Are we any safer than we were before 9/11?

We’re Safer Than We Think

But no one wants to admit it.

by Fareed ZakariaSeptember 11, 2010

James Estrin / The New York TimesSpecial service police officers on duty in Times Square.

Are we safer now than we were on 9/11? It sounds like a simple question, amenable to an answer or at least a serious conversation. But we are so polarized in America these days that it almost seems more difficult now than it was in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Let me try and answer the question as fairly as I know how.

Of course we are safer. During the 1990s, Al Qaeda ran training camps through which as many as 20,000 fighters may have passed. It was able to operate successfully during that decade and into the next because most governments treated the group as an annoyance rather than a major national-security challenge. After the attacks, the world’s attitude changed dramatically, and the series of security measures instituted since then have proved effective. Take one example: sealing cockpit doors has made it highly un-likely that an airplane could be used ever again as a missile.

In addition, U.S. forces went on the offensive in Afghanistan, toppling the regime that supported Al Qaeda, destroying its camps, and chasing its recruits around the mountains of the region. Washington, in partnership with other governments, has tracked the communications, travel, and—most important—money that fuels terror operations, blocking these at every turn. As I wrote at the time and subsequently, and as I continue to believe, the Bush administration deserves credit for these measures. Whatever one may think of its subsequent decisions, its policies to secure the homeland and go after Al Qaeda in 2001 and 2002 were mostly smart and successful. President Obama’s decision to amp up the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan has further fractured the group.

As a result, Al Qaeda “central”—Osama bin Laden and his gang—has been whittled down to about 400 fighters. It has been unable to execute large-scale attacks of the kind that were at the core of its strategy—to hit high-value American targets that held military or political symbolism. Instead, the terrorist attacks after 9/11 have been launched by smaller local groups, self-identified as affiliates of Al Qaeda, against much easier sites—the nightclub in Bali; cafés in Casablanca and Istanbul; hotels in Amman, Jordan; train stations in Madrid and London. The fatal problem with these kinds of attacks is that they kill ordinary civilians—not U.S. soldiers or diplomats—and turn the local population against Islamic radicals.

The real threat of Al Qaeda was that it would inspire some percent-age of the world’s 1.57 billion Muslims, sending out unstoppable waves of jihadis. In fact, across the Muslim world, militant Islam’s appeal has plunged. In the half of the Muslim world that holds elections, parties that are in any way associated with Islamic jihad tend to fare miserably, even in Pakistan, which has the most serious terrorism problem of any country in the world today. Over the last few years, imams and Muslim leaders across the world have been denouncing suicide bombings, terrorism, and Al Qaeda with regularity.

Tim Hetherington for NewsweekLife Returns to Ground Zero

Life Returns to Ground Zero

Of course, we are not 100 percent safe, nor will we ever be. Open societies and modern technology combine to create a permanent danger. Small groups of people can do terrible things. We could make ourselves much safer still, but that would mean many, many more restrictions on our freedoms to move, congregate, associate, and communicate. It’s tough to do terrorism in North Korea.

So the legitimate question to ask now is, have we gone too far? Is the vast expansion in governmental powers and bureaucracies—layered on top of the already enormous military-industrial complex of the Cold War—warranted? Does an organization that has as few as 400 members and waning global appeal require the permanent institutional response we have created?

I’ve been asking these questions for a few years now, and in fact described our “massive overreaction” in a 2008 NEWSWEEK essay, but with little effect. During the Bush years, there was a reluctance on the left to acknowledge that the administration could have done anything worthwhile to counter terrorism. The far greater problem is on the right, where it has become an article of faith that we are gravely threatened by vast swarms of Islamic terrorists, many within the country.

This campaign to spread a sense of imminent danger has fueled a climate of fear and anger. It has created suspicions about U.S. Muslims—who are more assimilated than in any other country in the world. Ironically, this is precisely the intent of terrorism. Bin Laden knew he could never weaken America directly, even if he blew up a dozen buildings or ships. But he could provoke an overreaction by which America weakened itself.

Chelsea’s Law signed by Schwarzenegger in California

Schwarzenegger signs California’s ‘Chelsea’s Law’

By Alan Duke, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• An urgency clause makes the law immediately effective
• The law was named for a teen murdered by a registered sex offender
• Chelsea’s killer also admitted killing Amber Dubois

Read more about “Chelsea’s Law” and the crime that inspired it.

(CNN) — People convicted of certain sex offenses against a child in California will get life in prison without parole starting Thursday, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed “Chelsea’s Law.”

