Author: mopress

To:
T. Michael O’Connor
Victoria County Sheriff
101 North Glass St.
Victoria, TX 77901

Jan 20th 2006

Dear Sheriff O’Connor:

I am a female inmate in the Victoria County Jail, TX, though I was arrested on criminal trespass charges in Calhoun County. I was given a sentence of 150 days plus a $2,000 fine for protesting Dow Chemical Company’s refusal to appear in Indian courts in response to charges against its wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, and its treatment of the survivors of the toxic-leak disaster in Bhopal, India, where a catastrophic pesticide release has killed over 20,000 people to date.

I am a fairly new inmate and have only been here five weeks, since December 10, 2005, yet I have a number of grievances. Many of these come from other inmates and you may ask why they don’t report them themselves. Well, it’s pretty simple: there is absolutely no effective avenue to raise issues and if there is, the inmates have certainly not been made aware of it. There is a standard form that inmates can use to make an attempt at communication, but the response can take anywhere between a week to never.

There is no information available, no pamphlet explaining the procedures or the rights of the inmates or even something as simple as “when is commissary.”

I asked to see the law library since the inmates rarely see legal counsel, but was told that there is not one available. If inmates ask for legal counsel they are told, “You’ll see one when your trial comes up,” and usually that’s ten minutes before one goes to trial.

The women in this jail are predominantly African American or Hispanic and very poor. Most of their offenses are minor, for things like traffic tickets or soliciting or violating probation—nearly all non-violent, yet they are forced to remain in the cell without counsel for long periods of time. I don’t think I am bringing up any issue that you are not aware of. I spoke with someone within the jail system (I will not name him), and he is aware of the length of time inmates have to wait for legal counsel and a trial. He has talked to a judge about the problem and the judge apparently said something along the lines of, “Yes, we got a problem.”

So you can understand my concern to at least have access to a law library. Though jail personnel told me that the only time access to a law library isn’t provided is when legal counsel is available, I have still not had access to either.

When I requested, nonetheless, access to the law library on my title form, a week later I got the answer, “We do not have a WRIT ROOM.” Well, that certainly explains everything. No WRIT ROOM. No Law Library.

Next, I asked for the jail’s standards. These are the minimum standards that jails have to maintain, and inmates have the legal right to request and receive a copy of the standards. When I made my request I got a response a good week and a half later asking, “what’s your concern?”

My concern is that inmates have no voice, no access to legal counsel, no law library, no WRIT Room, no jail standards. That is my concern, but you can bet I didn’t write that on the next form I dropped. I could see I’d be ‘dropping forms’ until this jail went to hell in a breadbasket. So this is partly why I am writing you. I figure that you are next in the chain of command, and I am listing not only permission to see the jail standards for ALL inmates—but other grievances and concerns that have come up in the month I have been here.

Healthcare

I don’t know if you are aware of the series of investigative stories by Mike Ward and Bill Bishop of the Austin American Statesman about the dismal state of health care in the Texas state prison system. What the reporters were able to discover was a systematic neglect and mistreatment of ill prisoners, the use of healthcare as a means of punishment, and stupidly dangerous miss-administration of medicine that can lead to viral and bacterial resistance and potential epidemics—epidemics that will hardly remain within prison walls.

I know that the state prison system is separate from the county jails, but if you haven’t read this report, then you should, because similar neglect is happening in your jailhouse. I have only been here a few weeks, and have collected these three instances directly from the inmates about their experiences with the Victoria County Jail. The cases cover approximately 10 years. So you can see this is a long-term problem and seems to be continuing a legacy that the Texas Prison system has built for itself. It seems to be downright overkill to repeat that, yes, all these girls are very young and poor, and either Hispanic or African-American.

1. Mary DeLeon
Ms. DeLeon was jailed for 18 months in the county jail on drug charges. During this time, she was suffering due to gallstones. The response from the healthcare of the jail was to dispense Milk of Magnesia and tell her to lie down on her cot. Eventually, Ms. Deleon’s condition got so bad that she was shaking and had chills and fainting spells. Again, the response was Milk of Magnesium. Finally, towards the end of her 18-month sentence, Ms DeLeon collapsed in pain and an inmate called the guards. Mary was rushed to Citizens Hospital, where it was found that her gallbladder had ruptured. She was told that they almost lost her. Ms. DeLeon did not file a lawsuit for criminal neglect because she was afraid that she would be punished and lose her position as trustee in the jail.

