Philippine massacre suspects face rebellion raps

SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines — Prosecutors drew up additional charges of rebellion Monday against members of a powerful southern clan suspected in the Philippines' worst political massacre, as troops uncovered more hidden weapons.

Civil rights groups were set to challenge at the Supreme Court President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's declaration of martial law in Maguindanao province, which authorized thousands of troops to make arrests without court warrants and crack down on the Ampatuan clan and its private army.

Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan's patriarch and former governor who has ruled unopposed for years, has been arrested with at least six other family members and about 60 followers on suspicion of planning and carrying out the Nov. 23 killing of 57 people — including 30 journalists and their staff — traveling in a convoy of a political rival. The Ampatuans have denied involvement.

Ampatuan's son, Andal Ampatuan Jr., who turned himself in last month, is the only one charged with multiple counts of murder. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said prosecutors would file murder charges against the other Ampatuans who were arrested over the weekend, as well as additional charges of rebellion for allegedly organizing armed resistance.

Thirty-nine firearms and crates of ammunition were dug up Sunday at a farm believed owned by the Ampatuans near the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak, army Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan said. Other stockpiles, including mortar shells, were retrieved last week outside the Ampatuans' compound. Officials said the weapons, some stamped with Defense Department markings, were enough to arm a battalion.

Army troops and police said they were pursuing about 4,000 armed followers of the Ampatuans, some reportedly massing in eight Maguindanao towns. Security forces sealed off Maguindanao's exit points and mounted checkpoints, police Director Andres Caro said.

Pangilinan told reporters the gunmen were capable of carrying out bombings, arson attacks and abductions.

The Ampatuans are notorious for running a large private army, many of them pro-government militia who are meant to be an auxiliary force to the military and police in battling insurgents and bandits.

The clan helped Arroyo win crucial votes from Maguindanao during 2004 elections, but the administration's party expelled them after the massacre.

Citing a breakdown in law and order and massing up of Ampatuan's supporters, Arroyo on late Friday imposed martial law in Maguindanao — the first use of military rule in the Philippines since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared it nationwide more than 30 years ago.

Pro-democracy advocates accused her of overreacting, and a group of human rights lawyers argues that there are insufficient grounds for martial law and plan to challenge it in the Supreme Court later Monday.

An Ampatuan ally, Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, filed a separate motion against martial law.

Arroyo sent a report on her martial law declaration to Congress, which will convene Tuesday to approve or reject it. Her allies dominate the lower house.

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez, Teresa Cerojano and Hrvoje Hranjski in Manila contributed to this report.

Suspect in Philippine massacre charged with murder

MANILA, Philippines — The heir of a powerful clan was charged Tuesday in connection with the Philippines' worst political massacre — an ambush in which 57 people, more than half journalists, were slaughtered.

Three witnesses, who escaped because their car was at the tail end of the election convoy that was attacked in a southern province Nov. 23 , said they saw Andal Ampatuan Jr. and about 100 gunmen, including police officers, stopping the cars, prosecutor Al Calica told The Associated Press.

Hours later, troops found bullet-riddled and hacked-up bodies near the highway sprawled in the grass and hastily buried with a backhoe in three mass graves.

Ampatuan turned himself in last week. He has denied the charges.

He is the scion of a clan allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that has ruled Maguindanao unopposed for years. His father — the family's patriarch — and six other family members also are considered suspects but have not been charged.

The massacre was a bloody prelude to elections scheduled for May. Campaign violence is relatively common in the Philippines — 130 died in the run-up to the last elections — but the brazen convoy attack was shocking for its ruthlessness and scale.

Arroyo has declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring province and ordered troops and police to confiscate unlicensed weapons and restore order. But few think the measures will go far enough in a lawless region notorious for political warlords that has been outside the central government's control for generations.

Prosecutors initially filed 25 counts of murder against Ampatuan in southern Cotabato city, whose regional trial court is nearest to the massacre site in Ampatuan township. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said she will ask the court to try the case elsewhere, fearing witnesses may become reluctant to testify over fears for their safety.

"The evidence is strong," Calica said, adding that at least 10 witnesses provided written testimonies linking Ampatuan to the killings.

The caravan was carrying 30 journalists and the wife, two sisters, an aunt and several supporters of Ampatuan's rival, Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao's Buluan township.

