Obama Calls British, Saudi Leaders About Bomb Plot

Published October 30, 2010

| Associated Press

President Obama has called British Prime Minister David Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss the thwarted mail bomb attacks.

White House spokesman Bill Burton says the president also received a briefing Saturday from his national security adviser, John Brennan.

Yemeni authorities are checking more packages in the search for terrorists who tried to mail bombs to Chicago-area synagogues. The plot has raised fears of a new al-Qaida terror attack.

Obama is campaigning Saturday in Bridgeport, Conn., Philadelphia and Chicago.

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Justice Department to Send Election Observers to Arizona as Concern Rises About Illegal Voters

The Justice Department is sending a small pack of election observers to Arizona as Hispanic groups sound the alarm over an anti-illegal immigration group's mass e-mail seeking to recruit Election Day volunteers to help block illegal immigrants from voting.

Hispanic voting rights groups say the e-mail is just an attempt to intimidate minority voters. But election fraud monitors say that there are hundreds of examples of duplicate registrations, wrong information and past unregistered voters getting ballots.

Voter fraud allegations have emerged just days before the midterm in many crucial battleground states across the country, including Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The Justice Department announced Friday it would deploy more than 400 federal observers to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states ahead of Tuesday's election. But Arizona officials say the department had already committed to sending observers to their state.

Justice Department officials had notified Maricopa County that they would send a "handful" of election observers, even before the e-mail was sent, Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Arizona's secretary of state, told FoxNews.com. 

"We don't know why (the observers are) coming," he said. "But we do not believe it's in response to the e-mails making the rounds."

But William Gheen, executive director of Americans for Legal Immigration, said he knows why they're coming.

"They're sending them out because the Obama administration is doing everything it can to make sure as many illegal aliens vote in 2010 although that is a violation of federal law," he told FoxNews.com.

Benson noted that the Justice Department sends election observers to at least one Arizona county every election. In 2006, the department sent around 30 election observers to Maricopa County, he said.

Benson said the plan had nothing to do with the firestorm elicited by Ban Amnesty Now, or B.A.N., the group that sent an e-mail entitled "6 Days to STOP Illegals from Stealing the Election!"

The e-mail said "open-border criminals" in the unions, the White House and Hispanic groups are "determined to undermine" the election.

The e-mail originally included the signature of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an immigration enforcement proponent and B.A.N. honorary co-chairman, but Arpaio's name was later removed after Sean McCaffrey, the president of B.A.N., said he didn't mean to send out the e-mail attributed to the sheriff.

That didn't deter one voting rights group, Mi Familia Vota, from sending a letter to Justice Department officials Thursday asking them to send election observers.

"We are very concerned when you have Sheriff Joe Arpaio putting out this type of call to the community with the fear and concern that illegals are going to take over the election," said Ben Monterroso, president of the group. "It's not that we're not concerned that the elections are secure, but the way that it's been written – anyone who has the appearance of a foreign person, i.e. being a Latino – then that can create intimidation and violate their rights to vote."

McCaffrey said Friday that, despite the erroneous attribution to Arpaio, he is looking for volunteers to provide information to his group about voter fraud, "especially stories concerning activities involving illegal aliens."

"We hope that by forwarding interested volunteers to state elections officials we may contribute to smooth, fair and legal elections in all 50 U.S. states," he wrote in a blog on the group's website. "Furthermore, we hope that those who seem so shocked and outraged that Americans are concerned about stopping voter fraud will own up to their actions and stop committing vote fraud."

McCaffrey told FoxNews.com in an interview that nearly 500 people have volunteered so far -- about 100 of them in Arizona.

Part of the concern for voter fraud monitors is a result of a ruling this week by a federal appeals court that stripped the state of its ability to request proof of citizenship when residents register to vote. State officials say the ruling could increase the likelihood of voter fraud but not in next week's midterms because the deadline for registration passed before the decision.

