Court Asked to Limit Lawyers at Guantánamo

nytimes
The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the request has become a central issue in a new legal battle over the administration's detention policies.

Saying that visits by civilian lawyers and attorney-client mail have caused “intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo,” a Justice Department filing proposes new limits on the lawyers' contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases that would replace more expansive rules that have governed them since they began visiting Guantánamo detainees in large numbers in 2004.

The filing says the lawyers have caused unrest among the detainees and have improperly served as a conduit to the news media, assertions that have drawn angry responses from some of the lawyers.

The dispute is the latest and perhaps the most significant clash over the role of lawyers for the detainees. “There is no right on the part of counsel to access to detained aliens on a secure military base in a foreign country,” the Justice Department filing argued.

Under the proposal, filed this month in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the government would limit lawyers to three visits with an existing client at Guantánamo; there is now no limit. It would permit only a single visit with a detainee to have him authorize a lawyer to handle his case. And it would permit a team of intelligence officers and military lawyers not involved in a detainee's case to read mail sent to him by his lawyer.

The proposal would also reverse existing rules to permit government officials, on their own, to deny the lawyers access to secret evidence used by military panels to determine that their clients were enemy combatants.

Many of the lawyers say the restrictions would make it impossible to represent their clients, or even to convince wary detainees — in a single visit — that they were really lawyers, rather than interrogators.

Jonathan Hafetz of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, a lawyer who has helped to coordinate strategy for the detainees, said the government was trying to disrupt relationships between the lawyers and their clients and to stop the flow of public information about Guantánamo, which he described as a “legal black hole” before the courts permitted access for the lawyers in 2004.

“These rules,” Mr. Hafetz said, “are an effort to restore Guantánamo to its prior status as a legal black hole.”

The dispute comes in a case in which detainees are challenging decisions by military panels that they were properly held as enemy combatants. The Justice Department's proposed rules could apply to similar cases that lawyers say are likely to eventually involve as many as 300 of the roughly 385 detainees now held at Guantánamo.

Some of the detainees' lawyers say the Justice Department proposal is only the latest indication of a long effort to blunt their effectiveness, which they say was evident in statements of a senior Pentagon official early this year. The official, Charles D. Stimson, deputy assistant secretary for detainee affairs, resigned after he was criticized for suggesting that corporations should consider severing business ties with law firms that represented Guantánamo detainees.

Under the current rules, legal mail is inspected for contraband but is not read. The lawyers, who have security clearances, are presumed to be entitled to review classified evidence used against their clients.

There is no limit on the number of times lawyers can visit their clients. Some say that they have been to Guantánamo 10 or more times and that they have needed the time to work with clients who are often suspicious and withdrawn.

Justice Department officials would not comment on the proposal, which is scheduled to be the subject of a court hearing on May 15.

The filing used combative language, saying lawyers had been able to “cause unrest on the base” and mentioned hunger strikes, protests and disobedience. An affidavit by a Navy lawyer at Guantánamo, Cmdr. Patrick M. McCarthy, that accompanied the filing, said lawyers had gathered information from the detainees for news organizations. Commander McCarthy also said the lawyers had provided detainees with accounts of events outside Guantánamo, like a speech at an Amnesty International conference and details of terrorist attacks.

“Such information,” his affidavit said, “threatens the security of the camp, as it could incite violence among the detainees.”

Several detainees' lawyers involved in some of the incidents denied that they had caused security problems. Neil H. Koslowe, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling in Washington, called the assertion a “McCarthy-era charge” that was not supported by the evidence.

The dispute over the lawyers' role is one of the first issues the appeals court in Washington will have to decide as it opens a new chapter of the legal battle over Guantánamo. In 2005, Congress designated that court as the forum for detainees to challenge directly decisions made by the Pentagon's combatant status review tribunals designating them as enemy combatants.

But many detainees' lawyers have resisted filing petitions to review those decisions because Congress narrowly defined the arguments the appeals court could consider. The law said the court could review whether a panel's decision “was consistent with the standards and procedures” set forth by the Pentagon.