Mangudadatu had sent his relatives to file his candidacy papers to run for governor in the May elections because he said Ampatuan had threatened to chop him to pieces if he attempted to challenge the clan's ironclad control. Mangudadatu has said he believed female family members would not be harmed.

In a statement to prosecutors, Mangudadatu said his wife called him on a cell phone, saying her convoy had been blocked by about 100 gunmen led by Ampatuan, who was then approaching her.

"He slapped me," Mangudadatu quoted his wife as saying before the line went dead. Her body was later found peppered with 17 gunshot wounds, according to an autopsy report.

"The ghastly scenario during the retrieval of their bodies show the unspeakable horror they must have undergone as they were ... massacred," the prosecutors said in a case document submitted to the court. The AP obtained a copy of the document.

Authorities said earlier that they have taken six police officers into custody, including the Maguindanao provincial police chief and his deputy. Two inspectors among them were allegedly seen with Ampatuan during the massacre, said Erickson Velasquez, head of the police criminal investigation division.

One of the six, Chief Inspector Sukarno Adil Dicay, told investigators that he had stopped the convoy at a checkpoint for routine security checks along with 16 other policemen.

He said that Ampatuan, armed with a rifle, suddenly arrived with 100 gunmen wearing camouflage fatigues who robbed the people in the convoy of cell phones and other belongings. Dicay said that he was outnumbered but he pleaded with Ampatuan not to shoot the civilians.

Ampatuan and the gunmen herded the convoy away, Dicay said in a written statement, which was submitted to police officials.

He said that Ampatuan threatened to kill him and his policemen if they let any other vehicles through the checkpoint to follow them.

Prosecutors said that the killings were carefully planned and that more charges will follow. At least one witness alleged that the Ampatuan clan had gathered in the patriarch's mansion in the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak days before to plan the killings, said chief state prosecutor Jovencito Zuno.

The graves were dug in advance and a backhoe positioned to bury the bodies, prosecutors said.

The Ampatuans denied any responsibility in the killings in a rare news conference in Shariff Aguak on Sunday.

Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski, Teresa Cerojano and Oliver Teves contributed to this report.

Philippines' deadliest massacre tests government

A few miles (kilometers) off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.

Nearby, bodies were being laid out under banana leaves Tuesday as police — their faces covered against the stench — unearthed a mass grave containing 22 victims from Monday's ambush on an election caravan. The discovery brought the death toll to 46 — an unprecedented act of violence at the outset of the country's election season.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring southern province, sending extra troops and police to try to impose the rule of law.

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said.

Few think she will be successful in the impoverished, lawless region that has been outside the central government's reach for generations, and where warlords backed by private armies go by their own rules.

Authorities ended the search for bodies Wednesday. The final death toll included 18 Filipino journalists from regional newspapers, TV and radio stations who were accompanying family members and supporters of a gubernatorial candidate out to file his nomination papers for May 2010 elections.

The deaths were "the largest single massacre of journalists ever," according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the "heinous crime committed in the context of a local election campaign" and hoped that "no effort will be spared to bring justice and to hold the perpetrators accountable," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Dozens of gunmen intercepted the caravan as it traveled on a two-lane highway that cuts across vast open tracts of land and banana groves, police said. They took some of the people to the grassy area, where the killings started.

Authorities found 24 bullet-riddled bodies sprawled on the ground next to five abandoned vehicles.

Police, aided by a backhoe, worked most of Tuesday to extricate the bodies from the mass grave. All had been shot multiple times and were dumped on top of one another. One was a pregnant woman.

Grieving relatives helped identify their loved ones before they were given the bodies, covered by banana leaves, for burial.

In all, 21 women and 25 men died, said military spokesman Col. Jonathan Ponce.

The gubernatorial candidate, Ismael Mangudadatu, was not in the convoy because he had received death threats. He said he met with the defense secretary, national police chief and military commanders to demand justice and the immediate arrest and prosecution of the killers of his wife, two sisters and other relatives.

Mangudadatu said four witnesses in his protection, whom he refused to identify, told him the convoy was stopped by gunmen loyal to Andal Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor and rival, to prevent Mangudadatu's family from filing election papers.

"It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole (for the bodies)," Mangudadatu said.

He said there were reports from the area that the militia had been blocking the road for a few days.

