METRO A COUNTY SEEKS NEW PATH FORWARD
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TRAVEL EAT. PRAY. GO. A NOVEL JOURNEY.
OUTLOOK BOTH PARTIES ASSAULT BUSH LEGACY
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In Alaska crash, the echo of a mystery Stevens’s death is a painful reminder for families of lawmakers who vanished in 1972
by Jason Horowitz in portage valley, alaska
A Coast Guard cutter searched for the plane as a part of massive effort. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boggs Visitor Center, a low-slung gray building on the banks of Portage Lake. Inside, tourists perused a chart on sock- eye salmon and maps of the surround- ing Chugach Mountains. Few people paid any attention to a black-and-white memorial to the center’s namesakes. “On October 16, 1972, United States
O
House of Representatives Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs and United States Representative Nicholas J. Begich boarded an airplane in Anchorage en
n a recent summer afternoon, Alaskan and American flags flut- tered together above the Begich,
The plane carrying Reps. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), left, and Hale Boggs (D-La.) disappeared on Oct. 16, 1972.
route to Juneau,” read a few short para- graphs alongside photos of the con- gressmen. “The aircraft disappeared amidst turbulent conditions, and no trace of the men or the airplane was found.”
A vanishing that seared the political establishment in Washington and caused a 40-year shift in Alaska’s bal- ance of power has itself largely faded from memory. On Monday night, the na- tion received an eerie reminder when another small-engine plane went down in southwestern Alaska near Aleknagik Lake, killing former senator Ted Stevens (R), whose first wife died in a 1978 crash that he survived. For the Boggs and Beg- ich families, the Stevens tragedy is something more than a data point to demonstrate that Alaska is a state plagued by plane crashes. It is yet an- other haunting echo of a mystery that has defined and bound two of the na-
alaska continued on A6
Pro sports adopting a new goal: Giving back.
Local athletes, teams put greater emphasis on philanthropy
by Susan Kinzie When Ryan Zimmerman was
negotiating a contract with the Washington Nationals, the popu- lar third baseman kept insisting on one thing: He wanted to be able to use the ballpark for a charity event. It was an unusual demand, said his agent, Brodie Van Wage- nen, but Zimmerman got what he wanted. On Monday night, he hosted a
concert, auction and dinner that raised about $200,000 for the ZiMS Foundation and gave a $30,000 check to the local chap- ter of an organization fighting multiple sclerosis. Zimmerman said he hopes the event will get bigger every year, eventually fill- ing the ballpark with donors and spreading the word about the dis- ease his mother has been fight- ing. That impulse is part of what
experts say is a huge shift in pro- fessional sports philanthropy. For reasons idealistic, self-serving or practical, athletes and teams are putting a greater emphasis on do- nating money, volunteering and helping local communities — with more commitment to pro- viding real impact rather than just photo ops. “It has changed dramatically,”
charity continued on A7
Sports charities Compare how professional sports teams stack up when it comes to corporate giving:
postlocal.com Redskins
Ravens $392,110
$557,855 $2,749,602
Nationals Orioles $555,683
NOTE: 2008 data THE WASHINGTON POST A NEW TALIBAN STRONGHOLD
Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.
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Mosque stance gets an
by Karen Tumulty
and Michael D. Shear One day after President Obama
defended the freedom of Muslims to build an Islamic complex near New York’s Ground Zero, he of- fered a less forceful version of that position on Saturday: Yes, Muslims have that right, Obama said — but that doesn’t mean he believes it is the right thing for them to do.
Speaking to reporters during a family vacation visit to Panama City, Fla., Obama reiterated the stand he took Friday night at a White House dinner observing the Muslim holy month of Rama- dan. “In this country we treat everybody equally and in accor- dance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion,” Oba- ma said.