At Arizona polls, voters must show one piece of identification that includes their name, address and photograph, such as a driver's license. They also can provide two forms of ID with their names and address, such as a utility bill or bank statement. Voters can also provide one form a acceptable photo ID with another form of non-photo ID that includes their name and address, such as a passport and a utility bill.

Arpaio declined to comment, but McCaffrey told FoxNews.com that he apologized to the sheriff Thursday for using his name without his permission. Arpaio, he said, stepped down as honorary co-chairman.

"He'll continue to support us but he didn't want an official title with the group while he was being investigated by everyone with a badge at the White House," he said, alluding to the Justice Department's investigation into whether Arpaio's office was discriminating against Hispanics with its crackdown on illegal immigrants. 

Monterroso said he's happy the Justice Department is sending poll watchers, even if it's not in response to his group's letter. 

"I think it's the right thing to do," he said. "It's better to be safe than sorry. If they have people out there, we want to make sure people vote without fear of intimidation or harassment by anyone else."

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Ohio Shooting Victim Complained About Gunman, Police Say

CLEVELAND –  A woman was shot to death Friday outside the manufacturing plant where she worked by a man whom she had complained about to police, and the gunman also killed her co-worker, authorities said.

Police say Pedro Rodriguez shot Graciela Morales, 49, in her sport-utility vehicle parked outside the factory, then used her employee identification card to gain access to the building. Once inside, Rodriguez sought out 49-year-old Eduardo Pupo and shot him, police said. Rodriguez fled the scene in a car and was hit by a stun gun while police apprehended him later that afternoon.

Morales' niece, Cassandra Morales, says her aunt broke off a relationship with Rodriguez two years ago and he had attacked her once before, sending her to the hospital. Police say Graciela Morales had filed a menacing by stalking report against Rodriguez in July but later decided not to press charges. Police did not say whether Morales and Rodriguez had a relationship.

"We just don't know how he got so close to her and she didn't notice," Cassandra Morales said of the shooting.

Cassandra Morales said her aunt had worked at the plant for four years and had three children.
Gunshots rang out inside the plant at about 1:30 p.m., and a supervisor began yelling for everyone to get out of the building. Machine operator Alberto Gonzalez was searching for an exit along with his colleagues when he saw the gunman reloading his weapon.

"I heard the shotgun," Gonzalez said. "He was loading the gun inside the building like he was ready to shoot somebody else."

Graciela Morales' relatives watched, sobbing, as police loaded an SUV with a plastic tarp over the driver's side door onto a flatbed. A garbage bag covered the driver's seat.

A teenage girl collapsed on the ground crying.

ParkOhio Products Inc. manufactures rubber, silicone and plastic components for various industries, according to its website. The company said in a statement that it was "shocked and saddened" by the shooting and had suspended operations at the facility, a beige warehouse near a scrap yard on a road filled with auto service centers a few miles southwest of downtown Cleveland.

Graciela Morales told police that Rodriguez had driven by her home and workplace numerous times and would stare at her, then drive away. Rodriguez told a detective that he had only called Morales because he was hoping to reconcile with her.

"He was advised that a police report was made and he informed the detective that he was sorry and would stop calling her and would accept that the relationship was over," Morris said in a statement.

Afterward, Morales told police that Rodriguez did not threaten her and there was no "pattern of conduct."

"This was a lovely people that died today," said Gonzalez, who knew both victims. "Everybody loved them."

Coroner's spokesman Powell Caesar says autopsies will likely be conducted Saturday.

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Questions About Accuser Surround Sex Slave Case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The allegations in the indictment were shocking: A young woman had been held captive for years as the sex slave of a Missouri couple. She had been locked in a cage and subjected to electrical shocks. Parts of her body had been nailed to wooden planks.

When announcing charges last month, U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips called the case one of "the most horrific ever prosecuted in this district."

Authorities said the woman was a mentally deficient runaway who was recruited by an older man at the age of 16 to live in his trailer. The situation came to light in early 2009, after the woman, then 23, landed in a hospital following what prosecutors said was a torture session.