2. Lacy Leyva
Ms. Leyva had been arrested and jailed for one month. During that time Ms. Leyva was suffering severe pain in her kidneys, but she was only given ibuprofen every 8 hours for the pain. Pain and chills were a steady diet for Ms. Leyva, but she was only given advice to lie down and take ibuprofen. Finally, after one month, Ms. Leyva was discharged and she went to the hospital and was immediately admitted for kidney failure. After Ms. Leyva was discharged from the hospital, she got a call from the jail on her cell phone saying, “Go to the hospital. We believe your kidneys are failing.”

3. Shandra Williams
Ms. Williams was picked up on a warrant even though her file stated that Ms. Williams should not be picked up because she was 6-7 months pregnant and she had a very rare uterine condition. However, Ms. Williams was thrown in jail while pregnant, and her condition worsened. She began bleeding, and the nurse was reluctant to believe her and said, “Show me your bloody pad.” So Ms. Williams was subjected to the humiliation of proving that she was really in pain and bleeding.

Eventually, Ms. Williams was put in isolation where she was removed from contact with people, which Ms. Williams hated. This was her first child and she was very afraid since no medical staff was around. Eventually, to keep her from complaining, Ms. Williams was given Benadryl.

When Ms. Williams was finally returned to the cell, her water broke. She was told that she was hallucinating, that her water hadn’t broken. Then the nurse told her that she shouldn’t worry, she wouldn’t have a baby until a month later. Then they proceeded to put Ms. Williams back into isolation, even though she was frantic not to go where there was no contact with people. Ms. Williams was alarmed about the baby coming early, especially since the nurse had expressed great disdain for even performing a sonogram to determine the baby’s condition.

When Ms. Williams became agitated about going into isolation, the sergeant told her that she was going into isolation “the easy way or the hard way,” and the hard way was being shocked with a taser gun. A female guard was

so alarmed that she grabbed Ms. Williams’ stuff and coaxed her to the isolation room.

Sure enough, Ms. Williams proceeded to go into labor without anyone present and the baby was coming out breach! Worse still, the baby was arriving while Ms. Williams was on the toilet; so to get help Ms. Williams had to crawl approximately 60 feet to reach a button on the wall. After three attempts to call and saying that she was in labor, a female guard arrived. The baby was hanging with its feet first down around Ms. Williams’ knees.

There was pandemonium, followed by a rushed ride in the ambulance to the hospital. The baby was dead and Ms. Williams was handed the dead child in a blanket. She was not told that the baby was dead, and she only realized the fact when she saw on her own that the child was not moving or breathing. No attempt was made to call her husband. When, much later, he got word, he rushed to see his new baby. He was handed the dead baby in a blanket. Ms. Williams was not even allowed to attend the baby’s funeral. Later, Ms. Williams said that you, Sheriff O’Connor, called her into your office and told her that the unfortunate incident was not your fault, but the fault of the jail administration under the previous sheriff, Michael Ratcliff.

Given the long-term consequences and terrible suffering imposed on these women, it is my hope that you will take this situation seriously and give it the consideration it deserves.

Blocked window

Another complaint is that the only window within our cellblock is either covered with a Venetian blind or plastered with paper. We never know the time but are told that we are on ‘short time’ and don’t have need of another. You would think that locking a person in a cinder block cell for months on end for a trespassing misdemeanor is sufficient punishment, but apparently not! I feel that the stress levels of the inmates would be reduced with more visibility through the window, and stress is a real problem here.

Reading Material
This might be a good time to point out the piece of paper plastered to our window. It is a memo to all inmates that, henceforth, no books bought from bookstores will be accepted. This is a jail where the library consists of a single metal cart with about 30 dog-eared romance novels.

In this county jail, few diversions are allowed—I might even say none—and perhaps that is one reason why these women inmates make roses out of toilet paper and create their own stationery out of toothpaste and map colors. I am a little reluctant to tell you this in the fear that the guards will make a run on the roses and confiscate them as “contraband.” We have not been allowed to go outdoors or get any exercise.

What this jail administration hopes to accomplish by refusing reading material or any activity to the inmates is beyond me. It seems counter-productive to any form of rehabilitation and results in anger, behavior problems and depression.

