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ABCDE The threat in Yemen
ANINDEPENDENTNEWSPAPER EDITORIALS
G
OOD INTELLIGENCE and coopera- tion among the United States and its allies enabled the interception of two package bombs dispatched from Ye- men last week. U.S. and British offi-
Stopping al-Qaeda will require more than cargo screening. ly.
cials reacted quickly to a last-minute tip from Saudi authorities identifying the packages, which had already traveled on at least four airplanes on their way to the United States. Neither the intelligence-sharing nor the swift responsewas likely to have happened a fewyears ago; what al-Qaeda probably intended as a devastating election-eve strike instead has shown the improvement of defenses against it. Still, the episode also revealed troubling
vulnerabilities. The likely producer of the bombs, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, picked a transmission route that suffers frombig security gaps. According to the Transportation Security Administration, nearly 40 percent of the cargo being delivered to the United States
Tuesday’s ballot choices
Our recommendations in local races
T
HE FOLLOWING are The Post’s recom- mendations in races and ballot questions for Tuesday’s general elections in the Dis- trict, Maryland and Virginia. Candidates
and positions endorsed by The Post appear in boldface type. Candidates in uncontested races do not appear inthe list below.
DISTRICTOF COLUMBIA
U.S.House ofRepresentatives Delegate:EleanorHolmesNorton(D) StateBoardofEducation Ward1:PatrickMara Ward5:MarkJones Ward6:MonicaWarren-Jones D.C.Council Ward1:JimGraham(D) Ward3:DaveHedgepeth(R) Ward5:TimDay (R) Ward6:TommyWells (D) At large:DavidA.Catania(I)
BallotQuestion Question1:ElectionofAttorneyGeneral:No
MARYLAND
Governor:MartinO’Malley (D) Comptroller:PeterFranchot (D) U.S. Senator:BarbaraA.Mikulski (D) U.S.House ofRepresentatives District 4:DonnaF.Edwards (D) District 5:StenyH.Hoyer (D) District 8:ChrisVanHollen(D)
BallotQuestion Question1:ConstitutionalConvention:Against
Montgomery County
CountyExecutive: IsiahLeggett (D) CountyCouncil District 1:RogerBerliner (D) District 2:CraigRice (D) District 4:NancyNavarro(D) District 5:ValerieErvin(D) At Large:Marc Elrich (D),Nancy Floreen (D), HansRiemer (D),RobinUncapher (R)
BallotQuestion QuestionA:Ambulance fees:For
BoardofEducation District 1:JudyDocca District 3:PatriciaO’Neill District 5:MikeDurso AtLarge:ShirleyBrandman GeneralAssembly
District 14: Senate:KarenMontgomery (D) House:AnneKaiser (D),CraigZucker (D),Eric
Luedtke (D) District 15: Senate:RobertJ.Garagiola (D) House:Brian J.Feldman (D),Del.KathleenM.
Dumais (D),ArunaMiller (D) District 16: Senate:BrianE.Frosh(D) House: C. William Frick (D), Susan Lee (D),
ArianaKelly (D) District 17: Senate:JennieM.Forehand(D) House:KumarP.Barve(D),LuizR.S.Simmons
(D),DanCampos (R) District 18: Senate:RichardS.MadalenoJr. (D) District 19: Senate:RogerManno(D) House:BenjaminF.Kramer (D),BonnieCulli-
son(D),SamArora (D) District 39: Senate:RobertJ.Smith(R) House: Charles E. Barkley (D), Del. Kirill Reznik(D),JimPettit (R)
PrinceGeorge’s County CountyCouncil District 4: IngridTurner (D) BoardofEducation District 1:DavidMurray District 2:PeggyHiggins District 3:AmberWaller
3Join the debate at
washingtonpost.com/localopinions
Don’t give in to prejudice, Hip Muslim Moms LOCAL OPINIONS
Regarding the Oct. 30 article “Hip Muslim
Moms group undone byD.C.Metro bomb plot”: I was saddened to read about the disbanding
of the mother’s group because one of the membersis the spouse of themancharged in the subway bombing plot. I hope the members of this group will regroup, endure the current discomfort and carry on. We need community in every form. It is our
glue. Though it sometimes brings out the worst in individuals, community also has the greatest potential to bring out the best in us. We all somewhat share in the sins of our fathers and families, and the faults of our friends and our community. But ultimately, we are responsible only for what we do as individuals. As an old white guy who happens to be a Baptist from the Deep South, I could justify withdrawing from almost any organization in which I am involved — there is the hatred and violence spawned by slavery, and the evil done by Christians in the
name of God historically is enough to turn anyone’s stomach. I am also a lawyer, and some lawyers have stolen from clients, abused or neglected this relationship and lied to judges. But I have keptmy bar membership. We should all know that it isn’t the religion,
