A Gift of Goats is a Gift of Hope

Story and Photos by Darcy Kiefel, Heifer International Photojournalist

In a mud home made vibrant by beautiful flowers, Leokodia Byabasaija extended her hand to welcome a stranger.

Byabasaija, a beautiful woman who conceals the hardships of her life with an engaging smile, lives in the village of Kisinga, Uganda. Not long ago she had a happy life with her husband, Lesio, and their children. Married in 1968, the couple, working as peasant farmers, raised nine children. Although they struggled, together they managed to send their children to school and put food on the table.

In November 2001, after 33 years of marriage, Lesio died, leaving Leokodia a widow with children to rear with nothing more than a small vegetable garden for their survival.

But Oct. 30, 2002, brought a new future to Leokodia Byabasaija, her children and many other families in other Ugandan villages. On that day, Heifer International and the Kisinga Women’s Dairy Goat Project celebrated the arrival of 50 dairy goats donated by Oprah Winfrey, the world-famous American talk show host.

Heifer has been giving goats to this village since 1991, and continues to train women and families in goat husbandry and management, health, leadership and the integration of women into society. Soil erosion is a major problem in this area, and Heifer also trains farmers in ways to protect the environment.

Courses are held for both new and previous project farmers as the need arises, and an additional 100 families are educated each year before receiving the pass-on gift of animals.

Masereka Sileo and his wife, Spiranza Sileo, received their Heifer International goat in November 1994.

“After our Heifer goat had kids, we passed on the gift of an offspring with happiness to our neighbor and kept the other for project sustainability,” Spiranza Sileo said. “Over the years our Heifer International goat has had nine pregnancies. The total sale of goats has amounted to 800,000 Uganda shillings [about $450].

“Our original goat provided our family with three liters of milk daily, half of which we consumed and one liter we offered to our sickly neighbors,” she said. “Their children were malnourished and in great need of milk.”

“Before Heifer International we were low-income peasant farmers,” Masereka Sileo added. “Our way of life was not the best compared with how we live today. We survived in a grass hut with seven children. It would leak every time it rained and our health suffered. We couldn’t even afford to buy a cup of milk for our children. When the message came that animals would arrive to help our village, we welcomed the idea. We were trained in cultivation, construction of a pen for the animals, health, environmental protection and gender issues,” he said. “The Heifer International training took a great deal of time, and we almost lost hope. But because the training was so strong we remained patient. In 1994, our dreams came true and positive changes have continued to occur since then.”

Mrs. Sileo added, “From the breeding, selling and milk of our goats we built the home we are now sitting in. All our children attend school, our son has almost completed high school, and one of our daughters is enrolled in nursing school. “Our orphaned granddaughter whose mother passed away when she was young has been drinking goat’s milk since that time. She has never been sickly. I am not ashamed to say I am the woman I am today because of Heifer International.

Back at home, Leokodia Byabasaija was feeling blessed.

Beaming, she led her dairy goat to its newly constructed corral while her children watched with pride.

Leokodia’s daughter, Leonida, spoke of her family’s new hope. “I have seen the lives of our neighbors change because of their Heifer International animal,” she said. “I believe and pray that, God willing, this animal will bring our family a better life. Perhaps with the gift of our goat, my sisters and I will one day continue our studies,” she added. “Heifer International's hope that our children will have a future is our dream—and possibly our reality as well.”

Williams Case a Question of Mercy

With legal claims rejected, the killer's redemption may be key in clemency decision.

By Jenifer Warren and Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writers

SACRAMENTO — If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spares Stanley Tookie Williams from his scheduled execution at San Quentin State Prison next week, he will almost certainly be forced to anchor his decision in a rationale that has virtually disappeared from the modern clemency process: mercy.

Nationwide over the last 30 years, governors commuting death sentences have almost never cited a condemned man's redemption as a reason to save his life. Rather, they typically act because of doubts about guilt, questions surrounding trial fairness, concerns about mental illness or worries that capital punishment disproportionately targets racial minorities.

In the Williams case, legal claims have been rejected repeatedly by courts. His bid for clemency is rooted entirely in what attorneys describe as his metamorphosis behind bars, from the co-founder of the murderous Crips street gang to a peacemaker who writes children's books and preaches nonviolence.

Whether that transformation persuades Schwarzenegger to cancel Williams' death by lethal injection remains to be seen. The governor has not revealed details of his thinking on Williams, and aides would only say that he has been in daily contact with his legal team leading up to today's closed clemency hearing in the Capitol.

Although the Republican governor supports the death penalty, an advisor has said that Schwarzenegger would be open to clemency in the right case. And Schwarzenegger's views on crime and punishment are more nuanced than those of his two predecessors — who presided over 10 executions between them — and he has said the decision in the Williams case is one that he dreads.

In deciding the fate of two other condemned men, the governor rejected clemency, finding no evidence compelling him to act. In January, after he denied clemency for triple murderer Donald Beardslee and allowed the execution to proceed, Schwarzenegger told journalists in his native Austria that the episode marked "the hardest day" of his life.

The law, meanwhile, offers little guidance. There are no rules when it comes to executive commutations, and previous governors characterize clemency decisions as among the most challenging and emotional they faced in office. The public clamor only exacerbates the pressure.

"Clemency is an awesome responsibility," said former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat who rejected bids from five men who were executed. While Schwarzenegger will clearly be "aware that the world is watching," Davis said, the task is "a very solitary decision, a matter between the governor and his conscience."

Former Gov. Pete Wilson agreed that "you don't take lightly denying life to anyone." On the other hand, he said, Californians have "expressed their approval at the ballot box of imposing the death penalty, and so I think anyone seeking clemency has a very difficult standard to meet."

