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Congress to take up box-cutters incident involving N.C. student BY LESLIE MILLER TIIK ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Congress wants to know how a 20-year-old college student apparently spir ited box cutters onto two air planes, where they lay undetect ed for weeks after he allegedly told the Transportation Security Administration what he had done. He even e-mailed officials his name and telephone number, the FBI said. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chair man of the House Government Reform Committee, said Monday he told TS A chief James Loy that the panel would review the agen cy’s operations, including airline passenger screening. “Despite significant seizures of prohibited items from passen gers going through TSA security checkpoints, this week’s events highlight possible weaknesses in the system which need to be ad dressed,” Davis said in a letter to Loy. Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, of Damascus, Md., was charged Monday in federal court in Baltimore with taking a danger ous weapon aboard an aircraft. The case followed discovery of bags containing box cutters, bleach and other prohibited items aboard two Southwest Airlines planes. Heatwole sent an e-mail to fed eral authorities in mid September say ing he had put the items aboard two specific Southwest flights as an act of civ il disobedience to expose weak nesses in the security system, an FBI affidavit said. The objects were not found until last week, more than a month later. The TSA did not send the e mail to the FBI until last Friday. FBI agents then located Heatwole and interviewed him. After his court appearance Monday, Heatwole, a junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., was released without bail for a preliminary hearing Nov. 10. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Rep. Peter DeFazio, the top Democrat on the House Transportation aviation sub committee, said someone should be fired because of the incident. But he said Loy, a former Coast Guard commandant, should stay if he owns up to what the agen cy’s deficiencies are. “I’m still willing to give the ad miral a chance to come clean with us,” said DeFazio, D-Ore. “He’s a political appointee under - tremendous pressure by this ad ministration to cut corners, make things look good, not upset the airlines and not upset the pas sengers.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, plans to hold a hearing in the next two weeks on aviation security. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, whose department in cludes TSA, said officials “will go back and look at our protocol” for handling such e-mails. He said the agency gets a high volume of e-mails about possible threats and officials decided that Heatwole “wasn’t an imminent threat.” The e-mail provided details of where the plastic bags were hid den - right down to the .exact dates and flight numbers - along with Heatwole’s name and tele phone number. TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said the agency was reviewing its procedures. “Following an event like this, the results usually include ad justments and improvements in the procedures,” he said. The TSA’s Contact Center was set up in May to handle commu nications to the agency. When an overt threat is received, opera tors are trained to notify a TSA investigator or security official, who then decides whether to re fer it to the FBI or take other ac tion, Hatfield said. The center fields about 5,700 complaints, queries, compli ments and threats each day. Heatwole’s e-mail did not fall into the overt category because he never threatened harm, Hatfield said. Now, call center workers will be trained to look for words or phrases that might fall outside the definition of overt but could signal a security threat, Hatfield said. The incidents followed reports that aviation security still has substantial gaps more than two years after the Sept. 11,2001, ter ror attacks. Significant weak nesses in testing and training TSA screeners were cited in re cent reports by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general and the General Accounting Office, Congress’s in vestigative arm. The inspector general’s inves tigators recently carried knives, a bomb and a gun through Boston Logan International Airport’s boarding procedures without being detected. Both hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center took off from Logan. • Ini!I*#& zicSkti iLiil h \ £ 9|Bwk* ■ tigm. ^■UgM^r' Mm11 'iiiTfi luriSki'** '..JMiuJn *ifiki1 A . ■= —~1 Winona B. Vernberg Distinguished Lecture Series 2003 The Alumni Society of the Arnold School of Public Health cordially invites you to the third annual Winona B. Vernberg Lecture Series Bioterrorism 2003: Where Are We Now? two years after 9/11 Thursday, October 23, 2003 3:00pm University of South Carolina Russell house Ballroom Bioterrorism 2003 Panel Members Andrew Sorensen, President Dan Drociuk, Director Jane Richter, Director George Rice, Deputy Director Roger Stanton, Speical Agent Robert M. Stewart Chief ■ -*J- ■■ ■■ ■ --- STATE Beaufort man might get death penalty BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) - A Burton man convicted Monday of killing two Beaufort County sheriffs deputies who responded to a domestic dispute last year must now fight for his life. A jury of eight women and four men returned the guilty verdicts against Abdiyyah ben Alkebulanyahh, 41, on Monday. The sentencing phase in the death penalty trial was to begin Tuesday. The jury, which heard nine days of testimony, deliberated about four hours Sunday before breaking for the night. They re sumed Monday morning. After the jury left the court room, Alkebulanyahh, who is serving as his own lawyer, asked Circuit Judge Daniel Pieper to overturn the verdict and find him not guilty. He also made a motion for a new trial. Both re quests were refused. Georgetown Steel forced to shut down GEORGETOWN (AP) - Georgetown Steel’s 465 workers won’t be returning to work any time soon after the plant’s owner decided Monday he couldn’t restart operations and will file for bankruptcy. The company, one of Georgetown County’s biggest employers and taxpayers, lost $15 million this year and couldn’t scrape together the money to keep its operations go ing. “Unless somebody were to step up tomorrow with $10 mil lion to $15 million in cash, I think it is most likely that we will declare