ABCDE Partly sunny 92/72 • Tomorrow: Mostly sunny 94/69 • details, B10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 CIA relies on paramilitary force The CIA has relied on Lilley,
Covert presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan is larger than thought
BY CRAIGWHITLOCK AND GREG MILLER
On an Afghan ridge 7,800 feet
above sea level, about four miles from Pakistan, stands a mud- brick fortress nicknamed theAla- mo. It is officially dubbed Fire- baseLilley, andit is anerve center in the covert war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
part of a constellation of agency bases across Afghanistan, as a hub to train and deploy a well- armed 3,000-member Afghan paramilitary force collectively known as Counterterrorism Pur- suit Teams. In addition to being used for surveillance, raids and combat operations in Afghani- stan, the teams are crucial to the United States’ secret war in Paki- stan, according to current and former U.S. officials. The existence of the teams is
disclosed in “Obama’s Wars,” a forthcoming book by longtime Washington Post journalist Bob
Clashes in Jerusalem’s Old City
Woodward. But, more broadly, interviews with sources familiar with the CIA’s operations, as well as a review of the database of 76,000 classified U.S. military field reports posted lastmonthby theWeb siteWikiLeaks, reveal an agency that has a significantly larger covert paramilitary pres- ence inAfghanistan and Pakistan than previously known. The operations are particular-
ly sensitive in Pakistan, a refuge for senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders where U.S. units are offi- cially prohibited from conduct-
afghanistan continued onA18
The Army’s toughest critics
Three generals hired by Obama to fill positions normally held by civilians have been vocal in their criticism of the military. A18
More from
‘Obama’sWars’ A series of articles adapted from Bob Woodward’s book will appear in The Washington Post and on
washingtonpost.com for three days beginning Monday.
6 on
washingtonpost.com
Your view: What is the most surprising revelation
in “Obama’s Wars”?
government ‘A PLEDGE
TO AMERICA’
Broad spending cuts to be proposed BY PAUL KANE
AND PERRY BACON JR. House Republicans will an-
nounce an expansive agenda on Thursday called “A Pledge to America” that proposes to shrink the size of government and re- form Congress, offering a conser- vative plan of action they will pursue if they win a majority in the midterm elections. Republicans would slash $100
billion in government spending on nonmilitary agencies and re- place President Obama’s land- mark health-care legislation with a scaled-back version. Small busi- nesses would be able to deduct from taxes up to 20 percent of their annual income, and the Pentagon would receive in- creased funding to more quickly implement a ballistic missile de- fense system. The plan would also eliminate
any unspent money from last year’s $814 billion stimulus pack- age and from legislation that authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up failing Wall Street firms. There are no specifics about
how the spending cuts would be carried out, and the agenda does
6
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GOP’s agenda aims to shrink
A fight delay Senate Democrats could
postpone a showdown over expiring tax breaks until after November elections. A4
The highlights A summary of the more than two
dozen proposals Republicans plan to pursue if they win a House majority this fall. A8
on
washingtonpost.com
Read a full draft of the “Pledge to America”
document at
PostPolitics.com.
not outline how Republicans would deal with Social Security and other expensive federal enti- tlement programs, saying only that lawmakers “will make the decisions that are necessary” to cut costs. The agenda is designed to give
voters a broad outline of what proposals House Republicans will push if they regain the major- ity and to give their candidates specifics to cite on the campaign trail. It also aims to answer a favorite attack line of Democrats: that Republicans have no new ideas and are merely the “party of no.” “The need for urgent action to
repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated,” Republi- cans write in the Pledge, accord- ing to a draft document released Wednesday night.
gop continued onA8 MARCO LONGARI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Israeli mounted riot police ride below the ramparts of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City during clashes that erupted after a private security guard charged with protecting Jewish settlers fatally shot a Palestinian man in East Jerusalem. The violence comes as a crisis looms in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over a moratorium on settlement construction that is set to expire Sunday. Story, A12.
