Tuesday, April 8, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Fears Grow Over 'Vacationing Terrorists' Who Freely Enter, Exit Syria – NBC
By Robert Windrem
First published April 8 2014


Terrorists who shuttle back and forth to fight in Syria may pose the next big threat to the West, according to U.S., European and Russian intelligence officials.
Intelligence professionals tell NBC News that Islamic militants act almost like vacationers as they travel back and forth to the world’s most active conflict zone, where they are being trained to conduct attacks both inside and outside the war-torn country.

Turkey is a favored staging area because it provides the militants with relatively easy access to the battle zone and enables them to come and go almost at will, mixing jihad with R&R in Europe, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials, who briefed NBC News on the threat on condition of anonymity.

While they are in country battling Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, the officials say, these fighters often are drawn to the most radical elements of the Syrian opposition -– groups like Al Nusrah or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq. Those groups are believed to be training radicals at camps near Aleppo in lawless western Syria for operations in that country and elsewhere, they said, adding that the specific nature of the threat is not clear.

Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counter Terrorism Center and now an NBC News analyst, said that some leaders of al Qaeda also are leaving their longtime strongholds in Pakistan and Afghanistan for Syria, in hopes of training the next generation of jihadis.

"The movement of more senior AQ leadership from outside the region is undoubtedly true," he said. "I also think it is undoubtedly true that these folks, in addition to many others with the ISIL, are indeed looking to use Syria as a safe haven to launch attacks outside of Syria."

A new video released last week by the Syrian rebel umbrella group The Islamic Front (Ahrar al-Sham) added new support for that view, showing jihadis training for "special missions." The highly produced video, titled "The Lions of War Training Camp," is being used primarily as a recruiting tool, reports Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism consultant with Flashpoint Partners and an NBC counterterrorism analyst.
While the pattern of training new recruits in an ungoverned land extends back to the al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, there are key differences in Syria that worry counterterrorism officials.

The biggest is the geography. Getting to Afghanistan was difficult. Getting into Syria is much less so. The gateway to the fighting in Syria, the city of Antalya in eastern Turkey, is 2,000 miles closer to Europe than Peshawar in Pakistan, portal to Afghanistan.

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Accommodations in Antalya are also better than those in Peshawar, the officials note, meaning sojourns away from the battlefield are far easier to arrange than, say, booking a vacation in Bora Bora from the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan.
Another difference is the culture of the conflicts.

When militants traveled to Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, they were joining something akin to a cult – al Qaeda -- which controlled their lives, said one official. That’s not how it works in Syria, where the organizations are less centralized and the militants able to move more freely. Fighters in Syria are now able to cross the border into Turkey, fly back to their home countries, then return to battle again within a few weeks, often with like-minded militants in tow, the official said.

That means a broader cross-section of Muslim militants is taking part in the fighting, said Kohlmann.

“The chaotic nature of the conflict and the geographic proximity to Europe has opened the door to a motley crew of foreign fighters from around the world, many of whom wouldn't have any chance of reaching a traditional al Qaeda fighting zone like the Afghan-Pakistani border,” he said. “… They can also be especially hard to track because of the lack of a centralized command or communications structure among al Qaeda factions in Syria.”

Related story: Brits Step Up Arrests of Muslims Allegedly Fighting in Syria
Already, U.S. and other Western officials have seen militants drawn to the Syrian civil war from Dagestan in Russia, the large Muslim communities of Europe and the jails that were sprung open during the Arab Spring.

Kohlmann noted that the fresh troops range from hardened veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere to the downright eccentric, such as German rapper-turned-jihadist "Deso Dogg." (Rumors earlier this year suggested “Dogg,” whose real name is Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert, had vanished and was wounded or dead in Syria, but he later released a statement indicating that he continues to fight Assad’s forces in Syria.)

American Muslims are joining the fray as well, but U.S. officials are unwilling to estimate how many have made the journey. They don't minimize the threat of returning terrorists, however.

Kohlman said that is a reflection of the mobility and diversity of the jihadis fighting in Syria.

“The relatively porous condition of Syrian borders -- particularly with Turkey and, until recently, Lebanon -- has allowed foreign militants affiliated with al Qaeda to enter and leave Syria almost at will,” he said. “Once in a neighboring country like Lebanon or Turkey, these individuals are a single non-stop flight away from almost anywhere in Western Europe, and even parts of the United States.”




