One year after the Fukushima disaster of 3/11, Japan looks inward

to overtake America as the world’s leading economy. That never came to pass, and last year Japan was knocked from its No. 2 perch by China, with a prospect of further relative decline. In politics, too, the nation was adrift. An upstart left-of-center party had unseated the conservatives who had ruled Japan for more than half a century, but by the time of the disaster — 11 / 2 years into its administration — the Democratic Party of Japan had yet to find its footing. Most of all, there was the dawning realization that, because of Japan’s pathologically low birth rate and its allergy to immigration, its population would both dramatically age and dramatically decrease in coming decades. After the initial shock came hope that the disaster would jump-start Japan out of its malaise — that the country would rebound as it had after World War II or the 1973 oil crisis. But jump which way? For some, the disaster points toward accepting a reduced position for Japan in the world instead of resisting it. “Our status as an economic power will come down, but look at France or Germany or Great Britain,” Hideki Kato, president of the Tokyo Foundation, said at the forum this week. “The economic scale in Japan is much bigger, but I don’t think the level of happiness is much bigger.” Others hope Japan’s growth will resume but in a new direction. Just as the Japan of the 1980s proved the possibility of economic power without military might, so in an era of climate change and diminishing resources Japan would blaze a more sustainable path. And then there are those, like Japan’s savvy ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, who argue that with 127 million people living on narrow, rocky islands, “we have to depend on science and technology.” “We will seek safe and sustainable technology,” he told me, “but I don’t think it will change our society or makes us less open to innovation.” In the past year, a new prime minister has provided steadier leadership, but he, like leaders in Washington, has to cope with a divided legislature. Tax-free development zones have been created in the disaster area, but they must overcome exaggerated fears of radiation. Maybe nothing will ever be the same, in other words, but neither is everything transformed. Hard problems are still hard, and democratic politics are still slow-moving. fredhiatt@washpost.com


Japan's Nikkei breaks 10,000 for first time in seven months

A man walks past screens showing the Nikkei stock average and stock quotation boards in Tokyo on Friday. Japan's Nikkei average topped 10,000 for the first time in seven months on Friday, buoyed by signs that Greece had avoid a messy default and by a weaker yen, which would help struggling Japanese exporters. (Issei Kato/Reuters) TOKYO — The Japanese stock rally came as Greece moved toward a deal to restructure its massive debt, easing concerns of a default. The Nikkei broke the 10,000 barrier for the first time since Aug. 1 just before the close of trading, but fell briefly after that to close at 9,929.74, up 1.65 percent on the day. As Japan prepares for a weekend of somber services and memorials to mark the one-year anniversary of its mega-earthquake and tsunami, the Nikkei is now back to pre-disaster levels, and the country has had weeks of encouraging economic news. The yen has weakened by more than 6 percent since Feb. 1, alleviating the strain on majors exporters who said that the strong yen was destroying their profits, making their products more expensive overseas. Meanwhile, driven by construction demand in the disaster-hit northeast, industrial production is back to pre-disaster levels. Most economists forecast modest GDP growth in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, which begins in April. “Even before the overseas economy started to firm and the [yen] started to depreciate, we had been expecting real GDP growth to return to positive territory” in the first quarter of 2012, said a recent economic research report from Barclays Capital. “In this sense, the favorable currency movements are an important bonus, but not the sole driver.” The yen on Friday stood at 81.7 against the dollar; it was as high as 76.2 against the dollar at the beginning of February. Toyota chief Akio Toyoda has said that the ideal exchange rate is 90 yen to the dollar. But even as stocks rise and the yen helps this country’s major exporters — auto and electronics manufacturers, most notably — the economy is still vulnerable. With 52 of its 54 reactors shut down in the wake of a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan has been forced to import costly coal and liquefied natural gas. That dependence leaves the country susceptible to major worldwide economic shocks; it also means that Japan is in danger of becoming a


Chinese official speaks out as rumors, intrigue swirl

Bo Xilai, the charismatic but controversial Communist Party secretary of Chongqing, waits for a question from the media during a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. (STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) BEIJING Bo, the Communist Party boss in the sprawling south-central municipality of Chongqing, said he was as surprised as anyone when his aide, Wang Lijun, who was the vice-mayor and former police chief, sought refuge Feb. 6 at the U.S. consulate in neighboring Chengdu. Wang was either seeking to defect, or trying to hide out from Chongqing authorities in fear of his life, depending on which version of the bizarre episode is believed. “I truly never expected this to happen,” said Bo, speaking to reporters at a meeting of the Chongqing delegation during the annual session of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. “I felt it was extremely sudden.” Bo has long been considered a top contender for a promotion this year to the powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, but the episode involving Wang — who is now believed being held incommunicado in Beijing — may have jeopardized Bo’s ambitions. In the absence of any real information on Wang, the Internet rumor mill, and Hong Kong newspapers, have been filled with speculation that the case may have been stoked by Bo’s political rivals as a way to embarrass him in advance of the scheduled leadership reshuffle at the 18th Party Congress this fall. The mystery only deepened this week, first when a Chongqing businessman, Li Jun, now in hiding outside of China, detailed to The Washington Post and the Financial Times a story of being harassed, jailed and forced to flee the country in a property dispute with Chongqing’s power-brokers, including Wang Lijun. Then on Thursday, Zhang Mingyu, a Chongqing property developer, was reported detained here in Beijing, after he publicly threatened to provide more details on the Wang Lijun case. Bo, looking tired while speaking to reporters Friday, tried to brush off the case and questions about its impact on his own plans. “For myself, speaking from my heart, I’ve never associated myself with anything specific about the 18th Congress,” Bo said. Speaking of his rumored offer to quit, he said, "That's totally a rumor, totally imaginary. There's no such thing as a resignation." “Wang Lijun is now being investigated by the relevant central agencies,” Bo said. “When the results are concluded, they will


A year after Japan’s triple disaster, an uncertain recovery

ISHINOMAKI, Japan — The rubble and ocean muck of last March 11 have been scrubbed from every wall, pulled from every basement and picked from every crevasse. Now the debris is piled in terraced mountains at the edge of this town along Japan’s tsunami-devastated northeastern coastline. But even after months of cleanup, the reconstruction remains at a starting point, equally capable of taking off or faltering, depending on whether people stick around. A full recovery, if it’s possible, will take at least a decade, authorities say. Residents along the battered coast must be willing to endure trying conditions — prefab houses that don’t stay warm; communities that don’t provide jobs; grief that doesn’t abate — all because they hope that, eventually, they will regain normal lives in functional towns. It’s a bargain that Takahiro Chiba struggles with every day. He says his city, one of the region’s largest and hardest hit, feels just livable enough to tolerate, but not yet livable enough to commit to. “I don’t want to stay in Ishinomaki anymore,” Chiba says on a Tuesday. “I’m really thinking we should stay in Ishinomaki,” Chiba says on a Thursday. Chiba sees more hope than he did a year ago. It’s not just all the debris that has been cleared away. Workers at the city hall are trying to attract clean-energy projects and offering tax incentives for businesses that relocate here. Lifelines have returned. A department store reopened this week. The progress of the last year, though, doesn’t begin to offset the damage of Japan’s greatest crisis since World War II. The triple disaster — an earthquake, a tsunami, a resulting triple meltdown at a nuclear plant — left 19,000 dead and displaced some 342,000 from their homes. Because of public opposition to nuclear power, only two of Japan’s 54 reactors are now in operation, prompting energy companies to fire up old thermal plants and import more coal and gas. In the aftermath of the disaster, Ishinomaki all but stopped. Gas stations had no fuel and stores had no food. Neighborhoods had been shredded. But people here say that cleanup was the easy part — all strategy, no planning. The city only now is “at a crossroads,” said Toru Asano, the chamber of commerce chairman. The hard part begins here, coordinating an economic recovery when thousands are in debt and have no permanent place to live. Some 6,000 have


U.S. agrees to transfer control of detainees in Afghanistan

message for the Taliban: Your options are getting fewer and fewer. The time is now to join the peace process and be part of the future of Afghanistan.” Under the agreement, the U.S. military will transfer legal responsibility for batches of detainees over the next six months, until nearly all of the more than 3,000 inmates are nominally in Afghan custody. Some human rights activists expressed concern that the Afghan government has not created a legal framework to assume responsibility for the detention system. John Sifton, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Afghanistan should immediately pass a law that “explains the foundation of this system of administrative detention, when it expires and how it will be renewed.” He noted that among the first acts of an Iraqi sovereign government was the declaration of a state of emergency, which allowed for the creation of a detention system compatible with international law. The Afghan system, Sifton said, “is lawless because there is literally no law.” The agreement does not address the cases of the roughly 50 non-Afghan prisoners held by U.S. forces here. An Afghan general will be appointed as the commander of the Parwan detention facility, a state-of-the-art complex designed to the standards of a U.S. federal prison. Parwan is next to Bagram air base, one of the largest U.S. military installations in the country. U.S. military officials will work alongside Afghan corrections officials as advisers for a time beyond the transition period and will seek to ensure that detainees are not mistreated, U.S. officials said. Because the Afghan government is not expected to be able to run the highly sophisticated facility without substantial help after the transition period, the U.S. military will build more rudimentary cell blocks in Bagram and at a prison near Kabul, the officials said. Afghan officials have long seen the U.S. military detention system in Afghanistan as an affront to their sovereignty. Detainees at Parwan are held without formal charges, and until now the Afghan government has been largely powerless to weigh in on individual cases. Afghan authorities have also voiced unease about the presence of foreign detainees who were captured in third countries and transferred to Afghanistan. The non-Afghan inmates will remain in U.S. custody for now, but Friday’s agreement is likely to add a sense of urgency to finding a resolution for those cases, Obama administration and foreign officials said. Some in the


