The New York Times - Saturday, Literatura, Gazety, Magazyny
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Late Edition
Today,
periodic clouds and sun,
high 69.
Tonight,
partly cloudy, cool,
low 49.
Tomorrow,
sunny to partly
cloudy, breezy, cooler, high 64.
Weather map appears on Page C8.
$2.50
VOL. CLXII . . No. 55,930
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
© 2012 The New York Times
Syrians Place
Booby Traps
In Rebel Guns
BLAST IN BEIRUT
SEEN AS EXTENSION
OF SYRIA CONFLICT
Ammunition Is Rigged
So Weapons Explode
OFFICIAL AMONG VICTIMS
Attack Ignites Violence,
Upsetting an Uneasy
Sectarian Peace
By C. J. CHIVERS
DEIR SONBUL, Syria — The
government of Syria, trying to
contain a rapidly expanding in-
surgency, has resorted to one of
the dirty tricks of the modern bat-
tlefield: salting ammunition sup-
plies of antigovernment fighters
with ordnance that explodes in-
side rebels’ weapons, often
wounding and sometimes killing
the fighters while destroying
many of their hard-found arms.
The practice, which rebels said
started in Syria early this year, is
another element of the govern-
ment’s struggle to combat the op-
position as Syria’s military finds
itself challenged across a country
where it was not long ago an un-
contested force. The government
controls the skies, and with air-
craft and artillery batteries it has
pounded many rebel strongholds
throughout this year. But the
rebels continue to resist, mostly
with small arms.
Doctored ammunition offers an
insidious way to undermine the
rebels’ confidence in their ammu-
nition supply while simulta-
neously thinning their ranks.
“When they do this, you will
lose both the man and the rifle,”
said Ghadir Hammoush, the com-
mander of a fighting group in
Idlib Province who said he knew
of five instances in which rifles
had
By ANNE BARNARD
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A power-
ful bomb devastated a Christian
neighborhood of this capital city
of Lebanon on Friday, killing an
intelligence official long viewed
as an enemy by neighboring Syr-
ia and unnerving a nation as Syr-
ia’s sectarian-fueled civil war
spills beyond its borders and
threatens to engulf the region.
The blast, which sheared the
faces off buildings, killed at least
eight people, wounded 80 and
transformed a quiet tree-lined
street into a scene reminiscent of
Lebanon’s long civil war, threat-
ened to worsen sectarian ten-
sions. By nightfall, black smoke
from burning tires ignited by an-
gry men choked the streets of a
few neighborhoods in the city,
which has struggled to preserve
a peace between its many sects,
including Sunni, Shiite, Christian
and Druse.
Within hours of the attack, the
Lebanese authorities announced
that the dead included the intelli-
gence chief of the country’s in-
ternal security service, Brig.
Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, instant-
ly spurring accusations that the
Syrian government had assassi-
nated him for recently uncover-
ing what the authorities said was
a Syrian plot to provoke unrest in
Lebanon.
“They wanted to get him, and
they got him,” said Paul Salem, a
regional analyst with the Car-
negie Middle East Center.
But if the attack was targeted,
the blast was most certainly not.
The force of the explosion left eld-
erly residents fleeing their
wrecked homes in bloodied paja-
mas and spewed charred metal
as far as two blocks. Residents
rushed to help each other amid
the debris, burning car wreckage
and a macabre scene of victims in
blood-soaked shirts.
It was the first large-scale
bombing in the country since
2008 and was the most provoca-
tive violence here linked to the
Syrian conflict since it began 19
FEISAL OMAR/REUTERS
Somali Buildings in Rubble, but the Water’s Fine
Somalis relaxed in the waters off Lido Beach, once a popular destination, as the ruins of Mogadishu, the capital, attested to dec-
ades of conflict. Conditions in the city have improved since the Shabab militants left last year, but occasional attacks still occur.
Romney as a Manager: Unhurried and Socratic
ELECTION
2012
them on a short leash, monitoring
them through a flurry of progress
reports and review sessions. Mr.
Romney is, colleagues said, “con-
flict-avoidant.” His decision-mak-
ing process is unhurried and So-
cratic, his instinct to exhaustively
debate and prod.
“He was not somebody who
forced decisions to be made be-
fore they needed to,” said Geof-
frey Rehnert, a longtime execu-
tive at Bain Capital.
In his approach, there are in-
triguing echoes of and depar-
tures from presidents past. His
intensely hands-on style sets him
apart from George W. Bush, the
self-styled chairman of the board,
and Ronald Reagan, who cared
only for the big picture and left
dirt-under-the-fingernails policy
work to his staff. His tendency to
immerse himself in the details re-
calls Lyndon B. Johnson, who
closeted himself with Pentagon
brass to personally choose tar-
Democrats Put Aside
Distaste for ‘Super PACs’
THE LONG RUN
Leadership Style
This article is by
Michael Bar-
baro
,
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
and
Michael Wines.
BOSTON — As governor of
Massachusetts, Mitt Romney
could not resist burrowing into
the bureaucratic weeds: He once
took the statewide math and
reading test for 10th graders,
then startled his education com-
missioner by calling to say, “I like
No. 14” and rattling off the an-
swer.
As head of the private equity
firm Bain Capital, he was so un-
comfortable cutting loose strug-
gling employees that a legend
grew: executives sent in to his of-
fice to be fired emerged thinking
they had been promoted.
And as a candidate for presi-
dent this year, he resisted pres-
sure from advisers to select a
running mate before leaving on a
high-profile trip overseas, insist-
ing that he makes better deci-
sions with time and reflection.
