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Pilots to Tell Their UFO Stories for the First Time
By: James Fox (PRWEB)
Wednesday, Nov 7 2007, 11:07am

Group to call on US Government to Re-Open its Investigation.

The American public is not alone when it comes to sighting what the US Air Force has labeled Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

So too have former governors, high level military and government officials, highly trained airplane pilots and aviation experts.

The phenomenon is real.

It happens worldwide.

No one is sure about its nature.

Experts from seven countries will divulge what they have discovered about UFOs at a November 12 panel discussion moderated by former Arizona Governor Fife Symington (R) at the National Press Club

(www.freedomofinfo.org).

Just one year ago, pilots, mechanics and managers from United Airlines witnessed a metallic disc-shaped object hovering over the United Airlines Terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

The clearly observed object shot straight up leaving a hole through the clouds. Despite the clear aviation safety issues involved, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) never investigated the incident and dismissed it as weather.

This head-in-the-clouds refusal to investigate stands in sharp contrast to efforts by governments of other countries to understand these incidents.

“I believe that our government should take an active role in investigating this very real phenomenon,” said Symington, who was a witness to the famed ‘Phoenix Lights” incident seen by hundreds in Arizona while he was governor.

“This panel consists of some of the most qualified people in the world with direct experience in dealing with this issue, and they will bring incredible, irrefutable evidence, some never presented before, that we simply cannot dismiss or ignore,” he said.

The group, using previously classified documents, will discuss many well-documented cases, including two investigated by the US government.

The first involves a Peruvian Air Force pilot who fired many rounds at a UFO which was not affected. The second was an Iranian Air Force pilot’s attempt to fire at a UFO, but whose control panel became inoperable. “This case is a classic that meets all the necessary conditions for a legitimate study of the UFO phenomenon,” stated the US Defense Intelligence Agency document on the Tehran incident.

Both pilots will come forward to speak about these events publicly for the first time.

Who:

* Fife Symington, Former Arizona Governor, Moderator * Ray Bowyer, Captain, Aurigny Air Services, Channel Islands * Rodrigo Bravo, Captain and Pilot for the Aviation Army of Chile * General Wilfried De Brouwer, former Deputy Chief of Staff, Belgian Air Force (Ret.) * John Callahan, Chief of Accidents and Investigations for the FAA, 1980’s (Ret.)

* Dr. Anthony Choy, founder, 2001, OIFAA, Peruvian Air Force

* Jean-Claude Duboc, Captain, Air France (Ret.) * Charles I. Halt, Col. USAF (Ret.), Former Director, Inspections Directorate, DOD I.G. * General Parviz Jafari, Iranian Air Force (Ret.)

* Jim Penniston, TSgt USAF (Ret.) * Dr. Claude Poher, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, founder, French GEPAN * Nick Pope, Ministry of Defence, UK, 1985-2006 * Dr. Jean-Claude Ribes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, 1963-98 * Comandante Oscar Santa Maria, Peruvian Air Force (Ret.)

What:

Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington will moderate a distinguished panel of former high-ranking government, aviation, and military officials from seven countries to discuss close encounters with what the US Air Force describes as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Representatives from France, England, Belgium, Chile, Peru, Iran and the US will call for the US Government to join in an international dialogue and re-open its investigation – which the Air Force shut down over 30 years ago – in cooperation with other governments currently dealing with this unusual and controversial phenomenon. While on active duty, the panelists have either witnessed a UFO incident or have conducted an official investigation into UFO cases relevant to aviation safety and national security.

When:

Monday, November 12, 2007 11:00 AM

Where:

National Press Club Ballroom

Event open to credentialed media and Congressional staff only

Contact: James Fox, documentary filmmaker; director of the acclaimed film “Out of the Blue” 415 519 9631

Leslie Kean, investigative journalist with the Coalition for Freedom of Information 415 250 9791

High-ranking military officials and government personnel from around the world discuss close encounters with UFOs on Thursday, Nov. 12. To learn more, visit http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/ and http://www.freedomofinfo.org/. Is national security on the line? Or perhaps some reputations? Whatever your take, you'll be talking about this long after Larry says good night.

