Dodgers Pound Cubs, 12-2, for Third Straight Win

Abstract: Juan Uribe hit a two-run homer, Andre Ethier extended his major-league-best hitting streak to 19 games and the surging Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cubs , 12-2, on Friday in Chicago. The Dodgers have won five of six, including three straight since Major League Baseball announced that it would take control of the team. Uribe also had a run-scoring single in the Dodgers’ six-run third inning, their biggest inning of the season, and a sacrifice fly in the sixth, giving him nine runs batted in in his last three games and 12 over all. Commissioner Bud Selig told the Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on Wednesday that he would appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business. The Dodgers have been consumed by infighting since McCourt’s wife, Jamie, filed for divorce in October 2009, one week after her husband fired her as the team’s chief executive. Before the game, General Manager Ned Colletti said he was operating under the same budgetary guidelines he had before Selig’s announcement and said he would report to Frank McCourt until Selig appointed an administrator. Colletti talked with a league official Thursday but declined to identify the person. Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, told The Associated Press that in recent days Colletti had been in contact with multiple people with the commissioner’s office, including Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations. MARLINS 4, ROCKIES 1 Anibal Sanchez of host Florida took a no-hitter into the ninth before giving up a broken-bat leadoff single to Colorado’s Dexter Fowler. Sanchez (1-1) walked three and allowed an unearned run in the first inning. On Sanchez’s 116th pitch, Fowler singled to right. “That was my best swing of the night,” Fowler said. “But he blew my bat up.” As a rookie, Sanchez threw a no-hitter against Arizona in September 2006. BREWERS 14, ASTROS 7 Ryan Braun hit a go-ahead three-run homer in his first game since signing a five-year, $105 million extension with host Milwaukee. Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo hit a solo home run, and Carlos Gomez added a three-run shot. The run support masked a so-so performance by Gallardo (2-1), who gave up four runs in six innings. He has given up 15 runs in his last 161/3 innings. BLUE JAYS 6, RAYS 4 John McDonald ended the game in the bottom of the 11th with a two-run homer off Adam Russell, his first homer of the season. RANGERS 11, ROYALS 6 Home runs by Mike Napoli, Ian Kinsler, David Murphy, Adrian Beltre and Mitch Moreland helped host Texas overpower Kansas City. TIGERS 9, WHITE SOX 3 Ryan Raburn drove in four runs as host Detroit sent Chicago to its eighth loss in nine games. White Sox starter Mark Buehrle (1-2) allowed six runs in five and two-thirds innings. TWINS ACHING Before the Twins’ home game against Cleveland was rained out, Minnesota planned to take the field without first baseman Justin Morneau, who has been out since Saturday with a stomach virus, and outfielder Delmon Young, who has been out since Monday with sore ribs. Morneau also had a shot to relieve neck inflammation. DOWNS BACK ON D.L. The Los Angeles Angels placed reliever Scott Downs on the 15-day disabled list because of a gastrointestinal virus caused by food poisoning. Downs opened the season on the D.L. with a broken toe and has pitched in two games. RAIN, RAIN Rainouts of the Twins-Indians game, the Yankees-Orioles game in Baltimore and the Nationals-Pirates game in Pittsburgh were the 13th, 14th and 15th postponements this season, just six shy of the 2010 total, according to Stats L.L.C. AROUND THE MAJORS Cincinnati Reds third baseman Scott Rolen had two cortisone injections to relieve pain and stiffness in his left shoulder and neck and was not in the lineup against the Cardinals in St. Louis. ... The Pittsburgh Pirates claimed infielder Brandon Wood off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels. ... The former Royals outfielder Brian McRae was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Overland Park, Kan., a Kansas City suburb.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Baseball
Chicago Cubs
Uribe Juan


Senate Republicans Take Steps to Avert a Government Shutdown

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday took the first steps to avert a government shutdown by scheduling a vote on a temporary spending measure that would keep agencies functioning through Dec. 11. The move marked an important breakthrough, even though Democrats were certain to block the spending bill because of a provision cutting off federal financing for Planned Parenthood . Ultimately, the Planned Parenthood provision, prompted by the controversy over the use of aborted fetuses in medical research, is expected to be dropped from the Senate’s spending bill. That would allow the underlying legislation to move forward with bipartisan support and set up a larger showdown over spending between Republican leaders and President Obama later this fall. Still, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, urged Democrats to adopt the measure and accused them of pushing the country to the brink of a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, in a bid to strong-arm Republicans into accepting spending increases. “They think it’s the only way to force America to accept their demands for more debt and more bureaucracy,” Mr. McConnell said. “But that’s not what Americans want. Americans want Democrats to now work with us responsibly to help our country get out of the situation that they, in fact, have engineered.” As for Planned Parenthood, Mr. McConnell said the group would lose financing for one year, while $235 million in savings would be redirected to community health clinics. The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, complained that Republicans were wasting time. “This vote on Planned Parenthood this Thursday is another rerun vote,” he said, adding, “How many times does the Republican leader need to return to this same show vote?” The spending fight is the latest in an increasingly tense stalemate between the most conservative wing of the House and Republican leaders in both chambers who wish to keep the wheels of government churning through the next election, and who fear that a shutdown would hurt the chances of electing a Republican to the White House next year. Abortion has become a flash point in Congress in recent months. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans failed to advance a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, legislation the House has approved . The fight has posed the greatest threat yet to John A. Boehner’s leadership as House speaker, with some Republicans saying they will try to oust him if Planned Parenthood does not lose its funding. Other members of the House leadership have played down that possibility. If stripped of the Planned Parenthood language, the Senate spending measure will probably win approval in the House with support from Democrats. But House Republican leaders are trying to convince reluctant members that the issue of Planned Parenthood funding is not urgent because the group has received all of its appropriated funding for the year and would not be receiving new funds until April. Some Republicans are hoping this will be enough to keep some of their colleagues from demanding a vote to take away money from Planned Parenthood. “I don’t think the folks that are demanding this realize that all the money that would go to the groups has already been disbursed,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma. “History teaches us that is a very counterproductive tactic to pursue.” Which States Restrict Abortion After a Certain Point in Pregnancy Forty-three states have enacted laws banning abortion at different stages of pregnancy. He added: “I have a 100 percent pro life record. I just don’t think we should be involved in this.” Not every member buys that line of reasoning. “No thanks,” said Representative Mick Mulvaney, Republican of South Carolina. “I think the last thing we need is more smoke and mirrors.” By getting the procedural gears turning on Tuesday, Mr. McConnell effectively cut off the possibility that Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate, could single-handedly force at least a short-term shutdown. Mr. Cruz, a primary force in the fight that led to a government shutdown in 2013, has been threatening to block any spending measure that included continued financing for Planned Parenthood, a position that he reiterated in a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday. Senate aides cautioned that while Mr. McConnell had initiated a process that would avert a shutdown before the close of the fiscal year, there was no guarantee that the House would be willing to simply follow the Senate’s path. Mr. McConnell will be helped by the fact that Mr. Cruz’s Senate colleagues showed little interest in joining what many described as a futile effort, given opposition by Senate Democrats and President Obama. “I don’t know what Senator Cruz is trying to accomplish,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who is also a presidential contender. “No one has convinced me that there is a way to defund Planned Parenthood with President Obama in power. And the one thing I will say is the last time we followed Senator Cruz’s lead in shutting down the government, it blew up in our face. One kick of a mule is usually enough.” Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, voiced similar frustration in a letter to Mr. Cruz last week in which she accused him of urging Republicans to engage in an unwinnable fight. In a new twist, some House Republicans have turned their attention to their Senate Republican colleagues, who say that they could pass a spending bill to defund the abortion provider immediately if only Senate Republicans would change their rule and end the filibuster — removing the need for 60 votes to get to legislation. Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the majority leader, said last week, that “If the Senate would simply change a rule,” then Congress could pass a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Most Senate Republican rejected that idea, particularly concerned that if Democrats were able to regain control of the chamber in 2016, they could then pass their agenda with a simple majority vote. “House conservatives should be the most interested members in Congress of keeping the Senate filibuster,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, who is a strong defender of Senate rules. “Because without it and with Hillary Clinton, Democratic majorities could abolish all the right-to-work laws, raise taxes, have more gun control, fewer abortion restrictions and make every city a sanctuary city.” The temporary spending measure would finance the government at a rate roughly equivalent to $1.02 trillion annually, complying with discretionary spending limits for 2016 that were previously agreed to by Republicans and Democrats. It includes several adjustments for new or emergency programs, including $700 million for fighting wildfires and financing to ease a backlog of disability claims by veterans. The measure also includes provisions to address increased demand for federal loans to private businesses through the Small Business Administration, and to prevent any delay in the launch of the joint polar satellite, a joint project of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Senate
Republicans
Democrats
Planned Parenthood
Abortion
Congress
Federal Budget


Islanders Put Subway Horn Out of Service

Abstract: After its debut was immediately and broadly criticized following just one Islanders goal, the subway horn experiment at Barclays Center is over. When the Islanders open their first season in Brooklyn on Oct. 9 against the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, fans will hear the celebratory sounds familiar from Nassau Coliseum: a fog horn blast followed by the “Yes! Yes! Yes!” chant. “We’re not afraid to change course if it makes sense and if the fans feel very strongly about something,” the Barclays Center chief executive Brett Yormark said. “We are all about the fans. We want the fans to feel welcome.” The subway horns — two groups of three trumpetlike horns mounted above opposite sides of the arena facing center ice — were the product of a partnership between Barclays Center and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Three blasts were heard by a sparse crowd on Monday night after Kirill Petrov scored with less than two minutes left in a dull 3-1 preseason loss to the Washington Capitals. Islanders followers instantly flocked to social media and various blogs with waves of vitriolic posts. A petition was started on Change.org , and the hashtag #KeepOurGoalHorn gained traction on Twitter. “One thing Islanders fans love is our goal horn, and we do not want it to change,” the petition introduction said. “It is a part of our tradition, and we do not want to lose it.” Yormark said: “If there was that much outcry, we decided, ‘Let’s continue to listen to the fans and make the change.’ The horn became a distraction.” The subway sound devices were from the R160 class of trains, which are among the types that serve routes running to Barclays. Yormark wanted to include a subway element as part of the hockey experience at Barclays to help give games a city flavor.

