ABCDE Sunny. 88/67 • Tomorrow: Mostly sunny. 91/73 • details, B8 FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010 “I found my neighbors on the ground, children dead


on the ground. I’m scared. I’m very scared.” — Asmaa Shaker, mental patient


TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR BP’S CHIEF


GOP leaders force lawmaker to retract apology to company


by Steven Mufson


The much-anticipated congressional hearing Thursday on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill came down to a single word: Sor- ry.


In a room packed with cameras and


spectators, BP chief executive Tony Hay- ward said, “I am deeply sorry” for the lost lives and environmental damage from his company’s doomed offshore rig. But the British businessman’s apology


before the House Energy and Commerce Committee was upstaged by another one. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) apologized to BP, saying the deal made at the White House Wednesday to set up an escrow fund to cover oil-spill damages and claims amounted to a “$20 billion shakedown.” While a subdued Hayward went on to


anger committee members by deflecting their questions, Barton riled up a wider audience across the political spectrum. Then, late in the afternoon, he apologized


LEILA FADEL/THE WASHINGTON POST Raad Fadhil Ali weeps as he talks about his wife’s psychosis, brought on by repeated bombings, one of which took his right leg.


Troubling epilogue to Iraq war: An epidemic of mental illness


by Leila Fadel in baghdad


A


smaa Shaker sits on a leopard-print blanket in a Baghdad psychiatric hospital, her eyes heavy. The drugs


have kicked in now, the fear has subsided, and she can sleep. Without medication, she rarely sleeps.


Three times in five years, her home was damaged in bombings, the most recent just two weeks ago. Her husband’s leg was ripped from his body, her 12-year-old son turns yellow and shakes at the thought of leaving the house, the family is thousands of dollars in debt, and she lives with a constant fear. “The pressure is too great,” she said at


Ibn Rushd, a central Baghdad psychiatric hospital. “I found my neighbors on the ground, children dead on the ground. I’m scared. I’m very scared.” Even as a pullback of American troops marks a winding down of the war, more and more Iraqis are seeking medical treatment for trauma-induced mental ill- nesses, and the medical community is un- able to keep up. Across Iraq, 100 psychiatrists are avail- able to serve a population of about 30 mil- lion people, Iraq’s psychiatric association says. Many people self-medicate, and pre- scription drug abuse is now the number one substance abuse problem in Iraq. The most abused drug is called Artane, known generically as trihexyphenidyl but referred to in Iraq as the “pill of courage,”


Arena Stage gives playwrights star status with spots on payroll


by Peter Marks and Jacqueline Trescott Names of major American playwrights


are often familiar, even to those who nev- er attend the theater: Tennessee Wil- liams, Edward Albee and August Wilson come to mind. Less well known is their traditional status as itinerant workers: They hand over plays to theater compa- nies for a fee, show up for rehearsals and opening night, then move on. Arena Stage, Washington’s Tony


award-winning regional theater, is trying to break that pattern with a simple idea that is almost revolutionary. If the initia- tive works, the way theater treats these key players will change dramatically. Essentially, Arena is hiring play- wrights as employees, with salaries and health benefits — and even access to of- fice supplies. The venture is part of a major change


at Arena, which is preparing to open a $125 million three-theater campus in the fall and to try to rebrand itself as a na- tional center for American theater. Over the next three years, five play-


wrights will be part of Arena’s American Voices New Play Institute, which was formed in August and financed by a $1.1 million gift from the Andrew W. Mel- lon Foundation. The writers will be paid to write on any project they please dur- ing their three-year tenure, with the promise of a stage production and an ad- ditional pot of development money un- der their control. “It certainly is a radical change from


what the course of play development has been in recent years,” said Lisa Kron, one of the playwrights. It might sound as if bringing play- wrights aboard would be the most rou- tine of customs for an industry in the business of putting on plays. Play- wrights, after all, supply the basic build- ing blocks of theatrical life. In reality, though, American theaters rarely effec- tively put dramatists on the payroll. As a result, few writers ever become


integral parts of a performing arts insti- tution. And this, in turn, may help to ex- plain why many in the business think the deterioration in the process of getting


arena continued on A14 LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST


This 1,800-square-foot building is for sale at $1.5 million. For more photos of the building and of its owner, Austin Spriggs, in 2006, visit PostLocal.com.


INSIDE


WEEKEND 1 Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out boat-friendly restaurants, a free concert at Carter Barron Amphitheater or a delightful “Toy Story 3.”


