Thursday, January 13, 2005
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January 13, 2005Questions Linger as Governor Takes Over in WashingtonBy TIMOTHY EGAN OLYMPIA, Wash., Jan. 12 - The swearing-in ceremony here that made the Democrat Christine A. Gregoire the new governor of Washington on Wednesday after one of the closest statehouse races in history had all the somber ritualistic touches, complete with prayers and bagpipes wailing "God Bless America."But outside, on the airwaves, on billboards and in statements made by Republicans, Ms. Gregoire's hold on the office was questioned even as she gave her inauguration speech. Republicans and their candidate, Dino Rossi, have sued to overturn the election, which Ms. Gregoire won by 129 votes after two recounts. The court case, filed in a Republican-leaning county, will most likely be settled only when this state's Supreme Court weighs in. Republicans say the election was flawed because of irregularities in the biggest and most Democratic county, while Gregoire supporters say the problems were not unusual for a large turnout, and did not change the outcome.But the Washington Constitution has no specific provision on a revote, leaving leaders of both parties struggling over the high ground of public esteem as the politics of the state enters the frontier. For Republicans, that means building a base of discontented voters using their allies in conservative talk radio and the building industry. As Ms. Gregoire was giving her speech, the Building Industry Association of Washington ran radio advertisements saying, "We don't even know who our legitimate governor is." They were backed by conservative radio hosts, who helped to organize a rally of about 2,500 anti-Gregoire forces here on Tuesday. They called on legislators to delay the swearing-in while the court heard the legal challenge. The motion was defeated along party lines.For Democrats, the new campaign means trying to build a base of majority popular support for Ms. Gregoire, should a new vote take place. In her inaugural speech, Ms. Gregoire, the former state attorney general, struck a conciliatory tone, reaching out to Mr. Rossi and calling for election reform. She announced a task force, chaired by Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, to review the state's election process. In her speech, before a packed house in the capitol rotunda, Ms. Gregoire recalled her blue-collar background, thanked her mother - a "short order cook" - and her parish priest, who gave a prayer. She talked about her survival from breast cancer, and praised her husband, a Vietnam veteran."Many have asked how I can govern without a clear mandate from voters," she said. "I believe the voters have given us a mandate - a mandate to overcome our differences and to solve problems."After the speech, Republican leaders tried to walk a line between acknowledging Ms. Gregoire as governor and saying it was not quite over. "The fact is we will never know who really won this election," said Representative Bruce Chandler, in giving the Republican response. "That's very disconcerting." Republicans said their party base is angry, and not willing to give up. At the Tuesday rally, Republicans chanted "Re-vote! Re-vote!," while Democrats, in a much smaller rally, held signs that read, "Don't waste our tax $ on your hurt feelings." The leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Bill Finkbeiner, seemed to take a small step toward reconciliation. "She's now the governor of Washington State and we're ready to work with her," he said. "In the meantime, this is going to be sorted out."What happens next is uncertain. Democrats said the court could throw out the results, but any remedy would be in the Legislature. A Democratic leader in the House, Representative Helen Sommers, also said it would be uncharted territory for a court to order a new election. Among the questions are whether there would be a primary, or whether third party candidates could run. A Libertarian candidate got more than 60,000 votes in the race, more than enough to tip the balance. "If the court were to set aside the result, I assume they would direct the Legislature to find a remedy," Ms. Sommers said. "But I don't even think a court could set it aside."Republicans have not detailed any plans on how a new election would take place. They circulated an online petition, and with their allies in industry, have backed an electronic billboard message for a re-vote, which flashes along Interstate 5.Mr. Rossi led after the initial count of the votes and in the first recount, done by machine, and lost in the second one, done by hand. . At nightfall, both sides appeared ready to put differences aside for the inaugural ball, even as they said it could be the only semblance of a honeymoon for Ms. Gregoire.Eli Sanders contributed reporting for this article.
