A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division is scheduled to plead guilty next Tuesday to a reduced charge for mercy killing in connection with the death of three unarmed Iraqi men shot by American infantrymen last spring , according to lawyers for other defendants in the case .

The terms of the plea arrangement will allow the soldier , Specialist Juston R . Graber , originally charged with capital murder , to be convicted of aggravated assault and to receive a nine-month prison sentence in exchange for his testifying against three other members of his squad , the lawyers said .

The three other soldiers , members of the same company as Specialist Graber in the division 's Third Brigade , still face courts-martial on premeditated-murder charges , making them eligible for the death penalty or , barring that , life in prison .

Army prosecutors have accused them of carrying out an impromptu plan , following a raid on a marshy island northwest of Baghdad , to kill the three Iraqis after cutting off their plastic handcuffs and forcing them to run , still blindfolded , from the squalid hut where they had been discovered .

The two soldiers accused of firing on the men as they fled -- Specialist William B . Hunsaker and Pfc . Corey R . Clagett -- have said they shot in self-defense after the three broke free from the thin `` zip-tie '' handcuffs and attacked them .

A third soldier , Staff Sgt . Raymond L . Girouard , the squad 's ranking member , is accused of devising the plan to kill the men , then punching Private Clagett and cutting Specialist Hunsaker to give the appearance that they had been attacked .

None of these three defendants have entered a formal pea .

The guilty plea by Specialist Graber , to be entered before an Army judge at Fort Campbell , Ky . , and his testimony against the other soldiers will make gaining their acquittal far more difficult than it would have been had all four kept a unified legal front , lawyers for the three others said .

`` It changes the complexion of the entire case and makes the case much stronger against Clagett , Hunsaker and Girouard , '' said Paul Bergrin , a lawyer for Private Clagett who said he had not expected Specialist Graber to get `` such an outstanding deal . ''

`` It gives the government 's case credibility and corroboration where they did n't have it before , `` Mr. Bergrin added .

`` It requires us to rethink our strategy . ''

Specialist Graber 's two military lawyers , Capt . Shaun Lister and Capt . Will Suddeth , did not reply to e-mailed requests for comment or phone messages left with military officials at Fort Hood , Tex . , where both are based .

Their client 's willingness to testify for the prosecution , though , was bitter news to the three other defendants .

Michael Waddington , a lawyer for Specialist Hunsaker , said Specialist Graber 's plea arrangement felt like a betrayal , `` especially when we 've been disclosing our strategy `` to his lawyers for months .

Specialist Graber 's legal team had joined with Mr. Waddington , Mr. Bergrin and Capt . Ted Miller , a lawyer for Sergeant Girouard , in a collaborative pact known as a joint defense agreement , which lawyers often create if their clients face similar charges in the same incident .

Defense lawyers said Specialist Graber 's plea was not particularly surprising , given the disparity between the evidence against him and the charges he had faced .

According to the evidence , Specialist Graber made a last-second decision to shoot the dying man after a squad medic declared him beyond help and , according to sworn statements from soldiers not charged in the case , after Sergeant Girouard said , `` Put him out of his misery . ''

But Army prosecutors nonetheless charged Specialist Graber , 21 , with premeditated murder , creating an enormous incentive , defense lawyers for the three other soldiers said , for him to plead guilty to a lesser charge that more closely fit the crime .

The first court-martial in the case will be Private Clagett 's , scheduled to begin Jan . 15 at Fort Campbell , Mr. Bergrin said .

Two other soldiers , Sgt . Leonel Lemus and Pfc . Bradley Mason , are expected to testify for the prosecution that they heard Sergeant Girouard conceive a plan to free the Iraqi men from their handcuffs and have Private Clagett and Specialist Hunsaker kill them .

But Mr. Bergrin said he would call a powerful witness of his own : Col . Michael Steele , the brigade commander , who , according to several soldiers ' sworn testimony , told some soldiers to `` kill all military-age males '' they encountered during the raid , on May 9 .

Colonel Steele 's lawyer , Lt . Col . Raymond A . Jackson , said on Wednesday that Colonel Steele had never given such an order , a denial putting him at odds with several soldiers under his command .

The Army has granted Colonel Steele immunity to testify , Mr. Bergrin said , and once on the stand and under oath , `` he 's going to have to tell the truth . ``

Correction : January 5 , 2007 , Friday An article yesterday about a guilty plea by Army Specialist Juston R . Graber to a reduced charge of mercy killing in connection with the deaths of three Iraqi men misstated the original charge against him and the maximum punishment three other soldiers could receive if convicted .

Specialist Graber was charged with noncapital murder , not capital murder .

The three other soldiers scheduled for courts-martial face life in prison -- not the death penalty -- if convicted .

Summary: Specialist Juston R Graber is scheduled to plead guilty to reduced charge for mercy killing in connection with death of three unarmed Iraq men shot by US soldiers in 2006 .

Summary: Will testify against squad members Specialist William B Hunsaker , Pfc Corey R Clagett , and Staff Sgt Raymond L Girouard .


The Iraqi prime minister 's office on Wednesday mounted its first public defense of the way the government carried out the execution of Saddam Hussein , and said that Iraqi authorities had detained a guard who they believed was involved in recording the moment in a macabre and unauthorized video that has generated revulsion around the world .

Iraqi officials , in their effort to dampen the video 's impact , tried to challenge the impression it conveyed that Mr. Hussein , for all his brutal crimes , had behaved with far more dignity in his final minutes than his seemingly thuggish executioners .

`` The execution operation has been mischaracterized for political purposes , '' said Sadiq al-Rikabi , an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki , who was present at the execution .

Mr. Rikabi asserted that it had been carried out properly .

`` What has happened is not an insult or degradation , '' he said .

But even as Mr. Maliki 's government tried to defend its actions , the United States military , which had held Mr. Hussein in custody until it transferred him to Iraqi authorities about an hour before he was hanged , sought to distance itself from any responsibility for the scenes revealed in the video .

`` You know , if you 're asking me , ` Would we have done things differently , ' yes , we would have , '' said Maj . Gen . William B . Caldwell IV , an American military spokesman in Baghdad , at a news briefing on Wednesday .

`` But that 's not our decision , `` he added .

`` That 's an Iraqi government decision . ``

The reaction from the American military seemed to widen a rift that has been opening recently between the Shiite-led government of Mr. Maliki and its American supporters on a range of issues .

They include the government 's tolerance of militias , the recent discovery of the unofficial presence of Iranian military officers in Baghdad and the swiftness with which the Iraqis put Mr. Hussein to death after his appeals had been exhausted .

Mr. Maliki 's office confirmed Wednesday that until Mr. Hussein 's final hours , the American Embassy had sought to delay the execution long enough to avoid having it on a Muslim holiday and to resolve some remaining legal issues .

`` The Americans wanted to postpone it , '' said Maryam al-Rayas , a legal adviser to the prime minister .

The decision to go ahead , Ms. Rayas said , was `` a victory for the Iraqi government . ''

The prime minister had decided that beginning the new year with Mr. Hussein dead trumped all other considerations , including the advice of the embassy , said Ms. Rayas , who also characterized the time frame as reasonable .

`` There was no rush , '' she said .

The Iraqi government 's detention of one of the guards generated some skepticism , with some Iraqi officials suggesting that Iraq was seeking a low-level scapegoat to blame for the almost Gothic display of intimidation and death that the images depict .

Mr. Rikabi refused to name or otherwise characterize the guard who had been arrested other than to say that he was being held in Baghdad after an investigation had determined that he had shot the video with a cellphone camera .

But Munkith al-Faroun , who was the prosecutor at Mr. Hussein 's trial and was present at the execution , has said publicly that 2 of the 14 Iraqi officials and court representatives flown in by American helicopters to witness it were openly videotaping the event with cellphones .

When asked about Mr. Faroun 's statements , Mr. Rikabi said , `` I do not have this information . ''

On Wednesday , The New York Times erroneously quoted Mr. Faroun as saying that one of the officials he had seen holding up a cellphone during the execution was Mowaffak al-Rubaie , Mr. Maliki 's national security adviser .

Mr. Rubaie , in a telephone interview from London , said that along with all the Iraqi officials who were flown to the execution block by American helicopter , he had been searched at the Green Zone helipad and that his cellphone and even his keys were taken from him .

`` I did not have a cellphone in the execution chamber , '' he said .

But , further undermining the assertion that only a single guard had videotaped the execution , Mr. Rubaie said he had seen `` two or three '' others in the official contingent who did have cellphones .

He suggested that they might have been among officials who arrived at Camp Justice , the American camp in northern Baghdad where the hanging took place , by car .

The failure to call more senior officials to account raised suspicions among some Iraqis .

`` They want to blame it on a guard , '' one senior Iraqi official said .

Mr. Rubaie told CNN that there could have been as many as two others in the guard contingent who were associated with that scheme .

In the wake of the video 's release , there were continuing condemnations of the way justice was meted out to Mr. Hussein after he lost his case in a court specially set up to judge crimes committed during his rule .

On Wednesday , the United Nations high commissioner for human rights , Louise Arbour , renewed a previous call for restraint in carrying out the executions of two of Mr. Hussein 's co-defendants who were also sentenced to death .