Instead, many detainees' lawyers pursued habeas corpus petitions, using the centuries-old legal proceeding to ask a judge for release from imprisonment. But after a complex trip through the courts, Congress last year passed a provision intended to strip courts of the authority to hear habeas corpus cases involving Guantánamo detainees.

A divided panel of the federal appeals court in Washington upheld that provision in February. And early this month, the United States Supreme Court declined to review that decision. Two justices, John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy, said that before the Supreme Court could again consider whether Congress was permitted to strip the courts of the ability to consider the habeas corpus cases, the detainees had to try to complete the appeals court review of their enemy combatant decisions.

As a result, much of the focus in the legal battle is now shifting to the appeals court. Scores of petitions seeking review of the combatant-status rulings are expected to be filed in the coming weeks, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, an advocacy group that has been coordinating the detainees' lawyers. The May 15 arguments will focus on rules that could apply to all of those cases.

Lawyers say they are pressing ahead with the more limited review process in the appeals court as part of an effort to set the stage for a return to the Supreme Court. Some lawyers said that while they may lose, that would allow them to argue to the Supreme Court that the reviews were so limited that the detainees needed the more sweeping consideration permitted in habeas corpus cases.

But government lawyers, too, are developing new strategies in the wake of the Supreme Court action this month. They say that Congress and the courts have determined that expansive habeas corpus petitions are not available to the detainees.

As a result, they say, rules like those that allowed unlimited visits with detainees are no longer necessary as the detainees pursue the more limited appeals court review.

But, while arguing that detainees have no right to lawyers, the Justice Department filing said the government was giving the Guantánamo detainees enough access to lawyers so that “the court's review will be assisted by having informed counsel.”

Pentagon wants to end controversial spying program

afp
The Pentagon wants to close a domestic terrorism spying venture that has drawn criticism for collecting information on peaceful activists inside the United States, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The new undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James Clapper, found disappointing results during a review of the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database, instituted in 2003.

Clapper "has assessed the results of the TALON program and does not believe they merit continuing the program as currently constituted, particularly in light of its image in Congress and the media," spokesman Pat Ryder said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not yet made a formal decision to shut down the program, Ryder added.

The Pentagon admitted last year that a small portion of the information collected in the database "either should have been purged, or was data that was not appropriate for reporting in that system."

The TALON program began in 2003 to track suspects with possible links to terrorists as part of the United States' post-September 11, 2001 "war on terror."

Parts of the database leaked to news reporters have shown that the Pentagon has been collecting information on peace activists and monitoring anti-war protests across the country.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last year filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking to uncover which peace group is being spied on by the Pentagon and why.

The filing was on behalf of several national groups and seven Florida-based peace activist groups, including Florida members of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker religious-based peace group.

"We found there were any number of things with respect to that program where there were data that was maintained in a database where they probably should have not been maintained there," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

"Everybody will agree there is a need to be able to monitor report threats on US installations and against US military personnel and how you go about that is I guess what the issue is here."

Influential Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said "there are ways to protect defense facilities and military personnel without this kind of overreaching" and saluted the Pentagon's will to put an end to the program.

"Talon was another costly, controversial and poorly focused venture that did not make us any safer," Leahy said.

"Without clear rules and close oversight, databases like this can easily be abused to violate the public's constitutional and privacy rights."

Less than 25% of Muslims blame al-Qaeda for 9/11 attacks

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An in-depth poll of four major Muslim countries has found that in all of them large majorities believe that undermining Islam is a key goal of US foreign policy.

Most want US military forces out of the Middle East and many approve of attacks on US troops there.

Most respondents have mixed feelings about al Qaeda. Large majorities agree with many of its goals, but believe that terrorist attacks on civilians are contrary to Islam.

There is strong support for enhancing the role of Islam in all of the countries polled, through such measures as the imposition of sharia (Islamic law). This does not mean that they want to isolate their societies from outside influences: Most view globalization positively and favor democracy and freedom of religion.

