Week 1-2

2/19/2015
THE DAILY BEAST
The Vaticans Gay Art Goes on Display - The Daily Beast

POLITICS
ENTERTAINMENT
WORLD
U.S. NEWS
TECH + HEALTH
READ
1 The Vaticans Ga
byJustinJones
2 How Prince Cha

byNicoHines
3 Planned Parenth
byEricFerrero
4 Copenhagen: IS
byChristopher
5 Three Months In
byAbbyHagla
PhotoIllustrationbyEmilLendof/TheDailyBeast
COMING OUT 01.18.15
The Vaticans Gay Art Goes on Display

JustinJones
As Pope Francis leads a softening of homophobic attitudes from within

the Vatican, tour groups will soon see the gaythemed art on display
there.
Its no secret that certain Renaissance artists never led a straight-and-narrow
lifestyle. Their sensual masterpieces reveal a laundry list of prostitution, sex
scandals and death by overindulgence.
Raphael supposedly died of sexual excess. Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio
were both accused of sodomy with their muse and models (young male
prostitutes). And Michelangelo professed his love and desires for men through
passionate love poems to Tommaso dei Cavalieri, an Italian nobleman.
Yet, until recently, the religious institutions that hold their glorified works of
art most dear refused to acknowledge it. After all, sexual tolerance isnt
something historically associated with the Catholic Church or Vaticans core
principles.
But, with the dawning of a new leader, everything has changed. Pope Francis
has, among other things (premarital sex, divorce), given a symbolic wink to the
LGBT communitymaybe hes okay with it, maybe hes not. But hes definitely
not passing judgment. Because lets be honest: who did they think were
snatching up all of those Hot Priests calendars anyway?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/18/the-vatican-s-gay-art-goes-on-display.html
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And nowQuiiky, an LGBT-oriented travel group, is looking to capitalize on the

Vaticans newfound tolerance. Their guided tours discuss the Vaticans art
collection through the gay lens in which they were most likely created.
[Visitors] discover new ways to look at [the] paintings and sculptures they
[are] supposed to know well, Quiikys CEO Alessio Virgili told theDailyBeast.
Intelligent people like to look at the world from a new point of view. It is not
[just] a question of homosexuality.
Virgili, who has worked in LGBT tourism for years, formed the tours after
realizing a large interest in Italian history from the tourism community and
their openness to new intellectual avenues.
They certainly [knew] Michelangelo and Leonardo were gay, Virgili told The
Daily Beast. So he began setting up guided tours exploring queer history within
the Vatican, using these famous artists as his inspiration. For a young boy or a
man, they could be an iconnobody thinks [of them as] a person to
discriminate.
Intelligent
people like to
look at the
world from a
new point of
view. It is not
just a question
of
homosexuality.
The Sistine Chapel, for instance, is one

of the worlds most visited sacred sites.
And Michelangelo, who painted its
awe-inducing ceiling in a handful of
years, left many traces of his lustful
desires for the male formwomen that
look like beautiful men with their
muscles and men in sexually charged
positions or locking lips. But, theyre
never pointed out on formal tours.
We have always had a guide telling
this history, Virgili said, but now
[weve found] many guides, and many
places, and many histories to tell. [We]
dont want to hide it anymore. He
wants the LGBT community to have a
better identifying connection with the
Catholic faith.
Pope Francis and his step forward on
gay rights has brought back many gay
people to the Church, Virgili said in a
press release. His open mind is almost revolutionary and gay people seem to
have appreciated it. Even the Vatican Museums has registered a high presence
of LGBT audience in the recent period.
Thats not to say that the Vatican hasnt always been frequented by high
numbers of LGBT members. Or, that they havent existed inside its holy walls
for centuries.
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In 2013, and article in LaRepubblica, the largest Italian daily newspaper,