Recent debate over contraception comes as GOP loses gains among women

control; only 36 percent wanted to see the Republicans in charge. ‘Quantum leaps’ Both sides have tried to shape the narrative in this battle for and about women. But many Republicans are beginning to wish they had never waded into what has become a heated conversation over contraception, who should have it and what it says about people who use it. GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s campaign, said Republicans need to return to pocketbook and fiscal issues. “We know what works,” she said, “and we need to get back to it.” Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) recalled in an interview organizing meetings at the Reagan White House in the 1980s to help Republicans grapple with what was being dubbed the “gender gap.” Since then, she said, “we had made quantum leaps.” “We really don’t want to reignite a disparity of support between men and women,” she added, saying the debate over contraception “could create some serious fractures among women if we’re not careful. It feels as if we are going back to another era.” In focus groups, said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, what women are expressing is not anger at the positions Republicans are taking but frustration with the amount of attention reproductive issues are getting. “Particularly among blue-collar women,” she said, “what we hear is, ‘How can you be arguing over this when Rome is still burning for me and my family?’ ” Even the wife of presidential contender Rick Santorum has told him to quit trumpeting his opposition to birth control. “My advice to him was stop answering the question,” Karen Santorum told Politico. “Tell them, ‘I’m not going to answer this question. Let me tell you what I know about national security. I know a lot about national security.’ ” A GOP strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s situation frankly, said: “It’s devastating. I don’t think it’s going to go away. I think it’s going to be a significant challenge the Republican nominee is going to inherit.” Democratic advantage Obama has moved aggressively to take advantage of the opening Republicans have provided. He personally called Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student who had been attacked by conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh over her advocacy for contraceptive coverage, and expressed his support. And the White House announced in recent days that the president will give the


Pakistan names Zaheer ul-Islam new spymaster

Lt. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam, at right, will lead Pakistan’s spy agency, replacing Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who had been in charge since 2008. (STRINGER/REUTERS) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on Friday that Karachi-based Lt. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam will head Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), replacing Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who has led the agency since 2008 — and whose retirement may improve the troubled U.S.-Pakistan alliance against terrorism. “Personal relationships with General Pasha have worn a bit thin,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It might be good to start afresh.” Pasha’s term already had been extended — unusual in the top echelons of the Pakistani military — so the appointment of a new spy chief was anticipated. Pasha had also faced criticism in the ranks for his perceived failures surrounding the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden last May. The U.S. counterterrorism community relies to a certain degree on the ISI to identify al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant targets in Pakistan’s tribal regions, especially in the CIA’s long-running drone war. But the U.S. decision not to inform Pakistan about the impending raid on bin Laden’s compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad spoke volumes about the degree to which Washington mistrusted its supposed ally’s spy agency and military. Pasha’s successor was appointed the top military commander in the southern port city of Karachi in October 2010 — a post perceived as one of the army’s most important. Islam is close to the nation’s armed forces chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani; both served in the infantry in the army’s Punjab regiment. Islam had also served as deputy director general of the ISI, in charge of domestic intelligence-gathering, according to military officials here. A U.S. official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity noted that many of Islam’s army assignments had been focused on India but that he also had ties to the United States. “During his career, Zaheer traveled to the U.S. to participate in U.S. military-sponsored training and international fellowship programs,” the official said. Although U.S. officials have often harshly criticized the ISI, accusing it of sheltering militants in Pakistan and tolerating their attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan, the change of leadership brings an opportunity to reset the relationship. “We would expect General Zaheer to continue cooperation with the United States in our mutual fight


Coming and Going: Growing tourism, family-friendly hotels, more travel news

not bust Travel and tourism to the rescue! The World Travel & Tourism Council has some cheery economic projections in its latest report: Travel and tourism will grow by 2.8 percent this year, trumping the predicted global economic growth rate of 2.5 percent. The industry is expected to contribute $2 trillion to the global economy and support more than 100 million jobs. And when you take wider economic impacts into account, the number jumps to $6.5 trillion and 260 million jobs. On a micro-level, the report forecasts strides and stumbles in specific destinations. Among them: ●South and northeast Asia will be the fastest-growing regions in 2012, expanding by 6.7 percent. ●After a tumultuous period, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and North Africa are showing signs of recovery. Morocco, which is perceived as more stable than Egypt and Tunisia, is at the head of the class. ●Expect slow growth in the restless Middle East. Of the countries in the region, Qatar is expected to grow fastest. Interesting trivia: In 2010, Syria attracted almost 15 percent of all international arrivals in the Middle East, just behind Saudi Arabia. It’s not looking likely to repeat the feat in 2012, so far. ●North America and Europe will continue to struggle. In fact, the European Union could experience a decline. Pack up the kids and go There’s enough to worry about on family vacations. Now you can at least take some of the guesswork out of deciding where to stay. Parents Magazine evaluated 70 hotel chains for family-friendly aspects In the budget category ($99 to $149 per night), the top chains were Embassy Suites, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Hyatt House, Residence Inn by Marriott and Holiday Inn. One step up in the mid-priced group ($150 to $249 per night), the magazine liked Loews Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels & Resorts and Westin Hotels & Resorts. Check out the explanations behind the rankings at www.parents.com. Where travel’s a bargain If you’re curious about what U.S. destinations will give you the most bang for your vacation buck, Hotwire.com says it can help. The Web site’s 2012 Travel Value Index looked at prices and discounts on airfare, rental cars and hotels, as well as entertainment affordability. The top 10 destinations, beginning with the highest rating, were Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Charlotte, Albuquerque and Miami. Andrea Sachs , Becky Krystal


Last year’s tragedy failed to rouse Japan from its stagnation

population are so petrified, and so militant in their fear, that most local governments outside Tohoku are refusing to accept for burial some of the millions of tons of rubble left by the tsunami. (And I’m talking about the remnants of smashed buildings and vehicles in other prefectures, not junk from the nuclear plant’s vicinity.) In a town near where I live, officials rejected the debris, saying that even if the radiation emissions were zero, local farmers and fishermen might suffer from huu hyou higai — financial losses due to baseless rumors — just as many Tohoku producers are already. So much for kizuna. Of Japan’s 54 atomic reactors — which previously supplied about 30 percent of the nation’s power — all but two are shut down, mostly for maintenance and safety checks, and many local authorities are balking at plans to restart plants in their jurisdictions. Although the government is scrambling to devise plans for boosting investment in renewable energy, such efforts will take decades. Amid steep increases in electricity bills, and uncertainty about the reliability of power supplies in general, the nation’s corporate giants — including Sumitomo Electric Industries, Mitsui Mining and Smelting, and the popular social networking service Gree — are warning that they will be forced to shift more operations abroad. The hysteria about radiation reflects a breakdown in trust, as witnessed by endless media accounts quoting people who doubt the government’s monitoring of food and soil. This is lamentable; although officials disingenuously played down the possibility of a much worse accident at Fukushima Daiichi in the first days after the quake, reputable experts affirm the government’s major claim: that health risks are minuscule except in areas very close to the plant. The public’s growing skepticism of authority is arousing more citizen involvement in politics, which could prove positive in the long run. But it increases the chances that imprudent ideas — such as mothballing all those nuclear plants — will prevail. Meanwhile, more serious political and economic problems are left to fester. Tokyo’s political class, which was eager to appear unified after the disaster, is consumed anew with score-settling and power maneuvers of the sort that have given the country six prime ministers in the past five years. The upshot is a lengthy stalemate over the measures necessary to put Japan on sound long-term economic footing. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has proposed doubling the 5


Flu strain confirmed in Calvert deaths

Four members of the Calvert County family stricken by flu complications had the same H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, Maryland health officials said Friday. That strain is one of three seasonal varieties circulating in Maryland and nationwide, officials said. Previous testing had identified influenza A but not the specific subtype. Lou Ruth Blake A third child, Elaine, 51, who lived with her mother and had been her main caregiver, was hospitalized March 5 and discharged late Thursday, a MedStar Washington Hopital Center spokeswoman said. A fifth family member, a sister of Lou Ruth Blake’s, is still at the hospital center but improving, the spokeswoman said. Lou Ruth Blake had received a seasonal flu vaccination but none of the three adult children received one, Calvert County Health Officer David Rogers has said. This season’s vaccine protects against two strains of influenza A — H3N2 and H1N1 — and influenza B. State health officials confirmed Friday, as county officials had earlier said they suspected, that the two siblings who died also had a bacterial infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a known and dangerous complication of influenza infection. MRSA The two siblings developed severe bacterial pneumonia, which is not uncommon in people infected with the flu virus. The flu virus weakens and damages the lungs, making the person more susceptible to bacterial infections. The Blakes are part of a large extended family in Lusby that traces its roots back several generations. Officials said no additional related severe respiratory illnesses have been confirmed and no other similar clusters have been identified anywhere in Maryland. This year’s flu season, however, has started late; the flu season typically can last as late as May.


