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Four Years Ago Obama Promised to Investigate Afghan Massacre. Has Anything Happened Since?

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 07:05

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In his first year in office, President Barack Obama pledged to “collect the facts” on the death of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war at the hands of U.S.-allied Afghan forces in late 2001.

Almost four years later, there’s no sign of progress.

When asked by ProPublica about the state of the investigation, the White House says it is still “looking into” the apparent massacre. Yet no facts have been released and it’s far from clear what, if any, facts have been collected.

Human rights researchers who originally uncovered the case say they’ve seen no evidence of an active investigation.

The deaths happened as Taliban forces were collapsing in the wake of the American invasion of Afghanistan. Thousands of Taliban prisoners had surrendered to the forces of a U.S.-supported warlord named Abdul Rashid Dostum. The prisoners, say survivors andother witnesses, were stuffed into shipping containers without food or water. Many died of suffocation. Others were allegedly killed when Dostum’s men shot at the containers.

A few months later, a mass grave was found nearby in Dasht-i-Leili, a desert region of northern Afghanistan.

The New York Times reported in 2009 that the Bush administration, sensitive to criticism of a U.S. ally, had discouraged investigations into the incident. In response, Obama told CNN that “if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of the laws of war, I think that we have to know about that."

A White House spokeswoman told ProPublica that there has indeed been some kind of review – and that it’s still ongoing: “At the direction of the President, his national security team is continuing its work looking into the Dasht-i-Leili massacre.” She declined to provide more details.

“This seems quite half-hearted and cynical,” said Susannah Sirkin, director of international policy at Physicians for Human Rights, the group that discovered the grave site in 2002 and since then has pushed for an investigation.

The group sent a letter to the president in December 2011, the tenth anniversary of the incident. In a follow-up meeting some months later, senior State Department officials told Physicians for Human Rights that there was nothing new to share.

“This has been a hot potato that no one wanted to deal with, and now it’s gone cold,” said Norah Niland, former director of human rights for the United Nations in Afghanistan.

Human rights advocates have long said the responsibility for a comprehensive investigation lies with the U.S., because American forces were allied with Dostum and his men at the time. Surviving prisoners have also claimed that Americans were present when the containers were loaded, though that’s never been corroborated.

A Pentagon spokesman told ProPublica that the Department of Defense “found no evidence of U.S. service member participation, knowledge, or presence. A broader review of the facts is beyond D.O.D.’s purview.” That initial review has never been made public.

At this point, say advocates, an investigation should address not just the question of U.S. involvement, but also what the U.S. did in the years that followed to foster accountability.

“I’m not saying Dostum ordered these people killed, and I’m not saying U.S. troops participated,” said Stefan Schmitt, a forensic specialist with Physicians for Human Rights. “All I’m saying is there are hundreds if not thousands of people that went missing. In a country that’s looking to have peace, to be under the rule of law, you need to answer these questions.”

Initially excited by Obama’s statement, researchers with Physicians for Human Rights peppered the administration with their findings. But the response was “murky at best,” said Sirkin.

“We were never very clear on who within the administration was delegated the task,” she said. Current and former administration officials interviewed by ProPublica couldn’t say which agency or department had the job.

Sirkin and others eventually resigned themselves to the fact that Obama, in his televised remarks, had not specifically called for a full investigation. With the U.S. now withdrawing from Afghanistan, many observers say it’s no surprise that investigating Dasht-i-Leili is no longer a priority.

Dostum still holds considerable sway in Northern Afghanistan, though he has fallen in and out of favor with the U.S. and with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The Times recently reported Dostum is one of several former warlords to whom Karzai passes on thousands of dollars in cash he receives from the CIA each month. (We were unable to reach Dostum himself for this story.)

The Obama administration has been cool toward him in recent years, saying ahead of Afghanistan’s elections in 2009 that the U.S. “maintains concerns about any leadership role for Mr. Dostum in today's Afghanistan.”

Back in 2001, Dostum was far more important to the U.S. He was a U.S. proxy, fighting the Taliban as part of the Northern Alliance. American Special Forces famously rode on horseback alongside Dostum’s men, advising and calling in airstrikes. The alliance took the city of Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban in one of the first major victories of the invasion in early November 2001.

