Egypt Police Colonel Gets Five Years Jail at Re-Trial over Deaths of 37 Prisoners

CAIRO: An Egyptian police colonel was sentenced to a reduced five years in jail on Thursday in a re-trial over the deaths of 37 Islamist prisoners being transported to jail in an overcrowded van, lawyers and judicial sources said.

It was one of the most disputed incidents during a fierce security crackdown on Islamists after the military deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Thursday's verdict came a day before the second anniversary of the deaths of hundreds of pro-Mursi protesters when security forces stormed into two of their camps to disperse them.

A month after Mursi's ouster, the interior ministry announced that 37 men it described as Islamists died during what described as an attempted breakout from prison.

The prosecutor's office later said its investigations showed the 37 died while being transported to jail in an overcrowded police van into which tear gas was fired.

One police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Amr Farouk, was sentenced in March 2014 to 10 years in jail with labour on charges of involuntary manslaughter and extreme negligence, while three other policemen were given suspended sentences.

An appeals court quashed the sentences in June 2014. The prosecution appealed, leading to a retrial and Thursday's verdict, in which Farouk was given five years in prison and the other three officers again received suspended terms.

The case was a rare instance of security force members being prosecuted for the deaths of anti-government demonstrators since Mursi's overthrow, and some of the victims' families said the latest trial outcome was farcical.

"This verdict ... is merely a way to shut us up. It's unfair that 37 people die and one person gets a five-year sentence which he will probably appeal and walk free," said Mohamed Maghrabi, who's son Rafik died was among the 37 dead.

Critics have noted the harsh jail terms meted out to defendants viewed as holding Islamist views compared to the treatment of alleged crimes committed by security forces.

Magdi Salah, a lawyer representing some families of the 37 victims, said the policemen would be able to appeal again in front of Egypt's highest court and if their appeal is accepted there would be another, final trial.

Mursi, imprisoned since losing power, and hundreds of jailed supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death for alleged security offences.

EPA Aware of 'Blowout' Risk at mine that could release tainted wastewater

Managers at the Environmental Protection Agency were aware of the possible risk for a catastrophic “blowout” at an abandoned mine that could release “large volumes” of wastewater laced with toxic metals, according to internal documents released late Friday.

EPA released the documents following weeks of prodding from news organizations like The Associated Press. EPA and contract workers accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater on Aug. 5 as they inspected the idled Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

Among the documents is a June 2014 work order for a planned cleanup that noted that the old mine had not been accessible since 1995, when the entrance partially collapsed. The plan appears to have been produced by Environmental Restoration, a private contractor working for EPA.

"This condition has likely caused impounding of water behind the collapse," the report says. "ln addition, other collapses within the workings may have occurred creating additional water impounding conditions. Conditions may exist that could result in a blowout of the blockages and cause a release of large volumes of contaminated mine waters and sediment from inside the mine, which contain concentrated heavy metals."

A May 2015 action plane for the mine also notes the potential for a blowout. There are at least three current investigations into exactly how EPA triggered the environmental disaster, which tainted rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah with lead, arsenic and other contaminants. Water tests have shown the contamination levels have since fallen back to pre-spill levels. However, experts warn the heavy metals have likely sunk and mixed with bottom sediments that could someday stirred back up.

Officials in the affected states and elsewhere have slammed the agency’s initial response. Among the unanswered questions is why it took the EPA nearly a day to inform local officials in downstream communities that rely on the rivers for drinking water.

Much of the text in the documents released Friday was redacted by EPA officials, according to The Associated Press. Among the items blacked out is the line in a 2013 safety plan for the Gold King job that specifies whether workers were required to have phones that could work at the remote site, which is more than 11,000 feet up a mountain.

On its website, contractor Environmental Restoration posted a brief statement last week confirming its employees were present at the mine when the spill occurred. The company declined to provide more detail, saying that to do so would violate "contractual confidentiality obligations."

The EPA has not yet provided a copy of its contact with the firm. On the March 2015 cost estimate for the work released Friday, the agency blacked out all the dollar figures.

Fox News special to focus on Hurricane Katrina, 10 years later

Hurricanes have flooded New Orleans before, but nothing like what happened on Aug. 29, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, igniting a week of chaos, tragic deaths and shocking devastation.

“Fox News Reporting: Hurricane Katrina – The Storm of a Lifetime,” which airs Friday, Aug. 21 at 10 p.m.ET, features a timeline of the events of Hurricane Katrina, stories from correspondents, residents and officials about the poor preparation, evacuation, and what went right and what went wrong.

Katrina became the most devastating hurricane to strike the U.S. in decades, causing 1,200 direct deaths in New Orleans and east along the Gulf of Mexico Coast. The storm also flooded 80 percent of New Orleans with water depths up to 20 feet after levees were breached.