Three leading Democratic “super
PACs” raised more money in Sep-
tember than they have in any oth-
er month this election, underscor-
ing the growing willingness of
wealthy Democrats to bankroll
groups whose existence they had
long opposed.
Mr. Romney’s bid for the White
House largely hinges on his own
narrowly drawn image of himself
as a chief executive: the data-
splicing, cost-cutting turnaround
expert. But dozens of interviews
with those who have worked for
him over the past 30 years — in
the Mormon Church, business,
the Olympics and state govern-
ment — offer a far more textured
portrait of the management style
that he might bring to the presi-
dency.
A serial chief executive, the
Republican presidential nominee
is steeped in management theory
and eschews gut instincts. He is
not so much a micromanager as a
microprocessor, wading deeply
into the raw data usually left to
junior aides. He entrusts advis-
ers with responsibility, but keeps
exploded
from
booby-
trapped ammunition.
The practice has principally in-
volved rifle and machine-gun car-
tridges, but also the projectiles
for rocket-propelled grenades
and perhaps mortar rounds, ac-
cording to interviews with more
than a half-dozen rebel leaders in
Syria and many fighters, as well
as an examination of shattered ri-
fles and the contents of a booby-
trapped cartridge. The tactic is
highly controversial, in that it is
potentially indiscriminate.
The primary source for doc-
tored ammunition has been the
Syrian government, which mixes
exploding cartridges with ordi-
PAGE A14
If He’s Elected, I’d Serve
The race for president is hardly
over, but the race for choice posi-
tions in the still-theoretical next
administration is on. In keeping
with Washington etiquette, the
contenders publicly deny any am-
bition for appointments.
PAGE A12
Obama Gives a Diagnosis
President Obama reached out to
women in the battleground state
of Virginia, accusing Mitt Romney
of developing “Romnesia” by con-
veniently forgetting his most con-
servative positions.
Continued on Page A8
Continued on Page A14
PAGE A15
Strategizing for the President, and Her Corporate Clients, Too
Vote Drive Scrutinized
Virginia authorities charged a vot-
er registration supervisor hired
by Republicans.
ary Rosen, an SKDK partner who
is also a high-profile Obama ally,
is help in navigating the political
landscape in Washington.
“It is not that people assume
we can talk to the White House to
influence them on policy,” Ms.
Rosen said, “but that we under-
stand progressive Democrats, in-
cluding the administration —
how they communicate their own
message, think about their mes-
sage — and therefore we under-
stand how things will play.”
Still, Ms. Dunn’s dual roles
show the limits of Mr. Obama’s
attempts to change the culture of
Washington. Even as he pledged
to curb the influence of special in-
terests in the capital and has re-
stricted the role of lobbyists in his
administration, the president and
his top aides continue to rely on
political operatives like Ms. Dunn
who also represent clients seek-
ing to influence public policy.
“He’s gone in the right direc-
tion,” said James Thurber, a pro-
fessor at American University,
referring to measures that
opened more White House
records to public scrutiny and
that slowed the revolving door
between government and lobby-
ing firms. “But in the wide sweep
of things, he didn’t really change
Washington that much.”
The rules, for example, do not
apply to the army of consultants,
advisers, communication strat-
egists and others who represent
clients with federal agendas. Un-
like lobbyists, they are not re-
Continued on Page A8
PAGE A15
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
and ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON — In the rar-
efied world of political consult-
ants who straddle the line be-
tween campaign adviser and cor-
porate strategist, Anita Dunn has
few peers.
As a confidante of President
Obama and a senior campaign
adviser, Ms. Dunn has helped
prepare him for the debates this
month, plotted campaign strat-
egy and acted as a surrogate of
sorts in attacking Mitt Romney
for a “backward-looking attitude”
on issues like women’s rights and
health care.
She and her colleagues at
SKDKnickerbocker, a communi-
cations firm, have built a growing
list of blue-chip companies —
food manufacturers, a military
contractor, the New York Stock
Exchange and the Canadian com-
pany developing the Keystone
XL pipeline — willing to pay
handsomely for help in winning
over federal regulators or land-
ing government contracts. Some
clients and lobbyists who have
teamed up with SKDK say they
benefit from the firm’s ability to
provide information about the
Obama administration’s views.
“It is difficult to penetrate this
administration,” said Jason Mah-
ler, a lobbyist for the computer
technology company Oracle,
which was part of a coalition that
hired Ms. Dunn’s firm to push for
reduced tax rates on offshore
Housecleaning, Then Dinner?
Silicon Valley Perks Come Home
By MATT RICHTEL
SAN FRANCISCO — Phil
Libin, chief executive of Ever-
note, turned to his wife last year
and asked if she had suggestions
for how the software company
might improve the lives of its em-
ployees and their families. His
wife, who also works at Evernote,
didn’t miss a beat: houseclean-
ing.
Today, Evernote’s 250 employ-
ees — every full-time worker,
from receptionist to top executive
— have their homes cleaned
twice a month, free.
It is the latest innovation from
Silicon Valley: the employee perk
is moving from the office to the
home. Facebook gives new par-
ents $4,000 in spending money.
Stanford School of Medicine is pi-
loting a project to provide doctors
with housecleaning and in-home
dinner delivery. Genentech offers
take-home dinners and helps em-
ployees find last-minute baby sit-
ters when a child is too sick to go
to school.
These kinds of benefits are a
departure from the upscale cafe-
teria meals, massages and other
DREW KELLY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Andrew Sinkov has his apart-
ment cleaned free, courtesy of
his employer, Evernote.
services intended to keep em-
ployees happy and productive
while at work. And the goal is not
just to reduce stress for employ-
ees, but for their families, too. If
the companies succeed, the
thinking goes, they will minimize
distractions and sources of ten-
sion that can inhibit focus and
creativity.
