news/notes20090426a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Ma Rainey
The first great African American professional blues vocalist, Ma Rainey, was born this day in 1886 in Georgia and contributed greatly to the evolution and popularity of the blues form in the early 20th century.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

1986: Chernobyl nuclear accident
A devastating environmental catastrophe occurred early this morning in 1986 when an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.


[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Hot arrivals from Mexico face swine flu scrutiny
（メキシコ発豚インフルエンザに検査体制を強化）

CHIBA (Kyodo) Japan went on high alert for swine flu Saturday in light of the deadly outbreaks in Mexico, tightening health checks and inspections on passengers and live pigs arriving from the country.

The quarantine station at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture began using thermographic imaging to check passengers' temperatures to detect fevers that could be caused by swine flu infections, quarantine officials said.

Thermographic imaging uses infrared cameras to measure body temperatures. The cameras will be installed in front of the arrival gate for flights from Mexico.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry also told animal quarantine offices across Japan on Saturday to check live pigs brought into Japan for possible infection.

It has not requested that imported pork products be checked because the virus dies when heated, and the chance of the virus adhering to pork is quite low, it said.

In 2008, 164 pigs were imported for breeding purposes from the United States, which has also dealt with human swine flu infections, and none from Mexico, the ministry said.

At Kansai International Airport, quarantine officials began asking people returning from Mexico to report fevers, coughing or any other potential symptoms to its quarantine office.

The airport installed a thermographic device in 2003 to deal with the outbreak of the respiratory virus SARS and will use it to check passengers from Mexico. Since there are no direct flights from Mexico to Kansai airport, the officials will check those who returning from the country via the United States.

However, swine flu has not yet been designated as an infectious disease requiring quarantine inspections, and airport officials will contact the health ministry whether to determine whether it is appropriate to isolate passengers who appear to have symptoms of swine flu.

A liaison office was set up at the crisis management center in the prime minister's office to gather information on the outbreak, and the health ministry set up 10 telephone lines in the afternoon for consultations on the issue that were soon clogged by anxious callers.

Yoshio Namba, head of the health ministry's swine flu task force, told the public not to panic on Saturday and asked people to act on correct information. The number for telephone consultations is (03) 3501-9031.

The health ministry has prepared leaflets to raise awareness about the epidemic among travelers to Mexico and the United States, which has also reported human infections, and the Foreign Ministry urged those set to travel to Mexico to consider canceling.

More than 5,000 Japanese are living in Mexico, but the government has not received any reports on potential infections, it said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a news conference that a task force headed by Prime Minister Taro Aso will be set up if the World Health Organization concludes that the swine flu virus in Mexico is a new strain that can cause human-to-human infections.

Japanese companies with production bases in Mexico, however, were busy trying to gather information on the outbreak.

Toyota Motor Corp. began preparing to send masks to its plants in the U.S. and Canada, while Nissan Motor Co. has ordered local employees to see doctors if they get symptoms.

Home appliance makers operating in Mexico, including Hitachi Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Sharp Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co., issued similar orders.


[BUSINESS NEWS]

Sunday, April 26, 2009
G7 finance chiefs cling to hope
（Ｇ７共同声明採択：経済回復年内に始まる）

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial powers agreed Friday to continue to take every step possible to restore growth and prevent a recurrence of the crisis the world is now experiencing, while maintaining hope the economy will pick up later this year.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G7, meeting in Washington, struck a somewhat optimistic note on the future, their first since last September, when the financial crisis exploded in their faces and crippled credit markets worldwide.

But they did not forget to warn the world that the global economy is still filled with downside risks.

"Recent data suggest that the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging," they said in a joint statement. "Economic activity should begin to recover later this year amid a continued weak outlook, and downside risks persist."

After the one-day meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner cautioned policymakers around the world against complacency.

"It's too early to conclude that we are beginning to emerge from this remarkably challenging set of pressures," Geithner, hosting a ministerial meeting for the first time, said at a news conference.

The finance chiefs underscored the importance of nailing down commitments made in London by leaders of the Group of 20 in early April.

"As our leaders underscored in London, we are committed to act together to restore jobs and growth and to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from occurring again," said the communique released by the chiefs from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

"We will take whatever actions are necessary to accelerate the return to trend growth, while preserving long-term fiscal sustainability," it said.

These actions, they said, include restoring lending, offering liquidity help, injecting capital into struggling financial institutions, protecting savings and deposits, and dealing with impaired assets.

The G-7 assessed the global economic outlook, market developments and the actions taken so far, as well as discussing regulatory reform, to counter the crisis at a time when some positive signs in capital markets have also been noticed.

"The worst may be over. That's my understanding" of what the statement "indirectly expressed" about the state of the world economy, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said at a news conference.

Still, the International Monetary Fund's latest economic outlook report, released earlier this week, said the world economy is projected to contract 1.3 percent this year, against the previous estimate in January of 0.5 percent growth, which was already the worst pace since World War II.

