6 I Monday, Sept. 27, 2010 Promises: Waiting for Abu Ghraib amends Pete Yost ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON Pending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, then- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in 2004 that he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered “grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces.” “It’s the right thing to do,” Rumsfeld said. “And it is my inten tion to see that we do.” Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single pay ment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Nor can the more than 250 Iraqis or their lawyers now seek ing redress in U.S. courts. Their hopes for compensation may rest on a Supreme Court decision this week. The Army says about 30 former Abu Ghraib prisoners are seeking compensation from the U.S. Army Claims Service. Those claims are still being investigated; many do not involve inmate abuse. The Army said that U.S. Forces- Iraq looked at its records and could not find any payments to for mer detainees. The Army also cannot verify whether any such payments were made informally through Iraqi leaders. From the budget years 2003 to 2006, the Defense Department paid $30.9 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were killed, injured, or incurred property dam age due to U.S. or coalition forces’ actions during combat. The Army has found no evi- Experts question BP’s take on Gulf oil spill Dina Cappiello ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON Engineering experts probing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill exposed holes in BP’s internal investiga tion as the company was ques tioned Sunday for the first time in public about its findings. BP’s lead investigator acknowl edged that the company’s probe had limitations. Mark Bly, head of safety and operations for BP PLC, told a National Academy of Engineering committee that a lack of physical evidence and interviews with employees from other companies limited BP’s study. The internal team only looked at the immedi ate cause of the April disaster, which killed 11 workers and unleashed 206 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. “It is clear that you could go further into the analysis,” said Bly, who said the investigation was geared to discovering things that BP could address in the short term. “This does not represent a complete penetration into poten tially deeper issues.” For example, the National Academy of Engineering panel noted that the study avoided orga nizational flaws that could have contributed to the blast. BP has focused much of its work on deci sions made on the rig, not with the managers on shore. Americans, Syrians collaborate in designing hero Edith Lederer ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER NEW YORK Comic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new super hero a Muslim boy in a wheel chair with superpowers. The new superhero is the brainchild of a group of disabled young Americans and Syrians who were brought together last month in Damascus by the Open Hands Intiative, a non-profit organization founded by U.S. phi lanthropist and businessman Jay T. Snyder. The superhero’s appearance hasn’t been finalized, but an early sketch shows a Muslim boy who lost his legs in a landmine acci dent and later becomes the Silver Scorpion after discovering he has the power to control metal with his mind. Sharad Devarajan, co-founder and CEO of Liquid Comics whose company is now turning the young people’s ideas into pictures and a story line, said the goal is to release the first comic book launching the disabled Muslim superhero in early November in both Arabic and English. Snyder says he was inspired by President Barack Obama’s effort to reach out to the Muslim world in his January 2009 inaugural address. Last month, Snyder flew 12 dis abled Americans to Damascus to meet their Syrian peers, and one of their main goals was to come dence any of those payments were used to compensate victims of abuse at Abu Ghraib. So instead of compensation, the legacy of the most infamous detainee abuse episode from President George W. Bush’s tenure is lawsuits, and the court battle mirrors the Iraq war a grinding, drawn-out conflict. At the U.S. Supreme Court, the former detainees are asking the justices to step into a case alleging that civilian interrogators and lin guists conspired with soldiers to abuse the prisoners. All the detainees, who allege they were held at Abu Ghraib or one of the other 16 detention cen ters in Iraq, say they were eventu ally released without any charges against them. Their case presents a funda mental legal issue: Can defense contractors working side by side with military jailers be sued for claims arising in a war zone? The U.S. government is immune from suits arising from combatant activities of the mili tary during time of war. The ex-detainees are suing CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and L-3 Services Inc. of New York, formerly called Titan Corp. of San Diego. Both companies say the suits fail to link any of their employees to abuse. The Supreme Court considers the case in private today and could announce as early as Tuesday whether it will take the case. “It’s really outrageous that there hasn’t been a widespread commitment to compensate the clear victims of this abuse, and it’s extremely troubling that the gov ernment doesn’t appear able to Najmedin Meshkati, a profes sor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, said he won dered why BP named its report an accident investigation when it left critical elements out. He asked BP to turn over information on shift duration and worker fatigue. “How could you call this great work accident investigation ... (without) addressing human per formance issues and organiza tional issues and decision-making issues?” Meshkati asked. He referred specifically to the confusion that occurred leading up to the explosion, when many workers aboard the rig were busy with work associated with finish ing up a well. This distraction could have led to missed signs that something was wrong. “It wasn’t intended to be any thing that it isn’t,” Bly responded. “It was a good contribution and a good foundation for further work for BP itself and others.” Other experts questioned one of BP’s central conclusions that the oil and gas traveled up the center pipe, rather than the space outside the pipe. One wanted to know whether a device designed to shut off an engijie when it starts to rev as it would in the presence of gas failed. BP said it didn’t know if the device worked or not. BP’s testimony, and the ques- up with ideas and story lines for the new superhero. “The only limit was the imagi nation these kids had the opportunity for a great story,” said Snyder, a comic book collector who heads HBJ Investments LLC. “They helped create some thing by their combined talents, and that becomes a gift to the world.” Devarajan found the young people’s imagination to be quite amazing. “The opening question we asked the kids was if you could have any superpower what would it be? I’ve asked that question in many different groups before and the typical answers are always the ones you’d expect flying, reading minds, or being super strong,” Devarajan said. “The fascinating thing about this group was that I