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STUDY PLAN
MORE RELIGION
IN INDONESIA
PAGE 7
|
EDUCATION
SMART GADGETS
ADDED PIXELS,
BIGGER SCREENS
PAGE 14
|
BUSINESSWITH
WEB DESIGN
THE GOOD, BAD
AND EXCELLENT
PAGE 10
|
CULTURE
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013
GLOBAL.NYTIMES.COM
Ad blocking
raises alarm
among firms
like Google
PARIS
In speech,
Assad erases
hopes for
compromise
BEIRUT
Update by French firm
threatens income flow
that supports free content
His peace plan rules out
talks with rebels as he
disregards calls to resign
BY DAVID JOLLY
Xavier Niel, the French technology en-
trepreneur, has made a career of dis-
rupting the status quo.
Now, he has dared to take on Google
and other online advertisers in a battle
that puts the Web companies under
pressure to use the wealth generated by
the ads to help pay for the network
pipelines that deliver the content.
Mr. Niel’s telecommunications com-
pany, Free, which has an estimated 5.2
million Internet-access users in France,
began last week to enable its customers
to block Web advertising. The company
is updating users’ software with an ad-
blocking feature as the default setting.
That move has raised alarm among
companies that, like Google, have based
their entire business models on provid-
ing free content to consumers by fes-
tooning Web pages with paid advertise-
ments. Although Google so far has kept
largely silent about Free’s challenge,
the reaction from the small Web operat-
ors who live and die by online ads has
been vociferous.
No Internet access provider ‘‘has the
right to decide in place of its citizens
what they access or not on the Inter-
net,’’ Spiil, an association of French on-
line news publishers, said in a state-
ment Friday.
The French government has stepped
into the fray. On Monday Fleur Pellerin,
the French minister for the digital econ-
omy, plans to convene a meeting of the
feuding parties to seek a resolution.
Free’s shock to advertisers was
widely seen as an attack on Google, and
is part of the larger, global battle over
the question of who should pay to deliv-
er information on the Web — content
providers or Internet service providers.
An attempt to rewrite the rules failed at
the December talks of the International
Telecommunication Union in Dubai,
BY ANNE BARNARD
Sounding defiant, confident, and to crit-
ics, out of touch, President Bashar al-
Assad of Syria on Sunday dashed hopes
for a political breakthrough to resolve
the country’s 21-month uprising, using
his first public address in six months to
justify his harsh crackdown, and to rally
his supporters to fight and inform on his
opponents.
He sharply rejected the overtures of
diplomats trying to broker a compro-
mise.
Mr. Assad offered what he called a
peace plan, which would involve a new
cabinet, a new constitution replacing
one adopted just last year in a widely
dismissed reform package, and talks
with officially tolerated opposition
groups. But he ruled out negotiations
with the armed opposition and poin-
tedly ignored its central demand that he
step down, making his proposal a non-
starter for most of his opponents.
He soundedmuch as he did at the start
of the uprising, dictating which opposi-
tion groups wereworthy and labeling the
rest terrorists and traitors. He gave no
sign of acknowledging that in the inter-
im, rebels have come to control large
swaths of the north and east of the coun-
try, the aspirations for change among
Syrians have remained steadfast in the
face of a crackdown that has killed tens of
thousands, and even longtime allies like
Russia have signaled thatMr. Assadmay
not be able to defeat the insurgency.
He even painted as foreign interfer-
ence the efforts of the U.N. envoy Lakh-
dar Brahimi, a senior Algerian diplomat
who last week visited Damascus and
warned both sides that they risked Syr-
ia’s disintegration if they did not negoti-
ate a solution.
‘‘Everyonewho comes to Syria knows
that Syria accepts advice but not or-
MAJED JABER/REUTERS
The speech by President Bashar al-Assad was broadcast live on Sunday from the Damascus Opera House. ‘‘Who should we negotiate with — terrorists?’’ Mr. Assad said.
Qatar spends to propel its global agenda
est country per capita. Income was
close to $100,000 per person in 2011, ac-
cording to the C.I.A. World Factbook.
Having so much money to spend has
helped make the Qataris key global deal
makers in business and politics.
‘‘The leadership of Qatar is probably
the most dynamic and ambitious of any
senior leadership in the Gulf,’’ Tarik
Yousef, chief executive of Silatech, a
Qatari nonprofit that helps young people
in theMiddleEast set up businesses, said
during an interview last year. ‘‘They not
only have ambitions and drive, but they
have phenomenal financial resources.’’
That ambition and drive have been
conspicuously in evidence of late. In a
high-profile gambit involving mediation
by Tony Blair, the former British prime
minister, Qatar helped force Glencore to
cing countries. Al Jazeera’s expansion
plan in the United States can be seen as
part of its overall plan to put itself on the
map and make itself heard globally.
The Qatari leaders want to propagate
‘‘a Qatari-sponsored narrative of events
in the Middle East and elsewhere,’’ said
Kristian CoatesUlrichsen, aGulf analyst
at Chatham House, a London research
institute. ‘‘Being able to shape that nar-
rative and how it is being seen in the U.S.
is extremely important.’’
When he overthrew his father in 1995,
Qatar’s ruler, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa
al-Thani, took control of what was a
small and vulnerable country jutting out
into the Gulf from the Arabian Penin-
sula. He has assiduously worked to
change Qatar’s circumstances, most no-
tably by bringing in partners like Exxon
Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell to build the
liquefied natural gas installations
needed to exploit Qatar’s enormous
North Field.
As a result, Qatar, which had been a
relatively small oil producer, is now the
world’s dominant L.N.G. power with fi-
nancial surpluses in the range of $30 bil-
lion to $40 billion a year, according to
Rachel Ziemba, an analyst at Roubini
Global Economics in London.
The oil and gas money has given the
ruler and his prime minister, Sheik Ha-
mad bin Jassim al-Thani, the means to
transformDoha, the once sleepy capital,
into a Dubai-like futuristic cityscape
that has become a preferred location for
international conferences like the re-
cent U.N. climate conference and inter-
national sports events like the World
Cup of soccer in 2022.
Qatar is also now the world’s wealthi-
LONDON
Expansion of Al Jazeera
in U.S. is part of country’s
new image campaign
BY STANLEY REED
At first glance the willingness of Al Jaz-
eera, the satellite network owned and fi-
nanced by Qatar, to pay in the neighbor-
hood of $500 million for Current TV, Al
Gore’s struggling cable television chan-
nel, seems like a vanity project. And it
may turn out that way.
But in recent years Qatar has de-
velopedwhat is one of themore energet-
ic and sophisticated foreign investment
strategies of the Gulf oil and gas produ-
FRANCE, PAGE 15
COMPETITORS CRITICIZE GOOGLE DECISION
A trade ruling that the search giant’s
practices did not harm consumers
missed the mark, rivals said.
PAGE 15
AL JAZEERA, PAGE 15
Ex-C.I.A. of
ficer’s fall, by e-mail
ANDONI LUBAKI/AP
A bakery in Aleppo on Sunday. The civil
war has caused shortages of basic supplies.
tection Act by e-mailing the name of a
covert C.I.A. officer to a freelance report-
er, who did not publish it. The law was
passed in 1982, aimed at radical publica-
tions that deliberately sought to out un-
dercover operatives, exposing their
secret work and endangering their lives.
In more than six decades of tense in-
teraction between the agency and the
news media, Mr. Kiriakou is the first
current or former C.I.A. officer to be
convicted of disclosing classified infor-
mation to a reporter.
Mr. Kiriakou, 48, earned numerous
commendations in his nearly 15 years at
t
he C.I.A., some of which were spent un-
gave the covert officer’s name to the
freelancer, he said, hewas simply trying
to help a writer find a potential source
and had no intention or expectation that
the name would ever become public. In
fact, it did not surface publicly until long
after Mr. Kiriakou was charged.
He is remorseful, up to a point. ‘‘I
should never have provided the name,’’
he said Friday in the latest of a series of
interviews. ‘‘I regret doing it, and I nev-
er will do it again.’’
At the same time, he argues, with the
backing of some former agency col-
leagues, that the case — one of an un-
precedented string of six prosecutions
under President Barack Obama for leak-
ing information to the newsmedia—was
unfair and ill advised as public policy.
His supporters are an unlikely collec-
tion of old friends, former spies, left-
leaning critics of the government and
conservative Christian opponents of tor-
ture. The filmmaker Oliver Stone sent a
message of encouragement, as did sev-
eral professors at Liberty University,
the conservative Christian institution in
Virginia founded by the Rev. Jerry Fal-
well, where Mr. Kiriakou has taught.
Whatever his loquaciousness with jour-
nalists, they say, he neither intended to
damage national security nor did so.
After he was charged last January, his
wife, though accused of no wrongdoing,
resigned under pressure fromher C.I.A.
job as a top Iran specialist. To make
WASHINGTON
Conviction for leak
to journalist marks
a first in agency’s history
ders,’’ Mr. Assad told a cheering, chant-
ing crowd at the Damascus Opera
House, in Umayyad Square, where resi-
dents said security forces had deployed
heavily the night before.
Yezid Sayigh, an analyst at the Carne-
gie Middle East Center in Beirut, said
that Mr. Assad ‘‘doesn’t seem to have
moved an inch since summer 2011’’ and
noted that he gave ‘‘barely the slightest
nod’’ to Mr. Brahimi’s proposals.
That stance could create painful
choices for the United States and its al-
lies, who are eager to see Mr. Assad go
without being drawn more deeply into
the military conflict. It raises the possi-
bility that Mr. Brahimi will decline to
continue hismission, forcing the Friends
of Syria, a grouping of nations support-
ing the opposition, which include West-
ern and Arab countries and Turkey, to
choose between the options of interven-
tion and allowing the conflict to drag on.
‘‘Assad is not letting the Friends of
Syria off the hook by making it easy for
them to declare victory and close the
Syria file,’’ Mr. Sayigh said. ‘‘Now what
will they do?’’
BY SCOTT SHANE
Looking back, JohnC. Kiriakou acknowl-
edges that he should have known better.
But when the F.B.I. called hima year ago
and invited him to stop by and ‘‘help us
with a case,’’ he did not hesitate.
In his years as a C.I.A. operative, after
all, Mr. Kiriakou had worked closely
with F.B.I. agents overseas. Just
months earlier, he had reported to the
bureau a recruiting attempt by someone
he believed to be an Asian spy.
‘‘Anything
Some see the case as unfair
and ill advised as public policy.
for
the F.B.I.,’’ Mr.
dercover overseas chasing Al Qaeda
and other terrorist groups.
He got mixed reviews at the agency,
which he left in 2004 for a consulting job.
Some praised his skills, first as an ana-
lyst and then as an overseas operative;
others considered him a loose cannon.
Mr. Kiriakou first stumbled into the
limelight by speaking out about water-
boarding — an interrogation practice
that creates the feeling of drowning —
on television in 2007. He quickly became
a source for national security journa-
lists, including this reporter, who turned
up in Mr. Kiriakou’s indictment last
year as Journalist B. WhenMr. Kiriakou
Kiriakou replied.
Only an hour into what began as a re-
laxed chat with the two agents did he be-
gin to realize just who was the focus of
their investigation.