These findings are from surveys in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and Indonesia conducted from December 2006 to February, 2007 by WorldPublicOpinion.org with support from the START Consortium at the University of Maryland.

Large majorities across all four countries believe the United States seeks to, “weaken and divide the Islamic world.” On average 79 percent say they perceive this as a US goal, ranging from 73 percent in Indonesia and Pakistan to 92 percent in Egypt. Equally large numbers perceive that the United States is trying to maintain “control over the oil resources of the Middle East” (average 79%). Strong majorities (average 64%) even believe it is a US goal to “spread Christianity in the region.”

“While US leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the US as being at war with Islam,” said Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Consistent with this concern, large majorities in all countries (average 74%) support the goal of getting the United States to “remove its bases and military forces from all Islamic countries,” ranging from 64 percent in Indonesia to 92 percent in Egypt.

Substantial numbers also favor attacks on US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the Persian Gulf. Across the four countries polled approximately half support such attacks in each location, while three in ten are opposed. But there is substantial variation between countries: Support is strongest in Egypt, where at least eight in ten approve of attacking US troops in the region. A majority of Moroccans also support targeting US forces, whether stationed in the Persian Gulf (52%) or fighting in Iraq (68%). Pakistanis are divided about attacks on the American military, many do not answer or express mixed feelings, while Indonesians oppose them.

However, respondents roundly reject attacks on civilians. Asked about politically-motivated attacks on civilians, such as bombings or assassinations, majorities in all countries—usually overwhelming majorities—take the strongest position offered by saying such violence cannot be justified at all. More than three out of four Indonesians (84%), Pakistanis (81%), and Egyptians (77%) take this position, as well as 57 percent of Moroccans (an additional 19 percent of Moroccans say such attacks can only be “weakly justified”).

Attitudes toward al-Qaeda are complex. On average, only three in ten view Osama bin Laden positively. Many respondents express mixed feelings about bin Laden and his followers and many others declined to answer.

There is strong disapproval of attacks by “groups that use violence against civilians, such as al-Qaeda.” Large majorities in Egypt (88%), Indonesia (65%) and Morocco (66%) agree that such groups “are violating the principles of Islam.” Pakistanis are divided, however, with many not answering.

But there is also uncertainty about whether al-Qaeda actually conducts such attacks. On average less than one in four believes al-Qaeda was responsible for September 11th attacks. Pakistanis are the most skeptical, only 3 percent think al-Qaeda did it. There is no consensus about who is responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington; the most common answer is “don't know.”

Most significantly, large majorities approve of many of al-Qaeda's principal goals. Large majorities in all countries (average 70 percent or higher) support such goals as: “stand up to Americans and affirm the dignity of the Islamic people,” “push the US to remove its bases and its military forces from all Islamic countries,” and “pressure the United States to not favor Israel.”

Equally large majorities agree with goals that involve expanding the role of Islam in their society. On average, about three out of four agree with seeking to “require Islamic countries to impose a strict application of sharia,” and to “keep Western values out of Islamic countries.” Two-thirds would even like to “unify all Islamic counties into a single Islamic state or caliphate.”

But this does not appear to mean that the publics in these Muslim countries want to isolate themselves from the larger world. Asked how they feel about “the world becoming more connected through greater economic trade and faster communication,” majorities in all countries say it is a good thing (average 75%). While wary of Western values, overall 67 percent agree that “a democratic political system” is a good way to govern their country and 82 percent agree that in their country “people of any religion should be free to worship according to their own beliefs.”

McCain predicts Iraq withdrawal will bring terrorists to the U.S.

union tribune
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Republican presidential contender John McCain predicated Thursday as the Senate prepared to vote on a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq that terrorists “will follow us home.”

McCain, who was campaigning in this early voting state and didn't plan to vote on the bill containing the withdrawal timetable, said the consequences of withdrawal would be severe.