The law was named for 17-year-old Chelsea King, who was murdered this year by a registered sex offender who also admitted having killed 14-year-old Amber Dubois.

“Because of Chelsea, California children will be safer,” Schwarzenegger said. “Because of Chelsea, this never has to happen again.”

The “one-strike” provision applies to forcible sex crimes against minors that include aggravating factors, such as the victim’s age or whether the victim was bound or drugged.

The unanimous passage of the bill by California lawmakers was a rare display of bipartisanship, spurred by outrage over the King and Dubois murders.

It included an urgency clause that made it immediately effective. “Very few things bring Democrats and Republicans together these days, but your daughters have,” Schwarzenegger said to their parents before signing the law in a San Diego ceremony.

Kelly King, Chelsea’s mother, spoke after the governor. She thanked lawmakers for inspiring “our next generation of voters by your actions.”

“You’ve shown them what is good and right and sound decision making in government,” King said.

The measure also puts those convicted of certain sex crimes against minors on lifetime parole.

Registered sex offender John Gardner III admitted last March to the killings. A few days after King’s body was found, Gardner led authorities to the remains of Dubois, who had been missing for more than a year.

Gardner was sentenced in April to three consecutive terms of life without parole for the murders and an attack on a jogger in a plea deal that spared him the death penalty.

Release Katrina hospital deaths file, Louisiana judge says

By the CNN Wire Staff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Judge says no pending cases justify keeping file closed
• CNN had sought the records and praised the decision
• A grand jury refused to bring charges in 2007
• An appeal of the latse decision is likely, lawyer says

RELATED TOPICS

• Hurricane Katrina
• New Orleans

(CNN) — A Louisiana judge has ordered prosecutors to release their files on the deaths of patients at a New Orleans hospital in the days following Hurricane Katrina, finding that no related legal cases are in the works.

Baton Rouge District Judge Donald Johnson ruled that investigators’ records of the Memorial Medical Center deaths don’t involve “criminal litigation which is either pending or which can be reasonably anticipated,” so they have to be disclosed under state open records laws. It’s the second such order by a state judge, following a 2007 decision that was vacated by an appeals court.

Hospital workers identified only as John and Jane Doe had sued to block the public release of the file, claiming the records are covered by grand jury secrecy rules, that they should have been considered confidential informants and that releasing the documents would violate their privacy. CNN and the New Orleans Times-Picayune are among the parties to the lawsuit, which also included state and local prosecutors.

“We are glad that the Louisiana court has recognized that the investigatory file into the deaths that occurred at Memorial Medical Center in the days following Hurricane Katrina can no longer be withheld from disclosure under the public records laws,” CNN said in a statement on the decision. “CNN remains committed to covering New Orleans post-Katrina.”

The Louisiana Supreme Court sent the case back to the district court in July to rule on whether criminal litigation in the case was expected, leading to the ruling received today. There was no immediate word on whether any of those parties would appeal, but Lori Mince, one of the lawyers who represented CNN, said she expected someone will do so.

“Unless everyone is going to fold up their tent, which seems unlikely, we’re in for another several months of appeals,” Mince said.

The case stems from allegations that several seriously ill, mostly elderly patients had been euthanized by medical staff at Memorial Hospital following the 2005 hurricane, when floodwaters rose around the hospital and conditions inside deteriorated. A doctor and two nurses were arrested in connection with the deaths, but a grand jury declined to bring charges against them in 2007.

CNN was the first to report the allegations of euthanasia, six weeks after the hurricane. Then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. ordered the arrest of Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses on preliminary charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of four of the patients.

Foti said the four, who ranged in age from their early 60s to their early 90s, were given a “lethal cocktail” of morphine and another depressant, midazolam hydrochloride. Experts he consulted reported that of all the people who died in Katrina, only at Memorial was that combination of drugs to blame.

Pou and the nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, denied the charges, and their attorneys said they acted heroically by staying to treat patients rather than evacuate. Foti gave Budo and Landry immunity in exchange for their testimony, but in July 2007, a grand jury refused to indict Pou. Then-New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan called the case closed and said he would no longer pursue it.

But the grand jury never heard testimony from five specialists who advised Foti that the patients were deliberately killed with overdoses of drugs. All five were brought in by Foti’s office to analyze the deaths, and concluded the patients were homicide victims.