Police said they were investigating reports that Ampatuan and dozens of policemen and pro-government militiamen were among the gunmen who blocked the convoy.

Maguindanao's acting governor is Sajid Ampatuan, another son of former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. The powerful Ampatuans, who have ruled the impoverished province unopposed since 2001, are expected to run again next year. The clan could not be reached for comment.

The family helped deliver votes for the Arroyo administration in 2004 elections. Human Rights Watch expressed concern Wednesday that the administration's relationship with the clan would hinder an impartial investigation.

Arroyo's peace adviser, Jesus Dureza, said he met Tuesday with Andal Ampatuan and received assurances that his family would cooperate in the probe.

It was not clear how far Arroyo's administration would go in trying to force the provincial warlords to give up their weapons and private armies.

Police said Maguindanao's provincial police chief and three other officers were relieved of duty and confined to camp after they were reported to have been with the militiamen who stopped the convoy.

Such militiamen are meant to act as an auxiliary force mobilized by the police or military to fight rebels and criminals, but often act as private enforcers of local warlords.

Much of the southern island of Mindanao, including Maguindanao province, used to be ruled by fiercely independent sultans who fought Spanish and American colonizers. The political dynasties of the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus behave in a much similar way — ruling by force, unopposed in their turfs with little outside interference.

Julkipli Wadi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said he doubted the national government's resolve in trimming the powers of political dynasties like the Ampatuans because they deliver votes during elections.

"Because of the absence of viable political institutions, powerful men are taking over," he said. "Big political forces and personalities in the national government are sustaining the warlords, especially during election time, because they rely on big families for their votes."

Obama says US, allies working on Iran nuclear deal

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama says the U.S. and its allies are working on ways to send a "clear message" to Iran on its nuclear program.

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Iran will not ship its low-enriched uranium out of the country for processing, again rejecting a U.N. plan aimed at thwarting any attempt by Iran to make nuclear weapons.

Obama said that over the next several weeks, the U.S. and its allies will work on developing a package of potential sanctions designed to pressure Iran to accept what Obama said is a fair offer.

Obama spoke at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, with President Lee Myung-bak (lee myuhng bahk).

IMF chief again says Chinese yuan should rise

BEIJING — International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Monday reiterated that a stronger yuan would help bolster China's economy, amid mounting pressure on Beijing to let the currency rise.

In a speech to a finance forum focused on rebalancing the world economy, Strauss-Kahn highlighted China's efforts to boost private consumption, and said a stronger currency was "part of the package of necessary reforms".

"Allowing the renminbi and other Asian currencies to rise would help increase the purchasing power of households, raise the labor share of income, and provide the right incentives to reorient investment," he said.

"Higher Chinese domestic demand, along with higher US saving, will help rebalance world demand and assure a healthier global economy for us all," he said, according to a copy of his speech received by AFP.

Strauss-Kahn -- whose two-day visit to China coincides with that of US President Barack Obama -- delivered a similar message Friday in Singapore ahead of a weekend summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.

Last week, finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum called for greater exchange rate flexibility, in what is widely seen as code for China to allow the yuan to strengthen against the dollar.

In a joint statement, they said APEC members should follow "monetary policies consistent with price stability in the context of market-oriented exchange rates that reflect underlying economic fundamentals".

The dollar's long decline is bad news for Asian exporters struggling to maintain competitiveness, particularly against Chinese rivals benefiting from the yuan's government-enforced stability.

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.

In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.

___

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross in New York City, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York City and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Maryland contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http://www.alavifoundation.org

Brazil, US urge talks in Venezuela, Colombia spat

CARACAS, Venezuela — Brazil and the U.S. urged Colombia and Venezuela on Tuesday to talk out their differences after Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez ordered his military to prepare for a possible war with his neighbor.

The push for diplomacy came as many in both Colombia and Venezuela dismissed Chavez's words as an attempt to distract attention from domestic problems, including the struggling economy and water shortages and power blackouts.

Chavez has warned that troops he ordered to the Colombian border should be ready for a possible conflict if the U.S. attempts to provoke a war between the South American countries. He cited a recent deal between Bogota and Washington giving U.S. troops greater access to Colombian military bases as a threat to regional stability.

Brazil's defense minister, Nelson Jobim, played down the risk of an armed conflict.

