Insurgency takes root in Egypt’s Sinai

A supporter of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi prays prior to the “iftar” fast-breaking meal at a sit-in protest at the Rabaa al Adweya Mosque in Cairo on July 28. (Ed Giles/Getty Images) EL-ARISH, Egypt — The rapid thud of machine-gun fire and the explosions of rocket-propelled grenades have begun to shatter the silence of the desert days and nights here with startling regularity, as militants assault the military and police forces stationed across this volatile territory that borders Israel and the Gaza Strip. The emerging Sinai crisis gives Egypt’s military a pretext to crack down on Islamist opponents across the country, including in Cairo, where at least 72 people were killed over the weekend when security forces opened fire on demonstrators rallying in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. Egypt’s interim government issued a decree Sunday that granted the military the power to detain civilians, state media reported. Analysts and rights activists said the decree suggested that a state of emergency, a tool that the regime of now-deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak had used for decades to silence opponents, might soon follow. But in the Sinai, where the reaction to Morsi’s ouster turned deadly within days of the coup, such state-sponsored violence and repression is likely to only feed the conviction of militants, who see themselves as waging a war against a despotic and irreligious military regime. In the Sinai, long Egypt’s most elusive and neglected region, a familiar cycle of repression has already taken hold. The military has clamped down hard on all routes in and out. And Saturday, the armed forces launched Operation Desert Storm in the peninsula, according to the state-run al-Ahram newspaper. The operation got underway after millions of Egyptians took to the streets Friday to heed the military’s call to give it the popular “mandate” to crack down on violence and “terrorism.” Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said Egypt’s security forces have been given permission to confront those who threaten the state’s “stability.” “The people have given the army and the police a popular mandate to stand firmly against anyone who shakes the stability of the nation with terrorist or criminal acts,” Ibrahim said Sunday at a graduation ceremony for police recruits. Backlash over coup Bedouin leaders and Islamists in the Sinai say locals have been angered by the coup because it brought an end to Egypt’s nascent democracy — a concept that was slow to


Body of woman found in Southeast Washington

A woman’s body was found Monday morning in an alley behind an apartment building in Southeast Washington and her boyfriend was charged with her killing, according to D.C. police. Authorities said the discovery was made about 10:30 a.m. in the 400 block of Chesapeake St. SE, behind a four-story building in Washington Highlands. The victim was identified as Julisa Washington, 22, of Southeast Washington, who was found covered by a blanket with apparent fatal stab wounds, officials said. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. Detectives arrested Stefon Kirkpatrick, 23, of Southwest Washington and charged him with murder two while armed, said Gwendolyn Crump, a spokeswoman. Multiple officials with knowledge of the investigation said Washington and Kirkpatrick were dating; police were trying to determine a motive for the fatal stabbing. The police spokeswoman would only say that the victim was unconscious and not breathing. A D.C. fire department spokesman said the woman was pronounced dead on the scene. The body was found about four blocks from a District fire station that houses Engine 33.


A setback on polio in East Africa

ONLY A few months ago, there was great optimism that polio was on the verge of eradication. The world saw only 223 cases in 2012, the lowest level in history, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, an umbrella group, unveiled a major strategy to wipe out the disease over the next five years. Those hopes now seem clouded by a poliovirus outbreak in Somalia and Kenya. This year, there have been 81 cases in these two countries, more than the 59 cases in the three countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The first case in this outbreak, on April 30, was a 4-month-old girl who developed symptoms of acute paralysis in Dadaab, Kenya — the site of a major refugee camp, with 500,000 people, near the Somali border; within days, a case was confirmed in neighboring Somalia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Polio is a highly contagious disease that affects the nervous system and can lead to paralysis, largely among children age 5 and younger. It spreads rapidly. The WHO has warned that the “risk to neighboring countries is deemed very high, due to large-scale population movements across the Horn of Africa and persistent immunity gaps in some areas.” The worry about immunity gaps is serious. Vaccination is the most critical tool in the battle against polio, and oral vaccines are much improved, but some 500,000 children in Somalia have not been vaccinated in several years, if at all. These vulnerable children are in areas largely outside the control of Somalia’s weak central government, and the fear is these regions could become a cauldron for poliovirus, fueling the outbreak for a long time. Health workers simply can’t reach them. In hopes of containing the virus, road posts are being set up along major corridors to vaccinate those going and coming from the remote areas, while fresh vaccination campaigns are targeting Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The latest outbreak underscores how armed conflicts threaten populations not only with bullets but also with disease. In Pakistan, polio has maintained a stubborn foothold in areas roiled by violence, including the assassination of polio vaccination workers by militants. Fortunately, in Somalia there does not appear to be resistance to vaccination, just an inability to extend it to those in need. This is not the first outbreak of its kind. When vaccination was suspended in Nigeria in 2003, the virus spread


Former TV reporter campaigns to bring Huntington’s disease out of the shadows

make Huntington’s the model for a Hopeless Disease About Which There’s Hope. He wants to put it at the forefront of the “patient-centered care” movement, the effort to always ask patients what they consider success or hope to get out of treatment. He wants to make sure there are Huntington’s patients ready for clinical trials that are just around the corner. He wants to get everybody to think a little more sophisticatedly about genetic testing. Closer to home, he’s turning the knowledge of his biological fate into a tool to help him savor every day, be a good father and husband, make amends, not deceive. “The neurologist who gave me the result said, ‘There is nothing you can do about this disease. Just live your life as well as you can,’ ” Sabine said recently. “The reality is, there is everything I can do. The problem is finding the time to do it all.” The Woody Guthrie disease Huntington’s disease, first described by New York physician George Huntington in 1872, holds an unusual spot in the pantheon of pathology. Like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it is a degenerative neurological disorder. Like ALS, whose eponymous sufferer was baseball player Lou Gehrig, Huntington’s has a famous victim — the folk singer Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. Both diseases proceed unabated once their symptoms appear. Neither has a cure in sight. Huntington’s disease has particularly cruel features. Its symptoms are a trifecta of misery: cognitive changes (progressive dementia), behavioral problems (depression, often with angry outbursts) and motor effects (a swaying of the upper body and arms known as “chorea,” Greek for “dance”). Unlike most cases of ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease is heritable. It descends in families, rarely arising de novo. If the ailment appears in one generation, it almost certainly existed in earlier ones, although its existence may have been hidden or denied. Children with a parent suffering from Huntington’s disease have a 50-50 chance of developing it themselves. But until the genetic test was developed, they couldn’t know their fate until symptoms surfaced, usually in their 40s or 50s. Huntington’s arises from a defective version of a gene whose normal actions include helping nerve cells fire, cleaning up cellular debris and regulating the transcription of other genes. It is essential for life and found in organisms ranging from fruit flies and sea squirts to birds and mammals. Huntington’s


With the shuttle done, a co-founder of Microsoft sees an opening in space

Ghaffari, however, said Stratolaunch was always foremost in Allen’s thoughts: “SpaceShipOne was definitely a predecessor,” he said. Rutan has retired from Scaled Composites, but he is a Stratolaunch board member, as is former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. Orbital Sciences had been consulting for Stratolaunch since last year and formally joined the project in May. Orbital is the developer of Pegasus, the first air-launched civilian spacecraft able to put small payloads into low-Earth orbit. Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski said proven expertise in air launch was one of the “connecting fibers” that linked the company to Stratolaunch. Stratolaunch has only two employees — Chief Executive Officer Gary L. Wentz Jr. and Chief Operating Officer Susan G. Turner — but Wentz estimated that close to 200 contractors are working on design and construction. Wentz said project engineers are “looking at a multitude of potential challenges.” The host aircraft, with a 385-foot wingspan, will be made of composite materials, and the spacecraft will have three stages. The plane will drop the spacecraft at 30,000 feet and initiate a banked turn. Rocket ignition will come four to seven seconds later to give the aircraft enough time to get out of the way of the back blast. As for the rocket, the first stage, which is to be reusable, drops into the ocean; the second burns up in the atmosphere; the third puts the satellite into orbit, and eventually that third stage, too, burns up in the atmosphere. A two-mile runway Wentz, speaking from Stratolaunch’s headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., said the team has not yet decided whether the spacecraft will use liquid or solid fuel, and planners are still scouting airports for a likely base. Stratolaunch needs about two miles of runway to take off — about 50 percent more than any other commercial aircraft. Wentz said the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility is the leading candidate, in part because infrastructure for both solid and liquid fuel is already in place. Planners are also looking at the Vandenberg and Edwards air force bases in California and at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia. The aircraft must also have access to other large airports in case of an emergency landing, and the company will need to obtain a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration. Stratolaunch’s logistics are fairly simple and should offer considerable advantages over ground-launched competitors. Missions need not be automatically


