Saturday, January 22, 2005
January 23, 2005
Roaring Snowstorm Shoves Northeast Into Winter's GraspBy ROBERT D. McFADDEN
A month across the abyss of winter, the season's first major storm buried New York and much of the Northeast yesterday, stifling travel, slowing the pace of life for millions and recasting the landscapes of 12 states.
The storm, touted as a probable blizzard, roared in from the Midwest and turned into a classic northeaster, with 30-to-50-mile-an-hour winds and nebular arms revolving counterclockwise. It moved up the East Coast, gathering ocean moisture and hurling it back at the land as snow that blanketed cities and towns, closed airports, canceled hundreds of flights, choked railways and highways and filled the air with crystalline impressions.
It began quietly in the New York metropolitan area before noon, a gentle whispering fall in the pale January light. But by evening, it had become a driving force of windblown snow, with gusts that hissed against the windows and mounting accumulations that, meteorologists said, only hinted at the depths to come.
By late this morning, those accumulations were expected to top out at 12 to 18 inches in Central Park and 18 to 24 inches in parts of Northern New Jersey, Eastern Long Island, Southern Connecticut and shore areas of Rhode Island.
Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts were expected to be hit hardest, with more than two feet of snow blown by winds that gusted up to 60 miles an hour. "The snow is falling not in inches but in feet," said Gov. Mitt Romney, who warned that the threat would be complicated by a full moon and a tidal surge in coastal communities.
The Northeast was hardly alone in wintry misery. Heavy snows pounded parts of the Midwest, with the Chicago area getting its biggest snowfall of the season: more than eight inches by yesterday afternoon with more to come. At O'Hare International Airport, flight delays averaged seven and a half hours and hundreds of stranded passengers slept on cots near baggage claim areas.
In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered a state emergency operations center to open yesterday as forecasters predicted coastal flooding in parts of New London and Middlesex Counties.
And in New York City, officials declared a snow emergency as of 7 p.m. last night, prohibiting motorists from standing or parking at major arteries. The city also suspended alternate side parking rules for tomorrow and Tuesday.
Blizzard warnings were posted for most of New York. The mid-Hudson Valley expected up to 20 inches of snow, and up to a foot was forecast for Albany, the Mohawk Valley and parts of western New York.
Three weather-related deaths were reported in Ohio, where a man fell through ice on a pond and two people suffered heart attacks shoveling snow.
In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis had 12 inches of snow and up to 5 inches more was expected overnight. Southern Michigan had 6 to 14 inches of snow yesterday, and drifts of three feet were common.
In the pantheon of winter storms in New York, it did not compare with the all-time record blizzard of Dec. 26-27, 1947, which interred the city in 26.4 inches of snow, and it was also expected to fall short of the blizzard of Jan. 7-8, 1996, which left 20.2 inches in Central Park. But Todd J. Miner, a meteorologist with Pennsylvania State University, said it could rival the President's Day storm of 2003, which left 19.8 inches.
"This is a big, nasty snowstorm," Mr. Miner said early yesterday afternoon. "It's possible we will be heading toward well over a foot of snow in Central Park. We're not going to get two feet, but heading toward 18 inches is not a bad signpost, bringing this into the upper echelons of storms. Of the top 12 city snowstorms on record - 16 inches or higher - we've probably got a good shot at that."
Mr. Miner said that in the overnight hours, the storm would almost certainly meet the National Weather Service's criteria for a blizzard - winds of at least 35 m.p.h., falling or blowing snow and visibility of less than a quarter-mile for three consecutive hours. But whatever the technicalities, you could hardly tell neighbors shoveling huge drifts from their driveway that it was not a blizzard.
And it was cold, bitter cold. It was 29 below zero in Massena, N.Y., 28 below at Saranac Lake, N.Y., 14 below in Syracuse and 10 below in Albany. In New York City it was a relatively balmy 10 above yesterday morning.
That was frigid enough to keep the customary tourist hordes away from Times Square, which looked more like a ghost town in the swirling snow, and it was obvious that restaurants, theaters and other attractions had a terrible day.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major metropolitan airports - Kennedy International, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International - as well as bridges, tunnels and the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) rail system, went into a full mobilization of personnel and equipment and was bracing for a rough weekend.
All three airports remained open, but 175 flights were canceled at Kennedy, 120 more were canceled at Newark, and 200 were canceled at La Guardia, where delays ran up to two hours.
Traffic was moving on the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, but there were 35 mile-an-hour speed limits on Staten Island bridges.
With whiteout conditions on runways, the intensifying storm closed the Philadelphia airport at 3:30 p.m. and Bradley International Airport near Hartford at 6:30 p.m., and would possibly shut down those in Boston, Albany and other cities, stranding thousands of passengers.
Acting Gov. Richard Codey of New Jersey announced that a state of emergency would be in effect from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. today, allowing the police to close roads, if necessary, to ensure public safety.
Up and down the Northeast Corridor, driving was treacherous on icy, snow-blown highways, roads and neighborhood streets. There were countless minor accidents, though no deaths or serious injuries were reported, and motorists were advised to stay home or use public transportation. But trains and buses were also delayed by the storm, and getting around, for those who had to, was an ordeal. Many residents heeded the warnings to stay home and many businesses closed for the weekend.
The Long Island Rail Road, which operates 450 trains on 11 branches on a typical weekend, reported only two train cancellations, both on the Greenport line, and only minor delays on the rest of the system.
"But that could change as the storm worsens and the wind increases," said Brian P. Dolan, a spokesman. "They're predicting drifts of snow. If we get two to three inches an hour, that challenges us to keep pace with the storm."
In the meantime, he said, special trains were spraying antifreeze on power rails and activating electric and gas-powered heaters to keep switches moving.
Even before the snow began falling, the Metro-North Railroad had a signal problem on its upper Hudson line between Croton and Poughkeepsie that delayed about eight trains for up to 30 minutes.
Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman, said that railroad officials were meeting in the afternoon to decide whether to cut back service because it appeared that many passengers were staying home.
But Dan Brucker, another spokesman, said late in the afternoon that service remained on or close to schedule on all its lines, although there were plans to sharply cut service today.
New Jersey Transit, which operates 11 rail lines, 3 light rail systems and 240 bus routes around the state and into Manhattan, reduced its service schedule yesterday afternoon until midnight tonight.
Later in the day, New Jersey Transit suspended its South Jersey bus service as of 5 p.m., and its North Jersey buses as of 7:30 p.m. It also reported delays of 15 to 20 minutes on its Northeast Corridor line. Dan Stessel, a spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said that express trains on the Northeast Corridor line had been canceled, although local trains continued to run.
The Midtown Direct line between Penn Station and Dover, N.J., in Morris County was rerouted to Hoboken, where passengers could switch to PATH trains running to 33rd Street in Manhattan.
Forewarned, cities and counties across the region had readied armies of equipment and sent out fleets of salt spreaders and snowplows to counterattack as the snow began falling.
In New Jersey, state transportation officials and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority had more than 2,000 trucks on the roads to plow and spread salt. The Port Authority also had hundreds of pieces of equipment out, and more than 200,000 gallons of liquid de-icing chemicals for use on wings and other surfaces.
In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to the department's Queens repair shop and said 2,500 sanitation workers - using 1,450 garbage trucks with plows, 82 dump trucks with plows and 350 salt spreaders - would work around the clock in two shifts to keep major arteries and streets open. He said he expected that all of the city's 6,300 miles of streets would be plowed at least once by the start of the workweek tomorrow morning.
Mr. Bloomberg also issued a few words of caution.
"The streets even after they are plowed will be slippery, so you should take caution," he said. "The streets will be narrower, the snow has to go some place."
He also urged residents to dress warmly, check on neighbors, take mass transit to work and keep cars off the streets so the plows can get through.
Many schools with Saturday classes closed. Aqueduct and the Meadowlands Racetrack canceled their Saturday racing programs, and many college basketball games were postponed. National Football League conference championship games in Philadelphia (Eagles-Atlanta Falcons) and Pittsburgh (Steelers-New England Patriots) were still on track for today and, with the snow over by game times, only bitter cold and high winds were expected to be factors.
The storm's timing significantly diminished its impact. For millions of suburban commuters and students home for the weekend, the snow was not a great hardship, except for the ordeal of shoveling a driveway or sidewalk, which leads every winter to many heart attacks.
But for many residents of the metropolitan area, the storm provided an opportunity - one of the few in a relatively mild winter that has recorded a total of only 4.3 inches of snow since autumn - to get out with sleds, skis or snowshoes and to frolic in the drifts. And for those so inclined, it was a chance to relax indoors, snowed in with Bach, Brubeck or a good book, cozy behind panes embroidered with frost.
For those who ventured out to play - hooded, booted, muffled to the eyes - the storm offered glimpses of nature's beauty: empty streets turned into white meadows, black-and-white woodlands painted in moonlight, snowflakes glittering like confections in a bakery - frosted, glazed, powdered, sugary - and in the parks children, romping, padded like armadillos.
There had been warnings for days by meteorologists and television broadcasters, and most people had stocked up on supplies for a weekend siege. But there were many last-minute shoppers yesterday, even as the snow began falling.
Doreen and Neal Erps, of North Brunswick, N.J., wheeled a cart out of a Home Depot on Route 1 in Edison with cabinet shelves. "I figure we'll be in the house all weekend long," said Mr. Erps. "We might as well do something productive, and remodeling the bathroom beats shoveling snow." But he had a shovel and a snowbrush in his cart as well. He explained, "I have several of them at home already, but with a storm like this you can never have enough shovels."
Nearby, Howard Myers, of New Brunswick, N.J., was loading up his S.U.V. with groceries and firewood. "My next stop is the liquor store," he said. "I'm going to get a nice bottle of Scotch, put the logs on the fire and let the storm rage outside while I read my book."
At a Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan, shovels, salt buckets, windshield scrapers and other storm equipment flew off the shelves. By 12:30 p.m., only four of the 40 snow blowers delivered on Friday - some fetching $729 - were left, and the shovels were gone.
"Where are the shovels?" asked an anxious customer, one of a cluster.
"They are unloading them right now," an employee said.
"C'mon, let's go," another patron said as the group hurried downstairs to meet the delivery truck.
At a Blockbuster Video in Old Tappan, N.J., 80 customers waited at noon in a 45-minute line that snaked down the aisles, past "Anger Management" and "Intolerable Cruelty," all the way back to "Mystic River." Alone at the check-out was the store manager, Brian (company policy prohibited him from giving his last name). In his three years with Blockbuster, he said, he had never seen a line so long.
Contributing reporting for this article were Gretchen Ruethling in Chicago, John Holl in New Jersey, David Winzelberg on Long Island, and Jennifer 8. Lee, Winnie Hu and David Corcoran in New York
Roaring Snowstorm Shoves Northeast Into Winter's GraspBy ROBERT D. McFADDEN
A month across the abyss of winter, the season's first major storm buried New York and much of the Northeast yesterday, stifling travel, slowing the pace of life for millions and recasting the landscapes of 12 states.
The storm, touted as a probable blizzard, roared in from the Midwest and turned into a classic northeaster, with 30-to-50-mile-an-hour winds and nebular arms revolving counterclockwise. It moved up the East Coast, gathering ocean moisture and hurling it back at the land as snow that blanketed cities and towns, closed airports, canceled hundreds of flights, choked railways and highways and filled the air with crystalline impressions.
It began quietly in the New York metropolitan area before noon, a gentle whispering fall in the pale January light. But by evening, it had become a driving force of windblown snow, with gusts that hissed against the windows and mounting accumulations that, meteorologists said, only hinted at the depths to come.
By late this morning, those accumulations were expected to top out at 12 to 18 inches in Central Park and 18 to 24 inches in parts of Northern New Jersey, Eastern Long Island, Southern Connecticut and shore areas of Rhode Island.
Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts were expected to be hit hardest, with more than two feet of snow blown by winds that gusted up to 60 miles an hour. "The snow is falling not in inches but in feet," said Gov. Mitt Romney, who warned that the threat would be complicated by a full moon and a tidal surge in coastal communities.
The Northeast was hardly alone in wintry misery. Heavy snows pounded parts of the Midwest, with the Chicago area getting its biggest snowfall of the season: more than eight inches by yesterday afternoon with more to come. At O'Hare International Airport, flight delays averaged seven and a half hours and hundreds of stranded passengers slept on cots near baggage claim areas.
In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered a state emergency operations center to open yesterday as forecasters predicted coastal flooding in parts of New London and Middlesex Counties.
And in New York City, officials declared a snow emergency as of 7 p.m. last night, prohibiting motorists from standing or parking at major arteries. The city also suspended alternate side parking rules for tomorrow and Tuesday.
Blizzard warnings were posted for most of New York. The mid-Hudson Valley expected up to 20 inches of snow, and up to a foot was forecast for Albany, the Mohawk Valley and parts of western New York.
Three weather-related deaths were reported in Ohio, where a man fell through ice on a pond and two people suffered heart attacks shoveling snow.
In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis had 12 inches of snow and up to 5 inches more was expected overnight. Southern Michigan had 6 to 14 inches of snow yesterday, and drifts of three feet were common.
In the pantheon of winter storms in New York, it did not compare with the all-time record blizzard of Dec. 26-27, 1947, which interred the city in 26.4 inches of snow, and it was also expected to fall short of the blizzard of Jan. 7-8, 1996, which left 20.2 inches in Central Park. But Todd J. Miner, a meteorologist with Pennsylvania State University, said it could rival the President's Day storm of 2003, which left 19.8 inches.
"This is a big, nasty snowstorm," Mr. Miner said early yesterday afternoon. "It's possible we will be heading toward well over a foot of snow in Central Park. We're not going to get two feet, but heading toward 18 inches is not a bad signpost, bringing this into the upper echelons of storms. Of the top 12 city snowstorms on record - 16 inches or higher - we've probably got a good shot at that."
Mr. Miner said that in the overnight hours, the storm would almost certainly meet the National Weather Service's criteria for a blizzard - winds of at least 35 m.p.h., falling or blowing snow and visibility of less than a quarter-mile for three consecutive hours. But whatever the technicalities, you could hardly tell neighbors shoveling huge drifts from their driveway that it was not a blizzard.
And it was cold, bitter cold. It was 29 below zero in Massena, N.Y., 28 below at Saranac Lake, N.Y., 14 below in Syracuse and 10 below in Albany. In New York City it was a relatively balmy 10 above yesterday morning.
That was frigid enough to keep the customary tourist hordes away from Times Square, which looked more like a ghost town in the swirling snow, and it was obvious that restaurants, theaters and other attractions had a terrible day.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major metropolitan airports - Kennedy International, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International - as well as bridges, tunnels and the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) rail system, went into a full mobilization of personnel and equipment and was bracing for a rough weekend.
All three airports remained open, but 175 flights were canceled at Kennedy, 120 more were canceled at Newark, and 200 were canceled at La Guardia, where delays ran up to two hours.