Now that technology has al-
lowed work to bleed into home
life, it seems that companies are
trying to address the impact of
home life on work.
There is, of course, the possibil-
DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
President Obama with his advisers Anita Dunn, a partner in a
communications firm, SKDKnickerbocker, and David Plouffe.
profits. “Anyone that has an in-
sight into what they are thinking
or their strategy or thoughts on
issues we are working on is help-
ful, and they provided that.”
SKDK executives said that Ms.
Dunn, who declined to be inter-
viewed, was scrupulous about
separating her political work
from her corporate agenda, and
that she followed White House
ethics rules barring her from ap-
pealing on behalf of clients.
What the firm offers, said Hil-
Continued on Page A13
Continued on Page A17
INTERNATIONAL A4-11
A Wild Ruse to Trap a Jihadist
NATIONAL A16-18
A Movement to Keep Moving
ARTS C1-7
New Fur,
Same Act
BUSINESS DAY B1-8
Confusion in a Privacy Policy
THIS WEEKEND
No Downside for Ryan
Before a drone strike killed an Ameri-
can-born cleric in Yemen, Danish and
American intelligence officials concoct-
ed a ruse to try to find him.
Berkeley, Calif., a bastion of populist
politics that championed free speech
and the antiwar movement, wants to
ban sitting on the sidewalk.
In the digital race for market share,
Microsoft has instituted a privacy policy
to improve customer services while
stepping up competition with Google,
and illustrating the confusion surround-
ing Internet consumer privacy.
PAGE B1
No matter
which way the
election goes in
November, the
Republican
vice-presiden-
tial nominee is
seen as having
a limitless fu-
ture. For the
G.O.P., this is the ushering in of the new
face of the party.
“Country Bear
Jamboree,” Walt
Disney World’s 41-
year-old attraction,
is back without the
changes some fans
had feared, but Big
Al and the other
stars have restyled fur.
PAGE A11
PAGE A16
Hope for Injured Pakistani Girl
Fire Leaves Big Boots to Fill
The Pakistani girl shot by a Taliban gun-
man may make a full recovery, doctors
say, but is “still very ill.”
Big Tex, the 52-
foot-tall mechani-
cal cowboy who
towered over the
State Fair of Texas
in Dallas in size-70
boots and a 75-gal-
lon hat, was all but
destroyed by fire.
PAGE A16
On Poor Earnings, Stocks Drop
PAGE A9
Major indexes, pressed by a growing list
of blue-chip companies posting disap-
pointing quarterly results, had their
worst day in four months.
PAGE C1
NEW YORK A19-21
Housing Woes for Big Families
MAGAZINE
SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6
Giants Prolong N.L.C.S.
PAGE B1
Large families have been slighted by
New York’s efforts to provide housing
for the poor, advocates say.
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
U(D54G1D)y+[!%!.!=!$
With a 5-0 victory, the Giants forced
Game 6 against the Cardinals.
Gail Collins
PAGE A19
PAGE D3
PAGE A23
A2
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
N
Inside The Times
INTERNATIONAL
NATIONAL
BUSINESS
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
Hamas Works to Suppress
Other Militant Groups
Hamas, the Islamic group that gov-
erns Gaza and was once considered
an extreme Palestinian movements
itself, is working to suppress radical
Islamic militant groups, according
to militants, putting Hamas in the
unusual position of sharing an inter-
est with Israel. PAGE A4
Twitter Removes Postings
Hours after Twitter blocked access
to the account of an outlawed neo-
Nazi group to users in Germany, the
social networking site agreed to re-
move anti-Semitic posts that were
proliferating in France under the
hashtag #unbonjuif, or “a good
Jew,” a French Jewish group an-
nounced.
PAGE A9
G.I’s in Japan on Curfew
The United States military imposed
a curfew on all of its uniformed per-
sonnel in Japan, as it tried to re-
spond to public outrage over reports
of the rape of a woman on Okinawa
by American sailors. PAGE A10
South Africa’s Jobs Program
Amid mounting criticism that he has
failed to stem the tide of labor unrest
roiling South Africa, President Ja-
cob Zuma announced nearly $100
billion in infrastructure spending to
create jobs, hoping to quell broad
frustrations over rising inequality,
persistent poverty and low wages.
PAGE A10
Diabetes Study Ends Early
With a Surprising Result
A large federal study of whether diet
and weight loss can prevent heart
attacks and strokes in overweight
and obese diabetics has ended
ahead of schedule because the inten-
sive program did not help. PAGE A17
Judge Denies Hearing
A judge rejected a request for hear-
ings from three men imprisoned by
the United States military for nearly
a decade in Afghanistan without
trials.
PAGE A19
Young Catholics Unite
A program called the Alliance for
Catholic Education, created at Notre
Dame, puts young idealists in needy
schools to fill an educational and a
spiritual gap. PAGE A19
Bank Secretary Accused
Of Embezzling From Boss
The secretary for William J. Salo-
mon, the former head of Salomon
Brothers, has been accused of steal-
ing nearly $2 million from her 98-
year-old boss.
PAGE B1
Russian Global Oil Power
Pending deals would bring more
than half of Russia’s oil industry un-
der government control and create a
new player on the world stage.
PAGE B3
Bank Aid in Doubt
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Ger-
many dampened expectations that
Irish and Spanish banks hobbled by
the financial crisis would receive di-
rect aid from a newly established
European bailout fund. PAGE B3
‘‘
They wanted to get
him, and they got him.
’’
PAUL SALEM,
analyst with the Carnegie Mid-
dle East Center, on the terror
attack in Beirut that killed
Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan,
the intelligence chief of Leba-
non’s internal security service.