THE DISTRICT Man is charged with murdering girlfriend A woman’s body was found Monday morning in an alley behind an apartment building in Southeast Washington, and her boyfriend was charged with killing her, according to D.C. police. Authorities said the body of Julisa Washington, 22, of Southeast was discovered about 10:30 a.m. in the 400 block of Chesapeake St. SE, behind a four-story building in Washington Highlands. She was found covered by a blanket and with apparent stab wounds, officials said. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. Detectives arrested Stefon Kirkpatrick, 23, of Southwest Washington and charged him with murder while armed, said Gwendolyn Crump, a police spokeswoman. Officials with knowledge of the investigation said Washington and Kirkpatrick were dating. Police were trying to determine a motive for the apparent stabbing. A D.C. fire department spokesman said Washington was pronounced dead at the scene. — Peter Hermann Motorcyclist dies in crash near cathedral A motorcyclist was killed Monday morning when he collided with a UPS truck that was turning into the driveway of the Washington National Cathedral, according to D.C. police. The accident occurred about 10:10 a.m. in the 3000 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW. Police said the United Parcel Service truck was heading south and turning left into the Cathedral property when it was hit by the motorcycle, whose driver was headed north. The victim was taken to a hospital but died a little more than two hours after the crash. Police did not release the victim’s name, pending notification of relatives. — Peter Hermann Gun rights activistto be held until trial A D.C. Superior Court judge called a Virginia gun rights activist “dangerous” Monday and ordered him to remain in the D.C. jail until trial. Magistrate Judge Frederick Sullivan ordered Adam Kokesh, 31, to remain in jail on charges of carrying a firearm in the District outside of his home or office. Officials say Kokesh loaded a shotgun in Freedom Plaza on Independence Day, recorded it and uploaded the video to YouTube. When U.S. Park Service police and local officers searched Kokesh’s home in Herndon, they said they found nine weapons, including a .357 magnum handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun. Police said they also found ammunition and marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and “other suspected narcotics,” according to documents. Kokesh’s next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 13. He also faces charges in Virginia. —


D.C. records its first legal pot deal in at least 75 years

readers After Congress lifted its restrictions in 2009, the District government started a slow process to set up a strict regulatory and licensing regime limited to city residents with specific chronic illnesses, with lawmakers and city officials saying they were moving deliberately to reduce the risk of future federal intervention. Initial hopes that cannabis could be made available to patients in late 2010 gave way to early 2011 and then mid-2012 as the city moved through the painstaking and politically sensitive process of licensing marijuana growers and retailers, as well as certifying the doctors who would recommend the medicine and patients who would consume it. Alonzo, who is HIV-positive, said he had been following the rollout of the medical marijuana program since the beginning of the year. The combination of antiviral drugs he takes to manage his infection, Alonzo said, causes him frequent insomnia and occasional difficulty in swallowing and digesting. Marijuana, he said, was not initially his preferred therapy. “Like many people, I certainly had my fair share in college, but then I really left it alone for a long time,” he said. A mid-1990s trip to Amsterdam with his former partner, who had a more advanced HIV infection, demonstrated how cannabis could help address the virus’s symptoms and the side effects of the drugs used to treat them. In March, Alonzo approached his doctor about seeking a marijuana recommendation. “He asked why, and I outlined my challenges,” he said. “I really don’t want to have a prescription drug dependency, and they weren’t working for the insomnia. He was agreeable to it. And then the long wait.” To secure his first dose, Alonzo had to visit his doctor, who had to request recommendation forms from the health department, which then processed the forms and issued him a patient card. Although the city’s medical marijuana program has started, it remains a slow start. D.C. Health Department spokeswoman Najma Roberts said that as of Monday, only nine patients have obtained a city-issued medical marijuana card. About 20 doctors, she said, have requested forms from the city allowing them to recommend cannabis to their patients. Capital City Care, the first of three planned District dispensaries to secure an operating license, offers four strains of medical cannabis, priced from $380 to $440 an ounce, grown by Northeast-based Holistic Remedies. More varieties will be offered once two other cultivation centers — including Capital City


Chefs reviewing restaurants: Can they beat the crowd?

A Yes, chefs, those men and women who, in a previous era, typically divided their time between a kitchen and, say, a cramped sixth-floor walk-up in Queens and/or their dealer’s favorite haunt. This year, two new volumes have clamored for our attention: “Best Chefs America 2013” (Best Chefs America LLC, $75) and “Where Chefs Eat” (Phaidon Press, $19.95). Perhaps more important to those who view the printed page as akin to Anthony Weiner — primitive and something they’d never touch — “Where Chefs Eat” has an Apple-compatible app ($14.99), while “Best Chefs America” has a free, mobile-friendly Web site. (Both lag behind a San Francisco company that released the mobile app Chefs Feed in 2011.) So now where should diners turn for the best advice on restaurants? To Ben W. Biddle, vice president of business development for Best Chefs America, the answer is clear. “This is just an entirely new way for those many food enthusiasts out there to explore cuisine,” Biddle told me. “To this point, people have just had restaurant reviews, Yelp, OpenTable, and that’s all great. But it’s a lot of noise. . . . The premise that we’ve developed this on is that chefs know best.” It’s a premise that, on its surface, makes sense. Manychefs are experts not only on food preparation and plating but also on points of service, beverage programs and the countless other elements that compose a great dining experience. Many, without doubt, can spot a stellar restaurant when they step into one. What’s more, as British food writer Joe Warwick notes in his preface to “Where Chefs Eat,” chefs are no longer chained to the stove. “They trawl the world for inspiration and eat around as much as they can closer to home because food is their passion and they love eating out,” writes Warwick, who edited the volume. And yet: Despite those obvious truths, neither of these chef-driven books can stand on its own. That is, neither provides enough information to help you decide whether to eat at a given restaurant. Both rely on a flawed theory: Because “chefs know best,” all a diner needs is a chef’s blessing before deciding to darken a restaurant’s doorway. Okay, maybe you’re the type who would visit Burt’s Place in Chicago just because Michelin-starred chef Homaro Cantu recommended its pizzas. I’d guess, however, that many diners would prefer far more information about the


Leonard M. Sieracki, engineer, inventor, dies at 72

Leonard M. Sieracki, an engineer who was co-inventor of a medical breathing system that optimized the intake of oxygen in patients, died June 27 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. He was 72. He had complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his son, Jeff Sieracki. Mr. Sieracki founded TriTec, a Columbia-based corporation that specialized in fluidic systems, in 1977. He helped develop the gas-supply method and apparatus for the demand oxygen controller (DOC), a system that delivers oxygen to patients when they inhale, as opposed to providing continuous oxygen flow. The oxygen-saving mechanism has been used in aviation equipment and hospital breathing-assistance devices, his son said. On behalf of his company, Mr. Sieracki received an awarwd in 1981 from Industrial Research magazing for his work on the demand oxygen controller. In 1991, Mr. Sieracki sold TriTec and founded Manx Motors, a now-defunct kit-car company in Columbia. He closed the business in 1993 and moved to Olney in 2010. Leonard Mark Sieracki was born in Meriden, Conn. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1963 and a master’s degree in ocean engineering in 1964, both from Catholic University. He received a master’s degree in business administration from Johns Hopkins University in 1977. Early in his career, he founded and managed Lorelei Corp., an engineering consulting business in Gaithersburg. After his Parkinson’s diagnosis at age 43, Mr. Sieracki founded a young-onset Parkinson’s disease support group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1986, his son said. Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Martha Shermeta Sieracki of Olney; four children, Jeffrey Sieracki of Clarksville, Jennifer Burke of Annapolis, Julie Jordan of Denver and Kathryn Koczot of San Diego; a sister; and six grandchildren. — Megan McDonough


U.N. report: Afghan civilian casualties are up

Afghan men assist an injured man after a suicide bombing at the gate to a NATO compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, July 2, 2013. (Rahmat Gul/AP) KABUL — The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported 1,319 deaths and 2,533 injuries among civilians, attributing most of them to the insurgency’s increased use of improvised explosive devices and to firefights in which civilians are targeted or become collateral damage. Casualties among women and children increased by 38 percent, the report said. The sharp increase in casualties coincides with the first fighting season in which Afghan soldiers and police have been doing the bulk of the fighting. Those security forces also have suffered unprecedented losses. More than 2,750 police officers have been killed in the past four months, according to the nation’s interior minister. The finding “demands even greater commitments and further efforts by all parties to the conflict to protect civilians, who are increasingly being killed and injured in the crossfire,” said Georgette Gagnon, the U.N. human rights director in Afghanistan. The Taliban was quick to respond to the U.N. report, describing it in a statement as “an attempt of propaganda against Mujahideen.” The statement also disputed that all those whose deaths were tallied in the report were civilians. Despite improvement in the Afghan security forces and despite the Taliban’s inability to take over large urban centers such as Kabul, the rise in civilian casualties helps explain the widespread lack of public confidence in Afghanistan’s future as the U.S. and NATO forces withdraw. By February 2014, about half of the 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan are due to leave. “Unfortunately, the Taliban’s demonstrated lack of regard for human life has resulted in nearly 90 percent of all civilian casualties so far this year,” said Erin Stattel, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). U.S. commanders note that most of the violence in Afghanistan occurs in places where less than a quarter of the country’s population lives. It’s in those districts and villages that the Afghan army is fighting its most heated battles, often disrupting Taliban activity without gaining ground, they say. Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan army’s chief of staff, said in a recent interview that his army lacks the manpower to defeat the insurgency everywhere. “I cannot cover every inch of the country,” he said. “The Afghan army isn’t big enough.” The U.N. report counted 362 casualties


Why polio hasn’t been eradicated

The July 30 editorial “Polio jumps the fence” reached the reasonable conclusion that recent outbreaks of poliovirus among displaced people and security-threatened populations need to be checked. It should also have explored the basic issue. Polio, like smallpox, can be completely eradicated from the entire world. It could have been eradicated decades ago but for religious objections to vaccination in Pakistan and Nigeria. Displaced people have now carried the infection to other populations. In effect, these tiny pockets of zealotry are holding the rest of the world hostage, endangering many and forcing the use of resources that could be used to address other pressing health-care problems. Robert G. Huesmann, Bethesda