Why should my bike subsidize your car?

isn’t hidden. Even though this grocery store (okay, it’s a Whole Foods) must pay for leased parking that would amount to thousands of dollars a week at normal market prices, parking is free for store patrons. Despite encouraging customers to “go green,” Whole Foods and many other chains encourage driving by artificially reducing the cost of doing so. Parking isn’t the only driving incentive that is provided by grocery chains. Stop & Shop, Giant, Safeway, Price Chopper and other stores have deals with gas stations that give customers per-gallon discounts when they purchase a certain amount of groceries. The cost of such programs is simply incorporated into the prices on the shelves. Environmentalists and those who cannot afford to drive end up making it easier for other customers to shop by automobile. Many in the environmental movement would like to see the big ecological costs of polluting decisions (what economists call externalities) reflected in the price of goods and services through such governmental policies as a federal carbon tax. But simply removing the hidden economic costs of polluting activities would be a good start. The District’s 5-cent bag tax did just that by forcing customers, and not grocery stores, to pay for checkout bags. In truth, paper and plastic bags were never “free”; it’s just that users weren’t footing the bill. Customers who brought cloth bags before the bag tax was established were essentially helping to pay for others to do the opposite. Now we pay for our bag choices, and people’s behavior has changed dramatically. Perhaps fewer people would drive if we reattached costs to driving that are now being offset by non-drivers. When businesses eat the costs of environmentally burdensome decisions, those of us making sacrifices for the planet can end up having our actions nullified. Thus, when I ride my bike to pick up some fruit at the market, I make it easier for someone else to hop into his Range Rover for a three-block jaunt to grab some milk. If the true price of such trips had to be paid, perhaps more people would begin to make choices that would be better for their wallets, for their waistlines and ultimately for the Earth. The writer is national advocate for Bicycle Benefits. More Local Opinions: Bonnie J. Morris: Standing with Sandra Fluke Gabriel J. Michael: Budgetary ‘doomsday’ in Maryland? Bean and Principi: Don’t divert Va. foreclosure funds


Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda: ‘Japan has made remarkable progress’

develop an industry and social infrastructure linked with compact cities and decentralized, environmentally friendly energy production that uses “smart” grids and large-scale solar and offshore wind farms. Japan is already a leader in energy efficiency, and it has a wealth of innovative technologies. We must put this expertise to use creating a model for growth and sustainability that we can share with the world. Another area where Japan can, and I believe must, lead the world and share its knowledge is disaster-risk reduction and response. We have learned, in the harshest possible terms, that it is no longer acceptable to claim that events had been unforeseen. To build resilient communities and a country able to withstand natural disasters, our disaster-management measures are being comprehensively reviewed, and I expect they will be dramatically strengthened. Of course, Japan also faces challenges that were apparent before last year’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. We have been tackling some, such as securing robust economic growth and rebuilding government finances, for a number of years. The longer these issues are left unresolved, the more serious they become. When I became prime minister last September, I promised the Japanese people that I would not tolerate the politics of indecision. A propensity to delay difficult and weighty decisions has been hurting our country. It is detrimental to our economy, society and future, and it cannot be allowed to continue. The many projects underway for Japan’s reconstruction and revitalization constitute the first step toward our country’s economic revival. Securing robust economic growth is a momentous challenge in the face of global economic uncertainty, the yen’s historic appreciation and long-standing deflation — but it is not insurmountable. We must draw on the unique strengths of the Japanese economy, seek an open and cooperative approach with our international partners, and intelligently exploit the promise of new growth areas. Sectors such as energy, the environment, health and nursing care hold significant potential as leading growth industries where Japan can tap innovative ideas and investment from the private sector, including foreign direct investment, and play a leading role globally. We aim to create the conditions to support increased international interest and investment in Japan, not only in business but also in tourism. As a prerequisite, we commit to providing timely and accurate information to the international community. In recent history, Japan seized rapid economic expansion from the ashes and desolation of World


O’Malley opts for more regressive ‘flush tax’

In Senate budget committee negotiations, O’Malley’s plan to cap exemptions and deductions for high-income earners was reworked into a proposal to increase most filers’ income taxes by a quarter of a percent. The budget must go through the House of Delegates, where the progressive approach appears to have more support. The setbacks for the governor underscore the practical and political obstacles he has faced in trying to craft a package of tax increases that would fall more heavily on the higher earners. Another fee on residents could result from O’Malley’s plan to subsidize offshore wind power, with residential ratepayers potentially paying $2 more per month in 2017. Combined, the flush tax and the wind subsidy would add nearly $100 in annual fees for most Marylanders. Robert M. Summers, secretary of the Department of the Environment, said the push for a consumption-based flush tax was abandoned partly to assuage the concerns of businesses. Summers said “a number of folks have raised concerns about the progressive fee being a little too impactful on small businesses” that use a large amount of water. The “complexity” of moving from a flat fee to a consumption-based fee was another factor in the change, he said. Pitching his original plan to lawmakers in February, O’Malley said those who use the least amount of water could even see their flush tax decrease from its monthly flat rate of $2.50. According to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, 11 percent of households in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties use fewer than 2,000 gallons of water per month, and those residents would have paid a monthly fee of $1.80 or less. Under the original proposal, the 31 percent of households in those counties that use between 2,000 and 4,000 gallons monthly would have paid between $1.80 and $4.30 per month — still less than the flat monthly fee of $6.25 being considered. And users of septic systems, which are not metered for water use, would have seen rates double to $5 per month. The new plan would put their rate, like everyone else’s, at $6.25 per month. But heavy users would have paid significantly more under the original plan. The 12 percent of Prince George’s and Montgomery County households that use more than 8,000 gallons of water monthly would have paid at least $9.30 a month. And many restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses would have seen their fees more


A bugged life: Warm winter could mean more insects

If everything’s dried up, they can’t run down to the local McDonald’s and get something. They’re just out of luck.” Bee populations, especially colonies of wild bees, are already in trouble, having been devastated by a mysterious parasite. Weather-related stresses make a bad situation worse. Hives of 40,000 to 60,000 domesticated bees often respond to food shortages by slowing egg production, Royal said, which means there will be fewer bees to build honey stores for the next winter. “It’s a domino effect,” Royal said of the damage that can done by a winter during which it “seems like everything is running a month ahead of schedule.” “My peach trees are in full bloom right now,” he said. “They bloom . . . it pulls moisture up . . . it goes to the flower . . . the flowers produce more nectar. But if it’s dry, they can’t make something out of nothing.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last month that “warmer-than-average temperatures were widespread across the 48 contiguous states during January. Nine states — including Kansas, Minnesota and the Dakotas — had January temperatures ranked among their 10 warmest. “I don’t want to make any big pronouncements about climate, but there’s a pretty good indication this world is warming,” said Raupp, the Maryland professor. “Pests that were found only in the southern region are moving into the northern region. You’re seeing this penetration.” For farmers, pesticide costs can become terribly expensive, Raupp said, “if you have aphids or spider mites cranking through extra generations. For pests with faster generation times, the hotter it is the more they develop.” Aphids and psyllids, also called place lice, are among the pests that plague farmers. Aphids are a big problem because, when feeding, they can transmit a pathogen that destroys vegetables, said Eric Natwick, an entomology farm adviser for the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Tomato psyllids — lightning fast and tremendous jumpers, for their size — are also showing up this year in California’s Imperial Valley, where Natwick works. The psyllids tend to infest produce in California’s Coachella Valley, across a desert from the Imperial, but “when I see them here, it’s unusual,” he said. In urban areas, termites are waking up inside houses, and a homeowner who spots them has a problem. “If you notice termites in your house, you’re only going to notice


The pros and cons of ditching cash for electronic currency

in my cash. I see the value in using it over electronic means such as credit and debit cards. Studies show that using plastic influences people to overspend. Paying with plastic doesn’t register in people’s brains the same way as when they use cash. I don’t trust that the minds behind electronic money will not manipulate people into spending more than they can afford. With cash, you have limitations. If you go to a store and have only $100 on you and no other form of payment, you can only spend up to that amount. Cash is a stopgap. Wolman shares my concern about credit and how it can be a catalyst for personal debt. But don’t use the problems with plastic to dismiss the argument that we should get rid of cash, he says. He wants to see someone build an app that will “simulate the pain in spending currently only associated with cash.” What about the people who rely on cash for tips, you might ask? Perhaps soon you will be able to tip by aiming your electronic device at the tip receiver’s smartphone, Wolman says. The most compelling argument for getting rid of cash comes when Wolman talks about the poor, whose lives are financially marginalized because they don’t have easy and affordable access to basic banking services. He visits Kenya and India to look at ways some are helping the poor transact without cash by using cellphones. “When your only option is cash, your assets are stuck in the material world,” he writes. “The poorer you are, the more crushing the costs and risks of cash become. . . . A fire or natural disaster can obliterate your meager savings.” Wolman is probably right that someday we will transition from physical money to electronic currency. I’m not ready to embrace his futuristic digital world, but he did come closer to convincing me that we are coming to an end of money. I’ll be hosting a live online discussion about “The End of Money” on April 5 at 1 p.m. at washingtonpost.com/conversations. Wolman will join me to talk about his hope for a cashless society. For a chance to win a copy of this month’s book club selection, send an e-mail to colorofmoney@washpost.com with your name and address. Readers can write to Michelle Singletary at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or singletarym@washpost.com.