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January 13, 2005Questions Linger as Governor Takes Over in WashingtonBy TIMOTHY EGAN OLYMPIA, Wash., Jan. 12 - The swearing-in ceremony here that made the Democrat Christine A. Gregoire the new governor of Washington on Wednesday after one of the closest statehouse races in history had all the somber ritualistic touches, complete with prayers and bagpipes wailing "God Bless America."But outside, on the airwaves, on billboards and in statements made by Republicans, Ms. Gregoire's hold on the office was questioned even as she gave her inauguration speech. Republicans and their candidate, Dino Rossi, have sued to overturn the election, which Ms. Gregoire won by 129 votes after two recounts. The court case, filed in a Republican-leaning county, will most likely be settled only when this state's Supreme Court weighs in. Republicans say the election was flawed because of irregularities in the biggest and most Democratic county, while Gregoire supporters say the problems were not unusual for a large turnout, and did not change the outcome.But the Washington Constitution has no specific provision on a revote, leaving leaders of both parties struggling over the high ground of public esteem as the politics of the state enters the frontier. For Republicans, that means building a base of discontented voters using their allies in conservative talk radio and the building industry. As Ms. Gregoire was giving her speech, the Building Industry Association of Washington ran radio advertisements saying, "We don't even know who our legitimate governor is." They were backed by conservative radio hosts, who helped to organize a rally of about 2,500 anti-Gregoire forces here on Tuesday. They called on legislators to delay the swearing-in while the court heard the legal challenge. The motion was defeated along party lines.For Democrats, the new campaign means trying to build a base of majority popular support for Ms. Gregoire, should a new vote take place. In her inaugural speech, Ms. Gregoire, the former state attorney general, struck a conciliatory tone, reaching out to Mr. Rossi and calling for election reform. She announced a task force, chaired by Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, to review the state's election process. In her speech, before a packed house in the capitol rotunda, Ms. Gregoire recalled her blue-collar background, thanked her mother - a "short order cook" - and her parish priest, who gave a prayer. She talked about her survival from breast cancer, and praised her husband, a Vietnam veteran."Many have asked how I can govern without a clear mandate from voters," she said. "I believe the voters have given us a mandate - a mandate to overcome our differences and to solve problems."After the speech, Republican leaders tried to walk a line between acknowledging Ms. Gregoire as governor and saying it was not quite over. "The fact is we will never know who really won this election," said Representative Bruce Chandler, in giving the Republican response. "That's very disconcerting." Republicans said their party base is angry, and not willing to give up. At the Tuesday rally, Republicans chanted "Re-vote! Re-vote!," while Democrats, in a much smaller rally, held signs that read, "Don't waste our tax $ on your hurt feelings." The leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Bill Finkbeiner, seemed to take a small step toward reconciliation. "She's now the governor of Washington State and we're ready to work with her," he said. "In the meantime, this is going to be sorted out."What happens next is uncertain. Democrats said the court could throw out the results, but any remedy would be in the Legislature. A Democratic leader in the House, Representative Helen Sommers, also said it would be uncharted territory for a court to order a new election. Among the questions are whether there would be a primary, or whether third party candidates could run. A Libertarian candidate got more than 60,000 votes in the race, more than enough to tip the balance. "If the court were to set aside the result, I assume they would direct the Legislature to find a remedy," Ms. Sommers said. "But I don't even think a court could set it aside."Republicans have not detailed any plans on how a new election would take place. They circulated an online petition, and with their allies in industry, have backed an electronic billboard message for a re-vote, which flashes along Interstate 5.Mr. Rossi led after the initial count of the votes and in the first recount, done by machine, and lost in the second one, done by hand. . At nightfall, both sides appeared ready to put differences aside for the inaugural ball, even as they said it could be the only semblance of a honeymoon for Ms. Gregoire.Eli Sanders contributed reporting for this article.