ANDREA BRUCE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Girls attend class in Qaysar in Faryab province in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban has closed several girls’ schools in the province. With little resistance, fighters swarm villages in once-peaceful north by Joshua Partlow
qaysar, afghanistan — In squads of roaring dirt bikes and armed to the teeth, Taliban fight- ers are spreading like a brush fire into remote and defenseless vil- lages across northern Afghani- stan. The fighters swarm into town, assemble the villagers and an- nounce Taliban control, often at night and without any resistance. With most Afghan and NATO troops stationed in the country’s south and east, villagers in the path of the Taliban advance into the once-peaceful north say they are powerless and terrified, con- fused by the government’s inabili- ty to prevail — and ready to side with the insurgents to save their own lives. “How did the Taliban get into
every village?” Israel Arbah asked from his mud hut in the Shah Qassim village of Faryab prov- ince. “They are everywhere. And they are moving very fast. To tell you honestly, I am really, really afraid.” In the past year, security in
northern Afghanistan has deteri- orated rapidly as insurgents have seized new territory in provinces such as Kunduz and Baghlan, and
BUSINESS .........................G1 CLASSIFIEDS.....................K1 EDITORIALS/LETTERS .A11-13
GOING OUT GUIDE..MAGAZINE JOBS...................................H1 LOTTERIES.........................C3
MOVIES ..............................E7 OBITUARIES...................C5-9 OMBUDSMAN..................A11
Areas of operation Taliban
Other militant groups
TURKMENISTAN FARYAB Herat Herat
Qaysar district
A F G H A N I S T A N Kandahar Kandahar IRAN Quetta SOURCE: U.S. Defense Department
even infiltrated the scenic moun- tain oasis of Badakhshan, where 10 members of a Christian chari- ty’s medical team were massacred this month. Each new northern base is becoming a hive of activity, with fighters rotating in and out,
on
washingtonpost.com
Photo gallery: Life under the Taliban in northern Afghanistan at
washingtonpost.com/world.
STOCKS..........................G5-7 THE SUNDAY TAKE............A2 WORLD NEWS...................A8
Quetta AFGHANISTAN Federally
Administered Tribal Area
P A K I S T A N 100
MILES MARY KATE CANNISTRA/THE WASHINGTON POST
daily planning meetings and an- nouncements at the mosque. For the first time this year, the
U.S. military sent 3,000 troops to the north, based in Kunduz. A senior NATO official said that the soldiers have made progress in
PAKISTAN 0
FARYAB
Mazar-e Sharif
Mazar-e Sharif
BAGHLAN Kabul Kabul JalalabadJalalabad Peshawar Peshawar IIslamabad slamabad BAGHLAN UZBEK. KUNDUZ KUNDUZ TAJIKISTAN BADAKHSHAN BADAKHSHAN
Kunduz and commanders are more confident than six months ago that they can halt growth in the north but that insurgents still find sanctuary in sparsely pop- ulated provinces where NATO and Afghan forces are under- manned. The U.S. military does not be-
lieve the Taliban has made a stra- tegic decision to target the north to avoid the bulk of NATO forces in the south, according to a U.S. military official. But a former sen- ior Afghan intelligence official based in the north said that is “ab- solutely” what has happened. One of those places is Faryab, a
swath of rolling desert hills along the Turkmenistan border where a lone U.S. battalion of abut 800 sol- diers arrived this spring. Starting in the Gormach district and mov- ing through a belt of Pashtun vil- lages that have tribal links to Kan- dahar and the south, insurgents have spread to nearly all the dis- tricts in the province, according to Afghan officials. They move constantly on un-
marked dirt roads outside the cit- ies to ambush Afghan police and soldiers and to kidnap residents. They execute those affiliated with the government and shut down
taliban continued on A10 Printed using recycled fiber
DAILY CODE Details, C2
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But he went on to explain that he was not endorsing the con- struction of the Islamic center. “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” he said. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.” Obama’s speech Friday brought down an avalanche of criticism from the right — as the White House surely expected it would. “The decision to build this mosque so close to Ground Zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “This is not an issue of law, whether re- ligious freedom or local zoning. This is a basic issue of respect for a tragic moment in our history.” Former Alaska governor Sarah
Palin mocked Obama from her Twitter feed Saturday, saying: “We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? This is not above your pay grade.” She also compared building the facility to building a Serbian church on the Srebrenica killing fields.
But Obama’s remarks also un- settled many of his fellow Demo-
mosque continued on A6 INSIDE
NOT QUITE A VACATION Obamas make a symbolic visit The first family hits popular vacation destination Panama City, mixing work and play in an attempt to reassure locals and tourists that the water’s fine along Florida’s Gulf Coast. A4
7
CAMELOT REVISITED? Kennedy’s widow eyed for Senate seat Vicki Kennedy has been acting like a candidate, appearing at fundriasers for candidates around the country, but some family members are torn over the idea. A3
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 253
CONTENTS© 2010
asterisk OBAMA: NOT AN ENDORSEMENT
He won’t comment on ‘wisdom’ of move in N.Y.
IndusIndus
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