CIA interrogators did mock executions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA's internal investigator found that agency interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, congressional officials said late Friday.
The disclosures are contained in a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general, which has been kept secret and is to be released next week, two officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been cleared for release.
The report's findings were first reported by Newsweek on its Web site Friday night.
In one case, interrogators brought a gun and power drill into a session with suspected Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the report says. The suicide bombing of the warship USS Cole killed 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen in 2000.
In another episode, a gunshot was fired in a room next to a detainee to make the prisoner believe another suspect had been killed, according to the report, which a federal judge has ordered to be made public Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lutherans vote to allow gay clergy
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.
Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals in committed relationships as clergy. Until now, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy.
The change passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA's national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance.
Ex-model identified via breast implants
BUENA PARK, Calif. (AP) — An ex-model found stuffed in a bloodstained suitcase without fingers or teeth was so badly mutilated that authorities had to use her breast implants to identify her body, prosecutors said Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marshals Service offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a wealthy reality-TV-show contestant who was charged Thursday with murder in the gruesome slaying of Jasmine Fiore.
Detectives tracked the serial number on the implants because they could not use fingerprints or dental records, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.
Fiore's body was found Aug. 15 in a trash bin in Buena Park, an Orange County city about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Authorities believe Jenkins, a contestant on VH1's "Megan Wants a Millionaire," may have fled more than 1,000 miles to reach his native Canada.
Buena Park police Lt. Steve Holliday said Jenkins, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is possibly armed with a handgun. Prosecutors recommended bail of $10 million upon his arrest.
Voice of America exec faces charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top official for Voice of America was indicted Friday on corruption charges, accused of taking thousands of dollars in concert and sports tickets in exchange for favors to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Horace Cooper, who was also a one-time aide to former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is accused of defrauding the government after getting choice seats to see 'N Sync, the Dixie Chicks, and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
The indictment charges Cooper agreed to use his position at Voice of America — and his subsequent job at the Labor Department — to advance the interests of Abramoff and his clients.
Abramoff was sentenced in September 2008 to four years in prison on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion.
Maine woman wins $21M in Cuban case
BELFAST, Maine (AP) — A woman who alleged that Cuban officials caused the wrongful death of her father while on a covert mission in 1963 has won a $21 million default judgment against the island nation, but her prospects of collecting may be a long shot.
Sherry Sullivan, of Stockton Springs, is the daughter of Geoffrey Sullivan, a former member of the U.S. Air Force and Army National Guard who later became a certified commercial pilot. She believes he was shot down over Cuba, imprisoned and probably executed by the Cuban government.
The Swiss Embassy in Havana had served a copy of the lawsuit to the Cuba Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008. Cuba never responded, leading Hjelm to issue his default judgment on Aug. 10.
Leonard Peltier is denied parole again
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, imprisoned since 1977 for the deaths of two FBI agents, has been denied parole after authorities decided that releasing him would diminish the seriousness of his crime, a federal prosecutor said Friday.
Peltier, who claims the FBI framed him, will not be eligible for parole again until July 2024, when he will be 79 years old.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley announced the decision of the U.S. Parole Commission.
Peltier is serving two life sentences for the execution-style deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams during a June 26, 1975, standoff on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was convicted in Fargo, N.D., in 1977.
High court hears Tom Hanks' case
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The latest act in a nine-year battle between Tom Hanks, his wife, Rita Wilson, and a high-end contractor played out before the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday.
The case revolves around the couple's sprawling Sun Valley-area home, built by Storey Construction starting in 2000. Hanks and Wilson say the company's shoddy workmanship left them out more than $2 million. The company contends the couple is out for revenge because they lost an earlier arbitration over the work.