DebateGate

"Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where many Special Forces soldiers are based, is home to the Army's most-deployed soldier. That soldier, whom the Army declined to identify, has been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan nine times."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-26-army-deployments_x.htm?csp=1


Army to spread burden of combat
Updated 10/27/2006 10:25 AM ET    E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this Subscribe to stories like this
   
 CONFLICT IN IRAQ
   U.S. presence: No major U.S. troop cut for at least a year | Video | Troops often need Iraqi approval | Poll: Iraqis support attacks on U.S. troops
   In Baghdad: Sniper attacks against U.S. troops increase | Fight for capital key to U.S. victory | Fearful Sunnis avoid holiday celebrations
   Violence: Sectarian killings rise | Study estimates 600,000 Iraqis killed
   Saddam Hussein trial: Witness recalls chemical attack | Saddam issues letter to Iraqis
   Anti-terror efforts: War becomes 'cause celebre' for radicals | Parts of report released | Comment | Video
   U.S. casualties: A closer look at military personnel killed in action
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The prospect of combat in Iraq for at least another four years is prompting the Army to realign its forces to prevent a small slice of soldiers who are shouldering much of the fighting from wearing out.

Pentagon records show one-fifth of the Army's active-duty troops have served multiple tours of war duty while more than 40% haven't been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

That disparity is behind the Army's plans to shift some soldiers to high-demand wartime specialties that could ease the burden on combat forces.

The Army announced this month that it plans to maintain its current force level in Iraq through 2010. There are about 105,000 soldiers in Iraq, 15,000 in Kuwait and 16,000 in Afghanistan.

The Army is moving soldiers from specialties such as artillery and air defense to high-demand roles: infantry, engineering, military police and intelligence, Special Forces, civil affairs and psychological operations, said Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, deputy chief of staff for Army personnel.

The Army has more soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan than the other services combined. It expects to complete the realignment by 2011.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged this week that the Pentagon is sending active-duty troops overseas more frequently than it wants to, which is once in three years.

About 42% of the Army's 500,000 active-duty soldiers have not deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. They include about 80,000 fresh recruits, most of whom are being trained. More than 90,000 others are in the so-called institutional Army, those who train, equip and manage soldiers.

By 2011, there will be 50,000 more troops available for deployment than in 2001. Part of that will be accomplished by having civilian Army employees take over certain jobs from soldiers, freeing them up to fight.

Five years of fighting have put the Army on the verge of wearing out vital soldiers, said James Carafano, a retired Army colonel and military analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

The Army is still structured to fight Cold War enemies, which prevents it from deploying more troops, he said. "It's not a usable force in terms of mix and composition."

The Army has sent more than 144,000 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers to Iraq or Afghanistan more than once. Army deployments typically last one year. Some soldiers, including special operations forces, have shorter tours.

Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where many Special Forces soldiers are based, is home to the Army's most-deployed soldier. That soldier, whom the Army declined to identify, has been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan nine times.

That's a "pocket of stress that we need to be concerned about," said retired Army colonel James Martin, an expert on military culture who teaches at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
Posted 10/26/2006 10:47 PM ET

CQ TODAY – APPROPRIATIONS
Oct. 27, 2006 – 6:38 p.m.
Investigators Say Speaker’s Aide Hindered Inquiry of Hill Security Contracts
By Steven T. Dennis, CQ Staff

Two former House committee investigators who were examining Capitol Hill security upgrades said a senior aide to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert hindered their efforts before they were abruptly ordered to stop their probe last year.

The former Appropriations Committee investigators said Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s chief counsel, resisted from the start the inquiry, which began with concerns about mismanagement of a secret security office and later probed allegations of bid-rigging and kickbacks from contractors to a Defense Department employee.

Ronald Garant and a second Appropriations Committee investigator who asked not to be identified said Van Der Meid engaged in “screaming matches” with investigators and told at least one aide not to talk to them. Van Der Meid also prohibited investigators from visiting certain sites to check up on the effectiveness of the work, the investigators said.

Van Der Meid oversaw Capitol security upgrades for Hastert, R-Ill., and worked closely with the office that was charged with implementing them, the investigators said.

