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"All the News 
We Hope to Print" 



VOL. CLVIV . . No. 54,631 



®l)e J^etir JJork Slmejs 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



Special Edition 

Today, clouds part, more 
sunshine, recent gloom pass- 
es. Tonight, strong leftward 
winds. Tomorrow, a new day. 
Weather map throughout. 



FREE 



Nation Sets Its Sights on 
Building Sane Economy 

True Cost Tax, Salary Caps, Trust-Busting Top List 



By T. VEBLEN 



The President has called for 
swift passage of the Safeguards 
for a New Economy (S.A.N.E.) bill. 
The omnibus economic package 
includes a federal maximum wage, 
mandatory "True Cost Account- 
ing," a phased withdrawal from 
complex financial instruments, 
and other measures intended to 
improve life for ordinary Ameri- 
cans. (See highlights box on Page 
AlO.) He also repeated earlier calls 
for passage of the "Ban on Lobby- 
ing" bill currently making its way 
through Congress. 

Treasury Secretary Paul Krug- 
man stressed the importance of 
the bill. "Markets make great ser- 
vants, terrible leaders, and absurd 
religions," said Krugman, quoting 
Paul Hawken, an advocate of cor- 
porate responsibility and author 
of "Blessed Unrest, How the Larg- 
est Movement in the World Came 
into Being and Why No One Saw It 
Coming." 

"At this point, the market is our 

Maximum Wage 
Law Succeeds 

Salary Caps Will Help 
Stabilize Economy 

By J.K. MALONE 

WASHINGTON — After long and 
often bitter debate. Congress has 
passed legislation, fiercely fought 
for by labor and progressive 
groups, that will limit top salaries 
to fifteen times the minimum wage. 
Tying the bill to a plan of overall 
reform of the U.S. economy, the 
bill echoes a similar effort enacted 
by President Franklin Roosevelt in 
1942, which was followed by the 
longest period of growth for the 
middle class in U.S. history. 

"When C.E.O. salaries remain 
stable thanks to high taxation of 
high salaries, there's little incentive 
to take big risks with shareholders' 
money, and the economy remains 
in a steady growth mode," said Sen- 
ator Barney Frank, one of the bill's 
co-sponsors. "But when C.E.O. sala- 
ries can fly through the roof, there's 
a very strong incentive for C.E.O.s 

Continued on Page AlO 



leader and our religion. No won- 
der the median standard of living 
has been declining so much for so 
long." 

Krugman said that the new 
Treasury bill seeks to ensure the 
prosperity of all citizens, rather 
than simply supporting large cor- 
porations and the wealthy. "The 
market is supposed to serve us. 
Unfortunately, we have ended up 
serving the market. That's very 
bad." 

Much as Roosevelt, after the 
Great Depression, put the brakes 
on C.E.O. wages and irresponsible 
banking practices, administration 
officials claim that today we need 
to rein in the industry that has 
caused such chaos and misery. 

"The building blocks of post- 
World War 11 American middle- 
class prosperity have all been 
swept away," said House Speaker 
Nancy Pelosi, who initially op- 

Continued on Page AlO 



TREASURY 
ANNOUNCES 
"TRUE COST" 

TAX PLAN 

By MARCUS S. DRIGGS 

The long-awaited "True Cost" 
plan, which requires product pric- 
es to reflect their cost to society, 
has been signed into law. 

Beginning next month, throw- 
away items like plastic water 
bottles and other items which are 
wasteful or damaging to the envi- 
ronment will be heavily taxed, as in 
many developed countries. Steep 
taxes will also apply to large cars 
and gasoline. 

The new plan calls for a 200 per- 
cent tax on gasoline, comparable 
to the one long in effect in most Eu- 
ropean countries. Companies and 
consumers are already switching 
in droves from inefficient gas vehi- 
cles to new electric cars. "We sud- 
denly have a waiting list 200 names 
long for the EVl," said Jake Cluber, 
the owner of Cluber Chevrolet in 

Continued on Page AlO 



IRAQ WAR ENDS 




COURTESY ARMY.MIL 

U.S. Army helicopters begin moving troops and equipment from Saddam Hussein's former Baghdad palace. 



Recruiters Train for New Life 

As a ban is imposed on recruiting 
minors, ex-recruiters nationwide 
look for new work. The Times fol- 
lows one on his job-hunt odyssey 
through Manhattan and surround- 
ing areas. 

BY BARRY GLOAD, PAGE A12 




Last to Die 

Two proportional monuments — 
one to the Iraqi dead, 300 feet 
high, and one to the American 
dead, 15 feet high — are unveiled 
in Baghdad, and a five-year-old 
boy whose lifespan coincided 
with that of the Iraq War is 
remembered. 

BY J. FINISTERRA, PAGE A5 



USA Patriot Act Repealed 

Eight years later, a shamefaced 
Congress quietly repeals the 
much-maligned USA Patriot Act, 
unanimously... or almost. 

BY SYBIL LUDINGTON, PAGE A8 

Evangelicals Open Homes to 
Refugees 

Up to a million Iraqi exiles — 
nearly half of the total — will find 
sanctuary in Christian homes 
across the U.S., vows the National 
Association of Evangelicals. Other 
denominations are expected to 
follow. 

BY W. WILBERFORCE, PAGE A7 

Public Relations Industry 
Starts to Shut Down 

The public relations industry has 
been criticized for misleading 
the American people, corrupting 
politicians, and even helping to 
start wars. Now, it's beginning 
the process of shutting down for 
good. 

BY LOUIS BECK, PAGE AlO 



Popular Pressure Ushers 
Recent Progressive Tilt 

Study Cites Movements for Massive Shift in DC 

By SAMUEL FIELDEN 



The spate of reform initiatives 
undertaken by the Administration 
and both houses of Congress can 
be attributed directly to grass- 
roots advocacy, according to a 
comprehensive study due out this 
month. 

"In education and health care, 
most notably, but also in housing, 
banking, and the environment, we 
have documented unprecedented 
responsiveness on the part of 
political leaders," said Dr. Joyce 
Wellmon, director of the Plains In- 
stitute for Policy Analysis, a New 
York-based think tank. "Our data 
show a direct correlation between 
the level of activity of particular 
coalitions, on the one hand, and 
specific legislative action, on the 
other. It's popular pressure that is 
responsible for the swiftness and 
scope of legislation emerging from 
the White House and Congress." 

The institute's report shows 
a three-fold increase in the inci- 
dence of letters, phone calls, fax- 
es, and email received by congres- 
sional offices, 88 percent of which 
were from people who identified 
themselves as new members of 
particular activist organizations. 

See nytimes-se.com for more 



The report includes extensive in- 
terviews with House and Senate 
staff, who speak of "unimaginable 
change," a "dramatic policy shift," 
and "a new era of accountability" 
since the elections. 

"Not since the Great Depression 
has the interaction between popu- 
lar movements and public leaders 
been so robust," said Jorge La- 
zaro, head of the U.S. Government 
Accountability Office. Lazaro cit- 
ed, in particular, the Wagner Act, 
also known as the National Labor 
Relations Act of 1935, which rec- 
ognized the right of workers to 
organize and bargain collectively 
with their employers. 

"Roosevelt showed no interest 
in the Wagner Act until it became 
clear the unions were going to 
force it through regardless," Mr. 
Lazaro noted. "At that point he 
jumped on it and helped push it 
into law." 

Mr. Lazaro also pointed to the 
Depression-era organizing of the 
Farmers' Holiday Association, 
when farmers refused to sell or bid 
on crops, blockaded roads, and 
even once used a torpedo to halt a 
train carrying livestock into Iowa. 
Such direct actions helped push 
courts and legislatures to adopt 




KG IVEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Protests organized by Witness Against Torture helped pave the way 
for the close of the Guantanamo facility. 



measures that granted relief from 
debt caused by low crop prices. 

"The similarities between the 
two periods are remarkable, and 
the lesson that emerges is simple: 
if you want change, keep our feet 
to the fire." 

Dr. Wellmon agrees. "The only 
reason the current President and 
Congress have been able to imple- 
ment all these changes, was be- 
cause of pressure from popular 



movements that made them have 
to." 

The Plains report, due out next 
month, cites the work of groups 
associated with United for Peace 
and Justice, an umbrella for anti- 
war groups, for galvanizing public 
support for ending the war, and 
for pushing the Administration to 
resist the oil lobby and other inter- 
est groups. It also cites the work 

Continued on Page A6 



Ex-Secretary 
Apologizes for 
W.M.D. Scare 

300,000 Troops Never Faced 
Risk of Instant Obliteration 

By FRANK LARIMORE 

Ex-Secretary of State Condolee- 
za Rice reassured soldiers that the 
Bush Administration had known 
well before the invasion that Sadd- 
am Hussein lacked weapons of 
mass destruction. 

"Now that all of you brave 
servicemen and women are re- 
turning, it's important to us to 
reassure you, and the American 
people, that we were certain Hus- 
sein had no W.M.D.s and that he 
would never launch a first strike 
against the U.S.," Ms. Rice told a 
group of wounded soldiers at a 
Veterans' Administration hospital 
yesterday. 

"1 want you to know that if we 
had had the slightest suspicion 
that Saddam could use W.M.D.s 
against you, we never would have 
sent hundreds of thousands of 
you to be sitting ducks on the Iraqi 
border for several months." 

Mr. Rice was referring to the fact 
that by August 2002, eight months 
before the ground invasion, the US 
had over 100,000 troops stationed 
in countries throughout the Gulf, a 
number that grew to over 300,000 
shortly before the 2003 attack on 
Baghdad. Most of these were with- 
in range of the Scud missiles used 
by Mr. Hussein in the 1991 Gulf 
War, that could easily have been 
fitted with chemical or biological 
weapons if they had existed. 

Rice noted that in the 1991 Gulf 
War, Hussein had used missiles to 
launch attacks on Israel, which 
made him popular with Arab citi- 
zens throughout the Middle East. 

"Do you really think we would 
have given Saddam a major pub- 
lic relations coup by allowing him 
to annihilate tens of thousands of 
you right there on holy territory?" 
asked Ms. Rice. 

Former Secretary of State Henry 
A. Kissinger responded to Ms. 
Rice's revelation without surprise. 
"Of course this was the case. 
When Israel believed Iraq had nu- 
clear weapons in 1981, they didn't 
attack on the ground — they 
bombed from the air. That's a pre- 
emptive attack. If you believe de- 
terrence will not prevent an attack 
and that your enemy has W.M.D.s, 
then the last thing you do is sta- 
tion your troops right next door." 

ABC's George Stephanopoulos 

Continued on Page A5 



Troops to Return 
Immediately 

By JUDE SHINBIN 

WASHINGTON — Operation 
Iraqi Freedom and Operation En- 
during Freedom were brought to 
an unceremonious close today 
with a quiet announcement by the 
Department of Defense that troops 
would be home within weeks. 

"This is the best face we can put 
on the most unfortunate adven- 
ture in modern American history," 
Defense spokesman Kevin Sites 
said at a special joint session of 
Congress. "Today, we can finally 
enjoy peace — not the peace of 
the brave, perhaps, but at least 
peace." 

As U.S. and coalition troops 
withdraw from Iraq and Afghani- 
stan, the United Nations will move 
in to perform peacekeeping duties 
and aid in rebuilding. The U.N. will 
be responsible for keeping the two 
countries stable; coordinating the 
rebuilding of hospitals, schools, 
highways, and other infrastruc- 
ture; and overseeing upcoming 
elections. 

The Department of the Treasury 
confirmed that all U.N. dues owed 
by the U.S. were paid as of this 
morning, and that moneys previ- 
ously earmarked for the war would 
be sent directly to the U.N.'s Iraq 
Oversight Body. 

The president noted that the 
Iraq War had resulted in the burn- 
ing of many bridges. "Yet our his- 
tory with our allies runs deep," he 
said, "and we all know that friends 
forgive friends for anything. Or 
nearly." A spokesperson for the 
French Ministry of Defense con- 
firmed that France would assist 
the U.S. withdrawal. "The U.S. 
helped the Soviet Union defeat 
Hitler. We do recognize that." 

In conflict zones worldwide, 
leaders and rebels pledged peace. 
(See "In Conflict Zones Worldwide, 
Peace Moves," on Page A4.) 

On Wall Street, reactions were 
mixed, with the Dow Jones Indus- 
trial Average up 84 points, to close 
at 4,212. While KBR stock was 
quickly downgraded to a "junk" 
rating of BBB-, defense contrac- 
tors such as Lockheed Martin and 
Northrop Grummon started up. 

Continued on Page A5 

Nationalized Oil 
To Fund Climate 
Change Efforts 

By MARION K. HUBBERT 

Congress has voted to place 
ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and 
other major oil companies under 
public stewardship, with the bulk 
of the companies' profits put in 
a public trust administered by 
the United Nations, and used for 
alternative energy research and 
development in order to solve the 
global climate crisis. 

While unusual, this is not the 
first time the government has cho- 
sen to take control of large corpo- 
rations. From 1942 to 1944, U.S. car 
factories were retooled in order to 
produce tanks for the war effort. 
And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 
were both created as "government 
sponsored enterprises" with a sig- 
nificant amount of government 
oversight. 

"We can do what needs to 
be done," said Senator Charles 
Schumer, Democrat of New York. 
"Our planet's survival is at stake. 
Plus, public pressure hasn't given 
us much of a choice." 

Not everyone felt the move was 
a good idea. "The climate crisis 
may or may not be real," declared 
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Re- 
publican of Texas. "I'm an agnostic 
and I'm staying that way. But sea 

Continued on Page AS 



INTERNATIONAL A4-5 

Gitmo, Other Centers Closed 

The notorious Guantanamo Bay, Cuba 
detention camp will be closed, along with 
a network of secret C.l.A.-run facilities 
in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and else- 
where. PAGEA24 

Iraqi Refugees Worldwide 
Celebrate Withdrawal 

Two million Iraqi exiles, and three million 
internal refugees, celebrated the end of 
hostilities and began making plans to 
return to their homes, page A4 



NATIONAL A6-9 

Conflict of Interest Law Will Stop 
Revolving Door 

The "Revolving Door" bill will prohibit 
high-ranking corporate officers from 
holding public office for ten years upon 



leaving their companies, and public 
officials from accepting management 
positions at large corporations for the 
same period. Coupled with the Ban on 
Lobbying bill, the bill will reduce the 
influence of large corporations on public 
policy. PAGE Bl 




Health Insurance Act Clears House 

While almost all are celebrating the 
passage of the National Health Insur- 



ance Act, which finally brings the U.S. 
up to par with other developed nations, 
representatives of Kaiser, Cigna and other 
health insurance companies are vowing 
to "fight tooth and nail" to protect their 
interests, pagea? 

Bush to Face Charges 

Most observers weren't surprised by the 
high treason indictment itself, but rather 
by the party that brought it. The case 
could also provide an unexpected boost 
to the International Criminal Court, pav- 
ing the way for more indictments, page A5 

BUSINESS AlO-ll 

Corporate Personhood Gets Real 

An initiative to abolish limited liabil- 
ity will make shareholders pay for the 
crimes their corporations commit — 
even if they only own one or two shares 
in a mutual fund, page All 



NEW YORK A12 




Bicycle Lanes Inaugurated 

With the completion of the 9th Avenue 
bike lane and groundbreaking on other 
avenues. New York is on the (bike) path 
to becoming as livable as other world 

cities. PAGEA12 



EDITORIAL A13 

A Lobbyist Defends Lobbying 

The Ban on Lobbying bill is not with- 
out victims. PAGEA13 

Thomas L. Friedman 

The columnist resigns, and will put 
down his pen to take up a screwdriver. 

PAGEA13 

A Baboon Troop's Experience 

A particularly peaceful baboon troop 
may have lessons to teach us. page Ai3 

More Inside The Times. 
PAGE A2 ^ 

HELP MAKE THE NEWS, TODAY 

9 2 15 




A2 



THE NEW YORK TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 




INSIDE THE TIMES: July 4th, 2009 



INTERNATIONAL 



Peace Spreads to War Zones 

Around the world, leaders and 
warlords in conflict zones are 
taking the U.S. example to heart. 
"We finally see what civilization 
can mean," said one rebel in a 
country that wished to remain 
anonymous. "Now we know it's 
what we want." PAGEA4 



NATIONAL 




Rebuilding Infrastructure 
Brings Opportunities 

The state of America's infra- 
structure, crumbling after years 
of neglect, is in for a $1.6 trillion 
overhaul. But it won't simply pay 
for new highways. Instead, the 
reign of the automobile will begin 
to be brought to a close. pagea6 

End of the Secret Programs 

Under pressure from Congress, 
the Pentagon admits there is no 



place in a democracy for secret 
programs costing billions of 
dollars annually, and announces 
that all "black budget" items will 
either be eliminated or made 
public. Assuring transparency 
remains a challenge, pageay 

"America's Army" Game 
Goes Diplomatic 

The popular recruiting game is 
being beaten into a digital plow- 
share. "We're training the next 
generation of diplomats now," 
said a developer of the renamed 
"America's Diplomat." pageas 

Broadcast Reforms Launched 

New regulations are on the way 
at the F.C.C., with the centerpiece 
being an independent media 
trust, funded by a tax on advertis- 
ing sales, which could enable a 
truly independent public broad- 
casting system, the first of its kind 
in the country, page C25 

RU-486 Sales Approved 

The F.D.A. announced approval 
of RU-486, also known as the 
Morning After Pill, as an over-the- 
counter medication. In a terse 
statement, the agency said, "The 
F.D.A. is in the business of safety, 
not politics." pagebh 




BUSINESS 



Harvard Business School 
Closes Doors 

America's oldest business school 
shuts its doors, citing the desire 
of America's youth to better the 
world, not extract maximum 
returns from it. page Aio 



NEW YORK 



Voting Machine Standards 
Implemented 

The Election Assistance Com- 
mission, the federal agency that 
oversees voting, is mandating a 
uniform national format, a verifi- 
able and anonymous paper trail, 
and stronger software security 
measures. The new standards 
must be fully implemented at 
least six months before the 
congressional elections of 2010. 

PAGE Bl 

Equality of Marriage Bill 
Passes Senate 

With broad popular support, 
the "Equality of Marriage" bill 
is expected to pass the Senate 
and move to the House later this 
week. The new legislation will 
allow anyone to marry the person 
he or she loves — or needs the 
insurance of. pagebis 



Military To Be Banned from 
New York High Schools 

The New York City Council is 
scheduled to vote on a measure 
to close the doors on the City's 
Junior Reserve Officer Train- 
ing Corps, following complaints 
by parents and teachers, and a 
recent spate of student walkouts. 

PAGEA12 

New Police Crowd-Control 
Guidelines To Be Tested 

As hundreds of thousands take to 
the streets to celebrate the end of 
hostilities, police will implement 
their new "People-Priority" policy. 
"Our streets belong first and fore- 
most to pedestrians, especially 
those putting their bodies on the 
line to make change happen," 
said Police Commissioner Kelly 

PAGEA12 



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Artist's Dramatization: 







"Special Interests" 

The Times has in the past used 
the term "special interests" to de- 
scribe unions, environmentalists 
and even whole ethnic groups, 
and has used the word "pander- 
ing" when politicians take these 
groups' concerns into account. 
We have typically not, however, 
used "pandering" to refer to politi- 
cians catering to the interests of 
corporations. The Times regrets 
that our use of such language 
may have given the impression 
that the interests of corporations 
are more important than those of 
citizens. 

Environment 

We apologize for so often framing 
our environmental coverage from 
a business perspective; for over- 
estimating the costs of solutions, 
which has made problems seem 
insurmountable; and for belittling 
the efforts of activists and local 
government. Future coverage will 
acknowledge the importance of 
creating laws to better regulate 
industry, and readers can look 
forward to a new Environment 
section every Thursday, begin- 
ning this week. 



THE NEW YORK TIMES New York, N.Y, U.S.A. 

This special edition of The New York Times comes 
from a future in which we are accomplishing what we 
know today to be possible. 

The dozens of volunteer citizens who produced 
this paper spent the last eight years dreaming of a 
better world for themselves, their friends, and any 
descendants they might end up having. Today, that 
better world, though still very far away, is finally pos- 
sible — but only if millions of us demand it, and finally 
force our government to do its job. 

It certainly won't be easy. Even now, corporate 
representatives are swarming over Washington to get 
their agendas passed. The energy giants are demand- 
ing "clean coal," nuclear power and offshore drilling. 
Military contractors are pushing the wars in Iraq 
and Afghanistan. H.M.O.s and insurance companies 
are promoting bogus "reforms" so they can forestall 
universal health care. And they're not about to take 
no for an answer 

But things are different this time. This time, we 
can hold accountable the politicians we put into 
office. And because everyone can now see that the 
"free market" has nothing to do with freedom, there 
is a huge opening to pass policies that can benefit all 
Americans, and that can make us truly free — free 
to pursue an education without debt, go on vacation 
every once in a while, keep healthy, and live without 



Advertising 

The Times acknowledges that 
accepting money from the very 
corporations whose activities 
we are responsible for reporting 
on — running ads from Exxon- 
Mobil while reporting on climate 
change, for example, or from 
weapons manufacturers while 
reporting on the Iraq War — 
represents an obvious conflict of 
interest. The Times is considering 
two alternative revenue models. 
In one, similar to that of National 
Public Radio, subsidies and con- 
tributions will make up the bal- 
ance of the budget not covered by 
subscriptions. The other involves 
establishing exacting standards 
for advertisers, similar to those 
of the Christian Science Monitor, 
or the Guardian in the U.K. Please 
also see the Business section for 
a report on the end of publicly 
traded NYT stock. 

Automobiles 

In past issues the New York 
Times featured an entire section 
on automobiles. Our senior vice 
president of advertising, Alex 
Buryk, once described this sec- 
tion as providing "well-integrated 
print and online advertising op- 



the crushing guilt of knowing what our tax dollars are 
doing abroad. 

