in a state of disarray trump transition team firings and … · 2001-09-11 · washington —...

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Today, mostly sunny, a warmer af-ternoon, high 60. Tonight, partlycloudy, low 48. Tomorrow, mostlysunny, mild for mid-November, high62. Weather map is on Page B14.

VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,418 © 2016 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016

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A Yemeni bank, in the Treasury Depart-ment’s cross hairs for its ties to AlQaeda, says it had no choice but tocomply with the terrorists. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Bankers to Al QaedaNative Americans are leveraging oldtreaty rights and tribal traditions togain more say in how public lands aremanaged. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-20

Tribes Assert Their RightsWe asked families from across thecountry about the dishes on their holi-day tables that speak most eloquentlyabout who they are. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-16

The American ThanksgivingMose Allison, the singer, songwriterand piano player, who used his Missis-sippi upbringing to help convey wisdomand worldliness, was 89. PAGE B17

OBITUARIES B16-17

The ‘Faulkner of Jazz’ Frank Bruni PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED, A26-27

WASHINGTON — MatthewHorn, a software engineer fromBoulder, Colo., canceled Christ-mas plans with his family inTexas. Nancy Sundin, a socialworker in Spokane, Wash., hascalled off Thanksgiving with hermother and brother. Ruth Do-rancy, a software designer in Chi-cago, decided to move her wed-ding so that her fiancé’s grand-mother and aunt, strong Trumpsupporters from Florida, couldnot attend.

The election is over, but the re-percussions in people’s lives maybe just beginning as familiesacross the United States contem-plate uncomfortable holidays —or decide to bypass them — andrelationships among friends, rela-tives and spouses are testedacross the political divide.

Democrats have dug in theirheels and in some cases are refus-ing to sit across the table from rel-atives who voted for President-elect Donald J. Trump, a man theysay stands for things they abhor.Many who voted for Mr. Trumpsay it is the liberals who are to

Post-Election,No AppetiteFor Families

By SABRINA TAVERNISEand KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — Rudolph W.Giuliani, facing a flood of ques-tions about whether his businessdealings should disqualify himfrom being named President-electDonald J. Trump’s secretary ofstate, on Tuesday defended his lu-crative 15 years in the private sec-tor as a credential for the job.

“I have friends all over theworld,” Mr. Giuliani, the formerNew York mayor, said in an inter-view. “This is not a new thing forme. When you become the mayor,you become interested in foreignpolicy. When I left, my major workwas legal and security around theworld.”

As secretary of state, Mr. Giuli-ani, a loyal, often ferocious backerof Mr. Trump’s candidacy, wouldmake fighting Islamist terrorismthe centerpiece of the incomingadministration’s foreign policy. Hevaulted to national prominencebecause of his leadership after theSept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, andhe still views foreign policythrough the prism of that day.

But Mr. Giuliani’s business tiesare a major red flag. He built a lu-crative consulting and speech-

Giuliani’s TiesRaise QuestionFor State Dept.

This article is by Mark Landler,Eric Lipton and Jo Becker.

Continued on Page A14

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transitionwas in disarray on Tuesday,marked by firings, infighting andrevelations that American allieswere blindly dialing in to TrumpTower to try to reach the soon-to-be-leader of the free world.

One week after Mr. Trumpscored an upset victory that tookhim by surprise, his team was im-provising the most basic tradi-tions of assuming power. That in-cluded working without officialState Department briefing ma-terials in his first conversationswith foreign leaders.

Two officials who had been han-dling national security for thetransition, former RepresentativeMike Rogers of Michigan andMatthew Freedman, a lobbyistwho consults with corporationsand foreign governments, werefired. Both were part of what offi-cials described as a purge orches-trated by Jared Kushner, Mr.Trump’s son-in-law and close ad-viser.

The dismissals followed theabrupt firing on Friday of Gov.Chris Christie of New Jersey, whowas replaced as chief of the transi-tion by Vice President-elect MikePence. Mr. Kushner, a transitionofficial said, was systematicallydismissing people like Mr. Rogerswho had ties with Mr. Christie. Asa federal prosecutor, Mr. Christiehad sent Mr. Kushner’s father tojail.

Prominent American allieswere in the meantime scramblingto figure out how and when to con-tact Mr. Trump. At times, theyhave been patched through to himin his luxury office tower with lit-tle warning, according to a West-ern diplomat who spoke on thecondition of anonymity to detailprivate conversations.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisiof Egypt was the first to reach Mr.Trump for such a call last Wednes-day, followed by Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu of Israel notlong afterward. But that wasabout 24 hours before Prime Min-ister Theresa May of Britain gotthrough — a striking break fromdiplomatic practice given theclose alliance between the UnitedStates and Britain.

Despite the haphazard natureof Mr. Trump’s early calls withworld leaders, his advisers said

Firings and Discord PutTrump Transition Team

In a State of DisarrayWorld Allies Struggle to Contact Leader

as Staff Improvises Protocols

This article is by Julie HirschfeldDavis, Mark Mazzetti and MaggieHaberman.

Vice President-elect MikePence, chief of the transition.

