Vikings owner takes stadium case on the road

By MIKE KASZUBA STAR/TRIBUNE

AUSTIN, MINN. -- Making his most expansive comments yet on the need for a new stadium, Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf chastised politicians Tuesday for dodging an issue that "doesn't serve their political purposes" and said they should not "run away" from a project many Minnesotans want to see happen.

Calling himself not only the owner but the "guardian" of the state's most popular sports franchise, Wilf sat on a stool and answered a series of pointed questions, saying he favored a stadium with a retractable roof, did not think "retrofitting" the team's Metrodome home made sense and felt that politicians who ducked the stadium issue were not providing "an acceptable answer to us." Wilf seemed to save his bluntest remarks for the state's elected officials.

"It's unfortunate that many people don't want to get engaged in it because it doesn't serve their political purposes," Wilf told a sold-out Chamber of Commerce luncheon. "This team belongs to the fans and the people of Minnesota."

Wilf's comments were another sign that the team senses an opening to push the stadium debate, as players pile up wins on the football field. His comments came just days after the Vikings began feuding publicly with the Metrodome's owners over an unwelcome attempt to extend the team's lease past 2011.

While Wilf acknowledged that he was advocating for a stadium that would almost certainly need taxpayer money in a "difficult economy," he brushed aside the notion that Minnesotans might see it as another government bailout of a wealthy professional team owner.

"I think he's a great guy," said Ben Rushton, of Austin, moments after posing for a picture with Wilf. Rushton said he attends one Vikings game a year, but "I would vote yes" for a new stadium. It was "inevitable," he said, that taxpayer money would be involved. "It's going to cost [everybody] money, no matter what."

Monica Dahlen, a mother of three, arrived with purple-painted fingernails, each nail featuring a letter that spelled out "V-I-K-E-S, 4-E-V-E-R." Standing in line as a large crowd filed into a hall to await Wilf and the players, Dahlen said that "as far as taxes, I don't think that should be a problem."

Asked whether the Legislature needs to act in 2010, Wilf simply said that "we got to do it now," and said that "seeing the outcry" from fans regarding the Vikings showed that "the team is something that makes everyone's quality of life that much better." Wilf said the team has no plans to leave Minnesota.

In another departure, Wilf said he now wants a retractable roof stadium. The Vikings have said in the past that the team did not need a retractable roof -- a feature that would add an estimated $200 million to the price of a stadium. Not everyone was ready to join the stadium bandwagon Tuesday, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Brandon Talley, an Austin resident who listened to Wilf speak at the YMCA.

At the State Capitol, Pawlenty said the Vikings "need a solution in the not-too-distant future," but noted that the stadium "has to be put in the entire context of lots of other stuff." The governor said the state's next economic forecast, due next week, will show that "we are going to have much more of a challenge this session than people realize."

During much of his visit to Austin, Wilf appeared relaxed and at one point joked openly with Shiancoe about player salaries. Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, who sat near Wilf at the luncheon, said Wilf taking center stage would aid the Vikings' cause. "I think it certainly is not going to hurt him," Sparks said.

Accused 9/11 Mastermind to Face Civilian Trial in N.Y.

NEW YORK TIMES
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that it would prosecute Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, in a Manhattan federal courtroom, a decision that ignited a sharp political debate but took a step toward resolving one of the most pressing terrorism detention issues.

The decision, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., could mean one of the highest-profile and highest-security terrorism trials in history would be set just blocks from where hijackers for Al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. Mr. Holder said he would instruct prosecutors to seek death sentences for Mr. Mohammed and four accused Sept. 11 co-conspirators who would be tried alongside him.

The administration’s decision to bring five Sept. 11 detainees onto United States soil for prosecution in the civilian legal system drew immediate fire from members of Congress as well as relatives of victims and neighbors of the federal courthouse. They argued that Qaeda suspects did not deserve the protections afforded by the American criminal justice system, that bringing them into the United States would heighten the risk of another terrorist attack, that civilian trials increase the risk of disclosing classified information, and that if the detainees were acquitted they could be released into the population.

Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, questioned the wisdom of trying terrorism suspects in civilian courts, arguing that military commissions were more appropriate. But many other Democrats praised the move, noting that New York had been the setting for other high-profile terrorism trials — including the prosecution of Omar Abdul-Rahman, the “blind sheik” who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Attorney General Holder said he was confident that the men would be convicted, and other administration officials said they had ample legal authority to keep classified information secret.

The decision to prosecute some detainees in civilian court was a major policy shift from the Bush administration, which contended that suspected Al Qaeda members should not be treated like — nor given the rights of — ordinary criminals. It had charged the Sept. 11 defendants before a military commission at Guantánamo, which has a more flexible standard for evidence.

Civil-liberties and human-rights groups praised the decision to try the detainees in federal court. Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the announcement “an enormous victory for the rule of law.”

he prospect of prosecuting Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Nashiri has been particularly difficult because their defense lawyers are expected to argue that they were illegally tortured by the Central Intelligence Agency during their confinement. Both were subjected to waterboarding, a controlled drowning technique.

D.C. sniper mastermind executed

STAR/TRIBUNE
JARRATT, Va. - Sniper John Allen Muhammad refused to utter any last words as he was executed, taking to the grave answers about why and how he plotted the killings of 10 people that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks in October 2002.

The 48-year-old died by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched from behind glass, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond. Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

He never testified or explained why he masterminded the shootings with the help of a teenage accomplice. That left questions unanswered about why he methodically hunted people going about their daily chores, why he chose his victims, including a middle schooler on his way to class, and how many victims there were.

Muhammad stepped into Virginia's death chamber and within seconds was lying on a gurney, tapping his left foot, his arms spread wide with a needle dug into each. After the first of the three-drug lethal cocktail was administered, Muhammad blinked repeatedly and took about seven deep breaths. Within a minute, he was motionless.

Meyers' brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was sobering and "surreal." He said other witnesses expressed a range of feelings, including some who were overcome with emotion. "I would have liked him at some point in the process to take responsibility, to show remorse," Meyers said. "We didn't get any of that tonight."

Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station, said that when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad.