Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 859

Tech Giants Reaffirm that They're Mad at the Government

In the wake of leaks surrounding the NSA's surveillance programs, eight of the largest tech companies have allied in a concerted effort to push for government reform. In full-page ads in multiple newspapers and online Monday, the companies—AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo—will unveil their Reform Government Surveillance campaign.

In an open letter signed by all eight companies, they write about their concernfor personal liberties:

We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for a change.

The letter also asserts the companies' commitment to keep users' data secure and pushes for more concrete legislation regarding online surveillance.

Despite outward appearances, the effort probably isn't entirely about the public good. As The New York Times notes, "while the Internet companies fight to maintain authority over their customers’ data, their business models depend on collecting the same information that the spy agencies want." In short, the companies have a bottom line to protect, and the perception that their data is insecure hurts that bottom line.

The effort is particularly reliant on an argument that the United States should set the example in surveillance reform for the rest of the world. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer said in a statement that, "“Recent revelations about government surveillance activities have shaken the trust of our users, and it is time for the United States government to act to restore the confidence of citizens around the world.” Google co-founder Larry Page echoed, in a similar statement, that the search giant's security efforts are "undermined by the apparent wholesale collection of data, in secret and without independent oversight, by many governments around the world."

On Thursday, President Obama went on Hardball to discuss possible reforms to surveillance programs. He was vague on the subject though, promising, "some reforms that can give people more confidence."

       

Facebook Considers the 'Sympathize' Button

Two golfers sympathizing. (AP)

While it's by no means official, at a hackathon last week, a few Facebook employees developed a prototype replacement for the ubiquitous 'Like' button more suitable for status updates of the "bummer" variety.

From The Huffington Post:

During a Facebook hackathon held "a little while back," an engineer devised a "sympathize" button that would accompany gloomier status updates, according to Dan Muriello, a different Facebook engineer who described the hackathon experiment at a company event Thursday. If someone selected a negative emotion like "sad" or "depressed" from Facebook's fixed list of feelings, the "like" button would be relabeled "sympathize."

According to one developer at the company, the button isn't rolling out any time soon. Yet it's existence is an acknowledgement by the company that liking something does not quite represent the full spectrum of emotional reaction. A couple of years ago, Facebook began allowing articles to be 'recommended' instead of 'liked' if they contained depressing news.

But adding a 'sympathize' button just follows a larger trend of supplying a ready-made spectrum of emotional responses in order to save readers the time and effort of using words and sentences and syntax to give their opinion. Why tap out a comment when every article falls somewhere on the seven-stage BuzzFeed scale ranging from 'fail' to 'win'? The Huffington Post and YouTube tested a similar reaction system as well a while ago, and categorization of article not by subject but by feeling is becoming something of a trend.

At the end of the day, all these buttons do is signify that readers aren't sociopaths and can recognize basic social cues. Maybe we should just come up with a button that says "I understand feelings." Maybe we're just a few short ways from the simple, memetic 'Feels' button.

       

Singapore's 'Little India' Is Scene of Country's First Riot in Decades

Reuters

Singapore may be the saddest nation on Earth, but it's also one of the safest, with one of the lowest crime rates (not counting soccer-related crime). Which is what makes today's rioting in its "Little India" neighborhood especially surprising.

The trigger was the death of an unnamed Indian man who was hit by a bus. About 400 people, said to be South Asian migrant workers, then took to the streets, first going after the bus that killed the man and then setting fire to other vehicles and attacking officials. Either 16 or 18 people (depending on who you read) were hurt, mostly Singaporean police officers. The bus driver, who was not a migrant worker, was hospitalized.

Twenty-seven people -- all migrant workers -- were arrested. According to the BBC, Singapore's famously draconian punishments for rioting are up to seven years in jail (Wall Street Journal says it's 10 years) and caning.

As is the case with most riots, the underlying cause was much bigger than one fatal bus accident. Singapore's rising wealth has created significant underclass of migrant workers who often feel taken advantage of. There is no minimum wage in Singapore, for instance, and work permits that allow South Asian workers into the country are restrictive of their non-work activities. Workers retaliated with strikes and sit-ins in 2012. Those were met with deportations, fines and jail terms.

Singapore's deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean dismissed any tensions, saying:  "By and large, the relationships are good" and "we welcome guest workers here who are law-abiding and who want to make a living for themselves."

Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong posted a statement on his Facebook page, saying:

The Little India riot last night was a very grave incident. Several police officers were injured, and vehicles damaged or destroyed. The situation is now under control, and investigations are underway. Whatever events may have sparked the rioting, there is no excuse for such violent, destructive, and criminal behaviour. We will spare no effort to identify the culprits and deal with them with the full force of the law.