SAM HODGSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Rudolph W. Giuliani, right, a contender for secretary of state, talking with Rupert Murdoch, of News Corporation, on Monday.AL DRAGO/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A15

CLIMATE CHANGE As secretary of state, John Kerry often put conserva-tion first, but the future of those initiatives is in doubt. PAGE A18

LEADERSHIP VOTES Republicans unanimously nominated Paul D. Ryanto lead the House; Democrats postponed their decision. PAGE A15

The messaging app Snapchatallows motorists to post photosthat record the speed of the vehi-cle. The navigation app Waze re-wards drivers with points whenthey report traffic jams and acci-dents. Even the game PokémonGo has drivers searching for vir-tual creatures on the nation’shighways.

When distracted driving en-tered the national consciousness adecade ago, the problem wasmainly people who made calls orsent texts from their cellphones.The solution then was to introducenew technologies to keep drivers’hands on the wheel. Innovationssince then — car Wi-Fi and a hostof new apps — have led to a boomin internet use in vehicles that

safety experts say is contributingto a surge in highway deaths.

After steady declines over thelast four decades, highway fatali-ties last year recorded the largestannual percentage increase in 50years. And the numbers so far thisyear are even worse. In the firstsix months of 2016, highwaydeaths jumped 10.4 percent, to17,775, from the comparable periodof 2015, according to the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Adminis-tration.

“This is a crisis that needs to be

addressed now,” Mark R.Rosekind, the head of the agency,said in an interview.

The Florida Highway Patrol isinvestigating an Oct. 26 crashnear Tampa that killed five peo-ple. A passenger in one car, a teen-ager, recorded a Snapchat videoshowing her vehicle traveling at115 m.p.h. just before the collision.

A lawsuit filed in a Georgiacourt claims a teenage driver whowas in a September 2015 crashnear Atlanta was using Snapchatwhile driving more than 100m.p.h., according to court records.The car collided with the car of anUber driver, who was seriously in-jured.

Alarmed by the statistics, theDepartment of Transportation inOctober outlined a plan to work

Snap Out of It! The Dark Side of Car GadgetryBy NEAL E. BOUDETTE Fatalities Climb Where

Convenience MergesWith Distraction

Continued on Page A3

If a fruit or vegetable isn’tgrown in dirt, can it be organic?

That is the question roiling theworld of organic farming, and theanswer could redefine what itmeans to farm organically.

At issue is whether producethat relies solely on irrigation todeliver nutrients to plants —through what is known as hydro-ponic and aquaponic systems —

can be certified organic. And theNational Organic StandardsBoard, an advisory group thatmakes recommendations to thefederal secretary of agriculture,will get an earful on the topic at itsmeeting in St. Louis this week.

On one side are the growingnumber of big and small growersraising fruits and vegetables inthese soil-free systems. They saytheir production methods are nodifferent from those of farmerswho grow plants in dirt — and,

they add, they make organic farm-ing more sustainable by, for in-stance, reducing water use.

“Soil to me as a farmer means anutrient-rich medium that con-tains biological processes, andthat doesn’t have to be dirt,” saidMarianne Cufone, an aquaponicfarmer and the executive directorof the Recirculating Farms Coali-tion, which lobbies for aquacul-ture.

Not so, say the farmers who

Is It Organic? Ground Rules May Be ChangingBy STEPHANIE STROM

Basil in a hydroponic greenhouse. Demand for organic produce has led to new farming systems.CARLOS GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page B2

WASHINGTON — For about$50, you can get a smartphonewith a high-definition display, fastdata service and, according to se-curity contractors, a secret fea-ture: a backdoor that sends allyour text messages to China ev-ery 72 hours.

Security contractors recentlydiscovered preinstalled softwarein some Android phones that mon-itors where users go, whom theytalk to and what they write in textmessages. The American authori-ties say it is not clear whether thisrepresents secretive data miningfor advertising purposes or a Chi-nese government effort to collectintelligence.

International customers andusers of disposable or prepaidphones are the people most af-fected by the software. But thescope is unclear. The Chinesecompany that wrote the software,Shanghai Adups TechnologyCompany, says its code runs onmore than 700 million phones,cars and other smart devices. OneAmerican phone manufacturer,BLU Products, said that 120,000 ofits phones had been affected andthat it had updated the software toeliminate the feature.

Kryptowire, the security firmthat discovered the vulnerability,said the Adups software transmit-ted the full contents of text mes-sages, contact lists, call logs, loca-tion information and other data toa Chinese server. The code comespreinstalled on phones and thesurveillance is not disclosed to us-ers, said Tom Karygiannis, a vicepresident at Kryptowire, which isbased in Fairfax, Va. “Even if youwanted to, you wouldn’t haveknown about it,” he said.

Security experts frequently dis-cover vulnerabilities in consumerelectronics, but this case is excep-tional. It was not a bug. Rather,Adups intentionally designed thesoftware to help a Chinese phonemanufacturer monitor user be-havior, according to a documentthat Adups provided to explain

TEXT A MESSAGE,CHINA GETS A PEEK

Prepaid Phones in U.S.Ran a Secret Code

By MATT APUZZOand MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Continued on Page B3