Islanders
Brooklyn
Ice hockey
Barclays Center Brooklyn NY


Executive Pleads Guilty in Galleon Case

Abstract: Mark Kurland, a former senior executive at a hedge fund based in New York who was accused of insider trading in the Galleon Group case, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of securities fraud. Mr. Kurland, 61, who worked at New Castle Funds, told Judge Ronald Ellis in Federal District Court in Manhattan that he knew what he was doing was wrong. He agreed to forfeit $900,000 in ill-gotten gains from an insider-trading scheme and said he would not challenge a sentence of 30 to 37 months in prison. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. Mr. Kurland’s guilty plea had been expected. Prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office said Tuesday that Mr. Kurland, who was arrested in October with Galleon’s founder, Raj Rajaratnam , had waived an indictment. But his lawyer, Patrick Smith, told reporters after the hearing that Mr. Kurland had decided not to cooperate with investigators despite his guilty plea. Other defendants are expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, although not all will be cooperating with prosecutors. Of the 21 people charged so far, seven are assisting in the investigation after pleading guilty. Mr. Kurland has been accused of conspiring with Danielle Chiesi to trade stocks based on secret corporate information. Ms. Chiesi, who also worked at New Castle, was indicted this month with Mr. Rajaratnam on securities fraud and conspiracy charges. Both have pleaded not guilty. Mr. Kurland was Ms. Chiesi’s supervisor at New Castle. They had previously worked at Bear Stearns, which had owned New Castle.

Insider Trading
Galleon Group
Securities and Commodities Violations
Rajaratnam Raj
Kurland Mark


New York Archdiocese to Close 27 Schools

Abstract: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced on Tuesday that 26 elementary schools and one high school that had received heavy subsidies in recent years because of declining enrollment would be closed at the end of the current school year. The announcement capped a two-year review process and represented the largest school consolidation in the history of the archdiocese, which includes 2.5 million Catholics in a sprawling territory stretching from Staten Island to Sullivan County. Among the schools to be shut, six are in the Bronx, four are on Staten Island and three are in Manhattan. Timothy J. McNiff, the archdiocese’s superintendent of schools, said in a statement that schools were chosen for closing because of declining enrollment and money. The 27 schools marked for closing received subsidies totaling $10 million this year. By comparison, the remaining 189 parochial schools in the archdiocese received a total of $13 million in subsidies, Joseph Zwilling, the archdiocesan spokesman, said. Most parochial schools depend on tuition, which ranges from $3,000 to $6,000 per pupil, and the support of the members of the parish in which they are located, as their main sources of financing. As part of its Pathways to Excellence reconfiguration of schools, the archdiocese plans to shift some of that burden from individual parishes to clusters of two or more parishes. The archdiocese has promised to find places in other parochial schools for all of the roughly 4,700 students affected by the closings. The announcement contained good news for 5 schools among the 32 identified by the archdiocese last year as “at risk” of being closed. One school in Manhattan — Good Shepherd — another in Westchester County and two in upstate counties will remain open. A decision on a fifth school, Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Midtown Manhattan, was deferred for several weeks, according to the announcement, “so that additional information can be gathered and analyzed.”

Shutdowns (Institutional)
Private and Sectarian Schools
Roman Catholic Church
New York City


Drones and Cyberattacks Renew Debate Over Secrecy

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In recent years, the United States has pioneered the use of two innovative weapons, drones and cyberattacks, that by many accounts have devastated Al Qaeda and set back Iran ’s nuclear effort. Now those programs are at the heart of a bipartisan dispute over secrecy, with Congressional Republicans accusing the Obama administration of leaking classified information for political advantage and Democrats lodging their own protests about high-level disclosures. Prompted in part by recent articles in The New York Times on the use of drones to carry out targeted killings and the deployment of the Stuxnet computer worm against the Iranian nuclear program , the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees issued a joint statement on Wednesday urging the administration “to fully, fairly and impartially investigate” the recent disclosures and vowing new legislation to crack down on leaks. “Each disclosure puts American lives at risk, makes it more difficult to recruit assets, strains the trust of our partners and threatens imminent and irreparable damage to our national security,” said the statement, a rare show of unity. The protest focused on the dangers of leaks that the Congressional leaders said would alert adversaries to American military and intelligence tactics. But secrecy, too, has a cost — one that is particularly striking in the case of drones and cyberattacks. Both weapons raise pressing legal, moral and strategic questions of the kind that, in a democracy, appear to deserve serious public scrutiny. Because of classification rules, however, neither has been the subject of open debate in Congress, even as the Obama administration has moved aggressively ahead with both programs. “The U.S. is embarked on ambitious and consequential moves that will shape the security environment for years to come, whether they succeed or fail,” said Steven Aftergood, who studies government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists . “Secrecy cloaks not only the operations, but their justification and rationale, which are legitimate subjects of public interest.” Mr. Aftergood said drones and cyberattacks were “extreme examples of programs that are widely known and yet officially classified.” That, he said, has prevented informed public discussion of some critical questions. Should the United States be inaugurating a new era of cyberattacks? What are the actual levels of civilian casualties caused by the drone attacks, and what are the implications for national sovereignty? “Keeping these programs secret may have a value,” said Jack Goldsmith , a Harvard law professor and Bush administration Justice Department official who writes about national security and the press. “But there’s another value that has to be considered, too — the benefit of transparency, accountability and public discussion.” Leaks, and the policy dilemmas and political squabbles they inspire, are as old as the country. In 1778, a disclosure by Thomas Paine that the French were secretly supporting the American revolutionaries became the subject of an investigation led by the future first chief justice, John Jay. Nor has any party held a monopoly on the complications of managing secrecy. During the Bush administration, a leak investigation led to a perjury conviction for a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney , an outspoken defender of government secrets. Even so, contradictory behavior on the secrecy front has been especially striking under the Obama administration. Mr. Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 by denouncing his predecessor’s secret prisons and brutal interrogations , which were public knowledge only because of leaks of classified information to the news media. He began his term by pledging the most transparent administration in history. In office, however, he has outdone all previous presidents in mounting criminal prosecutions over such leaks, overseeing six such cases to date, compared with three under all previous administrations combined. Senator John McCain of Arizona , Mr. Obama’s opponent in 2008, told reporters on Tuesday that administration officials were “intentionally leaking information to enhance President Obama ’s image as a tough guy for the elections” — while at the same time prosecuting low-level officials for disclosures. On Wednesday, Jay Carney , the White House press secretary, called that charge “grossly irresponsible.” The administration’s inconsistency, however, has been particularly evident on the drone program. Officials routinely give reporters limited information on strikes, usually on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Obama spoke explicitly about the strikes in Pakistan in an online appearance in January, arguing that they were precisely aimed at Al Qaeda. Yet the drone attacks in Pakistan are part of a C.I.A. covert action program designed to be “deniable” by American leaders; by law they are in the most carefully protected category of secrets that the government keeps. In court, the administration has taken the position that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such operations. “There’s something wrong with aggressive leaking and winking and nodding about the drone program, but saying in response to Freedom of Information requests that they can’t comment because the program is covert,” Mr. Goldsmith said. Recently, responding to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by The Times and the American Civil Liberties Union , Justice Department lawyers sought a delay, saying that secrecy rules about targeted killings were under discussion “at the highest level” of government. The government must say by June 20 what it will make public. Behind closed doors, administration officials have long discussed the disadvantages of official secrecy for a program that by definition is no secret from its Al Qaeda targets. Colleagues say that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has often complained that secrecy rules make it hard to rebut exaggerated claims of civilian casualties from drone attacks in Pakistan. Mr. Obama has authorized a series of speeches by his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan ; the attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr. ; and other officials, offering a limited account of the legal justification and goals of the strikes. In a speech on April 30, Mr. Brennan kept the intelligence striptease going, acknowledging that “the United States is the first nation to regularly conduct strikes using remotely piloted aircraft in an armed conflict.” More significantly, Mr. Brennan elaborated on the administration’s argument that it was using the new weapon with extraordinary care, and mentioned a particular reason: with drones, as with cyberattacks, which he did not discuss, the United States is setting an example for the rest of the world. “President Obama and those of us on his national security team are very mindful that as our nation uses this technology, we are establishing precedents that other nations may follow,” he said. The same might be said of the administration’s decisions about what to reveal about its pathbreaking programs and what to keep secret.