And for more information about the Nov. 12 national press conference, visit www.freedomofinfo.org.
http://tinyurl.com/2xvrn6

Indonesian Volcano Blasts Back to Life
Posted: 2007-11-11

ANAK KRAKATAU, Indonesia (Nov. 11) - Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano lets out a massive roar as it blasts a gigantic cloud of smoke and flaming red rocks hundreds of meters into the night sky.



A few hours later, a river of lava and stones glowing like embers glide down the slopes of Mount Anak Krakatau as the muted light of the rising sun tries to break through thick clouds settled above the mountain.

The volcano, whose name means "Child of Krakatau," formed in the Sunda Strait close to Java island after Mount Krakatau's legendary eruption in 1883. It rumbled to life about two weeks ago and since then has been dazzling scientists and visitors with its amazing pyrotechnics.

Scientists monitoring the volcano say Anak Krakatau is not especially dangerous and will continue to rumble for some time, but warn people to stay out of a 1.9 miles zone around the mountain.

"We are a little worried sometimes when we heard the big boom and we see rocks that fall from, I don't know, half kilometer from the hole," Chad Bouchard, one of a group of eight tourists who spent the night in a boat in the ocean to watch the volcano.

"Sometimes we see the splash inside the ocean. That's a little scary but no, I think it might be stupid but I feel safe."

Devastating Disaster

Anak Krakatau, which lies 26 miles from the nearest observation post in Serang on the westernmost edge of Java, gradually formed after the volcanic island of Krakatau blew up in a massive eruption in 1883, triggering tsunamis and killing more than 36,000 people.

Ashes from that eruption, one of the most devastating natural disasters in recorded history, were carried by upper level winds as far away as New York City.

Krakatau, one of dozens of volcanoes in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, last erupted in 1988, but its eruptions have never approached the ferocity of its parent.

Child of Krakatau is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," but authorities have not yet raised the alert level to the highest which would require the evacuation of people around the volcano.

A vulcanologist monitoring Anak Krakatau said the volcano was likely to rumble and roar for some time.

"It is still at the third level of alert. It is safe and there aren't any problems. There were approximately one hundred explosions yesterday," Saut Simatupang, head of volcano observation in Bandung, told Reuters.

"If the energy is the same as this, it is more likely it will stay at this level for quite some time as the tremors are frequent. Today only, there have been one hundred."

Visitors who had their morning coffee in a boat in the shadow of the volcano in the Sunda Strait's choppy waters about a one-and-a-half-hour ride from the mainland said they felt safe.

"It's spectacular, it's just amazing to be here," said Patricia Anderton, a tourist from New Haven in the United states.

"I feel incredibly lucky to be able to see it."
http://tinyurl.com/2y4a8x

Who Will Probe 'Noncombat' Deaths in Iraq?
November 06, 2007

About 20% of the U.S. deaths in Iraq are officially labeled "noncombat," and that number has been surging. This includes accidents, friendly fire and well over 120 suicides. But the government, and the media, seem reluctant to expose the tragedy, argues vets leader Paul Rieckhoff.

By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK (November 06, 2007) -- Pretty much alone in the media, E&P for weeks had been charting a troubling increase in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. So it came as no surprise recently when the Pentagon announced that it would probe the perplexing trend. Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations director of the Joint Staff, said commanders in Iraq were concerned enough about the spike in non-combat deaths -- from accidents, illness, friendly-fire or suicide -- that it had asked for an assessment by an Army team.

According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers lost their lives in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September. Compare that with the average for the first seven months of this year: fewer than nine per month. The spike has coincided with extended 15-month deployments, one senior military official said.

The military officially counts about 20% of the nearly 3900 U.S. fatalities in Iraq as "noncombat." It has officially confirmed 128 suicides in Iraq since 2003, with many others under investigation (and still more taking place on the return home).

Lt. Gen. Ham said morale remains high, but added, "I think there is a general consensus ... that for the Army, 15 months is a long hard tour. It's hard on the soldiers."