In Virginia, a Woman on the Verge of Execution

Friday, Sep. 10, 2010

By Katy Steinmetz and Alex Altman–Time

After midnight on Oct. 30, 2002, two men crept into an unlocked trailer in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. A family of three was sleeping. Toting shotguns, the intruders roused Teresa Lewis, now 40, and told her to leave the bedroom she shared with her husband Julian. One of the men shot Julian several times. The other intruder stalked down the hall and put five bullets into Julian’s son, C.J., a U.S. Army reservist. The intruders divvied up the cash in Julian’s wallet and fled the trailer. About 45 minutes later, Teresa Lewis called the police to report that her husband and stepson had been killed. But when the police arrived, Julian Lewis was still alive. Among his last words was an ominous accusation: “My wife knows who done this to me.”

She did. As detailed in court documents, Teresa Lewis had paid the shooters — Matthew Shallenberger, 22, and Rodney Fuller, 19 — to kill her husband and stepson. Some murders are spurred by sex and others by money; in this one it was both. After meeting the pair at a local Walmart, Lewis started an affair with Shallenberger. In return for killing Julian and C.J. Lewis, Teresa promised to split her stepson’s $250,000 life-insurance policy with the two men, and she fronted $1,200 in cash to buy the guns and ammunition with which her family would be executed. In May 2003, after waiving her right to a trial, Lewis pleaded guilty to seven offenses, including two counts of murder for hire. A judge, deeming Lewis the crime’s mastermind — “the head of this serpent,” as he put it — sentenced her to death by lethal injection. The triggermen, who also pleaded guilty, were given life sentences. (See the debate on lethal injection as a method of execution.)

Barring the U.S. Supreme Court’s intervention or a decision by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to grant clemency, on Sept. 23 Lewis will become the first woman executed by the commonwealth in 98 years, and just the 12th overall since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976. No one disputes her guilt, or the heinousness of her crime. Whether she should be put to death for it is a murkier matter.

Lewis’ lawyers have offered several reasons for why her sentence should be lightened, including tests that show Lewis is on the cusp of mental retardation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing mentally retarded prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. But Virginia does not consider prisoners mentally handicapped unless they score significantly below the mean on an IQ test and struggle to function in society. Lewis — who scored as low as 70 — hasn’t qualified in the eyes of appeals courts. In addition to her poor cognitive abilities, says Lewis’ current lawyer Jim Rocap, she was addled by an addiction to prescription painkillers at the time of the killings, a condition that Rocap says contributed to her apparent lack of remorse. (According to the court documents, she began inquiring about redeeming her husband’s paycheck and stepson’s life-insurance policy, for example, just hours after the murders.) (See the 25 crimes of the century.)

Some medical experts also determined that Lewis suffered from a dependent-personality disorder, which left her particularly susceptible to manipulation by men. Rocap, who has represented Lewis since 2004, argues that Lewis was exploited by Shallenberger, who tested as considerably more intelligent and penned a 2003 letter to an associate stating that he had struck up an affair with Lewis to “get her to ‘fall in love’ with me so she would give me the insurance money.” (Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006.) “Nobody who has personal knowledge of their relationship disputes that he was the leader, the person controlling Teresa,” Rocap says. But Lewis’ trial lawyers declined to address this point during the sentencing phase of the case, and appellate law limits the type of evidence that can be introduced during habeas hearings.

In deciding whether to grant clemency, Governor McDonnell can consider a range of mitigating circumstances, including the Shallenberger letter and Lewis’ behavior during the seven years she has lived in an isolated, 6-by-8-ft. cell at a Fluvanna County correctional facility. During her imprisonment, Lewis’ faith has deepened. She ministers to other prisoners and has “provided some measure of peace” to troubled inmates, says the Rev. Lynn Litchfield, Lewis’ prison chaplain until April 2009. “I really believe Teresa can be a positive influence inside,” Litchfield says. Governor McDonnell will issue a clemency ruling by Sept. 18, in keeping with his policy of ruling on clemency petitions at least five days before the date of a scheduled execution, says his spokesman, Tucker Martin. (Comment on this story.)

Rocap describes his client as anxious and apprehensive as the days tick away. “She wants to live. She’s not resigned to dying,” he says. “She thinks she has a lot to offer and she wants to do anything she can to make people realize she’s much more than the person that was depicted on the worst day of her life.” In testimony written by Lewis and read by a fellow inmate at services held in late August, the condemned was remorseful. “I’ve done so many things wrong. I took two people’s lives that I loved very much and I hurt so many more that I loved as well!” she writes, later adding, “I don’t want to die this way, or actually die at all! … I will fight to the end, and in the end, no matter what, I’m gonna win either way.”

