Page1 29/12/2014 4th MONDAY 4
Transcription
Page1 29/12/2014 4th MONDAY 4
DEGAS’S DEPTH BALLET WORK ADORED ANEW WHISKEY WAR HOW DISTILLERY DEAL WENT SOUR SUICIDE CHOICE INDIA NEEDS LAW OVERHAUL PAGE 8 PAGE 15 PAGE 6 | CULTURE | BUSINESS | OPINION .... MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 U.S. searches for secrets to power of Islamic State No answers as flight to Singapore disappears WASHINGTON BANGKOK General turns to experts outside Pentagon in push to counter ideology Darkness suspends hunt for AirAsia jet that left Indonesia carrying 162 BY ERIC SCHMITT BY THOMAS FULLER Earlier this summer, Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous? Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies. ‘‘We do not understand the movement and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,’’ he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. ‘‘We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.’’ General Nagata’s frustration is shared by other American officials. Even as President Obama and his civilian and military aides express confidence that Iraqi troops backed by allied airstrikes have blunted the Islamic State’s momentum on the ground in Iraq and undermined its base of support in Syria, other officials acknowledge that they have barely made a dent in the larger, longer-term campaign to kill the ideology that animates the terrorist movement. Four months after his first session with the outside advisers, General Nagata — one of the military’s rising stars and the man Mr. Obama has tapped to train a Pentagon-backed army of Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State — is still searching for answers. ‘‘Those questions and observations are my way of probing and questioning,’’ General Nagata said in a brief email this month, declining on orders from his superiors to say more The minutes of internal conference calls between General Nagata and more than three dozen experts he convened through Pentagon channels in August Search-and-rescue teams were mobilized from across Southeast Asia on Sunday after a commercial airliner with 162 people on board lost contact with ground controllers off the coast of Borneo, a search effort that evoked a distressingly familiar mix of grief and mystery nine months after a Malaysia Airlines jetliner disappeared over the Indian Ocean. This plane, too, had Malaysian connections: The Airbus A320-200 was operated by the Indonesian affiliate of AirAsia, a regional budget carrier based in Malaysia. And while it seemed premature to make such comparisons, the Indonesian authorities could not explain on Sunday why the AirAsia jet disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes after leaving the Indonesian city of Surabaya around 5:30 a.m. By nightfall, more than 12 hours later, searchers facing bad weather had found no sign of the wreckage and the search was called off for the night, Indonesian officials said. The weather along the path of Flight 8501 to Singapore was cloudy, and a United States-based weather monitoring service reported a number of lightning strikes along the way. But the monsoon conditions did not seem insurmountable for a modern airliner. The route was a well-traveled part of the Indonesian archipelago; six other aircraft were in the vicinity of Flight 8501 when it disappeared according to data by Flightradar24, an organization that tracks aircraft. ISLAMIC STATE, PAGE 5 DAUGHTERS LOST TO JIHAD After their daughters left England for Syria to join the Islamic State, a family felt shunned by their community. PAGE 3 SIM CHI YIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Working at a coal factory near Lüliang, in central China. Rich deposits of coal in the area helped fueled the country’s economic boom, turning owners of mines into millionaires. China city faces life after graft crackdown LÜLIANG, CHINA President’s campaign challenges ties between coal barons and officials BY IAN JOHNSON For 10 fat years, this mountainous corner of central China was synonymous with the nation’s energy-hungry economic takeoff. Its rich deposits of coal fueled the most frenetic era of the Chinese boom, turning owners of small mines into millionaires and dirty towns into gleaming cities. Now, Lüliang is at the center of one of the most sweeping political and economic purges in recent Chinese history. As