[A1]
ARTS
Museum Defends Security
After Theft of Art
After the theft of seven artworks,
the Kunsthal Rotterdam says re-
ports of a rear door’s being opened
for the thieves is nonsense. But the
police clearly are looking into that
possibility.
PAGE C1
NEW YORK
SPORTS
Arrested in the News,
Exonerated in Silence
A mistakenly charged Brooklyn
man faces being identified publicly
as a possible murderer, even though
he was later cleared. Crime Scene.
PAGE A19
Lower Manhattan Grows
After the population loss that fol-
lowed Sept. 11, the downtown area
has undergone a renaissance and
has become a magnet as a place to
live and work. PAGE A21
Giants Need Pitching
To Stage a Comeback
The Giants won three elimination
games in a row to escape their divi-
sion series with Cincinnati, and now
they need to do it again, against St.
Louis. On Baseball.
PAGE D3
Commissioner Steps Aside
N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell
recused himself from overseeing the
appeals of suspended players in the
New Orleans Saints bounty scandal.
PAGE D6
OP-ED
Joe Nocera
PAGE A23
Charles M. Blow
PAGE A23
Crossword
C4
Obituaries
D8
Weather
C8
Classified Ads
D6
Religious Services
A18
Commercial
Real Estate Marketplace
B2
Corrections
FRONT PAGE
An article on Friday about an
unauthorized iron fertilization
experiment in the Pacific Ocean
misstated the year in which a
sanctioned experiment that was
analyzed in a recent journal arti-
cle had been carried out. It was
2004, not 2009.
An article last Saturdayabout
the handling of security at Ameri-
can diplomatic stations mis-
spelled the surname of the author
of a history of the design and con-
struction of embassies. She is
Jane Loeffler, not Loefller.
York on Thursday night de-
scribed imprecisely the formal
attire worn by both men. They
wore tailcoats, not tuxedoes.
work sought to “deconstruct the
Zionist master plan”; in an e-mail
exchange, he wrote that the ex-
istence of Muslim and Palestin-
ian minorities in the Jewish state
“formed an interference in the Zi-
onist master plan.”
Brandeis students who were
quoted in the article commenting
that Mr. Guez’s work shown at
Brandeis seemed less overtly po-
litical than art displayed in Israel
were referring to exhibitions in
Israel by various Palestinian art-
ists, not to Mr. Guez’s shows
there. While publicity materials
about Mr. Guez’s Rose exhibition
described his work as focusing on
Christian Palestinians, they did
not “label” him a Christian Pales-
tinian.
Contrary to the article’s asser-
tion, the university’s news direc-
tor says museum and university
officials do not acknowledge that
there is scant sympathy on cam-
pus for the Palestinian cause.
And Professor Gannit Ankori is a
curator of the Guez exhibition,
not a staff curator at the Rose.
MAGAZINE
An article this weekend on
page 16 about how Mitt Romney
might deal with unemployment if
he is elected president misstates
the year that Bobby Jindal,
whose job-creation policies as
governor of Louisiana were men-
tioned as a possible model for Mr.
Romney, was sworn into office. It
was 2008, not 2009.
NEW YORK
An article in some editions on
Tuesday about a lawyer, Kenneth
P. Thompson, who is challenging
the longtime Brooklyn district at-
torney, Charles J. Hynes, next
year, referred incorrectly to a
purported endorsement. Assem-
blyman Hakeem Jeffries said he
has not made an endorsement in
the race; it is not the case, as Mr.
Thompson’s spokesman had said,
that Mr. Jeffries backed Mr.
Thompson.
T MAGAZINE
An article this weekend on
page 60 about the makeup artist
Pat McGrath misstates her in-
volvement with Dolce & Gabbana
in the development of its Perfect
Luminous Liquid Foundation and
Glam Intense Liquid Eyeliner.
She was not the sole creator of
the products; she worked with
designers to create them.
NATIONAL
An article on Friday about the
release of Boy Scouts of America
files that detail decades of sexual
abuse misstated the role played
by a lawyer, Kelly Clark. Mr.
Clark won a judgment against the
Scouts in an abuse case in which
the files were used as evidence;
he did not lead the court fight to
seek public access to the files.
(That was led by another lawyer,
Charles F. Hinkle.)
An article on Friday about the
unusual camaraderie between
President Obama and Mitt Rom-
ney at the Alfred E. Smith Memo-
rial Foundation Dinner in New
THE ARTS
An article on last Saturday
about an exhibition at the Rose
Art Museum at Brandeis Uni-
versity of works by Dor Guez, an
artist from Jerusalem whose
work is critical of Israel, included
a number of errors and misquota-
tions.
Visitors who left comments at
a 2011 exhibition of Mr. Guez’s
work in Tel Aviv wrote, “Trai-
tor!” “Go show it in Gaza,” and
“Go to your friends in Gaza” —
not “You’re a terrorist” or “Go
back to Gaza.” The artist did not
say in a 2011 interview that his
Errors and Comments:
nytnews@nytimes.com or call
1-888-NYT-NEWS
(1-888-698-6397).
Editorials: letters@nytimes.com
or fax (212) 556-3622.
Public Editor: Readers dissatisfied
with a response or concerned about
the paper’s journalistic integrity can
reach the public editor, Margaret
Sullivan, at public@nytimes.com.
Newspaper Delivery:
customercare@nytimes.com or call
1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637).
THE NEW YORK TIMES
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018-1405
The New York Times (ISSN 0362-4331) is published
daily. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and
at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send ad-
dress changes to The New York Times, P.O. Box 8042,
Davenport, IA, 52808-8042.