The G-7 statement welcomed the progress being made to expand the role of the IMF in the global economy, such as the issue of tripling its leading resources to $750 billion, one of the central achievements of the London summit.


[BUSINESS NEWS]

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Shinsei, Aozora discuss merger
（新生、あおぞら銀：統合へ）

(Kyodo News) Shinsei Bank and Aozora Bank are in talks about merging and are looking to establish a joint holding company in summer 2010, which would create Japan's sixth-biggest bank in terms of assets, sources close to the matter said Saturday.

The two banks, which were formerly providers of long-term credit to businesses, are owned chiefly by U.S. hedge funds J.C. Flowers & Co., which has a stake of about 33 percent in Shinsei, and Cerberus Capital Management L.P., which has an interest of some 45 percent in Aozora.

Given that both banks are said to be considering linking up with other financial institutions, what the U.S. shareholders decide is expected to determine the outcome of the talks.

Both banks are strong in corporate financing and corporate rehabilitation operations. A merger will likely help them create economies of scale and therefore reinforce their competitive edge.

Combining the two would create an institution with over 18 trillion in assets, sixth among Japanese commercial banks and larger than Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Shinsei and Aozora were both nationalized in 1998. After they were brought largely under private ownership in 2000, they revamped their operations under the guidance of their U.S. shareholders and others but remained under partial ownership by the Japanese government.

Both banks anticipate net losses in the year ended in March after suffering huge losses on risky overseas investments that went south when the global financial crisis exploded and the recession ensued.

The Financial Services Agency has been paying close attention to the banks' earnings and asset status and is believed to be calling on them to take radical steps to improve operations, including the option of industry restructuring.

news/notes20090426b

[Today's News] from [The Guardian]

Swine flu: fears of pandemic rise as Mexico death toll reaches 80
Suspected cases reported in US and New Zealand as WHO says virus has 'pandemic potential'

Tracy McVeigh, Matthew Weaver and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 26 April 2009 10.40 BST
Article history

The death toll from an outbreak of a human swine flu virus has risen to more than 80 in Mexico as new suspected cases have been reported as far apart as Auckland in New Zealand and New York in the United States.

The World Health Organisation said at least 81 people had died from severe pneumonia caused by the flu-like illness in Mexico. It said the virus has pandemic potential but it has stopped short of issuing a worldwide alert, while it gathers more information.

The New Zealand government announced today it was "likely" that ten students have who had recently returned from Mexico have contracted the virus.

Twenty-five students and teachers in New Zealand, some with flu-like symptoms, were quarantined and tested for swine flu after returning from a trip to Mexico. The group, from New Zealand's largest high school, returned to the northern city of Auckland yesterday on a flight from Los Angeles.

Eight students at school in the Queens area of New York are a "likely" to have contracted the virus, according to the New York Times.

In London, tests showed that a member of cabin crew on a British Airways flight from Mexico City did not have swine flu. The man, who has not been named, was taken to hospital yesterday with "flu-like symptoms" after landing at Heathrow.

A hospital spokesman said: "I can confirm he does not have swine flu. All the tests have come back negative."

The UK Health Protection Agency said it was keeping a close eye on the situation involving human cases of swine influenza in case of any threat to people in this country.

Mexican authorities ordered the closure of schools in the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi until 6 May. Soldiers and health workers patrolled airports and bus stations, looking for people showing symptoms, which include a fever of more than 100 degrees and coughing.

Twenty people are known to have died in Mexico so far out of a total of 1,004 reported cases, and 48 more deaths are thought to be attributable to the outbreak.

At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas. The most recently reported California case, the seventh there, was a 35-year-old woman who was treated in hospital but recovered. The woman, whose illness began in early April, had no known contact with the other cases. At least two more cases have been confirmed in Kansas.

State health officials said yesterday they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico. They have not been hospitalised, and the state described their illnesses as mild. Dr Jason Eberhart-Phillips, Kansas's state health officer, said: "Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves."

The Mexican government yesterday issued a decree authorising President Felipe Calderón to invoke powers allowing the country's health department to isolate patients and inspect homes, travellers and baggage. Mexico's health secretary, José Angel Córdova, said: "We are very, very concerned."

Yesterday, people in Mexico City were being ordered not to kiss or shake hands. Football matches went ahead without spectators, theatres, shops and museums were closed, staff were inside locked schools scrubbing classrooms with disinfectant, and health workers patrolled buses, ordering sickly looking people home.

Scientists have long feared that a new flu virus could launch a worldwide pandemic. Evolving when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material, a hybrid could spread quickly because humans would have no natural defences.

The director general of the WHO said: "We are seeing a range of severity of the disease, from mild to severe, and of course death. The eight cases in the US have been mild in terms of severity and it is too premature to calculate the mortality rate of this disease."

Any doubts over the extent of the emergency were dispelled last night by the sight of soldiers handing out blue surgical masks to pedestrians and motorists along Mexico City's central boulevard, Paseo de la Reforma. With TV and radio calling on the population to seek medical advice for any flu-like symptoms, queues grew at clinics and hospitals across the city.