President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption enters its second year, the Communist Party authorities have made an example of this district of 3.7 million, taking down much of its political and business elite in a flurry of headline-grabbing arrests. Seven of the 13 party bosses who run Shanxi Province, where Lüliang is located, have been stripped of power or thrown in jail, and party propaganda outlets have trumpeted the crackdown in the region as proof that Mr. Xi is serious about rooting out corruption. On Friday, state news media reported a new wave of arrests, with nine more Lüliang officials detained. The reports said the arrests were part of a new emphasis on cleaning up local governments, where officials have extensive powers and few restraints. Among those who have been held up for national humiliation here are Xing Libin, a coal baron who reportedly spent $11 million on his daughter’s wedding, and Zhang Zhongsheng, a local apparatchik accused of using illegal gains to build hilltop mansions. Interviews in Lüliang and in state news reports put the two men at the center of an incestuous network of entrepreneurs and party officials who bought and sold govern- Corruption and coal brought prosperity. But the rules are changing, with consequences for the economy uncertain. ment posts to maintain control of the area’s lucrative coal mines and to finance lavish lifestyles. The downfall of men like Mr. Xing and Mr. Zhang has been cheered by much of the Chinese public, which is outraged by the runaway, often illicit concentration of wealth that has characterized China’s embrace of capitalism. But in Lüliang and elsewhere, Mr. Xi’s prolonged, nationwide crackdown on corruption has also unsettled the party establishment and its allies in business. Even among ordinary residents, there is concern about what it might mean for jobs and growth, because private businessmen have been targeted alongside government and party officials. ‘‘In this part of China, officials are held in the palms of the coal barons,’’ said one shopkeeper, who asked that his name not be used so he could speak freely about a politically sensitive subject. ‘‘But these business leaders were capable — they made us prosper.’’ For much of China’s growth era, party officials and businesses have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship, with policy concessions and market access granted in exchange for corporate support — CHINA, PAGE 14 its location in Aleppo. When he became one of the few to be released this May, he pressed to meet with United States officials in Turkey. ‘‘I thought that I had truly important information that could be used to save these people,’’ he said. ‘‘But I was deeply disappointed.’’ A State Department employee and a contractor were eventually sent to meet him at a restaurant, but both were assigned to deal with civil society in Syria, not hostages. Mr. Abo Aljoud grew frustrated, insisting that he could pinpoint the location of the prison on a map. Instead, he said, he received only vague assurances that the employees would pass on the details he had shared and his contact information to the relevant investigators. ‘‘It’s my impression that they were more interested in gathering intelligence, in general, than in saving these people,’’ he said. ‘‘I could have shown them the location on Google Maps, but they weren’t interested.’’ Although the hostages had been moved by the time he met with the Boats and planes from at least three countries had joined the search along a 100-mile stretch of the Java Sea near the island of Belitung, between the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the plane’s last known location. The search was to continue Monday morning. Shortly before contact was lost on Sunday, the cockpit crew informed air traffic controllers in Jakarta that they were planning to rise to 38,000 from 32,000 feet to avoid a cloud, Djoko Murjatmodjo, the acting director general of air transport at the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation, told reporters at a news conference in Jakarta. ‘‘At the moment, we don’t know where the exact location is, except that this morning at 6:17, we lost contact,’’ Mr. Djoko said. The Singapore authorities said contact was lost at 6:24 a.m. Jakarta time; the discrepancy has not been explained. Mr. Djoko said the authorities had not detected any emergency distress beacons that are normally triggered by an accident. ‘‘Therefore we cannot assume anything yet,’’ he said. Kompas, a newspaper in Indonesia, quoted Mr. Djoko as saying that the plane’s request to divert from its flight path was approved but that air traffic controllers denied the request to ascend to 38,000 feet ‘‘because of traffic.’’ He did not elaborate. O N L I N E AT INY T.COM Economic unknowns for the U.S. American ransom policy closes off other options GAZIANTEP, TURKEY Ex-captives and Syrians say U.S. officials failed to act on information BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Chaotic stalemate Homs, seen from a mosque in June. As Syria’s civil war nears its fourth year, the battleground is divided between the government and the extremists, leaving many Syrians feeling that their revolution has failed. nytimes.com/world New York police mourn officer INSIDE TO DAY ’S PA P E R Hundreds stranded as ferry burns Stormy weather hindered the rescue of nearly 500 passengers traveling to Italy from Greece. 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SH. 200 Kosovo ¤ 2.50 Latvia ¤ 3.25 Lebanon LP 4,000 ’:HIKKLD=WUXUU\:?b@m@c@j@k" More than 20,000 police officers came together to attend the funeral for Officer Rafael Ramos, who was shot and killed with a fellow officer in their squad car on Dec. 20. WORLD NEWS, 3 NEWSSTAND PRICES Norway NkrFrance 28 Senegal 2.500 ¤ CFA 3.00 Oman OMR 1.250 Serbia Din 250 Peru US$ 3.50 Slovakia ¤ 3.30 Andorra ¤ 3.50 Poland ZI 12.20 Slovenia ¤ 2.50 Antilles ¤ Spain 3.50 Portugal ¤ 3.00 ¤ 3.00 Qatar QR 10.00 Sweden Skr 28 CFA 2.500 Republic of Cameroon Ireland ¤3.00 Switzerland SFr 4.30 Reunion ¤ 3.50 Syria US$ 3.00 Gabon CFA 2.500 Romania Lei 11.50 The Netherlands ¤ 3.00 Saudi ArabiaIvory SR 13.00Coast Tunisia Din 4.300 CFA 2.500 Turkey TL 6 Ukraine US$ 5.00 United ArabMAD Emirates25 AED 12.00 Morocco Venezuela US$ 2.75 Senegal CFA 2.500 United States $ 3.00 Other US$ 2.00 Tunisia Din(Europe) 4.300 U.S. Military US$ 1.75 Reunion ¤ 3.50 IN THIS ISSUE No. 40,992 Books 8 Business 13 Crossword 12 Culture 8 Opinion 6 Sports 10 For a fleeting moment last year, Louai Abo Aljoud, a Syrian journalist, made eye contact with the American hostages being held by the Islamic State militant group. One of dozens of prisoners inside a former potato chip factory in northern Syria, Mr. Abo Aljoud was taken out of his cell one day and assigned to deliver meals to fellow inmates. It was when he opened the slot to Cell No. 2 that he first saw them — the gaunt, frightened faces of James Foley, Steven J. Sotloff and Peter Kassig. Mr. Abo Aljoud, a 23-year-old freelance cameraman, said he resolved not only to save himself but also to help the other inmates if he could. He memorized the prison’s floor plan and studied Pinterest gets down to brass tacks On New Year’s Day, the digital scrapbook company plans to make its first money-making product available to all marketers who want to buy advertising on the site. BUSINESS, 13 Canada’s bilingual nationhood For help on immigration, the United States should look north, where we get a lot right when it comes to living in a multilingual, multicultural world, Chrystia Freeland writes. OPINION, 6 HOSTAGES, PAGE 5 Amazon program angers authors Some self-published writers say their income has experienced a large and rapid decrease under Amazon’s all-youcan-read business model, Kindle Unlimited. nytimes.com/technology MASSOUD HOSSAINI/ASSOCIATED PRESS Afghan combat mission ends The change, greeted with fanfare, means little in remote areas still battling the Taliban. WORLD NEWS, 4 ANTARA FOTO/REUTERS A relative of an AirAsia passenger waited on Sunday at Surabaya airport, Indonesia. Governor’s ratings fall at home As Chris Christie spends more time outside New Jersey while considering a run for president, residents’ opinions of him are at a low. nytimes.com/nyregion INDONESIA, PAGE 4 As for how the American economy may perform next year, a handful of factors, including unemployment and inflation, will help set the United States’ direction, Justin Wolfers writes on The Upshot. nytimes.com/business Coach’s transition far from smooth Phil Jackson, who hired Derek Fisher to coach the New York Knicks, has not always agreed that players should go right into coaching. And Fisher’s record may make the point. nytimes.com/sports