Times Book Review
................................... 1 Yr. $91.00
Large Print Weekly
.................................... 1 Yr. 85.80
Higher rates, available on request, for mail-
ing outside the U.S., or for the New York edi-
tion outside the Northeast: 1-800-631-2580.
*Not including state or local tax.
The Times occasionally makes its list of home de-
livery subscribers available to marketing part-
ners or third parties who offer products or ser-
vices that are likely to interest its readers. If you
do not wish to receive such mailings, please notify
Customer Service, P.O. Box 8042, Davenport, IA,
52808-8042, or e-mail 1-800@nytimes.com.
All advertising published in The New York Times
is subject to the applicable rate card, available from
the advertising department. The Times reserves the
right not to accept an advertiser’s order. Only publi-
cation of an advertisement shall constitute final ac-
ceptance.
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the
use for republication of all news dispatches credited
to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and local
news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights
for republication of all other matter herein are also
reserved.
You can get additional information from The New
York Times on your mobile phone by sending a text
message to 698698 (NYTNYT). This is a compli-
mentary service from The Times. Your mobile carri-
er may charge standard messaging and data rates.
Additional information on these services is available
Mail Subscription Rates*
1 Yr.
6 Mos.
Weekdays and Sundays ................$858.00
$429.00
Weekdays......................................... 492.96
246.48
Sundays ............................................ 426.40
213.20
A3
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
N
CRISTIAN MOVILA FOR THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
Soon after taking office, the Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, above, sought to have the president, Traian Basescu, im-
peached. The attempt failed, but the enmity continues, contributing to instability and undermining investor confidence.
Symbol of Romanian Leadership? Hands on a Throat
By DAN BILEFSKY
BUCHAREST, Romania — Per-
haps the best that can be said of
relations between the president
and prime minister of Romania is
that they are unambiguous: they
can’t stand each other.
That is less than surprising,
given that one of the first major
actions taken by Prime Minister
Victor Ponta after he came to
power in May was to push for a
vote on whether to impeach the
president, Traian Basescu. The
attempt to oust Mr. Basescu
failed in July, but the poisonous
effects are still being felt.
The acrimony has dashed the
high hopes that accompanied the
electoral victory of the 40-year-
old Mr. Ponta, who promised to
usher in generational change in a
country that has struggled to
overcome one of the harshest
Communist legacies among the
former Soviet bloc states.
The two men are now locked in
an uncomfortable cohabitation
until elections in December, leav-
ing this poor Balkan nation adrift.
And even that vote, analysts say,
may prove inconclusive.
In an interview at the gargan-
tuan and opulent 1,100-room Pal-
ace of Parliament, built by the
former Communist dictator Nico-
lae Ceausescu as a monument to
his authority and grandeur, Mr.
Ponta acknowledged mistakes
but fell short of expressing out-
right regret.
He could barely conceal his
contempt for Mr. Basescu, a for-
mer ship captain, whom he ac-
cused of brazenly clinging to
power despite having been re-
jected by a majority of Roma-
nians, calling the president politi-
cally “illegitimate.”
“My mentality as a new gener-
ation of politician is to respect the
institution even if I don’t respect
the person,” he said. “He will nev-
er give up. He is a former sea
captain, and you won’t see a for-
mer sea captain being humble or
giving up.”
Romania’s troubles have add-
ed to concerns in the United
States and Europe about the po-
litical instability and threats to
democratic institutions that are
intensifying across the former
Communist bloc.
In Hungary, Prime Minister
Viktor Orban has come under
criticism for flouting democracy
with a series of measures that
have brought the judiciary and
the news media to heel. In the
Czech Republic, the government
has teetered on the edge of col-
lapse with ministers involved in
corruption scandals.
Romania, in particular, lacked
a history of stable, enlightened
governance even before it en-
dured World War II and then dec-
ades of the Ceausescu dictator-
ship, which ended with his vio-
lent overthrow in 1989.
Since then, Romanians have la-
bored to build democratic struc-
tures virtually from scratch, find-
ing themselves in a far more
challenging position than almost
any of their post-Communist
neighbors. Romania’s foibles
have provoked debate about
whether it and Bulgaria, which
both entered the European Union
in 2007, were invited too soon, be-
demic graft and corruption. Add-
ing to the mistrust are accusa-
tions that Mr. Ponta, a former
prosecutor, plagiarized parts of
his doctoral thesis. (He says the
accusations were politically moti-
vated, but an academic panel at
the University of Bucharest,
where he was awarded the Ph.D.
in 2003, upheld them. Yet, he has
not been stripped of his title.)
Romania’s mercurial president
has also played a key role in fo-
menting crisis.
The move for impeachment
was prompted by accusations
from the government that Mr.
Basescu had overreached his
mandate by, among other things,
refusing to appoint ministers
chosen by the prime minister,
pressuring prosecutors in legal
cases and using the secret serv-
ices against enemies.
Mr. Basescu, who has denied
the accusations, accused Mr.
Ponta — already being criticized
for abusing the system of parlia-
mentary checks and balances —
of orchestrating a “coup d’état.”
Mr. Ponta said his main short-
coming had been to not effective-
ly communicate the reasons be-
hind the impeachment vote. To
repair the nation’s image, Mr.
Ponta said, he was studiously
avoiding confrontations with the
president, and had recently re-
moved himself from an acrimoni-
ous meeting about foreign policy
to avoid another public and dam-
aging altercation.
“Our European and American
partners appreciate stability and
predictability, and the lack of
these two leads to overreaction
and misunderstanding,” Mr. Pon-
ta said, explaining the lessons he
has learned since becoming
prime minister.