bankruptcy,” Daniel K. Thome, chairman of Midcoast Industries, said Monday evening. “We will file for Chapter 11, but I am not op timistic” of reopening the plant. Two plead guilty in drug-feud killing COLUMBIA (AP) - Two Columbia residents pleaded /tii il+»r +a nliniinAO a/1 4- A +Vi A -- shooting death of a Lexington County man last year. Paul Edward Keith, 30, was shot to death in what police say was a feud about a drug deal at a funeral. Quincy M. McCoy, 21, was originally charged with murder. He pleaded guilty Monday to vol untary manslaughter, first-de gree burglary and other charges before his trial started. He faces up to life in prison, prosecutor Tav Swarat said. Sanford appoints Bowers to panel COLUMBIA (AP) - A Columbia lawyer has been ap pointed to the state Election Commission. Gov. Mark Sanford named Karl Bowers Jr. to the five-mem ber panel Monday for a term that ends September 2004. The commission is responsi ble for overseeing election laws in South Carolina. Bowers is a lawyer with Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough and a legal officer in the South Carolina Air National Guard. NATION Muhammad opts to act as own lawyer VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. (AP) - Cleared to defend himself against capital murder charges, John Allen Muhammad fired his lawyers and told jurors he had “nothing to do with” last year’s Washington-area sniper attacks, surprising legal experts and raising the possibility that he could cross-examine shooting survivors and his alleged ac complice. In a rambling but adamant 20 uiiuuic oiuiomcm Monday, Muhammad, wearing a suit and tie, told the jury the evidence “will all show I had nothing to do with these crimes.” Fla. Senate debates fate of dying woman TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (AP) - Florida House lawmakers stepped into the contentious bat tle over the fate of a brain-dam aged woman slowly starving to death, voting the governor new powers to restore her feeding tube. The Florida Senate scheduled a vote Tuesday on a House passed bill to let Gov. Jeb Bush intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, one of the nation’s longest and most bitter eu thanasia cases. Schiavo has been at the cen ter of a court battle between her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo. The parents want Terri Schiavo to live, and her husband says she would rather die. Sex abuse victims to reveal details BOSTON (AP) - By agreeing j to participate in an $85 million settlement with the Boston Archdiocese, clergy sex abuse victims like Alexa MacPherson face a painful task: sharing the details of their molestation. A mediator was scheduled Tuesday to begin listening to each victims’ story and then de ciding the amount the person will receive, within the range of $80,000 to $300,000 set by the agreement. The move comes after Roman Catholic church officials said Monday they had received signed agreements from more than 80 percent of 552 plaintiffs in clergy abuse lawsuits, a threshold set in the agreement. Washington teacher strike ends in court EVERETT, WASH. (AP) - Striking teachers in Marysville voted to obey a judge’s order and go back to work, ending the longest teachers’ strike in state history. The vote Monday night was 420-181 to begin teaching class es Wednesday, the first of this school year for the district’s 11,000 students, said Rich Wood, a Washington Education Association spokesman. "It is time for all the adults to grow up and start looking at their obligations to these chil dren,” Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda C. Krese said earlier Monday, up set that four days of court-or dered negotiations failed to yield a contract. WORLD IRA confirms new disarmament act BELFAST, NORTHEM IRELAND (AP) - The Iris! Republican Army has agreed tc get rid of more of its weapons ir hopes of boosting Northerr Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, th< outlawed group announcec Tuesday. The IRA statement repre sented a breakthrough in effort! to revive a joint Catholic Protestant administration foi this British territory. Hours be fore the IRA move, Britain con firmed that a long-delayed elec tion for the province’s legisla Iiii-A utaiiLI nrnnnn/l \Ta«t oC Asia-Pacific leaders push for security BANGKOK, THAILAND (AP) - Tying the terror fight to eco nomic growth, Pacific Rim lead ers closed out an annual summii clouded by worries about the North Korean nuclear crisis — and at least one missile test bj the North. The 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forun said it would work to “dismantle fully and without delay transna tional terrorist groups tha threaten the APEC economies.” The APEC nations vowed tc work against the proliferation o: weapons of mass destruction, ar apparent reference to the Nortl Korean nuclear weapons stand off, though the APEC statemen did not specifically mention the reclusive, communist North. Russia sends crew to space station MOSCOW (AP)-ARussiar spacecraft filled in for the sec ond time since the U.S. shuttle program was grounded this yeai after the Columbia disaster, de livprincx p thrpp-man rrpw Monday to the Internationa Space Station. A top Russian space officia warned, however, that funding problems could jeopardize fu ture missions. American Michael Foale Russia’s Alexander Kaleri anc Spain’s Pedro Duque entered the space station after the autopilo docking of their spacecraft, twc days after the Soyuz blasted of from Kazakhstan. Bush seeks Asia’s help in terror war SINGAPORE (AP) — Presiden Bush pressed for more Asiar help in the war on terroi Tuesday, carrying his appeal tc Singapore after winning e pledge from regional leaders tc curb illicit weapons. Bush failed to win explicit en dorsement by the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperatior forum for a new U.S.-led diplo matic initiative to end a yearlong nuclear standoff with North Korea. And North Korea’s firing of a short-range missile — possi bly two — appeared to undercm progress toward an agreement. However, the leaders callec for resumption of multination al negotiations to resolve the im passe. The call was made bj Thai Prime Minister Thaksir Shinawatra, who chaired the an nual APEC summit, and he spoke with the other leaders flanking him. tettfo • Study Area • Lounge Area • Multistation Computer Lab •Fax & Modem Stationlinked to USC Campus •Tennis Courts •Swimming Pools • State-of-the-art Fitness Center • 1-4 Bedroom Apartments __ ;■«