So, Turkey and Lebanon are the new centers from which militants go to join al Qaeda linked forces under the names of Al Nusrah or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria which are fighting Assad for the control of that country. Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counter Terrorism Center, said that some of al Qaeda's leaders from Pakistan are moving their operations to Syria as well.

The Islamic Front (Ahrar al-Sham) has created a new video called "The Lions of War Training Camp," which it is using for recruiting purposes. One reason given for this movement into Syria is the fact that the geography is less forbidding than is that of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The result is “a motley crew of foreign fighters from around the world,” who are harder to locate individually because of the lack of centralized command in Syria, as opposed to their situation in Pakistan.

One such European fighter is a German rapper called "Deso Dogg.” There are also American Islamists, though there is no information of how many. Their new proximity to Europe is worrisome to counterterrorism officials because the jihadists have an easy access between their homes in Europe and the hot spots in Syria.

http://www.meforum.org/2107/europe-shifting-immigration-dynamic is a website which gives more information about the increasing immigration of Islamic populations into Europe since the 1970s. According to this article, these immigrants “maintain a village mentality” even when they have moved into cities and are considered “backward” by the Europeans. They came originally to take jobs that the Europeans don't want to do such as cleaning the streets and working in the coal mines.

Some news reports within the last two years or so concerned unrest among those populations and sometimes European reactions against the women's wearing traditional head gear have been oppressive or hostile. The same thing is happening in the US, though there haven't been any riots among the Islamists here. After 9/11 a Sikh was killed here because he was wearing a turban. There have been several cases of “honor killings” here, though, and female sexual mutilations. I, personally, find such things truly appalling, and so do most other Americans. The US guarantees freedom of religion, but some aspects of Islamic populations are illegal in our society and they should be. The Islamists will have to do some changing to live here peacefully. Sharia law won't fly.




To Bridge Gender Pay Gap, Just Talk About It, Some Say – NBC
By Allison Linn
First published April 8 2014

The latest tactic to close the gap between men’s and women’s wages: Just talk about it.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday prohibiting federal contractors for retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation with one another.

It’s a move advocates hope will help those employees feel more comfortable comparing pay stubs – and perhaps even asking for a raise if they find out they are being paid less than their peers.

Fatima Goss Graves, vice president for education and employment at the National Women’s Law Center, said that many women may not even know if they are making less than their male peers. They also may feel uncomfortable checking on it because some companies have policies barring employees from talking about pay.

“It’s extremely difficult to have enough information to be able to challenge unfair pay,” Graves said.

Graves said she didn’t know of any hard data showing that peers comparing wages leads to pay increases. But she said any additional information can be helpful in pay negotiations, and just the threat of such talks could prompt employers to make sure employees at the same level have similar pay.

“It may be that employees don’t have these conversations,” she said. “I think what’s probably more important (is) that employers will know that there’s the potential for these conversations.”

Jim Webber, who conducts workplace training and runs a human resources advice blog called Evil Skippy at Work, said human resources departments for decades have had formal or informal policies discouraging employees from chatting about their wages.

The fear has been that employees who make less will ask for more or at least complain about it, or everyone will try to form a union for equal pay, he said.
Webber said in his experience the reality has often been that employees discuss wages, whether their employer bars it or not.

“It’s kind of like little kids on the playground: ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,’” Webber said.

In recent years, it’s also become easier to find out what your co-workers are generally making, thanks to a host of employment websites in which people post their salaries along with company reviews and other information.

Having more information about your peers’ salaries can be helpful in negotiating a raise, said David Lewin, a professor emeritus at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management who has studied compensation extensively.

Lewin noted that CEOs and other top executives – whose salaries are usually public if they work for publicly held companies - have managed to push their salaries up higher and higher over the years by comparing themselves to their peers at competing companies.

But, he said, it can be less helpful to know you make less than your peers if you just feel bad about it, and don’t ask for a raise. And it could also backfire if the employer does grant those raises, but then takes away other things, like paid vacation.

“It really becomes a question of what someone does with the information,” Lewin said.
He said the executive order could help some people feel more comfortable discussing wages, but he doubted it would have a significant impact on most people’s pay.
“It might have a marginal positive impact,” he said.

The executive order will only apply to people who work for federal contractors, and comes amid other, so far unsuccessful, efforts to get Congress to take similar actions to address the pay gap.

Women earn about 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and that disparity has stayed relatively flat for years.

Researchers have been looking closely at why even women and men in the same profession sometimes earn vastly different wages, as well as why that wage gap generally seems to widen as women reach their mid-thirties.