Canada’s ‘prince of pot’ gets five years in U.S. prison

By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Marijuana activist Marc Emery sentenced for selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers
• In plea deal with federal prosecutors, Emery admitted to operating seed-selling business
• Emery’s lawyer, supporters, claim his prosecution was politically motivated
• “I regret not choosing other methods — legal ones — to achieve my goals,” Emery says

RELATED TOPICS

• Marijuana Crimes
• Canada
• U.S. Department of Justice
• Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

(CNN) — The man once known as Canada’s “prince of pot” is now a federal inmate in the U.S. system after a judge in Washington sentenced him Friday to five years in prison.

Marijuana activist Marc Emery pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, to a single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana after an 18-month investigation into the seed-selling business Emery operated from his head shop in Vancouver, British Columbia.

By imposing the five-year sentence, which includes four years of supervised probation, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez honored a plea deal that Emery, 52, entered into with U.S. authorities to avoid a lengthier sentence.

“There is no question your actions were illegal and criminal and your actions ensured that others broke the law and suffered the consequences,” the judge told Emery during the hearing.

Dozens of Emery’s supporters gathered outside Seattle’s federal courthouse to protest the sentence, which marks the end of a five-year legal battle against a man once described by U.S. authorities as one of its most wanted international drug trafficking targets — and the only one from Canada.

Emery is the founder of the British Columbia Marijuana Party and the website CannabisCulture.com. His status in Canada as a tireless advocate for marijuana legalization has been cemented through years of sit-ins, demonstrations and runs for political office. By his own account, he has been arrested at least a dozen times since 1995 related to his activism, and Vancouver police have raided his shop several times since it opened in 1994.

In his plea agreement, Emery admitted to operating a marijuana seed selling business with two co-defendants, who entered pleas this year to lesser offenses and were placed on probation in Canada. He also admitted to selling seeds to customers in the United States through mail and telephone orders and in his Vancouver retail store.

“Marc Emery decided that U.S. laws did not apply to him, but he was wrong,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan in a statement Friday. “Emery put his personal profits above the law. He made millions of dollars by shipping millions of seeds into the U.S. He sold to anyone who would pay him — with no regard for the age or criminal activities of his customers. Now, Emery is paying the price for being part of the illegal drug trade that damages lives, homes and the environment.”

But Emery and his supporters worldwide have maintained from the start that his prosecution was politically motivated, citing a 2005 DEA press release touting his arrest as a “significant blow” to the marijuana legalization movement.

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists have one less pot of money to rely on,” former DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said in the July 2005 statement, which can no longer be found on the DEA’s website.

Emery’s lawyer reminded the judge of the press release in his presentencing memorandum, claiming there are other seed selling businesses in Canada that the U.S. government chose not to go after.

“The only thing that makes Mr. Emery unique or different from most of these other seed sellers is that Marc donated his proceeds to help fund lawful marijuana legalization efforts throughout the United States and Canada. On this record, no one can (or should) take the government seriously when it claims that this case was not politically motivated,” Richard Troberman wrote.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Emery’s personal politics had nothing to do with his prosecution.

“Through the years, and in various contexts, Marc Emery has meant different things to many people. But in the context of this federal criminal prosecution, Emery stands before the court as many others have before him — as an admitted drug dealer who has entered a plea of guilty to a large scale marijuana trafficking conspiracy,” the U.S. attorney’s office wrote in its presentencing memo. “The government’s case was investigated and prosecuted without regard for Emery’s personal politics, his political agenda or the ways in which he chose to spend the proceeds of his drug crimes.”

With Emery in prison, his wife, Jodie, has become the face behind their cause, which has not fallen dormant in his absence. Rallies to support Emery and the legalization movement will be held in more than 70 cities across the globe on September 18, she said.

“It’s going to be a long, difficult road ahead, but we’ll be able to make it with all the support we have,” she said.

Emery also remains firm in his beliefs, though in a letter to the court, he admitted his means may have been self-defeating.

“It was my sincere belief that the prohibitions on cannabis are hurtful to U.S. and Canadian citizens and are contrary to the U.S. and Canadian constitutions. I was, however, overzealous and reckless in pursuing this belief, and acted arrogantly in violation of U.S. federal law. I regret not choosing other methods — legal ones — to achieve my goals of peaceful political reform.”

