US will review death of student - Boston Globe

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Hours after a New York State grand jury declined yesterday to indict any of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Pace University student Danroy “D.J.’’ Henry Jr., of Easton, the US Department of Justice announced plans to examine the case.

“Consistent with our practice in cases of this kind, the Department of Justice will review all of the available evidence with respect to the death of Danroy Henry Jr., including the evidence available to the Westchester County district attorney’s office, to determine whether there were any violations of the federal criminal civil rights laws,’’ said Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Federal officials had been urged to review the case by Henry’s family, and Senator Scott Brown has called for a thorough investigation. The Justice Department, which had been monitoring the case, was awaiting the results of the state and local investigation before beginning its own.

Davis’s announcement followed a statement from Janet DiFiore, the Westchester, N.Y., district attorney, in which she said that after “due deliberation on the evidence presented in this matter, the grand jury found that there was no reasonable cause to vote an indictment.’’

The finding of “no true bill’’ indicates that the grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by police who fatally shot Henry during the early morning hours of Oct. 17 outside a bar at a shopping center in Mount Pleasant, about 30 miles north of New York City.

The decision angered Henry’s family, whose members are pursuing a $120 million lawsuit against the Town of Mount Pleasant and Village of Pleasantville, N.Y.

“There are no words to express our disappointment in the grand jury’s decision,’’ Henry’s father, Danroy Henry Sr., said in a statement yesterday.

“Conclusions appear to have been drawn at the outset,’’ he said, “and the entire process appears now to have been nothing short of an attempt to create better optics for the DA and her office.’’

The district attorney said the grand jury, which began hearing testimony Jan. 10, had made “an exhaustive and thorough review of the evidence’’ that included appearances by 85 witnesses and more than 100 exhibits.

The Henry family members and their New York civil rights lawyer, Michael Sussman, have long questioned why local police were allowed to investigate a shooting by one of their own officers. The case has been investigated by New York State Police and local officers, along with the district attorney.

A lawyer for Pleasantville Officer Aaron Hess, who has acknowledged shooting at Henry, said that Henry was responsible for his own death and that Hess and his family were grateful for the grand jury’s decision.

“The loss of life that occurred that morning is regrettable and tragic, but any reasonable view of the evidence as to what took place that night demands recognition of the fact that Aaron Hess acted properly and D.J. Henry did not,’’ John K. Grant, Hess’s lawyer, said. “Sometimes the truth is painful, and in this case the painful truth is that D.J. Henry brought about his own death. Lost has been the fact that Aaron Hess too is a good and decent human being, who went to work that night to help keep his community safe.’’

Before that statement was issued, the elder Henry said: “This process is most analogous to a person committing a crime which their siblings investigate and for which their closest relatives determine their punishment. All the while the crime victim is left in the dark until the family decides how [to] handle the misdeed of their own.’’

During a fiery conference call with reporters shortly after the decision, Sussman also questioned the impartiality of the local district attorney, who works closely with local police.

Sussman said that the grand jury process is heavily weighted toward the prosecution and that indictments would have come down if prosecutors were truly seeking them.

“A district attorney can indict a ham sandwich,’’ Sussman said, quoting a 1985 New York appellate court judge’s comments on the grand jury process.

Speaking of police and prosecutors, he declared: “To say they rely on each other is to say that the fetus relies upon the mother.’’

Sussman called the shooting “an orgy of violence directed toward students.’’

Police responded to the bar where many students had gathered after the homecoming game between Pace and Stonehill College. Henry, 20, a junior, was shot after he hit two officers with his car after refusing to stop, police allege.

Conflicting reports have surfaced from witnesses, who have said Henry was trying to move his car at the request of a police officer. A police officer mounted the hood and fired repeatedly through the front windshield, killing Henry.

The elder Henry also accused prosecutors of softballing the grand jury, not aggressively pursuing an indictment against the officers who shot his son, who played on the Pace football team.

“We firmly believe that we have a good handle on what happened,’’ he said. “We never believed for a second that this district attorney was pursuing an indictment, so we already contemplated going around her, which is why we’re going to the Justice Department.’’

The officers involved in the shooting have taken criticism from police specialists, who have said that there is no training module in policing that involves jumping on a moving car and firing at the driver. In a notice of claim filed with both communities in December, Sussman alleged that police were improperly trained and unqualified to serve as armed officers.

