June 6, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/June/08-crt-510.html
Muncie, Indiana, Man Sentenced to 121 Months in Cross Burning Case
WASHINGTON - Kyle Milbourn of Muncie, Ind., was sentenced by a federal judge today for a hate crime stemming from a cross burning last year that was directed at a woman and her three biracial children, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Timothy Morrison.
Milbourn was convicted by a jury in March 2008, of one count of interfering with the housing rights of another person; one count of conspiring to interfere with civil rights; one count of using fire during the commission of a felony; and one count of tampering with a witness. He was sentenced to 121 months on all four counts combined.
According to testimony at trial, on or about March 6, 2006, Milbourn and another individual, who previously pleaded guilty, built an eight-foot wooden cross, erected it in front of the victims’ home, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. Milbourn did this with the intent to interfere with the victims’ rights under the Fair Housing Act. In an attempt to thwart the FBI’s investigation into the cross burning, Milbourn, in November 2007, tried to prevent a witness from speaking to FBI agents.
“It is deeply disturbing that, in this day and age, circumstances still require us to prosecute cases that involve burning an eight-foot wooden cross in front of the home of a bi-racial family,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Becker. “The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute anyone who engages in cross-burning.”
“No one should have to suffer the terror and intimidation of a cross-burning,” said U.S. Attorney Morrison. “Civil rights enforcement remains a top priority of the Department of Justice.”
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and resulted from an investigation conducted by FBI Special Agent Charlie Rownd of the Muncie Field Office.
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08-510
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/pakistan
http://www.longwarjournal.org/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?tag=Pakistan&blog_id=7
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/taleban
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/taliban
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/childabuse
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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021339.php
(AP)
June 9, 2008
“Stop the presses! Pakistan helped the Taliban!”
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BLOG:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/pakistans_swat_peace.php
“Pakistan’s Swat peace agreement in the crossfire”
By BILL ROGGIO
June 9, 2008 2:42 PM
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Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028525/posts
Pakistani girls are traded to settle feuds
Miami Herald ^ | 6/9/08 | SAEED SHAH
Posted on June 9, 2008 3:45:07 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
It began with an errant dog, and it’s now culminated with the forced betrothal of 15 little girls, some of them as young as 3, as compensation in a case of tribal feuding in a remote part of Pakistan.
It’s thought that around 20 people have died in the bitter quarrel, and the marriage offer of the girls is meant to end the bloodletting.
Under a brutal custom, called Vani, the girls are being traded as settlement of a long-running dispute between two tribes. This case occurred on the border between the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, but the practice, known as Swara in some areas, isn’t uncommon in rural parts of Pakistan.
‘’The murderer gets away. It is his daughter, his sister, his niece, that pays the price,’’ said Samar Minallah, a human rights activist based in Islamabad. ``The girl has to pay the price for the rest of her life.’’
Vani usually involves the daughters of illiterate and poor people, who don’t have money or other assets to give as compensation. Minallah said that a disturbing feature of such settlements is that they’re often ordered by the rich local landowners who adjudicate the cases. Typically, they’re educated people and even include members of parliament. A law bans the practice, but police and local officials rarely intervene.
In this instance, Noor Ali, whose three daughters are to be given away, said in an interview that he accepted the verdict. His girls, however, had no choice.
‘’I think it is right,’’ said Ali, speaking by telephone from his village in the Jaffarabad area. ``This is our culture.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...