Inspector general criticizes furlough program for federal inmates

By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Department Producer

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Inmates let out on unescorted furloughs are not tracked, probe finds
• More than 90,000 such furloughs were granted in the past three years
• The Bureau of Prisons blames the prison union for a delay in implementing policy changes

RELATED TOPICS

• Prisons
• U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons

Washington (CNN) — Federal prison officials fail to properly keep track of thousands of inmates who are granted unescorted furloughs when they are temporarily released, an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general has concluded.

More than 90,000 federal inmates were allowed to leave institutions unescorted in the past three years, often for medical reasons.

Currently, the federal Bureau of Prisons operates the furlough program using manual processes. The investigation found the prison system does not have accessible or accurate data on inmate escapes while on furlough, nor on crimes committed by furloughed inmates.

The report sharply criticizes the Bureau of Prisons for failing to implement proposed policy improvements drafted seven years ago. Among the policy changes still awaiting implementation is a requirement to notify crime victims and witnesses when a prisoner is being temporarily released.

Inspector General Glenn Fine’s investigation said the Bureau of Prisons blames the delay in implementing the policy changes on negotiations with the prison union. The bureau estimates it will take another seven years before the policies can be put in place because of the cumbersome negotiating process.

Fine said it would be “excessive and unacceptable” to delay until 2017 improvements to the furlough policy that would enhance victims’ rights.

About 13 percent of the prison population qualifies for furloughs each year. Furloughs are authorized absences by an inmate not under the escort of a Bureau of Prisons staff member.

The prison system has two types of furloughs: transfer and nontransfer. The report says there is a lesser problem in nontransfer furloughs, in which a prisoner returns to the same institution. The absences are for short-term medical treatment, to strengthen family ties or to allow participation in approved activities.

But with transfer furloughs — in which prisoners are being moved for longer-term treatment at a medical facility or a halfway house — the documentation tends to fall apart, the report says.

Tennessee mosque fire ruled arson

CNN:

A fire last weekend at the construction site of a future mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has been determined to be arson, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman said Friday.

Lab reports indicate that accelerants were used to start and spread the fire, which destroyed an earth mover and damaged three other vehicles at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, ATF spokesman Eric Kehn said.

There are no suspects in the arson, which occurred early Saturday morning, Kehn said. The investigation is ongoing and the ATF and FBI are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect or suspects, authorities said at a Friday press conference at the construction site.

“Somebody here in Rutherford County knows what happened here,” said Keith Moses, an FBI assistant special agent based in Nashville, at the press conference, which featured representatives from the Islamic center.

“Whether or not we have a civil rights hate crime will be determined once we have a suspect or suspects and a motive,” Moses said.

The FBI, ATF, and Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office are conducting an ongoing investigation. Federal authorities and members of the Islamic center had suspected that the fire was intentionally set.

“We were expecting to hear it but in the back of our minds we were hoping for the best, that it was some kind of electrical fire,” Camie Ayash, a spokeswoman for the Islamic center, told CNN on Friday. “It ingrained into our heads that this is definitely arson and that somebody did intentionally go out and do this.”

The Islamic center’s board has decided to hire private security for the site, Ayash said, after the contractor for the project suggested it. She expects a private security firm to start monitoring the site after hours beginning next week.

The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office has stepped up patrols of the site since the fire, driving by about every 30 minutes, she said.

The blaze has “really raised the fear factor” among area Muslims, Ayash told CNN earlier this week.

“We see the different type of fear with our children,” she told CNN’s “American Morning.”

“It is very hard to explain to children what is going on. It is hard to explain to the little kids when they ask you, ‘Mommy, are these people for us or against us?’ “

A candlelight vigil, organized by Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom in response to the fire, drew about 100 people to the Rutherford County Courthouse on Monday night.

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has existed in the Murfreesboro area for more than a decade, according to its website, and currently meets about a mile from the site of the future mosque.

The congregation purchased a 15-acre plot in 2009 and announced plans for a center that will include a mosque, educational facilities, a gym, cemetery and various recreational areas, including tracks, pavilions and a playground.

The project has provoked controversy in Murfreesboro, about 35 miles southeast of Nashville, and statewide.

In July, several hundred opponents of the mosque staged a march against the project. Some objected to Islam itself, carrying signs like “MOSQUE LEADERS SUPPORT KILLING CONVERTS,” while others opposed the project for environmental reasons.

Last month, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey publicly criticized the project. “You could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, a cult, whatever you want to call it,” Ramsey, then a candidate for Tennessee governor, said at a rally.