Following are just a few of the many, many groups 
working for change. Join them, support them, or start 
your own, and we can begin to make the news in this 
paper the news in every paper. 

If you want to end the war in Iraq and prevent new 
wars: United for Peace and Justice (unitedforpeace. 
org), a coalition of that includes CODEPINK (code- 
pink4peace.org), Iraq Veterans Against the War (ivaw. 
org). Peace Action (peace-action.org). War Resisters 
League (warresisters.org), and hundreds of others. 

If you want to fight for health care: Healthcare- 
NOW (healthcare-now.org). Physicians for a National 
Health Care Program (pnhp.oi^), California Nurses 
Association (calnurse.org). Private Health Insurance 
Must Go Coalition (phimg.org). Single Payer New York 

If you want to save the environment: Climate Crisis 
Coalition (climatecrisiscoalition.org), 350 (350.org), 
Greenpeace (greenpeace.org). Earth Policy Institute 
(earth-policy.org). Rainforest Action Network (ran. 
org). Earth First! (earthfirst.org), Earthjustice (earth- 
justice.org). Friends of the Earth (foe.org). Natural 
Resources Defense Council (nrdc.org) 

If you want economic justice: United for a Fair 
Economy (faireconomy.org). Too Much (toomuchon- 
line.org). Jobs with Justice Qwj.org) 



portunities" that "meet advertis- 
ers' demands." As the effect of 
automobiles on the global climate 
crisis becomes evident. The 
Times acknowledges it made a 
serious error in expanding this 
section by three and a half pages 
in the past two years. Develop- 
ments in the automobile industry 
will from now on be covered in 
our business and technology sec- 
tions, and only when newsworthy. 
There will be no more reviews of 
cars. 

Portraits of Grief 

From September 14 to December 
31, 2001, the New York Times 
published "Portraits of Grief," 
daily obituaries of the victims of 
the September 11 attacks. We are 
proud of this coverage, which 
won several awards. Tomorrow, 
the Times begins part two of the 
series with obituaries of the civil- 
ians and soldiers killed between 
2001 and today in Afghanistan 
and Iraq. Two soldiers, and one 
hundred civilians, will be very 
briefly memorialized each day, 
adding a full fold-out page to each 
edition. The series will continue 
for thirty years. (Estimates of the 
number of Iraqis who have died 



If you want to protect our civil liberties, civil 
rights and human rights: Center for Constitutional 
Rights (ccrjustice.org), ACLU (aclu.org). National 
Lawyers Guild (nlg.org). National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People (naacp.org). Global 
Exchange (globalexchange.oi^), PEN American Center 
(pen.org). Human Rights Watch (hrw.org). Defending 
Dissent Foundation (defendingdissent.org) 

If you want to end torture: Witness Against 
Torture (witnesstorture.org). Amnesty International 
(amnestyusa.org). Act Against Torture (actagainst- 
torture.org). The Quaker Initiative to End Torture 
(quit-torture-now.org). 

If you want to defend the rights of immigrants: 
New York Immigration Coalition (thenyic.org). 
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights 
(nnirr.org), Desis Rising Up and Moving (drumnation. 
org). New York United for Immigrant Rights (nyunited- 
forimmigrantrights.blogspot.com) 

If you want to help eliminate worker exploitation: 
United Students Against Sweatshops (usas.oi^). 
Sweatshop Watch (sweatshopwatch.org). Wake Up 
Wal-Mart (wakeupwalmart.com) 

If you want to end homelessness and promote 
affordable housing: National Coalition for the Home- 
less (nationalhomeless.org). National Low Income 
Housing Coalition (nlihc.org). National Law Center 



violent deaths since the 2003 
invasion vary from 100,000 to 
well over one million. The Times 
apologizes for consistently using 
only the low end of this spectrum 
of estimates.) 

Media Monopoly 

The Times apologizes for under- 
reporting the effects and dangers 
of media consolidation, perhaps 
due to our own efforts at media 
consolidation: The Times owns al- 
most two dozen regional newspa- 
pers, a number of television and 
radio stations, and partial shares 
in the Red Sox and the Discovery 
Channel. We now recognize this 
conflict of interest. No newspaper 
should concern itself with maxi- 
mizing profits, and the paper of 
record should be held to an even 
higher standard than the rest of 
the publishing industry. Over the 
next two months. The Times will 
voluntarily trust-bust itself, thus 
contributing to the independence 
of American journalism. 



Errors and Comments: 
comments@nytimes-se. com 

Public Editor 
omsbuddy@nytimes-se. com 



on Homelessness & Poverty (nlchp.oi^). National 
Alliance to End Homelessness (endhomelessness.org). 
Coalition for the Homeless (coalitionforthehomeless. 
org). Picture the Homeless (picturethehomeless.org). 
Housing Works (housingworks.org). Metropolitan 
Council on Housing (metcouncil.net) 

If you want to fight for a more democratic 
media: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (fair.org), 
FreePress (freepress.net). Democracy Now! (democ- 
racynow.org). Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org). 
Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj.org) 

If you want to create a more democratic media: 
MediaChannel (mediachannel.org). The Indypendent 
(indypendent.org). Common Dreams (commondreams. 
org), AlterNet (alternet.org). Cultures of Resistance 
(culturesofresistance.org), Indymedia (indymedia.org). 
Video Activist Network (videoactivism.org) 

If you want to fight for women's rights: National 
Organization For Women (now.org), A.C.L.U. Women's 
Rights Project (aclu.org/womensrights), H.R.W 
Women's Rights (hrw.org/women). Feminist Majority 
(feminist.org). 

If you want to defend LGBTQ rights: FIERCE 
(fiercenyc.org). Radical Homosexual Agenda (radical- 
homosexualagenda.org), Sylvia Rivera Law Project 
(srlp.org), AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (actupny. 
org), Audre Lorde Project (alp.org) 




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THE NEW YORK TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



A3 



We at Exxon are committed to meeting 
tlie new Congressional guidelines for 



That's w_ 
we applaud the 
end of the war 



in Iraq. 



The invasion of 



Iraq was supposed to mean 
access to oil without the costly interfer- 
ence of national sovereignty, and lower prices 
at the punnp for you and your family. Projections 




and reality differed, but now we've learned: 



PEACE can also be lucrative. 



^^^ 



Times have changed. Oil fields have reverted back to a 
newly independent Iraq, and Congress has mandated 
"Fair Trade," in which most profits go not to brokers, 
stockholders, and a small management circle, but flow 
directly to those who produce. Exxon is excited about 
helping do things better — not just because it's the law, 
but because Exxon has always been about innovation. 



It's also an opportunity to turn over a new leaf. As 

Exxon finds itself under federal oversight, we are more 
than happy to use our profits to develop sustainable, 
decentralized energy production. This will help fight 
further climate change, and prevent costly new wars over 
energy in the future. After all, if everyone can turn the sun 
or wind into power, what's there to fight about? 



Peace. An idea the world can profit from 



E^i^onMobil 



Brought to you by Exxon. Finding decent ways to deliver tlie energy you need, 



A4 



SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



International 



®h^ Jfeii^ JJc^rk ^mt$ 



After Withdrawal Peace Spreads 
to Conflict Zones Worldwide 



Leaders Worldwide Scramble to Follow American Lead 



By F. NANSEN 

In the wake of the U.S. withdraw- 
al from Iraq and Afghanistan, gov- 
ernment leaders and warlords in 
conflict zones worldwide seemed 
to be falling over themselves to 
pledge peace. 

The President of Sudan declared 
an end to hostilities in Darfur. "We 
are modern, or at least we live in a 
modern world, near modern coun- 
tries like the U.S. And like the U.S., 
we understand that blood cannot 
be the path to benefit, whereas 
peace can be." 

In the Congo, where 45,000 peo- 
ple continue to die every month, 
dwarfing the toll in Darfur, reac- 
tions were more muted. "If the 
strongest country on earth can 
face not getting everj^hing that 
it wants, I guess we can too," said 
Laurent Kabila, President of the 



Democratic Republic of Congo. 
"Now that the U.S. is facing its 
responsibilities in Iraq, what if 
Americans start doing that here in 
the Congo? We'd better clean up 
our act." 

In Sri Lanka, Somalia, Columbia, 
the Kashmir, Chad, and elsewhere, 
fighters on all sides of the con- 
flicts there pledged to take the U.S. 
withdrawal to heart. "We cannot 
continue this way," said one tribal 
leader in Somalia, who wished to 
remain anonymous. "The time has 
come to learn foreign policy just 
like the Americans." 

In Belgium, Walloons and Flems 
promised to cooperate. "We've 
been idiots, like pinheads from 
outer space," said Filip Dewinter, 
leader of the secessionist Vlaams 
Belang. "If America is a real coun- 
try, so is Belgium. They've shown 
us how to behave." 




FRED WOLFF 



United Nations Unanimously Passes Weapons Ban 



By HELEN PREJEAN 

NEW YORK - A spontaneous 
celebration erupted in the U.N. 
General Assembly after represen- 
tatives of 192 member states unan- 
imously ratified the Comprehen- 
sive Arms Ban Treaty. The treaty 
outlaws possession, production 
and trade of military equipment 
ranging from small arms to nucle- 
ar warheads. 

"This is watershed moment in 
the security of people and the 
security of the planet itself," said 
U.S. President Barack Obama. 
"With weapons off the table, we 
can finally focus on the world's 
real threats: global poverty, pollu- 
tion, and climate change." 

The Comprehensive Arms Ban 
Treaty is an initiative of the U.N.'s 
new Global Security Protocol, 
which identifies environmental 
sustainability as its prime direc- 
tive. 

"We cannot have any kind of se- 
curity unless our planet remains 
livable," said Secretary-General 
Ban Ki-moon. "The tens of trillions 
of dollars freed by disarmament 
makes it easier to focus on the big- 
picture issues." 

The weapons ban includes ex- 
tensive subsidiies for the retool- 
ing of arms manufacturers. Hours 
after the agreement was reached, 
German weapons giant Heckler & 
Koch announced its first contract 
to take advantage of the incen- 
tive packages by refitting its Pll 
assault pistol factory to produce 
an improved "life straw," an indi- 
vidual water filtration system that 
greatly reduces waterborne dis- 
ease. The company's plan will use 
former weapons brokers to deliv- 
er the straws, and they will train 
former child soldiers to handle the 




TELSTAR LOGISTICS 

The U.S.'s stockpile of W.M.D.s, which includes arms like the one above, will soon be a relic of the past. 



labor-intensive task of local distri- 
bution. 

Impetus for the C.A.B.T. devel- 
oped after the 1998 European 
Union Code of Conduct, which 
prohibits selling weapons to 
countries that may use them for 
external aggression or internal op- 
pression, went largely unheeded. 
In one contravention of the code, 
Europe did not cease trade with 
the United States and Britain de- 
spite their unprovoked invasion of 
Iraq in 2003. 

In Britain, massive public 
protests, including a sit-in that 
blocked exit from the British Par- 
liament for two weeks, convinced 
the government to reverse course 
and uphold the E.U. Code of Con- 
duct, as well as to support pas- 
sage of the C.A.B.T. 

One of the primary focuses of 
the C.A.B.T. is small arms, which 
kill one person every minute, 75 



percent of them women and chil- 
dren. A survey conducted last May 
showed fewer than one-tenth of 
one percent in favor of continuing 
these deaths. In addition to man- 
dating the immediate cessation of 
production, the C.A.B.T. includes 
a buyback program to repossess 
most of the 640 million small arms 
already in circulation, and melt 
them down in small mobile smelt- 
ers which will recycle the steel 
into agricultural tools and equip- 
ment to be distributed locally. 

As for the 20,350 nuclear war- 
heads known to exist, they will 
be destroyed using monitoring 
procedures developed under the 
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. 
The last country to sign off on the 
new plan was North Korea, who 
agreed to dismantle their last war- 
head simultaneously with that of 
the U.S. The disarmament will take 
place in a ceremony organized and 



televised by members of the now 
defunct Olympic Games Commit- 
tee. The Olympic Games were 
canceled in December after most 
member nations realized that con- 
tests to see who could do useless 
things in the name of archaic na- 
tional boundaries are not helping 
anyone. 

Ailing leader Kim Jong II made 
a rare appearance to comment. 
"Finally, we have rid ourselves 
of the Olympics. Our best ath- 
letes will do useful and strenuous 
things. And we are very pleased to 
no longer need bombs to protect 
ourselves from Americans with 
more bombs. We can now focus on 
avoiding the collapse of our plan- 
et's ecosystem, and on other pur- 
suits the Great Leader would have 
applauded. The people of North 
Korea will enjoy this challenging, 
bright future immensely." 



Iraqis Around the World Celebrate U.S. Withdrawal, Rebuilding Plan 



By F. WUNDERLICH 

JORDAN — With the news that 
U.S. forces were withdrawing from 
Iraq, nearly five million Iraqi refu- 
gees learned that the nightmare 
that started in 2003 was over. 
However, most are convinced that 
going back to a pre-sanctions or 
even pre-war Iraq is a mere pipe- 
dream. 

"All Iraqis wanted the war to 
be over, but the Iraq that existed 
before has disappeared from the 
face of the earth, and no one has 
any idea how living in the new one 

For two million 
exiles, tempered 
hope of return to a 
shattered land. 

will feel," said Malik Abdul-Razzaq, 
a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee now liv- 
ing in Amman, Jordan. Abdul-Raz- 
zaq left Baghdad, where he had 
lived all his life, in early 2006, after 
being threatened by an "unknown 
armed group" due to his relation- 
ship with a human rights organiza- 
tion. 

"Politically what will happen? 
The country is destroyed, the mi- 
litias are everywhere," said Abdul- 
Razzaq, whose feelings of bewil- 
derment were a common theme 
among refugees. 

Of the 4.7 million people that are 
estimated to have been uprooted 
since 2003, half of them remain 
in the country, but far from their 
towns and cities and separated 
from family and friends. Approxi- 
mately two million have spilled 
into Syria and Jordan, where they 
have been living in what human 
rights organization Amnesty Inter- 
national calls "ramshackle camps 
and struggling to meet basic 
needs, like food and medicine." 

About 200,000 have made it be- 
yond the Middle East, mainly to 




Iraqi teens participate in team-building exercises organized by aid workers in a Jordan area refugee camp. 



Europe. In most cases, Iraqi refu- 
gees are not allowed to work and 
must depend on the black market. 
Amira al-Fadl, 31, now living 
in Stockholm, says that "since 
the Samarra bombing in Febru- 
ary 2006 [when a dome of the Al- 



Askari Mosque was destroyed by 
bombs], my parents have been 
locked in their neighborhood, 
away from my sisters." Al-Fadl is 
doubtful that she will return. "To 
leave, I had to peddle my house, 
my furniture and the family jew- 



elry, and I still needed to borrow 
$10,000. I'm sleeping on a rela- 
tive's couch, but I'm not sure what 
I have to go back to." 

Leyla Jarrah, 33, also in Stock- 
holm, can't keep tears of joy from 
coming down her cheeks. But she 



RASHID HAMASHANI/REUTERS 



is not planning to go back either. 
"I've lost most of my family and I 
don't think I'd be able to find my 
friends. As promising as people 
say it now is, I can't see myself 
starting all over again." 
Harun Saeed, 45, is planning 



to return to Baghdad. He is one 
of only 2000 or so Iraqis to have 
made it to the U.S. "Two of my 
Air Force colleagues were assas- 
sinated. I spent 14 months and 
all my savings in Syria. Now, I am 
barely surviving." Despite exten- 
sive experience as a technician for 
the Iraqi Air Force, Saeed has been 
unable to find a job paying more 
than minimum wage. He is now 
dreaming of going back and seeing 
his wife and two children. "I have 
no idea what will happen now, but 
for the first time in many years, I 
am hopeful." 

When Timur Barzani, 47, heard 
the news, he thought of his chil- 
dren. "Life in Damascus is hard, 
and my wife and I have had to send 
our sons to work. My sons now say 
they will be too embarrassed to go 
to school, they think they are too 
old to learn the ABCs. But I think 
in Najaf we will find many children 
in the same situation, and they will 
not be embarrassed," Barzani ex- 
plained. 

Until the U.S. withdrawal, Iraqi 
refugees usually had only two op- 
tions. Either they could face the 
humiliation of living as refugees 
without rights or hope for a bet- 
ter future, or they could face likely 
death if they returned to their 
shattered country. The common 
feeling among Iraqi refugees today 
is of hope for their country, for 
their friends and relatives, and for 
their lives. 

They know that the social fabric 
of the county has been destroyed 
by the war and the occupation, 
and that the challenges are huge. 
But as Abdul-Razzaq says, "The 
withdrawal is only the first step. 
At least now, we Iraqis will be free 
to choose our own future." 

Iraqi journalists for The New York 
Times contributed reporting from 
Damacas, Amman, and Stockholm. 



Times Reporter to Embed with Peace Groups 



By DARLA ZIMBALIST 

Recent studies have shown that 
embedded reporters lose per- 
spective and objectivity. Thrust 
into high-tension situations of 
dangerous conflict, and surround- 
ed by a corps of strong personali- 
ties devoted to a single objective, 
journalists almost inevitably write 
subjectively and sympathetically 
of situations that are best ad- 
dressed analj^ically. 

Yet there are other subjects 
that might be better served by a 
more sympathetic approach — 
like the cause of those who work 
to correct injustices done by our 
country abroad. Yet The Times' 
coverage of protesters has often 
been anj^hing but sympathetic. 
This paper has belittled the move- 
ment, marked its participants as 
wingnuts, and all in all written as if 
it were beholden to those against 



whom the protests were aimed. 

Veteran Times reporter John 
Hess noted that during his 24 
years of service at the paper he 
"never saw a foreign intervention 
that the Times did not support, 
never saw a fare increase or a rent 
increase or a utility rate increase 
that it did not endorse, never saw 
it take the side of labor in a strike 
or lockout, or advocate a raise for 
underpaid workers." When anti- 
war protesters are covered, the 
Times has regularly undercounted 
the numbers and glossed over 
violent acts by riot police. It has 
never given the demonstrators 
editorial support. 

After returning stateside from 
16 weeks embedded with the 
101st Airborne division in Iraq, 
this reporter decided to right this 
imbalance herself, beginning with 
some of the most interesting anti- 
war protest groups: Iraq Veterans 



Against the War, who stage simu- 
lated military operations in Ameri- 
can cities in order to "make the 
truth of this war visible"; United 
for Peace and Justice, a coalition 
of 1400 peace groups nationwide; 
and CODEPINK, a group singled 
out by former President Bush as 



To right a longstanding 
bias, a focus on those 
fighting for change 



setting a "dangerous, radical agen- 
da" for American politics. 

Beginning next week, embed- 
ded reports from this movement 
will be featured every week in this 
space. You, like The Times, will 
come to see these organizations 
in an entirely different light. 



What the Future Holds for Afghanistan 



By EMIL LEDERER 

A 400-page plan, written by Af- 
ghani leaders under U.N. supervi- 
sion, outlines the final stages of 
U.S. and NATO withdrawal, and de- 
tails a rebuilding effort on a scale 
not seen since World War Two. 

Core to the plan is the presence 
of the U.N. peacekeeping and hu- 
manitarian forces in order to guar- 
antee the quality of life of all citi- 
zens through assurances of peace, 
a means to earn a living, and basic 
food and health care. "Afghani 
warlords and the Taliban use ac- 
cess to resources as a source of 
power. When these resources are 
readily available, their authority 
will be neutralized or minimized," 
the report states. 

The plan focuses heavily on 
rebuilding schools and retrain- 
ing teachers who have not taught 
since the Soviet-backed regime 




NICK TUCKER 

was toppled by U.S.-backed Muja- 
hedeen in 1992. "An abundance of 
research has shown that individu- 
als worldwide who are literate are 
less likely to address problems 
with non-diplomatic means" the 
report states, adding that this is 
also true for U.S. political leaders. 
One Taliban official, who was 
in a minority opposing the plans, 
explained that his group was be- 
ing supported by Baptist groups 
in the U.S. which "understand the 
need for men to rule women and 
the legitimacy of martyrdom as a 
political strategy." 



Afghani leaders are hopeful that 
future powerful states will finally 
attend to the lessons learned by 
previous imperial powers, in- 
cluding Britain, Russia, and now 
the U.S. Mikhail Gorbachev, in a 
recently-published book on the 
collapse of the Soviet Union, has 
revealed that he warned President 
George W Bush against attempting 
to occupy Afghanistan. Mr. Bush's 
response: "Hey, Gorby, lighten up. 
The Taliban and the Mujahedeen 
may have brought you down, but 
it was we who provided the fund- 
ing. They're in our pocket and 
they know it." 

"I wonder what he thinks now 
that U.S. missiles are bringing 
down U.S. drones, and the U.S. 
had to nationalize banks because 
Americans wanted control of the 
means of production and not just 
blank checks for the financiers," 
Mr. Gorbachev said. 



THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



A5 



Global Problem 
Tumedlnto 
Global Solution 



From Page Al 

level rise has been overblown. 
And one thing I'm sure of, is that 
nationalizing private industry is 
just another name for theft." 

"The private oil interests have 
been involved in theft for de- 
cades," responded Deputy Un- 
der Secretary of the E.P.A. Gavin 
Newsom. "They've stolen our air, 
our oceans, our health, and our 
land. They've proven they can't 
run their business without mas- 
sive theft." 

"If we're going to give corpora- 
tions the same rights as people," 



They've stolen our 
air, our oceans, our 
health, and our land. 
They've proven they 
can't run their busi- 
ness without massive 
theft; 



said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 
"then we need to hold them ac- 
countable like people. When 
parents abuse their children, the 
government takes over. When oil 
companies abuse the planet, the 
government needs to take over 
too." 

Arco C.E.O. Rex W Tillerson was 
philosophical. "We fought this 
long and hard. We did everj^hing 
we could do. But do we want more 
blood in the streets? Or do we 
want to move on?" 

"You can't fight the street," said 
Mr. Newsom. "The people are go- 
ing to do what the people are go- 
ing to do. And the oil companies 
are just going to have live with it." 