K. Lee Blalack, a lawyer for Van Der Meid, said Friday that neither he nor Van Der Meid would comment on the matter.

John Scofield, a spokesman for the Appropriations Committee, said the former investigators were taken off of the investigation, but denied that it was terminated.

“Nothing has been closed down on this study,” Scofield said. “It is a pending study.”

Scofield said it was a case of “sour grapes” because the investigators’ contracts were not renewed. He also said the case was assigned to more senior staff, whom he declined to identify.

The inquiry began in late 2003 or early 2004 and was authorized by former Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and the panel’s top Democrat, David R. Obey of Wisconsin. The probe focused on the office entrusted with ensuring continuity of Congress in the event of a terrorist or other attack. That office had grown from a sleepy Cold War relic to one that was spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on numerous security upgrades on and off Capitol Hill in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes and anthrax attacks the following month.

The investigation was carried out by members of the Appropriations panel’s Surveys and Investigations team, which looks into charges of waste and abuse.

Robert Pearre, the team’s director, ordered the investigators to stop their work on the security contracts in the fall of 2005. Before that, the investigators said they were looking into allegations that security contractors had showered a Defense Department employee with kickbacks in the form of Redskins tickets, golf outings, a set of golf clubs and meals. The allegations of kickbacks did not implicate congressional aides.

The investigators also said they were looking into concerns expressed by contractors that some of the security upgrades would fail to work in the event of a terrorist attack.

The office in charge of the upgrades was funded through the Defense Department and overseen by the Capitol Police Board, but the Speaker’s office took a lead role because of Hastert’s status as third in line to the presidency, the investigators said.

According to the investigators, Van Der Meid sought to stop their investigation shortly after it began.

“We got called into his office,” said Garant, who served previously in the Defense Department’s Comptroller’s Office before becoming an investigator for the Appropriations Committee. Van Der Meid shouted at them, Garant said: “What the [expletive] are you looking at this for? . . . He wanted to shut the operation down right then and there.”

According to the investigators, Van Der Meid was reluctantly persuaded to allow the inquiry into the security upgrades to go forward but continually hindered the investigators’ work.

“They had resisted all along,” the other investigator said about the Speaker’s office. Nonetheless the investigator said he was “stunned” when the inquiry was shelved about a year ago. Pearre, a former FBI agent, had strongly backed the inquiry until shortly before he ordered them to stop their work on it.

The order was “get out of there by sundown,” Garant said, referring to the secure offices they had used for the probe because of its sensitive nature.

Garant said the investigators believed that the Speaker’s office had successfully pressured appropriators to stop their inquiry. “From our perspective it was obvious. . . . The only people who would give a [expletive] was the Speaker’s office because this was an organization very close to them.”

Scofield said that neither Van Der Meid nor the Speaker’s office had ordered that the investigation be shut down.

Rob Nabors, the committee Democratic staff director, declined through a spokeswoman to comment for this story.

Lisa C. Miller, a spokeswoman for Hastert’s office, would not comment directly on Van Der Meid’s role in the investigation. “What I can tell you is what John Scofield has told you is what I know to be true,” she said. “Beyond that, everything else is highly classified.”

The investigation was launched under Young, who had a rocky relationship with House leaders, after the secret continuity office failed to spend more than $100 million before the appropriations expired, prompting an urgent and tardy request to have the money re-appropriated just as another Defense spending bill was being finalized.

The committee and its staff had to scramble to find room in the budget, and launched its investigation of the office.

Young said he does not recall the details surrounding the start of the inquiry.

The former Appropriations chairman said that after the Sept. 11 attacks his panel initially oversaw improvements to the Capitol Hill campus, including protective coatings that were added to windows to reduce the potential damage from a truck bomb. At some point, oversight of upgrades was taken over by House leadership, Young said.

“We were in effect put out of the process by the leadership office,” Young said. “The last two years of my chairmanship they basically cut me out of the loop.”

By the time the investigators said they were ordered to drop their work, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., had taken over as Appropriations chairman amid expectations by House GOP leaders that he would be more of a team player than Young.

Unsuccessful bidders were the source of some, but not all, of the allegations of problems with the security contracts.

One would-be vendor complained that bid requests drawn up by the Army Corps of Engineers were drafted in such a way that only one contractor would be eligible for the work, Garant said.

