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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 1 OctOber 2021

Tour of Wisconsin Army post reveals thankful, bored Afghans

water and the post offers eight self- English and volunteered to speak to
serve laundromats, but Norrie said reporters under Department of State
washing and drying clothes at home supervision told harrowing stories
is a bonding event for Afghans. about flying out of Kabul’s airport as
the old regime collapsed.
The sidewalks were covered with
children’s chalk drawings. Report- Khwaga Ghani, a 30-year-old produc-
ers were allowed to briefly observe er for National Public Radio, said she
a class in which Afghans of all ages was building a life in Kabul. She had a
were learning how to use English to house, a car and a tight-knit group of
buy something at a store. friends. She had to leave it all behind
when the Taliban took over, fleeing to
Adults carried bags of food home the airport and spending two nights
from the posts’ delis. Clusters of on the runway before she could get
men watched the reporters pass by a flight.
from the barracks’ porches, while
others watched through their win- “I was making a life, a living for my-
dows. Groups of children smiled and self,” she said. “I had to leave every-
laughed as the entourage passed. thing behind so I could stay alive.”

(AP) — Reporters were given a Questions about conditions at the Officials took reporters through a She has lined up a journalism fellow-
glimpse Thursday of Afghan ref- post have come to the forefront in clothing donation center packed with ship at the University of California-
ugees’ lives on a Wisconsin Army recent weeks, with Democratic U.S. Afghan women choosing things for Berkley and is simply waiting to be
post, getting to see the new arriv- Reps. Gwen Moore and Ilhan Omar their children to wear. Also on the released. She said she feels safe at Fort
als playing soccer with soldiers calling for an investigation after the tour was a health clinic and one of the McCoy — “I’m a grown-up girl, I can
and toting groceries to the bar- Wisconsin State Journal reported that post’s four cafeterias that are avail- take care of myself,” she said — and
racks where they’re being housed many Afghans hadn’t received new able to the evacuees. The facility re- that she has everything she needs, but
as they wait for their new lives in clothes and had to endure long lines sembled a high school cafeteria, with that the boredom is intense.
America to really begin. for food. Some Republicans, mean- rows of tables and chairs. The lunch
while, questioned whether the refu- entrée was chicken curry along with Sameer Amini, 36, had been a pro-
The U.S. Army and the Department gees were being properly vetted after bananas, oranges and other fruits. gram coordinator at the U.S. embas-
of State led a group of journalists on one of them was charged with hav- sy. He said he, his wife and their two
a tightly-controlled tour of Fort Mc- ing sexual contact with a minor and Military officials said the refugees children, ages 5 and 2, had to brave a
Coy, a training post about 150 miles another was charged with assaulting have been divided into eight “neigh- number of Taliban checkpoints to get
(241 kilometers) northwest of Mil- his wife. borhoods” that each have their own to the airport. They arrived to find
waukee. mosque. The Islamic Society of Mil- thousands of people on the runways.
Officials on Thursday took turns tell- waukee has donated Qurans, they They spent two days and two nights,
The fort is one of eight military in- ing reporters that all was well at the said. Post leaders have been meet- suffering sunburns and freezing after
stallations across the country that are post. They walked reporters between ing with refugee leadership councils nightfall, before they could get on a
temporarily housing the tens of thou- the rows of barracks housing the weekly, said Lt. Col. Joe Mickley. plane.
sands of Afghans who were forced to evacuees, stopping to watch a pickup
flee their homeland in August after soccer game between Afghans and The evacuees don’t want to live as He’s been offered a job as a State
the U.S. withdrew its forces from soldiers. Children were everywhere wards of the U.S. government and Department contractor in Arlington,
Afghanistan and the Taliban took — Brig. Gen. Christopher Norrie instead want to contribute to society, Virginia, but until he and his fam-
control. Nearly 13,000 were sent to said they make up nearly half the ref- he said. ily are allowed to leave Fort McCoy,
Fort McCoy, where they’ve been ac- ugees at the fort — and they wore all they’ll have nothing to do, he said.
climating to the U.S. and undergo- manner of clothing, from their native “They all see themselves as the next
ing background checks before federal garb to flip-flops, shorts and parkas. American dream, which is possible,” “(The post) is comfortable. It’s not
officials help them relocate to more Mickley said. a home but we have resources we
permanent homes. Families laid out clothing on fences need,” he said. “(But) just waiting is
to dry. The barracks have heat and hot A handful of refugees who speak boring.”

Case ends against man wrongly convicted of 5 kids’ deaths

(AP) — Murder charges but departed as a free man the 2006 trial, and jurors tion between 2000 and 2006
were dismissed Thursday with no restraints. didn’t know that jail infor- was “totally compromised “There is only one ethical
against a man who spent mants were given significant by misconduct,” McDonald and constitutional remedy,”
15 years in prison for the “It’s been a hard uphill battle. benefits for their testimony said. she said in dropping the case.
fire-related deaths of five ... The sun couldn’t shine on against Deering, McDonald
children in suburban De- not a brighter day,” Deering said.
troit, the climax of an in- said moments later as family
vestigation that found members clung to him on a Deering has insisted he was
misconduct by police and cloudless morning and other innocent in a fire that killed
prosecutors. Detroit-area men exonerated children in his neighborhood
of crimes stood nearby. in Royal Oak Township in
Juwan Deering will not face a 2000. No one could identify
second trial, Oakland County McDonald, who was elected him as being at the house.
prosecutor Karen McDon- in 2020, took a fresh look at Authorities at the time said
ald said. A judge granted her Deering’s case at the request the fire was revenge for un-
request to close the case a of the University of Michi- paid drug debts.
week after Deering’s convic- gan law school’s Innocence
tions and life sentences were Clinic. The prosecutor said a dozen
thrown out at her urging. law enforcement profession-
Favorable evidence, includ- als last week unanimously
Wearing a three-piece suit, ing statements by a fire sur- determined there was insuf-
Deering, 50, walked into vivor, was not shared with ficient evidence to tie Deer-
court shackled at the waist his defense lawyer before ing to the fire. The investiga-