the race, the region or the profession that is to blame. Blame is ultimately about what each individual deserves. All of us deserve some blame for our transgressions; others a lot. Have some Muslims done terrible things in
the name of their religion? Yes. So have some Catholics, Protestants, Baptists and Jews. It is the same for attorneys, political leaders and some people from Wyoming, Texas and New York. Just because a PTA treasurer—let alone the
spouse of the treasurer — embezzles money, doesn’t mean we disband the PTA. Don’t dis- band theMuslimMoms group. Lonnie C. Rich, Alexandria
District 4:AimeeOlivo District 5:JeanaJacobs District 6:CarolynBoston District 7:HenryArmwoodJr. District 8:StevenMorris District 9:DonnaHathawayBeck GeneralAssembly District 21: House: JoselineA.Peña-Melnyk (D), Benjamin
S.Barnes (D),BarbaraA.Frush(D) District 23A: House: JamesW.Hubbard (D),Geraldine Val-
entino-Smith(D) District 26: House:HollyEllisonHenderson (R), JayWalk-
er (D),Kriselda “Kris”Valderrama (D) District 27A: House: James E. Proctor Jr. (D) Antoinette
“Toni”Jarboe-Duley (R) District 47: House: Jolene Ivey (D), Doyle L. Niemann (D), MichaelG.Summers (D)
VIRGINIA U.S.House ofRepresentatives District 8:JamesP.MoranJr. (D) District 10:FrankR.Wolf (R) District 11:GeraldE.Connolly (D)
BallotQuestions Question1:LocalPropertyTaxRelief:Yes Question 2:Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemp-
tion:Yes Question3: Increase “RainyDayFund”:Yes
goes unscreened, and the TSA’s goal for reaching 100 percent screening is 2013. Moreover, the bomb’s sophisticated construction,which secret- ed an explosive known as PETNinside a printer’s toner cartridge, made the device difficult to detect by some screening methods. Qatar Air- ways,which unknowingly transported one of the bombs on two passenger flights, said the explo- sives “could not be detected by X-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs.” British authorities had trouble finding the second bomb even after the package containing it was identified. Members of Congress are calling for closing
the cargo-screening loophole, but that is easier said than done:Congress had set anAugust 2010 deadline for screening all cargo on passenger planes, and it was not met. Vulnerabilities in cargo screening were identified in a September report by the Department of Homeland Securi- ty’s inspector general. Its confidential recom- mendations should be implemented immediate-
Even then, however, the best defense against
terrorist attacks will remain good intelligence and preventive action, and not focused only on attacks already underway:Moremust be done to go after al-Qaeda’s organization in Yemen. The United States is spending about $150 million to aid and train Yemeni forces and has dispatched Special Forces and drones to help in raids against al-Qaeda targets. But the effort is small compared to the offensive against al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan — and not enough is being done to help Yemen’s weak government extend its authority to areas where al-Qaeda is based. President Obama said Friday that in addition
to working to destroy the group in Yemen, “we’ll also continue our efforts to strengthen a more stable, secure and prosperous Yemen so that terrorist groups do not have the time and space they need to plan attacks from within its borders.” That is the only fool-proof defense.
TOMTOLES
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
Metro and the rally crowds Regarding the Oct. 31 front-page article “Sanity
and fear, meeting in the middle”: When I arrived with out-of-town friends at the
TakomaMetro station on Saturday around noon, the crowd on the platform was the largest I have seen in my 13 years here. All incoming trains were packed like sardines, so we caught an outbound train to Glenmont, then got onto a train to downtown where we passed stop after stop packed with would-be passengers. Later in the day, Metro added insult to injury for returning Red Line passengers when its scheduled maintenance added further delays by single tracking a stretch between two stations. In an Oct. 28 news release on itsWeb site,Metro
wrote, “On Saturday, October 30 and Sunday, Octo- ber 31, all Red Line trains will depart approximately every 15 minutes from the Shady Grove and Glen- mont Metrorail stations.” Was an iota of thought given to preparing for the well-publicized Stewart- Colbert rally? To tens of thousands of attendees, the memory of the rally will be one of exuberance and joy, and thememory ofMetro will be one of stunning ineptitude and agony.