Drones
Classified Information
Targeted Killings
Cyberwarfare
Barack Obama
CIA
US Politics


Rare Attacks on Shiites Kill Scores in Afghanistan

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — A Pakistan-based extremist group claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated bombings aimed at Afghan Shiites on Tuesday, in what many feared was an attempt to further destabilize Afghanistan by adding a new dimension of strife to a country that, though battered by a decade of war, has been free of sectarian conflict. The attacks, among the war’s deadliest, struck three Afghan cities — Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif — almost simultaneously and killed at least 63 Shiite worshipers on Ashura, which marks the death of Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr. One of the dead in Kabul was an American man, according to the Public Health Ministry. The American Embassy confirmed that there had been an American fatality but declined to identify the victim. Targeted strikes by Sunnis against the minority Shiites are alien to Afghanistan. So it was no surprise to Afghans when responsibility was claimed by a Sunni extremist group from Pakistan, where Sunnis and Shiites have been energetically killing one another for decades. The group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi , had not previously claimed or carried out attacks in Afghanistan, however, and its emergence fueled suspicions that Al Qaeda, the Taliban or Pakistan’s spy agency — or some combination of those three — had teamed up with the group to send the message that Afghanistan’s future stability remained deeply tenuous and indeed dependent on the cooperation of outside forces. “Never in our history have there been such cruel attacks on religious observances,” said President Hamid Karzai, in a statement released by his office. “The enemies of Afghanistan do not want us to live under one roof with peace and harmony.” The timing of the attacks was especially pointed, coming a day after an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, that had been viewed as an opportunity for Afghanistan to cement long-term support from the West. But the conference fell considerably short of the objectives that officials had envisioned because Taliban insurgents and Pakistani diplomats did not attend. Pakistan pulled out of the conference as a protest over the deaths of 24 of its soldiers in an American airstrike , carried out from Afghan territory, which American officials have depicted as the result of a misunderstanding. Critics of Pakistan were quick to read Monday’s boycott and Tuesday’s bombings as a signal from the Pakistanis, delivered by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that Afghanistan could not ignore Pakistan. “Pakistan is our historical enemy and wants us to never live in peace,” said Noor Mohammad, one of the wounded worshipers, who was covered in blood minutes after the attack in Kabul. “What should we do, where should we go? The terrorists are not even letting us carry on our religious practices.” Abdul Qayou Sajadi, a Hazara member of Parliament, made similar assumptions, though he did not mention Pakistan by name. “As you know, the peace efforts by our government and the international community are going on, but some of our neighboring countries failed in this regard,” he said. “Now they are trying to divide our people along religious lines, and create another war among Afghans as they did in the past.” While members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority, mostly ethnic Hazaras, faced savage discrimination during the years of Taliban rule, they had not been singled out for attacks during the current insurgency. The actual intentions of those behind Tuesday’s attacks remained murky, however, not least because of the tangled history of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which once operated openly in Pakistan with the support of its spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, but has since been outlawed. In recent years it has struck up alliances with Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of Pakistani militants that has attacked Pakistan’s cities and security forces numerous times. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is inspired by a fundamentalist Deobandi philosophy that justifies killing Shiites because of their beliefs, and it has on several occasions attacked Americans, Christians and other Muslim minorities as well. There is no record of previous operations by the group in Afghanistan, however, so no one seriously thought Lashkar-e-Jhangvi could carry out a coordinated series of bombings in three Afghan cities without substantial support from other sources. Tuesday’s bombings aroused fears that extremists were trying to provoke a reaction like the one after the 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, which ignited two years of tit-for-tat sectarian violence. That attack was carried out by militants aligned with Al Qaeda, which also has an anti-Shiite philosophy. Shiite religious and political leaders in Afghanistan were quick to call for calm, warning that a violent response was just what the killers were trying to provoke. “Our Hazara people should be cool-headed and not react because our enemies will take advantage of that to divide our country,” said a prominent Hazara leader and Shiite cleric, Mohammad Husain Mohaqiq. The three bombings all took place around midday as Shiite devotees marched in processions to honor the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the holiest of specifically Shiite holidays. In the southern city of Kandahar a bomb on a parked motorcycle exploded and narrowly missed an Ashura procession, wounding two police officers and three passers-by, said Abdul Razaq, the Kandahar police chief. In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a suicide bomber, apparently on foot, killed four worshipers and wounded more than 20, said Sirjan Durani, a police spokesman. The deadliest attack occurred in Kabul’s crowded Murad Khani neighborhood, when a suicide bomber infiltrated a procession in front of the Abul Fazal Abbas Shrine. The powerful blast killed scores of worshipers and damaged the mosque. Many people, terrified of another attack, jumped into a nearby river, which is choked with sewage. In the processional, men had been beating their bared chests to show their sorrow at Imam Hussein’s martyrdom; some also whipped their backs with barbed chains. “The explosion took place inside the crowd,” said a wounded man, Said Zaki, 18, whose face and clothes were covered in blood. “We didn’t see who the bomber was, but he was definitely on foot. We saw 30 or 40 people on the ground missing arms and legs.” Throughout the day, the official count of the dead climbed as more and more of the nearly 200 wounded people died of horrific injuries. In one hospital, 5 infants were among 14 victims declared dead on arrival. Every hospital in Kabul, the capital, took in victims. At the Emergency Hospital, when corridors filled up with the wounded, doctors put the overflow patients in a laundry room and the dead on stretchers in the courtyard. Outside, angry and sometimes hysterical relatives tried to climb over the hospital walls, then forced their way in when doors were opened to bring in blood donors for urgently needed transfusions. Kabul’s police chief, Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, was aware of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claim, which was reported by the BBC and Radio Free Europe quoting the group’s spokesman, Qari Abubakar. But he said none of the Pakistan-based extremists could carry out operations without Taliban support. “All the militant groups have very good cooperation with the Taliban in Afghanistan, so I am sure they were aware of it,” he said. An e-mail sent to news organizations from the spokesman for the Taliban , Zabiullah Mujahid, denied responsibility. “We strongly condemn this wild and inhuman act by our enemies, who are trying to blame us and trying to divide Afghans by doing such attacks on Muslims,” the message said.

Afghanistan
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Afghanistan War (2001- )
Terrorism
Shiite Muslims
Muslims and Islam


Inter Stifles Barça to Reach Final

Abstract: The pragmatists’ final, between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, is now scheduled to close out the European soccer season in Madrid on May 22. Lovers of the Beautiful Game may need to look somewhere else on that Saturday when two teams intent on neutralizing each other play the Champions League final in the Bernabéu. If the paths leading there are any guide, it will be a meeting of minds, a collision between teams rigidly drilled that the paramount purpose is defense. Inter did that so successfully, so artfully, against Barcelona on its own field Wednesday that you could almost hear the pips squeak and José Mourinho gloat. “He was screaming, yah,” Wesley Sneijder, Inter’s Dutch player, said of his coach on television after the final whistle. “He always has a tactic to destroy the opponent, and we did that tonight.” We could all see what Mourinho was feeling. He ran onto the field, ran through the water sprinklers spraying the grass, both index fingers pointing skyward. He ran through Victor Valdés, the home goalie, who tried to stop Mourinho goading the vast bulk of Barça fans among the 96,214 spectators. Inter had lost the game, 1-0. But Mourinho said defeat never tasted so great. His triumph was to organize a team that kept the score down to a single goal, and so reached the final on 3-2 on aggregate. Seldom has a trainer projected himself so vaingloriously. But that is Mourinho. He learned tactics, and not a little hubris, from Louis van Gaal, the man who has coached a similarly styled Munich to the same pinnacle this season. The seeds van Gaal’s teaching were sown in Barcelona, a decade ago when van Gaal was head coach and Mourinho an inquisitive learner, moving up from interpreter to assistant coach. Van Gaal is Dutch. Mourinho is Portuguese. Each now employs in key roles of their midfield a Dutchman discarded by Real Madrid. This time last year, Sneijder and Arjen Robben were told they were not big enough stars for Real. Without their performances, and their goals, neither Inter nor Bayern would have reached the final which will be played in Real’s stadium. Yet Sneijder, who ignored injury to run himself to exhaustion for an hour Wednesday, was asked not what the players had done, but what Mourinho had told them to do. He tried to say the players played their part. “A big compliment to the team,” Sneijder said. “We had to defend well, be compact, fight every meter for each other. Its what we said to each other before the game, and we did it.” Yes, but, said the interviewer, how does José Mourinho do it? We know how. He selects tough, good, professional players. He imbues a group mentality, a belief that they can do what he, as a moderate player and the son of a goalie, only ever dreamed of doing. He told his Inter players that they are an aging side, and cannot have many more opportunities to capture the most coveted of all club finals. He says he told them they must leave blood on the Nou Camp field. He didn’t tell them how to stop Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández because those two have proved over the past two seasons that they are such fine team players that if they hit their rhythm there is no stopping them. Yet on Wednesday, as in the San Siro in Milan, where Inter had hit Barcelona on the break to score a fully merited 3-1 victory, the stars of Barcelona were muffled. Their own coach, Pep Guardiola, sought no excuse, and offered no deep regret at his team running out of inspiration, or out of steam. “Each coach, each team plays as they want,” Guardiola told the post-match media conference. “Okay, congratulations — they have the right to play their way.” Guardiola, still a relative novice as a coach, albeit one whose team had cleaned up the six titles from world to domestic champion it entered in 2009, is truly that sanguine a man. He might reflect that in trying to evolve Barcelona’s all-conquering team of last year he has compromised something in its core. A year ago, his team, built around comparatively little men like Messi, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, seemed impervious to sturdier opponents who couldn’t catch them, much less dismantle their flow Guardiola decided what does not change will sooner or later be stifled. He let Samuel Eto’o, his leading striker, go to Inter. He gambled that Inter’s former idol, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was a younger, taller, stronger man who could become a focal point of Barça’s attack. On Wednesday, the coach took Ibrahimovic off after an hour. By then, even with Inter’s Thiago Motta sent off for pushing a hand into the face of Sergio Busquets, Barcelona was running into a cul de sac of eight Inter players intent on nothing but defending. Barça sacrificed its wonderful spontaneity on Wednesday by trying to match up to Inter’s physicality. Guardiola’s selection of Yaya Touré, Seydou Keita and Gabriel Milito gave the team greater power and energy, but less swiftness, mobility or movement. Attack after attack, pass after pass after pass from Barça was allowed to go so far, and no further. Three excellent saves from Inter’s goalie Júlio César, a bad miss from Bojan Krkic, one superb goal from Gerard Piqué and one denied by the Belgian referee for a handball that was clearly involuntary helped Inter’s mass defense throttle Barcelona’s largely unimaginative attacks. Barcelona completed 585 passes to Inter’s 67. Xavi alone made more passes than the entire Inter team — and Barcelona possessed the ball for almost 30 minutes longer than Inter. None of that mattered. Inter clung together, resisted to the end, and without an Italian in its lineup evoked memories of the ultradefensive “catenaccio” Inter that last won Europe’s top prize 55 years ago. The Inter president then was oil baron Angelo Moratti. The president today, his son Massimo, has waited a lifetime to emulate his father’s achievement. “It is infinite happiness,” Moratti said to the club’s Web site. “For a team of 10 men to beat the world champions on their own ground shows great character, a great team, individually and as a group.”