Access to High School equivalency program Since most of the inmates are very poor, young and from minority groups, I was astonished to discover that while GED (high school equivalency program) is offered, it is also used as punishment. A 32-year-old woman in my cell who is struggling to better herself and raise her nine-year-old child, had entered the GED program, but was kicked out because she passed a note in class. This is merely one instance I’ve heard. But I know for a fact that many inmates do not have their GED. I wonder about the jail’s reluctance to encourage the inmates to pursue their GED. It is a well-known fact that a person with a GED receives higher paying jobs than a person who doesn’t, they have more job satisfaction, and they are less likely to get in trouble with the law in the future. Kicking a woman out of a GED class for passing a note sounds totally counter-productive!

Humiliating Treatment
I realize that some of these grievances may not seem like much to you and you may be thinking that the treatment meted out in Texas prisons is nothing like the kind of abuse in Abu Ghraib in Iraq. That’s true, for what it’s worth, but I want to inform you that I’ve read reliable reports and have experienced horrendous treatment that makes me wonder if Texas county jails are dysfunctional.. While I was in the Harris County jail in Houston for five days, I joined fellow inmates stacked into cold holding tanks for hours and hours so that we were forced to sleep on cement floors strewn with trash and waste from backed-up toilets, while guards showed up at periodic intervals yelling “Pigs!” We were eventually shuffled into rooms where we were forced to strip our clothes and ordered to parade in our panties, then spread-eagled on the wall. These were women, some picked up merely on traffic violations, who hadn’t even been produced in front of a judge or seen a lawyer yet! Then 70 of us were packed into a 10- x 20-foot holding cell for over an hour. A guard occasionally opened the door and calls us “stupid bitches!” because the noise was loud.

On December 10th, I was transferred to Victoria County jail, where I was kept in a freezing holding tank for over six hours, then put into the cell where I am currently housed, with only one thin mat to sleep on a concrete floor. I was not given a blanket or sheet or any type of hygiene kit because I was told there were none available. I never received a blanket from the jail. After 3 days, an inmate who left the cell gave me her blanket. Then too, after about three days, I received a hygiene kit so I could finally brush my teeth and comb my hair. All prior requests for a towel or toothbrush were met with “Drop a form.”

In my experiences I consider myself relatively lucky, and because of my activism I have supporters outside who have constantly supported me by calling the jail and sending letters.

Most inmates are not so fortunate.

This letter is partly for them. It is said that a civilization is judged by how it treats its weakest members. It is my hope that you will recognize the seriousness of your job and of the issues raised in this letter and respond accordingly.

Sincerely,

Diane Wilson

CC:
Calhoun County Sheriff
B.B. Browning
211 South Ann St.
Port Lavaca, TX 77979

Tim Smith
Jail Administrator
211 South Ann St.
Port Lavaca, TX 77979

Honorable Judge Michael Pfeifer
Calhoun County Judge
211 South Ann St.
Port Lavaca, TX 77979

Honorable Judge Robert C. Cheshire
377th Judicial District Judge
Victoria County Courthouse
115 North Bridge
Victoria, TX 77901

Honorable Judge Donald R. Pozzi Victoria County Courthouse
115 North Bridge
Victoria, TX 77901

Honorable Judge Joseph P. Kelly
24th Judicial District Judge
Victoria County Courthouse
115 North Bridge
Victoria, TX 77901

Honorable Judge Juergen Koetter
267th Judicial District Judge
Victoria County Courthouse
115 North Bridge
Victoria, TX 77901

Honorable Judge Kemper Stephen Williams
135th Judicial District Judge
Victoria County Courthouse 115 North Bridge
Victoria, TX 77901

Mr. Jerry Julian
Executive Director
Texas Commission on Jail Standards
P.O. Box 12985
Austin, TX 78711-2985

Ms. Terri Dollar
Deputy Director
Texas Commission on Jail Standards
P.O. Box 12985
Austin, TX 78711-2985

Mr. Shannon Herklotz
Inmate Grievances
Texas Commission on Jail Standards
P.O. Box 12985
Austin, TX 78711-2985

Honorable Governor Rick Perry
State of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-242

8

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Office of the Attorney General
P.O. Box 12548
Austin, TX 78711-2548

Greg Gladden
Vice President Houston Chapter
American Civil Liberties Union
3017 Houston Ave
Houston, TX 77009-6734

