Today’s New York Times leads with the most detailed look inside the CIA’s interrogation program ever released. The Washington Post leads with news that three in 10 Americans are admittedly racist—but a higher percentage is ageist. The Los Angeles Times leads with a Friedmanesque look at how the falling dollar has affected people across the globe.
The NYT lead tells the story of Deuce Martinez, an unlikely CIA interrogator who helped break al-Qaida masterminds Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. It details the role of secret Polish prisons, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and counter-narcotics technology in the post-9/11 scramble to prevent new attacks. The piece is agnostic on the utility of water-boarding and says the CIA determined the location for overseas prisons “based largely on which foreign intelligence officials were most accommodating.”
A WP/ABC news poll says 30 percent of white Americans and 34 percent of black Americans admit they’re racist. The paper says that this presents a challenge for Barack Obama, but it notes that about twice as many people have qualms about John McCain’s age.
The dollar is rearranging the global economy as it falls. Companies that rely on exports to the U.S., like Chinese T-shirt makers and Indian outsourcers, are feeling the pinch. The LAT has a wide-ranging look at the misery—plus a cool interactive feature.
The WP goes up high with a new threat to the financial system. As the economy weakens, consumers are failing to repay their business and car loans in record numbers—posing risks to smaller, regional banks that stayed out of subprime lending.
An NYT front says the Midwest flooding wouldn’t be so bad if we’d acted on a 1994 Clinton administration report. After a devastating 1993 flood, it recommended replacing the administrative patchwork that governs Mississippi River levees with oversight by the Army Corps of Engineers. That never happened, and we’re paying the price.
The LAT fronts a look at the flooding’s economic impact. Some analysts think it will be as bad as 1993 and contribute to the global food crisis. But others think flooded farms will rebound quickly if the next few months remain dry.
The NYT goes up high with news of an agriculture crisis in India. The country could be the world’s second-largest food exporter, but poor policy choices and systematic underinvestment have turned it into something of a bread-basketcase.
The NYT fronts a look at Barack Obama’s plan to mount a massive national campaign, something John Kerry couldn’t do in 2004 because he didn’t have enough money. By the end of June, Obama will have paid staff members in all 50 states—and his ad campaign will grow “well beyond” his current 18-state buy.
The LAT fronts questions about Cindy McCain’s beer empire. She’s the chairwoman and majority private stockholder of a major beer wholesaler that often lobbies the government, and she hasn’t explained how she’d solve the conflict of interest as First Lady.
The NYT fronts truly chilling glimpses of Robert Mugabe’s election crackdown before the runoff in Zimbabwe. His party insists it’s a war, not an election, in which “all state resources at our disposal” will be employed in “the final battle for total control.” They’ve launched a killing spree against opposition activists and they’re herding voters into “re-education” meetings. The LAT goes inside with rough casualty numbers.
A WP front says Britain has set up a special office to stop Pakistani parents in the U.K. from forcing their children into arranged marriages. It’s common for traditional parents to send their kids to Pakistan, where they’re married off, often literally at gunpoint. But Her Majesty’s Government thinks the practice is a human-rights offense, and it’s interceding on behalf of the kids.