I urge all Singaporeans to stay calm. Do send the Police any information, photos or videos of the incident that you may have. I also wish the injured officers a full and speedy recovery. - LHL

Singapore's last major riots were in 1969.

 

 

       

For The New York Times, A 'Groundbreaking' Story Can Wait Until After Homeland

The New York Times

New York Times political editor Carolyn Ryan was so excited about an upcoming article that she couldn't help but tweet-brag about it to her nearly 7,000 followers:

There's a very unusual, groundbreaking NYT story coming 2nite.I can't say too much but it'll make u rethink- well, I should stop.Stay tuned

— carolynryan (@carolynryan) December 9, 2013

What I mean is that it is a stunning story. And may change things

— carolynryan (@carolynryan) December 9, 2013

Whoa, that sounds like a pretty big deal.

@ckaratnytsky @blakehounshell There's a political aspect I guess but mainly, I can't describe it, it makes you rethink the world u live in.

— carolynryan (@carolynryan) December 9, 2013

The New York Times has a pretty good track record when it comes to producing groundbreaking stuff, so you can imagine that people were excited. What was it? When would it go up?? HOW WOULD OUR WORLD CHANGE???

Headsup:Now it sounds like it won't be up til after Homeland. Maybe not til a.m. I'm going home. All I'm saying is it's powerful. I like it.

— carolynryan (@carolynryan) December 9, 2013

Oh. So it's groundbreaking and powerful, but not so much so that it can't wait until after whatever happens to Brody and Angela Chase. 

Here comes the hashtag mockery:

Brooklyn #nytguesses

— Stefan Becket (@stefanjbecket) December 9, 2013

BuzzFeed Revealed to Be Performance Art by Moonies #nytguesses

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) December 9, 2013

Probably lame. Awesome doesn't need hype and real scoops can't wait. #NYTguesses

— Adam Rawnsley (@arawnsley) December 9, 2013

For Some Humans, Bisexuality #nytguesses

— Aaron Edwards (@aaronmedwards) December 9, 2013

Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s Post-Post-Scandal Playbook. #nytguesses

— Jody Rosen (@jodyrosen) December 9, 2013

It’s GIF, with a soft ‘G’ #nytguesses #ohwait

— Brett LoGiurato (@BrettLoGiurato) December 9, 2013

For Even Actual Journalism, First an Upworthy Twitter Tease #nytguesses

— Slade Sohmer (@SladeHV) December 9, 2013

"#NYTGuesses Trends on Twitter, Winning @CarolynRyan $50 Bet" #nytguesses

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) December 9, 2013

I hope for the sake of whoever wrote that story that it lives up to Ryan's proclamations and then some. "Stay tuned."

Update, 9:20 pm ET:

Ok, it's going up in the morning. And everyone wants me to stop asking about it. I'm going home to watch Homeland. It's great story though.

— carolynryan (@carolynryan) December 9, 2013

Update, 11:08 pm ET:

If you don't want to wait for NYT to get around to putting the article up, what is very likely to be it is up now on the Las Vegas Sun, via the New York Times wire service. BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski discovered it, of course.

It's about homeless children in New York City.

Update, December 9 12:05 am ET:

Hope you got a chance to read the story, because Las Vegas Sun just pulled it. It's very sorry for breaking the embargo. From its Facebook:

Due to a technical problem, the Las Vegas Sun prematurely published a New York Times News Service story Sunday on the Sun’s website. The problem occurred when a new wire feed that the Sun implemented last week failed to recognize that the story was embargoed for publication at a later time. The Sun has pulled the story from its site and apologizes for this inadvertent error. Sun staff members are working on the feed to ensure similar problems do not occur in the future.

       

Kim Jong Un 'Purged' His Own Uncle

AP

The rumors we heard from South Korea last week are true: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has removed his own uncle, Jang Song Thaek, from power. Jang, once seen as Kim Jong Un's mentor, was the vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission.

North Korea confirmed the move today after South Korea's Yonhap news agency noted that a documentary that aired on North Korean television on Saturday cut him out entirely (he was present in earlier airings) and all mentions of him had been removed from the state-run KCNA website.

Needless to say, when North Korea removes you from its public record, that a very, very bad sign.

According to the KCNA, Jang (which was apparently allowed to be mentioned again in this context) was accused of "anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts" such as:

Gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party and disturbing the work for establishing the party unitary leadership system and perpetrated such ant-state, unpopular crimes as doing enormous harm to the efforts to build a thriving nation and improve the standard of people's living.

