MiamiHerald.com

HOTEL COPIES: A copy of The Miami Herald will bedelivered to your room. A credit of US$0.25 will beposted to your account if delivery is declined. INTERNATIONAL EDITION MONDAY, MAY 16, 2011

108TH YEAR I ©2011 THE MIAMI HERALD

INDEXTHE AMERICAS ..........4AU.S. NEWS .....................5AOPINION .......................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ..6B

ISRAELI TROOPS CLASH WITH PROTESTERS, 3A

HEALTH INSURERS RAKE IN PROFITS AS MANY FORGO CARE,BUSINESS FRONT

TALIBAN USING CHILD BOMBERS, AFGHAN INTELLIGENCE SAYS, 6A

DJOKOVIC BEATS NADAL FOR ITALIAN OPEN TITLE,SPORTS FRONT

IMF chief accusedof sexual assault

There’s always groom for one more

Pakistan warns U.S. of supply line cut BY NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Still angry over the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Pakistani lawmak-ers demanded an end to U.S. missile strikes against Islamist militants on their soil, and warned that Pakistan may cut NATO’s supply line to Af-ghanistan if the attacks don’t stop.

Saturday’s nonbinding parlia-mentary resolution refl ects the pre-carious state of the U.S.-Pakistani al-liance, which is vital to the war effort in neighboring Afghanistan. The bin Laden raid has brought to the fore a longstanding dilemma that U.S. strikes, which Washington says kill militants, often are seen by Pakistan-is as a violation of sovereignty with mostly civilian victims, exacerbating an already-high anti-U.S. sentiment.

During a visit to Afghanistan, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Rela-tions Committee, called on Paki-stan to be a better partner in the fi ght against terrorists.

“We obviously want a Pakistan that is prepared to respect the in-terests of Afghanistan, and to be a real ally in our efforts to combat terrorism,” said Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “We believe that there are things that can be done better.”

The Pakistani measure was passed after a rare private briefi ng in Parliament by Pakistan’s military leaders, who were humiliated by the May 2 U.S. Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, a northwest garri-son city. Pakistanis were angry the military allowed it to happen while the United States said the proxim-ity to a military academy and the capital, Islamabad, raised suspicion that some security elements had been harboring bin Laden.

Washington also has been unable to get Islamabad to go after militant groups, such as the Haqqani network, who use its soil as hideouts but stage attacks only inside Afghanistan. An-alysts say Pakistan may be maintain-ing ties to some insurgents because it wants leverage in Afghanistan — and a wedge against archrival India — once the United States pulls out.

TURN TO PAKISTAN, 2A•

U.S. imam and family charged with aiding Taliban BY JAY WEAVER, LAURA EDWINS AND MELISSA SANCHEZ jweaver@MiamiHerald.com

For more than a decade, an elderly, frail imam led a devout following at South Florida’s old-est mosque.

But authorities say Hafi z Mu-hammad Sher Ali Khan was lead-ing a secret life as a terrorist sympathizer at Miami’s Flagler Mosque.

On Saturday, FBI agents arrest-ed the 76-year-old Muslim cleric on charges of conspiring with four other Khan family members and a Pakistani man to fi nance the terror-ist activities of the Taliban rebels in Pakistan — including sending at least $50,000 through U.S. banks to the insurgents for guns, training, schools and other resources to car-ry out violent attacks against U.S. forces and allies in that region.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said that while Khan was a “spiri-tual leader”, he was “by no means a man of peace”.

But one of Hafi z Khan’s sons, who was not implicated in the case, said his father was too sick and old to be engaged in such ex-tremist activities.

“None of my family supports the Taliban,” said Ikram Khan, a taxi driver, adding his family has lived in the United States since 1994. “We support this country.”

The conspiracy indictment brought against the six defendants marks the most signifi cant terror-ism case in South Florida since the U.S. attorney’s offi ce in Miami con-victed one-time enemy combatant Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen formerly of Broward County, and two other Muslim men on similar charges re-lated to their plot to aid al Qaeda in 2007. As in the Padilla case, the in-dictment against the Khan family is built upon the federal material-support statute, which in the post-9/11 era the Justice Department has traditionally deployed to charge people with supplying money and other resources to U.S.-designated terrorist groups overseas.

The case against Hafi z Khan and the others — including son Izhar Khan, an imam of a Margate mosque, also arrested Saturday —

TURN TO IMAM, 2A•

RENEWED OPTIMISM

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE — A newly inaugurated Michel Mar-telly promised to catapult his disaster-prone homeland into a modern era where education will be free and obligatory, and roadblocks to change will not be tolerated.

“We are going to change Haiti. We are going to remake this country,” the former musi-cian said, speaking forcefully on the grounds of a broken Na-tional Palace, dressed up for his inauguration Saturday as Hai-ti’s 56th president. “We cannot continue with this humiliation of having to extend our hand for help all of the time.”