While there were many heroic first responders, including the members of the U.S. Coast Guard who rescued over 33,400 people in New Orleans, critics said Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco seemed unprepared for the disaster. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its director at the time, Michael Brown, took days to establish operations in New Orleans and many in the media were quick to blame him, as well as then-President George W. Bush, for what seemed like a slow response with relief efforts.

The Fox News special will also give an update on the costly rebuilding of the city’s breached levees, the slow recovery of New Orleans itself and “lessons learned” from the tragic natural disaster.

Arthel Neville, who lost her home 10 years ago, told Fox News she couldn’t even stand outside her home after Katrina hit because water had risen higher than her roof.

Female Soldiers Earning Elite Army Ranger Tab

2 Female Soldiers Earning Elite Army Ranger Tab, Spotlighting Debate Over Women in Combat

WASHINGTON – The first female soldiers to complete the Army's rigorous Ranger School pinned on their black-and-gold Ranger tab at a graduation ceremony Friday, capping their history-making week and putting a spotlight on the debate over women in combat.

At a ceremony on the shore of "Victory Pond" at Fort Benning, First Lt. Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut, graduated alongside 94 male soldiers.

The women drew national attention for finishing the nine-week program designed to test young soldiers' leadership abilities as the Pentagon approaches decisions on opening all combat positions to women who meet military standards.

Their success casts new attention on the obstacles that remain to women who aspire to join all-male combat units, including the 75th Ranger Regiment. Although Haver and Griest are now Ranger-qualified, no women are eligible for the elite regiment, although officials say it is among special operations units likely to be opened to women eventually.

Griest, 26, is a military police officer and has served one tour in Afghanistan. Haver, 25, is a pilot of Apache helicopters. Both are graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Of 19 women who began the Ranger course, Haver and Griest are the only two to finish so far; one is repeating a prior phase of training in hopes of graduating soon.

Addressing the graduates, Maj. Gen. Scott Miller said no one should doubt that all 96 graduates met Ranger standards, regardless of their sex, and he congratulated them on proving their mettle.

"You'll leave Victory Pond today with a small piece of cloth on your shoulder, but more importantly you carry the title of Ranger from here on out," he said. Miller is commander of all Army infantry and armor training and education, including the Ranger School.

The Army opened Ranger School to women for the first time this year as service leaders weighed opening more combat jobs to women. How far the military is willing to go toward ending restrictions on women will be evident soon.

Gen. Mark Milley, the Army's new chief of staff who flew to Benning to attend the graduation ceremony, told The Associated Press he is proud of all the Rangers who completed the course and appreciates the importance of the pioneering performance of Haver and Griest.

"It's a really big deal" for them and for the Army, he said.

Milley said he has not decided whether to recommend that all Army positions be opened to women.

Yet "I believe the Army can adapt," he said. "It has and will continue to adapt."

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday he will decide by December whether to accept any recommended exceptions to an order, signed by one of his predecessors, Leon Panetta, nearly three years ago that said all positions must be open to qualified women unless service leaders can justify keeping any closed. Any recommended exceptions are due to Carter in October.

Griest told reporters Thursday she hopes her success shows that women "can deal with the same stresses and training that men can."

Some current and former military members feel strongly that the Pentagon is going too far to accommodate women.

James Lechner, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former Ranger, said he questions whether the Ranger course adequately tested the female candidates under combat-simulated conditions and whether it makes sense to open all combat units to women.

"American women certainly serve with honor and distinction, provide some capabilities that males may not be able to provide," Lechner said in a telephone interview. "But when you talk about your fighting units, your combat arms units, especially the infantry ... you don't need to just have the minimum standards. You need to have as good as you possibly can get."

Janine Davidson, a defense policy analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Air Force cargo plane pilot, said the success of Griest and Haver and the prospect of the Army fully integrating women into its ground combat force is "policy catching up with reality," given the extensive combat experience women had in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also reflects generational change, she said, which she has heard in conversations with high school students.

"They actually are shocked when they learn that women aren't already doing this kind of stuff -- the idea that they themselves would not be allowed to do it," Davidson said this week.

Rangers call themselves "masters of special light infantry operations" such as seizing key terrain and infiltrating hostile territory by land, sea or air. They are an arm of Army Special Operations Command and U.S. Special Operations Command.

The Ranger School, which began during the Korean War as the Ranger Training Command, fails most who enter. For the period between 2010 and 2014, 58 percent of candidates washed out -- most of those within the first four days, a phase that includes tests of physical stamina, a land navigation course and a 12-mile foot march, according to the Ranger training website.

Ranger history dates to the Revolutionary War and includes prominent roles in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. In the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy, Rangers famously scaled the sheer cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc overlooking Omaha Beach.