Europe Receives Complaint About Google’s Android

Abstract: BRUSSELS — European antitrust regulators have received a formal complaint about Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, even as they move to the final stages of their inquiry into the company’s search practices. The complaint was filed by Fairsearch Europe, a group of Google’s competitors, including the mobile phone maker Nokia and the software titan Microsoft, and by other companies, like Oracle. It accuses Google of using the Android software “as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70 percent of the smartphones shipped today,” said Thomas Vinje, the lead lawyer for Fairsearch Europe, referring to Android’s share of the smartphone market. For example, phone makers that agree to use Android — and that also want Google applications like YouTube — face contractual requirements to place those applications and other Google-branded applications in prominent positions on the mobile device’s desktop, Mr. Vinje said. In an interview on Monday, the European Union’s antitrust chief, Joaquín Almunia, declined to comment on the new complaint but said officials had been examining the Android operating system independently of the two-year inquiry into whether Google had abused its dominance of Internet search. When a formal complaint like this is made, the commission must at some point decide whether to take up the case or drop it. Mr. Almunia also said that he was receiving proposals this week from Google to clear up concerns about its search practices, and that he hoped they would make it easier for Internet users to identify when Google was promoting its own services rather than those of competitors who might offer better results. “This is a new step in the investigation,” he said. A Google spokesman, Al Verney, would not specifically discuss either the new complaint or the comments by Mr. Almunia about the search case, saying only that the company continued “to work cooperatively” with the commission. The European Commission opened its antitrust inquiry into Google’s search practices in November 2010. The investigation has since focused on whether Google might have unfairly taken advantage of its market dominance by giving preference to links to its own services, like Google Maps, when answering queries; whether Google disadvantaged competitors by including material in search results that came from other Web sites; and whether Google conducts its advertising business in accord with European antitrust law. Last May the commission suggested that Google propose changes in how search results are presented as a way to settle the case. Since then, regulators and Google have been negotiating over those changes and other terms. In Monday’s interview, Mr. Almunia said Google needed to offer the commission a solution where choices between Google-branded search results and those of its competitors were clearly visible within the search engine both on desktop computers and on mobile devices. “I don’t know if you should call it labeling, or whatever, but they need to distinguish,” Mr. Almunia said. “In some cases this can be achieved through the information you will receive through the natural search results,” he said. “In other cases, maybe we will ask Google to signal what are the relevant options, alternative options, in the way they present the results.” The choice “should be a real one,” he said. Mr. Almunia said regulators were not requiring Google to make changes to its algorithm, the secret formula that the company uses to determine the best responses to search queries. In terms of the way Google uses and displays snippets of information from other Web sites in its search results, he said he expected Google to accept that other companies could choose “to allow or not to allow Google to use the content, but this decision cannot have as a consequence the punishment of those who will not allow the use of the content in terms of search results.” Web sites and some publications have complained in recent years of virtually disappearing from Google’s search engine if they posed a competitive threat or did not comply with Google’s terms. Mr. Almunia said he would test any changes that Google proposed to make by sending questionnaires to competitors, including the complainants, and to other companies. Mr. Almunia said in Europe, where Google is especially strong, with more than 90 percent of the search market, compared with about 70 percent in the United States, it is particularly difficult for search engines to establish themselves if they focus on narrow but deep services like online shopping, travel or mapping. But Mr. Almunia also said his approach in the case was not aimed at “protecting competitors,” as critics of European regulation have long complained. Mr. Almunia said that he had concerns that Google had abused its dominance to promote its own products but that he would not need to “find a final answer to this question” if Google reached a settlement. “We are concerned by the possibility of an abuse,” he said. “What is clear in our view is the market dominance of Google,” Mr. Almunia said. “This is obvious.” He also noted that “it would not be surprising” if Google faced formal charges in a case concerning Motorola Mobility, a mobile phone maker owned by Google. That case follows complaints by Microsoft and Apple that they were victims of unfair licensing conditions and abusive litigation by Motorola Mobility. The commission has taken a tougher line with Google than has the Federal Trade Commission on the issue of how Google runs its search rankings. The F.T.C. decided in January , after a 19-month inquiry into how the company operated its search engine, that Google had not broken antitrust laws.

Google
Android
European Commission
EU
Competition law
Joaquin Almunia
FairSearch.org


Baylor Wins 3rd Straight

Abstract: Pierre Jackson had a season-high 31 points, and No. 16 Baylor rallied in the second half to beat Boston College , 84-74, in the opening round of the Charleston Classic. The Bears (3-0) will face Colorado, the team they beat during last season’s N.C.A.A. run to the final eight, in Friday’s semifinal.

Boston College
Baylor University
Basketball (College)


Tensions Between Dominicans and Haitians Ease After Quake

Abstract: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Like almost anyone from Hispaniola, the island uncomfortably shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic , Paloma Rivera is acutely aware that the two nations distrust each other, complain about each other and cite grievances about each other going back well over a century. Yet here she was, a Dominican, clearing garbage and digging latrines in a slum in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, to help survivors of the earthquake find a place to pitch their tents. “Maybe this earthquake, even with its tragedies, can do some good by making us a little less distant from each other,” said Ms. Rivera, 24, a social worker who joined thousands of other Dominicans in loading emergency food and medicine into their vehicles and driving here. Since the earthquake ravaged this city on Jan. 12, a dizzying array of soldiers, doctors, aid workers and missionaries have massed here from around the globe, communicating in Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin and many other tongues. Most of the time, their politics back home have taken a back seat, making for some strange bedfellows working in close proximity, if not exactly side by side: Israelis and Libyans, Pakistanis and Indians, all trying to get this country back on its feet. In other cases, the earthquake seems to be highlighting conflicts among Haiti’s allies. Venezuela and Cuba, jockeying for influence, have criticized the United States, which has long been a major influence here, for its heavy use of soldiers in its humanitarian aid effort. “It’s worrisome that the United States is using this tragedy to militarily occupy Haiti,” President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said last week during a visit to Bolivia for the inauguration of President Evo Morales. Mr. Morales, a top recipient of Venezuelan aid, described the Obama administration’s decision to send troops to Haiti as “an invasion.” Taiwan, meanwhile, has been using its close ties with Haiti to fend off the entreaties of the Chinese government, which has been trying to win over Haiti’s president, René Préval, and convince him that his country should no longer recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. But among all the various political relationships thrown into flux, the possible metamorphosis of Haiti’s ties with the Dominican Republic stands out. Before the earthquake, Haiti’s political class viewed its neighbor to the east with extreme suspicion. The harsh treatment of Haitian immigrants by the Dominican Republic and lingering animus over a massacre of tens of thousands of Haitian laborers ordered in 1937 by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo fuel the resentment, along with a dose of envy over the relative prosperity of Haiti’s next-door neighbor. Some in the Dominican political establishment, in turn, had long gazed at Haiti with resentment over Haiti’s two-decade annexation of the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo in the 1800s. And in recent decades, the Dominican government focused on averting a major influx of Haitian immigrants, while relying on cheap Haitian labor for construction and to cut sugar cane. It would be impossible to erase all this resentment in just two weeks. But the thousands of Dominicans helping the victims here may have begun chiseling away at the divisions between the 18.6 million people almost evenly distributed across the two nations. “Our relations with Haiti will never be the same,” Pastor Vásquez, 42, a senior diplomat at the Dominican Embassy, said outside the damaged embassy building, where dozens of volunteers were staying in tents. Mr. Vásquez said the Dominican Republic had waived visa restrictions for Haitians seeking emergency medical care, authorized nearly 300 flights carrying aid and donated $11 million. One of the Dominican Republic’s most prosperous corporate families, Grupo Vicini , which has been accused of exploiting Haitian workers on sugar cane plantations in the past, has also donated millions of dollars for the recovery. While other immigration restrictions at the main border crossing remain, the countries are warily growing closer in other ways. After the earthquake, Haiti’s leaders at first resisted the idea of accepting Dominican troops to work with the United Nations force here, but then changed their minds. The decision has not been easy for the Dominican Republic either. President Leonel Fernández’s proposal to send more than 100 troops to Haiti set off a debate over what would happen if the soldiers encountered violence, with some of Mr. Fernández’s opponents saying that the proposal should be subjected to congressional approval. Political analysts also point out that the assistance is not purely altruistic. For starters, the Dominican Republic is concerned about an exodus of Haitians across the border, so it is in the its own interest to stabilize Haiti. Another interest is economic, analysts say. “The Dominican Republic may have the most to gain in the immediate future from reconstruction efforts,” said Johanna Mendelson Forman, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Its firms are poised to help with building equipment, and it has investors who have shown an interest in helping to create infrastructure,” she said in a research paper. But the work of the Dominican volunteers points to other, more idealistic motivations. Each day, they distribute food in the slum known as Delmas 54 and work on a census of the homeless. They even called the displaced-persons camp they helped create Quisqueya, a word used in both countries to refer to the indigenous origins of Hispaniola. Elisabeth Delatour Préval, Haiti’s first lady, said that when she was finally able to sign on to her computer after the earthquake, one of the first messages she received was from her Dominican counterpart, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández. “She asked me how she could help,” Mrs. Préval said, noting that their husbands had been in frequent communication since the earthquake as well. As Lorraine Mangonès, a Haitian community activist, put it, “I guess they didn’t hate us as much as we thought.”