“You don’t know how much of it was sour grapes and how much of it was real, but there was enough of it that you started to think there was something here,” Garant said.

Investigators said that in addition to allegations of bid-rigging and kickbacks, they were looking into allegations that some security upgrades would fail to work.

“The word was that what they were trying to do was physically or technically impossible to do but that they were spending a heck of a lot of money trying to do it,” said Garant.

The other investigator said he was told that “people are going to die” because the upgrades would fail to do the job.

“That whole organization was very, very secret and very few people even knew that it existed, but it was a great dispenser of money,” said Garant, who was dismissed in March from his position as a contract investigator.

The Appropriations Committee’s investigation team, formed in 1943, has been in turmoil for several years. The upheaval culminated last week in Chairman Lewis’ decision to dismiss all 60 remaining contractors on the investigative staff, which included many retired investigators from the FBI, CIA and other government agencies. A permanent staff of 16 remains.

Scofield said last week that the contractors’ dismissals were part of a “bipartisan review” of the staff, and said the staff’s work recently “has not been that good.”

Committee Democrats have not commented on the dismissals.
Source: CQ Today
Round-the-clock coverage of news from Capitol Hill.
© 2006 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
   
   
http://www.cq.com/public/20061027-spending.html

Ohio lashes out at Republicans: Minimum wage measure gives boost to turnout
      
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Archive Recent Editions 2006 Editions Oct. 28, 2006

Author: Rick Nagin
   

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/26/06 12:25
 


CLEVELAND — Voters in Ohio, the bellwether state that gave George W. Bush the presidency by a slim margin, are poised to deliver a major rebuke to the Republican Party in the Nov. 7 elections.

Barring major vote fraud or an October surprise engineered by the Bush administration, all polls show Democrats taking key state and federal seats long held by the GOP. The surge of voters to the Democrats, fueled by anger and frustration over the war in Iraq, Republican corruption scandals and continual economic decline for working families, seems to grow every day, and the only question is how far it will go by Election Day.

Democrat Ted Strickland seems certain to win the race for governor, an office Republicans have held for 16 years, and his slate could sweep most, if not all, of the remaining four state government offices on the ballot (attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer and secretary of state). Strickland is at least 20 points ahead of Blackwell in the polls.

Rep. Sherrod Brown has pulled significantly ahead in the race for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Mike DeWine. Brown, who has a 97 percent lifetime pro-labor voting record, has made Ohio’s economic crisis and DeWine’s slavish pro-Bush voting record the main campaign issues.

Democrats are not expected to lose any congressional seats and could gain as many as five traditionally held by Republicans. (See sidebar on page 17.)

Democrats are also expected to make gains in the state Legislature, where Republicans hold majorities in both houses.

Giving an additional boost to the Democrats is a referendum, placed on the ballot by organized labor, to raise the state minimum wage to $6.85 with annual cost of living increases. Democrats support this measure which polls show passing by a three to one majority. Almost without exception, Republican candidates oppose it.

The AFL-CIO reported a steadily mounting flood of volunteers making phone calls and distributing literature to union members throughout the state. According to Kyle McDermott, Ohio AFL-CIO director of field mobilization, “The week of Oct. 16-21 yielded 1,347 union volunteers!” During that period phone canvassers made 163,610 calls, he said. Canvassers report that those supporting the Democratic candidates are angry and high motivated to vote.

With organized labor and its allies leading the charge against them, the Republicans are moving to protect fewer seats while their candidates resort to ever more desperate tactics.

In an effort to counter reports in The New York Times that the Republican National Committee was diverting funds from DeWine’s campaign to shore up more competitive Senate races, the RNC purchased television ads making bogus claims that Brown’s 1992 congressional campaign committee failed to pay unemployment taxes for 13 years. The claims were refuted by the state of Ohio, and when the RNC failed to provide documentation, many TV stations pulled the ads.

“All the ‘Hail Marys’ and mudslinging thrown by Mike DeWine and the Republican national party is not going to change Ohio voters’ minds,” said Joanna Kuebler, communications director for Brown, who holds an 8-10 percentage point lead in the polls.

With his prospects rapidly fading, Blackwell has turned to even more desperate methods. Blackwell’s aides were caught spreading false rumors that Strickland is gay and in their fourth debate Blackwell claimed Strickland knowingly employed a sex offender in a previous campaign and supported the platform of a group advocating pedophilia.