After U.S. soldier allegedly kills 16 civilians, Afghans voice rage and Taliban vows revenge

deaths doomed Washington’s goal of keeping a small contingent of U.S. troops in the country. The calls to prosecute the suspect in an Afghan court — a highly unlikely prospect because American troops have immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan — echoed the debate about whether U.S. service members should remain shielded from prosecution in Iraqi courts. In Iraq, the government began curbing the authority of U.S. troops as the American drawdown started in 2009, most notably by restricting their presence in urban areas. That stance was driven by a yearning for sovereignty after the violent years that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and by the widespread feeling among Iraqis that U.S. troops killed civilians wantonly. Similar forces are driving the Afghan government’s insistence that the United States halt night raids on the homes of suspected insurgents, an issue that is holding up the security-cooperation pact. Last week the United States agreed to start transferring legal custody of its inmates in Afghanistan to the Kabul government, but it has ceded little additional ground as Afghanistan has sought to assert more control over the operations of coalition troops. A Western official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer his assessment, said he was hopeful that the anger over the shooting rampage could be overcome. The burning of Korans by U.S. troops on Feb. 20 — which American officials said was accidental — unleashed a wave of violent protests and prompted Afghan security forces to open fire on U.S. military trainers, but the fury subsided after a few days. “Everyone said the burning of the Korans was a turning point,” he said. “It came and it went. My best analysis is that everyone saw the abyss, and no one wanted to jump in.” Barakzai, the lawmaker, was far less optimistic. Although she expressed worry about the turn the country could take if the foreign troop withdrawal accelerated, Barakzai said the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States is nearing a breaking point. “If things keep going in this direction, we are really at the end of the road,” she said. “The trust between our governments is trashed on both sides.” Special correspondent Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report. More coverage: - U.S. soldier fires on Afghans, kills 16 - U.S., allies mull intervention in Syria - Al-Qaeda operations expand in Yemen - Read more national security news


U.S. soldier held in shooting rampage that killed 16 Afghans, officials say

all shot in the head.” About an hour later, residents in a nearby village heard gunshots, and they later discovered the corpses of five men inside two houses located near each other, Esaqzai said. Karzai’s statement said nine of the 16 victims were children. In addition, at least five people wounded in the incident were being treated at a U.S. military medical facility. Afghan and American officials braced for a larger outcry later in the week. “I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts,” Lt. Gen. Adrian J. Bradshaw, the deputy commander of the international coalition in Afghanistan, said in a statement. “They were in no way part of authorized military activity.” Gen. John R. Allen, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, pledged a thorough investigation and full cooperation with Afghan authorities. The Taliban characterized the incident as a “massacre” committed during the course of a night raid by American and Afghan forces. “The so-called American peace keepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians,” the Taliban statement said. Panjwai, southwest of Kandahar city, has been one of the most challenging battlegrounds for international forces. The area was the cradle of the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, and the militant group has fought hard to maintain sway over villages there. Wresting Kandahar province from Taliban control was one of the chief objectives of Obama’s 2009 troop surge. U.S. military officials say they have been largely successful in restoring a semblance of Afghan government control in areas once commanded by the Taliban. But as the footprint of foreign troops starts to shrink in the south, many Afghans fear that the Taliban will regain lost ground. Anger over the Koran burnings last month sparked nationwide riots and was cited as motivation for at least some of the fatal attacks on six U.S. military personnel. But reaction to the incineration of the holy books — which U.S. officials said was accidental — was relatively muted in the south. Strains on partnership The death toll Sunday was far higher than in the notorious string of killings carried out in 2010 by a rogue U.S. Army platoon that became known as the “kill team.” The slaying of at least three men in Kandahar’s Maywand district became one of the biggest scandals of the war, after investigators found that soldiers had kept body parts as trophies and


Japan marks earthquake and tsunami anniversary with prayers and mourning

TOKYO — At a theater in Tokyo, Japanese Emperor Akihito, 22 days after heart bypass surgery, stood for a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. — the precise time when one year ago a 9.0-magnitude earthquake pulsed 80 miles off Japan’s northeastern coast. In the many small towns devastated by the quake and the resulting tsunami wave — 45 feet high, in some cases — survivors dressed in black and laid flowers in spots where loved ones had died, places that now look like empty construction sites. And at a baseball stadium in Fukushima, the prefecture (state) where a radiation-spewing nuclear plant forced the evacuation of 90,000 people, anti-nuclear protesters gathered to speak out about an energy source that has turned into one of Japan’s most divisive, and unresolved, issues. One year later, the mega-disaster — 3/11 as it’s known here — remains a present crisis more than a part of history. It left scores jobless and homeless. It caused at least $200 billion in damage to ports, roads, buildings and other infrastructure, straining an already stagnant economy. Government bickering delayed the passage of reconstruction budgets, and authorities’ much-criticized response to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi facility led to a breakdown in public trust. The disillusionment with government shows itself in the current debate over nuclear power, where many local communities refuse to allow the restart of reactors on their shorelines. At the moment, just two of Japan’s 54 reactors are in operation, a sharp reversal in a country that before last year depended on nuclear power for one-third of its energy. The reversal comes with a cost, because utility companies have been forced to import fossil fuels to maintain a reliable energy supply, potentially leading to higher bills for consumers and a perpetual trade deficit for the country. The land immediately around the nuclear plant could be uninhabitable for decades, authorities have said, but even the tsunami-devastated towns untouched by radiation face a tenuous recovery. These fishing towns, even before last year, grappled with problems of shrinking and aging populations. Now these communities, in charge of their own reconstruction plans, find themselves torn between restoring the old way of life and conceiving something different. More than 300,000 people still live as evacuees, in temporary housing units, hotels or homes of relatives. A recent Asahi Shimbun survey of evacuees found that 40 percent had lost their jobs or


Business Rx: Votifi

The entrepreneur In 2008, Lou Aronson had a “lightening bolt moment” while he was waiting at his children’s bus stop with other neighborhood parents. “We were standing around complaining about the robo-calls during the upcoming presidential election and I noticed that one of my neighbors wasn’t complaining. Turns out, no one ever called his house because he didn’t have a land line. He held up his BlackBerry.” In that moment, Aronson realized that polling companies would soon need another way to reach the American voters, so he created Votifi. This week, Aronson is at the South By Southwest Accelerator and the TechCocktail StartUp Showcase in Austin to present his company. The pitch Aronson “Votifi is a peer-to-peer recommendation engine for political discovery. We deliver mobile polls and use the results to help simplify your access to political content, quantify where you fit on the political map and amplify your voice through discussions with people who share your views and debates with people who are on the other side of an issue. Votifi is a one-stop shop for political engagement and exploration. “In addition, Votifi is a way for polling companies to reach Americans who no longer use their land lines. Right now, you’ve got an industry where you have to robo-dial approximately 40,000 people in order to get 1,200 respondents. That costs approximately $40,000. If you’re a local politician, you can’t do that and capture that data in real time. Votifi is a way to tap into this $3.6 billion industry and a way to solve the problem of the disappearing land line for polling companies. “Our technology recognizes that the strength of the American political system lies in diversity of opinion, and that voters’ views are multidimensional and evolve over time. Online competitors tend to reinforce party lines or attempt to create consensus without necessary debate, and traditional political pollsters are finding it increasingly difficult to capture voters’ views in a mobile world. Votifi’s mobile polls and platform capture political views in real-time and make political content more accessible, particularly to those groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the political process.” “What we currently need help with is building our user base. What is the most efficient and cost-effective way to build a large and demographically diverse user base that is representative of the American population?” The advice Andrew J. Sherman, adjunct professor for entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith


LightSquared From Monday to Thursday, the Reston firm’s controversial GPS issue will be discussed during a session at the Satellite 2012 conference. More than 11,000 participants from commercial satellite firms, U.S. and foreign militaries, and broadcast networks are expected to attend numerous sessions and check out the latest products from more than 300 vendors. In addition to the LightSquared issue, the conference highlights the latest business opportunities in “hosted payload” — the government’s use of commercial spacecraft to launch its equipment into space. Speakers include Burt Liebowitz, principal network engineer at Mitre; Hermon Pon, vice president of technology at Iridium; and Bronson Hokuf, principal engineer at Garmin International. The conference is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl. NW in Washington. Never mind tight budgets in the public and private sector. On Thursday, at least 15 federal and state agencies, corporations and nonprofits in the Washington area will be looking to do business with minority-owned vendors. The Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is hosting a business expo matching vendors with procurement officers and buyers from Clark Construction, Freddie Mac, the American Red Cross, the Federal Reserve Board, NASA, the U.S. Army and others. The session is to begin at 3 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Other events of note Tuesday, March 13 The Northern Virginia Technology Council outlines the emerging market for mobile money, in which consumers use their cellphones to make payments. The session is slated to start at 7:30 a.m. at Sprint, 12524 Sunrise Valley Dr. in Reston. Need information on financing your tech start-up? The University of Maryland is offering expert advice on a range of business issues starting at 10 a.m. at the school’s Technology Advancement Program Building, Room 1103 in College Park. Wednesday, March 14 The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce is to present a panel on how women entrepreneurs can achieve the same level of success as their male counterparts. The session is to start at 7:30 a.m. at the Westin Tysons Corner, 7801 Leesburg Pike in Falls Church. Thursday, March 15 The Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is hosting an all-day business expo, set to begin at 10 a.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Google — V. Dion Haynes


Class B apartments in the District outperforming suburbs

rents in Class B properties, at an average of $2.33 per square foot. Per-square-foot rents for suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia are $1.75 and $1.95 respectively. Rising rents and falling concessions with virtually stable vacancy rates suggest leverage for owners of Class B apartments in the District. A year-over-year comparison shows that while vacancy is up slightly in all three areas, the District’s 2.2 percent vacancy rate in December of 2011 was up only 0.1 percent from the year before. Concessions — discounts offered to prospective renters and measured as a percentage of asking rent — show similar trends. An analysis of fourth quarter 2011 rent concessions paints an even brighter picture for the District. Concessions there averaged 0.9 percent, compared to 3.1 percent in suburban Maryland and 1.8 percent in Northern Virginia. Concessions shrunk regionwide in 2011. However, also affecting rents at year-end 2011 was continued economic uncertainty, contributing to lower turnover and unwillingness on the part of property managers to raise rents significantly. Still, as new, higher-end Class A units come on line in the District in 2012, pressure on the Class B market will likely mount. This could lead to downward pressure on Class B rents. Notwithstanding, District Class B mid-rise and high-rise apartments have shown greater rent growth since 2006 when compared to Class A units. Rents per square foot for Class B apartments increased 20.1 percent to $2.33 from $1.94 in 2006 while rent in Class A mid-rise and high-rise units increased 11.5 percent to $3.00 from $2.69 over the same period. In addition, within the District the spread between Class A and Class B rents compressed steadily from 2006 through 2011, albeit at a slower rate in the latter months. At year-end 2011, Class A premiums showed a slight uptick, signaling that Class A performance may exceed Class B in the period ahead. We expect to see moderating rent growth in Class B buildings during 2012 despite continued low — yet slightly increasing — vacancy in the region. Several contributing factors will keep vacancy low and rent change from turning negative. Among them are job growth that is expected to continue in 2012, high overall prices and stricter underwriting standards leaving rental housing the only alternative for an increasing number of households. Ade Opoola is an associate at Delta Associates. Staff at Delta Associates contributed to this article. For more information, please visit www.deltaassociates.com.


