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More helicopters, supplies seen as way to offset militants’ efforts


by Karen DeYoung Pakistan wants the United


States to supply immediately doz- ens more helicopters and signifi- cantly more money and supplies to help deal with the widespread flooding that has affected at least 14 million people there, senior Pakistani officials said Monday. Pakistan’s plea is fueled by con- cerns that the government’s in- ability to provide relief quickly could boost the appeal of militant groups that have rushed to sup- ply aid in the country’s north- west. Visible U.S. assistance, the officials said, could help reverse currents of anti-Americanism. The United States has already


diverted six Chinook transport helicopters from the Afghanistan war to Pakistan over the past 10 days for rescue missions and aid delivery. It has also sent hun- dreds of thousands of prepack- aged military meals and a pledge of more than $40 million in dis- aster assistance, far more than any other country.


‘Risk mitigation’ A senior U.S. military official


said transfer of additional heli- copters, which are in short supply in Afghanistan, would require a political decision in Washington. “Do they exist in the region? Yes,” he said. “Are they available? No.” “It’s a question of risk mitiga-


tion,” the official said. “Helicopter lift is critical to the mission” in Afghanistan, where road trans- port is difficult and dangerous, he said. “It’s not like we have a great surplus of helicopters in theater that are not engaging.” A White House official said


that Pakistan has not delivered a formal request for more helicop- ters or vastly increased aid, but that “we are, of course, trying to respond to every request and to assist as best we can as it becomes evident what it is that they need.” The Obama administration has


carefully calibrated its assistance to Pakistan over the past year to win popular support without ex- acerbating Pakistani suspicions of expanded U.S. military and in- telligence activities. In 2005, when U.S. helicopters


rescued thousands of people after an earthquake in Kashmir that killed 73,000 people, the popu- larity of the U.S. military in Paki- stan briefly surged. But the floods, while taking fewer lives so


ASIF HASSAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES A Pakistani child reaches for something to eat as flood survivors receive donated food from a relief camp set up by local volunteers on the outskirts of Sukkur.


far, are much more widespread and promise upheaval that will last longer across most of the country. The unprecedented floodwa- ters that have overtaken villages throughout the northwest part of the country are quickly rising across the southern plains as the Indus, Kabul and Swat rivers overflow their banks.


Clinging to rooftops


With the monsoon rain show- ing no sign of abating, the gov- ernment estimates that 1,600 people have been killed, 650,00 homes have been destroyed, and more than 50,000 square miles are under water in a disaster still in its early stages. “Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other people are in- accessible: clinging to rooftops, swept away,” Richard C. Hol- brooke, the administration’s spe-


cial representative for Afghani- stan and Pakistan, said. “The rains are continuing,” he said, and the Sukkur dam, which holds back the Indus River from the ag- ricultural plains of Sindh prov- ince, “is in danger.” He added: “If it breaks, the situation will reach an even more catastrophic level.” Holbrooke said the administra- tion is calling on other govern- ments to help and is trying to mo- bilize the business community while pressing for individual con- tributions via a text-message sys- tem the State Department has set up. But, he said, “I’m concerned that perhaps people think that it’s just another one of the endless tragedies that Pakistan endures.” Pakistani officials, bemoaning


the setback to development plans already behind schedule, appear to be overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. Many displaced vil- lagers who have set up makeshift


For BP, a $3 billion start as end is in sight


Relief well is nearly complete; firm deposits funds in escrow account


by Pascal Fletcher and Anna Driver


miami — BP advanced on the fi- nal lap toward permanently kill- ing the source of the world’s worst offshore oil spill and kicked off a $20 billion compensation fund with a $3 billion deposit Monday. A relief well being drilled by BP is on track to start a definitive “bottom kill” shutdown of the crippled Gulf of Mexico well this week, unless an approaching weather system disrupts the tim-


ing, the top U.S oil spill response official said.