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^ Back to vegasmike433's PhotosThursday, January 13, 20056:57:07 PMViewed 2 times
January 13, 2005Father's Grim Search Ends as 4 Bodies Are FoundBy CHARLIE LeDUFF and NICK MADIGAN LA CONCHITA, Calif., Jan. 12 - Jimmie Wallet's worst fears were confirmed in the darkness of early morning.Frantic and exhausted after more than 36 hours of searching for his wife and three of his daughters in the rubble of La Conchita's fallen mountain, a stricken Mr. Wallet absorbed the full weight of the calamity before dawn on Wednesday, when searchers discovered the lifeless body of his wife, Michelle. An hour later, the corpse of one of the girls was found nearby. Next, the body of a second daughter. Then a third.The authorities believe that there are at least three more people buried in the wreckage."The kids," muttered Capt. Drue Holthe of the Montecito Fire Department, who has been working on the pile of mud, wrecked homes and crushed automobiles since the palisade succumbed on Monday afternoon to the rain that had swallowed Southern California for nearly a week. "It's really hard," the captain said. "We're all family men. Your children are the dearest things in your life."The unearthing of Michelle Wallet, 36, and the three girls, Hannah, 10; Raven, 6; and Paloma, 2, brought to 10 the number of confirmed dead since the hill collapsed, burying about 15 houses and damaging an additional 16. A fourth daughter, Jasmine, 16, lives in Ventura. For Mr. Wallet, 38, a lean, itinerant carpenter who wears dreadlocks, it was the worst kind of disaster after a string of misfortunes. Four months ago, he was on the drift, with no home or solid employment prospects, when he and his family were taken in by Charly Womack, a fellow carpenter and builder with a home in La Conchita and a generous heart, by all accounts. Mr. Womack died in the landslide. His body was one of the first found, an ominous piece of news for anyone harboring hopes that his houseguests might have survived. As the search for survivors and victims continued on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flew over the scene in a military helicopter and then landed for closer inspection. The governor, accompanied by a large entourage, walked to the edge of the landslide and declared Ventura County a disaster area. Under an unusually clear and blue sky, Mr. Schwarzenegger, wearing a leather jacket, khakis and alligator boots embossed with his official seal, peered into a hole and spoke a few words of encouragement to rescue workers whose hands were chapped and bloody from digging through the hardening clay. "The key thing is that we clean up this mess here as quickly as possible and we find the people who are still missing," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. "Hopefully some of them we still find alive."He also said that people who elect to live in places that are prone to plunging hillsides and other disasters - a slide here in 1995 engulfed several houses, although no one was killed - had every right to do so, regardless of the danger.During a meeting of La Conchita residents on Wednesday morning at a Red Cross evacuation center in Ventura, south of here, some people wept as the names of the 10 confirmed dead were read aloud. But then, when the names of the presumed missing were mentioned, four people on the list stood to say they were present and fine, said Janelle Beck, 47, a resident who attended. She called it "the best news so far." Asked whether she intended to move away from La Conchita now that its status as a danger zone had been firmly established, Ms. Beck said, "Move? How could I move? The house ain't worth anything anymore."The scene on Wednesday in La Conchita, known for its free spirits and great surfing, was Dadaesque. There were almost as many members of the press as rescue workers, who included orange-clad prison inmates, male and female."Jimmie's family is dead, Charly is dead - it's so, so sad," said Maya Jamal, 26, a close friend of the Wallets' who made music and cooked dinners and watched the sunsets with them. "The children are the hardest thing."Funds for the Wallet and Womack families have been set up at the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust branch in Santa Barbara, a few miles north of here.When the hill fell on Monday, Mr. Wallet avoided the fate of his wife and children only because he had gone to a local store to get them ice cream. On his way back, the bluff cracked, and his family was gone.He seemed to bury his shock in a driven search for his wife and daughters. So distraught was Mr. Wallet that the police put him in handcuffs on Tuesday and led him from the rubble, before letting him return later to the rescue effort. On Tuesday night, he and several friends, including Mr. Womack's sons Orion and Isaiah, scrabbled through the crushed remains of the house whenever the firefighters in charge gave them an opportunity, occasionally picking up a sweatshirt or a comforter that they recognized.At one point, rescue workers found the corpse of a man at what had been the entrance to a garage, placed it carefully into a white body bag, and slowly picked it up, passing it over the hood of a battered red sports car.The search for the little Wallet girls continued. Isaiah Womack and another man, Gary Gallardo, called out to them. "Raven!" Mr. Gallardo yelled. "If you guys can hear us, hang on! If you're under this car, hang in there! We'll get you!"A few hours later, Mr. Wallet was there when his family was recovered."It's hard to believe in God when a baby gets buried," said Laura Ramirez, Mr. Wallet's sister-in-law, who noted that the family's spiritual roots were Roman Catholic. After Mr. Wallet's wife and daughters had been placed in a liquor store that was being used as a temporary morgue, Mr. Wallet left La Conchita for a while. When he returned, he insisted on rejoining the search for other victims, but a sheriff's deputy stopped him at a barricade."I just want to carry buckets," Mr. Wallet said."No," the deputy responded. "O.K. Let me go get my kids' clothes."The deputy looked into the man's tortured eyes. "You could get hurt, Jimmie," he said. Mr. Wallet's reply was swift: "I don't care if I die."
