The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, December 16, 2005 Page: 4 of 12
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OPINION
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THE BAYTOWN SUN ,
4
Friday, December 16,2005
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Holiday
scams
Be careful out there
1
Testing Condoleezza Rice
— The Baytown Sun
■
J
ft/,.;/
I
I
torture - (tbr’chor) n.
physically cruel technique
used to extract information,
often from an enemy (except
when done by the United
States under the Bush
administration).
NAT
HENTOFF
Angie Pagel, Advertising Director
angie.pagel@baytownsun.com
CIRCULATION
Janie Halter, Circulation Mgr.
janie.halter@baytownsun.com
HOW TO REACH US
Wanda Garner Cash, Publisher
wgcash@baytownsun.com
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
David Bloom, Managing Editor
david.bloom@baytownsun.com
Doyle Barlow, Sports Editor
doyle.barlow@baytownsun.com
Clarissa Silva, Design Editor
clarissa.silva@baytownsun.com
Danielle Lynch, News Editor
danielle.lynch@baytownsun.com
ADVERTISING
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Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
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Items featured on this page are
the views of the persons identified
with each submission and do not
necessarily reflect the views of The
Baytown Sun or its advertisers.
WRITE TO US
The Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of
up to 500 words. Guest columns
should include a photo of the
writer. We publish only original
material addressed to The Baytown
Sun bearing the writer’s signature.
An address and phone number not
for publication should be included.
All letters and guest columns are
subject to editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse to pub-
lish any submission.
Send signed letters to: Wanda
Garner Cash or David Bloom, The
Baytown Sun, P.O. Box 90,
Baytown, 77522; fax them to (281)
427-1880 or e-mail sunnewsgbay-
You should receive your Baytown townsun.com.
Sun by 6 a.m. Monday through
Saturday and by 8 a.m. Sunday. If
you do not receive your paper on
time, call (281) 425-8048 by 10 a.m.
to ensure redelivery.
A
•* X
• *5
REL fire cassette
1 am proud to say that I still have
my “Robert E. Lee” fire cassette
tape. I was a senior in high school
when Lee burned.
It is a four songs cassette. The
songs are “Loss of a Legend”, “Alma
Mater”, “Slow Dixie”, and of course,
“Dull Razor Blues (Go Ganders Go)”
I always pull it out during football
season to reminisce.
I am going to be sending to a radio
station that is going to be converting
it to CD.
If you would like a copy, you can
email me at relalumni@aol.com
James Kingsmill
REL Class of 1987
Thanks, CRGU
A special thank you to the employ-
ees of Community Resource Credit -
Union: The employees of CRCU
donated and shipped 242 pounds of
toiletries, food, stationary and other
personal items to the United States
Army’s 644th Transportation Co. in
Iraq. Happy Holidays!
Lt. Gregory Howard and the
644th Transportation BN CO
U.S. Army
on artists seem to do their best work
■ during the holiday season. Steer
clear of the neighborly fellow who
offers to carry your shopping bags in a
crowded mall parking lot. If he’s not in uni-
form, yell for help.
Be equally wary of strangers on the tele-
phone seeking money to buy Christmas pre-
sents for needy children.
Ditto for mail solicitations from charities
that may sound familiar, but somehow don’t
ring true.
The charitable appeals may look genuine,
the name cleverly close to a legitimate orga-
nization, but scammers are using technology
to take advantage of our holiday spirit. With
a computer and a color printer, it’s easy to
produce a convincing brochure - complete
' with return envelope — that lures people of
good will to send checks and cash to bogus
.charities.
" And while these con games seem more
prevalent around Christmas time, this kind
of shameless, predatory scheming goes on
year-round. Consumer protection is high
priority for Texas Attorney General Greg
Abbott, whose office aggressively pursues
and prosecutes consumer fraud.
Home improvement cons like phony roof-
ing or driveway repairs are among the alerts
on the attorney general’s Web site. Debt col-
lectors. “easy” credit loans and counterfeit
cashier’s checks are also on the scam alert
list.
; Senior citizens are more vulnerable,
.because they’re often on limited incomes,
isolated from family or housebound by med-
ical conditions. Just this week, the attorney
general put a stop to a scam that targets
. elderly Texans by offering to file for a prop-
erty tax freeze. The mailing, which appears
to be official correspondence from a tax
office, asks for $55 to complete the paper-
work for exemptions that are available with-
-'Out any charge.