Although his hometown newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, endorsed him, the paper wrote, “Blackwell decided to counter a 20-point deficit in the polls with an unconscionable mudslide of innuendo against Strickland, leaving us with an urge to go shower.”

Blackwell even had Monty Lobb, the assistant secretary of state, back a pathetic effort to challenge Strickland’s residency in Columbiana County and therefore his right to vote. Strickland immediately defeated this effort, which could still end up in court, by casting an absentee ballot.

Blackwell’s ties to extremists, his mudslinging, the abuse of his office to suppress voter turnout in both 2004 and the current election and his connection to the corrupt state administration of outgoing Gov. Bob Taft, have alienated independents and moderate Republicans alike. Fearing Blackwell could drag their entire ticket down to defeat, the state Republican Party has all but abandoned his floundering campaign and admitted they are focusing on the contests for auditor and secretary of state, who will sit on the five-member Apportionment Board to redraw congressional districts after the 2010 census.

Labor and community groups have voiced concern that Blackwell could suppress votes of those supporting Democrats through use of the state’s new law requiring voters to present valid identification at the polls. Similar laws have been struck down in other states as vague, confusing and discriminatory. The Ohio measure is being challenged in federal court by the Service Employees International Union and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.

County election boards have been flooded with absentee ballots sent in by voters seeking to avoid confusion and delays at the polls. Many board officials have expressed concern that they do not have enough equipment to count these ballots on Election Day.



Ohio GOP House seats in trouble

• Six-term incumbent Steve Chabot is attempting to stave off a strong challenge by City Councilman John Cranley by whipping up anti-immigrant hysteria. Cranley supports finding an avenue for undocumented workers to become citizens. The district in Cincinnati was carried by Bush in 2004 by only 3,000 votes.

• Freshman Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, who gained notoriety when she called Rep. John Murtha, a highly decorated ex-Marine, a “coward” on the House floor for his opposition to the Iraq war, is tied in polls with Dr. Victoria Wulsin. Murtha recently campaigned in Cincinnati with Wulsin. The district is heavily Republican and runs through rural areas from Cincinnati east to Portsmouth.

• Three-term incumbent Patrick Tiberi is losing his lead in the polls under sharp attack as a “yes-man” for George Bush by former Congressman Bob Shamansky in the 12th CD, which is northeastern Columbus and two adjacent rural counties.

• Seven-term incumbent Deborah Pryce, with close ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, is facing a powerful challenge from Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, the daughter of a Cleveland pipefitter, who calls for national health care and attacks Pryce’s “rubber stamp” record of backing President Bush. This district is in most of Columbus and some suburban areas.

• Rep. Bob Ney’s seat in the 18th CD is made up of the state’s southeastern counties. Ney pled guilty to bribery charges in the Abramoff scandal and withdrew from the race. His designated successor, state Sen. Joy Padgett, is trailing Dover Law Director Zach Space.

— Rick Nagin
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10051/1/345

An Insufficient Explanation

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; 12:28 PM

At a surprise press conference this morning, President Bush acknowledged the nation's grave concerns about the war in Iraq.

"I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq," Bush said, 13 days before a mid-term election that will in large part be a referendum on the war. "I'm not satisfied either."
   
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"I think I owe an explanation to the American people," he said.

But Bush didn't have much new to say today, other than endorsing yesterday's already largely debunked announcement in Baghdad of a "new plan" that sounds very much like the old plan.

And after an hour of familiar sound bites, the public would be forgiven for feeling it still hasn't gotten that explanation he promised.

Among the things that remain unexplained:

* Why does Bush believe that staying in Iraq will make things better, when the evidence suggests that it keeps making things worse?

* Why does he believe that progress is being made, when the evidence suggests that Iraq is sliding deeper and deeper into civil war?

* Why does he remain confident in Iraq's central government, when the evidence suggests that the center is not holding?

* Why hasn't anyone in his administration been held accountable for all the things that have gone wrong?

The Washington Post's Peter Baker asked that last question, and after initially responding with a strong endorsement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bush had this to say:

"The ultimate accountability, Peter, rests with me. That's the ultimate -- you're asking about accountability -- that's -- that's -- it rests right here. It's what the 2004 campaign was about. You know, people want to -- if people are unhappy about it, look right to the president."