Ramsey placed third in Tennessee’s Republican primaries last month.

Acid attack victim: Sunglasses–and God’s hand–saved my vision

By the CNN Wire Staff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• She had bought the sunglasses just 20 minutes before the attack
• An unknown woman approached her and threw the contents of a cup in her face
• Police in Vancouver, Washington, have released a composite sketch of the suspect
• The victim had surgery; doctors don’t know yet how much damage her face suffered

RELATED TOPICS

• Vancouver (Washington)

(CNN) — Bethany Storro doesn’t usually wear sunglasses, but she got a surprise paycheck and bought a pair earlier this week. Those sunglasses, she is convinced, saved her eyesight when a woman threw a cup of acid in her face 20 minutes later.

“God is watching over me,” Storro, of Vancouver, Washington, told CNN affiliate KATU in Portland, Oregon. “I believe in him. That his hands are on me and I can’t live the rest of my life like that — in fear. I can’t let what she did to me wreck my life.”

Storro is hard of hearing due to a childhood virus, so her sight is especially important to her, particularly because she can read lips.

Vancouver police say they are looking for the assailant, described as an African-American woman with an athletic build and slicked-back hair pulled into a pony tail.

Storro told KATU that she had stopped at a Starbucks about 7:15 p.m. Monday, just after she had gone back to buy a pair of sunglasses that she had seen earlier. The woman walked up to her and said, “Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?”

When Storro declined, the woman threw the contents of the cup in her face and ran off.

“When I first saw her she had this weirdness about her, like jealousy, rage,” Storro said.

Storro underwent surgery at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, where she held a news conference Thursday with her head covered by bandages.

Storro said she spoke about the attack because she wants people to see what the woman did to her and to help authorities find the woman before she assaults someone else.

Still, she has questions about the senselessness and seeming randomness of the attack.

“Why did you” do that, Storro asked. “Did you wake up that morning and go, ‘I’m going to, I’m going to carry some acid in a cup and throw it at the first person that I see?’ Was it a dare? You know, why me?”

Speaking with her parents by her side, Storro described the pain she felt.

“Oh, you don’t even know!” she said. “It was the most painful thing. Like I told everybody, my heart stopped. I almost passed out. It’s like, imagine — I mean, it ripped through my clothes the instant it touched my shirt. I looked down and it just ripped through my shirt and made holes in my shirt.

“So imagine that on your skin. I could hear it sizzling. Once it hit me, I could actually hear it bubbling and sizzling my skin.”

Doctor aren’t sure yet how bad Storro’s face has been damaged because she’s just starting to heal.

But the attack does not seem to have hurt the woman’s spirit.

“I try to stay positive, and there’s moments when I get really frustrated, and I want to get mad at somebody,” Storro said. “But there’s nobody to get mad at, you know.”

Vancouver police, who released a composite sketch of the suspect, ask anyone with information to call Major Crimes Unit Detective Wally Stefan at 360-487-7425 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              360-487-7425      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

DNA test strengthens Alanta child killings case

DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case

By Jim Polk, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Patrick Baltazar, 11, was found dead in ’81 with scalp hairs in his shirt
• New DNA test: High likelihood that hairs on Baltazar were from Wayne Williams
• Williams denied he killed Baltazar, or ever met the boy
• Police blame Williams in at least 24 killings in Atlanta; he was convicted of two

Editor’s note: A real-life whodunit. You weigh the evidence — you decide. The Atlanta child murders terrorized Georgia’s largest city from 1979 to 1981, leaving 29 dead. Wayne Williams was convicted of two of the murders and sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms, yet questions remain. Tune in to CNN’s special investigation “The Atlanta Child Murders” Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — Almost 30 years ago, when Wayne Williams went on trial intwo deaths that became known as the Atlanta child murders, DNA testing was not yet a staple of courtroom science.

Now it is. And new results have implicated Williams in the death of at least one 11-year-old victim.

When Patrick Baltazar’s body was found dumped down a wooded slope behind an office park on February 13, 1981, a forensic scientist discovered two human scalp hairs inside the boy’s shirt.

Watch more about Patrick’s tragic story

At trial, scientists from both the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police would testify that, under a microscope, the hairs were consistent with those of Wayne Williams. But that was only a matter of judgment, not exact science.

In 2007, defense lawyers for Williams raised the question of DNA testing on dog hairs which were on bodies of many of the 27 boys and young men found dead during the two-year murder spree.