Amid anger over Afghan killings, U.S. faces growing public weariness about war

their overall war strategy. Their comments echoed messages they delivered this year in the aftermath of the Koran burnings, the fratricidal killings of U.S. troops by their Afghan partners and the release of an Internet video that showed Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. Given the gravity of the latest killings and the rapid sequence in which the other incidents have occurred, U.S. officials acknowledged that they didn’t know whether they could count on the same approach to work this time. A senior U.S. official said the administration is “not freaking out yet . . . but you’d have to be under a rock not to think this is the worst thing that could have happened.” “It plays to the absolute worst fears and stereotypes” Afghans hold of U.S. involvement, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s the type of boogeyman Karzai has always raised, but we’ve never had an incident like this.” A cloud over negotiations The shooting occurred just two days after the administration hailed progress on the long-delayed strategic-partnership agreement it is trying to negotiate with Karzai, a key part of U.S. military plans to retain a counterterrorism presence in Afghanistan after the final withdrawal of coalition combat troops at the end of 2014. After many months of negotiations and demands from Karzai, one of two outstanding issues was settled Friday, an agreement on the transfer of detention facilities to Afghan control. U.S. officials were optimistic that the other — whether U.S. Special Operations troops can continue conducting night raids in a bid to surprise and arrest suspected militants in their homes — would be settled by a NATO summit in May, when the alliance wants to draw up final withdrawal plans. “This makes the absolute worst case for us and our continuing involvement” in Afghanistan, the administration official said. “It’s just awful.” Overall, 60 percent of Americans believe the war has not been worth the loss in life and expense, according to the Post-ABC News poll, which was conducted Wednesday through Saturday, before Sunday’s attack in Kandahar province. There has been consistent majority opposition to the war for nearly two years. Staff writers Matthew DeLong and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report. More national security coverage: - U.S. soldier fires on Afghans; 16 dead - U.S., allies mull intervention in Syria - Al-Qaeda operations expand in Yemen - Read more national security news


Robert Griffin III: Poised to handle the pressure

him tape of star athletes who did it the right way, Olympic hurdlers and NFL quarterbacks. “The discipline the military has, the forethought, the planning, the backup planning, the after-action reviews, when I started to train Robert those are some of the tools we utilized,” Robert Jr. said. “They were expected in the military. It was part of our development as adults.” After football practice at Copperas Cove High, when other kids were relaxing, Jack Welch would watch open-mouthed as RGIII would pull a tire with his father. Then “you would see him running the road on the way back to his house, up the hills,” Welch said. By his senior year in high school, RGIII was class president and not only had earned his diploma early, he graduated seventh among his peers. “He was a scholar,” Welch said. He had also qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials as 400-meter hurdler, and was being recruited by most of the major football powers. He was a stunningly diverse talent, according to Welch. “There are some who can run awfully fast, and some who can throw awfully hard,” Welch said. “But you have not seen one as brilliant, and intelligent, and elusive. He puts all the ingredients together.” To top it off, he was a superb leader, though he exercised what Welch called a subtle “servant-type” leadership, always bringing doughnuts to his linemen and deflecting credit. Most of the schools recruiting him, however, were so in love with his sprinter’s speed that they wouldn’t promise to use him at quarterback. Instead they wanted to transform him to a receiver or running back. He discarded those, and instead committed to Art Briles and Baylor, which also had a world-class track program under director Clyde Hart, who coached sprinter Michael Johnson. “We recruited him as much for who he was as what he looked like,” Baylor track coach Todd Harbour said. He was far more than a fast athlete, Briles decided, after watching videotape with him during a recruiting visit — monitored by his mother, who sat quietly in a corner. “He’s extremely gifted athletically, with tons of natural ability,” Briles said, “but the great thing about Robert is, he’s not satisfied living on his ability. He wants to be a great technician, great from a schematic standpoint, and when you put those two together, he can be the best there is.” RGIII went


Aging DC-3s serve as ‘buses of the jungle’ in Colombia

migrated to villages, miners, store owners, even troops running down rebels — face arduous days on a river boat to get to a town of any size. Out here, the only fast, viable way to travel and move cargo is aboard the DC-3s operated by airlines with names like Air Colombia, Andean Airlines, the Airline of the Plains or Sadelca. “There’s no other way,” said Wilson Hernandez, a government technician who took Flight 1149 into the interior to oversee a construction project. “You can go by water, but that can take weeks.” Colombia, with rugged Andean peaks and narrow and poorly maintained roads, long ago spawned pioneering air travel. The national airline, Avianca, is the world’s second-oldest, founded in 1919. And these days, modern jets offer regular service to provincial capitals – just not here in the Amazon, a region whose dirt landing strips seem tailor-made for the durable DC-3. “Here they call them the buses of the jungle, or the tractors of the jungle, because we fly over everything that is jungle,” said Carlos Martinez, one of the owners of Sadelca. “These planes are 60 years old and, as you can see, they are intact. We find the parts and the pilots. And they can land on any strip, paved or not paved.” Indeed, Hans Wiesman, a Dutchman who has researched DC-3s for a book and documentary film, said Colombia probably has the biggest fleet of flying DC-3s. He attributes that, in part, to the mechanics at the airport in this region’s only city, Villavicencio, who have made a fine art of overhauling DC-3 engines. “I was totally flabbergasted to see how they worked on those engines out there,” he said. “They repair to new again.” A 1935 introduction Introduced in 1935 by the Douglas Aircraft Co., the DC-3 revolutionized air travel, offering 14-berth sleeper transports that allowed passengers to fly from New York to Los Angeles. In World War II, they transported allied troops to Normandy and operated in the heat and sandstorms of North Africa and the frigid Arctic Circle. That history was not lost on the passengers of Flight 1149 as it began a milk run — like most of the other flights in the region, on an ad hoc schedule — over the plains and into the jungle loaded with boxes of newly hatched chicks, big jugs of gasoline, a 32-inch LG television, boxes of


Putin critics oppose Jackson-Vanik trade sanction law

MOSCOW---A half-dozen Russian opposition leaders made an unusual statement Monday urging repeal of a Cold War-era trade sanction that has been defended in the United States as a means of supporting democracy and human rights here. The Obama administration has been lobbying Congress hard to repeal the trade amendment, known as Jackson-Vanik and introduced in 1974 to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. Though its sanctions have been regularly waived for years, Russia considers it an affront. The amendment will put the United States in violation of World Trade Organization rules when Russia joins in a few months, resulting in unfavorable tariffs for American companies. The opposition leaders said Jackson-Vanik provides modern dissidents no help, while giving Vladimir Putin an opening for anti-American propaganda. “It helps him to depict the United States as hostile to Russia, using outdated cold-war tools to undermine Russia’s international competitiveness,” said the statement, signed by three liberal political leaders---Vladimir Milov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Boris Nemtsov, as well as Alexei Navalny, the blogger who has helped inspire the recent anti-Putin protests. “Those who defend [Jackson-Vanik] in order to punish Putin’s anti-democratic regime only darken Russia’s political future, hamper its economic development, and frustrate its democratic aspirations,” they said. Instead, they urge the United States to target individuals who violate human rights by denying them visas or freezing assets. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during a rally to protest against alleged vote rigging in Russia's elections. (Misha Japaridze/AP) Such a proposal has been introduced by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D, Md.). The bill is named for Sergei Magnitsky, who accused tax authorities of using a fraudulent tax return to steal $230 million from the government. They had him arrested on theft charges instead. He died in pre-trial detention at the age of 37, his body bearing signs of beatings. The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday on the issue of Russia and the WTO. More world news coverage: - Cameron to reinforce ‘special relationship’ - Dozens of civilians killed in Homs - Taliban vows revenge for soldier’s rampage - Read more headlines from around the world


Bring home the troops now from Afghanistan

It was clear before Sunday’s horrific massacre of civilians that it’s past time for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan to end. Now the only question should be how quickly we can get our troops onto transport planes to fly them home. What are we accomplishing, aside from enraging the Afghan population we’re allegedly trying to protect? How are we supposed to convince them that a civilian massacre carried out by a U.S. soldier is somehow preferable to a civilian massacre carried out by the Taliban? How does it make any of us safer to have the United States military known for burning Korans and killing innocent Muslim children in their beds? The killing spree in southern Afghanistan, which left at least 16 people dead, seems to have been the work of a single deranged individual — a 38-year-old Army staff sergeant. Little about the man was known Monday except that he is married, has two children and belongs to a unit from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. The sergeant was in Kandahar province as part of a “village stability” operation. According to widely published reports, the sergeant went door to door, breaking into three houses and killing the residents in cold blood. Among the victims reportedly were nine children. The sergeant gathered some of the bodies and set fire to them. U.S. officials insisted the sergeant acted alone. Understandably, some Afghans were skeptical of that assertion and suspected the gunman must have had help. It’s not an unreasonable question: How could a soldier walk away from his unit and go on a murderous rampage without anyone noticing or trying to stop him? For the Taliban, which is competing against the U.S. military and the Afghan government for popular allegiance, the killings were a public relations gift. “If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill,” the Taliban said in a statement, “then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenseless Afghans without giving a second thought.” The U.S. image was sullied last month when soldiers at a NATO base burned a number of Korans — an act of desecration for which President Obama had to apologize. The violent reaction in Afghanistan made it reasonable to ask whether Obama’s withdrawal timetable should be speeded up. Sunday’s killings provide a definitive answer.


