ABCDE Partly sunny 38/29 • Tomorrow: Cloudy 39/27 • details, b10 Oh, the weather outside is frightful (and flightful) FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010 Jobless benefits,


stimulus funds included BY LORI MONTGOMERY


AND SHAILAGH MURRAY Congress was poised to ap-


prove the most significant tax bill in nearly a decade late Thurs- day, overcoming liberal resis- tance to continue for two more years tax breaks enacted under President GeorgeW. Bush and to provide a fresh boost of federal support to the tepid economic recovery. The package, brokered by


RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST


Aman walks beneath birds on the grounds of theWashingtonMonument during a light snowfall in the District. Thursday’s snow caused scores of fender benders on theWashington region’s roads and cut short work- and school days. Story, B5.Weather map and forecasts, B10.


U.S. eyes a haven formilitants in Pakistan


But rooting out network based at Islamic school proves a difficult task


BY GREGMILLER The CIA has launched more


than100drone strikes inPakistan so far this year, but one seemingly obvious target remains conspicu- ously unscathed. A religious school near the


heart of the country’s tribal areas has for years served as an opera- tional hub for the most lethal


adversaryofU.S. forces inAfghan- istan, the so-called Haqqani net- work, according toU.S. officials. Still, theCIAhas refrainedfrom


hitting the site, U.S. officials said, out of concern that targeting a religious compoundmight trigger a violent backlash. The U.S. mili- tary cannot attack a site inside Pakistan. And U.S. officials said thePakistanimilitaryhas failedto clearmilitants fromthe school, or madrassa, even though it has a fort less than twomiles away. The madrassa on the edge of Miram Shah has emerged as a


symbol of the constraints on the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, where theenemy—andtheprospects for a clear victory—often seemto lie beyondU.S. forces’ grasp. RecentU.S. intelligence assess-


ments concluded that Pakistan’s reluctance to uproot certainmili- tant groups, includingHaqqani’s, is a significant obstacle to prog- ress in the war. A White House review released Thursday said progress with Pakistan on the is- sue“hasbeensubstantial,butalso uneven.” Over the past year, U.S. troops


l Review finds mixed progress in Afghanistan. A19


‘HowDo You Know’ filmmaker James L. Brooks again turnsWashington into a capital of romance


BY ANN HORNADAY I


t is a truth locally acknowl- edged that director James L. Brooks getsWashington.


Most filmmakers come, pan


their camera a few times across theMall, maybe blow up a police car or two, and then leave. And once again the nation’s capital is reduced to either a cardboard cutout backdrop or the geograph- ic equivalent of a Central Casting extra. But some directors understand


Washington from the inside out, most famously Alan Pakula in the 1976 Watergate thriller “All the President’sMen.” But next to that classic, it’s Brooks’s 1987 love-tri- angle comedy “Broadcast News” that is most often credited by Washingtonians as capturing the city’s culturemost authoritatively andsubtly. Inthat film—a cultur- al watershed in its depiction of work, intimacy and journalism- as-entertainment — Brooks avoided the congressional walk- and-talks and iconic Mall scenes that serve as little more than set dressing to lend stories gravitas


or political-thriller plot points. After 20 years, Brooks has re-


turned toD.C. with the love-trian- gle comedy “How Do You Know,” starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul RuddandOwenWilson.The film, opening Friday, follows a softball player as she ages out of her lifelong sport and manages duel- ing romances with a baseball star and an embattled financier. And “How Do You Know” happens to be set in Washington, which the director casts once again as zeit- geist-signifier, metropolitan muse and supporting character in its own right. Why, District denizens may


well ask, does the New Jersey- raised L.A. resident have such an affinity for Washington? “It’s the most beautiful city on Earth,” Brooks said recently. “We start there.”


Brooks’s affection forWashing-


ton grew when he lived near the Naval Observatory while filming “Broadcast News,” set in the fre- netic scrum of the city’s media culture. In a film that flawlessly captured D.C. tribal rituals as


hornaday continued onA6


l What does ‘Know’ know about baseball? C2 l ‘Pink Panther’ director Blake Edwards dies. B7


STYLE1


Larry King signs off The media fixture’s final CNN show is star-studded, if not full of emotion, says columnist Tom Shales. C1


THEWORLD


Assange out on bail The WikiLeaks founder vows to fight sex charges. A16


BUSINESS NEWS........A24-28 CLASSIFIEDS..................D7-9 COMICS..........................C6-7


EDITORIALS/LETTERS.....A34 FED PAGE.........................A31 KIDSPOST..............WEEKEND


LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..................WEEKEND OBITUARIES....................B7-9


