as u.s. presence wanes iran flexes in afghanistan · 2017/08/06 · bryan denton for the new york...

C M Y K Yxxx,2017-08-06,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

VOL. CLXVI . . . . No. 57,681 © 2017 The New York Times Company SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2017

FARAH, Afghanistan — A po-lice officer guarding the outskirtsof this city remembers the callfrom his commander, warningthat hundreds of Taliban fighterswere headed his way.

“Within half an hour, they at-tacked,” recalled Officer Najibul-lah Amiri, 35. The Talibanswarmed the farmlands sur-rounding his post and seized thewestern riverbank here in Farah,the capital of the province by thesame name.

It was the start of a three-weeksiege in October, and only afterAmerican air support was calledin to end it and the smoke cleareddid Afghan security officials real-ize who was behind the lightningstrike: Iran.

Four senior Iranian comman-dos were among the scores ofdead, Afghan intelligence officialssaid, noting their funerals in Iran.Many of the Taliban dead andwounded were also taken backacross the nearby border withIran, where the insurgents hadbeen recruited and trained, vil-lage elders told Afghan provincialofficials.

The assault, coordinated withattacks on several other cities,was part of the Taliban’s most am-bitious attempt since 2001 to re-

take power. But it was also a pieceof an accelerating Iranian cam-paign to step into a vacuum left bydeparting American forces —Iran’s biggest push into Afghanis-tan in decades.

President Trump recently la-mented that the United States waslosing its 16-year war in Afghanis-tan, and threatened to fire theAmerican generals in charge.

There is no doubt that as the

United States winds down the Af-ghan war — the longest in Ameri-can history, and one that has costhalf a trillion dollars and morethan 150,000 lives on all sides —regional adversaries are musclingin.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan re-main the dominant players. ButIran is also making a bold gambitto shape Afghanistan in its favor.

Over the past decade and a half,the United States has taken outIran’s chief enemies on two of itsborders, the Taliban governmentin Afghanistan and Saddam Hus-

Iran Flexes in AfghanistanAs U.S. Presence Wanes

Covert Aid to Taliban, Onetime Enemies,Risks Destabilizing a Shaky Nation

By CARLOTTA GALL

The main bazaar in the city of Farah in Afghanistan in April. There, and in Herat, Iranian goods and influence are prominent.BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 12

TEHRAN’S TURN

A Bold Gambit

Just a year ago, after the Su-preme Court rejected a challengeto the University of Texas atAustin’s admissions program by asingle swing vote, the questionseemed to be edging, at last, to-ward an answer: Colleges could,the justices ruled, consider racewhen deciding whom to letthrough their gates.

“I thought this was settled,”said Anthony P. Carnevale, aneconomist at Georgetown Univer-sity who studies affirmative ac-tion. “I thought it was done.”

Only for the moment.A series of lawsuits and com-

plaints have continued to chal-lenge such practices, and lastweek, President Trump’s JusticeDepartment joined the chorus,signaling that it would marshallawyers to investigate and per-haps sue colleges over “inten-tional race-based discrimination”in admissions.

Besieged in court, routed ineight states, accused of favoringblacks and Latinos at the expenseof Asians and whites, affirmativeaction — a major legacy of the civil

rights era — is once again the sub-ject of uncomfortable scrutiny.

But even without federal inter-vention, a look at affirmative ac-tion policies in 2017 shows thatthey have achieved their own kindof diversity, evolving from the ex-plicitly race-based quotas of dec-ades ago into a range of ap-proaches that occasionally, not al-ways, near the melting-pot ideal,often by giving preference to low-income students instead of minor-ities.

“The reason a liberal like me isintrigued by Trump’s actions onaffirmative action is that I think itcould have the effect of drivinguniversities to really pursuing so-cioeconomic diversity as a way ofindirectly creating racial diversi-ty,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, asenior fellow at the Century Foun-dation who has pushed for class-based admissions to replace race-based admissions.

Public universities in Californiaand Washington, forbidden bystate law from considering race in

Colleges Seek Diversity Ideal,But Pick Different Paths to It

By VIVIAN YEE

Continued on Page 15

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Atthe airport here, there is a remind-er to travelers of the jobs thatglobal trade can bring. A shiny2017 Volkswagen Passat is sta-tioned near the entryway and la-beled: “Designed in Germany.Built in Chattanooga.”

The American map is dottedwith towns drained of jobs afterhomegrown factories bolted tolower-wage countries. But formany spots throughout the coun-try, the same strategy of movingoperations overseas — when

practiced by foreign companies —has buoyed local fortunes.

In Chattanooga and the sur-rounding region, for example,more than two dozen companiesfrom 20 countries have set upshop, generating billions of dol-lars in investment, employingthousands of workers and helping

drive Tennessee’s jobless rate to3.6 percent in June, a record lowfor the state.

But political and business lead-ers here in Hamilton County, aconservative stronghold whereDonald J. Trump won a majority ofthe votes, worry that the presi-dent’s attacks on trading partnersand exhortations to “Buy Ameri-can” could set off a protectionistspiral of tariffs and import restric-tions, hurting consumers andworkers.