Finally, the older agent leaned in close
and said, by Mr. Kiriakou’s recollection,
‘‘In the interest of full disclosure, I
should tell you that right now we’re ex-
ecuting a search warrant at your house
and seizing your electronic devices.’’
On Jan. 25, Mr. Kiriakou is scheduled
to be sentenced to 30months in prison as
part of a plea deal in which he admitted
violating the Intelligence Identities Pro-
SYRIA, PAGE 4
STUCK ON THE FENCE IN SYRIA’S CIVILWAR
The president remains in power in part
because a critical bloc of citizens has
failed to choose sides.
PAGE 4
CHRISTAAN FELBER FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
John C. Kiriakou is to be sentenced to 30 months in prison as part of a plea deal for pro-
viding the name of a covert C.I.A. officer to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it.
C.I.A., PAGE 5
VIEWS
Nicholas D. Kristof
China’s new leader has the potential to
nourish the country’s rise with sweeping
economic and political reforms.
PAGE 9
WORLDNEWS
Moscow protests deflated
The fizzy excitement around the street
activism inMoscow last year is entirely
gone. Discussions of political activism
are now coated with disappointment, as
if a rare opportunity had been allowed
to slip away.
PAGE 3
Plane with fashion chief is lost
Vittorio Missoni, who helped revive the
Missoni label, was on a private plane
with five others when it disappeared on
Friday off Venezuela.
PAGE 4
BUSINESS
Regulators ease up on banks
To avoid damage to fragile economies
across the world, officials frommajor
countries meeting Sunday in
Switzerland reduced the pressure on
banks to adhere to new rules.
PAGE 14
SPORTS
N.H.L. close to returning
After a marathon 16-hour negotiating
session, the National Hockey League
and its players union reached a
tentative agreement to settle the 112-day
N.H.L. lockout. The end came just after
5 a.m. Sunday in NewYork.
PAGE 12
Alabama has Tha Monstar
Jesse Williams, akaThaMonstar, is
6 feet 4 inches, or 1.93 meters, and 320
pounds, or 145 kilograms, and may lead
Alabama to a football title.
PAGE 12
ONLINE
McChrystal’s memoir
In a newmemoir, Gen. Stanley A.
McChrystal, a former American
commander in Afghanistan, says
disputes with the White House began
at the beginning of President Obama’s
first term.
global.nytimes.com/world
Symbols of grief pile up
Newtown, Connecticut, still grieving
after a school massacre, has wrestled
with the question of how long is too long
to let tributes stand.
global.nytimes.com/us
The long shadow of history
Old resentments still haunt China and
Japan. There is little reason to hope for
change, writes Odd ArneWestad.
PAGE 8
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A new industry is emerging among
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Such fund-raising, hailed as the next big
thing, has its share of critics.
PAGE 14
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MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
page two
Fiscal talks
made no one
look good
cans in this latest round. TheWhite
Houseessentially caved to ameasure
thatwill cost about $100 billion over10
years and will benefit fewer than 5,000
wealthy estates.
In the 2010 year-end tax-cut deal,the
Obama administration insisted on ex-
tending the refundabletax creditsfor
the poor; resistant Republicans said
they would go along only if theWhite
House accepted two years oflower es-
tate-tax rates.Agreed. This time,
however,the refundable creditsfor the
poor wereextended only temporarily,
whilethe more generous estate-tax
provisionispermanent.
The political appeal here is to reward
big campaign contributors; that mat-
ters to Democratsaswell as Republi-
cans.When VicePresident Joseph R.
BidenJr., in the private bargaining, ar-
guedforatougherprovision,the Sen-
ate Republican leader,Mitch McCon-
nell, asked that it be put to a vote. The
vice president knew that Democrats
like Senators Max Baucus of Montana
and Mary Landrieu ofLouisiana would
sidewith the rich heirs.
Lawmakers are bracedforatougher
battle in the next two months over the
debt ceiling and across-the-board
spending cuts that neither side likes.
Republicans contend that, unlikewith
the fiscal cliff —the packageof tax in-
creases and spending cuts that had
beenset to takeeffectwith the new
year —this timetheyhave the lever-
agetoforcethe presidenttoaccept big
spending cuts, particularly of big-ticket
entitlements.
House Republicans insiston the
‘‘Boehnerrule,’’ that any increase in
the debt ceiling be matchedbyacom-
parable reductioninspending. That
isn’t realistic: The debt ceiling will
have to be increased by almost $2 tril-
lion over the next two years, and
spending cuts of thatorder would be
politically and economically disastr
ous.
The speaker’s ability to maneuvermay
be limited,though.On the fiscal deal,
his own majorityleader and whip
deserted him, as did sevencurrent
committee chairmen and almost two-
thirds of his caucus.
Tougherstill is the substance. House
Republicans are all for big spending
cuts,though other than someeasy
ones, including going afterprograms
for the poor,theyduck specifics.
Theyare fierce deficit hawks in prin-
ciple, yet whenspecific cuts to Medi-
care, ahealth insurance program for
theelderly,orSocial Security, aretire-
ment fund, are raised,they turn into
pacifists.
And the president, whowouldn’t play
forkeeps whenhe had the leverage,
vows this timewill be different. He
won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling;
thatwould betantamount, he pro-
claims,tonegotiating with terrorists.
Mr.Obama demands that any spend-
ing cutsbe accompaniedbyrevenue in-
creases.
He correctly notes thatthere already
has beenmorethan twice as much in
spending cutsasintax increases and
that any subsequent action that in-
volves only cuts would runcounter to
the recommendations of bipartisan
panels likethe 2010 commissionheaded
by formerSenator Alan K. Simpson
and Erskine Bowles, aformer White
House chief ofstaff under Bill Clinton.
Republicans dismiss that as a non-
starter.
The bottom lines: TheWhite House
believesRepublican leaders privately
realize that holding the nation’sfull
faith and credit hostagetocutting pop-
ular programs is a loser. Congressional
Republicans dismiss Mr.Obama’s lines
in the sand, saying that he invariably
backs down and that any economic fal-
lout ultimately hurts his presidency.
Bothpointsare persuasive.
(BLOOMBERG)
E-MAIL:
pagetwo@iht.com
TOMORROW:
Judy Dempsey on NATO and
Greece’s big defense budget.
Albert R.
Hunt
LETTER FROMWASHINGTON
A grand fiscal bargain,withperhaps $2
trillionmore in deficit reduction over10
years —morethan a quarter of which
would be additional revenue, with
much of the restobtained through well-
crafted, significant cutbacks in big-tick-
et entitlements — could have beena
win-win forRepublicans and Demo-
crats.
Itwould have earnedlawmakers
public approbationfor working togeth-
er and giveninvestor and business
confidence aboost.
The corollary is the small-bore deal
cobbled together to avoid the so-called
fiscal cliff,which may be alose-lose for
both sides. Defying political physics,
theWhite House and congressional Re-
publicans emergedpolitically weaker
and facing moretrouble ahead.
President Barack Obama,who Re-
publicans acknowledged had all the
leverage in the latest round, could have
hung tough and persevered with one
goal:the biggerdeal. Indisputably,
Democratsgot much morethan Repub-
licans. Yet even with this unusual
leverage—without adeal,taxes would
have increase
dfor everyone—the
Democratsgot only
about 60 percentof
whatthe House
speaker, John A.
Boehner, had once
been willing to give
on taxes.
Republicans rein-
forced their image as
protectors of the
privileged. In the
HouseofRepresen-
tatives,which theycontrol,they dis-
played dysfunctionremarkableeven
by Washingtonstandards.With bigger
fightsahead over the debt ceiling and
indiscriminate across-the-board spend-
ing cuts,the problems outweigh the
possibilitiesforboth sides.
Theestate tax epitomizes this state
of affairs. It is assessed onfewer than 1
percentof the richestestates.Michael
J. Graetz, aformerTreasury official in
the administration of President George
H.W.Bush who has writtenabook on
the subject, says thatwithhuge deficits
and worsening income inequality, ‘‘it is
amazing thatourpolitical systemcan-
not maintain an estate tax that contrib-
utesless than 1 percentoffederal rev-
enuesfrom thoseAmericans best able
to afford it.’’
Lawrence H. Summers, aformer
Treasury secretary,onceobserved,
‘‘There is no caseother than selfish-
ness’’ forcutting theestate tax.
There are legitimate debatesabout
theeffecton economic growth of tax
rates on capital gains, dividends orcor-
porate income. It’s tough to find a seri-
ous economistwho makes that case for
theestate tax; years ago, the conserva-
tive economist Irwin M. Stelzerde-
scribedalow tax as ‘‘affirmative ac-
tion’’ for wealthy heirs.
Still, reducing or eliminating thees-
tate tax was a top priorityforRepubli-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEWYORK TIMES
José Antonio Alvarado, rear, and his family harvested corn in November on a highway median in Guatemala. ‘‘We’re farming here because there is no other land,’’ he said.
Where
biofuels supersede food
GUATEMALA CITY
‘‘Theuseof maize tomake biofuel has
led to these crazy prices,’ ’ said Guy
Gauvreau, head of theUnitedNations
World Food Program in Guatemala. It
‘‘is not ethically acceptable,’’ he added.
In part becausethe agency’s primary
foodsupplement is a mix ofcorn and
soy, it cannot afford to help all of the
Guatemalan childreninneed,Mr.
Gauvreau said; it is agency policy to
buycorn locally, but there is noextra
corn grown ere anymore. And
Guatemalans cannot go back to the land
because somuch ofit is being devoted to
growing crops forbiofuel.(Almost no
biofuelisuseddomestically.)
The southwestern villageofLaAyuda
is now an island of ricketydwellings in
the middleof a giantAfrican palm plan-
tation. Félix Pérez, 51,used to grow corn,
beans and fruit behind his home. He now
walks about five kilometers to acheap
hillside plot that he rentsforfourmonths
of the year. ‘‘Every day, it’smore diffi-
culttosurvive sincewelive off the land,
and there’sless and less,’ ’ he said.
Although African palm was virtually
nonexistent in Guatemala two decades
ago, palm oil is now the country’s third-
largestexport, aftersugar and bananas,
with exports rising by morethan a third
in 2011, according to U.N.trade statistics.
ForGuatemala’s largest landowners,
long-term leases with large biofuel
companiesaremore profitable and easi-
er to managethan cattle ranching or
renting to subsistence farmers.
In small towns like San Basilio, repre-
sentatives of one palm company are
pressing farmers to leasetheir fields.
‘‘I’m trying not to because Ineed that
land to grow corn,’ ’ said one farmer, Gil-
berto GalindoMorales, 46. But, he added,
farming has become difficult as nearby
plantations divert and deplete rivers to
feed industrial-scale irrigation systems.
Ash fromburning cane fields after har-
vest also damages his corn crop and irrit-
ates his children’slungs, he said.
A report last year by theU.S. Depart-
mentof Agriculture notedGuatemala’s
potential forbiofuelproduction, saying
that palm plantations tended to beon
‘‘underutilized’’ agricultural land and
appliedno dangerouspesticides to the
trees; that assessment could be impor-
tant forgetting palm-basedfuelap-
provedfor use in theUnitedStates.