OPINIONS


Charles Krauthammer: President Obama’s fuzzy vision thing. A29


METRO Wone trial not over yet


A D.C. judge rules that there is enough evidence of a conspiracy for the trial to proceed to the defense phase. B1


STYLE Silverdocs festival opens Monday The slate includes films focused on Pat Tillman, the D.C. AIDS epidemic and education reformers such as Michelle Rhee. C1


ECONOMY & BUSINESS Obama: Global recovery at risk Economic reckoning expected at next week’s summit. A20


BUSINESS NEWS......A20-25 CLASSIFIEDS.....................E1 COMICS..........................C5-6


EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A28 FED PAGE ........................A26 LOTTERIES.........................B4


MOVIES..................Weekend OBITUARIES...................B6-7 STOCKS............................A25


TELEVISION.......................C4 WEATHER ..........................B8 WORLD NEWS...........A16-19


Printed using recycled fiber


DAILY CODE Details, B2


3995


2 BASEBALL TIGERS NATS


83 Washington is swept in Detroit and finishes its road trip at 1-5. D1


1


WORLD CUP Test for U.S. Americans take on tiny Slovenia at 10 a.m. Saturday. D1


The Washington Post Year 133, No. 195


CONTENTS© 2010


with a marked sedative effect. At the country’s largest and only long- term mental health institution, Al-Rash- ad, this year has seen a 10 percent in- crease in patients, and doctors say they’ve had to turn people away from the govern- ment-funded facility because of crowd- ing. For Shaker and for scores of other Iraq-


is, every street is a reminder of what was, what is and what could be again: Re- minders of people gingerly stepping over the bodies thrown in the streets in tit-for- tat killings between sects during the sec- tarian war. Reminders of the U.S. military raids, Iraqi military raids, militia in- terrogations, assassinations and insur-


psychiatry continued on A19


Company cell? Your boss can eavesdrop, justices say. Reasonable review of


phone, computer communication allowed


by Robert Barnes


A hesitant Supreme Court waded cau- tiously into a question that arises daily in workplaces and offices across the coun- try: whether employers have the right to look over the shoulders of workers who use company computers and cellphones for personal communication. In the first ruling of its kind, the jus- tices said they do, as long as there is a “le- gitimate work-related purpose” to mon- itor them. But the court said it would pro- ceed cautiously in deciding how far an employer can go in searching the “elec-


Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.


MD DC VASV1V2V3V4 washingtonpost.com • 75¢


At hearing, apologies and anger spill over


What not to do


for the next spill In hindsight, hard lessons on what didn’t work well, what wasted time, what caused more harm than good. A6


Who’s sorry now?


GOP Rep. Joe Barton of Texas apologizes to BP, then takes it back. A7


A death blow? Leeville, La., sees its chances wane as the BP spill threatens its livelihood. C1


for his apology after party leaders threat- ened to oust him from his position as ranking Republican on the committee. Barton prompted the uproar with his opening statement at the hearing. “I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” he said. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a pri- vate corporation can be subjected to what Iwould characterize as a shakedown.” He said the escrow fund, which will be ad- ministered by the independent arbitrator Kenneth Feinberg, is a “slush fund” with “no legal standing.” Barton said BP should be pursued through the legal system. “I apologize,” he said to Hayward, who


oil continued on A9


tronic sphere” that has become an ines- capable part of the modern workplace. In the case at hand, the court ruled unanimously that a police chief’s search of text messages sent and received by a SWAT team officer did not violate his con- stitutional protection against unreason- able searches. Even though Sgt. Jeff Quon of Ontario,


Calif., had some expectation of privacy, the court said, the police department’s re- view — which turned up sexually explicit messages to his wife and his mistress — was justified. But at a time when many employers warn that they can monitor workers’ use


court continued on A11


 Labor board’s rulings were illegal, high court says. A12


Sunk by his sky-high demands The D.C. man who snubbed downtown developers is now a lesson for other holdouts


by Paul Schwartzman


At the dizzying height of the real estate boom, Austin Spriggs had the equivalent of a golden lottery ticket: a downtown Washington townhouse on precisely the red-hot block where developers hoped to build hundreds of swanky condominiums and offices. In and out of his office the developers


paraded, offering Spriggs millions for the building that had housed his small archi- tecture firm since 1980. Each time, Spriggs told them no, holding out for more money. Then, as offers dried up, he vowed to turn the place into a pizzeria that would feed newcomers to the once- forgotten strip along Massachusetts Av- enue, east of the Washington Convention Center.


At a time when mountains of cash were being made in real estate, Spriggs’s resis- tance became the talk of Washington and beyond. Four years later, the block-long crater


holdout continued on A15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128