Texas is fortunate to have, strong consumer
advocate in the attorney general’s office, but
we also need to look out for ourselves.
Deck your halls and be of good cheer, but
at the same time beware of offers that look
to good to be true and be skeptical of phony
glad tidings.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Wanda Garner Cash David Bloom
Editor/Publisher Managing Editor
Jim Finley Jane Howard Lee
retired Managing Editor retired Reporter
Doyle Barlow Danielle Lynch
Sports Editor News Editor
Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority
on the First Amendment and the Bill of Flights.
Frightening possibility
The New Year will bring with it the
frightening possibility that our
nation’s Supreme Court will take a
radical shift to the right as the Senate
considers the nomination of Samuel
Alito to Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat
on the highest court in the land.
Judge Alito has a long record of
right wing judicial activism and
would seek to scale back the very
civil liberties that define who we are
as Americans. Judge Alito even
seems to lack a most basic respect for
the right to privacy as evidenced by
his ruling that a strip-search of a 10-
year-old girl without a warrant was
constitutional. Americans deserve a
justice who shares their values on the
Supreme Court, not one who shares
the values of right-wing extremists.
Carmen Martinez
Baytown
Sylvia Garcia,
Precinct 2
Commissioner
713-755-6220
Tommy Thomas,
Sheriff
713-755-6044
Ken Jones,
Precinct 3
Constable
281-427-4792
Mike Parrott,
Place 1
Justice of the Peace
713-450-2409
Tony Polumbo,
Place 2
Justice of the Peace
281-427-7449
Chambers
Jimmy Sylvia,
County Judge
409-267-8295
During the first stages of the Secretary of
State’s European visit, the headline in the
influential German publication, Der
Spiegel, was: “Does anyone believe
Condoleezza Rice?” Despite the increasing
reports in the European press of CIA planes
crisscrossing Europe, she repeatedly said,
“The United States does not transport, and
has not transported, detainees from one
country to another for the purpose of inter-
rogation using torture.”
Moreover, she declined to comment on
charges that the CIA on its own has a net-
work of secret interrogation centers in
Europe. Yet, ABC News reported that Al
Qaeda suspects in two secret CIA prisons in
Eastern Europe had been cleared out before
Rice’s arrival, and the suspects were moved
to a new hidden CIA facility in the North
African desert.
Also, while Rice repeatedly insisted that
the United States does not engage in or con-
Deutschland; echoed concerns of many
: Europeans: “It remains unclear exactly what
definition Washington uses for torture.” ■ . , , * • . , “
Later, however, in Krev, the Ukraine, Rice
made a surprising (and rather startling) state- „„ „
ment that American obligations under the
U.N. Convention against torture “extend to
U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether
they are in the United States or outside the
United States.”
These obligations forbid the “cruel, inhu-
man and degrading treatment of prisoners,”
but officials in the Bush administration have
long maintained that these restrictions do not
apply to detainees held by the United States
outside of U.S. territory. As the Washington
Post reported: “CIA interrogators in the over-
seas sites have been permitted to use interro-
gation techniques prohibited by the U.N. con-
vention or by U.S. military law.” And, indeed,
Vice President Dick Cheney has been press-
ing hard to prevent the passage of Republican
Sen. John McCain’s amendment to ban our
forces from engaging in cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment anywhere in the world.
\ .. Nonetheless, Rice’s unexpected statement
in Kiev mollified the concerns of some
: European politicians and officials. But other
human rights investigators here and in
Europe remain skeptical. They ask how the
Bush administration defines “cruel, inhuman
and degrading.”
For instance, CIA head Porter Goss has
testified that waterboarding —- which makes
a prisoner believe he is drowning — is OK.
But taking Rice’s clarification at face
value, how then does the Bush administration
justify the continued existence of the CIA’s
secret interrogation centers around the world?