NIH ‘superbug’ was thwarted with help of two scientists

Dr. Julie Segre, left, and Dr. Tara Palmore, right, pose for a portrait at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center on Monday in Bethesda. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) The epidemiologist and the genome researcher had met at a colleague’s send-off, one a doctor chasing down hospital-acquired diseases at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center, the other mapping their genetic codes in a lab across campus. Two accomplished women in their 40s in male-dominated fields, they clicked instantly. Each with a husband, and five children younger than 12 between them, Tara Palmore and Julie Segre balanced their commitment to science with the demands of raising young families. They would collaborate professionally someday, they decided — when their schedules allowed. It was just two weeks before the theoretical became frighteningly real and the scientists were thrown into the biggest case of their careers, and they began racing to stop the spread of an outbreak at the hospital that killed seven patients. Four others who were infected died of underlying illnesses. By the time the last patient died in September 2012, 18 people had been sickened by the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacterium. The “superbug” escaped strict controls at the Clinical Center, one of the country’s premier research hospitals, crawling through isolation units and hiding in already-cleaned ventilators and sink drains. It was stamped out only after Segre’s team took genetic sequencing to a new level, using the bacterium’s DNA to map its path in the hospital. The unusual collaboration, using gumshoe work and cutting-edge genomics, has brought new attention to hospital infections, which kill about 100,000 patients a year — and the dangers of a growing number of illnesses that antibiotics won’t cure. “Our patients are so vulnerable,” said Palmore, 42, the hospital’s deputy epidemiologist. The bug attacks only those with weak defenses, and as a hospital of last resort, NIH admits patients with compromised immune systems. “No antibiotic worked.” The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service called the team — which included Palmore’s boss, the hospital’s deputy director for clinical care, David Henderson, and Evan Snitkin, a post-doctoral fellow on Segre’s staff — a “groundbreaking model for the health-care industry” when it named Segre and Palmore as finalists for this year’s Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal in the Science and Environment category. “The number of people with all kinds of expertise they were able to pull together — it’s laudable,”


Manning court-martial explores military resources spent on assessing leak damage

than 10 months assessing the damage caused by the disclosure of sensitive documents by Pfc. Bradley Manning, as a judge opened the sentencing portion of the court-martial for the former intelligence analyst. Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Carr, the head of the panel, testified that the military faced an enormous task in assessing the damage from the leaking of more than 700,000 files, including battlefield reports from the Iraq and Afghan wars, military video footage, and secret briefs on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Carr’s group was tasked in part with examining any intelligence sources or methods — or operational activities — that could have been at risk because of the documents Manning provided to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Carr’s group, known as the Information Release Task Force, was fully staffed by the beginning of August 2010 with 125 people and operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week through September 2010, when the group thought it had a handle on the information that had been released or might be released. The cost of operating the group was $6.2 million. “We triaged the data — we put it in a database where we could run quick searches,” testified John Kirchhofer, the deputy chief of the task force, explaining the nature of the group’s work in its earliest days. Analysts were looking for unclassified nicknames of programs in the data and were hoping to flag items that could have later impact. Manning was convicted Tuesday on 20 charges including violations of the Espionage Act. The prosecution has argued that the documents he disclosed caused significant damage to U.S. national security — a contention that the defense has rejected. Manning, 25, faces a maximum of 136 years in prison, minus time served as well as a sentencing credit that amounts to a reduction of more than three years in any sentence he is given. On Wednesday, Carr contended that at least one Afghan national was killed as a result of the disclosure of the battlefield reports from Afghanistan. He said the conclusion was based on a Taliban statement that the group had killed the Afghan. On cross-examination, however, the general acknowledged that his task force was unable to identify the individual by name. The judge in the case, Col. Denise Lind, ruled that the testimony would not be admitted into the record. The sentencing phase of Manning’s court-martial could last several weeks.


Bradley Manning: Does he compare with other secret-spillers?

limbo in Moscow; the director of "The Act of Killing" describes reenacting real life executions in Indonesia; and Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy. So let’s look at two recent, much darker cases, in which such hot-button words and phrases as “traitor,” and “treason” and “worst national security breach” have been tossed around, to see how Manning compares with cold-blooded spies. First, the man himself: Manning, an intelligence analyst deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, became alarmed by what he saw as violent misconduct by U.S. soldiers and eventually turned over three-quarters of a million pages of classified information to WikiLeaks, which published some of them in 2010. In addition to the disclosures mentioned above were at least 100 instances of cases dealing with Afghan informants, battlefield assessments from Afghanistan and Iraq, files on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and cables about the Middle East that his supporters say helped prompt the Arab Spring. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Manning’s disclosures “have exposed war crimes, sparked revolutions and induced democratic reform.” Norman Solomon, founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, wrote an op-ed in USA Todaypublished Wednesday that said he would deliver a petition of 100,000 signatures to the Nobel Committee saying Manning deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. On the darker side — all treachery and zero idealism — there’s Aldrich Ames. A CIA counterintelligence officer with a drinking problem and a taste for the high life, Ames made millions by selling secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia in the 1980s and 1990s, enabling their security forces to execute at least 10 Russians who were secretly working for the United States. Arrested in 1994, he pleaded guilty almost immediately and was sentenced to life without parole. Also in darkness: Hanssen, the supervisory special agent for the FBI who sold secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia for 22 years. The final report of the Justice Department’s Commission for the Review of FBI Security Programs said that “Hanssen turned over . . . an estimated twenty-six diskettes and 6,000 pages of classified information.” The information was penetrating — it included names of Soviet agents who had approached U.S. intelligence, and at least three of them were later executed. Hanssen pleaded guilty to more than a dozen charges of espionage, apologized and was sentenced later that year to life in prison without parole. “I could have been a devastating spy,


Gen. Raymond Odierno: Leaner Army will have more expertise

half of Defense’s budget. To make changes, and still maintain a quality volunteer military, a partnership with Congress is needed. Odierno took it further: “If we continue along the way that we are going now, we believe by 2023, 80 percent of our budget’s going to be on compensation. We can’t operate like that.” Hagel listed changes, including military health care for retirees and raising what active service personnel pay for housing, that lawmakers would have trouble supporting. He also wants to limit military and civilian pay raises. For fiscal 2014, the Obama administration proposed that the military pay increase be limited to 1 percent; the House has already raised that to 1.8 percent. Odierno said the difference between a 1 percent raise and 1.8 percent would be “billions of dollars you’re talking [about] when you’re three, four, five years from now.” “We think what we can do is manage the pay raises at a bit lower level for a few years,” He said. “But if we continue to have a higher level of pay raises, it’s going to become really a problem for us.” Hagel said he has asked Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, to develop a compensation package with service chiefs and senior enlisted personnel to meet a savings goal of $50 billion over the next decade. The Army’s major recruiting problem is not pay. Many potential recruits are obese and physical unfit, Odierno said. The Army also watches the economy. “The bellwether for us is when unemployment gets below 6 percent, we start having a bit more difficulty in recruiting,” Odierno said. Unemployment is at 7.6 percent. Regarding officers, Odierno said: “West Point this year has had more applicants than it’s ever had, and then the quality of the applicants is higher than it’s been.” One reason, he said, is “it’s recognized as probably . . . one of the best, if not the best, leader development institution in the country, if not the world.” He also said that last year, for the first time, “not everyone who wanted to reenlist in the Army was allowed to reenlist. We actually turned some away.” Hagel discussed an immediate reduction of overhead in major headquarters budgets by 20 percent, beginning with his own Office of the Secretary of Defense, service headquarters, secretariats and other areas. He said that although the 20 percent reduction applies to


Obama orders review of safety and security procedures at chemical plants

In response to the deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, President Obama on Thursday ordered a government review of safety and security procedures at U.S. chemical plants. Led by the departments of Homeland Security and Labor, and the Environmental Protection Agency, the working group will try to improve coordination with state, local and tribal agencies, streamline information-sharing and update regulations. The April blast in West, Tex., killed 15 people, many of them first responders, and injured about 200 people. The explosion, which occurred after a fire in an area that contained explosive ammonium nitrate, is still under investigation. But a report to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in May showed that the building had no “fire protection systems such as automatic sprinklers” and that U.S. fire codes do not clearly require sprinklers in such facilities. The president’s executive order calls for the launch of a pilot program in the next 45 days to test ways to improve collaboration on chemical safety and security, share information and inspect plants. Within nine months, Obama wants “a unified federal approach for identifying and responding to risks in chemical facilities.” Rick Hind, the spokesman for a group of more than 100 organizations that on Thursday called for new EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to make chemical disaster prevention a priority, said the speed of the federal response is critical. A section of the order tells federal agencies to develop new regulations in the next 90 days, he said. “By late October or early November, we should know whether EPA is preparing new regulations to prevent chemical disasters once and for all,” Hind said. The groups cited EPA data that they said showed there are 470 U.S. chemical facilities that put at least 100,000 people at risk in the event of a poison gas release. According to the American Chemistry Council, there are 13,796 chemical facilities in the country. The Fertilizer Institute counts about 6,000 fertilizer distributors around the country like the one that exploded April 17. In a statement, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she told Obama that the EPA has not updated its rules for such materials since 1997 and suggested other measures after holding a hearing. “I couldn’t be more gratified to learn today that he is taking executive action to follow through on the very solutions that were discussed and