Mr. Basescu declined an in-
terview request, in keeping with
the conspicuously low profile he
has maintained since the referen-
dum on his impeachment, which
was favored by an overwhelming
majority in July, even though the
turnout of 46 percent was below
the 50 percent needed to make
the vote valid.
Western diplomats were so
concerned in August that the
country was teetering toward
lawlessness that in August,
Washington dispatched Philip H.
Gordon, the assistant secretary
of state for European and Eur-
asian affairs, to Bucharest, where
he met both men and warned that
Romania must uphold the rule of
law.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany and José Manuel Bar-
roso, the European Commission
president, have also voiced con-
cerns. Talks on Romania’s bid to
join the European Union’s cov-
eted visa-free zone, scheduled for
September, were postponed.
Romania has to “remove all
doubts on its commitment to the
rule of law, the independence of
the judiciary and the respect for
constitutional rulings,” Mr. Bar-
roso warned Mr. Ponta last
month in Brussels.
Monica Macovei, a former min-
ister of justice and close ally of
Mr. Basescu, argued in an in-
terview that the breaches of the
rule of law in the run-up to the
impeachment referendum were
worse than anything since the
Ceausescu era, referring to the
government’s measures to con-
solidate its power.
But she insisted that Roma-
nia’s membership in the Euro-
pean Union had been instrumen-
tal in overcoming the political
showdown. The European Union
closely monitors Romania’s jus-
tice system and also gives Bucha-
rest much-needed financing.
That gives Brussels significant
leverage over the country.
“We joined the E.U. to follow
the rules, not to destroy them,”
she said.
There is little indication, how-
ever, that the political tumult will
end soon. Mr. Ponta’s leftist coali-
tion is expected to do well in the
December elections, analysts
say, but may fall short of winning
a majority. Voters appear even
more disenchanted with Mr.
Basescu and his rightist party,
which they associate with pun-
ishing austerity measures.
More than anything, the re-
lentless sparring and stalemate
have engendered deep disap-
pointment among Romanians in
the promise of their young de-
mocracy and disillusionment
with their political leadership.
“Our politicians behave like
children fighting over a toy,” said
Monica Cristea, 43, a manicurist
from Poenari, a village near Bu-
charest. “They have destroyed
our international reputation,” Ms.
Cristea said. “I am outraged. I
don’t like any of them. I don’t
trust them.”
A host of emergency
decrees alarmed
Romanians and
Western diplomats.
fore their cultures of lawlessness,
corruption and winner-take-all
politics had been uprooted.
The vociferousness of the do-
mestic battle in Romania has
overshadowed policy-making;
rattled the currency, the leu; and
undermined investor confidence
in a country that is the second
poorest in the European Union
after Bulgaria.
Mr. Ponta’s government has is-
sued more than two dozen emer-
gency decrees — moves that,
while legal, have alarmed West-
ern diplomats and many Roma-
nians. The government dis-
missed the speakers of both
chambers of Parliament, which
the opposition said was unconsti-
tutional. And amid accusations
that it was pressuring the Consti-
tutional Court, the government
ousted the ombudsman, who has
the power to challenge emergen-
cy legislation before the court.
Some members of the progo-
vernment media have accused
foreign journalists of being anti-
Romanian agents. The public re-
mains largely disgusted with en-
GORAN TOMASEVIC/REUTERS
Religious Tensions Worsen in Tanzania
Muslims clashed with the police Friday for the third straight day on the semiautonomous island of Zanzibar, above, over the disap-
pearance this week of Sheik Farid Hari, a leader of the Islamic Uamsho movement. Violence spread to the capital, Dar es Salaam.
A4
N
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
As China Weighs Shifting Economic Policy, a Rivalry for Its Stewardship
By KEITH BRADSHER
BEIJING — Advocates for far-reach-
ing economic policy changes in China
have long pinned their hopes on Wang
Qishan, a cagey former banker with a
reputation for forcing difficult decisions
through recalcitrant bureaucracies.
When Zhu Rongji was prime minister
of China from 1998 to 2003, dismantling
thousands of state-owned enterprises
while opening the path for a boom in
private enterprise, Mr. Wang was the
protégé at his side. When the SARS vi-
rus began running unchecked through
the city of Beijing in the spring of 2003,
Mr. Wang was named acting mayor and
quickly brought the disease under con-
trol.
And when President Hu Jintao need-
ed a vice prime minister in 2008 to man-
age day-to-day financial and economic
policies and oversee economic relations
with the United States, he turned to Mr.
Wang.
But a number of Communist Party in-
siders say that with the approach of the
18th Party Congress, scheduled to begin
on Nov. 8 and the forum for China to
usher in a new leadership team for the
detail.
But he has considerably less experi-
ence than Mr. Wang, 64, in handling cri-
ses or pushing through tough decisions
that offend vested interests, said a long-
time associate of both men. Mr. Li
“might not have the leverage to get
things done,” he said.
A broad consensus exists at senior
levels of the Chinese government in fa-
vor of shifting the economy toward a
more sustainable trajectory. That tra-
jectory could rely more on domestic de-
mand than exports, more on consump-
tion than investment spending, more on
small and medium-size private compa-
nies than state-owned enterprises and
more on creditworthiness than political
connections to allocate loans from the
state-owned banking system.
But practically every specific policy
change required to carry out that broad
objective is blocked by a different in-
terest group, often including the
“princelings” — children of current and
former senior Chinese officials.
Indeed, Mr. Wen, the departing prime
minister, has spent a lot of time talking
about the need for economic changes,
become executive vice prime minister,
an influential position with the main re-
sponsibility for putting in place policies
on practically all nonmilitary issues.