Jang pretended to uphold the party and leader but was engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams and involving himself in double-dealing behind the scene.

Specifically:

Affected by the capitalist way of living, Jang committed irregularities and corruption and led a dissolute and depraved life.

By abusing his power, he was engrossed in irregularities and corruption, had improper relations with several women and was wined and dined at back parlors of deluxe restaurants.

Ideologically sick and extremely idle and easy-going, he used drugs and squandered foreign currency at casinos while he was receiving medical treatment in a foreign country under the care of the party.

There's still hope yet for Jang, who was once seen as his nephew's mentor. Jang, 67, has survived purges before and returned to power, though this was by far the most public. Also, it's believed that two of his top aides were executed last month, and he hasn't been seen since.

What Jang's removal means to North Korea is a matter of debate, according to the AP. Some believe it shows that Kim Jong Un is insecure about his position and is trying to remove any possible challengers to his throne. Others believe it shows that he is stronger than ever, and secure enough to take out anyone he so desires.

Jang is married to Kim Jong Il's sister. According to the BBC, they have one daughter, who is believed to be dead.

 

       

Poor Morale at NSA Where They're Mad at Obama for Not Supporting Their Spying

AP

NSA officials say they're missing some pep in their step after the American public learned about the agency's proclivities for spying on them without telling them, The Washington Post reports, and they blame President Obama. "The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it is had no support from the White House even though it’s been carrying out publicly approved intelligence missions," Joel Brenner, the inspector general at the NSA from 2002 to 2006 told the paper. "They feel they’ve been hung out to dry, and they’re right."

In particular, NSA employees – who feel "beaten down" after the revelations leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden – say President Obama could have and should have visited Fort Meade, but hasn't done so. At least that's what they've come to expect from presidents after the public gets outraged at their spycraft. When The New York Times reported in 2006 that the NSA was using wiretaps on U.S. citizens without a court order, President George W. Bush swung by the Puzzle Palace for a little pep talk, says Brenner.

Bush came out and spoke to the workforce, and the effect on morale was tremendous. There’s been nothing like that from this White House.

President Obama, lest we forget, was a senator in 2006 when he upbraided Bush for the program by voting against Michael Hayden's confirmation as CIA director.

A White House spokesperson told the Post that two other close aides to the President visited in his stead. 

It's amazing what a little office party cake can do for morale, but it may ruin the levity if you know that your bosses have the ability to activate all the cameras in the office computers (as revealed in a separate story published Friday in The Post) without turning on the light that lets the users know it's on. 

       

L.A. Film Critics Kiss Sisters, 'Gravity,' 'Her'

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted on their annual awards on Sunday afternoon, arriving at three ties for the six top awards, including Best Film for Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity and Spike Jonze's Her. This is the second such prize for Her in this, the first week of critics' awards. It's the first such prize for Gravity -- which also took Best Director honors for Cuaron -- as the L.A. critics did what many expected them to and ran counter to the big love the New York Film Critics Circle showed to American Hustle. Indeed, since David O. Russell's film won that prize, it's been shut out of all prizes from the LAFCA, National Board of Review, and Boston. Whether that's been a conscious choice by the other groups or not, that early frontrunner status did not last long.

In the acting races, there were two further ties: Cate Blanchett, who had previously won the New York critics' prize for Blue Jasmine, prevailed again, tied with Adele Exarchopoulos, for the Cannes-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color. In Best Supporting Actor, Jared Leto (again, NYFCC winner for Dallas Buyers Club) tied with James Franco, who finally capitalized on all that buzz from earlier in the year for Spring Breakers. Let the doomed-to-fail For Your Consideration campaign commence. 

Best Actor went to Bruce Dern, for Nebraska, edging out Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave. Dern has now won prizes from LAFCA and NBR and seems to be well ensconced in the Oscar race. 12 Years a Slave -- which was expected, at least by this writer, to be much more of a dominant force in the critics awards thus far -- saw its biggest win of the day for Lupita Nyong'o, who picked up her first award of the season. She'll spend the rest of the race fighting for elbow room with Nebraska's June Squibb (who was runner-up in L.A.) and Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle. 

With the Boston Society of Film Critics also voting on Sunday -- and awarding their top prizes to 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, Ejiofor, Blanchett, Squibb, and James Gandolfini for Enough Said -- the critics have very much spread the wealth when it comes to the year-end awards. Which makes for something of an open race as we head into Golden Globe nomination week.  