hinted at the existence of an underground gay network amongst the Vaticans
top-ranking officials. The accusation came on the heels of former Pope
Benedict XVIs retirementa step he took to avoid the fallout from a secret
investigation into a previous leak of papal documents, aptly titled VatiLeaks,
which revealed such a network.
Later that year, VanityFairs Michael Joseph Gross tracked down cardinals,
monks and clergymen who lived in Rome and identified as gay (mostly in
secret) to understand the ways in which they navigate their dual lives.
It recounts a vast history of gay accusations amongst top officials. Popes
John XII (955-964), Boniface VIII (1924-1303), Paul II (1464-1471) and his
successor, Sixtus IV (1471-1484), have all faced rumors of sexual romps with
fellow men.
And while the Vatican continues to deny the existence of a gay lobby, theres
no escaping the homosexual desires laden within artworks and statues
throughout the papal city. Michelangelos fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel is just one example. It is important not to omit the artists personal life,
Virgili says, in order to completely understand the heroes of antiquity.
Leonardo da Vincis same-sex desires can be interpreted in works at the
Vatican and in Quiikys similar tours throughout Italy. In Milan, they retrace
Leonardos affair with one of his disciples, Salai, who may have also inspired
St. John the Baptist in multiple paintings, including TheLastSupper. Similar
works, like St.JeromeinWilderness, reside at the Vatican Museum. As does
Caravaggios Entoumbment.
Its a brave attempt. Sure, the supreme ruler of the Catholic faith has
persuaded his followers to accept the LGBT community, but that hasnt
stopped the Vatican from shutting down art exhibitions that mix queer identity
and religion.
Just over a year ago, an exhibition by Spanish photographer Gonzalo Orquin
featuring photos of same-sex couples kissing in various Roman churches, was
swiftly threatened by the Vatican and was cancelled before it opened at Galleria
lOpera in Rome.
While the Quiiky tour has yet to receive any feedback (or official recognition)
from the papal palace, Virgili hopes to continue spreading the real history that
runs throughout its art collection, making more visitors aware of its gay
identity and perusing tolerance amongst the masses.
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PALACE INTRIGUE 02.19.15
NicoHines
Prince Charles Sold Out William and

Harry To The Tabloids
A controversial BBC documentary claims one of Prince Charles closest
aides passed damaging stories about his children to British newspapers
in order to rescue his own reputation.
LONDON Prince Charles, who is next in line to be King of England, has been
accused of employing a ruthless media operation that was willing to denigrate
his children and slander their dead mother in order to improve his personal
reputation.
Prince William and Prince Harry were sold out to the tabloid press by one of
their fathers closest aides while they were still kids, according to a BBC
documentary broadcast on Thursday.
The young princes were said to have been stunned and angered when they
discovered that one of their fathers advisors had deliberately placed personal
and negative stories about them in the newspapers.
The first violation of the boys privacy came when they were aged 16 and 13,
just ten months after the death of their mother, Princess Diana.
The Machiavellian character at the heart of the BBC documentary, Reinventing
theRoyals, which was pulled from its original air date after a dispute with
Buckingham Palace, is Mark Bolland, one of the Prince of Wales most trusted
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courtiers for seven tumultuous years.

A BBC spokeswoman denied reports that the show was originally halted by
Palace lawyers, telling the Daily Beast it was delayed by mutual consent.
Members of the royal family were reportedly most alarmed by the appearance
of Sandy Henney in the documentary. In her first interview since serving as the
Prince of Wales press secretary, she has gone on record to describe some of the
extraordinary PR tactics employed by Prince Charles staff.
In the wake of Dianas death, the British public had a largely negative view of a
man who had cheated on the mother of his children and appeared non-plussed
by her death.
Bolland would attempt to overturn that image and build a new reputation for
his boss no matter who else had to be sacrificed to make him look good.
Apart from
obviously
being angry
and upset that
this story got
out, William
said, well,
How has it
happened?
Charles consigliere is accused of