Mysterious ‘nodding syndrome’ affects many Ugandan children; experts seek cause

Nancy Lamwaka, 12, is often tied to a mango tree to keep her from accidentally harming herself. Seizures have diminished her mental capacity. (STRINGER/REUTERS) PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — It’s not something he likes to do. But the disease that gives the 12-year-old violent seizures has so diminished her mental capacity that she no longer talks and often wanders off. Once, she was lost in the bush for three days. “It hurts me so much to tie my own daughter to a tree . . . but because I want to save her life, I am forced to. I don’t want her to [get] loose and die in a fire, or walk and get lost in the bushes, or even drown in the nearby swamps,” he said. Nancy suffers from nodding syndrome, a disease of unknown origin and no known cure, which Ugandan authorities estimate affects more than 3,000 children in the country. Named after its seizurelike episodes of head nodding, the disease, which mostly affects children between ages 5 and 15, has killed more than 200 children in Uganda in the past three years. Thousands of children in South Sudan are also sufferers. Because the seizures are often triggered by food, children who have nodding syndrome become undernourished and mentally and physically stunted. “There is a general effect on their neurological system to the extent that some can be impaired in vision, eating and even mere recognition of their immediate environment,” said Emmanuel Tenywa, a physician and adviser in disease control for the World Health Organization in Uganda. As her father watched helplessly, Nancy cried out and began to convulse. Saliva flowed from her mouth, and her whole body shook for a few minutes until she finally went limp in the dust. Nancy has had episodes like this up to five times a day for the past eight years. “When she was talking, she would ask for food,” he said. “These days she just stretches out her hand begging for it.” Nodding syndrome was first documented in Tanzania as early as 1962. Half a century later, researchers still don’t know what it is. “We have a long list of things that are not causing nodding disease. We still don’t have a definitive cause,” said Scott Dowell, director of the division of global disease detection and emergency response of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC officials were in Uganda


food, children who have nodding syndrome become undernourished and mentally and physically stunted. “There is a general effect on their neurological system to the extent that some can be impaired in vision, eating and even mere recognition of their immediate environment,” said Emmanuel Tenywa, a physician and adviser in disease control for the World Health Organization in Uganda. As her father watched helplessly, Nancy cried out and began to convulse. Saliva flowed from her mouth, and her whole body shook for a few minutes until she finally went limp in the dust. Nancy has had episodes like this up to five times a day for the past eight years. “When she was talking, she would ask for food,” he said. “These days she just stretches out her hand begging for it.” Nodding syndrome was first documented in Tanzania as early as 1962. Half a century later, researchers still don’t know what it is. “We have a long list of things that are not causing nodding disease. We still don’t have a definitive cause,” said Scott Dowell, director of the division of global disease detection and emergency response of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC officials were in Uganda for nine days in February on the latest of three trips to investigate the disease. “We have ruled out, through our field studies and our laboratory testing, more than three different hypothesized causes including . . . 18 virus families with hundreds of members,” Dowell said. It’s a relatively rare situation for the CDC to be in: Of 600 outbreaks of illnesses investigated by Dowell’s division, just six are unresolved. The researchers do have some leads. One is a possible link with the black-fly-borne parasite that causes river blindness, or onchocerciasis. Researchers have also observed a deficiency of Vitamin B6 in the populations where the disease is prevalent. With the cause of the disease unknown, officials are focusing on treating its symptoms. CDC researchers met with Ugandan health officials to discuss how a trial of treatments would work. The trial, which could begin as early as May, will test two types of anticonvulsants as well as Vitamin B6 supplements. Some afflicted children are already on anti-epileptic drugs, with varying degrees of success. “I think everybody is in agreement that at this stage it would be good to have a much better idea about what treatments are working and if any


Journalists cite danger of concussions in sports; registry lists genetic tests

Concussions It’s not just a football problem “The Concussion Crisis,” by Linda Carroll and David Rosner Concussions are among the most serious injuries facing athletes, especially if they happen multiple times. Journalists Linda Carroll and David Rosner argue that concussions can be detrimental to athletes, particularly kids. “Thinking could be slowed, attention dulled, judgement impaired, memory muddled.” In their book, you can read about kids and professional athletes who have suffered concussions and about the scientists working to understand the long-term effects of head injuries. “What drove researchers was a need to explain the haunting stories of National Football League players who slipped into early-onset dementia before they even hit middle age.” Parents can learn what signs to look for if they suspect a concussion. The authors point out that concussions can occur in any sport, including football, soccer, cheerleadering, volleyball, gymnastics. Professional athletes may hesitate to report concussion-like symptoms if it means they’ll be pulled from a game, but Carroll and Rosner believe that the pros need to set the example for all the young players out there. — Whitney Fetterhoff disease Want to test your genes? Genetic Testing Registry, National Institutes of Health Ever thought about getting your genes checked out? A registry of genetic-test information has been launched by the National Institutes of Health. NIH says the tool is designed to clear the fog of confusion that surrounds genetic tests for disease. About 2,500 diseases can be detected by such tests, according to the NIH. The Genetic Testing Registry will provide free information about them to researchers, clinicians and curious individuals. Searching for a specific condition, for example, can bring up the genetic tests available for it. Users can then find out more about the labs that run the tests. The information will be provided voluntarily by the test providers to help people to understand which tests are available and how they work. — New Scientist


Antipsychotic drugs grow more popular for patients without mental illness

Adriane Fugh-Berman was stunned by the question: Two graduate students who had no symptoms of mental illness wondered if she thought they should take a powerful schizophrenia drug each had been prescribed to treat insomnia. “It’s a total outrage,” said Fugh-Berman, a physician who is an associate professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University. “These kids needed some basic sleep [advice], like reducing their intake of caffeine and alcohol, not a highly sedating drug.” Those Georgetown students exemplify a trend that alarms medical experts, policymakers and patient advocates: the skyrocketing increase in the off-label use of an expensive class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics. Until the past decade these 11 drugs, most approved in the 1990s, had been reserved for the approximately 3 percent of Americans with the most disabling mental illnesses, chiefly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; more recently a few have been approved to treat severe depression. But these days atypical antipsychotics — the most popular are Seroquel, Zyprexa and Abilify — are being prescribed by psychiatrists and primary-care doctors to treat a panoply of conditions for which they have not been approved, including anxiety, attention-deficit disorder, sleep difficulties, behavioral problems in toddlers and dementia. These new drugs account for more than 90 percent of the market and have eclipsed an older generation of antipsychotics. Two recent reports have found that youths in foster care, some less than a year old, are taking more psychotropic drugs than other children, including those with the severest forms of mental illness. In 2010 antipsychotic drugs racked up more than $16 billion in sales, according to IMS Health, a firm that tracks drug trends for the health-care industry. For the past three years they have ranked near or at the top of the best-selling classes of drugs, outstripping antidepressants and sometimes cholesterol medicines. A study published last year found that off-label antipsychotic prescriptions doubled between 1995 and 2008, from 4.4 million to 9 million. And a recent report by pharmacy benefits manager Medco estimated that the prevalence of the drugs’ use among adults ballooned more than 169 percent between 2001 and 2010. Critics say the popularity of atypical antipsychotics reflects a combination of hype that the expensive medicines, which can cost $500 per month, are safer than the earlier generation of drugs; hope that they will work for a variety of ailments when other treatments have not; and aggressive marketing by drug companiesto doctors


Military searches soldier’s records for clues in killings of Afghan civilians

Military investigators were combing through a U.S. Army sergeant’s personnel and medical records Monday to determine what might have caused him to slip away from his base in southern Afghanistan and allegedly massacre 16 sleeping villagers, most of them women and children, in the black of night. U.S. commanders said they think the shooter acted alone in Sunday’s rampage in the rural Panjwai district of Kandahar province. But they were struggling to deduce a motive for the attack, which has prompted outrage among Afghan officials and inflamed an already strained relationship between Washington and Kabul. The suspect, a trained sniper, received a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury after sustaining a head injury in Iraq during a vehicle rollover in 2010, two U.S. military officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the case. The soldier was subsequently declared fit for duty, the officials said. Other U.S. military officials said they were working quickly to build a case against the suspect but declined to identify him until charges could be filed. They described him as a married, 38-year-old staff sergeant with two children who joined the Army 11 years ago. They said he had served three tours of duty in Iraq and deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December. “The evidence at this point, both in terms of observations and reports and interviews, leads us to believe that he acted as an individual,” Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told CNN. “We’re going to do a thorough investigation. We’re going to hold this individual accountable.” Under military law, the shooter, if convicted, could face the death penalty. U.S. officials said the soldier abruptly walked off a combat outpost about 3 a.m. Sunday local time. Allen said that an Afghan soldier standing watch reported the unauthorized departure but that others on the base could not mobilize quickly enough to track down the missing American before the attack, the deadliest on civilians by a U.S. service member during the decade-long Afghanistan war. “There was a head count done amongst the American soldiers; [they] recognized that he was missing, unaccounted for,” Allen said. “We put together a search party right away, and it was as that search party was forming that we began to have indications of the outcome of his departure.” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the