Optimism has grown since the


biggest U.S. environmental clean- up operation ever launched passed a critical milestone last week by subduing the blown-out deepwater well with injections of heavy drilling mud, followed by a cement seal. “Thankfully, because of the in- credibly hard work by people from all across government, we are now finally able to say that the well is contained and we can get a permanent kill of that well over the next couple of weeks,” Presi- dent Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser in Austin. BP’s Macondo well, a mile be- low the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, was provisionally capped


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on July 15 after spewing an esti- mated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the gulf, polluting marsh- lands, fisheries and tourist beach- es along several hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast. Officials say no more oil has


leaked from the site since then, but the relief well is regarded as the final solution to plug the well 13,000 feet beneath the seabed. “They are closing in on the last


30-40 feet. . . . We expect that sometime before the end of the week we will be able to . . . com- mence the kill,” the U.S. oil re- sponse chief, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said in a confer- ence call. As the deepwater engineering


operation progressed, BP said it was also moving to fulfill its pub- lic commitments to compensate for economic damage caused by the spill. The company said it had made a deposit of $3 billion into a $20 billion escrow fund.


Allen said spill response au- thorities were closely watching a tropical weather system moving into the southeast Gulf of Mexico, which forecasters say could cross near BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill site in a few days. He said that depending on its strength and direction, this system could affect the timing of the relief well “bottom kill” operation. Forecast- ers were giving this disturbance a medium chance of strengthening into a tropical cyclone. The CEO of BP’s Gulf Coast Res-


toration Organization, Bob Dud- ley, said the $3 billion initial con- tribution to the escrow fund was intended to back up the com- pany’s pledge to “make good” eco- nomic losses caused by the spill to Gulf Coast fishermen, tourism op- erators and homeowners. “Establishing this trust and making the initial deposit ahead of schedule further demonstrates our commitment to making it right in the Gulf Coast,” Dudley said in a statement. BP, whose image has been pum- meled by the disaster, has also said it would sell about $30 bil- lion in assets.


—Reuters Driver reported from Houston.


camps on high patches along roadways and hilltops have bit- terly criticized their government in remarks to reporters who have managed to reach them.


Fearing unrest


“This can create a tremendous amount of social upheaval in the country,” said Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, the head of the Pakistani air force, who arrived here this weekend for Pentagon meetings before heading to Ne- vada to observe Pakistan’s partici- pation in scheduled joint air exer- cises. “All these people have are the clothes on their backs,” he said, and most have seen no sign of government assistance. Roads, bridges and entire vil-


lages have been destroyed, along with electricity and water sup- plies, throughout the northern regions and across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along


the border, where the Pakistani military has been engaged in of- fensives against entrenched mil- itant groups since last summer. “It’s the same area where just a few months ago we were bomb- ing,” Suleman said in an inter- view. “The need at this time is heli- copters,” he said. “That’s the only answer.”


Suleman estimated that the


government needs 30 to 40 more transport and rescue aircraft. The six American Chinooks, as well as Pakistan’s fleet of six U.S.-leased MI-17 transport helicopters, have been grounded during much of the past week by cloud cover and the torrential rains. Pakistani officials have been ef- fusive in expressing gratitude for the rapid U.S. response, a senior Pakistani official said, but the need “is enormous.” The hope is that the United States can come


up with at least another $100 mil- lion in disaster funding in addi- tion to more helicopters, he said, speaking on condition of ano- nymity about the request, which is still being formalized. “It takes time to organize” sending helicopters from a war zone, another senior Pakistani of- ficial said. “We understand that. But that man sitting on the roof of his house for three days with- out food or water, he doesn’t un- derstand.” The official continued: “The real trick is to reach these people in time. They need everything right now. The militants have money; they will start to distrib- ute supplies. Even if it’s only the most rudimentary things,” villag- ers will conclude that “these peo- ple care, and that’s a difficult feel- ing for the government to dis- lodge.”


deyoungk@washpost.com Serial killer suspected in Va. attacks attacks from A1


“I would consider this man to be very desperate and very danger- ous.” Police said they have reached out to the local NAACP. “It does appear that the target of his rage, the targets of his attacks, are Afri- can American,” Price said. Two of the Leesburg victims are black. The 19-year-old who was struck with the hammer is His- panic, but police think the attacker mistook him for African American because of his dark complexion. In the Leesburg attacks, the man has not used racial slurs or indicated any motive to his victims. In two instances, he did not speak. In Michigan, police think a sin- gle assailant has stabbed 15 men since May, killing five. Thirteen of the victims are black, and two are white. All of the those killed were black. Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Patrick McGreevy said investiga- tors there are aggressively exam- ining the Leesburg cases but are not certain the same man is re- sponsible.


