SPORTS TIGER TIED FOR THIRD AT THE MASTERS
BUSINESS 401K MATCH – MAKING A COMEBACK
TRAVEL THE GREECE THAT TOURISTS MISS
ARTS&STYLE CLUE: NEW CHALLENGE FOR YOU
ABCDE
1Mostly sunny. 74/51 • Tomorrow: Partly sunny. 67/44 • details, C8
Pakistan released insurgents, officials say
Spy agency accused of secretly supporting Afghan Taliban
by Greg Miller
The recent capture of the Af- ghan Taliban’s second in com- mand seemed to signal a turning point in Pakistan, an indication that its intelligence agency had gone from helping to cracking down on the militant Islamist group.
But U.S. officials now believe
that even as Pakistan’s security forces worked with their Amer- ican counterparts to detain Mul- lah Abdul Ghani Baradar and oth- er insurgents, the country’s Inter- Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, quietly freed at least two senior Afghan Taliban figures it had captured on its own. U.S. military and intelligence
officials said the releases, detec- ted by American spy agencies but not publicly disclosed, are evi- dence that parts of Pakistan’s se- curity establishment continue to support the Afghan Taliban. This assistance underscores how com- plicated the CIA-ISI relationship remains at a time when the Unit- ed States and Pakistan are bat- tling insurgencies that straddle the Afghanistan border and are increasingly anxious about how the war in that country will end. The officials spoke on the con- dition of anonymity and declined to identify the Taliban figures who were released, citing the se- crecy surrounding U.S. monitor- ing of the ISI. But officials said the freed captives were high-ranking Taliban members and would have been recognizable as insurgents the United States would want in custody. The capture of Baradar was “positive, any way you slice it,” said a U.S. counterterrorism offi- cial. “But it doesn’t mean they’ve cut ties at every level to each and
pakistan continued on A16
Pre-summit planning
Dozens of world leaders are arriving in Washington for a summit on the threat posed by unsecured nuclear materials. A6
Security around the event could cause plenty of commuter headaches. C2
M ST. L ST.
Wash. Conv. Center
MT. VERNON SQUARE/ 7TH STREET CONVENTION CENTER
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
Alex Ovechkin’s physical play has kept him out of 10 games, but it’s also the reason for his dominance.
Losses devastate ranks of political, military elite
by Edward Cody and Peter Finn
Capitals’ star has succeeded with a fast and furious style
by Dan Steinberg
EDGE
OVECHKIN’S
S
Mt. Vernon Square
K ST.
Stevens’s retirement leaves void of
experience, ideology
by Robert Barnes
In nearly 35 years on the Su- preme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens went from idiosyncratic maverick to the leader of the court’s liberal wing. He always described it as the court’s evolu- tion more than his own — almost all of his colleagues, he said, had been replaced by a justice with
BUSINESS..........................G1 CLASSIFIEDS.....................K1 EDITORIALS/LETTERS..A17-19
everal weeks ago, Ted Leonsis noticed Alex Ovechkin coming down a hall- way at the Washington Capitals’ practice facility in Ballston and stopped to have a word. ¶ The two men — one the franchise’s owner, the other its greatest player — meet for occasional mentoring sessions in Leonsis’s of- fice, where they’ve discussed family life, finances and American culture, but rarely hockey. This was different, an impromptu conversation about
Ovechkin’s relentless style of play, which mirrors his frenetic lifestyle off the ice. ¶ Leon- sis adores his star’s exuberance. But some have wondered whether that key ingredient to his success and appeal could someday shorten his career.
“You know, you’re flying around the ice at 110 miles an hour,” Leonsis remembered tell- ing Ovechkin. “And if you flew around the ice at 100 miles an hour, it would be okay.” Ovechkin nodded his assent, and then large- ly ignored the suggestion. After all, his philoso- phy — “get puck, score,” as Leonsis described it — has created the most successful period in Washington hockey history. Ovechkin’s Capitals will finish the regular season on Sunday as the National Hockey League’s winningest team and head into this week’s playoffs as a favorite to win the Stanley Cup. They’ve smashed local television and at- tendance ratings; Sunday’s game will complete the franchise’s first sold-out season.
