MIT Will Eliminate Some Varsity Sports Alumni Donations Shrink

Page 2The Tech World & NationCIA to Close Its Overseas‘Black Site’ PrisonsHigh Court To Hear Case AllegingAnti-White Bias in Job PromotionBy Adam LiptakThe New York TimesNEW HAVEN, Conn.Frank Ricci has been a firefighter here for 11 years, and he woulddo just about anything to advance to lieutenant.The last time the city offered a promotional exam, he said in asworn statement, he gave up a second job and studied up to 13 hoursa day. Ricci, who is dyslexic, paid an acquaintance more than 1,000to read textbooks onto audiotapes. He made flashcards, took practicetests, worked with a study group and participated in mock interviews.Ricci did well, he said, coming in sixth among the 77 candidateswho took the exam. But the city threw out the test, because none of the19 African-American firefighters who took it qualified for promotion.That decision prompted Ricci and 17 other white firefighters, includingone Hispanic, to sue the city, alleging racial discrimination.Their case, which will be argued before the Supreme Court onApril 22, is the Roberts Court’s first major confrontation with claimsof racial discrimination in employment and will require the justices tochoose between conflicting conceptions of the government’s role inensuring fair treatment regardless of race.Advocates Help Squatters FindHomes in ForeclosuresBy John LelandThe New York TimesMIAMIWhen the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into athree-bedroom house here in December, she introduced herself to theneighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered anInternet connection.What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to bein the home.Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis.Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Backthe Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty housethat sold just a few years ago for more than 400,000.Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition forthe Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — someworking in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.In Recession, More DefendantsAct As Their Own LawyersBy Scott ShaneThe New York TimesWASHINGTONThe CIA said Thursday that itwould decommission the secretoverseas prisons where it subjectedal-Qaida prisoners to brutal interrogation methods, bringing to a symbolic close the most controversialcounterterrorism program of theBush administration.But in a statement to employees, the agency’s director, Leon E.Panetta, said agency officers whoworked in the program “should notbe investigated, let alone punished”because the Justice Department under President George W. Bush haddeclared their actions legal.Panetta and other top Obamaadministration officials have saidthey believe that waterboarding, thenear-drowning method used in 2002and 2003 on three prisoners, is torture, which is illegal under U.S. andinternational law. The InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross, whichinterviewed 14 prisoners, said in areport made public this week thatprisoners were also repeatedlyslammed into walls, forced to standfor days with their arms handcuffedBy Celia W. DuggerThe New York TimesHARARE, ZimbabweSAN FRANCISCOElise Barros made her way to the front of the courtroom here, convinced that the lawsuit against her was a mistake and would be quicklydismissed.“I don’t understand why I’m even here,” said Barros, who was challenging a lender’s claim that she owed it more than 7,000. She hadrepaid the loan, she told the judge in state court in March. “I haveproof — documents.”What she did not have was a lawyer.So the judge sent her and the lender’s lawyer into a mediation session, where it became clear that Barros actually did not have the documents, at least not the right ones. When the judge returned to her caselater in the day, he ordered her to come back in three weeks when theprocess began again.Financially pressed people like Barros are representing themselvesmore and more in court, according to judges, lawyers and courthouseofficials across the country, raising questions of how just the outcomesare and clogging courthouses already facing their own budget woes asclerks spend more time helping people unfamiliar with forms, filingsand fees.to the ceiling, confined in smallboxes and held in frigid cells.Panetta said the secret detentionfacilities were no longer in operation, but he suggested that securityand maintenance had been continuing at the taxpayers’ expense sincethey were emptied under Bush in2006. Terminating security contracts at the sites would save “atleast 4 million,” Panetta said.The CIA has never revealed thelocation of its so-called black sitesoverseas, but intelligence officials,aviation records and news reportshave placed them in Afghanistan,Thailand, Poland, Romania and Jordan, among other countries. Agencyofficials have said that fewer than100 prisoners have been held sincethe program was created in 2002,and about 30 were subjected to whatthe CIA called “enhanced” interrogation techniques.Bush transferred the remaining14 prisoners to Guantanamo Bay inCuba in 2006 but ordered some sitesmaintained for future use; only twoQaida prisoners are known to havebeen held for several months sincethen.In his first week in office, Presi-dent Barack Obama banned coercive interrogations and ordered theCIA program closed. Panetta saidthat the CIA had not detained anyterrorism suspects since he tookoffice in February and added thatany suspects captured in the futurewould be quickly turned over to