Calderón said his government learned only on Thursday night what kind of virus Mexico was facing after tests by specialist laboratories in Canada confirmed the outbreak as a type - labelled A/H1N1 - not previously seen in pigs or humans. Few of the cases appear to have had any contact with live pigs.

The WHO said the virus appeared to be able to spread from human to human and contained human virus, avian virus and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Given how quickly flu can spread, there might be cases incubating around the world already, said Dr Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota: "Hundreds and thousands of travellers come in and out [of Mexico] every day."

It was unclear how much protection current vaccines might offer. A "seed stock" genetically matched to the new virus has already been created by the US Centres for Disease Control. If the US government decides vaccine production is necessary, it would be used by manufacturers to get started.

At Mexico City's international airport, passengers were questioned to try to prevent anyone with flu symptoms from boarding aircraft and spreading the disease. The Foreign Office issued a warning to UK travellers about the outbreak, but stopped short of recommending people did not visit Mexico. US health officials took a similar line, urging visitors to wash their hands frequently.

news/notes20090426c

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Landlord Frank McHugh lives above rules and regulations
For decades, officials have failed to end his pattern of violations, despite investigations and fines. Many of his tenants continue to live in squalid conditions.

By Jessica Garrison and Kim Christensen
April 26, 2009

Frank McHugh had been warned repeatedly that the railings on a third-floor walkway at one of his apartment buildings were so widely spaced that children could fall through.

Concerned for their kids, tenants used wire coat hangers to rig their own safety guards. McHugh left the problem unfixed until one day in October 1991, when 18-month-old Edgar Repreza plunged through the gap and slammed into the concrete about 20 feet below, suffering permanent brain damage.

"His brother, who was about 5 at the time, saw him fall," said Alison Baird, the lawyer who obtained a settlement of more than $1 million for the family. "It was terrible."

Despite the big payout, and the tragic consequences for a little boy and his family, the 1991 incident did not end a pattern of repeated health and safety violations at McHugh's buildings. Nor did it or other incidents spur public officials to force him to significantly change his practices.

For more than 50 years, McHugh, 84, has bought apartment buildings mostly in Los Angeles' poorer neighborhoods and filled them primarily with immigrant tenants. And for at least a generation, he has been investigated, cited and denounced by city and county officials. Almost three decades ago, then-City Atty. Ira Reiner accused McHugh of dealing in "blood money" and threatened to send him to jail.

But McHugh continued to buy more properties and build an ever-longer record of flouting health and safety codes.

Prosecutors say McHugh told them last summer that he owned more than 140 Los Angeles properties, which by various estimates housed more than 8,000 people. Many of his buildings have fallen prey to rats, cockroaches and mold, and are plagued by inoperative plumbing and rotting ceilings that cave in with regularity, according to court records.

Now, city prosecutors once again are seeking to shut McHugh down. In 2007, they charged him with multiple fire and health code violations. As part of a plea deal, he agreed last fall to sell all of his Los Angeles rentals within three years. The deal allowed him to avoid jail time.

McHugh, of Marina del Rey, has declined repeated interview requests. His lawyer, Harold Greenberg, says McHugh is complying with the court order and that he has been targeted unfairly by authorities.

His tenants and their advocates say they are waiting to see whether this latest attempt at enforcement will work, some expressing skepticism because of a long history of ineffective enforcement involving McHugh's buildings.

In January, the front half of a Koreatown four-plex that the city Housing Department had signed off on as habitable nine months earlier suddenly collapsed. Four people suffered minor injuries and more than 20 were left homeless.

In the 2007 violations, city housing inspectors had cleared one of two buildings as habitable, only to have health and fire officials come in months later and find violations serious enough to put McHugh in jail.

The failure to regulate him effectively goes back decades.

It was in April 1982 that Reiner blasted McHugh as one of five "heavy hitters" among Los Angeles slumlords.

"We aren't talking about landlords who are just in over their heads, unable to maintain a building properly," Reiner said at the time. "We are talking about men in the slum business. Men who buy slums and maintain slums. . . . People who deal in blood money."

Reiner pledged to send McHugh and the other landlords to jail, saying no other penalty would work. "For them," he said, "a fine is merely a cost of doing business."

But a fine is what McHugh got. On Oct. 25, 1982, according to records from the city attorney's office, McHugh pleaded guilty and received a fine of $500 per count. The city attorney's handwritten notes on the case do not indicate how many counts he faced, and court records are incomplete.

Other subsequent attempts to prosecute him on misdemeanor charges had similarly minimal effects, records show.

In 2003 he was prosecuted again, for fire code violations, but the charges were dismissed. A year later, he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from habitability violations, paid less than $1,000 in fines and took a "property management course" on how to be a better landlord.