helping to write a book that described
Princess Diana as a serial adulterer
with mental health issues, as well as
sanctioning a story that would run in
the NewsoftheWorld claiming Prince
Harry had taken drugs, in exchange for
an editorial praising Charles fabricated
reaction to the revelation.
The first time Bolland allegedly briefed
against the teenagers, Henney says it
was left to her to explain to Prince
William what had happened.
In 1998, the 16-year-old agreed for the
first time to meet Camilla Parker
Bowles, the woman with whom
Charless cheated on his mother. Every
moment of that traumatic first meeting
was subsequently described in vivid
detail in TheSun newspaper.
He [William] was justifiably and
understandably really upset because it
was really private, Henney said. Apart from obviously being angry and upset
that this story got out, he said, well, How has it happened?
The BBC also spoke to the reporter who had written that story for TheSun.
We got all the details, her [Camilla] drinking the gin and tonic, her having a
sneaky fag [Brit-speak for surreptitious cigarette] beforehand because she was
nervous and everything else, said Charles Rae, the papers royal
correspondent from 1995 to 2002. So all the detail came to us and was, if you
like, absolutely kosher. Apart from Camilla and William telling us, you couldnt
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have got it from a better sourceIt was Mark Bolland.

Bolland who refused to be interviewed on-screen, described this account as
utter rubbish.
Steve Hewlett, who fronts the two-part documentary, was editor of the
BBCs Panorama show when it featured the famous 1995 interview with Diana
in which she claimed there had been three people in her marriage to Charles.
In that media game, she beat him hands down, he said.
Jennie Bond, who was the BBCs royal correspondent for 14 years, said both
sides were leaking like sieves and singing like canaries in the years before her
death. It was in this environment that Prince Charles decided to cast aside the
ancient royal maxim: never explain, never complain.
Henney who was running the official media office at St James Palace concedes
that they needed help. Youve got a middle aged balding man and an
incredible, beautiful princess. Its a no-brainer as to whose going to get the
media coverage. When I joined his office in 93 he was going through some
pretty virulent criticism--Bad father; unloving husband. I think he was pretty
hurt, she said.
When Bolland was promoted to deputy private secretary, he began to bend the
negative narrative that had taken hold after Dianas death. Prince Charles was
recast as a doting single father, doing his best to raise his boys in adversity.
Brilliant manipulator, Henney said. Regardless of whether or not sometimes
we might agree or disagree with what [Bolland] did, he got the result that he
wanted.
It wasnt just Henney who had issues with Bollands scorched-earth style.
Williams fury at the coverage of his meeting with Camilla was an early sign of
ructions between Bolland and the boys.
He [William] didnt like being used by anybody and he felt, from what I
remember, that he was being used by his fathers staff, said Richard Kay, royal
correspondent for the DailyMail, from 1986 to 2007. Im sure he was. I think
it explained a lot about what happened in subsequent years when he decided to
break away from his fathers people.
Harry was the next brother to be exposed. ReinventingtheRoyals claims
Bolland had done a deal with the NewsoftheWorld over the drug
revelations despite Harrys outright rejection of a raft of claims made by Rupert
Murdochs former newspaper. The one thing he couldnt deny was that he had
ever smoked marijuana.
Tom Bradby, a former ITN royal correspondent and friend of the princes, said
Harry had felt trapped by Bollands alleged arrangement in which the palace
agreed not to contest the drug allegations if the editorial flagged up the way
Prince Charles had supposedly responded by taking his youngest son to a drug
treatment center as a warning. In fact, the coincidental royal rehab visit had
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taken place months earlier.