While Sussman said he was confident the whole story will come out during the coming civil lawsuit, he said yesterday’s ruling was a reminder of racial inequity in the criminal justice system. Henry was black, and the officers who shot him are white.

“We have no lack of confidence in our ability, but the criminal justice system is supposed to be here for every American, and today is a sign that it’s not, regardless of who’s president of the United States,’’ Sussman said.

“To me, it sends a clear message to every parent of color who has a child away at college that they better be darn worried if something happens to them.’’

Bonita E. Zelman, a New York civil rights attorney lawyer representing five other Pace students, also criticized yesterday’s finding. “No citizen should accept a murder committed by anyone, certainly not a murder committed by a person sworn to protect the public good,’’ Henry’s father said.

Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report. John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

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IBM's Watson bores as 'Jeopardy' big shot Sherlock - CNET

Watching IBM's Watson supercomputer make its debut tonight on "Jeopardy," one thought dominated: why, oh, why did they make him sound like Hal's diffident nephew?

This was the future freaks' big chance to make themselves acceptable to the human race. This was national television.

Watson had been created by human beings who pride themselves in their ability to teach a machine, rather than a child, to be as smart as they are. So why did they not think about giving Watson a little character? A shock of long, green hair, perhaps. Oversize purple ears would have been a plus.

At the worst, a voice resembling Morgan Freeman with a lisp would have been welcome.

Instead, this technological Trojan Horse presented himself to a nationwide audience with all the presence of boiled soot.

To be fair, it wasn't even Watson before the cameras. It was an avatar created to represent him, as his vast bulk and din wouldn't have made this a TV event for the aged, never mind the ages.

I understand that many scientists will have felt entirely giddy at the idea that a computer could compete against two "Jeopardy" superstars: a nice man from Seattle and an equally nice man who used to live in Pennsylvania but is now is hoping to be a TV star in LA.

But if this is the future, some might wish to google details of that elegant euthanasia clinic in Switzerland.

Watson performed very well. If, by performance, you mean getting quite a lot of "Jeopardy" conundrums correct.

Watson in rehearsals. He's the one in the middle.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET)

Former "Jeopardy" champion Ken Jennings, the man with a preacher's side parting and the remnants of Conan's ginger hair, stood transfixed as Watson beat him to question after question, answer after answer.

However, this is a best of three. And Jennings and fellow humanoid competitor Brad Rutter allowed the machine to strut its stuff. They knew he had to falter. This machine had never seen the bright lights before.

Perhaps sweating backstage while his avatar faced the orchestra, Watson suddenly managed to repeat one of Jennings' wrong answers.

"No, Ken said that," explained Alex Trebek, the professorial host of "Jeopardy."

If Watson had wanted to endear himself to the world, his programmers might have given him a line like: "Silly, me. I'm just a stupid ole' piece of metal."

Instead, he stood there like a nerd who's been looking for the local chess club and has stumbled into the Playboy mansion.

This first show was a little stunted, as Trebek spent considerable minutes explaining to the audience why the less familiar contestant was less expressive than some but more expensive than all.

It was a fine ad for the forthcoming IBM empire, though those with eyes for these things would have been more warmed by the footage of IBM's engineers preparing for Watson's big day. Most of them had PCs, but one was definitely stroking a Mac.

Watson's dilemma, which became increasingly clear as the show went on, was that he has to have a certain level of probability before pressing his button. Machines don't guess. That would be far too blessedly human.

The mean-spirited (i.e. excessively human) might have rejoiced on one particular exchange.

The contestants were asked to find the question to: "From the Latin for end, this is where trains can also originate."

Watson, still impassive, but allegedly 97 percent confident (his confidence levels were shown on screen when the clues were given), replied: "What is finis?" He should have considered terminus.

This was only the beginning. Tomorrow is Double and Finis Jeopardy. Wednesday, there's more. Even now, Watson is tied with Rutter on $5,000 and $3,000 ahead of the mesmerizing Jennings.

Can this possibly end well?

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Subway slash victim's harrowing tale: 'I can't die on this train' - New York Post

Joseph Lozito, blood pouring from a gaping slash on his head, had a harsh warning for Brooklyn butcher Maksim Gelman after taking him down aboard a packed No. 3 train .