The shipping container deaths occurred a few weeks later, when Taliban fighters who had surrendered to the Northern Alliance at the city of Kunduz were en route to a prison about 200 miles away.

That winter, Physicians for Human Rights discovered a mass grave at Dasht-i-Leili. A preliminary investigation exhumed several bodies that appeared to have died from suffocation. Stories began to circulate in the region andNewsweek and others published detailed accounts from surviving prisoners, truck drivers, and other witnesses.

The Times also reported that an FBI agent interviewing new Afghan arrivals to Guantanamo Bay prison in early 2002 heard consistent accounts of prisoners “stacked like cordwood,” and death by suffocation and shooting. When the agent pressed for an investigation, he was reportedly told it was not his responsibility.

Dostum has said that he would welcome an investigation. He said that some 200 prisoners had indeed died in transit, but that the deaths were unintentional, the result of battlefield wounds.

Other estimates put the toll much higher.

A widely cited State Department memo from fall 2002 said that “the actual number may approach 2,000.”

Around the same time, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell tasked his Ambassador for War Crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, with looking into Dasht-i-Leili. Prosper told ProPublica that due to the U.S. alliance with Dostum, Washington felt the U.S. should not take the lead in an investigation.

“We were in the middle of fighting, and we thought we should keep the lines clear, let someone else, the U.N. or Afghans, handle this,” said Prosper.

But the newly installed Afghan government had neither the will nor the resources for a thorough investigation, and U.N. officials said they could not guarantee security. Witnesses and others involved in Dasht-i-Leili had already been killed and harassed,according to State Department memos.

A declassified Defense Department memo from February 2003 indicates the U.S. was not providing security for an investigation. The memo’s author, Marshall Billingslea, told the Times in 2009, “I did get the sense that there was little appetite for this matter within parts of D.O.D.” (Billingslea did not respond to our requests for comment.)

As the years went by, no one from the U.S., the U.N., or Afghanistan guarded the grave site. In 2008, reporters and researchers found empty pits where they had once found human remains. Satellite photos obtained later showed what appeared to be earth-moving equipment in the desert in 2006. Locals told McClatchy that Dostum’s men had dug up the graves.

After Obama pledged in 2009 to look into the case, a parallel inquiry was begun the next year in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by current Secretary of State John Kerry.

The fate of that investigation is also unclear. The lead investigator, John Kiriakou, was a former CIA officer who was caught up in a criminal leak prosecution and is now in prison. Other Senate staffers could not provide details on Kiriakou’s efforts. Physicians for Human Rights says contact from the committee fizzled out within a year.

New attention to Dasht-i-Leili had also been sparked within the U.N.’s mission in Afghanistan and the organization’s High Commission on Human Rights, former U.N. officials said.

However, Peter Galbraith, who was the U.N.’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan until the fall of 2009, told ProPublica that “an investigation would’ve required a push from the U.S. It required the cooperation of the coalition forces.” (Neither the U.N. mission in Afghanistan nor the office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights responded to our requests for comment.)

The mass grave at Dasht-i-Leili is one of many left unexamined in Afghanistan. In late 2011, the nation’s Independent Human Rights Commission concluded a massive report on decades of war crimes and human rights abuses, which reportedly documents 180 mass graves across the country. The region near Dasht-i-Leili is also believed to hold the remains of civilians massacred by the Taliban in 1998, in what Human Rights Watchcalled “one of the single worst examples of killings of civilians in Afghanistan's twenty-year war.” In all, the report named 500 individuals responsible for mass killings – some of whom hold prominent government positions.

American and Afghan officials reportedly discouraged publication of the report, and the commission has still not made it public. “It’s going to reopen all the old wounds,” an American Embassy official told the New York Times last year. Afghanistan also recently adopted an amnesty law offering blanket immunity for past war crimes.

Nader Nadery, the commissioner responsible for the report, told ProPublica: “I haven’t seen any political or even rhetorical support of investigations into Dasht-i-Leili or any other investigation into past atrocities, from either Bush or Obama.”