U.S. to challenge China’s curbs on mineral exports; China says it will push back

The Obama administration filed a trade complaint on Tuesday asking China to loosen its restrictions on exports of rare-earth minerals — materials essential to the manufacture of a wide range of products, from missiles and computers to car batteries and cellphones. In an appearance at the White House Rose Garden, President Obama announced that the United States has asked the World Trade Organization to facilitate formal consultations with China over its limits on rare-earth exports, in a case filed jointly with Japan and the European Union. Officials in Beijing said Tuesday that China will vigorously defend its right to control the export of such materials. The official state-run news agency, Xinhua, warned that any U.S. move to lodge a trade complaint over the issue would “backfire.” In choosing to make a stand, U.S. officials are highlighting an industry over which China has a near-monopoly. The country now produces more than 95 percent of the world’s rare-earth minerals, which are used in almost all advanced industrial products, from helicopter blades to solar panels to the batteries in electric cars to flat-screen televisions. And China has shown in recent years that it is not afraid to use its dominance in the crucial market as a cudgel. In 2010, during a territorial dispute with Japan, the Chinese government halted the shipment of anything containing so-called “rare-earths” to Japan, causing a temporary panic among electronics manufacturers. China has only about 30 percent of the world’s known rare-earths deposits. But other countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, stopped mining more than a decade ago, because the price of the Chinese-produced rare earths was cheaper. “If China would simply let the market work on its own, we’d have no objections,” Obama said during his remarks. “But their policies currently are preventing that from happening. And they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow.” Obama added: “Being able to manufacture advanced batteries and hybrid cars in America is too important for us to stand by and do nothing. We’ve got to take control of our energy future, and we can’t let that energy industry take root in some other country because they were allowed to break the rules.” Global buyers were rattled in 2009 when the Beijing government announced it was setting a quota on rare-earths exports, ostensibly to protect the environment and stop over-mining. Critics saw the move as an attempt


Afghan support for U.S. pullout grows after killing rampage, attack on delegation

city of Jalalabad on Tuesday to demand that the U.S. soldier held in the Sunday shootings be tried in an Afghan court. In Kandahar city, hundreds of students attended a memorial for the victims, and many called for the prompt prosecution of the soldier. “He has to be punished,” said Hazrat Mir Totakhil, the dean of Kandahar University. “That was the demand of the students.” The type of riots and protests that followed the burning of the Korans would be counterproductive in this case, Totakhil said, because “the enemy would take advantage of that.” Seeking to capitalize on the anger at the shootings, the Taliban on Tuesday issued its third and most detailed statement on the incident, threatening to behead foreign “murderous sadistic troops in every corner of the country.” The statement said that residents of Kandahar have not reacted more viscerally and violently to the killings because local officials co-opted by the U.S. government have told them to stand down. “They have banned the courageous people of Kandahar and the country from taking to the streets,” the statement said, calling that “rubbing salt on the victim’s wounds.” The Koran burning triggered a week-long spate of riots and prompted members of the Afghan security forces to fatally shoot a handful of U.S. soldiers. The reaction to the killings Sunday has been more subdued because the desecration of Korans is seen as an affront to Muslims worldwide and because the loss of civilian life at the hands of foreign troops has become somewhat routine, Afghans said in interviews. “The burning of the Korans was more important because it targeted the foundation of our religion,” said Mawlavi Qiyamuddin Kashaf, head of Afghanistan’s Ulema Council, an assembly of religious scholars. The council condemned the killings in a statement Tuesday in which it called for an end to night raids by foreign troops on the homes of suspected insurgents. “Those who consider themselves as the upholders of human rights in the 21st century once again committed a barbaric, inhumane, shameful deed,” said the council, which is seen as closely allied with Karzai’s government. “If this is repeated again, it will be difficult to control people’s sentiments and prevent a general uproar” against foreign troops. Members of Afghanistan’s Senate echoed that sentiment. Instead of holding sessions inside parliament, lawmakers stood outside on the snow-covered pavement in silent protest of the killings. “We don’t know anymore


In Spike Gjerde’s world

to source ingredients from the same community that would be their clientele. In fact, the growers and purveyors who dine at the restaurant are treated to a 50 percent discount. “The growers are our rock stars,” says the chef. After a rocky start in the fall of 2007 and winter of 2008, Gjerde hit upon a local sourcing model that worked. He expanded his network of growers, actively seeking out new ones to grow specific ingredients. He increased his kitchen work force — now at a total of 28 — so they could preserve large amounts of seasonal produce for year-round use and perform whole-animal butchery. “This allows us to work much more closely with small farms that produce sporadically. We can take the whole animal and use every single part of it, because we have to. It’s precious,” says Gjerde. It also means that certain cuts are limited, requiring menu changes throughout any busy night. A pork skirt steak, for example, might get switched to some other muscle during service; the nightly steak offering is listed generically as Tavern Steak. Buying produce in bulk and whole animals allows Gjerde to maintain a 28 to 30 percent food cost, which is good for a fine-dining restaurant and compensates for Woodberry’s higher-than-average labor cost. At a managers’ meeting in mid-February, chef de cuisine George Marsh went over the stats for the yield of an 898-pound Liberty Delight steer. About a quarter of the animal was unusable, but that represents tremendous savings. Whole animals cost much less than parts — say, $2.85 per pound instead of $4.50 — and can be butchered in a way that yields many more sellable cuts of meat. The result: lower cost, higher yield. The chef’s eyes light up when he talks about the local products he loves to promote, especially Chesapeake Bay bounty such as yellow perch, oysters and rockfish, or the 17 country hams and 300 pounds of Woodberry Kitchen lardo and pancetta hanging in a farmer’s smokehouse. On an insider’s tour of the restaurant, he points out organic spelt flour from Small Valley Mill in Pennsylvania, stone-ground whole-wheat flour from Yeehaw Farm and tins of espelette powder made from peppers two local growers supply. Gjerde is a pepper freak. While researching them, he found references to the fish pepper, a variety widely used in Chesapeake Bay area cooking in the 1800s that had become


Recommendations

in Virginia at Arrowine in Arlington, Chain Bridge Cellars in McLean, River City Cellars in Richmond, Tastings in Charlottesville, Unwined in Alexandria and Belleview; on the list at Bastille in Alexandria, Mediterranee in Great Falls. Marc Bredif Vouvray 2009 ★★★ Loire Valley, France, $24 More substantial than most wines from Vouvray, this carries more weight and intensity. Definitely a wine to pair with richer foods. Republic National: Available in the District at S&S Liquors, Safeway in Georgetown, Trader Joe’s; on the list at Chef Geoff’s. Domaine du Clos de l’Epinay Vouvray Demi-Sec 2009 ★★1 / 2 Loire Valley, France $16 Demi-sec designates some residual sweetness in the wine, but don’t think of this as sweet. The sugar is deftly balanced by the fruit and graced with a subtle mineral quality. This wine could stand alone before a meal, but I’d recommend it with mildly spiced Asian foods or composed salads. Dionysus: Available in the District at Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits, and Whole Foods Markets P Street, Tenleytown and Foggy Bottom; on the list at Bombay Club and Brasserie Beck. Available in Maryland at Balducci’s, Bradley Food & Beverage and Capital Beer & Wine in Bethesda; Finewine.com in Gaithersburg; Frederick Wine House; Rodman’s in Wheaton and White Flint. On the list at Raku in Bethesda. Available in Virginia at Balducci’s in McLean and Alexandria; Wine Cabinet in Reston; Whole Foods Markets in Alexandria, Arlington, Fair Lakes and Charlottesville. Charles Bove Vouvray 2010 ★★ Loire Valley, France $16 This wine will benefit from a few more months in the bottle to help the flavors integrate, but there is appealing apricot and peach, with a tart beginning and a touch of sweetness on the finish. Vintage 59/Country Vintner: Available in the District at Morris Miller Wine & Liquor and Rodman’s; on the list at Hank’s Oyster Bar. Available in Maryland at Georgetown Square Beer & Wine in Bethesda, I.M. Wine in Fulton, Roots Market in Olney; on the list at Founding Farmers in Potomac. Jean Dumont Vouvray 2010 ★★ Loire Valley, France, $13 Although not labeled “sec,” this is one of the drier Vouvrays I have tasted, and it adds an appealing citrusy note of orange peel to the usual orchard in a glass. J.W. Sieg: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits; on the list at Bistrot Lepic, Busboys & Poets Fifth Street NW, PS 7’s, Sax, Vidalia,