Harry knew hed done the wrong thing, he felt very bad about it, he felt hed
let people down, but I think he was quite angry that stuff had not happened in
the way it had been said, Bradby explained.
Never mind, explained Hewlett. A very bad story for Harry had turned into a
very good story for Charles.
The premature death of Charles wife apparently did little to dissuade Bolland
that she, too, must be targeted in order to bolster Charles public standing.
The author Penny Junor told the show that Bolland had helped her write her
book, Charles:VictimorVillain, which among other things claimed Diana was
the first of the couple to have an affair and had threatened to have Camilla
killed.
Richard Kay recalled that there was serious fallout once the book was
published. It was quite nasty, he said. Its quite possible that Camilla and
Charles didnt know what was going on, in fact, Im almost certain that they
didnt know precisely what was going on. Charles knew virtually nothing about
media relations. He tolerated the media, he didnt particularly like the media,
so he really allowed himself to be used, if thats the right word, by Mark.
Whatever the truth about Charles direct involvement in the apparently
nefarious briefings going on in his name, the rest of the royal family knew
perfectly well that it was his staff planting all these stories in the press. And yet
Bolland retained his lofty position.
By 2002, the growing sense of frustration had come to the boil, the rest of the
family was sick of being collateral damage in Prince Charles black ops.
Bradby, who is almost certainly the closest journalist to Prince William, said it
was the Queens intervention that heralded the end of Charles right-hand man.
The Queen is quite marvelous in all kinds of ways, but shes quite ruthless
when she needs to be, he said. It seems to me she decided Enoughs
enough.
Bolland stepped down, and set up his own discreet PR company, Bolland and
Associates, after leaving the palace. He entered into a civil partnership with
Guy Black, Baron Black of Brentwood, a conservative grandee and executive at
The Telegraph media group.
The palace has yet to comment on ReinventingTheRoyals. Prior to its
broadcast, a spokesman said, "We have not seen the program yet and have no
comment to make."
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SOUTH DAKOTA SHENANIGANS 02.19.15
EricFerrero
Planned Parenthood: No, We Are Not

#WorseThanISIS
And it's insane we even have to state that.
Meet Isaac Latterell. Hes a South Dakota state legislator youve probably never
heard of, who wants to ban abortion, so hes pushing an extreme bill through
the state legislatureand getting some attention for it by claiming that Planned
Parenthood is worse than ISIS.
You read that right, and its not a story in TheOnion.
The easy thing to do when an elected official says that youre worse than the
worlds most menacing terrorist group is to ignore it. Nobody wants to give that
kind of vitriol any more attention than it would otherwise get on its own. But
we call B.S. where we see it, and we see a lot of it here.
Lets be clear: This is a man who has championed an agenda being pushed
forward by the same groups that harass and scream at women on their way into
health centers. His bill has nothing to do with medicine or good health care. Its
just another part of a broader campaign to ban abortion entirely.
Thats Rep. Latterells focus.
Planned Parenthoods focus is providing preventive health care and education
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to women, men, and young people, and ensuring that women have full agency
to decide whether and when to have families.
By double
digits, voters in
South Dakota
have twice
rejected ballot
initiatives that
would have
banned
abortion.
Heres what Planned Parenthood does

every day: We provide birth control,
lifesaving cancer screenings, STD
testing and treatment, and other health
care services. We provide sex education
to help ensure that young people are
safe and healthy. And we provide
abortion services to women who make
the decision to end a pregnancy. We
ensure that people have all the
information, options, and support that
they need to make their own health
care decisions. Thats why one in five
women in America has turned to
Planned Parenthood for health care at
some point in her life.
Last year alone, Planned Parenthood
provided health care services to 2.7
million patients and sex education and
outreach to 1.5 million young people
and adults.
Worse than ISIS? Tell that to Colleen
Luther.
When she was 27, Colleen felt a lump in
her breast. Terrified, she called Planned Parenthood for an appointment. She
was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer, when it was early enough to beat
it. After 11 years, shes cancer-free. The doctors and nurses at Planned
Parenthood held my hand the whole way, she says, and they helped save my
life.
She isnt alone. Planned Parenthood provided care to 1,698 patients in South
Dakota in 2013including some of Rep. Lattrells constituents. They rely on us
for everything from STD testing to cancer screenings to abortion services, and
well always be here for them.
We are extraordinarily proud of all of the work we do at Planned Parenthood.
We help ensure that women across South Dakota and around the country can
get the full range of health services and information that help them reach their
full potential. We believe that everyone should have access to care, no matter
who they are or where they live, and we believe that all women must be able to
make their own health care decisions.
The good news is that the public knows exactly what we do at Planned
Parenthoodand we know exactly where they stand. Nearly 80 percent of the
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American public wants to ensure that abortion remains safe and legal. By
double digits, voters in South Dakota have twice rejected ballot initiatives that
would have banned abortion.
At the end of the day, Rep. Isaac Lattrell doesnt have a problem with Planned
Parenthood. He has a problem with his own constituentsand with millions of
people all around the country who know us quite well.
EricFerreroistheVicePresidentforCommunicationsforPlanned
ParenthoodFederationofAmerica.
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AVATARS 02.19.15
Christopher
Dickey
Behind the Copenhagen Killings, the

