Man Threatens Bush, Arrested
— -- Armed Man Allegedly Threatens Bush, Arrested Near White House
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 4 — A New Hampshire man — who police said might have made threats toward President Bush — was arrested today two miles north of the White House after authorities discoveredmore than a dozen weapons in a rented car he was driving.
"There was an issue that came up early on about an individualthat had made threats that possibly could be toward thepresident," District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Chief CharlesRamsey said.
A U.S. Secret Service source familiar with the investigationsaid the car contained 10 rifles and six handguns. Although riflesare allowed in the city, local laws prohibit possession of handgunswith few exceptions. The source, who asked not to be identified,said the weapons were unregistered.
Jeffrey Cloutier, 33, of Newport, N.H., reportedly rented thewhite 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier from an Enterprise rental car agencynear Philadelphia International Airport this morning.
Cloutier's grandmother told The Associated Press in a telephoneinterview that her grandson had been having problems recently andhas sought help. She said he also sought treatment for epilepsy.
"He needs help and he needs it bad," Marjorie Cloutier said."I think he was trying to get help and he wasn't getting it."
She said she was not aware, however, of any problems her sonmight have had with Washington.
She said Jeffrey Cloutier lived upstairs from her in anapartment with his mother, Virginia. The phone in the mother's homerang unanswered today.
The Secret Service issued an unspecified alert to lawenforcement agencies on the East Coast providing the license numberand a description of the vehicle. The alert raised the possibilitythe vehicle may have contained explosives.
"The initial search did not turn up any explosives," Ramseytold reporters. The car was stopped in a residential neighborhoodof aging apartment buildings.
The investigation is being headed by the Secret Service,although agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco andFirearms were called in to process the vehicle for fingerprints andother evidence. As police surrounded the car, several boxes andbags taken from it were searched in the middle of the intersection.
Cloutier's wife also was taken into custody, but a SecretService source said she was unlikely to face any charges.
Possession of unregistered firearms and unregistered ammunitionare misdemeanors carrying penalties of up to one year in jail underD.C. law. However, Cloutier could face felony charges for any ofthe handguns if they are found to be operable, said a spokesman forthe U.S. Attorney's Office, which handles most criminalprosecutions in the nation's capital.
Cloutier could make an initial court appearance before a U.S.magistrate-judge as early as Thursday, officials said.
— The Associated Press
Reporters Smuggle Knives Onto 14 Flights
N E W Y O R K, Sept. 4 — In a troubling investigation, reporters for aNew York newspaper were able to smuggle several small knives andpepper spray through security checkpoints to board 14 flights overLabor Day weekend at 11 U.S. airports.
Reporters for the Daily News were able to bring the banned item s— utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, acorkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray — through every airportsecurity checkpoint they attempted to pass, the newspaper said.
The undercover reporters used three credit cards and theInternet to purchase one-way tickets just days before departing,which would typically prompt an airline to search a passenger,according to today's editions of the newspaper.
Guards X-rayed and hand-searched the bags, made reporters takeoff their shoes and checked photo identifications, but did not findthe banned items—even though they were packed in normal carry-onluggage compartments.
The airports that failed the undercover security test includethe four at which the terrorists boarded flights on Sept. 11:Newark International in New Jersey, Boston's Logan International Airport, Washington's DullesInternational and Portland International Jetport in Maine.
New York's LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports also missedthe potentially dangerous contraband, as did Los Angeles, Chicagoand Las Vegas international airports and the airports in FortLauderdale, Fla., and Santa Barbara, Calif.
Security at the airports included federal and private screenersand local and state police.
"We have a lot of work to do," Leonoardo Alcivar, a spokesmanfor Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, told the Daily News.
When asked for a comment, Chris Nardella, a spokeswoman forUnited Airlines, delivered a warning to the newspaper: "That is aviolation of federal law that you guys knowingly took those itemson an airline. You can be arrested."
— The Associated Press
'Gun-Happy Air Marshal' Sparks Criticism
P H I L A D E L P H I A, Sept. 4 — An incident aboard Delta Air Lines Flight442 over the weekend has prompted critics of the federal airmarshal program to argue that post-Sept. 11 changes in the wayofficers handle danger aboard jets could prove to actually decreasesafety.
While federal authorities say a marshal was justified in drawinghis handgun on Saturday's flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia,consumer advocates and safety experts questioned whether the actionwas taken too quickly.
The air marshal program was turned over from the FederalAviation Administration to the newly created TransportationSecurity Administration in February.
Before the shift, there were fewer marshals and they weretrained to avoid showing weapons and stay out of passengerdisputes, said Joseph Gutheinz, a former FAA investigator.
Gutheinz, now a University of Phoenix criminal justice professorresearching airline security, said he doesn't see the reason forthe apparent change in policy.
"Under the old system, you just didn't pull out a weapon," hesaid.
There are too many dangers involved in bringing out weapons,including the danger that bullets could hit the plane or that theguns could be turned on the marshals by hijackers, Gutheinz said.