Last to Die in Battle Remembered, American and Iraqi 



By J. FINISTERRA 

BAGHDAD — Secretary of De- 
fense Scott Ritter was joined by 
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki 
and representatives of the former 
"Coalition of the Willing" in Bagh- 
dad this afternoon for the ground- 
breaking of a monument to the last 
to die during the allies' occupation 
of Iraq. 

An enormous granite obelisk to 
the Iraqi dead, 300 feet high, will 
stand in Firdos Square, where co- 
alition troops famously attempted 
to topple a 40-foot-tall statue of 
Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein in 
April 2003. A 15-foot-high obelisk 
will stand nearby, honoring the 
coalition casualties. 

The difference in size between 
the two obelisks will represent 
the different numbers of casual- 
ties. For the Iraqi dead, the most 
conservative estimate of 93,067 
was chosen to avoid the coalition 
monument being absurdly small 
or the Iraqi monument prohibi- 
tively large. 

On the side of the allies, the 
last to die was Corporal William 
Whitman, age 28, of Quinnesec, 
Michigan. Just as fighting began to 
wane, he took up an exposed posi- 
tion while on a foot patrol and was 
struck by a sniper's bullet. He died 
instantly, the 4,314th American ca- 
sualty of the war. In retaliation, a 
U.S. attack helicopter fired rockets 
into a nearby apartment building, 
killing the sniper and six Iraqi civil- 
ians. Moments later, U.S. soldiers 
received word that they were to 
cease fire immediately and pre- 
pare to return home. 

Mr. Al-Maliki commemorated 
Ahmed Yahya, a 5-year-old boy 
who was inside the building 
the sniper had fired from. Res- 
cue workers dug him out of the 
rubble from the rocket blast. The 
boy survived overnight but suc- 



cumbed early the next morning 
to internal injuries, and was either 
the 93,067th, the 755,265th or the 
1,233,657th Iraqi civilian casualty 
of the war. (No accurate records 
were kept, and estimates from dif- 
ferent sources conflict wildly.) 

"Ahmed's life coincided with the 
absolute worst episode in the his- 



An American repre- 
sentative tells the 
Iraqis that some 
Americans tried, to 
polite applause. 



tory of the Middle East," Mr. Maliki 
said of the boy, who was born just 
after the Iraq War started. "May 
his life and death represent the 
importance of never again see- 
ing such catastrophe rain on our 
heads, whether for false pretences 
or even real ones." 

"1 stand before you as a repre- 
sentative of the American people 
to tell you that some of us tried," 
Mr. Ritter told an audience of main- 
ly Iraqi veterans and their families. 
"We may have failed to stop this in 
time, but at least we did try. It only 
remains for us, the heirs of our vic- 
tims' legacy, to have the courage 
and the character to make sure it 
never happens again." 

Ritter's statements were met 
with polite applause. 



ONLIN EXCLUSIVE TIMES 
3D INTERACTIVE MODEL 

To explore the interactive, full- 
color, virtual monument in a 
digital 3D architectural rendering, 
featuring zooming and panning 
capabilities, see: 

nytimes-se.com/world/virtual/~3D.html 




MIKE ERNST/THE NEW YORK TIMES 

The last American and Iraqi to die during the war will be commemorated by obelisks in downtown Baghdad. 



Court Indicts 
Bush on High 
Treason Charge 

By BART GARZON 

WASHINGTON (AP) — George 
W Bush, the 43rd President of the 
United States, was indicted Mon- 
day on charges of high treason. The 
charges, filed by Attorney General 
Russ Feingold late in the evening, 
allege that Mr. Bush, knowing full 
well that Iraq possessed no weap- 
ons of mass destruction, falsified 
information in order to pursue 
the disastrous Iraq War. (See "U.S. 
Knew No W.M.D.s in Iraq," on Page 
Al.) 

Federal District Judge Michael 
Ratner denied Mr. Bush's request 
to represent himself. Ratner is the 
former president of the Center for 
Constitutional Rights. 

High treason is usually defined 
as participation in a war against 



A move to avoid the 
death penalty brings 
its own risks. 



one's own country; attempting to 
overthrow its government; spying 
on its military, its diplomats, or its 
secret services for a hostile and 
foreign power; or attempting to 
kill its head of state. 

"In this case, high treason has 
been interpreted to include pursu- 
ing an illegal and devastating war 
that has cost hundreds of billions 
of dollars and the lives of over 
4,000 Americans and perhaps a 

Ari Fleischer contributed reporting. 




GAVIN BELLOWS/BOSTON GLOBE 



The former President appeared perturbed by his own charges against him. 



million Iraqis, for essentially in- 
sane ends," said Vincent Bugliosi, 
a former federal prosecutor whom 
Feingold named lead special 
prosecutor in the case. "In effect, 
the Iraq War amounted to a war 
against America," added Bugliosi, 
who is also the author of the book. 
The Prosecution of George Bush 
for Murder. 

Although the treason indict- 
ment came as no surprise to most 
observers, what was completely 
unexpected was the party who 
brought it. 

"The case is highly unusual in 
a number of ways," said Bugliosi, 
"not the least of which is that the 
defendant is actually accusing 
himself." 

In a press conference held 
close to midnight yesterday at 
his Crawford, Texas ranch, former 
President Bush cited his renewed 
Christian faith as the catalyst for 
this unprecedented action. "Last 
month, 1 had a conversation with 



Jesus Christ. A new conversation. 
And I've been very blessed to have 
been born again, again. This time, 
for real," Mr. Bush read in a pre- 
pared statement to half a dozen 
stunned reporters. 

"It's taken a lot of soul search- 
ing, or more like deep-soul diving, 
1 think is the term. But now 1 see 
that it was wrong to lead our na- 
tion to war under false pretenses. 
Millions have suffered for my sins, 
and 1 see now that it is only fitting 
that 1 should suffer as well." 

Mr. Bush's self-accusation 
seems largely to have been pla- 
giarized from years of accusations 
made against him in the press. It 
refers to his "political propaganda 
campaign to sell the war to the 
American people," and describes 
how he and his team attempted 
to make the "W.M.D. threat and 
the Iraqi connection to terrorism 
appear certain, whereas in fact we 
knew there wasn't one at all." 

"The death and economic col- 



lapse that resulted has been com- 
pletely devastating to our nation 
and, most of all, to me," read Mr. 
Bush's indictment. "1 want to make 
amends, and it is for this reason 
that 1 am requesting that 1 be in- 
dicted for high treason. 1 thank the 
court for allowing me to right my 
grave wrongs. Bring it on!" 

Some analysts suggest that 
Mr. Bush's self-indictment is part 
of a strategy to avoid the death 
penalty. Although treason carries 
a potential death sentence, Mr. 
Bush and his team of attorneys 
are seeking a triple life sentence 
without possibility of parole. 

"We don't want to be too cynical 
about Mr. Bush's motives," said a 
spokesperson for AfterDowning- 
Street.org, one of the main groups 
that had been pursuing Mr. Bush's 
indictment. "But even if it doesn't 
get moved to the l.C.C, requesting 
his own conviction is so unusual it 
could move some jurors, or even 
help with an insanity plea." 



A friend of Mr. Bush, speak- 
ing on condition of anonymity, 
revealed that Mr. Bush would at- 
tempt to move the case to the In- 
ternational Criminal Court, which 
does not have a death penalty, and 
was quietly pressing Secretary of 
State Naomi Klein to bring the U.S. 
under the court's jurisdiction. In 
2002, then-Secretary of Defense 
Donald Rumsfeld rejected the 
l.C.C. 's jurisdiction, saying it was 
"unaccountable to the American 
people." 

Mr. Bush maintained his charac- 
teristically jovial manner through- 
out the proceedings. "1 could be ex- 
ecuted, but what good would that 
do anybody? Especially me. 1 think 
the nation would rather 1 spend a 
good long while considering what 
happened — not only the tragic 
end of hundreds of thousands 
of lives, but the end of American 
capitalism, that 1 liked, 1 sincerely 
liked," Mr. Bush said. (See also "An 
Exclusive Interview With George 
W Bush," on Page A9.) 

The treason charge does not 
address compensation for the 
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis 
killed in the war. It is expected 
that surviving family members of 
fallen American soldiers will file 
thousands of civil lawsuits alleg- 
ing wrongful death. 

What's Fair? 

Americans favor life in prison 
over deatli penalty. 



64% 



31% 



3% 



2% 



Life In 
Prison 


Death 
Penalty 

Charges 
Dropped 

Community 
Service 





Source: New York Times/CBS News poll 



With War Over, 
Troops Return 

From Page Al 

"Now that the war's over, we're 
going to get to go back to devel- 
oping exciting new weapon sys- 
tems, instead of just trotting out 
the ones that are proven to work," 
said a visibly excited Robert Ste- 
vens, Lockheed C.E.O. , before a 
reporter informed him of the Sen- 
ate moratorium on new weapons 
systems development. 

"Oh," said Stevens, looking 

A general learns 
his difficult history 
lessons late. 



flushed, and quickly excused him- 
self. 

General David Petraeus had 
a distinctly ashen look as he at- 
tempted to put a good face on the 
situation. "I've been trying to make 
sense of all this, and 1 have to say 
that in perspective, we did pretty 
well," Petraeus told reporters. 

"It turns out that in 1917, the 
British made exactly the same 
mistakes we did," Petraeus noted. 
"They told the Iraqis they had 
come 'not as conquerors but as 
liberators, to free you from gen- 
erations of tyranny' Like us, they 
were surprised the Iraqis didn't 
feel quite the same. The insurgen- 
cy against the British started in 
Fallujah too, and like us, the Brit- 
ish Prime Minister warned against 
leaving Iraq on the grounds that 
there would be civil war." 

Petraeus smiled wearily. "1 guess 
it's never too late to learn." 

A number of mothers contributed 
reporting. 



Rice: Troops Never Faced Annihilation Risk 




ROB 7812/AP 



A lone helmet lies in the desert near Atrush, Iraq, a monument to absence. 



From Page Al 

believes that it was former Presi- 
dent Bush's trial for high treason 
that spurred the revelations. 

"There's nothing to hide any- 
more," said Ms. Rice. "We are re- 
lieved to finally be able tell you, 
the troops who fought for us, that 
we love our soldiers and we al- 
ways have. We would never have 
put you in such obvious harm's 
way." 



A sheepish former 
secretary expresses 
respect and concern 
for the troops. 



Ms. Rice also confirmed Secre- 
tary of Defense Scott Ritter's rev- 
elation that he had provided the 
C.l.A. with documentation in the 
1990s, when he was a U.N. weap- 
ons inspector, that Iraq lacked 
biological or nuclear weapons pro- 
grams. "We were then already far 
more than 99 percent certain that 
Hussein had zero W.M.D.s and that 
if he did, he would not be able to 
use them against us." 



War Brides (and Husbands) Find 
Their Place in a New Iraq 



By LEN G. WILKINS 

BASRA — Following service in 
Iraq and an honorable discharge 
last April, Lieutenant Samantha 
Blaine returned to Iraq to start a 
small construction company. 

She is far from alone. The 
growth of the postwar economy in 
Iraq has proven so tempting that 
dozens of members of the U.S. 
military chose to remain in Iraq. 
Thus a region long associated 
with its citizens fleeing abroad has 
seen unprecedented volumes of 
immigration. 

Seven years ago, Ms. Blaine 
had no experience with safety 
engineering or building codes but 
was sent to Basra to assist in the 
rebuilding of the Iraqi infrastruc- 
ture. Today, her private contract- 
ing company is benefiting from a 
local building boom. 

"For the first year of our busi- 
ness, most of the work was gov- 
ernment contracts," said Blaine, 
"but after the major infrastructure 
work was done and the Iraqi econ- 
omy began to rebound, there was 
a surge in demand for new hous- 
ing." 

Ms. Blaine met her husband. 



Ibrahim Khan, when he was hired 
to work as her translator during 
the war. It is a role he continues 
to serve as Ms. Blaine's Arabic im- 
proves. 

Ms. Blaine claims that it hasn't 
been hard to adjust to life in Iraq. 
"1 expected to have to deal with a 
lot of sexism. But until the inva- 
sion, this was a modern, secular 
society." 

Sergeant Rahim Rafiqi has also 
benefited from the new construc- 
tion, opening an insurance agency 
that caters to the construction 
industry. Prior to joining the mili- 
tary, Mr. Rafiqi had worked at his 
father's small insurance company. 
"1 was able to get backing for what 
some would have seen as a risky 
investment, but we were in the 
black pretty quickly," says Mr. 
Rafiqi. 

According to the recent emigres, 
the cultural adjustments that are 
necessary to move from the Unit- 
ed States to Iraq are more than 
worth enduring to be a part of the 
new Iraq. "Getting sent to Iraq was 
the best thing to happen to me," 
said Ms. Blaine. "I'm finally living 
the American Dream." 



A6 



SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



National 



SljeJfetoiiork ShnciS 



Crumbling Infrastructure Brings Opportunities 



BY CHARLES HOCHMANKS 

As the $1.6 trillion Infrastructure 
Modernization Bill moves through 
Congress, a wide swath of public 
advocacy groups is assuring that 
the focus of rebuilding remains on 
proven, sustainable technologies 
that can move the country away 
from its dependency on fossil fu- 
els. 

The American Society of Civil 
Engineers has estimated that $1.6 
trillion is needed to bring the na- 
tion's infrastructure up to the level 
enjoyed by other industrialized 
nations. 

"The U.S. used to have the most 
advanced public transportation 
system in the world by far," said 
Transportation Department head 
Earl Blumenauer. "Now, of course, 
it's pretty much the worst, at least 
in the developed world. Our love 
affair with the automobile has got 
to stop." 

Brice Terra is a spokesperson 
for Rebuild Sustainably, a group 
that formed when the funding 
bill was initiated, and that now 
counts nearly 400,000 members. 
The group has helped keep public 
pressure on senators to aim high 
in crafting the rebuilding bill. "We / 
must minimize environmental im- 
pact with dense yet fully liveable 



Finally, a long-needed 
move away from the 
automobile. 



cities, convert rural suburbs back 
to farmland, and provide access 
to services rather than just sheer 
mobility," said Mr. Terra. 

Under pressure from their con- 
stituencies, lawmakers on both 
sides of the aisle are pushing for 
a version of the bill that frees the 
U.S. from dependence on fossil 
fuels. 

"We don't want a patch that just 
preserves business as usual," said 
Rahm Emanuel, Representative of 
Illinois, who has been leading the 
push for sustainable rebuilding in 
the Senate. "Rather, true conve- 
nience must be our top priority." 

"What we've realized is that we 
need to move away from the au- 
tomobile," said Senator Richard 
Shelby, Republican of Alabama. 
"We need to transition the United 
States to a more convenient, liv- 
able, economical, and enjoyable 
way of life." 

Mr. Blumenauer cited as instru- 
mental to the bill's passage the 
widespread public outrage which 
began in reaction to $10 gasoline 
prices and was quickly channeled 
by groups like Rebuild Sustainably. 
"When gas hit $3.50 back in March 
2008, people drove 1 1 billion miles 
less per month than they had the 
year before," said Blumenauer. 
"When it hit $10, people realized 
that the problem wasn't high gas 
prices — the problem was gas. 
Fortunately, we Americans have 
always had the imagination and 
will to meet challenges." 

"Once we make our own coun- 
try more livable," says Mr. Blume- 
nauer, "we can begin exporting the 
best practices of affordable transit 
and sustainable planning to devel- 
oping nations." 




DANI BORA/WORLD PICTURE NEWS 



A tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse claimed lives, but not as many as an unhealthy national lifestyle. 



LIGHT RAIL AND BUSES 

One key to the Infrastructure Modernization 
Bill will be light rail in cities, as well as high-occu- 
pancy overland vehicles — i.e. buses — oper- 
ating at higher speeds in segregated lanes and 
roadways. 

"We can dig out some of our old streetcar 
tracks, which are now buried in asphalt, but new 
buses are also a good solution, and much less 
expensive," Mr. Blumenauer noted. 

In 1922 there were fourteen thousand miles of 
streetcar track in American cities, according to 
Colleen Burgess, a representative of the Surface 
Transportation Board. "Berlin had the most ex- 
tensive network in Europe, but that was smaller 
than 22 American cities. Today, we've got next to 
nothing. But we've got to look forward." 

NATIONAL RAIL 

One major element of the D.O.T. plan is the 
reconstruction of a national rail network for peo- 
ple and goods, and the elimination of most long 
distance trucking. "The rails are there," said Ms. 
Burgess. "They spider across all of North Ameri- 
ca. They need maintenance, and in some cases 
expansion, but they're basically there." 

"We have a passenger railroad system that 
the Bulgarians would be ashamed of," noted rail 
advocate James Howard Kunstler. "Restoring 
passenger rail service would put tens of thou- 
sands of people to work at all levels, decongest 
airports, and revive central cities. And nothing 
needs to be reinvented — the infrastructure is 
already out there." 

Senator Emanuel noted that current airline 
subsidies would be rechanneled into Amtrak, 
especially into high-speed rail connections al- 
ready common in Europe, Japan, and China. 

BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE 

The Urban Bicycling Expansion Program be- 
gan with the D.O.T.'s Bicycle Commuters Group 
in late 2007. The program's funding is now on a 
par with that of a newly-shrunken Federal Avia- 
tion Administration. 



"In 1990 we got the Americans with Disabili- 
ties Act, with provisions for 'full and equal enjoy- 
ment,'" said Mr. Blumenauer. "Now there are 
ramps, elevators, and other accommodations. 
There's no reason a few simple rules can't per- 
mit the full and equal enjoyment of public road- 
ways by bicyclists." 

"It's something my predecessors at D.O.T. 
didn't take very seriously," said program head 
Leah Shahum, former Executive Director of the 
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "But bicyclists 
across the country have shown us it can work." 

The first task will be to enact "complete streets" 
legislation, with safe lanes for bicyclists, bicycle 
parking areas, and bike racks on city buses and 
light rail, so that cyclists can commute longer 
distances. 

Even more ambitious will be the development 
of commuter bicycle lending programs in all ma- 
jor cities. For an annual fee of around $40, users 
will be able to check out three-speed bicycles 
from entirely automated stations. The programs 
will be modeled after those in Paris and Barce- 
lona, which already have hundreds of stations 
and thousands of public bicycles in circulation. 

Blumenauer noted that the benefits of expand- 
ed bike use are likely to impact another typically 
American problem: that of obesity. "Bicycles are 
also an investment in the infrastructure of the hu- 
man body," he said. 

ZONING 

One key element of the D.O.T.'s plan to get 
people out of their cars will occur solely on pa- 
per. "We need more mixed-use zoning; more 
medium-scale, high-density development; in- 
centives for businesses to locate near residential 
areas and for individuals to work close to home; 
and better public education about the health 
benefits of being active," Mr. Blumenauer said. 
He said that the Transportation Department will 
be working with the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development to draw up guidelines that 
focus on access, rather than mobility. 

"As we rebuild the national infrastructure," 



said Housing head Rene Oswin, "building tighter 
communities needs to be at the forefront. When 
the places we live, work, and shop are closer to- 
gether, quality of life improves dramatically." 

"A suburbanite who commutes for an hour and 
drives to the store for a cup of sugar is going to 
have a lower quality of life than one who walks or 
bikes to work and buys food at a farmer's mar- 
ket," noted Oswin. "Big box stores, malls, and 
peripheral office parks have been a catastrophe 
for our national happiness." 

The building guidelines, soon to be written into 
legislation, also include prescriptions for solar, 
wind, and geothermal energy, and grey water 
systems. Details are available on the H.U.D. 
website. 

AIR 

In response to the government's comprehen- 
sive Climate Control and Infrastructure Modifica- 
tion Act, the Federal Aviation Administration is 
considering two different proposals to phase out 
air travel. 

The first calls for the nationalization of airlines, 
and the transition of many airports wholly or in 
part into transit hubs for rail and bus services. 
The other, more market-based plan, mandates 
the elimination of billions of dollars of federal 
subsidies for airlines. 

In the first plan, the price of travel would re- 
main the same, but there would be far fewer 
trips available. In the second, only the relatively 
wealthy could afford to fly. 

"We advocate the second plan, of course," 
said United C.E.O. Glenn F. Tilton. 

"Even if flights become a luxury," said Trans- 
portation head Blumenauer, "it won't be a catas- 
trophe for most people. An average family can 
afford to spend some much-needed downtime 
on a comfortable train between New York and 
Los Angeles. As for business customers who 
choose to fly, they will have to pay the true cost 
of their habits to society." 



Big Boxes Appeal 
Eviction from 
Low-Income 
Neighborhoods 

Chains Drain Money: 
H.U.D. Spokesperson 

By CARL SCARPA 

BENTONVILLE, AR — Wal-Mart, 
Costco, Sam's Club, K-Mart, and 
Target are challenging the Eco- 
nomic Independence Act, passed 
this February, which requires "big 
box" stores to phase out outlets 
in or near low-income neighbor- 
hoods, and help nurture local 
businesses to replace them. 

"We in the big box community 
are committed to ensuring our 
investors' rights, in accordance 
with the U.S. Constitution," said 
Wal-Mart C.E.O. Lee Scott. "We will 
definitely fight this with all the re- 
sources at our disposal, which are, 
by the way, considerable." 

Housing and Urban Develop- 
ment Secretary Rene Oswin 
vowed to defend the legislation. 

'We have nothing 

to lose but our chains' 



"You know something's wrong 
when the earnings of poor folks 
end up in the pockets of Wal-Mart 
shareholders in Manhattan," said 
Oswin. "This act has finally put 
a stop the flow of money out of 
these communities. To backtrack 
now would be disastrous." Oswin 
predicted the big-box reatailers' 
challenge would faU. 