Haiti
Dominican Republic
Humanitarian Aid
Foreign Aid
International Relations


Manufacturing in China Cools Further in June

Abstract: HONG KONG — Activity in China’s manufacturing sector continued to slow in June, two surveys showed Monday, underscoring concerns that the Chinese economy is likely to keep losing steam in the coming months. The Chinese statistics bureau released an index that showed factory activity had barely expanded in June, a month that was overshadowed by a credit crunch in the banking system. The official purchasing managers’ index came in at 50.1 points — just above the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction, and markedly below the May reading of 50.8. A separate P.M.I. survey published by the British bank HSBC produced a reading of 48.3, likewise showing a marked decline from May, when it was 49.2. The June figure was the lowest in nine months, and represented a slight downward revision from a preliminary reading released on June 20. Together, the surveys showed that a gradual slowdown that began to materialize earlier this year is continuing as the Chinese authorities — eager to wean the economy off excessive credit growth — refrain from adding stimulus. Policy makers have made it clear in recent months that they are prepared to tolerate slower growth as they seek to shift the economy away from the headlong expansion of the past few decades and toward higher-quality and more sustainable growth. A cash crunch in the commercial banking sector last month further underscored this, as Beijing took a tough stance on lending in a bid to foster more prudent banking activity. The central bank last month allowed bank-to-bank lending rates to spike to record highs, sending a stern message to the banking industry that it needs to step up risk controls and improve cash management. Although analysts said the move could be positive in the long term if it helps to instill more lending discipline, the crunch led to a big sell-off in the stock market as investors fretted about the impact that more restrictive lending could have on the already cooling economy. Lending rates have retreated somewhat over the past week, and continued to do so on Monday. The benchmark Shanghai composite index of stocks, which fell 14 percent in June, has calmed over the past few days and rose 0.8 percent on Monday. Still, the manufacturing surveys reinforced concerns that growth in China remains fragile and that this, in turn, will weigh on other emerging Asian economies. Purchasing managers’ indexes for several other Asian countries, also released by HSBC on Monday, underscored this point: The readings for Indonesia and South Korea fell in June, while the India and Taiwan indexes edged higher but remained lackluster. The recent cash crunch in China’s interbank market is likely to slow expansion of off-balance sheet lending, further exacerbating funding conditions for small and medium-size enterprises, Qu Hongbin, the chief China economist at HSBC, wrote in a commentary accompanying the release of the purchasing managers’ index. “As Beijing refrains from using stimulus, the ongoing growth slowdown is likely to continue in the coming months,” he added.


Germany Investigating Bribes at Its Embassies

Abstract: BERLIN — Public prosecutors in Berlin are investigating allegations that staff in several German embassies received substantial bribes in return for issuing visas, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. According to the ministry, local staff in German embassies in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia issued visas in exchange for money, overlooking false statements and failing to properly scrutinize the applications. Several embassy employees have already been dismissed, and investigations are continuing, the ministry said. Visas were issued through a system that was “irregular, abused and corrupt,” the ministry said. The police said Monday they suspected that human trafficking networks seeking to bring young women to work as prostitutes were being run from within Germany . “The investigations will take some time,” said a ministry official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The official did not say how many visas were issued in exchange for bribes. But in 2007, he said, the German Embassy in Cairo had used irregular means to issue several hundred visas. The number of irregular visas issued by other embassies now under investigation is thought to be lower, the official added. German embassies issue more than two million visas each year, the ministry said. Wolfgang Bosbach, a leading Christian Democrat lawmaker, called for closer cooperation between German diplomatic missions and the security services. He also proposed the establishment of a special visa database that could prevent abuse of the system, he said in interviews Monday. This is not the first scandal involving German embassy staff issuing visas in return for bribes. In 2004, when the Foreign Ministry was headed by the Greens party leader Joschka Fischer, the embassy in Kiev issued tens of thousands of visas to Ukrainians who were allowed into Germany under dubious circumstances, many entering the underground economy in Germany or passing through to gain access to other E.U. countries. The Greens, at the time the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s government, had endorsed a relaxation of Germany’s rigorous visa regime when they joined the government in 1998. Until then, the principle adopted by consular officers was that if there were any doubt about the applicant seeking a visa, then the visa should be withheld. The Greens introduced a more liberal policy under which the right to travel had more weight in such situations. Procedures were tightened after the 2004 scandal, introducing more oversight and inspections, the ministry said. The fresh revelations are an embarrassment for Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is fending off calls from senior officials inside his own Free Democratic Party to resign as leader. The Free Democrats regained control over the Foreign Ministry in late 2009, ending an eleven-year absence atop a ministry it had traditionally held as the junior partner in the conservative bloc of the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union. Since joining Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition 15 months ago, support for the pro-business Free Democrats has fallen to less than 5 percent from 14 percent. The minimum vote required to enter the German Parliament is 5 percent.

Germany
Visas
Crime and Criminals
Politics and Government


Netanyahu Speech Has Eager Audience in Iran

Abstract: TEHRAN — The tensions between the United States and Israel over how to address Iran ’s nuclear program and a politically divisive speech Tuesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the United States Congress are playing to an eager audience in Tehran. The news media here has highlighted the division as evidence that Israel is being isolated by its otherwise steadfast ally, and analysts are examining how the rift might affect the outcome of the nuclear negotiations. “Israel’s prime minister tries to maximize the stakes and raise the expectation for the outcome of the talks,” Hamid Reza Taraghi, a political analyst close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said after Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. “Israel is trying to pressure us, to make Iran cave in,” he added. “No way that will ever happen.” Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was eagerly anticipated by many Iranians, not because they believed he would be able to halt the nuclear talks, but because they said they hoped the Israeli leader’s blunt approach would turn American public opinion against him. Marzieh Afkham, a spokeswoman for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the speech a “deceitful show and part of the election campaign of Tel Aviv’s hard-liners.” The Nuclear Talks With Iran, Explained What the United States and Iran want out of discussions over Iran’s nuclear development. “There is no doubt that the global public opinion does not respect and value a child-killing regime,” Ms. Afkham said. She echoed other Iranian officials and analysts who hope for a deal between Iran and world powers and say Mr. Netanyahu and his allies have created a “fake crisis.” Iran, Ms. Afkham added, is determined to resolve the crisis. The strains between the United States and Israel, known by some hard-liners here as the “great and little Satan,” have become increasingly public as Washington and Tehran seek to conclude an agreement that would limit Iran’s ability to continue developing its nuclear capacity. “This speech shows the deal is imminent. This is why Mr. Netanyahu is desperate,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a policy analyst in Iran who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “It is not important what he says in Congress. The deal is coming.” For decades, Iran’s leaders have argued that United States foreign policy has been taken hostage by Israeli interests. In speeches, they denounce what they say is the power and influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups in Washington. “We are very happy that people are starting to understand the national security interests of the United States differ from those of Mr. Netanyahu,” said Ali Khorram, a former Iranian diplomat with ties to the government. “If he continues like this, Mr. Netanyahu will only lose more credibility in the eyes of the Americans.” Iran does not recognize Israel as a country, and over the past decades, some of its leaders have taken a bellicose stance toward Israel, including the former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who threatened to make Israel “vanish from the pages of time,” a statement that has also been translated as “ Israel must be wiped off the map. ” Timeline on Iran’s Nuclear Program Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West. Now, with the bond between the United States and Israel facing pressures from both sides, the Iranian news media is joyously reporting on protests in front of the Washington headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee , or Aipac, the main Jewish lobbying group in the United States. “People are shouting slogans in favor of Iran,” the semiofficial news agency Tasnim reported on Tuesday, showing pictures of Jewish men belonging to a sect that opposes Zionism. In one image, a man could be seen holding up a sign saying, “Aipac violates Judaism.” The state-owned newspaper Tehran Times featured an image of protesters wearing Netanyahu masks smeared with a bloodlike color. “Protests held in Washington against Netanyahu,” the headline read. Conservative clerics and military commanders fiercely loyal to Ayatollah Khamenei have long opposed the United States, and they insist that American politicians will never give up their enmity against Iran because the two countries have irreconcilable ideologies. In recent years, Iran has benefited from the American pullout from the region, filling a vacuum in Iraq and supporting the overthrow of the government in Yemen by Shiite rebels. With Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran has been assisting Bashar al-Assad, the embattled president of Syria. Beyond the evident glee over the open disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem, most Iranian analysts said they did not think that Mr. Netanyahu’s speech would really damage ties between the United States and Israel. “This is more of a political game for Netanyahu,” said Nasser Hadian, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran. “After his elections, he will start mending ties again.” Others, however, said they thought Mr. Netanyahu’s address could affect the delicate nuclear negotiations. “Netanyahu’s offensive may stiffen the U.S. posture at a time when flexibility is crucial, but not for the reason most suspect,” Mohammad Ali Shabani, a political analyst, said before Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. “If America toughens, it won’t be because Bibi has forced Obama’s hand, but because he has made the U.S. and its demands appear more reasonable,” he said, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname. “Any party that feels that it can win the blame game is less likely to adopt the flexibility necessary for a breakthrough,” he added. Mr. Shabani said that for Iran, all politics is local. Now, he said, all leaders want a nuclear deal, “but their unity is predicated on a commitment to ensuring that the domestic blame game will be won, and so far, they have succeeded.” Still, some in Iran had a different interpretation. “The rift between both allies is nothing more than a political trick,” said Mr. Taraghi, the Iranian political analyst. “This so-called rift is a petty game of good cop, bad cop. We will not fall for that.”