One area researchers have focused on is whether women are as likely to ask for a raise – or even a higher starting salary – as their male counterparts. Some research has shown that it can actually hurt women to ask for more money, because they are perceived as greedy, demanding or just not very nice.

Webber, the human resources consultant, said he only sometimes receives questions or complaints from readers of his advice blog about co-workers who earn more money.
“It does not come up nearly as often as people who think their co-worker smells bad or is being rude,” Webber said. “Behavior is something they talk about more than money.”




“President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday prohibiting federal contractors for retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation with one another.” Hooray! Workplaces have frequently been very constrictive of “upward mobility” among the rank and file of employees. Many people have been fired for daring to try to start a union, and the law has been largely behind the employers, at least in practice. Strikers in the 1950's have sometimes been very disruptive or even violent in some cases, of course. They made enough strides to improve the workplace considerably, though, in enough cases to create a consensus in society which is more liberal in general. There is actually less need for a union in most large workplaces, as the labor relations activities of the 1900s has shamed many smaller employers into setting up more built in advancement opportunities, good benefits and better pay. I approve of unions for the most part.

This executive order only applies to businesses that are federal contractors, which is very narrow. Also, the woman has to ask for more pay, and many are afraid to do it for various reasons. Many women have problems being confrontive, and many employers think those who aren't afraid are trouble makers, whereas they approve of assertiveness in men, so asking for better pay can work against a woman. According to this article, “the wage gap generally seems to widen as women reach their mid-thirties,” which looks suspiciously like a sexually based action – in other words, younger and more sexually appealing women are preferred by many men, even in the workplace. The struggle goes on.





US, Russia Trade Accusations of Provoking Turmoil in Ukraine – ABC
MOSCOW, April 8, 2014
By KIRIT RADIA

The Kremlin and the White House appear to be living in alternate universes, at least according to their public statements.

In the American telling of events, Russia is bankrolling and instigating protests in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rent-a-mobs have stormed government buildings and demanded Crimea-like secession referendums.

“There is strong evidence some of these were not local residents,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday.

“These do not appear to be a spontaneous set of events,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki added. “This appeared to be a carefully orchestrated campaign with Russian support.”

The Russians, of course, denied this and accused the United States of sparking and funding unrest in Ukraine's capital of Kiev months ago. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a pointed statement suggesting the West should stop blaming Russia for what is happening in Ukraine.

“We are not imposing anything on anyone,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shot back in an op-ed in Britain’s Guardian newspaper rejecting Western accusations. “Russia is doing all it can to promote early stabilization in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the accusations continued to fly back and forth.
The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested today that the United States was encouraging actions that would lead to civil war, including disguising 150 American mercenaries from the private security firm Greystone, which was once a part of the contractor formerly known as Blackwater, as Ukrainian security officers.

The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoff Pyatt, tweeted that the Russian claim was “rubbish.”

A woman who answered the phone at Greystone’s Virgina office said, “We do not have anyone deployed in Ukraine.”




“Russia is bankrolling and instigating protests in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rent-a-mobs have stormed government buildings and demanded Crimea-like secession referendums.” Alternatively, the Russians are accusing the US of the same thing.“ The Russians, of course, denied this and accused the United States of sparking and funding unrest in Ukraine's capital of Kiev months ago.” They accuse the US of sending in 150 disguised mercenaries from Greystone, formerly known as Blackwater. When contacted in Virginia by ABC, a Greystone spokes person said that the have no one deployed in Ukraine. If we sent in Greystone, maybe they will be able to remove the “Russian rent-a-mobs” from their positions in Eastern Ukraine cities. The war goes on.





Calif. Bill Would End SeaWorld Killer Whale Shows – CBS
SACRAMENTO, Calif. April 8, 2014 (AP)
By FENIT NIRAPPIL Associated Press

A proposed California bill would force SeaWorld San Diego to stop using killer whales in its iconic shows and to release them from their tanks, the latest blowback that the exotic animal attraction has faced after a documentary criticized the marine park's animal welfare practices.

The state Assembly will hold its first committee hearing Tuesday on AB2140 by Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, that is pitting animal welfare activists against a staple of San Diego's tourism industry. SeaWorld San Diego houses 10 killer whales, which would be moved into a larger sea pen and could not be bred if the Legislature approved Bloom's bill and the governor signed it. The bill would also ban the import and export of the animals, and activists are moving to bring similar bills to Florida and Texas where SeaWorld has parks.

"They are too large, too intelligent, too socially complex and too far-ranging to be adequately cared for in captivity," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute, the bill's sponsor.