Local news digest for D.C. area

THE REGION Friday hearing set on Park Police guns Federal officials are scheduled to testify about missing U.S. Park Police weapons at a congressional hearing Friday morning. A report released The 2013 review began, in part, because an anonymous tipster said Park Police officers were improperly taking weapons home. Two such instances were discovered, along with many other instances of firearms mismanagement, according to the report. “Commanders up to and including the chief of police have a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management,” wrote Mary L. Kendall, the deputy inspector general. “Historical evidence indicates that the indifference is a product of years of inattention to administrative detail.” About 600 officers serve in the Park Police, patrolling National Park Service property across the nation, including the Mall and Washington’s national monuments. — Stefanie Dazio THE DISTRICT Arrest made in 2011 death of firefighter D.C. police on Thursday arrested a man wanted in the fatal beating of an off-duty city firefighter in 2011, authorities said. Melvin L. Linkins, 39, of Northeast Washington was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Marc E. Dancy, 37, who lived in Clinton, police said. Dancy’s body was found Jan. 23, 2011, in the 3000 block of Seventh Street NE, in the Edgewood community near Catholic University. Dancy had been injured in a fight, according to authorities. Police said Linkins was arrested about 8:15 a.m. Thursday by the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. Dancy had worked for the fire department for five years and was assigned to Engine 10 in the Trinidad neighborhood, one of the District’s busiest fire companies. He grew up in the District and had a wife and three children, who were 8, 10 and 16 when he died. — Peter Hermann Hundreds lose Internet service A broken water pipe damaged Verizon equipment in Georgetown on Wednesday, knocking out service to about 400 Internet subscribers. A spokeswoman said service had been returned to more than half of those affected as of Wednesday evening. Service to the rest was expected to be restored shortly, she said. Verizon is among the city’s leading Internet and cable TV providers, along with Comcast and RCN. — Steven Overly Arrest in slaying last week in NW A D.C. man was arrested Thursday in the death last week of a man who was found shot in a burning apartment in Northwest Washington, authorities said. The Capital Area Regional Fugitive


Arrest made for homicide inside burning apartment in the District

Police arrested a D.C. man Thursday in the death last week of a man who was found shot inside a burning apartment in Northwest Washington. The Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force apprehended Jermaine Brown, 34, of Northwest, about 4 p.m. Thursday and authorities charged him with first-degree murder while armed, police officials said in a statement. Authorities allege that Brown is responsible for the killing of Randolph Scott Harris Jr. , 31, who was found early July 26 in an apartment fire in the 1000 block of Euclid Street NW. Rescuers were called to the apartment just after 6 a.m. that morning for the report of smoke in the building, and had to force their way into unit. They found Harris suffering from burns and gunshot wounds. Investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of Harris’ death, officials said.


Army officer convicted in shooting deaths of 2 Afghans

Last summer, days into a new assignment leading a platoon in a volatile patch of southern Afghanistan, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army asked one of his soldiers to open fire on two Afghan men on motorcycles. The fatal shots set in motion an extraordinary criminal investigation that unfolded largely unnoticed until a jury at Fort Bragg, N.C., this week heard dramatically different accounts of the choices that the officer, Clint Lorance, made that day. On Thursday evening, jurors convicted the 28-year-old Lorance of murder, siding with prosecutors who portrayed his order as a reckless contravention of the rules of engagement. Lorance’s supporters say the real crime was the military’s decision to turn a war hero deployed in one of the most dangerous and remote corners of Afghanistan into a defendant. “To put murder charges on him!” Lorance’s mother, Anna Lorance, protested in an interview before the verdict in the court-martial was announced. “In war, people die. When you’re in a heated combat zone, you have seconds to think.” Lorance was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the military. In the annals of American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, cases that have landed service members in court on serious charges have typically been preceded by outcries, allegations of egregious conduct and extensive coverage in the news media. The vast majority of defendants have been enlisted troops. There was the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the 2005 Haditha massacre in Iraq — cases so shocking that they injected an indelible poison into the relationship between Baghdad and Washington. In Afghanistan, a squad of soldiers infamously described itself as a “kill team” for shooting Afghan men for sport in 2010; the group’s ringleader kept body parts as trophies. Just months before Lorance’s fateful patrol, an Army sergeant left his base at night and massacred 17 sleeping Afghans, including several children. Lorance’s case is remarkable because he is only the second Army officer charged with murder in a battlefield death during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His defense, outlined in a detailed account on a Web site registered to his name, sought to shift the burden, putting U.S. military rules of engagement on trial. “In modern warfare, there is no clearly defined enemy,” argues a statement on the site, which his family is using to raise money for the officer’s legal expenses. “Long


Monetizing the vastness of space

In the July 30 Health & Science section, I came across the photo “A tiny sparkler amid the rings” and was taken aback by the beauty and poignancy of the photo, taken from the Cassini spacecraft. The photo captured Saturn and its rings, with the Earth just a “pale blue dot” in the distant background. The article quoted one of the project scientists as saying, “Cassini’s picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space.” As I cut out the photo to hang up somewhere (maybe my fridge, perhaps my bathroom mirror) as a constant reminder that the universe is much bigger than us and our “pale blue dot” problems, I noticed the headline immediately below it — “Microsoft mogul wants more private enterprise in space” — and I thought, how ironic. Here I am pondering the vastness of the universe, and somewhere else a software mogul is pondering how to commercialize it. I wonder if these two articles were placed together to make just that very point. It struck me as both tragic and funny. And I still plan to hang that picture up somewhere. Amanda Towler, Arlington


Boy Scouts would be better with girls

from wilderness survival schools and lead other warriors through peril and hardship. Women have earned Bronze Stars, Silver Stars and Purple Hearts in war. Women have leadership roles in government, business, academia and entertainment. Imagine what else would be possible with Scout training. Perhaps the military, in integrating men and women, had it easier than the Scouts would in integrating boys and girls. Nonetheless, Britain’s Scouts successfully went co-ed in 1991. Schools, clubs and churches have trained boys alongside girls for much longer. And the Boy Scouts of America need look no further than its own Venture program for a model of co-ed adventures outdoors. Scouting membership declined 16 percent from 2002 to 2012, according to the Boy Scouts’ annual report, even as the number of boys ages 12 to 17 has remained steady. Recruiting girls to Scouting could simultaneously recruit their parents and brothers. Parental involvement is often essential to retaining Scouts and producing Eagle Scouts. Parents can better justify investing the thousands of volunteer hours — weeknights, weekends and vacation days — over a half-dozen years to an organization that welcomes and develops each of the family’s children. Recently, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and City Year have been working to rekindle the American spirit of service and sacrifice. Perhaps their challenge would be less onerous if all youths were exposed to that spirit at an earlier age. That is why Baden-Powell taught that “the spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.” Well, the spirit is there in my daughters too. And it is in girls across America. Their spirit, too, ought to be discovered and brought out. Scouting is a tradition-oriented organization. Our traditions ought to guide us, not bind us. Other changes are underway as the Boy Scouts adhere to Matsuo Basho’s counsel: “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise — seek what they sought!” That is why the organization accepted the help of female adult leaders. That is why it is changing other membership restrictions. And that is why it should change its rules regarding girls. Welcoming all youths into Scouting would fulfill each of the values espoused in the Scout Law. We Eagle Scouts and adult leaders take pride in helping fulfill the 103-year-old Scouting quest to transform youths into leaders. We should ensure that it endures for all. Read more about this issue:


FEMA reverses call on more Texas disaster funding

Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ law to get hearings Florida lawmakers will hold hearings this fall on the state’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law, which has become a lightning rod for criticism following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. The announcement Friday by Will Weatherford, the speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives, marked the biggest concession yet by the state’s Republican leaders to demands for a review of the law, which allows people in fear of serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves rather than retreat. Since Zimmerman’s acquittal July 13, Martin’s grieving parents, backed by African American civic leaders, students and political figures, including President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., have all said the law needs to be re-examined. — Reuters MILITARY 60 lose jobs in new screening process Sixty people have been removed from jobs as military recruiters, drill instructors and victims counselors as a result of screenings ordered following a jump in the number of sexual assaults in the U.S. armed forces, officials said Friday. The Army said 55 people had been suspended from their positions since screenings ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel began last month. The move came a week after the Pentagon issued an annual report showing a 37 percent jump in cases of unwanted sexual contact in the military. The 60 people were removed for a variety of reasons, ranging from alcohol-related concerns to unwanted sexual contact to other conduct that raised questions about their suitability for the jobs, officials said. — Reuters


Excerpts from Washington Post interview with Egyptian Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi

we will conduct parliamentary and then presidential elections within nine months. Are you going to run for president? I want to say that the most important achievement in my life is to overcome this circumstance, [to ensure] that we live peacefully, to go on with our road map and to be able to conduct the coming elections without shedding one drop of Egyptian blood. But are you going to run? You just can’t believe that there are people who don’t aspire for authority. Is that you? Yes. It’s the hopes of the people that is our [hope]. And when the people love you – this is the most important thing for me. The pains and suffering of the people are too many. A lot of people don’t know about the suffering. I am the most aware of the size of the problems in Egypt. That is why I am asking: where is your support? The title of the article should be “Hey America: Where is your support for Egypt? Where is your support for free people?” On July 3rd, the same day the communique was declared, I sent a message to the former president. I asked him to keep the initiative in his hands. Put yourself to a public referendum and see if the people want you. And he said? No way. Not yet. After two years. Did he understand that he was just about to go? No. Nobody expected that. When did you make up your mind? I made every possible effort to show due respect and due discipline for the state institution to the very last minute. Did you feel there would be civil strife if the army didn’t intervene? I expected if we didn’t intervene, it would have turned into a civil war. Four months before he left, I told Morsi the same thing. I told him that the way you and your group are dealing with the Egyptians, you are creating a conflict between your supporters, who deal with the Egyptians not as political opposition but as people who are trying to fight against Islam. I told him at that time that if the two groups of Egyptians, your supporters and the rest of the Egyptians, fight with each other, as the military, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. What I want the American reader to know is that this is a free people who


