The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 4

Page A 4 The Buffalo NewsSaturday July 5 2003 Ik jMwW jfe '8k'y Sk jBx gXL 'f WsW' XXMi AB'1 S' Xs £4x IjEfx fiaLr Associated Press Members of the 2nd Battalion of the 501st Aviation Regiment line up for steaks grilled riday at their base at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq As Kurds join in marking July 4th US troops ponder role in Iraq By JIM KRANE Murders: An is die most difficult expert says Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraq US sol diers observing Independence Day held barbecues at bases across Iraq on riday and celebrated along with Kurdish allies who are also marking the anniversary of the es tablishment of their first govern ment Thousands of US troops chowed down at a gala barbecue at Baghdad International Airport where the US military trucked in 3000 pounds of sirloin 1000 cases of potato chips piles of corn on the cob and about a ton of charcoal This is what the ourth of July is all about us being said Army Spc Irvin Spencer 22 of Washington independence freedom It's us trying to get this country where we want it to or most it was the hottest In dependence Day ever with the mercury hitting 1 15 in Baghdad will never grill again on the ourth of said Sgt Joseph Cannings a 43 year old Dallas na tive as he flipped about 40 filet mignon steaks on an enormous days of hardship and trouble for the infidel Saddam loyalists have reported ly been telling Iraqis in villages and markets that he is preparing a comeback and would punish those who cooperate with the US occu pation US officials insist the at tacks on Americans are not cen trally organized but say the mys tery surrounding fate is serving as a rallying point for anti US forces believe the Americans are embarrassed by their failure to catch said Mohammed Abdel Karim a university lecturer from Tikrit hometown they will not catch him too good in this game" he added with a smile Washington put a $25 million bounty on Saddam on Thursday and offered $15 million for infor mation leading to the capture of ei ther of his sons Odai and Qusai The last reported sighting of Sad dam was April 9 in the Azamiyah neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad is the capital fell Insurgents have been staging ambushes against US forces for weeks but the latest cycle of attack and counterattack was larger in both magnitude and boldness our mortar rounds late Thurs day hit a US base near Balad 55 miles north of Baghdad wounding 18 soldiers said Maj Edward Bryja of the 3rd Corps Support Command lares and grill family will be eating lunch meat from now A huge line of soldiers snaked away from the barbecue pit want medium rare or care come on screamed Sgt Ronald Bretzke 37 of St Louis There were few takers American troops have been be set by a stepped up insurgency in recent weeks that has raised fears of a political and economic quag mire or soldiers at a 1st Armored Division barbecue at the Baghdad airport the attacks have been driv en home by stories of ambushes and tougher security measures think about it every day You know they want us said Spencer sitting on a concrete block with a pack of New port cigarettes tucked into his waistband get these peo ple here to help and they shoot at friend Spc Byron Ai ken 27 of Converse Texas said he had no problem putting his life on the line for the sake of the US mission here But he wished the Iraqis appreciated his work time for us to Aiken said an 16 rifle propped be tween his knees long as we tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts Two soldiers were seriously wounded with one undergoing sur gery in a hospital located on the base and another evacuated for treatment Bryja said Others suf fered cuts and small punctures from flying shrapnel and nine sol diers quickly went back to duty Army officials said is the first time the base was attacked and the first time seen said Sgt Grant Calease Still troops at the Balad base were going ahead with a July ourth barbecue A subsequent ambush of a mili tary patrol on a highway south of Balad sparked one of the most in tense clashes in the past two months with soldiers killing 1 1 Iraqis during three firefights that spanned eight hours military offi cials said None of the Americans was in jured Balad is part of an area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni triangle a region where Saddam drew support for his Sunni Muslim dominated government riday attackers detonated an explosive on a highway in Bagh dad's western outskirts wounding three passengers in a civilian car and two US soldiers traveling in a Humvee convoy according to an Associated Press photographer on the scene A sniper Thursday shot to death a US soldier manning the gun hatch of a Bradley fighting stay here keep dying They just want their country run by Troops said riday the pres sures of serving in Iraq and the immense summer heat made passing the holiday away from home even tougher miss my family and I wish I could be there with them today" said Sgt Jason Bramlett of ort Myers la on patrol in the Iraqi capital we have a job to do here The Iraqi people need our Meanwhile US soldiers were treated to a grand ourth of July celebration by grateful Kurds at a spectacular lakeside resort near Dokan in semiautonomous Kurdish north Kurds also cele brate July 4 as the anniversary of the establishment in 1992 of a Kurdish government thanks in part to a US British enforced no lly zone that kept forces out of the north Barham Salih a leader of the eastern half of the Kurdish enclave thanked US troops for ousting Saddam you have done is im he said vehicle outside the national muse um The Pentagon identified him as Pfc Edward Herrgott 20 of Shakopee Minn The insurgency has raised fears of a political and military quagmire just two months after President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1 At least 27 US troops have been killed in hostile fire since Bush's statement In the audiotape aired on Al jazeera the speaker claiming to be Saddam said he is still in Iraq my along with a small group of his He said he had been forced to the government as US troops moved in He also dismissed US claims that Iraq had biological chemical and possibly nuclear weaixins pro giams the main reason cited for