The manner of Mr. Hussein 's execution appeared to give a boost to the remnants of his outlawed Baath Party .

In the town of Huwaish , north of Baghdad , hundreds of people led by gunmen calling themselves the `` mujahedeen of the Baath Party '' marched in protest , and in the once prosperous Baghdad neighborhood of Monsour , a large black banner proclaimed that Mr. Hussein 's death would set off fighting against `` the Americans and their followers . ''

The banner was signed , in nicely printed lettering , `` Baath Party . ''

At the same time , one of Mr. Hussein 's most ruthless enforcers , Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri , who has eluded his American pursuers for nearly four years , was named the Baath Party leader on one of its Web sites .

Although the claim could not be independently verified , Mr. Douri has long been considered a leader of the Baathist insurgency .

Asked repeatedly to describe how the American military would have carried out the execution differently , General Caldwell declined to elaborate , saying that the question was hypothetical , since the Iraqis were in control once they received custody of Mr. Hussein outside the execution block .

`` It was not our decision as to what occurred at that point , but we would have done it differently , '' General Caldwell said .

Still , Mr. Rikabi , the prime minister 's political adviser , said that the government rejected all criticism of the execution , including the point at which one of the guards shouted , `` Moktada ! Moktada ! Moktada ! '' as Mr. Hussein stood on the trapdoor of the gallows -- a reference to Moktada al-Sadr , the radical Shiite cleric who leads the militia called the Mahdi Army .

The exclamation came at the end of a standard Muslim prayer that both the guards and Mr. Hussein were saying aloud , Mr. Rikabi said .

But the guards were from the Shiite south , where Mr. Sadr is popular , and the prayer there typically ends with the reference to him , Mr. Rikabi said .

`` If you go to any mosque in Karbala or Najaf you will hear them shouting like that , '' he said .

`` This is their habit . ''

Seemingly contradicting his own government , Mr. Rubaie said he was ashamed of what had happened during the execution , which he described as `` unacceptable '' and `` disgusting . ''

`` It is not professional , it 's the wrong thing to do , and it should not have happened , `` he said .

`` But it should n't divert the mind of the people from the crimes that Saddam has been condemned to death for . ``

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ .

Summary: Iraqi Prime Min Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ` s office mounts its first public defense of way government carried out execution of Saddam Hussein , saying Iraqi authorities have detained guard who they believe was involved in recording moment in macabre and unauthorized video that has generated revulsion around world .

Summary: Iraqi officials seek to challenge impression that Hussein , for all his brutal crimes , behaved with more dignity in his final minutes than his seemingly thuggish executioners .

Summary: United States military , which had held Hussein in custody until it transferred him to Iraqi authorities hour before he was hanged , seeks to distance itself from any responsibility for scenes revealed in video .


I have a dream , my friends .

I have a dream that we are approaching the day when a ranch-owning millionaire Republican like George Bush will make peace with a vineyard-owning millionaire Democrat like Nancy Pelosi .

I have a dream that Pelosi , who was chauffeured to school as a child and who , with her investor husband , owns minority shares in the Auberge du Soleil resort hotel and the CordeValle Golf Club , will look over her famous strand of South Sea Tahitian pearls and forge bonds of understanding with the zillionaire corporate barons in the opposing party .

Furthermore , I dream of a great harmonic convergence among the obscenely rich -- between Randian hedge fund managers on the right and helipad environmentalists on the left .

I dream that the big-money people who seem to dominate our politics will put aside their partisan fury and discover the class solidarity that Karl Marx always said they shared , and their newfound civility will trickle down to the rest of us .

I dream that Berkeley will make peace with Buckhead , Streisand with DeVos , Huffington with O'Reilly .

I have my dreams , but of course , I am realistic too , for I am aware that at present there is no peace among the secluded island villas .

I look out across the second homes of America and its surrounding tropical regions and I see polarization among the Kate Spade devotees and bitterness among the Rolexes .

And I know that both Bush and Pelosi are part of an upper-income whirlwind of strife .

Some people believe that Pelosi is an airhead , but that is wrong .

Some people believe she is a radical San Francisco liberal , but that , too , is wrong .

The main fact to know about Pelosi is that she is a creature of the modern fund-raising system .

Some politicians rise because they run political machines .

Some rise because they are great communicators .

Pelosi has risen because she is a master of the thousand-dollar-a-plate fundraising circuit .

Living amid a web of investors , venture capitalists and West Coast technology tycoons , she raised heroic amounts of money for the Democratic Party before she ever thought of running for anything herself .

In 1984 , she was the state party chairwoman .

In 1986 , she was the national fund-raising chairwoman for the Senate Democrats .

Since coming to the House , she has discovered what many a savvy pol has discovered -- that the fastest way to ascend in Congress is to raise a lot of money and give it to your peers .

She paid her dues selecting party favors , arranging seating charts -LRB- after that , legislation is easy -RRB- , and laying thick dollops of obsequiousness on cranky old moguls and their helmet hair spa-spouses .

She has done what all political fund-raisers do : tell rich people things they already believe , demonize the other side , motivate the giving with Manichaean tales of good versus evil .

It is no wonder The Los Angeles Times calls her a `` rabid Democrat '' or that Time magazine calls her `` hyperpartisan . ''

It is not a surprise , as The Washington Post reported this week , that despite campaign promises about changing the tone in Washington , Pelosi has decided to exclude Republicans from the first burst of legislation -- to forbid them to offer amendments or alternatives .

She is part of the clash of the rival elites , with the dollars from Brookline battling dollars from Dallas , causing upper-class strife that even diminutive dogs , vibrant velvets and petite salades ca n't fully soothe .

It pains me to see plutocrats fight , because it sets such a poor example for those of us in the lower orders who fly commercial .

It pains me even more because politicians from the rival blueblood clans go to embarrassing lengths to try to prove they are most authentically connected with working Americans .

Think of John Kerry visiting a Wendy 's or Bill Frist impersonating a Bible thumper .

This week , witness Pelosi going on her all-about-me inauguration tour , which is designed to rebrand her as a regular Catholic grandma from Baltimore .

Members of the middle classes never have to mount campaign swings to prove how regular they are , but these upper-bracket types ca n't help themselves , and they always lay it on too thick .

So I harbor my dreams of reconciliation , but in the meantime , why oh why ca n't we have a decent overclass in this country -- a group of highly attractive dimwits who spread bland but worthy stability over our political scene .

Why oh why do we have to have this endless canapé war -- the people of the vineyard against the people of the ranch .

Op-Ed Columnist .

Summary: David Brooks Op-Ed longs for wealthy politicians to put aside their partisan fury and discover civility .

Summary: Says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is example of rich politician who rose to power by mastering fund-raising system .

Summary: Says despite campaign promises to change tone in Congress , Pelosi has excluded Republicans from first burst of legislation .


Robert L . Nardelli 's rich compensation and poor performance at Home Depot have long been cited by shareholder activists as a prime example of what they view as excessive executive pay .

Some union members dressed up in giant chicken outfits to protest the board 's reluctance to clip Mr. Nardelli 's wings .

What did all their outrage get them .

Mr. Nardelli 's removal -- and at least a $ 210 million bill for a golden handshake on his way out the door .

Yesterday , Home Depot 's board ousted Mr. Nardelli as chairman and chief executive in a surprising move that highlights the growing influence of investors pressuring boards to rein in executive pay .

But it also illustrates another point : Even when their voices are heard , shareholders often wind up holding the bag .

At Home Depot , Mr. Nardelli is expected to receive an exit package worth more than $ 210 million on top of the nearly $ 64 million he was paid during his six years at the helm .

That equals about $ 45 million a year .

Over that same period , Home Depot 's stock has fallen from over $ 50 a share early in his tenure to $ 41.16 just before Mr. Nardelli 's resignation was announced .

By contrast , Home Depot 's chief competitor , Lowe 's , has paid its chief executives about one-third of what Mr. Nardelli made during the same time , while investors have enjoyed a healthy increase in their holdings .

Mr. Nardelli 's compensation may have a prominent place in the pantheon of pay-for-failure , but his arrangement is by no means unique .

`` The company is big , the underperformance is significant and the numbers are very large , '' said Lucian Bebchuk , a Harvard Law School professor who is an outspoken critic of executive pay .

`` But each of the pieces that lead to the decoupling of pay from performance are very common to the executive compensation landscape . ''

Across corporate America , chief executives have been walking away with lavish riches even when their companies fail to perform , according to an analysis by the Corporate Library .

At Pfizer , Henry A . McKinnell left with an exit package worth $ 213 million , including an $ 82 million pension , after the pharmaceutical giant he ran for six years lost over $ 137 billion in market value on his watch .

Jay Sidhu , the former chairman and chief executive of Sovereign Bank , received $ 44 million last fall when he was removed after a bitter proxy fight .

Morgan Stanley 's board awarded Philip J . Purcell an exit package worth more than $ 95 million when he was forced out in July 2005 .

Tom Freston , who was ousted at Viacom in September , and Carleton S . Fiorina , who was forced out by Hewlett-Packard in February 2005 , were handed tens of millions of dollars when they abruptly stepped down .

`` You can call them pay-for-failure packages , '' said Jesse M . Fried , a law professor at the University of California , Berkeley , who has been critical of excessive compensation packages .