Jodie Evans
Code Pink
2010 Linden Ave
Venice, CA 90291-3912

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

http://www.chelseagreen.com/

A Letter from Prison:
Diane Wilson Reports From Texas County Jail

Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman, is almost two months into a 150-day sentence in a Texas jail for a misdemeanor trespassing charge. The conditions in the Victoria County jail are deplorable, according to Wilson, a dedicated activist exposing injustice wherever she goes. Now Wilson is breaking through the walls of fear that prevent so many inmates from speaking forthrightly to the administrators of the penal system. She has written a public letter, addressed to Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor, describing abusive conditions within the jail, violations of basic inmates rights, horrifying reports of the withholding of medical treatment from ill women who were jailed on non-violent charges, and the lack of a functioning avenue for inmates to address these problems within the system.

Wilson’s jailing stems from a political action at a Dow Chemical facility in her hometown of Seadrift, TX, in 2002, when she climbed a tower at the plant and hung a banner reading “Justice For Bhopal,” in reference to the thousands of Indians killed following a toxic release of methyl isocyanate in 1984 by Dow subsidiary Union Carbide.

Wilson is a longtime advocate for the victims of the Bhopal disaster, who continue to seek justice for the deaths of their loved ones. Wilson has been trying to meet with Warren Anderson, the ex-CEO of Union Carbide, to demand he return to India to face outstanding criminal charges for culpable homicide in the Bhopal toxic release. She had avoided serving time for her misdemeanor, demanding that Anderson face up to his more serious charges before turning herself in. Though India has filed with the U.S. government for Anderson’s extradition, he remains at large.

On December 5th, 2005, Wilson returned to Texas to infiltrate a fundraiser in Houston for recently-indicted U.S. Rep. Tom Delay attended by Vice President Dick Cheney. While protestors outside waved placards opposing the Iraq War, Wilson purchased a ticket, entered, and unfurled a banner reading “Corporate Greed Kills—From Bhopal to Baghdad” as Vice President Cheney was speaking. Wilson was removed from the event, arrested, and subsequently transferred to Victoria County jail to serve out her sentence stemming from her earlier protest at the Dow Chemical facility.

Wilson, mother of five, former shrimp boat captain, and a co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace, has been an activist since 1989, staging actions and hunger strikes from Washington to Austin. Her environmental work on behalf of the people and bays of the Texas Gulf Coast has won her many awards including: Mother Jones Hellraiser of the Month, the National Fisherman Highliner Award, and the Bioneers Award.

Last fall, Wilson published her first book, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas (Chelsea Green Publishing). In it she details her discovery that local chemical companies have made her county one of the most polluted in the country, and her transformation from mother and wife to environmental activist. She soon finds herself in a fight against Formosa Plastics, a multi-billion-dollar corporation that has been covering up toxic spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast.

For updates on Wilson, please visit www.chelseagreen.com/2005/items/unreasonablewoman/fromjail.

###

Note: the following email from Irma Muniz passes along a claim by her
husband Ramsey that new evidence has been discovered about the
circumstances surrounding his 1994 arrest for marijuana trafficking.–gm
—————

Dear Friends:
What would any person with a past conviction do upon being
SUDDENLY PURSUED FOR NO REASON after having gotten
out of a car he had just been asked to move? What would he
choose to do with the car key? Ramsey had only seconds
to think as he quickly rushed to a pay phone to try
and reach an attorney. In the rush he thought,
"If I give them the key, it is giving consent to search
a car that doesn’t even belong to me. If I keep the key,
it will implicate me in something." He never made it.
If this was done to Ramsey in 1994, why shouldn’t one
believe that the same happened in his first conviction?

The enclosed is an excerpt of a letter from Ramsey Muniz in
response to a letter received regarding his case against
the United States government. Please forward this letter
to students in Chicano studies programs, Mexicano law students,
law student associations, civil rights organizations,
and listservs. All interested parties may contact the
National Ramsey Defense Alliance for additional information.

–Irma Muniz
*****************

August 14, 2004

Dear Armando:
Shakespeare said, "as the waves make towards the
pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end."
(Sonnet LX). The loss of our friend, Raul, shows us a
very important fact about life, a fact we must remember.
"Life goes on forever toward its end, never slowing down
or going back. Our lives do indeed ‘hasten to their
end.’" (The Movement of Time – Shawn Waddell).

