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Marines' rape trial adjourned after accuser breaks down

By Teresa Cerojano
Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines - A rape trial involving four Marines adjourned
Friday until next week because the accuser suffered a breakdown a day
after taking the stand, the judge said.

The woman, identified in court by the pseudonym "Nicole," identified
the U.S. Marine who allegedly raped her as she tearfully testified
Thursday during the emotional 6-week-old trial.

She was scheduled to return to the stand on Friday, but Judge
Benjamin Pozon adjourned the proceedings until Monday because "the
complainant suffered a breakdown."

"After her testimony yesterday, we could not talk to her. She just
wanted to be left alone. She kept on crying," the woman's brother said.

He quoted her psychiatrist as saying she was too stressed out to
return to the courtroom.

The 22-year-old woman alleged she was attacked in a van Nov. 1 by
Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith as Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood, Lance Cpl.
Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier cheered him on.

The Marines have refused to answer the rape charges, punishable by up
to 40 years in prison, prompting the judge to enter an innocent plea
for them. Defense lawyers insist Smith had consensual sex with the
woman.

She testified Thursday that she was already intoxicated while dancing
at a bar at the Subic Bay freeport, a former U.S. Naval base, when
Smith grabbed her by the wrist to dance.

Scared because she didn't know who Smith was, she turned to a U.S.
Navy man, a family friend from southern Zamboanga city, who said it
was OK to dance with the Marine while telling Smith, "Just take care
of her."

She continued to drink and then testified that she was forced out of
the bar.

"The next thing I remember, someone was lying on top of me," she
said, before breaking down in tears. "Someone was kissing me. ... It
was Smith."

During the fast-track proceedings to beat a one-year deadline for the
case, several witnesses have testified the woman was seen carried out
of the bar on Smith's back into the van. Other witnesses said they
later saw the Marines take the half-naked woman out of the van and
leave her on a sidewalk.

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via common dreams - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0710-10.htm

Published on Monday, July 10, 2006 by MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "news.com.com" claiming to be CNET News.com

FBI Plans New Net-Tapping Push

by Declan McCullagh

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized.

The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists who have turned to technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

"The complexity and variety of communications technologies have dramatically increased in recent years, and the lawful intercept capabilities of the federal, state and local law enforcement community have been under continual stress, and in many cases have decreased or become impossible," according to a summary accompanying the draft bill.

Complicating the political outlook for the legislation is an ongoing debate over allegedly illegal surveillance by the National Security Administration--punctuated by several lawsuits challenging it on constitutional grounds and an unrelated proposal to force Internet service providers to record what Americans are doing online. One source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007.

Breaking the legislation down

The 27-page proposed CALEA amendments seen by CNET News.com would:

* Require any manufacturer of "routing" and "addressing" hardware to offer upgrades or other "modifications" that are needed to support Internet wiretapping. Current law does require that of telephone switch manufacturers--but not makers of routers and network address translation hardware like Cisco Systems and 2Wire.

* Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements to "commercial" Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to be in the "public interest." That would likely sweep in services such as in-game chats offered by Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system as well.

* Force Internet service providers to sift through their customers' communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls. (The language requires companies to adhere to "processing or filtering methods or procedures applied by a law enforcement agency.") That means police could simply ask broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast or Verizon for wiretap info--instead of having to figure out what VoIP service was being used.

* Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice Department must publish a public "notice of the actual number of communications interceptions" every year. That notice currently also must disclose the "maximum capacity" required to accommodate all of the legally authorized taps that government agencies will "conduct and use simultaneously."

Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and member of a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal would "have a negative impact on Internet users' privacy."

"People expect their information to be private unless the government meets certain legal standards," Harper said. "Right now the Department of Justice is pushing the wrong way on all this."

Neither the FBI nor DeWine's office responded to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

DeWine has relatively low approval ratings--47 percent, according to SurveyUSA.com--and is enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic challenger to retain his Senate seat in the November elections. DeWine is a member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing electronic privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a former prosecutor in Ohio.