`` You get what you pay for . ''

The reason highlights the `` Heads I win .

Tails I win `` nature of executive pay -- especially for chief executives hired to orchestrate a turnaround .

Over the last decade , many boards and big investors bought into the belief that a celebrity C.E.O. or corporate savior was vital for success .

There have certainly been a number of examples of chief executives who delivered outsize gains to their shareholders , enjoying big rewards themselves .

As a result , most executives have been able to take advantage of the perception that they would deliver big rewards to negotiate employment contracts that guaranteed them bonuses when they arrived , paid them handsomely with stock options during their careers -- and in many cases , ensured severance contracts providing millions more once they left .

`` The justification that is given for these big executive pay packages is that we have to give them very strong incentives to create shareholder value , '' Mr. Fried said .

`` But if you are allowing them to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars even if they do extremely poorly , you are undermining that case . ''

That appears to be what happened at Home Depot .

When Mr. Nardelli was hired in December 2000 , he was seen as a strong leader who could help restore Home Depot to the luster it enjoyed in its early years .

Home Depot 's board offered him a contract that would pay him well if times were bad and even more if the company 's performance was better .

Mr. Nardelli received $ 63.5 million in salary , bonuses , and other compensation , including $ 21 million in forgiven loans and company-paid taxes during his career at Home Depot .

In that time , however , he failed to turn the company around .

Yesterday , details of his $ 210 million exit package were released .

As part of the negotiated arrangement , Mr. Nardelli is expected to take home a severance payment of $ 20 million , a $ 32 million pension , a $ 2 million 401 -LRB- k -RRB- and $ 139 million in deferred equity awards and stock options that he now will be able to cash early .

That amount could grow if Home Depot 's shares rebound under a new leader .

Mr. Nardelli also stands to receive another $ 18 million in `` other entitlements , '' which the company did not disclose , but will be paid over the next four years so long as he does not violate a noncompete contract .

Under his employment contract , Mr. Nardelli was eligible for benefits like life insurance , and dental and medical coverage for several years after his departure .

It is unclear whether he will still receive them .

`` When you guarantee income to an executive regardless of performance , you end up paying and you rarely get performance , '' Mr. Hodgson said .

`` The board could have saved themselves hundreds of millions of dollars and still have their reputations intact . ''

Representative Barney Frank , the Massachusetts Democrat who is the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee , called Mr. Nardelli 's exit package `` confirmation of the need to deal with a pattern of C.E.O. pay that appears to be out of control . ''

Some investors were so happy to see Mr. Nardelli leave that they declared victory -- no matter how hollow .

They are holding out hope that his ignominious exit will serve as an example to others .

William C . Thompson Jr . , New York City comptroller , said he hoped `` all the attention that has been focused on him -- with his excessive pay and his underperformance -- will lead to change within this company and send a message to other companies . ''

Still , he conceded that the $ 210 million exit package was something `` we would have preferred not happen . ''

A CHAIRMAN 'S FALL .

Summary: Robert L Nardelli 's $ 210 million exit package from Home Depot highlights expensive ` pay-for-failure ' golden handshakes executives tend to receive after being pressured to leave companies .

Summary: Amounts seem unaffected by poor performance .

Summary: Incentives to attract high-profile talent undermines shareholder value and do little to improve business .

Summary: Recent exit packages of prominent executives are shown .

Summary: Photos .


Coming home from their respective tours of duty in Iraq , John Reid and Alina Gutierrez had never met but they had a lot in common .

Both were sergeants in the 42nd Infantry Division of the Army and were deployed in Iraq from autumn 2004 to autumn 2005 .

And both had a strong interest in running their own businesses when they got home .

Ms. Gutierrez is an owner of a Glass Doctor franchise , and next month , Mr. Reid will open his own Glass Doctor in a neighboring New Jersey county .

They are the beneficiaries of an innovative private-sector business plan aimed at encouraging and supporting military veterans .

The Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative , or VetFran , a program sponsored by the International Franchise Association , offers veterans a discount on financing prospective franchises as a way of thanking them for serving the country .

Nearly 200 participating franchise companies provide qualified veterans `` the best deal '' in acquiring a new franchise , a deal not available to other franchise investors , according to Dina Dwyer-Owens , president of the Dwyer Group , a franchise organization in Waco , Tex .

Franchises have become an increasingly appealing route for many would-be entrepreneurs .

According to a 2004 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers , franchise businesses employ more than 18 million Americans and generate more than $ 1.5 trillion , or nearly 10 percent of private-sector economic output .

The study noted that there were more than 760,000 franchise businesses in the United States and franchising continues to be a fast-growing business opportunity .

VetFran was conceived by Don Dwyer Sr . , Ms. Dwyer-Owens ` father , after the Persian Gulf war .

When Mr. Dwyer died suddenly in 1994 , the VetFran program foundered .

After 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan , Ms. Dwyer-Owens decided that the program ought to be revived and , in 2002 , she turned it over to the franchise association .

VetFran is open to all veterans , not just those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq .

Since the program began , more than 600 veterans have received discounts in starting franchise businesses .

Among the participating franchise companies are Dunkin ' Donuts , Midas , the UPS Store , Gold 's Gym and Aamco Transmissions .

Ms. Gutierrez , 26 , said she received a 10 percent discount on her Glass Doctor franchise fee , which saved her several thousand dollars in much-needed capital for her outlet in Mercer County .

But as with Mr. Reid and other veterans who have participated in the VetFran program , the money was not as significant as the meaning of the gesture .

`` I was very excited when I heard about the program , '' Ms. Gutierrez said .

`` When you come home from your deployment , you are not sure if everyone appreciated what you had done .

I thought it was very cool that they recognized that we risked our lives in Iraq and they appreciated our sacrifice . ``

Mr. Reid , who views Ms. Gutierrez as a colleague , not a competitor , said that the VetFran discount was a big influence on his decision to pursue a Glass Doctor franchise .

`` The less capital you have to lay out , the better , '' he said .

`` You need as much start-up money as you can get . ''

He was also impressed that Glass Doctor , one of eight franchise businesses owned and operated by the Dwyer Group , was willing to be flexible with his deal , offering him an additional four months before he has to start repayments .

Because of their military training , returning veterans are highly regarded as prospective franchise operators by franchise companies .

As with the military , successful franchises operate within a specific system and a set of guidelines , created by the franchiser .

`` Someone coming back from the military is a great fit for a franchise business , '' said Jim Blasingame , a small-business consultant and host of the `` The Small Business Advocate Show '' on radio .

`` They not only know what it 's like to work hard but they know how to operate within a system .

With a franchise , you ca n't think outside the box .

You have to color inside the lines . ``

The military is apparently good training for all types of entrepreneurs .

According to William D . Elmore , associate administrator for veterans business development at the Small Business Administration , there are 25 million veterans in the United States and one in seven of them is successfully self-employed .

`` Veterans have the highest rate of successful self-employment of any group of Americans , '' Mr. Elmore said , noting the 14 percent success rate in self-employment .

He attributes this success to the discipline and training every soldier acquires during their service .

`` There is an enormous resource going into the training and deployment of soldiers and out of that comes a skill set , discipline and worldliness that most citizens do n't have at a young age . ``

Mr. Reid , 40 , says that Iraq gave him an opportunity to save $ 60,000 while he was deployed and he was intent on using that money to set up his own business .

`` As a noncommissioned officer in charge of a logistics section , I was responsible for 45 people , '' he said .

All 45 came back .

`` So I thought , ' Let 's see how I do in business . '

`` His Glass Doctor franchise in Somerset , N.J. , which is set to open Feb . 5 , gives him exclusive rights to all of Somerset County .

`` They told me , ' We have a system .

If you follow it , you 'll be successful . '

That sounded like the business for me , `` he said .

The VetFran program is allowing Brett Cooper to start a Lawn Doctor franchise in Boonville , Mo . , while keeping his full-time job as a sales representative for Graybar Electric .

As an 18-year member of the Missouri Army National Guard , Mr. Cooper was called up for a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2004 and spent a year deployed in and around Kabul .

`` I looked into a Lawn Doctor franchise six years ago , but I was n't financially able to do it , `` Mr. Cooper said .

`` While I was in Afghanistan , I saved my salary .

I 'm a major so the pay was very good .

and it gave me a cushion .

I e-mailed Lawn Doctor from Afghanistan and was made aware of the VetFran program . ``

He received a 5 percent discount on his start-up costs for the franchises , which is significant given that Lawn Doctor franchises cost $ 90,000 .

As with other veterans starting franchises , Mr. Cooper does not hesitate to let customers know he is a veteran .

`` I 've absolutely used my veteran status , `` he said .

`` People are very grateful that you have served your country , especially in the current conflict .

Doing that kind of service for your country builds trust and respect . ``

Ms. Dwyer-Owens is pleased by the response to the VetFran program thus far .

`` The veterans are so grateful that we are there to say thanks , '' she said .

`` I 'm proud of it .

There 's no government funding .

It 's all done by private businesses . ``

Mr. Elmore praised the VetFran program as a strong private-sector initiative that opened doors for veterans seeking small-business opportunities .

He also cautioned that veterans should seek expert advice available through S.B.A. business development centers before signing any agreements -LRB- www.sba.gov / vets -RRB- .