But villagers in El Cancellero dis-
puted that, saying theysuspected
chemical poisoning was behind the
mysteriousdeaths offouryoung chil-
dren last year.Onarecent afternoon, a
cropdusterbuzzed overhead, andwork-
ers wearing tanks fitted with spray
hoses trudgedalong a narrow road that
separates what remains of thevillage
from endless rows ofsquat palms.
The White
House and
congressional
Republicans
emerged po-
litically weak-
er and facing
more trouble.
Guatemala feels flip side
of global need with lack
of land and higher prices
BY ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
In thetiny tortillerias of this city, people
complain ceaselessly about the high
priceofcorn. Three years ago, one quet-
zal, about 15 cents, boughteighttortillas;
today it buys four.And eggs have tripled
in price because chickens eat corn feed.
Meanwhile, in rural areas, subsist-
ence farmers struggletofind a placeto
sow their seeds.Onarecent morning,
JoséAntonioAlvaradowas harvesting
his corn crop on the narrow median of
Highway2astrucks zoomedby.
‘‘We’re farming here becausethere is
noother land, and I have to feedmy
family,’ ’ said Mr.Alvarado, pointing to
his sons Alejandro and José, who are 4
and 6 but appear to be much younger, a
sign of chronic malnutrition.
Recent lawsintheUnitedStates and
Europethat mandate the increasing use
ofbiofuelincarshave had far-flung
rippleeffects,economistssay, as land
once devoted to growing foodforhu-
mans is now sometimesmore profitably
usedfor churning out vehicle fuel.
Inaglobalized world,theexpansion
of the biofuels industry has contributed
to spikesinfood pricesandashortageof
land forfood-based agriculture in poor
corners of Asia,Africa and Latin Amer-
ica becausethe raw material is grown
whereverit is cheapest.
Nowhere, perhaps, is that squeeze
moreobvious than in Guatemala,which
is ‘‘getting hit fromboth sides of the At-
lantic,’ ’ in itsfields and at its markets,
said Timothy Wise, aTufts University
developmentexpertwho is studying the
problemg obally with Actionaid, a
policy group basedinWashington.
Withitscorn-baseddiet and proxim-
ity to theUnitedStates, Central Amer-
ica has long been vulnerabletoeconom-
ic riptidesrelated to theUnitedStates’
corn policy. Now thattheUnitedStates
is using 40 percentofitscrop to make
biofuel, it is not surprising thattortilla
priceshave doubledinGuatemala,
which importsnearly half ofitscorn.
At the sametime, Guatemala’slush
land,owned by a handful of families, has
provedideal forproducing raw materi-
als forbiofuels. Suchitepéquez Province,
a majorcorn-producing region ve
years ago, is now carpeted withsugar
cane and African palm. The field Mr.Al-
varadoused to rent for his personal corn
cropnow growssugar cane foracom-
An African palm plantation surrounds La Ayuda, Guatemala. The country’s lush land,
owned by a handful of families, has proved ideal for producing raw materials for biofuels.
pany thatexportsbioethanol to Europe.
In a countrywheremost familiesmust
spend about two-thirds of their income
onfood, ‘‘the average Guatemalan is
now hungrierbecauseofbiofueldevel-
opment,’’ saidKatjaWinkler, aresearch-
erat Idear, aGuatemalan nonprofitor-
ganization that studiesrural issues.
Roughly 50 percentof the nation’s
childrenare chronically malnourished,
the fourth-highest rate in theworld, ac-
cording to theUnitedNations.
TheAmerican renewable fuelstan-
dard mandates that an increasing
volumeofbiofuelbe blendedinto the na-
tion’s vehicle fuelsupply each year to
reduce carbondioxideemissions from
fossil fuels and to bolster the nation’s
energy security. Similarly, by 2020,
transportationfuels in Europewill have
to contain 10 percent biofuel.
Large companies likePantaleonSug-
ar Holdings, Guatemala’sleading sugar
producer, are profiting from that new
demand,withrecent annual growth of
morethan 30 percent. The Inter-Ameri-
can Development Bank says the new in-
dustry could bring an infusion of cash
and jobs to Guatemala’srural economy
if developedproperly. Fornow, the sug-
ar industry directly provides60,000 jobs
and the palm industry 17,000, although
the plantations are not labor-intensive.
But many worry that Guatemala’s
poorare already suffering from the di-
version offood to fuel.
‘‘There are pros and cons to biofuel,
but not here,’’ said MisaelGonzáles of
C.U.C., a labor unionfor farmers. ‘‘These
people don’t have enough to eat. They
needfood. Theyneed land. Theycan’t
eat biofuel, and theydon’t drive cars.’ ’
In 2011, corn prices would have been17
percent loweriftheUnitedStates did not
subsidize and give incentivesforbiofuel
production with ts enewable fuel
policies, says an analysis by BruceA.
Babcock, an economist at IowaStateUni-
versity. TheWorld Bank has suggested
that biofuel mandatesinthe developed
world should be adjusted whenfoodis
shortor pricesare inordinately high.
Concernedabout theeffects ofitsbio-
fuel mandate on world hunger,the Euro-
pean Commissionrecently proposed
amending itspolicy sothatonly half ofits
2020target could bemet by using biofuels
made fromfoodcrops or those grown on
land previously devoted to foodcrops.
TheAmericanmandate, establishedin
2007 by Congress, can bewaivedbythe
Environmental Protection Agency. But,
‘‘They can’t eat biofuel, and
they don’t drive cars.’’
according to law, such adjustmentsfocus
ondomestic issues like casesinwhich
biofuel ‘‘requirements would severely
harm theeconomy ofastate, aregion or
theUnitedStates,’ ’ the agency said in an
e-mail when askedforcomment.
Once nearly self-sufficient in corn pro-
duction, Guatemala became more de-
pendenton importsinthe 1990sasasur-
plus ofsubsidizedAmerican corn flowed
south. Guatemalan farmers could not
compete, and corn productionfell about
30 percent per capitafrom 1995 to 2005,
said Mr.Wise, the Tuftsdevelopment
expert. But cheap imports disappeared
oncetheUnitedStatesstarted using
corn to fulfill its2007 biofuels standards.
IN OUR PAGES
✴
100, 75, 50 YEARS AGO
1913 Taft Favors an ‘Impartial Tribunal’
NEWYORK
President Taf t has not publicly
defined‘‘the impartial tribunal’’ to which he
would refer the question of thePanama Canal
tolls, but adespatch fromWashington to-day
[Jan. 6] states that ‘‘it is not The Hague Perma-
nent Courtof Arbitration which he has in his
mind.’ ’ On the contrary, it is declared thatthe
President favors a tribunal madeup equally of
citizens of theUnitedStates and ofGreat Britain.
Thetolls question will probably be left as a leg-
acy fromMr. Taf t’s administration to Mr.
Wilson’s,with the latter’s viewsnot yet recorded.
1938 Move to Protect Roumanian Jews
LONDON
The British and French governments
have taken parallelaction to protectthe rights of
800,000 JewsinRoumania who arethreatened
withpersecutionbythe new Premier,Octavian
Goga, and his anti-Semitic, Fascist régime. Fear-
ful that aflood ofrefugees might surge across
Europetoseek safety and work in thewestern
democracies, Britain and France instructed their
Ministers at Bucharestto‘‘remind the Roumani-
an government in the most friendly manner’’ of
the interestwhich theyhave always takeninthe
MinoritiesTreaty, signedinParis in 1919.
1963 UN Chief Favorite of Foreign Press
LEOPOLDVILLE
Even the fiercest critics of United
Nations Congo policies usually excludeoneman
fromcensure. He is Robert K. Gardner, 48,of
Ghana, chief of UNCongooperations —a man
who combines thetransparent innocenceofDes-
demona with the deviousguile and ruthlessness of
Jago. He is an interviewer’s nightmare. He doesn’t
merely dodge questions —he juggles with them,
dissecting each word and phrase. But whenre-
porters later try to work out what he said,they
find to their exasperation that he has said pre-
cisely nothing.
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europe
Moscow protests
fade into s
ilence
MOSCOW
als. So far, 19 people have been charged
in the case dating from May 6,whena
large anti-Putinmarch endedinamelee
between the police and protesters. The
only person to be sentenced, a man who
inflictedno serious injury and cooper-
ated withprosecutors, receivedfour
and a half years.
Investigators lookedfor Mr. Elizarov
at home, and they thenbegan to visit his
relatives,one by one.
In an interview via Skype, Mr. Eli-
zarov said he had not left forpolitical
reasons. He had long dreamedabout vis-
iting EastAfrica, he said. But Mr. Terek-
hov said Mr. Elizarov’sdecision had
saved the firm theembarrassmentofbe-
ing associated withanotoriouscase.
‘‘I would not have fired him, but he
knowsIhave alot ofstate contracts, and
his statuscould have really interfered
with ourbusiness,’ ’ Mr. Terekhov said.
‘‘The factthat he resigned, Iconsiderit
a very decent act from his side.’’
Co-workers had a similarly philosoph-
ical attitude.
‘‘I had this pure motherly instinct,
‘O.K., he’s safethere,’ ’’ Ms. Fotchenko
said. ‘‘Because it’s scary. If you know a
personpersonally, and the system
knocks on his door —well, I would not
wish this onanyone Iknow well. So he
hid, and that’sfine.’’
By the summer, as Mr. Putin
tightened his grip, most in theoffice had
concluded thatthe protests would not
spread beyond Moscow’s chattering
classes.
Even then, itwas impossibletoignore
politics; everyonewas talking about
politics.When testimony began in the
trial of the activistsfromPussy Riot, Mr.
Terekhov served tea as his workers
watchedprosecutors request seven-
year sentencesfor three women who
had lip-syncedacrude anti-Putin song
at an Orthodoxcathedral. The judgeul-
timately sentenced each to two years
(onewas released early).
He described the atmosphere in the
roomasoneof ‘‘black humor, like sar-
Political activism sinks
into disappointment with
sense of lost opportunity
BY ELLEN BARRY
As the final days of2012 slippedaway, no
one at Denis Terekhov’scompany was
talking about the next anti-government
protest.
Compared with the sametime last
year —when Mr. Terekhov deliveredan
impromptu lectureonavoiding police de-
tention —Moscow feels likeMoscow
again.Profit atthe company, amarketing
firm, has tripled,the corporate holiday
partyfeaturedcocktails in an unnatural
shadeofblue, and his ‘‘office plankton,’ ’
as the city’slegion ofdesk workers are
sometimesknown, scattered to vaca-
tions as far as Bali or Paris.
Mr. Terekhov, whowatched his em-
ployeesasprotests last year surged and
ebbed, said itwas now clear thatthey
had taken part because itwas fashion-
able, nothing more. Theyfelt strongly
about the anti-Putin rallies, he said, but
‘‘they also feelstrong emotions about
their iPhones.’ ’
Still, judging from the group, itwould
bewrong to say nothing had changedin
the year thatVladimir V. Putin returned
to the presidency. The fizzy excitement
around the street activism last year is
entirely gone. But in its place isadeep-
ening senseof alienation that posesits
ownlong-term risk to the system.