Ovechkin is challenging for his third
straight goal-scoring title despite missing 10 games. He’s a leading candidate for his third straight most valuable player award — some- thing no Washington professional athlete has done — and has become among the most mar- ketable and recognizable athletes in a city bet- ter known for football and basketball loyalties. There are screaming hordes whenever he
leaves the team’s practice facility. He’s a regular at several trendy downtown clubs, poses with models for glossy magazine shoots, has the best-selling jersey among NHL players. He also has a 13-year, $124 million contract
ovechkin continued on A11
For liberals, replacing the irreplaceable justice
more conservative views. The pattern is likely to contin- ue with Stevens’s successor. Whether the court changed or
Stevens changed or the political climate changed — there’s evi- dence of each — the justice’s deci- sion to step down this summer will almost certainly mean a more conservative Supreme Court, even with Barack Obama in the White House and Demo- crats controlling Congress. In his time on the court, so
lengthy that one advocacy group has compiled a list of the greatest
opinions Stevens wrote while in his 80s, the justice has left a liber- al imprint. He embraced affirma- tive action (after first questioning it); declared a belief that the death penalty is unconstitutional (after first voting to restore it); and supported protections for gays. He also defended abortion rights and opposed the notion that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to personal gun ownership. It is questionable whether Obama, in the current political
Opinion: Experts on possible nominees. A17
GOING OUT GUIDE..MAGAZINE JOBS...................................H1 LOTTERIES.........................C3
MOVIES ..............................E9 OBITUARIES.................C6-11 OMBUDSMAN..................A17
OUTLOOK...........................B1 STOCKS..........................G5-7 WORLD NEWS.................A12
climate, could replace Stevens with a nominee who shares such strong opinions, even if that were the president’s inclination. His nomination of Sonia Sotomayor last year made history but was not based on ideology. His ap- pointments of lower-court judges, with a few notable excep- tions, are more middle-of-the- road than the left would like. But a bigger loss for liberals, who are already seeing their vic- tories at the Supreme Court dwindle, will be Stevens’s skills at building majorities. And no liber-
stevens continued on A10
Online at washingtonpost.com Printed using recycled fiber
warsaw — Tens of thousands of mourners filled the streets of cen- tral Warsaw with red votive can- dles Saturday night in a display of patriotism and grief hours after President Lech Kaczynski and senior Polish officials were killed when the presidential jet crashed in heavy fog in western Russia. The crash, which officials said killed all 97 people on board, cut a devastating swath through Po- land’s political and military elite. In addition to Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, the dead included the national bank’s president, the deputy foreign minister, the head of the National Security Office, the deputy Parliament speaker as well as lawmakers and presiden- tial aides. Among military person- nel killed were the army chief of staff, the head of the air force and the navy chief commander. The tragedy generated what mourners in Warsaw described as a spontaneous outpouring of sup-
HBerlin HPrague
SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010
WAY
HOslo
SWEDEN
AMONG VICTIMS
SWE.
HStockholm
Y POLAND
ECH REP.
POLAND
Warsaw
RIA
0
HVienna HBratislava
SLOVAKIA
250
MILES
HBudapest
HUNGARY
Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.
MD DC VASV1V2V3V4
washingtonpost.com • $2
Poland mourns deaths of leaders in plane crash
PRESIDENT
FIN. Helsinki
n
LAT. EST.
A
RUS. LITH.
H
LITHUANIA
BELARUS
Site of plane crash
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
Odessa
LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST
port, not necessarily for Kaczyn- ski’s nationalist politics or his par- ty, but for the office of the presi- dency and for all those killed alongside him in the service of the nation. “You can look around the street here, and half the people would not be voting for Kaczynski,” said Aleksander Zborowski, 36, an Ari- zona State-educated engineer who was standing in front of the presidential palace along with thousands of other mourners. “But they are here because he was our president. It is patriotism.” Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the crash “the most tragic event of the country’s postwar his- tory,” and his government called on Poles to observe two minutes of silence. Under Poland’s constitution, Tusk exercises primary control
poland continued on A13
RUSSIA
St. Petersburg Moscow
Moscow
Smolensk
The ‘Old Man Crew’ held tight in the mine
Day shift ended in darkness for longtime friends
Massey Energy mine.
by David A. Fahrenthold
montcoal, w.va. — Their trip
started at least 40 minutes from daylight. The guys known as the “Old
Man Crew” had finished their shift digging coal out of Upper Big Branch mine. They walked through its lattice of tunnels to a mantrip, an open-sided cart that runs back to the surface on rails. There were nine of them in the
cart, rolling through semi-dark- ness. “Head” was the crew boss, whom they ribbed about his gi- ant, rectangular noggin. “Pee Wee” was the new grandfather. Benny was a recovering drinker who beat the bottle with the help of Jesus and a Bowflex machine. They were smudge-faced min- ers with decades of experience do- ing jobs better suited for their sons and nephews. They had be- come friends in other coal mines, and some had worked together for more than 10 years. Now they worked here, at a high-earning
All had lived the old story of
West Virginia’s Coal River Valley. A stint in the military for some, a job at an auto garage or a parts store for others. Then each in his own time accepted — often em- braced — a life underground. A few minutes after 3 p.m. last
Monday, West Virginia officials say, their cart was nearing a tun- nel called 66 Crosscut. Less than 10 minutes from day-
light.
The story of the Old Man Crew began long before last week, when an explosion deep inside the mine killed 29 men. Four miners were missing, the subject of desperate search efforts, until their bodies were found late Friday night. It was sometime around 1994,
relatives said, when Benny Wil- lingham and Carl Acord were as- signed to the same crew in an- other mine. They liked each other
miners continued on A8
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
The crew at a company banquet from top left: Carl Acord, George Currence, Benny Willingham and Wayne Fox. In front, Tim Blake, William Lynch and James Woods. Fox and Currence were not at the mine blast where Blake and Woods were injured and the rest died.
DAILY CODE
Details, C2
63 7 0
7
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 127
CONTENTS© 2010
MO
B
a
MASS. AVE.
N.Y. AVE.
l
t
i
c
S
e
a
11TH ST. 10TH ST.
7TH ST. 9TH ST.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184