Mex Drug Gangs Guards The Pontiff

Banners purportedly signed by one of Mexico’s drug cartels and hung in Guanajuato promise there will be no violence during next weekend’s visit to the state by Pope Benedict XVI, an official said Sunday.

At least 11 banners signed by The Knights Templar gang were found in five municipalities, including the city of Leon, where the pope begins his trip Friday, an official at the state Attorney General’s Office said. The official agreed to discuss the events on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

He said the banners were found Saturday hanging from pedestrian bridges and carried messages about “a sort of truce for peace and said they are going to keep the peace during the pope’s visit.”

The official did not reveal the exact wording of the messages, but the newspaper Reforma’s Sunday edition said one banner read: “The Knights Templar disavow any military action, we are not murders, welcome to the Pope.”

The Knights Templar gives itself a pseudo-religious persona, proclaiming in banners that it is the defender of the region’s people. It was created in neighboring Michoacan state after a split with the since-weakened La Familia cartel.

In February, The Knights Templar put out banners warning rival gangs to stay away and not create trouble during the pope’s stay.

Benedict is scheduled to visit Guanajuato from Friday until Monday, when he will fly to Cuba. Mexican President Felipe Calderon plans to greet the pope at Leon’s airport.

Earlier Sunday, Mexican authorities announced they had found 10 severed heads dumped outside a slaughterhouse in a town in northern Guerrero state. They said police were still searching for the bodies.

A statement from the Teloloapan police said the heads of seven men and three women were left with a message that appeared to threaten the La Familia cartel. The warning said: “This is going to happen to all those who support the FM.”

La Familia is based in Michoacan state, which lies to the east of Guerrero. Both states have suffered in recent years from fighting among drug gangs. Authorities say La Familia has been severely battered in the fighting.

In another development, Mexico’s army said soldiers in the western state of Jalisco captured a suspected local leader of Jalisco New Generation, a drug gang allegedly allied with the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

A military statement said Jose Guadalupe Padilla Serna, alias “The Vulture,” was a New Generation commander in six municipalities in Jalisco and was caught with another alleged gang member. Padilla was a direct subordinate of the recently captured Erick Valencia Salazar, purported head of New Generation, the army said.

Mexican army soldiers take away Jose Guadalupe Serna Padilla, aka “El Zopilote” or "The Vulture", center, and his alleged accomplice Oscar Pozos Jimenez, left, during a presentation to the press in Zapopan, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico Sunday March 18, 2012. According to the Mexican army, Padilla is an alleged top ranking member of the Jalisco Nueva Generacion (Jalisco New Generation) drug cartel and was allegedly detained in the company of Pozos with assorted drugs, weapons and vehicles. Photo: Bruno González / AP

 

Pope Sex Mex Kids

By Mica Rosenberg

 Leon, Mex:  Pope Benedict's
first full day in Mexico was clouded by fresh allegations the
Vatican hid evidence of sex abuse by one of the country's most
prominent Roman Catholic leaders for decades.

The authors of a new book say a trove of once-secret Vatican
documents prove Church officials ignored complaints of drug use
and molestation of seminarians by the late Father Marcial
Maciel, founder of the Catholic order the Legionaries of Christ.

Adding to the criticism of the Church, victims of abuse by
priests in Mexico came forward to seek an audience with
Benedict, but said their calls have not been answered. 
Church officials acknowledged in 2009, a year after Maciel's
death at the age of 87, that the charismatic Mexican cleric had
led a double life, secretly fathering children and lavishly
spending the generous donations of his followers.

Now more than 200 leaked documents from confidential Church
archives reveal a mass of new testimony against Maciel, says the
book, "La voluntad de no saber" (The will not to know).



"The Vatican not only knew about Maciel's pathologies, but
they tolerated them and protected him," said religion expert
Bernardo Barranco, who wrote the book's introduction.

Barranco presented the 255-page work on Saturday in the
central city of Leon, while the 84-year-old pontiff was resting
after his long flight from Italy.

Among the evidence is a 1979 letter to Church authorities
from John McGann, the Bishop of Rockville Center, New York, that
cites allegations by Legionnaire Juan Vaca, who said his years
of sexual abuse by Maciel began when he was 13.

The Bishop told a Vatican official in the United States Vaca
raised "serious questions concerning Father Maciel's stability"
in written testimony given to Church officials. Another 1954
letter describes in detail Maciel injecting a form of morphine.

Despite years of allegations, Maciel - who had the support
of the previous Pope John Paul - was spared official censure
until 2006 when Benedict ordered him to retire to a life of
"prayer and penitence."