NEWMOVIESFOR THEHOLIDAY SEASON


10


Post critics review the top films today inWeekend


rrr1/2 The Fighter


The King’s Speech rr1/2


The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector


How Do You Know Night Catches Us


rr Bhutto


Tron: Legacy r1/2


Leaving


The Tempest Yogi Bear


and the CIA have carried out an unprecedented campaign to pound Haqqani targets on both sides of the border, but a senior U.S. military official involved in theoperations saidtheimpacthas been “moderate” at best. “It hasn’t changed the will of


the Haqqani power base in Paki- stan,” the senior official said. “They’re clearly recruiting and training and shipping large num- bers of fighters over to Afghani- stan.” The stakes are significant be-


cause the Haqqani network is ac- haqqani continued onA18


President Obama and Republi- can leaders in the wake of the November elections, angered many Democrats, who have long argued that the Bush tax cuts were skewed to benefit the wealthy. But their last-minute campaign to scale back the bill’s benefits for taxpayers at the highest income levels appeared likely to fail, according to senior Democrats,who expressed confi- dence that the measure would emerge unchanged from a series of late-night votes. “I’m going to vote against the


bill, but I believe it will pass,” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said late in the day as House leaders struggled to quash an uprising by rank-and-file liberal lawmakers. If approved, the $858 billion


package will go to the White House. With his signature, Obamawould prevent taxes from rising on New Year’s Day for virtually every American house- hold. The measure would also


ONLINE 6 Inside the deal


A breakdown of what each party won (and lost) in the


tax cuts deal, and how it will affect the economy, at washingtonpost.com.


guarantee unemployed workers in hard-hit states up to 99 weeks of jobless benefits through the end of next year. And it would create major new incentives for business and consumer spending in 2011, including a two-percent- age-point reduction in the Social Security payroll tax that would let workers keep as much as $2,136 next year. The package breezed through


the Senate earlier this week, giving Obama the strongest bi- partisan vote on a major initia- tive since he took office. Opposi- tion in the House crumpled in the face of that overwhelming showing, though House liberals insisted on offering an alterna- tive that would levy a higher tax on estates than the Obama-GOP compromise would impose. Liberals opposed the deal in


part because they believe the temporary extension of the Bush


taxes continued onA26 Metro to conduct random bag checks


Anti-terrorism teams’ searches are designed to prevent attacks


BY ANN SCOTT TYSON AND DEREK KRAVITZ


Metro anti-terrorism teams


will immediately start random inspections of passengers’ bags and packages to try to protect the rail and bus system from attack, transit officials said Thursday. Police using explosives-screen-


ing equipment and bomb-sniff- ing dogs will pull aside for in- spection about every third per- son carrying a bag,Metro Transit Police ChiefMichael Taborn said. The searchesmight be conducted at one location at a time or at several places simultaneously. If people refuse, theywill be barred from entering the rail station or boarding a bus with the item, Taborn said. The inspections will be conducted “indefinitely,” he said. Taborn told Metro’s board of


directors about the plan during a meeting Thursday. Metro had


AGONYATTHEAIRPORT


Revamping of checkpoint system urged Experts fault reliance on technology, call for focus on data about individuals


BY ANNE E. KORNBLUT


AND ASHLEY HALSEY III Nine years after the Sept. 11


attacks and decades after hijack- ers firstbeganto targetpassenger airliners, the United States has invested billions of dollars in an airport system that makes tech- nology the last line of defense to intercept terrorists. It has yet to catch one. In every known recent at-


tempt, terrorists have used a dif- ferent tactic to evade the latest


INSIDE POLITICS&THENATION Avastin loses favor


The FDA, saying the drug’s benefits for advanced breast cancer are slight at best and outweighed by its risks, moves to revoke approval for that use. A6


SCIENCE


Vitriol over arsenic-based life The immediacy of the Internet clashes with the deliberate nature of the scientific method. A10


TELEVISION.......................C5 WEATHER........................B10 WORLD NEWS.............A14-20


Printed using recycled fiber


DAILY CODE Details, B2


7 5 4 2 2SPORTS


The Capitals, ready for their close-up?


As the team gropes for a victory, it stars in a not-so-flattering documentary on HBO. D1


OPINIONS 


David Ignatius: Tentative steps in Afghanistan. A35


The Washington Post Year 134, No. 12


CONTENT © 2010


technology at airport check- points, only to be thwarted by information unearthed through intelligence work — or by alert passengers in flight. The result is an emerging con-


sensus among experts and law- makers that the checkpoint- heavy approach — searching nearly every passenger — may not be themost effective. Instead,many of themsay, the


system should focus more ur- gently on individuals, gathering a greater range of information about people to identify those


most likely to present a real danger. Scanners, pat-downs and


bomb-sniffing dogs are all vital parts of the process but should be integrated into a multilayered system that includes far-reach- ing, computer-filtered data about people, along with face-to-face monitoring by themodern equiv- alent of a beat cop, several offi- cials and experts said. Technolo- gymatters, they said,but it is akin to putting up a series of picket


tsa continued onA12


planned to implement random searches in 2008 during times of elevated threat levels but never conducted any. Thursday’s announcement


came six weeks after federal law enforcement authorities arrested Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn in an alleged plot to bombMetro- rail stations in Northern Virgin- ia. Last week, authorities arrest- ed Awais Younis, 25, of Arlington County on accusations that he made threats on his Facebook page to place pipe bombs aboard


metro continued onA13


Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.


MD DC VA SU V1 V2 V3 V4 washingtonpost.com • 75¢


Congress set to extend Bush-era


tax cuts until ’12 LIBERALS RESIST OBAMA-GOP BILL


INTHE SENATE Slimmer bill will


fund government Senate Democrats ditch their efforts for a government funding measure. A4


STEVENPEARLSTEIN


The deepest cut One of the great enduring mysteries of American politics is why Republicans attach so much importance to cutting taxes for the rich. A24


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