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January 13, 2005Father's Grim Search Ends as 4 Bodies Are FoundBy CHARLIE LeDUFF and NICK MADIGAN LA CONCHITA, Calif., Jan. 12 - Jimmie Wallet's worst fears were confirmed in the darkness of early morning.Frantic and exhausted after more than 36 hours of searching for his wife and three of his daughters in the rubble of La Conchita's fallen mountain, a stricken Mr. Wallet absorbed the full weight of the calamity before dawn on Wednesday, when searchers discovered the lifeless body of his wife, Michelle. An hour later, the corpse of one of the girls was found nearby. Next, the body of a second daughter. Then a third.The authorities believe that there are at least three more people buried in the wreckage."The kids," muttered Capt. Drue Holthe of the Montecito Fire Department, who has been working on the pile of mud, wrecked homes and crushed automobiles since the palisade succumbed on Monday afternoon to the rain that had swallowed Southern California for nearly a week. "It's really hard," the captain said. "We're all family men. Your children are the dearest things in your life."The unearthing of Michelle Wallet, 36, and the three girls, Hannah, 10; Raven, 6; and Paloma, 2, brought to 10 the number of confirmed dead since the hill collapsed, burying about 15 houses and damaging an additional 16. A fourth daughter, Jasmine, 16, lives in Ventura. For Mr. Wallet, 38, a lean, itinerant carpenter who wears dreadlocks, it was the worst kind of disaster after a string of misfortunes. Four months ago, he was on the drift, with no home or solid employment prospects, when he and his family were taken in by Charly Womack, a fellow carpenter and builder with a home in La Conchita and a generous heart, by all accounts. Mr. Womack died in the landslide. His body was one of the first found, an ominous piece of news for anyone harboring hopes that his houseguests might have survived. As the search for survivors and victims continued on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flew over the scene in a military helicopter and then landed for closer inspection. The governor, accompanied by a large entourage, walked to the edge of the landslide and declared Ventura County a disaster area. Under an unusually clear and blue sky, Mr. Schwarzenegger, wearing a leather jacket, khakis and alligator boots embossed with his official seal, peered into a hole and spoke a few words of encouragement to rescue workers whose hands were chapped and bloody from digging through the hardening clay. "The key thing is that we clean up this mess here as quickly as possible and we find the people who are still missing," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. "Hopefully some of them we still find alive."He also said that people who elect to live in places that are prone to plunging hillsides and other disasters - a slide here in 1995 engulfed several houses, although no one was killed - had every right to do so, regardless of the danger.During a meeting of La Conchita residents on Wednesday morning at a Red Cross evacuation center in Ventura, south of here, some people wept as the names of the 10 confirmed dead were read aloud. But then, when the names of the presumed missing were mentioned, four people on the list stood to say they were present and fine, said Janelle Beck, 47, a resident who attended. She called it "the best news so far." Asked whether she intended to move away from La Conchita now that its status as a danger zone had been firmly established, Ms. Beck said, "Move? How could I move? The house ain't worth anything anymore."The scene on Wednesday in La Conchita, known for its free spirits and great surfing, was Dadaesque. There were almost as many members of the press as rescue workers, who included orange-clad prison inmates, male and female."Jimmie's family is dead, Charly is dead - it's so, so sad," said Maya Jamal, 26, a close friend of the Wallets' who made music and cooked dinners and watched the sunsets with them. "The children are the hardest thing."Funds for the Wallet and Womack families have been set up at the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust branch in Santa Barbara, a few miles north of here.When the hill fell on Monday, Mr. Wallet avoided the fate of his wife and children only because he had gone to a local store to get them ice cream. On his way back, the bluff cracked, and his family was gone.He seemed to bury his shock in a driven search for his wife and daughters. So distraught was Mr. Wallet that the police put him in handcuffs on Tuesday and led him from the rubble, before letting him return later to the rescue effort. On Tuesday night, he and several friends, including Mr. Womack's sons Orion and Isaiah, scrabbled through the crushed remains of the house whenever the firefighters in charge gave them an opportunity, occasionally picking up a sweatshirt or a comforter that they recognized.At one point, rescue workers found the corpse of a man at what had been the entrance to a garage, placed it carefully into a white body bag, and slowly picked it up, passing it over the hood of a battered red sports car.The search for the little Wallet girls continued. Isaiah Womack and another man, Gary Gallardo, called out to them. "Raven!" Mr. Gallardo yelled. "If you guys can hear us, hang on! If you're under this car, hang in there! We'll get you!"A few hours later, Mr. Wallet was there when his family was recovered."It's hard to believe in God when a baby gets buried," said Laura Ramirez, Mr. Wallet's sister-in-law, who noted that the family's spiritual roots were Roman Catholic. After Mr. Wallet's wife and daughters had been placed in a liquor store that was being used as a temporary morgue, Mr. Wallet left La Conchita for a while. When he returned, he insisted on rejoining the search for other victims, but a sheriff's deputy stopped him at a barricade."I just want to carry buckets," Mr. Wallet said."No," the deputy responded. "O.K. Let me go get my kids' clothes."The deputy looked into the man's tortured eyes. "You could get hurt, Jimmie," he said. Mr. Wallet's reply was swift: "I don't care if I die."