ISIS Vision of Apocalypse
The gang member and burglar who brought terror to Denmark last
weekend has a lot to teach us about the true nature of what Obama
calls the ght against extremism.
PARIS The shooter first tested the back doors of the Copenhagen caf. He
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had checked out the scene before. But he couldnt get in as people gathered last
Saturday to talk about free speech and blasphemy in this new age of terror.
One of those inside was a Swedish artist who had published a sketch of a dog
with the head of the Prophet Muhammad. One was the French ambassador to
Denmark, who was to talk about the CharlieHebdo shootings in Paris in
January. One was a documentary filmmaker, Finn Norgaard, known for his
works about immigrants trying to adapt to Danish society.
The shooter went around the front of the building, and the precise sequence of
events at that point is not entirely clear. If he had been able to get inside with
his M95 assault rifle, believed to be from a cache of military weapons stolen in
2009, there would have been a much greater bloodbath. But the killer opened
up from the street and the bodyguards of the Swedish artist returned fire,
emptying their magazines. The shooter fled and Norgaard, shot in the chest, lay
dying on the sidewalk. Cellphone video shows a passerby stripping off his own
T-shirt, trying to use it to stanch the flow of blood.
Hours later, pretending to be drunk, the shooter sidled up to a security
guard at Copenhagens main synagogue and shot him point blank in the head.
Later that night, the police caught up with the killer, he drew his guns, and they
shot him dead.
As Magnus Ranstorp goes back over the details of what happened in
Copenhagen last Saturday, he finds in them some special ironies and some
disturbing lessons.
Ranstorp, a scholar at the Swedish National Defense College, has spent his long
career studying terrorist threats to Europe. He is part of the EU Radicalization
Awareness Network, focused on the problem of Europeans joining ISIS and al
Qaeda, and at the moment is participating in the conference on extremism that
the Obama administration has convened in Washington. But in January,
Ranstorp also became the head of a group set up in Copenhagen to identify and
address the radicalization of young people there. His apartment in Denmark,
as it happens, is just a few blocks from the murder scene at the synagogue. He
and his family, like most of the people in the Danish capital, spent Saturday
night locked inside their home.
As Ranstorp sees the threat that this sort of terrorism poses in the 21st century,
it is far more complex than the catchphrase that headlined President Barack
Obamas remarks at the Washington conference: We are not at war with
Islam.
Well, no, but this is a struggle against people pursuing a particular vision of the
apocalypse that the so-called Islamic State has framed with Islamic dogmaa
millenarian vision of the end of days that has been spun out through the
fantasy worlds of cyberspace. (The ISIS video of a Jordanian pilot being burned
alive, or 21 Egyptian Christians being beheaded on a Libyan beach, or the
murder of Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloffall were produced like
slick teasers for some new video game.)
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As Judgment Day approaches, ISIS has invited disillusioned young men