"He's played the system like a violin for many, many years," said UCLA law professor Gary Blasi, who helped craft Los Angeles' slum housing laws and who has known of McHugh for years. "He is really good."

Greenberg said his client has thus far sold 20 to 30 properties. He also said his client has been demonized by tenants and advocacy groups.

"He's an easy target. He's an old man," said Greenberg, who contends that many of the problems in McHugh's buildings are the result of tenant neglect and illegal overcrowding.

"You know how many tenants have been prosecuted? Zip," he said. "They go after the landlords, not the tenants. Everybody talks about slumlords. Who talks about the tenants from hell, tenants who literally destroy things?"

McHugh rents primarily to poor people, many of whom are here illegally and are willing to put up with shabby conditions in exchange for low rents, or because other landlords won't take them, advocates and officials say. Many McHugh tenants also share small apartments with extended families -- overcrowding that many landlords would not allow.

"There's a kind of silent agreement between him and his tenants: 'I'll give you low rent and you never complain -- and I never have to talk to you again or fix anything,' " said Ziv Kozaski, a real estate broker and investor who bought one of McHugh's buildings in 2007 and said it was a "nightmare."

Mercedes Marquez, head of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said McHugh is well-known to her inspectors for doing the minimum repairs required by law. She insists that her department does all it can to protect renters, noting that its inspection program has won national awards.

"The Housing Department is committed to ensuring safe and habitable housing for all of its residents," she said. "We understand that as our housing ages, and as bad actors come to light, that we have to challenge ourselves to do even better, and that is what we will do."

Still, some city officials and advocates say the city's Housing Department could do more and expressed frustration that it had referred only one case against McHugh for prosecution in the last nine years.

McHugh was born in 1925 in Mohill, Ireland, one of eight children in a well-to-do family. His father, an Irish-born U.S. citizen, raised alfalfa and sheep on 1,000 acres he owned in Oregon before returning to his homeland in 1920 and buying an English lord's estate, complete with a castle, a relative said.

Frank, his twin brother, Charlie, and their siblings resettled in the United States after World War II, drawn by their father's loving description of the country, said the relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was afraid McHugh's tenants might direct their anger at her.

McHugh arrived in Los Angeles around 1950 and worked as a butcher and a machinist while saving to buy rental properties, many with his late sister Christine O'Donovan or other siblings. His daughter Teri McHugh, a psychologist with offices in Beverly Hills and Malibu, is in business with him now; she did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"Real estate has been his whole life," McHugh's relative said. "He was very good at it and very shrewd. He would always make sure to know exactly what the value of the property was. I don't think he has ever made a mistake on buying something that was overpriced."

For McHugh it was always "reinvest, reinvest, reinvest," according to the relative, who said McHugh was less interested in accumulating wealth than he was in acquiring a large number of buildings -- he viewed it as a measure of accomplishment.

For a man who owns tens of millions of dollars in real estate, McHugh by all accounts lives modestly. He owns two Toyotas and lives in a weathered, three-bedroom, 1,688-square-foot condo he bought in 1984 for $215,000, public records show.

"He's a nice neighbor. He's very quiet. He's friendly. That's all I can tell you," said Dan Christy, who lives two doors away. "I hardly ever see him."

Others know McHugh as a philanthropist whose family foundation has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to children's charities and animal welfare groups, among others.

Recipients include the Children's Lifesaving Foundation, a Santa Monica nonprofit that provides summer camp stays and other services to homeless and poor children. McHugh gave the group a total of $83,750 in 2006 and 2007, according to the most recent IRS filings available.

"The grants have been an enormous help, have always been generous and always have come at particularly opportune times for the CLF," said Chief Operating Officer Francesca McCaffery. "They have been a true blessing, this year especially!"

CONTINUED ON news/notes20090426d

news/notes20090426d

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Landlord Frank McHugh lives above rules and regulations
For decades, officials have failed to end his pattern of violations, despite investigations and fines. Many of his tenants continue to live in squalid conditions.

By Jessica Garrison and Kim Christensen
April 26, 2009

CONTINUED FROM news/notes20090426c

His tenants and their advocates see a different picture.

Gudelia Peralta, 37, has rented a small apartment on East 50th Street from McHugh for 10 years. It is infested with mice, cockroaches and other insects that bite her three young children.

Sitting on her bed while her children played and bugs scuttled in the kitchen, the native of Guerrero, Mexico, said her family would like to move but their apartment is rent-controlled at $530 a month.

But there is a cost to living in such apartments.

Jim Mangia, president of St. John's Well Child and Family Center, a nonprofit community clinic in South Los Angeles, said he first met McHugh about six years ago. Clinic nurses conducting a health study reported a disturbing uptick of neighborhood children with lead poisoning and asthma, as well as dozens of cases of kids with cockroaches lodged in their ears -- which can cause chronic ear infections.

The nurses discovered that many of the sick children lived in buildings owned by McHugh, said Mangia, who met McHugh when the landlord went to the clinic to ask why clinic staff members were visiting his buildings.