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today's papersSupremely ConfusingBy Eric UmanskyPosted Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005, at 12:30 AM PT
The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal world-wide newsbox, and New York Times all lead with the Supreme Court ruling 5-4 that federal judges aren't required to follow mandatory sentencing guidelines, but still, um, "must consult" them and "take them into account." The seemingly split-the-baby ruling came via an unusual two-part decision.
The Los Angeles Times leads with word that the development of FBI software meant to help agents share counter-terrorism info is going so poorly that the bureau might have to scrap it and start over. The software was supposed to be ready at the end of 2003. USA Today leads with, and others front, the fed's aggressive new dietary guidelines. If you don't want to disappoint your government: Exercise an hour a day, eat heaps of fruit and veggies, and skip stuff with added sugar. That last bit of advice irked the high-minded sugar lobby, which told the Post the recommendation is "not science based."
The way mandatory sentences worked before, judges, without findings from a jury, were required to dole out more years if there were aggravating circumstances, such as being a ringleader. One majority of justices concluded that was unconstitutional.
Another five-justice majority decided that judges should still try to follow the guidelines anyway, at least until Congress comes up with new rules. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the key to the compromise. She was the only justice who concluded that the guidelines were both unconstitutional and advisable. Apparently she was convinced by Justice Breyer, who one law prof credited with a "remarkable act of judicial jujitsu."
The Journal sees the Supremes' decision(s) as a win for defendants. The other papers say it's unclear how it's going to shake out. An analysis inside the NYT says the ruling opens the door to another round of fighting on sentencing between the judiciary and Congress.
The NYT says on Page One that last month the White House successfully pushed congressional leaders to kill legislation that prohibited the CIA from torturing detainees or other "inhumane treatment" (NYT). The Senate had passed the provision 96 to 2. Then, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice wrote congressional leaders explaining that the bill "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled."
The LAT confirms some details about the case of the Aussie detainee at Gitmo, who the U.S. shipped off to Egypt, where he was tortured for six months. A U.S. tribunal apparently used "confessions" given during that sojourn to rule that the detainee is a "member of, or affiliated with, al-Qaida forces." In any case, the detainee is about to be sent back to Australia, where a government spokesman said he "will not be detained or charged."
What the Aussie was treated to is a process known as "extraordinary rendition." One "recently retired" CIA official involved in the practice called it "a growth industry. We rendered a lot of people to Egypt, Jordan and the Saudis in particular. Ultimately, the agency just wants these people to disappear forever."
The NYT teases and others stuff the latest from the Abu Ghraib court martial proceedings, where a former prisoner testified, and some soldiers suggested, that defendant Charles Graner was ordered to beat detainees, though not to slam their heads against the wall as he did. "He kept pushing the envelope," one of his superiors testified. (Question: Was Graner disciplined for that at the time, or only after the photos got out?)
The Post goes high with the White House explaining that when it comes to the Iraqi elections, the whole notion of turnout, or other immediate measures of success, is passé. "I would really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don't have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections," said a "senior administration official," in a background briefing.
The NYT's Christine Hauser hangs with some of Iraq's latest hunted: election workers. "I believe in democracy," said one Sunni worker. But "my family has asked me to resign. I think I will, and other people will too, as the elections get closer."
Despite the troubles, the Times' Thomas Friedman says calls for postponing Election Day are "dead wrong—literally. Any delay would simply embolden the guys with the guns to kill more Iraqi police officers and to intimidate more Sunnis."