Beer Madness, Round 1: Our panel goes straight to Helles

Church Key manager Brett Weinrieb serves another round of beer samples during the Washington Post's annual Beer Madness which takes place at Church Key. (Astrid Riecken/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) For the opening bout of Beer Madness, our host Greg Engert, beer director of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, took great pains to arrange matchups between beers that were stylistically similar: pils vs. pils, IPA vs. IPA, and so on. But surprisingly few of the contests were close. Typically, our judging panel ganged up on one of the beers, sending it down the drain by a 6-3, 7-2 or 8-1 vote. There were no unanimous decisions. In the Crisp category, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) flip-flopped, as is a politician’s prerogative, switching his initial vote for Bell’s Lager to Fordham Helles Lager . Six of his fellow tasters agreed, with Halley Fehner praising the Helles for its “slightly floral, honeydew” taste and Palena pastry chef Agnes Chin designating it her “game-day beer with salty snacks.” But our outspoken sommelier Kathryn Bangs opted for Bell’s, finding the Helles past its prime (“smells like a frat house the morning after a kegger”). Bangs was once again in the minority in choosing Small Craft Warning Uber Pils (“delicious, rich, honey butter and champagne”) over Sword Swallower . Mixologist Gina Chersevani concurred, panning Sword Swallower for resembling “oversteeped Lipton iced tea.” But the panel, by a 6-3 vote, gave the sideshow-themed imperial pils the nod for its floral and fruity notes and caramel malt richness. The Fruit and Spice category included some of the round’s most diverse beers, as well as some of the closest contests. Saison Rue edged Rayon Vert, 5-4, in a battle of the saisons, and the kaffir lime and lemon grass-flavored Siamese Twin narrowly defeated the strong, dark and fruity Three Philosophers by an identical score. “Tastes like the ginseng-ginger-date tea my grandfather used to drink,” Chin wrote approvingly of the Siamese Twin. Greg Engert, Beer Director of the Neighborhood Restaurant group, breaks down the judging process for Washington Post Beer Madness 2012. Last year’s champion, Flying Fish Brewing’s Exit 4, survived, besting Brooklyn Brewery’s Sorachi Ace, 6-3. Chersevani picked up “green pear” and “banana peels,” while Bangs was reminded of the Japanese citrus fruit yuzu. In a battle of the hometown brews, DC Brau’s hoppy pale ale the Public upended New River Pale Ale from Lost Rhino Brewing, 7-2. Chersevani couldn’t scribble


The cost of U.S. soldiers fighting battles endlessly

Robert H. Scales, a retired U.S. Army major general and former commandant of the Army War College, is president of the consulting firm Colgen. I guess I knew it would eventually come down to this: Blame the Army’s institutions in some way for the horrific and senseless slaughter of 16 innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar, allegedly by a U.S. infantry non-commissioned officer (NCO). In their search for a villain, the media seems to be focusing now on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, where the accused soldier was stationed before his fourth deployment to a combat zone. Before we get too involved in attacking institutions, perhaps it might be right and proper to suggest that the underlying issue here is not about failure of our Army. Perhaps the issue might be that no institutional effort can make up for trying over the past 10 years to fight too many wars with too few soldiers? The accused NCO is an infantryman. Two weeks ago I talked with infantry soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., and I couldn’t help contrasting them with those of my generation of Vietnam veterans. What caught my attention were the soldiers’ amazing stories of patient, selfless, introversive commitment. First I took to heart the enormous disparity in stressful, extreme experiences between the infantry and other branches and services that have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The senior NCOs I spoke to all had at least three, and in some cases five, tours, virtually all in close combat units. Contrast this with returning Vietnam NCOs and junior officers, most of whom in that era had only one tour in Vietnam. Of course infantry combat in Vietnam was perhaps more intense, but close fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan was more pervasive and lasting, thus more likely to cause personal trauma in my mind. The infantrymen I spoke to at Fort Benning were different from those in my generation. They were more emotionally exhausted and drained, less spontaneous and humorless. My generation of professionals spent a great deal of time on Friday nights at the officer’s club, talking over a beer about the Catch-22 nature of Vietnam and many of the stupid and hilarious experiences we endured. None of this at Benning today. No clubs, no public displays of hilarity and certainly no beer. These guys seemed to view their time in combat as endless and repetitive. My sense is


Fraud investigation targets recruiting program for Army National Guard, Reserves

A recruitment campaign to boost the Army National Guard and Reserve at a difficult time in Iraq and Afghanistan is the focus of a wide-ranging Pentagon fraud investigation, including allegations of kickback schemes involving military personnel, internal documents show. The alleged fraud involves programs that paid $2,000 bounties to soldiers or civilians who signed up as “recruiting assistants” and brought in new enlistees. Investigators have found evidence that recruiters for the Guard and Reserve who were not eligible for the bounties worked with some recruiting assistants to secretly secure and split up the money. More than 1,700 recruiters and hundreds of recruiting assistants are under scrutiny for $92 million in potentially fraudulent transactions — more than a quarter of all the bounty money paid, according to an internal Army Audit Agency document. Investigators have found that dozens of the recruiters apparently shared bank accounts with individuals who received bounties. Faced with a report on the abuses, Army Secretary John McHugh canceled the programs and ordered a probe of “systemic weaknesses and shortfalls, some of a potentially criminal nature,” according to an internal memo signed by McHugh on Feb. 9. In response to questions from The Washington Post, an Army spokesman said the investigation is ongoing. “If additional allegations of criminal conduct are found, the Army will take appropriate action,” spokesman George Wright said. “Because of the sensitivity of the criminal investigation, providing any further details or comment would be inappropriate.” The Recruiting Assistance Programs, launched in 2005, were billed as an innovative way to supplement active-duty units strained by the demands of the two wars. At the time, tens of thousands of servicemen and women were required to serve extended tours of duty because of the shortfall of troops to relieve them. The campaign offered bounties of up to $2,000 per recruit to soldiers or civilians who referred enlistees to the Guard or Reserve. Pentagon investigators started hearing allegations that some recruiters for the Guard and Reserve were taking advantage of the program. Over the past several years, investigators have opened at least 17 criminal cases and have called for a broader audit. A subsequent Army Audit Agency investigation showed that more than a quarter of the $339 million in bounties paid over the past six years “were at risk for fraud,” according to an audit briefing given to McHugh on Feb. 2. The transactions involved at least 1,706 recruiters


Afghan shootings refocus attention on Fort Lewis-McChord

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — He said that he doesn’t want police shooting troops but that he fears the risk of such deadly encounters is growing. “We are having more and more issues with the military — suicides, domestic violence, DUIs, malicious mischief,” Bulman said. “They are trying to deal with issues unsuccessfully, and so they end up getting into trouble. But the situation can escalate if they are not treated properly.” Lewis-McChord, an Army and Air Force installation south of Tacoma, is the largest military base on the West Coast, and thousands of service members from here have been deployed, often repeatedly, to Iraq and Afghanistan. The consequences of those tours are being felt both on distant battlefields and in the communities that surround the base, according to activists who work with veterans. Confrontations with the police and criminal activity off the base are on the rise, and the legacy of battle is to blame, they say. PTSD “is a chronic problem, and it’s been growing for 10 years,” said Stephen Kubiszewski, who co-founded PTSD Anonymous, which meets at a chapel at Lewis-McChord. The 38-year-old soldier who is alleged to have killed 16 civilians over the weekend in southern Afghanistan was based at Lewis-McChord. Officials have said he had a traumatic brain injury in 2010 while in Iraq but was deemed fit for duty. It remains unclear what prompted the shootings or whether anything in the suspect’s medical history could have led to his alleged actions. But the disclosure this week that he was from Lewis-McChord has refocused attention on trouble at the base, where a string of high-profile incidents had already raised questions about the scale of the mental health problems here and how the military is responding. Last year, four members of a platoon from the base’s 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division were convicted for their roles in a self-described “kill team” that murdered three unarmed Afghan civilians. Two soldiers have been accused of waterboarding their children — one because the child couldn’t recite his ABCs and another because his foster son wet his bed. A 24-year-old Iraq war veteran fatally shot a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park. In April, David Stewart, 38, a decorated combat medic with two tours in Iraq, killed himself after leading police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 near Tumwater. His wife, 38, who had been shot in the head, was


found in the car beside him. Their 5-year-old son was found dead at their home. And on Tuesday, a lieutenant colonel at the base was charged with felony harassment in connection with allegedly threatening to kill his wife, with whom he is going through a divorce, and his superior officer. At least 12 suicides have been recorded in the past year among Lewis-McChord soldiers, and more than 60 since 2001, activists say. “The problem of suicide is very severe,” said Rod Wittmier, program director of the National Alliance to End Veteran Suicide. “And we don’t understand the full dimensions of what is going on.” The Madigan Army Medical Center at the base is under a wide-ranging investigation following allegations that a special psychiatric team altered staff clinicians’ diagnoses for hundreds of soldiers from PTSD to lesser conditions. Fourteen soldiers who complained early this year that their PTSD diagnoses were unfairly changed were flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington for reevaluation. Last month, six of them had their PTSD diagnoses reinstated. Soon after the reevaluations, Juliana Ellis-Billingsley, a leader of the forensic psychiatry unit that is accused, resigned. “I find that I can no longer work in a system that requires me to sacrifice my professional and moral principles to political expediency,” Ellis-Billingsley wrote in her Feb. 23 resignation letter. The Army’s preliminary review last month found that more than 280 additional soldiers evaluated at Madigan since 2007 had their diagnoses altered to less serious conditions, often adjustment disorders that receive fewer disability benefits. Col. Dallas Homas, who heads the center, and William Keppler, a mental health chief at the hospital, were placed on administrative leave while the investigation continues. The most dramatic evidence in the case, according to a congressional source who was briefed on it, is a PowerPoint presentation that Keppler offered to psychiatric and medical staff members. It emphasized that each soldier who receives a PTSD diagnosis costs the military $1.5 million over his or her lifetime in health benefits and pension payments. Keppler referred calls about the case to military spokesmen, who referred questions to the Army surgeon general. Ellis-Billingsley did not respond to calls to her home seeking comment. Nationwide, traumatic brain injuries among service members have been steadily rising each year since 2000, with 11,000 confirmed cases reported that year and 30,000 reported in 2011, according to the Defense and Veterans