In lawsuits and in interviews at buildings that records show McHugh owns personally or through a family trust, tenants complain of bad plumbing, rodent infestations and swarms of cockroaches.

"Plaintiffs are disgusted with the bedbugs, which latch onto them while they sleep, suck plaintiffs' blood until they are gorged, and stubbornly resist eradication," according to allegations in a 2008 lawsuit, which echoed similar complaints from earlier civil suits.

At 2:45 a.m. on June 17, 1988, Sonia Albanez was awakened by the screams of her 2-month-old daughter, Norma.

"The baby's mother discovered a large rat was biting on the minor's foot and the foot was bleeding," a 1989 lawsuit alleged.

McHugh settled the case for $341.28, plus medical expenses, records show.

By fall 2006, community organizers at the tenants rights group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, known as SAJE, launched a campaign against McHugh.

Representatives of the group met with McHugh but said he did not fulfill their demands for repairs. They decided to target him with public protests, including one last Halloween when tenants trekked from their rundown units near downtown to McHugh's condo in Marina del Rey. The children dressed as cockroaches and adults held signs declaring McHugh L.A.'s "Worst Landlord."

A year before that protest, SAJE got the attention of prosecutors. A newly appointed manager in the housing unit of the city attorney's office met with McHugh tenants and taught them how to file complaints with city and county regulatory agencies -- and also referred 15 properties for inspection by a special city-county slum housing task force.

Acting on violations found by health and fire inspectors, the city attorney filed 57 charges against McHugh in October 2007 -- enough to put him in jail if convicted.

Last summer, McHugh's lawyer and prosecutors worked out the deal in which he pleaded guilty to more than two dozen counts and agreed to sell.

McHugh showed no emotion when he appeared in court in the fall and took the deal. On that day, at least, it seemed that city officials and tenants who had fought him had won a victory. But seven months later, tenant advocates say they doubt conditions will improve any time soon for his tenants.

"He's a friendly, charming man," said Albert Lowe, a research director for SAJE. "He'll say, 'I'll do what I can because I care about people, I care about my tenants.' And then he'll go back to his old ways."

news/notes20090426e

[Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

Iraq Resists Pleas by U.S. to Placate Hussein’s Party
Mohammed Salman al-Saady, the Iraqi prime minister’s adviser for reconciliation, acknowledged “fundamental differences” with the United States over policy toward the Baathists.

By SAM DAGHER
Published: April 25, 2009

BAGHDAD — On April 18, American and British officials from a secretive unit called the Force Strategic Engagement Cell flew to Jordan to try to persuade one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals — the commander of the final defense of Baghdad in 2003 — to return home to resume efforts to make peace with the new Iraq.

But the Iraqi commander, Lt. Gen. Raad Majid al-Hamdani, rebuffed them.

After a year of halting talks mediated by the Americans, he said, he concluded that Iraq’s leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, simply was not interested in reconciliation.

The American appeal — described by General Hamdani and not previously reported — illustrates what could become one of the biggest obstacles to stability in Iraq. Mr. Maliki’s pledges to reconcile with some of the most ardent opponents of his government have given way to what some say is a hardening sectarianism that threatens to stoke already simmering political tensions and rising anger over a recent spate of bombings aimed at Shiites.

On March 28, Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-led government arrested a prominent Sunni leader on charges of heading a secret armed wing of Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party. A week later, the prime minister accused Baathists of orchestrating car bombings that killed more than 40 people. On Monday, he lashed out again, saying the Baath Party was “filled with hate from head to toe.”

Mr. Maliki’s earlier effort to reunite the country was one of Washington’s primary benchmarks for measuring political progress in Iraq. The goal was to separate Baathist opponents of the government who were considered more willing to trade violence for political power from intractable extremists, many of them religious.

Early last year, under intense American pressure, Mr. Maliki pushed through Parliament a law to ease restrictions on the return of Baath Party members to public life. But 15 months later, the law has yet to be put into effect.

Mr. Maliki’s retreat risks polarizing Iraqis again and eroding hard-fought security gains. One hundred sixty people died in bombings on Thursday and Friday alone. There is no evidence that Baathists were involved, but fears are rising that they and jihadi insurgents are increasingly cooperating in areas, Baghdad especially, that have been largely quiet over the last year.

Mr. Maliki has changed his tone despite American pressure to reconcile with some officials under Mr. Hussein, most of them Sunni Arabs.

“He is no different from the political and religious leaders who are driven by emotions and animosity toward anything related to the past,” General Hamdani said of Mr. Maliki, in a written response to questions about his talks with the government.

The prime minister’s return to a hard line appears to be motivated by a number of factors.

Despite Mr. Maliki’s success in provincial elections in January and in projecting himself as a strong nonsectarian leader, his Dawa Party recognizes that it still needs his Shiite partners to govern. And his Shiite rivals, many of whom are close to Iran, have accused him of recently orchestrating a wholesale return of Baathists to bolster his standing with the Sunni minority. Mr. Maliki, political experts say, cannot afford to alienate fellow Shiites ahead of the general elections in December.

Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite politician who led the push six years ago to purge Iraq of the Baath Party, said that despite Mr. Maliki’s pragmatic efforts to court Sunni support, the prime minister retained a visceral hatred for everything associated with the Baath Party and the brutal former regime. Mr. Maliki is also suspicious of bringing back some of the Sunni old guard, which Mr. Chalabi says is part of an American plan “to stiffen Iraq into opposing Iran and help integrate Iraq back into the Arab fold.”

All of this has bewildered many Sunni Arabs who advocate reconciliation, and has mobilized the hard-liners. General Hamdani insisted that he represented only officials of the former military and security apparatus and was not negotiating for the exiled Baathist leadership, but he said any concessions from the government would have inched reconciliation forward.

He sensed this nearly two months ago, he said, when he met in the Sheraton Hotel in Amman, Jordan, with representatives of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a lieutenant of Mr. Hussein’s who is the last high-ranking fugitive from American forces, and who is believed to be helping to finance the insurgency. The two men told General Hamdani that Mr. Douri sent them to convey approval of his efforts to regain the jobs and property rights of former officers and to relax prohibitions against Baathists. General Hamdani said he had received even more favorable feedback from Mr. Douri’s rival for the party leadership, Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed. He said he had direct contacts with Mr. Ahmed.

But the hardening of the government’s stance on Baathists seems to be dousing any flicker of optimism. In a recent message, Mr. Douri rallied insurgents of all stripes to fight American troops and Mr. Maliki’s government.

From Washington’s point of view, reconciliation with approachable Baathists would isolate extremists like Mr. Douri’s followers. There lies the fundamental difference with the Iraqi side, which is shackled by its fears.

“The mere ideas of the Baath Party are dangerous because they are about conspiracies, infiltration and coups,” Kamal al-Saedi, a member of Parliament and one of Mr. Maliki’s partisans on the government’s reconciliation committee, said Wednesday.

The United States Embassy in Baghdad declined to answer any questions about the extent of American involvement in reconciliation talks.

General Hamdani said, however, that American and British officials had attended nearly every meeting since March 2008, in both Amman and Baghdad, between him, his associates and the Iraqi government.

Mr. Chalabi said that Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, a senior adviser on the National Security Council, received promises two months ago from one of Mr. Maliki’s aides to be “reasonable” concerning the Baathists.

Mr. Maliki’s adviser for reconciliation, Mohammed Salman al-Saady, said he knew nothing of those promises, but he acknowledged that Mr. Maliki’s government had “fundamental differences” with Washington over how far to extend reconciliation.

Mr. Saady said the talks with General Hamdani stalled because many of his demands were against government policy.

“According to the Constitution, holding negotiations with the Baath Party is a red line that cannot be crossed,” Mr. Saady said. But he underscored the government’s readiness to engage Baathists who renounced their party affiliation and accepted accountability for crimes they might have committed.

A Baath operative in hiding north of Baghdad said in an interview that if the government were to become serious about reconciliation, it would seek to amend the Constitution and let the party resume its role in public life, like the Communist Party after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“The Constitution is not a holy book — it can be amended,” he said.

news/notes20090426f

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

Obama Off to Solid Start, Poll Finds
But Release of Memos on Detainee Interrogations Reveals Deep Partisan Split

By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 26, 2009

Barack Obama's performance in the first 100 days of his presidency draws strong public approval in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but there is decidedly less support for his recent decision to release previously secret government memos on the interrogation of terrorism suspects, an initiative that reveals deep partisan fissures.

Overall, the public is about evenly divided on the questions of whether torture is justifiable in terrorism cases and whether there should be official inquiries into any past illegality involving the treatment of terrorism suspects. About half of all Americans, and 52 percent of independents, said there are circumstances in which the United States should consider employing torture against such suspects.

Barely more than half of all poll respondents back Obama's April 16 decision to release the memos specifying how and when to employ specific interrogation techniques. A third "strongly oppose" that decision, about as many as are solidly behind it. Three-quarters of Democrats said they approve of the action, while 74 percent of Republicans are opposed; independents split 50 to 46 percent in favor of the decision.

The release of the documents, which was fiercely debated at high levels within the government, met with quick fire from former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who said last week that companion memos showing the "success of the effort" should be declassified as well, arguing that the methods had "been enormously valuable in terms of saving lives, preventing another mass casualty attack against the United States."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who served in the same position in George W. Bush's administration, supported the release of the documents but said it made him "quite concerned with the potential backlash in the Middle East and in the theaters where we are involved in conflict -- that it might have a negative impact on our troops."

Americans also split about evenly on whether the new administration should investigate whether the kind of treatment meted out to terrorism suspects under the Bush administration broke laws, with 51 percent in favor of such inquiries and 47 percent in opposition. About seven in 10 Democrats support such action; a similar proportion of Republicans opposes it. As a candidate, Obama said: "I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of the Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems to solve."