Discussion ofpolitical activism in the
office, an Internet marketing and com-
munications firm calledSocial Net-
works Agency, is nowcoatedwith a rime
of disappointment, as if a rareopportu-
nity had beenallowed to slip away. Dur-
ing thetrial ofmembers of the punk rock
band Pussy Riot this past summer,Mr.
Terekhov set asideoneoffice as a
screening room,whereemployeescould
watchalive stream of testimony with,
as he put it, ‘‘laughter through tears.’ ’
A space has beenleft by Pasha Eli-
zarov, aproject manager and opposition
activist, who resigned and left Russia
afterinvestigators summoned him in
connection with an inquiry into inciting
ariot. He sent in his holiday greetings
fromTanzania.
Their story is the story ofapolitical
season.Mr. Putin reclaimed the presi-
dency last year in the faceof unprece-
dentedpublic oppositionfrompeople
likethese—young urban trendsetters
who steppedinfrom the sidelines ofpol-
itics to tell him his return was not wel-
come. The Kremlin acted to stop the
protests; new lawsprescribe draconian
punishmentsforacts of dissent, and the
courtshave imprisoned a small number
ofactivists.Mr. Putin and those around
him have embracedanew, sharply con-
servative rhetoric, dismissing theurban
protesters as traitors and blasphemers,
enemies ofRussia.
The protesters last year,who held out
hopethat Dmitri A.Medvedevwould ad-
vancetheir agenda, are acutely aware
thattheyare seenasoutsiders. Irina
Lukyanovich, 24, acopy editor who re-
cently leftthe firm, said herpeers were
watching Russian leaders more closely
now, and judging themmore severely.
‘‘It’sasiftheyare people fromanoth-
er planet,’’ Ms. Lukyanovich said. ‘‘It
seems to methat in a year,the distance
between them and us has gottenmuch
greater.’ ’
Yulia Fotchenko, an account director,
sighedheavily whenreminded of the
elationshe had felt ayear ago, whenshe
steppedinto the first large rally and her
‘‘consciousness was
DANIEL GARCIA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Argentine soldiers on the Falklands Islands on April 13, 1982, a few days after they were seized from Britain. The issue of their sovereignty is making headlines again.
Old argume
nts greet renewed Falklands dispute
LONDON
run the meagerBritish garrison there.
To many on the British left, there is
littletobe servedbyrehashing theold
arguments thatwere set off when Pres-
ident Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
wrote an openletter to PrimeMinister
David Cameron onThursday. Itwas
publishedasanadvertisement in The
Guardian and another eft-of-center
British daily, The Independent.
The letter appeared on the 180than-
niversary ofJan. 3, 1833,when an armed
clash between the two nations took
placeon the islands. Theepisode has
beensettled onbyArgentina as a water-
shedmoment in a convolutedcolonial
story that goes back to the 16thcentury
and involvescompeting claims to sover-
eigntybyBritain, France, Portugal and
Spain,which was the colonial powerin
Argentina until the country gained inde-
pendence in 1816. In the statementthat
ran in the British papers,Mrs. Kirchner
asserted that ‘‘Argentina was forcibly
stripped of theMalvinas Islands’’ —Ar-
herslumping popularityinArgentina
than ‘‘anything a British brig-sloop did
180 years ago.’’ The newspaper added,
‘‘Any objective reader of the history of
these islands would more likely con-
cludethatthis history is mixed,tosay
the least, and thatthe rival sovereignty
claims are finely balanced.’ ’ Theeditori-
al urged the two countries to grapple
with the issue diplomatically and to aim,
initially,
foranagreementon sharing in
the bounty offisheries and in recently
discovered offshoreoil reserves that
someeconomistsbelieve could turn into
a21st-century bonanzafor the islands.
Mr. Cameron,though, is having none
ofit. Within hours of Mrs. Kirchner’s
statement, hewent beforetelevision
cameras, saying thatthe futureof the is-
lands would be determinedbythe Falk-
land Islanders and thatthey would
maketheir feelings knowninareferen-
dum to be held in March on the islands’
political status.
Thatwas theexpedient Britain adopt-
ed last year when Mrs. Kirchnercam-
paignedinArgentina, and attheUnited
Nations, forareopening of the sover-
eigntyissue on the 30th anniversary of
the 1982 war.
‘‘Aslong as theychoosetostay with
theUnited Kingdom,theyhave my 100
percent backing,’ ’ Mr. Cameron said.
For the British leader, it is a safe bet.
About 70 percentof the islanders areof
British descent, and visitors there say
there is no morethan a scattering of
support foranArgentinetakeover. Ty-
ing the Falklands’ futuretothe is-
landers’ choice leaves Britain essen-
tially where itwas underMrs. Thatcher.
She remains a reveredfigure for Mr.
Cameron, not only forherconservative
stewardship at 10 Downing Street but
also forhersuccess in turning the Falk-
lands issue into hersecond general-
election victory, in 1983. It is a precedent
unlikely to be loston the current prime
ministerashe contemplates the general
electionhe must face in 2015.
If there is a worry for Mr. Cameron, it
liesinthe possibility thatArgentina,with
popular passions heightenedbyMrs.
Kirchner, may make anotherattemptto
seize the islands by force. British mili-
tary commanders say theyconsider that
highly unlikely, sinceArgentina’s armed
forceshave been barely modernized
sincethe military junta there collapsed
in thewakeof the 1982 conflict, and they
lack the power they had then to project
air and naval power.
British forces on the islands have
been expensively upgraded,with800
troops, anew military airfield equipped
to take heavy transport jets, asquadron
of Typhoon fighter-bombers and, at
times of tension, anuclear attack sub-
marine prowling the South Atlantic.
But Britain miscalculatedbefore, in
1982,whenMrs. Thatcher’sgovernment
brushed aside diplomatic warnings of
an invasion.
‘‘I never, never expected theArgen-
tines to invadethe Falklands head-on,’ ’
shetold an inquiry after thewar, accord-
ing to secret cabinet papers from the
period thatwere releasedinlate
December. ‘‘Itwas such a stupid thing
to do, as events happened, such a stupid
thing even to contemplate doing.’ ’
The papers includedanother kind of
warning. Little noticedamong the
newly publisheddocuments was the
last dispatch of Britain’s ambassador to
Argentina when the Falklands invasion
took place.
Theenvoy,Anthony Williams,who
was never assigned as an ambassador
again, argued eloquently that Britain had
beenwrong to regard theArgentine inva-
sion as ‘‘a simple actof brigandage.’’ He
said that although the country had ‘‘its
shareof vandals, hooligans and roughs,’ ’
it also had a casethatthe ambassador
suggestedcould be compared to the
seizureof the Suez Canal fromits British
and French owners in 1956 by Gamal Ab-
delNasser,the presidentofEgypt.
‘‘If our rightness is not so absolute as
it now seems to us, nomore is Argentine
wrongness,’ ’ he said.
Argentina and Britain
are back at barricades
over islands’ ownership
BY JOHN F. BURNS
Theyhave barely 3,000 inhabitants and
far more sheep than people. Theyare
morethan 8,700 milesfromLondon. For
much of the year,theyare bitterly cold
and wind-swept, with only opensea and
ice between them and Antarctica.Pres-
ident Ronald Reagan,whotussled with
PrimeMinister Margaret Thatcher
over themashe rarely did onanyother
issue thatengaged the two leaders, de-
scribed themonce as ‘‘that little ice-cold
bunch of land down there.’’
But the Falkland Islands,the focus of
ashortwar between Britain and Argen-
tina in 1982, have beeninthe headlines
again recently.
Politicians, newspapers and military
leaders in bothcountrieshave been
back atthe barricades making theold
argumentsabout who is the islands’
rightful owner. Their argumentssug-
gestwhat has long been evident: Noth-
ing lasting was settledbythe conflict
that killed 255 British and 649 Argentine
soldiers, sailors and airmen, as well as 3
civilians on the islands.
The Guardian ofLondonheralded the
latest outburst in an editorial on Friday
that struck an exhaustednote. ‘‘Here
we go again,’ ’ it said,tacitly acknowl-
edging thatthe paper has beenstuck in
something ofarut ofits own on the issue
foryearsinits calls foranegotiatedset-
tlement.
Asitwas in 1982, few British politi-
cians have beenready to deviate from
theunyielding stancethatMrs. Thatch-
eradopted. She sent a British naval task
forcetorecapturethe islands after the
Argentine military dictatorship ofLeo-
poldoGaltieri dispatched troops to over-
OLGA KRAVETS FOR THE NYT
Pasha Elizarov at a protest in Moscow in
May 2012. He was recently in Tanzania.
casm. Laughter through tears.’ ’ He
reasoned thatthe screening was not ex-
actly political; as marketers,they had a
professional stake in thetrial.
‘‘From the pointof view ofinterna-
tional P.R., if earlierRussia was associ-
ated with balalaika-matryoshka-caviar-
Gorbachev-perestroika, now ofcourse
we have to add Pussy Riot,’’ Mr. Terek-
hov said, his distaste apparent.
‘‘Balalaikas, bears —they were fun.
They were something you could joke
about. But this is some sortof marvel
from theMiddleAges.’ ’
Sothis is wheretheyare atthe startof
2013: Nooneexpectspolitical change.
But steps by the government are still
setting off waves of indignation,ex-
pressed mainly oversocial networks.
Mr. Terekhov said thethird peak of
political chatter last year, after the
winterprotests and thePussy Riot trial,
had come last month,when the lower
houseof the Russian Parliament voted to
ban adoption ofRussian childrenby
Americans. The ban was proposedinre-
Nothing lasting was settled by
the 1982 conflict that killed
255 British and 649 Argentine
soldiers, sailors and airmen.
gentina’s name for theterritory— in the
murky 1833 episode. The clash involved
a British sloop, an outgunned Argentine
vessel and an Argentine commander’s
submission to a British demand that he
remove the remnants ofamutinous Ar-
gentine garrisonfrom the islands.
Britain has always rebutted Argen-
tine claims thatthe peoplewhowereex-
pelled included Argentine civilians, and
it contends that British sovereignty was
establishedbyamuch earliersettle-
ment, dating to the mid-18thcentury.
The Guardian, in its editorial, dis-
missed this as political windowdressing,
ultimately irrelevanttothe present dis-
pute. Mrs. Kirchner’sletter, it said, had
moretodowithapopulist bid to revive
turned upside
down.’ ’
How doesshe feelnow?Insulted, dis-
appointed.Asifnothing in Russia will
change. She blamed the protest leaders,
who she said provedsounabletocapi-
talize on the momentthatthe crowds
will never trustthem again.Asfor the
suddensenseofcommunityshe felt, it
provedfleeting.
Ms. Fotchenko said,using a slang
term for Moscow’s digitally connected
youth: ‘‘Suddenly we, ahuge number of
Internet hamsters,wedecided thatwe
had had enough; we got together and
we went out. And then,whoops!We
turned back into Internet hamsters,the
leaders and all the restof us. Because
nothing happened.And now Ifeeldes-
pair which is evenstronger, deeper,
worsethan itwas beforewebegan these
actions.’ ’
Mr. Terekhov, 33, had beenskeptical
of the protestsfrom the beginning, in
part because hewas left discouragedby
his own briefcareerinoppositionpoli-
tics.Ayear ago, he made apointof
warning his employees that by protest-
ing they were facing serious risks, like
riot policeofficers withc ubs. They
needed to realize, he said,that ‘‘revolu-
tionisnot agame.’’