"You better hope I f---ing die, because I’m going to kill you if I don’t," he screamed as two hero cops subdued the 23-year-old accused killer, who allegedly stabbed three people to death and fatally ran another down during a blood-soaked 28-hour crime spree Friday and Saturday.

MADMAN'S RANT: 'SHE HAD TO DIE'

STALKER COULDN'T TAKE NO FOR ANSWER

TIMELINE: GELMAN'S 28-HOUR TRAIL OF CARNAGE

Joseph Lozito, 40, was attacked by alleged murder-rampage madman Maksim Gelman on a No. 3 train.

Lozito, speaking today from his hospital bed at Bellevue, gave The Post a harrowing account of his brush with death as he came face to face with the drug-addled psycho.

Lozito, a married father of two boys age 7 and 10, said he was sitting on the train on his regular commute from suburban Philadelphia to his box office job at Avery Fisher Hall when Gelman caught his eye.

"I was on the seat right near the door (to the motorman’s compartment). This guy walked by and he looked creepy. He looked shady," said Lozito, a burly 40-year-old who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 265.

The suspect tapped on the motorman’s door. Transit cops were inside, and Officer Terrence Howell asked "Who are you? " recalled Lozito, his wife Andrea by his side.

"He said ‘Police! Police!’ and the cop said ‘No you’re not,’ " Lozito said. "He’s two or three feet away from me, and he pulls this knife out, looks me in the eye and says ‘You’re gonna die! You’re gonna die!’ And he lunged at me with the knife."

Gelman swung wildly and stabbed Lozito on the back of the head. As Gelman drew his arm back for what might have been a fatal cut, Lozito saw an opening.

"There was a split second, as soon as I saw his arm go back, I knew it was my chance to move. I tried to take him down with a wrestling move called a single leg takedown, but it ended up more like a football tackle," Lozito said.

As the pair scuffled, Howell and Officer Tamara Taylor sprang into action, with Howell jumping on Gelman and Taylor grabbing the blood-smeared carving knife, one of six the suspect carried during the violent rampage.

"I was begging everybody, cops and passengers, to get me off the train. I said ‘I got a wife and two kids, I can’t die on this train,’ " he said.

One passenger applied pressure to his head wound to stanch the flow of blood.

"I owe him a debt of gratitude. To me, he’s the reason I’m alive," he said.

Despite his wounds, a courageous Lozito said he was glad Gelman targeted him.

"I’m glad he didn’t go after a child, or after a woman, or after an elderly person, because I can defend myself," he said.

Gelman, who has a lawyer and is not talking to the police, was expected to be arraigned later today. The Brooklyn DA’s office said he would be charged with four counts of second-degree murder, single counts of first-degree and second-degree assault and three counts of counts of first-degree robbery.

Another victim, Arty DiCrescento, told The Post today he’s lucky to be alive, but it was pure bad luck that put him in the Gelman’s path in the middle of his murderous rampage.

"I’m lucky in one sense," he said today from his hospital bed at Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center. "But in another sense, I never should have been there and it never should have happened."

An angry DiCrescento, 60, said it was clear to him that the madman who hacked three people to death, fatally mowed down another and stabbed three more was out for blood.

"He’ll probably use the insanity defense but it was premeditated. He went after three people he knew first," said the burly DiCrescento, his hands and wrists bandaged and a large bruise on his neck.

DiCrescento was double-parked in his Pontiac Bonneville on E. 24th Street in Brooklyn Friday afternoon when Gelman, who’d already allegedly fatally stabbed his stepfather Alexsandry Kuznetsov, 54, a one-time date Yelena Bulchenko, 20, and her mother Anna, 56, pulled one of six kitchen knives he was carrying and stabbed him in the chest.

Gelman then sped off in DiCrescento’s car and mowed down Steve Tannenbaum, 60 , who was crossing Ocean Avenue near Avenue R. Tannenbaum later died at Kings County Hospital.

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Tehran Beats Back New Protests - Wall Street Journal

Iranian police used tear gas and electric prods to crack down on the country's biggest antigovernment protests in at least a year, as demonstrators buoyed by activism across the Middle East returned to the country's streets by the tens of thousands Monday.

European Pressphoto Agency Iranian demonstrators clash with Iranian riot-police during a demonstration in Tehran. The opposition reported that tear gas had been fired near Tehran's University and Azadi Square.