“If we leave Iraq there will be chaos, there will be genocide, and they will follow us home,” the Arizona senator said, calling the war against al-Qaeda “a struggle between good and evil.”

On Wednesday, the House brushed aside a veto threat and passed legislation that would order President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by Oct. 1.

As the furor grows over the firings of eight federal prosecutors, McCain also broke with President Bush, saying that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should leave office.

“His best loyalty to the president would be served by stepping down,” McCain said during a morning campaign stop.

McCain told CNN in a report aired late Wednesday that he was disappointed with Gonzales and that the attorney general should step down. “I think loyalty to the president should enter into his calculations,” McCain said in the interview with Larry King.

McCain is the first Republican presidential contender to urge Gonzales to resign, and the fourth Republican senator to do so, joining Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Gordon Smith of Oregon and John Sununu of New Hampshire. Several others have stopped short of demanding Gonzales's resignation but have harshly criticized his leadership.

Bush has given Gonzales a strong vote of confidence and the attorney general himself has vowed to remain in his post despite bipartisan criticism of his leadership. At a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Gonzales claimed dozens of times that he couldn't recall key details about the firings or about a meeting that records show he attended.

On Thursday, McCain was joined at his campaign stop by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and bantered with reporters about Graham being the perfect replacement as attorney general.

“It would be a very popular move in Congress,” McCain said. Graham laughed, but did not address the remark and the two quickly joked when asked about sharing a presidential ticket.

“I think he'd make a lousy vice president,” Graham said.

McCain's sense of humor has been criticized twice in the past week. On Tuesday night, he joked on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” that he had brought an explosive device back from Iraq as a gift for the show's host. Last week, while in South Carolina, McCain gave a rendition of the opening lyrics of the Beach Boys rock classic “Barbara Ann,” calling the tune “Bomb Iran” and changing the words to “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ...”

On Thursday, he said that people with military experience know that a sense of humor is vital.

“We veterans know how important a sense of humor is,” he said, adding that critics have to “lighten up and get a life.”

During his morning speech to about 150 voters, McCain lauded South Carolinians for their support of U.S. troops overseas and said he is a candidate who can wage war if necessary. “I know how to fight and I know how to make peace,” McCain said, a day after formally declaring his second White House bid.

McCain, who planned a full day of campaigning in the state, made his remarks hours before Democratic candidates were to meet in South Carolina for their first debate of the 2008 election season.

NATO commander not aware of specific torture cases

cbc news
NATO's top commander in southern Afghanistan said on Thursday he's not aware of prisoners being tortured after they're transferred to local Afghan authorities, but that doesn't mean the prison and police systems don't need improvement.

Responding to news that Canadians have a new arrangement to inspect detention facilities, Dutch Maj.-Gen Ton van Loon said he has not heard of "any specific cases" of abuse in the six months he has been in charge of NATO troops.

"I have not been given any reason to think that they have taken place," he told CBC News.

Van Loon said he and his officials talk regularly with Afghan police and the country's intelligence service, who have assured him that there is no abuse and no torture. Even so, he said NATO soldiers need to keep working with the Afghans.

"This country is developing a police [force] from scratch and we need to make sure we get this as fast as we can up to the standard that we take for granted in our countries," said Van Loon, who transfers power to another officer next week.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said on Wednesday the Canadian military has arranged to monitor the prisoners it hands over to Afghan security forces to ensure they are not tortured.

Deal grants 'full access' to detention centres

"Military officials have made contact with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) regional director, General Quy-aum, for security in Kandahar [province]. He agreed to provide full access to detention facilities," a statement from O'Connor's office said.

"We will establish continuous liaison with the prison authorities for the purpose of verifying the state of detainees," said the statement, released after O'Connor was grilled by the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on the treatment of Afghan detainees.

Opposition MPs during question period accused the minister of being part of a coverup. Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh alleged that O'Connor had misled the public on Canada's ability to monitor detainees and of burying a report flagging allegations of torture in Afghan prisons.