Rabbit population explodes in Washington area neighborhoods

Bunnies are booming in the Washington area. To foxes’ delight and gardeners’ dismay, the rabbit population has exploded in many neighborhoods in the past two to three years. The cute cottontails have become a daily sight on lawns that saw them rarely, if ever, in the past. Dramatic jumps in the number of long-eared lagomorphs have been reported in southern Montgomery County, Northwest D.C., Alexandria and Arlington. “In our region, there definitely appears to be a nice, big spike in the number of cottontail rabbits. It may not be in every single neighborhood, but it probably is in a good majority of them,” said Alonso Abugattas, Arlington County Natural Resources manager. There’s no cause for alarm. Rabbits typically don’t carry diseases or otherwise create inconvenience for humans. One exception is dog owners, who risk dislocated shoulders when a leashed canine bolts after a lapin. Another is gardeners — remember Mr. McGregor? — who are hunting desperately for fencing or repellants to protect their vegetables and ornamental plants. Karen Elkins of Chevy Chase (the Maryland part) said that groups of rabbits have systematically denuded evergreen shrubs and flowering plants in her backyard. She had never seen rabbits in her neighborhood until last year, and this year the number has mushroomed. “We’ve been fighting the battle of the bunnies all spring,” said Elkins, a government scientist. “They’ve been on every corner. You’d walk the dogs in the morning, and they’d drive the dogs crazy.” The rabbit renaissance won’t last because it creates a sumptuous buffet for local predators such as foxes, hawks and owls. “Just about everything likes to eat rabbits,” Abugattas said. “Their numbers will likely be controlled again. It’s a matter of it just being an upcycle now for them.” On the other hand, rabbits typically remain in a neighborhood once they’ve established themselves. Communities hosting rabbits for the first time should thus expect to see them indefinitely, albeit in smaller numbers. Why is the surge happening now? I couldn’t find anyone with a definitive explanation, but local wildlife experts pointed to four likely causes: First, abundant rain has produced plenty of lush shrubbery and other ground cover that help conceal the rabbits and their nests. They have more opportunity to sneak around without becoming lunch. Second, the red fox population has diminished in some communities. This might have occurred because many are getting mange, an affliction caused by mites,


Combating racism in Italy and elsewhere

The Aug. 1 editorial “Italy’s racism” brought to mind the unveiling of the publicly funded monument in Affile, Italy, last year to honor Rodolfo Graziani, the “Butcher of Ethiopia.” Graziani was a convicted war criminal who served as Benito Mussolini’s henchman in the invasion and destruction of Ethiopia during the latter part of the 1930s. Graziani was so determined to bring Ethiopia under Italy’s colonial rule that he ordered the massacre of thousands of civilians and oversaw the annihilation of entire communities by using mustard gas. Even remote monasteries were not spared. The lives of Ethiopians, and by extension all Africans, were worthless to him. Similar to the acts of racism that were noted in the editorial, the Graziani monument will serve only as a reminder of Italy’s past and present transgressions against human and civil rights. Dedicating a memorial for a brutal fascist agent such as Graziani is a disgrace to the people of Italy. I hope a new generation of Italians will emerge to rectify the sad situation. Tewodros Abebe, Accokeek ● Kudos on the editorial on racism in Italy. This comes as no surprise to many of us non-white U.S. citizens who have friends or relatives who have lived in or traveled to Europe or who have traveled there without a tour group to shield us from day-to-day taunts or insults. Let’s not pick on only Italy, however; what about Spain, France, Belgium? What about the soccer crowds who hurl racial abuse at non-white players or the racist picture the Spanish basketball team took during the Chinese Olympics or the Italian soccer team’s behavior in the World Cup? Racism is endemic in many of these countries, even though those citizens regularly chide Americans about our conduct in our own country. To which I always reply: As a person born in the United States, who lived in South America and who went to school in Europe, I learned about racism in Europe, not in America. Secondly, which of those countries will ever have a non-white head of state? Attitudes will not change until every level of society embraces what is good about diversity. Richard Ramlall, Ashburn


Peacock in Silver Spring puzzles residents

11-year-old Hannah and 9-year-old Hyun Ku, known as “Junior,” have become avian experts, researching its loud squawk and collecting the feathers strewn across the yard. “I don’t think that the phrase ‘birdbrain’ is exactly correct,” Junior said last week, noting that the peacock almost always returns for food and sometimes walks along the sidewalk. “I told you, it’s a smart bird,” Hannah said to her brother. The family leaves out wheat bread, birdseed and water for their newfound friend, which often relaxes under a swing set in the shade and sleeps in a nearby tree. Joop Kuhn, the animal care manager for the San Diego Zoo’s bird department, said the peacock’s patterns are motivated by its stomach and safety. “They adapt very well to the environment that they’re in,” he said. “They’re very resourceful.” The birds live 10 to 20 years and eat a variety of foods, including mice, frogs, snakes, grubs, fruit, vegetables and flowers, Kuhn said. From record-setting fish to unscooped poop, animals are making headlines in the Washington area. “As long as he has food — regular access to food — water and shelter, he’s going to live a long time,” Kuhn said. “It sounds like he already has a routine.” Peafowls — males are peacocks, females are peahens — are native to India, Sri Lanka, Java, Burma and African rain forests, depending on the species. But not Maryland. There are “quite a few” living with owners in Montgomery County, according to Jeanette Wright, a field services supervisor for Montgomery County’s animal services division. The department captured another peacock in Silver Spring on May 17, Wright said, about five miles away from the one in Aspen Hill — which has never been seen by the county’s animal services officers, despite numerous resident sightings. “The problem is, by the time we get there, the bird’s gone,” Deputy Director Paul Hibler said. The county does not require peacock owners to have a license, but aviaries must be at least 100 feet from other dwellings. Efforts to locate the peacock’s owner were unsuccessful, and National Zoo officials say it’s not one of theirs. The owner could face a $100 fine and a civil citation for the at-large bird, Hibler said. “Everybody’s wondering where it came from,” said Bob Corcoran, 75, who has seen the peacock twice. “I was looking out our patio, and there it was,” he said. “Just strutting


In Afghanistan, a second Guantanamo

individual and the security environment of the country to which the individual is to be transferred.” Such studies can take many months. “For the past decade, the U.S. has been able to hide Bagram behind the shield of ongoing military conflict in Afghanistan,” said Tina M. Foster, director of the International Justice Network, which represents more than 30 detainees. “What’s happening now is that the shield is disappearing and what’s left is the legacy of the second Guantanamo, which is going to last beyond the Afghan war.” Lawyers such as Foster who represent clients at both Bagram and Guantanamo describe the situation at the Afghan prison as far more opaque. For years, there were widespread allegations of torture at Bagram, many of them later borne out in military reports that were made public. U.S. officials say the conditions have markedly improved. Although attorneys say they haven’t heard the same accusations from detainees since 2008, they also say they have a limited view into the facility. Unlike at Guantanamo, the detainees in Afghanistan have no right to habeas corpus, a point Foster is arguing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Pentagon officials say they expect most detainees to be transferred to their home countries “once those countries have provided us assurances that they will take appropriate steps to mitigate the threat these individuals pose,” said Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman. “In some cases, we may seek to have individuals prosecuted for war crimes or violations of U.S. or Afghan law,” he added. But the process of repatriation has proved extremely slow and complicated. As for prosecutions, none of the detainees captured abroad since the Sept. 11 attacks have been tried in military commissions in the United States. And some detainees can’t be tried by the Afghans because they didn’t violate Afghan law. Graham said it would be foolish to assume that all the detainees could be sent to their home countries or tried before the end of next year. Last year, some of the first Pakistani detainees were repatriated after a year of fraught negotiations. According to their attorneys, one was a 14-year-old boy picked up in a U.S.-led night operation and the other was an employee of an Afghan military base whose colleagues had turned him in after a personal dispute. “If it takes a year to release those guys, whose innocence


U.S. military helicopter crashes in Okinawa

SEOUL — The accident provides new fodder to Okinawan politicians and activists who say their island, which hosts half of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan, is endangered by U.S. exercises and aircraft that frequently pass over tightly packed neighborhoods. A U.S. Air Force statement said an HH-60 helicopter in the middle of a “local training mission” crashed inside Camp Hansen, in the center of the island. Japan’s defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said three crew members were confirmed safe and one was taken to the hospital, according to the Associated Press. Onodera called the incident “regrettable” and asked for an investigation to prevent a recurrence. Discontent in Okinawa about the presence of U.S. troops is one of the challenges Washington faces as it tries to realign military bases in the region. Monday’s accident brought to mind a 2004 crash in which a U.S. helicopter based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma fell from the sky onto the grounds of Okinawa International University. The helicopter clipped an administrative building. The Marine base is located adjacent to the university campus in the middle of the densely populated city of Ginowan. For two decades, U.S. and Japanese officials have tried to relocate it. They agree that crowded Ginowan is no place for combat helicopters and massive transport planes. But the relocation of the base has been blocked by local opposition to the construction of a replacement facility in a less populated northern strip. More recently, the Senate Armed Services Committee also raised concerns about the relocation plan, citing the cost. Since 1972, U.S. aircraft have been involved in 44 crashes on Okinawa, said NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster. Protests erupted in Okinawa last year when the United States deployed a new fleet of MV-22 Ospreys — aircraft that can take off like helicopters and fly like planes. Japanese defense officials in Tokyo were in favor of the Ospreys, calling them an effective means to help defend islands that are claimed by both Japan and China. But Okinawans worry about the Osprey’s safety record, which includes several crashes.