The day of planned antigovernment rallies began largely peacefully, according to witnesses, with protesters marching silently or sitting and chanting. But as demonstrators' ranks swelled, police and antiriot forces lined the streets, ordered shops to shut down and responded at times with force, according to witnesses and opposition websites, in a repeat of the official crackdown that helped snuff out months of spirited opposition rallies a year ago.

By day's end, online videos showed garbage bins on fire, protesters throwing rocks at the police and crowds clashing with motorcycle-mounted members of the pro-regime Basij militia.

Thousands of Iranians gathered in several locations across Tehran Monday, heeding calls in recent days by opposition leaders to demonstrate in solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters. Farnaz Fassihi has details.

Monday's protests come as calls for regime change have led to the popular ousters of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. They mark a broadening from Iranian rallies that drew hundreds of thousands through 2009 and early 2010.

Those rallies targeted what opposition leaders said was a flawed presidential election that they say unfairly returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Monday's protests, by comparison, demanded that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the core of power in the Islamic Republic, step down.

"Mubarak! Ben Ali! It's now the turn for Seyed Ali!" people chanted, according to witnesses and videos, referring to the country's spiritual head.

In Tehran's Enghelab Avenue, the main route for the rally, a crowd of young men and women on Monday evening stomped on a giant banner depicting Mr. Khamenei and set it on fire, a sign of deepest disrespect in the Muslim world. Videos of the scene showed crowds cheering in response.

Iran's government and its opposition alike have sought to identify themselves with the mood of change sweeping the Middle East. Iranian officials sought to paint this year's Arab revolts as Islamic uprisings like the Iranian revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi more than 30 years ago.

Iran's opposition protesters, meanwhile, have renewed their challenge to the government, emboldened by rallies led by a similar cadre of educated, tech-savvy youth seeking better economic opportunity and more political freedoms.

Hussein Malla/Associated Press An Egyptian police officer, center, confronted anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo Monday.

Those who saw the rallies in Tehran placed the number of protesters in the capital in the tens of thousands. Witnesses in the cities of Mashad, Isfahan and Tabriz saw crowds they estimated at thousands of demonstrators each, with blog reports and other online dispatches placing overall participation in such cities at over 10,000 each.

Iranian officials have all but banned reporting on anti-regime protests, making it difficult to estimate not only the size of crowds, but the number of casualties, fatalities and arrests.

Iran's protests coincided with a visit Monday by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who briefly addressed the unrest sweeping the Mideast at a joint press conference with Mr. Ahmadinejad. "We see that sometimes when the leaders and heads of countries do not pay attention to the nations' demands, the people themselves take action," Mr. Gul said. He didn't mention Iran.

Iranian officials didn't comment on Monday's protests. The Fars News Agency, affiliated with the country's Revolutionary Guards, reported that a "group of thugs" commissioned by the U.S. and Israel had taken to the streets to cause riots. Fars News said protestors had shot and killed one person and injured several others.

WSJ's Charles Levinson and Jerry Seib report on how public protests in Egypt have sparked protests throughout the Middle East, namely Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, Yemen and Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday charged Tehran's leadership with hypocrisy following its stated support for Egyptian protesters.

Iran's government "over the last three weeks has constantly hailed what went on in Egypt, and now, when given the opportunity to afford their people the same rights…once again illustrate their true nature," Mrs. Clinton told reporters in Washington. "We wish the opposition and the brave people in the streets across cities in Iran the same opportunity that they saw their Egyptian counterparts seize in the last week."

To support Iranian protestors, the State Department began using social media, particularly Twitter—sending its messages, for the first time, in Farsi—in calling on Iran's government to allow protestors to freely assemble and communicate.

Separately, an online collective known as "Anonymous" said it had launched so-called denial of service attacks on a number of high-profile Iranian government sites. In a DOS attack, computers flood a server to prevent it from displaying a web page.

The group, which has attacked a number of corporate and other websites in apparent retaliation for moves against the document-leaking organization WikiLeaks, targeted the websites of Iran's state news broadcaster and the website of President Ahmadinejad, among others. It is unclear how successful the attacks were, but those two sites weren't accessible late Monday.

This year's uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have inspired populations across the Middle East, showing how rulers once thought invulnerable could be toppled in a wave of popular discontent. Iran's regime has so far provided a counterexample, as it has shown less reluctance to take a violent line against its people. Opposition groups and human-rights organizations say more than 100 people were killed and more than 5,000 jailed in Iran's demonstrations of late 2009 and early 2010.