According to the Globe and Mail newspaper, a report prepared for Foreign Affairs by Canadian diplomats in Kabul warned the government last year about Afghanistan's poor human rights record and allegations of torture.

The Globe said the Department of Foreign Affairs at first flatly denied it had any such report, which the paper said was heavily censored before it was released under an Access to Information request.

MacKay denies coverup allegations

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay called the coverup accusations "patently false," while Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the report dealt with the "general concerns" over the state of the Afghan prison system.

O'Connor said under a previous arrangement, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission had guaranteed that it would report any abuses to the Canadian government.

On Thursday, the minister said the recently secured new arrangement allows Canadians to enter detention facilities at "any time."

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of Canada's defence staff, said civilian staff at Kandahar air base have been assigned the task of checking on detainees.

Thirty Afghan detainees have claimed they were beaten, whipped, given electric shocks and denied food once they were transferred from the custody of the Canadian military to Afghan security forces.

Canada signed an agreement with Afghanistan in 2005 that committed Canadian soldiers to hand over captured Taliban prisoners to local authorities.

Four plead guilty to conspiracy

latimes
In London, the men admit bomb plot role. In a second case, a 9/11 suspect is to be freed.

LONDON — Four men pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with an Al Qaeda-linked operative convicted of plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange and other targets in the United States and Britain.

The men pleaded guilty in a London court to plotting to cause explosions with Dhiren Barot, who was sentenced to life in prison in November for planning attacks on several U.S. financial targets, London hotels and train stations.

Authorities did not specify the targets the four men — Junade Feroze, 31; Mohammed Zia Ul Haq, 28; Abdul Aziz Jalil, 34; and Omar Abdul Rehman, 23 — were accused of plotting against.

A fifth man, Qaisar Shaffi, 28, denied the charge and is to stand trial next week.

Barot, a 34-year-old Muslim convert, was convicted of planning to use limousines packed with gas tanks, napalm and nails in the attacks.

Prosecutors said the targets included the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the Citigroup headquarters in New York and London train stations.

A sixth defendant in the case, Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 27, pleaded guilty last week, and a seventh, Nadeem Tarmohammed, 28, has yet to be arraigned.

In another case, a Moroccan man arrested two years ago as an alleged conspirator in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. was ordered released Wednesday by a British court that said his detention was arbitrary and unjustified.

Farid Hilali was arrested in June 2004 on a European warrant after he was named with 34 others as an alleged conspirator in the attacks. He has been held in British prisons while fighting extradition to Spain.

Spanish authorities accused him of links to Syrian-born Spaniard Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, who allegedly founded an Al Qaeda cell in Spain.

But last year, Spain's Supreme Court voided Barakat's conviction of conspiracy to murder in connection with the 9/11 attacks. He remains in prison on a separate conviction of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Hilali's detention became unjustified once Barakat's conviction was voided, Justices Janet Smith and Stephen Irwin ruled.

Hilali was not immediately released, however, pending a possible prosecution appeal.

Senate OKs bill to boost science and math skills

latimes
The compromise legislation is designed to help keep the U.S. competitive in an increasingly high-tech world economy.

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats and Republicans have found something they agree on — boosting U.S. technological prowess by improving science and mathematics instruction from kindergarten through graduate school and assisting researchers early in their careers.

The Senate on Wednesday passed a measure, 88 to 8, aimed at these goals, a day after the House overwhelmingly approved two similar bills.

The lopsided nature of the votes suggested the chambers would have little trouble agreeing on compromise legislation designed to help keep the U.S. competitive in an increasingly high-tech world economy.

And unlike the case with many other bills working their way through the Democratic-controlled Congress, President Bush almost assuredly will sign whatever lawmakers send him. The votes this week in Congress were spurred in part by initiatives he laid out last year.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former secretary of Education and a leading advocate of the legislation, said the effort was designed to "help us keep our brainpower so that we can keep our jobs."

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a dissenter, objected to the budgetary math. Noting that the Senate bill would create 20 government programs without killing any, Coburn said few American families could afford to find 20 new ways to spend their earnings without cutting other spending.