As I've noted repeatedly, the military releases little news to the press when a service member dies from a non-hostile cause, beyond saying it is "under investigation." When that probe ends, many months later, the military normally does not tell anyone but family members of the deceased. For more than four years, however, E&P has kept close tabs on non-combat deaths, and nearly every day lately I have combed the Web for details on new cases. Sometimes local newspapers find out about preliminary determinations -- including suicides -- passed along to families. So I checked again today on October casualties Vincent Kamka, Dr. Roselle Hoffmaster, and others.

In doing that a few days ago, I discovered what happened to Cpt. Erik T. Garoutte of Santee, Ca. He was a Marine who died last month at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune he "was exercising when he collapsed. He never regained consciousness."

More tragedy followed: His mother, Donna Stone, also of Santee, had a heart attack after hearing about his death.
The Union-Tribune related that "the family hopes an autopsy will explain what caused Garoutte to die."

But why has the press given this so little attention to noncombat deaths, going back to the early days of the war? Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq vet and now leader of the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, has long shared my concerns and frustration.

Rieckhoff, author of the memoir "Chasing Ghosts," calls this "one of the most under- reported stories of the war. I've been pitching the story to people for over two years. A lot of deaths are taking place under questionable circumstances -- the number would surprise you -- and no one looks at them, in theater or at home. It's a broad research project, and maybe it is not sexy, but it needs to be done."

The Veterans Administration doesn't track the deaths, Rieckhoff says. "I'd like to see a study of how many Iraq vets have died under any circumstance back in this country," he declares. "We have suicide rates tracked in the military, but once they leave it is untraced. We have argued for a national registry, if you have been in the war.

"Nobody has ever taken the step of pulling it all together. I know it would be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult for the media, but it is their responsibility. They did it with body armor, with corruption, now with Blackwater. You could at least do a clustering, like around Fort Bragg -- look at the deaths of all veterans within a 100-mile radius. If we could fund it, we would, but our group is too small."

What is his theory about the recent spike? "We know that our people are under tremendous stress," he replies. "The operational tempo is unprecedented. I met a guy in a bar who has been there eight times. He said, 'Thank God I am young and single.'

"We can push them harder, but is it smart? I don't think it is smart, or is right."

The surge in non-hostile deaths does not mean just suicides, but accidents due to overwork. Soldiers don't have a union like police and firemen, Rieckhoff points out. Federal agencies "would have a field day with working conditions," he adds. Why has there been so little coverage? "I know access to the battle zone is an issue," he admits. "And dealing with families is delicate, but you can still handle it sensitively."

But he also cites what he calls a cultural issue: "After World War II, a lot of vets went into media and could navigate the system. Now so few reporters have served. Many don't know the difference between a brigade and a battalion. Also there is fear of how it is going to play in the pro- or anti-war debate. But this is not a partisan issue. Either way -- get to the bottom of this.

"American people don't know a lot about these issues. People abroad ask me, are Americans stupid? I say, 'No, they just aren't told enough.'"
***

UPDATE: I received the following two letters in response to the above. After them, there is a press clip on the latest tragic example.
*

Thank you for addressing the non-combat deaths issue. I’ve been struck by the number of people killed when vehicles drove into canals (Michael Kelly of the Washington Post being the best known of these).

Another mystery you should call attention to is the medivacs of people for non-combat injuries and illnesses, which far exceed those for combat injuries. Icasualties.org reports 24,912 non-hostile medivacs, which means the people were flown out or Iraq and to Germany (or perhaps other military hospitals). Some 18,741 of the patients suffer from disease/other (as opposed to the 6,171 for non-combat related injuries, presumably trauma).

Disease? Three times as many of our troops are being flown out of Iraq for disease than wounds in battle (6,354), and yet we hear nothing about this epidemic, or whatever it is. Soldiers are selected for their good health to begin with and most troops deployed are in their 20s and almost all, other than the National Guard duffers who have been sent over, are under 40. These diseases are serious enough that the soldiers have been flown out of the country, so we’re not talking about colds or even the clap, which can be treated with antibiotics. And Iraq seems a little short on prostitutes and brothels serving the U.S. forces anyway, unless they among the “contractors” being flown in from Thailand and other countries to provide services.

So we have a situation where thousands of certifiably healthy young men and women are coming down with diseases of some sort that are serious enough to get them flown out of the country on an emergency basis. What’s going on over there?