unemployed, disaffected, lost, or looking for a causeto join with it in the final
epic battle between good, represented by the version of Islam proclaimed by
the self-anointed caliph, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, and evil, represented by
everybody else. They even think they know where it will begin, around the nondescript town of Dabiq in northern Syria. Lest anyone miss this point, the
organization's online magazine is called... Dabiq. And the final climax of the
battle between good and evil is supposed to come in Jerusalem, when Jesus
descends from Heaven to kill Satan with a spear. The whole narrative can be
put across easily in the group's graphic novel caricature of the faith, and that
simplicity makes it powerfully seductive. (Yes, much as the End of Days
narrative based on the Book of Revelation is seductive for many fundamentalist
Christians.)
Its like saying to a British person, Look, we are going to invite you to the
World Cup, not just to see the game, but to play in it, Ranstorp told me over
the phone on Wednesday: in American terms, its Armageddon as the Super
Bowl, and you, too, can score. Indeed, you can help by murdering people in the
stands.
ISIS has combined this cyber-circulated vision of the impending apocalypse, on
the one hand, with shrewd local politics in Iraq and Syria, Libya and Yemen,
where it can exploit the rot of sectarian divisions and corrupt militaries.
Whether locally, nationally, or internationally, ISIS adores a vacuum,
especially a vacuum of leadership.
In the European and Western battlefield of ideas, as opposed to the new war
zones of the Middle East and North Africa, Ranstorp believes the key to
winning the fight is in the cities, whether Copenhagen or Paris, Brussels or
Sofia. Communities have to be engaged, young people persuaded there are
other, better futures, and those who have joined the ISIS or al Qaeda versions
of jihad have to be not only de-radicalized, but brought into the struggle to
keep others from joining.
The Danish city of Aarhus, home to the embattled JyllandsPosten newspaper
that published incendiary cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, has led
the way with these de-radicalization programs, causing many pundits to ask,
after the Copenhagen shootings, if the Danish had been too soft on potential
terrorists.
So the first question I asked Ranstorp was how this shooter, finally officially
identified on Wednesday by police as Omar Abdel Hamid el Hussein, a 22year-old thug fresh out of jail, slipped through the Danish counter-terror
system. And Ranstorp was perfectly frank.
He fell between the chairs, or responsibilities, said Ranstorp. There will be
an inquiry.
El Hussein had been a member of a gang, but some members thought he was
too crazy for their liking. In 2013, apparently unprovoked, he took a knife and
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drove it into the leg of a 19-year-old kid on a train. He was caught later during a
burglary. At El Husseins trial for inflicting bodily harm, the court noted he had
many scars on his head, suggesting that hed had a very rough upbringing as
the Danish-born child of Palestinian immigrant parents.
There has been speculation that El Hussein adopted extremist views after he
was imprisoned in 2014, but he had long been accustomed to regaling his
acquaintances with anti-Semitic diatribes and, according to Ranstorp, prison
authorities say he was radicalized already. They said he wanted to join ISIS.
While El Hussein was in jail, those prison authorities informed the Danish
Security and Intelligence Service, known as PET, that he intended to go to
Syria. But the court released him to await final appeals and sentencing this
summer.
Jens Madsen, the head of Danish intelligence, told reporters on Sunday that
the shooter had been on PETs radar. (The same had been true for the
shooters in Paris in January: cops knew their records, but did not pay enough
attention to stop them.) No effort was made to enroll El Hussein in a deradicalization program. Nothing kicked in, said Ranstorp, and, as far as is
known, no effort was made to track El Husseins activities. He was still being
dealt with as a common thug. Then two weeks after his release, he opened fire
on the caf.
Ranstorp sees this as all the more reason to emphasize work at the local level.
Work with local communities develops what Ranstorp calls sensors to detect
young men on a path to radicalization. There have to be information centers
where worried parents and neighbors can reach out, there have to be
psychologists who understand the thinking of these young radicals, and, most
importantly, there have to be mentors and activists who once were jihadists
themselves. To speak of radicalization, you have to have people who were
formerly radicalized, who have the street credentials to be able to take on the
ideology, to make these potential recruits have doubts, people who have a
former extremism pedigree who actually talk the talk.
At a time when many in Europe would bar anyone who ever went to Syria or
Iraq to fight alongside ISIS from returning, no matter how disillusioned they
might be, Ranstorp suggests the possibility of establishing a Europe-wide
former extremist network that can help authorities understand how to talk to
[young would-be jihadists] on their own terms and press buttons in their own
language that will be useful.
If anyone had been following El Hussein on what are believed to have been his
Facebook page and other social media, they might have spotted interesting
nuances. El Husseins avatar was a white wolf baring its teeth, not a common
choice for Arabs, who tend to prefer lions, but one often favored by violent
extremists from Chechen backgrounds. Already that would be a dangerous
sign, since some of the most ferocious of the ISIS fighters are believed to have
come from the Caucasus.
Such identification is useful, if disturbing, once this real-world World of
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Warcraft is understood. As these young men see themselves, They are heroes,
they are strong: you advance your own character in this epic battle; you name
yourself; you signal to others who participate virtually. And then, you pick up
an ax, a gun, or a bomb and you join the battle for real.
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PhotoIllustrationByEmilLendof/TheDailyBeast
DRUG FREE 02.19.15
Abby
Haglage
Three Months in the Slammer for