Opposition leaders in Iran started with relatively modest goals after the 2009 election, including nullifying the election results, which they said were rigged. Iranian officials said the results reflected the will of the people.

Now, analysts say, revolts in Egypt and Tunisia have galvanized Iranian protesters around the goal of regime change. "It's very clear that we are now way beyond a post-election crisis," said Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University. "People are going after the regime."

Monday's protests began peacefully in the early afternoon as men and women streamed on foot along pre-designated routes in multiple cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Mashad and Shiraz. Drivers honked in support. Shopkeepers waved the victory sign.

In response, the government deployed heavy security. Cellphone and text-messaging service was down along the protest routes, Iranians reported.

As the afternoon waned, crowd swelled and began chanting against Mr. Khamenei, according to eyewitnesses and reports posted on the Internet. Security forces attacked people with electric prods and tear gas. Protesters ran and hid, and then regrouped defiantly a few feet away.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Turkey's Gul, left with Ahmadinejad, said Monday that leaders should pay attention to their peoples' demands.

One witness described a scene in which a flower-decorated car in a bridal convoy became stuck in the protests. With security forces in pursuit of demonstrators, a bride in full regalia stepped out of the car and helped shove protesters inside to protect them, this person said.

Witnesses said the plain-clothes Basij militia were dispatched on motorbikes and vans later in the evening. They took position in side streets and beat protesters with sticks and batons, witnesses said.

Various observers reported several injuries and arrests. Their accounts weren't possible to verify.

"I saw a young woman thrown to the sidewalk, her head split open and she was bleeding, but the guy kept kicking her," a young man from Tehran said via Internet chat.

A young female activist said by telephone from the city of Isfahan that plain-clothes Basij militia had attacked a group of young men and women and dragged them into a parking lot on Revolution Avenue. They locked the gate and began beating them with wooden sticks and electric batons as the protesters fell to the ground and screamed, the activist said.

"Everyone was terrified and we felt helpless. All we could do was shout 'Death to the Dictator,' but the police chased us," said the activist.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had called the protest and vowed to participate. But they were put under house arrest all day, according to opposition web sites. When Mr. Mousavi and his wife attempted to leave the house, security forces stopped them, and blocked their street with multiple police cars, according to the website.

As darkness fell on Tehran, the city was rocked again by the chants from residents on rooftops across the capital: "God is great," and "Death to the dictator," according to witnesses. The Facebook page of the protest, 25 Bahman, said it would soon announce further plans for demonstrations in the following days.

—Jay Solomon in Washington and Cassell Bryan-Low in London contributed to this article.

Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com

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UN urges permanent cease-fire over Thai-Cambodian border dispute+ - RealClearPolitics

February 14, 2011 The Associated Press

(Kyodo) _ The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Monday over recent armed clashes between Cambodian and Thai forces at the border between the countries and called on both sides to establish a "permanent" cease-fire.

The council members "called on the two sides to display maximum restraint and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation" and "further urged the parties to establish a permanent cease-fire," said a statement issued after the day's closed-door meeting convened at the request of Cambodia.

The members also urged the two countries to "resolve the situation peacefully and through effective dialogue," according to the statement.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and their Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa, who was invited in his capacity as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, met with the 15-member council.

"The Security Council meeting aimed at supporting bilateral efforts and regional efforts, mediation and facilitation efforts," Brazilian Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, who is serving as the council president of the month, told reporters.

She also gave the council's backing to an upcoming meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers slated for Feb. 22 in Jakarta to discuss the border conflict.

"The idea is to work in synergy with regional efforts and right now regional efforts are in full force," the president added.

Natalegawa emphasized the common goal of the council in seeking ways to ensure the resolution of the contentious issue "peacefully through dialogue and negotiations."

The ASEAN chairman said the situation must ultimately be solved by the two countries, but noted there was room for regional groups to help resolve the issue.

"Obviously this is a matter that will have to be resolved in the final analysis bilaterally between the two sides, but it does not mean that there is not a space and role for regional countries to play," he said.

After the meeting, Natalegawa said he felt "far more optimistic than I was before about where we were."