Traffic was moving on the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, but there were 35 mile-an-hour speed limits on Staten Island bridges.
With whiteout conditions on runways, the intensifying storm closed the Philadelphia airport at 3:30 p.m. and Bradley International Airport near Hartford at 6:30 p.m., and would possibly shut down those in Boston, Albany and other cities, stranding thousands of passengers.
Acting Gov. Richard Codey of New Jersey announced that a state of emergency would be in effect from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. today, allowing the police to close roads, if necessary, to ensure public safety.
Up and down the Northeast Corridor, driving was treacherous on icy, snow-blown highways, roads and neighborhood streets. There were countless minor accidents, though no deaths or serious injuries were reported, and motorists were advised to stay home or use public transportation. But trains and buses were also delayed by the storm, and getting around, for those who had to, was an ordeal. Many residents heeded the warnings to stay home and many businesses closed for the weekend.
The Long Island Rail Road, which operates 450 trains on 11 branches on a typical weekend, reported only two train cancellations, both on the Greenport line, and only minor delays on the rest of the system.
"But that could change as the storm worsens and the wind increases," said Brian P. Dolan, a spokesman. "They're predicting drifts of snow. If we get two to three inches an hour, that challenges us to keep pace with the storm."
In the meantime, he said, special trains were spraying antifreeze on power rails and activating electric and gas-powered heaters to keep switches moving.
Even before the snow began falling, the Metro-North Railroad had a signal problem on its upper Hudson line between Croton and Poughkeepsie that delayed about eight trains for up to 30 minutes.
Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman, said that railroad officials were meeting in the afternoon to decide whether to cut back service because it appeared that many passengers were staying home.
But Dan Brucker, another spokesman, said late in the afternoon that service remained on or close to schedule on all its lines, although there were plans to sharply cut service today.
New Jersey Transit, which operates 11 rail lines, 3 light rail systems and 240 bus routes around the state and into Manhattan, reduced its service schedule yesterday afternoon until midnight tonight.
Later in the day, New Jersey Transit suspended its South Jersey bus service as of 5 p.m., and its North Jersey buses as of 7:30 p.m. It also reported delays of 15 to 20 minutes on its Northeast Corridor line. Dan Stessel, a spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said that express trains on the Northeast Corridor line had been canceled, although local trains continued to run.
The Midtown Direct line between Penn Station and Dover, N.J., in Morris County was rerouted to Hoboken, where passengers could switch to PATH trains running to 33rd Street in Manhattan.
Forewarned, cities and counties across the region had readied armies of equipment and sent out fleets of salt spreaders and snowplows to counterattack as the snow began falling.
In New Jersey, state transportation officials and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority had more than 2,000 trucks on the roads to plow and spread salt. The Port Authority also had hundreds of pieces of equipment out, and more than 200,000 gallons of liquid de-icing chemicals for use on wings and other surfaces.
In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to the department's Queens repair shop and said 2,500 sanitation workers - using 1,450 garbage trucks with plows, 82 dump trucks with plows and 350 salt spreaders - would work around the clock in two shifts to keep major arteries and streets open. He said he expected that all of the city's 6,300 miles of streets would be plowed at least once by the start of the workweek tomorrow morning.
Mr. Bloomberg also issued a few words of caution.
"The streets even after they are plowed will be slippery, so you should take caution," he said. "The streets will be narrower, the snow has to go some place."
He also urged residents to dress warmly, check on neighbors, take mass transit to work and keep cars off the streets so the plows can get through.
Many schools with Saturday classes closed. Aqueduct and the Meadowlands Racetrack canceled their Saturday racing programs, and many college basketball games were postponed. National Football League conference championship games in Philadelphia (Eagles-Atlanta Falcons) and Pittsburgh (Steelers-New England Patriots) were still on track for today and, with the snow over by game times, only bitter cold and high winds were expected to be factors.
The storm's timing significantly diminished its impact. For millions of suburban commuters and students home for the weekend, the snow was not a great hardship, except for the ordeal of shoveling a driveway or sidewalk, which leads every winter to many heart attacks.
But for many residents of the metropolitan area, the storm provided an opportunity - one of the few in a relatively mild winter that has recorded a total of only 4.3 inches of snow since autumn - to get out with sleds, skis or snowshoes and to frolic in the drifts. And for those so inclined, it was a chance to relax indoors, snowed in with Bach, Brubeck or a good book, cozy behind panes embroidered with frost.
For those who ventured out to play - hooded, booted, muffled to the eyes - the storm offered glimpses of nature's beauty: empty streets turned into white meadows, black-and-white woodlands painted in moonlight, snowflakes glittering like confections in a bakery - frosted, glazed, powdered, sugary - and in the parks children, romping, padded like armadillos.
There had been warnings for days by meteorologists and television broadcasters, and most people had stocked up on supplies for a weekend siege. But there were many last-minute shoppers yesterday, even as the snow began falling.
Doreen and Neal Erps, of North Brunswick, N.J., wheeled a cart out of a Home Depot on Route 1 in Edison with cabinet shelves. "I figure we'll be in the house all weekend long," said Mr. Erps. "We might as well do something productive, and remodeling the bathroom beats shoveling snow." But he had a shovel and a snowbrush in his cart as well. He explained, "I have several of them at home already, but with a storm like this you can never have enough shovels."
Nearby, Howard Myers, of New Brunswick, N.J., was loading up his S.U.V. with groceries and firewood. "My next stop is the liquor store," he said. "I'm going to get a nice bottle of Scotch, put the logs on the fire and let the storm rage outside while I read my book."
At a Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan, shovels, salt buckets, windshield scrapers and other storm equipment flew off the shelves. By 12:30 p.m., only four of the 40 snow blowers delivered on Friday - some fetching $729 - were left, and the shovels were gone.
"Where are the shovels?" asked an anxious customer, one of a cluster.
"They are unloading them right now," an employee said.
"C'mon, let's go," another patron said as the group hurried downstairs to meet the delivery truck.
At a Blockbuster Video in Old Tappan, N.J., 80 customers waited at noon in a 45-minute line that snaked down the aisles, past "Anger Management" and "Intolerable Cruelty," all the way back to "Mystic River." Alone at the check-out was the store manager, Brian (company policy prohibited him from giving his last name). In his three years with Blockbuster, he said, he had never seen a line so long.
Contributing reporting for this article were Gretchen Ruethling in Chicago, John Holl in New Jersey, David Winzelberg on Long Island, and Jennifer 8. Lee, Winnie Hu and David Corcoran in New York
January 20, 2005VIOLENCE
5 Bomb Attacks Kill 26 as Vote by Iraqis NearsBy JOHN F. BURNS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 19 - Insurgents detonated five powerful truck and car bombs across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 26 people, at least 9 of them members of Iraq's fledgling security forces. The attacks came as Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said he would reveal plans next week for an accelerated buildup of those forces to prepare for an eventual American withdrawal.
Responding to political pressures within Iraq ahead of the Jan. 30 elections and mounting questions in Washington about the prospects for an American pullout, Dr. Allawi said he had been talking with the United States commanders in Baghdad about ways to accelerate the "training, equipping and deploying" of Iraqi security forces.
He added that "this in turn will accelerate the drawdown and gradual withdrawal of the multinational forces in Iraq." Those forces are made up of about 150,000 troops from the United States and upward of 25,000 from other nations.
But Dr. Allawi raised the tantalizing prospect of an eventual American withdrawal while giving little away, insisting that a pullout could not be tied to a fixed timetable, but rather to the Iraqi forces' progress toward standing on their own. That formula is similar to what President Bush and other senior administration officials have spoken about.
Some American military commanders have said privately that with this approach and considering the demoralization, desertion and unwillingness to fight common among Iraqi forces trained so far, American troops could be tied down for years, unless elections or other political developments bring the war to an unexpected end.
"I will be explaining this carefully planned process - what I call a 'conditions based' rather than a 'calendar based' gradual withdrawal program, in more detail next week," Dr. Allawi told reporters at a ceremony at Baghdad airport.
He was there to accept the first of three C-130 military transport planes that Iraq is to receive as part of the American-financed buildup of Iraqi forces. The aircraft was the first large plane acquired by the new Iraqi Air Force, which was one of the most powerful in the Middle East before it was decimated by bombing attacks in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Dr. Allawi's remarks were made on a day when attacks underlined, once again, how insurgents have turned wide areas of the country, including Baghdad, into what is effectively enemy territory, with an ability to strike almost at will, and to shake off the losses inflicted by American troops.
The attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday were aimed at the approaches to the Australian Embassy and four Iraqi security targets, including a police station, an army garrison and a bank where policemen were lining up to receive their monthly pay.
The attacks, four of them within 90 minutes in the morning rush hour, rattled windows and doors miles away. Spread across a wide area of the city, they wounded dozens of people, most of them Iraqi civilians, in addition to those killed, and served as a reminder of the insurgents' power to spread mayhem across the capital only 11 days before the elections.
American commanders have sought to prepare public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of the bloodiest chapters in the war so far, saying the escalation of violence promised by the insurgents can be diminished to a degree, but not prevented, by an increasing tempo of American military raids on insurgent groups.
The American hope is that the voting, for a national assembly and provincial councils, will help turn the tide by drawing a strong turnout among more than 14 million eligible voters, despite the threat of attacks by Sunni insurgents on polling stations, candidates and voters, and a boycott of the election being urged by powerful figures in regions where Iraq's Sunni minority population predominates.
In almost any foreseeable outcome of the election, the Sunnis face the prospect, for the first time in centuries, of ceding political power in Baghdad to the country's 60 percent Shiite majority.
Wednesday's deadliest attack occurred near a police station and Al Alahi hospital in the Alwiyah district of eastern Baghdad. The American command said a suicide car bomber killed 18 people, including 5 Iraqi policemen, and that 15 other people had been wounded.
In a car bomb attack on an Iraqi military garrison on the site of Baghdad's old Muthana inner-city airfield and another attack at a checkpoint on the perimeter of the heavily secured Baghdad International Airport, two Iraqi soldiers and two security guards were killed.
The first attack, shortly after 7 a.m., involved a truck packed with explosives that approached concrete barriers guarding the Australian Embassy compound in southern Baghdad. The American command said two Iraqis were killed.
A spokesman for the American command, Lt. Col. James Hutton of the First Cavalry Division, said that none of the bombers Wednesday had reached their intended targets.
"While any loss of life is tragic, it could have been a lot worse," he said. Nevertheless, at the worst of the bombing sites there were deep craters, pools of blood, scattered human remains and shattered buildings.
Near the Rafidain bank in the Etifiyah neighborhood of north-central Baghdad, where a bomb went off as policemen lined up for their salaries, a crumpled child's bicycle lay near the center of the blast; people there said a boy had been killed.
The new United States-trained Iraqi Army, National Guard and police force have had hundreds of men killed in the past year.
Now, American election plans depend on these forces protecting more than 5,500 polling places.
The insurgents' threats to Iraqis seen as working for or alongside the Americans were demonstrated on Wednesday in a video posted on an Islamic militant Web site of the killing of two Iraqi telecommunications technicians.
The video showed the men, still alive, posed in front of a black banner emblazoned with the name of an Islamic terrorist group, Ansar al Sunna, that has claimed responsibility for many of the most brutal attacks of the war in the past year.
They were then shown crouching before a stone wall, blindfolded, as their executioner approached from off camera and killed them with pistol shots to the back of the head. Earlier, the men confessed that they had been sent to the northern cities of Mosul and Erbil on an American contract to install computer communications for the elections.
At least 11 other people were killed on Wednesday. Gunmen who attacked the Baghdad offices of a major Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killed one party member and wouned others, party officials said.
Also in Baghdad, another car bomb aimed at an American convoy missed its target but killed four Iraqi bystanders. In Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was killed in a car bombing, according to a Polish military spokesman. Much of the remaining violence was in northern Iraq, in Erbil, Dohuk, Kirkuk and Mosul.
Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul.
5 Bomb Attacks Kill 26 as Vote by Iraqis NearsBy JOHN F. BURNS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 19 - Insurgents detonated five powerful truck and car bombs across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 26 people, at least 9 of them members of Iraq's fledgling security forces. The attacks came as Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said he would reveal plans next week for an accelerated buildup of those forces to prepare for an eventual American withdrawal.
Responding to political pressures within Iraq ahead of the Jan. 30 elections and mounting questions in Washington about the prospects for an American pullout, Dr. Allawi said he had been talking with the United States commanders in Baghdad about ways to accelerate the "training, equipping and deploying" of Iraqi security forces.
He added that "this in turn will accelerate the drawdown and gradual withdrawal of the multinational forces in Iraq." Those forces are made up of about 150,000 troops from the United States and upward of 25,000 from other nations.
But Dr. Allawi raised the tantalizing prospect of an eventual American withdrawal while giving little away, insisting that a pullout could not be tied to a fixed timetable, but rather to the Iraqi forces' progress toward standing on their own. That formula is similar to what President Bush and other senior administration officials have spoken about.
Some American military commanders have said privately that with this approach and considering the demoralization, desertion and unwillingness to fight common among Iraqi forces trained so far, American troops could be tied down for years, unless elections or other political developments bring the war to an unexpected end.
"I will be explaining this carefully planned process - what I call a 'conditions based' rather than a 'calendar based' gradual withdrawal program, in more detail next week," Dr. Allawi told reporters at a ceremony at Baghdad airport.
He was there to accept the first of three C-130 military transport planes that Iraq is to receive as part of the American-financed buildup of Iraqi forces. The aircraft was the first large plane acquired by the new Iraqi Air Force, which was one of the most powerful in the Middle East before it was decimated by bombing attacks in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Dr. Allawi's remarks were made on a day when attacks underlined, once again, how insurgents have turned wide areas of the country, including Baghdad, into what is effectively enemy territory, with an ability to strike almost at will, and to shake off the losses inflicted by American troops.
The attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday were aimed at the approaches to the Australian Embassy and four Iraqi security targets, including a police station, an army garrison and a bank where policemen were lining up to receive their monthly pay.
The attacks, four of them within 90 minutes in the morning rush hour, rattled windows and doors miles away. Spread across a wide area of the city, they wounded dozens of people, most of them Iraqi civilians, in addition to those killed, and served as a reminder of the insurgents' power to spread mayhem across the capital only 11 days before the elections.
American commanders have sought to prepare public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of the bloodiest chapters in the war so far, saying the escalation of violence promised by the insurgents can be diminished to a degree, but not prevented, by an increasing tempo of American military raids on insurgent groups.
The American hope is that the voting, for a national assembly and provincial councils, will help turn the tide by drawing a strong turnout among more than 14 million eligible voters, despite the threat of attacks by Sunni insurgents on polling stations, candidates and voters, and a boycott of the election being urged by powerful figures in regions where Iraq's Sunni minority population predominates.
In almost any foreseeable outcome of the election, the Sunnis face the prospect, for the first time in centuries, of ceding political power in Baghdad to the country's 60 percent Shiite majority.