Jerry Pyle , a retired Marine sergeant in Mineola , Fla . , is among those who appreciate the VetFran gesture .

After a 22-year career in the Marines ended in 1999 , Mr. Pyle tried his hand in corporate retail and found himself ill suited to that atmosphere .

He began his own business as a handyman and home remodeler and when he moved from South Carolina to central Florida , he heard about the Dream Maker Bath and Kitchen Worldwide franchise , another Dwyer Group company .

`` It resonated with me that a corporation would actually take my service to the country into consideration , '' he said .

`` It felt like a belated payback for 22 years of service . ''

The VetFran program emphasizes that veterans not only make excellent franchisers but employees as well .

Mr. Pyle said that he gravitated toward the qualities and values of veterans and all of his five full-time employees are either veterans or wives of veterans .

`` Their qualities of teamwork , ethics and enthusiasm make us a better company , '' he said .

SMALL BUSINESS .

Summary: Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative offers veterans assistance in setting up prospective franchises in deals not available to other investors .

Summary: Business plan is aimed at encouraging and supporting military veterans .

Summary: Study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows franchises have become increasingly appealing route for entrepreneurs , employing more than 18 million Americans and generating more than $ 1.5 trillion .

Summary: Photo .


The dictator sat alone in his cell , three years in American custody .

His beard had gone gray , his sons were dead and the gallows were being readied .

Saddam Hussein in those final days turned to poetry , so often his source of solace in times of difficulty , inspired by his vision of himself as inseparably tied to those he led .

The poem , `` Unbind It , '' is his rallying call to be sounded from the grave .

It is a mixture of defiance and reflection , but no remorse .

No mention of the tens of thousands of lives he was responsible for taking .

No expression of guilt or sadness or regret .

The poem , flush with florid phrases that were his trademark , begins with what sounds like a paean to the love between himself and his people , who were about to lose him .

Unbind your soul .

It is my soul mate and you are my soul 's beloved .

No house could have sheltered my heart as you have .

He moves quickly to more aggressive language .

He refers to the foreigners who swept him from power and to the Iraqis who rose to rule here in his place .

The enemies forced strangers into our sea And he who serves them will be made to weep .

Here we unveil our chests to the wolves And will not tremble before the beast .

The verses were written by Mr. Hussein after he was sentenced to death and , according to his relatives , are believed to be his last written words .

A handwritten copy of the poem was passed along by the Iraqi authorities to his family in Tikrit , along with his final will and testament , according to Mr. Hussein 's cousin Muayed Dhamin al-Hazza .

Mr. Hazza read the poem on the telephone , saying he hoped Mr. Hussein 's farewell would underline the manner in which the execution was carried out .

Iraqi and American officials confirmed that a poem left among Mr. Hussein 's belongings at the American military detention center was delivered to his family .

In the poem , Mr. Hussein praises those who continue to fight for the Iraqi nation and condemns the `` wolves '' who have brought ruin through their invasion .

He portrays himself as a martyr .

His poetry , like his speeches at decisive moments of his dictatorship , was often obscure , highly alliterative and difficult , even for Arabic speakers , to comprehend fully .

At the height of his power , Iraqis brave enough to discuss the subject would shake their heads at his rambling speeches and convoluted verse .

Some would suggest , with glances over their shoulders , that in his efforts to show himself as a scholar of Arab history and literature , he inadvertently revealed some of the darker recesses of his mind .

According to news reports , Mr. Hussein even made gifts of his poetry to his American captors .

Iraqis familiar with his style helped translate his death cell poem .

Sections that would have been unintelligible in a literal translation have been interpreted loosely in an attempt to reveal the meaning Mr. Hussein intended .

He is most clear when talking about how he sees himself in light of his impending death .

I sacrifice my soul for you and for our nation Blood is cheap in hard times .

Mr. Hussein told his official biographer that he cared little what people thought of him when he was alive , but that he hoped to be revered as one of the giants of history -- as a Nebuchadnezzar or Saladin -- 500 years from now .

He ordered that one in every 10 bricks used in reconstructing the ancient palace at Babylon be stamped with his name or an eight-pointed star to symbolize the eight letters in his name in the Arabic alphabet .

For a man whose vanity was in proportion to his brutality , he appears , from the poem , to have seen himself as dying for a greater good .

It was a theme he returned to repeatedly in the courtroom where he was condemned to death for crimes against humanity , telling the judges that he was speaking to history .

Many Iraqis viewed the thousands of portraits of Mr. Hussein erected around the country -- in business suits , as warrior , as Arab sheik -- as a sort of guidebook to his illusions about himself .

Even as his secret police murdered tens of thousands , he sealed himself off with the conviction that he was widely loved .

One of his favorite books was `` The Old Man and the Sea , '' but his style could not be mistaken for Hemingway .

No short crisp sentences for Mr. Hussein .

While still in power , he wrote , at least in part , two romantic novels .

`` Zabibah and the King , '' which is set in a fanciful Arabia of long ago , tells of a lonely king who , while powerful , feels cut off from his liegemen .

He encounters Zabibah and is entranced by her beauty and wisdom .

But outsiders soon invade the kingdom , which is described as the cradle of civilization , and Zabibah is raped -- on Jan . 17 , a reference to the beginning of the Persian Gulf war of 1991 .

When the book was released , Central Intelligence Agency analysts reportedly pored over it searching for clues into Mr. Hussein 's mind .

But they could just as easily have turned to `` The Old Man and the Sea , '' which Mr. Hussein had first read as a young man in a different prison : `` A man can be destroyed not defeated . ''

In that spirit , he urges his followers to be fierce and noble , saying : We never kneel or bend when attacking But we even treat our enemy with honor .

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ .

Summary: Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in final days before his execution turned to poetry , often his solace in times of difficulty , inspired by vision of himself as inseparably tied to those he led .

Summary: Final poem , ` Unbind It , ' compares Iraqi people to his soul mate .

Summary: Florid poem is mixture of defiance and reflection .

Summary: Photo .


When boards of directors go shopping for a new chief executive , their first stop is often General Electric .

After all , its disciplined approach to management , the `` G.E. Way , '' has been chronicled in a shelf 's worth of books , including `` Winning , '' by its former chief executive , John F . Welch Jr . , who gets much of the credit for his system of building a deep bench of talent .

That system included rotating executives through many jobs , teaching them productivity and quality-control tools like Six Sigma , and training them at the company 's vaunted management school .

G.E. executives were in such demand that just one week after Mr. Welch tapped Jeffrey R . Immelt as his successor in late 2000 , the two runners-up were immediately lured away .

Home Depot recruited Robert L . Nardelli , and 3M took W . James McNerney Jr .

But the ouster of Mr. Nardelli from Home Depot raises anew the question of whether G.E. executives are so bankable when they switch to new companies .

The answer , many management experts say , is not necessarily .

Though Mr. McNerney has succeeded at both 3M and then at Boeing , Mr. Nardelli joins Lawrence R . Johnston , another high-flying G.E. executive who left in 2001 for a troubled tenure at Albertson 's , among the alumni who did not live up to expectations .

`` G.E. is still the best training ground on the planet , but that still does n't mean that everyone is going to succeed , `` said Noel M . Tichy , a professor at the University of Michigan Business School who has written extensively about G.E.

If there is any pattern , experts say , it is that G.E. executives succeed when they switch to companies that are , well , a lot like G.E. -- big industrial firms that are dominant in their fields , or that need an infusion of manufacturing and research discipline , or that must grow by acquisition .

By contrast , they tend to have more trouble in companies , retailers like Home Depot , that require more fingertip feel to manage .

`` G.E. people are good at getting structure , system and strategy right , but they do n't always understand the soft issues like culture , `` said Boris Groysberg , an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School who recently studied 20 star G.E. managers who went on to run other companies .

Many management experts say that the very command and control management style that has characterized many successful G.E. executives may have led to Mr. Nardelli 's downfall .

They note that he shifted Home Depot 's emphasis to the commercial market , installed all sorts of productivity tools and otherwise `` G.E. - ified '' the company .

But , they say , he did not recognize that sales associates react differently than white-collar managers to change , and thus need different incentives to embrace it .

He closed stores and moved people around , which meant that many sales staff found themselves with new bosses .

He insisted that shelves be stocked during off hours , and he instituted formal inventory control and performance evaluation systems .

`` He was foisting all this change on people who are n't necessarily looking to rise to higher levels in the organization , and so did n't see any upside for themselves in any of it , `` said Batia M . Wiesenfeld , associate professor of management at the Leonard N . Stern School of Business at New York University .

The style did not necessarily work for ambitious managers either , said Anthony J . Mayo , a lecturer at the Harvard Business School .

`` He brought a classic G.E. top-down , autocratic command and control approach and style , which just did not work out of the context of G.E. , '' he said .

Mr. Mayo includes Mr. Welch , Stanley Gault , Lawrence Bossidy and several other former G.E. executives in his coming book , `` In Their Time : The Greatest Business Leaders of the 20th Century . ''

But he said that his research turned up many ex-G . E executives who ignored `` context-based management , '' his term for tailoring management approaches to specific situations .

The G.E. way was particularly out of place in a retail operation , said James E . Schrager , clinical professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business .