The act prescribes a two- 
stage withdrawal process for the 
stores from lower-income neigh- 
borhoods, which are defined as 
neighborhoods with a median 
household income under $30,000. 
In the first two-year phase, the 
stores will become wholesalers, 
able to sell only to smaller local 
businesses at heavily discounted 
prices. The local businesses can 
buy from whichever supplier they 
want. By the end of a second eight- 
year phase, the stores will be com- 
pletely dissolved. 

"We have nothing to lose but 
our chains," said Mario Lewis of 
Big Boxes Out, a citizens' group 
that was instrumental in pushing 
for the Economic Independence 
Act, and which is now promoting 
a second act, the Full Economic 
Independence Act, to eliminate 
all chains with more than ten out- 
lets from lower-income neighbor- 
hoods, along a simUar ten-year 
timeline. 



WAUMART 




DYSTOPOS/AP 

A 24-hour Wal-Mart Supercenter 
in Detroit is just one of many 
expected to close. 



Progressive 
Movement Can 
Take Credit for 
New Direction 
By Leaders 



From Page Al 

of groups such as Healthcare- 
NOW, United Students Against 
Sweatshops, Housing Works, the 
A.C.L.U., and others for helping 
advance progressive causes such 
as universal health care, worker 
rights, civU liberties, and econom- 
ic justice. 

"There's no question that in all 
areas, mass movements made 
the difference. Without them we 
wouldn't be close to a national 
health program, a wind and solar 
bill, a plan to guarantee fair and 
equal funding for public educa- 
tion, or the banking oversight bUl, 
expected to pass next month in 
both houses." 

"1 never anticipated the rapid 
advances made in the past six 
months," Dr. Wellmon said, "but 
the public has shown a fierce 
desire for change. It's a virtuous 
cycle: with the breaking of market 
manacles, human and financial re- 
sources are becoming avaUable to 
support even more real changes in 
all areas of American life." 



See Interactive Graphic 
at nytimes-se.com 



From November to Now: How progressives really won Washington 



2008 



NOVEMBER 4, 2008 

Presidential Election. 
Electrified by the 
outcome, activists 
begin organizing 
online around specific 
policy targets. Over 
next weeks, advocacy 
groups report tenfold 
increase in member- 
ship. 



JANUARY 2009 

Congressional 
representatives 
report record number 
of phone calls on 
C.E.O. salary cap 
and other 
economic 
reforms. 




MARCH 2009 

First massive public 
demonstrations for 
withdrawal from Iraq, 
for infrastructure, 
health, and education 
reform, and for 
nationalizing big oil. 



DECEMBER 9-12, 2008 

First major conference 
of progressive advocacy 
movements in Atlanta. 
Publication of first 
Nationwide Progressive 
Working Group 
guidelines on ending the 
war, reforming health 
care and education, and 
humanizing the 
economy. 



FEBRUARY 2009 

Progressives achieve 
first major legislative 
victory, with passage 
of the Economic 
Independence Act, 
excluding big box 
stores from lower- 
income neighbor- 
hoods. 




MAY-JUNE 2009 

Demonstrations, 
organizing lead to 
more legislative 
victories. For the 
first time in 
decades, U.S. 
approaches other 
developed nations 
in key happiness 
indicators. 



APRIL 16, 2009 

Following 
progressive 
legislative victories 
in several key 
areas. President 
makes "Yes we 
really can" speech. 



2009 



THE NEW YORK TIMES 



THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



A7 



FOCUS ON YOUR HEALTH 



National Health Insurance Act Passes 



strategist: GOP Has Ensured 
America Safe From Liberalism 



By S. ALLENDE 

H.R. 676, the United States 
National Health Insurance Act, 
also known as "expanded and 
improved Medicare for all," has 
moved through Congress, and is 
expected to be signed into law 
shortly. The legislation provides 
publicly funded health insurance, 
with a free choice of health care 
providers, for every United States 
citizen and permanent resident. 

After the bill passed. Speaker of 
the House Nancy Pelosi declared, 
"We can now proudly say that the 
United States has caught up with 
the rest of the developed world in 
granting all our citizens access to 
high-quality, comprehensive medi- 
cal care." 

Prior to the bill's passage, 
the U.S. health care system was 
widely regarded to be in a state 
of severe crisis. Over 46 million 
Americans have been without 
health insurance and another 50 
million have been under-insured. 
Despite spending more money 
per capita on health care than any 
other nation, the U.S. has lagged 
behind many countries in such 
key health-related categories as 
life expectancy, infant mortality, 
and preventable deaths. The Insti- 
tute of Medicine estimates that in 
recent years approximately 22,000 
people have died annually in the 
U.S. due to a lack of health insur- 
ance. Furthermore, nearly one mil- 
lion Americans, many who have 
private health insurance plans, 
have filed for bankruptcy each 
year because they have been un- 
able to pay medical bills. In recent 
polls, a clear majority of Ameri- 
cans have said they believe gov- 
ernment should guarantee health 
care for all U.S. residents. 

Despite growing popular sup- 
port for a single-payer system, 
Pelosi acknowledged that Con- 
gress would not have voted for 
this bill without the dedicated 
grassroots organizing of national 
groups like Healthcare-NOW and 
Physicians for a National Health 
Program, regional groups like the 
California Nurses Association 
and the New York-based Private 
Health Insurance Must Go Coali- 
tion, and over 450 union organiza- 
tions across the country that had 
endorsed H.R. 676. Pelosi said that 
many formerly undecided con- 
gressional representatives were 
also swayed by seeing Michael 
Moore's film, "Sicko," and by the 
cogent arguments presented in a 
2008 pocket-sized book, "10 Excel- 
lent Reasons for National Health 
Care," edited by Mary E. O'Brien 
and Martha Livingston, that was 
given to every member of Con- 
gress. 

Under the private insurance sys- 
tem that has been in place until 
now, 30 percent of health insur- 
ance premiums have gone toward 
administrative costs, including 
advertising, profits, and execu- 
tive salaries. This compares with 
a 3 percent cost for administering 
Medicare. Moving from the private 
health insurance system to single- 
payer is expected to save $350 
billion dollars each year, enough 
to fund health care for those who 
are currently uninsured or under- 
insured. Under H.R. 676, the ex- 
panded Medicare for All system 
will be paid for through a 3.3 per- 
cent payroll tax on employers and 
employees, a stock transfer tax, 
an income tax surcharge on the 
top 5 percent of taxpayers, and by 




Doctors operate on a patient who previously would have been denied care. 



ARMY.MIL/THE NEW YORK TIMES 



reversing the Bush tax cuts on the 
wealthiest Americans. According 
to the Congressional Budget Of- 
fice, most U.S. residents — includ- 
ing those who previously received 
employer-based coverage-will 
pay less for this new public health 
insurance than they did for their 
private insurance, since there will 
no longer be any premium, copay, 
or deductible charges. 

Eliminating private insurance 
companies, including HMOs, and 
moving to a publicly administered 
system will be no simple task. The 
private health-care industry is 
enormous, employing over 14 mil- 



A basic human right is 
at long last assured 
with help from activist 
groups. 



lion people and costing 2.3 trillion 
dollars in 2007. 

"The transition to a single-payer 
system will be our biggest chal- 
lenge for the next 3 years, and a 
significant struggle even after this 
bill is signed," said John Cony- 
ers. Democrat of Michigan, who 
introduced and fought for the 
legislation. "But with the support 
of the American people, 1 have no 
doubt that we will reach our goal." 
In order to make the transition 
easier for industry workers, H.R. 
676 gives former employees of pri- 
vate health insurers first priority 
for the public-sector jobs that will 
need to be created to run the new 
program. 

Many Republicans in Congress 
remain opposed to the new plan, 
arguing that quality care is best 
provided by private industry and 
free markets. Former Speaker of 
the House Newt Gingrich released 
a statement saying: "Only market 
competition can bring choice and 
lower prices. To see the opposite 
trend is to be obtuse and short- 
sighted." During the House floor 
debate, some cited claims about 
long waits for treatment under 
a similar single-payer system of 
medical care in Canada; these 
claims have been discredited by 



most independent researchers. 

The medical services industry 
is promising to challenge the new 
bill. In an e-mail to investors. Kai- 
ser chief George Halvorson wrote: 
"1 remain exclusively committed 
as always to our investors and 
we plan on using every resource 
to protect our interests, against 
which this measure is obviously 
aimed." Cigna C.E.O. H. Edward 
Hanway issued a similar state- 
ment: "HMOs have been in busi- 
ness for decades. Now Washing- 
ton insiders want to take away our 
profits, our investments, and our 
property. That is unacceptable, 
and we will fight tooth and nail 
to insure our rights under our na- 
tion's Constitution." 

"There has been a long-accepted 
vnyXh, which is now thankfully re- 
ceding, that if it's private, it must 
be more efficient," said Secretary 
of Health and Human Services, 
former Oregon Governor Dr. John 
Kitzhaber. "Yet our private, largely 
for-profit system was bloated, re- 
dundant, inefficient, and much 
more expensive than the better- 
performing national health care 
models of many other countries. 
Plus, many Americans were grow- 
ing increasingly frustrated with 
private insurers acting as gate- 
keepers interfering in doctor-pa- 
tient decisions, and with receiv- 
ing denial letters from insurance 
bureaucrats sitting in cubicles far 
removed from their medical diag- 
noses. The single-payer system we 
will be implementing under H.R. 
676 will be a vast improvement 
over the previous, dysfunctional 
health care model. And it will pay 
for itself by eliminating the waste 
and duplication of the private 
health insurance industry." 

When reached, a member of the 
Coordinating Committee of the 
Private Health Insurance Must Go 
Coalition noted that the momen- 
tum for a single-payer health care 
system grew after the October 
2008 Wall Street bailout: "After 
the bailout, the American people 
saw more clearly than ever that 
our social needs were not always 
going to be met by private indus- 
try or the so-called 'free market.' 
There were no more valid excuses 
for inaction. If government was 
able to provide a safety net to Wall 



Street, it was capable of providing 
the American people with some 
real health-care security. After all, 
it's not only the financial industry 
that has been affected by the eco- 
nomic downturn. It's about time 
that the U.S. has joined the rest 
of the planet in recognizing that 
health care access is both a ne- 
cessity and a human right. During 
these difficult times, a single-payer 
system should help to ease the fi- 
nancial strain that people are feel- 
ing and might even help stimulate 
the overall economy." 

Unlike the response from com- 
pany executives, reaction to the 
passage of H.R. 676 among insur- 
ance industry employees has been 
largely positive. Sarah Schwartz, a 
Cigna medical records specialist 
in Ohio, said: "I'll get retraining. 
They need people who do what 1 
do. I'll get different forms and pro- 
cedures, that's all. Plus this new 
system will be much better for the 
patients, so that feels good." When 
asked about other changes the 
new law will bring, Schwartz told 
the Times about her aging mother 
who, at 71, continues to work at 
a full-time office job. "She almost 
got laid off last year, which meant 
my dad wouldn't have been able 
to see a doctor for his heart prob- 
lems anymore, since he was cov- 
ered under her plan. For our fam- 
ily, this bill passed just in time." 

"Health care should be like water 
— a right for everyone. Anything 
less is barbaric," said a spokesper- 
son for Physicians for a National 
Health Program, an organization 
that has advocated for health care 
reform since 1987. 

In recent years, a majority of 
physicians had grown tired of the 
growing, confusing, and some- 
times disruptive role of the private 
insurance companies, with a 2008 
poll showing 59 percent of doctors 
supporting a single-payer system. 
At an American Medical Associa- 
tion banquet last night, a sponta- 
neous standing ovation occurred 
when doctors learned of the bill's 
success. A.M.A. President Nancy 
Nielsen, M.D. said in her speech: 
"We're trained to save lives. We're 
trained to practice medicine. Fi- 
nally, we can do what we entered 
this field to do — practice with the 
interest of patients at heart." 



By E. LUDENDORFF 

Republican party strategist 
Frank Luntz said today that 
despite the election of Barack 
Obama, America is still "safe from 
liberalism." 

"Safe from liberalism?" chuckled 
a Democratic party strategist who 
wished to remain anonymous. 
"That's absurd; we won the elec- 
tion!" 

But Luntz insisted. "Sure, the 
Democrats now have more power. 
That's a fact. But what can they 
really achieve in the next four 
years? Our gains are now perma- 
nent, or nearly," he said, referring 
to disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack 
Abramoff's declaration that "the 
job of all revolutions is to make 
their gains permanent." 

Luntz noted that the trillion dol- 
lars of bailout spending was only 
the latest example of how the GOP 
has made the implementation of 
future progressive measures ex- 
tremely difficult. 

"Bill Clinton entered office with 
all kinds of ideas about national 
health care and so on. But then he 
had to face the reality that we had 
made it impossible. He then got 
on with our program, and that's 
when we saw cuts to welfare and 
a loosening of environmental regu- 
lations. The same thing will hap- 
pen this time around, you'll see," 
said Luntz, before adding, with a 
chuckle, "unless by some miracle 
the left can get organized." 

When asked whether two con- 
secutive Obama terms would 
make a difference, Luntz croaked 



with disdain, "He'd need about 
five terms to unravel the advances 
we've made. Maybe more." 

What if the left were able to build 
a popular movement demanding 
progressive change? "That's the 
wild card we've got to deal with. 
If the public pressure is there, 
it's true, liberal change might be 
achieved. But I'm not banking on 
it." 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 
while agreeing with Luntz on the 
obstacles to progressive change, 
offered a more hopeful take on 
the future. "I'd ask you to remem- 
ber John F. Kennedy's inaugural 
speech. After urging us to strive to- 
gether to create world peace, and 
to eradicate disease and poverty, 
Kennedy concluded his speech: 
'All this will not be finished in the 
first one hundred days. Nor will it 
be finished in the first one thou- 
sand days, nor in the life of this 
Administration, nor even perhaps 
in our lifetime on this planet. But 
let us begin.' Now that's a pro- 
gram." 

"1 do believe," Pelosi continued, 
"that we have what it takes to suc- 
ceed in restoring a humane and 
ecological way of life within our 
lifetime. And while we may not not 
see this realized within Obama's 
term as president, nor even within 
two terms, 1 do believe that given 
a couple of decades of committed 
struggle, we can and will repair the 
damage that previous administra- 
tions have done to our country." 

"So," she said with a smile, "let 
us begin." 



All Public 
Universities 
To Be Free 

By MARY K. RAWLINGS 

A bill to eliminate tuition at pub- 
lic universities is making its way 
through Congress and is expected 
to pass within days. 

As tuition has climbed in past 
decades, federal aid programs 
have been unable to keep up. The 
current bill, inspired by the City 
University of New York's 1970s-era 
free-tuition policies for New York 
residents, is intended to help level 
the playing field. 

"The United States has become 
a nation of educational haves and 
have-nots," said Adolph Reed, 
Jr., Professor of Political Science 
at the New School for Social Re- 
search. "Tuition costs are skyrock- 
eting while real incomes have re- 
mained stagnant." 

One trend the bill will correct is 
the flocking of university gradu- 
ates to jobs paying salaries needed 
to reimburse debts. "Are schools 
a selection mechanism for Wall 
Street?" asked Professor Howard 
Gardner. Some speculate that high 
tuition has helped fuel the drive to 
enormous profits that has proven 
so dangerous to society. 

Students have responded posi- 
tively. "I'm really worried," said 
Patricia Kathen, a high school se- 
nior in Edgewater, New Jersey. "1 
thought this meant 1 could get in 
more easily. But admissions poli- 
cies won't change, and my grades 
kind of blow." 

"At least if 1 do get in, I'll be able 
to afford it," she added. 



Pentagon Ends 
Secret Budget 

By TREVOR LENPAG 

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon 
announced today that it would elim- 
inate more than $60 billion worth 
of secret programs that have taken 
over an increasing share of the de- 
fense budget over the last 30 years. 

"There is no place, in a democ- 
racy, for massive programs hidden 
out of sight of the public eye," said 
Pentagon spokesperson Jackson 
Burke. "The Founding Fathers un- 
derstood that sunlight is the best 
disinfectant, which is why they 
wrote the receipts and expendi- 
tures clause into the Constitution." 
Burke was referring to Article 1 
Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, 
which states that Congress must 
publish a full accounting of gov- 
ernment expenditures. The Penta- 
gon's black budget has long been 
controversial for its apparent vio- 
lation of Article 1 Section 9. 

"We have carefully reviewed all 
of the programs contained in the 
black budget," said Mr. Burke. 
Some of them we have made 
public, and we have canceled the 
remainder." Canceled programs 
include the C.l.A.'s controversial 
"extraordinary rendition" program 
and the N.S.A.'s domestic surveil- 
lance program. 

Asked about the national secu- 
rity consequence of eliminating 
classified programs, Burke said, 
"Democracies can only function 
properly when there is maximum 
transparency. Sacrificing our de- 
mocracy in the name of national 
security is the ultimate threat to 
the principles that this country 
was founded on." 



American Evangelical Churches Announce New Policy of Sanctuary for Iraqi Refugees 



By W. WILBERFORCE 

ELLIS ISLAND — In a scripture-laced ad- 
dress yesterday afternoon. Reverend Rich 
Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Af- 
fairs for the National Association of Evan- 
gelicals, announced a sweeping new initia- 
tive to house displaced Iraqi refugees of 
all faiths in the largest church facilities in 
the U.S., and among parisiners. The cam- 
paign, called "Operation Redemption," 
is expected to kick off a wave of similar 
programs among other religious denomi- 
nations. 

"Do not forget to entertain strangers," 
said Rev. Cizik, citing the Bible verse He- 
brews 13:2 to a crowd of several hundred, 
"for by so doing some people have enter- 
tained angels without knowing it." Flanked 
by pastors from some of the nation's 
largest evangelic congregations, Cizik 
laid out details of the ambitious plans to 
reporters during a ceremony at the base 



Follov^ing a Biblical 
command to hospitality 



of Ellis Island, off lower Manhattan. Cizik 
was joined by the pastor of a large Jersey 
City Iraqi Chaldean Christian congrega- 
tion. Rabbi David M. Posner of New York's 
Temple Emanu-El, and Imam Mohammad 
Shamsi Ali, leader of the Islamic Cultural 
Center, New York's largest mosque. 

"The Federal government has moved 
with painful sloth to succor the two mil- 
lion Iraqis cast into exile because of 
our warfare," said Cizik, as he showed a 
graph displaying the distribution of Iraqi 
refugees throughout the Middle East. 
"Peace will let many return, yet the road 
to rebuild is a long one. It is for all these 
reasons that we announce a coordinated 
policy of sanctuary and asylum for Iraqi 
families of all faiths desiring to relocate to 



The Iraqi Migration 




114k 


239k 


340k 




560k 
1 




768k 
1 


Iraqi Refugee Population* 
2 million total 


2-5% 


5-10% 




10-12% 




13-22% 




23-45% 



* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimate 



THE NEW YORK TIMES 



the homeland." 

Before the question and answer period, 
the press corps was treated to a perfor- 
mance by the Boys Choir of Harlem, who 
sang "Amazing Grace" and "Go Down Mo- 
ses" while holding the American and Iraqi 
flags side by side, with a model of a single 
white dove in the middle. Angelina Jolie, 
a goodwill ambassador to the United Na- 
tions High Commissioner on Refugees, 



gave a brief address via telecast applaud- 
ing the Association's commitment, and 
thanking them for doing what she called 
"God's work." 

Although the Iraq refugee crisis has 
been dramatically underreported, includ- 
ing by the Times, it is called the largest 
refugee crisis in the world according to 
Refugees International, and is at least four 
times larger than that which resulted in 



the Palestinian diaspora in 1948. Beyond 
the more than two million Iraqis who fled 
to neighboring countries following the 
U.S. invasion in March of 2003, another 2.5 
million have been displaced within Iraq. 

The National Association of Evangeli- 
cals is the first major U.S. religious associ- 
ation to announce such a sweeping policy 
of material assistance for Iraqi refugees 
following the announcement of the U.S. 



withdrawal. 

"Needless to say, we were shocked and 
surprised, but pleasantly so," said Antonio 
Guterres, United Nations High Commis- 
sioner for Refugees. "The international 
community has long been frustrated by 
the U.S. government's unwillingness to 
accept a greater portion of refugees from 
this conflict of its own making. We hope 
this unprecedented commitment by one 
of America's largest church groups will 
speed up the healing process that is des- 
perately needed to sustain peace." 

Details of the initiative were outlined by 
Reverend Cizik, who said the Association 
would be committing over $700 million to- 
wards the campaign. The organization has 
asked members to increase the share of 
income they regularly give as "tithings" to 
the church from 10 percent to 15 percent 
to cover the costs of feeding, housing, and 
providing services to an estimated one 
million newly arrived Iraqi immigrants. 

A number of large congregations have 
signed up under a "sister-city" framework 
in which they will feed, house, and pro- 
vide job support and English classes for 
up to 1,000 families from a given Iraqi city. 
Left-leaning churches first forged sister- 
city relationships with towns, cities, and 
churches in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and 
Guatemala, during the brutal Central 
American civil wars of the 1980s that 
pushed millions of political and economic 
refugees to relocate to the United States. 
This is the first known example of Evan- 
gelical churches adopting the model. 

"Our church is going to have a lot of 
families from Karbala," said Melanie 
Snickles, 17, of Bayside, Queens. "1 didn't 
really know where that was until our pas- 
tor showed us all on a map, but 1 think it's 
going to be pretty cool. 1 already have a 
pen pal, a girl my age. Her name is Nour, 
and she lives with her family in Damascus. 
They're going to stay at our church recre- 
ation center until we find them an apart- 
ment." 



A8 



THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



Biofuels Ban Act Signed Into Law, Seeks to Ease Food Shortage 



By WILLIAM PETTY 

WASHINGTON — In a dizzying 
about-face, the White House an- 
nounced that the president will 
be signing the Ban Biofuels Act 
tomorrow. 

The controversial legislation 
was pushed through Congress by 
newly elected Democrats unchar- 
acteristically willing to stand up to 
big agribusiness, bolstered by in- 
tense public pressure in part due 
to the efforts of international orga- 
nizations like Friends of the Earth, 
Greenpeace and the Rainforest Ac- 
tion Network. 