The riskswent beyond clubs, itturned
out. OnaSunday evening in September,
Mr. Terekhov receivedane-mail from
Mr. Elizarov, 27, the single high-profile
political activist among his employees.
Mr. Elizarov said hewas resigning from
his positionasaproject manager and
was leaving Russia.
He had beensummonedinapolitical
prosecution,onethat has been used to
castthe protesters as dangerous radic-
‘‘Nothing happened. And now
I feel despair which is even
stronger, deeper, worse than
it was before we began
these actions.’’
Depardieu ge
ts hug from Putin, and Russian passport
MOSCOW
REUTERS
The French film star Gérard Depardieu
receivedahugfrom PresidentVladimir
V. Putin and a new Russian passporton
Sunday after saying hewas abandoning
Francetoavoidanew tax rate for mil-
lionaires.
Mr. Putin signedadecree onThurs-
day granting Russian citizenship to Mr.
Depardieu, who has criticized President
François Hollande’s plan to impose a 75
percenttax rate.
Mr. Depardieu and Mr. Putin were
shown onRussian state television shak-
ing hands and hugging in the Black Sea
resortofSochi onSunday during what
the Kremlin said was a private visit by
the actor to Russia.
‘‘A briefmeeting between the presi-
dent andDepardieu took place,’’ said the
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
‘‘On theoccasion of his visittoRussia,
hewas handedaRussian passport.’’
Mr.Peskov did not say whether Mr.
Putin personally gave Mr. Depardieu
the passport. Mr. Depardieu alsotold
Mr. Putin about his career plans,Mr.
Peskov said.
Mr. Depardieu’sbest knowninterna-
tional film is probably ‘‘Green Card,’ ’
about apoorFrench immigrantwho
enters a sham marriagetostay in the
UnitedStates.
Mr. Putin said last month thatMr. De-
pardieu would bewelcome in Russia,
which has a flat incometax rate of13
percent, compared with the75percent
on incomes over ¤1 million,orabout $1.3
million,thatMr. Hollandewants to levy
in France. Mr. Putin offered Mr. De-
pardieu aRussian passport, saying he
had developed warm ties with the actor,
even though they had rarely met.
Mr. Depardieu is popular in Russia,
where he has appeared in many adver-
tising campaigns. He alsoworked there
in 2011 on a film about Rasputin,which
he discussed with Mr. Putin attheir
meeting.
Mr. Depardieu waved his new Rus-
sian passport before newscameras
whenhe arrived in Saransk, aprovincial
townintheMordoviya Republic, south-
eastof Moscow, to celebrate theOrtho-
dox Christmas. Hewas greeted on the
airporttarmac by local officials and
womendressedintraditional Russian
gowns whooffered him bread and salt
as well as blinis. The governorsuggest-
ed that he settle downinMordoviya, It-
ar-Tass
taliationfor theMagnitsky Act, newly
enacted U.S. legislationpunishing Rus-
sian officials linked to human rights
abuses.Mr. Terekhov said heviewed the
adoption ban — and many of the initia-
tivespushed through the legislature last
year—as an improvisationbypoliticians
whoweretrying to pleaseMr. Putin.
‘‘I do not think that Putin is some kind
ofsuperbrain who is controlling every-
thing,’ ’ he said. ‘‘It seems to methat
someof the stupid things that are being
done are being done not because Putin
wants to eat children, but becausethere
are alot ofstupid people around him,
who took his return as a signal to tight-
en the screws.’ ’
In truth, he had not expected Mr.
Putin to sign the measure into law. With
its passage, he said, ‘‘the die has been
cast; there is noway back.’ ’
Asfor Ms. Fotchenko, she said her
plan was to ‘‘sit quietly,trying to sepa-
rate my ownself frompolitics.’ ’ She said
she could not imaginetaking part in any
more protests,ever.
Thenshe hedgedjust alittle.
‘‘There is a chancethe leaders will
surpriseus again and will succeedin
waking meup,’ ’ she said. ‘‘Deepinmy
heart, Ihope it may happen. If not —
well,wewill live theway we live now.’’
CAROLINE LARSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Gérard Depardieu showing off his new Russian passport on Sunday in Saransk, Russia.
Ayrault, calledpathetic and unpatriotic.
Jérôme Cahuzac,the French budget
minister, said Sunday that he regretted
Mr. Depardieu’sdecision tomove to Rus-
sia and was disappointed thatthe actor
was shirking his patriotic duty to help
France during tough economic times.
‘‘I find it alittle ridiculous that for tax
reasons this man has gone into exile so
far to the East,’’ Mr. Cahuzac told
Europe 1 radio.
Someof Mr. Putin’s critics said that
the passport decision was a stunt and
pointed out that last monthhe an-
nounced a campaign to prevent rich
Russians fromkeeping money offshore.
reported. Residents
also
presented himwith two kittens.
Mr. Depardieu bought ahouse in Bel-
gium last year to avoid the French in-
cometax increase, amove thatthe
French prime minister,
Jean-Marc
 ....
4
|
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
world news
middle east americas
Fashion boss
is missing
in flight off
Venezuela
In speech,
Assad dashes
hopes for
compromise
SYRIA, FROMPAGE 1
Missoni and 5 others
were on short flight from
island resort to Caracas
TheUnitedNations estimates that
morethan 60,000 people have diedin
what began as a peacefulprotest move-
ment and transformedinto armed
struggle aftersecurityforcesfired on
demonstrators. Rebels havemade gains
in the north and eastof Syria and in the
Damascussuburbs, but Mr.Assad’s
government has pushed back withdev-
astating air and artillery strikes and ap-
pears confidentthat it can hold the cap-
ital. Neither side appears ready to give
up the prospectof a military victory.
Lebanese news outletsclosetothe
Syrian government, citing anonymous
inside sources, reported onSaturday
thatMr.Assad would offer to share
some power with the armed opposition,
but if anyone closetoMr.Assad were
pushing thatview, it did not make it into
the speech.
Instead, he repeated his longstanding
assertions thatthe movement against
him was driven by ‘‘murderous crimin-
als’’ and terrorists financedbyrivals
like Qatar and Saudi Arabia with Amer-
ican blessing.
‘‘Who shouldwe negotiatewith—ter-
rorists?’’Mr.Assad said. ‘‘We will nego-
tiate with their masters.’ ’
Themain oppositionbody,theNation-
al Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and
OppositionForces, issuedastatement
calling the speech ‘‘a pre-emptive strike
against both Arab and international dip-
lomatic solutions.’ ’
Mr.Assad,whose family has ruledSyr-
ia for42years, said Sunday that hewas
open to dialogue with‘‘thosewho have
not sold Syria to foreigners,’ ’ a likely ref-
erencetotolerated oppositiongroups
that reject armedrevolution, likethe Na-
tional Coordinating Body forDemocratic
Change, whose members have been
floated by Syria’sallies China andRussia
as possible compromise brokers.
Mr.Assad’sspeech appeared unlikely
to satisfy even those among his oppo-
nents who rejectthe armedrebellion,
since it made no apology for the arrests
ofpeacefulactivists orfor airstrikes
that have destroyedneighborhoods nor
admitted theuprising had any goals oth-
er than to inflict suffering.
‘‘They killed the intellectuals in order
to inflict ignoranceon us,’ ’ Mr.Assad
said. ‘‘Theydeprived childrenfrom
schoolinorder to bring the country
backward.’ ’
He added, ‘‘Theenemies of the people
aretheenemies ofGod, and theenemies
ofGod will burn in hell.’ ’
But in Midan, acontestedneighbor-
hoodinsouthern Damascus, ashop-
keeper said the speech had dashed his
hopes thatMr.Assadwould end the con-
flict.
‘‘He divided Syrians in two camps,
onewith him who are patriots and one
against him who are criminals,terror-
ists and radicals,’ ’ said the shopkeeper,
who gave only a nickname, AbuOmar,
for safetyreasons, and said he he
ard the
speech secondhand becauseofanelec-
tricity outage. ‘‘He doesn’t see Syrians
who are patriotsbut don’t like him and
wanttohave anotherpresident
BY ERIC WILSON
A small plane carrying fourItalian tour-
ists, including the head of theMissoni
fashionbusiness, disappeared off the
coastof Venezuela onFriday, prompting
asea and air search that continued
through theweekend.
VittorioMissoni, 58, an owner of the
family-run label famedforits zigzag
knitwear, and his wife, Maurizia Cas-
tiglioni,were aboard the plane, which
was missing after taking off from the is-
land resortofLosRoques,the company
said Saturday. The planewas bound for
the international airport near Caracas,
normally a half-hour trip.Venezuelan
officials said four passengers and two
crewmembers were aboard.
Interior MinisterNéstorReverol said
Friday nighton Venezuelan television
thatthe plane, aBN-2 Islander, had
taken off fromLosRoquesat 11:29 a.m.
and that its last knownposition had
been10 nautical miles,or19kilometers,
south ofLosRoques, an archipelagothat
isapopular destinationamong wealthy
Europeans, particularly Italians. The
search enteredits third day onSunday
withno signs of the aircraft, Venezuelan
officials told TheAssociated Press.
TheMissoni family is widely revered
in the Italian fashion industry foritska-
leidoscopic patterns applied over the
years to sweaters, home furnishings,
beach towels and even waterbottles.A
wildly popular collaboration with the
American mass-market retailerTarget
in 2011,which revitalizedglobal interest
in the label, includedaMissoni-print bi-
cycle.
The company was foundedinthe
1950sbyOttavio and Rosita Missoni,
who by the 1970s were among the most
prominent designers in Italian fashion.
Their three children —Vittorio, Angela
and Luca — took over the company in
the 1990s,when the family business had
lost someofits appeal, and theyare
credited with turning it around.
Missoni’s annual saleshave beenre-
portedasmodest, around $100 million,
but the label has the prominenceof a far
biggerbusinessasaresultof the family’s
personalities. Mr. Missoni led the
brand’sglobal expansion, first as general
director of marketing and thenasits top
executive in Italy and theUnitedStates.
A spokeswoman for Missoni said that
the family had been informedbythe
ANDONI LUBAKI/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Residents in Aleppo on Sunday. Fewer and fewer Syrians appear to believe the government can restore order, but many also fear what a rebel-ruled country would look like.
Stuck on the fence in Syria’s war
andacore contingentofsupporters
feels obligated to stick with the govern-
mentevenastheir doubtsgrow. That is
in part becausethe government’sruth-
less crackdown has made protest far
more risky than in other uprisings. But
it is also becauseofdoubts, among the
urban elite and others, about the direc-
tion of the revolution and how arebel-
ruled Syria would look.
‘‘Me and my neighbors,wewerethe
firsttogo down to the street and scream
thatwewant acountry, areal country,
not a plantation,’ ’ said Samar Haddad,
who runs a Syrian publishing house.
‘‘But this armedrevolution, Irefuse it
as much as I refusethe regime.’’