During my almost eleven years in one of American’s
arduous prisons, I have shared the cultural endeavor
that we, Los Mexicanos, have organized throughout the
entire southwest within the state and federal prison
systems of America. Raul, outside, was a clear example
of what Los Mexicanos can do in this country. Here, and
from here, my beliefs and principles against the
oppression and discrimination toward nuestra gente have
been strongly expressed – more strongly than ever. For
this reason, I will never give up on claiming that my
trial was not conducted fairly. Of course, you are
correct by stating that circumstantial evidence tying
me with that vehicle was the basis for my conviction.
And certainly, all the courts are expected to give
deference to jury findings, regardless of my explanation
to the contrary. But your very welcome opinion is based
on a relitigation "doctrine," which is not the basis for
reopening my case. Let me explain.

Evidence only discovered a few months ago shows a
link, prior to my "alleged participation," between the
government and a confidential informant (the owner of
the load found in the vehicle in question), who was
recompensed for setting me up in this case. Of course,
neither Dick (my trial counsel) nor I knew of this
evidence. In Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419 (1995), the
Supreme Court reviewed the standard for granting
collateral relief where the materiality of suppressed
evidence was considered. In sum, the court held that
a "reasonable probability" of a different result is
shown when the government’s evidentiary suppression
undermines confidence in the outcome of the trial.
115 S. Ct. at 1566. As you know, Kyles’ holding has
been the subject of explanation and exploration in
subsequent courts of appeal decisions.

For example, in United States v. Smith, 77 F.3d
511 (D.C. Cir. 1996), the court reversed drug related
convictions nothing that, post Kyles, materiality
[of suppressed] information is not gauged by a
sufficiency-of-the-evidence test, 77 F.3d at 512,
citing Kyles. In other words, the
evidence in my case showing that my conviction "hinged"
on a key hidden in my sock, which tied me to the loaded
vehicle, would be irrelevant under Kyles. In Smith,
the reversing panel described the holding in Kyles,
noting "a reviewing court must focus on the fairness
of the trial the defendant actually received rather
than on whether a different result would have occurred
had the undisclosed evidence been revealed." Accordingly,
the question here is whether in the absence of this
evidence, did I receive a fair trial, within the meaning
of Kyles.

As to whether Blakely applies to my case or not, any
response to that would be premature. First the Court must
effectively overrule McMillan, 447 U.S. 79, something it
has twice declined to do, and hold that Blakeley applies
to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Second, any
favorable ruling in this matter must be retroactively
applied before I put my horses to run. Although it is
possible to argue that under Tyler v. Cain, 533 U.S.
656 (2001), in which the Court held that a new rule of
criminal procedure may be retroactive through a series
of that Court’s cases (the combination of Schriro v. Summerlin,
U.S. June 24, (No. 03-526, 2004 WL 1402732 at *5-7), and
Winship,) the Schriro’s Court’s conclusion that Ring v. Arizona
should not be applied retroactively is a problem. The only
difference between Ring and Blakely is the name of the state
(Arizona-Washington), and apparently, more important
(considering Teague’s prong against retroactivity), the
involvement of a lower standard of proof which undermines
the accuracy of the proceeding’s outcome.

Because the Arizona law (in Ring) already required
aggravating factors to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,
it appears that arguably, in Schriro, the majority’s analysis
against retroactivity was limited to the Ring rule. But I don’t
need to torture my brain with this question, after all, "if a
precedent of the Court has direct application in a case, yet
appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of
decisions," it is the Supreme Court who has "the prerogative
of overruling its own decisions." Rodriguez, 490 U.S. at 484
(1989); State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U.S. 3, 20 (1997) (same).
Thus, I must wait. If I see a good chance, surely, without
doubt, I will be part of that fight. For now, however, the
Kyles argument is my main target.

Thank you for taking the time to inquire about my case.
You will be constantly in our prayers for strength of
your Mexicayotl (consciousness).

Sincerely,

Ramiro R. Muniz
**********************

http://www.freeramsey.com

As it turns out, we clipped last week’s story from the Dallas Morning
News for good reason. This week begins with a news report posted
at GOPUSA that Republicans in the US House of Representatives will be
pursuing the issue of border incursions along the Rio Grande river
involving "military style" uniforms and equipment.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), along with
Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), and Steve Pearce
(R-N.M.) announced on Friday that they have asked Mexican Ambassador to
the U.S. Carlos de Icaza to explain what’s going on.

They’ve also written to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, asking them to
investigate and report back to Congress….