Also, as for stress levels, the U.S. Army concluded in WWII that 24 weeks of combat was about all anyone could take and still be able to function as reasonably effective soldiers. That is about a third of the current tours of duty in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yoekjb

Bernard Kerik indicted on federal fraud, conspiracy charges
By Bill Van Auken
10 November 2007

Bernard Kerik, the former head of the New York City Police Department, who was briefly a nominee to head the US Homeland Security Department, was arraigned Friday in US federal court in White Plains, New York on a 16-count indictment that includes felony charges of fraud and conspiracy.

Among the principal charges against Kerik is that he took some $255,000 worth of goods and services from a New Jersey construction and waste haulage company linked by investigators to the Gambino crime family. In return, he is said to have helped the mob-connected firm by lobbying city officials to approve it for contracts.

Kerik is also charged with accepting—shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks—a rent-free luxury apartment worth $9,000 a month on Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side from a real estate management firm that was also seeking city business. The firm ended up covering some $236,000 in free rent for the then police commissioner.

The indictment further charges Kerik with taking and failing to report a $250,000 loan that originated with an Israeli industrialist seeking business deals with the federal government. This was in 2003, a period in which Kerik was sitting on several government boards and had been appointed as a senior police advisor under the US colonial administration in Iraq.

Other charges include tax evasion on his elicit income, falsely claiming $80,000 in charitable contributions on his tax returns and lying to US officials during the vetting process for his nomination to the Homeland Security post.

The principal charges related to the mob-linked firm were already well known. Kerik pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges covering basically the same offense in a state case in 2006, receiving no jail time and merely a $221,000 fine.

Earlier this year the former police commissioner rejected a plea deal with the US government because he would not, as in the state case, escape jail time. The charges he now faces carry a maximum sentence of 142 years in jail.

The focus of media reaction to the Kerik indictment has been on how it—not to mention a trial that could play out in the midst of the 2008 election campaign—will affect the political fortunes of Republican presidential frontrunner and former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. It was Giuliani who tapped Kerik, first to head the city’s sprawling jail system and then to become head of its nearly 40,000-member police department. Then, after leaving office, he recommended Kerik to Bush for the post of Homeland Security secretary.

Campaigning in Iowa, Giuliani told reporters: “I made a mistake in not clearing him effectively enough. I take responsibility for that.” He dodged further questions on whether he would stand by Kerik, affirming that it was inappropriate to discuss a matter before the courts.

Giuliani’s evasion won’t wash. During the state case against Kerik, Giuliani was compelled to acknowledge under oath that he had been briefed on the ties of his nominee for police commissioner to the mob-connected businessman, but that he had no recollection of it. This represented a fallback position from his earlier claims that he had known nothing about the matter.

One would think that being told that the man he wanted to head the country’s largest police department was accepting money from people linked to the mafia would be something the mayor, a former federal prosecutor, would have picked up on. The only credible explanation is that Giuliani knew and appointed him anyway.

Moreover, Kerik was not just some job applicant whom the mayor failed to thoroughly investigate. Rather, he was handpicked by Giuliani and installed in senior positions for which he was manifestly unqualified.

The relation between Kerik and Giuliani began when the latter was running for mayor against incumbent Democrat David Dinkins in 1993. A junior-ranking NYPD detective, Kerik was attracted to Giuliani’s law-and-order program and became the Republican candidate’s bodyguard and chauffeur.

In gratitude for Kerik’s personal services and unquestioning loyalty, Giuliani appointed him to a sinecure in the city’s jail system and then made him correction commissioner. In 2000, he appointed him police commissioner. The choice of a high school dropout to head the NYPD, the largest US police department, sparked significant controversy, given that mid-level police supervisors are required to hold a college degree.

That Giuliani did not know about his protégé’s corrupt practices is simply not credible. The city’s Department of Investigations had uncovered his ties to the mob-linked firm during its investigations of the company and they were aired again in the routine probe of Kerik when he was nominated to head the police department. And one of the principal officials Kerik was lobbying on the company’s behalf was the head of the city’s Trade Waste Commission, who just happened to be Giuliani’s cousin.