Five health and science books to turbocharge your summer

Mix” might be best sampled in dim light. In the dark, crickets can look a lot like pretzel sticks. Doctors in Washington rarely make house calls, let alone stray from the 19th Street corridor. But on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, one intrepid physician visits hermits, offers psychological counseling and helps identify human legs that wash up onshore. “Against the background of a changing, churning American medical landscape, a physician like Lepore has become an outlier and a maverick,” Pam Belluck writes in “Island Practice,” a profile of Timothy Lepore, a gun-toting general practitioner who provides medical marijuana without a license. (On the side, he knits dog-hair sweaters.) Lepore is a contrarian who isn’t afraid to challenge authority figures who should know better. Treating a medical malpractice executive who is convinced he has contracted Lyme disease, Lepore urges his patient to have more tests until the correct diagnosis is found: a kidney tumor. “His patient-focused approach, once much more the norm, now strains to survive in towns and cities across the country as health care costs skyrocket, medicine becomes more corporatized and monetized, and extended face time with doctors is an increasingly vanishing commodity,” Belluck writes. It’s not often that a coffee-table book doubles as an homage to Charles Darwin. But particle physicist Brian Cox has managed to put together a slick tome that’s not just a collection of pretty pictures. “Wonders of Life,” based on his popular BBC nature series of the same name, is also an eloquent argument for evolution. Beginning with a discussion of water and the definition of life, Cox offers numerous paeans to nature’s beauty and variety supplemented with stunning graphics and explanations of scientific phenomena understandable to people without PhDs. Whether tackling the miracle of the water cycle and the hydrogen fuel cell or conducting an in-depth discussion of the human ear, Cox provides proof that the periodic table can be exciting on every page. ROCKET GIRL: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S FIRST FEMALE ROCKET SCIENTIST BY GEORGE D. MORGAN. PROMETHEUS BOOKS. $18. THE GREAT AMERICAN JET PACK: THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE INDIVIDUAL LIFT DEVICE BY STEVE LEHTO. CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS. $24.95. THE EAT-A-BUG COOKBOOK BY DAVID GEORGE GORDON. TEN SPEED PRESS. $16.99. ISLAND PRACTICE: COBBLESTONE RASH, UNDERGROUND TOM, AND OTHER ADVENTURES OF A NANTUCKET DOCTOR BY PAM BELLUCK. PUBLIC AFFAIRS. $14.99. WONDERS OF LIFE BY BRIAN COX AND ANDREW COHEN. HARPER DESIGN. $29.99.


Trial of Nidal Hasan, accused Fort Hood gunman, to begin Tuesday after delays

KILLEEN, Tex. — Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim, is accused of carrying out one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history by firing more than 100 rounds during a seven-minute shooting spree at the Army base in central Texas on Nov. 5, 2009. He has admitted to carrying out the attack but is prohibited by military law from entering a guilty plea because military prosecutors are pursuing the death sentence. The 42-year-old, who is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by Army civilian police, is representing himself and could cross-examine his alleged victims. The trial, which was initially scheduled to begin more than 18 months ago, has been repeatedly delayed by legal issues. The judge first appointed to preside over the high-profile case was removed by the military’s highest court early last year after it ruled that he hadn’t appeared impartial. Hasan also twice dismissed his legal team. He fought to represent himself and to keep his beard, which he says is an expression of his faith, in defiance of military regulations. The psychologist had planned to argue that his actions were intended to save the lives of Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, but in June a judge ruled that he could not use a “defense of others” argument because there was no immediate threat from soldiers at the base. Death sentences are rare in the military justice system and the case is taking place amid tight security, with Hasan flown in by helicopter from a local jail each day. The military has not executed a service member since 1961, when a private was hanged at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for raping an 11-year-old girl. In recent years, several death sentences have been commuted on appeal to life without parole, although five people remain on military death row, according to the Associated Press. As commander in chief, the president is required to sign off on a death sentence. For Hasan to be convicted of murder, a 13-member panel of officers must decide unanimously that he is guilty. At a final pretrial hearing Monday, the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, indicated that the case is expected to last at least a month. More than 130 victims of the shooting and their family members have joined a lawsuit seeking damages from the U.S. government, arguing that warnings that Hasan had become radicalized were repeatedly ignored because of “political correctness.” The FBI’s Washington


At the forefront of vaccine research to safeguard the military

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) exploded in the southwestern part of United States in the 1990s. Previously, the severe, sometimes fatal, respiratory illness due to Hantavirus infections was not known to cause disease in the Western hemisphere, and Hantaviruses had only been associated with kidney failure diseases in Asia and Europe. But then HPS started felling people here. “Because of the groundwork she had done, she was able to identify the outbreak in the Four Corners as Hantavirus,” said Jean Patterson, chairman of Virology and Immunology at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, referring to a region comprising parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. “It was the first time it was identified in America.” Historically, USAMRIID has blazed medical trails, since the military serves all over the world and comes into contact with viruses not found in the United States and therefore aren’t widely studied here, said Colleen Jonsson, director of the Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Louisville. “They were the frontline for exotic pathogens predominantly because soldiers serve in many, many countries,” she said. After 9/11, the National Institutes of Health also started sponsoring research to study these agents, she added. Schmaljohn’s work on dangerous pathogens may be aimed at protecting military personnel, but the benefits spill over into the civilian population, as the Hantavirus outbreak demonstrated. Her lab works on two types of vaccines: those that protect against medical infectious diseases and those that defend against agents that could be used as weapons in biological warfare. Researchers at USAMRIID were the first to start testing DNA vaccines for biodefense, using a method of delivering DNA vaccines with a short electrical burst. The first study of this electroporation method dispensed a vaccine to muscle in a clinical study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with two vaccines for Hantaviruses. The next study will deliver the vaccine to the skin instead of muscle, a less invasive, less painful method. Schmaljohn hopes the immune response will be even better. Schmaljohn decided early on she wanted help save lives. She calls the story silly now, but she was watching a TV show, in which a little girl’s mother died from a disease. “I said, ‘That’s not right.’ ” At first she thought she was going to be a doctor, but realized she preferred the broader reach of medical research. “I


Home-brewers unite in greater numbers

More than 3,400 DIY brewers attended the American Homebrewers Association’s 2013 conference, held in Philadelphia. The association has 38,000 members, up from 9,700 in 2005. (American Homebrewers Association) With the proliferation of commercial breweries — more than 2,500 at last count — you might think there would be less impetus to brew at home. Why boil malt and hops, then wait weeks for the bubbling liquid to ferment, when you can stroll over to your local convenience store and pick up a six-pack of IPA? In fact, the home-brewing hobby is growing in lock step with the pros. A record 3,400 attended June’s National Homebrewers Conference in Philadelphia, reports Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, which sponsored the event. Membership in his organization, he adds, has grown from 9,700 in 2005 to 38,000 this year. Based on surveys of home-brew suppliers, Glass estimates there are “definitely over a million, probably closer to 1.5 million” amateur brewers nationwide. Their ranks include Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), co-chair of the House Small Brewers Caucus; brewer-to-the-commander-in-chief Sam Kass, the White House nutrition policy adviser responsible for the White House honey ales; and actor Wil Wheaton of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “The Big Bang Theory,” who says he took up the hobby two years ago to bond with his college-age son and now brews about every two weeks. He recently teamed with Stone Brewing to make a bourbon-barrel-aged wheat, rye, and pecan stout. Lest those examples give the impression that home-brewing is a white male bastion, the winner of AHA’s Homebrewer of the Year award for 2013 is Annie Johnson, an African American resident of Sacramento whose Lite American Lager outdid 7,755 other entries. Home-brewing is best pursued as a group activity, says Hugh Sisson, who, before he opened Heavy Seas Beer in Halethorpe, Md., helped found the Cross Street Irregulars home-brew club in Baltimore. When he encounters solitary home-brewers on brewery tours, “I urge them to join a club!” he says. “I tell them, ‘You’ll be in a room with 50 other people who’ve already made all the mistakes that you’re going to make.’ ” The AHA’s Web site, www.homebrewersassociation.org, lists more than 1,400 clubs in 28 countries. The oldest such organization in this area is Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP), which dates to 1981 and the dawn of organized U.S. home-brewing. (Congress legalized home-brewing in 1978. But states