At the same time, the judge decided to allow those two hairs found on Baltazar to be sent to the FBI’s DNA laboratory at Quantico, Virginia.

The laboratory report found the scalp hairs had the same type of DNA sequence as did Wayne Williams’ own hair.

“I don’t think they said it was a match,” Williams told CNN. “I think they said [they] could not rule out whoever the hairs were from as being the possible donor.”

But retired FBI scientist Harold Deadman, who testified about the hair findings in Williams’ 1982 trial and later became head of the FBI’s DNA lab, said it was the strongest finding possible with this particular type of testing.

“It would probably exclude 98 percent or so of the people in the world,” Deadman said.

Of 1,148 African-American hair samples in the FBI’s data base, the FBI said only 29 had the same sequence — in other words, only 2½ of every 100 African-Americans.

None of the Caucasian or Hispanic hair samples in the data base had this sequence. When those samples are added in the total, then the odds rise to almost 130-to-1 against the hairs coming from any person other than Wayne Williams.

The FBI report said this: “Wayne Williams cannot be excluded as the source of the hair.”

The finding is not ironclad. Because the hairs were incomplete, the type of testing, called mitochondrial DNA, can trace only the maternal line. Only with nucleic DNA testing, which includes paternal lineage, could the results be absolutely conclusive.

When CNN showed the DNA results to victim Baltazar’s stepmother, Sheila Baltazar, she said, “Without a shadow of a doubt, I really in my heart believe Wayne Williams killed Patrick Baltazar.”

Williams not only has denied he killed Patrick Baltazar, but has said he never met the boy.

Yet testimony at trial established various fibers found on the Baltazar clothing could be traced to a bedroom carpet in Wayne Williams’ home, his bedspread, a yellow blanket found under that bed, a leather jacket hanging in Wayne’s closet, and a gray glove in his station wagon.

See a map that tracks victims’ bodies

There were also dog hairs on the Baltazar body which prosecution witnesses testified probably came from the Williams family’s German Shepherd, “Sheba.”

When those dog hairs were sent to a genetics laboratory in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, in 2007, the report said Sheba had the same DNA sequence. It said that DNA chain would be found in only 1 out of 100 dogs.

The Baltazar case was included among 10 other deaths presented to the jury in Wayne Williams trial, although he was not charged in any of those, and was convicted of murdering two adults whose bodies were found in an Atlanta river in the spring of 1981.

iReport: Do you remember the Atlanta child murders?

Scientists considered the hair and fiber evidence in the Baltazar murder to be among the strongest of their cases. However, the trial took place in the courts of Fulton County, which includes the largest part of Atlanta. Baltazar’s body had been found just over the line in the DeKalb County portion of Atlanta, and trying to include his death among the Fulton County charges would have raised legal issues.

Terrorism at Discovery Channel or Something Else?

‘Healing process’ begins at Discovery Channel

By the CNN Wire Staff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Discovery employees hold town hall and meet with crisis counselors
• A police sniper shoots James Lee after Lee aims a gun at hostages, police say
• Authorities clear Discovery Channel headquarters
• A Discovery spokesman says the company knew of Lee, did not take his threats seriously

(CNN) — There were “a lot of hugs” and “a lot of tears” among employees at Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday — one day after police shot and killed a man there who was holding three hostages.

“The healing process” has begun, said David Leavy, a company spokesman. “Yesterday knocked us off the horse. But we’re back in the saddle today.”

Leavy said the company’s employees spent much of the day in a “town hall” with senior managers, and that over a dozen crisis counselors had been called in.

Wednesday’s hostage crisis “was a scary situation,” he said. “I don’t think anyone walked into the building today with the same bounce in their step.”

Leavy addressed reporters several hours after authorities gave an “all clear” after sweeping the Discovery building.

Montgomery County Police said no active explosive devices were in the building, but authorities didn’t say if any bombs had been found there. Earlier, Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said a number of devices in backpacks would have to be rendered safe.

The suspect killed by police was identified by Manger as James Lee. The hostages were unharmed, he said.

Manger said hostage negotiators negotiated for almost four hours by phone with Lee on Wednesday afternoon while police officers watched and listened to Lee on the building’s surveillance system.

“At times during the negotiations, he was calm, but I wouldn’t call him lucid. The conversation was indicative to me he was dealing with some mental issues,” he said.

Manger said the three hostages were lying on the ground, but were not otherwise constrained. He said Lee mainly dealt with the hostage negotiators and did not communicate with the hostages.

“He stayed on point with his issues with Discovery,” Manger said.