Full LAFCA lineup:

Best Film: TIE: Gravity and Her

Best Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska (runner-up: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave)

Best Actress: TIE: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine and Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (runner-up: Spike Jonze, Her)

Best Supporting Actor: TIE: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club and James Franco, Spring Breakers

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave (runner-up: June Squibb, Nebraska)

Best Screenplay: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Before Midnight (runner-up: Spike Jonze, Her)

Best Documentary: Stories We Tell (runner-up: The Act of Killing)

Best Editing: Gravity (runner-up: Upstream Color)

Best Production Design: Her (runner-up: Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity (runner-up: Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Animated Film: Ernest & Celestine (runner-up: The Wind Rises)

Best Score: Inside Llewyn Davis (runner-up: Her)

 

       

'Frozen' Ices the Box Office Victory

Walt Disney

Welcome to the Box Office Report, where we've decided that Disney movies can only be improved by the opportunity to awkwardly sit next to your parents as you watch Matthew McConaughey enjoy a rodeo stall threesome. 

1. Frozen (Buena Vista): $31.6 million in 3,742 theaters.

By overtaking The Hunger Games sequel, ice proves that it can triumph over fire. Everything I've learned from Pokemon has been a complete lie.

It's a typically slow weekend for movies, what with the Christmas shopping, the Thanksgiving hangover and the Oscar-buzzy movies on the horizon, but the $31.6 million the movie posted is the highest post-Thanksgiving gross since 1999's Toy Story 2, which I have always maintained was the best of the first two Toy Story movies, because Woody and Buzz are already friends, and I hate conflict. 

The winsome animated musical's success is particularly remarkable because it was so unacceptably frigid across the United States this weekend, and the last thing I'd want to be surrounded by in the cold are visual representations of cold, even if it's all totally adorable. Also, the 3-D story of a queen who accidentally traps her kingdom in an eternal winter hits a little close to home, because if it's not sorcery how else could it snow in California.

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate): $74.5 million in 4,136 theaters. 

After two weekends where movies fought J-Law, and J-Law won, Katniss Everdeen gives up her perch by falling to number two. There is some concern that the franchise is flagging too early – Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 held down its number one slot in its third weekend, which also happened to be post-Thanksgiving. But chances are Jennifer Lawrence will just do something charming and we'll all swoon our way back into rooting for her incredibly badass character.

3. Out of the Furnace (Relativity): $5.3 million in 2,101 theaters.

This Leonardo DiCaprio-produced drama written by the man who gave the world Crazy Heart stars Christian Bale as Russell Baze, a blue-collar steel worker with a hardscrabble life who also shares nearly all the letters of Christian Bale's last name. It was the only new release this weekend, meaning this meagre showing landed with a fairly big thud. It was, according to THR, the worst opening for a Bale film that debuted in more than 2,000 theaters. Time will tell if the movie survives the fire promised in the second half of the well-known adage.

4. Thor: The Dark World (Buena Vista): $4.7 million in 3,074 theaters. 

The Marvel Comics film proves it's no flash in the pan (get it? Because he's the god of thunder and lightning) by continuing its steady march to the $200-million benchmark in this, its fifth weekend in theaters.

5. Delivery Man (Buena Vistaa): $3.8 million in 2,905 theaters. 

Delivery Man, where Vince Vaughn challenges himself by playing his millionth likeable schlub, rallied from one of the worst opening weekends since 1982 to stay steady. In fact, on this slow weekend, it enjoyed the smallest dip in gross percentage of any of the top six grossing movies.

But the story that film insiders are talking about coming out of the weekend was the limited release of Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis, which premiered to just four screens and earned a whopping $100,250 each, which is the eighth highest all-time mark for a live-action film. We'll keep an eye on it as it proceeds to nationwide release in January, but as is tradition with the Coen brothers, it's getting a lot of hype.

       

Seymour Hersh Alleges Obama Administration Lied on Syria Gas Attack

AP

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn't honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians.

In early September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had proof that the nerve-gas attack was made on Assad's orders. "We know the Assad regime was responsible," President Obama told the nation in an address days after this revelation, which he said pushed him over the "red line" in considering military intervention.

But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration "cherry-picked intelligence," citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.

A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’

Here's what Hersh alleges:

The administration buried intelligence on the fundamentalist group/rebel group al-Nusra. It was seen, Hersh says, as an alarming threat by May, with the U.S. being aware of al-Nusra member able to make and use sarin, and yet the group – associated with the rebel opposition in Syria – was never considered a suspect in the sarin attacks. Hersh refers to a top-secret June cable sent to the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency that said al-Nusra could acquire and use sarin. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Defense Intelligence Agency could not find the document in question, even when given its specific codes.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’

It is not known whether the highly classified reporting on al-Nusra was made available to Power’s office, but her comment was a reflection of the attitude that swept through the administration. 