Iran
Tehran
Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu
Congress
Nuclear weapon
Aipac
Barack Obama
House of Representatives


Hudson Valley Hospital’s ‘Art for Health’ Paves Paths to Wellness

Abstract: Cortlandt Manor IN many hospitals , the art on the walls consists of an occasional framed print intended to liven up a waiting area or a dreary hallway. At the Hudson Valley Hospital Center , art is being recognized as more than simply décor. Through a program called Art for Health, the hospital is acquiring a collection of about 145 works of original art to be exhibited in 11 new gallery spaces throughout the facility. The artwork is intended to support the healing process for patients and their families. “We’ve known intuitively that art can create a healing environment, but now it has been proven scientifically,” said Suzanne Bohrer Ashley , a painter who was hired as the hospital’s art curator last March, after spending 26 years working at the hospital and retiring as its vice president of administration in 2002. Ms. Ashley, 62, was referring to a study titled “ A Guide to Evidence-Based Art ,” released in 2008 by the Center for Health Design , based in Concord, Calif. The study presented findings indicating that nature-related images placed carefully in a hospital setting can reduce blood pressure , heart rate , stress and perceived pain. “It is the type of art, the subject matter, that allows these physical changes,” Ms. Ashley said. With that in mind, she has been acquiring landscapes, waterscapes, floral images and a selection of Hudson River scenes in a variety of media. These include two photographs of earthworks by Christo and Jeanne-Claude , one signed by Christo. Currently, the hospital owns 57 pieces of art, all but three of which were donated. About 5,000 square feet, incorporating 300 linear feet of wall, has been allotted for Art for Health gallery spaces, in areas frequented by patients and visitors. “These are places that you’re passing through to get somewhere else — that in the past had plaques or directions on the walls and now have fine art,” Ms. Ashley said. Other significant places include waiting areas, like spaces where patients recover from surgery or where family members wait during a patient’s operation. Hospital staff members also benefit from being exposed to fine art, Ms. Ashley said. “Health care is a stressful profession,” she said. “I find our staff taking time to absorb the artwork. They ask me, ‘Can we get pictures over here?’ They tell me they appreciate the work.” Among the pieces on display are vistas from Boscobel, in Garrison, painted by Ann Johann , of Croton-on-Hudson, and Elaine Galen , of Mount Kisco, and “Trees in the Midst,” by Roger Hendricks , who lives in Armonk. Bohdan Osyczka , of Peekskill, donated three of his own paintings. “Some of the artists have exhibited internationally, and almost all have been shown in galleries,” said Ms. Ashley, who is also the owner of Smith Studio and Fine Arts Gallery , in Carmel. “What we don’t want is art Muzak.” She said that although many hospitals have art programs, they often use temporary consultants to create them. “It is rare to have a curator who is 100 percent dedicated to acquiring and hanging artwork,” she said. In addition to Ms. Ashley’s salary, the program’s $215,000 budget will cover art purchases, enhanced security, framing, support materials and maintenance. Funding is through private donations from individuals and corporations; $76,000 has already been raised. Art for Health is being realized in conjunction with a $115 million construction project scheduled for completion in mid-2010. The work, which began in 2007, will add 110,000 square feet to the hospital’s original 191,460-square-foot building and renovate 23,000 square feet. The project includes a new progressive care unit, finished in December; a new surgery center, scheduled to open in October; an expanded and renovated emergency department; a multilevel parking garage; and a four-story patient tower with 84 private rooms. “We run full most of the time,” said John C. Federspiel , the hospital’s chief executive and president since 1987. “We need to be able to respond to the increased needs of the community.” The hospital, founded in 1889, moved to its current location in 1966, opening with 114 beds, and changed its name from Peekskill Hospital to Hudson Valley Hospital Center in 1992. Now, with 128 beds, it serves northern Westchester, lower Dutchess and Putnam Counties, and its emergency department receives about 35,000 visits a year. Mr. Federspiel, 54, said the expansion plan involves the creation of a boardwalk contiguous to the surgery waiting area and alongside a brook that runs through the 30-acre campus, and a small sculpture garden between the original building and the new patient tower. The new lobby’s design will use four types of stone indigenous to the region. “We are working with the architect and being diligent to bring the natural setting into the building,” Mr. Federspiel said. “We want to create a life-affirming environment.” To date, three of the 11 galleries have been completed. The John J. Bohrer Memorial Gallery, named for Ms. Ashley’s father, is in a hallway en route to the admissions area. The Hudson River Gallery, now in the temporary entrance, will relocate to the hospital’s new lobby. The Main Gallery is a 90-foot portion of a 120-foot corridor outside the hospital’s administrative offices; it is the only gallery whose exhibits are not permanent. The Main Gallery will present three shows a year, each featuring three local artists whose work will be for sale. Other gallery spaces will be in the waiting areas for diagnostic imaging, intensive and progressive care, and surgery, and in the three elevator lobbies on each patient floor. There will also be galleries in two renovated outbuildings: the Pataki Conference Center, named for George E. Pataki, who was a member of the hospital’s board before he became governor of New York, and Dempsey House, built in the 1740s and now the home of the hospital’s marketing department. All will be protected by a security system similar to those in traditional galleries. Ms. Ashley, whose “briefcase” is a black plastic art bin laden with tack hammer, Spackle, measuring tape and picture wire, has already hung the existing works throughout the hospital. “Some of our gallery spaces are just 20 to 40 feet long, or in corridors only about 8 feet wide,” she said, so viewing the work from an appropriate distance can be difficult. “In those areas, we are choosing to hang smaller pieces,” she said. “Eye level is important,” she added. “But in, say, the mammography suite, where the woman is standing, eye level might be different from in a different space, where the person is sitting. And of course you don’t want to hang a water scene where you’re getting an ultrasound and had to drink all that water.” Art for Health also offers printed materials about the artwork, and a Guide by Cell option, expected to be operating by the end of the month, enabling cellphone users to call a telephone number displayed beneath each piece of art and hear a brief explanation of the work. “We’re hoping to get the average person to take more interest,” Ms. Ashley said. “Being surrounded by artwork creates a feeling about the institution. You form an impression of the place. It affects how you feel when you’re here.”

Hospitals
Art
Medicine and Health
Westchester County (NY)