A History of Inaction

Nov. 24, 2001: As Taliban forcessurrender to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, several thousand prisoners of war are transported in shipping containers. Survivors and witnesses later allege as many as 2,000 prisoners died -- some suffocated while others were shot -- and are buried in a grave site at Dasht-i-Leili.

February 2002: Physicians for Human Rights visits the graves at Dasht-i-Leili. That spring, under the auspices of the U.N., PHR conducts an initial forensic investigation of the graves, exhuming a number of recent remains that indicated death by suffocation.

Spring and Summer 2002: Media reports detail eyewitness allegations about deaths in the containers.

Fall 2002: U.S., U.N. and Afghan authorities say that a full investigation is warranted, but none gets off the ground.

2006: Satellite photos show disturbances at the grave sites at Dasht-i-Leili.

2008: Researchers and reporters find empty pits where graves had once been.

July 10, 2009: The New York Timesreports that Bush administration officials had discouraged U.S. government investigations into Dasht-i-Leili.

July 13, 2009: Obama tells CNN, "I've asked my national security team to...collect the facts for me that are known."

Early 2010: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins an inquiry into Dasht-i-Leili. The scope and result of that investigation is not clear.

May 2013: A White House spokesperson says that the president's "national security team is continuing its work looking into the Dasht-i-Leili massacre."

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Cash, Cars and Contracts: IBM, HP and Oracle in the Crosshairs of Overseas Corruption Investigation

Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:53

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In the buttoned-down world of government officials who oversee computer contracts, Poland’s Andrzej Machnacz cut a colorful figure. He enjoyed fine cigars and tooled around Warsaw on a motorcycle. Salesmen beat a path to his office, where the big-screen television was usually tuned to the fashion channel.

"Andrzej liked to look at pretty girls," one frequent visitor recalled. "There always had to be cigars and good alcohol in his office, mainly well-aged whisky."

Computer sales executives for local companies and global giants like IBM and Hewlett-Packard had good reason to cultivate Machnacz. As senior technology officer for Poland’s national police and, later, the nation’s Interior Ministry, he set the terms for hundreds of millions of dollars in technology contracts and decided which ones should be awarded without competitive bidding.

Today, Polish prosecutors have painted a damning portrait of the partnership between the colorful Machnacz and the eager salesmen, one that could have legal consequences for the American companies, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, the Redwood City, Calif. software company.

Machnacz, prosecutors say, received more than a $1 million in cash and brand-name gifts in exchange for steering government contracts to the three American companies, as well as to a Polish company called Netline. According to prosecutors, the gifts included a BMW motorcycle, a Nissan SUV, a Harmon Kardon home theater, a Sony 50 inch television, 12 HP laptops, several iPads and a refrigerator.

The bribing of overseas officials is barred under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and as ProPublica has previously reported, the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission have stepped up enforcement of that statute in recent years. It is unclear whether federal investigators in the U.S. have begun looking at the circumstances of the Polish technology contracts.

IBM and Hewlett-Packard said in statements that they were cooperating with Polish authorities. Hewlett-Packard noted that "no current HP employees are suspects in this case," while IBM pointed out that "press reports” on the case referred to a "former IBM employee." The company said in its statement that it "believes in the highest ethical standards for its employees and is committed to the principles of business ethics and lawful conduct."

Oracle, whose possible entanglement in the investigation had not been publicly known before today, would not comment for this article.

The first reports about the investigation by Polish news outfits surfaced more than a year ago, named IBM and HP, and did not make much of a splash. A report last week by Robert Socha of Poland’s TVN television network brought to light new details. (Watch a version with English subtitles here.)

The TVN report included footage of a Polish business executive describing the elaborate steps Machnacz would often take in order to do business in secret. The executive, whose face was obscured on camera, was not identified by name but was described as a former employee of Netline, the Polish company implicated in the case.

"I followed him in my car," the executive said of Machnacz. "Sometimes, he would go to great lengths to show how ingenious and great he was, and how he could lead all the agencies by the nose. We would meet, I would follow him by car, he would ride a motorcycle, making a show to check that we were not followed. I got to know all the underground stations, as very often we would meet at a different one."

The employee said he first met Machnacz at a conference in the United States that he’d been invited to by an IBM executive in Poland.