"We believe that everything can be resolved with dialogue," Jobim said in Brasilia. "I don't think the tension is going to increase; it's part of the rhetoric of the continent."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "We are very much aware of recent tensions along the Venezuelan-Colombia border."

"I certainly don't think this is about the United States," Crowley added. "But we certainly would encourage dialogue between Venezuela and Colombia and a peaceful resolution of the situation along their border."

The Organization of American States also called on Colombia and Venezuela to settle their problems through dialogue.

Chavez scoffed at Colombia's plans to file complaints with the OAS and U.N. Security Council in response to the instructions he gave to Venezuelan soldiers over the weekend.

"Now they are accusing me of calling for war," Chavez said in a televised speech Tuesday, denying his message to the military was meant as a threat. "They really have to be cynical to say that."

Tensions have escalated and trade has dropped dramatically since the diplomatic crisis erupted in July over the plan to grant U.S. military aircraft and warships expanded access to Colombian bases, including $46 million in construction at the Palanquero air base in Colombia's central Magdalena valley.

Colombia's government has sought to assuage Venezuela's concerns, saying U.S. troops would be operating solely on Colombian soil to help its military combat drug trafficking and leftist rebels. But critics of U.S. policies argue the accord is meant to help Washington expand its influence and interference in the region.

Many in Venezuela oppose the idea of a war with Colombia and view the suggestion of a conflict as pure bluster.

A poll released Tuesday by the Caracas-based polling firm Datanalisis found that nearly 80 percent of Venezuelans said they would disagree with Chavez declaring war on Colombia. The poll consulted 1,300 people and was completed last month, before Chavez's latest remarks. The poll had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

That and other surveys have shown a recent decline in Chavez's popularity as the country copes with its economic woes and other problems.

"It's always more interesting to get the people talking about a war with Colombia than to get them talking about issues like inflation, water problems or electricity problems," pollster Luis Vicente Leon of Datanalisis told The Associated Press.

The biggest effect of the crisis so far has been the fall in trade. The Colombian-Venezuelan chamber of commerce estimates bilateral trade this year could fall 20 percent from 2008, to around $4.5 billion.

Associated Press Writer Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this report.

Troops kill 12 Taliban militants in NW Pakistan: army

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's military said Saturday it had killed 12 Taliban militants as government troops pressed a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Some 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships launched a fierce air and ground offensive into the northwest region three weeks ago and the military has since claimed a series of successes.

It said troops on Friday penetrated into Makin, the hometown of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud who was killed along with some of his family members in a missile strike fired by a US drone on August 5.

Security forces were also consolidating their positions at Sararogha and its surrounding heights in the rugged mountainous region, the military's media wing said in a statement.

"In last 24 hours, 12 terrorists have been killed, and five soldiers including two officers were injured," the statement said.

The strategic town of Sararogha, was a former operational base of Mehsud.

Security forces also captured a 30-feet (10-metre) long tunnel and "plenty of ammunition has been discovered and destroyed" it said.

Pakistan, vowing to crush Tehreek-e-Taliban in the region, said so far 458 Taliban fighters and 42 troops had been killed in the offensive.

The casualty figures cannot be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers are barred from the area.

South Waziristan has been dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley. In July, the government declared the offensive a success but sporadic outbreaks of violence have continued in the valley.

The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people and the the United Nations has urged Pakistan to ensure safety and security of civilians during the operation.

Report: Kidnap suspect improperly supervised

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A state report released Wednesday blasts corrections officials for missing chances to catch the sex offender accused of holding Jaycee Dugard captive in his backyard for 18 years.

The 45-page report by the state inspector general paints a heartbreaking picture of overlooked opportunities to rescue Dugard, but also contains new details of the now 29-year-old's first interactions with law enforcement after her captivity.

It says Dugard repeatedly tried to conceal her identity in the hours before it was revealed, telling authorities she was hiding from an abusive husband in Minnesota and defending Phillip Garrido, the man now charged in her abduction and rape.

Garrido and his wife, Nancy, have pleaded not guilty to 29 counts related to 1991 Dugard's abduction, rape and imprisonment.

Inspector General David Shaw, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to monitor the prison system, said the failures by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began almost immediately after the state took control in 1999 of Garrido, who had been convicted in 1977 of raping and kidnapping a 25-year-old woman. He was previously under federal supervision.

