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Obama describes strategy for leaner military BY ELISABETH BUMILLER AND THOM SHANKER
New York Times Service
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a broad new military strategy for the United States on Thursday, one that refocuses the armed forces on threats in Asia and the Pacific region, continues a strong presence in the Middle East but makes clear that U.S. ground forces will no longer be large enough to conduct prolonged, large-scale counterinsurgency campaigns like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an unusual appearance in the Pentagon briefing room, Obama put his mark on a military strategy that moves away from the grinding wars he inherited from the Bush administration and relies more on naval and air power in the Pacific and the Strait of Hormuz as a counterbalance to China and Iran. “We’re turning the page on a decade of war,” Obama said. He called it “a moment of transition” that allowed him to look ahead and determine the kind of force — a smaller one, he said — that the nation needs in the future. Obama’s strategy embraces hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the military, making it an awkward codicil to the uneasy relationship he has shared with the military since his first days in office. In a letter accompanying the new strategy, the president wrote, “We must put our fiscal house in order here at home and renew our long-term economic strength.” But in an election year when he has been under assault from Republican presidential candidates for cutting the military budget and for what they say is his weak response to Iranian threats, Obama also said that the United States would “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when our military was left ill-prepared for the future.” To that end, the president wrote, his administration will continue to invest in counterterrorism, intelligence gathering, cyberwarfare and countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Obama arrived at the Pentagon early Thursday to describe the new strategy with his defense secretary, Leon Panetta, and with Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Officials said it was the first time in history that a president had held a news conference at the Pentagon. Obama said the country needed to remain prepared. “We cannot
INTERNATIONAL EDITION
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
In Egypt, prosecutors demand death for Mubarak Protesters demonstrate outside a courtroom in Cairo.
BY LEILA FADEL
Washington Post Service
CAIRO — The prosecution in the historic trial of former president Hosni Mubarak demanded Thursday that he be executed for ordering the killing of pro-democracy protesters during the revolt that ultimately forced his ouster. The five-person prosecution team also called for the same sentence — death by hanging — for his security chief. On the third and final day of the prosecution’s opening statements, Mohammed Khater, one of the prosecutors, said the only fair sentence for Mubarak and his fellow defendants was death. Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Alaa, also face corruption charges
KHALIL HAMRA/AP
in the same trial along with fugitive businessman Hussein Salem. The prosecution is seeking the maximum of 15 years in prison for Mubarak’s sons and Salem. Muba-
rak has pleaded not guilty, as have his fellow defendants. The historic trial of the ailing 83-year-old fallen autocrat resumed Tuesday after a three-
month hiatus when lawyers for the victims unsuccessfully tried to get the head judge, Ahmed Refaat, thrown off the case for alleged bias. Now, four months into the trial, activists and relatives of slain protesters are growing concerned that the man they hold responsible for the killing of nearly 1,000 people during the winter uprising will be acquitted. The prosecution has struggled with the case and said Thursday that state institutions have refused to cooperate. Prosecutors argued that it is not credible that Mubarak didn’t know about mass demonstrations in 12 provinces of the country or of the brute force used against demonstrators.
‘PLANTING THE BEACH’ QUESTIONS ARISE ABOUT ORGANIC PRODUCE AND SUSTAINABILITY tina that grow organic food for the U.S. market are enjoying their busiest season. “People are now buying from a global commodity market, and they have to be skeptical even when the label says ‘organic’ — that doesn’t tell people all they need to know,” said Frederick L. Kirschenmann, a distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. He said that some large farms that have qualified as organic employed environmentally damaging practices, like planting only one crop,
BY ELISABETH ROSENTHAL New York Times Service
TODOS SANTOS, Mexico — Clamshell containers on supermarket shelves in the United States may depict verdant fields, tangles of vines and ruby red tomatoes. But at this time of year, the tomatoes, peppers and basil certified as organic by the Agriculture Department often hail from the Mexican desert, and are nurtured with intensive irrigation. Growers here on the Baja Peninsula, the epicenter of Mexico’s thriving new organic export sector, describe their toil amid the cactuses as “planting the beach.” Del Cabo Cooperative, a supplier here for Trader Joe’s and Fairway, is sending more than 7½ tons of tomatoes and basil every day to the United States by truck and plane to sate the U.S. demand for organic produce year-round. But even as more U.S. citizens buy foods with the organic label, the products are increasingly removed from the traditional organic ideal: produce that is
PHOTOS BY MARCUS YAM/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE
Day laborers work at the Tiky Cabo organic farm near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Below, zucchini fields in Todos Santos, Mexico. not only free of chemicals and pesticides but also grown locally on small farms in a way that protects the environment. The explosive growth in the commercial cultivation of organic tomatoes here, for example, is putting stress on the water table. In some areas, wells have run dry this year, meaning
• TURN TO ORGANIC PRODUCE, 2A
that small subsistence farmers cannot grow crops. And the organic tomatoes end up in an energy-intensive global distribution chain that takes them as far as New York and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, producing significant emissions that contribute to global warming. From now until spring, farms from Mexico to Chile to Argen-
• TURN TO U.S. MILITARY, 2A
U.K. seeks data on suspect breast implants into doubt the basis for their earlier recommendation that women New York Times Service with the implants in question not With the British government undergo “routine removal.” The French government recunder increasing pressure to follow the French health authorities’ recommendation to remove breast implants made with low-grade silicone, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has ordered British clinics to quickly report how many of the implants have ruptured or oozed. “The question really comes down to the extent to which these implants fail relative to normal implants and the relative risks of their removal compared to the risk of having an operation,” Lansley told BBC radio. Lansley was acknowledging that the British authorities did not have reliable statistics on ruptures or oozing of the implants, throwing BY DAVID JOLLY AND MAIA DE LA BAUME
DAYS AWAY FROM NEXT CONTEST, GOP RIVALS RACE FOR MONEY, 3A
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ATTACKS TARGETING SHIITES KILL 72 IN IRAQ, 6A
ommended on Dec. 23 that the 30,000 Frenchwomen with the implants have them removed, citing a
Europe moves toward embargo on Iran oil BY STEVEN ERLANGER
New York Times Service
• TURN TO IMPLANTS, 2A
Britain’s health secretary has said ‘this is a worrying time’ for women who have implants made by Poly Implant Prothese. SEBASTIEN NOGIER/ AFP-GETTY IMAGES
FRENCH BORROWING RATE RISES IN BOND AUCTION, BUSINESS FRONT
ran to stop enriching uranium and negotiate an end to what Western leaders argue is an accelerating program to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies military intent and refuses to stop enrichment of uranium for what it describes as civilian purposes. But it has responded to the threat of new U.S. and European sanctions with a series of military and diplomatic threats. It has test-fired new missiles, announced the production of its first nuclear-fuel rod, warned a U.S. aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf, and threatened to
PARIS — European countries have taken their boldest step so far in the increasingly tense standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, agreeing in principle to impose an embargo on Iranian oil, French and European diplomats said. A final decision by the European Union will not come before the end of January and would be carried out in stages to avoid major disruptions in global oil supplies. But the move by some of Iran’s most important oil customers appears to underscore the resolve of Western allies to impose on Iran • TURN TO IRAN OIL, 2A the toughest round of sanctions to n Oil price would skyrocket if Iran closed date, increasing pressure on Teh- the Strait of Hormuz, BUSINESS FRONT
JOE TORRE JOINS DEVELOPER IN BID FOR L.A. DODGERS, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX THE AMERICAS ............4A U.S. NEWS.....................5A OPINION........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ...6B
1/6/2012 6:03:37 AM
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