war by the Bush administration aim to destroy Iraq and what they called the weapons of mass destruction was nothing but a cover for their said the speaker ask the invaders where are these weapons of mass destruc The tape was the first purported to be from Saddam since one re ceived May 5 by a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald who re ceived a 14 minute audiotape from two men in Baghdad In that tape the voice also claimed Io be speak ing from Iraq and called on citizens to oust American occupiers Continued from Page Al years has changed that require ment prosecutors said Last month Thuman pleaded guilty to manslaughter in death He will be sentenced soon the law to move on this that's like the mountain going to said Erie County District Attorney rank Clark are no longer precluded from a prosecution simply because we have physical remains We need physical evidence All we need is circumstantial evidence all we This altered legal landscape is giving new hope to families of vic tims such as Leichia family in Orchard Park or 18 years waited for some kind of answer about her death interested in truth and jus said Patrick Reilly want to find out what happened to Leichia for one thing so we can find her At the deepest level what the family wants to do is say a final goodbye to Leichia look forward to having a Catholic father said The Seifert precedent A fratricide that took place in WestermNew York in 1984 be came the basis for a landmark court case that paved the way for the last 20 years of changes in this area of the law Mark Seifert 31 of West Sene ca disappeared after being lured to a deserted country road in Ma chias on eb 13 1984 Police later discovered abandoned truck ablaze on the side of the road and they found some telling evidence at the scene: blood soaked wood chips fibers bone fragments and some tissue matter that could have come from a human or other large mammal body though was no where to be found At the close of a complicated court trial prosecutors won a con viction by convincing jurors that William Seifert older brother had lured him to the lone ly stretch of road and killed him The brothers were on the outs at the time the district of fice showed The prosecution used circum stantial evidence from the scene to convince the jury that Mark Seifert had indeed been murdered even though his body was never found and no confession was ever ob tained from William Seifert That case was the first major case in the state in which that hap pened and it has become a land mark in the law local case of William Sei fert pretty much established that you need a body to convict someone of said Charles Ewing a professor in the Uni versity at Buffalo School of Law who teaches the Seifert case in his classes In the Seifert case those rem nants of crime blood debris tis sue matter were enough In 1987 William Seifert was sentenced to 20 years to life He is still in prison Mark body remains missing Strange disappearances It happen often but people do disappear without a trace oul play can be involved murder even Sometimes a body turns up But every once in a while it or example: Three weeks ago a Baylor University basketball player Pat rick Dennchy disappeared under suspicious circumstances Police have no single suspect but are looking at some other Baylor stu dents including roommate as potential suspects Dennehy remains missing A dealer of rare books New York City resident Svetlana Aron ov was supposed to pick up her fa ther at the airport March 3 but in stead she disappeared Her body was spotted in the East River by a ferry captain in May Police have not determined how she died According to the district attor office recent case law in New Michael Thuman pleaded guilty last month in the 1986 murder of a 16 year old boy 1 Ku Mb I 1 X5 I i CHARLES LEWISBuffalo News York State expands upon the land mark Seifert verdict That includes a murder case from downstate which was upheld in the Supreme Appellate Division in January 2002 In that case Hasson Zarif was convicted and sentenced to 22 years to lite for killing his wife Even though a body was never recovered the court found that the circumstances surrounding the death pointed to homi cide Leichia Reilly's legacy Almost two years ago Patrick Reilly the former executive vice president of Marine Midland Bank in Buffalo found himself in the hospital with a health scare He was surprised to discover that he afraid of dying instead he was strangely happy he said thought might see Leichia It has been 18 years since Lei chia her name is pronounced disappeared and yet the Orchard Park home of her par ents Patrick and Suzanne brims with her presence Paintings and sketches Leichia created at Mount Mercy Academy adorn the walls Photos of the dark haired beauty rest on end ta bles A portrait photograph of Lei chia smiles down from one wall near photos of the two other children Leichia to her family will al ways be remembered for her liveli ness generous spirit artistic nature and sense of fun She would have been 39 this year of focusing on the last three minutes of her life which were horrible 1 focus on the beauty of her said Patrick Reilly who is active in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and sits on the boards of numerous charitable or ganizations I think about Leichia I think about what a won derful life she At bottom human beings have a visceral primal need to have the body of a dead loved one to bury Reactions like the Reilly family have gone through are understand able in this light said Pauline Boss a University of Minnesota profes sor and leading national expert on grief who defined the concept of which is what survivors go through when a family member dies but no remains are found going through the most difficult loss there is a loss that remains said Boss who worked with the families of the Sept 11 2001 victims in New York City as they suffered their own kind of ambiguous loss One time Patrick Reilly re membered when Leichia was 6 and the family still lived in West Seneca he spotted her pedaling her bicycle down Union Road That was a big no no The Reilly children weren't allowed on Union Road with their bikes Reilly confronted his daughter about her offense She replied: me That was a little girl who looks just like Reilly was laughing so hard