Under the Senate bill, the Education Department would award grants to teachers' colleges to spur more students into science and math. It would fund programs for low-income students performing below grade level in mathematics.

It also would establish at the National Science Foundation a special program to help women pursue careers in math and science and expand the number of grants to graduate schools for science education.

One of the House bills, which passed 389 to 22, would provide financial aid to help universities funnel into teaching careers students majoring in science and math. Among the incentives to students: scholarships of $10,000 a year.

It also would establish new master's degree programs for teachers already specializing in science and math subjects. And it would expand university programs that train future generations of mathematicians, scientists and engineers.

The bill would authorize $1.4 billion in new spending over the next five years — money that would not be available until provided in subsequent bills.

The second bill, at a potential cost of just over $1 billion, would mostly provide additional support for scientists, mathematicians and other researchers early in their careers. The measure passed, 397 to 20.

The competitiveness bills grew out of a 2005 report by the National Academies. The study warned that the U.S. could lose its competitive edge to other nations if it didn't make a concerted effort to improve the quality of the nation's mathematicians, scientists and engineers.

Alex Jones and Jack Blood discuss Manchurian Cho VA Tech killer

part1

part2

Campus gunman 'fired 170 bullets'

Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-hui fired more than 170 bullets in nine minutes in the rampage that killed 30 students and staff, police have said.

One of the guns fired was also used to kill two students two hours earlier.

Giving an update on the investigation 10 days after the campus shootings, police said they still had no evidence on Cho's specific motives for his acts.

But they have concluded the video clips he posted to NBC News between the two shootings were not filmed that day.

The disturbing footage, accompanied by ranting writings and photographs of Cho with weapons, was received by the news broadcaster two days later.

Police confirmed the 23-year-old South Korean-born gunman shot himself in the head in one of the classrooms in the Norris Hall complex after the nine-minute shooting spree.

'Frustrating'

Virginia's state police superintendent, Col Steve Flaherty, told a press conference in Blacksburg that police had been examining 500 pieces of evidence taken from Norris Hall.

Officers have also examined hundreds of mobile phone, e-mail and computer records in the search for clues to Cho's motivation.

So far, no close links have been found between Cho and any of his victims, Col Flaherty said.

"We certainly don't have any one motive that we are pursuing at this particular time, or that we have been able to pull together and formulate," he said.

"It's frustrating because it's so personal, because we see the families and the communities suffering, and we see that they want answers."

The shootings began when two people were killed at the West Ambler Johnston Hall, a university dormitory, at 0715 on Monday.

Despite confirming that one of the handguns found with Cho was used in that incident and that he had been seen outside the dormitory just before 0700, police have not declared categorically that he was responsible.

"We are still trying to figure out what he did or did not do," said campus police chief Wendell Flinchum.

Bomb threats

Police confirmed that when they were called to reports of gun fire across campus at Norris Hall two hours later, they found three entrance doors chained shut.

They said they had established where Cho had bought the chains, ammunition and guns used in the shootings but did not reveal the details.

There was no evidence to link him to bomb threats made on campus in previous weeks, they added.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Col Flaherty warned that the investigation could take months.

An independent six-member panel has also been asked to examine the day's events and the treatment Cho received for mental health problems before the shooting.

Students returned to classes at the university on Monday, when a ceremony was held to commemorate the victims.

Church accused of abuse cover-up

bbc
The Church of England has been accused of covering up child sex abuse carried out by a former choirmaster.

Peter Halliday, 61, from Farnborough, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of boys in Hampshire in the late 1980s.

BBC News has learned he admitted to the offences 17 years ago but left the Church quietly on condition he had no more contact with children.

The Church of England said it now had "robust" child abuse policies.

Dormitory abuse

Halliday, who is married, was also ordered to pay all three victims £2,000 each, after admitting to 10 counts of abuse at an earlier hearing at Winchester Crown Court.

"The Church can be seen to have done the best it could"
The Reverend Mark Rudall

He abused the boys who were in his church choir between 1985 and 1990.