Wednesday's deadliest attack occurred near a police station and Al Alahi hospital in the Alwiyah district of eastern Baghdad. The American command said a suicide car bomber killed 18 people, including 5 Iraqi policemen, and that 15 other people had been wounded.
In a car bomb attack on an Iraqi military garrison on the site of Baghdad's old Muthana inner-city airfield and another attack at a checkpoint on the perimeter of the heavily secured Baghdad International Airport, two Iraqi soldiers and two security guards were killed.
The first attack, shortly after 7 a.m., involved a truck packed with explosives that approached concrete barriers guarding the Australian Embassy compound in southern Baghdad. The American command said two Iraqis were killed.
A spokesman for the American command, Lt. Col. James Hutton of the First Cavalry Division, said that none of the bombers Wednesday had reached their intended targets.
"While any loss of life is tragic, it could have been a lot worse," he said. Nevertheless, at the worst of the bombing sites there were deep craters, pools of blood, scattered human remains and shattered buildings.
Near the Rafidain bank in the Etifiyah neighborhood of north-central Baghdad, where a bomb went off as policemen lined up for their salaries, a crumpled child's bicycle lay near the center of the blast; people there said a boy had been killed.
The new United States-trained Iraqi Army, National Guard and police force have had hundreds of men killed in the past year.
Now, American election plans depend on these forces protecting more than 5,500 polling places.
The insurgents' threats to Iraqis seen as working for or alongside the Americans were demonstrated on Wednesday in a video posted on an Islamic militant Web site of the killing of two Iraqi telecommunications technicians.
The video showed the men, still alive, posed in front of a black banner emblazoned with the name of an Islamic terrorist group, Ansar al Sunna, that has claimed responsibility for many of the most brutal attacks of the war in the past year.
They were then shown crouching before a stone wall, blindfolded, as their executioner approached from off camera and killed them with pistol shots to the back of the head. Earlier, the men confessed that they had been sent to the northern cities of Mosul and Erbil on an American contract to install computer communications for the elections.
At least 11 other people were killed on Wednesday. Gunmen who attacked the Baghdad offices of a major Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killed one party member and wouned others, party officials said.
Also in Baghdad, another car bomb aimed at an American convoy missed its target but killed four Iraqi bystanders. In Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was killed in a car bombing, according to a Polish military spokesman. Much of the remaining violence was in northern Iraq, in Erbil, Dohuk, Kirkuk and Mosul.
Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul.
(AP) Blogger David Weinberger sits near his computer at his home, in Brookline, Mass., Tuesday, Jan. 18,...Full Image
The Right Thing - Responsibility & ethical standards Scott Waddle USN (RET.) speakerfivestarspeakers.com Blogger Code Of Ethics - How Businesses Should Use Blogs. Read Forrester's Latest Research.www.forrester.com
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NEW YORK (AP) - When Jerome Armstrong began consulting for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, he thought the ethical thing to do was to suspend the Web journal where he opined on politics.
But to suggest others do the same with their journals, otherwise known as blogs? No way.
"If I'm getting paid by a client, I don't blog about it. That's my personal set of standards," Armstrong said. "I'm not going to hold anybody else to my personal standards. I'm not going to make that universal."
The growing influence of blogs such as his is raising questions about whether they are becoming a new form of journalism and in need of more formal ethical guidelines or codes of conduct.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 27 percent of adults who go online in the United States read blogs. And blogs have greater impact because their readers tend to be policy makers and other influencers of public opinion, media experts say.
So far, many bloggers resist any notion of ethical standards, saying individuals ought to decide what's right for them. After all, they say, blog topics range from trying to sway your presidential vote to simply talking about the day's lunch.
Blogging is more like a conversation, and "you can't develop a code of ethics for conversations," said David Weinberger, a prominent blogger and research fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "A conversation with your best friend would become stilted and alienating."
Others, however, have pushed written guidelines.
Jonathan Dube, managing producer at MSNBC.com and publisher of CyberJournalist.net, modified the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics and urged fellow bloggers to adopt it. The principles: Be honest and fair. Minimize harm. Be accountable.
Longtime blogger Rebecca Blood circulated guidelines that call for disclosing any conflicts of interest, publicly correcting any misinformation and linking to any source materials referenced in postings.
"It seems pretty clear to me that having some kind of standard contributes to an individual blogger's own credibility," she said.
Yet Blood knows of fewer than 10 bloggers who have adopted her guidelines by linking to the document.
How bloggers handle matters of ethics and disclosure vary greatly.
While Armstrong suspended his blog, a partner in his political consulting firm, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, kept his going and instead posted a disclosure about the payment. The Dean campaign had paid the pair $3,000 a month for technical consulting services.
Others saw no need to disclose at all. In South Dakota, blogger Jon Lauck said many people knew he was a paid consultant to John Thune's Senate campaign, but Lauck didn't believe he had to post any "flashing banner" on his site.
He said that unlike mainstream news organization, blogs like his never claim to be objective, and anyone reading a few posts would quickly know he was pro-Thune - with or without disclosure.
Beyond politics, marketers have turned to blogs as well.
A company called Marqui is paying about 20 bloggers $800 a month to write about the company and its products for managing marketing campaigns. Marqui says negative reviews are OK, and bloggers are permitted to disclose the payments.
Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Inc. took a similar tactic when it launched a new flavored milk drink called Raging Cow.
Many news organizations have formal guidelines separating editorial and business operations, and journalism schools and professional societies try to teach good practices.
Bloggers, though, tend to shudder at being called journalists, even as lines between the two blur.
When Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) got court orders allowing it to subpoena bloggers for the identities of people who had leaked company secrets, two of the bloggers responded by claiming they were entitled to protect confidential sources the way traditional journalists do.
And in Cambridge, Mass., Friday and Saturday, a conference called "Blogging, Journalism and Credibility" explored the evolution of blogging and journalism and the influences of one on the other.
Many bloggers believe standards of practices are inevitable, even if they aren't something formalized in writing.
Zephyr Teachout, who was Dean's director of online organizing, likens it to crafting a constitution - not necessarily written as a formal code of conduct, but as a set of accepted norms.
"Do you do it through a code of ethics? Do you do it by just talking to a lot of people about it? I don't know," she said.
Teachout has been thinking about such issues for about a year, she said, and is "constantly changing my mind."
"Now, to some degree, bloggers are going through the same stages that professional journalism went through at the beginning of the 20th century," said Jay Rosen, a blogger and professor of journalism at New York University. That was when newspapers started becoming independent and severed ties with political parties.
In some sense, bloggers already have informally adopted norms that go beyond what traditional journalists do, Rosen said. For instance, bloggers who don't link to source materials aren't taken seriously, while traditional news organizations have no such policies.
Dan Gillmor, a former newspaper columnist now studying citizen-driven journalism through blogging, said bloggers who want an audience will voluntarily adopt principles of fairness, thoroughness, accuracy and transparency.
"No one's bound by these rules," Gillmor said, "but I think some norms will emerge for people who want to be taken seriously."
Jan 22, 11:47 PM (ET)By LARRY McSHANE
(AP) A pedestrian walks across Times Square during a snow storm Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005 in New York. A...Full Image
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NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of airline flights were canceled Saturday and fleets of road plows were warmed up as a paralyzing snowstorm barreled out of the Midwest and spread across the Northeast with a potential for up to 20 inches of snow driven by 50 mph wind.
Storm warnings were posted from Wisconsin to New England, where the National Weather Service posted blizzard warnings in effect through Sunday. By afternoon, snow was falling across a region stretching from Wisconsin and Illinois to Virginia and the New England states.
With two feet or more of snow expected in some parts of Massachusetts, along with coastal flooding and near hurricane-strength winds bringing subzero wind chills, Gov. Mitt Romney on Saturday declared a state of emergency. Romney activated the National Guard in case coastal areas need to be evacuated.
One man died after falling through ice on a pond in Ohio, where two others died of apparent heart attacks while removing snow, authorities said.
(AP) Two passers-by make their way across the Boston Common near the Statehouse in Boston, Saturday,...Full ImageTemperatures in Maine fell to 36 below zero at Masardis, and Bangor dropped to a record low of 29 below. Meteorologists predicted wind up to 50 mph would push wind chill readings to 8 below zero in New York and New Jersey.
In New York, residents were advised to keep their cars off the road for the weekend as snow removers tried to clear 6,300 miles of roadway. Nearly 7 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park by Saturday evening. Almost 9 inches were reported on the eastern tip of Long Island, the National Weather Service said.
The snow wasn't a problem for 29-year-old college student Maya Tudor.
"I like the snow. It slows down the city and blankets a lot of the unpleasantness," she said. "You never see New York this calm. It's an event."
Many people rushed out to stock up on supplies to ride out the storm at home.
(AP) Visitors to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington are reflected in the wall as snow covers the...Full Image"I got a couple steaks, a couple jugs of wine and a couple good books," Walter Trogdash said as he left a convenience store in Toms River, N.J. "I think I'm all set."
North of New York City in Mamaroneck, shoppers stripped the shelves at a Super Stop&Shop of soda, meat, potatoes and beer and the checkout line stretched the length of the store.
"It's awesome," store manager Louis Spinola said of the mob scene.
Up to a foot of snow had fallen in Wisconsin and Michigan, and wind gusted to more than 60 mph across Iowa. As much as 18 inches of snow was forecast in northern New Jersey and accumulations of up to 20 inches were possible in parts of New England and the New York City area, the weather service said. A foot was likely in northern sections of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
While crews in the Midwest labored to remove what already had fallen, highway departments in the Northeast readied hundreds of plows and salt-spreading trucks. New York City canceled all vacations for its sanitation workers and called people in on their days off to handle the snow. Kennedy International Airport had machines capable of melting 500 tons of snow an hour.
(AP) Statues that are part of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington are covered in snow after the first...Full ImageIf 20 inches of snow fell in New York, the cost of cleanup could hit $20 million, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that was a problem for another day.
"The first thing is we're going to take care of the city," Bloomberg said. "And then Monday morning, I'll have to worry about how to pay for it."
"This is our Super Bowl. It's the public servants versus the elements, and we hope to win," said Philadelphia Managing Director Phil Goldsmith.
The blowing snow caused frustrating delays as airlines called off flights.
About 400 flights were canceled Saturday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and dozens more were called off at the city's Midway Airport. More than 200 people stayed the night at the two airports because of flights canceled the night before.
(AP) People cross snow-covered streets in the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights in New York,...Full ImageEven more chain-reaction cancellations were expected at Chicago and elsewhere as the storm clamped down on airports on the East Coast, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Annette Martinez.
The New York metropolitan area's Kennedy and Newark airports had dozens of cancellations as the storm arrived Saturday afternoon, said Port Authority spokesman Alan Hicks. LaGuardia had nearly 200 cancellations by 2 p.m.
By noon at Philadelphia International Airport, the storm had already wiped out about 25 percent of the normal load of 1,100 daily arrivals and departures. A private jet and a commuter plane slid off a taxiway at Pittsburgh International Airport; no one was injured.
Hundreds of workers at the football stadiums in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cleaned snow off tarps covering the fields in preparation for the National Football League conference title games that would be held in each city Sunday.
On the highways, Pennsylvania State Police reported dozens of accidents, including one involving 11 cars. New Jersey banned tractor-trailer rigs and motorcycles from the New Jersey Turnpike and slashed the speed limit to 45 mph.
Amtrak said there were minimal delays for its trains Saturday in the Northeast corridor, but it would have a reduced schedule between Washington and Boston and in upstate New York on Sunday.
Detroit delayed the opening of its first annual Motown Winter Blast for several hours to give road crews a chance to clear highways. SAT tests for prospective college students were canceled in Maryland, and several college basketball games were postponed in New Jersey.
(AP) A pedestrian walks across Times Square during a snow storm Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005 in New York. A...Full Image
if (NAV_NS&&NAV_VER");
else document.write(" ");
NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of airline flights were canceled Saturday and fleets of road plows were warmed up as a paralyzing snowstorm barreled out of the Midwest and spread across the Northeast with a potential for up to 20 inches of snow driven by 50 mph wind.
Storm warnings were posted from Wisconsin to New England, where the National Weather Service posted blizzard warnings in effect through Sunday. By afternoon, snow was falling across a region stretching from Wisconsin and Illinois to Virginia and the New England states.
With two feet or more of snow expected in some parts of Massachusetts, along with coastal flooding and near hurricane-strength winds bringing subzero wind chills, Gov. Mitt Romney on Saturday declared a state of emergency. Romney activated the National Guard in case coastal areas need to be evacuated.
One man died after falling through ice on a pond in Ohio, where two others died of apparent heart attacks while removing snow, authorities said.
(AP) Two passers-by make their way across the Boston Common near the Statehouse in Boston, Saturday,...Full ImageTemperatures in Maine fell to 36 below zero at Masardis, and Bangor dropped to a record low of 29 below. Meteorologists predicted wind up to 50 mph would push wind chill readings to 8 below zero in New York and New Jersey.
In New York, residents were advised to keep their cars off the road for the weekend as snow removers tried to clear 6,300 miles of roadway. Nearly 7 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park by Saturday evening. Almost 9 inches were reported on the eastern tip of Long Island, the National Weather Service said.
The snow wasn't a problem for 29-year-old college student Maya Tudor.
"I like the snow. It slows down the city and blankets a lot of the unpleasantness," she said. "You never see New York this calm. It's an event."
Many people rushed out to stock up on supplies to ride out the storm at home.
(AP) Visitors to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington are reflected in the wall as snow covers the...Full Image"I got a couple steaks, a couple jugs of wine and a couple good books," Walter Trogdash said as he left a convenience store in Toms River, N.J. "I think I'm all set."
North of New York City in Mamaroneck, shoppers stripped the shelves at a Super Stop&Shop of soda, meat, potatoes and beer and the checkout line stretched the length of the store.
"It's awesome," store manager Louis Spinola said of the mob scene.
Up to a foot of snow had fallen in Wisconsin and Michigan, and wind gusted to more than 60 mph across Iowa. As much as 18 inches of snow was forecast in northern New Jersey and accumulations of up to 20 inches were possible in parts of New England and the New York City area, the weather service said. A foot was likely in northern sections of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
While crews in the Midwest labored to remove what already had fallen, highway departments in the Northeast readied hundreds of plows and salt-spreading trucks. New York City canceled all vacations for its sanitation workers and called people in on their days off to handle the snow. Kennedy International Airport had machines capable of melting 500 tons of snow an hour.
(AP) Statues that are part of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington are covered in snow after the first...Full ImageIf 20 inches of snow fell in New York, the cost of cleanup could hit $20 million, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that was a problem for another day.
"The first thing is we're going to take care of the city," Bloomberg said. "And then Monday morning, I'll have to worry about how to pay for it."
"This is our Super Bowl. It's the public servants versus the elements, and we hope to win," said Philadelphia Managing Director Phil Goldsmith.
The blowing snow caused frustrating delays as airlines called off flights.