Vitamin B
Joey Burrell sat in jail in a small Minnesota town for three months for
drug possession. Only one problem: They werent drugs.
Vitamins just showed a new side effect: prison time.
The story begins in Mankato, Minn., on Nov. 14, 2014 when police pulled over
31-year-old Joseph Joey Burrell for a traffic violation. Aware that Burrell had
a history with drugs, the cops seized a bag of blue powder from his vehicle,
suspecting that it was an illegal substance.
According to police reports, police performed an initial field test on the
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substance, which appeared conclusive. Blue Earth County assistant attorney

Chris Rovney, confirmed to the press that the powder had tested positive for
amphetamine.
Blue Earth County, home to 11 cities and 23 townships, handles a variety of
services for the regionincluding government. Using this positive
identification, which can lead to multiple possession charges, law enforcement
transferred Burrell to the municipalitys local jail.
Burrells name was soon added to the countys online jail roster, updated daily,
with the charge possession of a schedule I substance. Burrell, who had just
recently completed a drug rehabilitation program, admitted to taking drugs in
the past. But these pills, he insisted, were merely vitamins. (According to CBS
Local News, Burrell has also faced charges for domestic assault, stalking, and
kidnapping.)
I told the judge I couldnt plead guilty to something I knew wasnt a drug,
Burrell said to the MankatoFreePress. They set my bail at $250,000 for
vitamins.
Sure that they had nailed a repeat drug offender; authorities set Burrells trial
for early February. But as he sat waiting in prison, the drugs that got him
there remained untested. On Feb. 2, two days before he was set to face trial
(and roughly three months after the arrest), the results of the official test on
the powder came back: it was vitamins.
Upon learning of the mistake,
authorities immediately released
Burrell, and dropped the multiple
I was
furious, I was
hot, I was
pissed off. At
the same time
it was, like,
unbelievable.
felony possession charges against him.

I was furious, I was hot, I was pissed
off, Burrell said of the event. At the
same time it was, like, unbelievable.
But while the test results themselves
took many weeks to come back, Burrell
blames the prosecutors involved for
waiting to test the substance.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension,
a division of the Minnesota
Department of Public Safety, says the
test they performed followed protocol.
The BCA received the evidence in
question for testing on Dec. 16, 2014, and provided test results to the county on
Feb. 2, 2015, BCA spokesperson Jill Oliveira told The Daily Beast. That 48day turnaround is consistent with the BCAs 2014 average turnaround time of
49 days for drug testing.
While the Oliveira is open about the turnaround time for results, she says her
16/17
2/19/2015
organization isnt to blame for Burrells imprisonment. The BCA has no role in
the decision making process about whether an individual is held or charged.
The Mankato Police Narcotics Division could not be reached for comment.
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17/17

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2/19/2015

THE DAILY BEAST

The Vaticans Gay Art Goes on Display - The Daily Beast

2 How Prince Cha

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courtiers for seven tumultuous years.

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have got it from a better sourceIt was Mark Bolland.

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taken place months earlier.

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DRUG FREE 02.19.15

Three Months in the Slammer for

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substance, which appeared conclusive. Blue Earth County assistant attorney

felony possession charges against him.

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