 Victims Would Like to Meet

Benedict has made a point of speaking with victims of abuse
in a number of other countries including Malta, the United
States and Australia, but has no meeting scheduled in Mexico.

"We asked to see him and hoped he would sit down with us
like he has done in other countries. The Church said no victim
had reached out to them, which is just another lie to protect
priests who are still active," said Jesus Romero, who says he
was molested by a Catholic priest at the age of eleven.

Father Jorge Martinez from Mexico's Episcopal conference
said it would be difficult for the pope change his official
schedule but his message to children on Saturday afternoon would
speak to the suffering of youngsters affected by violence.

The Legion, founded by Maciel when he was in his 20s, is a
powerful order with many prominent members among Mexico's
business leaders. Backers have included the owners of Mexican
breadmaker Bimbo and Carlos Slim, the world's richest man.

The order runs private Catholic schools and charitable
organizations in 22 countries via its network of 800 priests and
2,600 seminarians. The order's lay movement, known as Regnum
Christi, has around 75,000 members.

Benedict arrived on Friday afternoon to cheering crowds, and
holds a Sunday mass where over 300,000 believers are expected.
On Monday he travels to Cuba to conclude his first trip to
Spanish-speaking Latin America in his seven years as pope. 
http://www.chicagotribune.com

NC Refusal To Turn Back The Clock on Gay Marriage Struck A Discordant Note on The South

 From Texas to Virginia, the South has spoken with almost one voice on same-sex marriage, amending state constitutions to ban the practice in hopes of blocking court decisions that would allow gays and lesbians to marry.

It's "almost" one voice because there's a discordant note in the Southern choir.

North Carolina, which likes to distinguish itself as a "vale of humility" surrounded by more bombastic neighbors, is the last state in the region without such an amendment. That fact is repeated constantly in the debate over a May 8 referendum when voters will have a chance to change the situation. But while it's bandied about by both sides, it's less clear what the distinction means.

Is it simply because the North Carolina Democrats who controlled the Legislature until 2010 had no interest in putting the amendment up for a vote? Or does it reflect the history and outlook of a state where leaders shepherded desegregation into law during the 1960s with little of the violence that broke out elsewhere?

Both explanations have merit in a state where Republicans waited nearly 140 years to take full control of the General Assembly and in which the political careers of moderate Democrat Jim Hunt and conservative Republican stalwart Jesse Helms could flourish at the same time, thanks to some of the same voters.

"North Carolina is an ambivalent state," said Harry Watson, director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. "It's got very strong conservative instincts, and it's got very strong liberal instincts. It's one of the things that's peculiar about Tar Heel politics that voters can go either way depending on the issue or the politician."

Raleigh resident Molly Beavers, 25, whose front lawn is adorned with a sign urging voters to reject the amendment, summed up that paradox in contemporary politics.

"In some ways I feel like we've made a lot of progress and I know we voted as a state for (Barack) Obama in 2008, which was a big deal," she said. "But now our state Legislature's kind of gone the other way."

The state will be front and center in September, when Charlotte hosts the Democratic National Convention at which President Obama is nominated for a second term.

Missouri became the first U.S. state to pass a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage in August 2004, less than a year after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that that state's constitution guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry. The first Southern state to impose a constitutional ban was Louisiana, voting a month after Missouri. They were followed in November by Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and others outside the region.

By the end of 2008, every state in the South had an amendment except North Carolina. West Virginia also lacks a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but that state — which was created when it broke away from the rest of Virginia to fight alongside the Union in the Civil War — culturally shares as much or more with Rust Belt neighbors like Ohio and Pennsylvania as with Dixie.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley recently signed legislation legalizing gay marriage, but opponents are seeking to overturn the law through a ballot vote.

In North Carolina, there's little doubt the immediate reason for the absence of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is that Democrats controlled the General Assembly until 2010. A bill that would amend the constitution was first introduced in May 2004 and in every subsequent session. While the party includes many social conservatives, each time the issue arose, the Democratic leadership made sure it stayed bottled up in committee.

"It hasn't passed here because it wasn't on the ballot, and it wasn't on the ballot because Democrats in the leadership had no interest in seeing it on the ballot," said Gary Pearce, who worked for Hunt, the former four-term Democratic governor.

That's all that needs to be said on the subject, according to Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Vote FOR Marriage NC, the coalition leading support of the amendment.

"It's entirely political," she said. "The problem is that the legislative leadership wanted to keep voters with strong beliefs on social issues away from the polls."