Ms. Haddad,who is in herlate 40s and
now spends much ofher time outside
Damascus, said that she and her circle
ofintellectuals and professionals em-
braceunarmed Syrian protesters as he-
roes, but believe thatthe armedrebel-
lioniscreating warlords and cycles of
revengethatwill be hard to uproot.
The fence sitters include government
employees, securityforces, intellectuals
and wealthy Syrians. Some, including
members of Mr.Assad’s minority Alaw-
ite sect, say theyfear the ruleof Islam-
ist
s,or the calls for vengeance from
some factions of the Sunni Muslim-dom-
inated uprising.
Some are formersoldiers who say
theydefected only to be disappointedby
rebels who lack disciplineor obsess
about religiousideology.One young
man, Nour, said he gave up onrevolu-
tionwhenhetried to join an Islamist bri-
gade, AlTawhid, but was rejectedfor
wearing skinny jeans.
Others, likethe Damascuscivil ser-
vant, aSunni, simply fear a post-Assad
vacuum and are confusedabout the
safest course for their families and the
country.
Fewer and fewer Syrians appear to
believe the government can restoreor-
der; the fraying of the country has be-
come hard to miss. This has resultedin
countless private debates overhow to
survive — amid growing alarm that
without apolitical settlementorinter-
vention,endless fighting will gut the
Syrian state.
For thosewho support neitherMr.As-
sad nor his opponents, life has become a
fearful wait.
In Damascus, little getsdone in of-
fices thattremblewith explosions and
empty out by dusk. Government sala-
riesare still paid,the civil servant said,
but fewer workers showup.Ms. Haddad
said herpublishing employeesstill
cometowork, in what has become an
actofdefiancetoshow that life goes on.
Many peopleexpress a wish fora
political solution — perhaps a transi-
tional government involving moderate
g
overnmentofficials — but believe that
of this,there have not been mass defec-
tions by senior Alawite military of-
ficers.
But evenSunni soldiers understrong
pressuretodefect sometimesfeel that
‘‘we can’t offer themmuch,’ ’ said one
rebelcommander basedinthe northern
provinceof Idlib.
He said many were in touch withcol-
leagues who defected earlier,who re-
count months without salaries, and the
humiliation of ormercolon
els com-
mandedbyjunior fighters withswollen
egos.
One such disappointeddefectoris
Nour,who said he servedinthe feared
FourthDivisioncommandedbyMr.As-
sad’sbrother Maher. He said he defec-
teda tersecurity orcesraped and
killed his fiancée and many friends
begged him to join the rebels.
But hewas let down, first by fighters
who drank and tookdrugs and offered
him moneyforsexual acts; thenbyAl
Tawhid Brigade, whose fighters, he
said,taunted him, saying, ‘‘You wantto
join us and you’rewearing skinny
trousers?’’ He said he had decided to
stay in Turkey and avoid both sidesin
the conflict.
The Damascusc vil servant and
would-be defector —who has talkedfor
months about defecting, firsttorebels
fromhis hometown and then to areport-
er — said he hesitates over many ques-
tions about the rebels and their plans:
‘‘Arethe people awareenough? Can
theypractice self-control? Can the
rebels set upasecurity zone?’’
‘‘Many questions need answers,’ ’ he
said.
The government, he added, long ago
stoppedforcing him to attend pro-Assad
demonstrations, but rebelsupporters
call him a traitorfor asking questions.
‘‘Why should I join a group where I
am obliged to curtsy?’’
An employee of The New York Times con-
tributed reporting fromDamascus, and
Hania Mourtada fromBeirut.
BEIRUT
Many citizens remain
unable to choose sides,
adding to the stalemate
BYANNE BARNARD
AND HWAIDA SAAD
At his governmentoffice in the Syrian
capital, Damascus,the civil servant
avoids discussing what Syrians call
‘‘the situation.’ ’ But he quietly ponders
his own private endgame, toying with
defecting to the rebels, yet clinging to
his post, increasingly surethere are no
fighters worthjoining.
A multilingual former military officer,
he says he is among many friends and
colleagues who feel trapped: disen-
chantedwithPresident Bashar al-Assad,
disgustedbytheviolenceengulfing Syr-
ia and equally afraid of the government
and the rebels,withboth sides, as he puts
it, ready to sacrifice ‘‘the innocents.’ ’
Mr.Assad remains in powerinpart
because two years into theuprising, a
critical bloc of Syrians remains on the
fence. Among themare business own-
ers who drive theeconomy, bankers
who finance it, and the security officials
and governmentemployees who hold
the keys to the mundane but crucial
business of maintaining an authoritari-
an state. If they abandoned the govern-
mentor embraced the rebels en masse,
they might changethetide. Instead,
their uncertaintycontributes to the
stalemate.
The Egyptian and Tunisian rebellions
that inspired Syria’s initially peaceful
uprising reached tipping points within
weeks,with far less bloodshed. In those
cases,widespread desire for change
overwhelmed the fear of theunknown,
and toppledgovernments —orrather,
the dictatorial cliques that headed them.
But in Syria,each side has bloodied the
other while many stay on the sidelines,
‘‘We want a country, a real
country, not a plantation.
But this armed revolution,
I refuse it as much as I refuse
the regime.’’
decisions are beingmade by armedmen
onboth sides who refusetocompro-
mise.
‘‘Both sideshave the same mind,’ ’
said Abu Tony, ashopkeeperincentral
Damascus who favorsacompromise
and gave only a nickname for safetyrea-
sons.
‘‘This is not life,’’ he said, ‘‘to spend
half of the day without electricity,with-
out heating oil and without evenbread
just becausethe two sidesrefusetogive
upsomeof their demands.’ ’
Ms. Haddad said she and like-minded
friends weretrying quietly to build civil
society. But she said: ‘‘We feelde-
pressed,useless, helpless.Weare not
the decision makers.’ ’
EvenassomeAlawitesgrow frus-
trated with Mr.Assad — believing he
has poisoned their future in Syria —
many believe there is no safe place for
them on theother side. Partly because
in
democratic, fair elections.’ ’
Some armedrebelgroups have used
techniques that randomly target civil-
ians, like car bombs, and there are for-
eign fighters among the rebels. But
mostof the armedmovement is made
up of Syrians who took up arms during
theuprising ordefectedfrom the armed
forces.
Speaking against a backdrop of snap-
shots, apparently ofpeople killedinthe
conflict, Mr.Assad thanked officers and
conscripts and vowed that hewould
stay by their side, seeking to dispel
speculation that hewill flee the country.
He also reminded Syrians thatthey
were ‘‘atwar’’ and praised thosewho
have taken up arms ‘‘hand in hand with
the armedforces.’ ’
The crowd ofgovernmentofficials
and universitystudents chanted, ‘‘With
oursouls,with ourblood,wedefend
you, Assad,’ ’ and vowed to be his
‘‘shabiha,’ ’ theterm that has cometo
designate pro-government militias that
have attackeddemonstrators.
Whenhe finished his speech, scores of
people rushed to greet him withanal-
most aggressive frenzy. Bodyguards
formed a phalanx that slowly escorted
Mr.Assad through the crowd.
Many observers wryly noted onsocial
media thattheopera housewasafitting
setting for the speech.
‘‘Itwas operatic in its otherworldly
fantasy,unrelated to realities outside
the building,’ ’ Rami Khouri,editor of
The Daily Star, anewspaperinBeirut,
wrote onTwitter.
Mr.Assad said the first step in his
plan would be forforeign countries to
stop financing the rebels; then his gov-
ernmentwould put downits arms, he
said—although he reserved the rightto
continue to fightterrorism,which his
government has definedasnearly any
opponent.
Nextwould come national dialogue,
but only withgroups Mr.Assad termed
acceptable; thenaconstitutionap-
provedbyreferendum; thenacoalition
government. Therewas no mention of
holding elections beforeMr.Assad’s
term expiresin2014.
Hania Mourtada contributed reporting
fromBeirut, and an employee of The New
York Times fromDamascus.
DANIEL DAL ZENNARO/EPA
Vittorio Missoni is one of three siblings
who jointly own and run their fashion label.
Venezuelan Consulate thatthe plane had
disappeared, but thatthey had not given
uphope as the search continued.
The Italian newsmedia staked out the
company headquarters in Sumirago,
Italy, in the foothills of theAlps,where
the management met onSaturday. The
newsagency Ansa reported that family
members were congregating in their
nearby villa,while Luca Missoni had
flown to Venezuela.
The company’s officesinMilan were
closed onSaturday, but an employee,
who declined to give her name, was an-
swering the phones‘‘because alot of
employeesare calling to get informa-
tion,’ ’ she said.
Several Italian newsbroadcastsled
with the disappearanceof Mr.Missoni,
noting that several Italian tourists had
died in small airplanes off LosRoques.
One plane, carrying 14 people, 8 of them
Italian, disappearedinJanuary 2008.
Mr.Missoni, an avid sport fisherman,
and his wifewereon vacation with
friends,the company said. Theother
passengers have beenidentifiedinItali-
an newsreports as Elda Scalvenzi and
Guido Foresti.
TheMissoni siblings own the com-
pany jointly.Vittorio has managed the
company’scommercial and manufac-
turing operations; Angela is the design-
er; and Luca is the creative director.
Partof Mr.Missoni’sstrategy has
been to focus on theMissoni lifestyle,
opening about 40 storesaround the
world and creating advertising cam-
paigns featuring many of the family’s
glamorousmembers. In one image, Mar-
gherita Missoni, adaughter of Angela,
appears with Ottavio and Vittorio, who
are relaxing onazigzag-weave couch.
The family’scompound in Sardinia has
beenfeaturedincountless articles.
In 2005,the company createdasuc-
cessful fragrance business withEstée
Lauder and,under Mr.Missoni’s direc-
t
ion,expandedinto the hotelbusiness.
WilliamNeuman contributed reporting
from Caracas, and Elisabetta Povoledo
fromRome.
U.S. defens
e candidate endures tough criticism
WASHINGTON
BYMARK LANDLER
The formersenatorChuck Hagel has
weatheredaconcerted and vocal cam-
paign to derail his chancesfordefense
secretary, and President Barack Obama
plans to nominate him on Monday, ad-
ministration and Congressional officials
said.
The tough questioning he likelywould
face in confirmationhearings was fore-
shadowedSunday,whenaRepublican
senator, LindseyGrahamofSouth Caro-
lina, said thatMr. Hagel would be ‘‘the
most antagonistic secretary ofdefense
toward Israel’’ in U.S. history and that
his nomination would be an ‘‘incredibly
controversial choice.’’
SinceMr. Hagel’s nameemergedasa
candidate for thePentagoninearly
December, conservatives, pro-Israel
groups and gay rights organizations
have raised objections to his views on
Israel and Iran, as well as to dispar-
aging commentshe made years ago
about a gay diplomat.
OnSunday,the Senate Republican
leader,Mitch McConnell ofKentucky,
promised thatMr. Hagel would receive
a ‘‘fair hearing’’ in the Senate. But he
declined to repeatthe praise he had
offered when Mr. Hagelleftthe Senate
almost fouryears ago.
Late last month, in an interview with
NBC’s‘‘Meet thePress,’ ’ Mr.Obama
defended Mr. Hagelfrom the criticism,
saying thatwhile he had not decided on
adefense secretary,Mr. Hagel was a
‘‘patriot’’ and that nothing in his record
would disqualify him for the job.
