Sabotage

Even as the wrecker's ball continues to threaten downtown landmarks, there is reason to celebrate: Hansa Haus at Redwood and Charles streets, opened in 1912 as headquarters for the North German Lloyd and Hamburg American Steamship lines, will be recycled into the new home of Allfirst Brokerage Corp. The Renaissance-style, Hansel and Gretel-like structure, modeled on a 17th century courthouse at Halberstadt, Germany, was for years distinguished by the 37 armorial shields of German and Baltic cities, members of the Hanseatic League, that lined the half-timber corbels of the first floor.

Maurice Bourges-Maunoury, 78, a leader of the French resistance who later held several Cabinet posts, died Wednesday in Paris. He joined the French army as an artillery lieutenant in 1939, was captured by the Germans in 1940 and was set free the next year. He joined the resistance and made repeated clandestine trips between France and Britain. When the allies launched the D-Day invasion, he parachuted into southern France to organize a sabotage campaign. After the war, he won a parliamentary seat for the Radical Party in 1946 and became deputy budget minister in 1947.

Susan Threadgill writes in the July/August issue of The Washington Monthly magazine:"H.R. 'Bob' Haldeman's recent diaries are chock full of seamy details about the presidency of Richard M. Nixon."One of the seamiest is the hitherto unknown story of how Nixon tried to blackmail Lyndon Johnson into using his influence with congressional Democrats to help halt the Watergate investigation."Nixon had threatened to reveal that Johnson had bugged him during the 1968 campaign. But Johnson let Nixon know that if Nixon did that, LBJ would release what the diaries then refer to as 'deleted material -- national security.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attacks by insurgents to disrupt Baghdad's supplies of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, water and electricity have reached a degree of coordination and sophistication not seen before, Iraqi and American officials say. The new pattern, they say, shows that the insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines, power cables and reservoirs feeding Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The shadowy insurgency is a fractured movement made up of distinct groups of Sunnis, Shiites and foreign fighters, some aligned and some not. But the shift in the attack patterns strongly suggests that some branch of the insurgency is carrying out a systematic plan to cripple Baghdad's ability to provide basic services for its 6 million citizens and to prevent the fledgling government from operating.

A Republican candidate entered in the March 2 primary election to unseat three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said yesterday that the state Republican Party has repeatedly attempted to sabotage his campaign. Corrogan R. Vaughn, a Baltimore County resident who ran for Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes' seat in 2000, accused party leaders of withholding access to a computerized list of likely voters (known as "Voter Vault") and favoring state Sen. E.J. Pipkin, a former Wall Street bond salesman also vying for Mikulski's seat.

The Maryland AFL-CIO yesterday said it had launched a statewide boycott of Crown Central Petroleum Corp.'s gasoline to pressure the Baltimore company to end a nine-month lockout of workers at a Pasadena, Texas, refinery."

LEGISLATORS considering an Ehrlich administration bill today to combat witness intimidation need to understand that it won't open the door for all sorts of questionable statements against a defendant by witnesses who don't appear in court. That's because prosecutors will have to convince a judge of several factors before any statement can be used against an accused murderer, drug dealer or other defendant. If lawmakers believe that Maryland judges can't responsibly carry out their duties and properly vet statements that would be introduced under a new hearsay exception, then they should kill the bill.

You may have unresolved workplace conflict if:* The most animated discussions take place by the water cooler or in the bathroom instead of at staff meetings.* Workers sabotage ideas because they have no ownership in them.* Your domestic partner is demanding that you change jobs if you can't better handle the pressures of this one.* Nasty, unsigned memos show up on the employee bulletin board.* Employee turnover is high, or workers take many sick days or extended lunch hours.* Your workplace has the collective attitude, "I'll do only what they pay me to do -- and nothing else.

Alfred Hitchcock liked to say that if some films are slices of life, his are pieces of cake. But his little-known 1936 picture Sabotage -- a spare, harrowing adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent -- is like the kind of cake that arrives with a file hidden in the middle of it. The most character-oriented and emotionally daring of the director's early thrillers, Sabotage has suddenly become timely as well as "just" a great movie. It's about espionage as shabby-genteel terrorism. In these days when Hollywood is running away from terrorism as a subject, American filmmakers and audiences alike would do well to buy or rent a copy of Sabotage and watch it right away.

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up late last night near a line of people waiting to enter a Tel Aviv nightclub, killing four people, injuring at least 50 others and breaking a two-week-old cease-fire that had brought renewed hopes for peace in the Middle East. Last night it remained unclear who was responsible for carrying out the attack. Israeli news media were reporting that the militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, but later indicated that the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which has been attempting to disrupt peace efforts, might have carried out the attack.