But while that cannot be entirely ruled
out, opinion in elite circles seems to be
moving quickly against him, said an-
other admirer of Mr. Wang with high-
level access in the Communist Party.
Party insiders with access to min-
isters and more senior officials said that
Mr. Wang now appeared most likely to
be made the chairman of the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Confer-
ence — a figurehead position at the
head of a national advisory body. He
also has an outside chance of becoming
the chairman of the National People’s
Congress, which has important respon-
sibilities for legal changes but a lesser
role on economic policy.
Either position would confer mem-
bership in the Standing Committee of
the Communist Party’s Politburo, the
nine-member panel that rules China
and might shrink to seven members af-
ter the Party Congress. Indeed, both
chairmanships are considered senior
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
A Top Contender Fades
first time in a decade, Mr. Wang’s
chances of being named to a top job
with broad authority over the economy
appear to be dwindling by the day.
While the responsibilities of China’s
new leadership team have not yet been
finalized — and are not expected to be
announced until the end of the Party
Congress — the emerging consensus is
that Mr. Wang is likely to be promoted
to a position on the Standing Committee
of the Politburo, China’s top decision-
making body, but not to have day-to-day
control of the bureaucracy that over-
sees China’s still largely state-driven
economy.
Insiders say they now expect that
economic policy will be left mostly in
the hands of Li Keqiang, who is set to
replace Wen Jiabao as prime minister
next year. Mr. Li, 57, is a highly educat-
ed official with an almost professorial
style who is said to read voluminous
economic policy reports in often minute
YVES HERMAN/REUTERS
Li Keqiang is expected to become
prime minister of China next year.
but has had little success in pushing dif-
ficult decisions through the bureaucra-
cies of the Communist Party and the
government.
Mr. Wang had been considered until
recent days to be a strong candidate to
Continued on Page A10
Another Day,
Another Claim
That Castro
Is Really Dead
By DAMIEN CAVE
MEXICO CITY — Like a tropical
storm, rumors about the failing health
of Fidel Castro strengthened, swirled,
dissipated and left everyone guessing
again on Friday, as a doctor in Florida
— and a Twitter account falsely linked
to the Cuban foreign minister —
claimed that Cuba’s retired leader was
on his deathbed or dead.
It was at least the fifth time (or was it
50th?) that Mr. Castro had been sent to
the grave by uncorroborated accounts
since he left government after a myste-
rious ailment in 2006. And as with past
claims, the reality of the situation was
impossible to immediately determine.
Members of Mr. Castro’s family and
the Cuban government, which consid-
ers Mr. Castro’s health a matter of na-
tional security, have denied the rumors.
Officials with the Cuban foreign min-
istry, in a rare step, even used Twitter
on Friday to denounce an account
claiming to be administered by the for-
eign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla,
after it sent out a death announcement
for Mr. Castro.
The Twitter account was created only
Thursday and, despite its official-seem-
ing pronouncements, did not match the
Foreign Ministry’s Twitter handle.
Similarly, the comments of a Venezu-
elan doctor in Naples, Fla., about the
state of Mr. Castro’s health raised eye-
brows because of the source: Dr. Jose
Marquina, a sleep specialist who
claimed in April that Hugo Chávez, Ven-
ezuela’s cancer-stricken president, was
in his “last days.” (Mr. Chávez is not
only alive, but he just won a heated
presidential race this month).
MAHMUD HAMS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Palestinians paid their final respects to the Salafist leader Hisham al-Saidini, who was killed in Gaza by one of two Israeli missile strikes this month.
Hamas Finds Itself Aligned With Israel Over Extremist Groups
decades, engaged in charitable activi-
ties and Islamic education, and depend-
ent on donations from supporters
abroad, mainly in Persian Gulf states.
But after the elections in 2006, mil-
itant jihadists began attacks against Is-
rael and also against Internet cafes, res-
taurants and women’s hair salons in
Gaza, places they saw as being at odds
with their deeply conservative interpre-
tation of Islam.
A turning point came in August 2009,
when the radical group Jund Ansar Al-
lah declared an Islamic emirate in the
southern part of Gaza. About 100 of the
group’s men holed up in a mosque in the
southern city of Rafah and engaged in a
standoff with Hamas security officers
that ended in a shootout. In all, 28 Pales-
tinians were killed in the fighting, most
of them Salafists, including the group’s
leader, Abdel Latif Moussa.
Nathan Thrall, a Middle East analyst
at the Brussels-based International Cri-
sis Group, noted that since the crack-
down in 2009, the number of attacks
against cafes and entertainment sites in
Gaza had decreased dramatically.
“Hamas has been overwhelmingly
successful in containing Gaza’s Salafi-
jihadi groups,” Mr. Thrall wrote by
e-mail.
Adnan Abu Amer, a political analyst
in Gaza, said the Salafists, especially
those engaged in violence, had only a
“modest structure” in Gaza that lacks
popular support, making it easier for
Hamas to curb them.
Israeli officials also point to a degree
of ambivalence in Hamas’s dealings
with the jihadist groups.
“Till now, Hamas has not reached a
strategic decision to put an end to this
phenomenon,” said Mr. Kuperwasser,
the defense official. He noted that Ha-
mas had released Mr. Saidini, the mil-
itant recently killed in an Israeli strike,
from prison in August.
Mr. Kuperwasser said Hamas’s re-
luctance to decisively confront the ji-
hadist groups may stem from a fear of
their strength, as well as the possibility
that some Hamas security members
would balk at taking tough action
against former colleagues.
“They do take some steps on the
ground,” Mr. Kuperwasser said of Ha-
mas, “but never full-heartedly.”