McCaul expressed concern about individuals in Mexican military
uniforms helping drug smugglers cross the border. He pointed to a
recent press report saying that law enforcement officers on the U.S.
side observed Mexican military humvees equipped with .50 caliber
weapons escorting drug traffickers back into Mexico to provide them
safe haven.

Meanwhile, over at the Texas Farm Bureau website,
Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor claims that 90 percent of
the migrant traffic through his jurisdiction are OTMs (other than
Mexicans):

"I would say 10 percent at most are people from Mexico. The
rest are a makeup of people from Central and South America," says
Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor, who polices the "fatal
funnel," a main thoroughfare for illegals traveling Highways 59 and 77,
en route to Houston. "There have even been some from the Middle East,
Russia, and China. The U.S. border with Mexico is not a free border,
but south of that, all borders are open borders. People come into
various ports in Central and South America, and they find their way
here. Their main means of transportation today is rail. They get to the
Texas border and then find their way via a trafficking issue. They pay
thousands and thousands of dollars to get to the Houston area."

O’Connor has a political voice worth respecting, since it is not often
that county sheriffs are also former vice chairs of the Texas A&M
University System Board of Regents. But we have good reason to doubt his thumbnail statistics (as quoted) since official figures
reported from the Department of Homeland Security indicate that 92
percent of foreign nationals apprehended in 2004 were "natives of
Mexico." Putting ourselves into a posture for reading tea leaves, we’d
stick by our previous predictions that
this border issue is being set up by Republican interests for
exploitation, and we’d add one more thing: keep an eye on O’Connor’s
electoral career.

The two part series at the Texas Farm Bureau web site begins with a
sentence about 9/11 and is a tellling marker of the way that the border
issue is being increasingly framed within a war on terrorism context
that criminalizes migrants and militarizes the reflexes of state policy.

Meanwhile, at the American Chronicle website, columnist Barbara
Anderson today files her third border opinion of the year, this time calling
out for "a well regulated militia". The vaunted language of the
Fourth Amendment right to carry guns is placed in context of Minutemen
who she calls "the closest thing we have to a militia". Along
with the Republican chime, Anderson also hits up last week’s report of
"military style" uniforms and guns at the Rio Grande. She pleads
for "sovereignty" in the form of a "sturdy fence":

Is this the time for a “well regulated Militia”? It seems the
disciplined Minutemen may be an answer for the pressing need of eyes
and ears, and some defensive arms, along our wide open southern border
until the government catches up with the sentiments of outrage by its
citizens.

And while we’re on the subject of the war on terrorism, here’s a telling exchange at Monday’s White House Press briefing:

Q According to data currently available at the Department of Homeland
Security Funded Terrorism Knowledge Base, the incidents of terrorism
increased markedly in 2005: worldwide attacks were up 51 percent from
the year before, and the number of people killed in those attacks is up
36 percent; since the year 2000, attacks are up 250 percent, and deaths
are up 550 percent. How do you reconcile those numbers with your claim
that you’re winning the war on terrorism and putting terrorists out of
business?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, just look at the facts. If you look at the facts,
many of al Qaeda’s known leadership have been put out of business.
They’ve been brought to justice. They’ve either been captured or
killed. No longer is America waiting and responding. We’re on the
offense; we’re taking the fight to the enemy. We are engaged in a war
on terrorism. The enemies recognize how high the stakes are. And one
thing the President will talk about, continue to talk about tomorrow
night and in the coming weeks, is that we continue to face a serious
threat.

This is a deadly and determined enemy. But the difference is now that
we’ve got them on the run, we’ve got them playing defense, we’re taking
the fight to them. And all of us in the international community must
continue to work together. We’ve been fortunate that we haven’t been
hit again since the attacks of September 11th. And that’s in no small
part because of the great work of our men and women in uniform abroad,
and because of the great work of our intelligence community, and the
great work of our homeland security officials here at home who have
worked together using vital tools, like the Patriot Act and other
tools, to help disrupt plots and disrupt attacks.

And there’s great progress being made. But the President made it clear
after September 11th that this was going to be a long war, but he’s
going to continue acting and leading and doing everything in his power
to win that war so long as he is in office. And we also have to work to
continue to advance freedom. And 2006 was a year of progress when it
came to advancing freedom around the world. The Middle East is a
dangerous, troubled region, and that’s why it’s important we continue
to support the advance of democracy throughout that region.