The lukewarm response to Obama's actions on this front stand in stark contrast to his high ratings on handling terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of those polled said that, in general, his policies had either made the country safer from terrorism (32 percent) or not made much of a difference either way (43 percent).

Obama's overall rating remains high, with 69 percent of Americans approving of his job performance. He gets solid marks for his handling of the economy, maintaining a better-than-2-to-1 advantage over congressional Republicans on the issue. Majorities said that Obama has exceeded their expectations in his first three months in office, has accomplished big things and has kept his main campaign promises. Further, public optimism about the economy and the country's direction also remain on the rise since his election, even as few think his major economic initiatives have moved the needle on the nation's flagging economy, their communities or their finances.

Two-thirds of those polled approve of how Obama is handling international affairs in general, up slightly from last month, just before he embarked on his first European trip. Majorities of Americans also approve of how he is handling health care, global warming, taxes and Cuba, four areas in which the administration has tried to stake new ground in its first few months.

But Obama receives less glowing reviews on his handling of the burgeoning federal budget deficit and on immigration issues, where he is at the 50 percent mark, and he gets a negative rating on how he has dealt with the big U.S. automakers.

Beyond specific policy areas, Obama continues to get high personal favorability ratings across a range of attributes. Overall, 72 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the new president, down slightly from the eve of his inaugural but far higher than it was during the 2008 campaign. It is also about double Bush's favorability rating when he left office in January (37 percent) and above where Bill Clinton's was at this stage in 1993 (59 percent).

Nearly two-thirds said Obama has accomplished "a great deal" or "a good amount" in his first three months in office. In a Post-ABC poll at the 100-day mark in Clinton's first term, 37 percent said he had done that much. A majority, 54 percent, also said Obama had exceeded their expectations, significantly more than had said so of Clinton or Bush at the outset of their first terms.

Six in 10 Americans said Obama has kept most of his major campaign assurances, although most said he has not reduced the amount of political partisanship in Washington, as he had pledged to do. At the same time, 90 percent said he is willing to listen to different points of view, and close to two-thirds, 63 percent, said he has brought needed change to Washington.

About three-quarters of Americans see Obama as a "strong leader," as "honest and trustworthy," as empathetic and as someone who can be trusted in a crisis. Six in 10 said he is in sync with their values, and nearly as many rate him a good commander in chief.

Most (62 percent) continue to see Obama's views on most issues as "just about right" ideologically, despite significant GOP pushback on his initial policy stances.

With 69 percent approving of his job performance, Obama's rating is about the average for postwar presidents at the 100-day mark. Obama's support among Republicans, with 36 percent approving, is similar to Bush's showing among Democrats in late April 2001, and at that time Bush's rating was a touch lower among independents than Obama's is today (62 percent then compared with 67 percent). In April 1993, Clinton had somewhat less backing from the GOP (26 percent of Republicans approved) and from the middle (independents were at 58 percent).

General optimism about the national economy has increased, with 55 percent holding cheery views about the year ahead, the highest level in more than two years, but only a third of those polled said the new stimulus package has helped the overall economy. About a quarter said the same of their communities, and one in seven said their personal financial situation had improved as a result. Although few note immediate rewards, 59 percent said the government action either has or will boost the national economy.

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are getting a rougher treatment from Americans. Approval ratings for both parties in Congress have slipped since late February, and public confidence in their ability to make the right decisions for the country's future has dipped as well. Two months ago, independents were as apt to approve as disapprove of congressional Democrats; now 38 percent approve, and 55 percent do not.

There is a warning sign for the GOP in the new poll: 21 percent of those surveyed said they identify as Republicans, the fewest to do so in a Post-ABC poll in more than 25 years. Last fall, Democrats outnumbered Republicans at the polls by the biggest margin in network exit polls going back to the 1982 midterms.

The latest survey was conducted April 21 to 24 among a random national sample of 1,072 adults using standard and cellular phones. The results from the full poll have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

news/notes20090426g

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Harshly Enhanced, Painfully Brutal Coercion Techniques

By Roger McShane
Posted Sunday, April 26, 2009, at 6:21 AM ET

The Los Angeles Times leads with the CIA failing to thoroughly examine the value of "harsh" interrogation techniques despite calls to do so as early as 2003. "The limited resources spent examining whether the interrogation measures worked were in stark contrast to the energy the CIA devoted to collecting memos declaring the program legal," says the LAT. The New York Times leads with Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government resisting pleas by the United States to reconcile with former Baathists. The NYT say Maliki's intransigence "could become one of the biggest obstacles to stability in Iraq." The Washington Post leads with the World Health Organization fearing a potential swine flu pandemic. The outbreak has killed as many as 81 people in Mexico, where folks are afraid to go outside. Eleven Americans are also likely infected.