“I’m nervous,” Mayor AndyBerke said over sweet tea and

U.S. Cities Welcome a Foreign Product: JobsBy PATRICIA COHEN

Bill Phillips shrugs off whether Southeast Mahindra in Chattanooga, Tenn., is a foreign company.MELISSA GOLDEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Attack on Global TradeWorries Areas Liftedby Overseas Firms

Continued on Page 17

Where will you be on Aug. 21?A special section to illuminateyou on the coming darkness.

The American Eclipse

SEOUL, South Korea — Di-vorced and out of money, KwonChol-nam fled North Korea forChina in 2014 by wading across ariver border at night and thencrawling over a barbed-wirefence. After a perilous trek that in-cluded walking through a junglein Laos, he reached Thailand,where he was allowed to fly toSouth Korea to start a new life.

After all that trouble and dan-ger, Mr. Kwon now wants SouthKorea to allow him to return hometo the North.

“You have toride a horse toknow whetherit’s the rightmount for you,”Mr. Kwon saidin an interviewin Seoul. “I havetried, and theSouth is not forme. I want to gohome to theNorth to reunite with my ex-wifeand 16-year-old son.”

North Korea is one of theworld’s most politically repressivecountries. No matter. Mr. Kwonsays he has grown disillusioned

with life in the capitalist South,where he says North Korean de-fectors like him are treated likesecond-class citizens.

“They called me names, treat-ing me like an idiot, and didn’t payme as much as others doing thesame work, just because I wasfrom the North,” Mr. Kwon said,his voice rising in anger.

To press his unusual demand,he has held news conferences,submitted petitions to the UnitedNations and demonstrated withsigns in front of governmentbuildings in Seoul.

More than 30,000 North Kore-ans have fled to South Korea since

a famine hit their homeland in the1990s. Of them, 25 have mysteri-ously resurfaced back in theNorth in the past five years.

South Korean officials suspectthese “repeat defectors,” as thosewho return to the North areknown, may have been lured toChina and kidnapped back to theNorth. There, the governmentuses them for propaganda, ar-ranging for them to speak outagainst the “living hell” they saidthey had experienced in theSouth.

Mr. Kwon tried to find his ownway back to the North, but that ef-

Risking Death, He Fled North Korea. Now He’s Begging to Return.By CHOE SANG-HUN

Kwon Chol-nam

Continued on Page 4

WASHINGTON — SenatorsTom Cotton and Ben Sasse havealready been to Iowa this year,Gov. John Kasich is eyeing a re-turn visit to New Hampshire, andMike Pence’s schedule is so full ofpolitical events that Republicansjoke that he is acting more like asecond-term vice president hop-ing to clear the field than a No. 2sworn in a little over six monthsago.

President Trump’s first term isostensibly just warming up, butluminaries in his own party havebegun what amounts to a shadowcampaign for 2020 — as if the cur-rent occupant of 1600 Pennsylva-nia Avenue weren’t involved.

The would-be candidates arecultivating some of the party’smost prominent donors, courtingconservative interest groups andcarefully enhancing their profiles.Mr. Trump has given no indicationthat he will decline to seek a sec-ond term.

But the sheer disarray sur-rounding this presidency, the in-tensifying investigation by thespecial counsel Robert S. MuellerIII and the plain uncertaintyabout what Mr. Trump will do inthe next week, let alone in the nextelection, have prompted Republi-can officeholders to take politicalsteps that are unheard-of so sooninto a new administration.

Asked about those Republicanswho seem to be eyeing 2020, aWhite House spokeswoman, Lind-say Walter, fired a warning shot:“The president is as strong as he’sever been in Iowa, and every po-tentially ambitious Republicanknows that.”

But in interviews with morethan 75 Republicans at every levelof the party, elected officials, do-nors and strategists expressedwidespread uncertainty aboutwhether Mr. Trump would be onthe ballot in 2020 and little doubt

TRUMP IN DOUBT, SOME G.O.P. STARSSHAPE 2020 BIDS

Quietly Planning in CaseEmbattled President

Isn’t on the Ballot

By JONATHAN MARTINand ALEXANDER BURNS

Continued on Page 16

As a tide of Puerto Ricans flees economiccalamity, some young entrepreneurs arefinding new niches, elbowing aside“colonial” ways of thinking. PAGE 14

NATIONAL 14-19

Finding Hope in Island’s CrisisDiane Hendricks and her late husbandsaw opportunity in Beloit, Wis., a decay-ing industrial town. Now, she dreams ofa mecca for start-ups. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Billionaire’s Fixer-Upper TownAntonio Argüelles swam six of thearduous channel crossings of the so-called Oceans Seven. Then, at 58, heconfronted the North Channel. PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

21 Frigid Ocean Miles to GoBritain’s exit from the European Unionjeopardizes a hard-won arrangementeasing travel between Northern Irelandand the Irish Republic. PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 4-13

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SUNDAY REVIEW

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