About 400 flights were canceled Saturday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and dozens more were called off at the city's Midway Airport. More than 200 people stayed the night at the two airports because of flights canceled the night before.
(AP) People cross snow-covered streets in the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights in New York,...Full ImageEven more chain-reaction cancellations were expected at Chicago and elsewhere as the storm clamped down on airports on the East Coast, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Annette Martinez.
The New York metropolitan area's Kennedy and Newark airports had dozens of cancellations as the storm arrived Saturday afternoon, said Port Authority spokesman Alan Hicks. LaGuardia had nearly 200 cancellations by 2 p.m.
By noon at Philadelphia International Airport, the storm had already wiped out about 25 percent of the normal load of 1,100 daily arrivals and departures. A private jet and a commuter plane slid off a taxiway at Pittsburgh International Airport; no one was injured.
Hundreds of workers at the football stadiums in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cleaned snow off tarps covering the fields in preparation for the National Football League conference title games that would be held in each city Sunday.
On the highways, Pennsylvania State Police reported dozens of accidents, including one involving 11 cars. New Jersey banned tractor-trailer rigs and motorcycles from the New Jersey Turnpike and slashed the speed limit to 45 mph.
Amtrak said there were minimal delays for its trains Saturday in the Northeast corridor, but it would have a reduced schedule between Washington and Boston and in upstate New York on Sunday.
Detroit delayed the opening of its first annual Motown Winter Blast for several hours to give road crews a chance to clear highways. SAT tests for prospective college students were canceled in Maryland, and several college basketball games were postponed in New Jersey.
January 21, 2005
A Bloody Crime in New Jersey Divides EgyptiansBy ANDREA ELLIOTT
ERSEY CITY, Jan. 20 - Muslim and Christian students of Egyptian descent suddenly no longer sit together during lunch at Dickinson High School on Palisade Avenue. At Halal butcher shops and Christian-owned grocery stores, sales clerks speak in equally hushed tones about the unsolved murder last week of a Christian Egyptian family, wary of who may be listening.
And friendships that were once free of religious division are now strained, in ways subtle and blunt, as speculation that four members of the family were killed because of their religion has run rampant, even though there have been no official findings by the authorities.
For years, Mohsen Elesawi, a Muslim Egyptian, shared shisha pipes and games of chess with Christian Egyptians at the Christian-owned El Saraya cafe on Vroom Street. Now, when he walks into the room, he often hears a quiet pause, "like a subject change," he said.
"Now there is no trust between Muslims and Christians and there is a lot of anger," said Mr. Elesawi, 52, a limousine driver who immigrated to Jersey City 21 years ago. "It's changed dramatically."
In the words of Fakher Fahmy, 53, a Christian Egyptian who owns a construction company in Jersey City, Muslims and Christians "spoke as friends" before the murders. "Now everybody is scared of everybody," he said.
For decades, Jersey City has been an experiment in peace between Muslims and Christians from Egypt. At odds in their homeland, the two groups had bonded as immigrants, mingling at the same cafes, schools and taxi stands, glued by one language and national identity. They shared eagerly in forging a new, American life.
But in the week since four family members, including an 8-year-old girl, were found in their home here with their throats slit, a centuries-old rift has come to the surface.
To the outsider, the extent of vitriol and near-paranoia provoked by the slayings seems hard to fathom: the police have yet to make an arrest and believe that robbery was a motive. Still, in the days after the four victims were found bound, gagged and stabbed to death, the scant known facts of the case have been supplanted by a swirl of rumor and innuendo that the victims were the targets of Muslims, leading to scenes of chaos at the funeral, with mourners shoving each other and threatening to beat a sheik who attended.
The murder case, while tragic on its own, has opened a wound and produced an outpouring of emotion that even Egyptian Christians and Muslims struggle to explain. The answer is layered: there are old-world grievances, a largely unspoken anger toward Egyptian Muslims after 9/11, and a newfound immigrant power that has left the Egyptian Christians - a repressed minority in Egypt - unafraid to assert their voice here.
The murder victims - Hossam Armanious, 47, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 - were Copts, or members of the Coptic Orthodox church. In Egypt, Muslims are the majority and Copts, who are roughly 10 percent of the population, live with varying degrees of social, political and religious discrimination, according to the United States State Department and human rights groups.
But in Jersey City, which has the largest Coptic Egyptian community in the United States, Copts are estimated to outnumber Muslims, and the balance of power between them is more equal.
Many Copts, along with Muslims, have enjoyed financial success. Fred Ayad, a Copt who left Cairo for Jersey City 35 years ago, rose to become deputy mayor. And Copts from all walks of life, from surgeons to cab drivers, will attest that in America, they have found a new social comfort. They no longer live on the margins of society: they are among the religious majority.
But if anything altered that newfound comfort, and helped stoke the recent friction over the murder case, it was Sept. 11.
Muslims in the United States were not alone in suffering a social backlash. Arabs of other religions have also been subjected to hate crimes, searches at airports, loss of jobs and other problems experienced by Muslims after the attacks. But that shared distress has wrought some hard and painful realities within the Arab community, with non-Muslims wishing to distance themselves from Muslims.
"Here in the United States, they think all Egyptians are alike," said a 51-year-old Copt from Jersey City who identified himself only as A. Iskander. "We have nothing to do with 9/11. It makes me angry."
That anger strikes many Muslim Americans as deeply unfair - they often make a point of saying that they, too, had nothing to do with 9/11. But it may explain the rather startling scene that unfolded on the steps of the slain family's church on Bergen Avenue last Sunday. Hundreds of Copts stood watching as members of the American Coptic Association gathered before television cameras and declared the family's murder a religious "execution," drawing comparisons to slayings by terrorists in Iraq and Egypt.
"Wake up America!" yelled Dr. Monir Dawoud, the president of the group. If newcomers to the Arab community found the image of Arabs denouncing other Arabs as terrorists surprising, it was not unusual for Dr. Dawoud, whom some have criticized as using the murder case to advance Coptic rights in Egypt.
Almost immediately, rumors flew: Mr. Armanious had engaged in fiery debates about Christianity and Islam in Internet chat rooms, and may have been threatened with murder, his friends said. The police would not confirm or deny that, but discounted newspaper reports that a tattoo of a cross on Sylvia Armanious's wrist had been stabbed.
Muslim leaders responded by condemning the killings, but also decrying the recriminations against their religion, at a news conference on Wednesday. They invited a representative of the Coptic church to speak, but no one came.
"It's not the time for us to speak about anything now," said the Rev. David Bebawi, a priest at the slain family's church, St. George and St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church. The press conference was "appropriate for them," he said. "It's not appropriate for me. We are grieved."
It is impossible to know what permanence, if any, the friction in Jersey City will have. There are still moments of harmony - Copts and Muslims continue to share tables at El Saraya, for instance, and Copts still shop at King M & M Halal Meat on West Side Avenue. But many Muslims and Copts agree that, for the time being, a shift has occurred. It is both subtle and nakedly obvious, if perhaps short-lived.
"I'm not going to be friends with Muslims anymore - their parents killed my best friend," said a 17-year-old boy who attends Dickinson High School, his eyes welling with tears.
Sylvia Armanious was a star student at Dickinson, where fights between Muslims and Copts have been brewing since news of the murders hit, students and school officials said. One girl's headscarf was pulled off, according to several students, though school officials said they did not know about the incident.
"Why are they blaming the Muslims?" asked a 15-year-old student from Pakistan, cloaked in a black hijab, as she briskly walked home from school Wednesday afternoon. "I feel scared."
School officials said that counselors at the school had been enlisted to address the tension and grief. Of the roughly 3,000 students who attend Dickinson, about 150 are Egyptian.
"The superintendent is trying to do everything possible to make sure that nothing happens in the school," said Dr. Sharon Bartley-Monos, executive assistant to Jersey City's public schools superintendent, Charles T. Epps, Jr.
The city's first Egyptians, both Copts and Muslims, began noticeably arriving here in the 1960's. Today, both groups number in the tens of thousands. (The census does not track religious affiliation, but both Coptic organizations and the Jersey City chapter of the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations estimate the number of Copts to be above 30,000 and Muslims to total about 25,000, out of the city's population of 239,000.)
The city's oldest mosque and its oldest Coptic church - the pillars of the Egyptian community - stand five blocks apart. Both were built in the 1970's, and are filled with hundreds of congregants every week. But when they are not worshipping apart, Muslims and Copts are working, shopping, walking and studying in many of the same places. And until this week, they seemed yet another example of how immigration to a new world can breed peaceful plurality.
For many children of Egyptian immigrants, the anguish surrounding the murders has brought to life a division they only heard about at the dinner table. Some have made their parents' grievance their own. Others have worked hard, despite the intensity of emotions over the last week, not to.
"We never talk about religion," said Moustafa Ahmed, 18, a Muslim of Egyptian descent, as he sat with his three best friends - a Muslim and two Copts - after school one day. The four young men, all of whom are students at Dickinson, began their lives together in Jersey City as neighbors in the same building, when their families first moved here, and have remained friends ever since.
"We don't put religion in our friendship at all," said Mario Gerges, 17, who is a Copt.
Nonetheless, young Copts like Mr. Gerges grew up hearing the stories of repression: how Copts in Egypt do not, for the most part, hold high-ranking positions in the government, the army or in universities; how the government appoints and pays the salaries of imams in mosques, but does not help finance or repair Christian churches.
"In my country, I can't have one tenth of this," said Mr. Ayad, the Copt who served as deputy mayor in Jersey City for nine years, until 2001. Mr. Ayad, who is also a Coptic deacon and a real estate investor, said he dreamed of being a politician in Egypt but never had the chance, given his religious affiliation.
And then there are the clashes between the groups, which date back more than 1,300 years, to when Islam took over as Egypt's leading religion. The most recent large-scale strife, in the upper Egyptian town of El Kusheh in 2000, left 20 Christians and one Muslim dead.
In June, the country's highest court upheld the acquittal of 94 suspects who were charged in the incident, leaving public prosecutors and human rights activists with no further legal redress, according to the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report.
The rage felt by many Jersey City Copts at the murder of the Armanious family was tethered, in part, to resentment over the Kusheh massacre, many Copts who were interviewed said.
"Why did so many people go into the streets, expressing their anger and belief that this is terrorism?" Dr. Dawoud asked. "Because the same things happened in Egypt."
Egyptian Muslims often provide a different portrait of life in their homeland, characterizing the complaints of Copts as far-fetched or exaggerated.
"If you go there, you wouldn't see what you hear here," said Hamed Elshanawany, the vice president of the Egyptian American Group, a nondenominational organization based in Jersey City.
Despite the lack of confirmation by the police, numerous Copts interviewed, from entrepreneurs to blue-collar workers, said they were sure the slaying was an act of religious hatred, given the way in which the victims were killed.
But that notion does not sit well with Muslims, who have grown weary of seeing their faith tainted by extremists.
"I don't know what being slaughtered the Muslim way means," said Mr. Elesawi, the Muslim limousine driver. "The person who does such an act does not belong to any religion."
A Bloody Crime in New Jersey Divides EgyptiansBy ANDREA ELLIOTT
ERSEY CITY, Jan. 20 - Muslim and Christian students of Egyptian descent suddenly no longer sit together during lunch at Dickinson High School on Palisade Avenue. At Halal butcher shops and Christian-owned grocery stores, sales clerks speak in equally hushed tones about the unsolved murder last week of a Christian Egyptian family, wary of who may be listening.
And friendships that were once free of religious division are now strained, in ways subtle and blunt, as speculation that four members of the family were killed because of their religion has run rampant, even though there have been no official findings by the authorities.
For years, Mohsen Elesawi, a Muslim Egyptian, shared shisha pipes and games of chess with Christian Egyptians at the Christian-owned El Saraya cafe on Vroom Street. Now, when he walks into the room, he often hears a quiet pause, "like a subject change," he said.
"Now there is no trust between Muslims and Christians and there is a lot of anger," said Mr. Elesawi, 52, a limousine driver who immigrated to Jersey City 21 years ago. "It's changed dramatically."
In the words of Fakher Fahmy, 53, a Christian Egyptian who owns a construction company in Jersey City, Muslims and Christians "spoke as friends" before the murders. "Now everybody is scared of everybody," he said.
For decades, Jersey City has been an experiment in peace between Muslims and Christians from Egypt. At odds in their homeland, the two groups had bonded as immigrants, mingling at the same cafes, schools and taxi stands, glued by one language and national identity. They shared eagerly in forging a new, American life.
But in the week since four family members, including an 8-year-old girl, were found in their home here with their throats slit, a centuries-old rift has come to the surface.
To the outsider, the extent of vitriol and near-paranoia provoked by the slayings seems hard to fathom: the police have yet to make an arrest and believe that robbery was a motive. Still, in the days after the four victims were found bound, gagged and stabbed to death, the scant known facts of the case have been supplanted by a swirl of rumor and innuendo that the victims were the targets of Muslims, leading to scenes of chaos at the funeral, with mourners shoving each other and threatening to beat a sheik who attended.
The murder case, while tragic on its own, has opened a wound and produced an outpouring of emotion that even Egyptian Christians and Muslims struggle to explain. The answer is layered: there are old-world grievances, a largely unspoken anger toward Egyptian Muslims after 9/11, and a newfound immigrant power that has left the Egyptian Christians - a repressed minority in Egypt - unafraid to assert their voice here.
The murder victims - Hossam Armanious, 47, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 - were Copts, or members of the Coptic Orthodox church. In Egypt, Muslims are the majority and Copts, who are roughly 10 percent of the population, live with varying degrees of social, political and religious discrimination, according to the United States State Department and human rights groups.
But in Jersey City, which has the largest Coptic Egyptian community in the United States, Copts are estimated to outnumber Muslims, and the balance of power between them is more equal.
Many Copts, along with Muslims, have enjoyed financial success. Fred Ayad, a Copt who left Cairo for Jersey City 35 years ago, rose to become deputy mayor. And Copts from all walks of life, from surgeons to cab drivers, will attest that in America, they have found a new social comfort. They no longer live on the margins of society: they are among the religious majority.
But if anything altered that newfound comfort, and helped stoke the recent friction over the murder case, it was Sept. 11.
Muslims in the United States were not alone in suffering a social backlash. Arabs of other religions have also been subjected to hate crimes, searches at airports, loss of jobs and other problems experienced by Muslims after the attacks. But that shared distress has wrought some hard and painful realities within the Arab community, with non-Muslims wishing to distance themselves from Muslims.
"Here in the United States, they think all Egyptians are alike," said a 51-year-old Copt from Jersey City who identified himself only as A. Iskander. "We have nothing to do with 9/11. It makes me angry."
That anger strikes many Muslim Americans as deeply unfair - they often make a point of saying that they, too, had nothing to do with 9/11. But it may explain the rather startling scene that unfolded on the steps of the slain family's church on Bergen Avenue last Sunday. Hundreds of Copts stood watching as members of the American Coptic Association gathered before television cameras and declared the family's murder a religious "execution," drawing comparisons to slayings by terrorists in Iraq and Egypt.