The LAT says that in the seven years the CIA used "severe interrogation techniques" on terrorist suspects, the agency never sought "a rigorous assessment of whether the methods were effective or necessary." In 2003, the agency's inspector general recommended a study by outside experts on whether the techniques worked, but Porter Goss, the CIA's former director, "turned instead to two former government officials with little background in interrogation." The Times says the resulting memos were limited in scope, led to no change in policy, and were not seen by Bush administration officials who spoke with the paper.

The administration that used these techniques may not have seriously considered their effectiveness, but the administration that banned them has set up a task force to study the matter. It's hard to see how the results will be anything but "unclear," the conclusion reached by the WP in its front-page report on the effectiveness of "harsh questioning." The Post focuses on the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who some officials say coughed up valuable intelligence. Here's the problem: "[W]hether harsh tactics were decisive in Mohammed's interrogation may never be conclusively known, in large part because the CIA appears not to have tried traditional tactics for much time, if at all."

You could spend all of Sunday reading the myriad opinion pieces on torture. In one of the more interesting columns, the NYT's public editor, Clark Hoyt, outlines the paper's internal debate over the use of the T-word. The Times prefers to describe the Bush administration's interrogation techniques as "harsh," though it recently moved up to "brutal." Why doesn't the Times use the word torture? Because "[r]eporters and editors need to leave moral and political judgments to editorial writers and readers," says Hoyt. But if that's so, why does the Times trot out the word torture when describing the actions of other countries?

Following the NYT's example, the WP finds itself in the odd position of referring to "harsh questioning" before describing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's interrogation, which included beatings, a forced enema, sleep deprivation, stress positions, extensive water-boarding, and being repeatedly slammed into a plywood wall, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The WP's David Broder also seems to fear the T-word, putting it in quotation marks. Yet he boldly describes America's use of "painful coercion" techniques as "one of the darkest chapters of American history." Nevertheless, Broder says attempts to bring the enablers of torture—ahem, painful coercion—to justice are motivated by "an unworthy desire for vengeance." Not the rule of law? Broder also says the recently released memos on torture were the result of a "deliberate, and internally well-debated, policy decision." But that's not what the NYT reported last week or what the LAT reports today.

Michael Scheuer joins the torture debate in the WP, bemoaning "the bipartisan dismantling of America's defenses based on the requirements of presidential ideology." Scheuer would seem to be a credible source on the matter, having served as chief of the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit. So it's too bad his op-ed reads like it was written by an angry child who thinks he's right and everyone else (Democrats, Republicans, whoever) is wrong. For a more measured take on the negative consequences for the CIA, see Walter Pincus' opinion piece.

In other news, on Saturday Hillary Clinton made a surprise trip to Iraq, where the United States has tried to play matchmaker between Nouri al-Maliki and former Baathist officials. In its lead story, the NYT reports that the prime minister has resisted America's efforts, despite paying lip service to reconciliation. Maliki's main adviser on the issue told the Times that the government had "fundamental differences" with Washington over how far to extend reconciliation. He wants the Baathists to renounce their party affiliation and admit their crimes. It's unclear what the Baathists want, other than an outstretched hand.

TP has a sincere question for the NYT regarding its lead story: Do you think it's responsible to continue using Ahmad Chalabi as a source, not just of opinions (Paragraph 13) but of information (Paragraph 20)?

Back on the home front, last week New York magazine chronicled the petulant "collective moan" rising from Wall Street, as the wealthy lose some of their wealth. But for those who've kept their jobs, things are turning around. The NYT reports, "Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong start of the year for bank profits."

The WP and NYT devote space to Barack Obama's first 100 days. The Post asks a select group of contributors to map out "the next phase of the Obama administration." The Times asks five presidential historians to compare Obama's start in office with those of other modern presidents. In a separate article, the NYT says Republicans have "lots of room for improvement" after nearly 100 days of the new administration.

The LAT reports on Lila Rose, a UCLA student who goes undercover at Planned Parenthood clinics posing as an underage girl made pregnant by a 31-year-old man. Rose videotapes her interactions in order to inspire outrage over what abortion foes see as the organization's wrongdoings.

In entertainment news, the director of the new $150 million Star Trek film tells the NYT that he was "not a fan" of the original series. The WP reports on the debate over whether Susan Boyle, the somewhat homely Scottish singing sensation, should have had a $57 makeover. And the NYT's real-estate section profiles a Broadway couple and their East Village apartment. But skip the article and watch the accompanying When Harry Met Sally-like audio slide show, which is sure to give you a toothache.

The NYT reviews a new book on religion that argues "God is back, for better." In my opinion, it's a wonderful book written by two brilliant and thoughtful authors. That one of them is my boss has nothing to do with it.

Professor Mohammed … In its story on interrogations, sources tell the WP that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "continued to be a valued source of information long after the coercive interrogation ended. Indeed, he has gone on to lecture CIA agents in a classroom-like setting, on topics from Greek philosophy to the structure of al-Qaeda, and wrote essays in response to questions. ..." So maybe that's what the paper meant by "harsh questioning."