But the very fact of such tenacious Democratic control, though it ended two years ago, shows how North Carolina differs from most of its Southern counterparts, Pearce said. While Republicans have come to dominate Southern politics over the last 30 years, North Carolina still elects Democratic senators, governors, state lawmakers — and, in 2008, gave its 15 electoral votes to Obama, who condemned the proposed amendment last week.

That's the context stressed by opponents of the amendment. The Coalition to Protect All NC Families, the main group rallying opposition to the amendment, also points to ties with the NAACP and endorsements from business executives, town governments and hundreds of members of the clergy as signs North Carolina is not like its neighbors on this issue.

"You wouldn't see this happening in another Southern state," said Jeremy Kennedy, the group's campaign manager.

North Carolina's civil rights history is one of the themes regularly invoked by opponents of the measure. The bombings, mob violence and official defiance of desegregation that marked states like Mississippi and Alabama were largely absent from North Carolina, where then-Gov. Luther Hodges and other leaders courted business development by promising North Carolina would remain free of the chaos erupting elsewhere.

"It's fair to say that North Carolina has been seen as more progressive or at least more moderate, even if the reputation and the reality haven't always matched," said James Cobb, a professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of "Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity."

Whether North Carolina remains an outlier in the South will be up to voters on May 8, when immediate circumstances, including a contested Republican presidential primary, could help determine the outcome more than more abstract factors.

"I think the chances of it passing are pretty strong here," said Pearce, veteran of numerous North Carolina elections. "It's a tough issue for any Southern state, even one that's more progressive than the others."

Associated Press writer Allen Breed contributed to this report from Wake Forest.

Gay Couple Arrested For Having Sex In Dominica Are Home

A California gay couple say they were subject to harassment in Dominica after being arrested for allegedly having sex on a cruise ship balcony.
Dennis Mayer, 53, and John Hart, 41, both of Palm Springs, returned home this week after spending nearly a day in jail following their unceremonious arrest during a port call this week on the tiny Caribbean island.

The lowlight of the ordeal was being marched by police through the streets of Roseau to an ATM to withdraw enough cash to pay a fine, they told KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.
"I've never seen something like this," Mayer said. "I've never seen people chanting and protesting in the street. It was amazing.”

KTLA said Mayer, a retired police officer, and Hart were accused of having sex on their stateroom balcony while the ship was in port.
"I'm not going to implicate myself one way or another, but we were charged with being naked on the balcony," Mayer said.

The two men denied the allegations but spent a long night in jail.
"We were taunted all night long," Mayer said. "They paraded us around like we were some oddity.”

Homosexual activity is illegal in Dominica, although the cruise was aimed at a gay audience and had about 2,000 gay passengers.

 

Sidney } Gay Hatred Truck Gets Gay Make Over

Matt Akersten

 This morning in Lismore, Christian activist Peter Madden woke to find his gay-hating truck has been “loved and enhanced” by a group of queer spray-painters overnight. 

And this morning, blockade of the truck has begun as a growing number of protestors gather to ensure the vehicle’s libellous and false message – that marriage equality would somehow harm children – does not roll out.

“If we have our way, this truck won’t be going anywhere fast,” one of the protestors tells Same Same this morning.

Over forty people have now assembled outside the truck, which is located over the road from Lismore’s Hungry Jacks food outlet. The police have arrived, and this photo shows Madden at the scene:

The planned Queensland Election Prayer Rally Tour was set to visit Byron Bay, Gold Coast and then the Sunshine Coast before arriving in Brisbane on Thursday. Aiming to show “the dark side of same-sex marriage”, the truckstop schedule includes a prayer rally taking place at King George Square on the 22nd of March just ahead of the state’s election on March 24.

When the truck’s imagery was revealed last week (shown above before the protest action), LGBT activists were understandably upset. Queensland equal rights advocate Phil Browne slammed the Prayer Rally Tour as “vilification” and “derogatory and offensive to most Queenslanders.” The wording and photography “denigrate gays by promoting a skewed and inaccurate message,” he added.

Clooney: "We're the anti-genocide paparazzi."

George Clooney and John Prendergast listen to displaced people tell their stories in Abyei along the disputed border of Sudan and South Sudan, October 2010.
http://www.satsentinel.org/

On a trip to southern Sudan in October 2010, George Clooney and Enough Project Co-founder John Prendergast had an idea. What if we could watch the warlords? Monitor them just like the paparazzi spies on Clooney?