Harvey Solomon, Takoma Park l
Metro’s unpreparedness for Saturday’s rally in-
spired insanity in many of us who attempted to reach theMall by subway. In Clarendon, every train was packed. Reversing and traveling to Vienna was the only way to get downtown. Why wasn’t Metro better able to handle the crowds? Surely six-car trains every 13 minutes were not enough. If Metro had taken a poll online and asked residents how many were planning on going to the rally, it would have known better how to plan. I have always been a fan of Metro. Saturday
ruined that. Greer B. Gilka, Arlington
No sympathy for ‘debtors’ If the Oct. 30 front-page article “Amidmortgage
mess, owners are blindsided” was meant to elicit sympathy, it failed miserably with me. Instead, I was seething by the time I finished it. Why do people who bought more home than
they could afford deserve sympathy?Why do people who retire from their jobs think they deserve a break from their financial commitments? Why do people who have annual mortgage payments al- most double the amount of the poverty level think that society owes themmoney? And why do people who willfully signedmortgage documents and who still owe the mortgage company suddenly think that they are the owners of their homes? They aren’t. The mortgage companies are the
homes’ legal owners until the mortgage is paid off. So please, don’t call them “owners.” They are “debtors.”
Mark Tune, Lorton
Blind to China’s unfriendly policies The Oct. 28 editorial “China’s rare power” got the
facts right concerning China’s monopolistic manip- ulation of the “rare earth” market, but it missed the larger point. Is it really possible that nobody noticed what was happening during the short decade it took China to undercut and drive out of business this industry in the rest of the world? Are the United States and other countries so willingly blind that they could not see economic warfare when it was brought to bear against them? Where are the officials whose responsibility it is to defend our country against such unfriendly policies? Ted Mann, Arlington
A good revolution to reverse The best part ofHaroldMeyerson’s Oct. 27 op-ed,
“Which country do we want back?,” was the impres- sive array of statistics describing the true economic woes of our nation, especially since the so-called Reagan Revolution. Mr. Meyerson said that “the economic life and prospects for Americans since the Reagan Revolution have grown dim,” and he sup- ported his claim with facts such as, “Since 1980, the share of all income in America going to the bottom 90 percent has declined from 65 percent to 52 percent” while “income accruing to America’s wealthiest 1 percent rose from 9 percent in 1974 to a tidy 23.5 percent in 2007.” What contrast to the fact-free claim by Charles Krauthammer in his Oct. 29 op-ed, “The great campaign of 2010,” which said that “Obama thinks large. He wants to be a conse- quential president on the order of Ronald Reagan. His forthright attempt to undo the Reagan revolu- tion with a burst of expansive liberal governance is the theme animating this entire election.” What Reagan revolution, Mr. Krauthammer?
The one that was responsible for the greatest redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the rich in U.S. history? Despite my skepticism, I honestly hope so.
Craig Leigh, Baltimore
No choice but electric car success What was missing from Charles Lane’s Oct. 30
ABCDE
EUGENE MEYER, 1875-1959 • PHILIP L. GRAHAM, 1915-1963 KATHARINE GRAHAM, 1917-2001
BOISFEUILLET JONES JR., Chairman KATHARINE WEYMOUTH, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer News pages:
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Editorial Page Editor JACKSON DIEHL
op-edonelectric cars, “Afool for theVolt,”wasasense of the danger of the status quo. In fact,most propo- nentsof electricvehiclesagree thereare challenges to overcome before the vehicles succeed.Butwe believe that those challenges areworthovercoming, because the alternative is continueddependence onoil. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laborato-
ries pegged the combined damage to the U.S. econo- my fromoildependence in2008 alone atnearly$500 billion.Wemust ask ourselves if it isworth spending even significant amounts over the next 10 years to reduce oil demand. Will it be easy?No. But there is a reason that Republicans and Democrats, the White House and Capitol Hill, have joined together in support of electric vehicles: They agree that electrifi- cation represents the best way to safeguard our nationagainst a very real, immediatedanger. RobbieDiamond,Washington
Thewriter is president of the ElectrificationCoalition.
dLetters can be sent to
letters@washpost.com. Submissions must be exclusive to The Post and should include the writer's address and day and evening telephone numbers. Letters are subject to editing and abridgment. Please do not send letters as attachments. Because of the volume of material we receive, we are unable to acknowledge submissions; writers whose letters are under consideration for publication will be contacted.
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