Formerly known by the stage name “Sweet Micky,” Martelly, has come to embody the hope of many disenchanted youth. In a speech that promoted job cre-ation, security and promoting Haiti’s cultural riches, he em-phasized strong leadership. His, he said, will be a presidency that will not tolerate anyone block-ing change, or using instability to prevent investments.

“If anyone thinks they will come do disorder, you are going to come do mess, loot and burn, create instability,” he said, “I

regret this for you because jus-tice will deal with you.”

With no security, Haiti can-not have stability and de-velopment “to get out of the misery so we can live another way”, he added.

More than 2,500 people were invited to hear Martel-

ly’s fi rst presidential address. And while much was made about his inviting all eight of Haiti’s living former presidents to the event, only two — Ertha Pasal-Trouillot and Rene Preval — showed up. Former presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier did not receive formal invitations, people close to each told The Miami Herald.

The audience also included more than 100 foreign dignitar-ies. Among them was former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who serves as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. Also present were the presi-dents of the Dominican Repub-lic, Suriname and Honduras, and the prime minister of Jamaica.

While invitees sat in white-covered stands on the palace’s transformed grounds where the broken dome served as a stark reminder of the work ahead, thousands watched from the streets. They peered through the wrought iron green gates as some in the crowd demanded Preval’s arrest, and jeered when Martelly acknowledged him and members of the controversial Provisional Electoral Council as part of a lengthy introduction.

TURN TO HAITI, 4A•

MARTELLY PROMISES FREE EDUCATION AND OTHER CHANGES IN HIS FIRST SPEECH AS HAITI’S PRESIDENT

PHOTOS BY CARL JUSTE/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Michel Martelly, center, was sworn in as Haiti’s 56th president on Saturday in Port-au-Prince.

A supporter dressed as Toussaint Louverture cheering during President Michel Martelly’s speech on Saturday.

BY COLLEEN LONG Associated Press

NEW YORK — The leader of the International Monetary Fund, a possible candidate for president of France, was yanked from an airplane moments before it was to depart for Paris and arrested in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, police said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. He had been taken off the Air France fl ight at John F. Kennedy Inter-national Airport on Saturday af-ternoon by police offi cers.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Benja-min Brafman, told The Associat-ed Press that his client will plead not guilty at his expected Sunday afternoon arraignment.

“He denies all the charges against him,” Brafman said. “And that’s all I can really say right now.”

France woke to the news Sun-day with a measure of surprise.

Strauss-Kahn was expected to

be the main challenger against France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose political fortunes have been fl agging, in next year’s presidential elections. The ar-rest could shake up the race and throw the long-divided Social-ists back into disarray about who they could present as Sarkozy’s opponent.

TURN TO IMF CHIEF, 2A•

BY ROBYN DIXON Los Angeles Times Service

BIDA, Nigeria — He fell in love with his fi rst wife because she was sincere and eager to please.

His second wife, a cousin, was irresistible because she did every-thing he wished and nothing he didn’t.

“That alone made me love her.”His third wife won him be-

cause she submitted to his every request.

“I saw her, I liked her. I went to her parents and asked for her hand in marriage.”

Wife No. 4 was very obedient. So was wife No. 5. Wife No. 6, the same. As were wives 7 and 8 and 9 and . . .

Well, by then — it was the late 1980s — things had taken off for Bello Maasaba, an Islamic faith healer from this city in Niger state. He went from a wedding every few months to one every few weeks.

All told, the 87-year-old has mar-ried 107 women, which, even in a so-ciety with a tradition of polygamy, is on the high side. The Nigerian government is not amused. Neither are Islamic authorities in the state.

But he’s still marrying, every time Miss Right comes along. He now

has 86 wives, the youngest 19 and the oldest 64. Nine have died and 12 he divorced (for disobedience).

After school, Maasaba led an ordinary life for 21 years, involved in the clothing business and later working for a sugar company, keep-ing just two wives. Life was normal until a religious “vision” in the 1970s, which he says involved a visit from the archangel Gabriel. He fell deep-ly ill, unable to eat or sleep for days, and all the medicine the doctors gave him only made him worse.

He gave up work and became a traditional faith healer who es-chewed medicine. The angel also instructed him to take wife after wife after wife.

“I get a revelation from God tell-ing me any woman I’m going to mar-ry. If it wasn’t from God, I wouldn’t have gone beyond two,” he explains in a wispy, singsong voice.

Maasaba has to pause to remem-ber the number of children he has —

TURN TO GROOM, 2A•

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP FILE

International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been accused of assaulting a hotel maid in New York.

ROBYN DIXON/LOS ANGELES TIMES SERVICE

Faith healer Bello Maasaba, center, is loved by his 86 wives and his many followers, but disliked by Nigerian Islamic leaders.

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