Spike Mendelsohn’s Bearnaise

At Béarnaise, Spike Mendelsohn’s newest restaurant on Capitol Hill, the celebrity chef drizzles chocolate sauce over a generously portioned dessert of profiteroles filled with vanilla frozen custard. (Nikki Kahn/THE WASHINGTON POST) Spike Mendelsohn wants you to know that before he became a reality TV star, and before he started grilling burgers at Good Stuff Eatery and baking pies at We the Pizza, he was a chef with an attachment to French cooking. His passion was initiated in Montreal, where he was born and raised, and was later nurtured at restaurants including Les Crayeres in Reims, France, and Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Napa Valley. Mendelsohn’s third food concept “allows me to get back to my roots,” says the former “Top Chef” performer. Béarnaise, on the same block as his other ideas on Capitol Hill, is inspired in part by steak frites restaurants he recalls from his younger days: L’Entrecôte Saint-Jean in Montreal (“my favorite place as a kid”) and Le Relais de l’Entrecôte in Paris. Like the rest of his businesses, this one is a family affair. Sister Micheline Mendelsohn Luhn serves as co-owner of Béarnaise, which opened in June in the space vacated by Thai Roma. The two-story dining room summons Paris with black-and-white tile floors and faux-weathered mirrors, although it’s too tidy to make diners forget they’re in Washington. Similar to Medium Rare in Cleveland Park, Béarnaise focuses on beef cooked the way you ask and served with french fries, followed by more french fries if you wish. Unlike the competition, the newcomer has a (slightly) larger menu that includes a few more appetizers and desserts, plus main courses including grilled chicken and steamed mussels. Helming the kitchen is Brad Race, 32, a longtime friend of Mendelsohn’s who opened and closed Michel in Tysons Corner as executive sous-chef. Recent visits have taught me that the robust French onion soup is more convincing than the vichyssoise; entrecote proves a tastier cut than the steak maison (flat-iron); and if you like profiteroles, the generous portion of house-made, frozen-custard-stuffed balls of pastry drizzled with hot chocolate sauce will leaving you smiling (and possibly holding your stomach). Nits: Oysters on the half-shell are scrawny and smack more of brine than of seafood. Order the “spicy” bearnaise only if you like nacho cheese dip. And the three-chocolate mousse does a good job of imitating a Three Musketeers candy bar. With a menu this brief


Federal retirement issues flourish

August in Washington often is hot and cold. The weather can be stifling, while government action cools. But this year, the first week of August has been mild, while action on at least one government front — federal retirement issues — has been heating up. Starting during the last days of July, there has been one development after another concerning the retirement of federal employees. Here’s a summary of issues that could affect your life after work. ●The Office of Personnel Management had been making good progress on a long-standing problem, the backlog of retirement applications. That’s until budget cuts known as sequestration came along. Postal Service early retirement and buyout programs also unexpectedly added more than 20,000 cases to the workload. The OPM’s goal to get 90 percent of retirees their first full annuity payment within 60 days of retirement is being pushed way back. The OPM had hoped to reach that goal last month. Now it says a year later would be more realistic. “Based on available resources and what we know now,” says an OPM “Progress Report” issued Monday, the agency doesn’t expect to make the goal until “summer 2014.” The sequester derailed what had been significant headway against the backlog. Over the past 18 months, 205,000 retirement applications were processed, “so that today fewer applications are awaiting processing than at any time in nearly four years,” the Progress Report said. The result: The OPM says it was “on track to eliminate the pending case backlog.” Then the budget cuts hit. Sequester “meant that OPM stopped all overtime work on retirement processing in April of 2013, reducing our processing capacity,” according to the report. “Reduced funding also caused a reduction in call center hours,” which hurt customer service. ●It’s not unusual for veterans to join the civilian ranks of the government after retiring from the military. In fact, government agencies actively recruit them, and the law provides hiring preferences for vets. But because of budget cuts, Defense Department officials are contemplating a change in the game — retired military personnel would not be eligible for civilian retirement benefits. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a July 31 news briefing that a management review “identified more sweeping changes to meet sequester-level targets, such as eliminating civilian pensions for retired military personnel serving in civilian government service, ending subsidies for military commissaries and restricting the availability of unemployment benefits.” “This


As its business grows, so does Amazon’s D.C. lobbying presence

has much at stake in Washington, and high on Amazon’s list is the sales tax on Internet commerce. As a result of a pair of Supreme Court rulings, states can require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes from residents only if the companies have a physical presence in the state. For years, Amazon fought efforts by states where it does not have such a presence to collect sales taxes on its transactions. But as it has built distribution warehouses across the country, the company has become a leading proponent of a bill that would allow all states to collect sales taxes from online retailers. The measure, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, was approved by the Senate in the spring and is awaiting action in the House. “They want a level playing field,” said Michael Mazerov, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who studies state tax issues. Amazon has also hired leading tax lobbyists to prepare for what could be a broad overhaul of the tax code. Of greatest concern to the company, said Edward D. Kleinbard, who served as chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, is any change to the way the United States deals with the foreign income of U.S. companies. Companies do not pay U.S. taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries unless it is returned to the United States. “Companies are very concerned that they will be sold down the river by other multinationals with different priorities, so people hire a lot of lobbyists and try to make sure they’re not the ox that gets gored,” said Kleinbard, who teaches at the University of Southern California’s law school. The company’s recent lobbying efforts, detailed in disclosure reports filed with the Senate, show that its in-house lobbying arm is dealing with a wide variety of issues, including online wine sales, cybersecurity, postal reform, free-trade agreements and broadband service. Like many tech companies, Amazon has backed efforts at the Federal Communications Commission to expand broadband access. The company’s lobbyists have also been active on the issue of cloud computing. Amazon has been fighting for a contract with the CIA that analysts say would cement the company’s bona fides in the federal contracting field. In the past three years, Amazon has quickly expanded its presence in cloud computing with its Amazon Web Services unit, winning clients such as NASA, Samsung, Pfizer


Dolphin deaths up in Washington region

troubling signs have been spotted indicating that all is not well with one of the most popular species of mammals with which humans share the planet. More than the expected number of dead dolphins have washed up. “It has definitely been unusual,” said Kate Hendrickson, spokeswoman for the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Usually, according to Virginia aquatic animal specialists, an average of 64 bottlenose dolphins are picked up on or near shore in a year. But this year, the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team said it has been called to the scene of the stranding of 82 dolphins. Last month alone, the team counted 44 dead dolphins. The average number for the month is seven, according to an online post by the stranding team. The cause of the deaths has not been determined, the group said. Many of the animals have decomposed too much to provide much information. Jennifer Dittmar, the stranding coordinator for the Baltimore aquarium, provided figures indicating a similar trend. She said Maryland’s natural resources department has recorded 15 dolphin deaths this year, with seven coming last month. Some dolphins were apparently found on the shores of the bay and others in the ocean. She said data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that there has been an increase in dolphin mortality along the Atlantic coast. As in Virginia, she said, many of the dolphin carcasses were “pretty decomposed.” But, she said, tissue samples from some of the more recent deaths have been sent for analysis to find a possible cause. The Virginia group said in its posting that it would take time for results of its tissue samples to arrive. Even then, the group said, “they may be inconclusive.” According to the Virginia group, the most recent strandings there appeared to be almost exclusively male, with all ages and sizes represented. According to NOAA, the bottlenose dolphin, which is found along the North Atlantic coast of the United States, can range in weight from 300 to 1,400 pounds and normally lives for up to 40 to 50 years. They are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. In a related matter, the National Aquarium completed on July 12 its annual one-day count of dolphins off Maryland’s Atlantic coast. The number spotted, in a three-hour “snapshot” , made by observers at four places along shore, was 113, which Dittmar said was about average.


The smartest summer ever: Hazy, but not lazy

word caterpillar printed on it. Preparing for the DC CAS or SATs? Healy says, “If you want to help your child build a keen brain for vocabulary, make sure plenty of physical play is on the program.” Likewise, children develop greater abilities with spatial relationships when they explore more actively (think hunting for the caterpillar rather than passively sitting with that stack of flashcards). And Healy says “greater ability with spatial relationships is one of the best predictors of math, physics, and engineering aptitude.” So order a butterfly growing kit online. Let your child observe metamorphosis in preparation for biology class. Render the life cycle through art. Sequence the stages of development from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly and prep for math. Then, on a shining August day, release the butterflies in Rock Creek Park, lay back with your child, and let him daydream about the miracle of the life he helped grow. One article published in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science advocates for incorporation of more daydreaming, or “mindful introspection,” in the classroom. “While outward attention is essential for carrying out tasks and learning from classroom lessons, for example, the reflection and consolidation that may accompany mind wandering is equally important, fostering healthy development and learning in the longer term.” Llay back in the grass and let the butterflies elevate your child’s mind. And if it rains a little and the butterflies fly away, you can stay right there in the park and still help prepare your child for math class: “Making mud pies, believe it or not,” Healy says, “is a readiness activity for algebra – the science of describing relationships of quantity.” Turns out the old saying is true: If you move your behind, your mind will, indeed, follow. Twist and Shout From the day American kids rush out of the school building on the last day of classes, yelping into the heat of their first real summer afternoon, they’re actually stimulating their growing brains. Letting them run, leap, and twist through vacation time (and for at least 30 minutes every day of the year) might be the best thing grown-ups can do for children’s cognitive development. According to Healy, movements like rocking, spinning, and hanging upside down all stimulate the cerebellum, the part of the brain that “interacts with higher, frontal levels in the brain for cognitive skills such as language,


Obama pays tribute to Marines as he wraps up West Coast trip

before service members to condemn sexual assault in the military, a problem that has been drawing increased attention and concern on Capitol Hill and nationwide. “I want you to hear it directly from me, the commander in chief,” Obama said. “It undermines what this military stands for, and it undermines what the Marine Corps stands for when sexual assault takes place within our units. And that’s why we are going to work together — all of us — to stop these crimes of sexual assault, and uphold the honor and integrity that defines the finest military on Earth. And that message is coming all the way from the top.” Camp Pendleton, located 40 miles north of San Diego, is home to the First Marine Expeditionary Force, which has operated extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama’s visit came at the end of a two-day West Coast swing focused on strengthening the nation’s housing market. The president broke no new policy ground in his remarks. He said he looks forward to completing the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, even though it will not be the end of the nation’s commitment there. “Instead of leading the fight, our troops now have a different mission, which is to train and advise and assist Afghan forces,” Obama said. “More of our troops are coming home. We’ll be down to 34,000 this winter. By the end of next year, in just 17 months, the transition will be complete.” He added, “But, what we cannot do is repeat the mistakes of history. We have seen in the past, where, after a war, we hollowed out our military, left our military unprepared.” In that light, he said it makes no sense for the country to continue to slash domestic and defense spending under the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. Obama would prefer to shrink the federal deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy rather than allow those cuts to continue. “That is not how a great nation should be treating its military and military families,” he said. “And, by the way, cuts in other non-defense areas in the budget affect our troops and our military families as well. You know, our military — part of what makes us best is we have got extraordinary recruits. But, if we want the best-qualified recruits, we should not be cutting investments in education. We should be increasing our investment in education.”