Brewers Stay Focused Despite La Russa’s Tactics

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — The new guy caught the full Tony last week in Milwaukee. Ron Roenicke, the first-year manager of the Milwaukee Brewers , knew about Tony La Russa ’s reputation for being both calculating and combative. But he had never seen it up close until the Brewers, the National League Central leaders, and the second-place St. Louis Cardinals tangled over three meaningful games at Miller Park. The Brewers won twice and lost the other game in 11 innings while seeing La Russa at his most combative and cantankerous. La Russa offered multiple accusations of malfeasance, including a novel complaint to Major League Baseball about scoreboard lighting; rebuked a fan who wished him another debilitating bout of shingles; and supported a retaliatory plunking of Ryan Braun after the Brewers’ Takashi Saito accidentally hit Albert Pujols close to his recently healed left wrist. La Russa steadfastly defends his right to defend his players, no matter how much it irritates Cardinals opponents. And Roenicke, drawing on 11 seasons as a coach for Mike Scioscia with the Los Angeles Angels, finally persuaded the Brewers to stop letting La Russa distract them. “There is so much that I have to deal with on our side with our guys, getting everything right on our side, that I really don’t have a lot of time to worry about the other side. I don’t,” Roenicke said this week at Busch Stadium, where the Brewers and Cardinals met again. “We have to do things we do well and do best. Whatever happens on the other side, I don’t really care.” While this series lacked the drama and controversy of the last, the Brewers again won two of the three games, with the Cardinals salvaging Thursday night’s finale, 5-2. Milwaukee, which has won 13 of 15, left with a four-game lead, its largest this late in a season since 1982. The teams play six more times, in late August and early September. Scioscia is not surprised that Roenicke has not been distracted by La Russa — the highly prepared, shrewd, unrelenting four-time manager of the year and winner of two World Series, one in each league. “Ron’s good,” Scioscia said. “He’s got great rapport with people, he knows how to play the game and how he wants his team to play it. It’s not an issue.” But it’s a first for the Brewers, who in the past have let La Russa mess with their heads. “At times, I think in years past, certain things would get us off the main goal,” first baseman Prince Fielder said. “The big thing now is, as a team, we have one goal in mind, which is to win. Winning is what they pay us for.” Tense moments with division rivals are as much a part of La Russa’s legacy as overstocked bullpens and pitchers batting eighth. He managed Dusty Baker briefly in Oakland in 1986 and calls him a friend. But their confrontations over the years while Baker managed the Giants, the Cubs and now the Reds are known for their fervor, including a face-to-face argument in 2003 after a series of hit batsmen and brush-backs. More recently, La Russa twice accused the Reds of not rubbing up balls properly, leaving them slick. “I trust our players,” La Russa said. “If somebody has an issue, whether it’s the ball is slick in Cincinnati, whatever, and it’s guys like John Smoltz and Chris Carpenter, I don’t say, who are you to complain? If you trust your players, you’re responsible for following through with it. That’s what I do. People who know me know I shy away from that stuff, because the game is supposed to be played between the white lines. I try to avoid it at all costs.” Last week’s series featured a bit of everything, headed by Jason Motte drilling Braun because Saito hit Pujols. Roenicke handled that more calmly than one of his Milwaukee predecessors, Ned Yost, who in 2007 engaged La Russa in a cross-dugout shouting match after the Cardinals drilled Fielder in response to Jeff Suppan buzzing Pujols. La Russa also complained to Major League Baseball that the Brewers’ L.E.D. ribbon scoreboard lighting seemed brighter when Milwaukee was at-bat, an advantage for their hitters. (The complaint was dismissed.) He accused LaTroy Hawkins of quick-pitching, and attributed a Brewers rally to base runners stealing catcher Yadier Molina’s signs, which Roenicke denied. “I don’t worry about that stuff,” Roenicke said. “Everybody’s different. There may be a lot of managers over there who don’t like the way I am, my personality or the way we play. I can’t help that. All I know is, I’m trying to do what’s best for our team.” Milwaukee General Manager Doug Melvin said the clubhouse presence of more veteran players liked Mark Kotsay, Hawkins and Craig Counsell also helped. “I think they’re pretty good at understanding when somebody’s trying to intimidate you, and they try not to worry about it,” he said. Pitching tight to Pujols, the three-time N.L. most valuable player, is a new Milwaukee strategy that worked until Thursday, when he benefitted from early batting practice by going 4 for 4 with a home run and two runs batted in. Before that, Pujols had been 5 for 42 (.119) with no homers and four R.B.I. against Milwaukee this year after previously pounding the Brewers for 38 homers and a .338 average over 10 seasons. “That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Pujols said. “Sometimes you hit well against a ballclub, and sometimes you struggle. Too bad it’s against the guys we’re chasing, and we haven’t been playing well.” Meanwhile, the Brewers continue unfazed. Fielder, who in 2008 tried to storm the Dodgers’ clubhouse after Guillermo Mota hit him with a pitch, said he was done letting La Russa or anyone else bother him. “I’m not saying there’s no reason to fight,” Fielder said. “It’s just not worth it. My wife says: ‘How are you going to tell your kids to stop fighting in the bedroom when you’re trying to fight between the locker rooms? You look like an idiot.’ I’m over it.”

Milwaukee Brewers
Baseball
St Louis Cardinals
Roenicke Ron
la Russa Tony
Pujols Albert


Hewlett-Packard’s Moscow Offices Searched

Abstract: Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday that Russian authorities searched the company’s offices in Moscow, but it did not disclose the reason for the raid. The company said, “This is an investigation of alleged conduct that occurred almost seven years ago, largely by employees no longer with H.P. We are cooperating fully with the German and Russian authorities and will continue to conduct our own internal investigation.” H.P., which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement, “It is not appropriate to comment further at this time.” Investigators searched the offices of the computer and printer giant at the behest of German authorities, according to a person briefed on the investigation. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal based on German court documents, the investigation centers on bribes that employees of a German unit of Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest technology company, were suspected of making to secure a Russian contract for computer equipment.

Hewlett-Packard Co
Germany
Russia
Computers and the Internet


U.N. Envoy Brahimi Meets President Assad in Syria

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — The new United Nations peace envoy to Syria , Lakhdar Brahimi , said after a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday that the civil war held consequences for “the region, and the whole world,” while acknowledging that he had not yet formulated a plan to address the escalating violence. “The crisis is very serious,” Mr. Brahimi said, adding that it was “becoming worse by the day.” That grim assessment came on the third day of Mr. Brahimi’s visit to Syria, where he said he had met opposition activists, government officials and diplomats representing Russia and China, countries that have offered support for President Assad’s embattled government. Mr. Brahimi, a seasoned diplomat from Algeria, took the job of special envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League after Kofi Annan, a former United Nations secretary general, resigned last month. In announcing his resignation, Mr. Annan insisted there could be no solution unless Mr. Assad stepped down, and blamed the intransigence of both the Syrian government and its opponents for the continuing bloodshed. In the weeks since Mr. Annan resigned, there has been no lessening of the violence, with the Syrian government relying more and more on air power to vanquish its enemies as rebel militias continue to search for weapons to counter the military’s power. On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI added his voice to those warning of the dangers posed by weapons flowing into Syria, saying that the import of arms, by the government and the rebels, must stop. At a news conference on Saturday after his meeting with Mr. Assad, Mr. Brahimi said he was “continuing the work” that Mr. Annan had started, and declined to say how his approach would differ. “It is not a secret that the gap between the parties is very wide,” he said, adding that Mr. Assad was “more aware than me of the scope and the seriousness of the crisis.” “The common ground does exist,” Mr. Brahimi said. “These are Syrians, they love their country and want peace for their country.” Since Mr. Brahimi’s arrival on Thursday, witnesses have reported intense fighting in two neighborhoods south of Damascus, the capital, Hajar al-Aswad and Qadam. Protesters could be seen marching in both neighborhoods on Friday, escorted by armed rebels. In Qadam, government security forces in sport utility vehicles tried to disrupt the march, leading to clashes. A 30-year-old protester in Qadam, who gave only his first name, Ibrahim, took a dim view of Mr. Brahimi’s mission. “The U.N. envoys will do nothing, because they have no power,” he said. “They will spend their time in meaningless meetings with regime officials, or opposition figures who have no presence on the ground.” On Saturday, at least three people were killed in Hajar al-Aswad during hours of intense shelling by the government, activists in Damascus said.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Atoms Everywhere (1 Letter)

Abstract: TO THE EDITOR: “ Stars, Gold, Dung Beetles and Us ” (Out There, Aug. 6) asks, “Who was it that first said that people are stardust?” The article traces its roots to 1929, when Harlow Shapley said, “We organic beings who call ourselves humans are made of the same stuff as the stars.” But as Stephen Greenblatt describes in “The Swerve,” this notion goes back at least to the Greek philosopher Epicurus and the poem by Lucretius that explicated his philosophy, “De Rerum Natura.” (1 BC). Epicurus stated that all the universe is made up of only atoms. The atoms are permanent; their combinations are fleeting and evolve. Even today the notion continues to challenge us. Dr. Arthur Lavin Cleveland


Two Albatrosses at Senior British Open

Abstract: Two albatrosses — scores of 2 on a par 5 — were recorded on the same hole on a memorable opening day at the Senior British Open, where the defending champion, Bernhard Langer, finished in an eight-way tie for the lead at five-under 65 in Sunningdale, England. The albatrosses at the opening hole, a first in senior tour history, were by the Englishman Barry Lane and the American Steve Jones. Lane holed his 4-iron second from 218 yards on the 492-yard par 5. A few hours later, Jones did the same with a 6-iron from 179 yards. ■ Lizette Salas, Katherine Kirk and Dori Carter shared the first-round lead in the Meijer L.P.G.A. Classic at seven-under 64 at Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, Mich. Jaye Marie Green and the rookie Wei-Ling Hsu were a shot back, and Kris Tamulis was at 66 along with Q Baek, Ilhee Lee and Jane Rah. Top-ranked Inbee Park shot a 70. ■ Emiliano Grillo shot a bogey-free eight-under 64 to take the first-round lead in the Canadian Open in Oakville, Ontario. Vaughan Taylor and Brian Harman were a stroke back. ■ Gregory Havret made a hole in one on the 195-yard, par-3 13th as he shot a seven-under 63 to lead the European Masters by a stroke after the first round in Crans Montana, Switzerland.


On Both Sides, Syrians Make Pleas to U.S.