`` Boards get overenthusiastic about the G.E. glow , '' he said .

`` They forget that there 's a big divide between selling light bulbs and appliances to stores and running the stores that sell them to consumers . ``

Mr. Nardelli is not the first G.E. alumnus who took on another company amid much fanfare , only to leave under a cloud .

John B . Blystone left G.E. to run the SPX Corporation in 1995 .

At first , shareholders applauded his cost-cutting methods .

But revenue stalled .

Mr. Blystone resigned in 2004 `` to spend more time with his family , '' amid controversy over his sale of SPX shares before the release of lackluster quarterly results .

Shares of Conseco leaped in 2000 when Gary C . Wendt , then the head of GE Capital , became its new chief .

He was unable to turn the company around , and two years later he relinquished the chief executive slot .

Conseco soon filed for bankruptcy protection .

Mr. Johnston left G.E. to run Albertson 's in 2001 .

He closed stores and cut jobs , but still could not compete with the Wal-Mart juggernaut .

Albertson 's sales and stock plunged , and the company was eventually sold .

`` G.E. people bring a great tool kit with them , but they really need the global learning centers , the diverse product portfolio , the access to capital , all of the resources of G.E. to maximize its value , '' said Nicholas P . Heymann , who follows G.E. for Prudential Securities .

There are many success stories too , of course .

Mr. Bossidy , one of Mr. Welch 's hand-groomed executives , was considered a savior at Allied Signal -LRB- later Honeywell -RRB- , as was Mr. Gault at Rubbermaid .

Kirk Hachigian continues to get high marks at Cooper Industries .

John Trani ran into problems with Stanley Work 's unions toward the end of his tenure , but he nonetheless is credited with whipping the company 's costs and operations into shape before he retired in 2003 .

And , of course , Mr. McNerney , who left G.E. to run 3M at the same time that Mr. Nardelli left for Home Depot , got 3M 's sales and stock price way up .

He recently left to head Boeing , and most analysts expect him to do well there , too .

The success stories , experts say , have several things in common : The companies were manufacturers that needed to cut costs , pump up product innovation and grow by acquisition -- all skills that are finely honed at G.E.

In contrast , Albertson 's and Home Depot are retailers , an area that G.E. has not touched save for a brief and unrewarding stint owning Montgomery Ward .

SPX needed to expand businesses it already owned -- something that was emphasized far less by Mr. Welch than it is by Mr. Immelt , G.E. ` s current chief .

And Conseco was foundering -- a company G.E. would never have bought , and probably would have sold .

`` The errors come in when G.E. people feel they learned all the secrets at G.E. , '' said Ms. Wiesenfeld of New York University .

They become enamored of their own knowledge , she added , `` and do n't feel they have to learn about the business they are going into . ``

Mr. Immelt , G.E. ` s current chief , has not been cheered by shareholders throughout much of his tenure .

He took over from Mr. Welch in September 2001 , just in time for the terrorist attack of Sept . 11 to wreak havoc with G.E. insurance , aircraft leasing and other businesses .

And he also suffered through two years of share price stagnation , which ended just last month .

Shareholders did not clamor for his resignation , though .

One reason , analysts say , was that Mr. Immelt seemed to understand the problems , and was installing innovation processes and product lines to fix them .

Another reason was that his total compensation package -- $ 8,534,829 in 2004 and $ 3,400,769 million in 2005 -- was well below the sums paid to other chief executives like Mr. Nardelli .

A CHAIRMAN 'S FALL .

Summary: Ouster of Home Depot chairman-chief executive Robert L Nardelli , former executive at General Electric , raises anew question of whether GE executives are so bankable when they switch to new companies .

Summary: Many management experts say answer is not necessarily .

Summary: Nardelli joins Lawrence R Johnston , another high-flying GE executive who left in 2001 for troubled tenure at Albertson 's , among alumni who did not live up to expectations .

Summary: Gary C Wendt tapped in June 2000 to run Conseco Inc after building GE Capital Services .

Summary: Conseco filed for bankruptcy protection two months after Wendt stepped down in October 2002 .

Summary: Jeffrey R Immelt started at GE in 1982 .

Summary: He has sold off lackluster business and prodded managers to focus on ` organic growth ' since taking over as chief executive in 2001 .

Summary: Photos .


At first , the psychiatric drug Zyprexa may have saved John Eric Kauffman 's life , rescuing him from his hallucinations and other symptoms of acute psychosis .

But while taking Zyprexa for five years , Mr. Kauffman , who had been a soccer player in high school and had maintained a normal weight into his mid-30s , gained about 80 pounds .

He was found dead on March 27 at his apartment in Decatur , Ga . , just outside Atlanta .

An autopsy showed that the 41-year-old Mr. Kauffman , who was 5 feet 10 inches , weighed 259 pounds when he died .

His mother believes that the weight he gained while on Zyprexa contributed to the heart disease that killed him .

Eli Lilly , which makes Zyprexa , said in a statement that Mr. Kauffman had other medical conditions that could have led to his death and that `` Zyprexa is a lifesaving drug . ''

The company said it was saddened by Mr. Kauffman 's death .

No one would say Mr. Kauffman had an easy life .

Like millions of other Americans , he suffered from bipolar disorder , a mental illness characterized by periods of depression and mania that can end with psychotic hallucinations and delusions .

After his final breakdown , in 2000 , a hospital in Georgia put Mr. Kauffman on Zyprexa , a powerful antipsychotic drug .

Like other medicines Mr. Kauffman had taken , the Zyprexa stabilized his moods .

For the next five and a half years , his illness remained relatively controlled .

But his weight ballooned -- a common side effect of Zyprexa .

His mother , Millie Beik , provided information about Mr. Kauffman , including medical records , to The New York Times .

For many patients , the side effects of Zyprexa are severe .

Connecting them to specific deaths can be difficult , because people with mental illness develop diabetes and heart disease more frequently than other adults .

But in 2002 , a statistical analysis conducted for Eli Lilly found that compared with an older antipsychotic drug , Haldol , patients taking Zyprexa would be significantly more likely to develop heart disease , based on the results of a clinical trial comparing the two drugs .

Exactly how many people have died as a result of Zyprexa 's side effects , and whether Lilly adequately disclosed those risks , are central issues in the thousands of product-liability lawsuits pending against the company , and in state and federal investigations .

Because Mr. Kauffman also smoked heavily for much of his life , and led a sedentary existence in his last years , no one can be sure that the weight he gained while on Zyprexa caused his heart attack .

Zyprexa , taken by about two million people worldwide last year , is approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder .

Besides causing severe weight gain , it increases blood sugar and cholesterol in many people who take it , all risk factors for heart disease .

In a statement responding to questions for this article , Lilly said it had reported the death of Mr. Kauffman to federal regulators , as it is legally required to do .

The company said it could not comment on the specific causes of his death but noted that the report it submitted to regulators showed that he had `` a complicated medical history that may have led to this unfortunate outcome . ''

`` Zyprexa , '' Lilly 's statement said , `` is a lifesaving drug and it has helped millions of people worldwide with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder regain control of their lives . ''

Documents provided to The Times by a lawyer who represents mentally ill patients show that Eli Lilly , which makes Zyprexa , has sought for a decade to play down those side effects -- even though its own clinical trials show the drug causes 16 percent of the patients who take Zyprexa to gain more than 66 pounds after a year .

Eli Lilly now faces federal and state investigations about the way it marketed Zyprexa .

Last week -- after articles in The Times about the Zyprexa documents -- Australian drug regulators ordered Lilly to provide more information about what it knew , and when , about Zyprexa 's side effects .

Lilly says side effects from Zyprexa must be measured against the potentially devastating consequences of uncontrolled mental illness .

But some leading psychiatrists say that because of its physical side effects Zyprexa should be used only by patients who are acutely psychotic and that patients should take other medicines for long-term treatment .

`` Lilly always downplayed the side effects , '' said Dr. S . Nassir Ghaemi , a specialist on bipolar disorder at Emory University in Atlanta .

`` They 've tended to admit weight gain , but in various ways they 've minimized its relevance . ``

Dr. Ghaemi said Lilly had also encouraged an overly positive view of its studies on the effectiveness of Zyprexa as a long-term treatment for bipolar disorder .

There is more data to support the use of older and far cheaper drugs like lithium , he said .

Last year , Lilly paid $ 700 million to settle 8,000 lawsuits from people who said they had developed diabetes or other diseases after taking Zyprexa .

Thousands more suits are still pending .

But Ms. Beik is not suing Lilly .

She simply wants her son 's case to be known , she said , because she considers it a cautionary tale about Zyprexa 's tendency to cause severe weight gain .

`` I do n't think that price should be paid , `` she said .

Mr. Kauffman 's story , like that of many people with severe mental illness , is one of a slow and steady decline .

Growing up in DeKalb , Ill . , west of Chicago , he acted in school plays and was a goalie on the soccer team .

A photograph taken at his prom in 1982 shows a handsome young man with a messy mop of dark brown hair .

But in 1984 , in his freshman year at Beloit College in Wisconsin , Mr. Kauffman suffered a breakdown and was found to have the most severe form of bipolar disorder .

He returned home and , after medication stabilized his condition , enrolled in Northern Illinois University .