“Why can’t I be a guy with a 400-mile lens, a tourist, taking pictures and sticking them on the Internet?”

When they returned from the trip, Clooney and Prendergast set to turning this revolutionary idea into a reality. They secured partnerships and made a plan. Within a year after the December 2010 launch date, the Satellite Sentinel Project had already documented violent attacks, large-scale displacement, and mass graves in Sudan.

A year and a half later, Clooney returns to South Sudan in March 2012. This is no media stunt - he travels like a journalist, staying in tents, riding in the back of trucks, and meeting survivors, policy-makers, and militants along the way.

“The idea is, we’re just going to keep the pressure on. Turning the lights on doesn’t mean anything stops. But it makes it harder, and that’s our job.” – George Clooney in Parade Magazine

In the Media

LA Times Magazine

December 2011
Though his rise to fame has been through acting, "Clooney is now the ultimate celebrity photographer, except his lenses are focused not on red carpets but on distant atrocities," wrote LA Times Magazine Reporter John Horn in a December 2011 profile. Read the article.

Parade

September 2011
Parade magazine highlighted Clooney’s humanitarian work. In the September 26, 2011, profile by David Gergen, Clooney talked about his four trips to the Sudan, saying, “Two million people were killed in the north-south war in Sudan before 2005. I wasn’t going to stand on the sidelines and not participate.”

Imaging Notes

Spring 2011
In its March 2011 cover story, Imaging Notes magazine profiled SSP. Says Clooney, "We have images nearly in real time of the deliberate destruction of a village in Abyei,” explained Clooney. “We have warned for months that the match that could ignite the resumption of war between North and South Sudan resides in Abyei. It is critical that diplomatic efforts be intensified to prevent such an outcome."

Newsweek

A "21st century statesman" is what Newsweek calls George Clooney for his long-standing efforts to push for high political engagement in Sudan—the most recent of which was detailed in the magazine’s February 28, 2011, cover story by John Avlon. The piece chronicles Clooney and Enough Co-founder John Prendergast’s January 2011 trip to South Sudan during the momentous vote for secession—from the capital of Juba, to the volatile border region of Abyei, to Mejak Manyore, a returnee camp—all the while asking the question: Does having a celebrity advocate make a difference?

Trayvon Martin’s Case from a Legal Distanced Way

Hot Air.Com offers a sober opinion on how this case is proceeding in a legal way. It also shows what the major politicians are saying or not in regard  to this so unfortunate death of Trevor. I will borrow some of them to shed more light, at least from a  legal way of what’s happening and what are the major politicians saying if anything on this. Lots of things are happening and lots of people getting involved. The important thing is what impact if any is this having or going to have in this case if it reaches court.
Let’s start at the top with the commander in chief, The President:


President Obama said Trayvon Martin’s death particularly resonated with him as an African-American parent. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama said in brief remarks outside the White House. 


 Some are claiming that Obama played the race card, but that’s been an important part of the context of this case all along.  All things considered, Obama’s statement was rather restrained.  He seems to have learned a lesson from the Henry Gates incident in 2009, to which Obama reacted by claiming that law enforcement officers “acted stupidly” in the same breath in which he said that he didn’t have all of the facts of the case.  Instead, this time Obama restricted his commentary to noting how any American parent would want a full investigation of the incident, and praising Florida Governor Rick Scott for launching a task-force investigation of the incident.

  

The DoJ will probe the shooting, too, which Obama noted but which had already been announced.  However, there is almost no chance that the federal government will have any opening, since George Zimmerman wasn’t an agent of the state or local government.  That makes prosecuting Zimmerman under civil-rights legislation almost impossible, especially given the circumstances of the initial assault.  Be sure to see the lengthy explanation of Florida’s self-defense laws in my earlier post to see why Zimmerman will probably face some sort of prosecution if the stated facts of the case are borne out, but that will come from the county or state level, not federal.

Meanwhile, the media leaped at the chance to compare Obama’s statement to the silence from Republican presidential candidates on the shooting.  That’s a bit silly; even Obama took quite a while to comment on the case, and as Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes atElectronic Urban Report, for the same reasons:

Obama, as all sitting presidents, doesn’t take positions on controversial state issues, and that’s the key. They are state issues, and to interfere is to step into a political minefield that would do far more harm than good. It would violate the rigid separation of federal and state powers. It would open the floodgate for any and every individual and group that has a legal wrong, grievance, or injustice to expect, even demand, that the president speak out on their cause. While tens of thousands nationally and globally are rallying behind the demand for arrest and prosecution of Zimmerman, there are millions more that quietly and openly demand that Florida officials resists any rush to judgment about the Martin killing.

