ABCDE Mostly sunny. 98/77 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorm. 97/78 • details, B8 TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010 A sign of things to come
CONTRACTORS FACE CUTS
Gates also targets
Joint Forces Command by Craig Whitlock
Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates said Monday that the Penta- gon will cut thousands of jobs, in- cluding a substantial chunk of its private contractors and a major military command based in Nor- folk, as part of an ongoing effort to streamline its operations and to stave off political pressure to slash defense spending in the years ahead. Gates said he will recommend
PHOTOS BY XIAOMEI CHEN/THE WASHINGTON POST Incoming cadets take a break from a 12-mile march between a training site and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. R
etired Army Col. Richard “Dick” Williams of Falls Church was the oldest West Point grad- uate to accompany the military academy’s incoming class Mon-
day on the traditional 12-mile “march back” from the site of summer training. More than 100 academy graduates joined the more than 1,300 cadets in making the march. For Williams, 87, a 1945 graduate, it was his eighth time.
that President Obama dismantle the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which employs about 2,800 mili- tary and civilian personnel as well as 3,300 contractors, most of them in southeastern Virginia. He also said he will terminate two other Pentagon agencies, impose a 10 percent cut in intelligence ad- visory contracts and slim down what he called a “top-heavy hier- archy” by thinning the ranks of admirals and generals by at least 50 positions. The reduction in funding for
Richard “Dick” Williams chats with cadet Caleb Hughes.
Serial killer suspected in Leesburg attacks Similar methods used
against black victims in Michigan, police say
by Maria Glod and Caitlin Gibson Awhite man who stabbed or at-
tacked three dark-skinned men in Leesburg this month is probably the “Flint serial killer,” thought to
have killed five men and wounded 10 — almost all of them black — in Michigan, police said Monday. The unprovoked Virginia as- saults began Aug. 3, when a teen- ager out for a nighttime jog sud- denly felt a sharp pain, then turned to see a man who had plunged a knife in his back. Two days later and a short distance away, police think, the same as- sailant stabbed a 67-year-old man who was sitting on the stoop out- side his apartment. Then, on Fri-
day, the attacker asked a man for help fixing a dark-green sport- utility vehicle, then struck the good Samaritan in the head with a hammer. Leesburg Police Chief Joseph R.
Price said he is confident the man wanted in Flint is the same per- son attacking men in Loudoun County. There are striking simi- larities in the methods of the at- tacks, but the strongest evidence is the specific description of the suspect’s green SUV, which is
Google hedges its bets on openness
Pact with Verizon on Internet-access rules marks new use of clout
by Cecilia Kang
Google has long presented it- self as looking out for the little guy. It easily could have used its wealth and power to gain prefer- ential treatment from Internet providers but always said it would not because that could prevent the next start-up in a Sil- icon Valley garage from enjoying similar success. But as Google has gotten big-
ger and entered new lines of busi- ness, it has revised some of its principles — and it is drawing criticism from start-ups and pub-
lic interest groups along the way. Google and Verizon Communi-
cations on Monday confirmed that they’ve put aside their differ- ences and agreed that rules en- suring equal access to the Inter- net shouldn’t apply to mobile phones. They also said a com- pany such as Google could strike a deal to pay for more capacity on a carrier’s network for zippier downloads of its own sites over those of competitors. That means Verizon could block an application such as Mi- crosoft’s Bing search service from its subscribers’ mobile phones, or it could charge consumers extra for access to certain popular ap- plications delivered at better quality than other Web sites. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call with news media that though
Opinion: Google and Verizon CEOs on access to the Internet. A17
Google has agreed to these changes in principle, the firm wouldn’t actually pay for prefer- ential treatment on land-based broadband networks. He said that Google would only operate on the “public Internet” that is accessed by any user and that it would not cut special deals to de- liver YouTube or other services to fixed-wire consumers at a higher rate.