The Financial Times says despite U.S. complaints about the scale of Saddam's smuggling that went on under the nose of the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, the biggest such operation actually happened with "the knowledge of the U.S. government."
Everybody mentions that Indonesia pulled the welcome-mat a little farther away in Aceh, saying all foreign troops need to leave by the middle of March. Meanwhile, Knight Ridder notices that local officials in Aceh have—quietly—posted a revised casualty count for the province: Nearly 210,000 people are either dead or missing. The paper adds, "Rescue workers think even that number may be low." Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112256/
The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal world-wide newsbox, and New York Times all lead with the Supreme Court ruling 5-4 that federal judges aren't required to follow mandatory sentencing guidelines, but still, um, "must consult" them and "take them into account." The seemingly split-the-baby ruling came via an unusual two-part decision.
The Los Angeles Times leads with word that the development of FBI software meant to help agents share counter-terrorism info is going so poorly that the bureau might have to scrap it and start over. The software was supposed to be ready at the end of 2003. USA Today leads with, and others front, the fed's aggressive new dietary guidelines. If you don't want to disappoint your government: Exercise an hour a day, eat heaps of fruit and veggies, and skip stuff with added sugar. That last bit of advice irked the high-minded sugar lobby, which told the Post the recommendation is "not science based."
The way mandatory sentences worked before, judges, without findings from a jury, were required to dole out more years if there were aggravating circumstances, such as being a ringleader. One majority of justices concluded that was unconstitutional.
Another five-justice majority decided that judges should still try to follow the guidelines anyway, at least until Congress comes up with new rules. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the key to the compromise. She was the only justice who concluded that the guidelines were both unconstitutional and advisable. Apparently she was convinced by Justice Breyer, who one law prof credited with a "remarkable act of judicial jujitsu."
The Journal sees the Supremes' decision(s) as a win for defendants. The other papers say it's unclear how it's going to shake out. An analysis inside the NYT says the ruling opens the door to another round of fighting on sentencing between the judiciary and Congress.
The NYT says on Page One that last month the White House successfully pushed congressional leaders to kill legislation that prohibited the CIA from torturing detainees or other "inhumane treatment" (NYT). The Senate had passed the provision 96 to 2. Then, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice wrote congressional leaders explaining that the bill "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled."
The LAT confirms some details about the case of the Aussie detainee at Gitmo, who the U.S. shipped off to Egypt, where he was tortured for six months. A U.S. tribunal apparently used "confessions" given during that sojourn to rule that the detainee is a "member of, or affiliated with, al-Qaida forces." In any case, the detainee is about to be sent back to Australia, where a government spokesman said he "will not be detained or charged."
What the Aussie was treated to is a process known as "extraordinary rendition." One "recently retired" CIA official involved in the practice called it "a growth industry. We rendered a lot of people to Egypt, Jordan and the Saudis in particular. Ultimately, the agency just wants these people to disappear forever."
The NYT teases and others stuff the latest from the Abu Ghraib court martial proceedings, where a former prisoner testified, and some soldiers suggested, that defendant Charles Graner was ordered to beat detainees, though not to slam their heads against the wall as he did. "He kept pushing the envelope," one of his superiors testified. (Question: Was Graner disciplined for that at the time, or only after the photos got out?)
The Post goes high with the White House explaining that when it comes to the Iraqi elections, the whole notion of turnout, or other immediate measures of success, is passé. "I would really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don't have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections," said a "senior administration official," in a background briefing.
The NYT's Christine Hauser hangs with some of Iraq's latest hunted: election workers. "I believe in democracy," said one Sunni worker. But "my family has asked me to resign. I think I will, and other people will too, as the elections get closer."
Despite the troubles, the Times' Thomas Friedman says calls for postponing Election Day are "dead wrong—literally. Any delay would simply embolden the guys with the guns to kill more Iraqi police officers and to intimidate more Sunnis."
The Financial Times says despite U.S. complaints about the scale of Saddam's smuggling that went on under the nose of the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, the biggest such operation actually happened with "the knowledge of the U.S. government."
Everybody mentions that Indonesia pulled the welcome-mat a little farther away in Aceh, saying all foreign troops need to leave by the middle of March. Meanwhile, Knight Ridder notices that local officials in Aceh have—quietly—posted a revised casualty count for the province: Nearly 210,000 people are either dead or missing. The paper adds, "Rescue workers think even that number may be low." Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112256/