Presidential statements on a controversial issue will polarize, and fuel political backlash. This would certainly be the case if Obama utters a word about Martin. In fact, the Martin slaying is a near textbook example of the fury and passion that racial leaden cases and issues always stir. Martin is African-American, and his self-admitted killer is non-black. Obama is African-American and there’s rarely been a moment during his tenure in the White House that he hasn’t been relentlessly reminded of that. The one time that he gingerly ventured into the minefield on a racially charged local issue was his mild rebuke of the white officer that cuffed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in 2009. The reaction was instant and rabid. Polls after his mild rebuke showed that a majority of whites condemned Obama for backing Gates and, even more ominously, expressed big doubts about his policies.

The president relearned a bitter lesson. If you speak out on an issue that involves race, police authority, and local law and local matters you will pay a heavy political price for it. While presidents have routinely spoken out on the deaths of police officers, political initiatives in states, and other local issues, there is no implication or inference of political partisanship or interference in a state matter. Speaking out on a controversial racial issue, as Martin is, would have a direct political inference, namely that the president is taking sides. In an election year, this would have be even more problematic. The GOP presidential contenders would be quick to pounce and would lambaste Obama as playing the race card and inflaming passions. Or, more charitably, that he was butting into an issue that he has no authority over, and that this is yet another example of the White House’s over reach on local matters.

The Trayvon Martin shooting does raise questions about self-defense laws and carry permit legislation only if Zimmerman didn’t violate either of them in the shooting, which seems unlikely under the circumstances.  Those, however, are state-level issues, not federal, so presidential candidates (and Presidents) aren’t under any requirement to share their thoughts.

Update: Rep. Allen West has called the lack of action against Zimmerman “an outrage,” through his Facebook page:

Noting that he had taken some time to “assess the current episode,” West wrote: “The US Navy SEALS identified Osama Bin Laden within hours, while this young man laid on a morgue slab for three days. The shooter, Mr Zimmerman, should have been held in custody and certainly should not be walking free, still having a concealed weapons carry permit. From my reading, it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable cause to engage him, certainly not pursue and shoot him….against the direction of the 911 responder.”

The congressman added: “Let’s all be appalled at this instance not because of race, but because a young American man has lost his life, seemingly, for no reason.”

The Florida lawmaker said that he had signed a letter supporting the Justice Department’s investigation but that he did not plan to attend protests in Florida “to shout and scream, because we need the responsible entities and agencies to handle this situation from this point without media bias or undue political influences.”

That went much farther than Obama did, although as a Representative elected from Florida, West has more political connection to what happens in the state.

Update: Mediate notes that Mitt Romney has made a statement today about the case, and Newt Gingrich did last night:

Shortly after President Obama spoke out for the first time on the killing of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin, former Massachusetts Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney followed suit, issuing a statement, through a spokesperson, which read “What happened to Trayvon Martin is a tragedy. There needs to be a thorough investigation that reassures the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity.”

Romney’s statement was similar to comments made by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who told CNN’s Piers Morgan, last night, that “I think that Americans can recognize that while this is a tragedy, and it is a tragedy, that we’re going to relentlessly seek justice. And I think that’s the right thing to do.”

Trinity Broadcast Co Stands For CEL{ Corruption, Embezzlement, Lies}

• Peter Beaumont
• guardian.co.uk  

Brittany Koper with her grandparents Janice Crouch (far left) and Paul Crouch Sr (far right) at her wedding. Photograph: AP

The world's largest Christian TV channel, the California-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, has become embroiled in a multimillion-dollar financial scandal after members of the family that founded it alleged widespread embezzlement.

The claims – by Brittany Koper, whose grandfather Paul Crouch founded TBN, and by Joseph McVeigh, another family member – describe exorbitant spending on mansions in California, Tennessee and Florida, private jets and even a $100,000 (£63,000) mobile home to house the dogs of Crouch's flamboyant wife, Janice.

The network, which claims to broadcast in every continent except the Antarctic and has 18,000 affiliates, was set up by Crouch in the 1970s and preaches a "prosperity gospel" which promises material rewards to those who give generously.

Two years ago it declared a net worth of more than $800m, although in recent years it has faced increasing financial problems. Details of the claims are contained in cases filed with the California courts by McVeigh, who says he was targeted by the network, and 26-year-old Koper, who was fired in September.