The president could announcethe se-
lectionasearly as Monday,officials
said, afterreturning fromavacationin
Hawaii. Thatwould come days before a
visittoWashingtonbyPresident Hamid
Karzai of Afghanistan, during which he
and Mr.Obama areexpected to discuss
options for American troopwithdrawals
fromAfghanistan.
Mr. Hagel, should he be namedbyMr.
Obama,would most likely be comfort-
ablewith whatPentagon officials say is
a White House desiretodraw down the
remaining 66,000 troops as quickly as
conditions allow.
‘‘Oneof the reasons we’re in trouble
in Afghanistan is becausewewentwell
beyond our mission,’ ’ Mr. Hagel told
Robert Nolan, an editor and television
producer, in May 2012 foraPBS series
onforeign policy. ‘‘And now, 12 years
later,we’re not surewhatour mission
is.’ ’
Critics faulted Mr. Hagelforreferring
to pro-Israel obbying groups as the
‘‘Jewish lobby,’ ’ and said heofferedin-
adequate support for Israel andwas soft
onIran.
Mr. Graham said Sunday thatthe
choiceof Mr. Hagel would be ‘‘an in-
your-face nomination to all of us who
are supportive of Israel,’ ’ and added
that ‘‘I’m very inclinednot to support
him, based on his antagonistic approach
to Israel.’ ’ He called Mr. Hagel‘‘out of
the mainstream’’ of thoughton Ameri-
can foreign policy.
But when askedwhetherhewould fili-
busteraHagelnomination, he suggest-
ed thatMr. Hagelcould help overcome
objections withastrong performance in
Senate confirmationhearings.
‘‘The hearings will matter,’ ’ Mr. Gra-
ham said on CNN’s ‘‘State of theUn-
ion.’ ’ ‘‘He can set someof this straight.’’
He said thatwhile it seemed unlikely
to him, ‘‘Maybethese are statements
taken out ofcontext.’’
Mr. Hagel last monthapologizedfor
saying 14 years agothatPresident Bill
Clinton’snominee for ambassador to
Luxembourg, JamesC. Hormel,was not
qualifiedbecause hewas ‘‘openly, ag-
gressively gay.’ ’
Mr. Hagel has influential defenders.
‘‘He has a very sound,thoughtful
mind,’ ’ said Brent Scowcroft, alongtime
friend and the national securityadviser
in the administration of theelder Presi-
dent George Bush.
Mr. Hagelisthe second rumoredcab-
inet nominee to encounterfierce resis-
tance.
LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE/AP
Pro-Israel organizations and gay-rights
groups object to Chuck Hagel’s views.
Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the
UnitedNations,withdrew her name
fromconsideration orsecretary of
state afterRepublican lawmakers, in-
cludingMr. Graham, vowed to block her
nominationbecauseofstatementsshe
made after the deadly attack on the
American missioninBenghazi, Libya.
Mr.Obama instead namedSenator
John Kerry, aDemocrat from Mas-
sachusetts,toreplace Secretary Hillary
Rodham Clinton,who is expected to
stepdown.
Elisabeth Bumiller and Brian Knowlton
contributed reporting.
 ....
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013
|
5
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
americas
world news
Uruguayan leader lives simple life
Republicans tested
on bedroc
k issues
WASHINGTON
MONTEVIDEO
But ex-guerrilla, in office
2 years, upsets some by
pushing radical measures
en —would reshapethe Republican
Party,with their ‘‘really large and inter-
esting crop ofnew faces.’ ’
Republicans have already demon-
stratedsuccess in midterm elections,
whenfewerpeople vote, and in state
elections forgovernorships and legisla-
tures. In North Carolina,PatMcCrory, a
Republican formermayor of Charlotte,
was sworn in as governorSaturday
after waging a campaign thatempha-
sized pragmatism overideology.
‘‘Mymessage remainedaRepublican
message,’’ Mr.McCrory said. ‘‘But I did
itwithatoneofproblemsolving. I did it
withatoneofcooperation. I didn’t run
one negative ad.’ ’
A changed tone alone, however, may
not doenough to smooth over the dis-
agreementsinthe Republican Party.
And it is not clear how the intraparty
combatantscanmeet in the middle.
For example, while some Republicans
argued thatthetax vote lastweek en-
shrined almost all of the Bush-era tax
cutsinto permanent law and should be
seenasavictory, harder-line fiscal con-
servatives calledit a shamefuldepar-
ture from the party’s two decades of
successful opposition to tax increases.
OnSunday,Mr.McConnell ruled out any
consideration offuture increases. ‘‘The
tax issue is finished.Over. Completed.
That’sbehind us,’ ’ he said.
ClashesbetweenTea Partysupport-
ers in the House and SpeakerJohn A.
Boehnerduring the budget battles last
year ledadozen of them to withhold
their votesforspeaker lastweek.
And across the country, deeply con-
servative organizations angry about the
concession on tax increases e
pledging more primary challenges to
Republicans theybelieve are straying
too far from the party’s orthodoxy on
taxes,
Coming legislative fights
are expected to lead to
more divisions in party
BY SIMONROMERO
Someworld leaders live in palaces and
enjoyperks like havingafleet of yachts
orafull wine cellar. Then there is José
Mujica, aformerguerrilla and the presi-
dentof Uruguay. He livesinarun-down
houseon the outskirts of the capital,
Montevideo. His securitydetail: two
plainclothes officers parked on a dirt
road.
Inadeliberate statementto his
cattle-exporting country of3.3 million
people, Mr.Mujica,77,shunnedanopu-
lent presidential mansion, Suárez y
Reyes,withitsstaff of42, remaining, in-
stead, in the homewhere he and his wife
have livedforyears,onaplot of land
wheretheygrow chrysanthemums for
sale in local markets.
Mr.Mujica’snet worth upon taking of-
fice in 2010 amounted to about $1,800 —
thevalue of the 1987VolkswagenBeetle
in his garage. He donatesabout 90 per-
centof his salary, largely to aprogram
for expanding housing for the poor.
His brand oflow-key radicalism ex-
emplifies Uruguay’s emergence as ar-
guably Latin America’smost socially
liberal country.
Under Mr.Mujica,who took office in
2010, Uruguay has drawnattentionfor
seeking to legalizemarijuana and same-
sexmarriage, while alsoenacting oneof
the region’smost sweeping abortion
rightslaws and sharply increasing the
useofrenewableenergy sources like
wind and biomass.
As lness drives President Hugo
Chávez from the political stage in
Venezuela, leaving the continentwith-
out the larger-than-life figurewho has
held such sway on the left, Mr.Mujica’s
practiced asceticism offersastudy in
contrasts. Fordemocracy to function
properly, he argues,elected eaders
should betakendownanotch.
‘‘We have doneeverything possibleto
makethe presidency less venerated,’ ’
Mr.Mujica said one recent morning,
afterpreparing a serving in his kitchen
of mate, the herbal drink offeredina
hollowed calabash gourd and com-
monly sharedindozens of sips through
the same metal straw.
Passing around the gourd, he said his
laid-back presidential lifestyle amoun-
ted to aconsciouschoicetoforgothe
trappings ofpower and wealth.
The leaderatthe helm of Uruguay’s
changes, known to his many detractors
and supporters alike as Pepe, is
someone few thought could ever riseto
such a position. BeforeMr.Mujica be-
came a gardener of chrysanthemums,
hewasaleader of the Tupamaros,the
urban guerrilla group that drew inspira-
tionfrom the Cuban revolution, carry-
ing out armed bank robberies and kid-
BYMICHAEL D. SHEAR
AND JIM RUTENBERG
WhenRepublican leaders in Congress
agreed to raisetaxes on thewealthy last
week, it leftthe fractured and feuding
party unified onperhaps only one point:
that it is at a majorcrossroads.
From Mitt Romney’sloss onElection
Day through the recenttax fightthat
shattered party discipline in the House
ofRepresentatives, Republicans have
seen the foundations of their political
strategy calledinto question, stirring an
urgent debate about how to reshape and
redefinetheir party.
At issue is whether that can be
achieved through a shift in tactics and
tone, or will it, instead, require adeeper
rethinking of the party’slongtime posi-
tions onbedrock issues like guns and
immigration.
President Barack Obama intends to
testthewillingness ofRepublicans to
bend on those issuesinthe first months
of his new term,whenhe plans to push
forstricterguncontrol and a compre-
hensive immigration overhaul.
The Senate Republican leader,Mitch
McConnell ofKentucky, seemedready
to push back, saying Sunday that any
action onguncontrol and otherissues
was unlikely beforeApril while Con-
gress dealtwith two Republican priorit-
ies: spending and debt.
The coming legislative battlesare
certain to exposeevenmore divisionin
the party.And with establishment Re-
publicans and Tea Partyactivistsat
timesspeaking as if theyare from dif-
ferent parties, concern is spreading
throughout the ranks thatthings could
get worse.
‘‘The Republican Partycan’t stay ex-
actly where it is and stick itshead in the
sand and ignorethe factthatthe coun-
try is changing,’ ’ said Ralph Reed,the
founder of the Faith and FreedomCoali-
tion. ‘‘On theother hand, if the party
weretoretreatoncore, pro-family
stands and itspositions on fiscal respon-
sibility and taxes, it could very quickly
find itself without astrong demographic
support base.’’
Having lostthe popular vote in five of
the last six presidential elections, Re-
publicans face acountry that is increas-
ingly young, multiethnic and skeptical
ofRepublican positions onsome social
MATILDE CAMPODÓNICO FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
President José Mujica lives in a run-down house with his wife on the outskirts of Montevideo. He had spent 14 years in prison.
nappings on the streets of Montevideo.
In their war againsttheUruguayan
state, the Tupamaros gainednotoriety
through violence. The filmmakerCon-
stantinosGavras drew inspirationfor
his 1972movie, ‘‘State ofSiege,’’ from
the abduction and executionin1970 of
Daniel Mitrione, a U.S. adviser to Ur-
uguayan securityforces.Mr.Mujica has
said thatthe group‘‘triedbyallmeans
to avoid killings,’ ’ but he has also eu-
phemistically acknowledgedits ‘‘mili-
tary deviations.’ ’
A brutal counterinsurgency subdued
the Tupamaros, and the police captured
Mr.Mujica in 1972. He spent 14 years in
prison, including morethan a decade in
solitary confinement, ofteninahole in
the ground. During thattime, hewould
go morethan a year without bathing,
and his companions, he said,were a tiny
frog and rats with whomhe shared
crumbs ofbread.
Someof theotherTupamaros who
were placedforyearsinsolitary con-
finement failed to grasp the benefits of
befriending rodents.Oneof them,
Henry Engler, amedical student, under-
went aseveremental breakdownbefore
his release in 1985.
Mr.Mujica rarely speaks about his
time in prison. Seatedat a table in his
garden, sipping his mate, he said it had
given him timetoreflect.
‘‘I learned thatone can always start
again,’ ’ he said.
He chosetostart again by entering
politics. Electedasa egislator, he
shocked the parking attendantsatPar-
liament by arriving onaVespa scooter.