A web of scandals and abuses of power

Moreover, the actions summarized in the federal indictment constitute only a part of the web of scandals surrounding the police commissioner. In the aftermath of September 11, for example, it emerged that Kerik had taken over an apartment overlooking the rubble of ground zero meant to serve as a rest area for rescue and recovery workers. Instead, he appropriated it to carry on two simultaneous extramarital affairs, one with a female jail guard and the other with his millionaire publisher.

In both cases, the commissioner’s messy personal life spilled over into official abuses of power. In the case of the jail guard, the city was confronted with lawsuits brought by jail supervisors who said that they were retaliated against by Kerik for attempting to impose discipline on his girlfriend. And in the case of the publisher, Judith Regan, the police commissioner dragooned homicide detectives into police-state-style visits to the homes of junior level employees at Fox Television to interrogate them after Regan reported that her cell phone had gone missing during an appearance on the network.

In his autobiography, The Lost Son, Kerik includes a revealing account of a meeting in which Giuliani told him he was going to name him first deputy correction commissioner, a post for which the street cop felt himself woefully unprepared. After convincing him he could do the job, Giuliani led him downstairs to a dimly lit room where senior administration aides waited. Each embraced Kerik and kissed him on the cheek.

“I wonder if he [Giuliani] noticed how much becoming part of his team resembled becoming part of a mafia family,” Mr. Kerik wrote. “I was being made.”

There is no doubt that Giuliani not only noticed the resemblance, but reveled in it. Throughout his tenure at City Hall, one of the mayor’s less than endearing quirks was a constant recitation of lines from his favorite movie, “The Godfather,” which would send his aides into titters.

Behind this ritual was a mindset that intermingled arrogance, criminality and authoritarianism, producing atrocities like the stationhouse torture of Abner Louima and the police killings of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, as well as a series of corruption scandals.

Once Giuliani was forced from office by term limits—though not before trying to cancel the 2001 election on the grounds that only he was fit to lead the city after 9/11—he and Kerik both cashed in on their September 11 fame.

Giuliani proclaimed Kerik a “hero” of the terrorist attacks, though the police commissioner’s function on that day was not that different than when the two first met—trailing the mayor north from ground zero as a kind of glorified bodyguard. Meanwhile, he left behind an emergency response that was in chaos, in which lack of coordination and failure of communication between the NYPD and the Fire Department has been singled out as a factor in the horrendous death toll among firefighters that day.

Kerik became a “security expert” in Giuliani’s new consulting firm, while raking in millions of dollars serving on the board of Taser Inc., manufacturer of the electric stun gun, and acting as a spokesman for US drug companies trying to use a supposed security threat as a pretext for blocking cheap imports from Canada.

It was not just Giuliani who knew what Kerik was up to, but the Bush administration as well. While some aides had uncovered information about Kerik’s links to mob-connected individuals, Alberto Gonzales, then the president’s counsel and later US attorney general, overrode their concerns and recommended his appointment to the Homeland Security post.

For the Bush administration, the combination of avarice, loyalty and criminality that characterized the former police commissioner made him a perfect fit for the job. He would function well in an administration that was carrying out criminal wars, sanctioning torture, conducting illegal domestic spying and handing out no-bid contracts to politically connected companies like Halliburton and Blackwater.

In the end, the geyser of scandals that erupted after Kerik’s nomination was announced made his elevation impossible. The administration found that it simply couldn’t get away with it.

The twisted saga of Bernard Kerik is a reflection of the corruption and criminality that is pervasive throughout the US political establishment and among the ruling elite as a whole. At the same time, that such an individual could have been chosen to head the Homeland Security Department is the clearest proof that the so-called “war on terror” is a fraud.

That Kerik was grossly unqualified to head what is, at least on paper, one of the most important federal agencies was, from the standpoint of the administration, beside the point. It wasn’t looking for someone capable of coordinating responses to domestic emergencies. Rather, its aim was to capitalize on Kerik’s identification with September 11 as a propaganda device to advance its campaign to terrorize and intimidate the American people into submitting to further wars and even more sweeping attacks on democratic rights.