On Wednesday, lawyers for Williams summarized the line of argument they would be making at today's hearing, which the governor will attend, and said they would be presenting Schwarzenegger with a letter from Williams. They declined to reveal its contents.

Beginning at 10 a.m. today, the governor will hear the presentation from Williams' attorneys and one from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Schwarzenegger's aides said he would make no comment, and they could not predict when he might make his decision.

Public support for Williams' clemency, meanwhile, has been intense among some Hollywood celebrities, world famous clergymen and teachers who use his books. Williams' lawyers say tens of thousands of people have written letters and e-mails, urging that their client be allowed to live. And during the past week, supporters have bought full-page advertisements in newspapers, including The Times, to push for clemency.

Williams' allies highlight his portfolio of accomplishment while incarcerated, which includes nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and ongoing efforts to discourage youths from joining gangs. Allowing Williams to live out his life in prison, they say, will preserve him as a force for good in society while validating the possibility of redemption in today's criminal justice system.

"Tookie Williams is the ideal candidate for clemency because his time on death row has dramatically reinforced the notion that each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done," said Bryan Stevenson, an acclaimed death penalty appellate lawyer and professor at New York University Law School.

Prosecutors and survivors of Williams' victims say his good works should not carry the day. They say Williams remains a man who took four lives and helped launch a gang war that has ravaged American cities.

Williams' pursuit of forgiveness rings hollow, they add, because he has neither apologized to his victims nor agreed to participate in a debriefing with law enforcement officials, a process in which gang dropouts share what they know.

"He seeks redemption, but he won't even take responsibility for murders committed by his own hand, to say nothing of the thousands to die in gang wars he helped encourage," said Joshua Marquis, district attorney for Clatsop County in Oregon and a nationally prominent supporter of the death penalty.

Williams has said he will not apologize for crimes he denies committing, and that to debrief officials would make him a snitch.

Schwarzenegger comes to the clemency decision after a year of sharp political disappointment. Polls show his popularity sagging, and the November special election he called ended in failure for the governor.

Analysts say commuting a convicted murderer's sentence now could be politically perilous; Schwarzenegger would be the first California governor to do so since Ronald Reagan spared the life of a brain-damaged killer, Calvin Thomas, in 1967. Though support for the death penalty has waned, about two-thirds of Californians continue to endorse it, polls show.

Stop CIA Kidnapping and Abuse

Stop CIA Kidnapping and Abuse

The ACLU, in an historic lawsuit, is challenging the extraordinary rendition of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent victim who was released from a CIA prison without ever being charged.

Former CIA Director George Tenet violated U.S. and international human rights laws when he authorized agents to abduct Mr. El-Masri, beat him, drug him, and transport him to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. The corporations that owned and operated the airplanes used to transport Mr. El-Masri are also being sued for his kidnapping and abuse. The CIA continued to hold Mr. El-Masri incommunicado in the notorious “Salt Pit” torture cell in Afghanistan long after his innocence was known. Five months after his abduction, Mr. El-Masri was deposited at night, without explanation, on a hill in Albania.

In response to the governments’ torture and abuse policies, Senator John McCain, who heroically survived torture and abuse while he was himself a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, introduced legislation that bolsters the prohibition on the government’s use of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. The Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, and an array of retired generals and admirals--including former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and John Shalikashvili, support this legislation.

Click here to take action now and support the McCain amendment!

The McCain amendment is a major step to making sure that the government understands that same clear rules apply to everyone, and would prohibit the torture and abuse suffered by Mr. El-Masri and other victims of extraordinary rendition. No one is above the law, and no one--no matter their office or rank--can order anyone else to break the rules.

Vice President Dick Cheney is personally lobbying Congress to exempt the CIA from the McCain amendment, so that the agency can continue to torture and abuse people in its secret prisons.

Take action right now and urge Congress to vote for the anti-torture amendment sponsored by Senator John McCain.
The Patriot Act passed a mere 45 days after the September 11 attacks with virtually no debate or discussion. Fortunately many of the sections that expanded government power were set to expire at the end of this year. Now, some in Congress are secretly considering legislation that would make these powers permanent and expand them.

Insult to Injury

President Bush is Lying to Public About Torture Practices
By Anthony D. Romero

President Bush is lying to the American people.

Those are words that I have never uttered before in public. To make such a serious allegation against my country's leader is not something I do lightly.

Consider the President's words in Panama: "We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture."

As the President well knows, the sad fact for all Americans is that many of the interrogations we have conducted are not within the law. As many current and former government and military officials recently told PBS' Frontline, we have tortured - and even killed - prisoners in our custody.

Government documents obtained through our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit describe hundreds of incidents of torture and abuse in excruciating detail. It is clear that these are not the actions of a few rogue soldiers. The mere existence of thousands of government documents on torture underscores the systemic nature of the problem. There are also videos and photos showing torture and abuse that government lawyers are fighting like mad to suppress.

If the President really wished to solve the torture scandal that has marred America's standing at home and abroad, he would own up to what has happened. He would ask the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute the torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. He would not threaten to veto the legislation proposed by Senate Republicans led by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, which would ensure that no one is above the law, and no one - regardless of their office or rank - can order anyone else to break the rules and abuse detainees.

Holding high-level government officials accountable for torture and abuse is the only way to ensure that we will not repeat these mistakes. And upholding the rules of war will help ensure that no member of the U.S. military is subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment when they are captured by the enemy.

But our President's lies merely add insult to the very real injury that has already occurred.