he recalls that he had to leave the room That was the kind of girl Leichia Reilly was The district attorney's office is looking at the Reilly case in a fresh way now that changes in the law make it possible to prosecute mur der cases without physical remains So too are the state police who have investigated the case since Reilly went missing They are particularly motivated in this case police sources said because the man chiefly under investigation in the disappearance of Leichia Reilly is a former state trooper who still lives in Western New York The ex trooper was kicked off the force a few years after death for bad behavior unconnect ed to disappearance think they know who did said Clark the district attorney they been able to piece together the evidence to prove what is known about the case pieced together from state police sources the office and the Reilly family: Leichia Reilly went on Jan 30 1985 to the Pierce Arrow a popu lar nightspot at Center Road and Seneca Street in West Seneca She was wearing a black jumpsuit a black jacket with red trim and red shoes She carried a red purse Leichia arrived at the club with a girlfriend from her neighbor hood But the girlfriend stay at the club she left there Leichia have a ride home On the night of Jan 30 and ear ly morning of Jan 31 the two level club was packed with hundreds of people Many people saw Leichia there Leichia met a man an off du ty state trooper whom she knew ca sually in the chib They were seen talking and possibly dancing together Certain evidence shows that Leichia and the trooper walked out of the club together at close to 3 am About 45 minutes to an hour later the trooper returned to the bar where he rejoined some of his buddies Later he left and drove home to Lackawanna where he lived at the time The next day the trooper called in sick to work He was not seen that day As for Leichia Reilly she was never seen again No remains have ever been discovered Reilly case is said Capt George Brown head of the state police's bureau of crimi nal investigation been investi gated continuously by the state po inding evidence of re mains or garnering any other in formation about the case would be very helpful Brown said very difficult We lack a for lack of a better term we lack a dead he said body would help A confession Or infor mation that tends to confirm the facts we do Anyone who knows anything about disappearance or who knows anybody who might know something should call the state police Capt Brown said The numbers are 941 93110 or (585) 343 2200 The Talmon case he body of Duane Talmon Jr the Clarence teenager who was killed in a field in the town by an other teen also has never been re covered despite repeated searches olice had a confession Mi chael in 1986 and again this year But it still didn't help them locale the remains Thuman 46 said in his plea deal to manslaughter charges in June that he shot Talmon on Oct 30 197 1 during a fight over a drug deal human said he buried The body under a light cover of soil in a swampy area of North Amherst He was 18 at the time Police have continued to look for body One of the main problems with finding a body after so long is that the landscape changes and memories change said Clark Also he added bodies can be difficult to uncover outdoors worst enemy is Clark said mail: cvogel(abuffnemcnt Iraq: Saddam preparing a comeback? Continued from Page Al Archbishop: narrow selection criteria faulted Continued from Page Al bishops admitted molesting mi nors Pope John Paul II picked O'Malley as next arch bishop Tuesday Looking at church leaders around the country Catho lic observers say there were few other choices Editor Tom Roberts of National Catholic Reporter a newsweekly that has uncarlhed sex abuse scan dals since 1 '85 believes the past year pointed out how lacking in leadership the confer ence The Rev Richard McBrien an outspoken University of Notre Dame theologian agrees is little or no leadership talent in the hierarc hy he says Roberts and McBrien ate liber als who often goad the bishops but consul valines aie worried too I look around at the cur rent bishops and the ones like to see promoted 1 don't come up with too many admits Philip Lawler of the Catholic World News Internet service Russel! Shaw a longtime spokesman for the US conference says he came up with eight or generously 10" peo ple among the 279 active bishops qualified to handle Boston But Shaw says that doesn't mean the talent pool is shallower than a decade or a generation ago problems are much larger and more he says rid ding that the hierarchy brought this situation upon itself through mis handling abuse cases in years past Deal Hudson the conservative editor of Crisis magazine sees a of bishops with both the theological and people skills that are necessary to dig out from a sit uation rife with anger with division and with frankly Some might theorize that the steadily shrinking number of priests inevitably means fewer well qualified bishops but Catholic University sociologist Dean Hoge doubts that I logc says his own research in dicates that if celibacy became op tional there would be four times as many priesthood candidates and seminal ies would be full once again But he think that af fects the hierarchy becomes a bishop is not necessarily a matter of talent Church politics is he says In view John Paul and his advisers have severely lim ited the field naming only bishops for their uncritical loyalty Io the I loly See and their complete there a shortage of talent in the US McBrien asks Peter Steinfels author of the forthcoming book People Adrift: 'Hie Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in agrees that Rome's emphasis on making safe appointments has all sorts of people who have shown initiative and indepen dence of 1 le also thinks case raises a new danger choosing bishops just on their ability to deal with the sex abuse crisis without regard to other long term prob lems Hudson see papal loyal ty as a problem but says too many bishops are secretive and inaccessi ble They're to get on the phone and hard to get straight an swers he says has got to Associated Press Sister Joanna ernandes greets Bishop Sean O'Malley who visited Caritas St Elizabeth Medical Center last week after his appointment to head the Catholic Diocese of Boston.