NBC's David Gregory posed this question: "Mr. President, for several years you have been saying that America will 'stay the course' in Iraq. You were committed to the policy. And now you say that no, you're not saying 'stay the course,' that you're adapting to win, that you're showing flexibility. And as you mention, out of Baghdad we're now hearing about benchmarks and timetables from the Iraqi government, as relayed by American officials, to stop the sectarian violence.

"In the past, Democrats and other critics of the war who talked about benchmarks and timetables were labeled as 'defeatists, ' 'Defeat- o-crats,' or people who wanted to 'cut and run.'

"So why shouldn't the American people conclude that this is nothing from you other than semantic, rhetorical games and all politics two weeks before an election?"

Bush replied by distinguishing between mutually agreed-upon benchmarks and a fixed timetable for withdrawal.

But Bush has previously opposed even benchmarks. And when asked how he planned to measure success toward the benchmarks -- and what he would do if the benchmarks weren't met -- Bush ducked the question.

Bush also notably would not renounce his ambitions for permanent military bases in Iraq, a source of tremendous ire with the Iraqi public.

The Post's Baker gracefully thanked Bush for taking questions today -- even though reporters were given less than an hour's notice to show up at the White House.

Bush responded with obvious sarcasm: "I can't tell you how joyful it is."
[]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jq0j80UB_c&eurl=

http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/page/0,,1927660,00.html

      Video: GuardianFilms and BBC Newsnight present ...


Sean Smith, the Guardian's award-winning war photographer, spent nearly six weeks with the 101st Division of the US army in Iraq. Watch his haunting observational film that explodes the myth around the claims that the Iraqis are preparing to take control of their own country.

Contains some strong language.
Slideshow: Sean Smith in Iraq
Special report: Iraq


This presentation requires Flash 8. Click here to download it for free.

 Oct. 20, 2006, 8:53PM
Corruption issue causing problems for GOP as polls show state's Democrats gaining ground
Pendulum may swing in Ohio

By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

ZANESVILLE, OHIO — The Muskingum County Democratic headquarters, once a lonely spot in a district represented by recently convicted GOP congressman Bob Ney, bustles with activity as volunteers come by looking for bumper stickers and yard signs.

A Democratic revival in Ohio is especially significant because this populous Rust Belt state long has been a bellwether for national political trends.

Political experts say the outcome of Ohio's House and Senate races could be crucial in determining which party controls the next Congress. Democrats need a net gain of 15 House and six Senate seats to take the majority in those chambers.

"Ohio is a window into the Republicans' national problems," said Stuart Rothenberg, an influential political analyst in Washington.

In 2004, Ohio voters nudged President Bush over the top in his re-election bid by galvanizing social conservatives who opposed gay marriage and other voters concerned about national security — and then utilized a powerful "ground game" to get to them to the polls.

Seats in jeopardy
But just two years later, the political hierarchy has been turned upside down.

In the open race for governor, polls show Democratic congressman Ted Strictland galloping ahead of GOP candidate Ken Blackwell, the current secretary of state, by double digits. U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a 12-year incumbent, is also trailing Democrat challenger Rep. Sherrod Brown. At least three, and possibly up to five, House seats currently held by Republicans could change hands, analysts said.

Ohio GOP officials and experts cited both national trends and more parochial concerns for the swing of the pendulum.

A state political scandal that has implicated outgoing GOP governor Bob Taft, coupled with the recent guilty plea by Ney on conspiracy charges and the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., after disclosures that he sent sexually charged e-mails to high-school-age pages, have given potency to the "culture of corruption" theme pushed by Democrats.

Meanwhile, President Bush's approval ratings in Ohio have plummeted over concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq, causing a drag on GOP candidates across the state.

On top of all this, Ohio has lost 195,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001, and recent announcements of cutbacks by U.S. car manufacturers have caused fears that job losses could accelerate.

'Voters' anxiety'
"I have never seen voters' anxiety at this level — ever," said Joy Padgett, a state senator who was tapped by Republicans to run for the seat being vacated by Ney. The district stretches from outside Columbus to the Pennsylvania border and includes a swath of Appalachia. Her campaign office is in Zanesville, a city filled with boarded-up storefronts.