The shift was cheered by envi- 
ronmental activists as well as av- 
erage Americans worn down by 
the steep rise in food prices. "Veg- 
etable oil and corn are for feeding 
people, not cars," said Elizabeth 
Johnson, a hospital worker and 
mother of three, at yesterday's 
demonstration outside Capitol 
Hill. "There was only so much 
more we could keep paying." 

Six nationwide protests over the 
last four months had prepared the 
terrain for the bill's success, ac- 
cording to Andrew Kohut of the 
Pew Research Center, who said 
that national polls indicate a sharp 
decrease in public approval of bio- 
fuels and increased concern about 
global warming. "The public sees 
the use of biofuels as profoundly 
irresponsible both environmen- 
tally and socially," Kohut said. 

He added that recent investiga- 
tive reporting on the effects of bio- 
fuels, including one piece in the 
New York Times and several on 
C.N.N., had been key in sparking 
public outrage. "Television and 
print journalism haven't done this 
type of reporting for years," Kohut 
said. "We found that when people 
weren't barraged with disinfor- 
mation, they developed a much 
sharper analysis of the situation." 




ers sent a memo announcing they 
would refuse all future campaign 
contributions from the powerful 
firms. 

Today the stock of both corpo- 
rations registered their sharpest 
single-day drop on record at the 
Dow. Neither company would re- 
turn calls for comment. 

International response has been 
mixed. "I must admit, no one saw 
this coming," said a World Bank 
official who spoke on condition of 
anonymity. "We've all known there 
were big problems with our subsi- 
dies for biofuel crops in develop- 
ing countries, especially as they 
encroached on other crops, and 
on native ecosystems. We were 
examining that. We just never ex- 
pected to be pushed on it by U.S. 
officials." 

Analysts at the World Bank pre- 
dict that the legislation will have 
a ripple effect, eventually easing 
pressure on the remaining rainfor- 
ests. 



Food riots highlight a 
need for real solutions 



JIM MEDIA 

Acres of corn now to be used for feeding people, rather than being converted to car and truck fuel. 



In addition to turning off the 
tap on plant-based petrol, the 
Ban Biofuels Act sets out an ambi- 
tious plan of shifting over $10 bil- 
lion in annual direct and indirect 
subsidies from oil companies to 
the construction of wind farms in 
rural areas of Texas, Kansas and 
Wyoming. 

"One of the great things about 
the act is that it mandates the 
building of transmission lines, 
which has been a big infrastructur- 
al hurdle to getting renewable en- 
ergy on track in the United States," 



said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 
at a press conference yesterday. 
In acknowledging her failure in the 
past to support alternative fuels in 
a meaningful way, Pelosi credited 
activists for her increased under- 
standing of the need for renewable 
energy. 

Delivering yet another jolt to 
Republicans, House Democrats 
tacked onto the act a manda- 
tory transition of cropland from 
chemical-intensive "conventional" 
farming to chemical-free organic 
cultivation on all acreage that re- 



ceives subsidy payments from the 
federal government. "We've been 
getting a lot of heat from our con- 
stituents on this issue," explained 
Rep. Daniel Seals, Democrat of Illi- 
nois. "We had to do something and 
now was the time." 

Top executives from Cargill and 
Archer Daniels Midland rushed to 
the Capitol late last night for an 
emergency closed-door session 
with the vice president. Accord- 
ing to an aide who attended the 
meeting, negotiations quickly un- 
raveled when congressional lead- 



"If the demand for biofuels 
drops, then there's far less incen- 
tive to clear-cut native forests," 
explained a spokesperson from 
Friends of the Earth Indonesia, 
also known as Walhi. "This is what 
the people in the rainforest have 
been fighting for for years." 

The spokesperson added that 
the struggle would not be over 
until similar controls are imple- 
mented by governments around 
the globe. "Ecological destruction 
is a systemic problem, it's not just 
one company or one place. The 
only way we'll have real justice is 
if those who prosper from exploi- 
tation have nowhere else to go, 
and have to go somewhere else." 



Congress Returns Civics 
to High School Curriculum 

Part of Broader Agenda to Restore United States Constitution 



By JOSEPH BRISTELLO 

WASHINGTON — Wild applause 
broke out at the Parent Teach- 
er Association national offices 
early this morning when several 
congressional spokespeople an- 
nounced a funding appropriation 
to return the subject of civics to 
high school curricula nationwide. 

The initiative is emblematic of 
the new bipartisan agenda to re- 
store the United States Constitu- 
tion to its pre-Bush-era status. In 
a joint statement. Senators Harry 
Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and 
Mitch McConnell, Republican of 
Kentucky, proclaimed that the ini- 
tiative proves the two parties can 
work together on an issue of tre- 
mendous national importance. 

The announcement came follow- 
ing a coordinated series of school 
strikes organized by parents out- 
raged over a recent study by the 
National Opinion Research Center. 
The findings revealed a profound 
ignorance of government struc- 
ture and citizens' rights by gradu- 
ating high school seniors. 

Some of the false, but widely 
held, opinions and beliefs high- 



lighted in this cross-country study 
included: the legislative and ju- 
dicial branches of government 
are subordinate to the executive 
branch; the president has the 
power to interpret treaties; the 
president is not bound by law; the 
vice president is independent of 
all three branches of government; 
torture is not a punishment and 
therefore cannot be considered 
"cruel and unusual"; in matters 
of national security, no warrants 
need be acquired by law enforce- 
ment. 

The study noted that many 
students' political consciousness 
dated back only three years — in 
other words, their awareness of 
constitutional rights had been 
entirely formed during the Bush 
administration. 

The study also found that stu- 
dents were growing incapable 
of differentiating between living 
figures, historical figures, and 
corporate-licensed figures such as 
cartoon characters and Internet 
avatars. 

The revived civics courses will 
teach students about the struc- 




JUDAS ORTIZ 

In an American History classroom in San Antonio, Texas, students 
learn about the Bill of Rights. 



ture and function of each branch 
of government; the theory of 
checks and balances; theories of 
the role of government; and of the 
role of the public in government; 
and constitutional law 
"We have so much work in front 



of us," said Los Angeles area high 
school teacher Roberta Morales. 
"Trying to instill in students a 
sense of citizenry and the public 
good and undo so many self-cen- 
tered individualistic messages will 
take tremendous effort." 



Labor Dept 
Launches 

Job Creation 
Program 

By ROBERT OWEN 

WASHINGTON — The Depart- 
ment of Labor is scrambling to 
propose new standards that will 
affect every American worker. 
"This job report is a blueprint for 
job creation and economic stabil- 
ity," said Secretary of Labor David 
Bonior, who worked closely with 
unions like the S.E.I.U. and UNITE 
in crafting the standards. 

By reducing the work week by 
five hours, to 35 hours per week, 
Bonior anticipates a 12 percent 
increase in new hires, particularly 
in the burgeoning sustainable en- 
ergy sector. But new jobs aren't 
the only benefit. Coupled with the 
mandatory six-week paid vaca- 
tions each year, worker health and 
satisfaction among U.S. workers 
will be on a par with those in West- 
ern Europe, according to Bonior. 

Other new employment laws 
currently being developed will 
guarantee workers rights to equal 
protection when in dispute with 
employers. This includes giving 
workers full freedom to unionize 
unimpeded by employers. 



TORTURE, 
RENDITION 
"NOT SUCH 
GOOD IDEAS 
AFTER ALL" 

By DIEGO TAVERA 

WASHINGTON — In response to 
36 million handwritten letters, the 
president made a formal apology 
today to Canadian citizen and ex- 
traordinary rendition victim Ma- 
her Arar and presented him with 
the Presidential Medal of Free- 
dom. 

Mr. Arar was a software engineer 
changing planes at J.F.K. Airport 
on his way home to Canada from 
a family vacation when he was 
detained, kept from counsel, and 
sent to Syria for a year of torture 
and interrogation. 

The letters in support of Mr. 
Arar were part of a campaign or- 
ganized by a coalition of human 
rights groups including Witness 
Against Torture, Amnesty Inter- 
national, the Center for Constitu- 
tional Rights, and MoveOn.org. 
His case has come to represent 
some of the worst excesses of the 
previous administration's national 
security policies. 

The context for the apology is 
the White House's new Truth and 
Prosecution Program, which has 
exposed and reversed policy on 
secret C.I.A. interrogation and tor- 
ture centers worldwide, warrant- 
less wiretapping, illegal infiltration 
of activist meetings (and Quaker 
quilting bees), and extraordinary 
rendition, the extrajudicial trans- 
fer of suspected terrorists to coun- 
tries known to torture prisoners. 

The program works to assist the 
Attorney General's criminal pros- 
ecutions of former Bush admin- 
istration officials for their role in 
torture policy and taking the coun- 
try to war under false pretenses. 

In a prepared statement. White 
House Press Secretary Samantha 
Bee said, "We will not condone 
torture, nor outsource torture. 
Maher Arar can never regain that 
year of his life, when our country 
sent him to be tortured in Syria, 
but the Medal of Freedom at least 
recognizes his heroic fight to as- 
sure that what happened to him 
will never again happen to anyone 
else." Bee also noted that the U.S. 
is matching Canada's $10 million 
compensation to Mr. Arar for his 
ordeal, "but in real money." 

In a tearful interview on ABC's 
daytime talk show "The View" ear- 
lier this week, former Secretary 
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, cur- 
rently awaiting trial, told Elisabeth 
Hasselbeck that he hoped the 
world would not remember him as 
the man who brought torture out 
of the dungeon and into the Ex- 
ecutive branch. "Maybe the whole 
torture thing wasn't such a good 
idea after all," he said. "I just hope 
people also remember my way 
with words, and peer through that 
to the essence, where I am also a, 
at least some kind of, father." 



What do you think? 

Send your feedback, or leave 

comments online at our website: 

nytimes-se.com 



USA Patriot 
Act Repealed 

By SYBIL LUDINGTON 

Eight years after being enacted, 
and three years after being reau- 
thorized, the controversial USA 
Patriot Act was repealed by Con- 
gress by a vote of 99 to 1 in the 
Senate and 520 to 18 in the House. 

No fanfare greeted the repeal in 
either house. Absent were the 40- 
minute speeches and foam-core 
charts predicting Armageddon. 
The act was repealed with a sim- 
ple vote cast late in the day by a 
Congress ashamed of what it had 
done and what the Act had meant 
for Americans. 

In related news. Congress yes- 
terday repealed the Animal Enter- 
prise Terrorism Act and agreed to 



Popular ''America's Army^' Video GamCy Recruiting Tool Cancelled 



An obvious error, 
quietly buried. 



permanently shelve the Violent 
Radicalization and Homegrown 
Terrorism Prevention Act. "These 
acts were worded in such a way 
that they could be interpreted to 
equate political dissent with ter- 
rorism. In any case none of these 
bills did a thing to protect Ameri- 
cans," said Speaker of the House 
Nancy Pelosi. 

Most past supporters of the act 
refused comment, but Senator Jon 
Kyi (R-AR) explained his lone vote 
to retain the Act: "I wish I could 
say I was as principled as Russ 
Feingold [the only Senator who 
opposed the Patriot Act in 2001], 
but the truth is that I had too 
much wine at lunch, hit the wrong 
button, and then was too inebri- 
ated to notice. I hope my constitu- 
ents, who overwhelmingly wanted 
me to vote for the bill's repeal, will 
forgive me." 



New Game 

Will Recruit Young 

Diplomats 

By WILFRED SASSOON 

WASHINGTON — The Depart- 
ment of Defense announced 
yesterday the cancellation of its 
highly successful and popular 
"America's Army" online game and 
recruitment tool. The program has 
already been converted into a new 
game, operated by the State De- 
partment, entitled "America's Dip- 
lomat." State Department spokes- 
person Donald Demsfold called 
this "a pretty good step towards 
nurturing a generation committed 
to the principles of diplomacy and 
peaceful negotiation." 

America's Army was an online 
game designed by the Army to at- 
tract young recruits via simulated 
combat missions, many of which 
were modeled on actual battle- 
fields in the Middle East. 

During its use as a recruitment 
tool, America's Army consistently 
ranked among the top 20 Internet- 
based games. First launched in 
July of 2002 at a cost of $10 million 
dollars, America's Army's annual 
support budget was estimated at 
$1.5 million. 

The cancellation of the game 
comes as part of the elimination 
of the Army's entire $583 million 
recruiting budget. 

Early versions of the game were 
only moderately successful with 
young people, but the more subtle 
game is expected to inspire longer- 
term dedication. "I've never expe- 
rienced such an exciting simula- 
tion of international negotiations," 
Greg Hauser, 14, told the press. 
Hauser is president of the Eastern 
High School debate club. 



The State Department has high 
hopes for America's Diplomat, 
given its predecessor's highly suc- 
cessful history. In 2005, 40 percent 
of all recruits surveyed had played 
America's Army game prior to en- 
listing. As the game's popularity 
grew, and after dozens of new re- 
leases, the America's Army brand 
expanded to include console and 
cell-phone games, T-shirts, and the 
Real Heroes program, a section of 
the America's Army website that 
highlighted actual soldiers in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, and even recre- 
ated them as action figures. 

The avowed purpose of Amer- 
ica's Diplomat is to encourage 
young people to consider careers 
in the diplomatic corps, and to 
present non-military alternatives 
in a positive light. Where the abil- 
ity to aggressively attack and kill 
opponents spelled success in 
America's Army, America's Dip- 
lomat stresses situations that de- 
mand negotiation, dialogue and 
peaceful outcomes. 

Reactions from gamers have 
been intense as those attempt- 
ing to access the America's Army 
website have been redirected to 
the new America's Diplomat site. 

Lenny Purvill, a 16-year-oId 
player, noted an initial disappoint- 
ment in finding his favorite online 
game replaced. "I liked to pretend I 
was in the army going on missions 
in Iraq. And blowing stuff up was 
fun," he told the press. Purvill, who 
has been playing the game since 
he was 13, had been considering 
signing up when he turned 18. 

His initial disappointment, how- 
ever, was replaced by fascination 
as he facilitated a peaceful negotia- 
tions between Sunni and Shiite mi- 
litiamen. "It was like, are they gon- 
na shoot each other? No! They're 
not! 'Cause I'm helping them settle 



their differences with diplomacy. 
It's so awesome," he said. 

Purvill also said he excitedly 
anticipates the expansion of the 
game in the coming months. This 
is expected to include new mis- 
sion updates such as "United Na- 
tions," "Peace Corps," "Swords to 
Plowshares" and "Gandhi's Hun- 
gerStrike!" 

Demsfold acknowledged that 



the game represents a major shift 
in focus. "The next generation of 
government game-playing kids 
may not be able to kill very well, 
but they'll be able to practice di- 
plomacy. That's what our national 
security calls for." 

Defense Secretary Scott Ritter 
acknowledged that national secu- 
rity could benefit from the new 
game. "One of the most important 



lessons of the wars in Iraq and Af- 
ghanistan is that military success 
is not sufficient to win," he noted. 
Unlike its predecessor, America's 
Diplomat has been pronounced 
suitable for children of any age by 
the Entertainment Software Rating 
Board. 

America 's Diplomat is available 
online: americasdiplomat.com 




COURTESY OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT 

In the discontinued "America's Army" video game/recruiting tool, players stormed villages. 



THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



A9 



High-Speed Internet Hits Fast Track to Appalachia 







'^^^'^^^ 



WILLIAM KNOXCRUFT 

High-speed lines connect rural counties across the U.S. with the rest 
of the world at no cost to the user. 



By B. VANNEVAR 

WASHINGTON — The Internet 
Freedom Preservation Act has 
passed both houses of Congress, 
thanks in part to overwhelming 
and well-organized support of 
millions of Internet users. The act 
will ensure "net neutrality" — i.e., 
that all users have equal access to 
the Internet and that large corpo- 
rations like Time Warner, AT&T, 
Comcast, and Verizon can no lon- 
ger act as gatekeepers, determin- 
ing which sites go fast and which 
slow. 

The act also includes provisions 
to eliminate billions of dollars in 
subsidies and tax breaks for tele- 
communication corporations, 
and to use the proceeds to build 
a fiber-optic network providing 
free high-speed Internet service 
to even the most remote towns 
throughout the United States. This 
new network is expected to bring 
the U.S. up to speed with coun- 
tries like Japan, France, and Korea, 
which have had extensive fiber- 



optic networks for years. The im- 
proved access for all communities 
is expected to help narrow educa- 
tion and socioeconomic gaps. 

In the late 1970s, the Supreme 
Court ruled that companies pro- 
viding communication services 
shouldn't interfere with smaller 
users. Two years ago, that deci- 
sion was reversed and the largest 
telecommunications companies 
effectively became the gatekeep- 
ers of the Internet. The Internet 
Freedom Preservation Act guaran- 
tees that these companies can no 
longer decide which Web sites on 
their networks go fast or slow and 
which won't load at all. 

"This law is a huge step forward 
for not only technology, but for the 
sharing of ideas," said free speech 
advocate Lawrence Lessig, who 
is head of the new Network Com- 
munications Bureau, which will be 
charged with protecting the net- 
work against all surveillance in- 
cluding that of other government 
agencies. 



Pharmaceutical Law Revised to End Corruption 



By JASON BREMARSA 

Revisions in the Physician Pay- 
ments Sunshine Act (S.2029) will 
now make it a Class D federal fel- 
ony for physicians to accept more 
than $25 annually in gifts or other 
rewards from pharmaceutical 
companies or biological product 
and medical device manufactur- 
ers. 

The revised bill, introduced last 
fall by Senators Chuck Grassley, 
Republican of Iowa, and Herb 
Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, 
requires full disclosure of gifts, 
through a Department of Health 
and Human Services online sys- 
tem, by both companies and indi- 
vidual physicians, and it revokes 
caps on non-disclosure penalties 
for companies. 

The legislation targets offending 
individual physicians, hospitals, 
schools, and other medical in- 
stitutions that deal directly with 
patients. It also makes it a federal 
offense for medical industries to 
circumvent customary gift-giving 
practices through third parties, 
such as lawyers and insurance 
companies, or via "educational" 
events. 

It reverses earlier legislation 
that would have preempted more 
stringent physician sunshine laws 
passed by the states. The previous 
version of the law limited penal- 
ties to $10,000 for non-disclosure, 
and $100,000 for companies that 
"knowingly" fail to disclose gifts 
to physicians. The new bill estab- 
lishes a lower limit for fines, but 
not an upper limit, and requires 
that that penalties take into ac- 




complimentary pens, coffee mugs, 
and other product-related para- 
phernalia into doctors' offices. 

"What we really need is a sea 
change in the medical profes- 
sion wherein physicians realize 
that it isn't O.K. to get gifts or fill 
our offices with advertisements 
for products. It demeans patient 
care," says Mount Sinai School 
of Medicine professor Dr. Joseph 
Ross. While programs like the Pre- 



count histories of gift-giving, prod- 
uct specifics and histories, overall 
corporate revenue, and other vari- 
ables, before appropriate fines can 
be assessed. 

Patients' rights and medical eth- 
ics groups, like the New England 
Medical Ethics Commission in 
Boston, are exultant. "It's not like 
the A.M.A. or [pharmaceutical 
trade association] PhRMA were 
ever going to comply with their 



CAVUTTO/THE NEW YORK TIMES 

own stated standards," says Patty 
Williams, Director of Communica- 
tions for the commission. Williams 
is referring to the American Medi- 
cal Association's 1991 guidelines 
on gifts to physicians from indus- 
try, which stemmed a tide of bla- 
tant gift-giving in the 1980s, but 
have been criticized for allowing 
new bj^ways for abuse: free lunch- 
es and dinners, travel and hono- 
raria, and the hemorrhaging of 



A series of tiny bribes 
corrupts a profession. 



scription Project, which scrutinize 
pharmaceutical company informa- 
tion and sales practices, have been 
in place for several years in states 
like Massachusetts and Pennsyl- 
vania, their effect is limited by the 
willingness of doctors to abide by 
ethical standards. 

"This will definitely make it a 
lot harder for us to get our prod- 
ucts to customers," says Samp- 
son Browning, spokesperson for 
Eli Lilly, which anticipates large 
losses of revenue due to the new 
legislation. 

"1 haven't paid for lunch since 
last February, and 1 think 1 ate at 
home that day," says Dr. Bruce 
Arbogast, Director of Pine Grove 
Medical Center in Chicago. "Do 
the math. Do you think 1 can af- 
ford to say no when the drug reps 
knock on my door?" From now on, 
doctors will have to, or risk up to 
ten years imprisonment. 



Education Department Plans 
National Tax Base for Schools 



Takes Cue from Ohio 
and 23 Other States 

By M.M. BETHUNE 

Twenty-three states have an- 
nounced plans to fund primary 
and secondary education on a 
statewide tax basis instead of per 
county, following the lead of a 
landmark decision in Ohio. 

Ohio's S.B. 320 follows the Ohio 
Supreme Court ruling that fund- 
ing schools from local property 
taxes and private initiatives does 
not comply with the Ohio Consti- 
tution's guarantee of a "thorough 
and efficient" public education 
system. The new statewide system 
means that resources are more 
equitably distributed, with inner- 
city schools receiving the same 
amount as suburban ones. 

The Ohio decision began with 
Governor Ted Strickland's 2006 
campaign promise to assure 
that "where you grow up in Ohio 




AMNIA LENDUND 



should not determine where you 
end up in life." Hundreds of grass- 
roots campaigns throughout the 
state, including The Ohio Coali- 
tion For Equity and Adequacy of 
School Funding, took the cue from 
Mr. Strickland's statement and 
spent the last two years working 
hard to hold him to it. 