He graduated from there in 1989 with a degree in political science .

For the next year , he worked as a bus driver ferrying senior citizens around DeKalb .

In a short local newspaper profile of him in 1990 , he listed his favorite book as `` Catch-22 , '' his favorite musician as Elvis Costello , and his favorite moment in life as a soccer game in which he had made 47 saves .

A few months later , he followed his mother and stepfather to Atlanta and enrolled in Georgia State University , hoping to earn a master 's degree in political science .

`` He wanted so much to become a political science professor , '' Ms. Beik said .

But trying to work while attending school proved to be more stress than Mr. Kauffman could handle , Ms. Beik said .

In 1992 , he suffered his most severe psychotic breakdown .

He traveled around the country , telling his parents he intended to work on a political campaign .

Instead , he spent much of the year homeless , and his medical records show that he was repeatedly admitted to hospitals .

Mr. Kauffman returned home at the end of 1992 , but he never completely recovered , Ms. Beik said .

He never worked again , and he rarely dated .

In 1994 , the Social Security Administration deemed him permanently disabled and he began to receive disability payments .

He filed for bankruptcy that year .

According to the filing , he had $ 110 in assets -- $ 50 in cash , a $ 10 radio and $ 50 in clothes -- and about $ 10,000 in debts .

From 1992 to 2000 , Mr. Kauffman did not suffer any psychotic breakdowns , according to his mother .

During that period , he took lithium , a mood stabilizer commonly prescribed for people with bipolar disorder , and Stelazine , an older antipsychotic drug .

With the help of his parents , he moved to an apartment complex that offered subsidized housing .

But in late 1999 , a psychiatrist switched him from lithium , whichcan cause kidney damage , to Depakote , another mood stabilizer .

In early 2000 , Mr. Kauffman stopped taking the Depakote , according to his mother .

As the year went on , he began to give away his possessions , as he had in previous manic episodes , and became paranoid .

During 2000 , he was repeatedly hospitalized , once after throwing cans of food out of the window of his sixth-floor apartment .

In August , he was institutionalized for a month at a public hospital in Georgia .

There he was put on 20 milligrams a day of Zyprexa , a relatively high dose .

The Zyprexa , along with the Depakote , which he was still taking , stabilized his illness .

But the drugs also left him severely sedated , hardly able to talk , his mother said .

`` He was so tired and he slept so much , '' Ms. Beik said .

`` He loved Shakespeare , and he was an avid reader in high school .

At the end of his life , it was so sad , he could n't read a page . ``

In addition , his health and hygiene deteriorated .

In the 1990 newspaper profile , Mr. Kauffman had called himself extremely well-organized .

But after 2000 , he became slovenly , his mother said .

He spent most days in his apartment smoking .

A therapist who treated Mr. Kauffman while he was taking Zyprexa recalls him as seeming shy and sad .

`` He was intelligent enough to have the sense that his life had n't panned out in a normal fashion , `` the therapist said in an interview .

`` He always reminded me of a person standing outside a house with a party going on , looking at it . ''

The therapist spoke on the condition that her name not be used because of rules covering the confidentiality of discussions with psychiatric patients .

As late as 2004 , Mr. Kauffman prepared a simple one-page résumé of his spotty work history -- evidence that he perhaps hoped to re-enter the work force .

He never did .

As Mr. Kauffman 's weight increased from 2000 to 2006 , he began to suffer from other health problems , including high blood pressure .

In December 2005 , a doctor ordered him to stop smoking , and he did .

But in early 2006 , he began to tell his parents that he was having hallucinations of people appearing in his apartment .

On March 16 , a psychiatrist increased his dose of Zyprexa to 30 milligrams , a very high level .

That decision may have been a mistake , doctors say .

Ending smoking causes the body to metabolize Zyprexa more slowly , and so Mr. Kauffman might have actually needed a lower rather than higher dose .

A few days later , Mr. Kauffman spoke to his mother for the last time .

By March 26 , they had been out of contact for several days .

That was unusual , and she feared he might be in trouble .

She drove to his apartment building in Decatur the next day and convinced the building 's manager to check Mr. Kauffman 's apartment .

He was dead , his body already beginning to decompose .

An autopsy paid for by his mother and conducted by a private forensic pathologist showed he had died of an irregular heartbeat -- probably , the report said , as the result of an enlarged heart caused by his history of high blood pressure .

Ms. Beik acknowledged she can not be certain that Zyprexa caused her son 's death .

But the weight gain it produced was most likely a contributing factor , she said .

And she is angry that Eli Lilly played down the risks of Zyprexa .

The company should have been more honest with doctors , as well as the millions of people who take Zyprexa , she said .

Instead Lilly has marketed Zyprexa as safer and more effective than older drugs , despite scant evidence , psychiatrists say .

Ms. Beik notes that Stelazine -- an older drug that is no longer widely used even though a federally financed clinical trial showed it works about as well as Zyprexa -- stabilized Mr. Kauffman 's illness for eight years without causing him to gain weight .

`` He was on other drugs that worked , '' she said .

Correction : January 6 , 2007 , Saturday A front-page article on Thursday about the side effects of the psychiatric drug Zyprexa misstated the name of a older drug tested against Zyprexa in a federally sponsored clinical trial .

It was perphenazine -LRB- also called Trilafon -RRB- , not Stelazine .

Summary: Mother suspects that weight gain from psychiatric drug Zyprexa may have contributed to heart disease that killed her 41-year-old son .

Summary: John Eric Kauffman took drug for five years for symptoms of acute psychosis , and gained 80 pounds before being found dead last year at his home in Decator , Ga .

Summary: Eli Lilly , which makes Zyprexa , issues statement noting that Kauffman had other medical conditions that could have led to his death .

Summary: Claims Zyprexa is ` lifesaving drug ' .

Summary: Weight gain is common side effect of Zyprexa .

Summary: For many patients , side effects are severe .

Summary: But connecting them to specific deaths can be difficult , because people with mental illness develop potentially life-threatening diseases more frequently than other adults .

Summary: In 2002 , statistical analysis conducted for Eli Lilly found that compared with older antipsychotic drug Haldol , patients taking Zyprexa would be significantly more likely to develop heart disease .

Summary: Whether Lilly adequately disclosed risks are central issues in thousands of product-liability lawsuits pending against company , and in state and federal investigations .

Summary: Kauffman 's mother Millie Beik describes her son 's illness .

Summary: Photos .


A laboratory that has tested most of the nation 's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests .

The company , Ciber Inc . of Greenwood Village , Colo . , has also come under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to test new voting machines for the state .

New York could eventually spend $ 200 million to replace its aging lever devices .

Experts on voting systems say the Ciber problems underscore longstanding worries about lax inspections in the secretive world of voting-machine testing .

The action by the federal Election Assistance Commission seems certain to fan growing concerns about the reliability and security of the devices .

The commission acted last summer , but the problem was not disclosed then .

Officials at the commission and Ciber confirmed the action in recent interviews .

Ciber , the largest tester of the nation 's voting machine software , says it is fixing its problems and expects to gain certification soon .

Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use .

`` What 's scary is that we 've been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified , and this calls into question those systems that they tested , `` said Aviel D . Rubin , a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins .

Professor Rubin said that although some software bugs had shown up quickly , in other instances `` you might have to use the systems for a while before something happens . ''

Officials at the commission and other election experts said it was essential for a laboratory to follow its quality-control procedures and document all its testing processes to instill confidence in the results .

Commission officials said that they were evaluating the overall diligence of the laboratory and that they did not try to determine whether its weaknesses had contributed to problems with specific machines .

Computer scientists have shown that some electronic machines now in use are vulnerable to hacking .

Some scientists caution that even a simple software error could affect thousands of votes .

In various places , elections have been complicated by machines that did not start , flipped votes from one candidate to another or had trouble tallying the votes .

Until recently , the laboratories that test voting software and hardware have operated without federal scrutiny .

Even though Washington and the states have spent billions to install the new technologies , the machine manufacturers have always paid for the tests that assess how well they work , and little has been disclosed about any flaws that were discovered .

As soon as federal officials began a new oversight program in July , they detected the problems with Ciber .

The commission held up its application for interim accreditation , thus barring Ciber from approving new voting systems in most states .

Ciber , a large information technology company , also has a $ 3 million contract to help New York test proposed systems from six manufacturers .

Nystec , a consulting firm in Rome , N.Y. , that the state hired , filed a report in late September criticizing Ciber for creating a plan to test the software security that `` did not specify any test methods or procedures for the majority of the requirements . ''

The report said the plan did not detail how Ciber would look for bugs in the computer code or check hacking defenses .

A spokeswoman for Ciber , Diane C . Stoner , said that the company believed that it had addressed all the problems and that it expected to receive its initial federal accreditation this month .

Federal officials said they were evaluating the changes the company had made .

Ms. Stoner said in a statement that although the Election Assistance Commission had found deficiencies , they `` were not because Ciber provided incomplete , inaccurate or flawed testing , but because we did not document to the E.A.C. ' s liking all of the testing that we were performing . ''

She added that the test plan cited in New York was just a draft and that Ciber had been working with Nystec to ensure additional security testing .

The co-chairman of the New York State Board of Elections , Douglas A . Kellner , said Ciber had tightened its testing .