A spokesman for Poland’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, which has been investigating the case, told TVN and ProPublica his agency had so far been less than impressed with level of cooperation from the three American companies.

In an email to ProPublica, Jacek Dobrzynski said the companies had responded to requests for documents. But asked directly about the attitude displayed by HP, IBM and Oracle, he said had not seen "any initiative, any willingness" from them to "solve this case completely.”

"I think they should be the parties most interested in that," Dobrzynski said.

Machnacz’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors have announced that Machnacz has been released from prison and has agreed to cooperate and testify against others involved in the scheme.

Prosecutors have not specified which exact contracts were influenced by the alleged bribery. Polish officials say as many as 140 computer deals amounting to more than $500 million may have been tainted. Poland does not publish details of its government contracts.

The former Netline official said the technology systems bought by Machnacz were too expensive and sophisticated for the country’s needs. "Because of the rapid pace of change in the technology field, the technology Machnacz had purchased still needed to be updated every several years.

"It was like we built brand new highways and rode horse carts on them," the former Netline executive said. "It was money wasting.”

IBM went some lengths to tout its successful collaboration with Machnacz, featuring a Polish project in a glossy 2009 brochure that spotlighted 16 innovative technology efforts around the world. The brochure included a glowing account of how IBM had worked with Machnacz to create a network of handheld computers that gave Poland’s police instant access to a vast array of data. With a few key strokes, cops could learn whether they were dealing with a stolen car or a wanted man, the brochure said.

The portable computers "practically eliminates errors and incorrect information," the brochure quoted Machnacz as saying. Marcin Figiel, the IBM sales executive in Poland with whom Machnacz worked, proudly asserted that no other country in Europe had deployed such an advanced network.

Prosecutors said that Figiel gave Machnacz nearly $60,000 in brand-name consumer products. Figiel no longer works for IBM; his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Tomasz Ziolkowski, a salesman for HP, was alleged to have given Machnacz more than $600,000 in cash gifts "in exchange for helping Hewlett Packard Poland and Oracle obtain public contracts with the police and Interior Ministry." According to his profile on LinkedIn, Ziolkowski left HP in February 2010 for a job with Oracle’s Polish operation as a "consulting sales director." The profile says he left Oracle in July, 2011; his lawyer also did not reply to a request for comment.

The U.S. anti-bribery statute holds companies legally liable for bribes or payments by foreign employees, even if they acted without authorization from their employers in the U.S., according to Mike Koehler, a professor at Southern Illinois University School of Law and author of the blog FCPA professor.

IBM, Oracle and Hewlett-Packard have not publicly disclosed the case in their filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. That decision likely reflects a judgment that the Polish inquiry will not affect the companies’ bottom lines or change investors’ views of their stock, experts said.

Hewlett-Packard and IBM have been investigated for bribery in government contracts in other countries.

In April, 2010, Hewlett-Packard disclosed that the Department of Justice, the S.E.C. and German prosecutors were investigating nearly $10 million in suspect payments related to a $45 million contract for a computer system bought by Russia’s chief public prosecutor. U.S. authorities were also looking at separate transactions in Serbia, Austria, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the company said.

A year later, the S.E.C. sued IBM in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the company had provided shopping bags full of cash, gifts and travel expenses to officials in South Korea and China to secure computer contracts. The S.E.C. contended that "despite its extensive international operations, IBM lacked sufficient internal controls designed to prevent or detect these violations of the F.C.P.A.," the anti-bribery law.

"During the period 1998 to 2009,” the complaint said, "IBM had corporate policies prohibiting bribery and procedures relating to compliance with the FCPA; however, deficient internal controls allowed employees of IBM's subsidiaries and joint venture to use local business partners and travel agencies as conduits for bribes or other improper payments to South Korean and Chinese government officials over long periods of time."

The complaint accused the company of violating the provision of overseas bribery the law requiring it to keep accurate records and maintain "internal controls” to prevent payment of bribes.

The S.E.C. and IBM had agreed to settle the case for $10 million, but Richard Leon, the federal judge overseeing the S.E.C.’s action, recently refused to approve that deal. The case is still pending.

Robert Socha is a reporter with Poland TVN network.