theU.S. military or to a suspect’s homecountry.Joanne Mariner, the director ofthe terrorism and counterterrorismprogram at Human Rights Watch,said the closing of the CIA prisonswas “incredibly heartening and important.” But she said that a criminalinvestigation of the CIA interrogation program was nonetheless necessary, and she expressed concernthat Panetta had not made it clearwhat evidence the CIA would needto detain a suspect.Panetta’s statement, along with aclassified letter about interrogationpolicy that he sent Thursday to theSenate and House intelligence oversight committees, underscored thenew administration’s sharp breakwith policies that Bush and VicePresident Dick Cheney often credited with preventing a repeat of theSept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.intimidation,” said a senior officialin Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, who,like others in the party, spoke anonymously because he was describing itscriminal history.To protect themselves, some ofMugabe’s lieutenants are trying toimplicate opposition officials in asupposed plot to overthrow the president, hoping to use it as leverage inany amnesty talks or to press the opposition into quitting the governmentaltogether, ruling party officials said.Like South Africa at the end ofapartheid or Liberia at the close ofCharles Taylor’s reign, Zimbabwe isin the midst of a treacherous passagefrom authoritarian rule to an uncertain future. After a bloody electionseason last year stained by the statesponsored beatings and killings ofopposition supporters, Mugabe andhis rivals in the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, agreed to apower-sharing government that includes both victimizers and victims.But Mugabe’s lieutenants, part ofan inner circle called the Joint Operations Command, know that their85-year-old leader may not be aroundmuch longer to shield them, and fearlosing not just their power and ill-gotten wealth, but their freedom, officialsin the party said.Their fixation on getting amnestywas described by four senior rulingparty officials, all Mugabe confidants,who spoke to a Zimbabwean journalist working for The New York Times.But some opposition officials sayMugabe’s loyalists are less interestedin reaching a deal than in simply forcing them out of the new governmentthrough violence and intimidation.Others suspect a push for amnesty isbeing sought by a broad contingentof Mugabe’s party worried about accounting for the past.To Gain Amnesty, Mugabe’sLieutenants Use More ViolenceBy Jonathan D. GlaterThe New York TimesApril 10, 2009President Robert Mugabe’s toplieutenants are trying to force the political opposition into granting themamnesty for their past crimes by abducting, detaining and torturing opposition officials and activists, accordingto senior members of Mugabe’s party.Mugabe’s generals and politicianshave organized campaigns of terrorfor decades to keep him and his partyin power. But now that the opposition has a place in the nation’s newgovernment, these strongmen worrythat they are suddenly vulnerable toprosecution, especially for crimescommitted during last year’s electioncampaign while the world watched.“Their faces were immediatelypasted on the wall for everyone tosee that they were behind the killing, the violence, the torture andWeatherBy Brian H. Tang W60 W65 W70 W75 W W80 W859035 N30 N100325 NWeather SystemsHigh PressureWeather Fronts- - -Precipitation SymbolsSnowTroughShowers Extended ForecastToday: Sunny in the morning, then increasing clouds in the afternoonwith rain showers beginning in the evening. High 62 F (17 C).Tonight: Light rain. Low 41 F (5 C).Tomorrow: Periods of rain till evening, raw, and breezy. High 45 F (7 C).Tomorrow night: Gradually clearing, cold, and windy. Low 33 F (1 C).Sunday: Partly cloudy, chilly, and windy. High 45 F (7 C).Monday: Sunny and warmer. High 54 F (12 C).40 N1031Staff meteorologistWho knew being a meteorologist could be such a dangerous job? In Brazil, a forecaster who predicted a big storm that never materialized was threatened with a six month prison term. In Peru, a local TV weatherman whofailed to predict a flash food was taken away by a furious mob and lynchedin retaliation. Although such unreasonable or violent displays are unheard ofdomestically, meteorologists often take the blame for what are perceived asbad forecasts through vindictive calls or e-mails.What people may fail to understand is that there is a fundamental uncertainty to predicting the weather. As the atmosphere is inherently chaotic, therewill always be a limit to how far out one can predict the atmosphere’s state.This limitation is only compounded by the lack of perfect numerical modelsof the atmosphere and a dearth of observations over certain regions of theglobe, namely the oceans. Thus, forecasting is tricky business, especially thefarther out you go in to the future. With that said, you can trust the forecastsfrom your group of staff meteorologists at The Tech. Just don’t get angry ifwe’re off from time to time. W0 W9510 W5 W10 W1101150 W5 W12120 WSituation for Noon Eastern Daylight Time, Friday, April 10, 200913Take It Easy On the MeteorologistsWarm FrontLow PressureHurricane Cold Front Stationary FrontLightModerateHeavyRainOther SymbolsFogThunderstormHazeCompiled by MITMeteorology Staffand The Tech