But Mr. Kellner said yesterday that Nystec and Ciber continued to haggle over the scope of the security testing .

New York is one of the last states to upgrade its machines , and it also has created some of the strictest standards for them .

Mr. Kellner said only two of the six bidders , Diebold Election Systems and Liberty Election Systems , seemed close to meeting all the requirements .

Besides Ciber , two other companies , SysTest Labs of Denver and Wyle Laboratories , in El Segundo , Calif . , test electronic voting machines .

Ciber , which has been testing the machines since 1997 , checks just software .

Wyle examines hardware , and SysTest can look at both .

The chairman of the Election Assistance Commission , Paul S . DeGregorio , said SysTest and Wyle received interim accreditations last summer .

Mr. DeGregorio said two other laboratories had also applied to enter the field .

Congress required greater federal oversight when it passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 .

Since then , the government also put up more than $ 3 billion to help states and localities buy electronic machines , to avoid a repeat of the hanging punch-card chads that caused such confusion in the 2000 presidential election .

The commission was never given a substantial budget , and it did not finish creating the oversight program until last month .

Until then , the laboratories had been at the heart of the system to evaluate voting machines , a system that seemed oddly cobbled together .

While the federal government created standards for the machines , most of the states enacted laws to make them binding .

The states also monitored the testing , and much of that work was left to a handful of current and former state election officials who volunteered their time .

As a result , voting rights advocates and other critics have long been concerned about potential conflicts of interest , because the manufacturers hire the laboratories and largely try to ensure confidentiality .

Michael I . Shamos , a computer scientist who examines voting machines for Pennsylvania , said about half had significant defects that the laboratories should have caught .

Besides certifying the laboratories , the Election Assistance Commission will have three staff members and eight part-time technicians to approve test plans for each system and check the results .

The manufacturers will be required to report mechanical breakdowns and botched tallies , and Mr. DeGregorio said those reports would be on the agency 's Web site .

Dr. Shamos said , `` This is not the sea change that was needed . ''

He said he was disappointed that the commission had hired some of the same people involved in the states ' monitoring program and that it never announced it had found problems with Ciber operations .

Dr. Rubin of Johns Hopkins said the laboratories should be required to hire teams of hackers to ferret out software vulnerabilities .

And the laboratories will still be paid by the voting machine companies , though a bill now in Congress could change that to government financing .

A recent appearance in Sarasota , Fla . , by the SysTest Labs president , Brian T . Phillips , also raised eyebrows .

After a Congressional election in the Sarasota area ended in a recount last month , the victorious Republican candidate hired Mr. Phillips as a consultant to monitor the state 's examination of whether there had been a malfunction in the voting machines .

Several critics questioned whether Mr. Phillips should have taken such work , either because of its partisan nature or because it represented such a public defense of the industry .

Mr. Phillips said he did not see any conflict because his laboratory had not tested the software used in Sarasota .

And the project does not appear to have violated the ethics rules of the election commission .

Summary: Federal Election Assistance Commission bars Ciber Inc from testing nation 's electronic voting systems after finding flaws in its quality-control procedures and lack of required documentation on tests it conducted .

Summary: Ciber is largest tester of voting machine software and has tested most of nation 's electronic voting systems .

Summary: It has also come under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to test new voting machines for state .

Summary: Experts say Ciber problems underscore longstanding worries about lax inspections in secretive world of voting-machine testing .

Summary: Say deficiencies of Ciber laboratory suggest that crucial features like vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use .

Summary: Ciber says it is fixing its problems and expects to gain certification soon .

Summary: Photo .


In 1997 , as the government listened in on their phone call , Adham Hassoun , a computer programmer in Broward County , Fla . , proposed a road trip to Jose Padilla , a low-wage worker there .

The excursion to Tampa would be his treat , Mr. Hassoun said , and a chance to meet `` some nice , uh , brothers . ''

Mr. Padilla , 36 , a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican who had converted to Islam a few years earlier , knew Mr. Hassoun , an outspoken Palestinian , from his mosque .

Still , according to a transcript of the conversation obtained by The New York Times , Mr. Padilla equivocated as Mr. Hassoun exhorted .

`` We take the whole family and have a blast , '' Mr. Hassoun said .

`` We go to , uh , our Busch Gardens , you know You wo n't regret it .

Money-back guarantee . ``

Mr. Padilla , laughing , suggested that they not discuss the matter over the phone .

`` Why .

`` Mr. Hassoun said .

`` We 're going to Busch Gardens .

What 's the big deal ! `` That conversation took place five years before Mr. Padilla , a United States citizen accused of plotting a '' dirty bomb `` attack against this country , was declared an enemy combatant .

Given that Mr. Padilla and Mr. Hassoun are now criminal defendants in a terrorism conspiracy case in Miami , it sounds suspicious , as if Mr. Hassoun were proposing something more sinister than a weekend at the amusement park .

He well may have been -- but maybe , too , he was sincere or joking about a Muslim retreat .

Deciphering such chatter in order to construct a convincing narrative of conspiracy is a challenge .

Yet , prosecutors say , the government will rely largely on wiretapped conversations when it puts Mr. Padilla , Mr. Hassoun , and a third defendant , Kifah Jayyousi , on trial as a `` North American support cell '' that sent money , goods and recruits abroad to assist `` global jihad . ''

Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded .

Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government 's case , including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla , prosecutors said .

But Mr. Padilla 's voice is heard on only seven calls .

And on those seven , which The Times obtained from a participant in the case , Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots .

But this is not the version of Mr. Padilla -- Al Qaeda associate and would-be bomber -- that John Ashcroft , then the attorney general , unveiled in 2002 when he interrupted a trip to Moscow to trumpet Mr. Padilla 's capture .

His criminal trial , scheduled to begin late this month , will feature none of the initial claims about violent plotting with Al Qaeda that the government cited as justification for detaining Mr. Padilla without formal charges for three and a half years .

Those claims came from the government 's overseas interrogations of terrorism suspects , like Abu Zubaydah , which , the government said , Mr. Padilla corroborated , in part , during his own questioning in a military brig in South Carolina .

But , constrained by strict federal rules of evidence that would prohibit or limit the use of information obtained during such interrogations , the government will make a far more circumscribed case against Mr. Padilla in court , effectively demoting him from Al Qaeda 's dirty bomber to foot soldier in a somewhat nebulous conspiracy .

The initial dirty bomb accusation did not disappear .

It quietly resurfaced in Guantánamo Bay , Cuba .

The government filed the dirty bomb charges against Mr. Padilla 's supposed accomplice , an Ethiopian-born detainee , at about the same time it indicted Mr. Padilla on relatively lesser offenses in criminal court .

A Change in Strategy The change in Mr. Padilla 's status , from enemy combatant to criminal defendant , was abrupt .

It came late in 2005 as the Supreme Court was weighing whether to take up the legality of his military detention and the Bush administration , by filing criminal charges , pre-empted its review .

In a way , Mr. Padilla 's prosecution was a legal maneuver that kept the issue of his detention without charges out of the Supreme Court .

After apprehending him at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in May 2002 , the Bush administration made a choice : to detain Mr. Padilla militarily , in order to thwart further plotting , rather than to follow him in order to gather evidence that might serve a criminal prosecution .

Now that Mr. Padilla has ended up a criminal defendant after all , the prosecution 's case does not fully reflect the Bush administration 's view of who he is or what he did .

Senior government officials have said publicly that Mr. Padilla provided self-incriminating information during interrogations , admitting , they said , to undergoing basic terrorist training , to accepting an assignment to blow up apartment buildings in the United States , and to attending a farewell dinner with Khaled Sheikh Mohammed , the suspected master planner of the Sept . 11 attacks , before he flew to Chicago in 2002 .

But any confessions by Mr. Padilla while he was detained without charges and denied access to counsel -- whether or not he was mistreated , as his lawyers claim -- would not be admissible in court .

And it is unlikely that information obtained during the harsh questioning of Al Qaeda detainees would be admissible , either -- and , further , the government is disinclined to expose sensitive intelligence or invite further scrutiny of secret jails overseas .

Probably as a consequence , the current criminal case zeroes in on what the government sees as an earlier stage of Mr. Padilla 's involvement with terrorism .

It focuses primarily on the other defendants ' support during the 1990s for Muslim struggles overseas , especially in Bosnia , Kosovo and Chechnya .

Mr. Padilla , who was appended to their pre-existing case , in which he had been an unnamed co-conspirator , is depicted as their recruit .

Although prosecutors have declined to discuss the government 's strategy , their filings and statements in court provide a picture of the case they are expected to present at trial .

The most tangible allegation against Mr. Padilla is that in 2000 he filled out , under an alias , an Arab-language application to attend a terrorist training camp .

That application is expected to be offered into evidence alongside the wiretapped conversations , but Mr. Padilla 's lawyers say they will contest its admissibility , challenging the government 's assertion that the `` mujahideen data form '' belonged to their client .

Robert Chesney , a specialist in national security law at Wake Forest University , called the prosecution a pragmatic one , analogous to `` going after Al Capone on tax evasion . ''

But Deborah Pearlstein , a lawyer with Human Rights First who has consulted with Mr. Padilla 's defense , said that his will never be an ordinary , pragmatic prosecution .