"Wake up America!" yelled Dr. Monir Dawoud, the president of the group. If newcomers to the Arab community found the image of Arabs denouncing other Arabs as terrorists surprising, it was not unusual for Dr. Dawoud, whom some have criticized as using the murder case to advance Coptic rights in Egypt.
Almost immediately, rumors flew: Mr. Armanious had engaged in fiery debates about Christianity and Islam in Internet chat rooms, and may have been threatened with murder, his friends said. The police would not confirm or deny that, but discounted newspaper reports that a tattoo of a cross on Sylvia Armanious's wrist had been stabbed.
Muslim leaders responded by condemning the killings, but also decrying the recriminations against their religion, at a news conference on Wednesday. They invited a representative of the Coptic church to speak, but no one came.
"It's not the time for us to speak about anything now," said the Rev. David Bebawi, a priest at the slain family's church, St. George and St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church. The press conference was "appropriate for them," he said. "It's not appropriate for me. We are grieved."
It is impossible to know what permanence, if any, the friction in Jersey City will have. There are still moments of harmony - Copts and Muslims continue to share tables at El Saraya, for instance, and Copts still shop at King M & M Halal Meat on West Side Avenue. But many Muslims and Copts agree that, for the time being, a shift has occurred. It is both subtle and nakedly obvious, if perhaps short-lived.
"I'm not going to be friends with Muslims anymore - their parents killed my best friend," said a 17-year-old boy who attends Dickinson High School, his eyes welling with tears.
Sylvia Armanious was a star student at Dickinson, where fights between Muslims and Copts have been brewing since news of the murders hit, students and school officials said. One girl's headscarf was pulled off, according to several students, though school officials said they did not know about the incident.
"Why are they blaming the Muslims?" asked a 15-year-old student from Pakistan, cloaked in a black hijab, as she briskly walked home from school Wednesday afternoon. "I feel scared."
School officials said that counselors at the school had been enlisted to address the tension and grief. Of the roughly 3,000 students who attend Dickinson, about 150 are Egyptian.
"The superintendent is trying to do everything possible to make sure that nothing happens in the school," said Dr. Sharon Bartley-Monos, executive assistant to Jersey City's public schools superintendent, Charles T. Epps, Jr.
The city's first Egyptians, both Copts and Muslims, began noticeably arriving here in the 1960's. Today, both groups number in the tens of thousands. (The census does not track religious affiliation, but both Coptic organizations and the Jersey City chapter of the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations estimate the number of Copts to be above 30,000 and Muslims to total about 25,000, out of the city's population of 239,000.)
The city's oldest mosque and its oldest Coptic church - the pillars of the Egyptian community - stand five blocks apart. Both were built in the 1970's, and are filled with hundreds of congregants every week. But when they are not worshipping apart, Muslims and Copts are working, shopping, walking and studying in many of the same places. And until this week, they seemed yet another example of how immigration to a new world can breed peaceful plurality.
For many children of Egyptian immigrants, the anguish surrounding the murders has brought to life a division they only heard about at the dinner table. Some have made their parents' grievance their own. Others have worked hard, despite the intensity of emotions over the last week, not to.
"We never talk about religion," said Moustafa Ahmed, 18, a Muslim of Egyptian descent, as he sat with his three best friends - a Muslim and two Copts - after school one day. The four young men, all of whom are students at Dickinson, began their lives together in Jersey City as neighbors in the same building, when their families first moved here, and have remained friends ever since.
"We don't put religion in our friendship at all," said Mario Gerges, 17, who is a Copt.
Nonetheless, young Copts like Mr. Gerges grew up hearing the stories of repression: how Copts in Egypt do not, for the most part, hold high-ranking positions in the government, the army or in universities; how the government appoints and pays the salaries of imams in mosques, but does not help finance or repair Christian churches.
"In my country, I can't have one tenth of this," said Mr. Ayad, the Copt who served as deputy mayor in Jersey City for nine years, until 2001. Mr. Ayad, who is also a Coptic deacon and a real estate investor, said he dreamed of being a politician in Egypt but never had the chance, given his religious affiliation.
And then there are the clashes between the groups, which date back more than 1,300 years, to when Islam took over as Egypt's leading religion. The most recent large-scale strife, in the upper Egyptian town of El Kusheh in 2000, left 20 Christians and one Muslim dead.
In June, the country's highest court upheld the acquittal of 94 suspects who were charged in the incident, leaving public prosecutors and human rights activists with no further legal redress, according to the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report.
The rage felt by many Jersey City Copts at the murder of the Armanious family was tethered, in part, to resentment over the Kusheh massacre, many Copts who were interviewed said.
"Why did so many people go into the streets, expressing their anger and belief that this is terrorism?" Dr. Dawoud asked. "Because the same things happened in Egypt."
Egyptian Muslims often provide a different portrait of life in their homeland, characterizing the complaints of Copts as far-fetched or exaggerated.
"If you go there, you wouldn't see what you hear here," said Hamed Elshanawany, the vice president of the Egyptian American Group, a nondenominational organization based in Jersey City.
Despite the lack of confirmation by the police, numerous Copts interviewed, from entrepreneurs to blue-collar workers, said they were sure the slaying was an act of religious hatred, given the way in which the victims were killed.
But that notion does not sit well with Muslims, who have grown weary of seeing their faith tainted by extremists.
"I don't know what being slaughtered the Muslim way means," said Mr. Elesawi, the Muslim limousine driver. "The person who does such an act does not belong to any religion."
January 23, 2005
Survivors of Tsunami Live on Close Terms With SeaBy ABBY GOODNOUGH
OUTH SURIN ISLAND, Thailand, Jan. 16 - They call it "wave that eats people," but the Moken sea gypsies, who have lived in isolation here for decades, emerged from the tsunami almost unscathed.
A community of about 200 Moken was living on South Surin Island, 40 miles from the Thai mainland, when the wave hit on Dec. 26 as it was barreling toward the coast. The Moken's village of thatched huts on stilts was on the beach, but when the water crashed over it, the Moken - including wizened old women and parents with babies on their backs - had already run to the hills.
The Moken know the mysteries of the ocean better than most Thais, having roamed it for centuries as fishermen and divers. They used to live half the year in houseboats on the Andaman Sea, wandering between Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, and while less itinerant now, they remain closely attuned to the water. They are animists who believe that the sea, their island and all objects have spirits, and the Moken use totem poles to communicate with them.
Salama Klathalay, chief of the Moken here, said his elders taught him to expect a people-eating wave whenever the tide receded far and fast. So when he witnessed such a sight on the morning of Dec. 26, he started running and shouting.
"I had never seen such a low tide," said Mr. Salama, a lively white-haired man who said he was at least 60 but unsure of his exact age. "I started telling people that a wave was coming."
One member of the community, a disabled man who could not run, was left behind in the panic, Mr. Salama said, sitting in one of the tents in which the Moken are living while they build a new village. The man died, and to avoid bad luck, Mr. Salama said, they were rebuilding on a different beach. They could avoid future tsunamis by moving to the hills, he said, but they fear the snakes that live there.
The Moken's eyesight under water is so sharp that researchers have studied it. Many cannot read or write, passing lore and knowledge down through the generations orally. They have their own language, though many younger Moken now speak Thai. Some go to the mainland to live and find work, but Mr. Salama said many return.
"They're not used to it over there," he said. "They're used to working on the sea, and there, they have to work in a factory or something."
The Moken have been little more than an oddity for tourist guidebooks and a nuisance for the Thai government, which has chastised them for fishing and foraging on environmentally sensitive water and land. But now, because of their agile escape from the tsunami, these people who live without electricity or schooling are a cause célèbre. The Thai news media has painted them as heroes, and politicians have called for preserving their way of life and spreading their long-held wisdom.
Mr. Salama and other Moken seemed tolerant of nosy visitors, but their thoughts were clearly elsewhere. The wave destroyed most of their wooden boats, most of which have motors these days, and all their homes. It indefinitely closed a small national park office, which employed some Moken as guides and garbage collectors and bought the fish they caught. The disaster also scared off tourists, whom the Moken took diving and to whom the Moken sold handmade replicas of their boats.
After the tsunami, rescue boats took the Moken to a Buddhist temple on the mainland, where they stayed about 10 days before restlessness overwhelmed them. They returned to their island last weekend and started building new homes with donated bamboo and palm fronds. Park rangers are helping them build 54 new homes, which they hope to finish in a few months, and perhaps a small school and souvenir shop for tourists.
A few thousand sea gypsies - called chao ley, or water people, in Thai - live on the Andaman coast or islands near it. Most are more assimilated than the Moken, but they still lead segregated, impoverished lives.
Yupa Klathalay, 35, a Moken, said she visited the mainland a few times a month to sell sea cucumbers but had no interest in moving there, even after the tsunami.
"This place comes from the old generation, and we have to continue it," Ms. Yupa said as hammers pounded and saws buzzed. In the late afternoon, when the group working on construction was dragging in the heat, Mr. Salama pulled up in a longtail boat and leapt out, shouting and hoisting wood to re-energize them.
Mr. Salama, whose father was the chief here before him, said his people believed that tsunamis came because the sea was angry. Another group of Moken, who lived on a different island and are now at a refugee camp in Takua Pa, about 70 miles north of Phuket, on the coast of the Thai mainland, said they, too, thought the wave was punishment from the spirits. They said some dolphins appeared to be agitated shortly before the tide receded that morning, a sign that something was coming. Most of that group also survived.
Each spring the Moken hold a ceremony celebrating the sea and asking for its forgiveness, and this year will be no exception, Mr. Salama said.
"We didn't do anything bad, but maybe somebody else did," he said. "The wave has cleaned out the bad things."
Survivors of Tsunami Live on Close Terms With SeaBy ABBY GOODNOUGH
OUTH SURIN ISLAND, Thailand, Jan. 16 - They call it "wave that eats people," but the Moken sea gypsies, who have lived in isolation here for decades, emerged from the tsunami almost unscathed.
A community of about 200 Moken was living on South Surin Island, 40 miles from the Thai mainland, when the wave hit on Dec. 26 as it was barreling toward the coast. The Moken's village of thatched huts on stilts was on the beach, but when the water crashed over it, the Moken - including wizened old women and parents with babies on their backs - had already run to the hills.
The Moken know the mysteries of the ocean better than most Thais, having roamed it for centuries as fishermen and divers. They used to live half the year in houseboats on the Andaman Sea, wandering between Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, and while less itinerant now, they remain closely attuned to the water. They are animists who believe that the sea, their island and all objects have spirits, and the Moken use totem poles to communicate with them.
Salama Klathalay, chief of the Moken here, said his elders taught him to expect a people-eating wave whenever the tide receded far and fast. So when he witnessed such a sight on the morning of Dec. 26, he started running and shouting.
"I had never seen such a low tide," said Mr. Salama, a lively white-haired man who said he was at least 60 but unsure of his exact age. "I started telling people that a wave was coming."
One member of the community, a disabled man who could not run, was left behind in the panic, Mr. Salama said, sitting in one of the tents in which the Moken are living while they build a new village. The man died, and to avoid bad luck, Mr. Salama said, they were rebuilding on a different beach. They could avoid future tsunamis by moving to the hills, he said, but they fear the snakes that live there.
The Moken's eyesight under water is so sharp that researchers have studied it. Many cannot read or write, passing lore and knowledge down through the generations orally. They have their own language, though many younger Moken now speak Thai. Some go to the mainland to live and find work, but Mr. Salama said many return.
"They're not used to it over there," he said. "They're used to working on the sea, and there, they have to work in a factory or something."
The Moken have been little more than an oddity for tourist guidebooks and a nuisance for the Thai government, which has chastised them for fishing and foraging on environmentally sensitive water and land. But now, because of their agile escape from the tsunami, these people who live without electricity or schooling are a cause célèbre. The Thai news media has painted them as heroes, and politicians have called for preserving their way of life and spreading their long-held wisdom.
Mr. Salama and other Moken seemed tolerant of nosy visitors, but their thoughts were clearly elsewhere. The wave destroyed most of their wooden boats, most of which have motors these days, and all their homes. It indefinitely closed a small national park office, which employed some Moken as guides and garbage collectors and bought the fish they caught. The disaster also scared off tourists, whom the Moken took diving and to whom the Moken sold handmade replicas of their boats.
After the tsunami, rescue boats took the Moken to a Buddhist temple on the mainland, where they stayed about 10 days before restlessness overwhelmed them. They returned to their island last weekend and started building new homes with donated bamboo and palm fronds. Park rangers are helping them build 54 new homes, which they hope to finish in a few months, and perhaps a small school and souvenir shop for tourists.
A few thousand sea gypsies - called chao ley, or water people, in Thai - live on the Andaman coast or islands near it. Most are more assimilated than the Moken, but they still lead segregated, impoverished lives.
Yupa Klathalay, 35, a Moken, said she visited the mainland a few times a month to sell sea cucumbers but had no interest in moving there, even after the tsunami.
"This place comes from the old generation, and we have to continue it," Ms. Yupa said as hammers pounded and saws buzzed. In the late afternoon, when the group working on construction was dragging in the heat, Mr. Salama pulled up in a longtail boat and leapt out, shouting and hoisting wood to re-energize them.
Mr. Salama, whose father was the chief here before him, said his people believed that tsunamis came because the sea was angry. Another group of Moken, who lived on a different island and are now at a refugee camp in Takua Pa, about 70 miles north of Phuket, on the coast of the Thai mainland, said they, too, thought the wave was punishment from the spirits. They said some dolphins appeared to be agitated shortly before the tide receded that morning, a sign that something was coming. Most of that group also survived.
Each spring the Moken hold a ceremony celebrating the sea and asking for its forgiveness, and this year will be no exception, Mr. Salama said.
"We didn't do anything bad, but maybe somebody else did," he said. "The wave has cleaned out the bad things."
Analysis: New start in the Mid-East?
US President George W Bush has given a ringing endorsement to Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Israeli forces out of the occupied territories and dismantle settlements. Middle East analyst Gerald Butt looks at the prospects for regional peace in the light of the US-Israeli ideas.
In the space of a few hours of talks in Washington, proposals for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict took on a completely new complexion.
For the first time, a plan has been drawn up - not only without Palestinians being consulted, but also with minimal reference to their existence.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and President George W Bush, in their public statements after agreeing on plans for Israel's disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, gave the impression that the deal was done and dusted, sweeping aside all previous peace formulas.
But this impression was misleading, even from Israel's perspective.
First Mr Sharon has to win the support of right-wing doubters within his own Likud bloc for his disengagement plans. He will be hoping that Mr Bush's ringing public endorsement of them will make it hard for those on the far right of Likud to reject them.
Any opposition from centre or centre-left parties will be brushed aside by the prime minister.
And Mr Sharon is likely to succeed eventually in pushing the proposals through cabinet and the Knesset.
