New York professor apologizes for 'hypothetical' questions about rape

A University of Rochester professor has apologizes for a personal blog post in which he questions whether the rape of unconscious victims should be illegal.

“I am both sad and sorry that my recent blog post has distressed so many people so deeply, both on campus and off," economics professor Steven Landsburg said in a statement released Friday. "I am particularly sad because many readers got the impression that I was endorsing rape, while my intent was to say exactly the opposite—namely that the horror of rape is so great that we should rethink accepted principles of policy analysis that might sometimes minimize that horror."

The then suggested people read his follow-up post, where he "tried to say things more clearly."

"I very much wish I'd said them more clearly in the first place, and I do very much regret having caused any unnecessary offense," he said.

Landsburg came under fire from students at the university after he recently posted on the blog questions about rape — citing, in particular, the Stuebenville, Ohio, case in which two high school football players were convicted of raping an underage girl who was unconscious. 

On his blog, "Censorship, Environmentalism and Steubenville," Landsburg posed questions such as: "As long as I am safely (unconscious) and therefore shielded from the costs of an assault, why shouldn’t the rest of the world (or more specifically my attackers) be allowed to reap the benefits?" 

Landsburg also wrote: "If we legalize the rape of unconscious people, we will create an incentive to render people unconscious."

In an interview earlier this week with FoxNews.com, Landsburg acknowledged that his remarks on an ongoing academic discussion could have been better worded, saying, "This was not one of my better blog posts."  

"The whole reason it's an interesting question is that is seems so obvious to me that it should not be allowed," he said. 

"The reason I’m asking a question is because my personal strong feelings run so counter to what would seem to follow from the standard principles of policy analysis. Those standard principles say that if there's no harm perceived than the action should be allowed." 

University spokesman Bill Murphy said in a statement Thursday that: "The University of Rochester is committed to the academic freedom of our faculty and students. Their views are their own; they do not speak for the University."

"In his personal blog, Professor Landsburg poses some hypothetical questions about an unconscious rape victim," Murphy said. "He asks whether such rapes should be illegal. The University’s answer is that rape is abhorrent.  It is and should be a crime."

When asked whether disciplinary action would be taken against Landsburg, Murphy said, "Not on the basis of what we now know."

FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin contributed to this report.

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Would-be Chicago bomber apologizes in letter

CHICAGO –  A young Lebanese immigrant awaiting sentencing for placing a backpack he thought held a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field wrote a letter to the judge saying he drank "all day, every day" for months before the would-be attack.

In a seven page letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, Sami Samir Hassoun apologizes and insists he has worked hard at becoming a better person, including by taking yoga instruction in jail.

The letter was included in a defense filing this week. Hassoun, in custody since his 2010 arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced April 5.

Prosecutors want a 30-year prison sentence for the 25-year-old, who pleaded guilty to weapons charges last year. The defense filing argues Hassoun deserves no more than 20 years, in part because they contend he was egged on by an FBI informant to concoct the bombing scheme.

In his plea agreement, Hassoun admitted he dropped what he believed was a bomb into a trash bin on a crowded street by the Chicago Cubs' stadium in 2010. The fake device was given to him by undercover FBI agents who had been tipped off by the informant.

In the letter — dated Oct. 12, 2012, but released publicly this week — Hassoun tells Gettleman, "I am so ashamed of my actions and of this horrific crime that I've committed."

He describes feeling despondent and confused with his new life as a bakery worker, frustrated by broken dreams of becoming rich after he and his parents moved to the U.S. from Lebanon in 2008.

"By two to three months before my crime, I was drinking all day, every day," he wrote. "I would open a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the morning and finish it by evening, while also drinking vodka and beer."

He smoked marijuana regularly and sometimes used cocaine and ecstasy, he wrote.

Hassoun said he has confronted his self-destructiveness, has taken anger-management courses and is working toward a degree through a University of Ohio program designed for inmates.

Hassoun, who was born in Beruit, blamed what he described as longstanding emotional issues, in part, on trauma that lingered with him since childhood living in Ivory Coast when bloody civil strife broke out in that African nation.

"I witnessed all these horrific and barbaric scenes and images from the balcony of our apartment," he wrote. "I lived in constant fear, hearing rumors that they were invading homes, and raping women and kids."

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Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

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