"Finally, this is a real step to- 
wards the equality our Constitu- 
tion recommends," says Amanda 
Fullerton, of Columbus. Ms. Ful- 
lerton, a mother of two, voted for 
Mr. Strickland because of his long 
history of support for educational 
reform, but was soon disappoint- 
ed by the governor's inaction in 
office. When she first heard about 
the proposed bill in the Ohio 
Senate, Ms. Fullerton decided to 
occupy the Governor's office to 
demonstrate how important she 
felt the bill was. Over two hundred 
mothers soon joined her, camping 
out for six days. Many observers 
feel that actions like the mothers' 
played a key role in convincing 
Governor Strickland to push hard 
for the bill. 

Following the announcements 
of twenty-three states that they 
would be voting on similar bills, 
the U.S. Department of Educa- 
tion said it would be developing 
a plan for a national tax base for 
schools, to finally assure that as in 
most other developed countries, a 
child's opportunities to learn will 
not depend on his or her birth- 
place. 



Prison Industry Looks Within 

By ELIZABETH FRY 

An experimental new program 
spearheaded by the Department 
of Justice and the Department of 
Corrections will place federal and 
state lawmakers, criminal court 
prosecutors and judges, wardens, 
and guards in five randomly-cho- 
sen prisons for a period of three 
days per year. 

The National Prison Rehabilita- 
tion Program aims to give those 
in the prison-industrial complex 



Giving those with power 
a chance to reflect. 




the experience of those they con- 
demn, and the time and space to 
discuss ideas for reform. It lever- 
ages empathy to reduce the incar- 
ceration rate in the U.S., the high- 
est in the world by far. 

"It's part sentence, part all-ex- 
penses-paid meditation retreat," 
said Department of Corrections 



JOHN HOWARD 

head Tom Hayden. The confer- 
ence-like structure will feature 
keynote speakers and breakout 
discussions. "Once we get some 
of these players together in these 
facilities, 1 think it's pretty certain 
that great things will happen." 



Bush Resumes Golf Game 



By JAMES BRAID 

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Former 
U.S. President George W Bush re- 
turned to the fairway this week, af- 
ter previously giving up the game 
out of respect for the families of 
U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict 
in Iraq in 2003. 

"1 saw him polishing his clubs 
last week," stated a White House 
security agent, who wished to re- 
main anonymous. "Of course, we 
all assumed he was just sneaking 
out to play like he usually does." 

In an interview with Yahoo! News 
and Politico in 2003, Bush resolved 
to refrain from his leisure pursuit 
out of solidarity with the families 
of soldiers in Iraq. "1 think playing 
golf during a war just sends the 
wrong signal," he said. 

"1 don't want some mom whose 
son may have recently died to see 
the Commander-in-Chief playing 
golf." 

The U.S. President claims to have 
renounced the game during the 
August 19, 2003 bombing of the 
United Nations headquarters in 
Baghdad, in which Sergio Vieira de 
Mello, the world body's top official 
in Iraq, was killed. 

"1 remember when de Mello got 
killed in Baghdad as a result of 
these murderers who were taking 
this good man's life." The tragedy 
forced Bush off the fairway at the 
12th hole, and home to his ranch 



in Crawford, Texas. 

Meticulous records kept by CBS 
News, however, trace the Presi- 
dent's last official round of golf to 
October 13, 2003. 

One source close to the Presi- 
dent's caddy claimed that Bush's 
dismal score at that last game did, 
in fact, come out of solidarity with 




troops stationed in Iraq. "It's like, 
they're having a hard time, he was 
having a hard time.... At some 
point, 1 think he was just like, 'I've 
been out here for, like, six hours. 
1 was sure 1 was gonna win at 
the 2nd hole. When is this gonna 
end?'" 

Bush assured The Times that the 
game will not interfere with his 
continued search for Osama bin 
Laden. 



An Exclusive Interview with Former President Bush 



Former President George W. 

Bush gave his first post-indictment 
interview yesterday to Scott Pelley 

of 60 Minutes. Tlie interview, con- 
ducted at Busli's Crawford, Texas 
rancli is sclieduled to air Sunday 
evening. 60 Minutes lias provided 
tlie Times with excerpts of their dis- 
cussion. 

PELLEY: It's been several 
months since you left the White 
House, and although you've con- 
demned the war in Iraq, and your 
own role in leading us to it, you've 
also made clear you have some 
business you'd like to finish. What 
do you have planned for the next 
year? 

BUSH: First, Scott, let me tell 
you where I'm at. I've had more 
time to look at the big picture since 
I left office. Abu Ghraib was a mis- 
take. Using posturing language like 
"mission accomplished" and "bring 
it on" was a mistake. Troop levels 
may have been a mistake. Getting 
us in there in the first place was ob- 
viously a big mistake. I think history 
is going to look back and see a lot 
of ways we could have done things 
better, no question about it, all the 
way from day one to day now. 

But the reason I bring all this up is 
mainly that I don't want people out 
there blaming the folks in the mili- 
tary for what's happened in Iraq. If 
regular American people need a 
scapegoat, well they can look no 



further. I'm your scapegoat, right 
here, made to order. Me. 

Of course that doesn't stop me 
from picking up firewood! (Laugh- 
ter.) 

PELLEY: Mr. President, what 
are your plans now, besides being 
a scapegoat? 

BUSH: Well, just because I'm 
not in that Oval Office, doesn't 
mean I can just sit down. I started 
out with a plan, and my obligation 
to this country is to fill out that plan, 
fulfill it. 

PELLEY: So you will be... 

BUSH: I'm going to pursue Osa- 
ma Bin Laden. 

PELLEY: I'm sorry? 

BUSH: I'm going on my own 
search for Osama bin Laden to 
bring a killer to justice. I have set 
up a $500,000 reward, of my own 
money, for tips. Laura helped me 
set up a toll-free hot line to field 
those tips. 

Near the beginning of my terms, 
my nation was attacked by Saudi 
Arabian terrorists. So I started a 
hunt for Osama bin Laden and 
the Taliban in Afghanistan. We got 
the Taliban, we didn't get the main 
man. Then, Iraq. 

I'm going to finish the job. It's not 
just the good thing to do, it's the 
need to do it thing. And that's what 
I'm going to do. 

PELLEY: Why didn't you do this 
during your terms as President? 



BUSH: Scott, Osama bin Laden, 
he's our enemy. Make no mistake, 
he's our enemy, and he's not down. 
And we have not really pursued 
him. I wouldn't say that I didn't do 
anything. But sometimes what you 
want to do, or think you might do, is 
not really all there is, and you even- 
tually see that. 

We did remove Osama bin Lad- 
en's enemy, Saddam Hussein. I'm 
proud of our servicemen and wom- 
en who did that. Maybe I wouldn't 
do that today, but that's what I did 
back then. And now here I am. 

But what's important is that we 
made mistakes, and one thing 
when you make mistakes is you 
can't undo them. And now I'm not 
undoing them, I'm doing the only 
right thing for right now. 

PELLEY: Sir, forgive me, but 
many people will say that you're 
not equipped for this. Your health 
— this isn't a one-man job. 

BUSH: A lot of people thought 
I wasn't equipped to be President 
either. (Laughs.) But really, once I 
make up my mind, I need to follow 
through and give it my best shot. 

See this, Scott? This is the same 
rifle we issue to our Marine marks- 
men. I've been training with this 
for the past 6 months here on the 
ranch. I'm ready for this. We can 
shoot some cans later, if you need 
any proof. (Laughs.) 

PELLEY: Pardon me, sir, but I 



just find it incredible that you are 
personally going to hunt Osama 
bin Laden. I mean, jail... 

BUSH: Well, "personally" is an 
awfully big word here, Scott. A 
business organization has a lot 
of members, we have a lot of re- 
sources. Over the last eight years, 
private-sector fighting organiza- 
tions have developed in a way I am 
amazed to see. 

So obviously I'm not going to do 
it alone. But I'm going to have the 
time and also the resources, and 
the freedom, to do what I want to 
do, which is finish the search for 
Osama bin Laden. We will have 
resources that I never had as presi- 
dent. When you're commander in 
chief there are laws,there's limita- 
tions and diplomacy you have to 
work within. Now I'll have more 
freedom, frankly, even in jail. 

The presidency isn't a popularity 
contest. I had to make tough deci- 
sions. But I was the president when 
this war happened. I want to be the 
one to bring closure for the Ameri- 
can people. 

Maybe you can think of it as a 
second career, or a retirement, but 
I'm going to have more time on my 
hands. And what I will do is shoul- 
der this burden, and do this work 
that has not been done, myself. I 
will spend whatever time needs to 
be spent to hunt that killer, I will find 
him, and I will bring him to justice. 




AlO 



SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



Business 



®tre JfeUr Ijcrrk ®lmei5 



Public Relations Industry Forecasts a Series of Massive Layoffs 



By LOUIS BECK 

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Public 
relations firms across the coun- 
try predict massive layoffs in the 
coming months due to recent leg- 
islation outlawing the firms' most 
lucrative practices. 

The new regulations carefully 
scrutinize government contracts 
with for-profit public relations 
companies, and apply much high- ti " 
er standards to public relations 
work overall. The new rules would 
have forbidden the creation of the 
National Smokers Alliance, a front 
group formed by Philip Morris 
with the help of PR. giant Burson 
Marsteller, which presents itself 
as a grassroots group opposed to 
smoke-free laws. 

The regulations would also have 
rendered impossible the notori- 
ous "Kuwaiti incubators" episode 
of 1992, in which PR. giant Hill & 
Knowlton worked with the U.S. ^^. 
and Kuwaiti governments to gal- 



An industry that helped 
launch wars begins to 
shut down. 



vanize public opinion in favor 
of the Persian Gulf War. Among 
other things, the firm helped stage 
a press conference in which a 
15-year-old girl named Nayirah 
claimed to have witnessed Iraqi 
soldiers flinging Kuwaiti babies to 
the ground from their incubators. 
Nayirah was later revealed to have 
been performing on behalf of her 
father, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to 
the U.S. The "Kuwaiti incubator" 
hoax was considered decisive in 
turning popular opinion toward 
war against Iraq. 

"It's unfortunate that our hard 
work is being discussed under 
these circumstances," said Cyn- 
thia Knowlton, granddaughter of 




JUDAS ORTIZ 



Hill & Knowlton's New York office after layoffs were announced yesterday. Cutbacks have rippled through giants across the industry. 



Hill & Knowlton founder David J. 
Knowlton HI and a spokesperson 
for the company. 

WhUe most industries suffered 
during the Iraq War, the PR. indus- 
try remained buoyant. As overall 
consumer spending decreased, 
government spending increased, 
and the coffers of some private 
firms expanded. Of the 40 percent 
of Iraq War spending that went to 
private military contractors since 
the 2003 invasion, a full 10 per- 



cent is rumored to have gone to 
PR. firms. Campaigns like "Army 
Strong" and "Be All You Can Be" 
were created by private firms, and 
companies are even alleged to have 
been paid hefty sums to guaran- 
tee returning veterans prominent 
placement on television programs 
such as "Wife Swap," "Trading 
Spaces," and "Punk'd." 

One PR. firm, MediaLink World- 
wide, plans to cut its media com- 
mentator funding, a substantial 



portion of its budget. "We are 
forced to cut back, and that does 
mean letting excellent and quali- 
fied candidates in all fields go," 
company spokesperson Fred 
Donahue said in an official state- 
ment. Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the 
largest ad firms in the world, fired 
over 300 employees in its Word- 
of-Mouth Division. Leo Burnett in 
Chicago is expected to release all 
part-time staff later this week. 
It's a vast network of influence. 



all crumbling down around the 
feet of culture producers. 

"PR. companies have been do- 
ing whatever it takes to maximize 
their profit," contended media 
activist Ben Jefferson at a hear- 
ing which shortly preceded the 
passage of the new regulations. 
"The mystical power of the con- 
sumer isn't going to change that 
— whereas the actual power of the 
citizen is. That's where legislation 
comes in." 



Plan Encourages Steady Growth, Will Boost Bottom 95% 



From Page A 1 

posed the proposals before over- 
whelming public support helped 
change her mind. "This bUl brings 
a level of sanity and restraint back 
to the system that allowed com- 
panies like Enron, Bear Stearns, 
Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to 
fleece Americans for all they were 
worth." 

MerrUl Lynch C.E.O. John Thain 
disputed Ms. Pelosi's account. 
"High C.E.O. salaries, sophisticat- 
ed financial instruments, and the 
freedom to speculate freely have 
for the past thirty years been in- 
strumental in driving us to achieve 
the highest shareholder returns in 
the world outside of Russia. Share- 
holders have been very grateful 
for those returns. We mustn't look 
at one rash of foreclosures, or one 
system collapse, and forget the de- 
cade of high returns that enabled 
a new wave of prosperity for a cer- 
tain number of people." 



Treasury Secretary Krugman 
cited the pressure applied by 
progressive activist groups as in- 
strumental in the S.A.N.E. Act's 
success despite overwhelming 
counterpressure from financial 
industry lobbyists, who have been 
working overtime in anticipation 
of the likely passage of the "Ban 
on Lobbying" bill, which prohibits 
lobbying on behalf of private in- 
dividuals or corporations earning 
more than $1 mUlion annually. 

"We've got popular pressure to 
thank for letting us make the mar- 
ket serve humans once again," Mr. 
Krugman said. He also stressed 
that even passage of the S.A.N.E. 
bUl would be meaningless without 
passage of the "Ban on Lobbying" 
bill. Only by banning lobbying, Mr. 
Krugman added, would it be pos- 
sible to assure that the changes 
mandated by the S.A.N.E. Act are 
not rolled back through the influ- 
ence of big corporations. 




DETAILS OF S.A.N.E. ACT 



CAPS WAGES. Caps salaries, 
in part to reduce tlie incentive of 
C.E.O. s to speculate wildly with 
investors' funds. 

BUSTS TRUSTS. Breaks up 
financial conglomerates and 
reinstate the 1933 Glass-Steagall 
Act keeping investment banks and 
commercial banks separate, in 
order to reduce speculation. 



TAXES SPECULATION. 

Spearheads an international 1 per- 
cent tax on financial transactions, 
to slow speculation and reduce 
market volatility. 

STABILIZES MORTGAGES. 

Keeps Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac, which were formed to boost 
home ownership, under govern- 
ment management, and imposes a 
moratorium on foreclosures. 



INVESTS IN HOUSING. Rein 
vests in public housing and renews 
rent control, until the "ownership 
society" becomes real. 

PRICES FOR TRUE COST. 

Establishes a "true cost" pricing 
system to ensure that prices reflect 
the true cost to society of products, 
services, and practices. 

TAXES INHERITANCE. 

Establishes a 100 percent tax 



on inheritance for fortunes over 
$500,000. These revenues will 
enable a quicker implementation 
of universal health care, afford- 
able housing, guaranteed college 
education, and other measures 
considered standard in almost 
every other developed country. 

SETS EMERGENCY TAX. 

Provides for an emergency surtax 
on the wealthy in case of future 



financial meltdowns, to further 
discourage the sort of reckless 
speculation that fueled the latest 
banking crisis. 

LIMITS DERIVATIVES. Regu 
lates and streamlines the market 
in abstract financial instruments, 
especially those derivatives and 
derivatives of derivatives which 
serve no social purpose whatso- 
ever. 



Harvard Will 
Shut Business 
School Doors 

By JOHN LEVERETT 

Harvard University Business 
School will be closing its doors 
following an unprecedented drop- 
off in applications this fall. The 
school will be renamed the Har- 
vard University School of Integrity, 
and students will receive Masters 
in Integrity and Compassion, or 
M.l.C.s. 

"We believe that the recent in- 
crease in visibility of progressive 
movements and ideals, coupled 
with the demotion of free-market 
capitalism as a viable belief sys- 
tem, has led students away from 
training in accumulation for its 
own sake and into fields where 
they can advance peace and jus- 
tice," said Harvard spokesperson 
Susan Morrison. 

It became apparent in early 
2009 that enrollment in fields like 
marketing, advertising, corporate 
communications, and manage- 
ment dropped 44 percent, while 
enrollments in fields like social 
work, journalism, and community 
organizing were up 53 percent in 
the same period. 

"We're not sure if it's an anom- 
aly or an indicator of a long term 
trend, but there's definitely a 
change," said Morrison. 

Morrison said the new Integrity 
School is contacting campuses 
around the world to encourage 
graduating seniors to apply. "We 
see as our job to help students 
tap into their desire for integrity 
and compassion, rather than their 
greed. That's what they need, and 
that's what our society needs." 

''TRUE cosr 

PRICING SET 



From Page A 1 

Pelham Bay, New York, referring 
to General Motors' EVl, an electric 
car it developed in 1996, before 
scrapping it shortly after. GM was 
required to reintroduce the EVl 
last month by the Clean Car Act. 

"Ever since it came back, the EVl 
is five times more popular than 
the next car down," Cluber said. "1 
hope we never have to sell a com- 
bustion engine again." 

Three months after a 90 percent 
"True Cost" tax on bottled water 
went into effect, the high premium 
has already prevented many tons 
of plastic waste, according to En- 
vironmental Protection Agency 
Deputy Under Secretary Gavin 
Newsom. "When we banned plastic 
shopping bags in San Francisco in 
2006, it reduced waste enormously. 
The recent tax on plastic water 
bottles has prevented even more 
needless environmental damage, 
including many tons of C02 emis- 
sions from the transportation of 
water," said Mr. Newsom in a press 
conference. "Imagine transporting 
water across oceans. What were 
we thinking?" 

"It's great to see this extended 
to the whole spectrum of products 
with which we're destroying our 
world," Mr. Newsom added. 

Treasury Secretary Paul Krug- 
man believes the "True Cost" 
system will serve not only as an 
incentive to manufacture certain 
products instead of others, but will 
help to make people aware of the 
effects of their behavior. 

"We complain about high gas 
prices," said Melissa Schwarzwald, 
spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, 
pressure from whose members 
was instrumental in getting the tax 
implemented. "But how much does 
it really cost, to our health, to the 
planet's health, and to the health of 
the country we destroyed in the in- 
terest of a steady supply? We're cut 
off from what we're really doing, 
and that's the whole problem." 



Nev^ Wage Cap Will Stabilize Economy 



From Page A 1 

to rake in massive dividends, often 
at the cost of the company's, and 
the country's, stability." 

The first time the U.S. implement- 
ed a maximum wage was in 1942, 
when President Roosevelt said that 
"no American citizen ought to have 
an income, after he has paid his 
taxes, of more than $25,000 a year," 
the equivalent of $315,000 today. 

Some version of a maximum 
wage law was in effect until 1980. 
Before 1964, income over $400,000 
in today's dollars faced a 91 percent 
federal tax rate, and the top-brack- 
et tax rate never dipped below 70%. 
Under Reagan, the top tax rate slid 
down to 28 percent — a shift that 
is now understood to have been 
one of the prime contributors to 
the mortgage meltdown and other 
market failures. 

The current minimum wage is 
$5.85 ($12,168 annually) making 
the new maximum wage $182,520/ 
year. Any amount over that will be 
taxed at a rate of 100 percent. 

The Center on Executive Compen- 



sation is an industry-backed group 
based in Washington whose goal is 
to tell corporate America's side of 
the executive pay story. Richard 
Floersch, the center's chairman 
and the chief human resources of- 
ficer at McDonald's, defended high 
salaries. Most companies, he said, 
are "dedicated to a very strong 
executive compensation program 
with very strong principles around 
pay for performance." 

In the two days since Mr. Flo- 
ersch made these comments to a 
reporter, the Center on Executive 
Compensation has dissolved. A 
statement on their website now 
reads: "We have decided that in 
light of recent changes in econom- 
ic policy, and the failure of hedge 
fund managers and banks to pre- 
vent massive losses despite their 
astronomical pay, our Center has 
lost its relevance." The statement 
also acknowledges the problems 
caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac executives falsifying profits of 
$9 billion so their firms would ap- 
pear attractive to investors and 
then, instead of being fired, receiv- 



ing retirement packages upwards 
of $10 million. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cel- 
ebrated the bill's passage with an 
impassioned speech. "The struggle 
on behalf of human dignity con- 
tinues. We need investment in 
productive enterprises and public 
services. The era is over of C.E.O.s 
who receive millions in bonuses as 
their employees go without health 
care and the company fails." 

In her speech, Ms. Pelosi exten- 
sively quoted Treasury Undersec- 
retary E. Merrick Dodds, who stat- 
ed, shortly after passage of the first 
maximum wage under Roosevelt: 
"The modern period has been one 
in which a new impulse towards 
regulation has gathered strength 
as a result of our experience of the 
evils to which unlimited freedom 
of contract gives rise in a postin- 
dustrial society characterized by 
extreme inequalities of wealth and 
bargaining power and by sudden 
oscillations between booms and 
depressions." 

Don Cortland contributed reporting. 



We did it first. 

Now weVe bringing it back... 



Back in 1996, we developed an electric car called the EVl. 
People loved it, and v^^anted to buy it. But changes in legislation 
meant it made no sense in our business model, and three years 
later, it was gone. 



Today, changes in legislation have made the return of the 
possible. It was the best back then, and it's the best today. 




THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



All 



Senate Gets Tough On "Limited Liability" to Rein in, Humanize Corporations 



By CARLTON DONALLY 

Senator John McCain, Repub- 
lican of Arizona, has launched a 
bold new "tough on crime" initia- 
tive that would imprison or fine 
shareholders for corporate crimes 
committed in their name. Punish- 
ment would depend on the sever- 
ity of the crime and the number of 
shares owned. 

Mr. McCain outlined his unique 
two-tiered punishment program, 
which would punish corporations 
for legal infractions according 
to their severity. Mr. McCain ex- 
plained that there would be two 
"suites" of punishment, for levels 
of crime roughly corresponding to 
misdemeanors and felonies. 

In one "suite" — for "misde- 
meanors" like bilking taxpayers of 
seven-figure dollar amounts, over- 
charging consumers, attempting 
monopolies, and contributing to 
simple human troubles like asth- 
ma and brief bouts of homeless- 
ness — punishment would take 
the form of short- or long-term 
share confiscation. Dividends of 
confiscated shares would pay for 
remedial action, where possible, 
as well as public-good programs 
like health care. 