The administration was learning about the attack at roughly the same speed civilians were. Hersh says the thorough daily intelligence briefings in the days surrounding the gas attack did not make a single mention of Syria, even as videos and photos of the attack went viral across the Internet. He added that there was revealed a sensor system in Syria that had, in December 2012, shown sarin production at a chemical weapons depot arranged by the Syrian army. Though it was unclear whether this was a simulation or not – all militaries, Hersh says, practice simulations of such things – Obama promptly warned Syria that use of sarin gas would be "unacceptable."

‘If what the sensors saw last December was so important that the president had to call and say, “Knock it off,” why didn’t the president issue the same warning three days before the gas attack in August?’

The media succumbed to confirmation bias in response to a UN report on the attack. That report, which is less than certain in its terms, said that the spent weapon "indicatively matches" the specifics of a 330mm calibre artillery rocket. MIT professor Theodore Postol and other munitions experts later reviewed the photos and said that it was improvised, likely made locally, didn't match anything in the Syrian arsenal and would not have been able to travel the nine kilometres from the Syrian army base that the media presumed it was fired from.

Postol and a colleague, Richard M. Lloyd, published an analysis two weeks after 21 August in which they correctly assessed that the rockets involved carried a far greater payload of sarin than previously estimated. The Times reported on that analysis at length, describing Postol and Lloyd as ‘leading weapons experts’. The pair’s later study about the rockets’ flight paths and range, which contradicted previous Times reporting, was emailed to the newspaper last week; it has so far gone unreported.

Though a UN resolution nullified the chances of American military intervention, the impact would be significant if the allegations hold up; recall that President George W. Bush's legacy was deeply tainted by charges that the U.S. had no proof of nuclear weapons in Iraq when they said they did. Hersh hints at the seriousness of the charges himself: "The cherry-picking was similar to the process used to justify the Iraq war."

       

Bernie Madoff Still Doesn't Care What You Think of Him

Madoff, right, leaving a bail hearing in 2009. (AP)

There is a way that one expects visits with jailed criminals to go: typically, there's guilt, contrition, the accepting of responsibility. Not so with Bernie Madoff, serving 150 years, the executor of the world's most famous Ponzi scheme.

As the five-year anniversary of the discovery of his crime approaches — is that even something worth keeping an anniversary for? — The Wall Street Journal's Sital Patel sought out comment from the convicted fraudster. What she found over a two-hour sitdown at a comfy Butner, N.C. prison was a man who basically pointed fingers while raising other fingers, to boot. Haters, it appears, gonna hate.

The 75-year-old, dressed in beige polyester pants and shirt with a matching canvas belt, showed no signs of stress. He told the occasional joke and said he was lucky to be in Butner, as it had a reputation of being "very laid back" and is kind of like a "camp."

"This is as good as it gets," said Mr. Madoff. He explained that the Federal Bureau of Prisons "put you where you will survive."

 He would later say that the people he conned should have known better, that they didn't ask good questions (Rob Ford has some thoughts on this), called the whistleblower an "idiot," and reminisced fondly about his days as a financial power player.

So excellent was he at financial prognostication, in fact, that he boasted that he saw the housing bubble burst coming. How? Because his young African-American golf caddy was able to buy and sell houses.

He said he didn't need credit. He would buy homes and flip them for a profit. I told my wife, 'This is the end.'

Of course, history proves that the 75-year-old former investment banker was alas unable to use his crystal ball to foresee his eventual conviction in 2008 for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $50 billion. He pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts in 2009, and was sentenced to the maximum 150 years in jail.

The profile comes at a time when the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office is in the process of investigating J.P. Morgan, which enjoyed a two-decade-long relationship with Madoff, for failing to provide regulators with a report of Madoff's suspicious behavior, even though it did with a British agency more than a month before he was arrested. It's likely that J.P. Morgan will be fined.

While Madoff does tell Patel that he despairs the fact he's been cut off from his family, including his wife and also-jailed brother Peter, the profile ends on this queasy little note:

His son Andrew Madoff refuses to talk to him and won't allow his wife to speak to him either, he told me. Mr. Madoff briefly brought up his other son, Mark, who committed suicide following the revelations of his father's Ponzi scheme. Mr. Madoff said he regretted that happened but showed little emotion.