Unilateral plan
Even after securing broad Israeli support for disengagement, Mr Bush and Mr Sharon will have to tackle the one glaring omission in their agreement: the fact that it was presented as part of a new American vision for the Middle East without input from the Palestinians.
Mr Sharon's answer to this criticism is that the plan was based merely on concerns of security and was being introduced unilaterally because of the vacuum in the peace process.
It could also be argued that the Palestinian Authority, battered and bruised by physical confrontation with Israel, and its morale undermined by critics within its own community, is in no position to raise objections to the latest US-Israeli plan.
Furthermore, the issue has been discussed in meetings between Mr Bush and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.
But leaving the Palestinians out of the consultation process and imposing an American-backed settlement will serve to undermine still more those who still believe that negotiations offer the only way to a lasting solution.
The Palestinians have democratically elected representatives. By choosing to ignore them, the United States and Israel are cutting them adrift, leaving them stranded and powerless.
At the same time, their exclusion will embolden those Palestinians, along with other Arabs and Muslims, who reject the path of negotiations and argue that the only way to deal with what they regard as the arrogance of Israel and its American backer is with the gun and the suicide bomb.
Future possibilities
Assuming, though, that Mr Sharon presses ahead with his plan, the possibility must be that the Gaza Strip becomes a mini-section of a disjointed Palestinian state, economically impoverished and ringed by the Israeli army which will keep facilities within the territory.
The West Bank, too, would be another, slighter larger, part of the disjointed Palestinian state, playing host to huge Jewish township settlements.
A third possibility that is mentioned from time to time is a bi-national, Israeli Palestinian state incorporating Israel and the West Bank.
But this last idea is flatly rejected by Israel on demographic grounds, with the prospects of Jews becoming a minority in such a state.
And the majority of Palestinians insist on a state comprising, at very least, the pre-1967 Arab-Israeli war boundaries, with Jerusalem as its capital.
The only other option in the foreseeable future, if the Sharon plan were for some reason or other to fail, would be continuation of the status quo.
An end of conflict?
Whatever critics of the Israel prime minister may say, his ideas offer a prospect of the political stalemate being broken.
But, as initial reaction from a wide range of sources, from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to Arab and Islamic leaders, has suggested, imposing a solution may not be in the best interests of the region as a whole.
As EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, while Israeli disengagement from Gaza would be welcomed, "final status issues can only be resolved by mutual agreement between the parties."
This latest proposed venture comes at a time when US unilateral action in solving international crises is coming under broad international fire and causing embarrassment for Washington's Arab friends.
So the world might be excused for being less than overwhelmingly enthusiastic, much as Mr Bush and Mr Sharon might like to present it as a done and dusted deal.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3629071.stmPublished: 2004/04/15 12:33:59 GMT© BBC MMV
US President George W Bush has given a ringing endorsement to Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Israeli forces out of the occupied territories and dismantle settlements. Middle East analyst Gerald Butt looks at the prospects for regional peace in the light of the US-Israeli ideas.
In the space of a few hours of talks in Washington, proposals for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict took on a completely new complexion.
For the first time, a plan has been drawn up - not only without Palestinians being consulted, but also with minimal reference to their existence.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and President George W Bush, in their public statements after agreeing on plans for Israel's disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, gave the impression that the deal was done and dusted, sweeping aside all previous peace formulas.
But this impression was misleading, even from Israel's perspective.
First Mr Sharon has to win the support of right-wing doubters within his own Likud bloc for his disengagement plans. He will be hoping that Mr Bush's ringing public endorsement of them will make it hard for those on the far right of Likud to reject them.
Any opposition from centre or centre-left parties will be brushed aside by the prime minister.
And Mr Sharon is likely to succeed eventually in pushing the proposals through cabinet and the Knesset.
Unilateral plan
Even after securing broad Israeli support for disengagement, Mr Bush and Mr Sharon will have to tackle the one glaring omission in their agreement: the fact that it was presented as part of a new American vision for the Middle East without input from the Palestinians.
Mr Sharon's answer to this criticism is that the plan was based merely on concerns of security and was being introduced unilaterally because of the vacuum in the peace process.
It could also be argued that the Palestinian Authority, battered and bruised by physical confrontation with Israel, and its morale undermined by critics within its own community, is in no position to raise objections to the latest US-Israeli plan.
Furthermore, the issue has been discussed in meetings between Mr Bush and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.
But leaving the Palestinians out of the consultation process and imposing an American-backed settlement will serve to undermine still more those who still believe that negotiations offer the only way to a lasting solution.
The Palestinians have democratically elected representatives. By choosing to ignore them, the United States and Israel are cutting them adrift, leaving them stranded and powerless.
At the same time, their exclusion will embolden those Palestinians, along with other Arabs and Muslims, who reject the path of negotiations and argue that the only way to deal with what they regard as the arrogance of Israel and its American backer is with the gun and the suicide bomb.
Future possibilities
Assuming, though, that Mr Sharon presses ahead with his plan, the possibility must be that the Gaza Strip becomes a mini-section of a disjointed Palestinian state, economically impoverished and ringed by the Israeli army which will keep facilities within the territory.
The West Bank, too, would be another, slighter larger, part of the disjointed Palestinian state, playing host to huge Jewish township settlements.
A third possibility that is mentioned from time to time is a bi-national, Israeli Palestinian state incorporating Israel and the West Bank.
But this last idea is flatly rejected by Israel on demographic grounds, with the prospects of Jews becoming a minority in such a state.
And the majority of Palestinians insist on a state comprising, at very least, the pre-1967 Arab-Israeli war boundaries, with Jerusalem as its capital.
The only other option in the foreseeable future, if the Sharon plan were for some reason or other to fail, would be continuation of the status quo.
An end of conflict?
Whatever critics of the Israel prime minister may say, his ideas offer a prospect of the political stalemate being broken.
But, as initial reaction from a wide range of sources, from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to Arab and Islamic leaders, has suggested, imposing a solution may not be in the best interests of the region as a whole.
As EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, while Israeli disengagement from Gaza would be welcomed, "final status issues can only be resolved by mutual agreement between the parties."
This latest proposed venture comes at a time when US unilateral action in solving international crises is coming under broad international fire and causing embarrassment for Washington's Arab friends.
So the world might be excused for being less than overwhelmingly enthusiastic, much as Mr Bush and Mr Sharon might like to present it as a done and dusted deal.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3629071.stmPublished: 2004/04/15 12:33:59 GMT© BBC MMV
^ Back to vegasmike433's PhotosSaturday, January 22, 20056:11:01 PMViewed 1 time
January 22, 2005NEWS ANALYSIS Bush's Smiles Meet Some Frowns in EuropeBy ROGER COHEN The start of President Bush's second term has been marked by conciliatory gestures toward Europe: a promised visit to the headquarters of the European Union, the selection of a top State Department team deeply versed in European affairs, restraint on trade, cooperation on the Ukrainian crisis and bold commitments to the active Middle Eastern diplomacy that Europeans want.All of this amounts to a presidential gamble that the Atlantic community is alive and well, despite the divisive trauma of Iraq. But Mr. Bush will want results. As his secretary of state-designate, Condoleezza Rice, said this week: "When judging a course of action, I will never forget that the true measure of its worth is whether it is effective."By this yardstick, can European-American cooperation still deliver? Can it usher in the freer world to which the president is committed? Promising to listen to the counsel of allies, Mr. Bush declared Thursday, "The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is the prelude to our enemies' defeat."The initial reaction was generally cool. European commentators asked what new war Mr. Bush might embark on in the name of his idealism, and portrayed his global bid to eliminate tyranny as hubris or hypocrisy. But a few newspapers, like the conservative German daily Die Welt, suggested, "A little bit of this spirit would do the Old World good and help it to renew itself."Pressing tests of cooperation abound: the Iraq war, a Middle East changed by Yasir Arafat's death, the slow-building potential missile crisis in Iran, Ukraine's democratic transition."The president has demonstrated his willingness to re-engage with the Europeans - all of them, not one at a time, and that includes the French," said Simon Serfaty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is critical. But achieving tangible results will not be easy because basic positions have not changed."The French, although they have tried not to trumpet the fact, feel vindicated by the morass in Iraq - the result, in their view, of a war fought on flimsy grounds with inadequate means in a bad neighborhood they know well from bitter colonial history.The Bush administration, by contrast, feels vindicated by what it sees as a significant democratic tide set in motion by a war on terror that has assumed aspects of a war on tyranny.The Palestinian election on Jan. 9, the Iraqi election planned for Jan. 30, even the overturning of a fraudulent election in Ukraine - all of these events are seen as the fruits of the "transformational diplomacy" Ms. Rice embraces, one directed at the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.Such differences of perception will be reinforced by deep-rooted forces that now push Europe and the United States in opposite directions.The most important of these is the fact that, with much of their sovereignty ceded to the European Union, the countries of Europe are post-nationalist states, troubled by military assertiveness and the bold projection of national power.Wolfgang Ischinger, the German ambassador to the United States, said fighting for freedom was fine, but the question was how. "The push for liberty has to come from within," he said, referring to societies America might want to change. He added that if the president's ambitions mean "going out and being a missionary, Europeans may not want to buy into that."Against this backdrop, the potential for renewed discord persists. Differences may erupt over the speed of an American military withdrawal from Iraq that many in Europe would like completed by the end of the year.Where Europeans see dead Palestinians, Americans tend to see terrorized Israelis; as a result, coordinated pressure on the two parties will be elusive.The administration may tire of European diplomacy in Iran if it is convinced that Tehran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon under a secret program whose reality the Europeans have missed.Still, a real determination seems to exist for the moment to mend the worst trans-Atlantic crisis in many years. The National Security Council has even begun weekly meetings with senior European officials like Mr. Ischinger; the talks, intended to promote a new dialogue, have been welcomed by Europeans."We don't want to give lessons and we have no desire to look in the rear-view mirror," Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said in an interview this month. "The alliance between Americans and Europeans must be balanced and effective."In what a senior American official in Europe called "a symbolic event to bring us together," Mr. Bush will go to Brussels on Feb. 22, visiting NATO and the 25-member European Union. His speeches are expected to include not only a powerful endorsement of the alliance but also of the idea of a united Europe.The European Union often felt slighted during the first Bush term, which was marked more by talk of "coalitions of the willing" and of "old" and "new" Europe than of the promise of the continent's integration. It was not only in Paris that a view gained ground that America now saw its interest more in a divided than in a united Europe.Mr. Bush, the senior official said, will seek to dispel this notion. He is likely to underscore the joint effectiveness and interest of the United States and Europe in spreading democratic market economies. Another potential theme is their shared commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East, an outcome on which Ms. Rice has said she will expend "an enormous amount of effort."At the heart of Mr. Bush's new policy in Europe lies a push to reconcile with Germany, a firm postwar ally that opposed the Iraq war.From Brussels, the president will travel to Mainz, Germany, for meetings that Ezra Suleiman, an expert on European affairs at Princeton University, said "has focused French minds on the fact that they risk being sidelined and marginalized if they don't get over the Iraq row."A rapprochement with Germany comes naturally to Ms. Rice and her selected deputy, Robert B. Zoellick, both of whom were involved in the country's unification in 1990, an example of transformational diplomacy that left a lasting impression on the incoming secretary of state. The likely No. 3 at the State Department, R. Nicholas Burns, who is now ambassador to NATO, is also a committed Atlanticist."We see old European hands coagulating at the top of the State Department," said Jonathan Eyal, a British foreign policy expert. "We see a secretary of state with the ear of the president, we see the president coming to Brussels and deferring for now to European diplomatic efforts in Iran, and we see a quest for quiet mediation in the Airbus-Boeing dispute. All of that seems to amount to an opportunity we must grab."But Europe, of late, has been characterized as much by division as unity, and hostility to Mr. Bush remains virulent in many countries.An influential current in European thought sees the European Union more as a counterweight to the United States than as a partner. Where Poland and Slovakia embrace America, France and Spain wonder. The Continent is at best ambivalent about American power, at least as it has been exercised under Mr. Bush.If such divisive forces prevail and Mr. Bush's overtures prove sterile, Ms. Rice may find herself quickly outflanked by others in the administration, not least Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whose views of Europe, or at least European unity and traditional alliances, are far more skeptical
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January 22, 2005NEWS ANALYSIS Bush's Smiles Meet Some Frowns in EuropeBy ROGER COHEN The start of President Bush's second term has been marked by conciliatory gestures toward Europe: a promised visit to the headquarters of the European Union, the selection of a top State Department team deeply versed in European affairs, restraint on trade, cooperation on the Ukrainian crisis and bold commitments to the active Middle Eastern diplomacy that Europeans want.All of this amounts to a presidential gamble that the Atlantic community is alive and well, despite the divisive trauma of Iraq. But Mr. Bush will want results. As his secretary of state-designate, Condoleezza Rice, said this week: "When judging a course of action, I will never forget that the true measure of its worth is whether it is effective."By this yardstick, can European-American cooperation still deliver? Can it usher in the freer world to which the president is committed? Promising to listen to the counsel of allies, Mr. Bush declared Thursday, "The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is the prelude to our enemies' defeat."The initial reaction was generally cool. European commentators asked what new war Mr. Bush might embark on in the name of his idealism, and portrayed his global bid to eliminate tyranny as hubris or hypocrisy. But a few newspapers, like the conservative German daily Die Welt, suggested, "A little bit of this spirit would do the Old World good and help it to renew itself."Pressing tests of cooperation abound: the Iraq war, a Middle East changed by Yasir Arafat's death, the slow-building potential missile crisis in Iran, Ukraine's democratic transition."The president has demonstrated his willingness to re-engage with the Europeans - all of them, not one at a time, and that includes the French," said Simon Serfaty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is critical. But achieving tangible results will not be easy because basic positions have not changed."The French, although they have tried not to trumpet the fact, feel vindicated by the morass in Iraq - the result, in their view, of a war fought on flimsy grounds with inadequate means in a bad neighborhood they know well from bitter colonial history.The Bush administration, by contrast, feels vindicated by what it sees as a significant democratic tide set in motion by a war on terror that has assumed aspects of a war on tyranny.The Palestinian election on Jan. 9, the Iraqi election planned for Jan. 30, even the overturning of a fraudulent election in Ukraine - all of these events are seen as the fruits of the "transformational diplomacy" Ms. Rice embraces, one directed at the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.Such differences of perception will be reinforced by deep-rooted forces that now push Europe and the United States in opposite directions.The most important of these is the fact that, with much of their sovereignty ceded to the European Union, the countries of Europe are post-nationalist states, troubled by military assertiveness and the bold projection of national power.Wolfgang Ischinger, the German ambassador to the United States, said fighting for freedom was fine, but the question was how. "The push for liberty has to come from within," he said, referring to societies America might want to change. He added that if the president's ambitions mean "going out and being a missionary, Europeans may not want to buy into that."Against this backdrop, the potential for renewed discord persists. Differences