ABCDE
Thunderstorm. 90/74 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorm. 86/67 • details, B10
FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
ARE TARGETS
by Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe
Beneath its commitment to
PHOTOS BY CHARLIE RIEDEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A thick coating of oil covers a bird on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast. Oil is headed for the Florida Panhandle.
BP installs dome to contain oil geyser
Promise of latest effort is unclear as Obama heads back to gulf
by Joel Achenbach
The well has been capped, more or less. BP engineers Thurs- day night guided a containment dome onto the hydrocarbon gey- ser shooting from the Gulf of Mexico oil well — a desperate and iffy attempt to capture the leak- ing oil and funnel it to a ship on the surface. It was not an elegant operation.
Furious clouds of oil escaped the “top hat.” Late in the evening, of- ficials with BP and the federal government had not yet an- nounced whether the dome would be any more successful than other efforts in recent weeks. It was a day crammed with en- gineering drama. First, BP used robotic vehicles and a pair of gi- ant shears to cut a damaged pipe a mile below the gulf’s surface. The result simplified the whole arrangement at the sea floor: In- stead of spewing from multiple leaks in a tangle of bent pipes, the oil and natural gas surged in a
THOMAS BOSWELL
The game wasn’t perfect, but the gentlemen were
B
aseball umpire Jim Joyce made a hideously incorrect ruling Wednesday night that
cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Arman- do Galarraga one of the rarest achievements in the sport: a per- fect game. But 15 hours later, when Galarraga made his way to home plate before Thursday after- noon’s game to present his team’s lineup card to Joyce, the umpire’s reception was just as clear-cut. The fans in Detroit cheered, and baseball and sport had one of its most inspiring and least expec- ted moments. What next? World peace? Galarraga appeared to have
completed the 21st perfect game in major league history, when he stepped on first base well before
Editorial: Perfect sportsmanship after a blown call. A18
Cleveland Indians runner Jason Donald for what would have been the game’s final out. But Joyce ruled Donald safe, a call he ad- mitted was a mistake after view- ing television replays following the game. When that admission and the
courage to make it was acknowl- edged with cheers Thursday after- noon, Joyce’s face stayed firm, but the tears of gratitude rolled at the Tigers’ magnanimity. After the ump wiped his eyes, Galarraga gave him a slap on the back, and Joyce smacked him back, dugout gestures of respect, unmistakable. Hard men, tough game, we play again today. Joyce, you work the plate; just get all 300 calls right. Fans of the recession-scalded
Motor City brought themselves to cheer for a man who admitted his mistake, which had denied one of
boswell continued on A12
Did BP try to keep
the media at bay?
Access restrictions ease after complaints last month that the energy company’s “rules” placed sections of air, land and sea off limits to the press. A15
No drilling freeze
in shallow waters
The Interior Department denies reports it had extended any such moratorium in the gulf. A15
Spill’s effects felt
across the Atlantic
British retirees and investors are getting socked by BP’s plummeting stock price. A15
Another victim of the BP oil spill: a brown pelican, flapping around on the beach at East Grand Terre Island.
single plume from what looked like a deep-sea smokestack. Then came the dome, lowered by cables, guided by robots, illu- minated by lamps in a world without natural light, and carry- ing with it the hopes of countless engineers and pretty much the entire Gulf Coast. Nothing has gone according to plan in the subsea environment
as, on the surface, the oil has hit more than 100 miles of Louisiana shoreline. After brushing a bar- rier island in Alabama, it is poised to tar the white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle. The area of the gulf closed to fish- ing is now larger than the state of Florida. On Friday, President Obama will make his third trip to the re-
gion since the fatal April 20 ex- plosion on the Deepwater Hori- zon drilling rig and the resulting blowout far below. Although far from the only crisis of his presi- dency, the oil spill has been uniquely frustrating for Obama, whose power does not include technological leverage at the bot- tom of the gulf. Obama told CNN’s Larry King on Thursday that he is “furious at
spill continued on A15
soft-spoken diplomacy and be- yond the combat zones of Afghan- istan and Iraq, the Obama admin- istration has significantly expan- ded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radi- cal groups, according to senior military and administration offi- cials.
Special Operations forces have grown both in numbers and budg- et, and are deployed in 75 coun- tries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addi- tion to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Afri- ca and Central Asia.