"1 know a number of people 
whose companies were players 
in the Savings and Loan scandal," 
Mr. McCain said, "and they're pre- 
pared to face the consequences. 
Remedies for serious problems 
are never easy, especially when 
they hit at the root." 

The second punishment "suite," 
for "felonies" — spreading diseas- 
es, committing homicide or man- 
slaughter, contributing to national 
disasters in the U.S. or abroad, 
large-scale bilking of taxpayers, 
etc. — would involve direct pun- 
ishment of the shareholders in 
question. 

Mr. McCain used Union Car- 
bide's 1984 Bhopal massacre, in 
which thousands of Indian villag- 
ers were killed by lethal gas, as an 
example of a crime that would be 
classified as a felony. While retro- 
active prosecutions based on new 
laws are usually not permissible, 
in such extreme cases they would 
be, as they were in the Nuremberg 
prosecutions of 1945. 

In the Union Carbide example, 
Mr. McCain noted that each 
death would cost the company a 
"negligent homicide" charge, for 
approximately twenty years of 
incarceration each. Twenty years 
multiplied by 2000 equals 40,000 
years in prison, with aggravating 
factors such as a demonstrated 
lack of remorse or compassion tri- 
pling the total. 

This penalty would be divided 
among Union Carbide sharehold- 
ers, each of whom could expect to 




CFINKE AND OBORLOO HOCHMANKS 

Left: An old prison being remodeled for white-collar criminals. Right: John McCain reclaims "maverick" status with strict new sentencing to put corporate criminals behind bars. 



spend from a few weeks to several 
years in prison, depending on the 
size of investment. A minimum 
penalty could be set by a judge 
— so that an investor with even 
a fraction of a share would be li- 
able for, say, two weeks in jail. This 
would apply even to those who 
had invested via mutual funds, 
without knowing the precise direc- 
tion of their investments. 

Mr. McCain said that while 
"tough on crime" policy has been 
shown to be useless with humans, 
it would work with corporations. 
"Corporations are just machines, 
not like teenage kids. They can be 
forced to act as if they knew right 
from wrong." 

"Corporate behavior has be- 
come a very loud cry for 'tough 
love,'" the governor said. "We've 
got to adapt to a changing world, 
and sometimes that means chang- 
ing laws." 

"Fines are not punishment, they 
do not build character," Mr. Mc- 
Cain said. "What's a ten-million- 



dollar fine to a giant corporation? 
Fines seldom if ever affect the 
pocketbooks of shareholders or 
managers, those who make the de- 
cisions or power the machine. Hit- 
ting pockets and people directly is 
a different thing." 

Mr. McCain admitted that sev- 
eral major problems remain to 
be solved. The death penalty, for 
example, while often merited in 
corporate crime cases, had no ob- 
vious application — "We can't talk 
about 'little deaths' here," said Mr. 
McCain, making an obscure bilin- 
gual pun better left unexplained. 

Also, the issue of global markets 
poses some problems, Mr. McCain 
said. "These penalties will even- 
tually have to be agreed on by a 
global governing body like the 
W.T.O., not only here at home in 
Arizona or the U.S. Otherwise we 
may create a better market here, 
but the changes will be irrelevant 
in the bigger picture. And influ- 
encing such a powerful and state- 
independent body as the WTO. is 



a very involved process." 

The ultimate aim of the program, 
Mr. McCain said, is to help corpo- 
rations achieve their long-term 
goals. "Corporations have spent 
the last century and a half trying 
to obtain all the legal rights of 
people," Mr. McCain said. "They're 
now technically persons, but 
they're not really human. We owe 
it to them — and to our species — 
to help them finish their quest." 

Mr. McCain went on to explain 
that corporations stUl, even today, 
lack one distinguishing human 
characteristic: a conscience. "Cor- 
porations were invented to keep 
investors innocent of crimes com- 
mitted with the help of their mon- 
ey, accidentally or not. But now 
that corporations have become le- 
gally almost human, they have to 
be taught that their actions have 
consequences." 

Mr. McCain called corporate ef- 
forts to obtain the legal rights of 
humans "compassionate greed," 
and said that it was "not entirely 



about getting richer." 

"You'd have to be very cynical 
to think that corporations, when 
they won protection as 'persons' 
under the 'Freed Slave' Amend- 
ment, were thinking only of their 
own wealth," Mr. McCain said. He 
was referring to the 14th Amend- 
ment, which had been designed to 
protect the rights of freed slaves, 
and which was used in 1886 to es- 
tablish corporations as "natural 
persons" under the law. 

"It's clear that corporations just 
admire humans and what we have. 
We should be good hosts and help 
them however we can. Right now, 
that means making them respon- 
sible and responsive." 

While most experts scoff at the 
idea that corporations could actu- 
ally become human beings, most 
agree that punishing corporations 
for the crimes they commit wUl at 
the very least have a positive ef- 
fect on the world. "If each share- 
holder is personally responsible 
for corporate crimes, then you've 



got real controls — and without 
regulation!" said Mr. McCain. 

Mr. McCain dismissed concerns 
that personal liability for corpo- 
rate crimes might discourage in- 
dividual investors from taking a 
risk. "People love to gamble," he 
said, "and this will make it all very 
real." 

For those who do not thrive on 
such risks, Mr. McCain suggested 
that the mutual fund industry 
would easily adopt new decision- 
making processes, just as it has in 
the past. "The prime mechanism 
of regulation wUl be shareholder 
judgement. If investment in one 
company is likely to land you in 
jaU, you'll invest in another in- 
stead. Mutual fund companies will 
find it an exciting challenge to ob- 
tain and keep investor confidence. 
It will reinvigorate the industry, 
and in fact the whole concept of 
investment." 



Chad Woolin contributed reporting. 




The more we look at the world 

the more we understand 

that some things really matter. 

Not only our choice of President, 

but how we make sure that he, 

like all our elected officials, 

does what we elected him to do. 

It's not over yet. 



HSBC ^X^ 

The world's local bank 



A12 



SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



New York 



Stre JfeUr Jlork ®lmej5 

Army Recruiter Goes from Marketing the Military to Marketing Himself 



By BARRY GLOAD 

MANHATTAN — "I have plans, and I have 
backup plans," explained retired Staff Sgt. 
Joe Pascanic, a former recruiter for the 
U.S. Army. "That's one thing 1 learned in 
the military. Always have your Plan B, and 
your Plan C." 

"Plan D is called Unconditional Surren- 
der, a.k.a. filing for Unemployment Insur- 
ance. We're not gonna need to go there." 

Pascanic, 36, of Rahway, New Jersey, 
was looking for a new job in the civilian 
sector. The Times spent a day with him 
as he took the train from this blue-collar 
town into New York City to pound the 
fresh post-war pavement. 

Pascanic is a medium-tall man, with 
blonde short hair and brown eyes, trim 
and nattily dressed in a professional, well- 
pressed, blue pinstriped suit. He thanked 
me for my compliments on his "civvies," 
and said, "I'm very happy to be wearing 
them." 

He appeared lost in thought for a mo- 
ment, and then shook off the reverie with 
a gruff statement. 

"1 have to say, however 1 felt about the 
war, I'm glad 1 don't have that job any- 
more," Pascanic admitted as we waited 
on the New Jersey Transit platform. "That 
was serious pressure." 

Indeed, while many antiwar activists de- 
nounced military recruiters as liars dur- 
ing the war, this time Pascanic was telling 
the truth. The Army's strict and harsh 
quota system for recruiters made it one of 
the highest-stress jobs in America. As the 
war grew more bloody and news of "stop- 
loss" and other involuntary extensions 
of soldiers' combat tours made it harder 
to get new recruits, rates of suicide, drug 
and alcohol abuse, divorce, and stress-re- 
lated illnesses such as ulcers skyrocketed 
amongst Army recruiters. 

"1 used to say, the only more stressful po- 
sitions are the ones they put you in at Abu 
Ghraib, those and the only more stressful 
occupation was the U.S. in Iraq." Pascanic 
laughs a little, gives me a self-conscious 
glance, and says, "That was an after-work, 
at-the-bar kind of line, of course. 

"1 did get a lot of skills from it, though. 
Besides the working under pressure, 1 
learned so much about marketing. It's 
hard to fill your quota when that means 
getting kids to sign up to go fight in a 
shooting war. Trust me. 

"1 mean right after September 11th, it 
was no problem, the product sold itself, 
so to speak. To go fight in Afghanistan, 
where the bad guys were, the ones who 
attacked us. 1 didn't have to do any pitch- 
ing, the kids came right to me in droves to 
sign up. The product made its own sauce. 
Just add water." 




RE-ALITY/THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Former recruiter. Staff Sgt. Joe Pascanic, pages through job listings before an interview at a used car lot in Elizabeth, New Jersey. 



As we got off the train and made our way 
on foot into the city, Pascanic warmed to 
the subject of his skills. He repeated some 
of his key advantages a few times, appar- 
ently rehearsing out loud the lines for his 
first job interview, at a medium-sized ad- 
vertising firm in midtown Manhattan not 
far from Penn Station. 

"Now obviously 1 had to develop mas- 
sive marketing skills in my old job. Some- 
times it was just in terms of what to focus 
on. So 1 want them to sign up to fight in 



1Ve sold people trips to Iraq!' 



Afghanistan? Now 1 happen to know from 
Military History class that the British and 
the Russians both lost in Afghanistan. Em- 
pires get bled to death in that place. Now 
that's very interesting information, but 
is it helpful on the job? No, actually it's 
counterproductive. So that doesn't go in 
the patter. See? It's not just what you say. 
It's what you don't say." 

And how did he feel about his chances 
at this job interview? As we entered the 
sleek lobby, he adjusted his cuffs and said 
"Hey, maybe my military service got me 
here to the target. But now 1 have to de- 
liver the payload." He spun on his heels 



and marched to the elevator. 

Coming out forty-five minutes later, Pas- 
canic seemed shaken. "They heard my 
pitch, but they're really looking for guys 
with M.B.A.s from Ivy League colleges. 
They said they'd keep my resume on file. 
1 think they were impressed with my re- 
cruitment rate, but 1 don't know. 1 don't 
think 1 should wait around for that phone 
call." 

We took a taxi down to Chelsea for our 
next stop, a real-estate firm where Pascan- 
ic was hoping to use his work experience 
to sell co-op apartments. He recovered his 
confidence and talked himself up as we 
rode. "I've sold people trips to Iraq! We're 
talking about desert and urban guerrilla 
warfare. And they signed! Of course you 
have to promise them competitive job 
training, money for education, maybe 
insinuate they probably won't ever go to 
a combat zone, or that they'll all get as- 
signed to be military journalists or pho- 
tographers or whatever they're interested 
in that sounds safer. But you're also sell- 
ing an adventure, a chance to be all you 
can be, be an army of one, be army strong. 
It's a complicated mix of practical bread- 
and-butter promises and an appeal to the 
beautiful spirit in all of these kids, their 
desire to help, to protect, to be a real part 
of America. It's tough, but you know what? 



You're selling the American Dream. And 
that's what I'd like to do as a real estate 
agent. Sell the American Dream of home 
ownership." 

And how did he feel about the fates of 
the people he'd convinced to sign up with 
misleading promises? Pascanic did not 
argue the facts — that veterans' training 
yields them a lower rate of employment 
than their civilian peers, not higher; that 
only a small percentage of veterans ever 
qualify for the education funding due 
to hidden restrictions and costs; that 
military contracts include a catch-all dis- 
claimer to nullify obligations the recruiter 
has promised. 

"Let's talk about this when 1 get out from 
this next interview. I'm not debating! I'm 
not denying! But 1 gotta make sure I'm at 
that front desk on time." He grinned and 
jumped out of the taxi, jogging into the 
company's front office. 

Twenty-five minutes later, Pascanic 
came back out on the street, frowning. 
"They gave me a good listen, but they 
seemed a little offended. 1 wasn't trying 
to compare selling open-ended trips to a 
war to selling studios to wealthy N.Y.U. 
students. But 1 might have come across 
that way. They didn't think we'd be a good 
match." 

Pascanic slowed his pace, then stopped. 



and asked if I'd mind if we went into the 
church we were passing. As we sat in the 
pews of the huge, solemn hall, he said, 
"About your question . . . yeah, some- 
times 1 do think about my job and what 
1 promised the kids, and what ended up 
happening to them." He pointed at the 
ceiling and said, "And 1 wonder what He 
would think." 

"But 1 don't know, you know, this is 
America, we're all selling something, 
right? The President sold the country a 
war, wholesale; 1 just did the same thing 
at the retail level. But what am 1 gonna do 
now?" He looked around him at the rela- 
tive sanctuary of the church. "Maybe I'll 
get a job here. Maybe I'm not meant for 
the private sector. Maybe 1 can sell salva- 
tion. You know, I'd much rather sell Heav- 
en and Hell than Iraq and Afghanistan. Be- 
cause these products have stood the test 
of time. People still believe in them. And 
you know what? They're for after you die, 
you don't actually die in them. 1 can feel 
better selling that. How do you apply to 
be a priest?" 

At that moment, Pascanic's cell phone 
rang, piercing the silence. His ringtone, 
Bon Jovi's In and Out of Love, played for 
several maximum-volume bars before he 
patted down his pockets, found, and an- 
swered the phone. At that moment, he 
snapped to attention and darted out of 
the church. 

It was Chris Sorrentino calling. Sorrenti- 
no, 24, was one of Pascanic's first recruits 
to go to Iraq, instead of Afghanistan as 
he'd expected, in 2003. He lost his right 
arm in an l.E.D. explosion five months into 
his deployment. Pascanic and Sorrentino 
had kept in touch. 

Sorrentino was calling to offer Pascanic 
a sales job at his family's used-car lot in 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. 

This reporter, who felt solidarity with 
Pascanic because The Times, too, had 
helped to sell the war to the nation, paid 
for a car service to drive him to the lot. 
After a few minutes of friendly Jersey- 
boy small talk, vulgar ribbing and taste- 
less jokes, Pascanic had nailed the job. 
Since he was already wearing a dapper 
suit, Sorrentino's father. Bill, put the for- 
mer recruiter out on the lot immediately. 
Pascanic thanked me for the ride and said 
goodbye, studying the specs of the car in- 
ventory and rehearsing a new pitch under 
his breath as he marched off to the sales 
floor. 

1 asked Sorrentino if he bore any grudg- 
es against Pascanic for misrepresenting 
the reality of the war that had cost him 
his arm. Sorrentino hesitated, he frowned, 
shook his head, and answered "Well, 1 
mean. . . yeah, 1 wish. . . but — hey, hey, hey 
... the war's over." 



New York Bike Path System Expanded Dramatically 



Miles of Segregated Bicycle 
Lanes Will Be Paved by 2010 

By MEDE SIVRAC 

NEW YORK — Officials from the Depart- 
ment of Transportation today opened the 
9th Avenue bike lane, which now extends 
the entire length of Manhattan. The fes- 
tivities were then moved to 2nd Avenue, 
where ground was broken on a similar 
path to extend the full length of the is- 
land. 

Over the next two years, every other 
avenue will also receive a full bike lane, 
blocked off from traffic, while every fifth 
crosstown street will be opened exclu- 
sively to bicyclists and pedestrians begin- 
ning next month. 

Mark Blair, a transit worker from 
Queens, was busy re-timing traffic lights 



for bicycle speed. "Riding your bike up 
or down the avenue, the traffic lights are 
going to change in sync," explained Blair. 
"You ride 10-15 miles per hour, and you'll 
be hitting all greens." 

"Now that our country is taking its right- 
ful place among the world's developed 
nations," said Mayor Bloomberg, "it is 
time for our greatest city to take its place 
among the world's great cities." 

Bloomberg recently visited Paris to ex- 
amine its popular public bicycle rental 
program. Although he initially expressed 
doubts as to whether it could work, pub- 
lic pressure has helped convince him it 
can, and national legislation sealed the 
deal. (For more on the new transportation 
initiatives, also see "Crumbling Infrastruc- 
ture Brings Opportunities," Page A6.) 

Blair, watching the dedication from a 
cherry picker above 9th Avenue com- 
mented, "From cesspool to world city, it's 
just fantastic. 1 love this place." 




PAYTON CHUNG 



City Council Votes to Beat Swords Into Plowshares 



R.O.T.C. Funding Reallocated 
to Organic Gardens for Youth 

By ED SHARSNEK 

NEW YORK — The New York City Coun- 
cil is scheduled to vote later this week 
on a measure that may finally close the 
doors on the City's Junior Reserve Officer 
Training Corps, following complaints by 
parents and teachers, and a recent spate 
of student walkouts. 

Critics contend that the training corps, 
whose official mandate is educational, is a 
recruiting arm of the U.S. Army. They note 
that the J.R.O.T.C. provides no non-mil- 
itary training, and that the firearm train- 
ing offered by 90 percent of the J.R.O.T.C. 
programs undermines the no-weapons 
policies widely promoted on high school 



campuses. 

At Jesuit-run Xavier High School in Man- 
hattan, 33 percent of students belong to 
the J.R.O.TC. "It's the only gang the Fa- 
thers let us join," bubbled Senior Cadet 
Leader Bernard Goetz Jr. "But it's plenty 
good for me." 

Not all the Jesuits support the program. 
Father Jon Sobrino, who supervises the 
school's ethics curriculum, said that the 
J.R.O.T.C. obedience training seemed to 
stunt some students' reasoning skills. 
"'Lock-and-load' is not a recognized ethi- 
cal philosophy," Sobrino said. 

With the end of the war in Iraq, concerns 
voiced for months at Parent Teacher As- 
sociation meetings around the five bor- 
oughs received renewed urgency. "We are 
asking Secretary of Defense Scott Ritter to 
shift these funds into training programs in 
nonviolence and communication," Queens 
Borough RT.A. head Estelle Chavez said. 




HERALDPOST 

J.R.O.T.C. members-turned-gardeners, planting eggplant for the fall semester. 



"If our leaders of the past eight years had 
had that sort of training, we wouldn't be 
in the huge mess we're in." 

Retired General David Petraeus defend- 
ed the program. The only way a volunteer 
army can recruit is if we can get them 
early. The fact is, it works. Plus, J.R.O.T.C. 
students who don't join the army tell us 
the leadership training they receive helps 
them find work in security and related 
fields." 

Critics argue that those students who 
do go on to join the Army fare especially 
poorly. According to the Veterans Admin- 
istration, veterans earn less than non-vet- 
erans; one-third of homeless men are vet- 
erans; and at least 10 percent of federal 
and state prisoners are veterans. 

The City Council vote follows outrage by 
area principals over Mayor Bloomberg's 
proposal to cut $180 million from the 
Department of Education's budget in the 
current fiscal year, and $324 million in 
the following year, cuts which will most 
likely effect after school programs, arts 
programming, and programs for children 
with special needs. 

One group of critics has been working 
with Schools Chancellor Joel 1. Klein to 
redirect the $2 million J.R.O.T.C. budget 
to Urban Green, an after-school program 
that promotes environmental leadership 
for youth by creating organic gardens in 
vacant lots. Klein's office issued a memo 
yesterday acknowledging the effort. 
"Our office feels that the J.R.O.TC. bud- 
get might best be redirected to what we 
might call Victory Gardens, in celebration 
of a new direction for our country and for 
our nation's youth." 



University to Rescue Iraqi Scholars 



By AMAL MAAMLAJI 

The New School University in New York 
announced yesterday the launch of the 
New University In Exile, a program to pro- 
vide small grants and visas to scholars 
from Iraq. The program is inspired by the 
University In Exile, a New School program 
that rescued over one hundred Jewish 
scholars from Nazi Germany beginning 
in 1933. 

"As in World War 11, scholarship today 
faces one particular crisis that dwarfs all 
others," said New School President Bob 
Kerrey. "In Iraq today, almost four hun- 
dred scholars have been assassinated, 
and most others have been sent into per- 
manent exile. Iraq's universities, libraries, 
museums, and archeological sites have 
for the most part been completely de- 
stroyed. The scale of devastation places 
it among the worst tragedies in all his- 
tory." 

The New School will make available 
small grants to scholars, facilitate visas, 
and provide shared office space with New 
School faculty members. 

Mr. Kerrey acknowledged that the pro- 



gram faced significant challenges. "The 
situation for Iraqi scholars today is even 
worse than for Jewish scholars in 1933, 
but it's our doing this time, and so the 
available funding is a whole lot less. It's 
psychologically easier to help people 
when one's tax dollars aren't instrumen- 
tal in killing them, which is probably also 
why there's more concern for the victims 
of Darfur than of the much larger crises 
in Iraq or the Congo." But we've got to do 
what we can. 

"While the academic riches of Iraq will 
never be restored, and its archaeological 
sites, museums, and libraries will remain 
a mere memory, the academic commu- 
nity must attempt to in some small mea- 
sure make amends for what our country 
has done, and do what it can to save the 
scholarly heritage of a nation," Mr. Kerrey 
said. 

The New School hopes to be joined in 
the effort by other universities anxious to 
live up to their stated ethical aims. 



See also "Hope for Iraqi Refugees?" 
PageAlS. 



Streets Come Alive as Relief and 
Exuberance Greet End of Conflicts 



By SCHUYLER FRANK 

Thousands are already taking to the 
streets of Manhattan, mainly around 
Times Square, to celebrate the announced 
end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
Police are responding by organizing water 
distribution centers and places to rest. 

"We're all guaranteed the right to peace- 
ably assemble," said New York City Police 
Commissioner Raymond W Kelly. "Today, 
we're going to try responding the way po- 
lice do in many other developed nations." 
In the past. New York City police have 
usually responded to demonstrations 
with forces in riot gear. 

After pausing a moment Kelly added, 
"You know, everyone on the force, we're 
all just glad we're here to help celebrate 
peace this time." 