Two marshals on Saturday restrained a man who was going throughother people's luggage and then trained a weapon on the cabin for ahalf-hour after passengers wouldn't stay seated, according to theTransportation Security Administration.
While one marshal huddled over the detainee, the other stood bythe cockpit door with his gun trained on the cabin, passengerssaid.
Administration officials said the response was done by the book.Marshal training uses role-playing, exercises with teammates,short-range weapons instruction and communications lessons,spokeswoman Heather Rosenker said.
The training mandates that if communication fails, marshals can"do what they believe is the right thing to do to get control ofthe airplane," Rosenker said.
But the fact that the man wasn't charged showed the response wasan overreaction and that the marshals pulled their guns tooquickly, Gutheinz said.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Robert Johnsonsaid marshals are taught to issue warnings to passengers first. Thetwo marshals on Flight 442 first warned the 183 people on board tosit down and keep their seat belts on, Johnson said.
When certain passengers didn't obey, the marshals followed a"hierarchy of warnings" and ultimately had to draw a gun, hesaid.
FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the agency no longer has controlover the marshals and declined to discuss the actions of what hecalled a "gun-happy air marshal."
David Stempler, president of the Washington, D.C.-based AirTravelers Association, a passenger advocacy group, said marshalsneed better training on how to issue warnings to passengers duringan emergency.
"It's very difficult for innocent people to be looking down thebarrels of guns on an airplane," Stempler said. "They need to doa much better job of communicating to the passengers on theairplanes. Passengers are used to ignoring these things."
— The Associated Press
Los Angeles Airport Shooting Probed as Terrorism
W A SH I N G T O N, Sept. 4 —The FBI is investigating the July 4 doublekilling at Los Angeles International Airport as possible terrorismeven though there's no evidence linking the alleged shooter to anyterrorist group, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Justice Department officials have said all along that terrorismwas among several possible motives for the attack at an Israeliairline counter, and investigators were looking for evidence theshooter, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, had terror group connections. Butuntil now the FBI had not publicly characterized the probe as aterrorism investigation.
The Israeli government has called the event a terror attacksince it occurred, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and other membersof Congress had complained about the FBI's reluctance tocharacterize it that way.
According to witnesses, Hadayet yelled racial slurs beforeopening fire at the ticket counter of El Al, Israel's airline. ElAl employees Yaakov Aminov, 46, and Victoria Hen, 25, were killed.An El Al Security Guard then shot Hadayet dead.
"The shooting is being classified as a terrorisminvestigation," Matt McLaughlin, spokesman for the FBI's LosAngeles field office, said Tuesday. "If there is the slightestchance it could be terrorism, you open it up as a terrorisminvestigation. It's the only prudent course of action."
FBI agents had refused to describe the attack as terror becauseits legal definition of terrorism was work of "subnational groupsor clandestine agents." No evidence has been found to link Hadayetwith one.
Because of the attack, however, the Bush administrationreconsidered the definition, and President Bush's domestic securityplan now says criminal acts can qualify as terror withoutparticipation of a group. "Terrorism is not so much a system ofbelief … as it is a strategy and a tactic — a means of attack,"the plan says.
— The Associated Press
Officials Recommend Giving SmallPox Vaccinations to 500,000
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 4 — Health and Human Services officials arerecommending that smallpox vaccinations be given to about 250,000to 500,000 people, including hospital and emergency workers mostlikely to see smallpox patients and special response teams in eachstate, officials said.
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said he has sent his recommendationto the White House and is awaiting a decision from President Bush.
At issue is the likelihood that certain groups of workers wouldsee an infectious smallpox patient versus the likelihood they wouldget sick, or possibly die, from the vaccine itself.
Officials caution that the numbers are still in flux and couldchange before a final decision is announced. The 250,000 to 500,000figure was disclosed over the summer, and officials said Tuesdaythat it had not changed.
A final decision is expected this month, Thompson said.
Smallpox, a highly contagious and fatal disease, has been wipedout worldwide expect for specimens kept in laboratories. Expertsfear terrorists could unleash the virus in an attack.
The proposed number of vaccinations is significantly more thanthe 10,000 to 20,000 recommended earlier this year by an advisorycommittee, which was worried by the vaccine's side effects. In itsdeliberations, the committee assumed that the risk of a smallpoxattack is very low. A host of mathematical models made it clearthat any one person faces a much higher risk of being hurt by thevaccine than being hurt by smallpox.
But Thompson said he has to assume that it's possible.
"My gut tells me you have to assume the worst right now withbioterrorism," he said Tuesday. He added that there has beenconsiderable speculation that North Korea, Iraq and other hostilenations may have the virus.
At a bioterrorism advisory council meeting last month, Dr.Michael Osterholm, a close Thompson adviser, made a similar point.He said that last Sept. 10, experts would have said the risk ofairplanes hitting skyscrapers was incredibly low.