By FARES AKRAM
and ISABEL KERSHNER
GAZA — Hamas, the Islamic group
that governs Gaza and was once consid-
ered one of the most extreme Palestin-
ian movements itself, is working to sup-
press the more radical Islamic militant
groups that have emerged here, ac-
cording to militants, putting Hamas in
the unusual position of sharing an in-
terest with Israel.
The jihadist extremists, known as
Salafists and inspired by the ideology of
Al Qaeda, are challenging Hamas’s in-
formal and fragile cease-fire with Israel.
Salafist militants say Hamas has
been making arrests in recent days and
confiscating weapons from one of the
groups, Jaish al-Umma, or Army of the
Nation. While some Salafists seek to
further their uncompromising form of
Islam by peaceful means, others here
have turned in recent years to violence.
Both Hamas and Israel view the Sala-
fist militant groups with increasing con-
cern. Israeli officials point to the contin-
ued flow of arms into Gaza and to links
forged between the groups in Gaza and
those across the southern border, in the
rough and mountainous desert terrain
of the Sinai Peninsula.
“Hamas is tightening the grip on our
necks and storms our houses,” a Salafist
said in an interview this week at his
house in a refugee camp in central
Gaza. Speaking on the condition of ano-
nymity to avoid the attention of the Ha-
mas authorities, he added, “We are
chased down by Israel, Hamas and
Egypt.”
The activist used to belong to another
radical group called Jund Ansar Allah,
or Soldiers of the Supporters of God,
which was crushed by Hamas in 2009.
Now, he spends most of his time re-
searching Islamic law and consulting
with other Salafists who come to his
home, which has a library of about 100
books on Islamic subjects.
A Salafist leader who also spoke
anonymously for fear of reprisal by Ha-
mas said in an interview, “The jihadists
as groups are over now.” He said Ha-
mas had been going after the groups
one by one.
Rumors, denials and
silence follow the health
of Cuba’s retired leader.
Dr. Marquina seems to have set off
the latest round of speculation by telling
a Spanish newspaper and The Miami
Herald this week that Mr. Castro had
had a stroke and was in a vegetative
state. He offered no proof, and when
asked outside his Florida home on Fri-
day to explain the basis for his as-
sertions, he said: “No, no, no, no, no.
I’m not doing interviews.”
Previously, Dr. Marquina has said he
had a number of sources in Venezuela
and Cuba who keep him informed about
the health of both leaders, Latin Ameri-
ca’s two most voluble leftists. Mr. Chá-
vez has been out of the public eye for
several days, without explanation. The
speculation among some theorists: He
is in Havana saying his final goodbyes
to his close friend and mentor, Mr. Cas-
tro.
Cuban state media published a letter
on Thursday that was said to be written
by Mr. Castro, in which he congratulat-
ed medical school graduates. But for
those who watch Cuba closely, Mr. Cas-
tro’s long illness; his age, 86; and the
lack of visual proof that he is still alive
have become too much to ignore.
Ann Louise Bardach, the author of
several books on Cuba, including “With-
out Fidel,” said this round of rumors
amounts to what could be the first “au-
thentic red alert.”
“Here is what we know: We know
there has been no photograph since
March,” she said. “Every other time
when they say he is dead or dying they
show you a photo or video of someone
visiting him.”
On Twitter, skeptics and believers
seemed to emerge in equal number. A
search for “Fidel” yielded a never-end-
ing stream of commentary on Friday.
HATEM MOUSSA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Guarding the smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt in Rafah. Ha-
mas has worked to prevent logistical cooperation between militant groups.
Hamas government officials refused
to comment on measures against the
Salafist militants. But Yahiya Moussa, a
Hamas member of the Palestinian Par-
liament, said that while the Salafist
groups had the right to carry out resist-
ance against Israel, it must be “within
the unified and national program,”
meaning in line with Hamas policy.
A senior Israeli defense official, Yossi
Kuperwasser, said that in Gaza, Israel
was facing a “hostile governing element
challenged by an even more hostile ele-
ment” and that “radical Islamic groups
are competing with each other over who
is more radical.” In a briefing with re-
porters in Jerusalem this week, Mr.
Kuperwasser, the director of Israel’s
Ministry of Strategic Affairs, also said
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, an-
other significant force positioned some-
where between Hamas and the Sala-
fists, was becoming stronger and better
armed. Twice this month, Israel has
launched deadly missile strikes against
militants in Gaza whom it identified as
operatives in the global jihad move-
ment, saying they were involved in fir-
ing rockets and planning other attacks
against Israel.
One of the strikes killed Hisham al-
Saidini, a senior militant who led the Al
Tawhid and Jihad group. The Israeli
military said Mr. Saidini had been plan-
ning a complex attack against Israel
along the Sinai border by Gaza-based
militants in collaboration with Salafist
operatives in Sinai.
Hamas has been tightening security
along Gaza’s border with Egypt in an ef-
fort to prevent logistical cooperation be-
tween the groups on both sides, carry-
ing out more identity checks of people in
the area, according to Palestinians who
work in the smuggling tunnels that run
beneath the border.
While some point to the success of
Hamas in containing the Salafist
groups, others note that the effort is
complicated by the fact that most of the
jihadists emerged from the ranks of Ha-
mas. They left after the group decided
to participate in Palestinian parliamen-
tary elections in 2006 and beat its sec-
ular rival, the Fatah movement.
Salafists said Hamas’s decision to
participate in the elections derailed it
from its Islamic course. A year later, af-
ter bouts of bloody factional fighting,
Hamas seized full control of Gaza, rout-
ing the Fatah forces there.
Salafists have been active in Gaza for
Fares Akram reported from Gaza, and
Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.
A5
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
N
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]