At Congressional Cemetery, goats eating up an acre of poison ivy

goats are supposed to eat more than an acre’s worth of poison ivy and English ivy, which are imperiling the historic cemetery’s trees and endangering the gravestones. Brian Knox, the keeper of the goats, whose more official title is supervising forester of his Maryland-based business Eco-Goats, parked his trailer full of animals in the back of the cemetery, next to a 1.6-acre swath of ivy-strangled trees. Shortly after 10 a.m., Knox opened the trailer door and nudged his herd to step off and start dining. But the goats wouldn’t budge. The goat paparazzi were scaring them. “I’d give them room,” Knox advised the reporters. “So they don’t come over and topple you.” Knox clapped at his goats. He boarded the trailer and tried pushing them off. “Come on Yoda,” he said. “Come on Mimi. Somebody’s got to go first. Come on kids. It’s just like any other job.” Several ambled off the trailer, but found their path to the woods blocked by the press. The spooked goats scampered back onto the trailer. “Um, can we give them more room?” Knox pleaded. Finally, as the reporters cleared the way, the goats strode into the woods, biting their way through morning glory, honeysuckle, poison ivy and other vines. For the cemetery, the $4,000-a-week cost of employing the herd — which grew to 55 after an additional 30 goats arrived in the afternoon — could solve an expensive problem. The more ivy smothers the trees, the heavier the trees get and the more susceptible they are to crashing down, which could damage gravestones. The ivy’s leaves also can interfere with the trees’ photosynthesis, killing them. From record-setting fish to unscooped poop, animals are making headlines in the Washington area. The Goat Gorgefest is the latest tactic in the cemetery’s effort to upgrade its image. Until at least the late 1980s, the cemetery was overrun with weeds, dead trees and drug users, said Paul Williams, the president of the Association for the Preservation of the Historic Congressional Cemetery, which leases the site from the Christ Church. “It was more or less abandoned,” Williams said. “The church couldn’t keep up with the 35 acres of cleaning.” In 2000, the cemetery’s reputation hit a low point when its longtime superintendent was convicted of stealing more than $175,000 from people who purchased headstones and burial plots. In recent years, however, the cemetery has attracted more donors and


The Fort Hood attack was terrorism. The Army should call it that.

In this courtroom sketch, military prosecutor Col. Steve Henricks, right, speaks as Nidal Malik Hasan, center, and presiding judge Col. Tara Osborn look on during Hasan's court-martial Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, in Forth Hood, Texas. Hasan is representing himself against charges of murder and attempted murder for the 2009 attack that left 13 people dead at Forth Hood. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley) (Brigitte Woosley/AP) Shawn Manning is a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant and mental health counselor who lives in Lacey, Wash. I My recovery has been long and agonizing. But the pain that has taken me by surprise has come in the nearly four years since the attack, as my fellow victims and I have been given the runaround by a government more eager to protect itself than the dead and wounded. On the day of the attack, I was waiting for a medical exam before what would have been my third deployment overseas. I was texting my wife when I heard the shout of “Allahu Akbar!” I looked up to see a man in Army fatigues firing a pistol. His fourth or fifth shot went into my chest. As screams broke out around me, I collapsed to the ground. The bullet had punctured my lung and I was gasping for breath. As I lay there, he shot me five more times in my back and legs. Eventually soldiers helped me get medical attention. Trial begins for the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of a November 2009 mass shooting at the Army post in Fort Hood, Tex. The bullets had narrowly missed my heart, but one had lodged in my liver. I still have two bullets in my body and deal with near-constant pain in my legs and back. During my recovery, I learned that the Army had classified the shooting as nonpolitical workplace violence instead of a terrorist attack. The language used to describe the attack may seem meaningless, but it is very meaningful to the victims and their families. Because the Army decided that our wounds were not “combat-related,” a number of benefits are being denied to the victims and their families, including certain health and disability ones. In some instances, the designation even resulted in victims receiving smaller salaries than we would have received during our deployment. As a reservist, I was making roughly $2,000 per month less than I would have in my private-sector job. The Army


Mining social media: The new way of life

Ever heard of Raptor X, a specialized computer tool that when used with a privately developed plug-in called “Social Bubble” can display the geographic location of Twitter users and their posted Tweets? In addition, Raptor could potentially capture related commercial entities and even financial transactions. The government created Raptor X. The Special Operations Command’s National Capital Region (SOCOM NCR) organization, located here in the Washington area, used it to data-mine social media as part of the 2012 Project Quantum Leap experiments. The project’s purpose was to identify “strategies and techniques for exploiting open sources of information, particularly social media in support of a counter threat finance mission.” That’s a quote from the draft of an unclassified NCR after-action report released Tuesday by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. Many people love the convenience of the Internet and cellphones and ever-multiplying social-media applications. What many don’t always focus on, however, is how easily outsiders can invade their lives. The June disclosure that the National Security Agency is collecting everyone’s telephone records and storing them for five years as part of anti-terrorism efforts has caused an uproar. Get used to it. The gathering of such data, whether by private commercial enterprises, hackers or governments — ours or foreign ones — is part of 21st- century life. NCR’s Quantum Leap is another peak into that future. The project, designed to improve federal interagency coordination in dealing with different threats or scenarios, involved about 50 people from government and private industry and was to last over six months. Hard to know if it did, because SOCOM is not commenting. The released draft covers only the first experiment, which dealt with countering the financing activities of terrorists, insurgents, human traffickers, weapons proliferators and international organized crime. It used a real money-laundering case that up to then involved $2.5 billion and was being investigated by several elements of the Department of Homeland Security, led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Homeland Security investigations division. Quantum Leap participants came from Defense Department and non-defense law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The threat network involved multinational and U.S.-based corporate entities, shell and shelf companies, dozens of individuals and millions to billions of assets, according to the draft. What is stunning is that the project identified more than 300 traditional and nontraditional open sources as potentially relevant to the activity. These ranged from


D.C. community calendar, Aug. 8 to 15, 2013

the Baptist. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 18, Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. $20-$40. 202-399-7993. “The Dark Knight Rises,” the 2012 action-adventure film starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman; coolers, friendly leashed dogs and picnic cooler welcome, bring a blanket. 8:10 p.m., Canal Park, Second and M streets SE. Free. www.capitolriverfront.org. Friday, AUGUST 9 Pipe organ recital, organist and graduate student Cristiano Rizzotto performs works by Reger, Piazolla and Dupre. 12:15-1 p.m., National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Cir. NW. Free, donations welcome. 202-797-0103. U.S. Air Force Band concert, Crawl through caves at the library, for ages 6-12, “Bill Nye, the Science Guy,” leads participants through an underground world where the sun never shines but a unique universe exists. 3 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW. Free. 202-727-0321. Museum Jazz in the garden, Shanghai Students Arts Troupe, Eclectic rock/bluegrass music, a performance by 19th Street Band. 6:30-8:30 p.m., Yards Park, Third and Water streets SE. Free. 202-289-0111 or www.yardspark.org. Reggae night at Carter Barron, U.S. Marine Parade, U.S. Marine Silent Drill Team, Drum and Bugle Corps, Color Guard, Silent Drill Platoon and Ceremonial Marchers; visitors with reservations are admitted at 7:15 p.m.; attendees must arrive no later than 8 p.m. Parade, 8:45 p.m. Marine Barracks, Eighth and I streets SE. Free, reservations required. 202-433-4011, 202-433-6060 or www.barracks.marines.mil. Saturday, AUGUST 10 Running through history, a National Park Service ranger discusses and leads a run around the Mall’s memorials. 8-9 a.m., Washington Monument, Bookstore, 15th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. Nikolette Cochran, 202-345-6361. Architecture on the Nation’s Front Lawn, Used book sale, Park ranger talk, “Mary Poppins,” Civil War Georgetown, Create an art book, Nationals baseball family day, Who’s Who at Woodlawn Cemetery? “Napoléon vu par Abel Gance,” Arts for families: Indonesian shadow puppets, Guided bike ride, “Dr. Strangelove,” Tango lesson, “Scheherazade,” Indian Summer Showcase Concert, multiple Grammy-award-winning singer Rita Coolidge performs her classic hits and some new standards. 5 p.m., National Museum of the American Indian, Outdoor Welcome Plaza, Fourth Street and Independence Avenue SW. Free. 202-633-1000. Blues music at Fort Dupont Park, Jazz vocalist Integriti Reeves, Sunday, AUGUST 11 Pennsylvania Avenue: America’s Main Street, a National Park Service ranger leads a walking tour in the footsteps of politicians and protesters, revealing some of the avenue’s famous and lesser-known events, places and people. 10:30 a.m., Sundays through