After the risetopowerin2004 of the
Broad Front, acoalition ofleftist parties
and more centrist social democrats, he
was named minister oflivestock, agri-
culture and fisheries.
BeforeMr.Mujica won the 2009 elec-
tionbyawide margin, his opponent, Lu-
is Alberto Lacalle, disparaged his small
house as a ‘‘cave.’’ After that, Mr.
Mujica upset some in theUruguayan
political establishment by selling off a
presidential residence in a seaside re-
sort city, calling the property‘‘useless.’ ’
His donations leave him withabout
$800 amonth of his salary. He said he
and his wife, LucíaTopolansky, aformer
December,Mr.Mujica askedlegislators
to postponevo ing to regulate the
marijuanamarket, though he is pushing
for the bill to be discussed again soon.
Luz Díaz, 78, aretired maid who lives
near Mr.Mujica and votedfor him in
2009, said shewould not do so again if
given the choice. ‘‘Thismarijuana thing,
it’s absurd,’ ’ she added. ‘‘Pepe should
return to selling flowers.’ ’
Polls show that his approval ratings
have beendeclining, but ‘‘I don’t give a
damn,’ ’ Mr.Mujica insisted.
With two years remaining in his term,
Mr.Mujica seems to cherish the free-
dom to speak his mind.
When the gourd ofmate was empty,
Mr.Mujica disappearedinto his kitchen
and returned with an impish grin and a
bottleof Espinillar, a Uruguayan tipple
distilledfromsugar cane. Itwas not yet
noon, but glasses were filled and toasts
were pronounced.
After that, the president jumped
around subjects, fromanthropology and
cycling to Uruguayans’ love forbeef. He
said that he could not dream ofretiring,
but that he lookedforward his time after
his presidency ends,whenhe hopes to
farm full time again.
Finally,Mr.Mujica’s eyeslitupashe
remembered a passage from ‘‘Don
Quixote,’’ inwhich the knight-errant im-
bibes wine fromahorn and dines on
saltedgoatwith his goatherd hosts, de-
livering a harangue againstthe ‘‘pesti-
lenceof gallantry.’ ’
‘‘The goatherds were he poorest
peopleof Spain,’ ’ Mr.Mujica said. ‘‘Prob-
ably,’ ’ he added, ‘‘they werethe richest.’’
guns, nergy,
immigration,
spending and abortion.
‘‘The glovesareoff,’ ’ said Everett
Wilkinson, afounder of the Tea Party
movement in Florida. ‘‘We’re going to
challenge alot of the G.O.P. going for-
ward.’ ’
Moderate Republicans are bracing
for the challenges. StevenC. LaTour-
ette, who has just retiredfrom his Ohio
congressional seat and will becomethe
presidentof the RepublicanMain Street
Partnership, said his group would raise
money to defend middle-of-the-road Re-
publicans againstthe more conserva-
tive groups.
‘‘You can’t be anational party unless
you invite in and are accepting ofmem-
bers with differentvisions,’ ’ he said.
‘‘You can’t treatthem as pariahs.’ ’
As the year begins, someof the
party’s eaders in Washingtona e
searching for ways to address the philo-
sophical divide and the structural
changesinthe country.
Some aretalking about the need to
find a positive vision and agenda that
representsconservative valuesbut still
speaks more directly to the concerns of
abroad section of voters — and man-
ages to sell thatvision through leaders
who can convince voters thatthe party
wants to move forward.
Kay BaileyHutchison, aRepublican
senatorfromTexas who retired this
year, said Republicans must shifttheir
focusaway fromissues like abortion,
same-sex marriage, gun rights and im-
migration.
‘‘The combination of our fiscal re-
sponsibilitymessage and the social is-
sue message did not bring togethera
majority’’ in the presidential election,
she said. She added thatthe party
should not require ‘‘complete fealty to
all of those issues.’ ’
Otherleaders have urgently ordered
top-to-bottomreviews to determine
how the partylost touch with fast-grow-
ing voting blocs likewomen and His-
panics, and how it can win them overby
the 2014 midterm elections.
It is now acceptedinthe party that it
has failed to keep up withDemocratsin
the competitionfor ascendantvoting
blocs of Hispanics,African-Americans,
Asians and young people. In November,
Mr.Obama wonmorethan 70 percentof
Asians and Hispanics and morethan 90
percentof black voters.
‘‘We have to be much more granular
in our approach to partners in the com-
munity likeAfrican-Americans, Hispan-
ics and Asians,’ ’ said ReincePriebus,
the Republican National Committee
chairman,who is leading oneof the re-
views.
JimRutenberg reported fromNew York.
Brian Knowlton contributed reporting
fromWashington.
‘‘If I worried about pollsters,
I wouldn’t be president.’’
guerrilla whowas also imprisoned and
is now asenator, did not needmuch to
live on. Inanew declarationin2012,Mr.
Mujica said hewas sharing ownership
ofassetspreviously in his wife’s name,
including their home and farm equip-
ment, which lifted his net worth.
If there is any country in South Amer-
ica where apresident can drive aBeetle
and get by without a largeentourageof
bodyguards, it might beUruguay,which
consistently ranks among the region’s
least corrupt places and remains a con-
tenderfor the region’s safest country.
Mr.Mujica’sgoverning style doesnot
sitwell with everyone. The proposal to
legalize marijuana has incitedafierce
debate, withpolls showing mostUr-
uguayans opposed to the measure. In
The Republican Party can’t
‘‘stick its head in the sand
and ignore the fact that the
country is changing.’’
issues. The party’s eficit-cutting
agenda reliesheavily onreducing taxes
for thewealthy,which irks the middle
class, and cutting spending ongovern-
ment programs, like Social Security and
Medicare, which are popular with many
voters.
Generational change is also robbing
the party ofsomeofitsmosteffective
positions. Same-sex marriage, once an
issue that reliably drove conservative
voters to the pollsinfavor ofRepubli-
cans, appears to be losing itspotency.
Newt Gingrich,the formerHouse
speaker who promised to fight foracon-
stitutional ban against same-sex mar-
riage during the Republican presiden-
tial primaries, now says his partymust
cometoterms with rapidly shifting
views on the subject.
‘‘Walking around and pretending it
doesn’t exist just means you’re going to
become irrelevant,’’ Mr. Gingrich said
in an interview.
Prominent Republicans insistthat if
the party’s disparate factions can come
togetheraround a set of economic, so-
cial and foreign policy principlesinthe
coming years,theystand a good chance
ofretaking the presidency, making
gains in Congress and repairing someof
the damage donethrough several years
ofbitter primary battles and legislative
bickering.
‘‘Republicans will get their mojo back
when theydefinethemselvesasthe
party of economic growth and upward
mobility,’ ’ said Governor Mitch Daniels
of Indiana, aRepublican.Mr. Daniels
said new lawmakers and governors —
many of whomare minorities and wom-
IHT Classifieds
Former C.I.A. officer faces
prison for leak to reporter
C.I.A., FROMPAGE 1
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viewscovering similar ground.
Then, in 2009,officials were alarmed
to discover that defense lawyers forde-
taineesat Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had
obtained names and photographs of
C.I.A. interrogators and othercounter-
terrorism officers, including somewho
were still undercover. Itturned out that
the lawyers,working under the name
the John Adams Project, wanted to call
the C.I.A. officers as witnessesinfuture
military trials, perhaps to substantiate
accounts of tortureor harsh treatment.
But initial fears thatAlQaeda might
somehow be abletostalk their previous
captors drew widespread coverage.
F.B.I. agents discovered that ahuman
rightsadvocate, John Sifton, hiredby
the John Adams Project had compileda
fileofphotographs and names of the
C.I.A. officers;Mr. Sifton had exchanged
e-mails withjournalists, including Mat-
thew A. Cole, afreelancer then working
onabookabout aC.I.A. renditioncase in
Italy that had gone awry; and Mr. Cole
had exchanged e-mails with Mr.
Kiriakou. The F.B.I.usedsearch war-
rants to obtain access to Mr. Kiriakou’s
two personal e-mail accounts.
According to court documents, F.B.I.
agents discovered that in August 2008,
Mr. Cole—identifiedasJournalistAin
the charging documents — had asked
Mr. Kiriakou if he knew the nameofa
covertofficer who had a supervisory
role in the renditionprogram,which in-
volvedcapturing terrorist suspects and
delivering them to othercountriesfor
detention orinterrogation.
Mr. Kiriakou at first said he did not re-
call the name, but he followedup the next
day withane-mail passing on the name.
Mr. Sifton,Mr. Cole and U.S. government
prosecutors all declined to comment.
Mr. Kiriakou and his wife struggled
withhow to explain to the children that
Mr. Kiriakou was going away, probably
in mid-February. Theysettled on telling
the children that ‘‘Daddy lost a big fight
with the F.B.I.’ ’ and would have to live
elsewhere forawhile. Max, his son, cried
atthe news,Mr. Kiriakou said. He cried
again after calculating that his birthday
would fall onaweekday, so itwould be
impossibletomakethetrip to prison to
sharethe celebrationwith his father.
ends meet, theyrented out their spa-
cioushouse and moved to arentedbun-
galow a third the size with their three
young children.Mr. Kiriakou has two
older childrenfrom his first marriage.
Their financial woes were complicat-
edbyMr. Kiriakou’slegal fees. He said
he had paid his defense lawyers more
than $100,000 and still owed them
$500,000; the specter of additional,
bankrupting legal fees, along with the
risk of a far longer prison term that
could separate him from his wife and
childrenforadecadeormore, prompted
him to takethe plea offer, he said.
After Mr. Kiriakou first appeared on
theABC televisionnetwork,talking
with the reporter Brian Ross in some
detail about waterboarding, many
Washingtonreporters sought him out. I
was among them. Hewas the first C.I.A.
officer to speak about the procedure,
consideredanotorious torture method
sincethe Inquisitionbut declaredlegal
by theU.S. Justice Department in secret
opinions thatwere later withdrawn.
Mr. Kiriakou, who has givenThe New
York Timespermission to describe pre-
viously confidential conversations,
came across as friendly, courteous, dis-
armingly candid — and deeply ambiva-
lent about whatthe C.I.A. called‘‘en-
hancedinterrogation techniques.’ ’
Mr. Kiriakou seemedshellshocked,
and perhaps a little intoxicated, by the
flood ofpublicity his remarks on ABC
had received and the dozens ofinter-
view requestscoming his way.Wemet
forlunch a coupleof timesinWashing-
ton and spoke by phoneoccasionally. He
recounted his experiencesinPakistan
—the C.I.A. laterallowed him to include
much of that material in his 2009mem-
oir, ‘‘The Reluctant Spy.’ ’
Fromcourt documents and inter-
views, it is possibletopiecetogetherhow
the case againstMr. Kiriakou took shape.
Whenhe first spokeon ABC in 2007, the
C.I.A. sentthe Justice Department aso-
called crimesreport—aroutine step to
alert lawenforcementofficials to an ap-
parentunauthorized disclosureof classi-
fied information.Atleast half a dozen
more referrals wenttothe Justice De-
partment as he continued to grant inter-
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Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who had promised a strong fight against same-
sex marriage, now says his party must come to terms with public opinion on the topic.
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