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U.N. Think Tank Opening Office in Bahrain, with Bahraini Government Funding

Wednesday, 20 March 2013 12:03

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by Justin Elliott ProPublica

As Bahrain enters the third year of a crisis sparked by Arab Spring protests in 2011, the government continues to bar many human rights advocates and journalists from entering the country.

But one non-profit group is not only being welcomed into the tiny Gulf kingdom, it’s opening an office there. And it’s doing so with funding from Bahrain’s ruling monarchy.

The International Peace Institute, a New York-based think tank closely associated with the United Nations, announced last month an agreement to open the office to “promote development, peace and international security.”

The announcement comes at a time when Bahrain’s image-conscious government is still under international scrutiny amid continued pro-democracy protests. Human rights groups have criticized the government’s at times violent crackdown on the protests andfailure to follow through on promised reforms.

Institute President Terje Rød-Larsen, a veteran diplomat in the Mideast who is also a United Nations under-secretary-general, told ProPublica that the new office would be a positive force in Bahrain and the region.

He compared the think tank to United Nations programs that operate in or receive funding from countries that are in crisis or face criticism.

“Problems related to peace and security are in difficult countries,” Rød-Larsen said.

Bahrain appeals to the institute as a location for an office because “along many dimensions it’s an open society,” he said, citing the status of women and “freedom of religion.”

Rød-Larsen said that taking money from Bahrain’s government would not compromise the institute’s work. He declined to say how much money Bahrain is providing.

Rød-Larsen has been a frequent visitor to Bahrain in recent years, regularly meeting with government officials both in his capacity as the institute’s president and as a U.N. official.

With New York offices across from the United Nations, the institute counts many former U.N. officials among its staff and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is honorary chair of its board. Rød-Larsen has also traveled with a U.N. staffer on some of his trips to Bahrain, the U.N. news site Inner City Press has noted.

During his visits Rød-Larsen has repeatedly been cited in Bahrain’s state media praising the government, though he disputes the accounts.

“Larsen lauded [the] return of calm to Bahrain which indicates the kingdom’s success in overcoming the crisis,” the official Bahrain News Agency reported in April 2011, just two months after the protests began.

“The U.N. official lauded the climate of freedom, democracy and institutional development in Bahrain,” said another November 2011 report on a meeting between Rød-Larsen and the foreign minister.

Rød-Larsen said that media outlets often attribute inaccurate statements to him on his diplomatic travels.

“If I should dispute all stories like this, it would be full time work,” he said.

Rød-Larsen said that, in reality, he believes Bahrain’s government has made mistakes.

As for what the International Peace Institute’s new office in Bahrain will do when it opens, Rød-Larsen on a recent trip discussed “plans for a renewed national dialogue in Bahrain,” according to the institute.

Khalil Almarzooq, a spokesman for the main opposition group al-Wefaq, told ProPublica that the group had not heard from Rød-Larsen anytime recently. Almarzooq said whether the institute will be a positive force in Bahrain all depends on how it uses the money the government is providing.

Organized as a nonprofit charity in New York, the institute had a budget of nearly $11 million in 2011 and Rød-Larsen received about $495,000 in compensation.

According to the group’s 2011 annual report, its major donors that year included the United States, several governments in Europe, as well as Bahraini regional allies Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The institute’s international advisory council includes Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help put down the protests in Bahrain in 2011.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

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CNN Vatican analyst: Pope Francis' name choice 'precedent shattering'

Thursday, 14 March 2013 06:22

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(CNN) -- Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, the new pope, is breaking historic ground by choosing the name Francis.

It's the first time the name is being used by a pope, said CNN Vatican expert John Allen.

Pope Francis chose his name in honor of St. Francis of Assisibecause he is a lover of the poor, said Vatican deputy spokesman Thomas Rosica.

"Cardinal Bergoglio had a special place in his heart and his ministry for the poor, for the disenfranchised, for those living on the fringes and facing injustice," Rosica said.

St. Francis, one of the most venerated figures in the Roman Catholic Church, was known for connecting with fellow Christians, Rosica added.

Allen described the name selection as "the most stunning" choice and "precedent shattering."