don’t think I heard any one of those three,” he said. “Each of their ideas was so originally distinct, whether the Syrian kids or the U.S. kids,” he said, adding that perhaps because of their disabilities, the young peo ple think as individuals without being influenced by outsiders. One girl, for example, wanted to have the power to combine the energy of the moon and the sun. Devarajan said it was notewor thy that none of the young people wanted the hero’s power to be something that cured their dis ability. “They were empowered by their own disabilities, and they A U.S. soldier holds a dog in front of an Iraqi detainee at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. At the U.S. Supreme Court, the former detainees are asking the justices to step into a case alleging that civilian interrogators and linguists conspired with soldiers to abuse the prisoners. document any compensation for at least one portion of the account- abuse, Lt. Col. Craig A. Ratcliff, an victims whatsoever,” said Vince ability for these actions,” he said. Army spokesman, told The Warren, executive directoY of the Although the U.S. military used Associated Press. Center for Constitutional Rights, a signs, pamphlets, broadcasts and “We believe there could be sev private group overseeing lawsuits word of mouth to let the Iraqi pub- eral reasons for this, including the against the civilian contractors lie know how to make claims cultural and social stigma of hav since 2004. against U.S. forces, “very few ing been detained or mistreated “The U.S. government seems to claims appear to have been made” that could be a source of embar have failed miserably in securing related to Abu Ghraib inmate rassment...” he said. Kent Corser, Drilling Engineering Manager, BP North America Gas, testifies before the National Academy of Engineering committee on Sunday. Experts recently exposed holes in BP’s internal investigation. tioning, lasted more than three hours on Sunday. It was the first time BP’s six-person investiga tion team was questioned publicly about its findings. Today and Tuesday in Washington, investiga tors will turn their attention to the government’s response to the spill and its impact on the econo my and environment at a hearing of the national spill commission set up by President Barack Obama. BP's study found eight sepa rate failures led to the oil rig acci dent. The report blamed BP and other companies, including Transocean, the rig’s owner, and Halliburton Co., which was hired to do the cement work. But the conclusions were made without examining the drilling rig, which remains on the sea floor, or Courtesy of Liquid Comics, LLC. The “Sliver Scorpion,” the new Muslim superhero, loses his legs in a tragic landmine accident and must learn to come to terms with the real ity of his disability while learning to use his newfound power. should not be seen as a source of weakness,” he said. Initially, 50,000 Arabic-language comics will be distributed throughout Syria, and subsequent issues will be distributed else where in the Middle East, Snyder said. The comic will also be avail able worldwide in digital formats. It will be the first in a series of comics with international super heroes, and while one will have disabilities others will not, Devarajan said. He added that almost all the characters being planned “are based on the seeds that were created by these kids together in this trip.” The dozen Americans were selected after a national call for applications by The Victor the blowout preventer, a key safe ty device that was brought to shore only recently. Instead, the company relied extensively on real-time data collected aboard the rig to reconstruct what hap pened. BP also did not have access to samples of the cement used to seal the well, and said Halliburton refused to supply a similar mix for testing. BP has said the cement failed. Halliburton officials criticized the methodology that BP used to draw its conclusions and claim that the well’s design played no role in the incident. Thomas Roth, a Halliburton vice president, took aim at testing by a company hired by BP that found Halliburton’s cement, which was injected with nitrogen to form a foam, was unstable. Penada Foundation, a non-profit educational organization that pro motes the rights of young people with disabilities. They included youths who were blind, deaf, using wheelchairs, or suffering from Down syndrome, autism and cognitive disabilities. The Syrians were invited by the Al-Amal school for the disabled whose chairwoman, Asma Assad, the wife of Syrian president Bashar Assad, spent an afternoon meeting with the youngsters. “It must be every child’s dream to create a superhero,” the Syrian first lady said. “But I really do hope that we can bring our pow ers together our human pow ers together—to be able to make a difference.” The Daily Collegian Doctors use Web to help patients Jennifer C. Yates ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PITTSBURGH Dr. Ricardo Munoz goes from room to room, examining three infants, one just three days old. He watches their chests to see how they are breathing, checks their vital signs flashing on monitors above their hospital beds and views x rays and electrocardiograms. And he does it all from more than 2,500 miles away. Wearing a headset and looking at his laptop screen, the chief of cardiac intensive care at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh checks on pediatric heart patients weekly at FUndacion Valle el Lili, a hospital in Cali, Colombia. The pilot pro gram started earlier this year as a way to share the expertise of rare pediatric specialists with hospitals all over the world. “Basically, this is globalization of medicine,” Munoz said. “I don’t need to travel. Via telemed icine, everything is possible.” Munoz, a native of Colombia, had visited the 700-bed adult and pediatric hospital before and worked with doctors there. From time to time, he would consult on pediatric heart cases but found himself at a disadvan tage. “I was not able to see the patient. I was not able to see the monitors. So my advice was somehow a guess,” Munoz said. So instead the hospital explored a technological solu tion and started their pilot telemedicine program earlier this year. The technology to set it up cost about $15,000. The system is similar to a tele conference: A camera on Munoz’s laptop beams his pic ture to a monitor attached to a wireless cart at the hospital in Cali, and doctors there can wheel it from room to room. Microphones allow Munoz to talk to the doctors and patient’s family, and he can control a cam era on the cart that can zoom in to give him a better look at what ever he wants. Munoz is able to give advice in real time, something doctors in Colombia say is vital to these critically ill children. The hospi tal’s medical director, Dr. Martin Watemberg, calls it more than getting a second opinion it’s a “simultaneous opinion.” “We can take care of the patients just the same way as they would be by being in Pittsburgh,” Watemburg said. And the advice of the Pittsburgh doctors is just that; it’s up to the doctors in Colombia to make the final decisions on patient care. Telemedicine has existed in one form or another for about 30 years, but has gained signifi cantty in popularity recently.
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