SOUTHWEST

WITNESS: ABU GHRAIB DETAINEE PUNCHED AFTER PHOTO

FORT HOOD, Texas – A military guard testified yesterday that he saw Specialist Charles Graner Jr. punch an Iraqi detainee in the face a moment after a notorious photo was taken at Abu Ghraib Prison.

Another witness said Mr. Graner was “laughing and having a good time” while making naked prisoners pose.

Mr. Graner’s defense lawyer, Guy Womack, played down the photographs that showed naked prisoners stacked in pyramids. “Don’t cheerleaders all over America make pyramids every day?” he said. “It’s not torture.”

Specialist Matthew Wisdom, the first witness in Mr. Graner’s prisoner abuse court-martial, said Mr. Graner was among a number of guards who roughed up detainees on November 7, 2003. Mr. Graner is the first soldier to be tried in the case, and prosecutors say he was the ringleader of the abuse.

Mr. Wisdom described a prominent photo from Abu Ghraib that showed the muscular Mr. Graner holding a detainee as if he were about to strike him in the face. The witness said Mr. Graner cocked his arm while the picture was taken, and then he punched the detainee. Asked how hard Mr. Graner hit the prisoner, Mr. Wisdom said, “If I was that detainee, I know that it would be very painful.”

Mr. Wisdom said he was urged to participate in abuse, but that he instead reported it to his immediate superior.

“I was very upset,” he said. “It made me kind of sick, almost. It didn’t seem right.”

Mr. Graner, a 36-year-old former prison guard from Uniontown, Pa., is charged with conspiracy to maltreat Iraqi detainees, assault, dereliction of duty, and committing indecent acts. The defense contends that Mr. Graner was told by higher-ranking soldiers and intelligence agents to rough up the detainees prior to interrogation, and that he had no choice but to obey despite personal misgivings.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

ATHEIST CHALLENGES INAUGURATION PRAYERS

A California atheist who went before the Supreme Court to oppose the Pledge of Allegiance in his daughter’s school is now challenging the constitutionality of ministers’ prayers at President Bush’s inauguration.

Michael Newdow, a doctor and lawyer from Sacramento, has filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to prevent clergymen from reading prayers at Mr. Bush’s inauguration on January 20.

“It is an offense of the highest magnitude that the leader of our nation, while swearing to uphold the Constitution, publicly violates that very document upon taking his oath of office,” the lawsuit says.

The American Center for Law and Justice yesterday filed an amicus brief supporting the Department of Justice’s argument that inaugural prayer is constitutional and has become settled law.

“This challenge is legally flawed and represents nothing more than an attempt to remove a time-honored tradition going back to the nation’s first president,” the chief counsel of the ACLJ, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement.

In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled in Marsh v. Chambers that the “opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodies with prayer is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country.”

A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PATIENTS NOT TOLD ABOUT FINANCIAL INTEREST IN EXPERIMENTS

Government scientists have collected millions of dollars in royalties for experimental treatments without having to tell patients testing the treatments that the researchers’ had a financial connection, according to documents and interviews.

The personal royalties are legal, though the researchers developed the treatments at government expense. But the Health and Human Services Department promised in May 2000 that scientists’ financial stakes would be disclosed to patients, a pledge that followed an uproar over conflicts of interest and mistakes in federal experiments. The National Institutes of Health says it didn’t implement a policy to order the disclosure until last week, shortly after the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Quite frankly, we should have done it more quickly. But as soon as Director [Elias A.] Zerhouni found out about it, he ordered it done immediately,” NIH spokesman John Burklow said.

The nearly five-year delay means hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients in NIH experiments made decisions to participate in trials that often carry risks without full knowledge about the researchers’ financial interests.

In all, 916 current and former NIH researchers are receiving royalty payments for drugs and other inventions they developed while working for the government, according to information obtained by AP.

– Associated Press

COMMENTATOR DROPPED OVER EDUCATION DEPT. PAYMENT

A conservative columnist has been dropped by a major syndication service because he accepted a payment from the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act to fellow blacks, and to give the education secretary media time.

Armstrong Williams, one of the nation’s leading black conservative voices, has acknowledged that a company he runs was paid $240,000 by the Education Department, and he called criticism of his relationship with the department “legitimate.”

Tribune Media Services said it told Mr. Williams on January 7 that it was halting distribution of his weekly newspaper column. The company, a subsidiary of the Tribune Co., said it accepted his explanation that the payment was for advertising on his radio and television programs.

“Nevertheless, accepting compensation in any form from an entity that serves as a subject of his weekly newspaper columns creates, at the very least, the appearance of a conflict of interest,” a company statement said.

The Education Department defended its decision, and the White House said yesterday the case was an isolated incident, not a practice widely used by the administration. “Questions have been raised about that arrangement, it ought to be looked into, and there are ways to look into matters of that nature,” said Scott Mc-Clellan, White House spokesman. Mr. McClellan said he knew of no other contract in the administration like the one Mr. Williams had. He also hinted that Mr. Williams shared the blame.

– Associated Press