SeaWorld has been fighting back against that perception, which executives said is inspired by the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which its officials say distorts the facts to favor an anti-captivity agenda.

"That argument is not based on credible peer-reviewed science," said John Reilly, president of SeaWorld San Diego Park. "It's based on emotion and a propaganda film."
Bloom introduced the measure in response to "Blackfish," which linked attacks on and deaths of SeaWorld trainers to the mistreatment of the animals and has led to growing public outrage and several celebrities canceling appearances at the park.

Kirra Kotler, a 10-year-old from Malibu, Calif., who successfully stopped her school's annual field trip to the park, delivered 1.2 million signatures in support of the bill Monday on a flash drive to Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, chairman of the Assembly water, parks and wildlife committee that will hear the bill Tuesday.

SeaWorld officials say their killer whales lead quality lives, and that captive animals allow researchers to study and improve conservation for wild orcas. Reilly said killer whales are a part of almost every San Diego Sea World visitor's experience. The parks draw millions of visitors a year.

"Shamu is synonymous with SeaWorld, and SeaWorld is synonymous with Shamu," said David Koontz, SeaWorld San Diego's director of communications, referring to the park's iconic animal.

SeaWorld would not comment on how the park would change its operations if the bill passed. The publicly traded company expects record revenue in 2013 despite "Blackfish," although recent filings by the securities and exchange commission show attendance has dropped in the first quarter of 2014. SeaWorld attributes that loss to changes in how holidays fall in the calendar year.
Rose, who assisted with "Blackfish," said SeaWorld can change how it handles captive animals and still display its whales for decades.

"We are not talking about shutting down SeaWorld," Rose said. "We are talking about transforming them."




"They are too large, too intelligent, too socially complex and too far-ranging to be adequately cared for in captivity," said Naomi Rose. I would add that they are also too dangerous. At least three cases of their attacking or killing their trainers have occurred. Maybe they are intelligent enough to understand and resent their captivity. The large sea pens would be much better for them. The famous movie “Free Willy” showed their plight as captives. Release into the open ocean without human contact might not be for the best, however.

Keiko the whale who played Willy in the movie was himself trained to live in the wild and then released. The following, from Wikipedia on that subject, is sad. That killer whale apparently loved his human captors. I wonder how many of those that are now in shows would react the same way to being released. I would like to see a worldwide ban on capturing them and using them in shows. Whales aren't as healthy in captivity as in the wild, and some of the cases in which one of them attacked his trainer might be due to mental changes brought on by their situation. Orcas in the wild aren't known for attacking humans.

“Ocean Futures left the Keiko project in late 2001. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation and The Humane Society of the United States re-established management of the project at that time until Keiko's death in 2003. Keiko was finally released in the open in July 2002. However, about six weeks later he showed up in a Norwegian fjord, apparently seeking contact with human beings and allowing children to ride on his back.[10] He continued to follow a boat responsible for his care and failed to reintegrate into the wild.”




Woman's Own Immune System Helps Fight Cancer – ABC
April 8, 2014
By LIZ NEPORENT


At first, Candace Brown didn’t think too much of the large, lumpy bruise that spontaneously appeared on her leg about a year ago. But when it didn’t heal after a couple of weeks, she decided to get it checked out. Even though her primary care physician told her not to worry, she pushed for a biopsy. The “bruise” was diagnosed as a skin melanoma.

Doctors told 44-year-old teacher and mother of two that the cancer had already spread to her lungs and lower intestine, a prognosis she said left her feeling terrified and bewildered. When she was told her condition had a five year survival rate, she stopped listening.

“I refused to hear it,” Brown recalled. “I decided I would do my own research and see what was out there for me that could help.”

Almost immediately Brown caught a lucky break. A quick review of clinicaltrials.gov, a website run by the United States National Library of Medicine, found a study for a new approach to treating melanoma at the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. Brown lives in Maryland, so the trial was being held right in her own backyard.

Instead of chemotherapy, the trial relied on something called immune-checkpoint blockade, a form of immunotherapy. Patients receive medicine that trains their own immune system to rally against cancer with the aid of specialized proteins known as monoclonal antibodies.

Dr. Michael Atkins, the medical oncologist who led the trial and who is also the deputy director of the Lombardi Center, explained that patients are often unable to battle cancer because tumors successfully block the body’s immunoresponse to them. When this happens, tumors can continue spreading and growing without any resistance from the body’s healthy cells. Immune-checkpoint blockade aims to rouse the immune system so it has the strength to do an end run around cancer’s blocking techniques and fight against the disease.