"There are cornerstone figures in Catholicism," such as St. Francis, Allen said. Figures of such stature as St. Francis of Assisi seem "irrepeatable -- that there can be only one Francis," he added.

The name symbolizes "poverty, humility, simplicity and rebuilding the Catholic Church," Allen said. "The new pope is sending a signal that this will not be business as usual."

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI recounted how St. Francis was born in 1181 or 1182 as the son of a rich Italian cloth merchant, according to the Vatican website.

After "a carefree adolescence and youth," Francis joined the military and was taken prisoner. He was freed after becoming ill, and when he returned to Assisi, Italy, a spiritual conversion began. He abandoned his worldly lifestyle.

In a famous episode, Christ on the Cross came to life three times in the small Church of St. Damian and told him: "Go, Francis, and repair my Church in ruins," Pope Benedict XVI said, according to the Vatican's website.

"At that moment St. Francis was called to repair the small church, but the ruinous state of the building was a symbol of the dramatic and disquieting situation of the Church herself," Pope Benedict XVI said. "At that time the Church had a superficial faith which did not shape or transform life, a scarcely zealous clergy, and a chilling of love."

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Cardinals Convene for 2nd day of Conclave to Pick Next Pope

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 05:50

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Rome (CNN) -- All eyes are glued to the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, as the cardinals take part in the second day of the secretive conclave to elect a new pope.

The 115 voting eligible church leaders filed into the chapel chamber, renowned for its ceiling fresco painted by Renaissance master Michelangelo, at 9:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET).

They will have four opportunities to vote, twice early in the day and twice later.

A two-thirds majority is required to confirm a new pontiff to step into the shoes left empty by the historic resignation of Benedict XVI at the end of last month.

Whoever it may be will take on the leadership of a church that has been rocked by child sex abuse scandals and corruption claims in recent years.

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White or black smoke?

If a pope had been elected in the first vote of the day, white smoke would have been expected at about 5:30 a.m. ET but there has been no sign of any smoke yet.

Anticipation and ancient conclave rituals

If the first vote does not produce a new pontiff, no smoke will appear from the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The cardinals will then vote again.

Priest shares view on conclave

If the second vote also produces no result, black smoke will appear about 7 a.m. ET.

Sex abuse settlement during papal conclave

The smoke comes from two furnaces set up in the Sistine Chapel especially for the vote. Chemicals are added to make the color of the smoke more obvious.

If a pope has been elected, the cardinals burn the ballots immediately. If not, the cardinals hold on to them and proceed to a second round of voting.

Cardinals once took 3 years to name pope

They burn the ballots from both rounds together after the second round.

In the past, discerning the color has been difficult at times, as it has appeared gray. But there is a second, unmistakable sign: If the smoke is indeed white, the Vatican church bells ring to celebrate the choice.

The wait for the announcement of a new Church leader should not be too long. The longest papal conclave in the past century took just five days.

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Two-thirds majority

Black smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday night, after the cardinals failed to choose a new pope in the first day of their conclave.

Huddled under umbrellas as rain came down, crowds of onlookers watched the chimney and big screens set up in St. Peter's Square.

The secret process got under way earlier Tuesday on a day rich with symbolism as the scarlet-clad cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel in solemn procession, chanting prayers.

Led by the conclave's senior cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, each of the cardinal-electors -- those under age 80 who are eligible to vote -- then swore an oath of secrecy and all those not involved were ordered to leave.

The cardinals will remain locked in isolation until one candidate, almost certainly from among their number, garners a two-thirds majority, or 77 votes, and is named the new spiritual head of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Until that moment, the cardinals are barred from communicating with the outside world in any way. Jamming devices have been installed to prevent the use of cell phones or other devices.

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The cardinals stay in the Casa Santa Marta, a Vatican City hotel, for the duration of the conclave, moving from there to the Pauline Chapel to pray or the Sistine Chapel to vote.

Applause echoed around St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday as Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, offered thanks for the "brilliant pontificate" of Benedict, whose unexpected resignation precipitated the selection of a new pope.

When cardinals elected Benedict in 2005, after a conclave that ran into a second day, the white smoke signaling the decision came about six hours after an earlier, inconclusive vote.

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