Special Operations forces have greater role
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U.S. ‘secret war’ expands globally
TERROR GROUPS
Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for pre- emptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group. The surge in Special Operations deployments, along with intensi- fied CIA drone attacks in western Pakistan, is the other side of the national security doctrine of glob- al engagement and domestic val- ues President Obama released last week.
One advantage of using “secret” forces for such missions is that they rarely discuss their opera- tions in public. For a Democratic president such as Obama, who is criticized from either side of the political spectrum for too much or too little aggression, the unac- knowledged CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, along with unilateral U.S. raids in Somalia and joint op- erations in Yemen, provide politi-
secret continued on A12
Controversies weigh
on the White House
Oil spill disaster and party politics put administration on edge
by Dan Balz
At virtually every turn lately, the White House cannot shake the appearance that it is ham- strung and a step behind. From a major crisis such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to smaller and seemingly avoidable controver- sies over internal Democratic Par- ty politics, President Obama and his team are on the defensive. The question many Republi- cans and even some Democratic allies of the administration are asking is whether the collective weight of all these problems will diminish the president’s ability to
NINE DAYS
THE STORY BEHIND THE SOUTHEAST SHOOTINGS
Steely determination, deadly retribution
story by Paul Duggan
S
WEEKEND 1
Company’s coming
But don’t sweat it — we have six itineraries that will please your out-of-town visitors this summer.
POLITICS & THE NATION
Space travel: The next generation
At Cape Canaveral, the SpaceX entrepreneur’s new Falcon rocket is poised to launch the era of privatized spaceflight. A2
BUSINESS NEWS ......A13-14 CLASSIFIEDS.....................E1 COMICS..........................C5-6
EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A18 FED PAGE.........................A16 LOTTERIES.........................B4
MOVIES..................Weekend OBITUARIES...................B7-9 STOCKS............................A14
TELEVISION.......................C4 WEATHER ........................B10 WORLD NEWS...............A6-8
ixth and Chesapeake streets SE was Orlando Carter’s
little realm, where police said his pe-
culiar charisma and entrepre- neurial zeal made him a natural leader of the crack and mari- juana trades. There, late at night, when
Harry’s Wings ’N Things, Dee’s Barber and Beauty Salon and Chesapeake Big Market are shut behind iron grates, a furtive economy thrives in the alley and parking lot behind the businesses. You’ll find scores of enterprises just like it in the poorer
INSIDE
THE WORLD
The defiant Netanyahu
OPINIONS
Peter Moskos: My father created the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — and here is why he would now favor ending it. A17
Printed using recycled fiber
DAILY CODE
Details, B2
6 073
Israel’s prime minister stands firm amid international outrage over a raid that killed nine people, one of them a U.S. citizen. A6
STYLE
Beyond chicken nuggets
As part of Michelle Obama’s initiative against childhood obesity, big-name chefs are trying to improve school lunches. C1
SPORTS
ASTROS
6
NATIONALS
4
1
At the end of a tough 10-day road trip, it’s the easy part that goes wrong. D1
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 181
CONTENTS© 2010
MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
At a makeshift memorial set up at the site of the March 30 attack, Tylashia Joyner writes a note to one of her friends who was killed in the shooting.
parts of the city: young men with their heads on swivels, talking incessantly on cell- phones and rarely standing still, addressing customers with nods and hand gestures, then retreat- ing to other dark places, return- ing shortly with the goods. It’s efficient and lucrative. All in all, detectives said, Car-
ter, 20, seemed comfortable in his domain. Then someone walked up and
shot him in front of Dee’s — almost killed him. Right there in his own house, so to speak.
shootings continued on A10
get his agenda through Congress, or further weaken his party be- fore the November midterm elec- tions. That all this has happened to a White House staffed by the team that so successfully navigated the 2008 presidential campaign is a source of surprise and consterna- tion for Democrats. The missteps have also become easy ammuni- tion for Republicans seeking to capitalize on what may be self- inflicted wounds. Defenders of the administra- tion argue that there was nothing the White House could have done early on to stop the oil that has been gushing from the well in the gulf. They also play down ques- tions about whether the adminis- tration offered possible jobs to Senate candidates in Pennsylva-
obama continued on A4
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