There is no disclosure of who is in those
cages and what is being done to them. If the
Adva
Declii
Unch
Total
New
New
Volur
Memorable year
It has been the most memorable year
on Texas Avenue in decades for
myself. To see all the incredible rides
at the cruise’s and Christmas event on
Texas Avenue has been nothing short
of amazing. I have met some of the
most down to Earth, friendly, caring,
sharing and fun loving people this
year. From cruisin, with Gene and Joni
Kelton, to closing out the 2005 car
show season on Texas Avenue where I
met one of the founding fathers of
Bayshore Fine Rides Car Club, Mr.
Danny Cheatham, and everything else
that took place in between, it has been
truly incredible! No doubt, the com-
mon denominator that has brought
people back to Texas Avenue, are the
awesome rides and the association of
good times, with all these wonderful
rides and the people who bring them
out for the public to enjoy.
What a great turnout for the
“Christmas on Texas Avenue” event. It
was reported that over 5,000 people
attended and over 75 fine rides were
entered in the car show. Both were
records in the 10 year history of this
event. That’s a fantastic achievement
and sets a precedent to equal or better *
next year. I think we can set a new
record next Spring or early Summer
(hint, hint).
Each of the events’s brought out
young and old alike, to remember, as
well as create, new memories about
Texas Avenue. I hope this year’s enthu-
siasm continues to build for many
years to come. I support making Texas
Avenue the place to cruise, shop, dine
and have a great time once again.
1 can’t close without thanking the
terrific members of Bayshore Fine
Rides Car Club for supporting me with
the cruises and providing me an oppor-
tunity to be a part of an exemplary
non-profit Organization. It is my
esteem pleasure to be associated with
this Club. The faith they have shown in
me is truly humbling and belonging to
this Club continues to be such a grati-
fying experience. I look forward to
more fun and exciting times in 2006.
Dale Hughes, president
Bayshore Fine Rides Car Club
Baytown
those Americans throughout the chain of
command who have been complicit in these
CIA renditions? And what of the abuses,
including torture and death, in our own inter-
rogation, centers and the “ghost prisoners” in
CIA secret cells?
As a result of a Freedom of Information
Act request, the American Civil Liberties
Union made public new and previously
released autopsy and death reports of prison-
ers in American facilities in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Some of these “detainees” died
■i while they were being interrogated; and the
ACLU points out “the documents show that
. ‘detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled,
.: beaten with blunt objects’” and subjected to
other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading
.treatment.
If Congress ever conducts truly indepen-
dent investigations of these and other such
reports, I would strongly suggest the record
include the carefully documented report by
Jane Mayer in the Nov. 14 New Yorker: “A
Deadly Interrogation: Can the CIA legally
;r kill a prisoner?” She quotes Cheney on
NBC’s “Meet the Press:” “It’s going to be
vital for us to use any means at our disposal.”
After reading the New Yorker article and
summaries of the autopsy reports, I believe it
isfairtoask— concerning how this admin-
testified that waterboarding — which makes istration defines American values in our cru-
cial war against terrorists: Which of the two
Rices is to be believed?
If we are to win this fateful war of ideas,
Congress must clear the air.
Bacarisse,
District Clerk
713-755-5711
; Chuck Rosenthal,
• District Attorney
! 713-755-5800
;. Robert Eckels,
■- County Judge
w- -713-755-4000
X Jack Cato,
~ County Treasurer
- 713-755-5120
^Michael Stafford,
• County Attorney
; 713-755-5101
I,1 B.F. Kaufman,
|; County Clerk
1-800-835-5832
Paul Bettencourt,
Tax Office
713-368-2200
w
secretary of state is to
maintain her credibility,
| shouldn’t she call for an
end to these “black sites,”
as they are called in the
whispered language of
I Washington insiders?
J And if what she says about
the utter lawfulness of
American policy on
detainees is true, what of
the CIA’s “extraordinary
renditions” by which suspected terrorists are
kidnapped in various countries and trans-
ferred for interrogation to countries cited by
our own State Department reports for tortur-
ing their prisoners? In the face of mounting
statemeints by prisoners finally released after
being tortured in CIA renditions, does she
continue to deny these violations of interna-
tional and U.S. law?
But let us suppose that what she said in
Kiev does mean a major change in U.S. poli-
- • ■ • • • - , cy — although the president’s automated
press secretary, Scott McClellan, faithfully
saysthishas been our policy all along. If it is
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, December 16, 2005, newspaper, December 16, 2005; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1192219/m1/4/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.