Thailand has accused Cambodia of trying to internationalize the bilateral dispute as Phnom Penh had sent a letter to the Security Council asking for it to convene an urgent meeting and to consider sending peacekeepers to the Thai-Cambodian border.

Bangkok had also sent to the council a letter regarding its position on the conflict over land surrounding the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple, a World Heritage site that the international court in 1962 ruled belongs to Cambodia. Since it was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2008, several rounds of border clashes have occurred.

In remarks to the council, Hor Namhong called the attacks carried out Feb. 4 to 7 a "war of aggression against Cambodia committed by Thailand" and stressed the need to have U.N. observers, peacekeepers or at least a fact-finding mission to ensure no fresh hostilities begin.

He also claimed that the Thai side used cluster bombs despite a worldwide ban on the weapons.

"Of course we regret that the United Nations Security Council cannot send observers on the ground in order to guarantee a cease-fire, however, we agree with the press statement of the Security Council that the ASEAN chair, Indonesia, will play a very active role to help both parties to respect the cease-fire," the Cambodian foreign minister told reporters.

Denying that his country had used the cluster bombs and blaming the Cambodian side for provoking the attacks, Kasit also relayed the message that the issue was a bilateral one, which could be solved through time and political will.

Describing the issue as "a political problem" in his remarks to the council meeting, the Thai foreign minister said, "It will ultimately require political will on both sides to resolve it."

He also urged the council to back the continued bilateral process, which he said "can be strengthened by the support and encouragement from the ASEAN family."

At least eight people have so far been killed, nearly 100 others wounded and thousands of civilians displaced in the recent border row.

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Government contractors targeted Chamber of Commerce's critics - Los Angeles Times

Hoping to win a lucrative agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three data security contractors for federal defense and intelligence agencies developed a proposal to monitor and manipulate the chamber's left-leaning critics, according to recently released e-mail correspondence.

Employees of the firms compiled short dossiers on a few activists that included photographs, references to their families and charts of their relationships with other liberal and labor leaders.

A review of the correspondence, dating from late October through last week, suggested that the surveillance and intelligence gathering had begun only on a superficial basis in anticipation of a coming meeting with chamber officials.

The proposals were received by Hunton & Williams, a law firm that represents the chamber.

The firm, which also represents Bank of America, solicited a separate proposal from the security firms to help the bank deal with a threat by WikiLeaks, the international hacker organization, to release some of the bank's internal data.

Chamber officials as well as a spokesman for Bank of America said they knew nothing of the surveillance proposals until the e-mails were released Friday by Anonymous, a group that is sympathetic to WikiLeaks.

"No money, for any purpose, was paid to any of those three private security firms by the chamber, or by anyone on behalf of the chamber, including Hunton & Williams," the chamber said in a statement.

Hunton & Williams did not respond to requests for comment.

But in some of the e-mails, employees of the security firms and lawyers at Hunton & Williams refer to contacts they had made with the chamber about the proposed intelligence gathering.

The revelations in the e-mails triggered anxiety among some of those who were targeted.

"We are appalled at the allegations that have come to light in these e-mails," said Inga Skippings, communications director of the Service Employees International Union, some of whose allies were the subject of the intelligence gathering project. "The chamber should immediately come clean about its involvement with Hunton & Williams and the private security firms that allegedly planned these underhanded tactics."

ThinkProgress, an arm of the liberal Center for American Progress and a consistent critic of the chamber, first reported on the e-mails on its blog last week.

In a statement, the chamber accused its critics of "perpetrating a smear campaign by trying to create the illusion of a connection" between it and the security firms.

Officials for two of the security firms, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies, confirmed the authenticity of the e-mails sent by their employees but said top executives had no previous knowledge of them.

A spokeswoman for the third company, HBGary Federal, said executives could not address the details of the proposed work for Hunton & Williams, citing a nondisclosure agreement covering all parties.

Copies of the e-mails were provided to the Los Angeles Times by the labor and activist groups.

The correspondence shows that starting last fall, Hutton & Williams lawyers discussed with the security companies a project to be pitched to the chamber.

The three security firms, all of which are government contractors with secret clearances, proposed coming together as "Team Themis," apparently named after a Greek goddess of law and order, to monitor and possibly disrupt chamber opponents.

"Who better to develop a corporate information reconnaissance capability than companies that have been market leaders within the [Defense Department] and Intelligence Community," the companies wrote in a pitch to Hunton & Williams.

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