“The antibodies take the brakes off the immune system’s response to a tumor,” Atkins explained. “They unblock the reaction that stops the immune system’s natural attack on invading cancer cell so the body can fight the cancer.”




Ms. Brown was accepted into the trial which used a combination of two immune-stimulating drugs, drugs PD1 inhibitor and ipilumumab, to ramp up the body’s natural defense mechanisms. Every few weeks for three months, she endured a five hour session hooked up to an intravenous drip which she said was similar to chemotherapy but with fewer side effects. In the first part of the trial two drugs were delivered into her bloodstream, then in later sessions just the ipilumumab.

Brown’s initial scan at the end of the trial revealed that most of the tumors had shrunk in size. Many of them were gone. The follow up scan done several weeks after the trial was completed showed no discernable signs of cancer. When Brown saw the scans, they brought tears of relief and joy.

“After the first scan I was dubiously optimistic, but after the second scan, I was overwhelmed. It felt like I was being given a second chance,” she said.
Atkins cautioned that, although Brown seems to be one of the lucky ones, it’s too soon to tell whether her cancer is gone forever. It’s also too early to say whether immunotherapy will be the miracle breakthrough in cancer treatment that everyone hopes for. About half the patients in the trial saw no improvement.




Melanoma appeared as a “large, lumpy bruise” which her doctor failed to recognize for what it was. She pushed for a biopsy, which gave her the correct diagnosis, but unfortunately it had already metastasized and she was told she had about five years to live. She went on the web to do her own research and look for treatments.

She found “clinicaltrials.gov” an offshoot of NIH, which told of a clinical trial that was being held in her area on the new treatment called immune-checkpoint blockade, a form of immunotherapy. It works by introducing “specialized proteins known as monoclonal antibodies” into the body, which stimulate the body's own immune response to fight the cancer. PD1 inhibitor and ipilumumab, were the drugs used. After the end of the trial, the cancers were markedly reduced and then finally they didn't show up at all. The treatment went on for three months, and had fewer side effects than most chemotherapy. About half the patients in her trial group showed no reduction in their tumors, however, and Dr. Atkins warns that her cancer could possibly come back. Still, that it looks like a miracle treatment. Melanoma is often very hard to treat.




Lawsuit: Male Stripper Did Show at NY Nursing Home – ABC
WEST BABYLON, N.Y. April 8, 2014 (AP)

A lawsuit claims an 85-year-old woman was subjected to an unwanted performance by a male stripper when she was living at a New York nursing home.
The lawsuit was filed last month by the relatives of the former patient at the East Neck Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Babylon, on Long Island.

It claims that the woman's son found a photograph in January 2013 of a male stripper gyrating in front of the woman. It is not known who shot the photo or when it was taken. Other patients are also in the photo.

The lawsuit says a nurse said the stripper performance was part of an entertainment event.

An administrator at the nursing home has not returned a telephone message and emails seeking comment.




Nursing homes do often give entertainments for their residents, but not usually of this kind. More commonly heard complaints are gross neglect or even physical mistreatment by workers. It's no surprise that her son is suing. I hope he wins. Nursing homes cost a fortune, and they should be above reproach, especially something as bizarre and offensive as this.




Moroccan National Wanted to Use Planes to Bomb Federal Courthouse, FBI Says – ABC
April 8, 2014
By AARON KATERSKY

A Moroccan national arrested in Connecticut on immigration violations wanted to “use airplanes, possibly toy planes” to bomb a federal courthouse and an unnamed university, the FBI said today.

Various hand tools and a small black carrying case were found in the Bridgeport residence that El Mehdi Semlali Fathi shared with someone he met while in prison in Virginia, authorities said. According to court records, the FBI had secretly recorded him talking about pliers, a cutter and wires in his bedroom that he claimed were the materials for a bomb.

Fathi has been in the United States seven years, now on an expired student visa, and is an asylum seeker, the FBI said. In five separate recordings, the FBI said Fathi “repeatedly confirmed his desire to bomb an education university outside the State of Connecticut and a federal building in Connecticut.” The specific locations were not identified.

“Fathi stated in the recording that he would use airplanes, possibly toy planes to execute the bombing,” Special Agent Anabela Sharp said. “Specifically, Fathi stated that he was going to use a plane, a remote-controlled hobby-type airplane, to deliver the bomb.”

Fathi allegedly boasted that he made a chemical bomb while in high school in Morocco and he was recorded talking about making pipe bombs and chemical explosives with materials “available in Southern California on the border.”