Recent polls show Padgett trailing Democrat Zack Space in a district comfortably won by Bush and Ney in the past. Democrats have sought to tie Padgett to Ney, noting that the convicted congressman said he wanted her to take his place in Washington.

Defending the party
Corruption is an issue that causes problems for the GOP on every political front in Ohio.

"Rather than being able to focus on their message, they are spending time defending the Republican Party and explaining the actions of other Republicans, whether you are talking about Bob Ney, or Bob Taft, or Mark Foley," said Eric Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio poll.

For example, Rep. Deborah Pryce, who represents most of Columbus and who ranks fourth in the House GOP leadership, was forced to respond to criticism that she didn't do enough to stop Foley because she once said in a magazine interview that he was one of her close friends in the House.

Pryce insisted her race against Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy won't be a referendum on national issues or Foley, but will focus on her ability to bring back funds to her district. Polls show that Pryce, a moderate who was first elected in 1992 and won with 60 percent of the vote in 2004, is now fighting for her political life.

While acknowledging the difficult task they face this year, Republicans are still banking on the effectiveness of their vaunted ground game.

"That machine is still there," said John McClelland, the spokesman for the state Republican Party. He said that party volunteers recently made 100,000 calls and knocked on 50,000 doors to urge supporters to vote.

Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Randy Borntrager said his party had made an equal number of calls and had improved its turnout operation by targeting voters even in GOP-leaning counties.

Republicans have sought to portray Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals. To inoculate himself against such charges, Zack Space portrays himself as a centrist who supports gun ownership and wants to crack down on illegal immigration.

Privately, some state Republicans say they have given up on the governor's race and fear that a huge loss there could pull down other candidates, including DeWine.

Some plan to defect
The gloom among Republicans was evident at recent reception of the Capital Area Republican Woman's Club in Columbus. Helen MacMurray, co-chair of the club, said during her recent canvassing of voters, both independents and Republicans told her they were tired of the corruption and were considering voting for Democrats this year.

"Dedicated Republican as I am," she said, "I can't blame people for being discouraged."

bennett.roth@chron.com

 
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4276932.html

Do ‘computer police' have too much power?

 

I am a local farmer; my wife teaches elementary school; our three children are well-adjusted, “A” students.

We go to church, work hard, and pay our bills and taxes.

We are law-abiding, responsible members of society; we have never had reason to fear the law.

On Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2006, many police vehicles appeared in our driveway. Men in black with flak jackets ran to and around our house.

My wife was at home alone. I drove up and asked, “What's going on?”

Men ran at me, dropped into shooting position, double-handed semi-automatic pistols pointed at me, and made me put my hands against my truck.

I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description. I feared there had been a murder and I was a suspect.

My wife and I were interrogated about Internet crime. We are not avid computer users; we do not even e-mail. We knew nothing of what they were speaking.

After seemingly convincing them of our computer “illiteracy,” we were questioned about our children and made to doubt their innocence.

Our home was searched by a para-military search-and-seizure team.

Our computers, digital camera, disposable cameras, DVD's, and VHS tapes were seized.

We were held in our home under guard for five hours.

Our children came home and were also interrogated.

It was awful. We were accused of horrible crimes, crimes that even the mention of would ruin our reputations.

The investigation was to be complete within six to nine months. We were in shock.

At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 2, the chief investigator of Pittsylvania County returned our possessions and said that the wrong IP (computer) address had been identified. We would not be charged.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Department, Bedford County Sheriff's Department and Blue Ridge Thunder invaded our peaceful lives with military force based on one piece of wrong digital information.

The investigators did not do their jobs. They did not even know that we had children.

Incompetence? Apathy? Do these computer police have too much power?

No innocent United States citizen should be subjected to this based on so little evidence.

Inexcusable. Civil rights laws have been established to protect the innocent. Our ancestors fought and died for these rights.

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause...”

Invading our home with one bit of incorrect evidence was totally unreasonable.

I support the police and their efforts, but I believe every United States citizen should fear and be angry about these tactics.

I will not rest until I know what went wrong in this investigation. I pray that you will not either.

A.J. Nuckols

Gretna


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