Routine smallpox vaccinations ended in 1971, though some studiessuggest that people who were vaccinated decades ago may still havesome protection against the disease. Some have said all Americansshould be given the chance to assess the risk of smallpox on theirown and get the shot if they want it. But there appears to belittle appetite among federal officials for that course.
Asked about that option in July, Bush said: "I worry aboutcalling for a national vaccination program and that it could causea loss of life."
Experts believe that one to two people will die for everymillion who get vaccinated.
Thompson also said he was worried that the nation still isvulnerable to an attack on its food supply.
"I still believe that is the area we are subject to a terroristattack in the future and one that could cause problems," he said.
Overall, the nation is significantly better prepared forbioterrorism today than it was last fall, when the anthrax attackshit, Thompson said.
"We are better prepared than we've ever been. We're gettingstronger each and every day," he said.
But he singled out food inspections as an area of particularconcern.
Even before Sept. 11, he said, it was clear that the Food andDrug Administration's food inspection system had major holes. FDAhad only 125 inspectors, with 56,000 places to inspect at 151places of entry, he said. Less than 1 percent of food was beinginspected.
"I was just appalled," he said.
The problem, he said, was that Congress was still angry withformer FDA Commissioner David Kessler, who pushed for tobaccoregulation. Therefore, FDA didn't see any budget increases, hesaid.
Then after, Sept. 11, Congress offered new dollars — enough tohire 750 more inspectors. Most of them are trained and they are allcollege graduates, he said.
At the same time, new technology is allowing for quicker labchecks of food.
He said he is proud of the bioterrorism team assembled at HHSand that the department acted so quickly to move out $1 billionallocated to the states. The money is helping to improve state andlocal planning, upgrade labs and communications systems. Theimprovements will help officials respond, whether the attackingagents are terrorist or natural, he said.
— The Associated Press
Filmmakers, Stars Have Yet to Grasp 9/11 Impact
V E N I C E, Italy, Sept 4 — Sept. 11, 2001, may have gonedown in history as "the day that changed the world." Butmovie makers say they still have to digest the full impact theattacks on the United States will have on their industry.
"A year is not enough time to weigh the nature of theprofound change we will go through because of what happened,"Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks told Reuters at the Venice FilmFestival.
From Russia through Italy to the hills of Hollywood,directors are trying to discover how their work will be affectedby the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, sparked a warin Afghanistan and threaten more to come.
A first indication will come later this week, when thelights dim on 11'09"01 Sept. 11 —a collection of 11short films about Sept. 11, each lasting 11 minutes and nineseconds and shot on one frame.
The shorts' directors include Britain's Ken Loach, IsraeliAmos Gitai, India's Mira Nair and Japan's Shohei Imamura. Ratherthan being an ode to America, the collage is reported to reflectthe world's reaction, with some anti-U.S. comment.
"Sept. 11 is the future, not last century. To get overit, you have to realize that not every dark-skinned man in aheadscarf is bad," said Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky,who is in competition for Venice's Golden Lion award with a filmabout the Chechen war.
"The Western world is getting extremely cautious of any Arabwhich is sad but true," he added.
There is also criticism from within the United States as tohow the country is coping with the fallout of the attacks.
"We have to be much more ambitious about peace in the world— a world in which the United States should share more of theirwealth and be more aware of our role as global citizens," saidactor Harrison Ford.
"Many people in America haven't properly identified thereasons for the attacks. It's more complicated than we couldpossibly imagine," the Indiana Jones star added.
Immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington,there was much talk about the bad influence of violence-packedmovies. But while a couple of films were shelved as a result,action movies are still drawing the crowds.
"Creatively, Sept. 11 didn't really affect me becauseI've never made films people would associate with an act likethat," said Steven Soderbergh, director of Sex Lies andVideotapes and Oscar-winning Traffic.
"A year later, movies with [gratuitous violence anddisasters] are still being made so I don't know what the long-term effect of Sept. 11 will be on motion pictures. But Idon't think its impact is over," he said.
Perhaps the main change over the last 12 months concerns howpeople view the movies.
British director Sam Mendes, who was in New York when thethe landmark twin towers fell, says the firsthand experience ofviolence could have twisted people's reactions to his 1930sgangster film Road to Perdition, a mix of Mafia violence andfamily relations.
"I had edited the film before Sept. 11 but somehow youread it differently now. A movie that deals with what happens toyou when you live a violent life, watch it and witness it is nowmildly more relevant," he said in an interview.
While nobody expects a Hollywood ending to internationalrelations, some movie makers did see a ray of hope in the wakeof the attacks which have dominated the world agenda for a year.
Julianne Moore, star of Todd Haynes' new film Far fromHeaven, said the United States' "anything's possible" mentality had beenseriously shaken by Sept. 11.
"But what has happened in the ensuing year has shown it'spossible to rebound from the event," she said. "It's aboutlosing your illusions and becoming wiser."
— Reuters