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — The video from Kafranbel, a rebel-held village in northern Syria, has been sent by e-mail to members of the United States Congress and posted repeatedly on their Web sites — often in long strings of comments about Syria that have flooded unrelated posts about health care or the openings of new constituent offices. Quoting Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr., the video shows village residents who have lost family members in President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on the Syrian uprising as they plead for American military strikes on their own country. “You have to say yes!” one little boy shouts. A young girl adds, “You should feel ashamed, because you can save our lives but you never want to try.” On the other side, equally passionate messages are bombarding the offices of American lawmakers from Syrians and Syrian-Americans who support Mr. Assad’s government — or simply oppose the armed uprising. They use antiwar slogans and symbols and stress the growing influence of militants linked to Al Qaeda among the rebels. “You shouldn’t be standing against terrorism in Afghanistan and Mali, and when it comes to Syria, supporting it,” said Johnny Achi, a Syrian-American electronic engineer who has lived for decades in Los Angeles. He is visiting Damascus as he helps run a Facebook-based campaign to mobilize Syrian-Americans to lobby their representatives against military intervention. As Congress prepares to debate whether to endorse President Obama’s proposed strike on the Assad government, administration figures have spread out to press their case, including Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Sunday made an effort to line up Arab support for intervention. Simultaneously, on a more grass-roots level, the publicity war among Syrians to get their own messages out about the issue is also reaching a crescendo — and is just as assiduously focused on Capitol Hill and the American public. Each side has increased efforts to connect with Americans on what it sees as common values, with the opposition stressing the fight for political rights in the face of a violent state crackdown and Mr. Assad’s supporters stressing the secularism of his government. The Syrian government is pushing hard, too. Parliament members have sent letters to their American counterparts in Congress, and Mr. Assad used a television interview with Charlie Rose to assert that his government was not behind the chemical attacks that have ignited international outrage. Image Credit The New York Times Grass-roots activists are building on expertise developed over the past two years as they used the Internet and social media to get information out about Syria. Informal armies of antigovernment activists have long pumped out videos of dead children being pulled from rubble, of warplanes attacking neighborhoods, and of security forces torturing prisoners, even as government supporters have shared videos of rebels killing prisoners or desecrating shrines. Yet with lawmakers primarily focused on their own voters, the limits of citizen media campaigns across oceans and front lines are being tested. The question for Syrians is whether their voices — those of the people most directly affected — will be heard. Mr. Achi’s group takes credit for helping change the minds of some fence-sitters, like Representative Michael G. Grimm, Republican of New York, who recently withdrew his support from Mr. Obama’s plan. But others are not sure. K. Ibrahim, 33, fled Syria after being detained twice for anti-Assad activism and now runs a social media campaign to challenge the government’s claim that its opponents are primarily Islamist extremists. Yet she said she doubted her work would affect American decision makers. “But for us, what can we do?” said Ms. Ibrahim, who asked to be identified by only part of her name for her safety. “We have to keep on shouting.” Both sides work from a common assumption that most Americans paid little attention to Syria until the question of direct American strikes came up. (One brief history of Syria on a pro-strike Web site begins, “There was once an evil dictator named Hafez al-Assad.”) They assume that American voters operate from a basic antipathy to Middle East interventions after the Iraq war, and from a fear of Islamist extremists. “It’s perhaps the first time they heard about Syria or tried to find Syria on a map,” Ms. Ibrahim said. “And they’re like, ‘Qaeda, Qaeda, Qaeda.’ Come on, you’re getting this out of context. You don’t have just a choice between Qaeda and Assad.” Ms. Ibrahim, a member of Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect, organized a response to a social media campaign by United States service members who were posting pictures of themselves with signs such as: “I didn’t join the Marine Corps to fight for Al Qaeda in a Syrian civil war.” In her countercampaign, young Syrians have posted pictures of themselves engaged in decidedly non-extremist activities — drinking beer, wearing tight clothing, even laying out hashish on a table — with slogans like “I’m Qaeda? Seriously?” Each side draws heavily on Syrians outside the country — not just Syrian Americans with the power of the vote, but activists elsewhere who have more security and better electricity and Internet connections. Image In Sana, Yemen, a protester who opposed a strike on Syria. Via Facebook, campaigns seek Congress votes against intervention. Credit Khaled Abdullah/Reuters Mr. Achi’s Facebook campaign is mirrored by others run by antigovernment expatriates in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, countries that have backed the rebels. Each side in turn accuses the other of lacking true grass-roots credentials — of acting as proxies for governments — and each denies it. Yet some Syrians are reaching out from inside. Ugarit Dandash, a Syrian reporter for Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese television station that leans toward Mr. Assad, has posted videos of Syrians sitting on roofs and near military installations on Mount Qasioun, overlooking Damascus, saying a strike would happen “Over Our Dead Bodies.” On the other side, in Kafranbel, Raed Fares, a former real estate agent, has won a measure of fame for his town with his humor-laced English-language protest banners aimed at Western audiences. Working at first with cellphone cameras and sporadic and insecure Internet connections, Mr. Fares and his team eventually obtained video cameras and a satellite link, though they still struggle to find diesel to power their generators. The video he personally sent to Congress, he said in a Skype interview, was his best and his most crucial. “I think Congress and the American people need to know what the Syrian people inside Syria feel and think about the strike,” he said. “We are going to vanish if they leave us alone.” Beyond the video’s heavy use of soaring music and images of children, its script aims directly at American skepticism about another war and recent protests that featured antiwar slogans. “If you are really against the war, then you should support the U.S. strikes that can actually end the war,” Kenan Rahmani, a Syrian-American activist in Kafranbel, said in the video. But that argument points to the extra challenge their side faces: The opposition is divided on the strike. The attack Mr. Obama seeks permission for is a limited strike, not the attempt to topple Mr. Assad or the full-scale supplying of arms to rebels that people in Kafranbel have often called for. And while some opposition activists see the strikes as too limited, others oppose any American intervention, saying it would undermine the independence of their movement. Whether either side is having an effect is unclear. But an innocuous Aug. 29 post about health care on the Facebook page of Mike Rogers, a Congressman from Michigan, had garnered 1,962 comments by Sunday, most about the strikes, from people with Arabic names, many claiming to be inside Syria. “Say YES!” one said. “Children need you.” “NO,” another said. “It will only help Al Qaeda.”

Syria
Bashar al-Assad
US
Social Media
Arab Spring
US Military
Barack Obama
US Foreign Policy
President of the United States


Obama Purposely Taking Time on Troop Decision

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama has not made a decision about his new military strategy for Afghanistan . And the White House is happy to say so. It’s been 22 days since Mr. Obama was first accused by former Vice President Dick Cheney of “dithering” as he decides about sending more troops to Afghanistan. An announcement is still very likely at least two weeks away — perhaps more — and White House officials have purposely made no apologies for the extended timetable. “Contrary to published reports,” an administration official said late Wednesday, “the president has not made a decision about the options presented.” As Mr. Obama convened his war council for 2 hours 20 minutes on Wednesday, the final session before he departs on a trip to Asia on Thursday, he suggested that he was not satisfied with his options. Officials said that in the meeting, the eighth in the Situation Room on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last two months, Mr. Obama pressed for clarifications on a series of questions. Where are the off-ramps for the military? What is the exit strategy? When will Americans and their allies hand responsibility to the Afghanistan government? Can the Afghan government improve its credibility? While much has been made of the four military options that are on the table — all turning on how many troops to send to Afghanistan and for how long — the president also made clear that he is not yet fully satisfied with these choices and will not approve an open-ended commitment. He has also asked, officials said, that some of the options be redrafted. The White House has been eager to show that Mr. Obama is engaged in extensive deliberations before making what is likely to be one of the most debated decisions of his presidency. Drawing on studies of how decisions were made to escalate the war in Vietnam , Mr. Obama and his aides seem intent on showing the nation and the world that he is not being rushed by the military, nor making a judgment without considering the long-term implications. In purely political terms, the relatively slow pace — administration officials had initially suggested that the review would be complete by early November — signals to both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill that he has given serious consideration to all the options. Given that liberals in his own party are generally opposed to further escalation in Afghanistan and could make trouble for the president over more money for the war, which he will almost certainly need to request, reassuring the left about how rigorously he is examining the options can only help the White House. As the weeks have passed without a decision, the administration is making its frustration known over several news reports that suggested a decision had been made. “I don’t know that it’s annoying as much as it is generally amusing to watch somebody or some group of people decide they know what only the president knows,” said Robert Gibbs , the White House press secretary. Senator John McCain , Republican of Arizona , said last week that he was disappointed and angry the president has delayed his Afghanistan decision, but the White House has spent very little time reacting to the criticism. Administration officials said they believe Americans support the lengthy deliberations. A poll released on Wednesday by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation found that 49 percent of Americans surveyed said the president was taking too long to decide whether to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, while 50 percent did not. As the White House makes plans for how the president will explain his decision to the nation — a leading option is to deliver his first prime-time address from the Oval Office — Mr. Obama has been spending considerable time with troops and families, filling out another part of his role as commander in chief. He visited the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville , Fla., on Oct. 26. He arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in the small hours of Oct. 29. And he delivered a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia . (A trip to Fort Hood , Tex., aides said, was the only hastily scheduled event, following the unforeseen shooting that killed 13 there last week.) A few hours before the war council met on Wednesday, Mr. Obama walked through the rain-soaked grass at Arlington National Cemetery and visited Section 60, where 577 troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. He moved slowly among the granite headstones etched with names of today’s wars, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Mr. Obama stopped by the grave of Spec. Ross McGinnis, a Medal of Honor recipient who was killed nearly three years ago when a grenade was thrown into his vehicle in Iraq. The president met with relatives of other troops who were on hand when he passed by. Before Mr. Obama reaches Asia — where his focus will be on a variety of other issues, from trade to North Korea — he has one more military stop on his schedule: He is set to meet with troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on Thursday as he makes his way to Tokyo . The decision on Afghanistan won’t come, aides said, until well after the president returns to American soil.