But as more details have emerged, more questions have arisen about the accuser, including her involvement in violent sex practices, her posing for a pornographic magazine and her work as a strip-club dancer. Supporters of the defendant are speaking out, too, saying many of the acts described in the indictment are practiced every day between consenting adults.

Ed Bagley, 43, faces 11 federal charges, including conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and forced labor trafficking. Four other men also are charged with various crimes.

A graphic 21-page federal indictment describes medieval-like sexual devices being used on the woman at Bagley's mobile home about six miles outside Lebanon, in southwest Missouri. Accusations of waterboarding, suffocation and beatings are mentioned throughout.

Bagley's wife, Marilyn, said she and her husband knew the girl because she had dated their son. That relationship had ended, Bagley's wife said, but the girl wanted to come live with the couple when relations with her adoptive parents soured. She said the girl moved in when she was 17, not 16, and never had sex with her husband until after she turned 18.

"She was not a runaway," Marilyn Bagley said. "We picked her up from her adopted dad and stepmom. They were right there and everything."

Marilyn Bagley said prosecutors have told her she also will be charged if she doesn't agree to testify against her husband. But she said she will not take the stand against him because she believes the two did nothing wrong.

Prosecutors said Ed Bagley posted videos and other images on the Internet showing the young woman engaged in sexual activities. He allegedly described her as his sex slave and advertised that she would perform sex acts and submit to torture for other people during encounters online or in person.

Bagley is accused of taking payments of cash, cigarettes, computer hard drives, even meat, to let other men come to his home and torture her.

Bagley and other defendants are also charged with transporting the woman to California in 2006 and 2007 for prostitution. She appeared on the cover of the July 2007 issue of Taboo, a publication owned by Larry Flynt's Hustler Magazine Group, and was the subject of a story and multipage photo spread inside.

Prosecutors said Ed Bagley also forced the girl to work as an exotic dancer and threatened to punish her if she was not a top earner at the clubs where she stripped.

But another dancer at the same Missouri strip club said the woman seemed to enjoy the attention she got when she danced, often showing off the issue of Taboo magazine that featured her on the cover.

"This girl was spoiled," said Katie Smothers, who said she spent time at Bagley's trailer when she needed a place to stay but never participated in bondage activities.

"She would take customers to show them her magazine, and she had a bucket of photos at the bar. She bragged about it."

Susan Dill, Bagley's Kansas City-based attorney, told reporters recently that the indictment tells only one side of the story. She said the defense will present evidence that the woman practiced BDSM -- bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism -- by choice.

Dill declined to go into detail, and attorneys for the other defendants turned down requests for comment.

The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City also declined repeated requests to comment, saying the indictment speaks for itself.

Marilyn Bagley, who for years shared a bed with her husband and the woman, told The Associated Press the woman often left the Bagleys' home to go into the community.

She believes the woman's family coerced her to go to police after she was taken to a hospital suffering from cardiac arrest, which Bagley claims she suffered while getting ready for work -- not during a torture session.

"She started seizing, and when she was done, she stopped breathing. Ed gave her CPR. I was on the phone to 911. We were freaking out. We didn't know what to do," she said.

Dr. Keely Kolmes, a San Francisco-based psychologist who sees patients who practice BDSM, said that many of the acts listed in the indictment can be part of consensual activities. But others might indicate Bagley was an abuser, such as allegations that he shot animals the woman cared about to prove he could kill her and that he refused to stop immediately when the woman used a "safe word."

"Consensual BDSM does not involve holding minors hostage against their will or causing physical or mental harm," Kolmes said in an e-mail to the AP. "That is a criminal behavior."

Susan Wright, spokeswoman for the Baltimore-based National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, said some of the things Bagley is accused of are clearly abuse, if true.

"Certainly in abusive relationships, sometimes it's hard to parse out what people do voluntarily and what things they are coerced to do," said Wright, who helped write a sadomasochism vs. abuse policy statement in the late 1990s that has been adopted by national BDSM groups.

At times, it all becomes "tangled up," she said. "And at that point, I don't think any consent you give is legitimate consent."

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