Judge Ian Pearson banned Halliday from working with children and said he would be put on the Sex Offenders Register, both for life.

Following Halliday's sentencing, the Reverend Mark Rudall, of the diocese of Guildford, said: "I can imagine there is anger on behalf of some of those victims and our heart goes out to them.

"But I think also that in accordance with the way things were done in those days the Church can be seen to have done the best it could."

In 1990 a young chorister at St Peter's Church in Farnborough told his parents his choirmaster had abused him repeatedly during a period of several years, and he was not the only victim.

"When your first sexual experience is a 40-year-old man forcing himself on you it's pretty horrific"
One of the boys Halliday abused

His parents told the vicar, who consulted the bishop - but rather than call the police the churchmen advised Halliday he should leave quietly and agree to have no more contact with young children.

One of the boys Halliday abused, who was 10 years old at the time, told BBC News: "It was both when I was alone with him and there were others there.

"It happened in his house when I was alone with him having individual tuition, but it also happened on trips. It even happened when I was in dormitories with other boys.

"I was horrified. When your first sexual experience is a 40-year-old man forcing himself on you it's pretty horrific."

The victim thought he had escaped Halliday when the choirmaster left his job in 1990, but he met him again in 1993 on a residential music course where young choirboys were staying and was scared for himself and his friends.

The bishop at the time of the abuse, David Wilcox, said they would deal with such a situation differently now because court and police systems had developed.

'Robust policies'

Halliday continued to work with young boys, as a singer with the Royal School of Church Music, which said the child abuse was "entirely unconnected" with the school.

It was only when Halliday was charged last year with indecently assaulting children that he gave up his work with the school.

Church of England national safeguarding adviser, the Reverend Pearl Luxon, who is responsible for child protection issues, said the Church had "robust policies in place" to deal with child abuse.

Child abuse lawyer Richard Scorer said the Church had not dealt very well with child protection until recent times, but that things were improving.

In a statement, the Church of England said it was committed to the safeguarding, care and nurture of the children within the Church community.

US prison chief arrested in Iraq

bbc
The commander of a major US military prison in Iraq has been arrested for offences including aiding the enemy.

Lt Col William Steele is accused of giving detainees free use of a mobile phone at Camp Cropper and fraternising with the daughter of a detainee.

It is the latest of several scandals involving US jails in Iraq, the worst being the 2003 Abu Ghraib abuse case.

Col Steele is also accused of improper behaviour with his Iraqi interpreter and holding unauthorised information.

There are four overall charges against Col Steele and nine specific alleged offences. He was arrested last month and is being detained in Kuwait, a US military spokeswoman said.

CHARGES AGAINST COL STEELE
*Providing unmonitored mobile phone to detainees
*Mishandling classified information
*Fraternising with detainee's daughter
*Inappropriate relationship with interpreter and providing her special privileges
*Failing to obey a lawful order
*Possessing pornographic videos
*Failing obligations as approving authority for expenditure

Others offences include dereliction in the performance of his duties, failing to obey an order and wrongfully possessing pornographic videos.

The alleged offences took place between October 2005 and February 2007, a US statement said. Col Steele was arrested in March.

"His current status is that he is in confinement and waiting for his Article 32 hearing," the spokeswoman said.

The hearing would conducted by a panel of military officers who are to decide whether the suspect should face charges.

Criticism

Camp Cropper, in the west of the Iraqi capital close to Baghdad International Airport, is believed to hold about 3,300 Iraqi prisoners.

It is the second largest US military jail in Iraq, the other being Camp Bucca, near Umm Qasr in the south of the country, which holds an estimated 15,000 detainees.

Executed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein spent time there, including for medical treatment, although the US military says he was never under Col Steele's responsibility.

US detention facilities in Iraq have been the target of sustained criticism for holding detainees without charge and for widespread abuse of prisoners.

The worst controversy was in the first year of the US occupation of Iraq, when it was revealed that guards abused prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.