“I can tell you there are simi- larities, and it may appear to be the same person,” McGreevy said. “But to say they are conclusively linked — we are not prepared to state that.” Police say the link to Michigan is not based on forensic evidence, such as DNA, and is therefore not conclusive. But Leesburg detec- tives noticed similarities to the Flint attacks and flagged investi- gators there. The attacker’s de- scription — a white man with a muscular build who often wears a baseball cap — is similar. Police think he often (but not always) chooses targets who are vulner- able: people who are older or of small stature. The victims are alone when they are approached. In each state, the attacker has used a similar ruse, asking for help with his car. But the suspect’s vehicle makes


Leesburg police confident it’s the same man. In both locations, the attacker was seen in a dark-green Chevrolet Blazer with tan pan- eling around the bottom. In Lees- burg, the vehicle was described as


but the teen saw him run and flee in a car he described as a green minivan with a white stripe. Po- lice think it could have been the SUV because the teenager’s fleet- ing glance was in the dark after he had just been stabbed. Two days later, a 67-year-old


Police in Michigan created a composite sketch of the man suspected in attacks in Flint.


having two grapefruit-size dents in the hood. An image of the car was captured on surveillance vid- eo after the most recent attack. “These people are assaulted, and he disappears into the night,” McGreevy said. “We’re not going to stop until we get this guy.” Leesburg police have stepped


up patrols, and the FBI is helping with the investigation. Police in Leesburg and Flint — separated by 555 miles, or about 91


⁄2 hours by


car — announced the possible connection Monday and urged anyone who may have seen the SUV or have other information to call them. Authorities also are ex- amining a possible link to an at- tack Saturday in Toledo — which is between Leesburg and Flint. “Clearly people have seen this person, have seen this vehicle,” Price said. “We have no informa- tion to say if he’s still here, or if he has fled.”


Ronald Turco, an Oregon psy-


chiatrist who has studied serial killers and worked with the FBI, said if it is the same assailant, he thinks the crimes are probably ra- cially motivated, partly because the attacker has targeted similar victims and Leesburg is not pre- dominantly African American. The town’s population is about 10 percent black. “I’d say it’s someone who has a deep resentment against black people,” Turco said. In Leesburg, the assaults began about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 3. A 15-year- old boy was jogging near a busy stretch of strip malls when he felt a pain in his back. Then he saw blood. The assailant never spoke,


Leesburg man was sitting outside his Edwards Ferry Road apart- ment just after 6 a.m. when a man wearing a baseball cap hopped out of his vehicle and walked past him into the apartment building. The man soon came back out and, without a word, stabbed the Lees- burg man in the back. On Monday, an African Amer- ican woman sitting with friends on a porch in the same apartment complex said the attacks remind- ed her of the D.C. snipers who ter- rorized the region in 2002, shoot- ing people at random as they went about their daily lives. The woman, who declined to give her name because she wor- ried about her safety, said she hopes police are on guard. “The police have to step it up,” she said. “The kids are getting ready to go back to school.” The woman said she saw a simi- lar SUV in the parking lot as she was sitting outside Saturday. She didn’t think anyone was inside the SUV, she said, but after about 45 minutes, it pulled away. “It was like he was just watching all of us,” she said. The most recent Leesburg at- tack happened Friday night when a 19-year-old Hispanic man walk- ing through a parking lot to meet friends was approached by a man who said he need help fixing his car. When the two got to the man’s car, the assailant pulled out a tool they think was a hammer and aimed at the teenager’s head. The teenager managed to turn away, avoiding the worst of the blow, and then ran for safety. Police said the 15-year-old and


the 67-year-old remain hospital- ized. Both are expected to recover, though the older man had to have a kidney removed as a result of his wounds. The 19-year-old is recov- ering, they said.


glodm@washpost.com gibsonc@washpost.com


S


KLMNO


TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010 Pakistan pushing for quick infusion of U.S. flood aid


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