But analysts pointed out that
even if Google doesn’t take up that practice, its agreement could lay the groundwork for other companies. Firms could pay pro-
google continued on A12
nearly identical in both locations. Price said he thinks the man
may be prowling for more victims and warned residents to be on guard. He recommended that people use the buddy system while walking or jogging. Police in Michigan have been reluctant to say the attacker is motivated by race, but Price was not. “He’s attacking based simply on the color of their skin,” Price said.
attacks continued on A6
contract employees — by 10 per- cent annually over three years — excludes those in war zones. Although the moves will save an unspecified amount of money, defense officials characterized them as a political preemptive strike to fend off growing senti- ment elsewhere in Washington to tackle the federal government’s soaring deficits by making deep cuts in military spending. The Obama administration has ex- empted national security from its budget reductions, but Gates said he fears that Congress might not be able to resist for long. “It is important that we not re-
peat the mistakes of the past, where tough economic times or the winding down of a military campaign leads to steep and un- wise reductions in defense,” Gates said. He cited threats from Iran, North Korea and other countries — in an implicit reference to Chi- na — as justification for contin-
defense continued on A4
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Thousands of defense jobs to be eliminated
BY THE NUMBERS $100 billion
The five-year goal for cutting overhead and shrinking bureaucracy at the Pentagon.
6,100
Military, civilian and contractor jobs that Norfolk and Virginia Beach could lose if the U.S. Joint Forces Command closes.
In Norfolk and N.Va., fears about the impact
by Rosalind S. Helderman
richmond — Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Depart- ment budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramat- ically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia. Most of the immediate reac- tion revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s pro- posal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, in- cluding Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region.
But a proposal to slash the Pen-
tagon’s budget for military con- tractors over the next three years could also be as significant to the economy of the Washington re- gion. “Virginia is more vulnerable to this kind of policy shift than any other state,” said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center of Regional Analysis at George Mason Uni- versity. “Defense spending was our strength during the down- turn. It kept unemployment low- er here than in most other states. It kept the economy from crash- ing as far as other states’. It’s also
virginia continued on A4
An online army and its hive mind Anonymous users on 4chan seize Internet’s power — for mass disruptions
by Ariana Eunjung Cha
One morning in June, Google’s list of the top global searches be- gan to fill up with random words: “fried chicken,” “comic book stores,” “gyms.” Before anyone could stop it, a racial slur jumped to the No. 1 spot. Many observers concluded that
Google must have been hacked. It wasn’t. It was the victim of a prank that
redirected armies of people to search for the same things at the same time. Corporations spend millions of dollars trying to understand and control traffic on the Internet, and more often than not they don’t succeed. 4chan has mas-
INSIDE METRO HEALTH & SCIENCE 1
Losing more than the keys As more Americans live longer with progressive, disabling diseases that make driving iffy, scrutiny may pay off but loss of independence can be painful. E1
No plan for more patrols Following brawl on Friday, D.C. police chief says more officers could be added to Chinatown if requested. B1
Brick Fair ignites Lego passion “The first two days of the
convention were all business for the [Adult Fans Of Legos]. This wasn’t about kids plopping down and
clicking bricks.” Petula Dvorak in Metro, B1
BUSINESS NEWS............A10 CLASSIFIEDS .....................F1 COMICS ..........................C6-7
EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A16 FED PAGE.........................A15 GOING OUT GUIDE............C8
LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..............................C4 OBITUARIES...................B6-7
STOCKS............................A14 TELEVISION.......................C5 WORLD NEWS...................A7
Printed using recycled fiber NATION
Rep. Waters prepares her defense Facing ethics charges, she plans to put a surprising witness on the stand: the House ethics committee. A3
2 STYLE
From celebrity to candidate As Wyclef Jean runs for president of Haiti, the big question is whether he is more Gopher or Reagan. C1
SPORTS
Strasburg back to the mound? Barring another last-minute twist, pitcher’s return from disabled list raises at least a little worry.D1
DAILY CODE Details, B2
707 5 1
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 248
CONTENTS© 2010 HELAYNE SEIDMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Christopher Poole, a.k.a. “moot,” started 4chan as a 15-year-old.
tered the feat for free. Created seven years ago by a 15- year-old, 4chan is a vast web of anonymous, uncensored message boards. No one’s in charge, but the site’s users have managed to
pull off some of the highest-pro- file collective actions in the his- tory of the Internet. The 4chan “hive mind” has been credited with — or blamed for, depending on your perspec- tive — urging tween idol Justin Bieber to head for North Korea as part of his upcoming world tour (as part of an online poll allowing fans to select which country he should visit), spreading a story that Steve Jobs had a heart attack (which caused Apple’s stock to fall precipitously) and starting a ru- mor that there was a bomb at New York’s JFK airport (trigger- ing an evacuation). The June 17 takeover of Google Trends, the powerful tool that
4chan continued on A13
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