Rumors of [California?s] demise are greatly exaggerated.?

It was the platform for?an exhaustive list of goals that Brown laid out for California: stimulate jobs, build renewable energy, launch the nation?s only high-speed rail system, reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta, improve schools, reform pensions, and ?make sure prison realignment is working.?

?He came in a fighting mood that spoke to the critics ? me included ? who think there is only so much we can do," said Sherry Jeffe of the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning, and Development, in a post-speech analysis on KQED radio. "This is the ambitious agenda he suggested when he ran for governor saying, 'I'm too old to mess around.' It was not all gloom and doom. A lot of us didn?t expect that."

During the 15-minute speech he thanked the Legislature for passing a tough budget in 2011 and cited?positive economic statistics, such as: ?In 2011, California personal income grew by almost $100 billion, and 230,000 jobs were created ? a rate much higher than the nation.?

He also directly disputed the findings of an independent commission, which recommended last week that?California?not proceed with its first-in-the-nation, high-speed rail network because it can?t afford the $20 billion price tag.?

?Critics of the high-speed rail project abound, as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed," he said. "The Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and [British politician] Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the?Suez Canal: 'Totally impossible to be carried out.' "

"The critics were wrong then, and they?re wrong now,? he said.

Some analysts say the speech was a success.?

?He is realistic and honest and his agenda is out in the open," says Barbara O?Connor, director emeritus of the Institute for Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento. "He had enough in there to alienate most groups in California or provide an opportunity for their constructive involvement depending on their view."

"It was a speech of humility and recognition of all the key issues without claiming to be an expert on them," she adds.

But others were not so impressed.

?The governor tried to be both realistic and inspirational, but the two parts of the speech were in conflict,? says Jack Pitney, professor of government at?Claremont?McKenna?College, in an e-mail. ?On the one hand, he talked about the necessity of spending cuts and tax increases. On the other hand, he renewed his support for a monstrously expensive high-speed rail system."

"He sounded like a father telling his kids that they had to go without breakfast so that he could buy a?Cadillac,? Professor Pitney adds.

Michael Shires,?a political scientist at?Pepperdine?University, agrees that such promises sound good in a speech, but not when voters really consider them.

?I think voters will feel differently about approving a $20 billion rail project when they realize they can fly to?Oakland?for $50 on Southwest,? says Professor Shires.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YOfKkp_dceY/Jerry-Brown-s-defiant-State-of-the-State-California-is-still-golden

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FT's Tett: Europe's Debt Crisis Is Going to End ... - Yahoo! Finance

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Stocks rallied sharply Tuesday morning as traders came back from the MLK Day holiday in a bullish mood. A successful Spanish debt offering helped propel the rally, but the news coming out of Europe remains largely slanted to the negative.

After downgrading France and 8 other EU nations on Friday, S&P followed up Monday by downgrading the European Financial Stability Facility, as expected. Meanwhile, talks between the IMF and Greek debt holders broke down, raising the unexpected specter of a disorderly default rather than orderly, "voluntary" haircuts previously discussed.

ECB President Mario Draghi summed up the state of affairs in Europe Monday, declaring: "We are in a very grave state of affairs and we must not shy away from this fact."

On the surface, it seems like the market is whistling past the European graveyard. But there is a silver lining in the worsening crisis, according to Gillian Tett, U.S. managing editor of The Financial Times.

"You can argue things now are so bad, nobody can deny reality," Tett tells Henry and me in the accompanying video. "When you have a real crunch...the politicians cannot ignore it; they know they have to get their act together and find a solution."

This week brings yet another round of high-level meetings among European policymakers, including Wednesday's meeting between U.K.'s David Cameron and Italy's Mario Monti, who then meets Friday with Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. (See: Europe's Debt Crisis: Merkel, Sarkozy and Lagarde Meet in Latest Chapter of Never-Ending Story)

These confabs are designed to pave the way for an agreement on how to aid Europe's struggling sovereigns, such as Italy, likely to be announced at the next EU Summit on Jan. 30.

While that gathering might generate some market-moving headlines, Tett is looking a bit further down the road, to March, when Greece faces its next big debt payment and the EFSF is expected to crank up its own borrowing.

In the past year, EU policymakers have danced around the crisis and seemingly taking the following approach: One step forward...two steps back...kick the can down the road.

If Tett is right, we may not have reached the end of the road in Europe just yet, but you can see it from here.

"Right now there's quite a lot of optimism, partly because people are looking at this and thinking 'at least there's going to be some kind of resolution,'" she says.

But just what kind of resolution will determine whether the current optimism proves justified.

Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @aarontask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/better-worse-europe-debt-crisis-going-end-soon-154148836.html

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