As Kerik’s indictment is being weighed for its potential impact on his former benefactor, Giuliani, it should be recalled that one of the more enthusiastic endorsements for his nomination to the post of Homeland Security secretary three years ago came from none other than the Democratic presidential frontrunner, New York Senator Hillary Clinton.
http://tinyurl.com/2dwa2u

Millions undergo background checks under post-9/11 laws
By JULIE CARR SMYTH AP Statehouse Correspondent
Published on Saturday Nov 10, 2007

Already this year, 25 million Americans have had background checks by the federal government, a number that's risen every year since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Amid the rise, a notable shift has occurred: More civilians are now checked each year than criminals. And checks on the vast majority come back clean, even as states allot more money for their growing screening operations.

And, in rare cases, predators still slip through the cracks. Take Timothy Stephen Keil, an Ohio church camp counselor recently convicted of molesting two young boys. Or Ralph Fiscale, a New Hampshire soccer coach, and Stephen Unger Jr., a Texas schoolteacher, both of whom committed similar offenses in the past year.

All were either not run through a check by their superiors, or they passed one.

Civil libertarians say the tradeoffs of such a system, built largely through state mandates enacted since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, have become too high.

State background check laws _ applied to groups as varied as professional nursing home workers, reading tutors, bankers and even volunteer dog walkers _ are becoming so numerous as to be almost meaningless, said Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio.

In Ohio, nearly 4 million background checks have been conducted since 2001, for instance, a figure equivalent to nearly half the state's 8.7 million adult population.

"The sheer volume of them tells us that they're not working, because to be effective these background checks have to be looked at very carefully," Link said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a terrorist or two in there, but you're not going to find them when you're doing so many."

In a recent poll conducted by The Barna Group, a California-based marketing group helping churches, a quarter of pastors surveyed admitted they don't have adequate background and reference checking in place.

Barna Group president David Kinnaman said most churches are very small, with perhaps 100 parishioners, and the checks aren't seen as an urgent need.

"In a lot of those places, they have a setting in which it's very, very hard to imagine any abuse taking place," Kinnaman said. "There can be an over-inflated sense of safety, a naivete of the changing issues churches are facing."

Similarly, a recent Associated Press search of state-by-state records found 2,570 incidents of sexual misconduct in public schools between 2001 and 2005, despite background checks of teachers being required in many states.

Civilian background checks now dominate the workload at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, costing taxpayers nearly $9 million a year. Since 1993, the number of annual checks performed by the bureau has grown from 38,000 to 650,000 on average.

Checking someone's criminal background is a common political response to each new social crisis. Ohio lawmakers, for instance, have introduced additional background check requirements recently for foster care parents, following a series of incidents against children, and for public school teachers, following revelations of sexual acts toward students going unreported.

Yet Ohio figures compiled for The Associated Press by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification found that the 90-percent-plus passage rate remains consistent, regardless of how many Ohioans are screened.

Steve Fischer, a spokesman for the FBI, said that pattern also holds true at the national level, where the number of background checks being conducted has exploded since 9/11. It continues to grow at a pace of about 12 percent a year.

Fischer said 69 percent of criminals who are checked turn out to have their fingerprints already on file, compared to just 12 percent of civilians.

He said the federal program used to be heavily weighted toward checking criminals, but a shift toward civilians has occurred since 9/11.

"It used to be slightly higher on the criminal side," Fischer said. "But since 9/11, the majority of our checks are civilians _ people applying for jobs, licenses, things like that."

Most of the background checks are required under laws emanating from state legislatures aiming to protect people from predators.

"It's mostly about protected populations: children and the elderly," Fischer said.

Yet crime statistics present mixed evidence as to whether the explosion in records checks is having an impact. On a national level, sex crimes and forcible rapes had already been declining steadily before the 2001 attacks. The Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes that reduction to a variety of societal factors, of which background checks are only one.

Ohio figures show an unpredictable pattern, with arrests for forcible rapes and sex offenses sometimes rising and sometimes falling year by year. Overall, since 2001, arrests for the two types of crimes are down from 2,253 to 1,371, based on self-reported law enforcement data.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers have begun to contemplate what they have created.

According to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states enacted laws last year related to the regulation of offender information _ including proposals that limited public access to the data, lowered costs for the checks, reduced the number of years to be checked for certain positions, and expunged some offenses.
http://tinyurl.com/2yyzw3