may erupt over the speed of an American military withdrawal from Iraq that many in Europe would like completed by the end of the year.Where Europeans see dead Palestinians, Americans tend to see terrorized Israelis; as a result, coordinated pressure on the two parties will be elusive.The administration may tire of European diplomacy in Iran if it is convinced that Tehran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon under a secret program whose reality the Europeans have missed.Still, a real determination seems to exist for the moment to mend the worst trans-Atlantic crisis in many years. The National Security Council has even begun weekly meetings with senior European officials like Mr. Ischinger; the talks, intended to promote a new dialogue, have been welcomed by Europeans."We don't want to give lessons and we have no desire to look in the rear-view mirror," Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said in an interview this month. "The alliance between Americans and Europeans must be balanced and effective."In what a senior American official in Europe called "a symbolic event to bring us together," Mr. Bush will go to Brussels on Feb. 22, visiting NATO and the 25-member European Union. His speeches are expected to include not only a powerful endorsement of the alliance but also of the idea of a united Europe.The European Union often felt slighted during the first Bush term, which was marked more by talk of "coalitions of the willing" and of "old" and "new" Europe than of the promise of the continent's integration. It was not only in Paris that a view gained ground that America now saw its interest more in a divided than in a united Europe.Mr. Bush, the senior official said, will seek to dispel this notion. He is likely to underscore the joint effectiveness and interest of the United States and Europe in spreading democratic market economies. Another potential theme is their shared commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East, an outcome on which Ms. Rice has said she will expend "an enormous amount of effort."At the heart of Mr. Bush's new policy in Europe lies a push to reconcile with Germany, a firm postwar ally that opposed the Iraq war.From Brussels, the president will travel to Mainz, Germany, for meetings that Ezra Suleiman, an expert on European affairs at Princeton University, said "has focused French minds on the fact that they risk being sidelined and marginalized if they don't get over the Iraq row."A rapprochement with Germany comes naturally to Ms. Rice and her selected deputy, Robert B. Zoellick, both of whom were involved in the country's unification in 1990, an example of transformational diplomacy that left a lasting impression on the incoming secretary of state. The likely No. 3 at the State Department, R. Nicholas Burns, who is now ambassador to NATO, is also a committed Atlanticist."We see old European hands coagulating at the top of the State Department," said Jonathan Eyal, a British foreign policy expert. "We see a secretary of state with the ear of the president, we see the president coming to Brussels and deferring for now to European diplomatic efforts in Iran, and we see a quest for quiet mediation in the Airbus-Boeing dispute. All of that seems to amount to an opportunity we must grab."But Europe, of late, has been characterized as much by division as unity, and hostility to Mr. Bush remains virulent in many countries.An influential current in European thought sees the European Union more as a counterweight to the United States than as a partner. Where Poland and Slovakia embrace America, France and Spain wonder. The Continent is at best ambivalent about American power, at least as it has been exercised under Mr. Bush.If such divisive forces prevail and Mr. Bush's overtures prove sterile, Ms. Rice may find herself quickly outflanked by others in the administration, not least Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whose views of Europe, or at least European unity and traditional alliances, are far more skeptical
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MISSING MONEY Mystery in Iraq as $300 Million is Taken Abroad By DEXTER FILKINS BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 21 - Earlier this month, according to Iraqi officials, $300 million in American bills was taken out of Iraq's Central Bank, put into boxes and quietly put on a charter jet bound for Lebanon. The money was to be used to buy tanks and other weapons from international arms dealers, the officials say, as part of an accelerated effort to assemble an armored division for the fledgling Iraqi Army. But exactly where the money went, and to whom, and for precisely what, remains a mystery, at least to Iraqis who say they have been trying to find out. The $300 million deal appears to have been arranged outside the American-designed financial controls intended to help Iraq - which defaulted on its external debt in the 1990's - legally import goods. By most accounts here, there was no public bidding for the arms contracts, nor was the deal approved by the entire 33-member Iraqi cabinet. On Friday, the mysterious flight became an issue in this country's American-backed election campaign, when Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan, faced with corruption allegations, threatened to arrest a political rival. In an interview on Al Jazeera television, Mr. Shalaan said he would order the arrest of Ahmed Chalabi, one of the country's most prominent politicians, who has publicly accused Mr. Shalaan of sending the cash out of the country. Mr. Shalaan said he would extradite Mr. Chalabi to face corruption charges of his own. "We will arrest him and hand him over to Interpol," Mr. Shalaan thundered on Al Jazeera. The charge against Mr. Chalabi, he said, would be "maligning" him and his ministry. He suggested that Mr. Chalabi had made the charges to further his political ambitions. Mr. Chalabi first made the allegation against Mr. Shalaan last week, on another Arabic-language television network. He said there was no legitimate reason why the Iraqi government should have used cash to pay for goods from abroad. He implied that at least some of the money was being used for other things. "Why was $300 million in cash put on an airplane?" Mr. Chalabi asked in an interview this week. "Where did the money go? What was it used for? Who was it given to? We don't know." The $300 million flight has been the talk of Iraq's political class, and fueled the impression among many Iraqis and Western officials that the interim Iraqi government, set up after the American occupation formally ended in June, is awash in corruption. It is not clear whether the money came from Iraqi or American sources, or both. "I am sorry to say that the corruption here is worse now than in the Saddam Hussein era," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, who said he had not been informed of the details of the flight or the arms deal. That charge is echoed outside of Iraq as well. Isam al-Khafaji, the director of the New York-based Iraq Revenue Watch, said corruption had become an "open secret" within the Iraqi government. "There is no legal system to bring charges against anyone not following the rules and not abiding by the law, especially if you're a powerful politician," Mr. Khafaji said. "That's the tragedy of Iraq: Everyone runs their business like a private fiefdom." Mr. Shalaan did not respond to several requests for an interview, but one of his aides insisted that the arms deal was legal and that the money had been well spent. Reached by telephone in Lebanon, the aide, Mishal Sarraf, said the arms deal had been approved by four senior members of the Iraqi government, including Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Mr. Shalaan. He said it had been carried out quickly because of the urgency of the guerrilla war. He said he had not realized that the deal had been done in cash. "We don't want to hide anything," Mr. Sarraf said. He said the armaments themselves had been manufactured in Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States. He said the money had bought armored personal carriers, tanks and even Humvees. Mr. Sarraf refused to say who received the money, saying it was too dangerous. "They could be killed," he said. The public fight with Mr. Shalaan is the latest political twist for Mr. Chalabi, once the darling of the Bush administration and one of the main proponents of the invasion of Iraq. He has since become a pariah in the United States, accused of exaggerating Mr. Hussein's prohibited weapons activities. After a bitter falling out with the Bush administration, which accused him of passing secrets to the Iranian government, Mr. Chalabi has begun to mend fences with the Americans, and is positioning himself to make a run for the prime minister's seat. In threatening to arrest Mr. Chalabi, Mr. Shalaan appears to be trying to change the subject to Mr. Chalabi's own legal problems. In Jordan, Mr. Chalabi faces charges that he embezzled millions of dollars from the Petra Bank, which collapsed in the 1990's. Mr. Chalabi has long maintained that the charges against him in Jordan are baseless, part of a vendetta being carried out for his opposition to Mr. Hussein. Mr. Chalabi was campaigning in southern Iraq on Friday and could not be reached after Mr. Shalaan's threat to arrest him. Details of the arms detail are still sketchy, but according to Mr. Sarraf and other Iraqi officials, it began late last year as part of the effort to beef up the Iraqi armed forces in the face of the relentless guerrilla insurgency. Mr. Sarraf said that though the arms deal had been approved by four senior cabinet members, it had not been put before the entire cabinet because of the urgency in dealing with the insurgency. "It was all proper," he said. Dr. Allawi's office did respond to repeated requests for an interview. According to a senior Iraqi financial official with knowledge of the deal, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, the $300 million was then transferred to the Warqa Bank, a private Iraqi financial institution with a capitalization of about $7 million. That bank, the Iraqi official said, does not have the ability to transfer money electronically to another account in another country. An equivalent amount of cash was then taken from the vault of the Central Bank of Iraq, taken to the airport, loaded on an airplane and sent to Lebanon. "The government here knows it is coming to an end," the official said. "This is what governments do when they are coming to an end." A second Iraqi financial official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the transaction. The official described the arrangement as "unusual" and said he had ordered an investigation of the transaction. The senior Iraqi financial official said the arms deal appeared to bypass the elaborate financial mechanism set up by the Americans at the end of the war that was intended to help Iraqi import goods from abroad. Under that system, Iraqi revenues intended for imports are routed through the Trade Bank of Iraq and are facilitated, and largely controlled, by large American financial institutions. The system was intended to stop creditors from tying up Iraqi money needed for imports and also to control the way in which the Iraqi government spends its money. Indeed, the Iraqi official with knowledge of the deal said he was concerned that the $300 million could be seized by the many creditors who have liens against the Iraqi government. Mr. Khafaji of Iraqi Revenue Watch said the financial mechanism had been set up to cover all government transactions dealing with imports, including arms purchases. But one American official with knowledge of the transaction said taking the $300 million out of the country, although unorthodox, was probably the only way for the Iraqi government to buy weapons. The reason, according to the American official, is that the financial mechanism set up after the war's major combat operation ended requires that Iraqi oil revenues be spent for "humanitarian" purposes. That meant that the Trade Bank of Iraq could not be used for arms purchases, thus necessitating the use of cash. That has since changed, the official said, with the signing of an executive order by President Bush late last year. Jad Mouawad contributed reporting from New York for this article. | ||
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today's papersShalaan Out the CashBy Andrew RicePosted Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005, at 2:38 AM PT
The reverberations from President Bush's inaugural speech continue to dominate the news, as the Washington Post leads with its likely effect on administration policy—not much—and the Los Angeles Times focuses on whether the president's fighting words mean real war with alleged nuclear aspirant Iran. The New York Times leads with a doozy of a scandal out of Iraq: Apparently some $300 million in cash was recently withdrawn from the national bank at the directive of the country's defense minister, and it may have disappeared.
According to the NYT piece, the $300 million was "taken out of Iraq's Central Bank, put into boxes and quietly put on a charter jet bound for Lebanon." Exactly what happened to the money after that is a matter of dispute. An aide to Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan says the money was spent on arms and military equipment. Noted good-government crusader Ahmed Chalabi, who is aiming to become prime minister after this month's elections, says the whole thing smells fishy and has seized on the missing loot as a campaign issue. Shalaan, in turn, has threatened to have Chalabi arrested. One anonymous "senior Iraqi financial official" has a succinct explanation for the big withdrawal: "The government here knows it is coming to an end. ... This is what governments do when they are coming to an end."
So, remember that line in Bush's speech Thursday, the one that said "ending tyranny in our world" was the "ultimate goal" of his administration? Well ... don't get too excited. The WP's lead reports that the speech "represents no significant shift in U.S. foreign policy," basing its conclusion on interviews with White House officials. In a background briefing given to all the papers, seemingly intended to rein in the rhetoric with a little realpolitik, a "senior administration official" said that the speech doesn't portend a major change in America's relationship with less-than-democratic nations like Russia, China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. "Do you want us to be rhetorical or to be effective?" the official asked the reporters, according to the NYT's story, which runs inside. (In his inaugural analysis, Slate's Chris Suellentrop predicted Bush would backtrack and argued that Democrats should hold him to his words.)
The LAT has the most apocalyptic reading of the speech, focusing mainly on the rising tensions with Iran. Bush's words, along with Vice President Dick Cheney's hints of possible Israeli airstrikes against Iranian nuclear installations, elicited a predictably bellicose reaction in Tehran, where one newspaper attacked the administration's "belligerent, unilateralist policies." Bush may not be as alone as he appears, however; a French analyst tells the paper that he believes Europe, which is pushing negotiations, is playing along with a "good-cop-bad-cop" strategy. This theory is undermined somewhat by an accompanying analysis that says the administration's swashbuckling neoconservative faction is on the rise again.
The papers all do the obligatory round-ups of international reaction to Bush's speech. The general feeling: We hope he doesn't mean it. The WP focuses on the Arab world, where one commentator called the inaugural rhetoric "scary stuff," while the NYT reports from Europe, where "the initial reaction was generally cool." And then there's Belarus, where dictatorial President Alexander Lukashenko gave a speech lambasting Bush, and the national television station pointedly aired Fahrenheit 9/11.
Everyone fronts word of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell's resignation. His departure was long expected. The WP, which scored an interview with the outgoing chairman, an "admitted gadget geek" who presided over the advent of satellite radio and Internet phones, says his tenure was nonetheless "often-rocky," and will be best remembered for the $8.5 million in fines levied against broadcasters for violating decency standards. The NYT has a harsher assessment, saying that Powell "fell short" in his efforts to loosen regulations. Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at last year Super Bowl merits mention in all the stories.
Woops! The WP fronts word that, after worrying all last fall about a shortage of the flu vaccine, public health officials now have a surplus of the stuff on hand. It turns out all those dire warnings worked all too well: So many people skipped their shots that much of this year's stockpile will likely end up being thrown away.
The NYT goes high with a dispatch from Sri Lanka about a group of Christian relief workers who, in the course of conveying aid to victims of December's tsunami, are also preaching the gospel. The story's lede, which describes an evangelical group's gift-giving, sermonizing, and faith healing, makes it sound as if Asia is awash with Bible-beaters. (Indonesia's Aceh Province is "ripe for Jesus!!" reports the group's Web site.) The story suggests that such efforts "could provoke a violent backlash against Christians in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country that is already a religious tinderbox." However, the more outrageous examples of proselytizing seem to be limited to a single aid organization, which has just 75 workers in the field. Some much larger Christian charities mentioned in the story, such as World Vision and Samaritan's Purse, say they try to keep their relief efforts and religion separate. Are they being unfairly tarred with the same brush?
Today's news from Iraq: Two car bombs exploded, one outside a mosque and another at a wedding party, killing at least 16 people, most of them apparently Shiite Muslims. An Iraqi soldier was beheaded in broad daylight in Ramadi. And, according to a story stuffed inside the WP, a delegation of foreign observers is making plans to keep a close eye on next week's elections—from Jordan. Apparently, one intrepid observer may actually enter Iraq to witness the vote. No word on who's drawn the short straw.
Dept. of Resurrections: Two weeks ago, the WP (and "Today's Papers") brought you the sad story of Ali Ghalib, an Iraqi government official who was dragged from his car by insurgents as he drove through an area known as the "triangle of death." His body was reported to have been found later along the road, "riddled with bullets." Today, the WP reports that Ghalib, alive and unriddled, returned to his hometown of Tikrit "in a hail of celebratory gunfire" Friday after having been released by his kidnappers. No word on the condition of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.Andrew Rice is a writer in New York.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112580/
The reverberations from President Bush's inaugural speech continue to dominate the news, as the Washington Post leads with its likely effect on administration policy—not much—and the Los Angeles Times focuses on whether the president's fighting words mean real war with alleged nuclear aspirant Iran. The New York Times leads with a doozy of a scandal out of Iraq: Apparently some $300 million in cash was recently withdrawn from the national bank at the directive of the country's defense minister, and it may have disappeared.