The spontaneous street celebrations 
were the manner in which many first 
heard about the withdrawal. In Man- 
hattan, as thousands thronged the city 
streets with Commissioner Kelly, only 
a few tuned in radios or checked news 
sites on the Internet. "I've just gotten 
overwhelmed by all the bad news, and 
I'm tired of learning that so much of what 
were told was lies," Linda Negrobi, 42, 
told The New York Times in Washington 
Square Park, which was full of revelers. 
"At some point or other, 1 just stopped 



watching the news." 

Juan Villarosa, 18, agreed. "My brother 
was killed in combat last year in a war 
that never should have happened. You 
don't turn to Wolf Blitzer for answers 
in that situation," he said. The crowd at 
the uptown sandwich shop bubbled with 
conversation about America's new direc- 
tion. 

"People are saying hello to each other 
in the street. 1 just had lunch with a group 
of total strangers where we just talked 
about what's going on right now," said 
Carrie Moore, a photographer's assis- 
tant living in midtown. "It's like this huge 
stress has been lifted." 

Makeshift signs were visible in office 
windows, among them: "Sleep with me"; 
"The end of our lives" with the V crossed 
out; and, simply, "YES." 

The street celebrations were unusual in 
the preponderance of business suits and 
professional attire. One celebrant, Far- 
sala LaRue, 72, speculated on the somber 
hues. 

"This is an issue that affected us all, on 
a daily basis, for seven years," she said, 
pausing from a hopscotch game she was 
playing with her 7-year-old neighbor. "Not 
just the anti-war people, not just young 
people, not even just Democrats," she 
said. "All of America is here today. 1 think 
it's wonderful." 



THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALS/LETTERS/OP-ED SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 



A13 



She Jfetu Hark Sime$ 



Founded in 2009 

Each of the people 
represented by the names 
to the right some of which 
you may recognize, was 
instrumental in conceiving, 
creating, distributing, and 
otherwise manifesting this 
special edition of The New 
York Times. 



T. VEBLEN, writer and researcher 
JUDE SHINBIN, writer and researcher 
J.K. MALONE, writer and researcher 
MARCUS S. DRIGGS, writer and researcher 
FRANK LARIMORE, writer and researcher 
MARION K. HUBBERT, writer and researcher 
SAMUEL FIELDEN, writer and researcher 
F. NANSEN, writer and researcher 
HELEN PREJEAN, writer and researcher 
F. WUNDERLICH, writer and researcher 
EMIL LEDERER, writer and researcher 
J. FINISTERRA, writer and researcher 
BART GARZON, writer and researcher 



LEN G. WILKINS, writer and researcher 
CHARLES HOCHMANKS, writer and researcher 
CARL SCARPA, writer and researcher 
E. LUDENDORFF, writer and researcher 
S. ALLENDE, writer and researcher 
MARY K. RAWLINGS, writer and researcher 
TREVOR LENPAG, writer and researcher 
W. WILBERFORCE, writer and researcher 
JOSEPH BRISTELLO, writer and researcher 
ROBERT OWEN, writer and researcher 
DIEGO TAVERA, writer and researcher 
WILLIAM PETTY, writer and researcher 
SYBIL LUDINGTON, writer and researcher 



WILFRED SASSOON, writer and researcher 
M.M. BETHUNE, writer and researcher 
JASON BREMARSA, writer and researcher 
B. VANNEVAR, writer and researcher 
ELIZABETH FRY, writer and researcher 
JAMES BRAID, writer and researcher 
LOUIS BECK, writer and researcher 
JOHN LEVERETT, writer and researcher 
CARLTON DONALLY, writer and researcher 
BARRY GLOAD, writer and researcher 
AMAL MAAMLAJI, writer and researcher 
MEDE SIVRAC, writer and researcher 
ED SHARSNEK, writer and researcher 



THOMAS J. FRIEDMAN 

The End of the Experts? 




The sudden outbreak of peace in Iraq 
has made me realize, among other things, 
one incontestable fact: 1 have no business 
holding a pen, at least with intent to write. 
1 know, you're thinking I'm going too 
far. 1 haven't always been wrong about ev- 
erything. 1 recently made some sense on 
global warming and what we needed to do 
about it, for instance. 

But to have been so completely and fundamentally wrong 
about so huge a disaster as what we have done to Iraq — 
and ourselves — is outrageous enough to prove that people 
like me have no business posing as wise men, and, more 
importantly, that The New York Times has no business con- 
tinuing to provide me with a national platform. 

In any case, 1 have made a decision: as of today, 1 will no 
longer write in this or any other newspaper. 1 will immedi- 
ately desist from writing any more books about how it's time 
for everyone to climb on board the globalization high-speed 
monorail to the future. 1 will keep my opinions to myself. 
(My wife suggested that 1 try not to even form opinions, but 
1 think she might have another agenda.) 

Baffled? 1 don't blame you. So I'll cite some facts to sup- 
port my decision — a practice, 1 must admit, 1 have too sel- 
dom followed. 

Let's start with the invasion itself. 1 was pretty much all 
for it. Mind you, 1 was not one of the pundits, reporters, or 
public figures who said that Saddam Hussein was a threat 
to the United States. 1 knew better — but 1 said it didn't mat- 
ter! 

Back in February of 2003, 1 wrote in this space: "Saddam 
does not threaten us today. He can be deterred. Taking him 
out is a war of choice — but it's a legitimate choice." In oth- 
er words, we should invade a sovereign state and replace 
its government in order to remake the world more to our 
liking. 

Now the simple fact is, an unprovoked attack on a sover- 
eign state is a war crime, even when linked to grand ideas of 
the future of mankind. In fact, that's exactly what Hitler did, 
for exactly the same reasons. The Nuremburg War Crimes 
Tribunal called it the "the supreme international crime, dif- 
fering only from other war crimes in that it contains within 
itself the accumulated evil of the whole." 

What was 1 thinking? And more importantly, why didn't 
anyone stop me? 



But wait, it gets worse. Having expressed how acceptable 
it was to commit Hitler's signature crime, 1 then applaud- 
ed the invasion of Iraq as an "audacious roll of the dice." 
It should have occurred to me that this gamble would be 
unspeakably painful for an untold number of Iraqis who had 
done nothing to us — in other words, any of them. 

Soon, when it became obvious that my pipe dreams for 
a peaceful and democratic subject nation were just that, 1 
decided to say it was too soon to tell how things would turn 
out in Iraq, but that we would definitely know in six months 
to a year. 1 said this pretty much every six months for five 
years. And The Times just kept giving me more and more 
column-inches. 

I'm not trying to beat myself up here. I've done that plenty 
already, believe me — and my wife has done the rest! But 1 
have one question: why are newspapers like The New York 
Times letting people like me make fools of themselves, mis- 
lead the American people, and, worst of all, give their wives 
a lifetime of ammunition? 

To err is human, but to print, reprint, and re-reprint er- 
ror-mad humans like me is a criminally moronic editorial 
policy. 

Nor, of course, is it only me. Just consider who populates 
the opinion pages of America's top newspapers. Bill Kristol, 
who was actually hired by The Times long after being proven 
wrong on Iraq. Charles Krauthammer. Robert Novak. Mona 
Charen. Fred Barnes. The list goes on and on of officially- 
approved wise men (and a woman or two) who never once 
doubted that Iraq had vast stockpiles of W.M.D.s. And that's 
just in newspapers. 

We were all wrong again and again — and the conse- 
quences were devastating. Can anyone tell me why any of 
us should ever be asked, let alone paid, for our opinions 
ever again? Or, for that matter, why Richard Perle or Paul 
Wolfowitz should be allowed behind any sort of desk what- 
soever as long as they live? 

Peace in Iraq will undoubtedly have many far-reaching 
consequences. As promised, I'm not going to speculate pub- 
licly about what they might be. 

Except one. As of today, I'm putting down my pen, to take 
up a screwdriver. 1 am going to retrain as an engineer and 
spend the rest of my life working to build non-carbon-based 
energy technologies. And I'm going to spend a lot of time 
washing my hands. 



We Apologize 



The momentous occasion of the end of the war in Iraq 
also marks a time for reflection at The Times. As many of 
our readers have pointed out for years, this newspaper 
played no small part in making the case for the war in the 
first place, and in supporting the costly and deadly U.S. oc- 
cupation of Iraq for five years — long after public opinion 
had turned against it. 

We have in the past acknowledged botched reporting. In 
May 2006, we published an editors' note acknowledging no 
fewer than nine articles that uncritically repeated errone- 
ous claims about W.M.D.s by anonymous officials. 

Those admissions, we realize, didn't go nearly far enough. 
Notably, we failed to single out the instrumental role that 
Times reporter Judith Miller played in bringing unfounded 
W.M.D. allegations to a national audience. 

Miller's prominent stories hyping purported Iraqi weap- 
ons go back to 1998, and were full of dramatic but unveri- 
fied claims and unreliable sources. "All of Iraq is one large 
storage facility" for W.M.D.s, she credulously quoted one 
source (September 8, 2002). Miller systematically played 
down skepticism and conflicting evidence, both of which 
were readily available to any reporter. In so doing Miller lent 
crucial support to the Bush administration's agenda. It took 
Miller's involvement in the vengeful leak of a C.l.A. officer's 
name before we finally let her go — with a hefty severance 
package. 

Even after this episode, we continued publishing articles 
based on claims by anonymous officials advancing unveri- 
fied claims — this time, against Iran. 

As for our opinion pages, what we passed off as "debates" 



on the Iraq war have consistently excluded the views of 
people with a track record of being right. Conversely, in 
January 2008, we boosted Bill Kristol's already consider- 
able national platform by offering him a regular column. It 
is hard to say why. 

As early as 1997, Kristol had penned a Weekly Standard 
cover story, "Saddam Must Go," in which he and contrib- 
uting editor Robert Kagan called for war against Iraq: "We 
know it seems unthinkable to propose another ground at- 
tack to take Baghdad. But it's time to start thinking the un- 
thinkable." They argued that Saddam Hussein had humili- 
ated the United States by expelling U.S. officials from U.N. 
weapons inspection teams. The editorial cited unspecified 
sources about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capa- 
bilities, and concluded with this dark warning: "If you don't 
like this option, we've got another one for you: continue 
along the present course and get ready for the day when 
Saddam has biological and chemical weapons at the tips of 
missiles aimed at Israel and at American forces in the Gulf. 
That day may not be far off." 

Why did we decide to reward Kristol for having been ut- 
terly — and lethally — wrong on Iraq? We can't say for sure, 
but as of yesterday Mr. Kristol has been terminated as a col- 
umnist at The Times. In the same spirit, we also welcome 
Thomas Friedman's resignation. 

Beginning today, you will see a giant overhaul of our pa- 
per, from the front page to this page, as, belatedly shoul- 
dering our responsibilities as the newspaper of record, we 
make a practice of hiring writers who get it right. 



Hope for Iraqi Refugees? 



One of the many terrible consequences of the Iraq war 
has been the displacement of millions of Iraqis since the 
Iraq War began in March 2003. According to the most recent 
statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees, more than two million Iraqis have fled to neigh- 
boring Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, as well as Austra- 
lia and Europe, and another 2.5 million or more have been 
displaced within the country, most of them between 2006 
and 2008. 

These numbers are staggering. If a similar proportion of 
the U.S. population were displaced, that would mean 30 mil- 
lion refugee Americans. 

The Iraqi refugee crisis is the worst in the history of the 
Middle East. The number of refugees surpasses the num- 
ber of Palestinians displaced in 1948 by a factor of at least 
four. And while in 1948 the international community and the 
United Nations established entities to provide refugees with 
the bare minimum of education and aid, the response to the 
Iraqi refugee problem has been seriously inadequate on all 
levels. Many women have been forced into prostitution, and 
many children have no educational opportunities. 

Among the displaced are most of the doctors, teachers, 
nurses, and educated professionals who formed the basic 
fabric of Iraqi society and are an integral building block of 
any reconstruction effort. Iraq's recovery, which will take a 
few decades at best, will be impossible without the return 
of these citizens. 

The Bush administration ignored this disaster, as to ac- 
knowledge it would have been an admission of its role in 



creating it. The number 
of Iraqis so far granted 
asylum in the U.S. is 
still less than that ac- 
cepted by Sodertalje, 
a village in Sweden, as 
reported recently in 
the Washington Post. 

A recent program ini- 
tiated by the American 
Embassy in Baghdad 
offers up to 5,000 U.S. 
visas per year to Iraqi 
translators and other 
occupation collabora- 
tors. But high-ranking 
U.S. officials do not 
believe that this allow- 
ance can cover even 

direct employees of the American Embassy itself, let alone 
of other occupation entities such as Halliburton, Bechtel, 
and the U.S. Armed Forces. 

Now that the war is over, no one can afford to neglect Iraqi 
refugees, and a serious and comprehensive plan to resettle 
them must be a priority for the new administration. The 
Evangelicals' generosity is terrific (see "Evangelical Church- 
es Announce Policy of Sanctuary for Iraqi Refugees," Page 
A7), but what is really needed is a major policy change. 



i 


f 



RICHARD SORGE 



From the Editors 



Two years ago, who would have dared to image we'd 
elect, as President of the United States, an African-American 
community organizer? 

Six months ago, who would have predicted we'd enact 
universal health care, reform our education system, estab- 
lish a maximum wage and "true cost" tax, and start taking 
steps to make our cities more livable — or that we'd so 
swiftly end the war in Iraq, and try for treason the leaders 
who took us there? 



Yet we've done all that. Although we demanded change 
of Barack Obama, we understood that only we could bring 
about that change. And that's why it happened. 

Of course even with all these victories, we can't let up 
for a second, and we can't get tired. But if there's one thing 
we've learned in the past two years, it's that the most rest- 
ful, energizing thing we can do is fight for a better world. 

See the fine print on page A2 for a few ways to do that. 



Lobbyists Are Citizens Too 



You won't read many stories critical of the 
recently-passed "Ban on Lobbying" bill, H.R. 
27865, whether in this newspaper or any oth- 
er media outlet. Lobbyists have been treated 
as pariahs by the press, by both candidates 
in the latest elections, and in popular culture. 
They have been called "the root of the prob- 
lem" in Washington, and much worse. The 
newly proposed ban on capital punishment 
even has a temporary exemption clause — 
for lobbyists! 

As a lobbyist 1 vehemently object to this 
treatment. 

Let me remind you of something. We are 
people. We are citizens. All U.S. citizens are 
guaranteed the right to petition the govern- 
ment for redress of grievances; nowhere in 
our founding documents does it say those 
citizens can't be well paid to do so. 

We have worked closely with most politi- 
cians — including both Barack Obama and 
John McCain. What lobbyists do is figure out 
how to sway politicians to vote on legislation 
in a way that favors the interest they repre- 
sent. They educate and inform members of 
Congress on issues that will come before 
them for a vote. Much of the information pro- 
vided to elected officials by lobbyists cannot 
be found in any library or newspaper, nor in 
any way whatsoever... except from the lob- 
byists themselves. This is what makes us in- 
dispensable. 

It is indeed true that our services are only 
available to those who can afford them, and 
it's true that on any issue, both sides can't 
always afford the same things. But that's ex- 
actly where the problem lies. The problem 
isn't lobbyists, it's a lack of sufficient money 
in Washington. 

For example, the top five spenders among 
mortgage bankers and brokers invested more 
than $31 million on lobbying and campaign 
contributions during the past election cycle. 
With the help of us lobbyists, the financial 
services industry successfully stopped the 
government from regulating the frenzy of bor- 
rowing and buying during the housing boom. 



a frenzy that enriched hundreds. 

Lobbyists were also successful in prevent- 
ing Congress from taking steps to help fami- 
lies keep their homes despite an inability to 
repay their mortgages — which would have 
hurt bankers and brokers. 




But we lobbyists would be more than will- 
ing to work for whomsoever could afford us. 
That is why Congress needs to grant first- 
time homeowners, indigenous peoples, the 
urban poor, recent immigrants, working-class 
families, and other embattled groups enough 
funding to compete for our services against 
those with opposite interests. 

We lobbyists have been willing to comply 
with the rules and laws that Congress adopts. 
For example, the Fair Elections Now Act 
(S.1285), which mandated that candidates 
for Senate run on public funding only, made 
our role nearly irrelevant in those races. We 
fought against that legislation with all the in- 
fluence we had, but we lost, and we accepted 
our loss. We did not attempt a coup. 

If Congress passes the "Ban on Lobbying" 
bill, we will likewise comply with it, though 
not without a fight. Because the "Ban on 
Lobbying" bill is not only unfair, it is wrong- 
headed. 



i^^^Tfe^-^*^ 




A Baboon Study Remembered 

Until very recently, we in this country 
couldn't imagine life without the aggressive 
baboons who, by hook and by crook (mostly 
by crook), were dominating our politics. But 
then one day, those baboons ate out of the 
garbage dump of a deeply mad foreign policy, 
and quickly killed themselves off. 

We are not baboons, of course. For one 
thing, no microbes killed off our jerks; rather, 
we nicer folks did it. For another, the resource- 
hunting adventures of our own hostile males 
didn't result in just a few dinged-up fat guys, 
but rather one million dead and four and a 
half million refugees. 

Another key difference between us and For- 
est Troop may be that in our case, it wasn't 
enough to rid ourselves of some of the creep 
baboons at the top. A lot of the supposedly 
gentler ones voted for war as well. Rather, 
right after the elections, and for many months 
after, we had to keep pushing with all our 
might to make sure that everyone, at all lev- 
els of power, understood that America would 
now be a culture of peace and generosity. 

Fortunately, that's just what we did. And 
though human nature hasn't changed, nor 
the nature of politics, we've made our desires 
so clear that there is now no more room in 
Forest Troop U.S.A. for the garbage adventur- 
ing that dominated our last thirty years. 



While thinking about the recent changes 
in this country, 1 recalled an article by Rob- 
ert M. Sapolsky (in Foreign Affairs, January 
2006), who lived for a while among a troop of 
baboons in the wild, and witnessed a remark- 
able transformation. 

Forest Troop was initially composed of 
a regular mixture of baboons: gentle ones, 
mean ones, and a few in-between. One day, 
a nearby hotel expanded its garbage dump, 
and another troop of baboons claimed the 
dump as territory and primary food source. 
Forest Troop's meaner males (let's call them 
Clique W) decided they would raid this excit- 
ing new resource, even if that meant beating 
up a number of the newly obese males from 
the garbage dump troop. 

After feasting on the other troop's half- 
rotten hamburgers for a while. Clique W got 
what was coming to them and died of food- 
borne tuberculosis. All that remained in For- 
est Troop were females and nice males. And 
even today, at fifteen years after all the origi- 
nal docile males died of old age. Forest Troop 
remains a gentle culture, much more welcom- 
ing to new members, with a lot less fighting 
and a lot more cooperation, and a lot more 
playing with each other's hair, even among 
adult males. And new members quickly learn 
that things are different in Forest Troop. 



Letters to the Editor 



To the Editor: 

Re "Viva Free Trade with Cuba!" Page A6, 
July 2, 2009. 

In addition to the benefits from ending the 
embargo on Cuba listed by your reporter 
(family visits for some of us, fabulous cigars 
for all of us, and affordable vacations that in- 
clude the rental of vintage red Thunderbird 
convertibles), there is one more that went un- 
mentioned: world-class public health medical 
schools. 

In contrast to the United States, where stu- 
dents have been learning what the biotech, 
medical engineering, and pharmaceutical 
companies want them to learn, Cuba's medi- 
cal schools will be a natural destination for 
the new crop of medical students who will be 
the foot soldiers of our country's shift to uni- 
versal health care. 

Your readers may remember that in 1998, 
following the public health emergencies occa- 
sioned by severe hurricanes, Fidel Castro of- 
fered free medical education for low-income 
students from anj^where in the Americas, in- 
cluding the United States. Since then, the Lat- 
in American School of Medicine has become 
the world's largest medical school and has 
graduated tens of thousands of students. 

At a time when the mortality rate in the U.S. 



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has been rising, and the average U.S. lifespan 
declining, the lifting of the Cuba embargo 
provides an invaluable opportunity to part- 
ner with the world expert on training doctors 
in inexpensive, preventative treatments for 
common illnesses. Cuba will be the perfect 
partner for training the doctors who will rev- 
olutionize health care in this country. 

Meredith Kohr 
Miami, Fla., July 3, 2009 
■ 
To the Editor: 

Here at the nursing home we've all been 
glued to the TV set watching the withdrawal 
from Iraq. For as long as 1 remember, in all 
my 93 years, war has been all around me. 
My grandfather fell as a Rough Rider during 
the Spanish-American War, my mother and 
father served in World War 1 (my mother 
as a nurse). And 1 grew up a military brat, 
moving from base to base. When 1 met him, 
my second husband was the most active 
American Legion Post director you'd ever 
hope to meet! 

So 1 feel slightly lost in this new world 
of peace. But I'm glad to leave behind the 
military lingo, uniforms, and sacrafices. Can 
1 get used to it? Can 1 really attend my great- 
grandson's graduation without worrying if I'll 
see him live to 24? Should 1 go ahead and tell 
my niece that even though I'm not sure 1 fully 
approve, that if 1 ask, she can tell? 

1 suppose I'll adjust to this strange new 
environment. 

Ruth Principe 
Summit, N.J., July 2, 2009 



A14 



THE NEW YORK TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 




What is KBR? 

We're a leading engineering, construction and services company, and we worl( 
with governments to quickly and efficiently enact policy. 



For the past ten years, we've supported military operations in pursuit of precious 
resources in Iraq. 



We've fed, housed, and transported soldiers. We've constructed, operated, and 
maintained military bases. We've rebuilt pipelines to get oil to American cars in 
record time. 



So why are we celehrating the outhreak of peace? 

We're a solutions company, and we do what needs to be done. 



Today, as government policy changes, KBR's mandate changes with it. Planning 
municipal roads and power grids. Building hospitals, schools, and municipal 
buildings. Improving sanitation. Training teachers, social workers, and civil ser- 
vice employees. It's a new world, with a lot to get used to — but after all, we're a 
solutions company. 



Discover the new KBR. 



If you make it law, we'll make It work.