World & NationApril 10, 2009British Anti-Terror ChiefResigns Over PhotographBy Sarah LyallThe New York TimesLONDONBritain’s most powerful counterterrorism police officer resignedThursday, a day after being photographed holding a document marked“SECRET” that outlined details of amajor anti-terrorism operation. Theresignation is the latest embarrassment for the Metropolitan Police Service, which is also being investigatedfor its handling of, and possible responsibility for, the death of a passerby during protests at last week’s G20meetings.Both cases hinged on photographsand videotape taken by reporters andmembers of the public and disseminated by the news media and on theInternet.The resignation of the counterterrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, came after hewas seen carrying a document titled,“Briefing Note: Operation PATHWAY,” while on his way to a Downing Street security briefing. Referringto the terror network of al-Qaida, thedocument sketched out a plan to arrest 11 people at seven addresses innorthwest England as part of a “a security service-led investigation intosuspected AQ-driven attack planningwithin the U.K.”Because of the disclosure, captured by photographers with telephoto lenses, anti-terrorism officers hadto carry out the operation many hoursearlier than planned, the police said.Hundreds of officers took part in raidsaround Manchester, Liverpool andLancashire on Wednesday afternoon.They detained 12 people on suspicionof being part of what Prime MinisterGordon Brown called “a very big terrorist plot” that the security serviceshad been “following for some time.”The British news media reportedthat the group had been planning attacks this weekend on targets like ashopping center in downtown Manchester. But Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police,told reporters that “there is no particular threat against any particularlocation.”Ten of the people in custody arePakistani citizens, and one is Britishborn, Fahy said. None has been formally charged. Quick said in a statement: “I deeply regret the disruptioncaused to colleagues undertaking theoperation.”Meanwhile, pressure mounted onthe Metropolitan Police Service toexplain itself over the death of IanTomlinson, a 47-year-old newspapervendor who suffered a fatal heart attack on April 1, during protests at theG20 meetings. The police originallysaid that they had had no contact withTomlinson, who had been trying toget home and was not a protester, until they gave him emergency medicaltreatment and put him in an ambulance after he fell ill.But a number of witnesses havesince come forward to the news media to contradict what the police said,backing up their claims with photographs and videotape of the incident,in London’s financial district. Onepiece of video, whose existence wasfirst reported in The Guardian newspaper, showed Tomlinson apparentlybeing hit in the back from behind witha baton wielded by a police officer inriot gear.That video was taken by a 38-yearold investment manager from NewYork, who said he had attended theprotests out of curiosity.Investors Cautious Even As BankPredicts Record ProfitsBy Jack Healyand Eric DashThe New York TimesAs one of the most dizzying bearmarket rallies in Wall Street historyenters its second month, a naggingquestion faces investors: Is the stockmarket making real progress, or merely glossing over deeper problems inthe U.S. economy that will trigger anew wave of losses?Stocks surged more than 3 percentThursday as Wells Fargo, one of thenation’s largest consumer banks, predicted record profits. The announcement kindled hopes that the financialsystem, which dragged the largereconomy toward the brink, was nowpoised to lead the way out.The Dow Jones industrial average gained 246 points and the broaderStandard & Poor’s 500-stock indexrose nearly 4 percent. The S&P 500has now risen more than 25 percentsince stocks bottomed out on March9, one of its best runs since the GreatDepression.Signs have been accumulating thatthe economy, while a long way fromrecovery, may be bottoming. Creditmarkets, frozen at the height of thefinancial crisis, have thawed as thegovernment shores up the financialsystem. Some of the worst-hit housing markets are edging toward a turnaround as low interest rates reel inbuyers.On Thursday, Lawrence Summers’75, one of President Barack Obama’stop economic advisers, declared thatthe “free fall” in the economy waslikely to end in the next few months.But as investors abandon cautionto snap up cheap bank stocks andriskier instruments, like junk bonds,to profit from the market’s earlier declines, skeptics are warning that theeconomy may face another leg down.Companies continue to shed jobs andconsumers are hunkering down in anticipation of a halting recovery.Most of America’s retailers onThursday signaled that they expectedto see a continued steep decline insales as they waited for consumers tocome out of hiding.“I think this is all setting us up fora new low,” said Thomas J. Lee, thechief U.S. equity analyst at JPMorganChase, who predicted an 8 to 10 percent drop in stocks. “It’s not like I’mpraying for it to happen, but it’s prettymuch expected.”Members of the Obama administration, once criticized for darkeningthe sense of economic gloom, havepointed out wisps of stability in corners of the economy as they try tobuild confidence in their agenda. ButSummers also acknowledged that itwas unclear how strong and rapid anyturnaround would be.Indeed, one of the biggest worries facing economists is what wouldhappen if unemployment rose beyondexpectations and unleashed anotherwave of spending contractions andlower corporate profits.Even as major banks like WellsFargo, Citigroup and Bank of Americaregain some profitability after devastating losses — buoyed in part by government efforts to breathe new life intothe housing market — experts warnthat companies reflecting other sectorsof the economy will soon suffer a waveof sharper declines in earnings.