From a dark mine to a glaring spotlight
Psychologists in Chile rush to prepare 33 trapped men for the sudden fame expected after their rescue BY JONATHAN FRANKLIN
Special to The Washington Post
santiago, chile—The 33 men who have been trapped in a Chil- ean mine for the past six weeks are preparing for a new odyssey: confronting sudden celebrity. With three holes being carved
into the mountainside, rescuers are increasingly optimistic that the miners will be freed in a month in what is expected to be a highly publicized event. After
weeks of isolation, officials say, the men will soon be mobbed by the media, courted byHollywood and stalked by paparazzi. Psychologists and rescue work-
ers are rushing to teach the men how best to handle their foray into the fame machine. The min- ers will be taught how to deal with reporters as well as the basics of opening a bank account and personal financial manage- ment. “Many of these guys have very limited and informal education,”
said Jorge Diaz, a member of the rescue team, who described the men as “well prepared” for the world of mining but not as ready for the fame awaiting them. One of the miners, foreman
Luis Urzua, “has technical train- ing,andwewon’tbeteachinghim how to open a bank account,” Diaz said, “but the rest of the group?” A half-dozen documentaries
are in production—including the Discovery Channel’s look at the mechanics of the rescue and a
planned HBO program. Tabloids are reaching out to families, offer- ing thousands of dollars for the first interview, and hotels in the usually sleepy mining town of Copiapo are full. Alberto Iturra, the lead psy-
chologist for the miners, and Ale- jandro Pino, a former radio jour- nalist, will train the men trapped in the San Jose mine via closed- circuit TV. They will be taught to remain poised during interviews,
chile continued onA15
Under piles of paperwork, a foreclosure system in chaos Signature role
BY ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA AND BRADY DENNIS
The nation’s overburdened foreclosure systemis riddled with faked documents, forged signa- tures and lenders who take short- cuts reviewing borrower’s files, according to court documents and interviews with attorneys, housing advocates and company officials. The problems, which are so widespread that some judges ap-
proving the foreclosures ignore them, are coming to light after Ally Financial, the country’s fourth-biggest mortgage lender, haltedhomeevictions in 23 states this week. During the housing boom, mil-
lions of homeowners got easy access tomortgages while provid- ing virtually no proof of their income or background. Now, as millions of Americans are being pushed out of the homes they can no longer afford, the foreclosure process is producing far more
Case of document reviewer who had a hand in huge number of foreclosures reveals mortgage industry’s quiet reliance on a few middle managers. A24
paperwork than anyone can read and making it vulnerable to fraud. Ally Financial is now double- checking to make sure all docu- ments are in order after lawsuits
Obama’s inner circle about to break open
2 of his closest advisers among those likely to go in White House shuffle
BY ANNE E. KORNBLUT AND SCOTTWILSON
Inhisnearly two years inoffice,
President Obama has relied on a very small clique of advisers that serves as his most trusted sound- ing board onpolitics and policy. Members of his staff describe
Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant towidenhis inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, the president “doesn’t like new people.” Like it or not, he will soon be
surrounded by themas an expect- ed staff shuffle will deprive Obama of two of his closest aides and aninflux of replacementswill take their places within the West Wing. The inner circle—Chief of Staff
uncovered that a single employee of the company’s GMAC mort- gage unit, a 41-year-old named Jeffrey Stephan, signed off on 10,000 foreclosure papers a month without checkingwhether the information justified an evic- tion. Many of the homeowners in
fact might have been in default. Some might have been unfairly targeted. But the flawed process is creatinganopeningforborrow-
mortgage continued onA24 INSIDE LOCALLIVING 1
Cleaning out your
closet
Experts demonstrate how to redo an unorganized closet —whether you’re squandering ample space or making a mess of a small space.
BUSINESS NEWS..............A18 CLASSIFIEDS......................F1 COMICS..............................C7
EDITORIALS/LETTERS.....A24 FED PAGE........................A23 KIDS POST.......................C10
LOTTERIES.........................B6 MOVIES..............................C5 OBITUARIES.......................B7
METRO 1
Townhouse fire kills mother and children
A young woman in Lorton saves three of her five children before succumbing with two of her sons. B1
OPINIONS
David Axelrod: There is still time for an aroused public—and Congress—to stand up against special interests’ hijacking of our elections. A27
SPORTS.............................D1 TELEVISION.......................C6 WORLD NEWS..................A12
Printed using recycled fiber STYLE
Preppy in the 21st century Top-Siders and Lacoste shirts never went away, and neither did Lisa Birnbach. The author of 1980’s “Official Preppy Handbook” is back with “True Prep.” C1
SPORTS “ It’s time to move on, rather than obsess DAILY CODE 2 8 3 5
about the past. It’s just that it’s been discussed, and discussed, and discussed. . . .
At some point, it’s time to move on.” —David Stern, the NBA commissioner, who has banned Gilbert Arenas fromtalking about last year’s gun incident.D1
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 292
CONTENT © 2010
Rahm Emanuel, senior advisers DavidAxelrod andValerie Jarrett, press secretary Robert Gibbs and Vice President Biden — is break- ing up, or at least breaking open. Emanuel iswidelyexpectedtorun formayor ofChicago, andAxelrod is likely to leave this spring to prepare for Obama’s 2012 reelec- tioneffort. Obamawill soon lose other top
advisers. His chief economic ad- viser, Lawrence H. Summers, an- nounced that he will return to Harvard, where he is a professor; Deputy Chief of Staff JimMessina
MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST
President Obama might not look too far beyond the walls of the WhiteHouse in his search for newadvisers.
is expected to join Axelrod in Chi- cago; and national security advis- er James L. Jones is said to want out by the end of the year. Some former aides and allies of
the president expressed hope that Obama will take advantage of the departures — which are common at the two-year point in any presi- dency—to bring in outsiderswho will challenge the president’s cur- rent team. “They miscalculated where
peoplewere out in the country on jobs, on spending, on the deficit, on debt,” said a longtime Demo- cratic strategist who works with the White House on a variety of
shakeup continued onA17
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