According to the lawsuit, reported in US newspapers, Paul Crouch Sr obtained a $50m luxury jet for his personal use through a "sham loan", while church funds – many of which come from donations during events like its "Praise-a-thons" – paid for the dogs' mobile home.

McVeigh's lawsuit makes the most damning allegations, claiming "unlawful and unreported income distributions to Trinity Broadcasting's directors" with "multiple jet aircraft, including a $50m Global Express luxury jet aircraft purchased for the personal use of the Crouches through a sham loan … as well as an $8m Hawker jet aircraft purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use of director Janice Crouch".

It also describes the purchase of "multiple motor vehicles, including a $100,000 motor home purchased by Trinity Broadcasting as a mobile residence for director Janice Crouch's dogs".

Directors of the network are also accused of misusing funds to cover up sex scandals, including the alleged "cover-up and destruction of evidence concerning a bloody sexual assault involving Trinity Broadcasting and affiliated Holy Land Experience employees; the cover-up of director Janice Crouch's affair with a staff member at the Holy Land Experience; the cover-up of director Paul Crouch's use of Trinity Broadcasting funds to pay for a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford (a former TBN employee who said he had a homosexual affair with [founder] Paul Crouch)".

Brittany Koper, the network's former finance director, claims she was fired after she discovered the extent of the financial wrongdoing.

Her lawsuit follows one by the church against her – later dismissed – which alleged that Koper and her husband used forged documents to embezzle funds to buy cars, jewellery and a fishing boat.

"She blew the whistle and got terminated," Koper's lawyer, Tymothy MacLeod, told the Los Angeles Times. "Brittany has done the right thing. It's admirable that someone on the inside of TBN has come forward and is revealing to the world exactly what is going on behind those closed doors."

"These large ministries, they do become family enterprises… and in many ways that can be a most precarious problem for them," David E. Harrell, a professor emeritus of American religion at Auburn University, who has written about well-known televangelists told Associated Press. "Business squabbles, if they're complicated with family squabbles, can get nasty indeed."

TBN is no stranger to outside scrutiny. In 1998, the elder Crouch secretly paid an accuser $425,000 to keep quiet about allegations of a homosexual encounter which he has consistently denied, saying he settled only to avoid a costly and embarrassing trial.

In 2000, after a five-year battle, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that found Crouch had created a "sham" minority company to get around limits on the number of TV stations he could own.

The network's lawyer has denied allegations accusing McVeigh and the Kopers of working together to steal from the ministry. He said the Crouches travel by private jet because they have had "scores of death threats, more than the president of the United States".

Houston Midfielder Colin Clark Apologizes for Gay Remark

Houston Dynamo midfielder Colin Clark has apologized in a three-post Twitter statement for using a gay slur toward a ball boy during a 2-0 loss at Seattle on Friday night.

Clark, in his third season for the Dynamo and playing his eighth in the MLS, can be seen in a video replay jogging toward the sideline for a throw-in, appearing to signal to the attendant for a ball as the game ball skips out of bounds.

But Clark is never issued a new ball and, forced to pick up the ball knocked out of bounds, utters a gay slur toward the ball boy before making the throw-in.

“

I didn't mean to disrespect anyone and am sorry for letting my emotions get the best of me. It's not who I am and it won't happen again.

”-- Houston Dynamo midlfielder Colin Clark

"I'd like to offer a sincere apology to everyone who watched the game, especially the ball boy for whom I used awful language towards," a 3 a.m. ET post on Clark's Twitter account says.

"I didn't mean to disrespect anyone and am sorry for letting my emotions get the best of me," Clark wrote in his next post. "It's not who I am and it won't happen again."

According to The Seattle Times, the incident came in the game's seventh minute, 16 minutes beforeDavid Estrada scored his MLS-leading fourth goal of the season to give Sounders FC all they would need in their second game of the season.

"@gay4soccer I'm very sorry for my actions tonight and I would love for you to consider me a #soccerally moving forward," Clark wrote in another Twitter post.

Apparent racial slurs have been the subject of recent controversy for at least two players in the English Premier League.

Liverpool's Luis Suarez was banned for eight matches and fined $62,000 for calling Manchester United's Patrice Evra "Negro" or "Negros" seven times in October during a 1-1 draw. Suarez later issued a partial public apology while stressing he had done nothing wrong.

In February, England removed John Terry as its national team captain amid a pending racial abuse case that will be tried after this summer's European Championship.

The Chelsea defender is accused of shouting abusive comments at Queens Park Rangers defenderAnton Ferdinand during an October match.