“There’s a migration of weakness,”said Nicholas Bohnsack, sector strategist at Strategas Research Partners.“What you’re now seeing is the nonfinancial segment really start to tailoff.”U.S. Navy Tracks Somali Pirates andTheir American HostageBy Mark MazzettiThe New York TimesWASHINGTONThe Indian Ocean standoff between an 800 million U.S. Navy destroyer and four pirates bobbing in alifeboat low on fuel showed the limitsfacing the world’s most powerful military in dealing with a booming pirateeconomy in a treacherous patch of international waters.Driven solely by economic gain, notpolitics or religion, the brand of pirateswho captured an American merchantship’s captain on Wednesday are an unconventional foe for the U.S. military.In recent years, they have shrewdlyextorted millions of dollars from international shipping companies; tohelp negotiate the captain’s release, theNavy turned for advice on Thursday toan FBI hostage rescue team, practicedin a patient approach.“This is strictly for the money,”said Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expertat Davidson College. “They are nottaking the cargo, and they are not interested in killing people.” He added,“It’s a business model that has provenvery effective for them.”While surveillance aircraft keptwatch on the pirates and their captive,the Navy task force that had steamedmore than 300 miles to go to the captain’s aid showed no sign of confronting the pirates. There is no evidence,experts say, of any links between thepirates and Islamic militants in Somalia, and officials said that the UnitedStates would have difficulty strikingdirectly at pirate sanctuaries along theSomali coast, even though the U.S.military has fired missiles within Somalia several times in recent years atpeople suspected of links to al-Qaida.Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton called the pirates “nothingmore than criminals” and noted thatthey were not a new problem for theUnited States — though this was thefirst time in 200 years that pirates hadcaptured an American vessel. “One ofthe very first actions that was undertaken by our country, in its very beginning, was to go after pirates alongthe Barbary Coast,” Clinton said at aState Department news conference, inwhich she called on the internationalcommunity to “come together to endthe scourge of piracy.”Gen. David H. Petraeus, the headof U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that two additional ships wouldbe dispatched in coming days to theregion around the Gulf of Aden andthe coast of Somalia, to augment an international naval armada that has triedin vain to secure thousands of squarenautical miles of sea.The gulf, one of the world’s busiestand most important shipping lanes, ispatrolled by an anti-piracy flotilla fromthe European Union and a U.S.-ledcoalition of ships, plus warships fromIran, Russia, India, China, Japan andother nations. But pirates using motherships — oceangoing trawlers thatcarry speedier attack vessels — haveextended their reach into the waters faroff the East African coast. On Saturday, for example, a German freighterwas hijacked about 400 miles offshore,between Kenya and the Seychelles.The Maersk Alabama, the vesselhijacked on Wednesday, is a 508-footlong container ship that was carryingfood and other agricultural materialsfor the World Food Program and otherclients, including the U.S. Agency forInternational Development.The Tech Page 3Thousands Demonstrate AgainstGeorgian PresidentBy Clifford J. LevyThe New York TimesTBILISI, GeorgiaTens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of thiscapital city on Thursday bearing signs and chanting slogans againstPresident Mikheil Saakashvili, who took office five years ago withpromises of a progressive, pro-Western government.They gathered in front of the Parliament building to demand theresignation of the president, whom opposition speakers denounced as atyrant who had mishandled the war with Russia. While the atmospherewas tense, the day’s events unfolded without violence.Opposition leaders said they would not halt the protest untilSaakashvili steps down. “We are here because there is no other wayto do this,” said Levan Gachechiladze. “We need to stay here until theend. He must go!”Irakli Alasania, a former ambassador to the United Nations whobroke with Saakashvili over the war, told the crowd that the presidenthad spurned the values of the democratic movement that brought himto power. Alasania said Saakashvili exerted authoritarian control overthe media, the judiciary and other spheres of society.“The whole world is watching us now,” Alasania said. “We are hereto show our government and other countries that this is the only wayto have real change.”Pitcher’s Death Stuns BaseballBy Paul OberjuergeThe New York TimesANAHEIM, Calif.Only a few hours after the most promising performance of his majorleague career, Nick Adenhart, a 22-year-old pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, was one of three people killed early Thursdaywhen the car they were traveling in was struck by a vehicle driven by asuspected drunken driver.Aden

D’Amelio Finally Fired MIT has fired Joseph D’Amelio, the MIT Police Officer arrested for drug trafficking in mid-March, MIT announced on this week. Since D’Amelio’s March 14 arrest, MIT has fired one officer and suspended another without pay, both in response to those two officers throwing out issues of the tech on March 17. It took .