At one point, one of the hostages moved, drawing Lee’s attention, Manger said. Lee pulled his gun and aimed it at the hostages, and it was at that point that a sniper inside the building took the shot that killed Lee, he said.

Another police official, Capt. Paul Starks, said the decision to shoot the gunman was made after authorities heard a gunshot or explosion go off in the area. As the police moved in, the hostages were running out, he said.

Police believe, at least initially, that Lee was acting alone, Starks said.

During the negotiations, Lee exhibited a “range of emotions,” Manger said. At times he was agitated and at times he was calm, but he never strayed far from his grievance against Discovery, he said.

According to a police spokesman, the suspect entered the building’s main entrance “wearing what appeared to be metallic canister devices on his front and back. He also pulled a handgun out and was waving a handgun.”

According to Manger, Lee may have fired a shot when he entered the building. The three hostages held inside were a security guard and two other males, he said.

Leavy said Wednesday that company officials were familiar with Lee, who had protested at the network in 2008, but the company “did not take his threats or demands seriously.”

During the standoff, fewer than 10 Discovery Channel employees remained in the building “for a while, to assist law enforcement on navigating the building and the infrastructure and then we were all evacuated about an hour, 90 minutes into it,” Leavy said.

Lee was linked to a manifesto that was posted on the internet, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

The angry manifesto repeatedly refers to humans as “filth” and demands that the Discovery Channel “stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants.”

“Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is,” the 1,149-word statement says.

Starks said during the situation that Lee was making some demands, and that the suspect had “concerns” with Discovery Communications.

A person at One Discovery Place, the channel’s headquarters, called police about 1 p.m. to report a man with a gun and possible explosives, said Angela Cruz, a police spokeswoman.

The area was evacuated, she said. A day care center inside One Discovery Place was emptied, and the children were moved temporarily to a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, authorities said.

Most of the 1,900 employees of the building were evacuated, but “a few” apparently remained on the upper floors, Manger said during the standoff

Lori Rorke told CNN that she was on the second floor when she and her co-workers heard about the man.

“When we first heard the news, we heard that the gunman was mobile and we were told to go into locked offices,” she said. “We were really panicking, then trying to keep it under control.”

But, she said, fellow workers carrying BlackBerry devices seemed to know what to do, and led her out of the building via a route that avoided the lobby.

Lee was linked to the online screed, which said in part, “Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what’s left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.”

The writer blasted immigration, farming, weapons of mass destruction, automotive pollution, “and the whole blasted human economy.”

He demanded that the Discovery Channel broadcast daily prime-time shows devoted to “solutions to save the planet,” perhaps in a game-show format, insisting, “Make it interesting so people watch and apply solutions!!!!”

Many of the writer’s comments were directed at “the media,” saying, “You can reach enough people. It’s your responsibility because you reach so many minds!!!”

“The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans,” the manifesto says.

“These are the demands and sayings of Lee,” the manifesto concludes.

Aaron Morrissey, the editor-in-chief of the web publication DCist, said he came across James Lee’s anti-Discovery Channel manifesto in 2008, when Lee was planning to hold a protest against the channel.

The 2008 protest, he said, “was not that well attended.”

A month or so later, Lee was arrested near the building on littering and disorderly conduct charges, Morrissey said. The littering charge stemmed from Lee’s throwing money into the air, he said.

According to court records, a man with the same name and age as Lee was found guilty in 2008 of disorderly conduct.

James Lee was acquitted of littering in the same case, according to Montgomery County, Maryland, Circuit Court records, said Eric Nee, a senior assistant state’s attorney.

Lee’s two-year supervised probation ended August 18, records show.

Because of the 2008 incident, a judge had warned Lee that year not to come within 500 feet of Discovery Communications, according to Maryland’s Gazette newspaper.

Lee spent nearly two weeks in jail following his arrest and several days being evaluated by state psychiatrists, he said. ”I told them my idea of saving the planet,” Lee was quoted in the Gazette. ”They couldn’t find anything wrong with me.”

Lee said he began his crusade to save the planet after being laid off from his job in San Diego and reading ”Ishmael,” a novel by Daniel Quinn about a gorilla that tells a man what it is like to live in captivity in a world where humans exploit natural resources.

Lee said he then felt an ”awakening,” watched former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary ”An Inconvenient Truth,” and decided he had been doing too little to protect the environment.

CNN’s Mike Ahlers, Charley Keyes, Carol Cratty, Brianna Keiler and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.