`` If Jose Padilla were from Day 1 just charged and tried , then maybe , '' she said .

`` But this is a case that comes after three and a half years of the most gross deprivation of human rights that we 've seen in this country for a long time . ``

Further , Ms. Pearlstein noted , the government has reserved the option , should the prosecution fail , of returning Mr. Padilla to the military brig .

This , she said , `` casts a shadow '' over the current prosecution .

The Bush administration 's military case against Binyam Mohamed , 28 , the Ethiopian detainee at Guantánamo , put the current proceedings in a different light , too .

In December 2005 , Mr. Mohamed was referred to the military commission in Guantánamo on accusations that he conspired with Mr. Padilla on the dirty bomb plot .

It was little noticed at the time .

But accusations against Mr. Padilla that are nowhere to be found in the indictment against him filled the pages of Mr. Mohamed 's charging sheet , with Mr. Padilla repeatedly identified by name .

The sheet referred to the two men meeting in Pakistan after Sept . 11 , 2001 , studying how to build an improvised dirty bomb , discussing the feasibility of a dirty bomb attack with Al Qaeda officials and agreeing to undertake the mission to blow up buildings .

Mr. Mohamed 's lawyer , Clive Stafford Smith , said that these charges were based on a forced confession by Mr. Mohamed , who , he said , was tortured overseas into admitting to a story that was fed to him .

`` Binyam was told all along that his job was to be a witness against Padilla , Abu Zubaydah and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed , '' Mr. Stafford Smith said , adding that his client `` has no conscience knowledge that he ever met '' Mr. Padilla .

The charges against Mr. Mohamed and other Guantánamo detainees who were headed for prosecution there have been suspended temporarily as a result of the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress in October .

Those charges are likely to be reinstated , a Pentagon official said yesterday .

That Mr. Mohamed faced dirty bomb charges and Mr. Padilla does not speaks to the central difference between being a terrorism suspect in Guantánamo and a criminal defendant charged with terrorism offenses in the United States .

In Guantánamo , the military commission system that deals with foreign-born terrorism suspects is expected to allow , with some exceptions , the use of information obtained through coercion .

`` Federal court rules are restrictive , '' Professor Chesney of Wake Forest University School of Law said .

`` The very essence of why they 're trying to have that separate military system was to create rules to use information that is deemed by the intelligence community to be trustworthy but would n't make it under the federal rules of evidence . ``

David Cole , a professor of law at Georgetown University and author of books on terrorism and civil liberties , sees the difference between the two systems more critically : `` What this says clearly is that they feel that they can get away with using tainted evidence in the military commission system that they ca n't use in the criminal court system . ``

The Wiretapping Case The criminal case against Mr. Padilla has its roots in the prosecution of Sheikh Omer Abdel Rahman , the blind Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up the United Nations and other New York landmarks .

In the early 1990s , Sheikh Rahman 's telephone was tapped , and Mr. Hassoun and Dr. Jayyousi , a Jordanian-born American citizen who holds a doctorate in civil engineering , came to the government 's attention through phone calls to or from his line .

Then the government , under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , began to eavesdrop on them , which eventually pulled Mr. Padilla into their net , too .

The government presents the three defendants as `` joined at the hip , '' as one prosecutor put it in a hearing last summer .

But Judge Marcia G . Cooke of Federal District Court , noting that Mr. Padilla was appended to a case well under way , asked the government , `` If they are so joined at the hip , why is Mr. Padilla so late to the dance .

`` Dr. Jayyousi , a former school system administrator in both Detroit and Washington , D.C. , never met Mr. Padilla , his lawyer , William Swor , said .

It is Mr. Hassoun , the government said , who recruited Mr. Padilla .

But both Mr. Hassoun 's and Mr. Padilla 's lawyers deny that Mr. Padilla was recruited .

Seven Taped Phone Calls Mr. Padilla 's lawyers and relatives say that he left South Florida for Egypt in September 1998 on a spiritual journey .

A former juvenile offender , he converted to Islam as part of an effort to straighten out his life , they say .

His mosque in Fort Lauderdale sponsored his travel , he told friends , relatives and F.B.I. agents who interviewed him in 2002 .

Mr. Hassoun belonged to that mosque , and the telephone transcripts seem to indicate that Mr. Hassoun helped , at the least , with Mr. Padilla 's travel plans .

The seven taped phone calls that bear Mr. Padilla 's voice involve conversations with Mr. Hassoun from 1997 to 2000 .

On those calls , Mr. Padilla , unlike some of the other defendants , does not employ what the government says is coded language .

According to the government , other defendants refer to their jihad-related plans as `` getting some fresh air , '' `` participating in tourism , '' `` opening up a market , '' `` playing football , '' and so on .

This leads to silly-sounding exchanges where `` the brothers '' discuss going on `` picnics '' in order `` to smell fresh air and to eat cheese '' or using $ 3,500 to buy `` zucchini . ''

In contrast , Mr. Padilla 's seven conversations with Mr. Hassoun range from straightforward -- Mr. Hassoun tells Mr. Padilla that his grandmother has died .

Mr. Padilla tells Mr. Hassoun that he has found himself an 18-year-old Egyptian bride who is willing to wear a veil -- to vaguely suggestive or just odd .

In one phone call , the two men talked about a dream .

It appeared to be the dream that Mr. Padilla , according to his relatives , cites as having played a crucial role in inspiring him to convert to Islam : the vision of a man in a turban , surrounded by the swirling dust of a desert .

Mr. Hassoun brought it up and told Mr. Padilla that he himself had experienced the same vision .

`` What do you mean you saw the same dream .

`` Mr. Padilla asked .

`` I saw the dream of the uh person with the turban , '' Mr. Hassoun said .

Mr. Hassoun explained how , in his dream , the turban was wrongly wrapped and so he thought the man might be a spy , in which case , he was prepared `` to split his body apart . ''

But then , he said , he understood that `` the brother was a good one . ''

`` Yeah .

`` Mr. Padilla said .

In three of the seven conversations , Mr. Padilla made statements that the government has identified as `` overt acts '' in furtherance of the accused conspiracy .

In the first , Mr. Hassoun asked , `` You 're ready , right .

`` and Mr. Padilla said , '' God willing , brother , it 's going to happen soon . ``

That was the summer of 1997 , a year before Mr. Padilla left South Florida for Egypt .

In the second , Mr. Padilla told Mr. Hassoun , during a 1999 conversation from Egypt , that he had asked his ex-wife in the United States to arrange for him to receive an army jacket , a book bag and a sleeping bag , supplies that he had requested because `` there was a rumor here that the door was open somewhere . ''

In the third , Mr. Padilla told Mr. Hassoun in April 2000 , that he would need a recommendation to `` connect me with the good brothers , with the right faith '' if he were to travel to Yemen .

Prosecutors say Mr. Padilla is mentioned , although by his Muslim name Ibrahim or by another alias , on 21 additional tapes .

One of them refers to Ibrahim as being `` in the area of Usama , '' which the government takes to mean that he was near Osama bin Laden .

But Mr. Padilla 's lawyers contest that interpretation .

`` That is just nonsensical , Your Honor , that these men who for years , according to the government , have been talking in code all of a sudden are going to throw Osama bin Laden 's name around , `` Michael Caruso , a federal public defender , said in court .

Mr. Padilla has pleaded not guilty .

But before his case goes before a jury , his fitness to stand trial will be evaluated .

On the basis of Mr. Padilla 's lawyers ' assertion that he is mentally damaged as a result of his prolonged isolation and his interrogation in the brig , Judge Cooke has ordered a psychiatric evaluation by a Bureau of Prisons doctor to be completed this week .

Friday in The Times : The only person on the American mainland still held asan enemy combatant .

Correction : January 5 , 2007 , Friday A front-page article yesterday about wiretapped conversations in the case against Jose Padilla , who is accused of plotting a `` dirty bomb '' attack , omitted two lines at the continuation in some copies .

The sentence should have read : `` In the four and a half years since then , as the government tested the limits of its power to deal with terrorism outside the traditional law enforcement system , Mr. Padilla is the only accused terrorist to have gone from enemy combatant to criminal defendant . '' .

Summary: Prosecutors say government will rely largely on wiretapped conversations when it puts Jose Padilla , Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi on trial as ` North American support cell ' that sent money , goods and recruits abroad to assist ` global jihad ' .

Summary: Say 230 recorded conversations form core of government 's case , including 21 that make reference to Padilla .

Summary: But Padilla , who is American citizen , does not discuss violent plots on any of seven calls on which his voice is heard .

Summary: Padilla 's criminal trial will feature none of initial claims about violent plotting with Al Qaeda that then-Atty Gen John Ashcroft cited as justification for detaining him without formal charges for three and half years .

Summary: Those claims came from government 's overseas interrogations of terrorism suspects like Abu Zubaydah .

Summary: Government claims that Padilla corroborated them , in part , during his own questioning , but strict federal rules of evidence prohibit or limit use of information obtained during such interrogations .

Summary: Government will make far more circumscribed case against Padilla in court , effectively demoting him from Al Qaeda 's dirty bomber to foot soldier in somewhat nebulous conspiracy .

Summary: Case recalled .

Summary: Photos .