For the moment Fathi faces no terrorism charges, only immigration violations, authorities said. His student visa expired when he flunked out of Virginia International University in Fairfax and the FBI said he made false statements about his asylum application.

He is accused of researching issues in Morocco that he used to bolster his asylum case “so that everything he wrote in his refugee application coincided with the actual events,” Sharp’s affidavit said.




El Mehdi Semlali Fathi is under arrest for living in the US seven years under an expired student visa after he flunked out of Virginia International University in Fairfax, VA. He claims to have applied for asylum here, but the FBI said he has “made false statements” about it. Agents taped conversations with him in which he claims to have the materials to make a bomb. He was planning to use a remote controlled miniature airplane to deliver the bombs to both a university and a federal building. He has not been arrested for building a bomb, so they must have found no such materials at his home.

He was living with a friend whom he met in prison. The article doesn't say if he is mentally deranged or not, but from this description it sounds as though he may be. He is apparently not a high profile terrorist -- just a wannabe. Still, it's one more case of a person of Islamic heritage wishing to cause the US harm. I'm glad to see that, whether because of their massive telephone database or some other information source, the FBI was able to detect his efforts and apprehend him.




Judge Retires, Is Reprimanded After Sexist Comment – ABC
CONCORD, N.H. April 8, 2014 (AP)
By RIK STEVENS Associated Press

A veteran New Hampshire judge has retired and been reprimanded after he made comments believed to disparage female lawyers.

The New Hampshire Judicial Conduct Committee formally reprimanded John Lewis in a decision released last week. The Strafford County judge had retired in September following a complaint that he said the legal profession is being diminished because more women are becoming lawyers.

The complaint against Lewis also said he suggested aggressive prosecution of child sexual assault cases may do more harm than good to families and the public. Some of the lawyers interviewed told the committee during the probe that crime victims routinely leave court believing that Lewis didn't care about them.

The 67-year-old Lewis said his comments, made at July meetings with the county attorney's office and public defender's office, were misunderstood and that he was only speculating about why the reputation of the legal system is suffering. He told the committee he was trying to make the point that sexism and gender discrimination still exist and must be overcome. He also said he was tired at the end of a long week.

Among the comments he made:
—In Russia, people don't respect doctors because medicine is seen as dominated by women and he sees the same thing happening with the legal profession in the United States;
—People respect leaders in the male-dominated business world;
—More women lawyers hurts education because fewer women are becoming teachers.
The judicial committee ruled that his comments violated the code of conduct by giving at least the appearance that Lewis may be biased against women. Lewis accepted the ruling but denied any other potential violations.

Lewis had been an associate justice since 2001. He was placed on administrative leave shortly after the complaint was made and retired while he was on leave. He did not preside over any hearings after the complaint was made.

As a result of the reprimand, he will not take senior status on the court and can't serve in any judicial capacity.




John Lewis a Strafford County New Hampshire judge has been reprimanded formally by the New Hampshire Judicial Conduct Committee. He reportedly said last September that the legal profession is becoming “diminished” by increasing numbers of women lawyers. The article goes on to say that he had “suggested aggressive prosecution of child sexual assault cases may do more harm than good to families and the public. Some of the lawyers interviewed told the committee during the probe that crime victims routinely leave court believing that Lewis didn't care about them.”

Lewis claimed that his comments were “misunderstood and that he was only speculating about why the reputation of the legal system is suffering.” He said he was trying to make the point that “gender discrimination” and “sexism” “still exist and must be overcome.” Apparently it is the male sexual offenders who have been discriminated against in his view. His further comments about the equally terrible changes in the balance between men and women include that the changes in the legal system include a lack of respect for attorneys much as the situation that exists in Russia where many doctors are women, and are therefore not respected. He said that business leaders were mainly men in the US and therefore were respected, and that the increasing numbers of women going into law hurts education, where the “female” talents are very much needed. Lewis accepted the ruling that he was biased against women, but denied all other charges.

As a result of the ruling he is no longer allowed senior status on the court and can no longer serve in any judicial function. Thank goodness! I wonder if he is a Republican – a Tea Partier, maybe. Embarrassingly, he is a “left-leaning” Democrat according to an article on this website. He doesn't sound like a Democrat to me! See the following article on his career: http://granitegrok.com/blog/2012/09/is-nh-superior-court-justice-john-lewis-wife-named-cindy. Well, if he is a Democrat, I'm glad his feet of clay have been exposed, and he has been silenced.