According to the NYT piece, the $300 million was "taken out of Iraq's Central Bank, put into boxes and quietly put on a charter jet bound for Lebanon." Exactly what happened to the money after that is a matter of dispute. An aide to Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan says the money was spent on arms and military equipment. Noted good-government crusader Ahmed Chalabi, who is aiming to become prime minister after this month's elections, says the whole thing smells fishy and has seized on the missing loot as a campaign issue. Shalaan, in turn, has threatened to have Chalabi arrested. One anonymous "senior Iraqi financial official" has a succinct explanation for the big withdrawal: "The government here knows it is coming to an end. ... This is what governments do when they are coming to an end."
So, remember that line in Bush's speech Thursday, the one that said "ending tyranny in our world" was the "ultimate goal" of his administration? Well ... don't get too excited. The WP's lead reports that the speech "represents no significant shift in U.S. foreign policy," basing its conclusion on interviews with White House officials. In a background briefing given to all the papers, seemingly intended to rein in the rhetoric with a little realpolitik, a "senior administration official" said that the speech doesn't portend a major change in America's relationship with less-than-democratic nations like Russia, China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. "Do you want us to be rhetorical or to be effective?" the official asked the reporters, according to the NYT's story, which runs inside. (In his inaugural analysis, Slate's Chris Suellentrop predicted Bush would backtrack and argued that Democrats should hold him to his words.)
The LAT has the most apocalyptic reading of the speech, focusing mainly on the rising tensions with Iran. Bush's words, along with Vice President Dick Cheney's hints of possible Israeli airstrikes against Iranian nuclear installations, elicited a predictably bellicose reaction in Tehran, where one newspaper attacked the administration's "belligerent, unilateralist policies." Bush may not be as alone as he appears, however; a French analyst tells the paper that he believes Europe, which is pushing negotiations, is playing along with a "good-cop-bad-cop" strategy. This theory is undermined somewhat by an accompanying analysis that says the administration's swashbuckling neoconservative faction is on the rise again.
The papers all do the obligatory round-ups of international reaction to Bush's speech. The general feeling: We hope he doesn't mean it. The WP focuses on the Arab world, where one commentator called the inaugural rhetoric "scary stuff," while the NYT reports from Europe, where "the initial reaction was generally cool." And then there's Belarus, where dictatorial President Alexander Lukashenko gave a speech lambasting Bush, and the national television station pointedly aired Fahrenheit 9/11.
Everyone fronts word of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell's resignation. His departure was long expected. The WP, which scored an interview with the outgoing chairman, an "admitted gadget geek" who presided over the advent of satellite radio and Internet phones, says his tenure was nonetheless "often-rocky," and will be best remembered for the $8.5 million in fines levied against broadcasters for violating decency standards. The NYT has a harsher assessment, saying that Powell "fell short" in his efforts to loosen regulations. Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at last year Super Bowl merits mention in all the stories.
Woops! The WP fronts word that, after worrying all last fall about a shortage of the flu vaccine, public health officials now have a surplus of the stuff on hand. It turns out all those dire warnings worked all too well: So many people skipped their shots that much of this year's stockpile will likely end up being thrown away.
The NYT goes high with a dispatch from Sri Lanka about a group of Christian relief workers who, in the course of conveying aid to victims of December's tsunami, are also preaching the gospel. The story's lede, which describes an evangelical group's gift-giving, sermonizing, and faith healing, makes it sound as if Asia is awash with Bible-beaters. (Indonesia's Aceh Province is "ripe for Jesus!!" reports the group's Web site.) The story suggests that such efforts "could provoke a violent backlash against Christians in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country that is already a religious tinderbox." However, the more outrageous examples of proselytizing seem to be limited to a single aid organization, which has just 75 workers in the field. Some much larger Christian charities mentioned in the story, such as World Vision and Samaritan's Purse, say they try to keep their relief efforts and religion separate. Are they being unfairly tarred with the same brush?
Today's news from Iraq: Two car bombs exploded, one outside a mosque and another at a wedding party, killing at least 16 people, most of them apparently Shiite Muslims. An Iraqi soldier was beheaded in broad daylight in Ramadi. And, according to a story stuffed inside the WP, a delegation of foreign observers is making plans to keep a close eye on next week's elections—from Jordan. Apparently, one intrepid observer may actually enter Iraq to witness the vote. No word on who's drawn the short straw.
Dept. of Resurrections: Two weeks ago, the WP (and "Today's Papers") brought you the sad story of Ali Ghalib, an Iraqi government official who was dragged from his car by insurgents as he drove through an area known as the "triangle of death." His body was reported to have been found later along the road, "riddled with bullets." Today, the WP reports that Ghalib, alive and unriddled, returned to his hometown of Tikrit "in a hail of celebratory gunfire" Friday after having been released by his kidnappers. No word on the condition of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.Andrew Rice is a writer in New York.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112580/
'Nasty' Storm Snarls Travel in NortheastBy ROBERT D. McFADDEN A month across the abyss of winter, the season's first major storm buried New York and much of the Northeast yesterday, stifling travel, slowing the pace of life for millions and recasting the landscapes of 12 states. The storm, touted as a probable blizzard, roared in from the Midwest and turned into a classic northeaster, with 30-to-50-mile-an-hour winds and nebular arms revolving counterclockwise. It moved up the East Coast, gathering ocean moisture and hurling it back at the land as snow that blanketed cities and towns, closed airports, canceled hundreds of flights, choked railways and highways and filled the air with crystalline impressions.It began quietly in the New York metropolitan area before noon, a gentle whispering fall in the pale January light. But by evening, it had become a driving force of windblown snow, with gusts that hissed against the windows and mounting accumulations that, meteorologists said, only hinted at the depths to come.By late this morning, those accumulations were expected to top out at 12 to 18 inches in Central Park and 18 to 24 inches in parts of Northern New Jersey, Eastern Long Island, Southern Connecticut and shore areas of Rhode Island. Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts were expected to be hit hardest, with more than two feet of snow blown by winds that gusted up to 60 miles an hour. Lesser totals were expected in the Washington area and in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and southern sections of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.The Northeast was hardly alone in wintry misery. Heavy snows pounded parts of the Midwest, with the Chicago area getting its biggest snowfall of the season: more than 8 inches by yesterday afternoon with more to come. At O'Hare International Airport, flight delays averaged seven and a half hours and hundreds of stranded passengers slept on cots near baggage claim areas. In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered a state emergency operations center to open yesterday as forecasters predicted coastal flooding in parts of New London and Middlesex Counties.Blizzard warnings were posted for most of New York State. The mid-Hudson Valley was expected to get 20 inches of snow, and up to a foot was forecast for Albany, the Mohawk Valley and parts of western New York. Three weather-related deaths were reported in Ohio, where a man fell through ice on a pond and two people suffered heart attacks shoveling snow. In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis had 12 inches of snow and up to 5 inches more was expected overnight. Southern Michigan had 6 to 14 inches of snow yesterday, and three-foot drifts were common. In the pantheon of winter storms in New York, it did not compare with the all-time record blizzard of Dec. 26-27, 1947, which interred the city in 26.4 inches of snow, and was also expected to fall short of the blizzard of Jan. 7-8, 1996, which left 20.2 inches in Central Park. But Todd J. Miner, a meteorologist with Pennsylvania State University, said it could rival the President's Day storm last year, which left 19.8 inches."This is a big, nasty snowstorm," Mr. Miner said early yesterday afternoon. "It's possible we will be heading toward well over a foot of snow in Central Park. We're not going to get two feet, but heading toward 18 inches is not a bad signpost, bringing this into the upper echelons of storms. Of the top 12 city snowstorms on record - 16 inches or higher - we've probably got a good shot at that."Mr. Miner said that in the overnight hours, the storm would almost certainly meet the National Weather Service's criteria for a blizzard - winds of at least 35 m.p.h., falling or blowing snow and visibility of less than a quarter-mile for three consecutive hours. But whatever the technicalities, you could hardly tell neighbors shoveling huge drifts from their driveway that it was not a blizzard.And it was cold, bitter cold. It was 29 below zero in Massena, N.Y., 28 below at Saranac Lake, N.Y., 14 below in Syracuse and 10 below in Albany. In New York City it was a relatively balmy; 10 above early yesterday morning and over 20 early last night. That was frigid enough to keep the customary tourist hordes away from Times Square, which looked more like a ghost town in the swirling snow, and it was obvious that restaurants, theaters and other attractions had a terrible day.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major metropolitan airports - Kennedy International, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International - as well as bridges, tunnels and the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) rail system, went into a full mobilization of personnel and equipment, bracing for a rough weekend. All three airports remained open, but 175 flights were canceled at Kennedy, 120 more were canceled at Newark, and 200 were canceled at La Guardia, where delays ran up to two hours. A cargo plane overshot a runway at Kennedy at about 3:30 p.m. in an accident that appeared weather-related, but the Port Authority said it remained under investigation last night. Only a three-person crew was on board, and there were no injuries.Traffic was moving on the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, but there were 35 mile-an-hour speed limits on Staten Island bridges.With whiteout conditions on runways, the intensifying storm closed the Philadelphia airport at 3:30 p.m. and Bradley International Airport near Hartford at 6:30 p.m. and would possibly shut down those in Boston, Albany and other cities, stranding thousands of passengers.Acting Gov. Richard Codey of New Jersey announced that a state of emergency would be in effect from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. today, allowing the police to close roads, if necessary, to ensure public safety.On Long Island, Suffolk County declared a state of emergency as well. Up and down the Northeast Corridor, driving was treacherous on icy, snow-blown highways, roads and neighborhood streets. There were countless minor accidents, though no deaths or serious injuries were reported, and motorists were advised to stay home or use public transportation. But trains and buses were also delayed by the storm, and getting around, for those who had to, was an ordeal. Many residents heeded the warnings to stay home and many businesses closed for the weekend. The Long Island Rail Road, which operates 450 trains on 11 branches on a typical weekend, reported only two train cancellations, both on the Greenport line, and only minor delays on the rest of the system."But that could change as the storm worsens and the wind increases," said Brian P. Dolan, a spokesman. "They're predicting drifts of snow. If we get 2 to 3 inches an hour, that challenges us to keep pace with the storm." In the meantime, he said special trains were spraying antifreeze on power, rails, and activating electric and gas-powered heaters to keep switches moving.Even before the snow began falling, the Metro-North Railroad had a signal problem on its upper Hudson line between Croton and Poughkeepsie that delayed about 8 trains for up to 30 minutes. Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman, said that railroad officials were meeting in the afternoon to decide whether to cut back service because it appeared that many passengers were staying home. But Dan Brucker, another spokesman, said late in the afternoon that service remained on or close to schedule on all its lines, although there were plans to sharply cut service today. New Jersey Transit, which operates 11 rail lines, 3 light rail systems and 240 bus routes around the state and into Manhattan, reduced its service schedule yesterday afternoon until midnight tonight. Later in the day, New Jersey Transit suspended its South Jersey bus service as of 5 p.m., and its North Jersey buses as of 7:30 p.m. It also reported delays of 15 to 20 minutes on its Northeast Corridor line. Dan Stessel, a spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said that express trains on the Northeast Corridor line had been canceled, although local trains continued to run. The Midtown Direct line between Penn Station and Dover, N.J., in Morris County was rerouted to Hoboken, where passengers could switch to PATH trains running to 33rd Street in Manhattan.Forewarned, cities and counties across the region had readied armies of equipment and sent out fleets of salt spreaders and snowplows to counterattack as the snow began falling. In New Jersey, state transportation officials and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority had more than 2,000 trucks on the roads to plow and spread salt. The Port Authority also had hundreds of pieces of equipment out, and more than 200,000 gallons of liquid de-icing chemicals for use on wings and other surfaces.In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to the department's Queens repair shop and said 2,500 sanitation workers - using 1,450 garbage trucks with plows, 82 dump trucks with plows and 350 salt spreaders - would work around the clock in two shifts to keep major arteries and streets open. He said he expected that all of the city's 6,300 miles of streets would be plowed at least once by the start of the workweek tomorrow morning.Mr. Bloomberg also issued a few words of caution."The streets even after they are plowed will be slippery, so you should take caution," he said. "The streets will be narrower, the snow has to go some place."He also urged residents to dress warmly, check on neighbors, take mass transit to work and keep cars off the streets so the plows can get through. Many schools with Saturday classes closed. Aqueduct and the Meadowlands Racetrack canceled their Saturday racing programs, and many college basketball games were postponed. National Football League conference championship games in Philadelphia (Eagles-Atlanta Falcons) and Pittsburgh (Steelers-New England Patriots) were still on track for today and, with the snow over by game times, only bitter cold and high winds were expected to be factors. The storm's timing significantly diminished its impact. For millions of suburban commuters and students home for the weekend, the snow was not a great hardship, except for the ordeal of shoveling a driveway or sidewalk, which leads every winter to many heart attacks.But for many residents of the metropolitan area, the storm provided an opportunity - one of the few in a relatively mild winter that has recorded a total of only 4.3 inches of snow since autumn - to get out with sleds, skis or snowshoes and to frolic in the drifts. And for those so inclined, it was a chance to relax indoors, snowed in with Bach, Brubeck or a good book, cozy behind panes embroidered with frost.For those who ventured out to play - hooded, booted, muffled to the eyes - the storm offered glimpses of nature's beauty: empty streets turned into white meadows, black-and-white woodlands painted in moonlight, snowflakes glittering like confections in a bakery - frosted, glazed, powdered, sugary - and in the parks children, romping, padded like armadillos.There were many last-minute shoppers yesterday, even as the snow began falling. Doreen and Neal Erps, of North Brunswick, N.J., wheeled a cart out of a Home Depot on Route 1 in Edison with cabinet shelves. "I figure we'll be in the house all weekend long," said Mr. Erps. "We might as well do something productive, and remodeling the bathroom beats shoveling snow." Nearby, Howard Myers, of New Brunswick, N.J., was loading up his S.U.V. with groceries and firewood. "My next stop is the liquor store," he said. "I'm going to get a nice bottle of Scotch, put the logs on the fire and let the storm rage outside while I read my book."At a Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan, shovels, salt buckets, windshield scrapers and other storm equipment flew off the shelves. By 12:30 p.m., only four of the 40 snowblowers delivered on Friday - some fetching $729 - were left, and the shovels were gone. "Where are the shovels?" asked an anxious customer, one of a cluster. "They are unloading them right now," an employee said."C'mon, let's go," another patron said as the group hurried downstairs to meet the delivery truck. Contributing reporting for this article were Gretchen Ruethling in Chicago, John Holl in New Jersey, David Winzelberg on Long Island, and Jennifer 8. Lee and Winnie Hu in New York
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