They included neglecting to interview Garrido's neighbors or to investigate the utility wires running from his Antioch house to the secret backyard compound where Dugard and her daughters are said to have lived. They also included temporarily misclassifying Garrido as a low-risk offender.

Such mistakes by the department resulted "in the continued confinement and victimization of Jaycee and her two daughters," Shaw said.

Dugard's identity was discovered when she and her daughters, ages 12 and 15, who were fathered by Garrido, accompanied Garrido and his wife to his parole agent's office. Dugard said her name was Alyssa. The report said investigators grew suspicious of the Dugard and children's relationship to Garrido and separated them into different rooms.

Unbeknownst to Dugard, Garrido told another agent that Dugard and the girls were his nieces.

Confronted about the inconsistencies, Dugard "explained that she was from Minnesota and had been hiding for five years from an abusive husband, the report said. "She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information."

Garrido eventually told the parole agent he had kidnapped and raped Dugard, the report said, an account later confirmed by Dugard, who then identified herself.

According to the report, Dugard told investigators before she identified herself that she knew Garrido was a convicted sex offender, but that he was a changed man. She called him "a great person who was good with her kids."

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said Wednesday he deeply regretted if the mistakes made by his department kept Dugard in captivity for even one additional day.

He said he could not comment for privacy reasons on whether any disciplinary actions would be taken against the parole officers who oversaw Garrido.

A statement issued by Dugard's lawyer McGregor Scott said the report "clearly sets out many missed opportunities to bring a much earlier end to the nightmare of Jaycee Dugard and her family."

It also said Dugard is "fully committed" to holding Garrido accountable for his alleged crimes.

The report said for almost the entire first year he was in the California parole system, Garrido was not visited by a parole agent. It said he also was passed over between June 2001 and July 2002, and received only one visit between June 2004 and August 2005.

Parole supervisors also failed to detect and address the inadequate oversight, the report said.

"Put another way, 90 percent of the time the department's oversight of Garrido lacked required actions," the inspector general said.

Garrido was required to register as a sex offender because of the 1977 conviction. He was paroled in 1988, supervised by federal parole authorities.

In March 1999, the U.S. Parole Administration terminated Garrido's federal parole supervision and Nevada briefly took over until June 1999, when California began his supervision.

U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said he could not immediately comment on the report's findings or Garrido's case.

Shaw faulted the California department for not reviewing copies of Garrido's federal parole file that included information about a search a federal agent did of Garrido's backyard, including the secret tented area and a soundproof studio there.

Shaw said a parole agent also failed to adequately investigate the relationship between Garrido and a young girl seen by the agent during a home visit.

As a parolee, Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his movements. But the report said agents ignored alerts about violations. A review of the GPS information found that over a 32-day period from July 23, 2009, to August 23, 2009, he traveled outside of the 25-mile zone seven times.

Shaw recommended that corrections officials require active GPS monitoring of all sex offenders, so that agents get near real-time updates on the whereabouts of the parolees.

Cate, the corrections secretary, said that requirement would be adopted.

Associated Press Writers Lisa Leff and Jason Dearen in San Francisco also contributed to this report.

On the Net:

• Office of the Inspector General,: http://oig.ca.gov/

Obama: Hiring last to come as economy rebounds

WASHINGTON — As the prospect of double-digit unemployment looms, President Barack Obama on Monday sought to set expectations for the nation, saying job losses will likely roll on "for weeks and months to come" because hiring always lags behind in an economic rebound.

"We just are not where we need to be yet," Obama said as he met with a panel of economic advisers. "We've got a long way to go."

Unemployment hit a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September. The next monthly reports come out Friday and could show it topping 10 percent.

Still, the economy is growing again. Reports out Monday show improvement in manufacturing, construction and contracts to buy homes.

Obama said that building a sustainable economy and getting people back to work remain his "administration's overriding focus." Obama helped push through a $787 billion economic stimulus package earlier this year, and he says the administration, Congress and the private sector must take more bold steps to help.

Obama spoke as he met with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board. The session was open to reporters and streamed live on the White House Web site.

Obama added that the U.S. must break out of a "debilitating gridlock on trade policy," by ending the false choice between a wide-open, freewheeling import policy or fearful, protectionist approach to trade. He called for a more balanced policy of letting the world know America will compete and trade fairly.

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov